  We report on observations of the low-mass X-ray binary 4U1626-67 performed
during the BeppoSAX Science Verification Phase. We present the broad-band
0.1-100 keV pulse averaged spectrum, that is well fit by a two-component
function: a 0.27 +/- 0.02 keV blackbody and an absorbed power law with a photon
index of 0.89 +/- 0.02. A very deep and narrow absorption feature at 38 keV,
attributable to electron cyclotron resonance, is clearly visible in the
broad-band spectrum. It corresponds to a neutron star magnetic field strength
of 3.3 x 10^{12} G. The 4U1626-67 pulse profiles show a dramatic dependance on
energy: the transition between the low energy (E<10 keV) "bi-horned" shape to
the high-energy (E>10 keV) sinusoidal profile is clearly visible in our data.
The modulation index shows a monotonic increase with energy.


  The spin-orbit interaction of holes in zinc-blende semiconductors is much
stronger than that of electrons. This makes the hole systems very attractive
for possible spintronics applications. In three dimensions (3D) dynamics of
holes is described by well known Luttinger Hamiltonian. However, most of recent
spintronics applications are related to two dimensional heterostructures where
dynamics in one direction is frozen due to quantum confinement. The confinement
results in dimensional reduction of the Luttinger Hamiltonian, 3D ->2D. Due to
interplay of the spin-orbit interaction, the external magnetic field, and the
lateral gate potential imposed on the heterostructure the reduction is highly
nontrivial and not known. In the present work we perform the reduction and
hence derive the general effective Hamiltonian which describes spintronics
effects in symmetric two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures. In particular, we
do the following, (i) derive the spin-orbit interaction and the Darwin
interaction related to the lateral gate potential, (ii) determine the momentum
dependent out-of-plane g-factor, (iii) point out that there are two independent
in-plane g-factors, (iv) determine momentum dependencies of the in-plane
g-factors.


  We present a proposal for quantum information processing with neutral atoms
trapped in optical lattices as qubits. Initialization and coherent control of
single qubits can be achieved with standard laser cooling and spectroscopic
techniques. We consider entangling two-qubit logic gates based on optically
induced dipole-dipole interactions, calculating a figure-of-merit for various
protocols. Massive parallelism intrinsic to the lattice geometry makes this an
intriguing system for scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computation.


  We generalize the notion of weakly mixing unitary representations to locally
compact quantum groups, introducing suitable extensions of all standard
characterizations of weak mixing to this setting. These results are used to
complement the noncommutative Jacobs-de Leeuw-Glicksberg splitting theorem of
Runde and the author ["Ergodic theory for quantum semigroups", J. Lond. Math.
Soc. (2) 89 (2014) 941-959]. Furthermore, a relation between mixing and weak
mixing of state-preserving actions of discrete quantum groups and the
properties of certain inclusions of von Neumann algebras, which is known for
discrete groups, is demonstrated.


  In a series of papers, Burdzy et. al. introduced the \emph{mirror coupling}
of reflecting Brownian motions in a smooth bounded domain $D\subset
\mathbb{R}^{d}$, and used it to prove certain properties of eigenvalues and
eigenfunctions of the Neumann Laplaceian on $D$. In the present paper we show
that the construction of the mirror coupling can be extended to the case when
the two Brownian motions live in different domains $D_{1},D_{2}\subset
\mathbb{R}^{d}$. As an application of the construction, we derive a unifying
proof of the two main results concerning the validity of Chavel's conjecture on
the domain monotonicity of the Neumann heat kernel, due to I. Chavel
(\cite{Chavel}), respectively W. S. Kendall (\cite{Kendall}).


  Large-scale vision-language models (VLMs) have shown a strong zero-shot
generalization capability on unseen-domain data. However, adapting pre-trained
VLMs to a sequence of downstream tasks often leads to the forgetting of
previously learned knowledge and a reduction in zero-shot classification
performance. To tackle this problem, we propose a unique Selective Dual-Teacher
Knowledge Transfer framework that leverages the most recent fine-tuned and the
original pre-trained VLMs as dual teachers to preserve the previously learned
knowledge and zero-shot capabilities, respectively. With only access to an
unlabeled reference dataset, our proposed framework performs a selective
knowledge distillation mechanism by measuring the feature discrepancy from the
dual-teacher VLMs. Consequently, our selective dual-teacher knowledge
distillation mitigates catastrophic forgetting of previously learned knowledge
while preserving the zero-shot capabilities of pre-trained VLMs. Extensive
experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that our framework is favorable
against state-of-the-art continual learning approaches for preventing
catastrophic forgetting and zero-shot degradation. Project page:
https://chuyu.org/research/snd


  The results of a recent fluid theory for the multipole modes of a Yukawa
plasma in a spherical confinement [H. K\"{a}hlert and M. Bonitz, Phys. Rev. E
\textbf{82}, 036407 (2010)] are compared with molecular dynamics simulations
and the exact $N$-particle eigenmodes in the crystalline phase. Simulations
confirm the existence of high order modes found in cold fluid theory. We
investigate the influence of screening, coupling and friction on the mode
spectra in detail. Good agreement between theory and simulation is found for
weak to moderate screening and low order modes. The relations between the
breathing mode in the fluid theory, simulation and the crystal eigenmode are
investigated in further detail.


  We present a measurement of the ttbar production cross section using events
with one charged lepton and jets from ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass
energy of 1.96 TeV. A b-tagging algorithm based on the probability of displaced
tracks coming from the event interaction vertex is applied to identify b quarks
from top decay. Using 318 pb^{-1} of data collected with the CDF II detector,
we measure the ttbar production cross section in events with at least one
restrictive (tight) b-tagged jet and obtain 8.9 +1.0-1.0 (stat.) +1.1-1.0
(syst.) pb. The cross section value assumes a top quark mass of m_{t}=178 GeV
in the acceptance corrections. The dependence of the cross section on m_t is
presented in the paper. This result is consistent with other CDF measurements
of the ttbar cross section using different samples and analysis techniques, and
has similar systematic uncertainties. We have also performed consistency checks
by using the b-tagging probability function to vary the signal to background
ratio and also using events that have at least two b-tagged jets.


  The classical, vector space model for text retrieval is shown to give better
results (up to 29% better in our experiments) if WordNet synsets are chosen as
the indexing space, instead of word forms. This result is obtained for a
manually disambiguated test collection (of queries and documents) derived from
the Semcor semantic concordance. The sensitivity of retrieval performance to
(automatic) disambiguation errors when indexing documents is also measured.
Finally, it is observed that if queries are not disambiguated, indexing by
synsets performs (at best) only as good as standard word indexing.


  We report measurements of the nuclear spin-lattice and spin-spin relaxation
times of very dilute 3He in solid 4He in the temperature range 0.01 \leq T \leq
0.5 K for densities where anomalies have been observed in torsional oscillator
and shear modulus measurements. We compare the results with the values of the
relaxation times reported by other observers for higher concentrations and the
theory of Landesman that takes into account the elastic properties of the 4He
lattice. A sharp increase in the magnitude of the nuclear spin-lattice
relaxation times compared to the the classical Landesman theory is observed
close to the temperatures where the torsional and shear modulus anomalies are
observed. The NMR results suggest that the tunneling of 3He impurities in the
atomic-scale elastic distortion is affected by the same processes that give
rise to the macroscopic elastic dissipation anomalies.


  We consider $m \times s$ matrices (with $m\geq s$) in a real affine subspace
of dimension $n$. The problem of finding elements of low rank in such spaces
finds many applications in information and systems theory, where low rank is
synonymous of structure and parsimony. We design computer algebra algorithms,
based on advanced methods for polynomial system solving, to solve this problem
efficiently and exactly: the input are the rational coefficients of the
matrices spanning the affine subspace as well as the expected maximum rank, and
the output is a rational parametrization encoding a finite set of points that
intersects each connected component of the low rank real algebraic set. The
complexity of our algorithm is studied thoroughly. It is polynomial in
$\binom{n+m(s-r)}{n}$. It improves on the state-of-the-art in computer algebra
and effective real algebraic geometry. Moreover, computer experiments show the
practical efficiency of our approach.


  We study the phase diagram and critical behavior of a one dimensional three
species monomer-monomer surface reaction model. Static Monte Carlo simulations
show a phase diagram consisting of a reactive steady state bordered by three
equivalent unreactive phases where the surface is saturated with one monomer
species. The transitions from the reactive to saturated phases are all
continuous, while the transitions between poisoned phases are first-order, with
bicritical points where the reactive phase meets two poisoned phases. A
mean-field cluster analysis predicts all of the qualitative features of the
phase diagram only when correlations up to triplets of adjacent sites are
included. Dynamic Monte Carlo simulations show that the transition from the
reactive to a saturated phase show critical behavior in the directed
percolation universality class, while the bicritical point shows critical
behavior in the even branching annihilating random walk class. The crossover
from bicritical to critical behavior is also studied.


  Vision models are often vulnerable to out-of-distribution (OOD) samples
without adapting. While visual prompts offer a lightweight method of
input-space adaptation for large-scale vision models, they rely on a
high-dimensional additive vector and labeled data. This leads to overfitting
when adapting models in a self-supervised test-time setting without labels. We
introduce convolutional visual prompts (CVP) for label-free test-time
adaptation for robust visual perception. The structured nature of CVP demands
fewer trainable parameters, less than 1\% compared to standard visual prompts,
combating overfitting. Extensive experiments and analysis on a wide variety of
OOD visual perception tasks show that our approach is effective, improving
robustness by up to 5.87% over several large-scale models.


  Hawking flux from the Schwarzschild black hole with a global monopole is
obtained by using Robinson and Wilczek's method. Adopting a dimension reduction
technique, the effective quantum field in the (3+1)--dimensional global
monopole background can be described by an infinite collection of the
(1+1)--dimensional massless fields if neglecting the ingoing modes near the
horizon, where the gravitational anomaly can be cancelled by the
(1+1)--dimensional black body radiation at the Hawking temperature.


