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Finn Ravndal

Publications and source records attributed to Finn Ravndal.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

How I got to work with Feynman on the covariant quark model

In the period 1968 - 1974 I was a graduate student and then a postdoc at Caltech and was involved with the developments of the quark and parton models. Most of this time I worked in close contact with Richard Feynman and thus was present from the parton model was proposed until QCD was formulated. A personal account is presented how the collaboration took place and how the various stages of this development looked like from the inside until QCD was established as a theory for strong interactions with the partons being quarks and gluons.

physics.hist-ph

Oskar Klein and the fifth dimension

After a short biographical summary of the scientific life of Oskar Klein, a more detailed and hopefully didactic presentation of his derivation of the relativistic Klein-Gordon wave equation is given. It was a result coming out of his unification of electromagnetism and gravitation based on Einstein's general theory of relativity in a five-dimensional spacetime. This idea had previously been explored by Kaluza, but Klein made it more acceptable by suggesting that the extra dimension could be compactified and therefore remain unobservable when it is small enough.

physics.hist-ph

Symmetric and conserved energy-momentum tensors in moving media

A symmetric and conserved energy-momentum tensor for a scalar field in a moving medium is derived using the Gordon metric. When applied to an electromagnetic field, the method gives a similar result. This approach thus points a way out of the old Abraham-Minkowski controversy about the correct energy-momentum tensors for the electromagnetic field in a material medium. The new tensor describes the properties of the field while the Abraham tensor contains information about the field coupled to the medium.

gr-qc

A dispersive correction to the Casimir force

Using perturbation theory the first order dispersive correction to the Casimir energy between two plates separated by a dielectric material is calculated. It falls off with the plate separation as 1/L^6. The result is derived both from evaluation of the zero-point energy and within the Lifshitz formulation. It is pointed out that a possible surface term can be more important, varying like 1/L^5.

quant-ph

On the Casimir effect in a continuous medium

It is pointed out that the Casimir energy in a medium can be obtained most directly from the zero-point energy of the electromagnetic field because of its reduced propagation velocity. This brings to the fore again the old problem related to how the principle of relativity is combined with the Maxwell field equations in a continuous medium.

quant-ph

Electromagnetism and photons in continuous media

Different theoretical and experimental aspects of electromagnetic phenomena in media is reviewed. The 100 year old Minkowski theory is in agreement with most experiments, but has theoretical problems related to its implied validity in all inertial frames. It is suggested that the similar Abraham theory should be permanently laid to rest since it is not compatible with basic quantum mechanics and is in disagreement with most experiments. Recently an effective field theory has been proposed which avoids these problems by considering the photon as a quasiparticle like any other excitation in condensed matter physics for which the rest frame of the medium is a preferred frame. It relates many different classical and quantum optical phenomena in a unified description.

hep-ph

Electromagnetic energy-momentum tensors in media

It is pointed out that the previous energy-momentum tensors of Minkowski and Abraham for the electromagnetic field in continuous media are based on a covariant formulation which does not reflect a symmetry inherent to the system. Instead, taking into account the intrinsic invariance under Lorentz transformations involving the reduced speed of light in such a medium, a compact and fully consistent theory can be formulated without the old problems.

hep-ph

Effective electromagnetic theory for dielectric media

Light in a dielectric medium moves slower than in vacuum. The corresponding electromagnetic field equations are then no longer invariant under ordinary Lorentz transformations, but only under such transformations corresponding to this reduced velocity. Based on this physical symmetry, an effective theory for low-energy electromagnetic phenomena in dielectrics is constructed. It has none of the problems of the old formulations of Minkowski and Abraham. Dispersion in the optical regime and the Kerr effect arise in a natural way from higher order interaction terms. The effective field theory is quantized by standard methods and quantum corrections can be calculated in a systematic way. Thus it relates many different classical and quantum optical phenomena into a unified description.

quant-ph

Gravity coupled to a scalar field in extra dimensions

In d+1 dimensions we solve the equations of motion for the case of gravity minimally or conformally coupled to a scalar field. For the minimally coupled system the equations can either be solved directly or by transforming vacuum solutions, as shown before in 3+1 dimensions by Buchdahl. In d+1 dimensions the solutions have been previously found directly by Xanthopoulos and Zannias. Here we first rederive these earlier results, and then extend Buchdahl's method of transforming vacuum solutions to d+1 dimensions. We also review the conformal coupling case, in which d+1 dimensional solutions can be found by extending Bekenstein's method of conformal transformation of the minimal coupling solution. Combining the extended versions of Buchdahl transformations and Bekenstein transformations we can in arbitrary dimensions always generate solutions of both the minimal and the conformal equations from known vacuum solutions.

