  We use a combination of the XMM-Newton serendipitous X-ray survey with the
optical SDSS, and the infrared WISE all-sky survey in order to check the
efficiency of the low X-ray to infrared luminosity selection method in finding
heavily obscured AGN. We select sources in the 2-8 keV X-ray band which have a
redshift determination in the SDSS catalogue. We match this sample with the
WISE catalogue, and fit the SEDs of the 2844 sources which have three, or more,
photometric data-points in the infrared. We then select the heavily obscured
AGN candidates by comparing their 12 micron AGN luminosity to the observed 2-10
keV X-ray luminosity and their expected intrinsic relation. With this approach
we find 20 candidates, and we examine their X-ray and optical spectra. Of the
20 initial candidates, we find nine (64%; out of the 14, for which X-ray
spectra could be fit) based on the X-ray spectra, and seven (78%; out of the
nine detected spectroscopically in the SDSS) based on the [OIII] line fluxes.
Combining all criteria, we determine the final number of heavily obscured AGN
to be 12-19, and the number of Compton-thick AGN to be 2-5, showing that the
method is reliable in finding obscured AGN, but not Compton-thick. However
those numbers are smaller than what would be expected from X-ray background
population synthesis models, which demonstrates how the optical-infrared
selection and the scatter of the L_x-L_MIR relation introduced by observational
constraints limit the efficiency of the method. Finally, we test popular
obscured AGN selection methods based on mid-infrared colours, and find that the
probability of an AGN to be selected by its mid-infrared colours increases with
the X-ray luminosity. However, a selection scheme based on a relatively low
X-ray luminosity and mid-infrared colours characteristic of QSOs would not
select ~25% of the heavily obscured AGN of our sample. (abridged)


  Low background gamma spectrometry employing HPGe detectors is a sensitive
technique for measuring low-level radioactivity in environmental applications,
material screening, and for rare decay searches. This work presents
spectroscopic performance evaluation and modelling of a low background
measurement setup developed at IIT Ropar in Punjab, India, to measure trace
natural radioactive elements, with a particular interest in studying low-level
radioactivity in soil and/or rock samples to generate specific inputs for low
background experiments. The performance test and characterization of a low
background cryocooled HPGe detector with relative efficiency of $\sim$33% have
been carried out. An effective detector model has been developed using GEANT4
Monte Carlo simulation to determine the response of the detector over an energy
range of 80.9-1408 keV and compared with the experimental performance of the
detector. The response of the detector obtained using Monte Carlo simulations
agrees reasonably well within 93% level of confidence, indicating only 7%
deviation in the comparison. The present setup offers improved detection limits
of primordial radionuclides (U/Th and K) to measure radioactive contamination
in environmental matrices, which has been used elsewhere [1].


  Network-wide traffic analytics are often needed for various network
monitoring tasks. These measurements are often performed by collecting samples
at network switches, which are then sent to the controller for aggregation.
However, performing such analytics without ``overcounting'' flows or packets
that traverse multiple measurement switches is challenging. Therefore, existing
solutions often simplify the problem by making assumptions on the routing or
measurement switch placement.
  We introduce AROMA, a measurement infrastructure that generates a uniform
sample of packets and flows regardless of the topology, workload and routing.
Therefore, AROMA can be deployed in many settings, and can also work in the
data plane using programmable PISA switches. The AROMA infrastructure includes
controller algorithms that approximate a variety of essential measurement tasks
while providing formal accuracy guarantees. Using extensive simulations on
real-world network traces, we show that our algorithms are competitively
accurate compared to the best existing solutions despite the fact that they
make no assumptions on the underlying network or the placement of measurement
switches.


  We construct examples of non-isomorphic algebraic vector bundles on the
punctured affine space with isomorphic pullbacks to the smooth quadric.


  Gravitational waves from binary neutron star (BNS) and black hole/neutron
star (BHNS) inspirals are primary sources for detection by the Advanced Laser
Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. The tidal forces acting on the
neutron stars induce changes in the phase evolution of the gravitational
waveform, and these changes can be used to constrain the nuclear equation of
state. Current methods of generating BNS and BHNS waveforms rely on either
computationally challenging full 3D hydrodynamical simulations or approximate
analytic solutions. We introduce a new method for computing inspiral waveforms
for BNS/BHNS systems by adding the post-Newtonian (PN) tidal effects to full
numerical simulations of binary black holes (BBHs), effectively replacing the
nontidal terms in the PN expansion with BBH results. Comparing a waveform
generated with this method against a full hydrodynamical simulation of a BNS
inspiral yields a phase difference of $<1$ radian over $\sim 15$ orbits. The
numerical phase accuracy required of BNS simulations to measure the accuracy of
the method we present here is estimated as a function of the tidal
deformability parameter ${\lambda}$.


  We consider the quasinormal spectrum of scalar and axial perturbations of the
Reissner-Nordstr\"om-AdS black hole as the horizon approaches extremality. By
considering a foliation of the black hole by spacelike surfaces which intersect
the future horizon we implement numerical methods which are well behaved up to
and including the extremal limit and which admit initial data which is
nontrivial at the horizon. As extremality is approached we observe a transition
whereby the least damped mode ceases to be oscillatory in time, and the late
time signal changes qualitatively as a consequence.


  We introduce an Invertible Symbolic Regression (ISR) method. It is a machine
learning technique that generates analytical relationships between inputs and
outputs of a given dataset via invertible maps (or architectures). The proposed
ISR method naturally combines the principles of Invertible Neural Networks
(INNs) and Equation Learner (EQL), a neural network-based symbolic architecture
for function learning. In particular, we transform the affine coupling blocks
of INNs into a symbolic framework, resulting in an end-to-end differentiable
symbolic invertible architecture that allows for efficient gradient-based
learning. The proposed ISR framework also relies on sparsity promoting
regularization, allowing the discovery of concise and interpretable invertible
expressions. We show that ISR can serve as a (symbolic) normalizing flow for
density estimation tasks. Furthermore, we highlight its practical applicability
in solving inverse problems, including a benchmark inverse kinematics problem,
and notably, a geoacoustic inversion problem in oceanography aimed at inferring
posterior distributions of underlying seabed parameters from acoustic signals.


  We show that the stability conditions on the Kuznetsov component of a
Gushel-Mukai threefold, constructed by Bayer, Lahoz, Macr\`i and Stellari, are
preserved by the Serre functor, up to the action of the universal cover of
$\text{GL}^+_2(\mathbb{R})$. As application, we construct stability conditions
on the Kuznetsov component of special Gushel-Mukai fourfolds.


  We present and analyze a wait-free deterministic algorithm for solving the
at-most-once problem: how m shared-memory fail-prone processes perform
asynchronously n jobs at most once. Our algorithmic strategy provides for the
first time nearly optimal effectiveness, which is a measure that expresses the
total number of jobs completed in the worst case. The effectiveness of our
algorithm equals n-2m+2. This is up to an additive factor of m close to the
known effectiveness upper bound n-m+1 over all possible algorithms and improves
on the previously best known deterministic solutions that have effectiveness
only n-log m o(n). We also present an iterative version of our algorithm that
for any $m = O\left(\sqrt[3+\epsilon]{n/\log n}\right)$ is both
effectiveness-optimal and work-optimal, for any constant $\epsilon > 0$. We
then employ this algorithm to provide a new algorithmic solution for the
Write-All problem which is work optimal for any
$m=O\left(\sqrt[3+\epsilon]{n/\log n}\right)$.


  The paper has been withdrawn by the author due to a gap in Proof of Theorem
1.1.


  Canonical quantum theories with discrete space may imply interesting effects.
This article presents a general effective description, paying due attention to
the role of higher spatial derivatives in a local expansion and differences to
higher time derivatives. In a concrete set of models, it is shown that spatial
derivatives one order higher than the classical one are strongly restricted in
spherically symmetric effective loop quantum gravity. Moreover, radial holonomy
corrections cannot be anomaly-free to this order.


  Actually there exist 218 stars with measured phase curves of the longitudinal
(effective) magnetic field B_e. In that group 172 objects are classified as
magnetic chemically peculiar stars (mCP). Remaining objects are stars of
various spectral types, from the most massive hot Of? supergiants to low mass
red dwarfs and stars with planets. This paper aims to review briefly properties
of the observed magnetic field in various types of stars.


  We review recent results on the metastable behavior of continuous-time Markov
chains derived through the characterization of Markov chains as unique
solutions of martingale problems.


  We consider the Schr\"{o}dinger equation with power type long-range
nonlinearity on star graph. Under a general boundary condition at the vertex,
including Kirchhoff, Dirichlet, $\delta$, or $\delta'$ boundary condition, we
show that the non-trivial global solution does not scatter to standing waves.
Our proof is based on the argument by Murphy and Nakanishi, who treated the
long-range nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation with a general potential in the
Euclidean space, in order to consider general boundary conditions.


  Highly radiative expansion of a relativistic shell is shown to explain all
observed features of the afterglows of the two bursts GRB 970228 and GRB
970508. In particular, in the first case the observed time-dependence t^-1.32
of the soft X--ray flux is easily reproduced. The same model, when the
surrounding matter density scales as a r^-2, explains the afterglow of GRB
970508}, which may at first sight appear at odds with that of GRB 970228. In
particular, it is shown that both the late peak in the optical luminosity and
the flat time-dependence of the X--ray luminosity are simultaneously explained
by nonuniformity of the surrounding matter, that the observed optical
time-delay is correctly reproduced for standard parameter values, and that the
time-delay and flux levels of the radio emission are also explained.


  Recent spectroscopic studies at terahertz frequencies for a variety of
multiferroics endowed with both ferroelectric and magnetic orders have revealed
the possible emergence of a new collective excitation, frequently referred to
as electromagnon. It is magnetic origin, but becomes active in response to the
electric field component of light. Here we give an overview on our recent
advance in the terahertz time-domain spectroscopy of electromagnons or
electric-dipole active magnetic resonances, focused on perovskite
manganites--$R$MnO$_3$ ($R$ denotes rare-earth ions). The respective electric
and magnetic contributions to the observed magnetic resonance are firmly
identified by the measurements of the light-polarization dependence using a
complete set of the crystal orientations. We extract general optical features
in a variety of the spin ordered phases, including the $A$-type
antiferromagnetic, collinear spin ordered, and ferroelectric $bc$ and $ab$
spiral spin ordered phases, which are realized by tuning the chemical
composition of $R$, temperature, and external magnetic field. In addition to
the antiferromagnetic resonances of Mn ions driven by the magnetic field
component of light, we clarify that the electromagnon appears only for light
polarized along the a-axis even in the collinear spin ordered phase and grows
in intensity with evolution of the spiral spin order, but independent of the
direction of the spiral spin plane ($bc$ or $ab$) or equivalently the direction
of the ferroelectric polarization $P_{\rm s}$ ($P_{\rm s}\| c$ or $P_{\rm s}\|
a$). A possible origin of the observed magnetic resonances at terahertz
frequencies is discussed by comparing the systematic experimental data
presented here with theoretical considerations based on Heisenberg model.


