  The search for the production of the Higgs boson associated with a pair of
top quarks in the ATLAS experiment is presented. It focuses on Higgs bosons
decaying to $b\bar{b}$ and events containing two leptons (electrons and/or
muons). It uses 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV
collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2012. No significant excess of
events is found and the 95% CL observed (expected) limit is 7.0xSM (4.3xSM).
After combining with the single lepton final state an observed (expected) limit
of 4.1xSM (2.6xSM) with a best fit of $\mu=1.7\pm1.4$ is obtained.


  Radiation detectors constructed from large volume high purity Ge (HPGe)
single crystals are widely used for gamma-ray spectroscopy. The detectors for
this application can be simple in that they need only have two electrical
contacts for voltage application and signal readout. Such HPGe based detectors
have been commercially produced for many decades using standard semiconductor
fabrication processes. For the applications of gamma-ray imaging and particle
tracking, however, interaction position measurement within the detector as well
as the measurement of the deposited energy is required. This necessitates a
more complex detector often with the electrical contacts divided into a large
number of segments that can be individually instrumented for signal readout.
The reliable and cost-effective implementation of contact segmentation with the
standard commercial processes is a challenge. An alternative fabrication
technology based on thin film amorphous semiconductor layers was developed at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and can be used to produce finely
segmented, fully passivated HPGe detectors. Over the last almost two decades, a
large number of segmented contact HPGe detectors have been produced at LBNL
using this technology. This paper provides a set of procedures that has been
used at LBNL for the manufacture of the segmented amorphous semiconductor
contact HPGe detectors.


  Julian Schwinger (1918--1994), founder of renormalized quantum
electrodynamics, was arguably the leading theoretical physicist of the second
half of the 20th century. Thus it is not surprising that he made contributions
to gravity theory as well. His students made major impacts on the still
uncompleted program of constructing a quantum theory of gravity. Schwinger
himself had no doubt of the validity of general relativity, although he
preferred a particle-physics viewpoint based on gravitons and the associated
fields, and not the geometrical picture of curved spacetime. This note provides
a brief summary of his contributions and attitudes toward the subject of
gravity.


  We report on the quantification of entanglement by means of entanglement
measures on a four- and a six- qubit cluster state realized by using photons
entangled both in polarization and linear momentum. This paper also addresss
the question of the scaling of entanglement bounds from incomplete tomographic
information on the density matrix under realistic experimental conditions.


  We calculate the electric dipole moment (EDM) for the neutron in the
framework of the minimal 3-3-1 model. We assume that the only source of $CP$
violation arises from a complex trilinear coupling constant and two complex
vacuum expectation values. However, from the constraint equations obtained from
the potential, only one physical phase remains. We find some constraints on the
possible values of this phase and masses of the exotic particles.


  Recent advancements in neural rendering techniques have significantly
enhanced the fidelity of 3D reconstruction. Notably, the emergence of 3D
Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) has marked a significant milestone by adopting a
discrete scene representation, facilitating efficient training and real-time
rendering. Several studies have successfully extended the real-time rendering
capability of 3DGS to dynamic scenes. However, a challenge arises when training
images are captured under vastly differing weather and lighting conditions.
This scenario poses a challenge for 3DGS and its variants in achieving accurate
reconstructions. Although NeRF-based methods (NeRF-W, CLNeRF) have shown
promise in handling such challenging conditions, their computational demands
hinder real-time rendering capabilities. In this paper, we present Gaussian
Time Machine (GTM) which models the time-dependent attributes of Gaussian
primitives with discrete time embedding vectors decoded by a lightweight
Multi-Layer-Perceptron(MLP). By adjusting the opacity of Gaussian primitives,
we can reconstruct visibility changes of objects. We further propose a
decomposed color model for improved geometric consistency. GTM achieved
state-of-the-art rendering fidelity on 3 datasets and is 100 times faster than
NeRF-based counterparts in rendering. Moreover, GTM successfully disentangles
the appearance changes and renders smooth appearance interpolation.


  The vector representations of fixed dimensionality for words (in text)
offered by Word2Vec have been shown to be very useful in many application
scenarios, in particular due to the semantic information they carry. This paper
proposes a parallel version, the Audio Word2Vec. It offers the vector
representations of fixed dimensionality for variable-length audio segments.
These vector representations are shown to describe the sequential phonetic
structures of the audio segments to a good degree, with very attractive real
world applications such as query-by-example Spoken Term Detection (STD). In
this STD application, the proposed approach significantly outperformed the
conventional Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) based approaches at significantly lower
computation requirements. We propose unsupervised learning of Audio Word2Vec
from audio data without human annotation using Sequence-to-sequence Audoencoder
(SA). SA consists of two RNNs equipped with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)
units: the first RNN (encoder) maps the input audio sequence into a vector
representation of fixed dimensionality, and the second RNN (decoder) maps the
representation back to the input audio sequence. The two RNNs are jointly
trained by minimizing the reconstruction error. Denoising Sequence-to-sequence
Autoencoder (DSA) is furthered proposed offering more robust learning.


  This paper aims to serve as a comprehensive guide for researchers and
practitioners, offering insights into the current state, potential
applications, and future research directions for generative artificial
intelligence and foundation models within the context of intelligent vehicles.
As the automotive industry progressively integrates AI, generative artificial
intelligence technologies hold the potential to revolutionize user
interactions, delivering more immersive, intuitive, and personalised in-car
experiences. We provide an overview of current applications of generative
artificial intelligence in the automotive domain, emphasizing speech, audio,
vision, and multimodal interactions. We subsequently outline critical future
research areas, including domain adaptability, alignment, multimodal
integration and others, as well as, address the challenges and risks associated
with ethics. By fostering collaboration and addressing these research areas,
generative artificial intelligence can unlock its full potential, transforming
the driving experience and shaping the future of intelligent vehicles.


  We summarize the status of calculations of the electroweak radiative
corrections to W and Z boson production via the Drell-Yan mechanism at hadron
colliders. To fully exploit the precision physics potential of the
high-luminosity environment of the Fermilab Tevatron pbar p (Run II) and the
CERN LHC pp colliders, it is crucial that the theoretical predictions are well
under control. The envisioned precision physics program includes a precise
measurement of the W boson mass and width, and the (leptonic) weak mixing
angle, as well as probing the Standard Model (SM) of electroweak interactions
at the highest accessible center-of-mass energies. Some numerical results are
presented.


  Graph labelling is one of the noticed contexts in combinatorics and graph
theory. Graceful labelling for a graph $G$ with $e$ edges, is to label the
vertices of $G$ with $0, 1, \cdots, e$ such that, if we specify to each edge
the difference value between its two ends, then any of $1, 2, \cdots, e$
appears exactly once as an edge label. For a given graph, there is still few
efficient classical algorithms that determines either it is graceful or not,
even for trees - as a well-known class of graphs. In this paper, we introduce
an adiabatic quantum algorithm, which for a graceful graph $G$ finds a graceful
labelling. Also, this algorithm can determine if $G$ is not graceful. Numerical
simulations of the algorithm reveal that its time complexity has a polynomial
behaviour with the problem size up to the range of 15 qubits.


  Given $k\in\mathbb N$, we study the vanishing of the Dirichlet series
$$D_k(s,f):=\sum_{n\geq1} d_k(n)f(n)n^{-s}$$ at the point $s=1$, where $f$ is a
periodic function modulo a prime $p$. We show that if $(k,p-1)=1$ or
$(k,p-1)=2$ and $p\equiv 3\mod 4$, then there are no odd rational-valued
functions $f\not\equiv 0$ such that $D_k(1,f)=0$, whereas in all other cases
there are examples of odd functions $f$ such that $D_k(1,f)=0$.
  As a consequence, we obtain, for example, that the set of values
$L(1,\chi)^2$, where $\chi$ ranges over odd characters mod $p$, are linearly
independent over $\mathbb Q$.


  Large Language Models (LLMs) are widely used for knowledge-seeking yet suffer
from hallucinations. The knowledge boundary (KB) of an LLM limits its factual
understanding, beyond which it may begin to hallucinate. Investigating the
perception of LLMs' KB is crucial for detecting hallucinations and LLMs'
reliable generation. Current studies perceive LLMs' KB on questions with a
concrete answer (close-ended questions) while paying limited attention to
semi-open-ended questions (SoeQ) that correspond to many potential answers.
Some researchers achieve it by judging whether the question is answerable or
not. However, this paradigm is unsuitable for SoeQ, which are usually partially
answerable, containing both answerable and ambiguous (unanswerable) answers.
Ambiguous answers are essential for knowledge-seeking, but they may go beyond
the KB of LLMs. In this paper, we perceive the LLMs' KB with SoeQ by
discovering more ambiguous answers. First, we apply an LLM-based approach to
construct SoeQ and obtain answers from a target LLM. Unfortunately, the output
probabilities of mainstream black-box LLMs are inaccessible to sample for
low-probability ambiguous answers. Therefore, we apply an open-sourced
auxiliary model to explore ambiguous answers for the target LLM. We calculate
the nearest semantic representation for existing answers to estimate their
probabilities, with which we reduce the generation probability of
high-probability answers to achieve a more effective generation. Finally, we
compare the results from the RAG-based evaluation and LLM self-evaluation to
categorize four types of ambiguous answers that are beyond the KB of the target
LLM. Following our method, we construct a dataset to perceive the KB for GPT-4.
We find that GPT-4 performs poorly on SoeQ and is often unaware of its KB.
Besides, our auxiliary model, LLaMA-2-13B, is effective in discovering more
ambiguous answers.


  The internal properties of stars in the red-giant phase undergo significant
changes on relatively short timescales. Long near-uninterrupted high-precision
photometric timeseries observations from dedicated space missions such as CoRoT
and Kepler have provided seismic inferences of the global and internal
properties of a large number of evolved stars, including red giants. These
inferences are confronted with predictions from theoretical models to improve
our understanding of stellar structure and evolution. Our knowledge and
understanding of red giants have indeed increased tremendously using these
seismic inferences, and we anticipate that more information is still hidden in
the data. Unraveling this will further improve our understanding of stellar
evolution. This will also have significant impact on our knowledge of the Milky
Way Galaxy as well as on exo-planet host stars. The latter is important for our
understanding of the formation and structure of planetary systems.


  Let $K$ be an algebraically closed field endowed with a complete
non-archimedean norm with valuation ring $R$. Let $f\colon Y\to X$ be a map of
$K$-affinoid varieties. In this paper we study the analytic structure of the
image $f(Y)\subset X$; such an image is a typical example of a subanalytic set.
Using Embedded Resolution of Singularities, we derive in the zero
characteristic case a Uniformization Theorem for subanalytic sets: after
finitely many local blowing ups with smooth centres, a subanalytic set becomes
semi-analytic. To prove this we establish a Flattening Theorem for affinoid
varieties in the style of Hironaka, which allows a reduction to the study of
subanalytic sets arising from flat maps. Specifically we show that a map of
affinoid varieties can be rendered flat by using only finitely many local
blowing ups. The case of an image under a flat map is then dealt with by a
small extension of a result of Raynaud.
  Our result can be conveniently stated as a Quantifier Elimination theorem for
the valuation ring $R$ in an analytic expansion of the language of valued
fields. This formulation is in the style of Denef and van den Dries.


  The paper studies several approaches to numerical integration over a domain
defined implicitly by an indicator function such as the level set function. The
integration methods are based on subdivision, moment--fitting, local
quasi-parametrization and Monte-Carlo techniques. As an application of these
techniques, the paper addresses numerical solution of elliptic PDEs posed on
domains and manifolds defined implicitly. A higher order unfitted finite
element method (FEM) is assumed for the discretization. In such a method the
underlying mesh is not fitted to the geometry, and hence the errors of
numerical integration over curvilinear elements affect the accuracy of the
finite element solution together with approximation errors. The paper studies
the numerical complexity of the integration procedures and the performance of
unfitted FEMs which employ these tools.


  We investigate the properties of the coexistence phase of itinerant
antiferromagnetism and nodal $d$-wave superconductivity (Q-phase) discovered in
heavy fermion CeCoIn5 under applied magnetic field. We solve the minimal model
that includes $d$-wave superconductivity and underlying magnetic correlations
in real space to elucidate the structure of the $Q$-phase in the presence of an
externally applied magnetic field. We further focus on the role of magnetic
impurities, and show that they nucleate the Q-phase at lower magnetic fields.
Our most crucial finding is that, even at zero applied field, dilute magnetic
impurities cooperate via RKKY-like exchange interactions to generate a
long-range ordered coexistence state identical to the Q-phase. This result is
in agreement with recent neutron scattering measurements [S. Raymond et al., J.
Phys. Soc. Jpn. {\bf 83}, 013707 (2014)].


  We extend a recent chiral approach to nuclear matter of Lutz et al. [Phys.
Lett. B474 (2000) 7] by calculating the underlying (complex-valued)
single-particle potential U(p,k_f) + i W(p,k_f). The potential for a nucleon at
the bottom of the Fermi-sea, U(0,k_{f0})= - 20.0 MeV, comes out as much too
weakly attractive in this approach. Even more seriously, the total
single-particle energy does not rise monotonically with the nucleon momentum p,
implying a negative effective nucleon mass at the Fermi-surface. Also, the
imaginary single-particle potential, W(0,k_{f0}) = 51.1 MeV, is too large. More
realistic single-particle properties together with a good nuclear matter
equation of state can be obtained if the short range contributions of
non-pionic origin are treated in mean-field approximation (i.e. if they are not
further iterated with 1pi-exchange). We also consider the equation of state of
pure neutron matter $bar E_n(k_n)$ and the asymmetry energy A(k_f) in that
approach. The downward bending of these quantities above nuclear matter
saturation density seems to be a generic feature of perturbative chiral
pion-nucleon dynamics.


  The Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) mission concept is
optimized for study of high-z GRBs as probes of the early Universe. With a High
Energy Telescope (HET) incorporating a 4.5m^2 5-600keV (CZT; 0.6mm pixels)
detector plane for coded aperture imaging a 90deg x 70deg (>10% coding
fraction) field of view with 2' resolution and <20" (90% conf.) positions for
>5 sigma sources, EXIST will perform rapid (<200sec) slews onto GRBs. Prompt
images and spectra are obtained with a co-aligned soft X-ray telescope (SXI;
0.1 - 10keV) and with a 1.1m optical-IR telescope (IRT) simultaneously in 4
bands (0.3 - 0.52micron, 0.52 - 0.9micron, 0.9 - 1.38micron, and 1.38 -
2.3micron). An initial image (100s) will yield prompt identification within the
HET error circle from a <2" prompt SXI position; or from VIS vs. IR dropouts or
variability. An autonomous spacecraft re-point (<30") will then put the GRB on
a 0.3" x 4" slit for either R = 3000 (for AB <21) or R =30 (for AB ~21-25)
prompt spectra over the 0.3 - 0.9 micron and 0.9 - 2.3 micron bands. This will
provide onboard redshifts within ~500-2000sec for most GRBs, reaching z ~20
(for Lyman-alpha breaks) if such GRBs exist, and spectra for studies of the
host galaxy and local re-ionization patchiness as well as intervening cosmic
structure. With ~600 GRBs/yr expected, including ~7-10% expected at z >7, EXIST
will open a new era in studies of the early Universe as well as carry out a
rich program of AGN and transient-source science. An overview of the GRB
science objectives and a brief discussion of the overall mission design and
operations is given, and example high-z GRB IRT spectra are shown. EXIST is
being proposed to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey as a 5 year Medium Class mission
that could be launched as early as 2017.


  In this article we study the seasonal effect on the diurnal variation of the
geomagnetic field registered in the Huancayo Observatory, located in the
Magnetic Equator, which is driven by "ionospheric currents" and its counterpart
induced by "telluric currents". Huancayo Observatory has the highest amplitude
in the diurnal variation, because of being in the Magnetic Equator and under
the "Equatorial Electrojet". We present the pattern of seasonal variation in
diurnal variation of components X, Y and Z, the same as confirmed by previous
works since 1940. The effect of solar activity cycle of about 11 years in the
diurnal variation is also confirmed; it is observed that amplitudes are greater
in the maximum of solar activity.


  We study the addition energy spectra of phosphorene quantum dots focusing on
the role of dot size, edges passivation, number of layers and dielectric
constant of the substrate where the dots are deposited. We show that for
sufficiently low dielectric constants ($\varepsilon_{sub} < 4$), Coulomb
blockade can be observed in dot sizes larger than 10 nm, for both passivated
and unpassivated edges. For higher dielectric constants (up to
$\varepsilon_{sub} = 30$), Coulomb blockade demands smaller dot sizes, but this
depends whether the edges are passivated or not. This dramatic role played by
the substrate is expected to impact on the development of application based on
phosphorene quantum dots.


  We study two planar square lattice Heisenberg models with explicit
dimerization or quadrumerization of the couplings in the form of ladder and
plaquette arrangements. We investigate the quantum critical points of those
models by means of (stochastic series expansion) quantum Monte Carlo
simulations as a function of the coupling ratio $\alpha = J^\prime/J$. The
critical point of the order-disorder quantum phase transition in the ladder
model is determined as $\alpha_\mathrm{c} = 1.9096(2)$ improving on previous
studies. For the plaquette model we obtain $\alpha_\mathrm{c} = 1.8230(2)$
establishing a first benchmark for this model from quantum Monte Carlo
simulations. Based on those values we give further convincing evidence that the
models are in the three-dimensional (3D) classical Heisenberg universality
class. The results of this contribution shall be useful as references for
future investigations on planar Heisenberg models such as concerning the
influence of non-magnetic impurities at the quantum critical point.


  Since about ten years ago, varying $\alpha$ theories attracted many
attentions, mainly due to the first observational evidence from the quasar
absorption spectra that the fine structure ``constant'' might change with
cosmological time. In this work, we investigate the cosmic evolution of
$\alpha$ driven by the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) scalar field. To be general, we
consider various couplings between the DBI scalar field and the electromagnetic
field. We also confront the resulting $\Delta\alpha/\alpha$ with the
observational constraints, and find that various cosmological evolution
histories of $\Delta\alpha/\alpha$ are allowed. Comparing with the case of
varying $\alpha$ driven by quintessence, the corresponding constraints on the
parameters of coupling have been relaxed, thanks to the relativistic correction
of the DBI scalar field.


  Nearby Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) have been proposed as a possible cause of mass
extinctions on Earth. Due to the higher event rate of GRBs at higher redshifts,
it has been speculated that life as we know it may not survive above a certain
redshift (e.g. $z>0.5$). We examine the duty cycle of lethal (life-threatening)
GRBs in the solar neighborhood, in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxies
and GRB host galaxies, with the dependence of the long GRB rate on star
formation and metallicity properly taken into account. We find that the number
of lethal GRBs attacking Earth within the past 500 Myr ($\sim$ epoch of the
Ordovician mass extinction) is $0.93$. The number of lethal GRBs hitting a
certain planet increases with redshift, thanks to the increasing star formation
rate and decreasing metallicity in high-$z$ galaxies. Taking 1 per 500 Myr as a
conservative duty cycle for life to survive, as evidenced by our existence, we
find that there are still a good fraction of SDSS galaxies beyond $z=0.5$ where
the GRB rate at half-mass radius is lower than this value. We derive the
fraction of such benign galaxies as a function of redshift through Monte Carlo
simulations, and find that the fraction is $\sim 50\%$ at $z\sim 1.5$ and $\sim
10\%$ even at $z \sim 3$. The mass distribution of benign galaxies is dominated
by Milky-Way-like ones, thanks to their commonness, relatively large mass, and
low star formation rate. GRB host galaxies are among the most dangerous ones.


  For the single image rain removal (SIRR) task, the performance of deep
learning (DL)-based methods is mainly affected by the designed deraining models
and training datasets. Most of current state-of-the-art focus on constructing
powerful deep models to obtain better deraining results. In this paper, to
further improve the deraining performance, we novelly attempt to handle the
SIRR task from the perspective of training datasets by exploring a more
efficient way to synthesize rainy images. Specifically, we build a full
Bayesian generative model for rainy image where the rain layer is parameterized
as a generator with the input as some latent variables representing the
physical structural rain factors, e.g., direction, scale, and thickness. To
solve this model, we employ the variational inference framework to approximate
the expected statistical distribution of rainy image in a data-driven manner.
With the learned generator, we can automatically and sufficiently generate
diverse and non-repetitive training pairs so as to efficiently enrich and
augment the existing benchmark datasets. User study qualitatively and
quantitatively evaluates the realism of generated rainy images. Comprehensive
experiments substantiate that the proposed model can faithfully extract the
complex rain distribution that not only helps significantly improve the
deraining performance of current deep single image derainers, but also largely
loosens the requirement of large training sample pre-collection for the SIRR
task.


  Verification of quantum circuits is essential for guaranteeing correctness of
quantum algorithms and/or quantum descriptions across various levels of
abstraction. In this work, we show that there are promising ways to check the
correctness of quantum circuits using simulative verification and random
stimuli. To this end, we investigate how to properly generate stimuli for
efficiently checking the correctness of a quantum circuit. More precisely, we
introduce, illustrate, and analyze three schemes for quantum stimuli
generation---offering a trade-off between the error detection rate (as well as
the required number of stimuli) and efficiency. In contrast to the verification
in the classical realm, we show (both, theoretically and empirically) that even
if only a few randomly-chosen stimuli (generated from the proposed schemes) are
considered, high error detection rates can be achieved for quantum circuits.
The results of these conceptual and theoretical considerations have also been
empirically confirmed---with a grand total of approximately $10^6$ simulations
conducted across 50 000 benchmark instances.


  Impacts between planetesimals have largely been ruled out as a heat source in
the early Solar System, by calculations that show them to be an inefficient
heat source and unlikely to cause global heating. However, the long-term,
localized thermal effects of impacts on planetesimals have never been fully
quantified. Here, we simulate a range of impact scenarios between planetesimals
to determine the post-impact thermal histories of the parent bodies, and hence
the importance of impact heating in the thermal evolution of planetesimals. We
find on a local scale that heating material to petrologic type 6 is achievable
for a range of impact velocities and initial porosities, and impact melting is
possible in porous material at a velocity of > 4 km/s. Burial of heated
impactor material beneath the impact crater is common, insulating that material
and allowing the parent body to retain the heat for extended periods (~
millions of years). Cooling rates at 773 K are typically 1 - 1000 K/Ma,
matching a wide range of measurements of metallographic cooling rates from
chondritic materials. While the heating presented here is localized to the
impact site, multiple impacts over the lifetime of a parent body are likely to
have occurred. Moreover, as most meteorite samples are on the centimeter to
meter scale, the localized effects of impact heating cannot be ignored.


  A two-dimensional (2D) mathematical model of quadratically distorted (QD)
grating is established with the principles of Fraunhofer diffraction and
Fourier optics. Discrete sampling and bisection algorithm are applied for
finding numerical solution of the diffraction pattern of QD grating. This 2D
mathematical model allows the precise design of QD grating and improves the
optical performance of simultaneous multiplane imaging system.


  The outer hair cell (OHC) of the organ of Corti underlies a mechanically
based process that enhances hearing, termed cochlear amplification. The cell
possesses a unique motor protein, prestin, which senses voltage and
consequently changes conformation to cause large cell length changes, termed
electromotility (eM). In OHCs studied in vitro, the prestin voltage sensor
generates a capacitance that is both voltage and frequency dependent, peaking
in magnitude at a characteristic membrane voltage (Vh), which can be greater
than the linear capacitance of the cell. Consequently, the OHC membrane time
constant is multifarious depending upon resting potential and frequency of AC
evaluation. After precisely correcting for this influence on the whole-cell
voltage clamp time constant, we find that OHC eM is low pass in nature,
substantially attenuating in magnitude within the frequency bandwidth of human
speech. The frequency response is slowest at Vh, with a cut-off near 1.5 kHz,
but increases up to six-fold in a U shaped manner as holding voltage deviates
from Vh. NLC measures follow this pattern. Viscous drag alone cannot account
for such eM behavior; nor can it arise from viscous drag in combination with a
sigmoidal voltage-dependent OHC stiffness. However, viscous drag combined with
kinetics of prestin, likely corresponding to its bell-shaped conformational
gating compliance (Iwasa, 2000), is in line with our observations. How OHC eM
influences cochlear amplification at higher frequencies needs reconsideration.


  In this paper, we prove that if D is a simply-connected domain in C^2 with
generic piecewise smooth Levi-flat boundary and non-compact automorphism group,
then D is biholomorphic to the bidisc. The proof is based on a careful analysis
of invariant measures.


  The molecular mechanism of slip at the interface between polymer melts and
weakly attractive smooth surfaces is investigated using molecular dynamics
simulations. In agreement with our previous studies on slip flow of
shear-thinning fluids, it is shown that the slip length passes through a local
minimum at low shear rates and then increases rapidly at higher shear rates. We
found that at sufficiently high shear rates, the slip flow over atomically flat
crystalline surfaces is anisotropic. It is demonstrated numerically that the
friction coefficient at the liquid-solid interface (the ratio of viscosity and
slip length) undergoes a transition from a constant value to the power-law
decay as a function of the slip velocity. The characteristic velocity of the
transition correlates well with the diffusion velocity of fluid monomers in the
first fluid layer near the solid wall at equilibrium. We also show that in the
linear regime, the friction coefficient is well described by a function of a
single variable, which is a product of the magnitude of surface-induced peak in
the structure factor and the contact density of the adjacent fluid layer. The
universal relationship between the friction coefficient and induced fluid
structure holds for a number of material parameters of the interface: fluid
density, chain length, wall-fluid interaction energy, wall density, lattice
type and orientation, thermal or solid walls.


  In this paper are discussed some formal properties of quantum devices
necessary for implementation of nondeterministic Turing machine.


  We propose the reconstruction of $F(R)$ gravity in such a way that
corresponding theory admits cyclic and ekpyrotic universe solutions. The number
of explicit examples of such $F(R)$ model is found. The comparison with the
reconstructed scalar-tensor theory is made. We also present $F(R)$ gravity
which provides the little rip evolution and gives the realistic gravitational
alternative for $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. The time for little rip dissolution of
bound structures in such theory is estimated. We demonstrate that transformed
little rip $F(R)$ solution becomes qualitatively different cosmological
solution with Big Bang type singularity in Einstein frame.


  We review briefly the main features of the Large Extra Dimensions scenario in
the framework of weakly coupled Type I string theory. Kaluza-Klein (KK)
excitations of the graviton are expected, whereas no KK modes for the gauge
bosons arise if the gauge group is tied to a D3-brane. In this scenario,
typical signatures such as direct production of KK modes of the graviton at
high-energy colliders could test the size of the compactified dimensions. We
point out that contrary to what considered in the literature on the subject, in
the general case of anisotropic compactification Winding Modes of the Standard
Model gauge bosons could also be directly observable, thus further constraining
the model.


  The propagation of heavy quarks in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) has been
often treated within the framework of the Langevin equation (LV), i.e. assuming
the momentum transfer is small or the scatterings are sufficiently forward
peaked, small screening mass $m_D$. We address a direct comparison between the
Langevin dynamics and the Boltzmann collisional integral (BM) when a bulk
medium is in equilibrium at fixed temperature. We show that unless the cross
section is quite forward peaked ($m_D\cong T $) or the mass to temperature
ratio is quite large ($M_{HQ}/T \gtrsim 8-10$) there are significant
differences in the evolution of the $p-$spectra and consequently on nuclear
modification factor $R_{AA}(p_T)$. However for charm quark we find that very
similar $R_{AA}(p_T)$ between the LV and BM can be obtained, but with a
modified diffusion coefficient by about $\sim 15-50\%$ depending on the angular
dependence of the cross section which regulates the momentum transfer. Studying
also the momentum spread suffered by a single heavy quarks we see that at
temperatures $T\gtrsim \, 250\,\rm MeV$ the dynamics of the scatterings is far
from being of Brownian type for charm quarks. In the case of bottom quarks we
essentially find no differences in the time evolution of the momentum spectra
between the LV and the BM dynamics independently of the angular dependence of
the cross section, at least in the range of temperature relevant for
ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Finally, we have shown the possible
impact of this study on $R_{AA}(p_T)$ and $v_2(p_T)$ for a realistic simulation
of relativistic HIC. For larger $m_D$ the elliptic flow can be about $50\%$
larger for the Boltzmann dynamics with respect to the Langevin. This is helpful
for a simultaneous reproduction of $R_{AA}(p_T)$ and $v_2(p_T)$.


  Recent results of Bucciarelli show that the semilattice of degrees of
parallelism of first-order boolean functions in PCF has both infinite chains
and infinite antichains. By considering a simple subclass of Sieber's
sequentiality relations, we identify levels in the semilattice and derive
inexpressibility results concerning functions on different levels. This allows
us to further explore the structure of the semilattice of degrees of
parallelism: we identify semilattices characterized by simple level properties,
and show the existence of new infinite hierarchies which are in a certain sense
natural with respect to the levels.


  Many statistical methods have been proposed in the last years for analyzing
the spatial distribution of galaxies. Very few of them, however, can handle
properly the border effects of complex observational sample volumes. In this
paper, we first show how to calculate the Minkowski Functionals (MF) taking
into account these border effects. Then we present a multiscale extension of
the MF which gives us more information about how the galaxies are spatially
distributed. A range of examples using Gaussian random fields illustrate the
results. Finally we have applied the Multiscale Minkowski Functionals (MMF) to
the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey data. The MMF clearly indicates an evolution of
morphology with scale. We also compare the 2dF real catalog with mock catalogs
and found that Lambda-CDM simulations roughly fit the data, except at the
finest scale.


  We show that massless solutions to the Einstein-Vlasov system in a Bianchi I
space-time with small anisotropy, i.e. small shear and small trace-free part of
the spatial energy momentum tensor, tend to a radiation fluid in an Einstein-de
Sitter space-time with the anisotropy $\Sigma^a_b\Sigma^b_a$ and $\tilde{w}^i_j
\tilde{w}^j_i$ decaying as $O(t^{-\frac12})$.


  We define and discuss the notion of pseudospherical surfaces in asymptotic
coordinates on time scales. Thus we extend well known notions of discrete
pseudospherical surfaces and smooth pseudosperical surfaces on more exotic
domains (e.g, the Cantor set). In particular, we present a new expression for
the discrete Gaussian curvature which turns out to be valid for asymptotic nets
on any time scale. We show that asymptotic Chebyshev nets on an arbitrary time
scale have constant negative Gaussian curvature. We present also the
quaternion-valued spectral problem (the Lax pair) and the Darboux-Backlund
transformation for pseudospherical surfaces (in asymptotic coordinates) on
arbitrary time scales.


