  This article reviews the principles that govern the combined transport of
spin, heat, and charge. The extensive thermodynamic quantity associated with
spin transport is the magnetization; its Onsager-conjugate force is in general
the derivative of the free energy with respect to the magnetization. Spins are
carried in one of two ways: (1) by spin-polarized free electrons in magnetic
metals and doped semiconductors, or (2) by spin waves (magnons) that reside on
localized electrons on unfilled d- or f-shells of transition metal or
rare-earth elements. The paper covers both cases in separate chapters. In both
cases, it is possible to define a spin chemical potential whose gradient is the
more practical conjugate force to spin transport. The paper further describes
the anomalous Hall, spin Hall, and inverse spin Hall effects in magnetic and
non-magnetic solids with strong spin-orbit coupling because these effects are
used to generate and measure spin fluxes. Spin transport across interfaces is
described next, and includes spin pumping and spin transfer torque. The final
chapter then puts all these concepts together to describe the spin-Seebeck,
spin-Peltier, and magnon-drag effects, which exist in ferromagnetic,
antiferromagnetic, and even paramagnetic solids. Magnon-drag, in particular, is
a high-temperature effect that boosts the thermopower of metals by an order of
magnitude and that of semiconductors by a factor of 2 or 3 above the electronic
diffusion thermopower. This is the only example where a spin-driven effect is
larger than a charge-driven effect. Magnon drag leads a simple binary
paramagnetic semiconductor, MnTe, to have zT > 1 without optimization. This
shows how adding spin as an additional design parameter in thermoelectrics
research is a new and promising approach toward the quest for high-zT
materials.


  We show that in dimensions $>1$ the cohomology groups of the Higson
compactification of the hyperbolic space $\H^n$ with respect to the $C_0$
coarse structure are trivial.
  Also we prove that the cohomology groups of the Higson compactification of
$\H^n$ for the bounded coarse structure are trivial in all even dimensions.


  We propose and analyze a stochastic model which explains, analytically, the
cutoff behavior of real scale-free networks previously modeled computationally
by Amaral et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97, 11149 (2000)] and others.
We present a mathematical model that can explain several existing computational
scale-free network generation models. This yields a theoretical basis to
understand cutoff behavior in complex networks, previously treated only with
simulations using distinct models. Therefore, ours is an integrative approach
that unifies the existing literature on cutoff behavior in scale-free networks.
Furthermore, our mathematical model allows us to reach conclusions not hitherto
possible with computational models: the ability to predict the equilibrium
point of active vertices and to relate the growth of networks with the
probability of aging. We also discuss how our model introduces a useful way to
classify scale free behavior of complex networks.


  With the motivation of discovering high-temperature superconductors,
evolutionary algorithm is employed to search for all stable compounds in the
Sn-H system. In addition to the traditional SnH$_4$, new hydrides SnH$_8$,
SnH$_{12}$ and SnH$_{14}$ are found to be thermodynamically stable at high
pressure. Dynamical stability and superconductivity of tin-hydrides are
systematically investigated. I$\bar{4}$m2-SnH$_8$, C2/m-SnH$_{12}$ and
C2/m-SnH$_{14}$ exhibit higher superconducting transition temperatures of 81,
93 and 97 K compared to the traditional compound SnH$_4$ with T$_c$ of 52 K at
200 GPa. An interesting bent H$_3^-$ in I$\bar{4}$m2-SnH$_8$ and novel liner
H$_4^-$ in C2/m-SnH$_{12}$ are observed. All the new tin-hydrides remain
metallic over their predicted range of stability. The intermediate-frequency
wagging and bending vibrations have more contribution to electron-phonon
coupling parameter than high-frequency stretching vibrations of H$_2$ and
H$_3$.


  Searches for new physics by experimental collaborations represent a
significant investment in time and resources. Often these searches are
sensitive to a broader class of models than they were originally designed to
test. We aim to extend the impact of existing searches through a technique we
call 'recasting'. After considering several examples, which illustrate the
issues and subtleties involved, we present RECAST, a framework designed to
facilitate the usage of this technique.


  We propose and analyze a protocol to generate two dimensional tensor network
states using a single quantum system that sequentially interacts with a 1D
string of qubits. This is accomplished by using parts of the string itself as a
quantum queue memory. As a physical implementation, we consider a single atom
or atom like system coupled to a 1D waveguide with a distant mirror, where
guided photons represent the qubits while the mirror allows the implementation
of the queue memory. We identify the class of many-body quantum states that can
be produced using this approach. These include universal resources for
measurement based quantum computation and states associated with topologically
ordered phases. We discuss an explicit protocol to deterministically create a
2D cluster state in a quantum nanophotonic experiment, that allows for a
realization of a quantum computer using a single atom coupled to light.


  We propose a novel teacher-student model for semi-supervised multi-organ
segmentation. In teacher-student model, data augmentation is usually adopted on
unlabeled data to regularize the consistent training between teacher and
student. We start from a key perspective that fixed relative locations and
variable sizes of different organs can provide distribution information where a
multi-organ CT scan is drawn. Thus, we treat the prior anatomy as a strong tool
to guide the data augmentation and reduce the mismatch between labeled and
unlabeled images for semi-supervised learning. More specifically, we propose a
data augmentation strategy based on partition-and-recovery N$^3$ cubes cross-
and within- labeled and unlabeled images. Our strategy encourages unlabeled
images to learn organ semantics in relative locations from the labeled images
(cross-branch) and enhances the learning ability for small organs
(within-branch). For within-branch, we further propose to refine the quality of
pseudo labels by blending the learned representations from small cubes to
incorporate local attributes. Our method is termed as MagicNet, since it treats
the CT volume as a magic-cube and N$^3$-cube partition-and-recovery process
matches with the rule of playing a magic-cube. Extensive experiments on two
public CT multi-organ datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of MagicNet, and
noticeably outperforms state-of-the-art semi-supervised medical image
segmentation approaches, with +7% DSC improvement on MACT dataset with 10%
labeled images. Code is available at
https://github.com/DeepMed-Lab-ECNU/MagicNet.


  A combined analysis of the data on Bhabha scattering at centre-of-mass
energies 183 and 189 GeV from the LEP experiments ALEPH, L3 and OPAL is
performed to search for effects of TeV strings in quantum gravity models with
large extra dimensions. No statistically significant deviations from the
Standard Model expectations are observed and lower limit on the string scale
M_S = 0.631 TeV at 95 % confidence level is derived. The data are used to set
lower limits on the scale of contact interactions ranging from 4.2 to 16.2 TeV
depending on the model. In a complementary analysis we derive an upper limit on
the electron size of 2.8 x 10^{-19} m at 95 % confidence level.


  A selection of results from the H1 and ZEUS experiments at HERA are reviewed,
particularly in the area of deep inelastic scattering and diffraction. Quantum
chromodynamics gives a good explanation of these data down to surprisingly low
values of the four-momentum transfer, $Q^2$. Data at smaller $Q^2$ can be
described by Regge models as well as by dipole models including
parton-saturation effects. The latter can also give a unified description of
many features of diffractive data.


  People readily generalize knowledge to novel domains and stimuli. We present
a theory, instantiated in a computational model, based on the idea that
cross-domain generalization in humans is a case of analogical inference over
structured (i.e., symbolic) relational representations. The model is an
extension of the LISA and DORA models of relational inference and learning. The
resulting model learns both the content and format (i.e., structure) of
relational representations from non-relational inputs without supervision, when
augmented with the capacity for reinforcement learning, leverages these
representations to learn individual domains, and then generalizes to new
domains on the first exposure (i.e., zero-shot learning) via analogical
inference. We demonstrate the capacity of the model to learn structured
relational representations from a variety of simple visual stimuli, and to
perform cross-domain generalization between video games (Breakout and Pong) and
between several psychological tasks. We demonstrate that the model's trajectory
closely mirrors the trajectory of children as they learn about relations,
accounting for phenomena from the literature on the development of children's
reasoning and analogy making. The model's ability to generalize between domains
demonstrates the flexibility afforded by representing domains in terms of their
underlying relational structure, rather than simply in terms of the statistical
relations between their inputs and outputs.


  The influence of the energy dependence of the free NN t-matrix on the optical
potential of nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering is investigated within the
context of a full-folding model based on the impulse approximation. The
treatment of the pole structure of the NN t-matrix, which has to be taken into
account when integrating to negative energies is described in detail. We
calculate proton-nucleus elastic scattering observables for $^{16}$O,
$^{40}$Ca, and $^{208}$Pb between 65 and 200 MeV laboratory energy and study
the effect of the energy dependence of the NN t-matrix. We compare this result
with experiment and with calculations where the center-of-mass energy of the NN
t-matrix is fixed at half the projectile energy. It is found that around 200
MeV the fixed energy approximation is a very good representation of the full
calculation, however deviations occur when going to lower energies (65 MeV).


  We place tight constraints on the growth index $\gamma$ by using the recent
growth history results of 2dFGRS, SDSS-LRG, VIMOS-VLT deep Survey (VVDS) and
{\em WiggleZ} datasets. In particular, we investigate several parametrizations
of the growth index $\gamma(z)$, by comparing their cosmological evolution
using observational growth rate data at different redshifts. Utilizing a
standard likelihood analysis we find that the use of the combined growth data
provided by the 2dFGRS, SDSS-LRG, VVDS and {\em WiggleZ} galaxy surveys, puts
the most stringent constraints on the value of the growth index. As an example,
assuming a constant growth index we obtain that $\gamma=0.602\pm 0.055$ for the
concordance $\Lambda$CDM expansion model. Concerning the
Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati gravity model, we find $\gamma=0.503\pm 0.06$ which is
lower, and almost $3\sigma$ away, from the theoretically predicted value of
$\gamma_{DGP}\simeq 11/16$. Finally, based on a time varying growth index we
also confirm that the combined growth data disfavor the DGP gravity.


  The Mauritius Radio Telescope (MRT) images show systematics in the positional
errors of sources when compared to source positions in the Molonglo Reference
Catalogue (MRC). We have applied two-dimensional homography to correct
positional errors in the image domain and avoid re-processing the visibility
data. Positions of bright (above 15-$\sigma$) sources, common to MRT and MRC
catalogues, are used to set up an over-determined system to solve for the 2-D
homography matrix. After correction, the errors are found to be within 10% of
the beamwidth for these bright sources and the systematics are eliminated from
the images.


  LuFe2O4 often is considered as a prototypical multiferroic with polar order
arising from the electronic degrees of freedom only ("electronic
ferroelectricity"). In the present work, we check the intrinsic nature of the
dielectric response of this material by performing dielectric measurements of
polycrystalline samples with different types of contact materials and with
different grain sizes. In addition, frequency-dependent measurements of the
electric-field dependent polarization are provided. The obtained results
unequivocally prove that the reported colossal dielectric constants in LuFe2O4,
which were interpreted in terms of electronic ferroelectricity, are of
non-intrinsic surface-related origin. The intrinsic dielectric properties of
this material show no indications of any ferroelectric order and, thus, LuFe2O4
is not multiferroic. Its intrinsic dielectric constant is close to 20 and its
dielectric loss is dominated by charge transport via variable range hopping.


  Twitter is a popular platform for e-commerce in the Arab region including the
sale of illegal goods and services. Social media platforms present multiple
opportunities to mine information about behaviors pertaining to both illicit
and pharmaceutical drugs and likewise to legal prescription drugs sold without
a prescription, i.e., illegally. Recognized as a public health risk, the sale
and use of illegal drugs, counterfeit versions of legal drugs, and legal drugs
sold without a prescription constitute a widespread problem that is reflected
in and facilitated by social media. Twitter provides a crucial resource for
monitoring legal and illegal drug sales in order to support the larger goal of
finding ways to protect patient safety. We collected our dataset using Arabic
keywords. We then categorized the data using four machine learning classifiers.
Based on a comparison of the respective results, we assessed the accuracy of
each classifier in predicting two important considerations in analysing the
extent to which drugs are available on social media: references to drugs for
sale and the legality/illegality of the drugs thus advertised. For predicting
tweets selling drugs, Support Vector Machine, yielded the highest accuracy rate
(96%), whereas for predicting the legality of the advertised drugs, the Naive
Bayes, classifier yielded the highest accuracy rate (85%).


  MATHUSLA is a proposed large-volume displaced vertex (DV) detector, situated
on the surface above CMS and designed to search for long-lived particles (LLPs)
produced at the HL-LHC. We show that a discovery of LLPs at MATHUSLA would not
only prove the existence of BSM physics, it would also uncover the theoretical
origin of the LLPs, despite the fact that MATHUSLA gathers no energy or
momentum information on the LLP decay products. Our analysis is simple and
robust, making it easily generalizable to include more complex LLP scenarios,
and our methods are applicable to LLP decays discovered in ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, or
other external detectors. In the event of an LLP detection, MATHUSLA can act as
a Level-1 trigger for the main detector, guaranteeing that the LLP production
event is read out at CMS. We perform an LLP simplified model analysis to show
that combining information from the MATHUSLA and CMS detectors would allow the
LLP production mode topology to be determined with as few as $\sim 100$
observed LLP decays. Underlying theory parameters, like the LLP and parent
particle masses, can also be measured with $\lesssim 10\%$ precision. Together
with information on the LLP decay mode from the geometric properties of the
observed DV, it is clear that MATHUSLA and CMS together will be able to
characterize any newly discovered physics in great detail.


  In this paper, we study the RG flow in the non-linear sigma models obtained
from a 2d N=(0,2) supersymmetric QCD. The sigma model is parameterized by a
single Kahler modulus. We determine its exact non-perturbative beta function
using holomorphy, triality and the knowledge of the infra-red fixed point.


  We propose an algorithm, HPREF (Hierarchical Partitioning by Repeated
Features), that produces a hierarchical partition of a set of clusterings of a
fixed dataset, such as sets of clusterings produced by running a clustering
algorithm with a range of parameters. This gives geometric structure to such
sets of clustering, and can be used to visualize the set of results one obtains
by running a clustering algorithm with a range of parameters.


  The purpose of this paper is to investigate the connection between the
Lotka-Volterra system and combinatorics. We study several context-free grammars
associated with the Lotka-Volterra system. Some combinatorial arrays, involving
the Stirling numbers of the second kind and Eulerian numbers, are generated by
these context-free grammars. In particular, we present grammatical
characterization of some statistics on cyclically ordered partitions.


  We point out that current estimates of form factors fail to explain the
non-leptonic decays $B \to \psi K(K^{\ast})$ and that the combination of data
on the semi-leptonic decays $D \to K(K^{\ast})\ell \nu$ and on the non-leptonic
decays $B \to \psi K(K^{\ast})$ (in particular recent po\-la\-ri\-za\-tion
data) severely constrain the form (normalization and $q^2$ dependence) of the
heavy-to-light meson form factors, if we assume the factorization hypothesis
for the latter. From a simultaneous fit to \bpsi and \dk data we find that
strict heavy quark limit scaling laws applied to the form factors do not hold
when going from $D$ to $B$ and must have large corrections that make softer the
dependence on the masses. This is in contrast with the matrix elements
themselves which are found to need smaller $1/m_Q$ corrections to the
asymptotic heavy quark scaling laws. We also find that $A_1(q^2)$ should
increase slower with \qq than $A_2, V, f_+$. We propose a simple
parametrization of these corrections based on a quark model or on an extension
of the \hhs laws to the \hl case, complemented with an approximately constant
$A_1(q^2)$. This model may be viewed as assuming a precocious validity of
strict heavy quark scaling laws for the current matrix elements. Although this
model reproduces qualitatively the wanted features for mass and $q^2$
dependence, and thus reduces the discrepancy with data, it is insufficient to
reach a full agreement with the experiment. In our opinion the puzzle is still
there.


  We study the problem of estimating a function of many parameters acquired by
sensors that are distributed in space, e.g., the spatial gradient of a field.
We restrict ourselves to a setting where the distributed sensors are probed
with experimentally practical resources, namely, field modes in separable
displaced thermal states, and focus on the optimal design of the optical
receiver that measures the phase-shifted returning field modes. Within this
setting, we demonstrate that a locally optimal measurement strategy, i.e., one
that achieves the standard quantum limit for all phase shift values, is a
Gaussian measurement, and moreover, one that is separable. We also demonstrate
the utility of adaptive phase measurements for making estimation performance
robust in cases where one has little prior information on the unknown
parameters. In this setting we identify a regime where it is beneficial to use
structured optical receivers that entangle the received modes before
measurement.


  We use recently derived Ward identities and lattice data for the light- and
strange-quark condensates to reconstruct the scalar and pseudoscalar
susceptibilities ($\chi_S^\kappa$, $\chi_P^K$) in the isospin 1/2 channel. We
show that $\chi_S^\kappa$ develops a maximum above the QCD chiral transition,
after which it degenerates with $\chi_P^K$. We also obtain $\chi_S^\kappa$
within Unitarized Chiral Perturbation Theory (UChPT) at finite temperature,
when it is saturated with the $K_0^*(700)$ (or $\kappa$) meson, the dominant
lowest-energy state in the isospin 1/2 scalar channel of $\pi K$ scattering.
Such UChPT result reproduces the expected peak structure, revealing the
importance of thermal interactions, and makes it possible to examine the
$\chi_S^\kappa$ dependence on the light- and strange-quark masses. A consistent
picture emerges controlled by the $m_l/m_s$ ratio that allows one studying
$K-\kappa$ degeneration in the chiral, two-flavor and $SU(3)$ limits. These
results provide an alternative sign for $O(4)\times U(1)_A$ restoration that
can be explored in lattice simulations and highlight the role of strangeness,
which regulated by the strange-quark condensate helps to reconcile the current
tension among lattice results regarding $U(1)_A$ restoration.


  Suppression of electron motion under an alternating current (AC) electric
field is examined in a one-dimensional Hubbard model. Utilizing three
complementary calculation methods, it is found unambiguously that magnitudes of
the kinetic-energy suppressions are influenced sensitively by the Coulomb
interaction as well as the electron density. The phase and frequency in the AC
field do not bring about major effects. The results are interpreted as a
combined effect of the Coulomb interaction and the AC field, and provide a
guiding principle for the photocontrol of correlated electron motion.


  This work contributes to nonlocal vector calculus as an indispensable
mathematical tool for the study of nonlocal models that arises in a variety of
applications. We define the nonlocal half-ball gradient, divergence and curl
operators with general kernel functions (integrable or fractional type with
finite or infinite supports) and study the associated nonlocal vector
identities. We study the nonlocal function space on bounded domains associated
with zero Dirichlet boundary conditions and the half-ball gradient operator and
show it is a separable Hilbert space with smooth functions dense in it. A major
result is the nonlocal Poincar\'e inequality, based on which a few applications
are discussed, and these include applications to nonlocal convection-diffusion,
nonlocal correspondence model of linear elasticity, and nonlocal Helmholtz
decomposition on bounded domains.


  We present analyses of variability in the red giant stars in the metal-poor
globular cluster NGC6397, based on data obtained with the Hubble Space
Telescope. We use an non-standard data reduction approach to turn a 23-day
observing run originally aimed at imaging the white dwarf population, into
time-series photometry of the cluster's highly saturated red giant stars. With
this technique we obtain noise levels in the final power spectra down to 50
parts per million, which allows us to search for low amplitude solar-like
oscillations. We compare the observed excess power seen in the power spectra
with estimates of the typical frequency range, frequency spacing and amplitude
from scaling the solar oscillations. We see evidence that the detected
variability is consistent with solar-like oscillations in at least one and
perhaps up to four stars. With metallicities two orders of magnitude lower than
of the Sun, these stars present so far the best evidence of solar-like
oscillations in such a low metallicity environment.


