And If Your Friends Jumped Off A Bridge, Would You Do It Too? : How Developmental Neuroscience Can Inform Legal Regimes Governing Adolescents

Legal models of adolescent autonomy and responsibility in various domains of law span a spectrum from categorical prohibitions of certain behaviors to recognitions of total adolescent autonomy. The piecemeal approach to the limited decision-making capacity of adolescents lacks an empirical foundation in the differences between adolescent and adult decision-making, leading to counterintuitive and inconsistent legal outcomes. The law limits adolescent autonomy with respect to some decisions that adolescents are perfectly competent to make, and in other areas, the law attributes adult responsibility and imposes adult punishments on adolescents for making decisions that implicate their unique volitional vulnerabilities. As developmental neuroscientists discover more about the biological underpinnings of juvenile decision-making, policymakers now have the opportunity to enhance consistency within and across the legal domains that regulate adolescent behavior. To serve this goal, our paper typologizes extant legal regimes that account for the limitations of adolescent decision making, reviews the neuroscientific evidence about how the brain’s developing structures and functions affect decision making, explores case studies of how certain youth behaviors that implicate the adolescent brain’s unique vulnerabilities intersect with the legal system, and proposes a matrix-based approach for the consistent legal evaluation of adolescent behavior

Threshold singularities in the dynamic response of gapless integrable models

We develop a method of an asymptotically exact treatment of threshold singularities in dynamic response functions of gapless integrable models. The method utilizes the integrability to recast the original problem in terms of the low-energy properties of a certain deformed Hamiltonian. The deformed Hamiltonian is local, hence it can be analysed using the conventional field theory methods. We apply the technique to spinless fermions on a lattice with nearest-neighbors repulsion, and evaluate the exponent characterizing the threshold singularity in the dynamic structure factor

Cotunneling through quantum dot with even number of electrons

We study an influence of a finite magnetic field on a small spin-degenerate quantum dot with even number of electrons, attached to metallic leads. It is shown that, under certain conditions, the low energy physics of the system can be described by the S=1/2 antiferromagnetic Kondo model.Comment: Contribution to LT-22; to be published in Physica

Non-adiabaticity and single-electron transport driven by surface acoustic waves

Single-electron transport driven by surface acoustic waves (SAW) through a narrow constriction, formed in two-dimensional electron gas, is studied theoretically. Due to long-range Coulomb interaction, the tunneling coupling between the electron gas and the moving minimum of the SAW-induced potential rapidly decays with time. As a result, nonadiabaticiy sets a limit for the accuracy of the quantization of acoustoelectric current

Quantum dots with even number of electrons: Kondo effect in a finite magnetic field

We study a small spin-degenerate quantum dot with even number of electrons, weakly connected by point contacts to the metallic electrodes, and subject to an external magnetic field. If the Zeeman energy B is equal to the single-particle level spacing $\Delta$ in the dot, the ground state of the dot becomes doubly degenerate, and the system exhibits Kondo effect, despite the fact that B exceeds by far the Kondo temperature $T_{K}$. A possible realization of this in tunneling experiments is discussed

Kondo effect in quantum dots

We review mechanisms of low-temperature electronic transport through a quantum dot weakly coupled to two conducting leads. Transport in this case is dominated by electron-electron interaction. At temperatures moderately lower than the charging energy of the dot, the linear conductance is suppressed by the Coulomb blockade. Upon further lowering of the temperature, however, the conductance may start to increase again due to the Kondo effect. We concentrate on lateral quantum dot systems and discuss the conductance in a broad temperature range, which includes the Kondo regime

The Small Isolated Gas Rich Irregular Dwarf (SIGRID) Galaxy Sample: Description and First Results

Using an optically-unbiased selection process based on the HIPASS neutral hydrogen survey, we have selected a sample of 83 spatially isolated, gas-rich dwarf galaxies in the southern hemisphere with cz between 350 and 1650 km s-1, and with R-band luminosities and HI masses less than that of the Small Magellanic Cloud. The sample is an important population of dwarf galaxies in the local Universe, all with ongoing star formation, and most of which have no existing spectroscopic data. We are measuring the chemical abundances of these galaxies, using the Integral Field Spectrograph on the ANU 2.3m telescope, the Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS). This paper describes our survey criteria and procedures, lists the survey sample, and reports on initial observations.Comment: 13 figures, 3 table. Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa