Evolution of Gross Domestic Product in the World

  • Color of country: GDP growth on an annual basis adjusted for inflation.
  • Size of country in rescaled map: total GDP in USD (size of economy).
  • Data sources: CIA Factbook for GDP data. Natural Earth website for shapefiles of the world.
  • Model for rescaling: Based on modified version of the algorithm described in the paper by Min Ouyang and Peter Revesz.

GDP growth in 2010

Deformed world map of GDP and GDP growthWorld Map of GDP growth


Deformed world map of GDP and GDP growth

fBot Portfolio Example

This example also relies on the component of the project that processes information. To demonstrate this, I constructed a fake portfolio containing a fund from each of the major Belgian banks:

Price or amount   Buy date Sell date
CD 3.7% 5000 EUR January 1, 2007 January 1, 2008
ING L Invest Greater China P Acc   5.0x January 1, 2007 December 1, 2007
Dexia Bonds International C 3.0x January 1, 2007 .
Fortis L Commodity World Classic 50.0x August 1, 2007 .
CD 5.1% 7000 EUR January 1, 2008 January 1, 2009
KBC Renta Florinrenta Acc 3.0x February 1, 2008   .

This portfolio (including the data needed for the interest rates plot above) is defined in an xml control file. Taxes and fees on the individual assets and portfolio can be specified in this control file. Note that the control file also logs the exchange rate of the Hungarian forint versus the euro since the value of KBC Renta Florinrenta Acc is read off from the web by the webbot in HUF.

The evolution of the currently held assets which do not have a fixed interest can be followed on this chart. The total value of the portfolio from January 1, 2007 until December 15, 2008, is sketched below.

Portfolio total value

The daily return over the last two weeks until December 15, 2008, is sketched below.

Portfolio daily return

The chart below plots the yearly interest rate a hypothetical zero-coupon bond without fees or taxes would need to have, to obtain the same performance over a specified period. In the chart these periods are 3 months, 6 months and 1 year respectively.

Portfolio performance

VScape

Note: VScape is no longer being maintained.

DESCRIPTION

Vscape (a.k.a. a Metastable Program for Metastable Vacua)

Vscape is an interactive tool for studying the one-loop effective potential of an ungauged supersymmetric model of chiral multiplets. The program allows the user to define a supersymmetric model by specifying the superpotential. The F-terms and the scalar and fermionic mass matrices are calculated symbolically. The program then allows you to search numerically for (meta)stable minima of the one-loop effective potential. Additional commands enable you to further study specific minima, by e.g. computing the mass spectrum for those vacua. Vscape combines the flexibility of symbolic software with the speed of a numerical package.

The program can generate data files that can easily be plotted with a mathematical package (Mathematica, Maple,...). Vscape also produces output files formatted according the Model Input File standard described in the Les Houches Accord 1.0. The output of Vscape can thus subsequently be fed into a susy spectrum generator (e.g. SOFTSUSY).

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALLATION

Linux

To install the program you will need a C++ compiler. Besides the standard C++ libraries, you will also need the (developers) version 1.10 or higher of the GNU Scientific Library (GSL) for numerical outines, version 1.4.1 or newer of GiNaC and version 1.2.0 or higher of Class Library for Numbers (CLN) for symbolic routines. Although not essential, it is useful to have a version of the GNU Readline Library installed for handy tab completion. CLN has to be installed before you install GiNac, since GiNaC is based on CLN. Note that CLN only compiles without hassle on the GNU g++ compiler version 2.95 or newer. To install Vscape the pkg-config utility is required.

Once the libraries are installed, download the file:

vscape-1.1.3.tar.gz

For a default installation, execute the following commands on a terminal in the directory containing the downloaded file:

tar -xvf vscape-1.1.3.tar.gz
./configure                
make                       
make install               
Additional installation options are detailed in the INSTALL file included in .tar.gz file. You run the program by typing:
Vscape

Windows

A compiled version for Windows (XP) can easily be installed by downloading

vscape-1.1.3.zip

Unzip the file in an empty directory, then run the program Vscape.exe. To remove the program again, delete the directory with its content. This compiled version might not work on all Windows versions. To study more complex, computationally intensive models we suggest to use the Linux version, since this Windows version is at least 4 times slower, since it relies on the emulator dlls from cygwin.

MANUAL

Check the manual, for more information on how to use the program. To ask questions, report bugs or make suggestions please contact the author.

AUTHOR

Korneel van den Broek <my-first-name@physics.rutgers.edu>

Physics Graduate Student
Rutgers University
136 Frelinghuysen Road
Piscataway NJ, 08854
U.S.A.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2007 Korneel van den Broek - Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ, USA.

If you use Vscape to write a paper, please cite

Korneel van den Broek, "Vscape V1.1.0 - An Interactive Tool for Metastable Vacua", arXiv:0705.2019v1 [hep-ph].

which is the Vscape manual. The version on the arXiv will be updated along with new releases of the program.

This program is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.