The Truth about Sherlock Holmes

According to possibilism, or non-actualism, fictional characters are possible individuals. Possibilist accounts of fiction do not only assign the intuitively correct truth-conditions to sentences in a fiction, but has the potential to provide powerful explanatory models for a wide range of phenomena associated with fiction (though these two aspects of possibilism are, I argue, crucially distinct). Apart from the classic defense by David Lewis the idea of modeling fiction in terms of possible worlds have been widely criticized. In this article, I provide a defense of a possibilist account against some lines of criticism. To do so, I assume that names for fictional characters are directly referential and a possible-worlds model that accommodates transworld identity. On this background, I argue, it is possible to construct an elegant model of fictional discourse using familiar models of information exchange in ordinary discourse, and I sketch how this model can be used to i) make a natural distinction between fictional and counterfactual discourse, ii) account for creativity, and iii) sustain a natural definition of truth-in-fiction that avoids certain familiar objections to possibilism. Though I set aside questions about the metaphysical commitments of a possible-world interpretation here, there is accordingly reason to think that the battle over possibilist treatments of fiction will have to be fought over metaphysical foundations rather than technical shortcomings

Evolution of the thermodynamic properties and inelastic neutron scattering intensities for spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic quantum rings

This study examines the increasing complexity in the magnetic properties of small $n$ = 3, 4, 5, 6 spin-1/2 quantum rings. Using an exact diagonalization of the isotropic Heisenberg Hamiltonian with nearest and next-nearest neighbor interactions, the energy eigenstates, magnetic specific heat capacity, magnetic susceptibility, and inelastic neutron scattering structure factors are determined for variable next-nearest neighbor interactions. Here, it is shown that the presence of a complex spin-mixing, multiple ground states, and non-zero ground states greatly complicate the spin Hamiltonian. Overall, the energy eigenstates and structure factor intensities are presented in closed form, while the thermodynamic properties detail the effect of a crossing interaction in the rings. The goal of this work is to provide insight into the evolution of the magnetic properties and spin excitations within these systems.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, Submitted for publicatio

The Fall and Rise of State Capabilities in the Management of the UK Nuclear Legacy

In 2015 and 2017, two large contracts for nuclear decommissioning were terminated early by the UK Government. Rather than re-tender, Government took direct ownership and control of Sellafield and began an inquiry into other sites’ management. The problems with the contract model for management of the UK’s nuclear legacy stem from an inability to adequately specify contracts in uncertain environments. The embrace of management and operations contracts for all sites after nationalised ownership limited the range of ‘tools’ to manage the nuclear legacy. This highlights the role of state capabilities alongside incentivised private sector relationships in contemporary governance

Evolution of magnetic Dirac bosons in a honeycomb lattice

We examine the presence and evolution of magnetic Dirac nodes in the Heisenberg honeycomb lattice. Using linear spin theory, we evaluate the collinear phase diagram as well as the change in the spin dynamics with various exchange interactions. We show that the ferromagnetic structure produces bosonic Dirac and Weyl points due to the competition between superexchange interactions. Furthermore, it is shown that the criteria for magnetic Dirac nodes are coupled to the magnetic structure and not the overall crystal symmetry, where the breaking of inversion symmetry greatly affects the antiferromagnetic configurations. The tunability of the nodal points through variation of the exchange parameters leads to the possibility of controlling Dirac symmetries through an external manipulation of the orbital interactions.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, Submitted for publicatio

Searching for response burdens in focus groups with business respondents

Der Autor berichtet von Erfahrungen, die die "Statistics Norway" mit dem von EUROSTAT gegründeten Forschungsprojekt "Developing Methods for Assessing Perceived Response Burden" (PRB) gesammelt hat. Ziel des Projekts war erstens die Frage, was die Antwortenden von Unternehmensbefragungen als beschwerlich wahrnehmen, und zweitens, geeignete Fragen zu entwickeln, die einem erschwerten Antwortverhalten entgegenwirken. Es wurden hierzu Gruppendiskussionen mit einigen Befragten aus Unternehmen der Dienstleistungsbranche in der Region Oslo durchgeführt, deren Ergebnisse der Autor näher vorstellt. Er konzentriert sich exemplarisch auf zwei Fokusgruppen und erörtert einige Aspekte des Forschungsdesigns des Befragungsinstruments. (ICI