  III-V materials show a wide range of gaps making them ideal for the design of
high efficiency solar cells. This chapter reviews relevant growth methods and
material properties of these materials and discusses methods of combining
heterogeneous materials, demonstrating the flexibility of design possible with
these materials. The fundamental loss mechanisms of solar cells are analysed
and quantified as a prelude to analysing high efficiency cell designs in
single, tandem, and triple junction solar cells. The detailed analysis of loss
mechanisms is used to obtain understanding of the limiting behaviour of these
designs, and show that bulk cells remain dominated by non-radiative losses
despite unity ideality factors. To conclude, this is contrasted with the
operating regime of nanostructured solar cells which can be shown to operate in
a radiatively dominated mode, and which therefore approach ideal solar cell
efficiency limits.


  The energies of neutrinos in a neutrinosphere, the dense matter created after
the gravitational collapse of a massive star, are estimated. Cubic equations
for energy eigenvalues of neutrinos are used, with the effective masses found
by taking the neutrinos at rest in neutrinosphere matter. Large differences in
the effective mass of some neutrino species in a neutrinosphere compared to
vacuum are found.


  We use vector Hamiltonian formalism (VHF) to study theoretically three-magnon
parametric interaction (or three-wave splitting) in a magnetic disk existing in
a magnetic vortex ground state. The three-wave splitting in a disk is found to
obey two selection rules: (i) conservation of the total azimuthal number of the
resultant spin-wave modes, and (ii) inequality for the radial numbers of
interacting modes, if the mode directly excited by the driving field is
radially symmetric (i.e. if the azimuthal number of the directly excited mode
is $m = 0$). The selection rule (ii), however, is relaxed in the "small"
magnetic disks, due to the influence of the vortex core. We also found, that
the efficiency of the three-wave interaction of the directly excited mode
strongly depends on the azimuthal and radial mode numbers of the resultant
modes, that becomes determinative in the case when several splitting channels
(several pairs of resultant modes) simultaneously approximately satisfy the
resonance condition for the splitting. The good agreement of the VHF analytic
calculations with the experiment and micromagnetic simulations proves the
capability of the VHF formalism to predict the actual splitting channels and
the magnitudes of the driving field thresholds for the three-wave splitting.


  Laser-interferometric gravitational wave detectors are commonly modeled as
being at rest in transverse-traceless coordinates (and thus geodesic). In this
paper, we analyze what happens if the interferometer is mounted on a material
that can undergo elastic oscillations caused by the gravitational wave. We thus
compute the response of a two-dimensional elastic material to linearized
gravitational radiation and compute the resulting response of a laser
interferometer, mounted on such a plate.


  We show that the gravitational potential in the plane of an axisymmetrical
flat disk where the surface density varies as a power of the radius obeys an
inhomogeneous first-order Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) solvable by
standard techniques. The potential being exactly known at the origin for any
power index (and at infinity as well), the search for solutions consists of a
Two-point Boundary Value Problem (TBVP) with Dirichlet conditions. The
computating time is then linear with the number of grid points, instead of
quadratic from direct summation methods. Complex mass distributions which can
be decomposed into a mixture of power law surface density profiles are easily
accessible through the superposition principle. This ODE definitively takes the
place of the untractable bidimensional Poisson equation for planar
calculations. It opens new horizons to investigate various aspects related to
self-gravity in astrophysical disks (force calculations, stability analysis,
etc.).


  We examine the emergence of periodicity in a non-interacting steady-state
quantum system without external drive inspired by quantum time crystals'
spontaneous time-translation symmetry breaking. Specifically, we consider a
lattice ring of non-interacting electrons undergoing weak local position
measurements. Our analysis uncovers time-periodic structures in steady-state
two-time correlation functions, with periodicity linked to the system's group
velocity. This study demonstrates a measurement-induced clock mechanism,
highlighting periodic behaviors in two-time correlators of a non-equilibrium
steady state, contributing to understanding time-periodic phenomena in
minimally interactive quantum systems.


  In conventional cryptography, information-theoretically secure message
authentication can be achieved by means of universal hash functions, and
requires that the two legitimate users share a random secret key, which is
twice as long as the message. We address the question as of whether quantum
resources can offer any advantage over classical unconditionally secure message
authentication codes. It is shown that passive prepare-and-measure quantum
message-authentication schemes cannot do better than their classical
counterparts. Subsequently we present an interactive entanglement-assisted
scheme, which ideally allows for the authentication of classical messages with
a classical key, which is as long as the message.


  This study proposes a multi-microphone complex spectral mapping approach for
speech dereverberation on a fixed array geometry. In the proposed approach, a
deep neural network (DNN) is trained to predict the real and imaginary (RI)
components of direct sound from the stacked reverberant (and noisy) RI
components of multiple microphones. We also investigate the integration of
multi-microphone complex spectral mapping with beamforming and post-filtering.
Experimental results on multi-channel speech dereverberation demonstrate the
effectiveness of the proposed approach.


  The brane world scenario is a new approach to resolve the problem on how to
compactify the higher dimensional spacetime to our 4-dimensional world. One of
the remarkable features of this scenario is the higher dimensional effects in
classical gravitational interactions at short distances. Due to this feature,
there are black string solutions in our 4-dimensional world. In this paper,
assuming the simplest model of complex minimally coupled scalar field with the
local U(1) symmetry, we show a possibility of black-string formation by merging
processes of type I long cosmic strings in our 4-dimensional world. No fine
tuning for the parameters in the model might be necessary.


  Low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) show evidence of a global correlation of
debated origin between X-ray and optical luminosity. We study for the first
time this correlation in two transient LMXBs, the black hole V404 Cyg and the
neutron star Cen X-4, over 6 orders of magnitude in X-ray luminosity, from
outburst to quiescence. After subtracting the contribution from the companion
star, the Cen X-4 data can be described by a single power law correlation of
the form $L_{opt}\propto\,L_{X}^{0.44}$, consistent with disk reprocessing. We
find a similar correlation slope for V404 Cyg in quiescence (0.46) and a
steeper one (0.56) in the outburst hard state of 1989. However, V404 Cyg is
about $160-280$ times optically brighter, at a given $3-9$ keV X-ray
luminosity, compared to Cen X-4. This ratio is a factor of 10 smaller in
quiescence, where the normalization of the V404 Cyg correlation also changes.
We show that once the bolometric X-ray emission is considered and the known
main differences between V404 Cyg and Cen X-4 are taken into account (a larger
compact object mass, accretion disk size, and the presence of a strong jet
contribution in the hard state for the black hole system) the two systems lie
on the same correlation. In V404 Cyg, the jet dominates spectrally at
optical-infrared frequencies during the hard state, but makes a negligible
contribution in quiescence, which may account for the change in its correlation
slope and normalization. These results provide a benchmark to compare with data
from the 2015 outburst of V404 Cyg and, potentially, other transient LMXBs as
well.


  The dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DT-$\mathbb{C}$WT) is extended to
the 4D setting. Key properties of 4D DT-$\mathbb{C}$WT, such as directional
sensitivity and shift-invariance, are discussed and illustrated in a
tomographic application. The inverse problem of reconstructing a dynamic
three-dimensional target from X-ray projection measurements can be formulated
as 4D space-time tomography. The results suggest that 4D DT-$\mathbb{C}$WT
offers simple implementations combined with useful theoretical properties for
tomographic reconstruction.


  Homological index of a holomorphic 1-form on a complex analytic variety with
an isolated singular point is an analogue of the usual index of a 1-form on a
non-singular manifold. One can say that it corresponds to the top Chern number
of a manifold. We offer a definition of homological indices for collections of
1-forms on a (purely dimensional) complex analytic variety with an isolated
singular point corresponding to other Chern numbers. We also define new
invariants of germs of complex analytic varieties with isolated singular points
related to "vanishing Chern numbers" at them.


  We present a model for cosmological inflation based on a no-scale
supergravity sector with an SU(2,1)/U(1) Kahler potential, a single modulus T
and an inflaton superfield Phi described by a Wess-Zumino model with
superpotential parameters (mu, lambda). This model yields a scalar spectral
index n_s and a tensor-to-scalar ratio r that are compatible with the Planck
measurements for values of lambda simeq mu/3M_P. For the specific choice lambda
= mu/3M_P, the model is a no-scale supergravity realization of the R+R^2
Starobinsky model.


  We report the discovery of PSJ2107-1611, a fold-configuration 4.3"-separation
quadruply lensed quasar with a bright lensed arc. It was discovered using a
convolutional neural network on Pan-STARRS gri images of pre-selected quasar
candidates with multiple nearby Pan-STARRS detections. Spectroscopic follow-up
with EFOSC2 on the ESO 3.58m New Technology Telescope reveals the source to be
a quasar at z = 2.673, with the blended fold image pair showing deformed broad
lines relative to the other images. The flux ratios measured from optical to
near-infrared imaging in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey,
Pan-STARRS, the Legacy Surveys, and the Vista Hemisphere Survey are
inconsistent with a smooth mass model as the fold pair images are about 15
times too faint. Variability, time delay effects, and reddening are ruled out
through multiple-epoch imaging and color information. The system is marginally
resolved in the radio in the Very Large Array Sky Survey S-band, where it has a
10 mJy detection. The radio flux ratios are compatible with the smooth mass
macromodel. This system offers a unique tool for future studies of quasar
structure with strong and microlensing. A more detailed analysis of follow-up
with JWST/MIRI, VLT/MUSE, VLT/ERIS, and data from the European Very Long
Baseline Interferometer will be presented in an upcoming paper.


  The Koopman framework is a popular approach to transform a finite dimensional
nonlinear system into an infinite dimensional, but linear model through a
lifting process, using so-called observable functions. While there is an
extensive theory on infinite dimensional representations in the operator sense,
there are few constructive results on how to select the observables to realize
them. When it comes to the possibility of finite Koopman representations, which
are highly important form a practical point of view, there is no constructive
theory. Hence, in practice, often a data-based method and ad-hoc choice of the
observable functions is used. When truncating to a finite number of basis,
there is also no clear indication of the introduced approximation error. In
this paper, we propose a systematic method to compute the finite dimensional
Koopman embedding of a specific class of polynomial nonlinear systems in
continuous-time such that, the embedding, without approximation, can fully
represent the dynamics of the nonlinear system.


  Coulomb repulsion between electrons moving on a frustrated lattice can give
rise, at simple commensurate electronic densities, to exotic insulating phases
of matter. Such a phenomenon is illustrated using an extended t--J model on a
planar pyrochlore lattice for which the work on the quarter-filled case
[cond-mat/0702367] is complemented and extended to 1/8- and 3/8-fillings. The
location of the metal-insulator transition as a function of the Coulomb
repulsion is shown to depend strongly on the sign of the hopping. Quite
generally, the metal-insulator transition is characterized by lattice symmetry
breaking but the nature of the insulating Mott state is more complex than a
simple Charge Density Wave. Indeed, in the limit of large Coulomb repulsion,
the physics can be described in the framework of (extended) quantum
fully-packed loop or dimer models carrying extra spin degrees of freedom.
Various diagonal and off-diagonal plaquette correlation functions are computed
and the low-energy spectra are analyzed in details in order to characterize the
nature of the insulating phases. We provide evidence that, as for an electronic
density of n=1/2 (quarter-filling), the system at $n=1/4$ or $n=3/4$ exhibits
also plaquette order by forming a (lattice rotationally-invariant)
Resonating-Singlet-Pair Crystal, although with a quadrupling of the lattice
unit cell (instead of a doubling for $n=1/2$) and a 4-fold degenerate ground
state. Interestingly, qualitative differences with the bosonic analog (e.g.
known to exhibit columnar order at n=1/4) emphasize the important role of the
spin degrees of freedom in e.g. stabilizing plaquette phases w.r.t. rotational
symmetry-breaking phases.


  The operation of the next generation of gamma-ray observatories will lead to
a great advance in dark matter searches. In this paper, we use the hidden
sectors hypothesis within the so-called secluded models to calculate the
capabilities of the Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) to detect
gamma-ray signatures produced by dark matter particles concentrated in the Sun.
We assume the dark matter particle annihilates into metastable mediators which
decay into $\gamma\gamma$, $e^+e^-$, $\tau^+\tau^-$, and $\bar{b}b$ outside the
Sun. We found that the SWGO will be able to probe a spin-dependent
cross-section of about $10^{-46}$ cm$^2$ for dark matter masses smaller than 5
TeV. This result shows an unprecedented sensitivity surpassing the current
instruments by more than one order of magnitude.


  Double no-touch options, contracts which pay out a fixed amount provided an
underlying asset remains within a given interval, are commonly traded,
particularly in FX markets. In this work, we establish model-free bounds on the
price of these options based on the prices of more liquidly traded options
(call and digital call options). Key steps are the construction of super- and
sub-hedging strategies to establish the bounds, and the use of Skorokhod
embedding techniques to show the bounds are the best possible.
  In addition to establishing rigorous bounds, we consider carefully what is
meant by arbitrage in settings where there is no {\it a priori} known
probability measure. We discuss two natural extensions of the notion of
arbitrage, weak arbitrage and weak free lunch with vanishing risk, which are
needed to establish equivalence between the lack of arbitrage and the existence
of a market model.


  We study the nonlinear stage of the modulation instability of a condensate in
the framework of the focusing Nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger Equation. We find a
general N-solitonic solution of the focusing NLSE in the presence of a
condensate by using the dressing method. We separate a special designated class
of "regular solitonic solutions" that do not disturb phases of the condensate
at infinity by coordinate. All regular solitonic solutions can be treated as
localized perturbations of the condensate. We find an important class of
"superregular solitonic solutions" which are small perturbations at certain a
moment of time. They describe the nonlinear stage of the modulation instability
of the condensate.


  The Blue Whale Challenge is a series of self-harm causing tasks that are
propagated via online social media under the disguise of a "game." The list of
tasks must be completed in a duration of 50 days and they cause both physical
and mental harm to the player. The final task is to commit suicide. The game is
supposed to be administered by people called "curators" who incite others to
cause self-mutilation and commit suicide. The curators and potential players
are known to contact each other on social networking websites and the
conversations between them are suspected to take place mainly via direct
messages which are difficult to track. Though, in order to find curators, the
players make public posts containing certain hashtags/keywords to catch their
attention. Even though a lot of these social networks have moderated posts
talking about the game, yet some posts manage to pass their filters. Our
research focuses on (1) understanding the social media spread of the challenge,
(2) spotting the behaviour of the people taking interest in Blue Whale
challenge and, (3) analysing demographics of the users who may be involved in
playing the game.


  A major problem with periodic boundary condition on the gauge fields used in
current lattice gauge theory simulations is the trapping of topological charge
in a particular sector as the continuum limit is approached. To overcome this
problem open boundary condition in the temporal direction has been proposed
recently. One may ask whether open boundary condition can reproduce the
observables calculated with periodic boundary condition. In this work we find
that the extracted lowest glueball mass using open and periodic boundary
conditions at the same lattice volume and lattice spacing agree for the range
of lattice scales explored in the range 3 GeV $\leq $ 1/a $\leq$ 5 GeV. The
problem of trapping is overcome to a large extent with open boundary and we are
able to extract the glueball mass at even larger lattice scale $\approx$ 5.7
GeV. To smoothen the gauge fields and to reduce the cut off artifacts recently
proposed Wilson flow is used. The extracted glueball mass shows remarkable
insensitivity to the lattice spacings in the range explored in this work, 3 GeV
$\leq$ 1/a $\leq$ 5.7 GeV.


  The J-flow is a parabolic flow on Kahler manifolds. It was defined by
Donaldson in the setting of moment maps and by Chen as the gradient flow of the
J-functional appearing in his formula for the Mabuchi energy. It is shown here
that under a certain condition on the initial data, the J-flow converges to a
critical metric. This is a generalization to higher dimensions of the author's
previous work on Kahler surfaces. A corollary of this is the lower boundedness
of the Mabuchi energy on Kahler classes satisfying a certain inequality when
the first Chern class of the manifold is negative.


  Vela X is a pulsar wind nebula in which two relativistic particle populations
with distinct spatial and spectral distributions dominate the emission at
different wavelengths. An extended $2^\circ \times 3^\circ$ nebula is seen in
radio and GeV gamma rays. An elongated cocoon prevails in X-rays and TeV gamma
rays. We use 9.5 years of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) to
disentangle gamma-ray emission from the two components in the energy range from
10 GeV to 2 TeV, bridging the gap between previous measurements at GeV and TeV
energies. We determine the morphology of emission associated to Vela X
separately at energies < 100 GeV and > 100 GeV, and compare it to the
morphology seen at other wavelengths. Then, we derive the spectral energy
distribution of the two gamma-ray components over the full energy range. The
best fit to the LAT data is provided by the combination of the two components
derived at energies < 100 GeV and > 100 GeV. The first component has a soft
spectrum, spectral index $2.19\pm0.16^{+0.05}_{-0.22}$, and extends over a
region of radius $1.36^\circ\pm0.04^\circ$, consistent with the radio nebula.
The second component has a harder spectrum, spectral index
$0.9\pm0.3^{+0.3}_{-0.1}$, and is concentrated over an area of radius
$0.63^\circ\pm0.03^\circ$, coincident with the X-ray cocoon that had already
been established to account for the bulk of the emission at TeV energies. The
spectrum measured for the low-energy component corroborates previous evidence
for a roll-over of the electron spectrum at energies of a few tens of GeV
possibly due to diffusive escape. The high-energy component has a very hard
spectrum: if the emission is produced by electrons with a power-law spectrum
the electrons must be uncooled, and there is a hint that their spectrum may be
harder than predictions by standard models of Fermi acceleration at
relativistic shocks. (Abridged)


  We report the results of a study of color coherence effects in ppbar
collisions based on data collected by the D0 detector during the 1994-1995 run
of the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, at a center of mass energy sqrt(s) = 1.8
TeV. Initial-to-final state color interference effects are studied by examining
particle distribution patterns in events with a W boson and at least one jet.
The data are compared to Monte Carlo simulations with different color coherence
implementations and to an analytic modified-leading-logarithm perturbative
calculation based on the local parton-hadron duality hypothesis.


  We clarify a discrepancy between two previous calculations of the two-loop
QED Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian, both performed in proper-time regularization,
by calculating this quantity in dimensional regularization.


  It has been reported that a fully localized turbulent band in channel flow
becomes sustained when the Reynolds number is above a threshold. Here we show
evidences that turbulent bands are of a transient nature instead. When the band
length is controlled to be fixed, lifetimes of turbulent bands appear to be
stochastic and exponentially distributed, a sign of a memoryless transient
nature. Besides increasing with the Reynolds number, the mean lifetime also
strongly increases with the band length. Given that the band length always
changes over time in real channel flow, this size dependence may translate into
a time dependence, which needs to be taken into account when clarifying the
relationship between channel flow transition and the directed percolation
universality class.


  The subclass of Euler graphs with only one type of cycles under (mod 4)
operation was studied in Part-1 of this series. It was established that such
graphs under regularity are nonexistent for degree >2. Here we consider the
subclass of Euler graphs with only two types of cycles under (mod 4) operation.
Six cases arise. The case when the cycle types are 0&2(mod 4), the well known
class of bipartite Euler graphs, the existence of regular bipartite Euler
graphs is very much known. In the other five cases, it transpires that regular
Euler graphs with only two types of cycles are nonexistent. Some constructions
of Euler graphs with the property are given. We investigate some properties of
cycle decompositions, block structure and cycle intersections. Cycle
decomposition of Euler graphs allows segregating Euler graphs satisfying
Rosa-Golumb criterion and so are nongraceful. In the other case the graphs are
possible candidates for gracefulness and are conjectured graceful leading to
better understanding of gracefulness boundaries. The cases when the cycle types
are 1&2, 1&3, 2&3(mod 4) the graphs are proved to be planar and in other three
cases the graphs may not be planar with examples of nonplanar graphs. Probe
into the properties of Euler graphs is to propose expected gracefulness
boundaries which may guide where to look for graceful graphs. Further, the
conjectures may lead to analytical techniques for establishing gracefulness
property.


  We report the discovery of an ultra-faint dwarf in the constellation of
Pegasus. Pegasus~V (Peg~V) was initially identified in the public imaging data
release of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys and confirmed with deep imaging from
Gemini/GMOS-N. The colour-magnitude diagram shows a sparse red giant branch
(RGB) population and a strong over-density of blue horizontal branch stars. We
measure a distance to Peg~V of $D=692^{+33}_{-31}$~kpc, making it a distant
satellite of Andromeda with $M_V=-6.3\pm0.2$ and a half-light radius of $r_{\rm
half}=89\pm41$~pc. It is located $\sim260$~kpc from Andromeda in the outskirts
of its halo. The RGB is well-fit by a metal-poor isochrone with [Fe/H]$=-3.2$,
suggesting it is very metal poor. This, combined with its blue horizontal
branch could imply that it is a reionisation fossil. This is the first
detection of an ultra-faint dwarf outside the deep Pan-Andromeda Archaeological
Survey area, and points to a rich, faint satellite population in the outskirts
of our nearest neighbour.


