  Given a birational modification $X \to Y$ of complex projective varieties
with fiber dimension 1 and rational singularities, consider the main component
of Bridgeland's moduli space $W \to Y$ of perverse point sheaves on $X/Y$. We
give criteria for the normalization of $W$ to coincide with the transform
(flip/flop) $X^+ \to Y$ of $X \to Y$. First, this holds if the exceptional loci
of $X \to Y$ and $W \to Y$ have codimension $>1$. Second, if the ideal sheaf of
$X \times_Y X^+$ is flat over $X^+$ then there is at least a morphism $X^+ \to
W$. We illustrate the results using a number of examples, including surface
modifications and standard Francia flips.


  The field equations of $f(R)$ gravity are rewritten in the form of obvious
wave equations with the stress-energy pseudotensor of the matter fields and the
gravitational field as its source under the de Donder condition. The method of
multipole analysis in terms of irreducible Cartesian tensors is applied to the
linearized $f(R)$ gravity, and its multipole expansion is presented explicitly.
In this expansion, the tensor part is symmetric and trace-free and is the same
as that in General Relativity, and the scalar part predicts the appearance of
monopole and dipole radiation in $f(R)$ gravity, as shown in literature. As a
by-product, the multipole expansion for the massive Klein-Gordon field with an
external source in terms of irreducible Cartesian tensors and its corresponding
stationary results are provided.


  The spin-2 graviton excitations in the Randall-Sundrum gravity model provides
a t-channel contribution to electron Compton scattering which competes
favourably with the standard QED contributions. The phenomenological
implications of these contributions to the unpolarized and polarized
cross-sections are evaluated.


  In this work we made an analysis of the current status of velocity dependent
(bound) field components in the framework of the standard electromagnetic
theory. Preliminary discussions of the structure of the magnetic field due to
an idealized oscillating magnetic dipole provided us with the quantitative
insights on the relative contribution of velocity dependent (bound) and
acceleration dependent (radiation) terms into the resultant magnetic field.
According to this analysis we defined the methodological scheme based on a
generalized (time-dependent) Biot-Savart law capable to test the applicability
of the standard retardation condition on bound field components. In the second
part of this work we made the theoretical analysis of the finite size
multi-section antennas, confirming the validity of the methodological scheme
conceived for an idealized magnetic dipole. The use of multi-section antennas
is fully justified by a substantial rise of the ratio of bound-to-radiation
field strength. Finally, we effected numerical calculations taking into account
particular experimental settings and compared them with experimentally obtained
data that unambiguously indicate on the non-applicability of the standard
retardation condition to bound magnetic fields. In addition, experimental
observations show a striking coincidence with the predictions of a new
generalized Biot-Savart law which implies the spreading velocity of bound
fields highly exceeding the velocity of light.


  We present an integrated database suitable for the investigations of the
Economic development of countries by using the Economic Fitness and Complexity
framework. Firstly, we implement machine learning techniques to reconstruct the
database of Trade of Services and we integrate it with the database of the
Trade of the physical Goods, generating a complete view of the International
Trade and denoted the Universal database. Using this data, we derive a
statistically significant network of interaction of the Economic activities,
where preferred paths of development and clusters of High-Tech industries
naturally emerge. Finally, we compute the Economic Fitness, an algorithmic
assessment of the competitiveness of countries, removing the unexpected
misbehaviour of Economies under-represented by the sole consideration of the
Trade of the physical Goods.


  High-frequency wave propagation is often modelled by nonlinear Friedrichs
systems where both the differential equation and the initial data contain the
inverse of a small parameter $\varepsilon$, which causes oscillations with
wavelengths proportional to $\varepsilon$ in time and space. A prominent
example is the Maxwell--Lorentz system, which is a well-established model for
the propagation of light in nonlinear media. In diffractive optics, such
problems have to be solved on long time intervals with length proportional to
$1/\varepsilon$. Approximating the solution of such a problem numerically with
a standard method is hopeless, because traditional methods require an extremely
fine resolution in time and space, which entails unacceptable computational
costs. A possible alternative is to replace the original problem by a new
system of PDEs which is more suitable for numerical computations but still
yields a sufficiently accurate approximation. Such models are often based on
the \emph{slowly varying envelope approximation} or generalizations thereof.
Results in the literature state that the error of the slowly varying envelope
approximation is of $\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon)$. In this work, however, we prove
that the error is even proportional to $\varepsilon^2$, which is a substantial
improvement, and which explains the error behavior observed in numerical
experiments. For a higher-order generalization of the slowly varying envelope
approximation we improve the error bound from $\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon^2)$ to
$\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon^3)$. Both proofs are based on a careful analysis of
the nonlinear interaction between oscillatory and non-oscillatory error terms,
and on \textit{a priori} bounds for certain ``parts'' of the approximations
which are defined by suitable projections.


  In Named Data Networking (NDN), data is identified by unique names instead of
IP addresses, and routers use the names of the content to forward Interest
packets towards the producers of the requested content. However, the current
content search mechanism in NDN is complex and slow. This mechanism not only
creates congestion but also hinders practical deployment due to its slowness
and cumbersome nature. To address this issue, we propose a methodology, called
BalanceDN, that distributes content through the network such that sought
content can be found quickly. BalanceDN uses a distributed allocation of
resolvers as those used by the domain name system but differs in how content is
distributed. Our approach avoids flooding the network with pending interest
requests and also eliminates the need for blind search when the location of
content is unknown. We tested our approach on ndnSIM; a simulation platform for
NDN. The results show that the proposed routing scheme utilizes far fewer
network resources compared to the NDN network when retrieving content. The
proposed scheme accomplishes this performance gain by leveraging a
load-balanced hashing mechanism to distribute and locate the name of the
content on the distributed nameserver lookup service nodes.


  We investigate the dynamics of a driven two-level system (classical Rabi
model) using the counter-rotating-hybridized rotating wave method (CHRW), which
is a simple method based on a unitary transformation with a parameter $\xi$.
This approach is beyond the traditional rotating-wave approximation (Rabi-RWA)
and more importantly, remains the RWA form with a renormalized tunneling
strength and a modified driving strength. The reformulated rotating wave method
not only possesses the same mathematical simplicity as the Rabi-RWA but also
allows us to explore the effects of counter-rotating (CR) components. We focus
on the properties of off-resonance cases for which the Rabi-RWA method breaks
down. After comparing the results of different RWA schemes and those of the
numerically exact method in a wide range of parameter regime, we show that the
CHRW method gives the accurate driven dynamics which is in good agreement with
the numerical method. Moreover, the other RWA methods appear as various
limiting cases of the CHRW method. The CHRW method reveals the effects of the
CR terms clearly by means of coherent destruction of tunneling and
Bloch-Siegert shift. Our main results are as follows: (i) the dynamics of the
coherent destruction of tunneling is explicitly given and its dependence on
$\Delta$ is clarified, which is quantitatively in good agreement with the exact
results; (ii) the CR modulated Rabi frequency and the Bloch-Siegert shift are
analytically calculated, which is the same as the exact results up to fourth
order; (iii) the validity of parameter regions of different RWA methods are
given and the comparison of dynamics of these methods are shown. Since the CHRW
approach is mathematically simple as well as tractable and physically clear, it
may be extended to some complicated problems where it is difficult to do a
numerical study.


  Assertion-based verification (ABV) is a critical method for ensuring design
circuits comply with their architectural specifications, which are typically
described in natural language. This process often requires significant
interpretation by engineers to convert these specifications into functional
verification assertions. Existing methods for generating assertions from
natural language specifications are limited to sentences extracted by
engineers, discouraging the practical application. In this work, we present
AssertLLM, an automatic assertion generation framework for complete
specification files. AssertLLM breaks down the complex task into three phases,
incorporating three customized Large Language Models (LLMs) for extracting
structural specifications, mapping signal definitions, and generating
assertions. Additionally, we provide an open-source benchmark for assessing
assertion generation capabilities. Our evaluation of AssertLLM on a full
design, encompassing 23 signals, demonstrates that 89% of the generated
assertions are both syntactically and functionally accurate.


  We develop a formalism for calculating the entanglement entropy of an
arbitrary spatial region of a gravitating spacetime at a moment of time
symmetry. The crucial ingredient is a path integral over embeddings of the
region into the overall spacetime, interpretable as a sum over the edge modes
associated with the region. We find that the entanglement entropy of a
gravitating region equals the minimal surface area among all regions that
enclose it. This suggests a notion of "terrestrial holography" where regions of
space can encode larger ones, in contrast to the standard form of holography,
in which degrees of freedom on the celestial sphere at the boundary of the
universe encode the interior.


  A simple 1D dynamical model of thermally driven disc winds is proposed, based
on the results of recent, 2.5D axi-symmetric simulations. Our formulation of
the disc wind problem is in the spirit of the original Parker (1958) and Bondi
(1952) problems, namely we assume an elementary flow configuration consisting
of an outflow following pre-defined trajectories in the presence of a central
gravitating point mass. Viscosity and heat conduction are neglected. We
consider two different streamline geometries, both comprised of straight lines
in the (x,z)-plane: (i) streamlines that converge to a geometric point located
at (x,z)=(0,-d) and (ii) streamlines that emerge at a constant inclination
angle from the disc midplane (the x-axis, as we consider geometrically thin
accretion discs). The former geometry is commonly used in kinematic models to
compute synthetic spectra, while the latter, which exhibits self-similarity, is
likely unused for this purpose, although it easily can be with existing
kinematic models. We make the case that it should be, i.e. that geometry (ii)
leads to transonic wind solutions with substantially different properties owing
to its lack of streamline divergence. Both geometries can be used to complement
recent efforts to estimate photoevaporative mass loss rates from protoplanetary
discs. Pertinent to understanding our disc wind results, which are also
applicable to X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei, is a focused
discussion on lesser known properties of classic Parker wind solutions. We find
that the parameter space corresponding to decelerating Parker wind solutions is
made larger due to rotation and leads instead to disc wind solutions that
always accelerate after the bulk velocity is slowed to a minimum value.
Surprisingly, Keplerian rotation may allow for two different transonic wind
solutions for the same physical conditions.


