Virtually Biautomatic Groups

We introduce virtually biautomatic groups (groups with finite index biautomatic subgroups) and generalize results of Gersten and Short [3 Gersten , S. , Short , H. ( 1991 ). Rational subgroups of biautomatic groups . Annals of Mathematics 134 : 125 – 128 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] and Mosher [5 Mosher , L. ( 1997 ). Central quotients of biautomatic groups . Comment. Math. Helv. 72 ( 1 ): 16 – 29 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] on centralizers, normalizers, and quotients to virtually biautomatic groups.     

Delta Sets of Numerical Monoids Using Nonminimal Sets of Generators

Several recent articles have studied the structure of the delta set of a numerical monoid. We continue this work with the assumption that the generating set S chosen for the numerical monoid M is not necessarily minimal. We show that for certain choices of S, the resulting delta set can be made (in terms of cardinality) arbitrarily large or small. We close with a close analysis of the case where M =?n ₁, n ₂, in ₁ + jn ₂?for non-negative i and j.     

Tracking error decision rules and accumulated wealth

There is compelling evidence that typical decision‐makers, including individual investors and even professional money managers, care about the difference between their portfolio returns and a reference point, or benchmark return. In the context of financial markets, likely benchmarks against which investors compare their own returns include easy‐to‐focus‐on numbers such as one's own past payoffs, historical average payoffs, and the payoffs of competitors. Referring to the gap between one's current portfolio return and the benchmark return as ‘tracking error’, this paper develops a simple model to study the consequences and possible origins of investors who use expected tracking error to guide their portfolio decisions, referred to as ‘tracking error types’. In particular, this paper analyses the level of risk‐taking and accumulated wealth of tracking error types using standard mean‐variance investors as a comparison group. The behaviour of these two types are studied first in isolation, and then in an equilibrium model. Simple analytic results together with statistics summarizing simulated wealth accumulations point to the conclusion that tracking error—whether it is interpreted as reflecting inertia, habituation, or a propensity to make social comparisons in evaluating one's own performance—leads to greater risk‐taking and greater shares of accumulated wealth. This result holds even though the two types are calibrated to be identically risk‐averse when expected tracking error equals zero. In the equilibrium model, increased aggregate levels of risk‐taking reduce the returns on risk. Therefore, the net social effect of tracking‐error‐induced risk‐taking is potentially ambiguous. This paper shows, however, that tracking error promotes a pattern of specialization that helps the economy move towards the path of maximum accumulated wealth.     

Extreme conditions during multibubble cavitation: Sonoluminescence as a spectroscopic probe

We review recent work on the use of sonoluminescence (SL) to probe spectroscopically the conditions created during cavitation, both in clouds of collapsing bubbles (multibubble sonoluminescence, (MBSL)) and in single bubble events. The effective MBSL temperature can be controlled by the vapor pressure of the liquid or the thermal conductivity of the dissolved gas over a range from ～1600 to ～9000K. The effective pressure during MBSL is ～300bar, based on atomic line shifts. Given nanosecond emission times, this means that cooling rates are >10(12)K/s. In sulfuric and phosphoric acid, the low volatility and high solubility of any sonolysis products make bubble collapse more efficient and evidence for an optically opaque plasma core is found.     

Balancing aspects of numerical dissipation,dispersion, and aliasing in time-accurate simulations

The current study looks at the selection of scheme elements that are well-suited for long-time integration of unsteady flows in the absence or under-resolution of physical diffusion. A concerted assembly of numerical components are chosen relative to a target aliasing limit, which is taken as a best-case scenario for overall spectral resolvability. High-order and optimized difference stencils are employed in order to achieve accuracy; meanwhile, quasi skew-symmetric splitting techniques for nonlinear transport terms are used in order to greatly improve robustness. Finally, tunable and scale-discriminant artificial-dissipation methods are incorporated for de-aliasing purposes and as a means of further enhancing both accuracy and stability. Central finite difference methods are considered, and spectral characterizations of the scheme components are presented. Canonical test cases (the isentropic vortex [IV] and Taylor-Green vortex problems) are chosen in order to highlight the benefits associated with the proposed approach for enhancing overall algorithm robustness and accuracy.     

Semiquinone Intermediates in the Two‐Electron Reduction of Quinones in Aqueous Media and their Exceptionally High Reactivity towards Oxygen Reduction

We report the catalytic anthraquinone‐mediated reduction of oxygen at a boron‐doped diamond electrode. Scheme of squares modelling confirms the existence of and reveals the role of the semiquinone intermediates, which are shown to have an exceptional reactivity towards oxygen (as compared to the di‐reduced anthraquinone).