  We propose a scenario where a companion that is about to exit a common
envelope evolution (CEE) with a giant star accretes mass from the remaining
envelope outside its deep orbit and launches jets that facilitate the removal
of the remaining envelope. The jets that the accretion disk launches collide
with the envelope and form hot bubbles that energize the envelope. Due to
gravitational interaction with the envelope, that might reside in a
circumbinary disk, the companion migrates further in, but the inner boundary of
the circumbinary disk continues to feed the accretion disk. While near the
equatorial plane mass leaves the system at a very low velocity, along the polar
directions velocities are very high. When the primary is an asymptotic giant
branch star, this type of flow forms a bipolar nebula with very narrow waists.
We compare this envelope removal process with four others last-phase common
envelope removal processes. We also note that the accreted gas from the
envelope outside the orbit in the last-phase of the CEE might carry with it
angular momentum that is antialigned to the orbital angular momentum. We
discuss the implications to the possibly antialigned spins of the merging black
hole event GW170104.


  We prove that any piece of a rotational hypersurface with prescribed mean
curvature function in a Euclidean space can be uniquely extended infinitely,
which generalizes the results by Euler and Delaunay for surfaces of revolution
with constant mean curvautre. Next, we prove the same kind of theorem for
generalized rotational hypersurfaces of O(l+1) x O(m+1)-type. The key lemmas in
this paper show the existence of solutions for singular initial value problems
which arise from the analysis of ordinary differential equations of generating
curves of those hypersurfaces.


  In order to specify a foliation of spacetime by spacelike hypersurfaces we
need to place some restriction on the initial data and from this derive a way
to calculate the lapse function $\alpha$ which measures the proper time and
interval between neighbouring hypersurfaces along the normal direction. Here we
study a prescribed slicing known as the Constant Mean Curvature (CMC) slicing.
This slicing will be applied to the Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m metric and the
resultant slices will be investigated and then compared to those of the
extended Schwarzschild solution.


  Glycolaldehyde (CH$_{2}$OHCHO) is the simplest monosaccharide sugar in the
interstellar medium, and it is directly involved in the origin of life via the
'RNA world' hypothesis. We present the first detection of glycolaldehyde
(CH$_{2}$OHCHO) towards the hot molecular core G358.93-0.03 MM1 using the
Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). The calculated column
density of CH$_{2}$OHCHO towards G358.93-0.03 MM1 is
(1.52$\pm$0.9)$\times$10$^{16}$ cm$^{-2}$ with an excitation temperature of
300$\pm$68.5 K. The derived fractional abundance of CH$_{2}$OHCHO with respect
to H$_{2}$ is (4.90$\pm$2.92)$\times$10$^{-9}$, which is consistent with that
estimated by existing two-phase warm-up chemical models. We discuss the
possible formation pathways of CH$_{2}$OHCHO within the context of hot
molecular cores and hot corinos and find that CH$_{2}$OHCHO is likely formed
via the reactions of radical HCO and radical CH$_{2}$OH on the grain surface of
G358.93-0.03 MM1.


  A model for the Reynolds number dependence of the dimensionless dissipation
rate $C_{\varepsilon}$ was derived from the dimensionless
K\'{a}rm\'{a}n-Howarth equation, resulting in $C_{\varepsilon}=C_{\varepsilon,
\infty} + C/R_L + O(1/R_L^2)$, where $R_L$ is the integral scale Reynolds
number. The coefficients $C$ and $C_{\varepsilon,\infty}$ arise from asymptotic
expansions of the dimensionless second- and third-order structure functions.
This theoretical work was supplemented by direct numerical simulations (DNSs)
of forced isotropic turbulence for integral scale Reynolds numbers up to
$R_L=5875$ ($R_\lambda=435$), which were used to establish that the decay of
dimensionless dissipation with increasing Reynolds number took the form of a
power law $R_L^n$ with exponent value $n = -1.000\pm 0.009$, and that this
decay of $C_{\varepsilon}$ was actually due to the increase in the Taylor
surrogate $U^3/L$. The model equation was fitted to data from the DNS which
resulted in the value $C=18.9\pm 1.3$ and in an asymptotic value for
$C_\varepsilon$ in the infinite Reynolds number limit of
$C_{\varepsilon,\infty} = 0.468 \pm 0.006$.


  Gravitational clustering in our cosmic vicinity is expected to lead to an
enhancement of the local density of relic neutrinos. We derive expressions for
the neutrino density, using a perturbative approach to kinetic field theory and
perturbative solutions of the Vlasov equation up to second order. Our work
reveals that both formalisms give exactly the same results and can thus be
considered equivalent. Numerical evaluation of the local relic neutrino density
at first and second order provides some fundamental insights into the
frequently applied approach of linear response to neutrino clustering (also
known as the Gilbert equation). Against the naive expectation, including the
second-order contribution does not lead to an improvement of the prediction for
the local relic neutrino density but to a dramatic overestimation. This is
because perturbation theory breaks down in a momentum-dependent fashion and in
particular for densities well below unity.


  In this chapter we illustrate the use of some Machine Learning techniques in
the context of omics data. More precisely, we review and evaluate the use of
Random Forest and Penalized Multinomial Logistic Regression for integrative
analysis of genomics and immunomics in pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, we
propose the use of association rules with predictive purposes to overcome the
low predictive power of the previously mentioned models. Finally, we apply the
reviewed methods to a real data set from TCGA made of 107 tumoral pancreatic
samples and 117,486 germline SNPs, showing the good performance of the proposed
methods to predict the immunological infiltration in pancreatic cancer.


  Time-energy uncertainty relation (TEUR) plays a fundamental role in quantum
mechanics, as it allows to grasp peculiar aspects of a variety of phenomena
based on very general principles and symmetries of the theory. Using the
Mandelstam-Tamm method, TEUR has been recently derived for neutrino
oscillations by connecting the uncertainty on neutrino energy with the
characteristic time-scale of oscillations. Interestingly enough, the suggestive
interpretation of neutrinos as unstable-like particles has proved to naturally
emerge in this context. Further aspects have been later discussed in
semiclassical gravity by computing corrections to the neutrino energy
uncertainty in a generic stationary curved spacetime, and in quantum field
theory, where the clock observable turns out to be identified with the
non-conserved flavor charge operator. In the present work, we give an overview
on the above achievements. In particular, we analyze the implications of TEUR
and explore the impact of gravitational and non-relativistic effects on the
standard condition for neutrino oscillations.


  The main purpose of this paper is to introduce the concepts of Wijsman
$C_{\lambda}$ statistical convergence, Wijsman $C_{\lambda}$ summability and
Wijsman $\mathcal{I}$-$C_{\lambda}$ summability for sequence of sets by using
submethod. Also, we establish some relations among the Wijsman $C_{\lambda}$
summability, Wijsman $D_{\lambda}$ summability and Wijsman $C_{1}$ summability.
Finally, we have given some equivalence results for these concepts.


  The Einstein Telescope (ET) is the future third generation gravitational wave
detector consisting of three independent interferometers arranged in a
triangular configuration, with the sensitivity large enough to be able to
detect stellar mass black holes even beyond the redshift of 10. In this paper,
we analyze the capabilities of ET as a standalone instrument and not part of a
network. We show that the analysis of detection of binary coalescences in the
three individual interferometers of the ET allow us to weakly constrain the sky
location of the source. We present the analysis that leads to the constraints
on the redshift and source frame chirp mass of detected binaries. We show that
these values can be estimated with the accuracy comparable to the one expected
from networks of gravitational wave interferometers. Thus, we show that the ET
as a single instrument is able to break the redshift - chirp mass degeneracy
and is therefore a valuable tool to explore properties of populations of
merging compact object binaries.


  We present integral field spectroscopy in the near infrared (NIR) of He 2-10
and NGC 5253, two well known nearby dwarf irregular galaxies showing high
star-formation rates. Our data provide an unprecedented detailed view of the
interstellar medium and star formation in these galaxies, allowing us to obtain
spatially resolved information from the NIR emission and absorption line
tracers. We study the spatial distribution and kinematics of different
components of the interstellar medium (ISM) mostly through the Bracket series
lines, the molecular hydrogen spectrum, [FeII] emission, and CO absorptions.
Although the ISM is mostly photo-excited, as derived by the [FeII]/Bry and H2
line ratios, some regions corresponding to non-thermal radio sources show a
[FeII]/Bry excess due to a significant contribution of SN driven shocks. In He
2-10 we find that the molecular gas clouds, as traced by CO(2-1) and H2
infrared line, show consistent morphologies and velocities when studied with
the two different tracers. Moreover, there is a clear association with the
youngest super star clusters as traced by the ionized gas. In the same galaxy
we observe a cavity depleted of gas, which is surrounded by some of the most
active regions of star formation, that we interpret as a signature of
feedback-induced star formation from older episodes of star formation. Finally,
we measured high turbulence in the ISM of both galaxies, sigma~30-80 km/s,
driven by the high star-formation activity.


  Vibrational properties of solids are key to determining stability, response
and functionality. However, they are challenging to computationally predict at
Ab-Initio accuracy, even for elemental systems. Ab-Initio methods for modeling
atomic interactions are limited in the system sizes and simulation times that
can be achieved. Due to these limitations, Machine Learning Interatomic
Potentials (MLIPs) are gaining popularity and success as a faster, more
scalable approach for modeling atomic interactions, potentially at Ab-Initio
accuracy. Even with faster potentials, methodologies for predicting entropy,
free energy and vibrational properties vary in accuracy, cost and difficulty to
implement. Using the Covariance of Atomic Displacements (CAD) to predict
entropy, free energy and finite-temperature phonon dispersions is a promising
approach but thorough benchmarking has been hampered by the cost of Ab-Initio
methods for sampling. In this work, we use a MLIP and the CAD to characterize
the convergence of the predicted properties and determine optimal sampling
strategies. We focus on solid lithium at zero pressure, showing that the
MLIP-CAD approach reproduces experimental entropy, phonon dispersions and the
martensitic transition while also comparing to more established methods.


  We analyze the waiting time distribution of time distances $\tau$ between two
nearest-neighbor flares. This analysis is based on the joint use of two
distinct techniques. The first is the direct evaluation of the distribution
function $\psi(\tau)$, or of the probability, $\Psi(tau)$, that no time
distance smaller than a given $\tau$ is found. We adopt the paradigm of the
inverse power law behavior, and we focus on the determination of the inverse
power index $\mu$, without ruling out different asymptotic properties that
might be revealed, at larger scales, with the help of richer statistics. The
second technique, called Diffusion Entropy (DE) method, rests on the evaluation
of the entropy of the diffusion process generated by the time series. The
details of the diffusion process depend on three different walking rules, which
determine the form and the time duration of the transition to the scaling
regime, as well as the scaling parameter $\delta$. With the first two rules the
information contained in the time series is transmitted, to a great extent, to
the transition, as well as to the scaling regime. The same information is
essentially conveyed, by using the third rules, into the scaling regime, which,
in fact, emerges very quickly after a fast transition process. We show that the
significant information hidden within the time series concerns memory induced
by the solar cycle, as well as the power index $\mu$. The scaling parameter
$\delta$ becomes a simple function of $\mu$, when memory is annihilated. Thus,
the three walking rules yield a unique and precise value of $\mu$ if the memory
is wisely taken under control, or cancelled by shuffling the data. All this
makes compelling the conclusion that $\mu = 2.138 \pm 0.01$.


  We show that in a model obtained by forcing with a countable support
iteration of length omega_2 of Mathias forcing h(2), the distributivity number
of r.o.(P(omega)/fin)^2, is omega_1 but h, the one of P(omega)/fin, is omega_2.


  Rosenfeld defined a fuzzy subgroup of group $G$ as a fuzzy subset of $G$ with
two special conditions attached\cite{Rosenfeld1971Fuzzysubgroups}. In this
paper, we introduce the fuzzy $t$-norms and vague $t$-norms. The unit interval
with a $t$-norm or a $t$-conorm is a special monoid, so we mainly talk about
fuzzy subsets of monoids and vague monoids. Firstly, we generalize some
properties of $t$-norm to fuzzy $t$-subnorm, so that we can analyze and
classify the fuzzy $t$-norms. Further, we explore specific research on these
properties of the vague $t$-norm. In addition, the concept of lattice is
introduced, and then the present conclusions are extended to bounded lattices.
Finally, we define the concept of fuzzy monoids by aggregate functions,
uninorms, nullnorms and draw the relevant results.


  V923 Sco is a bright ($V$ = 5.91), nearby ($\pi$ = 15.46$\pm$0.40 mas)
southern eclipsing binary. Because both components are slow rotators, the
minimum masses of the components are known with 0.2% precision from
spectroscopy. The system seems ideal for very precise mass, radius, and
luminosity determinations and, owing to its proximity and long orbital period
($\sim$ 34.8 days), promises to be resolved with long-baseline interferometry.
  The principal aim is very accurate determinations of absolute stellar
parameters for both components of the eclipsing binary and a model-independent
determination of the distance.}
  New high-precision photometry of both eclipses of V923 Sco with the MOST
satellite was obtained. The system was spatially resolved with the VLTI AMBER,
PIONIER, and GRAVITY instruments at nine epochs. Combining the projected size
of the spectroscopic orbit (in km) and visual orbit (in mas) the distance to
the system is derived. Simultaneous analysis of photometric, spectroscopic, and
interferometric data was performed to obtain a robust determination of the
absolute parameters.
  Very precise absolute parameters of the components were derived in spite of
the parameter correlations. The primary component is found to be overluminous
for its mass. Combining spectroscopic and interferometric observations enabled
us to determine the distance to V923 Sco with better than 0.2% precision, which
provides a stringent test of Gaia parallaxes.
  It is shown that combining spectroscopic and interferometric observations of
nearby eclipsing binaries can lead to extremely accurate parallaxes and stellar
parameters.


  As the rapidly developments of artificial intelligence and machine learning,
behavior tree design in multiagent system or AI game become more important. The
behavior tree design problem is highly related to the source coding in
information theory. "Twenty Questions" problem is a typical example for the
behavior tree design, usually used to explain the source coding application in
information theory and can be solved by Huffman coding. In some realistic
scenarios, there are some constraints on the asked questions. However, for
general question set, finding the minimum expected querying length is an open
problem, belongs to NP-hard. Recently, a new coding scheme has been proposed to
provide a near optimal solution for binary cases with some constraints, named
greedy binary separation coding (GBSC). In this work, we shall generalize it to
D-ary cases and propose maximum information gain coding (MIGC) approach to
solve the multi-answer decision constrained querying problem. The optimality of
the proposed MIGC is discussed in theory. Later on, we also apply MIGC to
discuss three practical scenarios and showcase that MIGC has better performance
than GBSC and Shannon Coding in terms of bits persymbol.


  We have searched for solar hidden photons in the eV energy range using a
dedicated hidden photon detector. The detector consisted of a parabolic mirror
with a diameter of 500mm and a focal length of 1007mm installed in a vacuum
chamber, and a photomultiplier tube at its focal point. The detector was
attached to the Tokyo axion helioscope, Sumico which has a mechanism to track
the sun. From the result of the measurement, we found no evidence for the
existence of hidden photons and set a limit on the photon-hidden photon mixing
parameter \chi depending on the hidden photon mass m_{\gamma '}.


  Let $F/F^+$ be a CM field and let $\widetilde{v}$ be a finite unramified
place of $F$ above the prime $p$. Let $\overline{r}:
\mathrm{Gal}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}/F)\rightarrow
\mathrm{GL}_n(\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p)$ be a continuous representation which we
assume to be modular for a unitary group over $F^+$ which is compact at all
real places. We prove, under Taylor--Wiles hypotheses, that the smooth
$\mathrm{GL}_n(F_{\widetilde{v}})$-action on the corresponding Hecke isotypical
part of the mod-$p$ cohomology with infinite level above $\widetilde{v}|_{F^+}$
determines
$\overline{r}|_{\mathrm{Gal}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}_p/F_{\widetilde{v}})}$, when
this latter restriction is Fontaine--Laffaille and has a suitably generic
semisimplification.


  Based on the Schrodinger equation, exact expressions for the non-relativistic
particle energy in the local external field and the external field potential
are derived as inhomogeneous density functionals. On this basis, it is shown
that, when considering more than two noninteracting electrons, the energy of
such a system cannot be an inhomogeneous density functional. The result is
extended for the system of interacting electrons. This means that the
Hohenberg-Kohn lemma which assert that in the ground state to each
inhomogeneous density corresponds only one potential of the external field
cannot be a justification of the existence of the universal density functional
in the general case. At the same time, statements of the density functional
theory remain valid when considering any number of noninteracting ground-state
bosons due to the Bose condensation effect.


  Large-scale synthetic datasets are beneficial to stereo matching but usually
introduce known domain bias. Although unsupervised image-to-image translation
networks represented by CycleGAN show great potential in dealing with domain
gap, it is non-trivial to generalize this method to stereo matching due to the
problem of pixel distortion and stereo mismatch after translation. In this
paper, we propose an end-to-end training framework with domain translation and
stereo matching networks to tackle this challenge. First, joint optimization
between domain translation and stereo matching networks in our end-to-end
framework makes the former facilitate the latter one to the maximum extent.
Second, this framework introduces two novel losses, i.e., bidirectional
multi-scale feature re-projection loss and correlation consistency loss, to
help translate all synthetic stereo images into realistic ones as well as
maintain epipolar constraints. The effective combination of above two
contributions leads to impressive stereo-consistent translation and disparity
estimation accuracy. In addition, a mode seeking regularization term is added
to endow the synthetic-to-real translation results with higher fine-grained
diversity. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed
framework on bridging the synthetic-to-real domain gap on stereo matching.


  In this paper, we have considered two fully synchronous $\mathcal{OBLOT}$
robots having no agreement on coordinates entering a finite unoriented grid
through a door vertex at a corner, one by one. There is a resource that can
move around the grid synchronously with the robots until it gets co-located
along with at least one robot. Assuming the robots can see and identify the
resource, we consider the problem where the robots must meet at the location of
this dynamic resource within finite rounds. We name this problem "Rendezvous on
a Known Dynamic Point".
  Here, we have provided an algorithm for the two robots to gather at the
location of the dynamic resource. We have also provided a lower bound on time
for this problem and showed that with certain assumption on the waiting time of
the resource on a single vertex, the algorithm provided is time optimal. We
have also shown that it is impossible to solve this problem if the scheduler
considered is semi-synchronous.


  We introduce QuAlg, an open-source symbolic algebra package for quantum
information. QuAlg supports working with qubit-states, qudit-states,
fock-states and even wave-functions in infinite dimenional Hilbert spaces.
States can have amplitudes which are pure complex numbers or more complicated
symbolic expressions involving for example delta-distributions. These symbolic
expressions can be automatically simplified and integrated. Furthermore,
arbitrary operators can be defined, even transformations between different
Hilbert spaces. Operators can be applied to states or used to defined
measurement operators.


  Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are designed to help developers
build software more effectively. Recommending the right APIs for specific tasks
has gained increasing attention among researchers and developers in recent
years. To comprehensively understand this research domain, we have surveyed to
analyze API recommendation studies published in the last 10 years. Our study
begins with an overview of the structure of API recommendation tools.
Subsequently, we systematically analyze prior research and pose four key
research questions. For RQ1, we examine the volume of published papers and the
venues in which these papers appear within the API recommendation field. In
RQ2, we categorize and summarize the prevalent data sources and collection
methods employed in API recommendation research. In RQ3, we explore the types
of data and common data representations utilized by API recommendation
approaches. We also investigate the typical data extraction procedures and
collection approaches employed by the existing approaches. RQ4 delves into the
modeling techniques employed by API recommendation approaches, encompassing
both statistical and deep learning models. Additionally, we compile an overview
of the prevalent ranking strategies and evaluation metrics used for assessing
API recommendation tools. Drawing from our survey findings, we identify current
challenges in API recommendation research that warrant further exploration,
along with potential avenues for future research.