  In the context of the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) the
next-to-next-to-leading (NNLO) QCD corrections to the Higgsstrahlungs ($Vh$)
processes in hadronic collisions are calculated and matched to a parton shower
(PS). NNLO+PS precision is achieved for the complete sets of SMEFT operators
that describe the interactions between the Higgs and two vector bosons and the
couplings of the Higgs, a $W$ or a $Z$ boson, and light fermions. A POWHEG-BOX
implementation of the computed NNLO SMEFT corrections is provided that allows
for a realistic exclusive description of $Vh$ production at the level of
hadronic events. This feature makes it an essential tool for future Higgs
characterisation studies by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. Utilising our new
Monte Carlo code the numerical impact of NNLO$+$PS corrections on the kinematic
distributions in $pp \to Zh \to \ell^+ \ell^- h$ production is explored,
employing well-motivated SMEFT benchmark scenarios.


  If the mean properties of clusters of galaxies are well described by the
entropy-driven model, the distortion induced by the cluster population on the
blackbody spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation is proportional
to the total amount of intracluster gas while temperature anisotropies are
dominated by the contribution of clusters of about 10^{14} solar masses. This
result depends marginally on cluster parameters and it can be used to estimate
the number density of clusters with enough hot gas to produce a detectable
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. Comparing different cosmological models, the
relation depends mainly on the density parameter Omega_m. If the number density
of clusters could be estimated by a different method, then this dependence
could be used to constrain Omega_m.


  Circuit algebras, introduced by Bar-Natan and the first author, are a
generalization of Jones's planar algebras, in which one drops the planarity
condition on "connection diagrams". They provide a useful language for the
study of virtual and welded tangles in low-dimensional topology. In this note,
we present the circuit algebra analogue of the well-known classification of
planar algebras as pivotal categories with a self-dual generator. Our main
theorem is that there is an equivalence of categories between circuit algebras
and the category of linear wheeled props - a type of strict symmetric tensor
category with duals that arises in homotopy theory, deformation theory and the
Batalin-Vilkovisky quantization formalism.


  As shown previously, quantum mechanics directly violates the weak equivalence
principle in general and in all dimensions, and thus indirectly violates the
strong equivalence principle in all dimensions. The present paper shows that
quantum mechanics also directly violates the strong equivalence principle
unless it is arbitrarily abetted in hindsight. Vital domains are shown to exist
in which quantum gravity would be nonapplicable. There are classical subtleties
in which the strong equivalence principle appears to be violated, but is not.
Neutron free fall interference experiments in a gravitational field reveal some
evidence for a violation of the equivalence principle. Galileo's falling body
assertion and the misconception it leads to, are examined,


  The authors study the geometry of lightlike hypersurfaces on manifolds $(M,
c)$ endowed with a pseudoconformal structure $c = CO (n - 1, 1)$ of Lorentzian
signature. Such hypersurfaces are of interest in general relativity since they
can be models of different types of physical horizons. On a lightlike
hypersurface, the authors consider the fibration of isotropic geodesics and
investigate their singular points and singular submanifolds. They construct a
conformally invariant normalization of a lightlike hypersurface intrinsically
connected with its geometry and investigate affine connections induced by this
normalization. The authors also consider special classes of lightlike
hypersurfaces. In particular, they investigate lightlike hypersurfaces for
which the elements of the constructed normalization are integrable.


  A conformally invariant theory of Majorana fermions in 2<d<4 with O(N)
symmetry is studied using Operator Product Expansions and consistency relations
based on the cancellation of shadow singularities. The critical coupling G_{*}
of the theory is calculated to leading order in 1/N. This value is then used to
reproduce the O(1/N) correction for the anomalous dimension of the fermion
field as evidence for the validity of our approach to conformal field theory in
d>2.


  All instances of the semidirect key exchange protocol, a generalisation of
the famous Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol, satisfy the so-called
"telescoping equality"; in some cases, this equality has been used to construct
an attack. In this report we present computational evidence suggesting that an
instance of the scheme called `MOBS' is an example of a scheme where the
telescoping equality has too many solutions to be a practically viable means to
conduct an attack.


  The paper presents partial overview of the mathematical synthesis and the
physical realization of metasurfaces, and related illustrative examples. The
synthesis consists in determining the exact tensorial surface susceptibility
functions of the metasurface, based on generalized sheet transition conditions,
while the realization deals with both metallic and dielectric scattering
particle structures. The examples demonstrate the capabilities of the synthesis
and realization techniques, thereby showing the plethora of possible
metasurface field transmission and subsequent applications. The first example
is the design of two diffraction engineering birefringent metasurfaces
performing polarization beam splitting and orbital angular momentum
multiplexing, respectively. Next, we discuss the concept of the "transistor"
metasurface, which is an electromagnetic linear switch based on destructive
interferences. Then, we introduce a non-reciprocal non-gyrotropic metasurface
using a pick-up circuit radiator (PCR) architecture. Finally, the
implementation of all-dielectric metasurfaces for spatial dispersion
engineering is discussed.


  We consider the motion of a finite though large number $N$ of hard spheres in
the whole space $\mathbb{R}^n$. Particles move freely until they experience
elastic collisions. We use our recent theory of Compensated Integrability in
order to estimate how much the particles are deviated by collisions. Our
result, which is expressed in terms of hodographs, tells us that only $O(N^2)$
collisions are significant.


  We are concerned with random walks on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, $d\geq 3$, in an i.i.d.
random environment with transition probabilities $\epsilon$-close to those of
simple random walk. We assume that the environment is balanced in one fixed
coordinate direction, and invariant under reflection in the coordinate
hyperplanes. The invariance condition was used in Baur and Bolthausen (2014) as
a weaker replacement of isotropy to study exit distributions. We obtain precise
results on mean sojourn times in large balls and prove a quenched invariance
principle, showing that for almost all environments, the random walk converges
under diffusive rescaling to a Brownian motion with a deterministic (diagonal)
diffusion matrix. We also give a concrete description of the diffusion matrix.
Our work extends the results of Lawler (1982), where it is assumed that the
environment is balanced in all coordinate directions.


  Hallucinations in text generation occur when the system produces text that is
not grounded in the input. In this work, we tackle the problem of
hallucinations in neural chart summarization. Our analysis shows that the
target side of chart summarization training datasets often contains additional
information, leading to hallucinations. We propose a natural language inference
(NLI) based method to preprocess the training data and show through human
evaluation that our method significantly reduces hallucinations. We also found
that shortening long-distance dependencies in the input sequence and adding
chart-related information like title and legends improves the overall
performance.


  The central engine of a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) is widely believed to launch a
pair of oppositely moving jets, i.e. the forward jet moving towards us and the
counter jet regressing away. The forward jet generates the radiation typically
observed in GRBs, while the counter jet has not been detected yet due to its
dimness. GRB 170817A, a short burst associated with a binary neutron star
merger event, is a nearby event ($z=0.0097$) with an off-axis structured
energetic forward jet and hence probably the most suitable target for searching
the counter jet radiation. Assuming the same properties for the forward and
counter jet components as well as the shock parameters, the fit to the
multi-wavelength afterglow emission of GRB 170817A suggests a peak time $\sim
{\rm quite~a~few}\times 10^{3}$ day of the counter jet radiation, but the
detection prospect of this new component is not promising. Anyhow, if the shock
parameters ($\epsilon_{\rm e}$ and $\epsilon_{\rm B}$) of the counter jet
component are (a few times) higher than that of the forward shock, as allowed
by the current data and found in previous two-component jet modeling, the
counter jet afterglow emission will be enhanced and hence may be detected. A
few hour exposure by JWST in F356W band will stringently test such a scenario.


  An analytic Bethe ansatz is carried out related to tensor-like
representations of the type II Lie superalgebras B(r|s)=osp(2r+1|2s) (r > -1, s
>0) and D(r|s)=osp(2r|2s) (r >1, s >0). We present eigenvalue formulae of
transfer matrices in dressed vacuum forms labeled by Young (super) diagrams. A
class of transfer matrix functional relations (T-system) is discussed. In
particular for B(0|s)=osp(1|2s)(s >0) case, a complete set of functional
relations is proposed by using duality among dressed vacuum forms.


  We calculate the atomic structure of hydrogen and helium, atoms and molecules
in an intense magnetic field, analytically and numerically with a judiciously
chosen basis.


  We present new HST/WFC3 observations and re-analyse VLT data to unveil the
continuum, variability and rest-frame UV lines of the multiple UV clumps of the
most luminous Ly$\alpha$ emitter at z=6.6, CR7. Our re-reduced, flux calibrated
X-SHOOTER spectra of CR7 reveal a HeII emission line in observations obtained
along the major axis of Lyman-alpha (Lya) emission with the best seeing
conditions. HeII is spatially offset by +0.8'' from the peak of Lya emission,
and it is found towards clump B. Our WFC3 grism spectra detects the UV
continuum of CR7's clump A, yielding a power law with
$\beta=-2.5^{+0.6}_{-0.7}$ and $M_{UV}=-21.87^{+0.25}_{-0.20}$. No significant
variability is found for any of the UV clumps on their own, but there is
tentative (~2.2$\sigma$) brightening of CR7 in F110W as a whole from 2012 to
2017. HST grism data fail to robustly detect rest-frame UV lines in any of the
clumps, implying fluxes <2x10$^{-17}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ (3 $\sigma$). We
perform CLOUDY modelling to constrain the metallicity and the ionising nature
of CR7. CR7 seems to be actively forming stars without any clear AGN activity
in clump A, consistent with a metallicity of ~0.05-0.2 Z$_{\odot}$. Component C
or an inter-clump component between B and C may host a high ionisation source.
Our results highlight the need for spatially resolved information to study the
formation and assembly of early galaxies.


  The fast neutrons produced by a calibrated 241Am-Be source were detected by
two different Cs2LiYCl6:Ce (CLYC) scintillator detectors. The two cylindrical
crystals (1"x1" in size) were enriched with more than 99% of 7Li (C7LYC) and
with about 95% of 6Li (C6LYC), respectively. Both crystals can detect fast
neutrons whereas only C6LYC can also detect thermal neutrons, due to the
presence of 6Li. The measurement was performed at the L.A.S.A. Laboratory of
INFN and University of Milano (Italy). To identify the neutron events, the
Pulse-Shape-Discrimination technique was used. A value for the detection
efficiency of the 241Am-Be emitted neutrons, with energy up to 10 MeV, was
deduced.


  We present new KPNO 0.9-m optical and VLA HI spectral line observations of
the Orion dwarf galaxy. This nearby (D ~ 5.4 Mpc), intermediate-mass (M_dyn =
1.1x10^10 Solar masses) dwarf displays a wealth of structure in its neutral
ISM, including three prominent "hole/depression" features in the inner HI disk.
We explore the rich gas kinematics, where solid-body rotation dominates and the
rotation curve is flat out to the observed edge of the HI disk (~6.8 kpc). The
Orion dwarf contains a substantial fraction of dark matter throughout its disk:
comparing the 4.7x10^8 Solar masses of detected neutral gas with estimates of
the stellar mass from optical and near-infrared imaging (3.7x10^8 Solar masses)
implies a mass-to-light ratio of ~13. New H alpha observations show only
modest-strength current star formation (~0.04 Solar masses per year); this star
formation rate is consistent with our 1.4 GHz radio continuum non-detection.


  Building comprehensive brain connectomes has proved of fundamental importance
in resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) analysis. Based on the foundation of brain
network, spatial-temporal-based graph convolutional networks have dramatically
improved the performance of deep learning methods in rs-fMRI time series
classification. However, existing works either pre-define the brain network as
the correlation matrix derived from the raw time series or jointly learn the
connectome and model parameters without any topology constraint. These methods
could suffer from degraded classification performance caused by the deviation
from the intrinsic brain connectivity and lack biological interpretability of
demonstrating the causal structure (i.e., effective connectivity) among brain
regions. Moreover, most existing methods for effective connectivity learning
are unaware of the downstream classification task and cannot sufficiently
exploit useful rs-fMRI label information. To address these issues in an
end-to-end manner, we model the brain network as a directed acyclic graph (DAG)
to discover direct causal connections between brain regions and propose
Spatial-Temporal DAG Convolutional Network (ST-DAGCN) to jointly infer
effective connectivity and classify rs-fMRI time series by learning brain
representations based on nonlinear structural equation model. The optimization
problem is formulated into a continuous program and solved with score-based
learning method via gradient descent. We evaluate ST-DAGCN on two public
rs-fMRI databases. Experiments show that ST-DAGCN outperforms existing models
by evident margins in rs-fMRI classification and simultaneously learns
meaningful edges of effective connectivity that help understand brain activity
patterns and pathological mechanisms in brain disease.


  This work addresses the problem of simulating Gaussian random fields that are
continuously indexed over a class of metric graphs, termed graphs with
Euclidean edges, being more general and flexible than linear networks. We
introduce three general algorithms that allow to reconstruct a wide spectrum of
random fields having a covariance function that depends on a specific metric,
called resistance metric, and proposed in recent literature. The algorithms are
applied to a synthetic case study consisting of a street network. They prove to
be fast and accurate in that they reproduce the target covariance function and
provide random fields whose finite-dimensional distributions are approximately
Gaussian.


  A d-partite hypergraph is called *fractionally balanced* if there exists a
non-negative, not identically zero, function on its edge set that has constant
degrees in each vertex side. Using a topological version of Hall's theorem we
prove lower bounds on the matching number of such hypergraphs. These bounds
yield rainbow versions of the KKM theorem for products of simplices, which in
turn are used to obtain some results on multiple-cake division, and on rainbow
matchings in families of d-intervals.


  Fluid Antenna Systems (FASs) have recently been proposed for enhancing the
performance of wireless communication. Previous antenna designs to meet the
requirements of FAS have been based on mechanically movable or liquid antennas
and therefore have limited reconfiguration speeds. In this paper, we propose a
design for a pixel-based reconfigurable antenna (PRA) that meets the
requirements of FAS and the required switching speed. It can provide 12 FAS
ports across 1/2 wavelength and consists of an E-slot patch antenna and an
upper reconfigurable pixel layer with 6 RF switches. Simulation and
experimental results from a prototype operating at 2.5 GHz demonstrate that the
design can meet the requirements of FAS including port correlation with matched
impedance.


  The opacity of spiral galaxy disks, from counts of distant galaxies, is
compared to HI column densities. The opacity measurements are calibrated using
the ``Synthetic Field Method'' from Gonzalez et al (1998) and Holwerda et al.
(2005a).
  When compared for individual disks, the HI column density and dust opacity do
not seem to be correlated as HI and opacity follow different radial profiles.
  To improve statistics, an average radial opacity profile is compared to an
average HI profile. Compared to dust-to-HI estimates from the literature, more
extinction is found in this profile. This difference may be accounted for by an
underestimate of the dust in earlier measurements due to their dependence on
dust temperature. Since the SFM is insensitive to the dust temperature, the
ratio between the SFM opacity and HI could very well be indicative of the true
ratio.
  Earlier claims for a radially extended cold dust disk were based on sub-mm
observations. A comparison between sub-mm observations and counts of distant
galaxies is therefore desirable. We present the best current example of such a
comparison, M51, for which the measurements seem to agree. However, this
remains an area where improved counts of distant galaxies, sub-mm observations
and our understanding of dust emissivity are needed.


  We investigate the structure of the neutron rich nucleus ^{19}C through
studies of its breakup in the Coulomb field of target nuclei. The breakup
amplitude is calculated within an adiabatic treatment of the projectile
excitation, which allows the use of the realistic wave functions for the
relative motion between the fragments in the ground state of the projectile.
The angular distribution of the center of mass of ^{19}C, longitudinal momentum
distribution of ^{18}C and relative energy spectrum of the fragments (neutron -
^{18}C) following the breakup of ^{19}C on heavy targets at beam energies below
100 MeV/nucleon have been computed using different configurations for the
ground state wave function of ^{19}C. In all the cases, the data seem to favor
a ^{18}C(0$^+)\otimes1s_{1/2}$ configuration for the ground state of ^{19}C,
with the one-neutron separation energy of 0.53 MeV.


  Spiking neural networks (SNNs) underlie low-power, fault-tolerant information
processing in the brain and could constitute a power-efficient alternative to
conventional deep neural networks when implemented on suitable neuromorphic
hardware accelerators. However, instantiating SNNs that solve complex
computational tasks in-silico remains a significant challenge. Surrogate
gradient (SG) techniques have emerged as a standard solution for training SNNs
end-to-end. Still, their success depends on synaptic weight initialization,
similar to conventional artificial neural networks (ANNs). Yet, unlike in the
case of ANNs, it remains elusive what constitutes a good initial state for an
SNN. Here, we develop a general initialization strategy for SNNs inspired by
the fluctuation-driven regime commonly observed in the brain. Specifically, we
derive practical solutions for data-dependent weight initialization that ensure
fluctuation-driven firing in the widely used leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF)
neurons. We empirically show that SNNs initialized following our strategy
exhibit superior learning performance when trained with SGs. These findings
generalize across several datasets and SNN architectures, including fully
connected, deep convolutional, recurrent, and more biologically plausible SNNs
obeying Dale's law. Thus fluctuation-driven initialization provides a
practical, versatile, and easy-to-implement strategy for improving SNN training
performance on diverse tasks in neuromorphic engineering and computational
neuroscience.


  The structure of nanoclusters is complex to describe due to their
noncrystallinity, even though bonding and packing constraints limit the local
atomic arrangements to only a few types. A computational scheme is presented to
extract coordination motifs from sample atomic configurations. The method is
based on a clustering analysis of multipole moments for atoms in the first
coodination shell. Its power to capture large-scale structural properties is
demonstrated by scanning through the ground state of the Lennard-Jones and
C$_{60}$ clusters collected at the Cambridge Cluster Database.


  We describe the Brown-Henneaux asymptotic symmetry of the general black holes
in the Chern-Simons gauge theory of the gauge group $SL(2;{\bf R})_L\times
SL(2;{\bf R})_R$. We make it clear that the vector-like subgroup $SL(2; {\bf
R})_{L+R}$ plays an essential role in describing the asymptotic symmetry
consistently. We find a quite general black hole solution in the $AdS_3$
gravity theory. The solution is specified by an infinite number of conserved
quantities which constitute a family of mapping from $S^1$ to the gauge group.
The BTZ black hole is one of the simplest case.


  We propose to harness the potential of simulation for the semantic
segmentation of real-world self-driving scenes in a domain generalization
fashion. The segmentation network is trained without any data of target domains
and tested on the unseen target domains. To this end, we propose a new approach
of domain randomization and pyramid consistency to learn a model with high
generalizability. First, we propose to randomize the synthetic images with the
styles of real images in terms of visual appearances using auxiliary datasets,
in order to effectively learn domain-invariant representations. Second, we
further enforce pyramid consistency across different "stylized" images and
within an image, in order to learn domain-invariant and scale-invariant
features, respectively. Extensive experiments are conducted on the
generalization from GTA and SYNTHIA to Cityscapes, BDDS and Mapillary; and our
method achieves superior results over the state-of-the-art techniques.
Remarkably, our generalization results are on par with or even better than
those obtained by state-of-the-art simulation-to-real domain adaptation
methods, which access the target domain data at training time.


  Recently d0 or intrinsic ferromagnetism was believed to provide an
alternative pathway to transition metal induced ferromagnetism in oxide. In
pursuit of augmenting the area of d0 ferromagnetism; we have undertaken to
study the crystal structure and magnetic properties of Ag-doped ZrO2 compounds.
Polycrystalline samples of Zr1-xAgxO2 (with x=0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08)
were prepared by solid-state reaction route. All the prepared compounds are
found to crystallize in monoclinic symmetry of ZrO2. In our study, pure ZrO2
compound exhibits paramagnetic behavior. However, the Ag-doped ZrO2 compounds
exhibit ferromagnetic to paramagnetic transition. The Curie temperature was
found to increase from 28.7 K for x=0.02 to 173.2 K for x= 0.08 doped ZrO2.
Thus, the introduction of Ag in ZrO2 induces ferromagnetism with a large
ThetaC. The measurements of hysteresis curves indicate that Ag doped ZrO2
compounds exhibit hysteresis loops with a coercivity of around 1350 Oe.
Moreover, increase in Ag concentration resulted increase in the value of
saturation magnetization (MS); the maximum value of MS was recorded as 0.01
{\mu}B/Ag ion for x= 0.06 sample. The sintering of sample at high temperature
(13500C) diminishes the ferromagnetism and it leads to paramagnetic behaviour.


  The use of two truly two-dimensional gapless semiconductors, monolayer and
bilayer graphene, as current-carrying components in field-effect transistors
(FET) gives access to new types of nanoelectronic devices. Here, we report on
the development of graphene-based FETs containing two decoupled graphene
monolayers manufactured from a single one folded during the exfoliation
process. The transport characteristics of these newly-developed devices differ
markedly from those manufactured from a single-crystal bilayer. By analyzing
Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations, we demonstrate the possibility to independently
control the carrier densities in both layers using top and bottom gates,
despite there being only a nano-meter scale separation between them.


