The h Bar

DanielSank

5:00 PM

You feel the most important thing is to better define the questions we presently close as "homework".

Very interesting difference, actually!

David Z

Yeah... let's keep discussing this

DanielSank

@DavidZ sure

David Z

But the official chat session is over for now. See everyone in two weeks!

Danu

@DanielSank I gave you the meta post, no?

125

Q: Moderator Cheat Sheet

As an alternative to the other FAQ format being fleshed out here on Meta Stack Exchange, I'd like to propose something far more terse that covers the bare essential mechanics of being a moderator. Feel free to add more questions, but keep them short: this isn't the place to get into complex mod...

David Z

We'll keep the discussion going here as long as people would like to stay around and continue it

Danu

5:01 PM

Hi everybody

John Rennie

Ok, now the session is over I propose this as a meta question:
What activities are involved in being a Physics SE mod?

With a moderator election looming it would be useful to hear from our current moderators how much the role affects their use of the site. Some obvious questions would be how many hours a day does it require, and what are are the day to day tasks you need to do in that time. However it would also be good to hear what it stops you doing. For example being a moderator means you cannot cast a non-binding close vote.

DanielSank

That already exists in several places though.

@Danu Hi, Doctor Danu!

John Rennie

The aim to collect replies from the mods saying what their experience is.

DanielSank

I now have six browser tabs open with info about being a mod.

@JohnRennie That's not my aim.

John Rennie

That info doesn't exist elsewhere.

It's my aim ...

DanielSank

5:02 PM

If you wanna start a meta post asking "What's your life as a mod like?" then go for it!

ACuriousMind

I think it might be an interesting factoid to know

DanielSank

Perhaps.

If that post is made, the title should include the date (at least the year).

David Z

ooh... um, I have to relocate from my office. I'll be away for about 10 minutes and then check back.

Danu

@DavidZ Worst case scenario: If nobody good runs I'll run pushing the experienced-enough members (who won't want me as a mod ;D) into running :)

DanielSank

Let's not pretend that a meta post like that is somehow canonical.

John Rennie

5:04 PM

@Danu I have to admit I've been toying with the idea of running.

Danu

@JohnRennie Go for it!

user116211

@JohnRennie Run John Run!!

John Rennie

I'm finding it harder and harder to answer questions these days, so I'm less concerned about the effect on my output than I used to be.

ACuriousMind

@DanielSank @DavidZ I'm actually not sure what you two disagree about. To give better advice about how to improve their questions, we must know why we closed the question in the first place. These aren't separate priorities to me, they're two sides of the same coin

DanielSank

@ACuriousMind Yes, but they are sides.

user116211

5:05 PM

So, @JohnRennie, you definitely should be running for the elections; we, at the outset, requested you to do so ;) go on.

Obliv

@johnR hey m8 do you have the time to spare some wisdom on a question regarding the specific heat of substances? (specifically, what are the factors involved with larger/smaller values for it)

DanielSank

I see trying to prescribe boundaries for homework-like-ness as a bit futile. On the other hand, I can usually explain exactly what a user needs to do to improve their closed-as-homework post.

Obliv

I read that the degrees of freedom play a role. I'm not sure if this is the only factor though.

John Rennie

@Obliv I can have a go, though it isn't an area of special expertise for me

Do you know the Einstein theory of specific heat?

Obliv

No

John Rennie

5:07 PM

Well start by learning about that. It's pretty straightforward. There's probably a Wikipedia page.

ACuriousMind

@JohnRennie I'm almost sure that'd be a landslide win for you regardless of the other candidates simply because of your prominence.

Btw, does anyone have a SEDE query handy to find how many people are currently elegible to vote?

John Rennie

Einstein solid

The Einstein solid is a model of a solid based on two assumptions: Each atom in the lattice is an independent 3D quantum harmonic oscillator All atoms oscillate with the same frequency (contrast with the Debye model) While the assumption that a solid has independent oscillations is very accurate, these oscillations are sound waves or phonons, collective modes involving many atoms. In the Einstein model, each atom oscillates independently. Einstein was aware that getting the frequency of the actual oscillations would be difficult, but he nevertheless proposed this theory because it was a particularly...

