  To form a conducting layer at the interface between the oxide insulators
LaAlO3 and SrTiO3, the LaAlO3 layer on the SrTiO3 substrate must be at least
four unit-cells-thick. The LaAlO3 SrTiO3 heterointerface thus formed exhibits
various intriguing phenomena such as ferromagnetism and superconductivity. It
has been widely studied for being a low-dimensional ferromagnetic oxide
superconducting system with a strong gate-tunable spin-orbit interaction.
However, its lack of stability and environmental susceptiveness have been an
obstacle to its further experimental investigations and applications. Here, we
demonstrate that capping the bilayer with SrTiO3 relieves this thickness limit,
while enhancing the stability and controllability of the interface. In
addition, the SrTiO3-capped LaAlO3 exhibits unconventional superconductivity;
the critical current dramatically increases under a parallel magnetic field,
and shows a reversed hysteresis contrary to the conventional hysteresis of
magnetoresistance. Its superconducting energy gap of $\Delta \sim 1.31k_BT_c$
also deviates from conventional BCS-type superconductivity. The oxide trilayer
could be a robust platform for studying the extraordinary interplay of
superconductivity and ferromagnetism at the interface electron system between
LaAlO3 and SrTiO3.


  We have investigated temperature and angular dependence of resistivity of
K0.70(7)Fe1.55(7)Se1.01(2)S0.99(2) and K0.76(5)Fe1.61(5)Se0.96(4)S1.04(5)
single crystals. The upper critical fields Hc2(T) for both field directions
decrease with the increase in S content. On the other hand, the angle-dependent
magnetoresistivity for both compounds can be scaled onto one curve using the
anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau theory. The obtained anisotropy of Hc2(T) increases
with S content, implying that S doping might decrease the dimensionality of
certain Fermi surface parts, leading to stronger two dimensional character.


  The records statistics in stationary and non-stationary fractal time series
is studied extensively. By calculating various concepts in record dynamics, we
find some interesting results. In stationary fractional Gaussian noises, we
observe a universal behavior for the whole range of Hurst exponents. However,
for non-stationary fractional Brownian motions the record dynamics is crucially
dependent on the memory, which plays the role of a non-stationarity index,
here. Indeed, the deviation from the results of the stationary case increases
by increasing the Hurst exponent in fractional Brownian motions. We demonstrate
that the memory governs the dynamics of the records as long as it causes
non-stationarity in fractal stochastic processes, otherwise, it has no impact
on the records statistics.


  We propose the Plaid Atoms Model (PAM), a novel Bayesian nonparametric model
for grouped data. Founded on an idea of `atom skipping', PAM is part of a
well-established category of models that generate dependent random
distributions and clusters across multiple groups. Atom skipping referrs to
stochastically assigning 0 weights to atoms in an infinite mixture. Deploying
atom skipping across groups, PAM produces a dependent clustering pattern with
overlapping and non-overlapping clusters across groups. As a result,
interpretable posterior inference is possible such as reporting the posterior
probability of a cluster being exclusive to a single group or shared among a
subset of groups. We discuss the theoretical properties of the proposed and
related models. Minor extensions of the proposed model for multivariate or
count data are presented. Simulation studies and applications using real-world
datasets illustrate the performance of the new models with comparison to
existing models.


  We present ALMA observations of protoplanetary disks ("proplyds") in the
Orion Nebula Cluster. We imaged 5 individual fields at 856um containing 22
HST-identified proplyds and detected 21 of them. Eight of those disks were
detected for the first time at submillimeter wavelengths, including the most
prominent, well-known proplyd in the entire Orion Nebula, 114-426. Thermal dust
emission in excess of any free-free component was measured in all but one of
the detected disks, and ranged between 1-163 mJy, with resulting disk masses of
0.3-79 Mjup. An additional 26 stars with no prior evidence of associated disks
in HST observations were also imaged within the 5 fields, but only 2 were
detected. The disk mass upper limits for the undetected targets, which include
OB stars, theta1Ori C and theta1Ori F, range from 0.1-0.6 Mjup. Combining these
ALMA data with previous SMA observations, we find a lack of massive (>3 Mjup)
disks in the extreme-UV dominated region of Orion, within 0.03 pc of O-star
theta1Ori C. At larger separations from theta1Ori C, in the far-UV dominated
region, there is a wide range of disk masses, similar to what is found in
low-mass star forming regions. Taken together, these results suggest that a
rapid dissipation of disk masses likely inhibits potential planet formation in
the extreme-UV dominated regions of OB associations, but leaves disks in the
far-UV dominated regions relatively unaffected.


  Molecular hydrogen is quite underabundant in damped Lyman-alpha systems at
high redshift, when compared to the interstellar medium near the Sun. This has
been interpreted as implying that the gas in damped Lyman-alpha systems is
warm. like the nearby neutral intercloud medium, rather than cool, as in the
clouds which give rise to most H I absorption in the Milky Way. Other lines of
evidence suggest that the gas in damped Lyman-alpha systems -- in whole or part
-- is actually cool; spectroscopy of neutral and ionized carbon, discussed
here, shows that the damped Lyman-alpha systems observed at lower redshift z
$<$ 2.3 are largely cool, while those seen at z $>$ 2.8 are warm (though not
devoid of H2). To interpret the observations of carbon and hydrogen we
constructed detailed numerical models of H2 formation under the conditions of
two-phase thermal equilibrium, like those which account for conditions near the
Sun, but with varying metallicity, dust-gas ratio, $etc$. We find that the low
metallicity of damped Lyman-alpha systems is enough to suppress H2 formation by
many orders of magnitude even in cool diffuse clouds, as long as the ambient
optical/uv radiation field is not too small. For very low metallicity and under
the most diffuse conditions, H2 formation will be dominated by slow gas-phase
processes not involving grains, and a minimum molecular fraction in the range
$10^{-8}-10^{-7}$ is expected.


  The maturation of cognition, from introspection to understanding others, has
long been a hallmark of human development. This position paper posits that for
AI systems to truly emulate or approach human-like interactions, especially
within multifaceted environments populated with diverse agents, they must first
achieve an in-depth and nuanced understanding of self. Drawing parallels with
the human developmental trajectory from self-awareness to mentalizing (also
called theory of mind), the paper argues that the quality of an autonomous
agent's introspective capabilities of self are crucial in mirroring quality
human-like understandings of other agents. While counterarguments emphasize
practicality, computational efficiency, and ethical concerns, this position
proposes a development approach, blending algorithmic considerations of
self-referential processing. Ultimately, the vision set forth is not merely of
machines that compute but of entities that introspect, empathize, and
understand, harmonizing with the complex compositions of human cognition.


  The supersymmetric flavour and CP problems can be avoided if the first two
generations of sfermions are heavier than a few TeV and approximately
degenerate in mass. However using flavour and CP-violating constraints on the
third sfermion generation, together with the decoupling of the first two
generations, can dramatically affect cosmological predictions such as the relic
abundance of stable particles. In particular, we show that if the lightest
supersymmetric particle is essentially bino-like then requiring that all
flavour changing neutral current and CP-violating processes are adequately
suppressed, imposes severe limits on the bino mass, where typically
m_bino>(200-300) GeV. This leads to difficulties for models implementing the
scenario of heavy sfermion masses.


  An asymmetric double-well potential is considered, assuming that the minima
of the wells are quadratic with a frequency $\omega$ and the difference of the
minima is close to a multiple of $\hbar \omega$. A WKB wave function is
constructed on both sides of the local maximum between the wells, by matching
the WKB function to the exact wave functions near the classical turning points.
The continuities of the wave function and its first derivative at the local
maximum then give the energy-level splitting formula, which not only reproduces
the instanton result for a symmetric potential, but also elucidates the
appearance of resonances of tunneling in the asymmetric potential.


  The space experiment CoRoT will provide continuous monitoring and high
accuracy light curves of about sixty thousand stars. Selected binary systems
will be observed in the Additional Program frame as targets of long and
continuous pointed observations. Moreover, thousands of new binaries will
certainly be detected and hundreds of them will have extremely accurate light
curves. This will allow studies of fine effects on the light curves, monitoring
of stellar activity and, in combination with ground-based observations, will
provide exquisite determination of stellar parameters.
  Among the new discoveries of interesting systems of special value will be
those of low mass binaries.


  Non-AutoRegressive (NAR) text generation models have drawn much attention
because of their significantly faster decoding speed and good generation
quality in machine translation. However, in a wider range of text generation
tasks, existing NAR models lack proper pre-training, making them still far
behind the pre-trained autoregressive models. In this paper, we propose
Pre-trained Directed Acyclic Transformer (PreDAT) and a novel pre-training task
to promote prediction consistency in NAR generation. Experiments on five text
generation tasks show that our PreDAT remarkably outperforms existing
pre-trained NAR models (+4.2 scores on average) and even achieves better
results than pre-trained autoregressive baselines in n-gram-based metrics,
along with 17 times speedup in throughput. Further analysis shows that PreDAT
benefits from the unbiased prediction order that alleviates the error
accumulation problem in autoregressive generation, which provides new insights
into the advantages of NAR generation.


  We present direct numerical simulations of inhomogeneous reduced
magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) turbulence between the Sun and the Alfv\'en critical
point. These are the first such simulations that take into account the
solar-wind outflow velocity and the radial inhomogeneity of the background
solar wind without approximating the nonlinear terms in the governing
equations. RMHD turbulence is driven by outward-propagating Alfv\'en waves
($z^+$ fluctuations) launched from the Sun, which undergo partial non-WKB
reflection to produce sunward-propagating Alfv\'en waves ($z^-$ fluctuations).
We present ten simulations with different values of the correlation time
$\tau_{\rm c\,\sun}^+$ and perpendicular correlation length $L_{\perp \sun}$ of
outward-propagating Alfv\'en waves (AWs) at the coronal base. We find that
between 15% and 33% of the $z^+$ energy launched into the corona dissipates
between the coronal base and Alfv\'en critical point. Between 33% and 40% of
this input energy goes into work on the solar-wind outflow, and between 22% and
36% escapes as $z^+$ fluctuations through the simulation boundary at $r=r_{\rm
A}$. The $z^\pm$ power spectra scale like $k_\perp^{-\alpha^\pm}$, where
$k_\perp$ is the wavenumber in the plane perpendicular to $\vec{B}_0$. In our
simulation with the smallest value of $\tau_{\rm c\,\sun}^+$ ($\sim 2
\mbox{min}$) and largest value of $L_{\perp \sun}$ ($2\times 10^4 \mbox{km}$),
we find that $\alpha^+$ decreases approximately linearly with increasing
$\ln(r)$, reaching a value of 1.3 at $r=11.1 R_{\sun}$. Our simulations with
larger values of $\tau_{\rm c\,\sun}^+$ exhibit alignment between the contours
of constant $\phi^+$, $\phi^-$, $\Omega_0^+$, and $\Omega_0^-$, where
$\phi^\pm$ are the Els\"asser potentials and $\Omega_0^\pm$ are the outer-scale
parallel Els\"asser vorticities.


