Navigating ESG arbitrability challenges in energy and climate: an in-depth analysis and future perspectives

Over the past few years, there has been a notable surge in the inclusion of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) clauses within both domestic and international agreements and contracts. This trend places a distinct focus on aspects related to climate change and energy. Implementation and enforcement challenges have emerged, prompting the exploration of remedies and procedural channels, wherein commercial and investment arbitration has gained recognition as a suitable dispute resolution mechanism. Against this backdrop, this article examines ESG clauses from both substantive and procedural perspectives, emphasizing their relevance to climate change and energy issues in light of the Paris Agreement. The study presents a thorough analysis of conceptual frameworks, content, scope, and implementation of ESG clauses. Additionally, it explores procedural pathways for enforcement, encompassing commercial and investment arbitration, highlighting their advantages and downsides. A critical analysis of recent arbitration cases involving ESG clauses provides insights into future implications. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the challenges and significance surrounding the implementation of ESG clauses, particularly in the context of climate change and energy considerations, within contemporary international investment agreements and in the evolving landscape of commercial arbitration

Chandra Observations of ULIRGs: Extended Hot Gas Halos in Merging Galaxies

We study the properties of hot gaseous halos in 10 nearby ultraluminous IRAS galaxies observed with the ACIS instrument on board Chandra. For all sample galaxies, diffuse soft X-ray emissions are found within ~10 kpc of the central region; their spectra are well fitted by a MEKAL model plus emission lines from alpha-elements and other ions. The temperature of the hot gas is about 0.7 keV and metallicity is about 1 solar. Outside the central region, extended hot gaseous halos are found for nine out of the ten ULIRGs. Most spectra of these extended halos can be fitted with a MEKAL model with a temperature of about 0.6 keV and a low metallicity (~ 0.1 solar). We discuss the implications of our results on the origin of X-ray halos in elliptical galaxies and the feedback processes associated with starbursts.Comment: 31 pages, 6 figuers, ApJ in press, accepted versio

Constraints on the near-Earth asteroid obliquity distribution from the Yarkovsky effect

Aims. From lightcurve and radar data we know the spin axis of only 43 near-Earth asteroids. In this paper we attempt to constrain the spin axis obliquity distribution of near-Earth asteroids by leveraging the Yarkovsky effect and its dependence on an asteroid’s obliquity. Methods. By modeling the physical parameters driving the Yarkovsky effect, we solve an inverse problem where we test different simple parametric obliquity distributions. Each distribution results in a predicted Yarkovsky effect distribution that we compare with a X2 test to a dataset of 125 Yarkovsky estimates. Results. We find different obliquity distributions that are statistically satisfactory. In particular, among the considered models, the best-fit solution is a quadratic function, which only depends on two parameters, favors extreme obliquities, consistent with the expected outcomes from the YORP effect, has a 2:1 ratio between retrograde and direct rotators, which is in agreement with theoretical predictions, and is statistically consistent with the distribution of known spin axes of near-Earth asteroids

AGN heating, thermal conduction and Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect in galaxy groups and clusters

(abridged) We investigate in detail the role of active galactic nuclei on the physical state of the gas in galaxy groups and clusters, and the implications for anisotropy in the CMB from Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. We include the effect of thermal conduction, and find that the resulting profiles of temperature and entropy are consistent with observations. Unlike previously proposed models, our model predicts that isentropic cores are not an inevitable consequence of preheating. The model also reproduces the observational trend for the density profiles to flatten in lower mass systems. We deduce the energy E_agn required to explain the entropy observations as a function of mass of groups and clusters M_cl and show that E_agn is proportional to M_cl^alpha with alpha~1.5. We demonstrate that the entropy measurements, in conjunction with our model, can be translated into constraints on the cluster--black hole mass relation. The inferred relation is nonlinear and has the form M_bh\propto M_cl^alpha. This scaling is an analog and extension of a similar relation between the black hole mass and the galactic halo mass that holds on smaller scales. We show that the central decrement of the CMB temperature is reduced due to the enhanced entropy of the ICM, and that the decrement predicted from the plausible range of energy input from the AGN is consistent with available data of SZ decrement. We show that AGN heating, combined with the observational constraints on entropy, leads to suppression of higher multipole moments in the angular power spectrum and we find that this effect is stronger than previously thought.Comment: accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Supersymmetry and homogeneity of M-theory backgrounds

