  In this paper, I study the branching ratio of the rare radiative decay $B_s
\to \nu \bar{\nu} \gamma$ in the framework of the Fourth-Generation Standard
Model and the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model. It is shown that this quantity is a very
effective tool for establishing new physics beyond the Standard Model. It is
observed that there is a region in the parameter space in both extensions of
the Standard Model for which the branching ratio show considerable departure
from the Standard Model.


  It is shown that considering a fixed increment of a given magnitude at a
fault is equivalent to factoring the mechanical moment at the fault as done in
structural engineering with the applied loads, by the most currently used
structural engineering standards (e.g. Eurocodes). A special safety factor is
introduced and related to the partial factor acting on the mechanical moment
representing the fault. A comparison is then made between the hazard maps
obtained for Italy with the Neo Deterministic Seismic Hazard Assessment (NDSHA)
technique, using two approaches for the definition of the seismic sources
considered for the computation of the synthetic seismograms. The first one is
based on the magnitude of the events listed in the earthquake catalogue, and
located within the active seismogenic zones. This is the standard approach,
used in most of the NDSHA computations performed up to now. It is adequate for
countries, like Italy, where the catalogue can be reasonably considered
complete for events of M=5 and above. When the catalogue completeness is barely
adequate, another approach can be adopted for the definition of the earthquake
sources. It uses the seismogenic nodes identified by means of pattern
recognition techniques applied to morphostructural seismic zonation (MSZ), and
increases the reference magnitude by a constant variation tuned thanks to the
safety factor. The two approaches have been compared for Italy using the safety
factor 2.0: they mostly produce comparable hazard maps. As the two sets are
fully independent and the catalogue is very long, this implies a validation of
the seismogenic nodes method and a tuning of the safety factor at about 2.
Notable exception is seen in the Central Alps, where nodes tend to overestimate
the "observed" hazard, and in southeastern Sicily, where the nodes
underestimation is only apparent and can be negligible within experimental
errors.


  A sliding-window algorithm of window size $t$ is an algorithm whose current
operation depends solely on the last $t$ symbols read. We construct
pseudorandom generators (PRGs) for low-space randomized sliding-window
algorithms that have access to a binary randomness source. More specifically,
we lift these algorithms to the non-uniform setting of branching programs and
study them as a subclass thereof that we call sliding-window branching programs
(SWBPs), accordingly. For general SWBPs, given a base PRG $G_\mathrm{base}$
with seed length $d_\mathrm{base}$ that $\varepsilon_\mathrm{base}$-fools
width-$w$, length-$t$ (general) branching programs, we give two PRG
constructions for fooling any same-width SWBP of length $n$ and window size $t$
(where we assume $w \ge n$). The first uses an additional $d_\mathrm{base} +
O(\log(n/t) \log(1/\varepsilon_\mathrm{base}))$ random bits, whereas the second
has a seed length of $O((d_\mathrm{base} + \log\log(n/t) +
\log(1/\varepsilon_\mathrm{base})) \log(d_\mathrm{base} +
\log(1/\varepsilon_\mathrm{base})))$. Both PRGs incur only a $(n/2t)^{O(1)}$
multiplicative loss in the error parameter.
  As an application, we show how to decide the language of a sublinear-time
probabilistic cellular automaton using small space. More specifically, these
results target the model of PACAs, which are probabilistic cellular automata
that accept if and only if all cells are simultaneously accepting. For
(sublinear) $T(n) = \Omega(\log n)^{1.01}$, we prove that every language
accepted by a $T$-time one-sided error PACA (the PACA equivalent of
$\mathsf{RP}$) can be decided using only $O(T)$ space. Meanwhile, forgoing the
previous requirement on $T$, we show the same holds for $T$-time two-sided
error PACA (the PACA equivalent of $\mathsf{BPP}$) if we use $\tilde{O}(T) +
O(\log n)$ space instead (where the $\tilde{O}$ notation hides only
$\mathsf{polylog}(T)$ factors).


  Sorokin gave in 1996 a new proof that pi is transcendental. It is based on a
simultaneous Pad\'e approximation problem involving certain multiple
polylogarithms, which evaluated at the point 1 are multiple zeta values equal
to powers of pi. In this paper we construct a Pad\'e approximation problem of
the same flavour, and prove that it has a unique solution up to
proportionality. At the point 1, this provides a rational linear combination of
1 and multiple zeta values in an extended sense that turn out to be values of
the Riemann zeta function at odd integers. As an application, we obtain a new
proof of Vasilyev's conjecture for any odd weight, concerning the explicit
evaluation of certain hypergeometric multiple integrals; it was first proved by
Zudilin in 2003.


  Using our new 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code
parallelized with MPI, we investigated long-term particle acceleration
associated with a relativistic electron-positron jet propagating in an
unmagnetized ambient electron-positron plasma. We have also performed
simulations with electron-ion jets. The simulations were performed using a much
longer simulation system than our previous simulations in order to investigate
the full nonlinear stage of the Weibel instability for electron-positron jets
and its particle acceleration mechanism. Cold jet electrons are thermalized and
ambient electrons are accelerated in the resulting shocks for both cases.
Acceleration of ambient electrons leads to a maximum ambient electron density
three times larger than the original value for pair plasmas. Behind the bow
shock in the jet shock strong electromagnetic fields are generated. These
fields may lead to time dependent afterglow emission. We calculated radiation
from electrons propagating in a uniform parallel magnetic field to verify the
technique. We also used the new technique to calculate emission from electrons
based on simulations with a small system with two different cases for Lorentz
factors (15 and 100). We obtained spectra which are consistent with those
generated from electrons propagating in turbulent magnetic fields with red
noise. This turbulent magnetic field is similar to the magnetic field generated
at an early nonlinear stage of the Weibel instability.


  A cluster density matrix is introduced in the form suitable for the
self-consistent calculation of relevant thermodynamic averages for the Ising
model with spin S=1/2. On this basis, derivation of the Gibbs free-energy for
the effective field theory of Honmura and Kaneyoshi is presented.


  Nymphaea caerulea is a valuable freshwater aquatic plant, not only because of
its ornamental value but also its extractions for chemical and medical uses. It
is necessary to store its seeds as backup resources. Cryopreservation is the
reliable, cost-effective method for long-term preservation of botanical genetic
banks, especially for recalcitrant plants. In this study, we demonstrated that
due to unable to tolerate desiccation and low-temperature, N. caerulea is
recalcitrant. Since viability was lost before 6 months storage, N. caerulea
seeds were not appropriate to long-term store by traditional storage method.
The only way to long-term store N. caerulea seeds is cryopreservation. However,
Plant Vitrification Solution 3 (PVS3; 50% w/v sucrose, 50% w/v glycerol), a
commonly used plant vitrification solution, was ineffective on N. caerulea
seeds cryopreservation. The maximum survival rate of cryopreserved seeds
treated by PVS3 was only 23%. Oxidative stress induced by reactive oxygen
species (ROS) accumulation within seeds was the reason to cause inefficiency of
PVS3 treated seeds cryopreservation. We developed a new plant vitrification
solution (PVS+), by adding glutathione (GSH) into PVS3. PVS+ rescued the
inefficiency by decreasing ROS accumulation and elevated survival rate of
cryopreserved seeds to 97%. Our results showed some inefficiencies of plant
tissue cryopreservation may be caused by ROS-induced oxidative stress.
Antioxidants can reduce ROS-induced oxidative stress and improve seeds survival
after cryopreservation. In conclusion, N. caerulea seeds were identified as
recalcitrant and successfully cryopreserved. Suppressing ROS accumulation
during cryopreservation may be a potential strategy to improve survival rate of
recalcitrant seeds after cryopreservation.


  We classify Coxeter decompositions of hyperbolic tetrahedra, i.e. simplices
in the hyperbolic space H^3. The paper completes the classification of Coxeter
decompositions of hyperbolic simplices.


  Supertask theory is used here to prove a contradictory result which involves
the consistency of w-order and the Axiom of Infinity.


  Within the framework of a modified Balitsky-Kovchegov equation, we calculated
and provide estimates of non-linear saturation effects expected in the LHC
range of energies.


  We study the $J/\psi \rightarrow K^+ K^- f_0(980)(a_0(980))$ reaction and
find that the mechanism to produce this decay develops a triangle singularity
around $M_{\rm inv}(K^- f_0/K^- a_0) \approx 1515$~MeV. The differential width
$d\Gamma / dM_{\rm inv}(K^- f_0/K^- a_0)$ shows a rapid growth around the
invariant mass being 1515~MeV as a consequence of the triangle singularity of
this mechanism, which is directly tied to the nature of the $f_0(980)$ and
$a_0(980)$ as dynamically generated resonances from the interaction of
pseudoscalar mesons. The branching ratios obtained for the $J/\psi \rightarrow
K^+ K^- f_0(980)(a_0(980))$ decays are of the order of $10^{-5}$, accessible in
present facilities, and we argue that their observation should provide relevant
information concerning the nature of the low-lying scalar mesons.


  Solar energetic particle (SEP) events are one of the most crucial aspects of
space weather that require continuous monitoring and forecasting. Their
prediction depends on various factors including source eruptions. In the
present work, we use the Geostationary Solar Energetic Particle (GSEP) data set
covering solar cycles 22, 23, and 24. We develop a framework using time
series-based machine learning (ML) models with the aim of developing robust
short-term forecasts by classifying SEP events. For this purpose, we introduce
an ensemble learning approach that merges the results from univariate time
series of three proton channels (10 MeV, 50 MeV, and 100 MeV) and the long band
X-ray flux channel from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite
(GOES) missions and analyze their performance. We consider three models,
namely, time series forest (TSF), supervised time series forest (STSF) and bag
of SFA symbols (BOSS). Our study also focuses on understanding and developing
confidence in the predictive capabilities of our models. Therefore, we utilize
multiple evaluation techniques and metrics. Based on that, we find STSF to
perform well in all scenarios. The summary of metrics for the STSF model is as
follows: AUC = 0.981; F1-score = 0.960; TSS = 0.919; HSS = 0.920; GSS = 0.852;
and MCC = 0.920. The Brier score loss of the STSF model is 0.077. This work
lays the foundation for building near-real-time (NRT) short-term SEP event
predictions using robust ML methods.


