1,028 research outputs found
Gold as an inflation hedge?
This paper attempts to reconcile an apparent contradiction between short-run and long-run movements in the price of gold. The theoretical model suggests a set of conditions under which the price of gold rises over time at the general rate of inflation and hence be an effective hedge against inflation. The model also demonstrates that short-run changes in the gold lease rate, the real interest rate, convenience yield, default risk, the covariance of gold returns with other assets and the dollar/world exchange rate can disturb this equilibrium relationship and generate short-run price volatility. Using monthly gold price data (1976-1999), and cointegration regression techniques, an empirical analysis confirms the central hypotheses of the theoretical model
Human-Machine Interface for Tele-Robotic Operation: Mapping of Tongue Movements Based on Aural Flow Monitoring
2004 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), October, 2004 (Awarded “Best Paper in Conference”
The small x gluon and b\bar{b} production at the LHC
We study open b\bar{b} production at large rapidity at the LHC in an attempt
to pin down the gluon distribution at very low x. For the LHC energy of 7 TeV,
at next-to-leading order (NLO), there is a large factorization scale
uncertainty. We show that the uncertainty can be greatly reduced if events are
selected in which the transverse momenta of the two B-mesons balance each other
to some accuracy, that is |\vec p_{1T}+\vec p_{2T}| < k_0. This will fix the
scale \mu_F \simeq k_0, and will allow the LHCb experiment, in particular, to
study the x-behaviour of gluon distribution down to x ~ 10^{-5}, at rather low
scales, \mu ~ 2 GeV. We evaluate the expected cross sections using, for
illustrative purposes, various recent sets of Parton Distribution Functions.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
Mass-losing accretion discs around supermassive black holes
We study the effects of outflow/wind on the gravitational stability of
accretion discs around supermassive black holes using a set of analytical
steady-state solutions. Mass-loss rate by the outflow from the disc is assumed
to be a power-law of the radial distance and the amount of the energy and the
angular momentum which are carried away by the wind are parameterized
phenomenologically. We show that the mass of the first clumps at the
self-gravitating radius linearly decreases with the total mass-loss rate of the
outflow. Except for the case of small viscosity and high accretion rate,
generally, the self-gravitating radius increases as the amount of mass-loss by
the outflow increases. Our solutions show that as more angular momentum is lost
by the outflow, then reduction to the mass of the first clumps is more
significant.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc
Three-body interactions in colloidal systems
We present the first direct measurement of three-body interactions in a
colloidal system comprised of three charged colloidal particles. Two of the
particles have been confined by means of a scanned laser tweezers to a
line-shaped optical trap where they diffused due to thermal fluctuations. Upon
the approach of a third particle, attractive three-body interactions have been
observed. The results are in qualitative agreement with additionally performed
nonlinear Poissson-Boltzmann calculations, which also allow us to investigate
the microionic density distributions in the neighborhood of the interacting
colloidal particles
Nonstationary Stochastic Resonance in a Single Neuron-Like System
Stochastic resonance holds much promise for the detection of weak signals in
the presence of relatively loud noise. Following the discovery of nondynamical
and of aperiodic stochastic resonance, it was recently shown that the
phenomenon can manifest itself even in the presence of nonstationary signals.
