PASP: A high voltage array experiment

In the near future, Air Force mission payloads will require significant increases in power. Sophisticated sensing systems such as infrared focal plane detector arrays and radar will be employed by the Air Force to fulfill its strategic objectives. These payloads will demand that the power subsystem provide up to 50 kW at the end of mission life, more than an order of magnitude greater than is currently required. Some of these payloads must be flown in low-Earth polar orbits to satisfy mission objectives, and it is likely that large (500 to 600 sq m) solar photovoltaic arrays will operate in the low-Earth polar environment. The standard 28 volt power subsystem is not weight efficient for the array power levels being considered. The impact of the solar array operating voltage on the total weight of the array and the subsystem power conditioning and distribution components is illustrated. In the interest of reducing power subsystem weight, higher array operating voltages are considered. The problems which the higher array voltage present to the array designer are discussed. In order to provide a maximum return on the tremendous investment of resources required to develop and place these assets in orbit, they must be designed to operate effectively for extended periods of time. To achieve this, the system must be able to function in the threat-induced and natural space environment

Translational Symmetry Breaking in Higgs & Gauge Theory, and the Cosmological Constant

We argue, at a very basic effective field theory level, that higher dimension operators in scalar theories that break symmetries at scales close to their ultraviolet completion cutoff, include terms that favour the breaking of translation (Lorentz) invariance, potentially resulting in striped, chequered board or general crystal-like phases. Such descriptions can be thought of as the effective low energy description of QCD-like gauge theories near their strong coupling scale where terms involving higher dimension operators are generated. Our low energy theory consists of scalar fields describing operators such as $\bar{q} q$ and $\bar{q} F^{(2n)} q$. Such scalars can have kinetic mixing terms that generate effective momentum dependent contributions to the mass matrix. We show that these can destabilize the translationally invariant vacuum. It is possible that in some real gauge theory such operators could become sufficiently dominant to realize such phases and it would be interesting to look for them in lattice simulations. We present a holographic model of the same phenomena which includes RG running. A key phenomenological motive to look at such states is recent work that shows that the non-linear response in $R^2$ gravity to such short range fluctuations can mimic a cosmological constant. Intriguingly in a cosmology with such a Starobinsky inflation term, to generate the observed value of the present day acceleration would require stripes at the electroweak scale. Unfortunately, low energy phenomenological constraints on Lorentz violation in the electron-photon system appear to strongly rule out any such possibility outside of a disconnected dark sector.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure; minor changes. Version to be published in PR

A Resource-Based View Of International Human Resources: Toward A Framework of Integrative and Creative Capabilities

Drawing on organizational learning and MNC perspectives, we extend the resource-based view to address how international human resource management provides sustainable competitive advantage. We develop a framework that emphasizes and extends traditional assumptions of the resource-based view by identifying the learning capabilities necessary for a complex and changing global environment. These capabilities address how MNCs might both create new HR practices in response to local environments and integrate existing HR practices from other parts of the firm (affiliates, regional headquarters, and global headquarters). In an effort to understand the nature of such capabilities, we discuss aspects of human capital, social capital, and organizational capital that might be linked to their development. Page

A Defense of Frank Jackson\u27s Two-Dimensional Analysis of the Necessary A Posteriori from Scott Soames\u27 Anti-Two-Dimensionalist Attacks

In his Reference and Description, Scott Soames raises a number of objections against the two-dimensionalists and their analysis of the necessary a posteriori. Frank Jackson is just one of several two-dimensionalists whose analysis of the necessary a posteriori comes under attack from Scott Soames. This paper is meant as a defense of Frank Jackson from the objections of Scott Soames. It begins with a summary of traditional descriptivism and Saul Kripke\u27s anti-descriptivist objections to that view, followed by a summary of Jackson\u27s two-dimensional analysis of the necessary a posteriori. The paper then provides a summary of Scott Soames\u27 objections to Frank Jackson\u27s two-dimensional program, followed by responses to those objections