  There are many examples of optimization problems whose associated polyhedra
can be described much nicer, and with way less inequalities, by projections of
higher dimensional polyhedra than this would be possible in the original space.
However, currently not many general tools to construct such extended
formulations are available. In this paper, we develop a framework of polyhedral
relations that generalizes inductive constructions of extended formulations via
projections, and we particularly elaborate on the special case of reflection
relations. The latter ones provide polynomial size extended formulations for
several polytopes that can be constructed as convex hulls of the unions of
(exponentially) many copies of an input polytope obtained via sequences of
reflections at hyperplanes. We demonstrate the use of the framework by deriving
small extended formulations for the G-permutahedra of all finite reflection
groups G (generalizing both Goeman's extended formulation of the permutahedron
of size O(n log n) and Ben-Tal and Nemirovski's extended formulation with O(k)
inequalities for the regular 2^k-gon) and for Huffman-polytopes (the convex
hulls of the weight-vectors of Huffman codes).


  Let $L$ be a Levi subgroup of $GL_N$ which acts by left multiplication on a
Schubert variety $X(w)$ in the Grassmannian $G_{d,N}$. We say that $X(w)$ is a
spherical Schubert variety if $X(w)$ is a spherical variety for the action of
$L$. In earlier work we provide a combinatorial description of the
decomposition of the homogeneous coordinate ring of $X(w)$ into irreducible
$L$-modules for the induced action of $L$. In this work we classify those
decompositions into irreducible $L$-modules that are multiplicity-free. This is
then applied towards giving a complete classification of the spherical Schubert
varieties in the Grassmannian.


  This paper is a continuation of our ongoing efforts to solve a number of
geometric problems and their extensions by using advanced tools of variational
analysis and generalized differentiation. Here we propose and study, from both
qualitative and numerical viewpoints, the following optimal location problem as
well as its further extensions: on a given nonempty subset of a Banach space,
find a point such that the sum of the distances from it to $n$ given nonempty
subsets of this space is minimal. This is a generalized version of the
classical Heron problem: on a given straight line, find a point C such that the
sum of the distances from C to the given points A and B is minimal. We show
that the advanced variational techniques allow us to completely solve optimal
location problems of this type in some important settings.


  Using a recent computation of the rational minus part of $SH(k)$ by
Ananyevskiy-Levine-Panin, a theorem of Cisinski-Deglise and a version of the
Roendigs-Ostvaer theorem, rational stable motivic homotopy theory over an
infinite perfect field of characteristic different from 2 is recovered in this
paper from finite Milnor-Witt correspondences in the sense of Calmes-Fasel.


  The CoGeNT collaboration has reported evidence of an annual modulation in its
first fifteen months of data. Here we compare the amplitude and phase of this
signal to the modulation observed by the DAMA collaboration, assuming that both
arise due to elastically scattering dark matter (DM). We directly map the
CoGeNT signal to the DAMA detector without specifying any astrophysical
parameters and compare this with the signal measured by DAMA. We also compare
with constraints from CDMS II and XENON10. We find that DM of mass 5-14 GeV
that couples equally to protons and neutrons is strongly disfavoured.
Isospin-violating DM fares better but requires a boosted modulation fraction.


  Treatment pathways are step-by-step plans outlining the recommended medical
care for specific diseases; they get revised when different treatments are
found to improve patient outcomes. Examining health records is an important
part of this revision process, but inferring patients' actual treatments from
health data is challenging due to complex event-coding schemes and the absence
of pathway-related annotations. This study aims to infer the actual treatment
steps for a particular patient group from administrative health records (AHR) -
a common form of tabular healthcare data - and address several technique- and
methodology-based gaps in treatment pathway-inference research. We introduce
Defrag, a method for examining AHRs to infer the real-world treatment steps for
a particular patient group. Defrag learns the semantic and temporal meaning of
healthcare event sequences, allowing it to reliably infer treatment steps from
complex healthcare data. To our knowledge, Defrag is the first
pathway-inference method to utilise a neural network (NN), an approach made
possible by a novel, self-supervised learning objective. We also developed a
testing and validation framework for pathway inference, which we use to
characterise and evaluate Defrag's pathway inference ability and compare
against baselines. We demonstrate Defrag's effectiveness by identifying
best-practice pathway fragments for breast cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma in
public healthcare records. Additionally, we use synthetic data experiments to
demonstrate the characteristics of the Defrag method, and to compare Defrag to
several baselines where it significantly outperforms non-NN-based methods.
Defrag significantly outperforms several existing pathway-inference methods and
offers an innovative and effective approach for inferring treatment pathways
from AHRs. Open-source code is provided to encourage further research in this
area.


  We theoretically study the effect of external deformation on activated
structural relaxation and elementary aspects of the nonlinear mechanical
response of glassy hard sphere fluids in the context of the nonequilibrium
version of the Elastically Collective Nonlinear Langevin Equation (ECNLE)
theory. ECNLE theory describes activated relaxation as a coupled local-nonlocal
event involving local caging and longer range collective elasticity, with the
latter becoming more important with increasing packing fraction. The central
new question is how this physical picture, and the relative importance of
caging versus elasticity physics, depends on external stress, strain and shear
rate. Theoretical predictions are presented for deformation induced enhancement
of mobility, onset of relaxation speed up at remarkably low values of stress,
strain or dimensionless shear rate, thinning of the structural relaxation time
and viscosity with apparent power law exponents, a non-vanishing activation
barrier in the shear thinning regime, a Herschel-Bulkley form of rate
dependence of the steady state shear stress, exponential growth of dynamic
yield stresses with packing fraction, and reduced dynamic fragility and
heterogeneity under deformation. The results are contrasted with experiments
and simulations, and qualitative or better agreement is found. An overarching
conclusion is that deformation strongly reduces the importance of longer range
collective elastic effects for most, but not all, physical questions, with
stress-dependent dynamic heterogeneity phenomena being qualitatively sensitive
to collective elasticity. Overall, nonlinear rheology is a more local cage
scale problem than quiescent relaxation, albeit with deformation-modified
activated processes still important.


  In this manuscript, we present analytical external spherical solutions of
entangled relativity, which we compare to numerical solutions obtained in a
Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff framework. Analytical and numerical solutions match
perfectly well outside spherical compact objects, therefore validating both
types of solutions at the same time. The analytical external (hairy) solutions
-- which depend on two parameters only -- may be used in order to easily
compute observables -- such as X-ray pusle profiles -- without having to rely
on an unknown equation of state for matter inside the compact object.


  The Main Sequence Luminosity Function (LF) of the Galactic globular cluster
NGC 288 has been obtained using deep WFPC2 photometry. We have employed a new
method to correct for completeness and fully account for bin-to-bin migration
due to blending and/or observational scatter. The effect of the presence of
binary systems in the final LF is quantified and is found to be negligible.
There is a strong indication of the mass segregation of unevolved single stars
and clear signs of a depletion of low mass stars in NGC 288 with respect to
other clusters. The results are in good agreement with the prediction of
theoretical models of the dynamical evolution of NGC 288 that take into account
the extreme orbital properties of this cluster.


  The diffusion operator $$ H_D=-\frac12\frac d{dx}a\frac d{dx}-b\frac
d{dx}=-\frac12\exp(-2B)\frac d{dx}a\exp(2B)\frac d{dx}, $$ where
$B(x)=\int_0^x\frac ba(y)dy$, defined either on $R^+=(0,\infty)$ with the
Dirichlet boundary condition at $x=0$, or on $R$, can be realized as a
self-adjoint operator with respect to the density $\exp(2Q(x))dx$. The operator
is unitarily equivalent to the Schr\"odinger-type operator $H_S=-\frac12\frac
d{dx}a\frac d{dx}+V_{b,a}$, where $V_{b,a}=\frac12(\frac{b^2}a+b')$. We obtain
an explicit criterion for the existence of a compact resolvent and explicit
formulas up to the multiplicative constant 4 for the infimum of the spectrum
and for the infimum of the essential spectrum for these operators. We give some
applications which show in particular how $\inf\sigma(H_D)$ scales when $a=\nu
a_0$ and $b=\gamma b_0$, where $\nu$ and $\gamma$ are parameters, and $a_0$ and
$b_0$ are chosen from certain classes of functions. We also give applications
to self-adjoint, multi-dimensional diffusion operators.


