  We perform a time-dependent amplitude analysis of $B^0 \to K^0_S\pi^+\pi^-$
decays to extract the CP violation parameters of $f_0(980) K^0_S$ and
$\rho^0(770) K^0_S$ and the direct CP asymmetry of $K^{*+}(892) \pi^-$. The
results are obtained from a data sample of $(383 \pm 3) \times 10^6$ $B\bar{B}$
decays, collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy $B$
factory at SLAC. We find two solutions, with an equivalent goodness-of-fit.
Including systematic and Dalitz plot model uncertainties, the combined
confidence interval for values of the CP parameter $\beta_{eff}$ in $B^0$
decays to $f_0(980) K^0_S$ is $18^o < \beta_{eff} < 76^o$ at 95% confidence
level (C.L). CP conservation in $B^0$ decays to $f_0(980) K^0_S$ is excluded at
$3.5\sigma$ including systematic uncertainties. For $B^0$ decays to
$\rho^0(770) K^0_S$, the combined confidence interval is $-9^o < \beta_{eff} <
57^o$ at 95% C.L. In decays to $K^{*+}(892) \pi^-$ we measure the direct CP
asymmetry to be $A_{CP}=-0.20 \pm 0.10 \pm 0.01 \pm 0.02$. The measured phase
difference (including $B^0\bar{B}^0$ mixing) between decay amplitudes of $B^0
\to K^{*+}(892) \pi^-$ and $\bar{B}^0 \to K^{*-}(892) \pi^+$, excludes the
interval $-137^o < \Delta\Phi(K^{*+}(892) \pi^-) < -5^o$ at 95% C.L.


  The luminous X-ray binary Circinus X-1 has been observed twice near zero
orbital phase using the High-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS)
onboard Chandra. The source was in a high-flux state during a flare for the
first observation, and it was in a low-flux state during a dip for the second.
Spectra from both flux states show clear P Cygni lines, predominantly from
H-like and He-like ion species. These indicate the presence of a high-velocity
outflow from the Cir X-1 system which we interpret as an equatorial
accretion-disk wind, and from the blueshifted resonance absorption lines we
determine outflow velocities of 200 - 1900 km/s with no clear velocity
differences between the two flux states. The line strengths and profiles,
however, are strongly variable both between the two observations as well as
within the individual observations. We characterize this variability and
suggest that it is due to both changes in the amount of absorbing material
along the line of sight as well as changes in the ionization level of the wind.
We also refine constraints on the accretion-disk wind model using improved
plasma diagnostics such as the He-like Mg XI triplet, and we consider the
possibility that the X-ray absorption features seen from superluminal jet
sources can generally be explained via high-velocity outflows.


  The weak temperature dependence of the resistance R(T) of monolayer
graphene1-3 indicates an extraordinarily high intrinsic mobility of the charge
carriers. Important complications are the presence of mobile scattering centres
that strongly modify charge transport, and the presence of strong mesoscopic
conductance fluctuations that, in graphene, persist to relatively high
temperatures4,5. In this Letter, we investigate the surprisingly varied changes
in resistance that we find in graphene flakes as temperature is lowered below
70 K. We propose that these changes in R(T) arise from the temperature
dependence of the scattered electron wave interference that causes the
resistance fluctuations. Using the field effect transistor configuration, we
verify this explanation in detail from measurements of R(T) by tuning to
different gate voltages corresponding to particular features of the resistance
fluctuations. We propose simple expressions that model R(T) at both low and
high charge carrier densities.


  In this paper, we present a pipeline for image extraction from historical
documents using foundation models, and evaluate text-image prompts and their
effectiveness on humanities datasets of varying levels of complexity. The
motivation for this approach stems from the high interest of historians in
visual elements printed alongside historical texts on the one hand, and from
the relative lack of well-annotated datasets within the humanities when
compared to other domains. We propose a sequential approach that relies on
GroundDINO and Meta's Segment-Anything-Model (SAM) to retrieve a significant
portion of visual data from historical documents that can then be used for
downstream development tasks and dataset creation, as well as evaluate the
effect of different linguistic prompts on the resulting detections.


  We define and study analogs of the Thouless charge pump for many-body gapped
systems in dimension $D$. We show how to attach a topological invariant to a
$D$-dimensional family of such systems, provided all of them have an on-site
$U(1)$ symmetry. For a large class of families we argue that this topological
invariant is an integer. In the case of gapped systems of free fermions in two
dimensions, the invariant can be expressed in terms of the curvature of the
Bloch-Berry connection. We also obtain a new formula for the Thouless charge
pump in 1d which involves only static linear response and is analogous to the
Streda formula for Hall conductivity.


  We summarize our modelling of galaxy photometric evolution (GRASIL code). By
including the effects of dust grains and PAHs molecules in a two phases clumpy
medium, where clumps are associated to star forming regions, we reproduce the
observed UV to radio SEDs of galaxies with star formation rates from zero to
several hundreds $M_\odot/yr$. GRASIL is a powerful tool to investigate the
star formation, the initial mass function and the supernovae rate in nearby
starbursts and normal galaxies, as well as to predict the evolution of
luminosity functions of different types of galaxies at wavelengths covering six
decades. It may be interfaced with any device providing the star formation and
metallicity histories of a galaxy. As an application, we have investigated the
properties of early-type galaxies in the HDF, tracking the contribution of this
population to the cosmic star-formation history, which has a broad peak between
z=1.5 and 4. To explain the absence of objects at z $\gsim$ 1.3, we suggest a
sequence of dust-enshrouded merging-driven starbursts in the first few Gyrs of
galaxies lifetime. We are at present working on a complementary sample of late
type objects selected in a similar way.


  Rewinding the arrow of time via phase conjugation is an intriguing phenomena
made possible by the wave property of light. To exploit this phenomenon,
diverse research fields have pursed the realization of an ideal phase
conjugation mirror, but an optical system that requires a single-input and a
single-output beam, like natural conventional mirrors has never been
demonstrated. Here, we demonstrate the realization of a one-wave optical phase
conjugation mirror using a spatial light modulator. An adaptable single-mode
filter is created, and a phase-conjugate beam is then prepared by reverse
propagation through this filter. Our method is simple, alignment free, and fast
while allowing high power throughput in the time reversed wave, which have not
been simultaneously demonstrated before. Using our method, we demonstrate high
throughput full-field light delivery through highly scattering biological
tissue and multimode fibers, even for quantum dot fluorescence.


  The effects of radiation damage in silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) from
gamma rays have been measured and compared with the damage produced by
neutrons. Several types of MPPCs from Hamamatsu were exposed to gamma rays and
neutrons at the Solid State Gamma Ray Irradiation Facility (SSGRIF) at
Brookhaven National Lab and the Institute for Nuclear Research (Atomki) in
Debrecen, Hungary. The gamma ray exposures ranged from 1 krad to 1 Mrad and the
neutron exposures ranged from 10$^8$ n/cm$^2$ to 10$^{12}$ n/cm$^2$. The main
effect of gamma ray damage is an increase in the noise and leakage current in
the irradiated devices, similar to what is seen from neutron damage, but the
level of damage is considerably less at comparable high levels of exposure. In
addition, the damage from gamma rays saturates after a few hundred krad, while
the damage from neutrons shows no sign of saturation, suggestive of different
damage mechanisms in the two cases. The change in optical absorption in the
window material of the SiPMs due to radiation was also measured. This study was
carried out in order to evaluate the use of SiPMs for particle physics
applications with moderate levels of radiation exposures.


  The online Markov decision process (MDP) is a generalization of the classical
Markov decision process that incorporates changing reward functions. In this
paper, we propose practical online MDP algorithms with policy iteration and
theoretically establish a sublinear regret bound. A notable advantage of the
proposed algorithm is that it can be easily combined with function
approximation, and thus large and possibly continuous state spaces can be
efficiently handled. Through experiments, we demonstrate the usefulness of the
proposed algorithm.


  Liouville Conformal Field Theory (LCFT) on the disk describes the conformal
factor of the quantum disk, which is the natural random surface in Liouville
quantum gravity with disk topology. Fateev, Zamolodchikov and Zamolodchikov
(2000) proposed an explicit expression, the so-called the FZZ formula, for the
one-point bulk structure constant for LCFT on the disk. In this paper we give a
proof of the FZZ formula in the probabilistic framework of LCFT, which
represents the first step towards rigorously solving boundary LCFT using
conformal bootstrap. In contrast to previous works, our proof is based on
conformal welding of quantum disks and the mating-of-trees theory for Liouville
quantum gravity. As a byproduct of our proof, we also obtain the exact value of
the variance for the Brownian motion in the mating-of-trees theory. Our paper
is an essential part of an ongoing program proving integrability results for
Schramm-Loewner evolutions, LCFT, and in the mating-of-trees theory.


  Let $K_n$ be the set of all $n\times n$ lower triangular (0,1)-matrices with
each diagonal element equal to $1$, $L_n = \{ YY^T: Y\in K_n\}$ and let
\begin{equation*} c_n = \min_{Z\in L_n} \left\lbrace \mu_n^{(1)}(Z):\mu_n^{(1)}
(Z) \text{ is the smallest eigenvalue of } Z \right\rbrace . \end{equation*}
The Ilmonen-Haukkanen-Merikoski conjecture (the IHM conjecture) states that
$c_n$ is equal to the smallest eigenvalue of $Y_0Y_0^T$, where
\begin{equation*}
  (Y_0)_{ij}=\left\lbrace \ \begin{array}{cl}
  0 & \text{if } \ i<j,
  1 & \text{if } \ i=j,
  \frac{1-(-1)^{i+j}}{2} & \text{if } \ i>j.
  \end{array}
  \right. \end{equation*} In this paper we present a proof of this conjecture.
In our proof we use an inequality for spectral radii of nonnegative matrices.


  A generalized semitoric system F:=(J,H): M --> R^2 on a symplectic 4-manifold
is an integrable system whose essential properties are that F is a proper map,
its set of regular values is connected, J generates an S^1-action and is not
necessarily proper. These systems can exhibit focus-focus singularities, which
correspond to fibers of F which are topologically multipinched tori. The image
F(M) is a singular affine manifold which contains a distinguished set of
isolated points in its interior: the focus-focus values {(x_i,y_i)} of F. By
performing a vertical cutting procedure along the lines {x:=x_i}, we construct
a homeomorphism f : F(M) --> f(F(M)), which restricts to an affine
diffeomorphism away from these vertical lines, and generalizes a construction
of Vu Ngoc. The set \Delta:=f(F(M)) in R^2 is a symplectic invariant of
(M,\omega,F), which encodes the affine structure of F. Moreover, \Delta may be
described as a countable union of planar regions of four distinct types, where
each type is defined as the region bounded between the graphs of two functions
with various properties (piecewise linear, continuous, convex, etc). If F is a
toric system, \Delta is a convex polygon (as proven by Atiyah and
Guillemin-Sternberg) and f is the identity.


