  We compute the production of prompt photons and the $v_2$ harmonic
coefficient in relativistic heavy-ion collisions induced by gluon fusion in the
presence of an intense magnetic field, during the early stages of the reaction.
The calculations take into account several parameters which are relevant to the
description of the experimental transverse momentum distribution, and elliptic
flow for RHIC and LHC energies. The main imput is the strength of the magnetic
field which varies in magnitude from 1 to 3 times the pion mass squared, and
allows the gluon fusion that otherwise is forbidden in the absence of the
field. The high gluon occupation number and the value of the saturation scale
also play an important role in our calculation, as well as a flow velocity and
geometrical factors. Our results support the idea that the origin of at least
some of the photon excess observed in heavy-ion experiments may arise from
magnetic field induced processes, and gives a good description of the
experimental data.


  Trajectory optimization under uncertainty underpins a wide range of
applications in robotics. However, existing methods are limited in terms of
reasoning about sources of epistemic and aleatoric uncertainty, space and time
correlations, nonlinear dynamics, and non-convex constraints. In this work, we
first introduce a continuous-time planning formulation with an
average-value-at-risk constraint over the entire planning horizon. Then, we
propose a sample-based approximation that unlocks an efficient and
general-purpose algorithm for risk-averse trajectory optimization. We prove
that the method is asymptotically optimal and derive finite-sample error
bounds. Simulations demonstrate the high speed and reliability of the approach
on problems with stochasticity in nonlinear dynamics, obstacle fields,
interactions, and terrain parameters.


  Glassy carbon is a graphene-rich form of elemental carbon obtained from
pyrolysis of polymers, which is composed of three-dimensionally arranged,
curved graphene fragments alongside fractions of disordered carbon and voids.
Pyrolysis encompasses gradual heating of polymers above 900 degree C under
inert atmosphere, followed by cooling to room temperature. Here we report on an
experimental method to perform in situ high-resolution transmission electron
microscopy (HR-TEM) for the direct visualization of microstructural evolution
in a pyrolyzing polymer in the 500-1200 degree C temperature range. The results
are compared with the existing microstructural models of glassy carbon.
Reported experiments are performed at 80 kV acceleration voltage using
MEMS-based heating chips as sample substrates to minimize any undesired
beam-damage or sample preparation induced transformations. The outcome suggests
that the geometry, expansion and atomic arrangement within the resulting
graphene fragments constantly change, and that the intermediate structures
provide important cues on the evolution of glassy carbon. A complete
understanding of the pyrolysis process will allow for a general process tuning
specific to the precursor polymer for obtaining glassy carbon with pre-defined
properties.


  We continue to study the problems of discovering new temporal and spatial
properties of neutrinos from the point of the possible multi-dimensional
extension the D=(3+1)- special theory of relativity. It is neutrino that can
connect our Universe with new types of the matter, the new Universe. The
possible discovery with neutrino new structure of the Time can confirm these
ideas. However, the neutrino experiments aimed at new phenomena search can lead
us to paradoxes related with the limits of applicability of the theory of
relativity which demands special studies.
  This new phenomenon one can call by "Neutrino Paradoxes in Theories of
Relativity".
  As examples of such paradoxes one can illustrate on the neutrino experiments
MINOS,OPERA et al devoted to the measurements of neutrino velocity. As the
interpretation of their results are model-dependent, by our opinion, the main
goal of the observation a possible new time structure in these experiments is
not reached. As the solutions to this problem it seems to us the way of holding
cycle of long base neutrino experiments at high(super-high) energies which
requires further debate in the literature. In addition to our discussions one
can remark that the questions of neutrino physics ($M_S \rightarrow O(1-20\,
TeV- range)$) could be directly related to the collider physics at the LHC.


  This document is the final report by the Committee on the Scientific Case of
the ILC Operating at 250 GeV as a Higgs Factory. This committee was
commissioned by the Japan Association of High Energy Physicists. The purpose of
this committee is to investigate and compare the capability to determine the
energy scale of new phenomena and new principles and the capability to uncover
the origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry.


  Current successes of machine learning architectures are based on
computationally expensive algorithms and prohibitively large amounts of data.
We need to develop tasks and data to train networks to reach more complex and
more compositional skills. In this paper, we illustrate Blackbird's language
matrices (BLMs), a novel grammatical dataset developed to test a linguistic
variant of Raven's progressive matrices, an intelligence test usually based on
visual stimuli. The dataset consists of 44800 sentences, generatively
constructed to support investigations of current models' linguistic mastery of
grammatical agreement rules and their ability to generalise them. We present
the logic of the dataset, the method to automatically construct data on a large
scale and the architecture to learn them. Through error analysis and several
experiments on variations of the dataset, we demonstrate that this language
task and the data that instantiate it provide a new challenging testbed to
understand generalisation and abstraction.


  Using the MOSDEF rest-frame optical spectroscopic survey, we investigate the
star-formation histories (SFHs) of different galaxy types, ranging from
actively star forming to quiescent at $1.4\leq~z\leq2.6$. SFHs are constrained
utilizing stellar continuum spectroscopy, specifically through a combination of
Balmer absorption lines, the 4000$\AA$ break, and the equivalent width of the
H$\alpha$ emission line. To attain a sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio
(S/N) to conduct these measurements we stack spectra of galaxies with similar
spectral types, as determined from their rest-frame $U-V$ and $V-J$ colors. We
bin the MOSDEF sample into five spectral types, subdividing the quiescent and
star-forming bins to better explore galaxies transitioning between the two. We
constrain the average SFHs for each type, finding that quiescent and
transitional galaxies in the MOSDEF sample are dominated by an SFH with an
average star-formation timescale of $\tau\sim0.1-0.2$~Gyr. These findings
contrast with measurements from the low-redshift Universe where, on average,
galaxies form their stars over a more extended time period ($\tau>1$~Gyr).
Furthermore, our spectral index measurements correlate with mass surface
density for all spectral types. Finally, we compare the average properties of
the galaxies in our transitional bins to investigate possible paths to
quiescence, and speculate on the viability of a dusty post-starburst phase.


  Knowledge distillation (KD) has been widely used to improve the test accuracy
of a "student" network, by training it to mimic the soft probabilities of a
trained "teacher" network. Yet, it has been shown in recent work that, despite
being trained to fit the teacher's probabilities, the student may not only
significantly deviate from the teacher probabilities, but may also outdo than
the teacher in performance. Our work aims to reconcile this seemingly
paradoxical observation. Specifically, we characterize the precise nature of
the student-teacher deviations, and argue how they can co-occur with better
generalization. First, through experiments on image and language data, we
identify that these probability deviations correspond to the student
systematically exaggerating the confidence levels of the teacher. Next, we
theoretically and empirically establish another form of exaggeration in some
simple settings: KD exaggerates the implicit bias of gradient descent in
converging faster along the top eigendirections of the data. Finally, we tie
these two observations together: we demonstrate that the exaggerated bias of KD
can simultaneously result in both (a) the exaggeration of confidence and (b)
the improved generalization of the student, thus offering a resolution to the
apparent paradox. Our analysis brings existing theory and practice closer by
considering the role of gradient descent in KD and by demonstrating the
exaggerated bias effect in both theoretical and empirical settings.


  We use the growing data sets of very-metal-poor stars to study the impact of
stellar winds of fast rotating massive stars on the chemical enrichment of the
early Galaxy. We use an inhomogeneous chemical evolution model for the Galactic
halo to predict both the mean trend and scatter of C/O and N/O. In one set of
models, we assume that massive stars enrich the interstellar medium during both
the stellar wind and supernovae phases. In the second set, we consider that in
the earliest phases (Z <10^-8), stars with masses above 40 Msun only enrich the
interstellar medium via stellar winds, collapsing directly into black holes. We
predict a larger scatter in the C/O and N/O ratios at low metallicities when
allowing the more massive fast-rotating stars to contribute to the chemical
enrichment only via stellar winds. The latter assumption, combined with the
stochasticity in the star formation process in the primordial Galactic halo can
explain the wide spread observed in the N/O and C/O ratios in normal
very-metal-poor stars. For chemical elements with stellar yields that depend
strongly on initial mass (and rotation) such as C, N, and neutron capture
elements, within the range of massive stars, a large scatter is expected once
the stochastic enrichment of the early interstellar medium is taken into
account. We also find that stellar winds of fast rotators mixed with
interstellar medium gas are not enough to explain the large CNO enhancements
found in most of the carbon-enhanced very-metal-poor stars. In particular, this
is the case of the most metal-poor star known to date, HE 1327-2326, for which
our models predict lower N enhancements than observed when assuming a mixture
of stellar winds and interstellar medium. We suggest that these carbon-enhanced
very metal-poor stars were formed from almost pure stellar wind material,
without dilution with the pristine interstellar medium.


  We present an update of the theoretical predictions for the cross section of
top-quark pair production at Tevatron and LHC. In particular we employ
improvements due to soft gluon resummation at next-to-next-to-leading
logarithmic accuracy. We expand the resummed results and derive analytical
finite-order cross sections through next-to-next-to-leading order which are
exact in all logarithmically enhanced terms near threshold. These results are
the best present estimates for the top-quark pair production cross section. We
investigate the scale dependence as well as the sensitivity on the parton
luminosities.


  We consider a system consisting of two quantum dots connected by an s-wave
superconductor in the presence of periodically varying electric or magnetic
fields. The Floquet theory shows that there may be Floquet poor man's Majorana
fermions (FPMMFs) in the high frequency region depending on the phase
difference between the applied external fields to the two dots. Numerical
results confirm this expectation and find in addition a lot of FPMMFs in the
low frequency region. The FPMMFs survive for nonzero energy levels of the two
dots and their interaction though the frequencies at which they emerge change
and thus may be a promising candidate to be detected in experiments.


