Generalization of the Nualart-Peccati criterion

The celebrated Nualart-Peccati criterion [Ann. Probab. 33 (2005) 177-193] ensures the convergence in distribution toward a standard Gaussian random variable $N$ of a given sequence $\{X_n\}_{n\ge1}$ of multiple Wiener-It\^{o} integrals of fixed order, if $\mathbb {E}[X_n^2]\to1$ and $\mathbb {E}[X_n^4]\to \mathbb {E}[N^4]=3$. Since its appearance in 2005, the natural question of ascertaining which other moments can replace the fourth moment in the above criterion has remained entirely open. Based on the technique recently introduced in [J. Funct. Anal. 266 (2014) 2341-2359], we settle this problem and establish that the convergence of any even moment, greater than four, to the corresponding moment of the standard Gaussian distribution, guarantees the central convergence. As a by-product, we provide many new moment inequalities for multiple Wiener-It\^{o} integrals. For instance, if $X$ is a normalized multiple Wiener-It\^{o} integral of order greater than one, $$\forall k\ge2,\qquad \mathbb {E}\bigl[X^{2k}\bigr]>\mathbb {E} \bigl[N^{2k}\bigr]=(2k-1)!!.$$Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AOP992 in the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Making and breaking monetary policy rules: the experience of African countries

This paper analyses the experience with rule-based monetary policy in African countries which have participated in monetary unions (CFA Franc Zone, Eastern African Currency Board and Rand Monetary Area). We show that African countries have generally lacked the domestic political institutions which would allow individual governments to tie their hands by establishing such rules. Monetary unions have proved to be an alternative possibility for credible commitment to sound macroeconomic policies, but only in cases where exit from a union is made costly by the provision of side-payments (or sanctions) in other areas of regional co-operation, and only when governance structures have been designed so as to maximise chances for the enforcement of monetary rules. We conclude by making suggestions about the design of African monetary unions.

Improving Policy Credibility: Is There a Case for African Monetary Unions?

This paper analyses the experience with monetary policy in African countries which have participated in rule-based international monetary arrangements (CFA Franc Zone, Eastern African Currency Board and Rand Monetary Area). It argues that African countries have generally lack the political institutions necessary for governments to credibly commit through domestic institutions (exchange rate pegs or independent central banks). For such countries, monetary unions can provide an alternative source of credible commitment to sound macroeconomic policies, but only when exit from a union is made costly by the existence of parallel regional accords, and only when governance structures of monetary unions have been designed so as to maximise chances for the enforcement of monetary rules.

Sequential products in effect categories

A new categorical framework is provided for dealing with multiple arguments in a programming language with effects, for example in a language with imperative features. Like related frameworks (Monads, Arrows, Freyd categories), we distinguish two kinds of functions. In addition, we also distinguish two kinds of equations. Then, we are able to define a kind of product, that generalizes the usual categorical product. This yields a powerful tool for deriving many results about languages with effects

Multiple scattering of light in cold atomic clouds with a magnetic field

Starting from a microscopic theory for atomic scatterers, we describe the scattering of light by a single atom and study the coherent propagation of light in a cold atomic cloud in the presence of a magnetic field B in the mesoscopic regime. Non-pertubative expressions in B are given for the magneto-optical effects and optical anisotropy. We then consider the multiple scattering regime and address the fate of the coherent backscattering (CBS) effect. We show that, for atoms with nonzero spin in their ground state, the CBS interference contrast can be increased compared to its value when B=0, a result at variance with classical samples. We validate our theoretical results by a quantitative comparison with experimental data.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Patterns for computational effects arising from a monad or a comonad

This paper presents equational-based logics for proving first order properties of programming languages involving effects. We propose two dual inference system patterns that can be instanciated with monads or comonads in order to be used for proving properties of different effects. The first pattern provides inference rules which can be interpreted in the Kleisli category of a monad and the coKleisli category of the associated comonad. In a dual way, the second pattern provides inference rules which can be interpreted in the coKleisli category of a comonad and the Kleisli category of the associated monad. The logics combine a 3-tier effect system for terms consisting of pure terms and two other kinds of effects called 'constructors/observers' and 'modifiers', and a 2-tier system for 'up-to-effects' and 'strong' equations. Each pattern provides generic rules for dealing with any monad (respectively comonad), and it can be extended with specific rules for each effect. The paper presents two use cases: a language with exceptions (using the standard monadic semantics), and a language with state (using the less standard comonadic semantics). Finally, we prove that the obtained inference system for states is Hilbert-Post complete

Partial Sums Computation In Polar Codes Decoding

Polar codes are the first error-correcting codes to provably achieve the channel capacity but with infinite codelengths. For finite codelengths the existing decoder architectures are limited in working frequency by the partial sums computation unit. We explain in this paper how the partial sums computation can be seen as a matrix multiplication. Then, an efficient hardware implementation of this product is investigated. It has reduced logic resources and interconnections. Formalized architectures, to compute partial sums and to generate the bits of the generator matrix k^n, are presented. The proposed architecture allows removing the multiplexing resources used to assigned to each processing elements the required partial sums.Comment: Accepted to ISCAS 201