  I describe a version of so-called naive dimensional analysis, a rule for
estimating the sizes of terms in an effective theory below the scale of chiral
symmetry breaking induced by a strong gauge interaction. The rule is simpler
and more general than the original, which it includes as a special case. I also
give a simple qualitative interpretation of the rule.


  In this talk we review the status of the theoretical estimates for CP
violating asymmetries in non-leptonic hyperon decays.


  We consider a normal complete rational variety with a torus action of
complexity one. In the main results, we determine the roots of the automorphism
group and give an explicit description of the root system of its semisimple
part. The results are applied to the study of almost homogeneous varieties. For
example, we describe all almost homogeneous (possibly singular) del Pezzo
k*-surfaces of Picard number one and all almost homogeneous (possibly singular)
Fano threefolds of Picard number one having a reductive automorphism group with
two-dimensional maximal torus.


  Through the spin rearrangement scheme in the heavy quark limit, we have
performed a comprehensive investigation of the decay pattern and production
mechanism of the hidden beauty di-meson states, which are either composed of a
P-wave bottom meson and an S-wave bottom meson or two S-wave bottom mesons. We
further extend the corresponding formula to discuss the decay behavior of some
charmonium-like states by combining the experimental information with our
numerical results. The typical ratios presented in this work can be measured by
future experiments like BESIII, Belle, LHCb and the forthcoming BelleII, which
shall provide important clues to the inner structures of the exotic states.


  Count time series data are frequently analyzed by modeling their conditional
means and the conditional variance is often considered to be a deterministic
function of the corresponding conditional mean and is not typically modeled
independently. We propose a semiparametric mean and variance joint model,
called random rounded count-valued generalized autoregressive conditional
heteroskedastic (RRC-GARCH) model, to address this limitation. The RRC-GARCH
model and its variations allow for the joint modeling of both the conditional
mean and variance and offer a flexible framework for capturing various
mean-variance structures (MVSs). One main feature of this model is its ability
to accommodate negative values for regression coefficients and autocorrelation
functions. The autocorrelation structure of the RRC-GARCH model using the
proposed Laplace link functions with nonnegative regression coefficients is the
same as that of an autoregressive moving-average (ARMA) process. For the new
model, the stationarity and ergodicity are established and the consistency and
asymptotic normality of the conditional least squares estimator are proved.
Model selection criteria are proposed to evaluate the RRC-GARCH models. The
performance of the RRC-GARCH model is assessed through analyses of both
simulated and real data sets. The results indicate that the model can
effectively capture the MVS of count time series data and generate accurate
forecast means and variances.


  We derive a regularized formula for the common randomness assisted
entanglement transmission capacity of finite arbitrarily varying quantum
channels (AVQC's). For finite AVQC's with positive capacity for classical
message transmission we show, by derandomization through classical forward
communication, that the random capacity for entanglement transmission equals
the deterministic capacity for entanglement transmission. This is a quantum
version of the famous Ahlswede dichotomy. In the infinite case, we derive a
similar result for certain classes of AVQC's. At last, we give two possible
definitions of symmetrizability of an AVQC.


  We review the status of the searches for the Higgs boson in the context of
the Standard Model and the Minimal SuperSymmetric Standard Model by the CDF and
DO experiments at the Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton collider, using up to
$2.4 \rm{fb}^{-1}$ of Run II data. Since no evidence of signal above the
expected background is observed in any of the various final states examined,
limits at 95% confidence level are presented.


  This paper proposes a simple procedure to decide whether the
empirically-observed adjacency or weights matrix, which characterizes the graph
underlying a socio-economic network, is sufficiently symmetric (respectively,
asymmetric) to justify an undirected (respectively, directed) network analysis.
We introduce a new index that satisfies two main properties. First, it can be
applied to both binary or weighted graphs. Second, once suitably standardized,
it distributes as a standard normal over all possible adjacency/weights
matrices. To test the index in practice, we present an application that employs
a set of well-known empirically-observed social and economic networks.


  We present evidence that multigrid (MG) works for wave equations in
disordered systems, e.g. in the presence of gauge fields, no matter how strong
the disorder. We introduce a "neural computations" point of view into large
scale simulations: First, the system must learn how to do the simulations
efficiently, then do the simulation (fast). The method can also be used to
provide smooth interpolation kernels which are needed in multigrid Monte Carlo
updates.


  In recent years, the field of explainable AI (XAI) has produced a vast
collection of algorithms, providing a useful toolbox for researchers and
practitioners to build XAI applications. With the rich application
opportunities, explainability is believed to have moved beyond a demand by data
scientists or researchers to comprehend the models they develop, to an
essential requirement for people to trust and adopt AI deployed in numerous
domains. However, explainability is an inherently human-centric property and
the field is starting to embrace human-centered approaches. Human-computer
interaction (HCI) research and user experience (UX) design in this area are
becoming increasingly important. In this chapter, we begin with a high-level
overview of the technical landscape of XAI algorithms, then selectively survey
our own and other recent HCI works that take human-centered approaches to
design, evaluate, and provide conceptual and methodological tools for XAI. We
ask the question "what are human-centered approaches doing for XAI" and
highlight three roles that they play in shaping XAI technologies by helping
navigate, assess and expand the XAI toolbox: to drive technical choices by
users' explainability needs, to uncover pitfalls of existing XAI methods and
inform new methods, and to provide conceptual frameworks for human-compatible
XAI.


  Epitaxial bilayers of the high-temperature-superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-d (YBCO)
and the ferromagnetic metal La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (LCMO) were prepared by pulsed
laser deposition on (110)-oriented SrTiO3 substrates, such that the CuO2 planes
of YBCO are perpendicular to the YBCO-LCMO interface. X-ray diffraction and
Raman scattering demonstrate complete (110) orientation of both YBCO and LCMO
overlayers. The resistivity and magnetization of the bilayer films are highly
anisotropic. The critical temperatures for superconductivity and ferromagnetism
as well as the saturation magnetization exhibit modest reductions compared to
corresponding bulk values.


  Permanent spatial decomposition (PSD) is the (hypothesized) property of the
wave function of a macroscopic system of decomposing into localized permanently
non-overlapping parts when it spreads over a macroscopic region. The typical
example of this phenomenon is the measurement process, in which the wave
function of the laboratory (quantum system + apparatus + environment)
decomposes into n parts, corresponding to the n outcomes of the measurement:
the parts are non-overlapping, because they represent a macroscopic pointer in
different positions, and they are permanently non-overlapping due to the
irreversible interaction with the environment. PSD is often mentioned in the
literature, but until now no formal definition or systematic study of this
phenomenon has been undertaken. The aim of this paper is to partially fill this
gap by giving a formal definition of PSD and studying its possible connection
with scattering theory. The predictive and explanatory powers of this
phenomenon are also discussed and compared with those of Bohmian mechanics.


  We consider a stochastic transportation problem between two prescribed
probability distributions (a source and a target) over processes with general
drift dependence and with free end times. First, and in order to establish a
dual principle, we associate two equivalent formulations of the primal problem
in order to guarantee its convexity and lower semi-continuity with respect to
the source and target distributions. We exhibit an equivalent Eulerian
formulation, whose dual variational principle is given by
Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman type variational inequalities. In the case where the
dependence on the drift is bounded, regularity results on the minimizers of the
Eulerian problem then enable us to prove attainment in the corresponding dual
problem. We also address attainment when the drift component of the cost
defining Lagrangian $L$ is superlinear $L \approx |u|^p$ with $1<p<2$, in which
case the setting is reminiscent of our approach -- in a previous work -- on
deterministic controlled transport problems with free end time. We finally
address criteria under which the optimal drift and stopping time are unique,
namely strict convexity in the drift component and monotonicity in time of the
Lagrangian.


  Simulations of ionization induced injection in a laser driven plasma
wakefield show that high-quality electron injectors in the 50-200 MeV range can
be achieved in a gas cell with a tailored density profile. Using the PIC code
Warp with parameters close to existing experimental conditions, we show that
the concentration of $\mathrm{N_2}$ in a hydrogen plasma with a tailored
density profile is an efficient parameter to tune electron beam properties
through the control of the interplay between beam loading effects and varying
accelerating field in the density profile. For a given laser plasma
configuration, with moderate normalized laser amplitude, $a_0=1.6$ and maximum
electron plasma density, $n_{e0}=4\times 10^{18}\,\mathrm{cm^{-3}}$, the
optimum concentration results in a robust configuration to generate electrons
at 150~MeV with a rms energy spread of 4\% and a spectral charge density of
1.8~pC/MeV.


  We introduce the notion of {\em covariance measure structure} for square
integrable stochastic processes. We define Wiener integral, we develop a
suitable formalism for stochastic calculus of variations and we make Gaussian
assumptions only when necessary. Our main examples are finite quadratric
variation processes with stationary increments and the bifractional Brownian
motion.


  We provide an answer to the long standing problem of mixing quantum and
classical dynamics within a single formalism. The construction is based on
p-mechanical derivation (quant-ph/0212101, quant-ph/0304023) of quantum and
classical dynamics from the representation theory of the Heisenberg group. To
achieve a quantum-classical mixing we take the product of two copies of the
Heisenberg group which represent two different Planck's constants. In
comparison with earlier guesses our answer contains an extra term of analytical
nature, which was not obtained before in purely algebraic setup.
  Keywords: Moyal brackets, Poisson brackets, commutator, Heisenberg group,
orbit method, representation theory, Planck's constant, quantum-classical
mixing


  A new two-parameter integrable model with quantum superalgebra $U_q[gl(3|1)]$
symmetry is proposed, which is an eight-state electron model with correlated
single-particle and pair hoppings as well as uncorrelated triple-particle
hopping. The model is solved and the Bethe ansatz equations are obtained.


  Typically, one expects that there are around x\prod_{p\not\in P, p <= x}
(1-1/p) integers up to x, all of whose prime factors come from the set P. Of
course for some choices of P one may get rather more integers, and for some
choices of P one may get rather less. Hall [4] showed that one never gets more
than e^\gamma+o(1) times the expected amount (where \gamma is the
Euler-Mascheroni constant), which was improved slightly by Hildebrand [5].
Hildebrand [6] also showed that for a given value of \prod_{p\not\in P, p <= x}
(1-1/p), the smallest count that you get (asymptotically) is when P consists of
all the primes up to a given point. In this paper we shall improve Hildebrand's
upper bound, obtaining a result close to optimal, and also give a substantially
shorter proof of Hildebrand's lower bound. As part of the proof we give an
improved Lipschitz-type bound for such counts.


  We determine the proportions of two mixed crater populations distinguishable
by size distributions on the Moon. A "multiple power-law" model is built to
formulate crater size distribution $N(D) \propto D^{-\alpha}$ whose slope
$\alpha$ varies with crater diameter $D$. Fitted size distribution of lunar
highland craters characterized by $\alpha = 1.17 \pm 0.04$, $1.88 \pm 0.07$,
$3.17 \pm 0.10$ and $1.40 \pm 0.15$ for consecutive $D$ intervals divided by
49, 120 and 251 km and that of lunar Class 1 craters with a single slope
$\alpha = 1.96 \pm 0.14$, are taken as Population 1 and 2 crater size
distribution respectively, whose sum is then fitted to the size distribution of
global lunar craters with $D$ between 10 and 100 km. Estimated crater densities
of Population 1 and 2 are $44 \times 10^{-5}$ and $5 \times 10^{-5}$ km$^{-2}$
respectively, leading to the proportion of the latter $10 \%$. The results
underlines the need for considering the Population 1 craters and the relevant
impactors, the primordial main-belt asteroids which dominated the late heavy
bombardment.


  Three types of surface tensions can be defined for lipid membranes: the
internal tension, $\sigma$, conjugated to the real membrane area in the
Hamiltonian, the mechanical frame tension, $\tau$, conjugated to the projected
area, and the "fluctuation tension", $r$, obtained from the fluctuation
spectrum of the membrane height.
  We investigate these surface tensions by means of a Monge gauge lattice Monte
Carlo simulation involving the exact, nonlinear, Helfrich Hamiltonian and a
measure correction for excess entropy of the Monge gauge. Our results for the
relation between $\sigma$ and $\tau$ agrees well with the theoretical
prediction of [J.-B. Fournier and C. Barbetta, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2008, 100,
078103] based on a Gaussian approximation. This provides a valuable knowledge
of~$\tau$ in the standard Gaussian models where the tension is controlled by
$\sigma$. However, contrary to the conjecture in the above paper, we find that
$r$ exhibits no significant difference from $\tau$ over more than five decades
of tension. Our results appear to be valid in the thermodynamic limit and are
robust to changing the ensemble in which the membrane area is controlled.


  Atomicity is a ubiquitous assumption in distributed computing, under which
actions are indivisible and appear sequential. In classical computing, this
assumption has several theoretical and practical guarantees. In quantum
computing, although atomicity is still commonly assumed, it has not been
seriously studied, and a rigorous basis for it is missing. Classical results on
atomicity do not directly carry over to distributed quantum computing, due to
new challenges caused by quantum entanglement and the measurement problem from
the underlying quantum mechanics.
  In this paper, we initiate the study of atomicity in distributed quantum
computing. A formal model of (non-atomic) distributed quantum system is
established. Based on the Dijkstra-Lamport condition, the system dynamics and
observable dynamics of a distributed quantum system are defined, which
correspond to the quantum state of and classically observable events in the
system, respectively. Within this framework, we prove that local actions can be
regarded as if they were atomic, up to the observable dynamics of the system.


  A geometric interpretation of approximate ($HS$-projective or
$TC$-projective) representations of the Witt algebra $w^C$ by $q_R$-conformal
symmetries in the Verma modules $V_h$ over the Lie algebra $sl(2,C)$ is
established and some their characteristics are calculated. It is shown that the
generators of representations coincide with the Nomizu operators of holomorphic
$w^C$-invariant hermitean connections in the deformed holomorphic tangent
bundles $T_h(M_1)$ over the infinite-dimensional K\"ahler manifold
$M_1=\Diff_+(S^1)/PSL(2,R)$, whereas the deviations $A_{XY}$ of the approximate
representations coincide with the curvature operators for these connections,
which supply the determinant bundle $det T_h(M_1)$ by a structure of the
prequantization bundle over $M_1$. At $h=2$ the geometric picture reduces to
one considered by A.A.Kirillov and the author [Funct.Anal.Appl. 21(4) (1987)
284-293] (without any relation to the approximate representations) for ordinary
tangent bundles.


  NSClean is an algorithm and associated python package for removing faint
vertical banding and ``picture frame noise'' from JWST Near Infrared
Spectrograph (NIRSpec) images. NSClean uses known dark areas to fit a
background model to each exposure in Fourier space. When the model is
subtracted, it removes nearly all correlated noise. Compared to simpler
strategies like subtracting the rolling median, NSClean is more thorough and
uniform. NSClean is computationally undemanding, requiring only a few seconds
to clean an image on a typical laptop. The NSClean package is freely available
from the NASA JWST website
(https://webb.nasa.gov/content/forScientists/publications.html).


  Bottom-up design of high-entropy ceramics is a promising approach for
realizing materials with unique combination of high hardness and
fracture-resistance at elevated temperature. This work offers a simple yet
fundamental design criterion - valence electron concentration (VEC) > ~9.5
e-/f.u. to populate bonding metallic states at the Fermi level - for selecting
elemental compositions that may form rocksalt-structure (B1) high-entropy
ceramics with enhanced plasticity (reduced brittleness). Single-phase B1
(HfTaTiWZr)C and (MoNbTaVW)C, chosen as representative systems due to their
specific VEC values, are here synthesized and tested. Nanoindentation arrays at
various loads and depths statistically show that (HfTaTiWZr)C (VEC=8.6 e-/f.u.)
is hard but brittle, whilst (MoNbTaVW)C (VEC=9.4 e-/f.u.) is hard and
considerably more resistant to fracture than (HfTaTiWZr)C. Ab initio molecular
dynamics simulations and electronic-structure analysis reveal that the improved
fracture-resistance of (MoNbTaVW)C subject to tensile and shear deformation may
originate from the intrinsic material's ability to undergo local lattice
transformations beyond tensile yield points, as well as from relatively facile
activation of lattice slip. Additional simulations, carried out to follow the
evolution in mechanical properties as a function of temperature, suggest that
(MoNbTaVW)C may retain good resistance to fracture up to ~900-1200K, whereas
(HfTaTiWZr)C is predicted to remain brittle at all investigated temperatures.


  Deep learning models trained on large data sets have been widely successful
in both vision and language domains. As state-of-the-art deep learning
architectures have continued to grow in parameter count so have the compute
budgets and times required to train them, increasing the need for
compute-efficient methods that parallelize training. Two common approaches to
parallelize the training of deep networks have been data and model parallelism.
While useful, data and model parallelism suffer from diminishing returns in
terms of compute efficiency for large batch sizes. In this paper, we
investigate how to continue scaling compute efficiently beyond the point of
diminishing returns for large batches through local parallelism, a framework
which parallelizes training of individual layers in deep networks by replacing
global backpropagation with truncated layer-wise backpropagation. Local
parallelism enables fully asynchronous layer-wise parallelism with a low memory
footprint, and requires little communication overhead compared with model
parallelism. We show results in both vision and language domains across a
diverse set of architectures, and find that local parallelism is particularly
effective in the high-compute regime.


  Valence and conduction bands in nodal loop semimetals (NLSMs) touch along
closed loops in momentum space. If such loops can proliferate and link
intricately, NLSMs become exotic topological phases with unconventional
topological characteristics and potentially peculiar transport properties. In
conventional quantum materials or cold atom systems alike, such exotic phases
necessarily require non-local hopping and are therefore intrinsically
unrealistic. In this work, we show how this hurdle can be surmounted through an
experimentally feasible periodic driving scheme. In particular, by tuning the
period of a two-step periodic driving or some experimentally accessible
parameters, we show how to generate arbitrarily many nodal loops that are
linked with various levels of complexity. Furthermore, we propose to use both
the Berry phase winding and the Alexander polynomial topological invariant to
characterize the fascinating linkages among the nodal loops. This work thus
presents a class of exotic Floquet topological phase that has hitherto not been
proposed in any realistic setup.


  The classical representation of Hamiltonian systems in terms of action-angle
variables are defined for simply connected domains such as an interior of a
homoclinic orbit. On this basis methods of (local) perturbations leading, in
particular, to chaotic systems have been studied in literature.
  We are describing a new method for constructing global action-angle variables
and successive perturbations based on a topological covering of the phase
space. The method is demonstrated for representative example of the Duffing
system.


  We give a comprehensive analysis of the singular dynamics and of the
low-energy fixed point of one-channel impurity s-d models with ferromagnetic
and underscreened antiferromagnetic couplings. We use the numerical
renormalization group (NRG) to perform calculations at T=0. The spectral
densities of the one-electron Green's functions and t-matrices are found to
have very sharp cusps at the Fermi level (w=0), but do not diverge. The
approach of the Fermi level is governed by terms proportional to 1/ln^2(w/T_0)
as w -> 0. The scaled NRG energy levels show a slow convergence as 1/(N+C) to
their fixed point values, where N is the iteration number and C is a constant
dependent on the coupling J from which the low energy scale T_0 can be deduced.
We calculate also the dynamical spin susceptibility, and the elastic and
inelastic scattering cross-sections as a function of w. The inelastic
scattering goes to zero as w-> 0, as expected for a Fermi liquid, but
anomalously slowly compared to the fully screened case. We obtain the
asymptotic forms for the phase shifts for elastic scattering of the
quasiparticles in the high-spin and low-spin channels.


  The behavior at criticality of spatial SIR (susceptible/infected/recovered)
epidemic models in dimensions two and three is investigated. In these models,
finite populations of size N are situated at the vertices of the integer
lattice, and infectious contacts are limited to individuals at the same or at
neighboring sites. Susceptible individuals, once infected, remain contagious
for one unit of time and then recover, after which they are immune to further
infection. It is shown that the measure-valued processes associated with these
epidemics, suitably scaled, converge, in the large-N limit, either to a
standard Dawson-Watanabe process (super-Brownian motion) or to a
Dawson-Watanabe process with location-dependent killing, depending on the size
of the the initially infected set. A key element of the argument is a proof of
Adler's 1993 conjecture that the local time processes associated with branching
random walks converge to the local time density process associated with the
limiting super-Brownian motion.


