  We implement a broadly tunable phase shifter for microwaves based on
superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) and study it both
experimentally and theoretically. At different frequencies, a unit transmission
coefficient, $|S_{21}|=1$, can be theoretically achieved along a curve where
the phase shift is controllable by magnetic flux. The fabricated device
consists of three equidistant SQUIDs interrupting a transmission line. We model
each SQUID embedded at different positions along the transmission line with two
parameters, capacitance and inductance, the values of which we extract from the
experiments. In our experiments, the tunability of the phase shift varies from
from $0.07\times\pi$ to $0.14\times\pi$ radians along the full-transmission
curve with the input frequency ranging from 6.00 to 6.28~GHz. The reported
measurements are in good agreement with simulations, which is promising for
future design work of phase shifters for different applications.


  Scheduling wireless links for simultaneous activation in such a way that all
transmissions are successfully decoded at the receivers and moreover network
capacity is maximized is a computationally hard problem. Usually it is tackled
by heuristics whose output is a sequence of time slots in which every link
appears in exactly one time slot. Such approaches can be interpreted as the
coloring of a graph's vertices so that every vertex gets exactly one color.
Here we introduce a new approach that can be viewed as assigning multiple
colors to each vertex, so that, in the resulting schedule, every link may
appear more than once (though the same number of times for all links). We
report on extensive computational experiments, under the physical interference
model, revealing substantial gains for a variety of randomly generated
networks.


  Decomposing taxes by source (labor, capital, sales), we analyze the impact of
automation on tax revenues and the structure of taxation in 19 EU countries
during 1995-2016. Pre-2008, robot diffusion lead to decreasing factor and tax
income, and a shift from taxes on capital to goods. ICTs changed the structure
of taxation from capital to labor, with decreasing employment, but increasing
wages and labor income. Post-2008, we find an ICT-induced increase in capital
income and services, but no effect on taxation from ICT/robots. Overall,
automation goes through various phases with heterogeneous economic effects
which impact the amount and structure of taxes. Whether automation erodes
taxation depends on the technology and stage of diffusion, and thus concerns
about public budgets might be myopic when focusing on the short-run and
ignoring relevant technological trends.


  A diffeological connection on a diffeological vector pseudo-bundle is defined
just the usual one on a smooth vector bundle; this is possible to do, because
there is a standard diffeological counterpart of the cotangent bundle. On the
other hand, there is not yet a standard theory of tangent bundles, although
there are many suggested and promising versions, such as that of the internal
tangent bundle, so the abstract notion of a connection on a diffeological
vector pseudo-bundle does not automatically provide a counterpart notion for
Levi-Civita connections. In this paper we consider the dual of the
just-mentioned counterpart of the cotangent bundle in place of the tangent
bundle (without making any claim about its geometrical meaning). To it, the
notions of compatibility with a pseudo-metric and symmetricity can be easily
extended, and therefore the notion of a Levi-Civita connection makes sense as
well. In the case when $\Lambda^1(X)$, the counterpart of the cotangent bundle,
is finite-dimensional, there is an equivalent Levi-Civita connection on it as
well.


  We tested 45 indices and common stocks traded in the South African stock
market for the possible existence of a bubble over the period from Jan. 2003 to
May 2006. A bubble is defined by a faster-than-exponential acceleration with
significant log-periodic oscillations. The faster-than-exponential acceleration
characteristics are tested with several different metrics, including
nonlinearity on the logarithm of the price and power law fits. The log-periodic
properties are investigated in detail using the first-order log-periodic
power-law (LPPL) formula, the parametric detrending method, the
$(H,q)$-analysis, and the second-order Weierstrass-type model, resulting in a
consistent and robust estimation of the fundamental angular log-frequency
$\omega_1 =7\pm 2$, in reasonable agreement with previous estimations on many
other bubbles in developed and developing markets. Sensitivity tests of the
estimated critical times and of the angular log-frequency are performed by
varying the first date and the last date of the stock price time series. These
tests show that the estimated parameters are robust. With the insight of 6
additional month of data since the analysis was performed, we observe that many
of the stocks on the South Africa market experienced an abrupt drop mid-June
2006, which is compatible with the predicted $t_c$ for several of the stocks,
but not all. This suggests that the mini-crash that occurred around mid-June of
2006 was only a partial correction, which has resumed into a renewed bubbly
acceleration bound to end some times in 2007, similarly to what happened on the
S&P500 US market from Oct. 1997 to Aug. 1998.


  We study the vector-vector interaction within the framework of the hidden
gauge formalism for the channels with quantum numbers Charm C=0 and Strangeness
S=0 in the energy region around 4000 MeV. By looking for poles in the complex
plane we find three resonances that could be identified by the mass, width and
quantum numbers with the Y(3940), Z(3940) and X(4160), these poles appear with
isospin I=0 and J^{PC}=0^{++}, 2^{++} and 2^{++} respectively. Whereas the
Y(3940) and Z(3940) are coupled more strongly to D^*\bar{D}^*, the X(4160) is
basically a D^*_s \bar{D}^*_s molecular state. Another two extra resonances
appear in our approach with I=0, 1 and J^{PC}=1^{+-}, 2^{++} which are not
found in the PDG with masses M=3945, 3912 MeV and widths \Gamma=0, 120 MeV
respectively.


  This paper presents a novel 3D myopic coverage path planning algorithm for
lunar micro-rovers that can explore unknown environments with limited sensing
and computational capabilities. The algorithm expands upon traditional
non-graph path planning methods to accommodate the complexities of lunar
terrain, utilizing global data with local topographic features into motion cost
calculations. The algorithm also integrates localization and mapping to update
the rover's pose and map the environment. The resulting environment map's
accuracy is evaluated and tested in a 3D simulator. Outdoor field tests were
conducted to validate the algorithm's efficacy in sim-to-real scenarios. The
results showed that the algorithm could achieve high coverage with low energy
consumption and computational cost, while incrementally exploring the terrain
and avoiding obstacles. This study contributes to the advancement of path
planning methodologies for space exploration, paving the way for efficient,
scalable and autonomous exploration of lunar environments by small rovers.


  The aim of this article is twofold. First, we develop the notion of a Banach
halo, similar to that of a Banach ring, except that the usual triangular
inequality is replaced by the inequality $|a + b| \leq (|a| , |b|)_p$ involving
the p-norm for some $p \in]0, +\infty]$, or by the inequality $|a+b|\leq
C\max(|a|,|b|)$. This allows us to have a flow of powers on Banach halos and to
work, e.g., with the square of the usual absolute value on $\mathbb{Z}$. Then
we define and study the group of short isometries of normed involutive
coalgebras over a base commutative Banach halo. An aim of this theory is to
define a representable group $K_n\subset {\rm GL}_n$ whose points with values
in $\mathbb{R}$ give $O_n(\mathbb{R})$ and whose points with values in
$\mathbb{Q}_p$ give GL$_n(\mathbb{Z}_p)$, giving to the analogy between these
two groups a kind of geometric explanation.


  Let $K$ be a field and $S=K[x_1,\ldots,x_m, y_1,\ldots,y_n]$ be the standard
bigraded polynomial ring over $K$. In this paper, we explicitly describe the
structure of finitely generated bigraded "sequentially Cohen--Macaulay"
$S$-modules with respect to $Q=(y_1,\ldots,y_n)$. Next, we give a
characterization of sequentially Cohen--Macaulay modules with respect to $Q$ in
terms of local cohomology modules. Cohen--Macaulay modules that are
sequentially Cohen--Macaulay with respect to $Q$ are considered.


  Thermal fluctuations of a critical system induce long-ranged Casimir forces
between objects that couple to the underlying field. For two dimensional (2D)
conformal field theories (CFT) we derive an exact result for the Casimir
interaction between two objects of arbitrary shape, in terms of (1) the free
energy of a circular ring whose radii are determined by the mutual capacitance
of two conductors with the objects' shape; and (2) a purely geometric energy
that is proportional to conformal charge of the CFT, but otherwise
super-universal in that it depends only on the shapes and is independent of
boundary conditions and other details.


  We numerically investigate the saturation of the hydromagnetic instabilities
of a magnetized spherical Couette flow. Previous simulations [Hollerbach, 2009]
demonstrated region where the axisymmetric flow, calculated from a 2-D
simulation, was linearly unstable to nonaxisymmetric perturbations. Full,
nonlinear, 3d simulations [Hollerbach 2009, Travnikov 2011] showed that the
saturated state would consist only of harmonics of one azimuthal wave number,
though there were bifurcations and transitions as nondimensional parameters
(Re, Ha) were varied. Here, the energy transfer between different aziumthal
modes is formulated as a network. This demonstrates a mechanism or the
saturation of one mode and for the suppression of other unstable modes. A given
mode grows by extracting energy from the axisymmetric flow, and then saturates
as the energy transfer to its second harmonic equals this inflow. At the same
time, this mode suppresses other unstable modes by facilitating an energy
transfer to linearly stable modes.


  We study the O(N) $\phi^4$ model compactified on $M^{D-1}\otimes S^1$, which
allows to impose twisted boundary conditions for the $S^1$-direction. The O(N)
symmetry can be broken to $H$ explicitly by the boundary conditions and further
broken to $I$ spontaneously by vacuum expectation values of the fields. The
symmetries $H$ and $I$ are completely classified and the model turns out to
have unexpectedly a rich phase structure. The unbroken symmetry $I$ is shown to
depend on not only the boundary conditions but also the radius of $S^1$, and
the symmetry breaking patterns are found to be unconventional. The spontaneous
breakdown of the translational invariance is also discussed.


  In this paper, we establish a universal variational characterization of the
non-martingale components associated with weakly differentiable Wiener
functionals in the sense of Le\~ao, Ohashi and Simas. It is shown that any
Dirichlet process (in particular semimartingales) is a differential form w.r.t
Brownian motion driving noise. The drift components are characterized in terms
of limits of integral functionals of horizontal-type perturbations and
first-order variation driven by a two-parameter occupation time process.
Applications to a class of path-dependent rough transformations of Brownian
paths under finite $p$-variation ($p\ge 2$) regularity is also discussed. Under
stronger regularity conditions in the sense of finite $(p,q)$-variation, the
connection between weak differentiability and two-parameter local time
integrals in the sense of Young is established.


  We investigate the properties of membranes under tension by Monte-Carlo
simulations of a generic coarse-grained model for lipid bilayers. We give a
comprising overview of the behavior of several membrane characteristics, such
as the area per lipid, the monolayer overlap, the nematic order, and pressure
profiles. Both the low-temperature regime, where the membranes are in a gel
phase, and the high-temperature regime, where they are in the fluid phase, are
considered. In the gel state, the membrane is hardly influenced by tension. In
the fluid state, high tensions lead to structural changes in the membrane,
which result in different compressibility regimes. The ripple state, which is
found at tension zero in the transition regime between the fluid and the gel
phase, disappears under tension and gives way to an interdigitated phase. We
also study the membrane fluctuations in the fluid phase. In the low tension
regime the data can be fitted nicely to a suitably extended elastic theory. At
higher tensions the elastic fit consistently underestimates the strength of
long-wavelength fluctuations. Finally, we investigate the influence of tension
on the effective interaction between simple transmembrane inclusions and show
that tension can be used to tune the hydrophobic mismatch interaction between
membrane proteins.


  We show that the bulk-inversion-asymmetry-type strain-induced spin-orbit
coupling can be used to effectively modify the Dresselhaus spin splitting in
(001) GaAs quantum wells with small well width and the resulting spin lifetime
can be increased by two orders of magnitude to nanoseconds under right
conditions. The efficiency of this strain manipulation of the spin dephasing
time under different conditions such as temperature, electric field and
electron density is investigated in detail.


  Monitoring the status of large computing systems is essential to identify
unexpected behavior and improve their performance and uptime. However, due to
the large-scale and distributed design of such computing systems as well as a
large number of monitoring parameters, automated monitoring methods should be
applied. Such automatic monitoring methods should also have the ability to
adapt themselves to the continuous changes in the computing system. In
addition, they should be able to identify behavioral anomalies in useful time,
to perform appropriate reactions. This work proposes a general lightweight and
unsupervised method for near real-time anomaly detection using operational data
measurement on large computing systems. The proposed model requires as little
as 4 hours of data and 50 epochs for each training process to accurately
resemble the behavioral pattern of computing systems.


  Current efforts to build quantum computers focus mainly on the two-state
qubit, which often involves suppressing readily-available higher states. In
this work, we break this abstraction and synthesize short-duration control
pulses for gates on generalized d-state qudits. We present Incremental Pulse
Re-seeding, a practical scheme to guide optimal control software to the
lowest-duration pulse by iteratively seeding the optimizer with previous
results. We find a near-linear relationship between Hilbert space dimension and
gate duration through explicit pulse optimization for one- and two-qudit gates
on transmons. Our results suggest that qudit operations are much more efficient
than previously expected in the practical regime of interest and have the
potential to significantly increase the computational power of current
hardware.


  The Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov technique allows to detect very high energy
gamma rays from few tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV using ground-based
instrumentation. At these energies a gamma ray generates a shower of secondary
particles when it enters the Earth's atmosphere. These particles emit Cherenkov
light in the visible and near UV ranges. The Cherenkov light produced by the
shower reaches the ground as a short pulse of a few nanosecond duration over a
large circle of around 100 m radius (a light pool). This pulse of light can be
imaged with telescopes provided with fast photodetectors and electronics.
Combining the images of several telescopes distributed over this light pool
allows to estimate the gamma-ray energy and incident direction, and to reject
gamma rays from the strong background of charged cosmic rays. The collection
area of an array of a few telescopes is of the order of the area of the light
pool, i.e. $>$10$^5$m$^2$. Such an array reaches a sensitivity of a few
millicrabs at 100 GeV energies in 50 hours of observations, an angular
resolution of $\sim$5 arcmin and a spectral resolution of $\sim$10%. This
chapter describes the technical implementation of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov
telescopes and describes how the data are analyzed to reconstruct the physical
parameters of the primary gamma rays.


  In this paper fields of quantum reference frames based on gauge
transformations of rational string states are described in a way that,
hopefully, makes them more understandable than their description in an earlier
paper. The approach taken here is based on three main points: (1) There are a
large number of different quantum theory representations of natural numbers,
integers, and rational numbers as states of qubit strings. (2) For each
representation, Cauchy sequences of rational string states give a
representation of the real (and complex) numbers. A reference frame is
associated to each representation. (3) Each frame contains a representation of
all mathematical and physical theories that have the representations of the
real and complex numbers as a scalar base for the theories. These points and
other aspects of the resulting fields are then discussed and justified in some
detail. Also two different methods of relating the frame field to physics are
discussed.


  The status of our understanding of confinement is reviewed. The evidence from
lattice is that monopole condensation, or dual superconductivity, is at work.
Confinement is an order-disorder transition. Different monopole species look
equivalent, indicating that the symmetry of the disordered phase is more
interesting that we understand.


  We use a vortex retarder-based approach to generate few optical cycles light
pulses carrying orbital angular momentum (known also as twisted light or
optical vortex) from a Yb:KGW oscillator pumping a noncollinear optical
parametric amplifier generating sub-10 fs linearly polarized light pulses in
the near infrared spectral range (central wavelength 850 nm). We characterize
such vortices both spatially and temporally by using astigmatic imaging
technique and second harmonic generation-based frequency resolved optical
gating, respectively. The generation of optical vortices is analyzed, and its
structure reconstructed by estimating the spatio-spectral field and Fourier
transforming it into the temporal domain. As a proof of concept, we show that
we can also generate sub-20 fs light pulses carrying orbital angular momentum
and with arbitrary polarization on the first-order Poincar\'e sphere.


  We consider a control problem for a heterogeneous population composed of
agents able to switch at any time between different options. The controller
aims to maximize an average gain per time unit, supposing that the population
is of infinite size. This leads to an ergodic control problem for a
"mean-field" Markov Decision Process in which the state space is a product of
simplices, and the population evolves according to controlled linear dynamics.
By exploiting contraction properties of the dynamics in Hilbert's projective
metric, we prove that the infinite-dimensional ergodic eigenproblem admits a
solution and show that the latter is in general non unique. This allows us to
obtain optimal strategies, and to quantify the gap between steady-state
strategies and optimal ones. In particular, we prove in the one-dimensional
case that there exist cyclic policies -- alternating between discount and
profit taking stages -- which secure a greater gain than constant-price
policies. On numerical aspects, we develop a policy iteration algorithm with
"on-the-fly" generated transitions, specifically adapted to decomposable
models, leading to substantial memory savings. We finally apply our results on
realistic instances coming from an electricity pricing problem encountered in
the retail markets, and numerically observe the emergence of cyclic promotions
for sufficient inertia in the customer behavior.


  We present a proof-of-concept technique for the inverse design of
electromagnetic devices motivated by the policy gradient method in
reinforcement learning, named PHORCED (PHotonic Optimization using REINFORCE
Criteria for Enhanced Design). This technique uses a probabilistic generative
neural network interfaced with an electromagnetic solver to assist in the
design of photonic devices, such as grating couplers. We show that PHORCED
obtains better performing grating coupler designs than local gradient-based
inverse design via the adjoint method, while potentially providing faster
convergence over competing state-of-the-art generative methods. As a further
example of the benefits of this method, we implement transfer learning with
PHORCED, demonstrating that a neural network trained to optimize 8$^\circ$
grating couplers can then be re-trained on grating couplers with alternate
scattering angles while requiring >10$\times$ fewer simulations than control
cases.


  This paper is concerned with a mathematical model which describes 2-D flows
of an incompressible viscoelastic fluid of Oldroyd type in a bounded domain. We
prove the existence and uniqueness theorem for global (in time) weak solutions
and derive the energy equation.


  Sensory systems have evolved to respond to input stimuli of certain
statistical properties, and to reliably transmit this information through
biochemical pathways. Hence, for an experimentally well-characterized sensory
system, one ought to be able to extract valuable information about the
statistics of the stimuli. Based on dose-response curves from in vivo
fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) experiments of the bacterial
chemotaxis sensory system, we predict the chemical gradients chemotactic
Escherichia coli cells typically encounter in their natural environment. To
predict average gradients cells experience, we revaluate the phenomenological
Weber's law and its generalizations to the Weber-Fechner law and fold-change
detection. To obtain full distributions of gradients we use information theory
and simulations, considering limitations of information transmission from both
cell-external and internal noise. We identify broad distributions of
exponential gradients, which lead to log-normal stimuli and maximal drift
velocity. Our results thus provide a first step towards deciphering the
chemical nature of complex, experimentally inaccessible cellular
microenvironments, such as the human intestine.


  We study the problem of ellipsoidal bounding of convex set-valued data, where
the convex set is obtained by the $p$-sum of finitely many ellipsoids, for any
real $p\geq 1$. The notion of $p$-sum appears in the Brunn-Minkowski-Firey
theory in convex analysis, and generalizes several well-known set-valued
operations such as the Minkowski sum of the summand convex sets (here,
ellipsoids). We derive an outer ellipsoidal parameterization for the $p$-sum of
a given set of ellipsoids, and compute the tightest such parameterization for
two optimality criteria: minimum trace and minimum volume. For such optimal
parameterizations, several known results in the system-control literature are
recovered as special cases of our general formula. For the minimum volume
criterion, our analysis leads to a fixed point recursion over a scalar that
parameterizes the shape matrix of the outer ellipsoid. This recursion is proved
to be contractive, and found to converge fast in practice. We apply these
results to compute the forward reach sets for a linear control system subject
to different convex set-valued uncertainty models for the initial condition and
control, generated by varying $p\in[1,\infty]$. Our numerical results show that
the proposed fixed point algorithm offers more than two orders of magnitude
speed-up in computational time for $p=1$, compared to the existing semidefinite
programming approach without significant effect on the numerical accuracy. For
$p>1$, the reach set computation results reported here are novel. Our results
are expected to be useful in real-time safety critical applications such as
decision making for collision avoidance of autonomous vehicles, where the
computational time-scale for reach set calculation needs to be much smaller
than the vehicular dynamics time-scale.


  We present the specific heat, magnetization, optical spectroscopy
measurements and the firstprinciple calculations on the Weberite structure
Ca2Os2O7 single crystal/polycrystalline sample. The Ca2Os2O7 shows a
Curie-Weiss nature at high temperature and goes into a ferrimagnetic insulating
state at 327 K on cooling. A \lambda-like peak is observed at 327 K in the
specific heat implying a second-order phase transition. The vanishing
electronic specific heat at low temperature suggests a full energy gap. At high
temperature above the transition, small amount of itinerant carriers with short
life time \tau are observed, which is gapped at 20 K with a direct gap of 0:24
eV . Our first principle calculations indicate that the anti-ferromagnetic
(AFM) correlation with intermediate Coulomb repulsion U could effectively split
Os(4b) t2g bands and push them away from Fermi level(EF). On the other hand, a
non-collinear magnetic interaction is needed to push the Os(4c) bands away from
EF, which could be induced by Os(4c)-Os(4c) frustration. Therefore, AFM
correlation, Coulomb repulsion U and non-collinear interaction all play
important roles for the insulating ground state in Ca2Os2O7.


  Let $\mathcal {T}^{\Delta}_n$ denote the set of trees of order $n$, in which
the degree of each vertex is bounded by some integer $\Delta$. Suppose that
every tree in $\mathcal {T}^{\Delta}_n$ is equally likely. For any given
subtree $H$, we show that the number of occurrences of $H$ in trees of
$\mathcal {T}^{\Delta}_n$ is with mean $(\mu_H+o(1))n$ and variance
$(\sigma_H+o(1))n$, where $\mu_H$, $\sigma_H$ are some constants. As an
application, we estimate the value of the Estrada index $EE$ for almost all
trees in $\mathcal {T}^{\Delta}_n$, and give an explanation in theory to the
approximate linear correlation between $EE$ and the first Zagreb index obtained
by quantitative analysis.


  Weak-interaction rates, including beta-decay and electron capture, are
studied in several odd-A nuclei in the pf-shell region at various densities and
temperatures of astrophysical interest. Special attention is paid to the
relative contribution to these rates of thermally populated excited states in
the decaying nucleus. The nuclear structure involved in the weak processes is
studied within a quasiparticle random-phase approximation with residual
interactions in both particle-hole and particle-particle channels on top of a
deformed Skyrme Hartree-Fock mean field with pairing correlations. In the range
of densities and temperatures considered, it is found that the total rates do
not differ much from the rates of the ground state fully populated. In any
case, the changes are not larger than the uncertainties due to the nuclear
model dependence of the rates.


  We discuss the sensitivity of the $\gamma \gamma \to \tau^+ \tau^-$ process
in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions on the anomalous magnetic ($a_{\tau}$) and
electric ($d_{\tau}$) moments of $\tau$ lepton at LHC energies. We derive the
corresponding cross sections by folding the elementary cross section with the
heavy-ion photon fluxes and considering semi-leptonic decays of both $\tau$
leptons in the fiducial volume of ATLAS and CMS detectors. We present
predictions for total and differential cross sections, and for the ratios to
$\gamma \gamma \to e^+ e^- (\mu^+ \mu^-$) process. These ratios allow to cancel
theoretical and experimental uncertainties when performing precision
measurement of $a_{\tau}$ at the LHC. The expected limits on $a_{\tau}$ with
existing Pb+Pb dataset are found to be better by a factor of two comparing to
current best experimental limits and can be further improved by another factor
of two at High Luminosity LHC.


  In this work, I calculate the $p_\perp$ resolved spectra for the three stages
of the \textit{bottom-up} scenario, which are comparable to the thermal
contribution, particularly at higher values of the saturation scale $Q_S^2$.
Analytical solutions are obtained by including a parametrization of scaling
solutions from far-from-equilibrium classical statistical lattice simulations
into a small angle kinetic rate. Furthermore, a theoretically motivated ansatz
is used to account for near-collinear enhancement of the low-$p_\perp$
radiation. The system is phenomenologically constrained using the charge hadron
multiplicities from LHC and RHIC as in previous parametric estimates and fair
agreement with the data available for photons was found. I find that for this
realistic set of parameters, the contribution from the thermalizing glasma
dominates the excess photons.


  Of concern is the study of a system of three equations describing the motion
of a viscous complete wetting two-phase thin film endowed with a layer of
insoluble surfactant on the surface of the upper fluid under the effects of
capillary forces. The governing equations for the film heights of the two-phase
flow are degenerate, parabolic and strongly coupled fourth-order equations,
which are additionally coupled to a second-order parabolic transport equation
for the surfactant concentration. A result on the existence of non-negative
global weak solutions is presented.


  We investigate the possibility of unifying the inflation and dark matter
physics in the minimal model for a complex scalar dark matter with gauged $Z_3$
symmetry. The dark local $U(1)$ symmetry is broken spontaneously into the $Z_3$
symmetry by the dark Higgs mechanism. As compared to dark matter models with
$Z_2$ parity, the dark matter cubic self-interaction restricts the inflation
with non-minimal couplings to take place beyond the pure dark matter direction
and plays an important role in the loop corrections for the inflationary
predictions as well as determining the correct dark matter relic density.
Considering either of $2\rightarrow 2$, $3\rightarrow 2$ or forbidden channels
to be a dominant production mechanism for dark matter, we show the viable
parameter space of the model that is consistent with the theoretical and
phenomenological constraints combined from inflation and dark matter.


  Using linear response theory, we analyze optical response properties of
generalized holographic superconductors, in AdS-Schwarzschild and single
R-charged black hole backgrounds in four dimensions. By introducing momentum
dependent vector mode perturbations, the response functions for these systems
are studied numerically, including the effects of backreaction. This
complements and completes the probe limit analysis for these backgrounds
initiated in our previous work ({\tt arXiv : 1305.6273}). Our numerical
analysis indicates a negative Depine-Lakhtakia index for both the backgrounds
studied, at low enough frequencies. The dependence of the response functions on
the backreaction parameter and the model parameters are established and
analyzed with respect to similar backgrounds in five dimensions.


  Some hot DA stars exhibit circumstellar absorption in the metal resonance
lines in their spectra. In many cases, these circumstellar features are
unresolved from those originating in the photosphere. To better understand the
effect this circumstellar blending has on photospheric abundance estimates, we
present here an analysis of the unresolved metal high ion absorption features
of six hot white dwarfs. In all cases, given the strong circumstellar C IV
detections, the photospheric C IV abundances are reduced; conversely the weak
circumstellar Si IV leads to modest photospheric abundance revisions. A
possible new technique for modelling these line profiles is discussed, that can
better reproduce the observations and provide a greater insight into the
conditions of the circumstellar medium.


  This paper develops a fully discrete modified characteristic finite element
method for a coupled system consisting of the fully nonlinear Monge-Amp\'ere
equation and a transport equation. The system is the Eulerian formulation in
the dual space for the B. J. Hoskins' semigeostrophic flow equations, which are
widely used in meteorology to model slowly varying flows constrained by
rotation and stratification. To overcome the difficulty caused by the strong
nonlinearity, we first formulate (at the differential level) a vanishing moment
approximation of the semigeostrophic flow equations, a methodology recently
proposed by the authors \cite{Feng1,Feng2}, which involves approximating the
fully nonlinear Monge-Amp\'ere equation by a family of fourth order quasilinear
equations. We then construct a fully discrete modified characteristic finite
element method for the regularized problem. It is shown that under certain mesh
and time stepping constraints, the proposed numerical method converges with an
optimal order rate of convergence. In particular, the obtained error bounds
show explicit dependence on the regularization parameter $\vepsi$. Numerical
tests are also presented to validate the theoretical results and to gauge the
efficiency of the proposed fully discrete modified characteristic finite
element method.


  The paper investigates the overall and detailed features of cosmic ray (CR)
spectra in the knee region using the scenario of nuclei-photon interactions
around the acceleration sources. Young supernova remnants can be the physical
realities of such kind of CR acceleration sites. The results show that the
model can well explain the following problems simultaneously with one set of
source parameters: the knee of CR spectra and the sharpness of the knee, the
detailed irregular structures of CR spectra, the so-called "component B" of
Galactic CRs, and the electron/positron excesses reported by recent
observations. The coherent explanation serves as evidence that at least a
portion of CRs might be accelerated at the sources similar to young supernova
remnants, and one set of source parameters indicates that this portion mainly
comes from standard sources or from a single source.


  We propose a general theory for constructing functorial assignments $\Sigma
\longmapsto \Omega_{\Sigma} \in E(\Sigma)$ for a large class of functors $E$
from a certain category of bordered surfaces to a suitable target category of
topological vector spaces. The construction proceeds by successive excisions of
homotopy classes of embedded pairs of pants, and thus by induction on the Euler
characteristic. We provide sufficient conditions to guarantee the infinite sums
appearing in this construction converge. In particular, we can generate mapping
class group invariant vectors $\Omega_{\Sigma} \in E(\Sigma)$. The initial data
for the recursion encode the cases when $\Sigma$ is a pair of pants or a torus
with one boundary, as well as the "recursion kernels" used for glueing. We give
this construction the name of Geometric Recursion. As a first application, we
demonstrate that our formalism produce a large class of measurable functions on
the moduli space of bordered Riemann surfaces. Under certain conditions, the
functions produced by the geometric recursion can be integrated with respect to
the Weil--Petersson measure on moduli spaces with fixed boundary lengths, and
we show that the integrals satisfy a topological recursion generalizing the one
of Eynard and Orantin. We establish a generalization of Mirzakhani--McShane
identities, namely that multiplicative statistics of hyperbolic lengths of
multicurves can be computed by the geometric recursion. As a corollary, we show
that the systole function can be obtained from the geometric recursion. The
theory has however a wider scope than functions on Teichm\"uller space, which
will be explored in subsequent papers; one expects that many functorial objects
in low-dimensional geometry could be constructed by variants of this geometric
recursion.


  A model for energy spectrum of superlattice on the base of graphene placed on
the striped dielectric substrate is proposed. A direct current component which
appears in that structure perpendicularly to pulling electric field under the
influence of elliptically polarized electromagnetic wave was derived. A
transverse current density dependence on pulling field magnitude and on
magnitude of component of elliptically polarized wave directed along the axis
of a superlattice is analyzed.


  We unravel the many-body dynamics of a harmonically trapped impurity
colliding with a bosonic medium confined in a double-well upon quenching the
initially displaced harmonic trap to the center of the double-well. We reveal
that the emerging correlation dynamics crucially depends on the impurity-medium
interaction strength allowing for a classification into different dynamical
response regimes. For strong attractive impurity-medium couplings the impurity
is bound to the bosonic bath, while for intermediate attractions it undergoes
an effective tunneling. In the case of weak attractive or repulsive couplings
the impurity penetrates the bosonic bath and performs a dissipative oscillatory
motion. Further increasing the impurity-bath repulsion results in the pinning
of the impurity between the density peaks of the bosonic medium, a phenomenon
that is associated with a strong impurity-medium entanglement. For strong
repulsions the impurity is totally reflected by the bosonic medium. To unravel
the underlying microscopic excitation processes accompanying the dynamics we
employ an effective potential picture. We extend our results to the case of two
bosonic impurities and demonstrate the existence of a qualitatively similar
impurity dynamics.


  We present the results of high resolution mapping of the CO(1-0) and CO(2-1)
emission of the ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) IRAS 10190+1322, with the
IRAM interferometer, down to an angular resolution of ~0.3 arcsec. This object
is composed of two interacting galaxies with a projected nuclear separation of
6 kpc, and was selected to analyze the physical and dynamical properties of the
molecular gas in each galaxy in order to study the conditions that lead a
galaxy pair to become ultraluminous in the infrared. With the exception of Arp
220, the closest ULIRG, this is the first time that the CO emission is
morphologically and kinematically resolved in the two interacting galaxies of a
ULIRG system. In one of the galaxies the molecular gas is highly concentrated,
distributed in a circumnuclear disk of 1.7 kpc in size. The molecular gas in
the presumably less infrared luminous galaxy is distributed in a more extended
disk of 7.4 kpc. The molecular gas mass accounts for ~10% of the dynamical mass
in each galaxy. Both objects are rich enough in molecular gas, Mgas ~ 4 10^9
Msun, as to experience an infrared ultraluminous phase.


  Because of physical assumptions and numerical approximations, low-order
models are affected by uncertainties in the state and parameters, and by model
biases. Model biases, also known as model errors or systematic errors, are
difficult to infer because they are `unknown unknowns', i.e., we do not
necessarily know their functional form a priori. With biased models, data
assimilation methods may be ill-posed because either (i) they are
'bias-unaware' because the estimators are assumed unbiased, (ii) they rely on
an a priori parametric model for the bias, or (iii) they can infer model biases
that are not unique for the same model and data. First, we design a data
assimilation framework to perform combined state, parameter, and bias
estimation. Second, we propose a mathematical solution with a sequential
method, i.e., the regularized bias-aware ensemble Kalman Filter (r-EnKF), which
requires a model of the bias and its gradient (i.e., the Jacobian). Third, we
propose an echo state network as the model bias estimator. We derive the
Jacobian of the network, and design a robust training strategy with data
augmentation to accurately infer the bias in different scenarios. Fourth, we
apply the r-EnKF to nonlinearly coupled oscillators (with and without
time-delay) affected by different forms of bias. The r-EnKF infers in real-time
parameters and states, and a unique bias. The applications that we showcase are
relevant to acoustics, thermoacoustics, and vibrations; however, the r-EnKF
opens new opportunities for combined state, parameter and bias estimation for
real-time and on-the-fly prediction in nonlinear systems.


  Within an effective field theory framework, we discuss the possibility to
discriminate among different operators that contribute to lepton flavor
violating (LFV) tau decays. Correlations among decay rates in different
channels are shown to provide a basic handle to unravel the origin of LFV in
these processes. More information about the underlying dynamics responsible for
LFV can be gathered from differential distributions in three-body decays like
tau -> mu pi pi or tau -> 3 mu: these are considered in some detail. We
incorporate in our analysis recent developments in the determination of the
hadronic form factors for tau -> mu pi pi. Future prospects for the observation
of LFV tau decays and its interpretation are also discussed.


  Semantic layouts based Image synthesizing, which has benefited from the
success of Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), has drawn much attention in
these days. How to enhance the synthesis image equality while keeping the
stochasticity of the GAN is still a challenge. We propose a novel denoising
framework to handle this problem. The overlapped objects generation is another
challenging task when synthesizing images from a semantic layout to a realistic
RGB photo. To overcome this deficiency, we include a one-hot semantic label map
to force the generator paying more attention on the overlapped objects
generation. Furthermore, we improve the loss function of the discriminator by
considering perturb loss and cascade layer loss to guide the generation
process. We applied our methods on the Cityscapes, Facades and NYU datasets and
demonstrate the image generation ability of our model.


  In todays world, where the need for security is paramount and biometric
access control systems are gaining mass acceptance due to their increased
reliability, research in this area is quite relevant. Also with the advent of
IOT devices and increased community support for cheap and small computers like
Raspberry Pi its convenient than ever to design a complete standalone system
for any purpose. This paper proposes a Facial Biometric System built on the
client-server paradigm using Raspberry Pi 3 model B running a novel local
descriptor based parallel algorithm. This paper also proposes an extended
version of Local Gradient Hexa Pattern with improved accuracy. The proposed
extended version of LGHP improved performance as shown in performance analysis.
Extended LGHP shows improvement over other state-of-the-art descriptors namely
LDP, LTrP, MLBP and LVP on the most challenging benchmark facial image
databases, i.e. Cropped Extended Yale-B, CMU-PIE, color-FERET, LFW, and
Ghallager database. Proposed system is also compared with various patents
having similar system design and intent to emphasize the difference and novelty
of the system proposed.


  After having announced the statistically significant observation
(5.6~$\sigma$) of the new exotic $\pi K$ atom, the DIRAC experiment at the CERN
proton synchrotron presents the measurement of the corresponding atom lifetime,
based on the full $\pi K$ data sample: $\tau = (5.5^{+5.0}_{-2.8}) \cdot
10^{-15}s$. By means of a precise relation ($<1\%$) between atom lifetime and
scattering length, the following value for the S-wave isospin-odd $\pi K$
scattering length $a_0^{-}~=~\frac{1}{3}(a_{1/2}-a_{3/2})$ has been derived:
$\left|a_0^-\right| = (0.072^{+0.031}_{-0.020}) M_{\pi}^{-1}$.


  The recent growth of sophisticated digital gaming technologies has spawned an
\$8.1B industry around using these games for pedagogical purposes. Though
Digital Game-Based Learning Systems have been adopted by industries ranging
from military to medical applications, these systems continue to rely on
traditional measures of explicit interactions to gauge player performance which
can be subject to guessing and other factors unrelated to actual performance.
This study presents a novel implicit eye-tracking based metric for digital
game-based learning environments. The proposed metric introduces a weighted
eye-tracking measure of traditional in-game scoring to consider the mental
schema of a player's decision making. In order to validate the efficacy of this
metric, we conducted an experiment with 25 participants playing a game designed
to evaluate Chinese cultural competency and communication. This experiment
showed strong correlation between the novel eye-tracking performance metric and
traditional measures of in-game performance.


  Twenty years after P. Sauer released the state of the art Faddeev solution of
the bound state three nucleon systems, I revisit photo and electrodisengration
of few body systems with a special emphasis on the prospects opened at
Jefferson Laboratory.


  This volume represents the proceedings of the 37th Annual Workshop of the
Austrian Association for Pattern Recognition (\"OAGM/AAPR), held May 23-24,
2013, in Innsbruck, Austria.


  I discuss the quantum instability of an electric field in a theory of open
strings.


  We present an efficient graphene-based photodetector with two Fabri-P\'erot
cavities. It is shown that the absorption can reach almost 100% around a given
frequency, which is determined by the two-cavity lengths. It is also shown that
hysteresis in the absorbance is possible, with the transmittance amplitude of
the mirrors working as an external driving field. The role of non-linear
contributions to the optical susceptibility of graphene is discussed.


  The main goal of this paper is to show that the notions of Weil and Cartier
$\mathbb{Q}$-divisors coincide for $V$-manifolds and give a procedure to
express a rational Weil divisor as a rational Cartier divisor. The theory is
illustrated on weighted projective spaces and weighted blow-ups.


  When modeling and interpreting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of
galaxies, the simple stellar population (SSP) model, star formation history
(SFH) and dust attenuation law (DAL) are three of the most important
components. However, each of them carries significant uncertainties which have
seriously limited our ability to reliably recover the physical properties of
galaxies from the analysis of their SEDs. In this paper, we present a Bayesian
framework to deal with these uncertain components simultaneously. Based on the
Bayesian evidence, a quantitative implement of the principle of Occam's razor,
the method allows a more objective and quantitative discrimination among the
different assumptions about these uncertain components. With a Ks-selected
sample of 5467 low-redshift (mostly with $z\lesssim 1$) galaxies in the
COSMOS/UltraVISTA field and classified into passively evolving galaxies (PEGs)
and star-forming galaxies (SFGs) with UVJ diagram, we present a Bayesian
discrimination of a set of 16 SSP models from five research groups (BC03 and
CB07, M05, GALEV, Yunnan-II, BPASS V2.0), five forms of SFH (Burst, Constant,
Exp-dec, Exp-inc, Delayed-$\tau$), and four kinds of DAL (Calzetti law, MW,
LMC, SMC). We show that the results obtained with the method are either obvious
or understandable in the context of galaxy physics. We conclude that the
Bayesian model comparison method, especially that for a sample of galaxies, is
very useful for discriminating the different assumptions in the SED modeling of
galaxies. The new version of the BayeSED code, which is used in this work, is
publicly available at https://bitbucket.org/hanyk/bayesed/.


  Diamond photonics provides an attractive architecture to explore room
temperature cavity quantum electrodynamics and to realize scalable multi-qubit
computing. Here we review the present state of diamond photonic technology. The
design, fabrication and characterization of a novel triangular cross section
nanobeam cavity produced in a single crystal diamond is demonstrated. The
present cavity design, based on a triangular cross section allows vertical
confinement and better signal collection efficiency than that of slab-based
nanocavities, and eliminates the need for a pre-existing membrane. The nanobeam
is fabricated by Focused-Ion-Beam (FIB) patterning. The cavity is characterized
by a confocal photoluminescence. The modes display quality factors of Q ~220
and are deviated in wavelength by only ~1.7nm from the NV- color center zero
phonon line (ZPL). The measured results are found in good agreement with 3D
Finite-Difference-Time-Domain (FDTD) calculations. A more advanced cavity
design with Q=22,000 is modeled, showing the potential for high-Q
implementations using the triangular cavity design. The prospects of this
concept and its application to spin non-demolition measurement and quantum
computing are discussed.


  To each graph on $n$ vertices there is an associated subspace of the $n
\times n$ matrices called the operator system of the graph. We prove that two
graphs are isomorphic if and only if their corresponding operator systems are
unitally completely order isomorphic. This means that the study of graphs is
equivalent to the study of these special operator systems up to the natural
notion of isomorphism in their category. We define new graph theory parameters
via this identification. Certain quotient norms that arise from studying the
operator system of a graph give rise to a new family of parameters of a graph.
We then show basic properties about these parameters and write down explicitly
how to compute them via a semidefinte program, and discuss their similarities
to the Lov\'{a}sz theta function. Finally, we explore a particular parameter in
this family and establish a sandwich theorem that holds for some graphs.


  In early 2009, immediately following the end of the WR140 periastron campaign
(see these proceedings), I turned my telescope back to epsilon Aurigae in time
for the start of the eclipse. As well as being an interesting object in its own
right, the Pro-Am campaign being run on epsilon Aurigae during the current
eclipse is a good example of how amateur spectroscopists can make a useful
contribution. epsilon Aurigae is a naked eye magnitude 3 star and was first
noted to be variable by Johan Frisch in 1821. It was subsequently found to be
an eclipsing binary with a period of 27.1 years which undergoes an
approximately 2 year long flat-bottomed eclipse with approximately 0.8
magnitude drop in V.


  Building a reliable and efficient collision avoidance system for unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAVs) is still a challenging problem. This research takes
inspiration from locusts, which can fly in dense swarms for hundreds of miles
without collision. In the locust's brain, a visual pathway of LGMD-DCMD (lobula
giant movement detector and descending contra-lateral motion detector) has been
identified as collision perception system guiding fast collision avoidance for
locusts, which is ideal for designing artificial vision systems. However, there
is very few works investigating its potential in real-world UAV applications.
In this paper, we present an LGMD based competitive collision avoidance method
for UAV indoor navigation. Compared to previous works, we divided the UAV's
field of view into four subfields each handled by an LGMD neuron. Therefore,
four individual competitive LGMDs (C-LGMD) compete for guiding the directional
collision avoidance of UAV. With more degrees of freedom compared to ground
robots and vehicles, the UAV can escape from collision along four cardinal
directions (e.g. the object approaching from the left-side triggers a rightward
shifting of the UAV). Our proposed method has been validated by both
simulations and real-time quadcopter arena experiments.


  As smart grids (SG) increasingly rely on advanced technologies like sensors
and communication systems for efficient energy generation, distribution, and
consumption, they become enticing targets for sophisticated cyberattacks. These
evolving threats demand robust security measures to maintain the stability and
resilience of modern energy systems. While extensive research has been
conducted, a comprehensive exploration of proactive cyber defense strategies
utilizing Deep Learning (DL) in {SG} remains scarce in the literature. This
survey bridges this gap, studying the latest DL techniques for proactive cyber
defense. The survey begins with an overview of related works and our distinct
contributions, followed by an examination of SG infrastructure. Next, we
classify various cyber defense techniques into reactive and proactive
categories. A significant focus is placed on DL-enabled proactive defenses,
where we provide a comprehensive taxonomy of DL approaches, highlighting their
roles and relevance in the proactive security of SG. Subsequently, we analyze
the most significant DL-based methods currently in use. Further, we explore
Moving Target Defense, a proactive defense strategy, and its interactions with
DL methodologies. We then provide an overview of benchmark datasets used in
this domain to substantiate the discourse.{ This is followed by a critical
discussion on their practical implications and broader impact on cybersecurity
in Smart Grids.} The survey finally lists the challenges associated with
deploying DL-based security systems within SG, followed by an outlook on future
developments in this key field.


  Layered van der Waals ferromagnets, which preserve their magnetic properties
down to exfoliated monolayers, are fueling an abundance of fundamental research
and nanoscale device demonstration. CrGeTe$_3$ is a prime example for this
class of materials. Its temperature-pressure phase diagram features an
insulator-to-metal transition and a significant increase of ferromagnetic
Curie-Weiss temperatures upon entering the metallic state. We use density
functional theory to understand the magnetic exchange interactions in
CrGeTe$_3$ at ambient and elevated pressure. We calculate Heisenberg exchange
couplings, which provide the correct ferromagnetic ground state and explain the
experimentally observed pressure dependence of magnetism in CrGeTe$_3$.
Furthermore, we combine density functional theory with dynamical mean field
theory to investigate the effects of electronic correlations and the nature of
the high pressure metallic state in CrGeTe$_3$.


  In the last decade remarkable progress has been made in development of
suitable proof techniques for analysing randomised search heuristics. The
theoretical investigation of these algorithms on classes of functions is
essential to the understanding of the underlying stochastic process. Linear
functions have been traditionally studied in this area resulting in tight
bounds on the expected optimisation time of simple randomised search algorithms
for this class of problems. Recently, the constrained version of this problem
has gained attention and some theoretical results have also been obtained on
this class of problems. In this paper we study the class of linear functions
under uniform constraint and investigate the expected optimisation time of
Randomised Local Search (RLS) and a simple evolutionary algorithm called (1+1)
EA. We prove a tight bound of $\Theta(n^2)$ for RLS and improve the previously
best known upper bound of (1+1) EA from $O(n^2 \log (Bw_{\max}))$ to $O(n^2\log
B)$ in expectation and to $O(n^2 \log n)$ with high probability, where
$w_{\max}$ and $B$ are the maximum weight of the linear objective function and
the bound of the uniform constraint, respectively. Also, we obtain a tight
bound of $O(n^2)$ for the (1+1) EA on a special class of instances. We
complement our theoretical studies by experimental investigations that consider
different values of $B$ and also higher mutation rates that reflect the fact
that $2$-bit flips are crucial for dealing with the uniform constraint.


  Based on the dual Higgs picture for confinement, we study monopole properties
in the maximally abelian (MA) gauge using the lattice QCD. The monopole carries
a large fluctuation of the gluon field and provides a large abelian action in
abelian projected QCD (AP-QCD). We find large cancellation between abelian part
and off-diagonal part of the action density around the monopole, which ensures
the appearance of monopoles. The monopole in the MA gauge can be regarded as
the collective mode of the large gluon fluctuation concentrated into the
abelian sector, and would be relevant degrees of freedom for confinement in
AP-QCD.


  A series of MgB2 thin films were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD),
doped with various amounts of Si up to a level of 18wt%. Si was introduced into
the PLD MgB2 films by sequential ablation of a stoichiometric MgB2 target and a
Si target. The doped films were deposited at 250 C and annealed in situ at 685
C for 1min. Up to a Si doping level of ~11wt%, the superconducting transition
temperature (Tc) of the film does not change significantly, as compared to the
control, undoped film. The magnetic critical current density (Jc) of the film
at 5K was increased by 50% for a Si doping level of ~3.5wt%, as compared to the
control film. Also, the irreversibility field of Si-doped MgB2 films (Hirr) at
low temperature is higher than for the undoped film.


  State-of-the-art computational methods combined with common idealized
structural models provide an incomplete understanding of experiments on real
nanostructures, since manufacturing introduces unavoidable deviations from the
design. We propose to close this knowledge gap by using the real structure of a
manufactured crystal as input in computations to obtain a realistic comparison
with observations on the same nanostructure. We demonstrate this approach on
the structure of a real silicon inverse woodpile photonic bandgap crystal,
obtained by previous synchrotron X-ray imaging. A 2D part of the dataset is
selected and processed into a computational mesh suitable for a Discontinuous
Galerkin Finite Element Method (DGFEM) to compute optical transmission spectra
that are compared to those of a utopian crystal, i.e., a hypothetical model
crystal with the same filling fraction where all pores are identical and
circular. The nanopore shapes in the real crystal differ in a complex way from
utopian pores, leading to a complex transmission spectrum with significant
frequency speckle in and beyond the gap. The utopian model provides only a
limited understanding of the spectrum: while it accurately predicts low
frequency finite-size fringes and the lower band edge, the upper band edge is
off, it completely misses the presence of speckle, the domination of speckle
above the gap, and possible Anderson localized states in the gap. Moreover,
unlike experiments where only external probes are available, numerical methods
allow to study all fields everywhere. While the pore shapes hardly affect the
fields at low frequency, major differences occur at high frequency such as
localized fields deep inside the real crystal. In summary, using only external
measurements and utopian models may give an erroneous picture of the fields and
the LDOS inside a real crystal, which is remedied by our new approach.


  Let (M^n,g) be a n-dimensional complete, non-compact and connected Riemannian
manifold, with Ricci tensor Ricc_g and sectional curvature Sec_g. Assume
Ricc_g\geq (1-n)B^2, and either p>2 and Sec_g(x)=o(dist^2(x,a)) when
dist^2(x,a)\to\infty for a\in M, or 1<p<2 and Sec_g(x)\leq 0. If q>p-1> 0, any
C^1 solution of (E) -\Gd_pu+\abs{\nabla u}^q=0 on M satisfies \abs{\nabla
u(x)}\leq c_{n,p,q}B^{\frac{1}{q+1-p}} for some constant c_{n,p,q}>0. As a
consequence there exists c_{n,p}>0 such that any positive p-harmonic function v
on M satisfies v(a)e^{-c_{n,p}B\dist (x,a)}\leq v(x)\leq v(a)e^{c_{n,p}B\dist
(x,a)} for any (a,x)\in M\times M.


  Region-wide restrictions on personal vehicle travel have a long history in
the United States, from riot curfews in the late 1960s, to travel bans during
snow events, to the 2013 shelter-in-place "lockdown" during the search for the
perpetrator of the Boston Marathon bombing. Because lockdowns require
tremendous resources to enforce, they are often limited in duration or scope.
The introduction of automated driving systems may allow governments to quickly
and cheaply effect large-area lockdowns by jamming wireless communications,
spoofing road closures on digital maps, exploiting a vehicle's programming to
obey all traffic control devices, or coordinating with vehicle developers.
Future vehicles may lack conventional controls, rendering them undrivable by
the public. As travel restrictions become easier to implement, governments may
enforce them more frequently, over longer durations and wider areas. This
article explores the practical, legal, and ethical implications of lockdowns
when most driving is highly automated, and provides guidance for the
development of lockdown policies.


  Recent advances in capsule endoscopy systems have introduced new methods and
capabilities. The capsule endoscopy system, by observing the entire digestive
tract, has significantly improved diagnosing gastrointestinal disorders and
diseases. The system has challenges such as the need to enhance the quality of
the transmitted images, low frame rates of transmission, and battery lifetime
that need to be addressed. One of the important parts of a capsule endoscopy
system is the image compression unit. Better compression of images increases
the frame rate and hence improves the diagnosis process. In this paper a high
precision compression algorithm with high compression ratio is proposed. In
this algorithm we use the similarity between frames to compress the data more
efficiently.


