The Blurry Line: Robert Montgomery’s Public and Private Interests as U.S. Consul to Alicante

This essay, based on intensive research in American and Spanish documents, addresses the problem of self-interest on two fronts. First, it examines the business and consular career of Robert Montgomery, American consul to Alicante, Spain, from 1793 to 1823. As a commission merchant, Montgomery was able to profit from his consular position in many ways. But more importantly, it questions the very nature of the problem of self-interest, arguing that the line between self-interest and national service was very blurry and perhaps impossible to delineate. American merchants and the consuls who represented them believed that what was in their interest was also in the interest of American commerce, and a weak and impoverished State Department, unable to send out professional diplomats to most ports or even pay salaries, largely agreed.Cet article, basé sur des recherches intensives dans des archives américaines et espagnoles, aborde le problème de l’intérêt personnel sur deux fronts. D’abord, il examine la carrière commerciale et consulaire de Robert Montgomery, consul américain de 1793 à 1823 à Alicante, en Espagne. Négociant en commission, Montgomery a pu profiter de sa position consulaire de plusieurs façons. Mais, plus important encore, l’article remet en question la nature même du problème de l’intérêt personnel, en faisant valoir que la frontière entre l’intérêt personnel et le service national était très floue, et peut-être impossible à délimiter. Les négociants américains et les consuls qui les représentaient pensaient que ce qui était dans l’intérêt du commerce américain était aussi dans leur propre intérêt, et le département d’État, faible et appauvri, incapable d’envoyer des diplomates professionnels dans la plupart des ports ou même de payer les salaires, était largement d’accord

On the Decoupling of Layered Superconducting Films in Parallel Magnetic Field

The issue of the decoupling of extreme type-II superconducting thin films ($\lambda_L\rightarrow\infty$) with weakly Josephson-coupled layers in magnetic field parallel to the layers is considered via the corresponding frustrated $XY$ model used to describe the mixed phase in the critical regime. For the general case of arbitrary field orientations such that the perpendicular magnetic field component is larger than the decoupling cross-over scale characteristic of layered superconductors, we obtain independent parallel and perpendicular vortex lattices. Specializing to the double-layer case, we compute the parallel lower-critical field with entropic effects included, and find that it vanishes exponentially as temperature approaches the layer decoupling transition in zero-field. The parallel reversible magnetization is also calculated in this case, where we find that it shows a cross-over phenomenon as a function of parallel field in the intermediate regime of the mixed phase in lieu of a true layer-decoupling transition. It is argued that such is the case for any finite number of layers, since the isolated double layer represents the weakest link.Comment: 29 pages of plain TeX, 2 postscript figures, improved discussio

Real-time gauge/gravity duality: Prescription, Renormalization and Examples

We present a comprehensive analysis of the prescription we recently put forward for the computation of real-time correlation functions using gauge/gravity duality. The prescription is valid for any holographic supergravity background and it naturally maps initial and final data in the bulk to initial and final states or density matrices in the field theory. We show in detail how the technique of holographic renormalization can be applied in this setting and we provide numerous illustrative examples, including the computation of time-ordered, Wightman and retarded 2-point functions in Poincare and global coordinates, thermal correlators and higher-point functions.Comment: 85 pages, 13 figures; v2: added comments and reference

Universality of Phases in QCD and QCD-like Theories

We argue that the whole or the part of the phase diagrams of QCD and QCD-like theories should be universal in the large-N_c limit through the orbifold equivalence. The whole phase diagrams, including the chiral phase transitions and the BEC-BCS crossover regions, are identical between SU(N_c) QCD at finite isospin chemical potential and SO(2N_c) and Sp(2N_c) gauge theories at finite baryon chemical potential. Outside the BEC-BCS crossover region in these theories, the phase diagrams are also identical to that of SU(N_c) QCD at finite baryon chemical potential. We give examples of the universality in some solvable cases: (i) QCD and QCD-like theories at asymptotically high density where the controlled weak-coupling calculations are possible, (ii) chiral random matrix theories of different universality classes, which are solvable large-N (large volume) matrix models of QCD. Our results strongly suggest that the chiral phase transition and the QCD critical point at finite baryon chemical potential can be studied using sign-free theories, such as QCD at finite isospin chemical potential, in lattice simulations.Comment: v1: 35 pages, 6 figures; v2: 37 pages, 6 figures, minor improvements, conclusion unchanged; v3: version published in JHE

America and the World: Culture, Commerce, Conflict

Lawrence A. Peskin and Edmund F. Wehrle explore America's evolving connections with Europe, Africa, and Asia in the three areas that historically have been indicators of global interaction: trade and industry, diplomacy and war, and the soft power of ideas and culture. Framed in four chronological eras that mark phases in the long history of globalization, this book considers the impact of international events and trends on the American story as well as the influence America has exerted on world developments. Peskin and Wehrle discuss how the nature of this influence?whether economic, cultural, or military?fluctuated in each period. They demonstrate how technology and disease enabled Europeans to subjugate the New World, how colonial American products transformed Europe and Africa, and how post-revolutionary American ideas helped foment revolutions in Europe and elsewhere. Next, the authors explore the American rise to global economic and military superpower?and how the accumulated might of the United States alienated many people around the world and bred dissent at home. During the civil rights movement, America borrowed much from the world as it sought to address the crippling social questions of the day at the same time that Americans?especially African Americans?offered a global model for change as the country strove to address social, racial, and gender inequality

America and the world : culture, commerce, conflict/ Peskin

xiii, 302 hal.; 23 cm