Recent Results from the MINOS experiment

MINOS is an accelerator neutrino oscillation experiment at Fermilab. An intense high energy neutrino beam is produced at Fermilab and sent to a near detector on the Fermilab site and also to a 5 kTon far detector 735 km away in the Soudan mine in northern Minnesota. The experiment has now had several years of running with millions of events in the near detector and hundreds of events recorded in the far detector. I will report on the recent results from this experiment which include precise measurement of $|\Delta m^2_{32}|$, ~analysis of neutral current data to limit the component of sterile neutrinos, and the search for $\nu_\mu \to \nu_e$ conversion. The focus will be on the analysis of data for $\nu_\mu \to \nu_e$ conversion. Using data from an exposure of $3.14\times 10^{20}$ protons on target, we have selected electron type events in both the near and the far detector. The near detector is used to measure the background which is extrapolated to the far detector. We have found 35 events in the signal region with a background expectation of $27\pm 5(stat)\pm 2(syst)$. Using this observation we set a 90% C.L. limit of $\sin^2 2 \theta_{13} < 0.29$ for $\delta_{cp} = 0$ and normal mass hierarchy. Further analysis is under way to reduce backgrounds and improve sensitivity.Comment: This was prepared for the proceedings of the XIII International Workshop on Neutrino Telescopes at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Venice, Italy held on March 10-13, 2009. The presentation was on behalf of the MINOS collaboratio

Amplitude Analyses of D Decay Dalitz Plots

We describe Dalitz plots arising in studies of $D$-meson decays, and what we have learned from them in recent years. After some mention of technique and history, we focus on decay of the $D^\pm$ and $D_s^\pm$ mesons to the $K^-K^+\pi^\pm$ final state, and on $D_s^\pm$ decay to $\pi^+\pi^-\pi^\pm$. Some mention of other Dalitz plots involving $D$-meson decays is also made.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of The 5th International Workshop on Charm Physics (Charm 2012

"Migration of Talent: Foreign Students and Graduate Economics Education in the United States"

In this paper, Rao tackles the reasons behind the increasing number and share of foreign students enrolled in Ph.D. economics programs in the U.S. The conventional argument of comparative advantage in U.S. graduate economics education fails to stand up under closer scrutiny. In addition to not explaining the actual and relative decline of American students pursuing graduate economics education, the traditional view fails to explain the relatively narrow scope of foreign students in these programs: The majority of foreign students come from a few Asian countries (e.g., India, South Korea, China, and Taiwan). Among the questions posed in this paper are the reasons for the change in the proportion of foreign students over time, and the effect of this change on American graduate (and undergraduate) economics education. It is surmised that most foreign students enroll in American Ph.D. programs to facilitate their migration to this country. Given the relative ease of securing work permission as a university faculty member-for which a U.S. Ph.D. is essential-most foreign students view an American Ph.D. and a subsequent academic job as an ideal entree to the U.S. In contrast, the most popular postgraduate path for American college economics majors is business or law school, and the appropriate strategy for these institutions is to offer a curriculum that fosters successful completion of an M.B.A. or J.D. via a general rather than a specialized economics training. Meanwhile, Rao ponders the possibility of "reverse foreign aid" occurring: After all, the home governments of these students are not compensated for their education subsidies through the undergraduate level. In sum, he suggests that the influx of foreign Ph.D. students-who typically receive financial aid from U.S. institutions-must be considered as a positive phenomenon. Since most of these students remain in the U.S. and become part of the vital stock of human capital, the financial aid awarded them should be regarded as an investment in a productive asset.

"Money, Growth, Distribution, and Prices in a Simple Sraffian Economy"

Rejecting neoclassical notions of supply and demand, Sraffa demonstrated that relative prices are determined by the profit rate. However, a Sraffa model fails to explicitly describe the determination of output, growth, and accumulation. Rao closes this model with a monetary sector, and examines the effects in both a Sraffian and a Classical world. Rao integrates a two class, simple Sraffian production economy with an assets market. The production side yields capital and consumption goods using Sraffian technology, while assets consist of money (printed and distributed by the Central Bank) and the stock of capital. Different approaches to the labor market yield two distinct models: Sraffian and Classical. The principal conclusion is that, in a Sraffian world, Central Bank policy, via its influence on the profit rate, controls the long-run distribution of income and relative prices. In a Classical regime-in which the real wage (and so the profit rate) is exogenously driven the Central Bank controls long-run economic growth.

The cost of doing business abroad and international capital market equilibrium

The implications of the costs of doing business in foreign countries for the resulting capital market equilibrium are studied. When transferring capital goods across national boundaries, the costs incurred are quasi-fixed in a one-good, two-country, intertemporal model with complete financial markets. In our model of the international capital market, deviations from purchasing power parity are endogenously generated. The relative price of physical resources located in one country compared to resources located in another is called the "real exchange rate." The outcome of the model-based analysis is an endogenous generation of a mean-reverting real exchange rate in a continuous-time, general equilibrium model of the international capital market. In dynamic equilibrium, the transfer of capital goods between the two countries is found to be infrequent and lumpy in nature as is observed in foreign direct investment.Capital market ; International finance ; Macroeconomics