  Three amplification mechanisms present in turbulent jets, namely lift-up,
Kelvin-Helmholtz, and Orr, are characterized via global resolvent analysis and
spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) over a range of Mach numbers.
The lift-up mechanism was recently identified in turbulent jets via local
analysis by Nogueira et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 873, 2019, pp. 211-237) at
low Strouhal number ($St$) and non-zero azimuthal wavenumbers ($m$). In these
limits, a global SPOD analysis of data from high-fidelity simulations reveals
streamwise vortices and streaks similar to those found in turbulent
wall-bounded flows. These structures are in qualitative agreement with the
global resolvent analysis, which shows that they are a response to upstream
forcing of streamwise vorticity near the nozzle exit. Analysis of mode shapes,
component-wise amplitudes, and sensitivity analysis distinguishes the three
mechanisms and the regions of frequency-wavenumber space where each dominates,
finding lift-up to be dominant as $St/m \rightarrow 0$. Finally, SPOD and
resolvent analyses of localized regions show that the lift-up mechanism is
present throughout the jet, with a dominant azimuthal wavenumber inversely
proportional to streamwise distance from the nozzle, with streaks of azimuthal
wavenumber exceeding five near the nozzle, and wavenumbers one and two most
energetic far downstream of the potential core.


  Distributional ambiguity sets provide quantifiable ways to characterize the
uncertainty about the true probability distribution of random variables of
interest. This makes them a key element in data-driven robust optimization by
exploiting high-confidence guarantees to hedge against uncertainty. This paper
explores the construction of Wasserstein ambiguity sets in dynamic scenarios
where data is collected progressively and may only reveal partial information
about the unknown random variable. For random variables evolving according to
known dynamics, we leverage assimilated samples to make inferences about their
unknown distribution at the end of the sampling horizon. Under exact knowledge
of the flow map, we provide sufficient conditions that relate the growth of the
trajectories with the sampling rate to establish a reduction of the ambiguity
set size as the horizon increases. Further, we characterize the exploitable
sample history that results in a guaranteed reduction of ambiguity sets under
errors in the computation of the flow and when the dynamics is subject to
bounded unknown disturbances. Our treatment deals with both full- and
partial-state measurements and, in the latter case, exploits the sampled-data
observability properties of linear time-varying systems under irregular
sampling. Simulations on a UAV detection application show the superior
performance resulting from the proposed dynamic ambiguity sets.


  Without any analytical assumption we solve the ladder QED2+1 in Minkowski
space. Further, we transform Greens functions to the Temporal Euclidean space,
wherein we show that in the special case of ladder QED2+1 the solution is fully
equivalent to the Minkowski one.
  The obtained complex fermion propagator exhibits confinement because of the
lack of the pole at the real timelike $q^2$ axis.


  One of the main contributions of this paper is to illustrate how large
deviation theory can be used to determine the equilibrium distribution of a
basic droplet model that underlies a number of important models in material
science and statistical mechanics. The model is simply defined. $K$
distinguishable particles are placed at random onto the $N$ sites of a lattice,
where the ratio $K/N$, the average number of particles per site, equals a
constant $c \in (1,\infty)$. We focus on configurations for which each site is
occupied by at least one particle. The main result is the large deviation
principle (LDP), in the limit where $K \rightarrow \infty$ and $N \rightarrow
\infty$ with $K/N = c$, for a sequence of random, number-density measures,
which are the empirical measures of dependent random variables that count the
droplet sizes. The rate function in the LDP is the relative entropy $R(\theta |
\rho^*)$, where $\theta$ is a possible asymptotic configuration of the
number-density measures and $\rho^*$ is a Poisson distribution restricted to
the set of positive integers. This LDP reveals that $\rho^*$ is the equilibrium
distribution of the number-density measures, which in turn implies that
$\rho^*$ is the equilibrium distribution of the random variables that count the
droplet sizes. We derive the LDP via a local large deviation estimate of the
probability that the number-density measures equal $\theta$ for any probability
measure $\theta$ in the range of these random measures.


  The Central Compact Object (CCO) in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant is
most likely a very young ($\approx 300$ yr) neutron star. If a previously
reported decrease of its surface temperature by 4% in 10 years could be
confirmed, it would have profound theoretical implications for neutron star
physics. However, the temperature decrease was inferred from Chandra ACIS data
affected by instrumental effects which could cause time-dependent spectral
distortions. Employing a different instrument setup which minimizes spectral
distortions, our 2006 and 2012 Chandra spectra of the CCO did not show a
statistically significant temperature decrease. Here, we present additional
observations from 2015 taken in the same instrument mode. During the time span
of 8.5 years, we detect no significant temperature decrease, using either
carbon or hydrogen atmosphere models in the X-ray spectral fits. Our
conservative $3\sigma$ upper limits correspond to $<3.3$% and $<2.4$%
temperature decrease in 10 years for carbon atmosphere model fits with varying
or constant values of the absorbing hydrogen column density, respectively. The
recently revised model for the ACIS filter contaminant has a strong effect on
the fit results, reducing the significance of the previously reported
temperature and flux changes. We expect that a further improved contaminant
model and longer time coverage can significantly lower the upper limits in the
future.


  We investigate the production of gravitational waves during preheating after
inflation in the common case of field potentials that are asymmetric around the
minimum. In particular, we study the impact of oscillons, comparatively long
lived and spatially localized regions where a scalar field (e.g. the inflaton)
oscillates with large amplitude. Contrary to a previous study, which considered
a symmetric potential, we find that oscillons in asymmetric potentials
associated with a phase transition can generate a pronounced peak in the
spectrum of gravitational waves, that largely exceeds the linear preheating
spectrum. We discuss the possible implications of this enhanced amplitude of
gravitational waves. For instance, for low scale inflation models, the
contribution from the oscillons can strongly enhance the observation prospects
at current and future gravitational wave detectors.


  I present a new method to unveil the history of cosmic accretion and the
build-up of Supermassive Black Holes (SMBH) in the nuclei of galaxies, based on
observations of the evolving radio and (hard) X-ray luminosity functions of
AGN. The fundamental plane of black hole activity discovered by Merloni, Heinz
& Di Matteo (2003) is used as a mass and accretion rate estimator. I adopt the
local BH mass function as a boundary condition to integrate backwards in time
the continuity equation for the SMBH evolution, neglecting the role of mergers.
Under the most general assumption that accretion proceeds in a radiatively
efficient way above a certain rate, and in a radiatively inefficient way below,
the redshift evolution of the mass and accretion rate functions are calculated
self-consistently. The only tunable parameters are the accretion efficiency and
the critical ratio of the X-ray to Eddington luminosity at which the transition
between accretion modes takes place. The evolution of the BH mass function
between z=0 and z ~ 3 shows clear signs of an anti-hierarchical behaviour:
while the majority of the most massive objects (M > 10^9) were already in place
at z ~ 3, lower mass ones mainly grew at progressively lower redshift. As an
example, I will discuss the consequences of these results for the lifetimes of
accreting black holes.


  We present the first weak-lensing-based scaling relation between galaxy
cluster mass, M_wl, and integrated Compton parameter Y_sph. Observations of 18
galaxy clusters at z~0.2 were obtained with the Subaru 8.2-m telescope and the
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Array. The M_wl-Y_sph scaling relations, measured at
Delta=500, 1000, and 2500 rho_c, are consistent in slope and normalization with
previous results derived under the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium (HSE).
We find an intrinsic scatter in M_wl at fixed Y_sph of 20%, larger than both
previous measurements of M_HSE-Y_sph scatter as well as the scatter in true
mass at fixed Y_sph found in simulations. Moreover, the scatter in our
lensing-based scaling relations is morphology dependent, with 30-40% larger
M_wl for undisturbed compared to disturbed clusters at the same Y_sph at r_500.
Further examination suggests that the segregation may be explained by the
inability of our spherical lens models to faithfully describe the
three-dimensional structure of the clusters, in particular, the structure along
the line-of-sight. We find that the ellipticity of the brightest cluster
galaxy, a proxy for halo orientation, correlates well with the offset in mass
from the mean scaling relation, which supports this picture. This provides
empirical evidence that line-of-sight projection effects are an important
systematic uncertainty in lensing-based scaling relations.


  We introduce Breaking Bad, a large-scale dataset of fractured objects. Our
dataset consists of over one million fractured objects simulated from ten
thousand base models. The fracture simulation is powered by a recent physically
based algorithm that efficiently generates a variety of fracture modes of an
object. Existing shape assembly datasets decompose objects according to
semantically meaningful parts, effectively modeling the construction process.
In contrast, Breaking Bad models the destruction process of how a geometric
object naturally breaks into fragments. Our dataset serves as a benchmark that
enables the study of fractured object reassembly and presents new challenges
for geometric shape understanding. We analyze our dataset with several geometry
measurements and benchmark three state-of-the-art shape assembly deep learning
methods under various settings. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the
difficulty of our dataset, calling on future research in model designs
specifically for the geometric shape assembly task. We host our dataset at
https://breaking-bad-dataset.github.io/.


  Encouraged by the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study emergent local geometry in
large N multi-matrix models from the perspective of a strong coupling
expansion. By considering various solvable interacting models we show how the
emergence or non-emergence of local geometry at strong coupling is captured by
observables that effectively measure the mass of off-diagonal excitations about
a semiclassical eigenvalue background. We find emergent geometry at strong
coupling in models where a mass term regulates an infrared divergence. We also
show that our notion of emergent geometry can be usefully applied to fuzzy
spheres. Although most of our results are analytic, we have found numerical
input valuable in guiding and checking our results.


  We investigate neutrino-driven convection in core collapse supernovae and its
ramifications for the explosion mechanism. We begin with an ``optimistic'' 15
solar mass precollapse model, which is representative of the class of stars
with compact iron cores. This model is evolved through core collapse and bounce
in one dimension using multigroup (neutrino-energy--dependent) flux-limited
diffusion (MGFLD) neutrino transport and Lagrangian hydrodynamics, providing
realistic initial conditions for the postbounce convection and evolution. Our
two-dimensional simulation begins at 106 ms after bounce at a time when there
is a well-developed gain region, and proceeds for 400 ms. We couple
two-dimensional (PPM) hydrodynamics to one-dimensional MGFLD neutrino
transport. At 225 ms after bounce we see large-scale convection behind the
shock, characterized by high-entropy, mushroom-like, expanding upflows and
dense, low-entropy, finger-like downflows. The upflows reach the shock and
distort it from sphericity. The radial convection velocities become supersonic
just below the shock, reaching magnitudes in excess of 10^9 cm/sec. Eventually,
however, the shock recedes to smaller radii, and at about 500 ms after bounce
there is no evidence in our simulation of an explosion or of a developing
explosion. Failure in our ``optimistic'' 15 solar mass Newtonian model leads us
to conclude that it is unlikely, at least in our approximation, that
neutrino-driven convection will lead to explosions for more massive stars with
fatter iron cores or in cases in which general relativity is included.


