858 research outputs found
Analysis of the optimal policy for managing strategic petroleum reserves under long-term uncertainty: the ASEAN case.
We examine the issue of petroleum stockpiling in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), computing the optimal build-up and draw-down policies under different conditions. We study, in detail, the properties of petroleum prices, oil imports and production, and GDP, analyzing the impact of the planning horizon, discount rate and price elasticity of demand on the optimal policy. We use a finite horizon stochastic program (with varying branching) in which the policymaker minimizes the negative impacts of oil price increases on the GDP and the cost of holding the strategic petroleum reserve. We propose an inter-generational equity rule to compute the level of inventory in the final states of the decision tree. We find that ASEAN countries would benefit significantly from developing a strategic petroleum reserve, with net benefits ranging from US$25â125 billion. Our suggested target stockpile is consistent with the International Energy Agency's recommendation of holding stocks equal to 90 days of net imports
Light Spanners
A -spanner of a weighted undirected graph , is a subgraph
such that for all . The sparseness of
the spanner can be measured by its size (the number of edges) and weight (the
sum of all edge weights), both being important measures of the spanner's
quality -- in this work we focus on the latter.
Specifically, it is shown that for any parameters and ,
any weighted graph on vertices admits a
-stretch spanner of weight at most , where is the weight of a minimum
spanning tree of . Our result is obtained via a novel analysis of the
classic greedy algorithm, and improves previous work by a factor of .Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, to appear in ICALP 201
Bogoliubov sound speed in periodically modulated Bose-Einstein condensates
We study the Bogoliubov excitations of a Bose-condensed gas in an optical
lattice. Of primary interest is the long wavelength phonon dispersion for both
current-free and current-carrying condensates. We obtain the dispersion
relation by carrying out a systematic expansion of the Bogoliubov equations in
powers of the phonon wave vector. Our result for the current-carrying case
agrees with the one recently obtained by means of a hydrodynamic theory.Comment: 16 pages, no figure
Quantum Yang-Mills gravity in flat space-time and effective curved space-time for motions of classical objects
Yang-Mills gravity with translational gauge group T(4) in flat space-time
implies a simple self-coupling of gravitons and a truly conserved
energy-momentum tensor. Its consistency with experiments crucially depends on
an interesting property that an `effective Riemannian metric tensor' emerges in
and only in the geometric-optics limit of the photon and particle wave
equations. We obtain Feynman rules for a coupled graviton-fermion system,
including a general graviton propagator with two gauge parameters and the
interaction of ghost particles. The equation of motion of macroscopic objects,
as an N-body system, is demonstrated as the geometric-optics limit of the
fermion wave equation. We discuss a relativistic Hamilton-Jacobi equation with
an `effective Riemann metric tensor' for the classical particles.Comment: 20 pages, to be published in "The European Physical Journal -
Plus"(2011). The final publication is available at http://www.epj.or
In vitro shoot induction and plant regeneration from flower buds in Paphiopedilum orchids
Paphiopedilum species are recalcitrant in tissue culture, and no explant from mature plants has been successfully mass propagated in vitro. This study was aimed at inducing shoots and regenerating plants from the flowering plants of a sequentially flowering Paphiopedilum Deperle and a single floral Paphiopedilum Armeni White. By using cross-sectioned flower buds (FBs), we found that in both species, only sections that contained the base tissue of FBs were able to produce shoots and plants. We have also found that sections of FBs between 1.5 and 3.0 cm from Paphiopedilum Deperle were able to produce shoots, but only sections of FBs > 2.5 cm from Paphiopedilum Armeni White were regenerable. Our microscopic observations revealed that the small bract at the FB base harbored a new miniature FB, which further harbored a primitive FB with dome-shaped meristem-like tissues that presumably led to the plant induction. The reiteration of this pattern resulted in a scorpioid cyme inflorescence architecture in the multifloral Paphiopedilum species, and its failure to reiterate resulted in a single flower. The induction rates were 57-75%, and all plants survived in a greenhouse. This method is potentially applicable for the micropropagation and conservation of slipper orchids
Measurement of the Intrinsic Radiopurity of Cs-137/U-235/U-238/Th-232 in CsI(Tl) Crystal Scintillators
The inorganic crystal scintillator CsI(Tl) has been used for low energy
neutrino and Dark Matter experiments, where the intrinsic radiopurity is an
issue of major importance. Low-background data were taken with a CsI(Tl)
crystal array at the Kuo-Sheng Reactor Neutrino Laboratory. The pulse shape
discrimination capabilities of the crystal, as well as the temporal and spatial
