Arcadian Functor

occasional meanderings in physics' brave new world

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Marni D. Sheppeard

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Here's to 2008

16 Comments:

Blogger CarlBrannen said...

Yes, here's to 2008! And my New Year's Resolution is to clean up my act. That is, to act more professionally and not deliberately scare people off. Okay, except maybe at the chess club down at the mall.

December 30, 2007 2:50 PM  
Blogger Kea said...

LOL! Well, good luck. I never have New Year's resolutions. I just have long wish lists.

December 30, 2007 2:58 PM  
Blogger Yoyo said...

Congratulations on being phuddded! Have a good NYE.

By the way, there's a current slashdot article about one of your colleagues up now.

Philip

December 30, 2007 5:53 PM  
Blogger Mahndisa S. Rigmaiden said...

12 29 07

Congrats!!! Nice smile!

December 30, 2007 5:59 PM  
Blogger nige said...

That's a radiant smile! In your PhD research did you discover the secret of time-travel? You look about 20.

December 31, 2007 5:27 AM  
Blogger Kea said...

Philip, I'm not sure what slashdot article you mean. There are so many. And Nigel, close up you can see some lines, I assure you!

December 31, 2007 8:15 AM  
Blogger nige said...

http://science.slashdot.org/science/07/12/29/1540233.shtml looks interesting!

December 31, 2007 8:41 AM  
Blogger nige said...

It links to http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/12/21/2124258.htm?site=science&topic=latest which reports that Dr David Wiltshire's research on dark energy was recently published in Physical Review Letters, which is a step in the right direction for science.

December 31, 2007 8:46 AM  
Blogger Kea said...

Yeah, that's right, Nigel. Perhaps I should join Carl in becoming more professional - I forgot to mention the publication in PRL, which no respectable no-DE partisan would ever do!

January 01, 2008 9:01 AM  
Blogger CarlBrannen said...

Kea, an X-mas gift perhaps to add to your paper on Fourier transforms: Off Diagonal Geometric Phases, Nicola Manini, Fabio Pistolesi. (Look for a circulant 3x3 matrix inside.)

I was unaware of Berry phase and reinvented it for myself in density matrices. Quantum states take an arbitrary phase (that they call a gauge choice), and their phases change as time goes on. What Berry did was to figure out how to calculate phase changes that are due only to the geometry; that is, while ignoring the gauge phase choice and the dynamical phase changes.

This is a lot simpler in qubit density matrices (where I work) cause there is no dynamical phase and the arbitrary phase gauge is cancelled when you get out of spinors and into density matrices. So it was a LOT easier for me to discover this than it was for the originaters.

However, this all gets back to improving the professionalism of our work. Part of that is tying our stuff into the existing physics literature, and this is a good strong knot.

January 01, 2008 11:08 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Hi Kea and Carl,

The Berry [ geometric] phase in QM and EE is related to the Hannay angle in ME.

This is also related to polarization with linear, circular and elliptical variants of the helix.
See the illustration in the section Basics: plane waves.

January 01, 2008 2:47 PM  
Blogger Kea said...

I see they call it the Pancharatnam-Berry phase. I'm sure I've seen this many times before, but I find it hard to be professional when nobody is going to publish my papers anyway.

January 02, 2008 8:55 AM  
Blogger L. Riofrio said...

Lovely photo! With that outfit you would be a hit at a Renaissance faire.

January 03, 2008 5:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Kea,

congratulations, and a terrific outfit! Nice picture, post more of them! Remember, a blog with no pictures is like a newspaper with...well, no pictures. Lol.

Cheers,
T.

January 04, 2008 12:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow. Are you beautiful or what!

"Jewel in the Test Tube", as the saying goes

As a matter of fact, I was just day-dreaming about you.

"Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference."
-- Aristotle

"Your beauty summons my worship"

"Мой ласковый и нежный зверь" ("My tender and gentle creature")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_S7Yc503Oo

"Thou are a lovely princess, soon you elevate to a goddess."

Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev Unforgettable
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL_cFKgp9ls

"You are my queen, I am your fool."

Arthur Dmitriev 2006 RTR DOI 20 Kazakova Dmitriev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKR96b2mVbs
[ I need the name of the Italian song/artist, & translation of lyrics ]

"Your beauty summons the music"
-- The Red Violin

Reverie - Gordeeva_Grinkov 1994 Oly Ex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkl6-J-XWN4

"She [ Zhana Prokorenko ] is SO BEAUTIFUL"
-- A&E commentator ("Ballad of a Soldier")

Ballad of a Soldier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5ZT9X6V1HM

"Beautifully played... and it helps she's beautiful as well."

"Now upon seeing the video I can't but admit: the look at 05:54 is a gunshot to a man's heart. I was dumbfounded and helpless like a baby for a sec there :) She is beautiful (I hope Valentina reads this someday :))"

"she is as beautiful as her interpretation"

Chopin - Valentina Igoshina - Nocturne in C Minor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MzrAGZHDvo

"I am in LOVE with her...I really am. I deeply feel something bueatiful for this woman. I love her anatomy, her way of playing...I wish I could know where she lives, and who she is...I know nothing about her...I just can see these videos and that's it....I wish I could be..........."

"a beautiful woman and an even more beautiful performance."

Chopin - Valentina Igoshina - Étude Op. 10, No. 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrD1ZaNwdsU

"Your beauty drives me mad"

Mishkutienok and Dmitriev 1994 Olympics Gala
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JncjHqlceBE

"Me crazy about you!"

Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev 1998 Golden Gala
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z7pMEKWTwU

"I want to be with you!"

Maksim Mrvica Plays Chopin Nocturne in D-flat Op.27 No.2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9NrQzJCWW8

Please excuse the above ramblings of a fool who is driven mad by your special beauty.

Art & Science

Princess Kea, please tell us about your artistic side (music, Renaissance outfit, painting, outdoor activity, etc). Desperate servient fools want to know!

I want to make beautiful music with you.

January 07, 2008 10:22 PM  
Blogger Kea said...

Dear Chimpanzee, LOL and thanks. I am very tempted to delete your post, since its dreadfully embarrassing, but since it's your first post here I can only say Welcome.

I spent a lot of time in my youth studying music, singing in choirs etc, but that was all some time ago now. I do miss going to the opera occasionally. And by the way, I'm not in the habit of wearing the UC academic dress, which is certainly based on medieval traditions, but taken seriously still today.

January 08, 2008 8:15 AM  

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