  This paper aims to examine the composition of various spherically symmetric
star models which are coupled with anisotropic configuration in
$f(\mathcal{R},\mathcal{T},\mathcal{Q})$ gravity, where
$\mathcal{Q}=\mathcal{R}_{\chi\xi}\mathcal{T}^{\chi\xi}$. We discuss the
physical features of compact objects by employing bag model equation of state
and construct the modified field equations in terms of Krori-Barua ansatz
involving unknowns ($A,B,C$). The observational data of 4U 1820-30,~Vela
X-I,~SAX J 1808.4-3658,~RXJ 1856-37 and Her X-I is used to calculate these
unknowns and bag constant $\mathfrak{B_c}$. Further, we observe the behavior of
energy density, radial and tangential pressure as well as anisotropy through
graphical interpretation for a viable model $\mathcal{R}+\varrho\mathcal{Q}$ of
this gravity. For a particular value of the coupling constant $\varrho$, we
study the behavior of mass, compactness, redshift and the energy bounds. The
stability of the considered stars is also checked by using two criteria. We
conclude that our developed structure in this gravity is in well-agreement with
all the physical requirements.


  When developing tools for automated cortical segmentation, the ability to
produce topologically correct segmentations is important in order to compute
geometrically valid morphometry measures. In practice, accurate cortical
segmentation is challenged by image artifacts and the highly convoluted anatomy
of the cortex itself. To address this, we propose a novel deep learning-based
cortical segmentation method in which prior knowledge about the geometry of the
cortex is incorporated into the network during the training process. We design
a loss function which uses the theory of Laplace's equation applied to the
cortex to locally penalize unresolved boundaries between tightly folded sulci.
Using an ex vivo MRI dataset of human medial temporal lobe specimens, we
demonstrate that our approach outperforms baseline segmentation networks, both
quantitatively and qualitatively.


  We investigate the properties of interstellar dust in the Galactic center
region toward the Arches and Quintuplet clusters. With the Fourier Transform
Spectrometer of the AKARI/Far-Infrared Surveyor, we performed the far-infrared
(60 - 140 cm^-1) spectral mapping of an area of about 10' x 10' which includes
the two clusters to obtain a low-resolution (R = 1.2 cm^-1) spectrum at every
spatial bin of 30" x 30". We derive the spatial variations of dust continuum
emission at different wavenumbers, which are compared with those of the [O III]
88 micron (113 cm^-1) emission and the OH 119 micron (84 cm^-1) absorption. The
spectral fitting shows that two dust modified blackbody components with
temperatures of ~20 K and ~50 K can reproduce most of the continuum spectra.
For some spectra, however, we find that there exists a significant excess on
top of a modified blackbody continuum around 80 - 90 cm^-1 (110 - 130 microns).
The warmer dust component is spatially correlated well with the [O III]
emission and hence likely to be associated with the highly-ionized gas locally
heated by intense radiation from the two clusters. The excess emission probably
represents a dust feature, which is found to be spatially correlated with the
OH absorption and a CO cloud. We find that a dust model including micron-sized
graphite grains can reproduce the observed spectrum with the dust feature
fairly well.


  It has recently been proven that in rank three tensor models, the
anti-symmetric and symmetric traceless sectors both support a large $N$
expansion dominated by melon diagrams [arXiv:1712.00249 [hep-th]]. We show how
to extend these results to the last irreducible $O(N)$ tensor representation
available in this context, which carries a two-dimensional representation of
the symmetric group $S_3$. Along the way, we emphasize the role of the
irreducibility condition: it prevents the generation of vector modes which are
not compatible with the large $N$ scaling of the tensor interaction. This
example supports the conjecture that a melonic large $N$ limit should exist
more generally for higher rank tensor models, provided that they are
appropriately restricted to an irreducible subspace.


  Beating the human world champions by 2050 is an ambitious goal of the
Humanoid League that provides a strong incentive for RoboCup teams to further
improve and develop their systems. In this paper, we present upgrades of our
system which enabled our team NimbRo to win the Soccer Tournament, the Drop-in
Games, and the Technical Challenges in the Humanoid AdultSize League of RoboCup
2022. Strong performance in these competitions resulted in the Best Humanoid
award in the Humanoid League. The mentioned upgrades include: hardware upgrade
of the vision module, balanced walking with Capture Steps, and the introduction
of phase-based in-walk kicks.


  We present the first feasible method for sampling a dynamic data stream with
deletions, where the sample consists of pairs $(k,C_k)$ of a value $k$ and its
exact total count $C_k$. Our algorithms are for both Strict Turnstile data
streams and the most general Non-strict Turnstile data streams, where each
element may have a negative total count. Our method improves by an order of
magnitude the known processing time of each element in the stream, which is
extremely crucial for data stream applications. For example, for a sample of
size $O(\epsilon^{-2} \log{(1/\delta)})$ in Non-strict streams, our solution
requires $O((\log\log(1/\epsilon))^2 + (\log\log(1/\delta)) ^ 2)$ operations
per stream element, whereas the best previous solution requires
$O(\epsilon^{-2} \log^2(1/\delta))$ evaluations of a fully independent hash
function per element. Here $1-\delta$ is the success probability and $\epsilon$
is the additive approximation error.
  We achieve this improvement by constructing a single data structure from
which multiple elements can be extracted with very high success probability.
The sample we generate is useful for calculating both forward and inverse
distribution statistics, within an additive error, with provable guarantees on
the success probability. Furthermore, our algorithms can run on distributed
systems and extract statistics on the union or difference between data streams.
They can be used to calculate the Jaccard similarity coefficient as well.


  It was recently discovered that the temperature in the surface layer of
externally heated optically thick gray dust clouds increases with the optical
depth for some distance from the surface, as opposed to the normal decrease in
temperature with distance in the rest of the cloud. This temperature inversion
is a result of efficient absorption of diffuse flux from the cloud interior by
the surface dust exposed to the external radiation. A micron or bigger size
grains experience this effect when the external flux is of stellar spectrum. We
explore what happens to the effect when dust is a mixture of grain sizes
(multigrain). Two possible boundary conditions are considered: i) a constant
external flux without constrains on the dust temperature, and ii) the maximum
dust temperature set to the sublimation temperature. We find that the first
condition allows small grains to completely suppress the temperature inversion
of big grains if the overall opacity is dominated by small grains. The second
condition enables big grains to maintain the inversion even when they are a
minor contributor to the opacity. In reality, the choice of boundary condition
depends on the dust dynamics. When applied to the physics of protoplanetary
disks, the temperature inversion leads to a previously unrecognized disk
structure where optically thin dust can exist inside the dust destruction
radius of an optically thick disk. We conclude that the transition between the
dusty disk and the gaseous inner clearing is not a sharp edge, but rather a
large optically thin region.


  High-significance evidences of the existence of a high-energy diffuse flux of
cosmic neutrinos have emerged in the last decade from several observations by
the IceCube Collaboration. The ANTARES neutrino telescope took data for 15
years in the Mediterranean Sea, from 2007 to 2022, and collected a high-purity
all-flavour neutrino sample. The search for a diffuse cosmic neutrino signal
using this dataset is presented in this article. This final analysis did not
provide a statistically significant observation of the cosmic diffuse flux:
this is converted into limits on the properties of the cosmic neutrino
spectrum. In particular, given the sensitivity of the ANTARES neutrino
telescope between 1 and 50 TeV, constraints on single-power-law hypotheses are
derived for the cosmic diffuse flux below 20 TeV.


  Sarnak's Density Conjecture is an explicit bound on the multiplicities of
non-tempered representations in a sequence of cocompact congruence arithmetic
lattices in a semisimple Lie group, which is motivated by the work of Sarnak
and Xue. The goal of this work is to discuss similar hypotheses, their
interrelation and applications. We mainly focus on two properties - the
spectral Spherical Density Hypothesis and the geometric Weak Injective Radius
Property. Our results are strongest in the p-adic case, where we show that the
two properties are equivalent, and both imply Sarnak's General Density
Hypothesis. One possible application is that either the Spherical Density
Hypothesis or the Weak Injective Radius Property imply Sarnak's Optimal Lifting
Property. Conjecturally, all those properties should hold in great generality.
We hope that this work will motivate their proofs in new cases.


  We construct Lagrange interpolating polynomials for a set of points and
values belonging to the algebra of real quaternions $H\simeq R_{0,2}$, or to
the real Clifford algebra $R_{0,3}$. In the quaternionic case, the approach by
means of Lagrange polynomials is new, and gives a complete solution of the
interpolation problem. In the case of $R_{0,3}$, such a problem is dealt with
here for the first time. Elements of the recent theory of slice regular
functions are used. Leaving apart the classical cases $R_{0,0}\simeq R$,
$R_{0,1}\simeq C$ and the trivial case $R_{1,0}\simeq R\oplus R$, the
interpolation problem on Clifford algebras $R_{p,q}$ with
$(p,q)\neq(0,2),(0,3)$ seems to have some intrinsic difficulties.


  RowHammer stands out as a prominent example, potentially the pioneering one,
showcasing how a failure mechanism at the circuit level can give rise to a
significant and pervasive security vulnerability within systems. Prior research
has approached RowHammer attacks within a static threat model framework.
Nonetheless, it warrants consideration within a more nuanced and dynamic model.
This paper presents a low-overhead DRAM RowHammer vulnerability profiling
technique termed DRAM-Profiler, which utilizes innovative test vectors for
categorizing memory cells into distinct security levels. The proposed test
vectors intentionally weaken the spatial correlation between the aggressors and
victim rows before an attack for evaluation, thus aiding designers in
mitigating RowHammer vulnerabilities in the mapping phase. While there has been
no previous research showcasing the impact of such profiling to our knowledge,
our study methodically assesses 128 commercial DDR4 DRAM products. The results
uncover the significant variability among chips from different manufacturers in
the type and quantity of RowHammer attacks that can be exploited by
adversaries.