  The capabilities of CP2K, a density-functional theory package and OMEN, a
nano-device simulator, are combined to study transport phenomena from
first-principles in unprecedentedly large nanostructures. Based on the
Hamiltonian and overlap matrices generated by CP2K for a given system, OMEN
solves the Schroedinger equation with open boundary conditions (OBCs) for all
possible electron momenta and energies. To accelerate this core operation a
robust algorithm called SplitSolve has been developed. It allows to
simultaneously treat the OBCs on CPUs and the Schroedinger equation on GPUs,
taking advantage of hybrid nodes. Our key achievements on the Cray-XK7 Titan
are (i) a reduction in time-to-solution by more than one order of magnitude as
compared to standard methods, enabling the simulation of structures with more
than 50000 atoms, (ii) a parallel efficiency of 97% when scaling from 756 up to
18564 nodes, and (iii) a sustained performance of 15 DP-PFlop/s.


  We report about detailed dimensionless figure of merit ($ZT$) calculated by
using Fermi integral method (compared with Bi$_2$Te$_3$, CoSb$_3$, and
SrTiO$_3$) for thermoelectric (TE) materials' design and its module
application. Particularly, TE properties: electrical conductivity (small
polaron: $\sigma$($m$*)), Seebeck coefficient ($S$), thermal conductivity
($\kappa_e$), and $ZT$ were calculated by using reduced energy
($\zeta$=$E$/$k_B T$), as the functions of $T$, and effective mass ($m$*/$m$).
Enhancement of $ZT$ was investigated by contour plots of $T$, and $m$*/$m$
versus $\zeta$.


  A system of strongly-interacting electron-lattice polarons can exhibit charge
and orbital order at sufficiently high polaron concentrations. In this study,
the structure of short-range polaron correlations in the layered colossal
magnetoresistive perovskite manganite, La1.2Sr1.8Mn2O7, has been determined by
a crystallographic analysis of broad satellite maxima observed in diffuse X-ray
and neutron scattering data. The resulting q=(0.3,0,1) modulation is a
longitudinal octahedral-stretch mode, consistent with an incommensurate
Jahn-Teller-coupled charge-density-wave fluctuations, that implies an unusual
orbital-stripe pattern parallel to the <100> directions.


  We present an event-by-event study of photon production in early stage of
high energy nuclear collisions, where the system is dominant by highly occupied
of gluons and initialized by McLerran-Venugopalan model. The photons are
produced through the gluon fusion and splitting processes when strong magnetic
field is included. We study the spectra and collective flows of the photons and
show their dependence on transverse momentum $q_{T}$. It is found that in our
approach the photons from boost invariant evolving glasma provide visible
enhancement on spectrum and obvious contribution on $v_{2}$ of the total direct
photons. The results, by weighting on top of parton-hadron-string dynamics
(PHSD) model, agree even better with experiment measurements in Au-Au 20\%-40\%
centrality collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$GeV.


  Since Stephen Hawking's original 1975 paper on black hole evaporation, there
has been a consensus that the problem of "loss of information" is both deep and
troubling. It is also thought that resolution of the problem may hold some
conceptual keys to the unification of gravity with the other forces. I argue
that this consensus view is mistaken. The so-called "information loss paradox"
arises rather from the inaccurate application of foundational principles,
involving both mathematical and conceptual errors. The resources for resolving
the "paradox" are familiar and uncontroversial, as has been pointed out in the
literature. The problem ought to have been dismissed 40 years ago. Recent
radical attempts to solve the problem are blind alleys, solutions in search of
a problem.


  According to the Snowball Earth hypothesis, Earth has experienced periods of
low-latitude glaciation in its deep past. Prior studies have used general
circulation models (GCMs) to examine the effects such an extreme climate state
might have on the structure and dynamics of Earth's troposphere, but the
behavior of the stratosphere has not been studied in detail. Understanding the
snowball stratosphere is important for developing an accurate account of the
Earth's radiative and chemical properties during these episodes. Here we
conduct the first analysis of the stratospheric circulation of the Snowball
Earth using ECHAM6 general circulation model simulations. In order to
understand the factors contributing to the stratospheric circulation, we extend
the Statistical Transformed Eulerian Mean framework. We find that the
stratosphere during a snowball with prescribed modern ozone levels exhibits a
weaker meridional overturning circulation, reduced wave activity, stronger
zonal jets, and is extremely cold relative to modern conditions. Notably, the
snowball stratosphere displays no sudden stratospheric warmings. Without ozone,
the stratosphere displays slightly weaker circulation, a complete lack of polar
vortex, and even colder temperatures. We also explicitly quantify for the first
time the cross-tropopause mass exchange rate and stratospheric mixing
efficiency during the snowball and show that our values do not change the
constraints on CO$_2$ inferred from geochemical proxies during the Marinoan
glaciation ($\sim$635 Ma), unless the O$_2$ concentration during the snowball
was orders of magnitude less than the CO$_2$ concentration.


  ISPs are increasingly selling "tiered" contracts, which offer Internet
connectivity to wholesale customers in bundles, at rates based on the cost of
the links that the traffic in the bundle is traversing. Although providers have
already begun to implement and deploy tiered pricing contracts, little is known
about how such pricing affects ISPs and their customers. While contracts that
sell connectivity on finer granularities improve market efficiency, they are
also more costly for ISPs to implement and more difficult for customers to
understand. In this work we present two contributions: (1) we develop a novel
way of mapping traffic and topology data to a demand and cost model; and (2) we
fit this model on three large real-world networks: an European transit ISP, a
content distribution network, and an academic research network, and run
counterfactuals to evaluate the effects of different pricing strategies on both
the ISP profit and the consumer surplus. We highlight three core findings.
First, ISPs gain most of the profits with only three or four pricing tiers and
likely have little incentive to increase granularity of pricing even further.
Second, we show that consumer surplus follows closely, if not precisely, the
increases in ISP profit with more pricing tiers. Finally, the common ISP
practice of structuring tiered contracts according to the cost of carrying the
traffic flows (e.g., offering a discount for traffic that is local) can be
suboptimal and that dividing contracts based on both traffic demand and the
cost of carrying it into only three or four tiers yields near-optimal profit
for the ISP.


  Symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases of bosons in $d$ spatial
dimensions have been characterized by the action of the protecting global
symmetry $G$ on their boundary. The symmetry acts on the boundary in a way that
would be impossible to realize in a purely $d-1$ dimensional system i.e.,
without the bulk. This is often formalized by saying the $G$ symmetry is
anomalous when the boundary theory is gauged. Simultaneously gauging the
symmetry on the boundary and in the bulk yields a gauge-invariant composite
system. One says there is an anomaly in-flow from the boundary to the bulk.
Recently it has been appreciated that some anomalies are too severe to be
regulated by an SPT bulk. These do not satisfy anomaly in-flow in the
traditional sense. However, we show that these anomalous systems can be
regulated as the symmetric boundaries of the newly discovered higher SPT
phases. These higher SPT's are protected by a symmetry $d$-group, a higher
categorical version of a group which can charge not just particles but also
strings, volumes, etc. This structure emerges naturally from computation of the
anomaly. One can interpret these severe anomalies as producing an emergent
higher-form gauge field when $G$ is gauged, and this gauge field participates
in the bulk topological action.


  The tensor fraction $r\simeq 0.16$ found by BICEP2 corresponds to a Hubble
parameter $H\simeq 1.0\times 10^{14}\GeV$ during inflation.
  This has two implications for the (single-field) slow-roll inflation
hypothesis. First, the inflaton perturbation must account for much more than
$10\%$ of the curvature perturbation $\zeta$, which barring fine-tuning means
that it accounts for practically all of it. It follows that a curvaton-like
mechanism for generating $\zeta$ requires an alternative to slow roll such as
k-inflation. Second, accepting slow-roll inflation, the excursion of the
inflaton field is at least of order Planck scale. As a result, the flatness of
the inflaton presumably requires a shift symmetry.
  I point out that if such is the case, the resulting potential is likely to
have at least approximately the quadratic form suggested in 1983 by Linde,
which is known to be compatible with the observed $r$ as well as the observed
spectral index $\ns$. The shift symmetry does not require supersymmetry. Also,
the big $H$ may rule out a GUT by restoring the symmetry and producing fatal
cosmic strings. The absence of a GUT would correspond to the absence of
superpartners for the Standard Model particles, which indeed have yet to be
found at the LHC.
  It therefore seems quite possible that the quantum field theory chosen by
Nature is not supersymmetric.


  We propose a conjectural construction of various slices for double affine
Grassmannians as Coulomb branches of 3-dimensional N=4 supersymmetric affine
quiver gauge theories. It generalizes the known construction for the usual
affine Grassmannian, and makes sense for arbitrary symmetric Kac-Moody
algebras.


  We present the galaxy size-mass ($R_{e}-M_{\ast}$) distributions using a
stellar-mass complete sample of $\sim1.5$ million galaxies, covering $\sim100$
deg$^2$, with $\log(M_{\ast}/M_{\odot})>10.2~(9.2)$ over the redshift range
$0.2<z<1.0$ $(z<0.6)$ from the second public data release of the Hyper
Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program. We confirm that, at fixed redshift and
stellar mass over the range of $\log(M_{\ast}/M_{\odot})<11$, star-forming
galaxies are on average larger than quiescent galaxies. The large sample of
galaxies with accurate size measurements, thanks to the excellent imaging
quality, also enables us to demonstrate that the $R_{e}-M_{\ast}$ relations of
both populations have a form of broken power-law, with a clear change of slopes
at a pivot stellar mass $M_{p}$. For quiescent galaxies, below an (evolving)
pivot mass of $\log(M_{p}/M_{\odot})=10.2-10.6$ the relation follows
$R_{e}\propto M_{\ast}^{0.1}$; above $M_{p}$ the relation is steeper and
follows $R_{e}\propto M_{\ast}^{0.6-0.7}$. For star-forming galaxies, below
$\log(M_{p}/M_{\odot})\sim10.7$ the relation follows $R_{e}\propto
M_{\ast}^{0.2}$; above $M_{p}$ the relation evolves with redshift and follows
$R_{e}\propto M_{\ast}^{0.3-0.6}$. The shallow power-law slope for quiescent
galaxies below $M_{p}$ indicates that large low-mass quiescent galaxies have
sizes similar to those of their counterpart star-forming galaxies. We take this
as evidence that large low-mass quiescent galaxies have been recently quenched
(presumably through environment-specific process) without significant
structural transformation. Interestingly, the pivot stellar mass of the
$R_{e}-M_{\ast}$ relations coincides with mass at which half of the galaxy
population is quiescent, implied that the pivot mass represents the transition
of galaxy growth from being dominated by in-situ star formation to being
dominated by (dry) mergers.


