  Recently, topologically nontrivial polarization textures have been predicted
and observed in nanoscale systems. While these polarization textures are
interesting and promising in terms of applications, their topology in general
is yet to be fully understood. For example, the relation between topological
polarization structures and band topology has not been explored, and polar
domain structures are typically considered in topologically trivial systems. In
particular, the local polarization in a crystal supercell is not well-defined,
and typically calculated using approximations which do not satisfy gauge
invariance. Furthermore, local polarization in supercells is typically
approximated using calculations involving smaller unit cells, meaning the
connection to the electronic structure of the supercell is lost. In this work,
we propose a definition of local polarization which is gauge invariant and can
be calculated directly from a supercell without approximations. We show using
first-principles calculations for commensurate bilayer hexagonal boron nitride
that our expressions for local polarization give the correct result at the unit
cell level, which is a first approximation to the local polarization in a
moir\'e superlattice. We also illustrate using an effective model that the
local polarization can be directly calculated in real space. Finally, we
discuss the relation between polarization and band topology, for which it is
essential to have a correct definition of polarization textures.


  Over $\mathbb{C}$, the only non-integrable distributions with
infinite-dimensional Lie algebra of symmetries are the contact one and the
Engel one. From the classification of simple infinite-dimensional Lie
superalgebras of vector fields with polynomial coefficients over $\mathbb{C}$
we single out 2 types of contact series and 7 exceptional Lie superalgebras
which preserve non-integrable distributions and list the growth vectors of
these distributions.
  We also classify the Weisfeiler gradings of the simple modular vectorial Lie
(super)algebras with unconstrained shearing vector of heights of the
indeterminates, single out the versions preserving non-integrable distributions
and list the growth vectors of the latter.


  This paper aims to extend the Besag model, a widely used Bayesian spatial
model in disease mapping, to a non-stationary spatial model for irregular
lattice-type data. The goal is to improve the model's ability to capture
complex spatial dependence patterns and increase interpretability. The proposed
model uses multiple precision parameters, accounting for different intensities
of spatial dependence in different sub-regions. We derive a joint penalized
complexity prior for the flexible local precision parameters to prevent
overfitting and ensure contraction to the stationary model at a user-defined
rate. The proposed methodology can be used as a basis for the development of
various other non-stationary effects over other domains such as time. An
accompanying R package 'fbesag' equips the reader with the necessary tools for
immediate use and application. We illustrate the novelty of the proposal by
modeling the risk of dengue in Brazil, where the stationary spatial assumption
fails and interesting risk profiles are estimated when accounting for spatial
non-stationary.


  It is well-known that the 4-rotation in the 4-dimensional space-time is
equivalent to the CPT-transformation (C is the charge conjugation, P is the
space inversion and T is the time-reversal). The standard definition of the
T-reversal includes the change of the sign of time variable and replacement of
the initial state of the particle (system of particles) by the final state and
vice versa. Since the time-reversal operation changes the state of a particle,
the particle's wave function cannot be the eigenfunction of the corresponding
operator with a certain eigenvalue, as in the case of space parity. Unlike the
CPT-transformation, the separate P, T, or C transformations cannot be reduced
to any 4-rotation. The extended Lorentz group incorporates all the separate C,
P, or T transformations which do not bring the time axis out of the
corresponding light cone. The latter restriction is included in the standard
definition of the time-reversal. In the present communication, we ignore this
restriction.
  This allows to introduce the "time arrow" operator and characterize every
particle by the new quantum number - "time arrow" value. The wave functions of
all particles are eigenfunctions of this operator with eigenvalues equal to
"time arrow" values. The particles with the "time arrow" values opposite to the
"time arrow" value in our universe form another universe (anti-universe). The
existence of anti-universe can be confirmed, in principle, by laboratory
(atomic) experiments. The anti-universe may be also considered as a candidate
to the role of dark matter.


  It is shown that the models of white hole interacting with external matter
can be made stable by introduction of a negative central mass. Similar results
are obtained for the models of white hole, interacting with null shells, with
radial flows of matter and with photon gas. In realistic models, a naked
timelike singularity corresponding to the negative mass is hidden under a coat
of positive mass, providing an extremely strong redshift for photons born in
the Planck neighborhood of the singularity and observed at infinity, thereby
realizing the principle of cosmic censorship in a relaxed form.


  We generalize and systematize basic experimental data on optical and
luminescence properties of ZnO single crystals, thin films, powders, ceramics,
and nanocrystals. We consider and study mechanisms by which two main emission
bands occur, a short-wavelength band near the fundamental absorption edge and a
broad long-wavelength band, the maximum of which usually lies in the green
spectral range. We determine a relationship between the two luminescence bands
and study in detail the possibility of controlling the characteristics of ZnO
by varying the maximum position of the short-wavelength band. We show that the
optical and luminescence characteristics of ZnO largely depend on the choice of
the corresponding impurity and the parameters of the synthesis and subsequent
treatment of the sample. Prospects for using zinc oxide as a scintillator
material are discussed. Additionally, we consider experimental results that are
of principal interest for practice.


  Let X be a d dimensional vector of covariates and Y be the response variable.
Under the nonparametric model Y = m(X) + {\sigma}(X) \in we develop an
ANOVA-type test for the null hypothesis that a particular coordinate of X has
no influence on the regression function. The asymptotic distribution of the
test statistic, using residuals based on Nadaraya-Watson type kernel estimator
and d \leq 4, is established under the null hypothesis and local alternatives.
Simulations suggest that under a sparse model, the applicability of the test
extends to arbitrary d through sufficient dimension reduction. Using p-values
from this test, a variable selection method based on multiple testing ideas is
proposed. The proposed test outperforms existing procedures, while additional
simulations reveal that the proposed variable selection method performs
competitively against well established procedures. A real data set is analyzed.


  The use of computed tomography (CT) imaging has become of increasing interest
to academic areas outside of the field of medical imaging and industrial
inspection, e.g., to biology and cultural heritage research. The pecularities
of these fields, however, sometimes require that objects need to be imaged
on-site, e.g., in field-work conditions or in museum collections. Under these
circumstances, it is often not possible to use a commercial device and a custom
solution is the only viable option. In order to achieve high image quality
under adverse conditions, reliable calibration and trajectory reproduction are
usually key requirements for any custom CT scanning system. Here, we introduce
the construction of a low-cost disassemblable CT scanner that allows
calibration even when trajectory reproduction is not possible due to the
limitations imposed by the project conditions. Using 3D-printed in-image
calibration phantoms, we compute a projection matrix directly from each
captured X-ray projection. We describe our method in detail and show successful
tomographic reconstructions of several specimen as proof of concept.


  We report our theoretical results on the emergence of rectangular- and
square-shaped magnetic skyrmion crystals on a centrosymmetric square lattice
with magnetic anisotropy. By performing the simulated annealing for a
frustrated spin model with an easy-axis single-ion anisotropy on a square
lattice, we find that a competition of the interactions in momentum space gives
rise to the formation of two skyrmion crystals, where the skyrmion cores are
aligned in a rectangle- or square-lattice way. Especially, the interactions at
the higher harmonic wave vectors play an important role in stabilizing the
square/rectangular skyrmion crystals. Our results provide a reference to
explore further skyrmion-hosting materials in centrosymmetric tetragonal
systems.


  The Pauli-Fierz model with a variable mass $v$ is considered. An ultraviolet
cutoff and an infrared regularity condition are imposed on a quantized
radiation field. It is shown that the ground state exists for arbitrary values
of coupling constants, when $v(x)\leq c\langle x\rangle^{-\beta}$, $\beta>3$.


  We propose an effective method for primary decomposition of symmetric ideals.
Let $K[X]=K[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ be the $n$-valuables polynomial ring over a field
$K$ and $\mathfrak{S}_n$ the symmetric group of order $n$. We consider the
canonical action of $\mathfrak{S}_n$ on $K[X]$ i.e.
$\sigma(f(x_1,\ldots,x_n))=f(x_{\sigma(1)},\ldots,x_{\sigma(n)})$ for
$\sigma\in \mathfrak{S}_n$. For an ideal $I$ of $K[X]$, $I$ is called {\em
symmetric} if $\sigma(I)=I$ for any $\sigma\in \mathfrak{S}_n$. For a minimal
primary decomposition $I=Q_1\cap \cdots \cap Q_r$ of a symmetric ideal $I$,
$\sigma(I)=\sigma (Q_1)\cap \cdots \cap \sigma(Q_r)$ is a minimal primary
decomposition of $I$ for any $\sigma\in \mathfrak{S}_n$. We utilize this
property to compute a full primary decomposition of $I$ efficiently from
partial primary components. We investigate the effectiveness of our algorithm
by implementing it in the computer algebra system Risa/Asir.


  $\Omega$-rule was introduced by W. Buchholz to give an ordinal-free
cut-elimination proof for a subsystem of analysis with
$\Pi^{1}_{1}$-comprehension. His proof provides cut-free derivations by
familiar rules only for arithmetical sequents. When second-order quantifiers
are present, they are introduced by $\Omega$-rule and some residual cuts are
not eliminated. Using an extension of $\Omega$-rule we obtain (by the same
method as W. Buchholz) complete cut-elimination: any derivation of arbitrary
sequent is transformed into its cut-free derivation by the standard rules (with
induction replaced by $\omega$-rule).
  W. Buchholz used $\Omega$-rule to explain how reductions of finite
derivations (used by G. Takeuti for subsystems of analysis) are generated by
cut-elimination steps applied to derivations with $\Omega$-rule. We show that
the same steps generate standard cut-reduction steps for infinitary derivations
with familiar standard rules for second-order quantifiers. This provides an
analysis of $\Omega$-rule in terms of standard rules and ordinal-free
cut-elimination proof for the system with the standard rules for second-order
quantifiers. In fact we treat the subsystem of $\Pi^{1}_{1}$-CA (of the same
strength as $ID_{1}$) that W. Buchholz used for his explanation of finite
reductions. Extension to full $\Pi^{1}_{1}$-CA is forthcoming in another paper.