  In this paper we give an unified approach to some questions arising in
different fields of nonlinear analysis, namely: (a) the study of the structure
of the Fu\v{c}\'\i k spectrum and (b) possible variants and extensions of the
monotonicity formula by Alt--Caffarelli--Friedman \cite{acf}. In the first part
of the paper we present a class of optimal partition problems involving the
first eigenvalue of the Laplace operator. Beside establishing the existence of
the optimal partition, we develop a theory for the extremality conditions and
the regularity of minimizers. As a first application of this approach, we give
a new variational characterization of the first curve of the Fu\v{c}\'\i k
spectrum for the Laplacian, promptly adapted to more general operators. In the
second part we prove a monotonicity formula in the case of many subharmonic
components and we give an extension to solutions of a class of
reaction--diffusion equation, providing some Liouville--type theorems.


  We establish the empirical correlation between Tc and crystal chemical
parameters in diborides. Our results suggest that Tc of diborides can be higher
77K.


  Facial action unit recognition is an important task for facial analysis.
Owing to the complex collection environment, facial action unit recognition in
the wild is still challenging. The 3rd competition on affective behavior
analysis in-the-wild (ABAW) has provided large amount of facial images with
facial action unit annotations. In this paper, we introduce a facial action
unit recognition method based on transfer learning. We first use available
facial images with expression labels to train the feature extraction network.
Then we fine-tune the network for facial action unit recognition.


  The Ziegler spectrum for categories enriched in closed symmetric monoidal
Grothendieck categories is defined and studied in this paper. It recovers the
classical Ziegler spectrum of a ring. As an application, the Ziegler spectrum
as well as the category of generalised quasi-coherent sheaves of a reasonable
scheme is introduced and studied. It is shown that there is a closed embedding
of the injective spectrum of a coherent scheme endowed with the tensor
fl-topology (respectively of a noetherian scheme endowed with the dual Zariski
topology) into its Ziegler spectrum. It is also shown that quasi-coherent
sheaves and generalised quasi-coherent sheaves are related to each other by a
recollement.


  Because of IR (pinch) singularities a resummation is necessary in
non-equilibrium field theories, that can be performed by using Kadanoff--Baym
equations. Taking Landau prescription correctly into account, Kadanoff--Baym
equations reduce to Boltzmann equations only in a restricted kinematical range;
in other cases a new equation (the former constraint equation) has to be
considered. In relaxation time approximation this new equation results in the
shifting and smearing of multiparticle thresholds.


  This article concerns the review of a special class of swarm intelligence
based algorithms for solving optimization problems and these algorithms can be
referred to as social algorithms. Social algorithms use multiple agents and the
social interactions to design rules for algorithms so as to mimic certain
successful characteristics of the social/biological systems such as ants, bees,
bats, birds and animals.


  Using the basic ingredient of supersymmetry, a general procedure for the
treatment of quantum states having nonzero angular momenta is presented.


  Much of our physical intuition about black hole quasinormal modes in general
relativity comes from the eikonal/geometric optics approximation. According to
the well-established eikonal model, the fundamental quasinormal mode represents
wavepackets orbiting in the vicinity of the black hole's geodesic photon ring,
slowly peeling off towards the event horizon and infinity. Besides its strength
as a "visualisation" tool, the eikonal approximation also provides a simple
quantitative method for calculating the mode frequency, in close agreement with
rigorous numerical results. In this paper we move away from Einstein's theory
and its garden-variety black holes and go on to consider spherically symmetric
black holes in modified theories of gravity through the lens of the eikonal
approximation. The quasinormal modes of such black holes are typically
described by a set of coupled wave equations for the various field degrees of
freedom. Considering a general, theory-agnostic, system of two equations for
two perturbed fields, we derive eikonal formulae for the complex fundamental
quasinormal mode frequency. In addition we show that the eikonal modes can be
related to the extremum of an effective potential and its associated "photon
ring". As an application of our results we consider a specific example of a
modified theory of gravity with known black hole quasinormal modes and find
that these are well approximated by the eikonal formulae.


  We introduce the concept of $C^{m,\alpha}$-nonlocal operators, extending the
notion of second order elliptic operator in divergence form with
$C^{m,\alpha}$-coefficients. We then derive the nonlocal analogue of the key
existing results for elliptic equations in divergence form, notably the
H\"older continuity of the gradient of the solutions in the case of
$C^{0,\alpha}$-coefficients and the classical Shauder estimates for
$C^{m+1,\alpha}$-coefficients.
  We further apply the regularity results for $C^{m,\alpha}$-nonlocal operators
to derive optimal higher order regularity estimates of Lipschitz graphs with
prescribed Nonlocal Mean Curvature. Applications to nonlocal equation on
manifolds are also provided.


  This work proposes POMP, a prompt pre-training method for vision-language
models. Being memory and computation efficient, POMP enables the learned prompt
to condense semantic information for a rich set of visual concepts with over
twenty-thousand classes. Once pre-trained, the prompt with a strong
transferable ability can be directly plugged into a variety of visual
recognition tasks including image classification, semantic segmentation, and
object detection, to boost recognition performances in a zero-shot manner.
Empirical evaluation shows that POMP achieves state-of-the-art performances on
21 datasets, e.g., 67.0% average accuracy on 10 classification datasets (+3.1%
compared to CoOp) and 84.4 hIoU on open-vocabulary Pascal VOC segmentation
(+6.9 compared to ZSSeg). Our code is available at
https://github.com/amazon-science/prompt-pretraining.


  Low barrier quasiparticle tunneling spectroscopy on
Sr$_{0.9}$La$_{0.1}$CuO$_2$ has been studied with
PtIr/Sr$_{0.9}$La$_{0.1}$CuO$_2$ point contacts at various temperatures and
magnetic fields. No zero-bias conductance peaks are observed. By fitting
tunneling conductance to Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk theory, the temperature
dependent s-wave superconducting gaps are obtained. The present results exclude
the possibility of d-wave symmetry for the pair gap in
Sr$_{0.9}$La$_{0.1}$CuO$_2$, and do not support the conventional phonon
mediated pairing in this system either.


  Building upon Hovey's work on Smith ideals for monoids, we develop a homotopy
theory of Smith ideals for general operads in a symmetric monoidal category.
For a sufficiently nice stable monoidal model category and an operad satisfying
a cofibrancy condition, we show that there is a Quillen equivalence between a
model structure on Smith ideals and a model structure on algebra maps induced
by the cokernel and the kernel. For symmetric spectra, this applies to the
commutative operad and all Sigma-cofibrant operads. For chain complexes over a
field of characteristic zero and the stable module category, this Quillen
equivalence holds for all operads. This paper ends with a comparison between
the semi-model category approach and the $\infty$-category approach to encoding
the homotopy theory of algebras over Sigma-cofibrant operads that are not
necessarily admissible.


  The phenomenon of sonoluminescence (SL), originally observed some sixty years
ago, has recently become the focus of renewed interest, particularly with the
discovery that one can trap a single bubble and induce it to exhibit SL stably
over a large number of acoustical cycles.
  In this work we shall adopt a version of the provocative suggestion put
forward by Schwinger: the mechanism responsible for the radiation in SL is a
dynamic version of the Casimir effect. It has been known since Casimir's
original work in 1948 that the zero-point energy of quantum fields can be
modified by the presence of boundaries, and that these modifications generate
observable effects. For example, in Casimir's original work, the quantum
fluctuations of the electromagnetic field in the presence of a pair of
uncharged, parallel, perfectly conducting plates were shown to give rise to an
attractive force between the plates.


  This document reports on the use of an algebraic, visual, formal approach to
the specification of patterns for the formalization of the GoF design patterns.
The approach is based on graphs, morphisms and operations from category theory
and exploits triple graphs to annotate model elements with pattern roles. Being
based on category theory, the approach can be applied to formalize patterns in
different domains. Novel in our proposal is the possibility of describing
(nested) variable submodels, inter-pattern synchronization across several
diagrams (e.g. class and sequence diagrams for UML design patterns), pattern
composition, and conflict analysis.


  IBM models are very important word alignment models in Machine Translation.
Following the Maximum Likelihood Estimation principle to estimate their
parameters, the models will easily overfit the training data when the data are
sparse. While smoothing is a very popular solution in Language Model, there
still lacks studies on smoothing for word alignment. In this paper, we propose
a framework which generalizes the notable work Moore [2004] of applying
additive smoothing to word alignment models. The framework allows developers to
customize the smoothing amount for each pair of word. The added amount will be
scaled appropriately by a common factor which reflects how much the framework
trusts the adding strategy according to the performance on data. We also
carefully examine various performance criteria and propose a smoothened version
of the error count, which generally gives the best result.


  Epsilon-near-zero materials are exceptional candidates for studying
electrodynamics and nonlinear optical processes at the nanoscale. We
demonstrate that by alternating a metal and a highly doped conducting-oxide,
the epsilon-near-zero regime may be accessed resulting in an anisotropic,
composite nanostructure that significantly enhances nonlinear interactions.
Using two independent and different computation techniques we show that the
structure can enhance the local field intensity by nearly two orders of
magnitudes, in large part due to the onset of the effective anisotropy. The
investigation of the multilayer nanostructure using a microscopic, hydrodynamic
approach also sheds light on the roles of two competing contributions that are
for the most part overlooked, but that can significantly modify linear and
nonlinear responses of the structure: nonlocal effects, which blueshift the
resulting resonance, and the hot electron nonlinearity, which redshifts the
plasma frequency as the effective mass of free electrons increases as a
function of incident power density. Finally, we show that, even in absence of
second order bulk nonlinearity, second order nonlinear processes are also
significantly enhanced by the layered structure.


  We introduce a homogeneous method to deal with summations with homogeneous
factors. Then we use it to compute main terms in the asymptotics of distance
energy of square lattices in circles, which relates to the conjecture of
distinct distances by Erdos.


  The paper presents a new type of weakly nonlinear two-scale model of
controllable periodic porous piezoelectric structures saturated by Newtonian
fluids. The flow is propelled by peristaltic deformation of microchannels which
is induced due to piezoelectric segments embedded in the microstructure and
locally actuated by voltage waves. The homogenization is employed to derive a
macroscopic model of the poroelastic medium with effective parameters modified
by piezoelectric properties of the skeleton. To capture the peristaltic
pumping, the nonlinearity associated with deforming configuration must be
respected. In the macroscopic model, this nonlinearity is introduced through
homogenized coefficients depending on the deforming micro-configurations. For
this, linear expansions based on the sensitivity analysis of the homogenized
coefficients with respect to deformation induced by the macroscopic quantities
are employed. This enables to avoid the two-scale tight coupling of the macro-
and microproblems otherwise needed in nonlinear problems. The derived
reduced-order model is implemented and verified using direct numerical
simulations of the periodic heterogeneous medium. Numerical results demonstrate
the peristaltic driven fluid propulsion in response to the electric actuation
and the efficiency of the proposed treatment of the nonlinearity. The paper
shows new perspectives in homogenization-based computationally efficient
modelling of weakly nonlinear problems where continuum microstructures are
perturbed by coupled fields.


  We give a counterexample to a conjecture of Poon [Poo06] that any orthogonal
tree in two dimensions can always be flattened by a continuous motion that
preserves edge lengths and avoids self-intersection. We show our example is
locked by extending results on strongly locked self-touching linkages due to
Connelly, Demaine and Rote [CDR02] to allow zero-length edges as defined in
[ADG07], which may be of independent interest. Our results also yield a locked
tree with only eleven edges, which is the smallest known example of a locked
tree.


  We present the first statistical study of the anisotropy of the magnetic
field turbulence in the solar wind between 1 and 200Hz, i.e. from proton to
sub-electron scales. We consider 93 10-minute intervals of Cluster/STAFF
measurements. We find that the fluctuations $\delta B_{\perp}^2$ are not
gyrotropic at a given frequency $f$, a property already observed at larger
scales ($\parallel$/$\perp$ mean parallel/perpendicular to the average magnetic
${\bf B_0}$). This non-gyrotropy gives indications on the angular distribution
of the wave vectors ${\bf k}$: at $f <$ 10Hz, we find that $k_{\perp}\gg
k_{\parallel}$, mainly in the fast wind; at $f >$ 10Hz, fluctuations with a
non-negligible $k_{\parallel}$ are also present. We then consider the
anisotropy ratio $\delta B_{\parallel}^2/\delta B_{\perp}^2$, which is a
measure of the magnetic compressibility of the fluctuations. This ratio, always
smaller than 1, increases with $f.$ It reaches a value showing that the
fluctuations are more or less isotropic at electron scales, for $f \geq 50$Hz.
From 1 to 15-20Hz, there is a strong correlation between the observed
compressibility and the one expected for the kinetic Alfv\'en waves (KAW),
which only depends on the total plasma $\beta$. For $f > $ 15-20Hz, the
observed compressibility is larger than expected for KAW; and it is stronger in
the slow wind: this could be an indication of the presence of a slow-ion
acoustic mode of fluctuations, which is more compressive and is favored by the
larger values of the electron to proton temperature ratio generally observed in
the slow wind.


  A study of the top quark \emph{Flavour Changing Neutral Current} (FCNC)
through $Z$-boson has been performed in the proposed future $e^-p$ collider for
the energy, $E_{e(p)} = 60~(7000)$~GeV. We considered an effective theory where
the anomalous FCNC couplings are of vector and tensor nature. The effect of
these couplings is probed in the single top production along with the scattered
electron. The polar angle $\theta$ of the electrons coming out of the primary
vertex in association with the top quark polarization asymmetries constructed
from the angular distribution of the secondary lepton arising from the top
decay, allow to distinguish the Lorentz structure of the coupling. From a
multi-parameter analysis, we obtain a reach of ${\cal O} (10^{-2})$ in the case
of $Ztu$ and $Ztc$ couplings at an integrated luminosity of 2~ab$^{-1}$ at 95\%
C.L.


  Photonic topological systems, the electromagnetic analog of the topological
materials in condensed matter physics, create many opportunities to design
optical devices with novel properties. We present an experimental realization
of the bi-anisotropic meta waveguide photonic system replicating both quantum
Hall (QH) and quantum spin-Hall (QSH) topological insulating phases. With
careful design, a composite QH-QSH photonic topological material is created and
experimentally shown to support reflection-free edgemodes, a heterogeneous
topological structure that is unprecedented in condensed matter physics. The
effective spin degree of freedom of such topologically protected modes
determines their unique pathways through these systems, free from
backscattering and able to travel around sharp corners. {As an example of their
novel properties, we experimentally demonstrate reflection-less photonic
devices including a 2-port isolator, a unique 3-port topological device, and a
full 4-port circulator based on composite QH and QSH structures


  Digital agents are considered a general-purpose technology. They spread
quickly in private and organizational contexts, including education. Yet,
research lacks a conceptual framing to describe interaction with such agents in
a holistic manner. While focusing on the interaction with a pedagogical agent,
i.e., a digital agent capable of natural-language interaction with a learner,
we propose a model of learning activity based on activity theory. We use this
model and a review of prior research on digital agents in education to analyze
how various characteristics of the activity, including features of a
pedagogical agent or learner, influence learning outcomes. The analysis leads
to identification of IS research directions and guidance for developers of
pedagogical agents and digital agents in general. We conclude by extending the
activity theory-based model beyond the context of education and show how it
helps designers and researchers ask the right questions when creating a digital
agent.


  We utilize deep JWST NIRCam observations for the first direct constraints on
the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function (GSMF) at z>10. Our EPOCHS v1 sample includes
1120 galaxy candidates at 6.5<z<13.5 taken from a consistent reduction and
analysis of publicly available deep JWST NIRCam data covering the PEARLS,
CEERS, GLASS, JADES GOOD-S, NGDEEP, and SMACS0723 surveys, totalling 187
arcmin2. We investigate the impact of SED fitting methods, assumed star
formation histories (SFH), dust laws, and priors on galaxy masses and the
resultant GSMF. Whilst our fiducial GSMF agrees with the literature at z<13.5,
we find that the assumed SFH model has a large impact on the GSMF and stellar
mass density (SMD), finding a 0.75 dex increase in the SMD at z=10.5 between a
flexible non-parametric and standard parametric SFH. Overall, we find a flatter
SMD evolution at z > 9 than some studies predict, suggesting a rapid buildup of
stellar mass in the early Universe. We find no incompatibility between our
results and those of standard cosmological models, as suggested previously,
although the most massive galaxies may require a high star formation
efficiency. We find that the 'Little Red Dot' galaxies dominate the z=7 GSMF at
high-masses, necessitating a better understanding of the relative contributions
of AGN and stellar emission. We show that assuming a theoretically motivated
top-heavy IMF reduces stellar mass by 0.5 dex without affecting fit quality,
but our results remain consistent with existing cosmological models with a
standard IMF.


  Human speech is the most important part of General Artificial Intelligence
and subject of much research. The hypothesis proposed in this article provides
explanation of difficulties that modern science tackles in the field of human
brain simulation. The hypothesis is based on the author's conviction that the
brain of any given person has different ability to process and store
information. Therefore, the approaches that are currently used to create
General Artificial Intelligence have to be altered.


  The brightest long gamma-ray burst detected so far by the Swift-BAT and
Fermi-GBM telescopes, GRB~221009A, provides an unprecedented opportunity for
understanding the high-energy processes in extreme transient phenomena. We find
that the conventional leptonic models, synchrotron and
synchrotron-self-Compton, for the afterglow emission from this source have
difficulties explaining the observation of $\gtrsim 10$ TeV $\gamma$ rays, by
the LHAASO detector, and extending up to 18 TeV energies. We model $\gamma$-ray
spectrum estimated in the energy range 0.1-1 GeV by the Fermi-LAT detector. The
flux predicted by our leptonic models is severely attenuated at $> 1$ TeV due
to $\gamma\gamma$ pair production with extragalactic background light, and
hence an additional component is required at $\gtrsim 10$ TeV. Ultrahigh-energy
cosmic rays can be accelerated in the GRB blastwave, and their propagation
induces an electromagnetic cascade in the extragalactic medium. The line of
sight component of this flux can explain the emission at $\gtrsim 10$ TeV
detected by LHAASO, requiring a fraction of the GRB blastwave energy in
ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. This could be an indication of ultrahigh-energy
cosmic-ray acceleration in GRBs.


  We continue the analysis of S-wave production amplitudes for the reaction pi-
p -> pi+ pi- n involving the data obtained by the CERN--Cracow-Munich
collaboration on a transversely polarized target at 17.2 GeV/c pi- momentum.
This study deals with the region below the K - Kbar threshold. In particular,
we study the "up-steep" solution containing a narrow S-wave resonance under the
rho(770). This solution exhibits a considerable inelasticity (eta) which does
not have any physical interpretation. Assuming that this inelasticity behaviour
represents an unlikely fluctuation we impose eta = 1 for all data points. This
leads to non-physical results in one third of the pi+pi- effective mass bins
and in the remaining mass bins some parameters behave in a queer way. The
situation is even worse for the "down-steep" solution. We conclude that the
17.2 GeV data cannot be described by a relatively narrow f0(750). The
"down-flat" and "up-steep" solutions which easily pass the eta = 1 constraint
exhibit a slow increase of phase shifts in the rho(770) mass range.


  The nonorientable four-ball genus of a knot $K$ in $S^3$ is the minimal first
Betti number of nonorientable surfaces in $B^4$ bounded by $K$. By amalgamating
ideas from involutive knot Floer homology and unoriented knot Floer homology,
we give a new lower bound on the smooth nonorientable four-ball genus
$\gamma_4$ of any knot. This bound is sharp for several families of torus
knots, including $T_{4n,(2n\pm 1)^2}$ for even $n\ge 2$, a family Longo showed
were counterexamples to Batson's conjecture. We also prove that, whenever $p$
is an even positive integer and $\frac{p}{2}$ is not a perfect square, the
torus knot $T_{p,q}$ does not bound a locally flat M\"obius band for almost all
integers $q$ relatively prime to $p$.