  An algebra with identities $a(bc)=b(ac),$ $(ab)c=(ac)b$ is called
bicommutative. We construct list of identities satisfied by commutator and
anti-commutator products in a free bicommutative algebra. We give criterions
for elements of a free bicommutative algebra to be Lie or Jordan.


  We introduce SparcAssist, a general-purpose risk assessment tool for the
machine learning models trained for language tasks. It evaluates models' risk
by inspecting their behavior on counterfactuals, namely out-of-distribution
instances generated based on the given data instance. The counterfactuals are
generated by replacing tokens in rational subsequences identified by ExPred,
while the replacements are retrieved using HotFlip or
Masked-Language-Model-based algorithms. The main purpose of our system is to
help the human annotators to assess the model's risk on deployment. The
counterfactual instances generated during the assessment are the by-product and
can be used to train more robust NLP models in the future.


  We present two techniques novel in numerical methods. The first technique
compiles the domain of the numerical methods as a discretized volume. Congruent
elements are glued together to compile the domain over which the solution of a
boundary value problem is sought. We associate a group and a graph to that
volume. When the group is symmetry of the boundary value problem under
investigation, one can specify the structure of the solution, and find out if
there are equispectral volumes of a given type. The second technique uses a
complex mapping to transplant the solution from volume to volume and a
correction function. Equation for the correction function is given. A simple
example demonstrates the feasibility of the suggested method.


  Two-dimensional (2D) atom lattices provide model setups for Coulomb
correlations inducing competing ground states, partly with topological
character. Hexagonal SiC(0001) is an intriguing wide-gap substrate,
spectroscopically separated from the overlayer and hence reduced screening. We
report the first study of an artificial high-Z atom lattice on SiC(0001) by Sn
adatoms, based on combined experimental realization and theoretical modeling.
Density-functional theory of our $\sqrt{3}$-structure model closely reproduces
the scanning tunneling microscopy. Instead of metallic behavior, photoemission
data show a deeply gapped state (~2 eV gap). Based on our calculations
including dynamic mean-field theory, we argue that this reflects a pronounced
Mott insulating scenario. We also find indications that the system is
susceptible to antiferromagnetic superstructures. Such spin-orbit-coupled
correlated heavy atom lattices on SiC(0001) thus form a novel testbed for
peculiar quantum states of matter, with potential bearing for spin liquids and
topological Mott insulators.


  The matrix-valued {Bezout-corona} problem $G(z)X(z)=I_m$, $|z|<1$, is studied
in a Wiener space setting, that is, the given function $G$ is an analytic
matrix function on the unit {disc} whose Taylor coefficients are absolutely
summable and the same is required for the solutions $X$. It turns out that all
Wiener solutions can be described explicitly in terms of two matrices and a
square analytic Wiener function $Y$ satisfying $\det Y(z)\not =0$ for all
$|z|\leq 1$. It is also shown that some of the results hold in the $H^\infty$
{setting, but} not all. In fact, if $G$ is an $H^\infty$ function, then $Y$ is
just an $H^2$ function. Nevertheless, in this case, using the two matrices and
the function $Y$, all $H^2$ solutions to the Bezout-corona problem can be
described explicitly in a form analogous to the one appearing in the Wiener
setting.


  In this paper, the problem of compressible flow over a thin airfoil located
near the ground is studied. A singular integral equation, also known as Possio
equation, that relates the pressure jump along the airfoil to its downwash is
derived. The derivation of the equation utilizes Laplace transform, Fourier
transform, method of images, and theory of Mikhlin multipliers. The existence
and uniqueness of solution to the Possio equation is verified for the steady
state case and an approximate solution is obtained. The aerodynamic loads are
then calculated based on the approximate solution. Moreover, the divergence
speed of a continuum wing structure located near the ground is obtained based
on the derived expressions for the aerodynamic loads.


  We report on the design and whole characterization of low-noise and
affordable-cost Yb-doped double-clad fiber amplifiers operating at room
temperature in the near-infrared spectral region at pulse repetition rate of
160 MHz. Two different experimental configurations are discussed. In the first
one, a broadband seed radiation with a transform limited pulse duration of 71
fs, an optical spectrum of 20 nm wide at around 1040 nm, and 20 mW average
power is adopted. In the second configuration, the seed radiation is
constituted by stretched pulses with a time duration as long as 170 ps, with a
5-nm narrow pulse spectrum centered at 1029 nm and 2 mW average input power. In
both cases we obtained transform limited pulse trains with an amplified output
power exceeding 2 W. Furthermore, relative intensity noise measurements show
that no significant noise degradation occurs during the amplification process.


  We make a conjecture about mean curvature flow of Lagrangian submanifolds of
Calabi-Yau manifolds, expanding on \cite{Th}. We give new results about the
stability condition, and propose a Jordan-H\"older-type decomposition of
(special) Lagrangians. The main results are the uniqueness of special
Lagrangians in hamiltonian deformation classes of Lagrangians, under mild
conditions, and a proof of the conjecture in some cases with symmetry: mean
curvature flow converging to Shapere-Vafa's examples of SLags.


  We investigate the two lowest-lying weakly bound states of $N \leq 8$ bosons
as functions of the strength of two-body Gaussian interactions. We observe the
limit for validity of Efimov physics. We calculate energies and second radial
moments as functions of scattering length. For identical bosons we find that
two $(N-1)$-body states appear before the $N$-body ground states become bound.
This pattern ceases to exist for $N \geq 7$ where the size of the ground state
becomes smaller than the range of the two-body potential. All mean-square-radii
for $N \geq 4$ remain finite at the threshold of zero binding, where they vary
as $(N-1)^{p}$ with $p=-3/2,-3$ for ground and excited states, respectively.
Decreasing the mass of one particle we find stronger binding and smaller radii.
The identical particles form a symmetric system, while the lighter particle is
further away in the ground states. In the excited states we find the identical
bosons either surrounded or surrounding the light particle for few or many
bosons, respectively. We demonstrate that the first excited states for all
strengths resemble two-body halos of one particle weakly bound to a dense
$N$-body system for $N=3,4$. This structure ceases to exist for $N \geq 5$.


  The space of Wilson coefficients of EFT that can be UV completed into
consistent theories was recently shown to be described analytically by a
positive geometry, termed the EFThedron. However, this geometry, as well as
complementary numerical methods of semi-definite programming, have so far
focused on the positivity of the partial wave expansion, which allows bounding
only ratios of couplings. In this paper we describe how the unitarity upper
bound of the partial waves can be incorporated. This new problem can be
formulated in terms of the well known $L$-moment problem, which we generalize
and solve from a geometrical perspective. We find the non-projective
generalization of the EFThedron has an infinite number of non-linear facets,
which in some cases have remarkably simple descriptions. We use these results
to derive bounds on single couplings, finding that the leading derivative
operators are bounded by unity, when normalized by the cut-off scale and loop
factors. For general operators of mass dimension $2k$ we find the upper bound
is heavily suppressed at large $k$, with an $1/k$ fall-off.


  It was recently noted that the on-shell Einstein-Hilbert action with
York-Gibbons-Hawking boundary term has an imaginary part, proportional to the
area of the codimension-2 surfaces on which the boundary normal becomes null.
We discuss the extension of this result to first-order formulations of gravity.
As a side effect, we settle the issue of the Holst modification vs. the
Nieh-Yan density by demanding a variational principle with suitable boundary
conditions. We then set out to find the imaginary action in the large-spin
4-simplex limit of the Lorentzian EPRL/FK spinfoam. It turns out that the
spinfoam's effective action indeed has the correct imaginary part, but only if
the Barbero-Immirzi parameter is set to +/- i after the quantum calculation. We
point out an agreement between this effective action and a recent black hole
state-counting calculation in the same limit. Finally, we propose that the
large-spin limit of loop quantum gravity can be viewed as a high-energy
'transplanckian' regime.


  Worldsheet string theory compactified on exceptional holomony manifolds is
revisited following arXiv:1809.06376, where aspects of the chiral symmetry were
described for the case where the compact space is a 7-dimensional
G$_2$-holonomy manifold constructed as a Twisted Connected Sum. We reinterpret
this result and extend it to Extra Twisted Connected Sum G$_2$-manifolds, and
to 8-dimensional Generalized Connected Sum Spin(7)-manifolds. Automorphisms of
the latter construction lead us to conjecture new mirror maps.


  A uniform dilute Bose gas of known density has a universal behavior as the
atomic scattering length tends to infinity at unitarity while most of its
properties are determined by a universal parameter $\xi$ relating the energies
of the noninteracting and unitary gases. The usual mean-field equation is not
valid in this limit and beyond mean-field corrections become important. We use
a dynamical model including such corrections to investigate a trapped
disk-shaped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and a dipolar BEC vortex for
large scattering length. We study the sensitivity of our results on the
parameter $\xi$ and discuss the possibility of extracting the value of this
parameter from experimental observables.


  Rectification phenomenon caused by the simultaneous breaking of time reversal
and spatial inversion symmetries has been extended to a wide range of
(quasi)particles and waves; however, the nonreciprocal diffraction, which is
the imbalance of upward and downward deflections, was previously observed only
for photons and remained to be extended to other (quasi)particles. In this
study, we present evidence of the nonreciprocal diffraction of surface acoustic
wave (SAW) utilizing a magnetoelastic grating on a SAW device. Asymmetric
diffraction intensities were observed when the ferromagnetic resonance was
acoustically excited. Based on a theoretical model, we attribute the
microscopic origin of this phenomenon to the resonant scattering involving
ferromagnetic resonance excitations. The novel property may pave an avenue to
further development of SAW devices for various purposes, including microwave
communications and quantum engineering applications.


