Economic globalization and the fracturing of business interest representation in the European Union

Individual firms have become the dominant lobby actors in the European Union, while associational business interest representation has declined. This is alarming because individual firms tend to overlook the long-term interests of society by focusing on what is important in the short term for their own survival. How can we explain this trend? This article argues that globalization is a key driver of firm-level lobbying and that it fractures business interest representation. The study employs an original dataset of almost 14,000 lobby contacts between senior staff of the European Commission, business interests, and NGOs. It finds support for the argument that globalization spurs individual firm lobbying in the European Union. This complicates the already challenging task of business associations aggregating and channeling the interests of their members

Bio-inspired band-gap tunable elastic optical multilayer fibers.

The concentrically-layered photonic structure found in the tropical fruit Margaritaria nobilis serves as inspiration for photonic fibers with mechanically tunable band-gap. The fibers show the spectral filtering capabilities of a planar Bragg stack while the microscopic curvature decreases the strong directional chromaticity associated with flat multilayers. Elongation of the elastic fibers results in a shift of the reflection of over 200 nm.Financial support from the US Air Force Offi ce of Scientifi c Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative under award numbers FA9550-09-1-0669-DOD35CAP, FA9550-10-1-0020 and the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EP/G060649/1 is gratefully acknowledged. M.Ko. acknowledges the fi nancial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in form of a Feodor Lynen postdoctoral research fellowship. This work was performed in part at the Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS), a member of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), which is supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF award no. ECS-0335765. CNS is part of Harvard University

Model-Independent Sum Rule Analysis Based on Limited-Range Spectral Data

Partial sum rules are widely used in physics to separate low- and high-energy degrees of freedom of complex dynamical systems. Their application, though, is challenged in practice by the always finite spectrometer bandwidth and is often performed using risky model-dependent extrapolations. We show that, given spectra of the real and imaginary parts of any causal frequency-dependent response function (for example, optical conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, acoustical impedance etc.) in a limited range, the sum-rule integral from zero to a certain cutoff frequency inside this range can be safely derived using only the Kramers-Kronig dispersion relations without any extra model assumptions. This implies that experimental techniques providing both active and reactive response components independently, such as spectroscopic ellipsometry in optics, allow an extrapolation-independent determination of spectral weight 'hidden' below the lowest accessible frequency.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

On the Bohr inequality

The Bohr inequality, first introduced by Harald Bohr in 1914, deals with finding the largest radius $r$, $0<r<1$, such that $\sum_{n=0}^\infty |a_n|r^n \leq 1$ holds whenever $|\sum_{n=0}^\infty a_nz^n|\leq 1$ in the unit disk $\mathbb{D}$ of the complex plane. The exact value of this largest radius, known as the \emph{Bohr radius}, has been established to be $1/3.$ This paper surveys recent advances and generalizations on the Bohr inequality. It discusses the Bohr radius for certain power series in $\mathbb{D},$ as well as for analytic functions from $\mathbb{D}$ into particular domains. These domains include the punctured unit disk, the exterior of the closed unit disk, and concave wedge-domains. The analogous Bohr radius is also studied for harmonic and starlike logharmonic mappings in $\mathbb{D}.$ The Bohr phenomenon which is described in terms of the Euclidean distance is further investigated using the spherical chordal metric and the hyperbolic metric. The exposition concludes with a discussion on the $n$-dimensional Bohr radius

Magnification relations in gravitational lensing via multidimensional residue integrals

We investigate the so-called magnification relations of gravitational lensing models. We show that multidimensional residue integrals provide a simple explanation for the existence of these relations, and an effective method of computation. We illustrate the method with several examples, thereby deriving new magnification relations for galaxy lens models and microlensing (point mass lensing).Comment: 16 pages, uses revtex4, submitted to Journal of Mathematical Physic

