Bowling for Fascism: Social Capital and the Rise of the Nazi Party

Using newly collected data on association density in 229 towns and cities in interwar Germany, we show that denser social networks were associated with faster entry into the Nazi Party. The effect is large: one standard deviation higher association density is associated with at least 15 percent faster Nazi Party entry. Party membership, in turn, predicts electoral success. Social networks thus aided the rise of the Nazis that destroyed Germany’s first democracy. The effects of social capital depended on the political context: in federal states with more stable governments, higher association density was not correlated with faster Nazi Party entry

Recreating the South Sea Bubble:Lessons from an Experiment in Financial History

Abstract: Major bubble episodes are rare events. In this paper, we examine what factors might cause some asset price bubbles to become very large. We recreate, in a laboratory setting, some of the specific institutional features investors in the South Sea Company faced in 1720. Several factors have been proposed as potentially contributing to one of the greatest periods of asset overvaluation in history: an intricate debt-for-equity swap, deferred payment for these shares, and the possibility of default on the deferred payments. We consider which aspect might have had the most impact in creating the South Sea bubble. The results of the experiment suggest that the company’s attempt to exchange its shares for government debt was the single biggest contributor to the stock price explosion, because of the manner in which the swap affected fundamental value. Issuing new shares with only partial payments required, in conjunction with the debtequity swap, also had a significant effect on the size of the bubble. Limited contract enforcement, on the other hand, does not appear to have contributed significantly.

Local Variational Principle

A generalization of the Gibbs-Bogoliubov-Feynman inequality for spinless particles is proven and then illustrated for the simple model of a symmetric double-well quartic potential. The method gives a pointwise lower bound for the finite-temperature density matrix and it can be systematically improved by the Trotter composition rule. It is also shown to produce groundstate energies better than the ones given by the Rayleigh-Ritz principle as applied to the groundstate eigenfunctions of the reference potentials. Based on this observation, it is argued that the Local Variational Principle performs better than the equivalent methods based on the centroid path idea and on the Gibbs-Bogoliubov-Feynman variational principle, especially in the range of low temperatures.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, one more section adde

Semiclassical time evolution of the density matrix and tunneling

The time dependent density matrix of a system with potential barrier is studied using path integrals. The characterization of the initial state, which is assumed to be restricted to one side of the barrier, and the time evolution of the density matrix lead to a three-fold path integral which is evaluated in the semiclassical limit. The semiclassical trajectories are found to move in the complex coordinate plane and barrier penetration only arises due to fluctuations. Both the form of the semiclassical paths and the relevant fluctuations change significantly as a function of temperature. The semiclassical analysis leads to a detailed picture of barrier penetration in the real time domain and the changeover from thermal activation to quantum tunneling. Deep tunneling is associated with quasi-zero modes in the fluctuation spectrum about the semiclassical orbits in the long time limit. The connection between this real time description of tunneling and the standard imaginary time instanton approach is established. Specific results are given for a double well potential and an Eckart barrier.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Precision Measurements of Stretching and Compression in Fluid Mixing

The mixing of an impurity into a flowing fluid is an important process in many areas of science, including geophysical processes, chemical reactors, and microfluidic devices. In some cases, for example periodic flows, the concepts of nonlinear dynamics provide a deep theoretical basis for understanding mixing. Unfortunately, the building blocks of this theory, i.e. the fixed points and invariant manifolds of the associated Poincare map, have remained inaccessible to direct experimental study, thus limiting the insight that could be obtained. Using precision measurements of tracer particle trajectories in a two-dimensional fluid flow producing chaotic mixing, we directly measure the time-dependent stretching and compression fields. These quantities, previously available only numerically, attain local maxima along lines coinciding with the stable and unstable manifolds, thus revealing the dynamical structures that control mixing. Contours or level sets of a passive impurity field are found to be aligned parallel to the lines of large compression (unstable manifolds) at each instant. This connection appears to persist as the onset of turbulence is approached.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

An engineering model to simulate the thermal response of electronic devices during pulsed Nd:YAG laser welding

A model is developed to predict the thermal response of real electronic devices during pulsed Nd:YAG laser welding. Modeling laser-part interaction requires incorporation of weld pool hydrodynamics, and laser-metal vapor and laser-surface interactions. Although important information can be obtained from these models, they are not appropriate for use in design of actual components due to computational limitations. In lieu of solving for these detailed physics, a simple model is constructed. In this model, laser-part interactions are accounted for through an empirically determined energy transfer efficiency which is developed through the use of modeling and experiments. This engineering model is appropriate since part thermal response near the weld pool and weld pool shape is not of interest here. Reasonable agreement between predictions and experimental measurements for welding of real components are indicated

Dimeric n-Alkyl Complexes of Rare-Earth Metals Supported by a Linked Amido−Cyclopentadienyl Ligand: Evidence for β-Agostic Bonding in Bridging n-Alkyl Ligands and Its Role in Styrene Polymerization

The dimeric rare-earth hydrides [Ln(η^5:η^1-C_5Me_4SiMe_2NCMe_3)(THF)(μ-H)]_2 (Ln = Y, Yb) react with excess α-olefin H_2C ═ CHR (R = Et, ^nPr, ^nBu) in a 1,2-insertion to give the series of THF-free dimeric n-alkyl complexes [Ln(η^5:η^1-C_5Me_4SiMe_2NCMe_3)(μ-CH_2CH_2R)]_2 as isolable crystals. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies on the five derivatives [Y(η^5:η^1-C_5Me_4SiMe_2NCMe_2R‘)(μ-CH_2CH_2R)]_2 (R‘ = Me, R = Et, ^nBu; R‘ = Et, R = Et, ^nPr) and [Yb(η^5:η^1-C_5Me_4SiMe_2NCMe_3)(μ-CH_2CH_2^nBu)]_2 revealed that the centrosymmetric dimeric complexes consist of two trans-arranged [Ln(η^5:η^1-C_5Me_4SiMe_2NCMe_2R‘)] fragments connected by two μ-alkyl ligands. Most strikingly, there is an agostic interaction of the n-alkyl groups' β-CH_2 hydrogen atoms with the formally 12-electron lanthanide metal center. Variable-temperature NMR spectroscopic data suggest a fluxional process that interconverts the diastereotopic protons of the α-CH_2 group and a dynamic β-agostic interaction. Addition of >10 equiv of THF per yttrium to a solution of [Y(η^5:η^1-C_5Me_4SiMe_2NCMe_3)(μ-CH_2CH_2Et)]_2 results in the formation of the highly reactive, nonisolable, monomeric THF adduct [Y(η^5:η^1-C_5Me_4SiMe_2NCMe_3)(CH_2CH_2Et)(THF)]. Reaction of 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) with [Y(η^5:η^1-C_5Me_4SiMe_2NCMe_3)(μ-CH_2CH_2Et)]_2 forms the crystalline compound [Y(η^5:η^1-C_5Me_4SiMe_2NCMe_3)(CH_2CH_2Et)(DME)] with a terminal n-butyl group that contains a slightly distorted α-carbon atom according to a crystallographic study. α-Olefins having two or more substituents on the γ-carbon do not react with the hydride complexes. The role of these n-alkyl complexes in the controlled polymerization of styrene is discussed

Statistical Properties of Turbulence: An Overview

We present an introductory overview of several challenging problems in the statistical characterisation of turbulence. We provide examples from fluid turbulence in three and two dimensions, from the turbulent advection of passive scalars, turbulence in the one-dimensional Burgers equation, and fluid turbulence in the presence of polymer additives.Comment: 34 pages, 31 figure