  Routing, modulation and spectrum allocation in elastic optical networks is a
problem aiming at increasing the capacity of the network. Many algorithms such
as shortest path algorithm can be used as the routing section of this problem.
The efficiency of these algorithms is partly based on how the cost on each link
is defined. In this study, we consider several basic costs and compare their
effects on the network capacity. In particular, the static costs and the
dynamic costs are evaluated and compared; For dynamic scenarios, compared to
static scenarios, at least one additional factor is added that, for instance,
can be usage of the link. We further consider a new factor that is based on
probability of accommodating the signal at a given time in any given link. The
results show that, among them, the shortest path algorithm provides the least
blocking probability when the cost is a combination of link length and the
abovementioned possibility/ usage of the link.


  The Smoluchowski equation for a free particle with a time dependent sink is
solved exactly for many special cases. In this method by knowing the
probability distribution at the origin P(0,t), one may derive the probability
distribution at all positions i.e. P(x,t)


  The long-term objective of our research is to develop the instrumental
approach for teachers. A first step, presented in this paper, is to observe
stable behaviours of teachers using internet resources in mathematics. We
retain the scenarios as indicators of the genesis processes. We propose a
scenario taxonomy taken from categories elaborated by computer sciences
specialists and complemented to take into account didactical aspects. The
descriptions provided by teachers permitted to observe an evolution of their
scenarios elaboration's practices.


  Three coupled Ginzburg-Landau equations for hexagonal patterns with broken
chiral symmetry are investigated. They are relevant for the dynamics close to
onset of rotating non-Boussinesq or surface-tension-driven convection. Steady
and oscillatory, long- and short-wave instabilities of the hexagons are found.
For the long-wave behavior coupled phase equations are derived. Numerical
simulations of the Ginzburg-Landau equations indicate bistability between
spatio-temporally chaotic patterns and stable steady hexagons. The chaotic
state can, however, not be described properly with the Ginzburg-Landau
equations.


  The surface chemical composition of this remarkable star shows that it is
hydrogen-deficient, carbon-rich and enriched in the light s-process elements.
Spectra taken in May and October 1996 indicate a decrease in the surface
hydrogen abundance by 0.7 dex in five months along with an increase in the
abundances of Li, Sr, Y and Zr. The abundance changes are in agreement with the
hypothesis of the star being a rapidly evolving ``born-again'' AGB star
experiencing a final He-shell flash, similar to FG Sge. The C^12/C^13 ratio in
October is very low, also suggesting hydrogen ingestion. By chemical
composition, Sakurai's object resembles the R Coronae Borealis (R CrB) stars.


  This paper is concerned with the incompressible limit of the compressible
magnetohydrodynamic equations with vanishing viscosity coefficients and general
initial data in the whole space $\mathbb{R}^d$ $ (d=2$ or 3). It is rigorously
showed that, as the Mach number, the shear viscosity coefficient and the
magnetic diffusion coefficient simultaneously go to zero, the weak solution of
the compressible magnetohydrodynamic equations converges to the strong solution
of the ideal incompressible magnetohydrodynamic equations as long as the latter
exists.


  Machining dynamics research lays a solid foundation for machining operations
by providing stable combinations of spindle speed and depth of cut.
Furthermore, machine learning has been applied to predict tool life as a
function of cutting speed. However, the existing research does not consider the
discrete-event dynamics in machine shop, i.e., the machine tool needs to
process a series of parts in queue under various practical production
requirements. This paper addresses the integration of discrete-event dynamics
and machining dynamics to achieve cost savings in machining. We first propose a
learning-based cost function for the studied integrated optimization problem of
machine tool. The proposed cost function utilizes the predicted tool life under
different stable cutting speeds for further optimizing speed selection of
machine tool to deal with the discrete-event dynamics in machine shop. Then,
according to the practical production requirements, we develop several
mathematical optimization models for the related integrated optimization
problems with the consideration of cost, makespan and due date. Numerical
results show the effectiveness of our proposed methods and also the potential
to be used in practice.


  In spite of its key role in compact star physics, the surface tension of
quark matter is not well comprehended yet. In this work we analyze the behavior
of the surface tension of three-flavor quark matter in the outer and inner core
of cold deleptonized magnetars, proto magnetars born in core collapse
supernovae, and hot magnetars produced in binary neutron stars mergers. We
explore the role of temperature, baryon number density, trapped neutrinos,
droplet size, and magnetic fields within the multiple reflection expansion
formalism. Quark matter is described within the MIT bag model and is assumed to
be in chemical equilibrium under weak interactions. We discuss some
astrophysical consequences of our results.


  The discovery of a 126 GeV Higgs like scalar at the LHC along with the non
observation of the supersymmetric particles, has in turn lead to constraining
various supersymmetric models through the Higgs data. We here consider the case
of both MSSM, as well its extension containing an additional chiral singlet
superfield, NMSSM. We concentrate on the case where we identify the second
lightest Higgs boson as the 126 GeV state discovered at the CERN LHC and
consider the invisible decays of the low mass Higgs bosons in both MSSM and
NMSSM. We find that in case of the MSSM with universal boundary conditions at
the GUT scale, it is not possible to have light neutralinos leading to the
decay channel $H\rightarrow \tilde{\chi}_1^0 \tilde{\chi}_1^0$. The invisible
decay mode is allowed in case of certain $SO(10)$ and $E_6$ grand unified
models with large representations and nonuniversal gaugino masses at the GUT
scale. In case of the NMSSM, for the parameter space considered it is possible
to have the invisible decay channel with universal gaugino masses at the GUT
scale. We furthermore consider the most general case, with $M_1$ and $M_2$ as
independent parameters for both MSSM and NMSSM. We isolate the regions in
parameter space in both cases, where the second lightest Higgs boson has a mass
of 126 GeV and then concentrate on the invisible decay of Higgs to lighter
neutralinos. The other non-standard decay mode of the Higgs is also considered
in detail. The invisible Higgs branching ratio being constrained by the LHC
results, we find that in this case with the second lightest Higgs being the 126
GeV state, more data from the LHC is required to constrain the neutralino
parameter space, compared to the case when the lightest Higgs boson is the 126
GeV state.


  Vector Addition Systems with States (VASS) consists of a finite state space
equipped with d counters, where in each transition every counter is
incremented, decremented, or left unchanged. VASS provide a fundamental model
for analysis of concurrent processes, parametrized systems, and they are also
used as abstract models for programs for bounds analysis. While termination is
the basic liveness property that asks the qualitative question of whether a
given model always terminates or not, the more general quantitative question
asks for bounds on the number of steps to termination. In the realm of
quantitative bounds a fundamental problem is to obtain asymptotic bounds on
termination time. Large asymptotic bounds such as exponential or higher already
suggest that either there is some error in modeling, or the model is not useful
in practice. Hence we focus on polynomial asymptotic bounds for VASS. While
some well-known approaches (e.g., lexicographic ranking functions) are neither
sound nor complete with respect to polynomial bounds, other approaches only
present sound methods for upper bounds. In this work our main contributions are
as follows: First, for linear asymptotic bounds we present a sound and complete
method for VASS, and moreover, our algorithm runs in polynomial time. Second,
we classify VASS according the normals of the vectors of the cycles. We show
that singularities in the normal are the key reason for asymptotic bounds such
as exponential and non-elementary for VASS. In absence of singularities, we
show that the asymptotic complexity bound is always polynomial and of the form
${\Theta}(n^k)$, for some k $\leq$ d. We present an algorithm, with time
complexity polynomial in the size of the VASS and exponential in dimension d,
to compute the optimal k.


  When mid-infrared light interacts with nanoscale polar dielectric structures
optical phonon propagation cannot be ignored, leading to a rich nonlocal
phenomenology which we have only recently started to uncover. In properly
crafted nanodevices this includes the creation of polaritonic excitations with
hybrid longitudinal-transverse nature, which are predicted to allow energy
funnelling from longitudinal electrical currents to far-field transverse
radiation. In this work we study the physics of these longitudinal-transverse
polaritons in a dielectric nanolayer in which the nonlocality strongly couples
epsilon-near-zero modes to longitudinal phonons. After having calculated the
system's spectrum solving Maxwell's equations, we develop an analytical
polaritonic theory able to transparently quantify the nonlocality-mediated
coupling as a function of the system parameters. Such a theory provides a
powerful tool for the study of longitudinal-transverse polariton interactions
and we use it to determine the conditions required for the hybrid modes to
appear.


  We extend the direct integration method of the holomorphic anomaly equations
to general Omega backgrounds for pure SU(2) N=2 Super-Yang-Mills theory and
topological string theory on non-compact Calabi-Yau threefolds. We find that an
extension of the holomorphic anomaly equation, modularity and boundary
conditions provided by the perturbative terms as well as by the gap condition
at the conifold are sufficient to solve the generalized theory in the above
cases. In particular we use the method to solve the topological string for the
general Omega backgrounds on non-compact toric Calabi-Yau spaces. The conifold
boundary condition follows from that the N=2 Schwinger-Loop calculation with
BPS states coupled to a self-dual and an anti-self-dual field strength. We
calculate such BPS states also for the decompactification limit of Calabi-Yau
spaces with regular K3 fibrations and half K3s embedded in Calabi-Yau
backgrounds.


  It is shown that a simple modification of the geometry in which Raman lasers
are applied to a cold gas in an optical lattice results in transforming the
emerging effective electromagnetic field into a pure gauge. This contrived
gauge-away effect can be observed experimentally by measuring the
Mott-Insulator to Superfluid critical point. The underlying mechanism for this
phenomenon is the ability to engineer the transfer of the transverse component
of the gauge potential into its longitudinal one.


  Integrated on-chip microdisk lasers have attracted great attention as a light
source of compact size, low lasing threshold and narrow bandwidth. However,
challenges remain unresolved in terms of single mode operation at high output
power while maintaining the ultra-narrow bandwidth. In this work, we
demonstrate monolithically integrated on-chip single-frequency microdisk lasers
coupled with bus-waveguides fabricated by photolithography assisted
chemo-mechanical etching. Owing to the high-Q factor of a polygon whispering
gallery mode formed in the microdisk and long cavity lengths (e.g., 409 um and
1 mm), a microdisk laser with a narrow linewidth of 0.11 MHz and a maximum
output power of 62.1 uW has been achieved at room temperature.


  Analog (uncoded) transmission provides a simple and robust scheme for
communicating a Gaussian source over a Gaussian channel under the mean squared
error (MSE) distortion measure. Unfortunately, its performance is usually
inferior to the all-digital, separation-based source-channel coding solution,
which requires exact knowledge of the channel at the encoder. The loss comes
from the fact that except for very special cases, e.g. white source and channel
of matching bandwidth (BW), it is impossible to achieve perfect matching of
source to channel and channel to source by linear means. We show that by
combining prediction and modulo-lattice operations, it is possible to match any
colored Gaussian source to any colored Gaussian noise channel (of possibly
different BW), hence achieve Shannon's optimum attainable performance $R(D)=C$.
Furthermore, when the source and channel BWs are equal (but otherwise their
spectra are arbitrary), this scheme is asymptotically robust in the sense that
for high signal-to-noise ratio a single encoder (independent of the noise
variance) achieves the optimum performance. The derivation is based upon a
recent modulo-lattice modulation scheme for transmitting a Wyner-Ziv source
over a dirty-paper channel.


  Across academia, government, and industry, data stewards are facing
increasing pressure to make datasets more openly accessible for researchers
while also protecting the privacy of data subjects. Differential privacy (DP)
is one promising way to offer privacy along with open access, but further
inquiry is needed into the tensions between DP and data science. In this study,
we conduct interviews with 19 data practitioners who are non-experts in DP as
they use a DP data analysis prototype to release privacy-preserving statistics
about sensitive data, in order to understand perceptions, challenges, and
opportunities around using DP. We find that while DP is promising for providing
wider access to sensitive datasets, it also introduces challenges into every
stage of the data science workflow. We identify ethics and governance questions
that arise when socializing data scientists around new privacy constraints and
offer suggestions to better integrate DP and data science.


This paper has been withdrawn by the author and it is published in AGAG


  Emerging cyber-physical systems incorporate systems of systems that have
functional interdependencies. With the increase in complexity of the
cyber-physical systems, the attack surface also expands, making cyber-physical
systems more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The functional interdependencies
exacerbate the security risk as a cyber-attack that compromises one constituent
system of a cyber-physical system can disseminate to others. This can result in
a cascade effect that can impair the operability of the whole cyber-physical
system. In this article, we present a novel security architecture that
localizes the cyber-attack in a timely manner, and simultaneously recovers the
affected cyber-physical system functionality. We have evaluated the performance
of the architecture for advanced metering infrastructure-based pricing
cyber-attacks scenario. The simulation results exhibit the effectiveness of the
proposed architecture in containing the attack in terms of system availability
and its impact on the electric load distribution in the power grid.


  According to the Lieb's theorem the ferromagnetic interaction in
graphene-based materials with bipartite lattice is a result of disbalance
between the number of sites available for $p_z$ electrons in different
sublattices. Here, we report on another mechanism of the ferromagnetism in
functionalized graphene that is the direct exchange interaction between spin
orbitals. By the example of the single-side semihydrogenated (C$_2$H) and
semifluorinated (C$_2$F) graphene we show that such a coupling can partially or
even fully compensate antiferromagnetic character of indirect exchange
interactions reported earlier [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 88}, 081405(R) (2013)]. As a
result, C$_2$H is found to be a two-dimensional material with the isotropic
ferromagnetic interaction and negligibly small magnetic anisotropy, which
prevents the formation of the long-range magnetic order at finite temperature
in accordance with the Mermin-Wagner theorem. This gives a rare example of a
system where direct exchange interactions play a crucial role in determining a
magnetic structure. In turn, C$_2$F is found to be at the threshold of the
antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic instability, which in combination with the
Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction can lead to a skyrmion state.


  Given a potential of pair interaction and a value of activity, one can
consider the Gibbs distribution in a finite domain $\Lambda \subset
\mathbb{Z}^d$. It is well known that for small values of activity there exist
the infinite volume ($\Lambda \to \mathbb{Z}^d$) limiting Gibbs distribution
and the infinite volume correlation functions. In this paper we consider the
converse problem - we show that given $\rho_1$ and $\rho_2(x)$, where $\rho_1$
is a constant and $\rho_2(x)$ is a function on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, which are
sufficiently small, there exist a pair potential and a value of activity, for
which $\rho_1$ is the density and $\rho_2(x)$ is the pair correlation function.


  A cover of a finite non-cyclic group $G$ is a family $\mathcal{H}$ of proper
subgroups of $G$ whose union equals $G$. A cover of $G$ is called minimal if it
has minimal size, and irredundant if it does not properly contain any other
cover. We classify the finite non-cyclic groups all of whose irredundant covers
are minimal.


  Power grids are seeing more devices connected at the load level in the form
of power electronics: e.g., data centers, electric vehicle chargers, and
battery storage facilities. Therefore it is necessary to perform power system
analyses with load models that capture these loads' behavior, which has
historically not been done. To this end, we propose ZIP-E loads, a composite
load model that has a ZIP load with a dynamic power electronic, or E, load
model. We perform small signal and transient analysis of the IEEE WSCC 9 Bus
test case with ZIP and ZIP-E load models. For small signals, we conclude that
ZIP loads destabalize networks significantly faster than corresponding ZIP-E
loads. In stable cases, transient results showed significantly larger
oscillations for ZIP loads. Further, we find that a higher network loading
condition is correlated with a higher sensitivity to load model choice. These
results suggests that the constant power portion of the ZIP load has a large
destabilizing effect and can generally overestimate instability, and that
attention should be drawn to load model choice if operating near a stability
boundary.


  We use the emission line measurements of 3CR radio sources with redshift <
0.3, to explore their spectroscopic properties. The 3CR sources show a bimodal
distribution of Excitation Index, a new spectroscopic indicator that measures
the relative intensity of low and high excitation lines. This unveils the
presence of two main sub-populations of radio-loud AGN, High and Low Excitation
Galaxies (HEG and LEG, respectively). All broad-line objects are HEG from the
point of view of their narrow emission line ratios and all HEG are FRII
radio-galaxies with log L(178) [erg/s] > 32.8. Conversely LEG cover the whole
range of radio power encompassed by this 3CR subsample (30.7 < log L(178) <
35.4) and they are of both FRI and FRII type. The brightest LEG are all FRII.
HEG and LEG obey to two (quasi) linear correlations between the optical line
and extended radio luminosities, with HEG being brighter than LEG in the [OIII]
line by a factor of ~10. HEG and LEG are offset also in a plane that compares
the black hole mass and the ionizing nuclear luminosity. However, although HEG
are associated with higher nuclear luminosities, we find LEG among the
brightest radio sources of the sample and with a clear FRII morphology,
indistinguishable from those seen in HEG. This suggests that LEG are not simply
objects with a lower level of accretion. We speculate that the differences
between LEG and HEG are related to a different mode of accretion: LEG are
powered by hot gas, while HEG require the presence of cold accreting material.
The high temperature of the accreting gas in LEG accounts for the lack of
"cold" structures (i.e. molecular torus and Broad Line Region), for the reduced
radiative output of the accretion disk, and for the lower gas excitation.
[ABRIDGED]


  We prove that a random group of the graph model associated with a sequence of
expanders has fixed-point property for a certain class of CAT(0) spaces. We use
Gromov's criterion for fixed-point property in terms of the growth of n-step
energy of equivariant maps from a finitely generated group into a CAT(0) space,
to which we give a detailed proof. We estimate a relevant geometric invariant
of the tangent cones of the Euclidean buildings associated with the groups
PGL(m,Q_r), and deduce from the general result above that the same random group
has fixed-point property for all of these Euclidean buildings with m bounded
from above.


  We investigate the time evolution of a homogeneous isotropic universe which
consists of a perfect gas governed by the Einstein-Euler-de Sitter equations.
Under suitable assumptions on the equation of state and assumptions on the
present states, we give a mathematically rigorous proof of the existence of the
Big Bang at the finite past and expanding of the universe in the course to the
infinite future.


  We analyze quantum states formed as superpositions of an initial pure product
state and its image under local unitary evolution, using two measurement-based
measures of superposition size: one based on the optimal quantum binary
distinguishability of the branches of the superposition and another based on
the ratio of the maximal quantum Fisher information of the superposition to
that of its branches, i.e., the relative metrological usefulness of the
superposition. A general formula for the effective sizes of these states
according to the branch distinguishability measure is obtained and applied to
superposition states of $N$ quantum harmonic oscillators composed of Gaussian
branches. Considering optimal distinguishability of pure states on a
time-evolution path leads naturally to a notion of distinguishability time that
generalizes the well known orthogonalization times of Mandelstam and Tamm and
Margolus and Levitin. We further show that the distinguishability time provides
a compact operational expression for the superposition size measure based on
the relative quantum Fisher information. By restricting the maximization
procedure in the definition of this measure to an appropriate algebra of
observables, we show that the superposition size of, e.g., N00N states and
hierarchical cat states, can scale linearly with the number of elementary
particles comprising the superposition state, implying precision scaling
inversely with the total number of photons when these states are employed as
probes in quantum parameter estimation of a 1-local Hamiltonian in this
algebra.


  It is proposed that the highest energy $\sim 10^{20}$eV cosmic ray primaries
are protons, decay products of a long-lived progenitor whose high kinetic
energy arises from decay of a distant (cosmological) superheavy particle, G.
Such a scenario can occur in e.g. SU(15) grand unification and in some preon
models, but is more generic; if true, these unusual cosmic rays provide a
window into new physics.


  In the first part, we construct a new isomorphism between the endomorphism
algebra of an induced cuspidal character sheaf and the group algebra of the
relative Weyl group involved. We show it differs from the isomorphism of
Lusztig by a linear character, and we relate this linear character to some
stabilizers. Some consequences for characteristic functions of character
sheaves are obtained. In the second part, we compute explicitly this linear
character whenever the cuspidal local system is supported by the regular
unipotent class and, as an application of these methods, we obtain a refinement
of Digne, Lehrer and Michel's theorem on Lusztig restriction of Gel'fand-Graev
characters.


  One-dimensional anyon models are renewedly constructed by using path integral
formalism. A statistical interaction term is introduced to realize the anyonic
exchange statistics. The quantum mechanics formulation of statistical
transmutation is presented.