  We study the relationship between Gromov-Witten invariants of local
$\mathbb{P}^4$ and Gromov-witten invariants of $[\mathbb{C}^5/\mathbb{Z}_5]$
for all genera. We state the crepant resolution conjecture in explicit form and
prove this conjecture for $g=2,3.$


  Passive reaction effects in grasp stability analysis occur when the contact
forces and joint torques applied by a grasp change in response to external
disturbances applied to the grasped object. For example, nonbackdrivable
actuators (e.g. highly geared servos) will passively resist external
disturbances without an actively applied command; for numerous robot hands
using such motors, these effects can be highly beneficial as they increase
grasp resistance without requiring active control. We introduce a grasp
stability analysis method that can model these effects, and, for a given grasp,
distinguish between disturbances that will be passively resisted and those that
will not. We find that, in order to achieve this, the grasp model must include
accurate energetic constraints. One way to achieve this is to consider the
Maximum Dissipation Principle (MDP), a part of the Coulomb friction model that
is rarely used in grasp stability analysis. However, the MDP constraints are
non-convex, and difficult to solve efficiently. We thus introduce a convex
relaxation method, along with an algorithm that successively refines this
relaxation locally in order to obtain solutions to arbitrary accuracy
efficiently. Our resulting algorithm can determine if a grasp is passively
stable, solve for equilibrium contact forces and compute optimal actuator
commands for stability. Its implementation is publicly available as part of the
open-source GraspIt! simulator.


  The focusing properties of three aspheric lenses with numerical aperture (NA)
between 0.53 and 0.68 were directly measured using an interferometrically
referenced scanning knife-edge beam profiler with sub-micron resolution. The
results obtained for two of the three lenses tested were in agreement with
paraxial gaussian beam theory. It was also found that the highest NA aspheric
lens which was designed for 830nm was not diffraction limited at 633nm. This
process was automated using motorized translation stages and provides a direct
method for testing the design specifications of high numerical aperture optics.


  We construct a scenario where the outburst of the young-stellar-object
ASASSN-15qi is an intermediate luminosity optical transient (ILOT). In this
scenario a sub-Jupiter young planet was tidally destructed on to a young
main-sequence star. The system is young, therefore the radius of the planet is
larger than its final value, and consequently its density is smaller. The lower
density allows the tidal destruction of the young Saturn-like planet on to the
main-sequence star of mass $\approx 2.4~\rm{M_\odot}$, resulting in a formation
of a disc and a gravitationally-powered ILOT. Unlike the case of the more
energetic ILOT V838~Mon, the mass of the destructed planet is too low to
inflate a giant envelope, and hence the merger remnant stays hot. If our
suggested model holds, this ILOT possesses two interesting properties: (1) its
luminosity and total energy are below those of novae, and (2) it is not as red
as other ILOTs. The unusual outburst of ASASSN-15qi, if indeed is an ILOT,
further increases the diversity of the already heterogeneous group of ILOTs. We
mark the region on the energy-time diagram occupied by such young ILOTs.


  We study a quantum version of the sequential game illustrating problems
connected with making rational decisions. We compare the results that the two
models (quantum and classical) yield. In the quantum model intransitivity gains
importance significantly. We argue that the quantum model describes our
spontaneously shown preferences more precisely than the classical model, as
these preferences are often intransitive.


  In recent years, several machine learning approaches have been proposed to
predict gene expression and epigenetic signals from the DNA sequence alone.
These models are often used to deduce, and, to some extent, assess putative new
biological insights about gene regulation, and they have led to very
interesting advances in regulatory genomics. This article reviews a selection
of these methods, ranging from linear models to random forests, kernel methods,
and more advanced deep learning models. Specifically, we detail the different
techniques and strategies that can be used to extract new gene-regulation
hypotheses from these models. Furthermore, because these putative insights need
to be validated with wet-lab experiments, we emphasize that it is important to
have a measure of confidence associated with the extracted hypotheses. We
review the procedures that have been proposed to measure this confidence for
the different types of machine learning models, and we discuss the fact that
they do not provide the same kind of information.


We will construct twisted versions of the wild character varieties.


  We present results demonstrating the occurrence of changes in the collective
dynamics of a Hamiltonian system which describes a confined microplasma
characterized by long--range Coulomb interactions. In its lower energy regime,
we first detect macroscopically, the transition from a "crystalline--like" to a
"liquid--like" behavior, which we call the "melting transition". We then
proceed to study this transition using a microscopic chaos indicator called the
\emph{Smaller Alignment Index} (SALI), which utilizes two deviation vectors in
the tangent dynamics of the flow and is nearly constant for ordered
(quasi--periodic) orbits, while it decays exponentially to zero for chaotic
orbits as $\exp(-(\lambda_{1}-\lambda_{2})t)$, where
$\lambda_{1}>\lambda_{2}>0$ are the two largest Lyapunov exponents. During the
"melting phase", SALI exhibits a peculiar, stair--like decay to zero,
reminiscent of "sticky" orbits of Hamiltonian systems near the boundaries of
resonance islands. This alerts us to the importance of the
$\Delta\lambda=\lambda_{1}-\lambda_{2}$ variations in that regime and helps us
identify the energy range over which "melting" occurs as a multi--stage
diffusion process through weakly chaotic layers in the phase space of the
microplasma. Additional evidence supporting further the above findings is given
by examining the $GALI_{k}$ indices, which generalize SALI (=$GALI_{2}$) to the
case of $k>2$ deviation vectors and depend on the complete spectrum of Lyapunov
exponents of the tangent flow about the reference orbit.


  Directed graphs can be partitioned in so-called passages. A passage P is a
set of edges such that any two edges sharing the same initial vertex or sharing
the same terminal vertex are both inside $P$ or are both outside of P. Passages
were first identified in the context of process mining where they are used to
successfully decompose process discovery and conformance checking problems. In
this article, we examine the properties of passages. We will show that passages
are closed under set operators such as union, intersection and difference.
Moreover, any passage is composed of so-called minimal passages. These
properties can be exploited when decomposing graph-based analysis and
computation problems.


  Despite the rapid development of video Large Language Models (LLMs), a
comprehensive evaluation is still absent. In this paper, we introduce a unified
evaluation that encompasses multiple video tasks, including captioning,
question and answering, retrieval, and action recognition. In addition to
conventional metrics, we showcase how GPT-based evaluation can match human-like
performance in assessing response quality across multiple aspects. We propose a
simple baseline: Video-LLaVA, which uses a single linear projection and
outperforms existing video LLMs. Finally, we evaluate video LLMs beyond
academic datasets, which show encouraging recognition and reasoning
capabilities in driving scenarios with only hundreds of video-instruction pairs
for fine-tuning. We hope our work can serve as a unified evaluation for video
LLMs, and help expand more practical scenarios. The evaluation code will be
available soon.


  This paper revisits the partial information optimal control problem
considered by Wang, Wu and Xiong [Wang et al 2013], where the system is derived
by a controlled forward-backward stochastic differential equation with
correlated noises between the system and the observation.
  For this type of partial information optimal control problem, one necessary
and one suffcient (a verification theorem) conditions of optimality are derived
using a unified way.
  We improve the $L^p-$ bounds on the control from $L^8$ in [Want et al 2013]
to $L^4$ in this paper.


  The $\mathfrak{osp}(2,N)$-BF formulation of dilaton supergravity in two
dimensions is considered. We introduce a consistent class of asymptotic
conditions preserved by the extended superreparametrization group of the
thermal circle at infinity. In the $N=1$ and $N=2$ cases the phase space
foliation in terms of orbits of the super-Virasoro group allows to formulate
suitable integrability conditions for the boundary terms that render the
variational principle well-defined. Once regularity conditions are imposed,
requiring trivial holonomy around the contractible cycle the asymptotic
symmetries are broken to some subsets of exact isometries. Different coadjoint
orbits of the asymptotic symmetry group yield different types of boundary
dynamics; we find that the action principle can be reduced to either the
extended super-Schwarzian theory, consistent with the dynamics of a
non-vanishing Casimir function, or to superparticle models, compatible with
bulk configurations whose Casimir is zero. These results are generalized to
$\mathcal{N} \geq 3$ by making use of boundary conditions consistent with the
loop group of OSp$(2,N)$. Appropriate integrability conditions permit to reduce
the dynamics of dilaton supergravity to a particle moving on the OSp$(2,N)$
group manifold. Generalizations of the boundary dynamics for $\mathcal{N}>2$
are obtained once bulk geometries are supplemented with super-AdS$_2$
asymptotics.


  In this paper, we study the complex symmetry of weighted
composition-differentiation operator $D_{n, \psi, \phi}$ on weighted Bergman
spaces $\mathcal{A}^2_{\alpha}$ with respect to the conjugation $C_{\mu, \eta}$
for $\mu, \eta \in \{z\in \mathbb{C}:|z|=1\}$. We obtain explicit conditions
for which the operator $D_{n, \psi, \phi}$ is Hermitian and normal. We also
characterize the complex symmetric weighted composition-differentiation
operator for derivative Hardy spaces.


  We give a short survey of problems and results on (1) diameter graphs and
hypergraphs, and (2) geometric Ramsey theory. We also make some modest
contributions to both areas. Extending a well known theorem of Kahn and Kalai
which disproved Borsuk's conjecture, we show that for any integer $r\ge 2$,
there exist $\varepsilon=\varepsilon(r)>0$ and $d_0=d_0(r)$ with the following
property. For every $d\ge d_0$, there is a finite point set
$P\subset\mathbb{R}^d$ of diameter $1$ such that no matter how we color the
elements of $P$ with fewer than $(1+\varepsilon)^{\sqrt{d}}$ colors, we can
always find $r$ points of the same color, any two of which are at distance $1$.


  Deep probabilistic generative models enable modeling the likelihoods of very
high dimensional data. An important application of generative modeling should
be the ability to detect out-of-distribution (OOD) samples by setting a
threshold on the likelihood. However, some recent studies show that
probabilistic generative models can, in some cases, assign higher likelihoods
on certain types of OOD samples, making the OOD detection rules based on
likelihood threshold problematic. To address this issue, several OOD detection
methods have been proposed for deep generative models. In this paper, we make
the observation that many of these methods fail when applied to generative
models based on Variational Auto-encoders (VAE). As an alternative, we propose
Likelihood Regret, an efficient OOD score for VAEs. We benchmark our proposed
method over existing approaches, and empirical results suggest that our method
obtains the best overall OOD detection performances when applied to VAEs.


  A recent paper [Burovski et al., cond-mat/0507352] reports on a new,
high-accuracy simulation of the classical phi^4 model (in the three-dimensional
XY universality class). The authors claim that a careful scaling analysis of
their data gives nu = 0.6711(1) for the thermal critical exponent. If correct,
this would neatly resolve the discrepancy between numerical simulations and
experiments on 4He. There is reason, however, to doubt the accuracy of the
result. A re-analysis of the data yields a significantly higher value of nu,
one that is consistent with other Monte Carlo studies.


  Consider a graph $G=(V,E)$ and a random initial vertex-coloring, where each
vertex is blue independently with probability $p_{b}$, and red with probability
$p_r=1-p_b$. In each step, all vertices change their current color
synchronously to the most frequent color in their neighborhood and in case of a
tie, a vertex conserves its current color; this model is called majority model.
If in case of a tie a vertex always chooses blue color, it is called biased
majority model. We are interested in the behavior of these deterministic
processes, especially in a two-dimensional torus (i.e., cellular automaton with
(biased) majority rule). In the present paper, as a main result we prove both
majority and biased majority cellular automata exhibit a threshold behavior
with two phase transitions. More precisely, it is shown that for a
two-dimensional torus $T_{n,n}$, there are two thresholds $0\leq p_1, p_2\leq
1$ such that $p_b \ll p_1$, $p_1 \ll p_b \ll p_2$, and $p_2 \ll p_b$ result in
monochromatic configuration by red, stable coexistence of both colors, and
monochromatic configuration by blue, respectively in $\mathcal{O}(n^2)$ number
of steps


  Despite the recent rapid progress in numerical relativity, a convergence
order less than the second has so far plagued codes solving the Einstein-Euler
system of equations. We report simulations of the inspiral of binary neutron
stars in quasi-circular orbits computed with a new code employing high-order,
high-resolution shock-capturing, finite-differencing schemes that, for the
first time, go beyond the second-order barrier. In particular, without any
tuning or alignment, we measure a convergence order above three both in the
phase and in the amplitude of the gravitational waves. Because the new code is
able to calculate waveforms with very small phase errors already at modest
resolutions, we are able to obtain accurate estimates of tidal effects in the
inspiral that are essentially free from the large numerical viscosity typical
of lower-order methods, and even for the challenging large compactness and
small-deformability binary considered here. We find a remarkable agreement
between our Richardson-extrapolated waveform and the one from the tidally
corrected post-Newtonian (PN) Taylor-T4 model, with a de-phasing smaller than
0.2 radians during the seven orbits of the inspiral and up to the contact
point. Because our results can be used reliably to assess the validity of the
PN or other approximations at frequencies significantly larger than those
considered so far in the literature, they seem to exclude at these
compactnesses significant tidal amplifications from
next-to-next-to-leading--order terms in the PN expansion.


  We study algorithms for online nonparametric regression that learn the
directions along which the regression function is smoother. Our algorithm
learns the Mahalanobis metric based on the gradient outer product matrix
$\boldsymbol{G}$ of the regression function (automatically adapting to the
effective rank of this matrix), while simultaneously bounding the regret ---on
the same data sequence--- in terms of the spectrum of $\boldsymbol{G}$. As a
preliminary step in our analysis, we extend a nonparametric online learning
algorithm by Hazan and Megiddo enabling it to compete against functions whose
Lipschitzness is measured with respect to an arbitrary Mahalanobis metric.


  We report on the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) Theory Alliance
topical program "Nuclear Isomers in the Era of FRIB". We outline the many ways
isomers influence and contribute to nuclear science and technology, especially
in the four FRIB pillars: properties of rare isotopes, nuclear astrophysics,
fundamental symmetries, and applications for the nation and society. We
conclude with a resolution stating our recommendation that the nuclear physics
community actively pursue isomer research. A white paper is forthcoming.


  During recent years the counterparty risk subject has received a growing
attention because of the so called Basel Accord. In particular the Basel III
Accord asks the banks to fulfill finer conditions concerning counterparty
credit exposures arising from banks' derivatives, securities financing
transactions, default and downgrade risks characterizing the Over The Counter
(OTC) derivatives market, etc. Consequently the development of effective and
more accurate measures of risk have been pushed, particularly focusing on the
estimate of the future fair value of derivatives with respect to prescribed
time horizon and fixed grid of time buckets. Standard methods used to treat the
latter scenario are mainly based on ad hoc implementations of the classic Monte
Carlo (MC) approach, which is characterized by a high computational time,
strongly dependent on the number of considered assets. This is why many
financial players moved to more enhanced Technologies, e.g., grid computing and
Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) capabilities. In this paper we show how to
implement the quantization technique, in order to accurately estimate both
pricing and volatility values. Our approach is tested to produce effective
results for the counterparty risk evaluation, with a big improvement concerning
required time to run when compared to MC approach.


  Three comments on a recent paper entitled ``Macroscopic surface charges from
microscopic simulations'' [J. Chem. Phys. 153, 164709 (2020)]


  Recent observations have revealed a gallery of substructures in the dust
component of nearby protoplanetary discs, including rings, gaps, spiral arms,
and lopsided concentrations. One interpretation of these substructures is the
existence of embedded planets. Not until recently, however, most of the
modelling effort to interpret these observations ignored the dust back reaction
to the gas. In this work, we conduct local-shearing-sheet simulations for an
isothermal, inviscid, non-self-gravitating, razor-thin dusty disc with a planet
on a fixed circular orbit. We systematically examine the parameter space
spanned by planet mass ($0.1M_\text{th} \le M_\text{p} \le 1M_\text{th}$, where
$M_\text{th}$ is the thermal mass), dimensionless stopping time ($10^{-3} \le
\tau_\text{s} \le 1$), and solid abundance ($0 < Z \le 1$). We find that when
the dust particles are tightly coupled to the gas ($\tau_\text{s} < 0.1$), the
spiral arms are less open and the gap driven by the planet becomes deeper with
increasing $Z$, consistent with a reduced speed of sound in the approximation
of a single dust-gas mixture. By contrast, when the dust particles are
marginally coupled ($0.1 \lesssim \tau_\text{s} \lesssim 1$), the spiral
structure is insensitive to $Z$ and the gap structure in the gas can become
significantly skewed and unidentifiable. When the latter occurs, the pressure
maximum radially outside of the planet is weakened or even extinguished, and
hence dust filtration by a low-mass ($M_\text{p} < M_\text{th}$) planet could
be reduced or eliminated. Finally, we find that the gap edges where the dust
particles are accumulated as well as the lopsided large-scale vortices driven
by a massive planet, if any, are unstable, and they are broken into numerous
small-scale dust-gas vortices.


  To go into the details about the variability of the double quasar SBS
0909+532, we designed a monitoring programme with the 2 m Liverpool Robotic
Telescope in the r Sloan filter, spanning 1.5 years from 2005 January to 2006
June. The r-band light curves of the A and B components, several
cross-correlation techniques and a large number of simulations (synthetic light
curves) lead to a robust delay of 49 +/- 6 days (1-sigma interval) that agrees
with our previous results (the B component is leading). Once the time delay and
the magnitude offset are known, the magnitude- and time-shifted light curve of
image A is subtracted from the light curve of image B. This difference light
curve of SBS 0909+532 is consistent with zero, so any possible extrinsic signal
must be very weak, i.e., the observed variability in A and B is basically due
to observational noise and intrinsic signal. We then make the combined light
curve and analyse its statistical properties (structure functions). The
structure function of the intrinsic luminosity is fitted to predictions of
simple models of two physical scenarios: accretion disc instabilities and
nuclear starbursts. Although no simple model is able to accurately reproduce
the observed trend, symmetric triangular flares in an accretion disc seems to
be the best option to account for it.


  This chapter describes the basic principles, design features and
characteristics of microwave discharge ion sources. A suitable source for the
production of intense beams for high-power accelerators must satisfy the
requirements of high brightness, stability and reliability. The 2.45 GHz
off-resonance microwave discharge sources are ideal devices to generate the
required beams, as they produce multimilliampere beams of protons, deuterons
and singly charged ions. A description of different technical designs will be
given, analysing their performance, with particular attention being paid to the
quality of the beam, especially in terms of its emittance.


  Interactions of ultrahigh energy neutrinos of cosmological origin in large
volumes of radio-transparent South Polar ice can be detected via coherent
Cherenkov emission from accompanying electromagnetic showers. A pilot
experiment employing buried radio receivers has been successfully deployed at
the South Pole and data are now being collected. The physics of coherent radio
emission together with the properties of radio-pulse propagation in Antarctic
ice clearly distinguishes the radio method from phototube detection. In the
context of the proposed km^3-scale neutrino telescope, these two detection
modes provide complementary information on UHE neutrino interactions.


  The time reversal symmetry of the wave equation allows wave refocusing back
at the source. However, this symmetry does not hold in lossy media. We present
a new strategy to compensate wave amplitude losses due to attenuation. The
strategy leverages the instantaneous time mirror (ITM) which generates reversed
waves by a sudden disruption of the medium properties. We create a
heterogeneous ITM whose disruption is unequal throughout the space to create
waves of different amplitude. The time-reversed waves can then cope with
different attenuation paths as typically seen in heterogeneous and lossy
environments. We consider an environment with biological tissues and apply the
strategy to a two-dimensional digital human phantom from the abdomen. A
stronger disruption is introduced where the forward waves suffer a history of
higher attenuation, with a weaker disruption elsewhere. Computer simulations
show heterogeneous ITM is a promising technique to improve time reversal
refocusing in heterogeneous, lossy, and dispersive spaces.


  We present an implementation of Quantum Annealing (QA) via lattice Green's
function Monte Carlo (GFMC), focusing on its application to the Ising
spin-glass in transverse field. In particular, we study whether or not such
method is more effective than the Path-Integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) based QA, as
well as classical simulated annealing (CA), previously tested on the same
optimization problem. We identify the issue of importance sampling, i.e., the
necessity of possessing reasonably good (variational) trial wavefunctions, as
the key point of the algorithm. We have considered two possible classes of
trial wavefunctions, a mean-field single-site one -- whose optimization is
however a very difficult task -- and a Boltzmann-like choice. We performed
GFMC-QA runs using such a Boltzmann-like trial wavefunction, finding results
for the residual energies that are qualitatively similar to those of CA (but at
a much larger computational cost), and definitely worse than PIMC-QA. We
conclude that, at present, without a serious effort in constructing reliable
importance sampling variational wavefunctions for a quantum glass, GFMC-QA is
not a true competitor of PIMC-QA.


  The possibility of comparatively simple and fast determination of
characteristic relaxation parameters T1, T2 and T3 for nuclear spin-systems
with strong Larmor and Rabi inhomogeneous broadenings of NMR lines using the
secondary echo signal effect was experimentally shown. Resides, this method
gives opportunity to obtain a valuable infomation on the inhomogeneous NMR
broadening which reflects the character of magnetic field microscopic
destribution in such systems, as example, multidomain magnetics and
superconductors.


  This is the proposal for RumourEval-2019, which will run in early 2019 as
part of that year's SemEval event. Since the first RumourEval shared task in
2017, interest in automated claim validation has greatly increased, as the
dangers of "fake news" have become a mainstream concern. Yet automated support
for rumour checking remains in its infancy. For this reason, it is important
that a shared task in this area continues to provide a focus for effort, which
is likely to increase. We therefore propose a continuation in which the
veracity of further rumours is determined, and as previously, supportive of
this goal, tweets discussing them are classified according to the stance they
take regarding the rumour. Scope is extended compared with the first
RumourEval, in that the dataset is substantially expanded to include Reddit as
well as Twitter data, and additional languages are also included.


  We present a new method for regularizing chiral theories on the lattice. The
arbitrariness in the regularization is used in order to decouple massless
replica fermions. A continuum limit with only one fermion is obtained in
perturbation theory and a Golterman-Petcher like symmetry related to the
decoupling of the replicas in the non-perturbative regime is identified. In the
case of Chiral Gauge Theories gauge invariance is broken at the level of the
regularization, so our approach shares many of the characteristics of the Rome
approach.


  The study of higher order energy functionals was first proposed by Eells and
Sampson in 1965 and, later, by Eells and Lemaire in 1983. These functionals
provide a natural generalization of the classical energy functional. More
precisely, Eells and Sampson suggested the investigation of the so-called
$ES-r$-energy functionals $ E_r^{ES}(\varphi)=(1/2)\int_{M}\,|(d^*+d)^r
(\varphi)|^2\,dV$, where $ \varphi:M \to N$ is a map between two Riemannian
manifolds. In the initial part of this paper we shall clarify some relevant
issues about the definition of an $ES-r$-harmonic map, i.e, a critical point of
$ E_r^{ES}(\varphi)$. That seems important to us because in the literature
other higher order energy functionals have been studied by several authors and
consequently some recent examples need to be discussed and extended: this shall
be done in the first two sections of this work, where we obtain the first
examples of proper critical points of $E_r^{ES}(\varphi)$ when $N={\mathbb
S}^m$ $(r \geq4,\, m\geq3)$, and we also prove some general facts which should
be useful for future developments of this subject. Next, we shall compute the
Euler-Lagrange system of equations for $E_r^{ES}(\varphi)$ for $r=4$. We shall
apply this result to the study of maps into space forms and to rotationally
symmetric maps: in particular, we shall focus on the study of various family of
conformal maps. In Section 4, we shall also show that, even if $2 r > \dim M$,
the functionals $ E_r^{ES}(\varphi)$ may not satisfy the classical Palais-Smale
Condition (C). In the final part of the paper we shall study the second
variation and compute index and nullity of some significant examples.


  For decades the number of scientific publications has been rapidly
increasing, effectively out-dating knowledge at a tremendous rate. Only few
scientific milestones remain relevant and continuously attract citations. Here
we quantify how long scientific work remains being utilized, how long it takes
before today's work is forgotten, and how milestone papers differ from those
forgotten. To answer these questions, we study the complete temporal citation
network of all American Physical Society journals. We quantify the probability
of attracting citations for individual publications based on age and the number
of citations they have received in the past. We capture both aspects, the
forgetting and the tendency to cite already popular works, in a microscopic
generative model for the dynamics of scientific citation networks. We find that
the probability of citing a specific paper declines with age as a power law
with an exponent of $\alpha \sim -1.4$. Whenever a paper in its early years can
be characterized by a scaling exponent above a critical value, $\alpha_c$, the
paper is likely to become "ever-lasting". We validate the model with
out-of-sample predictions, with an accuracy of up to 90% (AUC $\sim 0.9$). The
model also allows us to estimate an expected citation landscape of the future,
predicting that 95% of papers cited in 2050 have yet to be published. The
exponential growth of articles, combined with a power-law type of forgetting
and papers receiving fewer and fewer citations on average, suggests a worrying
tendency toward information overload and raises concerns about scientific
publishing's long-term sustainability.


  Studying open clusters (OCs) is essential for a comprehensive understanding
of the structure and evolution of the Milky Way. Many previous studies have
systematically searched for OCs near the solar system within 1.2 kpc or 20
degrees of galactic latitude. However, few studies searched for OCs at higher
galactic latitudes and deeper distances. In this study, based on a hybrid
unsupervised clustering algorithm (Friends-of-Friends and pyUPMASK) and a
binary classification algorithm (Random Forest), we extended the search region
(i.e., galactic latitude |b|>=20 degrees) and performed a fine-grained blind
search of Galactic clusters in Gaia DR3. After cross-matching, the newly
discovered cluster candidates are fitted using isochrone fitting to estimate
the main physical parameters (age and metallicity) of these clusters. These
cluster candidates were then checked using manual visual inspection. Their
statistical properties were compared with previously exposed cluster catalogs
as well. In the end, we found 1,179 new clusters with considerable confidence
within 5kpc.


  (abridged) Some difficulties in determining the physical properties that lead
to observed anomalies in microlensing light curves, such as the mass and
separation of extra-solar planets orbiting the lens star, or the relative
source-lens parallax, are already anchored in factors that limit the amount of
information available from ordinary events and in the adopted parametrization.
Moreover, a real-time detection of deviations from an ordinary light curve
while these are still in progress can only be done against a known model of the
latter, and such is also required for properly prioritizing ongoing events for
monitoring in order to maximize scientific returns. Despite the fact that
ordinary microlensing light curves are described by an analytic function that
only involves a handful of parameters, modelling these is far less trivial than
one might be tempted to think. A well-known degeneracy for small impacts, and
another one for the initial rise of an event, makes an interprediction of
different phases impossible, while determining a complete set of model
parameters requires the assessment of the fundamental characteristics of all
these phases. While the wing of the light curve provides valuable information
about the time-scale that absorbs the physical properties, the peak flux of the
event can be meaningfully predicted only after about a third of the total
magnification has been reached. Parametrizations based on observable features
not only ease modelling by bringing the covariance matrix close to diagonal
form, but also allow good predictions of the measured flux without the need to
determine all parameters accurately. Campaigns intending to infer planet
populations from observed microlensing events need to invest some time into
acquiring data that allows to properly determine the magnification function.


  Time-dependent potentials are common in galactic systems that undergo
significant evolution, interactions, or encounters with other galaxies, or when
there are dynamic processes like star formation and merging events. Recent
studies show that an ensemble approach along with the so-called snapshot
framework in dynamical system theory provide a powerful tool to analyze time
dependent dynamics.
  In this work, we aim to explore and quantify the phase space structure and
dynamical complexity in time-dependent galactic potentials consisting of
multiple components. We apply the classical method of Poincar\'e-surface of
section to analyze the phase space structure in a chaotic Hamiltonian system
subjected to parameter drift. This, however, makes sense only when the
evolution of a large ensemble of initial conditions is followed. Numerical
simulations explore the phase space structure of such ensembles while the
system undergoes a continuous parameter change. The pair-wise average distance
of ensemble members allows us to define a generalized Lyapunov-exponent, that
might also be time dependent, to describe the system stability. We revise the
system parameters for the Milky Way galaxy and provide a comprehensive
dynamical analysis of the system under circumstances where linear mass transfer
undergoes between the disk and bulge components of the model.


  A full set of Casimir operators for the Lie superalgebra $gl(m/\infty)$ is
constructed and shown to be well defined in the category $O_{FS}$ generated by
the highest weight irreducible representations with only a finite number of
non-zero weight components. The eigenvalues of these Casimir operators are
determined explicitly in terms of the highest weight. Characteristic identities
satisfied by certain (infinite) matrices with entries from $gl(m/\infty)$ are
also determined.


  We study the $Z_{cs}(3985)$ state recently observed by the BESIII
Collaboration in the one-boson-exchange model, assuming that it is a
$\bar{D}_s^{(*)}D^{(*)}$ molecule, which has the quark content
$c\bar{c}s\bar{q}$ with $q = u$, $d$. It is shown that the one-boson-exchange
potential is too weak to generate dynamcally $\bar{D}_s D$, $\bar{D}^*_s D$,
and $\bar{D}_sD^*$ states, while for the case of $\bar{D}^*_s D^*$, very
loosely bound states are likely, with binding energies of the order of several
MeV. We conclude that, the observed $Z_{cs}(3985)$ state, if confirmed by
further experiments, cannot be a pure hadronic molecular state of $\bar{D}_s
D^*$ and $\bar{D}_s^*D$ and could consist of large components of compact
nature.


  In this paper, we introduce the notion of a weak $(p,k)$-Dirac structure in
$TM\oplus \Lambda^pT^*M$, where $0\leq k \leq p-1$. The weak $(p,k)$-Lagrangian
condition has more informations than the $(p,k)$-Lagrangian condition and
contains the $(p,k)$-Lagrangian condition. The weak $(p,0)$-Dirac structures
are exactly the higher Dirac structures of order p introduced by N. Martinez
Alba and H. Bursztyn in [23] and [6], respectively. The regular weak
$(p,p-1)$-Dirac structure together with $(p,p-1)$-Lagrangian subspace at each
point $m\in M$ have the multisymplectic foliation. Finally, we introduce the
notion of weak $(p,k)$-Dirac morphism. We give the condition that a weak
$(p,k)$-Dirac manifold is also a weak $(p,k)$-Dirac manifold after pulling
back.


  The observation of the exotic quarkonium state Z_c(3900) by the BESIII and
Belle collaborations supports the concept of hadronic molecules. Charmonium
states interpreted as such molecules would be bound states of heavy particles
with small binding energies. This motivates their description using an
effective theory with contact interactions. In particular, we focus on the
electromagnetic structure of the charged state Z_c(3900). Using first
experimental results concerning spin and parity, we interpret it as an S-wave
molecule and calculate the form factors as well as charge and magnetic radii up
to next-to-leading order. We also present first numerical estimations of some
of these observables at leading order.


  We study Pythagorean hyperplane arrangements, originally defined by
Zaslavsky. In this first part of a series on such arrangements, we introduce a
new notion of genericity for such arrangements. Using this notion we construct
an auxiliary hyperplane arrangement whose combinatorics determines the
combinatorics of all possible Pythagorean arrangements. We close with several
applications and examples.


  The goal of human action recognition is to temporally or spatially localize
the human action of interest in video sequences. Temporal localization (i.e.
indicating the start and end frames of the action in a video) is referred to as
frame-level detection. Spatial localization, which is more challenging, means
to identify the pixels within each action frame that correspond to the action.
This setting is usually referred to as pixel-level detection. In this chapter,
we are using action, activity, event interchangeably.


  We demonstrate that in the strong coupling limit (the superconducting gap
$\Delta$ is as large as the chemical potential $\mu$), which is relevant to the
high-$T_c$ superconductivity, the correlation corrections to the gap and
critical temperature are about 10\% of the corresponding mean field
approximation values. For the weak coupling ($\Delta \ll \mu$) the correlation
corrections are very large: of the order of 100\% of the corresponding mean
field values.


  Mitigating catastrophic forgetting is a key hurdle in continual learning.
Deep Generative Replay (GR) provides techniques focused on generating samples
from prior tasks to enhance the model's memory capabilities using generative AI
models ranging from Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to the more recent
Diffusion Models (DMs). A major issue is the deterioration in the quality of
generated data compared to the original, as the generator continuously
self-learns from its outputs. This degradation can lead to the potential risk
of catastrophic forgetting (CF) occurring in the classifier. To address this,
we propose the Gradient Projection Class-Prototype Conditional Diffusion Model
(GPPDM), a GR-based approach for continual learning that enhances image quality
in generators and thus reduces the CF in classifiers. The cornerstone of GPPDM
is a learnable class prototype that captures the core characteristics of images
in a given class. This prototype, integrated into the diffusion model's
denoising process, ensures the generation of high-quality images of the old
tasks, hence reducing the risk of CF in classifiers. Moreover, to further
mitigate the CF of diffusion models, we propose a gradient projection technique
tailored for the cross-attention layer of diffusion models to maximally
maintain and preserve the representations of old task data in the current task
as close as possible to their representations when they first arrived. Our
empirical studies on diverse datasets demonstrate that our proposed method
significantly outperforms existing state-of-the-art models, highlighting its
satisfactory ability to preserve image quality and enhance the model's memory
retention.


  We consider the Cauchy-Dirichlet problem for semilinear wave equations in a
three space dimensional domain exterior to a bounded and non-trapping obstacle.
We obtain a detailed estimate for the lower bound of the lifespan of classical
solutions when the size of initial data tends to zero, in a similar spirit to
that of the works of John and H\"ormander where the Cauchy problem was treated.
We show that our estimate is sharp at least for some special case.


  Owing to their remarkable representation capabilities for heterogeneous graph
data, Heterogeneous Graph Neural Networks (HGNNs) have been widely adopted in
many critical real-world domains such as recommendation systems and medical
analysis. Prior to their practical application, identifying the optimal HGNN
model parameters tailored to specific tasks through extensive training is a
time-consuming and costly process. To enhance the efficiency of HGNN training,
it is essential to characterize and analyze the execution semantics and
patterns within the training process to identify performance bottlenecks. In
this study, we conduct an in-depth quantification and analysis of two
mainstream HGNN training scenarios, including single-GPU and multi-GPU
distributed training. Based on the characterization results, we disclose the
performance bottlenecks and their underlying causes in different HGNN training
scenarios and provide optimization guidelines from both software and hardware
perspectives.


  With localization techniques one can obtain general limit theorems for
Toeplitz determinants with Fisher-Hartwig singularities from the asymptotics
for any symbol with one singularity of general type. There exists a family of
these for which the determinants can be evaluated explicitly and their
asymptotics determined. But for the Wiener-Hopf analogue, although there are
likely analogous localization techniques, there is not a single example known
of a symbol with Fisher-Hartwig singularity for which the determinant can be
evaluated explicitly. In this paper we determine the asymptotics of Wiener-Hopf
determinants for a symbol with one Fisher-Hartwig singularity of general type.
We do this by showing that it is asymptotically equal to a Toeplitz determinant
with symbol having the corresponding singularity.


  We study the stability of f(R)-AdS (Schwarzschild-AdS) black hole obtained
from f(R) gravity. In order to resolve the difficulty of solving fourth order
linearized equations, we transform f(R) gravity into the scalar-tensor theory
by introducing two auxiliary scalars. In this case, the linearized curvature
scalar becomes a dynamical scalaron, showing that all linearized equations are
second order. Using the positivity of gravitational potentials and S-deformed
technique allows us to guarantee the stability of f(R)-AdS black hole if the
scalaron mass squared satisfies the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound. This is
confirmed by computing quasinormal frequencies of the scalaron for large
f(R)-AdS black hole.


  We give a rigorous calculation of the large N limit of the partition function
of SU(N) gauge theory on a 2D cylinder in the case where one boundary holomony
is a so-called special element of type $\rho$. By MacDonald's identity, the
partition function factors in this case as a product over positive roots and it
is straightforward to calculate the large N asymptotics of the free energy. We
obtain the unexpected result that the free energy in these cases is asymptotic
to N times a functional of the limit densities of eigenvalues of the boundary
holonomies. This appears to contradict the predictions of Gross-Matysin and
Kazakov-Wynter that the free energy should have a limit governed by the complex
Burgers equation.


  Exotic behaviour of mechanical metamaterials often relies on an internal
transformation of the underlying microstructure triggered by its local
instabilities, rearrangements, and rotations. Depending on the presence and
magnitude of such a transformation, effective properties of a metamaterial may
change significantly. To capture this phenomenon accurately and efficiently,
homogenization schemes are required that reflect microstructural as well as
macro-structural instabilities, large deformations, and non-local effects. To
this end, a micromorphic computational homogenization scheme has recently been
developed, which employs the particular microstructural transformation as a
non-local mechanism, magnitude of which is governed by an additional coupled
partial differential equation. Upon discretizing the resulting problem it turns
out that the macroscopic stiffness matrix requires integration of macro-element
basis functions as well as their derivatives, thus calling for a higher-order
integration rules. Because evaluation of constitutive law in multiscale schemes
involves an expensive solution of a non-linear boundary value problem,
computational efficiency can be improved by reducing the number of integration
points. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to investigate reduced-order
schemes in computational homogenization, with emphasis on the stability of the
resulting elements. In particular, arguments for lowering the order of
integration from the expensive mass-matrix to a cheaper stiffness-matrix
equivalent are first outlined. An efficient one-point integration quadrilateral
element is then introduced and proper hourglass stabilization discussed.
Performance of the resulting set of elements is finally tested on a benchmark
bending example, showing that we achieve accuracy comparable to the full
quadrature rules.


  We study a Fabry-Perot cavity formed from a ridge waveguide on a AlGaAs
substrate. We experimentally determined the propagation losses in the waveguide
at 780 nm, the wavelength of Rb atoms. We have also made a numerical and
analytical estimate of the losses induced by the presence of the gap which
would allow the interaction of cold atoms with the cavity field. We found that
the intrinsic finesse of the gapped cavity can be on the order of F ~ 30,
which, when one takes into account the losses due to mirror transmission,
corresponds to a cooperativity parameter for our system C ~ 1.


  Online learning is the process of answering a sequence of questions based on
the correct answers to the previous questions. It is studied in many research
areas such as game theory, information theory and machine learning. There are
two main components of online learning framework. First, the learning algorithm
also known as the learner and second, the hypothesis class which is essentially
a set of functions which learner uses to predict answers to the questions.
Sometimes, this class contains some functions which have the capability to
provide correct answers to the entire sequence of questions. This case is
called realizable case. And when hypothesis class does not contain such
functions is called unrealizable case. The goal of the learner, in both the
cases, is to make as few mistakes as that could have been made by most powerful
functions in hypothesis class over the entire sequence of questions.
Performance of the learners is analysed by theoretical bounds on the number of
mistakes made by them. This paper proposes three algorithms to improve the
mistakes bound in the unrealizable case. Proposed algorithms perform highly
better than the existing ones in the long run when most of the input sequences
presented to the learner are likely to be realizable.


  We study weak approximation for Ch\^{a}telet surfaces over number fields when
all singular fibers are defined over rational points. We consider Ch\^{a}telet
surfaces which satisfy weak approximation over every finite extension of the
ground field. We prove many of these results by showing that the Brauer-Manin
obstruction vanishes, then apply results of Colliot-Th\'el\`ene, Sansuc, and
Swinnerton-Dyer.


  In this paper we give the asymptotic behavior of type I multiple orthogonal
polynomials for a Nikishin system of order two with two disjoint intervals. We
use the Riemann-Hilbert problem for multiple orthogonal polynomials and the
steepest descent analysis for oscillatory Riemann-Hilbert problems to obtain
the asymptotic behavior in all relevant regions of the complex plane.


  The vector representation of the linearized gravitational field (the graviton
field) or the so called quantum gravitodynamics which describes the motion of
masses in a weak gravitational field is employed to understand the unity of the
four known interactions. We propose a gauge group SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1)xU(1) for
such a unified field theory. In this paper we study the SU(2)xU(1)xU(1) sector
of the theory and in analogy to the electroweak mixing angle we define a
gravitoweak mixing angle. The unified gauge field theory predicts the existence
of three massive vector bosons, the Y+/- and the X^0. and two massless vector
bosons, the photon and the graviton (in its vector representation). We
determine the mass spectrum of the Y+/- and the X^0 and predict a modification
to the fine structure constant under unified field conditions. Furthermore, we
briefly discuss the implications of the extended object formulation for the
gauge hierarchy problem.


