  The information capacity of double-crossover (DX) tiles was successfully
increased beyond a binary representation to higher base representations. By
controlling the length and the position of DNA hairpins on the DX tile, ternary
and senary (base-3 and base-6) digit representations were realized and verified
by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Also, normal mode analysis (NMA) was carried
out to study the mechanical characteristics of each structure.


  In this work, we investigate the challenging problem of on-demand semantic
communication over heterogeneous wireless networks. We propose a
fidelity-adjustable semantic transmission framework (FAST) that empowers
wireless devices to send data efficiently under different application scenarios
and resource conditions. To this end, we first design a dynamic sub-model
training scheme to learn the flexible semantic model, which enables edge
devices to customize the transmission fidelity with different widths of the
semantic model. After that, we focus on the FAST optimization problem to
minimize the system energy consumption with latency and fidelity constraints.
Following that, the optimal transmission strategies including the scaling
factor of the semantic model, computing frequency, and transmitting power are
derived for the devices. Experiment results indicate that, when compared to the
baseline transmission schemes, the proposed framework can reduce up to one
order of magnitude of the system energy consumption and data size for
maintaining reasonable data fidelity.


  In chaotic reaction-diffusion systems with two degrees of freedom, the modes
governing the exponential relaxation to the thermodynamic equilibrium present a
fractal structure which can be characterized by a Hausdorff dimension. For long
wavelength modes, this dimension is related to the Lyapunov exponent and to a
reactive diffusion coefficient. This relationship is tested numerically on a
reactive multibaker model and on a two-dimensional periodic reactive Lorentz
gas. The agreement with the theory is excellent.


  Dark matter axions can generate peculiar effects in special types of
Josephson junctions, so-called SNS junctions. One can show that the axion field
equations in a Josephson environment allow for very small oscillating
supercurrents, which manifest themselves as a tiny wiggle in the I-V curve, a
so-called Shapiro step, which occurs at a frequency given by the axion mass.
The effect is very small but perfectly measurable in modern nanotechnological
devices. In this paper I will summarize the theory and then present evidence
that candidate Shapiro steps of this type have indeed been seen in several
independent condensed matter experiments. Assuming the observed tiny Shapiro
steps are due to axion flow then these data point to an axion mass of $(106 \pm
6)\mu$eV, consistent with what is expected for the QCD axion. In addition to
the above small Shapiro resonance effects at frequencies in the GHz region one
also expects to see broad-band noise effects at much lower frequencies. Overall
this approach provides a novel pathway for the future design of new types of
axionic dark matter detectors. The resonant Josephson data summarized in this
paper are consistent with a 'vanilla' axion with a coupling constant
$f_a=\sqrt{v_{EW}m_{Pl}}=5.48 \cdot 10^{10}$GeV given by the geometric average
of the electroweak symmetry breaking scale $v_{EW}$ and the Planck mass
$m_{Pl}$.


  Foundation models have shown great promise in speech emotion recognition
(SER) by leveraging their pre-trained representations to capture emotion
patterns in speech signals. To further enhance SER performance across various
languages and domains, we propose a novel twofold approach. First, we gather
EmoSet++, a comprehensive multi-lingual, multi-cultural speech emotion corpus
with 37 datasets, 150,907 samples, and a total duration of 119.5 hours. Second,
we introduce ExHuBERT, an enhanced version of HuBERT achieved by backbone
extension and fine-tuning on EmoSet++. We duplicate each encoder layer and its
weights, then freeze the first duplicate, integrating an extra zero-initialized
linear layer and skip connections to preserve functionality and ensure its
adaptability for subsequent fine-tuning. Our evaluation on unseen datasets
shows the efficacy of ExHuBERT, setting a new benchmark for various SER tasks.
Model and details on EmoSet++: https://huggingface.co/amiriparian/ExHuBERT.


  We investigate the formation of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in a competing
importers framework with $n$ countries. We show that (i) FTA formation causes a
negative externality to non-participants, (ii) a non-participant is willing to
join an FTA, and (iii) new participation may decrease the welfare of incumbent
participants. A unique subgame perfect equilibrium of a sequential FTA
formation game does not achieve global free trade under an open-access rule
where a new applicant needs consent of members for accession, currently
employed by many open regionalism agreements including APEC. We further show
that global FTA is a unique subgame perfect equilibrium under an open-access
rule without consent.


  This paper studies autonomous synchronization of k agents whose states evolve
on SO(n), but which are only coupled through the action of their states on one
"reference vector" in Rn for each link. Thus each link conveys only partial
state information at each time, and to reach synchronization agents must
combine this information over time or throughout the network. A natural
gradient coupling law for synchronization is proposed. Extensive convergence
analysis of the coupled agents is provided, both for fixed and time-varying
reference vectors. The case of SO(3) with fixed reference vectors is discussed
in more detail. For comparison, we also treat the equivalent setting in Rn,
i.e. with states in Rn and connected agents comparing scalar product of their
states with a reference vector.


  In this paper, some dynamical properties of neutral and charged particles
around a weakly magnetized five-dimensional static black string have been
studied. The perturbation method was also used to calculate the Innermost
Stable Circular Orbit (ISCO) of this metric in the presence of a magnetic
field. The escape velocity of neutral and charged particles around the black
string was derived. In the next step, the analytical solutions of the equations
of motion were discussed and some possible orbits for particles in the black
string space-time were plotted. Interestingly, it was found that adding an
extra dimension has a slight influence on the effective potential and one term
of the effective force. The magnitude of the new constant of motion $(J)$
affects both the shape of the potential and existence of the stable circular
orbits. In conclusion, by comparing a black hole and a black string, it is
realized that the value of a new constant of motion causes slight but
interesting differences.


  SAX J1748.9-2021 is a transiently accreting X-ray millisecond pulsar. It is
also known as an X-ray burster source discovered by Beppo-SAX. We analysed the
persistent emission and type-I X-ray burst properties during its 2015 outburst.
The source varied from hard to soft state within half day. We modeled the
broad-band spectra of the persistent emission in the 1 - 250 keV energy band
for both spectral states using the quasi-simultaneous INTEGRAL and Swift data.
The broad-band spectra are well fitted by an absorbed thermal Componization
model, compps, in a slab geometry. The best-fits for the two states indicate
significantly different plasma temperature of 18 and 5 keV and the Thomson
optical depth of 3 and 4, respectively. In total, 56 type-I X-ray bursts were
observed during the 2015 outburst, of which 26 detected by INTEGRAL in the hard
state, 25 by XMM-Newton in the soft state, and 5 by Swift in both states. As
the object transited from the hard to the soft state, the recurrence time for
X-ray bursts decreased from $\approx 2$ to $\approx1$ hr. The relation between
the recurrence time, $ \Delta t_{\rm rec}$, and the local mass accretion rate
per unit area onto the compact object, $\dot m$, is fitted by a power-law
model, and yielded as best fit at $\Delta t_{\rm rec} \sim \langle \dot{m}
\rangle^{-1.02\pm0.03}$ using all X-ray bursts. In both cases, the observed
recurrence times are consistent with the mixed hydrogen/helium bursts. We also
discuss the effects of type-I X-ray bursts prior to the hard to soft
transition.


  We present the first multi-epoch spectropolarimetry of a type II plateau
supernova (SN II-P), with optical observations of SN 1999em on days 7, 40, 49,
159, and 163 after discovery. These data are used to probe the geometry of the
electron-scattering atmosphere before, during, and after the plateau phase,
which ended roughly 90 days after discovery. Weak continuum polarization with
an unchanging polarization angle (theta ~ 160 deg) is detected at all epochs,
with p ~ 0.2% on day 7, p ~ 0.3% on days 40 and 49, and p ~ 0.5% in the final
observations. Distinct polarization modulations across strong line features are
present on days 40, 49, 159, and 163. Uncorrected for interstellar polarization
(which is believed to be quite small), polarization peaks are associated with
strong P Cygni absorption troughs and nearly complete depolarization is seen
across the H-alpha emission profile. The temporal evolution of the continuum
polarization and sharp changes across lines indicate polarization intrinsic to
SN 1999em. When modeled in terms of the oblate, electron-scattering atmospheres
of Hoeflich, the observed polarization implies anasphericity of at least 7%
during the period studied. The temporal polarization increase may indicate
greater asphericity deeper into the ejecta. We discuss the implications of
asphericity on the use of type II-P supernovae as primary extragalactic
distance indicators through the expanding photosphere method (EPM). If
asphericity produces directionally dependant flux and peculiar galaxy motions
are characterized by sigma_v_rec = 300 km/s, it is shown that the agreement
between previous EPM measurements of SNe II and distances to the host galaxies
predicted by a linear Hubble law restrict mean SN II asphericity to values less
than 30% (3-sigma) during the photospheric phase.


  We propose a new approach to the analysis of Loopy Belief Propagation (LBP)
by establishing a formula that connects the Hessian of the Bethe free energy
with the edge zeta function. The formula has a number of theoretical
implications on LBP. It is applied to give a sufficient condition that the
Hessian of the Bethe free energy is positive definite, which shows
non-convexity for graphs with multiple cycles. The formula clarifies the
relation between the local stability of a fixed point of LBP and local minima
of the Bethe free energy. We also propose a new approach to the uniqueness of
LBP fixed point, and show various conditions of uniqueness.


  We prove in the cases of plane and hyperbolic symmetries a global in time
existence result in the future for comological solutions of the
Einstein-Vlasov-scalar field system, with the sources generated by a
distribution function and a scalar field, subject to the Vlasov and wave
equations respectively. The spacetime is future geodesically complete in the
special case of plane symmetry with only a scalar field. Causal geodesics are
also shown to be future complete for homogeneous solutions of the
Einstein-Vlasov-scalar field system with plane and hyperbolic symmetry.


