Geometric Assortative Growth Model for Small-World Networks

It has been shown that both humanly constructed and natural networks are often characterized by small-world phenomenon and assortative mixing. In this paper, we propose a geometrically growing model for small-world networks. The model displays both tunable small-world phenomenon and tunable assortativity. We obtain analytical solutions of relevant topological properties such as order, size, degree distribution, degree correlation, clustering, transitivity, and diameter. It is also worth noting that the model can be viewed as a generalization for an iterative construction of Farey graphs

The Hagedorn/Deconfinement Phase Transition in Weakly Coupled Large N Gauge Theories

We demonstrate that weakly coupled, large N, d-dimensional SU(N) gauge theories on a class of compact spatial manifolds (including S^{d-1} \times time) undergo deconfinement phase transitions at temperatures proportional to the inverse length scale of the manifold in question. The low temperature phase has a free energy of order one, and is characterized by a stringy (Hagedorn) growth in its density of states. The high temperature phase has a free energy of order N^2. These phases are separated either by a single first order transition that generically occurs below the Hagedorn temperature or by two continuous phase transitions, the first of which occurs at the Hagedorn temperature. These phase transitions could perhaps be continuously connected to the usual flat space deconfinement transition in the case of confining gauge theories, and to the Hawking-Page nucleation of AdS_5 black holes in the case of the N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We suggest that deconfinement transitions may generally be interpreted in terms of black hole formation in a dual string theory. Our analysis proceeds by first reducing the Yang-Mills partition function to a (0+0)-dimensional integral over a unitary matrix U, which is the holonomy (Wilson loop) of the gauge field around the thermal time circle in Euclidean space; deconfinement transitions are large N transitions in this matrix integral.Comment: harvmac, 90 pages, 14 figures, 67 footnotes. V3: added references and minor clarifications. v4: added reference, minor changes. v5: corrected figure captions. v6: small corrections and added footnot

Challenging the 'local turn' in migrant integration in the South East of England under the Coalition and Conservative Governments 2010-2018: a whole policy approach

In recent years increasing bodies of research have supported the idea that integration takes place on the local level (Jimenez 2009, Penninx & Martiniello 2007, Rutter 2015, Jensen 2011). Consequently, when the Coalition government claimed to be ushering in a radical new form of Localism and designated integration as a ‘local issue’, there was an apparent consensus between policy and academia alike that this localist turn was to be ‘welcomed’ (Ali & Gidley, 2014, p. 23). Nevertheless, this apparent consensus makes two assumptions. The first is that Localism is always a positive thing for the local level and the second is that greater autonomy at the local level will materialise in greater migrant integration activities. Consequently, research in this area spans two bodies of academic literature, Localism, and that of the ‘local turn’ in integration policies, and is the first time these two related fields have been combined. The primary research question of this thesis is “Did the designation of migrant integration as a ‘local issue’ under the Coalition and Conservative Governments 2010-2018 help or hinder the ability of local authorities to facilitate migrant integration in their localities?”. The research uses as its case study the South East (SE) of England as the region is home to the highest number of migrants in the UK second only to London, and has also not been covered in academic research on this area to date. It is also a predominantly rural area and as such adds to much needed research on migrant integration outside of urban or peri-urban settings. The principal research question is broken down into the following sub questions designed to unpack the aforementioned assumptions. Did a local turn in migrant integration policy take place under the Localism of the Coalition and Conservative Governments 2010 to 2018? How can a whole policy approach help us to map the aggregate demand on local authorities when it comes to migrant integration?” Both these questions are analysed using a trio of qualitative research methods, policy analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews, in order to highlight the danger of relying on policy frame analysis alone. This mixed method approach is also used to map the effects of a policy at regional and at local level in order to best address the primary question about what impact was had on the local level for migrant integration as a result of Coalition and Conservative government Localism policies. The policy analysis undertaken uses a modified version of Emilsson’s (2015) power lens approach mapping the impacts of normative, legislative and economic power levers in order to assess the cumulative effects of a policy rather than relying on policy frame alone. The findings demonstrate that rather than providing enabling conditions for migrant integration, Coalition and Conservative Localism reduced the activities local authorities could undertake to their core statutory duties, of which migrant integration is not one. Furthermore, this research also highlighted how, once all policies impacting on migrant integration are taken into account, (such as immigration, housing or employment), these governments made it significantly harder for local authorities to facilitate migrant integration. In particular, the role of the hostile environment and the increasing neo-liberalisation of government policies are seen to have negatively impacted upon every aspect of the integration process. The research also saw that running parallel to these detrimental policies was the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VRPS). This scheme was voluntary for local authorities to opt into but fully funded and coordinated by central government. Contrary to the scaling back of all non-statutory services which Localism and its accompanying austerity had necessitated, the VPRS led to an expansion in services for migrants including cohorts which were not refugees. The scheme also meant that local authority officers working on the VPRS were forced to navigate the hostile policies migrants face when accessing accommodation, bank accounts, registering with GPs, obtaining driving licences and other such aspects. This research shows that there are many types of Localism and that it is essential to examine the policy levers accompanying them in order to assess the impact there may be on migrant integration. It also demonstrates that a whole policy approach must be taken when considering migrant integration and that as such, it is dangerous to designate integration as a purely ‘local issue’

