cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Wind Accretion and Binary Evolution of the Microquasar LS 5039

There is much evidence to suggest that stellar wind capture, rather than Roche lobe overflow, serves as the mechanism for accretion onto the compact secondary object in the massive X-ray binary LS 5039. The lack of significant emission combined with only a modest X-ray flux provides observational evidence that no large-scale mass transfer is occurring (consistent with our estimate of the radius of the O6.5 V((f)) optical star that is smaller than its critical Roche radius). Here we determine the mass-loss rate of the optical star from the broad, residual emission in the Hα profile. Using a stellar wind accretion model for a range in assumed primary mass, we compute the predicted X-ray luminosity for the system. We compare our results to the observed X-ray luminosity to determine the mass of the compact object for each case. The companion appears to be a neutron star with a mass between 1 and 3 M☉. With our new constraints on the masses of both components, we discuss their implications on the evolution of the system before and after the supernova event that created the compact companion. The binary experienced significant mass loss during the supernova, and we find that the predictions for the resulting runaway velocity agree well with the observed peculiar space velocity. LS 5039 may be the fastest runaway object among known massive X-ray binaries.
Flip-chip gate-tunable acoustoelectric effect in graphene

We demonstrate a flip-chip device for performing low-temperature acoustoelectric measurements on exfoliated two-dimensional materials. With this device, we study gate-tunable acoustoelectric transport in an exfoliated monolayer graphene device, measuring the voltage created as high-frequency surface acoustic waves dynamically drive the graphene charge carriers, the density of which we simultaneously control with a silicon back-gate. We demonstrate ambipolar dependence of the acoustoelectric signal, as expected from the sign of the graphene charge carriers. We observe a marked reduction in the magnitude of the acoustoelectric signal over a well-defined range of density in the vicinity of charge neutrality, which we attribute to a spatially heterogeneous charge-disorder landscape not directly revealed by conventional transport measurements.
Microresonator soliton dual-comb imaging

Fast-responding detector arrays are commonly used for imaging rapidly changing scenes. Besides array detectors, a single-pixel detector combined with a broadband optical spectrum can also be used for rapid imaging by mapping the spectrum into a spatial coordinate grid and then rapidly measuring the spectrum. Here, optical frequency combs generated from high-Q silica microresonators are used to implement this method. The microcomb is dispersed in two spatial dimensions to measure a test target. The target-encoded spectrum is then measured by multi-heterodyne beating with another microcomb having a slightly different repetition rate, enabling an imaging frame rate up to 200 kHz and fill rates as high as 48 megapixels/s. The system is used to monitor the flow of microparticles in a fluid cell. Microcombs in combination with a monolithic waveguide grating array imager could greatly magnify these results by combining the spatial parallelism of detector arrays with spectral parallelism of optics.
TIDAL WAVES – A NON-ADIABATIC MICROSCOPIC DESCRIPTION OF THE YRAST STATES IN NEAR-SPHERICAL NUCLEI

The yrast states of nuclei that are spherical or weakly deformed in their ground states are described as quadrupole waves running over the nuclear surface, which we call "tidal waves". The energies and E2 transition probabilities of the yrast states in nuclides with Z= 44, 46, 48 and N= 56, 58,…, 66 are calculated by means of the cranking model in a microscopic way. The nonlinear response of the nucleonic orbitals results in a strong coupling between shape and single particle degrees of freedom.
Quasi-periodic oscillations and noise in neutron star and black-hole X-ray binaries

Abstract Before the launch of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite, the differences in the rapid X-ray variability between the two main types of neutron star binaries (i.e., the Z and atoll sources) could be explained by invoking different mass accretion rates and magnetic field strengths. However, the results obtained with RXTE now show that these systems are more similar than previously thought and although differences in mass accretion rate are still likely, the differences in the magnetic field strength have become questionable. The great similarities between the neutron star systems and the black-hole candidates at low mass accretion rates also point towards a similar origin of their timing phenomena indicating that the presence or absence of a solid surface, a magnetic field, or an event horizon do not play a significant role in the production mechanisms for the rapid X-ray variability.
The Role of Breccia Lenses in Regolith Generation From the Formation of Small, Simple Craters: Application to the Apollo 15 Landing Site

