36,941 research outputs found
Reaching for Mediocrity: Competition and Stagnation in Pharmaceutical Innovation
Patents might incentivize invention but they do not guarantee firms will invest in projects that maximize social utility. We model how risk-neutral firmsâ ability to obtain substantial private returns on marginal new technologies causes them to âreach for mediocrityâ by investing in socially-suboptimal projects, even in the presence of competition and new entrants. Focusing primarily on pharmaceutical innovation, we analyze various policy interventions to solve this underinvestment problem. In particular, we describe a new approach to patents â a value based patent system, which ties patent protection to the underlying inventionâs social value â and show how it incentivizes socially-optimal innovation
Spontaneous Formation of Stable Capillary Bridges for Firming Compact Colloidal Microstructures in Phase Separating Liquids: A Computational Study
Computer modeling and simulations are performed to investigate capillary
bridges spontaneously formed between closely packed colloidal particles in
phase separating liquids. The simulations reveal a self-stabilization mechanism
that operates through diffusive equilibrium of two-phase liquid morphologies.
Such mechanism renders desired microstructural stability and uniformity to the
capillary bridges that are spontaneously formed during liquid solution phase
separation. This self-stabilization behavior is in contrast to conventional
coarsening processes during phase separation. The volume fraction limit of the
separated liquid phases as well as the adhesion strength and thermodynamic
stability of the capillary bridges are discussed. Capillary bridge formations
in various compact colloid assemblies are considered. The study sheds light on
a promising route to in-situ (in-liquid) firming of fragile colloidal crystals
and other compact colloidal microstructures via capillary bridges
Kondo Resonance of a Microwave Photon
We emulate renormalization group models, such as the Spin-Boson Hamiltonian
or the anisotropic Kondo model, from a quantum optics perspective by
considering a superconducting device. The infra-red confinement involves photon
excitations of two tunable transmission lines entangled to an artificial
spin-1/2 particle or double-island charge qubit. Focusing on the propagation of
microwave light, in the underdamped regime of the Spin-Boson model, we identify
a many-body resonance where a photon is absorbed at the renormalized qubit
frequency and reemitted forward in an elastic manner. We also show that
asymptotic freedom of microwave light is reached by increasing the input signal
amplitude at low temperatures which allows the disappearance of the
transmission peak.Comment: Final Version: Main text and Supplementary Materia
Tuning Energy Relaxation along Quantum Hall Channels
The chiral edge channels in the quantum Hall regime are considered ideal
ballistic quantum channels, and have quantum information processing
potentialities. Here, we demonstrate experimentally, at filling factor 2, the
efficient tuning of the energy relaxation that limits quantum coherence and
permits the return toward equilibrium. Energy relaxation along an edge channel
is controllably enhanced by increasing its transmission toward a floating ohmic
contact, in quantitative agreement with predictions. Moreover, by forming a
closed inner edge channel loop, we freeze energy exchanges in the outer
channel. This result also elucidates the inelastic mechanisms at work at
filling factor 2, informing us in particular that those within the outer edge
channel are negligible.Comment: 8 pages including supplementary materia
A noise-immune cavity-assisted non-destructive detection for an optical lattice clock in the quantum regime
We present and implement a non-destructive detection scheme for the
transition probability readout of an optical lattice clock. The scheme relies
on a differential heterodyne measurement of the dispersive properties of
lattice-trapped atoms enhanced by a high finesse cavity. By design, this scheme
offers a 1st order rejection of the technical noise sources, an enhanced
signal-to-noise ratio, and an homogeneous atom-cavity coupling. We
theoretically show that this scheme is optimal with respect to the photon shot
noise limit. We experimentally realize this detection scheme in an operational
strontium optical lattice clock. The resolution is on the order of a few atoms
with a photon scattering rate low enough to keep the atoms trapped after
detection. This scheme opens the door to various different interrogations
protocols, which reduce the frequency instability, including atom recycling,
zero-dead time clocks with a fast repetition rate, and sub quantum projection
noise frequency stability
Supersymmetry Without Prejudice at the 7 TeV LHC
We investigate the model independent nature of the Supersymmetry search
strategies at the 7 TeV LHC. To this end, we study the
missing-transverse-energy-based searches developed by the ATLAS Collaboration
that were essentially designed for mSUGRA. We simulate the signals for ~71k
models in the 19-dimensional parameter space of the pMSSM. These models have
been found to satisfy existing experimental and theoretical constraints and
provide insight into general features of the MSSM without reference to a
particular SUSY breaking scenario or any other assumptions at the GUT scale.