  In this paper, we propose an empirical method for evaluating the performance
of parallel code. Our method is based on a simple idea that is surprisingly
effective in helping to identify causes of poor performance, such as high
parallelization overheads, lack of adequate parallelism, and memory effects.
Our method relies on only the measurement of the run time of a baseline
sequential program, the run time of the parallel program, the single-processor
run time of the parallel program, and the total amount of time processors spend
idle, waiting for work.
  In our proposed approach, we establish an equality between the observed
parallel speedups and three terms that we call parallel work, idle time, and
work-inflation, where all terms except work inflation can be measured
empirically, with precision. We then use the equality to calculate the
difficult-to-measure work-inflation term, which includes increased
communication costs and memory effects due to parallel execution. By isolating
the main factors of poor performance, our method enables the programmer to
assign blame to certain properties of the code, such as parallel grain size,
amount of parallelism, and memory usage.
  We present a mathematical model, inspired by the work-span model, that
enables us to justify the interpretation of our measurements. We also introduce
a method to help the programmer to visualize both the relative impact of the
various causes of poor performance and the scaling trends in the causes of poor
performance. Our method fits in a sweet spot in between state-of-the-art
profiling and visualization tools. We illustrate our method by several
empirical studies and we describe a few experiments that emphasize the care
that is required to accurately interpret speedup plots.


  We demonstrate that the evolution of the QSO luminosity density with epoch
displays a striking similarity to the cosmological evolution of the field
galaxy star formation rate, recently derived from a number of independent
surveys. The QSO luminosity density at 2800A is approximately one-fortieth that
implied by the star formation rate in galaxies throughout the past 11 Gigayears
(z<4). This similarity suggests that a substantial fraction of the QSO
luminosity may be closely linked to the star formation process and its
evolution with cosmic time.


  In this talk I discuss the problems and virtues of SUSY GUTs in four
dimensions. I then show how to solve some of these problems, without foregoing
the virtues, by considering an SO(10) SUSY GUT in five dimensions. I discuss
gauge coupling unification and neutrino masses. In particular, it is shown that
the 5D compactification scale and cutoff scale are determined by fitting the
low energy values of the three standard model gauge couplings. Neutrino masses
can be accommodated.


  This paper studies the oscillation properties of relativistic,
non-self-gravitating tori in the background of a distorted deformed compact
object. This work concentrates on the static and axially symmetric metric
containing two quadrupole parameters; relating to the central object and the
external fields. This metric may associate the observable effects to these
parameters as dynamical degrees of freedom. The astrophysical motivation for
choosing such a field is the possibility of constituting a reasonable model for
an actual scenario occurring in the vicinity of compact objects. This paper
aims to investigate the radial epicyclic frequency in a perfect fluid disk and
not a test particle scenario via a local analysis. To achieve this goal, we
employ the vertically integrated technique to able to treat the equation
analytically. The tori are also modelled with Keplerian and non-Keplerian
distributions of specific angular momentum, and we discuss the dependence of
oscillation properties on the variable of the model related to angular momentum
distribution and quadrupoles. In the present contribution, we further explore
these properties with the possibility of relating oscillatory frequencies to
some high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations models and observed data.


  We report the first radio interferometric search at 843 MHz for fast
transients, particularly Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). The recently recommissioned
Swinburne University of Technology's digital backend for the Molonglo
Observatory Synthesis Telescope array (the UTMOST) with its large collecting
area (18,000 $\mathrm{m^2}$) and wide instantaneous field of view (7.80
$\mathrm{deg^2}$) is expected to be an efficient tool to detect FRBs. As an
interferometer it will be capable of discerning whether the FRBs are truly a
celestial population. We show that UTMOST at full design sensitivity can detect
an event approximately every few days. We report on 2 preliminary FRB surveys
at about 7% and 14% respectively of the array's final sensitivity. Several
pulsars have been detected via single pulses and no FRBs were discovered with
pulse widths ($W$), in the range 655.36 $\mu$s $< W < 41.9$ ms and dispersion
measures (DMs) in the range $100 < $DM$< 2000$ $\mathrm{pc\,cm^{-3}}$. This
non-detection sets a 2$\sigma$ upper limit of the sky rate of not more than
1000 events $\mathrm{sky^{-1}}$ $\mathrm{day^{-1}}$ at 843 MHz down to a flux
limit of 11 Jy for 1 ms FRBs. We show that this limit is consistent with
previous survey limits at 1.4 GHz and 145 MHz and set a lower limit on the mean
spectral index of FRBs of $\alpha > -3.2$.


  In this work, we analyze the first whispering gallery mode resonator (WGMR)
made from monocrystalline yttrium lithium fluoride (YLF). The disc-shaped
resonator is fabricated using single-point diamond turning and exhibits a high
intrinsic quality factor ($Q$) on the order of $10^9$. Moreover, we employ a
novel method based on microscopic imaging of Newton's rings through the back of
a trapezoidal prism. This method can be used to evanescently couple light in to
a WGMR and monitor the separation between the cavity and the coupling prism.
Accurately calibrating the distance between a coupling prism and a WGMR is
desirable as it can be used to improve experimental control and conditions,
i.e., accurate coupler gap calibration can aid in tuning into desired coupling
regimes and can be used to avoid potential damage caused by collisions between
the coupling prism and the WGMR. Here, we use two different trapezoidal prisms
together with the high-$Q$ YLF WGMR to demonstrate and discuss this method.


  We calculate the masses and decay constants of the light tensor mesons with
quantum numbers $J^P =2^+$ in the framework of the QCD sum rules in the
standard model. The non-perturbative contributions up to dimension-$5$ as
important terms of the operator product expansion are considered.


  Let $S \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ be a set of $n$ sites, where each $s \in S$ has
an associated radius $r_s > 0$. The disk graph $D(S)$ is the undirected graph
with vertex set $S$ and an undirected edge between two sites $s, t \in S$ if
and only if $|st| \leq r_s + r_t$, i.e., if the disks with centers $s$ and $t$
and respective radii $r_s$ and $r_t$ intersect. Disk graphs are used to model
sensor networks. Similarly, the transmission graph $T(S)$ is the directed graph
with vertex set $S$ and a directed edge from a site $s$ to a site $t$ if and
only if $|st| \leq r_s$, i.e., if $t$ lies in the disk with center $s$ and
radius $r_s$.
  We provide algorithms for detecting (directed) triangles and, more generally,
computing the length of a shortest cycle (the girth) in $D(S)$ and in $T(S)$.
These problems are notoriously hard in general, but better solutions exist for
special graph classes such as planar graphs. We obtain similarly efficient
results for disk graphs and for transmission graphs. More precisely, we show
that a shortest (Euclidean) triangle in $D(S)$ and in $T(S)$ can be found in
$O(n \log n)$ expected time, and that the (weighted) girth of $D(S)$ can be
found in $O(n \log n)$ expected time. For this, we develop new tools for
batched range searching that may be of independent interest.


  This work is on the Cauchy problem for critical wave maps coupled to
Einstein's equations of general relativity. The main result of this work is the
proof that the energy of the Einstein-equivariant wave map system does not
concentrate during the Cauchy evolution. A key ingredient in the proof is the
use of the fact that geometric mass at infinity of the Einstein-equivariant
wave map system is conserved during the evolution. However, this observation
has some subtle local implications which have been used to estimate the energy
locally. For instance, we construct a divergence-free vector field which gives
monotonicity of energy in the past null cone of any point. In addition, this
vector has also been used to prove that the energy does not concentrate away
from the axis of the domain manifold. Later, estimating the divergence of a
Morawetz vector on a truncated past null cone, we prove that the kinetic energy
does not concentrate. Finally, assuming that the target manifold satisfies the
Grillakis condition, we proceed to prove the non-concentration of energy for
the critical Einstein-equivariant wave map system. Keeping track of various
quantities of wave map relative to the evolving null geometry of the background
manifold is a recurring theme throughout the course of this work.
  Apart from a purely mathematical interest, the motivation to study critical
self-gravitating wave maps is that they occur naturally in 3+1 Einstein's
equations of general relativity. Therefore, studying critical self-gravitating
wave maps could be a fruitful way of understanding the ever elusive global
behaviour of Einstein's equations. This work is a step in this endeavour.


  Baseline calibration of a stellar interferometer is a prerequisite to data
reduction of astrometric operations. This technique of astrometry is
triangulation of star positions. Since angles are deduced from the baseline and
delay side of these triangles, length and pointing direction (in the celestial
sphere) of the baseline vector at the time of observation are key input data.
We assume that calibration follows from reverse astrometry; a set of calibrator
stars with well-known positions is observed and inaccuracies in these positions
are leveled by observing many of them for a common best fit.
  The errors in baseline length and orientation angles drop proportional to the
inverse square roots of the number of independent data taken, proportional to
the errors in the individual snapshots of the delay, and proportional to the
errors in the apparent positions of the calibrators. Scheduling becomes
important if the baseline components are reconstructed from the sinusoidal
delay of a single calibrator as a function of time.


  The main goal of the paper is to parametrize the Weyl matrix balls associated
with an arbitrary matricial truncated Hamburger moment problem. For the special
case of a non-degenerate matricial truncated Hamburger moment problem the
corresponding Weyl matrix balls were computed by I. V. Kovalishina in the
framework of V. P. Potapov's method of "Fundamental matrix inequalities".


  Heterogeneity has been a hot topic in recent educational literature. Several
calls have been voiced to adopt methods that capture different patterns or
subgroups within students behavior or functioning. Assuming that there is an
average pattern that represents the entirety of student populations requires
the measured construct to have the same causal mechanism, same development
pattern, and affect students in exactly the same way. Using a person-centered
method (Finite Gaussian mixture model or latent profile analysis), the present
tutorial shows how to uncover the heterogeneity within engagement data by
identifying three latent or unobserved clusters. This chapter offers an
introduction to the model-based clustering that includes the principles of the
methods, a guide to choice of number of clusters, evaluation of clustering
results and a detailed guide with code and a real-life dataset. The discussion
elaborates on the interpretation of the results, the advantages of model-based
clustering as well as how it compares with other methods.


  Approximately half of the Universe's baryons are in a form that has been hard
to detect directly. However, the missing component can be traced through the
cross-correlation of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect with weak
gravitational lensing. We build a model for this correlation and use it to
constrain the extended baryon component, employing data from the Canada France
Hawaii Lensing Survey and the {\it Planck\/} satellite. The measured
correlation function is consistent with an isothermal $\beta$-model for the
halo gas pressure profile, and the 1- and 2-halo terms are both detected at the
4$\sigma$ level. In addition, we measure the hydrostatic mass bias
$(1-b)=0.79^{+0.07}_{-0.10}$, which is consistent with numerical simulation
results and the constraints from X-ray observations. The effective temperature
of the gas is found to be in the range ($7\times10^{5}$--$3 \times10^{8}$)\,K,
with approximately $50\%$ of the baryons appearing to lie beyond the virial
radius of the halos, consistent with current expectations for the warm-hot
intergalactic medium.


