  Given the current and past star-formation in the Milky Way in combination
with the limited gas supply, the re-fuelling of the reservoir of cool gas is an
important aspect of Galactic astrophysics. The infall of \ion{H}{i} halo clouds
can, among other mechanisms, contribute to solving this problem. We study the
intermediate-velocity cloud IVC135+54 and its spatially associated
high-velocity counterpart to look for signs of a past or ongoing interaction.
Using the Effelsberg-Bonn \ion{H}{i} Survey data, we investigated the interplay
of gas at different velocities. In combination with far-infrared Planck and
IRIS data, we extended this study to interstellar dust and used the correlation
of the data sets to infer information on the dark gas. The velocity structure
indicates a strong compression and deceleration of the infalling high-velocity
cloud (HVC), associated with far-infrared excess emission in the
intermediate-velocity cloud. This excess emission traces molecular hydrogen,
confirming that IVC135+54 is one of the very few molecular halo clouds. The
high dust emissivity of IVC135+54 with respect to the local gas implies that it
consists of disk material and does not, unlike the HVC, have an extragalactic
origin. Based on the velocity structure of the HVC and the dust content of the
IVC, a physical connection between them appears to be the logical conclusion.
Since this is not compatible with the distance difference between the two
objects, we conclude that this particular HVC might be much closer to us than
complex C. Alternatively, the indicators for an interaction are misleading and
have another origin.


  Many real-world networks were found to be highly clustered, and contain a
large amount of small cliques. We here investigate the number of cliques of any
size k contained in a geometric inhomogeneous random graph: a scale-free
network model containing geometry. The interplay between scale-freeness and
geometry ensures that connections are likely to form between either high-degree
vertices, or between close by vertices. At the same time it is rare for a
vertex to have a high degree, and most vertices are not close to one another.
This trade-off makes cliques more likely to appear between specific vertices.
In this paper, we formalize this trade-off and prove that there exists a
typical type of clique in terms of the degrees and the positions of the
vertices that span the clique. Moreover, we show that the asymptotic number of
cliques as well as the typical clique type undergoes a phase transition, in
which only k and the degree-exponent tau are involved. Interestingly, this
phase transition shows that for small values of tau, the underlying geometry of
the model is irrelevant: the number of cliques scales the same as in a
non-geometric network


  We calculate the $10\times 10$ two--loop anomalous dimension matrix to order
$\ord(\alpha_e \alpha_s)$ in the dimensional regularization scheme with
anticommuting $\gamma_5$ (NDR) which is necessary for the extension of the
$\Delta S=1$ weak Hamiltonian involving electroweak penguins beyond the leading
logarithmic approximation. We demonstrate, how a direct calculation of penguin
diagrams involving $\gamma_5$ in closed fermion loops can be avoided thus
allowing a consistent calculation of two--loop anomalous dimensions in the
simplest renormalization scheme with anticommuting $\gamma_5$ in $D$
dimensions. We give the necessary one--loop finite terms which allow to obtain
the corresponding two--loop anomalous dimension matrix in the HV scheme with
non--anticommuting $\gamma_5$.


  This paper analyzes the 53.3um line in the ISO LWS spectra towards a similar
sample of OH/IR sources. We find 137 LWS spectra covering 53.3um and associated
with 47 galactic OH/IR sources. Ten of these galactic OH/IR sources are found
to show and another 5 ones tentatively show the 53.3um absorption while another
7 sources highly probably do not show this line. The source class is found to
be correlated with the type of spectral profile: red supergiants (RSGs) and AGB
stars tend to show strong blue-shifted filling emission in their 53.3um
absorption line profiles while HII regions tend to show a weak red-shifted
filling emission in the line profile. GC sources and megamasers do not show
filling emission feature. It is argued that the filling emission might be the
manifestation of an unresolved half emission half absorption profile of the
53.3um doublet. The 53.3 to 34.6um equivalent width (EW) ratio is close to
unity for RSGs but much larger than unity for GC sources and megamasers while H
II regions only show the 53.3um line. The pump rate defined as maser to IR
photon flux ratio is approximately 5% for RSGs. The pump rates of GC sources
are three order of magnitude smaller. Both the large 53.3 to 34.6um EW ratio
and the small pump rate of the GC OH masers reflect that the two detected
`pumping lines' in these sources are actually of interstellar origin. The pump
rate of Arp 220 is 32%--much larger than that of RSGs, which indicates that the
contribution of other pumping mechanisms to this megamaser is important.


  We discuss modular forms as objects of computer algebra and as elements of
certain p-adic Banach modules. Problem-solving approach in number theory is
discussed which is based on the use of generating functions and their links
with modular forms. In particular, the critical values of various L-functions
of modular forms produce non-trivial but computable solutions of arithmetical
problems. Namely, for a prime number $p\ge 5$, we consider three classical cusp
eigenforms $$f_j(z)=\sum_{n=1}^\infty a_{n,j}e(nz)\in \Sr_{k_j}(N_j, \psi_j),\
(j=1, 2,3)$$ of weights k_1, k_2, k_3, of conductors N_1, N_2, N_3, and of
nebentypus characters $\psi_j \bmod N_j$. According to H.Hida \cite{Hi86} and
R.Coleman \cite{CoPB}, one can include each $f_j$ $(j=1, 2, 3)$ (under suitable
assumptions on $p$ and on $f_j$) into a $p$-adic analytic family $$k_j{}\mapsto
\{f_{j,k_j{}}= \sum_{n=1}^\infty a_{n}(f_{j, k_j{}})q^n\}$$ of cusp eigenforms
$f_{j,k_j{}}$ of weights $k_j{}$ in such a way that $f_{j,k_j}=f_j$, and that
all their Fourier coefficients $a_n(f_{j, k_j{}})$ are given by certain
$p$-adic analytic functions $k_j{}\mapsto a_{n, j}(k_j{})$. The purpose of this
paper is to describe a four variable p-adic L-function attached to Garrett's
triple product of three Coleman's families $$k_j{}\mapsto \left \{f_{j,k_j{}}=
\sum_{n=1}^\infty a_{n,j}(k{}) q^n\right \}$$ of cusp eigenforms of three fixed
slopes $\sigma_j=v_p(\alpha_{p, j}^{(1)}(k_j{}))\ge 0$, where
$\alpha_{p,j}^{(1)} = \al_{p,j}^{(1)}(k_j{})$ is an eigenvalue (which depends
on $k_j{}$) of Atkin's operator $U=U_p$ acting on Fourier expansions by
$U(\sum_{n\ge 0}^\infty a_{n}q^n) = \sum_{n \ge 0}^\infty a_{np} q^n$.


  Multiagent Systems (MASs) involve different characteristics, such as
autonomy, asynchronous and social features, which make these systems more
difficult to understand. Thus, there is a lack of procedures guaranteeing that
multiagent systems would behave as desired. Further complicating the situation
is the fact that current agent-based approaches may also involve
non-deterministic characteristics, such as learning, self-adaptation and
self-organization (SASO). Nonetheless, there is a gap in the literature
regarding the testing of systems with these features. This paper presents a
publish-subscribe-based approach to develop test applications that facilitate
the process of failure diagnosis in a self-organizing MAS. These tests are able
to detect failures at the global behavior of the system or at the local
properties of its parts. To illustrate the use of this approach, we developed a
self-organizing MAS system based on the context of the Internet of Things
(IoT), which simulates a set of smart street lights, and we performed
functional ad-hoc tests. The street lights need to interact with each other in
order to achieve the global goals of reducing the energy consumption and
maintaining the maximum visual comfort in illuminated areas. To achieve these
global behaviors, the street lights develop local behaviors automatically
through a self-organizing process based on machine learning algorithms.


  This book uses the modern theory of artificial intelligence (AI) to
understand human suffering or mental pain. Both humans and sophisticated AI
agents process information about the world in order to achieve goals and obtain
rewards, which is why AI can be used as a model of the human brain and mind.
This book intends to make the theory accessible to a relatively general
audience, requiring only some relevant scientific background. The book starts
with the assumption that suffering is mainly caused by frustration. Frustration
means the failure of an agent (whether AI or human) to achieve a goal or a
reward it wanted or expected. Frustration is inevitable because of the
overwhelming complexity of the world, limited computational resources, and
scarcity of good data. In particular, such limitations imply that an agent
acting in the real world must cope with uncontrollability, unpredictability,
and uncertainty, which all lead to frustration. Fundamental in such modelling
is the idea of learning, or adaptation to the environment. While AI uses
machine learning, humans and animals adapt by a combination of evolutionary
mechanisms and ordinary learning. Even frustration is fundamentally an error
signal that the system uses for learning. This book explores various aspects
and limitations of learning algorithms and their implications regarding
suffering. At the end of the book, the computational theory is used to derive
various interventions or training methods that will reduce suffering in humans.
The amount of frustration is expressed by a simple equation which indicates how
it can be reduced. The ensuing interventions are very similar to those proposed
by Buddhist and Stoic philosophy, and include mindfulness meditation.
Therefore, this book can be interpreted as an exposition of a computational
theory justifying why such philosophies and meditation reduce human suffering.


  We present a novel cluster-expansion (CE) approach for the first-principles
modeling of temperature and concentration dependent alloy properties. While the
standard CE method includes temperature effects only via the configurational
entropy in Monte Carlo simulations, our strategy also covers the
first-principles free energies of lattice vibrations. To this end, the
effective cluster interactions of the CE have been rendered genuinely
temperature dependent, so that they can include the vibrational free energies
of the input structures. As a model system we use the phase-separating alloy
Fe-Cu with our focus on the Fe-rich side. There, the solubility is derived from
Monte Carlo simulations, whose precision had to be increased by averaging
multiple CEs. We show that including the vibrational free energy is absolutely
vital for the correct first-principles prediction of Cu solubility in the bcc
Fe matrix: The solubility tremendously increases and is now in quantitative
agreement with experimental findings.


  We use the IllustrisTNG cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to
investigate how the specific star formation rates (sSFRs) of massive galaxies
$(M_* > 10^{10} M_\odot)$ depend on the distance to their closest companions.
We estimate sSFR enhancements by comparing with control samples that are
matched in redshift, stellar mass, local density and isolation, and we restrict
our analysis to pairs with stellar mass ratios of 0.1 to 10. At small
separations (~15 kpc), the mean sSFR is enhanced by a factor of 2.0 $\pm$ 0.1
in the flagship (110.7 Mpc)$^3$ simulation (TNG100-1). Statistically
significant enhancements extend out to 3D separations of 280 kpc in the (302.6
Mpc)$^3$ simulation (TNG300-1). We find similar trends in the EAGLE and
Illustris simulations, although their sSFR enhancements are lower than those in
TNG100-1 by about a factor of two. Enhancements in IllustrisTNG galaxies are
seen throughout the redshift range explored ($0 \leq z < 1$), with the strength
of the enhancements decreasing with increasing redshift for galaxies with close
companions. In order to more closely compare with observational results, we
separately consider 2D projected distances between galaxies in IllustrisTNG. We
detect significant sSFR enhancements out to projected separations of 260 kpc in
TNG300-1, with projection effects diluting the size of the enhancements by
about 20 per cent below 50 kpc. We find similar sSFR enhancements in TNG100-1
and Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies, with enhancements extending out to
projected separations of about 150 kpc for star-forming galaxies at $z < 0.2$.
Finally, by summing over all separations, we estimate that the presence of
closest companions boosts the average sSFR of massive galaxies in TNG100-1 by
14.5 per cent.


  Online discussion platforms are a vital part of the public discourse in a
deliberative democracy. However, how to interpret the outcomes of the
discussions on these platforms is often unclear. In this paper, we propose a
novel and explainable method for selecting a set of most representative,
consistent points of view by combining methods from computational social choice
and abstract argumentation. Specifically, we model online discussions as
abstract argumentation frameworks combined with information regarding which
arguments voters approve of. Based on ideas from approval-based multiwinner
voting, we introduce several voting rules for selecting a set of preferred
extensions that represents voters' points of view. We compare the proposed
methods across several dimensions, theoretically and in numerical simulations,
and give clear suggestions on which methods to use depending on the specific
situation.


  Participation in residential energy demand response programs requires an
active role by the consumers. They contribute flexibility in how they use their
appliances as the means to adjust energy consumption, and reduce demand peaks,
possibly at the expense of their own comfort (e.g., thermal). Understanding the
collective potential of appliance-level flexibility for reducing demand peaks
is challenging and complex. For instance, physical characteristics of
appliances, usage preferences, and comfort requirements all influence consumer
flexibility, adoption, and effectiveness of demand response programs. To
capture and study such socio-technical factors and trade-offs, this paper
contributes a novel appliance-level flexible scheduling framework based on
consumers' self-determined flexibility and comfort requirements. By utilizing
this framework, this paper studies (i) consumers usage preferences across
various appliances, as well as their voluntary contribution of flexibility and
willingness to sacrifice comfort for improving grid stability, (ii) impact of
individual appliances on the collective goal of reducing demand peaks, and
(iii) the effect of variable levels of flexibility, cooperation, and
participation on the outcome of coordinated appliance scheduling. Experimental
evaluation using a novel dataset collected via a smartphone app shows that
higher consumer flexibility can significantly reduce demand peaks, with the
oven having the highest system-wide potential for this. Overall, the
cooperative approach allows for higher peak-shaving compared to non-cooperative
schemes that focus entirely on the efficiency of individual appliances. The
findings of this study can be used to design more cost-effective and granular
(appliance-level) demand response programs in participatory and decentralized
Smart Grids.


  The operation of a BEC based atom interferometer, where the atoms are held in
a weakly-confining magnetic trap and manipulated with counter-propagating laser
beams, is analyzed. A simple analytic model is developed to describe the
dynamics of the interferometer. It is used to find the regions of parameter
space with high and low contrast of the interference fringes for both single
and double reflection interferometers. We demonstrate that for a double
reflection interferometer the coherence time can be increased by shifting the
recombination time. The theory is compared with recent experimental
realizations of these interferometers.


  The Kepler mission has yielded a large number of planet candidates from among
the Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs), but spectroscopic follow-up of these
relatively faint stars is a serious bottleneck in confirming and characterizing
these systems. We present motivation and survey design for an ongoing project
with the SDSS-III multiplexed APOGEE near-infrared spectrograph to monitor
hundreds of KOI host stars. We report some of our first results using
representative targets from our sample, which include current planet candidates
that we find to be false positives, as well as candidates listed as false
positives that we do not find to be spectroscopic binaries. With this survey,
KOI hosts are observed over ~20 epochs at a radial velocity precision of
100-200 m/s. These observations can easily identify a majority of false
positives caused by physically-associated stellar or substellar binaries, and
in many cases, fully characterize their orbits. We demonstrate that APOGEE is
capable of achieving RV precision at the 100-200 m/s level over long time
baselines, and that APOGEE's multiplexing capability makes it substantially
more efficient at identifying false positives due to binaries than other
single-object spectrographs working to confirm KOIs as planets. These APOGEE
RVs enable ancillary science projects, such as studies of fundamental stellar
astrophysics or intrinsically rare substellar companions. The coadded APOGEE
spectra can be used to derive stellar properties (T_eff, log(g)) and chemical
abundances of over a dozen elements to probe correlations of planet properties
with individual elemental abundances.


  Network monitoring is vital in modern clouds and data center networks for
traffic engineering, network diagnosis, network intrusion detection, which need
diverse traffic statistics ranging from flow size distributions to heavy
hitters. To cope with increasing network rates and massive traffic volumes,
sketch based approximate measurement has been extensively studied to trade the
accuracy for memory and computation cost, which unfortunately, is sensitive to
hash collisions. In addition, deploying the sketch involves fine-grained
performance control and instrumentation.
  This paper presents a locality-sensitive sketch (LSS) to be resilient to hash
collisions. LSS proactively minimizes the estimation error due to hash
collisions with an autoencoder based optimization model, and reduces the
estimation variance by keeping similar network flows to the same bucket array.
To illustrate the feasibility of the sketch, we develop a disaggregated
monitoring application that supports non-intrusive sketching deployment and
native network-wide analysis. Testbed shows that the framework adapts to line
rates and provides accurate query results. Real-world trace-driven simulations
show that LSS remains stable performance under wide ranges of parameters and
dramatically outperforms state-of-the-art sketching structures, with over
$10^3$ to $10^5$ times reduction in relative errors for per-flow queries as the
ratio of the number of buckets to the number of network flows reduces from 10\%
to 0.1\%.


  Motivated by recent experiments realizing long-lived non-equilibrium states
in aperiodically driven quantum many-body systems, we investigate the dynamics
of a quasiperiodically driven Rydberg atom chain in the strong Rydberg blockage
regime. In this regime, the system is kinetically constrained and the `PXP'
model describes its dynamics. Even without driving, the PXP model exhibits
many-body scarring and resultant persistent oscillations for dynamics
originating from the N\'{e}el-ordered initial state. We demonstrate that a rich
array of dynamical behaviors emerge when the system is subjected to a
continuous drive. In the high-frequency regime, the system exhibits revivals
and oscillations for the N\'{e}el ordered initial state both for periodic and
quasi-periodic drives. We trace the origin of this non-ergodicity to an
effective PXP Hamiltonian for both of these driving protocols in this regime.
Furthermore, we demonstrate that the behavior of the fidelity and the
entanglement entropy is non-monotonic at low frequencies in the high-amplitude
regime. This leads to several re-entrant scarring transitions both for both the
N\'{e}el-ordered and the fully polarized initial state. Our results demonstrate
that continuous quasi-periodic drive protocols can provide a promising route to
realize prethermal phases of matter in kinetically constrained systems.


  Andromeda X (And X) is a newly discovered low-luminosity M31 dwarf spheroidal
galaxy (dSph) found by Zucker et al. (2007) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS - York et al. 2000). In this paper, we present the first spectroscopic
study of individual red giant branch stars in And X, as a part of the SPLASH
Survey (Spectroscopic and Photometric Landscape of Andromeda's Stellar Halo).
Using the Keck II telescope and multiobject DEIMOS spectrograph, we target two
spectroscopic masks over the face of the galaxy and measure radial velocities
for ~100 stars with a median accuracy of sigma_v ~ 3 km/s. The velocity
histogram for this field confirms three populations of stars along the sight
line: foreground Milky Way dwarfs at small negative velocities, M31 halo red
giants over a broad range of velocities, and a very cold velocity ``spike''
consisting of 22 stars belonging to And X with v_rad = -163.8 +/- 1.2 km/s. By
carefully considering both the random and systematic velocity errors of these
stars (e.g., through duplicate star measurements), we derive an intrinsic
velocity dispersion of just sigma_v = 3.9 +/- 1.2 km/s for And X, which for its
size, implies a minimum mass-to-light ratio of M/L =37^{+26}_{-19} assuming the
mass traces the light. Based on the clean sample of member stars, we measure
the median metallicity of And X to be [Fe/H] = -1.93 +/- 0.11, with a slight
radial metallicity gradient. The dispersion in metallicity is large,
sigma([Fe/H]) = 0.48, possibly hinting that the galaxy retained much of its
chemical enrichment products. We discuss the potential for better understanding
the formation and evolution mechanisms for M31's system of dSphs through
(current) kinematic and chemical abundance studies, especially in relation to
the Milky Way sample. (abridged version)


  We remark on some delicate points that attend the physical meaning of
intrinsic device resistance.


  Recent Odessa disturbance events have brought attention to the challenges
associated with the interaction between Inverter-Based Resources (IBRs) and the
transmission and distribution system. The NERC event diagnosis report has
highlighted several issues, emphasizing the need for continuous performance
monitoring of these IBRs by system operators. Key areas of concern include the
mismatch of control and protection performance of IBRs between the original
equipment manufacturer (OEM)-provided models and field measurements. The
inability to replicate the realistic response can result in incorrect
reliability and resilience studies. In this paper, we developed an approach on
how to emulate the behavior of an IBR using measurement data obtained for
system operators to utilize in real-time and long-term planning. Two
experiments are conducted in the phasor domain and electromagnetic transients
(EMT) domain to emulate the behavior for grid forming and grid following
inverters under various operating conditions and the effectiveness of the
proposed model is demonstrated in terms of accuracy and ease of utilizing
user-defined models (UDMs).