  We report inelastic neutron scattering measurements that provide a distinct
dynamical "fingerprint" for the multiferroic ground state of 3.5% Ga-doped
CuFeO_2. The complex ground state is stabilized by the displacement of the
oxygen atoms, which are also responsible for the multiferroic coupling
predicted by Arima. By comparing the observed and calculated spectrum of spin
excitations, we conclude that the magnetic ground state is a distorted
screw-type spin configuration that requires a mechanism for magnetoelectric
coupling different from the generally accepted spin-current model.


  We first examine how T-matrix equivalence drives the flow of similarity
renormalization group (SRG) evolved potential matrix elements to a universal
form, with the ultimate goal of gaining insight into universality for
three-nucleon forces. In agreement with observations made previously for
Lee-Suzuki transformations, regions of universal potential matrix elements are
restricted to where half-on-shell T-matrix equivalence holds, but the
potentials must also reproduce binding energies. We find universality in local
energy regions, reflecting a local decoupling by the SRG. To continue the study
in the 3-body sector, we create a simple 1-D spinless boson "theoretical
laboratory" for a dramatic improvement in computational efficiency. We
introduce a basis-transformation, harmonic oscillator (HO) basis, which is used
for current many-body calculations and discuss the imposed truncations. When
SRG evolving in a HO-basis, we show that the evolved matrix elements, once
transformed back into momentum-representation, differ from those when evolving
with momentum representation. This is because the generator in each basis is
not exactly the same due to the truncation, which creates evolution artifacts
in the 3-body potential matrix elements. In the 2- body sector, this can be
avoided by increasing the basis size, but it remains unclear whether this is
possible in the 3-body sector, as truncation errors in the 3-body sector are
more difficult to avoid, and the computational power required is greatly
increased for three-body evolution.


  A map $f:X\to Y$ between topological spaces is skeletal if the preimage
$f^{-1}(A)$ of each nowhere dense subset $A\subset Y$ is nowhere dense in $X$.
We prove that a normal functor $F:Comp\to Comp$ is skeletal (which means that
$F$ preserves skeletal epimorphisms) if and only if for any open surjective
open map $f:X\to Y$ between zero-dimensional compacta with two-element
non-degeneracy set $N^f=\{x\in X:|f^{-1}(f(x))|>1\}$ the map $Ff:FX\to FY$ is
skeletal. This characterization implies that each open normal functor is
skeletal. The converse is not true even for normal functors of finite degree.
The other main result of the paper says that each normal functor $F: Comp\to
Comp$ preserves the class of skeletally generated compacta. This contrasts with
the known Shchepin's result saying that a normal functor is open if and only if
it preserves openly generated compacta.


  This paper describes a prototype software and hardware platform to provide
support to field operators during the inspection of surface defects of
non-metallic pipes. Inspection is carried out by video filming defects created
on the same surface in real-time using a "smart" helmet device and other mobile
devices. The work focuses on the detection and recognition of the defects which
appears as colored iridescence of reflected light caused by the diffraction
effect arising from the presence of internal stresses in the inspected
material. The platform allows you to carry out preliminary analysis directly on
the device in offline mode, and, if a connection to the network is established,
the received data is transmitted to the server for post-processing to extract
information about possible defects that were not detected at the previous
stage. The paper presents a description of the stages of design, formal
description, and implementation details of the platform. It also provides
descriptions of the models used to recognize defects and examples of the result
of the work.


  Although the expressions for energy densities involving electric and magnetic
fields are exactly analogous, the connections to forces and electromagnetic
potentials are vastly different. For electrostatic situations, the changes in
the \textit{electric} energy can be related directly to \textit{electric}
forces and to the electrostatic potential. The situation involving magnetic
forces and energy changes involves two fundamentally different situations. For
charged particles moving with constant velocities, the changes in both electric
and magnetic field energies are provided by the external forces that keep the
particles' velocities constant; there are no Faraday acceleration electric
fields in this situation. However, for particles that change speed, the changes
in \textit{magnetic} energy density are related to acceleration-dependent
Faraday \textit{electric} fields. Current undergraduate and graduate textbooks
deal only with highly symmetric situations where the Faraday electric fields
are easily calculated from the time-changing magnetic flux. However, in
situations that lack high symmetry, such as the magnetic Aharonov-Bohm
situation, the back (Faraday) acceleration electric fields of point charges
seem unfamiliar. In this article, we present a simple unsymmetric example and
analyze it using the Darwin Lagrangian. In \textit{all} cases involving
changing velocities of the current carriers, it is the work done by the back
(Faraday) acceleration \textit{electric} fields that balances the
\textit{magnetic} energy changes.


  Tie-line power exchanges among regional power systems facilitate renewable
accommodations. Power exchanges can be calculated via a tie-line security
region that provides the feasible region of the coupling parameters among
regional power systems. However, a tie-line security region is a high-dimension
polytope due to multiple time periods and border buses inherently in power
system operations, leading to the considerable computational burden. A fast
calculation method for tie-line security regions in high dimension is studied
in this paper. The high-dimension polytope across all the time periods is
decomposed as a Cartesian production of lower-dimension polytopes at each time
period by leveraging dispatch levels of generations. For each lower-dimension
polytope, the computational burden brought by multiple border buses is
alleviated by aggregating tie-line power. Also, minimum renewable curtailments
are preserved by incorporating an additional dimension in the tie-line security
region. For the coupling parameters located within our tie-line security
region, a feasible decision of the regional power system exists. Finally, the
tie-line security region is used to reduce renewable curtailments in an
interconnected power system under a decentralized and non-iterative framework.
The performance of the presented methods is corroborated in the IEEE 9-bus
system, a 661-bus utility system and a five-region system.


  The cold dark matter (CDM) model of structure formation, normalized on large
scales, leads to excessive pairwise velocity dispersions on small scales. In an
attempt to circumvent this problem, we study three scenarios (all with
$\Omega=1$) which have more large-scale power and less small-scale power than
the CDM model: 1) an admixture of cold and hot dark matter; 2) cold dark matter
with a non-scale-invariant, power-law primordial power spectrum; and 3) cold
dark matter with coupling of dark matter to a long-range vector field. Despite
the {reduced} small-scale power, when such models are evolved in the nonlinear
regime to large amplitude, the velocities on small scales are actually {\it
increased} over CDM with the same value of $\sigma_8$. This `flip-over', in
disagreement with the expectation from linear perturbation theory, arises from
the nonlinear coupling of the extra power on large scales with shorter
wavelengths. However, due to the extra large-scale power, the recent COBE DMR
results indicate smaller amplitudes for these models, $\sigma_8 \sim 0.5 -
0.7$, than for CDM (for which $\sigma_8 \sim 1.2$). Therefore, when normalized
to COBE on large scales, such models do lead to reduced velocities on small
scales and they produce fewer halos compared with CDM. Quantitatively it seems,
however, that models that produce sufficiently low small-scale velocities fail
to produce an adequate distribution of halos.


  Propagation and absorption of electromagnetic waves with electron cyclotron
resonance (ECR) frequency are experimentally and theoretically investigated for
the case of inhomogeneously magnetized plasma column with peripheral vacuum
layer, when a left-hand polarized wave (LHPW) is selectively launched. The
polarization reversal from the LHPW to the right-hand polarized wave is found
to occur near the ECR point. As a result, it is clarified that the LHPW, which
has been considered not to be absorbed at the ECR point, is absorbed near the
ECR point. The phenomena can be explained by taking into account the effects of
the radial boundary conditions. In addition, it is found that the polarization
reversal point can be adjusted by the external parameters, for example, plasma
radius.


  We present a quantum approach to a signaling game; a special kind of
extensive games of incomplete information. Our model is based on quantum
schemes for games in strategic form where players perform unitary operators on
their own qubits of some fixed initial state and the payoff function is given
by a measurement on the resulting final state. We show that the quantum game
induced by our scheme coincides with a signaling game as a special case and
outputs nonclassical results in general. As an example, we consider a quantum
extension of the signaling game in which the chance move is a three-parameter
unitary operator whereas the players' actions are equivalent to classical ones.
In this case, we study the game in terms of Nash equilibria and refine the pure
Nash equilibria adapting to the quantum game the notion of a weak perfect
Bayesian equilibrium.


  We construct self-intersected flexible cross-polytopes in the spaces of
constant curvature, that is, the Euclidean spaces, the spheres, and the
Lobachevsky spaces of all dimensions. In dimensions greater than or equal to 5,
these are the first examples of flexible polyhedra. Moreover, we classify all
flexible cross-polytopes in each of the spaces of constant curvature. For each
type of flexible cross-polytopes, we provide an explicit parametrization of the
flexion by either rational or elliptic functions.


  We propose the use of quantum polarization spectroscopy for detecting
multi-particle entanglement of ultracold atoms in optical lattices. This
method, based on a light-matter interface employing the quantum Farady effect,
allows for the non destructive measurement of spin-spin correlations. We apply
it to the specific example of a one dimensional spin chain and reconstruct its
phase diagram using the light signal, readily measurable in experiments with
ultracold atoms. Interestingly, the same technique can be extended to detect
quantum many-body entanglement in such systems.


  Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are bright, brief flashes of high energy photons that
have fascinated scientists for 30 years. They come in two classes: long (>2 s),
softspectrum bursts and short, hard events. The major progress to date on
understanding GRBs has been for long bursts which are typically at high
redshift (z ~ 1) and are in sub-luminous star-forming host galaxies. They are
likely produced in core-collapse explosions of massive stars. Until the present
observation, no short GRB had been accurately (<10") and rapidly (minutes)
located. Here we report the detection of X-ray afterglow from and the
localization of short burst GRB050509b. Its position on the sky is near a
luminous, non-starforming elliptical galaxy at a redshift of 0.225, exactly the
type of location one would expect if the origin of this GRB is the
long-proposed fiery merger of neutron star (NS) or black hole (BH) binaries.
The X-ray afterglow is found to be weak and fading below detection within a few
hours and no optical afterglow is detected to stringent limits, explaining the
past difficulty in localizing short GRBs.


  We studied the asymptotic behavior of local solutions for strongly coupled
critical elliptic systems near an isolated singularity. For the dimension less
than or equal to five we prove that any singular solution is asymptotic to a
rotationally symmetric Fowler type solution. This result generalizes the
celebrated work due to Caffarelli, Gidas, and Spruck [1] who studied asymptotic
proprieties to the classic Yamabe equation. In addition, we generalize similar
results by Marques [11] for inhomogeneous context, that is, when the metric is
not necessarily conformally flat.


