Model of Multi-branch Trees for Efficient Resource Allocation

Although exploring the principles of resource allocation is still important in many fields, little is known about appropriate methods for optimal resource allocation thus far. This is because we should consider many issues including opposing interests between many types of stakeholders. Here, we develop a new allocation method to resolve budget conflicts. To do so, we consider two points—minimizing assessment costs and satisfying allocational efficiency. In our method, an evaluator's assessment is restricted to one's own projects in one's own department, and both an executive's and mid-level executives' assessments are also restricted to each representative project in each branch or department they manage. At the same time, we develop a calculation method to integrate such assessments by using a multi-branch tree structure, where a set of leaf nodes represents projects and a set of non-leaf nodes represents either directors or executives. Our method is incentive-compatible because no director has any incentive to make fallacious assessments

How can robots facilitate social interaction of children with autism?: Possible implications for educational environments

Children with autism have difficulties in social interaction with other people and much attention in recent years has been directed to robots as therapy tools. We studied the social interaction between children with autism and robots longitudinally to observe developmental changes in their performance. We observed children at a special school for six months and analyzed their performance with robots. The results showed that two children adapted to the experimental situations and developed interaction with the robots. This suggests that they changed their interaction with the robots from an object-like one into an agentlike one

Multiple-point principle with a scalar singlet extension of the Standard Model

We suggest a scalar singlet extension of the standard model, in which the multiple-point principle (MPP) condition of a vanishing Higgs potential at the Planck scale is realized. Although there have been lots of attempts to realize the MPP at the Planck scale, the realization with keeping naturalness is quite difficult. Our model can easily achieve the MPP at the Planck scale without large Higgs mass corrections. It is worth noting that the electroweak symmetry can be radiatively broken in our model. In the naturalness point of view, the singlet scalar mass should be of ${\cal O}(1)\,{\rm TeV}$ or less. We also consider right-handed neutrino extension of the model for neutrino mass generation. The model does not affect the MPP scenario, and might keep the naturalness with the new particle mass scale beyond TeV, thanks to accidental cancellation of Higgs mass corrections.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, version accepted for publication in PTE

Bosonic seesaw mechanism in a classically conformal extension of the Standard Model

We suggest the so-called bosonic seesaw mechanism in the context of a classically conformal $U(1)_{B-L}$ extension of the Standard Model with two Higgs doublet fields. The $U(1)_{B-L}$ symmetry is radiatively broken via the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism, which also generates the mass terms for the two Higgs doublets through quartic Higgs couplings. Their masses are all positive but, nevertheless, the electroweak symmetry breaking is realized by the bosonic seesaw mechanism. Analyzing the renormalization group evolutions for all model couplings, we find that a large hierarchy among the quartic Higgs couplings, which is crucial for the bosonic seesaw mechanism to work, is dramatically reduced toward high energies. Therefore, the bosonic seesaw is naturally realized with only a mild hierarchy, if some fundamental theory, which provides the origin of the classically conformal invariance, completes our model at some high energy, for example, the Planck scale. We identify the regions of model parameters which satisfy the perturbativity of the running couplings and the electroweak vacuum stability as well as the naturalness of the electroweak scale.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, published version in PL

Generalizations of Cauchy's Determinant and Schur's Pfaffian

We present several generalizations of Cauchy's determinant and Schur's Pfaffian by considering matrices whose entries involve some generalized Vandermonde determinants. Special cases of our formulae include previuos formulae due to S.Okada and T. Sundquist. As an application, we give a relation for the Littlewood--Richardson coefficients involving a rectangular partition.Comment: 26 page