9,478 research outputs found
The possibility of determining open-cluster parameters from BVRI photometry
In the last decades we witnessed an increase in studies of open clusters of
the Galaxy, especially because of the good determination for a wide range of
values of parameters such as age, distance, reddening, and proper motion. The
reliable determination of the parameters strongly depends on the photometry
available and especially on the U filter, which is used to obtain the color
excess E(B-V) through the color-color diagram (U-B) by (B-V) by fitting a zero
age main-sequence. Owing to the difficulty of performing photometry in the U
band, many authors have tried to obtain E(B-V) without the filter. But because
of the near linearity of the color-color diagrams that use the other bands,
combined with the fact that most fitting procedures are highly subjective (many
done "by eye") the reliability of those results has always been questioned. Our
group has recently developed, a tool that performs isochrone fitting in
open-cluster photometric data with a global optimization algorithm, which
removes the need to visually perform the fits and thus removes most of the
related subjectivity. Here we apply our method to a set of synthetic clusters
and two observed open clusters (Trumpler 1 and Melotte 105) using only
photometry for the BVRI bands. Our results show that, considering the cluster
structural variance caused only by photometric and Poisson sampling errors, our
method is able to recover the synthetic cluster parameters with errors of less
than 10% for a wide range of ages, distances, and reddening, which clearly
demonstrates its potential. The results obtained for Trumpler 1 and Melotte 105
also agree well with previous literature values.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in
Astronomy&Astrophysic
Uniform payoff security and Nash equilibrium in metric games
We introduce a condition, uniform payoff security, for games with separable metric strategy spaces and payoffs bounded and measurable in players' strategies. We show that if any such metric game G is uniformly payoff secure, then its mixed extension G is payoff secure. We also establish that if a uniformly payoff secure metric game G has compact strategy spaces, and if its mixed extension G has reciprocally upper semicontinuous payoffs, then G has a Nash equilibrium in mixed strategies. We provide several economic examples of metric games satisfying uniform payoff security.Uniform payoff security, Nash equilibrium, discontinuous games, mixed extension.
Endogenous Mechanisms and Nash Equilibrium in Competitive Contracting
We model strategic competition in a market with asymmetric information as a noncooperative game in which each firm competes for the business of a buyer of unknown type by offering the buyer a catalog of products and prices. The timing in our model is Stackelberg: in the first stage, given the distribution of buyer types known to all firms and the deducible, type-dependent best responses of the agent, firms simultaneously and noncooperatively choose their catalog offers. In the second stage the buyer, knowing his type, chooses a single firm and product-price pair from that firm's catalog. By backward induction, this Stackelberg game with asymmetric information reduces to a game over catalogs with payoff indeterminacies. In particular, due to ties within catalogs and/or across catalogs, corresponding to any catalog profile offered by firms there may be multiple possible expected firm payoffs, all consistent with the rational optimizing behavior of the agent for each of his types. The resolution of these indeterminacies depends on the tie-breaking mechanism which emerges in the market. Because each tie-breaking mechanism induces a particular game over catalogs, a reasonable candidate would be a tie-breaking mechanism which supports a Nash equilibrium in the corresponding catalog game. We call such a mechanism an endogenous Nash mechanism. The fundamental question we address in this paper is, does there exist an endogenous Nash mechanism - and therefore, does there exist a Nash equilibrium for the catalog game? We show under fairly mild conditions on primitives that catalog games naturally possess tie-breaking mechanisms which support Nash equilibria.common agency with adverse selection, endogenous contracting mechanisms, discontinuous games, catalog games, existence of Nash equilibrium, competitive contracting
Water pricing models: a survey
JEL Classification: L95, Q25.This paper surveys water pricing models, highlighting some important results. Efficiency
requires marginal cost pricing. Intra-annual price changes or customer differentiation to
reflect differences in marginal costs can enhance efficiency. A marginal cost pricing
mechanism may signal the value that consumers attribute to further capacity expansions
as the water supply system approaches its capacity limit and marginal cost rises.
However, pure marginal cost pricing may not be feasible while respecting a revenue
requirement because marginal costs may be higher or lower than average costs. The most
common ways of combining efficiency and revenue requirements are through the use of
two-part tariffs, adjusting the fixed charge to meet the revenue requirement, or through
second-best pricing like Ramsey pricing. It is not evident whether the best scheme is a
two-part tariff or some other pricing mechanism. The role of block rate pricing,
increasingly more frequent in actual pricing practices, is yet to be fully investigated
Colour-Kinematics Duality for One-Loop Rational Amplitudes
Colour-kinematics duality is the conjecture of a group theory-like structure
for the kinematic dependence of scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and
gravity. This structure has been verified at tree level in various ways, but
similar progress has been lacking at loop level, where the power of the duality
would be most significant. Here we explore colour-kinematics duality at one
loop using the self-dual sector as a starting point. The duality is shown to
exist in pure Yang-Mills theory for two infinite classes of amplitudes:
amplitudes with any number of particles either all of the same helicity or with
one particle helicity opposite the rest. We provide a simple Lagrangian-based
argument in favour of the double copy relation between gauge theory and gravity
amplitudes in these classes, and provide some explicit examples. We further
discuss aspects of the duality which persist after integration, leading to
relations among partial amplitudes. Finally, we describe form factors in the
self-dual theory at tree level which also satisfy the duality.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures; v2: published versio
Narrowband Photon Pair Source for Quantum Networks
We demonstrate a compact photon pair source based on a periodically poled
lithium niobate nonlinear crystal in a cavity. The cavity parameters are chosen
such that the emitted photon pair modes can be matched in the region of telecom
ultra dense wavelength division multiplexing (U-DWDM) channel spacings. This
approach provides efficient, low-loss, mode selection that is compatible with
standard telecommunication networks. Photons with a coherence time of 8.6 ns
(116 MHz) are produced and their purity is demonstrated. A source brightness of
134 pairs(s.mW.MHz) is reported. The high level of purity and
compatibility with standard telecom networks is of great importance for complex
quantum communication networks
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