Absolute Confinement Research Articles

Digital vulnerability: People-in-prison, videoconferencing and the digital criminal justice system

Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced prisons into extended lockdowns, people-in-prison have been increasingly reliant on remote access technologies such as videoconferencing to interact with the outside world from their carceral context. During the pandemic, both corrective services and criminal courts found that these communication technologies could adequately facilitate court appearances, legal conferencing, health services and visitations. Now, despite the lessening panic regarding COVID-19, there are suggestions that authorities are keen to continue, if not increase, the usage of video links meaning that people-in-prison will experience decreasing human contact. The argument is that COVID-19 “successes” are being used as an excuse to cement remote hearings and visits. This points to a future of absolute confinement uninterrupted by “inconvenient” physical court attendance or human visitors. This article will focus on the “digital vulnerability” of people-in-prison, that is, the intersection between the vulnerabilities of incarcerated people with the use of remote communication technologies such as videoconferencing or video links, and the digital inequalities that may be provoked or solved. The article will draw on qualitative research – fieldwork interviews with judicial officers, lawyers and associated criminal justice professionals – that reveal critical perspectives on the impacts of digital transformation on vulnerable people-in-prison. For instance, when asked about the vulnerabilities of people-in-prison, one defence lawyer (DL1) expressed the view that “no one cares about defendants” or their vulnerabilities, nor their abilities to engage with video links, comprehend or play any role in their own remote legal matters. We analyse our source materials through a framework of vulnerability theory and the developing concept of digital vulnerability. In this way, we seek to offer new knowledge regarding prison digital transformation, specifically the relationship between digital technologies in correctional environments and the vulnerable incarcerated population.

Girl YouTubers: Interaction, creation, and emotions during COVID-19 confinement

In Spain, the COVID-19 pandemic forced absolute confinement from March 15 to July 21, 2020. On the other side of the screen, YouTubers girls and boys, creators of specific content for their peers, took the opportunity to increase their productions. This research examines 73 creations made during the confinement period by six Spanish YouTubers girls categorized as influencers by the number of reproductions and followers of their channels through content analysis to evaluate the interactions, content generated and subjective aspects of projection of the emotional state of these minors. The results show an increase in the number of interactors, positioning the female sector as the most prevalent gender. The contents have been related to the COVID-19 theme, while, in the emotional aspect, the influencers were not affected by the great sadness that hit Spain with the death of thousands of people.

The Theme of Protest and Freedom in Cry, the Peacock

The conflict between social institutions and individuals is a complex and perplexing issue for many scholars. While reflecting on this issue, some scholars propagate the privilege to individuality, the others to the social institutions. Many scholars consider it as a matter of mutual coordination and interest. The need for a relative space for an individual and the requirement of the social institutions for regulating control over an individual’s uncensored wills are equally important. However, safeguarding or maintaining the margins of both entities is complex work. Regulating uncensored wills or reducing excessive encroachment of institutional authorities is a difficult task; it needs to be addressed with a scientific approach. The Indian social system is conservative and has been maintaining its dominance over the women’s class from the time unknown. The society, after allotting all the privileges to male members, refuses to consider women as individuals, having space and freedom. It expects women to be timid, docile, submissive and obedient. As a result, they feel tyrannized and experience untold sufferings. When the patriarchal system becomes over oppressive, it leads women to absolute confinement; the life of complete closure is highly disappointing and frustrating. The forces that obliterate their rights include gender discrimination, marriage-system, orthodox traditions, customs, rituals and class status. A woman is born with a destitute to experience a collision with the subjugating elements in her life and while wrestling against it she has little success. She goes through a perpetual war against the controlling institution while creating a space for her individuality and freedom. The factors like these rob women characters of happiness and advantages and lead women to live an insignificant life, full of suffering.

