Impact of external migration on changes in the Swedish religious landscape

For most of its history, Sweden has been a country dominated by the Lutheran Church, having the status of the official state religion. Starting in mid-to-late 20th century, mass immigration to Europe had a considerable impact on the confessional structure of Sweden’s population. The growing number of refugees from the Balkan Peninsula, the Middle East, and Africa has turned Sweden into a multi-religious state. Sweden has become one of the leaders among the EU countries as far as the growth rates of adherents of Islam are concerned. Immigrants are exposed to adaptation difficulties causing their social, cultural and geographical isolation and making relatively isolated migrant communities emerge. This study aims at finding correlation between the changes in the confessional structure of Swedish population (as a result of the growing number of non-Christians) and the geographical structure of migrant flows into the country. This novel study addresses the mosaic structure of the Swedish religious landscape taking into account the cyclical dynamics of replacement of Protestantism by Islam. The methods we created make it possible to identify further trends in the Sweden’s religious landscape. This study adds to results of the complex sociological and demographic studies of the confessional structure of the Swedish population

Refugees from Syria and Iraq in Sweden: resettlement during the migration crisis

The vast increase in the number of forced migrants during the European migration crisis has compelled the receiving countries to concentrate on the issues of migrant reception and accommodation. This study aims to demonstrate how the patterns of settlement of Syrian and Iraqi migrants changed in 2014-2019. We propose a new methodology, building on the Her­findahl-Hirschman index, an indicator of the level and direction of the spatial concentration - deconcentration of migrants, and the Ryabtsev index, which is used to measure the proximity between the settlement structures of migrants and the Swedes. It is established there was a deconcentration of migrants during the crisis (espe­cially in its ascendant phase), carried out by the Swedish authorities. However a reverse process took place in the descendant phase, as a result of self-arranged migrants’ resettlement. The deconcentration of Iraqis and Syrians led to the convergence between the settlement structure typical of immigrants and the Swedes, whilst concentration resulted in divergence accompanied by the emergence of close-knit immi­grant communities on the outskirts of Sweden’s largest cities. The formation of such communi­ties, seen as vulnerable by the national authorities and marked by a high crime rate, impedes the integration of Syrian and Iraqi immigrants into Swedish society

Metastability of (d+n)-dimensional elastic manifolds

We investigate the depinning of a massive elastic manifold with $d$ internal dimensions, embedded in a $(d+n)$-dimensional space, and subject to an isotropic pinning potential $V({\bf u})=V(|{\bf u}|).$ The tunneling process is driven by a small external force ${\bf F}.$ We find the zero temperature and high temperature instantons and show that for the case $1\le d\le 6$ the problem exhibits a sharp transition from quantum to classical behavior: At low temperatures $T<T_{c}$ the Euclidean action is constant up to exponentially small corrections, while for $T> T_{c},$ ${S_{\rm Eucl}(d,T)}/{\hbar} = {U(d)}/{T}.$ The results are universal and do not depend on the detailed shape of the trapping potential $V({\bf u})$. Possible applications of the problem to the depinning of vortices in high-$T_{c}$ superconductors and nucleation in $d$-dimensional phase transitions are discussed. In addition, we determine the high-temperature asymptotics of the preexponential factor for the $(1+1)$-dimensional problem.Comment: RevTeX, 10 pages, 3 figures inserte

A condition for first order phase transitions in quantum mechanical tunneling models

A criterion is derived for the determination of parameter domains of first order phase transitions in quantum mechanical tunneling models. The criterion is tested by application to various models, in particular to some which have been used recently to explore spin tunneling in macroscopic particles. In each case agreement is found with previously heuristically determined domains.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Intermittent Development of Central Place Systems: The Dynamics of Unification and Breakup

