A Local-Dominance Theory of Voting Equilibria

It is well known that no reasonable voting rule is strategyproof. Moreover, the common Plurality rule is particularly prone to strategic behavior of the voters and empirical studies show that people often vote strategically in practice. Multiple game-theoretic models have been proposed to better understand and predict such behavior and the outcomes it induces. However, these models often make unrealistic assumptions regarding voters' behavior and the information on which they base their vote. We suggest a new model for strategic voting that takes into account voters' bounded rationality, as well as their limited access to reliable information. We introduce a simple behavioral heuristic based on \emph{local dominance}, where each voter considers a set of possible world states without assigning probabilities to them. This set is constructed based on prospective candidates' scores (e.g., available from an inaccurate poll). In a \emph{voting equilibrium}, all voters vote for candidates not dominated within the set of possible states. We prove that these voting equilibria exist in the Plurality rule for a broad class of local dominance relations (that is, different ways to decide which states are possible). Furthermore, we show that in an iterative setting where voters may repeatedly change their vote, local dominance-based dynamics quickly converge to an equilibrium if voters start from the truthful state. Weaker convergence guarantees in more general settings are also provided. Using extensive simulations of strategic voting on generated and real preference profiles, we show that convergence is fast and robust, that emerging equilibria are consistent across various starting conditions, and that they replicate widely known patterns of human voting behavior such as Duverger's law. Further, strategic voting generally improves the quality of the winner compared to truthful voting

Time-Dependent Transport through a Mesoscopic Structure

We present a general formulation of the nonlinear, time-dependent current through a small interacting region, where electron energies are changed by time-dependent voltages. An exact solution is obtained for the non-interacting case when the elastic coupling to the leads is independent of energy. Temporal phase coherence in a double-barrier tunneling structure produces ``ringing" in the response of the current to a voltage pulse, which can be observed experimentally in the dc-current by varying the pulse length in a train of voltage pulses. The nonlinear current due to an ac-bias also shows complex time-dependence.Comment: REVTEX, 12 pages + 2 postscript figures (also available as hard copies from [email protected]) Nordita preprint 93/

Time-dependent transport in interacting and non-interacting mesoscopic systems

We consider a mesoscopic region coupled to two leads under the influence of external time-dependent voltages. The time dependence is coupled to source and drain contacts, the gates controlling the tunnel- barrier heights, or to the gates which define the mesoscopic region. We derive, with the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green function technique, a formal expression for the fully nonlinear, time-dependent current through the system. The analysis admits arbitrary interactions in the mesoscopic region, but the leads are treated as noninteracting. For proportionate coupling to the leads, the time-averaged current is simply the integral between the chemical potentials of the time-averaged density of states, weighted by the coupling to the leads, in close analogy to the time-independent result of Meir and Wingreen (PRL {\bf 68}, 2512 (1992)). Analytical and numerical results for the exactly solvable non-interacting resonant-tunneling system are presented.Comment: 42 pages, 13 figures (available either as ps-files, or as FAX, upon request), RevTex 3.

The Anderson Model out of Equilibrium: Non-Crossing-Approximation Approach to Transport through a Quantum Dot

The infinite-U Anderson model is applied to transport through a quantum dot. The current and density of states are obtained via the non-crossing approximation for two spin-degenerate levels weakly coupled to two leads. At low temperatures, the Kondo peak in the equilibrium density of states strongly enhances the linear-response conductance. Application of a finite voltage bias reduces the conductance and splits the peak in the density of states. The split peaks, one at each chemical potential, are suppressed in amplitude by a finite dissipative lifetime. We estimate this lifetime perturbatively as the time to transfer an electron from the higher chemical potential lead to the lower chemical potential one. At zero magnetic field, the clearest signatures of the Kondo effect in transport through a quantum dot are the broadening, shift, and enhancement of the linear-response conductance peaks at low temperatures, and a peak in the nonlinear differential conductance around zero bias.Comment: 33 pages (and 10 figures, available by request to [email protected]), Late

Chemical sensing by nonequilibrium cooperative receptors

Cooperativity arising from local interactions in equilibrium receptor systems provides gain, but does not increase sensory performance, as measured by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) due to a fundamental tradeoff between gain and intrinsic noise. Here we allow sensing to be a nonequilibrium process and show that energy dissipation cannot circumvent the fundamental tradeoff, so that SNR is still optimal for independent receptors. For systems requiring high gain, nonequilibrium 2D-coupled receptors maximize SNR, revealing a new design principle for biological sensors

Coulomb Gap in Graphene Nanoribbons

We investigate the density and temperature-dependent conductance of graphene nanoribbons with varying aspect ratio. Transport is dominated by a chain of quantum dots forming spontaneously due to disorder. Depending on ribbon length, electron density, and temperature, single or multiple quan- tum dots dominate the conductance. Between conductance resonances cotunneling transport at the lowest temperatures turns into activated transport at higher temperatures. The density-dependent activation energy resembles the Coulomb gap in a quantitative manner. Individual resonances show signatures of multi-level transport in some regimes, and stochastic Coulomb blockade in others

The Effects of Resonant Tunneling on Magnetoresistance through a Q uantum Dot

The effect of resonant tunneling on magnetoresistance (MR) is studied theoretically in a double junction system. We have found that the ratio of the MR of the resonant peak current is reduced more than that of the single junction, whereas that of the valley current is enhanced depending on the change of the discrete energy-level under the change of magnetic field. We also found that the peak current-valley current (PV) ratio decreases when the junction conductance increases.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures(mail if you need), use revtex.st

Why Modern Open Source Projects Fail

Open source is experiencing a renaissance period, due to the appearance of modern platforms and workflows for developing and maintaining public code. As a result, developers are creating open source software at speeds never seen before. Consequently, these projects are also facing unprecedented mortality rates. To better understand the reasons for the failure of modern open source projects, this paper describes the results of a survey with the maintainers of 104 popular GitHub systems that have been deprecated. We provide a set of nine reasons for the failure of these open source projects. We also show that some maintenance practices -- specifically the adoption of contributing guidelines and continuous integration -- have an important association with a project failure or success. Finally, we discuss and reveal the principal strategies developers have tried to overcome the failure of the studied projects.Comment: Paper accepted at 25th International Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE), pages 1-11, 201