  Shockwaves driven by supernovae both destroy dust and reprocess the surviving
grains, greatly affecting the resulting dust properties of the interstellar
medium (ISM). While these processes have been extensively studied
theoretically, observational constraints are limited. We use
physically-motivated models of dust emission to fit the infrared (IR) spectral
energy distributions of seven Galactic supernova remnants, allowing us to
determine the distribution of dust mass between diffuse and dense gas phases,
and between large and small grain sizes. We find that the dense ($\sim 10^3
\,{\rm cm}^{-3}$), relatively cool ($\sim 10^3 \, {\rm K}$) gas phase contains
$>90\%$ of the dust mass, making the warm dust located in the X-ray emitting
plasma ($\sim 1 \,{\rm cm}^{-3}$/$10^6 \, {\rm K}$) a negligible fraction of
the total, despite dominating the mid-IR emission. The ratio of small
($\lesssim 10 \, {\rm nm}$) to large ($\gtrsim 0.1 \, {\rm \mu m}$) grains in
the cold component is consistent with that in the ISM, and possibly even
higher, whereas the hot phase is almost entirely devoid of small grains. This
suggests that grain shattering, which processes large grains into smaller ones,
is ineffective in the low-density gas, contrary to model predictions.
Single-phase models of dust destruction in the ISM, which do not account for
the existence of the cold swept-up material containing most of the dust mass,
are likely to greatly overestimate the rate of dust destruction by supernovae.


  Flavor symmetries are useful to realize fermion flavor structures in the
standard model. In particular, discrete $A_4$ symmetry is used to realize
lepton flavor structures, and some scalars which are called flavon are
introduced to break this symmetry. In many models, flavons are assumed to be
much heavier than the electroweak scale. However, our previous work showed that
flavon mass around 100 GeV is allowed by experimental constraints in the $A_4$
symmetric model with residual $Z_3$ symmetry. In this paper, we discuss
collider search of such a light flavon $\varphi_T$. We find that an electron -
photon collision, as a considerable option at the international linear
collider, has advantages to search for the signals. At the electron - photon
collider flavons are produced as $e^-\gamma \to l^- \varphi_T$ and decay into
two charged leptons. Then we analyze signals of flavor-conserving final-state
$\tau^+ \tau^- e^-$, and flavor-violating final-states $\tau^+ \mu^- \mu^-$ and
$\mu^+ \tau^- \tau^-$ by carrying out numerical simulation. For the former
final-state, SM background can be strongly suppressed by imposing cuts on the
invariant masses of final-state leptons. For the later final-states, SM
background is extremely small, because in the SM there are no such
flavor-violating final-states. We then find that sufficient discovery
significance can be obtained, even if flavons are heavier than the lower limits
from flavor physics.


  Systems of coupled oscillators have been seen to exhibit chimera states, i.e.
states where the system splits into two groups where one group is phase locked
and the other is phase randomized. In this work, we report the existence of
chimera states in a system of two interacting populations of sine circle maps.
This system also exhibits the clustered chimera behavior seen earlier in delay
coupled systems. Rich spatio-temporal behavior is seen in different regimes of
the phase diagram.We carry out a detailed analysis of the stability regimes and
map out the phase diagram using numerical and analytic techniques.


  Deep far-infrared photometric surveys studying galaxy evolution and the
nature of the cosmic infrared background are a key strength of the Herschel
mission. We describe the scientific motivation for the PACS Evolutionary Probe
(PEP) guaranteed time key program and its role in the complement of Herschel
surveys, and the field selection which includes popular multiwavelength fields
such as GOODS, COSMOS, Lockman Hole, ECDFS, EGS. We provide an account of the
observing strategies and data reduction methods used. An overview of first
science results illustrates the potential of PEP in providing calorimetric star
formation rates for high redshift galaxy populations, thus testing and
superseeding previous extrapolations from other wavelengths, and enabling a
wide range of galaxy evolution studies.


  We prove that there is a factor of the Muchnik lattice that captures
intuitionistic propositional logic. This complements a now classic result of
Skvortsova for the Medvedev lattice.


  The M{\o}ller energy complex of Schwarzschild black hole solution in several
coodinates are evaluated. Our results show that the M{\o}ller energy complex is
independent of not only the purely spatial transformation, but also the shift
of time coordinate. So, we could conclude that a shift of time coordinates will
not change the energy which is obtained by using the definition of M{\o}ller
energy complex.


  We consider the reaction g+d -> pi+d in a wide energy range around and above
the eta-meson photoproduction threshold at backward CM angles of the outgoing
pion. Our theoretical analysis is essentially motivated by the recent
measurements of the CLAS Collaboration at Jefferson Lab, where this kinematical
region of the reaction has been thoroughly studied for the first time and a
cusps in the energy dependence of the differential cross section in the region
of Eg = 600-800 MeV has been observed. Our preliminary and qualitative
analysis, based on single- and double-scattering diagrams, shows that the
observed structure can be explained by the contribution of the
double-scattering diagram with intermediate production of the eta meson. The
effect, to a considerable extent, is formed due to the contribution of N(1535)
resonance to the amplitudes of subprocesses on the nucleons.


  In this paper we study some estimates of norms in variable exponent Lebesgue
spaces for a singular integral operators that are imaginary powers of the
Laplace operator in $\R^n$. Using Mellin transform argument, from this
estimates we obtain boundedness for a family of maximal operators in variable
exponent Lebesgue spaces, which are closely related to the (weak) solution of
the wave equation.42B25, 42B20, 46E30, 44A10, 42B10, 35L05


  We study the appearance of a boundary condition along an interface between
two regions, one with constant diffusivity $1$ and the other with diffusivity
$\eps>0$, when $\eps\to0$. In particular, we take Fick's diffusion law in a
context of reaction-diffusion equation with bistable nonlinearity and show that
the limit of the reaction-diffusion equation satisfies the homogeneous Neumann
boundary condition along the interface. This problem is developed as an
application of heterogeneous diffusion laws to study the geometry effect of
domain.


  Partial differential equations (PDEs) are extensively utilized for modeling
various physical phenomena. These equations often depend on certain parameters,
necessitating either the identification of optimal parameters or solving the
equation across multiple parameters to understand how a structure might react
under different conditions. Performing an exhaustive search over the parameter
space requires solving the PDE multiple times, which is generally impractical.
To address this challenge, Reduced Order Models (ROMs) are constructed from a
snapshot dataset comprising parameter-solution pairs. ROMs facilitate the rapid
solving of PDEs for new parameters.
  Recently, Deep Learning ROMs (DL-ROMs) have been introduced as a new method
to obtain ROM. Additionally, the PDE of interest may depend on the domain,
which can be characterized by parameters or measurements and may evolve with
the system, requiring parametrization for ROM construction. In this paper, we
develop a Deep-ROM capable of extracting and efficiently utilizing domain
parametrization. Unlike traditional domain parametrization methods, our
approach does not require user-defined control points and can effectively
handle domains with varying numbers of components. Moreover, our model can
derive meaningful parametrization even when a domain mesh is unavailable, a
common scenario in biomedical applications. Our work leverages Deep Neural
Networks to effectively reduce the dimensionality of the PDE and the domain
characteristic function.


  In this paper, we study a relative two-weight $\mathbb{Z}_2
\mathbb{Z}_4$-additive codes. It is shown that the Gray image of a two-distance
$\mathbb{Z}_2 \mathbb{Z}_4$-additive code is a binary two-distance code and
that the Gray image of a relative two-weight $\mathbb{Z}_2
\mathbb{Z}_4$-additive code, with nontrivial binary part, is a linear binary
relative two-weight code. The structure of relative two-weight $\mathbb{Z}_2
\mathbb{Z}_4$-additive codes are described. Finally, we discussed permutation
automorphism group of a $\mathbb{Z}_2 \mathbb{Z}_4$-additive codes.


  Globular clusters are an important test bed for Newtonian gravity in the
weak-acceleration regime, which is vital to our understanding of the nature of
the gravitational interaction. Recent claims have been made that the velocity
dispersion profiles of globular clusters flatten out at large radii, despite an
apparent paucity of dark matter in such objects, indicating the need for a
modification of gravitational theories. We continue our investigation of this
claim, with the largest spectral samples ever obtained of 47 Tucanae and M55.
Furthermore, this large sample allows for an accurate metallicity calibration
based on the equivalent widths of the calcium triplet lines and K band
magnitude of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch. Assuming an isothermal
distribution, the rotations of each cluster are also measured with both
clusters exhibiting clear rotation signatures. The global velocity dispersions
of NGC 121 and Kron 3, two globular clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud, are
also calculated. By applying a simple dynamical model to the velocity
dispersion profiles of 47 Tuc and M55, we calculate their mass-to-light
profiles, total masses and central velocity dispersions. We find no
statistically significant flattening of the velocity dispersion at large radii
for M55, and a marked increase in the profile of 47 Tuc for radii greater than
approximately half the tidal radius. We interpret this increase as an
evaporation signature, indicating that 47 Tuc is undergoing, or has undergone,
core-collapse, but find no requirement for dark matter or a modification of
gravitational theories in either cluster.


  We study a quantization via fractional derivative of a nonminimal derivative
coupling cosmological theory, namely, the Fab Four John theory. Its Hamiltonian
version presents the issue of fractional powers in the momenta. That problem is
solved here by the application of the so-called conformable fractional
derivative. This leads to a Wheeler-DeWitt equation of second order, showing
that a Bohm-de Broglie interpretation can be constructed. That combination of
fractional quantization and Bohmian interpretation provides us a new
quantization method, in which the quantum potential is the criterion to say if
a quantum solution is acceptable or not to be further studied. We show that a
wide range of solutions for the scale factor is possible. Among all of those, a
bouncing solution analogous to the perfect fluid cosmology seems to deserve
special attention.


  We propose a general expression for the probability distribution of
real-valued tunneling times of a localized particle, as measured by the
Salecker-Wigner-Peres quantum clock. This general expression is used to obtain
the distribution of times for the scattering of a particle through a static
rectangular barrier and for the tunneling decay of an initially bound state
after the sudden deformation of the potential, the latter case being relevant
to understand tunneling times in recent attosecond experiments involving strong
field ionization.


  We study the optical properties of the Ruddlesden-Popper series of iridates
Sr$_{n+1}$Ir$_n$O$_{3n+1}$ ($n$=1, 2 and $\infty$) by solving the
Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE), where the quasiparticle (QP) energies and
screened interactions $W$ are obtained by the $GW$ approximation including
spin-orbit coupling. The computed optical conductivity spectra show strong
excitonic effects and reproduce very well the experimentally observed
double-peak structure, in particular for the spin-orbital Mott insulators
Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ and Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$. However, $GW$ does not account well for
the correlated metallic state of SrIrO$_3$ owing to a much too small band
renormalization, and this affects the overall quality of the optical
conductivity. Our analysis describes well the progressive redshift of the main
optical peaks as a function of dimensionality ($n$), which is correlated with
the gradual decrease of the electronic correlation (quantified by the
constrained random phase approximation) towards the metallic $n=\infty$ limit.
We have also assessed the quality of a computationally cheaper BSE approach
that is based on a model dielectric function and conducted on top of DFT+$U$
one-electron energies. Unfortunately, this model BSE approach does not
accurately reproduce the outcome of the full $GW$+BSE method and leads to
larger deviations to the measured spectra.


  We develop some new aspects of cohomology in the context of semi-abelian
categories: we establish a Hochschild-Serre 5-term exact sequence extending the
classical one for groups and Lie algebras; we prove that an object is perfect
if and only if it admits a universal central extension; we show how the second
Barr-Beck cohomology group classifies isomorphism classes of central
extensions; we prove a universal coefficient theorem to explain the
relationship with homology.


  We address the problem of automated nuclear segmentation, classification, and
quantification from Haematoxylin and Eosin stained histology images, which is
of great relevance for several downstream computational pathology applications.
In this work, we present a solution framed as a simultaneous semantic and
instance segmentation framework. Our solution is part of the Colon Nuclei
Identification and Counting (CoNIC) Challenge. We first train a semantic and
instance segmentation model separately. Our framework uses as backbone HoverNet
and Cascade Mask-RCNN models. We then ensemble the results with a custom
Non-Maximum Suppression embedding (NMS). In our framework, the semantic model
computes a class prediction for the cells whilst the instance model provides a
refined segmentation. We demonstrate, through our experimental results, that
our model outperforms the provided baselines by a large margin.


  Motivated by puzzling results of recent experiments, we re-examine the
response of a weakly pinned two-dimensional Wigner crystal to a uniform AC
electric field. We confirm that at some disorder and magnetic field dependent
frequency $\omega_p$, an inhomogeneously broadened absorption line emerges.
Although the line is conventionally broad in zero magnetic field, in strong
fields it appears as a sharp resonance whose width is related to the density of
states in the low-frequency tail of the zero-field phonon spectrum. This
behavior originates due to the long-range Coulomb interactions.


  Cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) has been recognized as a
fundamental function of autonomous driving, in which platoon stability and
energy efficiency are outstanding challenges that are difficult to accommodate
in real-world operations. This paper studied the CACC of connected and
autonomous vehicles (CAVs) based on the multi-agent reinforcement learning
algorithm (MARL) to optimize platoon stability and energy efficiency
simultaneously. The optimal use of communication bandwidth is the key to
guaranteeing learning performance in real-world driving, and thus this paper
proposes a communication-efficient MARL by incorporating the quantified
stochastic gradient descent (QSGD) and a binary differential consensus (BDC)
method into a fully-decentralized MARL framework. We benchmarked the
performance of our proposed BDC-MARL algorithm against several several
non-communicative andcommunicative MARL algorithms, e.g., IA2C, FPrint, and
DIAL, through the evaluation of platoon stability, fuel economy, and driving
comfort. Our results show that BDC-MARL achieved the highest energy savings,
improving by up to 5.8%, with an average velocity of 15.26 m/s and an
inter-vehicle spacing of 20.76 m. In addition, we conducted different
information-sharing analyses to assess communication efficacy, along with
sensitivity analyses and scalability tests with varying platoon sizes. The
practical effectiveness of our approach is further demonstrated using
real-world scenarios sourced from open-sourced OpenACC.


  This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to rewritting and skipping
crucial sign errors.


  We have constructed a microwave detector based on the voltage switching of an
underdamped Josephson junction, that is positioned at a current antinode of a
{\lambda}/4 coplanar waveguide resonator. By measuring the switching current
and the transmission through a waveguide capacitively coupled to the resonator
at different drive frequencies and temperatures we are able to fully
characterize the system and assess its detection efficiency and sensitivity.
Testing the detector by applying a classical microwave field with the strength
of a single photon yielded a sensitivity parameter of 0.5 in qualitative
agreement with theoretical calculations.


  Singular value thresholding (SVT) operation is a fundamental core module in
many mathematical models in computer vision and machine learning, particularly
for many nuclear norm minimizing-based problems. We presented a quantum SVT
(QSVT) algorithm which was used as a subroutine to address an image
classification problem. This algorithm runs in
$O\left[\log\left(pq\right)\right]$, an exponential speed improvement over the
classical algorithm which runs in $O\left[poly\left(pq\right)\right]$. In this
study, we investigate this algorithm and design a scalable quantum circuit for
QSVT. In the circuit design, we introduce an adjustable parameter $\alpha$ to
ensure the high probability of obtaining the final result and the high fidelity
of actual and ideal final states. We also show that the value of $\alpha$ can
be computed ahead of implementing the quantum circuit when the inputs of the
QSVT algorithm, i.e. matrix ${\bf{A}}$ and constant $\tau$, are given. In
addition, we propose a small-scale quantum circuit for QSVT. We numerically
simulate and demonstrate the performance of this circuit, verifying its
capability to solve the intended SVT. The quantum circuit for QSVT implies a
tempting possibility for experimental realization on a quantum computer.


  A detailed theory of stochastic integration in UMD Banach spaces has been
developed recently by the authors. The present paper is aimed at giving various
sufficient conditions for stochastic integrability.


  The notions of length of a vector field and cosine of the angle between two
vector fields over a differentiable manifold with contravariant and covariant
affine connections and metrics are introduced and considered. The change of the
length of a vector field and of the angle between two vector fields along a
contravariant vector field are found. The introduced notions are necessary for
investigations of different types of transports over a manifold of the above
mentioned type.


  We prove that for any two continuous minimal (topologically free) actions of
the infinite dihedral group on an infinite compact Hausdorff space, they are
continuously orbit equivalent only if they are conjugate. We also show the
above fails if we replace the infinite dihedral group with certain other
virtually cyclic groups, e.g. the direct product of the integer group with any
non-abelian finite simple group.


  We present an overview of the current status of our efforts to derive the
microturbulence and macroturbulence parameters (ximic and ximac) from the
CIFIST grid of CO5BOLD 3D model atmospheres as a function of the basic stellar
parameters Teff, log g, and [M/H]. The latest results for the Sun and Procyon
show that the derived microturbulence parameter depends significantly on the
numerical resolution of the underlying 3D simulation, confirming that
`low-resolution' models tend to underestimate the true value of ximic.
Extending the investigation to twelve further simulations with different Teff,
log g, and [M/H], we obtain a first impression of the predicted trend of ximic
over the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram: in agreement with empirical evidence,
microturbulence increases towards higher effective temperature and lower
gravity. The metallicity dependence of ximic must be interpreted with care,
since it also reflects the deviation between the 1D and 3D photospheric
temperature stratifications that increases systematically towards lower
metallicity.


  Many systems in the realm of nanophysics from both the living and inorganic
world display slow relaxation kinetics of energy fluctuations. In this paper we
propose a general explanation for such phenomenon, based on the effects of
interactions with the solvent. Within a simple harmonic model of the system
fluctuations, we demonstrate that the inhomogeneity of coupling to the solvent
of the bulk and surface atoms suffices to generate a complex spectrum of decay
rates. We show for Myoglobin and for a metal nano-cluster that the result is a
complex, non-exponential relaxation dynamics.


  We investigate the role of domain walls in the ultrafast magnon dynamics of
an antiferromagnetic NiO single crystal in a pump-probe experiment with
variable pump photon energy. Analysing the amplitude of the energy-dependent
photo-induced ultrafast spin dynamics, we detect a yet unreported coupling
between the material's characteristic THz- and a GHz-magnon modes. We explain
this unexpected coupling between two orthogonal eigenstates of the
corresponding Hamiltonian by modelling the magneto-elastic interaction between
spins in different domains. We find that such interaction, in the non-linear
regime, couples the two different magnon modes via the domain walls and it can
be optically exploited via the exciton-magnon resonance.


  The fluctuation-dissipation relation is well known for the quantum open
system with energy dissipation. In this paper a similar underlying relation is
found between the bath fluctuation and the dephasing of the quantum open
system, of which energy is conserved, but the information is leaking into the
bath. To obtain this relation we revisit the universal, but simple dephasing
model with quantum non-demolition interaction between the bath and the open
system. Then we show that the decoherence factor describing the dephasing
process is factorized into two parts, to indicate the two sources of dephasing,
the vacuum quantum fluctuation and the thermal excitations defined in the
initial state of finite temperature.


  In this article, we considered the bulk viscous fluid in the formalism of
modified gravity in which the general form of a gravitational action is $f(R,
T)$ function, where $R$ is the curvature scalar and $T$ is the trace of the
energy momentum tensor within the frame of flat FRW space time. The
cosmological model dominated by bulk viscous matter with total bulk viscous
coefficient expressed as a linear combination of the velocity and acceleration
of the expansion of the universe in such a way that
$\xi=\xi_0+\xi_1\frac{\dot{a}}{a}+\xi_2\frac{\ddot{a}}{\dot{a}}$, where
$\xi_0$, $\xi_1$ and $\xi_2$ are constants. We take $p=(\gamma-1)\rho$, where
$0\le\gamma\le2$ as an equation of state for perfect fluid. The exact solutions
to the corresponding field equations are obtained by assuming a particular
model of the form of $f(R, T)=R+2f(T)$, where $f(T)=\lambda T$, $\lambda$ is
constant. We studied the four possible scenarios for different values of
$\gamma$, such as $\gamma=0$, $\gamma=\frac{2}{3}$, $\gamma=1$ and
$\gamma=\frac{4}{3}$ with the possible positive and negative ranges of
$\lambda$ to observe the accelerated expansion history of the universe.
Finally, a big-rip singularity is observed.


  In this report we describe an ongoing line of research for solving
single-channel source separation problems. Many monaural signal decomposition
techniques proposed in the literature operate on a feature space consisting of
a time-frequency representation of the input data. A challenge faced by these
approaches is to effectively exploit the temporal dependencies of the signals
at scales larger than the duration of a time-frame. In this work we propose to
tackle this problem by modeling the signals using a time-frequency
representation with multiple temporal resolutions. The proposed representation
consists of a pyramid of wavelet scattering operators, which generalizes
Constant Q Transforms (CQT) with extra layers of convolution and complex
modulus. We first show that learning standard models with this multi-resolution
setting improves source separation results over fixed-resolution methods. As
study case, we use Non-Negative Matrix Factorizations (NMF) that has been
widely considered in many audio application. Then, we investigate the inclusion
of the proposed multi-resolution setting into a discriminative training regime.
We discuss several alternatives using different deep neural network
architectures.


  We propose a new detector concept, GraXe (to be pronounced as grace), to
search for neutrinoless double beta decay in Xe-136. GraXe combines a popular
detection medium in rare-event searches, liquid xenon, with a new,
background-free material, graphene.
  In our baseline design of GraXe, a sphere made of graphene-coated titanium
mesh and filled with liquid xenon (LXe) enriched in the Xe-136 isotope is
immersed in a large volume of natural LXe instrumented with photodetectors.
Liquid xenon is an excellent scintillator, reasonably transparent to its own
light. Graphene is transparent over a large frequency range, and impermeable to
the xenon. Event position could be deduced from the light pattern detected in
the photosensors. External backgrounds would be shielded by the buffer of
natural LXe, leaving the ultra-radiopure internal volume virtually free of
background.
  Industrial graphene can be manufactured at a competitive cost to produce the
sphere. Enriching xenon in the isotope Xe-136 is easy and relatively cheap, and
there is already near one ton of enriched xenon available in the world
(currently being used by the EXO, KamLAND-Zen and NEXT experiments). All the
cryogenic know-how is readily available from the numerous experiments using
liquid xenon. An experiment using the GraXe concept appears realistic and
affordable in a short time scale, and its physics potential is enormous.


  We derive analytical solutions for the zero-energy states of degenerate shell
obtained as a singular eigenevalue problem found in tight-binding (TB)
Hamiltonian of triangular graphene quantum dots with zigzag edges. These
analytical solutions are in agreement with previous TB and density functional
theory (DFT) results for small graphene triangles and extend to arbitrary size.
We also generalize these solutions to trapezoidal structure which allow us to
study bowtie graphene devices.


  Motivated by the effect of matter on neutrino oscillations (the MSW effect)
we study in more detail the propagation of neutrinos in a dense medium. The
dispersion relation for massive neutrinos in a medium is known to have a
minimum at nonzero momentum p \sim (G_F\rho)/\sqrt{2}. We study in detail the
origin and consequences of this dispersion relation for both Dirac and Majorana
neutrinos both in a toy model with only neutral currents and a single neutrino
flavour and in a realistic "Standard Model" with two neutrino flavours. We find
that for a range of neutrino momenta near the minimum of the dispersion
relation, Dirac neutrinos are trapped by their coherent interactions with the
medium. This effect does not lead to the trapping of Majorana neutrinos.


  As an important task in sentiment analysis, Multimodal Aspect-Based Sentiment
Analysis (MABSA) has attracted increasing attention in recent years. However,
previous approaches either (i) use separately pre-trained visual and textual
models, which ignore the crossmodal alignment or (ii) use vision-language
models pre-trained with general pre-training tasks, which are inadequate to
identify finegrained aspects, opinions, and their alignments across modalities.
To tackle these limitations, we propose a task-specific Vision-Language
Pre-training framework for MABSA (VLPMABSA), which is a unified multimodal
encoder-decoder architecture for all the pretraining and downstream tasks. We
further design three types of task-specific pre-training tasks from the
language, vision, and multimodal modalities, respectively. Experimental results
show that our approach generally outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches on
three MABSA subtasks. Further analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of each
pretraining task. The source code is publicly released at
https://github.com/NUSTM/VLP-MABSA.


  The multipolar Kondo problem, wherein the quantum impurity carries
higher-rank multipolar moments, has seen recent theoretical and experimental
interest due to proposals of novel non-Fermi liquid states and the availability
of a variety of material platforms. The multipolar nature of local moments, in
conjunction with constraining crystal field symmetries, leads to a vast array
of possible interactions and resulting non-Fermi liquid ground states. Previous
works on Kondo physics have typically focussed on impurities that have two
degenerate internal states. In this work, inspired by recent experiments on the
tetragonal material YbRu$_{2}$Ge$_{2}$, which has been shown to exhibit a local
moment with a quasi-fourfold degenerate ground state, we consider the Kondo
effect for such a quasi-quartet multipolar impurity. In the tetragonal crystal
field environment, the local moment supports dipolar, quadrupolar, and
octupolar moments, which interact with conduction electrons in entangled spin
and orbital states. Using renormalization group analysis, we uncover a number
of emergent quantum ground states characterized by non-trivial fixed points. It
is shown that these previously unidentified fixed points are described by
truncated SU(4) Kondo models, where only some of the SU(4) generators
(representing the impurity degrees of freedom) are coupled to conduction
electrons. Such novel non-trivial fixed points are unique to the quasi-quartet
multipolar impurity, reinforcing the idea that an unexplored rich diversity of
phenomena may be produced by multipolar quantum impurity systems.


  In a recent Letter, Guarnieri et al. [1] reported on the possibility of
generating steady-state coherence (SSC) in the energy basis of a two-level
system by the sole action of a single thermal bath also for weak system-bath
coupling and due to a composite form of this interaction. The results are based
on a time-local Bloch-Redfield master equation without secular approximation
and the associated set of Bloch equations, all derived in the Supplemental
Material (SM) of Ref. [1]. We comment that the results reported by the authors
present both technical flaws and conceptual limitations that substantially
impact some of their main conclusions. Our objections mainly concern (a)
technical errors in the calculation of SSC (Eqs.(2)-(4) in [1]) and (b)
negativity issues associated with the weak-coupling master equation employed by
the authors.


  The current study investigated the presence of different anxiety profiles in
schoolchildren in order to understand whether Mathematics and Test Anxiety are
a manifestation of a general form of anxiety, or the expression of specific
forms of anxiety. Moreover, we also examined the influence of personal
protective factors. The results of a latent profile analysis, conducted on 664
children attending grades 3 to 6, clearly identified three different profiles
distinguished on the basis of the level of general, test and mathematics
anxiety. Protective factors, such as self concept and resilience, were
differently related to anxiety: The former was clearly lower when the risk
profile was higher, whereas students were able to maintain a certain level of
resilience up to an average risk of developing forms of anxiety. The
implications of these findings may lead to the development of specific
intervention programs aimed at reducing students' anxiety and fostering self
concept and resilience.


  In condensed matter physics and related areas, topological defects play
important roles in phase transitions and critical phenomena. Homotopy theory
facilitates the classification of such topological defects. After a pedagogic
introduction to the mathematical methods involved in topology and homotopy
theory, the role of the latter in a number of mainly low-dimensional
statistical-mechanical systems is outlined. Some recent activities in this area
are reviewed and some possible future directions are discussed.


  The preprint is an English translation of the paper by famous astrophysicist
Samuil Kaplan (1921-1978) "O krugovykh orbitakh v teorii tyagoteniya Einsteina
(On circular orbits in Einstein's theory of gravitation)", published in 1949 in
the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics (Vol. 19, No. 10, pp.
951-952) in Russian. This important 1 and 1/3 page paper is still inaccessible
to a wide range of experts and students due to the lack of such translation.
This paper is the first scientific publication of Samuil Kaplan and the
pioneering work in this field. The aim of this presentation is to make the
article available to a wide range of experts in the field of general
relativity, relativistic astrophysics and the history of science, as well as to
honor its author on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth.


  This paper proves a number of flatness results for centralizers of sections
of a reductive group scheme over a general base scheme. To this end, we
establish relative versions of the Jordan decomposition. Using our results, we
obtain a canonical flattening stratification for the universal centralizer of a
simply connected semisimple group scheme over a base of good characteristic. We
also investigate the structure of centralizers and conjugacy classes of
unipotent and nilpotent sections over general bases.


  The dependences of the velocity ellipsoids of F-G stars of the thin disk of
the Galaxy on their ages and metallicities are analyzed based on the new
version of the Geneva-Copenhagen Catalog. The age dependences of the major,
middle, and minor axes of the ellipsoids, and also of the dispersion of the
total residual veltocity, obey power laws with indices 0.25,0.29,0.32, and 0.27
(with uncertainties \pm 0.02). Due to the presence of thick-disk objects, the
analogous indices for all nearby stars are about a factor of 1.5 larger.
Attempts to explain such values are usually based on modeling relaxation
processes in the Galactic disk. With increasing age, the velocity ellipsoid
increases in size and becomes appreciably more spherical, turns toward the
direction of the Galactic center, and loses angular momentum. The shape of the
velocity ellipsoid remains far from equilibrium. With increasing metallicity,
the velocity ellipsoid for stars of mixed age increases in size, displays a
weak tendency to become more spherical, and turns toward the direction of the
Galactic center (with these changes occurring substantially more rapidly in the
transition through the metallicity [Fe/H]= -0.25). Thus, the ellipsoid changes
similarly to the way it does with age; however, with decreasing metallicity,
the rotational velocity about the Galactic center monotonically increases,
rather than decreases(!). Moreover, the power-law indices for the age
dependences of the axes depend on the metallicity, and display a maximum near
[Fe/H]=-0.1. The age dependences of all the velocity-ellipsoid parameters for
stars with equal metallicity are roughly the same. It is proposed that the
appearance of a metallicity dependence of the velocity ellipsoids for thin-disk
stars is most likely due to the radial migration of stars.


  We show that a star orbiting close enough to an adiabatically grown
supermassive black hole (SMBH) can capture weakly interacting massive particles
(WIMPs) at an extremely high rate. The stellar luminosity due to annihilation
of captured WIMPs in the stellar core may be comparable to or even exceed the
luminosity of the star due to thermonuclear burning. The model thus predicts
the existence of unusual stars, essentially WIMP burners, in the vicinity of a
SMBH. We find that the most efficient WIMP burners are stars with degenerate
electron cores, e.g. white dwarfs (WDs); such WDs may have a very high surface
temperature. If found, such stars would provide evidence for the existence of
particle dark matter and can possibly be used to establish its density profile.
On the other hand, the lack of such unusual stars may provide constraints on
the WIMP density near the SMBH, as well as the WIMP-nucleus scattering and pair
annihilation cross-sections.


  We study the Standard Model prediction for the mass difference between the
two neutral D meson mass eigenstates, $\Delta m$. We derive a dispersion
relation based on heavy quark effective theory that relates $\Delta m$ to an
integral of the width difference of heavy mesons, $\Delta\Gamma$, over varying
values of the heavy meson mass. Modeling the $m_D$-dependence of certain D
decay partial widths, we investigate the effects of SU(3) breaking from phase
space on the mass difference. We find that $\Delta m$ may be comparable in
magnitude to $\Delta\Gamma$ in the Standard Model.


  In previous work, we introduced median decompositions, a generalisation of
tree decompositions where a graph can be modelled after any median graph, along
with a hierarchy of $i$-medianwidth parameters $(mw_i)_{i\geq 1}$ starting from
treewidth and converging to the clique number.
  We introduce another graph parameter based on the concept of median
decompositions, to be called $i$-latticewidth and denoted by $lw_i$, for which
we restrict the modelling median graph of a decomposition to be isometrically
embeddable into the Cartesian product of $i$ paths. The sequence $(lw_i)_{i\geq
1}$ gives rise to a hierarchy of parameters starting from pathwidth and
converging to the clique number. We characterise the $i$-latticewidth of a
graph in terms of maximal intersections of bags of $i$ path decompositions of
the graph.
  We study a generalisation of the classical Cops and Robber game, where the
robber plays against not just one, but $i$ cop players. Depending on whether
the robber is visible or not, we show a direct connection to $i$-medianwidth or
$i$-latticewidth, respectively.


  In this paper, we present a new procedure to automatically generate
interpretable hyperelastic material models. This approach is based on symbolic
regression which represents an evolutionary algorithm searching for a
mathematical model in the form of an algebraic expression. This results in a
relatively simple model with good agreement to experimental data. By expressing
the strain energy function in terms of its invariants or other parameters, it
is possible to interpret the resulting algebraic formulation in a physical
context. In addition, a direct implementation of the obtained algebraic
equation is possible. For the validation of the proposed approach, benchmark
tests on the basis of the generalized Mooney-Rivlin model are presented. In all
these tests, the chosen ansatz can find the predefined models. Additionally,
this method is applied for the multi-axial loading data set of vulcanized
rubber. Finally, a data set for a temperature-dependent thermoplastic polyester
elastomer is evaluated. In latter cases, good agreement with the experimental
data is obtained.


  Charge inversion of a DNA double helix by an oppositely charged flexible
polyelectrolyte (PE) is widely used for gene delivery. It is considered here in
terms of discrete charges of DNA. We concentrate on the worst scenario case
when in the neutral state of the DNA-PE complex, each of the DNA charges is
locally compensated by a PE charge and show that charge inversion exists even
in this case. When an additional PE molecule is adsorbed by DNA, its charge
gets fractionalized into monomer charges of defects (tails and arches) on the
background of the perfectly neutralized DNA. These charges spread all over the
DNA eliminating the self-energy of PE. Fractionalization leads to a substantial
charge inversion of DNA. We show that fractionalization mechanism charge
inversion works also for nonlinear polymers such as dendrimers. Remarkably,
such fractionalization happens for adsorption of both PE or dendrimers on a
two-dimensional charged lattice, as well. Relation of fractionalization to
other mechanisms of charge inversion is discussed.


  The purpose of the paper is to construct a new representation of dual
quaternions called bi$-$periodic dual Fibonacci quaternions. These quaternions
are originated as a generalization of the known quaternions in literature such
as dual Fibonacci quaternions, dual Pell quaternions and dual $k-$Fibonacci
quaternions. Furthermore, some of them have not been introduced until this
time. Then, we give generating function, Binet formula and Catalan's identity
in terms of these quaternions.


  This paper proposes a set of criteria to evaluate the objectiveness of
explanation methods of neural networks, which is crucial for the development of
explainable AI, but it also presents significant challenges. The core challenge
is that people usually cannot obtain ground-truth explanations of the neural
network. To this end, we design four metrics to evaluate explanation results
without ground-truth explanations. Our metrics can be broadly applied to nine
benchmark methods of interpreting neural networks, which provides new insights
of explanation methods.


  NGC 2419 is the most distant massive globular cluster in the outer Galactic
halo. It is unusual also due to the chemical peculiarities found in its red
giant stars in recent years. We study the stellar population of this unusual
object using spectra obtained at the 1.93-m telescope of the Haute-Provence
Observatory. At variance with commonly used methods of high-resolution
spectroscopy applicable only to bright stars, we employ spectroscopic
information on the integrated light of the cluster. We carry out population
synthesis modeling of medium-resolution spectra using synthetic stellar
atmosphere models based on a theoretical isochrone corresponding accurately to
the observed color-magnitude diagram. We study the influence of non-Local
Thermodynamic Equilibrium for some chemical elements on our results. The
derived age (12.6 Gyr), [Fe/H]=-2.25 dex, helium content Y=0.25, and abundances
of 12 other chemical elements are in a good qualitative agreement with
published high-resolution spectroscopy estimates for red giant members in the
cluster. On the other hand, the derived element abundance, [alpha/Fe]=0.13 dex
(the mean of [O/Fe], [Mg/Fe] and [Ca/Fe]), differs from the published one
([alpha/Fe] =0.4 dex) for selected red giants in the cluster and may be
explained by a large dispersion in the alpha-element abundances recently
discovered in NGC2419. We suggest that studies of the {\it integrated} light in
the cluster using high-resolution spectrographs in different wavelength regions
will help to understand the nature of these chemical anomalies.


  The last decade has seen an explosive growth in the use of color centers for
metrology applications, the paradigm example arguably being the
nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. Here, we focus on the regime of
cryogenic temperatures and examine the impact of spin-selective, narrow-band
laser excitation on NV readout. Specifically, we demonstrate a more than
four-fold improvement in sensitivity compared to that possible with
non-resonant (green) illumination, largely due to a boost in readout contrast
and integrated photon count. We also leverage nuclear spin relaxation under
resonant excitation to polarize the 14N host, which we then prove beneficial
for spin magnetometry. These results open opportunities in the application of
NV sensing to the investigation of condensed matter systems, particularly those
exhibiting superconducting, magnetic, or topological phases selectively present
at low temperatures.


  Electron excitation in dielectrics is studied for an elliptically polarized
laser field. As the first step, we develop an analytical formula for electron
excitation rate under elliptically polarized laser as the extension of our
previous work [T.Otobe et. al., JPSJ88(2019) 024709]. In the next step, we
calculate the excitation rate depending on the band structure by assuming
direction dependence of reduced mass. We find that although the ellipticity
decreases the excitation rate significantly in an isotropic system, the energy
oscillation of electrons due to the intra-band dynamics in the anisotropic band
structure increases the excitation rate with higher ellipticity. Our results
indicate that we can control the excitation rate in dielectrics by varying the
ellipticity, depending on the band anisotropy.


  We aim to clarify the relationship between interacting three-species models
and the two-species Lotka-Volterra (LV) model. We utilize mean-field theory and
Monte Carlo simulations on two-dimensional square lattices to explore the
temporal evolution characteristics of two different interacting three-species
predator-prey systems: (1) a cyclic rock-paper-scissors (RPS) model with
conserved total particle number but strongly asymmetric reaction rates that
lets the system evolve towards one corner of configuration space; (2) a
hierarchical food chain where an additional intermediate species is inserted
between the predator and prey in the LV model. For model variant (1), we
demonstrate that the evolutionary properties of both minority species in the
steady state of this stochastic spatial three-species corner RPS model are well
approximated by the LV system, with its emerging characteristic features of
localized population clustering, persistent oscillatory dynamics, correlated
spatio-temporal patterns, and fitness enhancement through quenched spatial
disorder in the predation rates. In contrast, we could not identify any regime
where the hierarchical model (2) would reduce to the two-species LV system. In
the presence of pair exchange processes, the system remains essentially
well-mixed, and we generally find the Monte Carlo simulation results for the
spatially extended model (2) to be consistent with the predictions from the
corresponding mean-field rate equations. If spreading occurs only through
nearest-neighbor hopping, small population clusters emerge; yet the requirement
of an intermediate species cluster obviously disrupts spatio-temporal
correlations between predator and prey, and correspondingly eliminates many of
the intriguing fluctuation phenomena that characterize the stochastic spatial
LV system.


