“Stock PIKs”- Taking a firm by its tails

Payment-in-kind bonds (PIKs) make interest payments in the form of an issue of additional bonds rather than cash. This research provides a rationale for the recent PIK issuance by firms with low credit ratings. PIKs offer a financially constrained firm in need of restructuring both an immediate automatic stay and a prepackaged bankruptcy procedure, features that make PIKs better than alternative debt instruments. In many instances PIKs are structured to facilitate a contingent transfer of control to PIK holders, and provide an avenue of obtaining equity in the firm whether the firm value is high or low in the future. The barbell strategy of acquisition that involves a deal with the equity holders (if the firm prospects improve), and a deal with the debt holders (if the firm defaults) dominates the cost of acquisition before the firm defaults, or after the firm goes bankrupt.Monetary Policy, Stock Market, Economic Development

Critical behaviour of SU(2) lattice gauge theory. A complete analysis with the χ2\chi^2-method

We determine the critical point and the ratios $\beta/\nu$ and $\gamma/\nu$ of critical exponents of the deconfinement transition in $SU(2)$ gauge theory by applying the $\chi^2$-method to Monte Carlo data of the modulus and the square of the Polyakov loop. With the same technique we find from the Binder cumulant $g_r$ its universal value at the critical point in the thermodynamical limit to $-1.403(16)$ and for the next-to-leading exponent $\omega=1\pm0.1$. From the derivatives of the Polyakov loop dependent quantities we estimate then $1/\nu$. The result from the derivative of $g_r$ is $1/\nu=0.63\pm0.01$, in complete agreement with that of the $3d$ Ising model.Comment: 11 pages, 3 Postscript figures, uses Plain Te

Low temperature expansion for the 3-d Ising Model

We compute the weak coupling expansion for the energy of the three dimensional Ising model through 48 excited bonds. We also compute the magnetization through 40 excited bonds. This was achieved via a recursive enumeration of states of fixed energy on a set of finite lattices. We use a linear combination of lattices with a generalization of helical boundary conditions to eliminate finite volume effects.Comment: 10 pages, IASSNS-HEP-92/42, BNL-4767

A Noisy Monte Carlo Algorithm

We propose a Monte Carlo algorithm to promote Kennedy and Kuti's linear accept/reject algorithm which accommodates unbiased stochastic estimates of the probability to an exact one. This is achieved by adopting the Metropolis accept/reject steps for both the dynamical and noise configurations. We test it on the five state model and obtain desirable results even for the case with large noise. We also discuss its application to lattice QCD with stochastically estimated fermion determinants.Comment: 10 pages, 1 tabl

On the question of universality in \RPn and \On Lattice Sigma Models

We argue that there is no essential violation of universality in the continuum limit of mixed \RPn and \On lattice sigma models in 2 dimensions, contrary to opposite claims in the literature.Comment: 16 pages (latex) + 3 figures (Postscript), uuencode

On Exact Supersymmetry in DLCQ

In recent years a supersymmetric form of discrete light-cone quantization (hereafter `SDLCQ') has emerged as a very powerful tool for solving supersymmetric field theories. In this scheme, one calculates the light-cone supercharge with respect to a discretized light-cone Fock basis, instead of working with the light-cone Hamiltonian. This procedure has the advantage of preserving supersymmetry even in the discretized theory, and eliminates the need for explicit renormalizations in 1+1 dimensions. In order to compare the usual DLCQ prescription with the supersymmetric prescription, we consider two dimensional SU(N) Yang-Mills theory coupled to a massive adjoint Majorana fermion, which is known to be supersymmetric at a particular value of the fermion mass. After studying how singular-valued amplitudes and intermediate zero momentum modes are regularized in both schemes, we are able to establish a precise connection between conventional DLCQ and its supersymmetric extension, SDLCQ. In particular, we derive the explicit form of the (irrelevant) interaction that renders the DLCQ formulation of the theory exactly supersymmetric for any light-cone compactification. We check our analytical results via a numerical procedure, and discuss the relevance of this interaction when supersymmetry is explicitly broken.Comment: 12 page

New Physics and the Landau Pole

In scalar field theories the Landau pole is an ultraviolet singularity in the running coupling constant that indicates a mass scale at which the theory breaks down and new physics must intervene. However, new physics at the pole will in general affect the running of the low energy coupling constant, which will in turn affect the location of the pole and the related upper limit (``triviality'' bound) on the low energy coupling constant. If the new physics is strongly coupled to the scalar fields these effects can be significant even though they are power suppressed. We explore the possible range of such effects by deriving the one loop renormalization group equations for an effective scalar field theory with a dimension 6 operator representing the low energy effects of the new physics. As an independent check we also consider a renormalizable model of the high-scale physics constructed so that its low energy limit coincides with the effective theory.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figure

Innovative Technique of Vascular Repair in Intra-Operative IVC Rupture During Lumbar Microdiscectomy: A Case Report

Background: Major vascular injury during a spinal surgery is a rare but most dreaded complication. Case Presentation: A 39 years old female undergoing microscopic lumbar discectomy suddenly developed severe hypotension on table. The procedure was abandoned and the patient turned supine. It was diagnosed to be a major vessel tear and the patient was taken up for immediate successful vascular repair. To best of our knowledge such a repair procedure has not been described in literature. Conclusions: Majority of such vascular injuries are dealt with primary repair of the defect by a vascular surgeon; however in our case the rent was big and placed on the undersurface making it very difficult for the vascular surgeon to approach or repair it primarily

The Perils of `Soft' SUSY Breaking

We consider a two dimensional SU(N) gauge theory coupled to an adjoint Majorana fermion, which is known to be supersymmetric for a particular value of fermion mass. We investigate the `soft' supersymmetry breaking of the discrete light cone quantization (DLCQ) of this theory. There are several DLCQ formulations of this theory currently in the literature and they naively appear to behave differently under `soft' supersymmetry breaking at finite resolution. We show that all these formulations nevertheless yield identical bound state masses in the decompactification limit of the light-like circle. Moreover, we are able to show that the supersymmetry-inspired version of DLCQ (so called `SDLCQ') provides the best rate of convergence of DLCQ bound state masses towards the actual continuum values, except possibly near or at the critical fermion mass. In this last case, we discuss improved extrapolation schemes that must supplement the DLCQ algorithm in order to obtain correct continuum bound state masses. Interestingly, when we truncate the Fock space to two particles, the SDLCQ prescription presented here provides a scheme for improving the rate of convergence of the massive t'Hooft model. Thus the supersymmetry-inspired SDLCQ prescription is applicable to theories without supersymmetry.Comment: 11 pages, Latex; 2 figures (EPS); Numerical results extended; conclusions revise

Nucleon-Quarkonium Elastic Scattering and the Gluon Contribution to Nucleon Spin

It is shown that the amplitude for the scattering of a heavy quarkonium system from a nucleon near threshold is completely determined by the fraction of angular momentum, as well as linear momentum, carried by gluons in the nucleon. A form for the quarkonium-nucleon non-relativistic potential is derived.Comment: 4 pages, no figures. Author's e-mail: [email protected]