@ACuriousMind I honestly have doubts about my judgement. I tend to get annoyed about perceived insults to the intellectual purity of MY SITE and cast vitriolic close votes.

Danu

@JohnRennie Since VTC is binding from moderators, you won't be doing much of that anymore

ACuriousMind

Ah, found it: Potential voters in mod election

John Rennie

I was planning to see who else stood, and jump in as a candidate of last resort if necessary.

Danu

5:09 PM

So what are the requirements?

ACuriousMind

5215 elegible voters

Danu

Ah, 150

Then perhaps JR will just win based on being the most prominent member, indeed.

Still leaves a second mod to be elected

Obliv

@johnR would the phonons mentioned in the first paragraph be vibrating at different frequencies from one another?

John Rennie

@Danu I have to say that the level headedness of our moderators has impressed me over and over again in my five years here. It's a high standard to live up to.

ACuriousMind

@JohnRennie Haha, that's exactly what both Daniel and I also said

0celo7

5:11 PM

@JohnRennie are you saying you'd go on a wild banning spree

ACuriousMind

Which means that's not a viable strategy unless we want to turn the election into a game of chicken :P

John Rennie

:: John rubs his hands together and cackles ::

DanielSank

@ACuriousMind this worries me a bit. I hope people don't vote based entirely on content creation.

Not saying JR wouldn't be a good mod.

I just don't think modding and answering physics questions are the same thing at all.

John Rennie

@Obliv a phonon is effectively a normal mode. Be a little cautious about considering phonons as particles because they are highly delocalised particles to the extent that they are particles at all.

Obliv

well they affect bunches of particles, right?

DanielSank

5:12 PM

@JohnRennie I think that's what most of us are thinking XD

@DanielSank agreed

er

@Obliv No.

@ACuriousMind Wait, is there some game theory here?

ACuriousMind

@DanielSank They might not vote based solely on that, but they are likely to just know John "best"

DanielSank

5:13 PM

I'm confused because I don't even know what "winning" is in this case.

John Rennie

I suspect winning is getting out of having to be a mod ;-)

Danu

@JohnRennie It comes from discussing most of the non-trivial stuff :)

Obliv

would you get a pay raise if you got mod? @johnR

0celo7

@ACuriousMind Is it true that a Hamiltonian with a discrete spectrum has no degeneracy?

John Rennie

@Obliv yes, my pay would increase by a factor of ten

ACuriousMind

5:15 PM

@DanielSank Well, we have already 4 people (you, me, John, Danu) who said their plan is to only run if no one else who is qualified runs. So it seems everyone sees "I become a mod" as a losing condition, but "No one of the qualified people becomes a mod" as an even worse losing condition.

Danu

So, as I offered, I can break the "prisoner's dilemma" by forcing you guys to run ^^

Obliv

that's incredible.. you wouldn't have to live on a park bench with your early 2000's laptop selling rep to passing strangers anymore @johnR

Danu

lolwat

ACuriousMind

the winning condition is "I'm not a mod, but someone I wanted to is", but it is only achievable with cooperation. I seem to recall cooperation fares somewhat poorly in such scenarios in game theory :P

3

Danu

^

DanielSank

5:16 PM

@ACuriousMind right

@ACuriousMind Ok, so I should keep haranguing you then, yes?

Danu

I wouldn't actually mind being a mod, but I'm just fairly sure I wouldn't be the best one, so I'd rather see others run

0celo7

@ACuriousMind It seems quite wrong

Danu

Plus I post too little on the site nowadays

0celo7

For the Hamiltonian equal to the identity it fails

Danu

I'd feel out of place

DanielSank

5:17 PM

@Danu I don't see that as a problem.

Content generation and modding seem orthogonal.

Danu

Hmm, I don't know

DanielSank

Here's how I think about the mod job:

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 It isn't, the standard Hamiltonian of the free particle is degenerate.

