Analytical approach to the transition to thermal hopping in the thin- and thick-wall approximations

The nature of the transition from the quantum tunneling regime at low temperatures to the thermal hopping regime at high temperatures is investigated analytically in scalar field theory. An analytical bounce solution is presented, which reproduces the action in the thin-wall as well as thick-wall limits. The transition is first order for the case of a thin wall while for the thick wall case it is second order.Comment: Latex file, 22 pages, 4 Postscript figure

Benchmarking holiday experience: the case of senior tourists

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine and benchmark the senior tourists’ preferences by considering the importance attached by them and their perception with respect to internal tourism attributes (i.e. package tour characteristics) and external tourism attributes (i.e. destination features). Design/methodology/approach: The present study makes use of importance-performance analysis and employs paired sample t-test for this purpose. Findings: The senior tourists evaluated the package tour attributes to be more important and better than destination characteristics. They also perceived that the service providers have to pay immediate attention to improve the quality of restaurants and meals and hotels. Research limitations/implications: Data are collected only from inbound senior tourists in Poland. In future, research may be conducted with a more representative sample. Practical implications: The senior tourists want to explore the local cuisine and then have food choices from their culture as well. “Tour escort” is one of the most essential characteristic of a package tour and it could serve as a factor of differentiation. Hence, the tourist service providers have to pay attention to these factors. Originality/value: The paper takes into account the internal tour attributes and destination attributes to evaluate senior tourists’ holiday experienceinfo:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

Exploring drivers to engage in fashion luxury consumption

The main purpose of the current study is to analyze how desire, perceived-self, social values and involvement are related to consumer engagement into the fashion luxury industry. A sample of 295 luxury fashion consumers participate in the study. Findings suggest that perceived-self is not one of the most significant driver to consumer engagement. Subjective well-being may also act as an outcome of consumer engagement. The article also provides managerial implications, limitations and further research.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

It is all about exhibitionism!: The fashion passionate desire of e-buyers

The aim of this study is to explore the effect of social context on passion for fashion and the exhibitionist tendency. The study was conducted in two phases, the first one being exploratory (n=109), followed by a quantitative phase (n=425). The findings reveal that the social influence is very important in enhancing the desire to use fashion products. Further, the exhibitionist tendency acts as a mediator between passionate desire for fashion products and word-of-mouth.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Bounce solutions and the transition to thermal hopping in phi^4 theory with a phi^3 term

The nature of the transition from quantum tunneling at low temperatures to thermal hopping at high temperatures is investigated in a scalar field theory with cubic symmetry breaking. The bounce solution which interpolates between the zero-temperature and high-temperature solutions is obtained numerically, using a multigrid method. It is found that, for a small value of the symmetry-breaking coupling f, the transition is first-order. For higher values of f, the transition continues to be first-order, though weakly so.Comment: Latex file with 18 figures, 29 page

Relationship between destination affect and intention to visit: the case of destination dislike

This paper builds on consumer-brand relationships with an application in the destination context. By analysing the main theoretical contributions, we propose a model in order to shed light on the antecedents of Destination Loyalty in two countries: Portugal and Italy. A proposed model has been tested through a quantitative survey, by administering a questionnaire to an Italian and a Portuguese sample. The two samples were selected consistently with the proportions (in terms of gender and age) of in each city population. The PLS approach was employed to test the model with a twofold objective: assessing the adequacy of the measurements by evaluating the reliability of the individual measures and the discriminant validity of the constructs; appraising the structural model. Although the majority of the hypotheses have been confirmed for both the samples, our findings underline differences among the two nationalities and proposes further field of investigations.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Low-mass Solitons from Fractional Charges in Quantum Chromodynamics

Slansky, Goldman, and Shaw have proposed a model to account for the observation of fractionally charged states. We show that in this model, there are expected to be several low-mass solitons (four being in the mass range ∼20-60 MeV) associated with the third homotopy group π3(SU(3)/SO(3))=Z4, besides a low-mass (∼30 MeV) Z2 monopole. Confirmation of these levels and hence of the model has important implications for Cabrera\u27s results on the magnetic monopole. An efficient algorithm for the calculation of π3(G/H) for a general Lie group G and a subgroup H is developed. It is pointed out that solitons associated with the third homotopy group are predicted by some grand-unified-theory scenarios

Understanding the use of Virtual Reality in Marketing: a text mining-based review

The current study intends to highlight the most relevant studies in simulated realities with special attention to VR and marketing, showing how studies have evolved over time and discussing the findings. A text-mining approach using a Bayesian statistical topic model called latent Dirichlet allocation is employed to conduct a comprehensive analysis of 150 articles from 115 journals, all indexed in Web of Science. The findings reveal seven relevant topics, as well as the number of articles published over time, the authors most cited in VR papers and the leading journals in each topic. The article also provides theoretical and practical implications and suggestions for further research.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Cosmological models consistent with supersymmetric compactification of superstring theories

The compactification of 10-dimensional supergravity, coupled to super Yang-Mills theory, to curved 4-dimensional spacetimes is investigated. The requirement of unbroken supersymmetry leads to a set of consistency conditions. These are fairly restrictive, but nevertheless permit some nontrivial solutions, including the Milne universe. More general time-dependent metrics are also not ruled out

Neutral current effects in parity violating nuclear force

The measurements of the ΔI= 1 part of the parity violating nuclear force when combined with information on neutral current couplings from neutriro scattering and pion production experiments allow an estimate of the isoscalar admixture in the neutral current if it nas a vector axial-vector structure has been shown