  We modify the Sakai-Sugimoto model of chiral symmetry breaking to take into
account the open string tachyon which stretches between the flavour D8-branes
and anti D8-branes. There are several reasons of consistency for doing this:
(i) Even if it might be reasonable to ignore the tachyon in the ultraviolet
where the flavour branes and antibranes are well separated and the tachyon is
small, it is likely to condense and acquire large values in the infrared where
the branes meet. This takes the system far away from the perturbatively stable
minimum of the Sakai-Sugimoto model; (ii) The bifundamental coupling of the
tachyon to fermions of opposite chirality makes it a suitable candidate for the
quark mass and chiral condensate parameters. We show that the modified
Sakai-Sugimoto model with the tachyon present has a classical solution
satisfying all the desired consistency properties. In this solution chiral
symmetry breaking coincides with tachyon condensation. We identify the
parameters corresponding to the quark mass and the chiral condensate and also
briefly discuss the mesonic spectra.


  F\"orster resonances provide a highly flexible tool to tune both the strength
and the angular shape of interactions between two Rydberg atoms. We give a
detailed explanation about how F\"orster resonances can be found by searching
through a large range of possible quantum number combinations. We apply our
search method to $SS$, $SD$ and $DD$ pair states of $^{87}$Rb with principal
quantum numbers from 30 to 100, taking into account the fine structure
splitting of the Rydberg states. We find various strong resonances between
atoms with a large difference in principal quantum numbers. We quantify the
strength of these resonances by introducing a figure of merit $\tilde C_3$
which is independent of the magnetic quantum numbers and geometry to classify
the resonances by interaction strength. We further predict to what extent
excitation exchange is possible on different resonances and point out
limitations of the coherent hopping process. Finally, we discuss the angular
dependence of the dipole-dipole interaction and its tunability near resonances.


  Precise estimation of the probabilistic structure of natural images plays an
essential role in image compression. Despite the recent remarkable success of
end-to-end optimized image compression, the latent codes are usually assumed to
be fully statistically factorized in order to simplify entropy modeling.
However, this assumption generally does not hold true and may hinder
compression performance. Here we present context-based convolutional networks
(CCNs) for efficient and effective entropy modeling. In particular, a 3D zigzag
scanning order and a 3D code dividing technique are introduced to define proper
coding contexts for parallel entropy decoding, both of which boil down to place
translation-invariant binary masks on convolution filters of CCNs. We
demonstrate the promise of CCNs for entropy modeling in both lossless and lossy
image compression. For the former, we directly apply a CCN to the binarized
representation of an image to compute the Bernoulli distribution of each code
for entropy estimation. For the latter, the categorical distribution of each
code is represented by a discretized mixture of Gaussian distributions, whose
parameters are estimated by three CCNs. We then jointly optimize the CCN-based
entropy model along with analysis and synthesis transforms for rate-distortion
performance. Experiments on the Kodak and Tecnick datasets show that our
methods powered by the proposed CCNs generally achieve comparable compression
performance to the state-of-the-art while being much faster.


  In this article, we discuss the numerical solution of Boolean polynomial
programs by algorithms borrowing from numerical methods for differential
equations, namely the Houbolt scheme, the Lie scheme, and a Runge-Kutta scheme.
We first introduce a quartic penalty functional (of Ginzburg-Landau type) to
approximate the Boolean program by a continuous one and prove some convergence
results as the penalty parameter $\varepsilon$ converges to $0$. We prove also
that, under reasonable assumptions, the distance between local minimizers of
the penalized problem and the set $\{\pm1\}^n$ is of order
$O(\sqrt{n}\varepsilon)$. Next, we introduce algorithms for the numerical
solution of the penalized problem, these algorithms relying on the Houbolt, Lie
and Runge-Kutta schemes, classical methods for the numerical solution of
ordinary or partial differential equations. We performed numerical experiments
to investigate the impact of various parameters on the convergence of the
algorithms. We have tested our ODE approaches and compared with the classical
nonlinear optimization solver IPOPT and a quadratic binary formulation approach
(QB-G) as well as an exhaustive method using parallel computing techniques. The
numerical results on various datasets (including small and large-scale randomly
generated synthetic datasets of general Boolean polynomial optimization
problems, and a large-scale heterogeneous MQLib benchmark dataset of Max-Cut
and Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problems) show good
performances for our ODE approaches. As a result, our ODE algorithms often
converge faster than the other compared methods to better integer solutions of
the Boolean program.


  The one-loop effective energy density of a pure SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in
the Savvidy background, at finite temperature and chemical potential is
examined with emphasis on the unstable modes. After identifying the stable and
unstable modes, the stable modes are treated in the quadratic approximation.
For the unstable modes, the full expansion including the cubic and the quartic
terms in the fluctuations is used. The functional integrals for the unstable
modes are evaluated and added to the results for the stable modes. The
resulting energy density is found to be {\it{real}}, coinciding with the real
part of the energy density in the quadratic approximation of earlier study.
There is now {\it{no imaginary part.}} Numerical results are presented for the
variation of the energy density with temperature for various choices of the
chemical potential.


  The nonlinear propagation of electrostatic solitary waves is studied in a
collisionless electron-positron pair plasma consisting of adiabatic cool
electrons, mobile cool positrons (or electron holes), hot suprathermal
electrons described by a $\kappa$ distribution, and stationary ions. The linear
dispersion relation derived for electrostatic waves demonstrates a weak
dependence of the phase speed on physical conditions of positrons in
appropriate ranges of parameters. The Sagdeev's pseudopotential approach is
used to obtain the existence of electrostatic solitary wave structures,
focusing on how their characteristics depend on the physical conditions of
positrons and suprathermal electrons. Both negative and positive polarity
electrostatic solitary waves are found to exist in different ranges of Mach
numbers. As the positrons constitute a small fraction of the total number
density, they slightly affect the existence domains. However, the positrons can
significantly change the wave potential at a fixed soliton speed. The results
indicate that the positive potential can greatly be grown by increasing the
electron suprathermality (lower $\kappa$) at a fixed true Mach number. It is
found that a fraction of positrons maintain the generation of positive polarity
electrostatic solitary waves in the presence of suprathermal electrons in pair
plasmas.


  Highly concentrated patterns have been observed in a spatially heterogeneous,
nonlocal, model of BGK type implementing a velocity-jump process.
  We study both a linear and a nonlinear case and describe the concentration
profile. In particular, we analyse a hyperbolic (or high frequency) regime that
can be interpreted both as a local (microscopic) or as a nonlocal (macroscopic)
rescaling. We consider a Hopf-Cole transform and derive a Hamilton-Jacobi
equation. The concentrations are then explained as a consequence of the
stationary points of the Hamiltonian that is spatially heterogeneous like the
velocity-jump process. After revising the classical hydrodynamic limits for the
aggregate quantities and the eikonal equation that can be derived from those
with a Hopf-Cole transform, we find that the Hamilton-Jacobi equation is a
second order approximation of the eikonal equation in the limit of small
diffusivity. For nonlinear turning kernels, the Hopf-Cole transform allows to
study the stability of the possible homogeneous configurations and of patterns
and the results of a linear stability analysis previously obtained are found
and extended to a nonlinear regime. In particular, it is shown that instability
(pattern formation) occurs when the Hamiltonian is convex-concave.


  This paper has been withdrawn by the authors due to a crucial error in eqn
27.


  Rotation has a number of important effects on the evolution of stars. Apart
from structural changes because of the centrifugal force, turbulent mixing and
meridional circulation caused by rotation can dramatically affect a star's
chemical evolution. This leads to changes in the surface temperature and
luminosity as well as modifying its lifetime. Observationally rotation
decreases the surface gravity, causes enhanced mass loss and leads to surface
abundance anomalies of various chemical isotopes. The replication of these
physical effects with simple stellar evolution models is very difficult and has
resulted in the use of numerous different formulations to describe the physics.
Using stellar evolution calculations based on several physical models we
discuss the features of the resulting simulated stellar populations which can
help to distinguish between the models.


  This paper is motivated by the question of how motivic Donaldson--Thomas
invariants behave in families. We compute the invariants for some simple
families of noncommutative Calabi--Yau threefolds, defined by quivers with
homogeneous potentials. These families give deformation quantizations of affine
three-space, the resolved conifold, and the resolution of the transversal
$A_n$-singularity. It turns out that their invariants are generically constant,
but jump at special values of the deformation parameter, such as roots of
unity. The corresponding generating series are written in closed form, as
plethystic exponentials of simple rational functions. While our results are
limited by the standard dimensional reduction techniques that we employ, they
nevertheless allow us to conjecture formulae for more interesting cases, such
as the elliptic Sklyanin algebras.


  We study the power of \textit{local information algorithms} for optimization
problems on social networks. We focus on sequential algorithms for which the
network topology is initially unknown and is revealed only within a local
neighborhood of vertices that have been irrevocably added to the output set.
The distinguishing feature of this setting is that locality is necessitated by
constraints on the network information visible to the algorithm, rather than
being desirable for reasons of efficiency or parallelizability. In this sense,
changes to the level of network visibility can have a significant impact on
algorithm design.
  We study a range of problems under this model of algorithms with local
information. We first consider the case in which the underlying graph is a
preferential attachment network. We show that one can find the node of maximum
degree in the network in a polylogarithmic number of steps, using an
opportunistic algorithm that repeatedly queries the visible node of maximum
degree. This addresses an open question of Bollob{\'a}s and Riordan. In
contrast, local information algorithms require a linear number of queries to
solve the problem on arbitrary networks.
  Motivated by problems faced by recruiters in online networks, we also
consider network coverage problems such as finding a minimum dominating set.
For this optimization problem we show that, if each node added to the output
set reveals sufficient information about the set's neighborhood, then it is
possible to design randomized algorithms for general networks that nearly match
the best approximations possible even with full access to the graph structure.
We show that this level of visibility is necessary.
  We conclude that a network provider's decision of how much structure to make
visible to its users can have a significant effect on a user's ability to
interact strategically with the network.


