37852212
Quark matter or new particles?
It has been argued that compression of nuclear matter to somewhat higher densities may lead to the formation of stable quark matter. A plausible alternative, which leads to radically new astrophysical scenarios, is that the stability of quark matter simply represents the stability of new particles compounded of quarks. A specific example is the SU(3)-symmetric version of the ..cap alpha.. particle, composed of spin-zero pairs of each of the baryon octet (an ''octet'' particle).
118960042
The state of pulsar theory
Abstract I summarize the status of pulsar theory, now 35 years after their discovery. Although progress has been made in understanding the relevant processes involved, there are several widely held misconceptions that are inhibiting further advances. These include the idea that plasma “must” be accelerated from the magnetic polar caps (the basis for the “Hollow Cone Model”) and the idea that winds would be driven away by centrifugal forces, with large amplitude electromagnetic waves playing no role whatsoever. However, recent theoretical work is converging on a picture that closely resembles the latest HST and Chandra images, providing hope for the future. No less than three groups have recently confirmed the early Krause-Polstorff–Michel simulations showing that the fundamental plasma distribution around a rotating neutron star consists of two polar domes and an equatorial torus of trapped nonneutral plasma of opposite sign charges. Unless a lot of new physics can be added, this distribution renders the Goldreich–Julian model irrelevant (i.e., along with most of the theoretical publications over the last 33 years).
123416974
Theory of pulsar magnetospheres
There is a wide range of fundamental physical problems directly related to how pulsars function. Some of these are independent of the specific pulsar mechanism. Others relate directly to the physics of the pulsar and already shed some light on the properties of matter at high density (\ensuremath{\sim}${10}^{15}$ g/cc) and in strong magnetic fields (\ensuremath{\sim}${10}^{12}$ G). Pulsars are assumed to be rotating neutron stars surrounded by strong magnetic fields and energetic particles. It is somewhere within this "magnetosphere" that the pulsar action is expected to take place. Currently there has been considerable difficulty in formulating an entirely self-consistent theory of the magnetospheric behavior and there may be rapid revisions in the near future, which is all the more surprising since many of the issues involve "elementary" problems in electromagnetism. One interesting discovery is that charge-separated plasmas apparently can support stable static discontinuities.
119697750
Gravitationally induced electric fields in conductors.
An estimate for the gravitationally induced electric field is presented that is based on a statistical model for the electrons in a metal in which their long-range electrostatic interaction with a differentially compressed lattice of positive ions is taken into account. The field is in the upward direction and is estimated to be of the order of magnitude $E\ensuremath{\approx}\frac{\mathrm{Mg}}{e}$, where $M$ is the atomic mass, $e$ is the electronic charge, and $g$ is the acceleration due to gravity. For copper, $E\ensuremath{\approx}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}7}$ V/m. An earlier estimate by Schiff and Barnhill gives a field in the downward direction equal to $\frac{\mathrm{mg}}{e}$, where $m$ is the mass of the electron. The difference between our result and theirs is due to different treatments of the effect of lattice compressibility.
121467224
PARITY NONCONSERVATION IN NUCLEI
BS>The influence of the known weak interactions on the parity of nuclear states is discussed. Derivation of a parity nonconserving interaction rests on the assumption of a current-current hypothesis for the weak interactions. Consequently, observation of parity impurity effects would be an important confirmation of this hypothesis. A simple approximate method of treating the nuclear parity impurity is developed and applied in an effort to find experimental situations favorable to observation of effects due to such impurity. Parity-forbidden alpha decay from excited states of light nuclei and certain electromagnetic transitions in the heavy nuclei appear to be promising. Special attention was paid to the internal conversion electrons from the 123kev transition nn Lu/sup 173/ whose polarization is estimated to be about 0.4%. An effect on polarized neutrons analogous to optical rotation is also discussed. (auth)
120405009
NEUTRAL WEAK INTERACTION CURRENTS
46627030
A potential deduced from low energy 16O( alpha, alpha ) elastic scattering.
The properties of the {alpha}+{sup 16}O interaction in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier are investigated by constructing (real, energy-independent) potentials which reproduce---when resonant nonpotential contributions are added to the potential background---all available {sup 16}O({alpha},{alpha}) elastic scattering angular distributions and excitation functions between 3.5 and 9 MeV incident energies. These low energy potentials, which are constructed for angular momenta ranging from 0 to 5, are in line with the global potential extracted from the analysis of the higher energy data (20{le}{ital E}{sub {alpha}}{le}150 MeV), but a slight angular momentum dependence, and an increase of the barrier height of about 1 MeV, are found necessary to reproduce the low energy data; this effect is qualitatively similar to that predicted by calculations taking into account antisymmetrization or dispersion relation effects. These potentials reproduce the properties of the first three members of the {sup 20}Ne {ital K}{sup {pi}}=0{sub 4}{sup +} ``higher nodal`` rotational band, which dominate the scattering in the investigated energy range, and of the {ital J}{sup {pi}}=5{sup {minus}} member of the {ital K}{sup {pi}}=0{sup {minus}} ``inversion doublet`` band. By taking into account the energy dependence of the interaction at lower energy, these potentials also give a nice account of the propertiesmore » of the {ital J}{sup {pi}}=1{sup {minus}} and 3{sup {minus}} members of the same band, and are found to be compatible with the properties of the first three members of the {sup 20}Ne ground state band.« less