Photo-assisted Andreev reflection as a probe of quantum noise

Andreev reflection, which corresponds to the tunneling of two electrons from a metallic lead to a superconductor lead as a Cooper pair (or vice versa), can be exploited to measure high frequency noise. A detector is proposed, which consists of a normal lead--superconductor circuit, which is capacitively coupled to a mesoscopic circuit where noise is to be measured. We discuss two detector circuits: a single normal metal -- superconductor tunnel junction and a normal metal separated from a superconductor by a quantum dot operating in the Coulomb blockade regime. A substantial DC current flows in the detector circuit when an appropriate photon is provided or absorbed by the mesoscopic circuit, which plays the role of an environment for the junction to which it couples. Results for the current can be cast in all cases in the form of a frequency integral of the excess noise of the environment weighted by a kernel which is specific to the transport process (quasiparticle tunneling, Andreev reflection,...) which is considered. We apply these ideas to the measurement of the excess noise of a quantum point contact and we provide numerical estimates of the detector current.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure

The drivers of Chinese CO2 emissions from 1980 to 2030

China's energy consumption doubled within the first 25 years of economic reforms initiated at the end of the 1970s, and doubled again in the past 5 years. It has resulted of a threefold CO2 emissions increase since early of 1980s. China's heavy reliance on coal will make it the largest emitter of CO2 in the world. By combining structural decomposition and input–output analysis we seek to assess the driving forces of China's CO2 emissions from 1980 to 2030. In our reference scenario, production-related CO2 emissions will increase another three times by 2030. Household consumption, capital investment and growth in exports will largely drive the increase in CO2 emissions. Efficiency gains will be partially offset the projected increases in consumption, but our scenarios show that this will not be sufficient if China's consumption patterns converge to current US levels. Relying on efficiency improvements alone will not stabilize China's future emissions. Our scenarios show that even extremely optimistic assumptions of widespread installation of carbon dioxide capture and storage will only slow the increase in CO2 emissions

Decomposing the impact of population growth on environmental deterioration: some critical comments on a widespread method in ecological economics

The IPAT-model developed by Ehrlich and Holdren is widespread in ecological economics in order to quantify the impact of population growth on environmental deterioration. We comment on this model and extensions proposed by several authors from a theoretical and empirical point of view.environmental deterioration, population growth, decomposition analysis

A computer processable storage and retrieval program for Alaska mineral information

The Mineral Industry Research Laboratory has developed a storage and retrieval file for Alaska mineral information to facilitate resource studies. The basis for the computer-processable file is the Division of ecological Survey Mineral Kardex system which contains an entry for every mineral property in Alaska that has either been recorded in the literature or has been claimed under the mineral staking laws. Use of the file has greatly increased the research capability of the laboratory to compile resource-oriented reports such as M.I.R.L. Report No. 16, IIFinal Report - Mineral Resources of Northern Alaska," M.I.R.L. Report No. 18, JlKnown and Potential Ore Reserves, Seward Peninsula, Alaska", and M.J.R.L Report No. 27, "Copper Mineral Occurrences in the Wrangell Mountain - Prince William Sound Area, Alaska" and S.E. Alaska Mineral Commodity Maps. The programs have been given the name MINFILE. MINFILEJ refers to a program that stores mineral information on magnetic tape. MINFILE2 is a Retreival program, MINFILE3 is a program to correct and make additions to the file. MINFILE4 and MINFILE5 are utility programs used for maintenance of the system.The basic data for this report were obtained from the Division of Geological Survey KARDEX FILE. James A. Williams of that Division was of great assistance in making the file available and in providing a space for Mineral Industry Research Laboratory employees to work. He also provided assistance in abstracting some of the information for inclusion into the system. Funds for completing the file came from the U. S. Bureau of Mines under Contract No. GOl11783. A. L. Service of the Bureau of Mines provided much encouragement and is responsible for the awarding of the contract. Earl H. Beistline, Dean of the College of Earth Sciences and Mineral Industry, helped with many of the administrative problems associated with the development of the system of programs. Ernest N. Wolff of the Mineral Industry Research Laboratory provided invaluable assistance throughout the project. He is acknowledged for his persistent support and encouragement during the writing and the many test runs of the program

