Notes & Preprints

A Note on the Running of the QED Coupling

QED

renormalization

pedagogy

One-loop \(\beta\)-function, the Landau pole, and a plot of \(\alpha(\mu)\) from the electron mass to the TeV scale.

Jun 12, 2014

Chuck Walla Institute, M. Yucca

4 min

The Calico Tanks Barrier, Re-examined: A Transfer-Matrix Sequel

quantum mechanics

computational

pedagogy

We revisit the WKB calculation of Ocotillo (2011) with a transfer-matrix method, vindicating M. Yucca’s correction and recovering an exact transmission coefficient that differs from the WKB estimate by a factor of two.

Feb 18, 2012

Chuck Walla Institute, A. Ocotillo, J. Saguaro

7 min

Quantum Tunneling Through Sandstone: A WKB Toy Model

quantum mechanics

WKB

pedagogy

computational

On a small computational exercise in which the potential barrier is taken from a topographic profile of the Calico Hills at Red Rock Canyon, with a brief note from M. Yucca on the validity of the approximation.

May 22, 2011

Chuck Walla Institute, A. Ocotillo

6 min

Eternal Inflation, Boltzmann Brains, and the Difficulty of Trusting One’s Own Conclusions

cosmology

foundations

philosophy of physics

On a cosmological measure problem, on the proposition that one is more likely a fluctuation than a person, and on what one is to do about an argument that would undermine its own premises.

Dec 29, 2007

Chuck Walla Institute, D. R. Caldera

8 min

The Unruh Effect, with Reference to the Institute’s Pickup

QFT

accelerated observers

pedagogy

On the thermal bath seen by an accelerating observer, and on the smallness of the effect for terrestrial accelerations.

Apr 9, 2007

Chuck Walla Institute, M. Yucca

5 min

The Cosmological Constant: A Casimir Reading of the Cohen–Kaplan–Nelson Bound

cosmological constant

vacuum energy

holography

geometry

On a recent and somewhat overlooked argument that the gravitating vacuum energy in a region of finite size is bounded by a quantity which, for the cosmological horizon, is approximately the observed value; and on what the geometry of the boundary may have to do with the sign of the result.

Apr 18, 2006

Chuck Walla Institute, R. Cholla

9 min

A Note on the Persistence of Identity Across Branched Worlds: The Modal-Residue Problem and Its Implications for the Everett Interpretation

foundations

Everett interpretation

philosophy of physics

On a structural feature of the relative-state formulation that has not, to my knowledge, been previously articulated, and on the inadequacy — prima facie, and on close examination — of the existing treatments to address it.

Sep 17, 2003

Chuck Walla Institute, L. Bristlecone

14 min

On the Force Between Two Parallel Plates: A Casimir Calculation, Patiently

Casimir effect

vacuum energy

regularization

A first-principles derivation of the attraction between two perfectly conducting parallel plates, with attention to the regularization scheme and the geometry that motivates it.

Oct 12, 1998

Chuck Walla Institute, R. Cholla

6 min

A Note on the Page–Wootters Construction, with Reference to the Salecker–Wigner Bound

foundations

quantum measurement

problem of time

A short technical objection to the proposal that time emerges from the correlation between two clocks: namely, that the clocks themselves cannot be ideal.

Nov 8, 1994

Chuck Walla Institute, M. Yucca

6 min