Matched filters for coalescing binaries detection on massively parallel computers

We discuss some computational problems associated to matched filtering of experimental signals from gravitational wave interferometric detectors in a parallel-processing environment. We then specialize our discussion to the use of the APEmille and apeNEXT processors for this task. Finally, we accurately estimate the performance of an APEmille system on a computational load appropriate for the LIGO and VIRGO experiments, and extrapolate our results to apeNEXT.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure

Year in review: Federica Mogherini’s appointment as EU High Representative

Following the European Parliament elections in May, attention turned toward negotiations over the EU’s ‘top jobs’, notably the President of the European Commission, President of the European Council, and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. As part of our review of 2014, Maria Giulia Amadio Viceré writes on the selection of Federica Mogherini for the High Representative role. She argues that the appointment, combined with the institutional provisions granted under the Lisbon Treaty, could mark a watershed moment for both EU and Italian foreign policy

Disconnected? Public Opinion, Economic Elites, and Political Parties during the Migration Crisis

This article analyses whether European political parties were responsive to the policy preferences of citizens and economic elites over immigration during the migration crisis. To do so, it derives hypotheses from the scholarly literature on party responsiveness and tests them on survey data collected in 2016 and 2017 from among voters, political parties, and economic elites in 10 different EU member states. Contrary to the widespread belief about the crisis of contemporary representative democracies, the article shows that political parties’ positions on immigration changed consistently with changes in public opinion. On the contrary, the article finds no significant relation between the positions of economic elites and those of political parties. These empirical results are particularly relevant for the study of democratic representation, as they challenge the widespread assumption about the crisis of contemporary representative democracies

Radiative Correction Effects of a Very Heavy Top

If the top is very heavy, m_t >> M_Z, the dominant radiative correction effects in all electroweak precision tests can be exactly characterized in terms of two quantities, the rho-parameter and the GIM violating Z -> b bbar coupling. These quantities can be computed using the Standard Model Lagrangian with vanishing gauge couplings. This is done here up to two loops for arbitrary values of the Higgs mass.Comment: 9 pages, report IFUP-TH 20/9

The Future is back : the EU, Russia and the Kosovo–Serbia dispute

Published online: 11 October 2019Following the end of the Cold War there was a widespread opinion that the demise of the Soviet Union would not be followed by adversarial relations with a territorially and politically diminished Russia. The NATO’s bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in the 1999 Kosovo conflict, especially, highlighted the economic and military weaknesses of Russia, which opposed the intervention but could do nothing to prevent it. Following the conflict, the EU became increasingly influential in Kosovo and Serbia (Yugoslavia’s main successor state) by offering economic and political integration and, eventually, membership. Recently, however, EU influence in the Western Balkans has decreased as multiple crises have reduced the Union’s attractiveness and divisions among member states have called into question the credibility of its enlargement process. By exploiting the EU’s difficulties in maintaining momentum behind the association process towards Serbia and Kosovo, Russia has found a way to reinsert itself into the region’s geopolitics

Informal groupings in EU foreign policy : a sustainable arrangement?

Published online: February 2021In the last decade, the EU’s foreign policy practices have grown increasingly complex. The Lisbon Treaty sought to further centralise member states’ foreign policies at the EU level, particularly through the new High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, as well as through the establishment of the European External Action Service. And yet, on several occasions informal groups of member states steered EU foreign policy post-Lisbon. These informal dynamics of cooperation among EU member states reflect the extent of fragmentation in EU foreign policy governance despite the centralisation envisaged by the Lisbon Treaty. To contribute to the understanding of such dynamics, this policy analysis offers an overview of the types, functioning and implications of informal groupings in EU foreign policy post-Lisbon. Since most of the multiple crises the EU faced in the post-Lisbon era occurred – or are intimately interlinked to – Europe’s eastern and southern neighbourhood, the overview was conducted with special consideration to these regional settings. The phenomenon of informal and temporary groupings is a response to the need for efficiency in the face of geopolitical complexities. However, given the scant degree of accountability and temporary nature of these groupings, it is not a sustainable mode of governance for an EU that aims to be a more meaningful actor

EU foreign policy integration at times of war : from short-term responses to long-term solutions

Published online: 14 December 2022The outbreak of Russia’s war against Ukraine triggered not only a paradigmatic change in the system of international relations, putting the liberal world order into question, but also a disruption of the post-Cold war European security order. The question of what the consequences of the conflict on the EU’s role as a security provider will be, has therefore become topical

The SU(3) deconfining phase transition with Symanzik action

We report on the determination of the deconfining temperature in SU(3) pure gauge theory, using the Symanzik tree level improved action, on lattices of size 3 x 12^3, 4 x 16^3, 5 x 20^3, 6 x24^3. We find that the asymptotic scaling violation pattern is similar to the one observed using the Wilson action. We conclude that the irrelevant operators do not affect, in the range of couplings considered, the lattice beta function. An analysis based on an effective coupling formulation shows an apparent improvement.Comment: 8 pages, report IFUP-TH 12/9

Externalizing EU crisis management : EU orchestration of the OSCE during the Ukrainian conflict

Published online: 8 October 2021Despite the Lisbon Treaty's modifications in the foreign and security policy domain, the EU has frequently relied on third parties to address external conflicts and crises. Using the Ukrainian conflict as a case study, this article adopts the orchestration model to explain why and how the EU enlists intermediary actors over which it has no formal control to pursue its objectives. It finds that in this conflict the EU outsourced part of its crisis management activities to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe because it lacked the civilian and military capabilities, as well as the regulatory competence and reputation to challenge Russia. Indeed, the Ukrainian case shows that orchestration has emerged as a crucial governance arrangement for the functioning of EU crisis management, raising serious questions about the EU overall capacity to act as a security provider in an international system marred by contestation and hard security concerns