The price-dividend relationship in inflationary and deflationary regimes

This paper suggests that dividends do not reflect permanent earnings of corporations in periods of high inflation and deflation, and therefore the price-dividend relationship, as predicted by Gordon’s dividend-price model, breaks down. Using data for the US and the UK over the period from 1871 to 2002, nonlinear estimates support the prediction of the model

High-harmonic generation from arbitrarily oriented diatomic molecules including nuclear motion and field-free alignment

We present a theoretical model of high-harmonic generation from diatomic molecules. The theory includes effects of alignment as well as nuclear motion and is used to predict results for N$_2$, O$_2$, H$_2$ and D$_2$. The results show that the alignment dependence of high-harmonics is governed by the symmetry of the highest occupied molecular orbital and that the inclusion of the nuclear motion in the theoretical description generally reduces the intensity of the harmonic radiation. We compare our model with experimental results on N$_2$ and O$_2$, and obtain very good agreement.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables; legends revised on Figs. 1,3,4,6 and

The Equity Premium

Recent research on the equity risk premium has questioned the ability of historical estimates of the risk premium to provide reliable estimates of the expected risk premium. We calculate the equity risk premium for a number of countries over longer horizons than has been attempted to date. We show that the realised US equity premium is consistent with the premia obtained elsewhere. Furthermore, using well over a century of data, we find that current estimates of the equity premia are close to those observed during the pre-1914 era. This is of particular relevance given the argument that the financial environment during that period bears a closer resemblance to today than the 1914-1945 period, and possibly also the 1945-1971 period. This points to a current equity risk premium that is considerably lower than consensus forecasts (Welch 2001)

House Prices, Credit and Willingness to Lend

This paper establishes a Tobin’s q model in which house prices fluctuate around their long run equilibrium due to fluctuations in credit availability and income. It is shown that house prices are positively related to credit in the short run, however, negatively related to the availability of credit in the long run. Using survey data on banks’ willingness to lend and data on disintermediation for the U.S. over a long period and for nine OECD countries over a short period it is shown that the availability of credit is the principal variable driving house prices around their long run equilibrium. Shocks to interest rates and income have only secondary effects on house price fluctuations.Willingness to lend, Tobin’s q. House prices

High-order harmonic generation from polyatomic molecules including nuclear motion and a nuclear modes analysis

We present a generic approach for treating the effect of nuclear motion in the high-order harmonic generation from polyatomic molecules. Our procedure relies on a separation of nuclear and electron dynamics where we account for the electronic part using the Lewenstein model and nuclear motion enters as a nuclear correlation function. We express the nuclear correlation function in terms of Franck-Condon factors which allows us to decompose nuclear motion into modes and identify the modes that are dominant in the high-order harmonic generation process. We show results for the isotopes CH$_4$ and CD$_4$ and thereby provide direct theoretical support for a recent experiment [Baker {\it et al.}, Science {\bf 312}, 424 (2006)] that uses high-order harmonic generation to probe the ultra-fast structural nuclear rearrangement of ionized methane.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Experimental Bell Inequality Violation with an Atom and a Photon

We report the measurement of a Bell inequality violation with a single atom and a single photon prepared in a probabilistic entangled state. This is the first demonstration of such a violation with particles of different species. The entanglement characterization of this hybrid system may also be useful in quantum information applications.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Ecological effects and environmental fate of solid rocket exhaust

Specific target processes were classified as to the chemical, chemical-physical, and biological reactions and toxic effects of solid rocket emissions within selected ecosystems at Kennedy Space Center. Exposure of Citris seedlings, English peas, and bush beans to SRM exhaust under laboratory conditions demonstrated reduced growth rates, but at very high concentrations. Field studies of natural plant populations in three diverse ecosystems failed to reveal any structural damage at the concentration levels tested. Background information on elemental composition of selected woody plants from two terrestrial ecosystems is reported. LD sub 50 for a native mouse (peromysous gossypinus) exposed to SRM exhaust was determined to be 50 ppm/g body weight. Results strongly indicate that other components of the SRM exhaust act synergically to enhance the toxic effects of HCl gas when inhaled. A brief summary is given regarding the work on SRM exhaust and its possible impact on hatchability of incubating bird eggs

The effect of height and density of sex pheromone traps on captures of male fruittree leafroller, Archips argyrospilus and threelined leafroller, Pandemis limitata (Lepid.: Tortricidae)

When sex pheromone traps in the upper third of a standard apple tree were compared with traps at head height, the upper traps captured far more fruittree leafroller moths (<i>Archips argyrospilus</i> (Walker) than the lower traps. The results with threelined leafroller (<i>Pandemis limitata</i> (Rob.) were reversed: traps at head height captured nearly twice as many moths as traps in the upper portion of a tree. Trap captures increased with trap/area up to 1 trap/ha. This density is probably sufficient for monitoring purposes

Zero-Point cooling and low heating of trapped 111Cd+ ions

We report on ground state laser cooling of single 111Cd+ ions confined in radio-frequency (Paul) traps. Heating rates of trapped ion motion are measured for two different trapping geometries and electrode materials, where no effort was made to shield the electrodes from the atomic Cd source. The low measured heating rates suggest that trapped 111Cd+ ions may be well-suited for experiments involving quantum control of atomic motion, including applications in quantum information science.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to PR