Monetary and Fiscal Policies in an Open Economy

The central theme of this paper is that international linkages between national economies influence, in fundamentally important ways, the effectiveness and proper conduct of national macroeconomic policies. Specifically, our purpose is to summarize the implications for the conduct of macroeconomic policies in open economies of both the traditional approach to open economy macroeconomics (as developed largely by James Meade, Robert Mundell, and J. Marcus Fleming) and of more recent developments. Our discussion is organized around three key linkages between national economies: through commodity trade; through capital mobility; and through exchange of national monies. These linkages have important implications concerning the effects of macroeconomic policies in open economies that differ from the effects of such policies in closed economies. Recent developments in the theory of macroeconomic policy have established conditions for the effectiveness of policies in influencing output and employment which emphasize the distinction between anticipated and unanticipated policy actions, the importance of incomplete information, and the consequences of contracts that fix nominal wages and prices over finite intervals. In this paper, we shall not analyze how these conditions are modified in an open economy. However, since our concern is with macro-economic policy, a principal objective of which is to influence output and employment, we shall assume that requisite conditions for such influence are satisfied.

Dressing Symmetries of Holomorphic BF Theories

We consider holomorphic BF theories, their solutions and symmetries. The equivalence of Cech and Dolbeault descriptions of holomorphic bundles is used to develop a method for calculating hidden (nonlocal) symmetries of holomorphic BF theories. A special cohomological symmetry group and its action on the solution space are described.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX2

Constructing quantum vertex algebras

This is a sequel to \cite{li-qva}. In this paper, we focus on the construction of quantum vertex algebras over \C, whose notion was formulated in \cite{li-qva} with Etingof and Kazhdan's notion of quantum vertex operator algebra (over \C[[h]]) as one of the main motivations. As one of the main steps in constructing quantum vertex algebras, we prove that every countable-dimensional nonlocal (namely noncommutative) vertex algebra over \C, which either is irreducible or has a basis of PBW type, is nondegenerate in the sense of Etingof and Kazhdan. Using this result, we establish the nondegeneracy of better known vertex operator algebras and some nonlocal vertex algebras. We then construct a family of quantum vertex algebras closely related to Zamolodchikov-Faddeev algebras.Comment: 37 page

Pulse propagation in discrete systems of coupled excitable cells

Propagation of pulses in myelinated fibers may be described by appropriate solutions of spatially discrete FitzHugh-Nagumo systems. In these systems, propagation failure may occur if either the coupling between nodes is not strong enough or the recovery is too fast. We give an asymptotic construction of pulses for spatially discrete FitzHugh-Nagumo systems which agrees well with numerical simulations and discuss evolution of initial data into pulses and pulse generation at a boundary. Formulas for the speed and length of pulses are also obtained.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, to appear in SIAM J. Appl. Mat

Dynamical transitions in incommensurate systems

In the dynamics of the undamped Frenkel-Kontorova model with kinetic terms, we find a transition between two regimes, a floating incommensurate and a pinned incommensurate phase. This behavior is compared to the static version of the model. A remarkable difference is that, while in the static case the two regimes are separated by a single transition (the Aubry transition), in the dynamical case the transition is characterized by a critical region, in which different phenomena take place at different times. In this paper, the generalized angular momentum we have previously introduced, and the dynamical modulation function are used to begin a characterization of this critical region. We further elucidate the relation between these two quantities, and present preliminary results about the order of the dynamical transition.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, file 'epl.cls' necessary for compilation provided; subm. to Europhysics Letter

On Representations of Conformal Field Theories and the Construction of Orbifolds

We consider representations of meromorphic bosonic chiral conformal field theories, and demonstrate that such a representation is completely specified by a state within the theory. The necessary and sufficient conditions upon this state are derived, and, because of their form, we show that we may extend the representation to a representation of a suitable larger conformal field theory. In particular, we apply this procedure to the lattice (FKS) conformal field theories, and deduce that Dong's proof of the uniqueness of the twisted representation for the reflection-twisted projection of the Leech lattice conformal field theory generalises to an arbitrary even (self-dual) lattice. As a consequence, we see that the reflection-twisted lattice theories of Dolan et al are truly self-dual, extending the analogies with the theories of lattices and codes which were being pursued. Some comments are also made on the general concept of the definition of an orbifold of a conformal field theory in relation to this point of view.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX. Updated references and added preprint n

Effective actions at finite temperature

This is a more detailed version of our recent paper where we proposed, from first principles, a direct method for evaluating the exact fermion propagator in the presence of a general background field at finite temperature. This can, in turn, be used to determine the finite temperature effective action for the system. As applications, we discuss the complete one loop finite temperature effective actions for 0+1 dimensional QED as well as for the Schwinger model in detail. These effective actions, which are derived in the real time (closed time path) formalism, generate systematically all the Feynman amplitudes calculated in thermal perturbation theory and also show that the retarded (advanced) amplitudes vanish in these theories. Various other aspects of the problem are also discussed in detail.Comment: 9 pages, revtex, 1 figure, references adde

Mutually Penetrating Motion of Self-Organized 2D Patterns of Soliton-Like Structures

Results of numerical simulations of a recently derived most general dissipative-dispersive PDE describing evolution of a film flowing down an inclined plane are presented. They indicate that a novel complex type of spatiotemporal patterns can exist for strange attractors of nonequilibrium systems. It is suggested that real-life experiments satisfying the validity conditions of the theory are possible: the required sufficiently viscous liquids are readily available.Comment: minor corrections, 4 pages, LaTeX, 6 figures, mpeg simulations available upon or reques