  A study of the double logarithmic in the center-of-mass energy, $s$,
contributions to the four-graviton scattering amplitude is presented for
four-dimensional ${\cal N} \geq 4$ supergravities. This includes a novel
representation for the coefficients of the perturbative expansion based on
exactly solvable recurrences. A review is given of the structure in the complex
angular momentum plane for the $t$-channel partial wave singularities of the
different amplitudes. Working in impact parameter representation, $\rho$, it is
shown that the resummation of double logarithms makes gravity weaker in regions
of small $\rho$ and large $s$. This screening of the gravitational interaction
at short distances in the double logarithmic sector of the amplitudes is more
acute as the number of gravitinos in the theory increases. It brings
corrections to the eikonal phase which can change the sign of the graviton's
deflection angle and generate regions with repulsive interaction. For very
small impact parameters there appears a constant negative shift in both the
eikonal phase and Shapiro's time delay which is not large enough to generate
causality violation.


  Antibodies, an essential part of our immune system, develop through an
intricate process to bind a wide array of pathogens. This process involves
randomly mutating DNA sequences encoding these antibodies to find variants with
improved binding, though mutations are not distributed uniformly across
sequence sites. Immunologists observe this nonuniformity to be consistent with
"mutation motifs", which are short DNA subsequences that affect how likely a
given site is to experience a mutation. Quantifying the effect of motifs on
mutation rates is challenging: a large number of possible motifs makes this
statistical problem high dimensional, while the unobserved history of the
mutation process leads to a nontrivial missing data problem. We introduce an
$\ell_1$-penalized proportional hazards model to infer mutation motifs and
their effects. In order to estimate model parameters, our method uses a Monte
Carlo EM algorithm to marginalize over the unknown ordering of mutations. We
show that our method performs better on simulated data compared to current
methods and leads to more parsimonious models. The application of proportional
hazards to mutation processes is, to our knowledge, novel and formalizes the
current methods in a statistical framework that can be easily extended to
analyze the effect of other biological features on mutation rates.


  This paper is to establish a natural connection between regular
representations for a vertex operator algebra $V$ and $A_{n}(V)$-$A_{m}(V)$
bimodules of Dong and Jiang. Let $W$ be a weak $V$-module and let $(m,n)$ be a
pair of nonnegative integers. We study two quotient spaces
$A_{n,m}^{\dagger}(W)$ and $A^{\diamond}_{n,m}(W)$ of $W$.
  It is proved that the dual space $A^{\dagger}_{n,m}(W)^{*}$ viewed as a
subspace of $W^*$ coincides with the level-$(m,n)$ vacuum subspace of the
regular representation module $\mathfrak{D}_{(-1)}(W)$. By making use of this
connection, we obtain an $A_{n}(V)$-$A_m(V)$ bimodule structure on both
$A_{n,m}^{\dagger}(W)$ and $A^{\diamond}_{n,m}(W)$. Furthermore, we obtain an
$\N$-graded weak $V$-module structure together with a commuting right
$A_m(V)$-module structure on $A^{\diamond}_{\Box,m}(W):=\oplus_{n\in
\N}A^{\diamond}_{n,m}(W)$. Consequently, we recover the corresponding results
and roughly confirm a conjecture of Dong and Jiang.


  In 1007.2982 a novel system of equations which propagate in one null and four
space directions were obtained as the on-shell conditions for the
six-dimensional (2,0) superalgebra. In this paper we show how this system
reduces to one-dimensional motion on instanton moduli space. Quantization leads
to the previous light-cone proposal of the (2,0) theory, generalized to include
a potential that arises on the Coulomb branch as well as couplings to
background gauge and self-dual two-form fields.


  Deep learning networks find intricate features in large datasets using the
backpropagation algorithm. This algorithm repeatedly adjusts the network
connections.' weights and examining the "hidden" nodes behavior between the
input and output layer provides better insight into how neural networks create
feature representations. Experiments built on each other show that activity
differences computed within a layer can guide learning. A simple neural network
is used, which includes a data set comprised of the alphabet letters, where
each letter forms 81 input nodes comprised of 0 and 1s and a single hidden
layer and an output layer. The first experiment explains how the hidden layers
in this simple neural network represent the input data's features. The second
experiment attempts to reverse-engineer the neural network to find the
alphabet's natural feature sets. As the network interprets features, we can
understand how it derives the natural feature sets for a given data. This
understanding is essential to delve deeper into deep generative models, such as
Boltzmann machines. Deep generative models are a class of unsupervised deep
learning algorithms. The primary function of deep generative models is to find
the natural feature sets for a given data set.


  The relationship of the quark model to the known chiral properties of QCD is
a longstanding problem in the interpretation of low energy QCD. In particular,
how can the pion be viewed as both a collective Goldstone boson quasiparticle
and as a valence quark antiquark bound state where universal hyperfine
interactions govern spin splittings in the same way as in the heavy quark
systems. We address this issue in a simplified model which; however, reproduces
all features of QCD relevant to this problem. A comparison of the many-body
solution to our model and the constituent quark model demonstrates that the
quark model is sufficiently flexible to describe meson hyperfine splitting
provided proper renormalization conditions and correct degrees of freedom are
employed consistently.


  We discuss relation between three different methods to identify topologically
distinct short-range valence-bond ground states in spin-$\frac12$ two-leg
ladders: the string order parameters, the level-crossing method, and the
ground-state expectation value of the twist operator. For this purpose we
reexamine a phase transition in the frustrated spin ladder. We propose a proper
bosonization of the string order parameters. Then, these three methods are
shown to be equivalent reflecting the $Z_2\times Z_2$ symmetry breaking of the
order and the disorder fields of the two-dimensional Ising model.


  We propose a new detection strategy for gravitational waves (GWs) below few
Hertz based on a correlated array of atom interferometers (AIs). Our proposal
allows to reduce the Newtonian Noise (NN) which limits all ground based GW
detectors below few Hertz, including previous atom interferometry-based
concepts. Using an array of long baseline AI gradiometers yields several
estimations of the NN, whose effect can thus be reduced via statistical
averaging. Considering the km baseline of current optical detectors, a NN
rejection of factor 2 could be achieved, and tested with existing AI array
geometries. Exploiting the correlation properties of the gravity acceleration
noise, we show that a 10-fold or more NN rejection is possible with a dedicated
configuration. Considering a conservative NN model and the current developments
in cold atom technology, we show that strain sensitivities below $1\times
10^{-19}/ \sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ in the $ 0.3-3 \ \text{Hz}$ frequency band can be
within reach, with a peak sensitivity of $3\times 10^{-23}/ \sqrt{\text{Hz}} $
at $2 \ \text{Hz}$. Our proposed configuration could extend the observation
window of current detectors by a decade and fill the gap between ground-based
and space-based instruments.


  We show how the entanglement contained in states of spins arranged on a
lattice may be quantified with observables arising in scattering experiments.
We focus on the partial differential cross-section obtained in neutron
scattering from magnetic materials but our results are sufficiently general
such that they may also be applied to, e.g., optical Bragg scattering from
ultracold atoms in optical lattices or from ion chains. We discuss resonating
valence bond states and ground and thermal states of experimentally relevant
models--such as Heisenberg, Majumdar-Ghosh, and XY model--in different
geometries and with different spin numbers. As a by-product, we find that for
the one-dimensional XY model in a transverse field such measurements reveal
factorization and the quantum phase transition at zero temperature.


  The persistent current, i.e. the equilibrium direct electric current
circulating in realistic rings, some authors interpreted as dissipationless in
spite of non-zero resistance of the rings, whereas the other one suppose that
this current can not decay at dissipation. The observation of potential
difference connected with the persistent current may give new important
information about paradoxical nature of this quantum phenomena observed in
nanostructures.


  Parallel batched data structures are designed to process synchronized batches
of operations in a parallel computing model. In this paper, we propose parallel
combining, a technique that implements a concurrent data structure from a
parallel batched one. The idea is that we explicitly synchronize concurrent
operations into batches: one of the processes becomes a combiner which collects
concurrent requests and initiates a parallel batched algorithm involving the
owners (clients) of the collected requests. Intuitively, the cost of
synchronizing the concurrent calls can be compensated by running the parallel
batched algorithm.
  We validate the intuition via two applications of parallel combining. First,
we use our technique to design a concurrent data structure optimized for
read-dominated workloads, taking a dynamic graph data structure as an example.
Second, we use a novel parallel batched priority queue to build a concurrent
one. In both cases, we obtain performance gains with respect to the
state-of-the-art algorithms.


  GeSn lasers enable monolithic integration of lasers on the Si platform using
all-group-IV direct-bandgap materials. Although optically pumped GeSn lasers
have made significant progress, the study of the electrically injected lasers
has just begun only recently. In this work, we present explorative
investigations of electrically injected GeSn heterostructure lasers with
various layer thicknesses and material compositions. The cap layer total
thickness was varied between 240 and 100 nm. At 10 K, a 240-nm-SiGeSn capped
device had a threshold current density Jth = 0.6 kA/cm2 compared to Jth = 1.4
kA/cm2 of a device with 100-nm-SiGeSn cap due to an improved modal overlap with
the GeSn gain region. Both devices had a maximum operating temperature Tmax =
100 K. Device with cap layers of Si0.03Ge0.89Sn0.08 and Ge0.95Sn0.05,
respectively, were also compared. Due to less effective carrier (electron)
confinement, the device with a 240-nm-GeSn cap had a higher threshold Jth = 2.4
kA/cm2 and lower maximum operating temperature Tmax = 90 K, compared to those
of the 240-nm-SiGeSn capped device with Jth = 0.6 kA/cm2 and Tmax = 100 K. In
the study of the active region material, the device with Ge0.85Sn0.15 active
region had a 2.3 times higher Jth and 10 K lower Tmax, compared to the device
with Ge0.89Sn0.11 in its active region. This is likely due to higher defect
density in Ge0.85Sn0.15 rather than an intrinsic issue. The longest lasing
wavelength was measured as 2682 nm at 90 K. The investigations provide guidance
to the future structure design of GeSn laser diodes to further improve the
performance.


  In this work, we present an approach to deep visuomotor control using
structured deep dynamics models. Our deep dynamics model, a variant of
SE3-Nets, learns a low-dimensional pose embedding for visuomotor control via an
encoder-decoder structure. Unlike prior work, our dynamics model is structured:
given an input scene, our network explicitly learns to segment salient parts
and predict their pose-embedding along with their motion modeled as a change in
the pose space due to the applied actions. We train our model using a pair of
point clouds separated by an action and show that given supervision only in the
form of point-wise data associations between the frames our network is able to
learn a meaningful segmentation of the scene along with consistent poses. We
further show that our model can be used for closed-loop control directly in the
learned low-dimensional pose space, where the actions are computed by
minimizing error in the pose space using gradient-based methods, similar to
traditional model-based control. We present results on controlling a Baxter
robot from raw depth data in simulation and in the real world and compare
against two baseline deep networks. Our method runs in real-time, achieves good
prediction of scene dynamics and outperforms the baseline methods on multiple
control runs. Video results can be found at:
https://rse-lab.cs.washington.edu/se3-structured-deep-ctrl/


  We argue that the natural way to generalise a tensor network variational
class to a continuous quantum system is to use the Feynman path integral to
implement a continuous tensor contraction. This approach is illustrated for the
case of a recently introduced class of quantum field states known as continuous
matrix-product states (cMPS). As an example of the utility of the path-integral
representation we argue that the state of a dynamically evolving quantum field
admits a natural representation as a cMPS. An argument that all states in Fock
space admit a cMPS representation when the number of variational parameters
tends to infinity is also provided.