  The computation of global radial basis function (RBF) approximations requires
the solution of a linear system which, depending on the choice of RBF
parameters, may be ill-conditioned. We study the stability and accuracy of
approximation methods using the Gaussian RBF in all scaling regimes of the
associated shape parameter. The approximation is based on discrete least
squares with function samples on a bounded domain, using RBF centers both
inside and outside the domain. This results in a rectangular linear system. We
show for one-dimensional approximations that linear scaling of the shape
parameter with the degrees of freedom is optimal, resulting in constant overlap
between neighbouring RBF's regardless of their number, and we propose an
explicit suitable choice of the proportionality constant. We show numerically
that highly accurate approximations to smooth functions can also be obtained on
bounded domains in several dimensions, using a linear scaling with the degrees
of freedom per dimension. We extend the least squares approach to a
collocation-based method for the solution of elliptic boundary value problems
and illustrate that the combination of centers outside the domain, oversampling
and optimal scaling can result in accuracy close to machine precision in spite
of having to solve very ill-conditioned linear systems.


  Multiresolution topology optimization (MTO) methods involve decoupling of the
design and analysis discretizations, such that a high-resolution design can be
obtained at relatively low analysis costs. Recent studies have shown that the
MTO method can be approximately 3 and 30 times faster than the traditional
topology optimization method for 2D and 3D problems, respectively. To further
exploit the potential of decoupling analysis and design, we propose a
dp-adaptive MTO method, which involves locally increasing/decreasing the shape
function orders (p) and design resolution (d). The adaptive
refinement/coarsening is performed using a composite refinement indicator which
includes criteria based on analysis error, presence of intermediate densities
as well as the occurrence of design artefacts referred to as QR-patterns. While
standard MTO must rely on filtering to suppress QR-patterns, the proposed
adaptive method ensures efficiently that these artefacts are suppressed in the
final design, without sacrificing the design resolution. The applicability of
the dp-adaptive MTO method is demonstrated on several 2D mechanical design
problems. For all the cases, significant speed-ups in computational time are
obtained. In particular for design problems involving low material volume
fractions, speed-ups of up to a factor of 10 can be obtained over the
conventional MTO method.


  We propose a resonant microwave absorber based on a chiral metamaterial. We
show, with both numerical simulations and experimental measurements, that the
absorber works well for a very wide range of incident angles for different
polarizations. The proposed absorber has a compact size and the absorption is
close to one for a wide range of incident angles and it is a good candidate for
potential applications.


  We present transport calculations with the Ultra-relativistic Quantum
Molecular Dynamics approach (UrQMD) for dilepton spectra at SIS energies. While
we obtain a good agreement with experiment for elementary reactions, in
heavy-ion collisions an excess in the invariant mass spectra is observed which
cannot be described by the model. As the pure transport calculations do not
include any in-medium effects and are limited to hadronic degrees of freedom,
we present an alternative approach that uses coarse-grained output from
transport calculations to determine thermal dilepton emission rates. For this
we apply the medium-modified $\rho$ spectral function by Eletsky et al. In a
first exemplary comparison to data from the NA60 experiment we find that the
coarse-graining approach gives reasonable results.


  We report optical and near-infrared spectra of the central star of the radio
source G79.29+0.46, a candidate luminous blue variable. The spectra contain
numerous narrow (FWHM < 100 km/s emission lines of which the low-lying hydrogen
lines are the strongest, and resemble spectra of other LBVc's and B[e]
supergiants. A few prominent infrared lines are unidentified. The terminal wind
speed is determined from H alpha to be 110 km/s. The strength of H alpha
implies the presence of a very dense wind. Extended emission from H alpha and
[N II] was detected but appears to be associated with the Cygnus X region
rather than the radio source. Both diffuse interstellar bands and interstellar
absorption lines are present in the optical spectrum of the central star,
suggesting that there are both diffuse and molecular cloud components to the
extinction and implying a minimum distance of 1 kpc and minimum luminosity of
\~10^5 L(sun) for the star. The new spectra and their analysis indicate a low
excitation, dense, and slowly expanding wind and support the LBVc
classification.


  We study a pure death process. At each discrete time every individual dies or
not independently of each other with a constant probability. We give examples
showing that in a certain limit extinction happens along a path where one and
only one individual is lost at a time. We also exhibit an example for which
such a path goes from infinity to 0 in a finite time. This is what we call a
process implosion.


  Let G be a connected reductive linear algebraic group. We use geometric
methods to investigate G-completely reducible subgroups of G, giving new
criteria for G-complete reducibility. We show that a subgroup of G is
G-completely reducible if and only if it is strongly reductive in G; this
allows us to use ideas of R.W. Richardson and Hilbert--Mumford--Kempf from
geometric invariant theory. We deduce that a normal subgroup of a G-completely
reducible subgroup of G is again G-completely reducible, thereby providing an
affirmative answer to a question posed by J.-P. Serre, and conversely we prove
that the normalizer of a G-completely reducible subgroup of G is again
G-completely reducible. Some rationality questions and applications to the
spherical building of G are considered. Many of our results extend to the case
of non-connected G.


  We consider the 1-dimensional cubic Szeg\H{o} equation with data distributed
according to the Gaussian measure with inverse covariance operator
$(1-\partial_x^2)^\frac s2$, where $s>\frac12$. We show that, for $s>1$, this
measure is quasi-invariant under the flow of the equation, while for $s<1$,
$s\neq \frac34$, the transported measure and the initial Gaussian measure are
mutually singular for almost every time. This is the first observation of a
transition from quasi-invariance to singularity in the context of the transport
of Gaussian measures under the flow of Hamiltonian PDEs.


  We present an algorithm for the numerical solution of systems of fully
nonlinear PDEs using stochastic coded branching trees. This approach covers
functional nonlinearities involving gradient terms of arbitrary orders, and it
requires only a boundary condition over space at a given terminal time $T$
instead of Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions at all times as in standard
solvers. Its implementation relies on Monte Carlo estimation, and uses neural
networks that perform a meshfree functional estimation on a space-time domain.
The algorithm is applied to the numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes
equation and is benchmarked to other implementations in the cases of the
Taylor-Green vortex and Arnold-Beltrami-Childress flow.


  Conventional optical zoom system is bulky, expensive and complicated for real
time adjustment. Recent progress in the metasurface research has provided a new
solution to achieve innovative compact optical systems. In this paper, we
propose a highly integrated zoom lens with dual field-of-view (FOV) based on
double sided metasurfaces. With silicon nanobrick arrays of spatially varying
orientations sitting on both side of a transparent substrate, this ultrathin
zoom metalens can be designed to focus an incident circular polarized beam with
spin-dependent FOVs without varying the focal plane, which is important for
practical applications. The proposed dual FOV zoom metalens, with the
advantages such as ultracompactness, flexibility and replicability, can find
applications in fields which require ultracompact zoom imaging and beam
focusing.


  We put forth a new class of quantum master equations that correctly reproduce
the asymptotic state of an open quantum system beyond the infinitesimally weak
system-bath coupling limit. Our method is based on incorporating the knowledge
of the reduced steady state into its dynamics. The correction not only steers
the reduced system towards a correct steady state but also improves the
accuracy of the dynamics, thereby refining the archetypal Born-Markov
weak-coupling second-order master equations. In case of equilibrium, since a
closed form for the steady state exists in terms of a mean force Gibbs state,
we utilize this form to correct the Redfield quantum master equation. Using an
exactly solvable harmonic oscillator system we benchmark our approach with the
exact solution showing that our method also helps correcting the long-standing
issue of positivity violation, albeit without complete positivity. Our method
of a canonically consistent quantum master equation, opens a new perspective in
the theory of open quantum systems leading to a reduced density matrix accurate
beyond the commonly used Redfield and Lindblad equations, while retaining the
same conceptual and numerical complexity.


  We study and simulate N=2 supersymmetric Wess-Zumino models in one and two
dimensions. For any choice of the lattice derivative, the theories can be made
manifestly supersymmetric by adding appropriate improvement terms corresponding
to discretizations of surface integrals. In particular, we check that fermionic
and bosonic masses coincide and the unbroken Ward identities are fulfilled to
high accuracy. Equally good results for the effective masses can be obtained in
a model with the SLAC derivative (even without improvement terms). In two
dimensions we introduce a non-standard Wilson term in such a way that the
discretization errors of the kinetic terms are only of order a squared. Masses
extracted from the corresponding manifestly supersymmetric model prove to
approach their continuum values much quicker than those from a model containing
the standard Wilson term. Again, a comparable enhancement can be achieved in a
theory using the SLAC derivative.


  In the early stages of aerospace design, reduced order models (ROMs) are
crucial for minimizing computational costs associated with using physics-rich
field information in many-query scenarios requiring multiple evaluations. The
intricacy of aerospace design demands the use of high-dimensional design spaces
to capture detailed features and design variability accurately. However, these
spaces introduce significant challenges, including the curse of dimensionality,
which stems from both high-dimensional inputs and outputs necessitating
substantial training data and computational effort. To address these
complexities, this study introduces a novel multi-fidelity, parametric, and
non-intrusive ROM framework designed for high-dimensional contexts. It
integrates machine learning techniques for manifold alignment and dimension
reduction employing Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Model-based
Active Subspace with multi-fidelity regression for ROM construction. Our
approach is validated through two test cases: the 2D RAE~2822 airfoil and the
3D NASA CRM wing, assessing combinations of various fidelity levels, training
data ratios, and sample sizes. Compared to the single-fidelity PCAS method, our
multi-fidelity solution offers improved cost-accuracy benefits and achieves
better predictive accuracy with reduced computational demands. Moreover, our
methodology outperforms the manifold-aligned ROM (MA-ROM) method by 50% in
handling scenarios with large input dimensions, underscoring its efficacy in
addressing the complex challenges of aerospace design.


  In order to combine silicon technology with the functionality of magnetic
systems, a number of ferromagnetic (FM) materials have been suggested for the
fabrication of metal/semiconductor heterojunctions. In this work, we present a
systematic study of several candidate materials in contact with the Si surface.
We employ density-functional theory calculations to address the thermodynamic
stability and magnetism of both pseudomorphic CsCl-like $M$Si ($M$=Mn, Fe, Co,
Ni) thin films and Heusler alloy $M_2$MnSi ($M$=Fe, Co, Ni) films on Si(001).
Our calculations show that Si-termination of the $M$Si films is energetically
preferable during epitaxy since it minimizes the energetic cost of broken bonds
at the surface. Moreover, we can explain the calculated trends in thermodynamic
stability of the $M$Si thin films in terms of the $M$-Si bond-strength and the
$M$ 3d orbital occupation. From our calculations, we predict that ultrathin
MnSi films are FM with sizable spin magnetic moments at the Mn atoms, while
FeSi and NiSi films are nonmagnetic. However, CoSi films display itinerant
ferromagnetism. For the $M_2$MnSi films with Heusler-type structure, the MnSi
termination is found to have the highest thermodynamic stability. In the FM
ground state, the calculated strength of the effective coupling between the
magnetic moments of Mn atoms within the same layer approximately scales with
the measured Curie temperatures of the bulk $M_2$MnSi compounds. In particular,
the Co$_2$MnSi/Si(001) thin film has a robust FM ground state as in the bulk,
and is found to be stable against a phase separation into CoSi/Si(001) and
MnSi/Si(001) films. Hence this material is of possible use in FM-Si
heterojunctions and deserves further experimental investigations.


  In completely local settings, we establish that a dynamically evolving black
hole horizon can be assigned a Hawking temperature. Moreover, we calculate the
Hawking flux and show that the radius of the horizon shrinks.


  Unlike theoretical distributed learning (DL), DL over wireless edge networks
faces the inherent dynamics/uncertainty of wireless connections and edge nodes,
making DL less efficient or even inapplicable under the highly dynamic wireless
edge networks (e.g., using mmW interfaces). This article addresses these
problems by leveraging recent advances in coded computing and the deep dueling
neural network architecture. By introducing coded structures/redundancy, a
distributed learning task can be completed without waiting for straggling
nodes. Unlike conventional coded computing that only optimizes the code
structure, coded distributed learning over the wireless edge also requires to
optimize the selection/scheduling of wireless edge nodes with heterogeneous
connections, computing capability, and straggling effects. However, even
neglecting the aforementioned dynamics/uncertainty, the resulting joint
optimization of coding and scheduling to minimize the distributed learning time
turns out to be NP-hard. To tackle this and to account for the dynamics and
uncertainty of wireless connections and edge nodes, we reformulate the problem
as a Markov Decision Process and then design a novel deep reinforcement
learning algorithm that employs the deep dueling neural network architecture to
find the jointly optimal coding scheme and the best set of edge nodes for
different learning tasks without explicit information about the wireless
environment and edge nodes' straggling parameters. Simulations show that the
proposed framework reduces the average learning delay in wireless edge
computing up to 66% compared with other DL approaches. The jointly optimal
framework in this article is also applicable to any distributed learning scheme
with heterogeneous and uncertain computing nodes.


  The Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey discovered four trans-Neptunian
objects with semi-major axes near the 5:1 resonance, revealing a large and
previously undetected intrinsic population. Three of these objects are
currently resonant with Neptune, and the fourth is consistent with being an
object that escaped the resonance at some point in the past. The non-resonant
object may be representative of a detached population that is stable at
slightly lower semi-major axes than the 5:1 resonance. We generated clones of
these objects by resampling the astrometric uncertainty and examined their
behavior over a 4.5 Gyr numerical simulation. The majority of the clones of the
three resonant objects (>90%) spend a total of 10^7 years in resonance during
their 4.5 Gyr integrations; most clones experience multiple periods of
resonance capture. Our dynamical integrations reveal an exchange between the
5:1 resonance, the scattering objects, and other large semi-major axis
resonances, especially the 4:1, 6:1, and 7:1. The multiple capture events and
relatively short resonance lifetimes after capture suggest that these objects
are captured scattering objects that stick in the 5:1 resonance. These 5:1
resonators may be representative of a temporary population, requiring regular
contributions from a source population. We examined the dynamical
characteristics (inclination, eccentricity, resonant island, libration
amplitude) of the detected objects and their clones in order to provide an
empirical model of the orbit structure of the 5:1 resonance. This resonance is
dynamically hot and includes primarily symmetric librators. Given our orbit
model, the intrinsic population necessary for the detection of these three
objects in the 5:1 resonance is 1900(+3300 -1400, 95% confidence) with H_g< 8
and e > 0.5.


  Non-linear dimensionality reduction techniques such as manifold learning
algorithms have become a common way for processing and analyzing
high-dimensional patterns that often have attached a target that corresponds to
the value of an unknown function. Their application to new points consists in
two steps: first, embedding the new data point into the low dimensional space
and then, estimating the function value on the test point from its neighbors in
the embedded space.
  However, finding the low dimension representation of a test point, while easy
for simple but often not powerful enough procedures such as PCA, can be much
more complicated for methods that rely on some kind of eigenanalysis, such as
Spectral Clustering (SC) or Diffusion Maps (DM). Similarly, when a target
function is to be evaluated, averaging methods like nearest neighbors may give
unstable results if the function is noisy. Thus, the smoothing of the target
function with respect to the intrinsic, low-dimensional representation that
describes the geometric structure of the examined data is a challenging task.
  In this paper we propose Auto-adaptive Laplacian Pyramids (ALP), an extension
of the standard Laplacian Pyramids model that incorporates a modified LOOCV
procedure that avoids the large cost of the standard one and offers the
following advantages: (i) it selects automatically the optimal function
resolution (stopping time) adapted to the data and its noise, (ii) it is easy
to apply as it does not require parameterization, (iii) it does not overfit the
training set and (iv) it adds no extra cost compared to other classical
interpolation methods. We illustrate numerically ALP's behavior on a synthetic
problem and apply it to the computation of the DM projection of new patterns
and to the extension to them of target function values on a radiation
forecasting problem over very high dimensional patterns.


  We explore various properties of interaction between D$_p$ and D$_{p'}$ with
each carrying a worldvolume flux and with the $p'$-branes placed along $p'$
spatial worldvolume directions of the p-branes at a separation when $p - p' =
2$. Carefully analyzing the annulus amplitudes calculated via the boundary
state approach, we find that many features of amplitudes remain similar to
those studied when $p = p'$ such as the nature of force on the brane
separation, the onset of various instabilities when the brane-separation is on
the order of string scale and the occurrence of pair production of open strings
when there is a relevant electric flux present. In addition, we have also found
many new features of interaction which don't appear in the absence of fluxes or
when $p = p'$ in the presence of fluxes, for examples, the nature of
interaction can be repulsive and there is no onset of tachyonic instability
under certain conditions. Even in the absence of a magnetic flux, we can have
an exponential enhancement of the rate of pair production of open strings in
certain cases, which may be significant enough to give observational
consequences.


  We have studied the fast timing and spectral behavior of the black hole
candidate (BHC) GX 339-4 using all 1 - 20 keV EXOSAT ME data: the July 1983,
March 1984, May 1984 and April 1985 observations. In April 1985 GX 339-4 was in
a weak low state (0.03E-9 erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}, 2 - 10 keV). The X-ray spectrum
was a hard power law with a photon index \alpha of 1.82 and the power spectrum,
though ill-constrained by the data, was consistent with a typical BHC low state
spectrum. During the other three pointings the system was brighter (1.5E-9 erg
cm^{-2} s^{-1}, 2 - 10 keV), an ultrasoft component was present in the
spectrum, and the power law was steeper (\alpha ~3.5 in 1984; in 1983 it was
not well-measured); the power spectrum showed a flat-topped band-limited noise
component with a break frequency of ~4.5 Hz and a fractional rms amplitude of
~7%. Comparing flux levels, X-ray spectra and power spectra we conclude that in
these observations GX 339-4 was in a state intermediate between the usual BHC
low and high states. The system was ~4 times brighter than in its usual low
state, 4 times fainter than in its usual high state, and an order of magnitude
fainter than in its very high state. We compare these results to those recently
obtained on other BHCs, and conclude that this ``intermediate state'' behavior
is a common characteristic of BHCs, that occurs at $\dot M$ levels intermediate
between the high and the low state. We argue that this result can be used to
resolve the long-standing issue of the dependence of the power spectral break
frequency in the low state on mass accretion rate, and strengthens the idea
that low-state noise and very-high state noise may have a common origin. We
briefly discuss a possible interpretation for the changes in break frequency in
the low state and between low state and intermediate state.


  This work concerns the design of perfectly conducting objects that are
invisible to an incident transverse magnetic plane wave. The object in question
is a finite planar waveguide with a finite periodic array of barriers. By
optimizing this array, the amplitude of the scattered field is reduced to less
than $10^{-9}$ times the amplitude of the incident plane wave everywhere
outside the waveguide. To accurately evaluate such minute amplitudes, we employ
a recently developed boundary integral equation technique, adapted for objects
whose boundaries have endpoints, corners, and branch points.


  Convergence of Extremum Seeking (ES) algorithms has been established in the
limit of small gains. Using averaging theory and contraction analysis, we
propose a framework for computing explicit bounds on the departure of the ES
scheme from its ideal dominant-order average dynamics. The bounds remain valid
for possibly large gains. They allow us to establish stability and estimate
convergence rates, and they open the way to selecting "optimal" finite gains
for the ES scheme.


  Many cortical areas increase in size considerably during postnatal
development, progressively displacing neuronal cell bodies from each other. At
present, little is known about how cortical growth affects the development of
neuronal circuits. Here, in acute and chronic experiments, we study the layout
of ocular dominance (OD) columns in cat primary visual cortex (V1) during a
period of substantial postnatal growth. We find that despite a considerable
size increase of V1, the spacing between columns is largely preserved. In
contrast, their spatial arrangement changes systematically over this period.
While in young animals columns are more band-like, layouts become more
isotropic in mature animals. We propose a novel mechanism of growth-induced
reorganization that is based on the `zigzag instability', a dynamical
instability observed in several inanimate pattern forming systems. We argue
that this mechanism is inherent to a wide class of models for the
activity-dependent formation of OD columns. Analyzing one member of this class,
the Elastic Network model, we show that this mechanism can account for the
preservation of column spacing and the specific mode of reorganization of OD
columns that we observe. We conclude that neurons systematically shift their
selectivities during normal development and that this reorganization is induced
by the cortical expansion during growth. Our work suggests that cortical
circuits remain plastic for an extended period in development in order to
facilitate the modification of neuronal circuits to adjust for cortical growth.