  In this lecture I present a pedagogical introduction to the low-energy
phenomenology of light flavors. The renormalization scheme freedom in defining
QCD parameters is discussed. It is shown in some details how one can extract an
accurate numerical value for the strong coupling constant from the tau-lepton
decay rate into hadrons. As a related topic I discuss some peculiarities of
definition of the quark mass in theories with confinement and describe the
strange quark mass determination from data on tau-lepton decays employing
contour resummation which is a modern technique of the precision analysis in
perturbative QCD.


  In this note we revisit Lurie's representability theorem for geometric stacks
and prove that one of the conditions can be mildly relaxed. The proof uses
ideas from Hall--Rydh's work on the (classical) Artin's representability
theorem. We also spell out a couple of variants of the main theorem and review
the relation between deformation theory and homogeneity conditions on
prestacks.


  The D3-probe-D7 brane system, oriented so as to have 2+1-dimensional Poincare
symmetry, is argued to be the holographic representation of a strongly
correlated fractional topological insulator which exhibits a zero-field
quantized Hall effect with half-units of Hall conductivity. The phase diagram
of the system with charge density and external magnetic field is found and, as
well as charge gapped quantum Hall states, it exhibits metallic and
semi-metallic phases with interesting behaviours. The relationship of this to
other models of fractional topological insulators is discussed.


  In Zambia, there is a serious shortage of medical staff where each
practitioner attends to about 17000 patients in a given district while still,
other patients travel over 10 km to access the basic medical services. In this
research, we implement a deep learning model that can perform the clinical
diagnosis process. The study will prove whether image analysis is capable of
performing clinical diagnosis. It will also enable us to understand if we can
use image analysis to lessen the workload on medical practitioners by
delegating some tasks to an AI. The success of this study has the potential to
increase the accessibility of medical services to Zambians, which is one of the
national goals of Vision 2030.


  The paper is devoted to frame expansions in Fr\'echet spaces. First we review
some results which concern series expansions in general Fr\'echet spaces via
Fr\'echet and General Fr\'echet frames. Then we present some new results on
series expansions of tempered distributions and ultradistributions, and the
corresponding test functions, via localized frames and coefficients in
appropriate sequence spaces.


  Meta-learning is a powerful approach that exploits historical data to quickly
solve new tasks from the same distribution. In the low-data regime, methods
based on the closed-form posterior of Gaussian processes (GP) together with
Bayesian optimization have achieved high performance. However, these methods
are either computationally expensive or introduce assumptions that hinder a
principled propagation of uncertainty between task models. This may disrupt the
balance between exploration and exploitation during optimization. In this
paper, we develop ScaML-GP, a modular GP model for meta-learning that is
scalable in the number of tasks. Our core contribution is a carefully designed
multi-task kernel that enables hierarchical training and task scalability.
Conditioning ScaML-GP on the meta-data exposes its modular nature yielding a
test-task prior that combines the posteriors of meta-task GPs. In synthetic and
real-world meta-learning experiments, we demonstrate that ScaML-GP can learn
efficiently both with few and many meta-tasks.


  Bottleneck identification is a challenging task in network analysis,
especially when the network is not fully specified. To address this task, we
develop a unified online learning framework based on combinatorial semi-bandits
that performs bottleneck identification in parallel with learning the
specifications of the underlying network. Within this framework, we adapt and
study various combinatorial semi-bandit methods such as epsilon-greedy, LinUCB,
BayesUCB, NeuralUCB, and Thompson Sampling. In addition, our framework is
capable of using contextual information in the form of contextual bandits.
Finally, we evaluate our framework on the real-world application of road
networks and demonstrate its effectiveness in different settings.


  Expansion of wind-blown bubbles or HII regions lead to formation of shocks in
the interstellar medium, which compress surrounding gas into dense layers. We
made spatially and velocity-resolved observations of the RCW~120 PDR and nearby
molecular gas with CO(6-5) and 13CO(6-5) lines and distinguished a bright
CO-emitting layer, which we related with the dense shocked molecular gas moving
away from the ionizing star due to expansion of HII region. Simulating gas
density and temperature, as well as brightness of several CO and C+ emission
lines from the PDR, we found reasonable agreement with the observed values.
Analysing gas kinematics, we revealed the large-scale shocked PDR and also
several dense environments of embedded protostars and outflows. We observe the
shocked layer as the most regular structure in the CO(6-5) map and in the
velocity space, when the gas around YSOs is dispersed by the outflows.


  This technical report summarizes our method for the Video-And-Language
Understanding Evaluation (VALUE) challenge
(https://value-benchmark.github.io/challenge\_2021.html). We propose a
CLIP-Enhanced method to incorporate the image-text pretrained knowledge into
downstream video-text tasks. Combined with several other improved designs, our
method outperforms the state-of-the-art by $2.4\%$ ($57.58$ to $60.00$)
Meta-Ave score on VALUE benchmark.


  As robotic technology advances, the barriers to the coexistence of humans and
robots are slowly coming down. Application domains like elderly care,
collaborative manufacturing, collaborative manipulation, etc., are considered
the need of the hour, and progress in robotics holds the potential to address
many societal challenges. The future socio-technical systems constitute of
blended workforce with a symbiotic relationship between human and robot
partners working collaboratively. This thesis attempts to address some of the
research challenges in enabling human-robot collaboration. In particular, the
challenge of a holistic perception of a human partner to continuously
communicate his intentions and needs in real-time to a robot partner is crucial
for the successful realization of a collaborative task. Towards that end, we
present a holistic human perception framework for real-time monitoring of
whole-body human motion and dynamics. On the other hand, the challenge of
leveraging assistance from a human partner will lead to improved human-robot
collaboration. In this direction, we attempt at methodically defining what
constitutes assistance from a human partner and propose partner-aware robot
control strategies to endow robots with the capacity to meaningfully engage in
a collaborative task.


  Usually a name of the category is inherited from the name of objects. However
more relevant for a category of objects and morphisms is an algebra of
morphisms. Therefore we prefer to say a category of graphs if every morphism is
a graph. In a monoidal category every morphism can be seen as a graph, and a
partial algebra of morphisms possesses a structure of an operad, operad of
graphs. We consider a monoidal category of operad of graphs with underlying
graphical calculus. If, in particular, there is a single generating objects,
then each morphism is a bi-arity graph. The graphical calculus, multi-grafting
of morphisms, is developed ab ovo. We interpret algebraic logic and predicate
calculus within a monoidal category of operad of graphs, and this leads to the
graphical logic. A logic based on a braided monoidal category is said to be the
braided logic. We consider a braided monoidal category generated by one object.
We are demonstrating how the braided logic is related to implicative algebra
and to the Heyting algebra (in contrary to the Boolean algebra) and therefore
must be more related to the quasigroups then to the lattices. Some applications
to classical logic, to modal logic and to Lukasiewicz three-valued logic are
considered.


  We classify connected \'etale algebras in (possibly non-unitary) modular
fusion categories $\mathcal B$'s with $\text{rank}(\mathcal B)\le5$. We also
comment on Lagrangian algebra, anyon condensation, and physical applications.
Concretely, we prove certain spontaneous $\mathcal B$-symmetry breaking and
predict ground state degeneracies in massive renormalization group flows from
non-unitary minimal models.


