The labour market after age 50: some elements of a Franco-American comparison

This paper examines various supply and demand side aspects of the French labour market for older workers and puts them in perspective by comparing them to the US case. We first consider the supply side incentives (or disincentives) of basic pension schemes for the two countries : for France, we discuss how these incentives have been changed by the 1993 and 2003 pension reforms and we present some projections of the impact of these reforms on labour force participation rates, based on the DESTINIE dynamic microsimulation model. We then discuss, on the demand side, the hypothesis of a wage-productivity gap for older workers which could explain their lower employment rates. Evidence in favor of this hypothesis is not overwhelming. Nevertheless, workers who lose their jobs at older ages probably suffer a large loss of firm-specific and sector-specific human capital. In the US, this does not preclude re-employment, but at the cost of significant drops of wage levels. In France, the collective choice has been made since the 1970s to allow older workers who lose their jobs to completely withdraw from the labour market : these workers have access to preretirement schemes or specific dispositions of unemployment insurance (including an exemption from seeking employment). This system proved difficult to regulate. Due to these difficulties, France has not been able to do more than stabilize the employment rate in the 55-64 age bracket during the 1990s, after 20 years of continuous decline. The key unanswered question is whether it will be possible to increase the employment rate of this age group in the next two decades.Pensions, preretirement, senior workers

Constraining local UV field geometry at reionization using Milky Way satellites

We present a new semi-analytical model of the population of satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, aimed at estimating the effect of the geometry of reionization at galaxy scale on the properties of the satellites. In this model reionization can be either: (A) externally-driven and uniform, or (B) internally-driven, by the most massive progenitor of the Milky Way. In the latter scenario the propagation of the ionisation front and photon dilution introduce a delay in the photo-evaporation of the outer satellites' gas with respect to the inner satellites. As a consequence, outer satellites experience a longer period of star formation than those in the inner halo. We use simple models to account for star formation, the propagation of the ionisation front, photo-evaporation and observational biases. Both scenarios yield a model satellite population that matches the observed luminosity function and mass-to-light ratios. However, the predicted population for scenario (B) is significantly more extended spatially than for scenario (A), by about 0.3 dex in distance, resulting in a much better match to the observations. The survival of the signature left by the local UV field during reionization on the radial distribution of satellites makes it a promising tool for studying the reionization epoch at galaxy scale in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies resolved in stars with forthcoming large surveys.Comment: Proceedings of the conference "Assembling the puzzle of the Milky Way" held at Le Grand Bornand, 201

Radiative Penguin Decays of B Mesons: Measurements of B -> K* gamma, B -> K2*(1430) gamma, and Search for B0 -> phi gamma

Electromagnetic radiative penguin decays of the B meson were studied with the BaBar detector at SLAC's PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory. Branching fractions and isospin asymmetry of the decay B -> K* gamma, branching fractions of B -> K2*(1430) gamma, and a search for B0 -> phi gamma are presented. The decay rates may be enhanced by contributions from non-standard model processes.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, presented at the 2004 Meeting of the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society, Riverside, CA, USA, August 26-31, 2004, submitted to International Journal of Modern Physics

Observation of the semileptonic decays B ---> D* tau- anti-nu(tau) and evidence for B ---> D tau- anti-nu(tau

We present measurements of the semileptonic decays B- --> D0 tau- nubar, B- --> D*0 tau- nubar, B0bar --> D+ tau- nubar, and B0bar --> D*+ tau- nubar, which are potentially sensitive to non--Standard Model amplitudes. The data sample comprises 232x10^6 Upsilon(4S) --> BBbar decays collected with the BaBar detector. From a combined fit to B- and B0bar channels, we obtain the branching fractions B(B --> D tau- nubar) = (0.86 +/- 0.24 +/- 0.11 +/- 0.06)% and B(B --> D* tau- nubar) = (1.62 +/- 0.31 +/- 0.10 +/- 0.05)% (normalized for the B0bar), where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and normalization-mode-related

