  We present observations and analysis of PS1-10bzj, a superluminous supernova
(SLSN) discovered in the Pan-STARRS Medium Deep Survey at a redshift z = 0.650.
Spectroscopically, PS1-10bzj is similar to the hydrogen-poor SLSNe 2005ap and
SCP 06F6, though with a steeper rise and lower peak luminosity (M_bol = -21.4
mag) than previous events. We construct a bolometric light curve, and show that
while PS1-10bzj's energetics were less extreme than previous events, its
luminosity still cannot be explained by radioactive nickel decay alone. We
explore both a magnetar spin-down and circumstellar interaction scenario and
find that either can fit the data. PS1-10bzj is located in the Extended Chandra
Deep Field South and the host galaxy is imaged in a number of surveys,
including with the Hubble Space Telescope. The host is a compact dwarf galaxy
(M_B ~ -18 mag, diameter < 800 pc), with a low stellar mass (M_* ~ 2.4 * 10^7
M_sun), young stellar population (\tau_* ~ 5 Myr), and a star formation rate of
~ 2-3 M_sun/yr. The specific star formation rate is the highest seen in a SLSN
host so far (~ 100 Gyr^{-1}). We detect the [O III]\lambda 4363 line, and find
a low metallicity: 12+(O/H) = 7.8 +/- 0.2 (~ 0.1 Z_sun). Together, this
indicates that at least some of the progenitors of SLSNe come from young,
low-metallicity populations.


  This methodology paper addresses high-performance high-productivity
programming on spatial architectures. Spatial architectures are efficient for
executing dataflow algorithms, yet for high-performance programming, the
productivity is low and verification is painful. We show that coding and
verification are the biggest obstacle to the wide adoption of spatial
architectures. We propose a new programming methodology, T2S (Temporal to
Spatial), to remove this obstacle. A programmer specifies a temporal definition
and a spatial mapping. The temporal definition defines the functionality to
compute, while the spatial mapping defines how to decompose the functionality
and map the decomposed pieces onto a spatial architecture. The specification
precisely controls a compiler to actually implement the loop and data
transformations specified in the mapping. The specification is loop-nest- and
matrix-oriented, and thus lends itself to the compiler for automatic, static
verification. Many generic, strategic loop and data optimizations can be
systematically expressed. Consequently, high performance is expected with
substantially higher productivity: compared with high-performance programming
in today's high-level synthesis (HLS) languages or hardware description
languages (HDLs), the engineering effort on coding and verification is expected
to be reduced from months to hours, a reduction of 2 or 3 orders of magnitude.


  In this paper we introduce a new type of preferential attachment network, the
growth of which is based on the eigenvalue centrality. In this network, the
agents attach most probably to the nodes with larger eigenvalue centrality
which represents that the agent has stronger connections. A new network is
presented, namely a dandelion network, which shares some properties of
star-like structure and also a hierarchical network. We show that this network,
having hub-and-spoke topology is not generally scale free, and shows essential
differences with respect to the Barab{\'a}si-Albert preferential attachment
model. Most importantly, there is a super hub agent in the system (identified
by a pronounced peak in the spectrum), and the other agents are classified in
terms of the distance to this super-hub. We explore a plenty of statistical
centralities like the nodes degree, the betweenness and the eigenvalue
centrality, along with various measures of structure like the community and
hierarchical structures, and the clustering coefficient. Global measures like
the shortest path statistics and the self-similarity are also examined.


  Extreme mass-ratio contact binaries with a high degree of overcontact may be
in the late evolutionary stages of the contact phase. Detailed photometric
analyses and orbital period studies of those systems can provide invaluable
information for the coalescence scenario of close binary systems, as recently
observed in V1309 Sco. In this paper the first light curve analysis and period
study for the totally eclipsing contact binary AW CrB is presented. The VRcIc
CCD photometric light curves are analysed by means of the WD code. The
asymmetry of the light curves is modelled by a cool star spot on the primary
component. It is shown that AW CrB has a high degree of overcontact f=75% and
an extreme mass-ratio of q=0.10, placing it among the few contact binaries with
the lowest known mass-ratios. The mean density of the primary component suggest
that it has evolved away from the ZAMS. Eighty-four times of minimum light are
reported, derived from observations available in public archives, the
literature, and the observations presented in this paper. The orbital period
study shows a continuously increasing period, at a rate of dP/dt=3.58x10^-7 d
yr^-1, suggesting a mass transfer from the secondary component to the primary
one, implying a further decreasing mass-ratio.


  There is strong evidence that the diffuse ionized gas (DIG) in disc galaxies
is photoionized by radiation from UV luminous O and B stars in the galactic
disc, both from observations and detailed numerical models. However, it is
still not clear what mechanism is responsible for providing the necessary
pressure support for a diffuse gas layer at kpc-scale above the disc. In this
work we investigate if the pressure increase caused by photoionization can
provide this support. We run self-consistent radiation hydrodynamics models of
a gaseous disc in an external potential. We find that photoionization feedback
can drive low levels of turbulence in the dense galactic disc, and that it
provides pressure support for an extended diffuse gas layer. Our results show
that there is a natural fine-tuning between the total ionizing radiation budget
of the sources in the galaxy and the amount of gas in the different ionization
phases of the ISM, and provide the first fully consistent radiation
hydrodynamics model of the DIG.


  Recently, image-to-image translation research has witnessed remarkable
progress. Although current approaches successfully generate diverse outputs or
perform scalable image transfer, these properties have not been combined into a
single method. To address this limitation, we propose SDIT: Scalable and
Diverse image-to-image translation. These properties are combined into a single
generator. The diversity is determined by a latent variable which is randomly
sampled from a normal distribution. The scalability is obtained by conditioning
the network on the domain attributes. Additionally, we also exploit an
attention mechanism that permits the generator to focus on the domain-specific
attribute. We empirically demonstrate the performance of the proposed method on
face mapping and other datasets beyond faces.


  In the Feedback Vertex Set problem, one is given an undirected graph $G$ and
an integer $k$, and one needs to determine whether there exists a set of $k$
vertices that intersects all cycles of $G$ (a so-called feedback vertex set).
Feedback Vertex Set is one of the most central problems in parameterized
complexity: It served as an excellent test bed for many important algorithmic
techniques in the field such as Iterative Compression~[Guo et al. (JCSS'06)],
Randomized Branching~[Becker et al. (J. Artif. Intell. Res'00)] and
Cut\&Count~[Cygan et al. (FOCS'11)]. In particular, there has been a long race
for the smallest dependence $f(k)$ in run times of the type $O^\star(f(k))$,
where the $O^\star$ notation omits factors polynomial in $n$. This race seemed
to be run in 2011, when a randomized algorithm $O^\star(3^k)$ time algorithm
based on Cut\&Count was introduced.
  In this work, we show the contrary and give a $O^\star(2.7^k)$ time
randomized algorithm. Our algorithm combines all mentioned techniques with
substantial new ideas: First, we show that, given a feedback vertex set of size
$k$ of bounded average degree, a tree decomposition of width $(1-\Omega(1))k$
can be found in polynomial time. Second, we give a randomized branching
strategy inspired by the one from~[Becker et al. (J. Artif. Intell. Res'00)] to
reduce to the aforementioned bounded average degree setting. Third, we obtain
significant run time improvements by employing fast matrix multiplication.


  The fundamental derivation of macroscopic model equations to describe swarms
based on microscopic movement laws and mathematical analyses into their
self-organisation capabilities remains a challenge from the perspective of both
modelling and analysis. In this paper we clarify relevant continuous
macroscopic model equations that describe follower-leader interactions for a
swarm where these two populations are fixed. We study the behaviour of the
swarm over long and short time scales to shed light on the number of leaders
needed to initiate swarm movement, according to the homogeneous or
inhomogeneous nature of the interaction (alignment) kernel. The results
indicate the crucial role played by the interaction kernel to model transient
behaviour.


  We demonstrate that the cosmological arrow of time is the cause for the arrow
of time associated with the retarded radiation. This implies that the proposed
mathematical model serves to confirm the hypothesis of Gold and Wheeler that
the stars radiate light instead of consuming it only because the universe is
expanding -- just like the darkness of the night sky is a side-effect of the
global cosmological expansion.


  Public cameras often have limited metadata describing their attributes. A key
missing attribute is the precise location of the camera, using which it is
possible to precisely pinpoint the location of events seen in the camera. In
this paper, we explore the following question: under what conditions is it
possible to estimate the location of a camera from a single image taken by the
camera? We show that, using a judicious combination of projective geometry,
neural networks, and crowd-sourced annotations from human workers, it is
possible to position 95% of the images in our test data set to within 12 m.
This performance is two orders of magnitude better than PoseNet, a
state-of-the-art neural network that, when trained on a large corpus of images
in an area, can estimate the pose of a single image. Finally, we show that the
camera's inferred position and intrinsic parameters can help design a number of
virtual sensors, all of which are reasonably accurate.


  In this paper I focused on resource scheduling in the downlink of
LTE-Advanced with aggregation of multiple Component Carriers (CCs). When
Carrier Aggregation (CA) is applied, a well-designed resource scheduling scheme
is essential to the LTE-A system. Joint User Scheduling (JUS), Separated Random
User Scheduling (SRUS), Separated Burst-Level Scheduling (SBLS) are three
different resource scheduling schemes. JUS is optimal in performance but with
high complexity and not considering quality of experience (QoE) parameters.
Whereas SRUS and SBLS are contrary and users will acquire few resources because
they do not support CA and the system fairness is disappointing. The author
propose a novel Carrier Scheduling (CS) scheme, termed as "Quality of Service
and Channel Scheduling" (QSCS). Connected CCs of one user can be changed in
burst level and these changes are based on checking of services priority and
quality of signal that user experiences. Simulation results show that the
proposed algorithm can effectively enhance throughput of users like JUS and
also it chooses best CCs based on QoS and channel quality parameters. The
simulation results also show that achieved QoE is much better than other
algorithms.


  We demonstrate the existence of a large Kondo screening cloud in the
k-channel Kondo model using both renormalization group improved perturbation
theory and the large-k limit. We study position (r) dependent spin Green's
functions in both static and equal time cases. The equal-time Green's function
provides a natural definition of the screening cloud profile, in which the
large Kondo scale appears. At large distances it consists of both a slowly
varying piece and a piece which oscillates at twice the Fermi wave-vector. This
function is calculated at all r in the large-k limit. Static Green's functions
(Knight shift or susceptibility) consist only of a term oscillating at 2kF, and
appear to factorize into a function of r times a function of T for rT << vF, in
agreement with NMR experiments. Most of the integrated susceptibility comes
from the impurity-impurity part with conduction electron contributions
suppressed by powers of the bare Kondo coupling. The single-channel and
overscreened multi-channel cases are rather similar although anomalous
power-laws occur in the latter case at large r and low T due to irrelevant
operator corrections.


  The aim of this note is to prove a law of large numbers for local patterns in
discrete point processes. We investigate two different situations: a class of
point processes on the one dimensional lattice including certain Schur
measures, and a model of random plane partitions, introduced by Okounkov and
Reshetikhin. The results state in both cases that the linear statistic of a
function, weighted by the appearance of a fixed pattern in the random
configuration and conveniently normalized, converges to the deterministic
integral of that function weighted by the expectation with respect to the limit
process of the appearance of the pattern.


  In this paper, we propose an approach for synthesizing novel view images from
a single RGBD (Red Green Blue-Depth) input. Novel view synthesis (NVS) is an
interesting computer vision task with extensive applications. Methods using
multiple images has been well-studied, exemplary ones include training
scene-specific Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF), or leveraging multi-view stereo
(MVS) and 3D rendering pipelines. However, both are either computationally
intensive or non-generalizable across different scenes, limiting their
practical value. Conversely, the depth information embedded in RGBD images
unlocks 3D potential from a singular view, simplifying NVS. The widespread
availability of compact, affordable stereo cameras, and even LiDARs in
contemporary devices like smartphones, makes capturing RGBD images more
accessible than ever. In our method, we convert an RGBD image into a point
cloud and render it from a different viewpoint, then formulate the NVS task
into an image translation problem. We leveraged generative adversarial networks
to style-transfer the rendered image, achieving a result similar to a
photograph taken from the new perspective. We explore both unsupervised
learning using CycleGAN and supervised learning with Pix2Pix, and demonstrate
the qualitative results. Our method circumvents the limitations of traditional
multi-image techniques, holding significant promise for practical, real-time
applications in NVS.


  Spinning dust appears to be the best explanation for the anomalous emission
that has been observed at $\sim 10-60$ GHz. One of the best examples of
spinning dust comes from a HII region in the Perseus molecular cloud.
Observations of other HII regions also show tentative evidence for excess
emission at frequencies $\sim 30$ GHz, although at lower emissivity levels. A
new detection of excess emission at 31 GHz in the HII region RCW175 has been
made. The most plausible explanation again comes from spinning dust. HII
regions are a good place to look for spinning dust as long as accurate radio
data spanning the $\sim 5-100$ GHz range is available.


  We review the developments of QCD multipole expansion and its applications to
hadronic transitions and some radiative decays of heavy quarkonia. Theoretical
predictions are compsred with updated experimental results.


  Search engines rely heavily on term-based approaches that represent queries
and documents as bags of words. Text---a document or a query---is represented
by a bag of its words that ignores grammar and word order, but retains word
frequency counts. When presented with a search query, the engine then ranks
documents according to their relevance scores by computing, among other things,
the matching degrees between query and document terms. While term-based
approaches are intuitive and effective in practice, they are based on the
hypothesis that documents that exactly contain the query terms are highly
relevant regardless of query semantics. Inversely, term-based approaches assume
documents that do not contain query terms as irrelevant. However, it is known
that a high matching degree at the term level does not necessarily mean high
relevance and, vice versa, documents that match null query terms may still be
relevant. Consequently, there exists a vocabulary gap between queries and
documents that occurs when both use different words to describe the same
concepts. It is the alleviation of the effect brought forward by this
vocabulary gap that is the topic of this dissertation. More specifically, we
propose (1) methods to formulate an effective query from complex textual
structures and (2) latent vector space models that circumvent the vocabulary
gap in information retrieval.


  We present an explicit sech-squared-soliton solution associated with the
optical Pockels effect, achieved through the generation of the frequency combs
via parametric down-conversion in optical microresonators with quadratic
nonlinearity. This soliton contrasts the parametric sech-soliton describing the
half-harmonic field in the limit of the large index mismatch, and associated
with the cascaded-Kerr effect. We predict differences in the spectral profiles
and powers of the Pockels and cascaded-Kerr solitons, and report that the pump
power threshold of the former agree with the recent experimental observations.


  Coherent backscattering (CBS) of light waves by a random medium is a
signature of interference effects in multiple scattering. This effect has been
studied in many systems ranging from white paint to biological tissues.
Recently, we have observed CBS from a sample of laser-cooled atoms, a
scattering medium with interesting new properties. In this paper we discuss
various effects, which have to be taken into account for a quantitative study
of coherent backscattering of light by cold atoms.


  Massive relic galaxies formed the bulk of their stellar component before z~2
and have remained unaltered since then. Therefore, they represent a unique
opportunity to study in great detail the frozen stellar population properties
of those galaxies that populated the primitive Universe. We have combined
optical to near-infrared line-strength indices in order to infer, out to 1.5
Reff, the IMF of the nearby relic massive galaxy NGC 1277. The IMF of this
galaxy is bottom-heavy at all radii, with the fraction of low-mass stars being
at least a factor of two larger than that found in the Milky Way. The excess of
low-mass stars is present throughout the galaxy, while the velocity dispersion
profile shows a strong decrease with radius. This behaviour suggests that local
velocity dispersion is not the only driver of the observed IMF variations seen
among nearby early-type galaxies. In addition, the excess of low-mass stars
shown in NGC 1277 could reflect the effect on the IMF of dramatically different
and intense star formation processes at z~2, compared to the less extreme
conditions observed in the local Universe.


  Learning distributions over graph-structured data is a challenging task with
many applications in biology and chemistry. In this work we use an energy-based
model (EBM) based on multi-channel graph neural networks (GNN) to learn
permutation invariant unnormalized density functions on graphs. Unlike standard
EBM training methods our approach is to learn the model via minimizing
adversarial stein discrepancy. Samples from the model can be obtained via
Langevin dynamics based MCMC. We find that this approach achieves competitive
results on graph generation compared to benchmark models.


  Srivastava et al. (2010) have observed a highly twisted coronal loop, which
was anchored in AR10960 during the period 04:43 UT-04:52 UT on 4 June 2007. The
loop length and radius are approximately 80 Mm and 4 Mm, with a twist of 11.5
$\pi$. These observations are used as initial conditions in a three dimensional
nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic simulation with parallel thermal conduction
included. The initial unstable equilibrium evolves into the kink instability,
from which synthetic observables are generated for various high-temperature
filters of SDO/AIA. These observables include temporal and spatial averaging to
account for the resolution and exposure times of SDO/AIA images. Using the
simulation results, we describe the implications of coronal kink instability as
observables in SDO/AIA filters.


  Using standard mathematical methods for asymptotic series and the
large-$\beta_0$ approximation, we define a Minimum Distance between the
Fixed-Order perturbative series and the Contour-Improved perturbative series in
the strong coupling $\alpha_s$ for finite-energy sum rules as applied to
hadronic $\tau$ decays. This distance is similar, but not identical, to the
Asymptotic Separation of Hoang and Regner, which is defined in terms of the
difference of the two series after Borel resummation. Our results confirm a
nonzero nonperturbative result in $\alpha_s$ for this Minimum Distance as a
measure of the intrinsic difference between the two series, as well as a
conflict with the Operator Product Expansion for Contour-Improved Perturbation
Theory.


  Renormalization group flow equations for scalar lambda Phi^4 are generated
using three classes of smooth smearing functions. Numerical results for the
critical exponent nu in three dimensions are calculated by means of a truncated
series expansion of the blocked potential. We demonstrate how the convergence
of nu as a function of the order of truncation can be improved through a fine
tuning of the smoothness of the smearing functions.


  We study the wave equation for a stationary Lorentzian metric in the case of
two space dimensions. Assuming that the metric has a singularity of the
appropriate form, surrounded by an ergosphere which is a smooth Jordan curve,
we prove the existence of a black hole with the boundary (called the event
horizon) that is piece-wise smooth, generally having corners. We consider a
physical model of acoustic black hole whose event horizon has corners. In the
end of the paper we consider the determination of a black hole by the boundary
measurements.


  We first give a short review of the ``local-current approximation'' (LCA),
derived from a general variation principle, which serves as a semiclassical
description of strongly collective excitations in finite fermion systems
starting from their quantum-mechanical mean-field ground state. We illustrate
it for the example of coupled translational and compressional dipole
excitations in metal clusters. We then discuss collective electronic dipole
excitations in C$_{60}$ molecules (Buckminster fullerenes). We show that the
coupling of the pure translational mode (``surface plasmon'') with
compressional volume modes in the semiclasscial LCA yields semi-quantitative
agreement with microscopic time-dependent density functional (TDLDA)
calculations, while both theories yield qualitative agreement with the recent
experimental observation of a ``volume plasmon''.


  We propose learning a depth covariance function with applications to
geometric vision tasks. Given RGB images as input, the covariance function can
be flexibly used to define priors over depth functions, predictive
distributions given observations, and methods for active point selection. We
leverage these techniques for a selection of downstream tasks: depth
completion, bundle adjustment, and monocular dense visual odometry.


  Suppose we are given observations, where each observation is drawn
independently from one of $k$ known distributions. The goal is to match each
observation to the distribution from which it was drawn. We observe that the
maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) for this problem can be computed using
weighted bipartite matching, even when $n$, the number of observations per
distribution, exceeds one. This is achieved by instantiating $n$ duplicates of
each distribution node. However, in the regime where the number of observations
per distribution is much larger than the number of distributions, the Hungarian
matching algorithm for computing the weighted bipartite matching requires
$\mathcal O(n^3)$ time. We introduce a novel randomized matching algorithm that
reduces the runtime to $\tilde{\mathcal O}(n^2)$ by sparsifying the original
graph, returning the exact MLE with high probability. Next, we give statistical
justification for using the MLE by bounding the excess risk of the MLE, where
the loss is defined as the negative log-likelihood. We test these bounds for
the case of isotropic Gaussians with equal covariances and whose means are
separated by a distance $\eta$, and find (1) that $\gg \log k$ separation
suffices to drive the proportion of mismatches of the MLE to 0, and (2) that
the expected fraction of mismatched observations goes to zero at rate $\mathcal
O({(\log k)}^2/\eta^2)$.


  In this paper, we first single out a proper subgroup \Gamma of Sp(4,Z)
generated by three elements, which arises from the parallelogram decompositions
of translation surfaces in H(2). We then prove that the space H(2)/C* can be
identified to the quotient J_2/\Gamma, where J_2 is the Jacobian locus in the
Siegel upper half space H_2, in other words, the group \Gamma is the image in
Sp(4,Z) of the fundamental group of the space H(2)/C*. A direct consequence of
this fact is that [Sp(4,Z):\Gamma]=6.


  Active materials, composed of internally driven particles, have properties
that are qualitatively distinct from matter at thermal equilibrium. However,
the most spectacular departures from equilibrium phase behaviour are thought to
be confined to systems with polar or nematic asymmetry. In this paper, we show
that such departures are also displayed in more symmetric phases such as
hexatics if, in addition, the constituent particles have chiral asymmetry. We
show that chiral active hexatics whose rotation rate does not depend on density
have giant number fluctuations. If the rotation rate depends on density, the
giant number fluctuations are suppressed due to a novel orientation-density
sound mode with a linear dispersion which propagates even in the overdamped
limit. However, we demonstrate that beyond a finite but large lengthscale, a
chirality and activity-induced relevant nonlinearity invalidates the
predictions of the linear theory and destroys the hexatic order. In addition,
we show that activity modifies the interactions between defects in the active
chiral hexatic phase, making them non-mutual. Finally, to demonstrate the
generality of a chiral active hexatic phase we show that it results from the
melting of chiral active crystals in finite systems.


  We present the results of CS J=2-1 mapping observations towards 39 massive
star-forming regions selected from the previous CO line survey of cold IRAS
sources with high-velocity CO flows along the Galactic plane (Yang et al.
2002). All sources are detected in CS J=2-1 showing the existence of CS clumps
around the IRAS sources. However, one-third of the sources are not deeply
embedded in the dense clumps by comparison of the central powering IRAS sources
and the morphologies of CS clumps. Physical parameters of the dense molecular
clumps are presented. We have identified 12 high-mass protostellar object
(HMPO) candidates by checking the association between the dense cores and the
IRAS sources, the detection of water maser, and the radio properties towards
the IRAS sources. We find that the HMPO sources are characterized by low FIR
luminosity to virial mass ratios since they are in very early evolutionary
stages when the massive protostars have not reached their full luminosities,
which are typical for zero-age main sequence stars. Large turbulent motion in
the HMPO sources may be largely due to the large kinetic energy ejected by the
central protostars formed in the dense clumps. However, alternative means or
undetected outflows may also be responsible for the turbulence in the clumps.


  In this letter we show that the Shore--Johnson axioms for Maximum Entropy
Principle in statistical estimation theory account for a considerably wider
class of entropic functional than previously thought. Apart from a formal side
of the proof, we substantiate our point by analyzing the effect of weak
correlations and discuss two pertinent examples: $2$-qubit quantum system and
strongly interacting nuclear systems.


  To investigate a system coupled to a harmonic oscillator bath, we propose a
new approach based on a phonon number representation of the bath. Compared to
the method of the hierarchical equations of motion, the new approach is
computationally much less expensive in a sense that a reduced density matrix is
obtained by calculating the time evolution of vectors, instead of matrices,
which enables one to deal with large dimensional systems. As a benchmark test,
we consider a quantum damped harmonic oscillator, and show that the exact
results can be well reproduced. In addition to the reduced density matrix, our
approach also provides a link to the total wave function by introducing new
boson operators.


  Recently (Brown \& Bethe 1994) it was suggested that most stars with main
sequence mass in the range of about $18 - 30 M_{\odot}$ explode, returning
matter to the Galaxy, and then go into low-mass ($\geq 1.5 M_{\odot}$) black
holes. Even more massive main-sequence stars would, presumably, chiefly g o
into high-mass ($\sim 10 M_{\odot}$) black holes. The Brown-Bethe estimates
gave approximately $5 \times {10}^{8}$ low-mass black holes in the Galaxy. A
pressing question, which we attempt to answer here, is why, with the possible
exception of the compact objects in SN1987A and 4U\,1700--37, none of these
have been seen.
  We address this question in three parts. Firstly, black holes are generally
``seen'' only in binaries, by the accretion of matter from a companion star.
High mass black holes are capable of accreting more matter than low-mass black
holes, so there is a selection effect favoring them. This, in itself, would not
be sufficient to show why low-mass black holes have not been seen, since
neutron stars (of nearly the same mass) are seen in abundance.
  Secondly, and this is our main point, the primary star in a binary ---the
first star to evolve--- loses its hydrogen envelope by transfer of matter to
the secondary and loss into space, and the resulting ``naked'' helium star
evolves differently than a helium core, which is at least initially covered by
the hydrogen envelope in a massive main-sequence star. We show that primary
stars in binaries can end up as neutron stars even if their initial mass
substantially exceeds the mass limit for neutron star formation from single
stars ($\sim 18 M_{\odot}$). An example is 4U\,1223--62, in which we suggest
that the initial primary mass exceeded $35 M_{\odot}$, yet X-ray pulsations


  In this paper, we present a detailed analysis on extracting soft biometric
traits, age and gender, from ear images. Although there have been a few
previous work on gender classification using ear images, to the best of our
knowledge, this study is the first work on age classification from ear images.
In the study, we have utilized both geometric features and appearance-based
features for ear representation. The utilized geometric features are based on
eight anthropometric landmarks and consist of 14 distance measurements and two
area calculations. The appearance-based methods employ deep convolutional
neural networks for representation and classification. The well-known
convolutional neural network models, namely, AlexNet, VGG-16, GoogLeNet, and
SqueezeNet have been adopted for the study. They have been fine-tuned on a
large-scale ear dataset that has been built from the profile and
close-to-profile face images in the Multi-PIE face dataset. This way, we have
performed a domain adaptation. The updated models have been fine-tuned once
more time on the small-scale target ear dataset, which contains only around 270
ear images for training. According to the experimental results,
appearance-based methods have been found to be superior to the methods based on
geometric features. We have achieved 94\% accuracy for gender classification,
whereas 52\% accuracy has been obtained for age classification. These results
indicate that ear images provide useful cues for age and gender classification,
however, further work is required for age estimation.


  When deploying machine learning models in production for any
product/application, there are three properties that are commonly desired.
First, the models should be generalizable, in that we can extend it to further
use cases as our knowledge of the domain area develops. Second they should be
evaluable, so that there are clear metrics for performance and the calculation
of those metrics in production settings are feasible. Finally, the deployment
should be cost-optimal as far as possible. In this paper we propose that these
three objectives (i.e. generalization, evaluation and cost-optimality) can
often be relatively orthogonal and that for large language models, despite
their performance over conventional NLP models, enterprises need to carefully
assess all the three factors before making substantial investments in this
technology. We propose a framework for generalization, evaluation and
cost-modeling specifically tailored to large language models, offering insights
into the intricacies of development, deployment and management for these large
language models.


  We devise a geometric description of bounded systems at criticality in any
dimension $d$. This is achieved by altering the flat metric with a space
dependent scale factor $\gamma(x)$, $x$ belonging to a general bounded domain
$\Omega$. $\gamma(x)$ is chosen in order to have a scalar curvature to be
constant and negative, the proper notion of curvature being -- as called in the
mathematics literature -- the fractional Q-curvature. The equation for
$\gamma(x)$ is found to be the Fractional Yamabe Equation (to be solved in
$\Omega$) that, in absence of anomalous dimension, reduces to the usual Yamabe
Equation in the same domain. From the scale factor $\gamma(x)$ we obtain novel
predictions for the scaling form of one-point correlation functions. A
(necessary) virtue of the proposed approach is that it encodes and allows to
naturally retrieve the purely geometric content of two-dimensional boundary
conformal field theory. From the critical magnetization profile in presence of
boundaries one can extract the scaling dimension of the order parameter,
$\Delta_\phi$. For the 3D Ising model we find $\Delta_\phi=0.518142(8)$ which
favorably compares (at the fifth decimal place) with the state-of-the-art
estimate. A nontrivial prediction is the structure of two-point correlators at
criticality. They should depend on the fractional Q-hyperbolic distance
calculated from the metric, in turn depending only on the shape of the bounded
domain and on $\Delta_\phi$. Numerical simulations of the 3D Ising model on a
slab geometry are found to be in agreement with such predictions.


  Although this work is a bit theoretical and contains lots of derivations, it
leads to very explicit practical results in bistatic focusing. Our approach is
based on Loffelds bistatic formula describing the point targets reference
spectrum for arbitrary bistatic configuration. Based on various simulations the
validity of LBF for both airborne and spaceborne configurations is
demonstrated. Focusing for special bistatic configurations like: Tandem and
Translationally Invariant constellations is considered. The focusing for the
Tandem configuration is solved analytically. Focusing in the TI case is
realized by blockwise processing. All focusing algorithms are developed in IDL
and adequate simulation results are presented. In the end of the paper outlines
the conceptual solution of the most difficult bistatic General Case and
presents some first focusing results.


  Error mitigation schemes and error-correcting codes have been the center of
much effort in quantum information processing research over the last few
decades. While most of the successful proposed schemes for error mitigation are
perturbative in the noise and assume deterministic systematic errors, studies
of the problem considering the full noise and errors distribution are still
scarce. In this work, we introduce an error mitigation scheme for robust
single-qubit unitary gates based on composite segmented design, which accounts
for the full distribution of the physical noise and errors in the system. We
provide two optimization approaches to construct these robust segmented gates:
perturbative and non-perturbative, that addresses all orders of errors. We
demonstrate our scheme in the photonics realm for the dual-rail directional
couplers realization. We show that the 3-segmented composite design for the
fundamental single-qubits unitary operations reduces the error by an order of
magnitude for a realistic distribution of errors, and that the two approaches
are compatible for small errors. This is shown to significantly reduce the
overhead of modern error correction codes. Our methods are rather general and
can be applied to other realizations of quantum information processing units.