  Based on our recent MHD simulations, first, a concept of the successive
merging of plasmoids and fragmentation in the current sheet in the standard
flare model is presented. Then, using a 2.5-D electromagnetic particle-in-cell
model with free boundary conditions, these processes were modelled on the
kinetic level of plasma description. We recognized the plasmoids which mutually
interacted and finally merged into one large plasmoid. Between interacting
plasmoids further plasmoids and current sheets on smaller and smaller spatial
scales were formed in agreement with the fragmentation found in MHD
simulations. During interactions (merging - coalescences) of the plasmoids the
electrons were very efficiently accelerated and heated. We found that after a
series of such merging processes the electrons in some regions reached the
energies relevant for the emission in the hard X-ray range. Considering these
energetic electrons and assuming the plasma density 10^9-10^10 cm^{-3} and the
source volume as in the December 31, 2007 flare (Krucker at al. 2010, ApJ 714,
1108), we computed the X-ray spectra as produced by the bremsstrahlung emission
process. Comparing these spectra with observations, we think that these
processes can explain the observed above-the-loop-top hard X-ray sources.
Furthermore, we show that the process of a fragmentation between two merging
plasmoids can generate the narrowband dm-spikes. Formulas for schematic fractal
reconnection structures were derived. Finally, the results were discussed.


  In this paper we propose the use of neural interference as the origin of
quantum-like effects in the brain. We do so by using a neural oscillator model
consistent with neurophysiological data. The model used was shown to reproduce
well the predictions of behavioral stimulus-response theory. The quantum-like
effects are obtained by the spreading activation of incompatible oscillators,
leading to an interference-like effect mediated by inhibitory and excitatory
synapses.


  The use of deep learning techniques has exploded during the last few years,
resulting in a direct contribution to the field of artificial intelligence.
This work aims to be a review of the state-of-the-art in scene recognition with
deep learning models from visual data. Scene recognition is still an emerging
field in computer vision, which has been addressed from a single image and
dynamic image perspective. We first give an overview of available datasets for
image and video scene recognition. Later, we describe ensemble techniques
introduced by research papers in the field. Finally, we give some remarks on
our findings and discuss what we consider challenges in the field and future
lines of research. This paper aims to be a future guide for model selection for
the task of scene recognition.


  Highly dynamic mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) remain as one of the most
challenging environments to develop and deploy robust, efficient, and scalable
routing protocols. In this paper, we present DeepCQ+ routing protocol which, in
a novel manner integrates emerging multi-agent deep reinforcement learning
(MADRL) techniques into existing Q-learning-based routing protocols and their
variants and achieves persistently higher performance across a wide range of
topology and mobility configurations. While keeping the overall protocol
structure of the Q-learning-based routing protocols, DeepCQ+ replaces
statically configured parameterized thresholds and hand-written rules with
carefully designed MADRL agents such that no configuration of such parameters
is required a priori. Extensive simulation shows that DeepCQ+ yields
significantly increased end-to-end throughput with lower overhead and no
apparent degradation of end-to-end delays (hop counts) compared to its
Q-learning based counterparts. Qualitatively, and perhaps more significantly,
DeepCQ+ maintains remarkably similar performance gains under many scenarios
that it was not trained for in terms of network sizes, mobility conditions, and
traffic dynamics. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first successful
application of the MADRL framework for the MANET routing problem that
demonstrates a high degree of scalability and robustness even under
environments that are outside the trained range of scenarios. This implies that
our MARL-based DeepCQ+ design solution significantly improves the performance
of Q-learning based CQ+ baseline approach for comparison and increases its
practicality and explainability because the real-world MANET environment will
likely vary outside the trained range of MANET scenarios. Additional techniques
to further increase the gains in performance and scalability are discussed.


  In the framework of the Lindblad theory for open quantum systems we determine
the degree of quantum decoherence and classical correlations of a harmonic
oscillator interacting with a thermal bath. The transition from quantum to
classical behaviour of the considered system is analyzed and it is shown that
the classicality takes place during a finite interval of time. We calculate
also the decoherence time and show that it has the same scale as the time after
which statistical fluctuations become comparable with quantum fluctuations.


  We discuss universality properties of blow-up of a classical (smooth)
solutions of conservation laws in one space dimension. It is shown that the
renormalized wave profile tends to a universal function, which is independent
both of initial conditions and of the form of a conservation law. This property
is explained in terms of the renormalization group theory. A solitary wave
appears in logarithmic coordinates of the Fourier space as a counterpart of
this universality. Universality is demonstrated in two examples: Burgers
equation and dynamics of ideal polytropic gas.


  In this paper, we study the problem of sampling from a given probability
density function that is known to be smooth and strongly log-concave. We
analyze several methods of approximate sampling based on discretizations of the
(highly overdamped) Langevin diffusion and establish guarantees on its error
measured in the Wasserstein-2 distance. Our guarantees improve or extend the
state-of-the-art results in three directions. First, we provide an upper bound
on the error of the first-order Langevin Monte Carlo (LMC) algorithm with
optimized varying step-size. This result has the advantage of being horizon
free (we do not need to know in advance the target precision) and to improve by
a logarithmic factor the corresponding result for the constant step-size.
Second, we study the case where accurate evaluations of the gradient of the
log-density are unavailable, but one can have access to approximations of the
aforementioned gradient. In such a situation, we consider both deterministic
and stochastic approximations of the gradient and provide an upper bound on the
sampling error of the first-order LMC that quantifies the impact of the
gradient evaluation inaccuracies. Third, we establish upper bounds for two
versions of the second-order LMC, which leverage the Hessian of the
log-density. We provide nonasymptotic guarantees on the sampling error of these
second-order LMCs. These guarantees reveal that the second-order LMC algorithms
improve on the first-order LMC in ill-conditioned settings.


  In open-domain dialogue generation tasks, contexts and responses in most
datasets are one-to-one mapped, violating an important many-to-many
characteristic: a context leads to various responses, and a response answers
multiple contexts. Without such patterns, models poorly generalize and prefer
responding safely. Many attempts have been made in either multi-turn settings
from a one-to-many perspective or in a many-to-many perspective but limited to
single-turn settings. The major challenge to many-to-many augment multi-turn
dialogues is that discretely replacing each turn with semantic similarity
breaks fragile context coherence. In this paper, we propose DialoGue Path
Sampling (DialoGPS) method in continuous semantic space, the first many-to-many
augmentation method for multi-turn dialogues. Specifically, we map a dialogue
to our extended Brownian Bridge, a special Gaussian process. We sample latent
variables to form coherent dialogue paths in the continuous space. A dialogue
path corresponds to a new multi-turn dialogue and is used as augmented training
data. We show the effect of DialoGPS with both automatic and human evaluation.


  The mechanical behavior in compression of [111] LiF micropillars with
diameters in the range 0.5 $\mu$m to 2.0 $\mu$m was analyzed by means of
discrete dislocation dynamics at ambient and elevated temperature. The
dislocation velocity was obtained from the Peach-Koehler force acting on the
dislocation segments from a thermally-activated model that accounted for the
influence of temperature on the lattice resistance. A size effect of the type
"smaller is stronger" was predicted by the simulations, which was in
quantitative agreement with previous experimental results by the authors
\cite{SWC14}. The contribution of the different physical deformation mechanisms
to the size effect (namely, nucleation of dislocations, dislocation exhaustion
and forest hardening) could be ascertained from the simulations and the
dominant deformation mode could be assessed as a function of the specimen size
and temperature. These results shed light into the complex interaction among
size, lattice resistance and dislocation mobility in the mechanical behavior of
$\mu$m-sized single crystals.


  The integer quantum Hall states at fillings $\nu = 0$ and $|\nu| = 1$ in
monolayer graphene have drawn much attention as they are generated by
electron-electron interactions. Here we explore aspects of the $\nu = 0$ and
$|\nu| = 1$ quantum Hall states relevant for experimental samples. In
particular, we study the effects of finite extent and finite temperature on the
$\nu = 0$ state and finite temperature for the $\nu = 1$ state. For the $\nu =
0$ state we consider the situation in which the bulk is a canted
antiferromagnet and use parameters consistent with measurements of the bulk gap
to study the edge states in tilted magnetic fields in order to compare with
experiment [A. F. Young et al., Nature 505, 528 (2014)]. When spatial
modulation of the order parameters is taken into account, we find that for
graphene placed on boron nitride, the gap at the edge closes for magnetic
fields comparable to those in experiment, giving rise to edge conduction with
$G \sim 2e^2/h$ while the bulk gap remains almost unchanged. We also study the
transition into the ordered state at finite temperature and field. We determine
the scaling of critical temperatures as a function of magnetic field, $B$, and
distance to the zero field critical point and find sublinear scaling with
magnetic field for weak and intermediate strength interactions, and $\sqrt{B}$
scaling at the coupling associated with the zero field quantum critical point.
We also predict that critical temperatures for $\nu = 0$ states should be an
order of magnitude higher than those for $|\nu| = 1$ states, consistent with
the fact that the low temperature gap for $\nu = 0$ is roughly an order of
magnitude larger than that for $|\nu| = 1$.


  Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) use a fully-connected layer to extract features
from the nodes of a graph and aggregate these features using message passing
between nodes, combining two distinct computational patterns: dense, regular
computations and sparse, irregular computations.
  To address this challenge, we propose GNNerator, an accelerator with
heterogeneous compute engines optimized for these two patterns.
  Further, GNNerator implements feature-blocking, a novel GNN dataflow that
beneficially trades off irregular memory accesses during aggregation for
regular memory accesses during feature extraction. We show GNNerator achieves
speedups of 5.7-37x over an NVIDIA RTX 2080-Ti, and 2.3x-3.8x over HyGCN, a
state-of-the-art GNN accelerator.


  It is very fundamental to study irreducible plane curve singularities in
algebraic geometry. The contents of the paper consist of three parts, called
Part[A], Part[B] and Part[C] with Good Appendix. Our aim is to prove by Part[B]
and Part[C] that a complete irreducibility algorithm for the Weierstrass
polynomial of two complex variables and the Puiseux expansions in Part[A] can
be explicitly and rigorously computable in an elementary way, as follows. For
brevity, Weierstrass polynomials may be written by W-polys throughout this
paper.


  We present a library of numerical models of cosmic-ray accelerating supernova
remnants (SNRs) evolving through a homogeneous ambient medium. We analyse
distributions of the different energy components and diffusive shock
acceleration time-scales for the models in various conditions. The library
comprises a variety of SNR evolutionary scenarios and is used to map remnants
with sufficiently known properties. This mapping constrains the respective
ambient medium properties and the acceleration efficiency. Employing the
library, we derive the ambient medium density, ambient magnetic field strength
and the cosmic-ray acceleration efficiency for models of Tycho and SN 1006
remnants and refine the ages of SNR 0509-67.5 and SNR 0519-69.0.


