The Proton Distribution Function in Weakly Magnetized Turbulent Plasmas

We calculate the proton distribution function due to heating by subsonic (Alfvenic) turbulence in a weakly magnetized collisionless plasma. The distribution function is nonthermal. For non-relativistic energies, it is an exponential of the magnitude of the proton velocity. For ultra-relativistic energies, it can be characterized as a power law with a momentum-dependent slope.Comment: 7 pages, submitted to Ap

A Model with Propagating Spinons beyond One Dimension

For the model of frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg magnet described in A. A. Nersesyan and A. M. Tsvelik, (Phys. Rev. B{\bf 67}, 024422 (2003)) we calculate correlation functions of staggered magnetization and dimerization. The model is formulated as a collection of antiferromagnetic chains weakly coupled by a frustrated exchange interaction. The calculation done for the case of four chains demonstrates that these functions do not vanish. Since the correlation functions in question factorize into a product of correlation functions of spinon creation and annihilation operators, this constitutes a proof that spinons in this model propagate in the direction perpendicular to the chains.Comment: revised version to appear in Phys. Rev B., 8 pages, a reference adde

Breach of Trust in Hostile Takeovers

The paper questions the common view that share price increases of firms involved in hostile takeovers measure efficiency gains from acquisitions. Even if such gains exist, most of the increase in the combined value of the target and the acquirer is likely to come from stakeholder wealth losses, such as declines in value of subcontractors' firm-specific capital or employees' human capital. The use of event studies to gauge wealth creation in takeovers is unjustified. The paper also suggests a theory of managerial behavior, in which hiring and entrenching trustworthy managers enables shareholders to commit to upholding implicit contracts with stakeholders. Hostile takeovers are an innovation allowing shareholders to renege on such contracts ex post, against managers' will. On this view, shareholder gains are redistributions from stakeholders, and can in the long run result in deterioration of trust necessary for the functioning of the corporation.

Estimating Poverty for Indigenous Groups in Chile by Matching Census and Survey Data

It is widely held that indigenous Chileans experience greater rates of poverty and indigence than non-indigenous Chileans, yet the evidence to date has been based on surveys that are not representative by ethnicity. In this paper, we use poverty mapping methodologies that are typically applied to geography to develop statistically precise estimates of poverty, indigence, poverty gaps, and indigence gaps for each of the eight indigenous groups recognized by Chilean law. We find that indigenous people experience higher rates of poverty and indigence and greater depth of poverty and indigence than non-indigenous people. These results hold within individual regions, suggesting that the differential access to economic opportunities in different parts of the country cannot fully explain the results. We also find that the burden of poverty is not shared equally across indigenous groups. Instead, the Mapuche and Aymar· experience disproportionately high poverty rates. We argue that including ethnicity in criteria for identifying poor households may help policy-makers to improve antipoverty targeting.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64360/1/wp932.pd

Non-Kolmogorov probability models and modified Bell's inequality

We analyse the proof of Bell's inequality and demonstrate that this inequality is related to one particular model of probability theory, namely Kolmogorov measure-theoretical axiomatics, 1933. We found a (numerical) statistical correction to Bell's inequality. Such an additional term in the right hand side of Bell's inequality can be considered as a probability invariant of a quantum state. This is a measure of nonreproducibility of hidden variables in different runs of experiments. Experiments to verify Bell's inequality can be considered as just experiments to estimate this constant. It seems that Bell's inequality could not be used as a crucial reason to deny local realism. We consider deterministic as well as stochastic hidden variables models

Green Up Pavement Rehabilitation Design Tool

While designers produce pavement rehabilitation recommendations every day, for projects of all sizes, most designers have little information on the environmental impact of their recommendations. This research developed a new decision tool, called the “Green Up Pavement Rehabilitation Design Tool,” to allow the comparison of different rehabilitation solutions in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and to encourage sustainable practices such as materials recycling and the use of permeable, cool, and quiet pavement surfaces. The project aligns with the major goal of California Senate Bill 1, which is “to address deferred maintenance on the state highway system and the local street and road system,” by providing a rehabilitation strategy selection tool as well as an educational tool to promote sustainable pavement practices. The Green Up graphic and the overall methodology were finalized in consultation with representatives of the portland cement concrete and asphalt industries in California. For designers interested in learning more, the tool includes fact sheets about sustainable pavement rehabilitation strategies and links to additional online resources

Sensitivity of Climate Change Projections to Uncertainties in the Estimates of Observed Changes in Deep-Ocean Heat Content

Abstract and PDF report are also available on the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://globalchange.mit.edu/).The MIT 2D climate model is used to make probabilistic projections for changes in global mean surface temperature and for thermosteric sea level rise under a variety of forcing scenarios. The uncertainties in climate sensitivity and rate of heat uptake by the deep ocean are quantified by using the probability distributions derived from observed 20th century temperature changes. The impact on climate change projections of using the smallest and largest estimates of 20th century deep ocean warming is explored. The impact is large in the case of global mean thermosteric sea level rise. In the MIT reference ("business as usual") scenario the median rise by 2100 is 27 and 43 cm in the respective cases. The impact on increases in global mean surface air temperature is more modest, 4.9 C and 3.9 C in the two respective cases, because of the correlation between climate sensitivity and ocean heat uptake required by 20th century surface and upper air temperature changes. The results are also compared with the projections made by the IPCC AR4's multi-model ensemble for several of the SRES scenarios. The multi-model projections are more consistent with the MIT projections based on the largest estimate of ocean warming. However the range for the rate of heat uptake by the ocean suggested by the lowest estimate of ocean warming is more consistent with the range suggested by the 20th century changes in surface and upper air temperatures, combined with expert prior for climate sensitivity.This work was supported in part by the Office of Science (BER), U.S. Dept. of Energy Grant No. DE-FG02-93ER61677, NSF, and by the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change

Differential equations and duality in massless integrable field theories at zero temperature

Functional relations play a key role in the study of integrable models. We argue in this paper that for massless field theories at zero temperature, these relations can in fact be interpreted as monodromy relations. Combined with a recently discovered duality, this gives a way to bypass the Bethe ansatz, and compute directly physical quantities as solutions of a linear differential equation, or as integrals over a hyperelliptic curve. We illustrate these ideas in details in the case of the $c=1$ theory, and the associated boundary sine-Gordon model.Comment: 18 pages, harvma