  Tailoring spin coupling to electric fields is central to spintronics and
spin-based quantum information processing. We present an optimal micromagnet
design that produces appropriate stray magnetic fields to mediate fast
electrical spin manipulations in nanodevices. We quantify the practical
requirements for spatial field inhomogeneity and tolerance for misalignment
with spins, and propose a design scheme to improve the spin-rotation frequency
(to exceed 50MHz in GaAs nanostructures). We then validate our design by
experiments in separate devices. Our results will open a route to rapidly
control solid-state electron spins with limited lifetimes and to study coherent
spin dynamics in solids.


  Using the ATLAS detector, observations have been made of a
centrality-dependent dijet asymmetry in the collisions of lead ions at the
Large Hadron Collider. In a sample of lead-lead events with a per-nucleon
center of mass energy of 2.76 TeV, selected with a minimum bias trigger, jets
are reconstructed in fine-grained, longitudinally-segmented electromagnetic and
hadronic calorimeters. The underlying event is measured and subtracted
event-by-event, giving estimates of jet transverse energy above the ambient
background. The transverse energies of dijets in opposite hemispheres is
observed to become systematically more unbalanced with increasing event
centrality leading to a large number of events which contain highly asymmetric
dijets. This is the first observation of an enhancement of events with such
large dijet asymmetries, not observed in proton-proton collisions, and which
may point to an interpretation in terms of strong jet energy loss in a hot,
dense medium.


  When $k$ is a constant at least $3$, a sequence $S$ of positive integers is
called $k$-GP-free if it contains no nontrivial $k$-term geometric
progressions. Beiglb\"ok, Bergelson, Hindman and Strauss first studied the
existence of a $ $$k$-GP-free sequence with bounded gaps. In a previous paper
the author gave a partial answer to this question by constructing a $6$-GP-free
sequence $S$ with gaps of size $O(\exp(6\log n/\log\log n))$. We generalize
this problem to allow the gap function $k$ to grow to infinity, and ask: for
which pairs of functions $(h,k)$ do there exist $k$-GP-free sequences with gaps
of size $O(h)$? We show that whenever $(k(n)-3)\log h(n)\log\log
h(n)\ge4\log2\cdot\log n$ and $h,k$ satisfy mild growth conditions, such a
sequence exists.


  The mass of the top quark was an active topic of research at CMS using 2011
data, and remains so as the 2012 data analysis campaign proceeds. Here we
discuss some of the earliest results on the top mass using 2012 sqrt(s) = 8 TeV
CMS data, including measurements of the top mass from semileptonic t\bar{t}
decays and the lifetime of the B-hadron, as well as a measurement of the
top-antitop mass difference.


  All high temperature accretion solutions including ADAF are physically thick,
so outgoing radiation interacts with the incoming flow, sharing as much or more
resemblance with classical spherical accretion flows as with disk flows. We
examine this interaction for the popular ADAF case. We find that without
allowance for Compton preheating, a very restricted domain of ADAF solution is
permitted and with Compton preheating included a new high temperature PADAF
branch appears in the solution space. In the absence of preheating, high
temperature flows do not exist when the mass accretion rate mdot == Mdot c^2 /
L_E >~ 10^-1.5. Below this mass accretion rate, a roughly conical region around
the hole cannot sustain high temperature ions and electrons for all flows
having mdot >~ 10^-4, which may lead to a funnel possibly filled with a tenuous
hot outgoing wind. If the flow starts at large radii with the usual equilibrium
temperature ~10^4 K, the critical mass accretion rate is much lower, mdot
\~10^-3.7 above which level no self-consistent ADAF (without preheating) can
exist. However, above this critical mass accretion rate, the flow can be
self-consistently maintained at high temperature if Compton preheating is
considered. These solutions constitute a new branch of solutions as in
spherical accretion flows. High temperature PADAF flows can exist above the
critical mass accretion rate in addition to the usual cold thin disk solutions.
We also find solutions where the flow near the equatorial plane accretes
normally while the flow near the pole is overheated by Compton preheating,
possibly becoming, a polar wind, solutions which we designate WADAF.


  Palimpsests refer to historical manuscripts where erased writings have been
partially covered by the superimposition of a second writing. By employing
imaging techniques, e.g., multispectral imaging, it becomes possible to
identify features that are imperceptible to the naked eye, including faded and
erased inks. When dealing with overlapping inks, Artificial Intelligence
techniques can be utilized to disentangle complex nodes of overlapping letters.
In this work, we propose deep learning-based semantic segmentation as a method
for identifying and segmenting individual letters in overlapping characters.
The experiment was conceived as a proof of concept, focusing on the palimpsests
of the Ars Grammatica by Prisciano as a case study. Furthermore, caveats and
prospects of our approach combined with multispectral imaging are also
discussed.


  The microwave behavior of polymer metacomposites containing parallel Fe-based
and continuous/short-cut Co-based microwire arrays has been investigated. A
magnetic field-tunable metacomposite feature has been identified in the dense
continuous hybrid composite confirmed by the transmission windows in the
frequency band of 1 to 3.5 GHz. The complex magnetically tuned
redshift-blueshift evolution of the transmission window is reasoned to result
from the competition between the dynamic wire-wire interaction and the
ferromagnetic resonance of Fe-based wires. Increasing Co-based inter-wire
spacing to 10 mm in the continuous hybrid composites, a remarkable dual-band
transmission window in the 1.5-3.5 GHz and 9-17 GHz is respectively induced by
the ferromagnetic resonance of Fe-based wires and the magnetic resonance
arising between Fe-Co wire couples. The hybridization of parallel Fe-based and
short-cut Co-based wires in the polymer composite leads to a significant
enhancement of the transmission window in the frequency band of 1 to 6 GHz due
to the band-stop nature of Co-based wires. The advanced hybridized microwire
metacomposites are arguably demonstrated to be particularly attractive for
microwave cloaking and radio frequency barcoding applications.


  Spins in gate-defined silicon quantum dots are promising candidates for
implementing large-scale quantum computing. To read the spin state of these
qubits, the mechanism that has provided the highest fidelity is spin-to-charge
conversion via singlet-triplet spin blockade, which can be detected in-situ
using gate-based dispersive sensing. In systems with a complex energy spectrum,
like silicon quantum dots, accurately identifying when singlet-triplet blockade
occurs is hence of major importance for scalable qubit readout. In this work,
we present a description of spin blockade physics in a tunnel-coupled silicon
double quantum dot defined in the corners of a split-gate transistor. Using
gate-based magnetospectroscopy, we report successive steps of spin blockade and
spin blockade lifting involving spin states with total spin angular momentum up
to $S=3$. More particularly, we report the formation of a hybridized spin
quintet state and show triplet-quintet and quintet-septet spin blockade. This
enables studies of the quintet relaxation dynamics from which we find $T_1 \sim
4 ~\mu s$. Finally, we develop a quantum capacitance model that can be applied
generally to reconstruct the energy spectrum of a double quantum dot including
the spin-dependent tunnel couplings and the energy splitting between different
spin manifolds. Our results open for the possibility of using Si CMOS quantum
dots as a tuneable platform for studying high-spin systems.


  We introduce a time-parallel algorithm for solving numerically almost
integrable Hamiltonian systems in action-angle coordinates. This algorithm is a
refinement of that introduced by Saha, Stadel and Tremaine in 1997 (SST97) for
the same type of problems. Our refined algorithm has a better convergence
obtained from the use of derivatives of the perturbing term not considered in
the original SST97 algorithm. An advantage of this algorithm is its
independence of the step-size for the parallelized procedures which can be
consider as a particular case of the parareal scheme.


  We reduce the problem of the projective normality of polarized abelian
varieties to check the rank of very explicit matrices. This allow us to prove
some results on normal generation of primitive line bundles on abelian
threefolds and fourfolds. We also give two situations where the projective
normality always fails. Finally we make some conjecture.


  We propose a fast optically induced two-qubit \textsc{c-phase} gate between
two resident spins in a pair of coupled quantum dots. An excited bound state
which extends over the two dots provides an effective electron-electron
exchange interaction. The gate is made possible by the electron-hole exchange
interaction, which isolates a single transition in the system. When combined
with appropriate single qubit rotations, this gate generates an entangled state
of the two spins.


  We used data from the INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory
(INTEGRAL) to set upper-limits on the ${\gamma}$-ray and hard X-ray prompt
emission associated with the gravitational wave event GW170104, discovered by
the LIGO/Virgo collaboration. The unique omni-directional viewing capability of
the instruments on-board INTEGRAL allowed us to examine the full 90% confidence
level localization region of the LIGO trigger. Depending on the particular
spectral model assumed and the specific position within this region, the upper
limits inferred from the INTEGRAL observations range from F${\gamma}$=1.9x10-7
erg cm-2 to F${\gamma}$=10-6 erg cm-2 (75 keV - 2 MeV energy range). This
translates into a ratio between the prompt energy released in ${\gamma}$-rays
along the direction to the observer and the gravitational wave energy of
E${\gamma}$/EGW <2.6x10-5 . Using the INTEGRAL results, we can not confirm the
${\gamma}$-ray proposed counterpart to GW170104 by the AGILE team with the MCAL
instrument. The reported flux of the AGILE/MCAL event, E2, is not compatible
with the INTEGRAL upper limits within most of the 90% LIGO localization region.
There is only a relatively limited portion of the sky where the sensitivity of
the INTEGRAL instruments was not optimal and the lowest allowed fluence
estimated for E2 would still be compatible with the INTEGRAL results. This
region was also observed independently by Fermi/GBM and AstroSAT, from which,
as far as we are aware, there are no reports of any significant detection of a
prompt high-energy event.


  The linear instability of Lotka-Volterra orbits in the homogenous manifold of
a two-patch system is analyzed. The origin of these orbits instability in the
absence of prey migration is revealed to be the dependence of the angular
velocity on the azimuthal angle; in particular, the system desynchronizes at
the exit from the slow part of the trajectory. Using this insight, an analogous
model of a two coupled oscillator is presented and shown to yield the same type
of linear instability. This unables one to incorporate the linear instability
within a recently presented general framework that allows for comparison of all
known stabilization mechanisms and for simple classification of observed
oscillations.