  This letter presents a novel approach for identifying uncorrelated atomic
configurations from extensive data sets with a non-standard neural network
workflow known as random network distillation (RND) for training
machine-learned inter-atomic potentials (MLPs). This method is coupled with a
DFT workflow wherein initial data is generated with cheaper classical methods
before only the minimal subset is passed to a more computationally expensive ab
initio calculation. This benefits training not only by reducing the number of
expensive DFT calculations required but also by providing a pathway to the use
of more accurate quantum mechanical calculations for training. The method's
efficacy is demonstrated by constructing machine-learned inter-atomic
potentials for the molten salts KCl and NaCl. Our RND method allows accurate
models to be fit on minimal data sets, as small as 32 configurations, reducing
the required structures by at least one order of magnitude compared to
alternative methods.


  Elemental phosphorus exhibits fascinating structural varieties and versatile
properties. The unique nature of phosphorus bonds can lead to the formation of
extremely complex structures, and detailed structural information on some
phosphorus polymorphs is yet to be investigated. In this study, we investigated
an unidentified crystalline phase of phosphorus, type-II red phosphorus (RP),
by combining state-of-the-art structural characterization techniques. Electron
diffraction tomography, atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron
microscopy (STEM), powder X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy were
concurrently used to elucidate the hidden structural motifs and their packing
in type-II RP. Electron diffraction tomography, performed using individual
crystalline nanowires, was used to identify a triclinic unit cell with volume
of 5330 {\AA}^3, the largest unit cell for elemental phosphorus crystals up to
now, which contains approximately 250 phosphorus atoms. Atomic-resolution STEM
imaging, which was performed along different crystal-zone axes, confirmed that
the twisted wavy tubular motif is the basic building block of type-II RP. Our
study discovered and presented a new variation of building blocks in
phosphorus, and it provides insights to clarify the complexities observed in
phosphorus as well as other relevant systems.


  Here (the last paper in a series of four) we end our presentation of the
basics of a systematical approach to the differential geometry of a smooth
manifold M (supporting a metric field g and a general connection del) which
uses the geometric algebras of multivector and extensors (fields) developed in
previous papers. The theory of the Riemann and Ricci fields of the the triple
(M,del,g)is investigated to for each particular open set U of M through the
introduction of a geometric structure on U, i.e., a triple (U,gamma,g) where
gamma is a general connection field on U and g is a metric extensor field
associated to g. The relation between geometrical structures related by gauge
extensor fields is clarified. These geometries may be said to be deformations
one of each other. Moreover we study the important case of a class of deformed
Levi-Civita geometrical structures and prove key theorems about them that are
important in the formulation of geometric theories of the gravitational field.


  We formulate the collisionless Boltzmann equation (CBE) for dense star
clusters that lie within the radius of influence of a massive black hole in
galactic nuclei. Our approach to these nearly Keplerian systems follows that of
Sridhar and Touma (1999): Delaunay canonical variables are used to describe
stellar orbits and we average over the fast Keplerian orbital phases. The
stellar distribution function (DF) evolves on the longer time scale of
precessional motions, whose dynamics is governed by a Hamiltonian, given by the
orbit-averaged self-gravitational potential of the cluster. We specialize to
razor-thin, planar discs and consider two counter-rotating ("$\pm$")
populations of stars. To describe discs of small eccentricities, we expand the
$\pm$ Hamiltonian to fourth order in the eccentricities, with coefficients that
depend self-consistently on the $\pm$ DFs. We construct approximate $\pm$
dynamical invariants and use Jeans' theorem to construct time-dependent $\pm$
DFs, which are completely described by their centroid coordinates and shape
matrices. When the centroid eccentricities are larger than the dispersion in
eccentricities, the $\pm$ centroids obey a set of 4 autonomous ordinary
differential equations. We show that these can be cast as a two-degree of
freedom Hamiltonian system which is nonlinear, yet integrable. We study the
linear instability of initially circular discs and derive a criterion for the
counter-rotating instability. We then explore the rich nonlinear dynamics of
counter-rotating discs, with focus on the variety of steadily precessing
eccentric configurations that are allowed. The stability and properties of
these configurations are studied as functions of parameters such as the disc
mass ratios and angular momentum.


  Tandem mass spectrometry has played a pivotal role in advancing proteomics,
enabling the analysis of protein composition in biological samples. Despite the
development of various deep learning methods for identifying amino acid
sequences (peptides) responsible for observed spectra, challenges persist in
\emph{de novo} peptide sequencing. Firstly, prior methods struggle to identify
amino acids with post-translational modifications (PTMs) due to their lower
frequency in training data compared to canonical amino acids, further resulting
in decreased peptide-level identification precision. Secondly, diverse types of
noise and missing peaks in mass spectra reduce the reliability of training data
(peptide-spectrum matches, PSMs). To address these challenges, we propose
AdaNovo, a novel framework that calculates conditional mutual information (CMI)
between the spectrum and each amino acid/peptide, using CMI for adaptive model
training. Extensive experiments demonstrate AdaNovo's state-of-the-art
performance on a 9-species benchmark, where the peptides in the training set
are almost completely disjoint from the peptides of the test sets. Moreover,
AdaNovo excels in identifying amino acids with PTMs and exhibits robustness
against data noise. The supplementary materials contain the official code.


  We propose a model to describe a gas of pyramidal molecules interacting via
dipole-dipole interactions. The interaction modifies the tunneling properties
between the classical equilibrium configurations of the single molecule and,
for sufficiently high pressure, the molecules become localized in these
classical configurations. We explain quantitatively, without free parameters,
the shift to zero frequency of the inversion line observed upon increase of the
pressure in a gas of ammonia or deuterated ammonia. For sufficiently high
pressures, our model suggests the existence of a superselection rule for states
of different chirality in substituted derivatives.


  A calculus based on pointer-mark coincidences is proposed to define, in a
mathematically rigorous way, measurements of space and time intervals. The
connection between such measurements in different inertial frames according to
the Galilean or Lorentz transformations is then studied using new, simple, and
practical clock synchronisation procedures. It is found that measured length
intervals are Lorentz invariant, whereas moving clocks show a universal time
dilatation effect. The `relativistic length contraction' and `relativity of
simultaneity' effects of conventional special relativity theory are shown to be
the consequence of calculational error. Two derivations of the Lorentz
transformation from simple postulates, without reference to electrodynamics or
any other dynamical theory, are reviewed in an appendix.


  An attempt to construct a cosmological scenario directly from string theory
is made. Cosmological string theory was presented by Antoniadis, Bachas, Ellis
and Nanopoulos. They also expect loop effects on cosmological string theory. In
this paper, we point out the other importance of the one-loop effect, the
finite temperature effect. The equations of motion for background geometry at
finite temperature are given. We address a problem on derivation of the
effective action at nonzero temperature.


  We model the surface brightness profiles of a sample of 119 Abell Brightest
Cluster Galaxies (BCG), finding a generalised deVaucouleurs R^{1/n} law, where
n is a free parameter, to be appropriate. Departures from the R^{1/4} law are
shown to be a real feature of galaxy profiles, not due to observational errors
or coupling of n with the other model parameters. BCG typically have values of
n greater than 4. The shape parameter n is shown to correlate with effective
half-light radius, such that the larger BCG have larger values of n. This
continues a trend noticed amongst ordinary elliptical galaxies and dwarf
ellipticals, such that the fainter galaxies have smaller values of n.


  We study $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories on four-dimensional manifolds that admit a
Killing vector $v$ with isolated fixed points. It is possible to deform these
theories by coupling position-dependent background fields to the flavor current
multiplet. The partition function of the deformed theory only depends on the
value of the background scalar fields at the fixed points of $v$. For a single
adjoint hypermultiplet, the partition function becomes independent of the
supergravity as well as the flavor background if the scalars attain special
values at the fixed points. For these special values, supersymmetry at the
fixed points enhances from the Donaldson-Witten twist to the Marcus twist or
the Vafa-Witten twist of $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM. Our results explain the recently
observed squashing independence of $\mathcal{N}=2^*$ theory on the squashed
sphere and provide a new squashing independent point. Interpreted through the
AGT-correspondence, this implies the $b$-independence of torus one-point
functions of certain local operators in Liouville/Toda CFT. The
position-dependent deformations imply relations between correlators of
partially integrated operators in any $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFT with flavor
symmetries.


  Tunable light sources are a key enabling technology for many applications
such as ranging, spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, digital imaging
and interferometry. For miniaturized laser devices, whispering gallery
resonator lasers are a well-suited platform, offering low thresholds and small
linewidths, however, many realizations suffer from the lack of reliable tuning.
Rare-earth ion-doped lithium niobate offers a way to solve this issue. Here we
present a single-frequency laser based on a neodymium-doped lithium niobate
whispering gallery mode resonator that is tuned via the linear electro-optic
effect. Using a special geometry, we suppress higher-order transverse modes and
hence ensure single-mode operation. With an applied voltage of just $68\,$V, we
achieve a tuning range of $3.5\,$GHz. The lasing frequency can also be
modulated with a triangular control signal. The freely running system provides
a frequency and power stability of better than $\Delta\nu =20\,$MHz and 6%,
respectively, for a 30 minute period. This concept is suitable for full
integration with existing photonic platforms based on lithium niobate.


  We study transport across a magnetic impurity by means of a recently
developed slave-spin technique that does not require any constraint. Within a
conserving mean-field approximation we find a conductance that displays both
the known zero-bias anomaly but also the expected peak at bias of order U. We
extend the slave-spin mean-field approximation to study the out of equilibrium
transient evolution of a quantum dot. We apply the method to investigate the
time-evolution of a quantum dot induced by a time-dependent electrochemical
potential applied to the contacts. Similarly to the time-dependent Gutzwiller
approximation, the mean-field slave-spin dynamics is able to capture
dissipation in the leads, so that a steady-state is reached after a
characteristic relaxation time.