  In this paper we consider compound conditionals, Fr\'echet-Hoeffding bounds
and the probabilistic interpretation of Frank t-norms. By studying the
solvability of suitable linear systems, we show under logical independence the
sharpness of the Fr\'echet-Hoeffding bounds for the prevision of conjunctions
and disjunctions of $n$ conditional events. We study the set of all coherent
prevision assessments on a family containing $n$ conditional events and their
conjunction, by verifying that it is convex. We discuss the case where the
prevision of conjunctions is assessed by Lukasiewicz t-norms and we give
explicit solutions for the linear systems; then, we analyze a selected example.
We obtain a probabilistic interpretation of Frank t-norms and t-conorms as
prevision of conjunctions and disjunctions of conditional events, respectively.
Then, we characterize the sets of coherent prevision assessments on a family
containing $n$ conditional events and their conjunction, or their disjunction,
by using Frank t-norms, or Frank t-conorms. By assuming logical independence,
we show that any Frank t-norm (resp., t-conorm) of two conditional events $A|H$
and $B|K$, $T_{\lambda}(A|H,B|K)$ (resp., $S_{\lambda}(A|H,B|K)$), is a
conjunction $(A|H)\wedge (B|K)$ (resp., a disjunction $(A|H)\vee (B|K)$). By
considering a family $\mathcal{F}$ containing three conditional events, their
conjunction, and all pairwise conjunctions we give some results on Frank
t-norms and coherence of the prevision assessments on $\mathcal{F}$. By
assuming logical independence, we show that it is coherent to assess the
previsions of all the conjunctions by means of Minimum and Product t-norms. We
verify by a counterexample that, when the previsions of conjunctions are
assessed by the Lukasiewicz t-norm, coherence is not assured.


  The volume function defined by a domain in Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^n$ is
the function on the space of affine hyperplanes equal to volumes cut by these
hyperplanes from the domain. The study of these functions originates from the
works of Archimedes and Newton and is closely related to the theory of lacunas
of hyperbolic partial differential equations.The volume functions are regular
at the hyperplanes of general position with respect to the boundary of the cut
domain. We study their behavior at the non-regular hyperplanes, which are
either tangent to the boundary of the domain at its finite points or have
asymptotic direction. In both cases the local regularity of the restriction of
the volume function to a local connected component of the set of regular planes
depends on the triviality of a certain relative homology class, the
(generalized) even Petrovsky class. In the first case (of finite tangencies)
the study of these classes and enumeration of components of regularity (so
called local lacunas) at simple singularities of wave fronts was essentially
done by V. A. Vassiliev; it is formulated in terms of deformations of simple
real function singularities. We show that the analogous study for asymptotic
hyperplanes is related in the same way with the study of boundary function
singularities. We define and calculate local Petrovsky classes for this case
and find lacunas, i.e. the local components of the complement of corresponding
discriminant in which all local Petrovsky classes are trivial. If component is
not lacuna we prove that the corresponding volume function cannot be algebraic.
Also we calculate the local monodromy groups, describing the ramification of
volume functions.


  Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) has historically plagued radio astronomy,
worsening with the rapid spread of electronics and increasing telescope
sensitivity. We present a multi-dimensional probabilistic framework for
characterising the RFI environment around a radio astronomy site that uses
automatically flagged data from the array itself. We illustrate the framework
using about 1500 hours of commissioning data from the MeerKAT radio telescope;
producing a 6-dimensional array that yields both average RFI occupancy as well
as confidence intervals around the mean as a function of key variables
(frequency, direction, baseline, time). Our results provide the first detailed
view of the MeerKAT RFI environment at high sensitivity as a function of
direction, frequency, time of day and baseline. They allow us to track the
historical evolution of the RFI and to quantify fluctuations which can be used
for alerting on new RFI. As expected we find the major RFI contributors for
MeerKAT site are from Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, flight
Distance Measurement Equipment (DME) and the Global System for Mobile (GSM)
Communications. Beyond characterising RFI environments our approach allows
observers access to the prior probability of RFI in any combination of tracked
variables, allowing for more efficient observation planning and data excision.


  We study the behavior of quasinormal modes in a top-down holographic dual
corresponding to a strongly coupled $\mathcal{N} = 4$ super Yang-Mills plasma
charged under a $U(1)$ subgroup of the global $SU(4)$ R-symmetry. In
particular, we analyze the spectra of quasinormal modes in the external scalar
and vector diffusion channels near the critical point and obtain the behavior
of the characteristic equilibration times of the plasma as the system evolves
towards the critical point of its phase diagram. Except close to the critical
point, we observe that by increasing the chemical potential one generally
increases the damping rate of the quasinormal modes, which leads to a reduction
of the characteristic equilibration times in the dual strongly coupled plasma.
However, as one approaches the critical point the typical equilibration time
(as estimated from the lowest non-hydrodynamic quasinormal mode frequency)
increases, although remaining finite, while its derivative with respect to the
chemical potential diverges with exponent -1/2. We also find a purely imaginary
non-hydrodynamical mode in the vector diffusion channel at nonzero chemical
potential which dictates the equilibration time in this channel near the
critical point.


  Generating entangled graph states of qubits requires high entanglement rates,
with efficient detection of multiple indistinguishable photons from separate
qubits. Integrating defect-based qubits into photonic devices results in an
enhanced photon collection efficiency, however, typically at the cost of a
reduced defect emission energy homogeneity. Here, we demonstrate that the
reduction in defect homogeneity in an integrated device can be partially offset
by electric field tuning. Using photonic device-coupled implanted nitrogen
vacancy (NV) centers in a GaP-on-diamond platform, we demonstrate large
field-dependent tuning ranges and partial stabilization of defect emission
energies. These results address some of the challenges of chip-scale
entanglement generation.


  Muon tomography based on the measurement of multiple scattering of
atmospheric cosmic ray muons is a promising technique for detecting and imaging
heavily shielded high-Z nuclear materials such as enriched uranium. This
technique could complement standard radiation detection portals currently
deployed at international borders and ports, which are not very sensitive to
heavily shielded nuclear materials. We image small targets in 3D using $2\times
2 \times 2 mm^3$ voxels with a minimal muon tomography station prototype that
tracks muons with Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detectors read out in 2D with
x-y microstrips of 400 micron pitch. With preliminary electronics, the GEM
detectors achieve a spatial resolution of 130 microns in both dimensions. With
the next GEM-based prototype station we plan to probe an active volume of ~27
liters. We present first results on reading out all 1536 microstrips of a $30
\times 30 cm^2$ GEM detector for the next muon tomography prototype with final
frontend electronics and DAQ system. This constitutes the first full-size
implementation of the Scalable Readout System (SRS) recently developed
specifically for Micropattern Gas Detectors by the RD51 collaboration. Design
of the SRS and first performance results when reading out GEM detectors are
presented.


  Multivariate meta-analysis (MMA) is a powerful tool for jointly estimating
multiple outcomes' treatment effects. However, the validity of results from MMA
is potentially compromised by outcome reporting bias (ORB), or the tendency for
studies to selectively report outcomes. Until recently, ORB has been
understudied. Since ORB can lead to biased conclusions, it is crucial to
correct the estimates of effect sizes and quantify their uncertainty in the
presence of ORB. With this goal, we develop a Bayesian selection model to
adjust for ORB in MMA. We further propose a measure for quantifying the impact
of ORB on the results from MMA. We evaluate our approaches through a
meta-evaluation of 748 bivariate meta-analyses from the Cochrane Database of
Systematic Reviews. Our model is motivated by and applied to a meta-analysis of
interventions on hospital readmission and quality of life for heart failure
patients. In our analysis, the relative risk (RR) of hospital readmission for
the intervention group changes from a significant decrease (RR: 0.931, 95%
confidence interval [CI]: 0.862-0.993) to a statistically nonsignificant effect
(RR: 0.955, 95% CI: 0.876-1.051) after adjusting for ORB. This study
demonstrates that failing to account for ORB can lead to different conclusions
in a meta-analysis.


  Use of electrode materials that show phase change behavior and hence drastic
changes in electrochemical activity during operation, have not been explored
for Li-ion batteries. Here we demonstrate the vanadium oxide (VO2) cathode that
undergoes metal-insulator transition due to first-order structural phase
transition at accessible temperature of 68{\deg}C for battery operation. Using
a suitable electrolyte operable across the phase transition range and
compatible with vanadium oxide cathodes, we studied the effect of electrode
structure change on lithium insertion followed by the electrochemical
characteristics above and below the phase transition temperature. The
high-temperature VO2 phase shows significantly improved capacitance, enhanced
current rate capabilities, improved electrical conductivity and lithium-ion
diffusivity compared to the insulating low temperature phase. This opens up new
avenues for electrode designs, allowing manipulation of electrochemical
reactions around phase transition temperatures, and in particular enhancing
electrochemical properties at elevated temperatures contrary to existing
classes of battery chemistries that lead to performance deterioration at
elevated temperatures.


