2,254 research outputs found
Small numbers matching markets: Unstable and inefficient due to over-competition?
The extant literature on matching markets assumes ordinal preferences for matches, while bargaining within matches is mostly excluded. Central for this paper, however, is the bargaining over joint profits from potential matches. We investigate, both theoretically and experimentally, a seemingly simple allocation task in a 2x2 market with repeated negotiations. More than 75% of the experimental allocations are unstable, and 40% of the matches are inefficient (in cases where inefficiency is possible). By defining the novel concept 'altruistic core', we can explain the occurrence of inefficient matches as well as the significant behavioral differences among our six treatments. --matching market,price negotiation,optimal allocation,altruism
An Examination of How Qualitatively Different Delayed Outcomes are Discounted
Delay discounting is the process by which delayed outcomes lose value. Different types of delayed outcomes (e.g., food and money) lose value to different degrees. Higher degrees of delay discounting are related to a wide variety of psychosocial maladies. Chapter I provides context for the studies described in Chapters II-IV. Specifically, cigarette smokers routinely discount delayed money to a greater degree than nonsmokers. Chapters II and III explore the generality of the relation between cigarette smoking and delay discounting by examining how different types of delayed outcomes are discounted. The data presented in these chapters indicate that smokers show a pervasive tendency to steeply discount various types of outcomes when compared to nonsmokers. Across both smokers and nonsmokers, the degree to which a person discounts one delayed outcome is correlated with how they will discount other outcomes. The additive utility model is a recently proposed model of delay discounting that provides potential mechanisms of delay discounting to explain the findings of Chapters II and III. Chapter IV describes the results of empirical test of the additive utility model as it relates to qualitatively different delayed outcomes. In this study, the additive utility model described delay discounting data as well as a more standard model of delay discounting, the hyperbolic model. This study provides tentative support for the additive utility model of delay discounting as an explanatory model. Finally, Chapter V provides a summary of all three studies
Spin-dependent electronic structure of transition-metal atomic chains adsorbed on single-wall carbon nanotubes
We present a systematic study of the electronic and magnetic properties of
transition-metal (TM) atomic chains adsorbed on the zigzag single-wall carbon
nanotubes (SWNTs). We considered the adsorption on the external and internal
wall of SWNT and examined the effect of the TM coverage and geometry on the
binding energy and the spin polarization at the Fermi level. All those adsorbed
chains studied have ferromagnetic ground state, but only their specific types
and geometries demonstrated high spin polarization near the Fermi level. Their
magnetic moment and binding energy in the ground state display interesting
variation with the number of electrons of the TM atom. We also show that
specific chains of transition metal atoms adsorbed on a SWNT can lead to
semiconducting properties for the minority spin-bands, but semimetallic for the
majority spin-bands. Spin-polarization is maintained even when the underlying
SWNT is subjected to high radial strain. Spin-dependent electronic structure
becomes discretized when TM atoms are adsorbed on finite segments of SWNTs.
Once coupled with non-magnetic metal electrodes, these magnetic needles or
nanomagnets can perform as spin-dependent resonant tunnelling devices. The
electronic and magnetic properties of these nanomagnets can be engineered
depending on the type and decoration of adsorbed TM atom as well as the size
and symmetry of the tube. Our study is performed by using first-principles
pseudopotential plane wave method within spin-polarized Density Functional
Method.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, without proof readin
Per Aspera ad Astra: On the Way to Parallel Processing
Computational Science and Engineering is being established as a third category of scientific methodology; this innovative discipline supports and supplements the traditional categories: theory and experiment, in order to solve the problems arising from complex systems challenging science and technology. While the successes of the past two decades in scientific computing have been achieved essentially by the technical breakthrough of the vector-supercomputers, today the discussion about the future of supercomputing is focussed on massively parallel computers. The discrepancy, however, between peak performance and sustained performance achievable with algorithmic kernels, software packages, and real applications is still disappointingly high. An important issue are programming models. While Message Passing on parallel computers with distributed memory is the only efficient programming paradigm available today, from a user's point of view it is hard to imagine that this programming model, rather than Shared Virtual Memory, will be capable to serve as the central basis in order to bring computing on massively parallel systems from a sheer computer science trend to the technological breakthrough needed to deal with the large applications of the future; this is especially true for commercial applications where explicit programming the data communication via Message Passing may turn out to be a huge software-technological barrier which nobody might be willing to surmount.KFA Jülich is one of the largest big-science research centres in Europe; its scientific and engineering activities are ranging from fundamental research to applied science and technology. KFA's Central Institute for Applied Mathematics (ZAM) is running the large-scale computing facilities and network systems at KFA and is providing communication services, general-purpose and supercomputer capacity also to the HLRZ ("Höchstleistungsrechenzentrum") established in 1987 in order to further enhance and promote computational science in Germany. Thus, at KFA - and in particular enforced by ZAM - supercomputing has received high priority since more than ten years. What particle accelerators mean to experimental physics, supercomputers mean to Computational Science and Engineering: Supercomputers are the accelerators of theory
Disclinations, dislocations and continuous defects: a reappraisal
Disclinations, first observed in mesomorphic phases, are relevant to a number
of ill-ordered condensed matter media, with continuous symmetries or frustrated
order. They also appear in polycrystals at the edges of grain boundaries. They
are of limited interest in solid single crystals, where, owing to their large
elastic stresses, they mostly appear in close pairs of opposite signs. The
relaxation mechanisms associated with a disclination in its creation, motion,
change of shape, involve an interplay with continuous or quantized dislocations
and/or continuous disclinations. These are attached to the disclinations or are
akin to Nye's dislocation densities, well suited here. The notion of 'extended
Volterra process' takes these relaxation processes into account and covers
different situations where this interplay takes place. These concepts are
illustrated by applications in amorphous solids, mesomorphic phases and
frustrated media in their curved habit space. The powerful topological theory
of line defects only considers defects stable against relaxation processes
compatible with the structure considered. It can be seen as a simplified case
of the approach considered here, well suited for media of high plasticity
or/and complex structures. Topological stability cannot guarantee energetic
stability and sometimes cannot distinguish finer details of structure of
defects.Comment: 72 pages, 36 figure
Nearsightedness of Electronic Matter in One Dimension
The concept of nearsightedeness of electronic matter (NEM) was introduced by
W. Kohn in 1996 as the physical principal underlining Yang's electronic
structure alghoritm of divide and conquer. It describes the fact that, for
fixed chemical potential, local electronic properties at a point , like the
density , depend significantly on the external potential only at
nearby points. Changes of that potential, {\it no matter how large},
beyond a distance , have {\it limited} effects on local electronic
properties, which tend to zero as function of . This remains true
even if the changes in the external potential completely surrounds the point
. NEM can be quantitatively characterized by the nearsightedness range,
, defined as the smallest distance from ,
beyond which {\it any} change of the external potential produces a density
change, at , smaller than a given . The present paper gives a
detailed analysis of NEM for periodic metals and insulators in 1D and includes
sharp, explicit estimates of the nearsightedness range. Since NEM involves
arbitrary changes of the external potential, strong, even qualitative changes
can occur in the system, such as the discretization of energy bands or the
complete filling of the insulating gap of an insulator with continuum spectrum.
In spite of such drastic changes, we show that has only a limited
effect on the density, which can be quantified in terms of simple parameters of
the unperturbed system.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure
Self-energy corrections to anisotropic Fermi surfaces
The electron-electron interactions affect the low-energy excitations of an
electronic system and induce deformations of the Fermi surface. These effects
are especially important in anisotropic materials with strong correlations,
such as copper oxides superconductors or ruthenates. Here we analyze the
deformations produced by electronic correlations in the Fermi surface of
anisotropic two-dimensional systems, treating the regular and singular regions
of the Fermi surface on the same footing. Simple analytical expressions are
obtained for the corrections, based on local features of the Fermi surface. It
is shown that, even for weak local interactions, the behavior of the
self-energy is non trivial, showing a momentum dependence and a self-consistent
interplay with the Fermi surface topology. Results are compared to experimental
observations and to other theoretical results.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Glass phases of flux lattices in layered superconductors
We study a flux lattice which is parallel to superconducting layers, allowing
for dislocations and for disorder of both short wavelength and long wavelength.
We find that the long wavelength disorder has a significant effect on the phase
diagram -- it produces a first order transition within the Bragg glass phase
and leads to melting at strong disorder. This then allows a Friedel scenario of
2D superconductivity.Comment: 5 pages, 1 eps figure, Revte
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