# All Questions

820 views

### What if LHC finds SUSY?

Here and on many other forums and blogs people ask the question "What if LHC does not find SUSY?". I would like to ask the opposite. What if it finds it? What would the implications be? Is it going to ...
445 views

### What's a good reference for the electrodynamics of moving media?

The answer to a previous question suggests that a moving, permanently magnetized material has an effective electric polarization $\vec{v}\times\vec{M}$. This is easy to check in the case of ...
201 views

### How to understand order emerging from many-body system?

Like the order behavior shown in the image, is it due to the universality of some fundamental mathematic theory? Is there some general physics explanation for it? - edit: This question comes after ...
294 views

### Is causality synonymous with continuity?

In general relativity, we use the term "time-like" to state that two events can influence one another. In fact, in order for an event to physically interact with another one, they have to be ...
267 views

### What are the chances that a deadly asteroid will hit Earth in the next decade?

What are the chances that an asteroid that will kill multiple people will hit Earth in the next decade?
776 views

### Fresnel transform

How is it possible to encrypt multiple images using fresnel transform and inverse the operation to de-multiplex those images?
6k views

### Does vacuum (empty space) exist? [closed]

Added: 5 times down vote for now! Down voter is this religion or physics, please try to explain your decision. I'm confused about this. In physics we know for a vacuum, but I think that there is a ...
1k views

### What defines the mass of elementary particle?

The electron is particle. The mass of electron is $9.10938215(45)\times 10^{−31}\, {\rm kg}$. But why is the mass exactly what it is? What in physics defines the mass of elementary particle?
415 views

### Finding the mass of bed/Patient [closed]

One of my friends has a problem and we don't know how to get this done, We want to to know the mass of a patient who is laying on a bed. One scales was put under the foot of a bed and weighed 232kg ...
545 views

### Calculate the electric field of a moving infinite magnet, without boosting

Consider a rectangular slab of permanently magnetized material. The slab's dimensions are $L_x$, $L_y$, and $L_z$, and the slab is uniformly magnetized in the $\hat{x}$-direction. The slab is not ...
164 views

### can someone review a 8 page essay for me for accuracy? essay is in cosmology [closed]

I am a bio-chemist by profession and recently written an essay for a book which is related to the subject of cosmology. This is not my area of expertise. Is there a cosmologist out there who will be ...
315 views

### Construction of the $\cal{N}=3$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills Chern-Simons theory in $2+1$ dimensions

I am stuck with understanding the following construction. I am breaking it up into segments which I think can be separately answered. This is related to an earlier question of mine. Note that this ...
1k views

### Is there an accepted analogy/conceptual aid for the Higgs field?

Is there an accepted analogy / conceptual aid for the Higgs field? In Physics there are many accepted conceptual aids such as * Schrödinger's cat * Maxwell's Demon * I'm sure I'm missing ...
3k views

### “The Schwarzschild Proton” paper - Is the science valid?

I'm a layman without a university background in physics / math. Since I don't have a background, reading a paper is more of an effort. Consequently, when I come across an interesting paper, I can't ...
532 views

### Electric Potential

A nonuniform linear charge distribution given by $\lambda = bx$, where $b$ is a constant, is located along an $x$ axis from $x = 0$ to $x = L$. What is the electric potential at a point on the $y$ ...
150 views

### Mathematical Elegance in a Cosmological Theory Considered Necessary?

In general, it seems cosmological theories that encompass more and more of the phenomena of the universe are expected to be more and more mathematically elegant, in conception if not in detail. Our ...
5k views

### What if the LHC doesn't see SUSY?

A question in four parts. What are the main problems which supersymmetry purports to solve? What would constitute lack of evidence for SUSY at the proposed LHC energy scales (e.g. certain predicted ...
280 views

### Can the geodesic propagators in the Euclidean BTZ black hole can be written in terms of meromorphic functions on its conformal boundary?

I'm interested in knowing if ,in the context of $AdS_{3}/CFT_{2}$, we can (and how to) express the geodesic propagators on the bulk space of the Euclidean $AdS_{3}$ black holes, in terms of ...
488 views

### Cosmic ray hazards

The Pierre Auger Observatory site mentions the detection of a 3E20 eV (48 J) cosmic ray whose energy, well above the GZK cutoff, was based on an analysis of its atmospheric shower. This was equivalent ...
474 views

### Gravitational redshift of virtual photons

There is well known gravitational redshift of real photons. What about gravitational redshift of virtual photons of charged neutron star? Is electrostatic force become weaker while mass of ...
617 views

### Snell's law starting from qft? [duplicate]

Can one "interpret" Snell's law in terms of QED and the photon picture? How would one justifiy this interpretation with some degree of mathematical rigour? At the end I would like to have a direct ...
1k views

### Good introductory text for matrix string theory

Where can I find a good introductory text for matrix string theory? Most textbooks don't cover it, or only cover it very superficially. What is the basic idea behind matrix string theory? How can ...
204 views

### Statistics and macrolocality in string theory

Take two identical closed strings, both tracing out exactly the same path in space. These two strings are coincident everywhere. Call this state I. Take a single closed string following exactly the ...
573 views

### Electric engine transmission

If we compare a petrol engine and an electric engine car, it is sufficient for the electric engine car (e.g Tesla Roadster) just to have 1 gear (forward), whereas petrol engine can have up to 7. Why ...
196 views

