Friction measuring apparatus Patent

Kinetic and static friction force measurement between magnetic tape and magnetic head surface

Hedge funds, credit risk transfer and financial stability.

Over the past decade, central bankers and financial institution supervisors have sharpened their focus on the increasingly important role that private pools of investment funds play in global financial markets. The growth in these pools has contributed significantly to market efficiency and financial stability by expanding liquidity in many financial markets, improving price discovery, and, ultimately, lowering the costs of capital. Private investment pools and the alternative investment strategies they pursue have contributed to a signifi cant expansion of the global markets and have helped accelerate the evolution in traded credit products such as credit derivatives, collateralized debt obligations, and the securitization of an increasing array of traditionally illiquid assets. However, because of the lack of transparency and an established regime of supervision of these investment vehicles, policymakers and supervisors have become concerned about customer protection and the potential for systemic risk. This paper discusses some of the key issues confronting supervisors in light of the recent growth of private investment pools and the rapid developments in the area of credit risk transfer, with a particular focus on the implications of these trends regarding systemic risk and financial stability.

Self-similar collapse and the structure of dark matter halos: A fluid approach

We explore the dynamical restrictions on the structure of dark matter halos through a study of cosmological self-similar gravitational collapse solutions. A fluid approach to the collisionless dynamics of dark matter is developed and the resulting closed set of moment equations are solved numerically including the effect of halo velocity dispersions (both radial and tangential), for a range of spherically averaged initial density profiles. Our results highlight the importance of tangential velocity dispersions to obtain density profiles shallower than $1/r^2$ in the core regions, and for retaining a memory of the initial density profile, in self-similar collapse. For an isotropic core velocity dispersion only a partial memory of the initial density profile is retained. If tangential velocity dispersions in the core are constrained to be less than the radial dispersion, a cuspy core density profile shallower than $1/r$ cannot obtain, in self-similar collapse.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Ap

Bulk and surface transitions in asymmetric simple exclusion process: Impact on boundary layers

In this paper, we study boundary-induced phase transitions in a particle non-conserving asymmetric simple exclusion process with open boundaries. Using boundary layer analysis, we show that the key signatures of various bulk phase transitions are present in the boundary layers of the density profiles. In addition, we also find possibilities of surface transitions in the low- and high- density phases. The surface transition in the low-density phase provides a more complete description of the non-equilibrium critical point found in this system.Comment: 9 pages including figure

Gravitational Waves from Supermassive Black Hole Coalescence in a Hierarchical Galaxy Formation Model

We investigate the expected gravitational wave emission from coalescing supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries resulting from mergers of their host galaxies. When galaxies merge, the SMBHs in the host galaxies sink to the center of the new merged galaxy and form a binary system. We employ a semi-analytic model of galaxy and quasar formation based on the hierarchical clustering scenario to estimate the amplitude of the expected stochastic gravitational wave background owing to inspiraling SMBH binaries and bursts owing to the SMBH binary coalescence events. We find that the characteristic strain amplitude of the background radiation is $h_c(f) \sim 10^{-16} (f/1 \mu {\rm Hz})^{-2/3}$ for $f \lesssim 1 \mu {\rm Hz}$ just below the detection limit from measurements of the pulsar timing provided that SMBHs coalesce simultaneously when host galaxies merge. The main contribution to the total strain amplitude of the background radiation comes from SMBH coalescence events at $0<z<1$. We also find that a future space-based gravitational wave interferometer such as the planned \textit{Laser Interferometer Space Antenna} ({\sl LISA}) might detect intense gravitational wave bursts associated with coalescence of SMBH binaries with total mass $M_{\rm tot} < 10^7 M_{\odot}$ at $z \gtrsim 2$ at a rate $\sim 1.0 {\rm yr}^{-1}$. Our model predicts that burst signals with a larger amplitude $h_{\rm burst} \sim 10^{-15}$ correspond to coalescence events of massive SMBH binary with total mass $M_{\rm tot} \sim 10^8 M_{\odot}$ at low redshift $z \lesssim 1$ at a rate $\sim 0.1 {\rm yr}^{-1}$ whereas those with a smaller amplitude $h_{\rm burst} \sim 10^{-17}$ correspond to coalescence events of less massive SMBH binary with total mass $M_{\rm tot} \sim 10^6 M_{\odot}$ at high redshift $z \gtrsim 3$.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 11 pages, 7 figure

Improving the Price of Anarchy for Selfish Routing via Coordination Mechanisms

We reconsider the well-studied Selfish Routing game with affine latency functions. The Price of Anarchy for this class of games takes maximum value 4/3; this maximum is attained already for a simple network of two parallel links, known as Pigou's network. We improve upon the value 4/3 by means of Coordination Mechanisms. We increase the latency functions of the edges in the network, i.e., if $\ell_e(x)$ is the latency function of an edge $e$, we replace it by $\hat{\ell}_e(x)$ with $\ell_e(x) \le \hat{\ell}_e(x)$ for all $x$. Then an adversary fixes a demand rate as input. The engineered Price of Anarchy of the mechanism is defined as the worst-case ratio of the Nash social cost in the modified network over the optimal social cost in the original network. Formally, if \CM(r) denotes the cost of the worst Nash flow in the modified network for rate $r$ and \Copt(r) denotes the cost of the optimal flow in the original network for the same rate then [\ePoA = \max_{r \ge 0} \frac{\CM(r)}{\Copt(r)}.] We first exhibit a simple coordination mechanism that achieves for any network of parallel links an engineered Price of Anarchy strictly less than 4/3. For the case of two parallel links our basic mechanism gives 5/4 = 1.25. Then, for the case of two parallel links, we describe an optimal mechanism; its engineered Price of Anarchy lies between 1.191 and 1.192.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, preliminary version appeared at ESA 201

Mapping the dynamic interactions between vortex species in highly anisotropic superconductors

Here we use highly sensitive magnetisation measurements performed using a Hall probe sensor on single crystals of highly anisotropic high temperature superconductors $Bi_{2}Sr_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{8}$ to study the dynamic interactions between the two species of vortices that exist in such superconductors. We observe a remarkable and clearly delineated high temperature regime that mirrors the underlying vortex phase diagram. Our results map out the parameter space over which these dynamic interaction processes can be used to create vortex ratchets, pumps and other fluxonic devices.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Supercond. Sci. Techno

Derivation of the Blackbody Radiation Spectrum from a Natural Maximum-Entropy Principle Involving Casimir Energies and Zero-Point Radiation

By numerical calculation, the Planck spectrum with zero-point radiation is shown to satisfy a natural maximum-entropy principle whereas alternative choices of spectra do not. Specifically, if we consider a set of conducting-walled boxes, each with a partition placed at a different location in the box, so that across the collection of boxes the partitions are uniformly spaced across the volume, then the Planck spectrum correspond to that spectrum of random radiation (having constant energy kT per normal mode at low frequencies and zero-point energy (1/2)hw per normal mode at high frequencies) which gives maximum uniformity across the collection of boxes for the radiation energy per box. The analysis involves Casimir energies and zero-point radiation which do not usually appear in thermodynamic analyses. For simplicity, the analysis is presented for waves in one space dimension.Comment: 11 page