  An isospin-selfconsistent approach based on the
Continuum-Random-Phase-Approximation (CRPA) is applied to describe the Fermi
and Gamow-Teller strength distributions within a wide excitation-energy
interval. To take into account nucleon pairing in open-shell nuclei, we
formulate an isospin-selfconsistent version of the
proton-neutron-quasiparticle-CRPA (pn-QCRPA) approach by incorporating the BCS
model into the CRPA method. The isospin and configurational splittings of the
Gamow-Teller giant resonance are analyzed in single-open-shell nuclei. The
calculation results obtained for $^{208}$Bi, $^{90}$Nb, and Sb isotopes are
compared with available experimental data.


  We introduce a new nearest-prototype classifier, the prototype vector machine
(PVM). It arises from a combinatorial optimization problem which we cast as a
variant of the set cover problem. We propose two algorithms for approximating
its solution. The PVM selects a relatively small number of representative
points which can then be used for classification. It contains 1-NN as a special
case. The method is compatible with any dissimilarity measure, making it
amenable to situations in which the data are not embedded in an underlying
feature space or in which using a non-Euclidean metric is desirable. Indeed, we
demonstrate on the much studied ZIP code data how the PVM can reap the benefits
of a problem-specific metric. In this example, the PVM outperforms the highly
successful 1-NN with tangent distance, and does so retaining fewer than half of
the data points. This example highlights the strengths of the PVM in yielding a
low-error, highly interpretable model. Additionally, we apply the PVM to a
protein classification problem in which a kernel-based distance is used.


  In 1992, Kalai and Kleitman proved a quasipolynomial upper bound on the
diameters of convex polyhedra. Todd and Sukegawa-Kitahara proved
tail-quasipolynomial bounds on the diameters of polyhedra. These tail bounds
apply when the number of facets is greater than a certain function of the
dimension. We prove tail-quasipolynomial bounds on the diameters of polytopes
and normal simplicial complexes. We also prove tail-polynomial upper bounds on
the diameters of polyhedra.


  Using \textit{Swift} Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) event-mode data during Gamma
Ray Burst (GRB) occurrences, we conducted spectral analysis for the Crab
system. From 38 good observations, which spans over a period of 18 years from
2006 to 2023, we found that the Crab's X-ray flux does not only flicker, but
also significantly anti-correlates to its spectral power-law photon index.
Since emission contribution of the Crab pulsar in this energy range is small,
this anti-correlation is mainly about the emission of the Crab nebula. We
suggest that this anti-correlation is an observational supporting evidence for
the long-standing notion that the nebula emission is due to synchrotron
radiation of shocked pulsar winds in the nebula.


  Optical instabilities in moving media are linked to a spontaneous parity-time
symmetry breaking of the system. It is shown that in general the time evolution
of the electromagnetic waves in moving media is determined by a non-Hermitian
parity-time symmetric operator. For lossless systems the frequency spectrum of
the time evolution operator may be complex valued, and has a mirror symmetry
with respect to the real-frequency axis. The possibility of optical
amplification of a light pulse in the broken parity-time symmetry regime is
demonstrated.


  Certifying the safety of nonlinear systems, through the lens of set
invariance and control barrier functions (CBFs), offers a powerful method for
controller synthesis, provided a CBF can be constructed. This paper draws
connections between partial feedback linearization and CBF synthesis. We
illustrate that when a control affine system is input-output linearizable with
respect to a smooth output function, then, under mild regularity conditions,
one may extend any safety constraint defined on the output to a CBF for the
full-order dynamics. These more general results are specialized to robotic
systems where the conditions required to synthesize CBFs simplify. The CBFs
constructed from our approach are applied and verified in simulation and
hardware experiments on a quadrotor.


  We introduce biased gradient oracles to capture a setting where the function
measurements have an estimation error that can be controlled through a batch
size parameter. Our proposed oracles are appealing in several practical
contexts, for instance, risk measure estimation from a batch of independent and
identically distributed (i.i.d.) samples, or simulation optimization, where the
function measurements are `biased' due to computational constraints. In either
case, increasing the batch size reduces the estimation error. We highlight the
applicability of our biased gradient oracles in a risk-sensitive reinforcement
learning setting. In the stochastic non-convex optimization context, we analyze
a variant of the randomized stochastic gradient (RSG) algorithm with a biased
gradient oracle. We quantify the convergence rate of this algorithm by deriving
non-asymptotic bounds on its performance. Next, in the stochastic convex
optimization setting, we derive non-asymptotic bounds for the last iterate of a
stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithm with a biased gradient oracle.


  We revisit the SL synchronous programming model introduced by Boussinot and
De Simone (IEEE, Trans. on Soft. Eng., 1996). We discuss an alternative design
of the model including thread spawning and recursive definitions and we explore
some basic properties of the revised model: determinism, reactivity, CPS
translation to a tail recursive form, computational expressivity, and a
compositional notion of program equivalence.


  We analyze the time series of overnight returns for the bund and btp futures
exchanged at LIFFE (London). The overnight returns of both assets are mapped
onto a one-dimensional symbolic-dynamics random walk: The `bond walk'. During
the considered period (October 1991 - January 1994) the bund-future market
opened earlier than the btp-future one. The crosscorrelations between the two
bond walks, as well as estimates of the conditional probability, show that they
are not independent; however each walk can be modeled by means of a trinomial
probability distribution. Monte Carlo simulations confirm that it is necessary
to take into account the bivariate dependence in order to properly reproduce
the statistical properties of the real-world data. Various investment
strategies have been devised to exploit the `prior' information obtained by the
aforementioned analysis.


  We study the convergence problem for mean field control, also known as
optimal control of McKean-Vlasov dynamics. We assume that the data is smooth
but not convex, and thus the limiting value function $\mathcal{U} :[0,T] \times
\mathcal{P}_2(\mathbb{R}^d) \to \mathbb{R}$ is Lipschitz, but may not be
differentiable. In this setting, the first and last named authors recently
identified an open and dense subset $\mathcal{O}$ of $[0,T] \times
\mathcal{P}_2(\mathbb{R}^d)$ on which $\mathcal{U}$ is $\mathcal{C}^1$ and
solves the relevant infinite-dimensional Hamilton-Jacobi equation in a
classical sense. In the present paper, we use these regularity results, and
some non-trivial extensions of them, to derive sharp rates of convergence. In
particular, we show that the value functions for the $N$-particle control
problems converge towards $\mathcal{U}$ with a rate of $1/N$, uniformly on
subsets of $\mathcal{O}$ which are compact in the $p$-Wasserstein space for
some $p > 2$. A similar result is also established at the level of the optimal
feedback controls. The rate $1/N$ is the optimal rate in this setting even if
$\mathcal{U}$ is smooth, while, in general, the optimal global rate of
convergence is known to be slower than $1/N$. Thus our results show that the
rate of convergence is faster inside of $\mathcal{O}$ than it is outside. As a
consequence of the convergence of the optimal feedbacks, we obtain a
concentration inequality for optimal trajectories of the $N$-particle problem
started from i.i.d. initial conditions.


  Inspired by Lehner's results on exchangeability systems we define `weak
conditional freeness' and `conditional freeness' for stationary processes in an
operator algebraic framework of noncommutative probability. We show that these
two properties are equivalent and thus the process embeds into a von Neumann
algebraic amalgamated free product over the fixed point algebra of the
stationary process.


  In this paper, we present a systematic analysis of eleven-dimensional
supergravity on a manifold with boundary, which is believed to be relevant to
the strong coupling limit of the $E_8\times E_8$ heterotic string. Gauge and
gravitational anomalies enter at a very early stage, and require a refinement
of the standard Green-Schwarz mechanism for their cancellation. This uniquely
determines the gauge group to be a copy of $E_8$ for each boundary component,
fixes the gauge coupling constant in terms of the gravitational constant, and
leads to several striking new tests of the hypothesis that there is a
consistent quantum $M$-theory with eleven-dimensional supergravity as its low
energy limit.


  NMSSM scenarios are investigated to explain an excess in the opposite-sign
dilepton mass distribution in events with dilepton, jets and missing transverse
energy reported by the CMS experiment. We show that the NMSSM scenarios can
possess unique features to explain this excess, and can be distinguished from
the MSSM scenarios in the ongoing LHC runs as well as direct detection
experiments.


  The study of Planktonic Foraminifera abundances permits to obtain climatic
curves on the basis of percentage ratio between tropical and temperate/polar
forms. Climatic changes were controlled by several phenomena as: (i)
Milankovitch's cycles, produced by variations of astronomical parameters such
as precession, obliquity and eccentricity; (ii) continental geodynamic
evolution and orogenic belt; (iii) variations of atmospheric and oceanic
currents; (iv) volcanic eruptions; (v) meteor impacts. But while astronomical
parameters have a quasi-regular periodicity, the other phenomena can be
considered as "noise signal" in natural systems. The interplay between cyclical
astronomical variations, the "noise signal" and the intrinsic nonlinearity of
the ecologic system produces strong glacial or interglacial period according to
the stochastic resonance phenomenon.


  We theoretically investigate the time-dependent transport of a localized
surface plasmon excitation through a linear array of identical and
equidistantly spaced metal nanoparticles. Two different signals propagating
through the array are found: one traveling with the group velocity of the
surface plasmon polaritons of the system and damped exponentially, and the
other running with the speed of light and decaying in a power-~law fashion, as
$x^{-1}$ and $x^{-2}$ for the transversal and longitudinal polarizations,
respectively. The latter resembles the Sommerfeld-Brillouin forerunner and has
not been identified in previous studies. The contribution of this signal
dominates the plasmon transport at large distances. In addition, even though
this signal is spread in the propagation direction and has the lateral
dimension larger than the wavelength, the field profile close to the chain axis
does not change with distance, indicating that this part of the signal is
confined to the array.


  Neutron elastic and inelastic scattering measurements have been performed in
order to investigate the spin structure and the magnetic excitations in the
impurity-induced antiferromagnetic ordered phase of the doped spin gap system
Tl(Cu$_{1-x}$Mg$_x$)Cl$_3$ with $x=0.03$. The magnetic Bragg reflections
indicative of the ordering were observed at ${\pmb Q}=(h, 0, l)$ with integer
$h$ and odd $l$ below $T_{\rm N}=3.45$ K. It was found that the spin structure
of the impurity-induced antiferromagnetic ordered phase on average in
Tl(Cu$_{1-x}$Mg$_x$)Cl$_3$ with $x=0.03$ is the same as that of the
field-induced magnetic ordered phase for ${\pmb H} \parallel b$ in the parent
compound TlCuCl$_3$. The triplet magnetic excitation was clearly observed in
the $a^*$-$c^*$ plane and the dispersion relations of the triplet excitation
were determined along four different directions. The lowest triplet excitation
corresponding to the spin gap was observed at ${\pmb Q}=(h, 0, l)$ with integer
$h$ and odd $l$, as observed in TlCuCl$_3$. It was also found that the spin gap
increases steeply below $T_{\rm N}$ upon decreasing temperature. This strongly
indicates that the impurity-induced antiferromagnetic ordering coexists with
the spin gap state in Tl(Cu$_{1-x}$Mg$_x$)Cl$_3$ with $x=0.03$.


