  Previously reported works on the spectrum of Cs VII are critically studied
using supplementary spectrograms recorded on a 3 m normal incidence vacuum
spectrograph in the wavelength region 300-1240 A at the Antigonish laboratory
(Canada). We confirmed the results of the earlier work of Gayasov and Joshi on
this spectrum. Our analysis is supported by extended calculations with the
pseudo-relativistic Hartree-Fock (HFR) method with superposition of
configuration interactions implemented in Cowan's suite of codes. In this
critical evaluation, in addition to the accurate energy levels of Cs VII with
their uncertainties, observed and Ritz wavelengths with uncertainties and
transition probabilities, the uniformly-scaled intensities of Cs VII lines are
also presented. A total of 196 lines attributed to 197 transitions enabled us
to optimize the energy values of 72 levels in Cs VII spectrum. Furthermore,
Ritz wavelengths of 141 possibly observable lines are provided along with their
transition probabilities.


  We propose a collision recovery algorithm with the aid of machine learning
(ML-aided) for passive Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) systems. The proposed method aims at recovering the tags
under collision to improve the system performance. We first estimate the number
of tags from the collided signal by utilizing machine learning tools and show
that the number of colliding tags can be estimated with high accuracy. Second,
we employ a simple yet effective deep learning model to find the experienced
channel coefficients. The proposed method allows the reader to separate each
tag's signal from the received one by applying maximum likelihood decoding. We
perform simulations to illustrate that the use of deep learning is highly
beneficial and demonstrate that the proposed approach boosts the throughput
performance of the standard framed slotted ALOHA (FSA) protocol from 0.368 to
1.837, where the receiver is equipped with a single antenna and capable of
decoding up to 4 tags.


  Tanihata {\it et al.} determined matter radii $r_{m}(\sigma_{\rm I})$ for
$^{4,6,8}$He from interaction cross sections $\sigma_{\rm I}$ of
$^{4,6,8}$He+$^{12}$C scattering at 790 MeV per nucleon, using the optical
limit of the Glauber model. Lu {\it et al.} determined proton radii $r_{p}({\rm
AIS})$ for $^{4,6,8}$He with the atomic isotope shifts (AIS). We investigate
whether the Love-Franey $t$-matrix folding model is good for
$^{4,6,8}$He+$^{12}$C scattering at 790 MeV per nucleon.


  The proximal point algorithm is a widely used tool for solving a variety of
convex optimization problems such as finding zeros of maximally monotone
operators, fixed points of nonexpansive mappings, as well as minimizing convex
functions. The algorithm works by applying successively so-called "resolvent"
mappings associated to the original object that one aims to optimize. In this
paper we abstract from the corresponding resolvents employed in these problems
the natural notion of jointly firmly nonexpansive families of mappings. This
leads to a streamlined method of proving weak convergence of this class of
algorithms in the context of complete CAT(0) spaces (and hence also in Hilbert
spaces). In addition, we consider the notion of uniform firm nonexpansivity in
order to similarly provide a unified presentation of a case where the algorithm
converges strongly. Methods which stem from proof mining, an applied subfield
of logic, yield in this situation computable and low-complexity rates of
convergence.


  From $5.5$ months of dual-band optical photometric monitoring at the $1$ mmag
level, BRITE-Constellation has revealed two simultaneous types of variability
in the O4I(n)fp star $\zeta$ Puppis: one single periodic non-sinusoidal
component superimposed on a stochastic component. The monoperiodic component is
the $1.78$ d signal previously detected by Coriolis/SMEI, but this time along
with a prominent first harmonic. The shape of this signal changes over time, a
behaviour that is incompatible with stellar oscillations but consistent with
rotational modulation arising from evolving bright surface inhomogeneities. By
means of a constrained non-linear light curve inversion algorithm we mapped the
locations of the bright surface spots and traced their evolution. Our
simultaneous ground-based multi-site spectroscopic monitoring of the star
unveiled cyclical modulation of its He II $\lambda4686$ wind emission line with
the $1.78$-day rotation period, showing signatures of Corotating Interaction
Regions (CIRs) that turn out to be driven by the bright photospheric spots
observed by BRITE. Traces of wind clumps are also observed in the He II
$\lambda4686$ line and are correlated with the amplitudes of the stochastic
component of the light variations probed by BRITE at the photosphere,
suggesting that the BRITE observations additionally unveiled the photospheric
drivers of wind clumps in $\zeta$ Pup and that the clumping phenomenon starts
at the very base of the wind. The origins of both the bright surface
inhomogeneities and the stochastic light variations remain unknown, but a
subsurface convective zone might play an important role in the generation of
these two types of photospheric variability.


  We study the visible photon production from the viscous dissipation of the
dark matter (DM) fluid. The visible photon production depends on the magnitude
of the dark matter viscosity and becomes important at the late times. We argue
that for sufficiently large dark matter viscosity, the number of the resonantly
converted visible photons becomes large which populates the Rayleigh-Jeans (RJ)
tails of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. Consequently, these
excess visible photons possibly can explain the reported EDGES anomaly in the
21 cm signal. Further, we explore the parameter space for which the 21 cm
signal can provide the region to probe the dark radiation and the DM viscosity.


  The ab-plane resistivity of Ba(Fe1-xRux)2As2 (x = 0.00, 0.09, 0.16, 0.21, and
0.28) was studied under nearly hydrostatic pressures, up to 7.4 GPa, in order
to explore the T-P phase diagram and to compare the combined effects of
iso-electronic Ru substitution and pressure. The parent compound BaFe2As2
exhibits a structural/magnetic phase transition near 134 K. At ambient
pressure, progressively increasing Ru concentration suppresses this phase
transition to lower temperatures at the approximate rate of ~5 K/% Ru and is
correlated with the emergence of superconductivity. By applying pressure to
this system, a similar behavior is seen for each concentration: the
structural/magnetic phase transition is further suppressed and
superconductivity induced and ultimately, for larger x Ru and P, suppressed. A
detailed comparison of the T-P phase diagrams for all Ru concentrations shows
that 3 GPa of pressure is roughly equivalent to 10% Ru substitution.
Furthermore, due to the sensitivity of Ba(Fe1-xRux)2As2 to pressure conditions,
the melting of the liquid media, 4 : 6 light mineral oil : n-pentane and 1 : 1
iso-pentane : n-pentane, used in this study could be readily seen in the
resistivity measurements. This feature was used to determine the freezing
curves for these media and infer their room temperature, hydrostatic limits:
3.5 and 6.5 GPa, respectively.


  A symplectic manifold is called symplectic rationally connected if there is a
non-zero genus zero Gromov-Witten invariant with two point insertions. It is
conjectured that every smooth projective rationally connected variety is
symplectic rationally connected. In this short note we give some examples of
rationally connected 4-folds which are symplectic rationally connected. In
particular, all Fano 4-folds of pseudo-index at least 2 are symplectic
rationally connected. The proof does not use any explicit description of these
varieties.


  Gastric endoscopy is a standard clinical process that enables medical
practitioners to diagnose various lesions inside a patient's stomach. If any
lesion is found, it is very important to perceive the location of the lesion
relative to the global view of the stomach. Our previous research showed that
this could be addressed by reconstructing the whole stomach shape from
chromoendoscopic images using a structure-from-motion (SfM) pipeline, in which
indigo carmine (IC) blue dye sprayed images were used to increase feature
matches for SfM by enhancing stomach surface's textures. However, spraying the
IC dye to the whole stomach requires additional time, labor, and cost, which is
not desirable for patients and practitioners. In this paper, we propose an
alternative way to achieve whole stomach 3D reconstruction without the need of
the IC dye by generating virtual IC-sprayed (VIC) images based on
image-to-image style translation trained on unpaired real no-IC and IC-sprayed
images. We have specifically investigated the effect of input and output color
channel selection for generating the VIC images and found that translating
no-IC green-channel images to IC-sprayed red-channel images gives the best SfM
reconstruction result.


  Using diamagnetically levitated particles we investigate the dynamics of the
freely cooling granular gas. At early times we find good agreement with Haff's
law, where the time scale for particle collisions can be determined from
independent measurements. At late times, clustering of particles occurs. This
can be included in a Haff-like description taking into account the decreasing
number of free particles. With this a good description of the data is possible
over the whole time range.


  Phonons are well known to be the main mechanism for the coupling between
bright and dark excitons in nonmagnetic semiconductors. Here, we investigate
diluted magnetic semiconductors where this process is in direct competition
with the scattering at localized magnetic impurities. To this end, a recently
developed quantum kinetic description of the exciton spin dynamics in diluted
magnetic semiconductor quantum wells is extended by the scattering with
longitudinal acoustic phonons. A strong phonon impact is found in the
redistribution of exciton momenta on the exciton parabola that becomes
especially prominent for high temperatures and exciton distributions further
away from the exciton resonance which are optically dark. Despite their impact
on the energetic redistribution, acoustic phonons virtually do not affected the
exciton spin dynamics as the exciton-impurity interaction always dominates.
Furthermore, it turns out that the exciton spin lifetime increases by roughly
one order of magnitude for nonequilibrium hot exciton distributions and, in
addition, pronounced quantum kinetic signatures in the exciton spin dynamics
appearing after resonant optical excitation are drastically reduced.


  LBVs are massive evolved stars that suffer sporadic and violent mass-loss
events. They have been proposed as the progenitors of some core-collapse SNe,
but this idea is still debated due to the lack of direct evidence. Since SNRs
can carry in their morphology the fingerprints of the progenitor stars as well
as of the inhomogeneous CSM sculpted by the progenitors, the study of SNRs from
LBVs could help to place core-collapse SNe in context with the evolution of
massive stars. We investigate the physical, chemical and morphological
properties of the remnants of SNe originating from LBVs, in order to search for
signatures, revealing the nature of the progenitors, in the ejecta distribution
and morphology of the remnants. As a template of LBVs, we considered the actual
LBV candidate Gal 026.47+0.02. We selected a grid of models, which describe the
evolution of a massive star with properties consistent with those of Gal
026.47+0.02 and its final fate as core-collapse SN. We developed a 3D HD model
that follows the post-explosion evolution of the ejecta from the breakout of
the shock wave at the stellar surface to the interaction of the SNR with a CSM
characterized by two dense nested toroidal shells, parametrized in agreement
with multi-wavelength observations of Gal 026.47+0.02. Our models show a strong
interaction of the blast wave with the CSM which determines an important
slowdown of the expansion of the ejecta in the equatorial plane where the two
shells lay, determining a high degree of asymmetry in the remnant. After 10000
years of evolution the ejecta show an elongated shape forming a broad jet-like
structure caused by the interaction with the shells and oriented along the axis
of the toroidal shells.