  We report the first observation of the spontaneous polarization of $\Lambda$
and $\bar{\Lambda}$ hyperons transverse to the production plane in $e^+e^-$
annihilation, which is attributed to the effect arising from a polarizing
fragmentation function. For inclusive $\Lambda/\bar{\Lambda}$ production, we
also report results with subtracted feed-down contributions from $\Sigma^0$ and
charm. This measurement uses a dataset of 800.4 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the
Belle experiment at or near a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV. We observe a
significant polarization that rises with the fractional energy carried by the
$\Lambda/\bar{\Lambda}$ hyperon.


  In the context of public key cryptography, the McEliece cryptosystem
represents a very smart solution based on the hardness of the decoding problem,
which is believed to be able to resist the advent of quantum computers. Despite
this, the original McEliece cryptosystem, based on Goppa codes, has encountered
limited interest in practical applications, partly because of some constraints
imposed by this very special class of codes. We have recently introduced a
variant of the McEliece cryptosystem including low-density parity-check codes,
that are state-of-the-art codes, now used in many telecommunication standards
and applications. In this paper, we discuss the possible use of a bit-flipping
decoder in this context, which gives a significant advantage in terms of
complexity. We also provide theoretical arguments and practical tools for
estimating the trade-off between security and complexity, in such a way to give
a simple procedure for the system design.


  Current transmission and distribution system states are mostly unobservable
to each other, and state estimation is separately conducted in the two systems
owing to the differences in network structures and analytical models. The
large-scale integration of transmission and active distribution systems calls
for an effective solution to global state estimation. Unlike existing
independent state estimation methods on both levels of these systems, we
propose a decentralized coordinated transmission and distribution system state
estimation (C-TDSE) method. This method enables accurate monitoring of the
integrated systems with a global reference in a decentralized manner and
reconciles the mismatches of voltages and powers on the boundaries of the
systems. The comparative analysis on the integrated transmission and
distribution systems points to improved estimation results relative to the
independent state estimation methods.


  We study how to probe bispectra of stochastic gravitational waves with pulsar
timing arrays. The bispectrum is a key to probe the origin of stochastic
gravitational waves. In particular, the shape of the bispectrum carries
valuable information of inflation models. We show that an appropriate filter
function for three point correlations enables us to extract a specific
configuration of momentum triangles in bispectra. We also calculate the overlap
reduction functions and discuss strategy for detecting the bispectrum with
multiple pulsars.


  Zhegalkin zebra motives are tilings of the plane by black and white polygons
representing certain ${\mathbb F}_2$-valued functions on ${\mathbb R}^2$. They
exhibit a rich geometric structure and provide easy to draw insightful
visualizations of many topics in the physics and mathematics literature. The
present paper gives some pieces of a general theory and a few explicit
examples. Many more examples will be shown in the forthcoming article
"Zhegalkin zebra motives: algebra and geometry in black and white".


  The ability to predict and therefore to anticipate the future is an important
attribute of intelligence. It is also of utmost importance in real-time
systems, e.g. in robotics or autonomous driving, which depend on visual scene
understanding for decision making. While prediction of the raw RGB pixel values
in future video frames has been studied in previous work, here we introduce the
novel task of predicting semantic segmentations of future frames. Given a
sequence of video frames, our goal is to predict segmentation maps of not yet
observed video frames that lie up to a second or further in the future. We
develop an autoregressive convolutional neural network that learns to
iteratively generate multiple frames. Our results on the Cityscapes dataset
show that directly predicting future segmentations is substantially better than
predicting and then segmenting future RGB frames. Prediction results up to half
a second in the future are visually convincing and are much more accurate than
those of a baseline based on warping semantic segmentations using optical flow.


  One of the traditional applications of relation algebras is to provide a
setting for infinite-domain constraint satisfaction problems. Complexity
classification for these computational problems has been one of the major open
research challenges of this application field. The past decade has brought
significant progress on the theory of constraint satisfaction, both over finite
and infinite domains. This progress has been achieved independently from the
relation algebra approach. The present article translates the recent findings
into the traditional relation algebra setting, and points out a series of open
problems at the interface between model theory and the theory of relation
algebras.


  Using the ULTRASPEC instrument mounted on the 2.4-m Thai National Telescope,
we observed two large flares, each with a total energy close to 10^34 erg with
sub-second cadence. A combination of a wavelet analysis, a Fourier transform
plus an empirical mode decomposition, reveals quasi-period pulsations (QPP)
which exhibit an apparent doubling of the oscillation period. Both events
showed oscillations of a few minutes over a interval of several minutes, and
despite the availability of sub-second cadence, there was no evidence of
sub-minute oscillations. The doubling of the QPP periods and shorter lifetime
of shorter-period QPP modes strongly favour resonant dynamics of
magnetohydrodynamic waves in a coronal loop. We estimate loop lengths to be
0.2-0.7 R*, in agreement with a typical length of solar coronal loops. These
observations presents rare and compelling evidence for the presence of compact
plasma loops in a stellar corona.


  The computation of hard processes in hadronic collisions is a major success
of perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics. The environment of heavy-ion collisions
offers the opportunity to embed such hard processes into a soft medium which is
created simultaneously and study the medium-induced modifications. On the level
of single high transverse momentum hadrons, a reduction in yield, the so-called
quenching is observed. However, on the level of jets, the energy-momentum flux
carried by hadrons is conserved, i.e. the effect of the medium is a
redistribution of energy and momentum, and statements about quenching of jets
can only be made for specific cuts used to identify the jet. In this paper, we
present a baseline computation for the expected modification of the
longitudinal momentum distribution in jets by the medium created in 200 AGeV
Au-Au collisions given a realistic set of experimental cuts used to identify
jets in a heavy-iron environment. For this purpose, we use a Monte-Carlo code
developed to simulate in-medium shower evolution following a hard process and a
3-d hydrodynamical evolution to simulate the soft medium.


  We report a systematic experimental and numerical study of the expansion of
ultra-cold Rydberg plasmas. Specifically, we have measured the asymptotic
expansion velocities, $v_0$, of ultra-cold neutral plasmas (UNPs) which evolve
from cold, dense samples of Rydberg rubidium atoms using ion time-of-flight
spectroscopy. From this, we have obtained values for the effective initial
plasma electron temperature, $T_{e,0} = m_{ion} v_0^2/k_B$ (where $m_{ion}$ is
the Rb$^+$ ion mass), as a function of the original Rydberg atom density and
binding energy, $E_{b,i}$. We have also simulated numerically the interaction
of UNPs with a large reservoir of Rydberg atoms to obtain data to compare with
our experimental results. We find that for Rydberg atom densities in the range
$10^7 - 10^9$ cm$^{-3}$, for states with principal quantum number $n > 40$,
$T_{e,0}$ is insensitive to the initial ionization mechanism which seeds the
plasma. In addition, the quantity $k_B \, T_{e,0}$ is strongly correlated with
the fraction of atoms which ionize, and is in the range $0.6 \times |E_{b,i}|
\lesssim k_BT_{e,0} \lesssim 2.5 \times |E_{b,i}|$. On the other hand, plasmas
from Rydberg samples with $n \lesssim 40$ evolve with no significant additional
ionization of the remaining atoms once a threshold number of ions has been
established. The dominant interaction between the plasma electrons and the
Rydberg atoms is one in which the atoms are deexcited, a heating process for
electrons that competes with adiabatic cooling to establish an equilibrium
where $T_{e,0}$ is determined by their Coulomb coupling parameter, $\Gamma_e
\sim 0.01$.


  Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy in magnetic field was used to
study Landau quantization in graphene and its dependence on charge carrier
density. Measurements were carried out on exfoliated graphene samples deposited
on a chlorinated SiO2 thermal oxide which allowed observing the Landau level
sequences characteristic of single layer graphene while tuning the density
through the Si backgate. Upon changing the carrier density we find abrupt jumps
in the Fermi level after each Landau level is filled. Moreover, the Landau
level spacing shows a marked increase at low doping levels, consistent with an
interaction-induced renormalization of the Dirac cone.


  The aim of this paper is to unify the points of view of three recent and
independent papers (Ventura 1997, Margolis, Sapir and Weil 2001 and Kapovich
and Miasnikov 2002), where similar modern versions of a 1951 theorem of
Takahasi were given. We develop a theory of algebraic extensions for free
groups, highlighting the analogies and differences with respect to the
corresponding classical field-theoretic notions, and we discuss in detail the
notion of algebraic closure. We apply that theory to the study and the
computation of certain algebraic properties of subgroups (e.g. being malnormal,
pure, inert or compressed, being closed in certain profinite topologies) and
the corresponding closure operators. We also analyze the closure of a subgroup
under the addition of solutions of certain sets of equations.


  Symmetry arguments are used to develop a spin Hamiltonian for the description
of the complex magnetic ordering in HoMnO$_3$. Using a novel application of the
Landau Lifshitz Gilbert dynamic torque equations to this model of the
frustrated Mn ions on an $AB$ stacked triangular antiferromagnetic, it is shown
that the four principal spin configurations observed in this compound are
stabilized. Ho-Mn coupling is found to be a consequence of an unusual trigonal
anisotropy term which is responsible for simultaneous Mn spin reorientation and
onset of Ho magnetic order. Based on these microscopic considerations, a
mean-field Landau-type free energy is derived which reproduces the succession
of observed temperature driven magnetic phase transitions at zero field,
including re-entrant behavior. In addition, our analysis suggests that the
basal-plane magnetic order should be slightly incommensurate with the lattice.


