Along the last few years we have conducted several investigations on waves in inhomogeneous plasmas, using the concept of effective dielectric tensor, which has been proposed as the correct dielectric tensor for the description of dielectric properties of inhomogeneous plasmas [1]. Among these investigations, we have considered cases where the magnetic field is homogeneous and other plasma para...

The local dispersion relation of a photonic crystal waveguide is directly determined by phase-sensitive near-field microscopy. We readily demonstrate the propagation of Bloch waves by probing the band diagram also beyond the first Brillouin zone. Both TE and TM polarized modes were distinguished in the experimental band diagram. Only the TE polarized defect mode has a distinctive Bloch wave cha...

Recent measurements of high-redshift QSO clustering from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey indicate that QSOs at z ∼ 4 have a bias 〈b〉 ≃ 14. We find that this extremely high clustering amplitude, combined with the corresponding space density, constrains the dispersion in the L−Mh relation to be less than 50% at 99% confidence for the most conservative case of a 100% duty cycle. This upper limit to t...

Velocity dispersion σ, radius R and luminosity L of elliptical galaxies are known to be related, leaving only two degrees of freedom and defining the so-called “fundamental plane”. In this Letter we present observational evidence that rich galaxy clusters exhibit a similar behaviour. Assuming a relation L ∝ Rασ2β, the best-fit values of α and β are very close to those defined by galaxies. The d...

We study heat transfer between conductors, mediated by the excitation of a monomodal harmonic oscillator. Using a simple model, we show that the onset of rectification in the system is directly related to the nonlinearity of the electron gas dispersion relation. When the metals have a strictly linear dispersion relation, a Landauer-type expression for the thermal current holds, symmetric with r...

A simple field analysis was developed for helical slowwave structure symmetrically supported by rectangular shaped discrete dielectric support rods partially embedded in the metal segments projecting radially inward from a metal envelope for wideband traveling-wave tubes. The tape helix model was used for the prediction of the dispersion relation and the interaction impedance characteristics. T...

The finite temperature Casimir free energy is calculated for a dielec-tric ball of radius a embedded in an infinite medium. The condition ǫµ = 1 is assumed for the inside/outside regions. Both the Green function method and the mode summation method are considered, and found to be equivalent. For a dilute medium we find, assuming a simple " square " dispersion relation with an abrupt cutoff at i...