  We alleviate the unnatural oscillations occurring in the current distribution
along a linear cylindrical antenna center-driven by a delta-function generator
and embedded in a conducting medium. The intensely fluctuating current arises
as a small-$z_0$ asymptotic (or numerical) solution of the classical integral
equations of antenna theory, for a cylindrical dipole of infinite (or finite)
length, where $z_0$ is the discretization length. To alleviate the
oscillations, we employ an appropriate effective current further to the recent
remedy of oscillations attained for a perfectly conducting linear cylindrical
antenna of finite length for the case where the surrounding medium is free
space. We derive asymptotic formulas for the infinite antenna which are put to
numerical test, and point to the physical significance of the effective current
which transcends a mere computational device.


  This paper advocates the exploration of the full state of recorded real-time
strategy (RTS) games, by human or robotic players, to discover how to reason
about tactics and strategy. We present a dataset of StarCraft games
encompassing the most of the games' state (not only player's orders). We
explain one of the possible usages of this dataset by clustering armies on
their compositions. This reduction of armies compositions to mixtures of
Gaussian allow for strategic reasoning at the level of the components. We
evaluated this clustering method by predicting the outcomes of battles based on
armies compositions' mixtures components


  A common claim of evolutionary computation methods is that they can achieve
good results without the need for human intervention. However, one criticism of
this is that there are still hyperparameters which must be tuned in order to
achieve good performance. In this work, we propose a near "parameter-free"
genetic programming approach, which adapts the hyperparameter values throughout
evolution without ever needing to be specified manually. We apply this to the
area of automated machine learning (by extending TPOT), to produce pipelines
which can effectively be claimed to be free from human input, and show that the
results are competitive with existing state-of-the-art which use hand-selected
hyperparameter values. Pipelines begin with a randomly chosen estimator and
evolve to competitive pipelines automatically. This work moves towards a truly
automatic approach to AutoML.


  Moduli fields are generally present in superstring--inspired models. They are
typically characterized by masses of the order of the supersymmetry breaking
scale and by interactions of gravitational strength to ordinary matter. If
stable, they can easily overclose the Universe. If unstable, strong limits on
their abundance have to be imposed not to disrupt the successful predictions of
nucleosynthesis. We discuss the production of moduli quanta from loops of
cosmic strings, which may form at phase transitions in the early history of the
Universe. As an application, we then focus on strings formed at the end of
hybrid inflation, showing that in this case the coupling of the moduli to the
field which forms the string network has to be much weaker than the typical
gravitational interactions not to exceed the bounds from nucleosynthesis.
Alternatively, if the relevant coupling is of gravitational order, an upper
bound of about 10^13 GeV is imposed on the string energy scale.


  In this work, we apply the relativistic chiral nuclear force to describe the
state-of-the-art lattice simulations of the nucleon-nucleon scattering
amplitude. In particular, we focus on the $^3S_1$-$^3D_1$ coupled channel for a
pion mass of 469 MeV. We show that at leading order the relativistic chiral
nuclear force can only describe $\delta_{3S1}$ and $\varepsilon_1$ up to
$T_\mathrm{lab.}\approx10$ MeV, while at the next-to-leading order it can do
much better up to $T_\mathrm{lab}=200$ MeV. However, at the
next-to-next-to-leading order, the description deteriorates, which can be
attributed to the fact that the pion-mass dependence of the pion-nucleon
couplings $c_{1,2,3,4}$ may not be negligible. Furthermore, all the studies
consistently yield negative $\delta_{3D1}$, contrary to the lattice QCD results
which are positive but consistent with zero. The present study is relevant to a
better understanding of the lattice QCD nucleon-nucleon force and more general
baryon-baryon interactions.


  For ultracold neutrons with a kinetic energy below 10 neV, strong scattering,
characterized by $2\pi l_{c} / \lambda\leq 1$, can be obtained in metamaterials
of C and $^7$Li. Here $l_{c}$ and $\lambda$ are the coherent scattering mean
free path and the neutron wavelength, respectively. UCN interferometry and
high-resolution spectroscopy (nano-electronvolt to pico-electronvolt
resolution) in parallel waveguide arrays of neutronic metamaterials are given
as examples of new experimental possibilities.


  Random quantum circuits have been utilized in the contexts of quantum
supremacy demonstrations, variational quantum algorithms for chemistry and
machine learning, and blackhole information. The ability of random circuits to
approximate any random unitaries has consequences on their complexity,
expressibility, and trainability. To study this property of random circuits, we
develop numerical protocols for estimating the frame potential, the distance
between a given ensemble and the exact randomness. Our tensor-network-based
algorithm has polynomial complexity for shallow circuits and is high-performing
using CPU and GPU parallelism. We study 1. local and parallel random circuits
to verify the linear growth in complexity as stated by the Brown-Susskind
conjecture, and; 2. hardware-efficient ans\"atze to shed light on its
expressibility and the barren plateau problem in the context of variational
algorithms. Our work shows that large-scale tensor network simulations could
provide important hints toward open problems in quantum information science.


  This article deals with macroscopic traffic flow models on a road network.
More precisely, we consider coupling conditions at junctions for the
Aw-Rascle-Zhang second order model consisting of a hyperbolic system of two
conservation laws. These coupling conditions conserve both the number of
vehicles and the mixing of Lagrangian attributes of traffic through the
junction. The proposed Riemann solver is based on assignment coefficients,
multi-objective optimization of fluxes and priority parameters. We prove that
this Riemann solver is well posed in the case of special junctions, including
1-to-2 diverge and 2-to-1 merge.


  Let $g_e$ be the centraliser of a nilpotent element $e$ in a finite
dimensional simple Lie algebra $g$ of rank $l$ over an algebraically closed
field of characteristic 0. We investigate the algebra $S(g_e)^{g_e}$ of
symmetric invariants of $g_e$ and prove that if $g$ is of type $A$ or $C$, then
$S(g_e)^{g_e}$ is always a graded polynomial algebra in $l$ variables. We show
that this continues to hold for some nilpotent elements in the Lie algebras of
other types. In type $A$ we prove that $S(g_e)^{g_e}$ is freely generated by a
regular sequence in $S(g_e)$ and describe the tangent cone at $e$ to the
nilpotent variety of $g$.


  Job-shop scheduling problem (JSP) is a mathematical optimization problem
widely used in industries like manufacturing, and flexible JSP (FJSP) is also a
common variant. Since they are NP-hard, it is intractable to find the optimal
solution for all cases within reasonable times. Thus, it becomes important to
develop efficient heuristics to solve JSP/FJSP. A kind of method of solving
scheduling problems is construction heuristics, which constructs scheduling
solutions via heuristics. Recently, many methods for construction heuristics
leverage deep reinforcement learning (DRL) with graph neural networks (GNN). In
this paper, we propose a new approach, named residual scheduling, to solving
JSP/FJSP. In this new approach, we remove irrelevant machines and jobs such as
those finished, such that the states include the remaining (or relevant)
machines and jobs only. Our experiments show that our approach reaches
state-of-the-art (SOTA) among all known construction heuristics on most
well-known open JSP and FJSP benchmarks. In addition, we also observe that even
though our model is trained for scheduling problems of smaller sizes, our
method still performs well for scheduling problems of large sizes.
Interestingly in our experiments, our approach even reaches zero gap for 49
among 50 JSP instances whose job numbers are more than 150 on 20 machines.


  Cooperative driving (or Platooning) focuses on improving the safety and
efficiency by connecting two or more vehicles on a road by vehicular
communication protocols. The leader is crucial as it manages the platoon,
establishes communication between cars, and perform platoon maneuvers. In this
paper, we proposed a driver incentive model which encourages platooning on
roads leading to driver safety. As, the leader of platoon have multiple
responsibilities than followers, our model rewards more incentives to leader
than followers. These incentives will be rewarded as crypto tokens. This
digital monetization method for both leaders and followers of a platoon is
accomplished by secure transactions using blockchain.


  Common philosophy in control theory is the control of disorder by order. It
is not exceptional for strategies suppressing quantum decoherence. Here we
predict an anomalous quantum phenomenon. Suppression of decoherence can be made
via more disordered white noise field, in particular white Poissonian noise.
The phenomenon seems to be another anomaly in quantum mechanics, and may offer
a new strategy in quantum control practices.


  In this paper we study a specific class of actions of a $2$-torus
$\mathbb{Z}_2^k$ on manifolds, namely, the actions of complexity one in general
position. We describe the orbit space of equivariantly formal $2$-torus actions
of complexity one in general position and restricted complexity one actions in
the case of small covers. It is observed that the orbit spaces of such actions
are topological manifolds. If the action is equivariantly formal, we prove that
the orbit space is a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-homology sphere. We study a particular
subclass of these $2$-torus actions: restrictions of small covers to a subgroup
of index 2 in general position. The subgroup of this form exists if and only if
the small cover is orientable, and in this case we prove that the orbit space
of a restricted $2$-torus action is homeomorphic to a sphere.


  The successful launches of the CoRoT and Kepler space missions have led to
the detections of solar-like oscillations in large samples of red-giant stars.
The large numbers of red giants with observed oscillations make it possible to
investigate the properties of the sample as a whole: ensemble asteroseismology.
  In this article we summarise ensemble asteroseismology results obtained from
data released by the Kepler Science Team (~150,000 field stars) as presented by
Hekker et al. (2011b) and for the clusters NGC 6791, NGC 6811 and NGC 6819
(Hekker et al. 2011a) and we discuss the importance of such studies.


  We consider nonlinear model predictive control (MPC) with multiple competing
cost functions. This leads to the formulation of multiobjective optimal control
problems (MO OCPs). Since the design of MPC algorithms for directly solving
multiobjective problems is rather complicated, particularly if terminal
conditions shall be avoided, we use an indirect approach via a weighted sum
formulation for solving these MO OCPs. This way, for each set of weights we
obtain an optimal control problem with a single objective. In economic MPC it
is known that strict dissipativity is the key assumption for concluding
performance and stability results. We thus investigate under which conditions a
convex combination of strictly dissipative stage costs is strictly dissipative
again. We first give conditions for problems with linear dynamics and then move
on to consider fully nonlinear optimal control problems. We derive both
necessary and sufficient conditions on the individual cost functions and on the
weights to conclude strict dissipativity and illustrate our findings with
numerical examples.


  In this article, we give a method of calculating the automorphism groups of
the vertex operator algebras $V_L^+$ associated with even lattices $L$. For
example, by using this method we determine the automorphism groups of $V_L^+$
for even lattices of rank one, two and three, and even unimodular lattices.


