11,016 research outputs found
A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Environmental Contamination and Positive Amenities on Residential Real Estate Values
This paper addresses the effects of environmental contamination and positive amenities on proximate residential real estate property values in the United States. Contamination sources include leaking underground storage tanks, superfund sites, landfills, water and air pollution, power lines, pipeline ruptures, nuclear power plants, animal feedlots and several other urban nuisance uses. The study summarizes a literature review of 75 peer-reviewed journal articles and selected case studies, and generates a data set of about 290 observations that contain information about each study’s loss (the dependent variable), with the independent variables being distance from the source, type of contamination, urban or rural environment, geographic region, market conditions and several other variables. Ordinary least squares is used to determine the effect of the contamination variables on reduction in property value. Broad contamination types, amenities, selected economic regions, distance from the source, information, research method and several other variables are statistically significant.
The Mauna Kea Observatories Near-Infrared Filter Set. I: Defining Optimal 1-5 m Bandpasses
A new MKO-NIR infrared filter set is described, including techniques and
considerations given to designing a new set of bandpasses that are useful at
both mid- and high-altitude sites. These filters offer improved photometric
linearity and in many cases reduced background, as well as preserve good
throughput within the JHKLM atmospheric windows. MKO-NIR filters have already
been deployed with a number of instruments around the world as part of a filter
consortium purchase to reduce the unit cost of filters. Through this effort we
hope to establish, for the first time, a single standard set of infrared
fitlers at as many observatories as possible.Comment: PASP, in press; 32 pages, 11 figures, 3 Table
Theory of quantum paraelectrics and the metaelectric transition
We present a microscopic model of the quantum paraelectric-ferroelectric
phase transition with a focus on the influence of coupled fluctuating phonon
modes. These may drive the continuous phase transition first order through a
metaelectric transition and furthermore stimulate the emergence of a textured
phase that preempts the transition. We discuss two further consequences of
fluctuations, firstly for the heat capacity, and secondly we show that the
inverse paraelectric susceptibility displays T^2 quantum critical behavior, and
can also adopt a characteristic minimum with temperature. Finally, we discuss
the observable consequences of our results.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
The Stellar Content Near the Galactic Center
High angular resolution J, H, K, and L' images are used to investigate the
stellar content within 6 arcsec of SgrA*. The data, which are complete to K ~
16, are the deepest multicolor observations of the region published to date.Comment: 34 pages, including 12 figure
A repulsive atomic gas in a harmonic trap on the border of itinerant ferromagnetism
Alongside superfluidity, itinerant (Stoner) ferromagnetism remains one of the
most well-characterized phases of correlated Fermi systems. A recent experiment
has reported the first evidence for novel phase behavior on the repulsive side
of the Feshbach resonance in a two-component ultracold Fermi gas. By adapting
recent theoretical studies to the atomic trap geometry, we show that an
adiabatic ferromagnetic transition would take place at a weaker interaction
strength than is observed in experiment. This discrepancy motivates a simple
non-equilibrium theory that takes account of the dynamics of magnetic defects
and three-body losses. The formalism developed displays good quantitative
agreement with experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Quantum Phase Transitions in Bosonic Heteronuclear Pairing Hamiltonians
We explore the phase diagram of two-component bosons with Feshbach resonant
pairing interactions in an optical lattice. It has been shown in previous work
to exhibit a rich variety of phases and phase transitions, including a
paradigmatic Ising quantum phase transition within the second Mott lobe. We
discuss the evolution of the phase diagram with system parameters and relate
this to the predictions of Landau theory. We extend our exact diagonalization
studies of the one-dimensional bosonic Hamiltonian and confirm additional Ising
critical exponents for the longitudinal and transverse magnetic
susceptibilities within the second Mott lobe. The numerical results for the
ground state energy and transverse magnetization are in good agreement with
exact solutions of the Ising model in the thermodynamic limit. We also provide
details of the low-energy spectrum, as well as density fluctuations and
superfluid fractions in the grand canonical ensemble.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Feshbach Resonance in Optical Lattices and the Quantum Ising Model
Motivated by experiments on heteronuclear Feshbach resonances in Bose
mixtures, we investigate s-wave pairing of two species of bosons in an optical
lattice. The zero temperature phase diagram supports a rich array of superfluid
and Mott phases and a network of quantum critical points. This topology reveals
an underlying structure that is succinctly captured by a two-component Landau
theory. Within the second Mott lobe we establish a quantum phase transition
described by the paradigmatic longitudinal and transverse field Ising model.
This is confirmed by exact diagonalization of the 1D bosonic Hamiltonian. We
also find this transition in the homonuclear case.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Tail States in Disordered Superconductors with Magnetic Impurities: the Unitarity Limit
When subject to a weak magnetic impurity distribution, the order parameter
and quasi-particle energy gap of a weakly disordered bulk s-wave superconductor
are suppressed. In the Born scattering limit, recent investigations have shown
that `optimal fluctuations' of the random impurity potential can lead to the
nucleation of `domains' of localised states within the gap region predicted by
the conventional Abrikosov-Gor'kov mean-field theory, rendering the
superconducting system gapless at any finite impurity concentration. By
implementing a field theoretic scheme tailored to the weakly disordered system,
the aim of the present paper is to extend this analysis to the consideration of
magnetic impurities in the unitarity scattering limit. This investigation
reveals that the qualitative behaviour is maintained while the density of
states exhibits a rich structure.Comment: 18 pages AMSLaTeX (with LaTeX2e), 6 eps figure
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