  We introduce an extensible multi-fluid moment model in the context of
collisionless magnetic reconnection. This model evolves full Maxwell equations,
and simultaneously moments of the Vlasov-Maxwell equation for each species in
the plasma. Effects like electron inertia and pressure gradient are
self-consistently embedded in the resulting multi-fluid moment equations,
without the need to explicitly solving a generalized Ohms's law. Two limits of
the multi-fluid moment model are discussed, namely, the five-moment limit that
evolves a scalar pressures for each species, and the ten-moment limit that
evolves the full anisotropic, non-gyrotropic pressure tensor for each species.
We first demonstrate, analytically and numerically, that the five-moment model
reduces to the widely used Hall Magnetohydrodynamics (Hall MHD) model under the
assumptions of vanishing electron inertia, infinite speed of light, and
quasi-neutrality. Then, we compare ten-moment and fully kinetic
Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations of a large scale Harris sheet reconnection
problem, where the ten-moment equations are closed with a local linear
collisionless approximation for the heat flux. The ten-moment simulation gives
reasonable agreement with the PIC results regarding the structures and
magnitudes of the electron flows, the polarities and magnitudes of elements of
the electron pressure tensor, and the decomposition of the generalized Ohm's
law. Possible ways to improve the simple local closure towards a nonlocal fully
three-dimensional closure are also discussed.


  An explicit expression for all the quantum integrals of motion for the
isotropic Heisenberg $s=1/2$ spin chain is presented.
  The conserved quantities are expressed in terms of a sum over simple
polynomials in spin variables. This construction is direct and independent of
the transfer matrix formalism. Continuum limits of these integrals in both
ferrromagnetic and antiferromagnetic sectors are briefly discussed.


  We construct a non-chiral conformal field theory (CFT) on the torus that
accommodates a second quantization of the elliptic Calogero-Sutherland (eCS)
model. We show that the CFT operator that provides this second quantization
defines, at the same time, a quantum version of a soliton equation called the
non-chiral intermediate long-wave (ncILW) equation. We also show that this CFT
operator is a second quantization of a generalized eCS model which can describe
arbitrary numbers of four different kinds of particles; we propose that these
particles can be identified with solitons of the quantum ncILW equation.


  The article is devoted to a problem of elaboration of the real-time
interactive videosystems for accelerated nonverbal cognitive computer and
telecommunications. The proposed approach is based on the using of droems
(dynamically reconstructed objects of experimental mathematics) and
interpretational figures as pointers to them. Four paragraphs of the article
are devoted to (1) an exposition of basic notions of the interpretational
geometry, (2) the operator methods in the theory of interactive dynamical
videosystems, (3) the general concept of organization of the integrated
interactive real-time videocognitive systems, (4) the droems and processes of
their dynamical reconstruction, where the general notions are illustrated by a
concrete example related to the infinite dimensional geometry. The exposition
is presumably heuristic and conceptual (the first and the third paragraphs)
though some particular aspects such as content of the second and the fourth
paragraphs, which allow deeper formalization and detailing in present, are
exposed on the mathematical level of rigor.


  The observation of the transient sky through a multitude of astrophysical
messengers hasled to several scientific breakthroughs these last two decades
thanks to the fast evolution ofthe observational techniques and strategies
employed by the astronomers. Now, it requiresto be able to coordinate
multi-wavelength and multi-messenger follow-up campaign withinstruments both in
space and on ground jointly capable of scanning a large fraction of thesky with
a high imaging cadency and duty cycle. In the optical domain, the key
challengeof the wide field of view telescopes covering tens to hundreds of
square degrees is to dealwith the detection, the identification and the
classification of hundreds to thousands of opticaltransient (OT) candidates
every night in a reasonable amount of time. In the last decade, newautomated
tools based on machine learning approaches have been developed to perform
thosetasks with a low computing time and a high classification efficiency. In
this paper, we presentan efficient classification method using Convolutional
Neural Networks (CNN) to discard anybogus falsely detected in astrophysical
images in the optical domain. We designed this toolto improve the performances
of the OT detection pipeline of the Ground Wide field AngleCameras (GWAC)
telescopes, a network of robotic telescopes aiming at monitoring the
opticaltransient sky down to R=16 with a 15 seconds imaging cadency. We applied
our trainedCNN classifier on a sample of 1472 GWAC OT candidates detected by
the real-time detectionpipeline. It yields a good classification performance
with 94% of well classified event and afalse positive rate of 4%.


  The focus is on noise-free half-duplex line networks with two sources where
the first node and either the second node or the second-last node in the
cascade act as sources. In both cases, we establish the capacity region of
rates at which both sources can transmit independent information to a common
sink. The achievability scheme presented for the first case is constructive
while the achievability scheme for the second case is based on a random coding
argument.


  By applying particle-number projection to the static-path approximation
(SPA), the heat capacity and the breakdown of pairing correlations are
investigated in the thermally excited, superfluid systems 172Yb, 94Mo, and
56Fe. For the heavy nucleus 172Yb, the heat capacities in both the SPA and the
number-projected SPA (NPSPA) exhibit an S shape; the difference between the SPA
and NPSPA heat-capacity curves is not very large and the particle-number
projection thereby enhances the S shape already seen in the SPA. The
temperature at which the S-shape of heat capacity curve occurs parallels the
temperature of the breakdown of pairing correlations as indicated by the
effective pairing gap. However, for the comparatively lighter nuclei 94Mo and
56Fe, the SPA does not produce an S-shaped heat capacity on its own; only after
particle-number projection the S shape appears in the heat-capacity curve. For
94Mo, we compare the NPSPA result with thermal odd-even mass differences, which
are regarded as a direct measure of the pairing gap.


  In recent years because of the advances in computer vision research, free
hand gestures have been explored as means of human-computer interaction (HCI).
Together with improved speech processing technology it is an important step
toward natural multimodal HCI. However, inclusion of non-predefined continuous
gestures into a multimodal framework is a challenging problem. In this paper,
we propose a structured approach for studying patterns of multimodal language
in the context of a 2D-display control. We consider systematic analysis of
gestures from observable kinematical primitives to their semantics as pertinent
to a linguistic structure. Proposed semantic classification of co-verbal
gestures distinguishes six categories based on their spatio-temporal deixis. We
discuss evolution of a computational framework for gesture and speech
integration which was used to develop an interactive testbed (iMAP). The
testbed enabled elicitation of adequate, non-sequential, multimodal patterns in
a narrative mode of HCI. Conducted user studies illustrate significance of
accounting for the temporal alignment of gesture and speech parts in semantic
mapping. Furthermore, co-occurrence analysis of gesture/speech production
suggests syntactic organization of gestures at the lexical level.


  Every rack $Q$ provides a set-theoretic solution $c_Q$ of the Yang-Baxter
equation. This article examines the deformation theory of $c_Q$ within the
space of Yang-Baxter operators over a ring $\A$, a problem initiated by Freyd
and Yetter in 1989. As our main result we classify deformations in the modular
case, which had previously been left in suspense, and establish that every
deformation of $c_Q$ is gauge-equivalent to a quasi-diagonal one. Stated
informally, in a quasi-diagonal deformation only behaviourally equivalent
elements interact. In the extreme case, where all elements of $Q$ are
behaviourally distinct, Yang-Baxter cohomology thus collapses to its diagonal
part, which we identify with rack cohomology. The latter has been intensively
studied in recent years and, in the modular case, is known to produce
non-trivial and topologically interesting Yang-Baxter deformations.


  Associated to a nonzero homomorphism $\varphi$ of a Banach algebra $A$, we
regard special functionals, say $m_\varphi$, on certain subspaces of $A^\ast$
which provide equivalent statements to the existence of a bounded right
approximate identity in the corresponding maximal ideal in $A$. For instance,
applying a fixed point theorem yields an equivalent statement to the existence
of a $m_\varphi$ on $A^\ast$; and, in addition we expatiate the case that if a
functional $m_\varphi$ is unique, then $m_\varphi$ belongs to the topological
center of the bidual algebra $A^{\ast\ast}$. An example of a function algebra,
surprisingly, contradicts a conjecture that a Banach algebra $A$ is amenable if
$A$ is $\varphi$-amenable in every character $\varphi$ and if functionals
$m_\varphi$ associated to the characters $\varphi$ are uniformly bounded.
Aforementioned are also elaborated on the direct sum of two given Banach
algebras.


  Jets from radio galaxies can have dramatic effects on the medium through
which they propagate. We review observational evidence for jet-induced star
formation in low ('FR-I') and high ('FR-II') luminosity radio galaxies, at low
and high redshifts respectively. We then discuss numerical simulations which
are aimed to explain a jet-induced starburst ('Minkowski's Object') in the
nearby FR-I type radio galaxy NGC 541. We conclude that jets can induce star
formation in moderately dense (10 cm-3), warm (10,000 K) gas; that this may be
more common in the dense environments of forming, active galaxies; and that
this may provide a mechanism for 'positive' feedback from AGN in the galaxy
formation process.


  We classify the metric-affine theories of gravitation, in which the metric
and the connections are treated as independent variables, by use of several
constraints on the connections. Assuming the Einstein-Hilbert action, we find
that the equations for the distortion tensor (torsion and non-metricity) become
algebraic, which means that those variables are not dynamical. As a result, we
can rewrite the basic equations in the form of Riemannian geometry. Although
all classified models recover the Einstein gravity in the Palatini formalism
(in which we assume there is no coupling between matter and the connections),
but when matter field couples to the connections, the effective Einstein
equations include an additional hyper energy-momentum tensor obtained from the
distortion tensor. Assuming a simple extension of a minimally coupled scalar
field in metric-affine gravity, we analyze an inflationary scenario. Even if we
adopt a chaotic inflation potential, certain parameters could satisfy
observational constraints. Furthermore, we find that a simple form of Galileon
scalar field in metric-affine could cause G-inflation.


  With its Planetary Space Weather Service (PSWS), the Europlanet-H2020
Research Insfrastructure (EPN2020RI) project is proposing a compelling set of
databases and tools to that provides Space Weather forecasting throughout the
Solar System. We present here the selected event transfer system (VOEvent). We
describe the user requirements, develop the way to implement event alerts, and
chain those to the 1) planetary event and 2) planetary space weather
predictions. The service of alerts is developed with the objective to
facilitate discovery or prediction announcements within the PSWS user community
in order to watch or warn against specific events. The ultimate objective is to
set up dedicated amateur and/or professional observation campaigns, diffuse
contextual information for science data analysis, and enable safety operations
of planet-orbiting spacecraft against the risks of impacts from meteors or
solar wind disturbances.