  Prior to the 1990s, speculations about the occurrence of planets around other
stars were based only on planet formation theory, observations of circumstellar
disks, and the knowledge that at least one seemingly ordinary star had managed
to make a variety of different planets. Since then, Doppler and transit surveys
have revealed the population of planets around other Sun-like stars, especially
those with orbital periods shorter than a few years. Over the last decade these
surveys have risen to new heights with Doppler spectrographs capable of 1 m/s
precision, and space telescopes capable of detecting the transits of
Earth-sized planets. This article is a brief introductory review of the
knowledge of planet occurrence that has been gained from these surveys.


  The microscopic theory of superconducting (SC) state in the SU(2) slave-boson
model is developed. We show how the pseudogap and Fermi surface (FS) segments
in the normal state develop into a d-wave gap in the superconducting state.
Even though the superfluid density is of order x (the doping concentration),
the physical properties of the low lying quasiparticles are found to resemble
those in BCS theory. Thus the microscopic theory lay the foundation for our
earlier phenomenological discussion of the unusual SC properties in the
underdoped cuprates.


  How cooperation evolves and particularly maintains at a large scale remains
an open problem for improving humanity across domains ranging from climate
change to pandemic response. To shed light on how behavioral norms can resolve
the social dilemma of cooperation, here we present a formal mathematical model
of individuals' decision making under general social norms, encompassing a
variety of concerns and motivations an individual may have beyond simply
maximizing their own payoffs. Using the canonical game of the Prisoner's
Dilemma, we compare four different norms: compassion, universalizability,
reciprocity, and equity, to determine which social forces can facilitate the
evolution of cooperation, if any. We analyze our model through a variety of
limiting cases, including weak selection, low mutation, and large population
sizes. This is complemented by computer simulations of population dynamics via
a Fisher process, which confirm our theoretical results. We find that the first
two norms lead to the emergence of cooperation in a wide range of games, but
the latter two do not on their own. Due to its generality, our framework can be
used to investigate many more norms, as well as how norms themselves emerge and
evolve. Our work complements recent work on fair-minded learning dynamics and
provides a useful bottom-up perspective into understanding the impact of
top-down social norms on collective cooperative intelligence.


  Progenitors of long GRBs, and core-collapse supernovae in general, may have
two separate mechanisms driving the outflows: quasi-isotropic neutrino-driven
supernova explosions followed by a highly collimated relativistic outflow
driven by the GRB central engine, a black hole or a magnetar. We consider the
dynamics of the second GRB-driven explosion propagating through expanding
envelope generated by the passage of the primary supernova shock. Beyond the
central core, in the region of steep density gradient created by the SN shock
breakout, the accelerating secondary quasi-spherical GRB shock become unstable
to corrugation and under certain conditions may form a highly collimated jet, a
"chimney", when a flow expands almost exclusively along a nearly cylindrically
collimated channel. Thus, weakly non-spherical driving and/or non-spherical
initial conditions of the wind cavity may produce highly non-spherical, jetted
outflows. For a constant luminosity GRB central engine, this occurs for density
gradient in the envelope \rho ~ r^{-\omega} steeper than \omega >4.


  Using the reality condition of the solutions, one constructs the real
Pfaffian N-solitons solutions of the Novikov-Veselov (NV) equation using the
$\tan$ function and the Schur identity. By the minor-summation formula of the
Pfaffian, we can study the interactions of solitons in the Novikov-Veselov
equation from the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) equation's point of view, that
is, the totally non-negative Grassmannian. Especially, the Y-shape resonance,
O-type and the P-type interactions of X-shape are investigated. Also, the
maximum amplitude of the intersection of the line solitons and the critical
angle are computed and one makes a comparison with the KP-(II) equation.


  We present a topological proof of the existence of invariant manifolds for
maps with normally hyperbolic-like properties. The proof is conducted in the
phase space of the system. In our approach we do not require that the map is a
perturbation of some other map for which we already have an invariant manifold.
We provide conditions which imply the existence of the manifold within an
investigated region of the phase space. The required assumptions are formulated
in a way which allows for rigorous computer assisted verification. We apply our
method to obtain an invariant manifold within an explicit range of parameters
for the rotating H\'enon map.


  Two-dimensional (2D) materials are increasingly being used as active
components in nanoscale devices. Many interesting properties of 2D materials
stem from the reduced and highly non-local electronic screening in two
dimensions. While electronic screening within 2D materials has been studied
extensively, the question still remains of how 2D substrates screen charge
perturbations or electronic excitations adjacent to them. Thickness-dependent
dielectric screening properties have recently been studied using electrostatic
force microscopy (EFM) experiments. However, it was suggested that some of the
thickness-dependent trends were due to extrinsic effects. Similarly, Kelvin
probe measurements (KPM) indicate that charge fluctuations are reduced when BN
slabs are placed on SiO$_2$, but it is unclear if this effect is due to
intrinsic screening from BN. In this work, we use first principles calculations
to study the fully non-local dielectric screening properties of 2D material
substrates. Our simulations give results in good qualitative agreement with
those from EFM experiments, for hexagonal boron nitride (BN), graphene and
MoS$_2$, indicating that the experimentally observed thickness-dependent
screening effects are intrinsic to the 2D materials. We further investigate
explicitly the role of BN in lowering charge potential fluctuations arising
from charge impurities on an underlying SiO$_2$ substrate, as observed in the
KPM experiments. 2D material substrates can also dramatically change the
HOMO-LUMO gaps of adsorbates, especially for small molecules, such as benzene.
We propose a reliable and very quick method to predict the HOMO-LUMO gap of
small physisorbed molecules on 2D and 3D substrates, using only the band gap of
the substrate and the gas phase gap of the molecule.


  The well-known black hole X-ray binary GRS 1915+105 is a unique source in the
sense that it cannot be classified within the standard picture of black hole
binary states. In this work we study archival XMM-Newton observations taken
between 2003 and 2004 of the \c{hi} variability class of GRS 1915+105, which
corresponds to the hard state in the standard black hole X-ray binary state
classification. The crucial point of our study is that by using XMM-Newton data
we can access the variability below 3 keV, an energy range that is not covered
with RXTE. We focus on the study of the power spectral shape in the soft and
hard X-ray band, in light of our work done with Swift on MAXI J1659-152. In the
hard band (above 2.5 keV) power density spectra consist of band-limited noise
and quasi-periodic oscillations, corresponding to the power spectral shape seen
in the hard or intermediate state, while in the soft band the averaged power
density spectrum is consistent with a power-law noise, corresponding to the
power spectral shape usually seen in the soft state. The coexisting of two
different power spectral shapes in the soft and hard band, where the soft band
power spectrum is dominated by a power-law noise, is consistent with MAXI
J1659-152, and confirms the energy dependence of power spectral states. Our
additional spectral analysis shows that the disc component does contribute to
the soft band flux. These findings support that the observed black hole power
spectral state depends on which spectral component we are looking at, which
implies that power spectral analysis is probably a more sensitive method than
spectral modeling to trace the emergence of the disc component in the hard or
intermediate state.


  An increasing number of young massive clusters (YMCs) in the Magellanic
Clouds have been found to exhibit bimodal or extended main sequences (MSs) in
their color--magnitude diagrams (CMDs). These features are usually interpreted
in terms of a coeval stellar population with different stellar rotational
rates, where the blue and red MS stars are populated by non- (or slowly) and
rapidly rotating stellar populations, respectively. However, some studies have
shown that an age spread of several million years is required to reproduce the
observed wide turn-off regions in some YMCs. Here we present the
ultraviolet--visual CMDs of four Large and Small Magellanic Cloud YMCs, NGC
330, NGC 1805, NGC 1818, and NGC 2164, based on high-precision Hubble Space
Telescope photometry. We show that they all exhibit extended main-sequence
turn-offs (MSTOs). The importance of age spreads and stellar rotation in
reproducing the observations is investigated. The observed extended MSTOs
cannot be explained by stellar rotation alone. Adopting an age spread of 35--50
Myr can alleviate this difficulty. We conclude that stars in these clusters are
characterized by ranges in both their ages and rotation properties, but the
origin of the age spread in these clusters remains unknown.


  The full reionization of intergalactic helium was a major event in the
history of the IGM, and UV observations of the He II Gunn-Peterson trough allow
us to characterize the end of this process at z~3. Due to intervening hydrogen
absorption, quasars allowing such study are rare, with only 33 known in the
literature, and most of those are very recent discoveries. We expand on our
previous discovery work, and present 13 new He II quasars with redshifts 2.82 <
z < 3.77, here selected with ~80% efficiency, and including several that are
much brighter than the vast majority of those previously known. This is the
largest sample of uniformly observed He II quasars covering such a broad
redshift range, and they show evidence of IGM opacity increasing with redshift,
as expected for the helium reionization epoch. No evidence of He II Ly{\alpha}
quasar emission is seen in individual or averaged spectra, posing a problem for
standard models of the broad line region. The current rapid advance in the
study of He II quasars has been greatly facilitated by the Cosmic Origins
Spectrograph on HST, and we discuss the instrumental and other subtleties that
must be taken into account in IGM He II observations.


  The hydrodynamic evolution of the common envelope phase of a low mass binary
composed of a 1.05 Msun red giant and a 0.6 Msun companion has been followed
for five orbits of the system using a high resolution method in three spatial
dimensions. During the rapid inspiral phase, the interaction of the companion
with the red giant's extended atmosphere causes about 25% of the common
envelope to be ejected from the system, with mass continuing to be lost at the
end of the simulation at a rate ~ 2 Msun/yr. In the process the resulting loss
of angular momentum and energy reduces the orbital separation by a factor of
seven. After this inspiral phase the eccentricity of the orbit rapidly
decreases with time. The gravitational drag dominates hydrodynamic drag at all
times in the evolution, and the commonly-used Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton
prescription for estimating the accretion rate onto the companion significantly
overestimates the true rate. On scales comparable to the orbital separation,
the gas flow in the orbital plane in the vicinity of the two cores is subsonic
with the gas nearly corotating with the red giant core and circulating about
the red giant companion. On larger scales, 90% of the outflow is contained
within 30 degrees of the orbital plane, and the spiral shocks in this material
leave an imprint on the density and velocity structure. Of the energy released
by the inspiral of the cores, only about 25% goes toward ejection of the
envelope.


