Magnetospheric and auroral processes

Progress was made on the following two projects within the semiannual period: (1) simulations of the magnetic storm of April 1988 using the Magnetospheric Specification Model; and (2) improvement of a user-oriented electric-field model

Modelling legacy telecommunications switching systems for interaction analysis

No abstract avaliabl

Menu Costs and Inflation Asymmetries - Some Micro Data Evidence

The paper explains the observed asymmetric inflation response to value-added tax (VAT) changes in Hungary by calibrating a standard sectoral menu cost model on a new micro-level CPI data set. The model is able to reproduce important moments of the data, and finds that the asymmetry can be explained by the interaction of menu costs, (sectoral) trend inflation and forward looking firms, thereby it provides direct evidence to the argument of Ball and Mankiw (1994).Menu Cost, Inflation Asymmetry, Sectoral Heterogeneity, Value-Added Tax

Fast domain wall motion in nanostripes with out-of-plane fields

Controlling domain wall motion is important due to the impact on the viability of proposed nanowire devices. One hurdle is slow domain wall speed when driven by fields greater than the Walker field, due to nucleation of vortices in the wall. We present simulation results detailing the dynamics of these vortices; including the nucleation and subsequent fast ejection of the vortex core leading to fast domain wall speeds. The ejection is due to the reversal of the core moments by an out-of-plane field. The technique can be used to produce domain walls of known orientation independent of the initial state.Comment: 12 pages (3 figures

Enhancing Domain Wall Speed in Nanowires with Transverse Magnetic Fields

Dynamic micromagnetic simulation studies have been completed to observe the motion of a domain wall in a magnetic nanowire in an effort to increase the field-driven domain wall speed. Previous studies have shown that the wire dimensions place a cap on the maximum speed attainable by a domain wall when driven by a magnetic field placed along the direction of the nanowire. Here we present data showing a significant increase in the maximum speed of a domain wall due to the addition of a magnetic field placed perpendicular to the longitudinal driving field. The results are expressed in terms of the relative alignment of the transverse field direction with respect to the direction of the magnetic moments within the domain wall. In particular, when the transverse field is parallel to the magnetic moments within the domain wall, the velocity of the wall varies linearly with the strength of the transverse field increasing by up to 20%. Further examination of the domain wall structure shows that the length of the domain wall also depends linearly on the strength of the transverse field. We present a simple model to correlate the effects

The effect of the change in VAT rates on the consumer price index

In the autumn of 2006 the Magyar Nemzeti Bank launched a series of research projects on the pricing of products and services with non-regulated prices, which is expected to last for one and a half years. Store-level price quotes used for the Hungarian CSO’s (Central Statistical Office) consumer price index calculation serve as a basis for the research. As a first step, we examined how earlier changes in VAT rates (the VAT increase in January 2004 and the VAT cut in January 2006) influenced the prices of products and services. Our analysis is of particular importance as the VAT rate of certain products increased again in September 2006. Our findings show that while a larger part of the VAT increase was transmitted into consumer prices within a few months, the VAT cut reduced consumer prices to a much smaller extent, thus adding to the profit of stores – at least in the short run.Consumer Price Index, state dependent pricing, VAT-rates.

Enhancing Domain Wall Speed in Nanowires with Transverse Magnetic Fields

Dynamic micromagnetic simulation studies have been completed to observe the motion of a domain wall in a magnetic nanowire in an effort to increase the field-driven domain wall speed. Previous studies have shown that the wire dimensions place a cap on the maximum speed attainable by a domain wall when driven by a magnetic field placed along the direction of the nanowire. Here we present data showing a significant increase in the maximum speed of a domain wall due to the addition of a magnetic field placed perpendicular to the longitudinal driving field. The results are expressed in terms of the relative alignment of the transverse field direction with respect to the direction of the magnetic moments within the domain wall. In particular, when the transverse field is parallel to the magnetic moments within the domain wall, the velocity of the wall varies linearly with the strength of the transverse field increasing by up to 20%. Further examination of the domain wall structure shows that the length of the domain wall also depends linearly on the strength of the transverse field. We present a simple model to correlate the effects.Comment: 11 pages, accepted by J. Appl. Phy

Can confidence indicators be useful to predict short term manufacturing growth?

In this study we investigate the usefulness of business survey data in forecasting Hungarian manufacturing output growth in the short run. We analyse the individual questions of the business surveys, and use models with different flexibility (factor model, best fitting and recursively best fitting model) to estimate the relationship between the business survey indicators and manufacturing output growth. The models are evaluated according to their forecasting performance. We generally find that although confidence indicators can be useful in forecasting manufacturing output in the short run, their forecasting ability is limited to a one-quarter horizon. For this reason their use in forecasting should mainly be restricted to nowcasting purposes.

In the Name of Liberty: An Argument for Universal Unionization

For years now, unionization has been under vigorous attack. Membership has been steadily declining, and with it union bargaining power. As a result, unions may soon lose their ability to protect workers from economic and personal abuse, as well as their significance as a political force. In the Name of Liberty responds to this worrying state of affairs by presenting a new argument for unionization, one that derives an argument for universal unionization in both the private and public sector from concepts of liberty that we already accept. In short, In the Name of Liberty reclaims the argument for liberty from the political right, and shows how liberty not only requires the unionization of every workplace as a matter of background justice, but also supports a wide variety of other progressive policies

Dependence of Domain Wall Structure for Low Field Injection into Magnetic Nanowires

Micromagnetic simulation is used to model the injection of a domain wall into a magnetic nanowire with field strengths less than the so-called Walker field. This ensures fast, reliable motion of the wall. When the wire is located at the edge of a small injecting disk, a bias field used to control the orientation of the domain wall can reduce the pinning potential of the structure. The low field injection is explained by a simple model, which relies on the topological nature of a domain wall. The technique can quickly inject multiple domain walls with a known magnetic structure