  Currently, components of consistent mass matrix are computed using various
numerical integration schemes, each one alters in number of integration (Gauss)
points, requires different amount of computations and possess different level
of accuracy. We discuss the closed-form mass matrix based on analytical
integration. Curved-sided and straight-sided elements are considered. For a
straight-sided element we derive an exact analytical easy to implement
consistent mass matrix. For a curved-sided element an exact analytical mass
matrix is derived, however it is rather lengthy, hence approximations are
proposed. Three systematic approximations to the metric (jacobian determinant)
are suggested; constant metric (CM), linearly varying metric (LM) and quadratic
metric (QM). CM requires evaluation of the metric at the centroid, LM requires
metric evaluations at the four corner nodes and QM uses metric values at all
the ten nodes. Analytical integration together with approximated metric models
yields closed-form semi-analytical mass matrices. The accuracy of the schemes
is studied numerically using randomly generated coarse mesh. Our findings
reveal significant superiority in accuracy and computations over equivalent
schemes. An important implication of this study is that based on the results,
it is superior to use our CM, LM and QM semi-analytical mass matrices over mass
matrices based on numerical integration schemes which involve four, five and
fifteen point Gauss quadrature. For a straight-sided element, CM, LM and QM
admit an exact consistent mass matrix.


  Various approaches based on supervised or unsupervised machine learning (ML)
have been proposed for evaluating IoT data trust. However, assessing their
real-world efficacy is hard mainly due to the lack of related
publicly-available datasets that can be used for benchmarking. Since obtaining
such datasets is challenging, we propose a data synthesis method, called random
walk infilling (RWI), to augment IoT time-series datasets by synthesizing
untrustworthy data from existing trustworthy data. Thus, RWI enables us to
create labeled datasets that can be used to develop and validate ML models for
IoT data trust evaluation. We also extract new features from IoT time-series
sensor data that effectively capture its auto-correlation as well as its
cross-correlation with the data of the neighboring (peer) sensors. These
features can be used to learn ML models for recognizing the trustworthiness of
IoT sensor data. Equipped with our synthesized ground-truth-labeled datasets
and informative correlation-based feature, we conduct extensive experiments to
critically examine various approaches to evaluating IoT data trust via ML. The
results reveal that commonly used ML-based approaches to IoT data trust
evaluation, which rely on unsupervised cluster analysis to assign trust labels
to unlabeled data, perform poorly. This poor performance can be attributed to
the underlying unsubstantiated assumption that clustering provides reliable
labels for data trust, a premise that is found to be untenable. The results
also show that the ML models learned from datasets augmented via RWI while
using the proposed features generalize well to unseen data and outperform
existing related approaches. Moreover, we observe that a semi-supervised ML
approach that requires only about 10% of the data labeled offers competitive
performance while being practically more appealing compared to the
fully-supervised approaches.


  In this study, we investigate hybrid utilization of angle-of-arrival (AOA)
and received signal strength (RSS) information in visible light communication
(VLC) systems for 3D localization. We show that AOA-based localization method
allows the receiver to locate itself via a least squares estimator by
exploiting the directionality of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). We then prove
that when the RSS information is taken into account, the positioning accuracy
of AOA-based localization can be improved further using a weighted least
squares solution. On the other hand, when the radiation patterns of LEDs are
explicitly considered in the estimation, RSS-based localization yields highly
accurate results. In order to deal with the system of nonlinear equations for
RSS-based localization, we develop an analytical learning rule based on the
Newton-Raphson method. The non-convex structure is addressed by initializing
the learning rule based on 1) location estimates, and 2) a newly developed
method, which we refer as random report and cluster algorithm. As a benchmark,
we also derive analytical expression of the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for
RSS-based localization, which captures any deployment scenario positioning in
3D geometry. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed
solutions for a wide range of LED characteristics and orientations through
extensive computer simulations.


  Recent advancements in dynamic neural radiance field methods have yielded
remarkable outcomes. However, these approaches rely on the assumption of sharp
input images. When faced with motion blur, existing dynamic NeRF methods often
struggle to generate high-quality novel views. In this paper, we propose
DyBluRF, a dynamic radiance field approach that synthesizes sharp novel views
from a monocular video affected by motion blur. To account for motion blur in
input images, we simultaneously capture the camera trajectory and object
Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) trajectories within the scene. Additionally, we
employ a global cross-time rendering approach to ensure consistent temporal
coherence across the entire scene. We curate a dataset comprising diverse
dynamic scenes that are specifically tailored for our task. Experimental
results on our dataset demonstrate that our method outperforms existing
approaches in generating sharp novel views from motion-blurred inputs while
maintaining spatial-temporal consistency of the scene.


  Past years have witnessed rapid developments in Neural Machine Translation
(NMT). Most recently, with advanced modeling and training techniques, the
RNN-based NMT (RNMT) has shown its potential strength, even compared with the
well-known Transformer (self-attentional) model. Although the RNMT model can
possess very deep architectures through stacking layers, the transition depth
between consecutive hidden states along the sequential axis is still shallow.
In this paper, we further enhance the RNN-based NMT through increasing the
transition depth between consecutive hidden states and build a novel Deep
Transition RNN-based Architecture for Neural Machine Translation, named DTMT.
This model enhances the hidden-to-hidden transition with multiple non-linear
transformations, as well as maintains a linear transformation path throughout
this deep transition by the well-designed linear transformation mechanism to
alleviate the gradient vanishing problem. Experiments show that with the
specially designed deep transition modules, our DTMT can achieve remarkable
improvements on translation quality. Experimental results on Chinese->English
translation task show that DTMT can outperform the Transformer model by +2.09
BLEU points and achieve the best results ever reported in the same dataset. On
WMT14 English->German and English->French translation tasks, DTMT shows
superior quality to the state-of-the-art NMT systems, including the Transformer
and the RNMT+.


  Current understanding of the kinetic-scale turbulence in weakly-collisional
plasmas still remains elusive. We employ a general framework in which the
turbulent energy transfer is envisioned as a scale-to-scale Langevin process.
Fluctuations in the sub-ion range show a global scale invariance, thus
suggesting a homogeneous energy repartition. In this Letter, we interpret such
a feature by linking the drift term of the Langevin equation to scaling
properties of fluctuations. Theoretical expectations are verified on solar wind
observations and numerical simulations thus giving relevance to the proposed
framework for understanding kinetic-scale turbulence in space plasmas.


  Biological soft tissues exhibit elastic properties which can be dramatically
different from rubber-type materials (elastomers). To gain a better
understanding of the role of constitutive relationships in determining material
responses under loads we compare three different types of instabilities (two in
compression, one in extension) in hyperelasticity for various forms of strain
energy functions typically used for elastomers and for soft tissues.
Surprisingly, we find that the strain-hardening property of soft tissues does
not always stabilize the material. In particular we show that the stability
analyses for a compressed half-space and for a compressed spherical thick shell
can lead to opposite conclusions: a soft tissue material is more stable than an
elastomer in the former case and less stable in the latter case.


  Modelling galaxy formation in hydrodynamic simulations has increasingly
adopted various radiative transfer methods to account for photoionization
feedback from young massive stars. However, the evolution of HII regions around
stars begins in dense star-forming clouds and spans large dynamical ranges in
both space and time, posing severe challenges for numerical simulations in
terms of both spatial and temporal resolution that depends strongly on gas
density ($\propto n^{-1}$). In this work, we perform a series of idealized HII
region simulations using the moving-mesh radiation-hydrodynamic code Arepo-RT
to study the effects of numerical resolution. The simulated results match the
analytical solutions and the ionization feedback converges only if the
Str\"omgren sphere is resolved by at least $10$--$100$ resolution elements and
the size of each time integration step is smaller than $0.1$ times the
recombination timescale. Insufficient spatial resolution leads to reduced
ionization fraction but enhanced ionized gas mass and momentum feedback from
the HII regions, as well as degrading the multi-phase interstellar medium into
a diffuse, partially ionized, warm ($\sim8000$ K) gas. On the other hand,
insufficient temporal resolution strongly suppresses the effects of ionizing
feedback. This is because longer timesteps are not able to resolve the rapid
variation of the thermochemistry properties of the gas cells around massive
stars, especially when the photon injection and thermochemistry are performed
with different cadences. Finally, we provide novel numerical implementations to
overcome the above issues when strict resolution requirements are not
achievable in practice.


  Robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) is a treatment for prostate
cancer that involves complete or nerve sparing removal prostate tissue that
contains cancer. After removal the bladder neck is successively sutured
directly with the urethra. The procedure is called urethrovesical anastomosis
and is one of the most dexterity demanding tasks during RALP. Two suturing
instruments and a pair of needles are used in combination to perform a running
stitch during urethrovesical anastomosis. While robotic instruments provide
enhanced dexterity to perform the anastomosis, it is still highly challenging
and difficult to learn. In this paper, we presents a vision-guided needle
grasping method for automatically grasping the needle that has been inserted
into the patient prior to anastomosis. We aim to automatically grasp the
suturing needle in a position that avoids hand-offs and immediately enables the
start of suturing. The full grasping process can be broken down into: a needle
detection algorithm; an approach phase where the surgical tool moves closer to
the needle based on visual feedback; and a grasping phase through path planning
based on observed surgical practice. Our experimental results show examples of
successful autonomous grasping that has the potential to simplify and decrease
the operational time in RALP by assisting a small component of urethrovesical
anastomosis.


  The $b$-family is a one-parameter family of Hamiltonian partial differential
equations of non-evolutionary type, which arises in shallow water wave theory.
It admits a variety of solutions, including the celebrated peakons, which are
weak solutions in the form of peaked solitons with a discontinuous first
derivative at the peaks, as well as other interesting solutions that have been
obtained in exact form and/or numerically. In each of the special cases $b=2,3$
(the Camassa-Holm and Degasperis-Procesi equations, respectively) the equation
is completely integrable, in the sense that it admits a Lax pair and an
infinite hierarchy of commuting local symmetries, but for other values of the
parameter $b$ it is non-integrable. After a discussion of travelling waves via
the use of a reciprocal transformation, which reduces to a hodograph
transformation at the level of the ordinary differential equation satisfied by
these solutions, we apply the same technique to the scaling similarity
solutions of the $b$-family, and show that when $b=2$ or $3$ this similarity
reduction is related by a hodograph transformation to particular cases of the
Painlev\'e III equation, while for all other choices of $b$ the resulting
ordinary differential equation is not of Painlev\'e type.


