Matter effects at the T2HK and T2HKK experiments

Determining the neutrino mass hierarchy and measuring the CP-violating phase $\delta_{CP}$ are two of the main aims in neutrino physics today. The upcoming T2HK (with small matter effects and high statistics) and DUNE (with large matter effects) experiments have been shown to have excellent sensitivity to $\delta_{CP}$ and the neutrino mass hierarchy, respectively. The recent T2HKK proposal aims to improve the hierarchy sensitivity of T2HK by placing one of the two tanks of the HK detector at a site in Korea, to collect data at $\sim 1100$ km baseline. In light of the fact that DUNE will anyway collect data at $\sim 1300$ km, we explore whether it is advantageous to collect additional long-baseline data as proposed with T2HKK, or to enhance the $\delta_{CP}$-precision with the `conventional' T2HK by keeping both detector tanks in Japan. We do this by comparing the physics reach of these two options in conjunction with DUNE. We find that DUNE+T2HKK is better at excluding the wrong hierarchy, reaching $\Delta\chi^2 > 175$ irrespective of the true parameters. While DUNE+T2HK can measure $\delta_{CP}$ with more precision in some parts of the parameter space, both DUNE+T2HK and DUNE+T2HKK perform equally well near the current best-fit point, giving a $\delta_{CP}$ width of around $15^\circ$. The T2HKK setup allows us to correlate and constrain the systematic errors between the two detectors collecting data from the same source, which can increase the sensitivity of the experiment by up to 25\%. Such a reduction of the systematic errors is crucial for determining the oscillation parameters with greater significance.Comment: Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D (Originally titled "T2HK and T2HKK: Does more matter matter?", changed at insistence of the editorial team.

Development of sustainable material for hybrid wall system to improve indoor thermal performance

Thermal performance of building envelope has been of great importance in determining the indoor thermal environment mainly due to the impact of existing global warming issues. Due to the hot and humid climate of Malaysia, and poor thermal design of building envelope, mechanical cooling of buildings is becoming almost a necessity. This necessity in the case of low-income home owners is an added burden. Thus there is a need to provide wall system with better thermal performance than conventional wall systems. Due to the emphasis on developing sustainable built environments, researchers are striving for waste incorporation in building wall material. However, the waste incorporated within the building wall system, especially in bricks still lacks practical applicability when it comes to the overall performance of the system in terms of mechanical, thermal and physical properties. The focus of the research is to tackle the twin issues of sustainability and thermal performance of building wall systems for affordable homes using a Design Science methodology. A cost-effective sustainable alternative building wall system with better thermal performance than conventional material is proposed by utilizing locally available waste materials such as waste glass and oil palm industry byproducts. The enhancement of thermal performance of wall materials was done by the introduction of cellular porous palm oil fibers to lower the heat transfer. Fiber reinforced mortar (FRM) and thermally enhanced sustainable hybrid (TESH) bricks were developed by optimizing the mix design using Glass Powder, Palm Oil Fly Ash and Oil Palm Fibers based on Taguchi’s Process Parameter approach. Both the FRM and TESH bricks, which constitute the thermally enhanced sustainable hybrid (TESH) wall system, were analyzed for physical, mechanical and thermal performance and they comply with the various codes of practice for building materials. ANSYS WORKBENCH software was used to determine the thermal performance of the newly developed TESH. The temperature distribution and rate of heat transfer through the wall system was found to be significantly lower than conventional wall systems. Also, comparative energy analysis established that the energy consumption is 10.6 % lower for TESH. Due to the lower electricity consumption, the total energy costing for the building was also reduced by 10.2 %. Thus, TESH proves to be more sustainable and cost effective within the operational phase of the building. TESH is a sustainable alternative for low-cost housing units due to its proven low embodied energy as it comprises mainly of locally available waste materials for its production

Firm's R & D Behavior Under Rational Expectations

This paper formulates dynamic R&D investment decisions of private firms as an optimal stochastic control problem. It derives explicitly R&D investment decision rule and the cross equations parameter restrictions imposed by the rational expectations hypothesis, using the Riccati equations only and not requiring the use of Wiener-Kolmogorov prediction formula. Idenfitication and estimation of the structural parameters are essential for evaluating policies such as R&D subsidies, firm size, market concentration so that the evaluations of these policies stand against Lucas critique. We find conditions under which the structural parameters are identified; we then discuss econometric procedures for using aggregate time series data or panel data on firms to deal with unobserved technological knowledge, to estimate the structural parameters, and to test the model.research and development, rational expectations, stochastic control

Long Term Effects of Preschool Investment on school Performance and Labor Market Outcome

Using the NLSY data set, this paper formulates and then empirically estimates the production processes for social, motivational and cognitive skills during early childhood development and the long-term effects of these skills on learning and life-time earnings of an individual. Using these estimated relationships, the paper provides a calibrated intergenerational altruistic model of parental investment in children's preschool. This dynamic model is then used to estimate the effects of publicly provided preschool to the children of poor socioeconomic status (SES) on college mobility and intergenerational social mobility and to estimate the tax burden of such a social contract.Preschool Investment, Early Childhood Development, Intergenerational Social Mobility, College Mobility

Learning to Perfect Manipulation: Implications for Fertility, Savings, and Old-Age Social Security

In this paper we consider an overlapping gnerations model with endogenous fertility and two-sided altruism and show the limitations of applying commonly used open loop Nash equilibrium in characterizing equilibrium transfers from parents to children in the form of bequest, and transfers from children to parents as voluntary old-age support. Since in our model children are concerned with parents' old-age consumption, agents have incentives to save less for old age and to have more children so as to strategically induce their children to transfer more old-age support. We formulate such strategic behavior within a sequential multi-stage game and introduce a notion of learning equilibrium to characterize equilibrium manipulative behavior and then study the consequences of such strategic manipulations on private intergenerational transfers, fertility and savings decisions, and on Pareto optimality of equilibrium allocation. We show that the learning equilibrium notion of the paper simplifies computation of subgame perfect equilibrium, subgame perfect equilibrium is the long-run outcome of dynamic learning equilibrium paths (this aids in selecting, sometimes, a unique equilibrium among multiple subgame perfect equilibria), and an open-loop Nash equilibrium involves "incredible" threats from children. We provide an alternative explanation for the existence of publicly provided social security program and examine its role to correct distortions created by strategic manipulation.two-sided altruism, endogenous fertility, subgame perfect manipulation of children, social security

R&D Activities and Export Performance of Indian Private Firms

This paper formulates a model of optimal export decision of private firms and then empirically studies the effect of firm size, R&D activities and competitiveness on export performance of Indian private firms during the period 1975-1986. The paper argues that the Cragg model is more appropriate to model firms’ export behavior than the commonly used Tobit model. The evaluation of the export promotion and partial import liberalization policies of 1980 based on the Tobit model is found to be qualitatively quite different from the evaluation based on the Cragg model. The LR and LM specification tests reject the Tobit model against the Cragg model in all specifications.Exports, R&D, Price-Cost-Margin