  In this work we present and analyze two tensor network-based influence
functional approaches for simulating the real-time dynamics of quantum impurity
models such as the Anderson model. Via comparison with recent numerically exact
simulations, we show that such methods accurately capture the long-time
non-equilibrium quench dynamics. The two parameters that must be controlled in
these tensor network influence functional approaches are a time discretization
(Trotter) error and a bond dimension (tensor network truncation) error. We show
that the actual numerical uncertainties are controlled by an intricate
interplay of these two approximations which we demonstrate in different
regimes. Our work opens the door to using these tensor network influence
functional methods as general impurity solvers.


  A novel image processing technique based on convolution is developed for
analyzing the etch-pit images in Nuclear Track Detectors (NTDs). The outcomes
of the application of the proposed method on the different types of NTDs (e.g.,
CR-39, PET) containing etch-pit openings of different sizes and shapes
(circular and elliptical) is presented. Promising results have been obtained
for both identifying and counting the etch-pits in NTDs.


  Many real world domains require the representation of a measure of
uncertainty. The most common such representation is probability, and the
combination of probability with logic programs has given rise to the field of
Probabilistic Logic Programming (PLP), leading to languages such as the
Independent Choice Logic, Logic Programs with Annotated Disjunctions (LPADs),
Problog, PRISM and others. These languages share a similar distribution
semantics, and methods have been devised to translate programs between these
languages. The complexity of computing the probability of queries to these
general PLP programs is very high due to the need to combine the probabilities
of explanations that may not be exclusive. As one alternative, the PRISM system
reduces the complexity of query answering by restricting the form of programs
it can evaluate. As an entirely different alternative, Possibilistic Logic
Programs adopt a simpler metric of uncertainty than probability. Each of these
approaches -- general PLP, restricted PLP, and Possibilistic Logic Programming
-- can be useful in different domains depending on the form of uncertainty to
be represented, on the form of programs needed to model problems, and on the
scale of the problems to be solved. In this paper, we show how the PITA system,
which originally supported the general PLP language of LPADs, can also
efficiently support restricted PLP and Possibilistic Logic Programs. PITA
relies on tabling with answer subsumption and consists of a transformation
along with an API for library functions that interface with answer subsumption.


  We study the efficiency of nonspinning waveform templates in gravitational
wave searches for aligned-spin binary black holes (BBHs). We use PhenomD, which
is the most recent phenomenological waveform model designed to generate the
full inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms emitted from BBHs with the spins
aligned with the orbital angular momentum. Here, we treat the effect of
aligned-spins with a single spin parameter $\chi$. We consider the BBH signals
with moderately small spins in the range of $-0.4\leq \chi \leq 0.4$. Using
nonspinning templates, we calculate fitting factors of the aligned-spin signals
in a wide mass range up to $\sim 100 M_{\odot}$. We find that the signals with
negative spins can have higher fitting factors than those with positive spins.
If $\chi = 0.3$, only the highly asymmetric-mass signals can have the fitting
factors exceeding the threshold of 0.965, while the fitting factors for all of
the signals can be larger than the threshold if $\chi = -0.3$. We demonstrate
that the discrepancy between the regions of a positive and a negative spins is
due to the physical boundary ($\eta \leq 0.25$) of the template parameter
space. We also show that the recovered mass parameters can be significantly
biased from the true parameters. We examine the impact of the systematic bias
on the parameter estimation by comparing the bias with the statistical error.


  To improve the understanding of the pulsational instabilities of some of the
PG1159-type pre-white dwarfs we performed detailed stability analyses on helium
star evolutionary models. With the canonical chemical compositions, pulsational
instabilities were encountered for all stellar masses considered (0.57, 0.63,
0.7 M_sol). The blue boundary agrees satisfactorily with observations. The red
edge, on the other hand, is found to extend lower temperatures than presently
admitted by observers. The dependence of the pulsational instabilities on
helium or even hydrogen abundance in the stellar envelopes is less stringent
than emphasized hitherto. In particular, we found pulsationally unstable
g-modes for model stellar envelopes which are representative for HS2324+3944, a
newly discovered PG1159-star with a hydrogen abundance X of approximately 0.2
and being pulsating.


  Federated Learning (FL) is a collaborative method for training models while
preserving data privacy in decentralized settings. However, FL encounters
challenges related to data heterogeneity, which can result in performance
degradation. In our study, we observe that as data heterogeneity increases,
feature representation in the FedAVG model deteriorates more significantly
compared to classifier weight. Additionally, we observe that as data
heterogeneity increases, the gap between higher feature norms for observed
classes, obtained from local models, and feature norms of unobserved classes
widens, in contrast to the behavior of classifier weight norms. This widening
gap extends to encompass the feature norm disparities between local and the
global models. To address these issues, we introduce Federated Averaging with
Feature Normalization Update (FedFN), a straightforward learning method. We
demonstrate the superior performance of FedFN through extensive experiments,
even when applied to pretrained ResNet18. Subsequently, we confirm the
applicability of FedFN to foundation models.


  A combination is presented of all inclusive deep inelastic cross sections
previously published by the H1 and ZEUS collaborations at HERA for neutral and
charged current $e^{\pm}p$ scattering for zero beam polarisation. The data were
taken at proton beam energies of 920, 820, 575 and 460 GeV and an electron beam
energy of 27.5 GeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 1
fb$^{-1}$ and span six orders of magnitude in negative four-momentum-transfer
squared, $Q^2$, and Bjorken $x$. The correlations of the systematic
uncertainties were evaluated and taken into account for the combination. The
combined cross sections were input to QCD analyses at leading order,
next-to-leading order and at next-to-next-to-leading order, providing a new set
of parton distribution functions, called HERAPDF2.0. In addition to the
experimental uncertainties, model and parameterisation uncertainties were
assessed for these parton distribution functions. Variants of HERAPDF2.0 with
an alternative gluon parameterisation, HERAPDF2.0AG, and using
fixed-flavour-number schemes, HERAPDF2.0FF, are presented. The analysis was
extended by including HERA data on charm and jet production, resulting in the
variant HERAPDF2.0Jets. The inclusion of jet-production cross sections made a
simultaneous determination of these parton distributions and the strong
coupling constant possible, resulting in $\alpha_s(M_Z)=0.1183 \pm 0.0009
{\rm(exp)} \pm 0.0005{\rm (model/parameterisation)} \pm 0.0012{\rm
(hadronisation)} ^{+0.0037}_{-0.0030}{\rm (scale)}$. An extraction of
$xF_3^{\gamma Z}$ and results on electroweak unification and scaling violations
are also presented.


  We review the generalization of field theory to space-time with noncommuting
coordinates, starting with the basics and covering most of the active
directions of research. Such theories are now known to emerge from limits of M
theory and string theory, and to describe quantum Hall states. In the last few
years they have been studied intensively, and many qualitatively new phenomena
have been discovered, both on the classical and quantum level.
  To appear in Reviews of Modern Physics.


  Observations at millimetre wavelengths are presented for a representative
sample of 22 X-ray-selected BL Lac objects (XBLs). This sample comprises 19
High-energy cutoff BL Lacs objects (HBLs), 1 Low-energy cutoff BL Lac object
(LBL) and 2 `intermediate' sources. Data for LBLs, which are mostly radio
selected BL Lac objects (RBLs) are taken from the literature. It is shown that
the radio--millimetre spectral indices ($\alpha_{5-230)$) of HBLs
($-0.29\pm0.15$) are slightly steeper than those of the LBLs ($-0.19\pm0.14$).
A correlation exists between $\alpha_{5-230}$ and 230 GHz luminosity. While
this correlation could be an artefact of comparing two populations of BL Lac
objects with intrinsically different radio properties it is also consistent
with the predictions of existing unified schemes which relate BL Lac objects to
Fanaroff- Riley class I radio galaxies. The HBLs have significantly flatter
submillimetre- X-ray spectral indices ($\alpha_{230-X}$) than the LBLs
($-0.68\pm0.07$ cf. $-1.08\pm0.06$)although the two intermediate sources also
have intermediate values of $\alpha_{230-X}\sim-0.9$. It is argued that this
difference cannot be explained entirely by the viewing angle hypothesis and
requires a difference in physical source parameters. The $\alpha_{230-X}$
values for the HBLs are close to the canonical value found for large samples of
radio sources and thus suggest that synchrotron radiation is the mechanism that
produces the X-ray emission. As suggested by Padovani & Giommi, the
inverse-Compton mechanism is likely to dominate in the LBLs requiring the
synchrotron spectra of these sources to steepen or cutoff at lower frequencies
than those of the HBLs.


  In this paper we showed a systematic method of appropriate parameter choice
for a circular pp collider by using analytical expression of beam-beam tune
shift limit started from given design goal and technical limitations. A
parameter space has been explored. Based on parameters scan and considerations
from RF systems, a set of appropriate parameter designed for a 50Km and a 100Km
circular proton-proton collider was proposed.


  We investigate the thermodynamic properties of 5D static and spherically
symmetric black holes in (i) Einstein-Maxwell-Gauss-Bonnet theory, (ii)
Einstein-Maxwell-Gauss-Bonnet theory with negative cosmological constant, and
in (iii) Einstein-Yang-Mills-Gauss-Bonnet theory. To formulate the
thermodynamics of these black holes we use the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy
relation and, alternatively, a modified entropy formula which follows from the
first law of thermodynamics of black holes. The results of both approaches are
not equivalent. Using the formalism of geometrothermodynamics, we introduce in
the manifold of equilibrium states a Legendre invariant metric for each black
hole and for each thermodynamic approach, and show that the thermodynamic
curvature diverges at those points where the temperature vanishes and the heat
capacity diverges.


  We study nonlinear diffusion problems of the form $u_t=u_{xx}+f(u)$ with free
boundaries. Such problems may be used to describe the spreading of a biological
or chemical species, with the free boundary representing the expanding front.
For special $f(u)$ of the Fisher-KPP type, the problem was investigated by Du
and Lin [8]. Here we consider much more general nonlinear terms. For any $f(u)$
which is $C^1$ and satisfies $f(0)=0$, we show that the omega limit set
$\omega(u)$ of every bounded positive solution is determined by a stationary
solution. For monostable, bistable and combustion types of nonlinearities, we
obtain a rather complete description of the long-time dynamical behavior of the
problem; moreover, by introducing a parameter $\sigma$ in the initial data, we
reveal a threshold value $\sigma^*$ such that spreading ($\lim_{t\to\infty}u=
1$) happens when $\sigma>\sigma^*$, vanishing ($\lim_{t\to\infty}u=0$) happens
when $\sigma<\sigma^*$, and at the threshold value $\sigma^*$, $\omega(u)$ is
different for the three different types of nonlinearities. When spreading
happens, we make use of "semi-waves" to determine the asymptotic spreading
speed of the front.


