Non-commutative crepant resolutions: scenes from categorical geometry

Non-commutative crepant resolutions are algebraic objects defined by Van den Bergh to realize an equivalence of derived categories in birational geometry. They are motivated by tilting theory, the McKay correspondence, and the minimal model program, and have applications to string theory and representation theory. In this expository article I situate Van den Bergh's definition within these contexts and describe some of the current research in the area.Comment: 57 pages; final version, to appear in "Progress in Commutative Algebra: Ring Theory, Homology, and Decompositions" (Sean Sather-Wagstaff, Christopher Francisco, Lee Klingler, and Janet Vassilev, eds.), De Gruyter. Incorporates many small bugfixes and adjustments addressing comments from the referee and other

Quaternionic Electroweak Theory

We explicitly develop a quaternionic version of the electroweak theory, based on the local gauge group $U(1, q)_{L}\mid U(1, c)_{Y}$. The need of a complex projection for our Lagrangian and the physical significance of the anomalous scalar solutions are also discussed.Comment: 12 pages, Revtex, submitted to J. Phys.

Estimation of Precautionary Demand by Financial Anxieties

Pioneering work of modelling financial anxieties was given by Kimura et al (1999) as psychological change of people due to financial shocks. Since they regressed financial position (easy or tight) by nonstationary interest rate, their results exhibit high peaks not only in financial crisis period of 1997 and 1998, but also in the bubble economy period of 1987 to 1989, which seems to be a spurious regression. Furthermore, defining financial anxieties as the conditional variance in TARCH model, one of estimated coefficients did not satisfy sign condition. We got rid of these difficulties by introducing a growth rate model, where a change of financial position (toward ''tight'') under a change of interest rate (toward ''fall'') is regarded as financial anxieties. Such anxieties are quantified by conditional variance of EGARCH model and shown to be stationary. Precautionary demand caused by financial anxieties is estimated in VEC model and it is shown that money adjusted by precautionary demand satisfies a long-run equilibrium relationship in the system (adjusted money, real GDP, interest rate) even in the interval 1980q1 to 2003q2.financial anxieties, precautionary demand, cointegration, EGARCH

Calculations of Branching Ratios for Radiative-Capture, One-Proton, and Two-Neutron Channels in the Fusion Reaction 209^{209}Bi+70^{70}Zn

We discuss the possibility of the non-one-neutron emission channels in the cold fusion reaction $^{70}$Zn + $^{209}$Bi to produce the element Z=113. For this purpose, we calculate the evaporation-residue cross sections of one-proton, radiative-capture, and two-neutron emissions relative to the one-neutron emission in the reaction $^{70}$Zn + $^{209}$Bi. To estimate the upper bounds of those quantities, we vary model parameters in the calculations, such as the level-density parameter and the height of the fission barrier. We conclude that the highest possibility is for the 2n reaction channel, and its upper bounds are 2.4$$ and at most less than 7.9% with unrealistic parameter values, under the actual experimental conditions of [J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. {\bf 73} (2004) 2593].Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Field Theory in Noncommutative Minkowski Superspace

There is much discussion of scenarios where the space-time coordinates x^\mu are noncommutative. The discussion has been extended to include nontrivial anticommutation relations among spinor coordinates in superspace. A number of authors have studied field theoretical consequences of the deformation of N=1 superspace arising from nonanticommutativity of coordinates \theta, while leaving \bar{theta}'s anticommuting. This is possible in Euclidean superspace only. In this note we present a way to extend the discussion by making both \theta and \bar{theta} coordinates non-anticommuting in Minkowski superspace. We present a consistent algebra for the supercoordinates, find a star-product, and give the Wess-Zumino Lagrangian L_{WZ} within our model. It has two extra terms due to non(anti)commutativity. The Lagrangian in Minkowski superspace is always manifestly Hermitian and for L_{WZ} it preserves Lorentz invariance.Comment: 8 pages, added references, two-column format, published in PR