Tidal Excitation of Oscillation Modes in Compact White Dwarf Binaries: I. Linear Theory

We study the tidal excitation of gravity modes (g-modes) in compact white dwarf binary systems with periods ranging from minutes to hours. As the orbit of the system decays via gravitational radiation, the orbital frequency increases and sweeps through a series of resonances with the g-modes of the white dwarf. At each resonance, the tidal force excites the g-mode to a relatively large amplitude, transferring the orbital energy to the stellar oscillation. We calculate the eigenfrequencies of g-modes and their coupling coefficients with the tidal field for realistic non-rotating white dwarf models. Using these mode properties, we numerically compute the excited mode amplitude in the linear approximation as the orbit passes though the resonance, including the backreaction of the mode on the orbit. We also derive analytical estimates for the mode amplitude and the duration of the resonance, which accurately reproduce our numerical results for most binary parameters. We find that the g-modes can be excited to a dimensionless (mass-weighted) amplitude up to 0.1, with the mode energy approaching $10^{-3}$ of the gravitational binding energy of the star. This suggests that thousands of years prior to the binary merger, the white dwarf may be heated up significantly by tidal interactions. However, more study is needed since the physical amplitudes of the excited oscillation modes become highly nonlinear in the outer layer of the star, which can reduce the mode amplitude attained by tidal excitation.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Review of ContemporaryAsian American Communities, Edited by Linda Vo and Rick Bonus

Many compilations have been published on Asian Pacific Americans over the past several years, but none have really challenged existing theoretical assumptions about the everyday spaces in contemporary Asian Pacific American communities until now. In Contemporary Asian American Communities: Intersections and Divergences, co-edited by Linda Trinh Vo and Rick Bonus, an array of scholars are challenging established scholarly notions about a wide range of topics including the meanings of community, sexual and multi-racial identities, professional and political networks, and new modes of cultural production for Asian Pacific Americans

Racially Polarized Voting and Its Effects on the Formation of a Viable Latino-Asian Pacific Political Coalition

In Paths To Political Incorporation For Latinos and Asian Pacifies in California, Steven P. Erie, Harold Brackman, and James Warren Ingram Ill (Erie et al.) examined the potentials and barriers for political incorporation of Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Pacifies in California. According to their findings, they argue that a bi-racial political coalition between Latinos and Asian Pacifies is likely based on the following factors: language and immigration issues. They stated: Regarding a possible Latino alliance with Asian Pacifies, there appears to be a strong basis for collaboration on behalf of an immigrant rights agenda and in opposition to resurgent Anglo nativism. The two groups converge to the center on attitudes about economic development and crime, facilitating coalition building. However, the prospects for a durable alliance remain problematic ... The most serious barrier to constructing a Latino/Asian Pacific coalition may be political rather than socioeconomic. Because of diffuse and commingled Latino and Asian Pacific residential patterns in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, political rivalries are structurally built into ongoing reapportionment dynamics (Erie, Brackman, and Warren Ill, 1993, p. 4)

A New Gateway: Asian American Political Power in the 21st Century

Don T. Nakanishi\u27s prescient 1985 Amerasia Journal essay, Asian American Politics: An Agenda for Research argued for an interdisciplinary approach to gain a better understanding of Asian American politics. His essay provided an integrated micro/macro and a domestic/transnational approach that was well ahead of its time. Nakanishi\u27s timely essay would prove influential in defining future research parameters of the political behavior of Asian Americans. At the time of the essay\u27s publication, Asians, compared to African Americans and Latinos, were not found in the extant political science literature. Nearly twenty-five years later, however, Nakanishi\u27s interdisciplinary approach has become even more useful for studying Asian American politics. What follows is my incorporation and application of Nakanishi\u27s earlier ideas to looking at Asian American political power today

From Central Cities to Ethnoburbs: Asian American Political Incorporation in the San Francisco Bay Area

