Are back-to-back particle--antiparticle correlations observable in high energy nuclear collisions?

Analytical formulae are presented which provide quantitative estimates for the suppression of the anticipated back-to-back particle--antiparticle correlations in high energy nuclear collisions due to the finite duration of the transition dynamics. They show that it is unlikely to observ the effect.Comment: Short Note, 4 pages, 2 figure

Protecting Religious Freedom and Places of Worship - The example of the Eruv

Under Jewish religious law, on the sabbath one does no work. The prohibition on work extends to moving or carrying objects across a public space. To meet the needs of the observant, the rabbis developed the idea of the Eruv; a “fence” inside which Jews can carry on certain activities during Shabbat. That “fence” often can be a simple, continuous wire which marks out an area. But the wire often traverses (and is held up by) poles on public property, and consequently, the Eruv triggers important policy questions, such as (i) should public property be used to enable a minority faith community to observe their beliefs? and (ii) how are religious and secular citizens to live side-by-side in a way enabling each to pursue and enjoy their respective rights? This article reviews the way in which these issues are addressed for Eruvs in the common-law world, giving examples from England, the United States, Canada and Australia. Too often, regulatory barriers are imposed selectively to hinder Jewish religious practice, even when visual amenity arguments fail. In jurisdictions other than the NSW Land and Environment Court, Eruv proponents have succeeded. The recent long-running battle to establish an Eruv for the St Ives Jewish community exemplified how a local government can utilise legal mechanisms to prefer freedom from religion over freedom for religion. Eventually, Kuringai Council backed down, but only after state members of parliament and local Catholic and Anglican religious leaders spoke up for their Jewish brethren, and, regrettably, only after much public money had been spent to delay and hinder religious freedom for the small, local Jewish community

Detecting the β\beta-family in iterated algebraic K-theory of finite fields

The Lichtenbaum-Quillen conjecture (LQC) relates special values of zeta functions to algebraic K-theory groups. The Ausoni-Rognes red-shift conjectures generalize the LQC to higher chromatic heights in a precise sense. In this paper, we propose an alternate generalization of the LQC to higher chromatic heights and prove a highly nontrivial case this conjecture. In particular, if the $n$-th Greek letter family is detected by a commutative ring spectrum $R$, then we conjecture that the $n+1$-st Greek letter family will be detected by the algebraic K-theory of $R$. We prove this in the case $n=1$ for $R=K(\mathbb{F}_q)_p$ where $p\ge 5$ and $q$ is prime power generator of the units in $\mathbb{Z}/p^2\mathbb{Z}$. In particular, we prove that the commutative ring spectrum $K(K(\mathbb{F}_q)_p)$ detects the $\beta$-family. The method of proof also implies that the $\beta$-family is detected in iterated algebraic K-theory of the integers. Consequently, one may relate iterated algebraic K-theory groups of the integers to modular forms satisfying certain congruences.Comment: 28 pages, Comments welcom

Deep Disagreements on Social and Political Justice: Their Meta-Ethical Relevance and the Need for a New Research Perspective

This article starts off with a historical section showing that deep disagreements among notions of social and political justice are a characteristic feature of the history of political thought. Since no agreement or consensus on distributive justice is possible, the article argues that political philosophers should – instead of continuously proposing new normative theories of justice – focus on analyzing the reasons, significance, and consequences of such kinds of disagreements. The next two sections are analytical. The first sketches five possible reasons for deep disagreements among notions of social and political justice. The second discusses the meta-ethical relevance of the lack of consensus on justice and rejects ethical realism and cognitivism based on the argument from deep disagreements

Max Weber on Politics, Reason, and the Clash of Values and Approaches to Ethics

This article investigates how Max Weber’s theory of value conflict is connected to his realist understanding of politics and how he conceives the relation of politics and ethics. This investigation also covers Weber’s views on the argumentative limits of the social sciences and ethics. The center of Weber’s philosophy of science is constituted by his methodological thoughts on “ethical neutrality” (Wertfreiheit) of the social sciences. The first thesis of this paper contends that Weber’s theory of a clash of irreconcilable values and ideals goes back to Nietzsche. According to the second thesis of the article, the general claim of Weber’s philosophy of science is that there is no possibility of an ultimate rational, philosophical, or scientific grounding of values and normative theories. Weber’s endorsement of an ethics of responsibility in the field of politics led to the criticism that he contradicts his postulate of the “ethical neutrality” (Wertfreiheit) of the scientist. The third thesis of the paper claims that Weber’s arguments for a political ethics of responsibility are compatible with his methodological postulate

The Meaning of Distributive Justice for Aristotle’s Theory of Constitutions

Abstract: This paper examines Aristotle’s theory of distributive justice and its meaning for his theory of constitutions. First, it shows that his account of constitutions in Books IV–VI of the Politics is an extension and refinement of his scheme of six constitutions in Book III. Second, it argues for the thesis that the account of justice (τὸ δίκαιον) in distribution of political offices that Aristotle gives in Book III of the Politics links up with and extends the doctrine of justice (δικαιοσύνη) that he develops in Book V of the Nicomachean Ethics. Third, it substantiates the thesis that Aristotle understands the different forms of constitution as embodiments of different conceptions of distributive justice, and argues for the thesis that Aristotle has a clear preference for the aristocratic conception and, as a consequence, for aristocracy. Finally, it supports the thesis that the constitution of the best polis, which Aristotle outlines in Books VII and VIII of the Politics, has to be understood as a true aristocracy and not as a polity (πολιτεία).Keywords: Aristotle’s Politics, Theory of Justice, Distributive Justice, Constitutions doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.20318/fons.2016.2529

Foreign aid and revenue response: An examination of joint General Budget Support

The present paper explores the extent to which new joint General Budget Support (GBS) systems have been able to overcome the problems of aid dependency and negative fiscal incentives that can potentially result from high levels of on-budget aid. As approximately 90 percent of new joint GBS goes to sub-Saharan Africa, this analysis, which covers the period from 2000 to 2008, evaluates data from 37 sub-Saharan developing countries. According to fixed effect and system GMM estimations, joint GBS assistance - although highly discretionary - does not undermine recipients' revenue mobilization efforts. Indeed, on the contrary, while aid in general has no measurable impact on recipients' revenue performance, joint GBS programs are associated with higher revenue mobilization. This suggests that on-budget aid delivered under well-targeted conditionality successfully mitigates adverse fiscal incentives while substantially enhancing recipients' fiscal space. --budget support,fiscal response,revenue mobilization,sub-Saharan Africa