  In this paper we present several measurements of single top quark production
from the CDF and D0 experiments at the Tevatron. The various analyses utilize
integrated luminosity ranging from 2.1 to 4.8 fb -1. The results include the
observation of single top production with a combined cross section of 2.76
+0.58 -0.47 pb for a top quark mass of 170 GeV/c2, as well as measurements of
top quark polarization and first evidence for t-channel production.


  We present a general method of analyzing the influence of finite size and
boundary effects on the dynamics of localized solutions of non-linear spatially
extended systems. The dynamics of localized structures in infinite systems
involve solvability conditions that require projection onto a Goldstone mode.
Our method works by extending the solvability conditions to finite sized
systems, by incorporating the finite sized modifications of the Goldstone mode
and associated nonzero eigenvalue. We apply this method to the special case of
non-equilibrium domain walls under the influence of Dirichlet boundary
conditions in a parametrically forced complex Ginzburg Landau equation, where
we examine exotic nonuniform domain wall motion due to the influence of
boundary conditions.


  We introduce a methodology based on averaging similarity matrices with the
aim of integrating the layers of a multiplex network into a single monoplex
network. Multiplex networks are adopted for modelling a wide variety of
real-world frameworks, such as multi-type relations in social, economic and
biological structures. More specifically, multiplex networks are used when
relations of different nature (layers) arise between a set of elements from a
given population (nodes). A possible approach for investigating multiplex
networks consists in aggregating the different layers in a single network
(monoplex) which is a valid representation -- in some sense -- of all the
layers. In order to obtain such an aggregated network, we propose a theoretical
approach -- along with its practical implementation -- which stems on the
concept of similarity matrix average. This methodology is finally applied to a
multiplex similarity network of statistical journals, where the three
considered layers express the similarity of the journals based on co-citations,
common authors and common editors, respectively.


  The entire southern sky (Declination, $\delta <$ 30 deg) has been observed
using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), which provides radio imaging of
$\sim$2-arcmin resolution at low frequencies (72-231 MHz). This is the GaLactic
and Extragalactic All-sky MWA (GLEAM) Survey, and we have previously used a
combination of visual inspection, cross-checks against the literature, and
internal matching to identify the 'brightest' radio-sources
($S_{\mathrm{151MHz}} >$ 4 Jy) in the extragalactic catalogue (Galactic
latitude, $|b| >$ 10 deg). We refer to these 1,863 sources as the GLEAM 4-Jy
(G4Jy) Sample, and use radio images (of $\leq$ 45-arcsec resolution), and
multi-wavelength information, to assess their morphology and identify the
galaxy that is hosting the radio emission (where appropriate). Details of how
to access all of the overlays used for this work are available at
https://github.com/svw26/G4Jy. Alongside this we conduct further checks against
the literature, which we document in this paper for individual sources. Whilst
the vast majority of the G4Jy Sample are active galactic nuclei with powerful
radio-jets, we highlight that it also contains a nebula, two nearby,
star-forming galaxies, a cluster relic, and a cluster halo. There are also
three extended sources for which we are unable to infer the mechanism that
gives rise to the low-frequency emission. In the G4Jy catalogue we provide
mid-infrared identifications for 86% of the sources, and flag the remainder as:
having an uncertain identification (129 sources), having a
faint/uncharacterised mid-infrared host (126 sources), or it being
inappropriate to specify a host (2 sources). For the subset of 129 sources,
there is ambiguity concerning candidate host-galaxies, and this includes four
sources (B0424$-$728, B0703$-$451, 3C 198, and 3C 403.1) where we question the
existing identification.


  This paper presents AppTechMiner, a rule-based information extraction
framework that automatically constructs a knowledge base of all application
areas and problem solving techniques. Techniques include tools, methods,
datasets or evaluation metrics. We also categorize individual research articles
based on their application areas and the techniques proposed/improved in the
article. Our system achieves high average precision (~82%) and recall (~84%) in
knowledge base creation. It also performs well in application and technique
assignment to an individual article (average accuracy ~66%). In the end, we
further present two use cases presenting a trivial information retrieval system
and an extensive temporal analysis of the usage of techniques and application
areas. At present, we demonstrate the framework for the domain of computational
linguistics but this can be easily generalized to any other field of research.


  We study non-LTE inversions of the Ca II infrared triplet lines as a tool for
inferring physical properties of the quiet Sun. The inversion code is
successful in recovering the temperature, velocity and longitudinal magnetic
flux density in the photosphere and chromosphere, but the height range where
the inversions are sensitive is limited, especially in the chromosphere. We
present results of inverting spectropolarimetric observations of the lines in a
quiet Sun region. We find three distinct ranges in chromospheric temperature:
low temperatures in the internetwork, high temperatures in the enhanced
magnetic network and intermediate temperatures associated with low magnetic
flux regions in the network. The differences between these regions become more
pronounced with height as the plasma-$\beta$ decreases. These inversions
support the picture of the chromosphere, especially close to the magnetic
network, being highly inhomogeneous both in the vertical and horizontal
directions.


  A coexistence scenario between filter bank (FB) based waveforms and legacy
Cyclic Prefix-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (CP-OFDM) is studied.
It is shown that studies available on that matter use a wrong metric to rate
the interference between the coexisting systems. Specifically, it is shown that
even well spectrally localized FB waveforms interfere at a high level with
incumbent CP-OFDM receivers. The presented results invalidate a number of
studies in the literature, which stated that FB based waveforms could be very
efficiently used to insert communications in parts of spectrum left free by
incumbent legacy CP-OFDM users.


  Current works in the generation of personalized dialogue primarily contribute
to the agent presenting a consistent personality and driving a more informative
response. However, we found that the generated responses from most previous
models tend to be self-centered, with little care for the user in the dialogue.
Moreover, we consider that human-like conversation is essentially built based
on inferring information about the persona of the other party. Motivated by
this, we propose a novel personalized dialogue generator by detecting an
implicit user persona. Because it is hard to collect a large number of detailed
personas for each user, we attempted to model the user's potential persona and
its representation from dialogue history, with no external knowledge. The
perception and fader variables were conceived using conditional variational
inference. The two latent variables simulate the process of people being aware
of each other's persona and producing a corresponding expression in
conversation. Finally, posterior-discriminated regularization was presented to
enhance the training procedure. Empirical studies demonstrate that, compared to
state-of-the-art methods, our approach is more concerned with the user's
persona and achieves a considerable boost across the evaluations.


  Point mutations can surely be dangerous but what is worst than to lose the
reading frame?! Does DNA evolved a strategy to try to limit frameshift
mutations?! Here we investigate if DNA sequences effectively evolved a system
to minimize frameshift mutations analyzing the transcripts of proteins with
high molecular weights.


  Despite the intractability of generic optimal partially observable Markov
decision process planning, there exist important problems that have highly
structured models. Previous researchers have used this insight to construct
more efficient algorithms for factored domains, and for domains with
topological structure in the flat state dynamics model. In our work, motivated
by findings from the education community relevant to automated tutoring, we
consider problems that exhibit a form of topological structure in the factored
dynamics model. Our Reachable Anytime Planner for Imprecisely-sensed Domains
(RAPID) leverages this structure to efficiently compute a good initial envelope
of reachable states under the optimal MDP policy in time linear in the number
of state variables. RAPID performs partially-observable planning over the
limited envelope of states, and slowly expands the state space considered as
time allows. RAPID performs well on a large tutoring-inspired problem
simulation with 122 state variables, corresponding to a flat state space of
over 10^30 states.


  Recent calculations in loop quantum cosmology suggest that a transition from
a Lorentzian to an Euclidean space-time might take place in the very early
Universe. The transition point leads to a state of silence, characterized by a
vanishing speed of light. This behavior can be interpreted as a decoupling of
different space points, similar to the one characterizing the BKL phase.
  In this study, we address the issue of imposing initial conditions for the
cosmological perturbations at the transition point between the Lorentzian and
Euclidean phases. Motivated by the decoupling of space points, initial
conditions characterized by a lack of correlations are investigated. We show
that the "white noise" gains some support from analysis of the vacuum state in
the deep Euclidean regime.
  Furthermore, the possibility of imposing the silent initial conditions at the
trans-Planckian surface, characterized by a vanishing speed for the propagation
of modes with wavelengths of the order of the Planck length, is studied. Such
initial conditions might result from a loop-deformations of the Poincar\'e
algebra. The conversion of the silent initial power spectrum to a
scale-invariant one is also examined.


  It is a usual practice to ignore any structural information underlying
classes in multi-class classification. In this paper, we propose a graph
convolutional network (GCN) augmented neural network classifier to exploit a
known, underlying graph structure of labels. The proposed approach resembles an
(approximate) inference procedure in, for instance, a conditional random field
(CRF). We evaluate the proposed approach on document classification and object
recognition and report both accuracies and graph-theoretic metrics that
correspond to the consistency of the model's prediction. The experiment results
reveal that the proposed model outperforms a baseline method which ignores the
graph structures of a label space in terms of graph-theoretic metrics.


  We present calculations illustrating the potential of gravitational
microlensing to discriminate between classical models of stellar surface
brightness profiles and the recently computed ``Next Generation'' models of
Hauschildt et al. These spherically-symmetric models include a much improved
treatment of molecular lines in the outer atmospheres of cool giants -- stars
which are very typical sources in Galactic bulge microlensing events. We show
that the microlensing signatures of intensively monitored point and fold
caustic crossing events are readily able to distinguish between NextGen and the
classical models, provided a photometric accuracy of 0.01 magnitudes is
reached. This accuracy is now routinely achieved by alert networks, and hence
current observations can discriminate between such model atmospheres, providing
a unique insight on stellar photospheres.


