Accurate and realistic initial data for black hole-neutron star binaries

This paper is devoted to the computation of compact binaries composed of one black hole and one neutron star. The objects are assumed to be on exact circular orbits. Standard 3+1 decomposition of Einstein equations is performed and the conformal flatness approximation is used. The obtained system of elliptic equations is solved by means of multi-domain spectral methods. Results are compared with previous work both in the high mass ratio limit and for one neutron star with very low compactness parameter. The accuracy of the present code is shown to be greater than with previous codes. Moreover, for the first time, some sequences containing one neutron star of realistic compactness are presented and discussed.Comment: Version including the erratum to be published in Phys. Rev.

Note on a diffraction-amplification problem

We investigate the solution of the equation \partial_t E(x,t)-iD\partial_x^2 E(x,t)= \lambda |S(x,t)|^2 E(x,t)$, for x in a circle and S(x,t) a Gaussian stochastic field with a covariance of a particular form. It is shown that the coupling \lambda_c at which diverges for t>=1 (in suitable units), is always less or equal for D>0 than D=0.Comment: REVTeX file, 8 pages, submitted to Journal of Physics

Regulation and Incentives in European Aviation

We study the effect of liberalization on costs and competition in the European airline industry. We construct and estimate a model that includes demand, capacity, and cost equations. The latter accounts for inefficiency and cost-reducing effort. We show that failure to account for the choice of effort would lead to biased estimates of efficiency and competition in the industry. We also find that the last European Union package of deregulatory measures has led to significant efficiency improvements and has fostered competition.Publicad

Entanglement entropy on the fuzzy sphere

We obtain entanglement entropy on the noncommutative (fuzzy) two-sphere. To define a subregion with a well defined boundary in this geometry, we use the symbol map between elements of the noncommutative algebra and functions on the sphere. We find that entanglement entropy is not proportional to the length of the region's boundary. Rather, in agreement with holographic predictions, it is extensive for regions whose area is a small (but fixed) fraction of the total area of the sphere. This is true even in the limit of small noncommutativity. We also find that entanglement entropy grows linearly with N, where N is the size of the irreducible representation of SU(2) used to define the fuzzy sphere.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures. v3 to appear in JHEP. Clarified statements about UV/IR mixing and interpretation in terms of degrees of freedom on the fuzzy sphere vs. matrix degrees of freedom, fixed some typos and added reference

Nonlinear programming without a penalty function or a filter

A new method is introduced for solving equality constrained nonlinear optimization problems. This method does not use a penalty function, nor a barrier or a filter, and yet can be proved to be globally convergent to first-order stationary points. It uses different trust-regions to cope with the nonlinearities of the objective function and the constraints, and allows inexact SQP steps that do not lie exactly in the nullspace of the local Jacobian. Preliminary numerical experiments on CUTEr problems indicate that the method performs well