  This work investigates the structure of rank-metric codes in connection with
concepts from finite geometry, most notably the $q$-analogues of projective
systems and blocking sets. We also illustrate how to associate a classical
Hamming-metric code to a rank-metric one, in such a way that various
rank-metric properties naturally translate into the homonymous Hamming-metric
notions under this correspondence. The most interesting applications of our
results lie in the theory of minimal rank-metric codes, which we introduce and
study from several angles. Our main contributions are bounds for the parameters
of a minimal rank-metric codes, a general existence result based on a
combinatorial argument, and an explicit code construction for some parameter
sets that uses the notion of a scattered linear set. Throughout the paper we
also show and comment on curious analogies/divergences between the theories of
error-correcting codes in the rank and in the Hamming metric.


  Let $X$ be a complete $n$-dimensional simplicial toric variety with
homogeneous coordinate ring $S$. We study the multigraded Hilbert function
$H_Y$ of reduced $0$-dimensional subschemes $Y$ in $X$. We provide explicit
formulas and prove non-decreasing and stabilization properties of $H_Y$ when
$Y$ is a $0$-dimensional complete intersection in $X$. We apply our results to
computing the dimension of some evaluation codes on $0$-dimensional complete
intersection in simplicial toric varieties.


  We discuss the effect of the quantum fluctuations at high energies on the
final shape of compact extra dimensions. The quantum fluctuations produce a
wide range of the initial extra metrics in causally disconnected regions
(pocket universes) of the Multiverse during the inflationary stage. This set of
initial extra metrics evolves to a set of inhomogeneous metrics at the present
time. The low energy physics appears to be different in different pocket
universes. The numerical estimate of the probability of finding a specific
metric is based on the model of the compact 2-dimensional extra space.


  One of the mainstays of the controversial "rare Earth" hypothesis is the
"Goldilocks problem" regarding various parameters describing a habitable
planet, partially involving the role of mass extinctions and other catastrophic
processes in biological evolution. Usually, this is construed as support for
the uniqueness of the Earth's biosphere and intelligent human life. Here I
argue that this is a misconstrual and that, on the contrary,
observation-selection effects, when applied to catastrophic processes, make it
very difficult for us to discern whether the terrestrial biosphere and
evolutionary processes which created it are exceptional in the Milky Way or
not. In particular, an anthropic overconfidence bias related to the temporal
asymmetry of evolutionary processes appears when we try to straightforwardly
estimate catastrophic risks from the past records on Earth. This agnosticism,
in turn, supports the validity and significance of practical astrobiological
and SETI research.


  The magnetic phase diagram of the chiral magnet Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$ has been
investigated by dc magnetisation and ac susceptibility over a very large
frequency range from 0.1 Hz up to 1 kHz and temperatures below 50 K.
Qualitatively different phase diagrams have been obtained by applying the
magnetic field along the easy $\langle100\rangle$ or the hard
$\langle110\rangle$ crystallographic directions. Strong $\chi"$ appears close
to $B_{c2}$, but only below 30 K and is more pronounced when $B$ is applied
along $\langle100\rangle$. In addition, the transition from the helical to the
conical phase leads to two adjacent $B_{c1}$ lines below 50 K. The frequency
dependence of $\chi"$ indicates the existence of very broad distributions of
relaxation times both at $B_{c1}$ and $B_{c2}$. The associated very long
characteristic times eventually prevent the system from reaching thermal
equilibrium at low temperatures and lead to thermal hysteresis.


  Froggatt, Nielsen et al suggested that the Higgs boson exchange between top
quarks produces enough attraction to generate their multiple bound states.
Furthermore they claimed that the system of 6 top and 6 anti-top quarks is
bound so strongly that the binding energy nearly compensates the masses of
t-quarks, making it very light. We calculated the energy of such states more
accurately, variationally and by self-consistent mean field approximation, and
found that these state are weakly bound for massless Higgs boson and unbound
with the account for its mass.


  We learn a self-supervised, single-view 3D reconstruction model that predicts
the 3D mesh shape, texture and camera pose of a target object with a collection
of 2D images and silhouettes. The proposed method does not necessitate 3D
supervision, manually annotated keypoints, multi-view images of an object or a
prior 3D template. The key insight of our work is that objects can be
represented as a collection of deformable parts, and each part is semantically
coherent across different instances of the same category (e.g., wings on birds
and wheels on cars). Therefore, by leveraging self-supervisedly learned part
segmentation of a large collection of category-specific images, we can
effectively enforce semantic consistency between the reconstructed meshes and
the original images. This significantly reduces ambiguities during joint
prediction of shape and camera pose of an object, along with texture. To the
best of our knowledge, we are the first to try and solve the single-view
reconstruction problem without a category-specific template mesh or semantic
keypoints. Thus our model can easily generalize to various object categories
without such labels, e.g., horses, penguins, etc. Through a variety of
experiments on several categories of deformable and rigid objects, we
demonstrate that our unsupervised method performs comparably if not better than
existing category-specific reconstruction methods learned with supervision.


  Let $\ell$ be a rational prime number and $K$ a number field. We prove that
the logarithmic module $X_{d}$ attached to a $\mathbb{Z}_{\ell}^{d}$-extension
$K_{d}$ of $K$ is a noetherian $\Lambda_{d}$-module. Moreover, under the
Gross-Kuz'min conjecture we prove that it is also torsion. We exploit this fact
to deduce local and global information of the logarithmic invariants
$\tilde{\mu}$ and $\tilde{\lambda}$ of $\mathbb{Z}_{\ell}$-extensions.


  Monitors are a key tool in the field of runtime verification, where they are
used to verify system properties by analyzing execution traces generated by
processes. Work on runtime monitoring carried out in a series of papers by
Aceto et al.$~$has specified monitors using a variation on the regular fragment
of Milner's CCS and studied two trace-based notions of equivalence over
monitors, namely verdict and $\omega$-verdict equivalence. This article is
devoted to the study of the equational logic of monitors modulo those two
notions of equivalence. It presents complete equational axiomatizations of
verdict and $\omega$-verdict equivalence for closed and open terms over
recursion-free monitors. It is also shown that verdict equivalence has no
finite equational axiomatization over open monitors when the set of actions is
finite and contains at least two actions.


  A plane symmetric Bianchi-I model is explored in $f(R,T)$ gravity, where $R$
is the Ricci scalar and $T$ is the trace of energy-momentum tensor. The
solutions are obtained with the consideration of a specific Hubble parameter
which yields a constant deceleration parameter. The various evolutionary phases
are identified under the constraints obtained for physically viable
cosmological scenarios. Although a single (primary) matter source is taken, due
to the coupling between matter and $f(R,T)$ gravity, an additional matter
source appears, which mimics a perfect fluid or exotic matter. The solutions
are also extended to the case of a scalar field model. The kinematical behavior
of the model remains independent of $f(R,T)$ gravity. The physical behavior of
the effective matter also remains the same as in general relativity. It is
found that $f(R,T)$ gravity can be a good alternative to the hypothetical
candidates of dark energy to describe the present accelerating expansion of the
universe.


  Atomic structure of a mono-dispersive hematite ($\alpha$-Fe$_2$O$_3$)
nanocube $(0 1\bar1 2)$ surface was determined with synchrotron X-ray
diffraction. The $\alpha$-Fe$_2$O$_3$ nanocubes were prepared through a
hydrothermal process and a single layer of nanocubes was deposited on a silicon
substrate with a drop cast method. The alignment of nanocubes with their $(0
1\bar1 2)$ surfaces parallel to the substrate is confirmed with grazing
incidence X-ray diffraction. Specular crystal truncation rods (CTR's) from
as-prepared and vacuum annealed nanocube surfaces have been measured and they
are drastically different from previously reported CTR's from macroscopic
single crystal $(0 1\bar1 2)$ surfaces. The measured CTR's from nanocube
surfaces are explained well with the atomic structure models of half of atoms
in top Fe layer being missing while extra oxygen-layers cover the half-missing
Fe layer. An acidic environment during hydrothermal nanocube synthesis process
is proposed as the main cause of the difference.


  Let $G$ be a finite group and let $A_1,\ldots,A_k$ be a collection of subsets
of $G$ such that $G=A_1\ldots A_k$ is the product of all the $A_i$'s with
$|G|=|A_1|\ldots|A_k|$. We write $G=A_1\cdot\ldots\cdot A_k$ and call this a
$k$-fold factorization of $G$ of the form $(|A_1|,\ldots,|A_k|)$ or more
briefly an $(|A_1|,\ldots,|A_k|)$-factorization of $G$. Let $k\geq2$ be a fixed
integer. If $G$ has an $(a_1,\ldots,a_k)$-factorization, whenever
$|G|=a_1\ldots a_k$ with $a_i>1$, $i=1,\ldots,k$, we say that $G$ is
$k$-factorizable. We say that $G$ is multifold-factorizable if $G$ is
$k$-factorizable for any possible integer $k\geq2$. In this paper we prove that
there are exactly $6$ non-multifold-factorizable groups among the groups of
order at most $60$. Here is their complete list: $A_4$, $(C_2\times C_2)\rtimes
C_9$, $A_4\times C_3$, $(C_2\times C_2\times C_2)\rtimes C_7$, $A_5$,
$A_4\times C_5$. Some related open questions are presented.


  We propose a closed formula of the universal part of supersymmetric R\'enyi
entropy $S_q$ for $(2,0)$ superconformal theories in six-dimensions. We show
that $S_q$ across a spherical entangling surface is a cubic polynomial of
$\gamma:=1/q$, with all coefficients expressed in terms of the newly discovered
Weyl anomalies $a$ and $c$. This is equivalent to a similar statement of the
supersymmetric free energy on conic (or squashed) six-sphere. We first obtain
the closed formula by promoting the free tensor multiplet result and then
provide an independent derivation by assuming that $S_q$ can be written as a
linear combination of 't Hooft anomaly coefficients. We discuss a possible
lower bound ${a\over c}\geq {3\over 7}$ implied by our result.


