Bank capital: definition, adequacy and issue announcement effects

This dissertation focuses primarily on potential explanations for bank common stock abnormal returns, and their patterns, coincident with the announcement of bank capital issues. Potential influences considered include increased regulatory pressure, conflicting regulatory and market views of bank capital adequacy and the relative predictability of security type. Where possible, the dissertation is set in both UK and US contexts. The dissertation has four principal research components; (1) a review of historical and contemporary bank capital regulation in the UK and US. Historical analysis indicates that the definition of capital, as determined by its functional properties, is dynamic and qualifies the consistency of its measurement over time. The regulatory control of absolute levels of capital is seen to have influence on bank structural development, costs and risk. The regulatory control of relative bank capital (ie in terms of balance sheet structure) is found to have a long and controversial history in the US and is effective progenitor of the current methodology of bank capital measurement and assessment, such as the Basle Agreement, and contains a number of potentially costly deficiencies. (2) an examination of bank capital issue announcement effects in the UK. Following similar work in the US (eg Keeley 1989) negative abnormal return effects are found associated with the announcements of UK ordinary share issues. Also, evidence hints that an imposed increase in regulatory capital pressure (viz the introduction of a minimum capital ratio regime) causes a reduction in issue announcement effects for ordinary share issues. (3) assessment of the capital adequacy of UK and US banks from a market perspective and in terms of a number definitions of capital; namely equity, regulatory primary capital (US), and the 1992 Basle Agreement capital.Conflict between market and regulatory views of capital adequacy are observed in certain years for primary capital. In terms of the capital structure relevance hypothesis, this suggests particular costs which may influence issue announcement effects. (4) modelling the predictability of UK bank capital issue security type (viz ordinary share and debt) and assessing the hypothesis that it is inversely related to the announcement abnormal returns

A Bayesian technique for improving the sensitivity of the atmospheric neutrino L/E analysis

This paper outlines a method for improving the precision of atmospheric neutrino oscillation measurements. One experimental signature for these oscillations is an observed deficit in the rate of $\nu_{\mu}$ charged-current interactions with an oscillatory dependence on $L_{\nu}/E_{\nu}$, where $L_{\nu}$ is the neutrino propagation distance, and $E_{\nu}$ is the neutrino energy. For contained-vertex atmospheric neutrino interactions, the $L_{\nu}/E_{\nu}$ resolution varies significantly from event to event. The precision of the oscillation measurement can be improved by incorporating information on $L_{\nu}/E_{\nu}$ resolution into the oscillation analysis. In the analysis presented here, a Bayesian technique is used to estimate the $L_{\nu}/E_{\nu}$ resolution of observed atmospheric neutrinos on an event-by-event basis. By separating the events into bins of $L_{\nu}/E_{\nu}$ resolution in the oscillation analysis, a significant improvement in oscillation sensitivity can be achieved.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Methods A, accompanies arXiv:1208.2915 [hep-ex

Few cycle pulse propagation

We present a comprehensive framework for treating the nonlinear interaction of few-cycle pulses using an envelope description that goes beyond the traditional SVEA method. This is applied to a range of simulations that demonstrate how the effect of a $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinearity differs between the many-cycle and few-cycle cases. Our approach, which includes diffraction, dispersion, multiple fields, and a wide range of nonlinearities, builds upon the work of Brabec and Krausz[1] and Porras[2]. No approximations are made until the final stage when a particular problem is considered. The original version (v1) of this arXiv paper is close to the published Phys.Rev.A. version, and much smaller in size.Comment: 9 pages, 14 figure

Rotational kinetics of absorbing dust grains in neutral gas

We study the rotational and translational kinetics of massive particulates (dust grains) absorbing the ambient gas. Equations for microscopic phase densities are deduced resulting in the Fokker-Planck equation for the dust component. It is shown that although there is no stationary distribution, the translational and rotational temperatures of dust tend to certain values, which differ from the temperature of the ambient gas. The influence of the inner structure of grains on rotational kinetics is also discussed.Comment: REVTEX4, 20 pages, 2 figure

Observations of Low Frequency Solar Radio Bursts from the Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory

The Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory (RSTO; www.rosseobservatory.ie) was established at Birr Castle, Co. Offaly, Ireland (53 05'38.9", 7 55'12.7") in 2010 to study solar radio bursts and the response of the Earth's ionosphere and geomagnetic field. To date, three Compound Astronomical Low-cost Low-frequency Instrument for Spectroscopy and Transportable Observatory (CALLISTO) spectrometers have been installed, with the capability of observing in the frequency range 10-870 MHz. The receivers are fed simultaneously by biconical and log-periodic antennas. Nominally, frequency spectra in the range 10-400 MHz are obtained with 4 sweeps per second over 600 channels. Here, we describe the RSTO solar radio spectrometer set-up, and present dynamic spectra of a sample of Type II, III and IV radio bursts. In particular, we describe fine-scale structure observed in Type II bursts, including band splitting and rapidly varying herringbone features