On the structure of the boundary layer in a Beklemishev diamagnetic bubble

The article provides a kinetic description of the plasma equilibrium in the Beklemishev diamagnetic trap, where the traditional approach based on the theory of magnetic drifts is not applicable, since the ions move in a substantially non-circular orbit, the diameter of which is approximately equal to the diameter of the diamagnetic bubble. The ion distribution function was found in the collisionless approximation, neglecting the diamagnetic electron current. The radial profile of the magnetic field, the plasma density, the current density, and the components of the pressure tensor are calculated. It was found that the width of the boundary layer in the diamagnetic bubble varies from 6 to 8 Larmor radii calculated by the vacuum magnetic field. An adiabatic invariant is calculated that replaces the magnetic moment, which is not conserved in the diamagnetic bubble. The criterion of absolute confinement is formulated and the plasma equilibrium is found for the case when the adiabatic invariant is not conserved and only ions whose velocity satisfies the criterion of absolute confinement are trapped.

Evaluation of particle source rate and its influence on particle transport in fusion plasma

We have carried out numerical inversion of the Laplace transform for the observed line profile, and have derived the intensity distribution function against the atom temperature. The temperature dependence is interpreted to the spatial dependence, where other diagnostic results are used, so that the radial profile of photon emission rate is derived. The photon emission rate is then interpreted to the ionization rate with the help of collisional-radiative model calculation. From the ionization rate derived we have evaluated the particle confinement time τp as a function of the average minor radius, reff, for two discharges characterized by the different magnetic field strength. In the strong field case, a turning point is clearly seen in the τp profile at around reff = 0.6, which corresponds to the last closed magnetic flux surface. In the weak field case, the absolute confinement time is approximately one-order smaller than that in the strong field case.

A new look at quarks confinement

Quarks confinement is an experimental fact. ‘tHooft and later on Gross, Wilczek and Politzer have contributed in various ways to our present considerable theoretical understanding of the problem. However, an exact water proof theoretical derivation of the problem is at best still in progress. The present note argues that to understand quarks confinement, a deeper understanding of the Planck scale physics is indispensable and shows using analytical topological arguments that absolute confinement is a result of a phase transition of quantum spacetime at the Planck scale.

Confinement of quarks

A general introduction to the topological mechanism responsible for the absolute confinement of quarks inside hadronic bound states is given, including the effects of a finite instanton angle. We then propose a calculational technique for computing these states and their properties, where instead of topology we rely on a perturbative mechanism. It assumes that already before the topological mechanism can come into effect there is already a strong inclination of quarks to be confined. In particular the planar limit of large N QCD should exhibit this mechanism. By renormalizing the infrared divergence of one-loop diagrams, one may already realize a confining potential. In practice, our procedure will require gauge-fixing in advance, but it would be more elegant if, at an intermediate level, the theory with infrared counter terms included could be written as a gauge-invariant effective model. Models of the desired kind are described. They are not renormalizable, but they are local, gauge- and lorentz invariant.

Tmatrices and current correlation functions for a relativistic quark model with confinement

We describe some properties of a relativistic model of confinement and show how that model may be used to construct T matrices for quark-antiquark systems. [In the absence of the confinement model, our Lagrangian reduces to that of the SU(3)-flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model.] If we have absolute confinement, our T matrix is expressed in terms of bound states (or resonances), without the presence of quark scattering states. We find that is a straightforward matter to describe singlet-octet and pseudoscalar-axial-vector mixing in this formalism. We also demonstrate that the construction of the T matrices of the model allows us to obtain expressions for various current correlation functions, once the meson decay constants are calculated. That calculation is readily made starting with knowledge of the T matrix. The most complex situation we consider is that of the $\ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ system, with both singlet-octet and pseudoscalar-axial-vector mixing, calculated in the presence of a (covariant) confinement model. Values of masses, coupling constants and mixing angles are given for the \ensuremath{\pi}, \ensuremath{\omega}, \ensuremath{\varphi}, \ensuremath{\eta}, and ${\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ mesons and for some of their radial excitations.

Confining quark condensate model of the nucleon.

We obtain a mean-field solution for the nucleon as a quark-meson soliton obtained from the action of the global color-symmetry model of QCD. All dynamics is generated from an effective interaction of quark currents. At the quark-meson level there are two novel features: (1) absolute confinement is produced from the space-time structure of the dynamical self-energy in the vacuum quark propagator; and (2) the related scalar meson field is an extended q\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}q composite that couples nonlocally to quarks. The influence of these features upon the nucleon mass contributions and other nucleon properties is presented.