Probe method and a Carleman function

A Carleman function is a special fundamental solution with a large parameter for the Laplace operator and gives a formula to calculate the value of the solution of the Cauchy problem in a domain for the Laplace equation. The probe method applied to an inverse boundary value problem for the Laplace equation in a bounded domain is based on the existence of a special sequence of harmonic functions which is called a {\it needle sequence}. The needle sequence blows up on a special curve which connects a given point inside the domain with a point on the boundary of the domain and is convergent locally outside the curve. The sequence yields a reconstruction formula of unknown discontinuity, such as cavity, inclusion in a given medium from the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. In this paper, an explicit needle sequence in {\it three dimensions} is given in a closed form. It is an application of a Carleman function introduced by Yarmukhamedov. Furthermore, an explicit needle sequence in the probe method applied to the reduction of inverse obstacle scattering problems with an {\it arbitrary} fixed wave number to inverse boundary value problems for the Helmholtz equation is also given.Comment: 2 figures, final versio

Collective dynamics of colloids at fluid interfaces

The evolution of an initially prepared distribution of micron sized colloidal particles, trapped at a fluid interface and under the action of their mutual capillary attraction, is analyzed by using Brownian dynamics simulations. At a separation \lambda\ given by the capillary length of typically 1 mm, the distance dependence of this attraction exhibits a crossover from a logarithmic decay, formally analogous to two-dimensional gravity, to an exponential decay. We discuss in detail the adaption of a particle-mesh algorithm, as used in cosmological simulations to study structure formation due to gravitational collapse, to the present colloidal problem. These simulations confirm the predictions, as far as available, of a mean-field theory developed previously for this problem. The evolution is monitored by quantitative characteristics which are particularly sensitive to the formation of highly inhomogeneous structures. Upon increasing \lambda\ the dynamics show a smooth transition from the spinodal decomposition expected for a simple fluid with short-ranged attraction to the self-gravitational collapse scenario.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, revised, matches version accepted for publication in the European Physical Journal

Free energy of colloidal particles at the surface of sessile drops

The influence of finite system size on the free energy of a spherical particle floating at the surface of a sessile droplet is studied both analytically and numerically. In the special case that the contact angle at the substrate equals $\pi/2$ a capillary analogue of the method of images is applied in order to calculate small deformations of the droplet shape if an external force is applied to the particle. The type of boundary conditions for the droplet shape at the substrate determines the sign of the capillary monopole associated with the image particle. Therefore, the free energy of the particle, which is proportional to the interaction energy of the original particle with its image, can be of either sign, too. The analytic solutions, given by the Green's function of the capillary equation, are constructed such that the condition of the forces acting on the droplet being balanced and of the volume constraint are fulfilled. Besides the known phenomena of attraction of a particle to a free contact line and repulsion from a pinned one, we observe a local free energy minimum for the particle being located at the drop apex or at an intermediate angle, respectively. This peculiarity can be traced back to a non-monotonic behavior of the Green's function, which reflects the interplay between the deformations of the droplet shape and the volume constraint.Comment: 24 pages, 19 figure

Tunable anisotropy in inverse opals and emerging optical properties

Using self-assembly, nanoscale materials can be fabricated from the bottom up. Opals and inverse opals are examples of self-assembled nanomaterials made from crystallizing colloidal particles. As self-assembly requires a high level of control, it is challenging to use building blocks with anisotropic geometry to form complex opals, which limits the realizable structures. Typically, spherical colloids are employed as building blocks, leading to symmetric, isotropic superstructures. However, a significantly richer palette of directionally dependent properties are expected if less symmetric, anisotropic structures can be created, especially originating from the assembly of regular, spherical particles. Here we show a simple method to introduce anisotropy into inverse opals by subjecting them to a post-assembly thermal treatment that results in directional shrinkage of the silica matrix caused by condensation of partially hydrated sol-gel silica structures. In this way, we can tailor the shape of the pores, and the anisotropy of the final inverse opal preserves the order and uniformity of the self-assembled structure, while completely avoiding the need to synthesize complex oval-shaped particles and crystallize them into such target geometries. Detailed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy studies clearly identify increasing degrees of sol-gel condensation in confinement as a mechanism for the structure change. A computer simulation of structure changes resulting from the condensation-induced shrinkage further confirmed this mechanism. As an example of property changes induced by the introduction of anisotropy, we characterized the optical spectra of the anisotropic inverse opals and found that the optical properties can be controlled in a precise way using calcination temperature