Field inter-comparison of eleven atmospheric ammonia measurement techniques

Eleven instruments for the measurement of ambient concentrations of atmospheric ammonia gas (NH3), based on eight different measurement methods were inter-compared above an intensively managed agricultural field in late summer 2008 in Southern Scotland. To test the instruments over a wide range of concentrations, the field was fertilised with urea midway through the experiment, leading to an increase in the average concentration from 10 to 100 ppbv. The instruments deployed included three wet-chemistry systems, one with offline analysis (annular rotating batch denuder, RBD) and two with online-analysis (Annular Denuder sampling with online Analysis, AMANDA; AiRRmonia), two Quantum Cascade Laser Absorption Spectrometers (a large-cell dual system; DUAL-QCLAS, and a compact system; c-QCLAS), two photo-acoustic spectrometers (WaSul-Flux; Nitrolux-100), a Cavity Ring Down Spectrosmeter (CRDS), a Chemical Ionisation Mass Spectrometer (CIMS), an ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) and an Open-Path Fourier Transform Infra-Red (OP-FTIR) Spectrometer. The instruments were compared with each other and with the average concentration of all instruments. An overall good agreement of hourly average concentrations between the instruments (R2>0.84), was observed for NH3 concentrations at the field of up to 120 ppbv with the slopes against the average ranging from 0.67 (DUAL-QCLAS) to 1.13 (AiRRmonia) with intercepts of −0.74 ppbv (RBD) to +2.69 ppbv (CIMS). More variability was found for performance for lower concentrations (<10 ppbv). Here the main factors affecting measurement precision are (a) the inlet design, (b) the state of inlet filters (where applicable), and (c) the quality of gas-phase standards (where applicable). By reference to the fast (1 Hz) instruments deployed during the study, it was possible to characterize the response times of the slower instruments

Field inter-comparison of eleven atmospheric ammonia measurement techniques

Eleven instruments for the measurement of ambient concentrations of atmospheric ammonia gas (NH3), based on eight different measurement methods were inter-compared above an intensively managed agricultural field in late summer 2008 in Southern Scotland. To test the instruments over a wide range of concentrations, the field was fertilised with urea midway through the experiment, leading to an increase in the average concentration from 10 to 100 ppbv. The instruments deployed included three wet-chemistry systems, one with offline analysis (annular rotating batch denuder, RBD) and two with online-analysis (Annular Denuder sampling with online Analysis, AMANDA; AiRRmonia), two Quantum Cascade Laser Absorption Spectrometers (a large-cell dual system; DUAL-QCLAS, and a compact system; c-QCLAS), two photo-acoustic spectrometers (WaSul-Flux; Nitrolux-100), a Cavity Ring Down Spectrosmeter (CRDS), a Chemical Ionisation Mass Spectrometer (CIMS), an ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) and an Open-Path Fourier Transform Infra-Red (OP-FTIR) Spectrometer. The instruments were compared with each other and with the average concentration of all instruments. An overall good agreement of hourly average concentrations between the instruments (R2>0.84), was observed for NH3 concentrations at the field of up to 120 ppbv with the slopes against the average ranging from 0.67 (DUAL-QCLAS) to 1.13 (AiRRmonia) with intercepts of −0.74 ppbv (RBD) to +2.69 ppbv (CIMS). More variability was found for performance for lower concentrations (<10 ppbv). Here the main factors affecting measurement precision are (a) the inlet design, (b) the state of inlet filters (where applicable), and (c) the quality of gas-phase standards (where applicable). By reference to the fast (1 Hz) instruments deployed during the study, it was possible to characterize the response times of the slower instruments

Extreme Ultra-Violet Spectroscopy of the Lower Solar Atmosphere During Solar Flares

The extreme ultraviolet portion of the solar spectrum contains a wealth of diagnostic tools for probing the lower solar atmosphere in response to an injection of energy, particularly during the impulsive phase of solar flares. These include temperature and density sensitive line ratios, Doppler shifted emission lines and nonthermal broadening, abundance measurements, differential emission measure profiles, and continuum temperatures and energetics, among others. In this paper I shall review some of the advances made in recent years using these techniques, focusing primarily on studies that have utilized data from Hinode/EIS and SDO/EVE, while also providing some historical background and a summary of future spectroscopic instrumentation.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Solar Physics as part of the Topical Issue on Solar and Stellar Flare

Characterisation of the muon beams for the Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment

A novel single-particle technique to measure emittance has been developed and used to characterise seventeen different muon beams for the Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment (MICE). The muon beams, whose mean momenta vary from 171 to 281 MeV/c, have emittances of approximately 1.2–2.3 π mm-rad horizontally and 0.6–1.0 π mm-rad vertically, a horizontal dispersion of 90–190 mm and momentum spreads of about 25 MeV/c. There is reasonable agreement between the measured parameters of the beams and the results of simulations. The beams are found to meet the requirements of MICE