1,453 research outputs found
Do Local Governments Engage in Strategic Property-Tax Competition?
This paper uses spatial econometric methods to investigate property-tax competition among local governments. The theoretical model is drawn from the literature on tax competition, in which local jurisdictions choose property-tax rates taking into account the migration of mobile capital in response to tax differentials. Using a "spatial lag" econometric model, the paper estimates the reaction function of the representative community, which relates the community's property-tax rate to its own characteristics and to the tax rates in competing communities. A nonzero reaction-function slope indicates the presence of strategic interaction in the choice of tax rates. The estimation uses cross-section data on property taxes and other socio-economic variables for cities in the Boston metropolitan area. The results, which are presented for two periods before and after imposition of Proposition 2 1/2 (a tax limitation measure), indicate the presence of strategic interaction.
Dirac-Brueckner Hartree-Fock Approach: from Infinite Matter to Effective Lagrangians for Finite Systems
One of the open problems in nuclear structure is how to predict properties of
finite nuclei from the knowledge of a bare nucleon-nucleon interaction of the
meson-exchange type. We point out that a promising starting point consists in
Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (DBHF) calculations us- ing realistic
nucleon-nucleon interactions like the Bonn potentials, which are able to
reproduce satisfactorily the properties of symmetric nuclear matter without the
need for 3-body forces, as is necessary in non-relativistic BHF calculations.
However, the DBHF formalism is still too com- plicated to be used directly for
finite nuclei. We argue that a possible route is to define effective
Lagrangians with density-dependent nucleon-meson coupling vertices, which can
be used in the Relativistic Hartree (or Relativistic Mean Field (RMF)) or
preferrably in the Relativistic Hartree- Fock (RHF) approach. The
density-dependence is matched to the nuclear matter DBHF results. We review the
present status of nuclear matter DBHF calculations and discuss the various
schemes to construct the self-energy, which lead to differences in the
predictions. We also discuss how effective Lagrangians have been constructed
and are used in actual calculations. We point out that completely consistent
calculations in this scheme still have to be performed.Comment: 16 pages, to be published in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and
Particle Physics, special issue
The excess of negative over positive mesons produced by high energy photons
Mesons produced by the high energy photon beam from the University of California Radiation Laboratory 330 Mev synchrotron are found to show an excess of negatives over positives. (1) With a carbon target, observing mesons in the energy range 30-130 Mev at 90° to the photon beam, the ratio of negative to positive mesons is 1.7 ± 0.2 with no significant energy dependence
Detection of the Crab Nebula using a Random Forest Analysis of the first TAIGA IACT Data
The Tunka Advanced Instrument for Gamma- and cosmic-ray Astronomy (TAIGA) is
a multicomponent experiment for the measurement of TeV to PeV gamma- and cosmic
rays. Our goal is to establish a novel hybrid direct air shower technique,
sufficient to access the energy domain of the long-sought Pevatrons. The hybrid
air Cherenkov light detection technique combines the strengths of the HiSCORE
shower front sampling array, and two 4 m class, 9.6 deg field
of view Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). The HiSCORE array provides
good angular and shower core position resolution, while the IACTs provide the
image shape and orientation for gamma-hadron separation. In future, an
additional muon detector will be used for hadron tagging at 100 TeV
energies. Here, only data from the first IACT of the TAIGA experiment are used.
A random forest algorithm was trained using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and
real data, and applied to 85 h of selected observational data tracking the Crab
Nebula at a mean zenith angle of 33.5 deg, resulting in a threshold energy of 6
TeV for this dataset. The analysis was performed using the gammapy package. A
total of 163.5 excess events were detected, with a statistical significance of
8.5 sigma. The observed spectrum of the Crab Nebula is best fit with a power
law above 6 TeV with a flux normalisation of at a reference energy of 13 TeV and a spectral index
of .Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, accepted by MNRA
Nonuniversal Effects in the Homogeneous Bose Gas
Effective field theory predicts that the leading nonuniversal effects in the
homogeneous Bose gas arise from the effective range for S-wave scattering and
from an effective three-body contact interaction. We calculate the leading
nonuniversal contributions to the energy density and condensate fraction and
compare the predictions with results from diffusion Monte Carlo calculations by
Giorgini, Boronat, and Casulleras. We give a crude determination of the
strength of the three-body contact interaction for various model potentials.
