Human rights and climate policy – toward a new concept of freedom, protection rights, and balancing

Neither the scope of “protection obligations” which are based on fundamental rights nor the theory of constitutional balancing nor the issue of “absolute” minimum standards (fundamental rights nuclei, “Grundrechtskerne”), which have to be preserved in the balancing of fundamental rights, can be considered satisfactorily resolved–in spite of intensive, long-standing debates. On closer analysis, the common case law definitions turn out to be not always consistent. This is generally true and with respect to environmental fundamental rights at the national, European, and international level. Regarding the theory of balancing, for the purpose of a clear balance of powers the usual principle of proportionality also proves specifiable. This allows a new analysis, whether fundamental rights have absolute cores. This question is does not only apply to human dignity and the German Aviation Security Act, but even if environmental policy accepts death, e.g. regarding climate change. Overall, it turns out that an interpretation of fundamental rights which is more multipolar and considers the conditions for freedom more heavily–as well as the freedom of future generations and of people in other parts of the world–develops a greater commitment to climate protection

Collective excitations in open-shell metal clusters: The time-dependent local-density approximation applied to the self-consistent spheroidal jellium particle

The self-consistent and microscopic time-dependent local-density-approximation (TDLDA) formalism for the calculation of the dynamical electronic response properties of open-shell, axially deformed small metal clusters is presented in detail. The model is based on the self-consistent ground-state calculation of the spheroidal jellium model, giving the optimized cluster shape, driven by its open-valence-shell electronic structure. First results on the static and dynamical electronic polarizability of the strongly axially deformed Na10 cluster are reported and compared with the experimental polarizability and photoabsorption cross-section results. The variety of the future applications of the model is outlined, as well as the possible improvement of the formalism

Photoabsorption cross section of negatively charged alkali-metal clusters

The optical response of anionic clusters of sodium and potassium with up to 40 valence electrons is calculated making use of a self-interaction-corrected linear-response formalism recently developed by the authors. It is found that, for these systems, the surface plasmon is excited systematically above the ionization threshold and is strongly Landau damped, with its strength distribution spread over an energy interval of typically ≈1 eV, reflecting the shorter lifetime of these systems with respect to the neutral and cationic clusters. Furthermore, it is found that temperature-dependent broadening mechanisms are able to wash out the fine structure in the line shapes of the cross sections

The Effective Particle-Hole Interaction and the Optical Response of Simple Metal Clusters

Following Sham and Rice [L. J. Sham, T. M. Rice, Phys. Rev. 144 (1966) 708] the correlated motion of particle-hole pairs is studied, starting from the general two-particle Greens function. In this way we derive a matrix equation for eigenvalues and wave functions, respectively, of the general type of collective excitation of a N-particle system. The interplay between excitons and plasmons is fully described by this new set of equations. As a by-product we obtain - at least a-posteriori - a justification for the use of the TDLDA for simple-metal clusters.Comment: RevTeX, 15 pages, 5 figures in uufiles format, 1 figure avaible from [email protected]

Comparative study of model potentials for the calculation of dielectric properties of small metal particles

Quite recently the dielectric electronic-response properties of small metal particles were investigated within a strictly self-consistent spherical jellium model. The bottleneck of this kind of calculation for a larger cluster is the self-consistent solution of the single-electron Kohn-Sham equations. Therefore, in this work simple model potentials are investigated and compared with the Kohn-Sham barrier. The result of this comparison is that the widely used model potentials such as finite- or infinite-step potentials are not able to mimic the complex dynamical behavior of a fully self-consistently responding surface

Climate Justice

CLIMATE JUSTICE Climate Justice / Ekardt, Felix (Rights reserved) ( -

Raus aus dem Kapitalismus - und dann? Rezension zu "Degrowth/Postwachstum: zur Einführung" von Matthias Schmelzer und Andrea Vetter

Matthias Schmelzer und Andrea Vetter: Degrowth/Postwachstum: zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius Verlag 2019. 978-3-96060-307-