  The relationship between nature contact and mental well-being has received
increasing attention in recent years. While a body of evidence has accumulated
demonstrating a positive relationship between time in nature and mental
well-being, there have been few studies comparing this relationship in
different locations over long periods of time. In this study, we estimate a
happiness benefit, the difference in expressed happiness between in- and
out-of-park tweets, for the 25 largest cities in the US by population. People
write happier words during park visits when compared with non-park user tweets
collected around the same time. While the words people write are happier in
parks on average and in most cities, we find considerable variation across
cities. Tweets are happier in parks at all times of the day, week, and year,
not just during the weekend or summer vacation. Across all cities, we find that
the happiness benefit is highest in parks larger than 100 acres. Overall, our
study suggests the happiness benefit associated with park visitation is on par
with US holidays such as Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.


  The recently proposed supersymmetric extensions of reduced
Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) integrable hierarchies in $N =1,2$ superspace are
shown to contain in the purely bosonic limit new types of ordinary
non-supersymmetric integrable systems. The latter are coupled systems of
several multi-component non-linear Schr{\"o}dinger-like hierarchies whose basic
nonlinear evolution equations contain additional quintic and higher-derivative
nonlinear terms. Also, we obtain the N=2 supersymmetric extension of Toda chain
model as Darboux-B{\"a}cklund orbit of the simplest reduced N=2 super-KP
hierarchy and find its explicit solution.


  We show that in dimension n>3 the class of simple conformally recurrent
space-times coincides with the class of conformally recurrent pp-waves.


  We consider non-adiabatic transitions in multiple dimensions, which occur
when the Born-Oppenheimer approximation breaks down. We present a general,
multi-dimensional algorithm which can be used to accurately and efficiently
compute the transmitted wavepacket at an avoided crossing. The algorithm
requires only one-level Born-Oppenheimer dynamics and local knowledge of the
potential surfaces. Crucially, in contrast to standard methods in the
literature, we compute the whole wavepacket, including its phase, rather than
simply the transition probability. We demonstrate the excellent agreement with
full quantum dynamics for a range of examples in two dimensions. We also
demonstrate surprisingly good agreement for a system with a full conical
intersection.


  Unitary t-designs have a wide variety of applications in quantum information
theory, such as quantum data encryption and randomised benchmarking. However,
experimental realisations of t-designs are subject to noise. Here we
investigate the effect of noise channels on the quality of single-qubit
t-designs. The noise channels we study are bit flips, phase flips, bit and
phase flips, phase damping, amplitude damping, and depolarising noise. We
consider two noise models: the first has noise applied before the t-design
unitary operations, while the second has noise applied after the unitary
operations. We show that the single-qubit 1-design is affected only by
amplitude damping, while numeric results obtained for the 2-, 3-, 4-, and
5-designs suggest that a 2t-design is significantly more sensitive to noise
than a (2t-1)-design and that, with the exception of amplitude damping, a
(2t+1)-design is as sensitive to noise as a 2t-design. Numeric results also
reveal substantial variations in sensitivity to noise throughout the Bloch
sphere. In particular, t-designs appear to be most sensitive to noise when
acting on pure states and least sensitive to noise for the maximally mixed
state. For depolarising noise, we show that our two noise models are
equivalent, and for the other noise channels, numeric results obtained for the
model where noise is applied after the unitaries reflect the transformation of
the noise channel into a depolarising channel, an effect exploited in
randomised benchmarking with 2-designs.


  Internet advertising is a fast growing business which has proved to be
significantly important in digital economics. It is vitally important for both
web search engines and online content providers and publishers because web
advertising provides them with major sources of revenue. Its presence is
increasingly important for the whole media industry due to the influence of the
Web. For advertisers, it is a smarter alternative to traditional marketing
media such as TVs and newspapers. As the web evolves and data collection
continues, the design of methods for more targeted, interactive, and friendly
advertising may have a major impact on the way our digital economy evolves, and
to aid societal development.
  Towards this goal mathematically well-grounded Computational Advertising
methods are becoming necessary and will continue to develop as a fundamental
tool towards the Web. As a vibrant new discipline, Internet advertising
requires effort from different research domains including Information
Retrieval, Machine Learning, Data Mining and Analytic, Statistics, Economics,
and even Psychology to predict and understand user behaviours. In this paper,
we provide a comprehensive survey on Internet advertising, discussing and
classifying the research issues, identifying the recent technologies, and
suggesting its future directions. To have a comprehensive picture, we first
start with a brief history, introduction, and classification of the industry
and present a schematic view of the new advertising ecosystem. We then
introduce four major participants, namely advertisers, online publishers, ad
exchanges and web users; and through analysing and discussing the major
research problems and existing solutions from their perspectives respectively,
we discover and aggregate the fundamental problems that characterise the
newly-formed research field and capture its potential future prospects.


  Posynomials are nonnegative combinations of monomials with possibly
fractional and both positive and negative exponents. Posynomial models are
widely used in various engineering design endeavors, such as circuits,
aerospace and structural design, mainly due to the fact that design problems
cast in terms of posynomial objectives and constraints can be solved
efficiently by means of a convex optimization technique known as geometric
programming (GP). However, while quite a vast literature exists on GP-based
design, very few contributions can yet be found on the problem of identifying
posynomial models from experimental data. Posynomial identification amounts to
determining not only the coefficients of the combination, but also the
exponents in the monomials, which renders the identification problem
numerically hard. In this draft, we propose an approach to the identification
of multivariate posynomial models, based on the expansion on a given
large-scale basis of monomials. The model is then identified by seeking
coefficients of the combination that minimize a mixed objective, composed by a
term representing the fitting error and a term inducing sparsity in the
representation, which results in a problem formulation of the ``square-root
LASSO'' type, with nonnegativity constraints on the variables. We propose to
solve the problem via a sequential coordinate-descent scheme, which is suitable
for large-scale implementations.


  Orbital modeling of two electron spins confined in a double quantum dot is
revisited. We develop an extended Hund Mulliken approach that includes excited
orbitals, allowing for a triplet configuration with both electrons residing in
a single dot. This model improves the reliability and applicability of the
standard Hund Mulliken approximation, while remaining largely analytical, thus
it enables us to identify the mechanisms behind the exchange coupling dynamics
that we find. In particular, our calculations are in close agreement with
exchange values that were recently measured at a high interdot bias regime,
where the double occupancy triplet configuration is energetically accessible,
demonstrating reduced sensitivity to bias fluctuations, while maintaining the
large exchange needed for fast gating.


  The bright, short and hard GRB 090510 was detected by all instruments aboard
Fermi and Swift satellites. The multiwavelength observations of this burst
presented similar features with the Fermi-LAT-detected gamma-ray bursts. In the
framework of the external shock model of early afterglow, a leptonic scenario
that evolves in a homogeneous medium is proposed to revisit GRB 090510 and
explain the multiwavelength light curve observations presented in this burst.
These observations are consistent with the evolution of a jet before and after
the jet break. The long-lasting LAT, X-ray and optical fluxes are explained in
the synchrotron emission from the adiabatic forward shock. Synchrotron
self-Compton emission from the reverse shock is consistent with the bright LAT
peak provided that progenitor environment is entrained with strong magnetic
fields. It could provide compelling evidence of magnetic field amplification in
the neutron star merger.


  We present a simple, yet effective, Neural Machine Translation system for
Indian languages. We demonstrate the feasibility for multiple language pairs,
and establish a strong baseline for further research.


  We study atomic Josephson junctions (AJJs) with one and two bosonic species
confined by a double-well potential. Proceeding from the second quantized
Hamiltonian, we show that it is possible to describe the zero-temperature AJJs
microscopic dynamics by means of extended Bose-Hubbard (EBH) models, which
include usually-neglected nonlinear terms. Within the mean-field approximation,
the Heisenberg equations derived from such two-mode models provide a
description of AJJs macroscopic dynamics in terms of ordinary differential
equations (ODEs). We discuss the possibility to distinguish the Rabi,
Josephson, and Fock regimes, in terms of the macroscopic parameters which
appear in the EBH Hamiltonians and, then, in the ODEs. We compare the
predictions for the relative populations of the Bose gases atoms in the two
wells obtained from the numerical solutions of the two-mode ODEs, with those
deriving from the direct numerical integration of the Gross-Pitaevskii
equations (GPEs). Our investigations shows that the nonlinear terms of the ODEs
are crucial to achieve a good agreement between ODEs and GPEs approaches, and
in particular to give quantitative predictions of the self-trapping regime.


  In this two-part study, we investigate the motion of rigid, active objects in
shear Stokes flow, focusing on bodies that induce rapid rotation as part of
their activity. In Part 2, we derive and analyse governing equations for
rapidly spinning complex-shaped particles - general helicoidal objects with
chirality. Using the multiscale framework we develop in Part 1
(arXiv:2301.11311), we systematically derive emergent equations of motion for
the angular and translational dynamics of these chiral spinning objects. We
show that the emergent dynamics due to rapid rotation can be described by
effective generalised Jeffery's equations, which differ from the classic
versions via the inclusion of additional terms that account for chirality and
other asymmetries. Furthermore, we use our analytic results to characterise and
quantify the explicit effect of rotation on the effective hydrodynamic shape of
the chiral objects, significantly expanding the scope of Jeffery's seminal
study.


  We observe the emergence of a disorder-induced insulating state in a strongly
interacting atomic Fermi gas trapped in an optical lattice. This closed quantum
system free of a thermal reservoir realizes the disordered Fermi-Hubbard model,
which is a minimal model for strongly correlated electronic solids. In
measurements of disorder-induced localization obtained via mass transport, we
detect interaction-driven delocalization and localization that persists as the
temperature of the gas is raised. These behaviors are consistent with many-body
localization, which is a novel paradigm for understanding localization in
interacting quantum systems at non-zero temperature.


  We consider the problem of numerically solving the Schr\"odinger equation
with a potential that is quasi periodic in space and time. We introduce a
numerical scheme based on a newly developed multi-time scale and averaging
technique. We demonstrate that with this novel method we can solve efficiently
and with rigorous control of the error such an equation for long times. A
comparison with the standard split-step method shows substantial improvement in
computation times, besides the controlled errors. We apply this method for a
free particle driven by quasi-periodic potential with many frequencies. The new
method makes it possible to evolve the Schrodinger equation for times much
longer than was possible so far and to conclude that there are regimes where
the energy growth stops in-spite of the driving.