Impact cratering is likely a primary agent of regolith generation on airless bodies. Regolith production via impact cratering has long been a key topic of study since the Apollo era. The evolution of regolith due to impact cratering, however, is not well understood. A better formulation is needed to help quantify the formation mechanism and timescale of regolith evolution. Here, we propose an analytically derived stochastic model that describes the evolution of regolith generated by small, simple craters. We account for ejecta blanketing as well as regolith infilling of the transient crater cavity. Our results show that the regolith infilling plays a key role in producing regolith. Our model demonstrates that, because of the stochastic nature of impact cratering, the regolith thickness varies laterally, which is consistent with earlier work. We apply this analytical model to the regolith evolution at the Apollo 15 site. The regolith thickness is computed considering the observed crater size-frequency distribution of small, simple lunar craters (< 381 m in radius for ejecta blanketing and < 100 m in radius for the regolith infilling). Allowing for some amount of regolith coming from the outside of the area, our result is consistent with an empirical result from the Apollo 15 seismic experiment. Finally, we find that the timescale of regolith growth is longer than that of crater equilibrium, implying that even if crater equilibrium is observed on a cratered surface, it is likely the regolith thickness is still evolving due to additional impact craters.
VARIABLE AND TRANSIENT RADIO SOURCES IN THE FIRST SURVEY

A comprehensive search for variable and transient radio sources has been conducted using ~55,000 snapshot images of the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm survey. We present an analysis leading to the discovery of 1627 variable and transient objects down to mJy levels over a wide range of timescales (a few minutes to years). Variations observed range from 20% to a factor of 25. Multi-wavelength matching for counterparts reveals the diverse classes of objects exhibiting variability, ranging from nearby stars and pulsars to galaxies and distant quasars. Interestingly, more than half of the objects in the sample have either no classified counterparts or no corresponding sources at any other wavelength and require multi-wavelength follow-up observations. We discuss these classes of variables and speculate on the identity of objects that lack multi-wavelength counterparts.
Aspherical manifolds, relative hyperbolicity, simplicial volume and assembly maps

This paper contains examples of closed aspherical manifolds obtained as a by-product of recent work by the author [?] on the relative strict hyperbolization of polyhedra. The following is proved. (I) Any closed aspherical triangulated n–manifold Mn with hyperbolic fundamental group is a retract of a closed aspherical triangulated (n+1)–manifold Nn+1 with hyperbolic fundamental group. (II) If B1,…Bm are closed aspherical triangulated n–manifolds, then there is a closed aspherical triangulated manifold N of dimension n+1 such that N has nonzero simplicial volume, N retracts to each Bk, and π1(N) is hyperbolic relative to π1(Bk)’s. (III) Any finite aspherical simplicial complex is a retract of a closed aspherical triangulated manifold with positive simplicial volume and non-elementary relatively hyperbolic fundamental group.
Transcending the ensemble: baby universes, spacetime wormholes, and the order and disorder of black hole information

In the 1980’s, work by Coleman and by Giddings and Strominger linked the physics of spacetime wormholes to ‘baby universes’ and an ensemble of theories. We revisit such ideas, using features associated with a negative cosmological constant and asymptotically AdS boundaries to strengthen the results, introduce a change in perspective, and connect with recent replica wormhole discussions of the Page curve. A key new feature is an emphasis on the role of null states. We explore this structure in detail in simple topological models of the bulk that allow us to compute the full spectrum of associated boundary theories. The dimension of the asymptotically AdS Hilbert space turns out to become a random variable Z , whose value can be less than the naive number k of independent states in the theory. For k > Z , consistency arises from an exact degeneracy in the inner product defined by the gravitational path integral, so that many a priori independent states differ only by a null state. We argue that a similar property must hold in any consistent gravitational path integral. We also comment on other aspects of extrapolations to more complicated models, and on possible implications for the black hole information problem in the individual members of the above ensemble.
Conformal Bootstrap in the Regge Limit

We analytically solve the conformal bootstrap equations in the Regge limit for large N conformal field theories. For theories with a parametrically large gap, the amplitude is dominated by spin-2 exchanges and we show how the crossing equations naturally lead to the construction of AdS exchange Witten diagrams. We also show how this is encoded in the anomalous dimensions of double-trace operators of large spin and large twist. We use the chaos bound to prove that the anomalous dimensions are negative. Extending these results to correlators containing two scalars and two conserved currents, we show how to reproduce the CEMZ constraint that the three-point function between two currents and one stress tensor only contains the structure given by Einstein-Maxwell theory in AdS, up to small corrections. Finally, we consider the case where operators of unbounded spin contribute to the Regge amplitude, whose net effect is captured by summing the leading Regge trajectory. We compute the resulting anomalous dimensions and corrections to OPE coefficients in the crossed channel and use the chaos bound to show that both are negative.
Cosmology and Hierarchy in Stabilized Randall-Sundrum Models

We consider the cosmology and hierarchy of scales in models with immersed in a five-dimensional curved spacetime subject to radion stabilization. The universe naturally find itself in the radiation-dominated epoch when the inter-brane spacing is static and stable, independent of the form of the stabilizing potential. We recover the standard Friedmann equations without assuming a specific form for the bulk energy-momentum tensor. We address the hierarchy problem in the context of a quartic and exponential stabilizing potential, and find that in either case the presence of a negative tension brane is required and that the string scale can be as low as the electroweak scale. In the situation of self-tuning branes (corresponding to an exponential potential) where the bulk cosmological constant is set to zero, the brane tensions have hierarchical values.
THE PHASES OF WATER ICE IN THE SOLAR NEBULA

