  We describe simplicity of the Stacey crossed product A\times_\beta \N in
terms of conditions of the endomorphism \beta. Then, we use a characterization
of the graph C*-algebras C*(E) as the Stacey crossed product
C*(E)^\gamma\times_{\beta_E}\N to study its ideal properties, in terms of the
(non-classical) C*-dynamical system (C*(E)^\gamma, \beta_E). Finally, we give
sufficient conditions for the Stacey crossed product A\times_\beta \N being a
purely infinite simple C*-algebra.


  Large-scale pre-trained vision foundation models, such as CLIP, have become
de facto backbones for various vision tasks. However, due to their black-box
nature, understanding the underlying rules behind these models' predictions and
controlling model behaviors have remained open challenges. We present a
framework for interpreting vision transformer's latent tokens with natural
language. Given a latent token, our framework retains its semantic information
to the final layer using transformer's local operations and retrieves the
closest text for explanation. Our approach enables understanding of model
visual reasoning procedure without needing additional model training or data
collection. Based on the obtained interpretations, our framework allows for
model editing that controls model reasoning behaviors and improves model
robustness against biases and spurious correlations.


  We characterize twelve young stellar objects (YSOs) located in the Lupus I
region, spatially overlapping with the Upper Centaurus Lupus (UCL) sub-stellar
association. The aim of this study is to understand whether the Lupus I cloud
has more members than what has been claimed so far in the literature and gain a
deeper insight into the global properties of the region. We selected our
targets using Gaia DR2 catalog, based on their consistent kinematic properties
with the Lupus I bona fide members. In our sample of twelve YSOs observed by
X-Shooter, we identified ten Lupus I members. We could not determine the
membership status of two of our targets, namely Gaia DR2 6014269268967059840
and 2MASS J15361110-3444473 due to technical issues. We found out that four of
our targets are accretors, among them 2MASS J15551027-3455045, with a mass of
~0.03 M_Sun, is one of the least massive accretors in the Lupus complex to
date. Several of our targets (including accretors) are formed in-situ and
off-cloud with respect to the main filaments of Lupus I, hence, our study may
hint that there are diffused populations of M-dwarfs around Lupus I main
filaments. In this context, we would like to emphasize that our kinematic
analysis with Gaia catalogs played a key role in identifying the new members of
the Lupus I cloud.


  The origin of spiral patterns in galaxies is still not fully understood.
Similar features also develop readily in N-body simulations of isolated cool,
collisionless disks, yet even here the mechanism has yet to be explained. In
this series of papers, I present a detailed study of the origin of spiral
activity in simulations in the hope that the mechanism that causes the patterns
is also responsible for some of these features galaxies. In this first paper, I
use a suite of highly idealized simulations of a linearly stable disk that
employ increasing numbers of particles. While the amplitudes of initial
non-axisymmetric features scale as the inverse square-root of the number of
particles employed, the final amplitude of the patterns is independent of the
particle number. I find that the amplitudes of non-axisymmetric disturbances
grow in two distinct phases: slow growth occurs when the relative overdensity
is below ~2%, but above this level the amplitude rises more rapidly. I show
that all features, even of very low amplitude, scatter particles at the inner
Lindblad resonance, changing the distribution of particles in the disk in such
a way as to foster continued growth. Stronger scattering by larger amplitude
waves provokes a vigorous instability that is a true linear mode of the
modified disk.


  Non-orthogonal access techniques have recently gained renewed interest in the
context of next generation wireless networks. As the relative gain, with
respect to traditionally employed orthogonal-access techniques depends on many
factors, it is of interest to obtain insights by considering the simplest
scenario, the two-user downlink (broadcast) channel where all nodes are
equipped with a single antenna. Further, we focus on rate pairs that are in the
vicinity of sum-rate optimalilty with respect to the capacity region of the
broadcast channel. A simple and explicit characterization of the relative gain
of non-orthogonal transmission with respect to orthogonal transmission is
obtained under these conditions as an immediate consequence of the capacity
regions of the two.


  What happens when one prescribes a heat flux which is proportional to the
Neumann data of a solution of the wave equation in the whole space on the
surface of a heat conductive body? It is shown that there is a difference in
the asymptotic behaviour of the indicator function in the most recent version
of the time domain enclosure method, which aims at extracting information about
an unknown cavity embedded in the body.


  We study Berry's phase in the D0-D4-brane system. When a D0-brane moves in
the background of D4-branes, the first excited states undergo a holonomy
described by a non-Abelian Berry connection. At weak coupling this is an SU(2)
connection over R^5, known as the Yang monopole. At strong coupling, the
holonomy is recast as the classical gravitational precession of a spinning
particle. The Berry connection is the spin connection of the near-horizon limit
of the D4-branes, which is a continuous deformation of the Yang and anti-Yang
monopole.


  Working in the framework of the ab-initio no-core shell model, we derive
two-body effective interactions microscopically for specific
harmonic-oscillator basis spaces from the realistic Argonne V8' nucleon-nucleon
potential. However, our two-body effective interaction is only the dominant
part of the A-body (A >= 3) effective interaction, which also contains three-,
four- and, in general, up to A-body components. We model these multi-body
components as a simple two-parameter, basis-space-dependent interaction. We
then investigate the coupling needed to provide accurate descriptions of
selected nuclear observables. We successfully model the multi-body interaction
as a zero-range two-body operator times the number operator Nsps that measures
the harmonic-oscillator quanta of the spectator nucleons.


  In this paper, we present a curious experiment with the hot list strategy in
solving sliding block puzzles by paramodulation. The hot list strategy is one
of the look-ahead strategies using paramodulation in automated reasoning. We
define two heat flows in the reasoning process - vertical with the hot list of
permutations along the Y-axis and horizontal along the X-axis. In the
experiment, we have generated 500 * 8 puzzles under the test of the solvability
checking by counting inversions. We have obtained curious 2D and 3D plots of
the complexity by defining heat flow with hot lists. We can distinguish a few
groups in 500 boards (puzzles) based on the concept of heat-resisting.


  Terrestrial-type exoplanets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars (M-dwarfs) are
among the best targets for atmospheric characterization and biosignature
searches in the near future. Recent evolutionary studies have suggested that
terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of M-dwarfs are probably tidally
locked and have limited surface water inventories as a result of their host
stars' high early luminosities. Several previous climate simulations of such
planets have indicated that their remaining water would be transported to the
planet's permanent nightside and become trapped as surface ice, leaving the
dayside devoid of water. Here we use a three-dimensional general circulation
model with a water cycle and accurate radiative transfer scheme to investigate
the surface water evolution on slowly rotating tidally locked terrestrial
planets with limited surface water inventories. We show that there is a
competition for water trapping between the nightside surface and the substellar
tropopause in this type of climate system. Although under some conditions the
surface water remains trapped on the nightside as an ice sheet, in other cases
liquid water stabilizes in a circular area in the substellar region as a
wetland. Planets with 1 bar N$_2$ and atmospheric CO$_2$ levels greater than
0.1 bar retain stable dayside liquid water, even with very small surface water
inventories. Our results reveal the diversity of possible climate states on
terrestrial-type exoplanets and highlight the importance of surface liquid
water detection techniques for future characterization efforts.


  We give very precise bounds for the congruence subgroup growth of arithmetic
groups. This allows us to determine the subgroup growth of irreducible lattices
of semisimple Lie groups. In the most general case our results depend on the
Generalized Riemann Hypothesis for number fields but we can state the following
unconditional theorem:
  Let $G$ be a simple Lie group of real rank at least 2, different than
$D_4(\bbc)$, and let $\Gamma$ be any non-uniform lattice of $G$. Let
$s_n(\Gamma)$ denote the number of subgroups of index at most $n$ in $\Gamma$.
Then the limit $\lim\limits_{n\to \infty} \frac{\log s_n(\Gamma)}{(\log n)^2/
\log \log n}$ exists and equals a constant $\gamma(G)$ which depends only on
the Lie type of $G$ and can be easily computed from its root system.


  We investigate the locality of interactions in hydrodynamic turbulence using
data from a direct numerical simulation on a grid of 1024^3 points; the flow is
forced with the Taylor-Green vortex. An inertial range for the energy is
obtained in which the flux is constant and the spectrum follows an approximate
Kolmogorov law. Nonlinear triadic interactions are dominated by their non-local
components, involving widely separated scales. The resulting nonlinear transfer
itself is local at each scale but the step in the energy cascade is independent
of that scale and directly related to the integral scale of the flow.
Interactions with large scales represent 20% of the total energy flux. Possible
explanations for the deviation from self-similar models, the link between these
findings and intermittency, and their consequences for modeling of turbulent
flows are briefly discussed.


  This work is focused on attacks on confidentiality that require time
synchronization. This manuscript proposes a detection framework for covert
channel perspective in cloud security. This problem is interpreted as a binary
classification problem and the algorithm proposed is based on certain features
that emerged after data analysis of Google cluster trace that forms base for
analyzing attack free data. This approach can be generalized to study the flow
of other systems and fault detection. The detection framework proposed does not
make assumptions pertaining to data distribution as a whole making it suitable
to meet cloud dynamism.


  New measurements to test the neutrality of matter by acoustic means are
reported. The apparatus is based on a spherical capacitor filled with gaseous
SF$_6$ excited by an oscillating electric field. The apparatus has been
calibrated measuring the electric polarizability. Assuming charge conservation
in the $\beta$ decay of the neutron, the experiment gives a limit of
$\epsilon_\text{p-e}\lesssim1\cdot10^{-21}$ for the electron-proton charge
difference, the same limit holding for the charge of the neutron. Previous
measurements are critically reviewed and found incorrect: the present result is
the best limit obtained with this technique.


  We analyze the transitions that a magnetic field provokes in the ground state
of an artificial homonuclear diatomic molecule. For that purpose, we have
performed numerical diagonalizations for a double quantum dot around the regime
of filling factor 2. We present phase diagrams in terms of tunneling and Zeeman
couplings, and confinement strength. We identify a series of transitions from
ferromagnetic to symmetric states through a set of canted states with
antiferromagnetic couping between the two quantum dots.