  Electron transport within nanostructures can be important to varied
engineering applications, such as thermoelectrics and nanoelectronics. In
theoretical studies, electron Monte Carlo simulations are widely used as an
alternative approach to solving the electron Boltzmann transport equation,
where the energy-dependent electron scattering, exact structure shape, and
detailed electric field distribution can be fully incorporated. In this work,
such electron Monte Carlo simulations are employed to predict the electrical
conductivity of periodic nanoporous Si films that have been widely studied for
thermoelectric applications. The focus is on the influence of pore-edge charges
on the electron transport. The results are further compared to our previous
modeling [Hao et al., J. Appl. Phys. 121, 094308 (2017)], where the pore-edge
electric field has its own scattering rate to be added to the scattering rates
of other mechanisms.


  Entity linking involves aligning textual mentions of named entities to their
corresponding entries in a knowledge base. Entity linking systems often exploit
relations between textual mentions in a document (e.g., coreference) to decide
if the linking decisions are compatible. Unlike previous approaches, which
relied on supervised systems or heuristics to predict these relations, we treat
relations as latent variables in our neural entity-linking model. We induce the
relations without any supervision while optimizing the entity-linking system in
an end-to-end fashion. Our multi-relational model achieves the best reported
scores on the standard benchmark (AIDA-CoNLL) and substantially outperforms its
relation-agnostic version. Its training also converges much faster, suggesting
that the injected structural bias helps to explain regularities in the training
data.


  As a model to provide a hands-on, elementary understanding of "vortex
dynamics", we introduce a piecewise linear non-invertible map called a twisted
baker map. We show that the set of hyperbolic repelling periodic points with
complex conjugate eigenvalues and that without complex conjugate eigenvalues
are simultaneously dense in the phase space. We also show that these two sets
equidistribute with respect to the normalized Lebesgue measure, in spite of a
non-uniformity in their Lyapunov exponents.


  This paper is the first in the series devoted to evaluation of the partition
function in statistical models on graphs with loops in terms of the
Berezin/fermion integrals. The paper focuses on a representation of the
determinant of a square matrix in terms of a finite series, where each term
corresponds to a loop on the graph. The representation is based on a fermion
version of the Loop Calculus, previously introduced by the authors for
graphical models with finite alphabets. Our construction contains two levels.
First, we represent the determinant in terms of an integral over anti-commuting
Grassman variables, with some reparametrization/gauge freedom hidden in the
formulation. Second, we show that a special choice of the gauge, called BP
(Bethe-Peierls or Belief Propagation) gauge, yields the desired loop
representation. The set of gauge-fixing BP conditions is equivalent to the
Gaussian BP equations, discussed in the past as efficient (linear scaling)
heuristics for estimating the covariance of a sparse positive matrix.


  The chaotic nature of outer space and the limitation of visual displays
command for much more than visual display of information and for the
integration of other sensorial modalities during data exploration. Haptic real
time devices may enrich the detection of astronomical events that otherwise
would escape the eyes. Departing from the Harvard Astronomy Lab Orchestar
(color Arduino) we present the work in progress of the Proof of Concept (PoC)
of a sensitive yet simple device to Bluetooth transfer real time color into
haptic motion built by Adafruit components. We assemble 2 Adafruit nRF52840
feather express with the RGB color sensor and haptic driver respectively to
trigger vibrations according to the color variation from external light
sources. In addition, a transparent hexagon cover will be mounted on the color
sensor to maximise absorbed light from the telescope. The device aims to be a
translator for people to see hear and feel the hidden information from the
original data set. We also present its application in the calculation of
complex astrophysics quantities such as the masses of solar coronal mass
ejections.


  We give a detailed comparison of the hierarchical quantum master equation
(HQME) method to a continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo (CT-QMC) approach,
assessing the usability of these numerically exact schemes as impurity solvers
in practical nonequilibrium calculations. We review the main characteristics of
the methods and discuss the scaling of the associated numerical effort. We
substantiate our discussion with explicit numerical results for the
nonequilibrium transport properties of a single-site Anderson impurity. The
numerical effort of the HQME scheme scales linearly with the simulation time
but increases (at worst exponentially) with decreasing temperature. In
contrast, CT-QMC is less restricted by temperature at short times, but in
general the cost of going to longer times is also exponential. After
establishing the numerical exactness of the HQME scheme, we use it to elucidate
the influence of different ways to induce transport through the impurity on the
initial dynamics, discuss the phenomenon of coherent current oscillations,
known as current ringing, and explain the non-monotonic temperature dependence
of the steady-state magnetization as a result of competing broadening effects.
We also elucidate the pronounced non-linear magnetization dynamics, which
appears on intermediate time scales in the presence of an asymmetric coupling
to the electrodes.


  We investigate a simple stochastic model of social network formation by the
process of reinforcement learning with discounting of the past. In the limit,
for any value of the discounting parameter, small, stable cliques are formed.
However, the time it takes to reach the limiting state in which cliques have
formed is very sensitive to the discounting parameter. Depending on this value,
the limiting result may or may not be a good predictor for realistic
observation times.


  We collected the experimental data of transverse momentum spectra of
identified particles produced in proton-proton ($p$-$p$), deuteron-gold ($d$-Au
or $d$-$A$), gold-gold (Au-Au or $A$-$A$), proton-lead ($p$-Pb or $p$-$A$), and
lead-lead (Pb-Pb or $A$-$A$) collisions measured by the ALICE, CMS, LHCb, NA49,
NA61/SHINE, PHENIX, and STAR collaborations at different center-of mass
energies. The multisource thermal model at the quark level or the participant
quark model is used to describe the experimental data. The free parameters, the
effective temperature $T$, entropy index-related $n$, and revised index
$a_{0}$, in the revised Tsallis--Pareto-type function are extracted at the
quark level. In most cases, $T$ and $n$ in central collisions are larger than
those in peripheral collisions, and $a_0$ does not change in different
centrality classes. With the increase in the mass of produced particle or
participant quark, $T$ and $a_0$ increase, and $n$ does not change
significantly. The behaviors of related parameters from $p$-$p$, $p(d)$-$A$,
and $A$-$A$ collisions are similar.


  In this work, we investigate the parameter space of the Georgi-Machacek (GM)
model, where we consider many theoretical and experimental constraints such as
the perturbativity, vacuum stability, unitarity, electroweak precision tests,
the Higgs di-photon decay, the Higgs total decay width and the LHC measurements
of the signal strengths of the SM-like Higgs boson $h$ in addition to the
constraints from doubly charged Higgs bosons and Drell-Yan di-photon production
and the indirect constraint from the $b\to s$ transition processes. We
investigate also the possibility that the electroweak vacuum could be
destabilized by unwanted wrong minima that may violate the CP and/or the
electric charge symmetries. We found that about 40 \% of the parameter space
that fulfills the above mentioned constraints; are excluded by these unwanted
minima. In addition, we found that the negative searches for a heavy resonance
could exclude a significant part of the viable parameter space; and future
searches could exclude more regions in the parameter space.


  Solid state ionic approaches for modifying ion distributions in getter/oxide
heterostructures offer exciting potentials to control material properties. Here
we report a simple, scalable approach allowing for total control of the
superconducting transition in optimally doped YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7-{\delta}}$
(YBCO) films via a chemically-driven ionic migration mechanism. Using a thin Gd
capping layer of up to 20 nm deposited onto 100 nm thick epitaxial YBCO films,
oxygen is found to leach from deep within the YBCO. Progressive reduction of
the superconducting transition is observed, with complete suppression possible
for a sufficiently thick Gd layer. These effects arise from the combined impact
of redox-driven electron doping and modification of the YBCO microstructure due
to oxygen migration and depletion. This work demonstrates an effective ionic
control of superconductivity in oxides, an interface induced effect that goes
well into the quasi-bulk regime, opening up possibilities for electric field
manipulation.


  The smart healthcare system has gained significant attention for the
improvement of the customary healthcare system. The system is comprised of
several key stakeholders that make the whole ecosystem successful. However,
these stakeholders offer considerable challenges that need much research to
address for making the system acceptable and reliable. Furthermore, very few
studies examine the key challenges from the perspective of stakeholders of the
smart healthcare system. The objective of this research study is to identify
the key challenges associated with each stakeholder of the smart healthcare
system. We have identified 27 challenges associated with eight key stakeholders
of smart healthcare reported in the state-of-the-art literature. Further, a
quantitative survey was conducted and the data from 85 respondents were
collected in order to assess the significance of challenges in the real-world
smart healthcare system. The collected data from the respondents were further
analyzed using the smart-PSL (3.0). The results indicated that all the
identified challenges associated with each stakeholder negatively influence the
smart healthcare system.


  In training a deep learning system to perform audio transcription, two
practical problems may arise. Firstly, most datasets are weakly labelled,
having only a list of events present in each recording without any temporal
information for training. Secondly, deep neural networks need a very large
amount of labelled training data to achieve good quality performance, yet in
practice it is difficult to collect enough samples for most classes of
interest. In this paper, we propose factorising the final task of audio
transcription into multiple intermediate tasks in order to improve the training
performance when dealing with this kind of low-resource datasets. We evaluate
three data-efficient approaches of training a stacked convolutional and
recurrent neural network for the intermediate tasks. Our results show that
different methods of training have different advantages and disadvantages.


  Shot noise, intrinsic to the ensemble of nonisochronous
electrons-oscillators, is the cause of statistical fluctuations in cooperative
radiation generated by single-pass cyclotron-resonance masers (CRMs).
Autophasing time --- the time required for the cooperative radiation power to
peak --- is the critical parameter characterizing the dynamics of
electrons-oscillators interacting via the radiation field. Shot-noise related
fluctuations of the autophasing time imposes appreciable limitations on the
possibility of coherent summation of electromagnetic oscillations from several
single-pass CRMs.
  Premodulation of charged particles leads to a considerable narrowing of the
autophasing time distribution function. When the number of particles $N_e$
exceeds a certain value that depends on the degree to which the particles have
been premodulated, the relative root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) of the
autophasing time $\delta_T$ changes from a logarithmic dependence on $N_e$
($\delta_T\sim1/\ln N_e$) to square-root ($\delta_T\sim1/\sqrt{N_e}$). As a
result, there is an increased probability of coherent summation of
electromagnetic oscillations from several single-pass generators.
  A slight energy spread ~($\sim$4\%) results in a twofold drop of the maximum
attainable power of cooperative radiation.