  We investigate the dynamics of the bistable regime of the generalized
Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian (GJC), realised by a circuit quantum
electrodynamics (cQED) system consisting of a transmon qubit coupled to a
microwave cavity. In this regime we observe critical slowing down in the
approach to the steady state. By measuring the response of the cavity to a step
function drive pulse we characterize this slowing down as a function of driving
frequency and power. We find that the critical slowing down saturates as the
driving power is increased. We compare these results with the predictions of
analytical and numerical calculations both with and without the Duffing
approximation. We find that the Duffing approximation incorrectly predicts that
the critical slowing down timescale increases exponentially with the drive,
whereas the GJC model accurately predicts the saturation seen in our data,
suggesting a different process of quantum activation.


  A description and annotation guidelines for the Yahoo Webscope release of
Query Treebank, Version 1.0, May 2016.


  We present the exact Bethe ansatz solution for the two-dimensional BCS
pairing Hamiltonian with p_x + i p_y symmetry. Using both mean-field theory and
the exact solution we obtain the ground-state phase diagram parameterized by
the filling fraction and the coupling constant. It consists of three phases
denoted weak coupling BCS, weak pairing, and strong pairing. The first two
phases are separated by a topologically protected line where the exact ground
state is given by the Moore-Read pfaffian state. In the thermodynamic limit the
ground-state energy is discontinuous on this line. The other two phases are
separated by the critical line, also topologically protected, previously found
by Read and Green. We establish a duality relation between the weak and strong
pairing phases, whereby ground states of the weak phase are "dressed" versions
of the ground states of the strong phase by zero energy (Moore-Read) pairs and
characterized by a topological order parameter.


  We present in this paper a model of the transport of human respiratory
particles on a Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) bus to examine the efficacy
of interventions to limit exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes
COVID-19. The methods discussed here utilize a commercial Navier-Stokes flow
solver, RavenCFD, run using a massively parallel supercomputer to model the
flow of air through the bus under varying conditions, such as windows being
open or the HVAC flow settings. Lagrangian particles are injected into the
RavenCFD predicted flow fields to simulate the respiratory droplets from
speaking, coughing, or sneezing. These particles are then traced over time and
space until they interact with a surface or are removed via the HVAC system.
Finally, a volumetric Viral Mean Exposure Time (VMET) is computed to quantify
the risk of exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 under various environmental and
occupancy scenarios. Comparing the VMET under varying conditions should help
identify viable methods to reduce the risk of viral exposure of CATS bus
passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic.


  In this work, we investigate the presence of sub-diffusive behavior in the
Chirikov-Taylor Standard Map. We show that the stickiness phenomena, present in
the mixed phase space of the map setup, can be characterized as a Continuous
Time Random Walk model and connected to the theoretical background for
anomalous diffusion. Additionally, we choose a variant of the Ulam method to
numerically approximate the Perron-Frobenius operator for the map, allowing us
to calculate the anomalous diffusion exponent via an eigenvalue problem,
compared to the solution of the Fractional Diffusion Equation. The results here
corroborate other findings in the literature of anomalous transport in
Hamiltonian maps and can be suitable to describe transport properties of other
dynamical systems.


  Some conceptual issues concerning general invariant theories, with special
emphasis on general relativity, are analyzed. The common assertion that
observables must be required to be gauge invariant is examined in the light of
the role played by a system of observers. Some features of the reduction of the
gauge group are discussed, including the fact that in the process of a partial
gauge fixing the reduction at the level of the gauge group and the reduction at
the level of the variational principle do not commute. Distinctions between the
mathematical and the physical concept of gauge symmetry are discussed and
illustrated with examples. The limit from general relativity to special
relativity is considered as an example of a gauge group reduction that is
allowed in some specific physical circumstances. Whether and when the
Poincar\'e group must be considered as a residual gauge group will come out as
a result of our analysis, that applies, in particular, to asymptotically flat
spaces.


  The blazar Mkn 421 has been observed, as part of the AO1 Core Program, five
times from 2 to 7 May 1997. In the LECS+MECS energy band the spectrum shows
convex curvature, well represented by a broken power--law. Flux variability
(more than a factor 2) has been detected over the entire 0.1--10 keV range,
accompanying which the spectrum steepens with the decrease in intensity. Mkn
421 has also been detected with the PDS instrument. Our preliminary analysis
indicates that the PDS spectrum lies significantly above the extrapolation from
the MECS, suggesting a contribution from a flatter high energy component.


  Let $X$ be a finitely generated left module over a left artinian ring $R$,
and let $p(X)=\{l_i\}$ be the infinite sequence of nonnegative integers where
$l_i$ is the length of the $i$-th term of the minimal projective resolution of
$X$. We introduce a preorder relation $\le$ on the set $\{p(X)\}$ and
characterize the elementary finite-dimensional algebras $\Lambda$ with the
following property. Let $S$ be a simple $\Lambda$-module, and let $T$ be a
finitely generated module over an arbitrary left artinian ring $R$. If the
projective dimension of $S$ does not exceed the projective dimension of $T$,
then $p(S)\le p(T)$. We characterize the indicated algebras by quivers with
relations.


  The Model-X knockoff procedure has recently emerged as a powerful approach
for feature selection with statistical guarantees. The advantage of knockoff is
that if we have a good model of the features X, then we can identify salient
features without knowing anything about how the outcome Y depends on X. An
important drawback of knockoffs is its instability: running the procedure twice
can result in very different selected features, potentially leading to
different conclusions. Addressing this instability is critical for obtaining
reproducible and robust results. Here we present a generalization of the
knockoff procedure that we call simultaneous multi-knockoffs. We show that
multi-knockoff guarantees false discovery rate (FDR) control, and is
substantially more stable and powerful compared to the standard (single)
knockoff. Moreover we propose a new algorithm based on entropy maximization for
generating Gaussian multi-knockoffs. We validate the improved stability and
power of multi-knockoffs in systematic experiments. We also illustrate how
multi-knockoffs can improve the accuracy of detecting genetic mutations that
are causally linked to phenotypes.


  We consider the problem of signal estimation in a generalized linear model
(GLM). GLMs include many canonical problems in statistical estimation, such as
linear regression, phase retrieval, and 1-bit compressed sensing. Recent work
has precisely characterized the asymptotic minimum mean-squared error (MMSE)
for GLMs with i.i.d. Gaussian sensing matrices. However, in many models there
is a significant gap between the MMSE and the performance of the best known
feasible estimators. In this work, we address this issue by considering GLMs
defined via spatially coupled sensing matrices. We propose an efficient
approximate message passing (AMP) algorithm for estimation and prove that with
a simple choice of spatially coupled design, the MSE of a carefully tuned AMP
estimator approaches the asymptotic MMSE in the high-dimensional limit. To
prove the result, we first rigorously characterize the asymptotic performance
of AMP for a GLM with a generic spatially coupled design. This characterization
is in terms of a deterministic recursion (`state evolution') that depends on
the parameters defining the spatial coupling. Then, using a simple spatially
coupled design and a judicious choice of functions for the AMP algorithm, we
analyze the fixed points of the resulting state evolution and show that it
achieves the asymptotic MMSE. Numerical results for phase retrieval and
rectified linear regression show that spatially coupled designs can yield
substantially lower MSE than i.i.d. Gaussian designs at finite dimensions when
used with AMP algorithms.


  It is shown that in a supercritical pomeron model the contribution of the
tirple-pomeron diagrams violates the unitarity bound for cross-section even
with account of the multiple pomeron exchanges between the initial hadrons.
Asymptotic behaviour of the single diffractive dissoci\-ation cross-section is
calculated in the approximation where every pomeron in the $3P$-diagram is
eikonalized as well as an elastic interaction of initial hadrons is taken into
account. In this approximation $\sigma^{SD}/\sigma_{tot}\rightarrow 0$ at
$s\rightarrow \infty.$


  The ages of the oldest and most metal-poor stars in the Milky Way bear
important information on the age of the Universe and its standard model. We
analyze a sample of 28 extremely metal-poor field stars in the solar vicinity
culled from the literature and carefully determine their ages. To this aim, we
critically make use of Gaia data to derive their distances and associated
uncertainties. Particular attention has been paid to the estimate of the
reddening and its effect on the derivation of stellar ages. We employed
different reddenings and super-impose isochrones from different sources in the
stars color-magnitude diagram built up with different photometric systems. We
highlight subtle metallicity effects when using the Johnson photometry for low
metallicity stars and finally adopt Gaia photometry. An automatic fitting
method is devised to assign ages to each individual star taking into account
the uncertainties in the input parameters. The mean age of the sample turns out
to be $13.9 \pm 0.5$ Gyr using Padova isochrones, and $13.7 \pm 0.4$ Gyr using
BASTI isochrones. We found also a group of very metal-poor stars
($\left[\frac{Fe}{H}\right]$: -2.7 -2.0 dex) with relatively young ages, in the
range 8 --10 Gyr.


  We study the temporally nonlocal contributions to the gradient expansion of
the pair fluctuation propagator for spin- and mass-imbalanced Fermi mixtures.
These terms are related to damping processes of sound-like
(Anderson-Bogolyubov) collective modes and are relevant for the structure of
the complex pole of the pair fluctuation propagator. We derive conditions under
which damping occurs even at zero temperature for large enough mismatch of the
Fermi surfaces. We compare our analytical results with numerically computed
damping rates of the Anderson-Bogolyubov mode.