  In this paper, we study the stability of supersonic contact discontinuity for
the two-dimensional steady compressible Euler flows in a finitely long nozzle
of varying cross-sections. We formulate the problem as an initial-boundary
value problem with the contact discontinuity as a free boundary. To deal with
the free boundary value problem, we employ the Lagrangian transformation to
straighten the contact discontinuity and then the free boundary value problem
becomes a fixed boundary value problem. We develop an iteration scheme and
establish some novel estimates of solutions for the first order of hyperbolic
equations on a cornered domain. Finally, by using the inverse Lagrangian
transformation and under the assumption that the incoming flows and the nozzle
walls are smooth perturbations of the background state, we prove that the
original free boundary problem admits a unique weak solution which is a small
perturbation of the background state and the solution consists of two smooth
supersonic flows separated by a smooth contact discontinuity.


  For processes involving structure functions and/or fragmentation functions,
arguments that, over a range of a proper kinematic variable, there is a part
that dominates the next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections are briefly
reviewed. The arguments are tested against more recent NLO and in particular
complete next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) calculations. A critical
examination of when these arguments may not be useful is also presented.


  A numerical model of the Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect
for objects defined in terms of a triangular mesh is described. The algorithm
requires that each surface triangle can be handled independently, which implies
the use of a 1D thermal model. Insolation of each triangle is determined by an
optimized ray-triangle intersection search. Surface temperature is modeled with
a spectral approach; imposing a quasi-periodic solution we replace heat
conduction equation by the Helmholtz equation. Nonlinear boundary conditions
are handled by an iterative, FFT based solver. The results resolve the question
of the YORP effect in rotation rate independence on conductivity within the
nonlinear 1D thermal model regardless of the accuracy issues and homogeneity
assumptions. A seasonal YORP effect in attitude is revealed for objects moving
on elliptic orbits when a nonlinear thermal model is used.


  This paper introduces a novel framework, "peer-induced fairness", to
scientifically audit algorithmic fairness. It addresses a critical but often
overlooked issue: distinguishing between adverse outcomes due to algorithmic
discrimination and those resulting from individuals' insufficient capabilities.
By utilizing counterfactual fairness and advanced causal inference techniques,
such as the Single World Intervention Graph, this model-agnostic approach
evaluates fairness at the individual level through peer comparisons and
hypothesis testing. It also tackles challenges like data scarcity and
imbalance, offering a flexible, plug-and-play self-audit tool for stakeholders
and an external audit tool for regulators, while providing explainable feedback
for those affected by unfavorable decisions.


  The goal of this paper is to calculate explicitly the field index of any
quintic number field $K$ generated by a complex root $\al$ of a monic
irreducible trinomial $F(x) = x^5+ax+b \in \Z[x]$. In such a way we provide a
complete answer to the Problem 22 of Narkiewicz \cite{WN}. Namely for every
prime integer $p$, we evaluate the highest power of $p$ dividing $i(K)$. In
particular, we give sufficient conditions on $a$ and $b$, which guarantee the
non monogenity of $K$.


  Euler Maclaurin formulas for a polytope express the sum of the values of a
function over the lattice points in the polytope in terms of integrals of the
function and its derivatives over faces of the polytope or its expansions.
Exact Euler Maclaurin formulas [Khovanskii-Pukhlikov, Cappell-Shaneson,
Guillemin, Brion-Vergne] apply to exponential or polynomial functions; Euler
Maclaurin formulas with remainder [Karshon-Sternberg-Weitsman] apply to more
general smooth functions.
  In this paper we review these results and present proofs of the exact
formulas obtained by these authors, using elementary methods. We then use an
algebraic formalism due to Cappell and Shaneson to relate the different
formulas.


  Coherent communication over mesoscale distances is a necessary condition for
the application of solid-state spin qubits to scalable quantum information
processing. Among other routes under study, one possibility entails the
generation of magnetostatic surface spin waves (MSSW) dipolarly coupled to
shallow paramagnetic defects in wide-bandgap semiconductors. As an initial step
in this direction, here we make use of room-temperature MSSWs to mediate the
interaction between the microwave field from an antenna and the spin of a
nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. We show that this transport spans
distances exceeding 3 mm, a manifestation of the MSSW robustness and long
diffusion length. Using the NV spin as a local sensor, we find that the MSSW
amplitude grows linearly with the applied microwave power, suggesting this
approach could be extended to amplify the signal from neighboring spin qubits
by several orders of magnitude.


  Many brown dwarfs exhibit photometric variability at levels from tenths to
tens of percents. The photometric variability is related to magnetic activity
or patchy cloud coverage, characteristic of brown dwarfs near the L-T
transition. Time-resolved spectral monitoring of brown dwarfs provides
diagnostics of cloud distribution and condensate properties. However, current
time-resolved spectral studies of brown dwarfs are limited to low spectral
resolution (R$\sim$100) with the exception of the study of Luhman 16 AB at
resolution of 100,000 using the VLT$+$CRIRES. This work yielded the first map
of brown dwarf surface inhomogeneity, highlighting the importance and unique
contribution of high spectral resolution observations. Here, we report on the
time-resolved high spectral resolution observations of a nearby brown dwarf
binary, 2MASSW J0746425+200032AB. We find no coherent spectral variability that
is modulated with rotation. Based on simulations we conclude that the coverage
of a single spot on 2MASSW J0746425+200032AB is smaller than 1\% or 6.25\% if
spot contrast is 50\% or 80\% of its surrounding flux, respectively. Future
high spectral resolution observations aided by adaptive optics systems can put
tighter constraints on the spectral variability of 2MASSW J0746425+200032AB and
other nearby brown dwarfs.


  In this paper we discourse basises of representable algebras. This question
lead to arithmetic problems. We prove algorithmical solvability of
exponential-Diophantine equations in rings represented by matrices over fields
of positive characteristic. Consider the system of exponential-Diophantine
equations $$ \sum\limits_{i=1}^s P_{ij}(n_1,\dots,n_t) b_{ij0} a_{ij1}^{n_1}
b_{ij1} \dots a_{ijt}^{n_t}b_{ijt}=0 $$ where $b_{ijk},a_{ijk}$ are constants
from matrix ring of characteristic $p$, $n_i$ are indeterminates. For any
solution $(n_1,\dots,n_t)$ of the system we construct a word (over an alphabet
containing $p^t$ symbols) ${\overline \alpha_0},\dots,{\overline \alpha_q}$
where ${\overline \alpha_i}$ is a $t$-tuple $\langle
n_1^{(i)},\dots,n_t^{(i)}\rangle$, $n^{(i)}$ is the $i$-th digit in the
$p$-adic representation of $n$. The main result of this paper is as follows:
the set of words corresponding in this sense to solutions of a system of
exponential-Diophantine equations is a regular language (i.e. recognizable by a
finite automaton). There exists an effective algorithm which calculates this
language. This algorithm is constructed in the paper.


  The van Est map is a map from Lie groupoid cohomology (with respect to a
sheaf taking values in a representation) to Lie algebroid cohomology. We
generalize the van Est map to allow for more general sheaves, namely to sheaves
of sections taking values in a (smooth or holomorphic) $G$-module, where
$G$-modules are structures which differentiate to representations. Many
geometric structures involving Lie groupoids and stacks are classified by the
cohomology of sheaves taking values in $G$-modules and not in representations,
including $S^1$-groupoid extensions and equivariant gerbes. Examples of such
sheaves are $\mathcal{O}^*$ and $\mathcal{O}^*(*D)\,,$ where the latter is the
sheaf of invertible meromorphic functions with poles along a divisor $D\,.$ We
show that there is an infinitesimal description of $G$-modules and a
corresponding Lie algebroid cohomology. We then define a generalized van Est
map relating these Lie groupoid and Lie algebroid cohomologies, and study its
kernel and image. Applications include the integration of several infinitesimal
geometric structures, including Lie algebroid extensions, Lie algebroid actions
on gerbes, and certain Lie $\infty$-algebroids.


  In this paper we study the deterministic homogenization problems for unsteady
Navier-Stokes type equations, on one hand in an open set {\Omega} of R^{N}, on
the other hand in porous media {\Omega}^{{\epsilon}}. In the second case, the
equations are classical unsteady Navier-Stokes one, and the porous media are
periodic


  Topological invariants are conventionally known to be responsible for
protection of extended states against disorder. A prominent example is the
presence of topologically protected extended-states in two-dimensional (2D)
quantum Hall systems as well as on the surface of three-dimensional (3D)
topological insulators. Distinct from such cases, here we introduce a new
concept, that is, the topological protection of bound states against
hybridization. This situation is shown to be realizable in a 2D quantum Hall
insulator put on a 3D trivial insulator. In such a configuration, there exist
topologically protected bound states, localized along the normal direction of
2D plane, in spite of hybridization with the continuum of extended states. The
one-dimensional edge states are also localized along the same direction as long
as their energies are within the band gap. This finding demonstrates the dual
role of topological invariants, as they can also protect bound states against
hybridization in a continuum.


  Predicting drug properties is key in drug discovery to enable de-risking of
assets before expensive clinical trials, and to find highly active compounds
faster. Interest from the Machine Learning community has led to the release of
a variety of benchmark datasets and proposed methods. However, it remains
unclear for practitioners which method or approach is most suitable, as
different papers benchmark on different datasets and methods, leading to
varying conclusions that are not easily compared. Our large-scale empirical
study links together numerous earlier works on different datasets and methods;
thus offering a comprehensive overview of the existing property classes,
datasets, and their interactions with different methods. We emphasise the
importance of uncertainty quantification and the time and therefore cost of
applying these methods in the drug development decision-making cycle. We
discover that the best method depends on the dataset, and that engineered
features with classical ML methods often outperform deep learning.
Specifically, QSAR datasets are typically best analysed with classical methods
such as Gaussian Processes while ADMET datasets are sometimes better described
by Trees or Deep Learning methods such as Graph Neural Networks or language
models. Our work highlights that practitioners do not yet have a
straightforward, black-box procedure to rely on, and sets the precedent for
creating practitioner-relevant benchmarks. Deep learning approaches must be
proven on these benchmarks to become the practical method of choice in drug
property prediction.