Understanding the phases of water ice that were present in the solar nebula has implications for understanding cometary and planetary compositions as well as the internal evolution of these bodies. Here we show that amorphous ice formed more readily than previously recognized, with formation at temperatures <70 K being possible under protoplanetary disk conditions. We further argue that photodesorption and freeze-out of water molecules near the surface layers of the solar nebula would have provided the conditions needed for amorphous ice to form. This processing would be a natural consequence of ice dynamics and would allow for the trapping of noble gases and other volatiles in water ice in the outer solar nebula.
Privately Solving Linear Programs

In this paper, we initiate the systematic study of solving linear programs under differential privacy. The first step is simply to define the problem: to this end, we introduce several natural classes of private linear programs that capture different ways sensitive data can be incorporated into a linear program. For each class of linear programs we give an efficient, differentially private solver based on the multiplicative weights framework, or we give an impossibility result.
Environmental Factors Influencing Urban Homicide Clearance Rates: A Spatial Analysis of New York City:

In this paper, we explore the conditions under which clearance rates improve by looking at the experience across New York City. Using one agency provides a control on the administrative differences...
Stokes matrices for confluent hypergeometric equations

We apply the method of [arXiv:1705.07610] to compute the Stokes matrices of non-resonant confluent hypergeometric differential equations. We discuss the ambiguity of the presentation of the Stokes matrices regarding different choices. The results rely on an explicit description of the perverse sheaf associated to the non-confluent regular singular hypergeometric system arising via Fourier-Laplace transform. We give assumptions on the parameter such that the Stokes matrices have rational or real values. Under some more restrictive conditions, the Stokes matrices had been computed by Duval-Mitschi before. We compare our results with their formulae in the unramified case.
BPS Jumping Loci are Automorphic

We show that BPS jumping loci–loci in the moduli space of string compactifications where the number of BPS states jumps in an upper semi-continuous manner—naturally appear as Fourier coefficients of (vector space-valued) automorphic forms. For the case of T2 compactification, the jumping loci are governed by a modular form studied by Hirzebruch and Zagier, while the jumping loci in K3 compactification appear in a story developed by Oda and Kudla–Millson in arithmetic geometry. We also comment on some curious related automorphy in the physics of black hole attractors and flux vacua.
The language of mental images: Characterizing hippocampal contributions to imageable word use during event construction

Abstract Accumulating evidence suggests that the hippocampus plays a critical role in the creative and flexible use of language at the sentence or discourse level. Yet it is currently unclear whether the hippocampus also supports language use at the level of single words. A recent study by Hilverman et al. (2017) found that amnesic patients with hippocampal damage use less imageable words when describing autobiographical episodes compared to healthy controls, but this deficit was attributed to patients' deficits in episodic memory rather than impairments in linguistic functions of the hippocampus per se. Yet, in addition to affecting word use by way of its role in memory, the hippocampus could also impact language use more directly. The current study aimed to test this hypothesis by investigating the status of imageable word use in amnesia during two different types of language production tasks. In Experiment 1, participants constructed narratives about events depicted in visually presented pictures (picture narratives). In Experiment 2, participants constructed verbal narratives about remembered events from the past or simulated events in the future (past/future narratives). Across all types of narratives, patients produced words that were rated as having similar levels of imageability compared to controls. Importantly, this was the case both in patients' picture narratives, which did not require generating details from episodic memory and were matched to those of controls with respect to narrative content, and in patients’ narratives about past/future events, which required generating details from memory and which were reduced in narrative content compared to those of controls. These results distinguish between the quantity and quality of individual linguistic details produced in amnesia during narrative construction, and suggest that the use of imageable linguistic representations does not depend on intact episodic memory and can be supported by regions outside the hippocampus.
Bias and Precision of Parameter Estimates from Models Using Polygenic Scores to Estimate Environmental and Genetic Parental Influences

In a companion paper Balbona et al. (Behav Genet, in press), we introduced a series of causal models that use polygenic scores from transmitted and nontransmitted alleles, the offspring trait, and parental traits to estimate the variation due to the environmental influences the parental trait has on the offspring trait (vertical transmission) as well as additive genetic effects. These models also estimate and account for the gene-gene and gene-environment covariation that arises from assortative mating and vertical transmission respectively. In the current study, we simulated polygenic scores and phenotypes of parents and offspring under genetic and vertical transmission scenarios, assuming two types of assortative mating. We instantiated the models from our companion paper in the OpenMx software, and compared the true values of parameters to maximum likelihood estimates from models fitted on the simulated data to quantify the bias and precision of estimates. We show that parameter estimates from these models are unbiased when assumptions are met, but as expected, they are biased to the degree that assumptions are unmet. Standard errors of the estimated variances due to vertical transmission and to genetic effects decrease with increasing sample sizes and with increasing $$r^2$$ values of the polygenic score. Even when the polygenic score explains a modest amount of trait variation ( $$r^2=.05$$ ), standard errors of these standardized estimates are reasonable ( $$< .05$$ ) for $$n=16K$$ trios, and can even be reasonable for smaller sample sizes (e.g., down to 4K) when the polygenic score is more predictive. These causal models offer a novel approach for understanding how parents influence their offspring, but their use requires polygenic scores on relevant traits that are modestly predictive (e.g., $$r^2>.025)$$ as well as datasets with genomic and phenotypic information on parents and offspring. The utility of polygenic scores for elucidating parental influences should thus serve as additional motivation for large genomic biobanks to perform GWAS’s on traits that may be relevant to parenting and to oversample close relatives, particularly parents and offspring.
Electoral Incentives and the Allocation of Public Funds

It is widely believed that politicians allocate public resources in ways to maximize political gains. But what is less clear is whether this comes at a cost to welfare; and if so, whether alternative electoral rules can help reduce these costs. In this paper, we address both of these questions by modeling and estimating politicians' decisions to allocate public funds. We use data from Brazil's federal legislature, which grants each federal legislator a budget to fund public projects in his state. We find that 26 percent of the public funds are distorted relative to a social planner's allocation. We then use the model to simulate several potential policies reforms to the electoral system, including adopting approval voting and implementing term limits. We find that an approval voting system reduces the distortions by 7.5 percent. Term limits also reduce distortions, but come at the cost of more corruption, which makes it a welfare-reducing policy.
A Study of Runtime Adaptive Prefetching for STTRAM L1 Caches

Spin- Transfer Torque RAM (STTRAM) is a promising alternative to SRAM in on-chip caches due to several advantages. These advantages include non-volatility, low leakage, high integration density, and CMOS compatibility. Prior studies have shown that relaxing and adapting the STTRAM retention time to runtime application needs can substantially reduce overall cache energy without significant latency overheads, due to the lower STTRAM write energy and latency in shorter retention times. In this paper, as a first step towards efficient prefetching across the STTRAM cache hierarchy, we study prefetching in reduced retention STTRAM L1 caches. Using SPEC CPU 2017 benchmarks, we analyze the energy and latency impact of different prefetch distances in different STTRAM cache retention times for different applications. We show that expired _unused _prefetches← the number of unused prefetches expired by the reduced retention time STTRAM cache-can accurately determine the best retention time for energy consumption and access latency. This new metric can also provide insights into the best prefetch distance for memory bandwidth consumption and prefetch accuracy. Based on our analysis and insights, we propose Prefetch-Aware Retention time Tuning (PART) and Retention time-based Prefetch Control (RPC). Compared to a base STTRAM cache, PART and RPC collectively reduced the average cache energy and latency by 22.24 % and 24.59 %, respectively. When the base architecture was augmented with the state-of-the-art near-side prefetch throttling (NST), PART+RPC reduced the average cache energy and latency by 3.50 % and 3.59 %, respectively, and reduced the hardware overhead by 54.55 %.
A mixed identity-free elementary amenable group

A group G is called mixed identity-free if for every n ∈ ℕ and every w ∈ G ∗ F n , there exists a homomorphism φ : G ∗ F n → G such that φ is the identity on G and φ ( w ) is nontrivial. In this pa...
D-DistADMM: A O(1/k) Distributed ADMM for Distributed Optimization in Directed Graph Topologies

We focus on the problem of minimizing a finite sum $f(x) = \sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^n {{f_i}(x)}$ of n functions f i , where f i are convex and available only locally to an agent i. The n agents are connected in a directed network $\mathcal{G}$ (V, E). In this article, we present the Directed-Distributed Alternating Direction Method of Multiplier (D-DistADMM) Algorithm, which is an Alternating Direction Method of Multiplier (ADMM) based scheme and utilizes a finite-time "approximate" consensus method to solve the above optimization problem distributively. At each iteration of the proposed scheme the agents solve their local optimization problem and utilize an approximate consensus protocol to update a local estimate of the global optimization variable. We show that for convex and not-necessarily differentiable objective functions the proposed D-DistADMM method converges at a rate O(1/k), where k is the iteration counter, in terms the difference between the Lagrangian function evaluated at any iteration k of the D-DistADMM algorithm and the optimal solution. We further demonstrate the features of our algorithm by solving a distributed least squares problem.
An Iterative LQR Controller for Off-Road and On-Road Vehicles using a Neural Network Dynamics Model