  We present quantum mechanical close-coupling calculations of collisions
between two hydrogen molecules over a wide range of energies, extending from
the ultracold limit to the super-thermal region. The two most recently
published potential energy surfaces for the H$_2$-H$_2$ complex, the so-called
DJ (Diep and Johnson, 2000) and BMKP (Boothroyd et al., 2002) surfaces, are
quantitatively evaluated and compared through the investigation of rotational
transitions in H$_2$+H$_2$ collisions within rigid rotor approximation. The
BMKP surface is expected to be an improvement, approaching chemical accuracy,
over all conformations of the potential energy surface compared to previous
calculations of H$_2$-H$_2$ interaction. We found significant differences in
rotational excitation/de-excitation cross sections computed on the two surfaces
in collisions between two para-H$_2$ molecules. The discrepancy persists over a
large range of energies from the ultracold regime to thermal energies and
occurs for several low-lying initial rotational levels. Good agreement is found
with experiment (Mat\'e et al., 2005) for the lowest rotational excitation
process, but only with the use of the DJ potential. Rate coefficients computed
with the BMKP potential are an order of magnitude smaller.


  In this study, we treat Earth as an exoplanet and investigate our home planet
by means of a potential future mid-infrared (MIR) space mission called the
Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE). We combine thermal spectra from an
empirical dataset of disk-integrated Earth observations with a noise model for
LIFE to create mock observations. We apply a state-of-the-art atmospheric
retrieval framework to characterize the planet, assess the potential for
detecting the known bioindicators, and investigate the impact of viewing
geometry, seasonality, and patchy clouds on the characterization. Key findings
include: (1) we are observing a temperate habitable planet with significant
abundances of $\mathrm{CO_2}$, $\mathrm{H_2O}$, $\mathrm{O_3}$, and
$\mathrm{CH_4}$; (2) seasonal variations in the surface and equilibrium
temperature, and in the Bond albedo are detectable; (3) the viewing geometry
and the spatially and temporally unresolved nature of our observations only
have a minor impact on the characterization; (4) Earth's variable H2O profile
and patchy cloud coverage lead to biased retrieval results for the atmospheric
structure and trace gas abundances; (5) the limited extent of Earth's seasonal
variations in biosignature abundances makes the direct detection of its
biosphere through atmospheric seasonality unlikely. Our results suggest that
LIFE could correctly identify Earth as a planet where life could thrive, with
detectable levels of bioindicators, a temperate climate, and surface conditions
allowing liquid surface water. Even if atmospheric seasonality is not easily
observed, our study demonstrates that next generation, optimized space missions
can assess whether nearby temperate terrestrial exoplanets are habitable or
even inhabited.


  We compute the volume of the body enclosed by the $n$-dimensional Lam\'e
curve defined by $\sum_{i=1}^nx_i^b= E$.


  We derive an effective low-dimensional Hamiltonian for strongly interacting
ultracold atoms in a transverse trapping potential near a wide Feshbach
resonance. The Hamiltonian includes crucial information about transverse
excitations in an effective model with renormalized interaction between atoms
and composite dressed molecules. We fix all the parameters in the Hamiltonian
for both one- and two-dimensional cases.


  This paper considers the problem of evaluating an autonomous system's
competency in performing a task, particularly when working in dynamic and
uncertain environments. The inherent opacity of machine learning models, from
the perspective of the user, often described as a `black box', poses a
challenge. To overcome this, we propose using a measure called the Surprise
index, which leverages available measurement data to quantify whether the
dynamic system performs as expected. We show that the surprise index can be
computed in closed form for dynamic systems when observed evidence in a
probabilistic model if the joint distribution for that evidence follows a
multivariate Gaussian marginal distribution. We then apply it to a nonlinear
spacecraft maneuver problem, where actions are chosen by a reinforcement
learning agent and show it can indicate how well the trajectory follows the
required orbit.


  In this paper, we study a class of nonlinear Choquard type equations
involving a general nonlinearity. By using the method of penalization argument,
we show that there exists a family of solutions having multiple concentration
regions which concentrate at the minimum points of the potential $V$. Moreover,
the monotonicity of $f(s)/s$ and the so-called Ambrosetti-Rabinowitz condition
are not required.


  The response selection has been an emerging research topic due to the growing
interest in dialogue modeling, where the goal of the task is to select an
appropriate response for continuing dialogues. To further push the end-to-end
dialogue model toward real-world scenarios, the seventh Dialog System
Technology Challenge (DSTC7) proposed a challenging track based on real chatlog
datasets. The competition focuses on dialogue modeling with several advanced
characteristics: (1) natural language diversity, (2) capability of precisely
selecting a proper response from a large set of candidates or the scenario
without any correct answer, and (3) knowledge grounding. This paper introduces
recurrent attention pooling networks (RAP-Net), a novel framework for response
selection, which can well estimate the relevance between the dialogue contexts
and the candidates. The proposed RAP-Net is shown to be effective and can be
generalized across different datasets and settings in the DSTC7 experiments.


  Building on a preliminary paper design of a downlink from a swarm of low-mass
interstellar probes for returning scientific data from the vicinity of Proxima
Centauri, the most critical technology issues are summarized, and their
significance is explained in the context of the overall system design. The
primary goal is to identify major challenges or showstoppers if such a downlink
were to be constructed using currently available off-the-shelf technology, and
thereby provide direction and motivation to future research on the constituent
design challenges and technologies. While there are not any fundamental
physical limits that prevent such communication systems, currently available
technologies fall significantly short in several areas and there are other
major design challenges with uncertain solutions. The greatest identified
challenges are in mass constraints, multiplexing simultaneous communication
from multiple probes to the same target exoplanet, attitude control and
pointing accuracy, and Doppler shifts due to uncertainty in probe velocity. The
greatest technology challenges are electrical power, high power and
wavelength-agile optical sources, very selective and wavelength-agile banks of
optical bandpass filters, and single-photon detectors with extremely low
dark-count rates. For a critical subset of these, we describe the nature of the
difficulties we encounter and their origins in the overall system context. A
receiver that limits reception to a single probe is also considered and
compared to the swarm case.


  We report the detection of X-ray polarization in the neutron star low mass
X-ray binary Scorpius (Sco) X-1 with PolarLight. The result is energy
dependent, with a non-detection in 3-4 keV but a 4$\sigma$ detection in 4-8
keV; it is also flux dependent in the 4-8 keV band, with a non-detection when
the source displays low fluxes but a 5$\sigma$ detection during high fluxes, in
which case we obtain a polarization fraction of $0.043 \pm 0.008$ and a
polarization angle of $52.6^\circ \pm 5.4^\circ$. This confirms a previous
marginal detection with OSO-8 in the 1970s, and marks Sco X-1 the second
astrophysical source with a significant polarization measurement in the keV
band. The measured polarization angle is in line with the jet orientation of
the source on the sky plane ($54^\circ$), which is supposedly the symmetric
axis of the system. Combining previous spectral analysis, our measurements
suggest that an optically thin corona is located in the transition layer under
the highest accretion rates, and disfavor the extended accretion disk corona
model.


  We analyse the Hamiltonian structure of a system of first-order ordinary
differential equations used for modeling the interaction of an oncolytic virus
with a tumour cell population. The analysis is based on the existence of a
Jacobi Last Multiplier for the system and a time dependent first integral. For
suitable conditions on the model parameters this allows for the reduction of
the problem to a planar system of equations for which the time dependent
Hamiltonian flows are described. The geometry of the Hamiltonian flows are
finally investigated using the symplectic and cosymplectic methods.


  We present a general method for computing Hodge numbers for Calabi-Yau
manifolds realised as discrete quotients of complete intersections in products
of projective spaces. The method relies on the computation of equivariant
cohomologies and is illustrated for several explicit examples. In this way, we
compute the Hodge numbers for all discrete quotients obtained in Braun's
classification arXiv:1003.3235.


  In this article we study the action of the the Hilbert matrix operator
$\mathcal H$ from the space of bounded analytic functions into conformally
invariant Banach spaces. In particular, we describe the norm of $\mathcal{H}$
from $H^\infty$ into $\text{BMOA}$ and we characterize the positive Borel
measures $\mu$ such that $\mathcal H$ is bounded from $H^\infty$ into the
conformally invariant Dirichlet space $M(\mathcal{D}_\mu )$. For particular
measures $\mu$, we also provide the norm of $\mathcal{H}$ from $H^\infty$ into
$M(\mathcal{D}_\mu )$.


  Surface grading, the process of leveling an uneven area containing pre-dumped
sand piles, is an important task in the construction site pipeline. This
labour-intensive process is often carried out by a dozer, a key machinery tool
at any construction site. Current attempts to automate surface grading assume
perfect localization. However, in real-world scenarios, this assumption fails,
as agents are presented with imperfect perception, which leads to degraded
performance. In this work, we address the problem of autonomous grading under
uncertainties. First, we implement a simulation and a scaled real-world
prototype environment to enable rapid policy exploration and evaluation in this
setting. Second, we formalize the problem as a partially observable markov
decision process and train an agent capable of handling such uncertainties. We
show, through rigorous experiments, that an agent trained under perfect
localization will suffer degraded performance when presented with localization
uncertainties. However, an agent trained using our method will develop a more
robust policy for addressing such errors and, consequently, exhibit a better
grading performance.


  We give elements towards the classification of quantum Airy structures based
on the $W(\mathfrak{gl}_r)$-algebras at self-dual level based on twisted
modules of the Heisenberg VOA of $\mathfrak{gl}_r$ for twists by arbitrary
elements of the Weyl group $\mathfrak{S}_{r}$. In particular, we construct a
large class of such quantum Airy structures. We show that the system of linear
ODEs forming the quantum Airy structure and determining uniquely its partition
function is equivalent to a topological recursion \`a la Chekhov-Eynard-Orantin
on singular spectral curves. In particular, our work extends the definition of
the Bouchard-Eynard topological recursion (valid for smooth curves) to a large
class of singular curves, and indicates impossibilities to extend naively the
definition to other types of singularities. We also discuss relations to
intersection theory on moduli spaces of curves, giving a general ELSV-type
representation for the topological recursion amplitudes on smooth curves, and
formulate precise conjectures for application in open $r$-spin intersection
theory.


  We study the scaling behavior of the two-flavor chiral phase transition using
an effective quark-meson model. We investigate the transition between
infinite-volume and finite-volume scaling behavior when the system is placed in
a finite box. We can estimate effects that the finite volume and the explicit
symmetry breaking by the current quark masses have on the scaling behavior
which is observed in full QCD lattice simulations. The model allows us to
explore large quark masses as well as the chiral limit in a wide range of
volumes, and extract information about the scaling regimes.In particular, we
find large scaling deviations for physical pion masses and significant finite
volume effects for pion masses that are used in current lattice simulations.


