Networks of micro and small enterprise banks : a contribution to financial sector development :[Version January 2004]

The paper is a follow-up to an article published in Technique Financière et Developpement in 2000 (see the appendix to the hardcopy version), which portrayed the first results of a new strategy in the field of development finance implemented in South-East Europe. This strategy consists in creating microfinance banks as greenfield investments, that is, of building up new banks which specialise in providing credit and other financial services to micro and small enterprises, instead of transforming existing credit-granting NGOs into formal banks, which had been the dominant approach in the 1990s. The present paper shows that this strategy has, in the course of the last five years, led to the emergence of a network of microfinance banks operating in several parts of the world. After discussing why financial sector development is a crucial determinant of general social and economic development and contrasting the new strategy to former approaches in the area of development finance, the paper provides information about the shareholder composition and the investment portfolio of what is at present the world's largest and most successful network of microfinance banks. This network is a good example of a well-functioning "private public partnership". The paper then provides performance figures and discusses why the creation of such a network seems to be a particularly promising approach to the creation of financially self-sustaining financial institutions with a clear developmental objective

Final excitation energy of fission fragments

We study how the excitation energy of the fully accelerated fission fragments is built up. It is stressed that only the intrinsic excitation energy available before scission can be exchanged between the fission fragments to achieve thermal equilibrium. This is in contradiction with most models used to calculate prompt neutron emission where it is assumed that the total excitation energy of the final fragments is shared between the fragments by the condition of equal temperatures. We also study the intrinsic excitation-energy partition according to a level density description with a transition from a constant-temperature regime to a Fermi-gas regime. Complete or partial excitation-energy sorting is found at energies well above the transition energy.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Fate of the cluster state on the square lattice in a magnetic field

The cluster state represents a highly entangled state which is one central object for measurement-based quantum computing. Here we study the robustness of the cluster state on the two-dimensional square lattice at zero temperature in the presence of external magnetic fields by means of different types of high-order series expansions and variational techniques using infinite Projected Entangled Pair States (iPEPS). The phase diagram displays a first-order phase transition line ending in two critical end points. Furthermore, it contains a characteristic self-dual line in parameter space allowing many precise statements. The self-duality is shown to exist on any lattice topology.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Isotropic universe with almost scale-invariant fourth-order gravity

We study a broad class of isotropic vacuum cosmologies in fourth-order gravity under the condition that the gravitational Lagrangian be scale-invariant or almost scale-invariant. The gravitational Lagrangians considered will be of the form L = f(R) + k(G) where R and G are the Ricci and Gauss-Bonnet scalars respectively. Specifically we take f(R) = R^2n and k(G) = G^n or k(G) = G ln G. We find solutions in closed form for a spatially flat Friedmann space-time and interpret their asymptotic early-time and late-time behaviour as well as their inflationary stages. One unique example which we discuss is the case of a very small negative value of the parameter b in the Lagrangian L = R^2 + b G ln G which leads to the replacement of the exact de Sitter solution from L = R^2 (being a local attractor) to a power-law inflation exact solution also representing a local attractor. This shows how one can modify the dynamics from de Sitter to power-law inflation by the addition of the G ln G-term.Comment: several revisions included, 28 pages, J. Math. Phys. accepte

Networks of micro and small enterprise banks : a contribution to financial sector development : [Version March 2005]

The paper is a follow-up to an article published in Technique Financière et Developpement in 2000 (see the appendix to the hardcopy version), which portrayed the first results of a new strategy in the field of development finance implemented in South-East Europe. This strategy consists in creating microfinance banks as greenfield investments, that is, of building up new banks which specialise in providing credit and other financial services to micro and small enterprises, instead of transforming existing credit-granting NGOs into formal banks, which had been the dominant approach in the 1990s. The present paper shows that this strategy has, in the course of the last five years, led to the emergence of a network of microfinance banks operating in several parts of the world. After discussing why financial sector development is a crucial determinant of general social and economic development and contrasting the new strategy to former approaches in the area of development finance, the paper provides information about the shareholder composition and the investment portfolio of what is at present the world's largest and most successful network of microfinance banks. This network is a good example of a well-functioning "private public partnership". The paper then provides performance figures and discusses why the creation of such a network seems to be a particularly promising approach to the creation of financially self-sustaining financial institutions with a clear developmental objective

Process for purification of solids

A process for purifying solids, especially silicon, by melting and subsequent resolidification, is described. Silicon used in solar cell manufacturing is processed more efficiently and cost effectively

Vortices associated with the wave function of a single electron emitted in slow ion-atom collisions

We present measurements and calculations of the momentum distribution of electrons emitted during the ion-atom collision 10 keV/u $He^{2+}+He \rightarrow He^{+} + He^{2+} + e^{-}$, which show rich structures for ion scattering angles above 2 mrad arising dominantly from two-electron states. Our calculations reveal that minima in the measured distributions are zeros in the electronic probability density resulting from vortices in the electronic current