In this work we evaluate Iterative Linear Quadratic Regulator(ILQR) for trajectory tracking of two different kinds of wheeled mobile robots namely Warthog (Fig. 1), an off-road holonomic robot with skid-steering and Polaris GEM e6 [1], a non-holonomic six seater vehicle (Fig. 2). We use multilayer neural network to learn the discrete dynamic model of these robots which is used in ILQR controller to compute the control law. We use model predictive control (MPC) to deal with model imperfections and perform extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of the controller on human driven reference trajectories with vehicle speeds of 3m/s-4m/s for warthog and 7m/s-10m/s for the Polaris GEM.
Impact of Confirmation Bias on Competitive Information Spread in Social Networks

This article investigates the impact of confirmation bias on competitive information spread in the social network that comprises individuals in a social network and competitive information sources at a cyber layer. We formulate the problem of information spread as a zero-sum game, which admits a unique Nash equilibrium in pure strategies. We characterize the dependence of pure Nash equilibrium on the public's innate opinions, the social network topology, as well as the parameters of confirmation bias. We uncover that confirmation bias moves the equilibrium toward the center only when the innate opinions are not neutral, and this move does not occur for the competitive information sources simultaneously. Numerical examples in the context of well-known Krackhardt's advice network are provided to demonstrate the correctness of theoretical results.
Safety-Critical Online Control with Adversarial Disturbances

This paper studies the control of safety-critical dynamical systems in the presence of adversarial disturbances. We seek to synthesize state-feedback controllers to minimize a cost incurred due to the disturbance while respecting the safety constraint. The safety constraint is given by a bound on an ${{\mathcal{H}}_\infty }$ norm, while the cost is specified as an upper bound on an ${{\mathcal{H}}_2}$ norm of the system. We consider an online setting where costs at each time are revealed only after the controller at that time is chosen. We propose an iterative approach to the synthesis of the controller by solving a modified discrete-time Riccati equation. Solutions of this equation enforce the safety constraint. We compare the cost of this controller with that of the optimal controller when one has complete knowledge of disturbances and costs in hindsight. We show that the regret function, which is defined as the difference between these costs, called varies logarithmically with the time horizon. We validate our approach on a process control setup that is subject to two kinds of adversarial attacks.
Euphemistic codes and tell-tale hearts: humane assistance in end-of-life cases.

A euphemism is defined as the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive word or expression for one that is harsh, indelicate, or otherwise unpleasant taboo; allusion to an offensive thing by an inoffensive expression. This article deals with medical euphemisms used commonly through medical codes in hospitals for end-of-life patient care. It examines the extent to which fear shapes decision making in critical care units - fear of medical failure, and fear of litigation if not "everything" is done to prolong life, no matter how agonizing. Furthermore, being trained to save lives, health care providers often lack the courage to let a patient die - especially when care has been provided for an extended period of time. This article demonstrates that if autonomy or self-determination is to be more than a poetic principle, with clinical application to patients in end-of-life illnesses, it must be validated by closer levels of communication between patients and their health care providers before serious debilitating illnesses occur which all too often block rational thinking by the patient, his family or surrogate decision makers. Such forthright communication and ultimate decision making before a medical crisis is a simple and direct solution. There is no need whatsoever to deal with euphemistic coding or, for example, tests of substituted judgment or other artifices if patients articulate their life goals and medical wishes through execution of advance directives. Sadly, absent this, patient autonomy must yield to physician autonomy - yet, an autonomy shaped hopefully by compassion and by standards of sound professional judgment regarding futile treatment and - when challenged - submitted to review ideally by hospital ethics committees or, failing that, the courts.
New Approaches to Customary International Law

Reviews Eric A. Posner, The Perils of Global Legalism; Andrew T. Guzman, How International Law Works; Brian A. Lepard, Customary International Law.After a century of benign neglect, international theorizing has taken off. The three contributors to legal theory reviewed here can be placed along a linear spectrum with Posner at the extreme political science end, Lepard at the opposite international law end and Andrew Guzman holding up the middle.
An application of arbitrage pricing theory to futures markets: Tests of normal backwardation

Keynes (1923) and Hicks (1939), hypothesized that futures prices are downward biased estimates of expected spot prices. Any empirical study that employs returns on futures contracts is actually a joint test of both the Keynes-Hicks hypothesis and of the assumed model of returns. Models based on the Capital Asset Pricing Model have been used to test the hypothesis, with different models implying different conclusions. As shown in this article, these models are all special cases of a general linear model. Arbitrage Pricing Theory provides the most powerful test for this class of linear models. No other linear model will provide greater explanatory power or account for more systematic risk. An Arbitrage Pricing Theory model is estimated in this article and the results appear inconsistent with the Keynes-Hicks hypothesis.
Slavery, Freedom, and Social Claims to Property among African Americans in Liberty County, Georgia, 1850-1880