Climate, Society and Elemental Insurance

In this book, world-leading social scientists come together to provide original insights on the capacities and limitations of insurance in a changing world. Climate change is fundamentally changing the ways we insure, and the ways we think about insurance. This book moves beyond traditional economics and financial understandings of insurance to address the social and geopolitical dimensions of this powerful and pervasive part of contemporary life. Insurance shapes material and social realities, and is shaped by them in turn. The contributing authors of this book show how insurance constitutes and is constituted through the traditional elements of earth, water, air, fire, and the novel element of big data. The applied and theoretical insights presented through this novel elemental approach reveal that insurance is more dynamic, multifaceted, and spatially variegated than commonly imagined. This book is an authoritative source on the capacities and limitations of insurance. It is a go-to reference for researchers and students in the social sciences – particularly those with an interest in economics and finance, and how these intersect with geography, politics, and society. It is also relevant for those in the disaster, environmental, health, natural, and social sciences who are interested in the role of insurance in addressing risk, resilience, and adaptation

The Physics of God and the Quantum Gravity Theory of Everything

Analysis is given of the Omega Point cosmology, an extensively peer-reviewed proof (i.e., mathematical theorem) published in leading physics journals by professor of physics and mathematics Frank J. Tipler, which demonstrates that in order for the known laws of physics to be mutually consistent, the universe must diverge to infinite computational power as it collapses into a final cosmological singularity, termed the Omega Point. The theorem is an intrinsic component of the Feynman-DeWitt-Weinberg quantum gravity/Standard Model Theory of Everything (TOE) describing and unifying all the forces in physics, of which itself is also required by the known physical laws. With infinite computational resources, the dead can be resurrected--never to die again--via perfect computer emulation of the multiverse from its start at the Big Bang. Miracles are also physically allowed via electroweak quantum tunneling controlled by the Omega Point cosmological singularity. The Omega Point is a different aspect of the Big Bang cosmological singularity--the first cause--and the Omega Point has all the haecceities claimed for God in the traditional religions. From this analysis, conclusions are drawn regarding the social, ethical, economic and political implications of the Omega Point cosmology

Climate, Society and Elemental Insurance

In this book, world-leading social scientists come together to provide original insights on the capacities and limitations of insurance in a changing world. Climate change is fundamentally changing the ways we insure, and the ways we think about insurance. This book moves beyond traditional economics and financial understandings of insurance to address the social and geopolitical dimensions of this powerful and pervasive part of contemporary life. Insurance shapes material and social realities, and is shaped by them in turn. The contributing authors of this book show how insurance constitutes and is constituted through the traditional elements of earth, water, air, fire, and the novel element of big data. The applied and theoretical insights presented through this novel elemental approach reveal that insurance is more dynamic, multifaceted, and spatially variegated than commonly imagined. This book is an authoritative source on the capacities and limitations of insurance. It is a go-to reference for researchers and students in the social sciences – particularly those with an interest in economics and finance, and how these intersect with geography, politics, and society. It is also relevant for those in the disaster, environmental, health, natural, and social sciences who are interested in the role of insurance in addressing risk, resilience, and adaptation

Particle Physics Reference Library

This third open access volume of the handbook series deals with accelerator physics, design, technology and operations, as well as with beam optics, dynamics and diagnostics. A joint CERN-Springer initiative, the “Particle Physics Reference Library” provides revised and updated contributions based on previously published material in the well-known Landolt-Boernstein series on particle physics, accelerators and detectors (volumes 21A,B1,B2,C), which took stock of the field approximately one decade ago. Central to this new initiative is publication under full open acces

Amrit Singh and the Birmingham Quean: fictions, fakes and forgeries in a vernacular counterculture

For a literary critic preparing a scholarly edition of a text like this within an epistème that disparages the theory underpinning it for being tainted with the gestural idealism of 1968 and the neon-glare of 1980s high postmodernism, the crucial question is how to reconcile the commitment to authenticity ingrained in historicist textual studies (perhaps the critic’s only viable disciplinary inheritance) with the author’s implicit antagonism to any such quietist approach. The encounter inevitably becomes a battle of wills. In the course of the current project, this theoretical struggle escalates exponentially as doubts concerning the authenticity (and indeed the existence) of both writer and manuscript are multiplied. If a thesis can be retrospectively extrapolated from this project, it is the argument that fiction is demonstrably a tractable forum for research in the Arts and Social Sciences: all the more tractable for its anti-authenticity. The critic’s loss is the novelist’s gain. Specifically, in this case, the faithful historian of late twentieth century literatures, languages and cultures can solve the key dilemma of the subject by working under the auspices of Creative Writing. Only in this way can justice be done to the most cogent intellectual trend of the posmodern period (perhaps its defining feature): one that revelled in its own pluralities, ambiguities and contradictions, and resisted all the unifying, teleological models of ‘history’ that had been implicated in the century’s terrible ‘final solutions’. In other words, only fiction can tell the history of a culture that rejects that history. If this means condoning forgery… so be it