  The interface stresses at of the solid-melt interface are, in general,
anisotropic. The anisotropy in the interfacial stress can be evaluated using
molecular dynamics (MD) and phase field crystal (PFC) models. In this paper, we
report our results on the evaluation of the anisotropy in interface stress in a
BCC solid with its melt. Specifically, we study Fe using both MD and PFC
models. We show that while both MD and PFC can be used for the evaluation, and
the PFC and the amplitude equations based on PFC give quantitatively consistent
results, the MD and PFC results are qualitatively the same but do not match
quantitatively. We also find that even though the interfacial free energy is
only weakly anisotropic in BCC interfacial stress anisotropy is strong. This
strong anisotropy has implications for the equilibrium shapes, growth
morphologies and other properties at nano-scale in these materials.


  We address the expected supremum of a linear combination of shifts of the
sinc kernel with random coefficients. When the coefficients are Gaussian, the
expected supremum is of order \sqrt{\log n}, where n is the number of shifts.
When the coefficients are uniformly bounded, the expected supremum is of order
\log\log n. This is a noteworthy difference to orthonormal functions on the
unit interval, where the expected supremum is of order \sqrt{n\log n} for all
reasonable coefficient statistics.


  We introduce a two-agent problem which is inspired by price asymmetry arising
from funding difference. When two parties have different funding rates, the two
parties deduce different fair prices for derivative contracts even under the
same pricing methodology and parameters. Thus, the two parties should enter the
derivative contracts with a negotiated price, and we call the negotiation a
risk-sharing problem. This framework defines the negotiation as a problem that
maximizes the sum of utilities of the two parties. By the derived optimal
price, we provide a theoretical analysis on how the price is determined between
the two parties. As well as the price, the risk-sharing framework produces an
optimal amount of collateral. The derived optimal collateral can be used for
contracts between financial firms and non-financial firms. However,
inter-dealers markets are governed by regulations. As recommended in Basel III,
it is a convention in inter-dealer contracts to pledge the full amount of a
close-out price as collateral. In this case, using the optimal collateral, we
interpret conditions for the full margin requirement to be indeed optimal.


  An Onsager-like relation is proposed as a new criterion for constructing and
analysing the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. For LB models obeying the
relation, we analyse their linearized stability, establish their diffusive
limit, and find new constraints for those with free parameters. The new
relation seems of fundamental importance for the LB method.


  Very recently the LHCb Collaboration reported the discovery of two open charm
tetraquark states, $X_{0}(2866)$ and $X_{1}(2904)$. In the present work, we
study the $D^{(\ast)}$ and $\bar{K}^{(\ast)}$ interaction in the one-boson
exchange model and show that the $X_{0}(2866)$ can be understood as a
$D^{\ast}\bar{K}^{\ast}$ molecule with $I(J^{P})=0(0^{+})$, or at least it has
a large molecular component. On the other hand, the $X_{1}(2904)$ can not be
interpreted as a molecular state. Inspired by the discovery of the $X_0(2866)$
and the fact that the $D^*\bar{K}^*$ interaction is strong enough to generate a
bound state, we also discuss likely existence of other open charm molecules. In
the meson-meson sector, two molecules near the mass thresholds of $DD^{\ast}$
and $D^{\ast}D^{\ast}$ with $I(J^{P})=0(1^{+})$ are obtained, and using the
heavy quark flavor symmetry their $\bar{B}\bar{B}^{\ast}$ and
$\bar{B}^{\ast}\bar{B}^{\ast}$ counterparts are also predicted. In the
meson-baryon sector, 7 open charm molecules with $I=1/2$ near the mass
thresholds of $D^{(\ast)}\Sigma_{c}^{(\ast)}$ naturally appear, as dictated by
the heavy quark spin symmetry.


  In the half-filled one-orbital Hubbard model on a square lattice, we study
the effect of next-nearest neighbor hopping on the single-particle spectral
function at finite temperature using an exact-diagonalization + Monte-Carlo
based approach to the simulation process. We find that the pseudogap-like dip,
existing in the density of states in between the N\'{e}el temperature $T_N$ and
a relatively higher temperature $T^*$, is accompanied with a significant
asymmetry in the hole- and particle-excitation energy along the high-symmetry
directions as well as along the normal-state Fermi surface. On moving from
($\pi/2, \pi/2$) toward $(\pi, 0)$ along the normal state Fermi surface, the
hole-excitation energy increases, a behavior remarkably similar to what is
observed in the $d$-wave state and pseudogap phase of high-$T_c$ cuprates,
whereas the particle-excitation energy decreases. The quasiparticle peak height
is the largest near ($\pi/2, \pi/2$) whereas it is the smallest near $(\pi,
0)$. These spectral features survive beyond $T_N$. The temperature window $T_N
\lesssim T \lesssim T^*$ shrinks with an increase in the next-nearest neighbor
hopping, which indicates that the next-nearest neighbor hopping may not be
supportive to the pseudogap-like features.


  In recent years, there has been a growing demand for improved autonomy for
in-orbit operations such as rendezvous, docking, and proximity maneuvers,
leading to increased interest in employing Deep Learning-based Spacecraft Pose
Estimation techniques. However, due to limited access to real target datasets,
algorithms are often trained using synthetic data and applied in the real
domain, resulting in a performance drop due to the domain gap. State-of-the-art
approaches employ Domain Adaptation techniques to mitigate this issue. In the
search for viable solutions, event sensing has been explored in the past and
shown to reduce the domain gap between simulations and real-world scenarios.
Event sensors have made significant advancements in hardware and software in
recent years. Moreover, the characteristics of the event sensor offer several
advantages in space applications compared to RGB sensors. To facilitate further
training and evaluation of DL-based models, we introduce a novel dataset,
SPADES, comprising real event data acquired in a controlled laboratory
environment and simulated event data using the same camera intrinsics.
Furthermore, we propose an effective data filtering method to improve the
quality of training data, thus enhancing model performance. Additionally, we
introduce an image-based event representation that outperforms existing
representations. A multifaceted baseline evaluation was conducted using
different event representations, event filtering strategies, and algorithmic
frameworks, and the results are summarized. The dataset will be made available
at http://cvi2.uni.lu/spades.


  This paper is concerned with the blowup phenomena for initial value problem
of semilinear wave equation with critical space-dependent damping term
(DW:$V$). The main result of the present paper is to give a solution of the
problem and to provide a sharp estimate for lifespan for such a solution when
$\frac{N}{N-1}<p\leq p_S(N+V_0)$, where $p_S(N)$ is the Strauss exponent for
(DW:$0$). The main idea of the proof is due to the technique of test functions
for (DW:$0$) originated by Zhou--Han (2014, MR3169791). Moreover, we find a new
threshold value $V_0=\frac{(N-1)^2}{N+1}$ for the coefficient of critical and
singular damping $|x|^{-1}$.


  Linearized gravitational waves in Brans-Dicke and scalar-tensor theories
carry negative energy. A gauge-invariant analysis shows that the background
Minkowski space is stable at the classical level with respect to linear scalar
and tensor inhomogeneous perturbations.


  We present a study of the magnetic field of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC),
carried out using radio Faraday rotation and optical starlight polarization
data. Consistent negative rotation measures (RMs) across the SMC indicate that
the line-of-sight magnetic field is directed uniformly away from us with a
strength 0.19 +/- 0.06 microGauss. Applying the Chandrasekhar-Fermi method to
starlight polarization data yields an ordered magnetic field in the plane of
the sky of strength 1.6 +/- 0.4 microGauss oriented at a position angle 4 +/-
12 degs, measured counter-clockwise from the great circle on the sky joining
the SMC to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We construct a three-dimensional
magnetic field model of the SMC, under the assumption that the RMs and
starlight polarization probe the same underlying large-scale field. The vector
defining the overall orientation of the SMC magnetic field shows a potential
alignment with the vector joining the center of the SMC to the center of the
LMC, suggesting the possibility of a "pan-Magellanic'' magnetic field. A
cosmic-ray driven dynamo is the most viable explanation of the observed field
geometry, but has difficulties accounting for the observed uni-directional
field lines. A study of Faraday rotation through the Magellanic Bridge is
needed to further test the pan-Magellanic field hypothesis.


  Text retrieval plays a crucial role in incorporating factual knowledge for
decision making into language processing pipelines, ranging from chat-based web
search to question answering systems. Current state-of-the-art text retrieval
models leverage pre-trained large language models (LLMs) to achieve competitive
performance, but training LLM-based retrievers via typical contrastive losses
requires intricate heuristics, including selecting hard negatives and using
additional supervision as learning signals. This reliance on heuristics stems
from the fact that the contrastive loss itself is heuristic and does not
directly optimize the downstream metrics of decision quality at the end of the
processing pipeline. To address this issue, we introduce Neural PG-RANK, a
novel training algorithm that learns to rank by instantiating a LLM as a
Plackett-Luce ranking policy. Neural PG-RANK provides a principled method for
end-to-end training of retrieval models as part of larger decision systems via
policy gradient, with little reliance on complex heuristics, and it effectively
unifies the training objective with downstream decision-making quality. We
conduct extensive experiments on various text retrieval benchmarks. The results
demonstrate that when the training objective aligns with the evaluation setup,
Neural PG-RANK yields remarkable in-domain performance improvement, with
substantial out-of-domain generalization to some critical datasets employed in
downstream question answering tasks.


  We present solutions to additive and multiplicative Cousin problems
formulated on an axially symmetric domain $\Omega \subset \mathbb H$ for
slice--regular functions starting from the solutions for subclasses, namely
slice--regular slice--preserving functions and functions in a given vectorial
class. Consequently, we prove the vanishing of the corresponding cohomology
groups with respect to axially symmetric open coverings (Theorems 1.1, 4.1,
4.2). The primary tool used in the proofs of these theorems is the existence of
quaternionic Cartan coverings and Cartan's splitting lemmas. As an application,
we prove a jet interpolation theorem (Theorem 1.2) and show that every divisor
is principal (Theorem 5.1).