  The existence of stars with a large mass of 2 solar masses means that the
equation of state is stiff enough to provide high enough pressure at large
central densities. Previous work shows that such a stiff equation of state is
possible if the ground state has nucleons as its constituents. We find this to
be so in a chiral soliton ( skyrmion ) model for a composite nucleon which has
bound state quarks. The strong binding of the quarks in this composite nucleon
is plausibly the origin of the nucleon-nucleon hard core. In this model we find
a new state of superdense matter at high density which is a 'topological'cubic
crystal of overlapping composite nucleons that are solitons with relativistic
quark bound states. The quarks are frozen in a filled band of a unique state,
which not an eigenstate of spin or isospin but an eigenstate of spin plus
isospin, $ \vec S + \vec I = 0$. In this alternative model we find that all
neutron stars have no regular `free'quark matter. Neutron stars whose central
density crosses a threshold baryon density of approximately, $n_b \sim 1/fm^3
$, will become unstable and go through a decompression (sudden) density
discontinuity to conventional quark matter. Sequentially, this contraction of
the core of the star will soften the equation of state release a large amount
of gravitational potential energy which can give rise to a shock wave and
matter ejection. Since the merger of two neutron stars gives a compact state
whose mass is larger than the allowed maximum mass, this will be followed by a
jet and a short gamma ray burst while transiting into a black hole.


  We investigate the spatial coarse-graining of interactions in host-guest
systems within the framework of the recently proposed Interacting Pair
Approximation (IPA). Basically, the IPA method derives local effective
interactions from the knowledge of the bivariate histograms of the number of
sorbate molecules (occupancy) in a pair of neighboring subvolumes, taken at
different values of the chemical potential. Here we extend the IPA approach to
the case in which every subvolume is surrounded by more than one class of
neighbors, and we apply it on two systems: methane on a single graphene layer
and methane between two graphene layers, at several temperatures and sorbate
densities. We obtain coarse-grained (CG) adsorption isotherms and reduced
variances of the occupancy in a quantitative agreement with reference atomistic
simulations. A quantitative matching is also obtained for the occupancy
correlations between neighboring subvolumes, apart from the case of high
sorbate densities at low temperature, where the matching is refined by
pre-processing the histograms through a quantized bivariate Gaussian
distribution model.


  We use Kelvin Force Microscopy (KFM) to study the electrostatic properties of
single-walled Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor devices (CNTFETs) with
backgate geometry at room temperature. We show that KFM maps recorded as a
function of the device backgate polarization enable a complete phenomenological
determination of the averaging effects associated with the KFM probe side
capacitances, and thus, to obtain KFM measurements with quantitative character.
The value of the electrostatic lever arm of the CNTFET is determined from KFM
measurements, and found in agreement with transport measurements based on
Coulomb blockade.


  The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has detected hundreds of
millions of sources over the entire sky. However, classifying them reliably is
a great challenge due to degeneracies in WISE multicolor space and low
detection levels in its two longest-wavelength bandpasses. In this paper, the
deep learning classification network, IICnet (Infrared Image Classification
network), is designed to classify sources from WISE images to achieve a more
accurate classification goal. IICnet shows good ability on the feature
extraction of the WISE sources. Experiments demonstrates that the
classification results of IICnet are superior to some other methods; it has
obtained 96.2% accuracy for galaxies, 97.9% accuracy for quasars, and 96.4%
accuracy for stars, and the Area Under Curve (AUC) of the IICnet classifier can
reach more than 99%. In addition, the superiority of IICnet in processing
infrared images has been demonstrated in the comparisons with VGG16, GoogleNet,
ResNet34, MobileNet, EfficientNetV2, and RepVGG-fewer parameters and faster
inference. The above proves that IICnet is an effective method to classify
infrared sources.


  The time-fractional optimal transport (OT) and mean-field planning (MFP)
models are developed to describe the anomalous transport of the agents in a
heterogeneous environment such that their densities are transported from the
initial density distribution to the terminal one with the minimal cost. We
derive a strongly coupled nonlinear system of a time-fractional transport
equation and a backward time-fractional Hamilton-Jacobi equation based on the
first-order optimality condition. The general-proximal primal-dual hybrid
gradient (G-prox PDHG) algorithm is applied to discretize the OT and MFP
formulations, in which a preconditioner induced by the numerical approximation
to the time-fractional PDE is derived to accelerate the convergence of the
algorithm for both problems. Numerical experiments for OT and MFP problems
between Gaussian distributions and between image densities are carried out to
investigate the performance of the OT and MFP formulations. Those numerical
experiments also demonstrate the effectiveness and flexibility of our proposed
algorithm.


  This paper will appear in the Santa Cruz proceedings. An overview of the
braid group techniques in the theory of algebraic surfaces, from Zariski to the
latest results, is presented. An outline of the Van Kampen algorithm for
computing fundamental groups of complements of curves and the modification of
Moishezon-Teicher regarding branch curves of generic projections are given. The
paper also contains a description of a quotient of the braid group, namely
$\tilde B_n$ which plays an important role in the description of fundamental
groups of complements of branch curves.It turns out that all such groups are
``almost solvable'' $\tildeB_n$-groups. Finally, possible applications to the
study of moduli spaces of surfaces of general type are described and new
examples of positive signature spin surfaces whose fundamental groups can be
computed using the above algorithm (Galois cover of Hirzebruch surfaces) are
presented.


  Pose estimation of 3D objects in monocular images is a fundamental and
long-standing problem in computer vision. Existing deep learning approaches for
6D pose estimation typically rely on the assumption of availability of 3D
object models and 6D pose annotations. However, precise annotation of 6D poses
in real data is intricate, time-consuming and not scalable, while synthetic
data scales well but lacks realism. To avoid these problems, we present a
weakly-supervised reconstruction-based pipeline, named NeRF-Pose, which needs
only 2D object segmentation and known relative camera poses during training.
Following the first-reconstruct-then-regress idea, we first reconstruct the
objects from multiple views in the form of an implicit neural representation.
Then, we train a pose regression network to predict pixel-wise 2D-3D
correspondences between images and the reconstructed model. At inference, the
approach only needs a single image as input. A NeRF-enabled PnP+RANSAC
algorithm is used to estimate stable and accurate pose from the predicted
correspondences. Experiments on LineMod and LineMod-Occlusion show that the
proposed method has state-of-the-art accuracy in comparison to the best 6D pose
estimation methods in spite of being trained only with weak labels. Besides, we
extend the Homebrewed DB dataset with more real training images to support the
weakly supervised task and achieve compelling results on this dataset. The
extended dataset and code will be released soon.


  We investigate the physically allowed probabilities for transforming one
N-partite W-class state to another by means of local operations assisted with
classical communication (LOCC). Recently, Kintas and Turgut have obtained an
upper bound for the maximum probability of transforming two such states
[arXiv:1003.2118v1]. Here, we provide a simple sufficient and necessary
condition for when this upper bound can be satisfied and thus when optimality
of state transformation can be achieved. Our discussion involves obtaining
lower bounds for the transformation of arbitrary W-class states and showing
precisely when this bound saturates the bound of [arXiv:1003.2118v1]. Finally,
we consider the question of transforming symmetric W-class states and find that
in general, the optimal one-shot procedure for converting two symmetric states
requires a non-symmetric filter by all the parties.


  The transverse mass spectra of light mesons produced in Au-Au collisions at
200 GeV/nucleon are analyzed in Tsallis statistics. In high energy collisions,
it has been found that the spectra follow a generalized scaling law. We applied
Tsallis statistics to the description of different particles using the scaling
properties. The calculated results are in agreement with experimental data of
PHENIX Collaboration. And, the temperature of emission sources is extracted
consistently.


  Consider a minimal free topological dynamical system $(X, T, \mathbb{Z}^d)$.
It is shown that the comparison radius of the crossed product C*-algebra
$\mathrm{C}(X) \rtimes \mathbb{Z}^d$ is at most the half of the mean
topological dimension of $(X, T, \mathbb{Z}^d)$. As a consequence, the
C*-algebra $\mathrm{C}(X) \rtimes \mathbb{Z}^d$ is classifiable if $(X, T,
\mathbb{Z}^d)$ has zero mean dimension.


  We present very accurate orbital parameters and mass measurements (2.4%
accuracy) for the well known very low mass triple system Gl 866. We obtain
first orbital elements for the short-period orbit and greatly improve the long
period orbit. All three stars have masses close to 0.1 solar masses, and the
system thus provides the strongest constraints to date on the mass-luminosity
relation close to the brown dwarf limit.


  We propose an Euclidean geometric representation for the classical detection
theory. The proposed representation is so generic that can be employed to
almost all communication problems. The hypotheses and observations are mapped
into R^N in such a way that a posteriori probability of an hypothesis given an
observation decreases exponentially with the square of the Euclidean distance
between the vectors corresponding to the hypothesis and the observation.


  Motivated by nucleation and molecular aggregation in physical, chemical and
biological settings, we present an extension to a thorough analysis of the
stochastic self-assembly of a fixed number of identical particles in a finite
volume. We study the statistic of times it requires for maximal clusters to be
completed, starting from a pure-monomeric particle configuration. For finite
volume, we extend previous analytical approaches to the case of arbitrary
size-dependent aggregation and fragmentation kinetic rates. For larger volume,
we develop a scaling framework to study the behavior of the first assembly time
as a function of the total quantity of particles.
  We find that the mean time to first completion of a maximum-sized cluster may
have surprisingly a very weak dependency on the total number of particles. We
highlight how the higher statistic (variance, distribution) of the first
passage time may still help to infer key parameters (such as the size of the
maximum cluster) from data. And last but not least, we present a framework to
quantify the formation of cluster of macroscopic size, whose formation is
(asymptotically) very unlikely and occurs as a large deviation phenomenon from
the mean-field limit. We argue that this framework is suitable to describe
phase transition phenomena, as inherent infrequent stochastic processes, in
contrast to classical nucleation theory.


  This work studies distributed (probability) density estimation of large-scale
systems. Such problems are motivated by many density-based distributed control
tasks in which the real-time density of the swarm is used as feedback
information, such as sensor deployment and city traffic scheduling. This work
is built upon our previous work [1] which presented a (centralized) density
filter to estimate the dynamic density of large-scale systems through a novel
integration of mean-field models, kernel density estimation (KDE), and
infinite-dimensional Kalman filters. In this work, we further study how to
decentralize the density filter such that each agent can estimate the global
density only based on its local observation and communication with neighbors.
This is achieved by noting that the global observation constructed by KDE is an
average of the local kernels. Hence, dynamic average consensus algorithms are
used for each agent to track the global observation in a distributed way. We
present a distributed density filter which requires very little information
exchange, and study its stability and optimality using the notion of
input-to-state stability. Simulation results suggest that the distributed
filter is able to converge to the centralized filter and remain close to it.


  Vision models trained on multimodal datasets can benefit from the wide
availability of large image-caption datasets. A recent model (CLIP) was found
to generalize well in zero-shot and transfer learning settings. This could
imply that linguistic or "semantic grounding" confers additional generalization
abilities to the visual feature space. Here, we systematically evaluate various
multimodal architectures and vision-only models in terms of unsupervised
clustering, few-shot learning, transfer learning and adversarial robustness. In
each setting, multimodal training produced no additional generalization
capability compared to standard supervised visual training. We conclude that
work is still required for semantic grounding to help improve vision models.


  We present a high resolution objective lens made entirely from catalog
singlets that has a numerical aperture of 0.36. It corrects for aberrations
introduced by a glass window and has a long working distance of 35mm, making it
suitable for imaging objects within a vacuum system. This offers simple high
resolution imaging for many in the quantum gas community. The objective
achieves a resolution of 1.3{\mu}m at the design wavelength of 780nm, and a
diffraction-limited field of view of 360{\mu}m when imaging through a 5mm
window. Images of a resolution target and a pinhole show quantitative agreement
with the simulated lens performance. The objective is suitable for
diffraction-limited imaging on the D2 line of all the alkalis by changing only
the aperture diameter, retaining numerical apertures above 0.32. The design
corrects for window thicknesses of up to 15mm if the singlet spacings are
modified.


  We revisit the classical monotone-follower problem and consider it in a
generalized formulation. Our approach is based on a compactness substitute for
nondecreasing processes, the Meyer-Zheng weak convergence, and the maximum
principle of Pontryagin. It establishes existence under weak conditions,
produces general approximation results and further elucidates the celebrated
connection between singular stochastic control and stopping.


  In photonics, band degeneracies at high-symmetry points in wavevector space
have been shown to exhibit rich physical phenomena. However, obtaining
degenerate bands away from such points is highly nontrivial. In this work, we
achieve complex band degeneracy in a photonic crystal structure over a region
of momentum space. We show that this band degeneracy corresponds to
polarization-independent transmission, which can be harnessed for nonlocal
metasurface design. Moreover, we find that the band degeneracy manifests as a
topological singularity in the structural parameter space of the system. Our
work highlights the importance of topological concepts in the design of
polarization-independent photonic structures.


  When adiabatically varied in time, certain one-dimensional band insulators
allow for the quantized noiseless pumping of spin even in the presence of
strong spin orbit scattering. These spin pumps are closely related to the
quantum spin Hall system, and their properties are protected by a time-reversal
restriction on the pumping cycle. In this paper we study pumps formed of
one-dimensional insulators with a time-reversal restriction on the pumping
cycle and a bulk energy gap which arises due to interactions. We find that the
correlated gapped phase can lead to novel pumping properties. In particular,
systems with $d$ different ground states can give rise to $d+1$ different
classes of spin pumps, including a trivial class which does not pump quantized
spin and $d$ non-trivial classes allowing for the pumping of quantized spin
$\hbar/n $ on average per cycle, where $1\leq n\leq d$. We discuss an example
of a spin pump that transfers on average spin $ \hbar/2$ without transferring
charge.


  The dissipation of tidal inertial waves in planetary and stellar convective
regions is one of the key mechanisms that drive the evolution of
star-planet/planet-moon systems. In this context, the interaction between tidal
inertial waves and turbulent convective flows must be modelled in a realistic
and robust way. In the state-of-the-art simulations, the friction applied by
convection on tidal waves is modelled most of the time by an effective
eddy-viscosity. This approach may be valid when the characteristic length
scales of convective eddies are smaller than those of tidal waves. However, it
becomes highly questionable in the case where tidal waves interact with
potentially stable large-scale vortices, as those observed at the pole of
Jupiter and Saturn. They are potentially triggered by convection in
rapidly-rotating bodies in which the Coriolis acceleration forms the flow in
columnar vortical structures along the direction of the rotation axis. In this
paper, we investigate the complex interactions between a tidal inertial wave
and a columnar convective vortex. We use a quasi-geostrophic semi-analytical
model of a convective columnar vortex. We perform linear stability analysis to
identify the unstable regime and conduct linear numerical simulations for the
interactions between the convective vortex and an incoming tidal inertial wave.
We verify that in the unstable regime, an incoming tidal inertial wave triggers
the most unstable mode of the vortex leading to turbulent dissipation. For
stable vortices, the wave-vortex interaction leads to the momentum mixing while
it creates a low-velocity region around the vortex core and a new wave-like
perturbation in the form of a progressive wave radiating in the far field. The
emission of this secondary wave is the strongest when the wavelength of the
incoming wave is close to the characteristic size of the vortex.


  $^1$H nuclear spin-lattice relaxation and Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP)
have been studied in amorphous samples of trehalose sugar doped with TEMPO
radicals by means of mechanical milling, in the 1.6 K $\div$ 4.2 K temperature
range. The radical concentration was varied between 0.34 and 0.81 $\%$. The
highest polarization of 15 \% at 1.6 K, observed in the sample with
concentration $0.50 \%$, is of the same order of magnitude of that reported in
standard frozen solutions with TEMPO. The temperature and concentration
dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/T_{\text{1}}$, dominated by
the coupling with the electron spins, were found to follow power laws with an
exponent close to $3$ in all samples. The observed proportionality between
$1/T_{\text{1}}$ and the polarization rate $1/T_{\text{pol}}$, with a
coefficient related to the electron polarization, is consistent with the
presence of Thermal Mixing (TM) and a good contact between the nuclear and the
electron spins. At high electron concentration additional relaxation channels
causing a decrease in the nuclear polarization must be considered. These
results provide further support for a more extensive use of amorphous DNP-ready
samples, obtained by means of comilling, in dissolution DNP experiments and
possibly for $\textit{in vivo}$ metabolic imaging.


  The ``identical'' bands in superdeformed mercury, thallium, and lead nuclei
are interpreted as examples of orbital angular momentum rotors with the weak
spin-orbit coupling of pseudo-$SU(3)$ symmetries and supersymmetries.


  This paper reports the search for quiescent low-mass X-ray binaries (qLMXBs)
in the globular cluster (GC) NGC 6553 using an XMM-Newton observation designed
specifically for that purpose. We spectrally identify one candidate qLMXB in
the core of the cluster, based on the consistency of the spectrum with a
neutron star H-atmosphere model at the distance of NGC 6553. Specifically, the
best-fit radius found using the three XMM European Photon Imaging Camera
spectra is R_NS=6.3(+2.3)(-0.8) km (for M_NS=1.4 Msun) and the best-fit
temperature is kTeff=136 (+21)(-34) eV. Both physical parameters are in
accordance with typical values of previously identified qLMXBs in GC and in the
field, i.e., R_NS~5-20 km and kTeff~50-150 eV. A power-law (PL) component with
a photon index Gamma=2.1(+0.5)(-0.8) is also required for the spectral fit and
contributes to ~33% of the total flux of the X-ray source. A detailed analysis
supports the hypothesis that the PL component originates from nearby sources in
the core, unresolved with XMM. The analysis of an archived Chandra observation
provides marginal additional support to the stated hypothesis. Finally, a
catalog of all the sources detected within the XMM field of view is presented
here.


  We initiate the study of $T\bar T$-like irrelevant solvable deformations in
quantum field theory with boundaries and defects. For this purpose, we employ a
general formalism developed in the context of spin chains, which allows us to
derive both, the deformed bulk and boundary/defect scattering matrices of
integrable models. Using the deformed scattering matrices, we derive the flow
equation for the deformed finite volume spectrum, as well as the cylinder
partition function and the exact $g$-function.


  We study regularity properties of the free boundary for solutions of the
porous medium equation with the presence of drift. We show the $C^{1,\alpha}$
regularity of the free boundary, when the solution is directionally monotone in
space variable in a local neighborhood. The main challenge lies in establishing
a local non-degeneracy estimate (Theorem 1.3 and Proposition 1.5), which
appears new even for the zero drift case.


  Proving program termination is typically done by finding a well-founded
ranking function for the program states. Existing termination provers typically
find ranking functions using either linear algebra or templates. As such they
are often restricted to finding linear ranking functions over mathematical
integers. This class of functions is insufficient for proving termination of
many terminating programs, and furthermore a termination argument for a program
operating on mathematical integers does not always lead to a termination
argument for the same program operating on fixed-width machine integers. We
propose a termination analysis able to generate nonlinear, lexicographic
ranking functions and nonlinear recurrence sets that are correct for
fixed-width machine arithmetic and floating-point arithmetic Our technique is
based on a reduction from program \emph{termination} to second-order
\emph{satisfaction}. We provide formulations for termination and
non-termination in a fragment of second-order logic with restricted
quantification which is decidable over finite domains. The resulted technique
is a sound and complete analysis for the termination of finite-state programs
with fixed-width integers and IEEE floating-point arithmetic.


  Biosecurity risk material (BRM) presents a clear and significant threat to
national and international environmental and economic assets. Intercepting BRM
carried by non-compliant international passengers is a key priority of border
biosecurity services. Global travel rates are constantly increasing, which
complicates this important responsibility, and necessitates judicious
intervention. Selection of passengers for intervention is generally performed
manually, and the quality of the selection depends on the experience and
judgement of the officer making the selection. In this article we report on a
case study to assess the predictive ability of statistical profiling methods
that predict non-compliance with biosecurity regulations using data obtained
from regulatory documents as inputs. We then evaluate the performance arising
from using risk predictions to select higher risk passengers for screening. We
find that both prediction performance and screening higher risk passengers from
regulatory documents are superior to manual and random screening, and recommend
that authorities further investigate statistical profiling for efficient
intervention of biosecurity risk material on incoming passengers.


  We present a study of 581 Hz oscillations observed during a thermonuclear
X-ray burst from the low mass X-ray binary (LMXB) 4U 1636-54 with the Rossi
X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). We argue that the combination of large pulsed
amplitudes near burst onset and the spectral evidence for localized emission
during the rise strongly supports rotational modulation as the mechanism for
the oscillations. We discuss how theoretical interpretation of spin modulation
amplitudes, pulse profiles and pulse phase spectroscopy can provide constraints
on the masses and radii of neutron stars. We also discuss the implication of
these findings for the beat frequency models of kHz X-ray variability in LMXB.


  We provide a recursive description of all decompositions of the positive
roots $R^+$ of a quotient root system $R$ into disjoint unions of inversion
sets. Our description is type-independent and generalizes the analogous result
for type $\mathbb A$ root systems in [USRA]. The main tool is the notion of an
inflation of a subset of a quotient root system. This new notion allows us to
treat all root systems (and their quotients) uniformly. We also obtain some
numerical results about the number of special decompositions. The new sequences
we obtain may be considered as extensions of Catalan numbers.


  Despite the success of fine-tuning pretrained language encoders like BERT for
downstream natural language understanding (NLU) tasks, it is still poorly
understood how neural networks change after fine-tuning. In this work, we use
centered kernel alignment (CKA), a method for comparing learned
representations, to measure the similarity of representations in task-tuned
models across layers. In experiments across twelve NLU tasks, we discover a
consistent block diagonal structure in the similarity of representations within
fine-tuned RoBERTa and ALBERT models, with strong similarity within clusters of
earlier and later layers, but not between them. The similarity of later layer
representations implies that later layers only marginally contribute to task
performance, and we verify in experiments that the top few layers of fine-tuned
Transformers can be discarded without hurting performance, even with no further
tuning.


  Sets of short exposure, guided CCD frames are used to measure the noise added
by the atmosphere to differential astrometric observations. Large nightly
variations that are correlated with the seeing have been found in the data
obtained over 2 years at the KPNO and CTIO 0.9-meter telescopes. The rms noise
added by the atmosphere, after a linear transformation of the raw $x,y$ data,
is found to be 3 to 7 mas, normalized to 100 seconds exposure time and a field
of view of 20 arcminutes near the zenith. An additional nearly constant noise
(base-level) of 8.5 mas = 0.012 pixel is found for the KPNO and 6.0 mas = 0.015
pixel for the CTIO telescope. This implies that a ground-based, all sky,
astrometric survey from guided CCD frames is more likely limited by the
base-level noise than by the atmosphere and could reach an accuracy better than
10 mas under good seeing conditions.


  We prove that the group of normalized cohomological invariants of degree 3
modulo the subgroup of semidecomposable invariants of a semisimple split linear
algebraic group G is isomorphic to the torsion part of the Chow group of
codimension 2 cycles of the respective versal G-flag. In particular, if G is
simple, we show that this factor group is isomorphic to the group of
indecomposable invariants of G. As an application, we construct nontrivial
cohomological classes for indecomposable central simple algebras.


  Recently, Gareth Jones observed that every finite group $G$ can be realized
as the group of automorphisms of some dessin d'enfant ${\mathcal D}$. In this
paper, complementing Gareth's result, we prove that for every possible action
of $G$ as a group of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms on a closed
orientable surface of genus $g \geq 2$, there is a dessin d'enfant ${\mathcal
D}$ admitting $G$ as its group of automorphisms and realizing the given
topological action. In particular, this asserts that the strong symmetric genus
of $G$ is also the minimum genus action for it to acts as the group of
automorphisms of a dessin d'enfant of genus at least two.


  The purpose of this paper is to investigate system identification for
single-input-single-output general (active or passive) quantum linear systems.
For a given input we address the following questions: (1) Which parameters can
be identified by measuring the output? (2) How can we construct a system
realization from sufficient input-output data? We show that for time-dependent
inputs, the systems which cannot be distinguished are related by symplectic
transformations acting on the space of system modes. This complements a
previous result for passive linear systems. In the regime of stationary quantum
noise input, the output is completely determined by the power spectrum. We
define the notion of global minimality for a given power spectrum, and
characterize globally minimal systems as those with a fully mixed stationary
state. We show that in the case of systems with a cascade realization, the
power spectrum completely fixes the transfer function, so the system can be
identified up to a symplectic transformation. We give a method for constructing
a globally minimal subsystem direct from the power spectrum. Restricting to
passive systems the analysis simplifies so that identifiability may be
completely understood from the eigenvalues of a particular system matrix.


  We investigate the potential of SUSY flat directions (FDs). Large FD vacuum
expectation values (VEVs) can delay thermalisation and solve the gravitino
problem - if FDs decay perturbatively. This depends on how many and which
directions get the VEVs. Recently the decay of the FDs have been studied with
the VEVs as input. Here we look at how the VEVs come about -- statistically and
analytically.


  We present NH3 observations of the B5 region in Perseus obtained with the
Green Bank Telescope (GBT). The map covers a region large enough (~11'x14')
that it contains the entire dense core observed in previous dust continuum
surveys. The dense gas traced by NH3(1,1) covers a much larger area than the
dust continuum features found in bolometer observations. The velocity
dispersion in the central region of the core is small, presenting subsonic
non-thermal motions which are independent of scale. However, it is thanks to
the coverage and high sensitivity of the observations that we present the
detection, for the first time, of the transition between the coherent core and
the dense but more turbulent gas surrounding it. This transition is sharp,
increasing the velocity dispersion by a factor of 2 in less than 0.04 pc (the
31" beam size at the distance of Perseus, ~250 pc). The change in velocity
dispersion at the transition is ~3 km/s/pc. The existence of the transition
provides a natural definition of dense core: the region with nearly-constant
subsonic non-thermal velocity dispersion. From the analysis presented here we
can not confirm nor rule out a corresponding sharp density transition.


  Dynamic axial focusing functionality has recently experienced widespread
incorporation in microscopy, augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), adaptive
optics, and material processing. However, the limitations of existing varifocal
tools continue to beset the performance capabilities and operating overhead of
the optical systems that mobilize such functionality. The varifocal tools that
are the least burdensome to drive (ex: liquid crystal, elastomeric or
optofluidic lenses) suffer from low (~ 100 Hz) refresh rates. Conversely, the
fastest devices sacrifice either critical capabilities such as their dwelling
capacity (ex: acoustic gradient lenses or monolithic micromechanical mirrors)
or low operating overhead (e.g., deformable mirrors). Here, we present a
general-purpose random-access axial focusing device that bridges these
previously conflicting features of high speed, dwelling capacity and
lightweight drive by employing low-rigidity micromirrors that exploit the
robustness of defocusing phase profiles. Geometrically, the device consists of
an 8.2 mm diameter array of piston-motion and 48 um-pitch micromirror pixels
that provide 2pi phase shifting for wavelengths shorter than 1 100 nm with
10-90 % settling in 64.8 us (i.e., 15.44 kHz refresh rate). The pixels are
electrically partitioned into 32 rings for a driving scheme that enables
phase-wrapped operation with circular symmetry and requires less than 30 V per
channel. Optical experiments demonstrated the array's wide focusing range with
a measured ability to target 29 distinct, resolvable depth planes. Overall, the
features of the proposed array offer the potential for compact, straightforward
methods of tackling bottlenecked applications including high-throughput
single-cell targeting in neurobiology and the delivery of dense 3D visual
information in AR/VR.


  In this talk we present a field theoretical model constructed in Minkowski
N=1 superspace with a deformed supercoordinate algebra. Our study is motivated
in part by recent results from super-string theory, which show that in a
particular scenario in Euclidean superspace the spinor coordinates \theta do
not anticommute. Field theoretical consequences of this deformation were
studied in a number of articles. We present a way to extend the discussion to
Minkowski space, by assuming non-vanishing anticommutators for both \theta, and
\bar{\theta}. We give a consistent supercoordinate algebra, and a star product
that is real and preserves the (anti)chirality of a product of (anti)chiral
superfields. We also give the Wess-Zumino Lagrangian that gains
Lorentz-invariant corrections due to non(anti)commutativity within our model.
The Lagrangian in Minkowski superspace is also always manifestly Hermitian.


  We study the elasto-plastic behavior of dense attractive emulsions under
mechanical perturbation. The attraction is introduced through non-specific
depletion interactions between the droplets and is controlled by changing the
concentration of surfactant micelles in the continuous phase. We find that such
attractive forces are not sufficient to induce any measurable modification on
the scalings between the local packing fraction and the deformation of the
droplets. However, when the emulsions are flown through 2D microfluidic
constrictions, we uncover a measurable effect of attraction on their
elasto-plastic response. Indeed, we measure higher levels of deformation inside
the constriction for attractive droplets. In addition, we show that these
measurements correlate with droplet rearrangements that are spatially delayed
in the constriction for higher attraction forces.


  The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN houses two general purpose detectors
- ATLAS and CMS - which conduct physics programs over multi-year runs to
generate increasingly precise and extensive datasets. The efforts of the CMS
and ATLAS collaborations lead to the discovery of the Higgs boson, a
fundamental particle that gives mass to other particles, representing a
monumental achievement in the field of particle physics that was recognized
with the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013 to Fran\c{c}ois Englert
and Peter Higgs. These collaborations continue to analyze data from the LHC and
are preparing for the high luminosity data taking phase at the end of the
decade. The computing models of these detectors rely on a distributed
processing grid hosted by more than 150 associated universities and
laboratories worldwide. However, such new data will require a significant
expansion of the existing computing infrastructure. To address this, both
collaborations have been working for years on integrating High Performance
Computers (HPC) and commercial cloud resources into their infrastructure and
continue to assess the potential role of such resources in order to cope with
the demands of the new high luminosity era. US ATLAS and US CMS computing
management have charged the authors to provide a blueprint document looking at
current and possibly future use of HPC and Cloud resources, outlining
integration models, possibilities, challenges and costs. The document will
address key questions such as the optimal use of resources for the experiments
and funding agencies, the main obstacles that need to be overcome for resource
adoption, and areas that require more attention.


  Surreal numbers, have a very rich and elegant theory. This class of numbers,
denoted by No, includes simultaneously the ordinal numbers and the real
numbers, and forms a universal huge real closed field: It is universal in the
sense that any real closed field can be embedded in it. Following Gonshor,
surreal numbers can also be seen as signs sequences of ordinal length, with
some exponential and logarithmic functions that extend the usual functions over
the reals. No can actually also be seen as an elegant particular (generalized)
power series field with real coefficients, namely Hahn series with exponents in
No itself. It can also be considered as a particular field of transseries,
providing tools to do some analysis and asymptotic analysis for functions over
the continuum, providing natural concepts for discussing hyperexponential or
sublogarithm functions, and their asymptotics. In this article, we consider
stability of subfields of No under exponential and logarithmic functions.
Namely, we consider the set surreal numbers whose signs sequences have length
less than some ordinal {\lambda}. Extending the discussion from van den Dries
and Ehrlich, we show that is stable by exponential and logarithm iff {\lambda}
is some {\epsilon}-number. Motivated in a longer term by computability issues
using ordinal machines, we consider subfields stables by exponential and
logarithmic functions defined by Hahn series that does not require to go up to
cardinal lengths and exponents. We prove that No can be expressed as a strict
hierarchy of subfields stable by exponential and logarithmic functions. This
provides many explicit examples of subfields of No stable by exponential and
logarithmic functions, and does not require to go up to a cardinal {\lambda} to
provide such examples.


  Qualitativ arguments are presented which show the incompatibility of the
positive results obtaned in experiments on the gravitational redshift of
photones and in experiments investigating the behavior of clocks in the
gravitational field.


  We study the problem of reconstructing a convex body using only a finite
number of measurements of outer normal vectors. More precisely, we suppose that
the normal vectors are measured at independent random locations uniformly
distributed along the boundary of our convex set. Given a desired Hausdorff
error eta, we provide an upper bounds on the number of probes that one has to
perform in order to obtain an eta-approximation of this convex set with high
probability. Our result rely on the stability theory related to Minkowski's
theorem.


  Constraining the primary growth channel of supermassive black holes (SMBH)
remains one the most actively debated questions in the context of cosmological
structure formation. Owing to the expected connection between SMBH spin
parameter evolution and the accretion and merger history of individual black
holes, population spin measurements offer a rare observational window into the
SMBH cosmic growth. As of today, the most common method for estimating SMBH
spin relies on modeling the relativistically broaden atomic profiles in the
reflection spectrum observed in X-rays. In this paper, we study the
observational requirements needed to confidently distinguish between the
primary SMBH growth channels, based on their distinct spin-mass distributions
predicted by the Horizon-AGN cosmological simulation. In doing so, we
characterize outstanding limitations associated with the existing measurements
and discuss the landscape of future observational campaigns, which can be
planned and executed with future X-ray observatories. We focus our attention on
the High-Energy X-ray Probe (HEX-P), a concept probe-class mission aimed to
serve the high-energy community in the 2030s.


  This essay's title is justified by discussing a class of Yang-Mills-type
theories of which standard Yang-Mills theories are special cases but which is
broad enough to include gravity as a double field theory. We use the framework
of homotopy algebras, where conventional Yang-Mills theory is the tensor
product ${\cal K}\otimes \frak{g}$ of a `kinematic' algebra ${\cal K}$ with a
color Lie algebra $\frak{g}$. The larger class of Yang-Mills-type theories are
given by the tensor product of ${\cal K}$ with more general Lie-type algebras
of which ${\cal K}$ itself is an example, up to anomalies that can be cancelled
for the tensor product with a second copy $\bar{\cal K}$. Gravity is then given
by ${\cal K}\otimes \bar{\cal K}$.


  We explore an embryonic heart model that couples electrophysiology and
muscle-force generation to flow induced using a $2D$ fluid-structure
interaction framework based on the immersed boundary method. The propagation of
action potentials are coupled to muscular contraction and hence the overall
pumping dynamics. In comparison to previous models, the electro-dynamical model
does not use prescribed motion to initiate the pumping motion, but rather the
pumping dynamics are fully coupled to an underlying electrophysiology model,
governed by the FitzHugh-Nagumo equations. Perturbing the diffusion parameter
in the FitzHugh-Nagumo model leads to a bifurcation in dynamics of action
potential propagation. This bifurcation is able to capture a spectrum of
different pumping regimes, with dynamic suction pumping and peristaltic-like
pumping at the extremes. We find that more bulk flow is produced within the
realm of peristaltic-like pumping.


  The covariance matrix of the matter and halo power spectrum and bispectrum
are studied. Using a large suite of simulations, we find that the
non-Gaussianity in the covariance is significant already at mildly nonlinear
scales. We compute the leading disconnected non-Gaussian correction to the
matter bispectrum covariance using perturbation theory, and find that the
corrections result in good agreement in the mildly nonlinear regime. The shot
noise contribution to the halo power spectrum and bispectrum covariance is
computed using the Poisson model, and the model yields decent agreement with
simulation results. However, when the shot noise is estimated from the
individual realization, which is usually done in reality, we find that the halo
covariance is substantially reduced and gets close to the Gaussian covariance.
This is because most of the non-Gaussianity in the covariance arises from the
fluctuations in the Poisson shot noise. We use the measured non-Gaussian
covariance to access the information content of the power spectrum and
bispectrum. The signal-to-noise ratio, S/N, of the matter and halo power
spectrum levels off in the mildly nonlinear regime, $k \sim 0.1 - 0.2
\,\mathrm{Mpc} h^{-1}$. In the nonlinear regime the S/N of the matter and halo
bispectrum increases but much slower than the Gaussian results suggest. We find
that both the S/N for power spectrum and bispectrum are overestimated by the
Gaussian covariances, but the problem being much more serious for the
bispectrum. Because the bispectrum is affected strongly by nonlinearity and
shot noise, inclusion of the bispectrum only adds modest amount of S/N compared
to that of the power spectrum.


  Game theory is central to the understanding of competitive interactions
arising in many fields, from the social and physical sciences to economics.
Recently, as the definition of information is generalized to include entangled
quantum systems, quantum game theory has emerged as a framework for
understanding the competitive flow of quantum information. Up till now only
two-player quantum games have been demonstrated. Here we report the first
experiment that implements a four-player quantum Minority game over tunable
four-partite entangled states encoded in the polarization of single photons.
Experimental application of appropriate quantum player strategies give
equilibrium payoff values well above those achievable in the classical game.
These results are in excellent quantitative agreement with our theoretical
analysis of the symmetric Pareto optimal strategies. Our result demonstrate for
the first time how non-trivial equilibria can arise in a competitive situation
involving quantum agents and pave the way for a range of quantum transaction
applications.


  In this paper we discuss extending the operating wavelength range of tunable
Regenerative Amplifier FELs to shorter wavelengths than current design
proposals, notably into the XUV regions of the spectrum and beyond where the
reflectivity of broadband optics is very low. Simulation studies are presented
which demonstrate the development of good temporal coherence in generic systems
with a broadband radiation feedback of less than one part in ten thousand.


  Over a large class of function fields, we show that the solutions of some
linear equations in the topological closure of a certain subgroup of the group
of units in the function field are exactly the solutions that are already in
the subgroup. This result solves some cases of the function field analog of an
old conjecture proposed by Skolem.


  We investigate the indications of flavor oscillations that come from the
anomalous flavor composition of the atmospheric neutrino flux observed in some
underground experiments. We study the information coming from the
neutrino-induced $\mu$-like and $e$-like events both in the sub-GeV energy
range (Kamiokande, IMB, Fr{\'e}jus, and NUSEX experiments) and in the multi-GeV
energy range (Kamiokande experiment). First we analyze all the data in the
limits of pure $\nu_\mu\leftrightarrow\nu_\tau$ and
$\nu_\mu\leftrightarrow\nu_e$ oscillations. We obtain that
$\nu_\mu\leftrightarrow\nu_e$ oscillations provide a better fit, in particular
to the multi-GeV data. Then we perform a three-flavor analysis in the
hypothesis of dominance of one neutrino square mass difference, $m^2$, implying
that the neutrino mixing is parametrized by two angles,
$(\psi,\,\phi)\in[0,\,\pi/2]$. We explore the space $(m^2,\,\psi,\,\phi)$
exhaustively, and find the regions favored by the oscillation hypothesis. The
results are displayed in a form suited to the comparison with other flavor
oscillation searches at accelerator, reactor, and solar $\nu$ experiments. In
the analysis, we pay particular attention to the earth matter effects, to the
correlation of the uncertainties, and to the symmetry properties of the
oscillation probability.


  A search for the doubly charmed baryon $\it{\Xi}_{cc}^{+}$ is performed in
the $\it{\Xi}_{c}^{+} \pi^{-} \pi^{+}$ invariant-mass spectrum, where the
$\it{\Xi}_{c}^{+}$ baryon is reconstructed in the $p K^{-} \pi^{+}$ final
state. The study uses proton-proton collision data collected with the LHCb
detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13$\mathrm{\,Te\kern -0.1em V}$,
corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 5.4$\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. No
significant signal is observed in the invariant-mass range of
3.4$-$3.8$\mathrm{\,Ge\kern -0.1em V}/c^2$. Upper limits are set on the ratio
of branching fractions multiplied by the production cross-section with respect
to the $\it{\Xi}_{cc}^{++} \rightarrow (\it{\Xi}_{c}^{+} \rightarrow p K^{-}
\pi^{+}) \pi^{+}$ decay for different $\it{\Xi}_{cc}^{+}$ mass and lifetime
hypotheses in the rapidity range from 2.0 to 4.5 and the transverse momentum
range from 2.5 to 25$\mathrm{\,Ge\kern -0.1em V}/c$. The results from this
search are combined with a previously published search for the
$\it{\Xi}_{cc}^{+} \rightarrow \it{\Lambda}_{c}^{+} K^{-} \pi^{+}$ decay mode,
yielding a maximum local significance of 4.0 standard deviations around the
mass of 3620$\mathrm{\,Me\kern -0.1em V}/c^2$, including systematic
uncertainties. Taking into account the look-elsewhere effect in the
3.5$-$3.7$\mathrm{\,Ge\kern -0.1em V}/c^2$ mass window, the combined global
significance is 2.9 standard deviations including systematic uncertainties.


  Digital nets (in base $2$) are the subsets of $[0,1]^d$ that contain the
expected number of points in every not-too-small dyadic box. We construct sets
that contain almost the expected number of points in every such box, but which
are exponentially smaller than the digital nets. We also establish a lower
bound on the size of such almost nets.