Relevance. The development of central place theory has been hindered by its static nature, as it fails to capture transitions between equilibrium states in central place systems. This long-standing problem remains unsolved since the theory's inception 90 years ago. This article presents a solution by examining the cases of system unification and system breakup, where previously independent systems merge or split.Research objective: The study aims to identify the conditions under which central place systems resume continual development following revolutionary transformations in their structure.Data and methods: The research analyzes census data from India (1947-2011) and Yemen (1973-2004) using equations based on the axioms of central place theory. The study also considers isostatic equilibrium as the foundation of central place system structures.Results: The effect of intermittence on the steady evolution of a central place system diminishes rapidly after the unification of two independent systems. In contrast, the adaptation of elements from a previously unified system to new conditions, including reinstating the former hierarchy and spatial structure, takes significantly longer after a system breakup. The study introduces a novel perspective, highlighting that the unification of central place systems tends to lead to progress, whereas the breakup of a unified system results in degradation.Conclusions: The true benefit to a central place system lies not solely in achieving isostatic equilibrium but in maintaining a secure and optimal structure. While these concepts share similarities, they may appear more distinct when examining the central place system as a whole. Equilibrium represents an optimal state for individual hierarchy levels rather than the entire system

Thermally activated Hall creep of flux lines from a columnar defect

We analyse the thermally activated depinning of an elastic string (line tension $\epsilon$) governed by Hall dynamics from a columnar defect modelled as a cylindrical potential well of depth $V_{0}$ for the case of a small external force $F.$ An effective 1D field Hamiltonian is derived in order to describe the 2D string motion. At high temperatures the decay rate is proportional to $F^{{5}/{2}}T^{-{1}/{2}} \exp{\left [{F_{0}}/{F}-{U(F)}/{T}\right ]},$ with $F_{0}$ a constant of order of the critical force and U(F) \sim{\left ({\epsilon V_{0}})}^{{1}/{2}}{V_{0}/{F}} the activation energy. The results are applied to vortices pinned by columnar defects in superclean superconductors.Comment: 12 pages, RevTeX, 2 figures inserte

Quantum depinning of a pancake-vortex from a columnar defect

We consider the problem of the depinning of a weakly driven ($F\ll F_{c}$) pancake vortex from a columnar defect in a Josephson-coupled superconductor, where $F$ denotes the force acting on the vortex ($F_{c}$ is the critical force). The dynamics of the vortex is supposed to be of the Hall type. The Euclidean action $S_{Eucl}(T)$ is calculated in the entire temperature range; the result is universal and does not depend on the detailed form of the pinning potential. We show that the transition from quantum to classical behavior is second-order like with the temperature $T_{c}$ of the transition scaling like $F^{{4}/{3}}.$ Special attention is paid to the regime of applicability of our results, in particular, the influence of the large vortex mass appearing in the superclean limit is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX, 4 figures inserte

Free-energy distribution functions for the randomly forced directed polymer

We study the $1+1$-dimensional random directed polymer problem, i.e., an elastic string $\phi(x)$ subject to a Gaussian random potential $V(\phi,x)$ and confined within a plane. We mainly concentrate on the short-scale and finite-temperature behavior of this problem described by a short- but finite-ranged disorder correlator $U(\phi)$ and introduce two types of approximations amenable to exact solutions. Expanding the disorder potential $V(\phi,x) \approx V_0(x) + f(x) \phi(x)$ at short distances, we study the random force (or Larkin) problem with $V_0(x) = 0$ as well as the shifted random force problem including the random offset $V_0(x)$; as such, these models remain well defined at all scales. Alternatively, we analyze the harmonic approximation to the correlator $U(\phi)$ in a consistent manner. Using direct averaging as well as the replica technique, we derive the distribution functions ${\cal P}_{L,y}(F)$ and ${\cal P}_L(F)$ of free energies $F$ of a polymer of length $L$ for both fixed ($\phi(L) = y$) and free boundary conditions on the displacement field $\phi(x)$ and determine the mean displacement correlators on the distance $L$. The inconsistencies encountered in the analysis of the harmonic approximation to the correlator are traced back to its non-spectral correlator; we discuss how to implement this approximation in a proper way and present a general criterion for physically admissible disorder correlators $U(\phi)$.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Exact free energy distribution function of a randomly forced directed polymer

We study the elastic (1+1)-dimensional string subject to a random gaussian potential on scales smaller than the correlation radius of the disorder potential (Larkin problem). We present an exact calculation of the probability function ${\cal P} [F(u,L)]$ for the free energy $F$ of a string starting at $(0,0)$ and ending at $(u,L)$. The function ${\cal P}(F)$ is strongly asymmetric, with the left tail decaying exponentially ($\ln {\cal P}(F\to-\infty)\propto F$) and the right tail vanishing as $\ln {\cal P}(F\to +\infty)\propto -F^{3}$. Our analysis defines a strategy for future attacks on this class of problems.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 1 figure inserte