Matrix models for classical groups and Toeplitz±\pm Hankel minors with applications to Chern-Simons theory and fermionic models

We study matrix integration over the classical Lie groups $U(N),Sp(2N),O(2N)$ and $O(2N+1)$, using symmetric function theory and the equivalent formulation in terms of determinants and minors of Toeplitz$\pm$Hankel matrices. We establish a number of factorizations and expansions for such integrals, also with insertions of irreducible characters. As a specific example, we compute both at finite and large $N$ the partition functions, Wilson loops and Hopf links of Chern-Simons theory on $S^{3}$ with the aforementioned symmetry groups. The identities found for the general models translate in this context to relations between observables of the theory. Finally, we use character expansions to evaluate averages in random matrix ensembles of Chern-Simons type, describing the spectra of solvable fermionic models with matrix degrees of freedom.Comment: 32 pages, v2: Several improvements, including a Conclusions and Outlook section, added. 36 page

Toeplitz minors and specializations of skew Schur polynomials

We express minors of Toeplitz matrices of finite and large dimension in terms of symmetric functions. Comparing the resulting expressions with the inverses of some Toeplitz matrices, we obtain explicit formulas for a Selberg-Morris integral and for specializations of certain skew Schur polynomials.Comment: v2: Added new results on specializations of skew Schur polynomials, abstract and title modified accordingly and references added; v3: final, published version; 18 page

Cristales amfidinámicos y máquinas moleculares

Charla magistral sobre el estado del arte en máquinas moleculares y sus aplicacionesUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Viverrectorado de Investigación de la Universidad de Málag

PubDNA Finder in a Nutshell. Searching the Life Sciences Literature with Sequences of Nucleic Acids

Biomedical researchers and clinicians working with molecular technologies in routine clinical practice often need to review the available literature to gather information regarding specific sequences of nucleic acids. This includes, for instance, finding articles related to a concrete DNA sequence, or identifying empirically-validated primer/probe sequences to evaluate the presence of different micro-organisms. Unfortunately, these hard and time-consuming tasks often need to be manually performed by researchers themselves since no publicly available biomedical literature search engine, e.g. PubMed, PubMed Central (PMC), etc., provides the required search functionalities. In this article, we describe PubDNA Finder, a web service that enables users to perform advanced searches on PubMed Central-indexed full text articles with sequences of nucleic acid

Synchrotron radiation: science & applications

This general talk is devoted to briefly introduce the main uses and applications of synchrotron radiation. An initial introduction will be dedicated to describe a synchrotron as a Large Facility devoted to produce photons that will be used to carry out excellent science. The five outstanding main characteristics of synchrotron radiation are: i) High brilliance and collimation ii) Wavelength tunability iii) Beamsize tunability iv) Defined polarization v) Time structure vi) (Partial) coherence These properties will be illustrated through selected examples ranging from biomedicine (f.i. determination of the crystal structure of macromolecules from tiny crystals or cryo- nano tomography of individual cells by soft X-ray transmission microscopy) to materials science (f.i. experiments of powder diffraction of materials under high pressure in diamond-anvil-cells), from cultural heritage (f.i. the study of degradation of pigments in paints by X-ray absorption spectroscopy) to cements (f.i. the hydration chemistry of eco-cements followed by in-situ powder diffraction), and from basic research on magnetic materials (f.i. ferromagnets where the magnetism of individual metal transition elements are selectively followed by X-ray Magnetic Circular Dicroism) to industrial applications on chocolate (f.i. small X-ray scattering as function of temperature of the polymorphs of cacao).Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Political participation and war in Colombia