  We investigate the impact of external periodic potentials on superdiffusive
random walks known as Levy flights and show that even strongly superdiffusive
transport is substantially affected by the external field. Unlike ordinary
random walks, Levy flights are surprisingly sensitive to the shape of the
potential while their asymptotic behavior ceases to depend on the Levy index
$\mu $. Our analysis is based on a novel generalization of the Fokker-Planck
equation suitable for systems in thermal equilibrium. Thus, the results
presented are applicable to the large class of situations in which
superdiffusion is caused by topological complexity, such as diffusion on folded
polymers and scale-free networks.


  We prove a long-standing conjecture on random-cluster models, namely that the
critical point for such models with parameter $q\geq1$ on the square lattice is
equal to the self-dual point $p_{sd}(q) = \sqrt q /(1+\sqrt q)$. This gives a
proof that the critical temperature of the $q$-state Potts model is equal to
$\log (1+\sqrt q)$ for all $q\geq 2$. We further prove that the transition is
sharp, meaning that there is exponential decay of correlations in the
sub-critical phase. The techniques of this paper are rigorous and valid for all
$q\geq 1$, in contrast to earlier methods valid only for certain given $q$. The
proof extends to the triangular and the hexagonal lattices as well.


  Fermi surface reconstruction in cuprates can lead to an abrupt change in the
Fermi momentum $k_F$ between different phases. This phenomenon remains subject
of debate and is at the heart of an ongoing discussion about the nature of the
metallic state in the pseudogap regime. Here we study a minimal model of a
$k_F$ changing crossover in the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model, where a
tuning of the onsite interaction leads to a crossover between a spin-$1/2$
Luttinger liquid with small Fermi momentum and a spinless chargon liquid with
large Fermi momentum. We attribute this to an emergent $U(1)$ symmetry in the
strongly correlated limit, which can be used to derive a modified Luttinger sum
rule recovering the large Fermi momentum. We analyse Friedel oscillations at
the edge of a system to directly probe the change of Fermi momentum at zero and
non-zero temperature. This paves the way for a direct experimental observation
of changes of the Fermi momentum using ultracold fermions in a quantum gas
microscope, with possible extensions to higher dimensional systems.


  In this paper the semi-classical approach to the solution of non-linear
evolution equation is developed. We found the solution in the entire kinematic
region to the non-linear evolution equation that governs the dynamics in the
high parton density QCD. The large impact parameter ($b_t$) behavior of the
solution is discussed as well as the way how to include the non-perturbative
QCD corrections in this region of $b_t$. The geometrical scaling behavior and
other properties of the solution in the saturation (Color Glass Condensate)
kinematic domain are analyzed. We obtain the asymptotic behavior for the
physical observables and found the unitarity bounds for them.


  In November 2020, a new, bright object, eRASSt J234402.9$-$352640, was
discovered in the second all-sky survey of SRG/eROSITA. The object brightened
by a factor of at least 150 in 0.2--2.0 keV flux compared to an upper limit
found six months previous, reaching an observed peak of $1.76_{-0.24}^{+0.03}
\times 10^{-11}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. The X-ray ignition is associated with
a galaxy at $z=0.10$, making the peak luminosity log$_{10}(L_{\rm
0.2-2keV}/[\textrm{erg s}^{-1}])$=$44.7\pm0.1$. Around the time of the rise in
X-ray flux, the nucleus of the galaxy brightened by approximately 3 mag. in
optical photometry, after correcting for the host. We present data from Swift,
XMM-Newton, and NICER, which reveal a very soft spectrum as well as strong
0.2--2.0 keV flux variability on multiple timescales. Optical spectra taken in
the weeks after the ignition event show a blue continuum with broad, asymmetric
Balmer emission lines, and high-ionisation ([OIII]$\lambda\lambda$4959,5007)
and low-ionisation ([NII]$\lambda$6585, [SII]$\lambda\lambda$6716,6731) narrow
emission lines. Following the peak in the optical light curve, the X-ray, UV,
and optical photometry all show a rapid decline. The X-ray light curve shows a
decrease in luminosity of $\sim$0.45 over 33 days and the UV shows a drop of
$\sim$0.35. eRASSt J234402.9$-$352640 also shows a brightening in the
mid-infrared, likely powered by a dust echo of the luminous ignition. We find
no evidence in Fermi-LAT $\gamma$-ray data for jet-like emission. The event
displays characteristics of a tidal disruption event (TDE) as well as of an
active galactic nucleus (AGN), complicating its classification. Based on the
softness of the X-ray spectrum, the presence of high-ionisation optical
emission lines, and the likely infrared echo, we find that a TDE within a
turned-off AGN best matches our observations.


  This paper investigates the effects of observing windows on detecting
transiting planets by calculating the fraction of planets with a given period
that have zero, one (single), two (double), or $\ge$3 (multiple) transits
occurring while observations are being taken. We also investigate the effects
of collaboration by performing the same calculations with combined observing
times from two wide-field transit survey groups. For a representative field of
the 2004 observing season, both XO and SuperWASP experienced an increase in
single and double transit events by up to 20-40% for planets with periods 14 <
P < 150 days when collaborating by sharing data. For the XO Project using its
data alone, between 20-40% of planets with periods 14-150 days should have been
observed at least once. For the SuperWASP Project, 50-90% of planets with
periods between 14-150 days should have been observed at least once. If XO and
SuperWASP combined their observations, 50-100% of planets with periods less
than 20 days should be observed three or more times. We find that in general
wide-field transit surveys have selected appropriate observing strategies to
observe a significant fraction of transiting giant planets with semimajor axes
larger than the Hot Jupiter regime. The actual number of intermediate-period
transiting planets that are detected depends upon their true semimajor axis
distribution and the signal-to-noise of the data.


  Understanding the quality and usage of public transportation resources is
important for schedule optimization and resource allocation. Ridership and
adherence are the two main dimensions for evaluating the quality of service.
Using Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), Automatic Passenger Count (APC), and
Global Positioning System (GPS) data, ridership data and adherence data of
public transportation can be collected. In this paper, we discuss the
development of a visualization tool for exploring public transportation data.
We introduce "map view" and "route view" to help users locate stops in the
context of geography and route information. To visualize ridership and
adherence information over several years, we introduce "calendar view" - a
miniaturized calendar that provides an overview of data where users can
interactively select specific days to explore individual trips and stops ("trip
subview" and "stop subview"). MetroViz was evaluated via a series of usability
tests that included researchers from the Center for Advanced Transportation
Technology (CATT) and students from the University of Maryland - College Park
in which test participants used the tool to explore three years of bus transit
data from Blacksburg, Virginia.


  We report on the spectroscopic confirmation of 68 new bright ($G=13.5-17.2$
mag) and blue (pre-)white dwarfs (WDs). This finding has allowed us to almost
double the number of the hottest ($T_{\mathrm{eff}} \geq 60$kK) known WDs
brighter than $G=16$ mag. We increased the number of known ultra-high
excitation (UHE) WDs by 20%, found one unambiguous close binary system
consisting of one DA WD with an irradiated low-mass companion, one DAO, and one
DOA WD that are likely in their transformation phase of becoming pure DA WDs,
one rare, naked O(H) star, two DA and two DAO WDs with $T_{\mathrm{eff}}$
possibly in excess of 100kK, three new DOZ WDs, and three of our targets are
central stars of (possible) planetary nebulae.
  Using non-local thermodynamic equilibrium models, we derived the atmospheric
parameters of these stars and by fitting their spectral energy distribution we
derived their radii, luminosities, and gravity masses. In addition, we derived
their masses in the Kiel and Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD). We find that
Kiel, HRD, and gravity mass agree only in half of the cases. This is not
unexpected and we attribute this to the neglect of metal opacities, possibly
stratified atmospheres, as well as possible uncertainties of the parallax zero
point determination.
  Furthermore, we carried out a search for photometric variability in our
targets using archival data, finding that 26% of our targets are variable. This
includes 15 new variable stars, with only one of them being clearly an
irradiation effect system. Strikingly, the majority of the variable stars
exhibit non-sinusoidal light-curve shapes, which are unlikely explained in
terms of close binary systems. We propose that a significant fraction of all
(not just UHE) WDs develop spots when entering the WD cooling phase. We suggest
that this could be related to the on-set of weak magnetic fields and possibly
diffusion.


  We observe that the periodic variations in spin-down rate and beam-width of
the radio pulsar PSR B1828-11 are getting faster. In the context of a free
precession model, this corresponds to a decrease in the precession period
$P_{\mathrm{fp}}$. We investigate how a precession model can account for such a
decrease in $P_{\mathrm{fp}}$, in terms of an increase over time in the
absolute biaxial deformation ($|\epsilon_{\mathrm{p}}|{\sim}10^{-8}$) of this
pulsar. We perform a Bayesian model comparison against the 'base' precession
model (with constant $\epsilon_{\mathrm{p}}$) developed in Ashton et al (2016),
and we obtain decisive odds in favour of a time-varying deformation. We study
two types of time-variation: (i) a linear drift with a posterior estimate of
$\dot{\epsilon}_{\mathrm{p}}{\sim}10^{-18}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ and odds of
$10^{75}$ compared to the base-model, and (ii) $N$ discrete positive jumps in
$\epsilon_{\mathrm{p}}$ with very similar odds to the linear
$\epsilon_{\mathrm{p}}$-drift model. The physical mechanism explaining this
behaviour is unclear, but the observation could provide a crucial probe of the
interior physics of neutron stars. We also place an upper bound on the rate at
which the precessional motion is damped, and translate this into a bound on a
dissipative mutual friction-type coupling between the star's crust and core.


  We give a new definition of topological pressure for arbitrary (non-compact,
non-invariant) Borel subsets of metric spaces. This new quantity is defined via
a suitable variational principle, leading to an alternative definition of an
equilibrium state. We study the properties of this new quantity and compare it
with existing notions of topological pressure. We are particularly interested
in the situation when the ambient metric space is assumed to be compact. We
motivate the naturality of our definition by applying it to some interesting
examples, including the level sets of the pointwise Lyapunov exponent for the
Manneville-Pomeau family of maps.