  First, we answer a question of Pestov, by proving that the full group of a
sofic equivalence relation is a sofic group. Then, we give a short proof of the
theorem of Grigorchuk and Medynets that the topological full group of a minimal
Cantor homeomorphism is LEF. Finally, we show that for certain non-amenable
groups all the generalized lamplighter groups are sofic.


  This note is a survey of examples and results about cellular automata with
the purpose of recalling that there is no 'universal' way of being
computationally universal. In particular, we show how some cellular automata
can embed efficient but bounded computation, while others can embed unbounded
computations but not efficiently. We also study two variants of Boolean circuit
embedding, transient versus repeatable simulations, and underline their
differences. Finally we show how strong forms of universality can be hidden
inside some seemingly simple cellular automata according to some classical
dynamical parameters.


  The stability of steady, dynamic, anti-plane slipping at a planar interface
between two dissimilar anisotropic linear elastic solids is studied. The solids
are assumed to possess a plane of symmetry normal to the slip direction, so
that in-plane displacements and normal stress changes on the slip plane do not
occur. Friction at the interface is assumed to follow a rate and state
dependent law with velocity-weakening behavior in the steady state. The
stability to spatial perturbations of the form exp(ikx_1), where k is the
wavenumber and x_1 is the coordinate along the interface is studied. The
critical wavenumber magnitude, |k|_cr, above which there is stability and the
corresponding phase velocity, c, of the neutrally stable mode are obtained from
the stability analysis. Numerical plots showing the dependence of |k|_cr and c
on the unperturbed sliding velocity, V_o, are provided for various bi-material
combinations of practical interest.


  In this paper, we study how to collect fresh data in time-varying networks
with power constrained users. We measure data freshness from the perspective of
the central controller by using the metric Age of Information, namely the time
elapsed since the generation time-stamp of the freshest information. We wonder
what is the minimum AoI performance the network can achieve and how to design
scheduling algorithms to approach it. To answer these questions when scheduling
decisions are restricted to bandwidth constraint, we first decouple the
multi-user scheduling problem into a single user constrained Markov decision
process (CMDP) through relaxation of the hard bandwidth constraint. Next we
exploit the threshold structure of the optimal policy for the decoupled single
user CMDP and obtain the optimum solution through linear programming (LP).
Finally, an asymptotic optimal truncated policy that can satisfy the hard
bandwidth constraint is built upon the optimal solution to each of the
decoupled single-user sub-problem. The performance is verified through
simulations. Our investigation shows that to obtain a small AoI performance,
the scheduler exploits good channels to schedule users supported by limited
power. Users equipped with enough transmission power are updated in a timely
manner such that the bandwidth constraint can be satisfied.


  In today's embedded applications a significant portion of energy is spent in
the memory subsystem. Several approaches have been proposed to minimize this
energy, including the use of scratch pad memories, with many based on static
analysis of a program. However, often it is not possible to perform static
analysis and optimization of a program's memory access behavior unless the
program is specifically written for this purpose. In this paper we introduce
the FORAY model of a program that permits aggressive analysis of the
application's memory behavior that further enables such optimizations since it
consists of 'for' loops and array accesses which are easily analyzable. We
present FORAY-GEN: an automated profile-based approach for extraction of the
FORAY model from the original program. We also demonstrate how FORAY-GEN
enhances applicability of other memory subsystem optimization approaches,
resulting in an average of two times increase in the number of memory
references that can be analyzed by existing static approaches.


  Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a new frequency domain non-orthogonal
multiple-access technique which can improve spectral efficiency of wireless
radio access. With SCMA, different incoming data streams are directly mapped to
codewords of different multi-dimensional cookbooks, where each codeword
represents a spread transmission layer. Multiple SCMA layers share the same
time-frequency resources of OFDMA. The sparsity of codewords makes the
near-optimal detection feasible through iterative message passing algorithm
(MPA). Such low complexity of multi-layer detection allows excessive codeword
overloading in which the dimension of multiplexed layers exceeds the dimension
of codewords. Optimization of overloading factor along with modulation-coding
levels of layers provides a more flexible and efficient link-adaptation
mechanism. On the other hand, the signal spreading feature of SCMA can improve
link-adaptation as a result of less colored interference. In this paper a
technique is developed to enable multi-user SCMA (MU-SCMA) for downlink
wireless access. User pairing, power sharing, rate adjustment, and scheduling
algorithms are designed to improve the downlink throughput of a heavily loaded
network. The advantage of SCMA spreading for lightly loaded networks is also
evaluated.


  A model is presented to describe electromagnetically induced two-nucleon
emission processes in a shell-model picture. Distortions in the outgoing
nucleon waves are accounted for by performing a partial-wave expansion in a
real mean-field potential. The antisymmetry condition for the A-body
wavefunctions is shown to be naturally preserved.
  The model is used to calculate ($\gamma$,pn) and ($\gamma$,pp) cross sections
off the target nuclei $^{16}$O and $^{12}$C for photon energies ranging from 50
MeV up to the $\bigtriangleup$(1232) isobar threshold. Effects due to the
pionic currents and intermediate $\bigtriangleup$ creation are implemented. The
impact of the distortions due to the interaction of the outgoing nucleon waves
with the (A-2) core is examined. Hadronic form factors are introduced to
regularize the $\pi$NN vertices and the sensitivity of the cross section to the
pion cut-off mass is examined. The relative contribution of the ($\gamma$,pp)
and the ($\gamma$,pn) channel to the total photoabsorption strength is
discussed. Further, the photon energy dependence of the
($\gamma$,pp)/($\gamma$,pn) ratio is investigated.


  The combinatorially and the geometrically defined partial orders on the set
of permutations coincide. We extend this result to $(0,1)$-matrices with fixed
row and column sums. Namely, the Bruhat order induced by the geometry of a
Cherkis bow variety of type A coincides with one of the two combinatorially
defined Bruhat orders on the same set.


  In 1998, V. Liskevich and Y. Semenov showed sharp Gaussian upper bounds for
Schr\"odinger semigroups on $\mathbb R^3$ with potentials satisfying a global
Kato class condition. Using similar basic ideas we show sharp Gaussian upper
bounds for Schr\"odinger semigroups on the half-line, also assuming a suitable
global Kato class condition. Our proof strategy includes a new technique of
weighted ultracontractivity estimates.


  Effective matrix methods for solving standard linear algebra problems in a
commutative domains are discussed. Two of them are new. There are a methods for
computing adjoined matrices and solving system of linear equations in a
commutative domains.


  This paper deals with the study of a new family of knot invariants: the
$L^2$-Alexander invariant. A main result is to give a method of computation of
the $L^2$-Alexander invariant of a knot complement using any presentation of
default 1 of the knot group.


  The full CMS Run 2 datasets with time-integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$
in the diboson channels are used to probe benchmark models with extended gauge
sectors such as $E_6$, left-right symmetric (LR) and the sequential standard
model (extended gauge model, EGM), that predict the existence of neutral $Z'$-
and charged $W'$-bosons decaying to a pair of bosons $WW$, $ZH$, $WZ$ and $WH$
in the semileptonic final state. These benchmark models are used to interpret
the results. Exclusion limits at the 95% C.L. on the $Z'$ and $W'$ resonance
production cross section times branching ratio to electroweak gauge boson pairs
in the resonance mass range between 1.0 and 4.5 TeV are here converted to
constraints on $Z$-$Z'$ and $W$-$W'$ mixing parameters and masses. We present
exclusion regions on the parameter spaces of the $Z'$ and $W'$ and show that
the obtained exclusion regions are significantly extended compared to those
derived from the previous analysis performed with Tevatron data as well as with
the CMS data collected at 7 and 8 TeV in Run 1. The reported limits are the
most restrictive to date.


  The l0 pseudonorm counts the nonzero coordinates of a vector. It is often
used in optimization problems to enforce the sparsity of the solution. However,
this function is nonconvex and noncontinuous, and optimization problems
formulated with l0 in the objective function or in the constraints are hard to
solve in general. Recently, a new family of coupling functions - called Capra
(constant along primal rays) - has proved to induce relevant generalized
Fenchel-Moreau conjugacies to handle the l0 pseudonorm. In particular, under a
suitable choice of source norm on the Euclidean space used in the definition of
the Capra coupling - the function l0 is Capra-subdifferentiable, hence is
Capra-convex. In this article, we give explicit formulations for the Capra
subdifferential of l0, when the source norm is a lp norm with p larger that 1.
We illustrate our results with graphical visualizations of the Capra
subdifferential of l0 for the Euclidean source norm.


  We derive new constraints on the mass, rotation, orbit structure and
statistical parallax of the Galactic old nuclear star cluster (NSC) and the
mass of the supermassive black hole. We combine star counts and kinematic data
from Fritz et al (2014), including 2'500 line-of-sight velocities and 10'000
proper motions. We show that the difference between the proper motion
dispersions sigma_l and sigma_b cannot be explained by rotation, but is a
consequence of the flattening of the NSC. We fit the surface density
distribution of stars in the central 1000" by a spheroidal cluster with scale
~100" and a much larger nuclear disk component. We compute the two-integral
distribution function f(E,Lz) for this density model, and add rotation
self-consistently. We find that: (i) The orbit structure of the f(E,Lz) gives
an excellent match to the observed velocity dispersion profiles as well as the
proper motion and line-of-sight velocity histograms, including the double-peak
in the v_l-histograms. (ii) This requires an axial ratio of q= 0.73+-0.04 for
r<70" consistent with our determination from star counts. (iii) The NSC is
approximately described by an isotropic rotator model. (iv) Using the
corresponding Jeans equations to fit the proper motion and line-of-sight
velocity dispersions, we obtain best estimates for the NSC mass, black hole
mass, and distance M*(r<100")=(8.94+-0.31|stat+-0.9|syst)x10^6Msun,
Mbh=(3.86+-0.14|stat+-0.4|syst)x10^6Msun, and R0=8.27+-0.09|stat+-0.1|syst kpc,
where the systematic errors estimate additional uncertainties in the dynamical
modeling. (v) The combination of the cluster dynamics with the S-star orbits
around Sgr A* strongly reduces the degeneracy between black hole mass and
Galactic centre distance present in previous S-star studies. A joint
statistical analysis with the results of Gillessen et al (2009) gives
Mbh=(4.23+-0.14)x10^6Msun and R0=8.33+-0.11kpc.