  For fixed $p$ and $q$, an edge-coloring of the complete graph $K_n$ is said
to be a $(p, q)$-coloring if every $K_p$ receives at least $q$ distinct colors.
The function $f(n, p, q)$ is the minimum number of colors needed for $K_n$ to
have a $(p, q)$-coloring. This function was introduced about 45 years ago, but
was studied systematically by Erd\H{o}s and Gy\'{a}rf\'{a}s in 1997, and is now
known as the Erd\H{o}s-Gy\'{a}rf\'{a}s function. In this paper, we study $f(n,
p, q)$ with respect to Gallai-colorings, where a Gallai-coloring is an
edge-coloring of $K_n$ without rainbow triangles. Combining the two concepts,
we consider the function $g(n, p, q)$ that is the minimum number of colors
needed for a Gallai-$(p, q)$-coloring of $K_n$. Using the anti-Ramsey number
for $K_3$, we have that $g(n, p, q)$ is nontrivial only for $2\leq q\leq p-1$.
We give a general lower bound for this function and we study how this function
falls off from being equal to $n-1$ when $q=p-1$ and $p\geq 4$ to being
$\Theta(\log n)$ when $q = 2$. In particular, for appropriate $p$ and $n$, we
prove that $g=n-c$ when $q=p-c$ and $c\in \{1,2\}$, $g$ is at most a fractional
power of $n$ when $q=\lfloor\sqrt{p-1}\rfloor$, and $g$ is logarithmic in $n$
when $2\leq q\leq \lfloor\log_2 (p-1)\rfloor+1$.


  This paper studies a service system in which arriving customers are provided
with information about the delay they will experience. Based on this
information they decide to wait for service or to leave the system.
Specifically, every customer has a patience threshold and they balk if the
observed delay is above the threshold. The main objective is to estimate the
parameters of the customers' patience-level distribution and the corresponding
potential arrival rate, using knowledge of the actual queue-length process
only. The main complication, and distinguishing feature of our setup, lies in
the fact that customers who decide not to join are not observed, remarkably, we
manage to devise a procedure to estimate the underlying patience and arrival
rate parameters. The model is a multi-server queue with a Poisson stream of
customers, enabling evaluation of the corresponding likelihood function of the
state-dependent effective arrival process. We establish strong consistency of
the MLE and derive the asymptotic distribution of the estimation error. Several
applications and extensions of the method are discussed. The performance is
further assessed through a series of numerical experiments. By fitting
parameters of hyperexponential and generalized-hyperexponential distributions
our method provides a robust estimation framework for any continuous
patience-level distribution.


  We present an asymptotic formula for the number of line segments connecting
q+1 points of an nxn square grid, and a sharper formula, assuming the Riemann
hypothesis. We also present asymptotic formulas for the number of lines through
at least q points and, respectively, through exactly q points of the grid. The
well-known case q=2 is so generalized.


  A four-dimensional Abelian gauge field can be coupled to a 3d CFT with a
$U(1)$ symmetry living on a boundary. This coupling gives rise to a continuous
family of boundary conformal field theories (BCFT) parametrized by the gauge
coupling $\tau$ in the upper-half plane and by the choice of the CFT in the
decoupling limit $\tau \to \infty$. Upon performing an $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$
transformation in the bulk and going to the decoupling limit in the new frame,
one finds a different 3d CFT on the boundary, related to the original one by
Witten's $SL(2, \mathbb{Z})$ action [1]. In particular the cusps on the real
$\tau$ axis correspond to the 3d gauging of the original CFT. We study general
properties of this BCFT. We show how to express bulk one and two-point
functions, and the hemisphere free-energy, in terms of the two-point functions
of the boundary electric and magnetic currents. We then consider the case in
which the 3d CFT is one Dirac fermion. Thanks to 3d dualities this BCFT is
mapped to itself by a bulk $S$ transformation, and it also admits a decoupling
limit which gives the $O(2)$ model on the boundary. We compute scaling
dimensions of boundary operators and the hemisphere free-energy up to two
loops. Using an $S$-duality improved ansatz, we extrapolate the perturbative
results and find good approximations to the observables of the $O(2)$ model. We
also consider examples with other theories on the boundary, such as large-$N_f$
Dirac fermions --for which the extrapolation to strong coupling can be done
exactly order-by-order in $1/N_f$-- and a free complex scalar.


  Numerical simulation of stochastic dynamics of vortex filaments under action
of random (Langevin) force is fulfilled. Calculations are performed on base of
the full Biot--Savart law for different intensities of the Langevin force. A
new algorithm, which is based on consideration of crossing lines, is used for
vortex reconnection procedure. After some transient period the vortex tangle
develops into the stationary state characterizing by the developed fluctuations
of various physical quantities, such as total length, energy etc. We tested
this state to learn whether or not it the thermodynamic equilibrium is reached.
With the use of a special treatment, so called method of weighted histograms,
we process the distribution energy of the vortex system. The results obtained
demonstrate that the thermodynamical equilibrium state with the temperature
obtained from the fluctuation dissipation theorem is really reached.
PACS-numbers: 67.40.Vs 98.80.Cq 7.37.+q


  Neural posterior estimation methods based on discrete normalizing flows have
become established tools for simulation-based inference (SBI), but scaling them
to high-dimensional problems can be challenging. Building on recent advances in
generative modeling, we here present flow matching posterior estimation (FMPE),
a technique for SBI using continuous normalizing flows. Like diffusion models,
and in contrast to discrete flows, flow matching allows for unconstrained
architectures, providing enhanced flexibility for complex data modalities. Flow
matching, therefore, enables exact density evaluation, fast training, and
seamless scalability to large architectures--making it ideal for SBI. We show
that FMPE achieves competitive performance on an established SBI benchmark, and
then demonstrate its improved scalability on a challenging scientific problem:
for gravitational-wave inference, FMPE outperforms methods based on comparable
discrete flows, reducing training time by 30% with substantially improved
accuracy. Our work underscores the potential of FMPE to enhance performance in
challenging inference scenarios, thereby paving the way for more advanced
applications to scientific problems.


  This paper deals with the assessment of the performance of a system under a
finite planning horizon. The system is subject to two dependent causes of
failure: internal degradation and sudden shocks. We assume that internal
degradation follows a gamma process. When the deterioration level of the
degradation process exceeds a predetermined value, a degradation failure
occurs. Sudden shocks arrive at the system following a doubly stochastic
Poisson process (DSPP). A sudden shock provokes the total breakdown of the
system. A condition-based maintenance (CBM) with periodic inspection times is
developed. To evaluate the maintenance cost, recursive methods combining
numerical integration and Monte Carlo simulation are developed to evalute the
expected cost rate and its standard deviation. Also, recursive methods to
calculate some transient measures of the system are given. Numerical examples
are provided to illustrate the analytical results.


  Image prior modeling is the key issue in image recovery, computational
imaging, compresses sensing, and other inverse problems. Recent algorithms
combining multiple effective priors such as the sparse or low-rank models, have
demonstrated superior performance in various applications. However, the
relationships among the popular image models are unclear, and no theory in
general is available to demonstrate their connections. In this paper, we
present a theoretical analysis on the image models, to bridge the gap between
applications and image prior understanding, including sparsity, group-wise
sparsity, joint sparsity, and low-rankness, etc. We systematically study how
effective each image model is for image restoration. Furthermore, we relate the
denoising performance improvement by combining multiple models, to the image
model relationships. Extensive experiments are conducted to compare the
denoising results which are consistent with our analysis. On top of the
model-based methods, we quantitatively demonstrate the image properties that
are inexplicitly exploited by deep learning method, of which can further boost
the denoising performance by combining with its complementary image models.


  3D face reconstruction algorithms from images and videos are applied to many
fields, from plastic surgery to the entertainment sector, thanks to their
advantageous features. However, when looking at forensic applications, 3D face
reconstruction must observe strict requirements that still make unclear its
possible role in bringing evidence to a lawsuit. Shedding some light on this
matter is the goal of the present survey, where we start by clarifying the
relation between forensic applications and biometrics. To our knowledge, no
previous work adopted this relation to make the point on the state of the art.
Therefore, we analyzed the achievements of 3D face reconstruction algorithms
from surveillance videos and mugshot images and discussed the current obstacles
that separate 3D face reconstruction from an active role in forensic
applications.


  A one-dimensional gas model has been constructed and shown to provide correct
expressions for entropies for extremal and near-extremal BTZ black holes.
Recently suggested boosting of black strings is used to compute the entropy for
the Schwarzschild black hole also from this gas model.


  Free-form rationales aim to aid model interpretability by supplying the
background knowledge that can help understand model decisions. Crowdsourced
rationales are provided for commonsense QA instances in popular datasets such
as CoS-E and ECQA, but their utility remains under-investigated. We present
human studies which show that ECQA rationales indeed provide additional
background information to understand a decision, while over 88% of CoS-E
rationales do not. Inspired by this finding, we ask: can the additional context
provided by free-form rationales benefit models, similar to human users? We
investigate the utility of rationales as an additional source of supervision,
by varying the quantity and quality of rationales during training. After
controlling for instances where rationales leak the correct answer while not
providing additional background knowledge, we find that incorporating only 5%
of rationales during training can boost model performance by 47.22% for CoS-E
and 57.14% for ECQA during inference. Moreover, we also show that rationale
quality matters: compared to crowdsourced rationales, T5-generated rationales
provide not only weaker supervision to models, but are also not helpful for
humans in aiding model interpretability.


  We propose a new method of analysis for the \lya forest, namely to measure
the 1-point and 2-point joint probability distribution of the transmitted flux.
The results for a sample of seven observed quasars and from two simulations of
structure formation are shown and compared. Statistically significant
differences in the 2-point function between the results of the numerical
simulations and the observations are easily found. The analysis we suggest is
very simple to apply to observed data sets, and we discuss its superiority over
the traditional Voigt-profile fitting algorithms for accurate comparison to the
predictions of theoretical models.


  We investigate whether true physical observables associated with the
measurements of large scale structure in the universe are frame-independent. In
particular, we study if cosmological observables such as the galaxy number
counts are invariant under the disformal transformations. In a previous work,
it was shown that this frame-invariance holds true for the case of conformal
transformations. In this work, we find that the invariance also holds true for
the case of a simple disformal transformation. We further briefly comment on
the disformal invariance of other cosmological observables.