  For a 3-dimensional manifold $M^3$, its complexity $c(M^3)$, introduced by
S.Matveev, is the minimal number of vertices of an almost simple spine of
$M^3$; in many cases it is equal to the minimal number of tetrahedra in a
singular triangulation of $M^3$. An approach to estimating $c(M^3)$ from below
for total spaces of torus bundles over $S^1$, based on the study of
theta-curves in the fibers, is developed, and pseudominimal special spines for
these manifolds are constructed, which we conjecture to be their minimal
spines. We also show how to apply some of these ideas to other 3-manifolds.


  We discuss a resource-competition model, which takes the MacArthur's model as
a platform, to unveil interesting connections with glassy features and jamming
in high dimension. This model presents two qualitatively different phases: a
"shielded" phase, where a collective and self-sustained behavior emerges, and a
"vulnerable" phase, where a small perturbation can destabilize the system and
contribute to population extinction. We first present our perspective based on
a strong similarity with continuous constraint satisfaction problems in their
convex regime. Then, we discuss the stability in terms of the computation of
the leading eigenvalue of the Hessian matrix of the free energy in the replica
space. This computation allows us to efficiently distinguish between the two
aforementioned phases and to relate high-dimensional critical ecosystems to
glassy phenomena in the low-temperature regime.


  This manuscript describes in some detail the basic features of higher-spin
gauge fields. After presenting some introductory material, I turn to the
different formulations available at the free level and finally end with a
discussion of the Vasiliev equations in four dimensions based on spinor
oscillators.
  From the Laurea Thesis defended at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" on
July 2004 (in Italian) .


  A next-to-leading order QCD calculation of non-singlet spin structure
function, $g_{1}^{NS} $ is presented within the valon representation of
Hadrons. In the valon model, it is assumed that a nucleon is composed of three
dressed valence quarks: the valons which have their own internal structure, the
valence quark with its associated sea quarks and gluons. The results are in
good agreement with all available data from SMC, E143, HERMES and with the
newly released data from COMPASS experiments. It appears that the small x tail
of $g_{1}^{NS}$ can be described by a single Regge-type exchange. The relevant
parameter of this exchange is given. Finally we show that the polarized proton
structure function has a scaling behavior at small x. The relevant parameters
of this behavior are given too.


  The Bohm motion for a particle moving on the line in a quantum state that is
a superposition of n+1 energy eigenstates is quasiperiodic with n frequencies.


  The Universe owns the electronic radiation of blackbody at temperature 2.725
K, which we call the cosmic electron background. We calculate its radiation
spectrum. The energy distribution of number density of electrons in the cosmic
electron background becomes zero as energy goes to both zero and infinity. It
has one maximum peak near the energy level of 10**(-23) J.


  We study properly discontinuous and cocompact actions of a discrete subgroup
$\Gamma$ of an algebraic group $G$ on a contractible algebraic manifold $X$. We
suppose that this action comes from an algebraic action of $G$ on $X$ such that
a maximal reductive subgroup of $G$ fixes a point. When the real rank of any
simple subgroup of $G$ is at most one or the dimension of $X$ is at most three,
we show that $\Gamma$ is virtually polycyclic. When $\Gamma$ is virtually
polycyclic, we show that $\Gamma$ is virtually polycyclic. When $\Gamma$ is
virtually polycyclic, we show that the action reduces to a NIL-affine
crystallographic action. As applications, we prove that the generalized
Auslander conjecture for NIL-affine actions holds up to dimension six and give
a new proof of the fact that every virtually polycyclic group admits a
NIL-affine crystallographic action.


  In practice, the data distribution at test time often differs, to a smaller
or larger extent, from that of the original training data. Consequentially, the
so-called source classifier, trained on the available labelled data,
deteriorates on the test, or target, data. Domain adaptive classifiers aim to
combat this problem, but typically assume some particular form of domain shift.
Most are not robust to violations of domain shift assumptions and may even
perform worse than their non-adaptive counterparts. We construct robust
parameter estimators for discriminant analysis that guarantee performance
improvements of the adaptive classifier over the non-adaptive source
classifier.


  Persistent scaling behavior of magnetization in layered high $T_c$
superconductors with short--range columnar defects is explained within the
Ginzburg Landau theory. In the weak field region, the scaling function differs
from that of a clean sample and both the critical and crossing temperatures are
renormalized due to defects. In the strong field region, defects are
effectively suppressed and scaling function, as well as critical and crossing
temperatures are the same as in a clean superconductor. This picture is
consistent with recent experimental results


  A simple scenario of the formation of geological landscapes is suggested and
the respective lattice model is derived. Numerical analysis shows that the
arising non-Gaussian surfaces are characterized by the scale-dependent Hurst
exponent, which varies from 0.7 to 1, in agreement with experimental data.


  Spin measurement of the 6.5 billion solar mass black hole in M87 from the
Event Horizon Telescope image is the latest in a series that span a wide range
in values, but that tend to share the feature of co-rotation between the
accretion flow and black hole. The spin paradigm for black holes predicts very
high black hole spin which in that framework was produced in its last
significant merger. High black hole spin appears to be ruled out in the gap
paradigm, however, which predicts early formation with a mass already in excess
of 4 billion solar masses. In this picture, the black hole experienced slow
evolution as it departed from its original radio quasar phase and over billions
of years not only failed to double its mass but also fell short of regaining
its original high spin, such that it is now compatible with a co-rotating
accreting black hole whose dimensionless spin fits best in the range 0.2 < a <
0.5.


  Failure detection protocols---a fundamental building block for crafting
fault-tolerant distributed systems---are in many cases described by their
authors making use of informal pseudo-codes of their conception. Often these
pseudo-codes use syntactical constructs that are not available in COTS
programming languages such as C or C++. This translates into informal
descriptions that call for ad hoc interpretations and implementations. Being
informal, these descriptions cannot be tested by their authors, which may
translate into insufficiently detailed or even faulty specifications. This
paper tackles this problem introducing a formal syntax for those constructs and
a C library that implements them---a tool-set to express and reason about
failure detection protocols. The resulting specifications are longer but non
ambiguous, and eligible for becoming a standard form.


  We study the influence of inelastic electron-electron scattering on the
temperature variation of the Seebeck coefficient in the normal phase of
quasi-one-dimensional organic superconductors. The theory is based on the
numerical solution of the semi-classical Boltzmann equation for which the
collision integral equation is solved with the aid of the electronic umklapp
scattering vertex calculated by the renormalization group method. We show that
the one-loop renormalization group flow of momentum and temperature dependent
umklapp scattering, in the presence of nesting alterations of the Fermi
surface, introduce electron-hole asymmetry in the energy dependence of the
anisotropic scattering time. This is responsible for the enhancement of the
Seebeck coefficient with respect to the band $T$-linear prediction and even its
sign reversal around the quantum critical point of the phase diagram, namely
where the interplay between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity along with
the strength of spin fluctuations are the strongest. Comparison of the results
with available data on low dimensional organic superconductors is presented and
critically discussed.


  The rapid growth in the number and variety of connected devices requires 5G
wireless systems to cope with a very heterogeneous traffic mix. As a
consequence, the use of a fixed TTI during transmission is not necessarily the
most efficacious method when heterogeneous traffic types need to be
simultaneously serviced.This work analyzes the benefits of scheduling based on
exploiting scalable TTI, where the channel assignment and the TTI duration are
adapted to the deadlines and requirements of different services. We formulate
an optimization problem by taking individual service requirements into
consideration. We then prove that the optimization problem is NP-hard and
provide a heuristic algorithm, which provides an effective solution to the
problem. Numerical results show that our proposed algorithm is capable of
finding near-optimal solutions to meet the latency requirements of mission
critical communication services, while providing a good throughput performance
for mobile broadband services.


  In light and medium-mass nuclei, two-body weak currents from chiral effective
field theory account for a significant portion of the phenomenological
quenching of Gamow-Teller transition matrix elements. Here we examine the
systematic effects of two-body axial currents on Gamow-Teller strength and
$\beta$-decay rates in heavy nuclei within energy-density functional theory.
Using a Skyrme functional and the charge-changing finite amplitude method, we
add the contributions of two-body currents to the usual one-body linear
response in the Gamow-Teller channel, both exactly and though a density-matrix
expansion. The two-body currents, as expected, usually quench both summed
Gamow-Teller strength and decay rates, but by an amount that decreases as the
neutron excess grows. In addition, they can enhance individual low-lying
transitions, leading to decay rates that are quite different from those that an
energy-independent quenching would produce, particularly in neutron-rich
nuclei. We show that both these unexpected effects are related to changes in
the total nucleon density as the number of neutrons increases.


  Dual-comb microscopy (DCM), based on a combination of dual-comb spectroscopy
(DCS) with two-dimensional spectral encoding (2D-SE), is a promising method for
scan-less confocal laser microscopy giving an amplitude and phase image
contrast with the confocality. However, signal loss in a 2D-SE optical system
hampers increase in image acquisition rate due to decreased signa-to-noise
ratio. In this article, we demonstrated optical image amplification in DCM with
an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). Combined use of image-encoded DCS
interferogram and EDFA benefits from not only the batch amplification of
amplitude and phase images but also significant rejection of amplified
spontaneous emission (ASE) background. Effectiveness of the
optical-image-amplified DCM is highlighted in the single-shot quantitative
nanometer-order surface topography and the real-time movie of polystyrene beads
dynamics under water convection. The proposed method will be a powerful tool
for real-time observation of surface topography and fast dynamic phenomena.


  In this work, a spherically symmetric and static relativistic anisotropic
fluid sphere solution of the Einstein field equations is provided. To build
this particular model, we have imposed metric potential $e^{2\lambda(r)}$ and
an equation of state. Specifically, the so-called modified generalized
Chaplygin equation of state with $\omega=1$ and depending on two parameters,
namely, $A$ and $B$. These ingredients close the problem, at least
mathematically. However, to check the feasibility of the model, a complete
physical analysis has been performed. Thus, we analyze the obtained geometry
and the main physical observables, such as the density $\rho$, the radial
$p_{r}$, and tangential $p_{t}$ pressures as well as the anisotropy factor
$\Delta$. Besides, the stability of the system has been checked by means of the
velocities of the pressure waves and the relativistic adiabatic index. It is
found that the configuration is stable in considering the adiabatic index
criteria and is under hydrostatic balance. Finally, to mimic a realistic
compact object, we have imposed the radius to be $R=9.5\ [km]$. With this
information and taking different values of the parameter $A$ the total mass of
the object has been determined. The resulting numerical values for the
principal variables of the model established that the structure could represent
a quark (strange) star mixed with dark energy.


