Improving the Accessibility of the NBER's Historical Data

During the early years of its existence, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) assembled an extensive data set on all aspects of the pre-WWII macroeconomy. Until 1978, this data set existed only on the handwritten sheets to which the early NBER researchers copied the data from original sources. In 1978, the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) transferred the data to magnetic tape. A number of researchers have used the ICPSR tape, but two key problems discourage many from taking advantage of this unique data set. The first is that modern econometric software does not have the ability to read the obsolete ICPSR format. The second is that the process of transferring the data from the NBER's handwritten sheets to the ICPSR tape introduced a number of mistakes. We have eliminated these two impediments to the use of the NBER data set by converting the ICPSR tape to a portable format and by verifying the accuracy of the data using the NBER's original handwritten sheets. The data set is now available on the Internet and can be accessed using standard gopher or web-browser software.

Many-Body Theory of the Electroweak Nuclear Response

After a brief review of the theoretical description of nuclei based on nonrelativistic many-body theory and realistic hamiltonians, these lectures focus on its application to the analysis of the electroweak response. Special emphasis is given to electron-nucleus scattering, whose experimental study has provided a wealth of information on nuclear structure and dynamics, exposing the limitations of the shell model. The extension of the formalism to the case of neutrino-nucleus interactions, whose quantitative understanding is required to reduce the systematic uncertainty of neutrino oscillation experiments, is also discussed.Comment: Lectures delivered at the DAE-BRNS Workshop on Hadron Physics. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (India), February 18-23, 200

Ground state of a resonantly interacting Bose gas

We show that a two-channel mean-field theory for a Bose gas near a Feshbach resonance allows for an analytic computation of the chemical potential, and therefore the universal constant \beta, at unitarity. To improve on this mean-field theory, which physically neglects condensate depletion, we study a variational Jastrow ansatz for the ground-state wave function and use the hypernetted-chain approximation to minimize the energy for all positive values of the scattering length. We also show that other important physical quantities such as Tan's contact and the condensate fraction can be directly obtained from this approach.Comment: Replaced with published version; 11 pages, 7 figure

Ground state properties of a dilute homogeneous Bose gas of hard disks in two dimensions

The energy and structure of a dilute hard-disks Bose gas are studied in the framework of a variational many-body approach based on a Jastrow correlated ground state wave function. The asymptotic behaviors of the radial distribution function and the one-body density matrix are analyzed after solving the Euler equation obtained by a free minimization of the hypernetted chain energy functional. Our results show important deviations from those of the available low density expansions, already at gas parameter values $x\sim 0.001$. The condensate fraction in 2D is also computed and found generally lower than the 3D one at the same $x$.Comment: Submitted to PRA. 7 pages and 8 figure

Translationally invariant treatment of pair correlations in nuclei: II. Tensor correlations

We study the extension of our translationally invariant treatment of few-body nuclear systems to include tensor forces and correlations. It is shown that a direct application of our method is not as successful for realistic V6 interactions as our previous results for V4 potentials suggested. We investigate the cause in detail for the case of $^4$He, and show that a combination of our method with that of Jastrow-correlated wave functions seems to be a lot more powerful, thereby suggesting that for mildly to strongly repulsive forces such a hybrid procedure may be an appropriate description.Comment: 19 pages, 3 ps figures. uses elsart, graphicx, amssym

On the Jastrow Wave Function for N-Particles on a Plane

The possibility of describing quantum mechanical particles on a plane by a Jastrow wave function is studied. We obtain the condition under which the particles interact through pair potentials. It is found that if the interparticle forces depend only on distance, then only the attractive harmonic pair potential is consistent with the Jastrow ansatz. We discuss some connections with wave functions encountered in the quantized Hall effect.Comment: 10 pages LaTeX, Phys. Lett. A to appea

Making the most of community energies:Three perspectives on grassroots innovation

Grassroots innovations for sustainability are attracting increasing policy attention. Drawing upon a wide range of empirical research into community energy in the UK, and taking recent support from national government as a case study, we apply three distinct analytical perspectives: strategic niche management; niche policy advocacy; and critical niches. Whilst the first and second perspectives appear to explain policy influence in grassroots innovation adequately, each also shuts out more transformational possibilities. We therefore argue that, if grassroots innovation is to realise its full potential, then we need to also pursue a third, critical niches perspective, and open up debate about more socially transformative pathways to sustainability

Soluble `Supersymmetric' Quantum XY Model

We present a `supersymmetric' modification of the $d$-dimensional quantum rotor model whose ground state is exactly soluble. The model undergoes a vortex-binding transition from insulator to metal as the rotor coupling is varied. The Hamiltonian contains three-site terms which are relevant: they change the universality class of the transition from that of the ($d+1$)--- to the $d$-dimensional classical XY model. The metallic phase has algebraic ODLRO but the superfluid density is identically zero. Variational wave functions for single-particle and collective excitations are presented.Comment: 12 pages, REVTEX 3.0, IUCM93-00

High-quality variational wave functions for small 4He clusters

We report a variational calculation of ground state energies and radii for 4He_N droplets (3 \leq N \leq 40), using the atom-atom interaction HFD-B(HE). The trial wave function has a simple structure, combining two- and three-body correlation functions coming from a translationally invariant configuration-interaction description, and Jastrow-type short-range correlations. The calculated ground state energies differ by around 2% from the diffusion Monte Carlo results.Comment: 5 pages, 1 ps figure, REVTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev.