  We consider the tradeoff between resource efficiency and performance
isolation that emerges when multiplexing the resource demands of Network Slices
(NSs). On the one hand, multiplexing allows the use of idle resources, which
increases resource efficiency. On the other hand, the performance of each NS
becomes susceptible to traffic surges in other NSs, which degrades performance
isolation. The analysis of this tradeoff enables network operators to determine
the effect of performance isolation on the operating cost of each NS.
  To study the tradeoff, we solve an optimization problem where we find the
multiplexing policy that requires the least provisioned resources to honor the
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) of all NSs. The SLA of each NS i states that
its resource demand should be met for $P^H_i$ fraction of time, and for $P^L_i
\leq P^H_i$ fraction of time, it should be met regardless of the demands of
other NSs.
  For resource demands that follow ergodic Markov chains, we show that the
well-known Max-Weight scheduler is an optimal multiplexing policy. Since the
Max-Weight scheduler does not require any knowledge of the statistics of the
resource demands, we also propose its use in non-markovian settings. For
resource demands obtained in the LTE module of ns-3, we show that the
Max-Weight scheduler reduces the provisioned bandwidth by 36.2% when no
performance isolation is required. Lastly, for these non-markovian resource
demands, the Max-Weight scheduler maintains its optimality since it requires as
much provisioned bandwidth as the best non-causal scheduler.


  We propose self-training with noisy student-teacher approach for streaming
keyword spotting, that can utilize large-scale unlabeled data and aggressive
data augmentation. The proposed method applies aggressive data augmentation
(spectral augmentation) on the input of both student and teacher and utilize
unlabeled data at scale, which significantly boosts the accuracy of student
against challenging conditions. Such aggressive augmentation usually degrades
model performance when used with supervised training with hard-labeled data.
Experiments show that aggressive spec augmentation on baseline supervised
training method degrades accuracy, while the proposed self-training with noisy
student-teacher training improves accuracy of some difficult-conditioned test
sets by as much as 60%.


  The FM-index is a celebrated compressed data structure for full-text pattern
searching. After the first wave of interest in its theoretical developments, we
can observe a surge of interest in practical FM-index variants in the last few
years. These enhancements are often related to a bit-vector representation,
augmented with an efficient rank-handling data structure. In this work, we
propose a new, cache-friendly, implementation of the rank primitive and
advocate for a very simple architecture of the FM-index, which trades
compression ratio for speed. Experimental results show that our variants are
2--3 times faster than the fastest known ones, for the price of using typically
1.5--5 times more space.


  The increasing demand for intelligent systems capable of interpreting and
reasoning about visual content requires the development of large
Vision-and-Language Models (VLMs) that are not only accurate but also have
explicit reasoning capabilities. This paper presents a novel approach to
develop a VLM with the ability to conduct explicit reasoning based on visual
content and textual instructions. We introduce a system that can ask a question
to acquire necessary knowledge, thereby enhancing the robustness and
explicability of the reasoning process. To this end, we developed a novel
dataset generated by a Large Language Model (LLM), designed to promote
chain-of-thought reasoning combined with a question-asking mechanism. The
dataset covers a range of tasks, from common ones like caption generation to
specialized VQA tasks that require expert knowledge. Furthermore, using the
dataset we created, we fine-tuned an existing VLM. This training enabled the
models to generate questions and perform iterative reasoning during inference.
The results demonstrated a stride toward a more robust, accurate, and
interpretable VLM, capable of reasoning explicitly and seeking information
proactively when confronted with ambiguous visual input.


  In this work, we study the single-choice prophet inequality problem, where a
gambler faces a sequence of~$n$ online i.i.d. random variables drawn from an
unknown distribution. When a variable reveals its value, the gambler needs to
decide irrevocably whether or not to accept the value. The goal is to maximize
the competitive ratio between the expected gain of the gambler and that of the
maximum variable. It is shown by Correa et al. that when the distribution is
unknown or only $o(n)$ uniform samples from the distribution are given, the
best an algorithm can do is $1/e$-competitive. In contrast, when the
distribution is known or $\Omega(n)$ uniform samples are given, the optimal
competitive ratio of 0.7451 can be achieved. In this paper, we study a new
model in which the algorithm has access to an oracle that answers quantile
queries about the distribution and investigate to what extent we can use a
small number of queries to achieve good competitive ratios. We first use the
answers from the queries to implement the threshold-based algorithms and show
that with two thresholds our algorithm achieves a competitive ratio of
$0.6786$. Motivated by the two-threshold algorithm, we design the
observe-and-accept algorithm that requires only a single query.
  This algorithm sets a threshold in the first phase by making a query and uses
the maximum realization from the first phase as the threshold for the second
phase. It can be viewed as a natural combination of the single-threshold
algorithm and the algorithm for the secretary problem. By properly choosing the
quantile to query and the break-point between the two phases, we achieve a
competitive ratio of $0.6718$, beating the benchmark of $1-1/e$.


  We consider a SU(5) x U(1)_F GUT-flavor model in which the number of effects
that determine the charged fermions Yukawa matrices is much larger than the
number of observables, resulting in a hierarchical fermion spectrum with no
particular regularities. The GUT-flavor symmetry is broken by flavons in the
adjoint of SU(5), realizing a variant of the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism that
gives rise to a large number of effective operators. By assuming a common mass
for the heavy fields and universality of the fundamental Yukawa couplings, we
reduce the number of free parameters to one. The observed fermion mass spectrum
is reproduced thanks to selection rules that discriminate among various
contributions. Bottom-tau Yukawa unification is preserved at leading order, but
there is no unification for the first two families. Interestingly, U(1)_F
charges alone do not determine the hierarchy, and can only give upper bounds on
the parametric suppression of the Yukawa operators.


  We show that the regularity of the gravitational metric tensor in spherically
symmetric spacetimes cannot be lifted from $C^{0,1}$ to $C^{1,1}$ within the
class of $C^{1,1}$ coordinate transformations in a neighborhood of a point of
shock wave interaction in General Relativity, without forcing the determinant
of the metric tensor to vanish at the point of interaction. This is in contrast
to Israel's Theorem which states that such coordinate transformations always
exist in a neighborhood of a point on a smooth single shock surface. The
results thus imply that points of shock wave interaction represent a new kind
of singularity for perfect fluids evolving in spacetime, singularities that
make perfectly good sense physically, that can form from the evolution of
smooth initial data, but at which the spacetime is not locally Minkowskian
under any coordinate transformation. In particular, at such singularities,
delta function sources in the second derivatives of the gravitational metric
tensor exist in all coordinate systems of the $C^{1,1}$ atlas, but due to
cancelation, the curvature tensor remains uniformly bounded.


  Spectral energy distributions (SEDs) are some of the most important sources
of information for galaxies, especially for high redshift ones. Here we review
recent work on the subject. We discuss the integrated spectra of galaxies of
different morphological and activity type, their application to derive
K-corrections and classification of high redshift objects. We also discuss the
radio to X-rays SEDs of Seyfert 2's, Starbursts and normal galaxies, their
behavior as a function of the waveband, their bolometric fluxes and the
wavebands that contribute most to it.


  We consider a quantum probe $P$ undergoing pure dephasing due to its
interaction with a quantum system $S$. The dynamics of $P$ is then described by
a well-defined sub-algebra of operators of $S,$ i.e. the "accessible" algebra
on $S$ from the point of view of $P.$ We consider sequences of $n$ measurements
on $P,$ and investigate the relationship between Kolmogorov consistency of
probabilities of obtaining sequences of results with various $n,$ and
commutativity of the accessible algebra. For a finite-dimensional $S$ we find
conditions under which the Kolmogorov consistency of measurement on $P,$ given
that the state of $S$ can be arbitrarily prepared, is equivalent to the
commutativity of this algebra. These allow us to describe witnesses of
nonclassicality (understood here as noncommutativity) of part of $S$ that
affects the probe. For $P$ being a qubit, the witness is particularly simple:
observation of breaking of Kolmogorov consistency of sequential measurements on
a qubit coupled to $S$ means that the accessible algebra of $S$ is
noncommutative.


  We report radial velocity measurements of the G-type subgiants 24 Sextanis
(=HD90043) and HD200964. Both are massive, evolved stars that exhibit periodic
variations due to the presence of a pair of Jovian planets. Photometric
monitoring with the T12 0.80m APT at Fairborn Observatory demonstrates both
stars to be constant in brightness to <= 0.002 mag, thus strengthening the
planetary interpretation of the radial velocity variations. 24 Sex b,c have
orbital periods of 453.8 days and 883~days, corresponding to semimajor axes
1.333 AU and 2.08 AU, and minimum masses (Msini) 1.99 Mjup and 0.86 Mjup,
assuming a stellar mass 1.54 Msun. HD200964 b,c have orbital periods of 613.8
days and 825 days, corresponding to semimajor axes 1.601 AU and 1.95 AU, and
minimum masses 1.85 Mjup and 0.90 Mjup, assuming M* = 1.44 Msun. We also carry
out dynamical simulations to properly account for gravitational interactions
between the planets. Most, if not all, of the dynamically stable solutions
include crossing orbits, suggesting that each system is locked in a mean motion
resonance that prevents close encounters and provides long-term stability. The
planets in the 24 Sex system likely have a period ratio near 2:1, while the
HD200964 system is even more tightly packed with a period ratio close to 4:3.
However, we caution that further radial velocity observations and more detailed
dynamical modelling will be required to provide definitive and unique orbital
solutions for both cases, and to determine whether the two systems are truly
resonant.


  There are two sets of four-by-four matrices introduced by Dirac. The first
set consists of fifteen Majorana matrices derivable from his four $\gamma$
matrices. These fifteen matrices can also serve as the generators of the group
$SL(4,r)$. The second set consists of ten generators of the $Sp(4)$ group which
Dirac derived from two coupled harmonic oscillators. It is shown possible to
extend the symmetry of $Sp(4)$ to that of $SL(4,r)$ if the area of the phase
space of one of the oscillators is allowed to become smaller without a lower
limit. While there are no restrictions on the size of phase space in classical
mechanics, Feynman's rest of the universe makes this $Sp(4)$-to-$SL(4,r)$
transition possible. The ten generators are for the world where quantum
mechanics is valid. The remaining five generators belong to the rest of the
universe. It is noted that the groups $SL(4,r)$ and $Sp(4)$ are locally
isomorphic to the Lorentz groups O(3,3) and O(3,2) respectively. This allows us
to interpret Feynman's rest of the universe in terms of space-time symmetry.