  We investigate the chiral condensate and the dressed Polyakov loop or dual
chiral condensate at finite temperature and density in two-flavor
Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. The dressed Polyakov loop is regarded as an
equivalent order parameter of deconfinement phase transition in a confining
theory. We find the behavior of dressed Polyakov loop in absence of any
confinement mechanism is quite interesting, with only quark degrees of freedom
present, it still shows an order parameter like behavior. It is found that in
the chiral limit, the critical temperature for chiral phase transition
coincides with that of the dressed Polyakov loop in the whole $(T,\mu)$ plane.
In the case of explicit chiral symmetry breaking, it is found that the
transition temperature for chiral restoration $T_c^{\chi}$ is smaller than that
of the dressed Polyakov loop $T_c^{{\cal D}}$ in the low baryon density region
where the transition is a crossover. With the increase of current quark mass
the difference between the two transition temperatures is found to be
increasing. However, the two critical temperatures coincide in the high baryon
density region where the phase transition is of first order. We give an
explanation on the feature of $T_c^{\chi}=T_c^{\cal D}$ in the case of 1st and
2nd order phase transitions, and $T_c^{\chi}<T_c^{\cal D}$ in the case of
crossover, and expect this feature is general and can be extended to full QCD
theory. Our result might indicate that in the case of crossover, there exists a
small region where chiral symmetry is restored but the color degrees of freedom
are still confined.


  We extend the formulation of spin 2 fields on Minkowski space which makes the
action manifestly invariant under duality rotations to the case of interactions
with external electric and magnetic sources by adding suitable potentials for
the longitudinal and trace parts. In this framework, the string singularity of
the linearized Taub-NUT solution is resolved into a Coulomb-like solution.
Suitable surface charges to measure energy-momentum and angular momentum of
both electric and magnetic type are constructed.


  We have measured the induced polarization of the ${\Lambda}(1116)$ in the
reaction $ep\rightarrow e'K^+{\Lambda}$, detecting the scattered $e'$ and $K^+$
in the final state along with the proton from the decay $\Lambda\rightarrow
p\pi^-$.The present study used the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS),
which allowed for a large kinematic acceptance in invariant energy $W$
($1.6\leq W \leq 2.7$ GeV) and covered the full range of the kaon production
angle at an average momentum transfer $Q^2=1.90$ GeV$^2$.In this experiment a
5.50 GeV electron beam was incident upon an unpolarized liquid-hydrogen target.
We have mapped out the $W$ and kaon production angle dependencies of the
induced polarization and found striking differences from photoproduction data
over most of the kinematic range studied. However, we also found that the
induced polarization is essentially $Q^2$ independent in our kinematic domain,
suggesting that somewhere below the $Q^2$ covered here there must be a strong
$Q^2$ dependence. Along with previously published photo- and electroproduction
cross sections and polarization observables, these data are needed for the
development of models, such as effective field theories, and as input to
coupled-channel analyses that can provide evidence of previously unobserved
$s$-channel resonances.


  Transverse momentum distribution of gauge bosons $W^{\pm}$ and $Z^0$ is
calculated using unintegrated parton distributions obtained by solving leading
order CCFM equation(s) in the impact parameter space. For illustration we
compare the results of the fixed-order collinear, soft-gluon resummation and
CCFM approaches. A parameter of a nonperturbative form factor is adjusted to
the D0 data. In contrast to the collinear approach, the leading order
calculation based on the unintegrated CCFM parton distributions generates
transverse momentum distributions of gauge bosons, which are almost consistent
with experimental data provided the parameter of the nonperturbative form
factor is appropriately adjusted. The $W^+$-$W^-$ asymmetry is calculated as a
function of the boson rapidity and transverse momentum. Predictions are given
for RHIC and LHC.


  For a given elliptic curve $E$ defined over the rationals, we study the
density of primes $p$ satisfying $\mathrm{gcd}(\#E(\mathbb{F}_p),p-1)=1$ and
give a conjectural value for this density with strong heuristic evidence for
most elliptic curves, in an appropriate sense.


  Since its inception, Floer homology has been an important tool in
low-dimensional topology. Floer theoretic invariants of $3$-manifolds tend to
be either gauge theoretic or symplecto-geometric in nature, and there is a
general philosophy that each gauge theoretic Floer homology should have a
corresponding symplectic Floer homology and vice-versa. In this article, we
construct a Lagrangian Floer invariant for any closed, oriented $3$-manifold
$Y$ (called the symplectic instanton homology of $Y$ and denoted
$\mathrm{SI}(Y)$) which is conjecturally equivalent to a Floer homology defined
using a certain variant of Yang-Mills gauge theory. The crucial ingredient for
defining $\mathrm{SI}(Y)$ is the use of traceless character varieties in the
symplectic setting, which allow us to avoid the debilitating technical hurdles
present when one attempts to define a symplectic version of instanton Floer
homologies. Furthermore, by studying the effect of Dehn surgeries on traceless
character varieties, we establish a surgery exact triangle using work of Seidel
that relates the geometry of Lefschetz fibrations with exact triangles in
Lagrangian Floer theory.


  We construct B\"acklund transformations (BTs) for the Kirchhoff top by taking
advantage of the common algebraic Poisson structure between this system and the
$sl(2)$ trigonometric Gaudin model. Our BTs are integrable maps providing an
exact time-discretization of the system, inasmuch as they preserve both its
Poisson structure and its invariants. Moreover, in some special cases we are
able to show that these maps can be explicitly integrated in terms of the
initial conditions and of the "iteration time" $n$. Encouraged by these partial
results we make the conjecture that the maps are interpolated by a specific
one-parameter family of hamiltonian flows, and present the corresponding
solution. We enclose a few pictures where the orbits of the continuous and of
the discrete flow are depicted.


  This paper considers space homogenous Boltzmann kinetic equations in
dimension $d$ with Maxwell collisions (and without Grad's cut-off). An explicit
Markov coupling of the associated conservative (Nanbu) stochastic $N$-particle
system is constructed, using plain parallel coupling of isotropic random walks
on the sphere of two-body collisional directions. The resulting coupling is
almost surely decreasing, and the $L_2$-coupling creation is computed
explicitly. Some quasi-contractive and uniform in $N$ coupling / coupling
creation inequalities are then proved, relying on $2+\alpha$-moments ($\alpha
>0$) of velocity distributions; upon $N$-uniform propagation of moments of the
particle system, it yields a $N$-scalable $\alpha$-power law trend to
equilibrium. The latter are based on an original sharp inequality, which bounds
from above the coupling distance of two centered and normalized random
variables $(U,V)$ in $\R^d$, with the average square parallelogram area spanned
by $(U-U_\ast,V-V_\ast)$, $(U_\ast,V_\ast)$ denoting an independent copy. Two
counter-examples proving the necessity of the dependance on $>2$-moments and
the impossibility of strict contractivity are provided. The paper, (mostly)
self-contained, does not require any propagation of chaos property and uses
only elementary tools.


  A novel toolbox named FLOreS is presented for intuitive design of fractional
order controllers (FOC) using industry standard loop shaping technique. This
will allow control engineers to use frequency response data (FRD) of the plant
to design FOCs by shaping the open loop to meet the necessary specifications of
stability, robustness, tracking, precision and bandwidth. FLOreS provides a
graphical approach using closed-loop sensitivity functions for overall insight
into system performance. The main advantage over existing optimization
toolboxes for FOC is that the engineer can use prior knowledge and expertise of
plant during design of FOC. Different approximation methods for fractional
order filters are also included for greater freedom of final implementation.
This combined with the included example plants enables additionally to be used
as an educational tool. FLOreS has been used for design and implementation of
both integer and fractional order controllers on a precision stage to prove
industry readiness.


  Calculations of synthetic spectropolarimetry are one means to test
multi-dimensional explosion models for Type Ia supernovae. In a recent paper,
we demonstrated that the violent merger of a 1.1 and 0.9 M$_{\odot}$ white
dwarf binary system is too asymmetric to explain the low polarization levels
commonly observed in normal Type Ia supernovae. Here, we present polarization
simulations for two alternative scenarios: the sub-Chandrasekhar mass
double-detonation and the Chandrasekhar mass delayed-detonation model.
Specifically, we study a two-dimensional double-detonation model and a
three-dimensional delayed-detonation model, and calculate polarization spectra
for multiple observer orientations in both cases. We find modest polarization
levels ($<$ 1 per cent) for both explosion models. Polarization in the
continuum peaks at $\sim$ 0.1$-$0.3 per cent and decreases after maximum light,
in excellent agreement with spectropolarimetric data of normal Type Ia
supernovae. Higher degrees of polarization are found across individual spectral
lines. In particular, the synthetic Si ii {\lambda}6355 profiles are polarized
at levels that match remarkably well the values observed in normal Type Ia
supernovae, while the low degrees of polarization predicted across the O i
{\lambda}7774 region are consistent with the non-detection of this feature in
current data. We conclude that our models can reproduce many of the
characteristics of both flux and polarization spectra for well-studied Type Ia
supernovae, such as SN 2001el and SN 2012fr. However, the two models considered
here cannot account for the unusually high level of polarization observed in
extreme cases such as SN 2004dt.


  Tunneling conductance in diffusive normal metal / insulator / s-wave
superconductor (DN/I/S) junctions is calculated for various situations by
changing the magnitudes of the resistance and Thouless energy in DN and the
transparency of the insulating barrier. The generalized boundary condition
introduced by Yu. Nazarov [Superlattices and Microstructures 25 1221 (1999)] is
applied, where the ballistic theory by Blonder Tinkham and Klapwijk (BTK) and
the diffusive theory by Volkov Zaitsev and Klapwijk based on the boundary
condition of Kupriyanov and Lukichev (KL) are naturally reproduced. It is shown
that the proximity effect can enhance (reduce) the tunneling conductance for
junctions with a low (high) transparency. A wide variety of dependencies of
tunneling conductance on voltage bias is demonstrated including a $U$-shaped
gap like structure, a zero bias conductance peak (ZBCP) and a zero bias
conductance dip (ZBCD).


  We describe the equivariant cohomology ring of rationally smooth projective
embeddings of reductive groups. These embeddings are the projectivizations of
reductive monoids. Our main result describes their equivariant cohomology in
terms of roots, idempotents, and underlying monoid data. Also, we characterize
those embeddings whose equivariant cohomology ring is obtained via restriction
to the associated toric variety. Such characterization is given in terms of the
closed orbits.


  Creating a modified Belinfante/Rosenfeld procedure, Mathisson-Papapetrou-like
equations are derived by which a comparison of General-Covariant Continuum
Physics with General Relativity Theory becomes possible.


  Recent innovations on hardware (e.g. Nvidia A100) have motivated learning N:M
structured sparsity masks from scratch for fast model inference. However,
state-of-the-art learning recipes in this regime (e.g. SR-STE) are proposed for
non-adaptive optimizers like momentum SGD, while incurring non-trivial accuracy
drop for Adam-trained models like attention-based LLMs. In this paper, we first
demonstrate such gap origins from poorly estimated second moment (i.e.
variance) in Adam states given by the masked weights. We conjecture that
learning N:M masks with Adam should take the critical regime of variance
estimation into account. In light of this, we propose STEP, an Adam-aware
recipe that learns N:M masks with two phases: first, STEP calculates a reliable
variance estimate (precondition phase) and subsequently, the variance remains
fixed and is used as a precondition to learn N:M masks (mask-learning phase).
STEP automatically identifies the switching point of two phases by dynamically
sampling variance changes over the training trajectory and testing the sample
concentration. Empirically, we evaluate STEP and other baselines such as ASP
and SR-STE on multiple tasks including CIFAR classification, machine
translation and LLM fine-tuning (BERT-Base, GPT-2). We show STEP mitigates the
accuracy drop of baseline recipes and is robust to aggressive structured
sparsity ratios.


  It is found that UrQMD model version 3.3 does not describe NA61/SHINE
Collaboration data on \pi-meson production in pp interactions at energies 20 -
80 GeV. At the same time, it describes quite well the NA49 Collaboration data
on the meson production in pp and pC interactions at 158 GeV. The
Collaborations do not consider feedback of \eta-meson decays. All versions of
the UrQMD model assume that \eta-mesons are "stable". An inclusion of the
decays into calculations leads to 2--3 % increase of the meson production which
is not enough for description of the data. Possible ways of the model
improvements are considered.
  Conclusions of the paper are: accounting of \eta-meson decays is not
essential for a description of experimental data; a new tuning of the UrQMD
model parameters is needed for a successful description of pp and pC
interactions at high energies; inclusion of the low mass diffraction
dissociation in the UrQMD model would be desirable.


  Using a three-path contrast interferometer (CI) geometry and laser-pulse
diffraction gratings, we create the first matter-wave interferometer with
ytterbium (Yb) atoms. We present advances in contrast interferometry relevant
to high-precision measurements. By comparing to a traditional atom
interferometer, we demonstrate the immunity of the CI to vibrations for long
interaction times (> 20 ms). We characterize and demonstrate control over the
two largest systematic effects for a high-precision measurement of the fine
structure constant via photon recoil with our interferometer: diffraction
phases and atomic interactions. Diffraction phases are an important systematic
for most interferometers using large-momentum transfer beam splitters; atomic
interactions are a key concern for any BEC interferometer. Finally, we consider
the prospects for a future sub-part per billion photon recoil measurement using
a Yb CI.


  Despite the dramatic success in image generation, Generative Adversarial
Networks (GANs) still face great challenges in synthesizing sequences of
discrete elements, in particular human language. The difficulty in generator
training arises from the limited representation capacity and uninformative
learning signals obtained from the discriminator. In this work, we (1) first
empirically show that the mixture-of-experts approach is able to enhance the
representation capacity of the generator for language GANs and (2) harness the
Feature Statistics Alignment (FSA) paradigm to render fine-grained learning
signals to advance the generator training. Specifically, FSA forces the mean
statistics of the distribution of fake data to approach that of real samples as
close as possible in the finite-dimensional feature space. Empirical study on
synthetic and real benchmarks shows the superior performance in quantitative
evaluation and demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach to adversarial
text generation.


  We use topology of configuration spaces to give a characterization of
Neuwirth--Stallings pairs $(S^5, K)$ with $\dim K = 2$. As a consequence, we
construct polynomial map germs $(\mathbb{R}^{6},0)\to (\mathbb{R}^{3},0)$ with
an isolated singularity at the origin such that their Milnor fibers are not
diffeomorphic to a disk, thus putting an end to Milnor's non-triviality
question. Furthermore, for a polynomial map germ $(\mathbb{R}^{2n},0) \to
(\mathbb{R}^{n},0)$ or $(\mathbb{R}^{2n+1},0) \to (\mathbb{R}^{n},0)$, $n \geq
3$, with an isolated singularity at the origin, we study the conditions under
which the associated Milnor fiber has the homotopy type of a bouquet of
spheres. We then construct, for every pair $(n, p)$ with $n/2 \geq p \geq 2$, a
new example of a polynomial map germ $(\mathbb{R}^n,0) \to (\mathbb{R}^p,0)$
with an isolated singularity at the origin such that its Milnor fiber has the
homotopy type of a bouquet of a positive number of spheres.


  During the COVID-$19$ pandemic the health authorities at airports and train
stations try to screen and identify the travellers possibly exposed to the
virus. However, many individuals avoid getting tested and hence may misreport
their travel history. This is a challenge for the health authorities who wish
to ascertain the truly susceptible cases in spite of this strategic
misreporting. We investigate the problem of questioning travellers to classify
them for further testing when the travellers are strategic or are unwilling to
reveal their travel histories. We show there are fundamental limits to how many
travel histories the health authorities can recover.% can be correctly
classified by any probing mechanism.


  We develop a modal method that solves Maxwell's equations in the presence of
the linearized hydrodynamic correction. Using this approach, it is now possible
to calculate the full diffraction for structures with period of the order of
the plasma wavelength, including not only the transverse but also the
longitudinal modes appearing above the plasma frequency. As an example for
using this method we solve the diffraction of a plane wave near the plasma
frequency from a bi-metallic layer, modeled as a continuous variation of the
plasma frequency. We observe absorption oscillations around the plasma
frequency. The lower frequency absorption peaks and dips correspond to lowest
longitudinal modes concentrated in the lower plasma frequency region. As the
frequency is increased, higher order longitudinal modes are excited and extent
to the region of higher plasma frequency. Moreover, examination of the
propagation constants of these modes reveals that the absorption peaks and dips
are directly related to the direction of phase propagation of the longitudinal
modes. Furthermore, we formulate a variant of the Plane Wave Expansion method,
and used it to calculate the dispersion diagram of such longitudinal modes in a
periodically modulated plasma frequency layer.


  We consider the inverse problem of determining an optical mask that produces
a desired circuit pattern in photolithography. We set the problem as a shape
design problem in which the unknown is a two-dimensional domain. The
relationship between the target shape and the unknown is modeled through
diffractive optics. We develop a variational formulation that is well-posed and
propose an approximation that can be shown to have convergence properties. The
approximate problem can serve as a foundation to numerical methods.


  We report observations of the recently discovered warm Neptune TOI-674 b
(5.25 \rearth{}, 23.6 \mearth{}) with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field
Camera 3 instrument. TOI-674 b is in the Neptune desert, an observed paucity of
Neptune-size exoplanets at short orbital periods. Planets in the desert are
thought to have complex evolutionary histories due to photoevaporative mass
loss or orbital migration, making identifying the constituents of their
atmospheres critical to understanding their origins. We obtained near-infrared
transmission spectroscopy of the planet's atmosphere with the G141 grism. After
extracting, detrending, and fitting the spectral lightcurves to measure the
planet's transmission spectrum, we used the petitRADTRANS atmospheric spectral
synthesis code to perform retrievals on the planet's atmosphere to identify
which absorbers are present. These results show moderate evidence for increased
absorption at 1.4 $\mu$m due to water vapor at 2.9$\sigma$ (Bayes factor =
15.8), as well as weak evidence for the presence of clouds at 2.2$\sigma$
(Bayes factor = 4.0). TOI-674 b is a strong candidate for further study to
refine the water abundance, which is poorly constrained by our data. We also
incorporated new TESS short-cadence optical photometry, as well as Spitzer/IRAC
data, and re-fit the transit parameters for the planet. We find the planet to
have the following transit parameters: $R_p/R_* = 0.1135\pm0.0006$, $T_0 =
2458544.523792\pm0.000452$ BJD, and $P = 1.977198\pm0.00007$ d. These
measurements refine the planet radius estimate and improve the orbital
ephemerides for future transit spectroscopy observations of this highly
intriguing warm Neptune.


  Indirect searches for the cosmological dark matter have become ever more
competitive during the past years. Here, we report the first full calculation
of leading electroweak corrections to the annihilation rate of supersymmetric
neutralino dark matter. We find that these corrections can be huge, partially
due to contributions that have been overlooked so far. Our results imply a
significantly enhanced discovery potential of this well motivated dark matter
candidate with current and upcoming cosmic ray experiments, in particular for
gamma rays and models with somewhat small annihilation rates at tree level.


  The goal in this paper is to approximate the Price of Stability (PoS) in
stochastic Nash games using stochastic approximation (SA) schemes. PoS is
amongst the most popular metrics in game theory and provides an avenue for
estimating the efficiency of Nash games. In particular, knowing the value of
PoS can help with designing efficient networked systems, including
transportation networks and power market mechanisms. Motivated by the lack of
efficient methods for computing the PoS, first we consider stochastic
optimization problems with a nonsmooth and merely convex objective function and
a merely monotone stochastic variational inequality (SVI) constraint. This
problem appears in the numerator of the PoS ratio. We develop a randomized
block-coordinate stochastic extra-(sub)gradient method where we employ a novel
iterative penalization scheme to account for the mapping of the SVI in each of
the two gradient updates of the algorithm. We obtain an iteration complexity of
the order $\epsilon^{-4}$ that appears to be best known result for this class
of constrained stochastic optimization problems, where $\epsilon$ denotes an
arbitrary bound on suitably defined infeasibility and suboptimality metrics.
Second, we develop an SA-based scheme for approximating the PoS and derive
lower and upper bounds on the approximation error. To validate the theoretical
findings, we provide preliminary simulation results on a networked stochastic
Nash Cournot competition.


  We discuss the problem of defining an estimate for the error in quasi-Monte
Carlo integration. The key issue is the definition of an ensemble of
quasi-random point sets that, on the one hand, includes a sufficiency of
equivalent point sets, and on the other hand uses information on the degree of
uniformity of the point set actually used, in the form of a discrepancy or
diaphony. A few examples of such discrepancies are given. We derive the
distribution of our error estimate in the limit of large number of points. In
many cases, Gaussian central limits are obtained. We also present numerical
results for the quadratic star-discrepancy for a number of quasi-random
sequences.


  The elliptic flow coefficient ($v_{2}$) of identified particles in Pb-Pb
collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{{NN}}} = 2.76$ TeV was measured with the ALICE
detector at the LHC. The results were obtained with the Scalar Product method,
a two-particle correlation technique, using a pseudo-rapidity gap of
$|\Delta\eta| > 0.9$ between the identified hadron under study and the
reference particles. The $v_2$ is reported for $\pi^{\pm}$, $\mathrm{K}^{\pm}$,
$\mathrm{K}^0_\mathrm{S}$, p+$\overline{\mathrm{p}}$, $\mathrm{\phi}$,
$\Lambda$+$\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda}}$, $\Xi^-$+$\overline{\Xi}^+$ and
$\Omega^-$+$\overline{\Omega}^+$ in several collision centralities. In the low
transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) region, $p_{\mathrm{T}} < 2 $GeV/$c$,
$v_2(p_\mathrm{T})$ exhibits a particle mass dependence consistent with
elliptic flow accompanied by the transverse radial expansion of the system with
a common velocity field. The experimental data for $\pi^{\pm}$ and $\mathrm{K}$
are described fairly well by hydrodynamical calculations coupled to a hadronic
cascade model (VISHNU) for central collisions. However, the same calculations
fail to reproduce the $v_2(p_\mathrm{T})$ for p+$\overline{\mathrm{p}}$,
$\mathrm{\phi}$, $\Lambda$+$\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda}}$ and
$\Xi^-$+$\overline{\Xi}^+$. For transverse momentum values larger than about 3
GeV/$c$, particles tend to group according to their type, i.e. mesons and
baryons. However, the experimental data at the LHC exhibit deviations from the
number of constituent quark (NCQ) scaling at the level of $\pm$20$\%$ for
$p_{\mathrm{T}} > 3 $GeV/$c$.


  Disorder, ubiquitously present in solids, is normally detrimental to the
stability of ordered states of matter. In this letter we demonstrate that not
only is the physics of a strong topological insulator robust to disorder but,
remarkably, under certain conditions disorder can become fundamentally
responsible for its existence. We show that disorder, when sufficiently strong,
can transform an ordinary metal with strong spin-orbit coupling into a strong
topological `Anderson' insulator, a new topological phase of quantum matter in
three dimensions.


  Existing single-stage detectors for locating objects in point clouds often
treat object localization and category classification as separate tasks, so the
localization accuracy and classification confidence may not well align. To
address this issue, we present a new single-stage detector named the Confident
IoU-Aware Single-Stage object Detector (CIA-SSD). First, we design the
lightweight Spatial-Semantic Feature Aggregation module to adaptively fuse
high-level abstract semantic features and low-level spatial features for
accurate predictions of bounding boxes and classification confidence. Also, the
predicted confidence is further rectified with our designed IoU-aware
confidence rectification module to make the confidence more consistent with the
localization accuracy. Based on the rectified confidence, we further formulate
the Distance-variant IoU-weighted NMS to obtain smoother regressions and avoid
redundant predictions. We experiment CIA-SSD on 3D car detection in the KITTI
test set and show that it attains top performance in terms of the official
ranking metric (moderate AP 80.28%) and above 32 FPS inference speed,
outperforming all prior single-stage detectors. The code is available at
https://github.com/Vegeta2020/CIA-SSD.


  We present new 6 and 3-cm radio-continuum maps of the Small Magellanic Cloud
(SMC), created with the "peeling" technique and a joint deconvolution. The maps
have resolutions of 30" and 20" and r.m.s. noise of 0.7 and 0.8 mJy/beam at 6
and 3 cm, respectively. These maps will be used for future studies of the SMC's
radio source population and overall extended structure.


  The formation of inhomogeneous chiral condensates in QCD matter at nonzero
density and temperature is investigated for the first time with Dyson-Schwinger
equations. We consider two massless quark flavors in a so-called chiral density
wave, where scalar and pseudoscalar quark condensates vary sinusoidally along
one spatial dimension. We find that the inhomogeneous region covers the major
part of the spinodal region of the first-order phase transition which is
present when the analysis is restricted to homogeneous phases. The triple point
where the inhomogeneous phase meets the homogeneous phases with broken and
restored chiral symmetry, respectively, coincides, within numerical accuracy,
with the critical point of the homogeneous calculation. At zero temperature,
the inhomogeneous phase seems to extend to arbitrarily high chemical
potentials, as long as pairing effects are not taken into account.


  We compute and study the infrared and sub-mm properties of high redshift ($z
\gtrsim 1$) simulated clusters and proto-clusters. The results of a large set
of hydro-dynamical zoom-in simulations including active galactic nuclei (AGN)
feedback, have been treated with the recently developed radiative transfer code
GRASIL-3D, which accounts for the effect of dust reprocessing in an arbitrary
geometry. Here, we have slightly generalized the code to adapt it to the
present purpose. Then we have post-processed boxes of physical size 2 Mpc
encompassing each of the 24 most massive clusters identified at z=0, at several
redshifts between 0.5 and 3, producing IR and sub-mm mock images of these
regions and SEDs of the radiation coming out from them.
  While this field is in its infancy from the observational point of view,
rapid development is expected in the near future thanks to observations
performed in the far IR and sub-mm bands. Notably, we find that in this
spectral regime our prediction are little affected by the assumption required
by this post-processing, and the emission is mostly powered by star formation
rather than accretion onto super massive black hole (SMBH).
  The comparison with the little observational information currently available,
highlights that the simulated cluster regions never attain the impressive star
formation rates suggested by these observations. This problem becomes more
intriguing taking into account that the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in
the same simulations turn out to be too massive. It seems that the interplay
between the feedback schemes and the star formation model should be revised,
possibly incorporating a positive feedback mode.


  Many physical and biological systems exhibit intrinsic cyclic dynamics that
are altered by random external perturbations. We examine continuous-time
autonomous dynamical systems exhibiting a stable limit cycle, perturbed by
additive Gaussian white noise. We derive a formal approximation for the
dynamics of sample paths that stay close to the limit cycle, in terms of a
phase coordinate and a deviation perpendicular to the limit cycle. To leading
order in the deviation, the phase advances at the deterministic speed
superimposed by a Brownian-motion-like drift. The deviation itself takes the
form of an (n-1)-dimensional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. We apply these results
to the case of limit cycles emerging through a supercritical Hopf bifurcation,
which is widespread in ecological and epidemiological models. We derive
approximation formulas for the system's stationary autocovariance and power
spectral density. The latter two reflect the effects of perturbations on the
temporal coherence and spectral bandwidth of perturbed limit cycles. We verify
our results using numerical simulations and exemplify their application to the
El Ni\~no Southern Oscillation.


  We consider a superconducting film with Magnetic Dots Array (MDA) placed on
it. Magnetic moments of these dots are supposed to be normal to the film and
strong enough to create vortices in the superconducting film. Magnetic
interaction between dots is negligible. Below the superconducting transition
temperature of the film in zero magnetic field the MDA with randomly magnetized
dots produces resistive state of the film. Paradoxically, in a finite magnetic
field the film with MDA is superconductive.


  It is well known that generic two-Higgs-doublet models (2HDMs) suffer from
potentially large Higgs-mediated flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC)
problem, unless additional symmetries are imposed on the Higgs fields thereby
respecting the Natural Flavor Conservation Criterion (NFC) by Glashow and
Weinberg. A common way to respect the NFC is to impose Z_2 symmetry which is
softly broken by a dim-2 operator. Another new way is to introduce local U(1)_H
Higgs flavor symmetry that distinguishes one Higgs doublet from the other. In
this paper, we consider the Higgs phenomenology in Type-I 2HDMs with the U(1)_H
symmetry with the simplest U(1)_H assignments that the SM fermions are all
neutral under U(1)_H, and we make detailed comparison with the ordinary Type-I
2HDM. After imposing various constraints such as vacuum stability and
perturbativity as well as the electroweak precision observables and collider
search bounds on charged Higgs boson, we find that the allowed Higgs signal
strengths in our model are much broader than those in the ordinary Type-I 2HDM,
because of newly introduced U(1)_H-charged singlet scalar and U(1)_H gauge
boson. Still the ATLAS data on gg to h to gamma gamma cannot be accommodated.
Our model could be distinguished from the ordinary 2HDM with the Z_2 symmetry
in a certain parameter region and some channels. If the couplings of the new
boson turn out to be close to those in the SM, it would be essential to search
for extra U(1)_H gauge boson and/or one more neutral scalar boson to
distinguish two models.


  The properties of vortex states in a Bose-Einstein condensed cloud of atoms
are considered at zero temperature. Using both analytical and numerical methods
we solve the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the case when a cloud
of atoms containing a vortex is released from a trap. In two dimensions we find
the simple result that the time dependence of the cloud radius is given by
$(1+\omega^2t^2)^{1/2}$, where $\omega$ is the trap frequency. We calculate and
compare the expansion of the vortex core and the cloud radius for different
numbers of particles and interaction strengths, in both two and three
dimensions, and discuss the circumstances under which vortex states may be
observed experimentally.


  Navigating multi-robot systems in complex terrains has always been a
challenging task. This is due to the inherent limitations of traditional robots
in collision avoidance, adaptation to unknown environments, and sustained
energy efficiency. In order to overcome these limitations, this research
proposes a solution by integrating living insects with miniature electronic
controllers to enable robotic-like programmable control, and proposing a novel
control algorithm for swarming. Although these creatures, called cyborg
insects, have the ability to instinctively avoid collisions with neighbors and
obstacles while adapting to complex terrains, there is a lack of literature on
the control of multi-cyborg systems. This research gap is due to the difficulty
in coordinating the movements of a cyborg system under the presence of insects'
inherent individual variability in their reactions to control input. In
response to this issue, we propose a novel swarm navigation algorithm
addressing these challenges. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated
through an experimental validation in which a cyborg swarm was successfully
navigated through an unknown sandy field with obstacles and hills. This
research contributes to the domain of swarm robotics and showcases the
potential of integrating biological organisms with robotics and control theory
to create more intelligent autonomous systems with real-world applications.


  Via a combination of analytical and numerical methods, we study
electron-positron pair creation by the electromagnetic field ${\bf A}(t,{\bf
r})=[f(ct-x)+f(ct+x)]{\bf e}_y$ of two colliding laser pulses. Employing a
generalized WKB approach, we find that the pair creation rate along the
symmetry plane $x=0$ (where one would expect the maximum contribution) displays
the same exponential dependence as for a purely time-dependent electric field
${\bf A}(t)=2f(ct){\bf e}_y$. The pre-factor in front of this exponential does
also contain corrections due to focusing or de-focusing effects induced by the
spatially inhomogeneous magnetic field. We compare our analytical results to
numerical simulations using the Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner method and find good
agreement.


