Wonderful compactification of an arrangement of subvarieties

We define the wonderful compactification of an arrangement of subvarieties. Given a complex nonsingular algebraic variety $Y$ and certain collection $\mathcal{G}$ of subvarieties of $Y$, the wonderful compactification $Y_\mathcal{G}$ can be constructed by a sequence of blow-ups of $Y$ along the subvarieties of the arrangement. This generalizes the Fulton-MacPherson configuration spaces and the wonderful models given by De Concini and Procesi. We give a condition on the order of blow-ups in the construction of $Y_\mathcal{G}$ such that each blow-up is along a nonsingular center.Comment: 30 pages, presentation is improved, to appear in the Michigan Mathematical Journa

Probing the EOS of dense neutron-rich matter with high-energy radioactive beams

Nuclear reactions induced by high energy radioactive beams create a transient state of nuclear matter with high density and appreciable neutron to proton asymmetry. This will provide a unique opportunity to explore novel properties of dense neutron-rich matter and the isospin-dependence of the nuclear equation of state (EOS). Here we study the $\pi^-/\pi^+$ ratio as a probe of the EOS of dense neutron-rich matter.Comment: Talk given at NN2003 to appear in the Proc. in Nucl. Phys. A (2004

Service and price competition when customers are naive

We consider a system of two service providers each with a separate queue. Customers choose one queue to join upon arrival and can switch between queues in real time before entering service to maximize their spot utility, which is a function of price and queue length. We characterize the steady-state distribution for queue lengths, and then investigate a two-stage game in which the two service providers first simultaneously select service rates and then simultaneously charge prices. Our results indicate that neither service provider will have both a faster service and a lower price than its competitor. When price plays a less significant role in customers service selection relative to queue length or when the two service providers incur comparable costs for building capacities, they will not engage in price competition. When price plays a significant role and the capacity costs at the service providers sufficiently differ, they will adopt substitutable competition instruments: the lower cost service provider will build a faster service and the higher cost service provider will charge a lower price. Comparing our results to those in the existing literature, we find that the service providers invest in lower service rates, engage in less intense price competition, and earn higher profits, while customers wait in line longer when they are unable to infer service rates and are naive in service selection than when they can infer service rates to make sophisticated choices. The customers jockeying behavior further lowers the service providers capacity investment and lengthens the customers duration of stay

Quantum phase transition in a three-level atom-molecule system

We adopt a three-level bosonic model to investigate the quantum phase transition in an ultracold atom-molecule conversion system which includes one atomic mode and two molecular modes. Through thoroughly exploring the properties of energy level structure, fidelity, and adiabatical geometric phase, we confirm that the system exists a second-order phase transition from an atommolecule mixture phase to a pure molecule phase. We give the explicit expression of the critical point and obtain two scaling laws to characterize this transition. In particular we find that both the critical exponents and the behaviors of ground-state geometric phase change obviously in contrast to a similar two-level model. Our analytical calculations show that the ground-state geometric phase jumps from zero to ?pi/3 at the critical point. This discontinuous behavior has been checked by numerical simulations and it can be used to identify the phase transition in the system.Comment: 8 pages,8 figure