468 research outputs found
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The Problem of Bigness: From Standard Oil to Google
This essay sets recent expressions of alarm about the monopoly power of technology giants like Google and Amazon in the long history of Americansâ response to big business. It argues that we cannot understand that history unless we realize that Americans have always been concerned about the political and economic dangers of bigness, not just the threat of high prices. The problem policy makers faced after the rise of Standard Oil was how to protect society against those dangers without punishing firms that grew large because they were innovative. The antitrust regime put in place in the early twentieth century managed this balancing act by focusing on large firmsâ conduct toward competitors and banning practices that were anticompetitive or exclusionary. Maintaining this balance was difficult, however, and it gave way over timeâfirst to a preoccupation with market power during the post-World War II period, and then to a fixation on consumer welfare in the late twentieth century. Refocusing policy on large firmsâ conduct would do much to address current fears about bigness without penalizing firms whose market power comes from innovation
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Voting Trusts and Antitrust: Rethinking the Role of Shareholder Rights and Private Litigation in Public Regulation, 1880s to 1930s
Scholars have long recognized that the statesâ authority to charter corporations bolstered their antitrust powers in ways that were not available to the federal government. But they have also argued that the growth of large-scale enterprises operating in national and even international markets forced states to stop prosecuting monopolistic combinations out of fear of doing serious damage to their domestic economies. Our paper has revised this conventional view by focusing attention on the lawsuits that minority shareholders brought against their own companies in state courts of law and equity, especially suits that challenged the anticompetitive use of voting trusts. Historically judges had been reluctant to intervene in corporationsâ internal affairs and had displayed a particular wariness of shareholdersâ private actions. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, they had begun to revise their views and to see shareholdersâ private actions as useful checks on economic concentration. Although the balance between judgesâ suspicion of and support for shareholdersâ activism shifted back and forth over time, the long-run effect was to make devices like voting trusts unsuitable for the purposes of economic concentration
Limit on the Temporal Variation of the Fine-Structure Constant Using Atomic Dysprosium
Over a period of eight months, we have monitored transition frequencies
between nearly degenerate, opposite-parity levels in two isotopes of atomic
dysprosium (Dy). These transition frequencies are highly sensitive to temporal
variation of the fine-structure constant () due to relativistic
corrections of large and opposite sign for the opposite-parity levels. In this
unique system, in contrast to atomic-clock comparisons, the difference of the
electronic energies of the opposite-parity levels can be monitored directly
utilizing a radio-frequency (rf) electric-dipole transition between them. Our
measurements show that the frequency variation of the 3.1-MHz transition in
Dy and the 235-MHz transition in Dy are 9.06.7 Hz/yr and
-0.66.5 Hz/yr, respectively. These results provide a value for the rate of
fractional variation of of yr (1
) without any assumptions on the constancy of other fundamental
constants, indicating absence of significant variation at the present level of
sensitivity.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
New constraints for non-Newtonian gravity in nanometer range from the improved precision measurement of the Casimir force
We obtain constraints on non-Newtonian gravity following from the improved
precision measurement of the Casimir force by means of atomic force microscope.
The hypothetical force is calculated in experimental configuration (a sphere
above a disk both covered by two metallic layers). The strengthenings of
constraints up to 4 times comparing the previous experiment and up to 560 times
comparing the Casimir force measurements between dielectrics are obtained in
the interaction range 5.9 nmnm. Recent speculations about
the presence of some unexplained attractive force in the considered experiment
are shown to be unjustified.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur
Stiction, Adhesion Energy and the Casimir Effect in Micromechanical Systems
We measure the adhesion energy of gold using a micromachined doubly-clamped
beam. The stress and stiffness of the beam are characterized by measuring the
spectrum of mechanical vibrations and the deflection due to an external force.