  Spatiotemporal processes have the potential to be one of the most influential
factors governing how fisheries targeting sedentary species respond to
harvesting. Despite this, management strategy evaluation often fails to account
for space or does so at low resolutions due to compute constraints. In this
paper, a multi-species spatiotemporal size-structured operating model for
sedentary species is presented. The model combines a spatially continuous
Gaussian Markov Random Field model of the population dynamics with an areal
harvesting model that supports preferential targeting and site selection
constraints (e.g., economic constraints). This approach is very compute
efficient, which makes it feasible to simulate realistic fisher dynamics and
catch data at true spatial scale (e.g., the swept area of a dredge). The New
Zealand surfclam fishery was used as a case study to demonstrate the
versatility of the operating model and to showcase the simulation of localized
depletion, which was manifest in the generation of realistic
catch-per-unit-effort data that were uncorrelated with the trends in population
abundance. The model is available as part of the open-source R package
spatialSim.


  Measurements of Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) in ferromagnetic/non-magnetic
(F/N) multilayers with Current flow Perpendicular to the layer Planes
(CPP-geometry) can give better access to the fundamental physics underlying GMR
than measurements with the more usual Current flow In the layer Planes (CIP
geometry). Because the same measuring current passes through all of the layers,
the CPP-MR can often be described by simpler equations that allow separation of
effects of scattering within the bulk of the F- and N-metals and at F/N, N1/N2,
and F/S (S = superconductor) interfaces. We first describe the parameters that
are used to characterize the CPP-MR, the different techniques used to measure
these parameters, and the different types of multilayers used to control the
two orientations of the magnetizations of adjacent F-layers, anti-parallel (AP)
and parallel (P), that permit isolation of the parameters. We then detail what
has been learned about the parameters of bulk F-metals, of bulk N-metals, and
of F/N, N1/N2, and F/S interfaces. Especially important are the parameters of
interfaces and the spin-diffusion lengths in F-metals and F-alloys, about which
almost nothing was known in advance. Lastly, we describe work toward CPP-MR
devices and studies of magnetothermoelectric effects, before summarizing what
has been learned and listing some items not yet understood.


  We explore the predictions of $\Lambda_{\rm s}$CDM, a novel framework
suggesting a rapid anti-de Sitter (AdS) to de Sitter (dS) vacua transition in
the late Universe, on bound cosmic structures. In its simplest version, the
cosmological constant, $\Lambda_{\rm s}$, abruptly switches sign from negative
to positive, attaining its present-day value at a redshift of ${z_\dagger\sim
2}$. The $\Lambda_{\rm s}$CDM model emerges as a promising solution to major
cosmological tensions, particularly the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions, as well as
other less definite tensions. A key aspect of our investigation is examining
the impact of the abrupt $\Lambda_{\rm s}$CDM model on the formation and
evolution of bound cosmic structures. We identify three primary influences: (i)
the negative cosmological constant (AdS) phase for $z > z_\dagger$, (ii) the
abrupt transition marked by a type II (sudden) singularity, leading to an
abrupt increase in the universe's expansion rate at $z=z_\dagger$, and (iii) an
increased expansion rate in the late universe under a positive cosmological
constant for $z < z_\dagger$, compared to $\Lambda$CDM. Utilizing the spherical
collapse model, we investigate the non-linear evolution of bound cosmic
structures within the $\Lambda_{\rm s}$CDM framework. We find that the
virialization process of cosmic structures, and consequently their matter
overdensity, varies depending on whether the AdS-dS transition precedes or
follows the turnaround. Specifically, structures virialize with either
increased or reduced matter overdensity compared to the Planck-$\Lambda$CDM
model, contingent on the timing of the transition. Additionally, our results
demonstrate that the sudden singularity does not result in the dissociation of
bound systems. Despite its profound nature, the singularity exerts only
relatively weak effects on such systems, thereby reinforcing the model's
viability in this context.


  Let $\mathcal X$ be a regular scheme, flat and proper over the ring of
integers of a $p$-adic field, with generic fiber $X$ and special fiber
$\mathcal X_s$. We study the left kernel $Br(\mathcal X)$ of the Brauer-Manin
pairing $Br(X)\times CH_0(X)\to \mathbb Q/\mathbb Z$. Our main result is that
the kernel of the reduction map $Br(\mathcal X)\to Br(\mathcal X_s)$ is the
direct sum of $(\mathbb Q/\mathbb Z[\frac{1}{p}])^s\oplus (\mathbb Q/\mathbb
Z)^t$ and a finite $p$-group, where $s+t= \rho_{\mathcal X_s}-\rho_X-I+1$, for
$\rho_{\mathcal X_s}$ and $\rho_X$ the Picard numbers of $\mathcal X_s$ and
$X$, and $I$ the number of irreducible components of $\mathcal X_s$. Moreover,
we show that $t>0$ implies $s>0$.


  In 2013, Beck and Braun proved and generalized multiple identities involving
permutation statistics via discrete geometry. Namely, they recognized the
identities as specializations of integer point transform identities for certain
polyhedral cones. They extended many of their proof techniques to obtain
identities involving wreath products, but some identities were resistant to
their proof attempts. In this article, we provide a geometric justification of
one of these wreath product identities, which was first established by Biagioli
and Zeng.


  This study presents a novel approach for touch sensing using semi-elastic
textile surfaces that does not require the placement of additional sensors in
the sensing area, instead relying on sensors located on the border of the
textile. The proposed approach is demonstrated through experiments involving an
elastic Jersey fabric and a variety of machine-learning models. The performance
of one particular border-based sensor design is evaluated in depth. By using
visual markers, the best-performing visual sensor arrangement predicts a single
touch point with a mean squared error of 1.36 mm on an area of 125mm by 125mm.
We built a textile only prototype that is able to classify touch at three
indent levels (0, 15, and 20 mm) with an accuracy of 82.85%. Our results
suggest that this approach has potential applications in wearable technology
and smart textiles, making it a promising avenue for further exploration in
these fields.


  We extend the notion of general coordinate invariance to many-body, not
necessarily relativistic, systems. As an application, we investigate
nonrelativistic general covariance in Galilei-invariant systems. The peculiar
transformation rules for the background metric and gauge fields, first
introduced by Son and Wingate in 2005 and refined in subsequent works, follow
naturally from our framework. Our approach makes it clear that Galilei or
Poincare symmetry is by no means a necessary prerequisite for making the theory
invariant under coordinate diffeomorphisms. General covariance merely expresses
the freedom to choose spacetime coordinates at will, whereas the true, physical
symmetries of the system can be separately implemented as "internal" symmetries
within the vielbein formalism. A systematic way to implement such symmetries is
provided by the coset construction. We illustrate this point by applying our
formalism to nonrelativistic s-wave superfluids.


  The Atomic Cluster Expansion provides local, complete basis functions that
enable efficient parametrization of many-atom interactions. We extend the
Atomic Cluster Expansion to incorporate graph basis functions. This naturally
leads to representations that enable the efficient description of semilocal
interactions in physically and chemically transparent form. Simplification of
the graph expansion by tensor decomposition results in an iterative procedure
that comprises current message-passing machine learning interatomic potentials.
We demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the graph Atomic Cluster
Expansion for a number of small molecules, clusters and a general-purpose model
for carbon. We further show that the graph Atomic Cluster Expansion scales
linearly with number of neighbors and layer depth of the graph basis functions.