  We study the solvability of the initial value problem for the semilinear heat
equation $u_t-\Delta u=u^p$ in a Riemannian manifold $M$ with a nonnegative
Radon measure $\mu$ on $M$ as initial data. We give sharp conditions on the
local-in-time solvability of the problem for complete and connected $M$ with
positive injectivity radius and bounded sectional curvature.


  The abundance and spatial distribution of dwarf galaxies are excellent
empirical benchmarks to test models of structure formation on small scales. The
nearby Centaurus group, with its two subgroups centered on CenA and M83, stands
out as an important alternative to the Local Group for scrutinizing
cosmological model predictions in a group of galaxies context. We have obtained
deep optical images of three recently discovered M83 satellite galaxy
candidates with the FORS2 instrument mounted on the Very Large Telescope. We
aim to confirm their group membership and study their stellar population. Deep
VI-band photometry is used to resolve the brightest stars in our targets.
Artificial star tests are performed to estimate the completeness and
uncertainties of the photometry. The color-magnitude diagrams reveal the red
giant branch (RGB) stars allowing to use the Sobel edge detection method to
measure the magnitude of the RGB tip and thus derive distances and group
membership for our targets. The mean metallicity of the dwarf galaxies are
further determined by fitting BASTI model isochrones to the mean RGB locus. We
confirm the two candidates, dw1335-29 and dw1340-30, to be dwarf satellites of
the M83 subgroup, with estimated distances of 5.03 +- 0.24 Mpc and 5.06 +- 0.24
Mpc, respectively. Their respective mean metallicities of <[Fe/H]> = -1.79 +-
0.4 and <[Fe/H]> = -2.27 +- 0.4 are consistent with the metallicity-luminosity
relation for dwarf galaxies. The third candidate, dw1325-33, could not be
resolved into stars due to insufficiently deep images, implying its distance
must be larger than 5.3 Mpc. Using the two newly derived distances we assess
the spatial distribution of the galaxies in the M83 subgroup and discuss a
potential plane-ofsatellites around M83.


  Some transformations acting on radially symmetric solutions to the following
class of non-homogeneous reaction-diffusion equations $$
|x|^{\sigma_1}\partial_tu=\Delta u^m+|x|^{\sigma_2}u^p, \qquad
(x,t)\in\real^N\times(0,\infty), $$ which has been proposed in a number of
previous mathematical works as well as in several physical models, are
introduced. We consider here $m\geq1$, $p\geq1$, $N\geq1$ and $\sigma_1$,
$\sigma_2$ real exponents. We apply these transformations in connection to
previous results on the one hand to deduce general qualitative properties of
radially symmetric solutions and on the other hand to construct self-similar
solutions which are expected to be patterns for the dynamics of the equations,
strongly improving the existing theory. We also introduce mappings between
solutions which work in the semilinear case $m=1$.


  Here, we present results on the intrinsic collision probabilities, $ P_I$,
and range of collision speeds, $V_I$, as a function of the heliocentric
distance, $r$, in the trans-Neptunian region. The collision speed is one of the
parameters, that serves as a proxy to a collisional outcome e.g., complete
disruption and scattering of fragments, or formation of crater, where both
processes are directly related to the impact energy. We utilize an improved and
de-biased model of the trans-Neptunian object (TNO) region from the "Outer
Solar System Origins Survey" (OSSOS). It provides a well-defined orbital
distribution model of TNOs, based on multiple opposition observations of more
than 1000 bodies. In this work we compute collisional probabilities for the
OSSOS models of the main classical, resonant, detached+outer and scattering TNO
populations. The intrinsic collision probabilities and collision speeds are
computed using the \"{O}pik's approach, as revised and modified by Wetherill
for non-circular and inclined orbits. The calculations are carried out for each
of the dynamical TNO groups, allowing for inter-population collisions as well
as collisions within each TNO population, resulting in 28 combinations in
total. Our results indicate that collisions in the trans-Neptunian region are
possible over a wide range in ($r, V_I$) phase space. Although collisions are
calculated to happen within $r\sim 20 - 200$~AU and $V_I \sim 0.1$~km/s to as
high as $V_I\sim9$~km/s, most of the collisions are likely to happen at low
relative velocities $V_I<1$~km/s and are dominated by the main classical belt.


  Let $f$ be a Maass form for $SL(3, \mathbb{Z})$ which is fixed and $u_j$ be
an orthonormal basis of even Maass forms for $SL(2, \mathbb{Z}),$ we prove an
asymptotic formula for the average of the product of the Rankin-Selberg
$L$-function of $f$ and $u_j$ and the $L$-function of $u_j$ at the central
value 1/2. This implies simultaneous nonvanishing results of these
$L$-functions at $1/2.$


  Axelrod's model describes the dissemination of a set of cultural traits in a
society constituted by individual agents. In a social context, nevertheless,
individual choices toward a specific attitude are also at the basis of the
formation of communities, groups and parties. The membership in a group changes
completely the behavior of single agents who start acting according to a social
identity. Groups act and interact among them as single entities, but still
conserve an internal dynamics. We show that, under certain conditions of social
dynamics, the introduction of group dynamics in a cultural dissemination
process avoids the flattening of the culture into a single entity and preserves
the multiplicity of cultural attitudes. We also considered diffusion processes
on this dynamical background, showing the conditions under which information as
well as innovation can spread through the population in a scenario where the
groups' choices determine the social structure.


  Solution precursor thermal spray can become a breakthrough technology for the
deposition of coatings with novel chemistries; however, the understanding of
the process that the feedstock material undergoes is still poorly understood
when compared to more traditional presentations (i.e. powder and suspension).
In this paper, niobium-doped TiO2 coatings were deposited by solution precursor
high velocity oxy-fuel spraying, studying its microstructure and phase. It was
reported that a lower flame temperature produced a highly porous coating, while
the porosity was reduced at higher flame temperature. Investigation of the
phase content showed that, contrary to our current understanding, a higher
flame power implied an increase of the anatase phase content for solution
precursor spray. Three methods were used: Rietveld refinement, peak height and
peak area of the x-ray diffraction patterns. Additionally, single splats were
analysed, showing that as the precursor travels through the flame, pyrolysis
and sintering takes place to form the solid material. These results were used
to derive a model of the physico-chemical transformation of the solution
precursor. This work proves that solution precursor thermal spray is a
promising technique for the deposition of doped ceramic coatings, being the
microstructure and phase content controllable through the spraying parameters


  O-minimal geometry generalizes both semialgebraic and subanalytic geometries,
and has been very successful in solving special cases of some problems in
arithmetic geometry, such as Andr\'e-Oort conjecture. Among the many tools
developed in an o-minimal setting are cohomology theories for
abstract-definable continuous manifolds such as singular cohomology, sheaf
cohomology and \v Cech cohomology, which have been used for instance to prove
Pillay's conjecture concerning definably compact groups. In the present paper
we elaborate an o-minimal de Rham cohomology theory for abstract-definable
$\mathcal{C}^\infty$ manifolds in an o-minimal expansion of the real field
which admits smooth cell decomposition and defines the exponential function. We
can specify the o-minimal cohomology groups and attain some properties such as
the existence of Mayer-Vietoris sequence and the invariance under
abstract-definable $\mathcal{C}^\infty$ diffeomorphisms. However, in order to
obtain the invariance of our o-minimal cohomology under abstract-definable
homotopy we must, working in a tame context that defines sufficiently many
primitives, assume the validity of a statement related to Br\"ocker's question.


  The theory of temperature jets gets extended to account for the influence of
the beta effect on their dynamics. Including this effect noticeably changes
symmetry properties and laws of conservation inherent to models without the
beta effect. Especially nontrivial, the dynamics of jets become near the
equator, where the model admits multi-valued solutions that look like jets
crossing the equator. For example, the so-called loop solitons moving along the
equator with velocities inversely proportional to the cube of their amplitude
turn out among them. Estimates based on simple qualitative considerations show
that, owing to the beta effect, the temperature jets can form a specific
equatorial turbulence, in which they play the role of structural elements.
Notably, the spectral slope of the energy density at large wave numbers in such
turbulence becomes equal to unity.


  Carrageenans comprise linear sulfated high molecular weight polysaccharides
obtained from seaweeds and are routinely used in food and home/personal care
industries. Various kinds of carrageenans differ from others based on the ester
sulfate group location on the polysaccharide chains. Pure and mixed systems of
Kappa Carrageenan and Iota Carrageenan undergo a three-dimensional gel network
structure formation or dissociation with a change in temperature. During the
sol-gel and gel-sol transitions, the Carrageenan systems pass through a unique
critical gel state, where dynamic moduli are scale-invariant owing to the
self-similar structure of the three-dimensional network. In this work, we
obtain the critical gel state associated with pure and mixed systems of Kappa
and Iota Carrageenan during cooling and heating by exploring the material
behavior for a range of frequencies. Interestingly, on the one hand, the mixed
gels show a higher critical sol-gel transition temperature compared to the pure
systems at equal individual concentrations. On the other hand, the low
temperature moduli of mixed gels are closer to that of Kappa Carrageenan when
the concentration of the same is more than half in the mixture. The rheological
measurements demonstrate that the Kappa Carrageenan strongly affects the nature
of aggregation of double helices of Iota Carrageenan, but Iota Carrageenan does
not have a significant influence on that of Kappa Carrageenan. These results
suggest an associative, interactive network formation between Kappa and Iota
Carrageenan in the mixture, such that the gel behavior is predominantly
influenced by Kappa Carrageenan.


  We consider the question of which zero-dimensional schemes deform to a
collection of distinct points; equivalently, we ask which Artinian k-algebras
deform to a product of fields. We introduce a syzygetic invariant which sheds
light on this question for zero-dimensional schemes of regularity two. This
invariant imposes obstructions for smoothability in general, and it completely
answers the question of smoothability for certain zero-dimensional schemes of
low degree. The tools of this paper also lead to other results about Hilbert
schemes of points, including a characterization of nonsmoothable
zero-dimensional schemes of minimal degree in every embedding dimension d\geq
4.