David Z

@JohnRennie eh, that's normal. Which reminds me, a little-known joy of moderatorship is, when someone insults the intellectual purity of your site (or whatever), you get to sit back and watch the community pile on them :-P

(I'm back)

Danu

It's true that on HSM being a mod basically reduced my production to zero :P

ACuriousMind

5:19 PM

@DanielSank that appears to be a good strategy, yes :D

DanielSank

1) You are now *required* to spend time on the site.
2) You have to enforce site policy (close votes etc.).
3) You get to influence policy a *little* bit more, but mostly you just feel like you ought to ring-lead such endeavors.

Danu

@DavidZ On HSM, it's actually a "YES" moment if I see the community closing a question. The user base is so small that it rarely happens ;P

ACuriousMind

@Danu :(

DanielSank

Items #1 and #2 aren't "benefits", although #1 is neutral because I spend a lot of time here anyway.

Item #2 just sounds like work to me.

Danu

I really like doing #2

DanielSank

5:20 PM

Item #3 is almost neutral too, but it's the one little glimmer of something I might find interesting.

@Danu Interesting.

Secret

@acuriousmind (or anyone else quantum) Q1. Is there a classical analogue to the general Heisenberg uncertainty principle $\Delta A \Delta B\geq\frac{\hbar}{2}\langle[A,B]\rangle$, given how commutators and Poisson brackets both form a Lie algebra, both are related by som correspondence principle and both describe infinitesimal transformations by generators?

Danu

But not the standard reviewing stuff so much---more like this time went I went through all gravitational wave detector questions (300 something) to retag them

BenPen

2) sounds like a thing that a powermonger wants but shouldn't be allowed to do.

Danu

I like doing that kind of stuff occasionally

DanielSank

@Danu Don't need to be a mod to do that though.

That's not enforcing site policy.

Danu

5:21 PM

@DanielSank Oh, I'm not sure what you mean exactly then

David Z

@DanielSank I wonder if you might be overestimating #1. There's no requirement for mods to spend time on the site - like, no minimum number of hours you have to meet each week, no minimum duty level, or anything like that.

Danu

None of the stuff will be essentially different from what you can do as 20k user, as far as #2 goes.

It's just that now you kind of have to

vzn

modmania! truly a big deal/ rare event! hey wondering when was the last election anyway?

DanielSank

@DavidZ Well, I sort of imagined that 1) I'd feel obligated, and 2) If one of the mods doesn't do anything they've wasted the slot.

ACuriousMind

@DanielSank I think you might be thinking less of "enforcing site policy" than of "deal with moderator flag"

DanielSank

5:22 PM

@Danu Mods can do a few things than 10k rep users can't, right? Those are the things that are added if you're a mod.

Danu

Ah, flags. I like dealing with those, too.

DanielSank

@ACuriousMind Well said indeed, sir.

Danu

(know from HSM moderation)

David Z

@DanielSank OK, yes, we do count on moderators' own feelings of obligation to the site to keep them coming back. But there's no external obligation. And if you don't do anything for a while, because of burnout or getting busy or whatever, it's fine, we don't mind. It happens a lot.

vzn

← very disappointed that chris white left & even worse "fell on his sword" :(

DanielSank

5:24 PM

@DavidZ Interesting.

John Rennie

@vzn Details here:

physics.stackexchange.com/election

David Z

If a person got elected as moderator and then never did anything with the mod powers... I guess that would be kind of a concern, but I can't imagine how it would happen in the first place. The election process tends to "weed out" people who wouldn't act at all.

Danu

@vzn Wait, what?!

DanielSank

Alright, @DavidZ let's deal with this issue from chat.

David Z

Sure

DanielSank

5:25 PM

I have a few links explaining what being a mod actually means.

ACuriousMind

@Danu It's evident you don't spend much time in this chat lately :P

Danu

@ACuriousMind Only every second day, not every day, nowadays ;)

John Rennie

@Danu probably best to let this go

See the comments in the mod's chat room.

DanielSank

Wait hang on, editing JR's post...

@ACuriousMind I have no idea what @vzn is talking about either.

ACuriousMind

Try checking the chat log

John Rennie

5:27 PM

@DanielSank Feel free. Anyone who thinks they can improve that question is most welcome to do so.

ACuriousMind

@DavidZ How does it weed them out? Running for moderator doesn't strike me as particularly difficult

Though if someone were to do nothing at all they probably would be too lazy to nominate in the first place, I guess

David Z

@ACuriousMind It's not, I just meant that those people tend not to get elected, or to not be motivated to run in the first place.

ACuriousMind

@DavidZ Well, no one forces me to keep my grand election promises, right? ;)

David Z

oh... yeah, I edited in what you just said before I read it :-P

@ACuriousMind I'd be surprised if anyone else remembers your promises after the election ends

ACuriousMind

lol, probably true

DanielSank

5:29 PM

@JohnRennie done

Ok, @DavidZ and @ACuriousMind, we present have the following posts on our own meta:

Xasel

so is the session over guys?

DanielSank

1) John's new post asking what the current 2016 mods think about how being a mod affects their use of the site.

2) 2016 candidate questions

John Rennie

@Xasel Yes

Secret

@Xasel it is, but they are currently quite focused on the election stuff, best to ask questions later as the chat currently move fast

DanielSank

3) 2016 election page

Xasel

5:31 PM

as far as I've scrolled back ..everyone just want to stand up when so one eligible is standing up :P

David Z

@Secret @Xasel (don't forget the other room, in case you want a quieter environment)

DanielSank

4) Fluffy description of "requirements" to be a mod in Physics.SE, i.e. description of an ideal mod.

ACuriousMind

Btw, here's a query to compute that "candidate score" that's shown under nominee's posts on the electrion page.

Xasel

if you have to place bet on future mods whom will be your candiadates?

DanielSank

This leaves the issue of what capabilities/duties come with being a mod? In other words, how is a mod different from a 20k or 20k user?

ACuriousMind

5:34 PM

@Xasel Pretty pointless to bet before we even know the candidates

Xasel

@DanielSank mod has a heavy resposnibilities to carry on his duties with conscious dicrete..@ACuriousMind:I meant who will be most likely to stand up and win

Danu

@ACuriousMind Yay, numbers! :D

David Z

@DanielSank I expect that this will be partly addressed by the answers to John's post (which I'll get to tomorrow)

Xasel

candiadates will be a narrow group since not everybody has decent knwoledge to be a mod

ACuriousMind

And here's one that lists the top users in that candidate score if someone is interested

DanielSank

5:36 PM

@DavidZ I see.

Note this though

89

Q: Stack Exchange Moderator FAQ

As per the FAQ for Stack Exchange sites, this FAQ will serve the following purposes: To be the canonical reference for moderators across the Stack Exchange sites for things that are beyond question (typically, "how" questions) For situations that a moderator will face, provide information to he...

discussion moderation moderator-tools moderator-abilities moderator-faq

ACuriousMind

@Danu Not sure how useful these are, but having arbitrary ways to judge people is always nice :D

Sanya

@Xasel not like anyone would be stopped from candidating, though? :D

DanielSank

^ That post is the really canonical one-stop-shop for all things mod related (non specific to physics).

Danu

@ACuriousMind Yup! My score is identical to yours, except for the huge rep difference ;D

DanielSank

@DavidZ It's too bad I can't edit the main election post. It would be nice to have a post that serves the purpose of We're having an election. Read this.

...which links to all the other stuff.

ACuriousMind

5:38 PM

@Xasel Not sure what you mean, everyone with more than 300 reputation can be a candidate.

DanielSank

Does that sound useful, or are we making too many posts now?

Danu

John is up top with 40 points, then you with 37; I've got 28 and Daniel has 22. Who else has been named as an option?

Something is really fun about using SE queries :3

David Z

@DanielSank wait, so what exactly are you proposing now - a "master post" that links to all the other resources related to elections?

HDE 226868

@Xasel Eh. . . I don't think it will be a super-narrow field. Very few people go into modship knowing exactly what it's going to be like, or being sure that they'll be a perfect fit.

