arXiv subjects

Felipe A. Asenjo

Publications and source records attributed to Felipe A. Asenjo.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Weighing the Sun with five photographs

With only five photographs of the Sun at different dates we show that the mass of Sun can be calculated by using a telescope, a camera, and the Kepler's third law. With these photographs we are able to calculate the distance between Sun and Earth at different dates in a period of time of about three months. These distances allow us to obtain the correct elliptical orbit of Earth, proving the Kepler's first law. The analysis of the data extracted from photographs is performed by using an analytical optimization approach that allow us to find the parameters of the elliptical orbit. Also, it is shown that the five data points fit an ellipse using an geometrical scheme. The obtained parameters are in very good agreement with the ones for Earth's orbit, allowing us to foresee the future positions of Earth along its trajectory. The parameters for the orbit are used to calculate the Sun's mass by applying the Kepler's third law and Newton's law for gravitation. This method gives a result wich is in excellent agreement with the correct value for the Sun's mass. Thus, in a span of time of about three months, any student is capable to calculate the mass of the sun with only five photographs, a telescope and a camera.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2019

Correspondence between dark energy quantum cosmology and Maxwell equations

A Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology with dark energy can be modelled using a quintessence field. That system is equivalent to a relativistic particle moving on a two-dimensional conformal spacetime. When the quintessence behaves as a free massless scalar field in a Universe with cosmological constant, the quantized version of that theory can lead to a Supersymmetric Majorana quantum cosmology. The purpose of this work is to show that such quantum cosmological model correspond to the Maxwell equations for electromagnetic waves propagating in a medium with specific values for its relative permittivity and relative permeability. The form of those media parameters are calculated, implying that a Majorana quantum cosmology can be studied in an analogue electromagnetic system.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Estimating the Moon to Earth radius ratio with a smartphone, a telescope and an eclipse

On January 20th, 2019, a total lunar eclipse was possible to be observed in Santiago, Chile. Using a smartphone attached to a telescope, photographs of the phenomenon were taken. With Earth's shadow on those images, and using textbook geometry, a simple open-source software and analytical procedures, we were allowed to calculate the ratio between the radii of the Moon and the Earth. The results are in very good agreement with the correct value for such ratio. This shows the strength of the smartphone technology to get powerful astronomical results in a very simple way and in a very short amount of time.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2019

Gravitational electromotive force in magnetic reconnection around Schwarzschild black holes

We analytically explore the effects of the gravitational electromotive force on magnetic reconnection around Schwarzschild black holes through a generalized general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic model that retains two-fluid effects. It is shown that the gravitational electromotive force can couple to collisionless two-fluid effects and drive magnetic reconnection. This is allowed by the departure from quasi-neutrality in curved spacetime, which is explicitly manifested as the emergence of an effective resistivity in Ohm's law. The departure from quasi-neutrality is owed to different gravitational pulls experienced by separate parts of the current layer. This produces an enhancement of the reconnecion rate due to purely gravitational effects.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2018

Diamagnetic field states in cosmological plasmas

Using a generally covariant Electro-Vortic (magnetofluid) formalism for relativistic plasmas, the dynamical evolution of a generalized vorticity (a combination of the magnetic and kinematic parts) is studied in a cosmological context. We derive macroscopic vorticity and magnetic field structures that can emerge in spatial equilibrium configurations of the relativistic plasma. These fields, however, evolve in time. These magnetic and velocity fields fields are self-consistently sustained in a diamagnetic state in the expanding Universe, and do not require an external seed for their existence. In particular, we explore a special class of magnetic/velocity field structures supported by a plasma in which the generalized vorticity vanishes. We derive a highly interesting characteristic of such "superconductor--like" fields in a cosmological plasmas in the radiation--era in early Universe. In that case, the fields grow proportional to the scale factor, establishing a deep connection between the expanding universe and the primordial magnetic fields.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2018

Non--geodesic circular motion of massive spinning test bodies

Recent interest on studying possible violations of the Equivalence Principle has led to the development of space satellite missions testing it for bodies moving on circular orbits around Earth. This experiment establishes that the validity of the Equivalence Principle is independent of the composition of bodies. However, the internal degrees of freedom of the bodies (such as spin) were not taken into account. In this work, it is shown exactly that the circular orbit motion of test bodies does present a departure from geodesic motion when spin effects are not negligible. Using a Lagrangian theory for spinning massive bodies, an exact solution for their circular motion is found showing that the non--geodesic behavior manifests through different tangential velocities of the test bodies, depending on the orientation of its spin with respect to the total angular momentum of the satellite. Besides, for circular orbits, spinning test bodies present no tangential acceleration. We estimate the difference of the two possible tangential velocities for the case of circular motion of spinning test bodies orbiting Earth.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