  Few-photon optomechanical effects are not only important physical evidences
for understanding the radiation-pressure interaction between photons and
mechanical oscillation, but also have wide potential applications in modern
quantum technology. Here we study the few-photon optomechanical effects
including photon blockade and generation of the Schr\"{o}dinger cat states
under the assistance of a cross-Kerr interaction, which is an inherent
interaction accompanied the optomechanical coupling in a generalized
optomechanical system. By exactly diagonalizing the generalized optomechanical
Hamiltonian and calculating its unitary evolution operator, we find the
physical mechanism of the enhancement of photon blockade and single-photon
mechanical displacement. The quantum properties in this generalized
optomechanical system are studied by investigating the second-order correlation
function of the cavity field and calculating the Wigner function and the
probability distribution of the rotated quadrature operator for the mechanical
mode. We also study the influence of the dissipations on the few-photon
optomechanical effects.


  The NA48/2 experiment at CERN reports the first observation of the $K^{\pm}
\rightarrow \pi^{0} \pi^{0} \mu^{\pm} \nu$ decay based on a sample of 2437
candidates with 15% background contamination collected in 2003--2004. The decay
branching ratio in the kinematic region of the squared dilepton mass above
$0.03$~GeV$^2/c^4$ is measured to be $(0.65 \pm 0.03) \times 10^{-6}$. The
extrapolation to the full kinematic space, using a specific model, is found to
be $(3.45 \pm 0.16) \times 10^{-6}$, in agreement with chiral perturbation
theory predictions.


  The Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) in Chinese Spallation Neutron Source
(CSNS) accelerates proton beam from 80Mev to 1.6GeV at a repetition rate of
25Hz. All dipole magnets of RCS are operated at AC with biased DC. Aiming at
the properties of these dipole magnets, we take some methods to improve
magnetic field quality in the good region and reduce eddy currents in the iron
core . In this paper, we would present the process of the magnet design and
temperature rise calculation. At the same time, the field measurement results
and temperature test of the prototype magnet are also described and discussed.


  We study network response to queries that require computation of remotely
located data and seek to characterize the performance limits in terms of
maximum sustainable query rate that can be satisfied. The available resources
include (i) a communication network graph with links over which data is routed,
(ii) computation nodes, over which computation load is balanced, and (iii)
network nodes that need to schedule raw and processed data transmissions. Our
aim is to design a universal methodology and distributed algorithm to
adaptively allocate resources in order to support maximum query rate. The
proposed algorithms extend in a nontrivial way the backpressure (BP) algorithm
to take into account computations operated over query streams. They contribute
to the fundamental understanding of network computation performance limits when
the query rate is limited by both the communication bandwidth and the
computation capacity, a classical setting that arises in streaming big data
applications in network clouds and fogs.


  We study the possibility of creating spatial patterns having subwavelength
size by using the so-called dark states formed by the interaction between atoms
and optical fields. These optical fields have a specified spatial distribution.
Our experiments in Rb vapor display spatial patterns that are smaller than the
length determined by the diffraction limit of the optical system used in the
experiment. This approach may have applications to interference lithography and
might be used in coherent Raman spectroscopy to create patterns with
subwavelength spatial resolution.


  Neural networks perform exceedingly well across various machine learning
tasks but are not immune to adversarial perturbations. This vulnerability has
implications for real-world applications. While much research has been
conducted, the underlying reasons why neural networks fall prey to adversarial
attacks are not yet fully understood. Central to our study, which explores up
to five attack algorithms across three datasets, is the identification of
human-identifiable features in adversarial perturbations. Additionally, we
uncover two distinct effects manifesting within human-identifiable features.
Specifically, the masking effect is prominent in untargeted attacks, while the
generation effect is more common in targeted attacks. Using pixel-level
annotations, we extract such features and demonstrate their ability to
compromise target models. In addition, our findings indicate a notable extent
of similarity in perturbations across different attack algorithms when averaged
over multiple models. This work also provides insights into phenomena
associated with adversarial perturbations, such as transferability and model
interpretability. Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the
underlying mechanisms behind adversarial attacks and offers insights for the
development of more resilient defense strategies for neural networks.


  We prove the following: (1) if $X$ is ordinary, the Fulton-MacPherson
configuration space $X[n]$ is ordinary for all $n$; (2) the moduli of stable
$n$-pointed curves of genus zero is ordinary. (3) More generally we show that a
wonderful compactification $X_\sg$ is ordinary if and only if $(X,\sg)$ is an
ordinary building set. This implies the ordinarity of many other well-known
configuration spaces (under suitable assumptions).


  We solve the two-channel Anderson impurity model using the Bethe-Ansatz. We
determine the ground state and derive the thermodynamics, obtaining the
impurity entropy and specific heat over the full range of temperature. We show
that the low temperature physics is given by a line of fixed points decribing a
two-channel non Fermi liquid behavior in the integral valence regime associated
with moment formation as well as in the mixed valence regime where no moment
forms. We discuss relevance for the theory of UBe$_{13}$.


  We consider the two-dimensional stationary Navier--Stokes equations on the
whole plane $\mathbb{R}^2$. In the higher-dimensional cases $\mathbb{R}^n$ with
$n \geqslant 3$, the well-posedness and ill-posedness in scaling critical
spaces are well-investigated by numerous papers. However, despite the attention
of many researchers, the corresponding problem in the two-dimensional whole
plane case was a long-standing open problem due to inherent difficulties of
two-dimensional analysis. The aim of this paper is to address this issue and
prove the ill-posedness in the scaling critical Besov spaces based on
$L^p(\mathbb{R}^2)$ for all $1 \leqslant p \leqslant2$ in the sense of the
discontinuity of the solution map and the non-existence of small solutions. To
overcome the difficulty, we propose a new method based on the contradictory
argument that reduces the problem to the analysis of the corresponding
nonstationary Navier--Stokes equations and shows the existence of nonstationary
solutions with strange large time behavior, if we suppose to contrary that the
stationary problem is well-posed.


  The electronic spectra for double-wall zigzag and armchair nanotubes are
found. The influence of nanotube curvatures on the electronic spectra is also
calculated. Our finding that the outer shell is hole doped by the inner shell
is in the difference between Fermi levels of individual shells which originate
from the different hybridization of pi-orbital. The shift and rotation of the
inner nanotube with respect to the outer nanotube are investigated. We found
stable semimetal characteristics of the armchair DWNTs in regard of the shift
and rotation of the inner nanotube. We predict the shift of k_F towards the
bigger wave vectors with decreasing of the radius of the armchair nanotube.


  Three-dimensional orientational order in systems whose ground states possess
non-zero, chiral gradients typically exhibits line-like structures or defects:
$\lambda$ lines in cholesterics or Skyrmion tubes in ferromagnets for example.
Here we show that such lines can be identified as a set of natural geometric
singularities in a unit vector field, the generalisation of the umbilic points
of a surface. We characterise these lines in terms of the natural vector
bundles that the order defines and show that they give a way to localise and
identify Skyrmion distortions in chiral materials -- in particular that they
supply a natural representative of the Poincar\'{e} dual of the cocycle
describing the topology. Their global structure leads to the definition of a
self-linking number and helicity integral which relates the linking of umbilic
lines to the Hopf invariant of the texture.


  In this paper, we revisit the problem of local optimization in RANSAC. Once a
so-far-the-best model has been found, we refine it via Dual Principal Component
Pursuit (DPCP), a robust subspace learning method with strong theoretical
support and efficient algorithms. The proposed DPCP-RANSAC has far fewer
parameters than existing methods and is scalable. Experiments on estimating
two-view homographies, fundamental and essential matrices, and three-view
homographic tensors using large-scale datasets show that our approach
consistently has higher accuracy than state-of-the-art alternatives.


  We present Rust-Bio, the first general purpose bioinformatics library for the
innovative Rust programming language. Rust-Bio leverages the unique combination
of speed, memory safety and high-level syntax offered by Rust to provide a fast
and safe set of bioinformatics algorithms and data structures with a focus on
sequence analysis.


  Notched components are commonly used in engineering structures, where stress
concentration may easily lead to crack initiation and development. The main
goal of this work is to develop a simple numerical method to predict the
structural strength and crack-growth-path of U-notched specimens made of
brittle materials. For this purpose, the Fragile Points Method (FPM), as
previously proposed by the authors, has been augmented by an interface
debonding model at the interfaces of the FPM domains, to simulate crack
initiation and development. The formulations of FPM are based on a
discontinuous Galerkin weak form where point-based piece-wise-continuous
polynomial test and trial functions are used instead of element-based basis
functions. In this work, the numerical fluxes introduced across interior
interfaces between subdomains are postulated as the tractions acting on the
interface derived from an interface damage model. The interface damage is
triggered when the numerical flux reaches the interface strength, and the
process of crack-surface separation is governed by the fracture energy. In this
way, arbitrary crack initiation and propagation can be naturally simulated
without the need for knowing the fracture-patch before-hand. Additionally, a
small penalty parameter is sufficient to enforce the weak-form continuity
condition before damage initiation, without causing problems such as artificial
compliance and numerical ill-conditioning. As validations, the proposed FPM
method with the interface damage model is used to predict the structural
strength and crack-development from U-notched structures made of brittle
materials, which is useful but challenging in engineering structural design
practices.