  Some practical results are derived for population inference based on a
sample, under the two qualitative conditions of 'ignorability' and
exchangeability. These are the 'Histogram Theorem', for predicting the outcome
of a non-sampled member of the population, and its application to inference
about the population, both without and with groups. There are discussions of
parametric versus non-parametric models, and different approaches to
marginalisation. An Appendix gives a self-contained proof of the Representation
Theorem for finite exchangeable sequences.


  Since 1981, when Lamport introduced the remote user authentication scheme
using table, a plenty of schemes had been proposed with table and without table
using. In 1993, Chang and Wu [5] introduced Remote password authentication
scheme with smart cards. A number of remote authentication schemes with smart
cards have been proposed since then. These schemes allow a valid user to login
a remote server and access the services provided by the remote server. But
still there is no scheme to authenticate the remote proxy user. In this paper
we propose firstly, a protocol to authenticate a proxy user remotely using
smartcards.


  The first computational model of solid-phase chemistry in cometary nuclear
ices is presented. An astrochemical kinetics model, MAGICKAL, is adapted to
trace the chemical evolution in multiple layers of cometary ice, over a
representative period of 5 Gyr. Physical conditions are chosen appropriate for
"cold storage" of the cometary nucleus in the outer Solar System, prior to any
active phase. The chemistry is simulated at a selection of static temperatures
in the range 5 - 60 K, while the ice is exposed to the interstellar radiation
field, inducing a photochemistry in the outer ice layers that produces
significant formation of complex organic molecules. A treatment for the
chemistry resulting from cosmic-ray bombardment of the ices is also introduced
into the model, along with a new formulation for low-temperature
photochemistry. Production of simple and complex molecules to depth on the
order of 10~m or more is achieved, with local fractional abundances comparable
to observed values in many cases. The production of substantial amounts of
O$_2$ (and H$_2$O$_2$) is found, suggesting that long-term processing by
high-energy cosmic rays of cometary ices in situ, over a period on the order of
1 Gyr, may be sufficient to explain the large observed abundances of O$_2$, if
the overall loss of material from the comet is limited to a depth on the order
of 10 m. Entry into the inner solar system could produce a further enhancement
in the molecular content of the nuclear ices that may be quantifiable using
this modeling approach.


  We present an infinite series of autonomous discrete equations on the square
lattice possessing hierarchies of autonomous generalized symmetries and
conservation laws in both directions. Their orders in both directions are equal
to $\kappa N$, where $\kappa$ is an arbitrary natural number and $N$ is
equation number in the series. Such a structure of hierarchies is new for
discrete equations in the case $N>2$.
  Symmetries and conservation laws are constructed by means of the master
symmetries. Those master symmetries are found in a direct way together with
generalized symmetries. Such construction scheme seems to be new in the case of
conservation laws. One more new point is that, in one of directions, we
introduce the master symmetry time into coefficients of discrete equations.
  In most interesting case $N=2$ we show that a second order generalized
symmetry is closely related to a relativistic Toda type integrable equation. As
far as we know, this property is very rare in the case of autonomous discrete
equations.


  A short introduction to the use of the spectral theorem for self-adjoint
operators in the theory of special functions is given. As the first example,
the spectral theorem is applied to Jacobi operators, i.e. tridiagonal
operators, on l^2(N), leading to a proof of Favard's theorem stating that
polynomials satisfying a three-term recurrence relation are orthogonal
polynomials. We discuss the link to the moment problem. In the second example,
the spectral theorem is applied to Jacobi operators on l^2(Z). We discuss the
theorem of Masson and Repka linking the deficiency indices of a Jacobi operator
on l^2(Z) to those of two Jacobi operators on l^2(N). For two examples of
Jacobi operators on l^2(Z), namely for the Meixner, respectively
Meixner-Pollaczek, functions, related to the associated Meixner, respectively
Meixner-Pollaczek, polynomials, and for the second order hypergeometric
q-difference operator, we calculate the spectral measure explicitly. This gives
explicit (generalised) orthogonality relations for hypergeometric and basic
hypergeometric series.


  UX practitioners (UXPs) face novel challenges when working with and
communicating artificial intelligence (AI) as a design material. We explore how
UXPs communicate AI concepts when given hands-on experience training and
experimenting with AI models. To do so, we conducted a task-based design study
with 27 UXPs in which they prototyped and created a design presentation for a
AI-enabled interface while having access to a simple AI model training tool.
Through analyzing UXPs' design presentations and post-activity interviews, we
found that although UXPs struggled to clearly communicate some AI concepts,
tinkering with AI broadened common ground when communicating with technical
stakeholders. UXPs also identified key risks and benefits of AI in their
designs, and proposed concrete next steps for both UX and AI work. We conclude
with a sensitizing concept and recommendations for design and AI tools to
enhance multi-stakeholder communication and collaboration when crafting
human-centered AI experiences.


  In this paper we prove that the K\"{a}hler-Einstein metrics for a
degeneration family of K\"{a}hler manifolds with ample canonical bundles
Gromov-Hausdorff converge to the complete K\"{a}hler-Einstein metric on the
smooth part of the central fiber when the central fiber has only normal
crossing singularities inside smooth total space. We also prove the
incompleteness of the Weil-Peterson metric in this case.


  We study the scaling and coordinate transformation to physically simulate
quantum three-body collinear chemical reactions of the type A+BC $\rightarrow$
AB+C by the motion of single ultracold atoms or a weakly interacting
Bose-Einstein condensate on an $L$-shaped waveguide. As an example we show that
the parameters to model the reaction F+HH $\to$ H+HF with lithium are at reach
with current technology. This mapping provides also an inverse scattering tool
to find an unknown potential, and a way to transfer the knowledge on molecular
reaction dynamics to design beam splitters for cold atoms with control of the
channel outcome and vibrational excitation.


  Context: The Internet of Things (IoT) has brought expectations for software
inclusion in everyday objects. However, it has challenges and requires
multidisciplinary technical knowledge involving different areas that should be
combined to enable IoT software systems engineering. Goal: To present an
evidence-based roadmap for IoT development to support developers in specifying,
designing, and implementing IoT systems. Method: An iterative approach based on
experimental studies to acquire evidence to define the IoT Roadmap. Next, the
Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge life cycle was used to organize the
roadmap and set temporal dimensions for IoT software systems engineering.
Results: The studies revealed seven IoT Facets influencing IoT development. The
IoT Roadmap comprises 117 items organized into 29 categories representing
different concerns for each Facet. In addition, an experimental study was
conducted observing a real case of a healthcare IoT project, indicating the
roadmap applicability. Conclusions: The IoT Roadmap can be a feasible
instrument to assist IoT software systems engineering because it can (a)
support researchers and practitioners in understanding and characterizing the
IoT and (b) provide a checklist to identify the applicable recommendations for
engineering IoT software systems.


  We provide a full quantitative version of the Gaussian isoperimetric
inequality. Our estimate is independent of the dimension, sharp on the decay
rate with respect to the asymmetry and with optimal dependence on the mass.


  This paper extends Hopf-Galois theory to infinite field extensions and
provides a natural definition of subextensions. For separable (possibly
infinite) Hopf-Galois extensions, it provides a Galois correspondence. This
correspondence also is a refinement of what was known in the case of finite
separable Hopf-Galois extensions.


  Conventional quantum field theory is a method for studying structureless
elementary particles. Non-elementary particles, on the other hand, are those
with internal structure or particles that are made up of elementary
constituents like the hadrons, which contain quarks and gluons. We introduce a
structure-inclusive algebraic formulation of quantum field theory that could
handle such particles and in which orthogonal polynomials play a central role.
For simplicity, we consider non-elementary scalar particles in 3+1 Minkowski
space-time and, in three appendices, we treat spinors with structure, massless
vector fields, and the massive vector bosons. We show how to do scattering
calculation in a nonlinear scalar-spinor coupling model where we find that loop
integrals in the Feynman diagrams are remarkably finite. The aim of this short
expos\'e is to motivate further studies and research using this approach.


  In this paper, a kind of neural network with time-varying delays is proposed
to solve the problems of quadratic programming. The delay term of the neural
network changes with time t. The number of neurons in the neural network is n +
h, so the structure is more concise. The equilibrium point of the neural
network is consistent with the optimal solution of the original optimization
problem. The existence and uniqueness of the equilibrium point of the neural
network are proved. Application inequality technique proved global exponential
stability of the network. Some numerical examples are given to show that the
proposed neural network model has good performance for solving optimization
problems.


  Inter-vehicle distance and relative velocity estimations are two basic
functions for any ADAS (Advanced driver-assistance systems). In this paper, we
propose a monocular camera-based inter-vehicle distance and relative velocity
estimation method based on end-to-end training of a deep neural network. The
key novelty of our method is the integration of multiple visual clues provided
by any two time-consecutive monocular frames, which include deep feature clue,
scene geometry clue, as well as temporal optical flow clue. We also propose a
vehicle-centric sampling mechanism to alleviate the effect of perspective
distortion in the motion field (i.e. optical flow). We implement the method by
a light-weight deep neural network. Extensive experiments are conducted which
confirm the superior performance of our method over other state-of-the-art
methods, in terms of estimation accuracy, computational speed, and memory
footprint.


  Population imaging markedly increased the size of functional-imaging
datasets, shedding new light on the neural basis of inter-individual
differences. Analyzing these large data entails new scalability challenges,
computational and statistical. For this reason, brain images are typically
summarized in a few signals, for instance reducing voxel-level measures with
brain atlases or functional modes. A good choice of the corresponding brain
networks is important, as most data analyses start from these reduced signals.
We contribute finely-resolved atlases of functional modes, comprising from 64
to 1024 networks. These dictionaries of functional modes (DiFuMo) are trained
on millions of fMRI functional brain volumes of total size 2.4TB, spanned over
27 studies and many research groups. We demonstrate the benefits of extracting
reduced signals on our fine-grain atlases for many classic functional data
analysis pipelines: stimuli decoding from 12,334 brain responses, standard GLM
analysis of fMRI across sessions and individuals, extraction of resting-state
functional-connectomes biomarkers for 2,500 individuals, data compression and
meta-analysis over more than 15,000 statistical maps. In each of these analysis
scenarii, we compare the performance of our functional atlases with that of
other popular references, and to a simple voxel-level analysis. Results
highlight the importance of using high-dimensional "soft" functional atlases,
to represent and analyse brain activity while capturing its functional
gradients. Analyses on high-dimensional modes achieve similar statistical
performance as at the voxel level, but with much reduced computational cost and
higher interpretability. In addition to making them available, we provide
meaningful names for these modes, based on their anatomical location. It will
facilitate reporting of results.


