Bulletin of the American Physical Society
79th Annual Meeting of the APS Southeastern Section
Volume 57, Number 16
Wednesday–Saturday, November 14–17, 2012; Tallahassee, Florida
Session DB: Mathematical and Computational Physics |
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Chair: Lilia Woods, University of South Florida Room: DoubleTree Salon AB |
Thursday, November 15, 2012 1:30PM - 1:42PM |
DB.00001: Graviton Corrections to Maxwell's Equations Katie Leonard, Richard Woodard We use dimensional regularization to compute the one loop quantum gravitational contribution to the vacuum polarization on flat space background. Adding the appropriate BPHZ counterterm gives a fully renormalized result which we employ to quantum correct Maxwell's equations. These equations are solved to show that dynamical photons are unchanged, provided the free state wave functional is appropriately corrected. The response to the instantaneous appearance of a point dipole reveals a perturbative version of the long-conjectured, ``smearing of the light-cone.'' There is no change in the far radiation field produced by an alternating dipole. However, the correction to the static electric field of a point charge shows strengthening at short distances, in contrast to expectations based on the renormalization group. We check for gauge dependence by working out the vacuum polarization in a general 3-parameter family of covariant gauges. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, November 15, 2012 1:42PM - 1:54PM |
DB.00002: The Partition Function for Semiclassical Gravity and Cosmic Strings Christopher Duston This talk will present a partition function for semiclassical gravity, constructed by representing smooth 4-manifolds as branched covers of the 4-sphere. By a result of Piergallini [1994], these manifolds are branched over immersed surfaces, so we will present several examples of codimension-2 foliations of the 4-sphere to illustrate the procedure for calculating the Einstein-Hilbert action. We will make this as general as possible by using the Weierstrass representation of surfaces, which can be taken flat with conical singularities. These conical singularities can be interpreted as cosmic strings, making a connection between semiclassical gravity and symmetry breaking in the early universe. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, November 15, 2012 1:54PM - 2:06PM |
DB.00003: Nuclear pairing problem with configuration-space Monte-Carlo approach Mark Lingle, Alexander Volya Pairing correlations play an important part in the dynamics of nuclei. We present a Monte Carlo algorithm that allows for the large-scale pairing problem to be handled. The approach does not suffer from the limitations of other methods, such as problems with particle number conservation or issues related to the limit where the pairing interaction is weak. The configuration space Monte Carlo procedure for pairing treats the components of the wave function as probabilities; due to boson-like nature of nucleonic pairs the approach is not subject to the sign problem. The application of the algorithm to various cases of pairing are discussed and results for large model systems are presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, November 15, 2012 2:06PM - 2:18PM |
DB.00004: Tuned Dynamic Damping of Structural Resonance John Yukich, Sam Migirditch, Kyung Taek Lim We have constructed and tested a tuned mass damper in an HO 1:87-scale structure to demonstrate dynamic damping of a building undergoing oscillations caused by simulated earthquake tremors. The apparatus is simple and inexpensive. The experiment, suitable for an undergraduate laboratory, demonstrates principles of physics as well as structural engineering. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, November 15, 2012 2:18PM - 2:30PM |
DB.00005: A Question of Gravity: Forces from the Planets William Mendoza The question of gravitational forces from the major celestial bodies of the Solar system will be considered in the context of a question posed in an introductory calculus-based physics course: is the gravitational force between obstetrician and infant at one meter of separation truly greater than that of any planet in the Earth-Sun system? Nearly all of the major celestial bodies will be quantitatively considered including the largest asteroids and planetary moons. The range of force from each body will be reported based on separation distances, and geometric considerations from the plane of the orbit. In addition to consideration of the central force issue, the tidal forces from the celestial bodies will also be quantitatively described and tabulated. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, November 15, 2012 2:30PM - 2:42PM |
DB.00006: Bringing Mathematical Functions to Life Larry Engelhardt Mathematical functions play an extremely important role in all areas of physics. As such, it is important to be able to be able to communicate the meaning and properties of these functions both effectively and efficiently. In this talk, we will demonstrate software that we have developed for precisely this purpose. This software is open source (free), and it can be downloaded as a platform-independent executable Java (.JAR) file from www.compadre.org/OSP/items/detail.cfm?ID=11593. See also L. Engelhardt, The Physics Teacher, Vol. 50, pp. 402, October 2012 (http://tpt.aapt.org/resource/1/phteah/v50/i7/p402{\_}s1). [Preview Abstract] |
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