Diffusive Boundary Layers in the Free-Surface Excitable Medium Spiral

Spiral waves are a ubiquitous feature of the nonequilibrium dynamics of a great variety of excitable systems. In the limit of a large separation in timescale between fast excitation and slow recovery, one can reduce the spiral problem to one involving the motion of a free surface separating the excited and quiescent phases. In this work, we study the free surface problem in the limit of small diffusivity for the slow field variable. Specifically, we show that a previously found spiral solution in the diffusionless limit can be extended to finite diffusivity, without significant alteration. This extension involves the creation of a variety of boundary layers which cure all the undesirable singularities of the aforementioned solution. The implications of our results for the study of spiral stability are briefly discussed.Comment: 6 pages, submitted to PRE Rapid Com

Anomalous specific heat jump in a two-component ultracold Fermi gas

The thermodynamic functions of a Fermi gas with spin population imbalance are studied in the temperature-asymmetry plane in the BCS limit. The low temperature domain is characterized by anomalous enhancement of the entropy and the specific heat above their values in the unpaired state, decrease of the gap and eventual unpairing phase transition as the temperature is lowered. The unpairing phase transition induces a second jump in the specific heat, which can be measured in calorimetric experiments. While the superfluid is unstable against a supercurrent carrying state, it may sustain a metastable state if cooled adiabatically down from the stable high-temperature domain. In the latter domain the temperature dependence of the gap and related functions is analogous to the predictions of the BCS theory.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. v2 includes a discussion of instabilities; v3: final version to appear in PR

Art Resale Royalty Options

A federal resale royalty law that would require payments from the reseller of art to an artist when her work is resold is under consideration. This article analyzes provisions that might be contained in such a law with comparisons to Australia, England, France and California. It begins by pointing out that these payments can be conceptualized as either a substitute for copyright royalties or for the profits of a joint venture between the artist and the collector. It analyzes the kinds of artwork on which a resale royalty should be payable, with specific attention to multiples, crafts, antiques and wine. Sales might be subject to the royalty based on the place of sale, the nationality or residence of the seller, buyer, intermediary or artist. Minimum proceeds or a profit might be required. Such a law should define what constitutes a sale in light of auction practices like reserve prices, and whether leases, exchanges, gifts, bequests, charitable donations, loans or casualty losses should trigger a royalty payment. The base on which the royalty is paid must be determined. If the base is to be gross sales price, is that the amount the seller receives, the amount the buyer pays, or some other amount? If the base is to be net profit, one must determine what expenses of holding the art and effectuating the sale may be deducted from the sales price. The royalty could be imposed at a flat rate, a variable increasing rate, or a variable decreasing rate. Its amount could be capped. All such laws benefit the artist who created the work, but many laws also benefit surviving spouses or heirs. The benefit might be limited to citizens or residents of the country, or of a country that provides reciprocal rights to our citizens or residents. The right could last for a short time after the first sale, for the duration of the copyright, or forever. Whether the right should be waivable or transferable has been hotly contested. A system needs to be worked out when the law of more than one country would compel a payment for the same resale. One needs to consider the income, gift and estate tax consequences of the payment or receipt of the royalty and the transfer of the underlying right. The most important aspect of any such law would be its enforcement provisions. With the facts largely within the knowledge of the seller and his agents and unavailable to the artist, most laws simply impose an obligation on the seller to pay and his agent to withhold. That has proven insufficient to effectuate the royalty. The law needs to specify a time for payment, an obligation to make information available without specific request, effective remedies for failure to comply, the role of collecting societies and statutes of limitations, and the interface between private collection and the role of government agencies such as the Register of Copyrights and the Internal Revenue Service

Uniform Interpretation of CISG

This UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) has been U.S. law for a generation and requires that it be interpreted “to promote uniformity in its application”. This article argues that uniform interpretation is impractical because 1) it is written in six official languages which do not always mean the same thing; 2) with more than 90 countries’ courts and arbitrators applying CISG, each in its own language, some of which do not regularly print their opinions, it is difficult to access all opinions on a single point; 3) since Civil Law countries consider the writings of distinguished professors to be sources of law, those writings must also be accessed; 4) there is no official authority interpreting CISG, though the unofficial CISG Advisory Council issues its interpretations from time to time; 4) CISG interpretations are to be autonomous, not analogous to comparable provisions of domestic law, which means that many opinions interpreting CISG must be disregarded because they are self-declared as analogous. The article then discusses the New Zealand mussel case, clearly the right result announcing the wrong rule, and asks how a court should decide the next case in a uniform manner considering the strength of the precedent, the factual differences between the precedent and the current case, and the likely impact of the rule announced on the next case to come before a court or arbitration panel. The conclusion is that although full uniformity is impossible (and may not even be desirable), it is a goal worth pursuing, though the fears of forum shopping if there is no uniformity are quite overblown

Cases and Text on Property by A. Casner and W. Leach (2d Ed., 1969); New Approaches in the Law of Property by Seldon Plager

Reviewing the second edition of a largely unchanged book is a difficult task. If the principles upon which the first edition was based are accepted, one compares the second edition to the first and remits readers to reviewers of the first edition for further comment. Persons who maintain a fondness for the first edition of this book will be happy to see that the changes made are minimal in most areas. The book retains its doctrinal approach to property law, and continues the theme that in order to usefully serve modern society, the law of real property must emancipate itself from its feudal progenitors and embrace the realities of the commercial world. It does not, however, spend its time tilting at feudal windmills, but comes to grips with many of the hard issues of property law