  Human-created engines and evolutionarily optimized molecular motors exhibit
sophisticated design in order to harvest chemical or thermal energy for
generating unidirectional motion. The complexity of these motors makes their
random emergence unlikely. Molecules capable of locomotion, however, seem to be
essential to the creation of the first self-replicator and initiation of
Darwinian evolution, posing a question of the physical mechanism that can
facilitate emergence of directed motion in an isotropic environment. Here we
show a universal thermodynamic mechanism for spontaneous emergence of motor
abilities in a mechanical system. A non-equilibrium system with multiple
degrees of freedom develops symmetry breaking that favors rectification of
environmental thermal fluctuations. The corresponding velocities and its
fluctuations are calculated. Homochirality of living matter is explained as
chirality breaking resulting from the emergence of a motor. Universality of the
results provides a general extension of the Onsager relations to the non-linear
regime.


  In this paper we study a problem within Dempster-Shafer theory where 2**n - 1
pieces of evidence are clustered by a neural structure into n clusters. The
clustering is done by minimizing a metaconflict function. Previously we
developed a method based on iterative optimization. However, for large scale
problems we need a method with lower computational complexity. The neural
structure was found to be effective and much faster than iterative optimization
for larger problems. While the growth in metaconflict was faster for the neural
structure compared with iterative optimization in medium sized problems, the
metaconflict per cluster and evidence was moderate. The neural structure was
able to find a global minimum over ten runs for problem sizes up to six
clusters.


  A well-known open problem is to show that the cubic form $x^3+y^3+2z^3$
represents all integers. An obvious variant of this problem is whether every
integer can be {\em primitively} represented by $x^3+y^3+2z^3$. In other words,
given an integer $n$, are there coprime integers $x$, $y$, $z$ such that
$x^3+y^3+2z^3=n$? In this note we answer this variant question negatively.
Indeed, we use cubic reciprocity to show that for every integral solution to
$x^3+y^3+2z^3=8^m$,the unknowns $x$, $y$, $z$ are divisible by $2^m$.


  Many binary companions to the central stars of planetary nebulae (PNe) are
found to be inflated, perhaps indicating that accretion onto the central star
might occur during the PN phase. The discovery of a handful of nova eruptions
and supersoft X-ray sources inside PNe supports this hypothesis. In this paper,
we investigate the impact that hosting a steadily-accreting WD would have on
the properties and evolution of a PN. By pairing the published accreting
nuclear-burning WD models with radiation transfer simulations, we extract the
time evolution of the emission line spectra and ionization properties of a PN
that surrounds a 0.6$\rm M_{\odot}$ steadily nuclear-burning WD as a function
of the mass accretion rate. We find that accreting WDs are able to form very
extended, high excitation, [O III]-bright PNe, which are characterised by high
nebular electron temperatures. Their properties remain almost invariant with
time and their visibility time can be much longer compared to PNe powered by
single WDs. We discuss the implications of our findings in explaining specific
characteristics observed in PNe. Finally, we examine how accreting WDs affect
the planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) by covering WD masses in the
range of 0.5-0.8$\rm M_{\odot}$ and for various accretion rates within the
steady accretion regime. We find that for all but the lowest accretion rates,
the [O III]-luminosities are almost constant and clustered very close to the
PNLF cut-off value. Our results suggest that mass-accreting WDs in interacting
binaries might play a role in understanding the invariant cut-off of the PNLF.


  The large spectral bandwidth and wide field of view of the Australian SKA
Pathfinder radio telescope will open up a completely new parameter space for
large extragalactic HI surveys. Here we focus on identifying and parametrising
HI absorption lines which occur in the line of sight towards strong radio
continuum sources. We have developed a method for simultaneously finding and
fitting HI absorption lines in radio data by using multi-nested sampling, a
Bayesian Monte Carlo algorithm. The method is tested on a simulated ASKAP data
cube, and is shown to be reliable at detecting absorption lines in low
signal-to-noise data without the need to smooth or alter the data. Estimation
of the local Bayesian evidence statistic provides a quantitative criterion for
assigning significance to a detection and selecting between competing
analytical line-profile models.


  The highest precision in direct mass measurements is obtained with Penning
trap mass spectrometry. Most experiments use the interconversion of the
magnetron and cyclotron motional modes of the stored ion due to excitation by
external radiofrequency-quadrupole fields. In this work a new excitation
scheme, Ramsey's method of time-separated oscillatory fields, has been
successfully tested. It has been shown to reduce significantly the uncertainty
in the determination of the cyclotron frequency and thus of the ion mass of
interest. The theoretical description of the ion motion excited with Ramsey's
method in a Penning trap and subsequently the calculation of the resonance line
shapes for different excitation times, pulse structures, and detunings of the
quadrupole field has been carried out in a quantum mechanical framework and is
discussed in detail in the preceding article in this journal by M. Kretzschmar.
Here, the new excitation technique has been applied with the ISOLTRAP mass
spectrometer at ISOLDE/CERN for mass measurements on stable as well as
short-lived nuclides. The experimental resonances are in agreement with the
theoretical predictions and a precision gain close to a factor of four was
achieved compared to the use of the conventional excitation technique.


  A Cleft lip is a congenital abnormality requiring surgical repair by a
specialist. The surgeon must have extensive experience and theoretical
knowledge to perform surgery, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) method has been
proposed to guide surgeons in improving surgical outcomes. If AI can be used to
predict what a repaired cleft lip would look like, surgeons could use it as an
adjunct to adjust their surgical technique and improve results. To explore the
feasibility of this idea while protecting patient privacy, we propose a deep
learning-based image inpainting method that is capable of covering a cleft lip
and generating a lip and nose without a cleft. Our experiments are conducted on
two real-world cleft lip datasets and are assessed by expert cleft lip surgeons
to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.


  The temperature dependence of DNA flexibility is studied in the presence of
stretching and unzipping forces. Two classes of models are considered. In one
case the origin of elasticity is entropic due to the polymeric correlations,
and in the other the double-stranded DNA is taken to have an intrinsic rigidity
for bending. In both cases single strands are completely flexible. The change
in the elastic constant for the flexible case due to thermally generated
bubbles is obtained exactly. For the case of intrinsic rigidity, the elastic
constant is found to be proportional to the square root of the bubble number
fluctuation.


  We study uniform perturbations of crossed product C$^*$-algebras by amenable
groups. Given a unital inclusion of C$^*$-algebras $C\subseteq D$ and
sufficiently close separable intermediate C$^*$-subalgebras $A$, $B$ for this
inclusion with a conditional expectation from $D$ onto $B$, if $A=C\rtimes G$
with $G$ discrete amenable, then $A$ and $B$ are isomorphic. Furthermore, if
$C\subseteq D$ is irreducible, then $A=B$.


  Re-configurable modular robotic (RMR) systems are advantageous for their
reconfigurability and versatility. A new modular robot can be built for a
specific task by using modules as building blocks. However, constructing a
kinematic model for a newly conceived robot requires significant work. Due to
the finite size of module-types, models of all module-types can be built
individually and stored in a database beforehand. With this priori knowledge,
the model construction process can be automated by detecting the modules and
their corresponding interconnections. Previous literature proposed theoretical
frameworks for constructing kinematic models of modular robots, assuming that
such information was known a priori. While well-devised mechanisms and built-in
sensors can be employed to detect these parameters automatically, they
significantly complicate the module design and thus are expensive. In this
paper, we propose a vision-based method to identify kinematic chains and
automatically construct robot models for modular robots. Each module is affixed
with augmented reality (AR) tags that are encoded with unique IDs. An image of
a modular robot is taken and the detected modules are recognized by querying a
database that maintains all module information. The poses of detected modules
are used to compute: (i) the connection between modules and (ii) joint angles
of joint-modules. Finally, the robot serial-link chain is identified and the
kinematic model constructed and visualized. Our experimental results validate
the effectiveness of our approach. While implementation with only our RMR is
shown, our method can be applied to other RMRs where self-identification is not
possible.


  Content-centric networking (CCN) introduces a paradigm shift from a host
centric to an information centric communication model for future Internet
architectures. It supports the retrieval of a particular content regardless of
the physical location of the content. Content caching and content delivery
networks are the most popular approaches to deal with the inherent issues of
content delivery on the Internet that are caused by its design. Moreover,
intermittently connected mobile environments or disruptive networks present a
significant challenge to CCN deployment. In this paper, we consider the
possibility of using mobile users in improving the efficiency of content
delivery. Mobile users are producing a significant fraction of the total
Internet traffic, and modern mobile devices have enough storage to cache the
downloaded content that may interest other mobile users for a short period too.
We present an analytical model of the CCN framework that integrates a delay
tolerant networking architecture into the native CCN, and we present
large-scale simulation results. Caching on mobile devices can improve the
content retrieval time by more than 50%, while the fraction of the requests
that are delivered from other mobile devices can be more than 75% in many
cases.


  Soft materials often display complex behaviors that transition through
apparent solid- and fluid-like regimes. While a growing number of microscale
simulation methods exist for these materials, reduced-order models that
encapsulate the global-scale physics are often desired to predict how external
bodies interact with soft media, as occurs in diverse situations from impact
and penetration problems to locomotion over natural terrains. This work
proposes a systematic program to develop three-dimensional reduced-order models
for soft materials from a fundamental basis using continuum symmetries and
rheological principles. In particular, we derive a reduced-order technique for
modeling intrusion in granular media which we term three-dimensional Resistive
Force Theory (3D-RFT), which is capable of accurately and quickly predicting
the resistive stress distribution on arbitrary-shaped intruding bodies. Aided
by a continuum description of the granular medium, a comprehensive set of
spatial symmetry constraints, and a limited amount of reference data, we
develop a self-consistent and accurate 3D-RFT. We verify the model capabilities
in a wide range of cases and show it can be quickly recalibrated to different
media and intruder surface types. The premises leading to 3D-RFT anticipate
application to other soft materials with strongly hyperlocalized intrusion
behavior.