This was found in a composite system of differentiated trigger mechanisms
mounted in parallel, which suggests that it could be realized in some
elementary neural networks or nonlinear electronic circuits. Here, we find that
even an individual trigger system may be able to detect weak nonstationary
signals using stochastic resonance. The very simple modification to the trigger
mechanism that makes this possible is reminiscent of some aspects of actual
neuron physics. Stochastic resonance may thus become relevant to more types of
biological or electronic systems injected with an ever broader class of
realistic signals.Comment: Plain Latex, 7 figure
QCD analysis of first b cross section data at 1.96 TeV
The first data on bottom quark production in p-pbar collisions at 1.96 TeV
have recently been obtained by the CDF collaboration. These data probe the
region of pt~0, providing a new invaluable input on the issue of the
compatibility between next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD and data. We reconsider
the evaluation of the b cross section, in view of recent theoretical
developments, and of the latest inputs on structure function fits. We show that
the new CDF measurements are in good agreement with NLO QCD. If CDF preliminary
data are confirmed, a long-standing discrepancy between NLO QCD predictions and
hadron-collider data can be settled.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures. This revision gives an expanded presentation of
the results and corrects a mistake in fig 5. V3 updates some reference
The liquid-vapor interface of an ionic fluid
We investigate the liquid-vapor interface of the restricted primitive model
(RPM) for an ionic fluid using a density-functional approximation based on
correlation functions of the homogeneous fluid as obtained from the
mean-spherical approximation (MSA). In the limit of a homogeneous fluid our
approach yields the well-known MSA (energy) equation of state. The ionic
interfacial density profiles, which for the RPM are identical for both species,
have a shape similar to those of simple atomic fluids in that the decay towards
the bulk values is more rapid on the vapor side than on the liquid side. This
is the opposite asymmetry of the decay to that found in earlier calculations
for the RPM based on a square-gradient theory. The width of the interface is,
for a wide range of temperatures, approximately four times the second moment
correlation length of the liquid phase. We discuss the magnitude and
temperature dependence of the surface tension, and argue that for temperatures
near the triple point the ratio of the dimensionless surface tension and
critical temperature is much smaller for the RPM than for simple atomic fluids.Comment: 6 postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Possible origins of macroscopic left-right asymmetry in organisms
I consider the microscopic mechanisms by which a particular left-right (L/R)
asymmetry is generated at the organism level from the microscopic handedness of
cytoskeletal molecules. In light of a fundamental symmetry principle, the
typical pattern-formation mechanisms of diffusion plus regulation cannot
implement the "right-hand rule"; at the microscopic level, the cell's
cytoskeleton of chiral filaments seems always to be involved, usually in
collective states driven by polymerization forces or molecular motors. It seems
particularly easy for handedness to emerge in a shear or rotation in the
background of an effectively two-dimensional system, such as the cell membrane
or a layer of cells, as this requires no pre-existing axis apart from the layer
normal. I detail a scenario involving actin/myosin layers in snails and in C.
elegans, and also one about the microtubule layer in plant cells. I also survey
the other examples that I am aware of, such as the emergence of handedness such
as the emergence of handedness in neurons, in eukaryote cell motility, and in
non-flagellated bacteria.Comment: 42 pages, 6 figures, resubmitted to J. Stat. Phys. special issue.
Major rewrite, rearranged sections/subsections, new Fig 3 + 6, new physics in
Sec 2.4 and 3.4.1, added Sec 5 and subsections of Sec
Anomalous Effects of "Guest" Charges Immersed in Electrolyte: Exact 2D Results
We study physical situations when one or two "guest" arbitrarily-charged
particles are immersed in the bulk of a classical electrolyte modelled by a
Coulomb gas of positive/negative unit point-like charges, the whole system
being in thermal equilibrium. The models are treated as two-dimensional with
logarithmic pairwise interactions among charged constituents; the
(dimensionless) inverse temperature is considered to be smaller than 2
in order to ensure the stability of the electrolyte against the collapse of
positive-negative pairs of charges. Based on recent progress in the integrable
(1+1)-dimensional sine-Gordon theory, exact formulas are derived for the
chemical potential of one guest charge and for the asymptotic large-distance
behavior of the effective interaction between two guest charges. The exact
results imply, under certain circumstances, anomalous effects such as an
effective attraction (repulsion) between like-charged (oppositely-charged)
guest particles and the charge inversion in the electrolyte vicinity of a
highly-charged guest particle. The adequacy of the concept of renormalized
charge is confirmed in the whole stability region of inverse temperatures and
the related saturation phenomenon is revised.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figur
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