  Stochastic Thermodynamics (ST) extends the notions of classical
thermodynamics to trajectories taken from a nonequilibrium ensemble. This
extension yields a simple approach to fluctuation relations in small systems.
Multiple time- and length scales play an important role for measurements but
also for the foundations of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Here, under
the assumptions of local equilibrium we derive the trajectory functionals of ST
in the context of reversible deterministic thermostats. Further, the connection
to previous work is made.


  The problem of determining resolving sets in graph theory has a long history,
as it has many applications in chemistry, robot navigation, combinatorial
optimization and utilization of the idea in pattern recognition and processing
of images that also provide motivation for founding the theory. Especially, it
is well known that these problems are NP hard. In the present work, first we
define the structure of the crystal cubic carbon $CCC(n)$ by a new method, and
we will find the minimum number of doubly resolving sets and strong resolving
sets for the crystal cubic carbon $CCC(n)$. Also, we construct a new class of
graphs of order $n+ \Sigma_{p=2}^{k}n^2(n-1)^{p-2}$, is denoted by $LCG(n, k)$
and recall that the layer cycle graph with parameters $n$ and $k$. Moreover, we
will compute the minimum number of some resolving sets for the layer cycle
graph $LCG(n, k)$.


  Large language models (LLMs) are useful in many NLP tasks and become more
capable with size, with the best open-source models having over 50 billion
parameters. However, using these 50B+ models requires high-end hardware, making
them inaccessible to most researchers. In this work, we investigate methods for
cost-efficient inference and fine-tuning of LLMs, comparing local and
distributed strategies. We observe that a large enough model (50B+) can run
efficiently even on geodistributed devices in a consumer-grade network. This
could allow running LLM efficiently by pooling together idle compute resources
of multiple research groups and volunteers. We address two open problems: (1)
how to perform inference and fine-tuning reliably if any device can disconnect
abruptly and (2) how to partition LLMs between devices with uneven hardware,
joining and leaving at will. In order to do that, we develop special
fault-tolerant inference algorithms and load-balancing protocols that
automatically assign devices to maximize the total system throughput. We
showcase these algorithms in Petals - a decentralized system that runs Llama 2
(70B) and BLOOM (176B) over the Internet up to 10x faster than offloading for
interactive generation. We evaluate the performance of our system in simulated
conditions and a real-world setup spanning two continents.


  We define an infinite sequence of generalizations, parametrized by an integer
$m \ge 1$, of the Stieltjes--Rogers and Thron--Rogers polynomials; they arise
as the power-series expansions of some branched continued fractions, and as the
generating polynomials for $m$-Dyck and $m$-Schr\"oder paths with
height-dependent weights. We prove that all of these sequences of polynomials
are coefficientwise Hankel-totally positive, jointly in all the (infinitely
many) indeterminates. We then apply this theory to prove the coefficientwise
Hankel-total positivity for combinatorially interesting sequences of
polynomials. Enumeration of unlabeled ordered trees and forests gives rise to
multivariate Fuss--Narayana polynomials and Fuss--Narayana symmetric functions.
Enumeration of increasing (labeled) ordered trees and forests gives rise to
multivariate Eulerian polynomials and Eulerian symmetric functions, which
include the univariate $m$th-order Eulerian polynomials as specializations. We
also find branched continued fractions for ratios of contiguous hypergeometric
series ${}_r \! F_s$ for arbitrary $r$ and $s$, which generalize Gauss'
continued fraction for ratios of contiguous ${}_2 \! F_1$; and for $s=0$ we
prove the coefficientwise Hankel-total positivity. Finally, we extend the
branched continued fractions to ratios of contiguous basic hypergeometric
series ${}_r \! \phi_s$.


  We construct the general extension of the four-dimensional Jackiw-Rossi-Dirac
Hamiltonian that preserves the antilinear reflection symmetry between the
positive and negative energy eigenstates. Among other systems, the resulting
Hamiltonian describes the s-wave superconducting vortex at the surface of the
topological insulator, at a finite chemical potential, and in the presence of
both Zeeman and orbital couplings to the external magnetic field. Here we find
that the bound zero-mode exists only when the Zeeman term is below a critical
value. Other physical realizations pertaining to graphene are considered, and
some novel zero-energy wave functions are analytically computed.


  Latency-sensitive and bandwidth-intensive stream processing applications are
dominant traffic generators over the Internet network. A stream consists of a
continuous sequence of data elements, which require processing in nearly
real-time. To improve communication latency and reduce the network congestion,
Fog computing complements the Cloud services by moving the computation towards
the edge of the network. Unfortunately, the heterogeneity of the new Cloud-Fog
continuum raises important challenges related to deploying and executing data
stream applications. We explore in this work a two-sided stable matching model
called Cloud-Fog to data stream application matching (CODA) for deploying a
distributed application represented as a workflow of stream processing
microservices on heterogeneous Cloud-Fog computing resources. In CODA, the
application microservices rank the continuum resources based on their
microservice stream processing time, while resources rank the stream processing
microservices based on their residual bandwidth. A stable many-to-one matching
algorithm assigns microservices to resources based on their mutual preferences,
aiming to optimize the complete stream processing time on the application side,
and the total streaming traffic on the resource side. We evaluate the CODA
algorithm using simulated and real-world Cloud-Fog scenarios. We achieved 11 to
45% lower stream processing time and 1.3 to 20% lower streaming traffic
compared to related state-of-the-art approaches.


  Many electroencephalography (EEG) applications rely on channel selection
methods to remove the least informative channels, e.g., to reduce the amount of
electrodes to be mounted, to decrease the computational load, or to reduce
overfitting effects and improve performance. Wrapper-based channel selection
methods aim to match the channel selection step to the target model, yet they
require to re-train the model multiple times on different candidate channel
subsets, which often leads to an unacceptably high computational cost,
especially when said model is a (deep) neural network. To alleviate this, we
propose a framework to embed the EEG channel selection in the neural network
itself to jointly learn the network weights and optimal channels in an
end-to-end manner by traditional backpropagation algorithms. We deal with the
discrete nature of this new optimization problem by employing continuous
relaxations of the discrete channel selection parameters based on the
Gumbel-softmax trick. We also propose a regularization method that discourages
selecting channels more than once. This generic approach is evaluated on two
different EEG tasks: motor imagery brain-computer interfaces and auditory
attention decoding. The results demonstrate that our framework is generally
applicable, while being competitive with state-of-the art EEG channel selection
methods, tailored to these tasks.


  We prove that if $R$ is a G-ring then every fully dualizable $R$-linear
cocomplete category is equivalent to a twist by a $\mathbb{G}_m$-gerbe of the
category of modules over a finite \'etale $R$-algebra. We also show that this
holds more generally over an arbitrary commutative ring under an additional
compact generation hypothesis. We include variants of these results that apply
to $R$-linear graded categories, and to the context of $\infty$-categories
linear over connective commutative ring spectra.


  We study a model for reheating that has been much investigated for parametric
resonance, having a quartic interaction of the scalar inflaton with another
scalar field. Attention is particularly on the quantum excitations of the
inflaton field and the metric perturbation with a smooth transition from
quantum to classical stochastic states, followed through from a specific
inflation model to a state including a relativistic fluid. The scalar fields
enter non-perturbatively but the metric enters perturbatively, and the validity
of this latter is assessed. In this model our work seems to point the large
scale curvature parameter changing.


  The combination of grating-based frequency-selective optical feedback
mechanisms, such as distributed feedback (DFB) or distributed Bragg reflector
(DBR) structures, with quantum dot (QD) gain materials is a main approach
towards ultra-high-performance semiconductor lasers for many key novel
applications, either as stand-alone sources or as on-chip sources in photonic
integrated circuits. However, the fabrication of conventional buried Bragg
grating structures on GaAs, GaAs/Si, GaSb and other material platforms have
been met with major material regrowth difficulties. We report a novel and
universal approach of introducing laterally coupled dielectric Bragg gratings
to semiconductor lasers that allows highly controllable, reliable and strong
coupling between the grating and the optical mode. We implement such a grating
structure in a low-loss amorphous silicon material alongside GaAs lasers with
InAs/GaAs QD gain layers. The resulting DFB laser arrays emit at pre-designed
0.8 THz LWDM frequency intervals in the 1300 nm band with record performance
parameters, including side mode suppression ratios as high as 52.7 dB,
continuous-wave output power of 27.7 mW (room-temperature) and 10 mW (at
70{\deg}C), and ultra-low relative intensity noise (RIN) of < -165 dB/Hz
(2.5-25 GHz). The devices are also capable of operating isolator-free under
very high external reflection levels of up to -12.3 dB whilst maintaining the
high spectral and ultra-low RIN qualities. These results validate the novel
laterally coupled dielectric grating as a technologically superior and
potentially cost-effective approach for fabricating DFB and DBR lasers free of
their semiconductor material constraints, thus universally applicable across
different material platforms and wavelength bands.


  To fully exploit the additional dimension brought by reconfigurable
intelligent surface (RIS), it is recently suggested by information theory that
modulating information upon RIS phases is able to send extra information with
increased communication rate. In this paper, we propose a novel superimposed
RIS-phase modulation (SRPM) scheme to transfer extra messages by superimposing
information-bearing phase offsets to conventionally optimized RIS phases. The
proposed SRPM is interpreted as a universal framework for RIS phase modulation.
Theoretical union bound of the average bit error rate (ABER) of the proposed
SRPM is also derived with the maximum likelihood (ML) detection. The diversity
order is characterized as 0.5 for all parameter settings, which is useful for
determining the optimal choice of the phase modulation parameters. Furthermore,
we discover that doubling the number of either RIS reflecting elements or the
transmit antennas is equivalent to a 3 dB increment in the transmit power for
SRPM. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of SRPM and reveal that
it achieves reliable communication of more bits than existing schemes.