  Most multiferroic materials with coexisting ferroelectric and magnetic order
exhibit cycloidal antiferromagnetism with wavelength of several nanometers. The
prototypical example is bismuth ferrite (BiFeO$_3$ or BFO), a room-temperature
multiferroic considered for a number of technological applications. While most
applications require small sizes such as nanoparticles, little is known about
the state of these materials when their sizes are comparable to the cycloid
wavelength. This work describes a microscopic theory of cycloidal magnetism in
nanoparticles based on Hamiltonian calculations. It is demonstrated that
magnetic anisotropy close to the surface has a huge impact on the multiferroic
ground state. For certain nanoparticle sizes the modulus of the ferromagnetic
and ferroelectric moments are bistable, an effect that may be used in the
design of ideal memory bits that can be switched electrically and read out
magnetically.


  We investigate the phase structures of theories which differ from QCD only in
the gauge group and can be simulated on the lattice at non-vanishing chemical
potential $\mu$. These theories can thus serve as testing ground for functional
methods at non-vanishing density. We determine the chiral and
confinement/deconfinement transitions at $\mu=0$ for the three gauge groups
$SU(3)$, $SU(2)$ and $G_2$ for two quark flavors and extend the study of the
chiral transition to non-zero $\mu$. We locate the critical point where the
chiral crossover becomes a real phase transition. Within the employed
truncation, we find that all three theories behave qualitatively very
similarly.


  Recent advances in the application of physics-informed learning into the
field of fluid mechanics have been predominantly grounded in the Newtonian
framework, primarly leveraging Navier-Stokes Equation or one of its various
derivative to train a neural network. Here, we propose an alternative approach
based on variational methods. The proposed approach uses the principle of
minimum pressure gradient combined with the continuity constraint to train a
neural network and predict the flow field in incompressible fluids. We describe
the underlying principles of the proposed approach, then use a demonstrative
example to illustrate its implementation and show that it reduces the
computational time per training epoch when compared to the conventional
approach.


  We tackle the problem of automatically designing concurrent data structure
operations given a sequential data structure specification and knowledge about
concurrent behavior. Designing concurrent code is a non-trivial task even in
simplest of cases. Humans often design concurrent data structure operations by
transforming sequential versions into their respective concurrent versions.
This requires an understanding of the data structure, its sequential behavior,
thread interactions during concurrent execution and shared memory
synchronization primitives. We mechanize this design process using automated
commonsense reasoning. We assume that the data structure description is
provided as axioms alongside the sequential code of its algebraic operations.
This information is used to automatically derive concurrent code for that data
structure, such as dictionary operations for linked lists and binary search
trees. Knowledge in our case is expressed using Answer Set Programming (ASP),
and we employ deduction and abduction -- just as humans do -- in the reasoning
involved. ASP allows for succinct modeling of first order theories of pointer
data structures, run-time thread interactions and shared memory
synchronization. Our reasoner can systematically make the same judgments as a
human reasoner, while constructing provably safe concurrent code. We present
several reasoning challenges involved in transforming the sequential data
structure into its equivalent concurrent version. All the reasoning tasks are
encoded in ASP and our reasoner can make sound judgments to transform
sequential code into concurrent code. To the best of our knowledge, our work is
the first one to use commonsense reasoning to automatically transform
sequential programs into concurrent code. We also have developed a tool that we
describe that relies on state-of-the-art ASP solvers and performs the reasoning
tasks involved to generate concurrent code.


  In this article we investigate Hirzebruch-Riemann-Roch formulae for line
bundles on irreducible symplectic K\"ahler manifolds. As Huybrechts has shown,
for every irreducible complex K\"ahler manifold $X$ of dimension $2n$, there
are numbers $a_0, a_2, ..., a_{2n}$ such that $\chi(L) = \sum_{k = 0}^n
a_{2k}/(2k)! q_X(c_1(L))^k$ for the Euler characteristic of a line bundle $L$,
where $q_X: H^2(X, \mathbbm C) \to \mathbbm C$ is the Beauville-Bogomolov
quadratic form of $X$.
  Using Rozansky-Witten classes similar to Hitchin and Sawon, we obtain a
formula expressing the $a_{2k}$ in terms of Chern numbers of $X$. Furthermore,
for the $n$-th generalized Kummer variety $\KA n$, we prove $\chi(L) = (n + 1)
\binom{q(c_1(L)) / 2 + n} n$ by purely algebro-geometric methods, where $q$ is
the form $q_X$ up to a positive rational constant. A similar formula is already
known for the Hilbert scheme of zero-dimensional subschemes of length $n$ on a
K3-surface.
  Using our results, we are able to calculate all Chern numbers of the
generalized Kummer varieties $\KA n$ for $n \leq 5$. For $n \leq 4$ these
results were previously obtained by Sawon.


  Cosmic strings of the GUT scale, generically formed during the SSB of
supersymmetric hybrid inflation, are compatible with the most recent CMB data.
The strong constraints on the allowed cosmic strings contribution to the
measured temperature anisotropies impose limits on the free parameters of the
inflationary models, namely the mass scales and the couplings.


  The single-stage point-based 3D object detectors have attracted widespread
research interest due to their advantages of lightweight and fast inference
speed. However, they still face challenges such as inadequate learning of
low-quality objects (ILQ) and misalignment between localization accuracy and
classification confidence (MLC). In this paper, we propose SGCCNet to alleviate
these two issues. For ILQ, SGCCNet adopts a Saliency-Guided Data Augmentation
(SGDA) strategy to enhance the robustness of the model on low-quality objects
by reducing its reliance on salient features. Specifically, We construct a
classification task and then approximate the saliency scores of points by
moving points towards the point cloud centroid in a differentiable process.
During the training process, SGCCNet will be forced to learn from low saliency
features through dropping points. Meanwhile, to avoid internal covariate shift
and contextual features forgetting caused by dropping points, we add a
geometric normalization module and skip connection block in each stage. For
MLC, we design a Confidence Correction Mechanism (CCM) specifically for
point-based multi-class detectors. This mechanism corrects the confidence of
the current proposal by utilizing the predictions of other key points within
the local region in the post-processing stage. Extensive experiments on the
KITTI dataset demonstrate the generality and effectiveness of our SGCCNet. On
the KITTI \textit{test} set, SGCCNet achieves $80.82\%$ for the metric of
$AP_{3D}$ on the \textit{Moderate} level, outperforming all other point-based
detectors, surpassing IA-SSD and Fast Point R-CNN by $2.35\%$ and $3.42\%$,
respectively. Additionally, SGCCNet demonstrates excellent portability for
other point-based detectors


  The first 2+ states in N=20 isotones including neutron-rich nuclei 32Mg and
30Ne are studied by the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov plus quasiparticle random phase
approximation method based on the Green's function approach. The residual
interaction between the quasiparticles is consistently derived from the
hamiltonian density of Skyrme interactions with explicit velocity dependence.
The B(E2) transition probabilities and the excitation energies of the first 2+
states are well described within a single framework. We conclude that pairing
effects account largely for the anomalously large B(E2) value and the very low
excitation energy in 32Mg.


  In a recent paper, Subbaraman et al report a theoretical and numerical study
of highly dispersive pure silica photonic crystal fiber supporting
group-velocity dispersion exceeding -2*10^4 ps/nm/km. This comment argues that
the authors only consider one out of the two sides of the same coin, by not
taking the corresponding beating length into account.


  A cycle $C$ of a graph $G$ is \emph{isolating} if every component of $G-V(C)$
is a single vertex. We show that isolating cycles in polyhedral graphs can be
extended to larger ones: every isolating cycle $C$ of length $6 \leq |E(C)| <
\left \lfloor \frac{2}{3}(|V(G)|+4) \right \rfloor$ implies an isolating cycle
$C'$ of larger length that contains $V(C)$. By "hopping" iteratively to such
larger cycles, we obtain a powerful and very general inductive motor for
proving long cycles and computing them (we will give an algorithm with
quadratic running time). This is the first step towards the so far elusive
quest of finding a universal induction that captures longest cycles of
polyhedral graph classes.
  Our motor provides also a method to prove linear lower bounds on the length
of Tutte cycles, as $C'$ will be a Tutte cycle of $G$ if $C$ is. We prove in
addition that $|E(C')| \leq |E(C)|+3$ if $G$ contains no face of size five,
which gives a new tool for results about cycle spectra, and provides evidence
that faces of size five may obstruct long cycles in many graph classes. We test
our motor on the following conjecture about essentially 4-connected graphs.
  A planar graph is \emph{essentially $4$-connected} if it is 3-connected and
every of its 3-separators is the neighborhood of a single vertex. Jackson and
Wormald proved that every essentially 4-connected planar graph $G$ on $n$
vertices contains a cycle of length at least $\frac{2}{5}(n+2)$, and this
result has recently been improved multiple times, culminating in the lower
bound $\frac{5}{8}(n+2)$. However, the currently best known upper bound is
given by an infinite family of such graphs in which no graph $G$ contains a
cycle that is longer than $\left \lfloor \frac{2}{3}(n+4) \right \rfloor$; this
upper bound is still unmatched.
  Using isolating cycles, we improve the lower bound to match the upper. All
our results are tight.


  We investigate the production of psi(2S) in nuclear collisions at RHIC and
LHC energies. We first address charmonium production in 200 GeV d-Au collisions
at RHIC; the strong suppression of psi' mesons observed in these reactions
indicates mechanisms beyond initial cold nuclear matter effects. We find that a
more complete treatment of hadronic dissociation reactions leads to appreciable
psi' suppression in the hadronic medium of an expanding fireball background for
d-Au collisions. When implementing the updated hadronic reaction rates into a
fireball for 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions at LHC, the regeneration of psi' mesons
occurs significantly later than for J/psi's. Despite a smaller total number of
regenerated psi', the stronger radial flow at their time of production induces
a marked enhancement of their R_{AA} relative to J/psi's in a momentum range
p_t \simeq 3-6 GeV. We explore the consequences and uncertainties of this
"sequential regeneration" mechanism on the R_{AA} double ratio and find that it
can reproduce the trends observed in recent CMS data.


  In the construction of an X-ray selected sample of galaxy clusters for
cosmological studies, we have assembled a sample of 495 X-ray sources found to
show extended X-ray emission in the first processing of the ROSAT All-Sky
Survey. The sample covers the celestial region with declination $\delta \ge
0\deg $ and galactic latitude $|b_{II}| \ge 20\deg $ and comprises sources with
a count rate $\ge 0.06$ counts s$^{-1}$ and a source extent likelihood of 7. In
an optical follow-up identification program we find 378 (76%) of these sources
to be clusters of galaxies. ...