  Brannan showed that a normalized univalent polynomial of the form $P(z)=z+a_2
z^2+\ldots + a_{n-1}z^{n-1}+\frac{z^n}{n}$ is starlike if and only if
$a_2=\ldots=a_{n-1}=0$. We give a new and simple proof of his result, showing
further that it is also equivalent to the membership of $P$ in the
Noshiro-Warschawski class of univalent functions whose derivative has positive
real part in the disk. Both proofs are based on the Fej\'er lemma for
trigonometric polynomials with positive real part.


  We study a two-state quantum system with a non linearity intended to describe
interactions with a complex environment, arising through a non local coupling
term. We study the stability of particular solutions, obtained as constrained
extrema of the energy functional of the system. The simplicity of the model
allows us to justify a complete stability analysis. This is the opportunity to
review in details the techniques to investigate the stability issue. We also
bring out the limitations of perturbative approaches based on simpler
asymptotic models.


  In this work we provide a generalization of the celebrated Myers-Nakai
Theorem for Riemannian manifolds to the framework of non-reversible Finsler
manifolds, based on the ideas used in a previous generalization for reversible
Finsler manifolds proved in \cite{GJR-13}. In the reversible (i.e. metric)
case, the function space used to characterize Finsler isometries is the normed
algebra $C^1_b(M)$, of bounded and $C^1$-smooth real valued functions with
bounded derivative on a Finsler manifold $M$, endowed with its natural norm.
This function space had to be adapted in order for it to reflect the
quasi-metric structure of non-reversible Finsler manifolds, resulting in a
partial loss of the normed space structure. In order to achieve the desired
result, we define new algebraic/quasi-metric structures to model the behavior
of the aforementioned function space. The construction is based on the cone of
smooth semi-Lipschitz functions.


  Recent observational claims of magnetic fields stronger than $10^{-16}$ G in
the extragalactic medium motivate a new look for their origin in the
inflationary magnetogenesis models. In this work we shall review the
constraints on the simplest gauge invariant model $f^2(\phi)F_{\mu \nu}F^{\mu
\nu}$ of inflationary magnetogenesis, and show that in the optimal region of
parameter space the anisotropic constraints coming from the induced bispectrum,
due to the generated electromagnetic fields, yield the strongest constraints.
In this model, only a very fine tuned scenario at an energy scale of inflation
as low as $10^{-2}$ GeV can explain the observations of void magnetic fields.
These findings are consistent with the recently derived model independent
constraints. However, if the detection of primordial tensor modes by BICEP2 is
confirmed, the possibility of low scale inflation is excluded. Assuming the
validity of the BICEP2 claim of a tensor-to-scalar ratio
$r=0.2^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$, we provide the updated constraints on inflationary
magnetogenesis. On the Mpc scale, the maximal allowed magnetic field strength
from inflation is less than $10^{-30}$ G.


  In this article we consider the Casimir energy and force of massless Majorana
fermions and vector bosons between parallel plates. The vector bosons satisfy
perfect electric conductor boundary conditions while the Majorana fermions
satisfy bag and chiral boundary conditions. We consider various piston
configurations containing one vector boson and one fermion. We present a new
regularization mechanism the piston offers. In our case regularization occurs
explicitly at the Casimir energy density and not at the Casimir force level, as
in usual pistons. We make use of boundary broken supersymmetry to explain the
number of fields that appear in all the studied cases. The effect of chiral
boundary conditions in a fermion boson system is investigated. Concerning the
supersymmetry issue and the vanishing Casimir energy, we study a massive Dirac
fermion-scalar boson system with bag and specific Robin type boundary
conditions for which the Casimir energy vanishes. Finally a two scalar bosons
system between parallel plates is presented in which the singularities vanish
in the total Casimir energy. A discussion on boundary broken supersymmetry
follows.


  Achievability in information theory refers to demonstrating a coding strategy
that accomplishes a prescribed performance benchmark for the underlying task.
In quantum information theory, the crafted Hayashi-Nagaoka operator inequality
is an essential technique in proving a wealth of one-shot achievability bounds
since it effectively resembles a union bound in various problems. In this work,
we show that the pretty-good measurement naturally plays a role as the union
bound as well. A judicious application of it considerably simplifies the
derivation of one-shot achievability for classical-quantum (c-q) channel coding
via an elegant three-line proof.
  The proposed analysis enjoys the following favorable features. (i) The
established one-shot bound admits a closed-form expression as in the celebrated
Holevo-Helstrom Theorem. Namely, the error probability of sending $M$ messages
through a c-q channel is upper bounded by the minimum error of distinguishing
the joint channel input-output state against $(M-1)$ decoupled products states.
(ii) Our bound directly yields asymptotic results in the large deviation, small
deviation, and moderate deviation regimes in a unified manner. (iii) The
coefficients incurred in applying the Hayashi-Nagaoka operator inequality are
no longer needed. Hence, the derived one-shot bound sharpens existing results
relying on the Hayashi-Nagaoka operator inequality. In particular, we obtain
the tightest achievable $\epsilon$-one-shot capacity for c-q channel coding
heretofore, improving the third-order coding rate in the asymptotic scenario.
(iv) Our result holds for infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. (v) The proposed
method applies to deriving one-shot achievability for classical data
compression with quantum side information, entanglement-assisted classical
communication over quantum channels, and various quantum network
information-processing protocols.


  We have used the Ferraz-Mello Method of Date Compensated Discrete Fourier
Transform on the solar neutrino flux data from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
(SNO) in order to search for its time variation. We present results from
Ferraz-Mello Method for both pure D2O and salt phase data sets from SNO. For
the D2O data the obtained periods are 5.36, 14.99, 23.06, 40.31, 65.63, 115.03,
131.27, 152.67, 188.74, 294.49 and 412.79 days and for the salt phase data the
periods are obtained at around 37.84, 43.89, 59.17, 67.48, 72.47, 78.52, 86.54,
95.91, 109.83 and 317.01 days. For all the obtained periods the levels of
confidence are sufficiently higher than 95 percent.


  In this work we report the results of imaging and spectroscopic measurements
of optical emission spectrum of negative nanosecond-pulsed cryogenic discharge
in liquid nitrogen. With the application of lower electric fields, the
discharge first ignites as a 'faint glow' around the high voltage needle
electrode, while when the applied electric field reaches transition value of
around 5 MV cm-1, the discharge mode switches to negative in-liquid streamer.
Optical emission spectrum of the discharge is populated by the molecular
nitrogen emission bands, and their analysis shows that the pressures and
temperatures of the negative streamers in liquid nitrogen are at least of few
tens of atmospheres and around 140-150 K. The results of the study demonstrate
similarity of positive and negative streamers in the cryogenic in-liquid plasma
conditions.


  In this paper, a novel chaotic map is introduced usinga voltage controlled
negative differential resistance (NDR) circuitcomposed of ann-channel and
ap-channel silicon-on-insulator(SOI) four-gate transistor (G4FET). The multiple
gates of theG4FET are leveraged to create a discrete chaotic map with
threebifurcation parameters. The three tunable parameters are thegain of a
transimpedance amplifier (TIA), top-gate voltage ofn-channel G4FET, and
top-gate voltage ofp-channel G4FET. Twomethods are proposed for building
chaotic oscillators using thisdiscrete map. The effect of altering bifurcation
parameters onchaotic operation is illustrated using bifurcation diagrams
andLyapunov exponent. A design methodology for building flexibleand
reconfigurable logic gate is outlined and the consequentenhancement in
functionality space caused by the existence ofthree independent bifurcation
parameters is demonstrated andcompared with previous work.


  A widely used algorithm for transfer learning is fine-tuning, where a
pre-trained model is fine-tuned on a target task with a small amount of labeled
data. When the capacity of the pre-trained model is much larger than the size
of the target data set, fine-tuning is prone to overfitting and "memorizing"
the training labels. Hence, an important question is to regularize fine-tuning
and ensure its robustness to noise. To address this question, we begin by
analyzing the generalization properties of fine-tuning. We present a PAC-Bayes
generalization bound that depends on the distance traveled in each layer during
fine-tuning and the noise stability of the fine-tuned model. We empirically
measure these quantities. Based on the analysis, we propose regularized
self-labeling -- the interpolation between regularization and self-labeling
methods, including (i) layer-wise regularization to constrain the distance
traveled in each layer; (ii) self label-correction and label-reweighting to
correct mislabeled data points (that the model is confident) and reweight less
confident data points. We validate our approach on an extensive collection of
image and text data sets using multiple pre-trained model architectures. Our
approach improves baseline methods by 1.76% (on average) for seven image
classification tasks and 0.75% for a few-shot classification task. When the
target data set includes noisy labels, our approach outperforms baseline
methods by 3.56% on average in two noisy settings.


  We show that there are {\it 13 types} of commutator algebras leading to the
new closed forms of the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff (BCH) formula
$$\exp(X)\exp(Y)\exp(Z)=\exp({AX+BZ+CY+DI}) \ , $$ derived in arXiv:1502.06589,
JHEP {\bf 1505} (2015) 113. This includes, as a particular case, $\exp(X)
\exp(Z)$, with $[X,Z]$ containing other elements in addition to $X$ and $Z$.
The algorithm exploits the associativity of the BCH formula and is based on the
decomposition $\exp(X)\exp(Y)\exp(Z)=\exp(X)\exp({\alpha Y}) \exp({(1-\alpha)
Y}) \exp(Z)$, with $\alpha$ fixed in such a way that it reduces to
$\exp({\tilde X})\exp({\tilde Y})$, with $\tilde X$ and $\tilde Y$ satisfying
the Van-Brunt and Visser condition $[\tilde X,\tilde Y]=\tilde u\tilde X+\tilde
v\tilde Y+\tilde cI$. It turns out that $e^\alpha$ satisfies, in the generic
case, an algebraic equation whose exponents depend on the parameters defining
the commutator algebra. In nine {\it types} of commutator algebras, such an
equation leads to rational solutions for $\alpha$. We find all the equations
that characterize the solution of the above decomposition problem by combining
it with the Jacobi identity.


  We discuss the topological and global gauge properties of the formula for a
black hole entropy due to a purely gravitational Chern-Simons term. We study
under what topological and geometrical conditions this formula is well-defined.
To this end we have to analyze the global properties of the Chern-Simons term
itself and the quantization of its coupling. We show that in some cases the
coupling quantization may interfere with the well-definiteness of the entropy
formula.


