  Dislocation engineering has the potential to open new avenues toward the
exploration and modification of the properties of quantum materials. Strontium
titanate (SrTiO3, STO) and potassium tantalate (KTaO3, KTO) are incipient
ferroelectrics that show metallization and superconductivity at extremely low
charge carrier concentrations, and have been the subject of resurgent interest.
These materials also exhibit remarkable ambient-temperature ductility, and thus
represent exceptional platforms for studies of the effects of
deformation-induced dislocation structures on electronic properties. Recent
work on plastically deformed STO revealed an enhancement of the superconducting
transition temperature and the emergence of local ferroelectricity and
magnetism near self-organized dislocation walls. Here we present a
comprehensive structural analysis of plastically deformed STO and KTO,
employing specially designed strain cells, diffuse neutron and x-ray
scattering, Raman scattering, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Diffuse
scattering and NMR provide insight into the dislocation configurations and
densities and their dependence on strain. As in the prior work on STO, Raman
scattering reveals evidence for local ferroelectric order near dislocation
walls in plastically deformed KTO. Our findings provide valuable information
about the self-organized defect structures in both materials, and they position
KTO as a second model system with which to explore the associated emergent
physics.


  The passage of an ion-acoustic solitary wave through the boundary between an
electron-ion plasma and a negative ion plasma is considered. After the
ion-acoustic solitary wave enters the region of another plasma, a disturbance
arises, from which an ion-acoustic solitary wave and a chain of oscillations
form over time. The amplitude of the ion-acoustic solitary wave after passage
through the boundary changes in such a way that its value in the electron-ion
plasma is greater than its value in the negative ion plasmas. An exception is
the case of a compressive ion-acoustic solitary wave propagating through the
negative ion plasma and having an amplitude exceeding the critical amplitude in
the electron-ion plasma. Such an ion-acoustic solitary wave, when entering an
electron-ion plasma, releases an excess of energy to accelerate positive ions
and thereby reduces its amplitude below the critical value. The dependence of
the amplitude of an ion-acoustic solitary wave established after the boundary
crossing on its initial amplitude is determined. The passage of an ion-acoustic
solitary wave through a layer of negative ion plasma surrounded by electron-ion
plasmas is considered. It is shown that the passage of a rarefactive
ion-acoustic solitary wave from the negative ion plasma into the electron-ion
plasma causes disturbance, in which accelerated and trapped negative ions can
be observed.


  Pronk's theorem on bicategories of fractions is applied, in almost all cases
in the literature, to 2-categories of geometrically presentable stacks on a
1-site. We give an proof that subsumes all previous such results and which is
purely 2-categorical in nature, ignoring the nature of the objects involved.
The proof holds for 2-categories that are not (2,1)-categories, and we give
conditions for local essential smallness.


  Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) have been recently considered as
an energy-efficient solution for future wireless networks. Their dynamic and
low-power configuration enables coverage extension, massive connectivity, and
low-latency communications. Channel estimation and signal recovery in RISbased
systems are among the most critical technical challenges, due to the large
number of unknown variables referring to the RIS unit elements and the
transmitted signals. In this paper, we focus on the downlink of a RIS-assisted
multi-user Multiple Input Single Output (MISO) communication system and present
a joint channel estimation and signal recovery scheme based on the PARAllel
FACtor (PARAFAC) decomposition. This decomposition unfolds the cascaded channel
model and facilitates signal recovery using the Bilinear Generalized
Approximate Message Passing (BiG-AMP) algorithm. The proposed method includes
an alternating least squares algorithm to iteratively estimate the equivalent
matrix, which consists of the transmitted signals and the channels between the
base station and RIS, as well as the channels between the RIS and the multiple
users. Our selective simulation results show that the proposed scheme
outperforms a benchmark scheme that uses genie-aided information knowledge. We
also provide insights on the impact of different RIS parameter settings on the
proposed scheme.


  Intermolecular hydrogen transfer free radical reactions are common in the
combustion process and in a number of organic chemistry reactions. Therefore,
evaluating the pressure and temperature-dependent rate constants of them is of
great importance. Here, we present a tutorial on how a Master Equation model
can be constructed to evaluate the rate constants of reversible hydrogen
transfer reactions that involve tunnelling, hindered rotor effects, as well as
source and depletion.


  We take another approach to Hitchin's strategy of computing the cohomology of
moduli spaces of Higgs bundles by localization with respect to the
circle-action. Our computation is done in the dimensional completion of the
Grothendieck ring of varieties and starts by describing the classes of moduli
stacks of chains rather than their coarse moduli spaces.
  As an application we show that the n-torsion of the Jacobian acts trivially
on the middle dimensional cohomology of the moduli space of twisted
SL_n-Higgs-bundles of degree coprime to n and we give an explicit formula for
the motive of the moduli space of Higgs bundles of rank 4 and odd degree. This
provides new evidence for a conjecture of Hausel and Rodr\'iguez-Villegas.
Along the way we find explicit recursion formulas for the motives of several
types of moduli spaces of stable chains.


  We show that for Gibbs measures on self-conformal sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$
$(d\ge2)$ satisfying certain minimal assumptions, without requiring any
separation condition, the Hausdorff dimension of orthogonal projections to
$k$-dimensional subspaces is the same and is equal to the maximum possible
value in all directions. As a corollary we show that Falconer's distance set
conjecture holds for this class of self-conformal sets satisfying the open set
condition.


  We present a preview of the faint dwarf galaxy discoveries that will be
possible with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam in the
next decade. In this work, we combine deep ground-based images from the
Panoramic Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (PISCeS) and extensive image
simulations to investigate the recovery of faint, resolved dwarf galaxies in
the Local Volume with a matched-filter technique. We adopt three fiducial
distances - 1.5, 3.5, 5 Mpc, and quantitatively evaluate the effects on dwarf
detection of varied stellar backgrounds, ellipticity, and Milky Way foreground
contamination and extinction. We show that our matched-filter method is
powerful for identifying both compact and extended systems, and near-future
surveys will be able to probe at least ~4.5 mag below the tip of the red giant
branch (TRGB) for a distance of up to 1.5 Mpc, and ~2 mag below the TRGB at 5
Mpc. This will push the discovery frontier for resolved dwarf galaxies to
fainter magnitudes, lower surface brightnesses, and larger distances. Our
simulations show the secure census of dwarf galaxies down to
$M_{V}$$\approx$-5, -7, -8, will be soon within reach, out to 1.5 Mpc, 3.5 Mpc,
and 5 Mpc, respectively, allowing us to quantify the statistical fluctuations
in satellite abundances around hosts, and parse environmental effects as a
function of host properties.


  In this note I describe the structure of the biset functor $B^\times$ sending
a $p$-group $P$ to the group of units of its Burnside ring $B(P)$. In
particular, I show that $B^\times$ is a rational biset functor. It follows that
if $P$ is a $p$-group, the structure of $B^\times(P)$ can be read from a
genetic basis of $P$: the group $B^\times(P)$ is an elementary abelian 2-group
of rank equal to the number isomorphism classes of rational irreducible
representations of $P$ whose type is trivial, cyclic of order 2, or dihedral.


  Green Pea and Blueberry galaxies are well-known for their compact size, low
mass, strong emission lines and analogs to high-z Ly{\alpha} emitting galaxies.
In this study, 1547 strong [OIII]{\lambda}5007 emission line compact galaxies
with 1694 spectra are selected from LAMOST DR9 at the redshift range from 0.0
to 0.59. According to the redshift distribution, these samples can be separated
into three groups: Blueberries, Green Peas and Purple Grapes. Optical
[MgII]{\lambda}2800 line feature, BPT diagram, multi-wavelength SED fitting,
MIR color, and MIR variability are deployed to identify 23 AGN candidates from
these samples, which are excluded for the following SFR discussions. We perform
the multi-wavelength SED fitting with GALEX UV and WISE MIR data. Color excess
from Balmer decrement shows these strong [OIII]{\lambda}5007 emission line
compact galaxies are not highly reddened. The stellar mass of the galaxies is
obtained by fitting LAMOST calibrated spectra with the emission lines masked.
We find that the SFR is increasing with the increase of redshift, while for the
sources within the same redshift bin, the SFR increases with mass with a
similar slope as the SFMS. These samples have a median metallicity of
12+log(O/H) of 8.10. The metallicity increases with mass, and all the sources
are below the mass-metallicity relation. The direct-derived Te-based
metallicity from the [OIII]{\lambda}4363 line agrees with the empirical
N2-based empirical gas-phase metallicity. Moreover, these compact strong
[OIII]{\lambda}5007 are mostly in a less dense environment.


  The meson photoproductions off nucleons in the chiral quark model are
described. The role of the S-wave resonances in the second resonance region is
discussed, and it is particularly important for the Kaon, $\eta$ and $\eta'$
photoproductions.


  The prospect of finding love may be scary but the prospect of committing to a
relationship for the rest of your life is almost certainly scary. The secretary
problem is a parallel to romantic decision making where an individual decides
when to be satisfied with a selection choice in the face of uncertain future
options. However, the secretary problem and its variations still do not provide
a practical solution in a world where individual preference, goals, and
societal context create a highly complex space of values that factor into
decision making. In light of these complexities, we offer a general process
that can determine the value of romantic options in a highly personal context.
This algorithm is currently being developed into a service that will be
available in 2015 for the general public.


  The 22.2 GHz water masers are often associated with the 6.7 GHz methanol
masers but owing to the different excitation conditions they likely probe
independent spatial and kinematic regions around the powering young massive
star. We compared the emission of these two maser species on milliarcsecond
scales to determine in which structures the masers arise and to test a
disc-outflow scenario where the methanol emission arises in a circumstellar
disc while the water emission comes from an outflow. We obtained high-angular
and spectral resolution 22.2 GHz water maser observations of the two sources
G31.581+00.077 and G33.641-00.228 using the EVN. In both objects the water
maser spots form complex and filamentary structures of sizes 18-160 AU. The
emission towards the source G31.581+00.077 comes from two distinct regions of
which one is related to the methanol maser source of ring-like shape. In both
targets the main axis of methanol distribution is orthogonal to the water maser
distribution. Most of water masers appear to trace shocks on a working surface
between an outflow/jet and a dense envelope. Some spots are possibly related to
the disc-wind interface which is as close as 100-150 AU to the regions of
methanol emission.


