A Quantum Bound-State Description of Black Holes

A relativistic framework for the description of bound states consisting of a large number of quantum constituents is presented, and applied to black-hole interiors. At the parton level, the constituent distribution, number and energy density inside black holes are calculated, and gauge corrections are discussed. A simple scaling relation between the black hole mass and constituent number is established.Comment: Sections on asymptotic framework for bound states and composite operator renormalization added. Derivation of main results presented in greater detail. References added. Submitted to Nuclear Physics

Effects of Terms of Trade and its Volatility on Economic Growth: A Cross Country Empirical Investigation

This study examines the effects of terms of trade and its volatility on economic growth for a sample of 94 developed and developing countries, using five year average annual data from 2004 to 2008. The cross country ordinary least square estimation results indicate significant positive effect of terms of trade on economic growth. Furthermore, volatility of terms of trade has significant positive effect on economic growth. To test the robustness of initial results, sensitivity analysis has been performed using different additional variables, sample size and various proxies of volatility variable. The initial results were found robust despite the inclusion of various variables in the basic model and use of various proxies for volatility of terms of trade.Terms of trade, Volatility, Economic Growth

Molecular Memory with Atomically-Smooth Graphene Contacts

We report the use of bilayer graphene as an atomically-smooth contact for nanoscale devices. A two-terminal Bucky ball (C60) based molecular memory is fabricated with bilayer graphene as a contact on the polycrystalline nickel electrode. Graphene provides an atomically-smooth covering over an otherwise rough metal surface. The use of graphene additionally prohibits the electromigration of nickel atoms into the C60 layer. The devices exhibit a low-resistance state in the first sweep cycle and irreversibly switch to a high resistance state at 0.8-1.2 V bias. The reverse sweep has a hysteresis behavior as well. In the subsequent cycles, the devices retain the high-resistance state, thus making it write-once read-many memory (WORM). The ratio of current in low-resistance to high-resistance state is lying in 20-40 range for various devices with excellent retention characteristics. Control sample without the bilayer graphene shows random hysteresis and switching.Comment: 13 pages and 4 figure