  Requirements engineering provides several practices to analyze how a user
wants to interact with a future software. Mockups, prototypes, and scenarios
are suitable to understand usability issues and user requirements early.
Nevertheless, users are often dissatisfied with the usability of a resulting
software. Apparently, previously explored information was lost or no longer
accessible during the development phase. Scenarios are one effective practice
to describe behavior. However, they are commonly notated in natural language
which is often improper to capture and communicate interaction knowledge
comprehensible to developers and users. The dynamic aspect of interaction is
lost if only static descriptions are used. Digital prototyping enables the
creation of interactive prototypes by adding responsive controls to hand- or
digitally drawn mockups. We propose to capture the events of these controls to
obtain a representation of the interaction. From this data, we generate videos,
which demonstrate interaction sequences, as additional support for textual
scenarios. Variants of scenarios can be created by modifying the captured event
sequences and mockups. Any change is unproblematic since videos only need to be
regenerated. Thus, we achieve video as a by-product of digital prototyping.
This reduces the effort compared to video recording such as screencasts. A
first evaluation showed that such a generated video supports a faster
understanding of a textual scenario compared to static mockups.


  We construct a time-dependent double well potential as an exact spectral
equivalent to the explicitly time-dependent negative quartic oscillator with a
time-dependent mass term. Defining the unstable anharmonic oscillator
Hamiltonian on a contour in the lower-half complex plane, the resulting
time-dependent non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is first mapped by an exact solution
of the time-dependent Dyson equation to a time-dependent Hermitian Hamiltonian
defined on the real axis. When unitary transformed, scaled and Fourier
transformed we obtain a time-dependent double well potential bounded from
below. All transformations are carried out non-perturbatively so that all
Hamiltonians in this process are spectrally exactly equivalent in the sense
that they have identical instantaneous energy eigenvalue spectra.


  Bayesian models provide a framework for probabilistic modelling of complex
datasets. However, many of such models are computationally demanding especially
in the presence of large datasets. On the other hand, in sensor network
applications, statistical (Bayesian) parameter estimation usually needs
distributed algorithms, in which both data and computation are distributed
across the nodes of the network. In this paper we propose a general framework
for distributed Bayesian learning using Bregman Alternating Direction Method of
Multipliers (B-ADMM). We demonstrate the utility of our framework, with Mean
Field Variational Bayes (MFVB) as the primitive for distributed Matrix
Factorization (MF) and distributed affine structure from motion (SfM).


  We prove a generalization of the Brill-Noether theorem for the variety of
special divisors $W^r_d(C)$ on a general curve $C$ of prescribed gonality. Our
main theorem gives a closed formula for the dimension of $W^r_d(C)$. We build
on previous work of Pflueger, who used an analysis of the tropical divisor
theory of special chains of cycles to give upper bounds on the dimensions of
Brill--Noether varieties on such curves. We prove his conjecture, that this
upper bound is achieved for a general curve. Our methods introduce logarithmic
stable maps as a systematic tool in Brill-Noether theory. A precise relation
between the divisor theory on chains of cycles and the corresponding tropical
maps theory is exploited to prove new regeneration theorems for linear series
with negative Brill-Noether number. The strategy involves blending an analysis
of obstruction theories for logarithmic stable maps with the geometry of
Berkovich curves. To show the utility of these methods, we provide a short new
derivation of lifting for special divisors on a chain of cycles with generic
edge lengths, proved using different techniques by Cartwright, Jensen, and
Payne. A crucial technical result is a new realizability theorem for tropical
stable maps in obstructed geometries, generalizing a well-known theorem of
Speyer on genus one curves to arbitrary genus.


  We present first-principles calculations of the vibrational properties of the
transition metal dichalcogenide 1T-TaS$_2$ for various thicknesses in the
high-temperature (undistorted) phase and the low-temperature commensurate
charge density wave (CDW) phase. We also present measurements of the Raman
spectra for bulk, few-layer, and monolayer samples at temperatures well below
that of the bulk transition to the commensurate phase. Through our
calculations, we identify the low-frequency folded-back acoustic modes as a
convenient signature of the commensurate CDW wave structure in vibrational
spectra. In our measured Raman spectra, this signature is clearly evident in
all of the samples, indicating that the commensurate phase remains the ground
state as the material is thinned, even down to a single layer. This is in
contrast to some previous studies which suggest a suppression of the
commensurate CDW transition in thin flakes. We also use polarized Raman
spectroscopy to probe c-axis orbital texture in the low-T phase, which has
recently been suggested as playing a role in the metal-insulator transition
that accompanies the structural transition to the commensurate CDW phase.


  The Klein-Gordon equations were recently solved in general relativity for the
case of a plane-symmetric static massless scalar field with cosmological
constant. By analytic continuation, time-dependent solutions can be obtained
that correspond to cosmologies. These spacetimes are studied here, and include
among them a solution exhibiting both early inflation and later continued rapid
expansion that matches well with the Concordance Model.


  Topological interface states in periodic lattices have emerged as valuable
assets in the fields of electronics, photonics, and phononics, owing to their
inherent robustness against disorder. Unlike electronics and photonics, the
linear dispersion relation of hypersound offers an ideal framework for
investigating higher-order bandgaps. In this work, we propose a design strategy
for the generation and manipulation of topological nanophononic interface
states within high-order bandgaps of GaAs/AlAs multilayered structures. These
states arise from the band inversion of two concatenated superlattices that
exhibit inverted spatial mode symmetries around the bandgap. By adjusting the
thickness ratio of the unit cells in these superlattices, we are able to
engineer interface states in different bandgaps, enabling the development of
versatile topological devices spanning a wide frequency range. Moreover, we
demonstrate that such interface states can also be generated in hybrid
structures that combine two superlattices with bandgaps of different orders
centered around the same frequency. These structures open up new avenues for
exploring topological confinement in high-order bandgaps, providing a unique
platform for unveiling and better understanding complex topological systems.


  We prove that for $s<0$, $s$-concave measures on ${\mathbb R}^n$ satisfy a
thin shell concentration similar to the log-concave one. It leads to a
Berry-Esseen type estimate for their one dimensional marginal distributions. We
also establish sharp reverse H\"older inequalities for $s$-concave measures.


  We study the Abels-Garcke-Gr\"un (AGG) model for a mixture of two viscous
incompressible fluids with different densities. The AGG model consists of a
Navier-Stokes-Cahn-Hilliard system characterized by a (non-constant)
concentration-dependent density and an additional flux term due to interface
diffusion. In this paper we address the well-posedness problem in the
two-dimensional case. We first prove the existence of local strong solutions in
general bounded domains. In the space periodic setting we show that the strong
solutions exist globally in time. In both cases we prove the uniqueness and the
continuous dependence on the initial data of the strong solutions.


  Using the Euclidean value of <V/Vmax> as a cosmological distance indicator,
we derive the isotropic-equivalent characteristic peak luminosity of gamma-ray
bursts both longer and shorter than 2 s. The short bursts have essentially the
same characteristic peak luminosity of 0.6 x 10^51 erg (0.064s)^-1 as do the
long bursts. This may apply also to bursts with durations less than 0.25 s. The
local space density of short bursts is around three times lower than that of
long bursts.


  We investigate the impact of displaced heavy quark matching scales in a
global fit. The heavy quark matching scale $\mu_{m}$ determines at which energy
scale $\mu$ the QCD theory transitions from $N_{F}$ to $N_{F}+1$ in the
Variable Flavor Number Scheme (VFNS) for the evolution of the Parton
Distribution Functions (PDFs) and strong coupling $\alpha_S(\mu)$. We study the
variation of the matching scales, and their impact on a global PDF fit of the
combined HERA data. As the choice of the matching scale $\mu_{m}$ effectively
is a choice of scheme, this represents a theoretical uncertainty; ideally, we
would like to see minimal dependence on this parameter. For the transition
across the charm quark (from $N_{F}=3$ to $4$), we find a large $\mu_m=\mu_{c}$
dependence of the global fit $\chi^2$ at NLO, but this is significantly reduced
at NNLO. For the transition across the bottom quark (from $N_{F}=4$ to $5$), we
have a reduced $\mu_{m}=\mu_b$ dependence of the $\chi^2$ at both NLO and NNLO
as compared to the charm. This feature is now implemented in xFitter 2.0.0, an
open source QCD fit framework.


  A new model other than the classical ones given by Airy, Stokes and Gerstner
for the ocean surface wave is constructed. It leads to new understandings for
the wave mechanisms: (1) A wave with bigger amplitude or smaller steepness
travels faster; (2) The wave breaks when the front angle is bigger than 46.3
degree; (3) The magnitude of the wave drift should be smaller than that of the
known Stokes drift.


  Associated to every complete affine 3-manifold M with nonsolvable fundamental
group is a noncompact hyperbolic surface S. We classify such complete affine
structures when Sigma is homeomorphic to a three-holed sphere. In particular,
for every such complete hyperbolic surface Sigma, the deformation space
identifies with two opposite octants in R^3. Furthermore every M admits a
fundamental polyhedron bounded by crooked planes. Therefore M is homeomorphic
to an open solid handlebody of genus two. As an explicit application of this
theory, we construct proper affine deformations of an arithmetic Fuchsian group
inside Sp(4,Z).


  The sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics (SINDy) has been established
as an effective technique to produce interpretable models of dynamical systems
from time-resolved state data via sparse regression. However, to model
parameterized systems, SINDy requires data from transient trajectories for
various parameter values over the range of interest, which are typically
difficult to acquire experimentally. In this work, we extend SINDy to be able
to leverage data on fixed points and/or limit cycles to reduce the number of
transient trajectories needed for successful system identification. To achieve
this, we incorporate the data on these attractors at various parameter values
as constraints in the optimization problem. First, we show that enforcing these
as hard constraints leads to an ill-conditioned regression problem due to the
large number of constraints. Instead, we implement soft constraints by
modifying the cost function to be minimized. This leads to the formulation of a
multi-objective sparse regression problem where we simultaneously seek to
minimize the error of the fit to the transients trajectories and to the data on
attractors, while penalizing the number of terms in the model. Our extension,
demonstrated on several numerical examples, is more robust to noisy
measurements and requires substantially less training data than the original
SINDy method to correctly identify a parameterized dynamical system.