  We present the $\textit{Sliced Wasserstein Embedding}$ $\unicode{x2014}$ a
novel method to embed multisets and distributions over $\mathbb{R}^d$ into
Euclidean space. Our embedding is injective and approximately preserves the
Sliced Wasserstein distance. Moreover, when restricted to multisets, it is
bi-Lipschitz. We also prove that it is $\textit{impossible}$ to embed
distributions over $\mathbb{R}^d$ into a Euclidean space in a bi-Lipschitz
manner, even under the assumption that their support is bounded and finite. We
demonstrate empirically that our embedding offers practical advantage in
learning tasks over existing methods for handling multisets.


  We present a necessary and sufficient product criterion for bipartite quantum
states based on the rank of realignment matrix of density matrix. Then, this
approach is generalized to multipartite systems. We first introduce the concept
of semiproduct in a similar manner to the semiseparable and prove that
semiproduct is equivalent to fully product. Therefore, a quantum state is
bipartite product with respect to all possible partitions implies fully product
which is different from the case of separability. For pure states, it can
easily be seen that several necessary and sufficient separability criteria for
multipartite systems are derived as a special case of our results. Several
specific examples illustrate that our criteria are convenient and operational.


  This note is on spherical classes in $H_*(QS^0;k)$ when
$k=\mathbb{Z},\mathbb{Z}/p$ with a special focus on the case of $p=2$ related
to Curtis conjecture. We apply Freudenthal theorem to prove a vanishing result
for the Hurewicz image of elements in ${\pi_*^s}$ that factor through certain
finite spectra. Either in $p$-local or $p$-complete settings, this immediately
implies that elements of well known infinite families in ${_p\pi_*^s}$, such as
Mahowaldean families, map trivially under the unstable Hurewicz homomorphism
${_p\pi_*^s}\simeq{_p\pi_*}QS^0\to H_*(QS^0;\mathbb{Z}/p)$. We also observe
that the image of the integral unstable Hurewicz homomorphism
$\pi_*^s\simeq\pi_*QS^0\to H_*(QS^0;\mathbb{Z})$ when restricted to the
submodule of decomposable elements, is given by
$\mathbb{Z}\{h(\eta^2),h(\nu^2),h(\sigma^2)\}$. We apply this latter to
completely determine spherical classes in $H_*(\Omega^dS^{n+d};\mathbb{Z}/2)$
for certain values of $n>0$ and $d>0$; this verifies a Eccles' conjecture on
spherical classes in $H_*QS^n$, $n>0$, on finite loop spaces associated to
spheres.


  Let I_g,* denote the (pointed) Torelli group. This is the group of homotopy
classes of homeomorphisms of the genus g >= 2 surface S_g with a marked point,
acting trivially on H := H_1(S_g). In 1983 Johnson constructed a beautiful
family of invariants tau_i: H_i(I_g,*) -> /\^{i+2} H for 0 <= i <= 2g-2, using
a kind of Abel-Jacobi map for families, in order to detect nontrivial cycles in
I_g,*. Johnson proved that tau_1 is an isomorphism rationally, and asked if the
same is true for tau_i with i > 1.
  The goal of this paper is to introduce various methods for computing tau_i;
in particular we prove that tau_i is not injective (even rationally) for any 2
<= i < g, and that tau_2 is surjective. For g >= 3, we find enough classes in
the image of tau_i to deduce that H_i(I_g,*, Q) is nonzero for each 1 <= i < g,
in contrast with mapping class groups. Many of our classes are stable, so we
can deduce that H_i(I_infty,1, Q) is infinite-dimensional for each i >= 1.
Finally, we conjecture a new kind of "representation-theoretic stability" for
the homology of the Torelli group, for which our results provide evidence.


  We report on a two-flavour lattice QCD determination of the $B_s\to D_s$ and
$B_s\to D_s^*$ transitions, which in the heavy quark limit can be parameterised
by the form factors $\mathcal{G}$, and $h_{\text A_1}$, $h_{\text A_2}$ and
$h_{\text A_3}$. In the search of New Physics through tests of lepton-flavour
universality, $B_s$ decay channels are complementary to $B$ decays and widely
studied at $B$ factories and LHCb. The purpose of our study is to explore a
suitable method to extract form factors associated with $b\to c$ currents from
lattice QCD. In particular, we present numerical results for $\mathcal{G}$ and
$h_{\text A_1}$.


  The electronic structure and magnetic properties of hexagonal Sc$_3$In are
calculated within density functional theory. We find that the Fermi energy lies
in a region of flat Sc $d$ derived bands leading to a peak in the density of
states and Stoner ferromagnetism. The calculated local spin density and
generalized gradient approximation spin magnetizations are both enhanced with
respect to experiment, which is an indication of significant quantum critical
fluctuations, neglected in these approximations. We find, as expected, that the
ferromagnetism is initially enhanced under pressure, meaning that the critical
point cannot be reached with modest pressure. However, we find that the density
of states peak around the Fermi energy and the calculated density functional
magnetic properties are sensitive to the $c/a$ ratio, so that the quantum
critical point may be reached under uniaxial strain.


  This paper presents a novel class of complex-valued sparse complementary
pairs (SCPs), each consisting of a number of zero values and with additional
zero-correlation zone (ZCZ) property for the aperiodic autocorrelations and
crosscorrelations of the two constituent sequences. Direct constructions of
SCPs and their mutually-orthogonal mates based on restricted generalized
Boolean functions are proposed. It is shown that such SCPs exist with arbitrary
lengths and controllable sparsity levels, making them a disruptive sequence
candidate for modern low-complexity, low-latency, and low-storage signal
processing applications.


  The exploration of hybrid quantum-classical algorithms and programming models
on noisy near-term quantum hardware has begun. As hybrid programs scale towards
classical intractability, validation and benchmarking are critical to
understanding the utility of the hybrid computational model. In this paper, we
demonstrate a newly developed quantum circuit simulator based on tensor network
theory that enables intermediate-scale verification and validation of hybrid
quantum-classical computing frameworks and programming models. We present our
tensor-network quantum virtual machine (TNQVM) simulator which stores a
multi-qubit wavefunction in a compressed (factorized) form as a matrix product
state, thus enabling single-node simulations of larger qubit registers, as
compared to brute-force state-vector simulators. Our simulator is designed to
be extensible in both the tensor network form and the classical hardware used
to run the simulation (multicore, GPU, distributed). The extensibility of the
TNQVM simulator with respect to the simulation hardware type is achieved via a
pluggable interface for different numerical backends (e.g., ITensor and
ExaTENSOR numerical libraries). We demonstrate the utility of our TNQVM quantum
circuit simulator through the verification of randomized quantum circuits and
the variational quantum eigensolver algorithm, both expressed within the
eXtreme-scale ACCelerator (XACC) programming model.


  We treat observable operator models (OOM) and their non-commutative
generalisation, which we call NC-OOMs. A natural characteristic of a stochastic
process in the context of classical OOM theory is the process dimension. We
investigate its properties within the more general formulation, which allows to
consider process dimension as a measure of complexity of non-commutative
processes: We prove lower semi-continuity, and derive an ergodic decomposition
formula. Further, we obtain results on the close relationship between the
canonical OOM and the concept of causal states which underlies the definition
of statistical complexity. In particular, the topological statistical
complexity, i.e. the logarithm of the number of causal states, turns out to be
an upper bound to the logarithm of process dimension.


  For the inflaton perturbations it is shown that the evolution of the
difference between the spectral indices can be translated into information on
the scale dependence of the tensor to scalar amplitudes ratio, $r$, and how the
scalar field potential can be derived from that information. Examples are given
where $r$ converges to a constant value during inflation but dynamics are
rather different from the power--law model. Cases are presented where a
constant $r$ is not characteristic of the inflationary dynamics though the
resulting perturbation spectra are consistent with the CMB and LSS data.
  The inflaton potential corresponding to $r$ given by a n--th order polynomial
of the e--folds number is derived in quadratures expressions. Since the
observable difference between the spectral indices evaluated at a pivot scale
yields information about the linear term of that polynomial, the first order
case is explicitly written down. The solutions show features beyond the
exponential form corresponding to power--law inflation and can be matched with
current observational data.


  We use the operator product expansion (OPE) and dispersion relations to
obtain new model-independent "Borel-resummed" sum rules for both shear and bulk
viscosity of many-body systems of spin-1/2 fermions with predominantly short
range S-wave interactions. These sum rules relate Gaussian weights of the
frequency-dependent viscosities to the Tan contact parameter C(a). Our results
are valid for arbitrary values of the scattering length a, but receive small
corrections from operators of dimension larger than 5 in the OPE, and can be
used to study transport properties in the vicinity of the infinite scattering
length fixed point. In particular, we find that the exact dependence of the
shear viscosity sum rule on scattering length is controlled by the function
C(a). The sum rules that we obtain depend on a frequency scale w that can be
optimized to maximize their overlap with low-energy data.


  Passive states are special configurations of a quantum system which exhibit
no energy decrement at the end of an arbitrary cyclic driving of the model
Hamiltonian. When applied to an increasing number of copies of the initial
density matrix, the requirement of passivity induces a hierarchical ordering
which, in the asymptotic limit of infinitely many elements, pinpoints ground
states and thermal Gibbs states. In particular, for large values of N the
energy content of a N-passive state which is also structurally stable (i.e.
capable to maintain its passivity status under small perturbations of the model
Hamiltonian), is expected to be close to the corresponding value of the thermal
Gibbs state which has the same entropy. In the present paper we provide a
quantitative assessment of this fact, by producing an upper bound for the
energy of an arbitrary N-passive, structurally stable state which only depends
on the spectral properties of the Hamiltonian of the system. We also show the
condition under which our inequality can be saturated. A generalization of the
bound is finally presented that, for sufficiently large N, applies to states
which are N-passive, but not necessarily structurally stable.


  The collective dynamics of nonlinear electron waves in an one-dimensional
degenerate electron gas is treated using the Lagrangian fluid approach. A new
class of solutions with a nontrivial space and time dependence is derived. Both
analytical and numerical results demonstrate the formation of stable,
breather-like modes, provided certain conditions are meet. For large amplitude
of the initial density perturbation, a catastrophic collapse of the plasma
density is predicted, even in the presence of the quantum statistical pressure
and quantum diffraction dispersive effects. The results are useful for the
understanding of the properties of general nonlinear structures in dense
plasmas.


  As shown by Marunovic and Murkovic, non-minimal d-stars, composite structures
consisting of a boson star and a global monopole non-minimally coupled to the
general relativistic field, can have extremely high gravitational compactness.
In a previous paper we demonstrated that these ground-state stationary
solutions are sometimes additionally characterized by shells of bosonic matter
located far from the center of symmetry. In order to investigate the question
of stability posed by Marunovic and Murkovic, we investigate the stability of
several families of d-stars using both numerical simulations and linear
perturbation theory. For all families investigated, we find that the most
highly compact solutions, along with those solutions exhibiting shells of
bosonic matter, are unstable to radial perturbations and are therefore poor
candidates for astrophysically-relevant black hole mimickers or other highly
compact stable objects.


  In this paper we describe the Seiberg-Witten invariants, which have been
introduced by Witten, for manifolds with $b_+=1$. In this case the invariants
depend on a chamber structure, and there exists a universal wall crossing
formula. For every K\"ahler surface with $p_g=0$ and $q$=0, these invariants
are non-trivial for all $Spin^c(4)$-structures of non-negative index.


  A study of the blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy Mrk 996 based on high
resolution optical VLT VIMOS integral field unit spectroscopy is presented. Mrk
996 displays multi-component line emission, with most line profiles consisting
of a narrow, central Gaussian with an underlying broad component. The broad HI
Balmer component splits into two separate broad components inside a 1".5 radius
from the nucleus; these are attributed to a two-armed mini-spiral. The rotation
curve of Mrk 996 derived from the H\alpha narrow component yields a total mass
of 5x10^8 Msol within a radius of 3 kpc.
  The high excitation energy, high critical density [O III] 4363 and [N II]
5755 lines are only detected from the inner region and exist purely in broad
component form, implying unusual excitation conditions. Surface brightness,
radial velocity, and FWHM maps for several emission components are presented. A
separate physical analysis of the broad and narrow emission line regions is
undertaken. We derive an upper limit of 10,000 K for the electron temperature
of the narrow line gas, together with an electron density of 170 cm^-3, typical
of normal H II regions. For the broad line component, we estimate a temperature
of 11,000 K and an electron density of 10^7 cm^-3. The broad line emission
regions show a N/H enrichment factor of ~20 relative to the narrow line
regions, but no He/H, O/H, S/H, or Ar/H enrichment is inferred. The dominant
line excitation mechanism is photoionisation by the ~3000 WR stars and ~150,000
O-type stars estimated to be present in the core. This is indeed a peculiar
BCD, with extremely dense zones of gas in the core, through which stellar
outflows and possible shock fronts permeate contributing to the excitation of
the broad line emission. [Abridged]


  We describe an algorithm, meant to be very general, to compute a presentation
of the group of units of an order in a (semi)simple algebra over Q. Our method
is based on a generalisation of Vorono\"i's algorithm for computing perfect
forms, combined with Bass-Serre theory. It differs essentially from previously
known methods to deal with such questions, e.g. for units in quaternion
algebras. We illustrate this new algorithm by a series of examples where the
computations are carried out completely.


  Cyber vulnerability management is a critical function of a cybersecurity
operations center (CSOC) that helps protect organizations against cyber-attacks
on their computer and network systems. Adversaries hold an asymmetric advantage
over the CSOC, as the number of deficiencies in these systems is increasing at
a significantly higher rate compared to the expansion rate of the security
teams to mitigate them in a resource-constrained environment. The current
approaches are deterministic and one-time decision-making methods, which do not
consider future uncertainties when prioritizing and selecting vulnerabilities
for mitigation. These approaches are also constrained by the sub-optimal
distribution of resources, providing no flexibility to adjust their response to
fluctuations in vulnerability arrivals. We propose a novel framework, Deep
VULMAN, consisting of a deep reinforcement learning agent and an integer
programming method to fill this gap in the cyber vulnerability management
process. Our sequential decision-making framework, first, determines the
near-optimal amount of resources to be allocated for mitigation under
uncertainty for a given system state and then determines the optimal set of
prioritized vulnerability instances for mitigation. Our proposed framework
outperforms the current methods in prioritizing the selection of important
organization-specific vulnerabilities, on both simulated and real-world
vulnerability data, observed over a one-year period.


  An L-pole perturbation in Schwarzschild spacetime generally falls off at late
times t as t^{-2L-3}. It has recently been pointed out by Karkowski,
Swierczynski and Malec, that for initial data that is of compact support, and
is initially momentarily static, the late-time behavior is different, going as
t^{-2L-4}. By considering the Laplace transforms of the fields, we show here
why the momentarily stationary case is exceptional. We also explain, using a
time-domain description, the special features of the time development in this
exceptional case.


  Three different fermion effective potentials given by series of bilinears,
$\sum_j^N (\bar{\psi}_a \psi_a)^{2^j}$ , $\sum_j^N (\bar{\psi}_a \psi_a)^{j}$
and also $\sum_j^N (\bar{\psi}_a \gamma_\mu \psi_a)^{2j}$ where $a=1,...N_r$
and integer $j$ are investigated by introducing sets of auxiliary fields. A
mininal procedure is adopted to deal with the auxiliary fields and an effective
bosonized model in each case is found by assuming weak field fluctuations, i.e.
weak enough when compared to (normalized) coupling constants. Different fermion
condensates are considered for the ground state in the first two series
analysed and the factorization of all higher order condensates into the lowest
order one is found in most cases, i.e. in general $<(\overline{\psi}_a
\psi_a)^n> \propto <\bar{\psi}_a \psi_a>^n$. For the case of the third series
built with vector-type bilinears no condensation is assumed to occur. The
corresponding (weak) scalar fields effective models for the three cases are
expanded in polynomial interactions. The resulting low energy effective boson
model may a exhibit new approximate symmetry depending on the terms present in
the original series-model and on the values of the coupling constants.


  The spontaneous magnetization as a function of temperature is investigated
for a number of disordered Ni-Fe-Mo and Ni-Fe-W alloys using superconducting
quantum interference device magnetometry, with a focus on the low-T behavior as
well as the critical exponents associated with the magnetic phase transition.
While the low-T magnetization is found to be well described by Bloch's T^{3/2}
law, an extraordinary enhancement of the spin-wave parameter B and the reduced
coefficient B_{3/2}=BT_C ^{3/2} are observed with increasing Fe dilution as
compared to conventional 3d ferromagnets, whereas the critical amplitudes are
found to decrease systematically. Recent locally self-consistent calculations
of finite-temperature spin dynamics in a generic diluted magnet provide an
understanding in terms of two distinct energy scales associated with weakly
coupled bulk spins in the FM matrix and strongly coupled cluster spins. In view
of similar behaviour observed in diluted magnetic semiconductors and other
ferromagnetic alloys, it is proposed that these distinctive features
corresponding to the three important temperature regimes provide macroscopic
indicators of signature effects of spin clustering on magnetization behaviour
in disordered ferromagnets.


  Virtual Try-on (VTON) involves generating images of a person wearing selected
garments. Diffusion-based methods, in particular, can create high-quality
images, but they struggle to maintain the identities of the input garments. We
identified this problem stems from the specifics in the training formulation
for diffusion. To address this, we propose a unique training scheme that limits
the scope in which diffusion is trained. We use a control image that perfectly
aligns with the target image during training. In turn, this accurately
preserves garment details during inference. We demonstrate our method not only
effectively conserves garment details but also allows for layering, styling,
and shoe try-on. Our method runs multi-garment try-on in a single inference
cycle and can support high-quality zoomed-in generations without training in
higher resolutions. Finally, we show our method surpasses prior methods in
accuracy and quality.


  We investigate the effects of aperiodic interactions on the critical behavior
of an interacting two-polymer model on hierarchical lattices (equivalent to the
Migadal-Kadanoff approximation for the model on Bravais lattices), via
renormalization-group and tranfer-matrix calculations. The exact
renormalization-group recursion relations always present a symmetric fixed
point, associated with the critical behavior of the underlying uniform model.
If the aperiodic interactions, defined by s ubstitution rules, lead to relevant
geometric fluctuations, this fixed point becomes fully unstable, giving rise to
novel attractors of different nature. We present an explicit example in which
this new attractor is a two-cycle, with critical indices different from the
uniform model. In case of the four-letter Rudin-Shapiro substitution rule, we
find a surprising closed curve whose points are attractors of period two,
associated with a marginal operator. Nevertheless, a scaling analysis indicates
that this attractor may lead to a new critical universality class. In order to
provide an independent confirmation of the scaling results, we turn to a direct
thermodynamic calculation of the specific-heat exponent. The thermodynamic free
energy is obtained from a transfer matrix formalism, which had been previously
introduced for spin systems, and is now extended to the two-polymer model with
aperiodic interactions.


  In this paper, we propose an efficient method to estimate the Weingarten map
for point cloud data sampled from manifold embedded in Euclidean space. A
statistical model is established to analyze the asymptotic property of the
estimator. In particular, we show the convergence rate as the sample size tends
to infinity. We verify the convergence rate through simulated data and apply
the estimated Weingarten map to curvature estimation and point cloud
simplification to multiple real data sets.


  In this paper we consider iterative methods for stochastic variational
inequalities (s.v.i.) with monotone operators. Our basic assumption is that the
operator possesses both smooth and nonsmooth components. Further, only noisy
observations of the problem data are available. We develop a novel Stochastic
Mirror-Prox (SMP) algorithm for solving s.v.i. and show that with the
convenient stepsize strategy it attains the optimal rates of convergence with
respect to the problem parameters. We apply the SMP algorithm to Stochastic
composite minimization and describe particular applications to Stochastic
Semidefinite Feasability problem and Eigenvalue minimization.


  Automatic diagnosing lung cancer from Computed Tomography (CT) scans involves
two steps: detect all suspicious lesions (pulmonary nodules) and evaluate the
whole-lung/pulmonary malignancy. Currently, there are many studies about the
first step, but few about the second step. Since the existence of nodule does
not definitely indicate cancer, and the morphology of nodule has a complicated
relationship with cancer, the diagnosis of lung cancer demands careful
investigations on every suspicious nodule and integration of information of all
nodules. We propose a 3D deep neural network to solve this problem. The model
consists of two modules. The first one is a 3D region proposal network for
nodule detection, which outputs all suspicious nodules for a subject. The
second one selects the top five nodules based on the detection confidence,
evaluates their cancer probabilities and combines them with a leaky noisy-or
gate to obtain the probability of lung cancer for the subject. The two modules
share the same backbone network, a modified U-net. The over-fitting caused by
the shortage of training data is alleviated by training the two modules
alternately. The proposed model won the first place in the Data Science Bowl
2017 competition. The code has been made publicly available.


