7,278 research outputs found
Raising household energy prices in Poland : who gains? who loses?
The authors examine the welfare effects of increasing household energy prices in Poland. Their main finding is that the policy of subsidizing household energy prices, common in the transition economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, is regressive. Such programs do help the poor by providing them with lower-cost energy, but they are more useful to the rich, who consume more energy. What is surprising is the extent to which Poland's nonpoor have benefited from lower energy prices. Non only do the wealthy consume more energy in absolute terms than the poor, but they also spend a larger portion of their income on energy. Their analysis allowed the authors to rule out the oft-used social welfare argument for delaying increases in household energy prices, but they do not try to recommend a dynamically efficient pricing path. The first-best response would be to raise energy prices while targeting cash relief to the poor through a social assistance program. This is far more efficient than the present go-slow price adjustment policies, which imply energy subsidies that provide across-the-board relief to all consumers. But if governments want to provide some relief for consumers to ease the adjustment, several options are available: in-kind transfers to the poor, vouchers, cash transfers, and lifeline pricing for a small block of electricity combined with significant price increases. Simulations show that if raising prices to efficient levels for all consumers is not now politically feasible, it may be socially better to use lifeline pricing and a large price increase rather than an overall (but smaller) price increase. Lifeline pricing for electricity in combination with an 80 percent price increase has better distributional effects than a 50 percent across-the-board price increase. Ideally, the public utility would be compensated from the budgtet for any reduced-price sales, rather than having to finance them through internal cross-subsidies. In-kind transfers to poor households are also effective in terms of efficiency, but may be harder to administer in some countries than lifeline pricing.Engineering,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets,Energy Demand
Strain induced stabilization of stepped Si and Ge surfaces near (001)
We report on calculations of the formation energies of several [100] and
[110] oriented step structures on biaxially stressed Si and Ge (001) surfaces.
It is shown that a novel rebonded [100] oriented single-height step is strongly
stabilized by compressive strain compared to most well-known step structures.
We propose that the side walls of ``hut''-shaped quantum dots observed in
recent experiments on SiGe/Si films are made up of these steps. Our
calculations provide an explanation for the nucleationless growth of shallow
mounds, with steps along the [100] and [110] directions in low- and high-misfit
films, respectively, and for the stability of the (105) facets under
compressive strain.Comment: to appear in Appl. Phys. Lett.; v2=minor corrections,figs resize
Supergeometry and Arithmetic Geometry
We define a superspace over a ring as a functor on a subcategory of the
category of supercommutative -algebras. As an application the notion of a
-adic superspace is introduced and used to give a transparent construction
of the Frobenius map on -adic cohomology of a smooth projective variety over
the ring of -adic integers.Comment: 14 pages, expanded introduction, more detail
How to detect level crossings without looking at the spectrum
We remind the reader that it is possible to tell if two or more eigenvalues
of a matrix are equal, without calculating the eigenvalues. We then use this
property to detect (avoided) crossings in the spectra of quantum Hamiltonians
representable by matrices. This approach provides a pedagogical introduction to
(avoided) crossings, is capable of handling realistic Hamiltonians
analytically, and offers a way to visualize crossings which is sometimes
superior to that provided by the spectrum. We illustrate the method using the
Breit-Rabi Hamiltonian to describe the hyperfine-Zeeman structure of the ground
state hydrogen atom in a uniform magnetic field.Comment: Accepted for publication in the American Journal of Physic
Some exact results for the velocity of cracks propagating in non-linear elastic models
We analyze a piece-wise linear elastic model for the propagation of a crack
in a stripe geometry under mode III conditions, in the absence of dissipation.
The model is continuous in the propagation direction and discrete in the
perpendicular direction. The velocity of the crack is a function of the value
of the applied strain. We find analytically the value of the propagation
velocity close to the Griffith threshold, and close to the strain of uniform
breakdown. Contrary to the case of perfectly harmonic behavior up to the
fracture point, in the piece-wise linear elastic model the crack velocity is
lower than the sound velocity, reaching this limiting value at the strain of
uniform breakdown. We complement the analytical results with numerical
simulations and find excellent agreement.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figure
Statistical Mechanics of Linear and Nonlinear Time-Domain Ensemble Learning
Conventional ensemble learning combines students in the space domain. In this
paper, however, we combine students in the time domain and call it time-domain
ensemble learning. We analyze, compare, and discuss the generalization
performances regarding time-domain ensemble learning of both a linear model and
a nonlinear model. Analyzing in the framework of online learning using a
statistical mechanical method, we show the qualitatively different behaviors
between the two models. In a linear model, the dynamical behaviors of the
generalization error are monotonic. We analytically show that time-domain
ensemble learning is twice as effective as conventional ensemble learning.
Furthermore, the generalization error of a nonlinear model features
nonmonotonic dynamical behaviors when the learning rate is small. We
numerically show that the generalization performance can be improved remarkably
by using this phenomenon and the divergence of students in the time domain.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure
Finite-distance singularities in the tearing of thin sheets
We investigate the interaction between two cracks propagating in a thin
sheet. Two different experimental geometries allow us to tear sheets by
imposing an out-of-plane shear loading. We find that two tears converge along
self-similar paths and annihilate each other. These finite-distance
singularities display geometry-dependent similarity exponents, which we
retrieve using scaling arguments based on a balance between the stretching and
the bending of the sheet close to the tips of the cracks.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Supersonic crack propagation in a class of lattice models of Mode III brittle fracture
We study a lattice model for mode III crack propagation in brittle materials
in a stripe geometry at constant applied stretching. Stiffening of the material
at large deformation produces supersonic crack propagation. For large
stretching the propagation is guided by well developed soliton waves. For low
stretching, the crack-tip velocity has a universal dependence on stretching
that can be obtained using a simple geometrical argument.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Screening of charged singularities of random fields
Many types of point singularity have a topological index, or 'charge',
associated with them. For example the phase of a complex field depending on two
variables can either increase or decrease on making a clockwise circuit around
a simple zero, enabling the zeros to be assigned charges of plus or minus one.
In random fields we can define a correlation function for the charge-weighted
density of singularities. In many types of random fields, this correlation
function satisfies an identity which shows that the singularities 'screen' each
other perfectly: a positive singularity is surrounded by an excess of
concentration of negatives which exactly cancel its charge, and vice-versa.
This paper gives a simple and widely applicable derivation of this result. A
counterexample where screening is incomplete is also exhibited.Comment: 12 pages, no figures. Minor revision of manuscript submitted to J.
Phys. A, August 200
Propagating mode-I fracture in amorphous materials using the continuous random network (CRN) model
We study propagating mode-I fracture in two dimensional amorphous materials
using atomistic simulations. We used the continuous random network (CRN) model
of an amorphous material, creating samples using a two dimensional analogue of
the WWW (Wooten, Winer & Weaire) Monte-Carlo algorithm. For modeling fracture,
molecular-dynamics simulations were run on the resulting samples. The results
of our simulations reproduce the main experimental features. In addition to
achieving a steady-state crack under a constant driving displacement (which had
not yet been achieved by other atomistic models for amorphous materials), the
runs show micro-branching, which increases with driving, transitioning to
macro-branching for the largest drivings. Beside the qualitative visual
similarity of the simulated cracks to experiment, the simulation also succeeds
in explaining the experimentally observed oscillations of the crack velocity
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