  Avionics networks rely on a set of stringent reliability and safety
requirements. In existing deployments, these networks are based on a wired
technology, which supports these requirements. Furthermore, this technology
simplifies the security management of the network since certain assumptions can
be safely made, including the inability of an attacker to access the network,
and the fact that it is almost impossible for an attacker to introduce a node
into the network. The proposal for Avionics Wireless Networks (AWNs), currently
under development by multiple aerospace working groups, promises a reduction in
the complexity of electrical wiring harness design and fabrication, a reduction
in the total weight of wires, increased customization possibilities, and the
capacity to monitor otherwise inaccessible moving or rotating aircraft parts
such as landing gear and some sections of the aircraft engines. While providing
these benefits, the AWN must ensure that it provides levels of safety that are
at minimum equivalent to those offered by the wired equivalent. In this paper,
we propose a secure and trusted channel protocol that satisfies the stated
security and operational requirements for an AWN protocol. There are three main
objectives for this protocol. First, the protocol has to provide the assurance
that all communicating entities can trust each other, and can trust their
internal (secure) software and hardware states. Second, the protocol has to
establish a fair key exchange between all communicating entities so as to
provide a secure channel. Finally, the third objective is to be efficient for
both the initial start-up of the network and when resuming a session after a
cold and/or warm restart of a node. The proposed protocol is implemented and
performance measurements are presented based on this implementation. In
addition, we formally verify our proposed protocol using CasperFDR.


  Learning sparse combinations is a frequent theme in machine learning. In this
paper, we study its associated optimization problem in the distributed setting
where the elements to be combined are not centrally located but spread over a
network. We address the key challenges of balancing communication costs and
optimization errors. To this end, we propose a distributed Frank-Wolfe (dFW)
algorithm. We obtain theoretical guarantees on the optimization error
$\epsilon$ and communication cost that do not depend on the total number of
combining elements. We further show that the communication cost of dFW is
optimal by deriving a lower-bound on the communication cost required to
construct an $\epsilon$-approximate solution. We validate our theoretical
analysis with empirical studies on synthetic and real-world data, which
demonstrate that dFW outperforms both baselines and competing methods. We also
study the performance of dFW when the conditions of our analysis are relaxed,
and show that dFW is fairly robust.


  For every nonempty compact convex subset $K$ of a normed linear space a
(unique) point $c_K \in K$, called the generalized Chebyshev center, is
distinguished. It is shown that $c_K$ is a common fixed point for the isometry
group of the metric space $K$. With use of the generalized Chebyshev centers,
the central measure $\mu_X$ of an arbitrary compact metric space $X$ is
defined. For a large class of compact metric spaces, including the interval
$[0,1]$ and all compact metric groups, another `central' measure is
distinguished, which turns out to coincide with the Lebesgue measure and the
Haar one for the interval and a compact metric group, respectively. An idea of
distinguishing infinitely many points forming a dense subset of an arbitrary
compact metric space is also presented.


  The Cygnus region is a very bright and complex portion of the TeV sky, host
to unidentified sources and a diffuse excess with respect to conventional
cosmic-ray propagation models. Two of the brightest TeV sources, MGRO J2019+37
and MGRO J2031+41, are analyzed using Milagro data with a new technique, and
their emission is tested under two different spectral assumptions: a power law
and a power law with an exponential cutoff. The new analysis technique is based
on an energy estimator that uses the fraction of photomultiplier tubes in the
observatory that detect the extensive air shower. The photon spectrum is
measured in the range 1 to 200 TeV using the last 3 years of Milagro data
(2005-2008), with the detector in its final configuration. MGRO J2019+37 is
detected with a significance of 12.3 standard deviations ($\sigma$), and is
better fit by a power law with an exponential cutoff than by a simple power
law, with a probability $>98$% (F-test). The best-fitting parameters for the
power law with exponential cutoff model are a normalization at 10 TeV of
$7^{+5}_{-2}\times10^{-10}$ $\mathrm{s^{-1}\: m^{-2}\: TeV^{-1}}$, a spectral
index of $2.0^{+0.5}_{-1.0}$ and a cutoff energy of $29^{+50}_{-16}$ TeV. MGRO
J2031+41 is detected with a significance of 7.3$\sigma$, with no evidence of a
cutoff. The best-fitting parameters for a power law are a normalization of
$2.4^{+0.6}_{-0.5}\times10^{-10}$ $\mathrm{s^{-1}\: m^{-2}\: TeV^{-1}}$ and a
spectral index of $3.08^{+0.19}_{-0.17}$. The overall flux is subject to an
$\sim$30% systematic uncertainty. The systematic uncertainty on the power law
indices is $\sim$0.1. A comparison with previous results from TeV J2032+4130,
MGRO J2031+41 and MGRO J2019+37 is also presented.


  We study photon-induced coherent production of Upsilon in ultraperipheral
heavy ion collisions at LHC and demonstrate that the counting rates will be
sufficient to measure nuclear shadowing of generalized gluon distributions.
This will establish the transition from the regime of color transparency to the
regime of perturbative color opacity in an unambiguous way. We argue that such
measurements will provide the possibility to investigate the interaction of
ultra-small color dipoles with nuclei in QCD at large energies, which are
beyond the reach of the electron-nucleon (nucleus) colliders, and will
unambiguously discriminate between the leading twist and higher twist scenarios
of gluon nuclear shadowing.


  The theoretical method to study strong coupling between an ensemble of
quantum emitters (QEs) and surface plasmons excited by the nanoparticle cluster
has been presented by using a rigorous first-principles electromagnetic Green's
tensor technique. We have demonstrated that multi-qubit entanglement for
two-level QEs can be produced at different frequencies simultaneously, when
they locate in hot spots of metallic nanoparticle clusters. The duration of
quantum beats for such an entanglement can reach two orders longer than that
for the entanglement in a photonic cavity. The phenomenon originates from
collective coupling resonance excitation of the cluster. At the frequency of
single scattering resonance, the entanglement cannot be produced although the
single QE spontaneous decay rate is very big


  (Abridged) We make predictions for the pairwise velocity dispersion (PVD) of
galaxies with models that are constrained to match the projected correlation
function and luminosity function of galaxies in the Two-Degree Field Galaxy
Redshift Survey (2dFGRS). We use these data to constrain the halo occupation
distribution (HOD), then calculate the PVD by populating the halos of a high
resolution N-body simulation. We examine the luminosity and scale dependence of
the predicted PVD. At r<1 Mpc/h and r>3 Mpc/h, we find that the PVD decreases
with increasing galaxy luminosity. This result is mostly driven by the fraction
of satellite galaxies f_sat, which is well-constrained by the correlation
function. We find f_sat~25% for galaxies fainter than L_star, while for
brighter galaxies the satellite fraction rapidly declines, creating the
decrease in the PVD with luminosity. At r=1 Mpc/h, the PVD has no dependence on
luminosity because satellite galaxies dominate the statistics for all objects.
Recent measurements of the PVD in Fourier space using the "dispersion model"
have reported a strong decline in PVD with increasing luminosity at k=1 h/Mpc.
We test this method with our HOD models, finding that there is no consistent
comparison between the PVD at a given k and the true dispersion at a given
value of r. This results in a luminosity dependence in k-space that is stronger
than in configuration space. The luminosity dependence of the HOD results in
Fourier space are consistent with those measured at k=1 h/Mpc; thus the recent
measurements of the PVD are fully explainable in the context of halo occupation
models. The normalization of the PVD is lower than predicted by our fiducial
model, and reproducing it requires a lower value of Omega_m (~0.2 instead of
0.3), a lower value of sigma_8 (~0.7 instead of 0.9), or strong velocity bias.


  CONTEXT. It is theoretically possible for rings to have formed around
extrasolar planets in a similar way to that in which they formed around the
giant planets in our solar system. However, no such rings have been detected to
date.
  AIMS: We aim to test the possibility of detecting rings around exoplanets by
investigating the photometric and spectroscopic ring signatures in
high-precision transit signals.
  METHODS: The photometric and spectroscopic transit signals of a ringed planet
is expected to show deviations from that of a spherical planet. We used these
deviations to quantify the detectability of rings. We present SOAP3.0 which is
a numerical tool to simulate ringed planet transits and measure ring
detectability based on amplitudes of the residuals between the ringed planet
signal and best fit ringless model.
  RESULTS: We find that it is possible to detect the photometric and
spectroscopic signature of near edge-on rings especially around planets with
high impact parameter. Time resolution $\leq$ 7 mins is required for the
photometric detection, while 15 mins is sufficient for the spectroscopic
detection. We also show that future instruments like CHEOPS and ESPRESSO, with
precisions that allow ring signatures to be well above their noise-level,
present good prospects for detecting rings.


  Implementation of Neuromorphic Systems using post Complementary
Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) technology based Memristive Crossbar Array
(MCA) has emerged as a promising solution to enable low-power acceleration of
neural networks. However, the recent trend to design Deep Neural Networks
(DNNs) for achieving human-like cognitive abilities poses significant
challenges towards the scalable design of neuromorphic systems (due to the
increase in computation/storage demands). Network pruning [7] is a powerful
technique to remove redundant connections for designing optimally connected
(maximally sparse) DNNs. However, such pruning techniques induce irregular
connections that are incoherent to the crossbar structure. Eventually they
produce DNNs with highly inefficient hardware realizations (in terms of area
and energy). In this work, we propose TraNNsformer - an integrated training
framework that transforms DNNs to enable their efficient realization on
MCA-based systems. TraNNsformer first prunes the connectivity matrix while
forming clusters with the remaining connections. Subsequently, it retrains the
network to fine tune the connections and reinforce the clusters. This is done
iteratively to transform the original connectivity into an optimally pruned and
maximally clustered mapping. Without accuracy loss, TraNNsformer reduces the
area (energy) consumption by 28% - 55% (49% - 67%) with respect to the original
network. Compared to network pruning, TraNNsformer achieves 28% - 49% (15% -
29%) area (energy) savings. Furthermore, TraNNsformer is a technology-aware
framework that allows mapping a given DNN to any MCA size permissible by the
memristive technology for reliable operations.


  For a given compact Hausdorff space $X$, we construct the space $OS_{f}(X)$
of normed, order-preserving, weakly additive, positively homogeneous and
semi-additive functionals (for brevity, semi-additive functionals) and it is
proved that the hyperspace $\exp\, X$ of the space $X$ is a deformation retract
of the constructed space. Further we show that the shapes of the spaces
$OS_{f}(X)$ and $\exp\, X$ coincide. We establish that if the space $\exp\, X$
is contractible, then the space $OS_{f}(X)$ is also contractible.