  We connect the algebraic geometry and representation theory associated to
Freudenthal's magic square. We give unified geometric descriptions of several
classes of orbit closures, describing their hyperplane sections and
desingularizations, and interpreting them in terms of composition algebras. In
particular, we show how a class of invariant quartic polynomials can be viewed
as generalizations of the classical discriminant of a cubic polynomial.


  We focus on a recently developed generalized pseudospectral method for
accurate, efficient treatment of certain central potentials of interest in
various branches in quantum mechanics, usually having singularity. Essentially
this allows optimal, nonuniform spatial discretization of the pertinent
single-particle Schrodinger equation satisfying Dirichlet boundary condition
leading to standard diagonalization of symmetric matrices. Its validity and
feasibility have been demonstrated for a wide range of important potentials
such as Hulth\'en, Yukawa, generalized spiked harmonic oscillators, Hellmann,
Coulomb potentials without/with various perturbations (for instance, linear and
quadratic) etc. Although initially designed for singular potentials, this has
also been remarkably successful for various other cases such as power-law,
logarithmic, harmonic potentials containing higher order perturbations, 3D
rational potentials as well as confinement studies. Furthermore, a large number
of low-, moderately high-, high-lying multiply excited Rydberg states such as
singly, doubly excited He as well as triply excited hollow $2l2l'2l'' (n \ge
2)$ and $3l3l'3l''$ doubly-hollow resonances in many-electron atoms have been
treated by this approach within a KS DFT with great success. This offers very
high-quality results for both ground and higher lying states for arbitrary
values of potential parameters (covering both weak and strong coupling) with
equal ease and efficacy. In all cases, excellent agreement with literature
results are observed; in many cases this surpasses the accuracy of all other
existing results while in other occasions our results are comparable to the
best ones available in literature.


  The celebrated Stokes Law (SL) of hydrodynamics predicts that the velocity of
a particle pulled through a liquid by an external force, Fex, is directly
proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the friction {\zeta}
acted by the medium on the particle. We investigate the range of validity of
Stokes Law at molecular length scales by employing computer simulations to
calculate friction by pulling a tagged particle with a constant force. We thus
calculate friction for two model interaction potentials, Lennard-Jones, and
soft sphere, for several particle sizes, ranging from radius (a) smaller than
the solvent particles to three times larger. We next obtain friction from
diffusion (D) by using Einstein's relation between diffusion and friction
{\zeta} in an unperturbed liquid. We find, to our surprise, a quantitative
agreement between the two at a small-to-intermediate pulling force regime for
all the sizes studied. The Law does break down at a large pulling force beyond
a threshold value. Importantly, the range of validity of Stokes' scheme to
obtain friction increases substantially if we turn off the attractive part of
the interaction potential. Additionally, we calculate the viscosity ({\eta}) of
the unperturbed liquid and find a good agreement with the Stokes-Einstein
relation {\zeta}=C{\eta}a for the viscosity dependence with a value of C close
to 5 {\pi}, that is intermediate between the slip and stick boundary condition.


  We have calculated on the computer the sum $\bar{\BB}_M$ of reciprocals of
all 47 known Mersenne primes with the accuracy of over 12000000 decimal digits.
Next we developed $\bar{\BB}_M$ into the continued fraction and calculated
geometrical means of the partial denominators of the continued fraction
expansion of $\bar{\BB}_M$. We get values converging to the Khinchin's
constant. Next we calculated the $n$-th square roots of the denominators of the
$n$-th convergents of these continued fractions obtaining values approaching
the Khinchin-L{\`e}vy constant. These two results suggests that the sum of
reciprocals of all Mersenne primes is irrational, supporting the common believe
that there is an infinity of the Mersenne primes. For comparison we have done
the same procedures with slightly modified set of 47 numbers obtaining quite
different results. Next we investigated the continued fraction whose partial
quotients are Mersenne primes and we argue that it should be transcendental.


  Effective mass Klein-Gordon equation for the asymmetric Hulth{\'e}n potential
is solved in terms of hypergeometric functions. Results are obtained for the
scattering and bound states with the position dependent mass and constant mass,
as a special case. In both cases, we derive a condition for the existence of
transmission resonance (T=1). We also study how the transmission resonance
depends on the particle energy and the shape of the external potential.


  This article determines a lower bound for the number Germain primes $p$ and
$2p+1$ up to a large number $x$.


  Multi-particle scattering states are constructed for massive Wigner particles
in the general operator-algebraic setting of wedge-local quantum field theory.
The apparent geometrical restriction of the conventional wedge-local
Haag-Ruelle argument to two-particle scattering states is overcome with a
swapping symmetry argument based on wedge duality.


  Squeezing the quadrature noise of a harmonic oscillator used as a sensor can
enhance its sensitivity in certain measurment schemes. The canonical approach,
based on parametric modulation of the oscillation frequency, is usually limited
to a squeezing of at most 3 dB. However, this can be overcome by additional
stabilization of the anti-squeezed quadrature. Here, we apply this approach to
highly-stressed silicon nitride membrane resonators, with effective masses of
the order few nanograms and quality factors routinely exceeding 108, which hold
promise for sensing applications in both the classical and quantum regimes. We
benchmark their performance using either piezo or capacitive parametric
modulation. We observe maximum thermomechanical squeezing by record-high 17 dB
and 21 dB, respectively, and we argue that even larger values can be attained
with minimal changes to the device design. Finally, we provide a full quantum
theory of a combination of this approach with quantum-limited motion
measurement and conclude that quantum squeezing is attainable at moderate
cryogenic temperatures.


  Robust principal component analysis (RPCA) has been widely used for
recovering low-rank matrices in many data mining and machine learning problems.
It separates a data matrix into a low-rank part and a sparse part. The convex
approach has been well studied in the literature. However, state-of-the-art
algorithms for the convex approach usually have relatively high complexity due
to the need of solving (partial) singular value decompositions of large
matrices. A non-convex approach, AltProj, has also been proposed with lighter
complexity and better scalability. Given the true rank $r$ of the underlying
low rank matrix, AltProj has a complexity of $O(r^2dn)$, where $d\times n$ is
the size of data matrix. In this paper, we propose a novel factorization-based
model of RPCA, which has a complexity of $O(kdn)$, where $k$ is an upper bound
of the true rank. Our method does not need the precise value of the true rank.
From extensive experiments, we observe that AltProj can work only when $r$ is
precisely known in advance; however, when the needed rank parameter $r$ is
specified to a value different from the true rank, AltProj cannot fully
separate the two parts while our method succeeds. Even when both work, our
method is about 4 times faster than AltProj. Our method can be used as a
light-weight, scalable tool for RPCA in the absence of the precise value of the
true rank.


  It is known that gravitinos are non-thermally produced in inflaton decay
processes, which excludes many inflation models for a wide range of the
gravitino mass. We find that the constraints from the gravitino overproduction
can be greatly relaxed if the supersymmetry breaking field is much lighter than
the inflaton, and if the dynamical scale of the supersymmetry breaking is
higher than the inflaton mass. In particular, we show that many inflation
models then become consistent with the pure gravity mediation with O(100)TeV
gravitino which naturally explains the recently observed Higgs boson mass of
about 125GeV.


  By classical calculation, for a smooth hypersurface $Y\subset \mathbb
P^{n+1}_{\mathbb C}$, the product by the hyperplane class is zero on
homologically trivial rational cycles i.e. $H_{|Y}\cdot :{\rm
CH}_i(Y)_{hom,\mathbb Q}\rightarrow {\rm CH}_{i-1}(Y)_{hom,\mathbb Q}$ is $0$
for any $i$. This note extends that result to some complete intersections.


  Motivated by the recent experimental progresses in the study of p-wave
resonant Fermi gas, we investigate the normal state properties of such a gas
close to a p-wave scattering resonance. We calculate the universal equation of
state and the two p-wave contacts which characterise the universal properties
of the system, in good agreement with experiments. Our calculation takes
explicit account of the effective range correction and obtains the superfluid
transition temperature $T_c$ within Nozi\`eres-Schmitt-Rink (NSR) scheme, and
shows that it lies within experimental reach. We derive analytic expression for
$T_c$ in the weak coupling limit and show explicitly the non-perturbative
nature of the effective range corrections.


  A new, more precise measurement of the $\Lambda$ hyperon lifetime is
performed using a large data sample of Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}
= 5.02$ TeV with ALICE. The $\Lambda$ and $\overline{\Lambda}$ hyperons are
reconstructed at midrapidity using their two-body weak decay channel $\Lambda
\rightarrow \mathrm{p} + \pi^{-}$ and $\overline{\Lambda} \rightarrow
\overline{\mathrm{p}} + \pi^{+}$. The measured value of the $\Lambda$ lifetime
is $\tau_{\Lambda} = [261.07 \pm 0.37 \ ( \rm stat.) \pm 0.72 \ (\rm syst.) ]\
\rm ps$. The relative difference between the lifetime of $\Lambda$ and
$\overline{\Lambda}$, which represents an important test of CPT invariance in
the strangeness sector, is also measured. The obtained value
$(\tau_{\Lambda}-\tau_{\overline{\Lambda}})/\tau_{\Lambda} = 0.0013 \pm 0.0028
\ (\mathrm{stat.}) \pm 0.0021 \ (\mathrm{syst.})$ is consistent with zero
within the uncertainties. Both measurements of the $\Lambda$ hyperon lifetime
and of the relative difference between $\tau_{\Lambda}$ and
$\tau_{\overline{\Lambda}}$ are in agreement with the corresponding world
averages of the Particle Data Group and about a factor of three more precise.


  The amplitude of localized quantum states in random or disordered media may
exhibit long range exponential decay. We present here a theory that unveils the
existence of an effective potential which finely governs the confinement of
these states. In this picture, the boundaries of the localization subregions
for low energy eigenfunctions correspond to the barriers of this effective
potential, and the long range exponential decay characteristic of Anderson
localization is explained as the consequence of multiple tunneling in the dense
network of barriers created by this effective potential. Finally, we show that
the Weyl's formula based on this potential turns out to be a remarkable
approximation of the density of states for a large variety of one-dimensional
systems, periodic or random.


  The paper presents an iterative version of join-tree clustering that applies
the message passing of join-tree clustering algorithm to join-graphs rather
than to join-trees, iteratively. It is inspired by the success of Pearl's
belief propagation algorithm as an iterative approximation scheme on one hand,
and by a recently introduced mini-clustering i. success as an anytime
approximation method, on the other. The proposed Iterative Join-graph
Propagation IJGP belongs to the class of generalized belief propagation
methods, recently proposed using analogy with algorithms in statistical
physics. Empirical evaluation of this approach on a number of problem classes
demonstrates that even the most time-efficient variant is almost always
superior to IBP and MC i, and is sometimes more accurate by as much as several
orders of magnitude.


