Multivariate Simulation-based Forecasting for Intraday Power Markets: Modelling Cross-Product Price Effects

Intraday electricity markets play an increasingly important role in balancing the intermittent generation of renewable energy resources, which creates a need for accurate probabilistic price forecasts. However, research to date has focused on univariate approaches, while in many European intraday electricity markets all delivery periods are traded in parallel. Thus, the dependency structure between different traded products and the corresponding cross-product effects cannot be ignored. We aim to fill this gap in the literature by using copulas to model the high-dimensional intraday price return vector. We model the marginal distribution as a zero-inflated Johnson's $S_U$ distribution with location, scale and shape parameters that depend on market and fundamental data. The dependence structure is modelled using latent beta regression to account for the particular market structure of the intraday electricity market, such as overlapping but independent trading sessions for different delivery days. We allow the dependence parameter to be time-varying. We validate our approach in a simulation study for the German intraday electricity market and find that modelling the dependence structure improves the forecasting performance. Additionally, we shed light on the impact of the single intraday coupling (SIDC) on the trading activity and price distribution and interpret our results in light of the market efficiency hypothesis. The approach is directly applicable to other European electricity markets

A constrained supersymmetric left-right model

We present a supersymmetric left-right model which predicts gauge coupling unification close to the string scale and extra vector bosons at the TeV scale. The subtleties in constructing a model which is in agreement with the measured quark masses and mixing for such a low left-right breaking scale are discussed. It is shown that in the constrained version of this model radiative breaking of the gauge symmetries is possible and a SM-like Higgs is obtained. Additional CP-even scalars of a similar mass or even much lighter are possible. The expected mass hierarchies for the supersymmetric states differ clearly from those of the constrained MSSM. In particular, the lightest down-type squark, which is a mixture of the sbottom and extra vector-like states, is always lighter than the stop. We also comment on the model's capability to explain current anomalies observed at the LHC.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures; v2: references added, matches published versio

A generalization of Geroch's conjecture

The Theorem of Bonnet--Myers implies that manifolds with topology $M^{n-1} \times \mathbb{S}^1$ do not admit a metric of positive Ricci curvature, while the resolution of Geroch's conjecture implies that the torus $\mathbb{T}^n$ does not admit a metric of positive scalar curvature. In this work we introduce a new notion of curvature interpolating between Ricci and scalar curvature (so called $m$-intermediate curvature), and use stable weighted slicings to show that for $n \leq 7$ the manifolds $N^n = M^{n-m} \times \mathbb{T}^m$ do not admit a metric of positive $m$-intermediate curvature.Comment: final version; to appear in Comm. Pure. Appl. Mat

Forest, Wood and Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities in the UNECE Region

This essay explains the importance of the forests as a factor in addressing the challenges in mitigating climate change. The potential of using the forest sector more fully to capture and store carbon has been limited by the failure of current protocols and other climate change mechanisms to adequately account for the contribution of this sector. Thus, a better accounting, which will give the proper credit to the impacts that this sector is having, is viewed to be an important next step to increasing the resources that countries will devote to this factor in addressing climate change. The degree to which global warming is already affecting the forest is also discussed; increasingly mankind may be required to be more proactive in implementing “planned adaptation” activities such as increasing the diversification of forestry resources.Climate change, global warming, forest, biofuels

Dark matter and LHC phenomenology in a left-right supersymmetric model

Left-right symmetric extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model can explain neutrino data and have potentially interesting phenomenology beyond that found in minimal SUSY seesaw models. Here we study a SUSY model in which the left-right symmetry is broken by triplets at a high scale, but significantly below the GUT scale. Sparticle spectra in this model differ from the usual constrained MSSM expectations and these changes affect the relic abundance of the lightest neutralino. We discuss changes for the standard stau (and stop) co-annihilation, the Higgs funnel and the focus point regions. The model has potentially large lepton flavour violation in both, left and right, scalar leptons and thus allows, in principle, also for flavoured co-annihilation. We also discuss lepton flavour signals due to violating decays of the second lightest neutralino at the LHC, which can be as large as 20 fb(-1) at root s = 14 TeV

Nobody’s perfect: interactive synthesis from parametrized real-time scenarios

ABSTRACT As technical systems keep growing more complex and sophisticated, designing software for the safety-critical coordination between their components becomes increasingly difficult. Verifying and correcting these components already represents a significant part of the development process both with respect to time and cost. Scenario-based synthesis has been put forward as an approach to accelerate the transition from requirements to a correct, verified model. I

Late Quaternary aeolian dynamics, pedostratigraphy and soil formation in the North European Lowlands – new findings from the Baruther ice-marginal valley

The construction of dunes in central Europe reflects ample sediment supply during the last deglacial hemicycle. A Quaternary inland dune complex in southern Brandenburg, Germany, was studied to determine the duration of recent pedogenesis, from two outcrops, which show buried paleosols. An integrative approach, which combined geomorphological, sedimentological, (paleo-)pedological and chronological methods was used to identify aeolian deposition events, ensuing pedogenesis and anthropogenic remobilization. At the outcrops, which were situated approximately 2 km apart from each other, in total twelve samples of the aeolian sands were dated using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and six using 14C dating. Although the dunes have similar morphological features, these forms have a different history of aeolian sand deposition and pedogenesis. At the older dune (Gl 1) the surface soil is a well developed Podzol, whereas soil development of the younger dune (Gl 2) is clearly in an initial state. The two dunes also differ in grain size distribution and in the presence of buried soils, thereby indicating a climatic impact on aeolian remobilization

Messung von Schwermetallen und Hauptelementen in anthropogen geprägten Böden mittels feldportabler Röntgenfluoreszenzanalyse (FP RFA)

Der Einsatz eines feldportablen Röntgenfluoreszenzanalysators (FP RFA) vom Typ NITON XL3t, zur Messung von Schwermetallen und Hauptelementen in Bodenproben wurde am Beispiel eines ehemaligen Rieselfelds untersucht. Die Gegenüberstellung der RFA Daten zu nasschemisch gewonnenen Messwerten zeigte insbesondere für die Elemente Kupfer, Blei und Zink eine starke Korrelation zwischen beiden Datensätzen. Die Elemente Calcium, Kalium, Phosphor und Magnesium konnten im untersuchten Messwertbereich nicht befriedigend analysiert werden. Die in-situ Messung ergab mit Labordaten vergleichbare Messwerte und Messwertverteilungen, wenngleich im Feld z.T. deutlich höhere Metallgehalte bestimmt wurden

Perturbing exactly tri-bimaximal neutrino mixings with charged lepton mass matrices

We study perturbations of exactly tri-bimaximal neutrino mixings under the assumption that they are coming solely from the charged lepton mass matrix. This may be plausible in scenarios where the mass generation mechanisms of neutrinos and charged leptons/quarks have a different origin. As a working hypothesis, we assume mass textures which may be generated by the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism for the charged lepton and quark sectors, which generically leads to strong hierarchies, whereas the neutrino sector is exactly tri-bimaximal with a mild (normal) hierarchy. We find that in this approach, deviations from maximal atmospheric mixing can be introduced without affecting theta_13 and theta_12, whereas a deviation of theta_13 or theta_12 from its tri-bimaximal value will inevitably lead to a similar-sized deviation of the other parameter. Therefore, the already very precise knowledge of theta_12 points towards small sin^2(2 theta_13) <= 0.01. The magnitude of this deviation can be controlled by the specific form of the charged lepton texture.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures; matches published version, changes in notatio