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M. Fiolhais

Publications and source records attributed to M. Fiolhais.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2014

The physics of articulated toys - a jumping and rotating kangaroo

We describe the physics of an articulated toy with an internal source of energy provided by a spiral spring. The toy is a funny low cost kangaroo which jumps and rotates. The study consists of a mechanical and a thermodynamical analysis which makes use of the Newton and center of mass equations, the rotational equations and the first law of thermodynamics. This amazing toy provides a nice demonstrative example how new physics insights can be brought about when links with thermodynamics are established in the study of mechanical systems.

physics.class-ph↗
arXiv2014

Forces on wheels and fuel consumption in cars

Motivated by real classroom discussions, we analyse the forces acting on moving vehicles, specifically friction forces on the wheels. In usual cars, with front-wheel drive, when the car accelerates these forces are in the forward direction in the front wheels, but they are in the opposite direction in the rear wheels. The situation may be intriguing for students, but it may also be helpful and stimulating to clarify the role of friction forces on rolling objects. In this article we also study thermodynamical aspects of an accelerating car, relating the distance traveled with the amount of fuel consumed. The fuel consumption is explicitly shown to be Galilean invariant and we identify the Gibbs free energy as the relevant quantity that enters in the thermodynamical description of the accelerating car. The more realistic case of the car's motion taking into account the dragging forces is also discussed.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2010

Spin and pseudospin symmetries in the antinucleon spectrum of nuclei

Spin and pseudospin symmetries in the spectra of nucleons and antinucleons are studied in a relativistic mean-field theory with scalar and vector Woods-Saxon potentials, in which the strength of the latter is allowed to change. We observe that, for nucleons and antinucleons, the spin symmetry is of perturbative nature and it is almost an exact symmetry in the physical region for antinucleons. The opposite situation is found in the pseudospin symmetry case, which is better realized for nucleons than for antinucleons, but is of dynamical nature and cannot be viewed in a perturbative way both for nucleons and antinucleons. This is shown by computing the spin-orbit and pseudospin-orbit couplings for selected spin and pseudospin partners in both spectra.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2010

Investigation of the existence of hybrid stars using Nambu-Jona-Lasinio models

We investigate the hadron-quark phase transition inside neutron stars and obtain mass-radius relations for hybrid stars. The equation of state for the quark phase using the standard NJL model is too soft leading to an unstable star and suggesting a modification of the NJL model by introducing a momentum cutoff dependent on the chemical potential. However, even in this approach, the instability remains. In order to remedy the instability we suggest the introduction of a vector coupling in the NJL model, which makes the EoS stiffer, reducing the instability. We conclude that the possible existence of quark matter inside the stars require high densities, leading to very compact stars.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2010

Quarks stars in SU(2) Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model with vector coupling

In this work we study the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model in the SU (2) version with repulsive vector coupling and apply it to quark stellar matter. We discuss the influence of the vector interaction on the equation of state (EoS) and study quark stars that are composed of pure quark matter with two flavors. We show that, increasing the vector coupling, we obtain more massive stars with larger radii for the same central energy density.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2009

Pion electro-production in the Roper region in chiral quark models

We present a method to calculate pion electro-production amplitudes in a coupled-channel framework incorporating quasi-bound quark-model states. The method offers a clear prescription how to extract the resonant part of the amplitudes, even in the presence of different decay channels and a strong mixing of neighbouring resonances. The method is applied to the calculation of the M1- and the S1- amplitudes in the P11 partial wave in a simple chiral quark model. A good agreement with the observed M1- amplitude is found with a significant contribution from the pion cloud. The same effect is also prominent in the S1- amplitude but a rather uncertain data prevent us to draw a definitive conclusion.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2007

Center-of-Mass Correction in a Relativistic Hartree Approximation Including the Meson Degrees of Freedom

The Peierls-Yoccoz projection method is used to study the motion of a relativistic system of nucleons interacting with sigma and omega mesons. The nuclear system is described in a mean-field Hartree approach, including explicitly the meson contribution and the formalism is applied to some selected N=Z spherical nuclei. The center-of-mass motion correction makes the system too much bounded, but we show that an appropriate refitting of the model brings the radii and binding energies close to the experimental values.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2005

Direct calculation of the K-matrix for pion electro-production in the Delta channel

We present a method to calculate directly the K-matrices for the pion electro-production processes in the framework of chiral quark models which allows for a clean separation of the resonant amplitudes from the background. The method is applied to the calculation of the multipole amplitudes M_{1+}, E_{1+}, and S_{1+} in the Delta channel within the Cloudy Bag Model. A good overall description is found in a broad energy range.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2004

Perturbative breaking of the pseudospin symmetry in the relativistic harmonic oscillator

We show that relativistic mean fields theories with scalar, $S$, and vector, $V$, quadratic radial potentials can generate a harmonic oscillator with exact pseudospin symmetry {\it and positive energy bound states} when $S=-V$. The eigenenergies are quite different from those of the non-relativistic harmonic oscillator. We also discuss a mechanism for perturbatively breaking this symmetry by introducing a tensor potential. Our results shed light into the intrinsic relativistic nature of the pseudospin symmetry, which might be important in high density systems such as neutron stars.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2004

Pseudospin symmetry and the relativistic harmonic oscillator

A generalized relativistic harmonic oscillator for spin 1/2 particles is studied. The Dirac Hamiltonian contains a scalar $S$ and a vector $V$ quadratic potentials in the radial coordinate, as well as a tensor potential $U$ linear in $r$. Setting either or both combinations $Σ=S+V$ and $% Δ=V-S$ to zero, analytical solutions for bound states of the corresponding Dirac equations are found. The eigenenergies and wave functions are presented and particular cases are discussed, devoting a special attention to the nonrelativistic limit and the case $Σ=0$, for which pseudospin symmetry is exact. We also show that the case $U=Δ=0$ is the most natural generalization of the nonrelativistic harmonic oscillator. The radial node structure of the Dirac spinor is studied for several combinations of harmonic-oscillator potentials, and that study allows us to explain why nuclear intruder levels cannot be described in the framework of the relativistic harmonic oscillator in the pseudospin limit.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2003

Metastable strange matter and compact quark stars

Strange quark matter in beta equilibrium at high densities is studied in a quark confinement model. Two equations of state are dynamically generated for the {\it same} set of model parameters used to describe the nucleon: one corresponds to a chiral restored phase with almost massless quarks and the other to a chiral broken phase. The chiral symmetric phase saturates at around five times the nuclear matter density. Using the equation of state for this phase, compact bare quark stars are obtained with radii and masses in the ranges $R\sim 5 - 8$ km and $M\sim M_\odot$. The energy per baryon number decreases very slowly from the center of the star to the periphery, remaining above the corresponding values for the iron or the nuclear matter, even at the edge. Our results point out that strange quark matter at very high densities may not be absolutely stable and the existence of an energy barrier between the two phases may prevent the compact quarks stars to decay to hybrid stars.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2002

Axial Excitation of the Delta in Chiral Quark Models

We discuss electro-magnetic and weak axial N-Delta transition amplitudes in the linear sigma-model and the Cloudy-Bag Model as typical representatives of chiral quark models. We show that good qualitative understanding of the transition can be obtained in models which, in addition to the pion cloud, incorporate a fluctuating sigma-field inside the baryon.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2002

N-Delta axial transition form factors

We review some basic properties of the N-Delta transition axial amplitudes and relate them to the strong pi-N-Delta form-factor. In models with the pion cloud we derive a set of constraints on the pion wave function which guaranty the correct behaviour of the amplitudes in the vicinity of the pion pole. Corrections due to the spurious center-of-mass motion are calculated to the leading order in the inverse baryon mass. We give explicit expressions for the amplitudes in the Cloudy Bag Model and show that they rather strongly underestimate the experimental values.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2002

Axial amplitudes for Delta excitation in chiral quark models

We study the axial amplitudes for the N-Delta transition in models with quarks and chiral mesons. A set of constraints on the pion field is imposed which enforces PCAC and the off-diagonal Goldberger-Treiman relation. The quark contribution to the amplitudes in general strongly underestimates the C^A_5 amplitude as well as the piNDelta strong coupling constant. We show that the results are considerably improved in models that, in addition to the pion cloud, incorporate a fluctuating sigma field inside the baryon.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2002

Dynamical nature of the nuclear pseudospin and its isospin asymmetry

Pseudospin symmetry in nuclei is investigated by solving the Dirac equation with Woods-Saxon scalar and vector radial potentials. We relate the pseudospin interaction with a pseudospin-orbit term in a Schroedinger-like equation for the lower component of the Dirac spinor. We show that this term gives a large contribution to the energy splittings of pseudospin partners, so that the near pseudospin degeneracy arises from a significant cancellation among the different terms in that equation. This is a manifestation of the dynamical character of this symmetry in the nucleus. We analyze the isospin dependence of the pseudospin symmetry in a nuclear isotope chain by including a vector-isovector potential V_rho and a Coulomb potential and conclude that V_rho gives the main contribution to the observed pseudospin isospin asymmetry.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2002

Radial excited states of the nucleon in quark models with dynamical confinement

The Roper state is described in the framework of the chiral chromodielectric model as a single quark excitation in self-consistent meson potentials. The interplay between quark and meson excitations is discussed and we emphasise the role of non-quark degrees of freedom in the electroproduction of nucleon excitations.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2002

Small quark stars in the chromodielectric model

Equations of state for strange quark matter in beta equilibrium at high densities are used to investigate the structure (mass and radius) of compact objects. The chromodielectric model is used as a general framework for the quark interactions, which are mediated by chiral mesons, $σ$ and $\vec π$, and by a confining chiral singlet dynamical field, $χ$. Using a quartic potential for $χ$, two equations of state for the same set of model parameters are obtained, one with a minimum at around the nuclear matter density $ρ_0$ and the other at $ρ\sim 5 ρ_0$. Using the latter equation of state in the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations we found solutions corresponding to compact objects with $R\sim 5 - 8$ km and $M\sim M_\odot$. The phenomenology of recently discovered X-ray sources is compatible with the type of quark stars that we have obtained.

hep-ph↗