  Stellar evolution theory predicts the existence of He-core remnants of the
primary components of intermediate-mass close binaries that lost most of their
H/He envelopes due to the mass exchange. They are expected to be observed as
(1-7) solar mass hot He-rich stars located in the HRD between sdO/B and
WR-stars. Several thousands of such stars are expected to exist in the Galaxy,
but none of them have been identified so far. We aim to provide comprehensive
predictions of the numbers and fundamental properties of He-stars and their
companions in the Galaxy. This is a necessary first step to guide observations,
to enable a comparison between evolutionary models and observed populations,
and to determine the feedback of He-stars in the Galaxy. We expanded the
previously considered space of parameters describing progenitors of He-stars
and applied a population synthesis based on a grid of models computed by the
code MESA. The estimated number of Galactic binaries hosting (1-7) solar mass
He-stars is about 20000; it declines to about 3000 for mass exceeding two solar
ones. The decisive factor that defines the number of He-stars is runaway mass
loss after Roche lobe overflow by primary components, resulting in formation of
common envelopes and merger of components. He-stars are much less numerous than
expected, since a fraction of close binaries with primary masses below (5-7)
solar ones produce subdwarfs with masses below solar. Overwhelming majority of
He-stars reside in binaries with an early-type companions and can be identified
neither by the UV excess nor by emission features. The large periods of a
significant fraction of binaries hosting stripped stars (exceeding several
hundred days) also hamper their discovery. (Abridged).


  An increase in energy production from renewable energy sources is viewed as a
crucial achievement in most industrialized countries.
  The higher variability of power production via renewables leads to a rise in
ancillary service costs over the power system, in particular costs within the
electricity balancing markets, mainly due to an increased number of extreme
price spikes. This study focuses on forecasting the behavior of price and
volumes of the Italian balancing market in the presence of an increased share
of renewable energy sources. Starting from configurations of load and power
production, which guarantee a stable performance, we implement fluctuations in
the load and in renewables; in particular we artificially increase the
contribution of renewables as compared to conventional power sources to cover
the total load. We then forecast the amount of provided energy in the balancing
market and its fluctuations, which are induced by production and consumption.
Within an approach of agent based modeling we estimate the resulting energy
prices and costs. While their average values turn out to be only slightly
affected by an increased contribution from renewables, the probability for
extreme price events is shown to increase along with undesired peaks in the
costs.


  We study pairs and m--tuples of compositions of a positive integer n with
parts restricted to a subset P of positive integers. We obtain some exact
enumeration results for the number of tuples of such compositions having the
same number of parts. Under the uniform probability model, we obtain the
asymptotics for the probability that two or, more generally, m randomly and
independently chosen compositions of n have the same number of parts. For a
large class of compositions, we show how a nice interplay between complex
analysis and probability theory allows to get full asymptotics for this
probability. Our results extend an earlier work of B\'ona and Knopfmacher.
While we restrict our attention to compositions, our approach is also of
interest for tuples of other combinatorial structures having the same number of
parts.


  The band dispersion of the two highest occupied molecular orbital
(HOMO)-derived bands in thin crystalline Pentacene films grown on Bi(001) was
determined by photoemission spectroscopy. Compared to first-principles
calculations our data show a significantly smaller band width and a much larger
band separation indicating that the molecular interactions are weaker than
predicted by theory--a direct contradiction to previous reports by Kakuta et
al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 247601 (2007)]. The effective hole mass m* at M-bar
is found to be anisotropic and larger than theoretically predicted. Comparison
of m* to field effect mobility measurements shows that the band structure has a
strong influence on the mobility even at room temperature where we estimate the
scattering rate to be tau ~3 fs.


  Interpretation of exact results on the low-energy limit of $4d$ $N=2$ SUSY YM
in the language of $1d$ integrability theory is reviewed. The case of elliptic
Calogero system, associated with the flow between $N=4$ and $N=2$ SUSY in $4d$,
is considered in some detail.


  In recent works, through observations of molecular lines, we found that the
supernova remnant (SNR) G18.8+0.3 is interacting with a molecular cloud towards
its southern edge. Also it has been proven the presence of several neighboring
HII regions very likely located at the same distance as the remnant. The
presence of dense molecular gas and the existence of shock fronts generated by
the SNR and HII regions make this region an interesting scenario to study the
population of young stellar objects. Thus, using the most modern colour
criteria applied to the emission in the mid-infrared bands obtained from IRAC
and MIPS on board Spitzer, we characterized all the point sources lying in this
region. We analyzed the spectral energy distributions of sources that show
signs of being young stellar objects in order to confirm their nature and
derive stellar parameters. Additionally, we present a map of the $^{12}$CO
J=3-2 emission obtained with the ASTE telescope towards one of the HII regions
embedded in the molecular cloud. The molecular gas was studied with the aim to
analyze whether the cloud is a potential site of star formation.


  We investigate the singlet-triplet relaxation process of a two electron
silicon quantum dot. In the absence of a perpendicular magnetic field, we find
that spin-orbit coupling is not the main source of singlet-triplet relaxation.
Relaxation in this regime occurs mainly via virtual states and is due to
nuclear hyperfine coupling. In the presence of an external magnetic field
perpendicular to the plane of the dot, the spin-orbit coupling is important and
virtual states are not required. We find that there can be strong anisotropy
for different field directions: parallel magnetic field can increase
substantially the relaxation time due to Zeeman splitting, but when the
magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the plane, the enhancement of the
spin-orbit effect shortens the relaxation time. We find the relaxation to be
orders of magnitude longer than for GaAs quantum dots, due to weaker hyperfine
and spin-orbit effects.


  The theory of exact C*-algebras was introduced by Kirchberg and has been
influential in recent development of C*-algebras. A fundamental result on exact
C*-algebras is a local characterization of exactness. The notion of weakly
exact von Neumann algebras was also introduced by Kirchberg. In this paper, we
give a local characterization of weak exactness. As a corollary, we prove that
a discrete group is exact if and only if its group von Neumann algebra is
weakly exact. The proof naturally involves the operator space duality.


  We study quark confinement by computing the Polyakov loop potential in
Yang--Mills theory within different non-perturbative functional continuum
approaches [1]. We extend previous studies in the formalism of the functional
renormalisation group and complement those with findings from Dyson--Schwinger
equations and two-particle-irreducible functionals. These methods are
formulated in terms of low order Green functions. This allows to identify a
criterion for confinement solely in terms of the low-momentum behaviour of
correlators.


  Nowadays, the hyperspectral remote sensing imagery HSI becomes an important
tool to observe the Earth's surface, detect the climatic changes and many other
applications. The classification of HSI is one of the most challenging tasks
due to the large amount of spectral information and the presence of redundant
and irrelevant bands. Although great progresses have been made on
classification techniques, few studies have been done to provide practical
guidelines to determine the appropriate classifier for HSI. In this paper, we
investigate the performance of four supervised learning algorithms, namely,
Support Vector Machines SVM, Random Forest RF, K-Nearest Neighbors KNN and
Linear Discriminant Analysis LDA with different kernels in terms of
classification accuracies. The experiments have been performed on three real
hyperspectral datasets taken from the NASA's Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging
Spectrometer Sensor AVIRIS and the Reflective Optics System Imaging
Spectrometer ROSIS sensors. The mutual information had been used to reduce the
dimensionality of the used datasets for better classification efficiency. The
extensive experiments demonstrate that the SVM classifier with RBF kernel and
RF produced statistically better results and seems to be respectively the more
suitable as supervised classifiers for the hyperspectral remote sensing images.
  Keywords: hyperspectral images, mutual information, dimension reduction,
Support Vector Machines, K-Nearest Neighbors, Random Forest, Linear
Discriminant Analysis.


  Axonal growth and guidance at the ventral floor plate is here followed
$\textit{in vivo}$ in real time at high resolution by light-sheet microscopy
along several hundred micrometers of the zebrafish spinal cord. The recordings
show the strikingly stereotyped spatio-temporal control that governs midline
crossing. Commissural axons are observed crossing the ventral floor plate
midline perpendicularly at about 20 microns/h, in a manner dependent on the
Robo3 receptor and with a growth rate minimum around the midline, confirming
previous observations. At guidance points, commissural axons are seen to
decrease their growth rate and growth cones increase in size. Commissural
filopodia appear to interact with the nascent neural network, and thereby
trigger immediate plastic and reversible sinusoidal-shaped bending movements of
neighboring commissural shafts. Ipsilateral axons extend concurrently, but
straight and without bends, at three to six times higher growth rates than
commissurals, indicating they project their path on a substrate-bound surface
rather than relying on diffusible guidance cues. Growing axons appeared to be
under stretch, an observation that is of relevance for tension-based models of
cortical morphogenesis. The \textit{in vivo} observations provide for a
discussion of the current distinction between substrate-bound and diffusible
guidance cues. The study applies the transparent zebrafish model that provides
an experimental model system to explore further the cellular, molecular and
physical mechanisms involved during axonal growth, guidance and midline
crossing through a combination of $\textit{in vitro}$ and $\textit{in vivo}$
approaches.


  Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are ideal sources for multi-wavelength studies
as their emission can cover almost 20 orders of magnitude in frequency from the
radio to the gamma-ray band. After reviewing their basic properties, I will
assess how well we know the multifrequency spectra of AGN as a class. I will
then briefly illustrate how currently available and forthcoming sky surveys
will help in addressing some of the open questions of AGN studies. Finally, an
analysis of the problem of the missing Type 2 QSO will exemplify the dangers of
monochromatic sky surveys for AGN.


  Let I be a dense linear order with a left endpoint but no right endpoint. We
consider the lattice L(I) of finite unions of closed intervals of I. This
lattice arises naturally in the setting of o-minimality, as these are precisely
the closed definable sets in any o-minimal expansion of I. Our main result says
that L(I), the expansion of the lattice by constants for the empty set and the
smallest element of I (viewed as a singleton subset) as well as four unary
functions, is model-complete. The proof of the main result makes use of
previous results regarding the weak monadic second order theory of I from the
authors PhD thesis.


