Tax Havens as Producers of Corporate Law

This Review Essay situates Christopher Bruner’s new book, Re-imagining Offshore Finance, within the literature examining the regulation of cross-border finance and highlights its import for thinking about the complicated (and contested) relationship between territorially-configured domestic laws and the increasingly liberal movement of capital. Part I sets out the book’s central thesis. In addition to highlighting Bruner’s novel framework identifying the factors that propel certain small jurisdictions into becoming magnets for cross-border finance, I outline the limits of the framework in accounting for the stability in the overall demand for the commercialization of sovereignty, only one of which is facilitating international tax evasion. Part II examines the rise of offshore financial havens as they relate to the territorially-configured domestic rules — a subject that has yet to attract the attention that it deserves. While the rise of offshore financial havens has been viewed as typifying the continued dominance of territorial sovereignty, I show that it is private choice and juridical rules that have been privileged over strictly territorial conceptions of the law. I use recent developments in corporate law and bankruptcy law to show that domestic laws governing certain financial transactions are already ceding to privately-curated juridical rules, albeit not without resistance

Hard x-ray or gamma ray laser by a dense electron beam

A coherent x-ray or gamma ray can be created from a dense electron beam propagating through an intense laser undulator. It is analyzed by using the Landau damping theory which suits better than the conventional linear analysis for the free electron laser, as the electron beam energy spread is high. The analysis suggests that the currently available physical parameters would enable the generation of the coherent gamma ray of up to 100 keV. The electron quantum diffraction suppresses the FEL action, by which the maximum radiation energy to be generated is limited

The Use of Graduated Scenarios to Facilitate the Learning of Complex and Difficult-to-describe Concepts

There are many complex concepts in higher education learning that are difficult to convey to learners in words. Some examples are reflective learning, critical thinking, clinical reasoning; processes of evaluation (e.g. in art and design subjects) and professional practice (eg teaching itself). These are important concepts that evade straight forward uses of language that might explain how to ‘do’ them and how then to ‘do them better’ or at a ‘deeper level’ and so on. This paper explores a method that has been developed to facilitate the learning of such concepts - the graduated scenario technique. The paper describes the initial development of the method with respect to the concept of reflective learning. Graduated scenarios are based on two practices – firstly, the use of examples and demonstrations that show learners – in this case - how to write reflectively. Secondly they demonstrate the characteristics of deep reflection as opposed to superficial and descriptive reflection. This demonstration is made explicit at the end of the exercise, in a framework for,– in this case, reflective learning. The assumption is made that better quality learning emanates from deeper reflection (eg Hatton and Smith, 1995). The paper goes on to discuss the application of the graduated scenario technique to critical thinking. It then moves to a more generic approach, considering why such the technique appears to be helpful - and it provides examples of other areas of learning in which the it could be used

Conformational studies of various hemoglobins by natural-abundance 13C NMR spectroscopy

Studies of variously liganded hemoglobins (both from human and rabbit) by natural-abundance 13C NMR spectroscopy have revealed apparent conformational differences that have been interpreted on the basis of two quaternary structures for the α2ß2 tetramer, and variable tertiary structures for the individual α and ß subunits. In solution, rabbit hemoglobins appear to have somewhat more flexibility than human hemoglobins

Length spectra and degeneration of flat metrics

In this paper we consider flat metrics (semi-translation structures) on surfaces of finite type. There are two main results. The first is a complete description of when a set of simple closed curves is spectrally rigid, that is, when the length vector determines a metric among the class of flat metrics. Secondly, we give an embedding into the space of geodesic currents and use this to get a boundary for the space of flat metrics. The geometric interpretation is that flat metrics degenerate to "mixed structures" on the surface: part flat metric and part measured foliation.Comment: 36 page

The structure of sheared turbulence near a plane boundary

An analysis is presented of how a plane boundary affects the structure of turbulence in a sheared free stream. A uniform-shear boundary layer (USBL) is formulated with slip velocity condition at the surface, and inhomogeneous rapid distortion theory is applied. The effects of blocking by the surface on the turbulence structure in USBL is compared with those in the shear-free boundary layer (SFBL). Shear produces highly anisotropic eddies elongated in the flow direction. The vertical velocity variance is reduced with shear at all heights, roughly in proportion to the reduction in the homogeneous value, but the shape of the profile remains unchanged only near the surface. The streamwise integral scales increase with shear, indicating elongation of the streamwise extent of eddies

Competition between spin density wave order and superconductivity in the underdoped cuprates

We describe the interplay between d-wave superconductivity and spin density wave (SDW) order in a theory of the hole-doped cuprates at hole densities below optimal doping. The theory assumes local SDW order, and associated electron and hole pocket Fermi surfaces of charge carriers in the normal state. We describe quantum and thermal fluctuations in the orientation of the local SDW order, which lead to d-wave superconductivity: we compute the superconducting critical temperature and magnetic field in a `minimal' universal theory. We also describe the back-action of the superconductivity on the SDW order, showing that SDW order is more stable in the metal. Our results capture key aspects of the phase diagram of Demler et al. (cond-mat/0103192) obtained in a phenomenological quantum theory of competing orders. Finally, we propose a finite temperature crossover phase diagram for the cuprates. In the metallic state, these are controlled by a `hidden' quantum critical point near optimal doping involving the onset of SDW order in a metal. However, the onset of superconductivity results in a decrease in stability of the SDW order, and consequently the actual SDW quantum critical point appears at a significantly lower doping. All our analysis is placed in the context of recent experimental results.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures; (v2) added clarifications and refs, and corrected numerical errors (thanks to A. Chubukov

Notes on Spinoptics in a Stationary Spacetime

In arXiv:1105.5629, equations of the modified geometrical optics for circularly polarized photon trajectories in a stationary spacetime are derived by using a (1+3)-decomposed form of Maxwell's equations. We derive the same results by using a four-dimensional covariant description. In our procedure, the null nature of the modified photon trajectory naturally appears and the energy flux is apparently null. We find that, in contrast to the standard geometrical optics, the inner product of the stationary Killing vector and the tangent null vector to the modified photon trajectory is no longer a conserved quantity along light paths. This quantity is furthermore different for left and right handed photon. A similar analysis is performed for gravitational waves and an additional factor of 2 appears in the modification due to the spin-2 nature of gravitational waves.Comment: 15 pages, to appear in PR