  We propose a distributed feedback control that steers a dynamical network to
a prescribed equilibrium corresponding to the so-called Cournot-Nash
equilibrium. The network dynamics considered here are a class of passive
nonlinear second-order systems, where production and demands act as external
inputs to the systems. While productions are assumed to be controllable at each
node, the demand is determined as a function of local prices according to the
utility of the consumers. Using reduced information on the demand, the proposed
controller guarantees the convergence of the closed loop system to the optimal
equilibrium point dictated by the Cournot-Nash competition.


  A quantum communication channel can be put to many uses: it can transmit
classical information, private classical information, or quantum information.
It can be used alone, with shared entanglement, or together with other
channels. For each of these settings there is a capacity that quantifies a
channel's potential for communication. In this short review, I summarize what
is known about the various capacities of a quantum channel, including a
discussion of the relevant additivity questions. I also give some indication of
potentially interesting directions for future research.


  Deryagin, Grigoriev, and Rubakov (DGR) have shown that in finite-density QCD
at infinite Nc the Fermi surface is unstable with respect to the formation of
chiral waves with wavenumber twice the Fermi momentum, while the BCS
instability is suppressed. We show here that at large, but finite Nc, the DGR
instability only occurs in a finite window of chemical potentials from above
Lambda_QCD to mu_critical = exp(gamma ln^2 Nc + O(ln Nc ln ln Nc))Lambda_QCD,
where gamma = 0.02173. Our analysis shows that, at least in the perturbative
regime, the instability occurs only at extremely large Nc, Nc > 1000 Nf, where
Nf is the number of flavors. We conclude that the DGR instability is not likely
to occur in QCD with three colors, where the ground state is expected to be a
color superconductor. We speculate on possible structure of the ground state of
finite-density QCD with very large Nc.


  In the present paper, conditions under which the images of uniformly convex
sets through $C^{1,1}$ regular mappings between Banach spaces remain convex are
established. These conditions are expressed by a certain quantitative relation
betweeen the modulus of convexity of a given set and the global regularity
behaviour of the mapping on it. Such a result enables one to extend to a wide
subclass of convex sets the Polyak's convexity principle, which was originally
concerned with images of small balls around points of Hilbert spaces. In
particular, the crucial phenomenon of the preservation of convexity under
regular $C^{1,1}$ transformations is shown to include the class of $r$-convex
sets, where the value of $r$ depends on the regularity behaviour of the
involved transformation. Two consequences related to nonconvex optimization are
discussed: the first one is a sufficient condition for the global solution
existence for infinite-dimensional constrained extremum problems; the second
one provides a zero-order Lagrangian type characterization of optimality in
nonlinear mathematical programming.


  We present implicit and explicit versions of a numerical algorithm for
solving a Volterra integro-differential equation. These algorithms are an
extension of our previous work, and cater for a kernel of general form. We use
an appropriate test equation to study the stability of both algorithms,
numerically deriving stability regions. The region for the implicit method
appears to be unbounded, while the explicit has a bounded region close to the
origin. We perform a few calculations to demonstrate our results.


  First and second kind modifications of usual confidence intervals for
estimating the expectation and of usual local alternative parameter choices are
introduced in a way such that the asymptotic behavior of the true non-covering
probabilities and the covering probabilities under the modified local non-true
parameter assumption can be asymptotically exactly controlled. The orders of
convergence to zero of both types of probabilities are assumed to be suitably
bounded below according to an Osipov-type condition and the sample distribution
is assumed to satisfy a corresponding tail condition due to Linnik. Analogous
considerations are presented for the power function when testing a hypothesis
concerning the expectation both under the assumption of a true hypothesis as
well as under a modified local alternative. Applications are given for
exponential families.


  Dark matter is estimated to make up ~84% of all normal/baryonic matter, but
cannot be directly imaged. Despite the fact that dark matter cannot be directly
observed yet, its influence on the motion of stars and gas in spiral galaxies
have been detected. One way to show motion in galaxies are rotation curves that
are plots of velocity measurements of how fast stars and gas move in a galaxy
around the center of mass. According to Newton's Law of Gravitation, the
rotational velocity is an indication of the amount of visible and non-visible
mass in the galaxy. Given that the visible matter is measurable using
photometry, dark matter mass can therefore be estimated, offering an insight
into the size distribution in galaxies. In order to gain a greater appreciation
of the research scientists' findings about dark matter, their method should be
easily reproduced by any curious individual. Our interactive workshop is an
excellent educational tool to investigate how dark matter impacts the rotation
of visible matter by providing a guide to produce galactic rotation curves. The
Python-based notebooks are set up to walk you through the whole process of
producing rotation curves using an online database (SPARC) and to allow you to
learn about each component of the galaxy. The three steps of the rotation curve
building process is plotting the measured velocity data, constructing the
rotation curves for each component, and fitting the total velocity to the
measured values.


  Yield stress fluids are widely used in industrial application to arrest dense
solid particles, which can be studied by using a concentrated emulsion as a
model fluid. We show in experiments that particle sedimentation in emulsions
cannot be predicted by the classical criterion for spheres embedded in a yield
stress fluid. Phase separation processes take place, where a liquid layer forms
and particle sedimentation is enhanced by the emulsion drainage. In addition,
emulsion drainage can be arrested or enhanced by the amount of particles
embedded in the emulsion. A minimal mathematical model is developed and solved
in numerical simulations to describe the emulsion drainage in the presence of
particles, which favorably compares with the experimental stability diagram and
the sedimentation dynamics.


  FIFA World Cup is one of the most watched sporting event in the world and its
popularity continue to increase. While currently 32 teams participate in this
event, starting with 2026 the number of participants will increase to 48. As a
result, FIFA proposed a major format change, the groups of 4 teams will be
replaced by groups of 3 teams, with the first two teams to qualify to the
second round. In this paper, we discuss the possibility of matches with limited
importance (called non-competitive) for final group standing for both 4-team
and 3-team groups and we introduce our definitions of collusion and dead rubber
games. Next, we discuss scenarios in both 4-team and 3-team group formats that
lead to such matches. Finally, we make an analysis of all group stage matches
from last six World Cup editions (1998 to 2018), and we predict the most likely
number of collusions and dead rubber games for the new format of the World Cup.
During our analysis we consider a variation of the proposed 3-group format in
which the order of matches for each group is predetermined. Our analysis show
that this variation has the potential of reducing significantly the number of
both collusion and dead rubber matches thus becoming an interesting option to
be considered for adoption by FIFA. In conclusion, we recommend FIFA to
implement a predefined order of group matches prior to the drawing. The seeded
team should play the first match with the team that is second best (according
to the drawing time FIFA Coca-Cola rankings), as well as the second match from
the group.


  We prove that, a suitable correlation between the system parameters can
trigger topological phase transition and flat bands in a multi strand Creutz
ladder network, when a staggered second neighbor interaction is included along
the x axis. An appropriate change of basis maps such a finite N strand mesh
into N or N 1 decoupled Su Schrieffer Heeger chains, depending onNeven or odd.
A simple intuitive method, using a real space decimation scheme turns out to be
very powerful in analytically extracting the flat bands, explaining their
degeneracy or a lifting of the same. Our results are analytically exact, and
may inspire experiments in photonics and ultracold atomic systems.


  We consider the numerical evaluation of the Evans function, a Wronskian-like
determinant that arises in the study of the stability of travelling waves.
Constructing the Evans function involves matching the solutions of a linear
ordinary differential equation depending on the spectral parameter. The problem
becomes stiff as the spectral parameter grows. Consequently, the
Gauss--Legendre method has previously been used for such problems; however more
recently, methods based on the Magnus expansion have been proposed. Here we
extensively examine the stiff regime for a general scalar Schr\"odinger
operator. We show that although the fourth-order Magnus method suffers from
order reduction, a fortunate cancellation when computing the Evans matching
function means that fourth-order convergence in the end result is preserved.
The Gauss--Legendre method does not suffer from order reduction, but it does
not experience the cancellation either, and thus it has the same order of
convergence in the end result. Finally we discuss the relative merits of both
methods as spectral tools.


  Multi-winner voting rules based on approval ballots have received increased
attention in recent years. In particular Satisfaction Approval Voting (SAV) and
its variants have been proposed. In this note, we show that the winning set can
be determined in polynomial time for two prominent and natural variants of SAV.
We thank Arkadii Slinko for suggesting these problems in a talk at the Workshop
on Challenges in Algorithmic Social Choice, Bad Belzig, October 11, 2014.


  We present a novel and cost-effective approach of using a second similarity
transformation of the Hamiltonian to include the missing higher-order terms in
the second-order approximate coupled cluster singles and doubles (CC2) model.
The performance of the newly developed ST-CC2 model has been investigated for
the calculation of excitation energies of valence, Rydberg, and charge-transfer
excited states. The method shows significant improvement in the excitation
energies of Rydberg and charge-transfer excited states as compared to the
conventional CC2 method while retaining the good performance of the latter for
the valence excited state. The method retains the charge-transfer separability
of the CT excited states, which is a significant advantage over the traditional
CC2 method. An MBPT2 variant of the new method is also proposed.


  It has been hypothesized that neural activities in the primary visual cortex
(V1) represent a saliency map of the visual field to exogenously guide
attention. This hypothesis has so far provided only qualitative predictions and
their confirmations. We report this hypothesis' first quantitative prediction,
derived without free parameters, and its confirmation by human behavioral data.
The hypothesis provides a direct link between V1 neural responses to a visual
location and the saliency of that location to guide attention exogenously. In a
visual input containing many bars, one of them saliently different from all the
other bars which are identical to each other, saliency at the singleton's
location can be measured by the shortness of the reaction time in a visual
search task to find the singleton. The hypothesis predicts quantitatively the
whole distribution of the reaction times to find a singleton unique in color,
orientation, and motion direction from the reaction times to find other types
of singletons. The predicted distribution matches the experimentally observed
distribution in all six human observers. A requirement for this successful
prediction is a data-motivated assumption that V1 lacks neurons tuned
simultaneously to color, orientation, and motion direction of visual inputs.
Since evidence suggests that extrastriate cortices do have such neurons, we
discuss the possibility that the extrastriate cortices play no role in guiding
exogenous attention so that they can be devoted to other functional roles like
visual decoding or endogenous attention.