  In the Flow Edge-Monitor Problem, we are given an undirected graph G=(V,E),
an integer k > 0 and some unknown circulation \psi on G. We want to find a set
of k edges in G, so that if we place k monitors on those edges to measure the
flow along them, the total number of edges for which the flow can be uniquely
determined is maximized. In this paper, we first show that the Flow
Edge-Monitor Problem is NP-hard, and then we give two approximation algorithms:
a 3-approximation algorithm with running time O((m+n)^2) and a 2-approximation
algorithm with running time O((m+n)^3), where n = |V| and m=|E|.


  Rutile-type RuO2 likely supports a simple antiferromagnetic structure which
can be verified by x-ray Bragg diffraction. Three magnetic motifs that do not
break translation symmetry are explored in calculations of amplitudes suitable
for diffraction enhanced by tuning the primary x-ray energy to a ruthenium
atomic resonance. Coupling to x-ray helicity through a charge-magnetic
interference is common to all motifs, together with magnetic and charge
intensities in quadrature in the rotated channel of polarization. Necessary
conditions for these diffraction phenomena are a centrosymmetric crystal
structure, null magnetic propagation vector, and absence of a linear
magnetoelectric effect. Published x-ray diffraction data for RuO2 was analysed
by the authors against a magnetic motif that does not satisfy the conditions. A
polarized neutron study of antiferromagnetic domains can be achieved with a
sample that meets the stated crystal and magnetic symmetries.


  It is known that in systems which contain randomness explicitly in their
Hamiltonians (e.g., due to impurities), the characteristic size L of the
ordered domains can grow only logarithmically with time t following a quench
below the transition temperature. However, in systems without such imposed
randomness, much faster power law growth has generally been predicted.
Motivated by the slow dynamics present in glasses, we have been looking for
counterexamples, i.e., for models without randomness which nonetheless order
logarithmically slowly. Here, we discuss two closely related models for which
we have simple physical arguments that such slow growth occurs. The basis of
these arguments is the claim that the free energy barriers to domain growth in
these models are proportional to L. Thus, the barriers grow as the domains
coarsen. We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations, which lend strong
support to our claims of growing barriers and logarithmically slow dynamics.
Finally, we discuss how quickly the system orders when it is cooled
continuously through the transition (rather than quenched).


  This article features extended summaries and retrospectives of some of the
recent research done by our group, SAFARI, on (1) understanding,
characterizing, and modeling various critical properties of modern DRAM and
NAND flash memory, the dominant memory and storage technologies, respectively;
and (2) several new mechanisms we have proposed based on our observations from
these analyses, characterization, and modeling, to tackle various key
challenges in memory and storage scaling. In order to understand the sources of
various bottlenecks of the dominant memory and storage technologies, these
works perform rigorous studies of device-level and application-level behavior,
using a combination of detailed simulation and experimental characterization of
real memory and storage devices.


  A new family of commutative semifields with two parameters is presented. Its
left and middle nucleus are both determined. Furthermore, we prove that for any
different pairs of parameters, these semifields are not isotopic. It is also
shown that, for some special parameters, one semifield in this family can lead
to two inequivalent planar functions. Finally, using similar construction, new
APN functions are given.


  Starting from a recently proposed comprehensive theory for the high-Tc
superconductivity in cuprates, we derive a general analytic expression for the
planar resistivity, in the presence of an applied external magnetic field
$\textbf{H}$ and explore its consequences in the different phases of these
materials. As an initial probe of our result, we show it compares very well
with experimental data for the resistivity of LSCO at different values of the
applied field. We also apply our result to Bi2201 and show that the
magnetoresistivity in the strange metal phase of this material, exhibits the
$H^2$ to $H$ crossover, as we move from the weak to the strong field regime.
Yet, despite of that, the magnetoresistivity does not present a quadrature
scaling. Remarkably, the resistivity H-field derivative does scale as a
function of $\frac{H}{T}$, in complete agreement with recent magneto-transport
measurements made in the strange metal phase of cuprates \cite{Hussey2020}. We,
finally, address the issue of the $T$-power-law dependence of the resistivity
of overdoped cuprates and compare our results with experimental data for
Tl2201. We show that this provides a simple method to determine whether the
quantum critical point associated to the pseudogap temperature $T^*(x)$ belongs
to the SC dome or not.


  The Fisher-KPP model, and generalisations thereof, is a simple
reaction-diffusion models of biological invasion that assumes individuals in
the population undergo linear diffusion with diffusivity $D$, and logistic
proliferation with rate $\lambda$. Biologically-relevant initial conditions
lead to long-time travelling wave solutions that move with speed
$c=2\sqrt{\lambda D}$. Despite these attractive features, there are several
biological limitations of travelling wave solutions of the Fisher-KPP model.
First, these travelling wave solutions do not predict a well-defined invasion
front. Second, biologically-relevant initial conditions lead to travelling
waves that move with speed $c=2\sqrt{\lambda D} > 0$. This means that, for
biologically-relevant initial data, the Fisher-KPP model can not be used to
study invasion with $c \ne 2\sqrt{\lambda D}$, or retreating travelling waves
with $c < 0$. Here, we reformulate the Fisher-KPP model as a moving boundary
problem on $x < s(t)$, and we show that this reformulated model alleviates the
key limitations of the Fisher-KPP model. Travelling wave solutions of the
moving boundary problem predict a well-defined front, and can propagate with
any wave speed, $-\infty < c < \infty$. Here, we establish these results using
a combination of high-accuracy numerical simulations of the time-dependent
partial differential equation, phase plane analysis and perturbation methods.
All software required to replicate this work is available on GitHub.


  The cosmological constant, i.e., the energy density stored in the true vacuum
state of all existing fields in the Universe, is the simplest and the most
natural possibility to describe the current cosmic acceleration. However,
despite its observational successes, such a possibility exacerbates the well
known cosmological constant problem, requiring a natural explanation for its
small, but nonzero, value. In this paper we study cosmological consequences of
a scenario driven by a varying cosmological term, in which the vacuum energy
density decays linearly with the Hubble parameter. We test the viability of
this scenario and study a possible way to distinguish it from the current
standard cosmological model by using recent observations of type Ia supernova
(Supernova Legacy Survey Collaboration), measurements of the baryonic acoustic
oscillation from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the position of the first
peak of the cosmic microwave background angular spectrum from the three-year
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.


  We present a general formalism for describing singular hypersurfaces in the
Einstein theory of gravitation with a Gauss--Bonnet term. The junction
conditions are given in a form which is valid for the most general embedding
and matter content and for coordinates chosen independently on each side of the
hypersurface. The theory is applied to both a time--like and a light--like
hypersurface in brane--cosmology.


  In this paper, we revisit the classical linear turning point problem for the
second order differential equation $\epsilon^2 x'' +\mu(t)x=0$ with
$\mu(0)=0,\,\mu'(0)\ne 0$ for $0<\epsilon\ll 1$. Written as a first order
system, $t=0$ therefore corresponds to a turning point connecting hyperbolic
and elliptic regimes. Our main result is that we provide an alternative
approach to WBK that is based upon dynamical systems theory, including GSPT and
blowup, and we bridge -- perhaps for the first time -- hyperbolic and elliptic
theories of slow-fast systems. As an advantage, we only require finite
smoothness of $\mu$. The approach we develop will be useful in other singular
perturbation problems with hyperbolic-to-elliptic turning points.


  Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) play a key role in
Development & Economic growth of the Developing countries of the World.
Political, Cultural, Socio-economic Developmental & Behavioral decisions today
rests on the ability to access, gather, analyze and utilize Information and
Knowledge. Government of India is having an ambitious objective of transforming
the citizen-government interaction at all levels to by the electronic mode by
2020.Similarly according to the Vision 2020-The Way Forward presented by His
Excellency YAB Dato' Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the Malaysian Business Council
"By the year 2020, Malaysia can be a united nation, with a confident Malaysian
society, infused by strong moral and ethical values, living in a society that
is democratic, liberal and tolerant, caring, economically just and equitable,
progressive and prosperous, and in full possession of an economy that is
competitive, dynamic, robust and resilient". This paper presents a comparative
study and review relating to e-Governance and application of ICT development
between India & Malaysia.


  We consider average-cost Markov decision processes (MDPs) with Borel state
spaces, countable, discrete action spaces, and strictly unbounded one-stage
costs. For the minimum pair approach, we introduce a new majorization condition
on the state transition stochastic kernel, in place of the commonly required
continuity conditions on the MDP model. We combine this majorization condition
with Lusin's theorem to prove the existence of a stationary minimum pair, i.e.,
a stationary policy paired with an invariant probability measure induced on the
state space, with the property that the pair attains the minimum long-run
average cost over all policies and initial distributions. We also establish
other optimality properties of a stationary minimum pair, and for the
stationary policy in such a pair, under additional recurrence or regularity
conditions, we prove its pathwise optimality and strong optimality. Our results
can be applied to a class of countable action space MDPs in which the dynamics
and one-stage costs are discontinuous with respect to the state variable.


  Spiking neural networks (SNNs) offer an inherent ability to process
spatial-temporal data, or in other words, realworld sensory data, but suffer
from the difficulty of training high accuracy models. A major thread of
research on SNNs is on converting a pre-trained convolutional neural network
(CNN) to an SNN of the same structure. State-of-the-art conversion methods are
approaching the accuracy limit, i.e., the near-zero accuracy loss of SNN
against the original CNN. However, we note that this is made possible only when
significantly more energy is consumed to process an input. In this paper, we
argue that this trend of "energy for accuracy" is not necessary -- a little
energy can go a long way to achieve the near-zero accuracy loss. Specifically,
we propose a novel CNN-to-SNN conversion method that is able to use a
reasonably short spike train (e.g., 256 timesteps for CIFAR10 images) to
achieve the near-zero accuracy loss. The new conversion method, named as
explicit current control (ECC), contains three techniques (current
normalisation, thresholding for residual elimination, and consistency
maintenance for batch-normalisation), in order to explicitly control the
currents flowing through the SNN when processing inputs. We implement ECC into
a tool nicknamed SpKeras, which can conveniently import Keras CNN models and
convert them into SNNs. We conduct an extensive set of experiments with the
tool -- working with VGG16 and various datasets such as CIFAR10 and CIFAR100 --
and compare with state-of-the-art conversion methods. Results show that ECC is
a promising method that can optimise over energy consumption and accuracy loss
simultaneously.