  Context: Solar flares release a large fraction of their energy into
non-thermal electrons, but it is not clear where and how. Bremsstrahlung X-rays
are observed from the corona and chromosphere.
  Aims: We aim to characterize the acceleration process by the coronal source
and its leakage toward the footpoints in the chromosphere. The relations
between the sources reflect the geometry and constrict the configuration of the
flare.
  Methods: We studied solar flares of GOES class larger than M1 with three or
more hard X-ray sources observed simultaneously in the course of the flare. The
events were observed with the X-ray satellite RHESSI from February 2002 until
July 2005. We used imaging spectroscopy methods to determine the spectral
evolution of each source in each event. The images of all of the five events
show two sources visible only at high energies (footpoints) and one source only
visible at low energies (coronal or looptop source, in two cases situated over
the limb).
  Results: We find soft-hard-soft behavior in both, coronal source and
footpoints. The coronal source is nearly always softer than the footpoints. The
footpoint spectra differ significantly only in one event out of five.
  Conclusions: The observations are consistent with acceleration in the coronal
source and an intricate connection between the corona and chromosphere.


  Neural networks (NNs) are widely used for object classification in autonomous
driving. However, NNs can fail on input data not well represented by the
training dataset, known as out-of-distribution (OOD) data. A mechanism to
detect OOD samples is important for safety-critical applications, such as
automotive perception, to trigger a safe fallback mode. NNs often rely on
softmax normalization for confidence estimation, which can lead to high
confidences being assigned to OOD samples, thus hindering the detection of
failures. This paper presents a method for determining whether inputs are OOD,
which does not require OOD data during training and does not increase the
computational cost of inference. The latter property is especially important in
automotive applications with limited computational resources and real-time
constraints. Our proposed approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods on
real-world automotive datasets.


  We present a new implementation of the Cluster Variational Method (CVM) as a
message passing algorithm. The kind of message passing algorithms used for CVM,
usually named Generalized Belief Propagation, are a generalization of the
Belief Propagation algorithm in the same way that CVM is a generalization of
the Bethe approximation for estimating the partition function. However, the
connection between fixed points of GBP and the extremal points of the CVM
free-energy is usually not a one-to-one correspondence, because of the
existence of a gauge transformation involving the GBP messages.
  Our contribution is twofold. Firstly we propose a new way of defining
messages (fields) in a generic CVM approximation, such that messages arrive on
a given region from all its ancestors, and not only from its direct parents, as
in the standard Parent-to-Child GBP. We call this approach maximal messages.
Secondly we focus on the case of binary variables, re-interpreting the messages
as fields enforcing the consistency between the moments of the local (marginal)
probability distributions. We provide a precise rule to enforce all
consistencies, avoiding any redundancy, that would otherwise lead to a gauge
transformation on the messages. This moment matching method is gauge free, i.e.
it guarantees that the resulting GBP is not gauge invariant.
  We apply our maximal messages and moment matching GBP to obtain an analytical
expression for the critical temperature of the Ising model in general
dimensions at the level of plaquette-CVM. The values obtained outperform Bethe
estimates, and are comparable with loop corrected Belief Propagation equations.
The method allows for a straightforward generalization to disordered systems.


  Let $W$ be a Coxeter group and let $M$ be the free $Z[v,v^{-1}]$-module with
basis indexed by the involutions of $W$. We show how recent results of Elias
and Williamson on Soergel bimodules can be used to give an alternative
definition of an action of the Hecke algebra of $W$ on $M$.


  Given a triangle, a trio of circumellipses can be defined, each centered on
an excenter. Over the family of Poncelet 3-periodics (triangles) in a
concentric ellipse pair (axis-aligned or not), the trio resembles a rotating
propeller, where each "blade" has variable area. Amazingly, their total area is
invariant, even when the ellipse pair is not axis-aligned. We also prove a
closely-related invariant involving the sum of blade-to-excircle area ratios.


  We have measured the interaction between $^4$He gas at 4.2$~$K and a
high-quality nano-electro-mechanical string device for its first 3 symmetric
modes (resonating at 2.2$~$MHz, 6.7$~$MHz and 11$~$MHz with quality factor $Q >
0.1$ million) over almost 6 orders of magnitude in pressure. This fluid can be
viewed as the best experimental implementation of an almost-ideal monoatomic
and inert gas which properties are tabulated. The experiment ranges from high
pressure where the flow is of laminar Stokes-type presenting slippage, down to
very low pressures where the flow is molecular. In the molecular regime, when
the mean-free-path is of the order of the distance between the suspended
nano-mechanical probe and the bottom of the trench we resolve for the first
time the signature of the boundary (Knudsen) layer onto the measured
dissipation. Our results are discussed in the framework of the most recent
theories investigating boundary effects in fluids (both analytic approaches and
Monte-Carlo DSMC simulations).


  How reliably can we trust the scores obtained from social bias benchmarks as
faithful indicators of problematic social biases in a given language model? In
this work, we study this question by contrasting social biases with non-social
biases stemming from choices made during dataset construction that might not
even be discernible to the human eye. To do so, we empirically simulate various
alternative constructions for a given benchmark based on innocuous
modifications (such as paraphrasing or random-sampling) that maintain the
essence of their social bias. On two well-known social bias benchmarks
(Winogender and BiasNLI) we observe that these shallow modifications have a
surprising effect on the resulting degree of bias across various models. We
hope these troubling observations motivate more robust measures of social
biases.


  Hardware security is an important concern of system security as
vulnerabilities can arise from design errors introduced throughout the
development lifecycle. Recent works have proposed techniques to detect hardware
security bugs, such as static analysis, fuzzing, and symbolic execution.
However, the fundamental properties of hardware security bugs remain relatively
unexplored. To gain a better understanding of hardware security bugs, we
perform a deep dive into the popular OpenTitan project, including its bug
reports and bug fixes. We manually classify the bugs as relevant to
functionality or security and analyze characteristics, such as the impact and
location of security bugs, and the size of their bug fixes. We also investigate
relationships between security impact and bug management during development.
Finally, we propose an abstract syntax tree-based analysis to identify the
syntactic characteristics of bug fixes. Our results show that 53% of the bugs
in OpenTitan have potential security implications and that 55% of all bug fixes
modify only one file. Our findings underscore the importance of security-aware
development practices and tools and motivate the development of techniques that
leverage the highly localized nature of hardware bugs.


  Extensive air shower detectors of gamma rays in the sub-PeV energy region
provide a new and relatively unexplored window for dark matter searches. Here
we derive some implications of the recently published Tibet AS$_\gamma$ data
for decaying dark matter candidates. The available spectral information is
already useful in obtaining competitive constraints, surpassing existing limits
above 10 PeV mass for hadronic or massive boson final states. This is
particularly true if accounting for a benchmark astrophysical background of
Galactic cosmic rays in the (0.1-1) PeV range. By relying on the arrival
distribution of the photons, we show that significantly better sensitivity can
be attained, comparable or better than IceCube also for most leptonic final
states. Full data exploitation requires however further information disclosure.


  We establish new analytic and numerical results on a general class of
rational operator Nevanlinna functions that arise e.g. in modelling photonic
crystals. The capability of these dielectric nano-structured materials to
control the flow of light depends on specific features of their eigenvalues.
Our results provide a complete spectral analysis including variational
principles and two-sided estimates for all eigenvalues along with numerical
implementations. They even apply to multi-pole Lorentz models of permittivity
functions and to the eigenvalues between the poles where classical min-max
variational principles fail completely. In particular, we show that our
abstract two-sided eigenvalue estimates are optimal and we derive explicit
bounds on the band gap above a Lorentz pole. A high order finite element method
is used to compute the two-sided estimates of a selection of eigenvalues for
several concrete Lorentz models, e.g. polaritonic materials and multi-pole
models.


  Based on a data sample of an integrated luminosity of 57.4 fb-1 at the
Upsilon(4S) resonance taken with the BaBar detector using the SLAC PEP-II
asymmetric-energy $B$-Factory, hadronic decays of B meson with the final states
D(*) and three pions are studied. The study is performed by fully
reconstructing the exclusive decays of B->D(*)a_{1}(1260) and the non-resonant
modes B->D(*)rho^{0} pi and B->D(*)pipipi. The current status of the study is
presented and a dominant B->D(*)a_{1}(1260) decay is shown.


  We consider dissipative phenomena due to the relaxation of an initial
anisotropic local pressure in the fireball created in relativistic heavy-ion
collisions, both for the Bjorken boost-invariant case and for the azimuthally
symmetric radial expansion with boost-invariance. The resulting increase of the
entropy can be counterbalanced by a suitable retuning of the initial
temperature. An increase of the transverse collective flow is observed. The
influence of the shear viscosity on the longitudinal expansion is also studied.
Viscosity reduces the cooling rate from the longitudinal work and counteracts
the pressure gradients that accelerate the longitudinal flow.


  We analyze the number N of functionally independent generalized Casimir
invariants for non-semisimple Lie algebras \frak{s}\overrightarrow{%
oplus}_{R}\frak{r} with Levi factors isomorphic to \frak{so}(3) and
\frak{sl}(2,R) in dependence of the pair (R,\frak{r}) formed by a
representation R of \frak{s} and a solvable Lie algebra \frak{r}. We show that
for any dimension n >= 6 there exist Lie algebras
\frak{s}\overrightarrow{\oplus}_{R}\frak{r} with non-trivial Levi decomposition
such that N(\frak{s}% \overrightarrow{oplus}_{R}\frak{r}) = 0.


  The classical thermostatics of equilibrium processes is shown to possess a
quantum-mechanical dual theory with a finite-dimensional Hilbert space of
quantum states. Specifically, the kernel of a certain Hamiltonian operator
becomes the Hilbert space of quasistatic quantum mechanics. The relation of
thermostatics to topological field theory is also discussed in the context of
the emergent approach to quantum theory, where the concept of entropy plays a
key role.


  We review the quark-mass dependence of the baryon octet and decuplet masses
as obtained from recent lattice simulations of the BMW, PACS-CS, LHPC, HSC and
QCDSF-UKQCD groups. Our discussion relies on the relativistic chiral Lagrangian
and large-$N_c$ sum rule estimates of the counter terms relevant for the baryon
masses at N$^3$LO. A partial summation is implied by the use of physical baryon
and meson masses in the one-loop contributions to the baryon self energies. In
our analysis the physical masses are reproduced exactly by means of a suitable
set of linear constraints. A quantitative and simultaneous description of all
lattice results is achieved in terms of a six parameter fit, where the symmetry
conserving counter term that are relevant at N$^3$LO are not yet being used.
For pion masses larger than 300 MeV there appears to be an approximate linear
pion-mass dependence of all octet and decuplet baryon masses. We discuss the
pion- and strangeness sigma terms of the baryon octet states.


  The possibility of thermally induced initial density perturbations in
inflationary cosmology is examined. The fluctuation dynamics of a scalar field
plus thermal bath system during slow roll is described by a Langevin-like
equation. Fluctuation-dissipation arguments show that for a wide parameter
range within the standard inflation model, the thermal fluctuations of the
scalar field can dominate its quantum fluctuations. The initial amplitude of
density perturbations is found to lie in a range which is consistent with the
recent observations of cosmic temperature fluctuations.


  We present extremal constructions connected with the property of simplicial
collapsibility.
  (1) For each $d \ge 2$, there are collapsible (and shellable) simplicial
$d$-complexes with only one free face. Also, there are non-evasive
$d$-complexes with only two free faces. (Both results are optimal in all
dimensions.)
  (2) Optimal discrete Morse vectors need not be unique. We explicitly
construct a contractible, but non-collapsible $3$-dimensional simplicial
complex with face vector $f=(106,596,1064,573)$ that admits two distinct
optimal discrete Morse vectors, $(1,1,1,0)$ and $(1,0,1,1)$. Indeed, we show
that in every dimension $d\geq 3$ there are contractible, non-collapsible
simplicial $d$-complexes that have $(1,0,\dots,0,1,1,0)$ and
$(1,0,\dots,0,0,1,1)$ as distinct optimal discrete Morse vectors.
  (3) We give a first explicit example of a (non-PL) $5$-manifold, with face
vector $f=(5013,72300,290944,$ $495912,383136,110880)$, that is collapsible but
not homeomorphic to a ball.
  Furthermore, we discuss possible improvements and drawbacks of random
approaches to collapsibility and discrete Morse theory. We will introduce
randomized versions \texttt{random-lex-first} and \texttt{random-lex-last} of
the \texttt{lex-first} and \texttt{lex-last} discrete Morse strategies of
\cite{BenedettiLutz2014}, respectively --- and we will see that in many
instances the \texttt{random-lex-last} strategy works significantly better than
Benedetti--Lutz's (uniform) \texttt{random} strategy.
  On the theoretical side, we prove that after repeated barycentric
subdivisions, the discrete Morse vectors found by randomized algorithms have,
on average, an exponential (in the number of barycentric subdivisions) number
of critical cells asymptotically almost surely.


  We have performed new large-scale $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O $J=$1-0
observations toward the Vulpecula OB association ($l \sim 60^\circ$) as part of
the Nobeyama 45 m Local Spur CO survey project. Molecular clouds are
distributed over $\sim 100$ pc, with local peaks at the Sh 2-86, Sh 2-87, and
Sh 2-88 high-mass star-forming regions in the Vulpecula complex. The molecular
gas is associated with the Local Spur, which corresponds to the nearest
inter-arm region located between the Local Arm and the Sagittarius Arm. We
discovered new giant molecular filaments (GMFs) in Sh 2-86, with a length of
$\sim 30$ pc, width of $\sim 5$ pc, and molecular mass of $\sim 4\times 10^4\
M_{\odot}$. We also found that Sh 2-86 contains the three velocity components
at 22, 27, and 33 km s$^{-1}$. These clouds and GMFs are likely to be
physically associated with Sh 2-86 because they have high $^{12}$CO $J =$ 2-1
to $J =$ 1-0 intensity ratios and coincide with the infrared dust emission. The
open cluster NGC 6823 exists at the common intersection of these clouds. We
argue that the multiple cloud interaction scenario, including GMFs, can explain
cluster formation in the Vulpecula OB association.


  We analyze the implications of the light gluino scenario for the unification
of gauge and Yukawa couplings within the minimal supersymmetric standard model.
Within this scheme all fermionic supersymmetric particles are naturally light,
while the scalar partners of quarks and leptons, together with the heavy Higgs
doublet may be heavy. This implies both a bound on $\tan\beta < 2.3$, in order
to fulfill the experimental constraints on the chargino masses, and a strong
correlation between $\sin^2\theta_W(M_Z)$ and $\alpha_3(M_Z)$, due to the
suppression of the supersymmetric threshold corrections to the low energy
values of the gauge couplings. Assuming the scalar sparticles to be lighter
than 10 TeV, the physical top quark mass is constrained to be 145 GeV $< M_T <$
210 GeV for $\tan\beta>1$, while the strong gauge coupling values,
$0.122\leq\alpha_3(M_Z) \leq 0.133$, are in good agreement with the measured
LEP ones. We also show that a relaxation of some of the conventional
assumptions is necessary in order to achieve radiative breaking of the
electroweak symmetry within the grand unification scheme.


  We investigate non-inertial and gravitational effects on quantum states in
electromagnetic fields and present the analytic solution for energy eigenstates
for the Schr\"odinger equation including non-inertial, gravitational and
electromagnetic effects. We find that in addition to the Landau quantization
the rotation of spacetime itself leads to the additional quantization, and that
the energy levels for an electron are different from those for a proton at the
level of gravitational corrections.


  The group $\Out$ of outer automorphisms of the free group has been an object
of active study for many years, yet its geometry is not well understood.
Recently, effort has been focused on finding a hyperbolic complex on which
$\Out$ acts, in analogy with the curve complex for the mapping class group.
Here, we focus on one of these proposed analogues: the edge splitting complex
$\ESC$, equivalently known as the separating sphere complex. We characterize
geodesic paths in its 1-skeleton algebraically, and use our characterization to
find lower bounds on distances between points in this graph.
  Our distance calculations allow us to find quasiflats of arbitrary dimension
in $\ESC$. This shows that $\ESC$: is not hyperbolic, has infinite asymptotic
dimension, and is such that every asymptotic cone is infinite dimensional.
These quasiflats contain an unbounded orbit of a reducible element of $\Out$.
As a consequence, there is no coarsely $\Out$-equivariant quasiisometry between
$\ESC$ and other proposed curve complex analogues, including the regular free
splitting complex $\FSC$, the (nontrivial intersection) free factorization
complex $\FFZC$, and the free factor complex $\FFC$, leaving hope that some of
these complexes are hyperbolic.


  Lyman$-\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) emission lines are typically found to be
redshifted with respect to the systemic redshifts of galaxies, likely due to
resonant scattering of Ly$\alpha$ photons. Here we measure the average velocity
offset for a sample of 96 $z\approx3.3$ Ly$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) with a
median Ly$\alpha$ flux (luminosity) of $\approx 10^{-17}~\rm
erg~cm^{-2}~s^{-1}$ ($\approx10^{42}~\rm erg~s^{-1}$) and a median star
formation rate (SFR) of $\approx1.3 \rm M_{\odot} yr^{-1}$ (not corrected for
possible dust extinction), detected by the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer as
part of our MUSEQuBES circumgalactic medium (CGM) survey. By postulating that
the stacked CGM absorption profiles of these LAEs, probed by 8 background
quasars, must be centered on the systemic redshift, we measure an average
velocity offset, V$_{\rm offset} = 171 \pm 8$ $\rm km s^{-1}$, between the
Ly$\alpha$ emission peak and the systemic redshift. The observed V$_{\rm
offset}$ is lower by factors of $\approx1.4$ and $\approx2.6$ compared to the
velocity offsets measured for narrow-band selected LAEs and Lyman break
galaxies, respectively, which probe galaxies with higher masses and SFRs.
Consistent with earlier studies based on direct measurements for individual
objects, we find that the V$_{\rm offset}$ is correlated with the full width at
half-maximum of the red peak of the Ly$\alpha$ line, and anti-correlated with
the rest-frame equivalent width. Moreover, we find that $V_{\rm offset}$ is
correlated with SFR with a sub-linear scaling relation, V$_{\rm offset}\propto
\rm SFR^{0.16\pm0.03}$. Adopting the mass scaling for main sequence galaxies,
such a relation suggests that V$_{\rm offset}$ scales with the circular
velocity of the dark matter halos hosting the LAEs.


  The cosmic history of supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth is important for
understanding galaxy evolution, reionization and the physics of accretion.
Recent NuSTAR, Swift-BAT and \textit{Chandra} hard X-ray surveys have provided
new constraints on the space density of heavily obscured Active Galactic Nuclei
(AGN). Using the new X-ray luminosity function derived from these data, we here
estimate the accretion efficiency of SMBHs and their contribution to
reionization. We calculate the total ionizing radiation from active galactic
nuclei (AGN) as a function of redshift, based on the X radiation and
distribution of obscuring column density, converted to UV wavelengths. Limiting
the luminosity function to unobscured AGN only, our results agree with current
UV luminosity functions of unobscured AGN. For realistic assumptions about the
escape fraction, the contribution of all AGN to cosmic reionization is $\sim4$
times lower than the galaxy contribution (23% at $z\sim6$). Our results also
offer an observationally constrained prescription that can be used in
simulations or models of galaxy evolution. To estimate the average efficiency
with which supermassive black holes convert mass to light, we compare the total
radiated energy, converted from X-ray light using a bolometric correction, to
the most recent local black hole mass density. The most likely value, $\eta
\sim 0.3-0.34$, approaches the theoretical limit for a maximally rotating Kerr
black hole, $\eta=0.42$, implying that on average growing supermassive black
holes are spinning rapidly.


  Graph neural networks are useful for learning problems, as well as for
combinatorial and graph problems such as the Subgraph Isomorphism Problem and
the Traveling Salesman Problem. We describe an approach for computing Steiner
Trees by combining a graph neural network and Monte Carlo Tree Search. We first
train a graph neural network that takes as input a partial solution and
proposes a new node to be added as output. This neural network is then used in
a Monte Carlo search to compute a Steiner tree. The proposed method
consistently outperforms the standard 2-approximation algorithm on many
different types of graphs and often finds the optimal solution.


  We consider the problem of convergence in homogeneous shearing box simula-
tions of magneto-rotationally driven turbulence. When there is no mean magnetic
flux, if the equations are non dimensionalized with respect to the diffusive
scale, the only free parameter in the problem is the size of the computational
domain. The problem of convergence then relates to the asymptotic form of the
solutions as the computational box size becomes large. By using a numerical
code with a high order of accuracy we show that the solutions become
asymptotically inde- pendent of domain size. We also show that cases with weak
magnetic flux join smoothly to the zero flux cases as the flux vanishes. These
results are consistent with the operation of a subcritical small-scale dynamo
driving the turbulence. We conclude that for this type of turbulence the
angular momentum transport is a proportional to the diffusive flux and
therefore has limited relevance in as- trophysical situations.


  We analysed the flux-flow region of isofield magneto resistivity data
obtained on three crystals of BaFe$_{2-x}$Ni$_x$As$_2$ with $T_c$$\sim$20 K for
three different geometries relative to the angle formed between the applied
magnetic field and the c-axis of the crystals. The field dependent activation
energy, $U_0$, was obtained from the TAFF and modified vortex-glass models,
which were compared with the values of $U_0$ obtained from flux-creep available
in the literature. We observed that the $U_0$ obtained from the TAFF model show
deviations among the different crystals, while the correspondent glass lines
obtained from the vortex glass model are virtually coincident. It is shown that
the data is well explained by the modified vortex glass model, allowing to
extract values of $T_g$, the glass transition temperature, and $T^*$, a
temperature which scales with the mean field critical temperature $T_c(H)$. The
resulting glass lines obey the anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau theory and are well
fitted by a theory developed in the literature by considering the effect of
disorder.


  We study superfluidity of a cigar-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) by
stirring it with a Gaussian potential oscillating back and forth along the
axial dimension of the condensate, motivated by experiments of C. Raman et al.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 2502 (1999). Using classical-field simulations and
perturbation theory we examine the induced heating rate, based on the total
energy of the system, as a function of the stirring velocity $v$. We identify
the onset of dissipation by a sharply increasing heating rate above a velocity
$v_c$, which we define as the critical velocity. We show that $v_c$ is
influenced by the oscillating motion, the strength of the stirrer, the
temperature and the inhomogeneous density of the cloud. This results in a
vanishing $v_c$ for the parameters similar to the experiments, which is
inconsistent with the measurement of nonzero $v_c$. However, if the heating
rate is based on the thermal fraction after a 100 ms equilibration time, our
simulation recovers the experimental observations. We demonstrate that this
discrepancy is due to the slow relaxation of the stirred cloud and dipole mode
excitation of the cloud.


  Inspired by the formulation of the Batalin-Vilkovisky method of quantization
in terms of ``odd time'', we show that for a class of gauge theories which are
first order in the derivatives, the kinetic term is bilinear in the fields, and
the interaction part satisfies some properties, it is possible to give the
solution of the master equation in a very simple way. To clarify the general
procedure we discuss its application to Yang-Mills theory, massive (abelian)
theory in the Stueckelberg formalism, relativistic particle and to the
self-interacting antisymmetric tensor field.


  A many-body coherent potential approximation (CPA) previously developed for
the double exchange (DE) model is extended to include coupling to local quantum
phonons. The Holstein-DE model studied (equal to the Holstein model for zero
Hund coupling) is considered to be a simple model for the colossal
magnetoresistance manganites. We concentrate on effects due to the quantisation
of the phonons, such as the formation of polaron subbands. The electronic
spectrum and resistivity are investigated for a range of temperature and
electron-phonon coupling strengths. Good agreement with experiment is found for
the Curie temperature and resistivity with intermediate electron-phonon
coupling strength, but phonon quantisation is found not to have a significant
effect in this coupling regime.


  We consider the problem of checking whether a proposed invariant $\varphi$
expressed in first-order logic with quantifier alternation is inductive, i.e.
preserved by a piece of code. While the problem is undecidable, modern SMT
solvers can sometimes solve it automatically. However, they employ powerful
quantifier instantiation methods that may diverge, especially when $\varphi$ is
not preserved. A notable difficulty arises due to counterexamples of infinite
size.
  This paper studies Bounded-Horizon instantiation, a natural method for
guaranteeing the termination of SMT solvers. The method bounds the depth of
terms used in the quantifier instantiation process. We show that this method is
surprisingly powerful for checking quantified invariants in uninterpreted
domains. Furthermore, by producing partial models it can help the user diagnose
the case when $\varphi$ is not inductive, especially when the underlying reason
is the existence of infinite counterexamples.
  Our main technical result is that Bounded-Horizon is at least as powerful as
instrumentation, which is a manual method to guarantee convergence of the
solver by modifying the program so that it admits a purely universal invariant.
We show that with a bound of 1 we can simulate a natural class of
instrumentations, without the need to modify the code and in a fully automatic
way. We also report on a prototype implementation on top of Z3, which we used
to verify several examples by Bounded-Horizon of bound 1.


  This paper investigates rotating star solutions to the Euler-Poisson
equations with a non-isentropic equation of state. As a first step, the
equation for gas density with a prescribed entropy and angular velocity
distribution is studied. The resulting elliptic equation is solved either by
the method of sub and supersolutions or by a variational method, depending on
the value of the adiabatic index. The reverse problem of determining angular
velocity from gas density is also considered.


  The hidden symmetry of the asymmetric quantum Rabi model (AQRM) with a
half-integral bias (ibQRM$_{\ell}$) was uncovered in recent studies by the
explicit construction of operators $J_\ell$ commuting with the Hamiltonian. The
existence of such symmetry has been widely believed to cause the degeneration
of the spectrum, that is, the crossings on the energy curves. In this paper we
propose a conjectural relation between the symmetry and degeneracy for the
ibQRM$_{\ell}$ given explicitly in terms of two polynomials appearing
independently in the respective investigations. Concretely, one of the
polynomials appears as the quotient of the constraint polynomials that assure
the existence of degenerate solutions while the other determines a quadratic
relation (in general, it defines a curve of hyperelliptic type) between the
ibQRM$_{\ell}$ Hamiltonian and its basic commuting operator $J_\ell$. Following
this conjecture, we derive several interesting structural insights of the whole
spectrum. For instance, the energy curves are naturally shown to lie on a
surface determined by the family of hyperelliptic curves by considering the
coupling constant as a variable. This geometric picture contains the
generalization of the parity decomposition of the symmetric quantum Rabi model.
Moreover, it allows us to describe a remarkable approximation of the first
$\ell$ energy curves by the zero-section of the corresponding hyperelliptic
curve. These investigations naturally lead to a geometric picture of the
(hyper-)elliptic surfaces given by the Kodaira-N\'eron type model for a family
of curves over the projective line in connection with the energy curves, which
may be expected to provide a complex analytic proof of the conjecture.


  Among numerous theoretical ideas, approaches, mechanisms, models there are
probably few elements which will eventually enter the true theory of neutrino
masses and mixing. The task is to identify them. Still something conceptually
important can be missed. The problems of construction of the theory are
outlined. Perspectives and possible future developments are discussed.


  The '$S_8$ tension' is a longstanding discrepancy between the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) and weak gravitational lensing determination of the
amplitude of matter fluctuations, parametrized as
$S_8\equiv\sigma_8(\Omega_m/0.3)^{0.5}$, where $\sigma_8$ is the root mean
square of matter fluctuations on a 8 $h^{-1}$Mpc scale, and $\Omega_m$ is the
total matter abundance. It was recently shown that dark matter (DM) decaying
into a massless (dark radiation) and a massive (warm DM) species, with a
lifetime $\Gamma^{-1} \simeq 55~(\varepsilon/0.007)^{1.4}$ Gyrs -- where
$\varepsilon$ represent the mass-energy fraction transferred to the massless
component -- can ease the tension. Thanks to a fast and accurate fluid
approximation scheme for the warm species, we perform a comprehensive study of
this 2-body decaying DM scenario, discussing in detail its dynamics and its
impact on the CMB and linear matter power spectra. We then investigate the
implications for the '$S_8$ tension' against a number of changes in the
analysis: different $S_8$ priors, marginalization over the lensing information
in Planck data, trading Planck high$-\ell$ polarization data for those from the
SPTpol and ACTPol surveys, and the inclusion of the recent results from the
Xenon1T collaboration. We conclude that the preference for decaying DM,
apparent only when the $S_8$ value determined from weak lensing data is added
to the analysis, does not sensibly degrade the fit to any of the cosmological
data-sets considered, and that the model could potentially explain the
anomalous electron recoil excess reported by the Xenon1T collaboration.
Furthermore, we explictly show that while current CMB data alone are not
sensitive enough to distinguish between standard CDM and decaying DM,
next-generation CMB observations (CMB-S4) can unambiguously detect its
signature.


  We study the effects of mass and force resolution on the density profiles of
galaxy-size Cold Dark Matter (CDM) halos in a flat, low-density cosmological
model with vacuum energy. We show thatalthough increasing the mass and force
resolution allows us to probe deeper into the inner halo regions, it does not
lead to steeper inner density profiles. Instead, the halo profiles converge at
scales larger than four times the formal resolution or the radius containing
more than 200 particles, whichever is larger. In the simulations presented in
this paper, we are able to probe density profile of a relaxed isolated
galaxy-size halo at scales r=(0.005-1)r_vir. We find that the density
distribution can be well approximated by the profile suggested by Moore etal
(1998): rho= x^{-1.5}(1+x^{1.5})^-1, where x=r/r_s and r_s is the
characteristic radius. The analytical profile proposed by Navarro et al. (1996)
rho= x^{-1}(1+x)^-2, also provides a good fit, with the same relative errors of
about 10% for radii larger than 1% of the virial radius. Both analytical
profiles fit equally well because for high-concentration galaxy-size halos the
differences between these profiles become significant only at scales well below
0.01r_vir. We also find that halos of similar mass may have somewhat different
parameters (characteristic radius, maximum rotation velocity, etc.) and shapes
of their density profiles. We associate this scatter in properties with
differences in halo merger histories and the amount of substructure present in
the analyzed halos.


  We investigate the geometry of $\pi_1$-injective surfaces in closed
hyperbolic 3-manifolds. First we prove that for any $e>0$, if the manifold $M$
has sufficiently large systole $\sys_1(M)$, the genus of any such surface in
$M$ is bounded below by $\exp((1/2-e)\sys_1(M))$. Using this result we show, in
particular, that for congruence covers $M_i\to M$ of a compact arithmetic
hyperbolic 3-manifold we have: (a) the minimal genus of $\pi_1$-injective
surfaces satisfies $\log \sysg(M_i) \gtrsim (1/3)\log\vol(M_i)$; (b) there
exist such sequences with the ratio Heegard genus$(M_i)/\sysg(M_i) \gtrsim
\vol(M_i)^{1/2}$; and (c) under some additional assumptions $\pi_1(M_i)$ is
k-free with $\log k \gtrsim (1/3)\sys_1(M_i)$. The latter resolves a special
case of a conjecture of M. Gromov.


  A survival dataset describes a set of instances (e.g. patients) and provides,
for each, either the time until an event (e.g. death), or the censoring time
(e.g. when lost to follow-up - which is a lower bound on the time until the
event). We consider the challenge of survival prediction: learning, from such
data, a predictive model that can produce an individual survival distribution
for a novel instance. Many contemporary methods of survival prediction
implicitly assume that the event and censoring distributions are independent
conditional on the instance's covariates - a strong assumption that is
difficult to verify (as we observe only one outcome for each instance) and
which can induce significant bias when it does not hold. This paper presents a
parametric model of survival that extends modern non-linear survival analysis
by relaxing the assumption of conditional independence. On synthetic and
semi-synthetic data, our approach significantly improves estimates of survival
distributions compared to the standard that assumes conditional independence in
the data.


  We give a detailed description of the so-called Polynomial Hybrid Monte Carlo
(PHMC) algorithm. The effects of the correction factor, which is introduced to
render the algorithm exact, are discussed, stressing their relevance for the
statistical fluctuations and (almost) zero mode contributions to physical
observables. We also investigate rounding-error effects and propose several
ways to reduce memory requirements.


  3D steganalysis aims to identify subtle invisible changes produced in
graphical objects through digital watermarking or steganography. Sets of
statistical representations of 3D features, extracted from both cover and stego
3D mesh objects, are used as inputs into machine learning classifiers in order
to decide whether any information was hidden in the given graphical object.
According to previous studies, sets of local geometry features can be used to
define the differences between stego and cover-objects. The features proposed
in this paper include those representing the local object curvature, vertex
normals, the local geometry representation in the spherical coordinate system
and are considered in various combinations with others. We also analyze the
effectiveness of various 3D feature sets applied for steganalysis based on the
Pearson correlation coefficient. The classifiers proposed in this study for
discriminating the 3D stego and cover-objects include Support Vector Machine
and the Fisher Linear Discriminant ensemble. Three different watermarking and
steganographic methods are used for hiding information in the 3D objects used
for testing the performance of the proposed steganalysis methodology.


  A system safety case is a compelling, comprehensible, and valid argument
about the satisfaction of the safety goals of a given system operating in a
given environment supported by convincing evidence. Since the publication of UL
4600 in 2020, safety cases have become a best practice for measuring, managing,
and communicating the safety of autonomous vehicles (AVs). Although UL 4600
provides guidance on how to build the safety case for an AV, the complexity of
AVs and their operating environments, the novelty of the used technology, the
need for complying with various regulations and technical standards, and for
addressing cybersecurity concerns and ethical considerations make the
development of safety cases for AVs challenging. To this end, safety case
frameworks have been proposed that bring strategies, argument templates, and
other guidance together to support the development of a safety case. This paper
introduces the Open Autonomy Safety Case Framework, developed over years of
work with the autonomous vehicle industry, as a roadmap for how AVs can be
deployed safely and responsibly.


  We have applied a new method to analyze the horizontal branch (HB) morphology
in relation to the distribution of stars near the red giant branch (RGB) tip
for the globular clusters M22, M5, M68, M107, M72, M92, M3 and 47 Tuc. This new
method permits determination of the cluster ages to greater accuracy than
conventional isochrone fitting. Using the method in conjunction with our new
high-quality photometric data for RGB and HB stars in the first five of these
clusters, we discuss the origins of the spread in color on the HB and its
relation to the `second parameter' problem. The oldest clusters in our sample
are found to have relatively low ages ($13.5 \pm 2$ Gyr).
  A 1$\sigma$ uncertainty in each of the parameters of mass and helium content
combined with the effects of helium diffusion gives a lower limit for the age
of the oldest clusters of 9.7 Gyr.


  We find an explicit cosmological model which allows a special type of
cosmological singularity which we call a $w$-singularity. This singularity has
the scale factor finite, the energy density and pressure vanishing, and the
only singular behaviour appears in a time-dependent barotropic index $w(t)$. It
is different from the type IV cosmological singularity in that it does not
exhibit the divergence of the higher derivatives of the Hubble parameter and
from the big-brake since it does not fulfill the anti-Chaplygin gas equation of
state. We also find an interesting duality between the $w$-singularities and
the big-bang singularities. Physical examples of $w$-singularities appear in
$f(R)$, scalar field and brane cosmologies.


  The Segmentation Anything Model (SAM) has recently emerged as a foundation
model for addressing image segmentation. Owing to the intrinsic complexity of
medical images and the high annotation cost, the medical image segmentation
(MIS) community has been encouraged to investigate SAM's zero-shot capabilities
to facilitate automatic annotation. Inspired by the extraordinary
accomplishments of interactive medical image segmentation (IMIS) paradigm, this
paper focuses on assessing the potential of SAM's zero-shot capabilities within
the IMIS paradigm to amplify its benefits in the MIS domain. Regrettably, we
observe that SAM's vulnerability to prompt forms (e.g., points, bounding boxes)
becomes notably pronounced in IMIS. This leads us to develop a framework that
adaptively offers suitable prompt forms for human experts. We refer to the
framework above as temporally-extended prompts optimization (TEPO) and model it
as a Markov decision process, solvable through reinforcement learning.
Numerical experiments on the standardized benchmark BraTS2020 demonstrate that
the learned TEPO agent can further enhance SAM's zero-shot capability in the
MIS context.


  The notion of semi-direct product of Poisson $G$-spaces is applied to
illuminate examples arising in spin-extensions of Ruijsenaars models.


  Frequent false alarms impede the promotion of unsupervised anomaly detection
algorithms in industrial applications. Potential characteristics of false
alarms depending on the trained detector are revealed by investigating density
probability distributions of prediction scores in the out-of-distribution
anomaly detection tasks. An SVM-based classifier is exploited as a
post-processing module to identify false alarms from the anomaly map at the
object level. Besides, a sample synthesis strategy is devised to incorporate
fuzzy prior knowledge on the specific application in the anomaly-free training
dataset. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed method
comprehensively improves the performances of two segmentation models at both
image and pixel levels on two industrial applications.


  A fundamental length is introduced into physics in a way which respects the
principles of relativity and quantum field theory. This improves the properties
of quantum field theory: divergences are removed. How to quantize gravity is
also indicated. When the fundamental length tends to zero the present version
of quantum field theory is recovered.


  Accurate estimation of camera matrices is an important step in structure from
motion algorithms. In this paper we introduce a novel rank constraint on
collections of fundamental matrices in multi-view settings. We show that in
general, with the selection of proper scale factors, a matrix formed by
stacking fundamental matrices between pairs of images has rank 6. Moreover,
this matrix forms the symmetric part of a rank 3 matrix whose factors relate
directly to the corresponding camera matrices. We use this new characterization
to produce better estimations of fundamental matrices by optimizing an L1-cost
function using Iterative Re-weighted Least Squares and Alternate Direction
Method of Multiplier. We further show that this procedure can improve the
recovery of camera locations, particularly in multi-view settings in which
fewer images are available.


  We demonstrate a method to enhance the atom loading rate of a ytterbium (Yb)
magneto-optic trap (MOT) operating on the 556 nm ${^1S}_0 \rightarrow {^3P}_1$
intercombination transition (narrow linewidth $\Gamma_g = 2\pi \times 182$
kHz). Following traditional Zeeman slowing of an atomic beam near the 399 nm
${^1S}_0 \rightarrow {^1P}_1$ transition (broad linewidth $\Gamma_p = 2\pi
\times 29 $ MHz), two laser beams in a crossed-beam geometry, frequency tuned
near the same transition, provide additional slowing immediately prior to the
MOT. Using this technique, we observe an improvement by a factor of 6 in the
atom loading rate of a narrow-line Yb MOT. The relative simplicity and
generality of this approach make it readily adoptable to other experiments
involving narrow-line MOTs. We also present a numerical simulation of this
two-stage slowing process which shows good agreement with the observed
dependence on experimental parameters, and use it to assess potential
improvements to the method.


  Let C be a complex curve of genus g, let J(C) be its Jacobian and let R(C) be
its tautological ring, that is, the group of algebraic cycles modulo algebraic
equivalence. We study the algebraic structure of R(C). In particular, we give a
detailed description of all the possibilities that may occur for g<9: we
construct convenient basis and we determine the matrices representing the
Fourier transform and both intersection and Pontryagin products explicitly. In
particular, we estimate the dimension of R(C).


  Here we furnish a pseudo-Newtonion potential for accretion disk modeling
around rotating central objects having hard sueface. That means, the potential
may be useful to describe the accretion disk around rotating neutron stars and
strange stars. The potential can describe the general relativistic effects in
accretion disk properly, essentially studying the relativistic hydrodynamics of
disk. As our intention lies in understanding the fluid dynamics of the
accretion disk around rotating central objects with hard surface, it is
necessary to incorporate the rotation of the central object which affects the
inner edge of the disk. We derive our potential, starting from the Hartle
Thorne metric. The potential can reproduce all the essential properties of
general relativity with 10% error at most, for slowly rotating neutron/strange
stars.


  The moduli space $\bar{M}_A$ of weighted pointed stable curves of genus zero
is stratified according to the degeneration types of such curves. We show that
the homology groups of the moduli space $\bar{M}_A$ are generated by the strata
of $\bar{M}_A$ and give all additive relations between them. We also observe
that the Chow groups $A_i \bar{M}_A$ and the homology groups $H_{2i} \bar{M}_A$
are isomorphic. This generalizes Kontsevich-Manin's and Losev-Manin's theorems
to arbitrary weight data $A$.


  Young (<1Gyr) exoplanets represent a critically important area of exoplanet
research, as they offer the opportunity to learn about the formation and early
dynamic history of exoplanetary systems. However, finding young exoplanets is
significantly complicated by the fast rotation and complex activity of their
young host stars, which are often not well handled by state-of-the-art
automatic pipelines. This work presents an alternative LOWESS-based pipeline
focused specifically on detrending young stellar light-curves from the
30min-cadence Full Frame Images (FFIs) produced by the Transiting Exoplanet
Survey Satellite ($TESS$), and includes improvements such as automatic
peak-cutting of stellar variability and interpolation over masked transits to
improve periodogram visibility and returned transit shapes. This work presents
the details of the developed pipeline, along with initial results from its
application to young stars within stellar associations in sectors 1-5 of the
$TESS$ data. While no new exoplanet candidate signals were found in this work,
interesting results included the recovery of all known 2min TOIs around young
stars in sectors 1-5 from 30min data alone, the recovery of the young exoplanet
DS Tuc Ab, a number of young eclipsing binaries and a wide array of interesting
rotation. A sensitivity analysis was also undertaken for each star, showing how
recovery of injected planets varied with both depth and period for each
individual target. Challenges for future searches for young exoplanets are
discussed, the largest being stellar rotation with periods less than 1 day and
a lack of a large sample of confirmed young stars.


  These are lecture notes for a short winter course at the Department of
Mathematics, University of Coimbra, Portugal, December 6--8, 2018. The course
was part of the 13th International Young Researchers Workshop on Geometry,
Mechanics and Control.
  In three lectures I trace the work of three heroes of mathematics and
mechanics: Euler, Poincar\'e, and Arnold. This leads up to the aim of the
lectures: to explain Arnold's discovery from 1966 that solutions to Euler's
equations for the motion of an incompressible fluid correspond to geodesics on
the infinite-dimensional Riemannian manifold of volume preserving
diffeomorphisms. In many ways, this discovery is the foundation for the field
of geometric hydrodynamics, which today encompasses much more than just Euler's
equations, with deep connections to many other fields such as optimal
transport, shape analysis, and information theory.


  Neural network quantization has an inherent problem called accumulated
quantization error, which is the key obstacle towards ultra-low precision,
e.g., 2- or 3-bit precision. To resolve this problem, we propose precision
highway, which forms an end-to-end high-precision information flow while
performing the ultra low-precision computation. First, we describe how the
precision highway reduce the accumulated quantization error in both
convolutional and recurrent neural networks. We also provide the quantitative
analysis of the benefit of precision highway and evaluate the overhead on the
state-of-the-art hardware accelerator. In the experiments, our proposed method
outperforms the best existing quantization methods while offering 3-bit
weight/activation quantization with no accuracy loss and 2-bit quantization
with a 2.45 % top-1 accuracy loss in ResNet-50. We also report that the
proposed method significantly outperforms the existing method in the 2-bit
quantization of an LSTM for language modeling.


  Photoproduction of electron-positron pairs by the strong-field Breit-Wheeler
process in an intense laser field is studied. The laser field is assumed to
consist of two consecutive short pulses, with a variable time delay in between.
By numerical calculations within the framework of scalar quantum
electrodynamics, we demonstrate that the time delay exerts a strong impact on
the pair-creation probability. For the case when both pulses are identical, the
effect is traced back to the relative quantum phase of the interfering S-matrix
amplitudes and explained within a simplified analytical model. Conversely, when
the two laser pulses differ from each other, the pair-creation probability
depends not only on the time delay but, in general, also on the temporal order
of the pulses.


  We have investigated the temperature and magnetic field dependence of
magnetization ($M$), specific heat ($C_p$), and relative sample length change
($\Delta L/L_0$) for understanding the field-induced metamagnetic transitions
in quasi-one-dimensional monoclinic ($\alpha$ phase) and triclinic ($\gamma$
phase) CoV$_2$O$_6$ spin chains. With the application of external magnetic
field, a sharp peak emerges in $C_p$($T$) below $T_N$$=$15 K in $\alpha$ phase
and a hump-like feature appears above $T_N$$=$6.5 K in $\gamma$ phase due to
the field-induced ferrimagnetic and ferromagnetic transitions, respectively.
Strong field dependence of linear thermal expansion and large positive
magnetostriction have been observed in $\alpha$ phase. Though magnetization
data indicate strong spin-orbit coupling for both phases, other measurements
show that this effect is very weak for the $\gamma$ phase.


  An analytical prediction is established of how an isolated many-body quantum
system relaxes towards its thermal long-time limit under the action of a
time-independent perturbation, but still remaining sufficiently close to a
reference case whose temporal relaxation is known. This is achieved within the
conceptual framework of a typicality approach by showing and exploiting that
the time-dependent expectation values behave very similarly for most members of
a suitably chosen ensemble of perturbations. The predictions are validated by
comparison with various numerical and experimental results from the literature.


  We show that certain classes of apparently unprotected operators in N=4 SYM_4
do not receive quantum corrections as a consequence of a partial
non-renormalization theorem for the 4-point function of chiral primary
operators. We develop techniques yielding the asymptotic expansion of the
4-point function of CPOs up to order O(\lambda^2) and we perform a detailed OPE
analysis. Our results reveal the existence of new non-renormalized operators of
approximate dimension 6.


  Focusing with a 4$\pi$ parabolic mirror allows for concentrating light from
nearly the complete solid angle, whereas focusing with a single microscope
objective limits the angle cone used for focusing to half solid angle at
maximum. Increasing the solid angle by using deep parabolic mirrors comes at
the cost of adding more complexity to the mirror's fabrication process and
might introduce errors that reduce the focusing quality. To determine these
errors, we experimentally examine the focusing properties of a 4$\pi$ parabolic
mirror that was produced by single-point diamond turning. The properties are
characterized with a single $^{174}$Yb$^{+}$ ion as a mobile point scatterer.
The ion is trapped in a vacuum environment with a movable high optical access
Paul trap. We demonstrate an effective focal spot size of 209 nm in lateral and
551 nm in axial direction. Such tight focusing allows us to build an efficient
light-matter interface. Our findings agree with numerical simulations
incorporating a finite ion temperature and interferometrically measured
wavefront aberrations induced by the parabolic mirror. We point at further
technological improvements and discuss the general scope of applications of a
4$\pi$ parabolic mirror.


  Consciousness about power consumption at the appliance level can assist user
in promoting energy efficiency in households. In this paper, a superior
non-intrusive appliance recognition method that can provide particular
consumption footprints of each appliance is proposed. Electrical devices are
well recognized by the combination of different descriptors via the following
steps: (a) investigating the applicability along with performance comparability
of several time-domain (TD) feature extraction schemes; (b) exploring their
complementary features; and (c) making use of a new design of the ensemble
bagging tree (EBT) classifier. Consequently, a powerful feature extraction
technique based on the fusion of TD features is proposed, namely fTDF, aimed at
improving the feature discrimination ability and optimizing the recognition
task. An extensive experimental performance assessment is performed on two
different datasets called the GREEND and WITHED, where power consumption
signatures were gathered at 1 Hz and 44000 Hz sampling frequencies,
respectively. The obtained results revealed prime efficiency of the proposed
fTDF based EBT system in comparison with other TD descriptors and machine
learning classifiers.


  We present a method to increase the resolution of measurements of a physical
system and subsequently predict its time evolution using thermodynamics-aware
neural networks. Our method uses adversarial autoencoders, which reduce the
dimensionality of the full order model to a set of latent variables that are
enforced to match a prior, for example a normal distribution. Adversarial
autoencoders are seen as generative models, and they can be trained to generate
high-resolution samples from low-resoution inputs, meaning they can address the
so-called super-resolution problem. Then, a second neural network is trained to
learn the physical structure of the latent variables and predict their temporal
evolution. This neural network is known as an structure-preserving neural
network. It learns the metriplectic-structure of the system and applies a
physical bias to ensure that the first and second principles of thermodynamics
are fulfilled. The integrated trajectories are decoded to their original
dimensionality, as well as to the higher dimensionality space produced by the
adversarial autoencoder and they are compared to the ground truth solution. The
method is tested with two examples of flow over a cylinder, where the fluid
properties are varied between both examples.


  We propose a novel method for fitting machine-learning interatomic potentials
with magnetic degrees of freedom, namely, magnetic Moment Tensor Potentials
(mMTP). The main feature of the methodology consists in fitting mMTP to
magnetic forces (negative derivatives of energies with respect to magnetic
moments) derived from spin-polarized density functional theory calculations. We
test our method on the bcc Fe-Al system with different composition.
Specifically, we calculate formation energies, equilibrium lattice parameter,
and total cell magnetization. Our findings demonstrate a precise match between
values calculated with mMTP and those obtained by DFT at zero temperature.
Additionally, using molecular dynamics, we estimate the finite temperature
lattice parameter and capture the cell expansion as was previously revealed in
experiment. We demonstrate that mMTPs fitted to magnetic forces, increase the
relaxation reliability, which is the percent of successfully relaxed structures
(i.e. with almost zero forces, stresses, and magnetic moments after the
optimization of geometry). Eventually, we show that the proposed methodology
can provide an accurate and reliable mMTP with reduced number of
computationally complex spin-polarized density functional theory calculations.


  We numerically study out-of-equilibrium dynamics in a family of Heisenberg
models with $1/r^6$ power-law interactions and positional disorder. Using the
semi-classical discrete truncated Wigner approximation (dTWA) method, we
investigate the time evolution of the magnetization and ensemble-averaged
single-spin purity for a strongly disordered system after initializing the
system in an out-of-equilibrium state. We find that both quantities display
robust glassy behavior for almost any value of the anisotropy parameter of the
Heisenberg Hamiltonian. Furthermore, a systematic analysis allows us to
quantitatively show that, for all the scenarios considered, the stretch power
lies close to the one analytically obtained in the Ising limit. This indicates
that glassy relaxation behavior occurs widely in disordered quantum spin
systems, independent of the particular symmetries and integrability of the
Hamiltonian.


  Here we show that a finite nilpotent group is 2-closed if and only if it is
either cyclic or a direct product of a generalized quaternion group with a
cyclic group of odd order.


  In this study we have investigated a particular state-of-the-art model which
is currently used to refine our knowledge of the workings of the strong
interaction and the way that it is manifested in both neutron stars and heavy
nuclei, although we have placed emphasis on the former for reasons of personal
interest. The main body of this work has surrounded an effective field theory
known as Quantum Hadrodynamics (QHD) and its variations, as well as an
extension to this known as the Quark-Meson Coupling (QMC) model, and variations
thereof. We further extend these frameworks to include the possibility of a
phase transition from hadronic matter to deconfined quark matter to produce
hybrid stars, using various models. We have investigated these pre-existing
models to deeply understand how they are justified, and given this information,
we have expanded them to incorporate a modern understanding of how the strong
interaction is manifest.


  Building on [1], we examine a holographic model in which a U(1) symmetry and
translational invariance are broken spontaneously at the same time. The
symmetry breaking is realized through the St\"{u}ckelberg mechanism, and leads
to a scalar condensate and a charge density which are spatially modulated and
exhibit unidirectional stripe order. Depending on the choice of parameters, the
oscillations of the scalar condensate can average out to zero, with a frequency
which is half of that of the charge density. In this case the system realizes
some of the key features of pair density wave order. The model also admits a
phase with co-existing superconducting and charge density wave orders, in which
the scalar condensate has a uniform component. In our construction the various
orders are intertwined with each other and have a common origin. The fully
backreacted geometry is computed numerically, including for the case in which
the theory contains axions. The latter can be added to explicitly break
translational symmetry and mimic lattice-type effects.


  Through powder x-ray diffraction we have investigated the structural behavior
of SmVO3, in which orbital and magnetic degrees of freedom are believed to be
closely coupled to the crystal lattice. We have found, contrary to previous
reports, that SmVO3 exists in a single, monoclinic, phase below 200 K. The
associated crystallographic distortion is then stabilized through the
magnetostriction that occurs below 134 K. The crystal structure has been
refined using synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction data measured throughout the
structural phase diagram, showing a substantial Jahn-Teller distortion of the
VO6 octahedra in the monoclinic phase, compatible with the expected G-type
orbital order. Changes in the vanadium ion crystal field due to the structural
and magnetic transitions have then been probed by resonant x-ray diffraction.


  We study a two dimensional (2D) system of interacting quantum bosons,
subjected to a continuous periodic potential in one direction. The correlation
of such system exhibits a dimensional crossover between a canonical 2D behavior
with Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) properties and a one-dimensional (1D)
behavior when the potential is large and splits the system in essentially
independent tubes. The later is in the universality class of Tomonaga-Luttinger
liquids (TLL). Using a continuous quantum Monte Carlo method, we investigate
this dimensional crossover by computing longitudinal and transverse superfluid
fraction as well as the superfluid correlation as a function of temperature,
interactions and potential. Especially, we find the correlation function
evolves from BKT to TLL type, with special intermediate behaviors appearing at
the dimensional crossover. We discuss how the consequences of the dimensional
crossover can be investigated in cold atomic gases experiments.


  The Regge inspired k_T-factorization scheme expresses the scattering
amplitude for exclusive leptoproduction of a light vector meson rho in terms of
two impact factors, one for the gamma* - rho transition and the other one for
the nucleon to nucleon transition, with, at leading order, a two "reggeized"
gluon exchange in the t-channel. We report here on a recent phenomenological
study where we apply a previously developped scheme which consistently takes
into account the twist 3 distribution amplitudes for transversely polarized rho
meson. The computation of the gamma* to rho impact factor are performed within
collinear factorization of QCD, up to the twist 3 level, based on the Collinear
Factorization scheme applied to the amplitudes gamma*g to g rho .
  Our results are in good agreement with high energy experimental data for the
ratios of helicity amplitudes.


  We give an explicit construction of linearly independent families of knots
arbitrarily deep in the (n)-solvable filtration of the knot concordance group
using the \rho^1-invariant. A difference between previous constructions of
infinite rank subgroups in the concordance group and ours is that the deepest
infecting knots in the construction we present are allowed to have vanishing
Tristram-Levine signatures.


  The Standard Model data suggests that the quantum gravity vacuum should
accommodate two pivotal ingredients. The existence of three chiral generations
and their embedding in chiral 16 SO(10) representations. The Z2XZ2 orbifolds
are examples of perturbative heterotic string vacua that yield these
properties. The exploration of these models in the nonperturbative framework of
M-theory is discussed. A common prediction of these contructions is the
existence of super-heavy meta-stable states due to the Wilson-line breaking of
the GUT symmetries. Cosmic ray experiments in the forthcoming years offer an
exciting experimental window to the phenomenology of such states.


  Achieving connectivity reliability is one of the significant challenges for
5G and beyond 5G cellular networks. The present understanding of reliability in
the context of mobile communication does not adequately cover the stochastic
temporal aspects of the network, such as the duration and spread of packet
errors that an outage session may cause. Rather, it simply confines the
definition to the percentage of successful packet delivery. In this letter, we
offer an elaborate modeling of the outage for a cellular mobile network by
showcasing the different types of outages and their contiguity characteristic.
Thereafter, using the outage metrics, we define two new key performance
indicators (KPIs), namely mean outage time and mean time between outages as
counterparts to akin KPIs that already exist in classical reliability theory,
i.e., mean down time and mean time between failures. Using a system-level
simulation where user mobility is a crucial component, it is shown that these
newly defined KPIs can be used to quantify the reliability requirements of
different user applications in cellular services.


  It is shown how to couple non-relativistic matter with a Chern--Simons gauge
field that belongs to a non-compact group. We treat in some details the
$SL(2,{\bf R})$ and the Poincar\'e $ISO(2,1)$ groups. For suitable
self-interactions, we are able to exhibit soliton solutions.


  We propose the application of graphical convolution to the analysis of the
resonance phenomenon. This time-domain approach encompasses both the finally
attained periodic oscillations and the initial transient period. It also
provides interesting discussion concerning the analysis of non-sinusoidal
waves, based not on frequency analysis, but on direct consideration of
waveforms, and thus presenting an introduction to Fourier series. Further
developing the point of view of graphical convolution, we come to a new
definition of resonance in terms of time domain.


  Federated learning (FL) is an emerging distributed machine learning method
that empowers in-situ model training on decentralized edge devices. However,
multiple simultaneous training activities could overload resource-constrained
devices. In this work, we propose a smart multi-tenant FL system, MuFL, to
effectively coordinate and execute simultaneous training activities. We first
formalize the problem of multi-tenant FL, define multi-tenant FL scenarios, and
introduce a vanilla multi-tenant FL system that trains activities sequentially
to form baselines. Then, we propose two approaches to optimize multi-tenant FL:
1) activity consolidation merges training activities into one activity with a
multi-task architecture; 2) after training it for rounds, activity splitting
divides it into groups by employing affinities among activities such that
activities within a group have better synergy. Extensive experiments
demonstrate that MuFL outperforms other methods while consuming 40% less
energy. We hope this work will inspire the community to further study and
optimize multi-tenant FL.


  3d lattice studies have recently attracted a lot of attention, especially in
connection with finite temperature field theories. One ingredient in these
studies is a perturbative computation of the 2-loop lattice counterterms, which
are exact in the continuum limit. We extend previous such results to SU(N)
gauge theories with Higgs fields in the fundamental and adjoint
representations. The fundamental SU(3)xSU(2) case might be relevant for the
electroweak phase transition in the MSSM, and the adjoint case for the GUT
phase transition and for QCD in the high temperature phase. We also revisit the
standard SU(2)xU(1) and U(1) theories.


  In this paper, we use the derivative of the exponential map to derive the
exact evolution of the logarithm of the tracking error for mixed-invariant
systems, a class of systems capable of describing rigid body tracking problems
in Lie groups. Additionally, we design a log-linear dynamic inversion-based
control law to remove the nonlinearities due to spatial curvature and enhance
the robustness of the controller. We apply Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs) to
bound the tracking error given a bounded disturbance amplified by the
distortion matrix and leverage the tracking error bound to create flow pipes.
To demonstrate the usefulness of our method, we show its application with Urban
Air Mobility (UAM) scenarios using a simplified kinematic aircraft model and
polynomial-based path planning methods.


  We consider a variational problem with boundary singularity and Dirichlet
condition. We give a blow-up analysis for sequences of solutions of an equation
with exponential nonlinearity. Also, we derive a compactness criterion under
some conditions.


  Supersonic gas jets produced by converging-diverging (C-D) nozzles are
commonly used as targets for laser-plasma acceleration (LPA) experiments. A
major point of interest for these targets is the gas density at the region of
interaction where the laser ionizes the gas plume to create a plasma, providing
the acceleration structure. Tuning the density profiles at this interaction
region is crucial to LPA optimization. A "flat-top" density profile is desired
at this line of interaction to control laser propagation and high energy
electron acceleration, while a short high-density profile is often preferred
for acceleration of lower-energy tightly-focused laser-plasma interactions. A
particular design parameter of interest is the curvature of the nozzle's
diverging section. We examine three nozzle designs with different curvatures:
the concave "bell", straight conical and convex "trumpet" nozzles. We
demonstrate that, at mm-scale distances from the nozzle exit, the trumpet and
straight nozzles, if optimized, produce "flat-top" density profiles whereas the
bell nozzle creates focused regions of gas with higher densities. An
optimization procedure for the trumpet nozzle is derived and compared to the
straight nozzle optimization process. We find that the trumpet nozzle, by
providing an extra parameter of control through its curvature, is more
versatile for creating flat-top profiles and its optimization procedure is more
refined compared to the straight nozzle and the straight nozzle optimization
process. We present results for different nozzle designs from computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations performed with the program ANSYS Fluent and
verify them experimentally using neutral density interferometry.


  Neutron transfer reactions with fast secondary beams of $^{17}$Ne, $^{15}$O,
and $^9$C have been studied with the HiRA and CAESAR arrays. Excited states of
$^{18}$Ne, $^{16}$O, and $^{10}$C in the continuum have been identified using
invariant-mass spectroscopy. The best experimental resolution of these states
is achieved by selecting events where the decay fragments are emitted
transverse to the beam direction. We have confirmed a number of spin
assignments made in previous works for the negative-parity states of $^{18}$Ne.
In addition we have found new higher-lying excited states in $^{16}$O and
$^{18}$Ne, some of which fission into two ground-state $^8$Be fragments.
Finally for $^{10}$C, a new excited state was observed. These transfer
reactions were found to leave the remnant of the $^9$Be target nuclei at very
high excitation energies and maybe associated with the pickup of a deeply-bound
$^9$Be neutron.


  We investigate a special time-dependent quantum model which assumes the
Landau-Zener driving form but with an overall modulation of the intensity of
the pulsing field. We demonstrate that the dynamics of the system, including
the two-level case as well as its multi-level extension, is exactly solvable
analytically. Differing from the original Landau-Zener model, the nonadiabatic
effect of the evolution in the present driving process does not destroy the
desired population transfer. As the sweep protocol employs only the finite
driving fields which tend to zero asymptotically, the cutoff error due to the
truncation of the driving pulse to the finite time interval turns out to be
negligibly small. Furthermore, we investigate the noise effect on the driving
protocol due to the dissipation of the surrounding environment. The losses of
the fidelity in the protocol caused by both the phase damping process and the
random spin flip noise are estimated by solving numerically the corresponding
master equations within the Markovian regime.