  In this work we consider a model for particle dark matter where an extra
inert Higgs doublet and an additional scalar singlet is added to the Standard
Model (SM) Lagrangian. The dark matter candidate is obtained from only the
inert doublet. The stability of this one component dark matter is ensured by
imposing a $Z_2$ symmetry on this additional inert doublet. The additional
singlet scalar has a vacuum expectation value (VEV) and mixes with the Standard
Model Higgs doublet resulting in two CP even scalars $h_1$ and $h_2$. We treat
one of these scalars, $h_1$, to be consistent with the SM Higgs like boson of
mass around 125 GeV reported by the LHC experiment. These two CP even scalars
affect the annihilation cross-section of this inert doublet dark matter
resulting in a larger dark matter mass region that satisfies the observed relic
density. We also investigate the $h_1 \rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ and $h_1
\rightarrow \gamma Z$ processes and compared these with LHC results. This is
also used to constrain the dark matter parameter space in the present model. We
find that the dark matter candidate in the mass region $\frac {m_1} {2} < m_H <
m_W$ GeV ($m_1 = 125$ GeV, mass of $h_1$) satisfies the recent bound from LUX
direct detection experiment.


  In this work, we study a generalization of hidden subspace states to hidden
coset states (first introduced by Aaronson and Christiano [STOC '12]). This
notion was considered independently by Vidick and Zhang [Eurocrypt '21], in the
context of proofs of quantum knowledge from quantum money schemes. We explore
unclonable properties of coset states and several applications:
  - We show that assuming indistinguishability obfuscation (iO), hidden coset
states possess a certain direct product hardness property, which immediately
implies a tokenized signature scheme in the plain model. Previously, it was
known only relative to an oracle, from a work of Ben-David and Sattath [QCrypt
'17].
  - Combining a tokenized signature scheme with extractable witness encryption,
we give a construction of an unclonable decryption scheme in the plain model.
The latter primitive was recently proposed by Georgiou and Zhandry [ePrint
'20], who gave a construction relative to a classical oracle.
  - We conjecture that coset states satisfy a certain natural
(information-theoretic) monogamy-of-entanglement property. Assuming this
conjecture is true, we remove the requirement for extractable witness
encryption in our unclonable decryption construction, by relying instead on
compute-and-compare obfuscation for the class of unpredictable distributions.
This conjecture was later proved by Culf and Vidick in a follow-up work.
  - Finally, we give a construction of a copy-protection scheme for
pseudorandom functions (PRFs) in the plain model. Our scheme is secure either
assuming iO, OWF, and extractable witness encryption, or assuming iO, OWF,
compute-and-compare obfuscation for the class of unpredictable distributions,
and the conjectured monogamy property mentioned above. This is the first
example of a copy-protection scheme with provable security in the plain model
for a class of functions that is not evasive.


  We consider the MGT equation with memory $$\partial_{ttt} u + \alpha
\partial_{tt} u - \beta \Delta \partial_{t} u - \gamma\Delta u +
\int_{0}^{t}g(s) \Delta u(t-s) ds = 0.$$ We prove an existence and uniqueness
result removing the convexity assumption on the convolution kernel $g$, usually
adopted in the literature. In the subcritical case $\alpha\beta>\gamma$, we
establish the exponential decay of the energy, without leaning on the classical
differential inequality involving $g$ and its derivative $g'$, namely,
$$g'+\delta g\leq 0,\quad\delta>0,$$ but only asking that $g$ vanishes
exponentially fast.


  Traditional systems designed for task oriented dialog utilize knowledge
present only in structured knowledge sources to generate responses. However,
relevant information required to generate responses may also reside in
unstructured sources, such as documents. Recent state of the art models such as
HyKnow and SeKnow aimed at overcoming these challenges make limiting
assumptions about the knowledge sources. For instance, these systems assume
that certain types of information, such as a phone number, is always present in
a structured knowledge base (KB) while information about aspects such as
entrance ticket prices, would always be available in documents.
  In this paper, we create a modified version of the MutliWOZ-based dataset
prepared by SeKnow to demonstrate how current methods have significant
degradation in performance when strict assumptions about the source of
information are removed. Then, in line with recent work exploiting pre-trained
language models, we fine-tune a BART based model using prompts for the tasks of
querying knowledge sources, as well as, for response generation, without making
assumptions about the information present in each knowledge source. Through a
series of experiments, we demonstrate that our model is robust to perturbations
to knowledge modality (source of information), and that it can fuse information
from structured as well as unstructured knowledge to generate responses.


  A robust model predictive control (MPC) method is presented for linear,
time-invariant systems affected by bounded additive disturbances. The main
contribution is the offline design of a disturbance-affine feedback gain
whereby the resulting constraint tightening is minimized. This is achieved by
formulating the constraint tightening problem as a convex optimization problem
with the feedback term as a variable. The resulting MPC controller has the
computational complexity of nominal MPC, and guarantees recursive feasibility,
stability and constraint satisfaction. The advantages of the proposed approach
compared to existing robust MPC methods are demonstrated using numerical
examples.


  These lecture notes aim at a post-Bachelor audience with a background at an
introductory level in Applied Mathematics and Applied Statistics. They discuss
the logic and methodology of the Bayes-Laplace approach to inductive
statistical inference that places common sense and the guiding lines of the
scientific method at the heart of systematic analyses of quantitative-empirical
data. Following an exposition of exactly solvable cases of single- and
two-parameter estimation problems, the main focus is laid on Markov Chain Monte
Carlo (MCMC) simulations on the basis of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling of
posterior joint probability distributions for regression parameters occurring
in generalised linear models for a univariate outcome variable. The modelling
of fixed effects as well as of correlated varying effects via multi-level
models in non-centred parametrisation is considered. The simulation of
posterior predictive distributions is outlined. The assessment of a model's
relative out-of-sample posterior predictive accuracy with information
entropy-based criteria WAIC and LOOIC and model comparison with Bayes factors
are addressed. A brief discussion on the description of the generation of
stationary time series data by means of autoregressive models is contained.
Concluding, a conceptual link to the behavioural subjective expected utility
representation of a single decision-maker's choice behaviour in static one-shot
decision problems is established. Vectorised codes for MCMC simulations of
multi-dimensional posterior joint probability distributions with the Stan
probabilistic programming language implemented in the statistical software R
are provided. The lecture notes are fully hyperlinked. They direct the reader
to original scientific research papers, online resources on inductive
statistical inference, and to pertinent biographical information.


  The journal impact factor is not comparable among fields of science and
social science because of systematic differences in publication and citation
behaviour across disciplines. In this work, a source normalization of the
journal impact factor is proposed. We use the aggregate impact factor of the
citing journals as a measure of the citation potential in the journal topic,
and we employ this citation potential in the normalization of the journal
impact factor to make it comparable between scientific fields. An empirical
application comparing some impact indicators with our topic normalized impact
factor in a set of 224 journals from four different fields shows that our
normalization, using the citation potential in the journal topic, reduces the
between-group variance with respect to the within-group variance in a higher
proportion than the rest of indicators analysed. The effect of journal
self-citations over the normalization process is also studied.


  It has been shown that classical non-minimally coupled scalar fields can
violate all of the standard energy conditions in general relativity. Violations
of the null and averaged null energy conditions obtainable with such fields
have been suggested as possible exotic matter candidates required for the
maintenance of traversable wormholes. In this paper, we explore the possibility
that if such fields exist, they might be used to produce large negative energy
fluxes and macroscopic violations of the generalized second law (GSL) of
thermodynamics. We find that it appears to be very easy to produce large
magnitude negative energy fluxes in flat spacetime. However we also find,
somewhat surprisingly, that these same types of fluxes injected into a black
hole do {\it not} produce violations of the GSL. This is true even in cases
where the flux results in a decrease in the area of the horizon. We demonstrate
that two effects are responsible for the rescue of the GSL: the acausal
behavior of the horizon and the modification of the usual black hole entropy
formula by an additional term which depends on the scalar field.


  Standard Markov chain Monte Carlo methods struggle to explore distributions
that are concentrated in the neighbourhood of low-dimensional structures. These
pathologies naturally occur in a number of situations. For example, they are
common to Bayesian inverse problem modelling and Bayesian neural networks, when
observational data are highly informative, or when a subset of the statistical
parameters of interest are non-identifiable. In this paper, we propose a
strategy that transforms the original sampling problem into the task of
exploring a distribution supported on a manifold embedded in a higher
dimensional space; in contrast to the original posterior this lifted
distribution remains diffuse in the vanishing noise limit. We employ a
constrained Hamiltonian Monte Carlo method which exploits the manifold geometry
of this lifted distribution, to perform efficient approximate inference. We
demonstrate in several numerical experiments that, contrarily to competing
approaches, the sampling efficiency of our proposed methodology does not
degenerate as the target distribution to be explored concentrates near low
dimensional structures.


  Thin films of transition metal oxides open up a gateway to nanoscale
electronic devices beyond silicon characterized by novel electronic
functionalities. While such films are commonly prepared in an oxygen
atmosphere, they are typically considered to be ideally terminated with the
stoichiometric composition. Using the prototypical correlated metal SrVO$_3$ as
an example, it is demonstrated that this idealized description overlooks an
essential ingredient: oxygen adsorbing at the surface apical sites. The oxygen
adatoms, which persist even in an ultrahigh vacuum environment, are shown to
severely affect the intrinsic electronic structure of a transition metal oxide
film. Their presence leads to the formation of an electronically dead surface
layer but also alters the band filling and the electron correlations in the
thin films. These findings highlight that it is important to take into account
surface apical oxygen or -- mutatis mutandis -- the specific oxygen
configuration imposed by a capping layer to predict the behavior of ultrathin
films of transition metal oxides near the single unit-cell limit.