  We investigate the size of first-order rewritings of conjunctive queries over
OWL 2 QL ontologies of depth 1 and 2 by means of hypergraph programs computing
Boolean functions. Both positive and negative results are obtained. Conjunctive
queries over ontologies of depth 1 have polynomial-size nonrecursive datalog
rewritings; tree-shaped queries have polynomial positive existential
rewritings; however, in the worst case, positive existential rewritings can
only be of superpolynomial size. Positive existential and nonrecursive datalog
rewritings of queries over ontologies of depth 2 suffer an exponential blowup
in the worst case, while first-order rewritings are superpolynomial unless
$\text{NP} \subseteq \text{P}/\text{poly}$. We also analyse rewritings of
tree-shaped queries over arbitrary ontologies and observe that the query
entailment problem for such queries is fixed-parameter tractable.


  We present three formal models of the OSPF routing protocol. The first two
are formalised in the timed process algebra T-AWN, which is not only tailored
to routing protocols, but also specifies protocols in pseudo-code that is
easily readable. The difference between the two models lies in the level of
detail (level of abstraction). From the more abstract model we then generate
the third model. It is based on networks of timed automata and can be executed
in the model checker Uppaal.


  We study the experimentation dynamics of a decision maker (DM) in a two-armed
bandit setup (Bolton and Harris (1999)), where the agent holds ambiguous
beliefs regarding the distribution of the return process of one arm and is
certain about the other one. The DM entertains Multiplier preferences a la
Hansen and Sargent (2001), thus we frame the decision making environment as a
two-player differential game against nature in continuous time. We characterize
the DM value function and her optimal experimentation strategy that turns out
to follow a cut-off rule with respect to her belief process. The belief
threshold for exploring the ambiguous arm is found in closed form and is shown
to be increasing with respect to the ambiguity aversion index. We then study
the effect of provision of an unambiguous information source about the
ambiguous arm. Interestingly, we show that the exploration threshold rises
unambiguously as a result of this new information source, thereby leading to
more conservatism. This analysis also sheds light on the efficient time to
reach for an expert opinion.


  Measurements can be considered as a genuine example of processes that crush
quantum coherence. In the case of an observable with degeneracy, the
formulations of L\"{u}ders and von Neumann are known. These pictures postulate
the two different states of a system immediately following the act of
measurement. Hence, they are associated with divers variants of coherence
losses during the measurement. Recent studies have focused on several ways to
characterize quantum coherence appropriately. One of the existing types of
quantifier is based on quantum $\alpha$-divergences of the Tsallis type. In
this paper, we introduce coherence quantifiers associated with the L\"{u}ders
picture of quantum measurements. The are shown to satisfy the same properties
as coherence $\alpha$-quantifiers related to some orthonormal basis. Further,
we consider losses of quantum coherence during a generalized measurement. The
proposed approach is exemplified with unambiguous state discrimination; extreme
properties of the states to be discriminated are clearly shown.


  We study the three-dimensional Navier--Stokes equations of rotating
incompressible viscous fluids with periodic boundary conditions. The asymptotic
expansions, as time goes to infinity, are derived in all Gevrey spaces for any
Leray-Hopf weak solutions in terms of oscillating, exponentially decaying
functions. The results are established for all non-zero rotation speeds, and
for both cases with and without the zero spatial average of the solutions. Our
method makes use of the Poincar\'e waves to rewrite the equations, and then
implements the Gevrey norm techniques to deal with the resulting time-dependent
bi-linear form. Special solutions are also found which form infinite
dimensional invariant linear manifolds.


  We present a multi-party quantum clock synchronization protocol that utilizes
shared prior entanglement and broadcast of classical information to synchronize
spatially separated clocks. Notably, it is necessary only for any one party to
publish classical information. Consequently, the efficacy of the method is
independent of the relative location of the parties. The suggested protocol is
robust and does not require precise sequencing of procedural steps.


  We analyse the inverse reduced fluctuations (inverse ratio of relative volume
fluctuation to its value in the hypothetical case where the substance acts an
ideal gas for the same temperature-volume parameters) for simple liquids from
experimental acoustic and thermophysical data along a coexistence line for both
liquid and vapour phases. It has been determined that this quantity has a
universal exponential character within the region close to the melting point.
This behaviour satisfies the predictions of the mean-field (grand canonical
ensemble) lattice fluid model and relates to the constant average structure of
a fluid, i.e. redistribution of the free volume complementary to a number of
vapour particles. The interconnection between experiment-based fluctuational
parameters and self-diffusion characteristics is discussed. These results may
suggest experimental methods for determination of self-diffusion and structural
properties of real substances.


  In this new computing paradigm, named quantum computing, researchers from all
over the world are taking their first steps in designing quantum circuits for
image processing, through a difficult process of knowledge transfer. This
effort is named Quantum Image Processing, an emerging research field pushed by
powerful parallel computing capabilities of quantum computers. This work goes
in this direction and proposes the challenging development of a powerful method
of image denoising, such as the Total Variation (TV) model, in a quantum
environment. The proposed Quantum TV is described and its sub-components are
analysed. Despite the natural limitations of the current capabilities of
quantum devices, the experimental results show a competitive denoising
performance compared to the classical variational TV counterpart.


  We study Poisson valuations and provide their applications in solving
problems related to rigidity, automorphisms, Dixmier property, isomorphisms,
and embeddings of Poisson algebras and fields.


  Stochastic heating is a non-linear heating mechanism driven by the violation
of magnetic moment invariance due to large-amplitude turbulent fluctuations
producing diffusion of ions towards higher kinetic energies in the direction
perpendicular to the magnetic field. It is frequently invoked as a mechanism
responsible for the heating of ions in the solar wind. Here, we quantify for
the first time the proton stochastic heating rate $Q_\perp$ at radial distances
from the Sun as close as $0.16$ au, using measurements from the first two
Parker Solar Probe encounters. Our results for both the amplitude and radial
trend of the heating rate, $Q_\perp \propto r^{-2.5}$, agree with previous
results based on the Helios data set at heliocentric distances from 0.3 to 0.9
au. Also in agreement with previous results, $Q_\perp$ is significantly larger
in the fast solar wind than in the slow solar wind. We identify the tendency in
fast solar wind for cuts of the core proton velocity distribution transverse to
the magnetic field to exhibit a flat-top shape. The observed distribution
agrees with previous theoretical predictions for fast solar wind where
stochastic heating is the dominant heating mechanism.


  Integrated photonic neural networks (IPNNs) are emerging as promising
successors to conventional electronic AI accelerators as they offer substantial
improvements in computing speed and energy efficiency. In particular, coherent
IPNNs use arrays of Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) for unitary
transformations to perform energy-efficient matrix-vector multiplication.
However, the underlying MZI devices in IPNNs are susceptible to uncertainties
stemming from optical lithographic variations and thermal crosstalk and can
experience imprecisions due to non-uniform MZI insertion loss and quantization
errors due to low-precision encoding in the tuned phase angles. In this paper,
we, for the first time, systematically characterize the impact of such
uncertainties and imprecisions (together referred to as imperfections) in IPNNs
using a bottom-up approach. We show that their impact on IPNN accuracy can vary
widely based on the tuned parameters (e.g., phase angles) of the affected
components, their physical location, and the nature and distribution of the
imperfections. To improve reliability measures, we identify critical IPNN
building blocks that, under imperfections, can lead to catastrophic degradation
in the classification accuracy. We show that under multiple simultaneous
imperfections, the IPNN inferencing accuracy can degrade by up to 46%, even
when the imperfection parameters are restricted within a small range. Our
results also indicate that the inferencing accuracy is sensitive to
imperfections affecting the MZIs in the linear layers next to the input layer
of the IPNN.


  We have measured the size effect in nonlocal Gilbert relaxation rate in
FM(t$_{FM}$) / Cu (5nm) [/ Pt (2nm)] / Al(2nm) heterostructures, FM = \{
Ni$_{81}$Fe$_{19}$, Co$_{60}$Fe$_{20}$B$_{20}$, pure Co\}. Common behavior is
observed for three FM layers, where the additional relaxation obeys both a
strict inverse power law dependence $\Delta G =K \:t^{n}$,
$n=-\textrm{1.04}\pm\textrm{0.06}$ and a similar magnitude
$K=\textrm{224}\pm\textrm{40 Mhz}\cdot\textrm{nm}$. As the tested FM layers
span an order of magnitude in spin diffusion length $\lambda_{SDL}$, the
results are in support of spin diffusion, rather than nonlocal resistivity, as
the origin of the effect.


  Charmonium spectroscopy with Kogut-Susskind valence quarks are carried out
for quenched QCD at $\beta=6.0$ and for two-flavor full QCD at $\beta=5.7$.
Results for 1P--1S mass splitting and estimates of
$\alpha^{(5)}_{\overline{MS}}(m_Z)$ are reported. Problems associated with
flavor breaking effects and finite size effects of $1P$ states are discussed.


  We consider linear preferential attachment trees, and show that they can be
regarded as random split trees in the sense of Devroye (1999), although with
infinite potential branching. In particular, this applies to the random
recursive tree and the standard preferential attachment tree. An application is
given to the sum over all pairs of nodes of the common number of ancestors.


  We describe and analyze an interior-point method to decide feasibility
problems of second-order conic systems. A main feature of our algorithm is that
arithmetic operations are performed with finite precision. Bounds for both the
number of arithmetic operations and the finest precision required are
exhibited.


  Realistic effective interparticle interactions of quantum many-body systems
are widely seen as being short-range. However, the rigorous mathematical
analysis of this type of model turns out to be extremely difficult, in general,
with many important fundamental questions remaining open still nowadays. By
contrast, mean-field models come from different approximations or Ans\"{a}tze,
and are thus less realistic, in a sense, but are technically advantageous, by
allowing explicit computations while capturing surprisingly well many real
physical phenomena. Here, we establish a precise mathematical relation between
mean-field and short-range models, by using the long-range limit that is known
in the literature as the Kac limit. If both attractive and repulsive long-range
forces are present then it turns out that the limit mean-field model is not
necessarily what one traditionally guesses. One important innovation of our
study, in contrast with previous works on the subject, is the fact that we are
able to show the convergence of equilibrium states, i.e., of all correlation
functions. This paves the way for studying phase transitions, or at least
important fingerprints of them like strong correlations at long distances, for
models having interactions whose ranges are finite, but very large. It also
sheds a new light on mean-field models. Even on the level of pressures, our
results go considerably further than previous ones, by allowing, for instance,
a continuum of long-range interaction components, as well as very general
short-range Hamiltonians for the "free" part of the model.