correlations of the events, provide powerful means of measuring the intrinsic
radiopurity of Cs-137 as well as the U-235, U-238 and Th-232 series. The event
selection algorithms are described, with which the decay half-lives of Po-218,
Po-214, Rn-220, Po-216 and Po-212 were derived. The measurements of the
contamination levels, their concentration gradients with the crystal growth
axis, and the uniformity among different crystal samples, are reported. The
radiopurity in the U-238 and Th-232 series are comparable to those of the best
reported in other crystal scintillators. Significant improvements in
measurement sensitivities were achieved, similar to those from dedicated
massive liquid scintillator detector. This analysis also provides in situ
measurements of the detector performance parameters, such as spatial
resolution, quenching factors, and data acquisition dead time.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figure
Constraints on coupling constant between dark energy and dark matter
We have investigated constraints on the coupling between dark matter and the
interacting Chaplygin gas. Our results indicate that the coupling constant
between these two entities can take arbitrary values, which can be either
positive or negative, thus giving arbitrary freedom to the inter-conversion
between Chaplygin gas and dark matter. Thus our results indicate that the
restriction on the coupling constant occurs as a very special case. Our
analysis also supports the existence of phantom energy under certain conditions
on the coupling constant.Comment: 16 Pages, 3 figure
Temperature-dependent NMR features of the Al65Cu20Ru15 icosahedral alloy
The Al65Cu20Ru15 icosahedral alloy was studied by Al27 nuclear magnetic resonance from 150 to 1110 K. The Knight shift of the unresolved resonance line was observed to significantly increase above 500 K. This uncommon temperature dependence of the Knight shift is interpreted in terms of the presence of a pseudogap at the Fermi level. The spin-lattice relaxation rate deviates from the linear temperature dependence of Korringa relaxation below 500 K, and above 500 K it is dominated by a thermally activated process with a small activation energy of 0.48 eV. This energy is distinctly different from the activation energy observed in simple metallic alloys
Conditions for Successful Extended Inflation
We investigate, in a model-independent way, the conditions required to obtain
a satisfactory model of extended inflation in which inflation is brought to an
end by a first-order phase transition. The constraints are that the correct
present strength of the gravitational coupling is obtained, that the present
theory of gravity is satisfactorily close to general relativity, that the
perturbation spectra from inflation are compatible with large scale structure
observations and that the bubble spectrum produced at the phase transition
doesn't conflict with the observed level of microwave background anisotropies.
We demonstrate that these constraints can be summarized in terms of the
behaviour in the conformally related Einstein frame, and can be compactly
illustrated graphically. We confirm the failure of existing models including
the original extended inflation model, and construct models, albeit rather
contrived ones, which satisfy all existing constraints.Comment: 8 pages RevTeX file with one figure incorporated (uses RevTeX and
epsf). Also available by e-mailing ARL, or by WWW at
http://star-www.maps.susx.ac.uk/papers/infcos_papers.html; Revised to include
extra references, results unchanged, to appear Phys Rev
Coarse-Grained Finite-Temperature Theory for the Condensate in Optical Lattices
In this work, we derive a coarse-grained finite-temperature theory for a Bose
condensate in a one-dimensional optical lattice, in addition to a confining
harmonic trap potential. We start from a two-particle irreducible (2PI)
effective action on the Schwinger-Keldysh closed-time contour path. In
principle, this action involves all information of equilibrium and
non-equilibrium properties of the condensate and noncondensate atoms. By
assuming an ansatz for the variational function, i.e., the condensate order
parameter in an effective action, we derive a coarse-grained effective action,
which describes the dynamics on the length scale much longer than a lattice
constant. Using the variational principle, coarse-grained equations of motion
for the condensate variables are obtained. These equations include a
dissipative term due to collisions between condensate and noncondensate atoms,
as well as noncondensate mean-field. To illustrate the usefulness of our
formalism, we discuss a Landau instability of the condensate in optical
lattices by using the coarse-grained generalized Gross-Pitaevskii
hydrodynamics. We found that the collisional damping rate due to collisions
between the condensate and noncondensate atoms changes sign when the condensate
velocity exceeds a renormalized sound velocity, leading to a Landau instability
consistent with the Landau criterion. Our results in this work give an insight
into the microscopic origin of the Landau instability.Comment: 38 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to Journal of Low Temperature Physic
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