  We present measurements of pion elliptic flow ($v_2$) in Au+Au collisions at
$\sNN =$ 200, 62.4, 39, 27 and 19.6 GeV, as a function of event-by-event charge
asymmetry ($A_{\pm}$), based on data from the STAR experiment at RHIC. We find
that $\pi^-$ ($\pi^+$) elliptic flow linearly increases (decreases) with charge
asymmetry for most centrality bins and for all the beam energies under study.
The slope parameter ($r$) from $v_2(A_\pm)$ difference between $\pi^-$ and
$\pi^+$ shows a centrality dependency similar with the calculations with Chiral
Magnetic Wave. The measurements of charge separation with respect to the
reaction plane in search of Local Parity Violation and Chiral Magnetic Effect
are also presented for Au+Au collisions at $\sNN =$ 200, 62.4, 39, 27, 19.6,
11.5 and 7.7 GeV, and for U+U collisions at 193 GeV.


  In this demo, we introduce MELT Dashboard, an interactive Web user interface
for ontology alignment evaluation which is created with the existing Matching
EvaLuation Toolkit (MELT). Compared to existing, static evaluation interfaces
in the ontology matching domain, our dashboard allows for interactive
self-service analyses such as a drill down into the matcher performance for
data type properties or into the performance of matchers within a certain
confidence threshold. In addition, the dashboard offers detailed group
evaluation capabilities that allow for the application in broad evaluation
campaigns such as the Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative (OAEI).


  We define guarded variable automata (GVAs), a simple extension of finite
automata over infinite alphabets. In this model the transitions are labelled by
letters or variables ranging over an infinite alphabet and guarded by
conjunction of equalities and disequalities. GVAs are well-suited for modeling
component-based applications such as web services. They are closed under
intersection, union, concatenation and Kleene operator, and their nonemptiness
problem is PSPACE-complete. We show that the simulation preorder of GVAs is
decidable. Our proof relies on the characterization of the simulation by means
of games and strategies. This result can be applied to service composition
synthesis.


  In this article, we study an antithesis of the homogeneous Fermi system
(jellium model) namely a single multielectron atom using the sea-boson
approach. This system in addition to having a small number of electrons(finite
system) is also extremely inhomogeneous. This means that the plane-wave basis
is ill-suited to study this system, instead we use a basis consisting of the
eigenfunctions of an electron interacting with the nucleus situated at the
origin (ideal atom).
  We compute the energy levels of this system and polarizabilities and compare
with the results of other approaches such as Hartree-Fock and pseudopotentials
for the former and aysmptotic wavefunctions for the latter and with
experiments.


  In the present work, scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS)
measurements were carried out on underdoped $\rm Bi_2Sr_{2-{\it x}}La_{\it
x}CuO_{6+\delta}$ and $\rm Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta}$ to clarify the origin of
the pseudogap, in particular, the inhomogeneous large pseudogap. The nodal part
of a d-wave pairing gap, which is under no influence of the inhomogeneous large
pseudogap, was also examined by relating the homogeneous bottom part of the STS
gap to a nodal d-wave gap in momentum space. We report that the inhomogeneous
large pseudogap in the antinodal region links to a two-dimensional electronic
charge order, and that the gap size of the nodal d-wave part $\rm
{\Delta}_{sc}$ scales with the superconducting critical temperature $\rm {\it
T}_c$ in the pseudogap regime.


  Unpaired image-to-image translation aims to find a mapping between the source
domain and the target domain. To alleviate the problem of the lack of
supervised labels for the source images, cycle-consistency based methods have
been proposed for image structure preservation by assuming a reversible
relationship between unpaired images. However, this assumption only uses
limited correspondence between image pairs. Recently, contrastive learning (CL)
has been used to further investigate the image correspondence in unpaired image
translation by using patch-based positive/negative learning. Patch-based
contrastive routines obtain the positives by self-similarity computation and
recognize the rest patches as negatives. This flexible learning paradigm
obtains auxiliary contextualized information at a low cost. As the negatives
own an impressive sample number, with curiosity, we make an investigation based
on a question: are all negatives necessary for feature contrastive learning?
Unlike previous CL approaches that use negatives as much as possible, in this
paper, we study the negatives from an information-theoretic perspective and
introduce a new negative Pruning technology for Unpaired image-to-image
Translation (PUT) by sparsifying and ranking the patches. The proposed
algorithm is efficient, flexible and enables the model to learn essential
information between corresponding patches stably. By putting quality over
quantity, only a few negative patches are required to achieve better results.
Lastly, we validate the superiority, stability, and versatility of our model
through comparative experiments.


  According to loop quantum gravity, matter fields must be quantized in a
background independent manner. For scalar fields, such a background independent
quantization is called polymer quantization and is inequivalent to the standard
Schrodinger quantization. It is therefore important to obtain predictions from
the polymer quantized scalar field theory and compare with the standard
results. As a step towards this, we develop a path integral representation for
the polymer quantized scalar field. We notice several crucial differences from
the path integral for the schrodinger quantized scalar field. One important
difference is the appearance of an extra summation at each point in the path
integral for the polymer quantized theory. A second crucial difference is the
loss of manifest Lorentz symmetry for a polymer quantized theory on Minkowski
Space.


  Wireless communication enables a broad spectrum of applications, ranging from
commodity to tactical systems. Neighbor discovery (ND), that is, determining
which devices are within direct radio communication, is a building block of
network protocols and applications, and its vulnerability can severely
compromise their functionalities. A number of proposals to secure ND have been
published, but none have analyzed the problem formally. In this paper, we
contribute such an analysis: We build a formal model capturing salient
characteristics of wireless systems, most notably obstacles and interference,
and we provide a specification of a basic variant of the ND problem. Then, we
derive an impossibility result for a general class of protocols we term
"time-based protocols," to which many of the schemes in the literature belong.
We also identify the conditions under which the impossibility result is lifted.
Moreover, we explore a second class of protocols we term "time- and
location-based protocols," and prove they can secure ND.


  A well-known result in extremal spectral graph theory, due to Nosal and
Nikiforov, states that if $G$ is a triangle-free graph on $n$ vertices, then
$\lambda (G) \le \lambda (K_{\lfloor \frac{n}{2}\rfloor, \lceil \frac{n}{2}
\rceil })$, equality holds if and only if $G=K_{\lfloor \frac{n}{2}\rfloor,
\lceil \frac{n}{2} \rceil }$. Nikiforov [Linear Algebra Appl. 427 (2007)]
extended this result to $K_{r+1}$-free graphs for every integer $r\ge 2$. This
is known as the spectral Tur\'{a}n theorem. Recently, Lin, Ning and Wu [Combin.
Probab. Comput. 30 (2021)] proved a refinement on this result for non-bipartite
triangle-free graphs. In this paper, we provide alternative proofs for the
result of Nikiforov and the result of Lin, Ning and Wu. Our proof can allow us
to extend the later result to non-$r$-partite $K_{r+1}$-free graphs. Our result
refines the theorem of Nikiforov and it also can be viewed as a spectral
version of a theorem of Brouwer.


  In this paper, two novel algorithms to estimate a Gaussian Vector
Autoregressive (VAR) model from 1-bit measurements are introduced. They are
based on the Yule-Walker scheme modified to account for quantisation. The
scalar case has been studied before. The main difficulty when going from the
scalar to the vector case is how to estimate the ratios of the variances of
pairwise components of the VAR model. The first method overcomes this
difficulty by requiring the quantisation to be non-symmetric: each component of
the VAR model output is replaced by a binary "zero" or a binary "one" depending
on whether its value is greater than a strictly positive threshold. Different
components of the VAR model can have different thresholds. As the choice of
these thresholds has a strong influence on the performance, this first method
is best suited for applications where the variance of each time series is
approximately known prior to choosing the corresponding threshold. The second
method relies instead on symmetric quantisations of not only each component of
the VAR model but also on the pairwise differences of the components. These
additional measurements are equivalent to a ranking of the instantaneous VAR
model output, from the smallest component to the largest component. This avoids
the need for choosing thresholds but requires additional hardware for
quantising the components in pairs. Numerical simulations show the efficiency
of both schemes.


  In this paper, we begin by reviewing some of the known properties of QQR
codes and proved that $PSL_2(p)$ acts on the extended QQR code when $p \equiv 3
\pmod 4$. Using this discovery, we then showed their weight polynomials satisfy
a strong divisibility condition, namely that they are divisible by $(x^2 +
y^2)^{d-1}$, where $d$ is the corresponding minimum distance. Using this
result, we were able to construct an efficient algorithm to compute weight
polynomials for QQR codes and correct errors in existing results on quadratic
residue codes.
  In the second half, we use the relation between the weight of codewords and
the number of points on hyperelliptic curves to prove that the symmetrized
distribution of a set of hyperelliptic curves is asymptotically normal.


  The spherical Hartree-Fock approximation is applied to the $abinitio$ no-core
shell model, with a realistic effective nucleon-nucleon interaction in order to
investigate the range of its utility. Hartree-Fock results for binding
energies, one-body density distributions and occupation probabilities are
compared with results from exact diagonalization in similar model spaces. We
show that this mean field approximation, especially with second order
corrections, is able to provide some useful approximatons for $^4He$ and
$^{16}O$. We also explore the physical insights provided by the Hartree-Fock
results for single-particle properties such as spin-orbit splittings. We find
single particle state ordering consistent with the phenomenological shell
model.


  Using the well-known ``displace, cut and reflect'' method we construct thin
disks made of a perfect fluid in presence of a magnetic field. The models are
based in a magnetic Reissner-Nordstrom metric of Einstein-Maxwell equations for
a conformastatic spacetime. The influence of the magnetic field on the matter
properties of the disk are analyzed. We also study the motion of charged test
particles around the disks. We construct models of perfect fluid disks
satisfying all the energy conditions.


  Action quality assessment (AQA) aims at automatically judging human action
based on a video of the said action and assigning a performance score to it.
The majority of works in the existing literature on AQA divide RGB videos into
short clips, transform these clips to higher-level representations using
Convolutional 3D (C3D) networks, and aggregate them through averaging. These
higher-level representations are used to perform AQA. We find that the current
clip level feature aggregation technique of averaging is insufficient to
capture the relative importance of clip level features. In this work, we
propose a learning-based weighted-averaging technique. Using this technique,
better performance can be obtained without sacrificing too much computational
resources. We call this technique Weight-Decider(WD). We also experiment with
ResNets for learning better representations for action quality assessment. We
assess the effects of the depth and input clip size of the convolutional neural
network on the quality of action score predictions. We achieve a new
state-of-the-art Spearman's rank correlation of 0.9315 (an increase of 0.45%)
on the MTL-AQA dataset using a 34 layer (2+1)D ResNet with the capability of
processing 32 frame clips, with WD aggregation.