This study analyses the impact of the war on political participation in the March 2002 elections to the lower house of the Colombian Congress. The specific research question is whether the dynamics of violence in Colombia has affected the way voters behaved in those elections. In order to provide some answers, this article seeks to pinpoint the relationship between war and democracy by focusing upon a key component of democratic regimes, namely political participation. The article is organized in five sections. The first consists of a theoretical overview of democracy and political participation. The second section, drawn principally from the press, provides evidence of the impact of the war upon the congressional and presidential campaigns. The third part discusses the evolution of political participation in Colombia. The fourth section is a quantitative analysis of the relationship between violence and political participation. Finally, the last section offers some conclusions about political participation and violence in Colombia. Although Colombian democracy is under assault from armed actors and undermined by socio-economic factors, its viability has not been contested to the point of regime collapse, nor is that likely to occur in the near future. While it is appropriate to label Colombia a crisis state, neither the parameters nor the intensity of the crisis permit either theoretical or empirical conclusions as to the calibre or endurance of its democratic regime. For the past fifty years or so, the Colombian State has been characterized by perpetual crisis, and that is not likely to change in the foreseeable future

The origin principle and the welfare gains from indirect tax harmonization

The purpose of this paper is to establish a parallelism between the analyses in Keen (1987,1989.a) referred to indirect tax harmonization when taxes are levied according to the destination principle and its counterpart when taxes are imposed on an origin basis. Using a simple two-country model of international trade it is argued that indirect tax harmonization under the origin principle, considered as a movement of domestic taxes towards an appropriately designed "average" tax structure, is potentially Pareto improving, in the sense that the welfare of a given country can be increased provided that the other country's welfare is kept unchanged with the aid of an international transfer. In the same vein, it is shown that if the initial position is a Nash equilibrium, there are situations under which the above-mentioned reform may generate an actual Pareto improvement, so that both countries improve their welfare without any need for a compensating international transfer. As stated above, the definitive system will be a mixed one, so that the pure origin case is not the most realistic framework from a policy point of view. However, it may be useful in yielding indications that, coupled with the results that have been obtained under the destination principle, provide insights on the effects of the definitive system

Selecting a pooling equilibrium in a signaling game with a bounded set of signals

In this paper, we study a general class of monotone signaling games, in which the support of the signal is limited or the cost of the signal is sufficiently low and as a result, there are multiple pooling equilibria. In those games, when we relax the usual single-crossing condition, the typical restrictions on the out-of-equilibrium beliefs suggested by previous literature cannot discard any of the equilibria obtained. For this reason, we develop a new refinement called the most profitable deviator, which will be useful to select a unique equilibrium in those games. Additionally, when the standard single-crossing condition is satisfied, our criterion also chooses a unique equilibrium, which is the same as that selected by previous literature.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Powder diffraction at ALBA synchrotron

This talk is devoted to explain the uses of powder diffraction at MSPD (material science and powder diffraction) of ALBA synchrotron light source. General characteristics of the beamline are: Station 1 - High Pressure Diffraction on powders with diamond anvil cell (DAC) and CCD detector. Microdiffraction; and Station 2 - High Resolution Powder Diffraction with Multicrystal- and Silicon-Strip detector. Energy Range: 8-50keV; Typical beam size: 4x1mm; all typical sample geometries possible: capillary, reflection and flat sample in transmission. Initially the setups are described in detail both in the optics hutch and in the experimental hutch. In the high-pressure end station, we can highlight: i) sample alignment semi-automatic; ii) data acquisition and reduction integrated within the beamline control system; iii) online pressure calibration system operational and several upgrades which are under commissioning: i) system for Membrane DAC, Automatic Drive System (change the pressure from outside the hutch); ii) Gas Membrane kit for Almax-Boehler DAC cell (from screw-driven to gas membrane driven); iii) low temperature cryostat and high temperature DAC cell projects are on-going. In the high resolution powder diffraction end station, we can highlight: i) a diffractometer with 3 concentric rotary stages (for two detectors); ii) one very high resolution detector MAD26 (10 – 50KeV), devoted to high resolution ~0.005° [13 channels with 1.5 deg pitch, Si111 Bragg crystals, YAP scintillator + PMT]; iii) MythenII (8 – 30 keV) for fast acquisitions [6 modules that cover 40 deg 0.005 pitch angle, with millisecond resolution]; iv) Temperature range 80 – 900K; v) Eulerian Cradle optional. Then, the main applications will be dealt with based on examples that expands from structure solution of zeolites to the in-situ studies of perovskite catalyst under H2 atmosphere at high temperatures. Total scattering (pair distribution function analysis) will also be presented. The high-pressure studies will be exemplified by studies of materials in DAC.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech