  We show how to realize two-zero textures of the Majorana neutrino mass matrix
$M_\nu$ based on modular $A_4$ invariant models without flavons. In these
models, all matter fields are assigned to three inequivalent singlets, ${\bf
1}$, ${\bf 1^\prime}$ and ${\bf 1^{\prime\prime}}$, of the finite modular group
$\Gamma_3 \simeq A_4$. Considering tensor products of the $A_4$ group, it is
easy to make the charged lepton mass matrix $M_\ell$ diagonal. Since not all
modular forms of a specific weight and level 3 can be arranged into three
inequivalent singlets of $A_4$ simultaneously, we can always make some entries
in $M_\nu$ vanish by properly assigning the representations and modular weights
for the matter fields. We consider two cases where neutrino masses originate
from the Weinberg operator and the type-I seesaw mechanism, respectively. For
the former case, all seven viable two-zero textures of $M_\nu$ (${\bf
A_{1,2}}$, ${\bf B_{1,2,3,4}}$ and ${\bf C}$) can be realized successfully. For
the latter case, only five of them (namely ${\bf A_{1,2}}$, ${\bf B_{3,4}}$ and
${\bf C}$) can be achieved due to the intrinsic structure of the right-handed
neutrino mass matrix $M_{\rm R}$ in our assumption for simplicity.


  We study the noise of the cotunneling current through one or several
tunnel-coupled quantum dots in the Coulomb blockade regime. We consider the
regime of weak (elastic and inelastic) cotunneling, and prove a non-equilibrium
fluctuation-dissipation theorem which leads to a universal expression for the
noise-to-current ratio (Fano factor).


  Adaptive spectral (AS) decompositions associated with a piecewise constant
function $u$ yield small subspaces where the characteristic functions
comprising $u$ are well approximated. When combined with Newton-like
optimization methods for the solution of inverse medium problems, AS
decompositions have proved remarkably efficient in providing at each nonlinear
iteration a low-dimensional search space. Here, we derive $L^2$-error estimates
for the AS decomposition of $u$, truncated after $K$ terms, when $u$ is
piecewise constant and consists of $K$ characteristic functions over Lipschitz
domains and a background. Our estimates apply both to the continuous and the
discrete Galerkin finite element setting. Numerical examples illustrate the
accuracy of the AS decomposition for media that either do, or do not, satisfy
the assumptions of the theory.


  We study large-scale kernel methods for acoustic modeling and compare to DNNs
on performance metrics related to both acoustic modeling and recognition.
Measuring perplexity and frame-level classification accuracy, kernel-based
acoustic models are as effective as their DNN counterparts. However, on
token-error-rates DNN models can be significantly better. We have discovered
that this might be attributed to DNN's unique strength in reducing both the
perplexity and the entropy of the predicted posterior probabilities. Motivated
by our findings, we propose a new technique, entropy regularized perplexity,
for model selection. This technique can noticeably improve the recognition
performance of both types of models, and reduces the gap between them. While
effective on Broadcast News, this technique could be also applicable to other
tasks.


  We have developed a theory of a Josephson junction formed by two
tunnel-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential in the
regime of strong atom-atom interaction for an arbitrary total number $N$ of
bosons in the condensates. The tunnel resonances in the junction are shown to
be periodically spaced by the interaction energy, forming a single-atom
staircase sensitive to the parity of $N$ even for large $N$. One of the
manifestations of the staircase structure is the periodic modulation with the
bias energy of the visibility of the interference pattern in lattices of
junctions.


  We report correlation and cross-correlation measurements of photons emitted
under continuous wave excitation by a single II-VI quantum dot (QD) grown by
molecular-beam epitaxy. A standard technique of microphotoluminescence combined
with an ultrafast photon correlation set-up allowed us to see an antibunching
effect on photons emitted by excitons recombining in a single CdTe/ZnTe QD, as
well as cross-correlation within the biexciton ($X_{2}$)-exciton ($X$)
radiative cascade from the same dot. Fast microchannel plate photomultipliers
and a time-correlated single photon module gave us an overall temporal
resolution of 140 ps better than the typical exciton lifetime in II-VI QDs of
about 250ps.


  The paper introduces a notion of the Laplace operator of a polynomial p in
noncommutative variables x=(x_1,...,x_g). The Laplacian Lap[p,h] of p is a
polynomial in x and in a noncommuting variable h. When all variables commute we
have Lap[p,h]=h^2\Delta_x p where \Delta_x p is the usual Laplacian. A
symmetric polynomial in symmetric variables will be called harmonic if
Lap[p,h]=0 and subharmonic if the polynomial q(x,h):=Lap[p,h] takes positive
semidefinite matrix values whenever matrices X_1,..., X_g, H are substituted
for the variables x_1,...,x_g, h. In this paper we classify all homogeneous
symmetric harmonic and subharmonic polynomials in two symmetric variables. We
find there are not many of them: for example, the span of all such subharmonics
of any degree higher than 4 has dimension 2 (if odd degree) and 3 (if even
degree). Hopefully, the approach here will suggest ways of defining and
analyzing other partial differential equations and inequalities.


  We theoretically study the role of excitatory and inhibitory interactions in
the aggregations of male frogs. In most frogs, males produce sounds to attract
conspecific females, which activates the calling behavior of other males and
results in collective choruses. While the calling behavior is quite effective
for mate attraction, it requires high energy consumption. In contrast,
satellite behavior is an alternative mating strategy in which males
deliberately stay silent in the vicinity of a calling male and attempt to
intercept the female attracted to the caller, allowing the satellite males to
drastically reduce their energy consumption while having a chance of mating.
Here we propose a hybrid dynamical model in which male frogs autonomously
switch among three behavioral states (i.e., calling state, resting state, and
satellite state) due to the excitatory and inhibitory interactions. Numerical
simulation of the proposed model demonstrated that (1) both collective choruses
and satellite behavior can be reproduced and (2) the satellite males can
prolong the energy depletion time of the whole aggregation while they split the
maximum chorus activity into two levels over the whole chorusing period. This
study theoretically highlights the trade-off between energy efficiency and
chorus activity in the aggregations of male frogs driven by the multiple types
of interactions.


  Dual decomposition, and more generally Lagrangian relaxation, is a classical
method for combinatorial optimization; it has recently been applied to several
inference problems in natural language processing (NLP). This tutorial gives an
overview of the technique. We describe example algorithms, describe formal
guarantees for the method, and describe practical issues in implementing the
algorithms. While our examples are predominantly drawn from the NLP literature,
the material should be of general relevance to inference problems in machine
learning. A central theme of this tutorial is that Lagrangian relaxation is
naturally applied in conjunction with a broad class of combinatorial
algorithms, allowing inference in models that go significantly beyond previous
work on Lagrangian relaxation for inference in graphical models.


  Vulnerabilities in private networks are difficult to detect for attackers
outside of the network. While there are known methods for port scanning
internal hosts that work by luring unwitting internal users to an external web
page that hosts malicious JavaScript code, no such method for detailed and
precise service identification is known. The reason is that the Same Origin
Policy (SOP) prevents access to HTTP responses of other origins by default. We
perform a structured analysis of loopholes in the SOP that can be used to
identify web applications across network boundaries. For this, we analyze
HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript features of standard-compliant web browsers that may
leak sensitive information about cross-origin content. The results reveal
several novel techniques, including leaking JavaScript function names or styles
of cross-origin requests that are available in all common browsers. We
implement and test these techniques in a tool called CORSICA. It can
successfully identify 31 of 42 (74%) of web services running on different IoT
devices as well as the version numbers of the four most widely used content
management systems WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and TYPO3. CORSICA can also
determine the patch level on average down to three versions (WordPress), six
versions (Drupal), two versions (Joomla), and four versions (TYPO3) with only
ten requests on average. Furthermore, CORSICA is able to identify 48 WordPress
plugins containing 65 vulnerabilities. Finally, we analyze mitigation
strategies and show that the proposed but not yet implemented strategies
Cross-Origin Resource Policy (CORP)} and Sec-Metadata would prevent our
identification techniques.


  In this preliminary study, we examine the chiral properties of the
parametrized Fixed-Point Dirac operator D^FP, see how to improve its chirality
via the Overlap construction, measure the renormalized quark condensate Sigma
and the topological susceptibility chi_t, and investigate local chirality of
near zero modes of the Dirac operator. We also give a general construction of
chiral currents and densities for chiral lattice actions.


  We describe a finite-field approach to compute density response functions,
which allows for efficient $G_0W_0$ and $G_0W_0\Gamma_0$ calculations beyond
the random phase approximation. The method is easily applicable to density
functional calculations performed with hybrid functionals. We present results
for the electronic properties of molecules and solids and we discuss a general
scheme to overcome slow convergence of quasiparticle energies obtained from
$G_0W_0\Gamma_0$ calculations, as a function of the basis set used to represent
the dielectric matrix.


  The Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class describes a large class of
2-dimensional models of random growth, which exhibit universal scaling
exponents and limiting statistics. The last ten years has seen remarkable
progress in this area, with the formal construction of two interrelated
limiting objects, now termed the KPZ fixed point and the directed landscape
(DL). This dissertation focuses on a third central object, termed the
stationary horizon (SH). The SH was first introduced (and named) by Busani as
the scaling limit of the Busemann process in exponential last-passage
percolation. Shortly after, in the author's joint work with Sepp\"al\"ainen, it
was independently constructed in the context of Brownian last-passage
percolation. In this dissertation, we give an alternate construction of the SH,
directly from the description of its finite-dimensional distributions and
without reference to Busemann functions. From this description, we give several
exact distributional formulas for the SH. Next, we show the significance of the
SH as a key object in the KPZ universality class by showing that the SH is the
unique coupled invariant distribution for the DL. A major consequence of this
result is that the SH describes the Busemann process for the DL. From this
connection, we give a detailed description of the collection of semi-infinite
geodesics in the DL, from all initial points and in all directions. As a
further evidence of the universality of the SH, we show that it appears as the
scaling limit of the multi-species invariant measures for the totally
asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP). This dissertation is adapted from
two joint works with Sepp\"al\"ainen and two joint works with Busani and
Sepp\"al\"ainen.


  We present a general description of separable states in Quantum Mechanics. In
particular, our result gives an easy proof that inseparabitity (or
entanglement) is a pure quantum (noncommutative) notion. This implies that
distinction between separability and inseparabitity has sense only for
composite systems consisting of pure quantum subsystems. Moreover, we provide
the unified characterization of pure-state entanglement and mixed-state
entanglement.


  In this article, we give an estimate of the zero-free region around the
origin of the ambiguity function of a signal $u$ in terms of the moments of
$u$. This is done by proving an uncertainty relation between the first zero of
the Fourier transform of a non-negative function and the moments of the
function. As a corollary, we also give an estimate of how much a function needs
to be translated to obtaina function that is orthogonal to the original
function.


  In order to quantitatively study the accuracy of the unconditionally stable
coarsening algorithms, we calculate the Fourier space multi step error on the
order parameter field by explicitly distinguishing the analytic time $\tau$ and
the algorithmic time $t$. The calculation determines the error in the order
parameter and the scaled correlations. This error contributes a correction term
in the analytic time step, which is crucial in understanding the accuracy in
unconditionally stable coarsening algorithms.


  Quantum fields propagating on a curved spacetime are investigated in terms of
microlocal analysis. We discuss a condition on the wave front set for the
corresponding n-point distributions, called ``microlocal spectrum condition''
($\mu$SC). On Minkowski space, this condition is satisfied as a consequence of
the usual spectrum condition. Based on Radzikowski's determination of the wave
front set of the two-point function of a free scalar field, satisfying the
Hadamard condition in the Kay and Wald sense, we construct in the second part
of this paper all Wick polynomials including the energy-momentum tensor for
this field as operator valued distributions on the manifold and prove that they
satisfy our microlocal spectrum condition.


  In this work we investigate the continuous confinement of quantum systems
from three to two dimensions. Two different methods will be used and related.
In the first one the confinement is achieved by putting the system under the
effect of an external field. This method is conceptually simple, although, due
to the presence of the external field, its numerical implementation can become
rather cumbersome, especially when the system is highly confined. In the second
method the external field is not used, and it simply considers the spatial
dimension $d$ as a parameter that changes continuously between the ordinary
integer values. In this way the numerical effort is absorbed in a modified
strength of the centrifugal barrier. Then the technique required to obtain the
wave function of the confined system is precisely the same as needed in
ordinary three dimensional calculations without any confinement potential. The
case of a two-body system squeezed from three to two dimensions is considered,
and used to provide a translation between all the quantities in the two
methods. Finally we point out perspectives for applications on more particles,
different spatial dimensions, and other confinement potentials.


  We extend the four-dimensional unsubtraction method, which is based on the
loop-tree duality (LTD), to deal with processes involving heavy particles. The
method allows to perform the summation over degenerate IR configurations
directly at integrand level in such a way that NLO corrections can be
implemented directly in four space-time dimensions. We define a general
momentum mapping between the real and virtual kinematics that accounts properly
for the quasi-collinear configurations, and leads to an smooth massless limit.
We illustrate the method first with an scalar toy example, and then analyse the
case of the decay of a scalar or vector boson into a pair of massive quarks.
The results presented in this paper are suitable for the application of the
method to any multipartonic process.


  Mixture models are becoming a popular tool for the clustering and
classification of high-dimensional data. In such high dimensional applications,
model selection is problematic. The Bayesian information criterion, which is
popular in lower dimensional applications, tends to underestimate the true
number of components in high dimensions. We introduce an adaptive
LASSO-penalized BIC (ALPBIC) to mitigate this problem. This efficacy of the
ALPBIC is illustrated via applications of parsimonious mixtures of factor
analyzers. The selection of the best model by ALPBIC is shown to be consistent
with increasing numbers of observations based on simulated and real data
analyses.


  We obtain an information theoretic criterion for the feasibility of
assembling diffraction signals from noisy tomographs when the positions of the
tomographs within the signal are unknown. For shot-noise limited data, the
minimum number of detected photons per tomograph for successful assembly is
much smaller than previously believed necessary, growing only logarithmically
with the number of resolution elements of the diffracting object. We also
demonstrate assembly up to the information theoretic limit with a
constraint-based algorithm.


  In a recent paper \cite{Radu}, Radu \textit{et al.} report experimental
results they claim to support Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of magnons in
Cs$_2$CuCl$_4$. It is true that an experimentally measured critical power law
scaling exponent in agreement with the BEC universality class would support the
realization of a BEC in magnetic systems that order as a canted
antiferromagnet. It can be shown, however, that the claim of Radu {\it et al.}
is overstated in this instance, because their determination of the critical
exponent $\phi$ relies on a model-dependent theoretical approximation to the
critical field $H_{\textrm{c1}}$ for which the associated errors are neglected.
We show that when these errors are included, the uncertainty in the obtained
exponent is so large that the available experimental data cannot be used to
differentiate between contending universality classes.


  Loop quantum cosmology homogeneous models with a massless scalar field show
that the big-bang singularity can be replaced by a big quantum bounce. To gain
further insight on the nature of this bounce, we study the semi-discrete loop
quantum gravity Hamiltonian constraint equation from the point of view of
numerical analysis. For illustration purposes, we establish a numerical analogy
between the quantum bounces and reflections in finite difference
discretizations of wave equations triggered by the use of nonuniform grids or,
equivalently, reflections found when solving numerically wave equations with
varying coefficients. We show that the bounce is closely related to the method
for the temporal update of the system and demonstrate that explicit
time-updates in general yield bounces. Finally, we present an example of an
implicit time-update devoid of bounces and show back-in-time, deterministic
evolutions that reach and partially jump over the big-bang singularity.


  Traditional communication networks consist of large sets of vendor-specific
manually configurable devices which are hardwired with specific control logic
or algorithms. The resulting networks comprise distributed control plane
architectures that are complex in nature, difficult to integrate and operate,
and are least efficient in terms of resource usage. However, the rapid increase
in data traffic requires an integrated use of diverse access technologies and
autonomic network operations with increased efficiency. Therefore, the concepts
of Software Defined Networking (SDN) are proposed that decouple the network
control plane from the data-forwarding plane. The SDN control plane can
integrate a diverse set of devices, and tune them at run-time through
vendor-agnostic programmable Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This
thesis proposes software defined cognitive networking to enable intelligent use
of network resources. Different radio access technologies, including cognitive
radios, are integrated through a common control platform to increase the
overall network performance. The architectural framework of software defined
cognitive networking is presented alongside the experimental performance
evaluation. Since SDN enables applications to change the network behavior and
centralizes the network control plane to oversee the whole network, it is
highly important to investigate security of SDNs. Therefore, this thesis finds
potential security vulnerabilities in SDN, studies proposed security platforms
and architectures for those vulnerabilities, and presents future directions for
unresolved security vulnerabilities. Furthermore, this thesis also investigates
the potential security challenges and their solutions for the enabling
technologies of 5G, such as SDN, cloud technologies, and virtual network
functions, and provides key insights into increasing the security of 5G
networks.


  Partial differential equations with highly oscillatory input terms are hardly
ever solvable analytically and their numerical treatment is difficult.
Modulated Fourier expansion used as an {\it ansatz} is a well known and
extensively investigated tool in asymptotic numerical approach for this kind of
problems. Although the efficiency of this approach has been recognised, its
error analysis has not been investigated rigorously for general forms of linear
PDEs. In this paper, we start such kind of investigations for a general form of
linear PDEs with an input term characterised by a single high frequency. More
precisely we derive an analytical form of such an expansion and provide a
formula for the error of its truncation. Theoretical investigations are
illustrated by computational simulations.


  Silicene is becoming one of the most important two-dimensional materials. In
this work, EEL Spectra were calculated for alfa-silicene (flat), and
beta-silicene (low-buckled, and theoretically the most stable). Band structures
were determined using the semi-empirical Tight-Binding Method considering
second nearest neighbors, sp3 model, Harrison's rule, and Slater-Koster
parameterization. The dielectric function was calculated within the Random
Phase Approximation and a space discretization scheme. We found that, compared
to bulk Si, additional resonances appear which are red-shifted. Buckling gives
rise to a richer structure at low energy.


  Exciton luminescence of a CdSe quantum dot (QD) inserted in a ZnSe nanowire
is strongly influenced by the dark exciton states. Because of the small size of
these QDs (2-5nm), exchange interaction between hole and electron is highly
enhanced and we measured large energy splitting between bright and dark exciton
states ($\Delta E\in [4, 9.2 ]$ meV) and large spin flip rates between these
states. Statistics on many QDs showed that this splitting depends on the QD
size. Moreover, we measured an increase of the spin flip rate to the dark
states with increasing energy splitting. We explain this observation with a
model taking into account the fact that the exciton-phonon interaction depends
on the bright to dark exciton energy splitting as well as on the size and shape
of the exciton wave function. It also has consequences on the exciton line
intensity at high temperature.


  In this work a possibility of a decomposition of a bounded operator which
acts in a Hilbert space $H$ as a product of a J-unitary and a J-self-adjoint
operators is studied, $J$ is a conjugation (an antilinear involution).
Decompositions of J-unitary and unitary operators which are analogous to
decompositions in the finite-dimensional case are obtained. A possibility of a
matrix representation for J-symmetric, J-skew-symmetric operators is studied.
Also, some simple properties of J-symmetric, J-antisymmetric, J-isometric
operators are obtained, a structure of a null set for a J-form is studied.


  We introduce Gowers--Matet forcing with a finite sequence of pairwise
non-isomorphic Ramsey ultrafilters over $\omega$, and with this forcing we
settle the long-standing problem of the spectrum of numbers near-coherence
classes. We prove that for any finite $n \geq 1$, there is a forcing extension
with exactly $n$ near-coherence classes of ultrafilters.
  For evaluating the new forcing, we prove a strengthening of Gowers's theorem
on colourings of ${\rm Fin}_k$.


  The decay widths of four-body double-pion decays $\ds\to pn \pi^0\pi^0$,
$\ds\to pn \pi^+\pi^-$, and iso-scalar parts of $\ds\to pp \pi^0\pi^-$ and
$\ds\to nn \pi^+\pi^0$ are explicitly calculated with the help of the $d^*$
wave function obtained in a chiral SU(3) quark model calculation. The effect of
the dynamical structure on $\ds$'s width is analyzed both in the single
$\Delta\Delta$ channel and coupled $\Delta\Delta$ and $CC$ channel
approximations. It is found that in the coupled-channel approximation, the
obtained partial decay widths of $\ds\to pn \pi^0\pi^0$, $\ds\to pn
\pi^+\pi^-$, and those of $d^*$ to the iso-scalar parts of $pp \pi^0\pi^-$ and
$nn \pi^+\pi^0$ are about $7.4$MeV, $16.4$MeV, $3.5$MeV and $3.5$MeV,
respectively As a consequence, the total width is about $64.5$MeV. These widths
are consistent with those estimated by using the corresponding cross section
data in our previous investigation and also the observed data. But in the
single $\Delta\Delta$ channel approximation, the widths are still almost
2-times larger than the measured values. Apparently, the explicitly calculated
width together with the evaluated mass of $d^*$ in the coupled $\Delta\Delta$
and $CC$ channel approximation can well explain the observed data, which again
supports our assertion that the $\ds$ resonance is a six-quark dominated exotic
state.


  Lasers and Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) exhibit macroscopic quantum
coherence in seemingly unrelated ways. Lasers possess a well-defined global
phase and are characterized by large fluctuations in the number of photons. In
BECs of atoms, instead, the number of particles is conserved and the global
phase is undefined. Here, we present a unified framework to simulate lasers and
BECs states in gate-based quantum computers, by mapping bosonic particles to
qubit excitations. Our approach relies on a scalable circuit that measures the
total number of particles without destroying long-range coherence. We introduce
complementary probes to measure the global and relative phase coherence of a
quantum state, and demonstrate their functionality on a Rigetti quantum
computer. Our work shows that particle-number conservation enhances long-range
phase coherence, highlighting a mechanism used by superfluids and
superconductors to gain phase stiffness.


  Tangled multi-party dialogue contexts lead to challenges for dialogue reading
comprehension, where multiple dialogue threads flow simultaneously within a
common dialogue record, increasing difficulties in understanding the dialogue
history for both human and machine. Previous studies mainly focus on utterance
encoding methods with carefully designed features but pay inadequate attention
to characteristic features of the structure of dialogues. We specially take
structure factors into account and design a novel model for dialogue
disentangling. Based on the fact that dialogues are constructed on successive
participation and interactions between speakers, we model structural
information of dialogues in two aspects: 1)speaker property that indicates whom
a message is from, and 2) reference dependency that shows whom a message may
refer to. The proposed method achieves new state-of-the-art on the Ubuntu IRC
benchmark dataset and contributes to dialogue-related comprehension.


  We classify binary minimal clones into seven categories: affine algebras,
rectangular bands, $p$-cyclic groupoids, spirals, non-Taylor partial
semilattices, melds, and dispersive algebras. Each category has nice enough
properties to guarantee that any clone of one of these types contains a minimal
clone of the same type.


  Conventional multi-view re-ranking methods usually perform asymmetrical
matching between the region of interest (ROI) in the query image and the whole
target image for similarity computation. Due to the inconsistency in the visual
appearance, this practice tends to degrade the retrieval accuracy particularly
when the image ROI, which is usually interpreted as the image objectness,
accounts for a smaller region in the image. Since Privileged Information (PI),
which can be viewed as the image prior, enables well characterizing the image
objectness, we are aiming at leveraging PI for further improving the
performance of the multi-view re-ranking accuracy in this paper. Towards this
end, we propose a discriminative multi-view re-ranking approach in which both
the original global image visual contents and the local auxiliary PI features
are simultaneously integrated into a unified training framework for generating
the latent subspaces with sufficient discriminating power. For the on-the-fly
re-ranking, since the multi-view PI features are unavailable, we only project
the original multi-view image representations onto the latent subspace, and
thus the re-ranking can be achieved by computing and sorting the distances from
the multi-view embeddings to the separating hyperplane. Extensive experimental
evaluations on the two public benchmarks Oxford5k and Paris6k reveal our
approach provides further performance boost for accurate image re-ranking,
whilst the comparative study demonstrates the advantage of our method against
other multi-view re-ranking methods.


  Signals broadly compatible with light (7-10 GeV) dark matter have been
reported in three direct detection experiments: CoGeNT, DAMA/LIBRA, and CDMS-II
silicon. These possible signals have been interpreted in the context of
spin-independent interactions between the target nuclei and dark matter,
although there is tension with null results, particularly from xenon-based
experiments. In this paper, we demonstrate that the CoGeNT and CDMS-II silicon
results are also compatible assuming a spin-dependent neutron interaction,
though this is in tension with xenon-based experiments and PICASSO. The tension
with the null results from XENON100 and XENON10 is approximately the same as
for the spin-independent coupling. All three experimental signals can be made
compatible through a combination of spin-dependent interactions with both the
proton and neutron, although such a scenario increases the conflict with the
null results of other experiments.


  In this paper we consider a correspondence between the holographic dark
energy density and Chaplygin gas energy density in FRW universe. Then we
reconstruct the potential and the dynamics of the scalar field which describe
the Chaplygin cosmology.


  It is assumed the existence of the universal potential fluctuations valid for
all scales in the universe which follow the fractal law $\delta_U=(\Delta
r/r)^2$. The value of the universal potential fluctuations is determined from
the data on anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background on degree scales. It
is suggested to test the existence of the universal potential fluctuations in
the laboratory experiment.


  A novel data representation method of convolutional neural net- work (CNN) is
proposed in this paper to represent data of different modalities. We learn a
CNN model for the data of each modality to map the data of differ- ent
modalities to a common space, and regularize the new representations in the
common space by a cross-model relevance matrix. We further impose that the
class label of data points can also be predicted from the CNN representa- tions
in the common space. The learning problem is modeled as a minimiza- tion
problem, which is solved by an augmented Lagrange method (ALM) with updating
rules of Alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). The experiments
over benchmark of sequence data of multiple modalities show its advantage.


  Diffuse low grade gliomas are slowly growing tumors that always recur after
treatment. In this paper, we revisit the modeling of the tumor radius evolution
before and after the radiotherapy process and propose a novel model that is
simple, yet biologically motivated, and that remedies some shortcomings of
previously proposed ones. We confront it with clinical data consisting in
time-series of tumor radius for 43 patient records, using a stochastic
optimization technique and obtain very good fits in all the cases. Since our
model describes the evolution of the tumor from the very first glioma cell, it
gives access to the possible age of the tumor. Using the technique of
profile-likelihood to extract all the information from the data, we build
confidence intervals for the tumor birth age and confirm the fact that
low-grade glioma seem to appear in the late teenage years. Moreover, an
approximate analytical expression of the temporal evolution of the tumor radius
allows us to explain the correlations observed in the data.


  Let $K$ be a non-cylotomic imaginary quadratic field of class number 1 and
$E/K$ is an elliptic curve with $E(K)[2]\simeq \mathbb{Z}_1.$ We determine the
odd-order torsion groups that can arise as $E(L)_{\text{tor}}$ where $L$ is a
quadratic extension of $K.$


  We consider the Markov operator P_phi on a discrete quantum group given by
convolution with a q-tracial state phi. In the study of harmonic elements x,
P_phi(x)=x, we define the Martin boundary A_phi. It is a separable C*-algebra
carrying canonical actions of the quantum group and its dual. We establish a
representation theorem to the effect that positive harmonic elements correspond
to positive linear functionals on A_phi. The C*-algebra A_phi has a natural
time evolution, and the unit can always be represented by a KMS state. Any such
state gives rise to a u.c.p. map from the von Neumann closure of A_phi in its
GNS representation to the von Neumann algebra of bounded harmonic elements,
which is an analogue of the Poisson integral. Under additional assumptions this
map is an isomorphism which respects the actions of the quantum group and its
dual. Next we apply these results to identify the Martin boundary of the dual
of SU_q(2) with the quantum homogeneous sphere of Podles. This result extends
and unifies previous results by Ph. Biane and M. Izumi.


  We study supersymmetric branes in AdS_7 x S^4 and AdS_4 x S^7. We show that
in the former case the membranes should be viewed as M5 branes with fluxes and
we identify two types of such fivebranes (they are analogous to giant gravitons
and to dual giants). In AdS_4 x S^7 we find both M5 branes with fluxes and
freestanding stacks of membranes. We also go beyond probe approximation and
construct regular supergravity solutions describing geometries produced by the
branes. The metrics are completely specified by one function which satisfies
either Laplace or Toda equation and we give a complete classification of
boundary conditions leading to smooth geometries. The brane configurations
discussed in this paper are dual to various defects in three- and
six-dimensional conformal field theories.


  Although mobile ad frauds have been widespread, state-of-the-art approaches
in the literature have mainly focused on detecting the so-called static
placement frauds, where only a single UI state is involved and can be
identified based on static information such as the size or location of ad
views. Other types of fraud exist that involve multiple UI states and are
performed dynamically while users interact with the app. Such dynamic
interaction frauds, although now widely spread in apps, have not yet been
explored nor addressed in the literature. In this work, we investigate a wide
range of mobile ad frauds to provide a comprehensive taxonomy to the research
community. We then propose, FraudDroid, a novel hybrid approach to detect ad
frauds in mobile Android apps. FraudDroid analyses apps dynamically to build UI
state transition graphs and collects their associated runtime network traffics,
which are then leveraged to check against a set of heuristic-based rules for
identifying ad fraudulent behaviours. We show empirically that FraudDroid
detects ad frauds with a high precision (93%) and recall (92%). Experimental
results further show that FraudDroid is capable of detecting ad frauds across
the spectrum of fraud types. By analysing 12,000 ad-supported Android apps,
FraudDroid identified 335 cases of fraud associated with 20 ad networks that
are further confirmed to be true positive results and are shared with our
fellow researchers to promote advanced ad fraud detection


  We report on the detection of a planetary companion in orbit around the
primary star of the binary system $\gamma$ Cephei. High precision radial
velocity measurements using 4 independent data sets spanning the time interval
1981--2002 reveal long-lived residual radial velocity variations superimposed
on the binary orbit that are coherent in phase and amplitude with a period or
2.48 years (906 days) and a semi-amplitude of 27.5 m s$^{-1}$. We performed a
careful analysis of our Ca II H & K S-index measurements, spectral line
bisectors, and {\it Hipparcos} photometry. We found no significant variations
in these quantities with the 906-d period. We also re-analyzed the Ca II
$\lambda$8662 {\AA} measurements of Walker et al. (1992) which showed possible
periodic variations with the ``planet'' period when first published. This
analysis shows that periodic Ca II equivalent width variations were only
present during 1986.5 -- 1992 and absent during 1981--1986.5. Furthermore, a
refined period for the Ca II $\lambda$8662 {\AA} variations is 2.14 yrs,
significantly less than residual radial velocity period. The most likely
explanation of the residual radial velocity variations is a planetary mass
companion with $M$ sin $i$ = 1.7 $M_{Jupiter}$ and an orbital semi-major axis
of $a_2$ $=$ 2.13 AU. This supports the planet hypothesis for the residual
radial velocity variations for $\gamma$ Cep first suggested by Walker et al.
(1992). With an estimated binary orbital period of 57 years $\gamma$ Cep is the
shortest period binary system in which an extrasolar planet has been found.
This system may provide insights into the relationship between planetary and
binary star formation.


