Bankruptcy Court Jurisdiction After Executive Benefits Insurance Agency v. Arkison

(Excerpt) Bankruptcy law has been struggling for several years now with the so-called Stern problem”—the jurisdictional cloud of doubt that has been cast by the Supreme Court\u27s decision in Stern v. Marshall over much of the work that bankruptcy courts have done routinely for decades. Since Stern was decided, bankruptcy courts and the litigants who appear before them cannot be confident that it is constitutional for non-Article III bankruptcy judges to adjudicate various matters over which there is clear statutory jurisdiction, such as avoidance actions against third party transferees who are not otherwise involved or participating in the bankruptcy case. It is even questionable whether consent by all parties to adjudication before a bankruptcy judge would solve potential jurisdictional defects in Stern-implicated matters. Nevertheless, despite the long shadow that Stern has cast, bankruptcy courts around the country have continued to operate as they did before, if for no other reason than simply because the show must go on. As temporary fixes (if not quite solutions) to Stern, bankruptcy courts have mainly been doing two things: (1) issuing, like magistrate judges do, proposed findings of fact and proposed conclusions of law while leaving the final decision for the district judge to make on appeal after de novo review; and (2) obtaining consent from the parties who appear in bankruptcy court to the bankruptcy court\u27s jurisdiction, particularly in cases where Stern is raised or implicated. Doing one or both of these has allowed bankruptcy courts to continue to function more or less as before—at least ab initio. But always lurking in the background is the risk that an appeal raising a Stern issue could overturn the work of the bankruptcy court below. Such was the situation, for instance, in In re Bellingham Insurance Agency, Inc., a recent decision of the Ninth Circuit reviewing and ultimately affirming an award of summary judgment in favor of a bankruptcy estate in an avoidance action against third parties who, for the first time on appeal, had raised a Stern defense. While the bankruptcy court\u27s work was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit in Bellingham, the parties there and in similar cases around the country have been forced to operate in the jurisdictional twilight zone created by Stern (even as to core claims specifically delegated to the bankruptcy courts by statute), and the approach taken by the Ninth Circuit in Bellingham has not been uniformly embraced by other courts. Thus, when the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Bellingham (recaptioning the case under the name Executive Benefits Insurance Agency v. Arkison), there was great hope in the bankruptcy bar that Stern\u27s scope would be clarified and that the Court would address in particular the jurisdictional effects of the two practices mentioned above, proposed findings/conclusions and consent. Unfortunately, these hopes were not fully realized. For the Court\u27s decision, which affirmed the Ninth Circuit on the narrow ground that the district court had reviewed the bankruptcy court\u27s summary judgment ruling de novo, addresses only the first issue and not the second

Hedge Funds in Bankruptcy

(Excerpt) Hedge funds and other professional and institutional investors are playing an increasingly important role in bankruptcy cases. As buyers of financially distressed securities, they provide a valuable outlet for holders of such securities who wish to exit those markets. They also facilitate the consolidation of distressed securities into the hands of owners who are well-equipped to press for outcomes in Chapter 11 cases that maximize the value of those securities. At the same time, the active participation of hedge funds in the bankruptcy process at times gives them access to nonpublic information that may afford them an undue advantage in their ongoing trading activities. To balance these competing considerations, various practices have developed to regulate hedge funds in ways that attempt to preserve the value that they add to the bankruptcy process while also eliminating any improper advantage that participation in that process may confer. These measures and various proposals for their reform, which have been hotly debated within the bankruptcy and hedge fund communities, were the subject of a recent symposium at St. John\u27s School of Law whose fruits you now have before you. The eight papers that appear in this symposium issue of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review come from a diverse and distinguished group of scholars, practitioners, and public officials. In the grand tradition of interdisciplinarity that for nearly a century has informed academic discourse on bankruptcy law and policy, these papers are representative of the very best in bankruptcy scholarship

Van Der Waals Density Functional Study Of Co2 Binding In Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks

The van der Waals density functional (vdW-DF) formalism is employed in a study of the binding energetics for CO2 in a set of five zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) compounds. The ZIF structures investigated share the same RHO-type zeolite topology and metal atoms, but feature imidazolate linkers with different chemical functionalization. Three distinct binding sites are identified, for which the binding energies are found to show different dependencies on the functionalization of the linker molecules. The origin of the variations in the binding energies across the ZIF compounds is discussed through analyses of the binding geometries and charge-density distributions. A comparison of the vdW-DF results with those obtained by generalized-gradient-approximation calculations highlights the important contribution of the nonlocal correlation energy to the CO2 binding energies in these compounds

van der Waals density functional study of CO2 binding in zeolitic imidazolate frameworks

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.85.085410The van der Waals density functional (vdW-DF) formalism is employed in a study of the binding energetics for CO2 in a set of five zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) compounds. The ZIF structures investigated share the same RHO-type zeolite topology and metal atoms, but feature imidazolate linkers with different chemical functionalization. Three distinct binding sites are identified, for which the binding energies are found to show different dependencies on the functionalization of the linker molecules. The origin of the variations in the binding energies across the ZIF compounds is discussed through analyses of the binding geometries and charge-density distributions. A comparison of the vdW-DF results with those obtained by generalized-gradient-approximation calculations highlights the important contribution of the nonlocal correlation energy to the CO2 binding energies in these compounds

Simulating noise on a quantum processor: interactions between a qubit and resonant two-level system bath

Material defects fundamentally limit the coherence times of superconducting qubits, and manufacturing completely defect-free devices is not yet possible. Therefore, understanding the interactions between defects and a qubit in a real quantum processor design is essential. We build a model that incorporates the standard tunneling model, the electric field distributions in the qubit, and open quantum system dynamics, and draws from the current understanding of two-level system (TLS) theory. Specifically, we start with one million TLSs distributed on the surface of a qubit and pick the 200 systems that are most strongly coupled to the qubit. We then perform a full Lindbladian simulation that explicitly includes the coherent coupling between the qubit and the TLS bath to model the time dependent density matrix of resonant TLS defects and the qubit. We find that the 200 most strongly coupled TLSs can accurately describe the qubit energy relaxation time. This work confirms that resonant TLSs located in areas where the electric field is strong can significantly affect the qubit relaxation time, even if they are located far from the Josephson junction. Similarly, a strongly-coupled resonant TLS located in the Josephson junction does not guarantee a reduced qubit relaxation time if a more strongly coupled TLS is far from the Josephson junction. In addition to the coupling strengths between TLSs and the qubit, the model predicts that the geometry of the device and the TLS relaxation time play a significant role in qubit dynamics. Our work can provide guidance for future quantum processor designs with improved qubit coherence times.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

A Mechanistic Analysis of Phase Evolution and Hydrogen Storage Behavior in Nanocrystalline Mg(BH4)2 within Reduced Graphene Oxide.

Magnesium borohydride (Mg(BH4)2, abbreviated here MBH) has received tremendous attention as a promising onboard hydrogen storage medium due to its excellent gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen storage capacities. While the polymorphs of MBH-alpha (α), beta (β), and gamma (γ)-have distinct properties, their synthetic homogeneity can be difficult to control, mainly due to their structural complexity and similar thermodynamic properties. Here, we describe an effective approach for obtaining pure polymorphic phases of MBH nanomaterials within a reduced graphene oxide support (abbreviated MBHg) under mild conditions (60-190 °C under mild vacuum, 2 Torr), starting from two distinct samples initially dried under Ar and vacuum. Specifically, we selectively synthesize the thermodynamically stable α phase and metastable β phase from the γ-phase within the temperature range of 150-180 °C. The relevant underlying phase evolution mechanism is elucidated by theoretical thermodynamics and kinetic nucleation modeling. The resulting MBHg composites exhibit structural stability, resistance to oxidation, and partially reversible formation of diverse [BH4]- species during de- and rehydrogenation processes, rendering them intriguing candidates for further optimization toward hydrogen storage applications