Weak ferromagnetism and internal magnetoelectric effect in LiFeP2_2O7_7

The magnetic, thermodynamic, and pyroelectric properties of LiFeP$_2$O$_7$ single crystals are investigated with emphasis on the magnetoelectric interaction of the electrical polarization with the magnetic order parameter. The magnetic order below T$_N\simeq$ 27 K is found to be a canted antiferromagnet with a weak ferromagnetic component along the $b-$axis. A sharp peak of the pyroelectric current at T$_N$ proves the strong internal magnetoelectric interaction resulting in a sizable polarization decrease at the onset of magnetic order. The magnetoelectric effect in external magnetic fields combines a linear and a quadratic field dependence below T$_N$. Thermal expansion data show a large uniaxial magnetoelastic response and prove the existence of strong spin lattice coupling. LiFeP$_2$O$_7$ is a polar compound with a strong interaction of the magnetic order parameter with the electric polarization and the lattice.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Wirtschaftswachstum in den MOEL zunehmend durch heimische Nachfrage getragen

GERMAN: Die Konjunkturbelebung in der EU 15 trug 2006 zu einer Beschleunigung des Wirtschaftswachstums in den MOEL bei. Während in den neuen EU-Ländern in Mitteleuropa der Außenhandel kräftig wuchs und eine weitere Aufwertung bewirkte, geht die Dynamik in den meisten anderen MOEL vor allem auf die hohe Verschuldungsbereitschaft der privaten Haushalte zurück. Die Lage auf dem Arbeitsmarkt entspannte sich in den neuen EU-Ländern weiter, der Strukturwandel ist dort weitgehend abgeschlossen. In den Westbalkanländern verschlechterte sich die Situation jedoch zum Teil sogar. Die Performance der russischen Wirtschaft hat sich von der Entwicklung der Weltmarktpreise für Energie weitgehend entkoppelt; in der Ukraine schwankt das Wachstum dagegen erheblich und nicht zuletzt durch politische Faktoren bedingt. ---- ENGLISH: The economic recovery in the EU 15 in 2006 resulted in an acceleration of growth in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs), particularly in the new EU member states of Central Europe. Helped by the recent massive inflows of FDI, these countries have become serious competitors on the European markets, particularly those of manufactured goods. The continuous nominal currency appreciations in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia reflect their gains in international competitiveness and will not affect their economic growth. In contrast, the contribution of foreign trade to growth was decidedly negative in most other CEECs, including the Baltics and the new EU members in Southeast Europe. Their growth rates - quite high in some instances - were first of all due to a boom in private consumption, largely financed by external borrowing facilitated by the dominance of foreign-owned banks. In some cases, the credit boom is about to overheat and produce ¿bubbles¿, especially in real estate. However, the available policy options are limited: while monetary policy is constrained by fixed exchange rate regimes, fiscal policy is already quite restrictive in general. In the new EU member states, the labour market situation is continuing to improve given that their industrial restructuring is nearing completion, and not least due to the sizeable outward migration flows. In the West Balkan countries, on the other hand, unemployment rates are generally high and rising. Their recent progress towards EU integration has been generally modest, even though greater political stability and growing foreign trade both support their economic recovery. With the exception of Hungary (where large-scale efforts at fiscal consolidation have induced a noticeable economic slowdown), short- and medium-term economic prospects for the CEECs are positive, whereas growth in Serbia and Ukraine remains relatively vulnerable to political risks.transitional economies, comparative study, macroeconomic forecast, macroeconomic analysis, Macroeconomic Analysis and Forecasts; Labour and Migration; International Trade and Competitiveness; Foreign Direct Investment; EU Integration; Fiscal and Monetary Policy

Dynamical magnetoelectric effects in multiferroic oxides

Multiferroics with coexistent ferroelectric and magnetic orders can provide an interesting laboratory to test unprecedented magnetoelectric responses and their possible applications. One such example is the dynamical and/or resonant coupling between magnetic and electric dipoles in a solid. As the examples of such dynamical magnetoelectric effects, (1) the multiferroic domain wall dynamics and (2) the electric-dipole active magnetic responses are discussed with the overview of recent experimental observations.Comment: 15 pages including 6 figures; Accepted for publication in Phil. Trans. A Roy. Soc. (Special issue, Spin on Electronics