  In this article we present an Elitism Levels Traverse Mechanism that we
designed to find bounds on population-based Evolutionary algorithms solving
unimodal functions. We prove its efficiency theoretically and test it on OneMax
function deriving bounds c{\mu}n log n - O({\mu} n). This analysis can be
generalized to any similar algorithm using variants of tournament selection and
genetic operators that flip or swap only 1 bit in each string.


  Clustering consists of a popular set of techniques used to separate data into
interesting groups for further analysis. Many data sources on which clustering
is performed are well-known to contain random and systematic measurement
errors. Such errors may adversely affect clustering. While several techniques
have been developed to deal with this problem, little is known about the
effectiveness of these solutions. Moreover, no work to-date has examined the
effect of systematic errors on clustering solutions.
  In this paper, we perform a Monte Carlo study to investigate the sensitivity
of two common clustering algorithms, GMMs with merging and DBSCAN, to random
and systematic error. We find that measurement error is particularly
problematic when it is systematic and when it affects all variables in the
dataset. For the conditions considered here, we also find that the
partition-based GMM with merged components is less sensitive to measurement
error than the density-based DBSCAN procedure.


  Web3 brings an emerging outlook for the value of decentralization, boosting
the decentralized infrastructure. People can benefit from Web3, facilitated by
the advances in distributed ledger technology, to read, write and own web
content, services and applications more freely without revealing their real
identities. Although the features and merits of Web3 have been widely
discussed, the network architecture of Web3 and how to achieve complete
decentralization considering law compliance in Web3 are still unclear. Here, we
propose a perspective of Web3 architecture, deController, consisting of
underlay and overlay network as Web3 infrastructures to underpin services and
applications. The functions of underlay and overlay and their interactions are
illustrated. Meanwhile, the security and privacy of Web3 are analyzed based on
a novel design of three-tier identities cooperating with deController.
Furthermore, the impacts of laws on privacy and cyber sovereignty to achieve
Web3 are discussed.


  An edge-colouring is {\em strong} if every colour class is an induced
matching. In this work we give a formulae that determines either the optimal or
the optimal plus one strong chromatic index of bipartite outerplanar graphs.
Further, we give an improved upper bound for any outerplanar graph which is
close to optimal. All our proofs yield efficient algorithms to construct such
colourings.


  Sunspot regions often form complexes of activity that may live for several
solar rotations, and represent a major component of the Sun's magnetic
activity. It had been suggested that the close appearance of active regions in
space and time might be related to common subsurface roots, or "nests" of
activity. EUV images show that the active regions are magnetically connected in
the corona, but subsurface connections have not been established. We
investigate the subsurface structure and dynamics of a large complex of
activity, NOAA 10987-10989, observed during the SOHO/MDI Dynamics run in
March-April 2008, which was a part of the Whole Heliospheric Interval (WHI)
campaign. The active regions in this complex appeared in a narrow latitudinal
range, probably representing a subsurface toroidal flux tube. We use the MDI
full-disk Dopplergrams to measure perturbations of travel times of acoustic
waves traveling to various depths by using time-distance helioseismology, and
obtain sound-speed and flow maps by inversion of the travel times. The
subsurface flow maps show an interesting dynamics of decaying active regions
with persistent shearing flows, which may be important for driving the flaring
and CME activity, observed during the WHI campaign. Our analysis, including the
seismic sound-speed inversion results and the distribution of deep-focus
travel-time anomalies, gave indications of diverging roots of the magnetic
structures, as could be expected from $\Omega$-loop structures. However, no
clear connection in the depth range of 0-48 Mm among the three active regions
in this complex of activity was detected.


  We generalize a method developed by Sarig to obtain polynomial lower bounds
for correlation functions for maps with a countable Markov partition. A
consequence is that LS Young's estimates on towers are always optimal.
Moreover, we show that, for functions with zero average, the decay rate is
better, gaining a factor 1/n. This implies a Central Limit Theorem in contexts
where it was not expected, e.g. x+Cx^(1+\alpha) with 1/2 < \alpha < 1. The
method is based on a general result on renewal sequences of operator, and gives
an asymptotic estimate up to any precision of such operators.


  The Temperley--Lieb algebra is a finite dimensional associative algebra that
arose in the context of statistical mechanics and occurs naturally as a
quotient of the Hecke algebra arising from a Coxeter group of type $A$. It is
often realized in terms of a certain diagram algebra, where every diagram can
be written as a product of "simple diagrams." These factorizations correspond
precisely to factorizations of the so-called fully commutative elements of the
Coxeter group that index a particular basis. Given a reduced factorization of a
fully commutative element, it is straightforward to construct the corresponding
diagram. On the other hand, it is generally difficult to reconstruct the
factorization given an arbitrary diagram. We present an efficient algorithm for
obtaining a reduced factorization for a given diagram.


  This is a brief survey of T. E. Harris's work on recurrent Markov processes
and on stochastic flows, and of some more recent work in these fields.


  The VLBI technique can image compact radio sources with resolutions of the
order of the milliarcsecond and can determine astrometrically relative
positions with submilliarcsecond precisions. We determined the angular
separations among the radio sources in the triangle 1803+784/1928+738/2007+777
with submilliarcsecond accuracy from a weighted least squares analysis of the
differential phases. The comparison of the estimated separation of the pair
1928+738/2007+777 with previous such estimates obtained from data at different
epochs allowed us to align the maps of 1928+738 at diferent epochs relative to
those of 2007+777, showing that the jet components of 1928+738 display proper
motions, and suggesting an identification for the position of the core of this
radio source. We have also observed astrometrically the complete S5 polar cap
sample, that among the 13 sources within 20 degrees to the celestial North Pole
includes the above 3. These observations are carried out in the framework of a
long-term astrometric program to determine the absolute kinematics of radio
sources in the S5 complete sample.


  We show that positivity of the CM line associated to a family of polarised
varieties is intimately related to the stability of its members. We prove that
the CM line is nef on any curve which meets the stable locus, and that it is
pseudoeffective (i.e. in the closure of the effective cone) as long as there is
at least one stable fibre. We give examples showing that the CM line can be
strictly negative or strictly positive on curves in the unstable locus.


  Quantum interference between time-reversed electron paths in two dimensions
leads to the well-known weak localization correction to resistance. If
spin-orbit coupling is present, the resistance correction is negative, termed
weak anti-localization (WAL). Here we report the observation of WAL coexisting
with exchange coupling between itinerant electrons and localized magnetic
moments. We use low-temperature magneto-transport measurements to investigate
the quasi-two-dimensional, high-electron-density interface formed between
SrTiO$_3$ (STO) and the anti-ferromagnetic Mott insulator NdTiO$_3$ (NTO). As
the magnetic field angle is gradually tilted away from the sample normal, the
data reveals the interplay between strong $k$-cubic Rashba-type spin-orbit
coupling and a substantial magnetic exchange interaction from local magnetic
regions. The resulting quantum corrections to the conduction are in excellent
agreement with existing models and allow sensitive determination of the small
magnetic moments (22 $\mu_B$ on average), their magnetic anisotropy and mutual
coupling strength. This effect is expected to arise in other 2D magnetic
materials systems.


  The proposed high-spin superconductivity in the half-Heusler compounds
changes the landscape of superconductivity research. While superconducting
instability is possible only in systems with quantum mechanically coherent
quasiparticles, it has not been verified for any proposed high-spin Fermi
surfaces. Here we report an observation of anomalous Shubnikov-de Haas effect
in half-Heusler YPtBi, which is compatible with a coherent $j=3/2$ Fermi
surface. The quantum oscillation (QO) signal in cubic YPtBi manifests extreme
anisotropy upon rotation of the magnetic field from [100] to [110]
crystallographic direction where the QO signal drastically vanishes near [110].
This radical anisotropy for a cubic system cannot be explained by trivial
scenarios for QO involving effective mass or impurity scattering, but it is
naturally explained by the warping feature of the $j=3/2$ Fermi surface YPtBi.
Our results prove the high-spin nature of the quasiparticle in the half-Heusler
compounds, which makes the realization of the unprecedented high-spin
superconductivity more plausible.


  Humans like to express their opinions and crave the opinions of others.
Mining and detecting opinions from various sources are beneficial to
individuals, organisations, and even governments. One such organisation is news
media, where a general norm is not to showcase opinions from their side.
Anchors are the face of the digital media, and it is required for them not to
be opinionated. However, at times, they diverge from the accepted norm and
insert their opinions into otherwise straightforward news reports, either
purposefully or unintentionally. This is primarily seen in debates as it
requires the anchors to be spontaneous, thus making them vulnerable to add
their opinions. The consequence of such mishappening might lead to biased news
or even supporting a certain agenda at the worst. To this end, we propose a
novel task of anchors' opinion detection in debates. We curate code-mixed news
debates and develop the ODIN dataset. A total of 2054 anchors' utterances in
the dataset are marked as opinionated or non-opinionated. Lastly, we propose
DetONADe, an interactive attention-based framework for classifying anchors'
utterances and obtain the best weighted-F1 score of 0.703. A thorough analysis
and evaluation show many interesting patterns in the dataset and predictions.


  In these proceedings we discuss next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative-QCD
calculations of the cross section for the process $\ell N\to h X$. We briefly
present the main features of the calculation and in particular analyze the role
of quasi-real photons that enter the processes because the scattered lepton is
not observed. We find that the NLO corrections are sizable for the
spin-averaged cross section. In order to quantify this statement we present the
K-factors of the cross sections for fixed target experiments HERMES, JLab12 and
COMPASS.


  The problem of on-demand generation of entanglement between single-atom
qubits via a common photonic channel is examined within the framework of
optical interferometry. As expected, for a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with
coherent laser beam as input, a high-finesse optical cavity is required to
overcome sensitivity to spontaneous emission. We show, however, that with a
twin-Fock input, useful entanglement can in principle be created without
cavity-enhancement. Both approaches require single-photon resolving detectors,
and best results would be obtained by combining both cavity-feedback and
twin-Fock inputs. Such an approach may allow a fidelity of $.99$ using a
two-photon input and currently available mirror and detector technology. In
addition, we study interferometers based on NOON states and show that they
perform similarly to the twin-Fock states, yet without the need for
high-precision photo-detectors. The present interferometrical approach can
serve as a universal, scalable circuit element for quantum information
processing, from which fast quantum gates, deterministic teleportation,
entanglement swapping $etc.$, can be realized with the aid of single-qubit
operations.