  For a Borel set $A$ and a homogeneous Poisson point process $\eta$ in $\R^d$
of intensity $\lambda >0$, define the Poisson--Voronoi approximation $ A_\eta$
of $A$ as a union of all Voronoi cells with nuclei from $\eta$ lying in $A$. If
$A$ has a finite volume and perimeter we find an exact asymptotic of
$\E\Vol(A\Delta A_\eta)$ as $\lambda\to\infty$ where $\Vol$ is the Lebesgue
measure. Estimates for all moments of $\Vol(A_\eta)$ and $\Vol(A\Delta A_\eta)$
together with their asymptotics for large $\lambda$ are obtained as well.


  Describing dynamic medical systems using machine learning is a challenging
topic with a wide range of applications. In this work, the possibility of
modeling the blood glucose level of diabetic patients purely on the basis of
measured data is described. A combination of the influencing variables insulin
and calories are used to find an interpretable model. The absorption speed of
external substances in the human body depends strongly on external influences,
which is why time-shifts are added for the influencing variables. The focus is
put on identifying the best timeshifts that provide robust models with good
prediction accuracy that are independent of other unknown external influences.
The modeling is based purely on the measured data using Sparse Identification
of Nonlinear Dynamics. A differential equation is determined which, starting
from an initial value, simulates blood glucose dynamics. By applying the best
model to test data, we can show that it is possible to simulate the long-term
blood glucose dynamics using differential equations and few, influencing
variables.


  Using theorems of Eliashberg and McDuff, Etnyre [Et] proved that the
intersection form of a symplectic filling of a contact 3-manifold supported by
planar open book is negative definite.
  In this paper, we prove a signature formula for allowable Lefschetz
fibrations over $D^2$ with planar fiber by computing Maslov index appearing in
Wall's non-additivity formula.
  The signature formula leads to an alternative proof of Etnyre's theorem via
works of Niederkr\"uger and Wendl [NWe] and Wendl [We].
  Conversely, Etnyre's theorem, together with the existence theorem of Stein
structures on Lefschetz fibrations over $D^2$ with bordered fiber by Loi and
Piergallini [LP], implies the formula.


  We address the problem of finding conditions which guarantee the existence of
open-loop Nash equilibria in discrete time dynamic games (DTDGs). The classical
approach to DTDGs involves analyzing the problem using optimal control theory
which yields results mainly limited to linear-quadratic games. We show the
existence of equilibria for a class of DTDGs where the cost function of players
admits a quasi-potential function which leads to new results and, in some
cases, a generalization of similar results from linear-quadratic games. Our
results are obtained by introducing a new formulation for analysing DTDGs using
the concept of a conjectured state by the players. In this formulation, the
state of the game is modelled as dependent on players. Using this formulation
we show that there is an optimisation problem such that the solution of this
problem gives an equilibrium of the DTDG.
  To extend the result for more general games, we modify the DTDG with an
additional constraint of consistency of the conjectured state. Any equilibrium
of the original game is also an equilibrium of this modified game with
consistent conjectures.
  In the modified game, we show the existence of equilibria for DTDGs where the
cost function of players admits a potential function. We end with conditions
under which an equilibrium of the game with consistent conjectures is an
$\epsilon$-Nash equilibria of the original game.


  The pretty good measurement is a fundamental analytical tool in quantum
information theory, giving a method for inferring the classical label that
identifies a quantum state chosen probabilistically from an ensemble.
Identifying and constructing the pretty good measurement for the class of
bosonic Gaussian states is of immediate practical relevance in quantum
information processing tasks. Holevo recently showed that the pretty good
measurement for a bosonic Gaussian ensemble is a bosonic Gaussian measurement
that attains the accessible information of the ensemble (IEEE Trans. Inf.
Theory, 66(9):5634-564, 2020). In this paper, we provide an alternate proof of
Gaussianity of the pretty good measurement for a Gaussian ensemble of multimode
bosonic states, with a focus on establishing an explicit and efficiently
computable Gaussian description of the measurement. We also compute an explicit
form of the mean square error of the pretty good measurement, which is relevant
when using it for parameter estimation.
  Generalizing the pretty good measurement is a quantum instrument, called the
pretty good instrument. We prove that the post-measurement state of the pretty
good instrument is a faithful Gaussian state if the input state is a faithful
Gaussian state whose covariance matrix satisfies a certain condition. Combined
with our previous finding for the pretty good measurement and provided that the
same condition holds, it follows that the expected output state is a faithful
Gaussian state as well. In this case, we compute an explicit Gaussian
description of the post-measurement and expected output states. Our findings
imply that the pretty good instrument for bosonic Gaussian ensembles is no
longer merely an analytical tool, but that it can also be implemented
experimentally in quantum optics laboratories.


  We study the anomalous dimensions for scalar operators in ABJM theory in the
SU(2) sector. The operators we consider have a classical dimension that grows
as N in the large N limit. Consequently, the large N limit is not captured by
summing planar diagrams - non-planar contributions have to be included. We find
that the mixing matrix at two-loop order is diagonalized using a double coset
ansatz, reducing it to the Hamiltonian of a set of decoupled oscillators. The
spectrum of anomalous dimensions, when interpreted in the dual gravity theory,
shows that the energy of the fluctuations of the corresponding giant graviton
is dependent on the size of the giant. The first subleading corrections to the
large N limit are also considered. These subleading corrections to the
dilatation operator do not commute with the leading terms, indicating that
integrability may not survive beyond the large N limit.


  Recently we proposed [62] a fast computing scheme for generalized seniority
on spherical single-particle basis. This work redesigns the scheme to make it
applicable to deformed single-particle basis. The algorithm is applied to the
rare-earth nucleus $^{158}_{~64}$Gd$_{94}$ for intrinsic (body-fixed frame)
neutron excitations under the low-momentum {\emph{NN}} interaction
$V_{{\rm{low}}-k}$. By allowing as many as four broken pairs, we compute the
lowest $300$ intrinsic states of several multipolarity. These states converge
well to the exact ones, showing generalized seniority is very effective in
truncating the deformed shell model. Under realistic interactions, the picture
remains approximately valid that the ground state is a coherent pair
condensate, and the pairs gradually break up as excitation energy increases.


  A systematical study on the early X-ray afterglows of both optically bright
and dark gamma-ray bursts (B-GRBs and D-GRBs) observed by Swift has been
presented. Our sample includes 25 GRBs. Among them 13 are B-GRBs and 12 are
D-GRBs. Our results show that the distributions of the X-ray afterglow fluxes
($F_{X}$), the gamma-ray fluxes ($S_{\gamma}$), and the ratio ($R_{\gamma, X}$)
for both the D-GRBs and B-GRBs are similar. The differences of these
distributions for the two kinds of GRBs should be statistical fluctuation.
These results indicate that the progenitors of the two kinds of GRBs are the
same population. Their total energy explosions are comparable. The suppression
of the optical emissions from D-GRBs should results from circumburst but not
their central engine.


  Spintronics provides an efficient platform for realizing non-volatile memory
and logic devices. In these systems, data is stored in the magnetization of
magnetic materials, and magnetization is switched in the writing process. In
conventional spintronic devices, ferromagnetic materials are used which have a
magnetization dynamics timescale of around the nanoseconds, setting a limit for
the switching speed. Increasing the magnetization switching speed has been one
of the challenges in spintronic research. In this work we take advantage of the
ultrafast magnetization dynamics in ferrimagnetic materials instead of
ferromagnets, and we use femtosecond laser pulses and a photoconductive Auston
switch to create picosecond current pulses for switching the ferrimagnet. By
anomalous Hall and magneto-optic Kerr (MOKE) measurement, we demonstrate the
robust picosecond SOT driven magnetization switching of ferrimagnetic GdFeCo.
The time-resolved MOKE shows more than 50 GHz magnetic resonance frequency of
GdFeCo, indicating faster than 20 ps spin dynamics and tens of picosecond SOT
switching speed. Our work provides a promising route to realize picosecond
operation speed for non-volatile magnetic memory and logic applications.


  We present a time-dependent multi-zone code for simulating the variability of
Synchrotron-Self Compton (SSC) sources. The code adopts a multi-zone pipe
geometry for the emission region, appropriate for simulating emission from a
standing or propagating shock in a collimated jet. Variations in the injection
of relativistic electrons in the inlet propagate along the length of the pipe
cooling radiatively. Our code for the first time takes into account the
non-local, time-retarded nature of synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) losses that
are thought to be dominant in TeV blazars. The observed synchrotron and SSC
emission is followed self-consistently taking into account light travel time
delays. At any given time, the emitting portion of the pipe depends on the
frequency and the nature of the variation followed. Our simulation employs only
one additional physical parameter relative to one-zone models, that of the pipe
length and is computationally very efficient, using simplified expressions for
the SSC processes. The code will be useful for observers modeling GLAST, TeV,
and X-ray observations of SSC blazars.


  We describe a novel framework for partially quenched chiral perturbation
theory based on the replica method. The computational rules are exceedingly
simple. We illustrate these rules by computing the partially quenched chiral
condensate to one-loop order. By considering arbitrary chiral $k$-point
functions we show explicitly to one-loop order the equivalence between this
method and the one based on supersymmetry. It is possible to go smoothly from
the conventional replica method to a supersymmetric variant by choosing the
number of valence quarks to be negative.


  Polarization observations yield otherwise unobtainable information about the
geometrical structure of unresolved objects. In this talk we review the
evidences for non-spherically symmetric structures around Luminous Hot Stars
from polarimetry and what we can learn with this technique. Polarimetry has
added a new dimension to the study of the envelopes of Luminous Blue Variables,
Wolf-Rayet stars and B[e] stars, all of which are discussed in some detail.


  Quantitative single cell measurements have shown that cell cycle duration
(the time between cell divisions) for diverse cell types is a noisy variable.
The underlying distribution is mean scalable with a universal shape for many
cell types in a variety of environments. Here we show through both experiment
and theory that increasing the amount of noise in the regulation of the cell
cycle negatively impacts the growth rate but positively correlates with
improved cellular response to fluctuating environments. Our findings suggest
that even non-cooperative cells in exponential growth phase do not optimize
fitness through growth rate alone, but also optimize adaptability to changing
conditions. In a manner similar to genetic evolution, increasing the noise in
biochemical processes correlates with improved response of the system to
environmental changes.