  In this work, we study the interaction between a nucleon and a $P$-wave
charmed meson in the $T$ doublet by exchanging a pion. Our calculations
indicate that a nucleon and a $P$-wave charmed meson with $J^P=0^+$ or
$J^P=1^+$ in the $T$ doublet can form bound states. We propose the experimental
search for these exotic molecular states near the $D_1(2420)N$ and
$D_2^*(2460)N$ thresholds, where Belle, LHCb and the forthcoming Belle II have
the discovery potential for them.


  We show that Zilber's conjecture that complex exponentiation is isomorphic to
his pseudo-exponentiation follows from the a priori simpler conjecture that
they are elementarily equivalent. An analysis of the first-order types in
pseudo-exponentiation leads to a description of the elementary embeddings, and
the result that pseudo-exponential fields are precisely the models of their
common first-order theory which are atomic over exponential transcendence
bases. We also show that the class of all pseudo-exponential fields is an
example of a non-finitary abstract elementary class, answering a question of
Kes\"al\"a and Baldwin.


  We investigate monotonicity properties of $p$-harmonic vector bundle-valued
$k$-forms by studying the energy-momentum tensor associated with such a form.
As a consequence, we obtain a unified proof of the monotonicity formul{\ae} for
$p$-harmonic maps and Yang-Mills connections, proving a monotonicity formula
for $p$-Yang-Mills connections in the process. Moreover, it is shown how this
technique may be adapted to yield an analogous monotonicity formula for
Yang-Mills-Higgs pairs. Finally, we obtain Liouville-type theorems for such
forms and Yang-Mills-Higgs pairs as an application.


  The optical wireless communication (OWC) with the intensity modulation (IM),
requires the modulated radio frequency (RF) signal to be real and non-negative.
To satisfy the requirements, this paper proposes two types of mixed orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (X-OFDM) waveform. The Hermitian symmetry (HS)
character of the sub-carriers in the frequency domain, guarantees the signal in
the time domain to be real, which reduces the spectral efficiency to $1/2$. For
the odd sub-carriers in the frequency domain, the signal in the time domain
after the inverse fast fourier transform (IFFT) is antisymmetric. For the even
sub-carriers in the frequency domain, the signal in the time domain after the
IFFT is symmetric. Based on the antisymmetric and symmetric characters, the two
types of X-OFDM waveform are designed to guarantee the signal in the time
domain to be non-negative, where the direct current (DC) bias is not needed.
With $N$ sub-carriers in the frequency domain, the generated signal in the time
domain has $3N/2$ points, which further reduces the spectral efficiency to $1/3
= 1/2 \times 2/3$. The numerical simulations show that, the two types of X-OFDM
waveform greatly enhance the power efficiency considering the OWC channel with
the signal-dependent noise and/or the signal-independent noise.


  Approximation capabilities of shallow neural networks (SNNs) form an integral
part in understanding the properties of deep neural networks (DNNs). In the
study of these approximation capabilities some very popular classes of target
functions are the so-called spectral Barron spaces. This spaces are of special
interest when it comes to the approximation of partial differential equation
(PDE) solutions. It has been shown that the solution of certain static PDEs
will lie in some spectral Barron space. In order to alleviate the limitation to
static PDEs and include a time-domain that might have a different regularity
than the space domain, we extend the notion of spectral Barron spaces to
anisotropic weighted Fourier-Lebesgue spaces. In doing so, we consider target
functions that have two blocks of variables, among which each block is allowed
to have different decay and integrability properties. For these target
functions we first study the inclusion of anisotropic weighted Fourier-Lebesgue
spaces in the Bochner-Sobolev spaces. With that we can now also measure the
approximation error in terms of an anisotropic Sobolev norm, namely the
Bochner-Sobolev norm. We use this observation in a second step where we
establish a bound on the approximation rate for functions from the anisotropic
weighted Fourier-Lebesgue spaces and approximation via SNNs in the
Bochner-Sobolev norm.


  Via event-driven molecular dynamics simulations we study kinetics of
clustering in assemblies of inelastic particles in various space dimensions. We
consider two models, viz., the ballistic aggregation model (BAM) and the freely
cooling granular gas model (GGM), for each of which we quantify the time
dependence of kinetic energy and average mass of clusters (that form due to
inelastic collisions). These quantities, for both the models, exhibit power-law
behavior, at least in the long time limit. For the BAM, corresponding exponents
exhibit strong dimension dependence and follow a hyperscaling relation. In
addition, in the high packing fraction limit the behavior of these quantities
become consistent with a scaling theory that predicts an inverse relation
between energy and mass. On the other hand, in the case of the GGM we do not
find any evidence for such a picture. In this case, even though the energy
decay, irrespective of packing fraction, matches quantitatively with that for
the high packing fraction picture of the BAM, it is inversely proportional to
the growth of mass only in one dimension, and the growth appears to be rather
insensitive to the choice of the dimension, unlike the BAM.


  A graph-theoretic analysis is undertaken for a compendium of input-output
(transfer) metrics of a standard discrete-time linear synchronization model,
including lp gains, frequency responses, frequency-band energy, and Markov
parameters. We show that these transfer metrics exhibit a spatial degradation,
such that they are monotonically nonincreasing along vertex cutsets away from
an exogenous input. We use this spatial analysis to characterize
signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) in diffusive networks driven by process noise,
and to develop a notion of propagation stability for dynamical networks.
Finally, the formal results are illustrated through an example.


  As web archives' holdings grow, archivists subdivide them into collections so
they are easier to understand and manage. In this work, we review the
collection structures of eight web archive platforms: : Archive-It, Conifer,
the Croatian Web Archive (HAW), the Internet Archive's user account web
archives, Library of Congress (LC), PANDORA, Trove, and the UK Web Archive
(UKWA). We note a plethora of different approaches to web archive collection
structures. Some web archive collections support sub-collections and some
permit embargoes. Curatorial decisions may be attributed to a single
organization or many. Archived web pages are known by many names: mementos,
copies, captures, or snapshots. Some platforms restrict a memento to a single
collection and others allow mementos to cross collections. Knowledge of
collection structures has implications for many different applications and
users. Visitors will need to understand how to navigate collections. Future
archivists will need to understand what options are available for designing
collections. Platform designers need it to know what possibilities exist. The
developers of tools that consume collections need to understand collection
structures so they can meet the needs of their users.


  Human visual attention has recently shown its distinct capability in boosting
machine learning models. However, studies that aim to facilitate medical tasks
with human visual attention are still scarce. To support the use of visual
attention, this paper describes a novel deep learning model for visual saliency
prediction on chest X-ray (CXR) images. To cope with data deficiency, we
exploit the multi-task learning method and tackles disease classification on
CXR simultaneously. For a more robust training process, we propose a further
optimized multi-task learning scheme to better handle model overfitting.
Experiments show our proposed deep learning model with our new learning scheme
can outperform existing methods dedicated either for saliency prediction or
image classification. The code used in this paper is available at
https://github.com/hz-zhu/MT-UNet.


  We consider a model of Brownian motion on a bounded open interval with
instantaneous jumps. The jumps occur at a spatially dependent rate given by a
positive parameter times a continuous function positive on the interval and
vanishing on its boundary. At each jump event the process is redistributed
uniformly in the interval. We obtain sharp asymptotic bounds on the principal
eigenvalue for the generator of the process as the parameter tends to infinity.
Our work answers a question posed by Arcusin and Pinsky.


  We present direct measurements of the $Z^0$-lepton coupling asymmetry
parameters, $A_e$, $A_\mu$, and $A_\tau$, based on a data sample of 12,063
leptonic $Z^0$ decays collected by the SLD detector. The $Z$ bosons are
produced in collisions of beams of polarized $e^-$ with unpolarized $e^+$ at
the SLAC Linear Collider. The couplings are extracted from the measurement of
the left-right and forward-backward asymmetries for each lepton species. The
results are: $A_e=0.152 \pm 0.012 {(stat)} \pm 0.001 {(syst)}$, $A_\mu=0.102
\pm 0.034 \pm 0.002$, and $A_\tau=0.195 \pm 0.034 \pm 0.003$.


  A search is performed for resonant and non-resonant Higgs boson pair
production in the $\gamma\gamma b\bar{b}$ final state. The data set used
corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton
collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector
at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess relative to the
Standard Model expectation is observed. The observed limit on the non-resonant
Higgs boson pair cross-section is 0.73 pb at 95% confidence level. This
observed limit is equivalent to 22 times the predicted Standard Model
cross-section. The Higgs boson self-coupling ($\kappa_\lambda = \lambda_{HHH} /
\lambda_{HHH}^{\rm SM}$) is constrained at 95% confidence level to $-8.2 <
\kappa_\lambda < 13.2$. For resonant Higgs boson pair production through X
$\rightarrow$ HH $\rightarrow$ $\gamma\gamma b\bar{b}$, the limit is presented,
using the narrow-width approximation, as a function of $m_X$ in the range 260
GeV $< m_X <$ 1000 GeV. The observed limits range from 1.1 pb to 0.12 pb over
this mass range.


  The critical dynamics of the chiral symmetry breaking induced by gauge
interaction is examined in the Wilson renormalization group framework in
comparison with the Schwinger-Dyson approach. We derive the beta functions for
the four-fermi couplings in the sharp cutoff renormalzation group scheme, from
which the critical couplings and the anomalous dimensions of the fermion
composite operators near criticality are immediately obtained. It is also shown
that the beta functions lead to the same critical behavior found by solving the
so-called ladder Schwinger-Dyson equation, if we restrict the radiative
corrections to a certain limited type.


  We consider the prescribed mean curvature equation for entire spacelike
hypersurfaces in the Lorentz-Minkowski space, namely \begin{equation*}
-\operatorname{div}\left(\displaystyle\frac{\nabla u}{\sqrt{1-|\nabla
u|^2}}\right)= \rho \quad \hbox{in }\mathbb{R}^N, \end{equation*} where $N\geq
3$. We first prove a new gradient estimate for classical solutions with smooth
data $\rho$. As a consequence we obtain that the unique weak solution of the
equation satisfying a homogeneous boundary condition at infinity is locally of
class $W^{2,q}$ and strictly spacelike in $\mathbb{R}^N$, provided that
$\rho\in L^q(\mathbb{R}^N) \cap L^m(\mathbb{R}^N)$ with $q>N$ and
$m\in[1,\frac{2N}{N+2}]$.