  Measuring time delays between the multiple images of gravitationally lensed
quasars is now recognized as a competitive way to constrain the cosmological
parameters, and it is complementary with other cosmological probes. This
requires long and well sampled optical light curves of numerous lensed quasars,
such as those obtained by the COSMOGRAIL collaboration. High-quality data from
our monitoring campaign call for novel numerical techniques to robustly measure
the delays, as well as the associated random and systematic uncertainties, even
in the presence of microlensing variations. We propose three different point
estimators to measure time delays, which are explicitly designed to handle
light curves with extrinsic variability. These methods share a common
formalism, which enables them to process data from n-image lenses. Since the
estimators rely on significantly contrasting ideas, we expect them to be
sensitive to different bias sources. For each method and data set, we
empirically estimate both the precision and accuracy (bias) of the time delay
measurement using simulated light curves with known time delays that closely
mimic the observations. Finally, we test the self-consistency of our approach,
and we demonstrate that our bias estimation is serviceable. These new methods,
including the empirical uncertainty estimator, will represent the standard
benchmark for analyzing the COSMOGRAIL light curves.


  We consider a resource allocation problem involving a large number of agents
with individual constraints subject to privacy, and a central operator whose
objective is to optimize a global, possibly nonconvex, cost while satisfying
the agents' constraints, for instance an energy operator in charge of the
management of energy consumption flexibilities of many individual consumers. We
provide a privacy-preserving algorithm that does compute the optimal allocation
of resources, avoiding each agent to reveal her private information
(constraints and individual solution profile) neither to the central operator
nor to a third party. Our method relies on an aggregation procedure: we compute
iteratively a global allocation of resources, and gradually ensure existence of
a disaggregation, that is individual profiles satisfying agents' private
constraints, by a protocol involving the generation of polyhedral cuts and
secure multiparty computations (SMC). To obtain these cuts, we use an alternate
projection method, which is implemented locally by each agent, preserving her
privacy needs. We adress especially the case in which the local and global
constraints define a transportation polytope. Then, we provide theoretical
convergence estimates together with numerical results, showing that the
algorithm can be effectively used to solve the allocation problem in high
dimension, while addressing privacy issues.


  The collective excitations of solids are classified as longitudinal and
transverse depending on their relative polarization and propagation direction.
This seemingly formal classification results in surprisingly distinct types of
excitations if calculated within the Coulomb gauge. Transverse modes couple to
free-space photons and hybridize into polaritons for strong light-matter
coupling. Longitudinal modes, in contrast, are seen as pure matter excitations
that produce a dynamic polarization inside the material without photon
coupling. Here we show that both longitudinal and transverse modes become
polaritons in the explicitly covariant Lorenz gauge. Longitudinal excitations
couple to longitudinal and scalar photons, which have been considered elusive
so far. We show that the dipolar excitations become three-fold degenerate in
the long-wavelength limit when including all photonic degrees of freedom, as
expected from symmetry. Our findings demonstrate how choosing a gauge
determines our thinking about materials excitations and how gauge fixing
reveals new pathways for tailoring polaritons in crystals, metamaterials, and
surfaces. Longitudinal polaritons will interact with longitudinal near fields
located at surfaces, which provides additional excitation channels to engineer
scanning near-field microscopy and surface-enhanced spectroscopy.


  The Modified Quasichemical Model in the Pair Approximation (MQMPA) can
effectively capture the thermodynamic features of a binary solution with
Short-Range Ordering (SRO). If the model is used to treat a ternary solution, a
geometric interpolation method must be employed to extend the bond energy
expression from binary to ternary formalism. The aim of the present work is to
implement such extension by means of a generic geometric interpolation
approach. The generic method is unbiased and can be transformed into the widely
used Kohler, Toop and Muggianu approaches with special interpolation
parameters. The interpolation parameters can be calculated by the integration
method as well as be optimized by ternary experimental data. The generic bond
energy formalism (GBEF) has thus been derived to provide the MQMPA great
flexibility to describe ternary solutions with complex configurations.
Moreover, the GBEF is more concise than the formula derived by a combinatorial
Kohler-Toop method. The concise GBEF is in the respect more conveniently
programmed. Eventually, the Cu-Li-Sn liquid where both SRO and clustering among
atoms occur is employed to validate the effectiveness and reliability of the
GBEF within the MQMPA.


  Observations of the sun suggest that solar activities systematically create
north-south hemispheric asymmetries. For instance, the hemisphere in which the
sunspot activity is more active tends to switch after the early half of each
solar cycle. Svalgaard & Kamide (2013) recently pointed out that the time gaps
of polar field reversal between the north and south hemispheres are simply
consequences of the asymmetry of sunspot activity. However, the mechanism
underlying the asymmetric feature in solar cycle activities is not yet well
understood. In this paper, in order to explain the cause of the asymmetry from
the theoretical point of view, we investigate the relationship between the
dipole- and quadrupole-type components of the magnetic field in the solar cycle
using the mean-field theory based on the flux transport dynamo model. As a
result, we found that there are two different attractors of the solar cycle, in
which either the north or the south polar field is first reversed, and that the
flux transport dynamo model well explains the phase-asymmetry of sunspot
activity and the polar field reversal without any ad hoc source of asymmetry.


  We examine the effects of the new equilibration scenario of the increasingly
strongly interacting parton plasma and of the non-equilibrium environment have
on the production of open charm, photon and dilepton at LHC and at RHIC
energies. We show that an out-of-equilibrium effect, not shown before, changes
significantly the relative yield of the two main partonic contributions to
photon production in the higher $p_T$ range, and higher orders for
electromagnetic emissions have increased significance in the new scenario
especially at RHIC energies. We argue that the effects of the new scenario are
not restricted just to the parton phase but will continue through to the later
hadron gas phase with potentially positive implications for the detection of
the quark-gluon plasma.


  We show that, in low dimensional conductors, the quasiparticle decay and the
relaxation of the phase are not exponential processes. In quasi-one dimension,
they scale as $e^{- (t/\tau_N)^{3/2}}$ where the characteristic time
$\tau_{in}$, identical for both processes, is a power $T^{2/3}$ of the
temperature. This result implies a distribution of relaxation times.


  We give a proof that there exists a universal constant $K$ such that the disc
graph associated to a surface $S$ forming a boundary component of a compact,
orientable 3-manifold $M$ is $K$-quasiconvex in the curve graph of $S$. Our
proof does not require the use of train tracks.


  Topological order is now being established as a central criterion for
characterizing and classifying ground states of condensed matter systems and
complements categorizations based on symmetries. Fractional quantum Hall
systems and quantum spin liquids are receiving substantial interest because of
their intriguing quantum correlations, their exotic excitations and prospects
for protecting stored quantum information against errors. Here we show that the
Hamiltonian of the central model of this class of systems, the Toric Code, can
be directly implemented as an analog quantum simulator in lattices of
superconducting circuits. The four-body interactions, which lie at its heart,
are in our concept realized via Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices
(SQUIDs) that are driven by a suitably oscillating flux bias. All physical
qubits and coupling SQUIDs can be individually controlled with high precision.
Topologically ordered states can be prepared via an adiabatic ramp of the
stabilizer interactions. Strings of qubit operators, including the stabilizers
and correlations along non-contractible loops, can be read out via a capacitive
coupling to read-out resonators. Moreover, the available single qubit
operations allow to create and propagate elementary excitations of the Toric
Code and to verify their fractional statistics. The architecture we propose
allows to implement a large variety of many-body interactions and thus provides
a versatile analog quantum simulator for topological order and lattice gauge
theories.


  Besides black holes, the phase space of three-dimensional massive gravity
about Warped-Anti de Sitter (WAdS) space contains solutions that decay
exponentially in time. They describe evanescent graviton configurations that,
while governed by a wave equation with non-vanishing effective mass, do not
carry net gravitational energy. Explicit examples of such solutions have been
found in the case of Topologically Massive Gravity; here, we generalize them to
a much more general ghost-free massive deformation, with the difference being
that the decay rate gets corrected due to the presence of higher-order terms.


  Let $p$ be a prime number, $C$ be any absolutely irreducible affine plane
curve over $\mathbb{F}_p$, and $g,f\in\mathbb{F}_p(x,y)$ be rational functions.
We continue the study of the distribution of the values of short hybrid
exponential sums of the form $S_{H}(x;C) = \sum_{P\in C, x<x(P)\leq
x+H}\chi(g(P))\psi(f(P))$ on $x\in\mathcal{I}$ for some short interval
$\mathcal{I}$. We show that under some natural conditions, the limiting
distribution of the sum $S_{H}(x;C)$ is Gaussian for all curve $C$. This
largely generalizes a previous result of the author and Zaharescu.


  For all the joint von Neumann measurements on a D-dimensional quantum system,
we present the specific example of a context-invariant quasi hidden variable
(qHV) model, proved in [Loubenets, J. Math. Phys. 56, 032201 (2015)] to exist
for each Hilbert space. In this model, a quantum observable X is represented by
a variety of random variables satisfying the functional condition required in
quantum foundations but, in contrast to a contextual model, each of these
random variables equivalently models X under all joint von Neumann
measurements, regardless of their contexts. This, in particular, implies the
specific local qHV (LqHV) model for an N-qudit state and allows us to derive
the new exact upper bound on the maximal violation of 2x...x2-setting Bell-type
inequalities of any type (either on correlation functions or on joint
probabilities) under N-partite joint von Neumann measurements on an N-qudit
state. For d=2, this new upper bound coincides with the maximal violation by an
N-qubit state of the Mermin-Klyshko inequality. Based on our results, we
discuss the conceptual and mathematical advantages of context-invariant and
local qHV modelling.