Accurate determinations could be obtained from diffusion Monte Carlo
calculations of the energy density with higher statistics.Comment: 24 pages, RevTex, 5 ps figures, included with epsf.te
Mean-Field Description of Fusion Barriers with Skyrme's Interaction
Fusion barriers are determined in the framework of the Skyrme energy-density
functional together with the semi-classical approach known as the Extended
Thomas-Fermi method. The barriers obtained in this way with the Skyrme
interaction SkM* turn out to be close to those generated by phenomenological
models like those using the proximity potentials. It is also shown that the
location and the structure of the fusion barrier in the vicinity of its maximum
and beyond can be quite accurately described by a simple analytical form
depending only on the masses and the relative isospin of target and projectile
nucleus.Comment: 7 pages, latex, 5 figure
Charge Symmetry Violation Effects in Pion Scattering off the Deuteron
We discuss the theoretical and experimental situations for charge symmetry
violation (CSV) effects in the elastic scattering of pi+ and pi- on deuterium
(D) and 3He/3H. Accurate comparison of data for both types of targets provides
evidence for the presence of CSV effects. While there are indications of a CSV
effect in deuterium, it is much more pronounced in the case of 3He/3H. We
provide a description of the CSV effect on the deuteron in terms of single- and
double- scattering amplitudes. The Delta-mass splitting is taken into account.
Theoretical predictions are compared with existing experimental data for pi-d
scattering; a future article will speak to the pi-three nucleon case.Comment: 16 pages of RevTeX, 7 postscript figure
Ground State Energy of the Low Density Bose Gas
Now that the properties of low temperature Bose gases at low density, ,
can be examined experimentally it is appropriate to revisit some of the
formulas deduced by many authors 4-5 decades ago. One of these is that the
leading term in the energy/particle is , where is
the scattering length. Owing to the delicate and peculiar nature of bosonic
correlations, four decades of research have failed to establish this plausible
formula rigorously. The only known lower bound for the energy was found by
Dyson in 1957, but it was 14 times too small. The correct bound is proved here.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex, reference 12 change
The Relationship of Coronal Mass Ejections to Streamers
We have examined images from the Large Angle Spectroscopic Coronagraph
(LASCO) to study the relationship of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) to coronal
streamers. We wish to test the suggestion (Low 1996) that CMEs arise from flux
ropes embedded in a streamer erupting, thus disrupting the streamer. The data
span a period of two years near sunspot minimum through a period of increased
activity as sunspot numbers increased. We have used LASCO data from the C2
coronagraph which records Thomson scattered white light from coronal electrons
at heights between 1.5 and 6R_sun. Maps of the coronal streamers have been
constructed from LASCO C2 observations at a height of 2.5R_sun at the east and
west limbs. We have superposed the corresponding positions of CMEs observed
with the C2 coronagraph onto the synoptic maps. We identified the different
kinds of signatures CMEs leave on the streamer structure at this height
(2.5R_sun). We find four types of CMEs with respect to their effect on
streamers:
1. CMEs that disrupt the streamer 2. CMEs that have no effect on the
streamer, even though they are related to it. 3. CMEs that create streamer-like
structures 4. CMEs that are latitudinally displaced from the streamer.
This is the most extensive observational study of the relation between CMEs
and streamers to date. Previous studies using SMM data have made the general
statement that CMEs are mostly associated with streamers, and that they
frequently disrupt it. However, we find that approximately 35% of the observed
CMEs bear no relation to the pre-existing streamer, while 46% have no effect on
the observed streamer, even though they appear to be related to it. Our
conclusions thus differ considerably from those of previous studies.Comment: Accepted, Journal of Geophysical Research. 8 figs, better versions at
http://www.science.gmu.edu/~prasads/streamer.htm
On the damping of virtual nucleon-pair formation in pseudoscalar meson theory
The modifications of the propagation characteristics of a nucleon which result from the presence of a strongly coupled mesonic self-field are estimated from the consideration of a simple subset of radiative corrections to the nucleon propagation function. It is found that reactive effects markedly inhibit nucleon pair formation so that the contributions from the pseudoscalar coupling term which do not involve nucleon pairs are strongly enhanced relative to those involving pair formation. In addition, the meson pair coupling term, which results from nonrelativistic approximations to the relativistic linear coupling term and is intimately connected with nucleon pair formation, is strongly damped. The relation of this result to the nonrelativistic theory of Wentzel is discussed
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