  Electromagnetic waves propagating, at finite speeds, in conventional
wave-guiding structures are reflected by discontinuities and decay in lossy
regions. In this Letter, we drastically modify this typical guided-wave
behavior by combining concepts from non-Hermitian physics and topological
photonics. To this aim, we theoretically study, for the first time, the
possibility of realizing an exceptional point between \emph{coupled topological
modes in a non-Hermitian non-reciprocal waveguide}. Our proposed system is
composed of oppositely-biased gyrotropic materials (e.g., biased plasmas or
graphene layers) with a balanced loss/gain distribution. To study this complex
wave-guiding problem, we put forward an exact analysis based on classical
Green's function theory, and we illustrate the behavior of coupled topological
modes and the nature of their non-Hermitian degeneracies. We find that, by
operating near an exceptional point, we can realize anomalous topological wave
propagation with, at the same time, low group-velocity, inherent immunity to
back-scattering at discontinuities, and immunity to losses. These theoretical
findings may open exciting research directions and stimulate further
investigations of non-Hermitian topological waveguides to realize robust wave
propagation in practical scenarios.


  Normal muon decay, $\mu^{+} \to e^{+}\nu_{e}\bar{\nu_{\mu}}$, is studied as a
tool to discriminate between the Dirac and Majorana types of neutrinos and to
survey the structure of the weak interaction. It is assumed that massive
neutrinos mix with one another and that the interaction Hamiltonian consists of
the $V-A$ and $V+A$ charged currents. A new set of parameters used in place of
the Michel parameters is proposed for the positron distribution. Explicit forms
of these new parameters are obtained by assuming that the masses are less than
10 eV for light neutrinos and sufficiently large for heavy Majorana neutrinos,
which are not emitted in the muon decay. It is shown that a possible method to
discriminate between the Dirac and Majorana cases is to use a characterization
given by the $\chi^2$ fitting of their spectra. It is also confirmed that the
theoretical predictions in the Majorana neutrino case are almost the same as
those obtained from the standard model. Indeed, their differences cannot be
distinguished within the present experimental precision.


  The classical Lagrangian of chromodynamics, its quantization in the
perturbation theory framework, and renormalization form the subject of these
lectures. Symmetries of the theory are discussed. The dependence of the
coupling constant $\alpha_s$ on the renormalization scale $\mu$ is considered
in detail.


  The origin of large scale cosmological magnetic fields remains a mystery,
despite the continuous efforts devoted to that problem. We present a new model
of magnetic field generation, based on local charge separation provided by an
anisotropic and inhomogeneous radiation pressure. In the cosmological context,
the processes we explore take place at the epoch of the reionisation of the
Universe. Under simple assumptions, we obtain results (i) in terms of the order
of magnitude of the field generated at large scales and (ii) in terms of its
power spectrum. The amplitudes obtained (B ~ 8.10^(-6) micro-Gauss) are
considerably higher than those obtained in usual magnetogenesis models and
provide suitable seeds for amplification by adiabatic collapse and/or dynamo
during structure formation.


  We implement the entanglement harvesting protocol, in which two Unruh-DeWitt
detectors become entangled through local interactions with a quantum field, for
the first time in the vicinity of a black hole. Our study, focusing on the BTZ
black hole, reveals that black holes inhibit entanglement harvesting. The
entanglement harvested rapidly falls to zero when two detectors with fixed
proper separation approach the horizon. This effect is a combination of black
hole radiation and gravitational red shift, both generic properties of
horizons, suggesting it is a general result for black holes.


  We introduce Coronal-Line Forest Active Galactic Nuclei (CLiF AGN), AGN which
have a rich spectrum of forbidden high-ionization lines (FHILs, e.g. [FeVII],
[FeX] and [NeV]), as well as relatively strong narrow ($\sim$300 km s$^{-1}$)
H$\alpha$ emission when compared to the other Balmer transition lines. We find
that the kinematics of the CLiF emitting region are similar to those of the
forbidden low-ionization emission-line (FLIL) region. We compare emission line
strengths of both FHILs and FLILs to CLOUDY photoionization results and find
that the CLiF emitting region has higher densities (10$^{4.5}$ $<$ n$_H$ $<$
10$^{7.5}$ cm$^{-3}$) when compared to the FLIL emitting region (10$^{3.0}$ $<$
n$_H$ $<$ 10$^{4.5}$ cm$^{-3}$). We use the photoionization results to
calculate the CLiF regions radial distances (0.04 $<$ R$_{CLiF}$ $<$ 32.5 pc)
and find that they are comparable to the dust grain sublimation distances (0.10
$<$ R$_{SUB}$ $<$ 4.3 pc). As a result we suggest that the inner torus wall is
the most likely location of the CLiF region, and the unusual strength of the
FHILs is due to a specific viewing angle giving a maximal view of the far wall
of the torus without the continuum being revealed.


  Risk management is today a major steering tool for any organization wanting
to deal with Information System (IS) security. However, IS Security Risk
Management (ISSRM) remains difficult to establish and maintain, mainly in a
context of multi-regulations with complex and inter-connected IS. We claim that
a connection with Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) contributes to deal
with these issues. A first step towards a better integration of both domains is
to define an integrated EAM-ISSRM conceptual model. Among the steps of the
research method followed to define such an integrated EAM-ISSRM conceptual,
this technical report presents the whole outputs (through alignment tables) of
the conceptual alignment between concepts used to model EA (based on ArchiMate,
TOGAF, IAF and DoDAF) and concepts of the ISSRM domain model.


  In this paper, we investigate a practical structure of reconfigurable
intelligent surface (RIS)-based double spatial scattering modulation (DSSM) for
millimeter-wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. A
suboptimal detector is proposed, in which the beam direction is first
demodulated according to the received beam strength, and then the remaining
information is demodulated by adopting the maximum likelihood algorithm. Based
on the proposed suboptimal detector, we derive the conditional pairwise error
probability expression. Further, the exact numerical integral and closed-form
expressions of unconditional pairwise error probability (UPEP) are derived via
two different approaches. To provide more insights, we derive the upper bound
and asymptotic expressions of UPEP. In addition, the diversity gain of the
RIS-DSSM scheme was also given. Furthermore, the union upper bound of average
bit error probability (ABEP) is obtained by combining the UPEP and the number
of error bits. Simulation results are provided to validate the derived upper
bound and asymptotic expressions of ABEP. We found an interesting phenomenon
that the ABEP performance of the proposed system-based phase shift keying is
better than that of the quadrature amplitude modulation. Additionally, the
performance advantage of ABEP is more significant with the increase in the
number of RIS elements.


  New nucleosynthesis bounds on the oscillation parameters of active neutrinos
mixed with a sterile one are derived for the non-resonant case. The controversy
in the literature whether to use the annihilation rate or the total reaction
rate for the estimates of sterile neutrino production is resolved in favor of
the annihilation rate. In contrast to previous papers, the restrictions on
oscillations of electronic neutrinos are weaker than those of muonic and
tauonic ones.


  The surface of nominally diamagnetic colloidal CdSe nanoplatelets can
demonstrate paramagnetism owing to the uncompensated spins of dangling bonds
(DBSs). We reveal that by optical spectroscopy in high magnetic fields up to 15
Tesla using the exciton spin as probe of the surface magnetism. The strongly
nonlinear magnetic field dependence of the circular polarization of the exciton
emission is determined by the DBS and exciton spin polarization as well as by
the spin-dependent recombination of dark excitons. The sign of the exciton-DBS
exchange interaction can be adjusted by the nanoplatelet growth conditions.


  We compute the isotropic radiation background due to Hawking emission from
primordial black holes (PBHs), and examine if this background is a viable
option in explaining the excess radiowave background observed by the ARCADE2
and LWA1 experiments at $\lesssim 1\,$GHz. We find that even under the extreme
assumption that all of the dark matter is in the form of PBHs, the radio
brightness temperature induced by Hawking evaporation of PBHs is
$\mathcal{O}(10^{-46})\,$K, highly subdominant compared to the cosmic microwave
background. The main reason for this is that for PBHs in the mass range
$\sim10^{12}$-$10^{14}\,$kg, which can be constrained by Hawking emission, the
spectrum peaks at $10^7$ to $10^5\,$eV. As the Hawking spectrum is power law
suppressed towards lower energies, negligible flux of $\mu$eV photons is
obtained. The peak of the Hawking spectrum shifts to lower energies for higher
masses, but the number density is low and so is the specific intensity. Because
Hawking emission from PBHs is thus unable to explain the observed excess radio
background, we also consider the alternative possibility of radio emission from
gas accretion onto supermassive PBHs. These PBHs can readily produce strong
radio emission that could easily explain the ARCADE2/LWA1 excess.


  The technology of scintillating bolometers based on zinc molybdate
(ZnMoO$_4$) crystals is under development within the LUMINEU project to search
for 0$\nu$2$\beta$ decay of $^{100}$Mo with the goal to set the basis for large
scale experiments capable to explore the inverted hierarchy region of the
neutrino mass pattern. Advanced ZnMoO$_4$ crystal scintillators with mass of
$\sim$~0.3 kg were developed and Zn$^{100}$MoO$_4$ crystal from enriched
$^{100}$Mo was produced for the first time by using the low-thermal-gradient
Czochralski technique. One ZnMoO$_4$ scintillator and two samples (59 g and 63
g) cut from the enriched boule were tested aboveground at milli-Kelvin
temperature as scintillating bolometers showing a high detection performance.
The first results of the low background measurements with three ZnMoO$_4$ and
two enriched detectors installed in the EDELWEISS set-up at the Modane
Underground Laboratory (France) are presented.


  The problem of finite size effects in s=1/2 Ising systems showing slow
dynamics of the magnetization is investigated introducing diamagnetic
impurities in a Co$^{2+}$-radical chain. The static magnetic properties have
been measured and analyzed considering the peculiarities induced by the
ferrimagnetic character of the compound. The dynamic susceptibility shows that
an Arrhenius law is observed with the same energy barrier for the pure and the
doped compounds while the prefactor decreases, as theoretically predicted.
Multiple spins reversal has also been investigated.


  Platinum is a nearly perfect catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction,
and its high activity has conventionally been explained by its
close-to-thermoneutral hydrogen binding energy (G~0). However, many candidate
non-precious metal catalysts bind hydrogen with similar strengths, but exhibit
orders-of-magnitude lower activity for this reaction. In this study, we employ
electronic structure methods that allow fully potential-dependent reaction
barriers to be calculated, in order to develop a complete working picture of
hydrogen evolution on platinum. Through the resulting ab initio microkinetic
models, we assess the mechanistic origins of Pt's high activity. Surprisingly,
we find that the G~0 hydrogen atoms are kinetically inert, and that the
kinetically active hydrogen atoms have G's much weaker, similar to that of
gold. These on-top hydrogens have particularly low barriers, which we compare
to those of gold, explaining the high reaction rates, and the exponential
variations in coverages can uniquely explain Pt's strong kinetic response to
the applied potential. This explains the unique reactivity of Pt that is missed
by conventional Sabatier analyses, and suggests true design criteria for
non-precious alternatives.


  Electron-electron interactions (EEIs) in 2D van der Waals structures is one
of the topics with high current interest in physics. We report the observation
of a negative parabolic magnetoresistance (MR) in multilayer 2D semiconductor
InSe beyond the low-field weak localization/antilocalization regime, and
provide evidence for the EEI origin of this MR behavior. Further, we analyze
this negative parabolic MR and other observed quantum transport signatures of
EEIs (temperature dependent conductance and Hall coefficient) within the
framework of Fermi liquid theory and extract the gate voltage tunable Fermi
liquid parameter $F_0^\sigma$ which quantifies the electron spin-exchange
interaction strength.


  Elastic scattering of antiprotons off $^4$He, $^{12}$C, and $^{16,18}$O is
described for the first time with a totally microscopic approach based on the
calculation of an optical potential (OP) describing the antiproton-target
interaction. The OP is derived using the recent antiproton-nucleon ($\bar{p}N$)
chiral interaction to calculate the $\bar{p}N$ $t$ matrix, while the target
densities are computed with the ab initio no-core shell model using chiral
interactions as well. Our results are in a good agreement with the existing
experimental data and the results computed at different chiral orders of the
$\bar{p}N$ interaction display the convergence pattern expected from the
theory.


  We investigate the Goos-Hanchen (G-H) shifts reflected and transmitted by a
yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) film for both normal and oblique incidence. It is
found that the nonreciprocity effect of the MO material does not only result in
a nonvanishing reflected shift at normal incidence, but also leads to a
slab-thickness-independent term which breaks the symmetry between the reflected
and transmitted shifts at oblique incidence. The asymptotic behaviors of the
normal-incidence reflected shift are obtained in the vicinity of two
characteristic frequencies corresponding to a minimum reflectivity and a total
reflection, respectively. Moreover, the coexistence of two types of
negative-reflected-shift (NRS) at oblique incidence is discussed. We show that
the reversal of the shifts from positive to negative values can be realized by
tuning the magnitude of applied magnetic field, the frequency of incident wave
and the slab thickness as well as the incident angle. In addition, we further
investigate two special cases for practical purposes: the reflected shift with
a total reflection and the transmitted shift with a total transmission.
Numerical simulations are also performed to verify our analytical results.


  Weak value is increasingly acknowledged as an important research tool for
probing quantum pre- and post-selected ensembles, where some extraordinary
phenomena occur. We generalize this concept to the broader notion of "weak
potential" which enables predicting the interactions between particles when one
of them is pre-/post-selected and the interaction potential is small. A
harmonic oscillator is considered, undergoing weak position and momentum
measurements between strong position measurement, and shown to possess peculiar
physical properties, affecting the momentum rather than the position of another
oscillator interacting with it.


  The deconfinement phase transition from hadronic matter to quark matter in
the interior of compact stars is investigated. The hadronic phase is described
in the framework of relativistic mean-field (RMF) theory, when also the
scalar-isovector delta-meson effective field is taken into account. The MIT bag
model for describing a quark phase is used. The changes of the parameters of
phase transition caused by the presence of delta-meson field are explored.
Finally, alterations in the integral and structural parameters of hybrid stars
due to both deconfinement phase transition and inclusion of delta-meson field
are discussed.


  The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on
China's labour market, and has largely changed the structure of labour supply
and demand in different regions. It becomes critical for policy makers to
understand the emerging dynamics of the post-pandemic labour market and provide
the right policies for supporting the sustainable development of regional
economies. To this end, in this paper, we provide a data-driven approach to
assess and understand the evolving dynamics in regions' labour markets with
large-scale online job search queries and job postings. In particular, we model
the spatial-temporal patterns of labour flow and labour demand which reflect
the attractiveness of regional labour markets. Our analysis shows that regional
labour markets suffered from dramatic changes and demonstrated unusual signs of
recovery during the pandemic. Specifically, the intention of labour flow
quickly recovered with a trend of migrating from large to small cities and from
northern to southern regions, respectively. Meanwhile, due to the pandemic, the
demand of blue-collar workers has been substantially reduced compared to that
of white-collar workers. In addition, the demand structure of blue-collar jobs
also changed from manufacturing to service industries. Our findings reveal that
the pandemic can cause varied impacts on regions with different structures of
labour demand and control policies. This analysis provides timely information
for both individuals and organizations in confronting the dynamic change in job
markets during the extreme events, such as pandemics. Also, the governments can
be better assisted for providing the right policies on job markets in
facilitating the sustainable development of regions' economies.


  Proton radiography is a new scatheless diagnostic tool, and which provides a
potential development direction for advanced hydrotesting. Recently a low
energy proton radiography system has been developed at CAEP. This system has
been designed to use 11MeV proton beam to radiograph thin static objects. This
system consists of a proton cyclotron coupled to an imaging beamline. The
design features and commissioning results of this radiography system are
presented.


  Path length changes through the atmosphere cause significant errors for
astronomical radio interferometry at high frequencies (e.g. 100 GHz). Path
length differences typically give rise to a differential excess path of 1mm for
antennas separated by 1km, and have fluctuation time scales of greater than 10
seconds. To measure these fluctuations, we are building a four-channel
radiometer centred on the 22 GHz water line. By sensing the water vapour
emission, the excess path can be deduced and corrected. Multiple channels give
us robustness against various systematic errors, but gain stability of the
radiometer of 1 pair in 10^4 is still required.


  We present a new twisted rotating black hole solution by performing
Demia{\'n}ski-Newman-Janis algorithm to the electrically and dyonically charged
black hole with quintessence in Rastall theory of gravity. Using our black hole
solution, we argue that Rastall gravity is not equivalent with Einstein
gravity. For further explanation, the black hole properties such as the horizon
and ergosphere are studied for which there are some different properties for
those theories. Some thermodynamic properties of the black hole solution are
also discussed. At the end, considering the Kerr/CFT correspondence is valid
for our black hole solution, the central charge from the CFT of this extremal
solution is derived.


  This paper seeks to understand the effectiveness of using multi-dimensional
opportunistic delay-tolerant network (DTN) routing protocols, specifically
Epidemic and MaxProp, in the context of New York City (NYC) metropolitan subway
network. We examine how efficiently emergency messages spread through mobile,
self-configuring, edge-based movement patterns on the train network to
understand and propose solutions for improving communication in subterranean
environments. Since DTNs are able to store, carry and forward messages through
intermediate edges, this paper benchmarks both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth topologies
to compare and critically evaluate movement patterns, latency, overheads and
delivery rates on pseudo-realistic underground traces. We also show that the
accordion effect is predominant in these networks, and therefore, the most
effective protocol configurations vary.


  Recent attempts at measuring the variation of $c$ using an assortment of
standard candles and the redshift-dependent Hubble expansion rate inferred from
the currently available catalog of cosmic chronometers have tended to show that
the speed of light appears to be constant, at least up to $z\sim 2$. A notable
exception is the use of high-redshift UV $+$ X-ray quasars, whose Hubble
diagram seems to indicate a $\sim 2.7\sigma$ deviation of c from its value
$c_0$ ($\equiv 2.99792458 \times 10^{10}$ cm s$^{-1}$) on Earth. We show in
this paper, however, that this anomaly is due to an error in the derived
relation between the luminosity distance, $D_L$, and $H(z)$ when $c$ is allowed
to vary with redshift, and an imprecise calibration of the quasar catalog. When
these deficiences are addressed correctly, one finds that $c/c_0=0.95 \pm 0.14$
in the redshift range $0\lesssim z\lesssim 2$, fully consistent with zero
variation within the measurement errors.


  I argue that the limits on this quantity obtained using model-independent
parameterizations contain an tacit assumption that could be invalidated under a
variety of situations. As a specific example, existing limits on $\Lambda $
would be decreased by at least an order of magnitude if the underlying physics
has a symmetry under which all \sm particles are singlets but none of the heavy
excitations are. In this case current experiments would see no clear
indications of new physics using precision measurements while future colliders
capable of directly producing the heavy particles would only occur in pairs.


  Grassroots currencies are means for turning mutual trust into liquidity, with
the goal of providing foundations for grassroots digital economies. Grassroots
coins are units of debt that can be issued by anyone -- people, corporations,
cooperatives, banks, municipalities and governments -- and traded by anyone.
They are more similar to `inside money' (a medium of exchange backed by private
credit) and to fiat currencies (for which the issuer controls scarcity) than to
global cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, which are unbacked and for
which scarcity is controlled by the protocol.
  In this paper we introduce the principles that underlie grassroots
currencies; show that they naturally admit basic fiat currency measures
regarding foreign trade such as foreign debt, trade balance, and velocity, and
basic accounting measures such as cash ratio, quick ratio, and current ratio;
elaborate economic scenarios enabled by these principles for grassroots
currencies issued by natural and legal persons; relate grassroots currencies to
extant work, including notions of personal currencies, community currencies,
cryptocurrencies, and inside money; formally specify grassroots currencies as
digital entities, governed by the Grassroots Currencies Protocol; discuss the
security (safety, liveness, and privacy) of the protocol; and prove that the
protocol is grassroots. An implementation of grassroots currencies via a
blocklace-based payment system is described elsewhere.


  Two main approaches in simultaneous inference are intersection-union tests
and union-intersection tests. For intersection-union hypotheses, the classical
IUT based on marginal p-values and the all-in-alternative UIT are compared.
Depending on correlation, number of marginal tests and patterns of the
alternative the inherent power loss of the aiaUIT seems to be acceptable,
considering its advantage, namely the availability of simple-to-interpret
simultaneous confidence interval.


  At the heart of text based neural models lay word representations, which are
powerful but occupy a lot of memory making it challenging to deploy to devices
with memory constraints such as mobile phones, watches and IoT. To surmount
these challenges, we introduce ProFormer -- a projection based transformer
architecture that is faster and lighter making it suitable to deploy to memory
constraint devices and preserve user privacy. We use LSH projection layer to
dynamically generate word representations on-the-fly without embedding lookup
tables leading to significant memory footprint reduction from O(V.d) to O(T),
where V is the vocabulary size, d is the embedding dimension size and T is the
dimension of the LSH projection representation.
  We also propose a local projection attention (LPA) layer, which uses
self-attention to transform the input sequence of N LSH word projections into a
sequence of N/K representations reducing the computations quadratically by
O(K^2). We evaluate ProFormer on multiple text classification tasks and
observed improvements over prior state-of-the-art on-device approaches for
short text classification and comparable performance for long text
classification tasks. In comparison with a 2-layer BERT model, ProFormer
reduced the embedding memory footprint from 92.16 MB to 1.3 KB and requires 16
times less computation overhead, which is very impressive making it the fastest
and smallest on-device model.


  In this paper, we study the optimal waveform design for wireless power
transfer (WPT) from a multi-antenna energy transmitter (ET) to multiple
single-antenna energy receivers (ERs) simultaneously in multi-path
frequency-selective channels. First, we propose a refined nonlinear
current-voltage model of the diode in the ER rectifier, and accordingly derive
new expressions for the output direct current (DC) voltage and corresponding
harvested power at the ER. Leveraging this new rectenna model, we first
consider the single-ER case and study the multisine-based power waveform design
based on the wireless channel to maximize the harvested power at the ER. We
propose two efficient algorithms for finding high-quality suboptimal solutions
to this non-convex optimization problem. Next, we extend our formulated
waveform design problem to the general multi-ER case for maximizing the
weighted sum of the harvested powers by all ERs, and propose an efficient
difference-of-convex functions programming (DCP)-based algorithm for solving
this problem. Finally, we demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed
waveform designs based on the new rectenna model over existing schemes/models
via simulations.


  I partially review our current knowledge on microquasars, making special
emphasis on radio interferometric observations, and I comment on emerging
trends in this field of astrophysics.


  These are lecture notes for a master-level course given at KTH, Stockholm, in
the spring of 2017, with the primary aim of proving the stability of matter
from first principles using modern mathematical methods in many-body quantum
mechanics. General quantitative formulations of the uncertainty and the
exclusion principles of quantum mechanics are introduced, such as the Hardy,
Sobolev and Poincar\'e functional inequalities as well as the powerful
Lieb-Thirring inequality that combines these two principles. The notes are
aimed to be both fairly self-contained and at the same time complementary to
existing literature, also covering recent developments to prove Lieb-Thirring
inequalities and stability from general, weaker formulations of the exclusion
principle.


  Spin relaxation in a strong-coupling regime (with respect to the spin system)
is investigated in detail based on the spin-boson model in a stochastic limit.
We find a bifurcation phenomenon in temperature dependence of relaxation
constants, which is never observed in the weak-coupling regime. We also discuss
inequalities among the relaxation constants in our model and show the
well-known relation 2\Gamma_T >= \Gamma_L, for example, for a wider parameter
region than before.


  We prove orbital stability result for physical ground states of a nonlinear
Schr\"{o}dinger (NLS) equation in the sense that the set of these ground states
is contained in the set of prescribed mass solutions which is orbital stable by
the Cazenave-Lions theorem. We apply the nonlinear generalized Rayleigh
quotients method which allows establishing a one-to-one correspondence between
the values of the mass $m$, the frequency $\lambda$, and the action level $S$
of the physical ground states.


  The origin of subluminous Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) has long eluded any
explanation, as all Chandrasekhar-mass models have severe problems reproducing
them. Recently, it has been proposed that violent mergers of two white dwarfs
of 0.9 M_sun could lead to subluminous SNe Ia events that resemble 1991bg-like
SNe~Ia. Here we investigate whether this scenario still works for mergers of
two white dwarfs with a mass ratio smaller than one. We aim to determine the
range of mass ratios for which a detonation still forms during the merger, as
only those events will lead to a SN Ia. This range is an important ingredient
for population synthesis and one decisive point to judge the viability of the
scenario. In addition, we perform a resolution study of one of the models.
Finally we discuss the connection between violent white dwarf mergers with a
primary mass of 0.9 M_sun and 1991bg-like SNe Ia. The latest version of the
smoothed particle hydrodynamics code Gadget3 is used to evolve binary systems
with different mass ratios until they merge. We analyze the result and look for
hot spots in which detonations can form. We show that mergers of two white
dwarfs with a primary white dwarf mass of ~0.9 M_sun and a mass ratio larger
than about $0.8$ robustly reach the conditions we require to ignite a
detonation and thus produce thermonuclear explosions during the merger itself.
We also find that while our simulations do not yet completely resolve the hot
spots, increasing the resolution leads to conditions that are even more likely
to ignite detonations. (abridged)


  The symmetry algebra of asymptotically flat spacetimes at null infinity in
three dimensions is the semi-direct sum of the infinitesimal diffeomorphisms on
the circle with an abelian ideal of supertranslations. The associated charge
algebra is shown to admit a non trivial classical central extension of Virasoro
type closely related to that of the anti-de Sitter case.


  Recent Transformer-based visual tracking models have showcased superior
performance. Nevertheless, prior works have been resource-intensive, requiring
prolonged GPU training hours and incurring high GFLOPs during inference due to
inefficient training methods and convolution-based target heads. This intensive
resource use renders them unsuitable for real-world applications. In this
paper, we present DETRack, a streamlined end-to-end visual object tracking
framework. Our framework utilizes an efficient encoder-decoder structure where
the deformable transformer decoder acting as a target head, achieves higher
sparsity than traditional convolution heads, resulting in decreased GFLOPs. For
training, we introduce a novel one-to-many label assignment and an auxiliary
denoising technique, significantly accelerating model's convergence.
Comprehensive experiments affirm the effectiveness and efficiency of our
proposed method. For instance, DETRack achieves 72.9% AO on challenging GOT-10k
benchmarks using only 20% of the training epochs required by the baseline, and
runs with lower GFLOPs than all the transformer-based trackers.


  Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) can effectively enhance the energy and
spectral efficiency of wireless communication system through the use of a large
number of lowcost passive reflecting elements. In this paper, we investigate
throughput optimization of IRS-assisted user cooperation in a wireless powered
communication network (WPCN), where the two WDs harvest wireless energy and
transmit information to a common hybrid access point (HAP). In particular, the
two WDs first exchange their independent information with each other and then
form a virtual antenna array to transmit jointly to the HAP. We aim to maximize
the common (minimum) throughput performance by jointly optimizing the transmit
time and power allocations of the two WDs on wireless energy and information
transmissions and the passive array coefficients on reflecting the wireless
energy and information signals. By comparing with some existing benchmark
schemes, our results show that the proposed IRS-assisted user cooperation
method can effectively improve the throughput performance of cooperative
transmission in WPCNs.


  We have developed a fabrication technology for the development of large-scale
superconducting integrated circuits with Nb-based Josephson junctions. The
standard fabrication process with 10 mask levels uses four metal layers
including 3 Nb superconducting layers and a Mo resistor layer. The influence of
deposition parameters on film stress, electrical properties, and surface
roughness were studied systematically. High quality Nb, Al, Mo, and SiO2 films
were successfully deposited for the subsequent fabrication of circuits. The
circuit fabrication started with the fabrication of Mo resistors with a target
sheet resistance Rsh of 2 Ome, followed by the deposition of
Josephson-junction. The target critical current density Jc was set at 6 kA per
cm2. The thicknesses and etch depths of the films were monitored during
fabrication with on-wafer process-control-monitor (PCM) patterns for all the
wafers.


  In previous works, we constructed UV-finite and unitary scalar field theories
with an infinite spectrum of propagating modes for arbitrary polynomial
interactions. In this paper, we introduce infinitely many massive vector fields
into a U(1) gauge theory to construct a theory with UV-finiteness and
unitarity.


  Inductive logic programming is a type of machine learning in which logic
programs are learned from examples. This learning typically occurs relative to
some background knowledge provided as a logic program. This dissertation
introduces bottom preprocessing, a method for generating initial constraints on
the programs an ILP system must consider. Bottom preprocessing applies ideas
from inverse entailment to modern ILP systems. Inverse entailment is an
influential early ILP approach introduced with Progol. This dissertation also
presents $\bot$-Popper, an implementation of bottom preprocessing for the
modern ILP system Popper. It is shown experimentally that bottom preprocessing
can reduce learning times of ILP systems on hard problems. This reduction can
be especially significant when the amount of background knowledge in the
problem is large.


  Quantum sensors capitalize on advanced control sequences for maximizing
sensitivity and precision. However, protocols are not usually optimized for
temporal resolution. Here, we establish the limits for time-resolved sensing of
dynamical signals using qubit probes. We show that the best possible time
resolution is closely related to the quantum speed limit (QSL), which describes
the minimum time needed to transform between basis states. We further show that
a bipartite control sequence consisting of two phase-shifted pulses reaches the
QSL. Practical implementation is discussed based on the example of the spin-1
qutrit of a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond.


  Despite the progress achieved by kinetic theory, the search of possible exact
kinetic equations remains elusive to date. This concerns, specifically, the
issue of the validity of the conjecture proposed by Grad (Grad, 1972) and
developed in a seminal work by Lanford (Lanford, 1974) that kinetic equations -
such as the Boltzmann equation for a gas of classical hard spheres - might
result exact in an appropriate asymptotic limit, usually denoted as
Boltzmann-Grad limit. The Lanford conjecture has actually had a profound
influence on the scientific community, giving rise to a whole line of original
research in kinetic theory and mathematical physics. Nevertheless, certain
aspects of the theory remain to be addressed and clarified. The purpose of this
paper is to investigate the possible existence of the strong Boltzmann-Grad
limit for the BBGKY hierarchy. Contrary to previous approaches in which the
w*-convergence was considered for the definition of the Boltzmann-Grad limit
functions, based on their construction in terms of time-series expansions
obtained from the BBGKY hierarchy, here we look for the possible existence of
strong limit functions in the sense of local convergence in phase space. The
result is based on the adoption of the Klimontovich approach to statistical
mechanics, permitting the explicit representation of the $s$-body reduced
distribution functions in terms of the Klimontovich probability density.