  The Landauer conductance of a two terminal device equals to the number of
open modes in the weak scattering limit. What is the corresponding result if we
close the system into a ring? Is it still bounded by the number of open modes?
Or is it unbounded as in the semi-classical (Drude) analysis? It turns out that
the calculation of the mesoscopic conductance is similar to solving a
percolation problem. The "percolation" is in energy space rather than in real
space. The non-universal structures and the sparsity of the perturbation matrix
cannot be ignored.


  We improve some foundational connectivity results and the relative Hurewicz
theorem in motivic homotopy theory, study functorial central series in motivic
local group theory, establish the existence of functorial Moore--Postnikov
factorizations for nilpotent morphisms of motivic spaces under a mild technical
hypothesis and establish an analog of the Whitehead theorem for nilpotent
motivic spaces. As an application, we deduce a surprising unstable motivic
periodicity result.


  We consider a compact Riemannian manifold with boundary, endowed with a
magnetic field and a potential. This is called an $\mathcal{MP}$-system. On
simple $\mathcal{MP}$-systems, we consider both the boundary rigidity problem
and the scattering rigidity problem. Under the assumption of knowing the
boundary action functions or the scattering relations for only one energy
level, we prove that we can recover the $\mathcal{MP}$-system up to a gauge. To
obtain the results, we reduce the $\mathcal{MP}$-system to the corresponding
magnetic system and we apply the results from [DPSU07] on simple magnetic
systems.


  We propose a novel approach to designing RDF-stores with the goal of
improving the consistency and predictability of query performance. When
designing these systems, three properties are commonly desired: support for the
full range of SPARQL query features (Q), support for widely varying RDF
datasets in terms of structuredness and size (S), and high performance (P). We
develop the empirical SPQ conjecture which states that it may be impossible to
achieve all the three desiderata simultaneously. We present a strong case for
its plausibility based on our experimental results. The tradeoffs among the
three and design guidelines based on the SPQ conjecture are also discussed.


  We introduce 'semi-unsupervised learning', a problem regime related to
transfer learning and zero-shot learning where, in the training data, some
classes are sparsely labelled and others entirely unlabelled. Models able to
learn from training data of this type are potentially of great use as many
real-world datasets are like this. Here we demonstrate a new deep generative
model for classification in this regime. Our model, a Gaussian mixture deep
generative model, demonstrates superior semi-unsupervised classification
performance on MNIST to model M2 from Kingma and Welling (2014). We apply the
model to human accelerometer data, performing activity classification and
structure discovery on windows of time series data.


  The Combined EIS-NVSS Survey Of Radio Sources (CENSORS) has been produced
with the primary goal of investigating the cosmological evolution of the radio
luminosity function. This 1.4GHz sample, complete to the 7.2 mJy level,
contains 150 radio sources. Host galaxies are almost entirely identified in
optical and near-IR bands and the sample is now approaching 70% spectroscopic
completeness. We show preliminary results demonstrating how CENSORS will
improve upon previous work and how it is applicable to other projects.


  The control of nonlinear systems with unknown dynamics has been a significant
field of research for many years. This paper presents a novel data-driven
optimal adaptive control structure with less control effort and faster
adaptation than standard adaptive control counterparts. The proposed control
structure utilizes the system's recorded data to increase the speed of
adaptation and performance dramatically. In this study, we employ a conditional
generative adversarial net (CGAN) as a novel central pattern generator to
reproduce the steady-state harmonic pattern of the control signals matching the
system's uncertainties over a wide range. We can also use the CGAN architecture
as a fault detector. The CGAN provides a low-dimensional latent space of
uncertainties. It enables rapid and convenient adaptation when there are many
parametric uncertainties, especially for large-scale systems. Then, we
introduce a novel meta-reinforcement learning framework to adapt the latent
space of CGAN to the system's uncertainties as an optimal direct adaptive
controller without any system identifier. Another part of the control structure
is a regulator that achieves semi-global asymptotic tracking using the Lyapunov
stability analysis. Finally, via some simulations, we evaluate the capabilities
of the proposed designs on two dynamical systems, a robot manipulator and a
large-scale musculoskeletal structure, in the presence of disturbance and
perturbation.


  This is the second in a series of papers presenting the results of fully
general relativistic simulations of stellar tidal disruptions in which the
stars' initial states are realistic main-sequence models. In the first paper
(Paper I), we gave an overview of this program and discussed the principal
observational implications of our work. Here we describe our calculational
method and provide details about the outcomes of full disruptions, focusing on
the stellar mass dependence of the outcomes for a black hole of mass
$10^{6}\rm{M}_{\odot}$. We consider eight different stellar masses, from
$0.15~{\rm M}_\odot$ to $10~{\rm M}_\odot$. We find that, relative to the
traditional order-of-magnitude estimate $r_{\rm t}$, the physical tidal radius
of low-mass stars ($M_{\star} \lesssim 0.7~ {\rm M}_\odot$) is larger by tens
of percent, while for high-mass stars ($M_{\star} \gtrsim1~ {\rm M}_\odot$) it
is smaller by a factor 2--2.5. The traditional estimate of the range of
energies found in the debris is $\approx 1.4\times$ too large for low-mass
stars, but is a factor $\sim 2$ too small for high-mass stars; in addition, the
energy distribution for high-mass stars has significant wings. For all stars
undergoing tidal encounters, we find that mass-loss continues for many stellar
vibration times because the black hole's tidal gravity competes with the
instantaneous stellar gravity at the star's surface until the star has reached
a distance from the black hole $\sim O(10)r_{\rm t}$.


  Globular clusters formed in galactic mergers (e.g., The Antennae) can now be
studied at different stages of their evolution. In young merger remnants (e.g.,
NGC 7252) these "second-generation" globulars appear by the hundreds as young
halo clusters of roughly solar metallicity. While at first bluer and much more
luminous than old metal-poor globulars, they become redder after 1 - 1.5 Gyr
and can then be observed as still overluminous red clusters of intermediate age
in perturbed-looking E and S0 galaxies (e.g., NGC 1316, NGC 1700, and NGC
3610). There is evidence from the color distributions, projected radial
distributions, and perhaps also luminosity functions that these clusters
eventually assume the properties of red metal-rich globulars observed in many
giant ellipticals. Studies of globular clusters in ongoing mergers and young
remnants suggest that second-generation globulars form from giant molecular
clouds shocked by the rapid pressure increase in the merger-induced starburst.
This pressure-induced formation lends credence to Cen's (2001) argument that
the general pressure increase during cosmological reionization at z ~= 7 - 15
triggered the near-simultaneous formation of the universal population of
first-generation metal-poor globulars observed in galaxies of all types.


  The reformulation-linearization technique (RLT) is a prominent approach to
constructing tight linear relaxations of non-convex continuous and
mixed-integer optimization problems. The goal of this paper is to extend the
applicability and improve the performance of RLT for bilinear product
relations. First, a method for detecting bilinear product relations implicitly
contained in mixed-integer linear programs is developed based on analyzing
linear constraints with binary variables, thus enabling the application of
bilinear RLT to a new class of problems. Our second contribution addresses the
high computational cost of RLT cut separation, which presents one of the major
difficulties in applying RLT efficiently in practice. We propose a new RLT
cutting plane separation algorithm which identifies combinations of linear
constraints and bound factors that are expected to yield an inequality that is
violated by the current relaxation solution. This algorithm is applicable to
RLT cuts generated for all types of bilinear terms, including but not limited
to the detected implicit products. A detailed computational study based on
implementations in two solvers evaluates the performance impact of the proposed
methods.


  Gaussian particles provide a flexible framework for modelling and simulating
three-dimensional star-shaped random sets. In our framework, the radial
function of the particle arises from a kernel smoothing, and is associated with
an isotropic random field on the sphere. If the kernel is a von Mises--Fisher
density, or uniform on a spherical cap, the correlation function of the
associated random field admits a closed form expression. The Hausdorff
dimension of the surface of the Gaussian particle reflects the decay of the
correlation function at the origin, as quantified by the fractal index. Under
power kernels we obtain particles with boundaries of any Hausdorff dimension
between 2 and 3.


  For a submodule $N$ of an $R$-module $M$, a unique product of prime ideals in
$R$ is assigned, which is called the generalized prime ideal factorization of
$N$ in $M$, and denoted as ${\mathcal{P}}_M(N)$. But for a product of prime
ideals ${{{\mathfrak{p}}_1} \cdots {{\mathfrak{p}}_{n}}}$ in $R$ and an
$R$-module $M$, there may not exist a submodule $N$ in $M$ with
${\mathcal{P}}_{M}(N) = {{{\mathfrak{p}}_1} \cdots {{\mathfrak{p}}_{n}}}$. In
this article, for an arbitrary product of prime ideals ${{{\mathfrak{p}}_1}
\cdots {{\mathfrak{p}}_{n}}}$ and a module $M$, we find conditions for the
existence of submodules in $M$ having ${{{\mathfrak{p}}_1} \cdots
{{\mathfrak{p}}_{n}}}$ as their generalized prime ideal factorization.


  Given a function $f$ in a finite field ${\mathbb F}_q$ of $q$ elements, we
define the functional graph of $f$ as a directed graph on $q$ nodes labelled by
the elements of ${\mathbb F}_q$ where there is an edge from $u$ to $v$ if and
only if $f(u) = v$. We obtain some theoretic estimates on the number of
non-isomorphic graphs generated by all polynomials of a given degree. We then
develop a simple and practical algorithm to test the isomorphism of quadratic
polynomials that has linear memory and time complexities. Furthermore, we
extend this isomorphism testing algorithm to the general case of functional
graphs, and prove that, while its time complexity increases only slightly, its
memory complexity remains linear. We exploit this algorithm to provide an upper
bound on the number of functional graphs corresponding to polynomials of degree
$d$ over ${\mathbb F}_q$. Finally, we present some numerical results and
compare function graphs of quadratic polynomials with those generated by random
maps and pose interesting new problems.


  We model the subduction of buoyant ridges and plateaus to study their effect
on slab dynamics. Oceanic ridges parallel to the trench have a stronger effect
on the process of subduction because they simultaneously affect a longer trench
segment. Large buoyant slab segments sink more slowly into the asthenosphere,
and their subduction result in a diminution of the velocity of subduction of
the plate. We observe a steeping of the slab below those buoyant anomalies,
resulting in smaller radius of curvature of the slab, that augments the energy
dissipated in folding the plate and further diminishes the velocity of
subduction. When the 3D geometry of a buoyant plateau is modelled, the dip of
the slab above the plateau decreases, as a result of the larger velocity of
subduction of the dense "normal" oceanic plate on both sides of the plateau.
Such a perturbation of the dip of the slab maintains long time after the
plateau has been entirely incorporated into the subduction zone. We compare
experiments with the present-day subduction zone below South America.
Experiments suggest that a modest ridge perpendicular to the trench such as the
present-day Juan Fernandez ridge is not buoyant enough to modify the slab
geometry. Already subducted buoyant anomalies within the oceanic plate, in
contrast, may be responsible for some aspects of the present-day geometry of
the Nazca slab at depth.


  Strong field ionization of benzene, fluorobenzene, benzonitrile and
1-chloro-2-fluorobenzene, is studied within the framework of real-space and
real-time time-dependent density functional theory. Analysis of the ionization
rates as function of the molecule orientation, reveal significant multielectron
contribution from inner Kohn-Sham orbitals that depends on the electronic
structure and on the orbital symmetries of the molecule, as well as on the
polarization and intensity of the external laser field. Calculated
photoelectron angular distributions at different molecule orientations and in
response to laser fields with different degree of ellipticity, further
demonstrate the spatial dependency of the orbital ionization rates.


  This paper studies the supremum of a chi-square process with trend over a
threshold-dependent-time horizon. Under the assumption that the chi-square
process is generated from a centered self-similar Gaussian process and the
trend function is modeled by a polynomial function, we obtain the exact tail
asymptotics of the supremum of the chi-square process with trend. These results
are of interest in applications in engineering, insurance, queueing and
statistics, etc. Some possible extensions of our results are also discussed.


  When multiple radio-frequency sources are connected to multiple loads through
a passive multiport matching network, perfect power transfer to the loads
across all frequencies is generally impossible. In this two-part paper, we
provide analyses of bandwidth over which power transfer is possible. Our
principal tools include broadband multiport matching upper bounds, presented
herein, on the integral over all frequency of the logarithm of a suitably
defined power loss ratio. In general, the larger the integral, the larger the
bandwidth over which power transfer can be accomplished. We apply these bounds
in several ways: We show how the number of sources and loads, and the coupling
between loads, affect achievable bandwidth. We analyze the bandwidth of
networks constrained to have certain architectures. We characterize systems
whose bandwidths scale as the ratio between the numbers of loads and sources.
  The first part of the paper presents the bounds and uses them to analyze
loads whose frequency responses can be represented by analytical circuit
models. The second part analyzes the bandwidth of realistic loads whose
frequency responses are available numerically. We provide applications to
wireless transmitters where the loads are antennas being driven by amplifiers.
The derivations of the bounds are also included.


  The knowledge discovery algorithms have become ineffective at the abundance
of data and the need for fast algorithms or optimizing methods is required. To
address this limitation, the objective of this work is to adapt a new method
for optimizing the time of association rules extractions from large databases.
Indeed, given a relational database (one relation) represented as a set of
tuples, also called set of attributes, we transform the original database as a
binary table (Bitmap table) containing binary numbers. Then, we use this Bitmap
table to construct a data structure called Peano Tree stored as a binary file
on which we apply a new algorithm called BF-ARM (extension of the well known
Apriori algorithm). Since the database is loaded into a binary file, our
proposed algorithm will traverse this file, and the processes of association
rules extractions will be based on the file stored on disk. The BF-ARM
algorithm is implemented and compared with Apriori, Apriori+ and RS-Rules+
algorithms. The evaluation process is based on three benchmarks (Mushroom, Car
Evaluation and Adult). Our preliminary experimental results showed that our
algorithm produces association rules with a minimum time compared to other
algorithms.


  There is a movement in design of experiments away from the classic
randomization put forward by Fisher, Cochran and others to one based on
optimization. In fixed-sample trials comparing two groups, measurements of
subjects are known in advance and subjects can be divided optimally into two
groups based on a criterion of homogeneity or "imbalance" between the two
groups. These designs are far from random. This paper seeks to understand the
benefits and the costs over classic randomization in the context of different
performance criterions such as Efron's worst-case analysis. In the criterion
that we motivate, randomization beats optimization. However, the optimal design
is shown to lie between these two extremes. Much-needed further work will
provide a procedure to find this optimal designs in different scenarios in
practice. Until then, it is best to randomize.


  Neural network based end-to-end Text-to-Speech (TTS) has greatly improved the
quality of synthesized speech. While how to use massive spontaneous speech
without transcription efficiently still remains an open problem. In this paper,
we propose MHTTS, a fast multi-speaker TTS system that is robust to
transcription errors and speaking style speech data. Specifically, we introduce
a multi-head model and transfer text information from high-quality corpus with
manual transcription to spontaneous speech with imperfectly recognized
transcription by jointly training them. MHTTS has three advantages: 1) Our
system synthesizes better quality multi-speaker voice with faster inference
speed. 2) Our system is capable of transferring correct text information to
data with imperfect transcription, simulated using corruption, or provided by
an Automatic Speech Recogniser (ASR). 3) Our system can utilize massive real
spontaneous speech with imperfect transcription and synthesize expressive
voice.


  The observation of anomalies in the charged current $b\rightarrow
c\bar{\ell}\nu_{\ell}$ transitions hints the possibility of the existence of
new physics beyond the standard model. Inspired by the work done in the beauty
quark sector, we explore new physics in the charm quark sector with $c
\rightarrow (s,d)\bar{\ell}\nu_{\ell}$ charged current transitions. We analyze
the decay modes $D_{(s)}^+ \to \eta^{(')} \bar{\ell} \nu_{\ell}$ within an
effective Lagrangian framework which includes both standard model and new
physics contributions. We use the available experimental measurements of the
semileptonic $D$ meson decays to constrain the parameter space of new physics
couplings. We then investigate the effects of new physics on four linearly
independent observables, the branching fraction, forward-backward asymmetry,
lepton polarization and convexity parameter.


  For disordered harmonic oscillator systems over the $d$-dimensional lattice,
we consider the problem of finding the bipartite entanglement of the uniform
ensemble of the energy eigenstates associated with a particular number of
modes. Such ensemble define a class of mixed, non-Gaussian entangled states
that are labeled, by the energy of the system, in an increasing order. We
develop a novel approach to find the exact logarithmic negativity of this class
of states. We also prove entanglement bounds and demonstrate that the low
energy states follow an area law.


  For G a profinite group, we construct an equivalence between rational
G-Mackey functors and a certain full subcategory of G-sheaves over the space of
closed subgroups of G called Weyl-G-sheaves. This subcategory consists of those
sheaves whose stalk over a subgroup K is K-fixed.
  This extends the classification of rational G-Mackey functors for finite G of
Th\'{e}venaz and Webb, and Greenlees and May to a new class of examples.
Moreover, this equivalence is instrumental in the classification of rational
G-spectra for profinite G, as given in the second author's thesis.


  We report the results of a search for D0-D0bar mixing in D0 -> K+ pi- decays
based on 400 fb^{-1} of data accumulated by the Belle detector at KEKB. Both
assuming CP conservation and allowing for CP violation, we fit the decay-time
distribution for the mixing parameters x' and y', as well as for the parameter
R_D, the ratio of doubly-Cabibbo-suppressed decays to Cabibbo-favored decays.
The 95% confidence level region in the (x'^2,y') plane is obtained using a
frequentist method. Assuming CP conservation, we find x'^2<0.72 x 10^{-3} and
-9.9 x 10^{-3}<y'<6.8 x 10^{-3} at the 95% confidence level; these are the most
stringent constraints on the mixing parameters to date. The no-mixing point
(0,0) has a confidence level of 3.9%. Assuming no mixing, we measure
R_D=(0.377+-0.008+-0.005)%.


  The status of experimental tests of general relativity and of theoretical
frameworks for analysing them are reviewed. Einstein's equivalence principle
(EEP) is well supported by experiments such as the E\"otv\"os experiment, tests
of special relativity, and the gravitational redshift experiment. Future tests
of EEP and of the inverse square law will search for new interactions arising
from unification or quantum gravity. Tests of general relativity at the
post-Newtonian level have reached high precision, including the light
deflection, the Shapiro time delay, the perihelion advance of Mercury, and the
Nordtvedt effect in lunar motion. Gravitational wave damping has been detected
to half a percent using the binary pulsar, and new binary pulsar systems may
yield further improvements. When direct observation of gravitational radiation
from astrophysical sources begins, new tests of general relativity will be
possible.


  We prove that the C*-algebra of the universal (n,m)-dynamical system may be
obtained, up to Morita-Rieffel equivalence, as the crossed-product relative to
an interaction on a commutative C*-algebra. The interaction involved is shown
not to be part of an interaction group.


  Collimation with hollow electron beams is currently one of the most promising
concepts for active halo control in the HL-LHC. In order to further increase
the diffusion rates for a fast halo removal as e.g. desired before the squeeze,
the electron lens (e-lens) can be operated in pulsed mode. In case of profile
imperfections in the electron beam the pulsing of the e-lens induces noise on
the proton beam which can, depending on the frequency content and strength,
lead to emittance growth. In order to study the sensitivity to the pulsing
pattern and the amplitude, a beam study (machine development MD) at the LHC has
been proposed for August 2016 and we present in this note the preparatory
simulations and estimates.


  We establish several results towards the two-variable main conjecture of
Iwasawa theory for elliptic curves without complex multiplication over
imaginary quadratic fields, namely (i) the existence of an appropriate p-adic
L-function, building on works of Hida and Perrin-Riou, (ii) the basic structure
theory of the dual Selmer group, following works of Coates, Hachimori-Venjakob,
et al., and (iii) the implications of dihedral or anticyclotomic main
conjectures with basechange. The result of (i) is deduced from the construction
of Hida and Perrin-Riou, which in particular is seen to give a bounded
distribution. The result of (ii) allows us to deduce a corank formula for the
p-primary part of the Tate-Shafarevich group of an elliptic curve in the
Z_p^2-extension of an imaginary quadratic field. Finally, (iii) allows us to
deduce a criterion for one divisibility of the two-variable main conjecture in
terms of specializations to cyclotomic characters, following a suggestion of
Greenberg, as well as a refinement via basechange.


