Alex Faria

We make a brief review of the Kramers escape rate theory for the probabilistic motion of a particle in a potential well U(x), and under the influence of classical fluctuation forces. The Kramers theory is extended in order to take into account the action of the thermal and zero-point random electromagnetic fields on a charged particle. The result is physically relevant because we get a non-null escape rate over the potential barrier at low temperatures (T → 0). It is found that, even if the mean energy is much smaller than the barrier height, the classical particle can escape from the potential well due to the action of the zero-point fluctuating fields. These stochastic effects can be used to give a classical interpretation to some quantum tunneling phenomena. Relevant experimental data are used to illustrate the theoretical results

We consider the simple case of a nonrelativistic charged harmonic oscillator in one dimension, to investigate how to take into account the radiation reaction and vacuum fluctuation forces within the Schrödinger equation. The effects of both zero-point and thermal classical electromagnetic vacuum fields, characteristic of stochastic electrodynamics, are separately considered. Our study confirms that the zero-point electromagnetic fluctuations are dynamically related to the momentum operator p=−i ℏ ∂/∂ x used in the Schrödinger equation

Within an increasingly unequal, heterogeneous, and authoritarian Global North, a new global consumerism movement championed by activist consumers, together with academics, managers, and organizations, has emerged as the ultimate ethical management discourse for a better global future. NGC reframes Cold War official history of buycott consumerism by emancipating “passive” consumers and “insurgent” boycotts. Drawing on decolonial liberating transmodernity from Latin America, this paper shows how and why “old” and “new” dominant histories of consumerism deny the racialist/colonialist side of liberal capitalism. The discussion involves transmodern and counter-transmodern mechanisms and overlooks everyday liberating boycott consumerism against the colonialism/racialism mobilized by subaltern victims of history. We problematize the re-appropriation of transmodernity as a potential path to decolonizing consumerism and management historiography from a majority perspective.