DanielSank

@DavidZ I'm asking if we need that.

Xasel

5:39 PM

oh I thought only those who have shown immesne knowledge and discretion are invited to run for mods @ACuriousMind

Danu

Emilio! We should get Emililo!

ACuriousMind

@Xasel And whatever gave you that impression?

Danu

@EmilioPisanty What would you think about running for mod?

David Z

@DanielSank I dunno, I suppose at the very least it couldn't hurt. But I'm probably not well placed to know whether the community at large would like to see that post.

DanielSank

@DavidZ k

user218912

5:40 PM

are you guys still in chat session mode?

Sanya

@Danu there are actually quite a number of good fits in my mind - the question is, who would actually be willing to invest the time?

Emilio Pisanty

@Danu oh, no, very much no

user218912

when should I come back?

DanielSank

@IceLord no

Danu

@EmilioPisanty :'(

David Z

5:40 PM

@EmilioPisanty aw, you sure?

Danu

@Sanya So which names?

user218912

@DanielSank can you perhaps answer my question now? xD

DanielSank

@IceLord Can you perhaps ask it again?

David Z

To be fair, a healthy site should have a bunch of non-moderator high-rep users to handle the community aspects of moderation.

Xasel

Well certainly you can't do mod-work when you don't have a decent knowledge oh physics(there are many question out there belonging to narrow field(no homework or Popsci one which need mods discretion) and also without decent knowledge how cna modd decide whether s a question is genuine or just anothe crackpot theory by armchair physicist

@ACuriousMind

Emilio Pisanty

5:41 PM

@DavidZ I'm happy that I can put phys.se in my CV as an outreach activity and put that (dubious?) "1.1 million people reached" there. I'm not so happy if I'm applying for a postdoc, they google me, and they see I'm a mod.

DanielSank

@DavidZ yep

John Rennie

Incidentally, shall I unpin Qmechnics announcement from the star board now it's officially announced?

DanielSank

That's why I'm harping on "what are the actual differences in how you interface with the site?"

Danu

@EmilioPisanty Yeah, why?

0celo7

@EmilioPisanty I'd vote for you.

Danu

5:42 PM

@JohnRennie Meh, why?

David Z

@JohnRennie I think it's probably useful to have some announcement message pinned.

Xasel

Can't we talk on any other interestign stuff rather than all discussion bout mods and mods...

Danu

@Xasel nevar

John Rennie

OK, that's fine, I'm off to sulk now :-)

DanielSank

@DavidZ ...and a link to something useful to read? ;)

ACuriousMind

5:43 PM

@Danu My guess: He's afraid of "This dork spends his time on some internet forum instead of doing research, let's not hire him"

Danu

God damnit :P

Emilio Pisanty

@Danu In terms of time dedicated to the site, which is likely to go down over the next months, particularly as I'm looking to get a postdoc soon.

Sanya

@Danu pretty pointless to list names, point is - what's the point of listing names of people who don't want to do it?

DanielSank

hahahaha

Emilio Pisanty

Oh, also, @DanielSank, am I allowed back in chat now?

Danu

5:43 PM

Now I'm scared of this applying to me

DanielSank

@EmilioPisanty Huh?

Danu

I'll be applying for PhD spots soon :\

Obliv

@johnR how did electrons contribute to the specific heats of metals? rather what is this contribution?

Emilio Pisanty

@DanielSank You threatened to block me if I didn't get on with the thesis

0celo7

You have other things to worry about @Danu

Xasel

5:44 PM

@Danu:The curse of mod will hunt you down to cavern of _______

user218912

@DanielSank why did we switch the exponentials $e^{z^*a}$ and $e^{za^\dagger}$?

DanielSank

@EmilioPisanty Ohhhhh right. Are you done?

David Z

@Danu I can't imagine that it really hurts that much. I mean, who's even going to know the difference between moderating and not, unless they are also an SE contributor?

DanielSank

I un-ignored you just today! I noticed I had you ignored and was very confused as to why. I had forgotten about your thesis writing.