  The present study deals with a spatially homogeneous and anisotropic
Bianchi-II cosmological models representing massive strings in normal gauge for
Lyra's manifold by applying the variation law for generalized Hubble's
parameter that yields a constant value of deceleration parameter. The variation
law for Hubble's parameter generates two types of solutions for the average
scale factor, one is of power-law type and other is of the exponential form.
Using these two forms, Einstein's modified field equations are solved
separately that correspond to expanding singular and non-singular models of the
universe respectively. The energy-momentum tensor for such string as formulated
by Letelier (1983) is used to construct massive string cosmological models for
which we assume that the expansion ($\theta$) in the model is proportional to
the component $\sigma^{1}_{~1}$ of the shear tensor $\sigma^{j}_{i}$. This
condition leads to $A = (BC)^{m}$, where A, B and C are the metric coefficients
and m is proportionality constant. Our models are in accelerating phase which
is consistent to the recent observations. It has been found that the
displacement vector $\beta$ behaves like cosmological term $\Lambda$ in the
normal gauge treatment and the solutions are consistent with recent
observations of SNe Ia. It has been found that massive strings dominate in the
decelerating universe whereas strings dominate in the accelerating universe.
Some physical and geometric behaviour of these models are also discussed.


  In species reproducing both sexually and asexually clones are often more
common in recently established populations. Earlier studies have suggested that
this pattern arises from natural selection favouring asexual recruitment in
young populations. Alternatively, as we show here, this pattern may result from
stochastic processes during species-range expansions. We model a dioecious
species expanding into a new area in which all individuals are capable of both
sexual and asexual reproduction, and all individuals have equal survival rates
and dispersal distances. Even under conditions that eventually favour sexual
recruitment, colonisation starts with an asexual wave. Long after colonisation
is completed, a sexual wave erodes clonal dominance. If individuals reproduce
more than one season, and with only local dispersal, a few large clones
typically dominate for thousands of reproductive seasons. Adding occasional
long-distance dispersal, more dominant clones emerge, but they persist for a
shorter period of time. The general mechanism involved is simple: edge effects
at the expansion front favour asexual (uniparental) recruitment where potential
mates are rare. Specifically, our stochastic model makes detailed predictions
different from a selection model, and comparing these with empirical data from
a postglacially established seaweed species (Fucus radicans) shows that in this
case a stochastic mechanism is strongly supported.


  A previous analysis of fluctuations in a virtuoso (Jeff Porcaro) drum
performance [R\"as\"anen et al., PLoS ONE 10(6): e0127902 (2015)] demonstrated
that the rhythmic signal comprised both long range correlations and short range
anti-correlations, with a characteristic timescale distinguishing the two
regimes. We have extended R\"as\"anen et al.'s approach to a much larger number
of drum samples (N=132, provided by a total of 58 participants) and to a
different performance (viz., Rush's Tom Sawyer). A key focus of our study was
to test whether the fluctuation dynamics discovered by R\"as\"anen et al. are
"universal" in the following sense: is the crossover from short-range to
long-range correlated fluctuations a general phenomenon or is it restricted to
particular drum patterns and/or specific drummers? We find no compelling
evidence to suggest that the short-range to long-range correlation crossover
that is characteristic of Porcaro's performance is a common feature of temporal
fluctuations in drum patterns. Moreover, level of experience and/or playing
technique surprisingly do not play a role in influencing a short-range to
long-range correlation cross-over. Our study also highlights that a great deal
of caution needs to be taken when using the detrended fluctuation analysis
technique, particularly with regard to anti-correlated signals.


  The Internet of Things (IoT) represents a comprehensive environment that
consists of a large number of smart devices interconnecting heterogeneous
physical objects to the Internet. Many domains such as logistics,
manufacturing, agriculture, urban computing, home automation, ambient assisted
living and various ubiquitous computing applications have utilised IoT
technologies. Meanwhile, Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) have become
a successful and efficient solution for coordinated management and optimised
utilisation of resources/entities. However, past BPMS have not considered many
issues they will face in managing large scale connected heterogeneous IoT
entities. Without fully understanding the behaviour, capability and state of
the IoT entities, the BPMS can fail to manage the IoT integrated information
systems. In this paper, we analyse existing BPMS for IoT and identify the
limitations and their drawbacks based on Mobile Cloud Computing perspective.
Later, we discuss a number of open challenges in BPMS for IoT.


  We study the temporal evolution of downflows observed at the lateral edges of
penumbral filaments in a sunspot located very close to the disk center. Our
analysis is based on a sequence of nearly diffraction-limited scans of the Fe I
617.3 nm line taken with the CRisp Imaging Spectro-Polarimeter at the Swedish 1
m Solar Telescope. We compute Dopplergrams from the observed intensity profiles
using line bisectors and filter the resulting velocity maps for subsonic
oscillations. Lateral downflows appear everywhere in the center-side penumbra
as small, weak patches of redshifts next to or along the edges of blueshifted
flow channels. These patches have an intermittent life and undergo mergings and
fragmentations quite frequently. The lateral downflows move together with the
hosting filaments and react to their shape variations, very much resembling the
evolution of granular convection in the quiet Sun. There is a good relation
between brightness and velocity of the flow structures in the center-side
penumbra, with downflows being darker than upflows on average, which is again
reminiscent of quiet Sun convection. These results point to the existence of
overturning convection in sunspot penumbrae, with elongated cells forming
filaments where the flow is upward but very inclined, and weak lateral downward
flows. In general, the circular polarization profiles emerging from the lateral
downflows do not show sign reversals, although sometimes we detect three-lobed
profiles which are suggestive of opposite magnetic polarities in the pixel.


  High-dimensional quantum key distribution (HD-QKD) allows two parties to
generate multiple secure bits of information per detected photon. In this work,
we show that decoy state protocols can be practically implemented for HD-QKD
using only one or two decoy states. HD-QKD with two decoy states, under
realistic experimental constraints, can generate multiple secure bits per
coincidence at distances over 200 km and at rates similar to those achieved by
a protocol with infinite decoy states. Furthermore, HD-QKD with only one decoy
state is practical at short distances, where it is almost as secure as a
protocol with two decoy states. HD-QKD with only one or two decoy states can
therefore be implemented to optimize the rate of secure quantum communications.


  The structure and composition of the crust of neutron stars plays an
important role in their thermal and magnetic evolution, hence in setting their
observational properties. One way to study the crust properties is to measure
how it cools after it has been heated during an accretion outburst in a
low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB). Such studies have shown that there is a
tantalizing source of heat, of currently unknown origin, that is located in the
outer layers of the crust and has a strength that varies between different
sources and different outbursts. With the aim of understanding the mechanism
behind this "shallow heating", we present Chandra and Swift observations of the
neutron star LMXB Aql X-1, obtained after its bright 2016 outburst. We find
that the neutron star temperature was initially much lower, and started to
decrease at much later time, than observed after the 2013 outburst of the
source, despite the fact that the properties of the two outbursts were very
similar. Comparing our data to thermal evolution simulations, we infer that the
depth and magnitude of shallow heating must have been much larger during the
2016 outburst than during the 2013 one. This implies that basic neutron star
parameters that do not change between outbursts, do not play a strong role in
shallow heating. Furthermore, it suggests that outbursts with a similar
accretion morphology can give rise to very different shallow heating. We also
discuss alternative explanations for the difference in quiescent evolution
after the 2016 outburst.


  Ion trap systems are a leading platform for large scale quantum computers.
Trapped ion qubit crystals are fully-connected and reconfigurable, owing to
their long range Coulomb interaction that can be modulated with external
optical forces. However, the spectral crowding of collective motional modes
could pose a challenge to the control of such interactions for large numbers of
qubits. Here, we show that high-fidelity quantum gate operations are still
possible with very large trapped ion crystals, simplifying the scaling of ion
trap quantum computers. To this end, we present analytical work that determines
how parallel entangling gates produce a crosstalk error that falls off as the
inverse cube of the distance between the pairs. We also show experimental work
demonstrating entangling gates on a fully-connected chain of seventeen
$^{171}{\rm{Yb}}^{+}$ ions with fidelities as high as $97(1)\%$.


  We give the simple proof of Bobkov's inequality using the arguments of
dynamical programming principle. As a byproduct of the method we obtain a
characterization of optimizers.


  We embed the supersymmetry breaking mechanism in N=1 SQCD of hep-th/0602239
in a smooth superstring theory using D-branes in the background R^4 \times
SL(2)_{k=1}/U(1) which smoothly captures the throat region of an intersecting
NS5-brane configuration. A controllable deformation of the supersymmetric
branes gives rise to the mass deformation of the magnetic SQCD theory on the
branes. The consequent instability on the open string worldsheet can be
followed onto a stable non-supersymmetric configuration of D-branes which
realize the metastable vacuum configuration in the field theory. The new brane
configuration is shown to backreact onto the background such as to produce
different boundary conditions for the string fields in the radial direction
compared to the supersymmetric configuration. In the string theory, this is
interpreted to mean that the supersymmetry breaking is explicit rather than
spontaneous.


  We obtained adaptive-optics assisted SINFONI observations of the central
regions of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC5419 with a spatial resolution of 0.2
arcsec ($\approx 55$ pc). NGC5419 has a large depleted stellar core with a
radius of 1.58 arcsec (430 pc). HST and SINFONI images show a point source
located at the galaxy's photocentre, which is likely associated with the
low-luminosity AGN previously detected in NGC5419. Both the HST and SINFONI
images also show a second nucleus, off-centred by 0.25 arcsec ($\approx 70$
pc). Outside of the central double nucleus, we measure an almost constant
velocity dispersion of $\sigma \sim 350$ km/s. In the region where the double
nucleus is located, the dispersion rises steeply to a peak value of $\sim 420$
km/s. In addition to the SINFONI data, we also obtained stellar kinematics at
larger radii from the South African Large Telescope. While NGC5419 shows low
rotation ($v < 50$ km/s), the central regions (inside $\sim 4 \, r_b$) clearly
rotate in the opposite direction to the galaxy's outer parts. We use
orbit-based dynamical models to measure the black hole mass of NGC5419 from the
kinematical data outside of the double nuclear structure. The models imply
M$_{\rm BH}=7.2^{+2.7}_{-1.9} \times 10^9$ M$_{\odot}$. The enhanced velocity
dispersion in the region of the double nucleus suggests that NGC5419 possibly
hosts two supermassive black holes at its centre, separated by only $\approx
70$ pc. Yet our measured M$_{\rm BH}$ is consistent with the black hole mass
expected from the size of the galaxy's depleted stellar core. This suggests,
that systematic uncertainties in M$_{\rm BH}$ related to the secondary nucleus
are small.