  We investigate the statistics of the fluctuations of the energy transfer
between an overdamped Brownian particle, whose motion is confined by a
stationary harmonic potential, and a surrounding viscoelastic fluid at constant
temperature. We derive an analytical expression for the probability density
function of the energy exchanged with the fluid over a finite time interval,
which implicitly involves the friction memory kernel that encodes the coupling
with such a non-Markovian environment, and reduces to the well known expression
for the heat distribution in a viscous fluid. We show that, while the odd
moments of this distribution are zero, the even moments can be explicitly
expressed in terms of the auto-correlation function of the particle position,
which generally exhibits a non-mono-exponential decay when the fluid bath is
viscoelastic. Our results are verified by experimental measurements for an
optically-trapped colloidal bead in semidilute micellar and polymer solutions,
finding and excellent agreement for all time intervals over which the energy
exchange takes place.


  Using the charmonium light-front wavefunctions obtained by diagonalizing an
effective Hamiltonian with the one-gluon exchange interaction and a confining
potential inspired by light-front holography in the basis light-front
quantization formalism, we compute production of charmonium states in
diffractive deep inelastic scattering and ultra-peripheral heavy ion collisions
within the dipole picture. Our method allows us to predict yields of all vector
charmonium states below the open flavor thresholds in high-energy deep
inelastic scattering, proton-nucleus and ultra-peripheral heavy ion collisions,
without introducing any new parameters in the light-front wavefunctions. The
obtained charmonium cross section is in reasonable agreement with experimental
data at HERA, RHIC and LHC. We observe that the cross-section ratio
$\sigma_{\Psi(2s)}/\sigma_{J/\Psi}$ reveals significant independence of model
parameters.


  Driven by advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and
algorithms, the widespread adoption of AI-generated content (AIGC) has emerged,
allowing for the generation of diverse and high-quality content. Especially,
the diffusion model-based AIGC technique has been widely used to generate
content in a variety of modalities. However, the real-world implementation of
AIGC models, particularly on resource-constrained devices such as mobile
phones, introduces significant challenges related to energy consumption and
privacy concerns. To further promote the realization of ubiquitous AIGC
services, we propose a novel collaborative distributed diffusion-based AIGC
framework. By capitalizing on collaboration among devices in wireless networks,
the proposed framework facilitates the efficient execution of AIGC tasks,
optimizing edge computation resource utilization. Furthermore, we examine the
practical implementation of the denoising steps on mobile phones, the impact of
the proposed approach on the wireless network-aided AIGC landscape, and the
future opportunities associated with its real-world integration. The
contributions of this paper not only offer a promising solution to the existing
limitations of AIGC services but also pave the way for future research in
device collaboration, resource optimization, and the seamless delivery of AIGC
services across various devices. Our code is available at
https://github.com/HongyangDu/DistributedDiffusion.


  Robustness of deep learning methods for limited angle tomography is
challenged by two major factors: a) due to insufficient training data the
network may not generalize well to unseen data; b) deep learning methods are
sensitive to noise. Thus, generating reconstructed images directly from a
neural network appears inadequate. We propose to constrain the reconstructed
images to be consistent with the measured projection data, while the unmeasured
information is complemented by learning based methods. For this purpose, a data
consistent artifact reduction (DCAR) method is introduced: First, a prior image
is generated from an initial limited angle reconstruction via deep learning as
a substitute for missing information. Afterwards, a conventional iterative
reconstruction algorithm is applied, integrating the data consistency in the
measured angular range and the prior information in the missing angular range.
This ensures data integrity in the measured area, while inaccuracies
incorporated by the deep learning prior lie only in areas where no information
is acquired. The proposed DCAR method achieves significant image quality
improvement: for 120-degree cone-beam limited angle tomography more than 10%
RMSE reduction in noise-free case and more than 24% RMSE reduction in noisy
case compared with a state-of-the-art U-Net based method.


  We report wide class of exact solutions of the modified Gross-Pitaevskii
equation (GPE) in `smart' Jacobi elliptic potentials: $V(\xi)=-V_{0}{\rm
sn(\xi,m)}$, $V(\xi)=-V_{0}{\rm cn(\xi,m)}$, and $V(\xi)=-V_{0}{\rm dn(\xi,m)}$
in the presence of external source. Solitonlike solutions, singular solutions,
and periodic solutions are found using a recently developed fractional
transform: $\rho(\xi)=\frac{A+Bf^2}{1+Df}$, where $f$ is the respective Jacobi
elliptic function and the amplitude parameters $A$, $B$, and $D$ {\it nonzero}.
These results generalize those contained in (Paul T, Richter K and Schlagheck P
2005 \emph{Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 94}, 020404) for nonzero trapping potential.


  Thermal Energy Storage (TES) devices, which leverage the constant-temperature
thermal capacity of the latent heat of a Phase Change Material (PCM), provide
benefits to a variety of thermal management systems by decoupling the
absorption and rejection of thermal energy. While performing a role similar to
a battery in an electrical system, it is critical to know when to charge
(freeze) and discharge (melt) the TES to maximize the capabilities and
efficiency of the overall system. Therefore, control-oriented models of TES are
needed to predict the behavior of the TES and make informed control decisions.
While existing modeling approaches divide the TES in to multiple sections using
a Fixed Grid (FG) approach, this paper proposes a switched Moving Boundary (MB)
model that captures the key dynamics of the TES with significantly fewer
dynamic states. Specifically, a graph-based modeling approach is used to model
the heat flow through the TES and a MB approach is used to model the
time-varying liquid and solid regions of the TES. Additionally, a Finite State
Machine (FSM) is used to switch between four different modes of operation based
on the State-of-Charge (SOC) of the TES. Numerical simulations comparing the
proposed approach with a more traditional FG approach show that the MB model is
capable of accurately modeling the behavior of the FG model while using far
fewer states, leading to five times faster simulations.


  Motivated by a recent study casting doubt on the correspondence between Regge
calculus and general relativity in the continuum limit, we explore a mechanism
by which the simplicial solutions can converge whilst the residual of the Regge
equations evaluated on the continuum solutions does not. By directly
constructing simplicial solutions for the Kasner cosmology we show that the
oscillatory behaviour of the discrepancy between the Einstein and Regge
solutions reconciles the apparent conflict between the results of Brewin and
those of previous studies. We conclude that solutions of Regge calculus are, in
general, expected to be second order accurate approximations to the
corresponding continuum solutions.


  Recently, the reflected entropy is proposed in holographic approach to
describe the entanglement of a bipartite quantum system in a mixed state, which
is identified as the area of the reflected minimal surface inside the
entanglement wedge. In this paper, we study the reflected entropy in the doubly
holographic setup, which contains the degrees of freedom of quantum matter in
the bulk. In this context, we propose a notion of quantum entanglement wedge
cross-section, which may describe the reflected entropy with higher-order
quantum corrections. We numerically compute the reflected entropy in pure AdS
background and black hole background in four dimensions, respectively. In
general, the reflected entropy contains the contribution from the geometry on
the brane and the contribution from the CFT. We compute their proportion for
different Newton constants and find that their behaviors are in agreement with
the results based on the semi-classical gravity and the correlation of CFT
coupled to the bath CFT.


  Facial Kinship Verification is the task of determining the degree of familial
relationship between two facial images. It has recently gained a lot of
interest in various applications spanning forensic science, social media, and
demographic studies. In the past decade, deep learning-based approaches have
emerged as a promising solution to this problem, achieving state-of-the-art
performance. In this paper, we propose a novel method for solving kinship
verification by using supervised contrastive learning, which trains the model
to maximize the similarity between related individuals and minimize it between
unrelated individuals. Our experiments show state-of-the-art results and
achieve 81.1% accuracy in the Families in the Wild (FIW) dataset.


  In contrast to magnetic order formed by electrons' dipolar moments, ordering
phenomena associated with higher-order multipoles (quadrupoles, octupoles,
etc.) are more difficult to characterize because of the limited choice of
experimental probes that can distinguish different multipolar moments. The
heavy-fermion compound CeB6 and its La-diluted alloys are among the
best-studied realizations of the long-range-ordered multipolar phases, often
referred to as "hidden order". Previously the hidden order in phase II was
identified as primary antiferroquadrupolar (AFQ) and field-induced octupolar
(AFO) order. Here we present a combined experimental and theoretical
investigation of collective excitations in the phase II of CeB6. Inelastic
neutron scattering (INS) in fields up to 16.5 T reveals a new high-energy mode
above 14 T in addition to the low-energy magnetic excitations. The experimental
dependence of their energy on the magnitude and angle of the applied magnetic
field is compared to the results of a multipolar interaction model. The
magnetic excitation spectrum in rotating field is calculated within a localized
approach using the pseudo-spin presentation for the Gamma8 states. We show that
the rotating-field technique at fixed momentum can complement conventional INS
measurements of the dispersion at constant field and holds great promise for
identifying the symmetry of multipolar order parameters and the details of
inter-multipolar interactions that stabilize hidden-order phases.


  We have calculated the complete matrix of three-loop helicity-difference
(`polarized') splitting functions Delta P_ik^(2), i,k = q,g, in massless
perturbative QCD. In this note we briefly discuss some properties of the
polarized splitting functions and our non-standard determination of the
hitherto missing lower-row quantities Delta P_gq^(2) and Delta P_gg^(2). The
resulting next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) corrections to the evolution of
polarized parton distributions are illustrated and found to be small even at
rather large values of the strong coupling constant alpha_s.


  We study the mid- to far-IR properties of a 24um-selected flux-limited sample
(S24 > 5mJy) of 154 intermediate redshift (<z>~0.15), infrared luminous
galaxies, drawn from the 5MUSES survey. By combining existing mid-IR
spectroscopy and new Herschel SPIRE submm photometry from the HerMES program,
we derived robust total infrared luminosity (LIR) and dust mass (Md) estimates
and infered the relative contribution of the AGN to the infrared energy budget
of the sources. We found that the total infrared emission of galaxies with weak
6.2um PAH emission (EW<0.2um) is dominated by AGN activity, while for galaxies
with EW>0.2um more than 50% of the LIR arises from star formation. We also
found that for galaxies detected in the 250-500um Herschel bands an AGN has a
statistically insignificant effect on the temperature of the cold dust and the
far-IR colours of the host galaxy, which are primarily shaped by star formation
activity. For star-forming galaxies we reveal an anti-correlation between the
LIR-to-rest-frame 8um luminosity ratio, IR8 = LIR\L8, and the strength of PAH
features. We found that this anti-correlation is primarily driven by variations
in the PAHs emission, and not by variations in the 5-15um mid-IR continuum
emission. Using the [NeIII]/[NeII] line ratio as a tracer of the hardness of
the radiation field, we confirm that galaxies with harder radiation fields tend
to exhibit weaker PAH features, and found that they have higher IR8 values and
higher dust-mass-weighted luminosities (LIR/Md), the latter being a proxy for
the dust temperature (Td). We argue that these trends originate either from
variations in the environment of the star-forming regions or are caused by
variations in the age of the starburst. Finally, we provide scaling relations
that will allow estimating LIR, based on single-band observations with the
mid-infrared instrument, on board the upcoming JWST.