The contribution of magnetic monopoles to ponderomotive forces in plasmas

It is well--known that when magnetic monopoles are introduced in plasma equations the propagation of electromagnetic waves is modified. This occurs because of Maxwell equations acquire a symmetrical structure due to the existence of electric and magnetic charge current densities. In this work we study the nonlinear phenomena of ponderomotive forces associated to the presence of magnetic monopoles in a plasma. We generalize the Washimi-Karpman result for the ponderomotive force on electric charges to take into account the symmetrical form of Maxwell equations in the presence of magnetic charges. It is shown that the general ponderomotive force on this plasma depends non--trivially on the magnetic monopoles, through the slowly temporal and spatial variations of the electromagnetic field amplitudes. The magnetic charges introduce corrections even if the plasma is unmagnetized. This last force induces a magnetization of the plasma, and therefore a cyclotron frequency (proportional to the square of the magnetic charge) is induced for electrons. Finally, the magnetic monopoles also experience a ponderomotive force due to the electrons. This force accelerates the magnetic charges along the direction of propagation of the electromagnetic waves. The possible consequences for experimental detection are discussed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2018

Electromagnetic redshift in anisotropic cosmologies

The redshift of light is calculated for an anisotropic cosmological spacetime. Two different approaches are considered. In the first one, electromagnetic waves are modeled using the geometrical optics (high--frequency) approximation. This approach considers light rays following null geodesics, being equivalent to the motion followed by pointlike spinless massless particles. It is shown that the redshift for this case depends, in general, on the direction of propagation, and is dispersive (wavelength dependent) for light emitted from different points of an extended object. In the second approach electromagnetic waves are studied using the exact form of Maxwell equations, finding that redshift has dependence on the direction of propagation as well as on the wave polarization. The electromagnetic waves are dispersive and depend on the anisotropic temporal evolution. In this last case, redshifts may become dispersive depending on the relative direction between the light ray propagation vector and the anisotropy axes. The relation of these results with a possible violation of the Equivalence Principle are discussed. In general, both results are set in the context of recent astrophysical redshift observations for anisotropic cosmologies, and new ways of determining redshifts are suggested.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection in Curved Spacetime and the Effect of Black Hole Rotation

Magnetic reconnection in curved spacetime is studied by adopting a general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic model that retains collisionless effects for both electron-ion and pair plasmas. A simple generalization of the standard Sweet-Parker model allows us to obtain the first order effects of the gravitational field of a rotating black hole. It is shown that the black hole rotation acts as to increase the length of azimuthal reconnection layers, per se leading to a decrease of the reconnection rate. However, when coupled to collisionless thermal-inertial effects, the net reconnection rate is enhanced with respect to what would happen in a purely collisional plasma due to a broadening of the reconnection layer. These findings identify an underlying interaction between gravity and collisionless magnetic reconnection in the vicinity of compact objects.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2017

Magnetic Connections in Curved Spacetime

The ideal MHD theorem on the conservation of the magnetic connections between plasma elements is generalized to relativistic plasmas in curved spacetime. The connections between plasma elements, which are established by a covariant connection equation, display a particularly complex structure in curved spacetime. Nevertheless, it is shown that these connections can be interpreted in terms of magnetic field lines alone by adopting a $3+1$ foliation of spacetime.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2017

A differential geometry approach to asymmetric transmission of light

In the last ten years, the technology of differential geometry, ubiquitous in gravitational physics, has found its place in the field of optics. It has been successfully used in the design of optical metamaterials, through a technique now known as "transformation optics". This method, however, only applies for the particular class of metamaterials known as impedance matched, that is, materials whose electric permittivity is equal to their magnetic permeability. In that case, the material may be described by a spacetime metric. In the present work we will introduce a generalization of the geometric methods of transformation optics to situations in which the material is not impedance matched. In such situation, the material -or more precisely, its constitutive tensor- will not be described by a metric only. We bring in a second tensor, with the local symmetries of the Weyl tensor, the "$W$-tensor". In the geometric optics approximation we show how the properties of the $W$-tensor are related to the asymmetric transmission of the material. We apply this feature into the design of a particularly interesting set of asymmetric materials. These materials are birefringent when light rays approach the material in a given direction, but behave just like vacuum when the rays have the opposite direction with the appropriate polarization (or, in some cases, independently of the polarization).

physics.optics↗

arXiv2017

Do electromagnetic waves always propagate along null geodesics?

