The principle of local covariance which was recently introduced admits a generally covariant formulation of quantum field theory. It allows a discussion of structural properties of quantum field theory as well as the perturbative construction of renormalized interacting models on generic curved backgrounds and opens in principle the way towards a background independent perturbative quantization...

In many problems in spatial statistics it is necessary to infer a global problem solution by combining local models. A principled approach to this problem is to develop a global probabilistic model for the relationships between local variables and to use this as the prior in a Bayesian inference procedure. We show how a Gaussian process with hyper-parameters estimated from Numerical Weather Pre...

We overview the use of field experiments in labor economics. We showcase studies that highlight the central advantages of this methodology, which include: (i) using economic theory to design the null and alternative hypotheses; (ii) engineering exogenous variation in real world economic environments to establish causal relations and learn about the underlying mechanisms; and (iii) engaging in p...

We study the Fundamental Plane (FP) of field early-type galaxies at intermediate redshift, using HST WFPC2 observations and deep Keck spectroscopy. Structural parameters and internal velocity dispersions are measured for eighteen galaxies at 0.15 < z < 0.55. Rest frame M⁄ LB ratios are determined from the Fundamental Plane and compared to those of cluster early-type galaxies at the same redshif...

In this lecture at a school for condensed matter physicist, I begin with basic concepts and tools for investigating phase transitions in quantum field theory. The very different roles of global and gauge symmetries in phase transitions will be elucidated. Among the important applications of the basic theory the thermodynamics of the electroweak transition is treated in detail, and the implicati...

In Graph Theory a number of results were devoted to studying the computational complexity of the number modulo 2 of a graph’s edge set decompositions of various kinds, first of all including its Hamiltonian decompositions, as well as the number modulo 2 of, say, Hamiltonian cycles/paths etc. While the problems of finding a Hamiltonian decomposition and Hamiltonian cycle are NP-complete, countin...

We extend Karma and Rappel's improved asymptotic analysis of the phase eld model to diierent diiusivities in solid and liquid. We consider both second-order \classical" asymp-totics, in which the interface thickness is taken much smaller than the capillary length, and the new \isothermal" asymptotics, in which the two lengths are considered comparable. In the rst case, if the phase eld model is...

This note is a short review of the way Hitchin systems appear in four-dimensional N = 2 supersymmetric field theory. The literature on the Hitchin system and its role in quantum field theory is a vast one. Restricting attention just to the role of Hitchin systems in N = 2 supersymmetric field theory (thus neglecting such fascinating topics as T-duality on the Hitchin fibration and its relation ...