Question
Sakurai’s Modern Quantum Mechanics analogizes waves with this property to the spin-y eigenstates, since its Jones vector has the same components. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this property. Light waves with this property can be produced by passing through a quarter-wave plate at a 45-degree angle, which introduces a 90-degree phase difference between the E and B-fields.
ANSWER: circular polarization [accept left-handed or right-handed circular polarization; accept CPL; prompt on elliptical polarization; reject “linear polarization”]
[10e] Because it has this property, origin-of-life theorists propose that extraterrestrial circularly polarized light could have given rise to the uniformity of this property among amino acids. Objects with this property cannot be superimposed on their mirror image.
ANSWER: chirality [accept homochirality]
[10h] Right-handed and left-handed circularly polarized light correspond to the two eigenstates of this quantity for the photon. This quantity is equal to chirality for massless particles.
ANSWER: helicity
<Physics>
Summary
| 2024 ACF Regionals @ Berkeley | 01/27/2024 | Y | 3 | 16.67 | 100% | 33% | 33% |
| 2024 ACF Regionals @ Cornell | 01/27/2024 | Y | 3 | 13.33 | 67% | 67% | 0% |
| 2024 ACF Regionals @ JMU | 01/27/2024 | Y | 9 | 13.33 | 100% | 22% | 11% |
| 2024 ACF Regionals @ Nebraska | 01/27/2024 | Y | 5 | 12.00 | 100% | 0% | 20% |
| 2024 ACF Regionals @ Ohio State | 01/27/2024 | Y | 3 | 10.00 | 100% | 0% | 0% |
| 2024 ACF Regionals @ Rutgers | 01/27/2024 | Y | 5 | 12.00 | 80% | 20% | 20% |
| 2024 ACF Regionals @ Imperial | 01/27/2024 | Y | 8 | 16.25 | 75% | 50% | 38% |
| 2024 ACF Regionals @ Vanderbilt | 01/27/2024 | Y | 5 | 10.00 | 100% | 0% | 0% |
Data
| Cambridge A | Cambridge B | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
| Oxford C | Cambridge C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Imperial B | Durham A | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
| Edinburgh | Imperial A | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| KCL | Sheffield | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bristol | Kiel | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
| Durham B | Oxford B | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| Oxford A | Warwick | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |