Title of dissertation: NOVEL TECHNIQUES FOR SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS OF BLACK HOLE MERGERS William Darian Boggs, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Professor Manuel Tiglio Department of Physics This dissertation consists of three research topics from numerical relativity: waveforms from inspiral mergers of black hole binaries, recoils from head-on mergers of black holes, and a ...

The nonthermal radiation observed from a handfull of clusters of Galaxies is the proof that particle acceleration occurs in the intracluster medium. It is often believed that shock surfaces associated with either mergers of clusters of galaxies, or with the cosmological inflow of matter onto clusters during structure formation may be the sites for acceleration. We discuss here the effectiveness...

We develop a model for the cosmological role of mergers in the evolution of starbursts, quasars, and spheroidal galaxies. By combining theoretically well-constrained halo and subhalo mass functions as a function of redshift and environment with empirical halo occupation models, we can estimate where galaxies of given properties live at a particular epoch. This allows us to calculate, in an a pr...

Research on various dialects of English has demonstrated the existence of so-called near-mergers. The present study examines the identification and discrimination of the vowels of Western Sydney Australian English, for which no such mergers have been previously documented. We find evidence for perceptual confusion of / /-/ / (in /hVb /), despite significant acoustic differences in productions o...

Farrell and Shapiro (2008) have proposed a test – called the Upward Pricing Pressure (“UPP”) test – to evaluate potential unilateral effects of horizontal mergers. The UPP test is based on the Bertrand model of price competition with differentiated products. Accordingly, the UPP test can be applied to mergers in industries where suppliers post prices and customers choose which supplier(s) to bu...

Efficiency claims play a key role in the analysis of mergers and horizontal agreements. Static efficiencies, associated with the production and distribution of existing products, are most often considered relevant. Dynamic efficiencies, of improved processes and products, are also important, but they are inherently more difficult to estimate. Efficiencies tend to play a larger role in analysis ...

The 1992 Horizontal Merger Guidelines suggest that the merger of two relatively weak competitors may result in a strong competitor and may lead to lower prices, despite the resulting increase in concentration. This paper introduces incomplete information into a simple model of repeated competition among firms that are asymmetric in their likely degree of efficiency at each stage of competition....