  We derive a mathematical model for eddy currents in two dimensional
geometries where the conductors are thin domains. We assume that the current
flows in the $x\_3$-direction and the inductors are domains with small
diameters of order $O(\epsilon)$. The model is derived by taking the limit
$\epsilon\to 0$. A convergence rate of $O(\epsilon^\alpha)$ with $0<\alpha<1/2$
in the $L^2$--norm is shown as well as weak convergence in the $W^{1,p}$ spaces
for $1< p <2$.


  For the first time, we enable the execution of hybrid machine learning
methods on real quantum computers with 100 data samples and real-device-based
simulations with 5,000 data samples, thereby outperforming the current state of
research of Suryotrisongko and Musashi from 2022 who were dealing with 1,000
data samples and quantum simulators (pure software-based emulators) only.
Additionally, we beat their reported accuracy of $76.8\%$ by an average
accuracy of $91.2\%$, all within a total execution time of 1,687 seconds. We
achieve this significant progress through two-step strategy: Firstly, we
establish a stable quantum architecture that enables us to execute HQML
algorithms on real quantum devices. Secondly, we introduce new hybrid quantum
binary classification algorithms based on Hoeffding decision tree algorithms.
These algorithms speed up the process via batch-wise execution, reducing the
number of shots required on real quantum devices compared to conventional
loop-based optimizers. Their incremental nature serves the purpose of online
large-scale data streaming for DGA botnet detection, and allows us to apply
hybrid quantum machine learning to the field of cybersecurity analytics. We
conduct our experiments using the Qiskit library with the Aer quantum
simulator, and on three different real quantum devices from Azure Quantum:
IonQ, Rigetti, and Quantinuum. This is the first time these tools are combined
in this manner.


  In this review, the present status of theories for manganites is discussed.
The complex phase diagrams of these materials, with a variety of
spin-charge-orbital ordering tendencies, is addressed using mean-field and
Monte Carlo simulation techniques. The stability of the charge-ordered states,
such as the CE-state at half-doping, appears to originate, in part, in the
topology of the zigzag chains present in those states. In addition, it is
argued that phase separation tendencies are notorious in realistic models for
Mn-oxides. They produce nanoscale clusters of competing phases, either through
an electronic separation tendency or through the influence of disorder on
first-order transitions. These inhomogeneities lead to a ``colossal''
magnetoresistance (CMR) effect, compatible with experiments. This brief review
is based on a more extensive work recently presented [E. Dagotto, T. Hotta, and
A. Moreo, Phys. Rep. {\bf 344}, 1 (2001)]. There, a comprehensive analysis of
the experimental literature can be found. In real manganites, the tendencies
toward inhomogeneous states are notorious in CMR regimes, in excellent
agreement with the theoretical description outlined here.


  A prescription for obtaining supergravity solutions for planar (p,q)-string
networks is presented, based on earlier results. It shows that networks may be
looked upon as tropical curves emerging as the spine of the amoeba of a
holomorphic curve in M-theory. The Kaehler potential of supergravity is
identified with the corresponding Ronkin function. Implications of this
identification in counting dyons is discussed.


  Sorting algorithms are the deciding factor for the performance of common
operations such as removal of duplicates or database sort-merge joins. This
work focuses on 32-bit integer keys, optionally paired with a 32-bit value. We
present a fast radix sorting algorithm that builds upon a
microarchitecture-aware variant of counting sort. Taking advantage of virtual
memory and making use of write-combining yields a per-pass throughput
corresponding to at least 88 % of the system's peak memory bandwidth. Our
implementation outperforms Intel's recently published radix sort by a factor of
1.5. It also compares favorably to the reported performance of an algorithm for
Fermi GPUs when data-transfer overhead is included. These results indicate that
scalar, bandwidth-sensitive sorting algorithms remain competitive on current
architectures. Various other memory-intensive applications can benefit from the
techniques described herein.


  An intense study of the relationship between certain quantum theories of
gravity realized on curved backgrounds and suitable gauge theories, has been
originated by a remarkable conjecture put forward by Maldacena almost one year
ago. Among the possible curved vacua of superstring or M-theory, spaces having
the form of an Anti-de Sitter space-time times a compact Einstein manifold,
have been playing a special role in this correspondence, since the quantum
theory realized on them, in the original formulation of the conjecture, was
identified with the effective superconformal theory on the world volume of
parallel p-branes set on the boundary of such a space (holography). An
important step in order to verify such a conjecture and eventually generalize
it, consists in a precise definition of the objects entering both sides of the
holographic correspondence. In the most general case indeed it turns out that
important features of the field theory on the boundary of the curved
background, identified with the quantum theory of gravity in the bulk, are
encoded in the dynamics of the coinciding parallel p-branes set on the boundary
of the same space. The study of p-brane dynamics in curved space-times which
are vacua of superstring of M-theory, turns out therefore to be a relevant
issue in order to verify the existence of the holographic correspondence. In
the present paper, besides providing a hopefully elementary introduction to
Maldacena's duality,
  I shall deal in a tentatively self contained way with a particular aspect of
the problem of p-brane dynamics in Anti-de Sitter space-time, discussing some
recent results.


  We carry out a calculation of the phonon-drag contribution $S_g$ to the
thermoelectric power of bulk semiconductors and quantum well structures for the
first time using the balance equation transport theory extended to the weakly
nonuniform systems. Introducing wavevector and phonon-mode dependent relaxation
times due to phonon-phonon interactions, the formula obtained can be used not
only at low temperatures where the phonon mean free path is determined by
boundary scattering, but also at high temperatures. In the linear transport
limit, $S_g$ is equivalent to the result obtained from the Boltzmann equation
with a relaxation time approximation. The theory is applied to experiments and
agreement is found between the theoretical predictions and experimental
results. The role of hot-electron effects in $S_g$ is discussed. The importance
of the contribution of $S_g$ to thermoelectric power in the hot-electron
transport condition is emphasized.


  We derive an equivalent traveling wave form description for Dirac field. In
the non-relativistic limit, such form can reduce to inverse-Galilean
transformed Schrodinger-type equation. We find that, the resulting
two-component Schrodinger-type equation from the reduction of traveling wave
form description of Dirac field is different to the naive Galilean transformed
Schrodinger equation. Taking into account the interactions of the system to
electromagnetic field by adding proper forms of covariant derivative, the
traveling wave form description for Pauli equation can be similarly obtained in
the non-relativistic limit. Such descriptions allow one to choose arbitrary
convenient reference frame for quantum system involving spins. Using
Bargmann-Wigner formalism for field with arbitrary spin $s\geq 1/2$, which
satisfy Dirac-type equations in all its indices, the traveling wave description
for such a field can be similarly obtained from the traveling wave form
description of Dirac field, for example, for the spin-3/2 Rarita-Schwinger
field and spin-2 gravitational field.


  After the recombination of Hydrogen, primordial molecules such as H_2,
  $HD$ can be formed.The formation of structures in the post-recombination
gaseous medium is commonly explained by primordial density fluctuations. In a
self-gravitating collapsing cloud, temperature tends to increase with
contraction. In this context molecular lines emissions can play an important
role in the thermal balance of collapsing molecular clouds and in the dynamics
of collapsing proto-cloud.
  We calculate analytically the molecular cooling due to H_2 and $HD$. Our
analysis is done under the hypothesis we consider only the first two excited
levels of the H_2 and $HD$ molecules. The potentiality of fragmentation of
collapsing protoclouds through the thermal instability is discussed. Finally we
suggest that this study could also be extended to the $CO$ molecule.


  We present the results of a search for pair production of the supersymmetric
partner of the top quark (the stop quark $\tilde{t}_{1}$) decaying to a
$b$-quark and a chargino $\chargino$ with a subsequent $\chargino$ decay into a
neutralino $\neutralino$, lepton $\ell$, and neutrino $\nu$. Using a data
sample corresponding to 2.7 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity of $p\bar{p}$
collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.96$ TeV collected by the CDF II detector, we
reconstruct the mass of candidate stop events and fit the observed mass
spectrum to a combination of standard model processes and stop quark signal. We
find no evidence for $\pairstop$ production and set 95% C.L. limits on the
masses of the stop quark and the neutralino for several values of the chargino
mass and the branching ratio ${\cal B}(\chargino\to\neutralino\ell^{\pm}\nu)$.


  We investigate the dynamics of bow shock nebulae created by pulsars moving
supersonically through a partially ionized interstellar medium. A fraction of
interstellar neutral hydrogen atoms penetrating into the tail region of a
pulsar wind will undergo photo-ionization due to the UV light emitted by the
nebula, with the resulting mass loading dramatically changing the flow dynamics
of the light leptonic pulsar wind. Using a quasi 1-D hydrodynamic model of both
non-relativistic and relativistic flow, and focusing on scales much larger than
the stand-off distance, we find that if a relatively small density of neutral
hydrogen, as low as $10^{-4}\,\text{cm}^{-3}$, penetrate inside the pulsar
wind, this is sufficient to strongly affect the tail flow. Mass loading leads
to the fast expansion of the pulsar wind tail, making the tail flow
intrinsically non-stationary. The shapes predicted for the bow shock nebulae
compare well with observations, both in H$\alpha$ and X-rays.


  We study two models of the Majority problem. We are given n balls and an
unknown coloring of them with two colors. We can ask sets of balls of size k as
queries, and in the so-called General Model the answer to a query shows if all
the balls in the set are of the same color or not. In the so-called Counting
Model the answer to a query gives the difference between the cardinalities of
the color classes in the query. Our goal is to show a ball of the larger color
class, or prove that the color classes are of the same size, using as few
queries as possible. In this paper we improve the bounds given by De Marco and
Kranakis for the number of queries needed.


