Thursday, August 9, 2012

Even teeny weeny discoveries are great fun


This morning, in the process of editing a paper, I made a small discovery. We have developed a new mathematical framework for determining the properties of quantum graphs in terms of the properties of the pieces. This work provides simple identities on the pieces that will allow us to determine general principles form the ground up rather than having to calculate the properties of the full graph.

I have to run because my wife is calling me to lunch.

Here is my email to my collaborators.

Your introduction to edge states was perfect. I liked the physical approach that leads to the formalism. In fact, its clarity was instrumental in allowing me to make a minor discovery (see below).

With regards to the paper, EDGE STATES ARE WONDERFUL! I am taking a break for lunch now, but FYI, I have been working soley on the appendix because I have done what I think is a really neat calculation which uses the power of the edge state. If you recall, in the past, we used the fact that the sum over all of the edges yields the full sum rule. However, it turns out that there are sum rules on each edge! The edge state formalism has allowed me to do this very easily. The result is given by Equation A20 of the geometry. I have pretty much dropped everything to work on this, but I will need to get back to preparing my talks for SPIE since I still have lots to do.


I suggest the following. I still need to reread the appendix because I was making changes while calculating -- never a good thing in terms of introducing typos. I will work on this after lunch. In the meantime, please check the appendix and let me know if I made any errors. The result is so logical that it seams right. I will then alternate between working on my talks and working on the paper.


Most likely, I will not go in to work today so that I can finish the paper in time to be posted on the archives tonight. Even these small discoveries are great fun.

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