6,006 research outputs found
On the coupling of vector fields to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant
Inflationary models including vector fields have attracted a great deal of
attention over the past decade. Such an interest owes to the fact that they
might contribute to, or even be fully responsible for, the curvature
perturbation imprinted in the CMB. However, the necessary breaking of the
vector field's conformal invariance during inflation is not without problems.
In recent years it has been realized that a number of instabilities endangering
the consistency of the theory arise when the conformal invariance is broken by
means of a non-minimal coupling to gravity. In this paper we consider a massive
vector field non-minimally coupled to gravity through the Gauss-Bonnet
invariant, and investigate whether the vector can obtain a nearly
scale-invariant perturbation spectrum while evading the emergence of
perturbative instabilities. We find that the strength of the coupling must be
extremely small if the vector field is to have a chance to contribute to the
total curvature perturbation.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur
Surface composition and taxonomic classification of a group of near-Earth and Mars-crossing asteroids
In the past, constraining the surface composition of near-Earth asteroids
(NEAs) has been difficult due to the lack of high quality near-IR spectral data
(0.7-2.5 microns) that contain mineralogically diagnostic absorption bands.
Here we present visible (0.43-0.95 microns) and near-infrared (0.7-2.5 microns)
spectra of nine NEAs and five Mars-crossing asteroids (MCs). The studied NEAs
are: 4055 Magellan, 19764 (2000 NF5), 89830 (2002 CE), 138404 (2000 HA24),
143381 (2003 BC21), 159609 (2002 AQ3), 164121 (2003 YT1), 241662 (2000 KO44)
and 2007 ML13. The studied MCs are: 1656 Suomi, 2577 Litva, 5407 (1992 AX),
22449 Ottijeff and 47035 (1998 WS). The observations were conducted with the
NTT at La Silla, Chile, the 2.2 m telescope at Calar Alto, Spain, and the IRTF
on Mauna Kea, Hawai'i. The taxonomic classification (Bus system) of asteroids
showed that all observed MC asteroids belong to the S-complex, including the S,
Sr and Sl classes. Seven of the NEAs belong to the S-complex, including the S,
Sa, Sk and Sl classes, and two NEAs were classified as V-types. The
classification of the NEA 164121 (2003 YT1) as a V-type was made on the basis
of its near-infrared spectrum since no visible spectrum is available for this
asteroid. A mineralogical analysis was performed on six of the asteroids (those
for which near-IR spectra were obtained or previously available). We found that
three asteroids (241662 (2000 KO44), 19764 (2000 NF5), 138404 (2000 HA24)) have
mafic silicate compositions consistent with ordinary chondrites, while three
others (4055 Magellan, 164121 (2003 YT1), 5407 (1992 AX)) are
pyroxene-dominated basaltic achondrite assemblages. In the case of 5407 (1992
AX) we found that its basaltic surface composition contrasts its taxonomic
classification as a S-type.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Icaru
Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions in Directed Small-World Networks
Many social, biological, and economic systems can be approached by complex
networks of interacting units. The behaviour of several models on small-world
networks has recently been studied. These models are expected to capture the
essential features of the complex processes taking place on real networks like
disease spreading, formation of public opinion, distribution of wealth, etc. In
many of these systems relations are directed, in the sense that links only act
in one direction (outwards or inwards). We investigate the effect of directed
links on the behaviour of a simple spin-like model evolving on a small-world
network. We show that directed networks may lead to a highly nontrivial phase
diagram including first and second-order phase transitions out of equilibrium.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX format, 4 postscript figs, uses eps
The responses of small and large firms to tight credit shocks : the case of 2008 through the lens of Gertler and Gilchrist (1994)
Do large firms and small firms behave differently when credit becomes more costly or harder to obtain? Past research has found that small firms are more likely to be credit-constrained and thus tend to be affected more negatively than large firms during such times. Recent findings from the 2007-2009 recession, however, raise questions about the roles of small and large firms during periods of tight creditBusiness cycles ; Recessions
Automating decision making to help establish norm-based regulations
Norms have been extensively proposed as coordination mechanisms for both
agent and human societies. Nevertheless, choosing the norms to regulate a
society is by no means straightforward. The reasons are twofold. First, the
norms to choose from may not be independent (i.e, they can be related to each
other). Second, different preference criteria may be applied when choosing the
norms to enact. This paper advances the state of the art by modeling a series
of decision-making problems that regulation authorities confront when choosing
the policies to establish. In order to do so, we first identify three different
norm relationships -namely, generalisation, exclusivity, and substitutability-
and we then consider norm representation power, cost, and associated moral
values as alternative preference criteria. Thereafter, we show that the
decision-making problems faced by policy makers can be encoded as linear
programs, and hence solved with the aid of state-of-the-art solvers
Online Automated Synthesis of Compact Normative Systems
Peer reviewedPostprin
Management System for Harvest Scheduling: The Case of Horticultural Production in Southeast Spain
horticultural farmer, optimization, planning, mathematical programming, marketing, cooperative, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,
Phase Angle Effects on 3-micron Absorption Band on Ceres: Implications for Dawn Mission
Phase angle-induced spectral effects are important to characterize since they
affect spectral band parameters such as band depth and band center, and
therefore skew mineralogical interpretations of planetary bodies via
reflectance spectroscopy. Dwarf planet (1) Ceres is the next target of NASA's
Dawn mission, which is expected to arrive in March 2015. The visible and
near-infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR) onboard Dawn has the spatial and
spectral range to characterize the surface between 0.25-5.0 microns. Ceres has
an absorption feature at 3.0 microns due to hydroxyl- and/or water-bearing
minerals (e.g. Lebofsky et al. 1981, Rivkin et al. 2003). We analyzed phase
angle-induced spectral effects on the 3-micron absorption band on Ceres using
spectra measured with the long-wavelength cross-dispersed (LXD: 1.9-4.2
microns) mode of the SpeX spectrograph/imager at the NASA Infrared Telescope
Facility (IRTF). Ceres LXD spectra were measured at different phase angles
ranging from 0.7o to 22o. We found that the band center slightly increases from
3.06 microns at lower phase angles (0.7o and 6o) to 3.07 microns at higher
phase angles (11 o and 22o), the band depth decreases by ~20% from lower phase
angles to higher phase angles, and the band area decreases by ~25% from lower
phase angles to higher phase angles. Our results will have implications for
constraining the abundance of OH on the surface of Ceres from VIR spectral
data, which will be acquired by Dawn starting spring 2015.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, 2 table
Concurrent Geometric Multicasting
We present MCFR, a multicasting concurrent face routing algorithm that uses
geometric routing to deliver a message from source to multiple targets. We
describe the algorithm's operation, prove it correct, estimate its performance
bounds and evaluate its performance using simulation. Our estimate shows that
MCFR is the first geometric multicast routing algorithm whose message delivery
latency is independent of network size and only proportional to the distance
between the source and the targets. Our simulation indicates that MCFR has
significantly better reliability than existing algorithms
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