Supersymmetry, quark confinement and the harmonic oscillator

We study some quantum systems described by noncanonical commutation relations formally expressed as [q,p]=ihbar(I + chi H), where H is the associated (harmonic oscillator-like) Hamiltonian of the system, and chi is a Hermitian (constant) operator, i.e. [H,chi]=0 . In passing, we also consider a simple (chi=0 canonical) model, in the framework of a relativistic Klein-Gordon-like wave equation.Comment: To be published in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical (2007

Balance-of-Powers Arguments and the Structural Constitution

Balance-of-powers arguments are ubiquitous in judicial opinions and academic articles that address separation-of-powers disputes over the president\u27s removal authority, power to disregard statutes, authority to conduct foreign wars, and much else. However, the concept of the balance of powers has never received a satisfactory theoretical treatment. This Essay examines possible theories of the balance of powers and rejects them all as unworkable and normatively questionable. Judges and scholars should abandon the balance-of-powers metaphor and instead address directly whether bureaucratic innovation is likely to improve policy outcomes

Tradable Pollution Permits and the Regulatory Game

This paper analyzes polluters\u27 incentives to move from a traditional command and control (CAC) environmental regulatory regime to a tradable permits (TPP) regime. Existing work in environmental economics does not model how firms contest and bargain over actual regulatory implementation in CAC regimes, and therefore fail to compare TPP regimes with any CAC regime that is actually observed. This paper models CAC environmental regulation as a bargaining game over pollution entitlements. Using a reduced form model of the regulatory contest, it shows that CAC regulatory bargaining likely generates a regulatory status quo under which firms with the highest compliance costs bargain for the smallest pollution reductions, or even no reduction at all. As for a tradable permits regime, it is shown that all firms are better off under such a regime than they would be under an idealized CAC regime that set and enforced a uniform pollution standard, but permit sellers (low compliance cost firms) may actually be better off under a TPP regime with relaxed aggregate pollution levels. Most importantly, because high cost firms (or facilities) are the most weakly regulated in the equilibrium under negotiated or bargained CAC regimes, they may be net losers in a proposed move to a TPP regime. When equilibrium costs under a TPP regime are compared with equilibrium costs under a status quo CAC regime, several otherwise paradoxical aspects of firm attitudes toward TPP type reforms can be explained. In particular, the otherwise paradoxical pattern of allowances awarded under Phase II of the 1990 Clean Air Act\u27s acid rain program, a pattern tending to favor (in Phase II) cleaner, newer generating units, is explained by the fact that under the status quo regime, a kind of bargained CAC, it was the newer cleaner units that were regulated, and which therefore had higher marginal control costs than did the largely unregulated older, plants. As a normative matter, the analysis here implies that the proper baseline for evaluating TPP regimes such as those contained in the Bush Administration\u27s recent Clear Skies initiative is not idealized, but nonexistent CAC regulatory outcomes, but rather the outcomes that have resulted from the bargaining game set up by CAC laws and regulations

Dissidents and God-Talk in the Johannine Epistles

Peer reviewe

Bimodal Mesoporous Titanium Nitride/Carbon Microfibers as Efficient and Stable Electrocatalysts for Li–O_2 Batteries

The rechargeable Li–O_2 battery has been considered as a sustainable chemical power source for electric vehicles and grid energy storage systems due to the high theoretical specific energy (∼3500 Wh/kg). The practical performance of Li–O_2 batteries is, however, still far below expectations. This is mainly attributed to the (1) intrinsic sluggish reaction kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), (2) passivation of the electrodes by electrical isolation and pore blocking, and (3) chemical instability of the organic cell components, i.e., electrolyte, polymer binder, and carbon electrode, in the presence of O_2•– and Li_2O_2. It is crucial to develop highly porous, three-dimensional, conducting cathode catalyst/gas diffusion layer (GDL) architectures possessing superior catalytic activity and stability with respect to the ORR and the OER in order to address these issues. All of these requirements prompted us to examine the catalytic performance of porous framework metal nitride electrodes for Li–O_2 batteries