  We introduce the notion of quasi-log complex analytic spaces and establish
various fundamental properties. Moreover, we prove that a semi-log canonical
pair naturally has a quasi-log complex analytic space structure.


  The asymptotic capacity at low input powers of an average-power limited or an
average- and peak-power limited discrete-time Poisson channel is considered.
For a Poisson channel whose dark current is zero or decays to zero linearly
with its average input power $E$, capacity scales like $E\log\frac{1}{E}$ for
small $E$. For a Poisson channel whose dark current is a nonzero constant,
capacity scales, to within a constant, like $E\log\log\frac{1}{E}$ for small
$E$.


  We construct N=1 A-D-E quiver gauge theory with the gauge kinetic term which
depends on the adjoint chiral superfields, as a low energy effective theory on
D5-branes wrapped on 2-cycles of Calabi-Yau 3-fold in IIB string theory. The
field-dependent gauge kinetic term can be engineered by introducing B-field
which holomorphically varies on the base space (complex plane) of Calabi-Yau.
We consider Weyl reflection on A-D-E node, which acts non-trivially on the
gauge kinetic term. It is known that Weyl reflection is related to N=1
electric-magnetic duality. Therefore, the non-trivial action implies an
extension of the electric-magnetic duality to the case with the field-dependent
gauge kinetic term. We show that this extended duality is consistent from the
field theoretical point of view. We also consider the duality map of the
operators.


  Hurwitz numbers are the Laurent coefficients of an elliptic function $\wp(u)$
of cyclotomic type, and they are natural generalization of the Bernoulli
numbers. This paper gives new generalization of Bernoulli and Hurwitz numbers
for higher genus cases. They satisfy completely von Staudt-Clausen type
theorem, an extension of von Staudt second theorem, and Kummer type congruence
relation. The present paper is revised and combined version of math.NT/0304377
and math.NT/0312178 containing many numerical examples.


  We show that ground state solutions to the nonlinear, fractional problem
  \begin{align*} \left\{
  \begin{array}{ll}
  (-\Delta)^{s} u + V(x) u = f(x,u) &\quad \mathrm{in} \ \Omega, \newline
  u = 0 &\quad \mathrm{in} \ \mathbb{R}^N \setminus \Omega, \end{array} \right.
\end{align*} on a bounded domain $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^N$, converge (along
a subsequence) in $L^2 (\Omega)$, under suitable conditions on $f$ and $V$, to
a solution of the local problem as $s \to 1^-$.


  We report transverse and longitudinal magneto-transport properties of NbAs2
single crystals. Attributing to the electron-hole compensation, non-saturating
large transverse magnetoresistance reaches up to 8000 at 9 T at 1.8 K with
mobility around 1 to 2 m^2V^-1S^-1. We present a thorough study of
angular-dependent Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) quantum oscillations of NbAs2. Three
distinct oscillation frequencies are identified. First-principles calculations
reveal four types of Fermi pockets: electron alpha pocket, hole beta pocket,
hole gamma pocket and small electron delta pocket. Although the angular
dependence of alpha, beta and delta agree well with the SdH data, it is unclear
why the gamma pocket is missing in SdH. Negative longitudinal magnetoresistance
is observed which may be linked to novel topological states in this material,
although systematic study is necessary to ascertain its origin.


  Modern microgrids are networked systems comprising physical and cyber
components for networking, computation, and monitoring. These cyber components
make microgrids more reliable but increase the system complexity. Therefore,
risk assessment methods are an imperative technology for cyber-physical systems
to ensure safe and secure operations. The authors propose a reliability
approach that utilizes the failure modes of power and cyber network key
components to perform the risk analysis in microgrids. In this work, the
authors have used the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) approach for risk
assessment of microgrid systems and determine the influence of various failure
modes on their performance. FMEA is one of the most effective methods to assess
the risk involving the cyber components. It is the method of examining
components, modules, and subsystems to determine failure modes in a system and
their causes and consequences. A novel approach is proposed to calculate risk
priority numbers based on factors like severity, occurrence, and detection. A
risk matrix is calculated from the proposed FMEA worksheet, which acts as a
graphical representation for evaluating components risk based on risk priority
number or criticality metrics.


  We calculate the spin current distribution function for a Kondo dot in two
different regimes. In the exactly solvable Toulouse limit the linear response,
zero temperature statistics of the spin transfer is trinomial, such that all
the odd moments vanish and the even moments follow a binomial distribution. On
the contrary, the corresponding spin-resolved distribution turns out to be
binomial. The combined spin and charge statistics is also determined. In
particular, we find that in the case of a finite magnetic field or an
asymmetric junction the spin and charge measurements become statistically
dependent. Furthermore, we analyzed the spin counting statistics of a generic
Kondo dot at and around the strong-coupling fixed point (the unitary limit).
Comparing these results with the Toulouse limit calculation we determine which
features of the latter are generic and which ones are artifacts of the spin
symmetry breaking.


  The four equations of stellar structure are reformulated as two alternate
pairs of variational principles. Different thermodynamic representations lead
to the same hydromechanical equations, but the thermal equations require, not
the entropy, but the temperature as the thermal field variable. Our treatment
emphasizes the hydrostatic energy and the entropy production rate of luminosity
produced and transported. The conceptual and calculational advantages of
integral over differential formulations of stellar structure are discussed
along with the difficulties in describing stellar chemical evolution by
variational principles.


  Caratheodory's axiomatic formulation of the second law is considered as one
of the standard forms of formulation of the law. However, it was mired in
advanced mathematics. The formulation was strongly criticized by Max Planck,
for it was based on the analysis of adiabatic processes and adiabatic
accessibility. A thermodynamic process is said to be possible only if it
satisfies both first law and the second law. A process is said to violate the
second law only when it satisfies the first law, and violate the second law. We
show here that violation of Caratheodory principle of the second law violates
the first law itself. In other words, adiabatic inaccessibility arises only as
a consequence of violation of the first law. This we demonstrate by assuming,
in contradiction to Caratheodory's principle, that the states considered
adiabatically inaccessible as adiabatically accessible, and prove that the
assumption leads to no paradox - thereby showing that the adiabatic
inaccessibility arises as a result of violation of the first law.


  As computers get faster, researchers -- not hardware or algorithms -- become
the bottleneck in scientific discovery. Computational study of colloidal
self-assembly is one area that is keenly affected: even after computers
generate massive amounts of raw data, performing an exhaustive search to
determine what (if any) ordered structures occur in a large parameter space of
many simulations can be excruciating. We demonstrate how machine learning can
be applied to discover interesting areas of parameter space in colloidal self
assembly. We create numerical fingerprints -- inspired by bond orientational
order diagrams -- of structures found in self-assembly studies and use these
descriptors to both find interesting regions in a phase diagram and identify
characteristic local environments in simulations in an automated manner for
simple and complex crystal structures. Utilizing these methods allows analysis
methods to keep up with the data generation ability of modern high-throughput
computing environments.


  In the present paper, we study the power output and efficiency of overdamped
stochastic thermodynamic engines that are in contact with a heat bath having a
temperature that varies periodically with time. This is in contrast to most of
the existing literature that considers the Carnot paradigm of alternating
contact with heat baths having different fixed temperatures, hot and cold.
Specifically, we consider a periodic and bounded but otherwise arbitrary
temperature profile and derive explicit bounds on the power and efficiency
achievable by a suitable controlling potential that couples the thermodynamic
engine to the external world. Standing assumptions in our analysis are bounds
on the norm of the gradient of effective potentials -- in the absence of any
such constraint, the physically questionable conclusion of arbitrarily large
power can be drawn.


  Manipulating the circular polarization of light is of great importance in
chemistry and biology, as chiral molecules exhibit different physiological
properties when exposed to different circularly polarized waves. Here we
suggest a graphene/dielectric-stacked structure, which has both the properties
of a epsilon-near-zero material and the high Hall conductivity of graphene. The
proposed sub-wavelength structure demonstrates efficient manipulation of
circular polarization properties of light. In a quite broad frequency range and
at a large oblique incidence angle, the present magnetically active structure
is transparent for one circularly polarized wave, and opaque for another. Such
an effect can be further tuned by changing the magnitude of the applied
magnetic field and chemical potential of graphene.


  We report the first constraints on the properties of weakly interacting
low-mass dark matter (DM) particles using asteroseismology. The additional
energy transport mechanism due to accumulated asymmetric DM particles modifies
the central temperature and density of low-mass stars and suppresses the
convective core expected in 1.1-1.3 Ms stars even for an environmental DM
density as low as the expected in the solar neighborhood. An asteroseismic
modeling of the stars KIC 8006161, HD 52265 and Alpha Cen B revealed small
frequency separations significantly deviated from the observations, leading to
the exclusion of a region of the DM parameter space mass versus spin-dependent
DM-proton scattering cross section comparable with present experimental
constraints.


  The recently proposed connection between the Lorentz invariance of stability
and the speed of signal propagation has been tested for a first-order
relativistic dissipative hydrodynamic theory. The fact that the stability
situation in different reference frames agrees with each other only as long as
the signal propagation respects causality, has been explicitly established for
the theory, which is microscopically derived from the covariant kinetic
equation in general hydrodynamic frames with arbitrary momentum-dependent
interactions.


  Ruppeiner geometry has been found to be a novel promising approach to uncover
the microstructure of fluid systems and black holes. In this work, combining
with the micro model of the Van der Waals fluid, we shall propose a first
microscopic interpretation for the empirical observation of Ruppeiner geometry.
Then employing the microscopic interpretation, we disclose the potential
microstructure for the anti-de Sitter black hole systems. Of particular
interest, we obtain the microscopic interaction potentials for the underlying
black hole molecules. This significantly strengthens the study towards to the
black hole nature from the viewpoint of the thermodynamics.


  We consider the problem of quantifying the information shared by a pair of
random variables $X_{1},X_{2}$ about another variable $S$. We propose a new
measure of shared information, called extractable shared information, that is
left monotonic; that is, the information shared about $S$ is bounded from below
by the information shared about $f(S)$ for any function $f$. We show that our
measure leads to a new nonnegative decomposition of the mutual information
$I(S;X_1X_2)$ into shared, complementary and unique components. We study
properties of this decomposition and show that a left monotonic shared
information is not compatible with a Blackwell interpretation of unique
information. We also discuss whether it is possible to have a decomposition in
which both shared and unique information are left monotonic.