GOLF IN IRELAND: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPATION. ESRI RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 63 MAY 2017

This report, commissioned by the Confederation of Golf in Ireland, provides evidence relating to the level of participation in golf in Ireland and the factors that underpin it. Four data sources are used – three from the Republic of Ireland and one from Northern Ireland. In addition, the report reviews evidence for the positive contribution made by golf to physical activity, health and wellbeing. The analysis assesses patterns of participation in golf over time and by social group, as well as exploring people’s motivations and patterns of playing. The analysis examines both active participation in golf, i.e. physically playing the game, and social participation in the form of club membership and attendance at events. The primary purpose is to provide helpful evidence for the various organisations involved in managing and administering golf in Ireland. Below we summarise some of the key findings and policy implications. Additional findings, details and discussion of policy implications are to be found in the body of the report

Semiclassical quantisation of space-times with apparent horizons

Coherent or semiclassical states in canonical quantum gravity describe the classical Schwarzschild space-time. By tracing over the coherent state wavefunction inside the horizon, a density matrix is derived. Bekenstein-Hawking entropy is obtained from the density matrix, modulo the Immirzi parameter. The expectation value of the area and curvature operator is evaluated in these states. The behaviour near the singularity of the curvature operator shows that the singularity is resolved. We then generalise the results to space-times with spherically symmetric apparent horizons.Comment: 52 pages, 4 figure

High Frequency Quantum Admittance and Noise Measurement with an On-chip Resonant Circuit

By coupling a quantum detector, a superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction, to a Josephson junction \textit{via} a resonant circuit we probe the high frequency properties, namely the ac complex admittance and the current fluctuations of the Josephson junction at the resonant frequencies. The admittance components show frequency dependent singularities related to the superconducting density of state while the noise exhibits a strong frequency dependence, consistent with theoretical predictions. The circuit also allows to probe separately the emission and absorption noise in the quantum regime of the superconducting resonant circuit at equilibrium. At low temperature the resonant circuit exhibits only absorption noise related to zero point fluctuations, whereas at higher temperature emission noise is also present.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figure

Using patterns position distribution for software failure detection

Pattern-based software failure detection is an important topic of research in recent years. In this method, a set of patterns from program execution traces are extracted, and represented as features, while their occurrence frequencies are treated as the corresponding feature values. But this conventional method has its limitation due to ignore the pattern’s position information, which is important for the classification of program traces. Patterns occurs in the different positions of the trace are likely to represent different meanings. In this paper, we present a novel approach for using pattern’s position distribution as features to detect software failure. The comparative experiments in both artificial and real datasets show the effectiveness of this method

The Impact of Urbanization on CO2 Emissions: Evidence from Developing Countries

This paper analyzes the impact of urbanization on CO2 emissions in developing countries, taking into account the presence of heterogeneity in the sample of countries and testing for the stability of the estimated elasticities over time. The sample covers the period from 1975 through 2003 for different groups of countries, classified according to their income levels. Our results show that, whereas the impact of population growth on emissions is above unity and only slightly different for upper, middle, and low- income countries, urbanization, demonstrate a very different impact on emissions for low and lower-middle-income countries and upper-middle income countries.CO2 emissions, developing countries, panel data, population growth, urbanization

The dynamics of delinking in industrial emissions: The role of productivity, trade and R&D

This paper provides new empirical evidence on delinking / Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) for greenhouse gases and other air pollutant emissions in Italy. We analysed a panel dataset based on the Italian NAMEA for 1990-2005 with a specific focus on industry. We integrated the emission-income NAMEA with data on trade openness and R&D expenditures. The highly disaggregated dataset provides a large heterogeneity and can help to overcome the shortcomings of the usual approach to EKC based on cross-country data. We use in this paper CO2, SOx, NOx and PM10 as objects of investigation. We use as empirical models of reference both a standard EKC model and a STIRPAT/IPAT model. Our results show that looking at sector evidence, both decupling and then eventually re-coupling trends could emerge along the path of economic development. The analysis of how stagnation periods affect environmental performances is also of interest.NAMEA, trade openness, labour productivity, EKC, STIRPAT