  It is proved that the rank of elliptic curves with complex multiplication
introduced by B. H. Gross is one less an arithmetic complexity of the
corresponding noncommutative tori with real multiplication.


  Detecting the change of a cosmological object's redshift due to the time
evolution of the Universal expansion rate is an ambitious experiment that will
be attempted with future telescope facilities. In this paper, we describe the
ACCELERATION programme, which aims to study the properties of the most
underdense regions of the Universe. One of the highlight goals of this
programme is to prepare for the redshift drift measurement. Using the EAGLE
cosmological hydrodynamic simulations, we estimate the peculiar acceleration of
gas in galaxies and in the Lya forest. We find that star-forming 'cold neutral
gas' exhibits large peculiar acceleration due to the high local density of
baryons near star-forming regions. We conclude that absorption by cold neutral
gas is unlikely to yield a detection of the cosmological redshift drift. On the
other hand, we find that the peculiar accelerations of Lya forest absorbers are
more than an order of magnitude below the expected cosmological signal. We also
highlight that the numerous low H I column density systems display lower
peculiar acceleration. Finally, we propose a new 'Lya cell' technique that
applies a small correction to the wavelength calibration to secure a relative
measurement of the cosmic drift between two unrelated cosmological sources at
different redshifts. For suitable combinations of absorption lines, the
cosmological signal can be more than doubled, while the affect of the observer
peculiar acceleration is mitigated. Using current data of four suitable Lya
cells, we infer a limit on the cosmological redshift drift to be dv/dt_obs < 65
m/s/year (2 sigma).


  I review the current status of the determination of helicity-dependent, or
polarized, parton distribution functions from a comprehensive analysis of
experimental data in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. I illustrate the
latest achievements driven by new measurements in polarized proton-proton
collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, namely the first evidence of
a sizable polarized light sea quark asymmetry and of a positive polarized gluon
distribution in the proton. I discuss which are the open issues in the
determination of polarized distributions, and how these may be addressed in the
future by ongoing, planned and proposed experimental programs.


  We study a possibility of a strong first-order phase transition (FOPT) taking
place below the electroweak scale in the context of $U(1)_D$ gauge extension of
the standard model. As pointed out recently by the NANOGrav collaboration,
gravitational waves from such a phase transition with appropriate strength and
nucleation temperature can explain their 12.5 yr data. We first find the
parameter space of this minimal model consistent with NANOGrav findings
considering only a complex singlet scalar and $U(1)_D$ vector boson. Existence
of a singlet fermion charged under $U(1)_D$ can give rise to dark matter in
this model, preferably of non-thermal type, while incorporating additional
fields can also generate light neutrino masses through typical low scale seesaw
mechanisms like radiative or inverse seesaw.


  CERN has recently launched the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study to deal
with all aspects of an ambitious post-LHC possible programme. The emphasis of
the study is on a 100 TeV proton collider to be housed in a 80-100 km new ring
in the Geneva region. An electron machine will also be considered as a possible
intermediate first step (FCC-ee). The study benefits from earlier work done in
the context of TLEP and has already published a parameter table, to serve as
the basis for the work to be done. The study aims to publish a conceptual
design report at around 2018. The recent discovery of a light Higgs boson has
opened up considerable interest in circular e+e- Higgs factories around the
world. FCC-ee is capable of very high luminosities in a wide centre-of-mass
(ECM) spectrum from 90 to 350 GeV. This allows the very precise study of the Z,
W and H bosons as well as the top quark, allowing for meaningful precision
tests of the closure of the Standard Model.


  We study Landau-Zener like dynamics of a qubit influenced by transverse
random telegraph noise. The telegraph noise is characterized by its coupling
strength, $v$ and switching rate, $\gamma$. The qubit energy levels are driven
nonlinearly in time, $\propto \sign(t)|t|^\nu$, and we derive the transition
probability in the limit of sufficiently fast noise, for arbitrary exponent
$\nu$. The longitudinal coherence after transition depends strongly on $\nu$,
and there exists a critical $\nu_c$ with qualitative difference between $\nu<
\nu_c$ and $\nu > \nu_c$. When $\nu<\nu_c$ the end state is always fully
incoherent with equal population of both quantum levels, even for arbitrarily
weak noise. For $\nu>\nu_c$ the system keeps some coherence depending on the
strength of the noise, and in the limit of weak noise no transition takes
place. For fast noise $\nu_c=1/2$, while for slow noise $\nu_c<1/2$ and it
depends on $\gamma$. We also discuss transverse coherence, which is relevant
when the qubit has a nonzero minimum energy gap. The qualitative dependency on
$\nu$ is the same for transverse as for longitudinal coherence. The state after
transition does in general depend on $\gamma$. For fixed $v$, increasing
$\gamma$ decreases the final state coherence when $\nu<1$ and increase the
final state coherence when $\nu>1$. Only the conventional linear driving is
independent of $\gamma$.


  Properties of normal galactic star formation, including the density
dependence, threshold density, turbulent scaling relations, and clustering
properties, are applied to the formation of galactic bulges. One important
difference is that the bulge potential well is too deep to have allowed
self-regulation or blow-out by the pressures from young stars, unlike galactic
disks or dwarf galaxies. As a result, bulge formation should have been at the
maximum rate, which is such that most of the gas would get converted into stars
in only a few dynamical time scales, or ~10^8 years. The gas accretion phase
can be longer than this, but once the critical density is reached, which
depends primarily on the total virial density from dark matter, the formation
of stars in the bulge should have been extremely rapid. Such three-dimensional
star formation should also have formed many clusters, like normal disk star
formation today. Some of these clusters may have survived as old globulars, but
most got dispersed, although they might still be observable as concentrated
streams in phase space.


  Unbiased, label-free proteomics is becoming a powerful technique for
measuring protein expression in almost any biological sample. The output of
these measurements after preprocessing is a collection of features and their
associated intensities for each sample. Subsets of features within the data are
from the same peptide, subsets of peptides are from the same protein, and
subsets of proteins are in the same biological pathways, therefore, there is
the potential for very complex and informative correlational structure inherent
in these data. Recent attempts to utilize this data often focus on the
identification of single features that are associated with a particular
phenotype that is relevant to the experiment. However, to date, there have been
no published approaches that directly model what we know to be multiple
different levels of correlation structure. Here we present a hierarchical
Bayesian model which is specifically designed to model such correlation
structure in unbiased, label-free proteomics. This model utilizes partial
identification information from peptide sequencing and database lookup as well
as the observed correlation in the data to appropriately compress features into
latent proteins and to estimate their correlation structure. We demonstrate the
effectiveness of the model using artificial/benchmark data and in the context
of a series of proteomics measurements of blood plasma from a collection of
volunteers who were infected with two different strains of viral influenza.


  We estimate the charged lepton electric dipole moments and the branching
ratios of radiative lepton flavor violating decays in the framework of the two
Higgs doublet model with the inclusion two extra dimensions. Here, we consider
that the new Higgs doublet is accessible to one of the extra dimensions with a
Gaussian profile and the fermions are accessible to the other extra dimension
with uniform zero mode profile. We observe that the numerical values of the
physical quantities studied enhance with the additional effects due to the
extra dimensions and they are sensitive to the new Higgs localization.


  The quark-gluon properties of the nucleon are probed by a host of recent and
planned experiments. These involve elastic, deep-inelastic, semi-inclusive
deep-inelastic (SIDIS), and deeply-virtual Compton scattering. A light-front
description is naturally applied to interpret all of these processes. The
advantages of this approach will be discussed The talk will then focus on the
transverse charge and magnetization densities of the nucleons and the use of
SIDIS to reveal the non-spherical shape of the nucleon. We find that the
central charge density of the neutron is negative, that the magnetization
density of the proton extends further in space than the charge distribution,
and that the shape of the nucleon, as measured by the spin-dependent density,
is not spherical.


  Non-locality consists in the existence of non-classical correlations between
local measurements. So far, it has been investigated mostly in isolated quantum
systems. Here we show that non-local correlations are present, can be detected
and might be robust against noise also in many-body open quantum systems, both
in the steady-state and in the transient regime. We further discuss the
robustness of non-local correlations when the open quantum system undergoes
repeated measurements, a relevant scenario for quantum cryptography.


  Let $Y_{1},Y_{2},\ldots $ be positive, nondegenerate, i.i.d. $G$ random
variables, and independently let $X_{1},X_{2},\ldots $ be i.i.d. $F$ random
variables. In this note we show that whenever $\sum X_{i}Y_{i}/\sum Y_{i}$
converges in distribution to nondegenerate limit for some $F\in \mathcal{F}$,
in a specified class of distributions $\mathcal{F}$, then $G$ necessarily
belongs to the domain of attraction of a stable law with index less than 1. The
class $\mathcal{F}$ contains those nondegenerate $X$ with a finite second
moment and those $X$ in the domain of attraction of a stable law with index
$1<\alpha <2$.


  We present the R-package mgm for the estimation of k-order Mixed Graphical
Models (MGMs) and mixed Vector Autoregressive (mVAR) models in high-dimensional
data. These are a useful extensions of graphical models for only one variable
type, since data sets consisting of mixed types of variables (continuous,
count, categorical) are ubiquitous. In addition, we allow to relax the
stationarity assumption of both models by introducing time-varying versions
MGMs and mVAR models based on a kernel weighting approach. Time-varying models
offer a rich description of temporally evolving systems and allow to identify
external influences on the model structure such as the impact of interventions.
We provide the background of all implemented methods and provide fully
reproducible examples that illustrate how to use the package.


  Nonrelativstic effective field theories have shown to be a useful framework
to describe systems of weakly bound particles. This work focuses on the
matching procedure to the underlying relativistic theory. The concept of a
physical mass in the absence of explicit Lorentz symmetry and the matching
conditions for S-matrix elements and Green's functions are discussed in general
for scalar particles. The effective Lagrangians of the pure particle and
anti-particle sectors are constructed explicitely for a Yukawa-type interaction
of a heavy and a light scalar field. Using the proper matching, it is shown
that they reproduce the corresponding relativistic amplitudes in a systematic
expansion in inverse powers of the heavy mass.