  The (free) graviton admits, in addition to the standard Pauli-Fierz
description by means of a rank-two symmetric tensor, a description in which one
dualizes the corresponding (2,2)-curvature tensor on one column to get a
(D-2,2)-tensor, where D is the spacetime dimension. This tensor derives from a
gauge field with mixed Yound symmetry (D-3,1) called the "dual graviton" field.
The dual graviton field is related non-locally to the Pauli-Fierz field (even
on-shell), in much the same way as a p-form potential and its dual (D-p-2)-form
potential are related in the theory of an abelian p-form. Since the Pauli-Fierz
field has a Young tableau with two columns (of one box each), one can
contemplate a double dual description in which one dualizes on both columns and
not just on one. The double dual curvature is now a (D-2,D-2)-tensor and
derives from a gauge field with (D-3, D-3) mixed Young symmetry, the "double
dual graviton" field. We show, however, that the double dual graviton field is
algebraically and locally related to the original Pauli-Fierz field and, so,
does not provide a truly new description of the graviton. From this point of
view, it plays a very different role from the dual graviton field obtained
through a single dualization. We also show that these equations can be obtained
from a variational principle in which the variables to be varied in the action
are (all) the components of the double-dual field as well as an auxiliary field
with (2,1) Young symmetry. By gauge fixing the shift symmetries of this action
principle, one recovers the Pauli-Fierz action. Our approach differs from the
interesting approach based on parent actions and covers only the free,
sourceless theory. Similar results are argued to hold for higher spin gauge
fields.


  Microring resonators (MRRs) are a key photonic component in integrated
devices, due to their small size, low insertion losses, and passive operation.
While the MRRs have been established for optical filtering in
wavelength-multiplexed systems, the nonlinear properties that they can exhibit
give rise to new perspectives on their use. For instance, they have been
recently considered for introducing optical nonlinearity in photonic reservoir
computing systems. In this work, we present a detailed numerical investigation
of a silicon MRR operation, in the presence of external optical feedback, in a
time delay reservoir computing scheme. We demonstrate the versatility of this
compact, passive device, by exploiting different operating regimes and solving
computing tasks with diverse memory requirements. We show that when large
memory is required, as it occurs in the Narma 10 task, the MRR nonlinearity
does not play a significant role when the photodetection nonlinearity is
involved, while the contribution of the external feedback is significant. On
the contrary, for computing tasks such as the Mackey-Glass and the Santa Fe
chaotic timeseries prediction, the MRR and the photodetection nonlinearities
contribute both to efficient computation. The presence of optical feedback
improves the prediction of the Mackey-Glass timeseries while it plays a minor
role in the Santa Fe timeseries case.


  The coalescence of a massive black hole (MBH) binary leads to the
gravitational-wave recoil of the system and its ejection from the galaxy core.
We have carried out N-body simulations of the motion of a MBH = 3.7x10^6 Msun
MBH remnant in the Via Lactea I simulation, a Milky Way sized dark matter halo.
The black hole receives a recoil velocity of Vkick = 80, 120, 200, 300, and 400
km/s at redshift 1.5, and its orbit is followed for over 1 Gyr within a live
host halo, subject only to gravity and dynamical friction against the dark
matter background. We show that, owing to asphericities in the dark matter
potential, the orbit of the MBH is hightly non-radial, resulting in a
significantly increased decay timescale compared to a spherical halo. The
simulations are used to construct a semi-analytic model of the motion of the
MBH in a time-varying triaxial Navarro-Frenk-White dark matter halo plus a
spherical stellar bulge, where the dynamical friction force is calculated
directly from the velocity dispersion tensor. Such a model should offer a
realistic picture of the dynamics of kicked MBHs in situations where gas drag,
friction by disk stars, and the flattening of the central cusp by the returning
black hole are all negligible effects. We find that MBHs ejected with initial
recoil velocities Vkick > 500 km/s do not return to the host center within
Hubble time. In a Milky Way-sized galaxy, a recoiling hole carrying a gaseous
disk of initial mass ~MBH may shine as a quasar for a substantial fraction of
its wandering phase. The long decay timescales of kicked MBHs predicted by this
study may thus be favorable to the detection of off-nuclear quasar activity.


  We measured the local density of states of a quasi two-dimensional electron
system (2DES) near defects, artificially created by Ar-ion sputtering, on
surfaces of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) with scanning tunneling
spectroscopy (STS) in high magnetic fields. At valley energies of the Landau
level spectrum, we found two typical localized distributions of the 2DES
depending on the defects. These are new types of distributions which are not
observed in the previous STS work at the HOPG surface near a point defect [Y.
Niimi \textit{et al}., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 97}, 236804 (2006).]. With
increasing energy, we observed gradual transformation from the localized
distributions to the extended ones as expected for the integer quantum Hall
state. We show that the defect potential depth is responsible for the two
localized distributions from comparison with theoretical calculations.


  Complexities that arise from implementation of object-oriented concepts in
C++ such as virtual dispatch and dynamic type casting have attracted the
attention of attackers and defenders alike.
  Binary-level defenses are dependent on full and precise recovery of class
inheritance tree of a given program.
  While current solutions focus on recovering single and multiple inheritances
from the binary, they are oblivious to virtual inheritance. Conventional wisdom
among binary-level defenses is that virtual inheritance is uncommon and/or
support for single and multiple inheritances provides implicit support for
virtual inheritance. In this paper, we show neither to be true.
  Specifically, (1) we present an efficient technique to detect virtual
inheritance in C++ binaries and show through a study that virtual inheritance
can be found in non-negligible number (more than 10\% on Linux and 12.5\% on
Windows) of real-world C++ programs including Mysql and libstdc++. (2) we show
that failure to handle virtual inheritance introduces both false positives and
false negatives in the hierarchy tree. These false positves and negatives
either introduce attack surface when the hierarchy recovered is used to enforce
CFI policies, or make the hierarchy difficult to understand when it is needed
for program understanding (e.g., during decompilation). (3) We present a
solution to recover virtual inheritance from COTS binaries. We recover a
maximum of 95\% and 95.5\% (GCC -O0) and a minimum of 77.5\% and 73.8\% (Clang
-O2) of virtual and intermediate bases respectively in the virtual inheritance
tree.


  Direct detection of WIMP dark matter candidates has to face many difficult
challenges. In particular, it requires an extremely high level of background
rejection. The only way out seems to be particle identification which, for
experiments based on nucleus recoil, is most efficiently performed by
simultaneously detecting ionization or light and phonons. When comparing
different approaches, it is necessary to keep in mind the potential requirement
of building large detectors and the difficulties that this condition may raise
for some cryogenic devices. It is claimed that the luminescent bolometer
(simultaneous detection of light and phonons) red by arrays of superconducting
tunnel junctions, as proposed by the author some years ago, ultimately provides
the most appropriate WIMP detector. Solar neutrino detection and other
applications are also briefly discussed.


  Data aggregation is a promising approach to enable massive machine-type
communication (mMTC). This paper focuses on the aggregation phase where a
massive number of machine-type devices (MTDs) transmit to aggregators. By using
non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) principles, we allow several MTDs to
share the same orthogonal channel in our proposed hybrid access scheme. We
develop an analytical framework based on stochastic geometry to investigate the
system performance in terms of average success probability and average number
of simultaneously served MTDs, under imperfect successive interference
cancellation (SIC) at the aggregators, for two scheduling schemes: random
resource scheduling (RRS) and channel-aware resource scheduling (CRS). We
identify the power constraints on the MTDs sharing the same channel to attain a
fair coexistence with purely orthogonal multiple access (OMA) setups, then
power control coefficients are found so that these MTDs perform with similar
reliability. We show that under high access demand, the hybrid scheme with CRS
outperforms the OMA setup by simultaneously serving more MTDs with reduced
power consumption.


  We present low temperature specific heat and ac-susceptibility measurements
on Fe$_{8}$ powdered sample. Below 1.3 K, superparamagnetic blocking effects as
well as an excess specific heat contribution are evident. The latter is
attributed to a splitting of the ground state doublet in an inhomogeneous local
field of hyperfine and dipolar origin. The local field contributions are
evident in the resonances observed in the field dependent ac-susceptibility and
specific heat below 0.5 K. The low temperature Schottky contribution allowed us
to check the crystal field parameters of effective spin Hamiltonians, recently
proposed to simulate EPR and inelastic neutron scattering experiments.


  The de-facto standard approach in MDP verification is based on value
iteration (VI). We propose compositional VI, a framework for model checking
compositional MDPs, that addresses efficiency while maintaining soundness.
Concretely, compositional MDPs naturally arise from the combination of
individual components, and their structure can be expressed using, e.g., string
diagrams. Towards efficiency, we observe that compositional VI repeatedly
verifies individual components. We propose a technique called Pareto caching
that allows to reuse verification results, even for previously unseen queries.
Towards soundness, we present two stopping criteria: one generalizes the
optimistic value iteration paradigm and the other uses Pareto caches in
conjunction with recent baseline algorithms. Our experimental evaluations shows
the promise of the novel algorithm and its variations, and identifies
challenges for future work.


  The sensitivity of the atmospheric neutrino experiments to the non-standard
flavor-dependent interaction in neutrino propagation is studied under the
assumption that the only nonvanishing components of the non-standard matter
effect are the electron and tau neutrino components $\epsilon_{ee}$,
$\epsilon_{e\tau}$, $\epsilon_{\tau\tau}$ and that the tau-tau component
satisfies the constraint
$\epsilon_{\tau\tau}=|\epsilon_{e\tau}|^2/(1+\epsilon_{ee})$ which is suggested
from the high energy behavior for atmospheric neutrino data. It is shown that
the Superkamiokande (SK) data for 4438 days constrains
$|\tan\beta|\equiv|\epsilon_{e\tau}/(1+\epsilon_{ee})|\lesssim 0.8$ at
2.5$\sigma$ (98.8\%) CL whereas the future Hyperkamiokande experiment for the
same period of time as SK will constrain as $|\tan\beta|\lesssim 0.3$ at
2.5$\sigma$CL from the energy rate analysis and the energy spectrum analysis
will give even tighter bounds on $\epsilon_{ee}$ and $|\epsilon_{e\tau}|$.