  We propose a new method of producing neutrino pair beam that consists of a
mixture of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos of all flavors. The idea is based on a
coherent neutrino pair emission from excited ions in circular motion. High
energy gamma ray much beyond the keV range may also be produced by a different
choice of excited level.


  Topological crystalline insulators represent a new state of matter, in which
the electronic transport is governed by mirror-symmetry protected Dirac surface
states. Due to the helical spin-polarization of these surface states, the
proximity of topological crystalline matter to a nearby superconductor is
predicted to induce unconventional superconductivity and thus to host Majorana
physics. We report on the preparation and characterization of Nb-based
superconducting quantum interference devices patterned on top of topological
crystalline insulator SnTe thin films. The SnTe films show weak
antilocalization and the weak links of the SQUID fully-gapped proximity induced
superconductivity. Both properties give a coinciding coherence length of 120
nm. The SQUID oscillations induced by a magnetic field show 2$\pi$ periodicity,
possibly dominated by the bulk conductivity.


  There has been important understanding of the process by which a hypersonic
dust impact makes an electrical signal on a spacecraft sensor, leading to a
fuller understanding of the physics. Zaslavsky (2015) showed that the most
important signal comes from the charging of the spacecraft, less from charging
of an antenna. The present work is an extension of the work of Zaslavsky. An
analytical treatment of the physics of a hypersonic dust impact and the
mechanism for generating an electrical signal in a sensor, an antenna, is
presented. The treatment is compared with observations from STEREO and Parker
Solar Probe. A full treatment of this process by simulations seems beyond
present computer capabilities, but some parts of the treatment can must depend
on simulations but other features can be better understood through analytical
treatment. Evidence for a somewhat larger contribution from the antenna part of
the signal than in previous publications is presented. Importance of
electrostatic forces in forming the exiting plasma cloud is emphasized.
Electrostatic forces lead to a rapid expansion of the escaping cloud, so that
it expands more rapidly than escapes, and frequently surrounds one or more
antennas. This accounts for the ability of dipole antennas to detect dust
impacts. Some progress toward an understanding occasional negative charging of
an antenna is presented, together with direct evidence of such charging. Use of
laboratory measurements of charge to estimate size of spacecraft impacts are
shown to be not reliable without further calibration work.


  We analyze the relationships between atomic, neutral hydrogen (HI) and star
formation (SF) in the 12 low-mass SHIELD galaxies. We compare high spectral
(~0.82 km/s/channel) and spatial resolution (physical resolutions of 170 pc -
700 pc) HI imaging from the VLA with H\alpha and far-ultraviolet imaging. We
quantify the degree of co-spatiality between star forming regions and regions
of high HI column densities. We calculate the global star formation
efficiencies (SFE, $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ / $\Sigma_{\rm HI}$), and examine the
relationships among the SFE and HI mass, HI column density, and star formation
rate (SFR). The systems are consuming their cold neutral gas on timescales of
order a few Gyr. While we derive an index for the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation of
N ~ 0.68 $\pm$ 0.04 for the SHIELD sample as a whole, the values of N vary
considerably from system to system. By supplementing SHIELD results with those
from other surveys, we find that HI mass and UV-based SFR are strongly
correlated over five orders of magnitude. Identification of patterns within the
SHIELD sample allows us to bin the galaxies into three general categories: 1)
mainly co-spatial HI and SF regions, found in systems with highest peak HI
column densities and highest total HI masses, 2) moderately correlated HI and
SF regions, found in systems with moderate HI column densities, and 3) obvious
offsets between HI and SF peaks, found in systems with the lowest total HI
masses. SF in these galaxies is dominated by stochasticity and random
fluctuations in their ISM.


  In this paper, we present an uncertainty-aware INVASE to quantify predictive
confidence of healthcare problem. By introducing learnable Gaussian
distributions, we lever-age their variances to measure the degree of
uncertainty. Based on the vanilla INVASE, two additional modules are proposed,
i.e., an uncertainty quantification module in the predictor, and a reward
shaping module in the selector. We conduct extensive experiments on UCI-WDBC
dataset. Notably, our method eliminates almost all predictive bias with only
about 20% queries, while the uncertainty-agnostic counterpart requires nearly
100% queries. The open-source implementation with a detailed tutorial is
available at
https://github.com/jx-zhong-for-academic-purpose/Uncertainty-aware-INVASE/blob/main/tutorialinvase%2B.ipynb.


  Two ensembles are often used to model random graphs subject to constraints:
the microcanonical ensemble (= hard constraint) and the canonical ensemble (=
soft constraint). It is said that breaking of ensemble equivalence (BEE) occurs
when the specific relative entropy of the two ensembles does not vanish as the
size of the graph tends to infinity. The latter means that it matters for the
scaling properties of the graph whether the constraint is met for every single
realisation of the graph or only holds as an ensemble average. In the
literature, it was found that BEE is the rule rather than the exception for two
classes: sparse random graphs when the number of constraints is of the order of
the number of vertices and dense random graphs when there are two or more
constraints that are frustrated. In the present paper we establish BEE for a
third class: dense random graphs with a single constraint, namely, on the
density of a given finite simple graph. We show that BEE occurs only in a
certain range of choices for the density and the number of edges of the simple
graph, which we refer to as the BEE-phase. We show that, in part of the
BEE-phase, there is a gap between the scaling limits of the averages of the
maximal eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of the random graph under the two
ensembles, a property that is referred to as spectral signature of BEE. Proofs
are based on an analysis of the variational formula on the space of graphons
for the limiting specific relative entropy derived by Den Hollander et al.
(2018), in combination with an identification of the minimising graphons and
replica symmetry arguments. We show that in the replica symmetric region of the
BEE-phase, as the size of the graph tends to infinity, the microcanonical
ensemble behaves like an Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graph, while the canonical
ensemble behaves like a mixture of two Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graphs.


  In a previous paper, we have reported numerical simulations of the MHD flow
driven by a travelling magnetic field (TMF) in an annular channel, at low
Reynolds number. It was shown that the stalling of such induction pump is
strongly related to magnetic flux expulsion. In the present article, we show
that for larger hydrodynamic Reynolds number, and with more realistic boundary
conditions, this instability takes the form of a large axisymmetric vortex flow
in the (r,z)-plane, in which the fluid is locally pumped in the direction
opposite to the one of the magnetic field. Close to the marginal stability of
this vortex flow, a low-frequency pulsation is generated. Finally, these
results are compared to theoretical predictions and are discussed within the
framework of experimental annular linear induction electromagnetic pumps.


  There are many stars that are rotating spheroids in the Universe, and
studying them is of very important significance. Since the times of Newton,
many astronomers and physicists have researched gravitational properties of
stars by considering the moment equations derived from Eulerian hydrodynamic
equations. In this paper we study the scattering of spinors of the Dirac
equation, and in particular investigate the scattering issue in the limit case
of rotating Maclaurin spheroids. Firstly we give the metric of a rotating
ellipsoid star, then write the Dirac equation under this metric, and finally
derive the scattering solution to the Dirac equation and establish a relation
between differential scattering cross-section, $\sigma$, and stellar matter
density, $\mu$. It is found that the sensitivity of $\sigma$ to the change in
$\mu$ is proportional to the density $\mu$. Because of weak gravitational field
and constant mass density, our results are reasonable. The results can be
applied to white dwarfs, main sequence stars, red giants, supergiant stars and
so on, as long as their gravitational fields are so weak that they can be
treated in the Newtonan approximations, and the fluid is assumed to be
incompressible. Notice that we take the star's matter density to be its average
density and the star is not taken to be compact. Obviously our results cannot
be used to study neutron stars and black holes. In particular, our results are
suitable for white dwarfs, which have average densities of about
$10^{5}-10^{6}$\,g~cm$^{-3}$, corresponding to a range of mass of about
$0.21-0.61 M_{\bigodot}$ and a range of radius of about $6000-10000$\,km.


  We present some methods to construct smooth circle actions on symplectic
manifolds with non-symplectic fixed point sets or non-symplectic cyclic
isotropy point sets. All such actions are not compatible with any symplectic
form.


  Given a database and a target attribute of interest, how can we tell whether
there exists a functional, or approximately functional dependence of the target
on any set of other attributes in the data? How can we reliably, without bias
to sample size or dimensionality, measure the strength of such a dependence?
And, how can we efficiently discover the optimal or $\alpha$-approximate
top-$k$ dependencies? These are exactly the questions we answer in this paper.
  As we want to be agnostic on the form of the dependence, we adopt an
information-theoretic approach, and construct a reliable, bias correcting score
that can be efficiently computed. Moreover, we give an effective optimistic
estimator of this score, by which for the first time we can mine the
approximate functional dependencies from data with guarantees of optimality.
Empirical evaluation shows that the derived score achieves a good bias for
variance trade-off, can be used within an efficient discovery algorithm, and
indeed discovers meaningful dependencies. Most important, it remains reliable
in the face of data sparsity.


  Artificial molecules containing just one or two electrons provide a powerful
platform for studies of orbital and spin quantum dynamics in nanoscale devices.
A well-known example of these dynamics is tunneling of electrons between two
coupled quantum dots triggered by microwave irradiation. So far, these
tunneling processes have been treated as electric dipole-allowed
spin-conserving events. Here we report that microwaves can also excite
tunneling transitions between states with different spin. In this work, the
dominant mechanism responsible for violation of spin conservation is the
spin-orbit interaction. These transitions make it possible to perform detailed
microwave spectroscopy of the molecular spin states of an artificial hydrogen
molecule and open up the possibility of realizing full quantum control of a two
spin system via microwave excitation.


  We show that for the reductive Tannaka groups of semisimple holonomic
$\mathscr{D}$-modules on abelian varieties, every Weyl group orbit of weights
of their universal cover is realized by a conic Lagrangian cycle on the
cotangent bundle. Applications include a weak solution to the Schottky problem
in genus five, an obstruction for the existence of summands of subvarieties on
abelian varieties and a criterion for the simplicity of the arising Lie
algebras.


