A variational principle for actions on symmetric symplectic spaces

We present a definition of generating functions of canonical relations, which are real functions on symmetric symplectic spaces, discussing some conditions for the presence of caustics. We show how the actions compose by a neat geometrical formula and are connected to the hamiltonians via a geometrically simple variational principle which determines the classical trajectories, discussing the temporal evolution of such ``extended hamiltonians'' in terms of Hamilton-Jacobi-type equations. Simplest spaces are treated explicitly.Comment: 28 pages. Edited english translation of first author's PhD thesis (2000

Calculation of the two-photon decay width of the f_0(980) scalar meson

The applicability of the quasi-static approximation for calculating the two-photon annihilation rate of the scalar f_0(980) meson envisaged as a K\bar K molecule is critically re-examined. It is shown that the validity of this approximation depends on the detailed interplay between the momentum dependence of the annihilation amplitude and the momentum transform of the bound state wave function of the annihilating pair. The approximation becomes invalid when these two scales of variation are similar. An improved method of calculation based on the inclusion of electromagnetic corrections to the kernel of the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the interacting K\bar K pair is outlined to cover this case and applied to re-evaluate the two-photon decay width for f_0(980) in a one boson exchange model for the interkaon interaction. The corrections are significant and result in a much better agreement with experiment.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. Fig.3 replaced. Additional remarks with reference

IWP strategy: TechFrame

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsTechFrame is an IT Portuguese company that provides a software package to Industrial Property Agents to manage their clients’ portfolio. In Portugal this firm is a market leader, having a share of 80%, and facing no competition, although some substitutes do exist. With this scenario in the Portuguese market, TechFrame has low expectations of increasing business volume, due to the specificity of this industry. In order to increase sales volume and focusing on their core competences, TechFrame´s best solution is to expand into new markets. Currently this firm is considering some internationalization processes into the French, Italian and UK markets. This IWP will analyze the internationalization into France. To do so, an analysis and explanation of the attractiveness of this new market is included further along in this paper. It will be seen that despite the fierce competition that TechFrame will face in France, it will still be an attractive market to enter due to its’ large size and growing Industrial Property culture among organizations. Based on that analysis it will be concluded that the best way to enter the French market is through the creation of an office, and some recommendations will also be made such as conquering first the SMEs then the larger firms and also the development of the Design Module

On the notion of phase in mechanics

The notion of phase plays an esential role in both classical and quantum mechanics.But what is a phase? We show that if we define the notion of phase in phase (!) space one can very easily and naturally recover the Heisenberg-Weyl formalism; this is achieved using the properties of the Poincare-Cartan invariant, and without making any quantum assumption

Transferring Water and Climate Resilience Lessons from Australia\u27s Millennium Drought to Southern California

Southern California and Southern Australia are two regions of the world which share many climatic, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics that lend themselves to meaningful exchanges of knowledge and innovations. With the benefit of Australia’s documented experiences, California can learn what solutions worked and did not work in Australia, potentially avoiding major pitfalls. While some changes in California are already underway, many opportunities – and challenges – still remain. California’s policymakers and residents can adopt and adapt the most fitting solutions from Australia’s experience. California, and especially Southern California, can use these to appropriately and effectively respond to the extremes of our long-term water and climate crises. In doing so, we will put California on a better path towards resilience as we navigate the challenges of drought, flood and extreme heat forecast to increase in our future. In October 2014, TreePeople and The Energy Coalition co-organized and co-led a delegation of policymakers and elected officials from throughout California to the Australian cities of Melbourne and Adelaide. These cities implemented innovative water management solutions during the Millennium Drought that helped to drought-proof their water supplies and increase resilience in anticipation of a changing climate. The goals of this delegation were to show California water leaders first-hand the drought and climate response initiatives that Adelaide and Melbourne employed and to focus on transferring and implementing viable approaches in California. This article highlights the key lessons learned from this research and provides recommendations for how Southern California can best approach transferring these lessons

Intersections of Lagrangian submanifolds and the Mel'nikov 1-form

We make explicit the geometric content of Mel'nikov's method for detecting heteroclinic points between transversally hyperbolic periodic orbits. After developing the general theory of intersections for pairs of family of Lagrangian submanifolds constrained to live in an auxiliary family of submanifolds, we explain how the heteroclinic orbits are detected by the zeros of the Mel'nikov 1 -form. This 1 -form admits an integral expression, which is non-convergent in general. Finally, we discuss different solutions to this convergence problem.Comment: Corrected typos, modified title, updated bibliograph

Stability criterion for bright solitary waves of the perturbed cubic-quintic Schroedinger equation

The stability of the bright solitary wave solution to the perturbed cubic-quintic Schroedinger equation is considered. It is shown that in a certain region of parameter space these solutions are unstable, with the instability being manifested as a small positive eigenvalue. Furthermore, it is shown that in the complimentary region of parameter space there are no small unstable eigenvalues. The proof involves a novel calculation of the Evans function, which is of interest in its own right. As a consequence of the eigenvalue calculation, it is additionally shown that N-bump bright solitary waves bifurcate from the primary wave.Comment: 28 pages, LaTeX, submitted; author info at http://www.math.unm.edu/~kapitul

Documentaries: Both Informing and Entertaining New Zealanders

Interview by Laurence Weinstein of William De Friez and Veronica McCarthy, owners of Raconteur Productions in New Zealand. William (“Bill”) De Friez and Veronica (“Ronni”) McCarthy own and operate Raconteur Film and Television Productions located in downtown Christchurch. Bill serves as part-time director; his full-time position is faculty lecturer in the Film Department of the University of Canterbury. Ronni is the full-time producer for their small business operation that completes an average of three documentaries per year as well as a network children’s series and other special projects. She won the prestigious Winston Churchill Fellowship in 1995 to study children’s television outside of New Zealand

Three-body confinement force in a realistic constituent quark model

We show that in realistic constituent quark models based on a two-body confinement interaction color states appear in the middle of the experimentally known spectrum. To avoid this situation we implement a three-body confinement interaction, introduced on an algebraic basis, into a semirelativistic version of the Goldstone-boson-exchange constituent quark model and by solving the Faddeev equations we show that this interaction can increase the gap between singlet and colour states, such as the latter can be ignored and the known baryons can be described as $q^3$ systems. We analyze the effect of a $\Delta$- and a Y-shape three-body interaction.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, revised version to appear in Nucl. Phys.