4,409 research outputs found
Is Internet Voting Trustworthy? The Science and the Policy Battles
According to clear scientific consensus, no known technology can make internet voting secure. In some applications—such as e-pollbooks (voter sign-in), voter registration, and absentee ballot request—it is appropriate to use the internet, as the inherent insecurity can be mitigated by other means. But the insecurity of paperless transmission of a voted ballot through the internet cannot be mitigated.
The law recognizes this in several ways. Courts have enjoined the use of certain paperless or internet-connected voting systems. Federal law requires states to allow voters to use the internet to request absentee ballots but carefully stops short of internet ballot return (i.e., voting).
But many U.S. states and a few countries go beyond what is safe: they have adopted internet voting for citizens living abroad and (in some cases) for voters with disabilities.
Most internet voting systems have an essentially common architecture, and they are insecure at least at the same key point: after the voter has reviewed the ballot but before it is transmitted. I review six internet voting systems deployed between 2006 and 2021 that were insecure in practice, just as predicted by theory—of which some were also insecure in surprising new ways, “unforced errors”.
We cannot get along without the assistance of computers. U.S. ballots are too long to count entirely by hand unless the special circumstances of a recount require it. So computer-counted paper ballots play a critical role in the security and auditability of our elections. But audits cannot be used to secure internet voting systems, which have no paper ballots that form an auditable paper trail.
There are policy controversies: trustworthiness versus convenience, and security versus accessibility. From 2019 to 2022 there were lawsuits in Virginia, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, and North Carolina; legislation enacted in Rhode Island and withdrawn in California. There is a common pattern to these disputes, which have mostly resolved in a way that provides remote accessible vote by mail (RAVBM) but stops short of permitting electronic ballot return (internet voting).
What would it take to thoroughly review a proposed internet voting system to be assured whether it delivers the security it promises? Switzerland provides a case study. In Switzerland, after a few years of internet voting pilot projects, the Federal Chancellery commissioned several extremely thorough expert studies of their deployed system. These reports teach us not only about their internet voting system itself but about how to study those systems before making policy decisions.
Accessibility of election systems to voters with disabilities is a genuine problem. Disability-rights groups have been among those lobbying for internet voting (which is not securable) and other forms of remote accessible vote by mail (which can be adequately securable). I review statistics showing that internet voting is probably not the most effective way to serve voters with disabilities
Reformulation of the Stochastic Potential Switching Algorithm and a Generalized Fourtuin-Kasteleyn Representation
A new formulation of the stochastic potential switching algorithm is
presented. This reformulation naturally leads us to a generalized
Fourtuin-Kasteleyn representation of the partition function Z. A formula for
internal energy E and that of heat capacity C are derived from derivatives of
the partition function. We also derive a formula for the exchange probability
in the replica exchange Monte Carlo method. By combining the formulae with the
Stochastic Cutoff method, we can greatly reduce the computational time to
perform internal energy and heat capacity measurements and the replica exchange
Monte Carlo method in long-range interacting systems. Numerical simulations in
three dimensional magnetic dipolar systems show the validity and efficiency of
the method.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, to appear in PR
Bose-Einstein condensation of alkaline earth atoms: {Ca}
We have achieved Bose-Einstein condensation of Ca, the first for an
alkaline earth element. The influence of elastic and inelastic collisions
associated with the large ground state s-wave scattering length of Ca
was measured. From these findings, an optimized loading and cooling scheme was
developed that allowed us to condense about atoms after laser
cooling in a two-stage magneto-optical trap and subsequent forced evaporation
in a crossed dipole trap within less than 3 s. The condensation of an alkaline
earth element opens novel opportunities for precision measurements on the
narrow intercombination lines as well as investigations of molecular states at
the S--P asymptotes
Effect of buffer on heparin binding and sensing in competitive aqueous media
Although buffer-specific effects on molecular recognition are known in biological science, they remain rare in supramolecular chemistry. The binding between a cationic dye, Mallard Blue (MalB), and polyanionic heparin in aqueous NaCl (150 mM) is studied in three commonly-used buffers (Tris-HCl, HEPES, Phosphate, each 10 mM). Although MalB has a very similar UV-Vis spectrum in each buffer, the sensory response towards heparin was different in each case. This can be ascribed to differences in the complex formed. In Tris-HCl which has the least competitive chloride counter-anions, MalB exhibits a hypsochromic shift of 25 nm, assigned to strong binding and aggregation of the dye on heparin. In more competitive HEPES, containing a sulfonate anion, there is weaker binding and less aggregation of MalB along the heparin; the hypsochromic shift is only 15 nm. In phosphate buffer, MalB can interact quite strongly with buffer phosphate anions; although heparin binding is still observed, the hypsochromic shift associated with dye aggregation is only 5 nm. As such, specific buffer interactions with the MalB-heparin complex mediate host-guest binding and sensing. Buffer choice must be made carefully in studies of molecular recognition – we would caution against using phosphate and sulfonate containing buffers when studying electrostatic binding
Surprises in the suddenly-expanded infinite well
I study the time-evolution of a particle prepared in the ground state of an
infinite well after the latter is suddenly expanded. It turns out that the
probability density shows up quite a surprising behaviour:
for definite times, {\it plateaux} appear for which is
constant on finite intervals for . Elements of theoretical explanation are
given by analyzing the singular component of the second derivative
. Analytical closed expressions are obtained for some
specific times, which easily allow to show that, at these times, the density
organizes itself into regular patterns provided the size of the box in large
enough; more, above some critical time-dependent size, the density patterns are
independent of the expansion parameter. It is seen how the density at these
times simply results from a construction game with definite rules acting on the
pieces of the initial density.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figure
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