Cultural Biases in Public Service Delivery : Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Approach

What determines the share of public employment, at a given size of the State, in countries of similar levels of economic development? While the theoretical and empirical literature on this issue has mostly considered technical dimensions (efficiency and political considerations), this paper emphasizes the role of culture and quantifies it. We build a representative database for contracting choices of municipalities in Switzerland and exploit the discontinuity at the Swiss language border at identical actual set of policies and institutions to analyze the causal effect of culture on the choice of how public services are provided. We find that French-speaking border municipalities are 50% less likely to contract with the private sector than their German-speaking adjacent municipalities. Technical dimensions are much smaller by comparison. This result points out that culture is a source of a potential bias that distorts the optimal choice for public service delivery. Systematic differences in the level of confidence in public administration and private companies potentially explain this discrepancy in private sector participation in public services provision

A Bose-Einstein condensate interferometer with macroscopic arm separation

A Michelson interferometer using Bose-Einstein condensates is demonstrated with coherence times of up to 44 ms and arm separations up to 0.18 mm. This arm separation is larger than that observed for any previous atom interferometer. The device uses atoms weakly confined in a magnetic guide and the atomic motion is controlled using Bragg interactions with an off-resonant standing wave laser beam.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Atom-wave diffraction between the Raman-Nath and the Bragg regime: Effective Rabi frequency, losses, and phase shifts

We present an analytic theory of the diffraction of (matter) waves by a lattice in the "quasi-Bragg" regime, by which we mean the transition region between the long-interaction Bragg and "channelling" regimes and the short-interaction Raman-Nath regime. The Schroedinger equation is solved by adiabatic expansion, using the conventional adiabatic approximation as a starting point, and re-inserting the result into the Schroedinger equation to yield a second order correction. Closed expressions for arbitrary pulse shapes and diffraction orders are obtained and the losses of the population to output states otherwise forbidden by the Bragg condition are derived. We consider the phase shift due to couplings of the desired output to these states that depends on the interaction strength and duration and show how these can be kept negligible by a choice of smooth (e.g., Gaussian) envelope functions even in situations that substantially violate the adiabaticity condition. We also give an efficient method for calculating the effective Rabi frequency (which is related to the eigenvalues of Mathieu functions) in the quasi-Bragg regime.Comment: Minor additions, more concise text. To appear in Phys. Rev. A. 20 pages, 10 figure

A compact and robust diode laser system for atom interferometry on a sounding rocket

We present a diode laser system optimized for laser cooling and atom interferometry with ultra-cold rubidium atoms aboard sounding rockets as an important milestone towards space-borne quantum sensors. Design, assembly and qualification of the system, combing micro-integrated distributed feedback (DFB) diode laser modules and free space optical bench technology is presented in the context of the MAIUS (Matter-wave Interferometry in Microgravity) mission. This laser system, with a volume of 21 liters and total mass of 27 kg, passed all qualification tests for operation on sounding rockets and is currently used in the integrated MAIUS flight system producing Bose-Einstein condensates and performing atom interferometry based on Bragg diffraction. The MAIUS payload is being prepared for launch in fall 2016. We further report on a reference laser system, comprising a rubidium stabilized DFB laser, which was operated successfully on the TEXUS 51 mission in April 2015. The system demonstrated a high level of technological maturity by remaining frequency stabilized throughout the mission including the rocket's boost phase

A simple scheme for precise relative frequency stabilization of lasers

We present a simple scheme for tuneable relative frequency stabilization of lasers. A highly sensitive and accurate frequency-to-voltage converter is used to derive an error signal from the beat note between two lasers. We analyze in detail detector noise and drift, modulation detection bandwidth, and cross-talk from power modulation. The results indicate that sub-kHz relative linewidth and a locking point drift on the order of 100 Hz for times scales of 1 h are achievable. The scheme can, therefore, be applied to situations where up to now only optical PLLs could provide sufficient accuracy and precision. To demonstrate its potential for high-resolution, high-precision spectroscopy we lock a diode laser to a fs-frequency comb and find a relative linear drift of 314 Hz during a 2.8 h period

Theoretical Analysis of a Large Momentum Beamsplitter using Bloch Oscillations

In this paper, we present the implementation of Bloch oscillations in an atomic interferometer to increase the separation of the two interfering paths. A numerical model, in very good agreement with the experiment, is developed. The contrast of the interferometer and its sensitivity to phase fluctuations and to intensity fluctuations are also calculated. We demonstrate that the sensitivity to phase fluctuations can be significantly reduced by using a suitable arrangement of Bloch oscillations pulses

Optical Clocks in Space

The performance of optical clocks has strongly progressed in recent years, and accuracies and instabilities of 1 part in 10^18 are expected in the near future. The operation of optical clocks in space provides new scientific and technological opportunities. In particular, an earth-orbiting satellite containing an ensemble of optical clocks would allow a precision measurement of the gravitational redshift, navigation with improved precision, mapping of the earth's gravitational potential by relativistic geodesy, and comparisons between ground clocks.Comment: Proc. III International Conference on Particle and Fundamental Physics in Space (SpacePart06), Beijing 19 - 21 April 2006, to appear in Nucl. Phys.

Improved α4\alpha^4 Term of the Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment

We have completed the evaluation of all mass-dependent $\alpha^4$ QED contributions to the muon $g-2$, or $a_\mu$, in two or more different formulations. Their numerical values have been greatly improved by an extensive computer calculation. The new value of the dominant $\alpha^4$ term $A_2^{(8)} (m_\mu / m_e)$ is 132.6823 (72), which supersedes the old value 127.50 (41). The new value of the three-mass term $A_3^{(8)} (m_\mu / m_e, m_\mu / m_\tau)$ is 0.0376 (1). The term $A_2^{(8)} (m_\mu / m_\tau)$ is crudely estimated to be about 0.005 and may be ignored for now. The total QED contribution to $a_\mu$ is $116 584 719.58 (0.02)(1.15)(0.85) \times 10^{-11}$, where 0.02 and 1.15 are uncertainties in the $\alpha^4$ and $\alpha^5$ terms and 0.85 is from the uncertainty in $\alpha$ measured by atom interferometry. This raises the Standard Model prediction by $13.9 \times 10^{-11}$, or about 1/5 of the measurement uncertainty of $a_\mu$. It is within the noise of current uncertainty ($\sim 100 \times 10^{-11}$) in the estimated hadronic contributions to $a_\mu$.Comment: Appendix A has been rewritten extensively. It includes the 4th-order calculation for illustration. Version accepted by PR

A constraint on antigravity of antimatter from precision spectroscopy of simple atoms

Consideration of antigravity for antiparticles is an attractive target for various experimental projects. There are a number of theoretical arguments against it but it is not quite clear what kind of experimental data and theoretical suggestions are involved. In this paper we present straightforward arguments against a possibility of antigravity based on a few simple theoretical suggestions and some experimental data. The data are: astrophysical data on rotation of the Solar System in respect to the center of our galaxy and precision spectroscopy data on hydrogen and positronium. The theoretical suggestions for the case of absence of the gravitational field are: equality of electron and positron mass and equality of proton and positron charge. We also assume that QED is correct at the level of accuracy where it is clearly confirmed experimentally