Non-Relativistic Limit of Dirac Equations in Gravitational Field and Quantum Effects of Gravity

Based on unified theory of electromagnetic interactions and gravitational interactions, the non-relativistic limit of the equation of motion of a charged Dirac particle in gravitational field is studied. From the Schrodinger equation obtained from this non-relativistic limit, we could see that the classical Newtonian gravitational potential appears as a part of the potential in the Schrodinger equation, which can explain the gravitational phase effects found in COW experiments. And because of this Newtonian gravitational potential, a quantum particle in earth's gravitational field may form a gravitationally bound quantized state, which had already been detected in experiments. Three different kinds of phase effects related to gravitational interactions are discussed in this paper, and these phase effects should be observable in some astrophysical processes. Besides, there exists direct coupling between gravitomagnetic field and quantum spin, radiation caused by this coupling can be used to directly determine the gravitomagnetic field on the surface of a star.Comment: 12 pages, no figur

Single-Event Handbury-Brown-Twiss Interferometry

Large spatial density fluctuations in high-energy heavy-ion collisions can come from many sources: initial transverse density fluctuations, non-central collisions, phase transitions, surface tension, and fragmentations. The common presence of some of these sources in high-energy heavy-ion collisions suggests that large scale density fluctuations may often occur. The detection of large density fluctuations by single-event Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry in heavy-ion collisions will provide useful information on density fluctuations and the dynamics of heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, invited talk presented at the XI International Workshop on Correlation and Fluctuation in Multiparticle Production, Nov. 21-24, 2006, Hangzhou, Chin

The effects of decision flexibility in the hierarchical investment decision process

Large institutional investors allocate their funds over a number of classes (e.g. equity, fixed income and real estate), various geographical regions and different industries. In practice, these allocation decisions are usually made in a hierarchical (top-down), consecutive way. At the higher decision level, the allocation is made on basis of benchmark portfolios (indexes). Such indexes are then set as targets for the lower levels. For example, at the top level the allocation decision is made on the basis of asset class benchmark indexes, on the second level the decisions are made on the basis of sector benchmark indexes, etc. Obviously, the lower levels have considerable flexibility to deviate from these targets. That is the reason why targets often come with limits on the maximally allowed deviation (or "tracking error") from these targets. The potential consequences of deviations from the benchmark portfolios have received very little attention in the literature. In this paper, we discuss and illustrate this influence. The lower level tracking errors with respect to the benchmark indexes propagate to the top level. As a result the risk-return characteristics of the actual aggregate portfolio will be different from those of the initial benchmark-based portfolio. We illustrate this effect for a two level process to allocate funds over individual US stocks and sectors. We show that the benchmark allocation approaches used in practice yield inferior solutions when compared to a non-hierarchical approach where full information about individual lower level investment opportunities is available. Our results reveal that even small deviations from the benchmark portfolios can cause large shifts in the top-level risk-return space. This implies that the incorporation of lower level information in the initial top-level decision process will lead to a different (possibly better) allocation.decision flexibility;multi-level decision process;porfolio management;tracking error analysis

Instabilities of jammed packings of frictionless spheres under compression

We consider the contribution to the density of vibrational states and the distribution of energy barrier heights of incipient instabilities in a glass modeled by a jammed packing of spheres. On approaching an instability, the frequency of a normal mode and the height of the energy barrier to cross into a new ground state both vanish. These instabilities produce a contribution to the density of vibrational states that scales as $\omega^3$ at low frequencies $\omega$, but which vanishes in the thermodynamic limit. In addition, they affect an anharmonic property, the distribution of energy barriers $\Delta H$, giving a contribution that scales as $\Delta H^{-1/3}$ at low barrier heights, which should be universal for jammed and glassy systems.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Ecological thresholds and large carnivores conservation: Implications for the Amur tiger and leopard in China

The ecological threshold concept describes how changes in one or more factors at thresholds can result in a large shift in the state of an ecosystem. This concept focuses attention on limiting factors that affect the tolerance of systems or organisms and changes in them. Accumulating empirical evidence for the existence of ecological thresholds has created favorable conditions for practical application to wildlife conservation. Applying the concept has the potential to enhance conservation of two large carnivores, Amur tiger and leopard, and the knowledge gained could guide the construction of a proposed national park. In this review, ecological thresholds that result from considering a paradigm of bottom-up control were evaluated for their potential to contribute to the conservation of Amur tiger and leopard. Our review highlights that large carnivores, as top predators, are potentially affected by ecological thresholds arising from changes in climate (or weather), habitat, vegetation, prey, competitors, and anthropogenic disturbances. What's more, interactions between factors and context dependence need to be considered in threshold research and conservation practice, because they may amplify the response of ecosystems or organisms to changes in specific drivers. Application of the threshold concept leads to a more thorough evaluation of conservation needs, and could be used to guide future Amur tiger and leopard research and conservation in China. Such application may inform the conservation of other large carnivores worldwide

Two-pion interferometry for viscous hydrodynamic sources

The space-time evolution of the (1+1)-dimensional viscous hydrodynamics with an initial quark-gluon plasma (QGP) produced in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions is studied numerically. The particle-emitting sources undergo a crossover transition from the QGP to hadronic gas. We take into account a usual shear viscosity for the strongly coupled QGP as well as the bulk viscosity which increases significantly in the crossover region. The two-pion Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interferometry for the viscous hydrodynamic sources is performed. The HBT analyses indicate that the viscosity effect on the two-pion HBT results is small if only the shear viscosity is taken into consideration in the calculations. The bulk viscosity leads to a larger transverse freeze-out configuration of the pion-emitting sources, and thus increases the transverse HBT radii. The results of the longitudinal HBT radius for the source with Bjorken longitudinal scaling are consistent with the experimental data.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; in version 3 detailed derivations for the relaxation equations have been added in the Appendi

Accelerating an adiabatic process by nonlinear sweeping

We investigate the acceleration of an adiabatic process with the same survival probability of the ground state by sweeping a parameter nonlinearly, fast in the wide gap region and slow in the narrow gap region, as contrast to the usual linear sweeping. We find the expected acceleration in the Laudau-Zener tunneling model and in the adiabatic quantum computing model for factorizing the number N=21.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Stocking, Enhancement, and Mariculture of Penaeus orientalis and Other Species in Shanghai and Zhejiang Provinces, China

China's marine aquaculture landings provide only 18% of its combined freshwater and amrine capture and culture landings, at a per-capita consumption of only 3.2 kg/yr out of a total of 18.1 kg/yr. We described development and some of the results of long-term mariculture and stocking/enhancement projects that have been underway for up to 20 years in the Hangzhou Bay area. Penaeus orientalis (also referred to as P. chinensis) stocking provided up to 400 t/yr, at a total cost-benefit ratio of up to 8 Yuan of landed shrimp per Yuan invested in shrimp stocking. Over 40 t of Penaeus orientalis were produced commercially in 1993, with proceeds being used to fund mariculture and fisheries research. Large scale edible jellyfish restocking is also underway, while semicommercial culture of abalone, Haliotis diversicolor, has been successful. Technical problems limitig mariculture have been solved successfully for some species