  We perform a detailed study of the phase-space of the field equations of an
Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet scalar field cosmology for a spatially flat
Friedmann--Lema\^{\i}tre--Robertson--Walker spacetime. For the scalar field
potential, we consider the exponential function. In contrast, for the coupling
function of the scalar field with the Gauss-Bonnet term, we assume two cases,
the exponential function and the power-law function. We write the field
equations in dimensionless variables and study the equilibrium points using
Poincare variables. For the exponential coupling function, the asymptotic
solutions describe de Sitter universes or spacetimes where the Gauss-Bonnet
term dominates. We recovered previous results but found new asymptotic
solutions not previously studied. For the power-law coupling function,
equilibrium points which describe the scaling solution appear. Finally, the
power-law coupling provides a rich cosmological phenomenology.


  Jupiter's atmosphere features a variety of clouds that are formed from the
interplay of chemistry and atmospheric dynamics, from the deep red color of the
Great Red Spot to the high altitude white ammonia clouds present in the zones
(bright bands in Jupiter's atmosphere). Beneath these upper level clouds, water
condensation occurs, and sporadically leads to the formation of towering
convective storms, driven by the release of large amounts of latent heat. These
storms result in a widespread disruption of the cloud and dynamical structure
of the atmosphere at the latitude where they form, making the study of these
events paramount in understanding the dynamics at depth, and the role of water
in the jovian atmosphere. In this work, we use the Explicit Planetary
hybrid-Isentropic Coordinate (EPIC) General Circulation Model (GCM) to study
the jovian atmosphere, with a focus on moist convective storm formation from
water condensation. We present the addition of a sub-grid scale moist
convective module to model convective water cloud formation. We focus on the
$24^\circ$ N latitude, the location of a high speed jetstream, where convective
upwellings have been observed every 4-5 years. We find that the potential of
convection, and vertical mass and energy flux of the atmosphere is strongly
correlated with the amount of water, and we determine an upper limit of the
amount of water in the the region surrounding the jet as twice the solar [O/H]
ratio.


  We develop the realistic minimal electronic model for recently discovered
BiS$_2$ superconductors including the spin-orbit coupling based on a
first-principles band structure calculations. Due to strong spin-orbit
coupling, characteristic for the Bi-based systems, the tight-binding low-energy
model necessarily includes $p_x$, $p_y$, and $p_z$ orbitals. We analyze a
potential Cooper-pairing instability from purely repulsive interaction for the
moderate electronic correlations using the so-called leading angular harmonics
approximation (LAHA). For small and intermediate doping concentrations we find
the dominant instabilities to be $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave, and $s_{\pm}$-wave
symmetries, respectively. At the same time, in the absence of the sizable spin
fluctuations the intra and interband Coulomb repulsion are of the same
strength, which yields the strongly anisotropic behaviour of the
superconducting gaps on the Fermi surface in agreement with recent ARPES
findings. In addition, we find that the Fermi surface topology for BiS$_2$
layered systems at large electron doping can resembles the doped iron-based
pnictide superconductors with electron and hole Fermi surfaces with sufficient
nesting between them. This could provide further boost to increase $T_c$ in
these systems.


  Recent investigations of the double red clump in the color-magnitude diagram
of the Milky Way bulge cast serious doubts on the structure and formation
origin of the outer bulge. Unlike previous interpretation based on an X-shaped
bulge, stellar evolution models and CN-band observations have suggested that
this feature is another manifestation of the multiple stellar population
phenomenon observed in globular clusters (GCs). This new scenario requires a
significant fraction of the outer bulge stars with chemical patterns uniquely
observed in GCs. Here we show from homogeneous high-quality spectroscopic data
that the red giant branch stars in the outer bulge (> 5.5 degrees from the
Galactic center) are clearly divided into two groups according to Na abundance
in the [Na/Fe] - [Fe/H] plane. The Na-rich stars are also enhanced in Al, while
the differences in O and Mg are not observed between the two Na groups. The
population ratio and the Na and Al differences between the two groups are also
comparable with those observed in metal-rich GCs. The only plausible
explanation for these chemical patterns and characteristics appears to be that
the outer bulge was mostly assembled from disrupted proto-GCs in the early
history of the Milky Way.


  Cormas is an agent-based simulation platform developed in the late 90s by the
Green research at CIRAD unit to support the management of natural resources and
understand the interactions between natural and social dynamics. This platform
is well-suited for a participatory simulation approach that empowers local
stakeholders by including them in all modelling and knowledge-sharing steps. In
this short paper, we present the Cormas platform and discuss its unique
features and their importance for the participatory simulation approach. We
then present the early results of our ongoing study on managing pastoral
resources in the Sahel region, identify the problems faced by local
stakeholders, and discuss the potential use of Cormas at the next stage of our
study to collectively model and understand the effective ways of managing the
shared agro-sylvo-pastoral resources.


  We present a method to determine the complex coupling parameter of a
two-coupled-modes system by directly measuring the coupled eigenmodes rather
than their eigenvalues. This method is useful because mode-mixing can be
observed even if frequency shifts can not be measured. It also allows to
determine the complex coupling parameter, from which we conclude that the
observed coupling is mainly conservative. We observe mode-mixing in an optical
microcavity, where the modes couple primarily at the mirror surface, as
confirmed by AFM measurements. The presented method is general and can be
applied to other systems to measure mode coupling more accurately and to
determine the nature of the coupling.


  The new examples are found of the constraints which link the 1+2-dimensional
and multifield integrable equations and lattices. The vector and matrix
generalizations of the Nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation and the Ablowitz-Ladik
lattice are considered among the other multifield models. It is demonstrated
that using of the symmetries belonging to the hierarchies of these equations
leads, in particular, to the KP equation and twodimensional analogs of the
dressing chain, Toda lattice and dispersive long waves equations. In these
examples the multifield equation and its symmetry have meaning of the Lax pair
for the corresponding twodimensional equation under some compatible constraint
between field variables and eigenfunctions.


  The double sequence of standardized sample means constructed from an infinite
sequence of square integrable independent random vectors in the plane with
identically distributed coordinates is jointly asymptotically Normal if and
only if the Cesaro means of the sequence of cross sample correlation
coefficients converges to 0.


  Proxies for cumulants of baryon number $B$, electric charge $Q$ and
strangeness $S$ are usually measured in heavy-ion collisions via moments of
net-number distribution of given hadronic species. Since these cumulants of
conserved charges are expected to be sensitive to the existence of a critical
point in the phase diagram of nuclear matter, it is crucial to ensure that the
proxies used as substitutes are as close to them as possible. Hence, we use the
EPOS4 framework to generate Au+Au collisions at several collision energies of
the RHIC Beam Energy Scan. We compute $2^\text{nd}$ order net-cumulants of
$\pi$, $K$ and $p$, for which experimental data has been published, as well as
the corresponding conserved charge cumulants. We then compare them with
proxies, defined in previous lattice QCD and Hadron Resonance Gas model
studies, which are shown to reproduce more accurately their associated
conserved charge cumulants. We investigate the impact of hadronic
re-scatterings occurring in the late evolution of the system on these
quantities, as well as the amount of signal actually originating from the bulk
medium which endures a phase transition.


  Employing the approximate effective action constructed from the coincidence
limit of the Hadamard-Minakshisundaram-DeWitt (HaMiDeW) coefficient a_{3}, the
renormalized stress-energy tensor of the quantized massive scalar field in the
spacetime of a static and electrically charged dilatonic black hole is
calculated. Special attention is paid to the minimally and conformally coupled
fields propagating in geometries with a=1, and to the power expansion of the
general stress-energy tensor for small values of charge. A compact expression
for the trace of the stress-energy tensor is presented.


  We perform ab initio calculations of hydrogen-based tunneling defects in
alumina to identify deleterious two-level systems (TLS) in superconducting
qubits. The defects analyzed include bulk hydrogenated Al vacancies, bulk
hydrogen interstitial defects, and a surface OH rotor. The formation energies
of the defects are first computed for an Al- and O-rich environment to give the
likelihood of defect occurrence during growth. The potential energy surfaces
are then computed and the corresponding dipole moments are evaluated to
determine the coupling of the defects to an electric field. Finally, the
tunneling energy is computed for the hydrogen defect and the analogous
deuterium defect, providing an estimate of the TLS energy and the corresponding
frequency for photon absorption. We predict that hydrogenated cation vacancy
defects will form a significant density of GHz-frequency TLSs in alumina.


  Chaotic features of systems of coupled Josephson junctions are studied.
Manifestation of chaos in the temporal dependence of the electric charge,
related to a parametric resonance, is demonstrated through the calculation of
the maximal Lyapunov exponent, phase-charge and charge-charge Lissajous
diagrams and correlation functions. The number of junctions in the stack
strongly influences the fine structure in the current voltage characteristics
and a strong proximity effect results from the nonperiodic boundary conditions.
The observed resonance-related chaos exhibits intermittency over a range of
conditions and parameters. General features of the system are analyzed by means
of a linearized equation and the criteria for a breakpoint region with no chaos
are obtained. Such criteria could clarify recent experimental observations of
variations in the power output from intrinsic Josephson junctions in high
temperature superconductors.


  The low-frequency conductivity of a disordered Fermi gas in one spatial
dimension is governed by the Mott-Berezinskii law $\sigma(\omega) \propto
\omega^2 \ln \omega^2$. In a recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 1760 (2000)]
A. O. Gogolin claimed that this law is invalid, challenging our basic
understanding of disordered systems and a massive amount of previous
theoretical work. We point out two calculational errors in Gogolin's paper.
Once we correct them, the Mott-Berezinskii formula is fully recovered. We also
present numerical results supporting the Mott-Berezinskii formula but ruling
out that of Gogolin.