  We explore certain properties of the Hartree-Fock approximation to the ground
state of the two-dimensional Hubbard model, emphasizing the fact that in the
Hartree approach there is an enormous multiplicity of self-consistent solutions
which are nearly degenerate in energy, reminiscent of a spin glass, but which
may differ substantially in other bulk properties. It is argued that this
multiplicity is physically relevant at low temperatures. We study the
localization properties of the one-particle wavefunctions comprising the
Hartree-Fock states, and find that these are unlocalized at small and moderate
values of U/t, in particular in the stripe region, but become highly localized
at values corresponding to strong repulsion. We also find rectangular domains
as well as stripes in the stripe region of the phase diagram, and study pair
correlations in the neighborhood of half-filling.


  We study the evolution of cosmic strings taking into account the frictional
force due to the surrounding radiation. We consider small perturbations on
straight strings, oscillation of circular loops and small perturbations on
circular loops. For straight strings, friction exponentially suppresses
perturbations whose co-moving scale crosses the horizon before cosmological
time $t_*\sim \mu^{-2}$ (in Planck units), where $\mu$ is the string tension.
Loops with size much smaller than $t_*$ will be approximately circular at the
time when they start the relativistic collapse. We investigate the possibility
that such loops will form black holes. We find that the number of black holes
which are formed through this process is well bellow present observational
limits, so this does not give any lower or upper bounds on $\mu$. We also
consider the case of straight strings attached to walls and circular holes that
can spontaneously nucleate on metastable domain walls.


  Many computer graphics problems require computing geometric shapes subject to
certain constraints. This often results in non-linear and non-convex
optimization problems with globally coupled variables, which pose great
challenge for interactive applications. Local-global solvers developed in
recent years can quickly compute an approximate solution to such problems,
making them an attractive choice for applications that prioritize efficiency
over accuracy. However, these solvers suffer from lower convergence rate, and
may take a long time to compute an accurate result. In this paper, we propose a
simple and effective technique to accelerate the convergence of such solvers.
By treating each local-global step as a fixed-point iteration, we apply
Anderson acceleration, a well-established technique for fixed-point solvers, to
speed up the convergence of a local-global solver. To address the stability
issue of classical Anderson acceleration, we propose a simple strategy to
guarantee the decrease of target energy and ensure its global convergence. In
addition, we analyze the connection between Anderson acceleration and
quasi-Newton methods, and show that the canonical choice of its mixing
parameter is suitable for accelerating local-global solvers. Moreover, our
technique is effective beyond classical local-global solvers, and can be
applied to iterative methods with a common structure. We evaluate the
performance of our technique on a variety of geometry optimization and physics
simulation problems. Our approach significantly reduces the number of
iterations required to compute an accurate result, with only a slight increase
of computational cost per iteration. Its simplicity and effectiveness makes it
a promising tool for accelerating existing algorithms as well as designing
efficient new algorithms.


  We predict anti-alignment dynamics in the excited state of H2+ or related
homonuclear dimers in the presence of a strong field. This effect is a general
indirect outcome of the strong transition dipole and large polarizabilities
typically used to control or to induce alignment in the ground state. In the
excited state, however, the polarizabilities have the opposite sign than in the
ground state, generating a torque that aligns the molecule perpendicular to the
field, deeming any laser-control strategy impossible.


  We construct the Killing spinors for a class of supersymmetric solutions of
type IIB supergravity that are invariant under the non-relativistic Schrodinger
algebra. The solutions depend on a five-dimensional Sasaki-Einstein space and
it has been shown that they admit two Killing spinors. Here we will show that,
for generic Sasaki-Einstein space, there are special subclasses of solutions
which admit six Killing spinors and we determine the corresponding
superisometry algebra. We also show that for the special case that the
Sasaki-Einstein space is the round five-sphere, the number of Killing spinors
can be increased to twelve.


  In this paper we present an example of a derivation of an ELSV-type formula
using the methods of topological recursion. Namely, for orbifold Hurwitz
numbers we give a new proof of the spectral curve topological recursion, in the
sense of Chekhov, Eynard, and Orantin, where the main new step compared to the
existing proofs is a direct combinatorial proof of their quasi-polynomiality.
Spectral curve topological recursion leads to a formula for the orbifold
Hurwitz numbers in terms of the intersection theory of the moduli space of
curves, which, in this case, appears to coincide with a special case of the
Johnson-Pandharipande-Tseng formula.


  Or: ``How to generate an ensemble in a single event?'' Following recent work
on entropy in strong interactions, I explain the concept of environment-induced
quantum decoherence in elementary quantum mechanics. The classically chaotic
inverted oscillator becomes partially decoherent already in the environment of
a single other oscillator performing only vacuum fluctuations. One finds
exponential entropy growth in the subsystem with a Lyapunov exponent, which
approaches the classical one for weak coupling.
  Presented at the Workshops on ``Quantum Infrared Physics'', Paris,
  6 - 10.6.94, and ``QCD 94'', Montpellier, 7 - 13.7.94.
  Invited talk at the NATO Adv. Res. Workshop on ``Hot Hadronic Matter'',
  Divonne, 27.6. - 1.7.94. To appear in the Proceedings.


  DC superconducting quantum interference devices (dc-SQUIDs) were fabricated
in Co-doped BaFe2As2 epitaxial films on (La, Sr)(Al, Ta)O3 bicrystal substrates
with 30deg misorientation angles. The 18 x 8 micro-meter^2 SQUID loop with an
estimated inductance of 13 pH contained two 3 micro-meter wide grain boundary
junctions. The voltage-flux characteristics clearly exhibited periodic
modulations with deltaV = 1.4 micro-volt at 14 K, while the intrinsic flux
noise of dc-SQUIDs was 7.8 x 10^-5 fai0/Hz^1/2 above 20 Hz. The rather high
flux noise is mainly attributed to the small voltage modulation depth which
results from the superconductor-normal metal-superconductor junction nature of
the bicrystal grain boundary.


  We study the growth of a directed network, in which the growth is constrained
by the cost of adding links to the existing nodes. We propose a new
preferential-attachment scheme, in which a new node attaches to an existing
node i with probability proportional to 1/k_i, where k_i is the number of
outgoing links at i. We calculate the degree distribution for the outgoing
links in the asymptotic regime (t->infinity), both analytically and by Monte
Carlo simulations. The distribution decays like k c^k/Gamma(k) for large k,
where c is a constant. We investigate the effect of this
preferential-attachment scheme, by comparing the results to an equivalent
growth model with a degree-independent probability of attachment, which gives
an exponential outdegree distribution. Also, we relate this mechanism to simple
food-web models by implementing it in the cascade model. We show that the
low-degree preferential-attachment mechanism breaks the symmetry between in-
and outdegree distributions in the cascade model. It also causes a faster decay
in the tails of the outdegree distributions for both our network growth model
and the cascade model.


  The performance of thermoelectric energy harvesters can be improved by
nanostructures that exploit inelastic transport processes. One prototype is the
three-terminal hopping thermoelectric device where electron hopping between
quantum-dots are driven by hot phonons. Such three-terminal hopping
thermoelectric devices have potential in achieving high efficiency or power via
inelastic transport and without relying on heavy-elements or toxic compounds.
We show in this work how output power of the device can be optimized via tuning
the number and energy configuration of the quantum-dots embedded in parallel
nanowires. We find that the staircase energy configuration with constant
energy-step can improve the power factor over a serial connection of a single
pair of quantum-dots. Moreover, for a fixed energy-step, there is an optimal
length for the nanowire. Similarly for a fixed number of quantum-dots there is
an optimal energy-step for the output power. Our results are important for
future developments of high-performance nanostructured thermoelectric devices.


  We prove that the existence of a finite Minkowski base for Okounkov bodies on
a smooth projective variety with respect to an admissible flag implies rational
polyhedrality of the global Okounkov body. As an application of this general
result, we deduce that the global Okounkov body of a surface with finitely
generated pseudo-effective cone with respect to a general flag is rational
polyhedral. We give an alternative proof for this fact which recovers the
generators more explicitly. We also prove the rational polyhedrality of global
Okounkov bodies in the case of certain homogeneous 3-folds using inductive
methods.


  NiNb$_{2}$O$_{6}$ is an almost ideal realization of a 1D spin-1 ferromagnetic
Heisenberg chain compound with weak unidirectional anisotropy. Using
time-domain THz spectroscopy, we measure the low-energy electrodynamic response
of NiNb$_{2}$O$_{6}$ as a function of temperature and external magnetic field.
At low temperatures, we find a magnon-like spin-excitation, which corresponds
to the lowest energy excitation at $q\sim0$. At higher temperatures, we
unexpectedly observe a temperature-dependent renormalization of the
spin-excitation energy, which has a strong dependence on field direction. Using
theoretical arguments, exact diagonalizations and finite temperature dynamical
Lanczos calculations, we construct a picture of magnon-magnon interactions that
naturally explains the observed renormalization. This unique scenario is a
consequence of the spin-1 nature and has no analog in the more widely studied
spin-1/2 systems.


  Kinematic fitting, where constraints such as energy and momentum conservation
are imposed on measured four-vectors of jets and leptons, is an important tool
to improve the resolution in high-energy physics experiments. At future e+ e-
colliders, photon radiation parallel to the beam carrying away large amounts of
energy and momentum will become a challenge for kinematic fitting. A photon
with longitudinal momentum p_z^\gamma (\eta) is introduced, which is
parametrized such that \eta ~follows a normal distribution. In the fit, \eta
~is treated as having a measured value of zero, which corresponds to p_z^\gamma
(\eta)=0. As a result, fits with constraints on energy and momentum
conservation converge well even in the presence of a highly energetic photon,
while the resolution of fits without such a photon is retained. A fully
simulated and reconstructed e+ e- -> qqqq event sample at \sqrt{s}=500 GeV is
used to investigate the performance of this method under realistic conditions,
as expected at the International Linear Collider.


  We propose a stronger formulation of the precedence constraints and the
station limits for the simple assembly line balancing problem. The linear
relaxation of the improved integer program theoretically dominates all previous
formulations using impulse variables, and produces solutions of significantly
better quality in practice. The improved formulation can be used to strengthen
related problems with similar restrictions. We demonstrate their effectiveness
on the U-shaped assembly line balancing problem and on the bin packing problem
with precedence constraints.