  The so-called double-double structure in radio sources is the most
conspicuous signature of their restarted activity. Observations indicate that
in the majority of double-double radio sources (DDRS), the span of the radio
lobes is larger than 0.7 Mpc. This lower limit is also suggested by theory.
However, it seemed likely that the apparent core of B0818+214, a radio galaxy
with an overall linear size of its radio structure below that limit, could
harbour a compact double well aligned with the outer lobes so that the whole
object would fulfil the criteria of a DDRS. Here, we present evidence that the
central component of B0818+214, when magnified through the EVN+MERLIN 18-cm
observations, shows two FR II-like lobes. As the separation of the inner lobes
is not greater than 5.7 kpc, they are immersed in the ISM of the host galaxy.
This circumstance is the likely reason why the inner double has become visible,
despite the predictions of the theory according to which B0818+214 as a whole
is too small for a new double to develop inside the cocoon inflated during the
previous active phase. Moreover, we speculate that its host galaxy is not
active at the moment and so the inner double may be in the coasting phase often
observed in other medium-sized symmetric objects with intermittent activity. It
could be, therefore, that two different mechanisms of accretion disk
instabilities, ionisation and radiation-pressure driven, may be independently
responsible for triggering active phases, manifesting as the outer and the
inner doubles, respectively.


  Many of the recent successful methods for video object segmentation (VOS) are
overly complicated, heavily rely on fine-tuning on the first frame, and/or are
slow, and are hence of limited practical use. In this work, we propose FEELVOS
as a simple and fast method which does not rely on fine-tuning. In order to
segment a video, for each frame FEELVOS uses a semantic pixel-wise embedding
together with a global and a local matching mechanism to transfer information
from the first frame and from the previous frame of the video to the current
frame. In contrast to previous work, our embedding is only used as an internal
guidance of a convolutional network. Our novel dynamic segmentation head allows
us to train the network, including the embedding, end-to-end for the multiple
object segmentation task with a cross entropy loss. We achieve a new state of
the art in video object segmentation without fine-tuning with a J&F measure of
71.5% on the DAVIS 2017 validation set. We make our code and models available
at https://github.com/tensorflow/models/tree/master/research/feelvos.


  We build a renormalizable theory where the inverse seesaw mechanism explains
the pattern of SM fermion masses. To the best of our knowledge, our model
corresponds to the first implementation of the inverse seesaw mechanism for the
charged fermion sector. In our theory, the inverse seesaw mechanism is
implemented at the tree and one-loop levels in order to generate the masses for
the second and first families of the SM charged fermions, respectively. The
third family of SM charged fermions obtain tree-level masses from the Higgs
doublets $\phi _{1}$ (for the top quark) and $\phi _{2}$ (for the bottom quark
and tau lepton). The masses of the active light neutrinos are generated from a
two-loop level inverse seesaw mechanism. Our model successfully explains the
observed SM fermion mass hierarchy, the tiny masses of the active light
neutrinos, contains the necessary means for efficient leptogenesis and is in
accordance with the constraints resulting from meson oscillations, as well as
with the measured values of the observed dark matter relic density and of the
muon and electron anomalous magnetic moments.


  The effective Lagrangian for \eta' incorporating the effect of the QCD
\theta-angle has been developed previously. We revisit this Lagrangian and
carry out its canonical quantization with particular attention to the test
function spaces of constraints and the topology of the \eta'-field. In this
way, we discover a new chirally symmetric coupling of this field to chiral
multiplets which involves in particular fermions. This coupling violates P and
T symmetries. In a subsequent paper, we will evaluate its contribution to the
electric dipole moment (EDM) of fermions. Our motivation is to test whether the
use of mixed states restores P and T invariance, so that EDM vanishes. This
calculation will be shown to have striking new physical consequences.


  Debris disks or belts are important signposts for the presence of colliding
planetesimals and, therefore, for ongoing planet formation and evolution
processes in young planetary systems. Imaging of debris material at small
separations from the star is very challenging but provides valuable insights
into the spatial distribution of so-called hot dust produced by solid bodies
located in or near the habitable zone. We report the first detection of
scattered light from the hot dust around the nearby (d = 28.33 pc) A star HD
172555. We want to constrain the geometric structure of the detected debris
disk using polarimetric differential Imaging (PDI) with a spatial resolution of
25 mas and an inner working angle of about 0.1$''$. We measured the polarized
light of HD 172555, with SPHERE-ZIMPOL, in the very broad band (VBB;
$\lambda=735$ nm) filter for the projected separations between 0.08$''$ (2.3
au) and 0.77$''$ (22 au). We constrained the disk parameters by fitting models
for scattering of an optically thin dust disk taking the limited spatial
resolution and coronagraphic attenuation of our data into account. The
geometric structure of the disk in polarized light shows roughly the same
orientation and outer extent as obtained from thermal emission at 18 $\mu$m.
Our image indicates the presence of a strongly inclined ($i\sim 103.5^\circ$),
roughly axisymmetric dust belt with an outer radius in the range between
0.3$''$ (8.5 au) and 0.4$''$ (11.3 au). We derive a lower limit for the
polarized flux contrast ratio for the disk of $(F_{\rm pol})_{\rm disk}/F_{\rm
\ast}> (6.2 \pm 0.6)\cdot 10^{-5}$ in the VBB filter. This ratio is small, only
9 %, when compared to the fractional infrared flux excess ($\approx 7.2\cdot
10^{-4}$). The model simulations show that more polarized light could be
produced by the dust located inside 2 au, which cannot be detected with the
instrument configuration used.


  We investigate a two-scale system featuring an upscaled parabolic
dispersion-reaction equation intimately linked to a family of elliptic cell
problems. The system is strongly coupled through a dispersion tensor, which
depends on the solutions to the cell problems, and via the cell problems
themselves, where the solution of the parabolic problem interacts nonlinearly
with the drift term. This particular mathematical structure is motivated by a
rigorously derived upscaled reaction-diffusion-convection model that describes
the evolution of a population of interacting particles pushed by a large drift
through an array of periodically placed obstacles (i.e., through a regular
porous medium).
  We prove the existence and uniqueness of weak solutions to our system by
means of an iterative scheme, where particular care is needed to ensure the
uniform positivity of the dispersion tensor. Additionally, we use finite
element-based approximations for the same iteration scheme to perform multiple
simulation studies. Finally, we highlight how the choice of micro-geometry
(building the regular porous medium) and of the nonlinear drift coupling
affects the macroscopic dispersion of particles.


  We report new results in the study of CP violation in semileptonic top
decays, in the context of the Weinberg Model.


  A 30-g xenon bubble chamber, operated at Northwestern University in June and
November 2016, has for the first time observed simultaneous bubble nucleation
and scintillation by nuclear recoils in a superheated liquid. This chamber is
instrumented with a CCD camera for near-IR bubble imaging, a solar-blind
photomultiplier tube to detect 175-nm xenon scintillation light, and a
piezoelectric acoustic transducer to detect the ultrasonic emission from a
growing bubble. The time of nucleation determined from the acoustic signal is
used to correlate specific scintillation pulses with bubble-nucleating events.
We report on data from this chamber for thermodynamic "Seitz" thresholds from
4.2 to 15.0 keV. The observed single- and multiple-bubble rates when exposed to
a $^{252}$Cf neutron source indicate that, for an 8.3-keV thermodynamic
threshold, the minimum nuclear recoil energy required to nucleate a bubble is
$19\pm6$ keV (1$\sigma$ uncertainty). This is consistent with the observed
scintillation spectrum for bubble-nucleating events. We see no evidence for
bubble nucleation by gamma rays at any of the thresholds studied, setting a 90%
C.L. upper limit of $6.3\times10^{-7}$ bubbles per gamma interaction at a
4.2-keV thermodynamic threshold. This indicates stronger gamma discrimination
than in CF$_3$I bubble chambers, supporting the hypothesis that scintillation
production suppresses bubble nucleation by electron recoils while nuclear
recoils nucleate bubbles as usual. These measurements establish the
noble-liquid bubble chamber as a promising new technology for the detection of
weakly interacting massive particle dark matter and coherent elastic
neutrino-nucleus scattering.


  Variational calculations of the deuteron and the triton illustrate that
simple wave function ans\"atze become more effective after evolving the
nucleon-nucleon potential to lower momentum (``$V_{low k}$''). This is
consistent with many-body wave functions becoming much less correlated at lower
cutoffs, as shown by two-particle wave functions and pair-distribution
functions in nuclear matter. These results motivate a program to explore
variational many-body calculations of binding energies and other low-energy
nuclear properties using low-momentum potentials.


  More than 70 years ago it was recognised that ionospheric F2-layer critical
frequencies $foF2$ had a strong relationship to sunspot number. Using historic
datasets from the Slough and Washington ionosondes, we evaluate the best
statistical fits of $foF2$ to sunspot numbers (at each Universal Time [UT]
separately) in order to search for drifts and abrupt changes in the fit
residuals over Solar Cycles 17 - 21. Polynomial fits are made both with and
without allowance for the white-light facular area, which has been reported as
being associated with cycle-to-cycle changes in the sunspot number - $foF2$
relationship. Over the interval studied here, the ISN, $R$, the backbone group
number $Rbb$, and the corrected number $Rc$ largely differ in their allowance
for the 'Waldmeier discontinuity' around 1945 (the correction factor for which
for $R$, $Rbb$ and $Rc$ is, respectively, zero, effectively over 20%, and
explicitly 11.6%). It is shown that for Solar Cycles 18 - 21, all three sunspot
data sequences perform well, but that the fit residuals are lowest and most
uniform for $Rbb$. We here use $foF2$ for those UTs for which $R$, $Rbb$, and
$Rc$ all give correlations exceeding 0.99 for intervals both before and after
the Waldmeier discontinuity. The error introduced by the Waldmeier
discontinuity causes $R$ to underestimate the fitted values based on the $foF2$
data for 1932 - 1945 but $Rbb$ overestimates them by almost the same factor,
implying that the correction for the Waldmeier discontinuity inherent in $Rbb$
is too large by a factor of two. Fit residuals are smallest and most uniform
for $Rc$ and the ionospheric data support the optimum discontinuity
multiplicative correction factor derived from the independent Royal Greenwich
Observatory (RGO) sunspot group data for the same interval.