Danu

@DavidZ I don't know... :P

David Z

5:45 PM

@DanielSank I may be the least qualified person to answer that, as I've never been a 10k non-mod member here :-P

John Rennie

@Obliv electrons in metals obviously contribute to the specific heat because they absorb energy and use it to change their momentum. I did study the theory of exactly how this happens, but I'm afraid I've long since forgotten it.

user218912

@DanielSank bleh i'm dumb

user218912

i figured it out

user218912

it's all good, but I should right down why so that I don't forget again.

Emilio Pisanty

3

DanielSank

5:46 PM

@DavidZ ha

Obliv

@johnR Einstein's model worked at higher temperatures without accounting for electrons, though.

ACuriousMind

@Sanya The point would be asking them. If someone jumps up and says "I'll do it!" we can leave this awkward impasse behind us where someone will feel obligated to run.

DanielSank

@EmilioPisanty Then I grant you permission to chat.

Danu

@EmilioPisanty Unreadable quality :P

DanielSank

Well done, and congratulations!

Emilio Pisanty

5:46 PM

@DanielSank Excellent =)

John Rennie

The conduction electrons are an extra contribution to the specific heat that only applies to metals.

Emilio Pisanty

@DanielSank 'ppreciated

@Danu I know. upload limit is 2MB

DanielSank

@JohnRennie ..and that contribution is special because Fermions.

David Z

@DanielSank I echo that

Emilio Pisanty

I can send you the whole thing in a single-A4-page 24MB file though

Obliv

5:48 PM

@johnR why only metals?

Danu

So it's 238 pages?

@EmilioPisanty Sure

I expect to see my contribution :P

somethingsomething tensors

Emilio Pisanty

@Danu unfortunately it didn't make it

John Rennie

@Obliv because non-metals don't have conduction electrons. It's only the conduction electrons that have this property of being effectively free.

Obliv

the atoms of a different solid still possess electrons. These aren't conduction electrons but don't they still change their momentum/energy states?

DanielSank

@DavidZ can you mark a meta post as not allowing answers?

Emilio Pisanty

5:49 PM

@Danu "and this thing you'd hope would work doesn't actually because tensors", or something like that. Nowhere near a sexy result.

David Z

@DanielSank Only by closing it (or locking it)

John Rennie

@Obliv No. In a non-metal the electrons are in localised orbitals and the energy spacing between electronic levels is typically far greater than kT. So electronic excitations in non-metals do not contribute to the specific heat.

Lagrangian

@EmilioPisanty such usage of words

John Rennie

@Obliv in metals the energy spectrum available to the conduction electrons is effectively continuous, so even at low temperatures the conduction electrons can absorb energy from thermal vibrations.

Obliv

what is kT?

Danu

5:51 PM

@EmilioPisanty :D

Secret

@acuriousmind @danielsank @DavidZ (or anyone else quantum) Q1. Is there a classical analogue to the general Heisenberg uncertainty principle $\Delta A \Delta B\geq\frac{\hbar}{2}\langle[A,B]\rangle$, given how commutators and Poisson brackets both form a Lie algebra, both are related by some correspondence principle and both describe infinitesimal transformations by generators, thus I should expect a possion bracket analogue of the above equation?

0celo7

Anyone else quantum?

Obliv

@0celo7 are you quantum

DanielSank

@Secret The only classical analogy I know of the uncertainty principle comes down to the fact that a function and it's Fourier transform satisfy the same relation (without the hbar).

John Rennie

@Obliv k is the Boltzmann constant and T is temperature. The quantity kT is the average energy available from thermal vibrations.

Emilio Pisanty

5:52 PM

@Danu Though to be honest I'm still not 100% sure it won't work. I need to have a second look at those calculations. It's cool stuff, not so much on the tensors but on the symmetry side.

DanielSank

This probably has some manifestation as an inequality for classical phase space distributions, but I'm not 100% sure.

Emilio Pisanty

@Danu And actually, now that the preprint is out I can say more about my motivations for it if you're interested.