  A prototype of proton counter was developed by the University and the
National Institute for Nuclear Physics of Torino to be used as online fluence
beam monitor in particle therapy. The single particle identification approach
aims at increasing the sensitivity and readout speed with respect to the
state-of-the-art gas ionization chambers. The sensitive area is 2,7 x 2,7 cm^2
to cover the clinical beam cross section characterized by a full width at half
maximum of about 1 cm at the isocenter. The sensor is a thin Low Gain Avalanche
Diode segmented in 146 strips with 180 micrometer pitch and with 50 micrometer
active thickness, designed and produced by the Fondazione Bruno Kessler
(Trento, Italy). The frontend readout to identify the single proton signal
provided by each strip is based on a 24channel custom ASICs, named ABACUS,
optimized to discriminate the signal pulses in a wide charge range (3-150 fC)
with a maximum dead-time of 10 ns. With these specifications, at the maximum
fluence rate of 10^8 p/(cm^2s) in the clinical energy range (60-230 MeV) and
considering the silicon strips described above, a maximum pileup counting
inefficiency less than 1 percent is achieved. A frontend board housing 6 ABACUS
chips to readout the 146 strips was developed, the digital outputs being sent
to 3 FPGAs (Kintex7) for the counting. A LabVIEW program implements the
interface with the FPGAs, displays online the counting rate from each strip and
stores the data for offline analysis.


  How do different audiences make sense of climate change data visualizations
and what do they take away as a main message? To investigate this question, we
are building on the results of a previous study, focusing on expert opinions
regarding public climate change communication and the role of data
visualizations. Hereby, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 experts
in the fields of climate change, science communication, or data visualization.
We also interviewed six lay persons with no professional background in either
of these areas. With this analysis, we aim to shed light on how lay audiences
arrive at an understanding of climate change data visualizations and what they
take away as a main message. For two exemplary data visualizations, we compare
their takeaway messages with messages formulated by experts. Through a thematic
analysis, we observe differences regarding the included contents, the length
and abstraction of messages, and the sensemaking process between and among the
participant groups.


  We give an introduction to the time-fractional stochastic heat equation
driven by 1+d-parameter fractional time-space white noise, in the following two
cases: (i) With additive noise (ii) With multiplicative noise.
  The fractional time derivative is interpreted as the Caputo derivative of
order $\alpha \in (0,2)$ and we assume that the Hurst coefficient
$H=(H_0,H_1,H_2, ...,H_d)$ of the time-space fractional white noise is in
$(\tfrac{1}{2},1)^{1+d}$.
  We find an explicit expression for the unique solution in the sense of
distribution of the equation in the additive noise case (i).
  In the multiplicative case (ii) we show that there is a unique solution in
the Hida space $(\mathcal{S})^{*}$ of stochastic distributions and we show that
the solution coincides with the solution of an associated fractional stochastic
Volterra equation.Then we give an explicit expression for the solution of this
Volterra equation.
  A solution $Y(t,x)$ is called \emph{mild} if $E[Y^2(t,x)] < \infty$ for all
$t,x$. For both the additive noise case and the multiplicative noise case we
show that if $\alpha \geq 1$ then the solution is mild if $d=1$ or $d=2$, while
if $\alpha < 1$ the solution is not mild for any $d$.
  The paper is partly a survey paper, explaining the concepts and methods
behind the results. It is also partly a research paper, in the sense that some
results appears to be new.


  We will discuss a somewhat striking spectral property of finitely valued
stationary processes on Z that says that if the spectral measure of the process
has a gap then the process is periodic. We will give some extensions of this
result and raise several related questions.


  Dark energy can modify the dynamics of dark matter if there exists a direct
interaction between them. Thus a measurement of the structure growth, e.g.,
redshift-space distortions (RSD), can provide a powerful tool to constrain the
interacting dark energy (IDE) models. For the widely studied $Q=3\beta
H\rho_{de}$ model, previous works showed that only a very small coupling
($\beta\sim\mathcal{O}(10^{-3})$) can survive in current RSD data. However, all
these analyses had to assume $w>-1$ and $\beta>0$ due to the existence of the
large-scale instability in the IDE scenario. In our recent work [Phys. Rev. D
90, 063005 (2014)], we successfully solved this large-scale instability problem
by establishing a parametrized post-Friedmann (PPF) framework for the IDE
scenario. So we, for the first time, have the ability to explore the full
parameter space of the IDE models. In this work, we reexamine the observational
constraints on the $Q=3\beta H\rho_{de}$ model within the PPF framework. By
using the Planck data, the baryon acoustic oscillation data, the JLA sample of
supernovae, and the Hubble constant measurement, we get
$\beta=-0.010^{+0.037}_{-0.033}$ ($1\sigma$). The fit result becomes
$\beta=-0.0148^{+0.0100}_{-0.0089}$ ($1\sigma$) once we further incorporate the
RSD data in the analysis. The error of $\beta$ is substantially reduced with
the help of the RSD data. Compared with the previous results, our results show
that a negative $\beta$ is favored by current observations, and a relatively
larger interaction rate is permitted by current RSD data.


  Sensors fabricated from high resistivity, float zone, silicon material have
been the basis of vertex detectors and trackers for the last 30 years. The
areas of these devices have increased from a few square cm to $\> 200\ m^2$ for
the existing CMS tracker. High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), CMS
and ATLAS tracker upgrades will each require more than $200\ m^2$ of silicon
and the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) will require more than $600\
m^2$. The cost and complexity of assembly of these devices is related to the
area of each module, which in turn is set by the size of the silicon sensors.
In addition to large area, the devices must be radiation hard, which requires
the use of sensors thinned to 200 microns or less. The combination of wafer
thinning and large wafer diameter is a significant technical challenge, and is
the subject of this work. We describe work on development of thin sensors on
$200 mm$ wafers using wafer bonding technology. Results of development runs
with float zone, Silicon-on-Insulator and Silicon-Silicon bonded wafer
technologies are reported.


  A new theorem on the non-classicality depth of states has been proved. We
show that if $W_{\hat \rho} (\alpha_m,s_m)=0$ exist for some value of the
ordering parameter $s$ at some phase-space point $\alpha_m$, and if $W_{\hat
\rho} (\alpha,s_m)$ is an acceptable quasi-classical distribution, the
non-classicality of $\hat \rho$ in parallel with Lee's non-classicality depth
is then given by $\tau_m=(1 - s_m)/2$. In this way, a general examination of
the effects of the single-photon-addition and -subtraction operations has been
studied. The theorem, indeed, provides a theoretical background for generating
quantum states of arbitrary non-classicality depth.


  We introduce and study a new model of interactive proofs: AM(k), or
Arthur-Merlin with k non-communicating Merlins. Unlike with the better-known
MIP, here the assumption is that each Merlin receives an independent random
challenge from Arthur. One motivation for this model (which we explore in
detail) comes from the close analogies between it and the quantum complexity
class QMA(k), but the AM(k) model is also natural in its own right.
  We illustrate the power of multiple Merlins by giving an AM(2) protocol for
3SAT, in which the Merlins' challenges and responses consist of only
n^{1/2+o(1)} bits each. Our protocol has the consequence that, assuming the
Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH), any algorithm for approximating a dense CSP
with a polynomial-size alphabet must take n^{(log n)^{1-o(1)}} time. Algorithms
nearly matching this lower bound are known, but their running times had never
been previously explained. Brandao and Harrow have also recently used our 3SAT
protocol to show quasipolynomial hardness for approximating the values of
certain entangled games.
  In the other direction, we give a simple quasipolynomial-time approximation
algorithm for free games, and use it to prove that, assuming the ETH, our 3SAT
protocol is essentially optimal. More generally, we show that multiple Merlins
never provide more than a polynomial advantage over one: that is, AM(k)=AM for
all k=poly(n). The key to this result is a subsampling theorem for free games,
which follows from powerful results by Alon et al. and Barak et al. on
subsampling dense CSPs, and which says that the value of any free game can be
closely approximated by the value of a logarithmic-sized random subgame.


  We prove an identity relating the product of two opposite Schubert varieties
in the (equivariant) quantum K-theory ring of a cominuscule flag variety to the
minimal degree of a rational curve connecting the Schubert varieties. We deduce
that the sum of the structure constants associated to any product of Schubert
classes is equal to one. Equivalently, the sheaf Euler characteristic map
extends to a ring homomorphism defined on the quantum K-theory ring.


  The Univalence Principle is the statement that equivalent mathematical
structures are indistinguishable. We prove a general version of this principle
that applies to all set-based, categorical, and higher-categorical structures
defined in a non-algebraic and space-based style, as well as models of
higher-order theories such as topological spaces. In particular, we formulate a
general definition of indiscernibility for objects of any such structure, and a
corresponding univalence condition that generalizes Rezk's completeness
condition for Segal spaces and ensures that all equivalences of structures are
levelwise equivalences.
  Our work builds on Makkai's First-Order Logic with Dependent Sorts, but is
expressed in Voevodsky's Univalent Foundations (UF), extending previous work on
the Structure Identity Principle and univalent categories in UF. This enables
indistinguishability to be expressed simply as identification, and yields a
formal theory that is interpretable in classical homotopy theory, but also in
other higher topos models. It follows that Univalent Foundations is a fully
equivalence-invariant foundation for higher-categorical mathematics, as
intended by Voevodsky.


  Using radiation hydrodynamics simulations in a local stratified shearing box
with realistic equations of state and opacities, we explored the outcome of
self-gravity at 50 AU in a protoplanetary disc irradiated by the central star.
We found that gravito-turbulence is sustained for a finite range of the surface
density, from $\sim 80$ to $\sim$ 250 gcm$^{-2}$. The disk is laminar below the
range while fragments above it. In the range of gravito-turbulence, the Toomre
parameter decreases monotonically from $\sim 1$ to $\sim 0.7$ as the surface
density increases while an effective cooling time is almost constant at $\sim
4$ in terms of the inverse of the orbital frequency. The turbulent motions are
supersonic at all heights, which dissipates through both shock waves and
compressional heating. The compressional motions, occurring near the midplane,
create upward flows, which not only contribute to supporting the disc but also
to transporting the dissipated energy to the disc surfaces. The irradiation
does not affect much the gravito-turbulence near the midplane unless the
grazing angle is larger than 0.32. We also show that a simple cooling function
with a constant cooling time does not approximate the realistic cooling.


  Recently, transformers have shown great potential in image classification and
established state-of-the-art results on the ImageNet benchmark. However,
compared to CNNs, transformers converge slowly and are prone to overfitting in
low-data regimes due to the lack of spatial inductive biases. Such spatial
inductive biases can be especially beneficial since the 2D structure of an
input image is not well preserved in transformers. In this work, we present
Spatial Prior-enhanced Self-Attention (SP-SA), a novel variant of vanilla
Self-Attention (SA) tailored for vision transformers. Spatial Priors (SPs) are
our proposed family of inductive biases that highlight certain groups of
spatial relations. Unlike convolutional inductive biases, which are forced to
focus exclusively on hard-coded local regions, our proposed SPs are learned by
the model itself and take a variety of spatial relations into account.
Specifically, the attention score is calculated with emphasis on certain kinds
of spatial relations at each head, and such learned spatial foci can be
complementary to each other. Based on SP-SA we propose the SP-ViT family, which
consistently outperforms other ViT models with similar GFlops or parameters.
Our largest model SP-ViT-L achieves a record-breaking 86.3% Top-1 accuracy with
a reduction in the number of parameters by almost 50% compared to previous
state-of-the-art model (150M for SP-ViT-L vs 271M for CaiT-M-36) among all
ImageNet-1K models trained on 224x224 and fine-tuned on 384x384 resolution w/o
extra data.


  Graph neural networks (GNNs) have received great attention due to their
success in various graph-related learning tasks. Several GNN frameworks have
then been developed for fast and easy implementation of GNN models. Despite
their popularity, they are not well documented, and their implementations and
system performance have not been well understood. In particular, unlike the
traditional GNNs that are trained based on the entire graph in a full-batch
manner, recent GNNs have been developed with different graph sampling
techniques for mini-batch training of GNNs on large graphs. While they improve
the scalability, their training times still depend on the implementations in
the frameworks as sampling and its associated operations can introduce
non-negligible overhead and computational cost. In addition, it is unknown how
much the frameworks are 'eco-friendly' from a green computing perspective. In
this paper, we provide an in-depth study of two mainstream GNN frameworks along
with three state-of-the-art GNNs to analyze their performance in terms of
runtime and power/energy consumption. We conduct extensive benchmark
experiments at several different levels and present detailed analysis results
and observations, which could be helpful for further improvement and
optimization.


  We consider a group synchronization problem with multiple frequencies which
involves observing pairwise relative measurements of group elements on multiple
frequency channels, corrupted by Gaussian noise. We study the computational
phase transition in the problem of detecting whether a structured signal is
present in such observations by analyzing low-degree polynomial algorithms. We
show that, assuming the low-degree conjecture, in synchronization models over
arbitrary finite groups as well as over the circle group $SO(2)$, a simple
spectral algorithm is optimal among algorithms of runtime
$\exp(\tilde{\Omega}(n^{1/3}))$ for detection from an observation including a
constant number of frequencies. Combined with an upper bound for the
statistical threshold shown in Perry et al., our results indicate the presence
of a statistical-to-computational gap in such models with a sufficiently large
number of frequencies.


  We show that every automorphism of the Hilbert scheme of $n$ points on a weak
Fano or general type surface is natural, i.e. induced by an automorphism of the
surface, unless the surface is a product of curves and $n=2$. In the
exceptional case there exists a unique non-natural automorphism. More
generally, we prove that any isomorphism between Hilbert schemes of points on
smooth projective surfaces, where one of the surfaces is weak Fano or of
general type and not equal to the product of curves, is natural. We also show
that every automorphism of the Hilbert scheme of $2$ points on $\mathbb{P}^n$
is natural.


  Making use of definitive new lattice computations of the Standard Model
thermodynamics during the quantum chromodynamic (QCD) phase transition, we
calculate the enhancement in the mass distribution of primordial black holes
(PBHs) due to the softening of the equation of state. We find that the
enhancement peaks at approximately $0.7M_\odot$, with the formation rate
increasing by at least two orders of magnitude due to the softening of the
equation of state at this time, with a range of approximately
$0.3M_\odot<M<1.4M_\odot$ at full width half-maximum. PBH formation is
increased by a smaller amount for PBHs with masses spanning a large range,
$10^{-3}M_\odot<M_{\rm PBH}<10^{3}M_\odot$, which includes the masses of the
BHs that LIGO detected. The most significant source of uncertainty in the
number of PBHs formed is now due to unknowns in the formation process, rather
than from the phase transition. A near scale-invariant density power spectrum
tuned to generate a population with mass and merger rate consistent with that
detected by LIGO should also produce a much larger energy density of PBHs with
solar mass. The existence of BHs below the Chandresekhar mass limit would be a
smoking gun for a primordial origin and they could arguably constitute a
significant fraction of the cold dark matter density. They also pose a
challenge to inflationary model building which seek to produce the LIGO BHs
without overproducing lighter PBHs.


  We report on experimental demonstration of high power, ultrafast, high
repetition rate vortex beam source tunable in the near-IR wavelength range.
Based on single-pass optical parametric generation of Yb-fiber laser of vortex
order lp=1 in a 50 mm long MgO doped periodically poled LiNbO3 crystal, the
source produces signal beam in vortex profile of order ls=1 across 1433-1553
nm. Additionally, the source produces broadband idler radiation tunable across
3379-4132 nm in the Gaussian beam profile. We observed that the vortex profile
of the pump beam is always transferred to the signal beam due to the highest
overlapping integral among the interacting beams and the idler maintains a
Gaussian spatial profile owing to conservation of orbital angular momentum in
optical parametric processes. For pump power of 4.72 W, the signal and idler
beams have maximum power of 1.7 W at 1509 nm and 0.48 W at 3625 nm
respectively. The signal vortex beam has output pulses of width 637 fs at a
repetition rate of 78 MHz. The signal (idler) has spectral width of 4.3 nm
(129.5 nm) and passive peak-to-peak power fluctuation better than 3% (1.1%)
over 30 minutes, respectively.


  We investigate the role of the environment on the colour and stellar
population gradients in a local sample of ~3500 central and ~1150 satellite
SDSS early-type galaxies (ETGs). The environment is parameterized in terms of
the number of satellite galaxies, N_gal in each group. For central galaxies, we
find that both optical colour and mass-to-light (M/L) ratio gradients are
shallower in central galaxies residing in denser environments (higher N_gal).
This trend is driven by metallicity gradients, while age gradients appear to be
less dependent on the environment and to have a larger scatter. On the other
hand, satellites do not show any differences in terms of the environment. The
same results are found if galaxies are classified by central age, and both
central and satellite galaxies have shallower gradients if they are older and
steeper gradients if younger, satellites being independent of ages. In central
galaxies, we show that the observed trends can be explained with the occurrence
of dry mergings, which are more numerous in denser environments and producing
shallower colour gradients because of more uniform metallicity distributions
due to the mixing of stellar populations, while no final clues about merging
occurrence can be obtained for satellites. Finally we discuss all systematics
on stellar population fitting and their impact on the final results.


  Most cosmological parameter estimations are based on the same set of
observations and are therefore not independent. Here, we test the consistency
of parameter estimations using a combination of large-scale structure and
supernovae data, without cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. We combine
observations from the IRAS 1.2 Jy and Las Campanas redshift surveys, galaxy
peculiar velocities and measurements of type Ia supernovae to obtain
h=0.57_{-0.14}^{+0.15}, Omega_m=0.28+/-0.05 and sigma_8=0.87_{-0.05}^{+0.04} in
agreement with the constraints from observations of the CMB anisotropies by the
WMAP satellite. We also compare results from different subsets of data in order
to investigate the effect of priors and residual errors in the data. We find
that some parameters are consistently well constrained whereas others are
consistently ill-determined, or even yield poorly consistent results, thereby
illustrating the importance of priors and data contributions.


  The formation and transition of patterns of two-dimensional turbulent flows
observed in various geophysical systems are commonly explained in terms of
statistical mechanics. Different from ordinary systems, for a two-dimensional
flow, the absolute temperature defined for a statistical equilibrium can take
negative values. In a state of negative temperature, the second law of
thermodynamics predicts that energy in microscopic fluctuations is irreversibly
converted to a macroscopic form. This study explores the possibility of this
one-way energy conversion in a two-dimensional flow using a basic conceptual
model. We consider an inviscid incompressible fluid contained in a bounded
domain, the shape of which is distorted by an externally imposed force. Unlike
the usual fixed boundary cases, the flow energy within the domain is exchanged
with the external system via pressure work through the moving lateral boundary.
Concurrently, the flow field remains constrained by vorticity conservation.
Beginning from a state of Kraichnan's grand-canonical ensemble, when the domain
shape is distorted from one shape to another in a finite time, the Jarzynski
equality is established. This equality states that, on average, the direction
of a net energy flow through the boundary during a cycle of domain distortion
changes with the sign of the initial temperature of the system. Numerical
experiments are carried out to verify this theoretical argument and to
investigate the parameter dependence of the energy exchange rate.


  We formulate a method to compute breakup processes of three-body halo systems
reacting with a target. The reaction between one of the particles and the
target as well as the corresponding pairwise final state interactions are
carefully treated. Both absorption and diffraction processes are included.
Detailed differential and total cross sections are calculated for two-neutron
(2n) removal from 6He by fragmentation on 12C. Effects due to the core
shadowing are taken into account. Good agreement with available experimental
data is obtained.