Translational invariance in the color dielectric model

So far we have utilized the mean-field approximation (MFA) in order to obtain solutions of the hadron self-consistently and numerically from the soliton bag model lagrangian. Since the solutions are static and localized, they break the translational symmetry. We employ the color dielectric model, which gives a picture of a hadron with an absolute confinement of quarks. In order to restore this symmetry, we apply the projection method with the coherent-state approximation for the soliton field, and the effects of the quantum fluctuations are estimated to the lowest order of the gaussian moments expansion (VAP). The solution of the equations of motion derived from the approximate expression for the mass is reentered into the exact expression. Since we neglect the higher-order terms of the gaussian moments expansion, a further variation is needed, which we characterize by one parameter (VAVAP). The final solution gives the same value for the static mass and the dynamical mass. We also investigate how the values of the physical quantities change when the variation is done before and after the momentum projection.

Spatial structure of particle-orbit loss regions in l=2 helical systems

Particle orbits and loss regions in both configuration and velocity spaces are studied on the basis of adiabatic invariants and guiding-center drift equations. The boundary of the loss region in the pitch angle major radius plane (χ0-ρ) is determined from the condition of whether the drift surfaces for helically trapped and transition particles hit the limiter or not. Two typical loss boundaries on the χ0-ρ plane are obtained. One determines the boundary of absolute confinement where no particles are lost. The other gives the boundary of the confined region of deeply trapped particles with v∥=0. An analytical form describing the latter boundary is also derived. Effects of ripple modulation and electrostatic potential on these loss boundaries are discussed for the improvement of particle confinement.

The chromo-dielectric model: Confinement, effective coupling and chiral invariance

The chromo-dielectric mechanism of absolute confinement is studied in the nontopological soliton model. The model lagrangian is chirally invariant, since it contains no direct coupling between the quarks and the scalar field. The static chromo-electric gluon propagator is calculated in medium in the one-loop approximation, and the ultraviolet divergence in the self-energy of fixed quarks is regulated by a form factor. Effective quark-scalar coupling emerges through the self-energy of the quarks in the dielectric medium, which is a function of the scalar field.

Numerical study of a confining color-dielectric soliton model.

Using the numerical methods recently suggested by Dodd and Lohe, we have made an accurate and detailed study of (nontopological) soliton solutions in a particular color-dielectric model. The coupling of the quarks to the confining scalar field in this model leads to absolute confinement and strong dependence of the soliton properties on the quark masses. The nucleon is well described as a two-phase soliton over a wide range of input parameters. Single-phase soliton solutions, where the confining field is everywhere close to its vacuum value, are also presented for comparison. A striking property of this model is that over a narrow range of input parameters, where the transition from one to two phase solutions occurs, three separate solutions (close in energy) coexist. The associated fold in solution space is explored.

Modified Lee-Friedberg soliton-bag model with absolute confinement

We systematically investigate solutions of a modified Lee-Friedberg model for fermions bound in a non-linearly self-interacting scalar fieldσ. In this model a runningσ-fermion coupling strengthg(σ) is introduced such as to interpolate between a perturbative vacuum withσ=0 and a non-trivial vacuum (σ=σ v ) with strong coupling. We find soliton-bag-like solutions in which the fermions experience absolute confinement. These solutions are almost independent of the detailed form ofg(σ).

The cosmological constant (Λ) as a possible primordial link to Einstein’s theory of gravity, the properties of hadronic matter and the problem of creation

