32 research outputs found
Optimal Central Counterparty Risk Management
In order to protect themselves against the potential losses in case of a participant's default and to contain systemic risk, central counterparties (CCPs) need to maintain sufficient financial resources. Typically, these financial resources consist of margin requirements and contributions to a collective default fund. Based on a stylized model of CCP risk management, this article analyzes the main factors affecting the trade-off between margins and default fund. The optimal balance between these two risk management instruments is found to depend on collateral costs, participants' default probability, and the extent to which margin requirements are associated with risk-mitigating incentives. Given the increasing role of CCPs in financial markets in general and for financial stability in particular, these considerations are not only important for CCPs themselves, but also for financial regulators.Central counterparty, margin requirements, default fund, financial stability, incentives
Effects of Alpine hydropower dams on particle transport and lacustrine sedimentation
Abstract.: The effects of high-alpine hydropower damming on lacustrine sedimentation and transport of solid particles were investigated in the glaciated Grimsel area and in downstream Lake Brienz, providing quantitative denudation rates and sediment yield on a source-sink basis. A total of 271 kt/yr of solid particles entered the Grimsel reservoirs on average in the last 71 years, mostly by turbiditic underflows that focused sedimentation in depocenters upstream of obstacles such as bedrock ridges, submerged moraines, or dams. This is equivalent to a sediment yield of 2430 t/(km2yr) in the catchment (111.5 km2) or a denudation rate of 0.94 mm/yr. A total of 39 kt/yr of the fine fraction (<~4 μm) leave the reservoirs and are transported to downstream Lake Brienz, while 232 kt/yr of mostly coarse particles are retained, reducing total sediment input of the River Aare into Lake Brienz by two thirds. Modeling the particle budgets in the Aare with and without dams indicates that the fine fraction budgets are only slightly affected by damming, but that the reservoirs cause a shift in seasonal runoff timing resulting in increasing and decreasing particle transport in winter and summer, respectively. Thus, hydrodamming alters mostly deltaic sedimentation in Lake Brienz, where the coarse fraction is deposited, whereas fine grained distal sedimentation and varve formation on lateral slopes are less affected. All varved records of the reservoirs and Lake Brienz that provide sediment rates and grain size records on an annual basis indicate that climate is the main control on these proxies, while, for instance, the onset of pump storage activity in the reservoirs did not impose any significant change in lacustrine sedimentation patter
First results from the JWST Early Release Science Program Q3D: Ionization cone, clumpy star formation and shocks in a extremely red quasar host
Massive galaxies formed most actively at redshifts during the period
known as `cosmic noon.' Here we present an emission-line study of an extremely
red quasar SDSSJ165202.64+172852.3 host galaxy at , based on
observations with the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) integral field unit
(IFU) on board JWST. We use standard emission-line diagnostic ratios to map the
sources of gas ionization across the host and a swarm of companion galaxies.
The quasar dominates the photoionization, but we also discover shock-excited
regions orthogonal to the ionization cone and the quasar-driven outflow. These
shocks could be merger-induced or -- more likely, given the presence of a
powerful galactic-scale quasar outflow -- these are signatures of wide-angle
outflows that can reach parts of the galaxy that are not directly illuminated
by the quasar. Finally, the kinematically narrow emission associated with the
host galaxy presents as a collection of 1 kpc-scale clumps forming stars at a
rate of at least 200 yr. The ISM within these clumps shows
high electron densities, reaching up to 3,000 cm with metallicities
ranging from half to a third solar with a positive metallicity gradient and V
band extinctions up to 3 magnitudes. The star formation conditions are far more
extreme in these regions than in local star-forming galaxies but consistent
with that of massive galaxies at cosmic noon. JWST observations reveal an
archetypical rapidly forming massive galaxy undergoing a merger, a clumpy
starburst, an episode of obscured near-Eddington quasar activity, and an
extremely powerful quasar outflow simultaneously.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
First results from the JWST Early Release Science Program Q3D: The Warm Ionized Gas Outflow in z ~ 1.6 Quasar XID 2028 and its Impact on the Host Galaxy
Quasar feedback may regulate the growth of supermassive black holes, quench
coeval star formation, and impact galaxy morphology and the circumgalactic
medium. However, direct evidence for quasar feedback in action at the epoch of
peak black hole accretion at z ~ 2 remains elusive. A good case in point is the
z = 1.6 quasar WISEA J100211.29+013706.7 (XID 2028) where past analyses of the
same ground-based data have come to different conclusions. Here we revisit this
object with the integral field unit of the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec)
on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as part of Early Release Science
program Q3D. The excellent angular resolution and sensitivity of the JWST data
reveal new morphological and kinematic sub-structures in the outflowing gas
plume. An analysis of the emission line ratios indicates that photoionization
by the central quasar dominates the ionization state of the gas with no obvious
sign for a major contribution from hot young stars anywhere in the host galaxy.
Rest-frame near-ultraviolet emission aligned along the wide-angle cone of
outflowing gas is interpreted as a scattering cone. The outflow has cleared a
channel in the dusty host galaxy through which some of the quasar ionizing
radiation is able to escape and heat the surrounding interstellar and
circumgalactic media. The warm ionized outflow is not powerful enough to impact
the host galaxy via mechanical feedback, but radiative feedback by the AGN,
aided by the outflow, may help explain the unusually small molecular gas mass
fraction in the galaxy host.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Effects of Alpine hydropower dams on particle transport and lacustrine sedimentation
ISSN:1015-1621ISSN:1420-905
European Multi-level Governance: Contrasting Images in National Research, Edited by Beate Kohler-Koch and Fabrice Larat, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2009, 222 p.
‘The Anglo-Scottish Union [of 1707] is in serious difficulty.’ Following such a statement the possibility of an independent Scotland is pondered by Michael Keating. He warns the reader about not confusing independence and secession as synonymous concepts. There is a growing strand of academics who contest the overdetermining view that a nation is to equate par force a sovereign state. This debate is highly pertinent to stateless nations, such as Scotland, which are integrated in both a union-state (UK) and a union-continent (EU).Peer reviewe