  The scaling relations and the star formation laws for molecular cloud
complexes in the Milky Way is investigated. We compare their masses $M_{\rm
gas}$, mass surface densities $\Sigma_{M_{\rm gas}}$, radii $R$, velocity
dispersions $\sigma$, star formation rates $SFR$, and SFR densities
$\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ with those of structures ranging from cores, clumps, Giant
Molecular Clouds (GMCs), to Molecular Cloud Complexes (MCCs), and to Galaxies,
spanning 8 orders of magnitudes in size and 13 orders of magnitudes in mass.
MCC are mostly large ($R>50$ pc), massive ($\sim 10^{6}$\,\msun)
gravitationally unbound cloud structures. This results in the following
universal relations:
  $\sigma\sim R^{0.5}$, $M_{\rm gas}\sim R^{2}$, $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}\sim
\Sigma_{M_{\rm gas}}^{1.5}$, ${SFR}\sim {M_{\rm gas}}^{0.9}$, and ${SFR}\sim
{\sigma}^{2.7}$.
  Variations in the slopes and the coefficients of these relations are found at
individual scales signifying different physics acting at different scales.
Additionally, there are breaks at the MCC scale in the $\sigma-R$ relation and
between the starburst and the normal star-forming objects in the $SFR-M_{\rm
gas}$ and $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$-$\Sigma_{\rm M_{\rm gas}}$ relations. We propose
to use the Schmidt-Kennicutt diagram to distinguish the starburst from the
normal star-forming structures by applying a $\Sigma_{M_{\rm gas}}$ threshold
of $\sim100$\,\msun pc$^{-2}$ and a $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ threshold of 1\,\msun
yr$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-2}$. Mini-starburst complexes have enhanced $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$
($>$1\,\msun yr$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-2}$), probably caused by dynamic events such as
radiation pressure, colliding flows, or spiral arm gravitational instability.
Because of the dynamical evolution, gravitational boundedness does not play a
significant role in characterizing the star formation activity of MCCs,
especially the mini-starburst complexes.


  We introduce the warping polynomial of an oriented knot diagram. In this
paper, we characterize the warping polynomial, and define the span of a knot to
be the minimal span of the warping polynomial for all diagrams of the knot. We
show that the span of a knot is one if and only if it is non-trivial and
alternating, and we give an inequality between the span and the dealternating
number.


  The Pitman-Yor process is a random discrete probability distribution of which
the atoms can be used to model the relative abundance of species. The process
is indexed by a type parameter $\sigma$, which controls the number of different
species in a finite sample from a realization of the distribution. A random
sample of size $n$ from the Pitman-Yor process of type $\sigma>0$ will contain
of the order $n^\sigma$ distinct values (``species''). In this paper we
consider the estimation of the type parameter by both empirical Bayes and full
Bayes methods. We derive the asymptotic normality of the empirical Bayes
estimator and a Bernstein-von Mises theorem for the full Bayes posterior, in
the frequentist setup that the observations are a random sample from a given
true distribution. We also consider the estimation of the second parameter of
the Pitman-Yor process, the prior precision. We apply our results to derive the
limit behaviour of the likelihood ratio in a setting of forensic statistics.


  The chemical homogeneity of surviving stellar clusters contains important
clues about interstellar medium (ISM) mixing efficiency, star formation, and
the enrichment history of the Galaxy. Existing measurements in a handful of
open clusters suggest homogeneity in several elements at the 0.03 dex level.
Here we present (i) a new cluster member catalog based only on APOGEE radial
velocities and Gaia-DR2 proper motions, (ii) improved abundance uncertainties
for APOGEE cluster members, and (iii) the dependence of cluster homogeneity on
Galactic and cluster properties, using abundances of eight elements from the
APOGEE survey for ten high-quality clusters. We find that cluster homogeneity
is uncorrelated with Galactocentric distance, |Z|, age, and metallicity.
However, velocity dispersion, which is a proxy for cluster mass, is positively
correlated with intrinsic scatter at relatively high levels of significance for
[Ca/Fe] and [Mg/Fe]. We also see a possible positive correlation at a low level
of significance for [Ni/Fe], [Si/Fe], [Al/Fe], and [Fe/H], while [Cr/Fe] and
[Mn/Fe] are uncorrelated. The elements that show a correlation with velocity
dispersion are those that are predominantly produced by core-collapse
supernovae (CCSNe). However, the small sample size and relatively low
correlation significance highlight the need for follow-up studies. If borne out
by future studies, these findings would suggest a quantitative difference
between the correlation lengths of elements produced predominantly by Type~Ia
SNe versus CCSNe, which would have implications for Galactic chemical evolution
models and the feasibility of chemical tagging.


  The computational efficiency of quantum mechanics can be defined in terms of
the qubit circuit model, which is characterized by a few simple properties:
each computational gate is a reversible transformation in a connected matrix
group; single wires carry quantum bits, i.e. states of a three-dimensional
Bloch ball; states on two or more wires are uniquely determined by local
measurement statistics and their correlations. In this paper, we ask whether
other types of computation are possible if we relax one of those
characteristics (and keep all others), namely, if we allow wires to be
described by d-dimensional Bloch balls, where d is different from three.
Theories of this kind have previously been proposed as possible generalizations
of quantum physics, and it has been conjectured that some of them allow for
interesting multipartite reversible transformations that cannot be realized
within quantum theory. However, here we show that all such potential
beyond-quantum models of computation are trivial: if d is not three, then the
set of reversible transformations consists entirely of single-bit gates, and
not even classical computation is possible. In this sense, qubit quantum
computation is an island in theoryspace.


  The distribution function of transmitted charge through a double-barrier
junction is studied at zero temperature and at small applied voltage. Both a
semiclassical model, in which the transport is described by jump rates, and a
quantum mechanical model, which averages over resonant and non-resonant states,
are used to determine the characteristic function of the transmitted electrons.
It is demonstrated that for large times the logarithm of the characteristic
function is equal within the two approaches. The charge distribution is in
between a Gaussian and a Poissonian distribution if both barriers have equal
height and reduces to a Poissonian if one barrier is much higher than the
other.


  The Educational Irish Research Satellite 1 (EIRSAT-1) is a 2U CubeSat being
developed under ESA's Fly Your Satellite! programme. The project has many
aspects, which are primarily educational, but also include space qualification
of new detector technologies for gamma-ray astronomy and the detection of
gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The Gamma-ray Module (GMOD), the main mission payload,
is a small gamma-ray spectrometer comprising a 25 mm $\times$ 25 mm $\times$ 40
mm cerium bromide scintillator coupled to an array of 16 silicon
photomultipliers. The readout is provided by IDE3380 (SIPHRA), a low-power and
radiation tolerant readout ASIC. GMOD will detect gamma-rays and measure their
energies in a range from tens of keV to a few MeV.
  Monte Carlo simulations were performed using the Medium Energy Gamma-ray
Astronomy Library to evaluate GMOD's capability for the detection of GRBs in
low Earth orbit. The simulations used a detailed mass model of the full
spacecraft derived from a very high-fidelity 3D CAD model. The sky-average
effective area of GMOD on board EIRSAT-1 was found to be 10 cm$^2$ at 120 keV.
The instrument is expected to detect between 11 and 14 GRBs, at a significance
greater than 10$\sigma$ (and up to 32 at 5$\sigma$), during a nominal one-year
mission. The shape of the scintillator in GMOD results in omni-directional
sensitivity which allows for a nearly all-sky field of view.


  Chemical reactions inside cells occur in compartment volumes in the range of
atto- to femtolitres. Physiological concentrations realized in such small
volumes imply low copy numbers of interacting molecules with the consequence of
considerable fluctuations in the concentrations. In contrast, rate equation
models are based on the implicit assumption of infinitely large numbers of
interacting molecules, or equivalently, that reactions occur in infinite
volumes at constant macroscopic concentrations. In this article we compute the
finite-volume corrections (or equivalently the finite copy number corrections)
to the solutions of the rate equations for chemical reaction networks composed
of arbitrarily large numbers of enzyme-catalyzed reactions which are confined
inside a small sub-cellular compartment. This is achieved by applying a
mesoscopic version of the quasi-steady state assumption to the exact
Fokker-Planck equation associated with the Poisson Representation of the
chemical master equation. The procedure yields impressively simple and compact
expressions for the finite-volume corrections. We prove that the predictions of
the rate equations will always underestimate the actual steady-state substrate
concentrations for an enzyme-reaction network confined in a small volume. In
particular we show that the finite-volume corrections increase with decreasing
sub-cellular volume, decreasing Michaelis-Menten constants and increasing
enzyme saturation. The magnitude of the corrections depends sensitively on the
topology of the network. The predictions of the theory are shown to be in
excellent agreement with stochastic simulations for two types of networks
typically associated with protein methylation and metabolism.


  For topologically nontrivial and very narrow bands, Coulomb repulsion between
electrons has been predicted to give rise to a spontaneous fractional
quantum-Hall (FQH) state in absence of magnetic fields. Here we show that
strongly correlated electrons in a t_2g-orbital system on a triangular lattice
self-organize into a spin-chiral magnetic ordering pattern that induces
precisely the required topologically nontrivial and flat bands. This behavior
is very robust and does not rely on fine tuning. In order to go beyond mean
field and to study the impact of longer-range interactions, we map the
low-energy electronic states onto an effective one-band model. Exact
diagonalization is then used to establish signatures of a spontaneous FQH
state.


  In this demonstration, we exhibit the initial results of an ongoing body of
exploratory work, investigating the potential for creative machines to
communicate and collaborate with people through movement as a form of implicit
interaction. The paper describes a Wizard-of-Oz demo, where a hidden wizard
controls an AxiDraw drawing robot while a participant collaborates with it to
draw a custom postcard. This demonstration aims to gather perspectives from the
computational fabrication community regarding how practitioners of fabrication
with machines experience interacting with a mixed-initiative collaborative
machine.