MOEL: Wachstumsvorsprung gegenüber Westeuropa bleibt erhalten

GERMAN: Die MOEL verzeichneten 2007 erneut ein kräftiges Wirtschaftswachstum. In den neuen EU-Ländern in Mitteleuropa, deren Expansion primär durch die Re-Industrialisierung geprägt ist, war ein Anstieg der Beschäftigung zu beobachten. In den anderen MOEL wurde die Entwicklung jedoch vor allem vom Dienstleistungssektor getragen und basierte nach wie vor teilweise auf der Ausweitung der Kreditvergabe der Banken, die allerdings in mehreren Ländern etwas gebremst wurde. Die Folgen der weltweiten Finanzmarktturbulenzen und eine Wachstumsverlangsamung in Westeuropa dürften die Konjunkturaussichten der MOEL nur unwesentlich dämpfen; der latente Arbeitskräftemangel und anhaltender Inflationsdruck aufgrund der Verteuerung von Energie und Agrarprodukten auf dem Weltmarkt könnten sich jedoch mittelfristig als Wachstumshemmnis erweisen. ---- ENGLISH: CEEC Growth Still Overtakes Western Europe - Summary Economic growth in Central and East European countries (CEECs) in 2007 was driven primarily by strong domestic demand, especially for consumer goods. The latter resulted from both higher incomes (particularly in Central Europe's new EU countries) and expanding household credit (elsewhere), although the pace of credit expansion has slowed down somewhat, not least due to government efforts to avoid excessive 'overheating'. Another distinction between these two country groups has been in the sectoral patterns of growth: the main growth engine was industry in the Central European new EU countries and the services sector elsewhere. The higher world prices for food and energy and further tightening of domestic labour markets led to mounting inflationary pressures. The latter proved to be particularly strong in the poorer CEECs, but was mitigated by an ongoing currency appreciation in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The recent surge in inflation is unwelcome news for the new EU countries aiming to join the European Monetary Union soon (especially the Baltic states, but in the longer term also Bulgaria and Romania); only Slovakia has a realistic chance to join the euro zone already at the beginning of 2009 as aspired to by the country's government. At the same time, higher inflation and further budget consolidation have improved the fiscal performance of several new EU countries; the latter is no longer a formal obstacle to adopting the euro (with the exception of Hungary). In contrast, fiscal policy in Russia and Ukraine has been somewhat loosened. Russia's sovereign oil fund, which has been booming recently thanks to soaring world crude prices, is being increasingly spent on industrial policy, aimed at diversifying the country's economic structure away from energy. The current turbulence in the global financial markets and a slowdown in Western Europe should dampen the CEECs' growth prospects in 2008 only marginally. The speed of their real convergence to the EU 15 will most probably stay at around 3.5 percentage points on average. Hungary's economic growth should even pick up slightly, as consumer demand will gradually recover from the adverse effects of last year's budget consolidation. At the same time, in Latvia and Estonia, 'hard landing' following a protracted period of demand overheating appears inevitable. The prospects of EU accession for a number of Southeast European countries have recently improved and should contribute to the region's overall stability and economic development. However, Serbia might suffer from the recent 'Kosovo crisis' and the potentially destabilizing consequences of the recent fiscal loosening ahead of the parliamentary elections in May 2008, whereas Turkey remains vulnerable to fluctuations in the world financial markets.transitional economies, comparative study, economic growth, fiscal and monetary policy, macroeconomic forecast, macroeconomic analysis

Temperature-Dependent Magnetoelectric Effect from First Principles

We show that nonrelativistic exchange interactions and spin fluctuations can give rise to a linear magnetoelectric effect in collinear antiferromagnets at elevated temperatures that can exceed relativistic magnetoelectric responses by more than 1 order of magnitude. We show how symmetry arguments, ab initio methods, and Monte Carlo simulations can be combined to calculate temperature-dependent magnetoelectric susceptibilities entirely from first principles. The application of our method to Cr2O3 gives quantitative agreement with experiment.