  Topologically protected chiral states at a mass-inverted quantum dot in
graphene are studied by analyzing both tight-binding and kernal polynomial
method calculations. The mass-inverted quantum dot is introduced by considering
a heterojunction between two different mass domains, which is similar to the
domain wall in bilayer graphene. The numerical results show emergent metallic
channels across the mass gap when the signs of the mass terms are opposite. The
eigenstates of the metallic channels are revealed to be doubly
degenerate---each state propagates along opposite directions, maintaining the
time-reversal symmetry of graphene. The robustness of the metallic channels is
further examined, concluding with the fact that chiral states are secured
unless atomic vacancies form near the domain wall. Such chiral states
circulating along the topological defects may pave a novel route to engineering
topological states based on graphene.


  Sand pile formation is often used to describe stratified chaos in dynamic
systems due to self-emergent and scale invariant behaviour. Cellular automata
(Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld model) are often used to describe chaotic behaviour, as
simulating physical interactions between individual particles is
computationally demanding. In this study, we use a state-of-the-art parallel
implementation of the discrete element method on the graphical processing unit
to simulate sand pile formation. Interactions between individual grains were
simulated using a contact model in an Euler integration scheme. Results show
non-linear self-emergent behaviour which is in good agreement with experimental
results, theoretical work and self organized criticality (SOC) approaches.
Moreover, it was found that the fully deterministic model, where the position
and forces on every individual particle can be determined every iteration has a
brown noise signal in the x and y direction, where the signal is the z
direction is closer to a white noise spectrum.


  Community detection is the problem of recognizing natural divisions in
networks. A relevant challenge in this problem is to find communities on
rapidly evolving graphs. In this report we present our Parallel Dynamic
Frontier (DF) Louvain algorithm, which given a batch update of edge deletions
and insertions, incrementally identifies and processes an approximate set of
affected vertices in the graph with minimal overhead, while using a novel
approach of incrementally updating weighted-degrees of vertices and total edge
weights of communities. We also present our parallel implementations of
Naive-dynamic (ND) and Delta-screening (DS) Louvain. On a server with a 64-core
AMD EPYC-7742 processor, our experiments show that DF Louvain obtains speedups
of 179x, 7.2x, and 5.3x on real-world dynamic graphs, compared to Static, ND,
and DS Louvain, respectively, and is 183x, 13.8x, and 8.7x faster,
respectively, on large graphs with random batch updates. Moreover, DF Louvain
improves its performance by 1.6x for every doubling of threads.


  We study complex networks formed by triangulations and higher-dimensional
simplicial complexes representing closed evolving manifolds. In particular, for
triangulations, the set of possible transformations of these networks is
restricted by the condition that at each step, all the faces must be triangles.
Stochastic application of these operations leads to random networks with
different architectures. We perform extensive numerical simulations and explore
the geometries of growing and equilibrium complex networks generated by these
transformations and their local structural properties. This characterization
includes the Hausdorff and spectral dimensions of the resulting networks, their
degree distributions, and various structural correlations. Our results reveal a
rich zoo of architectures and geometries of these networks, some of which
appear to be small worlds while others are finite-dimensional with Hausdorff
dimension equal or higher than the original dimensionality of their simplices.
The range of spectral dimensions of the evolving triangulations turns out to be
from about 1.4 to infinity. Our models include simplicial complexes
representing manifolds with evolving topologies, for example, an h-holed torus
with a progressively growing number of holes. This evolving graph demonstrates
features of a small-world network and has a particularly heavy-tailed degree
distribution.


  Realization of a fully metallic two-dimensional electron gas at the interface
between artificially-grown LaAlO$_3$ and SrTiO$_3$ thin films has been an
exciting challenge. Here we present for the first time the successful
realization of a superconducting 2DEG at interfaces between artificially-grown
LaAlO$_3$ and SrTiO$_3$ thin films. Our results highlight the importance of two
factors-the growth temperature and the SrTiO$_3$ termination. We use local
friction force microscopy and transport measurements to determine that in
normal growth conditions the absence of a robust metallic state at low
temperature in the artificially-grown LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface is due to
the nanoscale SrO segregation occurring on the SrTiO$_3$ film surface during
the growth and the associated defects in the SrTiO$_3$ film. By adopting an
extremely high SrTiO$_3$ growth temperature, we demonstrate a way to realize
metallic, down to the lowest temperature, and superconducting 2DEG at
interfaces between LaAlO$_3$ layers and artificially-grown SrTiO$_3$ thin
films. This study paves the way to the realization of functional
LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ superlattices and/or artificial LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$
interfaces on other substrates.


  Let $G=(V,E)$ be a simple graph. A set $S\subseteq V$ is independent set of
$G$, if no two vertices of $S$ are adjacent. The independence number
$\alpha(G)$ is the size of a maximum independent set in the graph. %An
independent set with cardinality Let $R$ be a commutative ring with nonzero
identity and $I$ an ideal of $R$. The zero-divisor graph of $R$, denoted by
$\Gamma(R)$, is an undirected graph whose vertices are the nonzero
zero-divisors of $R$ and two distinct vertices $x$ and $y$ are adjacent if and
only if $xy = 0$. Also the ideal-based zero-divisor graph of $R$, denoted by
$\Gamma_I(R)$, is the graph which vertices are the set ${x\in R\backslash I |
xy\in I \quad for some \quad y\in R\backslash I\}$ and two distinct vertices
$x$ and $y$ are adjacent if and only if $xy \in I$. In this paper we study the
independent sets and the independence number of $\Gamma(R)$ and $\Gamma_I(R)$.


  Zeroth-order optimization, which does not use derivative information, is one
of the significant research areas in the field of mathematical optimization and
machine learning. Although various studies have explored zeroth-order
algorithms, one of the theoretical limitations is that oracle complexity
depends on the dimension, i.e., on the number of variables, of the optimization
problem. In this paper, to reduce the dependency of the dimension in oracle
complexity, we propose a zeroth-order random subspace algorithm by combining a
gradient-free algorithm (specifically, Gaussian randomized smoothing with
central differences) with random projection. We derive the worst-case oracle
complexity of our proposed method in non-smooth and convex settings;
{\color{black} it is equivalent to standard results for full-dimensional
non-smooth convex algorithms. Furthermore,} we prove that ours also has a local
convergence rate independent of the original dimension under additional
assumptions. In addition to the theoretical results, numerical experiments show
that when an objective function has a specific structure, the proposed method
can become experimentally more efficient due to random projection.


  GitHub workflows or GitHub CI is a popular continuous integration platform
that enables developers to automate various software engineering tasks by
specifying them as workflows, i.e., YAML files with a list of jobs. However,
engineering valid workflows is tedious. They are also prone to severe security
issues, which can result in supply chain vulnerabilities. Recent advancements
in Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated their effectiveness in
various software development tasks. However, GitHub workflows differ from
regular programs in both structure and semantics. We perform the first
comprehensive study to understand the effectiveness of LLMs on five
workflow-related tasks with different levels of prompts. We curated a set of
$\sim$400K workflows and generated prompts with varying detail. We also
fine-tuned LLMs on GitHub workflow tasks. Our evaluation of three
state-of-the-art LLMs and their fine-tuned variants revealed various
interesting findings on the current effectiveness and drawbacks of LLMs.


  We find that for any n-dimensional, compact, convex subset K of R^{n+1} there
is an affinely-spherical hypersurface M in R^{n+1} with center at the relative
interior of K, such that the disjoint union of M and K is the boundary of an
(n+1)-dimensional, compact, convex set. This so-called affine hemisphere M is
uniquely determined by K up to affine transformations, it is of elliptic type,
is associated with K in an affinely-invariant manner, and it is centered at the
Santalo point of K.


  Using the boundary state formalism we investigate the effect of tachyon
condensation process on a rotating and moving D$p$-brane with various
background fields in the bosonic string theory. The rotation and motion are
inside the brane volume. We demonstrate that some specific rotations and/or
motions can preserve the brane from instability and collapse.


  We present a new model for soft interactions in the event-generator Herwig.
The model consists of two components. One to model diffractive final states on
the basis of the cluster hadronization model and a second component that
addresses soft multiple interactions as multiple particle production in multi-
peripheral kinematics. We present much improved results for minimum-bias
measurements at various LHC energies.


  We present a spectroscopic component analysis of 18 candidate young, wide,
non-magnetic, double-degenerate binaries identified from a search of the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (DR7). All but two pairings are likely to be
physical systems. We show SDSS J084952.47+471247.7 + SDSS J084952.87+471249.4
to be a wide DA+DB binary, only the second identified to date. Combining our
measurements for the components of 16 new binaries with results for three
similar, previously known systems within the DR7, we have constructed a mass
distribution for the largest sample to date (38) of white dwarfs in young,
wide, non-magnetic, double-degenerate pairings. This is broadly similar in form
to that of the isolated field population with a substantial peak around M~0.6
Msun. We identify an excess of ultra-massive white dwarfs and attribute this to
the primordial separation distribution of their progenitor systems peaking at
relatively larger values and the greater expansion of their binary orbits
during the final stages of stellar evolution. We exploit this mass distribution
to probe the origins of unusual types of degenerates, confirming a mild
preference for the progenitor systems of high-field-magnetic white dwarfs, at
least within these binaries, to be associated with early-type stars.
Additionally, we consider the 19 systems in the context of the stellar initial
mass-final mass relation. None appear to be strongly discordant with current
understanding of this relationship.


  We give a complete description of the E_1-term of the v_2-local as well as
g-local algebraic tmf resolution.


  Kernelization is a formalization of preprocessing for combinatorially hard
problems. We modify the standard definition for kernelization, which allows any
polynomial-time algorithm for the preprocessing, by requiring instead that the
preprocessing runs in a streaming setting and uses
$\mathcal{O}(poly(k)\log|x|)$ bits of memory on instances $(x,k)$. We obtain
several results in this new setting, depending on the number of passes over the
input that such a streaming kernelization is allowed to make. Edge Dominating
Set turns out as an interesting example because it has no single-pass
kernelization but two passes over the input suffice to match the bounds of the
best standard kernelization.


  Layers of two-dimensional materials arranged at a twist angle with respect to
each other lead to enlarged unit cells with potentially strongly altered band
structures, offering a new arena for novel and engineered many-body ground
states. For the exploration of these, renormalization group methods are an
appropriate, flexible tool that take into account the mutual influence of
competing tendencies. Here we show that, within reasonable, non-trivial
approximations, the functional renormalization group known from simpler
two-dimensional systems can be employed for the large-unit cell moir\'e
superlattices with more than 10.000 bands, remedying the need to employ ad hoc
restrictions to effective low-energy theories of a few bands and/or effective
continuum theories. This provides a description on the atomic scale, allowing
one to absorb available ab-initio information on the model parameters and
therefore lending the analysis a more concrete quantitative character. For the
case of twisted bilayer graphene models, we explore the leading ordering
tendencies depending on the band filling and the range of interactions. The
results indicate a delicate balance between distinct magnetically ordered
ground states, as well as the occurrence of a charge modulation within the
moir\'e unit cell for sufficiently non-local repulsive interaction.


  We present a numerical study of a two dimensional granular medium consisting
of hard inelastic disks. The evolution of the medium throughout a cooling
process is monitored. Two different types of instabilities (shearing and
clustering instability) are found to develop in the system. The development of
these instabilities is shown to be in qualitative and quantitative agreement
with the predictions of linearized hydrodynamic theory.


  We quantify a social organization's potentiality, that is its ability to
attain different configurations. The organization is represented as a network
in which nodes correspond to individuals and (multi-)edges to their multiple
interactions. Attainable configurations are treated as realizations from a
network ensemble. To encode interaction preferences between individuals, we
choose the generalized hypergeometric ensemble of random graphs, which is
described by a closed-form probability distribution. From this distribution we
calculate Shannon entropy as a measure of potentiality. This allows us to
compare different organizations as well different stages in the development of
a given organization. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated using
data from 3 empirical and 2 synthetic systems.


  The performance of deep learning algorithms such as neural networks (NNs) has
increased tremendously recently, and they can achieve state-of-the-art
performance in many domains. However, due to memory and computation resource
constraints, implementing NNs on edge devices is a challenging task. Therefore,
hardware accelerators such as computation-in-memory (CIM) with memristive
devices have been developed to accelerate the most common operations, i.e.,
matrix-vector multiplication. However, due to inherent device properties,
external environmental factors such as temperature, and an immature fabrication
process, memristors suffer from various non-idealities, including defects and
variations occurring during manufacturing and runtime. Consequently, there is a
lack of complete confidence in the predictions made by the model. To improve
confidence in NN predictions made by hardware accelerators in the presence of
device non-idealities, in this paper, we propose a Bayesian test vector
generation framework that can estimate the model uncertainty of NNs implemented
on memristor-based CIM hardware. Compared to the conventional point estimate
test vector generation method, our method is more generalizable across
different model dimensions and requires storing only one test Bayesian vector
in the hardware. Our method is evaluated on different model dimensions, tasks,
fault rates, and variation noise to show that it can consistently achieve
$100\%$ coverage with only $0.024$ MB of memory overhead.


  We report three-well, resonant-phonon depopulation terahertz quantum cascade
lasers with semi-insulating surface-plasmon waveguides and reduced active
region (AR) thicknesses. Devices with thicknesses of 10, 7.5, 6, and 5 {\mu}m
are compared in terms of threshold current density, maximum operating
temperature, output power and AR temperature. Thinner ARs are technologically
less demanding for epitaxial growth and result in reduced electrical heating of
devices. However, it is found that 7.5-{\mu}m-thick devices give the lowest
electrical power densities at threshold, as they represent the optimal
trade-off between low electrical resistance and low threshold gain.


  We investigate the electronic and magnetic properties of single Fe, Co, and
Ni atoms and clusters on monolayer graphene (MLG) on SiC(0001) by means of
scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), x-ray absorption spectroscopy, x-ray
magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), and ab initio calculations. STM reveals
different adsorption sites for Ni and Co adatoms. XMCD proves Fe and Co adatoms
to be paramagnetic and to exhibit an out-of-plane easy axis in agreement with
theory. In contrast, we experimentally find a nonmagnetic ground state for Ni
monomers while an increasing cluster size leads to sizeable magnetic moments.
These observations are well reproduced by our calculations and reveal the
importance of hybridization effects and intra-atomic charge transfer for the
properties of adatoms and clusters on MLG.


  On-Shelf Availability (OSA) of products in retail stores is a critical
business criterion in the fast moving consumer goods and retails sector. When a
product is out-of-stock (OOS) and a customer cannot find it on its designed
shelf, this motivates the customer to store-switching or buying nothing, which
causes fall in future sales and demands. Retailers are employing several
approaches to detect empty shelves and ensure high OSA of products; however,
such methods are generally ineffective and infeasible since they are either
manual, expensive or less accurate. Recently machine learning based solutions
have been proposed, but they suffer from high computational cost and low
accuracy problem due to lack of large annotated datasets of on-shelf products.
Here, we present an elegant approach for designing an end-to-end machine
learning (ML) pipeline for real-time empty shelf detection. Considering the
strong dependency between the quality of ML models and the quality of data, we
focus on the importance of proper data collection, cleaning and correct data
annotation before delving into modeling. Since an empty-shelf detection
solution should be computationally-efficient for real-time predictions, we
explore different run-time optimizations to improve the model performance. Our
dataset contains 1000 images, collected and annotated by following well-defined
guidelines. Our low-latency model achieves a mean average F1-score of 68.5%,
and can process up to 67 images/s on Intel Xeon Gold and up to 860 images/s on
an A100 GPU.


  Large eddy simulation (LES) of turbulence in complex geometries and domains
is often conducted with high aspect ratio resolution cells of varying shapes
and orientations. The effects of such anisotropic resolution are often
simplified or neglected in subgrid model formulation. Here, we examine
resolution induced anisotropy and demonstrate that, even for isotropic
turbulence, anisotropic resolution induces mild resolved Reynolds stress
anisotropy and significant anisotropy in second-order resolved velocity
gradient statistics. In large eddy simulations of homogeneous isotropic
turbulence with anisotropic resolution, it is shown that commonly used subgrid
models, including those that consider resolution anisotropy in their
formulation, perform poorly. The one exception is the anisotropic minimum
dissipation model proposed by Rozema et al. (Phys. of Fluids 27, 085107, 2015).
A simple new model is presented here that is formulated with an anisotropic
eddy diffusivity that depends explicitly on the anisotropy of the resolution.
It also performs well, and is remarkable because unlike other LES subgrid
models, the eddy diffusivity only depends on statistical characteristics of the
turbulence (in this case the dissipation rate), not on fluctuating quantities.
In other subgrid modeling formulations, such as the dynamic procedure, limiting
flow dependence to statistical quantities in this way could have advantages.


  UBC 1 is an open cluster discovered in Gaia data and located near the edge of
the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite's (TESS) continuous viewing zone. We
aim to provide age constraints for this poorly studied open cluster from the
combination of gravity-mode (g-mode) asteroseismology, gyrochronology, and
isochrone fitting. We established the members of UBC 1 from a spatial-kinematic
filtering and estimate the cluster age and its parameters. Firstly, we fitted
rotating isochrones to the single star cluster sequence. Secondly, using TESS
time-series photometry, we explored the variability of the upper main sequence
members and identified potential g-mode pulsators. For one star, we found a
clear period spacing pattern that we used to deduce the buoyancy travel time,
the near-core rotation rate, and an asteroseismic age. For a third independent
age estimate, we employed the rotation periods of low-mass members of UBC 1.
Based on isochrone fitting, we find $\log t = 8.1\pm0.4$, where the large
uncertainty occurs because UBC 1 does not host evolved stars. From
asteroseismology of one g-mode pulsator, we find a constrained age of $\log t=
8.24^{+0.43}_{-0.14}$. From gyrochronology based on 17 cool star cluster
members, we estimate $\log t = 8.35^{+0.16}_{-0.25}$. Combined, all three
methods lead to a consistent age in the range of 150-300 Myr. Our results show
that even a single cluster member with identified g modes can improve
age-dating of young open clusters. Combining gyrochronology of low-mass members
with asteroseismology of intermediate-mass members is a powerful tool for young
open cluster modelling, including high-precision age-dating.


  [abridged] We investigate the coevolution of galaxies and hosted supermassive
black holes throughout the history of the Universe by a statistical approach
based on the continuity equation and the abundance matching technique.
Specifically, we present analytical solutions of the continuity equation
without source term to reconstruct the supermassive black hole (BH) mass
function from the AGN luminosity functions. Such an approach includes
physically-motivated AGN lightcurves tested on independent datasets, which
describe the evolution of the Eddington ratio and radiative efficiency from
slim- to thin-disc conditions. We nicely reproduce the local estimates of the
BH mass function, the AGN duty cycle as a function of mass and redshift, along
with the Eddington ratio function and the fraction of galaxies with given
stellar mass hosting an AGN with given Eddington ratio. We exploit the same
approach to reconstruct the observed stellar mass function at different
redshift from the UV and far-IR luminosity functions associated to star
formation in galaxies. These results imply that the buildup of stars and BHs in
galaxies occurs via in-situ processes, with dry mergers playing a marginal role
at least for stellar masses < 3 10^11 M_sun and BH masses < 10^9 M_sun, where
the statistical data are more secure and less biased by systematic errors. In
addition, we develop an improved abundance matching technique to link the
stellar and BH content of galaxies to the gravitationally dominant dark matter
component. The resulting relationships constitute a testbed for galaxy
evolution models, highlighting the complementary role of stellar and AGN
feedback in the star formation process. Finally, the clustering properties of
BHs and galaxies are found to be in full agreement with current observations,
so further validating our results from the continuity equation.


  We report on UBVRI photometry of two $5^{\prime} \times 5^{\prime}$ fields in
the region of the young open cluster NGC 3324. One of our fields covers the
core region, while the other is closer to the tidal radius of the cluster. Our
study provides the first CCD photometry of NGC 3324. We find that the cluster
is very young and probably contains several pre Main Sequence (MS) stars. 25
members are identified on the basis of their position in the (U-B) vs (B-V)
diagram. We investigate the relation of the red super-giant HD 92207 with NGC
3324, suggesting that it probably does not belong to the cluster. Our second
field is close to Loden 165, a possible cluster of stars that has never been
studied so far. We show that this object is a probable open cluster, much older
than NGC 3324 and much closer to the Sun.


