4,756 research outputs found
Has core inflation been doing a good job in Brazil?
This paper assesses the performance of the core inflation measures calculated by the Brazilian Central Bank (BCB). The evidence shows that they do not meet some key statistical criteria that a good core inflation should have: unbiasedness and the ability to forecast inflation. That performance stems, to a large extent, from the lack of a well-grounded statistical and economical basis behind them. Three new measures are built and assessed using the same criteria. The evidence shows that their behaviour is more in accordance to what the theory claims. However, they still lack the ability to help forecasting inflation. Hence both the BCB and the market should use core inflation cautiously.Core inflation; inflation; supply shocks; relative prices; volatility
Stability properties and asymptotics for N non-minimally coupled scalar fields cosmology
We consider here the dynamics of some homogeneous and isotropic cosmological
models with interacting classical scalar fields non-minimally coupled to
the spacetime curvature, as an attempt to generalize some recent results
obtained for one and two scalar fields. We show that a Lyapunov function can be
constructed under certain conditions for a large class of models, suggesting
that chaotic behavior is ruled out for them. Typical solutions tend generically
to the empty de Sitter (or Minkowski) fixed points, and the previous asymptotic
results obtained for the one field model remain valid. In particular, we
confirm that, for large times and a vanishing cosmological constant, even in
the presence of the extra scalar fields, the universe tends to an infinite
diluted matter dominated era.Comment: 10 page
[SADE] A Maple package for the Symmetry Analysis of Differential Equations
We present the package SADE (Symmetry Analysis of Differential Equations) for
the determination of symmetries and related properties of systems of
differential equations. The main methods implemented are: Lie, nonclassical,
Lie-B\"acklund and potential symmetries, invariant solutions, first-integrals,
N\"other theorem for both discrete and continuous systems, solution of ordinary
differential equations, reduction of order or dimension using Lie symmetries,
classification of differential equations, Casimir invariants, and the
quasi-polynomial formalism for ODE's (previously implemented in the package
QPSI by the authors) for the determination of quasi-polynomial first-integrals,
Lie symmetries and invariant surfaces. Examples of use of the package are
given
Superinflation, quintessence, and the avoidance of the initial singularity
We consider the dynamics of a spatially flat universe dominated by a
self-interacting nonminimally coupled scalar field. The structure of the phase
space and complete phase portraits for the conformal coupling case are given.
It is shown that the non-minimal coupling modifies drastically the dynamics of
the universe. New cosmological behaviors are identified, including
superinflation (), avoidance of big bang singularities through
classical birth of the universe from empty Minkowski space, and spontaneous
entry into and exit from inflation. The relevance of this model to the
description of quintessence is discussed.Comment: RevTex, 10 pages, 4 figures, To appear in the proceedings of the 5th
Peyresq meetin
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