  We discuss the detection of gravitational-wave backgrounds in the context of
Bayesian inference and suggest a practical definition of what it means for a
signal to be considered stochastic---namely, that the Bayesian evidence favors
a stochastic signal model over a deterministic signal model. A signal can
further be classified as Gaussian-stochastic if a Gaussian signal model is
favored. In our analysis we use Bayesian model selection to choose between
several signal and noise models for simulated data consisting of uncorrelated
Gaussian detector noise plus a superposition of sinusoidal signals from an
astrophysical population of gravitational-wave sources. For simplicity, we
consider co-located and co-aligned detectors with white detector noise, but the
method can be extended to more realistic detector configurations and power
spectra. The general trend we observe is that a deterministic model is favored
for small source numbers, a non-Gaussian stochastic model is preferred for
intermediate source numbers, and a Gaussian stochastic model is preferred for
large source numbers. However, there is very large variation between individual
signal realizations, leading to fuzzy boundaries between the three regimes. We
find that a hybrid, trans-dimensional model comprised of a deterministic signal
model for individual bright sources and a Gaussian-stochastic signal model for
the remaining confusion background outperforms all other models in most
instances.


  The Pfaffian state is an attractive candidate for the observed quantized Hall
plateau at Landau level filling fraction $\nu=5/2$. This is particularly
intriguing because this state has unusual topological properties, including
quasiparticle excitations with non-Abelian braiding statistics. In order to
determine the nature of the $\nu=5/2$ state, one must measure the quasiparticle
braiding statistics. Here, we propose an experiment which can simultaneously
determine the braiding statistics of quasiparticle excitations and, if they
prove to be non-Abelian, produce a topologically-protected qubit on which a
logical NOT operation is performed by quasiparticle braiding. Using the
measured excitation gap at $\nu=5/2$, we estimate the error rate to be
$10^{-30}$ or lower.


  Modern machine learning suffers from catastrophic forgetting when learning
new classes incrementally. The performance dramatically degrades due to the
missing data of old classes. Incremental learning methods have been proposed to
retain the knowledge acquired from the old classes, by using knowledge
distilling and keeping a few exemplars from the old classes. However, these
methods struggle to scale up to a large number of classes. We believe this is
because of the combination of two factors: (a) the data imbalance between the
old and new classes, and (b) the increasing number of visually similar classes.
Distinguishing between an increasing number of visually similar classes is
particularly challenging, when the training data is unbalanced. We propose a
simple and effective method to address this data imbalance issue. We found that
the last fully connected layer has a strong bias towards the new classes, and
this bias can be corrected by a linear model. With two bias parameters, our
method performs remarkably well on two large datasets: ImageNet (1000 classes)
and MS-Celeb-1M (10000 classes), outperforming the state-of-the-art algorithms
by 11.1% and 13.2% respectively.


  Deterministic communication is required for applications of several industry
verticals including manufacturing, automotive, financial, and health care, etc.
These applications rely on reliable and time-synchronized delivery of
information among the communicating devices. Therefore, large delay variations
in packet delivery or inaccuracies in time synchronization cannot be tolerated.
In particular, the industrial revolution on digitization, connectivity of
digital and physical systems, and flexible production design require
deterministic and time-synchronized communication. A network supporting
deterministic communication guarantees data delivery in a specified time with
high reliability. The IEEE 802.1 TSN task group is developing standards to
provide deterministic communication through IEEE 802 networks. The IEEE 802.1AS
standard defines time synchronization mechanism for accurate distribution of
time among the communicating devices. The time synchronization accuracy depends
on the accurate calculation of the residence time which is the time between the
ingress and the egress ports of the bridge and includes the processing,
queuing, transmission, and link latency of the timing information. This paper
discusses time synchronization mechanisms supported in current wired and
wireless integrated systems.


  We show that thermal radio emission has an induced character and argue that
thermal blackbody radiation in other spectral ranges also has an induced
origin. A new theory of thermal radio emission of non-uniform gas basing on the
induced origin of emission and its astrophysical applications are considered.
The nature of emission from various astrophysical objects is discussed.


  In this paper our aim is twofold. First, we introduce the notion of star
gluing of numerical semigroups and show that arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay and
Gorenstein properties of the projective closure are preserved under this gluing
operation. We then give a condition on Gr\"{o}bner basis of the defining ideal
of an affine monomial curve which ensures that the Betti sequence of the affine
curve is the same as the Betti sequence of its projective closure. We also
study the effect of simple gluing on Betti sequences of the projective closure.
Finally, we construct some numerical semigroups, using a gluing technique, such
that the Cohen-Macaulay type of corresponding affine curve and its projective
closure are both $n$.


  For a L\'evy process on the real line, we provide complete criteria for the
finiteness of exponential moments of the first passage time into the interval
$(r,\infty)$, the sojourn time in the interval $(-\infty,r]$, and the last exit
time from $(-\infty,r]$. Moreover, whenever these quantities are finite, we
derive their respective asymptotic behavior as $r \to \infty$.


  If the dynamic instability of microtubules follows a gamma distribution then
one can associate to it a Cantor set


  A concept for continuously tunable titanium-sapphire (Ti:Sa) lasers using
dispersion prisms is under investigation for the ARIEL (Advanced Rare IsotopE
Laboratory) laser ion source at TRIUMF (Canada's particle accelerator center).
Wavelength selection for pulsed Ti:Sa lasers used in hot cavity laser resonance
ionization spectroscopy is usually done with birefringent filters (BRFs) and
etalons or diffraction gratings. For resonance ionization spectroscopy a laser
system allowing a continuous wavelength scan is necessary. Tunable lasers based
on BRFs and etalons have high output powers however require synchronized
optimization for continuous laser wavelength scans and are therefore laborious
to use in scanning applications. Diffraction grating tuned lasers can provide
continuous wavelength scan over 200 nm range but typically have lower output
laser power due to the grating deformation under high pumping power. Aiming to
overcome both shortcomings a laser design based on prisms as dispersing element
has been revisited. Simulations on the beam path and optical reflectivity are
done which show that these losses can be minimized to around 0.04 % for a
tuning range from 700 nm up to 920 nm. Further improvement on the tuning range
and reduction on the linewidth will be pursued.


  We show that regular homogeneous two-weight $\mathbb{Z}_{p^k}$-codes where
$p$ is odd and $k\geqslant 2$ with dual Hamming distance at least four do not
exist. The proof relies on existence conditions for the strongly regular graph
built on the cosets of the dual code.


  A number of finite algorithms for constructing representation theoretic data
from group multiplications in a finite group G have recently been shown to be
related to amplitudes for combinatoric topological strings (G-CTST) based on
Dijkgraaf-Witten theory of flat G-bundles on surfaces. We extend this result to
projective representations of G using twisted Dijkgraaf-Witten theory. New
algorithms for characters are described, based on handle creation operators and
minimal multiplicative generating subspaces for the centers of group algebras
and twisted group algebras. Such minimal generating subspaces are of interest
in connection with information theoretic aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence.
For the untwisted case, we describe the integrality properties of certain
character sums and character power sums which follow from these constructive
G-CTST algorithms. These integer sums appear as residues of singularities in
G-CTST generating functions. S-duality of the combinatoric topological strings
motivates the definition of an inverse handle creation operator in the centers
of group algebras and twisted group algebras.


  Making sense of incomplete and conflicting narrative knowledge in the
presence of abnormalities, unobservable processes, and other real world
considerations is a challenge and crucial requirement for cognitive robotics
systems. An added challenge, even when suitably specialised action languages
and reasoning systems exist, is practical integration and application within
large-scale robot control frameworks.
  In the backdrop of an autonomous wheelchair robot control task, we report on
application-driven work to realise postdiction triggered abnormality detection
and re-planning for real-time robot control: (a) Narrative-based knowledge
about the environment is obtained via a larger smart environment framework; and
(b) abnormalities are postdicted from stable-models of an answer-set program
corresponding to the robot's epistemic model. The overall reasoning is
performed in the context of an approximate epistemic action theory based
planner implemented via a translation to answer-set programming.


  We analyzed static spherically symmetric solutions of the five dimensional
(5D) Lovelock gravity in the first order formulation. In the Riemannian sector,
when torsion vanishes, Boulware-Deser black hole represents a unique static
spherically symmetric black hole solution for the generic choice of the
Lagrangian parameters. We showed that the special choice of the Lagrangian
parameters, different from the Lovelock Chern-Simons gravity, leads to the
existence of the static black hole solution with torsion, which metric is
asymptotically AdS. We calculate conserved charges and thermodynamical
quantities of the black hole solution.


  We consider a Hubbard model on a square lattice with an additional
interaction, $W$, which depends upon the square of a near-neighbor hopping. At
half-filling and a constant value of the Hubbard repulsion, increasing the
strength of the interaction $W$ drives the system from an antiferromagnetic
Mott insulator to a $d_{x^2 -y^2}$ superconductor. This conclusion is reached
on the basis of zero temperature quantum Monte Carlo simulations on lattice
sizes up to $16 \times 16$.


  Graph bootstrap percolation is a simple cellular automaton introduced by
Bollob\'as in 1968. Given a graph $H$ and a set $G \subseteq E(K_n)$ we
initially "infect" all edges in $G$ and then, in consecutive steps, we infect
every $e \in K_n$ that completes a new infected copy of $H$ in $K_n$. We say
that $G$ percolates if eventually every edge in $K_n$ is infected. The extremal
question about the size of the smallest percolating sets when $H = K_r$ was
answered independently by Alon, Kalai and Frankl. Here we consider a different
question raised more recently by Bollob\'as: what is the maximum time the
process can run before it stabilizes? It is an easy observation that for $r=3$
this maximum is $\lceil \log_2 (n-1) \rceil $. However, a new phenomenon occurs
for $r=4$ when, as we show, the maximum time of the process is $n-3$. For $r
\geq 5$ the behaviour of the dynamics is even more complex, which we
demonstrate by showing that the $K_r$-bootstrap process can run for at least
$n^{2-\varepsilon_r}$ time steps for some $\varepsilon_r$ that tends to $0$ as
$r \to \infty$.


  r-Process nucleosynthesis in material ejected during neutron star mergers may
lead to radioactively powered transients called kilonovae. The timescale and
peak luminosity of these transients depend on the composition of the ejecta,
which determines the local heating rate from nuclear decays and the opacity.
Kasen et al. (2013, ApJ, 774, 25) and Tanaka & Hotokezaka (2013, ApJ, 775, 113)
pointed out that lanthanides can drastically increase the opacity in these
outflows. We use the new general-purpose nuclear reaction network SkyNet to
carry out a parameter study of r-process nucleosynthesis for a range of initial
electron fractions $Y_e$, initial specific entropies $s$, and expansion
timescales $\tau$. We find that the ejecta is lanthanide-free for $Y_e \gtrsim
0.22 - 0.30$, depending on $s$ and $\tau$. The heating rate is insensitive to
$s$ and $\tau$, but certain, larger values of $Y_e$ lead to reduced heating
rates, due to individual nuclides dominating the heating. We calculate
approximate light curves with a simplified gray radiative transport scheme. The
light curves peak at about a day (week) in the lanthanide-free (-rich) cases.
The heating rate does not change much as the ejecta becomes lanthanide-free
with increasing $Y_e$, but the light curve peak becomes about an order of
magnitude brighter because it peaks much earlier when the heating rate is
larger. We also provide parametric fits for the heating rates between 0.1 and
$100\,\text{days}$, and we provide a simple fit in $Y_e$, $s$, and $\tau$ to
estimate whether the ejecta is lanthanide-rich or not.