  Previous studies have indicated that many of the RR Lyrae variables in the
LMC have properties similar to the ones in the Galactic globular cluster M3.
Assuming that the M3 RR Lyrae variables follow the same relationships among
period, temperature, amplitude and Fourier phase parameter phi31 as their LMC
counterparts, we have used the M3 phi31-logP relation to identify the M3-like
unevolved first overtone RR Lyrae variables in 16 fields near the LMC bar. The
temperatures of these variables were calculated from the M3 logP-logTe relation
so that the extinction could be derived for each star separately. Since blended
stars have lower amplitudes for a given period, the period amplitude relation
should be a useful tool for identifying which stars are affected by crowding.
We find that the low amplitude stars are brighter. We remove them from the
sample and derive an LMC distance modulus 18.49+/-0.11.


  We report on a methodology for the treatment of the Coulomb energy and
potential in Kohn-Sham density functional theory that is free from
self-interaction effects. Specifically, we determine the Coulomb potential
given as the functional derivative of the Coulomb energy with respect to the
density, where the Coulomb energy is calculated explicitly in terms of the pair
density of the Kohn-Sham orbitals. This is accomplished by taking advantage of
an orthonormal and complete basis that is an explicit functional of the density
that then allows for the functional differentiation of the pair density with
respect to the density to be performed explicitly. This approach leads to a new
formalism that provides an analytic, closed-form determination of the exchange
potential. This method is applied to one-dimensional model systems and to the
atoms Helium through Krypton based on an exchange only implementation.
Comparison of our total energies (denoted SIF) to those obtained using the
usual Hartree-Fock (HF) and optimized effective potential (OEP) methods reveals
the hierarchy
  $E_{\rm HF} \le E_{\rm OEP} \le E_{\rm SIF}$ that is indicative of the
greater variation freedom implicit in the former two methods.


  Optical and near-IR observations of the halos of disk galaxies and blue
compact galaxies have revealed a very red spectral energy distribution, which
cannot easily be reconciled with a normal, metal-poor stellar population like
that in the stellar halo of the Milky Way. Here, spectral evolutionary models
are used to explore the consequences of these observations. We demonstrate that
a stellar population of low to intermediate metallicity, but with an extremely
bottom-heavy initial mass function, can explain the red halos around both types
of objects. Other previously suggested explanations, like nebular emission or
very metal-rich stars, are shown to fail in this respect. This indicates that,
if the reported halo colours are correct, halo populations dominated by
low-mass stars may be a phenomenon common to galaxies of very different Hubble
types. Potential tests of this hypothesis are discussed, along with its
implications for the baryonic dark matter content of galaxies.


  In this paper we consider $T\bar T$ deformations in the context of pp waves
obtained from gravity duals. We propose a deformation of $AdS_5\times S^5$
similar to the deformation of the single trace $T\bar T$ deformation of
$AdS_3\times S^3\times T^4$ with NS-NS flux, and study it through the Penrose
limit, concluding that it must correspond to some dipole theory, probably
noncommutative. We $T\bar T$ deform the worldsheet string for the $AdS_5\times
S^5$ pp wave, and find a corresponding spin chain Hamiltonian. Finally,
directly $T\bar T$ deforming the spin chain Hamiltonian obtained from the pp
wave, we find that it corresponds to an equivalent BMN sector of the ${\cal
N}=4$ SYM.


  We study the stability of static spherically symmetric exact solutions of
Einstein equations coupled with nonlinear electrodynamics, in the magnetic
sector. These solutions satisfy the heuristic model proposed by
Ashtekar-Corichi-Sudarsky for hairy black holes, meaning that the horizon mass
is related to their Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) mass and to the corresponding
particle-like solution. We test the unstability conjecture that emerges for
hairy black holes and it turned out that it becomes confirmed except for the
Einstein-Born-Infeld solutions.


  We study a family of data augmentation methods, substructure substitution
(SUB2), for natural language processing (NLP) tasks. SUB2 generates new
examples by substituting substructures (e.g., subtrees or subsequences) with
ones with the same label, which can be applied to many structured NLP tasks
such as part-of-speech tagging and parsing. For more general tasks (e.g., text
classification) which do not have explicitly annotated substructures, we
present variations of SUB2 based on constituency parse trees, introducing
structure-aware data augmentation methods to general NLP tasks. For most cases,
training with the augmented dataset by SUB2 achieves better performance than
training with the original training set. Further experiments show that SUB2 has
more consistent performance than other investigated augmentation methods,
across different tasks and sizes of the seed dataset.


  The Fock expansion [1] describes the $S$-state wave function of the
two-electron atomic system in the vicinity of the triple coalescence point. The
present work constitutes the additional appendix to our paper [2] devoted to
refinement and further development of calculation of the angular Fock
coefficients of the Fock expansion. We derive the explicit analytic expressions
for the complicated subcomponents $\psi_{4,1}^{(2d)}$ and $\psi_{3,0}^{(2c)}$
of the angular Fock coefficients. An unusual method of using the Wolfram
Mathematica was applied.


  We obtain exact formulas for the time-dependence of a few physical
observables for the open XX spin chain with Lindbladian dynamics. Our analysis
is based on the fact that the Lindblad equation for an arbitrary open quadratic
system of $N$ fermions is explicitly solved in terms of diagonalization of a
$4N\times4N$ matrix called structure matrix by following the scheme of the
third quantization. We mainly focus on the time-dependence of magnetization and
spin current. As a short-time behavior at a given site, we observe the plateau
regime except near the center of the chain. Basic features of this are
explained by the light-cone structure created by propagations of boundary
effects from the initial time, but we can explain their more detailed
properties analytically using our exact formulas. On the other hand, after the
plateau regime, the magnetization and spin current exhibit a slow decay to the
steady state values described by the Liouvillian gap. We analytically establish
its $O(N^{-3})$ scaling and also determine its coefficient.


  The molecular chaperone Hsp70 plays a central role in the import of
cytoplasmic proteins into organelles, driving their translocation by binding
them from the organellar interior. Starting from the experimentally-determined
structure of the \textit{E. coli} Hsp70, we computed, by means of molecular
simulations, the effective free-energy profile for substrate translocation upon
chaperone binding. We then used the resulting free energy to quantitatively
characterize the kinetics of the import process, whose comparison with
unassisted translocation highlights the essential role played by Hsp70 in
importing cytoplasmic proteins.


  n this paper, we attempt to explain the emergence of the linguistic diversity
that exists across the consonant inventories of some of the major language
families of the world through a complex network based growth model. There is
only a single parameter for this model that is meant to introduce a small
amount of randomness in the otherwise preferential attachment based growth
process. The experiments with this model parameter indicates that the choice of
consonants among the languages within a family are far more preferential than
it is across the families. The implications of this result are twofold -- (a)
there is an innate preference of the speakers towards acquiring certain
linguistic structures over others and (b) shared ancestry propels the stronger
preferential connection between the languages within a family than across them.
Furthermore, our observations indicate that this parameter might bear a
correlation with the period of existence of the language families under
investigation.


  In this paper, we study the quantum computation realized by an
interaction-free measurement (IFM). Using Kwiat et al.'s interferometer, we
construct a two-qubit quantum gate that changes one particle's trajectory
according to whether or not the other particle exists in the interferometer. We
propose a method for distinguishing Bell-basis vectors, each of which consists
of a pair of an electron and a positron, by this gate. (This is called the
Bell-basis measurement.) This method succeeds with probability 1 in the limit
of $N \to \infty$, where N is the number of beam splitters in the
interferometer. Moreover, we can carry out a controlled-NOT gate operation by
the above Bell-basis measurement and the method proposed by Gottesman and
Chuang. Therefore, we can prepare a universal set of quantum gates by the IFM.
This means that we can execute any quantum algorithm by the IFM.


  Heuristic search is often used for motion planning and pathfinding problems,
for finding the shortest path in a graph while also promising completeness and
optimal efficiency. The drawback is it's space complexity, specifically storing
all expanded child nodes in memory and sorting large lists of active nodes,
which can be a problem in real-time scenarios with limited on-board
computation. To combat this, we present the Search with Learned Optimal
Pruning-based Expansion (SLOPE), which, learns the distance of a node from a
possible optimal path, unlike other approaches that learn a cost-to-go value.
The unfavored nodes are then pruned according to the said distance, which in
turn reduces the size of the open list. This ensures that the search explores
only the region close to optimal paths while lowering memory and computational
costs. Unlike traditional learning methods, our approach is orthogonal to
estimating cost-to-go heuristics, offering a complementary strategy for
improving search efficiency. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach
evaluating it as a standalone search method and in conjunction with learned
heuristic functions, achieving comparable-or-better node expansion metrics,
while lowering the number of child nodes in the open list. Our code is
available at https://github.com/dbokan1/SLOPE.


  Six--jet events via WW pairs, $e^+e^- \ar W^+W^- \ar q_1 \overline{q_1} q_2
\overline{q_2} g g$ are studied at tree level using helicity amplitudes. This
is the dominant production mechanism for six--jet final states at Lep II
energy. ISR effects are taken into account. Total production rates as a
function of $y_{cut}$ are given. The relevance of these processes for the issue
of colour reconnection is discussed. The cross section for five--jet production
via WW pairs at Lep II is also presented.


  We find a new class of solutions that are traveling waves on the boundary of
two--dimensional droplet of ideal fluid. We assume that the free surface is
subject only to the force of surface tension, and the fluid flow is potential.
We use the canonical Hamiltonian variables discovered in the work of V.E.
Zakharov in 1968, and conformally map lower complex plane to the interior of a
fluid droplet. We write the equations in the form originally discovered in A.I.
Dyachenko in (2001) for infinitely deep water, and adapted to bounded fluid in
the work of S.A. Dyachenko (2019). The new class of solutions satisfies a
pseudodifferential equation which is similar to the Babenko equation for the
Stokes wave.


  In this work, we present a novel learning-based framework that combines the
local accuracy of contrastive learning with the global consistency of geometric
approaches, for robust non-rigid matching. We first observe that while
contrastive learning can lead to powerful point-wise features, the learned
correspondences commonly lack smoothness and consistency, owing to the purely
combinatorial nature of the standard contrastive losses. To overcome this
limitation we propose to boost contrastive feature learning with two types of
smoothness regularization that inject geometric information into correspondence
learning. With this novel combination in hand, the resulting features are both
highly discriminative across individual points, and, at the same time, lead to
robust and consistent correspondences, through simple proximity queries. Our
framework is general and is applicable to local feature learning in both the 3D
and 2D domains. We demonstrate the superiority of our approach through
extensive experiments on a wide range of challenging matching benchmarks,
including 3D non-rigid shape correspondence and 2D image keypoint matching.


  We present results from a high-sensitivity (60 $\mu$Jy), large-scale (2.26
square degree) survey obtained with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array as part
of the Gould's Belt Survey program. We detected 374 and 354 sources at 4.5 and
7.5 GHz, respectively. Of these, 148 are associated with previously known Young
Stellar Objects (YSOs). Another 86 sources previously unclassified at either
optical or infrared wavelengths exhibit radio properties that are consistent
with those of young stars. The overall properties of our sources at radio
wavelengths such as their variability and radio to X-ray luminosity relation
are consistent with previous results from the Gould's Belt Survey. Our
detections provide target lists for followup VLBA radio observations to
determine their distances as YSOs are located in regions of high nebulosity and
extinction, making it difficult to measure optical parallaxes.


  Interactive tools make data analysis both more efficient and more accessible
to a broad population. Simple interfaces such as Google Finance as well as
complex visual exploration interfaces such as Tableau are effective because
they are tailored to the desired user tasks. Yet, designing interactive
interfaces requires technical expertise and domain knowledge. Experts are
scarce and expensive, and therefore it is currently infeasible to provide
tailored (or precise) interfaces for every user and every task.
  We envision a data-driven approach to generate tailored interactive
interfaces. We observe that interactive interfaces are designed to express sets
of programs; thus, samples of programs-increasingly collected by data
systems-may help us build interactive interfaces. Based on this idea, Precision
Interfaces is a language-agnostic system that examines an input query log,
identifies how the queries structurally change, and generates interactive web
interfaces to express these changes. The focus of this paper is on applying
this idea towards logs of structured queries. Our experiments show that
Precision Interfaces can support multiple query languages (SQL and SPARQL),
derive Tableau's salient interaction components from OLAP queries, analyze <75k
queries in <12 minutes, and generate interaction designs that improve upon
existing interfaces and are comparable to human-crafted interfaces.


  The unusual transient Swift J1644+57 likely resulted from a collimated
relativistic jet powered by accretion onto a massive black hole (BH) following
the tidal disruption (TD) of a star. Several mysteries cloud the interpretation
of this event: (1) extreme flaring and `plateau' shape of the X-ray/gamma-ray
light curve during the first 10 days after the gamma-ray trigger; (2)
unexpected rebrightening of the forward shock radio emission months after
trigger; (3) no obvious evidence for jet precession, despite misalignment
typically expected between the angular momentum of the accretion disk and BH;
(4) recent abrupt shut-off in jet X-ray emission after 1.5 years. Here we show
that all of these seemingly disparate mysteries are naturally resolved by one
assumption: the presence of strong magnetic flux Phi threading the BH.
Initially, Phi is weak relative to high fall-back mass accretion rate, Mdot,
and the disk and jets precess about the BH axis = our line of sight. As Mdot
drops, Phi becomes dynamically important and leads to a magnetically-arrested
disk (MAD). MAD naturally aligns disk and jet axis along the BH spin axis, but
only after a violent rearrangement phase (jet wobbling). This explains the
erratic light curve at early times and the lack of precession at later times.
We use our model for Swift J1644+57 to constrain BH and disrupted star
properties, finding that a solar-mass main sequence star disrupted by a
relatively low mass, M~10^5-10^6 Msun, BH is consistent with the data, while a
WD disruption (though still possible) is disfavored. The magnetic flux required
to power Swift J1644+57 is too large to be supplied by the star itself, but it
could be collected from a quiescent `fossil' accretion disk present in the
galactic nucleus prior to the TD. The presence (lack of) of such a fossil disk
could be a deciding factor in what TD events are accompanied by powerful
jets.[abridged]


  The design of a microstructured, fully functional spin-wave majority gate is
presented and studied using micromagnetic simulations. This all-magnon logic
gate consists of three-input waveguides, a spin-wave combiner and an output
waveguide. In order to ensure the functionality of the device, the output
waveguide is designed to perform spin-wave mode selection. We demonstrate that
the gate evaluates the majority of the input signals coded into the spin-wave
phase. Moreover, the all-magnon data processing device is used to perform logic
AND-, OR-, NAND- and NOR- operations.


  We construct a state-sum type invariant of smooth closed oriented
$4$-manifolds out of a $G$-crossed braided spherical fusion category ($G$-BSFC)
for $G$ a finite group. The construction can be extended to obtain a
$(3+1)$-dimensional topological quantum field theory (TQFT). The invariant of
$4$-manifolds generalizes several known invariants in literature such as the
Crane-Yetter invariant from a ribbon fusion category and Yetter's invariant
from homotopy $2$-types. If the $G$-BSFC is concentrated only at the sector
indexed by the trivial group element, a cohomology class in $H^4(G,U(1))$ can
be introduced to produce a different invariant, which reduces to the twisted
Dijkgraaf-Witten theory in a special case. Although not proven, it is believed
that our invariants are strictly different from other known invariants. It
remains to be seen if the invariants are sensitive to smooth structures. It is
expected that the most general input to the state-sum type construction of
$(3+1)$-TQFTs is a spherical fusion $2$-category. We show that a $G$-BSFC
corresponds to a monoidal $2$-category with certain extra structure, but that
structure does not satisfy all the axioms of a spherical fusion $2$-category
given by M. Mackaay. Thus the question of what axioms properly define a
spherical fusion $2$-category is open.


  These notes are an elaboration on: (i) a short course that I gave at the
IPhT-Saclay in May-June 2012; (ii) a previous letter on reversibility in
quantum mechanics. They present an introductory, but hopefully coherent, view
of the main formalizations of quantum mechanics, of their interrelations and of
their common physical underpinnings: causality, reversibility and
locality/separability. The approaches covered are mainly: (ii) the canonical
formalism; (ii) the algebraic formalism; (iii) the quantum logic formulation.
Other subjects: quantum information approaches, quantum correlations,
contextuality and non-locality issues, quantum measurements, interpretations
and alternate theories, quantum gravity, are only very briefly and
superficially discussed. Most of the material is not new, but is presented in
an original, homogeneous and hopefully not technical or abstract way. I try to
define simply all the mathematical concepts used and to justify them
physically. These notes should be accessible to young physicists (graduate
level) with a good knowledge of the standard formalism of quantum mechanics,
and some interest for theoretical physics (and mathematics). These notes do not
cover the historical and philosophical aspects of quantum physics.


  Janus MXenes, a new category of two-dimensional (2D) materials, shows
promising potential for advances in optoelectronics, spintronics and
nanoelectronics. Our theoretical investigations not only provide interesting
insights but also highlight the promise of Janus MCrCT$_2$ (M = Ti, Mo; T = O,
F, OH) MXenes for future spintronic applications and highlight the need for
their synthesis. Electronic structure analysis shows different metallic and
semi-metallic properties: MoCrCF$_2$ exhibits metallic properties,
TiCrC(OH)$_2$ and MoCrCO$_2$ exhibit near semi-metallicity with spin
polarization values of 61\% and 86\%, respectively, while TiCrCO$_2$ and
TiCrCF$_2$ are completely half-metallic with 100\% spin polarization at the
Fermi level. All studied Janus MXenes exhibit intrinsic ferromagnetism, which
is mainly attributed to the chromium (Cr) atoms, as shown by the spin density
difference plots. Among them, the TiCrCO$_2$ monolayer stands out with the
highest exchange constant and ferromagnetic transition temperature (T$_c$).
Notably, the O-terminated Janus MXenes exhibit weak perpendicular magnetic
anisotropy, in contrast to the in-plane anisotropy observed for F and
OH-terminated MXenes, making them particularly interesting for future
spintronic applications which we further demonstrate with micromagnetic
simulation which reveal distinct current-induced switching behaviors in these
Janus MXenes with different surface terminations.


  In this contribution we review the status and perspectives of direct neutrino
mass experiments. These experiments investigate the kinematics of
$\beta$-decays of specific isotopes ($^3$H, $^{187}$Re, $^{163}$Ho) to derive
model-independent information on the averaged electron (anti-) neutrino mass,
which is formed by the incoherent sum of the neutrino mass eigenstates
contributing to the electron neutrino. We first review the kinematics of
$\beta$-decay and the determination of the neutrino mass, before giving a brief
overview of past neutrino mass measurements (SN1987a-ToF studies, Mainz and
Troitsk experiments for $^3$H, cryo-bolometers for $^{187}$Re). We then
describe the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment which is currently
under construction at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The large-scale setup
will use the MAC-E-Filter principle pioneered earlier to push the sensitivity
down to a value of 200 meV(90% C.L.). KATRIN faces many technological
challenges that have to be resolved with regard to source intensity and
stability, as well as precision energy analysis and low background rate close
to the kinematic endpoint of tritium $\beta$-decay at 18.6 keV. We then review
new experimental approaches such as the MARE, ECHO and Project8 experiments,
which offer the promise to perform an independent measurement of the neutrino
mass in the sub-eV region. This variety of methods and the novel technologies
developed in all present and future experiments demonstrate the great potential
of direct neutrino mass experiments in providing vital information on the
absolute mass scale of neutrinos.


  We consider the P1/P1 or P1b/P1 finite element approximations to the Stokes
equations in a bounded smooth domain subject to the slip boundary condition. A
penalty method is applied to address the essential boundary condition $u\cdot n
= g$ on $\partial\Omega$, which avoids a variational crime and simultaneously
facilitates the numerical implementation. We give $O(h^{1/2} + \epsilon^{1/2} +
h/\epsilon^{1/2})$-error estimate for velocity and pressure in the energy norm,
where $h$ and $\epsilon$ denote the discretization parameter and the penalty
parameter, respectively. In the two-dimensional case, it is improved to $O(h +
\epsilon^{1/2} + h^2/\epsilon^{1/2})$ by applying reduced-order numerical
integration to the penalty term. The theoretical results are confirmed by
numerical experiments.


  Ongoing and upcoming galaxy redshift surveys, such as the Dark Energy
Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, will observe vast regions of sky and a
wide range of redshifts. In order to model the observations and address various
systematic uncertainties, $N$-body simulations are routinely adopted, however,
the number of large simulations with sufficiently high mass resolution is
usually limited by available computing time. Therefore, achieving a simulation
volume with the effective statistical errors significantly smaller than those
of the observations becomes prohibitively expensive. In this study, we apply
the Convergence Acceleration by Regression and Pooling (CARPool) method to
mitigate the sample variance of the DESI-like galaxy clustering in the
AbacusSummit simulations, with the assistance of the quasi-$N$-body simulations
FastPM. Based on the halo occupation distribution (HOD) models, we construct
different FastPM galaxy catalogs, including the luminous red galaxies (LRGs),
emission line galaxies (ELGs), and quasars, with their number densities and
two-point clustering statistics well matched to those of AbacusSummit. We also
employ the same initial conditions between AbacusSummit and FastPM to achieve
high cross-correlation, as it is useful in effectively suppressing the
variance. Our method of reducing noise in clustering is equivalent to
performing a simulation with volume larger by a factor of 5 and 4 for LRGs and
ELGs, respectively. We also mitigate the standard deviation of the LRG
bispectrum with the triangular configurations $k_2=2k_1=0.2\hMpc$ by a factor
of 1.6. With smaller sample variance on galaxy clustering, we are able to
constrain the BAO scale parameters to higher precision. The CARPool method will
be beneficial to better constrain the theoretical systematics of BAO, redshift
space distortions (RSD) and primordial non-Gaussianity.


  In this paper, we construct solutions of Lagrangian mean curvature flow which
exist and are embedded for all time, but form an infinite-time singularity and
converge to an immersed special Lagrangian as $t\to\infty$. In particular, the
flow decomposes the initial data into a union of special Lagrangians
intersecting at one point. This result shows that infinite-time singularities
can form in the Thomas--Yau `semi-stable' situation. A precise polynomial
blow-up rate of the second fundamental form is also shown.
  The infinite-time singularity formation is obtained by a perturbation of an
approximate family $N^{\varepsilon(t)}$ constructed by gluing in special
Lagrangian `Lawlor necks' of size $\varepsilon(t)$, where the dynamics of the
neck size $\varepsilon(t)$ are driven by the obstruction for the existence of
nearby special Lagrangians to $N^{\varepsilon(t)}$. This is inspired by the
work of Brendle and Kapouleas regarding ancient solutions of the Ricci flow.


  Lithium phosphorus oxynitride (LiPON) is an amorphous solid-state lithium ion
conductor displaying exemplary cyclability against lithium metal anodes. There
is no definitive explanation for this stability due to the limited
understanding of the structure of LiPON. We provide a structural model of
RF-sputtered LiPON via experimental and computational spectroscopic methods.
Information about the short-range structure results from 1D and 2D solid-state
nuclear magnetic resonance experiments investigating chemical shift anisotropy
and dipolar interactions. These results are compared with first principles
chemical shielding calculations of Li-P-O/N crystals and ab initio molecular
dynamics-generated amorphous LiPON models to unequivocally identify the glassy
structure as primarily isolated phosphate monomers with N incorporated in both
apical and as bridging sites in phosphate dimers. Structural results suggest
LiPON's stability is a result of its glassy character. Free-standing LiPON
films are produced that exhibit a high degree of flexibility highlighting the
unique mechanical properties of glassy materials.


  We demonstrate how spontaneous emission in a cavity can be controlled by the
application of a dc field. The method is specially suitable for Rydberg atoms.
We present a simple argument for the control of emission.


  In this paper it is shown that a quantum observable algebra, the
Heisenberg-Weyl algebra, is just given as the Hopf algebraic dual to the
classical observable algebra over classical phase space and the Plank constant
is included in this scheme of quantization as a compatible parameter living in
the quantum double theory.In this sense,the quantum Yang-Baxter equation
naturally appears as a necessary condition to be satisfied by a canonical
elements,the universal R-matrix,intertweening the quantum and classical
observable algebras. As a byproduct,a new ``quantum group'' is obtained as the
quantum double of the classical observable algebra


  Assessing the research performance of multi-disciplinary institutions, where
scientists belong to many fields, requires that the evaluators plan how to
aggregate the performance measures of the various fields. Two methods of
aggregation are possible. These are based on: a) the performance of the
individual scientists or b) the performance of the scientific fields present in
the institution. The appropriate choice depends on the evaluation context and
the objectives for the particular measure. The two methods bring about
differences in both the performance scores and rankings. We quantify these
differences through observation of the 2008-2012 scientific production of the
entire research staff employed in the hard sciences in Italian universities
(over 35,000 professors). Evaluators preparing an exercise must comprehend the
differences illustrated, in order to correctly select the methodologies that
will achieve the evaluation objectives.


  Monte Carlo simulation has been performed in one-dimensional Lebwohl-Lasher
model and two dimensional XY-model using the Wang-Landau and the
Wang-Landau-Transition-Matrix Monte Carlo methods. Random walk has been
performed in the two-dimensional space comprising of energy-order parameter and
energy-correlation function and the joint density of states (JDOS) were
obtained. From the JDOS the order parameter, susceptibility and correlation
function are calculated. Agreement between the results obtained from the two
algorithms is very good.


  We present standard model (SM) estimates for exclusive $c \to u \gamma$
processes in heavy quark and hybrid frameworks. Measured branching ratios
${\cal{B}}(D^0 \to (\phi, \bar K^{*0}) \gamma)$ are at or somewhat exceeding
the upper range of the SM and suggest slow convergence of the $1/m_D,
\alpha_s$-expansion. Model-independent constraints on $|\Delta C|=|\Delta U|=1$
dipole operators from ${\cal{B}}(D^0 \to \rho^0 \gamma)$ data are obtained.
Predictions and implications for leptoquark models are worked out. While
branching ratios are SM-like CP asymmetries $\lesssim 10 \%$ can be induced. In
SUSY deviations from the SM can be even larger with CP asymmetries of $O(0.1)$.
If $\Lambda_c$-baryons are produced polarized, such as at the $Z$-pole, an
angular asymmetry in $\Lambda_c \to p \gamma$ decays can be studied that is
sensitive to chirality-flipped contributions.


  We present three-dimensional (3D) non-local thermodynamic equilibrium
(non-LTE) radiative transfer calculations for silicon in the solar photosphere,
using an extensive model atom that includes recent, realistic neutral hydrogen
collisional cross-sections. We find that photon losses in the SiI lines give
rise to slightly negative non-LTE abundance corrections of the order -0.01 dex.
We infer a 3D non-LTE based solar silicon abundance of 7.51 dex. With silicon
commonly chosen to be the anchor between the photospheric and meteoritic
abundances, we find that the meteoritic abundance scale remains unchanged
compared with the Asplund et al. (2009) and Lodders et al. (2009) results.


  Below pion threshold virtual Compton scattering off the nucleon gives access
to the generalized electromagnetic polarizabilities. Different theoretical
results for the generalized polarizabilities have been compared. In particular,
the influence of the generalized polarizabilities on the unpolarized cross
section and on double polarization observables has been investigated.
Predictions for these observables have been obtained in the linear sigma model
and chiral perturbation theory.


  Common sense has always been of interest in Artificial Intelligence, but has
rarely taken center stage. Despite its mention in one of John McCarthy's
earliest papers and years of work by dedicated researchers, arguably no AI
system with a serious amount of general common sense has ever emerged. Why is
that? What's missing? Examples of AI systems' failures of common sense abound,
and they point to AI's frequent focus on expertise as the cause. Those
attempting to break the resulting brittleness barrier, even in the context of
modern deep learning, have tended to invest their energy in large numbers of
small bits of commonsense knowledge. While important, all the commonsense
knowledge fragments in the world don't add up to a system that actually
demonstrates common sense in a human-like way. We advocate examining common
sense from a broader perspective than in the past. Common sense should be
considered in the context of a full cognitive system with history, goals,
desires, and drives, not just in isolated circumscribed examples. A fresh look
is needed: common sense is worthy of its own dedicated scientific exploration.


  Given an undirected graph $G$ and an error parameter $\epsilon > 0$, the {\em
graph sparsification} problem requires sampling edges in $G$ and giving the
sampled edges appropriate weights to obtain a sparse graph $G_{\epsilon}$ with
the following property: the weight of every cut in $G_{\epsilon}$ is within a
factor of $(1\pm \epsilon)$ of the weight of the corresponding cut in $G$. If
$G$ is unweighted, an $O(m\log n)$-time algorithm for constructing
$G_{\epsilon}$ with $O(n\log n/\epsilon^2)$ edges in expectation, and an
$O(m)$-time algorithm for constructing $G_{\epsilon}$ with $O(n\log^2
n/\epsilon^2)$ edges in expectation have recently been developed
(Hariharan-Panigrahi, 2010). In this paper, we improve these results by giving
an $O(m)$-time algorithm for constructing $G_{\epsilon}$ with $O(n\log
n/\epsilon^2)$ edges in expectation, for unweighted graphs. Our algorithm is
optimal in terms of its time complexity; further, no efficient algorithm is
known for constructing a sparser $G_{\epsilon}$. Our algorithm is Monte-Carlo,
i.e. it produces the correct output with high probability, as are all efficient
graph sparsification algorithms.


  Magnetic barriers in two-dimensional electron gases are shifted in B space by
homogeneous, perpendicular magnetic fields. The magnetoresistance across the
barrier shows a characteristic asymmetric dip in the regime where the polarity
of the homogeneous magnetic field is opposite to that one of the magnetic
barrier. The measurements are in quantitative agreement with semiclassical
simulations, which reveal that the magnetoresistance originates from the
interplay of snake orbits with E x B drift at the edges of the Hall bar and
with elastic scattering.