  \textit{Voronoi game} is a geometric model of competitive facility location
problem played between two players. Users are generally modeled as points
uniformly distributed on a given underlying space. Each player chooses a set of
points in the underlying space to place their facilities. Each user avails
service from its nearest facility. Service zone of a facility consists of the
set of users which are closer to it than any other facility. Payoff of each
player is defined by the quantity of users served by all of its facilities. The
objective of each player is to maximize their respective payoff. In this paper
we consider the two players {\it Voronoi game} where the underlying space is a
road network modeled by a graph. In this framework we consider the problem of
finding $k$ optimal facility locations of Player 2 given any placement of $m$
facilities by Player 1. Our main result is a dynamic programming based
polynomial time algorithm for this problem on tree network. On the other hand,
we show that the problem is strongly $\mathcal{NP}$-complete for graphs. This
proves that finding a winning strategy of P2 is $\mathcal{NP}$-complete.
Consequently, we design an $1-\frac{1}{e}$ factor approximation algorithm,
where $e \approx 2.718$.


  Celestial bodies such as the Moon and Mars are mainly covered by loose,
granular soil, a notoriously challenging terrain to traverse with (wheeled)
robotic systems. Here, we present experimental work on traversing steep,
granular slopes with the dynamically walking quadrupedal robot SpaceBok. To
adapt to the challenging environment, we developed passive-adaptive planar feet
and optimized grouser pads to reduce sinkage and increase traction on planar
and inclined granular soil. Single-foot experiments revealed that a large
surface area of 110cm2 per foot reduces sinkage to an acceptable level even on
highly collapsible soil (ES-1). Implementing several 12mm grouser blades
increases traction by 22% to 66% on granular media compared to grouser-less
designs. Together with a terrain-adapting walking controller, we validate - for
the first time - static and dynamic locomotion on Mars analog slopes of up to
25{\deg}(the maximum of the testbed). We evaluated the performance between
point- and planar feet and static and dynamic gaits regarding stability
(safety), velocity, and energy consumption. We show that dynamic gaits are
energetically more efficient than static gaits but are riskier on steep slopes.
Our tests also revealed that planar feet's energy consumption drastically
increases when the slope inclination approaches the soil's angle of internal
friction due to shearing. Point feet are less affected by slippage due to their
excessive sinkage, but in turn, are prone to instabilities and tripping. We
present and discuss safe and energy-efficient global path-planning strategies
for accessing steep topography on Mars based on our findings.


  Analysis of observations of natural and triggered outbursts from different
comets testifies in favor of existence of large cavities with material under
gas pressure below a considerable fraction of a comet's surface. Based on
analysis of images of the cloud of material ejected from Comet 9P/Tempel 1
after the collision of the Deep Impact (DI) module with the comet, we studied
the time variations in the rate and velocities of ejection of observed
particles (mainly icy particles with diameter d<3 micron). Comparison of these
dependencies with the theoretical dependencies allowed us to understand the
time variations in the rate of the outburst triggered by the impact. The latter
variations testify in favor of that there were cavities at the place of DI
ejection. The beginning of the increase of the main outburst at 8 s after the
DI impact could be caused by excavation of a relatively large cavity that
contained dust and gas under pressure. The upper boarder of the cavity could be
located at about 5-10 meters below the surface of the comet. This cavity could
be deep because the excavation from the cavity could last for at least a few
tens of seconds. With the increase of the crater, more cavities could be
excavated. The outburst decreased at ~60 s after the impact. Besides the 'fast'
outburst caused by ejection from cavities, there was a 'slow' outburst
ejection, which was similar to the ejection from a 'fresh' surface of a comet
and could be noticeable during 30-60 min. The 'fast' outburst with velocities
~100 m/s probably could continue for at least several tens of seconds, and it
could significantly increase the fraction of particles ejected with velocities
~100 m/s compared with theoretical models of ejection.


  Our earlier proof of mirror formulas for genus 0 Gromov -- Witten invariants
of Fano and Calabi -- Yau toric complete intersections is illustrated in the
example of quintic 3-folds.


  We present linear Halpha spectropolarimetry of the classical T Tauri star RY
Tau. A change in the polarization percentage and position angle across Halpha
is detected, which suggests that line photons are scattered in a rotating disc.
We derive the position angle from the slope of the loop in the (Q,U) diagram
and find it to be 146 +/- 3 degrees. This is perpendicular to the position
angle of the disc of 48 +/- 5 degrees as deduced from submillimeter imaging by
Koerner & Sargent (1995). This finding is consistent, as scattering off the
imaged millimeter disc is expected to yield a polarization signature in a
direction that is rotated by 90 degrees from this disc. The observed
spectropolarimetric behaviour of RY Tau is reminiscent of that seen in a large
group of Herbig Ae stars, suggesting a common circumstellar origin of the
polarized photons.


  Ultraviolet absorption from interstellar 12CO and 13CO was detected toward
rho Oph A and chi Oph. The measurements were obtained at medium resolution with
the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Column
density ratios, N(12CO)/N(13CO), of 125 \pm 23 and 117 \pm 35 were derived for
the sight lines toward rho Oph A and chi Oph, respectively. A value of 1100 \pm
600 for the ratio N(12C16O)/N(12C18O) toward rho Oph A was also obtained.
Absorption from vibrationally excited H_2 (v" = 3) was clearly seen toward this
star as well.
  The ratios are larger than the isotopic ratios for carbon and oxygen
appropriate for ambient interstellar material. Since for both carbon and oxygen
the more abundant isotopomer is enhanced, selective isotopic photodissociation
plays the key role in the fractionation process for these directions. The
enhancement arises because the more abundant isotopomer has lines that are more
optically thick, resulting in more self shielding from dissociating radiation.
A simple argument involving the amount of self shielding [from N(12CO)] and the
strength of the ultraviolet radiation field premeating the gas (from the amount
of vibrationally excited H_2) shows that selective isotopic photodissociation
controls the fractionation seen in these two sight lines, as well as the sight
line to zeta Oph.


  The R&D activity performed during the last years proved the potential of ZnSe
scintillating bolometers to the search for neutrino-less double beta decay,
motivating the realization of the first large-mass experiment based on this
technology: CUPID-0. The isotopic enrichment in $^{82}$Se, the Zn$^{82}$Se
crystals growth, as well as the light detectors production have been
accomplished, and the experiment is now in construction at Laboratori Nazionali
del Gran Sasso (Italy). In this paper we present the results obtained testing
the first three Zn$^{82}$Se crystals operated as scintillating bolometers, and
we prove that their performance in terms of energy resolution, background
rejection capability and intrinsic radio-purity complies with the requirements
of CUPID-0.


  Multi-fan is an analogous notion of fan. As a fan is associated to a toric
variety a multi-fan is associated to a torus orbifold. Orbifold elliptic class
and orbifold elliptic genus are defined for a triple of a multi-fan, a set of
generating integral vectors of one dimensional cones and a $\mathbb{Q}$
divisor. They are shown to behave functorially with respect to birational
morphisms between these triples. The result may be considered as a
combinatorial or topological analogue of the main result of Borisov and
Libgober, McKay correspondence for elliptic genera, Ann. of Math., 161 (2005).


  We describe the properties of a continuous-wave room-temperature quantum
cascade laser operating at the long wavelength of 17 $\mu$m. Long wavelength
mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers offer new opportunities for chemical
detection, vibrational spectroscopy and metrological measurements using
molecular species. In particular, probing low energy vibrational transitions
would be beneficial to the spectroscopy of large and complex molecules,
reducing intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution which acts as a
decoherence channel. By performing linear absorption spectroscopy of the v2
fundamental vibrational mode of N2O molecules, we have demonstrated the
spectral range and spectroscopic potential of this laser, and characterized its
free-running frequency noise properties. Finally, we also discuss the potential
application of this specific laser in an experiment to test fundamental physics
with ultra-cold molecules.


  The pseudo-magnetic field generated by mechanical strain in graphene can have
dramatic consequences on the behavior of electrons and holes. Here we show that
pseudo-magnetic field fluctuations present in crumpled graphene can induce
significant intravalley scattering of charge carriers. We detect this by
measuring the confocal Raman spectra of crumpled areas, where we observe an
increase of the D'/D peak intensity ratio by up to a factor of 300. We
reproduce our observations by numerical calculation of the double resonant
Raman spectra and interpret the results as experimental evidence of the phase
shift suffered by Dirac charge carriers in the presence of a pseudo-magnetic
field. This lifts the restriction on complete intravalley backscattering of
Dirac fermions.


  In this research, we focus on the order-splitting behavior. The order
splitting is a trading strategy to execute their large potential metaorder into
small pieces to reduce transaction cost. This strategic behavior is believed to
be important because it is a promising candidate for the microscopic origin of
the long-range correlation (LRC) in the persistent order flow. Indeed, in 2005,
Lillo, Mike, and Farmer (LMF) introduced a microscopic model of the
order-splitting traders to predict the asymptotic behavior of the LRC from the
microscopic dynamics, even quantitatively. The plausibility of this scenario
has been qualitatively investigated by Toth et al. 2015. However, no solid
support has been presented yet on the quantitative prediction by the LMF model
in the lack of large microscopic datasets. In this report, we have provided the
first quantitative statistical analysis of the order-splitting behavior at the
level of each trading account. We analyse a large dataset of the Tokyo stock
exchange (TSE) market over nine years, including the account data of traders
(called virtual servers). The virtual server is a unit of trading accounts in
the TSE market, and we can effectively define the trader IDs by an appropriate
preprocessing. We apply a strategy clustering to individual traders to identify
the order-splitting traders and the random traders. For most of the stocks, we
find that the metaorder length distribution obeys power laws with exponent
$\alpha$, such that $P(L)\propto L^{-\alpha-1}$ with the metaorder length $L$.
By analysing the sign correlation $C(\tau)\propto \tau^{-\gamma}$, we directly
confirmed the LMF prediction $\gamma \approx \alpha-1$. Furthermore, we discuss
how to estimate the total number of the splitting traders only from public data
via the ACF prefactor formula in the LMF model. Our work provides the first
quantitative evidence of the LMF model.


  Gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) is an ensemble machine learning
algorithm, which is widely used in industry, due to its good performance and
easy interpretation. Due to the problem of data isolation and the requirement
of privacy, many works try to use vertical federated learning to train machine
learning models collaboratively with privacy guarantees between different data
owners. SecureBoost is one of the most popular vertical federated learning
algorithms for GBDT. However, in order to achieve privacy preservation,
SecureBoost involves complex training procedures and time-consuming
cryptography operations. This causes SecureBoost to be slow to train and does
not scale to large scale data.
  In this work, we propose SecureBoost+, a large-scale and high-performance
vertical federated gradient boosting decision tree framework. SecureBoost+ is
secure in the semi-honest model, which is the same as SecureBoost. SecureBoost+
can be scaled up to tens of millions of data samples easily. SecureBoost+
achieves high performance through several novel optimizations for SecureBoost,
including ciphertext operation optimization, the introduction of new training
mechanisms, and multi-classification training optimization. The experimental
results show that SecureBoost+ is 6-35x faster than SecureBoost, but with the
same accuracy and can be scaled up to tens of millions of data samples and
thousands of feature dimensions.


  In 2016 we carried out a Swift monitoring program to track the X-ray hardness
variability of eight type-I AGN over a year. The purpose of this monitoring was
to find intense obscuration events in AGN, and thereby study them by triggering
joint XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and HST observations. We successfully accomplished
this for NGC 3783 in December 2016. We found heavy X-ray absorption produced by
an obscuring outflow in this AGN. As a result of this obscuration, interesting
absorption features appear in the UV and X-ray spectra, which are not present
in the previous epochs. Namely, the obscuration produces broad and blue-shifted
UV absorption lines of Ly$\alpha$, C IV, and N V, together with a new
high-ionisation component producing Fe XXV and Fe XXVI absorption lines. In
soft X-rays, only narrow emission lines stand out above the diminished
continuum as they are not absorbed by the obscurer. Our analysis shows that the
obscurer partially covers the central source with a column density of few
$10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$, outflowing with a velocity of few thousand km s$^{-1}$.
The obscuration in NGC 3783 is variable and lasts for about a month. Unlike the
commonly-seen warm-absorber winds at pc-scale distances from the black hole,
the eclipsing wind in NGC 3783 is located at about 10 light days. Our results
suggest the obscuration is produced by an inhomogeneous and clumpy medium,
consistent with clouds in the base of a radiatively-driven disk wind at the
outer broad-line region of the AGN.


  The development of deep learning algorithms has extensively empowered
humanity's task automatization capacity. However, the huge improvement in the
performance of these models is highly correlated with their increasing level of
complexity, limiting their usefulness in human-oriented applications, which are
usually deployed in resource-constrained devices. This led to the development
of compression techniques that drastically reduce the computational and memory
costs of deep learning models without significant performance degradation. This
paper aims to systematize the current literature on this topic by presenting a
comprehensive survey of model compression techniques in biometrics
applications, namely quantization, knowledge distillation and pruning. We
conduct a critical analysis of the comparative value of these techniques,
focusing on their advantages and disadvantages and presenting suggestions for
future work directions that can potentially improve the current methods.
Additionally, we discuss and analyze the link between model bias and model
compression, highlighting the need to direct compression research toward model
fairness in future works.


  Device-Free Localization (DFL) employs passive radio techniques capable to
detect and locate people without imposing them to wear any electronic device.
By exploiting the Integrated Sensing and Communication paradigm, DFL networks
employ Radio Frequency (RF) nodes to measure the excess attenuation introduced
by the subjects (i.e., human bodies) moving inside the monitored area, and to
estimate their positions and movements. Physical, statistical, and
ElectroMagnetic (EM) models have been proposed in the literature to estimate
the body positions according to the RF signals collected by the nodes. These
body models usually employ a single-antenna processing for localization
purposes. However, the availability of low-cost multi-antenna devices such as
those used for WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) applications and the timely
development of array-based body models, allow us to employ array-based
processing techniques in DFL networks. By exploiting a suitable array-capable
EM body model, this paper proposes an array-based framework to improve people
sensing and localization. In particular, some simulations are proposed and
discussed to compare the model results in both single- and multi-antenna
scenarios. The proposed framework paves the way for a wider use of
multi-antenna devices (e.g., those employed in current IEEE 802.11ac/ax/be and
forthcoming IEEE 802.11be networks) and novel beamforming algorithms for DFL
scenarios.


  One way to treat the infrared divergences of the electroweak
Next-to-Leading-Order (NLO) differential cross sections to parity-violating
(PV) electron-proton scattering is by adding soft-photon emission contribution.
Although more physical, the results are left with a logarithmic dependence on
the photon detector acceptance, which can only be eliminated by considering
Hard Photon Bremsstrahlung (HPB) contribution. Here we present a treatment of
HPB for PV electron-proton scattering. HPB differential cross sections for
electron-proton scattering have been computed using the experimental values of
nucleon form factors. The final results are expressed through kinematic
parameters, making it possible to apply the computed PV HPB differential cross
sections for the analysis of data of a range of current and proposed
experiments.


  A Bayesian approach is presented for detecting and characterising the signal
from discrete objects embedded in a diffuse background. The approach centres
around the evaluation of the posterior distribution for the parameters of the
discrete objects, given the observed data, and defines the
theoretically-optimal procedure for parametrised object detection. Two
alternative strategies are investigated: the simultaneous detection of all the
discrete objects in the dataset, and the iterative detection of objects. In
both cases, the parameter space characterising the object(s) is explored using
Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo sampling. For the iterative detection of objects,
another approach is to locate the global maximum of the posterior at each
iteration using a simulated annealing downhill simplex algorithm. The
techniques are applied to a two-dimensional toy problem consisting of Gaussian
objects embedded in uncorrelated pixel noise. A cosmological illustration of
the iterative approach is also presented, in which the thermal and kinetic
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects from clusters of galaxies are detected in microwave
maps dominated by emission from primordial cosmic microwave background
anisotropies.


  We present here some results supporting the nature of the $\Lambda(1405)$
resonance as dynamically generated from the meson baryon interaction in coupled
channels and resulting from the superposition of two close-by poles. We find
support for this picture in the $K^- p \to \pi^0 \pi^0 \Sigma^0 $ reaction,
which shows a different shape than the one obtained from the $\pi ^- p \to K^0
\pi \Sigma $ reaction. We also call the attention to the $K^- p \to \gamma \pi
\Sigma$ with $\pi \Sigma$ in the $\Lambda(1405)$ region, which shows a narrow
peak in the calculations around 1420 MeV. We also report on recent calculations
of the radiative decay of the two $\Lambda(1405)$ states and on reactions to
obtain information on these decay modes. Finally, we present results for the
$pp\to p K^+\Lambda(1405)$ reaction recently measured at ANKE/COSY and compare
them with theoretical results.


  We report the discovery of a low-density exoplanet transiting an 11th
magnitude star in the Southern hemisphere. WASP-15b, which orbits its host star
with a period P=3.7520656+-0.0000028d has a mass M_p=0.542+-0.050M_J and radius
R_p=1.428+-0.077R_J, and is therefore the one of least dense transiting
exoplanets so far discovered (rho_p=0.247+-0.035g cm^-3). An analysis of the
spectrum of the host star shows it to be of spectral type around F5, with an
effective temperature T_eff=6300+-100K and [Fe/H]=-0.17+-0.11.


  We present the "trimon", a multi-mode superconducting circuit implementing
three qubits with all-to-all longitudinal coupling. This always-on interaction
enables simple implementation of generalized controlled-NOT gates which form a
universal set. Further, two of the three qubits are protected against Purcell
decay while retaining measurability. We demonstrate high-fidelity state
swapping operations between two qubits and characterize the coupling of all
three qubits to a neighbouring transmon qubit. Our results offer a new paradigm
for multi-qubit architecture with applications in quantum error correction,
quantum simulations and quantum annealing.


  Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) are arguably one of the key AGN
subclasses in investigating the origin of the black hole mass - stellar
velocity dispersion (M-sigma) relation because of their high accretion rate and
significantly low black hole mass. Currently, it is under discussion whether
present-day NLS1s offset from the M-sigma relation. Using the directly measured
stellar velocity dispersion of 93 NLS1s at z<0.1, and black hole mass estimates
based on the updated mass estimators, we investigate the M-sigma relation of
NLS1s in comparison with broad-line AGNs. We find no strong evidence that the
NLS1s deviates from the M-sigma relation, which is defined by
reverberation-mapped type 1 AGNs and quiescent galaxies. However, there is a
clear trend of the offset with the host galaxy morphology, i.e., more inclined
galaxies toward the line-of-sight have higher stellar velocity dispersion,
suggesting that the rotational broadening plays a role in measuring stellar
velocity dispersion based on the single-aperture spectra from the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey. In addition, we provide the virial factor log f = $0.05 \pm 0.12$
(f = 1.12), for black hole mass estimators based on the FWHM of H$\beta$, by
jointly fitting the M-sigma relation using quiescent galaxies and
reverberation-mapped AGNs.


  We present the Texas Euclid Survey for Lyman-Alpha (TESLA), a spectroscopic
survey in the 10 square degree of the Euclid North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) field.
Using TESLA, we study how the physical properties of Lyman-alpha emitters
(LAEs) correlate with Lyman-alpha emission to understand the escape of Lyman
alpha from galaxies at redshifts 2 -- 3.5. We present an analysis of 43 LAEs
performed in the NEP field using early data from the TESLA survey. We use
Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam imaging in the grizy-bands, Spitzer/IRAC channels 1
and 2 from the Hawaii 20 square degree (H20) survey and spectra acquired by the
Visible Integral-Field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS) on the Hobby-Eberly
Telescope. We perform spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting to compute the
galaxy properties of 43 LAEs, and study correlations between stellar mass, star
formation rate (SFR), and dust, to the Lyman-alpha rest-frame equivalent widths
(EW). We uncover marginal (1 sigma significance) correlations between stellar
mass and Lyman-alpha EW, and star formation rate (SFR) and Lyman-alpha EW, with
a Spearman correlation coefficient of -0.$34_{-.14}^{+.17}$ and
-0.$37_{-.14}^{+.16}$ respectively. We show that the Lyman-alpha distribution
of the 43 LAEs is consistent with being drawn from an exponential distribution
with an e-folding scale of 150 Angstrom. Once complete the TESLA survey will
enable the study of ~ thousands of LAEs to explore correlations between galaxy
properties and Lyman-alpha EW. The large sample size will allow the
construction of a predictive model for the Lyman-alpha EW as a function of
SED-derived galaxy properties, which could be used to improve Lyman-alpha based
constraints on reionization.