  Building occupant behavior drives significant differences in building energy
use, even in automated buildings. Users' distrust in the automation causes them
to override settings. This results in responses that fail to satisfy both the
occupants' and/or the building automation's objectives. The transition toward
grid-interactive efficient buildings will make this evermore important as
complex building control systems optimize not only for comfort, but also
changing electricity costs. This paper presents a data-driven approach to study
thermal comfort behavior dynamics which are not captured by standard
steady-state comfort models such as predicted mean vote.
  The proposed model captures the time it takes for a user to override a
thermostat setpoint change as a function of the manual setpoint change
magnitude. The model was trained with the ecobee Donate Your Data dataset of 5
min. resolution data from 27,764 smart thermostats and occupancy sensors. The
resulting population-level model shows that, on average, a 2{\deg}F override
will occur after ~30 mins. and an 8{\deg}F override will occur in only ~15
mins., indicating the magnitude of discomfort as a key driver to the swiftness
of an override. Such models could improve demand response programs through
personalized controls.


  The paper concerns the coarse flag Hilbert-Poincar\'e series of Maglione-Voll
in the case of the braid arrangement associated to the symmetric group. We
explicitly construct a companion statistic $\operatorname{ino} :
\mathfrak{S}_{n+1} \times \operatorname{Sym}(n) \rightarrow \mathbb{N}$ for the
descent statistic on $\operatorname{Sym}(n)$ using reverse
$(P,\omega)$-partitions and quasisymmetric functions.


  Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum, we investigate a
radially driven, lengthening pendulum. We first show that increasing the length
of an undriven pendulum at a uniform rate does not amplify the oscillations in
a manner consistent with the behavior of the scythe in Poe's story. We discuss
parametric amplification and the transfer of energy (through the parameter of
the pendulum's length) to the oscillating part of the system. In this manner
radial driving may easily and intuitively be understood, and the fundamental
concept applied in many other areas. We propose and show by a numerical model
that appropriately timed radial forcing can increase the oscillation amplitude
in a manner consistent with Poe's story. Our analysis contributes a
computational exploration of the complex harmonic motion that can result from
radially driving a pendulum, and sheds light on a mechanism by which
oscillations can be amplified parametrically. These insights should prove
especially valuable in the undergraduate physics classroom, where
investigations into pendulums and oscillations are commonplace.


  I will briefly review the state of the art of evolutionary population
synthesis (EPS) models that include the contribution from AGB stars.


  An approximate solution of the Klein-Gordon equation for the general
Hulth\'en-type potentials in $D$-dimensions within the framework of an
approximation to the centrifugal term is obtained. The bound state energy
eigenvalues and the normalized eigenfunctions are obtained in terms of
hypergeometric polynomials.


  Randomness in scientific estimation is generally assumed to arise from
unmeasured or uncontrolled factors. However, when combining subjective
probability estimates, heterogeneity stemming from people's cognitive or
information diversity is often more important than measurement noise. This
paper presents a novel framework that uses partially overlapping information
sources. A specific model is proposed within that framework and applied to the
task of aggregating the probabilities given by a group of forecasters who
predict whether an event will occur or not. Our model describes the
distribution of information across forecasters in terms of easily interpretable
parameters and shows how the optimal amount of extremizing of the average
probability forecast (shifting it closer to its nearest extreme) varies as a
function of the forecasters' information overlap. Our model thus gives a more
principled understanding of the historically ad hoc practice of extremizing
average forecasts.


  We discuss magnetization curves of a toy-model trigonal and tetrahedral
clusters. Nonlinearity of magnetization with local minimum of differential
susceptibility resembling known magnetization plateaus of triangular-lattice
and pyrochlore lattice antiferromagnets is observed at intermediate temperature
range $ J\lesssim T\lesssim\Theta$ (here $J$ is the exchange coupling constant
and $\Theta$ is a Curie-Weiss temperature). This behavior is due to increased
statistical weight of the states with intermediate total spin of the cluster,
which is related to the `order-by-disorder' mechanism of plateau stabilization
of a macroscopic frustrated magnet.


  To elucidate an origin of the two energy gaps in the narrow-gap semiconductor
FeSb2, we have investigated the effects of hydrostatic pressure on the
resistivity, Hall resistance and magnetoresistance at low temperatures. The
larger energy gap evaluated from the temperature dependence of resistivity
above 100 K is enhanced from 30 to 40 meV with pressure from 0 to 1.8 GPa, as
generally observed in conventional semiconductors. In the low-temperature range
where a large Seebeck coefficient was observed, we evaluate the smaller energy
gap from the magnetotransport tensor using a two-carrier model and find that
the smaller gap exhibits a weak pressure dependence in contrast to that of the
larger gap. To explain the pressure variations of the energy gaps, we propose a
simple model that the smaller gap is a gap from the impurity level to the
conduction band and the larger one is a gap between the valence and conduction
bands, suggesting that the observed large Seebeck coefficient is not relevant
to electron correlation effects.


  We present a novel method for visual mapping and localization for autonomous
vehicles, by extracting, modeling, and optimizing semantic road elements.
Specifically, our method integrates cascaded deep models to detect standardized
road elements instead of traditional point features, to seek for improved pose
accuracy and map representation compactness. To utilize the structural
features, we model road lights and signs by their representative deep keypoints
for skeleton and boundary, and parameterize lanes via piecewise cubic splines.
Based on the road semantic features, we build a complete pipeline for mapping
and localization, which includes a) image processing front-end, b) sensor
fusion strategies, and c) optimization backend. Experiments on public datasets
and our testing platform have demonstrated the effectiveness and advantages of
our method by outperforming traditional approaches.


  We present a very simple form of the supercharges and the Hamiltonian of
${\cal N} {=}\,2$ supersymmetric extension of $n$-particle
Ruijsenaars--Schneider models for three cases of the interaction:
$1/(x_i-x_j)$, $1/tan(x_i-x_j)$, $1/tanh(x_i-x_j)$. The long "fermionic tails"
of the supercharges and Hamiltonian rolled up in the simple rational functions
depending on fermionic bilinears.


  We propose an estimator of prediction error using an approximate message
passing (AMP) algorithm that can be applied to a broad range of sparse
penalties. Following Stein's lemma, the estimator of the generalized degrees of
freedom, which is a key quantity for the construction of the estimator of the
prediction error, is calculated at the AMP fixed point. The resulting form of
the AMP-based estimator does not depend on the penalty function, and its value
can be further improved by considering the correlation between predictors. The
proposed estimator is asymptotically unbiased when the components of the
predictors and response variables are independently generated according to a
Gaussian distribution. We examine the behaviour of the estimator for real data
under nonconvex sparse penalties, where Akaike's information criterion does not
correspond to an unbiased estimator of the prediction error. The model selected
by the proposed estimator is close to that which minimizes the true prediction
error.


  Quantum algorithm design plays a crucial role in exploiting the computational
advantage of quantum devices. Here we develop a deep-reinforcement-learning
based approach for quantum adiabatic algorithm design. Our approach is
generically applicable to a class of problems with solution hard-to-find but
easy-to-verify, e.g., searching and NP-complete problems. We benchmark this
approach in Grover-search and 3-SAT problems, and find that the
adiabatic-algorithm obtained by our RL approach leads to significant
improvement in the resultant success probability. In application to Grover
search, our RL-design automatically produces an adiabatic quantum algorithm
that has the quadratic speedup. We find for all our studied cases that
quantitatively the RL-designed algorithm has a better performance compared to
the analytically constructed non-linear Hamiltonian path when the encoding
Hamiltonian is solvable, and that this RL-design approach remains applicable
even when the non-linear Hamiltonian path is not analytically available. In
3-SAT, we find RL-design has fascinating transferability---the adiabatic
algorithm obtained by training on a specific choice of clause number leads to
better performance consistently over the linear algorithm on different clause
numbers. These findings suggest the applicability of reinforcement learning for
automated quantum adiabatic algorithm design. Further considering the
established complexity-equivalence of circuit and adiabatic quantum algorithms,
we expect the RL-designed adiabatic algorithm to inspire novel circuit
algorithms as well. Our approach is potentially applicable to different quantum
hardwares from trapped-ions and optical-lattices to superconducting-qubit
devices.


  In these lecture notes, we take a closer look at the calculation of
scattering amplitudes for the bosonic string. It is believed that string
theories form the UV completions of (super)gravity theories. Support for this
claim can be found in the (on-shell) scattering amplitudes of strings. On the
other hand, studying these string scattering amplitudes opens a window on the
UV behavior of the string theories themselves. In these short set of lectures,
we discuss the two-dimensional Polyakov path integral for the string, and its
gauge symmetries, the connection to Riemann surfaces and how to obtain some of
the simplest string scattering amplitudes. We end with some comments on more
advanced topics. For simplicity we limit ourselves to bosonic open string
theory in 26 dimensions.


  We analyze the Rybczynski sign pattern, which expresses the factor endowment
- commodity output relationships in a three-factor, two-good general
equilibrium trade model. The relationship determines whether a strong
Rybczynski result holds. We search for a sufficient condition for each
Rybczynski sign pattern to hold in a systematic manner, which no other studies
have derived. We assume factor-intensity ranking is constant. We use the EWS
(economy-wide substitution)-ratio vector and the Hadamard product in our
analysis. We show that the position of the EWS-ratio vector determines the
Rybczynski sign pattern. This article provides a basis for further
applications.


  Haag duality is a remarkable property in QFT stating that the commutant of
the algebra of observables localized in some region of spacetime is exactly the
algebra associated to the causally disconnected region. It is a strong
condition on the local structure and has direct consequences on entanglement
measures. It was first shown to hold for a free scalar field and causal
diamonds by Araki in 1964 and later by many authors in different ways. In
particular, Eckmann and Osterwalder (EO) used Tomita-Takesaki modular theory to
give a direct proof. However, it is not straightforward to relate this proof to
the works of Araki, since they rely on two forms of the canonical commutation
relations (CCR), called Segal and Weyl formulations, while EO work as starting
point assumes that duality holds in the so-called ``first quantization'' in the
Weyl formulation. It is our purpose to first introduce the works of Araki in a
more easy-to-read but still rigorous and self-contained fashion, and show how
Haag duality is stated in the Segal and Weyl formulations and in both first and
second quantizations (and their immediate combination). This permits to
understand the setting of the EO proof of Haag duality. There is nothing
essentially new in this manuscript, with the exception of what we consider a
simplification of EO proof that uses the adjoint $S^*$ of the Tomita operator
$S$ instead of introducing several auxiliary operators. We hope this note will
be useful for those seeking to understand where Haag duality comes from in a
free scalar QFT.


