All-sky search algorithms for monochromatic signals in resonant bar GW detector data

In this paper we design and develop several filtering strategies for the analysis of data generated by a resonant bar Gravitational Wave (GW) antenna, with the goal to assess the presence (or absence) in them of long duration monochromatic GW signals, as well as their eventual amplitude and frequency, within the sensitivity band of the detector. Such signals are most likely generated in the fast rotation of slightly asymmetric spinning stars. We shall develop the practical procedures, together with the study of their statistical properties, which will provide us with useful information on each technique's performance. The selection of candidate events will then be established according to threshold-crossing probabilities, based on the Neyman-Pearson criterion. In particular, it will be shown that our approach, based on phase estimation, presents better signal-to-noise ratio than the most common one of pure spectral analysis.Comment: 17 pages, 10 PS figures, psbox, MNRAS TeX, submitted to MNRAS, revised 22-june-1998, full quality figures available compressed at ftp://fismat.ffn.ub.es/pub/papers/gr-qc/fig_9804026.zi

Manufactura i Antic Règim: una visió de llarga durada del cas mallorquí

És evident que la indústria de la llana mallorquina era una indústria d'exportació en el segle XV. En el present treball s'intenten destacar dos aspectes. En primer lloc els orígens d'aquesta indústria, lligant-ho al moviment repoblador i a l'arribada a l'illa d'artesans de la Península o de persones que ingressen en els diversos oficis de la llana després d'arribar a Mallorca, sempre abans de 1348. El segon aspecte a destacar és que el sector de la indústria tèxtil té gran capacitat d'adaptació a les circumstàncies del mercat internacional: adopció de la nova draperia en el segle XVI, creixent fabricació de teixits a partir de fibres vegetals (lli, cànem, cotó?) en substitució de la llana. El treball es complementa amb l'anàlisi per a moments concrets de la relació entre manufactura tèxtil i situació agrària i les referències a sectors manufacturers distints al tèxtil.Wool making industry was the main export industry of Mallorca in the 15th century. In the following work we intend to put emphasis on two aspects. Firstly the origins of this industry, regarding to a movement of repopulation and the arrival to the island of craftsmen from the mainland or of people who become part in the wool business after their arrival, always before 1348. The second aspect is to show how the textile industry was able to adapt to the international market circumstances: adaptation to new textiles in the 16th century, growing fabrication of linen made from natural fibres (line, hemp, cotton?) in substitution of wool. The work is completed with an analysis for specific moments within the relationship of textile manufacturing and the agrarian situation and references to other manufacturing sectors

Uncertain growth and the value of the future

For environmental problems such as global warming future costs must be balanced against present costs. This is traditionally done using an exponential function with a constant discount rate, which reduces the present value of future costs. The result is highly sensitive to the choice of discount rate and has generated a major controversy as to the urgency for immediate action. We study analytically several standard interest rate models from finance and compare their properties to empirical data. From historical time series for nominal interest rates and inflation covering 14 countries over hundreds of years, we find that extended periods of negative real interest rates are common, occurring in many epochs in all countries. This leads us to choose the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model, in which real short run interest rates fluctuate stochastically and can become negative, even if they revert to a positive mean value. We solve the model in closed form and prove that the long-run discount rate is always less than the mean; indeed it can be zero or even negative, despite the fact that the mean short term interest rate is positive. We fit the parameters of the model to the data, and find that nine of the countries have positive long run discount rates while five have negative long-run discount rates. Even if one rejects the countries where hyperinflation has occurred, our results support the low discounting rate used in the Stern report over higher rates advocated by others.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Statistical analysis and stochastic interest rate modelling for valuing the future with implications in climate change mitigation

High future discounting rates favor inaction on present expending while lower rates advise for a more immediate political action. A possible approach to this key issue in global economy is to take historical time series for nominal interest rates and inflation, and to construct then real interest rates and finally obtaining the resulting discount rate according to a specific stochastic model. Extended periods of negative real interest rates, in which inflation dominates over nominal rates, are commonly observed, occurring in many epochs and in all countries. This feature leads us to choose a well-known model in statistical physics, the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model, as a basic dynamical tool in which real interest rates randomly fluctuate and can become negative, even if they tend to revert to a positive mean value. By covering 14 countries over hundreds of years we suggest different scenarios and include an error analysis in order to consider the impact of statistical uncertainty in our results. We find that only 4 of the countries have positive long-run discount rates while the other ten countries have negative rates. Even if one rejects the countries where hyperinflation has occurred, our results support the need to consider low discounting rates. The results provided by these fourteen countries significantly increase the priority of confronting global actions such as climate change mitigation. We finally extend the analysis by first allowing for fluctuations of the mean level in the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model and secondly by considering modified versions of the Feller and lognormal models. In both cases, results remain basically unchanged thus demonstrating the robustness of the results presented.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1311.406

Helminth species richness in wild wood mice, Apodemus sylvaticus, is enhanced by the presence of the intestinal nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus

We analysed 3 independently collected datasets of fully censused helminth burdens in wood mice, Apodemus sylvaticus, testing the a priori hypothesis of Behnke et al. (2005) that the presence of the intestinal nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus predisposes wood mice to carrying other species of helminths. In Portugal, mice carrying H. polygyrus showed a higher prevalence of other helminths but the magnitude of the effect was seasonal. In Egham, mice with H. polygyrus showed a higher prevalence of other helminth species, not confounded by other factors. In Malham Tarn, mice carrying H. polygyrus were more likely to be infected with other species, but only among older mice. Allowing for other factors, heavy residual H. polygyrus infections carried more species of other helminths in both the Portugal and Egham data; species richness in Malham was too low to conduct a similar analysis, but as H. polygyrus worm burdens increased, so the prevalence of other helminths also increased. Our results support those of Behnke et al. (2005), providing firm evidence that at the level of species richness a highly predictable element of co-infections in wood mice has now been defined: infection with H. polygyrus has detectable consequences for the susceptibility of wood mice to other intestinal helminth species

Two-Twistor Space, Commuting Composite Minkowski Coordinates and Particle Dynamics

We employ the modification of the basic Penrose formula in twistor theory, which allows to introduce commuting composite space-time coordinates. It appears that in the course of such modification the internal symmetry SU(2) of two-twistor system is broken to U(1). We consider the symplectic form on two-twistor space, permitting to interpret its 16 real components as a phase-space. After a suitable change of variables such a two-twistor phase space is split into three mutually commuting parts, describing respectively the standard relativistic phase space (8 degrees of freedom), the spin sector (6 degrees of freedom) and the canonical pair angle-charge describing the electric charge sector (2 degrees of freedom). We obtain a geometric framework providing a twistor-inspired 18-dimensional extended relativistic phase space $\mathcal{M}^{18}$. In such a space we propose the action only with first class constraints, describing the relativistic particle characterized by mass, spin and electric charge.Comment: LaTeX 2e, 14 pages. To be published in the Proceedings of XIX-th Max Born Symposium "Fundamental Interactions and Twistor-Like Methods", September 2004, American Institute of Physics, Proceedings Serie