  We present a theoretical study of an interaction-driven quantum phase diagram
of twisted bilayer MoTe$_2$ at hole filling factor $\nu_h=1$ as a function of
twist angle $\theta$ and layer potential difference $V_z$, where $V_z$ is
generated by an applied out-of-plane electric field. At $V_z=0$, the phase
diagram includes quantum anomalous Hall insulators in the intermediate $\theta$
regime and topologically trivial multiferroic states with coexisting
ferroelectricity and magnetism in both small and large $\theta$ regimes. There
can be two transitions from the quantum anomalous Hall insulator phase to
topologically trivial out-of-plane ferromagnetic phase, and finally to in-plane
120$^\circ$ antiferromagnetic phase as $|V_z|$ increases, or a single
transition without the intervening ferromagnetic phase. We show explicitly that
the spin vector chirality of various 120$^\circ$ antiferromagnetic states can
be electrically switched. We discuss the connection between the experimentally
measured Curie-Weiss temperature and the low-temperature magnetic order based
on an effective Heisenberg model with magnetic anisotropy.


  We review and extend several recent results on the existence of the ground
state for the nonlinear Schr\"odinger (NLS) equation on a metric graph. By
ground state we mean a minimizer of the NLS energy functional constrained to
the manifold of fixed $L^2$-norm. In the energy functional we allow for the
presence of a potential term, of delta-interactions in the vertices of the
graph, and of a power-type focusing nonlinear term. We discuss both subcritical
and critical nonlinearity. Under general assumptions on the graph and the
potential, we prove that a ground state exists for sufficiently small mass,
whenever the constrained infimum of the quadratic part of the energy functional
is strictly negative.


  The probabilistic analysis of condition numbers has traditionally been
approached from different angles; one is based on Smale's program in complexity
theory and features integral geometry, while the other is motivated by
geometric functional analysis and makes use of the theory of Gaussian
processes. In this note we explore connections between the two approaches in
the context of the biconic homogeneous feasiblity problem and the condition
numbers motivated by conic optimization theory. Key tools in the analysis are
Slepian's and Gordon's comparision inequalities for Gaussian processes,
interpreted as monotonicity properties of moment functionals, and their
interplay with ideas from conic integral geometry.


  Using semiclassical Boltzmann equation we have studied theoretically an
effect of a direct current (DC) generation in undoped armchair carbon nanotube
(CN) by mixing two coherent electromagnetic waves with commensurate frequencies
i.e omega and 2 omega . We compared the results of the armchair with that of
the zigzag carbon nanotubes for the same conditions (i.e. when the normalized
current is plotted against the amplitude). Quantitatively they agree with each
other except that the absolute value of the peaks of the current for zigzag is
about 1.1 times that of the armchair. We noticed that the current is negative
similar to that observed in zigzag CNs describing the same effect. However it
is interesting to note that graph of normalized current against omega tau
showed that the armchair is greater than that of the zigzag for about 1.1 times
which is opposite. We also observed that when the phase shift theta lies
between pi divided by 2 and 3 pi divided by 2 there is an inversion and the
current becomes positive. We suggest the use of this approach for the
generation of terahertz radiation and also for the determination of the
relaxation time of electrons in carbon nanotubes.


  In this paper the focus is on inflationary dynamics in the context of
Einstein Gauss-Bonnet gravitational theories. We investigate the implications
of the slow-roll condition on the slow-roll indices and we investigate how the
inflationary dynamical evolution is affected by the presence of the
Gauss-Bonnet coupling to the scalar field. For exemplification of our analysis
we investigate how the dynamics of inflationary cubic, quartic order and also
exponential scalar potentials are affected by the non-trivial Gauss-Bonnet
coupling to the scalar field. As we demonstrate it is possible to obtain a
viable phenomenology compatible with the observational data, although the
canonical scalar field theory with cubic and quartic order potentials does not
yield phenomenologically acceptable results. In addition, with regard to the
exponential potential example, the Einstein Gauss-Bonnet extension of the
single canonical scalar field model has an inherent mechanism that can trigger
the graceful exit from inflation. Furthermore we introduce a bottom-up
reconstruction technique, in the context of which by fixing the
tensor-to-scalar ratio and the Hubble rate as a function of the $e$-foldings
number, one is capable of reproducing the Einstein Gauss-Bonnet theory which
generates the aforementioned quantities. We illustrate how the method works by
using some relatively simple examples.


  We study the Neighbor Aided Network Installation Problem (NANIP) introduced
previously which asks for a minimal cost ordering of the vertices of a graph,
where the cost of visiting a node is a function of the number of neighbors that
have already been visited. This problem has applications in resource management
and disaster recovery. In this paper we analyze the computational hardness of
NANIP. In particular we show that this problem is NP-hard even when restricted
to convex decreasing cost functions, give a linear approximation lower bound
for the greedy algorithm, and prove a general sub-constant approximation lower
bound. Then we give a new integer programming formulation of NANIP and
empirically observe its speedup over the original integer program.


  It has been proposed that the million degree temperature of the corona is due
to the combined effect of barely-detectable energy releases, so called
nanoflares, that occur throughout the solar atmosphere. Alas, the nanoflare
density and brightness implied by this hypothesis means that conclusive
verification is beyond present observational abilities. Nevertheless, we
investigate the plausibility of the nanoflare hypothesis by constructing a
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model that can derive the energy of a nanoflare from
the nature of an ideal kink instability. The set of energy-releasing
instabilities is captured by an instability threshold for linear kink modes.
Each point on the threshold is associated with a unique energy release and so
we can predict a distribution of nanoflare energies. When the linear
instability threshold is crossed, the instability enters a nonlinear phase as
it is driven by current sheet reconnection. As the ensuing flare erupts and
declines, the field transitions to a lower energy state, which is modelled by
relaxation theory, i.e., helicity is conserved and the ratio of current to
field becomes invariant within the loop. We apply the model so that all the
loops within an ensemble achieve instability followed by energy-releasing
relaxation. The result is a nanoflare energy distribution. Furthermore, we
produce different distributions by varying the loop aspect ratio, the nature of
the path to instability taken by each loop and also the level of radial
expansion that may accompany loop relaxation. The heating rate obtained is just
sufficient for coronal heating. In addition, we also show that kink instability
cannot be associated with a critical magnetic twist value for every point along
the instability threshold.


  The transition of QGP from fluid-dynamical regime to freeze-out is
accompanied by the onset of instabilities. In the present paper we investigate
the impact of the magnetic field on the Rayleigh instability. We show that
extremely strong field generated in peripheral heavy ion collisions has an
insignificant influence on the Rayleigh bubble dynamics. Magnetic "friction"
turns out to be much weaker than the viscous one.


  Many efforts have been done in order to explain the role of junk DNA, but its
function remain to be elucidated. In addition the GC-content variations among
species still represent an enigma. Both these two misteries can have a common
explanation: we hypothesize that the role of junk DNA is to preserve the
mutations probability that is intrinsically reduced in GC-poorest genomes.


  The form and evolution of multi-phase biomembranes is of fundamental
importance in order to understand living systems. In order to describe these
membranes, we consider a mathematical model based on a Canham--Helfrich--Evans
two-phase elastic energy, which will lead to fourth order geometric evolution
problems involving highly nonlinear boundary conditions. We develop a
parametric finite element method in an axisymmetric setting. Using a
variational approach, it is possible to derive weak formulations for the highly
nonlinear boundary value problems such that energy decay laws, as well as
conservation properties, hold for spatially discretised problems. We will prove
these properties and show that the fully discretised schemes are well-posed.
Finally, several numerical computations demonstrate that the numerical method
can be used to compute complex, experimentally observed two-phase biomembranes.


  We explore the $\textit{average-case deterministic query complexity}$ of
boolean functions under a $\textit{uniform distribution}$, denoted by
$\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{ave}(f)$, the minimum average depth of zero-error decision
tree computing a boolean function $f$. This measure has found several
applications across diverse fields, yet its understanding is limited. We study
$\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{ave}(f)$ of several functions, including the penalty
shoot-out function, symmetric functions, linear threshold functions and the
tribes functions. We prove $\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{ave}(f) \le \max \{ \log
\frac{\mathrm{wt}(f)}{\log n} + O(\log \log \frac{\mathrm{wt}(f)}{\log n}),
O(1) \}$ for every $n$-variable boolean function $f$, where $\mathrm{wt}(f)$
denotes the weight (the number of inputs on which $f$ outputs $1$). For any
$4\log n \le m(n) \le 2^{n-1}$, we prove the upper bound is tight up to an
additive logarithmic term for almost all $n$-variable boolean functions with
weight $\mathrm{wt}(f) = m(n)$. Using H\r{a}stad's switching lemma or Rossman's
switching lemma [Comput. Complexity Conf. 137, 2019], one can derive
$\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{ave}(f) \leq n(1 - \frac{1}{O(w)})$ or
$\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{ave}(f) \le n(1 - \frac{1}{O(\log s)})$ for CNF/DNF
formulas of width $w$ or size $s$, respectively. We show that, for any $w \ge
\log n + \log \log n + 3$, there exists a DNF formula of width $w$ and size
$\lceil 2^w / w \rceil$ such that $\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{ave}(f) = n (1 -
\frac{\log n}{\Theta(w)})$. In other words, we show the criticality upper
bounds $O(w)$ and $O(\log s)$ are tight up to a multiplicative $\log n$ factor,
providing evidence on the tightness of the switching lemmas.


  We use a novel transformation of the reduced Ostrovsky equation to the
integrable Tzitz\'eica equation and prove global existence of small-norm
solutions in Sobolev space $H^3(R)$. This scenario is an alternative to
finite-time wave breaking of large-norm solutions of the reduced Ostrovsky
equation. We also discuss a sharp sufficient condition for the finite-time wave
breaking.


  It is an interesting question Can and How Large Language Models (LLMs)
understand non-language network data, and help us detect unknown malicious
flows. This paper takes Carpet Bombing as a case study and shows how to exploit
LLMs' powerful capability in the networking area. Carpet Bombing is a new DDoS
attack that has dramatically increased in recent years, significantly
threatening network infrastructures. It targets multiple victim IPs within
subnets, causing congestion on access links and disrupting network services for
a vast number of users. Characterized by low-rates, multi-vectors, these
attacks challenge traditional DDoS defenses. We propose DoLLM, a DDoS detection
model utilizes open-source LLMs as backbone. By reorganizing non-contextual
network flows into Flow-Sequences and projecting them into LLMs semantic space
as token embeddings, DoLLM leverages LLMs' contextual understanding to extract
flow representations in overall network context. The representations are used
to improve the DDoS detection performance. We evaluate DoLLM with public
datasets CIC-DDoS2019 and real NetFlow trace from Top-3 countrywide ISP. The
tests have proven that DoLLM possesses strong detection capabilities. Its F1
score increased by up to 33.3% in zero-shot scenarios and by at least 20.6% in
real ISP traces.