  We consider two-dimensional Fermi liquids in the vicinity of a quantum
transition to a phase with commensurate, antiferromagnetic long-range order.
Depending upon the Fermi surface topology, mean-field spin-density-wave theory
predicts two different types of such transitions, with mean-field dynamic
critical exponents $z=1$ (when the Fermi surface does not cross the magnetic
zone boundary, type $A$) and $z=2$ (when the Fermi surface crosses the magnetic
zone boundary, type $B$). The type $A$ system only displays $z=1$ behavior at
all energies and its scaling properties are similar (though not identical) to
those of an insulating Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Under suitable conditions
precisely stated in this paper, the type $B$ system displays a crossover from
relaxational behavior at low energies to type $A$ behavior at high energies. A
scaling hypothesis is proposed to describe this crossover: we postulate a
universal scaling function which determines the entire, temperature-,
wavevector-, and frequency-dependent, dynamic, staggered spin susceptibility in
terms of 4 measurable, $T=0$, parameters (determining the distance, energy, and
order parameter scales, plus one crossover parameter). The scaling function
contains the full scaling behavior in all regimes for both type $A$ and $B$
systems. The crossover behavior of the uniform susceptibility and the specific
heat is somewhat more complicated and is also discussed. Explicit computation
of the crossover functions is carried out in a large $N$ expansion on a
mean-field model. Some new results for the critical properties on the ordered
side of the transition are also obtained in a spin-density wave formalism. The
possible relevance of our results to the doped cuprate compounds is briefly
discussed.


  We analysed the $\phi$ meson production in central Ni+Ni collisions at the
beam kinetic energy of 1.93A GeV with the FOPI spectrometer and found the
production probability per event of $[8.6 ~\pm~ 1.6 ~(\text{stat}) \pm 1.5
~(\text{syst})] \times 10^{-4}$. This new data point allows for the first time
to inspect the centrality dependence of the subthreshold $\phi$ meson
production in heavy-ion collisions. The rise of $\phi$ meson multiplicity per
event with mean number of participants can be parameterized by the power
function with exponent $\alpha = 1.8 \pm 0.6$. The ratio of $\phi$ to
$\text{K}^-$ production yields seems not to depend within the experimental
uncertainties on the collision centrality, and the average of measured values
was found to be $0.36 \pm 0.05$.


  Embedded atoms or molecules in a photoexcited He nanodroplet are well-known
to be ionized through inter-atomic relaxation in a Penning process. In this
work, we investigate the Penning ionization of acetylene oligomers occurring
from the photoexcitation bands of He nanodroplets. In close analogy to
conventional Penning electron spectroscopy by thermal atomic collisions, the n
= 2 photoexcitation band plays the role of the metastable atomic $1s2s$
$^{3,1}S$ He$^\ast$. This facilitates electron spectroscopy of acetylene
aggregates in the sub-kelvin He environment, providing the following insight
into their structure: The molecules in the dopant cluster are loosely bound van
der Waals complexes rather than forming covalent compounds. In addition, this
work reveals a Penning process stemming from the n = 4 band where
charge-transfer from autoionized He in the droplets is known to be the dominant
relaxation channel. This allows for excited states of the remnant dopant
oligomer Penning-ions to be studied. Hence, we demonstrate Penning ionization
electron spectroscopy of doped droplets as an effective technique for
investigating dopant oligomers which are easily formed by attachment to the
host cluster.


  We investigate the possibility of using accelarator beam particles to collide
with the ambient neutralino dark matter particles in cosmic rays as a way to
search for the cold dark matter. We study in detail its inelastic and elastic
scattering with the projectile particles at electron-positron colliders and
discuss the possible experimental signals and the relevent background.


  We investigate some of the intricate features in a gravity decoupling limit
of a open bosonic string theory, in a constant electromagnetic (EM-) field. We
explain the subtle nature of space-time at short distances, due to its
entanglement with the gauge field windings in the theory. Incorporating the
mass-shell condition in the theory, we show that the time coordinate is small,
of the order of EM-string scale, and the space coordinates are large. We
perform a careful analysis in the critical regime to describe the decoupling of
a series of gauge-string windings in successions, just below the Hagedorn
temperature. We argue for the condensation of gauge-string at the Hagedorn
temperature, which is followed by the decoupling of tachyonic particles. We
demonstrate the phenomena by revoking the effective noncommutative dynamics for
the D(3)-brane and obtain nonlinear corrections to U(1) gauge theory. We
discuss the spontaneous breaking of noncommutative U(1) symmetry and show that
the Hagedorn phase is described by the noninteracting gauge particles. The
notion of time reappears in the phase at the expense of temperature. It
suggests a complementarity between two distinct notions, time and temperature,
at short distances.


  While session-based recommender systems (SBRSs) have shown superior
recommendation performance, multi-task learning (MTL) has been adopted by SBRSs
to enhance their prediction accuracy and generalizability further. Hierarchical
MTL (H-MTL) sets a hierarchical structure between prediction tasks and feeds
outputs from auxiliary tasks to main tasks. This hierarchy leads to richer
input features for main tasks and higher interpretability of predictions,
compared to existing MTL frameworks. However, the H-MTL framework has not been
investigated in SBRSs yet. In this paper, we propose HierSRec which
incorporates the H-MTL architecture into SBRSs. HierSRec encodes a given
session with a metadata-aware Transformer and performs next-category prediction
(i.e., auxiliary task) with the session encoding. Next, HierSRec conducts
next-item prediction (i.e., main task) with the category prediction result and
session encoding. For scalable inference, HierSRec creates a compact set of
candidate items (e.g., 4% of total items) per test example using the category
prediction. Experiments show that HierSRec outperforms existing SBRSs as per
next-item prediction accuracy on two session-based recommendation datasets. The
accuracy of HierSRec measured with the carefully-curated candidate items aligns
with the accuracy of HierSRec calculated with all items, which validates the
usefulness of our candidate generation scheme via H-MTL.


  The asymptotic distance between trajectories $d_{\infty}$, is studied in
detail to characterize the occurrence of chaos. We show that this quantity is
quite distinct and complementary to the Lyapunov exponents, and it allows for a
quantitave estimate for the folding mechanism which keeps the motion bounded in
phase space. We study the behaviour of $d_{\infty}$ in simple unidimensional
maps. Near a critical point $d_{\infty}$ has a power law dependence on the
control parameter. Furthermore, at variance with the Lyapunov exponents, it
shows jumps when there are sudden changes on the available phase-space.


  We present the investigations of SN 1993J using low frequency observations
with the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope. We analyze the light curves of SN
1993J at 1420, 610, 325 and 243 MHz during $7.5-10$ years since explosion.The
supernova has become optically thin early on in the 1420 MHz and 610 MHz bands
while it has only recently entered the optically thin phase in the 325 MHz
band. The radio light curve in the 235 MHz band is more or less flat. This
indicates that the supernova is undergoing a transition from an optically thick
to optically thin limit in this frequency band. In addition, we analyze the SN
radio spectra at five epochs on day 3000, 3200, 3266, 3460 and 3730 since
explosion. Day 3200 spectrum shows a synchrotron cooling break. SN 1993J is the
only young supernova for which the magnetic field and the size of the radio
emitting region are determined through unrelated methods. Thus the mechanism
that controls the evolution of the radio spectra can be identified. We suggest
that at all epochs, the synchrotron self absorption mechanism is primarily
responsible for the turn-over in the spectra. Light curve models based on free
free absorption in homogeneous or inhomogeneous media at high frequencies
overpredict the flux densities at low frequencies. The discrepancy is
increasingly larger at lower and lower frequencies. We suggest that an extra
opacity, sensitively dependent on frequency, is likely to account for the
difference at lower frequencies. The evolution of the magnetic field
(determined from synchrotron self absorption turn-over) is roughly consistent
with $B \propto t^{-1}$. Radio spectral index in the optically thin part
evolves from $\alpha \sim 0.8-1.0$ at few tens of days to $\sim 0.6$ in about
10 years.


  We use the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to
reduce the uncertainty in the local value of the Hubble constant (H_0) from
3.3% to 2.4%. Improvements come from new, near-infrared observations of Cepheid
variables in 11 new hosts of recent SNe~Ia, more than doubling the sample of
SNe~Ia having a Cepheid-calibrated distance for a total of 19; these leverage
the magnitude-z relation based on 300 SNe~Ia at z<0.15. All 19 hosts and the
megamaser system NGC4258 were observed with WFC3, thus nullifying
cross-instrument zeropoint errors. Other improvements include a 33% reduction
in the systematic uncertainty in the maser distance to NGC4258, more Cepheids
and a more robust distance to the LMC from late-type DEBs, HST observations of
Cepheids in M31, and new HST-based trigonometric parallaxes for Milky Way (MW)
Cepheids. We consider four geometric distance calibrations of Cepheids: (i)
megamasers in NGC4258, (ii) 8 DEBs in the LMC, (iii) 15 MW Cepheids with
parallaxes, and (iv) 2 DEBs in M31. H_0 from each is 72.25+/-2.51,
72.04+/-2.67, 76.18+/-2.37, and 74.50+/-3.27 km/sec/Mpc, respectively. Our best
estimate of 73.24+/-1.74 km/sec/Mpc combines the anchors NGC4258, MW, and LMC,
and includes systematic errors for a final uncertainty of 2.4%. This value is
3.4 sigma higher than 66.93+/-0.62 km/sec/Mpc predicted by LambdaCDM with 3
neutrinos with mass 0.06 eV and the Planck data, but reduces to 2.1 sigma
relative to the prediction of 69.3+/-0.7 km/sec/Mpc with the combination of
WMAP+ACT+SPT+BAO, suggesting systematic uncertainties in CMB measurements may
play a role in the tension. If we take the conflict between Planck and H_0 at
face value, one plausible explanation could involve an additional source of
dark radiation in the early Universe in the range of Delta N_eff=0.4-1. We
anticipate significant improvements in H_0 from upcoming parallax measurements.


  Course enrollment recommendation is a relevant task that helps university
students decide what is the best combination of courses to enroll in the next
term. In particular, recommender system techniques like matrix factorization
and collaborative filtering have been developed to try to solve this problem.
As these techniques fail to represent the time-dependent nature of academic
performance datasets we propose a deep learning approach using recurrent neural
networks that aims to better represent how chronological order of course grades
affects the probability of success. We have shown that it is possible to obtain
a performance of 81.10% on AUC metric using only grade information and that it
is possible to develop a recommender system with academic student performance
prediction. This is shown to be meaningful across different student GPA levels
and course difficulties


  The Bogolyubov-Ruzsa lemma, in particular the quantitative bounds obtained by
Sanders, plays a central role in obtaining effective bounds for the inverse
$U^3$ theorem for the Gowers norms. Recently, Gowers and Mili\'cevi\'c applied
a bilinear Bogolyubov-Ruzsa lemma as part of a proof of the inverse $U^4$
theorem with effective bounds. The goal of this note is to obtain quantitative
bounds for the bilinear Bogolyubov-Ruzsa lemma which are similar to those
obtained by Sanders for the Bogolyubov-Ruzsa lemma.
  We show that if a set $A \subset \mathbb{F}_p^n \times \mathbb{F}_p^n$ has
density $\alpha$, then after a constant number of horizontal and vertical sums,
the set $A$ would contain a bilinear structure of co-dimension $r=\log^{O(1)}
\alpha^{-1}$. This improves the results of Gowers and Mili\'cevi\'c which
obtained similar results with a weaker bound of $r=\exp(\exp(\log^{O(1)}
\alpha^{-1}))$ and by Bienvenu and L\^e which obtained
$r=\exp(\exp(\exp(\log^{O(1)} \alpha^{-1})))$.


  The LHC is expected to reach luminosities up to 3000fb-1 and the innermost
layer of the ATLAS upgrade plans to cope with higher occupancy and to decrease
the pixel size. 3D-Si sensors are a good candidate for the innermost layer of
the ATLAS pixel upgrade since they exhibit good performance under high fluences
and the new designs will have smaller pixel size to fulfill the electronics
expectations. This paper reports TCAD simulations of the 3D-Si sensors designed
at IMB-CNM with non passing-through columns that are being fabricated for the
next innermost layer of the ATLAS pixel upgrade, shows the charge collection
response before and after irradiation, and the response of 3D-Si sensors
located at large $\eta$ angles.


  We have carried out spectroscopic measurements of a system of three strongly
coupled four-junction flux qubits. The samples studied cover a wide range of
parameters with the coupling energy between neighboring qubits varying between
0.75 GHz and 6.05 GHz. The observed complicated spectra agree well with
eight-level theory. The experiments are relevant for the realization of a
tunable coupling between qubits.


  A schematic model for QCD, developed in a previous paper, is applied to
calculate meson properties in the high temperature (up to 0.5 GeV) regime. It
is a Lipkin model for quark-antiquark pairs coupled to gluon pairs of spin
zero. The partition function is constructed with the obtained meson spectrum
and several thermodynamical observables are calculated, like: the energy
density, heat capacity, as well as relative production rates of mesons and
absolute production rates for pions and kaons. The model predictions show a
qualitative agreement with data. Based on these results we advocate the use of
the model as a toy model for QCD.


  Planet frequency shows a strong positive correlation with host mass from the
hydrogen-burning limit to M ~ 2Msun. No search has yet been conducted for
planets of higher-mass hosts because all existing techniques are insensitive to
these planets. We show that infrared observations of the white-dwarf (WD)
remnants of massive stars 3Msun < M < 7Msun would be sensitive to these planets
for reasons that are closely connected to the insensitivity of other methods.
We identify 49 reasonably bright, young, massive WDs from the Palomar-Green
survey and discuss methods for detecting planets and for distinguishing between
planet and disk explanations for any excess flux observed. The young, bright,
massive WD sample could be expanded by a factor 4-5 by surveying the remainder
of the sky for bright UV-excess objects.


  Rats and mice use their whiskers to probe the environment. By rhythmically
swiping their whiskers back and forth they can detect the existence of an
object, locate it, and identify its texture. Localization can be accomplished
by inferring the position of the whisker. Rhythmic neurons that track the phase
of the whisking cycle encode information about the azimuthal location of the
whisker. These neurons are characterized by preferred phases of firing that are
narrowly distributed. Consequently, pooling the rhythmic signal from several
upstream neurons is expected to result in a much narrower distribution of
preferred phases in the downstream population, which however has not been
observed empirically. Here, we show how spike-timing-dependent plasticity
(STDP) can provide a solution to this conundrum. We investigated the effect of
STDP on the utility of a neural population to transmit rhythmic information
downstream using the framework of a modeling study. We found that under a wide
range of parameters, STDP facilitated the transfer of rhythmic information
despite the fact that all the synaptic weights remained dynamic. As a result,
the preferred phase of the downstream neuron was not fixed, but rather drifted
in time at a drift velocity that depended on the preferred phase, thus inducing
a distribution of preferred phases. We further analyzed how the STDP rule
governs the distribution of preferred phases in the downstream population. This
link between the STDP rule and the distribution of preferred phases constitutes
a natural test for our theory.


  We report the results of a submillimetre continuum emission survey targeted
toward 78 star formation regions, 72 of which are devoid of methanol maser and
UC HII regions, identified in the SEST/SIMBA millimetre continuum survey of
Hill et al. (2005). At least 45 per cent of the latter sources, dubbed
`mm-only', detected in this survey are also devoid of mid infrared MSX,
emission. The 450 and 850micron, continuum emission was mapped using the
Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) instrument on the James Clerk
Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Emission is detected toward 97 per cent of the 78
sources targeted as well as towards 28 other SIMBA sources lying in the SCUBA
fields.
  We concatenate the results from four (sub)millimetre continuum surveys of
massive star formation [Walsh et al. (2003), Hill et al. (2005), Thompson et
al. (2006); as well as this work], together with the Galactic Plane map of
Pierce-Price et al. (2000) in order to determine the dust grain emissivity
index $\beta$ for each of the sources in the SIMBA source list. We examine the
value of $\beta$ with respect to temperature, as well as for the source classes
identified in the SIMBA survey, for variation of this index. Our results
indicate that $\beta$ is typically 2, which is consistent with previous
determinations in the literature, but for a considerably larger sample than
previous work.


  We report measurements of the magnetic penetration depth $\lambda$ in single
crystals of PrRu$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ down to 0.1 K. Both $\lambda$ and superfluid
density $\rho_{s}$ exhibit an exponential behavior for $T$ $<$ 0.5$T_{c}$, with
parameters $\Delta$(0)/\textit{k}$_{B}$\textit{T}$_{c}$ = 1.9 and $\lambda(0)$
= 2900 \AA. The value of $\Delta$(0) is consistent with the specific-heat jump
value of $\Delta C/\gamma T_{c}$ = 1.87 measured elsewhere, while the value of
$\lambda(0)$ is consistent with the measured value of the electronic
heat-capacity coefficient $\gamma$. Our data are consistent with
PrRu$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ being a moderate-coupling, fully-gapped superconductor. We
suggest experiments to study how the nature of the superconducting state
evolves with increasing Ru substitution for Os.


  We construct a certain solution to the Witten--Dijkgraf--Verlinde--Verlinde
equation related to the small quantum cohomology ring of flag variety, and
study the t-deformation of quantum Schubert polynomials corresponding to this
solution.


  Let q and v be symmetric sesquilinear forms such that v is a form
perturbation of q. Then we can associate a unique self-adjoint operator B to q+
v. Assuming that B has a gap (a, b) in the essential spectrum, we prove a
minimax principle for the eigenvalues of B in (a, b) using a suitable
orthogonal decomposition of the domain of q. This allows us to justify two
minimax characterisations of eigenvalues in the gap of three-dimensional Dirac
operators with electrostatic potentials having strong Coulomb singularities.


  We report the observation of dynamo action in the VKS experiment, i.e., the
generation of magnetic field by a strongly turbulent swirling flow of liquid
sodium. Both mean and fluctuating parts of the field are studied. The dynamo
threshold corresponds to a magnetic Reynolds number Rm \sim 30. A mean magnetic
field of order 40 G is observed 30% above threshold at the flow lateral
boundary. The rms fluctuations are larger than the corresponding mean value for
two of the components. The scaling of the mean square magnetic field is
compared to a prediction previously made for high Reynolds number flows.


  Let G be a connected reductive complex affine algebraic group, and let X
denote the moduli space of G-valued representations of a rank r free group. We
first characterize the singularities in X, extending a theorem of Richardson
and proving a Mumford-type result about topological singularities; this
resolves conjectures of Florentino-Lawton. In particular, we compute the
codimension of the orbifold singular locus using facts about Borel-de
Siebenthal subgroups. We then use the codimension bound to calculate higher
homotopy groups of the smooth locus of X, proving conjectures of
Florentino-Lawton-Ramras. Lastly, using the earlier analysis of Borel-de
Siebenthal subgroups, we prove a conjecture of Sikora about centralizers of
irreducible representations in Lie groups.


  This note discusses briefly the definition of yield surface in hypoplasticity
in connection with the physical notion of yielding. The relation of yielding
with the vanishing of the material time derivative of the stress tensor and the
vanishing of the corotational stress rate is investigated.


  We present the most continuous data base of optical $BVR_{c}I_{c}$
observations ever published on the BL Lacertae object GC 0109+224, collected
mainly by the robotic telescope of the Perugia University Observatory in the
period November 1994-February 2002. These observations have been complemented
by data from the Torino Observatory, collected in the period July 1995-January
1999, and Mt. Maidanak Observatory (December 2000). GC 0109+224 showed rapid
optical variations and six major outbursts were observed at the beginning and
end of 1996, in fall 1998, at the beginning and at the end of 2000, and at the
beginning of 2002. Fast and large-amplitude drops characterized its flux
behaviour. The $R_c$ magnitude ranged from 13.3 (16.16 mJy) to 16.46 (0.8 mJy),
with a mean value of 14.9 (3.38 mJy). In the periods where we collected
multi-filter observations, we analyzed colour and spectral indexes, and the
variability patterns during some flares. The long-term behaviour seems
approximatively achromatic, but during some isolated outbursts we found
evidence of the typical loop-like hysteresis behaviour, suggesting that rapid
optical variability is dominated by non-thermal cooling of a single emitting
particle population. We performed also a statistical analysis of the data,
through the discrete correlation function (DCF), the structure function (SF),
and the Lomb-Scargle periodogram, to identify characteristic times scales, from
days to months, in the light curves, and to quantify the mode of variability.
We also include the reconstruction of the historical light curve and a
photometric calibration of comparison stars, to favour further extensive
optical monitoring of this interesting blazar.