  We study the effective physics of F-theory at order $\alpha'^3$ in derivative
expansion. We show that the ten-dimensional type IIB eight-derivative couplings
involving the graviton and the axio-dilaton naturally descend from pure gravity
in twelve dimensions. Upon compactification on elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau
fourfolds, the non-trivial vacuum profile for the axio-dilaton leads to a new,
genuinely N=1, $\alpha'^3$ correction to the four-dimensional effective action.


  The crossover between a metal and a Mott insulator leads to a localization of
fermions from delocalized Bloch states to localized states. We experimentally
study this crossover using fermionic atoms in an optical lattice by measuring
thermodynamic and local (on--site) density correlations. In the metallic phase
at incommensurable filling we observe the violation of the local
fluctuation--dissipation theorem indicating that the thermodynamics cannot be
explained by local observables. In contrast, in the Mott-insulator we observe
the convergence of local and thermodynamic fluctuations indicating the absence
of long--range density-density correlations.


  We consider a system to optimize duration of traffic signals using
multi-agent deep reinforcement learning and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X)
communication. This system aims at analyzing independent and shared rewards for
multi-agents to control duration of traffic lights. A learning agent traffic
light gets information along its lanes within a circular V2X coverage. The
duration cycles of traffic light are modeled as Markov decision Processes. We
investigate four variations of reward functions. The first two are
unshared-rewards: based on waiting number, and waiting time of vehicles between
two cycles of traffic light. The third and fourth functions are: shared-rewards
based on waiting cars, and waiting time for all agents. Each agent has a memory
for optimization through target network and prioritized experience replay. We
evaluate multi-agents through the Simulation of Urban MObility (SUMO)
simulator. The results prove effectiveness of the proposed system to optimize
traffic signals and reduce average waiting cars to 41.5 % as compared to the
traditional periodic traffic control system.


  Integrable spin systems possess interesting geometrical and gauge invariance
properties and have important applications in applied magnetism and
nanophysics. They are also intimately connected to the nonlinear Schr\"odinger
family of equations. In this paper, we identify three different integrable spin
systems in (2 + 1) dimensions by introducing the interaction of the spin field
with more than one scalar potential, or vector potential, or both. We also
obtain the associated Lax pairs. We discuss various interesting reductions in
(2 + 1) and (1 + 1) dimensions. We also deduce the equivalent nonlinear
Schr\"odinger family of equations, including the (2 + 1)-dimensional version of
nonlinear Schr\"odinger--Hirota--Maxwell--Bloch equations, along with their Lax
pairs.


  We give the general form for a germ of holonomic distribution of one complex
variable.


  Contrary to many stereotypes about massive galaxies, observed brightest group
galaxies (BGGs) are diverse in their star formation rates, kinematic
properties, and morphologies. Studying how they evolve into and express such
diverse characteristics is an important piece of the galaxy formation puzzle.
We use a high-resolution cosmological suite of simulations Romulus and compare
simulated central galaxies in group-scale halos at $z=0$ to observed BGGs. The
comparison encompasses the stellar mass-halo mass relation, various kinematic
properties and scaling relations, morphologies, and the star formation rates.
Generally, we find that Romulus reproduces the full spectrum of diversity in
the properties of the BGGs very well, albeit with a tendency toward lower than
the observed fraction of quenched BGGs. We find both early-type S0 and
elliptical galaxies as well as late-type disk galaxies; we find Romulus
galaxies that are fast-rotators as well as slow-rotators; and we observe
galaxies transforming from late-type to early-type following strong dynamical
interactions with satellites. We also carry out case studies of selected
Romulus galaxies to explore the link between their properties, and the recent
evolution of the stellar system as well as the surrounding
intragroup/circumgalactic medium. In general, mergers/strong interactions
quench star-forming activity and disrupt the stellar disk structure. Sometimes,
however, such interactions can also trigger star-formation and galaxy
rejuvenation. Black hole feedback can also lead to a decline of the star
formation rate but by itself, it does not typically lead to complete quenching
of the star formation activity in the BGGs.


  This is a review addressed to undergraduate students of electrical
engineering and physics careers, and our aim is to present a pedagogical
integration of some knowledge acquired in electromagnetism and
electromechanical energy conversion courses, and to show how they can be used
in actual technological applications, in particular for microscopic and
nanoscopic systems.In this work, we present a conceptual analysis of the
generation of optical forces and torques over a system of particles irradiated
by an external electromagnetic field, studying the induced dynamics.


  Conventional edge-based active contours often require the normal component of
an edge indicator function on the optimal contours to approximate zero, while
the tangential component can still be significant. In real images, the full
gradients of the edge indicator function along the object boundaries are often
small. Hence, the curve evolution of edge-based active contours can terminate
early before converging to the object boundaries with a careless contour
initialization. We propose a novel Geodesic Snakes (GeoSnakes) active contour
that requires the full gradients of the edge indicator to vanish at the optimal
solution. Besides, the conventional curve evolution approach for minimizing
active contour energy cannot fully solve the Euler-Lagrange (EL) equation of
our GeoSnakes active contour, causing a Pseudo Stationary Phenomenon (PSP). To
address the PSP problem, we propose an auxiliary curve evolution equation,
named the equilibrium flow (EF) equation. Based on the EF and the conventional
curve evolution, we obtain a solution to the full EL equation of GeoSnakes
active contour. Experimental results validate the proposed geometrical
interpretation of the early termination problem, and they also show that the
proposed method overcomes the problem.


  Mechanical force is tightly connected to human health status, and the
occurrence of disease can generally be ascribed to certain loss of force
balance. However, the role of mechanical approaches in tumor therapy is largely
neglected, while the currently available cancer prevention and treatment
methods are generally either expensive or just cause too much side effect. In
this article, we present a systematic interpretation on a promising strategy
which was termed here as Mechanical Therapy for the first time based on the
fact that mechanical force closely accompanies the whole life (growth and
death) of a cell, and plays a crucial role in biological functions. In order to
mold the mechanical force as a practical tool for cancer therapy, we expound
the effects of the mechanical force related to the tumors from molecule to
tissue level and evaluate its feasibility for treatment purpose. It can be
conceived that given enough investigations, the mechanical therapy may generate
big potential to open new windows for cancer prevention, relieving or even
destroying if well administrated. As an easy going and convenient method, a
systematic and thorough study of mechanical therapy may clarify more options
for future clinical practices. Besides, when patients encounter various forces
in daily life, they can at least identify the good or bad forces for a better
and healthy life style based on the mechanisms thus disclosed.


  With the help of information and communication technologies, studies on the
overall social networks have been extensively reported recently. However,
investigations on the directed Ego Communication Networks (ECNs) remain
insufficient, where an ECN stands for a sub network composed of a centralized
individual and his/her direct contacts. In this paper, the directed ECNs are
built on the Call Detail Records (CDRs), which cover more than 7 million people
of a provincial capital city in China for half a year. Results show that there
is a critical size for ECN at about 150, above which the average emotional
closeness between ego and alters drops, the balanced relationship between ego
and network collapses, and the proportion of strong ties decreases. This paper
not only demonstrate the significance of ECN size in affecting its properties,
but also shows accordance with the "Dunbar's Number". These results can be
viewed as a cross-culture supportive evidence to the well-known Social Brain
Hypothesis (SBH).


  The Lieb-Robinson bound shows the existence of a maximum speed of signal
propagation in discrete quantum mechanical systems with local interactions.
This generalizes the concept of relativistic causality beyond field theory, and
provides a powerful tool in theoretical condensed matter physics and quantum
information science. Here, we extend the scope of this seminal result by
considering general Markovian quantum evolution, where we prove that an
equivalent bound holds. In addition, we use the generalized bound to
demonstrate that correlations in the stationary state of a Markov process decay
on a length-scale set by the Lieb-Robinson velocity and the system's relaxation
time.


  We compute the crossover exponents of all quadratic and cubic deformations of
critical field theories with permutation symmetry $S_q$ in $d=6-\epsilon$
(Landau-Potts field theories) and $d=4-\epsilon$ (hypertetrahedral models) up
to three loops.We use our results to determine the $\epsilon$-expansion of the
fractal dimension of critical clusters in the most interesting cases, which
include spanning trees and forests ($q\to0$), and bond percolations ($q\to1$).
We also explicitly verify several expected degeneracies in the spectrum of
relevant operators for natural values of $q$ upon analytic continuation, which
are linked to logarithmic corrections of CFT correlators, and use the
$\epsilon$-expansion to determine the universal coefficients of such
logarithms.


  The creation of 4D avatars (i.e., animated 3D avatars) from text description
typically uses text-to-image (T2I) diffusion models to synthesize 3D avatars in
the canonical space and subsequently applies animation with target motions.
However, such an optimization-by-animation paradigm has several drawbacks. (1)
For pose-agnostic optimization, the rendered images in canonical pose for naive
Score Distillation Sampling (SDS) exhibit domain gap and cannot preserve
view-consistency using only T2I priors, and (2) For post hoc animation, simply
applying the source motions to target 3D avatars yields translation artifacts
and misalignment. To address these issues, we propose Skeleton-aware Text-based
4D Avatar generation with in-network motion Retargeting (STAR). STAR considers
the geometry and skeleton differences between the template mesh and target
avatar, and corrects the mismatched source motion by resorting to the
pretrained motion retargeting techniques. With the informatively retargeted and
occlusion-aware skeleton, we embrace the skeleton-conditioned T2I and
text-to-video (T2V) priors, and propose a hybrid SDS module to coherently
provide multi-view and frame-consistent supervision signals. Hence, STAR can
progressively optimize the geometry, texture, and motion in an end-to-end
manner. The quantitative and qualitative experiments demonstrate our proposed
STAR can synthesize high-quality 4D avatars with vivid animations that align
well with the text description. Additional ablation studies shows the
contributions of each component in STAR. The source code and demos are
available at:
\href{https://star-avatar.github.io}{https://star-avatar.github.io}.


  In fundamental papers from 1962 [1, 2], Heffener and Haus showed that it is
not possible to construct a linear noiseless amplifier. The implies that the
amplifier intrinsic noise sources induce random perturbations on the phase of
the incoming optical signal which translates into spectral broadening. To
achieve the minimum (quantum noise limited) induced phase fluctuation, and the
corresponding minimum spectral broadening, an optimum phase measurement method
is needed. We demonstrate that a measurement method based on the heterodyne
detection and the extended Kalman filtering approaches an optimum phase
measurement in the presence of amplifier noise. A penalty of 5 dB (numerical)
and 15 dB (experimental) compared to the quantum limited spectral broadening is
achieved. For comparison, the conventional phase measurement method's penalty
exceeds 30 dB for the measurements. Our results reveal new scientific insights
by demonstrating that the impact of amplifier noise can be significantly
reduced by using the proposed phase measurement method. An impact is envisioned
for the phase-based optical sensing system, as optical amplification could
increase sensing distance with the minimum impact on the phase.


  In the Avoider-Enforcer game on the complete graph $K_n$, the players
(Avoider and Enforcer) each take an edge in turn. Given a graph property
$\mathcal{P}$, Enforcer wins the game if Avoider's graph has the property
$\mathcal{P}$. An important parameter is $\tau_E({\cal P})$, the smallest
integer $t$ such that Enforcer can win the game against any opponent in $t$
rounds.
  In this paper, let $\mathcal{F}$ be an arbitrary family of graphs and
$\mathcal{P}$ be the property that a member of $\mathcal{F}$ is a subgraph or
is an induced subgraph. We determine the asymptotic value of
$\tau_E(\mathcal{P})$ when $\mathcal{F}$ contains no bipartite graph and
establish that $\tau_E(\mathcal{P})=o(n^2)$ if $\mathcal{F}$ contains a
bipartite graph.
  The proof uses the game of JumbleG and the Szemer\'edi Regularity Lemma.


  Shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA) provide an alternative to adiabatic protocols
to guide the dynamics of the system of interest without the requirement of slow
driving. We report the controlled speedup via STA of the nonadiabatic dynamics
of a Fermi gas, both in the non-interacting and strongly coupled, unitary
regimes. Friction-free superadiabatic expansion strokes, with no residual
excitations in the final state, are demonstrated in the unitary regime by
engineering the modulation of the frequencies and aspect ratio of the harmonic
trap. STA are also analyzed and implemented in the high-temperature regime,
where the shear viscosity plays a pivotal role and the Fermi gas is described
by viscous hydrodynamics.


  This work presents new cardinality estimation methods for data sets recorded
by HyperLogLog sketches. A simple derivation of the original estimator was
found, that also gives insight how to correct its deficiencies. The result is
an improved estimator that is unbiased over the full cardinality range, is easy
computable, and does not rely on empirically determined data as previous
approaches. Based on the maximum likelihood principle a second unbiased
estimation method is presented which can also be extended to estimate
cardinalities of union, intersection, or relative complements of two sets that
are both represented as HyperLogLog sketches. Experimental results show that
this approach is more precise than the conventional technique using the
inclusion-exclusion principle.


  Swing amplification is a model of spiral arm formation in disk galaxies.
Previous $N$-body simulations show that the epicycle phases of stars in spiral
arms are synchronized. However, the elementary process of the phase
synchronization is not well understood. In order to investigate phase
synchronization, we investigate the orbital evolution of stars due to
gravitational scattering by a perturber under the epicycle approximation and
its dependence on orbital elements and a disk parameter. We find that
gravitational scattering by the perturber can cause phase synchronization of
stellar orbits. The epicycle phases are better synchronized for smaller initial
epicycle amplitudes of stars and larger shear rates of galactic disks. The
vertical motion of stars does not affect the phase synchronization. The phase
synchronization forms trailing dense regions, which may correspond to spiral
arms.


  Le-diagrams are combinatorial objects that parametrize cells of the totally
nonnegative Grassmannian, called positroid cells, and each Le-diagram gives
rise to a cluster algebra which is believed to be isomorphic to the coordinate
ring of the corresponding positroid variety. We study quivers arising from
these diagrams and show that they can be constructed from the well-behaved
quivers associated to Grassmannians by deleting and merging certain vertices.
Then, we prove that quivers coming from arbitrary Le-diagrams, and more
generally reduced plabic graphs, admit a particular sequence of mutations
called a green-to-red sequence.


  In this paper, we propose new algorithms for finding a common point of the
solution set of a pseudomonotone equilibrium problem and the set of fixed
points of a symmetric generalized hybrid mapping in a real Hilbert space. The
convergence of the iterates generated by each method is obtained under
assumptions that the fixed point mapping is quasi-nonexpansive and demiclosed
at $0$, and the bifunction associated with the equilibrium problem is weakly
continuous. The bifunction is assumed to be satisfying a Lipschitz-type
condition when the basic iteration comes from the extragradient method. It
becomes unnecessary when an Armijo back tracking linesearch is incorporated in
the extragradient method.


  A new solution to the mono-dimensional diffusion equation for time-variable
first kind boundary condition is presented where the time-variable function at
the surface is derived proposing a surface saturation model. This solution may
be helpful in the treatment of diffusion processes where the overall time of
diffusion is comparable with the time taken by the surface of the solid body to
saturate achieving a dynamical equilibrium between the diffusing elements
supplied by the external source and the ones transferred internally through the
diffusion kinetic mechanisms. Worked examples for constant diffusion
coefficient are presented and discussed.


  Drift-diffusion models that account for the motion of both electronic and
ionic charges are important tools for explaining the hysteretic behaviour and
guiding the development of metal halide perovskite solar cells. Furnishing
numerical solutions to such models for realistic operating conditions is
challenging owing to the extreme values of some of the parameters. In
particular, those characterising (i) the short Debye lengths (giving rise to
rapid changes in the solutions across narrow layers), (ii) the relatively large
potential differences across devices and (iii) the disparity in timescales
between the motion of the electronic and ionic species give rise to significant
stiffness. We present a finite difference scheme with an adaptive time step
that is posed on a non-uniform staggered grid that provides second order
accuracy in the mesh spacing. The method is able to cope with the stiffness of
the system for realistic parameters values whilst providing high accuracy and
maintaining modest computational costs. For example, a transient sweep of a
current-voltage curve can be computed in only a few minutes on a standard
desktop computer.


  Time-resolved CCD photometry is presented of the V~17 optical counterpart of
the newly-discovered, hard-X-ray-emitting polar Swift J2619.4+2619. A total of
~20 hr of data obtained over five nights in various bandpasses (B, V, R, and I)
reveals a strong quasi-sinusoidal modulation in the light curve at a
best-fitting period of 0.1254 d (3.01 hr), which we associate with the orbital
period of the system (one-day aliases of this period at 0.1114 d and 0.1435 d
are considered, but appear to be ruled out by our analysis). The amplitude of
the modulation increases with wavelength from ~0.8 mag in B to ~1.1 mag in R
and I. The increase in amplitude with wavelength is typical of polar systems
where the modulated radiation comes from cyclotron emission. The combination of
the relatively long orbital period and the emission of hard X-rays suggest that
Swift J2619.4+2619 may be a good candidate for an asynchronous polar system.


  Let $G=(V,E)$ be a directed graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges. The graph
$G$ is called singly-connected if for each pair of vertices $v,w \in V$ there
is at most one simple path from $v$ to $w$ in $G$. Buchsbaum and Carlisle
(1993) gave an algorithm for testing whether $G$ is singly-connected in
$O(n^{2})$ time. In this paper we describe a refined version of this algorithm
with running time $O(s\cdot t+m)$, where $s$ and $t$ are the number of sources
and sinks, respectively, in the reduced graph $G^{r}$ obtained by first
contracting each strongly connected component of $G$ into one vertex and then
eliminating vertices of indegree or outdegree $1$ by a contraction operation.
Moreover, we show that the problem of finding a minimum cardinality edge subset
$C\subseteq E$ (respectively, vertex subset $F\subseteq V$) whose removal from
$G$ leaves a singly-connected graph is NP-hard.


  In light filamentation induced by axicon-generated, powerful Bessel beams,
the spatial propagation dynamics in the nonlinear medium determines the
geometry of the filament channel and hence its potential applications. We show
that the observed steady and unsteady Bessel beam propagation regimes can be
understood in a unified way from the existence of an attractor and its
stability properties. The attractor is identified as the nonlinear unbalanced
Bessel beam (NL-UBB) whose inward H\"ankel beam amplitude equals the amplitude
of the linear Bessel beam that the axicon would generate in linear propagation.
A simple analytical formula that determines de NL-UBB attractor is given.
Steady or unsteady propagation depends on whether the attracting NL-UBB has a
small, exponentially growing, unstable mode. In case of unsteady propagation,
periodic, quasi-periodic or chaotic dynamics after the axicon reproduces
similar dynamics after the development of the small unstable mode into the
large perturbation regime.


  The estimation of speaker characteristics such as age and height is a
challenging task, having numerous applications in voice forensic analysis. In
this work, we propose a bi-encoder transformer mixture model for speaker age
and height estimation. Considering the wide differences in male and female
voice characteristics such as differences in formant and fundamental
frequencies, we propose the use of two separate transformer encoders for the
extraction of specific voice features in the male and female gender, using
wav2vec 2.0 as a common-level feature extractor. This architecture reduces the
interference effects during backpropagation and improves the generalizability
of the model. We perform our experiments on the TIMIT dataset and significantly
outperform the current state-of-the-art results on age estimation.
Specifically, we achieve root mean squared error (RMSE) of 5.54 years and 6.49
years for male and female age estimation, respectively. Further experiment to
evaluate the relative importance of different phonetic types for our task
demonstrate that vowel sounds are the most distinguishing for age estimation.


  This paper investigates online composite optimization in dynamic
environments, where each objective or loss function contains a time-varying
nondifferentiable regularizer. To resolve it, an online proximal gradient
algorithm is studied for two distinct scenarios, including convex and strongly
convex objectives without the smooth condition. In both scenarios, unlike most
of works, an extended version of the conventional path variation is employed to
bound the considered performance metric, i.e., dynamic regret. In the convex
scenario, a bound $\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{T^{1-\beta}D_\beta(T)+T})$ is obtained
which is comparable to the best-known result, where $D_\beta(T)$ is the
extended path variation with $\beta\in[0,1)$ and $T$ being the total number of
rounds. In strongly convex case, a bound $\mathcal{O}(\log
T(1+T^{-\beta}D_\beta(T)))$ on the dynamic regret is established. In the end,
numerical examples are presented to support the theoretical findings.


  Several physical quantities of light hadrons are examined by a new
holographic model of QCD, which is the modified version of the one proposed by
Erlich et al. defined on AdS${}_5$. In our model, AdS${}_5$ is deformed by a
non-trivial bulk scalar, this is corresponding to adding the mass term of the
adjoint fermions to the 4d SYM theory dual to the gravity on AdS${}_5$. We find
that this deformation should be taken to be rather small, but its important
effects are also seen.


  A model of multidimensional mixmaster-type vacuum universe is considered. It
belongs to a class of pseudo-Euclidean chains characterized by root vectors. An
algebraic approach of our investigation is founded on construction of Cartan
matrix of the spacelike root vectors in Wheeler -- DeWitt space. Kac -- Moody
algebras can be classified according to their Cartan matrix. By this way a
hidden symmetry of the model considered is revealed. It is known, that
gravitational models which demonstrate chaotic behavior are associated with
hyperbolic Kac -- Moody algebras. The algebra considered in our paper is not
hyperbolic. The square of Weyl vector is negative. The mixmaster-type universe
is associated with a simply-laced Lorentzian Kac -- Moody algebra. Since the
volume of the configuration space is infinite, the model is not chaotic.


  Deep-inelastic positron-proton interactions at low values of Bjorken-x down
to x \approx 4.10^-5 which give rise to high transverse momentum pi^0 mesons
are studied with the H1 experiment at HERA. The inclusive cross section for
pi^0 mesons produced at small angles with respect to the proton remnant (the
forward region) is presented as a function of the transverse momentum and
energy of the pi^0 and of the four-momentum transfer Q^2 and Bjorken-x.
Measurements are also presented of the transverse energy flow in events
containing a forward pi^0 meson. Hadronic final state calculations based on QCD
models implementing different parton evolution schemes are confronted with the
data.


  Mechanical loss in amorphous solids at low frequencies is commonly attributed
to thermally activated transitions of isolated two-level systems (TLS) that
come in resonance with a mechanical wave. Using atomistic modeling of amorphous
silicon, we observe instead that the inherent structures that constitute the
TLS form a sparsely connected network with thermodynamic pathways between
states. An analytically tractable theory for mechanical loss of the full
network is derived from a nonequilibrium thermodynamic perspective. We show
that the connected network model predicts mechanical loss with distinct
temperature and frequency profiles when compared to the isolated TLS model.
This not only calls into question the validity of the TLS model, but also gives
us many new avenues and properties to analyze for the targeted design of low
mechanical loss materials for applications in gravitational wave detectors.


  We present short proofs of two Tverberg-type theorems for cell complexes by
S. Hasui, D. Kishimoto, M. Takeda, and M. Tsutaya. One of them states that for
any prime power $r$, any simplicial sphere $X$ of dimension $(d+1)(r-1)-1$, and
any continuous map $f:X\to\mathbb R^d$ there are pairwise disjoint faces
$\sigma_1,\ldots,\sigma_r$ of $X$ such that $f(\sigma_1)\cap\ldots
f(\sigma_r)\ne\emptyset$.


  We show that Stolarsky's invariance principle, known for point distributions
on the Euclidean spheres, can be extended to the real, complex, and
quaternionic projective spaces and the octonionic projective plane. A part of
the results (Theorem~1.1 ana Corollary~1.1) was given early in the previous
paper [22], while the explicit formulas for the constants in the invariance
principles for projective spaces (Theorem~1.2 and Corollary~1.2) are new.


  TRIUMF ISAC 1 tuning controllers operate using minimum seeking sliding mode
controller to minimize the reflected power in their cavities. As with all
mini-mum seeking algorithms, chatter present in the control-ler can degrade its
performance and cause necessary mechanical wear. By observing the rate at which
the minimizing function approaches the sliding surface, it is possible to
determine whether a change in direction is necessary, thereby reducing the
amount of chatter throughout the minimum seeking process.


  We present a theoretical investigation of $\Lambda(1520)$ attenuation in
${\gamma}A$ reactions near the threshold. It is performed in the framework of a
collision model based on the nuclear spectral function. The model accounts for
both primary photon-nucleon ${\gamma}N \to K\Lambda(1520)$ and secondary
pion-nucleon ${\pi}N \to K\Lambda(1520)$ production processes. We calculate the
target mass and momentum dependences of the forward $\Lambda(1520)$ hyperon
production from nuclei at photon energy of 2 GeV as well as for two options for
its in-medium width. We find that the considered dependences are markedly
sensitive to this width. Our studies also demonstrate that the secondary
channel ${\pi}N \to K\Lambda(1520)$ plays a substantial role in the
intermediate momentum $\Lambda(1520)$ photoproduction on nuclei in the chosen
kinematics and, hence, is to be taken into account in the analysis of
$\Lambda(1520)$ hyperon photoproduction from nuclei with the aim to get
information on its width in the matter.


  We prove the existence and uniqueness of a projectively equivariant symbol
map (in the sense of Lecomte and Ovsienko) for the spaces $D_p$ of differential
operators transforming p-forms into functions. These results hold over a smooth
manifold endowed with a flat projective structure.
  As an application, we classify the Vect(M)-equivariant maps from $D_p$ to
$D_q$ over any manifold M, recovering and improving earlier results by N.
Poncin. This provides the complete answer to a question raised by P. Lecomte
about the extension of a certain intrinsic homotopy operator.


  A genus-g du Val curve is a degree-3g plane curve having 8 points of
multiplicity g, one point of multiplicity g-1, and no other singularity. We
prove that the corank of the Gauss-Wahl map of a general du Val curve of odd
genus (>11) is equal to one. This, together with the results of [1], shows that
the characterisation of Brill-Noether-Petri curves with non-surjective
Gauss-Wahl map as hyperplane sections of K3 surfaces and limits thereof,
obtained in [3], is optimal.


  Prompting has shown impressive success in enabling large pretrained language
models (LMs) to perform diverse NLP tasks, especially when only few downstream
data are available. Automatically finding the optimal prompt for each task,
however, is challenging. Most existing work resorts to tuning soft prompt
(e.g., embeddings) which falls short of interpretability, reusability across
LMs, and applicability when gradients are not accessible. Discrete prompt, on
the other hand, is difficult to optimize, and is often created by "enumeration
(e.g., paraphrasing)-then-selection" heuristics that do not explore the prompt
space systematically. This paper proposes RLPrompt, an efficient discrete
prompt optimization approach with reinforcement learning (RL). RLPrompt
formulates a parameter-efficient policy network that generates the desired
discrete prompt after training with reward. To overcome the complexity and
stochasticity of reward signals by the large LM environment, we incorporate
effective reward stabilization that substantially enhances the training
efficiency. RLPrompt is flexibly applicable to different types of LMs, such as
masked (e.g., BERT) and left-to-right models (e.g., GPTs), for both
classification and generation tasks. Experiments on few-shot classification and
unsupervised text style transfer show superior performance over a wide range of
existing finetuning or prompting methods. Interestingly, the resulting
optimized prompts are often ungrammatical gibberish text; and surprisingly,
those gibberish prompts are transferrable between different LMs to retain
significant performance, indicating LM prompting may not follow human language
patterns.


  We prove a general class of continuous variable entanglement criteria based
on the Husimi $Q$-distribution, which represents a quantum state in canonical
phase space, by employing a theorem by Lieb and Solovej. We discuss their
generality, which roots in the possibility to optimize over the set of concave
functions, from the perspective of continuous majorization theory and show that
with this approach families of entropic as well as second moment criteria
follow as special cases. All derived criteria are compared to corresponding
marginal based criteria and the strength of the phase space approach is
demonstrated for a family of prototypical example states where only our
criteria flag entanglement. Further, we explore their optimization prospects in
two experimentally relevant scenarios characterized by sparse data: finite
detector resolution and finite statistics. In both scenarios optimization leads
to clear improvements enlarging the class of detected states and the
signal-to-noise ratio of the detection, respectively.


  In this paper we investigate tensor fluctuations of the metric at the end of
a Higgs inflationary period in the context of a recently introduced complex
geometrical scalar-tensor theory of gravity. In our model the Higgs field has a
geometrical origin and the affine connection is determined by the Palatini's
principle. Additionally, we consider an extra contribution to the
tensor-fluctuations equation coming from the vacuum term in the energy momentum
tensor associated to the Higgs field. The Higgs potential is rescaled by the
non-canonicity function of the kinetic term of the field which is modified by
the symmetry group of the background geometry. We obtain a nearly scale
invariant spectrum and a scalar to tensor ratio in agreement with PLANCK 2018
cosmological results.


  The following paper presents two simulation strategies for compressible
two-phase or multicomponent flows. One is a full non-equilibrium model in which
the pressure and velocity are driven towards the equilibrium at interfaces by
numerical relaxation processes, the second is a four-equation model that
assumes stiff mechanical and thermal equilibrium between phases or components.
In both approaches, the thermodynamic behaviour of each fluid is modelled
independently according to the stiffened-gas equations of state. The presented
methods are used to simulate the de-pressurization of a pipe containing pure
CO$_2$ liquid and vapour under the one-dimensional approximation.


  We construct and test a quasi-perfect lattice action for staggered fermions.
The construction starts from free fermions, where we suggest a new blocking
scheme, which leads to excellent locality of the perfect action. An adequate
truncation preserves a high quality of the free action. An Abelian gauge field
is inserted in d=2 by effectively tuning the couplings to a few short-ranged
lattice paths, based on the behavior of topological zero modes. We simulate the
Schwinger model with this action, applying a new variant of Hybrid Monte Carlo,
which damps the computational overhead due to the non-standard couplings. We
obtain a tiny ``pion'' mass down to very small \beta, while the ``\eta'' mass
follows very closely the prediction of asymptotic scaling. The observation that
even short-ranged quasi-perfect actions can yield strong improvement is most
relevant in view of QCD.


  We study bosonic tau functions in relation with the charged free bosonic
fields. It is proved that up to a constant the only tau function in the Fock
space M is the vacuum vector, and some tau functions were given in the
completion of M using Schur functions. We also give a new proof of Borchardt's
identity and obtain several q-series identities by using the boson-boson
correspondence.


  We have performed a systematic high-momentum-resolution photoemission study
on ZrTe$_5$ using $6$ eV photon energy. We have measured the band structure
near the $\Gamma$ point, and quantified the gap between the conduction and
valence band as $18 \leq \Delta \leq 29$ meV. We have also observed
photon-energy-dependent behavior attributed to final-state effects and the 3D
nature of the material's band structure. Our interpretation indicates the gap
is intrinsic and reconciles discrepancies on the existence of a topological
surface state reported by different studies. The existence of a gap suggests
that ZrTe$_5$ is not a 3D strong topological insulator nor a 3D Dirac
semimetal. Therefore, our experiment is consistent with ZrTe$_5$ being a 3D
weak topological insulator.


  We study monomial ideals using the operation polarization to first turn them
into square-free monomial ideals. We focus on monomial ideals whose
polarization produce simplicial trees, and show that many of the properties of
simplicial trees hold for such ideals.This includes Cohen-Macaulayness of the
Rees ring, and being sequentially Cohen-Macaulay. The appendix is an
independent study of primary decomposition in a sequentially Cohen-Macaulay
module. We demonstrate how every submodule appearing in the filtration of a
sequentially Cohen-Macaulay module can be described in terms of the primary
decomposition of the 0-submodule.


  The chaotic hypothesis discussed in [GC1] is tested experimentally in a
simple conduction model. Besides a confirmation of the hypothesis predictions
the results suggest the validity of the hypothesis in the much wider context in
which, as the forcing strength grows, the attractor ceases to be an Anosov
system and becomes an Axiom A attractor. A first test of the new predictions is
also attempted.


  We estimate the potential size of the weak annihilation amplitudes in QCD
factorization as allowed by experimental data. To achieve this goal, we
establish a connection between the amplitudes in the QCD factorization and the
so-called topological and $SU(3)$-invariant descriptions. Our approach is based
purely on the analysis of the tensor structure of the decay amplitudes. By
focusing on the processes $B\rightarrow P P$ and considering data from CP
asymmetries and branching fractions, we perform a global fit to the
$SU(3)$-irreducible quantities assuming minimal theoretical bias. Subsequently
we translate the outcome to the QCD factorization decomposition, and find that
the most constrained weak annihilation amplitudes are below $4\%$. However, in
view of the large uncertainties in several of the experimental input
parameters, values up to $30\%$ are allowed in certain cases.


We show that cores of ideals do not preserve the inclusion.


  Folding a sequence $S$ into a multidimensional box is a well-known method
which is used as a multidimensional coding technique. The operation of folding
is generalized in a way that the sequence $S$ can be folded into various shapes
and not just a box. The new definition of folding is based on a lattice tiling
for the given shape $\cS$ and a direction in the $D$-dimensional integer grid.
Necessary and sufficient conditions that a lattice tiling for $\cS$ combined
with a direction define a folding of a sequence into $\cS$ are derived. The
immediate and most impressive application is some new lower bounds on the
number of dots in two-dimensional synchronization patterns. This can be also
generalized for multidimensional synchronization patterns. The technique and
its application for two-dimensional synchronization patterns, raise some
interesting problems in discrete geometry. We will also discuss these problems.
It is also shown how folding can be used to construct multidimensional
error-correcting codes. Finally, by using the new definition of folding,
multidimensional pseudo-random arrays with various shapes are generated.


  Regions with reduced and increased values of total enthalpy are observed in a
time-averaged flow behind a bluff body. This energy redistribution takes place
both in the vortex formation region and in the developed vortex wake. The
present paper focuses on studying the effect of the structure of a vortex
street on the intensity of energy redistribution. Two approaches are used. The
first one is direct numerical simulation of the flow behind a transversely
oscillating cylinder, which is known for a variety of vortex patterns in the
wake. The simulations are based on a finite element solution of the
Navier-Stokes equations for a compressible perfect viscous gas. The second
approach is based on simplified point vortex models for infinite periodic
vortex streets, which contain a finite number of vortex chains in equilibrium.
It turns out that these simple models make it possible to obtain satisfactory
qualitative results, particularly if a more precise approximation of velocity
fields in the vortex cores (Rankine vortices) is implemented. It is shown that
the effect of energy redistribution significantly depends on the vortex
structure, namely the mutual arrangement of the vortices and their intensities.
The estimates of the energy separation efficiency in the time-averaged flow are
obtained for the general case of an arbitrary number of chains. A more detailed
analysis is performed for vortex streets with 2, 3, and 4 vortex chains.


  In this paper we study the dynamics of a vertically-emitting micro-cavity
operated in the Gires-Tournois regime that contains a semiconductor
quantum-well and that is subjected to strong time-delayed optical feedback and
detuned optical injection. Using a first principle time-delay model for the
optical response, we disclose sets of multistable dark and bright temporal
localized states coexisting on their respective bistable homogeneous
backgrounds. In the case of anti-resonant optical feedback, we disclose
square-waves with a periodic of twice the round-trip in the external cavity.
Finally, we perform a multiple time-scale analysis in the good cavity limit.
The resulting normal form is in good agreement with the original time-delayed
model.


  We report transport measurements in a single edge channel of an InAs/GaSb
quantum spin Hall insulator, where the conduction occurs through only one pair
of counterpropagating edge modes. By using a specific sample design involving
highly asymmetric current paths, we electrically isolate a single edge channel
of the two-dimensional topological insulator from the other edge. This enables
us to probe a single edge by multiterminal measurements. Both two-terminal and
four-terminal resistances show a nearly quantized plateau around $h/e^2$ for a
4-$\mu$m-long edge, indicating quasiballistic transport. Our approach is
advantageous in that it allows us to gain insight into a microscopic region
from local measurements.


  We consider estimating a compact set from finite data by approximating the
support function of that set via sublinear regression. Support functions
uniquely characterize a compact set up to closure of convexification, and are
sublinear (convex as well as positive homogeneous of degree one). Conversely,
any sublinear function is the support function of a compact set. We leverage
this property to transcribe the task of learning a compact set to that of
learning its support function. We propose two algorithms to perform the
sublinear regression, one via convex and another via nonconvex programming. The
convex programming approach involves solving a quadratic program (QP). The
nonconvex programming approach involves training a input sublinear neural
network. We illustrate the proposed methods via numerical examples on learning
the reach sets of controlled dynamics subject to set-valued input uncertainties
from trajectory data.


  In this paper, we propose \textit{selectively precoded polar (SPP) code},
built on top of Arikan's capacity achieving polar codes. We provide the
encoding and decoding scheme for SPP code. Simulation results show that for a
target frame erasure rate (FER) of $\mathbf{10^{-5}}$, a (128, 64) SPP code is
just 0.23 dB away from the information theoretic limit at this blocklength.
Further, it is also shown that such codes possess better distance properties
compared to other contemporary polar code variants.


  By Gyongy's theorem, a local and stochastic volatility (LSV) model is
calibrated to the market prices of all European call options with positive
maturities and strikes if its local volatility function is equal to the ratio
of the Dupire local volatility function over the root conditional mean square
of the stochastic volatility factor given the spot value. This leads to a SDE
nonlinear in the sense of McKean. Particle methods based on a kernel
approximation of the conditional expectation, as presented by Guyon and
Henry-Labord\`ere (2011), provide an efficient calibration procedure even if
some calibration errors may appear when the range of the stochastic volatility
factor is very large. But so far, no global existence result is available for
the SDE nonlinear in the sense of McKean. In the particular case where the
local volatility function is equal to the inverse of the root conditional mean
square of the stochastic volatility factor multiplied by the spot value given
this value and the interest rate is zero, the solution to the SDE is a fake
Brownian motion. When the stochastic volatility factor is a constant (over
time) random variable taking finitely many values and the range of its square
is not too large, we prove existence to the associated Fokker-Planck equation.
Thanks to Figalli (2008), we then deduce existence of a new class of fake
Brownian motions. We then extend these results to the special case of the LSV
model called regime switching local volatility, where the stochastic volatility
factor is a jump process taking finitely many values and with jump intensities
depending on the spot level. Under the same condition on the range of its
square, we prove existence to the associated Fokker-Planck PDE. Finally, we
deduce existence of the calibrated model by extending the results in Figalli
(2008).


  For a variety of on-going and planned gravitational-wave (GW) experiments, we
study expected constraints on the fraction ($f_{\rm PBH}$) of primordial black
holes (PBHs) in dark matter by evaluating the energy-density spectra of two
kinds of stochastic GW backgrounds. The first one is produced from an
incoherent superposition of GWs emitted from coalescences of all the binary
PBHs. The second one is induced through non-linear mode couplings of large
primordial curvature perturbations inevitably associated with the generation of
PBHs in the early Universe. In this paper, we focus on the PBHs with their
masses of $10^{-8}M_{\odot}\leq M_{\mathrm{PBH}} < 1M_{\odot}$, since they are
not expected to be of a stellar origin. In almost all ranges of the masses, we
show that the experiments are sensitive to constrain the fraction for $10^{-5}
\lesssim f_{\rm PBH} \lesssim 1$ by considering the GWs from coalescing events
and $10^{-13} \lesssim f_{\rm PBH} \lesssim 1$ by considering the GWs from
curvature perturbations. Exceptionally, only in a narrow range of masses for
$M_{\mathrm{PBH}} \simeq 10^{-7} M_{\odot}$, the fraction cannot be constrained
for $f_{\rm PBH} \lesssim 10^{-13}$ by those two GW backgrounds.


  The problem of session-aware recommendation aims to predict users' next click
based on their current session and historical sessions. Existing session-aware
recommendation methods have defects in capturing complex item transition
relationships. Other than that, most of them fail to explicitly distinguish the
effects of different historical sessions on the current session. To this end,
we propose a novel method, named Personalized Graph Neural Networks with
Attention Mechanism (A-PGNN) for brevity. A-PGNN mainly consists of two
components: one is Personalized Graph Neural Network (PGNN), which is used to
extract the personalized structural information in each user behavior graph,
compared with the traditional Graph Neural Network (GNN) model, which considers
the role of the user when the node embeddding is updated. The other is
Dot-Product Attention mechanism, which draws on the Transformer net to
explicitly model the effect of historical sessions on the current session.
Extensive experiments conducted on two real-world data sets show that A-PGNN
evidently outperforms the state-of-the-art personalized session-aware
recommendation methods.


  The dynamics of a one dimensional growth model involving attachment and
detachment of particles is studied in the presence of a localized growth
inhomogeneity along with anchored boundary conditions. At large times, the
latter enforce an equilibrium stationary regime which allows for an exact
calculation of roughening exponents. The stochastic evolution is related to a
spin Hamiltonian whose spectrum gap embodies the dynamic scaling exponent of
late stages. For vanishing gaps the interface can exhibit a slow morphological
transition followed by a change of scaling regimes which are studied
numerically. Instead, a faceting dynamics arises for gapful situations.


  For soft robots to work effectively in human-centered environments, they need
to be able to estimate their state and external interactions based on
(proprioceptive) sensors. Estimating disturbances allows a soft robot to
perform desirable force control. Even in the case of rigid manipulators, force
estimation at the end-effector is seen as a non-trivial problem. And indeed,
other current approaches to address this challenge have shortcomings that
prevent their general application. They are often based on simplified soft
dynamic models, such as the ones relying on a piece-wise constant curvature
(PCC) approximation or matched rigid-body models that do not represent enough
details of the problem. Thus, the applications needed for complex human-robot
interaction can not be built. Finite element methods (FEM) allow for
predictions of soft robot dynamics in a more generic fashion. Here, using the
soft robot modeling capabilities of the framework SOFA, we build a detailed FEM
model of a multi-segment soft continuum robotic arm composed of compliant
deformable materials and fiber-reinforced pressurized actuation chambers with a
model for sensors that provide orientation output. This model is used to
establish a state observer for the manipulator. Model parameters were
calibrated to match imperfections of the manual fabrication process using
physical experiments. We then solve a quadratic programming inverse dynamics
problem to compute the components of external force that explain the pose
error. Our experiments show an average force estimation error of around 1.2%.
As the methods proposed are generic, these results are encouraging for the task
of building soft robots exhibiting complex, reactive, sensor-based behavior
that can be deployed in human-centered environments.


  We improve a theoretical result of the article "On Exploiting Spectral
Properties for Solving MDP with Large State Space" showing that their
algorithm, which was proved to converge under some unrealistic assumptions, is
actually guaranteed to converge always.


  Exposing a many-body system to external drives and losses can transform the
nature of its phases and opens perspectives for engineering new properties of
matter. How such characteristics are related to the underlying microscopic
processes of the driven and dissipative system is a fundamental question. Here
we address this point in a quantum gas that is strongly coupled to a lossy
optical cavity mode using two independent Raman drives, which act on the spin
and motional degrees of freedom of the atoms. This setting allows us to control
the competition between coherent dynamics and dissipation by adjusting the
imbalance between the drives. For strong enough coupling, the transition to a
superradiant phase occurs, as is the case for a closed system. Yet, by
imbalancing the drives we can enter a dissipation-stabilized normal phase and a
region of multistability. Measuring the properties of excitations on top of the
out-of-equilibrium phases reveals the microscopic elementary processes in the
open system. Our findings provide prospects for studying squeezing in
non-Hermitian systems, quantum jumps in superradiance, and dynamical spin-orbit
coupling in a dissipative setting.


  Flag matroids are combinatorial abstractions of flags of linear subspaces,
just as matroids are of linear subspaces. We introduce the flag Dressian as a
tropical analogue of the partial flag variety, and prove a correspondence
between: (a) points on the flag Dressian, (b) valuated flag matroids, (c) flags
of projective tropical linear spaces, and (d) coherent flag matroidal
subdivisions. We introduce and characterize projective tropical linear spaces,
which serve as a fundamental tool in our proof. We apply the correspondence to
prove that all valuated flag matroids on ground set up to size 5 are
realizable, and give an example where this fails for a flag matroid on 6
elements.


  We prove a Lindel\"of on average bound for the eighth moment of a family of
$L$-functions attached to automorphic forms on $GL(2)$, the first time this has
been accomplished. Previously, such a bound had been proven for the sixth
moment for our family by Djankovi\'c and for a similar family by Young. Our
proof rests on a new approach which overcomes the lack of perfect orthogonality
in the family initially observed by Iwaniec and Xiaoqing Li.


  We propose a scheme for teleporting an atomic center-of-mass wave function
between distant locations. The scheme uses interactions in cavity quantum
electrodynamics to facilitate a coupling between the motion of an atom trapped
inside a cavity and external propagating light fields. This enables the
distribution of quantum entanglement and the realization of the required
motional Bell-state analysis.


  The $U$-spin symmetry provides a powerful tool to extract the angle $\gamma$
of the Unitarity Triangle and the $B_s^0$-$\bar{B}_s^0$ mixing phase $\phi_s$
from CP violation in the $B^0_s\to K^-K^+$, $B^0_d\to\pi^-\pi^+$ system. LHCb
has obtained first results with uncertainties at the $7^\circ$ level. Due to
$U$-spin-breaking corrections, it will be challenging to reduce the uncertainty
below ${\cal O}(5^\circ)$ at Belle II and the LHCb upgrade. We propose a new
strategy, using $\gamma$ as input and utilizing $B^0_s\to K^-\ell^+\nu_\ell$,
$B^0_d\to \pi^-\ell^+\nu_\ell$ decays, which allows an extraction of $\phi_s$
with a future theoretical precision of up to ${\cal O}(0.5^\circ)$, thereby
matching the experimental prospects. Since $B^0_s\to K^-K^+$ is dominated by
penguin topologies, new sources of CP violation may be revealed.


  In the last two decades, a nanostructuring paradigm has been successfully
applied in a wide range of thermoelectric materials, resulting in significant
reduction in thermal conductivity and superior thermoelectric performance.
These advances, however, have been accomplished without directly investigating
the local thermoelectric properties, even though local electric current can be
mapped with high spatial resolution. In fact, there still lacks an effective
method that links the macroscopic thermoelectric performance to the local
microstructures and properties. Here, we show that local thermal conductivity
can be mapped quantitatively with good accuracy, nanometer resolution, and
one-to-one correspondence to the microstructure using a three-phase
skutterudite as a model system. Scanning thermal microscopy combined with
finite element simulations demonstrate close correlation between sample
conductivity and probe resistance, enabling us to distinguish thermal
conductivities spanning orders of magnitude, yet resolving thermal variation
across a phase interface with small contrast. The technique thus provides a
powerful tool to correlate local thermal conductivities, microstructures, and
macroscopic properties for nanostructured materials in general, and
nanostructured thermoelectrics in particular.


  With the emergence of social networks and improvements in computational
photography, billions of JPEG images are shared and viewed on a daily basis.
Desktops, tablets and smartphones constitute the vast majority of hardware
platforms used for displaying JPEG images. Despite the fact that these
platforms are heterogeneous multicores, no approach exists yet that is capable
of joining forces of a system's CPU and GPU for JPEG decoding. In this paper we
introduce a novel JPEG decoding scheme for heterogeneous architectures
consisting of a CPU and an OpenCL-programmable GPU. We employ an offline
profiling step to determine the performance of a system's CPU and GPU with
respect to JPEG decoding. For a given JPEG image, our performance model uses
(1) the CPU and GPU performance characteristics, (2) the image entropy and (3)
the width and height of the image to balance the JPEG decoding workload on the
underlying hardware. Our run-time partitioning and scheduling scheme exploits
task, data and pipeline parallelism by scheduling the non-parallelizable
entropy decoding task on the CPU, whereas inverse cosine transformations
(IDCTs), color conversions and upsampling are conducted on both the CPU and the
GPU. Our kernels have been optimized for GPU memory hierarchies. We have
implemented the proposed method in the context of the libjpeg-turbo library,
which is an industrial-strength JPEG encoding and decoding engine.
Libjpeg-turbo's hand-optimized SIMD routines for ARM and x86 constitute a
competitive yardstick for the comparison to the proposed approach.
Retro-fitting our method with libjpeg-turbo provided insights on the
software-engineering aspects of re-engineering legacy code for heterogeneous
multicores.


  We study the properties of axial vector mesons a1 and b1 as relativistic
S-wave states which are predicted in the U~(12)-scheme, through the analyses of
their radiative and pionic decays. Specifically, partial widths of the strong
a1 (b1) -> rho(omega) pi processes, their D/S-wave amplitude ratios, and
radiative transition widths of a1(b1) -> pi gamma processes are calculated by
using a simple decay interaction model, and made a comparison with the
respective experimental values.


  We study the dissipative dynamics of an atom in a V-level configuration
driven by lasers and coupled to a semi-infinite waveguide. The coupling to the
waveguide is chiral, in that each transition interacts only with the modes
propagating in a given direction, and this direction is opposite for the two
transitions. The waveguide is terminated by a mirror which coherently feeds the
photon stream emitted by one transition back to the atom. First, we are
interested in the dynamics of the atom in the Markovian limit where the
time-delay in the feedback is negligible. Specifically, we study the conditions
under which the atom evolves towards a pure "dark" stationary state, where the
photons emitted by both transitions interfere destructively thanks to the
coherent feedback, and the overall emission vanishes. This is a single-atom
analog of the quantum dimer, where a pair of laser-driven two-level atoms is
coupled to a unidirectional waveguide and dissipates towards a pure entangled
dark state. Our setup should be feasible with current state-of-the-art
experiments. Second, we extend our study to non-Markovian regimes and
investigate the effect of the feedback retardation on the steady-state.


  We present detailed investigations of the magnetic properties of an Fe
monolayer on W and Ta (110) surfaces based on the ab initio screened
Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method. By calculating tensorial exchange coupling
coefficients, the ground states of the systems are determined using atomistic
spin dynamics simulations. Different types of ground states are found in the
systems as a function of relaxation of the Fe layer. In case of W(110)
substrate this is reflected in a reorientation of the easy axis from in-plane
to out-of-plane. For Ta(110) a switching appears from the ferromagnetic state
to a cycloidal spin spiral state, then to another spin spiral state with a
larger wave vector and, for large relaxations, a rotation of the normal vector
of the spin spiral is found. Classical Monte Carlo simulations indicate
temperature-induced transitions between the different magnetic phases observed
in the Fe/Ta(110) system. These phase transitions are analyzed both
quantitatively and qualitatively by finite-temperature spin wave theory.