The statistical predictions of Newtonian and special-relativistic mechanics, which are calculated from an initially Gaussian ensemble of trajectories, are compared for a low-speed scattering system. The comparisons are focused on the mean dwell time, transmission and reflection coefficients, and the position and momentum means and standard deviations. We find that the statistical predictions of the two theories do not always agree as conventionally expected. The predictions are close if the scattering is non-chaotic but they are radically different if the scattering is chaotic and the initial ensemble is well localized in phase space. Our result indicates that for low-speed chaotic scattering, special-relativistic mechanics must be used, instead of the standard practice of using Newtonian mechanics, to obtain empirically-correct statistical predictions from an initially well-localized Gaussian ensemble.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3495942PMC
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0048447PLOS

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

statistical predictions
16
low-speed scattering
8
special-relativistic mechanics
8
gaussian ensemble
8
predictions
5
scattering
5
newtonian versus
4
versus special-relativistic
4
statistical
4
special-relativistic statistical
4

Similar Publications

Background Objectives: Scrub typhus is an acute febrile zoonotic disease caused by the obligate intracellular gram-negative bacteria Orientia tsutsugamushi. Growing data over the last few years on the Indian subcontinent suggest that it is one of the most widespread but under-reported diseases. The study aimed to document the clinical and paraclinical profile and evaluate complications of scrub typhus in severe and nonsevere pediatric age groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chronic pain is a wide-spread condition that is debilitating and expensive to manage, costing the United States alone around $600 billion in 2010. In a common symptom of chronic pain called allodynia, non-painful stimuli produce painful responses with highly variable presentations across individuals. While the specific mechanisms remain unclear, allodynia is hypothesized to be caused by the dysregulation of excitatory-inhibitory (E-I) balance in pain-processing neural circuitry in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: There is an urgent need to better understand the factors that predict mental wellbeing in vocationally active adults during globally turbulent times.

Aim: To explore the relationship between psychological detachment from work (postulated as a key recovery activity from work) in the first national COVID-19 lockdown with health, wellbeing, and life satisfaction of working age-adults one year later, within the context of a global pandemic.

Methods: Wellbeing of the Workforce (WoW) was a prospective longitudinal cohort study, with two waves of data collection (Time 1, April-June 2020: T1 n = 337; Time 2, March-April 2021: T2 = 169) corresponding with the first and third national COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The French guidelines have recommended a restrictive policy of episiotomy since 2005. We aimed to assess variations in the prevalence of both episiotomy and obstetric anal sphincter injury (OASI) from the 2010, 2016, and 2021 National Perinatal Surveys.

Methods And Findings: A total of 29,750 women who had given birth to a live infant by vaginal delivery were included.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Eliciting Preferences for the Uptake of Smoking Cessation Apps: Discrete Choice Experiment.

J Med Internet Res

January 2025

Behavioural and Implementation Science Group, School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.

Background: If the most evidence-based and effective smoking cessation apps are not selected by smokers wanting to quit, their potential to support cessation is limited.

Objective: This study sought to determine the attributes that influence smoking cessation app uptake and understand their relative importance to support future efforts to present evidence-based apps more effectively to maximize uptake.

Methods: Adult smokers from the United Kingdom were invited to participate in a discrete choice experiment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!