Scaling Self-Similar Formulation of the String Equations of the Hermitian Matrix Model

The string equation appearing in the double scaling limit of the Hermitian one--matrix model, which corresponds to a Galilean self--similar condition for the KdV hierarchy, is reformulated as a scaling self--similar condition for the Ur--KdV hierarchy. A non--scaling limit analysis of the one--matrix model has led to the complexified NLS hierarchy and a string equation. We show that this corresponds to the Galilean self--similarity condition for the AKNS hierarchy and also its equivalence to a scaling self--similar condition for the Heisenberg ferromagnet hierarchy.Comment: 12 pages in AMS-LaTeX, AMS-LaTeXable versio

Extra States and Symmetries in D<2 Closed String Theory

We show that there is (p-1)(p'-1) dimensional semi-relative BRST cohomology at each non-positive ghost number in the (p,p') minimal conformal field theory coupled to two dimensional quantum gravity. These closed string states are related to currents and symmetry charges of `exotic' ghost number. We investigate the symmetry structure generated by the most conventional currents (those of vanishing total ghost number), and make a conjecture about the extended algebra which results from incorporating the currents at negative ghost number.Comment: 15 page

Glimpses of Oregon’s Sea Otters

Sea otters are an iconic species in the history of what is now known as Oregon. Their pelts brought great wealth in late eighteenth and nineteenth century China, motivating some of Oregon’s earliest exploration, trade, and contact between Native American and Euro-American people. Over time, hunting eliminated the species from Oregon’s coastal waters. This article provides a broad introduction to the history of Oregon’s now-extinct sea otter population, describing the emergence of the Chinese market that created and sustained the hunt, the British discovery of profits to be made by trading for the pelts, and the rise of American traders. This historical information is placed within the context of sea otter ecology and provides estimates of Oregon’s sea otter population on the eve of the maritime fur trade

Neahkahnie Mountain

Neahkahnie Mountain, about twenty miles south of Seaside, is a prominent landmark in Oregon Coast geography, history, and lore. Standing 1,680 feet high, the basalt edifice is both a peak and a headland. Formed by Miocene lava flows surging down the ancestral Columbia River channel roughly 15 million years ago, the mountain’s western face has been eroded by ocean waves, forming precipitous cliffs that drop as far as six hundred feet to the churning Pacific below. The mountain’s upper and north-facing slopes are draped in a dense and expanding forest of Sitka spruce, Western hemlock, and Western red cedar towering above an understory dominated by salal and swordfern. Salal, wild rose, and other native shrubs increasingly occupy the remnant grassy meadows

Integrable Discrete Linear Systems and One-Matrix Model

In this paper we analyze one-matrix models by means of the associated discrete linear systems. We see that the consistency conditions of the discrete linear system lead to the Virasoro constraints. The linear system is endowed with gauge invariances. We show that invariance under time-independent gauge transformations entails the integrability of the model, while the double scaling limit is connected with a time-dependent gauge transformation. We derive the continuum version of the discrete linear system, we prove that the partition function is actually the $\tau$-function of the KdV hierarchy and that the linear system completely determines the Virasoro constraints.Comment: 31page

On D0-branes in Gepner models

We show why and when D0-branes at the Gepner point of Calabi-Yau manifolds given as Fermat hypersurfaces exist.Comment: 22 pages, substantial improvements in sections 2 and 3, references added, version to be publishe

The Mountain of a Thousand Holes: Shipwreck Traditions and Treasure Hunting on Oregon\u27s North Coast

“Euro-Americans in coastal communities conflated and amplified Native American oral traditions of shipwrecks in Tillamook County, increasingly focusing on buried treasure,” write authors Cameron La Follette, Dennis Griffin and Douglas Deur. In this article, the authors trace the Euro-American blending of Native oral tradition with romances and adventure tales that helped create the “legends contributing to Neahkahnie [Mountain]\u27s reputation as Oregon\u27s treasure-seeking haven.” They also examine the history of treasure-seeking in the area and describe the escalating conflict between Oregon\u27s treasure-hunting statute and cultural resources protection laws, which led finally to statutory repeal that ended all treasure-hunting on state lands. While treasure hunting is no longer allowed in Oswald West State Park where Neahkahnie Mountain is located, the “Beeswax Wreck” lore continues to fascinate visitors to the north Oregon coast

Russian Views of the Unknown Coast: Shvetsov\u27s Accounts of the Oregon and Northern California Coastline During the Sea Otter Trade, 1808-09

Early-nineteenth century Russian accounts of the coastline between Alaska and Fort Ross are rare. This article helps fill this gap, providing diary accounts by Russian American Company employee, Afanasy Shvetsov, of two joint Russian-American sea otter hunting trips along the Oregon and northern California coasts in 1808-09. Recently recovered and translated, these accounts aptly describe landscapes and biota, as well as Russian, American, and conscripted Aleut and Kodiak Alutiiq hunters\u27 interactions with Native American communities. Presented in their historical, geographical, and anthropological context, Shvetsov\u27s accounts offer a rare, revealing glimpse of early European encounters with this contact-period coastline

The Galleon Cargo: Accounts in the Colonial Archives

Much of the debris that has washed up on the shores of the northern Oregon coast for centuries were mainstays of Spanish trade carried as cargo across the world on Manila galleons. Both Native people and Euro-Americans have recovered large beeswax chunks, lending to the lore of the “Beeswax Wreck,” as well as Chinese blue-and-white porcelain fragments. In this article, Cameron La Follette and Douglas Deur describe research findings about cargo on the Santo Cristo de Burgos and similar Manila galleons, including the San Francisco Xavier of 1705, the previous favored candidate for the Oregon wreck. La Follette and Deur located probable matches for the shippers\u27 identities of four shipper\u27s marks found on Oregon beeswax chunks. According to La Follette and Deur, “in addition to trade goods, the Santo Cristo de Burgos carried a cargo of liquid mercury,” which was essential for refining silver ore from South American mines used to make coins that fueled the Spanish empire and the Manila trade itself. The article contains a partial cargo list for the 1693 Santo Cristo de Burgos voyage and a special digital appendix with the full cargo manifest for the 1701 San Francisco Xavier