  The role of the isoscalar hyperon Lambda in probing the density dependence of
the nuclear symmetry energy is studied in multi-Lambda hypernuclei,
hyperon-rich matter and neutron stars in relativistic models. Relationships
between the properties of three types of objects and the neutron thickness in
208Pb are established with respect to the isoscalar-isovector coupling that
modifies the density dependence of the symmetry energy. The exotic isotopes far
from the neutron drip line can be stabilized by filling in considerable Lambda
hyperons. The difference of the binding energy of multi-Lambda hypernuclei from
different models is attributed to different symmetry energies. The isovector
potential together with the neutron thickness in multi-Lambda hypernuclei
investigated is very sensitive to the isoscalar-isovector coupling. The large
sensitivity of the Lambda hyperon fraction to the isoscalar-isovector coupling
occurs at about 2-3 rho_0 in beta equilibrated hyperon-rich matter. In neutron
stars with hyperonization, an on-off effect with respect to the
isoscalar-isovector coupling exists for the neutron star radius.


  Brittle fracture is one of the important failure modes of Single-Walled
Carbon Nanotube (SWNT) due to mechanical loading. In this paper, the fracture
resistance of zigzag SWNTs with preexisting defects is calculated using
fracture mechanics concepts based on atomistic simulations. The problem of
unstable crack growth at finite temperature, presumably caused by lattice
trapping effect, is circumvented by computing the strain energy release rate
through a series of displacement-controlled tensile loading of SWNTs (applied
through moving the outermost layer of atoms at one end at constant strain rate
of 9.4x10-4/ps) with pre-existing crack-like defects of various lengths. The
strain energy release rate, G, is computed for (17,0), (28,0) and (35,0) SWNTs
(each with aspect ratio 4) with pre-existing cracks up to 29.5{\AA} long. The
fracture resistance, Gc, is determined as a function of crack length for each
tube at three different temperatures (1K, 300K and 500K). A significant
dependence of Gc on crack length is observed reminiscent of the rising R curve
behavior of metals at the macroscale: for the zigzag nanotubes Gc increases
with crack length at small length, and tends to reach a constant value if the
tube diameter is large enough. We suspect that the lattice trapping effect
plays the role of crack tip plasticity at the atomic scale. For example, at 300
Kelvin, Gc for the (35,0) tube with aspect ratio 4 converges to 6 Joule/m2 as
the crack length exceeds 20 Angstrom. This value is comparable with the
fracture toughness of graphite and Silicon. The fracture resistance of the
tubes is found to decrease significantly as the temperature increases. To study
the length effects, the computations are repeated for zigzag nanotubes with the
same three chiralities but with aspect ratio 8 at 1K.


  We give a presentation in terms of generators and relations of the cohomology
in degree zero of the Campos-Willwacher graph complexes associated to compact
orientable surfaces of genus $g$. The results carry a natural Lie algebra
structure, and for $g=1$ we recover Enriquez' elliptic
Grothendieck-Teichm\"uller Lie algebra. In analogy to Willwacher's theorem
relating Kontsevich's graph complex to Drinfeld's Grothendieck-Teichm\"uller
Lie algebra, we call the results higher genus Grothendieck-Teichm\"uller Lie
algebras. Moreover, we find that the graph cohomology vanishes in negative
degrees.


  This paper presents a heavy traffic analysis of the behavior of multi-class
acyclic queueing networks in which the customers have deadlines. We assume the
queueing system consists of J stations, and there are K different customer
classes. Customers from each class arrive to the network according to
independent renewal processes. The customers from each class are assigned a
random deadline drawn from a deadline distribution associated with that class
and they move from station to station according to a fixed acyclic route.
  The customers at a given node are processed according to the
earliest-deadline-first
  (EDF) queue discipline. At any time, the customers of each type at each node
have a lead time, the time until their deadline lapses. We model these lead
times as a random counting measure on the real line. Under heavy traffic
conditions and suitable scaling, it is proved that the measure-valued lead-time
process converges to a deterministic function of the workload process.


  We analyse f(R) modifications of Einstein's gravity as dark energy models in
the light of their connection with chameleon theories. Formulated as
scalar-tensor theories, the f(R) theories imply the existence of a strong
coupling of the scalar field to matter. This would violate all experimental
gravitational tests on deviations from Newton's law. Fortunately, the existence
of a matter dependent mass and a thin shell effect allows one to alleviate
these constraints. The thin shell condition also implies strong restrictions on
the cosmological dynamics of the f(R) theories. As a consequence, we find that
the equation of state of dark energy is constrained to be extremely close to -1
in the recent past. We also examine the potential effects of f(R) theories in
the context of the Eot-wash experiments. We show that the requirement of a thin
shell for the test bodies is not enough to guarantee a null result on
deviations from Newton's law. As long as dark energy accounts for a sizeable
fraction of the total energy density of the Universe, the constraints which we
deduce also forbid any measurable deviation of the dark energy equation of
state from -1. All in all, we find that both cosmological and laboratory tests
imply that f(R) models are almost coincident with a Lambda-CDM model at the
background level.


  The post-merger product of the first binary neutron star merger event
detected in gravitational waves, GW170817, depends on neutron star equation of
state (EoS) and is not well determined. We generally discuss the constraints
one may pose on the maximum mass of a non-spinning neutron star, $M_{\rm TOV}$,
based on the observations and some EoS-independent universal relations of
rapidly-spinning neutron stars. If the merger product is a black hole after a
brief hypermassive neutron star (HMNS) phase, we derive $M_{\rm TOV} <
2.09^{+0.11}_{-0.09}(^{+0.06}_{-0.04}) M_{\odot}$ at the 2$\sigma$ (1$\sigma$)
level. The cases for a massive neutron star (MNS), either a supra-massive
neutron star (SMNS) or even a stable neutron star (SNS), are also allowed by
the data. We derive $2.09^{+0.11}_{-0.09}(^{+0.06}_{-0.04} M_{\odot}) \leq
M_{\rm TOV}< 2.43^{+0.10}_{-0.08}(^{+0.06}_{-0.04}) M_{\odot}$ for the SMNS
case and $M_{\rm TOV} \geq 2.43^{+0.10}_{-0.08}(^{+0.06}_{-0.04})M_{\odot}$ for
the SNS case, at the $2\sigma$ ($1\sigma$) confidence level. In the MNS cases,
we also discuss the constraints on the neutron star parameters (the dipolar
magnetic field strength at the surface $B_p$ and the ellipticity $\epsilon$)
that affect the spindown history, by considering different MNS survival times,
e.g. 300 s, 1 d, and 155 d after the merger, as suggested by various
observational arguments. We find that once an SMNS is formed, without violating
the EM observational constraints, there always exist a set of ($B_p, \epsilon$)
parameters that allow the SMNS to survive for 300s, 1 d, 155 d, or even longer.


  In our previous work, high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC) was probed
for the first time by using electrical differential conductance Gdiff(V) =
dI/dV data as obtained from current-voltage V(I) measurements on a hydrogenated
graphitic fiber [1]. While our nonlocal method for finding the superconducting
(SC) gap was recently applied to a conventional SC (Pb [2]), the nonlocal Gdiff
method was first proposed in [1]. Herein, we are bringing forth an update on
the topic.


  Compact objects are expected to exist in the accretion disks of supermassive
black holes (SMBHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and in the presence of
such a dense environment ($\sim 10^{14}\,{\rm cm^{-3}}$), they will form a new
kind of stellar population denoted as Accretion-Modified Stars (AMSs). This
hypothesis is supported by recent LIGO/Virgo detection of the mergers of very
high-mass stellar binary black holes (BHs). We show that the TZOs will be
trapped by the SMBH-disk within a typical AGN lifetime. In the context of
SMBH-disks, the rates of Bondi accretion onto BHs are $\sim 10^{9}L_{\rm
Edd}/c^{2}$, where $L_{\rm Edd}$ is the Eddington luminosity and $c$ is the
speed of light. Outflows developed from the hyper-Eddington accretion strongly
impact the Bondi sphere and induce episodic accretion. We show that the
hyper-Eddington accretion will be halted after an accretion interval of $t_{\rm
a}\sim 10^{5}m_{1}\,$s, where $m_{1}=m_{\bullet}/10\sunm$ is the BH mass. The
kinetic energy of the outflows accumulated during $t_{\rm a}$ is equivalent to
10 supernovae driving an explosion of the Bondi sphere and developing blast
waves. We demonstrate that a synchrotron flare from relativistic electrons
accelerated by the blast waves peaks in the soft X-ray band ($\sim 0.1\,$keV),
significantly contributing to the radio, optical, UV, and soft X-ray emission
of typical radio-quiet quasars. External inverse Compton scattering of the
electrons peaks around $40\,$GeV and is detectable through {\it Fermi}-LAT. The
flare, decaying with $t^{-6/5}$ with a few months, will appear as a slowly
varying transient. The flares, occurring at a rate of a few per year in
radio-quiet quasars, provide a new mechanism for explaining AGN variability.


  The electrodynamical formulae for the transition radiation are applied to the
case of partons crossing the surface of the deconfined region in heavy ion
collisions. The chromopermittivity is used in place of the dielectric
permittivity. The corresponding energy-angular distributions of emitted gluons
are discussed. They could be of interest at LHC energies.


  We consider the problem of chasing convex functions, where functions arrive
over time. The player takes actions after seeing the function, and the goal is
to achieve a small function cost for these actions, as well as a small cost for
moving between actions. While the general problem requires a polynomial
dependence on the dimension, we show how to get dimension-independent bounds
for well-behaved functions. In particular, we consider the case where the
convex functions are $\kappa$-well-conditioned, and give an algorithm that
achieves an $O(\sqrt \kappa)$-competitiveness. Moreover, when the functions are
supported on $k$-dimensional affine subspaces--e.g., when the function are the
indicators of some affine subspaces--we get $O(\min(k, \sqrt{k \log
T}))$-competitive algorithms for request sequences of length $T$. We also show
some lower bounds, that well-conditioned functions require
$\Omega(\kappa^{1/3})$-competitiveness, and $k$-dimensional functions require
$\Omega(\sqrt{k})$-competitiveness.


  Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are a natural outcome of galaxy
mergers and should form frequently in galactic nuclei. Sub-parsec binaries can
be identified from their bright electromagnetic emission, e.g., Active Galactic
Nuclei (AGN) with Doppler shifted broad emission lines or AGN with periodic
variability, as well as from the emission of strong gravitational radiation.
The most massive binaries (with total mass >10^8 M_sol) emit in the nanohertz
band and are targeted by Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs). Here we examine the
synergy between electromagnetic and gravitational wave signatures of SMBHBs. We
connect both signals to the orbital dynamics of the binary and examine the
common link between them, laying the foundation for joint multi-messenger
observations. We find that periodic variability arising from relativistic
Doppler boost is the most promising electromagnetic signature to connect with
GWs. We delineate the parameter space (binary total mass/chirp mass versus
binary period/GW frequency) for which joint observations are feasible.
Currently multi-messenger detections are possible only for the most massive and
nearby galaxies, limited by the sensitivity of PTAs. However, we demonstrate
that as PTAs collect more data in the upcoming years, the overlapping parameter
space is expected to expand significantly.


  The adoption of two distinct boundary conditions for two fermions species on
a finite lattice allows to deal with arbitrary relative momentum between the
two particle species, in spite of the momentum quantization rule due to a
limited physical box size. We test the physical significance of this
topological momentum by checking in the continuum limit the validity of the
expected energy-momentum dispersion relations.


  We give a sufficient condition on the hyperplanes used in the inbreeding
construction of Belolipetsky-Thomson to obtain nonarithmetic manifolds. We
construct explicitly infinitely many examples of such manifolds that are
pairwise non-commensurable and estimate their volume.


  The anisotropy of the critical current density Jc depends in general on both
the properties of the flux lines (such as line tension, coherence length and
penetration depth) and the properties of the defects (such as density, shape,
orientation etc.). Whereas the Jc anisotropy in microstructurally clean films
can be scaled to an effective magnetic field containing the Ginzburg-Landau
anisotropy term, it is in general not possible (or only in a limited field
range) for samples containing extended defects. Here, the Jc anisotropy of a
Co-doped BaFe2As2 sample with 45{\deg} [001] tilt grain boundaries (GBs), i.e.
grain boundaries created by 45{\deg} in-plane rotated grains, as well as
extended Fe particles is investigated. This microstructure leads to c-axis
correlated pinning, both due to the GBs and the Fe particles and manifests in a
c-axis peak in the Jc anisotropy at low magnetic fields and a deviation from
the anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau scaling at higher fields. Strong pinning at
ellipsoidal extended defects, i.e. the Fe particles, is discussed, and the full
Jc anisotropy is fitted successfully with the vortex path model. The results
are compared to a sample without GBs and Fe particles. 45{\deg} GBs seem to be
good pinning centers rather than detrimental to current flow.


  This study presents a simulation study to compare different non-parametric
global envelopes that are refinements of the rank envelope proposed by
Myllym\"aki et al. (2017, Global envelope tests for spatial processes, J. R.
Statist. Soc. B 79, 381-404, doi: 10.1111/rssb.12172). The global envelopes are
constructed for a set of functions or vectors. For a large number of vectors,
all the refinements lead to the same outcome as the global rank envelope. For
smaller numbers of vectors the refinement playes a role, where different
refinements are sensitive to different types of extremeness of a vector among
the set of vectors. The performance of the different alternatives are compared
in a simulation study with respect to the numbers of available vectors, the
dimensionality of the vectors, the amount of dependence between the vector
elements and the expected type of extremeness.


  For a given family $\{(\mathrm{q}_i, \mathrm{t}_i, \mathrm{p_i} )\}_{i \in
I}$ of adjoint triples between exact categories $\mathcal{C}$ or $\mathcal{D}$,
we show that any cotorsion pair in $\mathcal{C}$ and $\mathcal{D}$ yield two
canonical cotorsion pairs providing a concrete description of objects without
using any injectives/projectives object hypothesis. We firstly apply this
result for the evaluation functor on the functor category
$\operatorname{Add}(\mathcal{A}, R \mbox{-Mod})$ equipped with an exact
structure $\mathcal{E}$. Under mild conditions on $\mathcal{A}$, we introduce
the stalk functor at any object of $\mathcal{A}$, and subsequently, we
investigate cotorsion pairs induced by stalk functors. Finally, we use them to
present an intrinsic characterization of projective/injective objects in
$(\mbox{Add}(\mathcal{A}, R\mbox{-Mod}); \mathcal{E})$.


  We report the discovery of four field methane (T-type) brown dwarfs using
2MASS survey data. One additional methane dwarf, previously discovered by SDSS,
was also identified. Near-infrared spectra clearly show the 1.6 and 2.2 um CH4
absorption bands characteristic of objects with T_eff < 1300 K, as well as
broadened H2O bands at 1.4 and 1.9 um. Comparing the spectra of these objects
with Gl 229B, we propose that all new 2MASS T dwarfs are warmer than 950 K, in
order from warmest to coolest: 2MASS J1217-03, J1225-27, J1047+21 and J1237+65.
Based on this preliminary sample, we find a warm T dwarf surface density of
0.0022 T dwarfs/sq. deg., or ~ 90 warm T dwarfs over the whole sky detectable
to J < 16. The resulting space density upper limit, 0.01 T dwarfs/pc^3, is
comparable to that of the L dwarf sample from Kirkpatrick et al. (1999).


  The paper discusses coordination games with remote players that have access
to an entangled quantum state. It shows that the entangled state cannot be used
by players for communicating information, but that in certain games it can be
used for improving coordination of actions. A necessary condition is provided
that helps to determine when an entangled quantum state can be useful for
improving coordination.


  The two-component cold atom systems with anisotropic hopping amplitudes can
be phenomenologically described by a two-dimensional Ising-XY coupled model
with spatial anisotropy. At low temperatures, theoretical predictions [Phys.
Rev. A 72, 053604 (2005)] and [arXiv:0706.1609] indicate the existence of a
topological ordered phase characterized by Ising and XY disorder but with 2XY
ordering. However, due to ergodic difficulties faced by Monte Carlo methods at
low temperatures, this topological phase has not been numerically explored. We
propose a linear cluster updating Monte Carlo method, which flips spins without
rejection in the anisotropy limit but does not change the energy. Using this
scheme and conventional Monte Carlo methods, we succeed in revealing the nature
of topological phases with half-vortices and domain walls. In the constructed
global phase diagram, Ising and XY type transitions are very close to each
other and differ significantly from the schematic phase diagram reported
earlier. We also propose and explore a wide range of quantities, including
magnetism, superfluidity, specific heat, susceptibility, and even percolation
susceptibility, and obtain consistent results. Furthermore, we observe
first-order transitions characterized by common intersection points in
magnetizations for different system sizes, as opposed to the conventional phase
transition where Binder cumulants of various sizes share common intersections.
The results are useful to help cold atom experiments explore the half-vortex
topological phase.


  We realize an experimental facility for cooling and trapping strontium (Sr)
atoms and measure the Land\'e g factor of $^{3}$D$_{1}$ of $^{88}$Sr. Thanks to
a novel repumping scheme with the $^{3}$P$_{2}$$\rightarrow$$^{3}$S$_{1}$ and
$^{3}$P$_{0}$$\rightarrow$$^{3}$D$_{1}$ combination and the permanent magnets
based self-assembled Zeeman slower, the peak atom number in the continuously
repumped blue MOT is enhanced by a factor of 15 with respect to the
non-repumping case, and reaches $\sim$1 billion. Furthermore, using the
resolved-sideband Zeeman spectroscopy, the Land\'e g factor of $^{3}$D$_{1}$ is
measured to be 0.4995(88) showing a good agreement with the theoretical value
of 0.4988. The results will have an impact on various applications including
atom laser, dipolar interactions, quantum information and precision
measurements.


  Critical transitions in multistable systems have been discussed as models for
a variety of phenomena ranging from the extinctions of species to
socio-economic changes and climate transitions between ice-ages and warm-ages.
From bifurcation theory we can expect certain critical transitions to be
preceded by a decreased recovery from external perturbations. The consequences
of this critical slowing down have been observed as an increase in variance and
autocorrelation prior to the transition. However especially in the presence of
noise it is not clear, whether these changes in observation variables are
statistically relevant such that they could be used as indicators for critical
transitions. In this contribution we investigate the predictability of critical
transitions in conceptual models. We study the quadratic integrate-and-fire
model and the van der Pol model, under the influence of external noise. We
focus especially on the statistical analysis of the success of predictions and
the overall predictability of the system. The performance of different
indicator variables turns out to be dependent on the specific model under study
and the conditions of accessing it. Furthermore, we study the influence of the
magnitude of transitions on the predictive performance.


  In this paper we study the following conformally invariant poly-harmonic
equation $$\Delta^mu=-u^\frac{3+2m}{3-2m}\quad\text{in }\mathbb{R}^3,\quad
u>0,$$ with $m=2,3$. We prove the existence of positive smooth radial solutions
with prescribed volume $\int_{\mathbb{R}^3} u^\frac{6}{3-2m}dx$. We show that
the set of all possible values of the volume is a bounded interval
$(0,\Lambda^*]$ for $m=2$, and it is $(0,\infty)$ for $m=3$. This is in sharp
contrast to $m=1$ case in which the volume $\int_{\mathbb{R}^3}
u^\frac{6}{3-2m}dx$ is a fixed value.


  The equations of a physical constitutive model for material stress within
tantalum grains were solved numerically using a tetrahedrally meshed volume.
The resulting output included a scalar vonMises stress for each of the more
than 94,000 tetrahedra within the finite element discretization. In this paper,
we define an intricate statistical model for the spatial field of vonMises
stress which uses the given grain geometry in a fundamental way. Our model
relates the three-dimensional field to integrals of latent stochastic processes
defined on the vertices of the one- and two-dimensional grain boundaries. An
intuitive neighborhood structure of said boundary nodes suggested the use of a
latent Gaussian Markov random field (GMRF). However, despite the potential for
computational gains afforded by GMRFs, the integral nature of our model and the
sheer number of data points pose substantial challenges for a full Bayesian
analysis. To overcome these problems and encourage efficient exploration of the
posterior distribution, a number of techniques are now combined: parallel
computing, sparse matrix methods, and a modification of a block update strategy
within the sampling routine. In addition, we use an auxiliary variables
approach to accommodate the presence of outliers in the data.