Using backgrounds generated by ATLAS, we find that imprecise knowledge of these
estimated backgrounds is a limiting factor in the potential discovery of these
models and that some channels become systematics-limited at larger
luminosities. As this systematic error is varied between 20-100%, roughly half
to 90% of this model sample is observable with significance S>5 for 1 fb^{-1}
of integrated luminosity. We then examine the model characteristics for the
cases which cannot be discovered and find several contributing factors. We find
that a blanket statement that squarks and gluinos are excluded with masses
below a specific value cannot be made. We next explore possible modifications
to the kinematic cuts in these analyses that may improve the pMSSM model
coverage. Lastly, we examine the implications of a null search at the 7 TeV LHC
in terms of the degree of fine-tuning that would be present in this model set
and for sparticle production at the 500 GeV and 1 TeV Linear Collider.Comment: 51 pages, 26 figure
Non-minimality of corners in subriemannian geometry
We give a short solution to one of the main open problems in subriemannian
geometry. Namely, we prove that length minimizers do not have corner-type
singularities. With this result we solve Problem II of Agrachev's list, and
provide the first general result toward the 30-year-old open problem of
regularity of subriemannian geodesics.Comment: 11 pages, final versio
Polarizabilities of the 87Sr Clock Transition
In this paper, we propose an in-depth review of the vector and tensor
polarizabilities of the two energy levels of the 87Sr clock transition whose
measurement was reported in [P. G. Westergaard et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106,
210801 (2011)]. We conduct a theoretical calculation that reproduces the
measured coefficients. In addition, we detail the experimental conditions used
for their measurement in two Sr optical lattice clocks, and exhibit the
quadratic behaviour of the vector and tensor shifts with the depth of the
trapping potential and evaluate their impact on the accuracy of the clock
Redshifts from Spitzer Spectra for Optically Faint, Radio Selected Infrared Sources
Spectra have been obtained with the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer
Space Telescope for 18 optically faint sources (R > 23.9,mag) having f(nu)
(24um) > 1.0,mJy and having radio detections at 20 cm to a limit of 115
microJy. Sources are within the Spitzer First Look Survey. Redshifts are
determined for 14 sources from strong silicate absorption features (12 sources)
or strong PAH emission features (2 sources), with median redshift of 2.1.
Results confirm that optically faint sources of ~1 mJy at 24um are typically at
redshifts z ~ 2, verifying the high efficiency in selecting high redshift
sources based on extreme infrared to optical flux ratio, and indicate that 24um
sources which also have radio counterparts are not systematically different
than samples chosen only by their infrared to optical flux ratios. Using the
parameter q = log[f(nu)(24um)/f(nu)(20 cm)] 17 of the 18 sources observed have
values of 0<q<1, in the range expected for starburst-powered sources, but only
a few of these show strong PAH emission as expected from starbursts, with the
remainder showing absorbed or power-law spectra consistent with an AGN
luminosity source. This confirms previous indications that optically faint
Spitzer sources with f(nu)(24um) > 1.0mJy are predominately AGN and represent
the upper end of the luminosity function of dusty sources at z ~ 2. Based on
the characteristics of the sources observed so far, we predict that the nature
of sources selected at 24um will change for f(nu)(24um) < 0.5 mJy to sources
dominated primarily by starbursts.Comment: Accepted ApJ 20 February 2006, v638 2 issue, 10pages including 3
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