  Let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph. A subset $D$ of $V$ is a \textit{restrained
dominating set} if every vertex in $V \setminus D$ is adjacent to a vertex in
$D$ and to a vertex in $V \setminus D$. The \textit{restrained domination
number}, denoted by $\gamma_r(G)$, is the smallest cardinality of a restrained
dominating set of $G$. A function $f : V \rightarrow \{0, 1, 2\}$ is a
\textit{restrained Italian dominating function} on $G$ if (i) for each vertex
$v \in V$ for which $f(v)=0$, it holds that $\sum_{u \in N_G(v)} f(u) \geq 2$,
(ii) the subgraph induced by $\{v \in V \mid f(v)=0 \}$ has no isolated
vertices. The \textit{restrained Italian domination number}, denoted by
$\gamma_{rI}(G)$, is the minimum weight taken over all restrained Italian
dominating functions of $G$. It is known that $\gamma_r(G) \leq \gamma_{rI}(G)
\leq 2\gamma_r(G)$ for any graph $G$. In this paper, we characterize the trees
$T$ for which $\gamma_r(T) = \gamma_{rI}(T)$, and we also characterize the
trees $T$ for which $\gamma_{rI}(T) = 2\gamma_r(T)$.


  The evolution of the liquid-vapour interface of a Lennard-Jones fluid is
examined with molecular dynamics simulations using the intrinsic sampling
method. Results suggest, in agreement with capillary wave theory, clear damping
of the density profiles as the temperature is increased. We identify a linear
variation of the space-filling nature (fractal dimension) of the
stress-clusters at the intrinsic surface with increasing surface tension, or
equivalently, with decreasing temperature. A percolation analysis of these
stress networks indicates that the stress field is more disjointed at higher
temperatures. This leads to more fragile interfaces that result in a reduction
in surface tension at higher temperature.


  Results of the experimental study of ordering lanthanum hydrides of LaHX
system are presented. It is shown that obtained results can be interpreted as
an indirect confirmation of the existence of order-order transformations in
LaH2+c hydrides.


  BOKS 45906 was found to be a blue source in the Burrell-Optical-Kepler-Survey
which showed a 3 mag outburst lasting ~5 d. We present the Kepler light curve
of this source which covers nearly 3 years. We find that it is in a faint
optical state for approximately half the time and shows a series of outbursts
separated by distinct dips in flux. Using data with 1 min sampling, we find
clear evidence that in its low state BOKS 45906 shows a flux variability on a
period of 56.5574+/-0.0014 min and a semi-amplitude of ~3 percent. Since we can
phase all the 1 min cadence data on a common ephemeris using this period, it is
probable that 56.56 min is the binary orbital period. Optical spectra of BOKS
45906 show the presence of Balmer lines in emission indicating it is not an AM
CVn (pure Helium) binary. Swift data show that it is a weak X-ray source and is
weakly detected in the bluest of the UVOT filters. We conclude that BOKS 45906
is a cataclysmic variable with a period shorter than the `period-bounce'
systems and therefore BOKS 45906 could be the first helium-rich cataclysmic
variable detected in the Kepler field.


  Intent detection and slot filling are two main tasks for building a spoken
language understanding (SLU) system. The two tasks are closely tied and the
slots often highly depend on the intent. In this paper, we propose a novel
framework for SLU to better incorporate the intent information, which further
guides the slot filling. In our framework, we adopt a joint model with
Stack-Propagation which can directly use the intent information as input for
slot filling, thus to capture the intent semantic knowledge. In addition, to
further alleviate the error propagation, we perform the token-level intent
detection for the Stack-Propagation framework. Experiments on two publicly
datasets show that our model achieves the state-of-the-art performance and
outperforms other previous methods by a large margin. Finally, we use the
Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformer (BERT) model in our
framework, which further boost our performance in SLU task.


  The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has produced a large number
of single transit event candidates which are being monitored by the Next
Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). We observed a second epoch for the
TIC-231005575 system (Tmag = 12.06, Teff = 5500 +- 85 K) with NGTS and a third
epoch with Las Cumbres Observatory's (LCO) telescope in South Africa to
constrain the orbital period (P = 61.777 d). Subsequent radial velocity
measurements with CORALIE revealed the transiting object has a mass of M2 =
0.128 +- 0.003 M$_\odot$, indicating the system is a G-M binary. The radius of
the secondary is R2 = 0.154 +- 0.008 R$_\odot$ and is consistent with models of
stellar evolution to better than 1-$\sigma$.


  We summarize the status of SM Higgs boson searches at the Fermilab Tevatron
performed by the CDF and D{\O}collaborations, with an emphasis on measurements
at large Higgs mass, and derive sensitivity prospects for the upcoming increase
in integrated luminosity.


  We propose to use rich informations on pi p total cross sections below N=10
GeV in order to investigate whether these cross sections increase like log nu
or log2 nu at high energies. A finite-energy sum rule (FESR) which is derived
in the spirit of the P' sum rule as well as the n=1 moment FESR have been
required to constrain the high-energy parameters. We then searched for the best
fit of pi p total cross sections above 70 GeV in terms of high-energy
parameters constrained by these two FESR. We can conclude that our analysis
strongly favours the log2 nu behaviors satisfying the Froissart unitarity
bound.


  Let $\mathcal{X}$ and $\mathcal{Y}$ be finite alphabets and $P_{XY}$ a joint
distribution over them, with $P_X$ and $P_Y$ representing the marginals. For
any $\epsilon > 0$, the set of $n$-length sequences $x^n$ and $y^n$ that are
jointly typical \cite{ckbook} according to $P_{XY}$ can be represented on a
bipartite graph. We present a formal definition of such a graph, known as a
\emph{typicality} graph, and study some of its properties.


  This paper presents the development of a new collaborative road profile
estimation and active suspension control framework in connected vehicles, where
participating vehicles iteratively refine the road profile estimation and
enhance suspension control performance through an iterative learning scheme.
Specifically, we develop a robust iterative learning approach to tackle the
heterogeneity and model uncertainties in participating vehicles, which are
important for practical implementations. In addition, the framework can be
adopted as an add-on system to augment existing suspension control schemes.
Comprehensive numerical studies are performed to evaluate and validate the
proposed framework.


  Large Language Models for Code (Code LLM) are flourishing. New and powerful
models are released on a weekly basis, demonstrating remarkable performance on
the code generation task. Various approaches have been proposed to boost the
code generation performance of pre-trained Code LLMs, such as supervised
fine-tuning, instruction tuning, reinforcement learning, etc. In this paper, we
propose a novel RRTF (Rank Responses to align Test&Teacher Feedback) framework,
which can effectively and efficiently boost pre-trained large language models
for code generation. Under this framework, we present PanGu-Coder2, which
achieves 62.20% pass@1 on the OpenAI HumanEval benchmark. Furthermore, through
an extensive evaluation on CoderEval and LeetCode benchmarks, we show that
PanGu-Coder2 consistently outperforms all previous Code LLMs.


  Systems of fermions described by the three-dimensional (3D) repulsive Hubbard
model on a cubic lattice have recently attracted considerable attention due to
their possible experimental realization via cold atoms in an optical lattice.
Because analytical and numerical results are limited away from half-filling, we
study the ground state of the doped system from weak to intermediate
interaction strengths within the generalized Hartree-Fock approximation. The
exact solution to the self-consistent-field equations in the thermodynamic
limit is obtained and the ground state is shown to exhibit antiferromagnetic
order and incommensurate spin-density waves (SDW). At low interaction
strengths, the SDW has unidirectional character with a leading wave-vector
along the $<100>$-direction, and the system is metallic. As the interaction
increases, the system undergoes a simultaneous structural and
metal-to-insulator transition to a unidirectional SDW state along the
$<111>$-direction, with a different wavelength. We systematically determine the
real- and momentum-space properties of these states. The crossover from 3D to
two-dimensions (2D) is then studied by varying the inter-plane hopping
amplitude, which can be experimentally realized by tuning the distance between
a stack of square-lattice layers. Detailed comparisons are made between the
exact numerical results and predictions from the pairing model, a variational
{\em ansatz} based on the pairing of spins in the vicinity of the Fermi
surface. Most of the numerical results can be understood quantitatively from
the ansatz, which provides a simple picture for the nature of the SDW states.