  We study the problem of simultaneous predictive inference on multiple
outcomes missing at random. We consider a suite of possible simultaneous
coverage properties, conditionally on the missingness pattern and on the --
possibly discretized/binned -- feature values. For data with discrete feature
distributions, we develop a procedure which attains feature- and
missingness-conditional coverage; and further improve it via pooling its
results after partitioning the unobserved outcomes. To handle general
continuous feature distributions, we introduce methods based on discretized
feature values. To mitigate the issue that feature-discretized data may fail to
remain missing at random, we propose propensity score
$\epsilon$-discretization. This approach is inspired by the balancing property
of the propensity score, namely that the missing data mechanism is independent
of the outcome conditional on the propensity [Rosenbaum and Rubin (1983)]. We
show that the resulting pro-CP method achieves propensity score discretized
feature- and missingness-conditional coverage, when the propensity score is
known exactly or is estimated sufficiently accurately. Furthermore, we consider
a stronger inferential target, the squared-coverage guarantee, which penalizes
the spread of the coverage proportion. We propose methods -- termed pro-CP2 --
to achieve it with similar conditional properties as we have shown for usual
coverage. A key novel technical contribution in our results is that propensity
score discretization leads to a notion of approximate balancing, which we
formalize and characterize precisely. In extensive empirical experiments on
simulated data and on a job search intervention dataset, we illustrate that our
procedures provide informative prediction sets with valid conditional coverage.


  The $\beta$-functions describe how couplings run under the renormalization
group flow in field theories. In general, all couplings that respect the
symmetry and locality are generated under the renormalization group flow, and
the exact renormalization group flow is characterized by the $\beta$-functions
defined in the infinite dimensional space of couplings. In this paper, we show
that the renormalization group flow is highly constrained so that the
$\beta$-functions defined in a measure zero subspace of couplings completely
determine the $\beta$-functions in the entire space of couplings. We provide a
quantum renormalization group-based algorithm for reconstructing the full
$\beta$-functions from the $\beta$-functions defined in the subspace. As
examples, we derive the full $\beta$-functions for the $O(N)$ vector model and
the $O_L(N) \times O_R(N)$ matrix model entirely from the $\beta$-functions
defined in the subspace of single-trace couplings.


  We report the discovery of a dark companion to 2MASS J15274848+3536572 with
an orbital period of 6.14 hr. Combining the radial velocity from LAMOST
observations and modelling of the multiband light curve, one obtains a mass
function of $\simeq 0.131~\rm M_{\odot}$, an inclination of
$45.20^\circ{}^{+0.13^{\circ}}_{-0.20^{\circ}}$, and a mass ratio of
$0.631^{+0.014}_{-0.003}$, which demonstrate the binary nature of the dark
companion with mass of $0.98 \pm 0.03\rm M_{\odot}$ and a main-sequence K9-M0
star of $0.62 \pm 0.01~\rm M_{\odot}$. LAMOST optical spectra at a range of
orbital phases reveal extra-peaked Halpha emission that suggests the presence
of an accretion disk. The dark companion does not seem to be a white dwarf
because of the lack of any observed dwarf nova outbursts in the long-term data
archive, although a magnetic white dwarf cannot be excluded. Alternatively, we
propose a scenario wherein the dark companion is a neutron star, but we have
not detected radio pulsations or a single pulse from the system with the FAST
(Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope), which hints at a
radio-quiet compact object. If the dark companion is identified as a neutron
star, it will be the nearest ( ~ 118 pc) and lightest neutron star.
Furthermore, a kinematic analysis of the system's orbit in the galaxy may
suggest its supernova event is associated with the radionuclide $^{60} \rm Fe$
signal observed from the deep-sea crusts. This radio-quiet and X-ray-dim nearby
neutron star may resemble an XDINS (X-ray-dim isolated neutron star), but in a
binary.


  We use vibrational dynamical mean-field theory (VDMFT) to study the
vibrational structure of type-I clathrate solids, specifically
X$_8$Ga$_{16}$Ge$_{30}$, where X=Ba,Sr. These materials are cage-like chemical
structures hosting loosely bound guest atoms, resulting in strong
anharmonicity, short phonon lifetimes, and ultra-low thermal conductivities.
Presenting the methodological developments necessary for this first application
to three-dimensional, atomistic materials, we validate our approach through
comparison to molecular dynamics simulations and show that VDMFT is extremely
accurate at a fraction of the cost. Through the use of nonperturbative methods,
we find that anharmonicity is dominated by four-phonon and higher-order
scattering processes, and it causes rattler modes to shift up in frequency by
50% (10 cm$^{-1}$) and to have lifetimes of less than 1 ps; this behavior is
not captured by traditional perturbation theory. Furthermore, we analyze the
phonon self-energy and find that anharmonicity mixes guest rattling modes and
cage acoustic modes, significantly changing the character of the harmonic
phonons.


  We derive the next-to-leading order correction to the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio
model starting from quantum chromodynamics. So, we are able to fix the
constants of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model from quantum chromodynamics and
analyze the behavior of strong interactions at low energies. The technique is
to expand in powers of currents the generating functional. We apply it to a
simple Yukawa model with self-interaction showing how this has a
Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and its higher order corrections as a low-energy
limit. The same is shown to happen for quantum chromodynamics in the chiral
limit with two quarks. We prove that a consistent thermodynamic behaviour is
obtained as expected for the given parameters.


  We report two binary systems, LAMOST J035540+381550 (hereafter J035540) and
LAMOST J035916+400732 (hereafter J035916), identified through the Large Sky
Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) low-resolution survey
(LRS). Each of these two systems contains an M-type star orbiting with a
invisible compact object candidate. Follow-up spectroscopic observations of
Palomar 200-inch telescope (P200) enhance radial velocity measurements. We use
radial velocities from LAMOST and P200, as well as light curves from Zwicky
Transient Facility (ZTF) to constrain orbital parameters. The masses of the
visible M-type stars are estimated by fitting the MIST isochrones and SEDs. The
mass functions for the unseen companions are: $0.22\pm 0.01 M_{\odot}$ for
J035540 and $0.16\pm 0.01 M_{\odot}$ for J035916. With the orbital and stellar
parameters derived above and assuming the orbital inclination is 90 degree
(edge-on), we find that the minimum masses of the invisible companions exceeds
that of the visible stars. The single-lined feature and the dynamical evidence
suggest the presence of compact objects. J035540's ZTF light curve, modeled
with PHOEBE, yields a compact object mass of $0.70^{+0.12}_{-0.05} M_{\odot}$.
For J035916, ellipsoidal modulation analysis constrains the light curve
amplitude, yielding a compact object mass range of $0.57-0.90 M_{\odot}$. The
mass estimates indicate that both are likely white dwarfs. These findings
underscore the efficiency of optical time-domain surveys and dynamical methods
in identifying faint, massive white dwarfs, along with other compact objects in
binaries.


  Comparison of geometric quantities usually means obtaining generally true
equalities of different algebraic expressions of a given geometric figure.
Today's technical possibilities already support symbolic proofs of a
conjectured theorem, by exploiting computer algebra capabilities of some
dynamic geometry systems as well. We introduce GeoGebra's new feature, the
Compare command, that helps the users in experiments in planar geometry. We
focus on automatically obtaining conjectures and their proofs at the same time,
including not just equalities but inequalities too. Our contribution can
already be successfully used to support teaching geometry classes at secondary
level, by getting several well-known and some previously unpublished result
within seconds on a modern personal computer.


  A dialogue is successful when there is alignment between the speakers at
different linguistic levels. In this work, we consider the dialogue occurring
between interlocutors engaged in a collaborative learning task, where they are
not only evaluated on how well they performed, but also on how much they
learnt. The main contribution of this work is to propose new automatic measures
to study alignment; focusing on verbal (lexical) alignment, and behavioral
alignment (when an instruction given by one was followed with concrete actions
by another). A second contribution of our work is to study how spontaneous
speech phenomena are used in the process of alignment. Lastly, we make public
the dataset to study alignment in educational dialogues. Our results show that
all teams verbally and behaviourally align to some degree regardless of their
performance and learning, and our measures capture that teams that did not
succeed in the task were simply slower to collaborate. Thus we find that teams
that performed better, were faster to align. Furthermore, our methodology
captures a productive period that includes the time where the interlocutors
came up with their best solutions. We also find that well-performing teams
verbalise the marker "oh" more when they are behaviourally aligned, compared to
other times in the dialogue; showing that this marker is an important cue in
alignment. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study the role of
"oh" as an information management marker in a behavioral context (i.e. in
connection to actions taken in a physical environment), compared to only a
verbal one. Our measures contribute to the research in the field of educational
dialogue and the intersection between dialogue and collaborative learning
research.


  We consider generalisations of Thompson's group $V$, denoted by
$V_r(\Sigma)$, which also include the groups of Higman, Stein and Brin. It was
shown by the authors in [20] that under some mild conditions these groups and
centralisers of their finite subgroups are of type $\mathrm{F}_\infty$. Under
more general conditions we show that the groups $V_r(\Sigma)$ are finitely
generated and, under the mild conditions mentioned above, we see that they are
finitely presented and give a recipe to find explicit presentations. For the
centralisers of finite subgroups we find a suitable infinite presentation and
then apply a general procedure to shorten this presentation. In the appendix,
we give a proof of this general shortening procedure.


  High-resolution SiO observations of the NGC 1333 IRAS 4A star-forming region
showed a highly collimated outflow with a substantial deflection. The
deflection was suggested to be caused by the interactions of the outflow and a
dense cloud core. To investigate the deflection process of protostellar
outflows, we have carried out three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the
collision of an outflow with a dense cloud. Assuming a power-law type density
distribution of the obstructing cloud, the numerical experiments show that the
deflection angle is mainly determined by the impact parameter and the density
contrast between the outflow and the cloud. The deflection angle is, however,
relatively insensitive to the velocity of the outflow. Using a numerical model
with physical conditions that are particularly suitable for the IRAS 4A system,
we produce a column-density image and a position-velocity diagram along the
outflow, and they are consistent with the observations. Based on our numerical
simulations, if we assume that the initial density and the velocity of the
outflow are $\sim 10 \cm3$ and $\sim 100 \kms$, the densities of the dense core
and ambient medium in the IRAS 4A system are most likely to be $\sim 10^5 \cm3$
and $\sim 10^2 \cm3$, respectively. We therefore demonstrate through numerical
simulations that the directional variability of the IRAS 4A outflow can be
explained reasonably well using the collision model.


