arXiv subjects

Clifford E Chafin

Publications and source records attributed to Clifford E Chafin.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2014

Globally Causal Solutions for Gravitational Collapse

Through an illuminating thought experiment we demonstrate that the nonsingular "continued collapse" picture of a black hole is the only consistent and physical one. We provide a class exact solutions on the boundary of the space of physical configurations. This will show that all the other known exact solutions are unphysical near the surface of the event horizon or in the interior. This will have important consequences for the no-hair conjecture and the kinds of persistent fields that can emerge from a black hole as well as the evolution during collisions and near grazing events. The interior of these holes are characterized by a limiting degenerate metric and these regions tend to well defined volumes and radii in contrast with what is inferred from singular solutions. Surprisingly, these depend on past history and not simply the mass or external fields of the body. It is shown that there is often a well defined "hidden" flat background that can be used to equivalently reformulate GR in terms of a classical nonlinear gravity field and gives local conservation laws. This has implications for unification efforts and numerical approaches to handle the degenerate metric regions reminiscent of the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions. Possible consistency problems with current numerical approaches to black hole dynamics are discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

The Quantum State of Classical Matter I: Solids and Measurements

Using the kinematic constraints of classical bodies we construct the allowable wavefunctions corresponding to classical solids. These are shown to be long lived metastable states that are qualitatively far from eigenstates of the true Hamiltonian. Extensions of this give an explicit description of phonon oscillations in terms of the wavefunction itself and some consequences for the general validity of the quasiparticle picture are presented. An intrinsic theory of quantum measurement naturally arises based on Schrödinger evolution that is local, consistent with relativity and extends to the case of noninertial and deformable measurement devices that can have time changing internal properties. This theory agrees with the Born interpretation in the limit of static measuring devices. Care is given to the transport of conserved quantities during measurement.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

The Quantum State of Classical Matter II: Thermodynamic Equilibrium and Hydrodynamics

In the previous companion paper, we proposed a subclass of wavefunctions to describe macroscopic solids that resolved and extended the theory quantum measurement and gave a more specific treatment of quasiparticles. Here we extend these notions to thermalization of solids and gases and to gas state hydrodynamics. This gives a modification of the thermodynamic limit to justify the canonical averages for "typical wavefunctions" without the use of ensembles. The energetic cost of vorticity is contrasted in the classical and ultracold gas limits. From this perspective, we then examine the applicability of thermo and hydro to ultracold gases and compare with the implications of pure state evolution. We illustrate how the proposed quantum limits on viscosity could be reinterpreted in terms of Schrödinger induced evolution of the one-body density function but some history dependent measurable properties should still persist.

quant-ph↗