  Postulating that the NMSSM singlet is a meson of a microscopic confining
theory opens up new model-building possibilities. Based on this, we construct
calculable models of direct mediation that solve the mu/Bmu problem and
simultaneously lead to realistic phenomenology. The singlet that couples to the
Higgs fields develops a runaway produced by soft interactions, then stabilized
by a small superpotential perturbation. The mechanism is first realized in an
O'Raifeartaigh model of direct gauge mediation with metastable supersymmetry
breaking. Focusing then on the microscopic theory, we argue that super QCD with
massless and massive flavors in the free magnetic phase gives rise to this
dynamics in the infrared. A deformation of the SQCD superpotential leads to
large spontaneous R-symmetry breaking, gaugino masses naturally at the scale of
the Higgs mass parameters, and absence of CP violating phases.


  We have proposed a new ghost-free model with interactions of massive spin two
particles in Phys.\ Rev.\ D {\bf 90} (2014) 043006 [arXiv:1402.5737 [hep-th]].
Although the model is ghost-free on the Minkowski space-time, it is not obvious
whether or not this desirable property is preserved on curved space-time. In
fact, Buchbinder et al. already pointed out that the Fierz-Pauli theory is not
ghost-free on curved space-time without non-minimal coupling terms. In this
paper, we construct a new theory of massive spin two particles with non-minimal
coupling on curved space-time and show that the model can be ghost-free.
Furthermore, we propose new non-minimal coupling terms.


  For plasmonic nanoparticles, we investigate the influence of surface
roughness inherent to top-down fabrication on the optical properties, and find
that it has a surprisingly small influence on the position and width of the
plasmon peaks. Our experimental observation is supported by simulations based
on the boundary element method approach. Using a perturbation approach,
suitable for metallic nanoparticles with a moderate degree of surface
roughness, we demonstrate that the reason for this lies in motional narrowing
where the plasmon averages over the random height fluctuations. Surface
roughness in large arrays of identical nanoparticles, such as encountered in
the context of metamaterials, is thus expected to not constitute a major
roadblock.


  We prove the geometrical Satake isomorphism for a reductive group defined
over F=k((t)), and split over a tamely ramified extension. As an application,
we give a description of the nearby cycles on certain Shimura varieties via the
Rapoport-Zink-Pappas local models.


  We study multilinear symbols on fields taking values in reciprocity sheaves.
We prove that any such symbol satisfying natural axioms automatically has
Steinberg-type relations, which is a manifestation of the geometry of modulus
pairs lying behind.


  We derive Cram\'{e}r type moderate deviations for stationary sequences of
bounded random variables. Our results imply the moderate deviation principles
and a Berry-Esseen bound. Applications to quantile coupling inequalities,
functions of $\phi$-mixing sequences, and contracting Markov chains are
discussed.


  Let $\mathbb{F}$ be any field. The Grassmannian $\mathrm{Gr}(m,n)$ is the set
of $m$-dimensional subspaces in $\mathbb{F}^n$, and the general linear group
$\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{F})$ acts transitively on it. The Schubert cells of
$\mathrm{Gr}(m,n)$ are the orbits of the Borel subgroup $\mathcal{B} \subset
\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{F})$ on $\mathrm{Gr}(m,n)$. We consider the association
scheme on each Schubert cell defined by the $\mathcal{B}$-action and show it is
symmetric and it is the generalized wreath product of one-class association
schemes, which was introduced by R. A. Bailey [European Journal of
Combinatorics 27 (2006) 428--435].


  We present a general method for deriving collapsed variational inference
algo- rithms for probabilistic models in the conjugate exponential family. Our
method unifies many existing approaches to collapsed variational inference. Our
collapsed variational inference leads to a new lower bound on the marginal
likelihood. We exploit the information geometry of the bound to derive much
faster optimization methods based on conjugate gradients for these models. Our
approach is very general and is easily applied to any model where the mean
field update equations have been derived. Empirically we show significant
speed-ups for probabilistic models optimized using our bound.


  We present $\nu$DoBe, a Python tool for the computation of neutrinoless
double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) rates in terms of lepton-number-violating
operators in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). The tool can be
used for automated calculations of $0\nu\beta\beta$ rates, electron spectra and
angular correlations for all isotopes of experimental interest, for
lepton-number-violating operators up to and including dimension 9. The tool
takes care of renormalization-group running to lower energies and provides the
matching to the low-energy effective field theory and, at lower scales, to a
chiral effective field theory description of $0\nu\beta\beta$ rates. The user
can specify different sets of nuclear matrix elements from various many-body
methods and hadronic low-energy constants. The tool can be used to quickly
generate analytical and numerical expressions for $0\nu\beta\beta$ rates and to
generate a large variety of plots. In this work, we provide examples of
possible use along with a detailed code documentation. The code can be accessed
through:
  GitHub: https://github.com/OScholer/nudobe
  Online User-Interface: https://nudobe.streamlit.app


  Remote measurement of physiological signals from videos is an emerging topic.
The topic draws great interests, but the lack of publicly available benchmark
databases and a fair validation platform are hindering its further development.
For this concern, we organize the first challenge on Remote Physiological
Signal Sensing (RePSS), in which two databases of VIPL and OBF are provided as
the benchmark for kin researchers to evaluate their approaches. The 1st
challenge of RePSS focuses on measuring the average heart rate from facial
videos, which is the basic problem of remote physiological measurement. This
paper presents an overview of the challenge, including data, protocol, analysis
of results and discussion. The top ranked solutions are highlighted to provide
insights for researchers, and future directions are outlined for this topic and
this challenge.


  In this paper, we are interested in the existence of Pareto solutions to
vector polynomial optimization problems over a basic closed semi-algebraic set.
By invoking some powerful tools from real semi-algebraic geometry, we first
introduce the concept called {\it tangency varieties}; then we establish
connections of the Palais--Smale condition, Cerami condition, {\it M}-tameness,
and properness related to the considered problem, in which the condition of
Mangasarian--Fromovitz constraint qualification at infinity plays an essential
role in deriving these connections. According to the obtained connections, we
provide some sufficient conditions for existence of Pareto solutions to the
problem in consideration, and we also give some examples to illustrate our main
findings.


  By analyzing vortex lattices, re-entrant Cooper pairing and
Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states in a single theoretical
framework we explore how vortices and spin textures join to protect
superconductivity against large magnetic fields. We use a rapidly rotating
ultra-cold gas of fermionic atoms near unitarity as a model system amenable to
experimental exploration, and discover a hierarchy of spin-polarized and FFLO
phases in which a metal or a band-insulator of unpaired particles coexists with
a spatially modulated superfluid hosting a vortex lattice. Quantum fluctuations
can transform these phases into strongly correlated "vortex liquid" metals and
insulators respectively. We argue that vortex lattices significantly enhance
the stability of FFLO states and discuss prospects for observing these states
in cold atom experiments.


  I introduce the properties of the light axial-vector mesons. The branching
ratios, longitudinal fractions and direct CP asymmetries of the related
charmless two-body B decays into final states involving two axial-vector mesons
($AA$) or one vector and one axial-vector meson ($VA$) are discussed within the
framework of QCD factorization.


  We derive a series of results on random walks on a d-dimensional hypercubic
lattice (lattice paths). We introduce the notions of terse and simple paths
corresponding to the path having no backtracking parts (spikes). These paths
label equivalence classes which allow a rearrangement of the sum over paths.
The basic combinatorial quantities of this construction are given. These
formulas are useful when performing strong coupling (hopping parameter)
expansions of lattice models. Some applications are described.


  Finite topologically non-trivial systems are often characterised by the
presence of bound states at their physical edges. These topological edge modes
can be distinguished from usual Shockley waves energetically, as their energies
remain finite and in-gap. On a clean 1D or reducible 2D model, in either the
commensurate or semi-infinite case, the edge modes can be obtained
analytically, as shown in [PRL 71, 3697 (1993)] and [PRA 89, 023619 (2014)]. We
put forward a method for obtaining the spectrum and wave functions of
topological edge modes for arbitrary finite lattices, including the
incommensurate case. A small number of parameters are easily determined
numerically, with the form of the eigenstates remaining fully analytical. We
also obtain the bulk modes in the finite system analytically and their
eigenenergies, which lie within the infinite-size limit continuum. Our method
is general and can be easily applied to obtain the properties of
non-topological models and/or extended to include impurities. As an example, we
consider the case of an impurity located next to one edge of a 1D system,
equivalent to a softened boundary in a separable 2D model. We show that a
localised impurity can have a drastic effect on the edge modes of the system.
Using the periodic Harper and Hofstadter models to illustrate our method, we
find that, on increasing the impurity strength, edge states can enter or exit
the continuum, and a trivial Shockley state bound to the impurity may appear.
The fate of the topological edge modes in the presence of impurities can be
addressed by quenching the impurity strength. We find that at certain critical
impurity strengths, the transition probability for a particle initially
prepared in an edge mode to decay into the bulk exhibits discontinuities that
mark the entry and exit points of edge modes from and into the bulk spectrum.


  With the ever increasing power dissipation in electrical devices, new thermal
management solutions are in high demand to maintain an optimal operating
temperature and efficient performance. In particular, recently developed
magnetically-activated thermal switches (MATSs) provide an alternative to
existing devices, using the magnetic and thermal properties of
superparamagnetic nanofluids to dissipate heat in a controlled manner. However,
the presence of moving parts is a major drawback in those systems that must
still be addressed. Herein, we present a compact and automatized MATS composed
by an encapsulated superparamagnetic nanofluid and an electromagnet allowing to
activate the MATS without any moving part. We investigate the effect of
different temperature gradients (40, 26 and 10 C) and powers applied to the
coil (6.5, 15, 25 and 39 W) on the performance of this novel MATS. The results
show that the highest (44.4$) and fastest (0.6 C/s) temperature variation occur
for the highest studied temperature gradient. On the other hand, with
increasing power, there is also an increase in the efficiency of the heat
exchange process between the two surfaces. These results remove one of the main
barriers preventing the actual application of magnetic thermal switches and
opens new venues for the design of efficient thermal management devices.


