The distribution of baroclinity within the atmosphere

A three dimensional numerical interpolation scheme which resolves frontal gradients with fidelity was developed. The scheme is applied to the study of atmospheric upper baroclinic zones

Total Width of 125 GeV Higgs Boson

By using the LHC and Tevatron measurements of the cross sections to various decay channels relative to the standard model Higgs boson, the total width of the putative 125 GeV Higgs boson is determined as 6.1 +7.7-2.9 MeV. We describe a way to estimate the branching fraction for Higgs decay to dark matter. We also discuss a No-Go theorem for the gammagamma signal of the Higgs boson at the LHC.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Numerical simulation of viscous supersonic flow over a generic fighter configuration

A procedure is presented, as well as some results, to calculate the flow over a generic fighter configuration. A parabolized marching Navier-Stokes code is used to obtain the solution over a wing-canopy body. The flow conditions simulate supersonic cruise with a freestream Mach number of 2.169 and angles of attack of 4 and 10 deg. The body surface is considered to be an adiabatic wall and the flow is assumed to be turbulent for the given Reynolds number

Searching for Stoponium along with the Higgs boson

Stoponium, a bound state of top squark and its antiparticle in a supersymmetric model, may be found in the ongoing Higgs searches at the LHC. Its WW and ZZ detection ratios relative to the Standard Model Higgs boson can be more than unity from WW* threshold to the two Higgs threshold. The gamma gamma channel is equally promising. Some regions of the stoponium mass below 150 GeV are already being probed by the ATLAS and CMS experiments.Comment: 10 pages 5 figure

Foreign Output Shocks and Monetary Policy Regimes in Small Open Economies: A DSGE Evaluation of East Asia

East Asia’s small open economies were hit in varying degrees by the sharp drop in the output of major industrial countries during the global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009. This highlights the role of monetary policy regimes in cushioning small open economies from adverse external output shocks. To assess the welfare impact of external shocks on key macroeconomic variables under different monetary policy regimes, we numerically solve and calculate the welfare loss function of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model. We find that CPI inflation targeting minimizes welfare losses for import-to-GDP ratios from 0.3 to 0.9. However, welfare under the pegged exchange rate regime is almost equivalent to CPI inflation targeting when the import-to-GDP ratio is one while the Taylor-type rule minimizes welfare when the import-to-GDP ratio is 0.1. We calibrate the model and derive welfare implications for eight East Asian small open economies.Trade channel, Import-to-GDP ratio, small open economies, welfare, exchange rate regimes, inflation targeting, Taylor rule, foreign output shock

Foreign Output Shocks and Monetary Policy Regimes in Small Open Economies: A DSGE Evaluation of East Asia

East Asia’s small open economies were hit in varying degrees by the sharp drop in the output of major industrial countries during the global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009. This highlights the role of monetary policy regimes in cushioning small open economies from adverse external output shocks. To assess the welfare impact of external shocks on key macroeconomic variables under different monetary policy regimes, we numerically solve and calculate the welfare loss function of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model. We find that CPI inflation targeting minimizes welfare losses for import-to-GDP ratios from 0.3 to 0.9. However, welfare under the pegged exchange rate regime is almost equivalent to CPI inflation targeting when the import-to-GDP ratio is one while the Taylor-type rule minimizes welfare when the import-to-GDP ratio is 0.1. We calibrate the model and derive welfare implications for eight East Asian small open economies.

The Sikh Gurmat sangīt revival in post-partition India

textGurmat sangīt, literally sacred music of the Sikhs, is a religious marker of Sikhism. Sikh religious practice is oriented toward musical performance to worship God and evoke spiritual elevation. As a common religious practice at the Sikh temples, gurmat sangīt generally involves recitation of religious texts and devotional singing with instrumental accompaniment by professional musicians and/or the congregation. It also illustrates musical ways of uniting with God as found in Sikh scriptures. The major sacred text, the Guru Granth Sahib, contains a large number of verses in an arrangement organized by rāgas (musical modes). Gurmat sangīt has developed rapidly since the 1980s. The number of recordings, publications, and performances featuring Sikh religious music and/or musicians increased. Academic programs and organizations of gurmat sangīt were launched to train both professional and amateur musicians in India and abroad. At that time, a trend has developed to revive the authentic practice of Sikh devotional music with correct rendition of rāga performance and the re-introduction of stringed instruments such as the tāūs (a bowed-string instrument in peacock body sound box) and rabāb (a plucked-lute instrument). While exhibiting a tendency to standardize musical details and generate a historiography of Sikh music, contemporary practitioners also emphasize authenticity and tradition in re-imagining the devotional music performance at the time of the Sikh Gurūs. The revival is identified with not only professional Sikh musicians in Punjab but also overseas Sikh musicians and musicians of other religious and/or socio-cultural backgrounds. In this study, I adopt the case study approach to examine the phenomenon of the gurmat sangīt revival in 20th- and 21st-century Punjab. My research focuses on the annual performances of Sikh devotional music, and a Sikh religious institution in the city of Ludhiana, from where the trend of the music revival has been developed. For the revival’s aim to promote the “authentic” Sikh devotional music tradition, I argue that it involves a self-interpretation of combined authentic, invented, and westernized concepts in association with musical practice at the Sikh Gurūs’ times and Indian classical music, and being shown in the standardization, classicization, and hybridization of Sikh devotional music performance.Musi

Theory and applications of supercycled symmetry-based recoupling sequences in solid-state NMR

We present the theoretical principles of supercycled symmetry-based recoupling sequences in solid-state magic-angle-spinning NMR. We discuss the construction procedure of the SR26 pulse sequence, which is a particularly robust sequence for double-quantum homonuclear dipole-dipole recoupling. The supercycle removes destructive higher-order average Hamiltonian terms and renders the sequence robust over long time intervals. We demonstrate applications of the SR26 sequence to double-quantum spectroscopy, homonuclear spin counting, and determination of the relative orientations of chemical shift anisotropy tensors