The Role of Foreign Direct Investment on Press Freedom

In our paper we establish foreign direct investment (FDI) as a major determinant of media freedom. Global integration can strengthen the media sector financially, make it technologically enhanced and can also improve the economic environment as a whole. This, in turn, would work towards the enhancement of media freedom. The sample includes high, middle and low income economies. Using a panel of 115 countries over a period of 20 years, our results reveal that FDI is an absolute necessity for a free and efficient media. The results are robust to various alternate specifications and inclusion of additional control variables.Foreign Direct Investment; Press Freedom; Institutions

Foreign Direct Investment, Financial Development and Political Risks

Financial development is definitely a determinant of the extent of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow into an economy. Yet, the contribution of financial development (FD) can be dependent on the political situation of the recipient nation. Higher political stability aids financial institutions to reap the benefits of FDI efficiently. Our paper empirically investigates the role of political risk in the association of FDI and FD. Using a panel of 97 countries, we show the relationship to be strictly non-linear. The impact of FD on FDI becomes negative beyond a threshold level of FD. However, we do find political risk factors to be affecting the relationship by altering the threshold level of financial development.Foreign Direct Investment, Financial Development, Political Risks

Fidelity, Rosen-Zener Dynamics, Entropy and Decoherence in one dimensional hard-core bosonic systems

We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of a one-dimensional system of hard core bosons (HCBs) in the presence of an onsite potential (with an alternating sign between the odd and even sites) which shows a quantum phase transition (QPT) from the superfluid (SF) phase to the so-called "Mott Insulator" (MI) phase. The ground state quantum fidelity shows a sharp dip at the quantum critical point (QCP) while the fidelity susceptibility shows a divergence right there with its scaling given in terms of the correlation length exponent of the QPT. We then study the evolution of this bosonic system following a quench in which the magnitude of the alternating potential is changed starting from zero (the SF phase) to a non-zero value (the MI phase) according to a half Rosen Zener (HRZ) scheme or brought back to the initial value following a full Rosen Zener (FRZ) scheme. The local von Neumann entropy density is calculated in the final MI phase (following the HRZ quench) and is found to be less than the equilibrium value ($\log 2$) due to the defects generated in the final state as a result of the quenching starting from the QCP of the system. We also briefly dwell on the FRZ quenching scheme in which the system is finally in the SF phase through the intermediate MI phase and calculate the reduction in the supercurrent and the non-zero value of the residual local entropy density in the final state. Finally, the loss of coherence of a qubit (globally and weekly coupled to the HCB system) which is initially in a pure state is investigated by calculating the time-dependence of the decoherence factor when the HCB chain evolves under a HRZ scheme starting from the SF phase. This result is compared with that of the sudden quench limit of the half Rosen-Zener scheme where an exact analytical form of the decoherence factor can be derived.Comment: To appear in European Physical Journal

Effect of Non Unitarity on Neutrino Mass Hierarchy determination at DUNE, NOν\nuA and T2K

The neutrino mass ordering is one of the principal unknowns in the neutrino sector. Long baseline neutrino experiments have the potential of resolving this issue as they are sensitive to large matter effects. The superbeam experiment DUNE is one of the most promising candidates to study the neutrino mass hierarchy, along with NO$\nu$A and T2K. But in the presence of non unitarity of the leptonic mixing matrix, the capability of such experiments to discriminate between the two hierarchies gets suppressed. The mass hierarchy sensitivity of DUNE decreases in the presence of new physics. In this paper we analyze the origin and extent of this loss of sensitivity at the level of oscillation probabilities, events, mass hierarchy sensitivity and the discovery reach of DUNE, NO$\nu$A and T2K.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, modified version, new text and figure added, accepted for publication in Nuclear Physics