410,584 research outputs found
Second Law Violations in Lovelock Gravity for Black Hole Mergers
We study the classical second law of black hole thermodynamics, for Lovelock
theories (other than General Relativity), in arbitrary dimensions. Using the
standard formula for black hole entropy, we construct scenarios involving the
merger of two black holes in which the entropy instantaneously decreases. Our
construction involves a Kaluza-Klein compactification down to a dimension in
which one of the Lovelock terms is topological. We discuss some open issues in
the definition of the second law which might be used to compensate this entropy
decrease.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, v2 Title change & minor revisions to match
published version, v3 fixed accidental deletion of author name
Trends in the Social [Ir]responsibility of American Multinational Corporations: Increased Power, Diminished Accountability
The purpose of this invited essay is to assess the future of the CSR performance of American multinationals in light of several ongoing trends. These trends include companiesâ voluntary CSR programs and the global self-regulatory standards for responsible company activities that are developing in almost every industry. Moreover, the decade-long project at the United Nations to identify multinational companiesâ responsibilities with respect to international human rights, ultimately spearheaded by Special Representative John Ruggie, has for the first time established global expectations of responsible corporate activity. At the same time, however, legal developments in the United States may be trending in the opposite direction, toward increased power and diminished accountability for corporations. Two legal developments that highlight this counter-trend will frame this discussion. The first, the Supreme Courtâs decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010) recognizes a constitutional right for corporations to give financial support to a wide range of electioneering activities, including by using corporate funds to pay for and broadcast advertisements for specific candidates for office. The effect is to allow American companies to further consolidate their already substantial political power. The second, the opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, 621 F.3d 111 (2d Cir. 2010), rehâg en banc denied, 642 F.3d 379 (2011), affâd, 569 U.S. __ , 133 S. Ct.1659(Apr. 17, 2013), denied the possibility of corporate liability under the Alien Tort Statute for Royal Dutch Shellâs employeesâ alleged violations of Nigerian community membersâ international human rights. A 2-1 majority held instead that violations of international law could only be asserted against natural persons or nations. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and in a decision handed down on April 17, 2013, the Court unanimously affirmed the judgment of the Second Circuit. The five-Justice opinion of the Court held that the ATS cannot be used to redress violations of the law of nations that occur outside the territory of the United States, except in exceptional circumstances not found in Kiobel. Neither the majority opinion nor the concurrence addressed the corporate liability issue, which means that the Second Circuitâs ruling on that issue remains the law of the Second Circuit â an important outcome, given the significance of the Second Circuit as a venue for ATS cases. Taken together, the overall effect of the Second Circuitâs rejection of corporate liability for human rights violations and the Supreme Courtâs rejection of exterritorial application of the ATS to any defendant, corporate or otherwise, is the substantial evisceration of companiesâ legal accountability for international human rights violations under the ATS. On a theoretical level, these decisions send mixed messages about corporate personhood and identity. But on a practical level, the two decisions work in unfortunate concert to increase the already considerable political power of U.S. corporations at home, even as they reduce the risk of legal accountability for their actions abroad. By doing so, they shrink the shadow of the law â the threat of hard legal regulation â that has been an important incentive to the adoption of voluntary, soft-law CSR standards. Thus, these legal developments, though ostensibly unrelated to the voluntary pursuit of CSR activity, may in fact act as a disincentive to that activity
Complete positivity and thermodynamics in a driven open quantum system
While it is well known that complete positivity guarantees the fulfilment of
the second law of thermodynamics, its possible violations have never been
proposed as a check of the complete positivity of a given open quantum
dynamics. We hereby consider an open quantum micro-circuit, effectively
describable as a two-level open quantum system, whose asymptotic current might
be experimentally accessible. This latter could indeed be used to discriminate
between its possible non-completely positive Redfield dynamics and a completely
positive one obtained by standard weak-coupling limit techniques, at the same
time verifying the fate of the second law of thermodynamics in such a context.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, LaTe
The Rotating Quantum Vacuum
We derive conditions for rotating particle detectors to respond in a variety
of bounded spacetimes and compare the results with the folklore that particle
detectors do not respond in the vacuum state appropriate to their motion.
Applications involving possible violations of the second law of thermodynamics
are briefly addressed.Comment: Plain TeX, 10 pages (to appear in PRD
The Gains from Improved Market Efficiency: Trade Before and After the Transatlantic Telegraph
This paper looks at the gains from improved market efficiency in long-distance grain trade in the second half of the 19th century when violations of the law of one price were reduced due to improved information transmission. Two markets, a major export centre, Chicago, and a major importer, Liverpool, are analyzed. We show that there was a law of one price equilibrium throughout the period but that markets displayed spells of demand- or supply-constrained trade when the law of one price was violated. Over time adjustments back to equilibrium, as measured by the half-life of a shock, become faster, violations of the law of one price become smaller and hence less persistent. There were also significant gains from improved market efficiency but that improvement took place after the information âregimeâ shifted from pre-telegraphic communication to a regime with swift transmission of information in an era which developed a sophisticated commercial press and telegraphic communication. Improved market efficiency probably stimulated trade more than falling transport costs.market integration; error correction; law of one price
Observer and Particle Transformations and Newton's Laws
A frequently confused point in studies of symmetry violation is the
distinction between observer and particle transformations. In this work, we
consider a model in which a coefficient in the Standard-Model Extension leads
to violations of rotation invariance in Newton's second law. The model
highlights the distinction between observer and particle transformations.Comment: Presented at the Sixth Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry,
Bloomington, Indiana, June 17-21, 201
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