  In this paper, the mechanical behavior of multilayered small-scale beams in
nonisothermal environment is investigated. Scale phenomena are modeled by means
of the mathematically well-posed and experimentally consistent stress-driven
integral formulation of elasticity. The present research extends the treatment
in [1] confined to elastically homogeneous nano-scopic structures. It is shown
that the non-locality leads to a complex coupling between axial and transverse
elastic displacements. Such a size-dependent phenomenon makes the solution of
the relevant nonlocal thermoelastostatic problem, governed by a system of two
ordinary differential equations with ten standard boundary conditions and
non-classical constitutive boundary conditions, significantly more involved
with respect to treatments in literature. Thus, a novel solution methodology,
based on Laplace transforms, is proposed and illustrated by examining simple
structural schemes of current applicative interest in Nanomechanics and
Nanotechnology.


  This paper examines the effectiveness of the Dyson-Schwinger (DS) equations
as a calculational tool in quantum field theory. The DS equations are an
infinite sequence of coupled equations that are satisfied exactly by the
connected Green's functions $G_n$ of the field theory. These equations link
lower to higher Green's functions and, if they are truncated, the resulting
finite system of equations is underdetermined. The simplest way to solve the
underdetermined system is to set all higher Green's function(s) to zero and
then to solve the resulting determined system for the first few Green's
functions. The $G_1$ or $G_2$ so obtained can be compared with exact results in
solvable models to see if the accuracy improves for high-order truncations.
Five $D=0$ models are studied: Hermitian $\phi^4$ and $\phi^6$ and
non-Hermitian $i\phi^3$, $-\phi^4$, and $i\phi^5$ theories. The truncated DS
equations give a sequence of approximants that converge slowly to a limiting
value but this limiting value always {\it differs} from the exact value by a
few percent. More sophisticated truncation schemes based on mean-field-like
approximations do not fix this formidable calculational problem.


  The state equation of the charged AdS black hole is reviewed in the $T-r$
plane. Thinking of the phase transition, the $T-S$, $P-V$, $P-\nu$ graphs are
plotted and then the equal area law is used in the three cases to get the phase
transition point (P,T). The analytical phase transition point relations for P-T
of charged AdS black hole has been obtained successfully. By comparing the
three results, we find that the equal area law possibly cannot be used directly
for $P-\nu$ plane. According to the $T-S$, $P-V$ results, we plot the $P-T-Q$
graph and find that for a highly charged black hole a very low temperature
condition is required for the phase transition.


  Local log-regular rings are a certain class of Cohen-Macaulay local rings
that are treated in logarithmic geometry. Our paper aims to provide purely
commutative ring theoretic proof of some ring-theoretic properties of local
log-regular rings such as an explicit description of a canonical module, and
the finite generation of the divisor class group.


  In this paper, we apply a case study approach to advance current
understanding of what effects public co-funding of R&D projects have on project
team members' perceived complexity. We chose an R&D project carried out by an
industrial SME in northern Spain. The chosen research strategy was a
qualitative approach, and sixteen employees participated in the project. We
held in-depth semi-structured interviews at the beginning and end of the
co-funded part of the project. NVivo data analysis software was used for
qualitative data analysis. Results showed a substantial increase in perceived
complexity. We observed that this was due to unresolved tension between the
requirements of the project's co-financing entity and normal SME working
procedures. New working procedures needed to be developed in order to comply
with the co-financing entity's requirements. However, overall perceived
complexity significantly decreased once the co-financed part of the project was
completed.


  Efimov states are a sequence of shallow three-body bound states that arise
when the two-body scattering length is much larger than the range of the
interaction. The binding energies of these states are described as a function
of the scattering length and one three-body parameter by a transcendental
equation involving a universal function of one angular variable. We provide an
accurate and convenient parametrization of this function. Moreover, we discuss
the effective treatment of range corrections in the universal equation and
compare with a strictly perturbative scheme.


  For certain industrial control applications an explicit function capturing
the nontrivial trade-off between competing objectives in closed loop
performance is not available. In such scenarios it is common practice to use
the human innate ability to implicitly learn such a relationship and manually
tune the corresponding controller to achieve the desirable closed loop
performance. This approach has its deficiencies because of individual
variations due to experience levels and preferences in the absence of an
explicit calibration metric. Moreover, as the complexity of the underlying
system and/or the controller increase, in the effort to achieve better
performance, so does the tuning time and the associated tuning cost. To reduce
the overall tuning cost, a tuning framework is proposed herein, whereby a
supervised machine learning is used to extract the human-learned cost function
and an optimization algorithm that can efficiently deal with a large number of
variables, is used for optimizing the extracted cost function. Given the
interest in the implementation across many industrial domains and the
associated high degree of freedom present in the corresponding tuning process,
a Model Predictive Controller applied to air path control in a diesel engine is
tuned for the purpose of demonstrating the potential of the framework.


  We establish the existence of a chiral spin liquid (CSL) as the exact ground
state of the Kitaev model on a decorated honeycomb lattice, which is obtained
by replacing each site in the familiar honeycomb lattice with a triangle. The
CSL state spontaneously breaks time reversal symmetry but preserves other
symmetries. There are two topologically distinct CSLs separated by a quantum
critical point. Interestingly, vortex excitations in the topologically
nontrivial (Chern number $\pm 1$) CSL obey non-Abelian statistics.


  Recommendation has become one of the most important components of online
services for improving sale records, however visualization work for online
recommendation is still very limited. This paper presents an interactive
recommendation approach with the following two components. First, rating
records are the most widely used data for online recommendation, but they are
often processed in high-dimensional spaces that can not be easily understood or
interacted with. We propose a Latent Semantic Model (LSM) that captures the
statistical features of semantic concepts on 2D domains and abstracts user
preferences for personal recommendation. Second, we propose an interactive
recommendation approach through a storytelling mechanism for promoting the
communication between the user and the recommendation system. Our approach
emphasizes interactivity, explicit user input, and semantic information convey;
thus it can be used by general users without any knowledge of recommendation or
visualization algorithms. We validate our model with data statistics and
demonstrate our approach with case studies from the MovieLens100K dataset. Our
approaches of latent semantic analysis and interactive recommendation can also
be extended to other network-based visualization applications, including
various online recommendation systems.


  There are multiple testing methods to ascertain an infection in an individual
and they vary in their performances, cost and delay. Unfortunately, better
performing tests are sometimes costlier and time consuming and can only be done
for a small fraction of the population. On the other hand, greater number of
individuals can be tested using a cheaper, rapid test, but may only provide
less reliable results. In this work, we studied the interplay between cost and
delay of the tests as well the additional advantages offered by partial and
complete lockdowns. To understand the influence of different test strategies,
we implemented them on realistic random social networks with a COVID-19-like
epidemic in progression. Specifically, we compared the performance of two tests
mimicking the characteristics of popular tests implemented for COVID-19
detection. We present procedures and intuitive understanding to ascertain the
optimum combination of the tests to minimize the peak infection as well as
total quarantine days when the number of tests is constrained by a fixed total
budget.


  We consider nuclear function spaces on which the Weyl-Heisenberg group acts
continuously and study the basic properties of the twisted convolution product
of the functions with the dual space elements. The final theorem characterizes
the corresponding algebra of convolution multipliers and shows that it contains
all sufficiently rapidly decreasing functionals in the dual space.
Consequently, we obtain a general description of the Moyal multiplier algebra
of the Fourier-transformed space. The results extend the Weyl symbol calculus
beyond the traditional framework of tempered distributions.


  A nonlinear identity for the scattering phase of quantum integrable models is
proved.


  Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) can generate levels for a variety of
games. This paper focuses on combining GAN-generated segments in a snaking
pattern to create levels for Mega Man. Adjacent segments in such levels can be
orthogonally adjacent in any direction, meaning that an otherwise fine segment
might impose a barrier between its neighbor depending on what sorts of segments
in the training set are being most closely emulated: horizontal, vertical, or
corner segments. To pick appropriate segments, multiple GANs were trained on
different types of segments to ensure better flow between segments. Flow was
further improved by evolving the latent vectors for the segments being joined
in the level to maximize the length of the level's solution path. Using
multiple GANs to represent different types of segments results in significantly
longer solution paths than using one GAN for all segment types, and a human
subject study verifies that these levels are more fun and have more human-like
design than levels produced by one GAN.


  A graph $G=(V,E)$ is representable if there exists a word $W$ over the
alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $W$ if and only if
$(x,y)\in E$ for each $x\neq y$. If $W$ is $k$-uniform (each letter of $W$
occurs exactly $k$ times in it) then $G$ is called $k$-representable. It was
shown that a graph is representable if and only if it is $k$-representable for
some $k$. Minimum $k$ for which a representable graph $G$ is $k$-representable
is called its representation number.
  In this paper we give a characterization of representable graphs in terms of
orientations. Namely, we show that a graph is representable if and only if it
admits an orientation into a so-called \emph{semi-transitive digraph}. This
allows us to prove a number of results about representable graphs, not the
least that 3-colorable graphs are representable. We also prove that the
representation number of a graph on $n$ nodes is at most $n$, from which one
concludes that the recognition problem for representable graphs is in NP. This
bound is tight up to a constant factor, as we present a graph whose
representation number is $n/2$.
  We also answer several questions, in particular, on representability of the
Petersen graph and local permutation representability.


  Understanding the spread of online rumors is a pressing societal challenge
and an active area of research across domains. In the context of the 2022 U.S.
midterm elections, one influential social media platform for sharing
information -- including rumors that may be false, misleading, or
unsubstantiated -- was Twitter (now renamed X). To increase understanding of
the dynamics of online rumors about elections, we present and analyze a dataset
of 1.81 million Twitter posts corresponding to 135 distinct rumors which spread
online during the midterm election season (September 5 to December 1, 2022). We
describe how this data was collected, compiled, and supplemented, and provide a
series of exploratory analyses along with comparisons to a previously-published
dataset on 2020 election rumors. We also conduct a mixed-methods analysis of
three distinct rumors about the election in Arizona, a particularly prominent
focus of 2022 election rumoring. Finally, we provide a set of potential future
directions for how this dataset could be used to facilitate future research
into online rumors, misinformation, and disinformation.