  The increasing number of vehicles highlights the need for efficient parking
space management. Predicting real-time Parking Availability (PA) can help
mitigate traffic congestion and the corresponding social problems, which is a
pressing issue in densely populated cities like Singapore. In this study, we
aim to collectively predict future PA across Singapore with complex factors
from various domains. The contributions in this paper are listed as follows:
(1) A New Dataset: We introduce the \texttt{SINPA} dataset, containing a year's
worth of PA data from 1,687 parking lots in Singapore, enriched with various
spatial and temporal factors. (2) A Data-Driven Approach: We present DeepPA, a
novel deep-learning framework, to collectively and efficiently predict future
PA across thousands of parking lots. (3) Extensive Experiments and Deployment:
DeepPA demonstrates a 9.2% reduction in prediction error for up to 3-hour
forecasts compared to existing advanced models. Furthermore, we implement
DeepPA in a practical web-based platform to provide real-time PA predictions to
aid drivers and inform urban planning for the governors in Singapore. We
release the dataset and source code at https://github.com/yoshall/SINPA.


  A salient feature of String/Gauge duality is an extra 5th dimension. Here we
study the effect of confining deformations of AdS5 and compute the spectrum of
a string stretched between infinitely massive quarks and compare it with the
quantum states of the QCD flux as determined by Kuti, Juge and Morningstar in
lattice simulations. In the long flux tube limit the AdS string probes the
metric near the IR cutoff of the 5th dimension with a spectrum approximated by
a Nambu-Goto string in 4-d flat space, whereas at short distance the string
moves to the UV region with a discrete spectrum for pure AdS5. We also review
earlier results on glueballs states and the cross-over between hard and soft
diffractive scattering that support this picture.


  Using a combination of analytical arguments and state-of-the-art diagrammatic
Monte Carlo simulations we show that the corrections to the dispersion in
interacting Weyl semimetals are determined by the ultraviolet cutoff and the
inverse screening length. If both of these are finite, then the diagrammatic
series is convergent even in the low-temperature limit, which implies that the
semimetallic phase remains stable. Meanwhile, the absence of a UV cutoff or
screening results in logarithmic divergences at zero temperature. These results
highlight the crucial impact of Coulomb interactions and screening, mediated
e.g. trough the presence of parasitic bands, which are ubiquitous effects in
real-world materials. Also, despite sizeable corrections from Coulomb forces,
the contribution from the frequency dependent part of the self energy remains
extremely small, thus giving rise to a system of effectively almost free
fermions with a strongly renormalised dispersion.


  A one-dimensional space curve in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ is a useful nonlinear
medium for modeling vortex filaments and biological soft-matter capable of
supporting a variety of wave motions. The Hasimoto transformation defines a
mapping between the kinematic evolution of a space curve and nonlinear scalar
equations evolving its intrinsic curve geometry. This mapping is quite robust
and able to transform general vector fields expressed in the Frenet frame,
resulting in a fully nonlinear integro-differential evolution equation, whose
coefficient structure is defined by the coordinates of the flow in the Frenet
frame. In this paper, we generalize the Hasimoto map to arbitrary flows defined
on space curves, which we test against several existing kinematic flows. After
this, we consider the time dynamics of length and bending energy to see that
binormal flows are generally length preserving, and bending energy is fragile
and unlikely to be conserved in the general case.


  We study the $L^p-L^q$-type uniform resolvent estimates for 2D-Schr\"odinger
operators in scaling-critical magnetic fields, involving the Aharonov-Bohm
model as a main example. As an application, we prove localization estimates for
the eigenvalue of some non self-adjoint zero-order perturbations of the
magnetic Hamiltonian.


  Directory-based protocols have been the de facto solution for maintaining
cache coherence in shared-memory parallel systems comprising multi/many cores,
where each store instruction is eagerly made globally visible by invalidating
the private cache (PC) backups of other cores. Consequently, the directory not
only consumes large chip area, but also incurs considerable energy consumption
and performance degradation, due to the large number of Invalidation/Ack
messages transferred in the interconnection network and resulting network
congestion. In this paper, we reveal the interesting fact that the directory is
actually an unnecessary luxury for practical parallel systems. Because of
widely deployed software/hardware techniques involving instruction reordering,
most (if not all) parallel systems work under the weak consistency model, where
a remote store instruction is allowed to be invisible to a core before the next
synchronization of the core, instead of being made visible eagerly by
invalidating PC backups of other cores. Based on this key observation, we
propose a lightweight novel scheme called {\em DLS (DirectoryLess Shared
last-level cache)}, which completely removes the directory and Invalidation/Ack
messages, and efficiently maintains cache coherence using a novel {\em
self-suspicion + speculative execution} mechanism. Experimental results over
SPLASH-2 benchmarks show that on a 16-core processor, DLS not only completely
removes the chip area cost of the directory, but also improves processor
performance by 11.08%, reduces overall network traffic by 28.83%, and reduces
energy consumption of the network by 15.65% on average (compared with
traditional MESI protocol with full directory). Moreover, DLS does not involve
any modification to programming languages and compilers, and hence is
seamlessly compatible with legacy codes.


  The detection of moving objects is a trivial task performed by vertebrate
retinas, yet a complex computer vision task. Object-motion-sensitive ganglion
cells (OMS-GC) are specialised cells in the retina that sense moving objects.
OMS-GC take as input continuous signals and produce spike patterns as output,
that are transmitted to the Visual Cortex via the optic nerve. The Hybrid
Sensitive Motion Detector (HSMD) algorithm proposed in this work enhances the
GSOC dynamic background subtraction (DBS) algorithm with a customised 3-layer
spiking neural network (SNN) that outputs spiking responses akin to the OMS-GC.
The algorithm was compared against existing background subtraction (BS)
approaches, available on the OpenCV library, specifically on the 2012 change
detection (CDnet2012) and the 2014 change detection (CDnet2014) benchmark
datasets. The results show that the HSMD was ranked overall first among the
competing approaches and has performed better than all the other algorithms on
four of the categories across all the eight test metrics. Furthermore, the HSMD
proposed in this paper is the first to use an SNN to enhance an existing state
of the art DBS (GSOC) algorithm and the results demonstrate that the SNN
provides near real-time performance in realistic applications.


  Radiative torques on irregular dust grains, in addition to producing
superthermal rotation, play a direct dynamical role in the alignment of
interstellar dust with the local magnetic field. The equations governing the
orientation of spinning, precessing grains are derived; H_2 formation torques
and paramagnetic dissipation are included in the dynamics. Stationary solutions
(constant alignment angle and spin rate) are found; these solutions may be
stable ("attractors") or unstable ("repellors"). The equations of motion are
numerically integrated for three exemplary irregular grain geometries, exposed
to anisotropic radiation with the spectrum of interstellar starlight. The
resulting "trajectory maps" are classified as "noncyclic", "semicyclic", or
"cyclic", with examples of each given.
  We find that radiative torques result in rapid grain alignment, even in the
absence of paramagnetic dissipation. It appears that radiative torques due to
starlight can account for the observed alignment of interstellar grains with
the Galactic magnetic field.


  In this paper we propose an alternative to the coupling of Berkes, Liu and Wu
[1] to obtain strong approximations for partial sums of dependent sequences.
The main tool is a new Rosen-thal type inequality expressed in terms of the
coupling coefficients. These coefficients are well suited to some classes of
Markov chains or dynamical systems, but they also give new results for smooth
functions of linear processes.


  We employ the dynamical mean field approximation to perform a systematic
study of magnetism in Ga_{1-x}Mn_xAs. Our model incorporates the effects of the
strong spin-orbit coupling on the J=3/2 GaAs valence bands and of the exchange
interaction between the randomly distributed magnetic ions and the itinerant
holes. The ferromagnetic phase transition temperature T_c is obtained for
different values of the impurity-hole coupling J_c and of the hole
concentration n_h at the Mn doping of x=0.05. We also investigate the
temperature dependence of the local magnetization and spin polarization of the
holes. By comparing our results with those for a single band Hamiltonian in
which the spin-orbit coupling is switched off, we conclude that the spin-orbit
coupling in Ga_{1-x}Mn_xAs gives rise to frustration in the ferromagnetic
order, strengthening recent findings by Zarand and Janko (Phys. Rev. Lett. 89,
047201 (2002)).