gr-qc

Lagrangian formalism of gravity in the Randall-Sundrum model

We derive the effective Lagrangian of the physical four-dimensional fields in the Randall-Sundrum (RS) model, and use this to calculate the Newtonian gravitational potential between two point sources on the brane. The effect of the radion is emphasized, and it is shown to disappear when the hidden brane is taken to infinity, i.e. when we only have one brane. As a preliminary, we derive the corresponding Lagrangian in the simpler geometry of a flat spacetime with one extra dimension compactified on a torus. We also study the gauge invariance of the theory, and note that the massless vector field that is present for the torus disappears in the RS model because of the orbifold symmetry.

hep-ph

On the discovery of Birkhoff's theorem

Birkhoff showed in 1923 that the Schwarzschild solution for the metric from a point particle was also valid in the a priori non-static case as long as the spherical symmetry was maintained. This theorem was actually discovered and published two years earlier by an unknown Norwegian physicist, J.T. Jebsen. His life and scientific career is briefly chronicled.

physics.hist-ph

The CMB spectrum in Cardassian models

The dark energy in the Universe is described in the context of modified Friedmann equations as a fluid parameterized by the density of dark matter and undergoing an adiabatic expansion. This formulation is applied to the Cardassian model. Choosing then parameters consistent with the supernova observations, it gives a background expansion in which the cosmic temperature fluctuations are calculated. The resulting spectrum is quite similar to what is obtained in the standard concordance model. If the Cardassian fluid is interpreted as a new kind of interacting dark matter, its overdensities are driven into oscillations when the interaction energy is rising in importance. This does not occur in a description of the Cardassian fluctuations motivated by theories of modified gravity. There the energy of the underlying matter is also conserved, which requires appearance of effective shear stress in the late Universe. In both approaches that allow fluctuations the thermal power spectrum at large scales is much too strongly enhanced by the late integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. With the interacting dark matter assumption, we conclude that the Cardassian model is ruled out by observations, expect in a small neighbourhood of the $Λ$CDM limit.

astro-ph

Dynamics of the scalar field in 5-dimensional Kaluza-Klein theory

Using the language of differential forms, the Kaluza-Klein theory in 4+1 dimensions is derived. This theory unifies electromagnetic and gravitational interactions in four dimensions when the extra space dimension is compactified. Without any ad-hoc assumptions about the five-dimensional metric, the theory also contains a scalar field coupled to the other fields. By a conformal transformation the theory is transformed from the Jordan frame to the Einstein frame where the physical content is more manifest. Including a cosmological constant in the five-dimensional formulation, it is seen to result in an exponential potential for the scalar field in four dimensions. A similar potential is also found from the Casimir energy in the compact dimension. The resulting scalar field dynamics mimics realistic models recently proposed for cosmological quintessence.

hep-ph

Higher order corrections to the Newtonian potential in the Randall-Sundrum model

The general formalism for calculating the Newtonian potential in fine-tuned or critical Randall-Sundrum braneworlds is outlined. It is based on using the full tensor structure of the graviton propagator. This approach avoids the brane-bending effect arising from calculating the potential for a point source. For a single brane, this gives a clear understanding of the disputed overall factor 4/3 entering the correction. The result can be written on a compact form which is evaluated to high accuracy for both short and large distances.

hep-ph

Scalar Field Fluctuations between Parallel Plates

Quantum fluctuations of a scalar field and its derivatives are calculated when the field is confined between two parallel plates satisfying Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions. After regulation these fluctuations diverge in general when one approaches one of the plates. The energy density and the pressure between the plates is only consistent with the total Casimir energy when the canonical energy-momentum tensor is augmented by the Huggins term so to satisfy the requirement of conformal invariance for a massless, scalar field.

quant-ph

Scalar Gravitation and Extra Dimensions

Gunnar Nordstrom constructed the first relativistic theory of gravitation formulated in terms of interactions with a scalar field. It was an important precursor to Einstein's general theory of relativity a couple of years later. He was also the first to introduce an extra dimension to our spacetime so that gravitation would be just an aspect of electromagnetic interactions in five dimensions. His scalar theory and generalizations thereof are here presented in a bit more modern setting. Extra dimensions are of great interest in physics today and can give scalar gravitational interactions with similar properties as in Nordstrom's original theory.

gr-qc

Graviton-photon conversion on spin 0 and 1/2 particles

The differential cross-sections for scattering of gravitons into photons on bosons and fermions are calculated in linearized quantum gravity. They are found to be strongly peaked in the forward direction and become constant at high energies. Numerically, they are very small as expected for such gravitational interactions.

gr-qc

Radiative corrections to the Casimir energy and effective field theory

We discuss radiative corrections to the Casimir effect from an effective field theory point of view. It is an improvement and more complete version of a previous discussion by Kong and Ravndal. By writing down the most general effective Lagrangian respecting the symmetries and the boundary conditions, we are able to reproduce earlier results of Bordag, Robaschik and Wieczorek calculated in full QED. They obtained the correction E_0^(1) = π^2α/2560mL^4 to the Casimir energy. We find that this leading correction is due to surface terms in the effective theory, which we attribute to having dominant fluctuations localized on the plates.

hep-th