We study optimal consumption and portfolio choice in a framework where investors adjust their labor supply through an irreversible choice of their retirement time. We show that investing for early ...retirement tends to increase savings and reduce an agent's effective relative risk aversion, thus increasing her stock market exposure. Contrary to common intuition, an investor might find it optimal to increase the proportion of financial wealth held in stocks as she ages and accumulates assets, even when her income and the investment opportunity set are constant. The model predicts a decrease in risk aversion following strong market gains like those observed in the nineties.
We study efficient non-linear taxation of labour and capital in a dynamic Mirrleesian model incorporating political economy constraints. Policies are chosen sequentially over time, without ...commitment. Our main result is that the marginal tax on capital income is progressive, in the sense that richer agents face higher marginal tax rates.
Micro-organisms living in extreme environments are captivating in the peculiar survival processes they have developed. Deinococcus radiodurans is probably the most famous radio-resistant bacteria. ...Similarly, a specific ecosystem has grown in a research reactor storage pool, and has selected organisms which may sustain radiative stress. An original green micro-alga which was never studied for its high tolerance to radiations has been isolated. It is the only autotrophic eukaryote that develops in this pool, although contamination possibilities coming from outside are not unusual. Studying what could explain this irradiation tolerance is consequently very interesting. An integrative study of the effects of irradiation on the micro-algae physiology, metabolism, internal dynamics, and genomics was initiated. In the work presented here, micro-algae were stressed with irradiation doses up to 20 kGy (2 Mrad), and studied by means of nuclear magnetic resonance, looking for modifications in the metabolism, and on the IN13 neutron backscattering instrument at the ILL, looking for both dynamics and structural macromolecular changes in the cells.
A promising approach to study condensed-matter systems is to simulate them on an engineered quantum platform
. However, the accuracy needed to outperform classical methods has not been achieved so ...far. Here, using 18 superconducting qubits, we provide an experimental blueprint for an accurate condensed-matter simulator and demonstrate how to investigate fundamental electronic properties. We benchmark the underlying method by reconstructing the single-particle band structure of a one-dimensional wire. We demonstrate nearly complete mitigation of decoherence and readout errors, and measure the energy eigenvalues of this wire with an error of approximately 0.01 rad, whereas typical energy scales are of the order of 1 rad. Insight into the fidelity of this algorithm is gained by highlighting the robust properties of a Fourier transform, including the ability to resolve eigenenergies with a statistical uncertainty of 10
rad. We also synthesize magnetic flux and disordered local potentials, which are two key tenets of a condensed-matter system. When sweeping the magnetic flux we observe avoided level crossings in the spectrum, providing a detailed fingerprint of the spatial distribution of local disorder. By combining these methods we reconstruct electronic properties of the eigenstates, observing persistent currents and a strong suppression of conductance with added disorder. Our work describes an accurate method for quantum simulation
and paves the way to study new quantum materials with superconducting qubits.
Strange matter, a form of quark matter that is postulated to be absolute stable, may be the true ground stage of the hadrons. If this hypothesis is correct, neutron stars may convert to 'strange ...stars'. The mass-radius relation for strange stars is very different from that of neutron stars; there is no minimum mass, and for mass of 1 solar mass or less, mass is proportional to the cube of the radius. For masses between 1 solar mass and 2 solar masses, the radii of strange stars are about 10 km, as for neutron stars. Strange stars may have an exposed quark surface, which is capable of radiating at rates greatly exceeding the Eddington limit, but has a low emissivity for X-ray photons. The stars may have a thin crust with the same composition as the preneutron drip outer layer of a conventional neutron star crust. Strange stars cool efficiently via neutrino emission.
This study sought to identify differences in coronary anatomic pathology in patients with unstable angina and elevated versus nonelevated serum troponin T values. Previous studies have shown a worse ...prognosis in unstable angina patients with elevated serum troponin T values. Consecutive patients (n = 117) with Braunwald class IIIB angina were included in the study. Serum samples for troponin T were obtained at admission and every 6 to 8 hours for 18 to 24 hours. Acute myocardial infarction was excluded by routine creatine kinase measurements. All patients underwent coronary angiography before discharge. Cardiac events including cardiac death and myocardial infarction were recorded. Two thirds of the patients with unstable angina had no increase in serum troponin T (<0.1 μg/L) (n = 80). They had a lower incidence of 3-vessel disease (26% vs 46%, p <0.001), left main disease (5% vs 16%, p = 0.04), visible thrombus (4% vs 22%, p = 0.006), and less severe stenosis of the culprit artery (65% vs 84%, p <0.004) than patients with elevated serum troponin T values (≥0.1 μg/L) (n = 37). The 1-year cardiac event rate was 0% versus 19% in patients with troponin T values <0.1 μg/L compared with patients with serum troponin T values ≥0.1 μg/L (p <0.0001). It was concluded that patients with unstable angina and no release of troponin T have less severe coronary artery disease, and have an excellent prognosis. It is suggested that these patients may be managed more conservatively and without invasive evaluation before discharge.
We search for static solitons stabilized by heavy fermions in a (3+1)-dimensional Yukawa model. We compute the renormalized energy functional, including the exact one-loop quantum corrections, and ...perform a variational search for configurations that minimize the energy for a fixed fermion number. We compute the quantum corrections using a phase shift parameterization, in which we renormalize by identifying orders of the Born series with corresponding Feynman diagrams. For higher-order terms in the Born series, we develop a simplified calculational method. When applicable, we use the derivative expansion to check our results. We observe marginally bound configurations at large Yukawa coupling, and discuss their interpretation as soliton solutions subject to general limitations of the model.