  Modeling of urban traffic flows is required due to the complexity of their
successful forecasting, as well as due to the impact of various random factors
on them, and the complexity of transport systems in modern cities. Forecasting
of traffic flows can be used as an effective tool for making scientifically
sound decisions when creating a long-term plan for the integrated development
of the city. The complex nature of the behavior of people and transport systems
requires taking into account many different external and internal factors in
the process of building a realistic model, as well as using large computing
resources and large amounts of source data. In the process of planning the
development of transport systems, the correct compilation of correspondence
matrices, in which various modeling zones act as columns and rows, is of
paramount importance. At the same time , the elements of the correspondence
matrices are not static in general , but are subject to temporary changes ,
primarily diurnal and seasonal . The dynamic gravitational model proposed by us
in this paper is based on a system of first - order differential equations .
The solution of which will allow, according to the authors, to more accurately
take into account the characteristics of urban traffic flows. If there is a set
of initial data and the corresponding software, calculations of the model we
offer can be made within a few hours.


  Advances in de novo synthesis of DNA and computational gene design methods
make possible the customization of genes by direct manipulation of features
such as codon bias and mRNA secondary structure. Codon context is another
feature significantly affecting mRNA translational efficiency, but existing
methods and tools for evaluating and designing novel optimized protein coding
sequences utilize untested heuristics and do not provide quantifiable
guarantees on design quality. In this study we examine statistical properties
of codon context measures in an effort to better understand the phenomenon. We
analyze the computational complexity of codon context optimization and design
exact and efficient heuristic gene recoding algorithms under reasonable
constraint models. We also present a web-based tool for evaluating codon
context bias in the appropriate context.


  The dynamics of strongly disordered systems becomes extremely slow or glassy
at low temperatures, which results in a characteristic aging scenario. This
means that the outcome of measurements strongly depends on the history of the
system within the glassy phase, even on macroscopic time scale like hours,
weeks or years. This area of non-equilibrium dynamics in disordered systems
became recently a major focus of research interest, in particular with respect
to spin glasses and related systems. Here we give an overview on these
activities with a focus on Monte Carlo studies.


  We use QCD sum rules for the three point function of a pseudoscalar and two
nucleonic currents in order to estimate the charge dependence of the pion
nucleon coupling constant $g_{NN\pi}$ coming from isospin violation in the
strong interaction. The effect can be attributed primarily to the difference of
the quark condensates $<{\bar u}u>$ and $<{\bar d}d>$. For the splitting
$(g_{pp\pi_0} - g_{nn\pi_0}) / g_{NN\pi}$ we obtain an interval of $1.2 *
10^{-2}$ to $3.7 * 10^{-2}$, the uncertainties coming mainly from the input
parameters. The charged pion nucleon coupling is found to be the average of
$g_{pp\pi_0}$ and $g_{nn\pi_0}$. Electromagnetic effects are not included.


  Finding a local Hamiltonian $\hat{\mathcal{H}}$ having a given many-body
wavefunction $|\psi\rangle$ as its ground state, i.e. a parent Hamiltonian, is
a challenge of fundamental importance in quantum technologies. Here we
introduce a numerical method, inspired by quantum annealing, that efficiently
performs this task through an artificial inverse dynamics: a slow deformation
of the states $|\psi(\lambda(t))\rangle$, starting from a simple state
$|\psi_0\rangle$ with a known $\hat{\mathcal{H}}_0$, generates an adiabatic
evolution of the corresponding Hamiltonian. We name this approach inverse
quantum annealing. The method, implemented through a projection onto a set of
local operators, only requires the knowledge of local expectation values, and,
for long annealing times, leads to an approximate parent Hamiltonian whose
degree of locality depends on the correlations built up by the states
$|\psi(\lambda)\rangle$. We illustrate the method on two paradigmatic models:
the Kitaev fermionic chain and a quantum Ising chain in longitudinal and
transverse fields.


  We examine the claim of Chamblin et. al. that extreme black holes cannot
support abelian Higgs hair. We provide evidence that contradicts this claim and
discuss reasons for this discrepancy.


  We investigate color Lie rings over finite group algebras and their universal
enveloping algebras. We exhibit these universal enveloping algebras as PBW
deformations of skew group algebras: Every color Lie ring over a finite group
algebra with a particular Yetter-Drinfeld structure has universal enveloping
algebra that is a quantum Drinfeld orbifold algebra. Conversely, every quantum
Drinfeld orbifold algebra of a particular type arising from the action of an
abelian group is the universal enveloping algebra of some color Lie ring over
the group algebra. One consequence is that these quantum Drinfeld orbifold
algebras are braided Hopf algebras.


  We develop a method to compute the slow-roll expansion for the Hubble
parameter in inflationary models in a flat
Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker spacetime that is applicable to a wide
class of potentials including monomial, polynomial, or rational functions of
the inflaton, as well as polynomial or rational functions of the exponential of
the inflaton. The method, formulated within the Hamilton-Jacobi formalism,
adapts the form of the slow-roll expansion to the analytic form of the
inflationary potential, thus allowing a consistent order-by-order computation
amenable to Pad\'e summation. Using T-models as an example, we show that Pad\'e
summation extends the domain of validity of this adapted slow-roll expansion to
the end of inflation. Likewise, Pad\'e summation extends the domain of validity
of kinetic-dominance asymptotic expansions of the Hubble parameter into the
fast-roll regime, where they can be matched to the aforesaid Pad\'e-summed
slow-roll expansions. This matching in turn determines the relation between the
expansions for the number $N$ of e-folds and allows us to compute the total
amount of inflation as a function of the initial data or, conversely, to select
initial data that correspond to a fixed total amount of inflation. Using the
slow-roll stage expansions, we also derive expansions for the corresponding
spectral index $n_s$ accurate to order $1/N^2$, and tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$
accurate to order $1/N^3$ for these T-models.


  We discuss a layer-oriented approach to multi-conjugate adaptive optics
(MCAO) in solar imaging. The technique is a complement to the current
star-oriented MCAO and appears as a necessary alternative when large field
sizes are desired in solar observations. The basic procedure of the layer
oriented method is indicated, and its characteristics are then illustrated in
terms of numerical simulations.


  Excitation of multiple surface plasmon-polaritons(SPPs) by an equichiral
sculptured thin film with a metal layer defect was studied theoretically in the
Sarid configuration, using the transfer matrix method. Multiple SPP modes were
distinguished from waveguide modes in optical absorption for p- polarized plane
wave. The degree of localization of multiple SPP waves was investigated by
calculation of the time averaged Poynting vector. The results showed that the
long-range and short-range SPP waves can simultaneously be excited at both
interfaces of metal core in this proposed structure which may be used in a
broad range of sensing applications.


  In spin qubit arrays the exchange coupling can be harnessed to implement
two-qubit gates and to realize intermediate-range qubit connectivity along a
spin bus. In this work, we propose a scheme to characterize the exchange
coupling between electrons in adjacent quantum dots. We investigate
theoretically the transmission of a microwave resonator coupled to a triple
quantum dot (TQD) occupied by two electrons. We assume that the right quantum
dot (QD) is always occupied by one electron while the second electron can
tunnel between the left and center QD. If the two electrons are in adjacent
dots they interact via the exchange coupling. By means of analytical
calculations we show that the transmission profile of the resonator directly
reveals the value of the exchange coupling strength between two electrons. From
perturbation theory up to second order we conclude that the exchange can still
be identified in the presence of magnetic gradients. A valley splitting
comparable to the inter-dot tunnel coupling will lead to further modifications
of the cavity transmission dips that also depend on the valley phases.


  A generalization of the matrix model idea to quantum gravity in three and
higher dimensions is known as group field theory (GFT). In this paper we study
generalized GFT models that can be used to describe 3D quantum gravity coupled
to point particles. The generalization considered is that of replacing the
group leading to pure quantum gravity by the twisted product of the group with
its dual --the so-called Drinfeld double of the group. The Drinfeld double is a
quantum group in that it is an algebra that is both non-commutative and
non-cocommutative, and special care is needed to define group field theory for
it. We show how this is done, and study the resulting GFT models. Of special
interest is a new topological model that is the ``Ponzano-Regge'' model for the
Drinfeld double. However, as we show, this model does not describe point
particles. Motivated by the GFT considerations, we consider a more general
class of models that are defined using not GFT, but the so-called chain mail
techniques. A general model of this class does not produce 3-manifold
invariants, but has an interpretation in terms of point particle Feynman
diagrams.