Einstein’s field equations with a cosmological constant (Λ) are explored in an isotropic, homogeneous, expanding universe which satisfies the principle of absolute quark confinement. What emerges from these requirements are new cosmologies free from singularities in physical quantities and with time-varying gravitational (G) and cosmological (Λ) parameters. For the caseG=const and Λ=Λ(t), it is suggested that hadronic matter was created in the early universe as a localized, quantum fluctuation of the vacuum, because |Λ| had an initial value ≈10−10/cm2. The localized fluctuation persisted and evolved into the universe visible today, because |Λ| decreased rapidly with cosmic time. In this sense, «creation» (i.e. «the beginning»)—a manifestly energy-nonconserving event—was linked to a time-varying Λ. which, in turn, was linked to the principle of absolute quark confinement. For the case Λ=Λ(t) andG=G(t), withG, |Λ| larger in the past, the maximum values ofG, |Λ| compatible with absolute quark confinement are those required by the principle of maximum strength,i.e.Gmax≈1040G (whereG=6.67·10−8 dyn cm2/g2) and ¦Λ¦max≈1030/cm2. In spite of the wide variations in the numerical values ofG, |Λ| for both cases, the new cosmologies give the same numerical values for the physical characteristics of the early universe,i.e. maximum hadronic mass density ≈1017 g/cm3, minimum radius ≈1013 cm, maximum temperature ≈1012 K (the limiting temperature for hadronic matter, first noticed by Hagedorn). This circumstance exists because the physical numbers depend only on the ratio |Λ|/G evaluated at cosmic timet=τ (where τ is defined as the «moment of creation»).

Chiral model for nucleon and delta.

We propose a model of the nucleon and delta based on the idea that strong QCD forces on length scales \ensuremath{\sim}0.2--1 fm result in hidden chiral SU(2)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}SU(2) symmetry and that there is a separation of roles between these forces which are also responsible for binding quarks in hadrons and the forces which produce absolute confinement. This leads us to study a linear \ensuremath{\sigma} model describing the interactions of quarks, \ensuremath{\sigma} mesons, and pions. We have solved this model in the semiclassical (mean-field) approximation for the hedgehog baryon state. We refer to this solution as a chiral soliton. In the semiclassical approximation the hedgehog state is a linear combination of N and \ensuremath{\Delta}. We project this state onto states of good spin and isospin to calculate matrix elements of various operators in these states. Our results are in reasonable agreement with the observed properties of the nucleon. The mesonic contributions to ${g}_{A}$ and \ensuremath{\sigma}(\ensuremath{\pi}N) are about two to three times too large, suggesting the need for quantum corrections.

The Topological Mechanism for Permanent Quark Confinement in a Non-Abelian Gauge Theory

Permanent quark confinement occurs in a gauge theory if its vacuum (= ground state) condenses into a state that bares close resemblance to the superconductivity state of a solid. We first argue that indeed superconductivity is an absolute phenomenon, the conductivity is rigorously zero. A superconductor forces absolute confinement of magnetic charges. Then we show that a non-Abelian gauge theory may be seen as an Abelian theory enriched with Dirac magnetic monopoles. If these monopoles move collectively, as Cooper pairs do inside a superconductor, then the role of magnetism and electricity are interchanged. It is shown that then quarks are permanently confined. In SU(3) this confinement goes according to a triality rule, allowing the usual baryonic and mesonic states.

On the confinement properties of the CP n−1 models in more than two dimensions

We discuss the confinement properties of the CP n−1 models in more than 2 dimensions by three different approaches: by putting them on the lattice, by the 1 n expansion in 2 + ε dimensions and by semiclassical arguments based on the vortex configurations of the models. Whereas in the 1 n expansion the string-like picture of confinement holding in two dimensions turns out to be broken, we find that, both in the lattice and in the semiclassical approach a degenerate case of absolute confinement takes place, as suggested by the equivalence between CP 1 and the O(3) σ-model. It is possible to isolate the configurations which determine the degeneracy and to recognize besides them the pattern of a gauge theory with two phases, a Higgs-like and a confining one, respectively.

Particle orbits in field-reversed mirrors

The particle orbits in field-reversed mirrors (FRM) are studied. It is found that the orbit can be expressed in terms of the first and third kind of elliptic integral for particles moving in the centre plane of the Hill vortex configuration. Requirements for absolute confinement are obtained, and four distinct classes of orbits are identified that are bounded by limits on the canonical angular momentum Pθ. The improvement in confinement over a simple mirror as well as natural divertor properties of the FRM are illustrated by these results.

A condition for absolute confinement of alpha particles in helical tokamaks

The criterion for absolute confinement of alpha particles in helically symmetric magnetic field configurations is established. In particular, a helically deformed tokamak configuration is investigated. The helical deformation of the magnetic surfaces can significantly increase the value of the product aB0 required for absolute confinement of alpha particles, where a is the characteristic plasma cross-section in metres and B0 is the characteristic field strength in teslas.