It is shown that classical Dirac fields with the same couplings obey the Pauli exclusion principle in the following sense: If at a certain time two Dirac fields are in different states, they can never reach the same one. This is geometrically interpreted as analogous to the impossibility of crossing of trajectories in the phase space of a dynamical system. An application is made to a model in which extended particles are represented as solitary waves of a set of several (...) fundamental, confined nonlinear Dirac fields, with the result that the same mechanism accounts both for fermion and boson behaviors. (shrink)

In the context of a parametric theory (with the time being a dynamical variable) we consider here the coupling between the quantum vacuum and the background gravitation that pervades the universe (unavoidable because of the universality and long range of gravity). We show that this coupling, combined with the fourth Heisenberg relation, would break the parametric invariance of the gravitational equations, introducing thus a difference between the marches of the atomic and the astronomical clocks. More precisely, they would be progressively (...) and adiabatically desynchronized with respect to one another in such a way that the latter would lag behind the former. This would produce a discrepancy between gravitational theory and observations, which use astronomical and atomic time respectively. It turns out that this result, surprising at it might be, is fully compatible with current physics, since it does not conflict with any known physical law or principle. We argue that this phenomenon must be studied, since it could have cosmological consequences. (shrink)

This work proposes an explanation of the Pioneer anomaly, the unmodelled and as yet unexplained blueshift detected in the microwave signal of the Pioneer 10 and other spaceships by Anderson et al. in 1998. What they observed is similar to the effect that would have either (i) an anomalous acceleration a P the ship towards the Sun, or (ii) an acceleration of the clocks a t =a P /c. The second alternative is investigated here, with a phenomenological model in which (...) the anomaly is an effect of the background gravitational potential Ψ (t) that pervades all the universe and is increasing because of the expansion. It is shown that 2a t =dΨ /dt=d 2τ clocks /dt 2, evaluated at present time t 0, where t and τ clocks are the coordinate time and the time measured by the atomic clocks, respectively. The result of a simple estimate gives the value a t ⋍ 1.8× 10−18 s−1, while Anderson et al. suggested a t =(2.9±0.4) × 10−18 s−1 on the basis of their observations. The calculation are performed near the Newtonian limit but in the frame of general relativity. (shrink)

The quantization of the magnetic flux in superconducting rings is studied in the frame of a topological model of electromagnetism that gives a topological formulation of electric charge quantization. It turns out that the model also embodies a topological mechanism for the quantization of the magnetic flux with the same relation between the fundamental units of magnetic charge and flux as there is between the Dirac monopole and the fluxoid.