1,439 research outputs found
Finnegans Wake as proving ground for theory and agent provocateur in literary studies
"Finnegans Wake" has struck many of its exegetes as the epitome of the postmodern text. The oddity of James Joyce's last work has been and still is a provocation not only for literary criticism and theory but for every reader of the work. It provokes us to reflect on our preconceptions concerning such fundamental issues as reading, meaning and understanding. Due to this very quality, the work has been a fertile intellectual stimulus for an illustrious band of thinkers of the ―post-projects. Its singularity has provoked and facilitated the further development of theoretical frameworks beyond the confines of literary theory proper. This essay will trace the elaborate theoretical responses of Umberto Eco and Jacques Lacan to Joyce's grand literary arcanum. Eco's concept of the openness of modern works of art and Lacan's elaboration of his psychoanalytic concepts of the symptom and of the Borromean knot were inspired by their study of Joyce. As an extreme instance of literariness, Finnegans Wake thus constitutes an ideal opportunity to consider the scope and boundaries of the scholarly study of literary texts more generally
On the Acceleration of the Multi-Level Monte Carlo Method
The multi-level Monte Carlo method proposed by M. Giles (2008) approximates
the expectation of some functionals applied to a stochastic process with
optimal order of convergence for the mean-square error. In this paper, a
modified multi-level Monte Carlo estimator is proposed with significantly
reduced computational costs. As the main result, it is proved that the modified
estimator reduces the computational costs asymptotically by a factor
if weak approximation methods of orders and are
applied in case of computational costs growing with same order as variances
decay
Magnetic remanent states in antiferromagnetically coupled multilayers
In antiferromagnetically coupled multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy
unusual multidomain textures can be stabilized due to a close competition
between long-range demagnetization fields and short-range interlayer exchange
coupling.
In particular, the formation and evolution of specific topologically stable
planar defects within the antiferromagnetic ground state, i.e. wall-like
structures with a ferromagnetic configuration extended over a finite width,
explain configurational hysteresis phenomena recently observed in
[Co/Pt(Pd)]/Ru and [Co/Pt]/NiO multilayers.
Within a phenomenological theory, we have analytically derived the
equilibrium sizes of these "ferroband" defects as functions of the
antiferromagnetic exchange, a bias magnetic field, and geometrical parameters
of the multilayers. In the magnetic phase diagram, the existence region of the
ferrobands mediates between the regions of patterns with sharp
antiferromagnetic domain walls and regular arrays of ferromagnetic stripes.
The theoretical results are supported by magnetic force microscopy images of
the remanent states observed in [Co/Pt]/Ru.Comment: Paper submitted by the Joint European Magnetics Symposia 2008, Dublin
(4 pages, 3 figures
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