  We observed the $A^1\Sigma^+\sim b^3\Pi\to a^3\Sigma^+/X^1\Sigma^+$
laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectra of the RbCs molecule excited from the
ground $X^1\Sigma^+$ state by the Ti:Sapphire laser. The LIF radiation from the
common perturbed levels of the singlet-triplet $A\sim b$ complex was recorded
by the Fourier-transform (FT) spectrometer with the instrumental resolution of
0.03~cm$^{-1}$. The relative intensity distribution in the rotationally
resolved $A\sim b\to a^3\Sigma^+(v_a)/X^1\Sigma^+(v_X)$ progressions was
measured, and their branching ratio was found to be about of 1$\div$5$
\times$10$^{-4}$ in the bound region of the $a^3\Sigma^+$ and $X^1\Sigma^+$
states. The experiment was complemented with the scalar and full relativistic
calculations of the $A/b - X/a$ transition dipole moments (TDMs) as functions
of internuclear distance. The relative systematic error in the resulting
\emph{ab initio} TDM functions evaluated for the strong $A - X$ transition was
estimated as few percent in the energy region, where the experimental LIF
intensities are relevant. The relative spectral sensitivity of the FT
registration system, operated with the InGaAs diode detector and CaF
beam-splitter, was calibrated in the range $[6~500,12~000]$~cm$^{-1}$ by a
comparison of experimental intensities in the long $A\sim b\to X(v_X)$ LIF
progressions of the K$_2$ and KCs molecules with their theoretical counterparts
evaluated using the \emph{ab initio} $A - X$ TDMs. Both experimental and
theoretical transition probabilities can be employed to improve the stimulated
Raman adiabatic passage process, $a\to A\sim b \to X$, which is exploited for a
laser assembling of ultracold RbCs molecules.


  We discuss Hilbert spaces spanned by the set of string nets, i.e. trivalent
graphs, on a lattice. We suggest some routes by which such a Hilbert space
could be the low-energy subspace of a model of quantum spins on a lattice with
short-ranged interactions. We then explain conditions which a Hamiltonian
acting on this string net Hilbert space must satisfy in order for its ground
state and low-lying quasiparticle excitations to be in the DFib topological
phase. Using the string net wavefunction, we describe the properties of this
phase. Our discussion is informed by mappings of string net wavefunctions to
the chromatic polynomial and the Potts model.


  In this paper, utilizing Nevanlinna theory, we study existence and forms of
the entire solutions $ f $ of the quadratic trinomial-type partial
differential-difference equations in $ \mathbb{C}^n $
  \begin{align*}
  a\left(\alpha\dfrac{\partial f(z)}{\partial z_i} + \beta\dfrac{\partial
f(z)}{\partial z_j}\right)^2 + 2 \omega \left(\alpha\dfrac{\partial
f(z)}{\partial z_i} + \beta\dfrac{\partial f(z)}{\partial z_j}\right) f(z + c)
+ b f(z + c)^2 = e^{g(z)}
  \end{align*} and
  \begin{align*}
  a\left(\alpha\dfrac{\partial f(z)}{\partial z_i} + \beta\dfrac{\partial
f(z)}{\partial z_j}\right)^2 & + 2 \omega \left(\alpha\dfrac{\partial
f(z)}{\partial z_i} + \beta\dfrac{\partial f(z)}{\partial z_j}\right)
\Delta_cf(z) + b [\Delta_cf(z)]^2 = e^{g(z)},
  \end{align*} where $ a, \omega, b\in\mathbb{C} $, $ g $ is a polynomial in $
\mathbb{C}^n $ and $ \Delta_cf(z)=f(z+c)-f(z) $. The main results of the paper
improve several existence results in $ \mathbb{C}^n $ for integer $ n\geq 2 $
and $ 1\leq i<j\leq n $ and their corollaries of the paper are an extension of
the results of Xu \emph{et al. } for trinomial equation with arbitrary
coefficient in $ \mathbb{C}^2 $. Moreover, examples are exhibited to validate
the conclusion of the main results.


  Noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices are valuable platforms for
testing the tenets of quantum computing, but these devices are susceptible to
errors arising from de-coherence, leakage, cross-talk and other sources of
noise. This raises concerns regarding the stability of results when using NISQ
devices since strategies for mitigating errors generally require
well-characterized and stationary error models. Here, we quantify the
reliability of NISQ devices by assessing the necessary conditions for
generating stable results within a given tolerance. We use similarity metrics
derived from device characterization data to derive and validate bounds on the
stability of a 5-qubit implementation of the Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm.
Simulation experiments conducted with noise data from IBM Washington, spanning
January 2022 to April 2023, revealed that the reliability metric fluctuated
between 41% and 92%. This variation significantly surpasses the maximum
allowable threshold of 2.2% needed for stable outcomes. Consequently, the
device proved unreliable for consistently reproducing the statistical mean in
the context of the Bernstein-Vazirani circuit.


  It is difficult to study the interiors of terrestrial planets in the Solar
System and the problem is magnified for distant exoplanets. However, sometimes
nature is helpful. Some planetary bodies are torn to fragments and consumed by
the strong gravity close to the descendants of Sun-like stars, white dwarfs. We
can deduce the general composition of the planet when we observe the
spectroscopic signature of the white dwarf. Most planetary fragments that fall
into white dwarfs appear to be rocky with a variable fraction of associated ice
and carbon. These white dwarf planetary systems provide a unique opportunity to
study the geology of exoplanetary systems.


  In this paper, the relative efficiency of two propositional systems is
studied: resolution and cut-free LK in DAG. We give an upper bound for
translation of resolution refutation to cut-free LK proofs. The best upper
bound known was 2.


  Motivated by earlier works we employ appropriate realizations of the affine
Hecke algebra and we recover previously known non-diagonal solutions of the
reflection equation for the $U_{q}(\hat{gl_n})$ case. The corresponding $N$
site spin chain with open boundary conditions is then constructed and boundary
non-local charges associated to the non-diagonal solutions of the reflection
equation are derived, as coproduct realizations of the reflection algebra. With
the help of linear intertwining relations involving the aforementioned
solutions of the reflection equation, the symmetry of the open spin chain with
the corresponding boundary conditions is exhibited, being essentially a remnant
of the $U_{q}(\hat{gl_{n}})$ algebra. More specifically, we show that
representations of certain boundary non-local charges commute with the
generators of the affine Hecke algebra and with the local Hamiltonian of the
open spin chain for a particular choice of boundary conditions. Furthermore, we
are able to show that the transfer matrix of the open spin chain commutes with
a certain number of boundary non-local charges, depending on the choice of
boundary conditions.


  In this paper, we provide an energy efficient self- healing mechanism for
Wireless Sensor Networks. The proposed solution is based on our probabilistic
sentinel scheme. To reduce energy consumption while maintaining good
connectivity between sentinel nodes, we compose our solution on two main
concepts, node adaptation and link adaptation. The first algorithm uses node
adaptation technique and permits to distributively schedule nodes activities
and select a minimum subset of active nodes (sentry) to monitor the interest
region. And secondly, we in- troduce a link control algorithm to ensure better
connectiv- ity between sentinel nodes while avoiding outliers appearance.
Without increasing control messages overhead, performances evaluations show
that our solution is scalable with a steady energy consumption. Simulations
carried out also show that the proposed mechanism ensures good connectivity
between sentry nodes while considerably reducing the total energy spent.


  The phase diagram of lattice QCD in the strong coupling limit can be measured
in the full $\mu$-$T$ plane, also in the chiral limit. In particular, the phase
diagram in the chiral limit features a tricritical point at some $(\mu_c,T_c)$.
This point may be related to the critical end point expected in the QCD phase
diagram. We discuss the gauge corrections to the phase diagram at strong
coupling and compare our findings with various possible scenarios in continuum
QCD. We comment on the possibility that the tricritical point at strong
coupling is connected to the tricritical point in the continuum, massless QCD.


  We study sets of recurrence, in both measurable and topological settings, for
actions of $(\mathbb{N},\times)$ and $(\mathbb{Q}^{>0},\times)$. In particular,
we show that autocorrelation sequences of positive functions arising from
multiplicative systems have positive additive averages. We also give criteria
for when sets of the form $\{(an+b)^{\ell}/(cn+d)^{\ell}: n \in \mathbb{N}\}$
are sets of multiplicative recurrence, and consequently we recover two recent
results in number theory regarding completely multiplicative functions and the
Omega function.


  In this paper, we analyze the problem of optimally allocating resources in a
distributed and privacy-preserving manner. We propose a novel distributed
optimal resource allocation algorithm with privacy-preserving guarantees, which
operates over a directed communication network. Our algorithm converges in
finite time and allows each node to process and transmit quantized messages.
Our algorithm utilizes a distributed quantized average consensus strategy
combined with a privacy-preserving mechanism. We show that the algorithm
converges in finite-time, and we prove that, under specific conditions on the
network topology, nodes are able to preserve the privacy of their initial
state. Finally, to illustrate the results, we consider an example where test
kits need to be optimally allocated proportionally to the number of infections
in a region. It is shown that the proposed privacy-preserving resource
allocation algorithm performs well with an appropriate convergence rate under
privacy guarantees.


  Motivated by the recent success of reinforcement learning in games such as Go
and Dota2, we formulate Bell non-local games as a reinforcement learning
problem. Such a formulation helps us to explore Bell non-locality in a range of
scenarios. The measurement settings and the quantum states are selected by the
learner randomly in the beginning. Still, eventually, it starts understanding
the underlying patterns and discovers an optimal (or near-optimal) quantum
configuration corresponding to the task at hand. We provide a proof of
principle approach to learning quantum configurations for violating various
Bell inequalities. The algorithm also works for non-convex optimization
problems where convex methods fail, thus offering a possibility to explore
optimal quantum configurations for Bell inequalities corresponding to large
quantum networks. We also implement a hybrid quantum-classical variational
algorithm with reinforcement learning.