### Can long strings always snap?

In quantum chromodynamics, long flux tubes will always snap because a quark-antiquark pair gets created from the vacuum, and hadronization results with a quark attached to each new end. In string ...
270 views

### Axion related questions

I have several question regarding axion. Could anyone give me some brief introduction to what is a axion string, axion field and how is this related to fermion zero mode and chiral zero mode?
2k views

### How does one prove Fierz identities?

Fierz identities are discussed in the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fierz_identity but the article doesn't give any derivation. The article implies that they arise from the blade ...
167 views

### 2D CFTs and permutation orbifolds

Suppose we have 2 systems with the same partition function, does this mean the 2 systems are the same? For example, in 2D CFTs, would the equality of two partition functions imply that the underlying ...
591 views

### What's a better phrase than “speed of light” for the universal spacetime speed constant? [closed]

The phrase "speed of light" is commonly used for the constant c =3E8 m/s, a feature that's "hardcoded" into the structure of spacetime. All massless waves and particles move at this speed, and it's a ...
3k views

### Are tidal power plants slowing down Earth's rotation?

Are tidal power plants slowing down Earth's rotation to the speed of the orbiting moon? (1 rotation per 28 cca days) Are they vice versa increasing the speed of moon orbiting by generating some ...
2k views

### Low frequency electromagnetic waves

Some frequencies of electromagnetic waves are used for transmission of information, like radiowaves, microwaves, light, but some not.. What about Low Frequencies?: Perhaps low frequencies aren't ...
225 views

### Can a $CFT_2$ which can't be factorized into chiral and antichiral parts and/or have a central charge not a multiple of 24 have AdS duals?

In the article Three dimensional gravity reconsidered by Ed Witten, he remarked that the CFT dual to three dimensional quantum gravity has to admit a holomorphic factorization and have a central ...
1k views

### How could this person have discovered the resonant frequency from this string of magnets?

I stumbled onto this page http://mylifeisaverage.com/story/1364811/ and the post states that they were all making strings and shapes with these sets of 216 really small spherical earth ...
100 views

### Physics II Video Courseware Recommendations

I'm looking for something to supplement my Physics II class. Last year I started using these video lectures to supplement my Calculus class and it helped tremendously. I also turned to this ...
305 views

### A “global warming” problem

Suppose that a someone decided to calculate, for a given amount of heat added into a planet's atmosphere(an ideal gas), how much is the corresponding temperature rising of the atmosphere, $\Delta T$. ...
1k views

### Why does dilation invariance often imply proper conformal invariance?

Why does a quantum field theory invariant under dilations almost always also have to be invariant under proper conformal transformations? To show your favorite dilatation invariant theory is also ...
331 views

### LHC Big Bang Temperatures

It's been claimed that the LHC's 14 TeV energy produces temperatures comparable to that which occurred very soon after the Big Bang. The well-known $E=1.5kT$ formula from classical statistical ...
6k views

### I need help with finding distance traveled

How do I find the distance traveled of an object if the speed is not constant?
412 views

### Specific heat and temperature

This is a two-part question... Firstly, models of the specific heat capacity $C$ (i.e. Debye, Einstein) in relation to the temperature $T$ give $C$ as steadily increasing with $T$. I assume that the ...
271 views

### Tachyonic complex structure directions in flux vacua

In flux compactifications to 4D, e.g. Type IIB on a CY orientifold $X$, one uses fluxes to stabilize the axio-dilaton $\tau$ and the complex structure moduli $z_a$ - the periods of the holomorphic ...
251 views

### Double slit experiment and perforated walls' properties

I have a doubt about how double slit experiment is made. Let's think about the perforated wall, what are the requirement for it? Can a photographic plate could be used as a wall ? I see a problem ...
330 views

### What's inside the slit in double slit experiment?

If double slit experiment is done in a environment with air, then slits could also contain air made up of (approx. 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen), then there is not empty space inside the slit. How can it ...
263 views

### Can the study of the quantum information structure in QFT with holographic duals be relevant to string theory?

I'm interested in characterizing the behaviour of measures of quantum information in strongly correlated quantum field theories which admit a gravity dual description, e.g through AdS/CFT duality. In ...
2k views

### Do photons interact with each other, or with themselves only?

Even if the double slit experiment gives interesting (weird) results, it only concludes that each photon interacts with itself after passing the two slits. I have been thinking about a different ...
3k views

### How far will water squirt out from a hole in a can?

Say you have a bottle of water filled up to a height H. A small hole is drilled in its side at a height d, so that water squirts out. The squirting water travels in an arc as it falls, covering some ...
591 views

### Strange behavior and motion of bubbles in a glass of beer

Very unintuitive observation: I pour myself a Guinness and the bubbles in my glass seem to move down toward the bottom of the glass instead of rising directly to the top of the glass as foam. How ...
299 views

### What happens to internal energy in high-density materials?

Normal-density materials have internal energy, which is the sum of the average energies associated to each of the degrees of freedom. Degrees of freedom can be described as vibrational, translational, ...
19k views

### Does hot air really rise?

"Heat rises" or "warm air rises" is a widely used phrase (and widely accepted phenomenon). Does hot air really rise? Or is it simply displaced by colder (denser) air pulled down by gravity?