We find exact solutions to Maxwell equations written in terms of four-vector potentials in non--rotating, as well as in Gödel and Kerr spacetimes. We show that Maxwell equations can be reduced to two uncoupled second-order differential equations for combinations of the components of the four-vector potential. Exact electromagnetic waves solutions are written on given gravitational field backgrounds where they evolve. We find that in non--rotating spherical symmetric spacetimes, electromagnetic waves travel along null geodesics. However, electromagnetic waves on Gödel and Kerr spacetimes do not exhibit that behavior.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Quantization of the Universe as a Dirac Particle: Geometrical Unification of Gravitation, Dark Energy and Multiverses

A Friedmann--Robertson--Walker Universe is studied with a dark energy component represented by a quintessence field. The Lagrangian for this system, hereafter called the Friedmann--Robertson--Walker--quintessence (FRWq) system, is presented. It is shown that the classical Lagrangian reproduces the usual two (second order) dynamical equations for the radius of the Universe and for the quintessence scalar field as well as a (first order) constraint equation. It is noted that the quintessence field (dark energy) is related with the tlaplon field (appearing on dynamical theories of spacetime torsion). Our approach naturally unifies gravity and dark energy, as it is obtained that the Lagrangian and the equations of motion are those of a relativistic particle moving on a two dimensional conformally flat spacetime, whereas the conformal metric factor is related to the dark energy scalar field potential. We proceed to quantize the system in three different schemes. First, we assume the Universe as a spinless particle (as it is common in literature), obtaining a quantum theory for a Universe described by the Klein--Gordon equation. Second, we push the quantization scheme further assuming the Universe as a Dirac particle, and therefore constructing its corresponding Dirac and the Majorana theories. With the different theories we calculate the expected values for the scale factor of the Universe. They depend on the type of quantization scheme used. The differences between the Dirac and Majorana schemes are highlighted. The implications of the different quantization procedures are discussed. Finally the possible consequences for a multiverse theory of the Dirac and Majorana quantized Universe are briefly considered.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Birefringent light propagation on anisotropic cosmological backgrounds

Exact electromagnetic wave solutions to Maxwell equations on anisotropic Bianchi I cosmological spacetime backgrounds are studied. The waves evolving on Bianchi I spacetimes exhibit birefringence (associated to linear polarization) and dispersion. The particular case of a vacuum--dominated anisotropic Universe, which reproduces a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe (for late times) while for earlier times it matches a Kasner Universe, is studied. The electromagnetic waves do not, in general, follow null geodesics. This produces a modification of the cosmological redshift, which is now dependent on light polarization and dispersion and its non-null geodesic behavior. New results presented here may help to tackle some issues related to the "horizon" problem.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

New non-linear modified massless Klein--Gordon equation

The massless Klein--Gordon equation on arbitrary curved backgrounds allows for solutions which develop "tails" inside the light cone and, therefore, do not strictly follow null geodesics as discovered by DeWitt and Brehme almost sixty years ago. A modification of the massless Klein--Gordon equation is presented which always exhibits null geodesic propagation of waves on arbitrary curved spacetimes. This new equation is derived from a Lagrangian which exhibits current--current interaction. Its non--linearity is due to a self--coupling term which is related to the quantum mechanical Bohm potential.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Fully relativistic kinetic equation for spin-1/2 particles in the long scale-length approximation

In this paper we derive a fully relativistic kinetic theory for spin-1/2 particles and its coupling to Maxwell's equations, valid in the long scale-length limit, where the fields vary on a scale much longer than the localization of the particles; we work to first order in $\hbar$. Our starting point is a Foldy-Wouthuysen (FW) transformation, applicable to this regime, of the Dirac Hamiltonian. We derive the corresponding evolution equation for the Wigner quasi-distribution in an external electromagnetic field. Using a Lagrangian method we find expressions for the charge and current densities, expressed as free and bound parts. It is furthermore found that the velocity is non-trivially related to the momentum variable, with the difference depending on the spin and the external electromagnetic fields. This fact that has previously been discussed as "hidden momentum" and is due to that the FW transformation maps pointlike particles to particle clouds for which the prescription of minimal coupling is incorrect, as they have multipole moments. We express energy and momentum conservation for the system of particles and the electromagnetic field, and discuss our results in the context of the Abraham-Minkowski dilemma.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2017

Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in Kerr Spacetime

The magnetic reconnection process is analyzed for relativistic magnetohydrodynamical plasmas around rotating black holes. A simple generalization of the Sweet-Parker model is used as a first approximation to the problem. The reconnection rate, as well as other important properties of the reconnection layer, have been calculated taking into account the effect of spacetime curvature. Azimuthal and radial current sheet configurations in the equatorial plane of the black hole have been studied, and the case of small black hole rotation rate has been analyzed. For the azimuthal configuration, it is found that the black hole rotation decreases the reconnection rate. On the other hand, in the radial configuration, it is the gravitational force created by the black hole mass that decreases the reconnection rate. These results establish a fundamental interaction between gravity and magnetic reconnection in astrophysical contexts.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Spinning particles coupled to gravity

Recent experimental work has determined that free falling $^{87}$Rb atoms on Earth, with vertically aligned spins, follow geodesics, thus apparently ruling out spin--gravitation interactions. It is showed that while some spinning matter models coupled to gravitation referenced to in that work seem to be ruled out by the experiment, those same experimental results confirm theoretical results derived from a Lagrangian description of spinning particles coupled to gravity constructed over forty years ago. A proposal to carry out (similar but) different experiments which will help to test the validity of the Universality of Free Fall as opposed to the correctness of the aforementioned Lagrangian theory, is presented.

gr-qc↗