  We report molecular dynamics calculations on two-component, cold (1.2 > T >
0.56 in natural units), three-dimensional Lennard-Jones fluids. Our system was
small (7813 A, 7812 B particles), dense (N/V = 1.30), and distinctly finite (L
\times L \times L cube, periodic boundary conditions, with L=22.96 \sigma_AA),
\sigma_AA being the range of the $AA$ interaction in the Lennard-Jones
potential U_{ij} = 4 \epsilon[(\sigma_ij/r)^12 -(\sigma_ij/r)^6]. We calculated
spherical harmonic components Q_LM for the density of particles in the first
coordination shell of each particle, as well as their spherical invariants
<(Q_L)^2>, time-correlation functions and wavelet density decompositions. The
spherical invariants show that non-crystalline septahedral <(Q_{7)^2> ordering
is important, especially at low temperature. While <(Q_10)^2> could arise from
icosahedral ordering, its behavior so closely tracks that of the nonicosahedral
<(Q_11)^2> that alternative origins for <(Q_10)^2> need to be considered. Time
correlation functions of spherical harmonic components are bimodal, with a
faster temperature-independent mode and a slow, strongly temperature-dependent
mode. Microviscosities inferred from mean-square particle displacements are
exponential in static amplitude <(Q_7)^2>, and track closely in temperature
dependence the orientation density slow mode lifetime. Volume wavelet
decompositions show that when T is reduced, the correlation length of <(Q_7)^2>
increases, especially below T=0.7, but the correlation length of <(Q_5)^2> is
independent of T.


  We describe the Hopf algebra quotients and Hopf images of the smash coproduct
of a group algebra by the algebra of functions on a finite group.


  The dynamics of open quantum systems is formulated in a minimally extended
state space comprising the degrees of freedom of a system of interest and a
finite set of non-unitary, pure-state reservoir modes. This formal structure,
derived from the Feynman-Vernon path integral for the reduced density, is shown
to lead to an exact time-local evolution equation in a mixed Liouville-Fock
space. The crucial ingredient is a mathematically consistent decomposition of
the reservoir auto-correlation in terms of harmonic modes with complex-valued
frequencies and amplitudes, which are obtained from any given spectral noise
power of the physical reservoir. This formulation provides a universal
framework to obtain a family of equivalent representations which are directly
related to new and established schemes for efficient numerical simulations. By
restricting some of the complex-valued mode parameters and performing linear
transformations, we make connections to previous approaches, whose auxiliary
degrees of freedom are thus revealed as restricted versions of the minimally
extended state space presented here. From a practical perspective, the new
framework offers a computational tool which combines numerical efficiency and
accuracy with long time stability and broad applicability over the whole
temperature range and also for strongly structured reservoir mode densities. It
can thus deliver high precision data with modest computational resources and
simulation times for actual quantum technological devices.


  The $(n,k)$-star graphs are an important class of interconnection networks
that generalize star graphs, which are superior to hypercubes. In this paper,
we continue the work begun by Cheng et al.~(Graphs and Combinatorics 2017) and
complete the classification of all the $(n,k)$-star graphs that are Cayley.


  Price's Law states that linear perturbations of a Schwarzschild black hole
fall off as $t^{-2\ell-3}$ for $t \to \infty$ provided the initial data decay
sufficiently fast at spatial infinity. Moreover, if the perturbations are
initially static (i.e., their time derivative is zero), then the decay is
predicted to be $t^{-2\ell-4}$. We give a proof of $t^{-2\ell-2}$ decay for
general data in the form of weighted $L^1$ to $L^\infty$ bounds for solutions
of the Regge--Wheeler equation. For initially static perturbations we obtain
$t^{-2\ell-3}$. The proof is based on an integral representation of the
solution which follows from self--adjoint spectral theory. We apply two
different perturbative arguments in order to construct the corresponding
spectral measure and the decay bounds are obtained by appropriate oscillatory
integral estimates.


  Investigating the quantum phase transition in a ring from a uniform
attractive Bose-Einstein condensate to a localized bright soliton we find that
the soliton undergoes transverse collapse at a critical interaction strength,
which depends on the ring dimensions. In addition, we predict the existence of
other soliton configurations with many peaks, showing that they have a limited
stability domain. Finally, we show that the phase diagram displays several new
features when the toroidal trap is set in rotation.


  We study self-propelled particles by direct numerical simulation of the
nonlinear Kramers equation for self-propelled particles. In our previous paper,
we studied self-propelled particles with velocity variables in one dimension.
In this paper, we consider another model in which each particle exhibits
directional motion. The movement direction is expressed with a variable $\phi$.
We show that one-dimensional solitary wave states appear in direct numerical
simulations of the nonlinear Kramers equation in one- and two-dimensional
systems, which is a generalization of our previous result. Furthermore, we find
two-dimensionally localized states in the case that each self-propelled
particle exhibits rotational motion. The center of mass of the
two-dimensionally localized state exhibits circular motion, which implies
collective rotating motion. Finally, we consider a simple one-dimensional model
equation to qualitatively understand the formation of the solitary wave state.


  The NASA Dawn spacecraft acquired thousands of images of asteroid Vesta
during its year-long orbital tour, and is now on its way to asteroid Ceres. A
method for calibrating images acquired by the onboard Framing Camera was
described by Schr\"oder et al. (2013; Icarus 226, 1304). However, their method
is only valid for point sources. In this paper we extend the calibration to
images of extended sources like Vesta. For this, we devise a first-order
correction for in-field stray light, which is known to plague images taken
through the narrow band filters, and revise the flat fields that were acquired
in an integrating sphere before launch. We used calibrated images of the Vesta
surface to construct simple photometric models for all filters, that allow us
to study how the spectrum changes with increasing phase angle (phase
reddening). In combination with these models, our calibration method can be
used to create near-seamless mosaics that are radiometrically accurate to a few
percent. Such mosaics are provided in JVesta, the Vesta version of the JMARS
geographic information system.


  Special relativity theory is generalized to two or more ``maximal''
signalling speeds. This framework is discussed in three contexts: (i) as a
scenario for superluminal signalling and motion, (ii) as the possibility of two
or more ``light'' cones due to the a ``birefringent'' vaccum, and (iii) as a
further extension of conventionality beyond synchrony.


  Full-system simulation of computer systems is critical to capture the complex
interplay between various hardware and software components in future systems.
Modeling the network subsystem is indispensable to the fidelity of the
full-system simulation due to the increasing importance of scale-out systems.
The network software stack has undergone major changes over the last decade,
and kernel-bypass networking stacks and data-plane networks are rapidly
replacing the conventional kernel network stack. Nevertheless, the current
state-of-the-art architectural simulators still use kernel networking which
precludes realistic network application scenarios. In this work, we enable
kernel bypass networking stack on gem5, the state-of-the-art full-system
architectural simulator. We extend gem5's NIC hardware model and device driver
to enable the support for userspace device drivers to run the DPDK framework.
We also implement a network load generator hardware model in gem5 to generate
various traffic patterns and perform per-packet timestamp and latency
measurements without introducing packet loss. Our experimental results show
that DPDK's simulated network bandwidth scales with the number of cores and NIC
ports. As two use cases, we analyze the sensitivity of (1) network performance
to several microarchitectural parameters, and (2) direct cache access (DCA)
technology to DPDK burst size.


  The diffractive program of the CDF Collaboration at the Fermilab Tevatron
p-pbar collider is reviewed with emphasis on recent results from Run II at a
c.m.s. energy of 1.96 TeV. Results are presented on the x-Bjorken and Q^2
dependence of the diffractive structure function obtained from di-jet
production, on the slope parameter of the t-distribution of diffractive events
as a function of Q^2 in the range 1 GeV^2<Q^2<10^4 GeV^2, and on cross sections
for exclusive di-jet, e+e-, and di-photon production. The exclusive di-jet and
di-photon production rates are used to check theoretical estimates of exclusive
Higgs boson production at the Large Hadron Collider. Other data on soft and
hard diffraction from p-ppbar collisions, and also data from diffractive deep
inelastic scattering are presented and interpreted in the RENORM
phenomenological model, in which cross sections are obtained from the
underlying inclusive parton distribution function of the nucleon and QCD color
factors.


  The task of motion transfer between a source dancer and a target person is a
special case of the pose transfer problem, in which the target person changes
their pose in accordance with the motions of the dancer.
  In this work, we propose a novel method that can reanimate a single image by
arbitrary video sequences, unseen during training. The method combines three
networks: (i) a segmentation-mapping network, (ii) a realistic frame-rendering
network, and (iii) a face refinement network. By separating this task into
three stages, we are able to attain a novel sequence of realistic frames,
capturing natural motion and appearance. Our method obtains significantly
better visual quality than previous methods and is able to animate diverse body
types and appearances, which are captured in challenging poses, as shown in the
experiments and supplementary video.


  We suggest that the topological susceptibility in gluodynamics can be found
in terms of the gluon condensate using renormalizability and heavy fermion
representation of the anomaly. Analogous relations can be also obtained for
other zero momentum correlation functions involving the topological density
operator. Using these relations, we find the theta dependence of the
condensates <GG>, <G \tilde{G}> and of the partition function for small theta
and an arbitrary number of colors.


  We extend the Fuglede-Putnam theorem from the algebra $B(H)$ of all bounded
operators on the Hilbert space $H$ to the algebra of all locally measurable
operators affiliated with a von Neumann algebra.


  The $(q,r)$-Whitney numbers were recently defined in terms of the $q$-Boson
operators, and several combinatorial properties which appear to be
$q$-analogues of similar properties were studied. In this paper, we obtain
elementary and complete symmetric polynomial forms for the $(q,r)$-Whitney
numbers, and give combinatorial interpretations in the context of $A$-tableaux.
We also obtain convolution-type identities using the combinatorics of
$A$-tableaux. Lastly, we present applications and theorems related to discrete
$q$-distributions.


  Let X be a separable metric space and let \beta be the strict topology on the
space of bounded continuous functions on X, which has the space of
\tau-additive Borel measures as a continuous dual space. We prove a
Banach-Dieudonne\'{e} type result for the space of bounded continuous functions
equipped with \beta. As a consequence, this space is hypercomplete and a
Pt\'{a}k space. Additionally, the closed graph, inverse mapping and open
mapping theorems holds for linear maps between space of this type.


  Topological solutions in the (2+1)-dimensional Einstein theory of gravity are
studied within the ADM canonical formalism. It is found that a conical
singularity appears in the closed de Sitter universe solution as a topological
defect in the case of the Einstein theory with a cosmological constant. Quantum
effects on the conical singularity are studied using the de Broglie-Bohm
interpretation. Finite quantum tunneling effects are obtained for the closed de
Sitter universe, while no quantum effects are obtained for an open universe.