To determine the adhesion energy we induce stiction between the beam and a
nearby surface by capillary forces. Subsequent analysis yields a value J/m that is a factor of approximately six smaller than predicted
by idealized theory. This discrepancy may be resolved with revised models that
include surface roughness and the effect of adsorbed monolayers intervening
between the contacting surfaces in these mesoscopic structures.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 4 eps figure
Neutron-Electron EDM Correlations in Supersymmetry and Prospects for EDM Searches
Motivated by recent progress in experimental techniques of electric dipole
moment (EDM) measurements, we study correlations between the neutron and
electron EDMs in common supersymmetric models. These include minimal
supergravity (mSUGRA) with small CP phases, mSUGRA with a heavy SUSY spectrum,
the decoupling scenario and split SUSY. In most cases, the electron and neutron
EDMs are found to be observable in the next round of EDM experiments. They
exhibit certain correlation patterns. For example, if d_n ~ 10^{-27} e cm is
found, d_e is predicted to lie in the range 10^{-28}-10^{-29} e cm.Comment: 16 pages,12 figures. To appear in JHEP. A note on stability of the
correlations added in Conclusions; refs. and footnotes adde
New Experimental Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Electron in a Paramagnetic Insulator
We report results of an experimental search for the intrinsic Electric Dipole
Moment (EDM) of the electron using a solid-state technique. The experiment
employs a paramagnetic, insulating gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) that has a
large magnetic response at low temperatures. The presence of the eEDM would
lead to a small but non-zero magnetization as the GGG sample is subject to a
strong electric field. We search for the resulting Stark-induced magnetization
with a sensitive magnetometer. Recent progress on the suppression of several
sources of background allows the experiment to run free of spurious signals at
the level of the statistical uncertainties. We report our first limit on the
eEDM of 10ecm with 5 days of
data averaging.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, Revtex 4.
Variation of the Fine-Structure Constant and Laser Cooling of Atomic Dysprosium
Radio-frequency electric-dipole transitions between nearly degenerate,
opposite parity levels of atomic dysprosium (Dy) were monitored over an
eight-month period to search for a variation in the fine-structure constant,
. The data provide a rate of fractional temporal variation of
of yr or a value of for , the variation coefficient for in a changing
gravitational potential. All results indicate the absence of significant
variation at the present level of sensitivity. We also present initial results
on laser cooling of an atomic beam of dysprosium.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, fixed typos in section 5, updated result
Investigation of the Gravitational Potential Dependence of the Fine-Structure Constant Using Atomic Dysprosium
Radio-frequency E1 transitions between nearly degenerate, opposite parity
levels of atomic dysprosium were monitored over an eight month period to search
for a variation in the fine-structure constant. During this time period, data
were taken at different points in the gravitational potential of the Sun. The
data are fitted to the variation in the gravitational potential yielding a
value of for the fit parameter . This
value gives the current best laboratory limit. In addition, our value of
combined with other experimental constraints is used to extract
the first limits on k_e and k_q. These coefficients characterize the variation
of m_e/m_p and m_q/m_p in a changing gravitational potential, where m_e, m_p,
and m_q are electron, proton, and quark masses. The results are and .Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
CP violation in 5D Split Fermions Scenario
We give a new configuration of split fermion positions in one extra dimension
with two different Yukawa coupling strengths for up-type, , and down-type,
, quarks at . The new configurations can give enough
CP violating (CPV) phase for accommodating all currently observed CPV
processes. Therefore, a 5D standard model with split fermions is viable. In
addition to the standard CKM phase, new CPV sources involving Kaluza-Klein(KK)
gauge bosons coupling which arise from the fact that unitary rotation which
transforms weak eigenstates into their mass eigenstates only holds for the zero
modes which are the SM fields and not for the KK excitations. We have examined
the physics of kaon, neutron, and mesons and found the most stringent
bound on the size of the extra dimension comes from .
Moreover, it depends sensitively on the width, , of the Gaussian
wavefunction in the extra dimension used to describe of the fermions. When
, the constraint will be lifted due to GIM suppression on the
flavor changing neutral current(FCNC) and CPV couplings.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure
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