Instability in magnetic materials with dynamical axion field

It has been pointed out that the axion electrodynamics exhibits instability in the presence of a background electric field. We show that the instability leads to a complete screening of an applied electric field above a certain critical value and the excess energy is converted into a magnetic field. We clarify the physical origin of the screening effect and discuss its possible experimental realization in magnetic materials where magnetic fluctuations play the role of the dynamical axion field.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; v2: minor editin

MOEL im Sog der Krise (CEECs Falling Prey to the International Crisis)

GERMAN: Die mittel- und osteuropäischen Länder (MOEL) sind spätestens seit September 2008 von der Krise der Weltwirtschaft ebenfalls betroffen. Vor allem die Industrieproduktion und der Außenhandel leiden unter den Folgen des Nachfrageeinbruchs. Das reale BIP-Wachstum verlangsamte sich zunächst deutlich und dürfte mittlerweile in fast allen Ländern von einem Rückgang abgelöst worden sein. Die Verschlechterung der Wirtschaftslage bewirkte eine deutliche Erhöhung der Arbeitslosigkeit. Die öffentlichen und die privaten Haushalte sowie die Unternehmen und Banken stehen unter Druck, der zunehmen wird, sollte die Weltwirtschaftskrise von längerer Dauer sein. Die Unterschiede zwischen den einzelnen Ländern sind jedoch substantiell, da in jedem Land spezielle krisenabschwächende oder -verstärkende Faktoren eine Rolle spielen. Gravierend dürfte die Rezession in jenen Ländern ausfallen, die durch hohe makroökonomische Ungleichgewichte gekennzeichnet sind (Ungarn, baltische Länder) oder eine rückständige Exportstruktur aufweisen (Ukraine). ---- ENGLISH: The current global financial and economic crisis has been spilling over to the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). After several years of economic prosperity in most of these countries, activities of the real economy have slowed down. The crisis has reached the region on two tracks. More difficult and costly access to borrowing (first track) exerts a negative impact on private consumption, especially with regard to demand for durable consumer goods, such as cars, on private investment (both in construction and equipment), and, finally, on foreign trade. At the same time, CEE exports are suffering from the recession in the EU 15 (second track), above all in Germany, the main trading partner for most of the CEECs. Industrial output and export data both reflect the depth of the economic downturn. Inflation had been on the rise up to mid-2008, but decelerated afterwards, with cases of zero month-on-month inflation frequently seen in CEECs. At least, this is true for euro countries and countries with a fixed currency peg. In others, the currency depreciated after September 2008, which also led to significant real depreciation. CEECs with notoriously large current-account deficits are in a dilemma, as sources of external financing have become scarce. The same is true for countries where a wide gap between interest rates for domestic and foreign borrowing had seduced the private sector to accumulate large volumes of debt denominated in foreign currency. Governments were bound by fiscal discipline in recent years, but deficits will increase in 2009 and 2010 in an environment of low revenues, high expenditures and high unemployment. Apart from Russia, these countries have only limited means to implement economic stimulus packages. As internal sources will not be able to generate a great deal of additional demand, the CEECs will have to wait for spillovers from an improving business climate in the rest of the world.transitional economies, comparative study, economic growth, fiscal and monetary policy, macroeconomic forecast, macroeconomic analysis

Proactive Approach to Innovation Management

The focus of this paper is to compare common approaches for Systems of Innovation (SI) and identify proactive alternatives for driving the innovation. Proactive approaches will also consider short and medium term perspectives with developments in the field of Computer Technology and Artificial Intelligence. Concerning computer technology and large connected information systems, it is reasonable to predict that during current or the next century, intelligence and innovation will be separated from the constraints of human-driven management. After this happens, humans will no longer be driving the innovation and there is possibility that SI for new intelligent systems will set its own targets and exclude humans. Over long time scale, these developments could result in a scenario, which will lead to the development of larger, cross galactic (universal) proactive SI and Intelligence