  In this work, we pose and solve the time-optimal navigation problem
considered on a slippery mountain slope modeled by a Riemannian manifold of an
arbitrary dimension, under the action of a cross gravitational wind. The impact
of both lateral and longitudinal components of gravitational wind on the time
geodesics is discussed. The varying along-gravity effect depends on traction in
the presented model, whereas the cross-gravity additive is taken entirely in
the equations of motion, for any direction and gravity force. We obtain the
conditions for strong convexity and the purely geometric solution to the
problem is given by a new Finsler metric, which belongs to the type of general
$(\alpha, \beta)$-metrics. The proposed model enables us to create a direct
link between the Zermelo navigation problem and the slope-of-a-mountain problem
under the action of a cross gravitational wind. Moreover, the behavior of the
Finslerian indicatrices and time-minimizing trajectories in relation to the
traction coefficient and gravitational wind force are explained and illustrated
by a few examples in dimension two. This also compares the corresponding
solutions on the slippery slopes under various cross- and along-gravity
effects, including the classical Matsumoto's slope-of-a-mountain problem and
Zermelo's navigation.


  Can we detect common objects in a variety of image domains without
instance-level annotations? In this paper, we present a framework for a novel
task, cross-domain weakly supervised object detection, which addresses this
question. For this paper, we have access to images with instance-level
annotations in a source domain (e.g., natural image) and images with
image-level annotations in a target domain (e.g., watercolor). In addition, the
classes to be detected in the target domain are all or a subset of those in the
source domain. Starting from a fully supervised object detector, which is
pre-trained on the source domain, we propose a two-step progressive domain
adaptation technique by fine-tuning the detector on two types of artificially
and automatically generated samples. We test our methods on our newly collected
datasets containing three image domains, and achieve an improvement of
approximately 5 to 20 percentage points in terms of mean average precision
(mAP) compared to the best-performing baselines.


  (abridged) We find that a disk can supply a forming planet with mass at an
essentially infinite rate ($\sim1$\mj/25 yr) so that a gap could form very
quickly. We show that mass accretion rates faster than $\sim10^{-4}$\mj/yr are
not physically reasonable in the limit of either a thin, circumplanetary disk
or of a spherical envelope. Planet growth and ultimately survival are therefore
limited to the planet's ability to accept additional matter, not by the disk in
which it resides. We find that common analytic torque approximations predict
values that are a factor $\sim10$ larger than those obtained from the
simulations. Accounting for the disk's vertical structure (crudely modeled
through a gravitational softening parameter), small shifts in resonance
positions due to pressure gradients, to disk self gravity and to inclusion of
non-WKB terms in the analysis (Artymowicz 1993) reduce the difference to a
factor $\sim3-6$. Torques from the corotation resonances that are positive in
sign contribute 20-30% or more of the net torque on the planet. The assumption
of linearity underlying theoretical analyses is recovered in the simulations
with planets with masses below 0.5\mj, but the assumption that interactions
occur only at the resonances is more difficult to support. The detailed shape
of the disk's response varies from pattern to pattern, making its true position
less clear. We speculate that the finite width allows for overlap and mixing
between resonances and may be responsible for the remainder of the differences
between torques from theory and simulation, but whether accounting for such
overlap in a theory will improve the agreement with the simulations is not
clear.


  Examples of exact categories in representation theory are given by the
category of Delta-filtered modules over quasi-hereditary algebras, but also by
various categories related to matrix problems, such as poset representations or
representations of bocses. Motivated by the matrix problem background, we study
in this article the reduction of exact structures, and consider the poset Ex(A)
of all exact structures on a fixed additive category A. This poset turns out to
be a complete lattice, and under suitable conditions results of Enomoto's imply
that it is boolean.
  We initiate in this article a detailed study of exact structures E by
generalizing notions from abelian categories such as the length of an object
relative to E and the quiver of an exact category (A,E). We investigate the
Gabriel-Roiter measure for (A,E), and further study how these notions change
when the exact structure varies.


  We develop a non-conventional description of the vacuum energy in quantum
field theory in terms of quantum entropy. Precisely, we show that the vacuum
energy of any non-interacting quantum field at zero temperature is proportional
to the quantum entropy of the qubit degrees of freedom associated with virtual
fluctuations. We prove this for fermions first, and then extend the derivation
to quanta of any spin. Finally, we use these results to obtain the first law of
thermodynamics for a non-interacting quantum vacuum at zero temperature.


  We study particle transport through a chain of coupled sites connected to
free-fermion reservoirs at both ends, subjected to a local particle loss. The
transport is characterized by calculating the conductance and particle density
in the steady state using the Keldysh formalism for open quantum systems.
Besides a reduction of conductance, we find that transport can remain (almost)
unaffected by the loss for certain values of the chemical potential in the
lattice. We show that this "protected" transport results from the spatial
symmetry of single-particle eigenstates. At a finite voltage, the density
profile develops a drop at the lossy site, connected to the onset of
non-ballistic transport.


  Neutrino oscillations are precision probes of new physics beyond the Standard
Model. Apart from neutrino masses and mixings, they are also sensitive to
possible deviations of low-energy interactions between quarks and leptons from
the Standard Model predictions. In this paper we develop a systematic
description of such non-standard interactions (NSI) in oscillation experiments
within the quantum field theory framework. We calculate the event rate and
oscillation probability in the presence of general NSI, starting from the
effective field theory (EFT) in which new physics modifies the flavor or
Lorentz structure of charged-current interactions between leptons and quarks.
We also provide the matching between the EFT Wilson coefficients and the widely
used simplified quantum-mechanical approach, where new physics is encoded in a
set of production and detection NSI parameters. Finally, we discuss the
consistency conditions for the standard NSI approach to correctly reproduce the
quantum field theory result.


  A hybrid architecture for millimeter wave (mmW) massive MIMO systems is
considered practically implementable due to low power consumption and high
energy efficiency. However, due to the limited number of RF chains, user
selection becomes necessary for such architecture. Traditional user selection
algorithms suffer from high computational complexity and, therefore, may not be
scalable in 5G and beyond wireless mobile communications. To address this
issue, in this letter we propose a low complexity CNN framework for user
selection. The proposed CNN accepts as input the channel matrix and gives as
output the selected users. Simulation results show that the proposed CNN
performs close to optimal exhaustive search in terms of achievable rate, with
negligible computational complexity. In addition, CNN based user selection
outperforms the evolutionary algorithm and the greedy algorithm in terms of
both achievable rate and computational complexity. Finally, simulation results
also show that the proposed CNN based user selection scheme is robust to
channel imperfections.


  The theories in which our world presents a domain wall (brane) embedded in
large extra dimensions predict new types of topological defects. These defects
arise due to the fact that the brane on which we live spontaneously breaks
isometries of the extra space giving mass to some graviphotons. In many cases
the corresponding vacuum manifold has nontrivial homotopies -- this gives rise
to topologically stable defects in four dimensions, such as cosmic strings and
monopoles that carry gravimagnetic flux. The core structure of these defects is
somewhat peculiar. Due to the fact that the translation invariance in the extra
direction(s) is restored in their core, they act as "windows" to the extra
dimensions. We also discuss the corresponding analog of the Alice strings.
Encircling such an object one would get transported onto a parallel brane.


  In the context of the two-fluid model introduced to tame the transplanckian
problem of black hole physics, the inflaton field of the chaotic inflation
scenario is identified with the fluctuation of the density of modes. Its mass
comes about from the exchange of degrees of freedom between the two fluids.


  We have measured the hyperfine structure and isotope shifts of the 402.0 nm
and 399.6 nm resonance lines in 229Th+. These transitions could provide
pathways towards the 229Th isomeric nuclear state excitation. An unexpected
negative isotope shift relative to 232Th+ is observed for the 399.6 nm line,
indicating a strong Coulomb coupling of the excited state to the nucleus. We
have developed a new all-order approach to the isotope shift calculations that
is generally applicable to heavy atoms and ions with several valence electrons.
The theoretical calculations provide an explanation for the negative isotope
shift of the 399.6 nm transition and yield a corrected classification of the
excited state. The calculated isotope shifts are in good agreement with
experimental values.


  After outlining some of the issues surrounding the flavor problem, I present
three speculative ideas on the origin of families. In turn, families are
conjectured to arise from an underlying preon dynamics; from random dynamics at
very short distances; or as a result of compactification in higher-dimensional
theories. Examples and limitations of each of these speculative scenarios are
discussed. The twin roles that family symmetries and GUT's can have on the
spectrum of quarks and leptons is emphasized, along with the dominant role that
the top mass is likely to play in the dynamics of mass generation.


  Graph Transformers (GTs) have made remarkable achievements in graph-level
tasks. However, most existing works regard graph structures as a form of
guidance or bias for enhancing node representations, which focuses on
node-central perspectives and lacks explicit representations of edges and
structures. One natural question is, can we treat graph structures node-like as
a whole to learn high-level features? Through experimental analysis, we explore
the feasibility of this assumption. Based on our findings, we propose a novel
multi-view graph representation learning model via structure-aware searching
and coarsening (GRLsc) on GT architecture for graph classification.
Specifically, we build three unique views, original, coarsening, and
conversion, to learn a thorough structural representation. We compress loops
and cliques via hierarchical heuristic graph coarsening and restrict them with
well-designed constraints, which builds the coarsening view to learn high-level
interactions between structures. We also introduce line graphs for edge
embeddings and switch to edge-central perspective to construct the conversion
view. Experiments on eight real-world datasets demonstrate the improvements of
GRLsc over 28 baselines from various architectures.


  Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) light emitted by the Sun impacts satellite
operations and communications and affects the habitability of planets.
Currently, EUV-observing instruments are constrained to viewing the Sun from
its equator (i.e., ecliptic), limiting our ability to forecast EUV emission for
other viewpoints (e.g. solar poles), and to generalize our knowledge of the
Sun-Earth system to other host stars. In this work, we adapt Neural Radiance
Fields (NeRFs) to the physical properties of the Sun and demonstrate that
non-ecliptic viewpoints could be reconstructed from observations limited to the
solar ecliptic. To validate our approach, we train on simulations of solar EUV
emission that provide a ground truth for all viewpoints. Our model accurately
reconstructs the simulated 3D structure of the Sun, achieving a peak
signal-to-noise ratio of 43.3 dB and a mean absolute relative error of 0.3\%
for non-ecliptic viewpoints. Our method provides a consistent 3D reconstruction
of the Sun from a limited number of viewpoints, thus highlighting the potential
to create a virtual instrument for satellite observations of the Sun. Its
extension to real observations will provide the missing link to compare the Sun
to other stars and to improve space-weather forecasting.