"My name is Pompey Bacon. I was born in Liberty County, Georgia, I am 70 years of age I am farming and the claimant in this case." With this statement Bacon, a former slave of plantation owner Thomas Mallard, claimed compensation for property he had owned as a slave, property Union soldiers had taken for "forage" on a raid during the Civil War. With him on this late summer day in 1873 were Bacon's wife, Bellu, his older brother, Joseph, and three other freed people from farms near the one he worked; all intended to serve as his witnesses.' Except for Mrs. Bacon each had a petition before the Southern Claims Commission. Under oath, Bacon unfolded his story of the raid in response to a long list of standardized questions read by Virgil Hillyer, a special commissioner of the federal commission. During the siege of Savannah in December 1864, Judson Kilpatrick's cavalry, part of Gen. William T Sherman's army, was ordered to forage supplies. Most white people had fled from the countryside near Savannah, with Sherman's westerners hard on their heels. The troops arrived at Thomas Mallard's plantation just after harvest, when mornings turned the earth "white with frost." Liberty County was a rich agricultural area, and 1864 had been a good year for food crops. Hogs were "in good flesh" in December when the business of butchering and salting began in earnest. Pompey Bacon remembered that the marauding Union soldiers "said they never got provision until they got to Liberty Co. among the
The Forgotten Law of Lobbying

For most of American history, until the 1950s, courts treated paid lobbying as a civic wrong, not a protected First Amendment right. Lobbying was presumptively against public policy, and lobbying contracts were not enforced. Paid lobbying threatened the integrity of individuals, legislators, lobbyists, and the integrity of society as a whole. Some states had laws criminalizing lobbying; Georgia had an anti-lobbying provision in its Constitution. Inasmuch as there was a personal right to either petition the government, or share views with officers of the government, this right was not something one could sell—it was not, in the term used by one court, a “vendible”--a sellable item. Line-drawing between illegitimate paid lobbying and legitimate legal services was not easy, but in general courts enforced contracts where the thing being sold was expertise to be shared in a public forum, while refusing to enforce contracts where the thing being sold was personal influence to be shared in private meetings. During the mid-20th century, the practice of not enforcing lobbying contracts fell away. This change came from two things: the growing sanctity of contract, and the professionalization of the lobbying industry. State laws regulated lobbying instead of banning it. At the same time, as a constitutional matter, the law of lobbying occupied something of a no-mans land for many years—paid lobbying was neither explicitly protected by the First Amendment nor explicitly not protected. Supreme Court cases suggested, but did not hold, that paid lobbying was a First Amendment right. Only recently, and without much judicial discussion, has the legal-academic community presumed that there is a unique First Amendment right to pay someone to lobby, or be paid to lobby, grounded in the speech and/or petition clauses of the First Amendment. The scope of that right is unclear. This Article tells the history of the earlier approaches towards lobbying. It explores the lobbying cases of the 19th and early 20th century courts, looking at the logic underpinning them and how courts distinguished between illegitimate lobbying and legitimate hiring of professional lawyers. This Article is largely historical, but has doctrinal implications. First, it shows that as a matter of practice, there is no historical consensus on a First Amendment right to lobby. Second, the length and breadth of the treatment of lobbying as wrong--not a right--is indirect evidence that the First Amendment was not intended to protect paid lobbying. Third, the reasoning of the courts that invalidated lobbying contracts is still relevant to the degree of protection, and the kinds of activities that might be worthy of greater or lesser protection. 1/22/14 11:07 AM 1
An International Debt Facility

The proposal to set up an international debt facility to buy the debt of developing countries at a discount and then mark down its contractual value is analyzed. The paper considers the central question of how the debtor countries, creditor banks, and owners of the facility would be affected; in particular, what redistribution of gains and losses there would be among them. The "market price effect" and the "ceiling effect" are distinguished. A crucial consideration is whether debt retained by banks is subordinated to debt bought by the facility.
Shareholder Derivative Litigation and the Preclusion Problem

