Technology as an economic catalyst in rural and depressed places in Massachusetts

This paper uses case studies, including two cities (Lynn and New Bedford), a sub-city district (Roxbury) and two towns in rural Franklin County (Greenfield and Orange), to examine the role of technology as a potential economic catalyst in rural and depressed places in Massachusetts. Though the five target areas vary in size, density, geographic area, demographic characteristics and economic resources, each exhibits chronic patterns of economic distress related to the decline of manufacturing, construction and other key industries

Shot noise of interference between independent atomic systems

We study shot (counting) noise of the amplitude of interference between independent atomic systems. In particular, for the two interfering systems the variance of the fringe amplitude decreases as the inverse power of the number of particles per system with the coefficient being a non-universal number. This number depends on the details of the initial state of each system so that the shot noise measurements can be used to distinguish between such states. We explicitly evaluate this coefficient for the two cases of the interference between bosons in number states and in broken symmetry states. We generalize our analysis to the interference of multiple independent atomic systems. We show that the variance of the interference contrast vanishes as the inverse power of the number of the interfering systems. This result, implying high signal to noise ratio in the interference experiments, holds both for bosons and for fermions.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, final version, added a simple quantum-mechanical argument why two independent condensates with fixed number of particles in each must interfere in a generic experimental setu

Spin Diffusion in Trapped Gases: Anisotropy in Dipole and Quadrupole Modes

Recent experiments in a mixture of two hyperfine states of trapped Bose gases show behavior analogous to a spin-1/2 system, including transverse spin waves and other familiar Leggett-Rice-type effects. We have derived the kinetic equations applicable to these systems, including the spin dependence of interparticle interactions in the collision integral, and have solved for spin-wave frequencies and longitudinal and transverse diffusion constants in the Boltzmann limit. We find that, while the transverse and longitudinal collision times for trapped Fermi gases are identical, the Bose gas shows unusual diffusion anisotropy in both dipole and quadrupole modes. Moreover, the lack of spin isotropy in the interactions leads to the non-conservation of transverse spin, which in turn has novel effects on the hydrodynamic modes.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

Review: \u3cem\u3ePutting Skills to Work: How to Create Good Jobs in Uncertain Times\u3c/em\u3e, by Lowe, Nichola

In the aftermath of World War II, a gradual but steady social contract emerged between labor organizations and business. This contract included commitments by the business sector to pay a living wage to workers and their families and to provide them paid vacations, medical plans, and retirement programs. Moreover, it included commitments to skill development opportunities through on-the-job training that would position these workers for upward advancement. For the most part, this contract lasted until the 1980s, when the federal government’s resistance to passing legislation requiring fair wages, the declining power of unions, strong international competition, and increased automation coalesced to the point the contract began to erode. One of the most significant benefits affected by this erosion was company-sponsored skill development. Taking the position that the nation’s educational institutions were better suited to train entry-level workers, the business community supported efforts to shift that responsibility to universities, four-year colleges, and community colleges. They were successful in this endeavor. However, while this approach prepared the worker for the world of work, it did not, and could not, provide the skill-related training specific to a company’s needs. Moreover, it did not provide new workers the opportunity to develop their skills in the context of a company’s corporate culture. The net result has been new workers entering the workforce without the required skills, leaving both employees and employers dissatisfied

Theory of cooling by flow through narrow pores

We consider the possibility of adding a stage to a dilution refrigerator to provide additional cooling by ``filtering out'' hot atoms. Three methods are considered: 1) Effusion, where holes having diameters larger than a mean-free path allow atoms to pass through easily; 2) Particle waveguide-like motion using very narrow channels that greatly restrict the quantum states of the atoms in a channel. 3) Wall-limited diffusion through channels, in which the wall scattering is disordered so that local density equilibrium is established in a channel. We assume that channel dimension are smaller than the mean-free path for atom-atom interactions. The particle waveguide and the wall-limited diffusion methods using channels on order of the de Broglie wavelength give cooling. Recent advances in nano-filters give this method some hope of being practical.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. Corrected typos and made some minor wording change

Shear-flow transition: the basin boundary

The structure of the basin of attraction of a stable equilibrium point is investigated for a dynamical system (W97) often used to model transition to turbulence in shear flows. The basin boundary contains not only an equilibrium point Xlb but also a periodic orbit P, and it is the latter that mediates the transition. Orbits starting near Xlb relaminarize. We offer evidence that this is due to the extreme narrowness of the region complementary to basin of attraction in that part of phase space near Xlb. This leads to a proposal for interpreting the 'edge of chaos' in terms of more familiar invariant sets.Comment: 11 pages; submitted for publication in Nonlinearit

Working Draft, The Mill and the Mill Town Pilot Feasibility Checklist: Redevelopment of Once and Future Mill Sites

This checklist was designed by the University of Massachusetts Center for Economic Development to identify how prepared a town is to revitalize its Mill buildings and to help potential developer identify priorities and viable redevelopment sites. The high volume of abandoned mills in New England demonstrates the need for creative tools to serve as a preliminary filter for redevelopment opportunities