  In this paper, we investigate a distributed maximal independent set (MIS)
reconfiguration problem, in which there are two maximal independent sets for
which every node is given its membership status, and the nodes need to
communicate with their neighbors in order to find a reconfiguration schedule
that switches from the first MIS to the second. Such a schedule is a list of
independent sets that is restricted by forbidding two neighbors to change their
membership status at the same step. In addition, these independent sets should
provide some covering guarantee. We show that obtaining an actual MIS (and even
a 3-dominating set) in each intermediate step is impossible. However, we
provide efficient solutions when the intermediate sets are only required to be
independent and 4-dominating, which is almost always possible, as we fully
characterize. Consequently, our goal is to pin down the tradeoff between the
possible length of the schedule and the number of communication rounds. We
prove that a constant length schedule can be found in
$O(\texttt{MIS}+\texttt{R32})$ rounds, where $\texttt{MIS}$ is the complexity
of finding an MIS in a worst-case graph and $\texttt{R32}$ is the complexity of
finding a $(3,2)$-ruling set. For bounded degree graphs, this is $O(\log^*n)$
rounds and we show that it is necessary. On the other extreme, we show that
with a constant number of rounds we can find a linear length schedule.


  We developed mathematical models that simulate community dynamics derived
from a series of perturbation experiments. These experiments were performed in
an Atlantic Forest stream. The three trophic level community was submitted to
two combinations of press perturbation experiment. In the first, the top
trophic level was removed by electrical exclusion. In the second configuration,
the top trophic level was still excluded plus a group of species from the
second trophic level was inhibited, also by electrical pulses. Experiments were
repeated at different times to increase confidence in the observed mechanisms.
Community responses indicated the existence of cascading interactions similar
to a classic trophic cascade. The community was composed of Macrobrachium
shrimps at the top trophic level, Ephemeroptera and Chironomidae larval insects
at the second trophic level and periphyton (= epilithon = biofilm) at the first
trophic level. The shrimp exclusion caused an increase in ephemeropterans and
chironomids and led the periphyton to decrease in the exclusion zone. When
ephemeropterans were inhibited together with the exclusion of shrimps, the
chironomids and the periphyton increased. We modelled the community
interactions by means of differential equation systems, simulating the three
configurations: 1. natural condition, 2. shrimp exclusion condition and 3.
shrimp-exclusion-plus-ephemeropteran-inhibition condition. All parameters were
calculated via experimental results and the stability of the models was
determined by their matrix eigenvalues. The models successfully reproduced the
qualitative responses of the community. They proved to have attraction points,
which enables us to predict that the system has some ability to return to its
previous condition after local perturbation.


  A strong nonmagnetic impurity can induce a resonance state in the d-wave
superconducting state. As far as magnetic properties are concerned, this
resonance state behaves effectively like a free moment. It leads to a
Curie-Weiss-like magnetic susceptibility in an intermediate temperature regime
below $T_{c}$. From the impurity susceptibility, the effective moment of the
resonance state is deduced and compared with experiments. The contribution of
the resonance to the magnetic susceptibility can account for the main feature
of the NMR spectra in overdoped high-$T_c$ materials. In the underdoped regime,
the contribution from the resonance to the magnetic susceptibility is also
substantial, but the effective moment of the resonance is smaller than the
total moment induced by a nonmagnetic impurity.


  Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are radio bursts characterized by millisecond
durations, high Galactic latitude positions, and high dispersion measures. Very
recently, the cosmological origin of FRB 150418 has been confirmed by
\cite{kea16}, and FRBs are now strong competitors as cosmological probes. The
simple sharp feature of the FRB signal is ideal for them to probe some of the
fundamental laws of physics. Here we show that by analyzing the delay time
between different frequencies, the FRB data can place stringent upper limits on
the rest mass of the photon. For FRB 150418 at $z=0.492$, one can potentially
reach $m_{\gamma} \leq 5.2 \times 10^{-47}$ g, which is $10^{20}$ times smaller
than the rest mass of electron, and is about $10^3$ times smaller than that
obtained using other astrophysical sources with the same method.


  For nearly a century, imaging and spectroscopic surveys of galaxies have
given us information about the contents of the universe. We attempt to define
the logical endpoint of such surveys by defining not the next galaxy survey,
but the final galaxy survey at NIR wavelengths; this would be the galaxy survey
that exhausts the information content useful for addressing extant questions.
Such a survey would require incredible advances in a number of technologies and
the survey details will depend on the as yet poorly constrained properties of
the earliest galaxies. Using an exposure time calculator, we define nominal
surveys for extracting the useful information for three science cases: dark
energy cosmology, galaxy evolution, and supernovae. We define scaling relations
that trade off sky background, telescope aperture, and focal plane size to
allow for a survey of a given depth over a given area. For optimistic
assumptions, a 280m telescope with a marginally resolved focal plane of 20
deg$^2$ operating at L2 could potentially exhaust the cosmological information
content of galaxies in a 10 year survey. For galaxy evolution (making use of
gravitational lensing to magnify the earliest galaxies) and SN, the same
telescope would suffice. We discuss the technological advances needed to
complete the last galaxy survey. While the final galaxy survey remains well
outside of our technical reach today, we present scaling relations that show
how we can progress toward the goal of exhausting the information content
encoded in the shapes, positions, and colors of galaxies.


  Spin complexes comprising the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center and neighboring
spins are being considered as a building block for a new generation of
spintronic and quantum information processing devices. Because assembling
identical spin clusters is difficult, new strategies are in order to determine
individual node structures with the highest precision. Here we use a pulse
protocol to monitor the time evolution of the 13C ensemble in the vicinity of a
NV center. We observe long-lived time correlations in the nuclear spin
dynamics, limited by NV spin-lattice relaxation. We use the host 14N spin as a
quantum register, and demonstrate that hyperfine-shifted resonances can be
separated upon proper NV initialization. Intriguingly, we find that the
amplitude of the correlation signal exhibits a sharp dependence on the applied
magnetic field. We discuss this observation in the context of the
quantum-to-classical transition proposed recently to explain the field
dependence of the spin cluster dynamics.


  We use self-reported data from 2011--2014 and determine the academic profile
of accepted students at physics graduate programs in the United States. We
analyze the accepted students' grade point averages and physics Graduate Record
Examination (GRE) scores. We also compare the physics GRE scores of accepted
students to their grade point averages.


  Fine-tuning pre-trained language models like BERT has become an effective way
in NLP and yields state-of-the-art results on many downstream tasks. Recent
studies on adapting BERT to new tasks mainly focus on modifying the model
structure, re-designing the pre-train tasks, and leveraging external data and
knowledge. The fine-tuning strategy itself has yet to be fully explored. In
this paper, we improve the fine-tuning of BERT with two effective mechanisms:
self-ensemble and self-distillation. The experiments on text classification and
natural language inference tasks show our proposed methods can significantly
improve the adaption of BERT without any external data or knowledge.


  We construct, from first principles, a covariant local model for scalar
fractonic matter coupled to a symmetric tensor gauge field. The free gauge
field action is just the one of Blasi-Maggiore model. The scalar sector is a
non-trivial covariant generalization of Pretko's quartic model. Because the
model has no quadratic term in the scalar field, a direct perturbative
treatment fails. Remarkably, we demonstrate that the action can be driven to a
perturbative effective action. However, with the price of carrying non-local
interacting terms. We study the perturbative regime of the model and show that
there are at least four distinct phases in the model: One with massive
fractonic modes; one with massless fractons; a mixed phase with massive and
massless fractons; and another one where fractons cannot occur at all in the
physical spectrum.


  Through model-to-data comparisons from heavy-ion collisions, it has been
shown that the Quark Gluon Plasma has an extremely small shear viscosity at
vanishing densities. At large baryon densities, significantly less is known
about the nature of the shear viscosity from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD).
Within heavy-ion collisions, there are three conserved charges: baryon number
(B), strangeness (S), and electric charge (Q). Here we calculate the shear
viscosity in two limits using perturbative QCD and an excluded-volume hadron
resonance gas at finite BSQ densities. We then develop a framework that
interpolates between these two limits such that shear viscosity is possible to
calculate across a wide range of finite BSQ densities. We find that the pQCD
and hadron resonance gas calculations have different BSQ densities dependence
such that a rather non-trivial shear viscosity appears at finite densities.


  This paper proposes a novel class of block quasi-Newton methods for convex
optimization which we call symmetric rank-$k$ (SR-$k$) methods. Each iteration
of SR-$k$ incorporates the curvature information with~$k$ Hessian-vector
products achieved from the greedy or random strategy. We prove that SR-$k$
methods have the local superlinear convergence rate of
$\mathcal{O}\big((1-k/d)^{t(t-1)/2}\big)$ for minimizing smooth and strongly
convex function, where $d$ is the problem dimension and $t$ is the iteration
counter. This is the first explicit superlinear convergence rate for block
quasi-Newton methods, and it successfully explains why block quasi-Newton
methods converge faster than ordinary quasi-Newton methods in practice. We also
leverage the idea of SR-$k$ methods to study the block BFGS and block DFP
methods, showing their superior convergence rates.


  Dirac sought an interpretation of mathematical formalism in terms of physical
entities and Einstein insisted that physics should describe "the real states of
the real systems". While Bell inequalities put into question the reality of
states, modern device-independent approaches do away with the idea of entities:
physical theory may contain no physical systems. Focusing on the correlations
between operationally defined inputs and outputs, device-independent methods
promote a view more distant from the conventional one than Einstein's
'principle theories' were from 'constructive theories'. On the examples of
indefinite causal orders and almost quantum correlations, we ask a puzzling
question: if physical theory is not about systems, then what is it about? The
answer given by the device-independent models is that physics is about
languages. In moving away from the information-theoretic reconstructions of
quantum theory, this answer marks a new conceptual development in the
foundations of physics.


  The application of the continuous wavelet transform to study of a wide class
of physical processes with oscillatory dynamics is restricted by large central
frequencies due to the admissibility condition. We propose an alternative
reconstruction formula for the continuous wavelet transform, which is
applicable even if the admissibility condition is violated. The case of the
transform with the standard Morlet wavelet, which is an important example of
such analyzing functions, is discussed.


  The redshift dependence of the observed cluster abundance due to the
Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect (SZE) is studied in various cosmological models
including flat and open homogeneous (CDM) models and an inhomogeneous model
with a large-scale local void. The Press-Schechter formalism is used to derive
the abundance at epochs 0 < z < 2 and the cluster mass limit Mlim is given from
a flux limit for SZE. It is shown that SZE is useful for constraining the
cosmological model parameters, and the abundance in the inhomogeneous model may
be comparable with that in the low-density homogeneous models. The significance
of relative difference of abundances in the various models is discussed.