  The generalized Einstein action is treated quantum mechanically by using a
quadratic lagrangian form. The canonical quantization of this action is
obtained by using the auxiliary variable to define the generalized momentum.
Physical constraints are imposed on the surface term, which is defined to be
the cosmological constant. One obtains the familiar Wheeler-de Witt equation.
The solution of this equation is in conformity with General Relativity (GR) .In
addition to the fact that it is free from GR setbacks at the early universe,
since it gives time decaying cosmological constant. The wave function of the
universe and the cosmic scale factor are complex quantities, which indicates
the existance of quantum effects.2.7k, CBR temperature is calculated.


  Color superconductivity in QCD breaks the SU(3) color gauge group down to
SU(2), inducing masses in five of the eight gluons. This is a dynamical Higgs
effect, in which the diquark condensate acts as the vacuum expectation value of
a composite scalar field. In order to analyze this effect at low quark density,
when gaps are large and generated nonperturbatively, we use instanton-induced
quark interactions augmented with gauge-invariant interactions between quarks
and perturbative gluons. The five gluon masses are found from the static limit
of the relevant polarization operators, in which transversality is maintained
via the Nambu-Goldstone modes of broken color symmetry. Working in the
microscopic theory we calculate these masses to one-loop order and estimate
their density dependence. Finally, we speculate that the Meissner effect may
postpone the onset of color superconductivity to higher matter density than
estimated previously.


  We try to constrain the gas inflow and outflow rate of star-forming galaxies
at $z\sim1.4$ by employing a simple analytic model for the chemical evolution
of galaxies. The sample is constructed based on a large near-infrared (NIR)
spectroscopic sample observed with Subaru/FMOS. The gas-phase metallicity is
measured from the [\ion{N}{2}]$\lambda$6584/H$\alpha$ emission line ratio and
the gas mass is derived from the extinction corrected H$\alpha$ luminosity by
assuming the Kennicutt-Schmidt law. We constrain the inflow and outflow rate
from the least-$\chi^{2}$ fittings of the observed gas mass fraction, stellar
mass, and metallicity with the analytic model. The joint $\chi^{2}$ fitting
shows the best-fit inflow rate is $\sim1.8$ and the outflow rate is $\sim0.6$
in unit of star-formation rate (SFR). By applying the same analysis to the
previous studies at $z\sim0$ and $z\sim2.2$, it is shown that the both inflow
rate and outflow rate decrease with decreasing redshift, which implies the
higher activity of gas flow process at higher redshift. The decreasing trend of
the inflow rate from $z\sim2.2$ to $z\sim0$ agrees with that seen in the
previous observational works with different methods, though the absolute value
is generally larger than the previous works. The outflow rate and its evolution
from $z\sim2.2$ to $z\sim0$ obtained in this work agree well with the
independent estimations in the previous observational works.


  A clique coloring of a graph is an assignment of colors to its vertices such
that no maximal clique is monochromatic. We initiate the study of structural
parameterizations of the Clique Coloring problem which asks whether a given
graph has a clique coloring with $q$ colors. For fixed $q \ge 2$, we give an
$\mathcal{O}^{\star}(q^{tw})$-time algorithm when the input graph is given
together with one of its tree decompositions of width $tw$. We complement this
result with a matching lower bound under the Strong Exponential Time
Hypothesis. We furthermore show that (when the number of colors is unbounded)
Clique Coloring is XP parameterized by clique-width.


  In this work, a study of the average transverse momentum (pt) as a function
of the mid-rapidity charged hadron multiplicity (Nch) and hadron mass (m) in
p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at LHC energies is presented. For the events
producing low Nch, the average pt is found to scale with the reduced hadron
mass, i.e., mass divided by the number of quark constituents (m/nq), this
scaling also holds for inelastic pp collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. The
scaling is broken in high multiplicity p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions, where, for
<Nch/deta> < 60 the average pt is higher for baryons than that for mesons,
though they increase linearly with m/nq. This behavior is qualitatively well
reproduced by Pythia 8, but not by hydro calculations, where an universal
scaling with the hadron mass (and not with m/nq) is predicted for all the
multiplicity event classes. Only the central (0-60%) Pb-Pb collisions behave as
expected from hydro.


  We consider Hidden Markov Models that emit sequences of observations that are
drawn from continuous distributions. For example, such a model may emit a
sequence of numbers, each of which is drawn from a uniform distribution, but
the support of the uniform distribution depends on the state of the Hidden
Markov Model. Such models generalise the more common version where each
observation is drawn from a finite alphabet. We prove that one can determine in
polynomial time whether two Hidden Markov Models with continuous observations
are equivalent.


  We analyze the inherent symmetries associated to the non-Abelian topological
BF theory from the geometric and covariant perspectives of the Lagrangian and
the multisymplectic formalisms. At the Lagrangian level, we classify the
symmetries of the theory as natural and Noether symmetries and construct the
associated Noether currents, while at the multisymplectic level the symmetries
of the theory arise as covariant canonical transformations. These
transformations allowed us to build within the multisymplectic approach, in a
complete covariant way, the momentum maps which are analogous to the conserved
Noether currents. The covariant momentum maps are fundamental to recover, after
the space plus time decomposition of the background manifold, not only the
extended Hamiltonian of the BF theory but also the generators of the gauge
transformations which arise in the instantaneous Dirac-Hamiltonian analysis of
the first-class constraint structure that characterizes the BF model under
study. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first non-trivial physical
model associated to General Relativity for which both natural and Noether
symmetries have been analyzed at the multisymplectic level. Our study shed some
light on the understanding of the manner in which the generators of gauge
transformations may be recovered from the multisymplectic formalism for field
theory.


  The Lennard-Jones (LJ) spline potential is a truncated LJ potential such that
both the pair potential and the force continuously approach zero at $r_c
\approx 1.74{\sigma}$. We present a systematic map of the thermodynamic
properties of the LJ spline model from molecular dynamics and Gibbs ensemble
Monte Carlo simulations. Results are presented for gas/liquid, liquid/solid and
gas/solid coexistence curves, the Joule-Thomson inversion curve, and several
other thermodynamic properties. The critical point for the model is estimated
to be $T_c^*=0.885 \pm 0.002$ and $P_c^*=0.075 \pm 0.001$, respectively. The
triple point is estimated to be $T_{tp}^*=0.547 \pm 0.005$ and $P_{tp}^*=0.0016
\pm 0.0002$. The coexistence densities, saturation pressure, and supercritical
isotherms of the LJ/s model were fairly well represented by the Peng-Robison
equation of state. We find that Barker-Henderson perturbation theory works less
good for the LJ spline than for the LJ model. The first-order perturbation
theory overestimates the critical temperature and pressure by about 10% and
90%, respectively. A second-order perturbation theory is not much better. Our
assessment is that mean compressibility approximation gives a poor
representation of the second-order perturbation term. Our main conclusion is
that we at the moment do not have a theory or model that adequately represents
the thermodynamic properties of the LJ spline system.


  We present an experimental study of two-dimensional superconducting quantum
interference filters (2D-SQIFs) in the presence of a magnetic field B. The
dependences of the dc voltage on the applied magnetic field are characterized
by a unique delta-like dip at B=0, which depends on the distribution of the
areas of the individual loops, and on the bias current. The voltage span of the
dip scales proportional to the number of rows simultaneously operating at the
same working point. In addition, the voltage response of the 2D-SQIF is
sensitive to a field gradient generated by a control line and superimposed to
the homogeneous field coil. This feature opens the possibility to use 2D
superconducting quantum interference filters as highly sensitive detectors of
spatial gradients of magnetic field.


  The merger of two neutron stars has been proposed as a source of gamma-ray
bursts, r-process elements, and detectable gravitational waves. Extracting
information from observations of these phenomena requires fully relativistic
simulations. Unfortunately, the only demonstrated method for stably evolving
neutron stars requires solving elliptic equations at each time step, adding
substantially to the computational resources required. In this paper we present
a simpler, more efficient method. The key insight is in how we apply numerical
diffusion. We perform a number of tests to validate the method and our
implementation. We also carry out a very rough simulation of coalescence and
extraction of the gravitational waves to show that the method is viable if
realistic initial data are provided.


  We study the interaction between geometric operations on stacks and algebraic
operations on their categories of sheaves. We work in the general setting of
derived algebraic geometry: our basic objects are derived stacks X and their
oo-categories QC(X) of quasicoherent sheaves. We show that for a broad class of
derived stacks, called perfect stacks, algebraic and geometric operations on
their categories of sheaves are compatible. We identify the category of sheaves
on a fiber product with the tensor product of the categories of sheaves on the
factors. We also identify the category of sheaves on a fiber product with
functors between the categories of sheaves on the factors (thus realizing
functors as integral transforms, generalizing a theorem of Toen for ordinary
schemes). As a first application, for a perfect stack X, consider QC(X) with
its usual monoidal tensor product. Then our main results imply the equivalence
of the Drinfeld center (or Hochschild cohomology category) of QC(X), the trace
(or Hochschild homology category) of QC(X) and the category of sheaves on the
loop space of X. More generally, we show that the E_n-center and the E_n-trace
(or E_n-Hochschild cohomology and homology categories respectively) of QC(X)
are equivalent to the category of sheaves on the space of maps from the
n-sphere into X. This directly verifies geometric instances of the categorified
Deligne and Kontsevich conjectures on the structure of Hochschild cohomology.
As a second application, we use our main results to calculate the Drinfeld
center of categories of linear endofunctors of categories of sheaves. This
provides concrete applications to the structure of Hecke algebras in geometric
representation theory. Finally, we explain how all of the above results can be
interpreted in the context of topological field theory.


  The Second Workshop on Extreme Precision Radial Velocities defined circa 2015
the state of the art Doppler precision and identified the critical path
challenges for reaching 10 cm/s measurement precision. The presentations and
discussion of key issues for instrumentation and data analysis and the workshop
recommendations for achieving this precision are summarized here.
  Beginning with the HARPS spectrograph, technological advances for precision
radial velocity measurements have focused on building extremely stable
instruments. To reach still higher precision, future spectrometers will need to
produce even higher fidelity spectra. This should be possible with improved
environmental control, greater stability in the illumination of the
spectrometer optics, better detectors, more precise wavelength calibration, and
broader bandwidth spectra. Key data analysis challenges for the precision
radial velocity community include distinguishing center of mass Keplerian
motion from photospheric velocities, and the proper treatment of telluric
contamination. Success here is coupled to the instrument design, but also
requires the implementation of robust statistical and modeling techniques.
Center of mass velocities produce Doppler shifts that affect every line
identically, while photospheric velocities produce line profile asymmetries
with wavelength and temporal dependencies that are different from Keplerian
signals.
  Exoplanets are an important subfield of astronomy and there has been an
impressive rate of discovery over the past two decades. Higher precision radial
velocity measurements are required to serve as a discovery technique for
potentially habitable worlds and to characterize detections from transit
missions. The future of exoplanet science has very different trajectories
depending on the precision that can ultimately be achieved with Doppler
measurements.


  The propagation of a massless field in attractive and repulsive potentials is
considered. It is shown that though the group velocity in such potentials can
be larger than one, the wave front propagates with the speed of light. A
larger-than-one group velocity leads only to a strong deformation of the wave
packet. The results obtained are applied to the light propagation in a
gravitational field. An erroneous assertion concerning the last problem,
recently made in the literature, is refuted.


  One of the most important and surprising discoveries in cosmology in recent
years is the realization that our Universe is dominated by a mysterious dark
energy, which leads to an accelerating expansion of space-time. A simple
generalization of the standard Friedmann-Robertson-Walker equations based on
General Relativity and the Cosmological Principles with the inclusion of a
number of closed extra dimensions reproduces the currently observed data on
dark energy, without the introduction of any cosmological constant or new
particles. In particular, with a few extra dimensions, we obtain the redshift
dependence of the deceleration parameter, the dark energy equation of state, as
well as the age of the Universe in agreement with data, with essentially no
free parameter. This model predicts that the extra dimensions have been
compactified throughout the cosmic history, and it therefore suggests that
signals from early Universe may give promising signatures of extra dimensions.


  The concept of the $M$-decomposition was introduced by Cockburn et al.\ in
Math. Comp.\ vol.\ 86 (2017), pp.\ 1609-1641 {to provide criteria to guarantee
optimal convergence rates for the Hybridizable Discontinuous Galerkin (HDG)
method for coercive elliptic problems}. In that paper they systematically
constructed superconvergent hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) methods
to approximate the solutions of elliptic PDEs on unstructured meshes. In this
paper, we use the $M$-decomposition to construct HDG methods for the Maxwell's
equations on unstructured meshes in two dimension. In particular, we show the
any choice of spaces having an $M$-decomposition, together with sufficiently
rich auxiliary spaces, has an optimal error estimate and superconvergence even
though the problem is not in general coercive. Unlike the elliptic case, we
obtain a superconvergent rate for the curl of the solution, not the solution,
and this is confirmed by our numerical experiments.


  Two novel version of weak form quadrature elements are proposed based on
Lagrange and Hermite interpolations, respectively, for a sec- ond strain
gradient Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. The second strain gradient theory is
governed by eighth order partial differential equa- tion with displacement,
slope, curvature and triple derivative of dis- placement as degrees of freedom.
A simple and efficient differential quadrature frame work is proposed herein to
implement these classi- cal and non-classical degrees of freedom. A novel
procedure to com- pute the modified weighting coefficient matrices for the beam
element is presented. The proposed elements have displacement as the only
degree of freedom in the element domain and displacement, slope, cur- vature
and triple derivative of displacement at the boundaries. The
Gauss-Lobatto-Legender quadrature points are assumed as element nodes and also
used for numerical integration of the element matrices. Numerical examples are
presented to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed beam
element.


  Supermassive stars (SMS) with masses $M \gtrsim 10^3-10^4 M_{\odot}$, formed
by runaway collisions in young, massive, and dense star clusters have been
invoked as a possible solution to the puzzles raised by the presence of
multiple stellar populations and peculiar abundance patterns observed in
globular clusters. However, such objects have not been observed so far. We
developed observational strategies to search for SMS hosted within young
massive clusters (thought to be the precursors of globular clusters, GCs),
which could be applicable in a relatively general fashion, using both
photometric and spectroscopic observations. We used theoretical predictions of
spectra of SMS and SMS-hosting clusters, together with predictions from
standard simple stellar populations to examine their impact on color-color
diagrams and on individual optical spectral lines (primarily Hydrogen emission
and absorption lines). As a first step, we apply our search strategies to a
sample of $\sim 3000$ young star clusters (YSC) from two nearby galaxies with
multi-band observations from the HST and optical integral-field spectroscopy
obtained with MUSE on the Very Large Telescope. We focus on models for SMS with
large radii (corresponding to $ Teff \lesssim 7000$ K), which predict strong
Balmer breaks, and construct proper color-color diagrams to select the
corresponding SMS-hosting cluster candidates. We show that their
spectrophotometric properties are similar to that of normal clusters with ages
of a few hundred Myr, which would, however, show signs of composite stellar
populations, in particular the presence of nebular lines (H${\alpha}$ and
others). Examining the photometry, overall SEDs, and the spectra of $\sim 100$
clusters with strong Balmer breaks, we have found several objects with peculiar
SEDs, the presence of emission lines, or other peculiar signatures. [abridged]


  A theoretical model is presented which allows to reconcile findings of
scanning tunnelling spectroscopy for (Ga,Mn)As [Richardella et al. Science 327,
66 (2010)] with results for tunneling across (Ga,Mn)As thin layers [Ohya et al.
Nature Phys. 7, 342 (2011); Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 167204 (2010)]. According to
the proposed model, supported by a self-consistent solution of the Poisson and
Schroedinger equations, a nonmonotonic behaviour of differential tunnel
conductance as a function of bias is associated with the appearance of
two-dimensional hole subbands rather in the GaAs:Be electrode than in the
(Ga,Mn)As layer.


  The bulk of the cosmic rays up to about 100 TeV are thought to be accelerated
by the 1st order Fermi mechanism at supernova shocks, producing a power-law
spectrum. Both electrons and protons should be accelerated, but their ratio on
acceleration is not well known. Recently, the EGRET instrument on the Compton
Gamma Ray Observatory has observed supernova remnants IC 443 and $\gamma$ Cygni
at GeV energies. On the assumption that the observed gamma-rays are produced by
accelerated particles in the remnants (rather than, for example, from a central
compact object) we model the contributions due to pion production,
bremsstrahlung, and inverse Compton scattering on the cosmic microwave, diffuse
galactic radiation, and locally produced radiation fields. In the case of the
same spectral index for both electrons and nuclei, and a cut-off at 80 TeV, we
find that a spectral index of accelerated particles close to 2.4, and a ratio
of electrons to protons in the range 0.2 to 0.3, gives a good fit to the
observed spectra. For lower cut-off energies flatter spectra are possible. We
also investigate the case where the electron spectrum is steeper than that of
nuclei. We discuss the implications of our results for observations at air
shower energies, and for the propagation of cosmic rays.


  We model astrophysical disk surface brightness fluctuations as an
inhomogeneous, anisotropic, time-dependent Gaussian random field. The field
locally obeys the stochastic partial differential equation of a Mat\'ern field,
which has a power spectrum that is flat at large scales and falls off as a
power law at small scales. We provide a series of pedagogical examples and
along the way provide a convenient parameterization for the local covariance.
We then consider two applications to disks. In the first we generate a movie of
a disk. In the second, by integrating over a movie of a disk, we generate
synthetic light curves and show that the high frequency slope of the resulting
power spectrum depends on the local covariance model. We finish with a summary
and a brief discussion of other possible astrophysical applications.


  Within wall turbulence, there is a sublayer where the mean velocity and the
variance of velocity fluctuations vary logarithmically with the height from the
wall. This logarithmic scaling is also known for the mean concentration of a
passive scalar. By using heat as such a scalar in a laboratory experiment of a
turbulent boundary layer, the existence of the logarithmic scaling is shown
here for the variance of fluctuations of the scalar concentration. It is
reproduced by a model of energy-containing eddies that are attached to the
wall.


  Quantum discord provides a measure for quantifying quantum correlations
beyond entanglement and is very hard to compute even for two-qubit states
because of the minimization over all possible measurements. Recently a simple
algorithm to evaluate the quantum discord for two-qubit X-states is proposed by
Ali, Rau and Alber [Phys. Rev. A 81, 042105 (2010)] with minimization taken
over only a few cases. Here we shall at first identify a class of X-states,
whose quantum discord can be evaluated analytically without any minimization,
for which their algorithm is valid, and also identify a family of X-states for
which their algorithm fails. And then we demonstrate that this special family
of X-states provides furthermore an explicit example for the inequivalence
between the minimization over positive operator-valued measures and that over
von Neumann measurements.


  The paper is devoted to the theoretical investigation of time dependences of
quantum oscillator excitation by electromagnetic pulses for arbitrary values of
field amplitude in the pulse. We consider the harmonic oscillator without
relaxation and excitation between stationary states. The general formula for
excitation of quantum states as function of time is derived in terms of instant
energy of associated classical oscillator in the field of electromagnetic
pulse. Thus, it is established that time dependence of quantum oscillator
excitation is completely determined by the energy of the associated classical
oscillator at given moment of time. Using derived expression time dependence of
quantum oscillator excitation is investigated in details including total
excitation from ground state, excitation from excited states, total excitation
probability and corresponding excitation spectra.


  Recent years have seen significant developments in the study of strong
light-matter coupling including the control of chemical reactions by altering
the vibrational normal modes of molecules. In the vibrational strong coupling
regime the normal modes of the system become hybrid modes which mix nuclear,
electronic, and photonic degrees of freedom. First principles methods capable
of treating light and matter degrees of freedom on the same level of theory are
an important tool in understanding such systems. In this work, we develop and
apply a generalized force constant matrix approach to the study of mixed
vibration-photon (vibro-polariton) states of molecules based on the cavity
Born-Oppenheimer approximation and quantum-electrodynamical density-functional
theory. With this method vibro-polariton modes and infrared spectra can be
computed via linear response techniques analogous to those widely used for
conventional vibrations and phonons. We also develop an accurate model that
highlights the consistent treatment of cavity coupled electrons in the
vibrational strong coupling regime. These electronic effects appear as new
terms previously disregarded by simpler models. This effective model also
allows for an accurate extrapolation of single and two molecule calculations to
the collective strong coupling limit of hundreds of molecules. We benchmark
these approaches for single and many CO$_2$ molecules coupled to a single
photon mode and the iron-pentacarbonyl Fe(CO)$_5$ molecule coupled to a few
photon modes. Our results are the first ab-initio results for collective
vibrational strong coupling effects. This framework for efficient computations
of vibro-polaritons paves the way to a systematic description and improved
understanding of the behavior of chemical systems in vibrational strong
coupling.


  Five-dimensional braneworld cosmology with deSitter (inflationary) brane
universe induced by classical and quantum matter is discussed. It is shown that
negative energy phantom field with quantum CFT supports the creation of
deSitter universe. On the same time, pure phantom or dust with quantum effects,
or Chaplygin gas with quantum effects may naturally lead to the occurence of
Anti-deSitter brane universe but not deSitter one. It is also interesting that
unlike to four-dimensional gravity, for phantom with (or without) quantum
contribution the standard cosmological energy conditions may be effectively
satisfied.


  Recently, both simulations and observations have revealed that flybys - fast,
one-time interactions between two galaxy halos - are surprisingly common,
nearing/comparable to galaxy mergers. Since these are rapid, transient events
with the closest approach well outside the galaxy disk, it is unclear if flybys
can transform the galaxy in a lasting way. We conduct collisionless N-body
simulations of three co-planer flyby interactions between pure-disk galaxies to
take a first look at the effects flybys have on disk structure, with particular
focus on stellar bar formation. We find that some flybys are capable of
inciting a bar with bars forming in both galaxies during our 1:1 interaction
and in the secondary during our 10:1 interaction. The bars formed have
ellipticities >0.5, sizes on the order of the host disk's scale length, and
persist to the end of our simulations, ~5 Gyr after pericenter. The ability of
flybys to incite bar formation implies that many processes associated with
secular bar evolution may be more closely tied with interactions than
previously though.


  Axion-like particles (ALPs) are attracting increasing interest since, among
other things, they are a prediction of many extensions of the standard model of
elementary particles physics and in particular of superstrings and superbranes.
Remarkably, depending on the set of their parameter space, they strongly
increase the photon transparency in the very-high energy band. The recent
discovery of photon dispersion on the CMB requires a substantial modification
of the previous picture: this is indeed the goal of the present paper. We
compute the photon survival probability from a blazar to us exactly, and we
plot it versus the observed energy for 7 simulated blazars at different $z$ and
4 values of a model parameter. Our predictions can be tested by the new
generation of $\gamma$-ray observatories like CTA, HAWC, GAMMA-400, LHAASO,
TAIGA-HiSCORE and HERD. Finally, for our guessed values of $m_a$ and $g_{\gamma
\gamma a}$ our ALP can be detected in the upgrade of ALPS II at DESY, the
planned experiments IAXO, STAX and ABRACADABRA as well as with other
techniques.


  We consider nonnegative solutions $u:\Omega\longrightarrow \mathbb{R}$ of
second order hypoelliptic equations \begin{equation*} \mathscr{L} u(x)
=\sum_{i,j=1}^n \partial_{x_i} \left(a_{ij}(x)\partial_{x_j} u(x) \right) +
\sum_{i=1}^n b_i(x) \partial_{x_i} u(x) =0, \end{equation*} where $\Omega$ is a
bounded open subset of $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ and $x$ denotes the point of $\Omega$.
For any fixed $x_0 \in \Omega$, we prove a Harnack inequality of this type
$$\sup_K u \le C_K u(x_0)\qquad \forall \ u \ \mbox{ s.t. } \ \mathscr{L} u=0,
u\geq 0,$$ where $K$ is any compact subset of the interior of the
$\mathscr{L}$-propagation set of $x_0$ and the constant $C_K$ does not depend
on $u$.


  Polarization-adjusted convolutional (PAC) codes are special concatenated
codes in which we employ a one-to-one convolutional transform as a precoding
step before the polar transform. In this scheme, the polar transform (as a
mapper) and the successive cancellation process (as a demapper) present a
synthetic vector channel to the convolutional transformation. The numerical
results in the literature show that this concatenation improves the weight
distribution of polar codes which justifies the superior error correction
performance of PAC codes relative to polar codes. In this work, we explicitly
show why the convolutional precoding reduces the number of minimumweight
codewords. Further analysis exhibits where the precoding stage is not
effective. Then, we recognize weaknesses of the convolutional precoding which
are unequal error protection (UEP) of the information bits due to rate
profiling and lack of cross-segmental convolution. Finally, we assess the
possibility of improving the precoding stage by proposing some irregular
convolutional precodings.


  The strength of machine learning models stems from their ability to learn
complex function approximations from data; however, this strength also makes
training deep neural networks challenging. Notably, the complex models tend to
memorize the training data, which results in poor regularization performance on
test data. The regularization techniques such as L1, L2, dropout, etc. are
proposed to reduce the overfitting effect; however, they bring in additional
hyperparameters tuning complexity. These methods also fall short when the
inter-class similarity is high due to the underlying data distribution, leading
to a less accurate model. In this paper, we present a novel approach to
regularize the models by leveraging the information-rich latent embeddings and
their high intra-class correlation. We create phantom embeddings from a subset
of homogenous samples and use these phantom embeddings to decrease the
inter-class similarity of instances in their latent embedding space. The
resulting models generalize better as a combination of their embedding and
regularize them without requiring an expensive hyperparameter search. We
evaluate our method on two popular and challenging image classification
datasets (CIFAR and FashionMNIST) and show how our approach outperforms the
standard baselines while displaying better training behavior.


  We assess the security of machine learning based biometric authentication
systems against an attacker who submits uniform random inputs, either as
feature vectors or raw inputs, in order to find an accepting sample of a target
user. The average false positive rate (FPR) of the system, i.e., the rate at
which an impostor is incorrectly accepted as the legitimate user, may be
interpreted as a measure of the success probability of such an attack. However,
we show that the success rate is often higher than the FPR. In particular, for
one reconstructed biometric system with an average FPR of 0.03, the success
rate was as high as 0.78. This has implications for the security of the system,
as an attacker with only the knowledge of the length of the feature space can
impersonate the user with less than 2 attempts on average. We provide detailed
analysis of why the attack is successful, and validate our results using four
different biometric modalities and four different machine learning classifiers.
Finally, we propose mitigation techniques that render such attacks ineffective,
with little to no effect on the accuracy of the system.


  We study single-photon induced electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)
in many-emitter waveguide quantum electrodynamics (wQED) with linear and
nonlinear waveguide dispersion relations. In the single-emitter problem, in
addition to the robustness of the EIT spectral features in the over-coupled
regime of wQED, we find that the nonlinear dispersion results in the appearance
of a side peak for frequencies smaller than the resonant EIT frequency which
turns into a pronounced plateau as the nonlinearity is enhanced. Consequently,
for many-emitter scenarios, our results indicate the formation of band
structure which for higher values of nonlinearity leads to narrow band gaps as
compared to the corresponding linear dispersion case. Long-distance quantum
networking aided with quantum memories can serve as one of the targeted
applications of this work.


  The near-simultaneous multi-messenger detection of the gravitational wave
(GW) event GW170817 and its optical counterpart, the short $\gamma$-ray burst
GRB170817A, implies that deviations of the GW speed from the speed of light are
restricted to being of ${\cal O}(10^{-15})$. In this note, we study the
implications of this bound for mimetic gravity and confirm that in the original
setting of the theory, GWs propagate at the speed of light, hence ensuring
agreement with the recent multi-messenger detection. A higher-order extension
of the original mimetic theory, appearing in the low-energy limit of
projectable Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity, is then considered. Performing a
Bayesian statistical analysis where we compare the predictions of the
higher-order mimetic model for the speed of GWs against the observational bound
from GW170817/GRB170817A, we derive constraints on the three free parameters of
the theory. Imposing the absence of both ghost instabilities and superluminal
propagation of scalar and tensor perturbations, we find very stringent 95\%
confidence level upper limits of $\sim 7 \times 10^{-15}$ and $\sim 4 \times
10^{-15}$ on the coupling strengths of Lagrangian terms of the form
$\nabla^{\mu}\nabla^{\nu}\phi\nabla_{\mu}\nabla_{\nu}\phi$ and $(\Box \phi)^2$
respectively, with $\phi$ the mimetic field. We discuss implications of the
obtained bounds for mimetic theories. This work presents the first ever robust
comparison of a mimetic theory to observational data.


  Self-paced learning and hard example mining re-weight training instances to
improve learning accuracy. This paper presents two improved alternatives based
on lightweight estimates of sample uncertainty in stochastic gradient descent
(SGD): the variance in predicted probability of the correct class across
iterations of mini-batch SGD, and the proximity of the correct class
probability to the decision threshold. Extensive experimental results on six
datasets show that our methods reliably improve accuracy in various network
architectures, including additional gains on top of other popular training
techniques, such as residual learning, momentum, ADAM, batch normalization,
dropout, and distillation.


  HESS J1813-178 is one of the brightest and most compact TeV $\gamma$-ray
sources, and whether its $\gamma$-ray emission is associated with supernova
remnant (SNR), pulsar wind nebula (PWN) or young stellar cluster (YSC) is still
under debate. By analysing the GeV $\gamma$-ray data in the field of HESS
J1813-178 using 14 years of PASS 8 data recorded by the Fermi Large Area
Telescope (Fermi-LAT), we report the discovery of three different sources with
different spectra in this region. The hard source with a power law spectral
index of 2.11 $\pm$ 0.08 has a small size extension, which is spatially and
spectrally coincident with the TeV $\gamma$-ray emission from HESS J1813-178.
CO observations display the dense molecular clouds surrounding HESS J1813-178
in the velocity range of 45-60 km s$^{\rm -1}$. The possible origins of the
$\gamma$-ray emission from HESS J1813-178 are discussed, including SNR
G12.82-0.02, the PWN driven by the energetic X-ray pulsar PSR J1813-1749, and
YSC Cl 1813-178. However, none of them can be ruled out clearly. Note that the
maximum energy of protons in the hadronic model should exceed a few hundred
TeV, which makes HESS J1813-178 to be a promising PeVatron. The detailed LHAASO
data analysis about the morphology and spectrum would be helpful to investigate
the origin of the $\gamma$-ray emission in this region and test its PeVatron
nature.