  Recent advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) have showcased their
remarkable capabilities in text understanding and generation. However, even
stronger LLMs are susceptible to acquiring erroneous or obsolete information
from the training corpus. Direct secondary fine-tuning with data containing new
knowledge may be ineffective in updating knowledge due to the conflict between
old and new knowledge. In this paper, we propose a new paradigm for fine-tuning
called F-Learning (Forgetting before Learning), which employs parametric
arithmetic to facilitate the forgetting of old knowledge and learning of new
knowledge. Experimental results on two publicly available datasets demonstrate
that our proposed F-Learning can obviously improve the knowledge updating
performance of both full fine-tuning and LoRA fine-tuning, simultaneously
outperforming the existing baselines in most cases. Moreover, we have also
discovered that forgetting old knowledge by subtracting the parameters of LoRA
can yield a similar effect to subtracting the parameters of full fine-tuning,
and occasionally even surpass it significantly.


  The electromagnetic decay $\Sigma^0(1385) \to \Lambda \gamma$ was studied
using the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.
A real photon beam with a maximum energy of 3.8 GeV was incident on a proton
target, producing an exclusive final state of $K^+\Sigma^{*0}$. We report the
decay widths ratio $\Sigma^0(1385) \to \Lambda\gamma$/ $\Sigma^0(1385) \to
\Lambda\pi^0$ = $1.42 \pm 0.12(\text{stat})_{-0.07}^{+0.11}(\text{sys})$%. This
ratio is larger than most theoretical predictions by factors ranging from
1.5-3, but is consistent with the only other experimental measurement. From the
reported ratio we calculate the partial width and electromagnetic transition
magnetic moment for $\Sigma^0(1385) \to \Lambda\gamma$.


  This paper proposes a novel controllable human motion synthesis method for
fine-level deformation based on static point-based radiance fields. Although
previous editable neural radiance field methods can generate impressive results
on novel-view synthesis and allow naive deformation, few algorithms can achieve
complex 3D human editing such as forward kinematics. Our method exploits the
explicit point cloud to train the static 3D scene and apply the deformation by
encoding the point cloud translation using a deformation MLP. To make sure the
rendering result is consistent with the canonical space training, we estimate
the local rotation using SVD and interpolate the per-point rotation to the
query view direction of the pre-trained radiance field. Extensive experiments
show that our approach can significantly outperform the state-of-the-art on
fine-level complex deformation which can be generalized to other 3D characters
besides humans.


  This paper studies the $\tau$-coherence of a (n x p)-observation matrix in a
Gaussian framework. The $\tau$-coherence is defined as the largest magnitude
outside a diagonal bandwith of size $\tau$ of the empirical correlation
coefficients associated to our observations. Using the Chen-Stein method we
derive the limiting law of the normalized coherence and show the convergence
towards a Gumbel distribution. We generalize here the results of Cai and Jiang
[CJ11a]. We assume that the covariance matrix of the model is bandwise.
Moreover, we provide numerical considerations highlighting issues from the high
dimension hypotheses. We numerically illustrate the asymptotic behaviour of the
coherence with Monte-Carlo experiment using a HPC splitting strategy for high
dimensional correlation matrices.


  It is possible to learn a great deal about exoplanet atmospheres even when we
cannot spatially resolve the planets from their host stars. In this chapter, we
overview the basic techniques used to characterize transiting exoplanets -
transmission spectroscopy, emission and reflection spectroscopy, and full-orbit
phase curve observations. We discuss practical considerations, including
current and future observing facilities and best practices for measuring
precise spectra. We also highlight major observational results on the
chemistry, climate, and cloud properties of exoplanets.


  The singly periodic genus-one helicoid was in the origin of the discovery of
the first example of a complete minimal surface with finite topology but
infinite total curvature, the celebrated Hoffman-Karcher-Wei's genus one
helicoid. The objective of this paper is to give a uniqueness theorem for the
singly periodic genus-one helicoid provided the existence of one symmetry.


  We reveal the center vortex content of SU(2) calorons and ensembles of them.
While one part of the vortex connects the constituent dyons of a single
caloron, another part is predominantly spatial and can be related to the twist
that exists in the caloron gauge field. The latter part depends strongly on the
caloron holonomy and degenerates to a plane between the dyons when the
asymptotic Polyakov loop is traceless. Correspondingly, the spatial vortex in
caloron ensembles is percolating in this case. This finding fits perfectly in
the confinement scenario of vortices and shows that calorons are suitable to
facilitate the vortex (de)confinement mechanism.


  In this paper, we determine the Randic' energy of the m-splitting graph, the
m-shadow graph and the m-duplicate graph of a given graph, m being an arbitrary
integer. Our results allow the construction of an infinite sequence of graphs
having the same Randic' energy. Further, we determine some graph invariants
like the degree Kirchhoff index, the Kemeny's constant and the number of
spanning trees of some special graphs. From our results, we indicate how to
obtain infinitely many pairs of equienergetic graphs, Randic' equienergetic
graphs and also, infinite families of integral graphs.


  A study is presented for the non linear evolution of a self gravitating
distribution of matter coupled to a massless scalar field. The characteristic
formulation for numerical relativity is used to follow the evolution by a
sequence of light cones open to the future. Bondian frames are used to endow
physical meaning to the matter variables and to the massless scalar field.
Asymptotic approaches to the origin and to infinity are achieved; at the
boundary surface interior and exterior solutions are matched guaranteeing the
Darmois--Lichnerowicz conditions. To show how the scheme works some numerical
models are discussed. We exemplify evolving scalar waves on the following fixed
backgrounds: A) an atmosphere between the boundary surface of an incompressible
mixtured fluid and infinity; B) a polytropic distribution matched to a
Schwarzschild exterior; C) a Schwarzschild- Schwarzschild spacetime. The
conservation of energy, the Newman--Penrose constant preservation and other
expected features are observed.


  Uncertainty estimation (UE) techniques -- such as the Gaussian process (GP),
Bayesian neural networks (BNN), Monte Carlo dropout (MCDropout) -- aim to
improve the interpretability of machine learning models by assigning an
estimated uncertainty value to each of their prediction outputs. However, since
too high uncertainty estimates can have fatal consequences in practice, this
paper analyzes the above techniques.
  Firstly, we show that GP methods always yield high uncertainty estimates on
out of distribution (OOD) data. Secondly, we show on a 2D toy example that both
BNNs and MCDropout do not give high uncertainty estimates on OOD samples.
Finally, we show empirically that this pitfall of BNNs and MCDropout holds on
real world datasets as well. Our insights (i) raise awareness for the more
cautious use of currently popular UE methods in Deep Learning, (ii) encourage
the development of UE methods that approximate GP-based methods -- instead of
BNNs and MCDropout, and (iii) our empirical setups can be used for verifying
the OOD performances of any other UE method. The source code is available at
https://github.com/epfml/uncertainity-estimation.


  Racial disparities in US drug arrest rates have been observed for decades,
but their causes and policy implications are still contested. Some have argued
that the disparities largely reflect differences in drug use between racial
groups, while others have hypothesized that discriminatory enforcement policies
and police practices play a significant role. In this work, we analyze racial
disparities in the enforcement of marijuana violations in the US. Using data
from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the National
Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) programs, we investigate whether
marijuana usage and purchasing behaviors can explain the racial composition of
offenders in police records. We examine potential driving mechanisms behind
these disparities and the extent to which county-level socioeconomic factors
are associated with corresponding disparities. Our results indicate that the
significant racial disparities in reported incidents and arrests cannot be
explained by differences in marijuana days-of-use alone. Variations in the
location where marijuana is purchased and in the frequency of these purchases
partially explain the observed disparities. We observe an increase in racial
disparities across most counties over the last decade, with the greatest
increases in states that legalized the use of marijuana within this timeframe.
Income, high school graduation rate, and rate of employment positively
correlate with larger racial disparities, while the rate of incarceration is
negatively correlated. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the
observed racial disparities in the context of algorithmic fairness.


  We present new metric criteria for non-amenability and discuss applications.
The main application of the results of this paper is the proof of
non-amenability of R.Thompson's group F. This is a continuation of the series
of papers on our criteria for non-amenability. The current paper is independent
of other papers in the series.


  This is a survey about spectral sets, to appear in the second edition of
Handbook of Linear Algebra (L. Hogben, ed.). Spectral sets and K-spectral sets,
introduced by John von Neumann, offer a possibility to estimate the norm of
functions of matrices in terms of the sup-norm of the function. Examples of
such spectral sets include the numerical range or the pseudospectrum of a
matrix, discussed in Chapters 16 and 18. Estimating the norm of functions of
matrices is an essential task in numerous fields of pure and applied
mathematics, such as (numerical) linear algebra, functional analysis, and
numerical analysis. More specific examples include probability, semi-groups and
existence results for operator-valued differential equations, the study of
numerical schemes for the time discretization of evolution equations, or the
convergence rate of GMRES (Section 41.7). The notion of spectral sets involves
many deep connections between linear algebra, operator theory, approximation
theory, and complex analysis.


  Ever-increasing interests to more accurate thermodynamic predictions of phase
diagrams motivate more reliable thermodynamic models to be developed. The
Modified Quasichemical Model within the two-sublattice Quadruplet Approximation
(MQMQA) was thus established in well response to these interests and
motivations. However, the model still needs to be further improved in order to
have better thermodynamic predictions of arbitrary reciprocal solutions. The
present paper proposes a new and generic formalism to characterize the Gibbs
energy of the ternary reciprocal quadruplet within the framework of the MQMQA.
The new formalism circumvents the problem spawned from solving the singular
matrix of mass equations. Resultantly, energy landscapes of reciprocal
solutions can be better defined everywhere in reciprocal composition spaces.
With the current improvement, the MQMQA is believed to be one of the most
reliable thermodynamic models for various types of solutions with or without
short-range ordering.


