The short-term price impact of trades is universal

We analyze a proprietary dataset of trades by a single asset manager, comparing their price impact with that of the trades of the rest of the market. In the context of a linear propagator model we find no significant difference between the two, suggesting that both the magnitude and time dependence of impact are universal in anonymous, electronic markets. This result is important as optimal execution policies often rely on propagators calibrated on anonymous data. We also find evidence that in the wake of a trade the order flow of other market participants first adds further copy-cat trades enhancing price impact on very short time scales. The induced order flow then quickly inverts, thereby contributing to impact decay.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Exact mass-coupling relation for the homogeneous sine-Gordon model

We derive the exact mass-coupling relation of the simplest multi-scale quantum integrable model, i.e., the homogeneous sine-Gordon model with two mass scales. The relation is obtained by comparing the perturbed conformal field theory description of the model valid at short distances to the large distance bootstrap description based on the model's integrability. In particular, we find a differential equation for the relation by constructing conserved tensor currents which satisfy a generalization of the $\Theta$ sum rule Ward identity. The mass-coupling relation is written in terms of hypergeometric functions.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. (v2) references and clarifications added; original title "Exact mass-coupling relation of the simplest multi-scale quantum integrable model" changed for journa

On the mass-coupling relation of multi-scale quantum integrable models

We determine exactly the mass-coupling relation for the simplest multi-scale quantum integrable model, the homogenous sine-Gordon model with two independent mass-scales. We first reformulate its perturbed coset CFT description in terms of the perturbation of a projected product of minimal models. This representation enables us to identify conserved tensor currents on the UV side. These UV operators are then mapped via form factor perturbation theory to operators on the IR side, which are characterized by their form factors. The relation between the UV and IR operators is given in terms of the sought-for mass-coupling relation. By generalizing the $\Theta$ sum rule Ward identity we are able to derive differential equations for the mass-coupling relation, which we solve in terms of hypergeometric functions. We check these results against the data obtained by numerically solving the thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz equations, and find a complete agreement.Comment: 55 pages, 9 figures, reference added, minor changes, published versio

QCD thermodynamics with continuum extrapolated Wilson fermions II

We continue our investigation of 2+1 flavor QCD thermodynamics using dynamical Wilson fermions in the fixed scale approach. Two additional pion masses, approximately 440 MeV and 285 MeV, are added to our previous work at 545 MeV. The simulations were performed at 3 or 4 lattice spacings at each pion mass. The renormalized chiral condensate, strange quark number susceptibility and Polyakov loop is obtained as a function of the temperature and we observe a decrease in the light chiral pseudo-critical temperature as the pion mass is lowered while the pseudo-critical temperature associated with the strange quark number susceptibility or the Polyakov loop is only mildly sensitive to the pion mass. These findings are in agreement with previous continuum results obtained in the staggered formulation.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, published versio

Oxidation and Release of Ruthenium from White Inclusions

In this paper the laboratory test results on oxidation and release of ruthenium as a fission product element are summarised. The ruthenium appears in the nuclear fuel pellets of pressurized water reactors as one of the fission product elements during burnup. In case of severe accident when the air can contact the degraded hot fuel, the ruthenium oxidises and its gaseous oxides, especially the RuO4, release rapidly from the pellets to the environment. Because of high radio- and chemotoxicity of ruthenium tetra-oxide further experimental study of oxidation and release is essential. It is well known that ruthenium in the irradiated fuel UO2 fuel appears in small metallic alloy precipitations together with fission product elements as Mo, Rh, Pd and Tc. The precipitations are seen in the metallographic pictures as white inclusions. This separate effect study focused on the differences in the release rate of gaseous ruthenium oxides when pure ruthenium or Mo-Ru-Rh-Pd metallic alloy is present in the simulated nuclear fuel. The oxidation and release were studied at constant reaction temperatures of 1000 or 1100 Celsius. The tests showed that during high-temperature oxidation of the Mo-Ru-Rh-Pd alloy in air flow the release rate of gaseous ruthenium oxides is reduced to 60-80% compared to the value measured in case of oxidation of pure metallic ruthenium powder in the same thermal-hydraulic conditions. Furthermore, if additional elements and chemical compounds representing other fission products were added in the alloy, a time delay of 30 to 60 min appeared in the release of gaseous ruthenium to the room-temperature environment. One of the main results was that in the outlet air flow reaching the environment the partial pressure of RuO4 was far above what could be expected for room-temperature equilibrium conditions. It was pointed out that the highly volatile RuO4 can decompose in solid, non-volatile RuO2 and O2. The X-ray fluorescence analysis results showed that some ruthenium compounds deposited on the colder circuit walls of the test facility. This suggests RuO4 is not fully airstable, i.e., its stability in air can be limited in time.JRC.F.4-Nuclear design safet

The deterrent effect of the death penalty from an econometric point of view

The present paper deals with whether the death penalty deters murderers from committing capital crimes. It examines this matter on the basis of those empirical investigations conducted in the last two decades by, primarily, American economists and criminologists. These analyses presented in my study attempted to reveal using different statistical methods whether people’s strong belief in that capital punishment can prevent committing a certain sum of nonnegligent manslaughters in the future through the potential perpetrators’ fear of being executed if arrested is indeed corroborated by empirical studies. In my essay I examine this issue in three chapters. In the first and the second one I review some of those partial researches made in the last two decades in this field in the United States; the third chapter surveys those studies conducted by one of the most famous and most influential contemporary econometrists, Joanna M. Shepherd; and, in the end, the fourth chapter introduces some critiques and extensions of Shepherd’s results. As a conclusion I state that there is still not irrefutable evidence either that capital punishment does certainly have or that it undoubtedly does not have any deterrent effect

The capital punishment controversy in Hungary: fragments on the issues of deterrent effect and wrongful convictions

Although the death penalty has been abolished in the majority of the European countries by now (it is only applied in Belarus, while Russia can be considered a so-called de facto abolitionist state, where this sanction exists in theory, but no execution has taken place in the last fifteen years and, according to the current situation, will not take place anymore), the debates concerning capital punishment keep arising. In many European countries leading politicians argue or have recently argued in favour of reinstatement of the death penalty. The debate related to capital punishment keeps arising in Hungary as well, especially after brutal murders. Various politicians stated that, according to their personal opinion, the reinstatement of the death penalty would be expedient or proper, or that it should not have been abolished in the first place. The present paper deals with this contemporary discussion, with special regard to the issues of deterrent effect and wrongful convictions

Animal Protection and Animal 'Rights' in Hungary

In Hungary, the first Act on Animal Protection, which aimed at handling and respecting animals as living creatures capable of feelings and suffering and thus deserving and entitled to protection, was adopted in 1998. Based on this, the Act contains several regulations which ensure that animals are protected against all possible kinds of avoidable physical or mental harm. Furthermore, it prohibits and imposes sanctions for any treatment that causes animals unnecessary suffering. The present study, outlooking at the end of this paper to the case for whether animals can have subjective rights, undertakes to focus on such regulations with the intent of verifying that the current Hungarian regulation harmonizes with modern European trends; in fact, to a certain extent (e.g. by applying criminal sanctions for animal torturing), it even provides guidelines for those trends