  We present a composite light-curve model of the symbiotic nova PU Vul (Nova
Vulpeculae 1979) that shows a long-lasted flat optical peak followed by a slow
decline. Our model light-curve consists of three components of emission, i.e.,
an outbursting white dwarf (WD), its M-giant companion, and nebulae. The WD
component dominates in the flat peak while the nebulae dominate after the
photospheric temperature of the WD rises to log T (K) >~ 4.5, suggesting its WD
origin. We analyze the 1980 and 1994 eclipses to be total eclipses of the WD
occulted by the pulsating M-giant companion with two sources of the nebular
emission; one is an unocculted nebula of the M-giant's cool-wind origin and the
other is a partially occulted nebula associated to the WD. We confirmed our
theoretical outburst model of PU Vul by new observational estimates, that
spanned 32 yr, of the temperature and radius. Also our eclipse analysis
confirmed that the WD photosphere decreased by two orders of magnitude between
the 1980 and 1994 eclipses. We obtain the reddening E(B-V) ~ 0.3 and distance
to PU Vul d ~ 4.7 kpc. We interpret the recent recovery of brightness in terms
of eclipse of the hot nebula surrounding the WD, suggesting that hydrogen
burning is still going on. To detect supersoft X-rays, we recommend X-ray
observations around June 2014 when absorption by neutral hydrogen is minimum.


  Japanese Venus Climate Orbiter/AKATSUKI was proposed in 2001 with strong
support by international Venus science community and approved as an ISAS (The
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science) mission soon after the proposal.
The mission life we expected was more than two Earth years in Venus orbit.
AKATSUKI was successfully launched at 06:58:22JST on May 21, 2010, by H-IIA
F17. After the separation from H-IIA, the telemetry from AKATSUKI was normally
detected by DSN Goldstone station (10:00JST) and the solar cell paddles'
deployment was confirmed. After a successful cruise, the malfunction happened
on the propulsion system during the Venus orbit insertion (VOI) on Dec 7, 2010.
The engine shut down before the planned reduction in speed to achieve. The
spacecraft did not enter the Venus orbit, but entered an orbit around the Sun
with a period of 203 days. Most of the fuel still had remained, but the orbital
maneuvering engine was found to be broken and unusable. However, we have found
an alternate way of achieving orbit by using only the reaction control system
(RSC). We had adopted the alternate way for orbital maneuver and three minor
maneuvers in Nov 2011 were successfully done so that AKATSUKI would meet Venus
in 2015. We are considering several scenarios for VOI using only RCS.


  Hexagonal boron nitride is a van der Waals material that hosts
visible-wavelength quantum emitters at room temperature. However, experimental
identification of the quantum emitters' electronic structure is lacking, and
key details of their charge and spin properties remain unknown. Here, we probe
the optical dynamics of quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride using
photon emission correlation spectroscopy. Several quantum emitters exhibit
ideal single-photon emission with noise-limited photon antibunching,
$g^{(2)}(0)=0$. The photoluminescence emission lineshapes are consistent with
individual vibronic transitions. However, polarization-resolved excitation and
emission suggests the role of multiple optical transitions, and photon emission
correlation spectroscopy reveals complicated optical dynamics associated with
excitation and relaxation through multiple electronic excited states. We
compare the experimental results to quantitative optical dynamics simulations,
develop electronic structure models that are consistent with the observations,
and discuss the results in the context of ab initio theoretical calculations.


  In this study the charged Higgs signal through triple or double Higgs
production in a general two Higgs doublet model (2HDM) is investigated. The
main production process is $e^+e^- \rightarrow H^+H^-H^0$ followed by the
charged Higgs decay to a pair of $\tau \nu$ and the neutral Higgs decay to
$b\bar{b}$. The alternative process $H^+W^-H^0$ is also included as a source of
charged Higgs signal in the analysis having comparable cross-section. The focus
is on a future $e^+e^-$ linear collider operating at $\sqrt{s}=1.5$ TeV. The
final state under consideration ($\tau^+ \tau^- b \bar{b}
E^{\textnormal{miss}}_{T}$) is suitable for electroweak background rejection
using the $b-$tagging tools. It is shown that although the signal cross section
is small, with a reasonable background suppression, high signal significance
values are achievable at an integrated luminosity $500 fb^{-1}$ depending on
the charged Higgs mass, $\tan\beta~$ and the CP-odd neutral Higgs mass. Finally
results are quoted in terms of the signal significance for charged Higgs in the
mass range $170<m_{H^{\pm}}<400$ GeV.


  The gauge invariant quark Green's function, defined with a path-ordered phase
factor along a straight line, is studied in two-dimensional QCD in the
large-N_c limit by means of an exact integrodifferential equation. It is found
to be infrared finite with singularities represented by an infinite number of
threshold type branch points with a power of -3/2, starting at positive mass
squared values. The Green's function is analytically determined.


  The distance-redshift relation depends on the amount of matter of each type
in the universe. Measurements at different redshifts constrain differing
combinations of these matter densities and thus may be used in combination to
constrain each separately. The combination of Omega_0 and Omega_Lambda measured
in supernovae at z<1 is almost orthogonal to the combination probed by the
location of features in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy
spectrum. We analyze the current combined data set in this framework, showing
that the regions preferred by the Supernova and CMB measurements are
compatible. We quantify the favoured region. We also discuss models in which
the matter density in the universe is augmented by a smooth component to give
critical density. These models, by construction and in contrast, are not
strongly constrained by the combination of the data sets.


  We analyze a scenario in which software agents implemented as
regret-minimizing algorithms engage in a repeated auction on behalf of their
users. We study first-price and second-price auctions, as well as their
generalized versions (e.g., as those used for ad auctions). Using both
theoretical analysis and simulations, we show that, surprisingly, in
second-price auctions the players have incentives to misreport their true
valuations to their own learning agents, while in the first-price auction it is
a dominant strategy for all players to truthfully report their valuations to
their agents.


  A passive backscatter tag is an energy-efficient wireless communication
device that is ideal for low-power and low-bandwidth applications, such as
sensing and identification. Despite their usefulness, the effectiveness of
these tags is limited by the amount of energy they can harness from the
incident radio signals used to backscatter their information through the
modulation of reflections. This paper aims to maximize this harvested power at
a passive tag by optimally designing the underlying M-ary amplitude-shift
keying (ASK) modulator in a monostatic backscatter communication (BackCom)
system. Specifically, we derive the closed-form expression for the global
optimal reflection coefficients that maximize the tag's harvested power while
satisfying the minimum symbol error rate (SER) requirement, tag sensitivity,
and reader sensitivity constraints. We also proposed optimal binary-ASK
modulation design to gain novel design insights on practical BackCom systems
with readers having superior sensitivity. We have validated these nontrivial
analytical claims via extensive simulations. The numerical results provide
insight into the impact of the transmit symbol probability, tag sensitivity
constraint, and SER on the maximum average harvested power. Remarkably, our
design achieves an overall gain of around 13% over the benchmark, signifying
its utility in improving the efficiency of BackCom systems.


  We observed VB 10 in August and September 2009 using the FORS2 camera of the
VLT with the aim of measuring its astrometric motion and of probing the
presence of the announced planet VB 10b. We used the published STEPS
astrometric positions of VB 10 over a time-span of 9 years, which allowed us to
compare the expected motion of VB 10 due to parallax and proper motion with the
observed motion and to compute precise deviations. The achieved single-epoch
precisions of our observations are about 0.1 mas and the data showed no
significant residual trend, while the presence of the planet should have
induced an apparent proper motion larger than 10 mas/yr. Subtraction of the
predicted orbital motion from the observed data produces a large trend in
position residuals of VB 10. We estimated the probability that this trend is
caused by random noise. Taking all the uncertainties into account and using
Monte-Carlo resampling of the data, we are able to reject the existence of VB
10b with the announced mass of 6.4 M_J with the false alarm probability of only
0.0005. A 3.2 M_J planet is also rejected with a false alarm probability of
0.023.


  The idea of representing symbolic knowledge in connectionist systems has been
a long-standing endeavour which has attracted much attention recently with the
objective of combining machine learning and scalable sound reasoning. Early
work has shown a correspondence between propositional logic and symmetrical
neural networks which nevertheless did not scale well with the number of
variables and whose training regime was inefficient. In this paper, we
introduce Logical Boltzmann Machines (LBM), a neurosymbolic system that can
represent any propositional logic formula in strict disjunctive normal form. We
prove equivalence between energy minimization in LBM and logical satisfiability
thus showing that LBM is capable of sound reasoning. We evaluate reasoning
empirically to show that LBM is capable of finding all satisfying assignments
of a class of logical formulae by searching fewer than 0.75% of the possible
(approximately 1 billion) assignments. We compare learning in LBM with a
symbolic inductive logic programming system, a state-of-the-art neurosymbolic
system and a purely neural network-based system, achieving better learning
performance in five out of seven data sets.


  Classical Newtonian gravitational theory does not satisfy the causality
principle because it is based on instantaneous action-at-a-distance. A causal
version of Newtonian theory for a large rotating sphere is derived herein by
time-retarding the distance between interior circulating point-mass sources and
an exterior field-point. The resulting causal theory explains exactly the flyby
anomaly reported by NASA scientists in 2008. It also explains exactly an
anomalous decrease in the Moon's orbital speed. No other known theory can make
both of these claims.


  Computability logic is a formal theory of (interactive) computability in the
same sense as classical logic is a formal theory of truth. This approach was
initiated very recently in "Introduction to computability logic" (Annals of
Pure and Applied Logic 123 (2003), pp.1-99). The present paper reintroduces
computability logic in a more compact and less technical way. It is written in
a semitutorial style with a general computer science, logic or mathematics
audience in mind. An Internet source on the subject is available at
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~giorgi/cl.html, and additional material at
http://www.csc.villanova.edu/~japaridz/CL/gsoll.html .


  Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and photoacoustic tomography (PAT) are
emerging non-invasive biological and medical imaging techniques. It is a recent
trend in experimental science to design experiments that perform PAT and OCT
imaging at once. In this paper we present a mathematical model describing the
dual experiment.
  Since OCT is mathematically modelled by Maxwell's equations or some
simplifications of it, whereas the light propagation in quantitative
photoacoustics is modelled by (simplifications of) the radiative transfer
equation, the first step in the derivation of a mathematical model of the dual
experiment is to obtain a unified mathematical description, which in our case
are Maxwell's equations. As a by-product we therefore derive a new mathematical
model of photoacoustic tomography based on Maxwell's equations.
  It is well known by now, that without additional assumptions on the medium,
it is not possible to uniquely reconstruct all optical parameters from either
one of these modalities alone. We show that in the combined approach one has
additional information, compared to a single modality, and the inverse problem
of reconstruction of the optical parameters becomes feasible.