Oxygen deficiency structure in iron-based high temperature superconductor GdFeAsO

Oxygen deficiency in the iron-based HTSCGdFeAsO 1�� seems to create a parallelogram shaped Fe2+-ion/oxygen deficiency pattern in the Fe2O2 plane in c-direction. These two-dimensional nano structures form superconducting current channels which are separated by h = 0.828nm. The doping distance in direct ion of the super-current shows a strong correlation to the transition temperature

The Physical Principles of Quantum Mechanics. A critical review

The standard presentation of the principles of quantum mechanics is critically reviewed both from the experimental/operational point and with respect to the request of mathematical consistency and logical economy. A simpler and more physically motivated formulation is discussed. The existence of non commuting observables, which characterizes quantum mechanics with respect to classical mechanics, is related to operationally testable complementarity relations, rather than to uncertainty relations. The drawbacks of Dirac argument for canonical quantization are avoided by a more geometrical approach.Comment: Bibliography and section 2.1 slightly improve

Exploring high-end climate change scenarios for flood protection of the Netherlands

This international scientific assessment has been carried out at the request of the Dutch Delta Committee. The "Deltacommissie" requested that the assessment explore the high-end climate change scenarios for flood protection of the Netherlands. It is a state-of–the art scientific assessment of the upper bound values and longer term projections (for sea level rise up to 2200) of climate induced sea level rise, changing storm surge conditions and peak discharge of river Rhine. It comprises a review of recent studies, model projections and expert opinions of more than 20 leading climate scientists from different countries around the North Sea, Australia and the US

How much time does a measurement take?

We consider the problem of measurement using the Lindblad equation, which allows the introduction of time in the interaction between the measured system and the measurement apparatus. We use analytic results, valid for weak system-environment coupling, obtained for a two-level system in contact with a measurer (Markovian interaction) and a thermal bath (non-Markovian interaction), where the measured observable may or may not commute with the system-environment interaction. Analysing the behavior of the coherence, which tends to a value asymptotically close to zero, we obtain an expression for the time of measurement which depends only on the system-measurer coupling, and which does not depend on whether the observable commutes with the system-bath interaction. The behavior of the coherences in the case of strong system-environment coupling, found numerically, indicates that an increase in this coupling decreases the measurement time, thus allowing our expression to be considered the upper limit for the duration of the process.Comment: REVISED VERSION: 17 pages, 2 figure

Ac Stark Effects and Harmonic Generation in Periodic Potentials

The ac Stark effect can shift initially nonresonant minibands in semiconductor superlattices into multiphoton resonances. This effect can result in strongly enhanced generation of a particular desired harmonic of the driving laser frequency, at isolated values of the amplitude.Comment: RevTeX, 10 pages (4 figures available on request), Preprint UCSBTH-93-2

A general T-matrix approach applied to two-body and three-body problems in cold atomic gases

We propose a systematic T-matrix approach to solve few-body problems with s-wave contact interactions in ultracold atomic gases. The problem is generally reduced to a matrix equation expanded by a set of orthogonal molecular states, describing external center-of-mass motions of pairs of interacting particles; while each matrix element is guaranteed to be finite by a proper renormalization for internal relative motions. This approach is able to incorporate various scattering problems and the calculations of related physical quantities in a single framework, and also provides a physically transparent way to understand the mechanism of resonance scattering. For applications, we study two-body effective scattering in 2D-3D mixed dimensions, where the resonance position and width are determined with high precision from only a few number of matrix elements. We also study three fermions in a (rotating) harmonic trap, where exotic scattering properties in terms of mass ratios and angular momenta are uniquely identified in the framework of T-matrix.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Monetary Policy Rules and Directions of Causality: a Test for the Euro Area

Using a VAR model in first differences with quarterly data for the euro zone, the study aims to ascertain whether decisions on monetary policy can be interpreted in terms of a “monetary policy rule” with specific reference to the so-called nominal GDP targeting rule (Hall and Mankiw, 1994; McCallum, 1988; Woodford, 2012). The results obtained indicate a causal relation proceeding from deviation between the growth rates of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and target GDP to variation in the three-month market interest rate. The same analyses do not, however, appear to confirm the existence of a significant inverse causal relation from variation in the market interest rate to deviation between the nominal and target GDP growth rates. Similar results were obtained on replacing the market interest rate with the European Central Bank refinancing interest rate. This confirmation of only one of the two directions of causality does not support an interpretation of monetary policy based on the nominal GDP targeting rule and gives rise to doubt in more general terms as to the applicability of the Taylor rule and all the conventional rules of monetary policy to the case in question. The results appear instead to be more in line with other possible approaches, such as those based on post Keynesian analyses of monetary theory and policy and more specifically the so-called solvency rule (Brancaccio and Fontana, 2013, 2015). These lines of research challenge the simplistic argument that the scope of monetary policy consists in the stabilization of inflation, real GDP, or nominal income around a “natural equilibrium” level. Rather, they suggest that central banks actually follow a more complex purpose, which is the political regulation of the financial system with particular reference to the relations between creditors and debtors and the related solvency of economic units

Localized tadpoles of anomalous heterotic U(1)'s

We investigate the properties of localized anomalous U(1)'s in heterotic string theory on the orbifold T^6/Z_3. We argue that the local four dimensional and original ten dimensional Green-Schwarz mechanisms can be implemented simultaneously, making the theory manifestly gauge invariant everywhere, in the bulk and at the fixed points. We compute the shape of the Fayet-Iliopoulos tadpoles, and cross check this derivation for the four dimensional auxiliary fields by a direct calculation of the tadpoles of the internal gauge fields. Finally we study some resulting consequences for spontaneous symmetry breaking, and derive the profile of the internal gauge field background over the orbifold.Comment: 35 pages, LaTeX, with figure

Fermi-edge singularities in linear and non-linear ultrafast spectroscopy

We discuss Fermi-edge singularity effects on the linear and nonlinear transient response of an electron gas in a doped semiconductor. We use a bosonization scheme to describe the low energy excitations, which allows to compute the time and temperature dependence of the response functions. Coherent control of the energy absorption at resonance is analyzed in the linear regime. It is shown that a phase-shift appears in the coherent control oscillations, which is not present in the excitonic case. The nonlinear response is calculated analytically and used to predict that four wave-mixing experiments would present a Fermi-edge singularity when the exciting energy is varied. A new dephasing mechanism is predicted in doped samples that depends linearly on temperature and is produced by the low-energy bosonic excitations in the conduction band.Comment: long version; 9 pages, 4 figure

Kinetic models with randomly perturbed binary collisions

We introduce a class of Kac-like kinetic equations on the real line, with general random collisional rules, which include as particular cases models for wealth redistribution in an agent-based market or models for granular gases with a background heat bath. Conditions on these collisional rules which guarantee both the existence and uniqueness of equilibrium profiles and their main properties are found. We show that the characterization of these stationary solutions is of independent interest, since the same profiles are shown to be solutions of different evolution problems, both in the econophysics context and in the kinetic theory of rarefied gases