Plurality Rule, Proportional Representation, and the German Bundestag: How Incentives to Pork-Barrel Differ Across Electoral Systems

This paper examines the importance of electoral rules for legislators’ behavior. The German electoral system includes a mechanism which assigns whether legislators are elected under the “first-past-the-post” (FPTP), or the proportional representation (PR) electoral rule. Using this institution, we identify the effect of electoral rules on legislators’ behavior and disentangle whether so-called pork barrel politics are due to political climate in a country or due to the electoral rule employed. We find significant differences in committee membership, depending whether the legislator is elected though FPTP or PR. legislators elected through FPTP system are members of committees that allows them to service their geographically based constituency. Legislators elected through PR are members of committees that service the party constituencies, which are not necessarily geographically based.

Quark resonances and high E_t jets

Possible spin-3/2 quark resonances would have a significant effect on high E_{\mbox{\rm t}} jet production through their contribution to the subprocess $q+{\bar q}\rightarrow g+g$. Such enhancements are compared to a, recently reported, anomaly in inclusive jet production at the CDF detector.Comment: 7 pages set in RevTex with four postscript figures appended- all uuencode

On a nonlinear partial differential algebraic system arising in technical textile industry: Analysis and numerics

In this paper we explore a numerical scheme for a nonlinear fourth order system of partial differential algebraic equations that describes the dynamics of slender inextensible elastica as they arise in the technical textile industry. Applying a semi-discretization in time, the resulting sequence of nonlinear elliptic systems with the algebraic constraint for the local length preservation is reformulated as constrained optimization problems in a Hilbert space setting that admit a solution at each time level. Stability and convergence of the scheme are proved. The numerical realization is based on a finite element discretization in space. The simulation results confirm the analytically predicted properties of the scheme.Comment: Abstract and introduction are partially rewritten. The numerical study in Section 4 is completely rewritte

Analytically weak solutions to SPDEs with unbounded time-dependent differential operators and an application

We analyze the concepts of analytically weak solutions of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) in Hilbert spaces with time-dependent unbounded operators and give conditions for existence and uniqueness of such solutions. Our studies are motivated by a stochastic partial differential equation (SPDE) arising in industrial mathematics

The Charm Content of W+1 Jet Events as a Probe of the Strange Quark Distribution Function

We investigate the prospects for measuring the strange quark distribution function of the proton in associated $W$ plus charm quark production at the Tevatron. The $W+c$ quark signal produced by strange quark -- gluon fusion, $sg\rightarrow W^-c$ and $\bar sg\rightarrow W^+\bar c$, is approximately 5\% of the inclusive $W+1$ jet cross section for jets with a transverse momentum $p_T(j)>10$~GeV. We study the sensitivity of the $W$ plus charm quark cross section to the parametrization of the strange quark distribution function, and evaluate the various background processes. Strategies to identify charm quarks in CDF and D\O \ are discussed. For a charm tagging efficiency of about 10\% and an integrated luminosity of 30~pb$^{-1}$ or more, it should be possible to constrain the strange quark distribution function from $W+c$ production at the Tevatron.Comment: submitted to Phys. Lett. B, Latex, 12 pages + 4 postscript figures encoded with uufile, FSU-HEP-930812, MAD/TH/93-6, MAD/PH/788. A postscript file with text and embedded figures is available via anonymous ftp at hepsg1.physics.fsu.edu, file is /pub/keller/fsu-hep-930812.p

Electroweak corrections to γZ\gamma Z production at hadron colliders

In this paper we present the results from a calculation of the full electroweak one-loop corrections for $\gamma Z$ vector-boson pair production at hadron colliders. The cases of proton--antiproton as well as proton--proton collisions, at the Tevatron and the LHC, respectively, are considered. Results are presented for the distribution of the $\gamma Z$ invariant mass and for the transverse momentum of the final-state photon. The higher-order electroweak effects are numerically significant, in particular for probing possible anomalous gauge-boson couplings

Plurality Rule, Proportional Representation, and the German Bundestag: How Incentives to Pork-Barrel Differ Across Electoral Systems

This paper examines the importance of electoral rules for legislators' behavior. The German electoral system includes a mechanism which assigns whether legislators are elected under the first-past-the-post (FPTP), or the proportional representation (PR) electoral rule. Using this institution, we identify the effect of electoral rules on legislators' behavior and disentangle whether so-called pork barrel politics are due to political climate in a country or due to the electoral rule employed. We find significant differences in committee membership, depending whether the legislator is elected though FPTP or PR. legislators elected through FPTP system are members of committees that allows them to service their geographically based constituency. Legislators elected through PR are members of committees that service the party constituencies, which are not necessarily geographically based

The Production of Single t-Quarks at LEP and HERA

We study the possibility to produce single t-quarks both at LEP II and HERA. While within the Standard Model such reactions are not observable, the possibility exists in a wide class of dynamical models for the fermion mass generation. General arguments, based on hierarchical and democratic symmetries are used to arrive at t-production rates which are detectable.Comment: 10 latex page

Transition from SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R x U(1)_(B-L) Representation to SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y by q-Deformation and the Corresponding Classical Breaking Term of Chiral U(2)

The minimal Standard Model exhibits a nontrivial chiral U(2) symmetry if the vev and the hypercharge splitting (Delta) of right-handed leptons (quarks) in a family vanish and Q=T_0 + Y independently in each helicity sector. As a generalization, we start with SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R x U(1)_{(B-L)} and introduce Delta as a continuous parameter which is a measure of explicit symmetry breakdown. Values of Delta between zero and 1/2 take the neutral generator of the isospin-1/2 representation to the singlet representation, i.e. `deformes' the LR representation into the minimal Standard one. The corresponding classical O(3)-breaking term is a magnetic field perpendicular to the x_3-axis. A simple mapping on the fundamental Drinfeld-Jimbo q-deformed SU(2) representation is given.Comment: DESY 94-129, 12 page