  We consider the one dimensional boundary driven harmonic model and its
continuous version, both introduced in \cite{FGK}. By combining duality and
integrability the authors of \cite{FG} obtained the invariant measures in a
combinatorial representation. Here we give an integral representation of the
invariant measures which turns out to be a convex combination of inhomogeneous
product of geometric distributions for the discrete model and a convex
combination of inhomogeneous product of exponential distributions for the
continuous one. The mean values of the geometric and of the exponential
variables are distributed according to the order statistics of i.i.d. uniform
random variables on a suitable interval fixed by the boundary sources. The
result is obtained solving exactly the stationary condition written in terms of
the joint generating function. The method has an interest in itself and can be
generalized to study other models. We briefly discuss some applications.


  A problem of classification of local field potentials (LFPs), recorded from
the prefrontal cortex of a macaque monkey, is considered. An adult macaque
monkey is trained to perform a memory-based saccade. The objective is to decode
the eye movement goals from the LFP collected during a memory period. The LFP
classification problem is modeled as that of classification of smooth functions
embedded in Gaussian noise. It is then argued that using minimax function
estimators as features would lead to consistent LFP classifiers. The theory of
Gaussian sequence models allows us to represent minimax estimators as finite
dimensional objects. The LFP classifier resulting from this mathematical
endeavor is a spectrum based technique, where Fourier series coefficients of
the LFP data, followed by appropriate shrinkage and thresholding, are used as
features in a linear discriminant classifier. The classifier is then applied to
the LFP data to achieve high decoding accuracy. The function classification
approach taken in the paper also provides a systematic justification for using
Fourier series, with shrinkage and thresholding, as features for the problem,
as opposed to using the power spectrum. It also suggests that phase information
is crucial to the decision making.


  This is lecture notes for a course given at the PCMI Summer School "Quantum
Field Theory and Manifold Invariants" (July 1 -- July 5, 2019). I describe
basics of gauge-theoretic approach to construction of invariants of manifolds.
The main example considered here is the Seiberg--Witten gauge theory. However,
I tried to present the material in a form, which is suitable for other
gauge-theoretic invariants too.


  Let $O$ be a nilpotent orbit of a complex semisimple Lie algebra
$\mathfrak{g}$ and let $\pi: X \to \bar{O}$ be the finite covering associated
with the universal covering of $O$. In the previous article we have explicitly
constructed a $\mathbf{Q}$-factorial terminalization $\tilde{X}$ of $X$ when
$\mathfrak{g}$ is classical. In the present article, we count how many
different $\mathbf{Q}$-factorial terminalizations $X$ has. We construct the
universal Poisson deformation of $\tilde{X}$ over $H^2(\tilde{X}, \mathbf{C})$
and look at the action of the Weyl group $W(X)$ on $H^2(\tilde{X},
\mathbf{C})$. The main result is an explicit geometric description of $W(X)$.


  We explore a plausible mechanism that the hemispherical power asymmetry in
the CMB is produced by the spatial variation of the primordial sound speed
parameter. We suggest that in a generalized approach of the $\delta N$
formalism the local e-folding number may depend on some other primordial
parameters besides the initial values of inflaton. Here the $\delta N$
formalism is extended by considering the effects of a spatially varying sound
speed parameter caused by a super-Hubble perturbation of a light field. Using
this generalized $\delta N$ formalism, we systematically calculate the
asymmetric primordial spectrum in the model of multi-speed inflation by taking
into account the constraints of primordial non-Gaussianities. We further
discuss specific model constraints, and the corresponding asymmetry amplitudes
are found to be scale-dependent, which can accommodate current observations of
the power asymmetry at different length scales.


  Let $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ be a set with finite Lebesgue measure such
that, for a fixed radius $r>0$, the Lebesgue measure of $\Omega \cap B_r (x)$
is equal to a positive constant when $x$ varies in the essential boundary of
$\Omega$. We prove that $\Omega$ is a ball (or a finite union of equal balls)
provided it satisfies a nondegeneracy condition, which holds in particular for
any set of diameter larger than $r$ which is either open and connected, or of
finite perimeter and indecomposable. The proof requires reinventing each step
of the moving planes method by Alexandrov in the framework of measurable sets.


  Submodular maximization has become established as the method of choice for
the task of selecting representative and diverse summaries of data. However, if
datapoints have sensitive attributes such as gender or age, such machine
learning algorithms, left unchecked, are known to exhibit bias: under- or
over-representation of particular groups. This has made the design of fair
machine learning algorithms increasingly important. In this work we address the
question: Is it possible to create fair summaries for massive datasets? To this
end, we develop the first streaming approximation algorithms for submodular
maximization under fairness constraints, for both monotone and non-monotone
functions. We validate our findings empirically on exemplar-based clustering,
movie recommendation, DPP-based summarization, and maximum coverage in social
networks, showing that fairness constraints do not significantly impact
utility.


  One of the fundamental open questions in plasma physics is the role of
non-thermal particles distributions in poorly collisional plasma environments,
a system commonly found throughout the Universe, e.g. the solar wind and the
Earth's magnetosphere correspond to natural plasma physics laboratories in
which turbulent phenomena can be studied. Our study perspective is born from
the method of Horizontal Visibility Graph (HVG) that has been developed in the
last years to analyze time series avoiding the tedium and the high
computational cost that other methods offer. Here we build a complex network
based on directed HVG technique applied to magnetic field fluctuations time
series obtained from Particle In Cell (PIC) simulations of a magnetized
collisionless plasma to distinguish the degree distributions and calculate the
Kullback-Leibler Divergence (KLD) as a measure of relative entropy of data sets
produced by processes that are not in equilibrium. First, we analyze the
connectivity probability distribution for the undirected version of HVG finding
how the Kappa distribution for low values of $\kappa$ tends to be an
uncorrelated time series, while the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution shows a
correlated stochastic processes behavior. Then, we investigate the degree of
temporary irreversibility of magnetic fluctuations self-generated by the
plasma, comparing the case of a thermal plasma (described by a Maxwell-Botzmann
velocity distribution function) with non-thermal Kappa distributions. We have
shown that the KLD associated to the HVG is able to distinguish the level of
reversibility associated to the thermal equilibrium in the plasma because the
dissipative degree of the system increases as the value of $\kappa$ parameter
decreases and the distribution function departs from the Maxwell-Boltzmann
equilibrium.


  In this demonstration, we show how special hardware like Nintendo Joy-Con
controllers can be made accessible from the Web through the new WebHID API.
This novel technology proposal allows developers to write Web drivers in pure
JavaScript that talk to Human Interface Device (HID) devices via the HID
protocol. One such example of a driver has been realized in the project
Joy-Con-WebHID, which allows for fun pastimes like playing the Google Chrome
browser's offline dinosaur game by jumping. This works thanks to the
accelerometers built into Joy-Con controllers whose signals are read out by the
driver and used to control the game character in the browser. A video of the
experience is available.


  An annular magnetic memory that uses a spin-polarized current to switch the
magnetization direction or helicity of a magnetic region is proposed. The
device has magnetic materials in the shape of a ring (1 to 5 nm in thickness,
20 to 250 nm in mean radius and 8 to 100 nm in width), comprising a reference
magnetic layer with a fixed magnetic helicity and a free magnetic layer with a
changeable magnetic helicity. These are separated by a thin non-magnetic layer.
Information is written using a current flowing perpendicular to the layers,
inducing a spin-transfer torque that alters the magnetic state of the free
layer. The resistance, which depends on the magnetic state of the device, is
used to read out the stored information. This device offers several important
advantages compared to conventional spin-transfer magnetic random access memory
(MRAM) devices. First, the ring geometry offers stable magnetization states,
which are, nonetheless, easily altered with short current pulses. Second, the
ring geometry naturally solves a major challenge of spin-transfer devices:
writing requires relatively high currents and a low impedance circuit, whereas
readout demands a larger impedance and magnetoresistance. The annular device
accommodates these conflicting requirements by performing reading and writing
operations at separate read and write contacts placed at different locations on
the ring.


  We present a spectroscopic study and dynamical analysis of ~2600 M7 dwarfs.
We confirm our previous finding that the fraction of magnetically active stars
decreases with vertical distance from the Galactic plane. We also show that the
mean luminosity of the H-alpha emission has a small but statistically
significant decrease with distance. Using space motions for ~1300 stars and a
simple one-dimensional dynamical simulation, we demonstrate that the drop in
the activity fraction of M7 dwarfs can be explained by thin disk dynamical
heating and a rapid decrease of magnetic activity at a mean stellar age of ~6-7
Gyr.


  We study 3D point cloud attribute compression using a volumetric approach:
given a target volumetric attribute function $f : \mathbb{R}^3 \rightarrow
\mathbb{R}$, we quantize and encode parameter vector $\theta$ that
characterizes $f$ at the encoder, for reconstruction
$f_{\hat{\theta}}(\mathbf{x})$ at known 3D points $\mathbf{x}$'s at the
decoder. Extending a previous work Region Adaptive Hierarchical Transform
(RAHT) that employs piecewise constant functions to span a nested sequence of
function spaces, we propose a feedforward linear network that implements
higher-order B-spline bases spanning function spaces without
eigen-decomposition. Feedforward network architecture means that the system is
amenable to end-to-end neural learning. The key to our network is space-varying
convolution, similar to a graph operator, whose weights are computed from the
known 3D geometry for normalization. We show that the number of layers in the
normalization at the encoder is equivalent to the number of terms in a matrix
inverse Taylor series. Experimental results on real-world 3D point clouds show
up to 2-3 dB gain over RAHT in energy compaction and 20-30% bitrate reduction.


  The paper fills gaps in knowledge about Kuratowski operations which are
already in the literature. The Cayley table for these operations has been drawn
up. Techniques, using only paper and pencil, to point out all semigroups and
its isomorphic types are applied. Some results apply only to topology, one can
not bring them out, using only properties of the complement and a closure-like
operation. The arguments are by systematic study of possibilities.


  We derive in the SCFT and low energy effective action frameworks the
necessary and sufficient conditions for supersymmetric cycles in exceptional
holonomy manifolds and Calabi-Yau 4-folds. We show that the Cayley cycles in
$Spin(7)$ holonomy eight-manifolds and the associative and coassociative cycles
in $G_2$ holonomy seven-manifolds preserve half of the space-time
supersymmetry. We find that while the holomorphic and special Lagrangian cycles
in Calabi-Yau 4-folds preserve half of the space-time supersymmetry, the Cayley
submanifolds are novel as they preserve only one quarter of it. We present some
simple examples. Finally, we discuss the implications of these supersymmetric
cycles on mirror symmetry in higher dimensions.