  It is still unclear whether the Sagittarius spiral arm is a major spiral arm
in the Galaxy or whether it just outlines a region of enhanced star formation
because of the local compression of gas. The best way to separate these
scenarios out is to study the kinematics across the arm to determine the
velocity perturbation it induces. A survey of early-type stars in the direction
of the Galactic center is performed covering an area of 100 square degrees with
the aim of identifying candidates for a radial velocity study. Objective prism
plates were obtained with the 4deg prism on the ESO Schmidt telescope using
IIaO, 4415, and IIIaJ emulsions. The plates were digitized and more than 100k
spectra were extracted down to a limiting magnitude of B = 15m. The spectra
were cross-correlated with a template with Balmer lines, which yielded a
candidate list of 12675 early-type stars. Magnitudes and equivalent widths of
strong lines were calculated from the spectra, which allowed us to estimate the
individual extinctions and distances for 11075 stars. The survey identified
9571 candidate stars with a spectral type earlier than A1 and B < 14.5m out to
distances of more than 2kpc, which is beyond the Sagittarius arm. This is
indicated by the increase of absorption in the plane at distances larger than
0.5kpc.


  We report on a search for R-parity violating supersymmetry in p-pbar
collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV using the D0 detector at Fermilab. Events with
at least two electrons and four or more jets were studied. We observe 2 events
in 99 +- 4.4 pb-1 of data, consistent with the expected background of 1.8 +-
0.4 events. This result is interpreted within the framework of minimal
low-energy supergravity supersymmetry models. Squarks with mass below 243
GeV/c^2 and gluinos with mass below 227 GeV/c^2 are excluded at the 95%
confidence level (C. L.) for A_0=0, mu < 0$, tan beta=2 and a finite value for
R-parity violating Yukawa coupling lambda'_1jk (j=1, 2 and k=1, 2, 3). For
equal squark and gluino masses, the corresponding mass limit is 277 GeV/c^2.


  The suffix trees are fundamental data structures for various kinds of string
processing. The suffix tree of a string $T$ of length $n$ has $O(n)$ nodes and
edges, and the string label of each edge is encoded by a pair of positions in
$T$. Thus, even after the tree is built, the input text $T$ needs to be kept
stored and random access to $T$ is still needed. The linear-size suffix tries
(LSTs), proposed by Crochemore et al. [Linear-size suffix tries, TCS
638:171-178, 2016], are a `stand-alone' alternative to the suffix trees.
Namely, the LST of a string $T$ of length $n$ occupies $O(n)$ total space, and
supports pattern matching and other tasks in the same efficiency as the suffix
tree without the need to store the input text $T$. Crochemore et al. proposed
an offline algorithm which transforms the suffix tree of $T$ into the LST of
$T$ in $O(n \log \sigma)$ time and $O(n)$ space, where $\sigma$ is the alphabet
size. In this paper, we present two types of online algorithms which `directly'
construct the LST, from right to left, and from left to right, without
constructing the suffix tree as an intermediate structure. Both algorithms
construct the LST incrementally when a new symbol is read, and do not access to
the previously read symbols. The right-to-left construction algorithm works in
$O(n \log \sigma)$ time and $O(n)$ space and the left-to-right construction
algorithm works in $O(n (\log \sigma + \log n / \log \log n))$ time and $O(n)$
space. The main feature of our algorithms is that the input text does not need
to be stored.


  This paper studies the solutions of a reaction--diffusion system with
nonlinearities that generalise the Lengyel--Epstein and FitzHugh--Nagumo
nonlinearities. Sufficient conditions are derived for the global asymptotic
stability of the system's solutions and confirmed through numerical Examples.


  In this Note, we consider 1D lattice Schrodinger operators with deterministic
strongly mixing potentials with very small coupling. We describe a scheme to
establish positiv- ity of the Lyapunov exponent from a statement at some fixed
scale. The required input may then be derived from Furstenberg theory, if the
underlying dynamics are sufficiently mixing, or verified directly by numerical
means.


  We characterize the impact of several sources of systematic errors on the
computation of the traceback age of the $\beta$ Pictoris Moving Group
($\beta$PMG). We find that uncorrected gravitational redshift and convective
blueshift bias absolute radial velocity measurements by $\sim$ 0.6
kms${}^{-1}$, which leads to erroneously younger traceback ages by $\sim$ 2
Myr. Random errors on parallax, proper motion, and radial velocity measurements
lead to an additional bias of $\sim$ 1.5 Myr on traceback ages. Contamination
of astrometric and kinematic data by kinematic outliers and unresolved multiple
systems in the full input sample of 76 members and candidates of $\beta$PMG
also erroneously lowers traceback ages by ${\sim}$ 3 Myr. We apply our new
numerical traceback analysis tool to a core sample of 25 carefully vetted
members of $\beta$PMG using Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3) data products and other
kinematic surveys. Our method yields a corrected age of 20.4 $\pm$ 2.5 Myr,
bridging the gap between kinematic ages (11$-$19 Myr) and other age-dating
methods, such as isochrones and lithium depletion boundary (20$-$26 Myr). We
explore several association size metrics that can track the spatial extent of
$\beta$PMG over time, and we determine that minimizing the variance along the
heliocentric curvilinear coordinate $\xi^{\prime}$ (i.e., toward the Galactic
Center) offers the least random and systematic errors, due to the wider UVW
space velocity dispersion of members of $\beta$PMG along the U-axis, which
tends to maximize the spatial growth of the association along the
$\xi^{\prime}$-axis over time.


  A landmark negative result of Long and Servedio established a worst-case
spectacular failure of a supervised learning trio (loss, algorithm, model)
otherwise praised for its high precision machinery. Hundreds of papers followed
up on the two suspected culprits: the loss (for being convex) and/or the
algorithm (for fitting a classical boosting blueprint). Here, we call to the
half-century+ founding theory of losses for class probability estimation
(properness), an extension of Long and Servedio's results and a new general
boosting algorithm to demonstrate that the real culprit in their specific
context was in fact the (linear) model class. We advocate for a more general
stanpoint on the problem as we argue that the source of the negative result
lies in the dark side of a pervasive -- and otherwise prized -- aspect of ML:
\textit{parameterisation}.


  The success of a fuzzing campaign is heavily depending on the quality of seed
inputs used for test generation. It is however challenging to compose a corpus
of seed inputs that enable high code and behavior coverage of the target
program, especially when the target program requires complex input formats such
as PDF files. We present a machine learning based framework to improve the
quality of seed inputs for fuzzing programs that take PDF files as input. Given
an initial set of seed PDF files, our framework utilizes a set of neural
networks to 1) discover the correlation between these PDF files and the
execution in the target program, and 2) leverage such correlation to generate
new seed files that more likely explore new paths in the target program. Our
experiments on a set of widely used PDF viewers demonstrate that the improved
seed inputs produced by our framework could significantly increase the code
coverage of the target program and the likelihood of detecting program crashes.


  We introduce two classes of novel color superalgebras of $ \mathbb{Z}_2
\times \mathbb{Z}_2 $ grading. This is done by realizing members of each in the
universal enveloping algebra of the ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric extension of
the conformal Galilei algebra. This allows us to upgrade any representation of
the super conformal Galilei algebras to a representation of the $ \mathbb{Z}_2
\times \mathbb{Z}_2 $ graded algebra. As an example, boson-fermion Fock space
representation of one class is given. We also provide a vector field
realization of members of the other class by using a generalization of the
Grassmann calculus to $ \mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2 $ graded setting.


  Solutions for scalable, high-performance optical control are important for
the development of scaled atom-based quantum technologies. Modulation of many
individual optical beams is central to the application of arbitrary gate and
control sequences on arrays of atoms or atom-like systems. At telecom
wavelengths, miniaturization of optical components via photonic integration has
pushed the scale and performance of classical and quantum optics far beyond the
limitations of bulk devices. However, these material platforms for high-speed
telecom integrated photonics are not transparent at the short wavelengths
required by leading atomic systems. Here, we propose and implement a scalable
and reconfigurable photonic architecture for multi-channel quantum control
using integrated, visible-light modulators based on thin-film lithium niobate.
Our approach combines techniques in free-space optics, holography, and control
theory together with a sixteen-channel integrated photonic device to stabilize
temporal and cross-channel power deviations and enable precise and uniform
control. Applying this device to a homogeneous constellation of silicon-vacancy
artificial atoms in diamond, we present techniques to spatially and spectrally
address a dynamically-selectable set of these stochastically-positioned point
emitters. We anticipate that this scalable and reconfigurable optical
architecture will lead to systems that could enable parallel individual
programmability of large many-body atomic systems, which is a critical step
towards universal quantum computation on such hardware.


  We construct explicit complex-valued $p$-harmonic functions and harmonic
morphisms on the classical compact symmetric complex and quaternionic
Grassmannians. The ingredients for our construction method are joint
eigenfunctions of the classical Laplace-Beltrami and the so called conformality
operator. A known duality principle implies that these $p$-harmonic functions
and harmonic morphisms also induce such solutions on the Riemannian symmetric
non-compact dual spaces.


  For the twistor spaces of the Bochner-K\"ahler manifold $M = H^l \times P^n$,
systems of holomorphic coordinates are constructed. As an application of them,
an explicit description of the moduli space of relative deformations of fibers
of $M$'s twistor space is given.


  The first stars, known as Population III (PopIII), produced the first heavy
elements, thereby enriching their surrounding pristine gas. Previous detections
of metals in intergalactic gas clouds, however, find a heavy element enrichment
larger than $1/1000$ times that of the solar environment, higher than expected
for PopIII remnants. In this letter we report the discovery of a Lyman limit
system (LLS) at $z=3.53$ with the lowest metallicity seen in gas with
discernable metals, $10^{-3.41\pm0.26}$ times the solar value, at a level
expected for PopIII remnants. We make the first relative abundance measurement
in such low metallicity gas: the carbon-to-silicon ratio is $10^{-0.26\pm0.17}$
times the solar value. This is consistent with models of gas enrichment by a
PopIII star formation event early in the Universe, but also consistent with
later, Population II enrichment. The metals in all three components comprising
the LLS, which has a velocity width of 400 km s$^{-1}$, are offset in velocity
by $\sim+6$ km s$^{-1}$ from the bulk of the hydrogen, suggesting the LLS was
enriched by a single event. Relative abundance measurements in this
near-pristine regime open a new avenue for testing models of early gas
enrichment and metal mixing.