  We analyze the quantum trajectory dynamics of free fermions subject to
continuous monitoring. For weak monitoring, we identify a novel dynamical
regime of subextensive entanglement growth, reminiscent of a critical phase
with an emergent conformal invariance. For strong monitoring, however, the
dynamics favors a transition into a quantum Zeno-like area-law regime. Close to
the critical point, we observe logarithmic finite size corrections, indicating
a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless mechanism underlying the transition. This
uncovers an unconventional entanglement transition in an elementary, physically
realistic model for weak continuous measurements. In addition, we demonstrate
that the measurement aspect in the dynamics is crucial for whether or not a
phase transition takes place.


  The diluted Ising antiferromagnet, Fe_{0.31}Zn_{0.69}F_{2}, has been
investigated by dynamic susceptibility measurements in zero and and finite
applied dc-fields. In zero field, there is a para- to antiferromagnetic phase
transition at $T_{N} \approx {20.0 K}$, followed by a dramatic slowing down of
the dynamics at low temperatures. The latter described by a pure Arrhenius law.
The effect of a superposed dc-field on the antiferromagnetic phase transition
and on the low-temperature dynamics is investigated, and a comprehensive static
and dynamic phase diagram in the H-T plane is derived. In agreement with
earlier results on the same system, $T_{N}(H)$ follows a random-exchange Ising
model to random-field Ising model crossover scaling for fields $H \leq 1.5 T$.
A random-field induced glassy dynamics appears for higher values of H, where
the antiferromagnetic phase transition is destroyed. The low-temperature
dynamics shows striking similarities with the behavior observed in reentrant
antiferromagnets.


  The problem of the re-entry predictions of GOCE has been deeply investigated
in the literature, due to the large amount of data, mainly radar and GPS,
available until re-entry. The accurate GPS and attitude measurements are used
to compute a precise reference orbit for the three weeks of decay, and to
extrapolate the ballistic coefficient evolution of the object. In previous
works, the capabilities of radar-based solutions for the re-entry predictions
of GOCE and of similar objects were investigated, focusing on the german TIRA
radar. In this work we have performed additional analysis, focusing on the
northern european radar EISCAT-UHF, located in Troms\o, Norway. This sensor,
conceived for atmospheric studies, has recently been considered for space
debris applications. Due to its limited tracking capabilities, we are
interested in testing its effectiveness in supporting re-entry predictions. We
have simulated reliable re-entry prediction scenarios, with different
availability of data from EISCAT and TIRA. The main conclusion is that,
provided a suitable amount of observations, EISCAT-based re-entry predictions
are comparable to TIRA-based, but also to GPS and TLE-based, corresponding
ones. In general, EISCAT is not able to determine an orbit with the same
accuracy of TIRA, but the results are equivalent in terms of re-entry
predictions, if we consider the relevant parameters involved and their effects
on the re-entry time. What is very important is the difficulty in predicting
atmospheric and attitude significant variations in between the current epoch
and the actual re-entry. Thus, it is not easy to keep the accuracy of
predictions much lower than 10% of the residual lifetime, apart from cases with
constant area to mass ratio, and low atmospheric variations with respect to the
models. An experiment with real data is presented for the object 2012-006K,
with consistent results.


  The spin resonance peak in the iron-based superconductors is observed in
inelastic neutron scattering experiments and agrees well with predicted results
for the extended s-wave ($s_\pm$) gap symmetry. On the basis of four-band and
three-orbital tight binding models we study the effect of nonmagnetic disorder
on the resonance peak. Spin susceptibility is calculated in the random phase
approximation with the renormalization of the quasiparticle self-energy due to
the impurity scattering in the static Born approximation. We find that the spin
resonance becomes broader with the increase of disorder and its energy shifts
to higher frequencies. For the same amount of disorder the spin response in the
$s_\pm$ state is still distinct from that of the $s_{++}$ state.


  Separating vocal elements from musical tracks is a longstanding challenge in
audio signal processing. This study tackles the distinct separation of vocal
components from musical spectrograms. We employ the Short Time Fourier
Transform (STFT) to extract audio waves into detailed frequency-time
spectrograms, utilizing the benchmark MUSDB18 dataset for music separation.
Subsequently, we implement a UNet neural network to segment the spectrogram
image, aiming to delineate and extract singing voice components accurately. We
achieved noteworthy results in audio source separation using of our U-Net-based
models. The combination of frequency-axis normalization with Min/Max scaling
and the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) loss function achieved the highest
Source-to-Distortion Ratio (SDR) of 7.1 dB, indicating a high level of accuracy
in preserving the quality of the original signal during separation. This setup
also recorded impressive Source-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) and
Source-to-Artifact Ratio (SAR) scores of 25.2 dB and 7.2 dB, respectively.
These values significantly outperformed other configurations, particularly
those using Quantile-based normalization or a Mean Squared Error (MSE) loss
function. Our source code, model weights, and demo material can be found at the
project's GitHub repository: https://github.com/mbrotos/SoundSeg


  Large, general purpose language models have demonstrated impressive
performance across many different conversational domains. While multi-domain
language models achieve low overall perplexity, their outputs are not
guaranteed to stay within the domain of a given input prompt. This paper
proposes domain privacy as a novel way to quantify how likely a conditional
language model will leak across domains. We also develop policy functions based
on token-level domain classification, and propose an efficient fine-tuning
method to improve the trained model's domain privacy. Experiments on membership
inference attacks show that our proposed method has comparable resiliency to
methods adapted from recent literature on differentially private language
models.


  We present a dislocation density-based strain hardening model for single
crystal copper through a systematic coarse-graining analysis of more than 200
discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD) simulations of plastic deformation under
uniaxial tension. The proposed constitutive model has two components: a
generalized Taylor relation connecting resolved shear stresses to dislocation
densities on individual slip systems, and a generalized Kocks-Mecking model for
dislocation multiplication. The DDD data strongly suggests a logarithmic
dependence of flow stress on the plastic shear strain rate on each slip system,
and, equivalently, an exponential dependence of the plastic shear strain rate
on the resolved shear stress. Hence the proposed generalized Taylor relation
subsumes the Orowan relation for plastic flow. The DDD data also calls for a
correction to the Kocks-Mecking model of dislocation multiplication to account
for the increase of dislocation density on slip systems with negligible plastic
shear strain rate. This is accomplished by allowing the multiplication rate on
each slip system to include contributions from the plastic strain rates of the
two coplanar slip systems. The resulting constitutive model successfully
captures the strain hardening rate dependence on the loading orientation as
predicted by the DDD simulations, which is also consistent with existing
experiments.


  Massive MIMO is a promising technique for future 5G communications due to its
high spectrum and energy efficiency. To realize its potential performance gain,
accurate channel estimation is essential. However, due to massive number of
antennas at the base station (BS), the pilot overhead required by conventional
channel estimation schemes will be unaffordable, especially for frequency
division duplex (FDD) massive MIMO. To overcome this problem, we propose a
structured compressive sensing (SCS)-based spatio-temporal joint channel
estimation scheme to reduce the required pilot overhead, whereby the
spatio-temporal common sparsity of delay-domain MIMO channels is leveraged.
Particularly, we first propose the non-orthogonal pilots at the BS under the
framework of CS theory to reduce the required pilot overhead. Then, an adaptive
structured subspace pursuit (ASSP) algorithm at the user is proposed to jointly
estimate channels associated with multiple OFDM symbols from the limited number
of pilots, whereby the spatio-temporal common sparsity of MIMO channels is
exploited to improve the channel estimation accuracy. Moreover, by exploiting
the temporal channel correlation, we propose a space-time adaptive pilot scheme
to further reduce the pilot overhead. Additionally, we discuss the proposed
channel estimation scheme in multi-cell scenario. Simulation results
demonstrate that the proposed scheme can accurately estimate channels with the
reduced pilot overhead, and it is capable of approaching the optimal oracle
least squares estimator.


  Exact conditions have long been used to guide the construction of density
functional approximations. But hundreds of empirical-based approximations
tailored for chemistry are in use, many of which neglect these conditions in
their design. We analyze well-known conditions and revive several obscure ones.
Two crucial distinctions are drawn: that between necessary and sufficient
conditions, and between all electronic densities and the subset of realistic
Coulombic ground states. Simple search algorithms find that many empirical
approximations satisfy many exact conditions for realistic densities and
non-empirical approximations satisfy even more conditions than those enforced
in their construction. The role of exact conditions in developing
approximations is revisited.


  We introduce new families of combinatorial objects whose enumeration computes
volumes of flow polytopes. These objects provide an interpretation, based on
parking functions, of Baldoni and Vergne's generalization of a volume formula
originally due to Lidskii. We recover known flow polytope volume formulas and
prove new volume formulas for flow polytopes that were seemingly
unapproachable. A highlight of our model is an elegant formula for the flow
polytope of a graph we call the caracol graph.
  As by-products of our work, we uncover a new triangle of numbers that
interpolates between Catalan numbers and the number of parking functions, we
prove the log-concavity of rows of this triangle along with other sequences
derived from volume computations, and we introduce a new Ehrhart-like
polynomial for flow polytope volume and conjecture product formulas for the
polytopes we consider.


  In this paper we present the notion of skew $\Pi$-Armendariz for the
non-commutative rings known as $\sigma$-PBW extensions. This concept
generalizes several definitions of Armendariz rings presented in the literature
for these extensions, and in particular, for Ore extensions of injective type.
We investigate the relations between skew $\Pi$-Armendariz, $\Sigma$-rigid,
$(\Sigma,\Delta)$-skew Armendariz and $\Sigma$-skew Armendariz rings rings.


  We investigate the dynamics of the quantum Ising model on two-dimensional
square lattices up to $16 \times 16$ spins. In the ordered phase, the model is
predicted to exhibit dynamically constrained dynamics, leading to confinement
of elementary excitations and slow thermalization. After demonstrating the
signatures of confinement, we probe the dynamics of interfaces in the
constrained regime through sudden quenches of product states with domains of
opposite magnetization. We find that the nature of excitations can be captured
by perturbation theory throughout the confining regime, and identify the
crossover to the deconfining regime. We systematically explore the effect of
the transverse field on the modes propagating along flat interfaces and
investigate the crossover from resonant to diffusive melting of a square of
flipped spins embedded in a larger lattice.


