BPS states of curves in Calabi--Yau 3--folds

The Gopakumar-Vafa conjecture is defined and studied for the local geometry of a curve in a Calabi-Yau 3-fold. The integrality predicted in Gromov-Witten theory by the Gopakumar-Vafa BPS count is verified in a natural series of cases in this local geometry. The method involves Gromov-Witten computations, Mobius inversion, and a combinatorial analysis of the numbers of etale covers of a curve.Comment: Published by Geometry and Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol5/paper9.abs.html Version 3 is GT version 2 and has corrections to eq (2) on p 295, to 1st eq in Prop 2.1 and the tables on p 39

Contempt, Community, and the Interruption of Sense

In the early modern period, contempt emerged as a persistent theme in moral philosophy. Most of the moral philosophers of the period shared two basic commitments in their thinking about contempt. First, they argued that we understand the value of others in the morally appropriate way when we understand them from the perspective of the morally relevant community. And second, they argued that we are naturally inclined to judge others as contemptible, and that we must therefore interrupt that natural movement of sense-bestowal in order to value others in the morally appropriate way. In this paper I examine in detail the arguments of Nicolas Malebranche and Immanuel Kant concerning the wrongness of contempt, emphasizing the ways in which they depend on conceptions of community and of the interruption of moral sense-bestowal. After showing how each of these arguments fails to comprehend the nature and the wrongness of contempt, I argue that we can find the resources for a more adequate account in the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, and specifically in his reflections on ontology and on the meaning of communit

A boundary integral method for an inverse problem in thermal imaging

An inverse problem in thermal imaging involving the recovery of a void in a material from its surface temperature response to external heating is examined. Uniqueness and continuous dependence results for the inverse problem are demonstrated, and a numerical method for its solution is developed. This method is based on an optimization approach, coupled with a boundary integral equation formulation of the forward heat conduction problem. Some convergence results for the method are proved, and several examples are presented using computationally generated data

Designing a Mixed Public and Private System for the Health Insurance Market

Reviews features of a reform proposal offering both public and private plans in a government-run purchasing pool, modeled on Medicare, in the commercial insurance market. Analyzes potential issues, including standardization of benefits and risk selection

Postcolonialism and the study of anti-semitism

In recent years Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) has become a common point of reference for those within postcolonial studies—such as Paul Gilroy, Aamir Mufti, and Michael Rothberg—who wish to explore the historical intersections between racism, fascism, colonialism, and anti-Semitism. “Postcolonialism and the Study of Anti-Semitism” relates Arendt’s comparative thinking to other anticolonial theorists and camp survivors at the end of the Second World War—most prominently, Jean Améry, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Primo Levi, and Jean-Paul Sartre—who all made connections between the history of genocide in Europe and European colonialism. The article then compares this strand of comparative thought with postcolonial theorists of the 1970s and 1980s who, contra Arendt, divide the histories of fascism and colonialism into separate spheres. It also contrasts postcolonial theory with postcolonial literature by exploring the intertwined histories in the fiction of V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, and Caryl Phillips. Said’s late turn to Jewish exilic thinkers such as Theodor Adorno, Erich Auerbach, and Sigmund Freud is also related to this Arendtian comparative project. The main aim of the article is to promote a more open-minded sense of historical connectedness with regard to the histories of racism, fascism, colonialism, and anti-Semitism

Review of The World Bank, A Case for Aid: Building a Consensus for Development Assistance, by James D. Wolfensohn & Nicolas Stern

[Excerpt] The World Bank’s new book, A Case for Aid: Building a Consensus for Development Assistance, indicates how dramatic and lasting the progress against global poverty has been in the past 50 years. It also shows how dramatically the Bank’s own understanding has risen, even in the past decade, of how to make its efforts more effective in relieving poverty and achieving other development goals. These two themes form the basis for the World Bank’s visionary thesis: that eradicating much of the poverty, ill health, and illiteracy around the world is within reach. The occasion for pronouncing this message in A Case for Aid was the International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey, Mexico in March 2002. The United Nations hosted this conference to chart the future of foreign aid. The conference was notable in part because of the dramatic, and surprising to some, announcement by America’s President Bush of a bold new commitment by the United States to foreign aid for the developing world. A Case for Aid memorializes this conference, and provides analysis and commentary of its issues. It includes four parts. First is a keynote speech, “A Partnership for Development and Peace,” from World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn. Second is an essay, “Making the Case for Aid,” written by World Bank chief economist Nicolas Stern after the conference. Third, forming the book’s bulk, is “The Role and Effectiveness of Development Assistance,” by a panel of World Bank authors. Finally, the book includes the official U.N. document “The Monterrey Consensus.