  The PICOSEC Micromegas precise timing detector is based on a Cherenkov
radiator coupled to a semi-transparent photocathode and a Micromegas
amplification structure. The first proof of concept single-channel small area
prototype was able to achieve time resolution below 25 ps. One of the crucial
aspects in the development of the precise timing gaseous detectors applicable
in high-energy physics experiments is a modular design that enables large area
coverage. The first 19-channel multi-pad prototype with an active area of
approximately 10 cm$^2$ suffered from degraded timing resolution due to the
non-uniformity of the preamplification gap. A new 100 cm$^2$ detector module
with 100 channels based on a rigid hybrid ceramic/FR4 Micromegas board for
improved drift gap uniformity was developed. Initial measurements with 80 GeV/c
muons showed improvements in timing response over measured pads and a time
resolution below 25 ps. More recent measurements with a new thinner drift gap
detector module and newly developed RF pulse amplifiers show that the
resolution can be enhanced to a level of 17~ps. This work will present the
development of the detector from structural simulations, design, and beam test
commissioning with a focus on the timing performance of a thinner drift gap
detector module in combination with new electronics using an automated timing
scan method.


  We prove that manifold constrained $p(x)$-harmonic maps are
$C^{1,\beta}$-regular outside a set of zero $n$-dimensional Lebesgue's measure,
for some $\beta \in (0,1)$. We also provide an estimate from above of the
Hausdorff dimension of the singular set.


  This paper derives statistical guarantees for the performance of Graph Neural
Networks (GNNs) in link prediction tasks on graphs generated by a graphon. We
propose a linear GNN architecture (LG-GNN) that produces consistent estimators
for the underlying edge probabilities. We establish a bound on the mean squared
error and give guarantees on the ability of LG-GNN to detect high-probability
edges. Our guarantees hold for both sparse and dense graphs. Finally, we
demonstrate some of the shortcomings of the classical GCN architecture, as well
as verify our results on real and synthetic datasets.


  A maximal coupling of two diffusion processes makes two diffusion particles
meet as early as possible. We study the uniqueness of maximal couplings under a
sort of "reflection structure" which ensures the existence of such couplings.
In this framework, the uniqueness in the class of Markovian couplings holds for
the Brownian motion on a Riemannian manifold whereas it fails in more singular
cases. We also prove that a Kendall-Cranston coupling is maximal under the
reflection structure.


  We revisit the problem of secret key agreement using interactive public
communication for two parties and propose a new secret key agreement protocol.
The protocol attains the secret key capacity for general observations and
attains the second-order asymptotic term in the maximum length of a secret key
for independent and identically distributed observations. In contrast to the
previously suggested secret key agreement protocols, the proposed protocol uses
interactive communication. In fact, the standard one-way communication protocol
used prior to this work fails to attain the asymptotic results above. Our
converse proofs rely on a recently established upper bound for secret key
lengths. Both our lower and upper bounds are derived in a single-shot setup and
the asymptotic results are obtained as corollaries.


  We present full renormalisation group equations for the MSSM with R-parity
violation, including all soft supersymmetry breaking terms. The inclusion of
dimensionless R-parity violating couplings can generate many possible low
energy effects through the generation of off-diagonal soft masses violating
lepton and quark flavour, and through the generation of lepton-Higgs mixing. We
discuss the relation between the weak and unification scale R-parity violation
and study the effects on neutrino mass generation and $\mu\to e\gamma$.


  In this paper we study the Finsler sphere $(S^n,F)$ with $n>1$, which has
constant flag curvature $K\equiv 1$ and only finite prime closed geodesics. In
this case, the connected isometry group $I_0(S^n,F)$ must be a torus which
dimension satisfies $0<\dim I(S^n,F) \leq[\frac{n+1}{2}]$. We will prove that
the number of geometrically distinct reversible closed geodesics on $(S^n,F)$
is at least $\dim I(S^n,F)$. When $\dim I_0(S^n,F)=[\frac{n+1}{2}]$, the
equality happens, and there are exactly $2[\frac{n+1}{2}]$ prime closed
geodesics, which verifies Anosov conjecture in this special case.


  We present the results of the optical identification, classification, as well
as analysis of photometric and spectral observations of the X-ray transient
SRGe2149+6736 detected by the eROSITA telescope during SRG all-sky X-ray
survey. Photometric observations of the optical companion of SRGe2149+6736 were
carried out on 6m telescope BTA SAO RAS, 1.5m Russian-Turkish telescope RTT-150
and 2.5m telescope CMO of Moscow State University. Together with ZTF data they
showed that the source is a cataclysmic variable with an orbital period
$P=85\pm0.4$~min which demonstrates long-term brightness variability from
$23.5$~mag (low state) to $20$~mag (high state). The high-state light curves
are consistent with a model of accreting magnetic white dwarf and suggest that
SRGe2149+6736 belongs to AM~Her type variables. The optical spectra obtained in
the low state are consistent with a spectral energy distribution of a white
dwarf with a temperature of ~24000 K.


  Interactions among units in complex systems occur in a specific sequential
order thus affecting the flow of information, the propagation of diseases, and
general dynamical processes. We investigate the Laplacian spectrum of temporal
networks and compare it with that of the corresponding aggregate network.
First, we show that the spectrum of the ensemble average of a temporal network
has identical eigenmodes but smaller eigenvalues than the aggregate networks.
In large networks without edge condensation, the expected temporal dynamics is
a time-rescaled version of the aggregate dynamics. Even for single sequential
realizations, diffusive dynamics is slower in temporal networks. These
discrepancies are due to the noncommutability of interactions. We illustrate
our analytical findings using a simple temporal motif, larger network models
and real temporal networks.


  In this paper, we consider an opioid epidemic dynamical model with random
perturbation that typically describes the interplay between regular
prescription use, addictive use, and the process of rehabilitation from
addiction and vice-versa. In particular, we provide two-sided bounds on the
solution of the transition density function for the Fokker-Planck equation that
corresponds to the opioid epidemic dynamical model, when a random perturbation
enters only through the dynamics of the susceptible group in the compartmental
model. Here, the proof for such bounds basically relies on the interpretation
of the solution for the transition density function as the value function of a
certain optimal stochastic control problem. Finally, as a possible interesting
development in this direction, we also provide an estimate for the attainable
exit probability with which the solution for the randomly perturbed opioid
epidemic dynamical model exits from a given bounded open domain during a
certain time interval. Note that such qualitative information on the first
exit-time as well as two-sided bounds on the transition density function are
useful for developing effective and fact-informed intervention strategies that
primarily aim at curbing opioid epidemics or assisting in interpreting outcome
results from opioid-related policies.


  We study 2 --> n inelastic fermion-(anti)fermion scattering into multiple
longitudinal weak gauge bosons and derive universal upper bounds on the scales
of fermion mass generation by imposing unitarity of the S-matrix. We place new
upper limits on the scales of fermion mass generation, independent of the
electroweak symmetry breaking scale. We find that the strongest 2 --> n limits
fall in a narrow range, 3-170 TeV (with n=2-24), depending on the observed
fermion masses.


  Effective-field-theory methods are used to study the high T limit of QCD.
These methods unravel the contributions to the free energy of QCD at high
temperature from the scales T, gT, and g^2 T. The free energy is explicitly
computed to order g^5. Implications for the application of perturbative QCD to
the quark-gluon plasma are also discussed.


  The difficulty that the probabilities infinitely increase with time as time
is long enough in time-dependent perturbation theory for some quantum systems
is resolved by means of simply transforming the perturbative series into
natural exponential functions of the re-summed perturbative series. Three
exactly solvable models are taken to check our new formulation, and excellent
agreements with the exact solution are achieved.


  We performed hydrodynamical simulations with and without radiative cooling of
jet models with parameters representative for the symbiotic system MWC 560. For
symbiotic systems we have to perform jet simulations of a pulsed underdense jet
in a high density ambient medium. We present the jet structure resulting from
our simulations and calculate emission plots which account for expected
radiative processes. In addition, our calculations provide expansion velocities
for the jet bow shock, the density and temperature structure in the jet, and
the propagation and evolution of the jet pulses.
  In MWC 560 the jet axis is parallel to the line of sight so that the
outflowing jet gas can be seen as blue shifted, variable absorption lines in
the continuum of the underlying jet source. Based on our simulations we
calculate and discuss synthetic absorption profiles.
  Based on a detailed comparison between model spectra and observations we
discuss our hydrodynamical calculations for a pulsed jet in MWC 560 and suggest
improvements for future models.


  With important application prospects, eutectic high entropy alloys have
received extensive attention for their excellent strength and ductility in a
large temperature range. The excellent casting characteristics of eutectic high
entropy alloys make it possible to achieve well manufacturability of selective
laser melting. For the first time, we have achieved crack-free eutectic high
entropy alloy fabricated by selective laser melting, which has excellent
mechanical properties in a wide temperature range of -196 degrees Celsius~760
degrees Celsius due to ultra-fine eutectic lamellar spacing of 150 ~ 200nm and
lamellar colony of 2 ~ 6 {\mu}m. Specifically, the room temperature tensile
strength exceeds 1400MPa and the elongation is more than 20%, significantly
improved compared with those manufactured by other techniques with lower
cooling rate.


  This research introduces a Machine Learning-centric approach to replicate
olfactory experiences, validated through experimental quantification of perfume
perception. Key contributions encompass a hybrid model connecting perfume
molecular structure to human olfactory perception. This model includes an
AI-driven molecule generator (utilizing Graph and Generative Neural Networks),
quantification and prediction of odor intensity, and refinery of optimal
solvent and molecule combinations for desired fragrances. Additionally, a
thermodynamic-based model establishes a link between olfactory perception and
liquid-phase concentrations. The methodology employs Transfer Learning and
selects the most suitable molecules based on vapor pressure and fragrance
notes. Ultimately, a mathematical optimization problem is formulated to
minimize discrepancies between new and target olfactory experiences. The
methodology is validated by reproducing two distinct olfactory experiences
using available experimental data.


