Film and moving image studies: re-born digital? Some participant observations

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Would Bohr be born if Bohm were born before Born?

I discuss a hypothetical historical context in which a Bohm-like deterministic interpretation of the Schrodinger equation could have been proposed before the Born probabilistic interpretation and argue that in such a context the Copenhagen (Bohr) interpretation would probably have never achieved great popularity among physicists.Comment: 5 pages, revised, accepted for publication in Am. J. Phy

A New Generation of International Adjudication

This Article challenges the conventional view of contemporary international adjudication. It identifies a new generation of international tribunals, which has been largely ignored by commentators, and argues that these tribunals offer a highly successful, alternative model to traditional public-international-law adjudicatory bodies. The proliferation of international tribunals is widely regarded as one of the most significant developments in international law over the past century. The subject has given rise to an extensive and robust body of academic commentary. Although commentators reach widely divergent conclusions about many aspects of international law and adjudication, they all agree that international tribunals differ fundamentally from national courts. In particular, according to the commentary, international tribunals such as the International Court of Justice lack the power to render enforceable decisions or to exercise compulsory jurisdiction. This Article argues that commentators have proceeded from a flawed and incomplete understanding of contemporary international adjudication. Virtually all commentary on the subject ignores the development of a second generation of international tribunals, best represented by international commercial and investment tribunals, World Trade Organization panels, and claims-settlement mechanisms. Contrary to the conventional wisdom about international adjudication, this new generation of international tribunals has the power to exercise what is effectively compulsory jurisdiction and to render enforceable decisions that can often be coercively executed against states and their commercial assets. These second-generation tribunals have been the most frequently used and, in many respects, the most successful form of international adjudication in recent decades. The caseloads of these tribunals have grown rapidly over the past forty years and now substantially exceed those of traditional public-international-law tribunals. Moreover, an analysis of state treatymaking practice over recent decades shows that states have virtually never concluded treaties accepting the jurisdiction of traditional first-generation tribunals—concluding less than one treaty per year—whereas they have frequently accepted the jurisdiction of second-generation tribunals capable of rendering enforceable decisions—accepting some fifty treaties per year. More fundamentally, second-generation tribunals have played an essential role in facilitating international trade, finance, and investment; have contributed to the development of important fields of international law; and have provided leading contemporary examples of international law working in practice. Although largely ignored by the commentary, the success and frequent use of second-generation tribunals have important implications for conventional analysis of international adjudication. The success of these tribunals flatly contradicts the claims, advanced by a number of academic commentators, that international adjudication is unimportant in contemporary international affairs and that states do not use international tribunals—particularly tribunals that would be effective. In reality, second-generation tribunals have been frequently and successfully used in vitally important fields, in part because they issue effective and enforceable decisions. At the same time, the success of second-generation tribunals also contradicts prescriptions, offered by a number of commentators, that future international tribunals be modeled on “independent” first-generation tribunals or, alternatively, on entirely “dependent” adjudicative mechanisms. Successful second-generation tribunals exhibit a blend of structural characteristics that defy blanket prescriptions for either “independence” or “dependence” and that counsel for more tailored, nuanced institutional designs

SL(2,R) Invariance of Non-Linear Electrodynamics Coupled to An Axion and a Dilaton

The most general Lagrangian for non-linear electrodynamics coupled to an axion $a$ and a dilaton $\phi$ with SL(2,\mbox{\elevenmsb R}) invariant equations of motion is -\half\left(\nabla\phi\right)^2 - \half e^{2\phi}\left(\nabla a\right)^2 + \fraction{1}{4}aF_{\mu\nu}\star F^{\mu\nu} + L_{\rm inv}(g_{\mu\nu},e^{-\frac{1}{2}\phi}F_{\rho\sigma}) where $L_{\rm inv}(g_{\mu\nu},F_{\rho\sigma})$ is a Lagrangian whose equations of motion are invariant under electric-magnetic duality rotations. In particular there is a unique generalization of Born-Infeld theory admitting SL(2,\mbox{\elevenmsb R}) invariant equations of motion.Comment: 9 pages, LaTe

The Hausdorff moments in statistical mechanics

A new method for solving the Hausdorff moment problem is presented which makes use of Pollaczek polynomials. This problem is severely ill posed; a regularized solution is obtained without any use of prior knowledge. When the problem is treated in the L 2 space and the moments are finite in number and affected by noise or round‐off errors, the approximation converges asymptotically in the L 2 norm. The method is applied to various questions of statistical mechanics and in particular to the determination of the density of states. Concerning this latter problem the method is extended to include distribution valued densities. Computing the Laplace transform of the expansion a new series representation of the partition function Z(β) (β=1/k BT ) is obtained which coincides with a Watson resummation of the high‐temperature series for Z(β)

Born-Infeld Cosmologies

We present a model for an inhomogeneous and anisotropic early universe filled with a nonlinear electromagnetic field of Born-Infeld (BI) type. The effects of the BI field are compared with the linear case (Maxwell). Since the curvature invaria nts are well behaved then we conjecture that our model does not present an initial big bang singularity. The existence of the BI field modifies the curvature invariants at t=0 as well as sets bounds on the amplitude of the conformal metric functionComment: 13 pages, latex, 6 eps figure