Related papers: Fizeau's "aether-drag" experiment in the undergrad…
In agreement with Michelson-Morley experiments performed in vacuum, we show that, assuming the existence of a fundamental aether frame and of a length contraction affecting the material bodies in the direction of the Earth absolute…
The prospects of using extreme relativistic laser-matter interactions for laboratory astrophysics are discussed. Laser-driven process simulation of matter dynamics at ultra-high energy density is proposed for the studies of astrophysical…
This paper describes the first experimental demonstration of the guiding of a relativistic electron beam in a solid target using two co-linear, relativistically intense, picosecond laser pulses. The first pulse creates a magnetic field…
In a beautiful experiment performed about a decade ago, Goulielmakis et al. made a direct measurement of the electric field of light waves [E. Goulielmakis et al., Science 305, 1267-1269 (2004)]. However, they used a laser source to produce…
A laser diffraction experiment was conducted to study light propagation in air. The experiment is easy to reproduce and it is based on simple optical principles. Two optical sensors (segmented photo-diodes) are used for measuring the…
We calculate the shift, due to interatomic interactions, of an optical transition in an atomic Fermi gas trapped in an optical lattice, as in recent experiments of Campbell {\it et al.}, Science {\bf 324}, 360 (2009). Using a pseudospin…
Collective modes in two-dimensional electron fluids show an interesting response to a background carrier flow. Surface plasmons propagating on top of a flowing Fermi liquid acquire a non-reciprocal character manifest in a $\pm k$ asymmetry…
We study the frictional drag force in low-dimensional systems (2D-electron and 2D-liquid systems) mediated by a fluctuating electromagnetic field which originate from Brownian motion of ions in liquid. The analysis is focused on the…
The spring-mass system studied in undergraduate physics laboratories may show complex dynamics due to the simultaneous action of gravitational, elastic, and torsional forces, in addition to air friction. In this paper, we describe a…
Atomic wave interferometers are tied to a telescope pointing towards a faraway star in a nearly free falling satellite. Such a device is sensitive to the acceleration and the rotation relatively to the local inertial frame and to the tidal…
We probed the bending of actin subject to external forcing and viscous drag. Single actin filaments were moved perpendicular to their long axis in an oscillatory way by means of an optically tweezed latex bead attached to one end of the…
The advancement of fabrication and lithography techniques of semiconductors have made it possible to study bi-layer systems made of two electronic layers separated by distances of several hundred Angstroms. In this situation the electrons…
We have built an atom interferometer and, by applying an electric field on one of the two interfering beams, we have measured the static electric polarizability of lithium with a 0.66 % uncertainty. Our experiment is similar to an…
We experimentally demonstrate the manipulation of optical diffraction, utilizing the atomic thermal motion in a hot vapor medium of electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT). By properly tuning the EIT parameters, the refraction…
The interaction of light with objects and media moving at relativistic and superluminal speeds enables unconventional phenomena such as Fresnel drag, Hawking radiation, and light amplification. Synthetic motion, facilitated by modulated…
The water bottle flip experiment is a recreational, non-conventional illustration of the conservation of angular moment. When a bottle partially filled with water is thrown in a rotational motion, water redistributes throughout the bottle,…
The transresistance (i.e. the voltage induced in one layer by a current in another) between composite fermions in double-layers of half-filled Landau levels is shown to be dominated by scattering due to singular gauge field fluctuations…
Many concepts of physical optics can be visually illustrated on a relatively simple optical setup in a table-top format, not requiring any very specific equipment. Diffraction, interferences, speckle, image formation, Fourier optics,…
Stable transport of laser beams in highly over-dense plasmas is of significance in fast ignition of inertial confinement fusion, relativistic electrons generation, and powerful electromagnetic emission, but hard to realize. Early in 1996,…
Bragg diffraction has been used in atom interferometers because it allows signal enhancement through multiphoton momentum transfer and suppression of systematics by not changing the internal state of atoms. Its multi-port nature, however,…