  We report the results of the observation of the nearby satellite galaxy Segue
1 performed by the MAGIC-I ground-based gamma-ray telescope between November
2008 and March 2009 for a total of 43.2 hours. No significant gamma-ray
emission was found above the background. Differential upper limits on the
gamma-ray flux are derived assuming various power-law slopes for the possible
emission spectrum. Integral upper limits are also calculated for several
power-law spectra and for different energy thresholds. The values are of the
order of 10^{-11} ph cm^{-2}$ s^{-1} above 100 GeV and 10^{-12} ph cm^{-2}
s^{-1} above 200 GeV. Segue 1 is currently considered one of the most
interesting targets for indirect dark matter searches. In these terms, the
upper limits have been also interpreted in the context of annihilating dark
matter particles. For such purpose, we performed a grid scan over a reasonable
portion of the parameter space for the minimal SuperGravity model and computed
the flux upper limit for each point separately, taking fully into account the
peculiar spectral features of each model. We found that in order to match the
experimental upper limits with the model predictions, a minimum flux boost of
10^{3} is required, and that the upper limits are quite dependent on the shape
of the gamma-ray energy spectrum predicted by each specific model. Finally we
compared the upper limits with the predictions of some dark matter models able
to explain the PAMELA rise in the positron ratio, finding that Segue 1 data are
in tension with the dark matter explanation of the PAMELA spectrum in the case
of a dark matter candidate annihilating into tau+tau-. A complete exclusion
however is not possible due to the uncertainties in the Segue 1 astrophysical
factor.


  We give explicit formulas for the local multiplicative convolution functors
which express the local monodromies of the convolution of two $\ell$-adic
sheaves on the torus ${\mathbb G}_m$ over the algebraic closure of a finite
field in terms of the local monodromies of the factors.


  We determine the cohomology rings K(s)*(BG) at 2 for all finite Frobenius
complements G of exponent dividing 2n 9.


  New sources of CP violation beyond the Standard Model of particle physics
could be revealed in the laboratory by measuring a non-zero electric dipole
moment (EDM) of a spin 1/2 particle such as the neutron. Despite the great
sensitivity attained after 60 years of developments, the result of the
experiments is still compatible with zero. Still, new experiments have a high
discovery potential since they probe new physics at the multi-TeV scale, beyond
the reach of direct searches at colliders. Progress in precision on the neutron
EDM is limited by a systematic effect arising from the relativistic motional
field $\vec{E} \times \vec{v} / c^2$ experienced by the particles moving in the
measurement chamber in combination with the residual magnetic gradients. This
effect would normally forbid a significant increase of the size of the chamber,
sadly hindering the increase of neutron statistics. We propose a new
measurement concept to evade this limitation in a room-temperature experiment
employing a mercury co-magnetometer. It consists ajusting the static magnetic
field $B_0$ to a `magic' value which cancels the false EDM of the mercury. The
magic setting is $7.2\,\muT$ for a big cylindrical double-chamber of diameter
$100$~cm.


  The detection of high energy neutrinos ($10^{15}-10^{20}$ eV or $1-10^{5}$
PeV) is an important step toward understanding the most energetic cosmic
accelerators and would enable tests of fundamental physics at energy scales
that cannot easily be achieved on Earth. In this energy range, there are two
expected populations of neutrinos: the astrophysical flux observed with IceCube
at lower energies ($\sim1$ PeV) and the predicted cosmogenic flux at higher
energies ($\sim10^{18}$ eV). Radio detector arrays such as RICE, ANITA, ARA,
and ARIANNA exploit the Askaryan effect and the radio transparency of glacial
ice, which together enable enormous volumes of ice to be monitored with sparse
instrumentation. We describe here the design for a phased radio array that
would lower the energy threshold of radio techniques to the PeV scale, allowing
measurement of the astrophysical flux observed with IceCube over an extended
energy range. Meaningful energy overlap with optical Cherenkov telescopes could
be used for energy calibration. The phased radio array design would also
provide more efficient coverage of the large effective volume required to
discover cosmogenic neutrinos.


  In this note we are concerned with the notion of amenable representation type
as defined in a recent paper by G\'abor Elek. Roughly speaking, an algebra is
of amenable type if for all $\varepsilon > 0$, every finite-dimensional module
has a submodule which is a direct sum of modules which are small with respect
to $\varepsilon$ such that the quotient is also small in that respect. We will
show that the tame hereditary path algebras of quivers of extended Dynkin type
over any field $k$ are of amenable type, thus extending a conjecture in the
aforementioned paper to another class of tame algebras. In doing so, we avoid
using already known results for string algebras. We also show that path
algebras of wild acyclic quivers over finite fields are not amenable.


  Today, information technology (IT) has become a key element in economic
development and a backbone of knowledge-based economies in terms of operations,
quality delivery of services and productivity of services. Therefore, taking
advantage of information technologies (IT) is an increasing challenge for
developing countries. There is now growing evidence that Knowledge-driven
innovation is a decisive factor in the competitiveness of nations, industries,
organizations and firms. Organizations like the banking sector have benefited
substantially from e-banking, which is one among the IT applications for
strengthening the competitiveness. This paper presents the current trend in the
application of IT in the banking industries in Nigeria and gives an insight
into how quality banking has been enhanced via IT. The paper further reveals
that the deployment of IT facilities in the Nigerian Banking industry has
brought about fundamental changes in the content and quality of banking
business in the country. This analysis and clarification of how Nigerian Banks
have used IT to reengineer their operations is detailed through literature
review and observation. Three categories of variables that relate to the use
and implementation of information technology devices were considered in this
paper. These include the nature and degree of adoption of innovative
technologies; degree of utilization of the identified technologies; and the
impact of the adoption of IT devices on the bank operations.


  When performing a time series analysis of continuous data, for example from
climate or environmental problems, the assumption that the process is Gaussian
is often violated. Therefore, we introduce two non-Gaussian autoregressive time
series models that are able to fit skewed and heavy-tailed time series data.
Our two models are based on the Tukey g-and-h transformation. We discuss
parameter estimation, order selection, and forecasting procedures for our
models and examine their performances in a simulation study. We demonstrate the
usefulness of our models by applying them to two sets of wind speed data.


  The interconnection of resource-constrained and globally accessible things
with untrusted and unreliable Internet make them vulnerable to attacks
including data forging, false data injection, and packet drop that affects
applications with critical decision-making processes. For data trustworthiness,
reliance on provenance is considered to be an effective mechanism that tracks
both data acquisition and data transmission. However, provenance management for
sensor networks introduces several challenges, such as low energy, bandwidth
consumption, and efficient storage. This paper attempts to identify packet drop
(either maliciously or due to network disruptions) and detect faulty or
misbehaving nodes in the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks
(RPL) by following a bi-fold provenance-enabled packed path tracing (PPPT)
approach. Firstly, a system-level ordered-provenance information encapsulates
the data generating nodes and the forwarding nodes in the data packet.
Secondly, to closely monitor the dropped packets, a node-level provenance in
the form of the packet sequence number is enclosed as a routing entry in the
routing table of each participating node. Lossless in nature, both approaches
conserve the provenance size satisfying processing and storage requirements of
IoT devices. Finally, we evaluate the efficacy of the proposed scheme with
respect to provenance size, provenance generation time, and energy consumption.


  In ergodic quantum spin chains, locally conserved quantities such as energy
or particle number generically evolve according to hydrodynamic equations as
they relax to equilibrium. We investigate the complexity of simulating
hydrodynamics at infinite temperature with multiple methods: time evolving
block decimation (TEBD), TEBD with density matrix truncation (DMT), the
recursion method with a universal operator growth hypothesis (R-UOG), and
operator-size truncated (OST) dynamics. Density matrix truncation and the OST
dynamics give consistent dynamical correlations to $t = 60/J$; and diffusion
constants agreeing within 1%. TEBD only converges for $t\lesssim 20$, but still
produces diffusion coefficients accurate within 1%. The universal operator
growth hypothesis fails to converge and only matches other methods on short
times. We see no evidence of long-time tails in either DMT or OST dynamics
simulations. At finite wavelength, we observe a crossover from purely
diffusive, overdamped decay of the energy density, to underdamped oscillatory
behavior similar to that of cold atom experiments. We dub this behavior "hot
band second sound", and offer a microscopically-motivated toy model.


  The cosmological arrow of time may be linked to the thermodynamic arrow by
second law of thermodynamics. The time asymmetry is also associated with
dissipative fluid as Tolman introduced a viscous fluid to generate an arrow of
time in cyclic cosmology. An arrow of time in cyclic cosmology has been shown
using scalar field.In this work we find out the cosmological arrow of time in
f(R) gravity. Here we use the relation between a new scalar field and $f(R)$.
The dynamics of this new scalar field may emerge the arrow of time.


  We present a precise analysis to test hypothetical models involving sterile
neutrinos beyond the standard flat-$\Lambda$CDM cosmology with the CMB
observations from the $Planck$ mission and BAO measurements. This analysis
shows that adding the locally measured Hubble parameter $H_{0}$ = $73.00\pm1.75
$ km $\textrm s^{-1}$ Mp$\textrm c^{-1} $ to the data removes the need for the
informative physical $m_{sterile}^{thermal}$ prior in CMB constraints of $
m_{\nu,sterile}^{eff}$. Under the constraints from the data containing the
locally measured $H_{0}$ we obtain an upper limit $ m_{\nu,sterile}^{eff} <
0.306 $ eV scale mass for the massive sterile neutrino, and an upper limit
$\Sigma m_{\nu} < 0.214$ eV scale mass for the three degenerate massive
neutrino (95 per cent confidence level). We also obtain the value $\sigma_{8} $
= $0.81^{+0.05}_{-0.06} $ (95 per cent confidence level), which is in
compatibility with the constraints from $Planck$ 2015 CMB data at the 1$\sigma$
level. We find that introducing parameter $ m_{\nu,sterile}^{eff}$ to the model
of cosmology reduces the $\sigma_{8} $ value and moves it closer to the
obtained value for this parameter from the KiDS-450 analysis. Our results show
that the locally measured Hubble parameter can increase constraints on
$\sigma_{8} $ values.


  Very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays from extragalactic sources, interacting by
gamma-gamma collisions with diffuse intergalactic radiation fields, provide an
alternative way to constrain the diffuse background light, completely
independent of direct measurements. The limits depend however on our knowledge
of the physics of the gamma-ray sources. After clarifying the interplay between
background light and VHE spectra, I summarize the extent and validity of the
obtainable limits, and where future improvements can be expected.