828 research outputs found
Coherence as ultrashort pulse train generator
Intense, well-controlled regular light pulse trains start to play a crucial
role in many fields of physics. We theoretically demonstrate a very simple and
robust technique for generating such periodic ultrashort pulses from a
continuous probe wave which propagates in a dispersive thermal gas media
Challenges of open innovation: the paradox of firm investment in open-source software
Open innovation is a powerful framework encompassing the generation, capture, and employment of intellectual property at the firm level. We identify three fundamental challenges for firms in applying the concept of open innovation: finding creative ways to exploit internal innovation, incorporating external innovation into internal development, and motivating outsiders to supply an ongoing stream of external innovations. This latter challenge involves a paradox, why would firms spend money on R&D efforts if the results of these efforts are available to rival firms? To explore these challenges, we examine the activity of firms in opensource software to support their innovation strategies. Firms involved in open-source software often make investments that will be shared with real and potential rivals. We identify four strategies firms employ – pooled R&D/product development, spinouts, selling complements and attracting donated complements – and discuss how they address the three key challenges of open innovation. We conclude with suggestions for how similar strategies may apply in other industries and offer some possible avenues for future research on open innovation
Running coupling: Does the coupling between dark energy and dark matter change sign during the cosmological evolution?
In this paper we put forward a running coupling scenario for describing the
interaction between dark energy and dark matter. The dark sector interaction in
our scenario is free of the assumption that the interaction term is
proportional to the Hubble expansion rate and the energy densities of dark
sectors. We only use a time-variable coupling (with the scale factor
of the universe) to characterize the interaction . We propose a
parametrization form for the running coupling in which the
early-time coupling is given by a constant , while today the coupling is
given by another constant, . For investigating the feature of the running
coupling, we employ three dark energy models, namely, the cosmological constant
model (), the constant model (), and the time-dependent
model (). We constrain the models with the current
observational data, including the type Ia supernova, the baryon acoustic
oscillation, the cosmic microwave background, the Hubble expansion rate, and
the X-ray gas mass fraction data. The fitting results indicate that a
time-varying vacuum scenario is favored, in which the coupling crosses
the noninteracting line () during the cosmological evolution and the sign
changes from negative to positive. The crossing of the noninteracting line
happens at around , and the crossing behavior is favored at about
1 confidence level. Our work implies that we should pay more attention
to the time-varying vacuum model and seriously consider the phenomenological
construction of a sign-changeable or oscillatory interaction between dark
sectors.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; refs added; to appear in EPJ
Entanglement between Demand and Supply in Markets with Bandwagon Goods
Whenever customers' choices (e.g. to buy or not a given good) depend on
others choices (cases coined 'positive externalities' or 'bandwagon effect' in
the economic literature), the demand may be multiply valued: for a same posted
price, there is either a small number of buyers, or a large one -- in which
case one says that the customers coordinate. This leads to a dilemma for the
seller: should he sell at a high price, targeting a small number of buyers, or
at low price targeting a large number of buyers? In this paper we show that the
interaction between demand and supply is even more complex than expected,
leading to what we call the curse of coordination: the pricing strategy for the
seller which aimed at maximizing his profit corresponds to posting a price
which, not only assumes that the customers will coordinate, but also lies very
near the critical price value at which such high demand no more exists. This is
obtained by the detailed mathematical analysis of a particular model formally
related to the Random Field Ising Model and to a model introduced in social
sciences by T C Schelling in the 70's.Comment: Updated version, accepted for publication, Journal of Statistical
Physics, online Dec 201
Reionization by active sources and its effects on the cosmic microwave background
We investigate the possible effects of reionization by active sources on the
cosmic microwave background. We concentrate on the sources themselves as the
origin of reionization, rather than early object formation, introducing an
extra period of heating motivated by the active character of the perturbations.
Using reasonable parameters, this leads to four possibilities depending on the
time and duration of the energy input: delayed last scattering, double last
scattering, shifted last scattering and total reionization. We show that these
possibilities are only very weakly constrained by the limits on spectral
distortions from the COBE FIRAS measurements. We illustrate the effects of
these reionization possibilities on the angular power spectrum of temperature
anisotropies and polarization for simple passive isocurvature models and simple
coherent sources, observing the difference between passive and active models.
Finally, we comment on the implications of this work for more realistic active
sources, such as causal white noise and topological defect models. We show for
these models that non-standard ionization histories can shift the peak in the
CMB power to larger angular scales.Comment: 21 pages LaTeX with 11 eps figures; replaced with final version
accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
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