  We argue that an effective field theory of local fluid elements captures the
constraints on hydrodynamic transport stemming from the presence of quantum
anomalies in the underlying microscopic theory. Focussing on global current
anomalies for an arbitrary flavour group, we derive the anomalous constitutive
relations in arbitrary even dimensions. We demonstrate that our results agree
with the constraints on anomaly governed transport derived hitherto using a
local version of the second law of thermodynamics. The construction crucially
uses the anomaly inflow mechanism and involves a novel thermofield double
construction. In particular, we show that the anomalous Ward identities
necessitate non-trivial interaction between the two parts of the
Schwinger-Keldysh contour.


  Accurately characterizing land surface changes with Earth Observation
requires geo-localized ground truth. In the European Union (EU), a tri-annual
surveyed sample of land cover and land use has been collected since 2006 under
the Land Use/Cover Area frame Survey (LUCAS). A total of 1,351,293 observations
at 651,780 unique locations for 117 variables along with 5.4 million photos
were collected during five LUCAS surveys. Until now, these data have never been
harmonised into one database, limiting full exploitation of the information.
This paper describes the LUCAS point sampling/surveying methodology, including
collection of standard variables such as land cover, environmental parameters,
and full resolution landscape and point photos, and then describes the
harmonisation process. The resulting harmonised database is the most
comprehensive in-situ dataset on land cover and use in the EU. The database is
valuable for geo-spatial and statistical analysis of land use and land cover
change. Furthermore, its potential to provide multi-temporal in-situ data will
be enhanced by recent computational advances such as deep learning.


  This paper studies a dynamical system that models the free recall dynamics of
working memory. This model is a modular neural network with n modules, named
hypercolumns, and each module consists of m minicolumns. Under mild conditions
on the connection weights between minicolumns, we investigate the long-term
evolution behavior of the model, namely the existence and stability of
equilibriums and limit cycles. We also give a critical value in which Hopf
bifurcation happens. Finally, we give a sufficient condition under which this
model has a globally asymptotically stable equilibrium with synchronized
minicolumn states in each hypercolumn, which implies that in this case
recalling is impossible. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate our
theoretical results. A numerical example we give suggests that patterns can be
stored in not only equilibriums and limit cycles, but also strange attractors
(or chaos).


  A characterization of the tree $T^*$ such that
$\mathrm{BP}(T^*)=\overleftrightarrow{\mathrm{DFUDS}(T)}$, the reversal of
$\mathrm{DFUDS}(T)$ is given. An immediate consequence is a rigorous
characterization of the tree $\hat{T}$ such that
$\mathrm{BP}(\hat{T})=\mathrm{DFUDS}(T)$. In summary, $\mathrm{BP}$ and
$\mathrm{DFUDS}$ are unified within an encompassing framework, which might have
the potential to imply future simplifications with regard to queries in
$\mathrm{BP}$ and/or $\mathrm{DFUDS}$. Immediate benefits displayed here are to
identify so far unnoted commonalities in most recent work on the Range Minimum
Query problem, and to provide improvements for the Minimum Length Interval
Query problem.


  We present our study of the $\rho(770)$ and $K^*(892)$ resonances from
lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) employing domain-wall fermions at physical
quark masses. We determine the finite-volume energy spectrum in various
momentum frames and obtain phase-shift parameterizations via the L\"uscher
formalism, and as a final step the complex resonance poles of the $\pi \pi$ and
$K \pi$ elastic scattering amplitudes via an analytical continuation of the
models. By sampling a large number of representative sets of underlying
energy-level fits, we also assign a systematic uncertainty to our final
results. This is a significant extension to data-driven analysis methods that
have been used in lattice QCD to date, due to the two-step nature of the
formalism. Our final pole positions, $M+i\Gamma/2$, with all statistical and
systematic errors exposed, are $M_{K^{*}} = 893(2)(8)(54)(2)~\mathrm{MeV}$ and
$\Gamma_{K^{*}} = 51(2)(11)(3)(0)~\mathrm{MeV}$ for the $K^*(892)$ resonance
and $M_{\rho} = 796(5)(15)(48)(2)~\mathrm{MeV}$ and $\Gamma_{\rho} =
192(10)(28)(12)(0)~\mathrm{MeV}$ for the $\rho(770)$ resonance. The four
differently grouped sources of uncertainties are, in the order of occurrence:
statistical, data-driven systematic, an estimation of systematic effects beyond
our computation (dominated by the fact that we employ a single lattice
spacing), and the error from the scale-setting uncertainty on our ensemble.


  Precise measurement of betatron tune is required for good operating condition
of CSNS RCS. The fractional part of betatron tune is important and it can be
measured by analyzing the signals of beam position from the appointed BPM.
Usually these signals are contaminated during the acquisition process,
therefore several power spectrum methods are used to improve the frequency
resolution. In this article classical and modern power spectrum methods are
used. In order to compare their performance, the results of simulation data and
IQT data from J-PARC RCS are discussed. It is shown that modern power spectrum
estimation has better performance than the classical ones, though the
calculation is more complex.


  We study the effect of a magnetic field (applied along the c-axis) on the
low-energy, incommensurate magnetic fluctuations in superconducting
La(1.82)Sr(0.18)CuO(4). The incommensurate peaks at 9 meV, which in zero-field
were previously shown to sharpen in q on cooling below T_c [T. E. Mason et al.,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 1604 (1996)], are found to broaden in q when a field of 10
T is applied. The applied field also causes scattered intensity to shift into
the spin gap. We point out that the response at 9 meV, though occurring at
incommensurate wave vectors, is comparable to the commensurate magnetic
resonance observed at higher energies in other cuprate superconductors.


  We simulate the three-dimensional quantum Heisenberg model with a spatially
anisotropic ladder pattern using the first principles Monte Carlo method. Our
motivation is to investigate quantitatively the newly established universal
relation $T_N/\sqrt{c^3}$ $\propto$ ${\cal M}_s$ near the quantum critical
point (QCP) associated with dimerization. Here $T_N$, $c$, and ${\cal M}_s$ are
the N\'eel temperature, the spinwave velocity, and the staggered magnetization
density, respectively. For all the physical quantities considered here, such as
$T_N$ and ${\cal M}_s$, our Monte Carlo results agree nicely with the
corresponding results determined by the series expansion method. In addition,
we find it is likely that the effect of a logarithmic correction, which should
be present in (3+1)-dimensions, to the relation $T_N/\sqrt{c^3}$ $\propto$
${\cal M}_s$ near the investigated QCP only sets in significantly in the region
with strong spatial anisotropy.


  In complex networked systems theory, an important question is how to evaluate
the system robustness to external perturbations. With this task in mind, I
investigate the propagation of noise in multi-layer networked systems. I find
that, for a two layer network, noise originally injected in one layer can be
strongly amplified in the other layer, depending on how well-connected are the
complex networks in each layer and on how much the eigenmodes of their
Laplacian matrices overlap. These results allow to predict potentially harmful
conditions for the system and its sub-networks, where the level of fluctuations
is important, and how to avoid them. The analytical results are illustrated
numerically on various synthetic networks.


  We present BVI photometry of ten Seyfert 1 galaxies and narrow band H-alpha
images for six of these objects as well. The results indicate that the
luminosity sample distribution has an amplitude of almost 4 magnitudes with an
average of M_B=-20.7. The observed morphologies are confined to early type
galaxies. A barred structure is found in only 2 objects. Despite that early
morphological types are dominant in this sample, integrated (B-V) colors are
very blue. For instance, the SO galaxies show, on average, a (B-V)=0.78. This
effect seems to be caused by the luminosity contribution of the active nucleus
and/or the disk to the total luminosity of the galaxy. In the B band, the
contribution of the active galactic nucleus to the total luminosity of the
galaxy varies from 3% to almost 60% and the bulge to disk luminosity ratio
(L_bulge/L_disk) ranges from 0.6 to 22. Signs of tidal interactions seems to be
a common characteristic since they are observed in 6 of the objects and one of
them seems to be located in a poor cluster not yet identified in the
literature. H_alpha extended emission is rare, with only 1 galaxy showing clear
evidence of it. Luminosity profile decomposition shows that the model Gauss +
bulge + disk properly reproduces the surface brightness of the galaxies.
However, in order to account for the luminosity profile, most of the disk
galaxies needs the inner truncated exponential form with a central cutoff
radius ranging from 3 to 10 kpc. This is interpreted in terms of reddened
regions that are well identified in the B-V color maps. These regions present
very similar colors among them, with (B-V)~1.2. This fact could be associated
to the presence of dust confined in the inner regions of the galaxies.


  We aim at characterizing the population of low-luminosity X-ray sources in
the Galactic plane by studying their X-ray spectra and periodic signals in the
light curves. We are performing an X-ray survey of the Galactic disk using
XMM-Newton, and the source XMMU J173029.8-330920 was serendipitously discovered
in our campaign. We performed a follow-up observation of the source using our
pre-approved NuSTAR target of opportunity time. We used various
phenomenological models in xspec for the X-ray spectral modeling. We also
computed the Lomb-Scargle periodogram to search for X-ray periodicity. A Monte
Carlo method was used to simulate 1000 artificial light curves to estimate the
significance of the detected period. We also searched for X-ray, optical, and
infrared counterparts of the source in various catalogs. The spectral modeling
indicates the presence of an intervening cloud with $N_{\rm
H}\sim(1.5-2.3)\times10^{23}\ \rm cm^{-2}$ that partially absorbs the incoming
X-ray photons. The X-ray spectra are best fit by a model representing emission
from a collisionally ionized diffuse gas with plasma temperature
$kT=26^{+11}_{-5}$ keV. Furthermore, an Fe $K_{\alpha}$ line at
$6.47^{+0.13}_{-0.06}$ keV was detected with an equivalent width of the line of
$312\pm104$ eV. We discovered a coherent pulsation with a period of
$521.7\pm0.8$ s. The 3-10 keV pulsed fraction of the source is around
$\sim$50-60\%. The hard X-ray emission with plasma temperature
$kT=26^{+11}_{-5}$ keV, iron $K_{\alpha}$ emission at 6.4 keV and a periodic
behavior of $521.7\pm0.8$ s suggest XMMU J173029.8-33092 to be an intermediate
polar. We estimated the mass of the central white dwarf to be $0.94-1.4\
M_{\odot}$ by assuming a distance to the source of $\sim1.4-5$ kpc.


