Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Physics

Laser-Dressed Vacuum Polarization In A Coulomb Field, A. I. Milstein, Ivan S. Terekhov, Ulrich D. Jentschura, Christoph H. Keitel Nov 2005

Laser-Dressed Vacuum Polarization In A Coulomb Field, A. I. Milstein, Ivan S. Terekhov, Ulrich D. Jentschura, Christoph H. Keitel

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We investigate quantum electrodynamic effects under the influence of an external, time-dependent electromagnetic field, which mediates dynamic modifications of the radiative corrections. Specifically, we consider the quantum electrodynamic vacuum-polarization tensor under the influence of two external background fields: a strong laser field and a nuclear Coulomb field. We calculate the charge and current densities induced by a nuclear Coulomb field in the presence of a laser field. We find the corresponding induced scalar and vector potentials. The induced potential, in first-order perturbation theory, leads to a correction to atomic energy levels. The external laser field breaks the rotational symmetry of …


Cosmic Shear Of The Microwave Background: The Curl Diagnostic, Asantha Cooray, Marc Kamionkowski, Robert R. Caldwell Jun 2005

Cosmic Shear Of The Microwave Background: The Curl Diagnostic, Asantha Cooray, Marc Kamionkowski, Robert R. Caldwell

Dartmouth Scholarship

Weak-lensing distortions of the cosmic-microwave-background (CMB) temperature and polarization patterns can reveal important clues to the intervening large-scale structure. The effect of lensing is to deflect the primary temperature and polarization signal to slightly different locations on the sky. Deflections due to density fluctuations, gradient-type for the gradient of the projected gravitational potential, give a direct measure of the mass distribution. Curl-type deflections can be induced by, for example, a primordial background of gravitational waves from inflation or by second-order effects related to lensing by density perturbations. Whereas gradient-type deflections are expected to dominate, we show that curl-type deflections can …


Modelling Continuum Optical And Ultraviolet Polarization Of Active Galactic Nuclei, René W. Goosmann, C. Martin Gaskell Jun 2005

Modelling Continuum Optical And Ultraviolet Polarization Of Active Galactic Nuclei, René W. Goosmann, C. Martin Gaskell

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

We present results from a new Monte Carlo radiative transfer computer code, STOKES, developed to model polarization induced by scattering off free electrons and dust grains. STOKES is freely available on the web and can be used to model scattering in a wide variety of astrophysical situations. For edge-on (type-2) viewing positions, the polarization produced by a dusty torus alone is largely wavelength-independent.

This is because the torus is optically thick and the change in albedo with wavelength is slight. Wavelength-independent polarization therefore does not necessarily imply electron scattering. We are able to fully explain wavelength independent type-2 polarization without …


Positronium Formation In Positron-Li And Positron-Na Collisions At Low Energies, Anh-Thu Le, M. W. J. Bromley, C. D. Lin Mar 2005

Positronium Formation In Positron-Li And Positron-Na Collisions At Low Energies, Anh-Thu Le, M. W. J. Bromley, C. D. Lin

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present the positronium formation cross sections for a positron colliding with lithium and sodium for the collision energies from 0.01 eV up to 20 eV by the hyperspherical close-coupling method. For Li, our results agree with the experimental data and with other calculations. Our results for Na remain in agreement with previous close-coupling calculations, but do not support the latest experimental data for Na below 1 eV. To validate our model potentials and method in the low-energy regime, the binding energies of positronic lithium and positronic sodium as well as the s-wave scattering lengths for positronium scattering from Li⁺ …


Beam-Helicity Asymmetries In Double-Charged-Pion Photoproduction On The Proton, H. Bagdasaryan, M. Bektasoglu, S. Bültmann, Gail Dodge, N. Guler, C. E. Hyde-Wright, H. G. Juengst, A. Klein, S. E. Kuhn, L. M. Qin, W. Roberts, F. Sabatié, S. Tkachenko, L. B. Weinstein, J. Yun, J. Zhang, Et Al., Clas Collaboration Jan 2005

Beam-Helicity Asymmetries In Double-Charged-Pion Photoproduction On The Proton, H. Bagdasaryan, M. Bektasoglu, S. Bültmann, Gail Dodge, N. Guler, C. E. Hyde-Wright, H. G. Juengst, A. Klein, S. E. Kuhn, L. M. Qin, W. Roberts, F. Sabatié, S. Tkachenko, L. B. Weinstein, J. Yun, J. Zhang, Et Al., Clas Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

Beam-helicity asymmetries for the two-pion-photoproduction reaction 𝛾⃗p → p π+π- have been studied for the first time in the resonance region for center-of-mass energies between 1.35 and 2.30 GeV. The experiment was performed at Jefferson Lab with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer using circularly polarized tagged photons incident on an unpolarized hydrogen target. Beam-helicity-dependent angular distributions of the final-state particles were measured. The large cross-section asymmetries exhibit strong sensitivity to the kinematics and dynamics of the reaction. The data are compared with the results of various phenomenological model calculations, and show that these models currently do not …