  Only increasing accuracy without considering uncertainty may negatively
impact Deep Neural Network (DNN) decision-making and decrease its reliability.
This paper proposes five combined preprocessing and post-processing methods for
time-series binary classification problems that simultaneously increase the
accuracy and reliability of DNN outputs applied in a 5G UAV security dataset.
These techniques use DNN outputs as input parameters and process them in
different ways. Two methods use a well-known Machine Learning (ML) algorithm as
a complement, and the other three use only confidence values that the DNN
estimates. We compare seven different metrics, such as the Expected Calibration
Error (ECE), Maximum Calibration Error (MCE), Mean Confidence (MC), Mean
Accuracy (MA), Normalized Negative Log Likelihood (NLL), Brier Score Loss
(BSL), and Reliability Score (RS) and the tradeoffs between them to evaluate
the proposed hybrid algorithms. First, we show that the eXtreme Gradient
Boosting (XGB) classifier might not be reliable for binary classification under
the conditions this work presents. Second, we demonstrate that at least one of
the potential methods can achieve better results than the classification in the
DNN softmax layer. Finally, we show that the prospective methods may improve
accuracy and reliability with better uncertainty calibration based on the
assumption that the RS determines the difference between MC and MA metrics, and
this difference should be zero to increase reliability. For example, Method 3
presents the best RS of 0.65 even when compared to the XGB classifier, which
achieves RS of 7.22.


  An unknown small-x behavior of nucleon structure functions gives appreciable
uncertainties to high-energy neutrino-nucleon cross-sections. We construct
structure functions using at small x Regge inspired description by A. Donnachie
and P. V. Landshoff with soft and hard pomerons, and employing at larger x the
perturbative QCD expressions. The smooth interpolation between two regimes for
each Q^2 is provided with the help of simple polynomial functions. To obtain
low-x neutrino-nucleon structure functions $F_2^{\nu N, \bar \nu N}(x,Q^2)$ and
singlet part of $F_{3}^{\nu N,\bar \nu N}(x,Q^2)$ from Donnachie-Landshoff
function $F_2^{ep}(x,Q^2)$, we use the Q^2-dependent ratios R_2(Q^2) and
R_3(Q^2) derived from perturbative QCD calculations. Non-singlet part of F_3 at
low x, which is very small, is taken as power-law extrapolation of perturbative
function at larger x. This procedure gives a full set of smooth
neutrino-nucleon structure functions in the whole range of x and Q^2 at
interest.
  Using these structure functions, we have calculated the neutrino-nucleon
cross-sections and compared them with some other cross-sections known in
literature. Our cross-sections turn out to be the highest among them at the
highest energies, which is explained by contribution of the hard pomeron.


  It is shown that high energy neutrino beams from very distant sources can
beutilized to learn about some properties fof neutrinos such as lifetimes and
mass hierarchy etc. Furthermore, even mixing elements such as U-e3 and the CPV
phase can be measured in principle. Pseudo-Dirac mass differences as small as
10^-18 eV^2 can be probed as well.


  The electronic structure of molecules on metal surfaces is largely determined
by hybridization and screening by the substrate electrons. As a result, the
energy levels are significantly broadened and molecular properties, such as
vibrations are hidden within the spectral lineshapes. Insertion of thin
decoupling layers reduces the linewidths and may give access to the resolution
of electronic and vibronic states of an almost isolated molecule. Here, we use
scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy to show that a single layer of
MoS$_{2}$ on Ag(111) provides a semiconducting band gap that may prevent
molecular states from strong interactions with the metal substrate. We show
that the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of
tetra-cyano-quino-dimethane (TCNQ) molecules is significantly narrower than on
the bare substrate and that it is accompanied by a characteristic satellite
structure. Employing simple calculations within the Franck-Condon model, we
reveal their vibronic origin and identify the modes with strong electron-phonon
coupling.


  We describe an action principle, within the framework of the Eddington
gravity, which incorporates the matter fields in a simple manner.
Interestingly, the gravitational field equations derived from this action is
identical to the Einstein's equations, in contrast with the earlier attempts in
the literature. The cosmological constant arises as an integration constant in
this approach. In fact, the derivation of the field equations demands the
existence of a non-zero cosmological constant, thereby providing the raison
d'\^{e}tre for a non-zero cosmological constant, implied by the current
observations. Several features of our approach strongly support the paradigm
that gravity is an emergent phenomenon and, in this perspective, our action
principle could have a possible origin in the microstructure of the spacetime.
We also discuss several extensions of the action principle, including the one
which can incorporate torsion in the spacetime. We also show that an
Eddington-like action can be constructed to obtain the field equations of the
Lanczos-Lovelock gravity.


  A potential crewed mission to Mars would require us to solve a number of
problems, including how to protect astronauts against the devastating effects
of energetic charged particles from Solar and Galactic sources. The radiation
environment on Mars is of particular interest, since maintaining optimal
absorbed doses by astronauts is crucial to their survival. Here, we give an
overview of the conditions on Mars, as determined by theoretical models and
in-situ measurements, and present the main proposed strategies to mitigate
radiation exposure while on Mars. Specifically, we focus on the passive
shielding technique. Several widely used materials, along with some innovative
ones and combinations of those, are studied for their behavior against Solar
Energetic Particle Events and Galactic Cosmic Rays in the Martian environment.
For that purpose, we implement the GEANT4 package, a Monte-Carlo numerical
model developed by CERN, which is specifically applied to simulate interactions
of radiation with matter. A description of our model will be given, followed by
outputs of the numerical model. We conclude that hydrogen-rich materials act as
better attenuators, as expected, but other materials can be helpful against
cosmic rays too.


  Customizing services for bus travel can bolster its attractiveness, optimize
usage, alleviate traffic congestion, and diminish carbon emissions. This
potential is realized by harnessing recent advancements in positioning
communication facilities, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence
for feature mining in public transportation. However, the inherent complexities
of disorganized and unstructured public transportation data introduce
substantial challenges to travel feature extraction. This study presents a bus
travel feature extraction method rooted in Point of Interest (POI) data,
employing enhanced P-KMENAS and P-LDA algorithms to overcome these limitations.
While the KMEANS algorithm adeptly segments passenger travel paths into
distinct clusters, its outcomes can be influenced by the initial K value. On
the other hand, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) excels at feature
identification and probabilistic interpretations yet encounters difficulties
with feature intermingling and nuanced sub-feature interactions. Incorporating
the POI dimension enhances our understanding of travel behavior, aligning it
more closely with passenger attributes and facilitating easier data analysis.
By incorporating POI data, our refined P-KMENAS and P-LDA algorithms grant a
holistic insight into travel behaviors and attributes, effectively mitigating
the limitations above. Consequently, this POI-centric algorithm effectively
amalgamates diverse POI attributes, delineates varied travel contexts, and
imparts probabilistic metrics to feature properties. Our method successfully
mines the diverse aspects of bus travel, such as age, occupation, gender,
sports, cost, safety, and personality traits. It effectively calculates
relationships between individual travel behaviors and assigns explanatory and
evaluative probabilities to POI labels, thereby enhancing bus travel
optimization.


  Quantum cosmology uses a wave function to model the universe, but finding
solutions for this poses a problem as it is difficult to define the boundary
conditions or identify the correct path for a path integral. We begin the
discussion by going over various proposals and look at how bubble universe
nucleation can be used as an analogy for the tunneling wave function. We review
how the Hartle-Hawking wave function and tunneling wave functions are
equivalent. This leads into how the transition between the decelerated and
accelerated expansion is formulated as a bounce in connection space. This is
done in a toy model Universe that contains only radiation and a cosmological
constant $\Lambda$. The wave function is a superposition on an incident wave, a
reflected wave, and an evanescent wave; when it is constructed from wave
packets. Using the toy model, we introduce the new concept of the universe
tunneling to a different classical region during this bounce in connection
space. This concept is explored by deriving the wave function of the evanescent
wave $\psi_{ev}$ in order to calculate $|\psi|^2$ to give an indication of the
probability of the universe tunneling to another classical region.


  The brightest supernova remnant in the Magellanic Clouds, N132D, belongs to
the rare class of oxygen-rich remnants, about a dozen objects that show optical
emission from pure heavy-element ejecta. They originate in explosions of
massive stars that produce large amounts of O, although only a tiny fraction of
that O is found to emit at optical wavelengths. We report the detection of
substantial amounts of O at X-ray wavelengths in a recent 100 ks Chandra ACIS
observation of N132D. A comparison between subarcsecond-resolution Chandra and
Hubble images reveals a good match between clumpy X-ray and optically emitting
ejecta on large (but not small) scales. Ejecta spectra are dominated by strong
lines of He- and H-like O; they exhibit substantial spatial variations
partially caused by patchy absorption within the LMC. Because optical ejecta
are concentrated in a 5 pc radius elliptical expanding shell, the detected
ejecta X-ray emission also originates in this shell.


  The use of Kalman filtering, as well as its nonlinear extensions, for the
estimation of system variables and parameters has played a pivotal role in many
fields of scientific inquiry where observations of the system are restricted to
a subset of variables. However in the case of censored observations, where
measurements of the system beyond a certain detection point are impossible, the
estimation problem is complicated. Without appropriate consideration, censored
observations can lead to inaccurate estimates. Motivated by the work of [1], we
develop a modified version of the extended Kalman filter to handle the case of
censored observations in nonlinear systems. We validate this methodology in a
simple oscillator system first, showing its ability to accurately reconstruct
state variables and track system parameters when observations are censored.
Finally, we utilize the nonlinear censored filter to analyze censored datasets
from patients with hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus.


  The bulk of the present-day stellar mass was formed in galaxies when the
universe was less than half its current age (i.e., $1 \lesssim z \lesssim 3$).
While this likely marks one of the most critical time periods for galaxy
evolution, we currently do not have a clear picture on the radial extent and
distribution of cold molecular gas and associated star formation within the
disks of galaxies during this epoch. Such observations are essential to
properly estimate the efficiency at which such galaxies convert their gas into
stars, as well as to account for the various energetic processes that govern
this efficiency. Long-wavelength (i.e., far-infrared--to--radio) observations
are critical to penetrate the high-levels of extinction associated with dusty,
infrared-bright galaxies that are driving the stellar mass assembly at such
epochs. In this article we discuss how the next-generation Very Large Array
will take a transformative step in our understanding of galaxy formation and
evolution by delivering the ability to simultaneously study the relative
distributions molecular gas and star formation on sub-kpc scales unbiased by
dust for large populations of typical galaxies in the early universe detected
by future far-infrared space missions.