  We propose an original experimental strategy providing evidence for the first
label-free disclosure of muscle actin network based on the nonresonant
contribution of a multiplex CARS (M-CARS) microscopy setup. Thin actin
filaments are known for being located between thick myosin filaments that can
be detected in Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) with our M-CARS setup. The
first step of our strategy consists in defining spatial regions where thick
myosin filaments or thin actin filaments are expected. Then we present an
analysis based on two M-CARS spectra corresponding to these regions, which
outcome highlights differences in their relative nonresonant contribution. The
final step of the presented strategy is their exploitation on each pixel of the
M-CARS hyperspectral image, enabling label-free revelation of thin actin
filaments. This qualitative imaging represents a proof of principle for
highlighting and discriminating purposes in biological microscopy thanks to a
difference in the nonlinear properties of the related proteins. Besides, this
peculiar imaging technique results from a competition between several four-wave
mixing schemes. This paves the way for considering label-free imaging through a
competition involving several light-matter interaction effects, rather than
considering several of them singularly.


  The design of Wireless Networked Control System (WNCS) requires addressing
critical interactions between control and communication systems with minimal
complexity and communication overhead while providing ultra-high reliability.
This paper introduces a novel optimization theory based deep reinforcement
learning (DRL) framework for the joint design of controller and communication
systems. The objective of minimum power consumption is targeted while
satisfying the schedulability and rate constraints of the communication system
in the finite blocklength regime and stability constraint of the control
system. Decision variables include the sampling period in the control system,
and blocklength and packet error probability in the communication system. The
proposed framework contains two stages: optimization theory and DRL. In the
optimization theory stage, following the formulation of the joint optimization
problem, optimality conditions are derived to find the mathematical relations
between the optimal values of the decision variables. These relations allow the
decomposition of the problem into multiple building blocks. In the DRL stage,
the blocks that are simplified but not tractable are replaced by DRL. Via
extensive simulations, the proposed optimization theory based DRL approach is
demonstrated to outperform the optimization theory and pure DRL based
approaches, with close to optimal performance and much lower complexity.


  Optical and magneto-optical properties of magnetic materials have been widely
exploited to characterize magnetic structures and phenomena, however, their
temperature dependence is not well understood. This study implements the
supercell approach with thermal lattice and magnetic disorders to obtain
optical and magneto-optical spectra at finite temperatures based on
Williams-Lax theory. Our results show that large optical spectrum signals are
generated at photon energies below 1 eV, originating from the phonon- and
magnon-assisted intraband transitions as lattice and magnetic temperatures
increase. In addition, the prominent peak near 2.7 eV is redshifted
proportionally to magnetic temperature but depends much less on lattice
temperature. By analyzing unfolded bands, we show that the reduction of
exchange splitting due to the thermal demagnetization causes this redshift. Our
unfolded electronic band structure with magnetic disorder shows band kinks,
which are characteristic evidence of the coupling between electrons and
magnetic excitations. First-order magneto-optical spectra at finite temperature
are also predicted, but due to their small magnitude suffer more from sampling
errors. We discuss the effect of zero-point vibrations and the connection of
these simulations to the Drude model for intraband transitions.


  In this paper we present a new algorithm, denoted as TEP, to decode
low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over the Binary Erasure Channel (BEC).
The TEP decoder is derived applying the expectation propagation (EP) algorithm
with a tree- structured approximation. Expectation Propagation (EP) is a
generalization to Belief Propagation (BP) in two ways. First, it can be used
with any exponential family distribution over the cliques in the graph. Second,
it can impose additional constraints on the marginal distributions. We use this
second property to impose pair-wise marginal constraints in some check nodes of
the LDPC code's Tanner graph. The algorithm has the same computational
complexity than BP, but it can decode a higher fraction of errors when applied
over the BEC. In this paper, we focus on the asymptotic performance of the TEP
decoder, as the block size tends to infinity. We describe the TEP decoder by a
set of differential equations that represents the residual graph evolution
during the decoding process. The solution of these equations yields the
capacity of this decoder for a given LDPC ensemble over the BEC. We show that
the achieved capacity with the TEP is higher than the BP capacity, at the same
computational complexity.


  When a driven oscillator loses phase-locking to a master oscillator via a
Hopf bifurcation, it enters a bounded-phase regime in which its average
frequency is still equal to the master frequency, but its phase displays
temporal oscillations. Here we characterize these two synchronization regimes
in a laser experiment, by measuring the spectrum of the phase fluctuations
across the bifurcation. We find experimentally, and confirm numerically, that
the low frequency phase noise of the driven oscillator is strongly suppressed
in both regimes in the same way. Thus the long-term phase stability of the
master oscillator is transferred to the driven one, even in the absence of
phase-locking. The numerical study of a generic, minimal model suggests that
such behavior is universal for any periodically driven oscillator near a Hopf
bifurcation point.


  Modern district heating technologies have a great potential to make the
energy sector more flexible and sustainable due to their capabilities to use
energy sources of varied nature and to efficiently store energy for subsequent
use. Central control tasks within these systems for the efficient and safe
distribution of heat refer to the stabilization of overall system temperatures
and the regulation of storage units state of charge. These are challenging
goals when the networked and nonlinear nature of district heating system models
is taken into consideration. In this letter, for district heating systems with
multiple, distributed heat producers, we propose a decentralized control scheme
to provably meet said tasks stably.


  We solve the Lindblad equation describing the Brownian motion of a Coulombic
heavy quark-antiquark pair in a strongly coupled quark gluon plasma using the
Monte Carlo wave function method. The Lindblad equation has been derived in the
framework of pNRQCD and fully accounts for the quantum and non-Abelian nature
of the system. The hydrodynamics of the plasma is realistically implemented
through a 3+1D dissipative hydrodynamics code. We compute the bottomonium
nuclear modification factor and elliptic flow and compare with the most recent
LHC data. The computation does not rely on any free parameter, as it depends on
two transport coefficients that have been evaluated independently in lattice
QCD. Our final results, which include late-time feed down of excited states,
agree well with the available data from LHC 5.02 TeV PbPb collisions.


  Topological spin textures, like skyrmions, have significant potential for
spintronics applications. The main purpose of this work is to study further the
topological spin textures on the discrete lattice with magnetic fields. In this
work, we study a classical rotated Heisenberg model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya
interaction, bond-dependent anisotropy and easy-axis anisotropy on the
honeycomb lattice via Monte Carlo simulations. We mainly focus on phase
diagrams with magnetic fields, especially on the non-trivial phases only
existing with fields. The results demonstrate the emergence of field-induced
incommensurate skyrmion superlattice including mixed skyrmion-bimeron states,
ferromagnetic star, vortex and z-vortex superlattice. We systematically analyze
structures of these topological spin textures through spin configurations,
structure factors, topological charge and vector chirality. We hope that our
results could be useful for the identification of topological phases
experimentally.


  We present a systematic study of the morphology of homoepitaxial InP films
grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy which are imaged with ex situ atomic
force microscopy. These films show a dramatic range of different surface
morphologies as a function of the growth conditions and substrate (growth
temperature, V/III ratio, and miscut angle < 0.6deg and orientation toward A or
B sites), ranging from stable step flow to previously unreported strong step
bunching, over 10 nm in height. These observations suggest a window of growth
parameters for optimal quality epitaxial layers. We also present a theoretical
model for these growth modes that takes account of deposition, diffusion, and
dissociation of molecular precursors, and the diffusion and step incorporation
of atoms released by the precursors. The experimental conditions for step flow
and step bunching are reproduced by this model, with the step bunching
instability caused by the difference in molecular dissociation from above and
below step edges, as was discussed previously for GaAs (001).


  [abridged] We present the analysis of the spectroscopic and photometric
catalogues of 11 X-ray luminous clusters at z=0.07-0.16 from the Las Campanas /
Anglo-Australian Telescope Rich Cluster Survey. Our spectroscopic dataset
consists of over 1600 galaxy cluster members, of which two thirds are outside
r_200. We assign cluster membership using a detailed mass model and expand on
our previous work on the cluster colour-magnitude relation where membership was
inferred statistically. We confirm that the modal colours of galaxies on the
colour magnitude relation become progressively bluer with increasing radius and
decreasing local galaxy density. Interpreted as an age effect, we hypothesize
that these trends in galaxy colour should be reflected in mean Hdelta
equivalent width. We confirm that passive galaxies in the cluster increase in
Hdelta line strength as dHdelta / d r_p = 0.35 +/- 0.06. A variation of star
formation rate, as measured by [OII], with increasing local density of the
environment is discernible and is shown to be in broad agreement with previous
studies from 2dFGRS and SDSS. We find that clusters at z~0.1 are less active
than their higher redshift analogues. We also investigate unusual populations
of blue and very red nonstarforming galaxies and we suggest that the former are
likely to be the progenitors of galaxies which will lie on the colour-magnitude
relation, while the colours of the latter possibly reflect dust reddening. The
cluster galaxies at large radii consist of both backsplash ones and those that
are infalling to the cluster for the first time. We make a comparison to the
field population at z~0.1 and examine broad differences between the two
populations. Individually, the clusters show significant variation in their
galaxy populations which reflects their recent infall histories.


  Examples of geometric phases abound in many areas of physics. They offer both
fundamental insights into many physical phenomena and lead to interesting
practical implementations. One of them, as indicated recently, might be an
inherently fault-tolerant quantum computation. This, however, requires to deal
with geometric phases in the presence of noise and interactions between
different physical subsystems. Despite the wealth of literature on the subject
of geometric phases very little is known about this very important case. Here
we report the first experimental study of geometric phases for mixed quantum
states. We show how different they are from the well understood, noiseless,
pure-state case.


  With singly-tagged $\bar D$ samples selected from the data collected at and
around 3.773 GeV with the BESII detector at the BEPC collider, we have measured
the branching fractions for the inclusive $K^\pm$ decays of $D^+$ and $D^0$
mesons, which are $BF(D^+\to K^-X) = (24.7 \pm 1.3 \pm 1.2)%$, $BF(D^+\to K^+X)
= (6.1 \pm 0.9 \pm 0.4) %$, $BF(D^0\to K^-X) = (57.8 \pm 1.6 \pm 3.2) %$ and
$BF(D^0\to K^+X) = (3.5 \pm 0.7 \pm 0.3) %$, respectively. We have also
measured the branching fractions for the inclusive semileptonic decays of $D^+$
and $D^0$ mesons to be $BF(D^+ \to e^+ X)=(15.2 \pm 0.9 \pm 0.8)%$ and $BF(D^0
\to e^+ X) =(6.3 \pm 0.7 \pm 0.4) %$. These yield the ratio of their partial
widths to be $\Gamma(D^+ \to e^+X)/\Gamma(D^0 \to e^+X)=0.95 \pm 0.12 \pm
0.07$.