  We present a novel definition of the reinforcement learning state, actions
and reward function that allows a deep Q-network (DQN) to learn to control an
optimization hyperparameter. Using Q-learning with experience replay, we train
two DQNs to accept a state representation of an objective function as input and
output the expected discounted return of rewards, or q-values, connected to the
actions of either adjusting the learning rate or leaving it unchanged. The two
DQNs learn a policy similar to a line search, but differ in the number of
allowed actions. The trained DQNs in combination with a gradient-based update
routine form the basis of the Q-gradient descent algorithms. To demonstrate the
viability of this framework, we show that the DQN's q-values associated with
optimal action converge and that the Q-gradient descent algorithms outperform
gradient descent with an Armijo or nonmonotone line search. Unlike traditional
optimization methods, Q-gradient descent can incorporate any objective
statistic and by varying the actions we gain insight into the type of learning
rate adjustment strategies that are successful for neural network optimization.


  We revisit information retrieval from evaporating black holes in the
Hayden-Preskill protocol, treating the black hole dynamics as Haar-random. We
compute, down to the first exponentially suppressed terms, all integer-indexed
R\'enyi mutual informations between a black hole, its radiation, and a
reference that catalogues Alice's diaries. We find that dropping a diary into a
young black hole effectively delays the Page time. We also compute the
radiation : diary reflected R\'enyi entropies, and identify a technical reason
why they cannot be continued to the reflected entropy by the replica trick.


  robosuite is a simulation framework for robot learning powered by the MuJoCo
physics engine. It offers a modular design for creating robotic tasks as well
as a suite of benchmark environments for reproducible research. This paper
discusses the key system modules and the benchmark environments of our new
release robosuite v1.0.


  The Extreme-Ultraviolet Normal-Incidence Spectrograph sounding-rocket payload
was flown on 2006 April 12 (EUNIS-06), carrying two independent imaging
spectrographs covering wave bands of 300-370 A in first order and 170-205 A in
second order, respectively. The absolute radiometric response of the EUNIS-06
long-wavelength (LW) channel was directly measured in the same facility used to
calibrate CDS prior to the SOHO launch. Because the absolute calibration of the
short-wavelength (SW) channel could not be obtained from the same lab
configuration, we here present a technique to derive it using a combination of
solar LW spectra and density- and temperature-insensitive line intensity
ratios. The first step in this procedure is to use the coordinated, cospatial
EUNIS and SOHO/CDS spectra to carry out an intensity calibration update for the
CDS NIS-1 waveband, which shows that its efficiency has decreased by a factor
about 1.7 compared to that of the previously implemented calibration. Then,
theoretical insensitive line ratios obtained from CHIANTI allow us to determine
absolute intensities of emission lines within the EUNIS SW bandpass from those
of cospatial CDS/NIS-1 spectra after the EUNIS LW calibration correction. A
total of 12 ratios derived from intensities of 5 CDS and 12 SW emission lines
from Fe Fe X - Fe XIII yield an instrumental response curve for the EUNIS-06 SW
channel that matches well to a relative calibration which relied on combining
measurements of individual optical components. Taking into account all
potential sources of error, we estimate that the EUNIS-06 SW absolute
calibration is accurate to about 20%.


  Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has recently emerged as a promising
technology enabling next-generation wireless networks. In this letter, we
develop an improved index modulation (IM) scheme by utilizing RIS to convey
information. Specifically, we study an RIS-aided multiple-input single-output
(MISO) system, in which the information bits are conveyed by reflection
patterns of RIS rather than the conventional amplitude-phase constellation.
Furthermore, the K-means algorithm is employed to optimize the reflection
constellation to improve the error performance. Also, we propose a generalized
Gray coding method for mapping information bits to an appropriate reflection
constellation and analytically evaluate the error performance of the proposed
scheme by deriving a tight upper bound of the average bit error rate (BER).
Finally, numerical results verify the accuracy of our theoretical analysis as
well as the substantially improved BER performance of the proposed RIS-based IM
transmission scheme.


  We present numerical procedures for analyzing the properties of periodic
structures and associated couplers based upon time domain simulation. Simple
post processing procedures are given for determining Brillouin diagrams and
complex field distributions of the traveling wave solutions, and the reflection
coefficient of the traveling waves by the input and output. The availability of
the reflection coefficient information facilitates a systematic and efficient
procedure for matching the input and output. The method has been extensively
applied to coupler design for a wide variety of structures and to a study
directed towards elimination of the surface field enhancement commonly
experienced in coupler cells.


  Past studies of compact active galactic nuclei (AGNs), the dominant
population at high radio frequencies, selected them using flat spectral index
criteria. This biases the sample due to the steepening of AGN spectra at high
radio frequencies. We improve upon this by selecting 3610 compact AGNs using
their angular size information ($\sim$0.15 arcsec scale) from the Australia
Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) high-angular-resolution catalogue. We cross-match
these against the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer All-WISE catalogue and
present a catalogue with 3300 (91%) matches, 91 (3%) rejects and 219 (6%)
nondetections that are excellent high redshift candidates. Of the matched
compact AGNs, 92% exhibit QSO mid-infrared colours (W1-W2>0.5). Therefore, our
sample of high frequency compact sources has a very high rate of identification
with mid-infrared QSOs. We find counterparts for 88% of 387 compact
steep-spectrum (CSS) sources in the AT20G survey, 82%$\pm$5% of which exhibit
QSO mid-infrared colours and have moderate redshifts (median redshift = 0.82),
while those dominated by host galaxy colours in mid-infrared have lower
redshifts (median redshift = 0.13). The latter classified into late- and
early-type galaxies using their mid-infrared colours shows a majority
(68%$\pm$4%) have colours characteristic of late-type galaxies. Thus, we find
that a larger fraction of these CSS sources are embedded in hosts with higher
gas densities than average early-type galaxies. We compare mid-infrared colours
of our AGNs against those reported for AGNs primarily selected using non-radio
techniques. This shows that mid-infrared SED of high frequency selected compact
radio AGN is comparatively less red, possibly due to contributions from their
hosts.


  Entanglement or entanglement generating interactions permit to achieve the
maximum allowed speed in the dynamical evolution of a composite system, when
the energy resources are distributed among subsystems. The cases of
pre-existing entanglement and of entanglement-building interactions are
separately addressed. The role of classical correlations is also discussed.


  In this paper, we propose a novel method for joint recovery of camera pose,
object geometry and spatially-varying Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution
Function (svBRDF) of 3D scenes that exceed object-scale and hence cannot be
captured with stationary light stages. The input are high-resolution RGB-D
images captured by a mobile, hand-held capture system with point lights for
active illumination. Compared to previous works that jointly estimate geometry
and materials from a hand-held scanner, we formulate this problem using a
single objective function that can be minimized using off-the-shelf
gradient-based solvers. To facilitate scalability to large numbers of
observation views and optimization variables, we introduce a distributed
optimization algorithm that reconstructs 2.5D keyframe-based representations of
the scene. A novel multi-view consistency regularizer effectively synchronizes
neighboring keyframes such that the local optimization results allow for
seamless integration into a globally consistent 3D model. We provide a study on
the importance of each component in our formulation and show that our method
compares favorably to baselines. We further demonstrate that our method
accurately reconstructs various objects and materials and allows for expansion
to spatially larger scenes. We believe that this work represents a significant
step towards making geometry and material estimation from hand-held scanners
scalable.


  We introduce Syntax-Aware Fill-In-the-Middle (SAFIM), a new benchmark for
evaluating Large Language Models (LLMs) on the code Fill-in-the-Middle (FIM)
task. This benchmark focuses on syntax-aware completions of program structures
such as code blocks and conditional expressions, and includes 17,720 examples
from multiple programming languages, sourced from recent code submissions after
April 2022 to minimize data contamination. SAFIM provides a robust framework
with various prompt designs and novel syntax-aware post-processing techniques,
facilitating accurate and fair comparisons across LLMs. Our comprehensive
evaluation of 15 LLMs shows that FIM pretraining not only enhances FIM
proficiency but also improves Left-to-Right (L2R) inference using LLMs. Our
findings challenge conventional beliefs and suggest that pretraining methods
and data quality have more impact than model size. SAFIM thus serves as a
foundational platform for future research in effective pretraining strategies
for code LLMs. The evaluation toolkit and dataset are available at
https://github.com/gonglinyuan/safim, and the leaderboard is available at
https://safimbenchmark.com.


  We use the Baernstein star-function to investigate several questions about
the integral means of the convolution of two analytic functions in the unit
disc. The theory of univalent functions plays a basic role in our work.


  The paper is concerned with the existence of positive weak solutions for a
new class of $\left( p,q\right) $-Laplacian elliptic systems in a bounded
domain by means of the method of sub-super solutions. Particularly, we do not
need any sign conditions for $\gamma \left( 0\right), g\left( 0\right), f\left(
0\right) $ and $h\left(0\right) $. Moreover, a multiplicity result is obtained
when $\gamma \left(0\right)=g\left( 0\right)=f\left( 0\right)=h\left(
0\right)=0.$ Finally, we give some examples to verify our main results.


  We examined how introductory physics students' attitudes and approaches to
problem solving compare to those of introductory astronomy students, using a
previously validated survey, the Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving
(AAPS) survey. In addition, we compared the performance of the introductory
physics and astronomy students on the factors which were identified in a factor
analysis in the original validation study. We found that introductory astronomy
students' overall average AAPS score was significantly more favorable than that
of introductory physics students (p < 0.01), and the effect size was large
(Cohen's d = 0.81). We also found that introductory astronomy students' scores
were more favorable in all clusters of questions except for one factor
involving drawing diagrams and writing scratchwork while solving problems. We
also found that introductory physics and astronomy students were equally
capable of solving two isomorphic problems posed to them, and that the majority
of introductory physics and introductory astronomy students reported that the
problem posed in the astronomy context was more interesting to them. Interviews
suggest that the context of astronomy in problem solving may be more
interesting for students and could be one possible explanation for the more
favorable AAPS scores amongst introductory astronomy students compared to
introductory physics students. Instructors of introductory physics courses
should heed these findings which indicate that it may be beneficial for
instructors of introductory physics courses to incorporate problems into their
instruction which contain real-world contexts, which may serve to increase
student interest-level, and which could help create more favorable attitudes
and approaches towards problem solving.