Search for CP violation in the decays D0 ---> K- K+ and D0 ---> pi- pi+

We measure CP-violating asymmetries of neutral charmed mesons in the modes D0 --> K- K+ and D0 --> pi- pi+ with the highest precision to date by using D0 --> K- pi+ decays to correct detector asymmetries. An analysis of 385.8 fb-1 of data collected with the BaBar detector yields values of aCP(KK) = (0.00 +/- 0.34 (stat.) +/- 0.13 (syst.))% and aCP(pipi) = (-0.24 +/- 0.52 (stat.) +/- 0.22 (syst.))%, which agree with Standard Model prediction

Tau Physics from B Factories

Some recent $\tau$-physics results are presented from the BaBar and Belle experiments at the SLAC and KEK B factories, which produce copious numbers of $\tau$-lepton pairs. Measurements of the tau mass and lifetime allow to test lepton universality and CPT invariance, while searches for lepton-flavour violation in tau decays are powerful ways to look for physics beyond the Standard Model. In semihadronic, non-strange tau decays, the vector hadronic final state is particularly important in helping determine the hadronic corrections to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, while studies of strange final states are the best available ways to measure the CKM matrix element $V_{\rm us}$ and the mass of the strange quark.Comment: Presented at Charm 2006, International Workshop on Tau-Charm Physics, June 05-07 2006, Beijing, Chin

Initial Conditions for Large Cosmological Simulations

This technical paper describes a software package that was designed to produce initial conditions for large cosmological simulations in the context of the Horizon collaboration. These tools generalize E. Bertschinger's Grafic1 software to distributed parallel architectures and offer a flexible alternative to the Grafic2 software for ``zoom'' initial conditions, at the price of large cumulated cpu and memory usage. The codes have been validated up to resolutions of 4096^3 and were used to generate the initial conditions of large hydrodynamical and dark matter simulations. They also provide means to generate constrained realisations for the purpose of generating initial conditions compatible with, e.g. the local group, or the SDSS catalog.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, submitted to ApJ

Graded Hecke algebras for disconnected reductive groups

We introduce graded Hecke algebras H based on a (possibly disconnected) complex reductive group G and a cuspidal local system L on a unipotent orbit of a Levi subgroup M of G. These generalize the graded Hecke algebras defined and investigated by Lusztig for connected G. We develop the representation theory of the algebras H. obtaining complete and canonical parametrizations of the irreducible, the irreducible tempered and the discrete series representations. All the modules are constructed in terms of perverse sheaves and equivariant homology, relying on work of Lusztig. The parameters come directly from the data (G,M,L) and they are closely related to Langlands parameters. Our main motivation for considering these graded Hecke algebras is that the space of irreducible H-representations is canonically in bijection with a certain set of "logarithms" of enhanced L-parameters. Therefore we expect these algebras to play a role in the local Langlands program. We will make their relation with the local Langlands correspondence, which goes via affine Hecke algebras, precise in a sequel to this paper.Comment: Theorem 3.4 and Proposition 3.22 in version 1 were not entirely correct as stated. This is repaired in a new appendi

Beyond CP violation: hadronic physics at BaBar

I report on recent studies of hadronic physics performed by the BaBar Collaboration. Emphasis is given to the measurement of the properties of newly discovered charmed hadrons and to the searches for light and heavy pentaquarks.Comment: 14 pages, 20 postscript figues, contributed to the Proceedings of the First APS Topical Group Meeting on Hadron Physics, Fermilab, Batavia, IL (October 24-26, 2004

Understanding the newly observed Y(4008) by Belle

Very recently a new enhancement around 4.05 GeV was observed by Belle experiment. In this short note, we discuss some possible assignments for this enhancement, i.e. $\psi(3S)$ and $D^*\bar{D}^*$ molecular state. In these two assignments, Y(4008) can decay into $J/\psi\pi^0\pi^0$ with comparable branching ratio with that of $Y(4008)\to J/\psi\pi^+\pi^-$. Thus one suggests high energy experimentalists to look for Y(4008) in $J/\psi\pi^0\pi^0$ channel. Furthermore one proposes further experiments to search missing channel $D\bar{D}$, $D\bar{D}^*+h.c.$ and especially $\chi_{cJ}\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$ and $\eta_c\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$, which will be helpful to distinguish $\psi(3S)$ and $D^*\bar{D}^*$ molecular state assignments for this new enhancement.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Typos correcte