  Despite great successes in the study of gapped phases, a comprehensive
understanding of the gapless phases and their transitions is still under
developments. In this paper, we study a general phenomenon in the space of
(1+1)$d$ critical phases with fermionic degrees of freedom described by a
continuous family of conformal field theories (CFT), a.k.a. the conformal
manifold. Along a one-dimensional locus on the conformal manifold, there can be
a transition point, across which the fermionic CFTs on the two sides differ by
stacking an invertible fermionic topological order (IFTO), point-by-point along
the locus. At every point on the conformal manifold, the order and disorder
operators have power-law two-point functions, but their critical exponents
cross over with each other at the transition point, where stacking the IFTO
leaves the fermionic CFT unchanged. We call this continuous transition on the
fermionic conformal manifold a topological transition. By gauging the fermion
parity, the IFTO stacking becomes a Kramers-Wannier duality between the
corresponding bosonic CFTs. Both the IFTO stacking and the Kramers-Wannier
duality are induced by the electromagnetic duality of the (2+1)$d$
$\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological order. We provide several examples of topological
transitions, including the familiar Luttinger model of spinless fermions (i.e.
the $c=1$ massless Dirac fermion with the Thirring interaction), and a new
class of $c=2$ examples describing $U(1)\times SU(2)$-protected gapless phases.


  For object re-identification (re-ID), learning from synthetic data has become
a promising strategy to cheaply acquire large-scale annotated datasets and
effective models, with few privacy concerns. Many interesting research problems
arise from this strategy, e.g., how to reduce the domain gap between synthetic
source and real-world target. To facilitate developing more new approaches in
learning from synthetic data, we introduce the Alice benchmarks, large-scale
datasets providing benchmarks as well as evaluation protocols to the research
community. Within the Alice benchmarks, two object re-ID tasks are offered:
person and vehicle re-ID. We collected and annotated two challenging real-world
target datasets: AlicePerson and AliceVehicle, captured under various
illuminations, image resolutions, etc. As an important feature of our real
target, the clusterability of its training set is not manually guaranteed to
make it closer to a real domain adaptation test scenario. Correspondingly, we
reuse existing PersonX and VehicleX as synthetic source domains. The primary
goal is to train models from synthetic data that can work effectively in the
real world. In this paper, we detail the settings of Alice benchmarks, provide
an analysis of existing commonly-used domain adaptation methods, and discuss
some interesting future directions. An online server has been set up for the
community to evaluate methods conveniently and fairly. Datasets and the online
server details are available at https://sites.google.com/view/alice-benchmarks.


  The aim of this note is to give some factorization formulas for different
versions of the Macdonald polynomials when the parameter t is specialized at
roots of unity, generalizing those existing for Hall-Littlewood functions.


  Modeling of ion-implanted boron redistribution in silicon crystals during
low-temperature annealing with a small thermal budget has been carried out. It
was shown that formation of "tails"' in the low-concentration region of
impurity profiles occurs due to the long-range migration of boron interstitials


  Lord Kelvin's pioneering hypothesis that the identity of atoms is knots of
vortices of the aether had a profound impact on the fields of mathematics and
physics despite being subsequently refuted by experiments. While knot-like
excitations emerge in various systems of condensed matter physics, the
fundamental constituents of matter have been revealed to be elementary
particles such as electrons and quarks, seemingly leaving no room for the
appearance of knots in particle physics. Here, we show that knots indeed appear
as meta-stable solitons in a realistic extension of the standard model of
particle physics that provides the QCD axion and right-handed neutrinos. This
result suggests that during the early Universe, a "knot dominated era" may have
existed, where knots were a dominant component of the Universe, and this
scenario can be tested through gravitational wave observations. Furthermore, we
propose that the end of this era involves the collapse of the knots via quantum
tunneling, leading to the generation of matter-antimatter asymmetry in the
Universe. Our findings exhibit the significant role of knots in particle
physics and represent a modern version of Kelvin's hypothesis.


  Starting from an effective two-dimensional two-band model for infinite
layered nickelates, consisting of bands obtained from $d$ and $s$--like
orbitals, we investigate to which extend it can be mapped onto a single-band
Hubbard model. We identify screening of the more itinerant $s$-like band as an
important driver. In absence of screening one strongly-correlated band gives an
antiferromagnetic ground state. For weak screening, the strong correlations
push electrons out of the $s$-band so that the undoped nickelate remains a Mott
insulator with half filled $d$ orbitals. This regime markedly differs from the
observations in high-$T_c$ cuprates and pairing with $s$-wave symmetry would
rather be expected in the superconducting state. In contrast, for strong
screening, the $s$ and $d_{x^2-y^2}$ bands are both partly filled and couple
only weakly, so that one approximately finds a self-doped $d$ band as well as
tendencies towards $d$-wave pairing. Particularly in the regime of strong
screening mapping to a one-band model gives interesting spectral weight
transfers when a second $s$ band is also partly filled. We thus find that both
one-band physics and a Kondo-lattice--like regime emerge from the same
two-orbital model, depending on the strength of electronic correlations and the
size of the $s$-band pocket.


  In one-channel, finite-size Luttinger one-dimensional quantum dots, both
Friedel oscillations and Wigner correlations induce oscillations in the
electron density with the same wavelength, pinned at the same position.
Therefore, observing such a property does not provide any hint about the
formation of a Wigner molecule when electrons interact strongly and other tools
must be employed to assess the formation of such correlated states. We compare
here the behavior of three different correlation functions and demonstrate that
the integrated two point correlation function, which represents the probability
density of finding two particles at a given distance, is the only faithful
estimator for the formation of a correlated Wigner molecule.


  We study neutrino physics in the context of the localized gravity model with
non-factorizable metric proposed by Randall and Sundrum. Identifying the
right-handed neutrino with a bulk fermion zero mode, which can be localized on
the ``hidden'' 3-brane in the Randall--Sundrum model, we obtain naturally small
Dirac neutrino masses without invoking a see-saw mechanism. Our model predicts
a strong hierarchy of neutrino masses and generically large mixing angles.


  We consider the nonlocal formulation of continuum mechanics described by
peridynamics. We provide a link between peridynamic evolution and brittle
fracture evolution for a broad class of peridynamic potentials associated with
unstable peridynamic constitutive laws. Distinguished limits of peridynamic
evolutions are identified that correspond to vanishing peridynamic horizon. The
limit evolution is associated with dynamic brittle fracture and satisfies a
dynamic energy inequality expressed in terms of the kinetic energy of the
motion together with a bulk elastic energy and a Griffith surface energy. It
corresponds to the simultaneous evolution of elastic displacement and brittle
fracture with displacement fields satisfying the wave equation inside the
cracking domain. The wave equation provides the dynamic coupling between
elastic waves and the evolving fracture path inside the media. The elastic
moduli, wave speed and energy release rate for the evolution are explicitly
determined by moments of the peridynamic influence function and the peridynamic
potential energy.


  We utilize variational method to investigate the Kondo screening of a
spin-1/2 magnetic impurity in tilted Dirac surface states with the Dirac cone
tilted along the $k_y$-axis. We mainly study about the effect of the tilting
term on the binding energy and the spin-spin correlation between magnetic
impurity and conduction electrons, and compare the results with the
counterparts in a two dimensional helical metal. The binding energy has a
critical value while the Dirac cone is slightly tilted. However, as the tilting
term increases, the density of states around the Fermi surface becomes
significant, such that the impurity and the host material always favor a bound
state. The diagonal and the off-diagonal terms of the spin-spin correlation
between the magnetic impurity and conduction electrons are also studied. Due to
the spin-orbit coupling and the tilting of the spectra, various components of
spin-spin correlation show very strong anisotropy in coordinate space, and are
of power-law decay with respect to the spatial displacements.


  The absence of annotated sign language datasets has hindered the development
of sign language recognition and translation technologies. In this paper, we
introduce Bornil; a crowdsource-friendly, multilingual sign language data
collection, annotation, and validation platform. Bornil allows users to record
sign language gestures and lets annotators perform sentence and gloss-level
annotation. It also allows validators to make sure of the quality of both the
recorded videos and the annotations through manual validation to develop
high-quality datasets for deep learning-based Automatic Sign Language
Recognition. To demonstrate the system's efficacy; we collected the largest
sign language dataset for Bangladeshi Sign Language dialect, perform deep
learning based Sign Language Recognition modeling, and report the benchmark
performance. The Bornil platform, BornilDB v1.0 Dataset, and the codebases are
available on https://bornil.bengali.ai


  With the development of electronic media and the heterogeneity of Arabic data
on the Web, the idea of building a clean corpus for certain applications of
natural language processing, including machine translation, information
retrieval, question answer, become more and more pressing. In this manuscript,
we seek to create and develop our own corpus of pair's questions-texts. This
constitution then will provide a better base for our experimentation step.
Thus, we try to model this constitution by a method for Arabic insofar as it
recovers texts from the web that could prove to be answers to our factual
questions. To do this, we had to develop a java script that can extract from a
given query a list of html pages. Then clean these pages to the extent of
having a data base of texts and a corpus of pair's question-texts. In addition,
we give preliminary results of our proposal method. Some investigations for the
construction of Arabic corpus are also presented in this document.


  Future (beyond 5G) wireless networks will demand high throughput and low
latency and would benefit from greenfield, contiguous, and wider bandwidth, all
of which THz spectrum can provide. Although THz has been envisioned to be
deployed in an indoor setting, with proper enforcement and planning, we can
draw a limited number of use cases for outdoor THz communication. THz can
provide high capacity and ultra-high throughput but at the cost of high path
loss and sensitivity to device orientation/mobility.. We identify scenarios
where the use of the THz spectrum for an outdoor setting is justified and their
critical operating parameters. We further categorize the applications based on
the relative mobility between the access point (AP) and user equipment (UE). We
present an approach for deploying THz on an outdoor framework by presenting
preliminary technical parameter analysis for scenarios, like wireless backhaul,
high-speed kiosks, and the aerial base station (ABS). Our preliminary analysis
shows that the application for each of these scenarios is limited based on
multiple parameters, such as distance, device mobility, device orientation,
user geometry, antenna gain, and environment settings, which requires separate
consideration and optimization.