4,630 research outputs found
The Inconceivable Popularity of Conceivability Arguments
Famous examples of conceivability arguments include (i) Descartesâ argument for mind-body dualism, (ii) Kripke's âmodal argumentâ against psychophysical identity theory, (iii) Chalmersâ âzombie argumentâ against materialism, and (iv) modal versions of the ontological argument for theism. In this paper, we show that for any such conceivability argument, C, there is a corresponding âmirror argumentâ, M. M is deductively valid and has a conclusion that contradicts C's conclusion. Hence, a proponent of Câhenceforth, a âconceivabilistââcan be warranted in holding that C's premises are conjointly true only if she can find fault with one of M's premises. But M's premises are modelled on a pair of C's premises. The same reasoning that supports the latter supports the former. For this reason, a conceivabilist can repudiate M's premises only on pain of severely undermining C's premises. We conclude on this basis that all conceivability arguments, including each of (i)â(iv), are fallacious
News Media as a Channel of Environmental Information Disclosure: Evidence from an EGARCH Approach
This paper incorporates EGARCH modeling in a financial event study relating firm value to negative environmental news. News media provide informal information channels unlike formal government disclosure programs. This paper improves on previous studies by using a larger sample than most studies, treating heteroskedasticity in the disturbance term with a hybrid method that allows EGARCH, and comparing stock market reactions across industries and event types. Both standard and hybrid methods reveal reductions in firmsâ stock market valuations by on average 1.2% in response to negative environmental events. Significant negative market reactions to environmental news arise for all industry groups and event types analyzed. Accidents and complaints yield 2.0% mean reductions in stock market value, versus later lawsuits and court decisions with 1.5% and 0.8% reductions respectively. Firms in traditional polluting industries are most affected. These stock market impacts suggest that informal environmental information channels may financially incentivize firmsâ self-regulation.
Pair density waves and vortices in an elongated two-component Fermi gas
We study the vortex structures of a two-component Fermi gas experiencing a
uniform effective magnetic field in an anisotropic trap that interpolates
between quasi-one dimensional (1D) and quasi-two dimensional (2D). At a fixed
chemical potential, reducing the anisotropy (or equivalently increasing the
attractive interactions or increasing the magnetic field) leads to
instabilities towards pair density waves, and vortex lattices. Reducing the
chemical potential stabilizes the system. We calculate the phase diagram, and
explore the density and pair density. The structures are similar to those
predicted for superfluid Bose gases. We further calculate the paired fraction,
showing how it depends on chemical potential and anisotropy.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Stochastic approximation of symmetric Nash equilibria in queueing games
We suggest a novel stochastic-approximation algorithm to compute a symmetric
Nash-equilibrium strategy in a general queueing game with a finite action
space. The algorithm involves a single simulation of the queueing process with
dynamic updating of the strategy at regeneration times. Under mild assumptions
on the utility function and on the regenerative structure of the queueing
process, the algorithm converges to a symmetric equilibrium strategy almost
surely. This yields a powerful tool that can be used to approximate equilibrium
strategies in a broad range of strategic queueing models in which direct
analysis is impracticable
Review of Systematic Tendencies in (001), (011) and (111) Surfaces Using B3PW as Well as B3LYP Computations of BaTiO3, CaTiO3, PbTiO3, SrTiO3, BaZrO3, CaZrO3, PbZrO3 and SrZrO3 Perovskites
This study was funded by the Latvian Council of Science Grant Number: LZP-2021/1-464. The Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia (Latvia), as the Centre of Excellence, has received funding from the European Unionâs Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD01-2016-2017-Teaming Phase2 under Grant Agreement No. 739508, project CAMART-2.We performed B3PW and B3LYP computations for BaTiO3 (BTO), CaTiO3 (CTO), PbTiO3 (PTO), SrTiO3 (STO), BaZrO3 (BZO), CaZrO3 (CZO), PbZrO3 (PZO) and SrZrO3 (SZO) perovskite neutral (001) along with polar (011) as well as (111) surfaces. For the neutral AO- as well as BO2-terminated (001) surfaces, in most cases, all upper-layer atoms relax inwards, although the second-layer atoms shift outwards. On the (001) BO2-terminated surface, the second-layer metal atoms, as a rule, exhibit larger atomic relaxations than the second-layer O atoms. For most ABO3 perovskites, the (001) surface rumpling s is bigger for the AO- than BO2-terminated surfaces. In contrast, the surface energies, for both (001) terminations, are practically identical. Conversely, different (011) surface terminations exhibit quite different surface energies for the O-terminated, A-terminated and BO-terminated surfaces. Our computed ABO3 perovskite (111) surface energies are always significantly larger than the neutral (001) as well as polar (011) surface energies. Our computed ABO3 perovskite bulk B-O chemical bond covalency increases near their neutral (001) and especially polar (011) surfaces.--//-- This is an open access article Eglitis, R.I.; Jia, R. Review of Systematic Tendencies in (001), (011) and (111) Surfaces Using B3PW as Well as B3LYP Computations of BaTiO3, CaTiO3, PbTiO3, SrTiO3, BaZrO3, CaZrO3, PbZrO3 and SrZrO3 Perovskites. Materials 2023, 16, 7623. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16247623 published under the CC BY 4.0 licence.This study was funded by the Latvian Council of Science Grant Number: LZP-2021/1-464. The Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia (Latvia), as the Centre of Excellence, has received funding from the European Unionâs Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD01-2016-2017-Teaming Phase2 under Grant Agreement No. 739508, project CAMART-2
The black hole fundamental plane from a uniform sample of radio and X-ray emitting broad line AGNs
We derived the black hole fundamental plane relationship among the 1.4GHz
radio luminosity (L_r), 0.1-2.4keV X-ray luminosity (L_X), and black hole mass
(M) from a uniform broad line SDSS AGN sample including both radio loud and
radio quiet X-ray emitting sources. We found in our sample that the fundamental
plane relation has a very weak dependence on the black hole mass, and a tight
correlation also exists between the Eddington luminosity scaled X-ray and radio
luminosities for the radio quiet subsample. Additionally, we noticed that the
radio quiet and radio loud AGNs have different power-law slopes in the
radio--X-ray non-linear relationship. The radio loud sample displays a slope of
1.39, which seems consistent with the jet dominated X-ray model. However, it
may also be partly due to the relativistic beaming effect. For radio quiet
sample the slope of the radio--X-ray relationship is about 0.85, which is
possibly consistent with the theoretical prediction from the accretion flow
dominated X-ray model. We briefly discuss the reason why our derived
relationship is different from some previous works and expect the future
spectral studies in radio and X-ray bands on individual sources in our sample
to confirm our result.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, ApJ accepte
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