  We provide detailed arguments on how to derive properties of generalized form
factors, originally proposed by one of the authors (M.K.) and Weisz twenty
years ago, solely based on the assumption of "minimal analyticity" and the
validity of the LSZ reduction formalism. These properties constitute
consistency equations which allow the explicit evaluation of the n-particle
form factors once the scattering matrix is known. The equations give rise to a
matrix Riemann-Hilbert problem. Exploiting the "off-shell" Bethe ansatz we
propose a general formula for form factors for an odd number of particles. For
the Sine-Gordon model alias the massive Thirring model we exemplify the general
solution for several operators. We carry out a consistency check for the
solution of the three particle form factor against the Thirring model
perturbation theory and thus confirm the general formalism.


  The key cryptographic protocols used to secure the internet and financial
transactions of today are all susceptible to attack by the development of a
sufficiently large quantum computer. One particular area at risk are
cryptocurrencies, a market currently worth over 150 billion USD. We investigate
the risk of Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, to attacks by quantum
computers. We find that the proof-of-work used by Bitcoin is relatively
resistant to substantial speedup by quantum computers in the next 10 years,
mainly because specialized ASIC miners are extremely fast compared to the
estimated clock speed of near-term quantum computers. On the other hand, the
elliptic curve signature scheme used by Bitcoin is much more at risk, and could
be completely broken by a quantum computer as early as 2027, by the most
optimistic estimates. We analyze an alternative proof-of-work called Momentum,
based on finding collisions in a hash function, that is even more resistant to
speedup by a quantum computer. We also review the available post-quantum
signature schemes to see which one would best meet the security and efficiency
requirements of blockchain applications.


  Advanced channel reservation is emerging as an important feature of ultra
high-speed networks requiring the transfer of large files. Applications include
scientific data transfers and database backup. In this paper, we present two
new, on-line algorithms for advanced reservation, called BatchAll and BatchLim,
that are guaranteed to achieve optimal throughput performance, based on
multi-commodity flow arguments. Both algorithms are shown to have
polynomial-time complexity and provable bounds on the maximum delay for
1+epsilon bandwidth augmented networks. The BatchLim algorithm returns the
completion time of a connection immediately as a request is placed, but at the
expense of a slightly looser competitive ratio than that of BatchAll. We also
present a simple approach that limits the number of parallel paths used by the
algorithms while provably bounding the maximum reduction factor in the
transmission throughput. We show that, although the number of different paths
can be exponentially large, the actual number of paths needed to approximate
the flow is quite small and proportional to the number of edges in the network.
Simulations for a number of topologies show that, in practice, 3 to 5 parallel
paths are sufficient to achieve close to optimal performance. The performance
of the competitive algorithms are also compared to a greedy benchmark, both
through analysis and simulation.


  We use a generalization of chiral perturbation theory to account for the
effects of flavor twisted boundary conditions in the Breit frame. The relevant
framework for two light flavors is an SU(6|4) partially quenched theory, where
the extra valence quarks differ only by their boundary conditions. Focusing on
the pion electromagnetic form factor, finite volume corrections are calculated
at next-to-leading order in the chiral expansion and are estimated to be small
on current lattices.


  If a supermassive black hole resides in the centers of galaxies, there are
several effects expected to be observed. It is likely that accretion disks are
around the supermassive black hole. Stellar interactions with the accretion
flows around the supermassive black hole play a role in that an flying-by star
may cool a hot accretion disk as a result of Comptonization. It is shown that
the Comptonization of the stellar emission will take place in a hot accretion
disk such as the ADAFs around the supermassive black hole and become a
relatively important source of the accretion disk cooling when the mass
accretion rate is low, and stars are passing outer parts of the hot accretion
disk. We suggest that such a stellar cooling can be observed in the radio
frequency regime since synchrotron luminosity of the ADAFs depends strongly on
the electron temperature and occurs much more frequently than a tidal
disruption event.


  In contrast to finite arithmetic configurations, relatively little is known
about which infinite patterns can be found in every set of natural numbers with
positive density. Building on recent advances showing infinite sumsets can be
found, we explore numerous open problems and obstructions to finding other
infinite configurations in every set of natural numbers with positive density.


  In this paper, we present several resource-efficient algorithmic solutions
regarding the fully parallel hardware implementation of the basic filtering
operation performed in the convolutional layers of convolution neural networks.
In fact, these basic operations calculate two inner products of neighboring
vectors formed by a sliding time window from the current data stream with an
impulse response of the M-tap finite impulse response filter. We used Winograd
minimal filtering trick and applied it to develop fully parallel
hardware-oriented algorithms for implementing the basic filtering operation for
M=3,5,7,9, and 11. A fully parallel hardware implementation of the proposed
algorithms in each case gives approximately 30 percent savings in the number of
embedded multipliers compared to a fully parallel hardware implementation of
the naive calculation methods.


  Coherent control of self-contained quantum systems offers the possibility to
fabricate smallest thermal transistors. The steady coherence created by the
delocalization of electronic excited states arouses nonlinear heat transports
in non-equilibrium environment. Applying this result to a three-level quantum
system, we show that quantum coherence gives rise to negative differential
thermal resistances, making the thermal transistor suitable for thermal
amplification. The results show that quantum coherence facilitates efficient
thermal signal processing and can open a new field in the application of
quantum thermal management devices.


  $UBV$ photometry is used to re-identify the OB associations which power the
two most luminous HII regions in M33, NGC 604 and NGC 595. There is a
significant difference (2-3 Myr) in the ages of the most recent star formation
episode in these two regions, while NGC 595 also has undergone a prior episode
of star formation (10-15 Myr ago). These data, combined with the presence of
molecular clouds in the heart of NGC 604, suggest that molecular clouds may
survive at least one intense episode of massive star formation. The star
formation efficiencies (mass of stars per mass of gas) of these two HII regions
are up to a factor of 3 larger than the average efficiency in the inner disk of
M33 or in Galactic molecular clouds, but are still only 2-5\%.


  Among civilian communication systems, vehicular networks emerge as one of the
most is convincing and yet most challenging instantiations of the mobile ad hoc
networking technology. Towards the deployment of vehicular communication
systems, security and privacy are critical factors and significant challenges
to be met. This Vehicular communication (VC) system has the potential to
improve road safety and driving comfort. Nevertheless, securing the operation
is a prerequisite for deployment so in this paper we are focusing on real time
experimental design of infrastructure to vehicle communication. We outline how
VANET will be a better option than GPS technology. We also try to discuss IP
address passing using DHCP in the network and the security issues.


  Given a graph $G=(V,E)$ with arboricity $\alpha$, we study the problem of
decomposing the edges of $G$ into $(1+\epsilon)\alpha$ disjoint forests in the
distributed LOCAL model. Barenboim and Elkin [PODC `08] gave a LOCAL algorithm
that computes a $(2+\epsilon)\alpha$-forest decomposition using $O(\frac{\log
n}{\epsilon})$ rounds. Ghaffari and Su [SODA `17] made further progress by
computing a $(1+\epsilon) \alpha$-forest decomposition in $O(\frac{\log^3
n}{\epsilon^4})$ rounds when $\epsilon \alpha = \Omega(\sqrt{\alpha \log n})$,
i.e. the limit of their algorithm is an $(\alpha+ \Omega(\sqrt{\alpha \log
n}))$-forest decomposition. This algorithm, based on a combinatorial
construction of Alon, McDiarmid \& Reed [Combinatorica `92], in fact provides a
decomposition of the graph into \emph{star-forests}, i.e. each forest is a
collection of stars.
  Our main result in this paper is to reduce the threshold of $\epsilon \alpha$
in $(1+\epsilon)\alpha$-forest decomposition and star-forest decomposition.
This further answers the $10^{\text{th}}$ open question from Barenboim and
Elkin's "Distributed Graph Algorithms" book. Moreover, it gives the first
$(1+\epsilon)\alpha$-orientation algorithms with {\it linear dependencies} on
$\epsilon^{-1}$.
  At a high level, our results for forest-decomposition are based on a
combination of network decomposition, load balancing, and a new structural
result on local augmenting sequences. Our result for star-forest decomposition
uses a more careful probabilistic analysis for the construction of Alon,
McDiarmid, \& Reed; the bounds on star-arboricity here were not previously
known, even non-constructively.


  We present the fabrication and test results of Hot-Isostatic-Pressed (HIPed)
Powder-in-Tube (PIT) MgB$_2$ coils. The coils properties were measured by
transport and magnetization at different applied fields ($H$) and temperatures
($T$). The engineering critical current ($J_e$) value is the largest reported
in PIT MgB$_2$ wires or tapes. At 25 K our champion 6-layer coil was able to
generate a field of 1 T at self-field ($I_c >$ 220 A, $J_e \sim 2.8 \times
10^4$ A/cm$^2$). At 4 K this coil generated 1.6 T under an applied field of
1.25 T ($I_c \sim350$ A, $J_e \sim 4.5 \times 10^4$ A/cm$^2$). These magnetic
fields are high enough for a superconducting transformer or magnet applications
such as MRI. A SiC doped MgB$_2$ single layer coil shows a promising
improvement at high fields and exhibits $J_c > 10^4$ A/cm$^2$ at 7 T.


  We obtained Keck/DEIMOS spectra of 556 individual red giant branch stars in 4
spectroscopic fields spanning $13-31$ projected kpc along the Northeast (NE)
shelf of M31. We present the first detection of a complete wedge pattern in the
space of projected M31-centric radial distance versus line-of-sight velocity
for this feature, which includes the returning stream component of the shelf.
This wedge pattern agrees with expectations of a tidal shell formed in a radial
merger and provides strong evidence in favor of predictions of Giant Stellar
Stream (GSS) formation models in which the NE shelf originates from the second
orbital wrap of the tidal debris. The observed concentric wedge patterns of the
NE, West (W), and Southeast (SE) shelves corroborate this interpretation
independently of the models. We do not detect a kinematical signature in the NE
shelf region corresponding to an intact progenitor core, favoring GSS formation
models in which the progenitor is completely disrupted. The shelf's photometric
metallicity distribution implies that it is dominated by tidal material, as
opposed to the phase-mixed stellar halo or the disk. The metallicity
distribution ([Fe/H]$_{\rm phot}$ = $-0.42$ $\pm$ $0.01$) also matches the GSS,
and consequently the W and SE shelves, further supporting a direct physical
association between the tidal features.