  We present a summary of the applications of duality to Donaldson-Witten
theory and its generalizations. Special emphasis is made on the computation of
Donaldson invariants in terms of Seiberg-Witten invariants using recent results
in N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory. A brief account on the invariants obtained
in the theory of non-abelian monopoles is also presented.


  The familiar approach to quantum radiation following collapse to a black hole
proceeds via Bogoliubov transformations, and yields probabilities for final
outcomes. In our (complex) approach, we find quantum amplitudes, not just
probabilities, by following Feynman's $+i\epsilon$ prescription. Initial and
final data for Einstein gravity and (say) a massless scalar field are specified
on a pair of asymptotically-flat space-like hypersurfaces $\Sigma_I$ and
$\Sigma_F$; both are diffeomorphic to ${\Bbb R}^3$. Denote by $T$ the (real)
Lorentzian proper-time interval between the surfaces, as measured at spatial
infinity. Then rotate: $T\to{\mid}T{\mid}\exp(-i\theta),0<\theta\leq \pi/2$.
The {\it classical} boundary-value problem is expected to be well-posed on a
region of topology $I\times{\Bbb R}^3$, where $I$ is a closed interval. For a
locally-supersymmetric theory, the quantum amplitude should be dominated by the
semi-classical expression $\exp(iS_{\rm class})$, where $S_{\rm class}$ is the
classical action. One finds the Lorentzian quantum amplitude from the limit
$\theta\to 0_+$. In the usual approach, the only possible such final surfaces
are in the strong-field region shortly before the curvature singularity. In our
approach one can put arbitrary smooth gravitational data on $\Sigma_F$,
provided that it has the correct mass $M$ -- the singularity is by-passed in
the analytic continuation. Here, we consider Bogoliubov transformations and
their possible relation to the probability distribution and density matrix in
the traditional approach. We find that our probability distribution for
configurations of the final scalar field cannot be expressed in terms of the
diagonal elements of some non-trivial density-matrix distribution.


  Fluorescent latex beads have been widely used as tracers in microfluidics
over for the last decades. They have the advantages to be density matched with
water and to be easily localizable using fluorescence microscopy. We have
recently synthesized silver-coated oil droplets that are both luminescent and
absorptive, by first coating the oil interface with a polydopamine layer and
then depositing a silver layer by a redox process. They have a mean diameter of
6 \mu m and a their density has been matched to the density of water by
adjusting the thickness of the metallic layer. In this work we used these
particles as tracers to measure the velocity profile of a water flow in a PDMS
microchannel with a rectangular cross-section, which allowed us to confirm the
predictions of the Stokes equation with results comparable to those of common
submicronic polystyrene particles.


  This paper introduces an assumption-lean method that constructs valid and
efficient lower predictive bounds (LPBs) for survival times with censored data.
We build on recent work by Cand\`es et al. (2021), whose approach first subsets
the data to discard any data points with early censoring times, and then uses a
reweighting technique (namely, weighted conformal inference (Tibshirani et al.,
2019)) to correct for the distribution shift introduced by this subsetting
procedure.
  For our new method, instead of constraining to a fixed threshold for the
censoring time when subsetting the data, we allow for a covariate-dependent and
data-adaptive subsetting step, which is better able to capture the
heterogeneity of the censoring mechanism. As a result, our method can lead to
LPBs that are less conservative and give more accurate information. We show
that in the Type I right-censoring setting, if either of the censoring
mechanism or the conditional quantile of survival time is well estimated, our
proposed procedure achieves nearly exact marginal coverage, where in the latter
case we additionally have approximate conditional coverage. We evaluate the
validity and efficiency of our proposed algorithm in numerical experiments,
illustrating its advantage when compared with other competing methods. Finally,
our method is applied to a real dataset to generate LPBs for users' active
times on a mobile app.


  The transition from classical physics to quantum mechanics has been
mysterious. Here, we derive the space-independent von Neumann equation for
electron spin mathematically from the classical Bloch or Majorana--Bloch
equation, which is also derived. Subsequently, the space-independent
Schr\"odinger--Pauli equation is derived in both the quantum mechanical and
recently developed co-quantum dynamic frameworks.


  Shack Hartmann Sensor (SHS) is inflicted with significant background noise
that deteriorates the wave-front reconstruction accuracy. In this paper, a
simple method to remove the back ground noise with the use of Zernike
polynomials is suggested. The images corresponding to individual array points
of the SHS at the detector, placed at the focal plane are independently
reconstructed using Zernike polynomials by the calculation of Zernike moments.
Appropriate thresholding is applied on the images. It is shown with
computational experiments that using Zernike Reconstructor along with usual
thresholding improves the centroiding accuracy when compared to direct
thresholding. A study was performed at different Signal to Noise ratio by
changing the number of Zernike orders used for reconstruction. The analysis
helps us in setting upper and lower bounds in the application of this denoising
procedure.


  We give a new proof of the theorem stating that for any connected linear
algebraic group G over an algebraically closed field k of characteristic 0 and
for any closed connected subgroup H of G, the unramified Brauer group of G/H
vanishes.


  We propose an optical cavity-QED scheme for the deterministic generation of
polarization entangled photon pairs that operates with high fidelity even in
the bad cavity limit. The scheme is based on the interaction of an excited
four-level atom with two empty optical cavity modes via an adiabatic passage
process. Monte-Carlo wave function simulations are used to evaluate the
fidelity of the cavity-QED source and its entanglement capability in the
presence of decoherence. In the bad cavity limit, fidelities close to one are
predicted for state-of-the-art experimental parameter values.


  Considering the natural ventilation, the thermal behavior of buildings can be
described by a linear time varying model. In this paper, we describe an
implementation of model reduction of linear time varying systems. We show the
consequences of the model reduction on computing time and accuracy. Finally, we
compare experimental measures and simulation results using the initial model or
the reduced model. The reduced model shows negligible difference in accuracy,
and the computing time shortens.


  We construct a classical non-relativistic string model in 3+1 dimensions. The
model contains a spurion tensor field that is responsible for the
non-commutative structure of the model. Under double dimensional reduction the
model reduces to the exotic non-relativistic particle in 2+1 dimensions.


  A commutative ring R has finite rank r, if each ideal of R is generated at
most by r elements. A commutative ring R has the r-generator property, if each
finitely generated ideal of R can be generated by r elements. Such rings are
closely related to Pr\"ufer domains. In the present paper we investigate some
analogs of these concepts for modules over group rings.


  We outline a method for dealing with the relaxation of optically excited NaI
F centers in terms of a single effective frequency along a multimode
coordinate. The 2s-2p mixing through coupling to a T_{1u} vibrational mode is
also discussed with optimistic conclusions. Equilibrium nonradiative
deexcitation rates are estimated and compared with intervibrational relaxations
so as to assess the efficiency of the nonequilibrium DKR deexcitation. They
show the former not to be competitive, due to the large number of phonons
exchanged.


  FeSe is classed as a Hund's metal, with a multiplicity of $d$ bands near the
Fermi level. Correlations in Hund's metals mostly originate from the exchange
parameter \emph{J}, which can drive a strong orbital selectivity in the
correlations. The Fe-chalcogens are the most strongly correlated of the
Fe-based superconductors, with $d_{xy}$ the most correlated orbital. Yet little
is understood whether and how such correlations directly affect the
superconducting instability in Hund's systems.
  By applying a recently developed high-fidelity \emph{ab initio} theory, we
show explicitly the connections between correlations in $d_{xy}$ and the
superconducting critical temperature $T_{c}$. Starting from the \emph{ab
initio} results as a reference, we consider various kinds of excursions in
parameter space around the reference to determine what controls $T_{c}$. We
show small excursions in $J$ can cause colossal changes in $T_{c}$.
Additionally we consider changes in hopping by varying the Fe-Se bond length in
bulk, in the free standing monolayer M-FeSe, and M-FeSe on a SrTiO$_{3}$
substrate (M-FeSe/STO). The twin conditions of proximity of the $d_{xy}$ state
to the Fermi energy, and the strength of $J$ emerge as the primary criteria for
incoherent spectral response and enhanced single- and two-particle scattering
that in turn controls $T_{c}$. Using constrained RPA, we show further that FeSe
in monolayer form (M-FeSe) provides a natural mechanism to enhance $J$. We
explain why M-FeSe/STO has a high $T_{c}$, whereas M-FeSe in isolation should
not.
  Our study opens a paradigm for a unified understanding what controls $T_{c}$
in bulk, layers, and interfaces of Hund's metals by hole pocket and electron
screening cloud engineering.


  In 1992 a puzzling transition was discovered in simulations of randomly
coupled limit-cycle oscillators. This so-called volcano transition has resisted
analysis ever since. It was originally conjectured to mark the emergence of an
oscillator glass, but here we show it need not. We introduce and solve a
simpler model with a qualitatively identical volcano transition and find,
unexpectedly, that its supercritical state is not glassy. We discuss the
implications for the original model and suggest experimental systems in which a
volcano transition and oscillator glass may appear.


  The recently measured yeast transcriptional network is analyzed in terms of
simplified Boolean network models, with the aim of determining feasible rule
structures, given the requirement of stable solutions of the generated Boolean
networks. We find that for ensembles of generated models, those with canalyzing
Boolean rules are remarkably stable, whereas those with random Boolean rules
are only marginally stable. Furthermore, substantial parts of the generated
networks are frozen, in the sense that they reach the same state regardless of
initial state. Thus, our ensemble approach suggests that the yeast network
shows highly ordered dynamics.


  As the interest in adhesion is shifting towards smaller and smaller scales,
the well known Tabor adhesion parameter decreases and the DMT theory is
frequently considered to be the appropriate limit. A very attractive much
simplified version of DMT has been proposed in a recent investigation of rough
contacts by Pastewka & Robbins (PNAS, 111(9), 3298-3303, 2014) which seems to
work in very general conditions in numerical experiments. However, when
comparing this calculation to the known theories for the sphere, surprisingly
large conflicts occur, and the reason for the success of the numerical
experiments is obscure.