Shareholder derivative litigation differs from other types of representative lawsuits because a lead plaintiff does not purport to stand in for an entire class of similarly situated parties. Rather, the plaintiff seeks to wrest governance control from the corporate entity itself in order to prosecute a lawsuit on the firm’s behalf. This is an extreme act: why should one shareholder get to take the reins of an entire firm? Accordingly, corporate law only permits these lawsuits to go forward in rare circumstances, typically when there are strong signs that something is rotten in the boardroom. Many claims are filed each year, however, and a single alleged bad act will often attract multiple lawsuits. This raises a very tricky question for derivative litigation: when can we be confident that a given shareholder adequately prosecutes a claim - such that the matter should be closed? When a case is dismissed in one court, the failure to collaterally estop a sister case (relating to the same misdeed) in another jurisdiction raises the possibility of never-ending litigation. But routine dismissal of follow-up filings could create a situation where firms are inoculated from legitimate derivative claims by ill-informed plaintiffs who rush to the courthouse with weak complaints. Relatedly, early filing pressures, amplified under a strict collateral estoppel regime, may encourage jurisdiction shopping and shoddy claims that undermine the governance goals of derivative litigation. This Article offers a three-part strategy for navigating the preclusion problem in derivative litigation. First, more claims should be channeled into a single jurisdiction through the robust adoption (and judicial validation) of forum selection provisions for derivative litigation in corporate charters or bylaws. This will minimize the race to the courthouse(s) and alleviate conflicting judicial treatment of derivative claims. Second, following recent Delaware precedent, collateral estoppel should not be triggered until a mindful shareholder-plaintiff brings the case; prior attempts should be classified as inadequate representation. This will prevent a corporation from taking advantage of “patsy” litigation that obstructs legitimate claims. Finally, courts should be encouraged to implement legal fee shifting whenever a plaintiff undertakes derivative litigation without reasonable cause or for an improper purpose. In particular, the failure to incorporate information from a books and records investigation into a complaint should raise concerns that the lawsuit was brought without reasonable cause. Similarly, filing a follow-on lawsuit, after an initial claim has been dismissed, should only meet the reasonable cause test if the subsequent plaintiff introduces substantial incremental evidence related to the alleged misdeed. Taken together, these reforms should minimize duplicative litigation and mitigate specious claims - while still preserving the promise of shareholder lawsuits as a meaningful safeguard against dysfunctional corporate governance.
World Increasing Returns and Production Subsidies

Increasing returns of the international kind as opposed to the usual national kind do not justify subsidies by a small country. Copyright 2002 by The London School of Economics and Political Science
Discussion—Regulation Fair Disclosure and Analysts' First-Forecast Horizon

Surya Janakiraman, Suresh Radhakrishnan, and Rafal Szwejkowski (2007), hereafter JRS, examine the impact of regulation fair disclosure (RFD) on the number of days between analysts' first earnings forecasts for the quarter and the fiscal quarter-end (first-forecast horizon). JRS conclude that the first-forecast horizon decreased by twelve days post-RFD; it decreased for both analysts whose average annual first-forecast horizon put them in the top 25 percent for each firm (designated by JRS as leaders) and the bottom 25 percent for each firm (designated by JRS as followers); and it decreased about the same amount for both leaders and followers. JRS interpret their results as follows. RFD reduced the first-forecast horizon on average overall; it reduced the first-forecast horizon for both leaders and followers; and it did not eliminate the timing advantage of leaders versus followers. My discussion proceeds along the following lines. First, I examine whether RFD reduced the first-forecast horizon. Second, I examine whether RFD decreased the first-forecast horizon for both leaders and followers. Third, I examine whether RFD decreased the first-forecast horizon for leaders versus followers.
Bidder Overpayment in Takeovers

A. Misvaluation of the Target . 607 B. Synergy 608 1. Operating Synergy 608 2. Better Management 609 3. Financial and Managerial Synergy 610 C. Wealth Transfers 611 D. Free Cash Flow and the Value of Leverage 612 IV. THE OVERPAYMENT HYPOTHESIS 613
The NBA and the Great Recession: Implications for the Upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement Renegotiation

Like most businesses, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has suffered significant negative impacts from the Great Recession. The league’s drop in revenue exposed distinct flaws in the NBA’s current business model and in the terms of employment for NBA players. Due to the precarious economic state of the NBA, the league anticipates a contentious, but necessary, renegotiation of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which will expire at the end of the 2010-11 season. This article will analyze the effects of the Great Recession on the NBA and the likely implications for the renegotiation of the CBA. Part II of this article will provide a macro-level overview of the economic impacts experienced by the NBA during the current economic meltdown. Part III will explore the attendant effects on NBA players. Part IV will then give an overview of the collective bargaining process – including its significance in sports, antitrust, and labor and employment law – and explore the employment terms that will likely become the focus of the upcoming CBA renegotiation. Finally, Part V will provide some concluding insights.
The Disciplinary Effects of Proxy Contests

Using a manually collected data set of all proxy contests from 1994 through 2012, I show that proxy contests play an important role in hostile corporate governance. Target shareholders benefit from proxy contests: the average abnormal returns reach 6.5% around proxy contest announcements. Proxy contests that address firms’ business strategies and undervaluation are most beneficial for shareholders. By contrast, proxy contests that aim at changing capital structure and governance do not lead to higher firm values. Relative to matching firms, future targets are smaller, they have higher stock liquidity, higher institutional and activist ownership, lower leverage and market valuation, and higher investments. Whereas most of these characteristics predict proxy contests in time series, prior to proxy contests, targets also experience poor stock performance, decreases in investments, increases in cash reserves and payouts to shareholders, and increases in management’s entrenchment. These changes in corporate po...
Trading Volatility: At What Cost?