  The concept of formal duality was proposed by Cohn, Kumar and Sch\"urmann,
which reflects a remarkable symmetry among energy-minimizing periodic
configurations. This formal duality was later translated into a purely
combinatorial property by Cohn, Kumar, Reiher and Sch\"urmann, where the
corresponding combinatorial objects were called formally dual pairs. So far,
except the results presented in Li and Pott (arXiv:1810.05433v3), we have
little information about primitive formally dual pairs having subsets with
unequal sizes. In this paper, we propose a direct construction of primitive
formally dual pairs having subsets with unequal sizes in $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times
\mathbb{Z}_4^{2m}$, where $m \ge 1$. This construction recovers an infinite
family obtained in Li and Pott (arXiv:1810.05433v3), which was derived by
employing a recursive approach. Although the resulting infinite family was
known before, the idea of the direct construction is new and provides more
insights which were not known from the recursive approach.


  We will prove that if $G$ and $H$ are modules over a principal ideal domain
$R$ such that the endomorphism rings $\mathrm{End}_R(R\oplus G)$ and
$\mathrm{End}_R(R\oplus H)$ are isomorphic then $G\cong H$. Conversely, if $R$
is a Dedekind domain such that two $R$-modules $G$ and $H$ are isomorphic
whenever the rings $\mathrm{End}_R(R\oplus G)$ and $\mathrm{End}_R(R\oplus H)$
are isomorphic then $R$ is a PID.


  Connected and automated vehicles (CAV) are expected to deliver a much safer,
more efficient, and eco-friendlier mobility. Being an indispensable component
of the future transportation, their key driving features of CAVs include not
only the automated functionality but also the cooperative capability. Despite
the CAVs themselves are emerging and active research areas, there is a lack of
a comprehensive literature review on the digital infrastructure that enables
them. In this paper, we review the requirements and benefits of digital
infrastructures for the CAVs including the vehicle built-in, roadside-based,
operational and planning infrastructures. We then highlight challenges and
opportunities on digital infrastructure research for the CAVs. Our study sheds
lights on seamless integration of digital infrastructure for safe operations of
CAVs.


  We report our studies of the potential energy surface (PES) of selected
binary Lennard-Jones clusters. The effect of adding selected impurity atoms to
a homogeneous cluster is explored. Inherent structures and transition states
are found by combination of conjugate-gradient and eigenvector-following
methods while the topography of the PES is mapped with the help of a
disconnectivity analysis. We show that we can controllably induce new
structures as well as reorder and stabilize existing structures that are
characteristic of higher-lying minima.


  Software engineering activities such as package migration, fixing errors
reports from static analysis or testing, and adding type annotations or other
specifications to a codebase, involve pervasively editing the entire repository
of code. We formulate these activities as repository-level coding tasks.
  Recent tools like GitHub Copilot, which are powered by Large Language Models
(LLMs), have succeeded in offering high-quality solutions to localized coding
problems. Repository-level coding tasks are more involved and cannot be solved
directly using LLMs, since code within a repository is inter-dependent and the
entire repository may be too large to fit into the prompt. We frame
repository-level coding as a planning problem and present a task-agnostic
framework, called CodePlan to solve it. CodePlan synthesizes a multi-step chain
of edits (plan), where each step results in a call to an LLM on a code location
with context derived from the entire repository, previous code changes and
task-specific instructions. CodePlan is based on a novel combination of an
incremental dependency analysis, a change may-impact analysis and an adaptive
planning algorithm.
  We evaluate the effectiveness of CodePlan on two repository-level tasks:
package migration (C#) and temporal code edits (Python). Each task is evaluated
on multiple code repositories, each of which requires inter-dependent changes
to many files (between 2-97 files). Coding tasks of this level of complexity
have not been automated using LLMs before. Our results show that CodePlan has
better match with the ground truth compared to baselines. CodePlan is able to
get 5/6 repositories to pass the validity checks (e.g., to build without errors
and make correct code edits) whereas the baselines (without planning but with
the same type of contextual information as CodePlan) cannot get any of the
repositories to pass them.


  In the context of online ion range verification in particle therapy, the
CLaRyS collaboration is developing Prompt-Gamma (PG) detection systems. The
originality in the CLaRyS approach is to use a beam-tagging hodoscope in
coincidence with the gamma detectors to provide both temporal and spatial
information of the incoming ions. The ion range sensitivity of such PG
detection systems could be improved by detecting single ions with a 100 ps
($\sigma$) time resolution, through a quality assurance procedure at low beam
intensity at the beginning of the treatment session. This work presents the
investigations led to assess the performance of Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)
diamond detectors to fulfill these requirements. A $^{90}$Sr beta source, 68
MeV protons, 95 MeV/u carbon ions and a synchrotron X-ray pulsed beam were used
to measure the time resolution, single ion detection efficiency and proton
counting capability of various CVD diamond samples. An offline technique, based
on double-sided readout with fast current preamplifiers and used to improve the
signal-to-noise ratio, is also presented. The different tests highlighted
Time-Of-Flight resolutions ranging from 13 ps ($\sigma$) to 250 ps ($\sigma$),
depending on the experimental conditions. The single 68 MeV proton detection
efficiency of various large area polycrystalline (pCVD) samples was measured to
be $>$96% using coincidence measurements with a single-crystal reference
detector. Single-crystal CVD (sCVD) diamond proved to be able to count a
discrete number of simultaneous protons while it was not achievable with a
polycrystalline sample. Considering the results of the present study, two
diamond hodoscope demonstrators are under development: one based on sCVD, and
one of larger size based on pCVD. They will be used for the purpose of single
ion as well as ion bunches detection, either at reduced or clinical beam
intensities.


  In a previous work [1], we have argued that the algebra of non-abelian
superselection rules is spontaneously broken to its maximal abelian subalgebra,
that is, the algebra generated by its completing commuting set (the two
Casimirs and a basis of its Cartan subalgebra). In this paper, alternative
arguments confirming these results are presented. In addition, Lorentz
invariance is shown to be broken in QCD, just as it is in QED. The experimental
consequences of these results include fuzzy mass and spin shells of coloured
particles like quarks, and decay life times which depend on the frame of
observation [2-4].
  In a paper under preparation, these results are extended to the ADM
Poincar\'e group and the local Lorentz group of frames. The renormalisation of
the ADM energy by infrared gravitons is also studied and estimated.


  Massive type IIA flux compactifications of the form AdS$_4 \times X_6$, where
$X_6$ admits a Calabi-Yau metric and O6-planes wrapping three-cycles, display
families of vacua with parametric scale separation between the compactification
scale and the AdS$_4$ radius, generated by an overall rescaling of internal
four-form fluxes. For toroidal orbifolds one can perform two T-dualities and
map this background to an orientifold of massless type IIA compactified on an
SU(3)-structure manifold with fluxes. Via a 4d EFT analysis, we generalise this
last construction and embed it into new branches of supersymmetric and
non-supersymmetric vacua with similar features. We apply our results to propose
new infinite families of vacua based on elliptic fibrations with metric fluxes.
Parametric scale separation is achieved by an asymmetric flux rescaling which,
however, in general is not a simple symmetry of the 4d equations of motion. At
this level of approximation the vacua are stable but, unlike in the Calabi-Yau
case, they display a non-universal mass spectrum of light fields.


  Organic molecular solids can exhibit rich phase diagrams. In addition to
structurally unique phases, translational and rotational degrees of freedom can
melt at different state points, giving rise to partially disordered solid
phases. The structural and dynamic disorder in these materials can have a
significant impact on the physical properties of the organic solid,
necessitating a thorough understanding of disorder at the atomic scale. When
these disordered phases form at low temperatures, especially in crystals with
light nuclei, the prediction of materials properties can be complicated by the
importance of nuclear quantum effects. As an example, we investigate nuclear
quantum effects on the structure and dynamics of the
orientationally-disordered, translationally-ordered plastic phase of the
acetylene:ammonia (1:1) co-crystal that is expected to exist on the surface of
Saturn's moon Titan. Titan's low surface temperature (~90 K) suggests that the
quantum mechanical behavior of nuclei may be important in this and other
molecular solids in these environments. By using neural network potentials
combined with ring polymer molecular dynamics simulations, we show that nuclear
quantum effects increase orientational disorder and rotational dynamics within
the acetylene:ammonia (1:1) co-crystal by weakening hydrogen bonds. Our results
suggest that nuclear quantum effects are important to accurately model
molecular solids and their physical properties in low temperature environments.


  Due to their coherence properties, dilute atomic gas Bose-Einstein
condensates seem a versatile platform for controlled creation of mesoscopically
entangled states with a large number of particles and also allow controlled
studies of their decoherence. However, the creation of such a state
intrinsically involves many-body quantum dynamics that cannot be captured by
mean-field theory, and thus invalidates the most widespread methods for the
description of condensates. We follow up on a proposal, in which a condensate
cloud as a whole is brought into a superposition of two different spatial
locations, by mapping entanglement from a strongly interacting Rydberg atomic
system onto the condensate using off-resonant laser dressing [R. Mukherjee et
al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 115 040401 (2015)]. A variational many-body Ansatz akin
to recently developed multi-configurational methods allows us to model this
entanglement mapping step explicitly, while still preserving the simplicity of
mean-field physics for the description of each branch of the superposition. In
the second part of the article, we model the decoherence process due to atom
losses in detail. Altogether we confirm earlier estimates, that tightly
localized clouds of 400 atoms can be brought into a quantum superposition of
two locations about 3 {\mu}m apart and remain coherent for about 1 ms.


  We present further observations of the Lockman Hole field, made with the
Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at 610 MHz with a resolution of 6 x 5 arcsec^2.
These complement our earlier observations of the central approx 5 deg^2 by
covering a further approx 8 deg^2, with an r.m.s. noise down to ~80 microJy
beam^-1. A catalogue of 4934 radio sources is presented.