  Copula is a powerful tool to model multivariate data. We propose the
modelling of intraday financial returns of multiple assets through copula. The
problem originates due to the asynchronous nature of intraday financial data.
We propose a consistent estimator of the correlation coefficient in case of
Elliptical copula and show that the plug-in copula estimator is uniformly
convergent. For non-elliptical copulas, we capture the dependence through
Kendall's Tau. We demonstrate underestimation of the copula parameter and use a
quadratic model to propose an improved estimator. In simulations, the proposed
estimator reduces the bias significantly for a general class of copulas. We
apply the proposed methods to real data of several stock prices.


  In this paper, we study the asymptotic properties (bias, variance, mean
squared error) of Bernstein estimators for cumulative distribution functions
and density functions near and on the boundary of the $d$-dimensional simplex.
Our results generalize those found by Leblanc (2012), who treated the case
$d=1$, and complement the results from Ouimet (2021) in the interior of the
simplex. Since the "edges" of the $d$-dimensional simplex have dimensions going
from $0$ (vertices) up to $d - 1$ (facets) and our kernel function is
multinomial, the asymptotic expressions for the bias, variance and mean squared
error are not straightforward extensions of one-dimensional asymptotics as they
would be for product-type estimators studied by almost all past authors in the
context of Bernstein estimators or asymmetric kernel estimators. This point
makes the mathematical analysis much more interesting.


  We study the effect of the magnetic field on the collisional energy loss of
heavy quark (HQ) moving in a magnetized thermal partonic medium. This is
investigated in the strong field approximation where the lowest Landau level
(LLL) becomes relevant. We work in the limit $g\sqrt{eB}\ll T\ll \sqrt{eB}$
which is relevant for heavy ion collisions. Effects of the magnetic field are
incorporated through the resummed gluon propagator in which the dominant
contribution arises from the quark loop. We also take the approximation
$\sqrt{eB}\ll M$, M being the HQ mass, so that the HQ is not Landau quantized.
It turns out that there are only two types of scatterings that contribute to
the energy loss of HQ; the Coulomb scattering of HQ with light
quarks/anti-quarks and the t-channel Compton scattering. It is observed that
for a given magnetic field, the dominant contribution to the collisional energy
loss arises from Compton scattering process i.e., $Qg\rightarrow Qg$. On the
other hand, of the two processes, the Coulomb scattering i.e., $Qq\rightarrow
Qq$ is more sensitive to the magnetic field. The net collisional energy loss is
seen to increase with increase in the magnetic field. For a reasonable strength
of the magnetic field, the field dependent contribution to the collisional
energy loss is of the same order as to the case without magnetic field which
can be important for the jet quenching phenomena in the heavy ion collision
experiments.


  We present a novel machine-learning approach to estimate selection effects in
gravitational-wave observations. Using techniques similar to those commonly
employed in image classification and pattern recognition, we train a series of
neural-network classifiers to predict the LIGO/Virgo detectability of
gravitational-wave signals from compact-binary mergers. We include the effect
of spin precession, higher-order modes, and multiple detectors and show that
their omission, as it is common in large population studies, tends to
overestimate the inferred merger rate in selected regions of the parameter
space. Although here we train our classifiers using a simple signal-to-noise
ratio threshold, our approach is ready to be used in conjunction with full
pipeline injections, thus paving the way toward including actual distributions
of astrophysical and noise triggers into gravitational-wave population
analyses.


  We present an update of the search for the lepton family number violating
decay $\tau \to \mu\gamma$ using a complete CLEO II data sample of 12.6 million
$\tau^+\tau^-$ pairs. No evidence of a signal has been found and the
corresponding upper limit is $ \BR(\tau \to \mu\gamma) < 1.0 \times 10^{-6} $
at 90% CL, significantly smaller than previous limits. All quoted results are
preliminary.


  In many real-world situations, there is often not enough information to know
that a certain strategy will succeed in achieving the goal, but there is a good
reason to believe that it will. The paper introduces the term ``doxastic'' for
such strategies.
  The main technical contribution is a sound and complete logical system that
describes the interplay between doxastic strategy and belief modalities.


  In a recent Letter, Zhu et al. [L. Zhu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 066404
(2003)], obtained the divergence of the Gruneisen ratio close to a quantum
critical point (QCP). We show that, in the case the effective dimension
associated with the QCP is larger that the upper critical dimension (d+z >4),
their result is inconsistent with the thermodynamic Ehrenfest equation. We
discuss the reasons for this inconsistency.


  In this paper, we present a color transfer algorithm to colorize a broad
range of gray images without any user intervention. The algorithm uses a
machine learning-based approach to automatically colorize grayscale images. The
algorithm uses the superpixel representation of the reference color images to
learn the relationship between different image features and their corresponding
color values. We use this learned information to predict the color value of
each grayscale image superpixel. As compared to processing individual image
pixels, our use of superpixels helps us to achieve a much higher degree of
spatial consistency as well as speeds up the colorization process. The
predicted color values of the gray-scale image superpixels are used to provide
a 'micro-scribble' at the centroid of the superpixels. These color scribbles
are refined by using a voting based approach. To generate the final
colorization result, we use an optimization-based approach to smoothly spread
the color scribble across all pixels within a superpixel. Experimental results
on a broad range of images and the comparison with existing state-of-the-art
colorization methods demonstrate the greater effectiveness of the proposed
algorithm.


  Cylindrical magnetic nanowires have been proposed as a means of storing and
processing information in a 3D medium, based on the motion of domain
walls~(DWs). Introducing short chemical modulations in such wires would allow
for reliable digital control of DWs. Here, we outline the intricate physics of
the interaction of domain walls with modulations to control their motion,
combining micromagnetic simulations and experimental evidence. This interaction
combines a long-range moderate magnetostatic repulsion with a local energy
well. The latter depends on the respective circulation sense of magnetization
in the domain wall and modulation. We also show that a modulation has the
ability to switch the internal circulation of a DW upon its propagation,
thereby acting as a polarizing component and opening the possibility to exploit
not only the position of walls, but also their internal structure.


  We propose to operate a locally-gated charge density wave as an electron
pump. Applying an oscillating gate potential with frequency $f$ causes equally
spaced plateaux in the sliding charge density wave current separated by $\Delta
I=2eNf,$ where $N$ is the number of parallel chains. The effects of thermal
noise are investigated.


  We investigate the possibility of a harvesting effect, i.e. a temporary
forward shift in mortality, associated with the COVID-19 pandemic by looking at
the excess mortality trends of an area that registered one of the highest death
tolls in the world during the first wave, Northern Italy. We do not find any
evidence of a sizable COVID-19 harvesting effect, neither in the summer months
after the slowdown of the first wave nor at the beginning of the second wave.
According to our estimates, only a minor share of the total excess deaths
detected in Northern Italian municipalities over the entire period under
scrutiny (February - November 2020) can be attributed to an anticipatory role
of COVID-19. A slightly higher share is detected for the most severely affected
areas (the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia, in particular), but even in these
territories, the harvesting effect can only account for less than 20% of excess
deaths. Furthermore, the lower mortality rates observed in these areas at the
beginning of the second wave may be due to several factors other than a
harvesting effect, including behavioral change and some degree of temporary
herd immunity. The very limited presence of short-run mortality displacement
restates the case for containment policies aimed at minimizing the health
impacts of the pandemic.


  The protected electron states at the boundaries or on the surfaces of
topological insulators (TIs) have been the subject of intense theoretical and
experimental investigations. Such states are enforced by very strong spin-orbit
interaction in solids composed of heavy elements. Here, we study the composite
particles -- chiral excitons -- formed by the Coulomb attraction between
electrons and holes residing on the surface of an archetypical
three-dimensional topological insulator (TI), Bi$_2$Se$_3$. Photoluminescence
(PL) emission arising due to recombination of excitons in conventional
semiconductors is usually unpolarized because of scattering by phonons and
other degrees of freedom during exciton thermalization. On the contrary, we
observe almost perfectly polarization-preserving PL emission from chiral
excitons. We demonstrate that the chiral excitons can be optically oriented
with circularly polarized light in a broad range of excitation energies, even
when the latter deviate from the (apparent) optical band gap by hundreds of
meVs, and that the orientation remains preserved even at room temperature.
Based on the dependences of the PL spectra on the energy and polarization of
incident photons, we propose that chiral excitons are made from massive holes
and massless (Dirac) electrons, both with chiral spin textures enforced by
strong spin-orbit coupling. A theoretical model based on such proposal
describes quantitatively the experimental observations. The optical orientation
of composite particles, the chiral excitons, emerges as a general result of
strong spin-orbit coupling in a 2D electron system. Our findings can
potentially expand applications of TIs in photonics and optoelectronics.


  In this paper, we first study the conversion of weighted two-way automata to
one-way automata. We show that this conversion preserves the unambiguity but
does not preserve the determinism. Yet, we prove that the conversion of an
unambiguous weighted one-way automaton into a two-way automaton leads to a
deterministic two-way automaton. As a consequence, we prove that unambiguous
weighted two-way automata are equivalent to deterministic weighted two-way
automata in commutative semirings.


  Speech emotion recognition is a challenging task for three main reasons: 1)
human emotion is abstract, which means it is hard to distinguish; 2) in
general, human emotion can only be detected in some specific moments during a
long utterance; 3) speech data with emotional labeling is usually limited. In
this paper, we present a novel attention based fully convolutional network for
speech emotion recognition. We employ fully convolutional network as it is able
to handle variable-length speech, free of the demand of segmentation to keep
critical information not lost. The proposed attention mechanism can make our
model be aware of which time-frequency region of speech spectrogram is more
emotion-relevant. Considering limited data, the transfer learning is also
adapted to improve the accuracy. Especially, it's interesting to observe
obvious improvement obtained with natural scene image based pre-trained model.
Validated on the publicly available IEMOCAP corpus, the proposed model
outperformed the state-of-the-art methods with a weighted accuracy of 70.4% and
an unweighted accuracy of 63.9% respectively.