  We demonstrate the emergence of anti-chiral edge states in a Heisenberg
ferromagnet with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction(DMI) on a honeycomb lattice
with in-equivalent sub-lattices. The DMI, which acts between atoms of the same
species, differs in magnitude for the two sub-lattices, resulting in a shifting
of the energy of the magnon bands in opposite directions at the two Dirac
points. The chiral symmetry is broken and for sufficiently strong asymmetry,
the band shifting leads to anti-chiral edge states (in addition to the normal
chiral edge states) in a rectangular strip where the magnon current propagates
in the same direction along the two edges. This is compensated by a
counter-propagating bulk current that is enabled by the broken chiral symmetry.
We analyze the resulting magnon current profile across the width of the system
in details and suggest realistic experimental probes to detect them. Finally,
we propose a material that can potentially exhibit such anti-chiral edge
states.


  We study some of the interactions between the Fourier Transform and the
Riemann zeta function (and Dirichlet-Dedekind-Hecke-Tate L-functions)


  Modern learning classifier systems typically exploit a niched genetic
algorithm to facilitate rule discovery. When used for reinforcement learning,
such rules represent generalisations over the state-action-reward space. Whilst
encouraging maximal generality, the niching can potentially hinder the
formation of generalisations in the state space which are symmetrical, or very
similar, over different actions. This paper introduces the use of rules which
contain multiple actions, maintaining accuracy and reward metrics for each
action. It is shown that problem symmetries can be exploited, improving
performance, whilst not degrading performance when symmetries are reduced.


  With sufficient time, double edge-swap Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)
methods are able to sample uniformly at random from many different and
important graph spaces. For instance, for a fixed degree sequence, MCMC methods
can sample any graph from: simple graphs; multigraphs (which may have
multiedges); and pseudographs (which may have multiedges and/or multiple
self-loops). In this note we extend these MCMC methods to `multiloop-graphs',
which allow multiple self-loops but not multiedges and `loopy-multigraphs'
which allow multiedges and single self-loops. We demonstrate that there are
degree sequences on which the standard MCMC methods cannot uniformly sample
multiloop-graphs, and exactly characterize which degree sequences can and
cannot be so sampled. In contrast, we prove that such MCMC methods can sample
all loopy-multigraphs. Taken together with recent work on graphs which allow
single self-loops but no multiedges, this work completes the study of the
connectivity (irreducibility) of double edge-swap Markov chains for all
combinations of allowing self-loops, multiple self-loops and/or multiedges.
Looking toward other possible directions to extend edge swap sampling
techniques, we produce examples of degree and triangle constraints which have
disconnected spaces for all edges swaps on less than or equal to 8 edges.


  The Bethe lattice Ising model -- a classical model of statistical mechanics
for the phase transition -- provides a novel and intuitive understanding of the
prototypical relationship between tensor networks and Anti-de Sitter
(AdS)/conformal field theory (CFT) correspondence. After analytically
formulating a holographic renormalization group for the Bethe lattice model, we
demonstrate the underlying mechanism and the exact scaling dimensions for the
power-law decay of boundary spin correlations by introducing the relation
between the lattice network and an effective Poincare metric on a unit disk. We
compare the Bethe lattice model in the high-temperature region with a scalar
field in AdS$_2$, and then discuss its more direct connection to the p-adic
AdS/CFT. In addition, we find that the phase transition in the interior induces
a crossover behavior of boundary spin correlations, depending on the depth of
the corresponding correlation path.


  Tuning the electronic properties of a material by subjecting it to strain
constitutes an important strategy to enhance the performance of semiconducting
electronic devices. Using local strain, confinement potentials for excitons can
be engineered, with exciting possibilities for trapping excitons for quantum
optics and for efficient collection of solar energy. Two-dimensional materials
are able to withstand large strains before rupture, offering a unique
opportunity to introduce large local strains. Here, we study atomically thin
MoS2 layers with large local strains of up to 2.5% induced by controlled
delamination from a substrate. Using simultaneous scanning Raman and
photoluminescence imaging, we spatially resolve a direct bandgap reduction of
up to 90 meV induced by local strain. We observe a funnel effect in which
excitons drift hundreds of nanometers to lower bandgap regions before
recombining, demonstrating exciton confinement by local strain. The
observations are supported by an atomistic tight-binding model developed to
predict the effect of inhomogeneous strain on the local electronic states in
MoS2. The possibility of generating large strain-induced variations in exciton
trapping potentials opens the door for a variety of applications in atomically
thin materials including photovoltaics, quantum optics and two-dimensional
optoelectronic devices.


  In the preceding Comment (quant-ph/0209032) Trifonov disputes our recently
proposed uncertainty relations for a quantum particle on a circle. He states
that (i) the quantity $\Delta^2(\hat\phi)$ introduced by us representing the
uncertainty of the angle is not a proper measure of the position uncertainty
and therefore the proposed inequalities can hardly be qualified as a relevant
uncertainty relations on a circle; and that (ii) the most suitable uncertainty
relations on a circle are those based on the Gram-Robertson matrix. It is shown
by examples that both points are erroneous.


  (abridged) The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) was the
top-ranked priority for a new ground-based facility in the 2000 Canadian Long
Range Plan. Ten years later, at the time of LRP2010, ALMA construction was well
underway, with first science observations anticipated for 2011. In the past 8
years, ALMA has proved itself to be a high-impact, high-demand observatory,
with record numbers of proposals submitted to the annual calls and large
numbers of highly cited scientific papers across fields from protoplanetary
disks to high-redshift galaxies and quasars.
  The LRP2010 ALMA white paper laid out 8 specific metrics that could be used
to judge the success of Canada's participation in ALMA. Among these metrics
were publications (number; impact), collaborations (international;
multi-wavelength), and student training. To call out one particular metric,
Canadians are making excellent use of ALMA in training graduate students and
postdocs: as of June 2018, 12 of 23 Canadian first-author papers were led by a
graduate student, and a further 4 papers were led by postdocs. All 8 metrics
argue for Canada's involvement in ALMA over the past decade to be judged a
success. The successful achievement of these wide-ranging goals argues strongly
for Canada's continuing participation in ALMA over the next decade and beyond.
  Looking forward, our community needs to: (1) maintain Canadian access to ALMA
and our competitiveness in using ALMA; (2) preserve full Canadian funding for
our share of ALMA operations; (3) identify components of ALMA development in
which Canada can play a significant role, including stimulating expertise in
submillimetre instrumentation to capitalize on future opportunities; and (4)
keep Canadians fully trained and engaged in ALMA, as new capabilities become
available, reaching the widest possible community of potential users.


  The level set method is often used to capture interface behavior in two or
three dimensions. In this paper, we present a combination of local
discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method and level set method for simulating
Willmore flow. The LDG scheme is energy stable and mass conservative, which are
good properties comparing with other numerical methods. In addition, to enhance
the efficiency of the proposed LDG scheme and level set method, we employ a
p-adaptive local discontinuous Galerkin technique, which applies high order
polynomial approximations around the zero level set and low order ones away
from the zero level set. A major advantage of the level set method is that the
topological changes are well defined and easily performed. In particular, given
the stiffness of Willmore flow, a high order semi-implicit Runge-Kutta method
is employed for time discretization, which allows larger time step. The
equations at the implicit time level are linear, we demonstrate an efficient
and practical multi-grid solver to solve the equations. Numerical examples are
given to illustrate the combination of the LDG scheme and level set method
provides an efficient and practical approach when simulating the Willmore flow.


  We consider the transverse-momentum distribution of a Higgs boson produced
through gluon fusion in hadron collisions. At small transverse momenta, the
large logarithmic terms are resummed up to next-to-leading-logarithmic (NLL)
accuracy. The resummed computation is consistently matched to the
next-to-leading-order (NLO) result valid at large transverse momenta. The
ensuing Standard Model prediction is supplemented by possible new-physics
effects parametrised through three dimension-six operators related to the
modification of the top and bottom Yukawa couplings, and to the inclusion of a
point-like Higgs-gluon coupling, respectively. We present resummed
transverse-momentum spectra including the effect of these operators at NLL+NLO
accuracy and study their impact on the shape of the distribution. We find that
such modifications, while affecting the total rate within the current
uncertainties, can lead to significant distortions of the spectrum. The proper
parametrization of such effects becomes increasingly important for experimental
analyses in Run II of the LHC.


  In this paper, we rigorously prove the existence of self-similar converging
shock wave solutions for the non-isentropic Euler equations for $\gamma\in
(1,3]$. These solutions are analytic away from the shock interface before
collapse, and the shock wave reaches the origin at the time of collapse. The
region behind the shock undergoes a sonic degeneracy, which causes numerous
difficulties for smoothness of the flow and the analytic construction of the
solution. The proof is based on continuity arguments, nonlinear invariances,
and barrier functions.


  Recent advances in observational performance and numerical simulations have
revolutionised our understanding of the solar chromosphere. This concerns in
particular the structure and dynamics on small spatial and temporal scales. As
a result, the picture of the solar chromosphere changed from an idealised
static and plane-parallel stratification to a complex compound of intermittent
domains, which are dynamically coupled to the layers below and above. In this
picture, the chromosphere in a stricter sense is associated with the typical
fibrillar structure shaped by magnetic fields like it is known from images
taken in the H alpha line core. In internetwork regions below this layer, there
exists a domain with propagating shock waves and weak magnetic fields, which
both probably interact with the overlying large scale field. The existence of
such a sub-canopy domain certainly depends on the properties of the overlying
field. Details of the structure of the lower atmosphere can therefore be
expected to vary significantly from location to location. Here, high-resolution
observations, which were obtained with the CRISP filter at the Swedish Solar
Telescope, are used to derive qualitative constraints for the atmospheric
structure of quiet Sun regions.


  From a survey of 729 cores based on JCMT/SCUBA data, we present an analysis
of 17 candidate starless cores with masses that exceed their stable Jeans
masses. We re-examine the classification of these super-Jeans cores using
Spitzer maps and find that 3 are re-classified as protostellar, 11 have
ambiguous emission near the core positions, and 3 appear to be genuinely
starless. We suggest the 3 starless and 11 undetermined super-Jeans cores
represent excellent targets for future observational and computational study to
understand the evolution of dense cores and the process of star formation.