Asian Americans are increasingly more active and visible in local politics, extending beyond central city limits. While central cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, and New York City remain vibrant 21st-century gateways for contemporary Asian immigrants and community formation, a majority of the U.S. Asian American population currently resides in suburban cities. Between 2000 and 2010, Asian American population growth in the suburbs reached 1.7 million, which was nearly four times the growth during the same period for those Asian Americans living in central cities. 1 Approximately 62 percent of the U.S. Asian American population is situated in the suburbs compared to 59 percent for Latinas/os, 51 percent for African Americans, and 78 percent for whites.2 Variations of suburban settlement exist among Asian ethnic groups with Asian Indians being the most likely to live in the suburbs at 56 percent followed by Filipinos (54%), Koreans (54%), Japanese (52%), Vietnamese (50%), and Chinese (45%).3 In 2010, the national Asian American population reached 17.9 million in 2010, an increase of 250 percent from 1990.4 California and New York remain the two most prominent states with Asian American populations at 32 percent and 9 percent of the national Asian American population, respectively. Each of these states contains different variations of Asian ethnic populations. In California, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles metro area contain the most diverse Asian ethnic groups among central cities in the state with significantly large numbers of Filipinos (27%), Chinese (26%), Asian Indians (11 %), Japanese (9%), and Koreans (8%).5 In New York, New York City\u27s Asian American population is tilted toward Chinese (39%) and Asian Indians (23%).6 While California and New York are major destination states, they are by no means alone. Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Georgia each witnessed their respective Asian American populations\u27 growth between 80 and 116 percent from 2000 to 2010. Nearly 3.9 million Asian Americans, or 3 percent of the electorate, voted in the 2012 elections. This represented an increase of 547,000 voters from 2008.7 The impact of the growing Asian American voter base in the suburbs of battleground states was witnessed during the 2012 U.S. presidential election. For example, in the suburbs of Northern Virginia, outside of Richmond, the Asian American population has doubled during the past decade, according to the 2010 U.S. census. These Asian-influenced suburbs were the focus of both President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney in their efforts to sway potential Asian American swing voters. According to Shawn Steel, a Republican National Committee member and an outspoken evangelist about the importance of the Asian American vote for his party: We\u27ve got to get communicating (with Asian American voters). We\u27ve got to get on it, and we\u27re running out of time. 8 Both political parties are likely to contend for Asian American voters in key battleground states such as Nevada, Virginia, Texas, Ohio, and Florida

Multiplexing Racial and Ethnic Planes: Chinese American Politics in Globalized Immigrant Suburbs

Contemporary American suburbs offer critical insights into the multiple planes of racial and ethnic consciousness and community formations that shape new Chinese American political agendas. In a 2009 Amerasia Journal article entitled A New Gateway: Asian American Political Power in the 21st Century, I examined the importance of location for understanding the ability of Asian American communities to attain and sustain elected representation. Like real estate, location matters in explaining the political question of where Asian Americans are winning elected representation in American politics. That article\u27s thesis was that, rather than focusing solely on metropolitan gateways that had been central to the twentieth-century experiences of Asian Americans, we need also to focus on the small- to medium-sized twenty-firstcentury gateway suburbs with total populations between 30,000 to 110,000. These locations are where the pathways to political incorporation are happening more rapidly and dramatically, as Asian ethnic media and politically mature community-based organizations and interest groups are emerging within largely Asian immigrant suburbs

Renewable Energy in the Nation of Panem

In the film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1, the destruction of a single hydroelectric dam leaves the Capitol of the nation of Panem with no electrical power. In this paper, measurements of the hydroelectric dam are used to calculate its power output in order to estimate the power consumption in the Capitol, calculated to be 15.84MW

Voting Behavior and Political Participation

Asian Americans have been labeled as the next sleeping giant in American politics in key geopolitical states such as California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Washington. 1 Much of this perception is fueled by the dramatic growth of Asian American communities in these and other states as a result of federal immigration reforms beginning in 1965. This section highlights the major areas of Asian American political participation and behavior that will likely determine whether Asian American politics will live up to this label. These include voter behavior and turnout in local, state, and federal elections as recently as the 2008 presidential election, their roles in multiracial and panethnic coalition-building, historical and contemporary social movements, and recent trajectories in local politics. The partisanship of Asian American voters has traditionally been limited to the Democratic Party because of the predominantly working-class backgrounds of the early immigrants in the United States and the salient issues that matter to them. Recent scholarship has found an upswing of both Republican and independent voters in Asian American immigrants who have arrived since 1965 because of their higher socioeconomic statuses, immigrant experiences, and political ideologies. 2 As a result , the Asian American vote is seen as a potential racial voting bloc and subsequently a swing vote in states with large Asian American populations in a two-party system during important statewide elections, ranging from the state legislature to the U.S. presidency

Thrifty Viability and Traditional Mortgage Lending: A Simultaneous Equations Analysis of the Risk-Return Trade-Off

A number of studies have argued that the thrift industry is not viable as it is presently structured and regulated because mortgage yields are inadequate to cover interest and operating costs. This hypothesis suggests that observed profitability is primarily the result of the tendency of the industry to "ride" the yield curve by borrowing short and lending long. To evaluate this argument, we construct a simultaneous-equations model of thrift risk (maturity gap positions) and return (net interest margin). We find support for the notion that the industry could not be reasonably profitable if it did not take on significant interest-rate risk. For instance, a zero gap position produces a return on assets of only 19 basis points and a return on equity of only 4%. We also estimate the amount of interest-rate risk the industry can employ to increase returns on equity and assets. Our estimates show that over 50% of thrift profits earned during this period are the result of negative gap positions and interest-rate speculation. As earlier research shows, changes in regulations affecting thrift asset and liability choices can be counterproductive.