  Automatic text summarisation has drawn considerable interest in the field of
software engineering. It can improve the efficiency of software developers,
enhance the quality of products, and ensure timely delivery. In this paper, we
present our initial work towards automatically generating human-like
multi-document summaries from heterogeneous software artefacts. Our analysis of
the text properties of 545 human-written summaries from 15 software engineering
projects will ultimately guide heuristics searches in the automatic generation
of human-like summaries.


  This are the notes of a course, given by the first author for the
Graduiertenkollegs (=graduate students) at the Ruhr-University Bochum, in
December 1997. These lectures pursued two main tasks:
  FIRST - to give a systematic and self-contained introduction to the Gromov
theory of pseudoholomorphic curves. This is done in Chapters I,II,III.
  SECOND - to explain our join results on envelopes of meromorphy of real
surfaces in complex two-dimensional manifolds. We do this in Chapter IV.


  We present position-position-velocity (PPV) cubes of the physical and
chemical properties of the molecular medium in the central 1.2 kpc region of
the active galaxy NGC 613 at a PPV resolution of
0.$^{\prime\prime}$8$\times$0.$^{\prime\prime}$8$\times$10 km s$^{-1}$
(0.$^{\prime\prime}$8 = $\sim$68 pc). We used eight molecular lines obtained
with ALMA. Non-LTE calculation with hierarchical Bayesian inference was used to
construct PPV cubes of the gas kinetic temperature ($T_\mathrm{kin}$),
molecular hydrogen volume density ($n_\mathrm{H_2}$), column densities
($N_\mathrm{H_2}$), and fractional abundances of four molecules
($^{12}$C$^{18}$O, HCN, HCO$^+$, and CS). The derived $n_\mathrm{H_2}$,
$N_\mathrm{H_2}$, and $T_\mathrm{kin}$ ranged 10$^{3.21-3.85}$ cm$^{-3}$,
10$^{20.8-22.1}$ cm$^{-2}$, and 10$^{2.33-2.64}$ K, respectively. Our first
application of the non-LTE method with the hierarchical Bayesian inference to
external galaxies yielded compatible results compared with the previous studies
of this galaxy, demonstrating the efficacy of this method for application to
other galaxies. We examined the correlation between gas surface density
$\Sigma_\mathrm{H_2}$ (converted from $N_\mathrm{H_2}$) and the star formation
rate $\Sigma_\mathrm{SFR}$ obtained from the 110 GHz continuum flux map and
found two distinct sequences in the $\Sigma_\mathrm{H_2}$-$\Sigma_\mathrm{SFR}$
diagram; the southwestern subregion of the star-forming ring exhibited a
$\sim$0.5 dex higher star formation efficiency (SFE;
$\Sigma_\mathrm{SFR}/\Sigma_\mathrm{H_2}$) than the eastern subregion. However,
they exhibited no systematic difference in $n_\mathrm{H_2}$, which is often
argued as a driver of SFE variation. We suggest that the deficiency of
molecular gas in the southwestern subregion, where no significant gas supply is
evident along the offset ridges in the bar, is responsible for the elevated
SFE.


  The dimension of the kernels of the edth and edth-prime operators on closed,
orientable spacelike 2-surfaces with arbitrary genus is calculated, and some of
its mathematical and physical consequences are discussed.


  Recent studies in speech perception have been closely linked to fields of
cognitive psychology, phonology, and phonetics in linguistics. During
perceptual attunement, a critical and sensitive developmental trajectory has
been examined in bilingual and monolingual infants where they can best
discriminate common phonemes. In this paper, we compare and identify these
cognitive aspects on deep neural-based visual lip-reading models. We conduct
experiments on the two most extensive public visual speech recognition datasets
for English and Mandarin. Through our experimental results, we observe a strong
correlation between these theories in cognitive psychology and our unique
modeling. We inspect how these computational models develop similar phases in
speech perception and acquisitions.


  Single crystals of Mn0.03Bi1.97Se3 were synthesized by modified Bridgman
technique and phase purity was confirmed via XRD analysis. EDAX analysis has
verified the stoichiometric ratio of elements in the sample. Sample flakes were
transferred to the SiO2/Si n-type substrate by mechanical exfoliation
technique. Four probe gold contacts were etched with the help of e-beam
lithography by masking and lift off process. Resistivity measurement was
performed in four probe configurations in 2-300 K temperature range. We report
evidence for Kon-do effect in Mn0.03Bi1.97Se3 micro-flakes with Tmin of 14.4 K.


  Based on the matrix ansatz of Derrida, Evans, Hakim and Pasquier, we prensent
a new way of computing the stationary probability of a state of the asym-
metric simple exclusion process (ASEP). Through an insertion algorithm over
staircase tableaux, we give a combinatorial proof to the current interpretation
of the ASEP by these tableaux of Corteel and Williams. The insertion algorithm
induces a recursive structure which implies nice factorised formulas for the
generating polynomials of staircase tableaux, as well as a bijection with some
coloured inversion tables. In addi- tion, we adapt the insertion algorithm to
the case of type B symmetric tableaux and we define a new matrix ansatz
compatible with it.


  The XENON1T dark matter experiment recently reported 0.65 ton-year exposure
measurement on electron recoils , which shows an excess in $2\sim 3$ KeV
recoils above the detector background. In this paper we present a Pseudo-Dirac
dark matter scenario to explain the excess via inelastic dark matter-electron
scattering. With a KeV scale mass splitting between the two components of the
Pseudo-Dirac dark matter, the slightly excited component can down-scatter on
electrons. The desired dark matter masses are about 10 GeV with a 4 KeV
mass-splitting and unity coupling to electrons, which generate the observed
XENON1T recoil events, give the appropriate dark matter relic abundance and
satisfy collider search limits.


  This work covers volume reduction in quantum field theories on a lattice at
large $N$ (number of colors), as first described by Eguchi and Kawai in 1982.
The volume reduction (or volume independence) means that the theory defined on
an arbitrarily small lattice is equivalent in the large-$N$ limit to the theory
on an infinite lattice with the same bare parameters. We analyze the volume
reduction by means of Monte Carlo simulations using the lattice model on a
single site (or a small fixed number of sites) with Wilson fermions in the
adjoint representation, using $N$ up to 60. Most of the results focus on two
flavours of Dirac fermions and the single fermionic flavour is also discussed
where there is a significant difference of behaviour. We find that the
$(Z_N)^4$ center symmetry, necessary for the realization of volume reduction,
is unbroken in the reduced model for a large range of parameters and, in
particular, that the maximum admissible value of the adjoint fermion mass is
non-zero in the large-$N$ limit. We calculate physical quantities, such as the
plaquette, the static quark potential and the eigenvalues of the Dirac
operator. We analyze the finite-$N$ corrections and consider the practicality
of volume-reduced models in supplementing the large-volume calculations.


  The aim of this paper is to provide mathematical foundations of a graph
transformation language, called UnCAL, using categorical semantics of type
theory and fixed points. About twenty years ago, Buneman et al. developed a
graph database query language UnQL on the top of a functional meta-language
UnCAL for describing and manipulating graphs. Recently, the functional
programming community has shown renewed interest in UnCAL, because it provides
an efficient graph transformation language which is useful for various
applications, such as bidirectional computation.
  In order to make UnCAL more flexible and fruitful for further extensions and
applications, in this paper, we give a more conceptual understanding of UnCAL
using categorical semantics. Our general interest of this paper is to clarify
what is the algebra of UnCAL. Thus, we give an equational axiomatisation and
categorical semantics of UnCAL, both of which are new. We show that the
axiomatisation is complete for the original bisimulation semantics of UnCAL.
Moreover, we provide a clean characterisation of the computation mechanism of
UnCAL called "structural recursion on graphs" using our categorical semantics.
We show a concrete model of UnCAL given by the lambdaG-calculus, which shows an
interesting connection to lazy functional programming.


  Starting with a new bosonization scheme for the \beta\gamma CFT of the
super-conformal ghosts, vertex operators are constructed for massless open
string states in the intersecting D-brane world. These vertex operators satisfy
all requirements for a consistent RNS formulation of superstring theories, so
GSO projections can be properly taken.


  Recently, an interesting mechanism [Phys.Rev.Lett.106:231101,2011] has been
proposed which produces all nonlinear terms in massive gravity to all orders .
In this work, we reproduce these results in M-theory and consider the process
of birth and growth of nonlinear gravity during the construction of Mp-branes.
It has been shown that Mp brane are built up of p- M1-branes which each of them
are connected to M1-branes of other Mp-brane through a wormhole. In this model,
by increasing the number of dimensions, the number of nonlinear terms in
relevant action of branes enhances and some theories like lovelock and
nonlinear gravity are raised. By compacting M-branes, graviton fields in
nonlinear gravity converts to photon fields and thus nonlinear electrodynamics
are produced.


  We present a suite of one-dimensional spherically-symmetric hydrodynamic
simulations that study the atomic ionization structure of galactic outflows. We
track the ionization state of the outflowing gas with a non-equilibrium atomic
chemistry network that includes photoionization, photo-heating, and ion-by-ion
cooling. Each simulation describes a steady-state outflow that is defined by
its mass and energy input rates, sonic radius, metallicity, and UV flux from
both the host galaxy and meta-galactic background. We find that for a large
range of parameter choices, the ionization state of the material departs
strongly from what it would be in photo-ionization equilibrium, in conflict
with what is commonly assumed in the analysis of observations. In addition,
nearly all the models reproduce the low N V to O VI column density ratios and
the relatively high O VI column densities that are observed.


  This paper provides a construction of a Fleming--Viot measure valued
diffusion process, for which the transition function is known, by extending
recent ideas of the Gibbs sampler based Markov processes. In particular, we
concentrate on the Chapman--Kolmogorov consistency conditions which allows a
simple derivation of such a Fleming--Viot process, once a key and apparently
new combinatorial result for P\'{o}lya-urn sequences has been established.


  The quantum \chi^2-divergence has recently been introduced and applied to
quantum channels (quantum Markov processes). In contrast to the classical
setting the quantum \chi^2-divergence is not unique but depends on the choice
of quantum statistics. In the reference [11] a special one-parameter family of
quantum \chi^2_\alpha(\rho,\sigma)-divergences for density matrices were
studied, and it was established that they are convex functions in (\rho,\sigma)
for parameter values \alpha\in [0,1], thus mirroring the classical theorem for
the \chi^2(p,q)-divergence for probability distributions (p,q). We prove that
any quantum \chi^2-divergence is a convex function in its two arguments.