Physics Commons^™

The Electromagnetic Mass Differences Of Pions And Kaons, John F. Donoghue, Antonio F. Pérez

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

We use the Cottingham method to calculate the pion and kaon electromagnetic mass differences with as few model dependent inputs as possible. The constraints of chiral symmetry at low energy, QCD at high energy and experimental data in between are used in the dispersion relation. We find excellent agreement with experiment for the pion mass difference. The kaon mass difference exhibits a strong violation of the lowest order prediction of Dashen’s theorem, in qualitative agreement with several other recent calculations.

The Quantum Theory Of General Relativity At Low Energies, John Donoghue

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

In quantum field theory there is now a well developed technique, effective field theory, which allows one to obtain low energy quantum predictions in “non-renormalizable” theories, using only the degrees of freedom and interactions appropriate for those energies. Whether or not general relativity is truly fundamental, at low energies it is automatically described as a quantum effective field theory and this allows a consistent framework for quantum gravity at ordinary energies. I briefly describe the nature and limits of the technique.

Ethical Problems And Dilemmas In The Interaction Between Science And Media, David Resnik

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

Science and the media are not strange bedfellows since they both gather information, value accuracy and objectivity, and recognize their enormous social responsibilities. The public often benefits from interactions between science and the media, and these two institutions often complement each other. However, since they have different standards, goals, expertises, competencies, and funding sources, science and the media can sometimes interact in ways that produce unintended, adverse consequences for the public. Sometimes the public may become misinformed, deceived, or confused as a result of the media's coverage of science. This unfortunate effect can lead to poor policy decisions, ill-informed public …

Research Vs. Teaching: An Ethical Dilemma For The Academic Physicist, Alvin M. Saperstein

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

The usual discussions of academic ethics and freedom revolve around the issues of what we may teach. Here, I'm concerned with how we teach and examine. Thus this paper is concerned with process rather than substance--perhaps an unusual concern for an academic but currently of interest to me, having recently served a year in the federal bureaucracy where process is dominant over substance.

A physician who knew of improved procedures to facilitate the health of a patient but chose to use older, proven less effective, means, purely for his/her own convenience, would clearly be guilty of medical malpractice--unethical behavior. I …

Ethics, Physics, And Public Policy, Tina Kaarsberg

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

This paper discusses the ethical aspects of physicists', and the physics community's involvement in public policy. The work of individual physicists is often quite distant from any societal impact and thus public policy is not normally considered an important ethical consideration for individual physicists. However, in light of the great societal impact of physics-based technologies, the physics profession, by definition, has a major impact on public policy. In addition, most physicists in the U.S. benefited considerably from public funding in their physics education, and many continue to depend upon federal and state funding. Thus, there is a strong ethical argument …

Should Physics Students Take A Course In Ethics? Physicists Respond, Bonnie Wylo, Marshall Thomsen

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

Should physics students take a course in ethics? A National Science Foundation grant was written by the authors in an attempt (in part) to answer this question. One might first ask, why might physics students take a course in ethics? There are three reasons that might combine to persuade one of the necessity. First, the formal training can be quite practical and useful in the daily life of a physicist, as discussed below. Second, the National Science Teachers Association suggests an ethical component in the training of high school physics teachers (NSTA Standards for Science Teacher Preparation, available at www.nsta.org). …

Publication Practices In Physics, Marshall Thomsen

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

Publication of research results in scholarly journals plays an important role in the scientific community. These publications provide both a means for dissemination of new results and a means for evaluating the quality of scientific work and the scientists who perform it. This paper will examine motivations for publishing, ethical issues in publication, some relevant ethical codes, and some corrective measures that have been taken to shore up areas of ethical concern. Finally, the impact of new communications technologies on the future of publication will be considered.

Ethical Issues In Physics: Ethical Harassment, Caroline L. Herzenberg

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

The concept of ethical harassment is identified and discussed. It is proposed that we search for societal mechanisms that may lead to some progress in the curtailment of ethical harassment. It is proposed that the right to act ethically should be regarded as a fundamental human and professional right.

Science, Ethics, And Gender, Priscilla Auchincloss

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

No abstract provided.

Dynamics Of A Suspension Of Spheres And Rigid Polymers: Effect Of Geometrical Mismatch, Radu P. Mondescu, M. Muthukumar

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

No abstract provided.

Chiral Anomaly And Gamma 3 Pi, Br Holstein

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

Measurement of the γ3π process has revealed a possible conflict with what should be a solid prediction generated by the chiral anomaly. We show that inclusion of appropriate energy-momentum dependence in the matrix element reduces the discrepancy.

Future Lq Oscillation Experiments And Present Data, Jj Gomez-Cadenas, M.C Gonazles-Garcia

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

Our goal in this paper is to examine the discovery potential of laboratory experiments searching for the oscillation lk(le)Plq, in the light of recent data on solar and atmospheric neutrino experiments, which we analyse together with the most restrictive results from laboratory experiments on neutrino oscillations. In order to explain simultaneously all present results we use a fourneutrino framework, with an additional sterile neutrino. Our predictions are rather pessimistic for the upcoming experiments NOMAD and CHORUS, which, we Þnd, are able to explore only a small area of the oscillation parameter space. On the other hand, the discovery potential of …

Final State Interactions In The Decay Of Heavy Quarks, John Donoghue

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

I discuss some recent results on the systematic behavior of final state rescattering which makes use of the limit of a heavy B meson. The results suggest that soft final state interactions do not disappear in the large $m_B$ limit. Soft and hard final state phases can both contribute to CP violating asymmetries in B decay. The way that the soft phases occur is interesting theoretically and suggests the violation of local quark-hadron duality.

Nonperturbative Methods In Kaon Physics (Aside From The Lattice), John Donoghue

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

I discuss the progress in the use of analytic techniques for low energy QCD, in particular as applied to kaon physics. These methods are becoming increasingly powerful and we have gained a good deal of control over the difficult hadronic interactions. There are continuing developments, and I speculate on the ways that these techniques may become yet more sophisticated in the future.

Is B→Xsγ Equal To B→Sγ? Spectator Contributions To Rare Inclusive B Decays, John Donoghue, Alexey A. Petrov

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

In B→Xsγ, there are perturbative QCD corrections at order αs not only to the single quark line process b→sγ but also coming from a set of diagrams where the weak interaction vertex involves a gluon which interacts with the spectator quark in the B hadron. We discuss the impact of the full set of these diagrams. These can influence the decay rate and also the line shape of the photon spectrum as they favor a softer photon energy than does the pure spectator decay b→sγ. A subset of these diagrams generates differences in the decay rates for charged and neutral …