  In consequential real-world applications, machine learning (ML) based systems
are expected to provide fair and non-discriminatory decisions on candidates
from groups defined by protected attributes such as gender and race. These
expectations are set via policies or regulations governing data usage and
decision criteria (sometimes explicitly calling out decisions by automated
systems). Often, the data creator, the feature engineer, the author of the
algorithm and the user of the results are different entities, making the task
of ensuring fairness in an end-to-end ML pipeline challenging. Manually
understanding the policies and ensuring fairness in opaque ML systems is
time-consuming and error-prone, thus necessitating an end-to-end system that
can: 1) understand policies written in natural language, 2) alert users to
policy violations during data usage, and 3) log each activity performed using
the data in an immutable storage so that policy compliance or violation can be
proven later. We propose such a system to ensure that data owners and users are
always in compliance with fairness policies.


  For the first time, a multi-wave research of oscillation dynamics in a solar
facula from its birth to decay was carried out. We performed spectral
observations of active region NOAA 12744 at Horizontal Solar Telescope of the
Sayan Solar Observatory in the H$\alpha$, He I 10830 A, and Si I 10827 A lines.
We used Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) line-of-sight magnetic field data and
the 1600 A, 304 A, and 171 A UV channels. At the early stages of the facula
evolution, we observed low-frequency (1-2 mHz) oscillations concentrate in the
central part of the facula. In the lower solar atmosphere, this is registered
in the intensity, line-of-sight velocity, and magnetic field signals. These
frequencies were also observed in the transition region and corona (304 A and
171 A channels). At the maximal development phase of the facula evolution, the
low frequency oscillations closely reproduce the coronal loop structures
forming above the active region. At the decay phase, the spatial distributions
of the observed frequencies resemble those found in and above the undisturbed
chromosphere network. Our results indicate a direct relation of the low
frequency oscillations observed in the lower solar atmosphere with the
oscillations in the coronal loops, which is probably implemented through the
loop footpoints.


  In recent years, on-device deep learning has gained attention as a means of
developing affordable deep learning applications for mobile devices. However,
on-device models are constrained by limited energy and computation resources.
In the mean time, a poisoning attack known as sponge poisoning has been
developed.This attack involves feeding the model with poisoned examples to
increase the energy consumption during inference. As previous work is focusing
on server hardware accelerators, in this work, we extend the sponge poisoning
attack to an on-device scenario to evaluate the vulnerability of mobile device
processors. We present an on-device sponge poisoning attack pipeline to
simulate the streaming and consistent inference scenario to bridge the
knowledge gap in the on-device setting. Our exclusive experimental analysis
with processors and on-device networks shows that sponge poisoning attacks can
effectively pollute the modern processor with its built-in accelerator. We
analyze the impact of different factors in the sponge poisoning algorithm and
highlight the need for improved defense mechanisms to prevent such attacks on
on-device deep learning applications.


  We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of two coupled SYK models, conjectured
to be holographically dual to an eternal traversable wormhole in AdS$_2$. We
consider different periodic drivings of the parameters of the system. We
analyze the energy flows in the wormhole and black hole phases of the model as
a function of the driving frequency. Our numerical results show a series of
resonant frequencies in which the energy absorption and heating are enhanced
significantly and the transmission coefficients drop, signalling a closure of
the wormhole. These frequencies correspond to part of the conformal tower of
states and to the boundary graviton of the dual gravitational theory.
Furthermore, we provide evidence supporting the existence of a hot wormhole
phase between the black hole and wormhole phases. When driving the strength of
the separate SYK terms we find that the transmission can be enhanced by
suitably tuning the driving.


  We compare the maximal dimension of abelian subalgebras and the maximal
dimension of abelian ideals for finite-dimensional Lie algebras. We show that
these dimensions coincide for solvable Lie algebras over an algebraically
closed field of characteristic zero. We compute this invariant for all complex
nilpotent Lie algebras of dimension n less than 8. Furthermore we study the
case where there exists an abelian subalgebra of codimension 2. Here we
explicitly construct an abelian ideal of codimension 2 in case of nilpotent Lie
algebras.


  The low efficiency of porous silicon (p-Si) luminescence hinders the
development of silicon-based optoelectronic devices. The increase in p-Si
emission using near-field enhancement, owing to the incorporation of gold
nanoparticles (AuNPs) into the photonic structure, is probably the most viable
alternative. However, the coupling of plasmon resonance to p-Si emission is
challenging because of the difficulty in controlling the size and location of
the AuNPs with respect to the emissive p-Si layer. In this study, AuNPs were
synthesized by clean direct reduction of chloroauric acid inside a p-Si
photonic structure. As a result, AuNPs could be synthesized all along the pores
of the p-Si structure, allowing to obtain a six-fold enhancement of the p-Si
photoluminescence, specifically for the emission band at 567 nm owing to the
plasmon effect. Possible applications of this hybrid material include
light-emitting devices and photoluminescence-based sensors.


  Social storage systems are becoming increasingly popular compared to the
existing data backup systems like local, centralized and P2P systems. An
endogenously built symmetric social storage model and its aspects like the
utility of each agent, bilateral stability, contentment, and efficiency have
been extensively discussed in Mane et. al. (2017). We include heterogeneity in
this model by using the concept of Social Range Matrix from Kuznetsov et. al
(2010).
  Now, each agent is concerned about its perceived utility, which is a linear
combination of its utility as well as others utilities (depending upon whether
the pair are friends, enemies or do not care about each other). We derive
conditions when two agents may want to add or delete a link, and provide an
algorithm that checks if a bilaterally stable network is possible or not.
Finally, we take some special Social Range Matrices and prove that under
certain conditions on network parameters, a bilaterally stable network is
unique.


  We study the probability distribution $P$ of the sum of a large number of
non-identically distributed random variables $n_m$. Condensation of
fluctuations, the phenomenon whereby one of such variables provides a
macroscopic contribution to the global probability, is discussed and
interpreted in analogy to phase-transitions in Statistical Mechanics. A general
expression for $P$ is derived, and its sensitivity to the details of the
distribution of a single $n_m$ is worked out. These general results are
verified by the analytical and numerical solution of some specific examples.


  The 1908 June 30 Tunguska Event (TE) is one of the best studied cases of
cosmic body impacting the Earth with global effects. However, still today,
significant doubts are casted on the different proposed event reconstructions,
because of shortage of reliable information and uncertainties of available
data. In the present work, we would like to revisit the atmospheric
fragmentation of the Tunguska Cosmic Body (TCB) by taking into account the
possibility that a metre-sized fragment could cause the formation of the Lake
Cheko, located at about $9$~km North-West from the epicentre. We performed
order-of-magnitude calculations by using the classical single-body theory for
the atmospheric dynamics of comets/asteroids, with the addition of the
fragmentation conditions by Foschini (2001). We calibrated the numerical model
by using the data of the Chelyabinsk Event (CE) of 2013 February 15. Our work
favours the hypothesis that the TCB could have been a rubble-pile asteroid
composed by boulders with very different materials with different mechanical
strengths, density, and porosity. Before the impact, a close encounter with the
Earth stripped at least one boulder, which fell aside the main body and
excavated the Lake Cheko. We exclude the hypothesis of a single compact
asteroid ejecting a metre-sized fragment during, or shortly before, the
airburst, because there is no suitable combination of boulder mass and lateral
velocity.


  We consider a single-period portfolio selection problem for an investor,
maximizing the expected ratio of the portfolio utility and the utility of a
best asset taken in hindsight. The decision rules are based on the history of
stock returns with unknown distribution. Assuming that the utility function is
Lipschitz or H\"{o}lder continuous (the concavity is not required), we obtain
high probability utility bounds under the sole assumption that the returns are
independent and identically distributed. These bounds depend only on the
utility function, the number of assets and the number of observations. For
concave utilities similar bounds are obtained for the portfolios produced by
the exponentiated gradient method. Also we use statistical experiments to study
risk and generalization properties of empirically optimal portfolios. Herein we
consider a model with one risky asset and a dataset, containing the stock
prices from NYSE.


  In the inflationary scenario of loop quantum cosmology in the presence of
inverse-volume corrections, we give analytic formulas for the power spectra of
scalar and tensor perturbations convenient to compare with observations. Since
inverse-volume corrections can provide strong contributions to the running
spectral indices, inclusion of terms higher than the second-order runnings in
the power spectra is crucially important. Using the recent data of cosmic
microwave background and other cosmological experiments, we place bounds on the
quantum corrections.


  We show that the scalar curvature is uniformly bounded for the normalized
Kahler-Ricci flow on a Kahler manifold with semi-ample canonical bundle. In
particular, the normalized Kahler-Ricci flow has long time existence if and
only if the scalar curvature is uniformly bounded, for Kahler surfaces,
projective manifolds of complex dimension three, and for projective manifolds
of all dimensions if assuming the abundance conjecture.


  The recently proposed infrared modification of gravity through the
introduction of a ghost scalar field results in a number of interesting
cosmological and phenomenological implications. In this paper, we derive the
exact cosmological solutions for a number of scenarios where at late stages,
the ghost behaves like dark matter, or dark energy. The full solutions give
valuable information about the non-linear regime beyond the asymptotic first
order analysis presented in the literature. The generic feature is that these
ghost cosmologies give rise to smooth transitions between radiation dominated
phases (or more general power-law expansions) at early epochs and ghost dark
matter resp. ghost dark energy dominated late epochs. The current age of our
universe places us right at the non-linear transition phase. By studying the
evolution backwards in time, we find that the dominance of the ghost over
ordinary baryonic matter and radiative contributions persists back to the
earliest times such that the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker geometry is dictated to
a good approximation by the ghost alone. We also find that the Jeans
instability occurs in the ghost dark energy scenario at late times, while it is
absent in the ghost dark matter scenario.


  Dualization of a monotone Boolean function on a finite lattice can be
represented by transforming the set of its minimal 1 to the set of its maximal
0 values. In this paper we consider finite lattices given by ordered sets of
their meet and join irreducibles (i.e., as a concept lattice of a formal
context). We show that in this case dualization is equivalent to the
enumeration of so-called minimal hypotheses. In contrast to usual dualization
setting, where a lattice is given by the ordered set of its elements,
dualization in this case is shown to be impossible in output polynomial time
unless P = NP. However, if the lattice is distributive, dualization is shown to
be possible in subexponential time.


