  Network operators are reluctant to share traffic data due to security and
privacy concerns. Consequently, there is a lack of publicly available traces
for validating and generalizing the latest results in network and security
research. Anonymization is a possible solution in this context; however, it is
unclear how the sanitization of data preserves characteristics important for
traffic analysis. In addition, the privacy-preserving property of
state-of-the-art IP address anonymization techniques has come into question by
recent attacks that successfully identified a large number of hosts in
anonymized traces.
  In this paper, we examine the tradeoff between data utility for anomaly
detection and the risk of host identification for IP address truncation.
Specifically, we analyze three weeks of unsampled and non-anonymized network
traces from a medium-sized backbone network to assess data utility. The risk of
de-anonymizing individual IP addresses is formally evaluated, using a metric
based on conditional entropy.
  Our results indicate that truncation effectively prevents host identification
but degrades the utility of data for anomaly detection. However, the degree of
degradation depends on the metric used and whether network-internal or external
addresses are considered. Entropy metrics are more resistant to truncation than
unique counts and the detection quality of anomalies degrades much faster in
internal addresses than in external addresses. In particular, the usefulness of
internal address counts is lost even for truncation of only 4 bits whereas
utility of external address entropy is virtually unchanged even for truncation
of 20 bits.


  Let $N$ be a geodesically convex subset in a convex co-compact hyperbolic
manifold $M$ with incompressible boundary. We assume that each boundary
component of $N$ is either a boundary component of $\partial_\infty M$, or a
smooth, locally convex surface in $M$. We show that $N$ is uniquely determined
by the boundary data defined by the conformal structure on the boundary
components at infinity, and by either the induced metric or the third
fundamental form on the boundary components which are locally convex surfaces.
We also describe the possible boundary data. This provides an extension of both
the hyperbolic Weyl problem and the Ahlfors-Bers Theorem.
  Using this statement for quasifuchsian manifolds, we obtain existence results
for similar questions for convex domains $\Omega\subset \HH^3$ which meets the
boundary at infinity $\partial_{\infty}\HH^3$ either along a quasicircle or
along a quasidisk. The boundary data then includes either the induced metric or
the third fundamental form in $\HH^3$, but also an additional "gluing" data
between different components of the boundary, either in $\HH^3$ or in
$\partial_\infty\HH^3$.


  We study how the presence of an area gap, different than zero, affects the
gravitational collapse of a dust ball. The implementation of such discreteness
is achieved through the framework of polymer quantization, a scheme inspired by
loop quantum gravity (LQG). We study the collapse using variables which
represent the area, in order to impose the non-zero area gap condition. The
collapse is analyzed for both the flat and spherical Oppenheimer-Snyder models.
In both scenarios the formation of the singularity is avoided, due to the
inversion of the velocity at finite values of the sphere surface. This happens
due to the presence of a negative pressure, with origins at a quantum level.
When the inversion happens inside the black hole event horizon, we achieve a
geometry transition to a white hole. When the inversion happens outside the
event horizon, we find a new possible astrophysical object. A characterization
of such hypothetical object is done. Some constraints on the value for the area
gap are also imposed in order to maintain the link with our already established
physical theories.


  We describe the volume dependence of matrix elements of local boundary fields
to all orders in inverse powers of the volume. Using the scaling boundary
Lee-Yang model as testing ground, we compare the matrix elements extracted from
boundary truncated conformal space approach to exact form factors obtained
using the bootstrap method. We obtain solid confirmation for the boundary form
factor bootstrap, which is different from all previously available tests in
that it is a non-perturbative and direct comparison of exact form factors to
multi-particle matrix elements of local operators, computed from the
Hamiltonian formulation of the quantum field theory.


  The Call admission control (CAC) is one of the Radio Resource Management
(RRM) techniques plays instrumental role in ensuring the desired Quality of
Service (QoS) to the users working on different applications which have
diversified nature of QoS requirements. This paper proposes a fuzzy neural
approach for call admission control in a multi class traffic based Next
Generation Wireless Networks (NGWN). The proposed Fuzzy Neural Call Admission
Control (FNCAC) scheme is an integrated CAC module that combines the linguistic
control capabilities of the fuzzy logic controller and the learning
capabilities of the neural networks .The model is based on Recurrent Radial
Basis Function Networks (RRBFN) which have better learning and adaptability
that can be used to develop the intelligent system to handle the incoming
traffic in the heterogeneous network environment. The proposed FNCAC can
achieve reduced call blocking probability keeping the resource utilisation at
an optimal level. In the proposed algorithm we have considered three classes of
traffic having different QoS requirements. We have considered the heterogeneous
network environment which can effectively handle this traffic. The traffic
classes taken for the study are Conversational traffic, Interactive traffic and
back ground traffic which are with varied QoS parameters. The paper also
presents the analytical model for the CAC .The paper compares the call blocking
probabilities for all the three types of traffic in both the models. The
simulation results indicate that compared to Fuzzy logic based CAC,
Conventional CAC, The simulation results are optimistic and indicates that the
proposed FNCAC algorithm performs better where the call blocking probability is
minimal when compared to other two methods.


  Vacuum stability implies a lower limit on the mass of the higgs boson in the
Standard Model (SM). In contrast, an upper limit on the lightest higgs mass can
be calculated in supersymmetric (susy) models. The main uncertainty in each
limit is the value of the top mass, which may now be fixed by the recent CDF
result. We study the possibility that these bounds do not overlap, and find
that (i) a mass gap emerges at $m_t\sim 160$ GeV between the SM and the Minimal
Susy Standard Model (MSSM); and between the SM and the Minimal plus Singlet
Susy Model [(M+1)SSM] if the independent scalar self--coupling of the latter is
perturbatively small or if the $\tan\beta$ parameter is large; this gap widens
with increasing $m_t$; (ii) there is no overlap between the SM and the MSSM
bounds at even smaller values of $m_t$ for the $\tan\beta$ value ($\sim 1$--2)
preferred in Supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories. Thus, if the new top mass
measurement remains valid, a measurement of the first higgs mass will serve to
exclude either the SM or MSSM/(M+1)SSM higgs sectors. In addition, we discuss
the upper bound on the lightest higgs mass in susy models with an extended
higgs sector, and in models with a strongly interacting higgs sector. Finally,
we comment on the discovery potential for the lightest higgses in these models.


  The purpose of this work is to show that the Khalil and Katagampoula
conformable derivatives are equivalent to the simple change of variables $x$
$\rightarrow $ $x^{\alpha }/\alpha ,$ where $\alpha $ is the order of the
derivative operator, when applied to differential functions. Although this
means no \textquotedblleft new mathematics\textquotedblright\ is obtained by
working with these derivatives, it is a second purpose of this work to argue
that there is still significant value in exploring the mathematics and physical
applications of these derivatives. This work considers linear differential
equations, self-adjointness, Sturm-Liouville systems, and integral transforms.
A third purpose of this work is to contribute to the physical interpretation
when these derivatives are applied to physics and engineering. Quantum
mechanics serves as the primary backdrop for this development.


  Meta-learning models have two objectives. First, they need to be able to make
predictions over a range of task distributions while utilizing only a small
amount of training data. Second, they also need to adapt to new novel unseen
tasks at meta-test time again by using only a small amount of training data
from that task. It is the second objective where meta-learning models fail for
non-mutually exclusive tasks due to task overfitting. Given that guaranteeing
mutually exclusive tasks is often difficult, there is a significant need for
regularization methods that can help reduce the impact of task-memorization in
meta-learning. For example, in the case of N-way, K-shot classification
problems, tasks becomes non-mutually exclusive when the labels associated with
each task is fixed. Under this design, the model will simply memorize the class
labels of all the training tasks, and thus will fail to recognize a new task
(class) at meta-test time. A direct observable consequence of this memorization
is that the meta-learning model simply ignores the task-specific training data
in favor of directly classifying based on the test-data input. In our work, we
propose a regularization technique for meta-learning models that gives the
model designer more control over the information flow during meta-training. Our
method consists of a regularization function that is constructed by maximizing
the distance between task-summary statistics, in the case of black-box models
and task specific network parameters in the case of optimization based models
during meta-training. Our proposed regularization function shows an accuracy
boost of $\sim$ $36\%$ on the Omniglot dataset for 5-way, 1-shot classification
using black-box method and for 20-way, 1-shot classification problem using
optimization-based method.


  We report first results for spectral functions of charmonium in 2-flavour
QCD. The spectral functions are determined from vector and pseudoscalar
correlators on a dynamical, anisotropic lattice. J/psi and eta_c are found to
survive well into the deconfined phase before melting away at T<~2T_c. Current
systematic uncertainties prevent us from drawing any definite conclusions at
this stage.


  We report results on the Dalitz analysis of three-body charmless
B+=>K+pi+pi-, B0=>K0pi+pi- and B+=>K+K+K- decays including searches for direct
CP violation in the B+=>K+pi+pi- mode. Branching fractions for a number of
quasi-two-body intermediate states are reported. We also observe evidence with
3.9 sigma significance for a large direct CP violation in B+-=>rho(770)0K+-
channel. This is the first evidence for CP violation in a charged meson decay.
The results are obtained using a Dalitz analysis technique with a large data
sample of BBbar pairs collected with the Belle detector operating at the KEKB
asymmetric energy e+e- collider.


  Computer vision models excel at making predictions when the test distribution
closely resembles the training distribution. Such models have yet to match the
ability of biological vision to learn from multiple sources and generalize to
new data sources and tasks. To facilitate the development and evaluation of
more general vision systems, we introduce the General Robust Image Task (GRIT)
benchmark. GRIT evaluates the performance, robustness, and calibration of a
vision system across a variety of image prediction tasks, concepts, and data
sources. The seven tasks in GRIT are selected to cover a range of visual
skills: object categorization, object localization, referring expression
grounding, visual question answering, segmentation, human keypoint detection,
and surface normal estimation. GRIT is carefully designed to enable the
evaluation of robustness under image perturbations, image source distribution
shift, and concept distribution shift. By providing a unified platform for
thorough assessment of skills and concepts learned by a vision model, we hope
GRIT catalyzes the development of performant and robust general purpose vision
systems.


  This paper introduces a modular processing chain to derive global
high-resolution maps of leaf traits. In particular, we present global maps at
500 m resolution of specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf nitrogen
and phosphorus content per dry mass, and leaf nitrogen/phosphorus ratio. The
processing chain exploits machine learning techniques along with optical remote
sensing data (MODIS/Landsat) and climate data for gap filling and up-scaling of
in-situ measured leaf traits. The chain first uses random forests regression
with surrogates to fill gaps in the database ($> 45 \% $ of missing entries)
and maximize the global representativeness of the trait dataset. Along with the
estimated global maps of leaf traits, we provide associated uncertainty
estimates derived from the regression models. The process chain is modular, and
can easily accommodate new traits, data streams (traits databases and remote
sensing data), and methods. The machine learning techniques applied allow
attribution of information gain to data input and thus provide the opportunity
to understand trait-environment relationships at the plant and ecosystem
scales.


  When a superconducting sample is submitted to a sufficiently strong external
magnetic field, the superconductivity of the material is lost. In this paper we
prove that this effect does not, in general, take place at a unique value of
the external magnetic field strength. Indeed, for a sample in the shape of a
narrow annulus the set of magnetic field strengths for which the sample is
superconducting is not an interval. This is a rigorous justification of the
Little-Parks effect. We also show that the same oscillation effect can happen
for disc-shaped samples if the external magnetic field is non-uniform. In this
case the oscillations can even occur repeatedly along arbitrarily large values
of the Ginzburg--Landau parameter $\kappa$. The analysis is based on an
understanding of the underlying spectral theory for a magnetic Schr\"{o}dinger
operator. It is shown that the ground state energy of such an operator is not
in general a monotone function of the intensity of the field, even in the limit
of strong fields.


  We develop a theory of spin noise spectroscopy of itinerant, noninteracting,
spin-carrying fermions in different regimes of temperature and disorder. We use
kinetic equations for the density matrix in spin variables. We find a general
result with a clear physical interpretation, and discuss its dependence on
temperature, the size of the system, and applied magnetic field. We consider
two classes of experimental probes: 1. electron-spin-resonance (ESR)-type
measurements, in which the probe response to a uniform magnetization increases
linearly with the volume sampled, and 2. optical Kerr/Faraday rotation-type
measurements, in which the probe response to a uniform magnetization increases
linearly with the length of the light propagation in the sample, but is
independent of the cross section of the light beam. Our theory provides a
framework for interpreting recent experiments on atomic gases and conduction
electrons in semiconductors and provides a baseline for identifying the effects
of interactions on spin noise spectroscopy.


  Viscoelastic silicone rubber (VSR) is a remarkable shape-memory solid. The
material's polymer network retains a memory of its shape history, so its
current and future shapes depend strikingly on its past shapes. Although VSR's
memory fades gradually and it has a permanent (cured-in) shape to which it will
eventually return when left alone, VSR can be taught new shapes and retain them
for significant lengths of time.
  To examine VSR's ability to learn, remember, and recover shapes, this work
focuses on a simple experiment. A VSR that has relaxed into its permanent shape
is suddenly compressed to about 80% of its original height. After a specific
period of compression, the VSR is released and allowed to return to its
permanent shape. Having learned a new shape during the compression period,
however, the VSR is reluctant to return and takes seconds, minutes, or hours to
do so, depending on how long it was compressed.
  In addition to observing these behaviors experimentally in VSR, we show that
those behaviors are well-described by the Fractional Zener model. That model
involves time derivatives of non-integer order and those generalized time
derivatives have memory. Both VSR and the Fractional Zener model describing it
are acutely aware of the past.
  The model's mathematical machinery make it possible to design VSR behaviors
based on physical parameters, although some of the model's relationships are
not yet known in closed form. VSR's existence as a practical material means
that devices can be designed and produced that use a memory of past shapes to
do things that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to make.


  The QED cascade induced by the two counter-propagating lasers is studied. It
is demonstrated that the probability of a seed-photon to create a pair is much
larger than that of a seed-electron. By analyzing the dynamic characteristics
of the electron and positron created by the seed-photon, it is found that the
created particles are more probable to emit photons than the seed-electron.
With these result, further more, we also demonstrate that the QED cascade can
be easier to be triggered by the seed-photon than by the seed-electron with the
same incident energy and the same laser.


  We study boundedness on $L^p(R^d)$ of vertical Littlewood-Paley-Stein
functions for Schr\"odinger operators $-\Delta + V$ with nonnegative potential
$V$. These functions are proved to be bounded on $L^p$ for all $p \in (1, 2]$.
The situation for $p > 2$ is different. We prove for a class of potentials that
the boundedness on $L^p$ for some $p > d$ holds if and only if $V= 0$.


  Deductive coding is a widely used qualitative research method for determining
the prevalence of themes across documents. While useful, deductive coding is
often burdensome and time consuming since it requires researchers to read,
interpret, and reliably categorize a large body of unstructured text documents.
Large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, are a class of quickly evolving AI
tools that can perform a range of natural language processing and reasoning
tasks. In this study, we explore the use of LLMs to reduce the time it takes
for deductive coding while retaining the flexibility of a traditional content
analysis. We outline the proposed approach, called LLM-assisted content
analysis (LACA), along with an in-depth case study using GPT-3.5 for LACA on a
publicly available deductive coding data set. Additionally, we conduct an
empirical benchmark using LACA on 4 publicly available data sets to assess the
broader question of how well GPT-3.5 performs across a range of deductive
coding tasks. Overall, we find that GPT-3.5 can often perform deductive coding
at levels of agreement comparable to human coders. Additionally, we demonstrate
that LACA can help refine prompts for deductive coding, identify codes for
which an LLM is randomly guessing, and help assess when to use LLMs vs. human
coders for deductive coding. We conclude with several implications for future
practice of deductive coding and related research methods.


  We demonstrate that chiral skyrmionic magnetization configurations can be
found as the minimum energy state in B20 thin film materials with easy-plane
magnetocrystalline anisotropy with an applied magnetic field perpendicular to
the film plane. Our observations contradict results from prior analytical work,
but are compatible with recent experimental investigations. The size of the
observed skyrmions increases with the easy-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy.
We use a full micromagnetic model including demagnetization and a
three-dimensional geometry to find local energy minimum (metastable)
magnetization configurations using numerical damped time integration. We
explore the phase space of the system and start simulations from a variety of
initial magnetization configurations to present a systematic overview of
anisotropy and magnetic field parameters for which skyrmions are metastable and
global energy minimum (stable) states.


  We assess the performance of two techniques in the context of nonlinear
transform coding with artificial neural networks, Sadam and GDN. Both
techniques have been successfully used in state-of-the-art image compression
methods, but their performance has not been individually assessed to this
point. Together, the techniques stabilize the training procedure of nonlinear
image transforms and increase their capacity to approximate the (unknown)
rate-distortion optimal transform functions. Besides comparing their
performance to established alternatives, we detail the implementation of both
methods and provide open-source code along with the paper.


  We consider general convolutional derivatives and related fractional
statistical dynamics of continuous interacting particle systems. We apply the
subordination principle to construct kinetic fractional statistical dynamics in
the continuum in terms of solutions to Vlasov-type hierarchies. Conditions for
the intermittency property of fractional kinetic dynamics are obtained.


  Stunningly large exciton transfer rates in the light harvesting complex of
photosynthesis, together with recent experimental 2D spectroscopic data, have
spurred a vivid debate on the possible quantum origin of such efficiency. Here
we show that configurations of a random molecular network that optimize
constructive quantum interference from input to output site yield
systematically shorter transfer times than classical transport induced by
ambient dephasing noise.


  The $e^+e^- \to \eta\pi^+\pi^-$ cross section is measured at the SND detector
in the $\eta$ decay mode $\eta\to 3\pi^0$. The analysis is based on the data
sample with an integrated luminosity of 32.7 pb$^{-1}$ collected at the
VEPP-2000 $e^+e^-$ collider in the center-of-mass energy range
$\sqrt{s}=1.075-2.000$ GeV. The data obtained in the $\eta\to 3\pi^0$ decay
mode are found to be in agreement with the previous SND measurements in the
$\eta\to \gamma\gamma$ mode. Therefore the measurements in the two modes are
combined.


  We are in a golden era observing Young Stellar Objects (YSOs), protoplanetary
disks, and substellar objects, crucial for understanding their formation and
evolution. This Ph.D. thesis explores two binary systems.
  Firstly, we study an eruptive YSO, HBC 494, using ALMA band 6 (1.3 mm)
observations. It's a FUor system in Orion Molecular Cloud with a resolved
binary system: HBC 494 N (primary) and HBC 494 S (secondary) separated by 75
au. The disks show hints of aligned formation scenarios, with HBC 494 N being
brighter and larger. Molecular line observations reveal bipolar outflows and
rotating envelopes. Cavity features within the continuum disks' area suggest
continuum over-subtraction or slow-moving jets and chemical destruction along
the line-of-sight.
  Secondly, we examine the young binary system $\eta$ Tel using VLT/SPHERE H
band imaging. It consists of an A-type star and a brown dwarf companion $\eta$
Tel B, separated by 208 au. Astrometric measurements over 19 years yield a low
eccentric orbit with an inclination of 81.9 degrees. The mass of $\eta$ Tel B
is determined to be 48 M$_{Jup}$, consistent with previous literature. No
significant residual indicative of a satellite or disk surrounding the
companion is detected, with limits ruling out massive objects around $\eta$ Tel
B at separations down to 33 au with masses as low as 1.6M$_{Jup}$.
  These studies employ sub-mm to near-IR observations, highlighting the
complexity of (sub)stellar formation/evolution. This thesis contributes diverse
analyses, providing insights into these intriguing processes.


  Photoionization heating from UV radiation incident on the atmospheres of hot
Jupiters may drive planetary mass loss. We construct a model of escape that
includes realistic heating and cooling, ionization balance, tidal gravity, and
pressure confinement by the host star wind. We show that mass loss takes the
form of a hydrodynamic ("Parker") wind, emitted from the planet's dayside
during lulls in the stellar wind. When dayside winds are suppressed by the
confining action of the stellar wind, nightside winds might pick up if there is
sufficient horizontal transport of heat. A hot Jupiter loses mass at maximum
rates of ~2 x 10^12 g/s during its host star's pre-main-sequence phase and ~2
x10^10 g/s during the star's main sequence lifetime, for total maximum losses
of ~0.06% and ~0.6% of the planet's mass, respectively. For UV fluxes F_UV <
10^4 erg/cm^2/s, the mass loss rate is approximately energy-limited and is
proportional to F_UV^0.9. For larger UV fluxes, such as those typical of T
Tauri stars, radiative losses and plasma recombination force the mass loss rate
to increase more slowly as F_UV^0.6. Dayside winds are quenched during the T
Tauri phase because of confinement by overwhelming stellar wind pressure. We
conclude that while UV radiation can indeed drive winds from hot Jupiters, such
winds cannot significantly alter planetary masses during any evolutionary
stage. They can, however, produce observable signatures. Candidates for
explaining why the Lyman-alpha photons of HD 209458 are absorbed at
Doppler-shifted velocities of +/- 100 km/s include charge-exchange in the shock
between the planetary and stellar winds.


  We present newly processed archival Herschel images of molecular cloud MCLD
123.5+24.9 in the Polaris Flare. This cloud contains five starless cores. Using
the spectral synthesis code Cloudy, we explore uncertainties in the derivation
of column densities, hence, masses of molecular cores from Herschel data. We
first consider several detailed grain models that predict far-IR grain
opacities. Opacities predicted by the models differ by more than a factor of
two, leading to uncertainties in derived column densities by the same factor.
Then we consider uncertainties associated with the modified blackbody fitting
process used by observers to estimate column densities. For high column density
clouds (N(H) $\gg$ 10$^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$), this fitting technique can
underestimate column densities by about a factor of three. Finally, we consider
the virial stability of the five starless cores in MCLD 123.5+24.9. All of
these cores appear to have strongly sub-virial masses, assuming, as we argue,
that $^{13}$CO line data provide reliable estimates of velocity dispersions.
Evidently, they are not self-gravitating, so it is no surprise that they are
starless.


  Let $f$ be a quadratic polynomial which has an irrationally indifferent fixed
point $\alpha$. Let $z$ be a biaccessible point in the Julia set of $f$. Then:
  1. In the Siegel case, the orbit of $z$ must eventually hit the critical
point of $f$.
  2. In the Cremer case, the orbit of $z$ must eventually hit the fixed point
$\alpha$. Siegel polynomials with biaccessible critical point certainly exist,
but in the Cremer case it is possible that biaccessible points can never exist.
  As a corollary, we conclude that the set of biaccessible points in the Julia
set of a Siegel or Cremer quadratic polynomial has Brolin measure zero.


  We present a detailed radio-continuum study on Australia Telescope Compact
Array (ATCA) observations of Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) supernova remnant
(SNR), MCSNR J0536-7038. This Type Ia SNR follows a horseshoe morphology, with
a size 32 pc $\times$ 32 pc (1-pc uncertainty in each direction). It exhibits a
radio spectrum $\alpha=-0.52\pm0.07$ between $\lambda = 73$ and 6 cm. We report
detections of regions showing moderately high fractional polarisation at 6 cm,
with a peak value of 71$\pm$25% and a mean fractional polarisation of
35$\pm$8%. We also estimate an average rotation measure across the remnant of
-237 rad m$^{-2}$. The intrinsic magnetic field appears to be uniformly
distributed, extending in the direction of the two brightened limbs of the
remnant.


  Regarding polynomial functions on a subset $S$ of a non-commutative ring $R$,
that is, functions induced by polynomials in $R[x]$ (whose variable commutes
with the coefficients), we show connections between, on one hand, sets $S$ such
that the integer-valued polynomials on $S$ form a ring, and, on the other hand,
sets $S$ such that the set of polynomials in $R[x]$ that are zero on $S$ is an
ideal of $R[x]$.


  We present molecular dynamics results for a two component, two-dimensional
Lennard-Jones supercooled liquid near the glass transition. We find that the
supercooled liquid is spatially heterogeneous and that there are long-lived
clusters whose size distribution satisfies a scaling relation up to a cutoff.
The similarity of several properties of the supercooled liquid to those of a
mean-field glass-forming fluid near the spinodal suggests that the glass
transition in the supercooled liquid is associated with an underlying
thermodynamic instability.


  In this paper the author finds explicitly all finite-dimensional irreducible
representations of a series of finite permutation groups that are homomorphic
images of Artin braid group.


  We derive an analytic expression for the instrument profile of a slit
spectrograph, also known as the line spread function. While this problem is not
new, our treatment relies on the operatorial approach to the description of
diffractive optical systems, which provides a general framework for the
analysis of the performance of slit spectrographs under different illumination
conditions. Based on our results, we propose an approximation to the spectral
resolution of slit spectrographs, taking into account diffraction effects and
sampling by the detector, which improves upon the often adopted approximation
based on the root-sumsquare of the individual contributions from the slit, the
grating, and the detector pixel.


We compute the area of a generic d-sphere in a Snyder geometry.


  The main aims of this article are to characterize a class of operators
associated with the symmetrized polydisc that admit rational dilations on the
minimal space and to show an interplay between rational dilation and
distinguished varieties in the symmetrized polydisc.


  Dark matter is a key piece of the current cosmological scenario, with weakly
interacting massive particles (WIMPs) a leading dark matter candidate. WIMPs
have not been detected in their conventional parameter space (100 GeV $\lesssim
M_{\chi} \lesssim$ 100 TeV), a mass range accessible with current Imaging
Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. As ultraheavy dark matter (UHDM; $M_{\chi}
\gtrsim$ 100 TeV) has been suggested as an under-explored alternative to the
WIMP paradigm, we search for an indirect dark matter annihilation signal in a
higher mass range (up to 30 PeV) with the VERITAS gamma-ray observatory. With
216 hours of observations of four dwarf spheroidal galaxies, we perform an
unbinned likelihood analysis. We find no evidence of a $\gamma$-ray signal from
UHDM annihilation above the background fluctuation for any individual dwarf
galaxy nor for a joint-fit analysis, and consequently constrain the
velocity-weighted annihilation cross section of UHDM for dark matter particle
masses between 1 TeV and 30 PeV. We additionally set constraints on the allowed
radius of a composite UHDM particle.


  African elephants are vital to their ecosystems, but their populations are
threatened by a rise in human-elephant conflict and poaching. Monitoring
population dynamics is essential in conservation efforts; however, tracking
elephants is a difficult task, usually relying on the invasive and sometimes
dangerous placement of GPS collars. Although there have been many recent
successes in the use of computer vision techniques for automated identification
of other species, identification of elephants is extremely difficult and
typically requires expertise as well as familiarity with elephants in the
population. We have built and deployed a web-based platform and database for
human-in-the-loop re-identification of elephants combining manual attribute
labeling and state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms, known as
ElephantBook. Our system is currently in use at the Mara Elephant Project,
helping monitor the protected and at-risk population of elephants in the
Greater Maasai Mara ecosystem. ElephantBook makes elephant re-identification
usable by non-experts and scalable for use by multiple conservation NGOs.


  We study the growth rate of a cell population that follows an age-structured
PDE with time-periodic coefficients. Our motivation comes from the comparison
between experimental tumor growth curves in mice endowed with intact or
disrupted circadian clocks, known to exert their influence on the cell division
cycle. We compare the growth rate of the model controlled by a time-periodic
control on its coefficients with the growth rate of stationary models of the
same nature, but with averaged coefficients. We firstly derive a delay
differential equation which allows us to prove several inequalities and
equalities on the growth rates. We also discuss about the necessity to take
into account the structure of the cell division cycle for chronotherapy
modeling. Numerical simulations illustrate the results.


  The rapid deployment of generative language models (LMs) has raised concerns
about social biases affecting the well-being of diverse consumers. The extant
literature on generative LMs has primarily examined bias via explicit identity
prompting. However, prior research on bias in earlier language-based technology
platforms, including search engines, has shown that discrimination can occur
even when identity terms are not specified explicitly. Studies of bias in LM
responses to open-ended prompts (where identity classifications are left
unspecified) are lacking and have not yet been grounded in end-consumer harms.
Here, we advance studies of generative LM bias by considering a broader set of
natural use cases via open-ended prompting. In this "laissez-faire" setting, we
find that synthetically generated texts from five of the most pervasive LMs
(ChatGPT3.5, ChatGPT4, Claude2.0, Llama2, and PaLM2) perpetuate harms of
omission, subordination, and stereotyping for minoritized individuals with
intersectional race, gender, and/or sexual orientation identities (AI/AN,
Asian, Black, Latine, MENA, NH/PI, Female, Non-binary, Queer). We find
widespread evidence of bias to an extent that such individuals are hundreds to
thousands of times more likely to encounter LM-generated outputs that portray
their identities in a subordinated manner compared to representative or
empowering portrayals. We also document a prevalence of stereotypes (e.g.
perpetual foreigner) in LM-generated outputs that are known to trigger
psychological harms that disproportionately affect minoritized individuals.
These include stereotype threat, which leads to impaired cognitive performance
and increased negative self-perception. Our findings highlight the urgent need
to protect consumers from discriminatory harms caused by language models and
invest in critical AI education programs tailored towards empowering diverse
consumers.


  In this paper we present a method for the estimation of leaks in non-invasive
ventilation. Accurate estimation of leaks is a key component of a ventilator,
since it determines the ventilator performance in terms of patient-ventilator
synchrony and air volume delivery. In particular, in non-invasive ventilation,
the patient flow is significantly different from the flow measured at the
ventilator outlet. This is mostly due to the vent orifice along the tube that
is used for exhalation, but also to the non-intentional leaks that occur
elsewhere in the circuit (e.g., at the mask). Such leaks are traditionally
quantified via a model with two parameters, but only one of them is continually
updated - the other is fixed. The new algorithm allows for breath-by-breath
update of both parameters. This was made possible by leveraging a model
describing the patient respiratory mechanics.


  We describe the first major public data release from cosmological simulations
carried out with Argonne's HACC code. This initial release covers a range of
datasets from large gravity-only simulations. The data products include halo
information for multiple redshifts, down-sampled particles, and lightcone
outputs. We provide data from two very large LCDM simulations as well as
beyond-LCDM simulations spanning eleven w0-wa cosmologies. Our release platform
uses Petrel, a research data service, located at the Argonne Leadership
Computing Facility. Petrel offers fast data transfer mechanisms and
authentication via Globus, enabling simple and efficient access to stored
datasets. Easy browsing of the available data products is provided via a web
portal that allows the user to navigate simulation products efficiently. The
data hub will be extended by adding more types of data products and by enabling
computational capabilities to allow direct interactions with simulation
results.


  We study autocorrelation functions of energy, heat and entropy densities
obtained by molecular dynamics simulations of supercritical Ar and compare them
with the predictions of the hydrodynamic theory. It is shown that the predicted
by the hydrodynamic theory single-exponential shape of the entropy density
autocorrelation functions is perfectly reproduced for small wave numbers by the
molecular dynamics simulations and permits the calculation of the
wavenumber-dependent specific heat at constant pressure. The estimated
wavenumber-dependent specific heats at constant volume and pressure, $C_{v}(k)$
and $C_{p}(k)$, are shown to be in the long-wavelength limit in good agreement
with the macroscopic experimental values of $C_{v}$ and $C_{p}$ for the studied
thermodynamic points of supercritical Ar.


  Fabry-Perot microcavities can strongly enhance interactions between light and
molecules, leading to the formation of hybrid light-matter states known as
polaritons. Polaritons possess much smaller effective masses and much larger
group velocities when the molecules are resonant with cavity modes that have
finite (non-zero) in-plane wavevectors, giving rise to the possibilities of
long-range and ultrafast ballistic transport. In this paper, we present results
of numerical simulations of the ultrafast ballistic transport phenomenon in
real space and time during and after initialization with a short, spatially
localized pulse. We find that the transport of the molecular excitons as
induced by the external light field is synchronized with the evolution of the
enhanced and localized electromagnetic field inside the cavity. Moreover, the
synchronized transport rate is in good agreement with the group velocities
predicted from a calculated dispersion relation across a wide range of
frequencies. These simulations provide an intuitive tool for understanding the
collective motion of light and excitons and helps to better understand how
experimental observations of polaritons should be interpreted.


  This chapter introduces resource augmentation, in which the performance of an
algorithm is compared to the best-possible solution that is handicapped by less
resources. We consider three case studies: online paging, with cache size as
the resource; selfish routing, with capacity as the resource; and scheduling,
with processor speed as the resource. Resource augmentation bounds also imply
"loosely competitive" bounds, which show that an algorithm's performance is
near-optimal for most resource levels.


  Non-perturbative effects in the high-temperature phase of the electroweak
theory are characterized by a magnetic screening length. Its size influences
the range of validity of perturbation theory, and it also determines the
critical Higgs boson mass where the first-order phase transition changes to a
crossover. We propose a gauge-invariant definition of the magnetic screening
length and discuss its role in several gauge-dependent and gauge-invariant
correlation functions.


  Quantum mechanical transition amplitudes are calculated within the stochastic
quantization scheme for the free nonrelativistic particle, the harmonic
oscillator and the nonrelativistic particle in a constant magnetic field; we
close with free Grassmann quantum mechanics.


  We establish a one to one correspondence between idempotent states on a
locally compact quantum group G and integrable coideals in the von Neumann
algebra of bounded measurable functions on G that are preserved by the scaling
group. In particular we show that there is a 1-1 correspondence between
idempotent states on G and psi-expected left invariant von Neumann subalgebras
of bounded measurable functions on G. We characterize idempotent states of Haar
type as those corresponding to integrable normal coideals preserved by the
scaling group. We also establish a one to one correspondence between open
subgroups of G and convolutionally central idempotent states on the dual of G.
Finally we characterize coideals corresponding to open quantum subgroups of G
as those that are normal and admit an atom. As a byproduct of this study we get
a number of universal lifting results for Podles condition, normality and
regularity and we generalize number of results known before to hold under the
coamenability assumption.


  We investigate the inhomogeneous inflation, in which the space exponentially
expands with inhomogeneities, and its cosmological perturbations. The
inhomogeneous inflation is realized by introducing scalar fields with spacelike
gradients that break the spatial symmetry. We find that the space can expand
uniformly in different direction with the same rate. By using the perturbative
method, we calculate the corrections to the power spectra of gravitational
waves and curvature perturbation up to the linear order in the background
inhomogeneities. Since the background is inhomogeneous, perturbations modes
with different wave numbers get correlated. We show that generally the power
spectra of perturbations depend on the ratio and the angle of wave numbers of
the two correlated modes. In particular, the two circular polarization modes of
the gravitational waves gain different powers when the background inhomogeneity
is of vector or tensor type.


  This work proposes to use evolutionary computation as a pathway to allow a
new perspective on the modeling of energy expenditure and recovery of an
individual athlete during exercise. We revisit a theoretical concept called the
"three component hydraulic model" which is designed to simulate metabolic
systems during exercise and which is able to address recently highlighted
shortcomings of currently applied performance models. This hydraulic model has
not been entirely validated on individual athletes because it depends on
physiological measures that cannot be acquired in the required precision or
quantity. This paper introduces a generalized interpretation and formalization
of the three component hydraulic model that removes its ties to concrete
metabolic measures and allows to use evolutionary computation to fit its
parameters to an athlete.


  Recent experiments at the level of a single cell have shown that gene
expression occurs in abrupt stochastic bursts. Further, in an ensemble of
cells, the levels of proteins produced have a bimodal distribution. In a large
fraction of cells, the gene expression is either off or has a high value. We
propose a stochastic model of gene expression the essential features of which
are stochasticity and cooperative binding of RNA polymerase. The model can
reproduce the bimodal behaviour seen in experiments.


  We introduce a new version of non-linear electrodynamics which is produced by
a spontaneous symmetry breaking of Lorentz invariance induced by the non-zero
expectation value of the electromagnetic field strength. The symmetry breaking
potential is argued to effectively arise from the integration of massive gauge
bosons and fermions in an underlying fundamental theory. All possible choices
of the vacuum lead only to the remaining invariant subgroups T(2) and HOM(2).
We explore the plane wave solutions of the linearized sector of the model for
an arbitrary vacuum. They present two types of dispersion relations. One
corresponds to the case of the usual Maxwell electrodynamics with the standard
polarization properties of the fields. The other dispersion relation involves
anisotropies determined by the structure of the vacuum. The model is stable in
the small Lorentz invariance violation approximation. We have embedded our
model in the photon sector of the Standard Model Extension in order to set
bounds for our parameters. The one-way anisotropic speed of light is calculated
for a general vacuum and its isotropic component is strongly bounded by
${\tilde \delta c}/c < 2 \times 10^{-32}$. The anisotropic violation
contribution is estimated by introducing an alternative definition for the
difference of the two-way speed of light in perpendicular directions $\Delta
c$, which is also strongly bounded by ${\Delta c}/c < 10^{-32}$. Finally, we
speculate on the relation of the vacuum energy of the model with the
cosmological constant and propose a connection between the vacuum fields and
the intergalactic magnetic fields.


  The WIMPs are considered one of the favorable dark matter (DM) candidates,
but as the upper bounds on the interactions between DM and standard model (SM)
particles obtained by the upgraded facilities of DM direct detections get lower
and lower. Researchers turn their attentions to search for less massive DM
candidates, i.e. light dark matter of MeV scale. The recently measured
anomalous transition in $^8$Be suggests that there exists a vectorial boson
which may mediate the interaction between DM and SM particles. Based on this
scenario, we combine the relevant cosmological data to constrain the mass range
of DM, and have found that there exists a model parameter space where the
requirements are satisfied, a range of $10.4 \lesssim m_{\phi} \lesssim $ 16.7
MeV for scalar DM, and $13.6 \lesssim m_{V} \lesssim $ 16.7 MeV for vectorial
DM is demanded. Then a possibility of directly detecting such light DM
particles via the DM-electron scattering is briefly studied in this framework.


  We present a variation of the method of regularized Stokeslet (MRS)
specialized for the case of forces and torques distributed over filaments in
three dimensions. The new formulation is based on the exact solution of Stokes
equation generated by a linear continuous distribution of regularized forces
along a line segment. Therefore, a straight filament with linearly varying
forces does not require discretization. A general filament is approximated by a
piecewise linear curve in three dimensions where the length of each line
segment is chosen only based on the variation of the force field and the
desired accuracy of its piecewise linear approximation. The most significant
advantage of this formulation is that the values of the regularization
parameter $\epsilon$ and the length of the segments $h$ are decoupled as long
as $\epsilon<h$ so that $\epsilon$ can be selected as a proxy for the radius of
the filament and $h$ is chosen to discretize the forces and torques. We analyze
the performance on test problems and present biological applications of sperm
motility based on existing models of swimming flagella in open space and near a
plane wall. The results show, for example, that because the forces along the
flagellum vary mildly, a flagellum can be approximated with as few as 11
segments of length $h$ while fixing the regularization parameter to
$\epsilon=h/30$, overcoming the need for hundreds of discretization nodes
required by the MRS when $\epsilon$ is small. The filament behaves like a
slender cylindrical tube of radius $\approx 0.97\epsilon$ so that the value of
$\epsilon$ influences the flagellum's swimming speed. For fixed regularization,
doubling the number of line segments does not affect the results significantly
as long as the force field is resolved. Examples that require rotlets and
potential dipoles along the filament are also presented.


  Recently, physical layer security based approaches have drawn considerable
attentions and are envisaged to provide secure communications in the wireless
networks. However, most existing literatures only focus on the physical layer.
Thus, how to design an effective transmission scheme which also considers the
requirements from the upper layers is still an unsolved problem. We consider
such cross-layer resource allocation problem in the multi-user downlink
environment for both having instantaneous and partial eavesdropping channel
information scenarios. The problem is first formulated in a new security
framework. Then, the control scheme is designed to maximize the average
admission rate of the data, incorporating delay, power, and secrecy as
constraints, for both non-colluding and colluding eavesdropping cases in each
scenario. Performance analysis is given based on the stochastic optimization
theory and the simulations are carried out to validate the effectiveness of our
scheme.


  We briefly review the limits on new interactions implied by electroweak
precision data. Special attention is payed to the bounds on the Higgs boson
mass. We also comment on the required cancellation among the new contributions
to precisely measured electroweak observables in any Standard Model extension,
if the new particles have to evade the indirect constraints on their couplings
and masses but still remain at the LHC reach.


  Normalized information distance (NID) uses the theoretical notion of
Kolmogorov complexity, which for practical purposes is approximated by the
length of the compressed version of the file involved, using a real-world
compression program. This practical application is called `normalized
compression distance' and it is trivially computable. It is a parameter-free
similarity measure based on compression, and is used in pattern recognition,
data mining, phylogeny, clustering, and classification. The complexity
properties of its theoretical precursor, the NID, have been open. We show that
the NID is neither upper semicomputable nor lower semicomputable up to any
reasonable precision.


  Conventional forgery localizing methods usually rely on different forgery
footprints such as JPEG artifacts, edge inconsistency, camera noise, etc., with
cross-entropy loss to locate manipulated regions. However, these methods have
the disadvantage of over-fitting and focusing on only a few specific forgery
footprints. On the other hand, real-life manipulated images are generated via a
wide variety of forgery operations and thus, leave behind a wide variety of
forgery footprints. Therefore, we need a more general approach for image
forgery localization that can work well on a variety of forgery conditions. A
key assumption in underlying forged region localization is that there remains a
difference of feature distribution between untampered and manipulated regions
in each forged image sample, irrespective of the forgery type. In this paper,
we aim to leverage this difference of feature distribution to aid in image
forgery localization. Specifically, we use contrastive loss to learn mapping
into a feature space where the features between untampered and manipulated
regions are well-separated for each image. Also, our method has the advantage
of localizing manipulated region without requiring any prior knowledge or
assumption about the forgery type. We demonstrate that our work outperforms
several existing methods on three benchmark image manipulation datasets. Code
is available at https://github.com/niloy193/CFLNet.


  Given a linear dynamical system affected by noise, we study the problem of
optimally placing sensors (at design-time) subject to a sensor placement budget
constraint in order to minimize the trace of the steady-state error covariance
of the corresponding Kalman filter. While this problem is NP-hard in general,
we consider the underlying graph associated with the system dynamics matrix,
and focus on the case when there is a single input at one of the nodes in the
graph. We provide an optimal strategy (computed in polynomial-time) to place
the sensors over the network. Next, we consider the problem of attacking (i.e.,
removing) the placed sensors under a sensor attack budget constraint in order
to maximize the trace of the steady-state error covariance of the resulting
Kalman filter. Using the insights obtained for the sensor placement problem, we
provide an optimal strategy (computed in polynomial-time) to attack the placed
sensors. Finally, we consider the scenario where a system designer places the
sensors under a sensor placement budget constraint, and an adversary then
attacks the placed sensors subject to a sensor attack budget constraint. The
resilient sensor placement problem is to find a sensor placement strategy to
minimize the trace of the steady-state error covariance of the Kalman filter
corresponding to the sensors that survive the attack. We show that this problem
is NP-hard, and provide a pseudo-polynomial-time algorithm to solve it.


  Using a trapped quintessence model, a series of time-of-flight (TOF)
experiments with a different frequency of probe light were designed and
performed. The varying-frequency TOF (VFTOF) experiments demonstrated that the
fall acceleration of test atoms is dependent on the detuning of the probe light
frequency with respect to the atomic transition frequency. In appropriately
designed experiments, if the scalar field in the model accounts for the
accelerated expansion of the Universe entirely, the field will result in an
observable fifth force. Meanwhile, the trapped quintessence model still
satisfies all experimental bounds on deviations from general relativity due to
both the saturation effect and the short interaction range of the scalar field.
The scalar saturates at a value corresponding to the cosmological constant when
the microscopic nonrelativistic matter density is large enough. The interaction
range of the scalar is inversely proportional to the square root of the
microscopic nonrelativistic matter density. The interaction range has been
estimated to be several $\mu \rm{m}$ in the current cosmic density. The
Universe is assumed to be permeated with fuzzy dark matter, which means that
the microscopic nonrelativistic matter density defined through the quantum
wavefunctions of the ultralight particles can be used on the cosmic scale.
  By measuring the fall acceleration of the test atoms with the TOF method
step-by-step in the detuning frequency domain of the probe light, we derived
the dispersion curves of the measured acceleration versus the frequency
detuning of the probe light. When the nonrelativistic matter density of the
source increased due to the energy gained from the laser light, the test atoms
were pulled to the center of the source, and vice versa.


  A standard seaweed subalgebra of $A_{n-1}=\mathfrak{sl}(n)$ may be
parametrized by a pair of compositions of the positive integer $n$. For all $n$
and certain $k(n)$, we provide closed-form formulas and the generating
functions for $C(n,k)$ -- the number of parametrizing pairs which yield a
seaweed subalgebra of $\mathfrak{sl}(n)$ of index $k$. Our analysis sets the
framework for addressing similar questions in the other classical families.


  We propose a diagrammatic Monte Carlo approach for general spin-boson models,
which can be regarded as a generalization of the strong-coupling expansion for
fermionic impurity models. The algorithm is based on a self-consistently
computed three-point vertex and a stochastically sampled four-point vertex, and
achieves convergence to the numerically exact result in a wide parameter
regime. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated with applications to a
spin-boson model representing an emitter in a waveguide. As a function of the
coupling strength, the spin exhibits a delocalization-localization crossover at
low temperatures, signaling a qualitative change in the real-time relaxation.
In certain parameter regimes, the response functions of the emitter coupled to
the electromagnetic continuum can be described by an effective Rabi model with
appropriately defined parameters. We also discuss the spatial distribution of
the photon density around the emitter.


  In this paper, we search for the BPS skyrmions in some BPS submodels of the
generalized Skyrme model in five-dimensional spacetime using the BPS Lagrangian
method. We focus on the static solutions of the Bogomolny's equations and their
corresponding energies with topological charge $B>0$ is an integer. We consider
two main cases based on the symmetry of the effective Lagrangian of the BPS
submodels, i.e. the spherically symmetric and non-spherically symmetric cases.
For the spherically symmetric case, we find two BPS submodels. The first BPS
submodels consist of a potential term and a term proportional to the square of
the topological current. The second BPS submodels consist of only the Skyrme
term. The second BPS submodel has BPS skyrmions with the same topological
charge $B>1$, but with different energies, that we shall call "topological
degenerate" BPS skyrmions. It also has the usual BPS skyrmions with equal
energies, if the topological charge is a prime number. Another interesting
feature of the BPS skyrmions, with $B>1$, in this BPS submodel, is that these
BPS skyrmions have non-zero pressures in the angular direction. For the
non-spherically symmetric case, there is only one BPS submodel, which is
similar to the first BPS submodel in the spherically symmetric case. We find
that the BPS skyrmions depend on a constant $k$ and for a particular value of
$k$ we obtain the BPS skyrmions of the first BPS submodel in the spherically
symmetric case. The total static energy and the topological charge of these BPS
skyrmions also depend on this constant. We also show that all the results found
in this paper satisfy the full field equations of motions of the corresponding
BPS submodels.


  We have run 600 N-body simulations of intermediate-mass (~3500 Msun) young
star clusters (SCs) with three different metallicities (Z=0.01, 0.1 and 1
Zsun). The simulations include the dependence of stellar properties and stellar
winds on metallicity. Massive stellar black holes (MSBHs) with mass >25 Msun
are allowed to form through direct collapse of very massive metal-poor stars
(Z<0.3 Zsun). We focus on the demographics of black hole (BH) binaries that
undergo mass transfer via Roche lobe overflow (RLO). We find that 44 per cent
of all binaries that undergo an RLO phase (RLO binaries) formed through
dynamical exchange. RLO binaries that formed via exchange (RLO-EBs) are powered
by more massive BHs than RLO primordial binaries (RLO-PBs). Furthermore, the
RLO-EBs tend to start the RLO phase later than the RLO-PBs. In metal-poor SCs
(0.01-0.1 Zsun), >20 per cent of all RLO binaries are powered by MSBHs. The
vast majority of RLO binaries powered by MSBHs are RLO-EBs. We have produced
optical color-magnitude diagrams of the simulated RLO binaries, accounting for
the emission of both the donor star and the irradiated accretion disk. We find
that RLO-PBs are generally associated with bluer counterparts than RLO-EBs. We
compare the simulated counterparts with the observed counterparts of nine
ultraluminous X-ray sources. We discuss the possibility that IC 342 X-1, Ho IX
X-1, NGC 1313 X-2 and NGC 5204 X-1 are powered by a MSBH.


  For metallic point contacts with Be and Al the magnetoquantum oscillations in
the contact resistance have been investigated as a function of the applied
voltage over the contact. For one set of point contacts the oscillation
amplitude is found to vary nonmonotonously with the applied voltage with
similarities to the point-contact spectrum of the electron-phonon interaction.
The other part of the investigated point contacts shows a decrease of the
oscillation amplitude with increasing bias voltage. For the understanding of
the voltage dependence of the amplitude of the point-contact magnetoresistance
oscillations the influence of nonequilibrium phonons generated by the
ballistically injected electrons will be discussed.


  The theory of relative logarithmic jet spaces is developed for log schemes.
With this theory the existence of bounds of intersection multiplicities of
curves and divisors on certain log schemes is established. This result extends
those of Noguchi and Winkelmann by replacing the semi-abelian condition by a
differential one.


  Mini-proceedings of the ECT* Workshop, Hadronic Atoms and Kaonic Nuclei -
Solved Puzzles, Open Problems and Future Challenges in Theory and Experiment,
12-16 October 2009


  We introduce a framework for the formal specification and verification of
quantum circuits based on the Feynman path integral. Our formalism, built
around exponential sums of polynomial functions, provides a structured and
natural way of specifying quantum operations, particularly for quantum
implementations of classical functions. Verification of circuits over all
levels of the Clifford hierarchy with respect to either a specification or
reference circuit is enabled by a novel rewrite system for exponential sums
with free variables. Our algorithm is further shown to give a polynomial-time
decision procedure for checking the equivalence of Clifford group circuits. We
evaluate our methods by performing automated verification of optimized
Clifford+T circuits with up to 100 qubits and thousands of T gates, as well as
the functional verification of quantum algorithms using hundreds of qubits. Our
experiments culminate in the automated verification of the Hidden Shift
algorithm for a class of Boolean functions in a fraction of the time it has
taken recent algorithms to simulate.


  In the framework of compressional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), we numerically
studied the commonly accepted presumption that the Alfv\'enic turbulence is
generated by the collisions between counter-propagating Alfv\'en waves (AWs).
In the conditions typical for the low-beta solar corona and inner solar wind,
we launched two counter-propagating AWs in the three-dimensional simulation box
and analyzed polarization and spectral properties of perturbations generated
before and after AW collisions. The observed post-collisional perturbations
have different polarizations and smaller cross-field scales than the original
waves, which supports theoretical scenarios with direct turbulent cascades.
However, contrary to theoretical expectations, the spectral transport is
strongly suppressed at the scales satisfying the classic critical balance of
incompressional MHD. Instead, a modified critical balance can be established by
colliding AWs with significantly shorter perpendicular scales. We discuss
consequences of these effects for the turbulence dynamics and turbulent heating
of compressional plasmas. In particular, solar coronal loops can be heated by
the strong turbulent cascade if the characteristic widths of the loop
substructures are more than ten times smaller than the loop width. The revealed
new properties of AW collisions have to be incorporated in the theoretical
models of AW turbulence and related applications.


  Fire effects are widely used in various computer graphics applications such
as visual effects and video games. Modeling the shape and appearance of fire
phenomenon is challenging as the underlying effects are driven by complex laws
of physics. State-of-the-art fire modeling techniques rely on sophisticated
physical simulations which require intensive parameter tuning, or use
simplifications which produce physically invalid results. In this paper, we
present a novel method of reconstructing physically valid fire models from
multi-view stereo images. Our method, for the first time, provides plausible
estimation of physical properties (e.g., temperature, density) of a fire volume
using RGB cameras. This allows for a number of novel phenomena such as global
fire illumination effects. The effectiveness and usefulness of our method are
tested by generating fire models from a variety of input data, and applying the
reconstructed fire models for realistic illumination of virtual scenes.


  We consider the intermediate mass continuum of dileptons (between $\phi$ and
$J/\psi$) in ultrarelativistic heavy--ion collisions. The thermal signal
depends essentially on thermodynamic state parameters of the hottest parton
stage as $(\tau_i\lambda^q_iT_i^3)^2$ convoluted with an involved detector
acceptance function. A refined analysis of the transverse pair momentum
spectrum at fixed dilepton transverse mass can reveal the maximum temperature
of parton matter.


  We have experimentally investigated the fracture process in paper samples
submitted to a uniaxial force. Five types of paper sheets (newsprint, towel,
sulfite, silk and couche papers) were fractured along two orthogonal
orientations. In order to characterize the rupture lines of the paper sheets we
utilized the Hurst exponent. Our results indicate a dependence of the Hurst
exponent on the orientation of the paper sheets for samples of newsprint and,
probably, towel and silk papers. For the other types of paper the Hurst
exponent does not depend on the direction of crack propagation.


  We develop local elliptic regularity for operators having coefficients in a
range of Sobolev-type function spaces (Bessel potential, Sobolev-Slobodeckij,
Triebel-Lizorkin, Besov) where the coefficients have a regularity structure
typical of operators in geometric analysis. The proofs rely on a nonstandard
technique using rescaling estimates and apply to operators having coefficients
with low regularity. For each class of function space for an operator's
coefficients, we exhibit a natural associated range of function spaces of the
same type for the domain of the operator and we provide regularity inference
along with interior estimates. Additionally, we present a unified set of
multiplication results for the function spaces we consider.


  Here we demonstrate the controlled growth of Bi(110) and Bi(111) films on an
(insulating) $\alpha$-Al$_2$O$_3$(0001) substrate by surface X-ray diffraction
and X-ray reflectivity using synchrotron radiation. At temperatures as low as
40 K, unanticipated pseudo-cubic Bi(110) films are grown having a thickness
ranging from a few to tens of nanometers. The roughness at the film-vacuum as
well as at the film-substrate interface, can be reduced by mild heating, where
a crystallographic orientation transition of Bi(110) towards Bi(111) is
observed at 400 K. From 450 K onwards high quality and ultrasmooth Bi(111)
films are formed. Growth around the transition temperature results in the
growth of competing Bi(110) and Bi(111) thin film domains.


  We consider the disordered monomer-dimer model on cylinder graphs
$\mathcal{G}_n$, i.e., graphs given by the Cartesian product of the line graph
on $n$ vertices, and a deterministic graph. The edges carry i.i.d. random
weights, and the vertices also carry i.i.d. random weights, not necessarily
from the same distribution. Given the random weights, we define a Gibbs measure
on the space of monomer-dimer configurations on $\mathcal{G}_n$. We show that
the associated free energy converges to a limit, and with suitable scaling and
centering, satisfies a central limit theorem. We also show that the number of
monomers in a typical configuration satisfies a law of large numbers and a
central limit theorem with appropriate centering and scaling. Finally, for an
appropriate height function associated with a matching, we show convergence to
a limiting function and prove the Brownian motion limit about the limiting
height function in the sense of finite-dimensional distributions.


  Developing an algorithm for computing the Betti numbers of semi-algebraic
sets with singly exponential complexity has been a holy grail in algorithmic
semi-algebraic geometry and only partial results are known. In this paper we
consider the more general problem of computing the image under the homology
functor of a semi-algebraic map $f:X \rightarrow Y$ between closed and bounded
semi-algebraic sets. For every fixed $\ell \geq 0$ we give an algorithm with
singly exponential complexity that computes bases of the homology groups
$\mathrm{H}_i(X), \mathrm{H}_i(Y)$ (with rational coefficients) and a matrix
with respect to these bases of the induced linear maps
$\mathrm{H}_i(f):\mathrm{H}_i(X) \rightarrow \mathrm{H}_i(Y), 0 \leq i \leq
\ell$. We generalize this algorithm to more general (zigzag) diagrams of maps
between closed and bounded semi-algebraic sets and give a singly exponential
algorithm for computing the homology functors on such diagrams. This allows us
to give an algorithm with singly exponential complexity for computing barcodes
of semi-algebraic zigzag persistent homology in small dimensions.


  We consider dynamical stabilization of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) by
time-dependent modulation of the scattering length. The problem has been
studied before by several methods: Gaussian variational approximation, the
method of moments, method of modulated Townes soliton, and the direct averaging
of the Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation. We summarize these methods and find that
the numerically obtained stabilized solution has different configuration than
that assumed by the theoretical methods (in particular a phase of the
wavefunction is not quadratic with $r$). We show that there is presently no
clear evidence for stabilization in a strict sense, because in the numerical
experiments only metastable (slowly decaying) solutions have been obtained. In
other words, neither numerical nor mathematical evidence for a new kind of
soliton solutions have been revealed so far. The existence of the metastable
solutions is nevertheless an interesting and complicated phenomenon on its own.
We try some non-Gaussian variational trial functions to obtain better
predictions for the critical nonlinearity $g_{cr}$ for metastabilization but
other dynamical properties of the solutions remain difficult to predict.


  Coherent spaces spanned by a finite number of coherent states, are
introduced. Their coherence properties are studied, using the Dirac contour
representation. It is shown that the corresponding projectors resolve the
identity, and that they transform into projectors of the same type, under
displacement transformations, and also under time evolution. The set of these
spaces, with the logical OR and AND operations is a distributive lattice, and
with the logical XOR and AND operations is a Boolean ring (Stone\rq{}s
formalism). Applications of this Boolean ring into classical CNOT gates with
$n$-ary variables, and also quantum CNOT gates with coherent states, are
discussed.


  We study how 21 cm intensity mapping can be used to measure gravitational
lensing over a wide range of redshift. This can extend weak lensing
measurements to higher redshifts than are accessible with conventional galaxy
surveys. We construct a convergence estimator taking into account the
discreteness of galaxies and calculate the expected noise level as a function
of redshift and telescope parameters. At $z \sim 2-3$ we find that a telescope
array with a collecting area $\sim 0.2 \, {\rm km}^2$ spread over a region with
diameter $\sim 2 \, {\rm km}$ would be sufficient to measure the convergence
power spectrum to high accuracy for multipoles between 10 and 1,000. We show
that these measurements can be used to constrain interacting dark energy
models.


  A Fourier analysis on galaxy number counts from redshift data of both the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey indicates that
galaxies have preferred periodic redshift spacings of $\Delta z =$ 0.0102,
0.0246, and 0.0448 in the SDSS and strong agreement with the results from the
2dF GRS. The redshift spacings are confirmed by the mass density fluctuations,
the power spectrum $P(z)$ and $N_{pairs}$ calculations. Application of the
Hubble law results in galaxies preferentially located on co-moving concentric
shells with periodic spacings. The combined results from both surveys indicate
regular co-moving radial distance spacings of $31.7 \pm 1.8$ $h^{-1} Mpc$,
$73.4 \pm 5.8$ $h^{-1} Mpc$ and $127 \pm 21$ $h^{-1} Mpc$. The results are
consistent with oscillations in the expansion rate of the universe over past
epochs.


  At the heart of path-planning methods for autonomous robotic exploration is a
heuristic which encourages exploring unknown regions of the environment. Such
heuristics are typically computed using frontier-based or information-theoretic
methods. Frontier-based methods define the information gain of an exploration
path as the number of boundary cells, or frontiers, which are visible from the
path. However, the discrete and non-differentiable nature of this measure of
information gain makes it difficult to optimize using gradient-based methods.
In contrast, information-theoretic methods define information gain as the
mutual information between the sensor's measurements and the explored map.
However, computation of the gradient of mutual information involves finite
differencing and is thus computationally expensive. This work proposes an
exploration planning framework that combines sampling-based path planning and
gradient-based path optimization. The main contribution of this framework is a
novel reformulation of information gain as a differentiable function. This
allows us to simultaneously optimize information gain with other differentiable
quality measures, such as smoothness. The proposed planning framework's
effectiveness is verified both in simulation and in hardware experiments using
a Turtlebot3 Burger robot.


  The second-grade fluid equations are a model for viscoelastic fluids, with
two parameters: $\alpha > 0$, corresponding to the elastic response, and $\nu >
0$, corresponding to viscosity. Formally setting these parameters to $0$
reduces the equations to the incompressible Euler equations of ideal fluid
flow. In this article we study the limits $\alpha, \nu \to 0$ of solutions of
the second-grade fluid system, in a smooth, bounded, two-dimensional domain
with no-slip boundary conditions. This class of problems interpolates between
the Euler-$\alpha$ model ($\nu = 0$), for which the authors recently proved
convergence to the solution of the incompressible Euler equations, and the
Navier-Stokes case ($\alpha = 0$), for which the vanishing viscosity limit is
an important open problem. We prove three results. First, we establish
convergence of the solutions of the second-grade model to those of the Euler
equations provided $\nu = \mathcal{O}(\alpha^2)$, as $\alpha \to 0$, extending
the main result in [19]. Second, we prove equivalence between convergence (of
the second-grade fluid equations to the Euler equations) and vanishing of the
energy dissipation in a suitably thin region near the boundary, in the
asymptotic regime $\nu = \mathcal{O}(\alpha^{6/5})$, $\nu/\alpha^2 \to \infty$
as $\alpha \to 0$. This amounts to a convergence criterion similar to the
well-known Kato criterion for the vanishing viscosity limit of the
Navier-Stokes equations to the Euler equations. Finally, we obtain an extension
of Kato's classical criterion to the second-grade fluid model, valid if $\alpha
= \mathcal{O}(\nu^{3/2})$, as $\nu \to 0$. The proof of all these results
relies on energy estimates and boundary correctors, following the original idea
by Kato.


  HM Lup is a young M-type star that accretes material from a circumstellar
disk through a magnetosphere. Our aim is to study the inner disk structure of
HM Lup and to characterize its variability. We used spectroscopic data from
HST/STIS, X-Shooter, and ESPRESSO taken in the framework of the ULLYSES and
PENELLOPE programs, together with photometric data from TESS and AAVSO. The
2021 TESS light curve shows variability typical for young stellar objects of
the "accretion burster" type. The spectra cover the temporal evolution of the
main burst in the 2021 TESS light curve. We compared the strength and
morphology of emission lines from different species and ionization stages. We
determined the mass accretion rate from selected emission lines and from the UV
continuum excess emission at different epochs, and we examined its relation to
the photometric light curves. The emission lines in the optical spectrum of HM
Lup delineate a temperature stratification along the accretion flow. While the
wings of the H I and He I lines originate near the star, the lines of species
such as Na I, Mg I, Ca I, Ca II, Fe I, and Fe II are formed in an outer and
colder region. The shape and periodicity of the 2019 and 2021 TESS light
curves, when qualitatively compared to predictions from magnetohydrodynamic
models, suggest that HM Lup was in a regime of unstable ordered accretion
during the 2021 TESS observation due to an increase in the accretion rate.
Although HM Lup is not an extreme accretor, it shows enhanced emission in the
metallic species during this high accretion state that is produced by a density
enhancement in the outer part of the accretion flow.


  1,4-benzodiazepine-2-ones and their derivatives are prominent structures in
medicinal chemistry. These biomolecules have wide biological activities and
posses therapeutic applications. In this works, we introduce new derivatives of
1,4-benzodiazepine-2-ones which are synthesized using michael addition reaction
of 7-chloro- 1,3-dihydro-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazepine-2-ones with fumaric
esters that matches with green chemistry protocols. The structures of all
products are confirmed by FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and MASS spectroscopy. Since
the stereochemistry of 1,4-benzo diazepine-2-ones is important, we study the
most stable conformer of one of the products as a model for conformational
analysis by hyper chem soft ware and semi empirical AM1 program. Also, using
the 1H-NMR spectrum, we investigate the produced diastereomers of one of
products as a model.


  The Green--Griffiths--Lang and Kobayashi hyperbolicity conjectures for
generic hypersurfaces of polynomial degree are proved using intersection theory
for non-reductive geometric invariant theoretic quotients and recent work of
Riedl and Yang.


  The Instrument Control Software of SOXS (Son Of X-Shooter), the forthcoming
spectrograph for the ESO New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory,
has reached a mature state of development and is approaching the crucial
Preliminary Acceptance in Europe phase. Now that all the subsystems have been
integrated in the laboratories of the Padova Astronomical Observatory, the team
operates for testing purposes with the whole instrument at both engineering and
scientific level. These activities will make use of a set of software
peculiarities that will be discussed in this contribution. In particular, we
focus on the synoptic panel, the co-rotator system special device, on the
Active Flexure Compensation system which controls two separate piezo tip-tilt
devices.


  Proton irradiation of both n-type and semi-insulating bulk samples of
\b{eta}-Ga2O3 leads to the formation of one paramagnetic defect with spin
S=1/2, monoclinic point symmetry, a g-tensor with principal values of
gb=2.0313, gc=2.0079, ga*= 2.0025 and quasi isotropic superhyperfine
interaction of 13G with two equivalent Ga neigbours. Its high introduction rate
indicates it to be a primary irradiation induced defect. At low temperature,
photoexcitation transforms this defect into a different metastable S=1/2 center
with principal g-values of gb=2.0064, gc=2.0464, ga*= 2.0024 and a reduced
hyperfine interaction of 9G. This metastable defect is stable up to T=100K,
when it switches back to the previous configuration. Density functional theory
calculations of the Spin Hamiltonian parameters of various intrinsic defects
are carried out using the Gauge Including Projector Augmented Wave method in
order to determine the microscopic structure of these defects.Our results do
not support the intuitive model of the isolated octahedral or tetrahedral
gallium vacancy, VGa2-, but favor the model of a gallium vacancy complex
VGa-Gai-VGa.


  We examine the resonant activation of a current-biased Josephson junction
near the crossover temperature in order to show the way in which the device
transitions from the classical regime to the quantum regime. We use microwaves
to probe the quantum energy states that exist in the potential well. The
quantum features are visible until the junction is heated up to the crossover
temperature, at which point the line widths of the energy levels overlap and
become indistinguishable from one another. When well above this temperature,
the junction behaves classically when resonantly activated with microwaves.


  We report the laser cooling and trapping of neutral potassium on an open
transition. Fermionic 40K is captured using a magneto-optical trap (MOT) on the
closed 4S-4P transition at 767 nm and then transferred, with unit efficiency,
to a MOT on the open 4S-5P transition at 405 nm. Because the 5P state has a
smaller line width than the 4P state, the Doppler limit is reduced. We observe
temperatures as low as 63(6) microkelvin, the coldest potassium MOT reported to
date. The density of trapped atoms also increases, due to reduced temperature
and reduced expulsive light forces. We measure a two-body loss coefficient of 2
x 10^-10 cm^3/s, and estimate an upper bound of 8x10^-18 cm^2 for the
ionization cross section of the 5P state at 405 nm. The combined temperature
and density improvement in the 405 nm MOT is a twenty-fold increase in phase
space density over our 767 nm MOT, showing enhanced pre-cooling for quantum gas
experiments. A qualitatively similar enhancement is observed in a 405 nm MOT of
bosonic 41K.


  We study the dynamics of initial nucleation processes of photoinduced
structural change of molecular crystals. In order to describe the nonadiabatic
transition in each molecule, we employ a model of localized electrons coupled
with a fully quantized phonon mode, and the time-dependent Schr\"odinger
equation for the model is numerically solved. We found a minimal model to
describe the nucleation induced by injection of an excited state of a single
molecule in which multiple types of intermolecular interactions are required.
In this model coherently driven molecular distortion plays an important role in
the successive conversion of electronic states which leads to photoinduced
cooperative phenomena.


  The variational cluster approach (VCA) based on the self-energy functional
theory is applied to the two-dimensional symmetric periodic Anderson model at
half filling. We calculate a variety of physical quantities including the
staggered moments and single-particle spectra at zero temperature to show that
the symmetry breaking due to antiferromagnetic ordering occurs in the strong
coupling region, whereas in the weak coupling region, the Kondo insulating
state without symmetry breaking is realized. The critical interaction strength
is estimated. We thus demonstrate that the phase transition due to competition
between antiferromagnetism and Kondo screening in the model can be described
quantitatively by VCA.


  The influence of magnetic impurities on the transport properties of graphene
is investigated in the regime of strong applied electric fields. As a result of
electron-hole pair creation, the response becomes nonlinear and dependent on
the magnetic polarization. In the paramagnetic phase, time reversal symmetry is
statistically preserved, and transport properties are similar to the clean
case. At variance, in the antiferromagnetic phase, the system undergoes a
transition between a superdiffusive to a subdiffusive spreading of a wave
packet, signaling the development of localized states. This critical regime is
characterized by the appearance of electronic states with a multifractal
geometry near the gap. The local density of states concentrates in large
patches having a definite charge-spin correlation. In this state, the
conductivity tends to half the minimum conductivity of clean graphene.


  In recent years, open-source software (OSS) has become increasingly prevalent
in developing software products. While OSS documentation is the primary source
of information provided by the developers' community about a product, its role
in the industry's adoption process has yet to be examined. We conducted
semi-structured interviews and an online survey to provide insight into this
area. Based on interviews and survey insights, we developed a topic model to
collect relevant information from OSS documentation automatically.
Additionally, according to our survey responses regarding challenges associated
with OSS documentation, we propose a novel information augmentation approach,
DocMentor, by combining OSS documentation corpus TF-IDF scores and ChatGPT.
Through explaining technical terms and providing examples and references, our
approach enhances the documentation context and improves practitioners'
understanding. Our tool's effectiveness is assessed by surveying practitioners.


  I discuss the results for $|V_{ub}|$ obtained from $B\to\pi e \nu$ using the
form factor $f_+(q^2)$ from QCD sum rules on the light-cone and unquenched
lattice calculations; the shape of $f_+(q^2)$ is fixed from experimental data.


  The statistical properties of heart beat intervals of 130 long-term surface
electrocardiogram recordings during atrial fibrillation (AF) are investigated.
We find that the distribution of interbeat intervals exhibits a characteristic
exponential tail, which is absent during sinus rhythm, as tested in a
corresponding control study with 72 healthy persons. The rate of the
exponential decay lies in the range 3-12 Hz and shows diurnal variations. It
equals, up to statistical uncertainties, the level of the previously uncovered
white noise part in the power spectrum, which is also characteristic for AF.
The overall statistical features can be described by decomposing the intervals
into two statistically independent times, where the first one is associated
with a correlated process with 1/f noise characteristics, while the second one
belongs to an uncorrelated process and is responsible for the exponential tail.
It is suggested to use the rate of the exponential decay as a further parameter
for a better classification of AF and for the medical diagnosis. The relevance
of the findings with respect to a general understanding of AF is pointed out.


  We study the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy due to spherically
symmetric nonlinear structures in flat universes with dust and a cosmological
constant. By modeling a time-evolving spherical compensated void/lump by
Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi spacetimes, we numerically solve the null geodesic
equations with the Einstein equations. We find that a nonlinear void redshifts
the CMB photons that pass through it regardless of the distance to it. In
contrast, a nonlinear lump blueshifts (or redshifts) the CMB photons if it is
located near (or sufficiently far from) us. The present analysis
comprehensively covers previous works based on a thin-shell approximation and a
linear/second order perturbation method and the effects of shell thickness and
full nonlinearity. Our results indicate that, if quasi-linear and large
($>100$Mpc) voids/lumps would exist, they could be observed as cold or hot
spots with temperature variance $>10^{-5}$K in the CMB sky.


  We present a theoretical and experimental study of light transport in
disordered media with strongly heterogeneous distribution of scatterers formed
via non-scattering regions. Step correlations induced by quenched disorder are
found to prevent diffusivity from diverging with increasing heterogeneity
scale, contrary to expectations from annealed models. Spectral diffusivity is
measured for a porous ceramic where nanopores act as scatterers and macropores
render their distribution heterogeneous. Results agree well with Monte Carlo
simulations and a proposed analytical model.


  In this article, we have realized the quantum Szilard engine (QZE) for
non-interacting bosons. We have adopted the Bose-Einstein statistics for this
purpose. We have considered fractional power law potential for this purpose and
have used the artifact of the quantization of energy. We have calculated the
work and the efficiency for non-interacting bosons in fractional power
potential. We have shown the dependence of the number of particles for the work
and the efficiency. We also have realized the QZE for a single-particle in a
Morse potential revealing how the depth of the potential impacts both work and
efficiency. Furthermore, we have examined the influence of temperature and the
anharmonicity parameter on the work. Finally, we have conducted a comparative
analysis, considering both non-interacting bosons in a fractional power law
potential and a single-particle in a Morse potential under harmonic
approximation conditions.


  Let $M$ be a hyperbolic fibered 3-manifold. We study properties of sequences
$(S_{\alpha_n}, \psi_{\alpha_n})$ of fibers and monodromies for primitive
integral classes in the fibered cone of $M$. The main tool is the asymptotic
translation length $\ell_{\mathcal{C}} (\psi_{\alpha_n})$ of the pseudo-Anosov
monodromy $ \psi_{\alpha_n}$ on the curve complex. We first show that there
exists a constant $C>0$ depending only on the fibered cone such that for any
primitive integral class $(S, \psi)$ in the fibered cone, $\ell_{\mathcal{C}}
(\psi)$ is bounded from above by $C/|\chi(S)|$. We also obtain a moral
connection between $\ell_{\mathcal{C}} (\psi)$ and the normal generating
property of $\psi$ in the mapping class group on $S$. We show that for all but
finitely many primitive integral classes $(S, \psi)$ in an arbitrary
2-dimensional slice of the fibered cone, $\psi$ normally generates the mapping
class group on $S$. In the second half of the paper, we study if it is possible
to obtain a continuous extension of normalized asymptotic translation lengths
on the curve complex as a function on the fibered face. An analogous question
for normalized entropy has been answered affirmatively by Fried and the
question for normalized asymptotic translation length on the arc complex in the
fully punctured case has been answered negatively by Strenner. We show that
such an extension in the case of the curve complex does not exist in general by
explicit computation for sequences in the fibered cone of the magic manifold.


  Information exchange in multi-agent systems improves the cooperation among
agents, especially in partially observable settings. In the real world,
communication is often carried out over imperfect channels. This requires
agents to handle uncertainty due to potential information loss. In this paper,
we consider a cooperative multi-agent system where the agents act and exchange
information in a decentralized manner using a limited and unreliable channel.
To cope with such channel constraints, we propose a novel communication
approach based on independent Q-learning. Our method allows agents to
dynamically adapt how much information to share by sending messages of
different sizes, depending on their local observations and the channel's
properties. In addition to this message size selection, agents learn to encode
and decode messages to improve their jointly trained policies. We show that our
approach outperforms approaches without adaptive capabilities in a novel
cooperative digit-prediction environment and discuss its limitations in the
traffic junction environment.


  We introduce the notion of a twisted differential operator of given radius
relative to an endomorphism $$\sigma$$ of an affinoid algebra A. We show that
this notion is essentially independent of the choice of the endomorphism
$$\sigma$$. As a particular case, we obtain an explicit equivalence between
modules endowed with a usual integrable connection (i.e. differential systems)
and modules endowed with a $$\sigma$$-connection of the same radius (i.e.
q-difference systems). Moreover, this equivalence preserves cohomology and in
particular solutions.


  Modern reinforcement learning algorithms reach super-human performance on
many board and video games, but they are sample inefficient, i.e. they
typically require significantly more playing experience than humans to reach an
equal performance level. To improve sample efficiency, an agent may build a
model of the environment and use planning methods to update its policy. In this
article we introduce Variational State Tabulation (VaST), which maps an
environment with a high-dimensional state space (e.g. the space of visual
inputs) to an abstract tabular model. Prioritized sweeping with small backups,
a highly efficient planning method, can then be used to update state-action
values. We show how VaST can rapidly learn to maximize reward in tasks like 3D
navigation and efficiently adapt to sudden changes in rewards or transition
probabilities.


  We give a proof for the Kato square root problem on suitable open sets and
subject to pure Dirichlet boundary conditions. In contrast to earlier work, our
proof uses only second-order techniques and is in the spirit of the proof given
by Egert--Haller--Monniaux--Tolksdorf in the scope of the 27th international
internet seminar for $\Omega = \mathbb{R}^n$. In contrast to the usual proofs
based on the first-order framework by Axelsson--Keith--McIntosh, the proof
becomes substantially shorter and technically less demanding.


  Real physical systems are only understood, experimentally or theoretically,
to a finite resolution so in their analysis there is generally an ignorance of
possible short-range phenomena. It is also well-known that the boundary
conditions of wavefunctions and fields can be used to model short-range
interactions when those interactions are expected, a priori. Here, a real-space
approach is described wherein an artificial boundary of ignorance is imposed to
explicitly exclude from analysis the region of a system wherein short-distance
effects may be obscure. The (artificial) boundary conditions encode those
short-distance effects by parameterizing the possible UV completions of the
wavefunction. Since measurable quantities, such as spectra and cross sections,
must be independent of the position of the artificial boundary, the boundary
conditions must evolve with the radius of the boundary in a particular way. As
examples of this approach, an analysis is performed of the non-relativistic
free particle, harmonic oscillator, and Coulomb potential, and some known
results for point-like (contact) interactions are recovered, however from a
novel perspective. Generically, observables differ from their canonical values
and symmetries are anomalously broken compared to those of idealized models.
Connections are made to well-studied physical systems, such as the binding of
light nuclei and cold atomic systems. This method is arguably more physically
transparent and mathematically easier to use than other techniques that require
the regularization and renormalization of delta-function potentials, and may
offer further generalizations of practical use.


  A Hom-group is the non-associative generalization of a group, whose
associativity and unitality are twisted by a compatible bijective map. In this
paper, we give some new examples of Hom-groups, and show the first and the
second isomorphism fundamental theorems of homomorphisms on Hom-groups. We also
introduce the notion of Hom-group action, and as an application, we show the
first Sylow theorem for Hom-groups along the line of group actions.


  The aim of this work is to show how we can decompose a module (if
decomposable) into an indecomposable module with the help of the minimization
process.


  We prove the leading order of a conjecture by Fyodorov, Hiary and Keating,
about the maximum of the Riemann zeta function on random intervals along the
critical line. More precisely, as $T \rightarrow \infty$ for a set of $t \in
[T, 2T]$ of measure $(1 - o(1)) T$, we have $$ \max_{|t-u|\leq
1}\log\left|\zeta\left(\tfrac{1}{2}+i u\right)\right|=(1 + o(1))\log\log T . $$


  Suppose granular material is shaken vertically with z(t)=A_0 cos(\omega_0 t).
Can we expect to find convection if A_0\omega_0^2 < g? By means of theoretical
analysis and computer simulation we find that there is no critical
\Gamma=|A_0|\omega_0^2/g for the onset of convection. Instead we propose a
modified criterion which coincides with \Gamma=1 for small frequency \omega_0.


  We investigate the computational properties of the spatial algebra RCC-5
which is a restricted version of the RCC framework for spatial reasoning. The
satisfiability problem for RCC-5 is known to be NP-complete but not much is
known about its approximately four billion subclasses. We provide a complete
classification of satisfiability for all these subclasses into polynomial and
NP-complete respectively. In the process, we identify all maximal tractable
subalgebras which are four in total.


  Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to determine the excess energy
and the equation of state of fcc solids with Sutherland potentials for wide
ranges of temperatures, densities and effective potential ranges. The same
quantities have been determined within a perturbative scheme by means of two
procedures: i) Monte Carlo simulations performed on the reference hard-sphere
system and ii) second order Barker-Henderson perturbation theory. The aim was
twofold: on the one hand, to test the capability of the 'exact' MC-perturbation
theory of reproducing the direct MC simulations and, on the other hand, the
reliability of the Barker-Henderson perturbation theory, as compared with
direct MC simulations and MC-perturbation theory, to determine the
thermodynamic properties of these solids depending on temperature, density and
potential range. We have found that the simulation data for the excess energy
obtained from the two procedures are in close agreement with each other. For
the equation of state, the results from the MC-perturbation procedure also
agree well with direct MC simulations except for very low temperatures and
extremely short-ranged potentials. Regarding the Barker-Henderson perturbation
theory, we have found that, surprisingly, the first-order approximation is in
closer agreement with simulations than the second-order one.