The collision of two-kinks defects

We have investigated the head-on collision of a two-kink and a two-antikink pair that arises as a generalization of the $\phi^4$ model. We have evolved numerically the Klein-Gordon equation with a new spectral algorithm whose accuracy and convergence were attested by the numerical tests. As a general result, the two-kink pair is annihilated radiating away most of the scalar field. It is possible the production of oscillons-like configurations after the collision that bounce and coalesce to form a small amplitude oscillon at the origin. The new feature is the formation of a sequence of quasi-stationary structures that we have identified as lump-like solutions of non-topological nature. The amount of time these structures survives depends on the fine-tuning of the impact velocity.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Watching over innovation studies: Profiling the gatekeepers

Academic serials (especially peer-reviewed journals) play a very critical role in the scientific ecosystem and both integrity and independence are perceived as essential for good editorial governance (Rynes, 2006). For being responsible for articles selection (Bedeian et al., 2009; Feldman, 2008), elite board membership ensures the scientific quality of publications and “occupy key roles as opinion formers, gatekeepers and arbiters of disciplinary values” (Burgess and Shaw, 2010, p.630). So far, board elites have not been subject to a scrutiny proportional to their decision power (Burgess & Shaw, 2010) and an overall lack of transparency has been reported about the general editorial process despite of being actual gatekeepers (Miner, 2003; see also Bedeian et al., 2009; Horan et al., 1993).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The small world of editorships: A network on innovation studies

Editors exert a significant influence on journal's mission and governing the strategic direction of outlets. They are the channels gatekeepers not only by ensuring the quality but also by guaranteeing the integrity of novels produced. For being such an important piece of scientific puzzle, they are a research object of utmost interest which is rather fragmented. This paper aims to better understand the relationships between editors seated on boards of 20 innovation top-tiers. The sample considered comprised 2,440 editors occupying 3,005 editorial positions and assuming 122 different duties. No single journal is free from this interlocking editorship phenomenon and 18.6% of the scholars serve on multiple boards. We deploy social network analysis to further inquire and model the editorial relationships in which innovation journals are embedded. Our results offer new insights on how the field is organised: 627 lines linking the journals were found with a 41.6% interlocking density. Research Policy has the highest number of direct links to other boards (degree) and the shortest distance from all network journals (closeness) while Industrial and Corporate Change is the one bridging the largest number of other pairs of journals (betweenness), followed by Small Business Economics and Research Policy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Manuel Castells and Informationalism

Understanding how the social appropriation of information and communication technologies came to define the contemporary period is critical for researchers and practitioners of innovation, business and management. This paper explores how the work of Manuel Castells as a social theorist provides the intellectual tools and the encompassing lenses to enable the study and navigate the process of structural transformation in which our lives have been engulfed from the 1970s onwards. Castells’ procedure of considering technology, social usages and structural history leads him to a key conceptual result: the introduction of the “Network Society” concept. His ideas have most notably been applied to the field of communications studies, which he analyses through the prism of power. However, these insights are not containable in one single discipline as the implications of informationalism stretch in a variety of directions, making other dimensions of society amenable to the network perspective. Organisational studies are one topic in which this line of enquiry may fruitfully be pursued.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Rossby waves in rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates

We predict and describe a new collective mode in rotating Bose-Einstein condensates, which is very similar to the Rossby waves in geophysics. In the regime of fast rotation, the Coriolis force dominates the dynamics and acts as a restoring force for acoustic-drift waves along the condensate. We derive a nonlinear equation that includes the effects of both the zero-point pressure and the anharmonicity of the trap. It is shown that such waves have negative phase speed, propagating in the opposite sense of the rotation. We discuss different equilibrium configurations and compare with those resulting from the Thomas-Fermi approximation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures (submitted to PRL

Photon Orbital Angular Momentum and Mass in a Plasma Vortex

We analyse the Anderson-Higgs mechanism of photon mass acquisition in a plasma and study the contribution to the mass from the orbital angular momentum acquired by a beam of photons when it crosses a spatially structured charge distribution. To this end we apply Proca-Maxwell equations in a static plasma with a particular spatial distribution of free charges, notably a plasma vortex, that is able to impose orbital angular momentum (OAM) onto light. In addition to the mass acquisition of the conventional Anderson-Higgs mechanism, we find that the photon acquires an additional mass from the OAM and that this mass reduces the Proca photon mass.Comment: Four pages, no figures. Error corrections, improved notation, refined derivation