4,817 research outputs found
Decoherence in Phase Space
Much of the discussion of decoherence has been in terms of a particle moving
in one dimension that is placed in an initial superposition state (a
Schr\"{o}dinger "cat" state) corresponding to two widely separated wave
packets. Decoherence refers to the destruction of the interference term in the
quantum probability function. Here, we stress that a quantitative measure of
decoherence depends not only on the specific system being studied but also on
whether one is considering coordinate, momentum or phase space. We show that
this is best illustrated by considering Wigner phase space where the measure is
again different. Analytic results for the time development of the Wigner
distribution function for a two-Gaussian Schrodinger "cat" state have been
obtained in the high-temperature limit (where decoherence can occur even for
negligible dissipation) which facilitates a simple demonstration of our
remarks.Comment: in press in Laser Phys.13(2003
Note on the derivative of the hyperbolic cotangent
In a letter to Nature (Ford G W and O'Connell R F 1996 Nature 380 113) we
presented a formula for the derivative of the hyperbolic cotangent that differs
from the standard one in the literature by an additional term proportional to
the Dirac delta function. Since our letter was necessarily brief, shortly after
its appearance we prepared a more extensive unpublished note giving a detailed
explanation of our argument. Since this note has been referenced in a recent
article (Estrada R and Fulling S A 2002 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 35 3079) we
think it appropriate that it now appear in print. We have made no alteration to
the original note
Self reported aggravating activities do not demonstrate a consistent directional pattern in chronic non specific low back pain patients: An observational study
Question: Do the self-reported aggravating activities of chronic non-specific low back pain
patients demonstrate a consistent directional pattern? Design: Cross-sectional observational
study. Participants: 240 chronic non specific low back pain patients. Outcome measure: We
invited experienced clinicians to classify each of the three self-nominated aggravating
activities from the Patient Specific Functional Scale by the direction of lumbar spine
movement. Patients were described as demonstrating a directional pattern if all nominated
activities moved the spine into the same direction. Analyses were undertaken to determine if
the proportion of patients demonstrating a directional pattern was greater than would be
expected by chance. Results: In some patients, all tasks did move the spine into the same
direction, but this proportion did not differ from chance (p = 0.328). There were no clinical or
demographic differences between those who displayed a directional pattern and those who did
not (all p > 0.05). Conclusion: Using patient self-reported aggravating activities we were
unable to demonstrate the existence of a consistent pattern of adverse movement in patients
with chronic non-specific low back pain
Ownership of Intellectual Property and Corporate Taxation
AbstractIntellectual property accounts for a growing share of firms' assets. It is more mobile than other forms of capital, and could be used by firms to shift income offshore and to reduce their corporate income tax liability. We consider how influential corporate income taxes are in determining where firms choose to legally own intellectual property. We estimate a mixed (or random coefficients) logit model that incorporates important observed and unobserved heterogeneity in firms' location choices. We obtain estimates of the full set of location specific tax elasticities and conduct ex ante analysis of how the location of ownership of intellectual property will respond to changes in tax policy. We find that recent reforms that give preferential tax treatment to income arising from patents are likely to have significant effects on the location of ownership of new intellectual property, and could lead to substantial reductions in tax revenue
Laplace transform of spherical Bessel functions
We provide a simple analytic formula in terms of elementary functions for the
Laplace transform j_{l}(p) of the spherical Bessel function than that appearing
in the literature, and we show that any such integral transform is a polynomial
of order l in the variable p with constant coefficients for the first l-1
powers, and with an inverse tangent function of argument 1/p as the coefficient
of the power l. We apply this formula for the Laplace transform of the memory
function related to the Langevin equation in a one-dimensional Debye model.Comment: 5 pages LATEX, no figures. Accepted 2002, Physica Script
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