  Production of axionlike particles (ALPs) by primordial magnetic fields may
have significant impacts on cosmology. We discuss the production of ALPs in the
presence of the primordial magnetic fields. We find a region of the ALP mass
and photon coupling which realizes the observed properties of the dark matter
with appropriate initial conditions for the magnetic fields. This region may be
interesting in light of recent indications for the 3.5 keV lines from galaxy
clusters. For a small axion mass, a region of previously allowed parameter
spaces is excluded by overproduction of ALPs as a hot/warm dark matter
component. Since the abundance of ALPs strongly depends on the initial
conditions of primordial magnetic fields, our results provide implications for
scenarios of magnetogenesis.


  For a closed topological $n$--manifold $K$ and a map $p:K\to B$ inducing an
isomorphism $\pi_1(K)\to\pi_1(B)$, there is a canonicaly defined morphism
$b:H_{n+1}(B,K,\mathbb{L})\to \mathbb{S} (K)$, where $\mathbb{L}$ is the
periodic simply-connected surgery spectrum and $\mathbb{S} (K)$ is the
topological structure set. We construct a refinement
$a:H_{n+1}^{+}(B,K,\mathbb{L} )\to \mathbb{S}_{\varepsilon ,\delta }(K)$ in the
case when $p$ is $UV^1$, and we show that $a$ is bijective if $B$ is a
finite-dimensional compact metric ANR. Here, $H_{n+1}^{+}(B,K,\mathbb{L}
)\subset H_{n+1}(B,K,\mathbb{L} )$, and $\mathbb{S}_{\varepsilon ,\delta }(K)$
is the controlled structure set. We show that the Pedersen-Quinn-Ranicki
controlled surgery sequence is equivalent to the exact $\mathbb{L}$-homology
sequence of the map $p:K \to B$, i.e. that $$H_{n+1}(B,\mathbb{L})\to
H_{n+1}^{+}(B,K,\mathbb{L} )\to H_n(K,\mathbb{L}^{+})\to H_n(B,\mathbb{L} ), \
\mathbb{L}^{+}\to \mathbb{L},$$ is the connected covering spectrum of
$\mathbb{L}$. By taking for $B$ various stages of the Postnikov tower of $K$,
one obtains an interesting filtration of the controlled structure set.


  The integration of IoT-controllable devices in power systems (such as smart
electric vehicle charging stations, heat pumps, etc.), despite their apparent
benefits, raises novel cybersecurity concerns. These vulnerabilities in these
devices can be leveraged to launch load-altering attacks (LAAs) that can
potentially compromise power system safety. In this paper, we analyze the
impact of LAAs on the voltage profile of distribution systems. We derive
closed-form expressions to quantify the attack impact. Using the insights
derived from this analysis, we propose a method to mitigate LAAs based on
reconfiguring the distribution system as a reactive defense approach. We study
optimal defense strategies using a non-cooperative sequential game theory
approach that is robust to LAAs. The proposed solution takes the potential
errors in the attack localization into account. Our results show that attacks
launched on the deepest nodes in the distribution network result in the highest
detrimental impact on the grid voltage profile. Furthermore, the proposed
game-theoretic strategy successfully mitigates the effect of the attack while
ensuring minimum system reconfiguration.


  The composition of gamma-ray burst (GRB) ejecta is still a mystery. The
standard model invokes an initially hot ``fireball'' composed of baryonic
matter. Here we analyze the broad band spectra of GRB 080916C detected by the
Fermi satellite. The featureless Band-spectrum of all five epochs as well as
the detections of >~10 GeV photons in this burst place a strong constraint on
the prompt emission radius, which is typically >~ 10^{15} cm, independent on
the details of the emission process. The lack of detection of a thermal
component as predicted by the baryonic models strongly suggests that a
significant fraction of the outflow energy is initially not in the ``fireball''
form, but is likely in a Poynting flux entrained with the baryonic matter. The
ratio between the Poynting and baryonic fluxes is at least ~(15-20) at the
photosphere radius, if the Poynting flux is not directly converted to kinetic
energy below the photosphere.


  The determination of $\vert V_{us}\vert$ from kaon semileptonic decays
requires the value of the form factor $f_+(q^2=0)$, which can be calculated
precisely on the lattice. We provide the one-loop partially quenched staggered
chiral perturbation theory expressions that may be employed to analyze
staggered simulations of $f_+(q^2)$ with three light flavors. We consider both
the case of a mixed action, where the valence and sea sectors have different
staggered actions, and the standard case where these actions are the same. The
momentum transfer $q^2$ of the form factor is allowed to have an arbitrary
value. We give results for the generic situation where the $u$, $d$, and $s$
quark masses are all different, $N_f=1+1+1$, and for the isospin limit,
$N_f=2+1$. The expression we obtain for $f_+(q^2)$ is independent of the mass
of the (valence) spectator quark. In the limit of vanishing lattice spacing,
our results reduce to the one-loop continuum partially quenched expression for
$f_+(q^2)$, which has not previously been reported in the literature for the
$N_f=1+1+1$ case. Our expressions have already been used in staggered lattice
analyses of $f_+(0)$, and should prove useful in future calculations as well.


  Many countries such as Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia are among the top
exporters and consumers of palm date fruits. Date fruit production plays a
major role in the economies of the date fruit exporting countries. Date fruits
are susceptible to disease just like any fruit and early detection and
intervention can end up saving the produce. However, with the vast farming
lands, it is nearly impossible for farmers to observe date trees on a frequent
basis for early disease detection. In addition, even with human observation the
process is prone to human error and increases the date fruit cost. With the
recent advances in computer vision, machine learning, drone technology, and
other technologies; an integrated solution can be proposed for the automatic
detection of date fruit disease. In this paper, a hybrid features based method
with the standard classifiers is proposed based on the extraction of L*a*b
color features, statistical features, and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT)
texture features for the early detection and classification of date fruit
disease. A dataset was developed for this work consisting of 871 images divided
into the following classes; Healthy date, Initial stage of disease,
Malnourished date, and Parasite infected. The extracted features were input to
common classifiers such as the Random Forest (RF), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP),
Na\"ive Bayes (NB), and Fuzzy Decision Trees (FDT). The highest average
accuracy was achieved when combining the L*a*b, Statistical, and DWT Features.


  For a rational function f we consider the norm of the derivative with respect
to the spherical metric and denote by K(f) the supremum of this norm. We give
estimates of this quantity K(f) both for an individual function and for
sequences of iterates.


  Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity (EiBI) gravity is a recently proposed
modified theory of gravity, based on the classic work of Eddington and on
Born-Infeld nonlinear electrodynamics. In this paper, we consider the
possibility that wormhole geometries are sustained in EiBI gravity. We present
the gravitational field equations for an anisotropic stress-energy tensor and
consider the generic conditions, for the auxiliary metric, at the wormhole
throat. In addition to this, we obtain an exact solution for an asymptotically
flat wormhole.


  5G is designed to be an essential enabler and a leading infrastructure
provider in the communication technology industry by supporting the demand for
the growing data traffic and a variety of services with distinct requirements.
The use of deep learning and computer vision tools has the means to increase
the environmental awareness of the network with information from visual data.
Information extracted via computer vision tools such as user position, movement
direction, and speed can be promptly available for the network. However, the
network must have a mechanism to match the identity of a user in both visual
and radio systems. This mechanism is absent in the present literature.
Therefore, we propose a framework to match the information from both visual and
radio domains. This is an essential step to practical applications of computer
vision tools in communications. We detail the proposed framework training and
deployment phases for a presented setup. We carried out practical experiments
using data collected in different types of environments. The work compares the
use of Deep Neural Network and Random Forest classifiers and shows that the
former performed better across all experiments, achieving classification
accuracy greater than 99%.


  We present mid-infrared spectrophotometric observations of SS433 with
ISOPHOT. The HeI+HeII lines in both spectra of SS433 and of the Wolf-Rayet star
WR147, a wind-colliding WN8+BO5 binary system, closely match. The 2.5-12 micron
continuum radiation is due to an expanding wind free-free emission in an
intermediate case between optically thick and optically thin regimes. The
inferred mass loss rate evaluation gives ~10^{-4} Msun/yr. Our results are
consistent with a Wolf-Rayet-like companion to the compact object in SS433. A
similar study for Cygnus X-3 confirms the Wolf-Rayet-like nature of its
companion, although with a later WN type than previously suggested.


We prove that the automorphism groups of Hopf manifolds are Jordan.


  A population protocol can be viewed as a sequence of pairwise interactions of
$n$ agents (nodes). During one interaction, two agents selected uniformly at
random update their states by applying a specified deterministic transition
function. In a long run, the whole system should stabilize at the correct
output property. The main performance objectives in designing population
protocols are small number of states per agent and fast stabilization time.
  We present a fast population protocol for the exact-majority problem which
uses $\Theta(\log n)$ states (per agent) and stabilizes in $O(\log^{5/3} n)$
parallel time (i.e., $O(n\log^{5/3} n)$ interactions) in expectation and with
high probability. Alistarh et al. [SODA 2018] showed that any exact-majority
protocol which stabilizes in expected $O(n^{1-\epsilon})$ parallel time, for
any constant $\epsilon > 0$, requires $\Omega(\log n)$ states. They also showed
an $O(\log^2 n)$-time protocol with $O(\log n)$ states, the currently fastest
exact-majority protocol with polylogarithmic number of states. The standard
design framework for majority protocols is based on $O(\log n)$ phases and
requires that all nodes are well synchronized within each phase, leading
naturally to upper bounds of the order of at least $\log^2 n$ because of
$\Theta(\log n)$ synchronization time per phase. We show how this framework can
be tightened with {\em weak synchronization} to break the $O(\log^2 n)$ upper
bound of previous protocols.


