It seems to be expected, that a horizon of a quasi-local type, like a Killing
or an isolated horizon, by analogy with a globally defined event horizon,
should be unique in some open neighborhood in the spacetime, provided the
vacuum Einstein or the Einstein-Maxwell equations are satisfied. The aim of our
paper is to verify whether that intuition is correct. If one can extend a so
called Kundt metric, in such a way that its null, shear-free surfaces have
spherical spacetime sections, the resulting spacetime is foliated by so called
non-expanding horizons. The obstacle is Kundt's constraint induced at the
surfaces by the Einstein or the Einstein-Maxwell equations, and the requirement
that a solution be globally defined on the sphere. We derived a transformation
(reflection) that creates a solution to Kundt's constraint out of data defining
an extremal isolated horizon. Using that transformation, we derived a class of
exact solutions to the Einstein or Einstein-Maxwell equations of very special
properties. Each spacetime we construct is foliated by a family of the Killing
horizons. Moreover, it admits another, transversal Killing horizon. The
intrinsic and extrinsic geometry of the transversal Killing horizon coincides
with the one defined on the event horizon of the extremal Kerr-Newman solution.
However, the Killing horizon in our example admits yet another Killing vector
tangent to and null at it. The geometries of the leaves are given by the
reflection.Comment: LaTeX 2e, 13 page
The Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) released "A Pivotal Moment: Assessing Houston's Plan for Pension Reform," a report that provides an in-depth analysis of the City of Houston's pension reform proposal currently pending in the Texas Legislature. The report finds that the proposal includes important changes that would help protect workers and taxpayers. The reform plan was developed following discussions between Mayor Sylvester Turner and the Houston Police Officers' Pension System, the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System, and the Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund.LJAF Vice President Josh McGee and LJAF Sustainable Public Finance Analyst Paulina S. Diaz Aguirre co-authored the report after analyzing the city's proposal and conducting independent pension modeling. They say that it is incumbent on local leaders and state legislators to work together. "There are just a few weeks left in the 2017 session—and without the ability to make changes to the pension systems on its own—the city is running out of time," the report states. "Without changes, the debt could spiral into a full-scale financial crisis. The city cannot allow that to happen. Its financial future hangs in the balance and will be decided in large part in the next month."Houston currently owes 8.2billioninpensiondebt—morethananyothercityinTexas.Itdoesnothaveenoughmoneytopayfornearlyhalfoftheretirementbenefitsworkershavealreadyearned.Thisunfundedliabilitythreatensworkers′retirementsecurityandhasadirectimpactoncityfinances.Duringthepast10years,thecityhascutpublicsafetypositionsevenasspendingonpublicsafetyhasgrownbyhundredsofmillionsofdollarsduetoa55percentincreaseinpensioncosts.Theproposalseekstoaddresscriticalflawsinthecity′sfundingpractices.Undertheproposal,thecitywouldloweritsassumedrateofreturnoninvestmentsforallplansfrom8percentormoreto7percent;reducebenefitsforpublicworkers;andimplementafinancialcorridorprovisionthatwouldcapthecity′scontributionstothepensionplans.Thefinancialcorridorprovisionisakeyelementoftheproposal.Theprovisionwouldsetaminimumandmaximumcitycontributionrateforeachplan.Ifthecityweretohitorsurpassthemaximum,workerswouldberequiredtomakeadditionalbenefitconcessionstobringcostsbackunderthecap.LJAF′sanalysisshowsthatthismechanismwouldprovidesubstantialnewprotectionsfortaxpayersbutwouldalsosignificantlyincreaseworkers′exposuretorisk.Thereportstatesthattheproposal′slong−termimpactonworkerswoulddependondemographictrendsandtheplans′investmentperformance,twofactorsthatwouldinfluencehowoftenthecitywouldhitthecap.Forexample,LJAF′smodelingshowsthatthereisatwoinfive(40percent)chancethatthecity′scontributionratewouldhitthemaximumforthepolicefundatleastonceby2027.Ifthepoliceplanweretoearnlessthan7percentonitsinvestmentsintheshortorlongterm,contributionrateswouldhitthecapevensooner.Ifinvestmentreturnsmatchthecity′sassumptions,thereisroughlyaoneinthree(33percent)chancethatcontributionratesformembersofthepoliceplanwouldincreasebyfivepercentagepointsormoreinthenextdecade.Giventhatmembersofthepoliceplan—aswellasmembersoftheotherplans—havealreadyagreedtobillionsofdollarsinconcessions,McGeeandDiazAguirreexplainthatthecityhasanobligationtoupholditsendofthebargain.Theystatethatthecityshouldmakepaymentsontimeandinfullandshouldtakesteps—suchaslimitinginvestmentsinriskyassetsincludingrealestate,privateequity,andhedgefunds—toprotectworkers.Inaddition,iftheproposalisimplemented,thereportstatesthatthecityshouldalsomakegoodonitspromisetoprovidealump−sumpaymenttothetwoplanswiththelargestdeficits—thepoliceandmunicipalemployeesplans.Thecityhasproposedissuing1 billion in pension obligation bonds to cover the payments. To benefit financially, Houston would need to earn more in the market than it costs to borrow the money. Given the current market conditions, the spread between expected bond interest rates and expected returns is relatively small. Despite the fact that the bonds pose some risk, the report argues that they are a good-faith measure that reflects the city's commitment to upholding funding promises.The report concludes that, "In the short term, the proposal would place the pension plans—and the city—on firmer financial footing. The long-term impact would depend on how the changes are implemented." It also states that Houston should make further changes to establish a comprehensive, permanent solution to its pension problems. This would include creating retirement systems for new workers that are simpler and easier to manage such as a Defined Contribution plan or a Cash Balance plan
We provide a background-independent formulation of the holographic principle.
It permits the construction of embedded hypersurfaces (screens) on which the
entire bulk information can be stored at a density of no more than one bit per
Planck area. Screens are constructed explicitly for AdS, Minkowski, and de
Sitter spaces with and without black holes, and for cosmological solutions. The
properties of screens provide clues about the character of a manifestly
holographic theory.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures. v2: references adde