Inequalities for electron-field correlation functions

I show that there exists a class of inequalities between correlation functions of different orders of a chaotic electron field. These inequalities lead to the antibunching effect and are a consequence of the fact that electrons are fermions -- indistinguishable particles with antisymmetric states. The derivation of the inequalities is based on the known form of the correlation functions for the chaotic state and on the properties of matrices and determinants.Comment: 8 pages Latex2e, 2 eps figure

Empirical Bayes selection of wavelet thresholds

This paper explores a class of empirical Bayes methods for level-dependent threshold selection in wavelet shrinkage. The prior considered for each wavelet coefficient is a mixture of an atom of probability at zero and a heavy-tailed density. The mixing weight, or sparsity parameter, for each level of the transform is chosen by marginal maximum likelihood. If estimation is carried out using the posterior median, this is a random thresholding procedure; the estimation can also be carried out using other thresholding rules with the same threshold. Details of the calculations needed for implementing the procedure are included. In practice, the estimates are quick to compute and there is software available. Simulations on the standard model functions show excellent performance, and applications to data drawn from various fields of application are used to explore the practical performance of the approach. By using a general result on the risk of the corresponding marginal maximum likelihood approach for a single sequence, overall bounds on the risk of the method are found subject to membership of the unknown function in one of a wide range of Besov classes, covering also the case of f of bounded variation. The rates obtained are optimal for any value of the parameter p in (0,\infty], simultaneously for a wide range of loss functions, each dominating the L_q norm of the \sigmath derivative, with \sigma\ge0 and 0<q\le2.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053605000000345 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Correlation Functions and Spin

The k-electron correlation function of a free chaotic electron beam is derived with the spin degree of freedom taken into account. It is shown that it can be expressed with the help of correlation functions for a polarized electron beam of all orders up to k and the degree of spin polarization. The form of the correlation function suggests that if the electron beam is not highly polarized, observing multi-particle correlations should be difficult. The result can be applied also to chaotic photon beams, the degree of spin polarization being replaced by the degree of polarization.Comment: 6 pages, 1 eps figure, accepted to Phys. Rev.

Two-particle Kapitza-Dirac diffraction

We extend the study of Kapitza-Dirac diffraction to the case of two-particle systems. Due to the exchange effects the shape and visibility of the two-particle detection patterns show important differences for identical and distinguishable particles. We also identify a novel quantum statistics effect present in momentum space for some values of the initial particle momenta, which is associated with different numbers of photon absorptions compatible with the final momenta.Comment: Minor changes with the published versio

The Effects of Negative Legacies on the Adjustment of Parentally Bereaved Children and Adolescents

This is a report of a qualitative analysis of a sample of bereaved families in which one parent died and in which children scored in the clinical range on the Child Behavior Check List. The purpose of this analysis was to learn more about the lives of these children. They were considered to be at risk of developing emotional and behavioral problems associated with the death. We discovered that many of these “high risk” children had a continuing bond with the deceased that was primarily negative and troubling for them in contrast to a comparison group of children not at risk from the same study. Five types of legacies, not mutually exclusive, were identified: health related, role related, personal qualities, legacy of blame, and an emotional legacy. Coping behavior on the part of the surviving parent seemed to make a difference in whether or not a legacy was experienced as negative

Chiral molecules split light: Reflection and refraction in a chiral liquid

A light beam changes direction as it enters a liquid at an angle from another medium, such as air. Should the liquid contain molecules that lack mirror symmetry, then it has been predicted by Fresnel that the light beam will not only change direction, but will actually split into two separate beams with a small difference in the respective angles of refraction. Here we report the observation of this phenomenon. We also demonstrate that the angle of reflection does not equal the angle of incidence in a chiral medium. Unlike conventional optical rotation, which depends on the path-length through the sample, the reported reflection and refraction phenomena arise within a few wavelengths at the interface and thereby suggest a new approach to polarimetry that can be used in microfluidic volumes

How Does the Government (Want to) Fund Science? Politics, Lobbying and Academic Earmarks

This paper examines academic earmarks and their role in the funding of university research. It provides a summary and review of the evidence on the supply of earmarks by legislators. It then discusses the role of university lobbying for earmarks on the demand side. Finally, the paper examines the impact of earmarks on research quantity and quality.

Academic Earmarks and the Returns to Lobbying

Despite a large literature on lobbying and information transmission by interest groups, no prior study has measured returns to lobbying. In this paper, we statistically estimate the returns to lobbying by universities for educational earmarks (which now represent 10 percent of federal funding of university research). The returns to lobbying approximate zero for universities not represented by a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) or House Appropriations Committee (HAC). However, the average lobbying university with representation on the SAC receives an average return to one dollar of lobbying of $11-$17; lobbying universities with representation on the HAC obtain $20-$36 for each dollar spent. Moreover, we cannot reject the hypothesis that lobbying universities with SAC or HAC representation set the marginal benefit of lobbying equal to its marginal cost, although the large majority of universities with representation on the HAC and SAC do not lobby, and thus do not take advantage of their representation in Congress. On average, 45 percent of universities are predicted to choose the optimal level of lobbying. In addition to addressing questions about the federal funding of university research, we also discuss the impact of our results for the structure of government.