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The Temperature of the Vacuum
Quantum field theory predicts that the temperature of empty space should depend on the observer’s motion, increasing proportionally with acceleration. Here I attempt an accessible introduction to this striking effect, related to Hawking radiation and discovered independently by Fulling, Davies, and Unruh, assuming only sophomore-level physics (including hyperbolic functions) with some assistance from Mathematica. Hyperbolic…
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A Century of Compton Scattering
One hundred years ago today the Physical Review published research on light scattering electrons that would earn its author, Wooster graduate Arthur Compton, a Physics Nobel Prize. By relativistically conserving spacetime momentum, as in the diagram below, and treating light as particles now called photons, Compton discovered that deflecting an electron through an angle stretches…
Month: May 2023
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Nice post, John! Thanks for writing these. I always enjoy them.
David Smith’s ein stein is an awesome shape!
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Thanks, Mark! I enjoy reading your posts as well.