  In this paper we use duality techniques to study a combination of the
well-known contact process (CP) and the somewhat less-known annihilating
branching process. As the latter can be seen as a cancellative version of the
contact process, we rebrand it as the cancellative contact process (cCP). Our
process of interest will consist of two entries, the first being a CP and the
second being a cCP. We call this process the double contact process (2CP) and
prove that it has (depending on the model parameters) at most one invariant law
under which ones are present in both processes. In particular, we can choose
the model parameter in such a way that CP and cCP are monotonely coupled. In
this case also the above mentioned invariant law will have the property that,
under it, ones in the cCP can only be present at sites where there are also
ones in the CP. Along the way we extend the dualities for Markov processes
discovered in our paper "Commutative monoid duality" to processes on infinite
state spaces so that they, in particular, can be used for interacting particle
systems.


  Studying event time series is a powerful approach for analyzing the dynamics
of complex dynamical systems in many fields of science. In this paper, we
describe the method of event coincidence analysis to provide a framework for
quantifying the strength, directionality and time lag of statistical
interrelationships between event series. Event coincidence analysis allows to
formulate and test null hypotheses on the origin of the observed
interrelationships including tests based on Poisson processes or, more
generally, stochastic point processes with a prescribed inter-event time
distribution and other higher-order properties. Applying the framework to
country-level observational data yields evidence that flood events have acted
as triggers of epidemic outbreaks globally since the 1950s. Facing projected
future changes in the statistics of climatic extreme events, statistical
techniques such as event coincidence analysis will be relevant for
investigating the impacts of anthropogenic climate change on human societies
and ecosystems worldwide.


  Transformers use the dense self-attention mechanism which gives a lot of
flexibility for long-range connectivity. Over multiple layers of a deep
transformer, the number of possible connectivity patterns increases
exponentially. However, very few of these contribute to the performance of the
network, and even fewer are essential. We hypothesize that there are sparsely
connected sub-networks within a transformer, called information pathways which
can be trained independently. However, the dynamic (i.e., input-dependent)
nature of these pathways makes it difficult to prune dense self-attention
during training. But the overall distribution of these pathways is often
predictable. We take advantage of this fact to propose Stochastically
Subsampled self-Attention (SSA) - a general-purpose training strategy for
transformers that can reduce both the memory and computational cost of
self-attention by 4 to 8 times during training while also serving as a
regularization method - improving generalization over dense training. We show
that an ensemble of sub-models can be formed from the subsampled pathways
within a network, which can achieve better performance than its densely
attended counterpart. We perform experiments on a variety of NLP, computer
vision and graph learning tasks in both generative and discriminative settings
to provide empirical evidence for our claims and show the effectiveness of the
proposed method.


  We review some of our results from the theory of product systems of Hilbert
modules. We explain that the product systems obtained from a CP-semigroup in a
paper by Bhat and Skeide and in a paper by Muhly and Solel are commutants of
each other. Then we use this new commutant technique to construct product
systems from E_0-semigroups on B^a(E) where E is a strongly full von Neumann
module. (This improves the construction from a paper by Skeide for Hilbert
modules where existence of a unit vector is required.) Finally, we point out
that the Arveson system of a CP-semigroup constructed by Powers from two
spatial E_0-semigroups is the product of the corresponding spatial Arveson
systems as defined (for Hilbert modules) in a paper by Skeide. It need not
coincide with the tensor product of Arveson systems.


  Motivated by issues in string theory and M-theory, we provide a pedestrian
introduction to automorphic forms and theta series, emphasizing examples rather
than generality.


  An algorithmic decision-maker incentivizes people to act in certain ways to
receive better decisions. These incentives can dramatically influence subjects'
behaviors and lives, and it is important that both decision-makers and
decision-recipients have clarity on which actions are incentivized by the
chosen model. While for linear functions, the changes a subject is incentivized
to make may be clear, we prove that for many non-linear functions (e.g. neural
networks, random forests), classical methods for interpreting the behavior of
models (e.g. input gradients) provide poor advice to individuals on which
actions they should take. In this work, we propose a mathematical framework for
understanding algorithmic incentives as the challenge of solving a Markov
Decision Process, where the state includes the set of input features, and the
reward is a function of the model's output. We can then leverage the many
toolkits for solving MDPs (e.g. tree-based planning, reinforcement learning) to
identify the optimal actions each individual is incentivized to take to improve
their decision under a given model. We demonstrate the utility of our method by
estimating the maximally-incentivized actions in two real-world settings: a
recidivism risk predictor we train using ProPublica's COMPAS dataset, and an
online credit scoring tool published by the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO).


  The second-order equation in the (1/2,0)+(0,1/2) representation of the
Lorentz group has been proposed by A. Barut in the beginning of the 70s. It
permits to explain the mass splitting of leptons e,mu,tau. Recently, the
interest has grown to this model (see, for instance, the papers by S. Kruglov
and J. P. Vigier et al.). We continue the research deriving the equation from
the first principles, finding the dynamical invariants for this model,
investigating the influence of the potential interactions.


  In this paper we give a description of all Pythagorean triples in the ring
${{\mathbb Z}}[\tau]$. We also consider triples in the Fibonacci model set
which satisfy the Diophantine equations arising from Fermat's Last Theorem.
Examples are provided, including a counterexample to Fermat's Last Theorem for
the third degree in the Fibonacci model set.


  We regard binary black hole (BBH) merger as a map from a simple initial state
(two Kerr black holes, with dimensionless spins {\bf a} and {\bf b}) to a
simple final state (a Kerr black hole with mass m, dimensionless spin {\bf s},
and kick velocity {\bf k}). By expanding this map around {\bf a} = {\bf b} = 0
and applying symmetry constraints, we obtain a simple formalism that is
remarkably successful at explaining existing BBH simulations. It also makes
detailed predictions and suggests a more efficient way of mapping the parameter
space of binary black hole merger. Since we rely on symmetry rather than
dynamics, our expansion complements previous analytical techniques.


  Integrated satellite-terrestrial communications networks aim to exploit both
the satellite and the ground mobile communications, thus providing genuine
ubiquitous coverage. For 5G integrated low earth orbit (LEO) satellite
communication systems, the timing advance (TA) is required to be estimated in
the initial random access procedure in order to facilitate the uplink frame
alignment among different users. However, due to the inherent characteristics
of LEO satellite communication systems, e.g., wide beam coverage and long
propagation delays, the existing 5G terrestrial uplink TA scheme is not
applicable in the satellite networks. In this paper, we investigate
location-based TA estimation for 5G integrated LEO satellite communication
systems. We obtain the time difference of arrival (TDOA) and frequency
difference of arrival (FDOA) measurements in the downlink timing and frequency
synchronization phase, which are made from the satellite at different time
instants. We propose to take these measurements for either UE geolocation or
ephemeris estimation, thus calculating the TA value. The estimation is then
formulated as a quadratic optimization problem whose globally optimal solution
can be obtained by a quadratic penalty algorithm. To reduce the computational
complexity, we further propose an alternative approximation method based on
iteratively performing a linearization procedure on the quadratic equality
constraints. Numerical results show that the proposed methods can approach the
constrained Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of the TA estimation and thus assure
uplink frame alignment for different users.


  We present an ab initio relativistic k.p theory of the effect of magnetic
exchange field on the band structure in the gap region of bulk crystals and
thin films of three-dimensional layered topological insulators. For the field
perpendicular to the layers (along $z$), we reveal novel unconventional
scenarios of the response of the band-gap edges to the magnetization. The
modification of the valence and conduction states is considered in terms of
their $\Gamma$-point spin $s^z$ and total angular momentum $J^z$ on the atomic
sites where the states are localized. The actual scenario depends on whether
$s^z$ and $J^z$ have the same or opposite sign. In particular, the opposite
sign for the valence state and the same sign for the conduction state give rise
to an unconventional response in Bi$_2$Te$_3$ -- both in the bulk crystal and
in ultra-thin films, which fundamentally distinguishes this topological
insulator from Bi$_2$Se$_3$, where both states have the same sign. To gain a
deeper insight into different scenarios in insulators with both inverted and
non-inverted zero-field band structure, a minimal four-band third-order k.p
model is constructed from first principles. Within this model, we analyze the
field-induced band structure of the insulators and identify Weyl nodes that
appear in a magnetic phase and behave differently depending on the scenario. We
characterize the topology of the modified band structure by the Chern number
$\mathcal{C}$ and find the unconventional response to be accompanied by a large
Chern number $\mathcal{C}=\pm3$.


  We consider the ADM splitting of the Einstein-Hilbert action in five
dimensions in the presence of matter that can be either a "point particle", or
a set of scalar fields. The Hamiltonian, being a linear superposition of
constraints, is equal to zero. Upon quantization, we obtain the Schr\"odinger
equation for a wave functional, \Psi, that depends on the matter degrees of
freedom, and on the 5D gravity degrees of freedom. After the Kaluza-Klein
splitting, the functional Schr\"odinger equation decomposes so that it contains
a part due to 4D gravity, a part due to electrodynamics, and a part due to
matter. Depending on choice of the matter term, we obtain two different
versions of a modified quantum electrodynamics. In one version, time
automatically appears, and there is no problem with infinite vacuum energy
density of matter fields, whereas in the other version such problems exist.


  We report on the observations of two ultra metal-poor (UMP) stars with
[Fe/H]~-4.0 including one new discovery. The two stars are studied in the
on-going and quite efficient project to search for extremely metal-poor (EMP)
stars with LAMOST and Subaru. Detailed abundances or upper limits of abundances
have been derived for 15 elements from Li to Eu based on high-resolution
spectra obtained with Subaru/HDS. The abundance patterns of both UMP stars are
consistent with the "normal-population" among the low-metallicity stars. Both
of the two program stars show carbon-enhancement without any excess of heavy
neutron-capture elements, indicating that they belong to the subclass of
CEMP-no stars, as is the case of most UMP stars previously studied. The [Sr/Ba]
ratios of both CEMP-no UMP stars are above [Sr/Ba]~-0.4, suggesting the origin
of the carbon-excess is not compatible with the mass transfer from an AGB
companion where the s-process has operated. Lithium abundance is measured in
the newly discovered UMP star LAMOST J125346.09+075343.1, making it the second
UMP turnoff star with Li detection. The Li abundance of LAMOST
J125346.09+075343.1 is slightly lower than the values obtained for less
metal-poor stars with similar temperature, and provides a unique data point at
[Fe/H]~-4.2 to support the "meltdown" of the Li Spite-plateau at extremely low
metallicity. Comparison with the other two UMP and HMP (hyper metal-poor with
[Fe/H]<-5.0) turnoff stars suggests that the difference in lighter elements
such as CNO and Na might cause notable difference in lithium abundances among
CEMP-no stars.