We describe the construction of a Lie superalgebra associated to an arbitrary supersymmetric M-theory background, and discuss some examples. We prove that for backgrounds with more than 24 supercharges, the bosonic subalgebra acts locally transitively. In particular, we prove that backgrounds with more than 24 supersymmetries are necessarily (locally) homogeneous.Comment: 19 pages (Erroneous Section 6.3 removed from the paper.

Aloysia Juss.

https://thekeep.eiu.edu/herbarium_specimens_byname/18935/thumbnail.jp

The holonomy of the supercovariant connection and Killing spinors

We show that the holonomy of the supercovariant connection for M-theory backgrounds with $N$ Killing spinors reduces to a subgroup of SL(32-N,\bR)\st (\oplus^N \bR^{32-N}). We use this to give the necessary and sufficient conditions for a background to admit $N$ Killing spinors. We show that there is no topological obstruction for the existence of up to 22 Killing spinors in eleven-dimensional spacetime. We investigate the symmetry superalgebras of supersymmetric backgrounds and find that their structure constants are determined by an antisymmetric matrix. The Lie subalgebra of bosonic generators is related to a real form of a symplectic group. We show that there is a one-one correspondence between certain bases of the Cartan subalgebra of sl(32, \bR) and supersymmetric planar probe M-brane configurations. A supersymmetric probe configuration can involve up to 31 linearly independent planar branes and preserves one supersymmetry. The space of supersymmetric planar probe M-brane configurations is preserved by an SO(32,\bR) subgroup of SL(32, \bR).Comment: 27 pages, a key reference was added. v3: minor change

About a case of excoriative disorder: Brief review of the literature

The instinctive tendency to manipulate the skin and its small imperfections is a normal part of body-focused repetitive behaviors. When this behavior increases without control and causes somatic and psychic damage to the individual, we are dealing with a case of Excoriative Disorder (ET), a pathology that has been included in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), and that, in the Classification American Mental Disorders, is part of the disorders related to the obsessive-compulsive disorder. In adults, the lifetime prevalence of ET ranges between 3 and 5% and presents high comorbidities with affective problems, substance use and morbid personality traits. Although it is not apparently a severe pathology, it causes significant disability and requires systematic screening due to its frequent avoidance by both the affected patient and health professionals.Revisión por pare

Penrose limits, supergravity and brane dynamics

We investigate the Penrose limits of classical string and M-theory backgrounds. We prove that the number of (super)symmetries of a supergravity background never decreases in the limit. We classify all the possible Penrose limits of AdS x S spacetimes and of supergravity brane solutions. We also present the Penrose limits of various other solutions: intersecting branes, supersymmetric black holes and strings in diverse dimensions, and cosmological models. We explore the Penrose limit of an isometrically embedded spacetime and find a generalisation to spaces with more than one time. Finally, we show that the Penrose limit is a large tension limit for all branes including those with fields of Born--Infeld type.Comment: 67 page

Towards A Topological G_2 String

We define new topological theories related to sigma models whose target space is a 7 dimensional manifold of G_2 holonomy. We show how to define the topological twist and identify the BRST operator and the physical states. Correlation functions at genus zero are computed and related to Hitchin's topological action for three-forms. We conjecture that one can extend this definition to all genus and construct a seven-dimensional topological string theory. In contrast to the four-dimensional case, it does not seem to compute terms in the low-energy effective action in three dimensions.Comment: 15 pages, To appear in the proceedings of Cargese 2004 summer schoo