  We investigate numerically the behavior of the compensation temperature,
$T_{comp}$, in ferrimagnetic multilayer in the type $3(S_{1-x}
\sigma_x)/\sigma$ with respect to the increase of the spin concentration
$\sigma_x$, which are randomly distributive in a mix of spins $S = 0, \pm 1$
and $\sigma = \pm 1/2$, with ferromagnetic interaction between spins of the
same type, and antiferromagnetic interaction for spins of different type. We
have found that $T_{comp}$ decrease slowly with the increase of $x$, until
$\sigma_x$ represent a little more than 40\% of the spin mixture. For higher
concentration values $T_{comp}$ drops abruptly and disappears, as predicted by
experimental result.


  The sum rule approach is used to derive upper bounds for the dispersion law
$\omega_0(q)$ of the elementary excitations of a Bose superfluid. Bounds are
explicitly calculated for the phonon-roton dispersion in superfluid $^4$He,
both at equilibrium ($\rho=0.02186$ \AA$^{-3}$) and close to freezing
($\rho=0.02622$ \AA$^{-3}$). The bound $\omega_0(q) \le
2S(q)\mid\chi(q)\mid^{-1}$, where $S(q)$ and $\chi(q)$ are the static structure
factor and density response respectively, is calculated microscopically for
several values of the wavevector $q$. The results provide a significant
improvement with respect to the Feynman approximation $\omega_F(q)=
q^2(2mS(q))^{-1}$. A further, stronger bound, requiring the additional
knowledge of the current correlation function is also investigated. New results
for the current correlation function are presented.


  We have searched for axions which could have been produced in the solar core
using an axion helioscope with a 2.3m-long 4T superconducting magnet. Axion
mass region up to m_a=0.26eV was newly explored by introducing
dispersion-matching gas. Preliminary analysis sets a limit on axion-photon
coupling constant to be less than (6.4--9.6)e-10 GeV^{-1} (95%CL) for this mass
region from the absence of the axion signal. This is more stringent than the
limit inferred from the solar age consideration and also more stringent than
the recent helioseismological bound.


  We present archival Spitzer photometry and spectroscopy, and Herschel
photometry, of the peculiar "Green Valley" elliptical galaxy NGC~3226. The
galaxy, which contains a low-luminosity AGN, forms a pair with NGC~3227, and is
shown to lie in a complex web of stellar and HI filaments. Imaging at 8 and
16$\mu$m reveals a curved plume structure 3 kpc in extent, embedded within the
core of the galaxy, and coincident with the termination of a 30 kpc-long HI
tail. In-situ star formation associated with the IR plume is identified from
narrow-band HST imaging. The end of the IR-plume coincides with a warm
molecular hydrogen disk and dusty ring, containing 0.7-1.1 $\times$ 10$^7$
M$_{\odot}$ detected within the central kpc. Sensitive upper limits to the
detection of cold molecular gas may indicate that a large fraction of the H$_2$
is in a warm state. Photometry, derived from the UV to the far-IR, shows
evidence for a low star formation rate of $\sim$0.04 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$
averaged over the last 100 Myrs. A mid-IR component to the Spectral Energy
Distribution (SED) contributes $\sim$20$\%$ of the IR luminosity of the galaxy,
and is consistent with emission associated with the AGN. The current measured
star formation rate is insufficient to explain NGC3226's global UV-optical
"green" colors via the resurgence of star formation in a "red and dead" galaxy.
This form of "cold accretion" from a tidal stream would appear to be an
inefficient way to rejuvenate early-type galaxies, and may actually inhibit
star formation.


  The diamond nitrogen vacancy (NV) center remains an ever increasing topic of
interest. At present, it is considered an ideal example of a solid-state qubit
applicable in quantum communication, computing, and sensing alike. With its
success, the search for defects that share or improve upon its advantageous
features is an ongoing endeavor. By performing large-scale high-throughput
screening of 52600 defects in 4H silicon carbide (SiC), we identify a
collection of NV-like color-centers of particular interest. From this list, the
single most promising candidate consists of a silicon vacancy and chlorine
substituted on the carbon site, and is given the name of the chlorine vacancy
(ClV) center. Through high-accuracy first-principle calculations, we confirm
that the ClV center is similar to the NV center in diamond in its local
structure and shares many qualitative and quantitative features in the
electronic structure and spin properties. In contrast to the NV center,
however, the ClV center in SiC exhibits emission in the telecom range near the
C-band.


  This article develops a novel operational semantics for probabilistic
control-flow graphs (pCFGs) of probabilistic imperative programs with random
assignment and "observe" (or conditioning) statements. The semantics transforms
probability distributions (on stores) as control moves from one node to another
in pCFGs. We relate this semantics to a standard, expectation-transforming,
denotational semantics of structured probabilistic imperative programs, by
translating structured programs into (unstructured) pCFGs, and proving adequacy
of the translation. This shows that the operational semantics can be used
without loss of information, and is faithful to the "intended" semantics and
hence can be used to reason about, for example, the correctness of
transformations (as we do in a companion article).


  One of the most exciting prospects for the LISA gravitational wave
observatory is the detection of gravitational radiation from the inspiral of a
compact object into a supermassive black hole. The large inspiral parameter
space and low amplitude of the signal makes detection of these sources
computationally challenging. We outline here a first cut data analysis scheme
that assumes realistic computational resources. In the context of this scheme,
we estimate the signal-to-noise ratio that a source requires to pass our
thresholds and be detected. Combining this with an estimate of the population
of sources in the Universe, we estimate the number of inspiral events that LISA
could detect. The preliminary results are very encouraging -- with the baseline
design, LISA can see inspirals out to a redshift z=1 and should detect over a
thousand events during the mission lifetime.


  Traffic assignment and traffic flow prediction provide critical insights for
urban planning, traffic management, and the development of intelligent
transportation systems. An efficient model for calculating traffic flows over
the entire transportation network could provide a more detailed and realistic
understanding of traffic dynamics. However, existing traffic prediction
approaches, such as those utilizing graph neural networks, are typically
limited to locations where sensors are deployed and cannot predict traffic
flows beyond sensor locations. To alleviate this limitation, inspired by
fundamental relationship that exists between link flows and the
origin-destination (OD) travel demands, we proposed the Heterogeneous
Spatio-Temporal Graph Sequence Network (HSTGSN). HSTGSN exploits dependency
between origin and destination nodes, even when it is long-range, and learns
implicit vehicle route choices under different origin-destination demands. This
model is based on a heterogeneous graph which consists of road links, OD links
(virtual links connecting origins and destinations) and a spatio-temporal graph
encoder-decoder that captures the spatio-temporal relationship between OD
demands and flow distribution. We will show how the graph encoder-decoder is
able to recover the incomplete information in the OD demand, by using node
embedding from the graph decoder to predict the temporal changes in flow
distribution. Using extensive experimental studies on real-world networks with
complete/incomplete OD demands, we demonstrate that our method can not only
capture the implicit spatio-temporal relationship between link traffic flows
and OD demands but also achieve accurate prediction performance and
generalization capability.


  Exciton fine structures in cubic III-V semiconductor GaAs, InAs and GaN
quantum dots are investigated systematically and the exciton spin relaxation in
GaN quantum dots is calculated by first setting up the effective exciton
Hamiltonian. The electron-hole exchange interaction Hamiltonian, which consists
of the long- and short-range parts, is derived within the effective-mass
approximation by taking into account the conduction, heavy- and light-hole
bands, and especially the split-off band. The scheme applied in this work
allows the description of excitons in both the strong and weak confinement
regimes. The importance of treating the direct electron-hole Coulomb
interaction unperturbatively is demonstrated. We show in our calculation that
the light-hole and split-off bands are negligible when considering the exciton
fine structure, even for GaN quantum dots, and the short-range exchange
interaction is irrelevant when considering the optically active doublet
splitting. We point out that the long-range exchange interaction, which is
neglected in many previous works, contributes to the energy splitting between
the bright and dark states, together with the short-range exchange interaction.
Strong dependence of the optically active doublet splitting on the anisotropy
of dot shape is reported. Large doublet splittings up to 600 $\mu$eV, and even
up to several meV for small dot size with large anisotropy, is shown in GaN
quantum dots. The spin relaxation between the lowest two optically active
exciton states in GaN quantum dots is calculated, showing a strong dependence
on the dot anisotropy. Long exciton spin relaxation time is reported in GaN
quantum dots. These findings are in good agreement with the experimental
results.


  In this paper, after reviewing the main points of Haar wavelet transform and
chaotic trigonometric maps, we introduce a new perspective of Haar wavelet
transform. The essential idea of the paper is given linearity properties of the
scaling function of the Haar wavelet. With regard to applications of Haar
wavelet transform in image processing, we introduce chaotic trigonometric Haar
wavelet transform to encrypt the plain images. In addition, the encrypted
images based on a proposed algorithm were made. To evaluate the security of the
encrypted images, the key space analysis, the correlation coefficient analysis
and differential attack were performed. Here, the chaotic trigonometric Haar
wavelet transform tries to improve the problem of failure of encryption such as
small key space and level of security.


  Let $M$ be a smooth compact manifold and $P$ be either $R^1$ or $S^1$. There
is a natural action of the groups $Diff(M)$ and $Diff(M) \times Diff(P)$ on the
space of smooth mappings $C^{\infty}(M,P)$. For $f\in C^{\infty}(M,P)$ let
$S_f$, $S_{MP}$, $O_f$, and $O_{MP}$ be the stabilizers and orbits of $f$ under
these actions. Recently, the author proved that under mild conditions on $f\in
C^{\infty}(M,R^1)$ the corresponding stabilizers and orbits are homotopy
equivalent: $S_{MR} \sim S_{M}$ and $O_{MR} \sim O_M$. These results are
extended here to the actions on $C^{\infty}(M,S^1)$. It is proved that under
the similar conditions (that are rather typical) we have that $S_{MS}\sim S_M$
and $O_{MS} \sim O_M \times S^1$.


  In a recent paper [2] the author introduced and investigated a random walk
model similar to a model introduced in [1]. In these models the increment of
the random walk depends on the complete past of the process. In this note I
will point out that the models considered in [1] and [2] can be mapped onto
each other one to one. They can be defined on a common probability space and
hence all expectation values of the model [2] with parameter p are equal to the
ones of [1] with a corresponding parameter $\tilde{p}$.