Connected agents of representation:The form, function and intensity of connections between political parties and civil society organisations in 21^st century Western Europe

The relationships between political parties and civil society are central to parties’ performance of key representative functions. However, some have argued that parties are failing in these representative roles, that they have withdrawn from close contact with civil society and struggle to channel the concerns of groups of citizens. This dissertation examines these relationships through a wide-ranging comparative study. It seeks to understand how connections with civil society matter for parties in contemporary Western Europe, and explain why different parties have more intense connections than others. It demonstrates that parties’ connections to civil society help stabilise their electoral support, and that parties with government experience and parties with a left-wing ideology have more intense connections than their competitors. It explores the role played by party agency in explaining why similar parties exhibit diverging patterns of connection to civil society, and maps the patterns that connections take within a political system. This dissertation suggests that while the connections between parties and civil society in Western Europe have evolved, many governing parties retain close connections with civil society and the intensity of connections is subject to many influences including party ideology, and the perceptions of party elites on how best to pursue their political projects. The connections between parties and civil society continue to play an important role in the representation of social groups. However, in increasingly diverse societies facing major problems, both parties and civil society organisations will face continuing challenges in responding to new political demands and retaining their legitimacy as agents of representation

Real-time propagators at finite temperature and chemical potential

We derive a form of spectral representations for all bosonic and fermionic propagators in the real-time formulation of field theory at finite temperature and chemical potential. Besides being simple and symmetrical between the bosonic and the fermionic types, these representations depend explicitly on analytic functions only. This last property allows a simple evaluation of loop integrals in the energy variables over propagators in this form, even in presence of chemical potentials, which is not possible over their conventional form

Connected agents of representation:The form, function and intensity of connections between political parties and civil society organisations in 21^st century Western Europe

The relationships between political parties and civil society are central to parties’ performance of key representative functions. However, some have argued that parties are failing in these representative roles, that they have withdrawn from close contact with civil society and struggle to channel the concerns of groups of citizens. This dissertation examines these relationships through a wide-ranging comparative study. It seeks to understand how connections with civil society matter for parties in contemporary Western Europe, and explain why different parties have more intense connections than others. It demonstrates that parties’ connections to civil society help stabilise their electoral support, and that parties with government experience and parties with a left-wing ideology have more intense connections than their competitors. It explores the role played by party agency in explaining why similar parties exhibit diverging patterns of connection to civil society, and maps the patterns that connections take within a political system. This dissertation suggests that while the connections between parties and civil society in Western Europe have evolved, many governing parties retain close connections with civil society and the intensity of connections is subject to many influences including party ideology, and the perceptions of party elites on how best to pursue their political projects. The connections between parties and civil society continue to play an important role in the representation of social groups. However, in increasingly diverse societies facing major problems, both parties and civil society organisations will face continuing challenges in responding to new political demands and retaining their legitimacy as agents of representation

Control of an atom laser using feedback

A generalised method of using feedback to control Bose-Einstein condensates is introduced. The condensates are modelled by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, so only semiclassical fluctations can be suppressed, and back-action from the measurement is ignored. We show that for any available control, a feedback scheme can be found to reduce the energy while the appropriate moment is still dynamic. We demonstrate these schemes by considering a condensate trapped in a harmonic potential that can be modulated in strength and position. The formalism of our feedback scheme also allows the inclusion of certain types of non-linear controls. If the non-linear interaction between the atoms can be controlled via a Feshbach resonance, we show that the feedback process can operate with a much higher efficiency.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Solution of the Kwiecinski evolution equations for unintegrated parton distributions using the Mellin transform

The Kwiecinski equations for the QCD evolution of the unintegrated parton distributions in the transverse-coordinate space (b) are analyzed with the help of the Mellin-transform method. The equations are solved numerically in the general case, as well as in a small-b expansion which converges fast for b Lambda_QCD sufficiently small. We also discuss the asymptotic limit of large bQ and show that the distributions generated by the evolution decrease with b according to a power law. Numerical results are presented for the pion distributions with a simple valence-like initial condition at the low scale, following from chiral large-N_c quark models. We use two models: the Spectral Quark Model and the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. Formal aspects of the equations, such as the analytic form of the b-dependent anomalous dimensions, their analytic structure, as well as the limits of unintegrated parton densities at x -> 0, x -> 1, and at large b, are discussed in detail. The effect of spreading of the transverse momentum with the increasing scale is confirmed, with growing asymptotically as Q^2 alpha(Q^2). Approximate formulas for for each parton species is given, which may be used in practical applications.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, RevTe

Knockout of proton-neutron pairs from 16^{16}O with electromagnetic probes

After recent improvements to the Pavia model of two-nucleon knockout from $^{16}$O with electromagnetic probes the calculated cross sections are compared to experimental data from such reactions. Comparison with data from a measurement of the $^{16}$O(e,e$'$pn) reaction show much better agreement between experiment and theory than was previously observed. In a comparison with recent data from a measurement of the $^{16}$O($\gamma$,pn) reaction the model over-predicts the measured cross section at low missing momentum.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Spiky strings and giant magnons on S5

Recently, classical solutions for strings moving in AdS5 x S5 have played an important role in understanding the AdS/CFT correspondence. A large set of them were shown to follow from an ansatz that reduces the solution of the string equations of motion to the study of a well-known integrable 1-d system known as the Neumann-Rosochatius (NR) system. However, other simple solutions such as spiky strings or giant magnons in S5 were not included in the NR ansatz. We show that, when considered in the conformal gauge, these solutions can be also accomodated by a version of the NR-system. This allows us to describe in detail a giant magnon solution with two additional angular momenta and show that it can be interpreted as a superposition of two magnons moving with the same speed. In addition, we consider the spin chain side and describe the corresponding state as that of two bound states in the infinite SU(3) spin chain. We construct the Bethe ansatz wave function for such bound state.Comment: 33 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures. v2: minor corrections, v3: minor corrections, figures enlarge

Atom lasers: production, properties and prospects for precision inertial measurement

We review experimental progress on atom lasers out-coupled from Bose-Einstein condensates, and consider the properties of such beams in the context of precision inertial sensing. The atom laser is the matter-wave analog of the optical laser. Both devices rely on Bose-enhanced scattering to produce a macroscopically populated trapped mode that is output-coupled to produce an intense beam. In both cases, the beams often display highly desirable properties such as low divergence, high spectral flux and a simple spatial mode that make them useful in practical applications, as well as the potential to perform measurements at or below the quantum projection noise limit. Both devices display similar second-order correlations that differ from thermal sources. Because of these properties, atom lasers are a promising source for application to precision inertial measurements.Comment: This is a review paper. It contains 40 pages, including references and figure

The COMPASS Experiment at CERN

The COMPASS experiment makes use of the CERN SPS high-intensitymuon and hadron beams for the investigation of the nucleon spin structure and the spectroscopy of hadrons. One or more outgoing particles are detected in coincidence with the incoming muon or hadron. A large polarized target inside a superconducting solenoid is used for the measurements with the muon beam. Outgoing particles are detected by a two-stage, large angle and large momentum range spectrometer. The setup is built using several types of tracking detectors, according to the expected incident rate, required space resolution and the solid angle to be covered. Particle identification is achieved using a RICH counter and both hadron and electromagnetic calorimeters. The setup has been successfully operated from 2002 onwards using a muon beam. Data with a hadron beam were also collected in 2004. This article describes the main features and performances of the spectrometer in 2004; a short summary of the 2006 upgrade is also given.Comment: 84 papes, 74 figure