  Explaining social events is a primary objective of applied data-driven
sociology. To achieve that objective, many sociologists use statistical causal
inference to identify causality using observational studies research context
where the analyst does not control the data generating process. However, it is
often challenging in observation studies to satisfy the unmeasured confounding
assumption, namely, that there is no lurking third variable affecting the
causal relationship of interest. In this article, we develop a framework
enabling sociologists to employ a different strategy to enhance the quality of
observational studies. Our framework builds on a surprisingly simple
statistical approach, sensitivity analysis: a thought-experimental framework
where the analyst imagines a lever, which they can pull for probing a variety
of theoretically driven statistical magnitudes of posited unmeasured
confounding which in turn distorts the causal effect of interest. By pulling
that lever, the analyst can identify how strong an unmeasured confounder must
be to wash away the estimated causal effect. Although each sensitivity analysis
method requires its own assumptions, this sort of post-hoc analysis provides
underutilized tools to bound causal quantities. Extending Lundberg et al, we
develop a five-step approach to how applied sociological research can
incorporate sensitivity analysis, empowering scholars to rejuvenate causal
inference in observational studies.


  Cross-section measurements of top-quark pair production where the
hadronically decaying top quark has transverse momentum greater than $355$ GeV
and the other top quark decays into $\ell \nu b$ are presented using 139
fb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the ATLAS experiment during proton-proton
collisions at the LHC. The fiducial cross-section at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV is
measured to be $\sigma = 1.267 \pm 0.005 \pm 0.053$ pb, where the uncertainties
reflect the limited number of data events and the systematic uncertainties,
giving a total uncertainty of $4.2\%$. The cross-section is measured
differentially as a function of variables characterising the $t\bar{t}$ system
and additional radiation in the events. The results are compared with various
Monte Carlo generators, including comparisons where the generators are
reweighted to match a parton-level calculation at next-to-next-to-leading
order. The reweighting improves the agreement between data and theory. The
measured distribution of the top-quark transverse momentum is used to set
limits on the Wilson coefficients of the dimension-six operators $O_{tG}$ and
$O_{tq}^{(8)}$ in the effective field theory framework.


  Classical force fields (FF) based on machine learning (ML) methods show great
potential for large scale simulations of materials. MLFFs have hitherto largely
been designed and fitted for specific systems and are not usually transferable
to chemistries beyond the specific training set. We develop a unified
atomisitic line graph neural network-based FF (ALIGNN-FF) that can model both
structurally and chemically diverse materials with any combination of 89
elements from the periodic table. To train the ALIGNN-FF model, we use the
JARVIS-DFT dataset which contains around 75000 materials and 4 million
energy-force entries, out of which 307113 are used in the training. We
demonstrate the applicability of this method for fast optimization of atomic
structures in the crystallography open database and by predicting accurate
crystal structures using genetic algorithm for alloys.


  Bidimensional incompressible viscous flows with well-localised vorticity are
well-known to develop vortex structures. The purpose of the present paper is to
recover the asymptotic profiles describing these phenomena for homogeneous
finite-energy flows as asymptotic profiles for near-equilibrium isentropic
compressible flows. This task is performed by extending the sharp description
of the asymptotic behaviour of near-equilibrium compressible flows obtained by
David Hoff and Kevin Zumbrun to the case of finite-energy vortex-like
solutions.


  Consider the ring R:=\Q[\tau,\tau^{-1}] of Laurent polynomials in the
variable \tau. The Artin's Pure Braid Groups (or Generalized Pure Braid Groups)
act over R, where the action of every standard generator is the multiplication
by \tau. In this paper we consider the cohomology of these groups with
coefficients in the module R (it is well known that such cohomology is strictly
related to the untwisted integral cohomology of the Milnor fibration naturally
associated to the reflection arrangement). We compute this cohomology for the
cases I_2(m), H_3, H_4, F_4 and A_n with 1<n<7.


  We have identified 17 A-type stars in the Galactic Plane that have mid-IR
excesses at 8 micron. From the observed colors in the (r'-H_alpha)-(r'-i')
plane, we first identified 23050 early A-type main sequence (MS) star
candidates in the Isaac Newton Photometric H-Alpha Survey (IPHAS) point source
database that are located in Spitzer GLIMPSE Galactic Plane fields. Imposing
the requirement that they be detected in all seven 2MASS and IRAC bands led to
a sample of 2692 candidate A-type stars with fully sampled 0.6 to 8 micron
SEDs. Optical classification spectra of 18 of the IPHAS candidate A-type MS
stars showed that all but one could be well fitted using main sequence A-type
templates, with the other being an A-type supergiant. Out of the 2692 A-type
candidates 17 (0.6%) were found to have 8-micron excesses above the expected
photospheric values. Taking into account non-A-Type contamination estimates,
the 8-micron excess fraction is adjusted to ~0.7%. The distances to these
sources range from 0.7-2.5 kpc. Only 10 out of the 17 excess stars had been
covered by Spitzer MIPSGAL survey fields, of which 5 had detectable excesses at
24 micron. For sources with excesses detected in at least two mid-IR wavelength
bands, blackbody fits to the excess SEDs yielded temperatures ranging from 270
to 650 K, and bolometric luminosity ratios L_IR/L* from
2.2x10^{-3}-1.9x10^{-2}, with a mean value of 7.9x10^{-3} (these bolometric
luminosities are lower limits as cold dust is not detectable by this survey).
Both the presence of mid-IR excesses and the derived bolometric luminosity
ratios are consistent with many of these systems being in the planet-building
transition phase between the early protoplanetary disk phase and the later
debris disk phase.


  Spiral density waves are thought to be excited in the accretion discs of
accreting compact objects, including Cataclysmic Variable stars (CVs).
Observational evidence has been obtained for a handful of systems in outburst
over the last two decades. We present the results of a systematic study
searching for spiral density waves in CVs, and report their detection in two of
the sixteen observed systems. While most of the systems observed present
asymmetric, non-Keplerian accretion discs during outburst, the presence of
ordered structures interpreted as spiral density waves is not as ubiquitous as
previously anticipated. From a comparison of systems by their system parameters
it appears that inclination of the systems may play a major role, favouring the
visibility and/or detection of spiral waves in systems seen at high
inclination.


  Re-analysis of some archival X-ray data of black hole binaries in soft
spectral states is presented. Results of detailed spectral fitting, including
proper physical description of the X-ray reprocessed component, indicate that
in most cases the soft, thermal disk emission cannot be described by a simple
multi-color blackbody model. Additional Comptonization of those seed photons
provides an acceptable description of the soft component, implying a presence
of a warm (kT~1 keV), mildly optically thick (tau~10) phase of accreting
plasma.
  Combined spectral/temporal analysis of GS 1124-68 during 'flip-flop'
transitions in Very High State suggests that the optically thick accretion flow
can proceed in (at least) two modes giving the same time-integrated behaviour
(i.e. energy spectra) but very different timing behaviour.


  FLASH radiotherapy necessitates the development of advanced Quality Assurance
methods and detectors for accurate and online monitoring of the radiation
field. This study introduces enhanced time-resolution detection systems and
methods tailored for single-pulse detection. The goal of this work was to
measure the delivered number of pulses, investigate temporal structure of
individual pulses, and to develop a method for dose-per-pulse (DPP) monitoring
based on secondary radiation particles produced in the experimental room.
  A 20 MeV electron beam generated from a linear accelerator (LINAC) was
delivered to a water phantom. Ultra-high dose-per-pulse (UHDPP) electron beams
were used with a dose per pulse ranging from 1 Gy to over 7 Gy. The pulse
lengths ranged from 1.18 us to 2.88 us at a pulse rate frequency of 5 Hz. A
semiconductor pixel detector Timepix3 (TPX3) was used to track direct
interactions in the Silicon sensor created by single secondary particles.
Measurements were performed in the air, while the detector was positioned
out-of-field at a lateral distance of 200 cm parallel with the LINAC exit
window. The dose deposited in the silicon was measured along with the pulse
length and the nanostructure of the pulse.
  Simultaneously deposited energy and time of arrival of single particles were
measured with a precision of 1.56 ns. The measured pulse count agreed with the
delivered values. A linear response (R^2 = 0.999) was established between the
delivered beam current and the measured dose at the detector position (orders
of nGy). The difference between the average measured and average delivered
pulse length was 0.003(30) us.
  This simple non-invasive method, exhibits no limitations on the delivered DPP
within the range used during this investigation. It enhances the precision and
real-time monitoring of FLASH treatment plans with nanosecond precision.


  We study the role and drivers of persistence in the extensive margin of
bilateral trade. Motivated by a stylized heterogeneous firms model of
international trade with market entry costs, we consider dynamic three-way
fixed effects binary choice models and study the corresponding incidental
parameter problem. The standard maximum likelihood estimator is consistent
under asymptotics where all panel dimensions grow at a constant rate, but it
has an asymptotic bias in its limiting distribution, invalidating inference
even in situations where the bias appears to be small. Thus, we propose two
different bias-corrected estimators. Monte Carlo simulations confirm their
desirable statistical properties. We apply these estimators in a reassessment
of the most commonly studied determinants of the extensive margin of trade.
Both true state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity contribute considerably
to trade persistence and taking this persistence into account matters
significantly in identifying the effects of trade policies on the extensive
margin.


  The traditional view of radio pulsar wind nebulae (PWN), encouraged by the
Crab nebula's X-ray and radio morphologies, is that they are a result of the
integrated history of their pulsars' wind. The radio emission should therefore
be largely unaffected by recent pulsar activity, and hence minimally correlated
with structures in the X-ray nebulae. Observations of several PWN, both
stationary (sPWN) and rapidly moving (rPWN), now show clear morphological
relationships between structures in the radio and X-ray with radio intensity
variations on the order of unity. We present high-resolution X-ray and radio
images of several PWN of both types and discuss the morphological relationships
between the two wavebands.


  Electron-electron interactions give rise to the correction,
\delta\sigma^{int}(\omega), to the ac magnetoconductivity, \sigma(\omega), of a
clean 2D electron gas that is periodic in \omega_c^{-1}, where \omega_c is the
cyclotron frequency. Unlike conventional harmonics of the cyclotron resonance,
which are periodic with \omega, this correction is periodic with \omega^{3/2}.
Oscillations in \delta\sigma^{int}(\omega) develop at low magnetic fields,
\omega_c\ll\omega, when the conventional harmonics are suppressed by the
disorder. Their origin is a {\em double} backscattering of an electron from the
impurity-induced Friedel oscillations. During the time \sim\omega^{-1} between
the two backscattering events the electron travels only a {\em small portion}
of the Larmour circle.