  The HPQCD collaboration has a program for determining the fundamental
constants of the Standard Model Lagrangian from lattice QCD. The most accurate
method of doing this uses the n_f=2+1 improved staggered MILC ensembles with
chiral fitting and multi-loop perturbative renormalisation to connect to the
continuum \msbar scheme. This program has already been very successful with the
recent strong coupling constant determination at three-loops from 28
observables at three lattice spacings, and the one-loop light quark mass
calculation last year. Here a preliminary result is presented for the
first-ever lattice determination of the two-loop multiplicative quark mass
renormalisation. The perturbative calculation involved was automated in the
generation of the Feynman rules, and the generation and coding of all of the
roughly 30 Feynman diagrams. The full formal framework for lattice quark mass
renormalisation is given, including the cancellation of infrared divergences in
intermediate diagrams. The result was checked by evaluation in three separate
gauges and by two authors independently, showing the incredible flexibility and
power of this perturbative methodology. Our preliminary result for the two-loop
perturbative matching factor, and of systematic errors associated with
higher-orders, gives \msbar masses at a 2 GeV scale of $m_s = 87(0)(4)(4)(0)$
MeV, and $\frac12(m_u+m_d) = 3.3(0)(2)(2)(0)$ MeV, where the respective
uncertainties are from lattice statistical, lattice systematic, perturbative,
and electromagnetic and isospin effects. The perturbative errors are a factor
of two smaller than in our previous study, and we anticipate reducing this
somewhat further from additional analysis of the systematics.


  Conversational question answering (CQA) is a novel QA task that requires
understanding of dialogue context. Different from traditional single-turn
machine reading comprehension (MRC) tasks, CQA includes passage comprehension,
coreference resolution, and contextual understanding. In this paper, we propose
an innovated contextualized attention-based deep neural network, SDNet, to fuse
context into traditional MRC models. Our model leverages both inter-attention
and self-attention to comprehend conversation context and extract relevant
information from passage. Furthermore, we demonstrated a novel method to
integrate the latest BERT contextual model. Empirical results show the
effectiveness of our model, which sets the new state of the art result in CoQA
leaderboard, outperforming the previous best model by 1.6% F1. Our ensemble
model further improves the result by 2.7% F1.


  In the present study, we generalize the possible ghost field configurations
within the framework of $k$-essence theory to the Simpson-Visser metric area
function $\Sigma^2=x^2+a^2$. Our analysis encompasses field configurations for
the region-defined metric function $dA_\pm$ as well as the general solution
that asymptotically behaves as Schwarzschild-de Sitter for $x\to-\infty$.
Specifically, we investigate two scalar field configurations and define the
associated potential for each one. Through rigorous calculations, we verify
that all equations of motion are satisfied. Notably, our findings indicate that
even when proposing new configurations of ghost scalar fields, the energy
conditions remain unchanged. This result serves to validate the wormhole
solutions obtained in previous studies.


  We present autoionization spectra of metastable Ar(8+) and C(4+), N(5+),
O(6+) and Ne(8+) scattering off an Al(111) surface with incident energies down
to 5 eV. The unprecedented quality of the experimental data permits the
observation of a unique, yet undiscovered peak in the structures originating
from the metastable projectiles compared to corresponding ground state
configurations. Analyzing the peak positions for different projectile species
and velocities we demonstrate that the peak must be ascribed to an
above-surface transition under participation of the metastable state.


  We have employed natural guide star adaptive optics (AO) on the Keck II
telescope to obtain near-infrared (H and K') images of three field galaxies,
each of redshift greater than 0.5. These are among the highest-redshift
non-active disk galaxies to be imaged with AO. Each of the galaxies was chosen
because it had been observed previously with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) by others. Our AO images in the near
infrared (NIR) closely match both the depth and high spatial resolution of
those optical data. Combining the archival V and I data with our new H and K'
images potentially produces a long wavelength baseline at uniform resolution.
The NIR data probe emission well longward of the 4000-Angstrom break at these
redshifts, and provide stellar fluxes less contaminated by dust. We fit
two-dimensional galaxy bulge-plus-disk models simultaneously in all bands, and
compare stellar-population-synthesis modeling to the photometry of these
separated components. This is an initial foray into combining HST and AO
imaging to produce a high spatial-resolution multi-color dataset for a large
sample of faint galaxies. Our pilot program shows that NIR AO images from large
ground-based observatories, augmented by HST images in the optical, can in
principle provide a powerful tool for the analysis of faint field galaxies.
However, the AO data S/N will have to be increased, and AO PSFs need to be
controlled more carefully than they were here.


  If we 2-color the vertices of a large hypercube what monochromatic
substructures are we guaranteed to find? Call a set S of vertices from Q_d, the
d-dimensional hypercube, Ramsey if any 2-coloring of the vertices of Q_n, for n
sufficiently large, contains a monochromatic copy of S. Ramsey's theorem tells
us that for any r \geq 1 every 2-coloring of a sufficiently large r-uniform
hypergraph will contain a large monochromatic clique (a complete
subhypergraph): hence any set of vertices from Q_d that all have the same
weight is Ramsey. A natural question to ask is: which sets S corresponding to
unions of cliques of different weights from Q_d are Ramsey?
  The answer to this question depends on the number of cliques involved. In
particular we determine which unions of 2 or 3 cliques are Ramsey and then
show, using a probabilistic argument, that any non-trivial union of 39 or more
cliques of different weights cannot be Ramsey.
  A key tool is a lemma which reduces questions concerning monochromatic
configurations in the hypercube to questions about monochromatic translates of
sets of integers.


  We present an optically selected galaxy cluster catalog from ~ 2,700 square
degrees of the Digitized Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (DPOSS),
spanning the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.5, providing an intermediate redshift
supplement to the previous DPOSS cluster survey. This new catalog contains
9,956 cluster candidates and is the largest resource of rich clusters in this
redshift range to date. The candidates are detected using the best DPOSS plates
based on seeing and limiting magnitude. The search is further restricted to
high galactic latitude (|b| > 50), where stellar contamination is modest and
nearly uniform. We also present a performance comparison of two different
detection methods applied to this data, the Adaptive Kernel and Voronoi
Tessellation techniques. In the regime where both catalogs are expected to be
complete, we find excellent agreement, as well as with the most recent surveys
in the literature. Extensive simulations are performed and applied to the two
different methods, indicating a contamination rate of ~ 5%. These simulations
are also used to optimize the algorithms and evaluate the selection function
for the final cluster catalog. Redshift and richness estimates are also
provided, making possible the selection of subsamples for future studies.


  Let $g$ be a random matrix distributed according to uniform probability
measure on the finite general linear group $\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{F}_q)$. We
show that $\mathrm{Tr}(g^k)$ equidistributes on $\mathbb{F}_q$ as $n \to
\infty$ as long as $\log k=o(n^2)$ and that this range is sharp. We also show
that nontrivial linear combinations of $\mathrm{Tr}(g^1),\ldots,
\mathrm{Tr}(g^k)$ equidistribute as long as $\log k =o(n)$ and this range is
sharp as well. Previously equidistribution of either a single trace or a linear
combination of traces was only known for $k \le c_q n$, where $c_q$ depends on
$q$, due to work of the first author and Rodgers.
  We reduce the problem to exhibiting cancellation in certain short character
sums in function fields. For the equidistribution of $\mathrm{Tr}(g^k)$ we end
up showing that certain explicit character sums modulo $T^{k+1}$ exhibit
cancellation when averaged over monic polynomials of degree $n$ in
$\mathbb{F}_q[T]$ as long as $\log k = o(n^2)$. This goes far beyond the
classical range $\log k =o(n)$ due to Montgomery and Vaughan. To study these
sums we build on the argument of Montgomery and Vaughan but exploit additional
symmetry present in the considered sums.


  Boundedness of the maximal function and the Calde\'on-Zygmund singular
integrals in central Morrey-Orlicz spaces were proved in papers by the second
and third authors. The weak-type estimates have also been proven. Here we show
boundedness of the Riesz potential in central Morrey-Orlicz spaces and the
corresponding weak-type version.


  Visual-based measurement systems are frequently affected by rainy weather due
to the degradation caused by rain streaks in captured images, and existing
imaging devices struggle to address this issue in real-time. While most efforts
leverage deep networks for image deraining and have made progress, their large
parameter sizes hinder deployment on resource-constrained devices.
Additionally, these data-driven models often produce deterministic results,
without considering their inherent epistemic uncertainty, which can lead to
undesired reconstruction errors. Well-calibrated uncertainty can help alleviate
prediction errors and assist measurement devices in mitigating risks and
improving usability. Therefore, we propose an Uncertainty-Driven Multi-Scale
Feature Fusion Network (UMFFNet) that learns the probability mapping
distribution between paired images to estimate uncertainty. Specifically, we
introduce an uncertainty feature fusion block (UFFB) that utilizes uncertainty
information to dynamically enhance acquired features and focus on blurry
regions obscured by rain streaks, reducing prediction errors. In addition, to
further boost the performance of UMFFNet, we fused feature information from
multiple scales to guide the network for efficient collaborative rain removal.
Extensive experiments demonstrate that UMFFNet achieves significant performance
improvements with few parameters, surpassing state-of-the-art image deraining
methods.


  The High Contrast spectroscopy testbed for Segmented Telescopes (HCST) is
being developed at Caltech. It aims at addressing the technology gap for future
exoplanet imagers and providing the U.S. community with an academic facility to
test components and techniques for high contrast imaging, focusing on segmented
apertures proposed for future ground-based (TMT, ELT) and space-based
telescopes (HabEx, LUVOIR).
  We present an overview of the design of the instrument and a detailed look at
the testbed build and initial alignment. We offer insights into stumbling
blocks encountered along the path and show that the testbed is now operational
and open for business. We aim to use the testbed in the future for testing of
high contrast imaging techniques and technologies with amongst with thing, a
TMT-like pupil.


  The spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on an anisotropic triangular lattice is
considered in the mean-field RVB approximation. The analytical estimates for
the critical temperatures of the longitudinal s-RVB state (the upper one) and
the 2D s-RVB state (the lower one) are obtained which fairly agree with the
results of the previous numerical studies on this system. Analytical formulae
for the magnetic susceptibility and the magnetic contribution to the specific
heat capacity in the longitudinal s-RVB state are obtained which fairly
reproduce the results of the numerical experiment concerning these physical
quantities.