Gauge Field Optics with Anisotropic Media

By considering gauge transformations on the macroscopic Maxwell's equations, a two dimensional gauge field, with its pseudo magnetic field in the real space, is identified as tilted anisotropy in the constitutive parameters. We show that optical spin Hall effect and one-way edge states become possible simply by using anisotropic media with broadband response. The proposed gauge field also allows us to design an optical isolator based on the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Our approach will be useful in spoof magneto-optics with arbitrary magnetic fields mimicked by metamaterials with subwavelength unit cells. It also serves as a generic way to design polarization-dependent devices.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter : understanding corruption using cross-national firm-level surveys

Since the early 1990s, a large number of studies have been undertaken to understand the causes and consequences of corruption. Many of these studies have employed firm-level survey data from various countries. While insightful, these analyses based on firm-level surveys have largely ignored two important potential problems: nonresponse and false response by the firms. Treating firms'responses on a sensitive issue like corruption at their face value could produce incorrect inferences and erroneous policy recommendations. We argue that the data generation of nonresponse and false response is a function of the political environment in which the firms operate. In a politically repressive environment, firms use nonresponse and false response as self-protection mechanisms. Corruption is understated as a result. We test our arguments using the World Bank enterprise survey data of more than 44,000 firms in 72 countries for the period 2000-2005 and find that firms in countries with less press freedom are more likely to provide nonresponse or false response on the issue of corruption. Therefore, ignoring this systematic bias in firms'responses could result in underestimation of the severity of corruption in politically repressive countries. More important, this bias is a rich and underutilized source of information on the political constraints faced by the firms. Nonresponse and false response, like unheard melodies, could be more informative than the heard melodies in the available truthful responses in firm surveys.Public Sector Corruption&Anticorruption Measures,Microfinance,Access to Finance,Poverty Monitoring&Analysis,Social Accountability

Theoretical and Experimental Adsorption Studies of Polyelectrolytes on an Oppositely Charged Surface

Using self-assembly techniques, x-ray reflectivity measurements, and computer simulations, we study the effective interaction between charged polymer rods and surfaces. Long-time Brownian dynamics simulations are used to measure the effective adhesion force acting on the rods in a model consisting of a planar array of uniformly positively charged, stiff rods and a negatively charged planar substrate in the presence of explicit monovalent counterions and added monovalent salt ions in a continuous, isotropic dielectric medium. This electrostatic model predicts an attractive polymer-surface adhesion force that is weakly dependent on the bulk salt concentration and that shows fair agreement with a Debye-Huckel approximation for the macroion interaction at salt concentrations near 0.1 M. Complementary x-ray reflectivity experiments on poly(diallyldimethyl ammonium) chloride (PDDA) monolayer films on the native oxide of silicon show that monolayer structure, electron density, and surface roughness are likewise independent of the bulk ionic strength of the solution.Comment: Revtex, prb format; uses amssym