  Intraoperative ultrasound facilitates localisation of tumour boundaries
during minimally invasive procedures. Autonomous ultrasound scanning systems
have been recently proposed to improve scanning accuracy and reduce surgeons'
cognitive load. However, current methods mainly consider static scanning
environments typically with the probe pressing against the tissue surface. In
this work, a motion-compensated autonomous ultrasound scanning system using the
da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) is proposed. An optimal scanning trajectory is
generated considering both the tissue surface shape and the ultrasound
transducer dimensions. A robust vision-based approach is proposed to learn the
underlying tissue motion characteristics. The learned motion model is then
incorporated into the visual servoing framework. The proposed system has been
validated with both phantom and ex vivo experiments using the ground truth
motion data for comparison.


  We have developed an iterative one dimensional model to study the narrow
band-gap and the associated non-parabolic dispersion relations for bismuth
antimony nanowires. An analytical approximation has also been developed. Based
on the general model, we have developed, we have calculated and analyzed the
electronic phase diagrams and the band-gap/band-overlap map for bismuth
antimony nanowires, as a function of stoichiometry, growth orientation, and
wire width.


  In recent work (\cite{KW1},\cite{KW2}), Kostant and Wallach construct an
action of a simply connected Lie group $A\simeq \mathbb{C}^{{n\choose 2}}$ on
$gl(n)$ using a completely integrable system derived from the Poisson analogue
of the Gelfand-Zeitlin subalgebra of the enveloping algebra. In \cite{KW1}, the
authors show that $A$-orbits of dimension ${n\choose 2}$ form Lagrangian
submanifolds of regular adjoint orbits in $gl(n)$. They describe the orbit
structure of $A$ on a certain Zariski open subset of regular semisimple
elements. In this paper, we describe all $A$-orbits of dimension ${n\choose 2}$
and thus all polarizations of regular adjoint orbits obtained using
Gelfand-Zeitlin theory.


  A geometric construction for obtaining a prolongation of a connection to a
connection of a bundle of connections is presented. This determines a natural
extension of the notion of canonical energy-tensor which suits gauge and
gravitational fields, and shares the main properties of the energy-tensor of a
matter field in the jet space formulation of Lagrangian field theory, in
particular with regards to symmetries of the Poincar\'e-Cartan form.
Accordingly, the joint energy-tensor for interacting matter and gauge fields
turns out to be a natural geometric object, whose definition needs no auxuliary
structures. Various topics related to energy-tensors, symmetries and the
Einstein equations in a theory with interacting matter, gauge and gravitational
fields can be viewed under a clarifying light. Finally, the symmetry determined
by the "Komar superpotential" is expressed as a symmetry of the gravitational
Poincar\'e-Cartan form.


  A new kind of contactless pumping mechanism is realized in a layer of
ferrofluid via a spatio-temporally modulated magnetic field. The resulting
pressure gradient leads to a liquid ramp, which is measured by means of X-rays.
The transport mechanism works best if a resonance of the surface waves with the
driving is achieved. The behavior can be understood semi-quantitatively by
considering the magnetically influenced dispersion relation of the fluid.


  The number of accidents and health diseases which are increasing at an
alarming rate are resulting in a huge increase in the demand for blood. There
is a necessity for the organized analysis of the blood donor database or blood
banks repositories. Clustering analysis is one of the data mining applications
and K-means clustering algorithm is the fundamental algorithm for modern
clustering techniques. K-means clustering algorithm is traditional approach and
iterative algorithm. At every iteration, it attempts to find the distance from
the centroid of each cluster to each and every data point. This paper gives the
improvement to the original k-means algorithm by improving the initial
centroids with distribution of data. Results and discussions show that improved
K-means algorithm produces accurate clusters in less computation time to find
the donors information.


  Optimal transport is a powerful framework for computing distances between
probability distributions. We unify the two main approaches to optimal
transport, namely Monge-Kantorovitch and Sinkhorn-Cuturi, into what we define
as Tsallis regularized optimal transport (\trot). \trot~interpolates a rich
family of distortions from Wasserstein to Kullback-Leibler, encompassing as
well Pearson, Neyman and Hellinger divergences, to name a few. We show that
metric properties known for Sinkhorn-Cuturi generalize to \trot, and provide
efficient algorithms for finding the optimal transportation plan with formal
convergence proofs. We also present the first application of optimal transport
to the problem of ecological inference, that is, the reconstruction of joint
distributions from their marginals, a problem of large interest in the social
sciences. \trot~provides a convenient framework for ecological inference by
allowing to compute the joint distribution --- that is, the optimal
transportation plan itself --- when side information is available, which is
\textit{e.g.} typically what census represents in political science.
Experiments on data from the 2012 US presidential elections display the
potential of \trot~in delivering a faithful reconstruction of the joint
distribution of ethnic groups and voter preferences.


  Invariance-principle-based methods such as Invariant Risk Minimization (IRM),
have recently emerged as promising approaches for Domain Generalization (DG).
Despite promising theory, such approaches fail in common classification tasks
due to the mixing of true invariant features and spurious invariant features.
To address this, we propose a framework based on the conditional entropy
minimization (CEM) principle to filter-out the spurious invariant features
leading to a new algorithm with a better generalization capability. We show
that our proposed approach is closely related to the well-known Information
Bottleneck (IB) framework and prove that under certain assumptions, entropy
minimization can exactly recover the true invariant features. Our approach
provides competitive classification accuracy compared to recent
theoretically-principled state-of-the-art alternatives across several DG
datasets.


  Degenerate two-photon indirect absorption in silicon is an important limiting
effect on the use of silicon structures for all-optical information processing
at telecommunication wavelengths. We perform a full band structure calculation
to investigate two-photon indirect absorption in bulk silicon, using a
pseudopotential description of the energy bands and an adiabatic bond charge
model to describe phonon dispersion and polarization. Our results agree well
with some recent experimental results. The transverse acoustic/optical
phonon-assisted processes dominate.


  We report improved precision measurements of the Van der Waals potential
strength ($C_3$) for Na atoms and a silicon-nitride (SiN$_x$) surface. We
studied diffraction from nano-fabricated gratings with a particular "magic"
open-fraction that allows us to determine $C_3$ without the need for separate
measurements of the width of the grating openings. Therefore, finding the magic
open-fraction improves the precision of $C_3$ measurements. The same effect is
demonstrated for a grating with an arbitrary open-fraction by rotating it to a
particular "magic" angle, yielding $C_3=3.42\pm 0.19 \textrm{eV}
\mathring{\textrm{A}}^3$ for Na and a SiN$_x$ surface. This precision is
sufficient to detect a change in $C_3$ due to a thin metal coating on the
grating surface. We discuss the contribution to $C_3$ of core electrons and
edge effects.


  We present a conceptual design for a polarized $^3$He target for Jefferson
Lab's CLAS12 spectrometer in its standard configuration. This two-cell target
will take advantage of advancements in optical pumping techniques at high
magnetic field to create 60\% longitudinally polarized $^3$He gas in a pumping
cell inside the CLAS12 5 T solenoid. By transferring this gas to a 20 cm long,
5 K target cell, a target thickness of $3 \times 10^{21}$ $^3$He/cm$^2$ will be
produced, reaching the detector's specified maximum luminosity with a beam
current of 2.5 $\mu A$.


  We describe equivalence classes of exact indecomposable module categories
over a finite graded tensor category. When applied to a pointed fusion
category, our results coincide with the ones obtained in [S. Natale, On the
equivalence of module categories over a group-theoretical fusion category,
SIGMA, Symmetry Integrability Geom. Methods Appl. 13 Paper 042, 9 p. (2017)].


  We extend the findings and analyses of our two recent studies (Phys. Rev. A,
75, 032326 [2007] and arXiv:0704.3723) by, first, obtaining numerical estimates
of the separability function based on the (Euclidean, flat) Hilbert-Schmidt
(HS) metric for the 27-dimensional convex set of quaternionic two-qubit
systems. The estimated function appears to be strongly consistent with our
previously-formulated Dyson-index (beta = 1, 2, 4) ansatz, dictating that the
quaternionic (beta=4) separability function should be exactly proportional to
the square of the separability function for the 15-dimensional convex set of
two-qubit complex (beta=2) systems, as well as the fourth power of the
separability function for the 9-dimensional convex set of two-qubit real
(beta=1) systems. In particular, we conclude that S_{quat}(mu) =(6/71)^2
((3-mu^2) mu)^4 =(S_{complex}(mu))^2. Here, mu =(rho_{11} rho_{44}/(rho_{22}
rho_{33})^(1/2), where rho is a 4 x 4 two-qubit density matrix. We can, thus,
supplement (and fortify) our previous assertion that the HS separability
probability of the two-qubit complex states is 8/33= 0.242424, by claiming that
its quaternionic counterpart is 72442944/936239725 = 0.0773765. We also comment
on and analyze the odd beta=1 and 3 cases.


  With the experimental data from STAR, PHENIX and BRAHMS on the centrality and
rapidity dependence of the $p_T$ spectrum in Au+Au and d+Au collisions, we show
that there exists a scaling distribution which is independent of the colliding
system, centrality and rapidity. The parameter for the average transverse
momentum $<p_T>$ increases from peripheral to central d+Au collisions. This
increase accounts for the enhancement of particle production in those
collisions. A non-extensive entropy is used to derive the scaling function.


  Deep learning techniques have become prominent in modern fault diagnosis for
complex processes. In particular, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have
shown an appealing capacity to deal with multivariate time-series data by
converting them into images. However, existing CNN techniques mainly focus on
capturing local or multi-scale features from input images. A deep CNN is often
required to indirectly extract global features, which are critical to describe
the images converted from multivariate dynamical data. This paper proposes a
novel local-global CNN (LG-CNN) architecture that directly accounts for both
local and global features for fault diagnosis. Specifically, the local features
are acquired by traditional local kernels whereas global features are extracted
by using 1D tall and fat kernels that span the entire height and width of the
image. Both local and global features are then merged for classification using
fully-connected layers. The proposed LG-CNN is validated on the benchmark
Tennessee Eastman process (TEP) dataset. Comparison with traditional CNN shows
that the proposed LG-CNN can greatly improve the fault diagnosis performance
without significantly increasing the model complexity. This is attributed to
the much wider local receptive field created by the LG-CNN than that by CNN.
The proposed LG-CNN architecture can be easily extended to other image
processing and computer vision tasks.