Volatility trading is in vogue. Launched in January 2009, exchange-traded products (ETPs) linked to the CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX) have enamored no small number of traders, judging by the billions of dollars invested in these new products. The reason is unclear. The most popular VIX ETPs are not suitable buy-and-hold investments and are virtually guaranteed to lose money over time. Indeed, since product launch, ETPs linked to the S&P 500 VIX short-term futures indices have chalked up losses of nearly $4 billion. Yet the market continues to grow. This article describes these products, explaining how and why they lose money.
The concentration of commercial success in popular music: An analysis of the distribution of gold records

This paper examines whether commercial success in the popular recorded-music industry, as measured by gold-record output, conforms to an empirical concentration. We find that Lotka's Law overestimates the number of artists with one gold record and underestimates the number of multiplegold-record performing artists. However, for all measures of “successful” records, theGeneralized Lotka's Law provides an excellent fit, which suggests that the number of performers producingn gold records in about 1/nc of those producing one gold record.
Prescriptive Jurisdiction, Adjudicative Jurisdiction, and the Ministerial Exemption

On January 11, 2012, the Supreme Court decided the first significant case of the October 2011 Term, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC. A unanimous Court held that a “called” teacher (a commissioned Lutheran minister) teaching secular subjects from a Christ-centered perspective could not prevail in an action challenging her termination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Court for the first time recognized the “ministerial exemption” to the ADA and other federal employment discrimination laws, af-
The Lawyer's Amoral Ethical Role: A Defense, A Problem, and Some Possibilities

This essay presents a moral justification for the current generally accepted amoral ethical role of the lawyer. The justification is premised primarily upon the values of individual autonomy, equality, and diversity. Based upon these values, the author argues that the amoral role is the correct moral stance for the lawyer as a professional, is a “good” role. The essay then responds to two of the most frequent criticisms of that moral stance: the first based upon economic inequality and the fact that lawyers’services must be purchased; the second based upon the absence of the “adversary system” context for most lawyer work. The author then elaborates a serious problem created by the conjunction of the amoral role and the dominant legal philosophy of American lawyers, “legal realism.” If the limit on a lawyer's conduct under the traditional amoral role is the law, then the realist emphasis on the indeterminacy and manipulability of “law” leave the lawyer in a difficult moral position. Finally, a series of possibilities are presented to deal with this problem, the most promising of which is the “moral dialogue” between lawyer and client as an adjunct to the amoral role.
A New Capital Regulation For Large Financial Institutions

We design a new, implementable capital requirement for large financial institutions (LFIs) that are too big to fail. Our mechanism mimics the operation of margin accounts. To ensure that LFIs do not default on either their deposits or their derivative contracts, we require that they maintain an equity cushion sufficiently great that their own credit default swap price stays below a threshold level, and a cushion of long term bonds sufficiently large that, even if the equity is wiped out, the systemically relevant obligations are safe. If the CDS price goes above the threshold, the LFI regulator forces the LFI to issue equity until the CDS price moves back down. If this does not happen within a predetermined period of time, the regulator intervenes. We show that this mechanism ensures that LFIs are always solvent, while preserving some of the disciplinary effects of debt.
Auditors as Underwriters: An Alternative Framework

In the United States, auditors are required to examine clients’ financial statements in compliance with generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS) and provide an audit opinion to assure investors that the statements are free of material misstatements. Since investors must trust the auditor in order for them to gain assurance from the audit report, we reason based on prior literature that the current process of regulation is based on a trust framework. However, given the current crisis in confidence resulting from recent accounting scandals, we argue that an institutional system based on trust must be rethought. In this paper, we propose an alternative framework for auditing that would meet investors’ needs to reduce or even eliminate information risk while transforming this trust framework. In this model, the need for a traditional financial statement audit leading to an audit opinion would be eliminated since regulators could require that public companies purchase insurance from insurance companies to indemnify their financial statements against material misstatement. The insurance company would hire an auditor to act as an underwriter to assess the risk of material misstatements in the financial statements. The auditor, in the capacity of underwriter, would assess the risk to determine the amount of the insurance coverage and premium. We believe that the proposed model will allow the SEC and the stock markets to more effectively accomplish their goal of eliminating or significantly reducing investors’ information risk, while restoring investors’ confidence and trust in financial reporting.
Is there an optimal size for the financial sector

Abstract This paper derives the optimal size of the financial sector using a general equilibrium framework that is an extension of the paper of Holmstrom and Tirole (1997) [Quarterly Journal of Economics 112, 663–691]. We show that the financial sector has a unique optimal size relative to the size of the economy as a whole. Creating and maintaining this sector requires diversion of some physical capital from production of output to monitoring that production. However, the efficiency gain in output production brought about by monitoring warrants the diversion. It is also found that the optimal size of the financial sector is independent of the state of the economy and does not vary over the business cycle.