David Z

@Secret I'm not sure, since the reason this works in QM is the random process of measurement (a.k.a. wavefunction collapse) which samples from the eigenvalues of the associated operator. I can't think of a classical system which has an analogous random process.

DanielSank

@DavidZ Aha! But it is fascinating to ask if a stochastic process shares similarities!

David Z

I guess if you go to great lengths to describe waves as infinite-dimensional vectors, maybe... but there's not much point in classical physics, as far as I know

DanielSank

5:54 PM

I've been pondering a post on the main site asking just that!

Danu

@EmilioPisanty Sure

DanielSank

@DavidZ Oh I'd say representing waves as vectors is extremely important.

John Rennie

Anyhow I'm off. I foolishly started an 1,100 page (!!) book and I'd like to finish it this year.

DanielSank

It's how we solve linear equations ;)

ACuriousMind

@Secret There's no analogue because the $\Delta A$ can't ever denote the same. The quantum version is an intrinsic property of a fully determined quantum state, but any classical uncertainty arises from incomplete knowledge about the system.

David Z

5:55 PM

Right, but then what about operators acting on those vectors?

Danu

@JohnRennie gogogo :D

John Rennie

BTW our snake collider is back:

-3

Q: Would it be considered as a collision

When two magnets are bring close enough with same charges they repels. From this example we can say that a collision can be occurred from a distance. Now if a person see a snake coming from few distancee, he will move back. (Man did not even touched with snake)Now question is can we say that it ...

collision

Obliv

can't we ip ban him?

Emilio Pisanty

@Danu so the fields of interest are the ones in arxiv.org/abs/1606.01931. Two counter-rotating circularly polarized beams at the same frequency, with a common focal spot, at a nonzero angle.

ACuriousMind

@Obliv We don't ban people for posting one or two annoying questions.

Emilio Pisanty

5:56 PM

Danu

We just ban them from posting right @ACuriousMind? ;)

John Rennie

@ACuriousMind until I become a moderator :-)

ACuriousMind

@Danu huh?

Danu

@EmilioPisanty Aight

@ACuriousMind The automatic question bans

ACuriousMind

@JohnRennie careful, you might rival that one SFF.SE mod for shortest mod time ever, then :P

Obliv

5:57 PM

@acuriousmind but.. he's so obviously a troll.

Danu

@ACuriousMind What happened with that one?

John Rennie

@ACuriousMind what's the use of power if you don't let it corrupt you? :-)

DanielSank

@ACuriousMind I could swear at some point in my life I saw something saying that in stochastic processes, there's some sense in which [x, p] = 1.

Do you have any idea what that could have been?

ACuriousMind

@Danu Ah, yes, but that one takes a bit to kick in, around 4 or 5 questions realistically I think, though the algorithm isn't known

Obliv

Plus, his last question has Colisssion in its title. The pun makes it clear he's not serious. His poor english is probably a facade too.

Emilio Pisanty

5:58 PM

@Danu The question is: can I get (at least in principle) different results, in terms of the emitted harmonic radiation, if I put in (unoriented) right- vs. left-handed enantiomers of some chiral molecule inside the focus.

DanielSank

@JohnRennie @DavidZ perhaps we should link this in place of Qmechanic's pinned message?

ACuriousMind

@DanielSank Since stochastic integrals and path integrals are closely related and the path integral has to encode the commutator information somehow I would not find this surprising, although I don't know what precisely it might mean

DanielSank

@ACuriousMind I would really like to understand that.

I wonder if a "how are these topics related" post could be made not too vague...

Probably not.

ACuriousMind

not unless you can dig out a reference to "In statistics, there is a sense in which [x,p]=1", I think

David Z

Or, actually, I could just edit Qmechanic's post with a link to that

John Rennie

5:59 PM

47

Q: Stepping down as Moderator

Over the past few months, I have become increasingly aware that my role as Moderator is conflicting with my and others enjoyment of the site; attracting controversy and acting as a lighting-rod for some less pleasant elements, both from within the site and from the wider SE community. After spea...

discussion

Danu

@EmilioPisanty And you'd like to differentiate the situations by those zilches?

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