  In this work, we consider the cosmological constraints on the holographic
Ricci dark energy proposed by Gao et al. [Phys. Rev. D 79, 043511 (2009)], by
using the observational data currently available. The main characteristic of
holographic Ricci dark energy is governed by a positive numerical parameter
$\alpha$ in the model. When $\alpha<1/2$, the holographic Ricci dark energy
will exhibit a quintomlike behavior; i.e., its equation of state will evolve
across the cosmological-constant boundary $w=-1$. The parameter $\alpha$ can be
determined only by observations. Thus, in order to characterize the evolving
feature of dark energy and to predict the fate of the universe, it is of
extraordinary importance to constrain the parameter $\alpha$ by using the
observational data. In this paper, we derive constraints on the holographic
Ricci dark energy model from the latest observational data including the Union
sample of 307 type Ia supernovae, the shift parameter of the cosmic microwave
background given by the five-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
observations, and the baryon acoustic oscillation measurement from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey. The joint analysis gives the best-fit results (with
1$\sigma$ uncertainty): $\alpha=0.359^{+0.024}_{-0.025}$ and $\Omega_{\rm
m0}=0.318^{+0.026}_{-0.024}$. That is to say, according to the observations,
the holographic Ricci dark energy takes on the quintom feature. Finally, in
light of the results of the cosmological constraints, we discuss the issue of
the scalar-field dark energy reconstruction, based on the scenario of the
holographic Ricci vacuum energy.


  With Machine Learning (ML) services now used in a number of mission-critical
human-facing domains, ensuring the integrity and trustworthiness of ML models
becomes all-important. In this work, we consider the paradigm where cloud
service providers collect big data from resource-constrained devices for
building ML-based prediction models that are then sent back to be run locally
on the intermittently-connected resource-constrained devices. Our proposed
solution comprises an intelligent polynomial-time heuristic that maximizes the
level of trust of ML models by selecting and switching between a subset of the
ML models from a superset of models in order to maximize the trustworthiness
while respecting the given reconfiguration budget/rate and reducing the cloud
communication overhead. We evaluate the performance of our proposed heuristic
using two case studies. First, we consider Industrial IoT (IIoT) services, and
as a proxy for this setting, we use the turbofan engine degradation simulation
dataset to predict the remaining useful life of an engine. Our results in this
setting show that the trust level of the selected models is 0.49% to 3.17% less
compared to the results obtained using Integer Linear Programming (ILP).
Second, we consider Smart Cities services, and as a proxy of this setting, we
use an experimental transportation dataset to predict the number of cars. Our
results show that the selected model's trust level is 0.7% to 2.53% less
compared to the results obtained using ILP. We also show that our proposed
heuristic achieves an optimal competitive ratio in a polynomial-time
approximation scheme for the problem.


  The mass distributions of dense cores in star-forming regions are measured to
have a shape similar to the initial mass function of stars. This has been
generally interpreted to mean that the constituent cores will form individual
stars or stellar systems at a nearly constant star formation efficiency. This
article presents a series of numerical experiments evolving distributions of
dense cores into stars to quantify the effects of stellar multiplicity, global
core fragmentation, and a varying star formation efficiency. We find that the
different evolutionary schemes have an overall small effect on the shape of the
resultant distribution of stars. Our results imply that at the current level of
observational accuracy the comparison between the mass functions of dense cores
and stars alone is insufficient to discern between different evolutionary
models. Observations over a wide range of mass scales including the high or
low-mass tails of these distributions have the largest potential for discerning
between different core evolutionary schemes.


  In this work, we develop a mathematical model to describe the local movement
of individuals by taking into account their return to home after a period of
travel. We provide a suitable functional framework to handle this system and
study the large-time behavior of the solutions. We extend our model by
incorporating a colonization process and applying the return to home process to
an epidemic.


  In this article, we study thin shells of matter connecting charged black
string geometries with different values of the corresponding parameters. We
analyze the matter content and the mechanical stability of the shells
undergoing perturbations that preserve the cylindrical symmetry. Two different
global configurations are considered: an interior geometry connected to an
exterior one at the surface where the shell is placed, and two exterior
geometries connected by a wormhole throat located at the shell position.


  Quantum coherence and distributed correlations among subparties are often
considered as separate, although operationally linked to each other, properties
of a quantum state. Here, we propose a measure able to quantify the
contributions derived by both the tensor structure of the multipartite Hilbert
space and the presence of coherence inside each of the subparties. Our results
hold for any number of partitions of the Hilbert space. Within this unified
framework, global coherence of the state is identified as the ingredient
responsible for the presence of distributed quantum correlations, while local
coherence also contributes to the quantumness of the state. A new quantifier,
the "hookup", is introduced within such a framework. We also provide a simple
physical interpretation, in terms of coherence, of the difference between total
correlations and the sum of classical and quantum correlations obtained using
relative-entropy--based quantifiers.


  I discuss and criticize the use of "dual transformations" to calculate
"shadow moments" in the distribution of epidemic fatalities. I show how this
transformation is arbitrary and not only yields an unjustified functional form
for the distribution of fatalities but turns out to be highly unphysical (see
Fig. 1 in the manuscript). Therefore, the expected number of fatalities
calculated from the "shadow moments" approach lacks any theoretical support.
This is of fundamental importance to assess risk from pandemics. I argue that
the natural way to address this sort of problems in statistical physics is by
means of finite-size scaling.


  Radio-frequency energy harvesting constitutes an effective way to prolong the
lifetime of wireless networks, wean communication devices off the battery and
power line, benefit the energy saving and lower the carbon footprint of
wireless communications. In this paper, an interference aided energy harvesting
scheme is proposed for cooperative relaying systems, where energy-constrained
relays harvest energy from the received information signal and co-channel
interference signals, and then use that harvested energy to forward the
correctly decoded signal to the destination. The time-switching scheme (TS), in
which the receiver switches between decoding information and harvesting energy,
as well as the power-splitting scheme (PS), where a portion of the received
power is used for energy harvesting and the remaining power is utilized for
information processing, are adopted separately. Applying the proposed energy
harvesting approach to a decode-and-forward relaying system with the
three-terminal model, the analytical expressions of the ergodic capacity and
the outage capacity are derived, and the corresponding achievable throughputs
are determined. Comparative results are provided and show that PS is superior
to TS at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in terms of throughput, while at low
SNR, TS outperforms PS. Furthermore, considering different interference power
distributions with equal aggregate interference power at the relay, the
corresponding system capacity relationship, i.e., the ordering of capacities,
is obtained.


  This study presents a tunable phase-modulated metasurface composed of
periodically distributed piezoelectric patches with resonant-type shunt
circuits. The fully coupled electromechanical model is established to study the
transmission characteristics of the metasurface unit and validated through
numerical and experimental studies. Based on the analysis of the metasurface
unit, we first explore the performance of electroelastic metasurface with
single-resonant shunts and then extend its capability with multi-resonant
shunts. By only tuning the electric loads in the shunt circuits, we utilize the
proposed metasurface to accomplish wave deflection and wave focusing of A0 mode
Lamb waves at different angles and focal points, respectively.


  This paper investigates the basic behavior and performance of simulated
quantum annealing (QA) in comparison with classical annealing (CA). Three
simple one dimensional case study systems are considered, namely a parabolic
well, a double well, and a curved washboard. The time dependent Schr\"odinger
evolution in either real or imaginary time describing QA is contrasted with the
Fokker Planck evolution of CA. The asymptotic decrease of excess energy with
annealing time is studied in each case, and the reasons for differences are
examined and discussed. The Huse-Fisher classical power law of double well CA
is replaced with a different power law in QA. The multi-well washboard problem
studied in CA by Shinomoto and Kabashima and leading classically to a
logarithmic annealing even in the absence of disorder, turns to a power law
behavior when annealed with QA. The crucial role of disorder and localization
is briefly discussed.


  In this paper we propose a method of corner detection for obtaining features
which is required to track and recognize objects within a noisy image. Corner
detection of noisy images is a challenging task in image processing. Natural
images often get corrupted by noise during acquisition and transmission. Though
Corner detection of these noisy images does not provide desired results, hence
de-noising is required. Adaptive wavelet thresholding approach is applied for
the same.


  Machine learning and statistical methods can be used to enhance monitoring
and fault prediction in marine systems. These methods rely on a dataset with
records of historical system behaviour, potentially containing periods of both
fault-free and faulty operation. An unexpected change in the underlying system,
called a concept drift, may impact the performance of these methods, triggering
the need for model retraining or other adaptations. In this article, we present
an approach for detecting overheating in stator windings of marine propulsion
motors that is able to successfully operate during concept drift without the
need for full model retraining. Two distinct approaches are presented and
tested. All models are trained and verified using a dataset from operational
propulsion motors, with known, sudden concept drifts.


  We revisit a method introduced by Tartar for proving global well-posedness of
a semilinear hyperbolic system with null quadratic source in one space
dimension. A remarkable point is that, since no dispersion effect is available
for 1D hyperbolic systems, Tartar's approach is entirely based on spatial
localization and finite speed of propagation.


  A classical result of H. S. M. Coxeter asserts that a certain quotient
$B(m,n)$ of the braid group $B(m)$ on $m$ strands is finite if and only if
$(m,n)$ corresponds to the type of one of the five Platonic solids. If ${\bf
k}$ is a knot or virtual knot, one can study similar quotients $G({\bf k}, n)$
for the corresponding knot group. We identify a class of long virtual knots
${\bf k}$ for which $G({\bf k}, n)$ is infinite for $n\ge 2$. The main feature
of these long virtual knots is that their Wirtinger complexes are
non-positively curved squared complexes.


  In-context learning (ICL) operates by showing language models (LMs) examples
of input-output pairs for a given task, i.e., demonstrations. The standard
approach for ICL is to prompt the LM with concatenated demonstrations followed
by the test input. This approach suffers from some issues. First, concatenation
offers almost no control over the contribution of each demo to the model
prediction. This can be sub-optimal when some demonstrations are irrelevant to
the test example. Second, due to the input length limit of some transformer
models, it might be infeasible to fit many examples into the context,
especially when dealing with long-input tasks. In this work, we explore
Demonstration Ensembling (DENSE) as an alternative to simple concatenation.
DENSE predicts outputs using subsets (i.e., buckets) of the demonstrations and
then combines the output probabilities resulting from each subset to produce
the final prediction. We study different ensembling methods using GPT-j and
experiment on 12 language tasks. Our experiments show weighted max ensembling
to outperform vanilla concatenation by as large as 2.4 average points. Code
available at https://github.com/mukhal/icl-ensembling.