  This paper addresses sensitivity analysis for dynamic models, linking
dependent inputs to observed outputs. The usual method to estimate Sobol
indices are based on the independence of input variables. We present a method
to overpass this constraint when inputs are Gaussian processes of high
dimension in a time related framework. Our proposition leads to a
generalization of Sobol indices when inputs are both dependant and dynamic. The
method of estimation is a modification of the Pick and Freeze simulation
scheme. First we study the general Gaussian cases and secondly we detail the
case of stationary models. We then apply the results to an example of heat
exchanges inside a building.


  We consider the simple exclusion process on Z x {0, 1}, that is, an
''horizontal ladder'' composed of 2 lanes, depending on 6 parameters. Particles
can jump according to a lane-dependent translation-invariant nearest neighbour
jump kernel, i.e. ''horizontally'' along each lane, and ''vertically'' along
the scales of the ladder. We prove that generically, the set of extremal
invariant measures consists of (i) translation-invariant product Bernoulli
measures; and, modulo translations along Z: (ii) at most two shock measures
(i.e. asymptotic to Bernoulli measures at $\pm$$\infty$) with asymptotic
densities 0 and 2; (iii) at most one (outside degenerate cases) shock measure
with a density jump of magnitude 1. We fully determine this set for a range of
parameter values. In fact, outside degenerate cases, there is at most one shock
measure of type (iii). Our results can be generalized in several directions
using the same approach and answer certain open questions formulated in
\cite{ligd} as a step towards the process on $\mathbb{Z}^2$.


  Validation is a major challenge in differentiable programming. The state of
the art is based on algorithmic differentiation. Consistency of first-order
tangent and adjoint programs is defined by a well-known first-order
differential invariant. This paper generalizes the approach through derivation
of corresponding differential invariants of arbitrary order.


  After Fossas-Parlier, we consider two graphs $\mathcal{G}_{0}(S)$ and
$\mathcal{G}_{\infty}(S)$, constructed from multicurves on connected,
orientable surfaces of infinite-type. Our first result asserts that
$\mathcal{G}_{\infty}(S)$ has finite diameter, which extends a result of
Fossas-Parlier. Next, we prove that the group of (label-preserving)
automorphisms of $\mathcal{G}_{0}(S)$ is the extended mapping class group of
$S$, which may be regarded as an infinite-type analog of a theorem of Margalit
about pants complexes.


  Despite outstanding performance in a variety of NLP tasks, recent studies
have revealed that NLP models are vulnerable to adversarial attacks that
slightly perturb the input to cause the models to misbehave. Among these
attacks, adversarial word-level perturbations are well-studied and effective
attack strategies. Since these attacks work in black-box settings, they do not
require access to the model architecture or model parameters and thus can be
detrimental to existing NLP applications. To perform an attack, the adversary
queries the victim model many times to determine the most important words in an
input text and to replace these words with their corresponding synonyms. In
this work, we propose a lightweight and attack-agnostic defense whose main goal
is to perplex the process of generating an adversarial example in these
query-based black-box attacks; that is to fool the textual fooler. This
defense, named AdvFooler, works by randomizing the latent representation of the
input at inference time. Different from existing defenses, AdvFooler does not
necessitate additional computational overhead during training nor relies on
assumptions about the potential adversarial perturbation set while having a
negligible impact on the model's accuracy. Our theoretical and empirical
analyses highlight the significance of robustness resulting from confusing the
adversary via randomizing the latent space, as well as the impact of
randomization on clean accuracy. Finally, we empirically demonstrate near
state-of-the-art robustness of AdvFooler against representative adversarial
word-level attacks on two benchmark datasets.


  Kondo temperature is standardly defined from the local zero-temperature
susceptibility in the regime of strong electron correlations as a new scale
controlling the low-temperature asymptotics of thermodynamic quantities. We
show by using a two-particle self-consistent theory that the Kondo temperature
can be identified as a crossover temperature at which the zero-temperature
quantum fluctuations equal the thermal ones in the electron-hole correlation
function. The high-temperature Curie-Weiss susceptibility is shown to go over
to the Pauli one below the Kondo temperature.


  On September 10 2017, a fast coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from the
active region (AR) 12673, leading to a ground level enhancement (GLE) event at
Earth. Using the 2D improved Particle Acceleration and Transport in the
Heliosphere (iPATH) model, we model the large solar energetic particle (SEP)
event of 10 September 2017 observed at Earth, Mars and STEREO-A. Based on
observational evidence,we assume that the CME-driven shock experienced a large
lateral expansion shortly after the eruption, which is modelled by a double
Gaussian velocity profile in this simulation. We use the in-situ shock arrival
times and the observed CME speeds at multiple spacecraft near Earth and Mars as
constraints to adjust the input model parameters. The modelled time intensity
profiles and fluence for energetic protons are then compared with observations.
Reasonable agreements with observations at Mars and STEREO-A are found. The
simulated results at Earth differ from observations of GOES-15. Instead, the
simulated results at a heliocentric longitude 20 degree west to Earth fit
reasonably well with the GOES observation. This can be explained if the
pre-event solar wind magnetic field at Earth is not described by a nominal
Parker field. Our results suggest that a large lateral expansion of the
CME-driven shock and a distorted interplanetary magnetic field due to previous
events can be important in understanding this GLE event.


  A first-order formulation of gravity is developed in which the fundamental
fields consist of an SL(2,C) connection and two spinor-valued 1-forms. It is
shown that the first term of an expansion of the Einstein-Hilbert action leads
to an action for these fields which consists of dynamic L2 inner products of
their covariant derivatives, resembling reasonable generalisations of the terms
found in the actions of typical gauge theories on Minkowski spacetime. If
additional terms corresponding to other forces and matter, formulated in the
same manner, are then included, this approach may shed new light on
interactions of gravity with matter and other force carriers.


  The simplicial LS-category of a finite abstract simplicial complex is a new
invariant of the strong homotopy type, defined in purely combinatorial terms,
that generalizes to arbitrary simplicial complexes the well known notion of
arboricity of a graph, and that allows to develop all the machinery of
algebraic topology which is costumary in the classical theory of
Lusternik-Schnirelmann category.


  A well-known feature of CaFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$-based superconductors is the
pressure-induced collapsed tetragonal phase that is commonly ascribed to the
formation of an interlayer As-As bond. Using detailed X-ray scattering and
spectroscopy, we find that Rh-doped Ca$_{0.8}$Sr$_{0.2}$Fe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ does
not undergo a first-order phase transition and that local Fe moments persist
despite the formation of interlayer As-As bonds. Our density functional theory
calculations reveal that the Fe-As bond geometry is critical for stabilizing
magnetism and that the pressure-induced drop in the $c$ lattice parameter
observed in pure CaFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ is mostly due to a constriction within the
FeAs planes. These phenomena are best understood using an often overlooked
explanation for the equilibrium Fe-As bond geometry, which is set by a
competition between covalent bonding and exchange splitting between strongly
hybridized Fe $3d$ and As $4p$ states. In this framework, the collapsed
tetragonal phase emerges when covalent bonding completely wins out over
exchange splitting. Thus the collapsed tetragonal phase is properly understood
as a strong, covalent phase that is fully nonmagnetic with the As-As bond
forming as a byproduct.


  The long-term dynamical evolution is a crucial point in recent planetary
research. Although the amount of observational data is continuously growing and
the precision allows us to obtain accurate planetary orbits, the canonical
stability analysis still requires N-body simulations and phase space trajectory
investigations. We propose a method for stability analysis of planetary motion
based on the generalized R\'enyi entropy obtained from a scalar measurement.
The radial velocity data of the central body in the gravitational three-body
problem is used as the basis of a phase space reconstruction procedure. Then,
Poincar\'e's recurrence theorem contributes to finding a natural partitioning
in the reconstructed phase space to obtain the R\'enyi entropy. It turns out
that the entropy-based stability analysis is in good agreement with other chaos
detection methods, and it requires only a few tens of thousands of orbital
period integration time.


  The BABAR detector at SLAC's PEP-II storage ring has collected data
equivalent to about 30.4 fb-1 through June 2001. Results on CP violation, and
in particular searches for direct CP violation, and measurement of rare B
decays are presented.


  The inner annular gap (IAG), a new type of inner gap whose magnetic field
lines intersect the null charge surface (NCS), is proposed to explain
$\gamma$-ray and radio emission from pulsars. The IAG can be an important
source for high-energy particles. The particles can radiate between the NCS and
the IAG. Some observational characteristics in both $\gamma$-ray and radio
bands, such as the $\gamma$-ray emission beams of Crab-like, Vela-like and
Geminga-like, can be reproduced by numerical method. It is predicted that the
view angle $\zeta$ should be larger than the inclination angle
($\zeta>\alpha$), otherwise the $\gamma$-ray radiation will have little
possibility to be observed. Whether the inner annular gap (or cap) is sparking
(or free flow) depends on the surface binding energy of the pulsar. In stead of
neutron star models, the scenario of the IAG is favorable for bare strange star
models, because bare strange stars can easily satisfy the requisite condition
to form an IAG for both pulsars ($\vec{\Omega}\cdot \vec{B}<0$) and
anti-pulsars ($\vec\Omega \cdot \vec{B}>0$).


  A schematic model for baryon excitations is presented in terms of a symmetric
Dirac gyroscope, a relativistic model solvable in closed form, that reduces to
a rotor in the non-relativistic limit. The model is then mapped on a nearest
neighbour tight binding model. In its simplest one-dimensional form this model
yields a finite equidistant spectrum. This is experimentally implemented as a
chain of dielectric resonators under conditions where their coupling is
evanescent and good agreement with the prediction is achieved.


  By a uniform and simple Weyl invariant coupling of scale and matter fields,
we construct theories that unify massless, massive, and partially massless
excitations. Masses are related to tractor Weyl weights, and
Breitenlohner-Freedman stability bounds in anti de Sitter amount to reality of
these weights. The method relies on tractor calculus -- mathematical machinery
allowing Weyl invariance to be kept manifest at all stages. The equivalence
between tractor and higher spin systems with arbitrary spins and masses is also
considered.