  The inclusive one- and two-jet cross-sections are measured in collisions of
quasi-real photons at e+e- centre-of-mass energies of 130 and 136 GeV using the
OPAL detector at LEP. Jets are reconstructed with a cone jet finding algorithm.
The jet cross-sections are compared to next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative
QCD calculations. Transverse energy flows in jets are studied separately for
direct and resolved two-photon events.


  Demonstration-guided reinforcement learning (RL) is a promising approach for
learning complex behaviors by leveraging both reward feedback and a set of
target task demonstrations. Prior approaches for demonstration-guided RL treat
every new task as an independent learning problem and attempt to follow the
provided demonstrations step-by-step, akin to a human trying to imitate a
completely unseen behavior by following the demonstrator's exact muscle
movements. Naturally, such learning will be slow, but often new behaviors are
not completely unseen: they share subtasks with behaviors we have previously
learned. In this work, we aim to exploit this shared subtask structure to
increase the efficiency of demonstration-guided RL. We first learn a set of
reusable skills from large offline datasets of prior experience collected
across many tasks. We then propose Skill-based Learning with Demonstrations
(SkiLD), an algorithm for demonstration-guided RL that efficiently leverages
the provided demonstrations by following the demonstrated skills instead of the
primitive actions, resulting in substantial performance improvements over prior
demonstration-guided RL approaches. We validate the effectiveness of our
approach on long-horizon maze navigation and complex robot manipulation tasks.


  This paper is concerned with the quasi-linear reflected backward stochastic
partial differential equation (RBSPDE for short). Basing on the theory of
backward stochastic partial differential equation and the parabolic capacity
and potential, we first associate the RBSPDE to a variational problem, and via
the penalization method, we prove the existence and uniqueness of the solution
for linear RBSPDE with Lapalacian leading coefficients. With the continuity
approach, we further obtain the well-posedness of general quasi-linear RBSPDEs.
Related results, including It\^o formulas for backward stochastic partial
differential equations with random measures, the comparison principle for
solutions of RBSPDEs and the connections with reflected backward stochastic
differential equations and optimal stopping problems, are addressed as well.


  Spin transport through magnetic insulators has been demonstrated in a variety
of materials and is an emerging pathway for next-generation spin-based
computing. To modulate spin transport in these systems, one typically applies a
sufficiently strong magnetic field to allow for deterministic control of
magnetic order. Here, we make use of the well-known multiferroic
magnetoelectric, BiFeO3, to demonstrate non-volatile, hysteretic,
electric-field control of thermally excited magnon current in the absence of an
applied magnetic field. These findings are an important step toward
magnon-based devices, where electric-field-only control is highly desirable.


  We provide a general method for evaluation of the joint range of
f-divergences for two different functions f. Via topological arguments we prove
that the joint range for general distributions equals the convex hull of the
joint range achieved by the distributions on a two-element set. The joint range
technique provides important inequalities between different f-divergences with
various applications in information theory and statistics.


  We show that mean curvature flow of a compact submanifold in a complete
Riemannian manifold cannot form singularity at time infinity if the ambient
Riemannian manifold has bounded geometry and satisfies certain curvature and
volume growth conditions .


  Strongly contracting dynamical systems have numerous properties (e.g.,
incremental ISS), find widespread applications (e.g., in controls and
learning), and their study is receiving increasing attention. This work starts
with the simple observation that, given a strongly contracting system, its
adjoint dynamical system is also strongly contracting, with the same rate, with
respect to the dual norm, under time reversal. As main implication of this dual
contractivity, we show that the classic Method of Successive Approximations
(MSA), an indirect method in optimal control, is a contraction mapping for
short optimization intervals or large contraction rates. Consequently, we
establish new convergence conditions for the MSA algorithm, which further imply
uniqueness of the optimal control and sufficiency of Pontryagin's minimum
principle under additional assumptions.


  Magnetic penetration depth, $\lambda_{m}$, was measured as a function of
temperature and magnetic field in single crystals of low carrier density
superconductor YPtBi by using a tunnel-diode oscillator technique. Measurements
in zero DC magnetic field yield London penetration depth,
$\lambda_{L}\left(T\right)$, but in the applied field the signal includes the
Campbell penetration depth, $\lambda_{C}\left(T\right)$, which is the
characteristic length of the attenuation of small excitation field, $H_{ac}$,
into the Abrikosov vortex lattice due to its elasticity. Whereas the magnetic
field dependent $\lambda_C$ exhibit $\lambda_{C}\sim B^{p}$ with $p=1/2$ in
most of the conventional and unconventional superconductors, we found that
$p\approx 0.23\ll1/2$ in YPtBi due to rapid suppression of the pinning
strength. From the measured $\lambda_{C}(T,H)$, the critical current density is
$j_{c}\approx40\,\mathrm{A}/\mathrm{cm^{2}}$ at 75 mK. This is orders of
magnitude lower than that of conventional superconductors of comparable
$T_{c}$. Since the pinning centers (lattice defects) and vortex structure are
not expected to be much different in YPtBi, this observation is direct evidence
of the low density of the Cooper pairs because $j_{c}\propto n_s$.


  We present the calculation of the impact factor for the gamma(*) -> q qb g
transition within Balitsky's high energy operator expansion. We also rederive
the impact factor for the gamma(*) -> q qb transition within the same
framework. These results provide the necessary building blocks for further
phenomenological studies of inclusive diffractive deep inelastic scattering as
well as for two and three jets diffractive production which go beyond
approximations discussed in the litterature.


  We consider the question of reducibility of the differential system to
normalized Fuchsian form on the Riemann sphere. The differential equations for
the multiloop integrals in $\epsilon$-form constitute a particular example of
the normalized Fuchsian form. We formulate the algorithmic criterion of
reducibility. We also consider the question of the proper choice of variable in
the differential system suitable for its reduction to $\epsilon$-form.


  There is a significantly accelerating trend in the application of the marine
wave energy converters in recent years. As a result, it is imperative to adopt
a suitable point for implementing these systems. Besides, the Caspian Sea, as
one of the most important marine renewable energy sources in Asia, is capable
of supplying the coastal areas with a large amount of energy. Therefore, areas
around nine ports in the southern coasts of the Caspian Sea were selected to
measure their wave energy potential. Initially, the amount of energy on these
points was measured using the irregular energy theory. It was observed that the
wave power was higher in the southwestern areas (within the Kiashahr coast and
Anzali port) than the southeastern areas. A new approach was developed to
compare these points and measure their fitnesses in supplying the maximum
energy using the Grey Wolf optimizer (GWO) algorithm and time history analysis.
In this method, the optimal parameters were first extracted from the algorithm
for assessing the points within the southern areas of the Caspian Sea. These
values were regarded as the assessment indices. Then, the fitness of each point
was obtained using the correlation function and the norm vector to present the
most optimal position with maximum wave energy exploitation potential. This new
approach was validated with analytical data, and its accuracy in predicting and
comparing the wave power on different points was approved. Finally, by a
side-by-side comparison of the parameters affecting the wave energy, the
optimum range of significant wave height and wave energy period was achieved.


  Solar-wind 3-D reconstruction tomography based on interplanetary
scintillation (IPS) studies provides fundamental information for space-weather
forecasting models, and gives the possibility to determine heliospheric column
densities. Here we compare the time series of Solar-wind column densities
derived from long-term observations of pulsars, and the Solar-wind
reconstruction provided by the UCSD IPS tomography. This work represents a
completely independent comparison and validation of these techniques to provide
this measurement, and it strengthens confidence in the use of both in
space-weather analyses applications.


  We explore equilibrium solutions of spherically symmetric boson stars in the
Palatini formulation of $f(\mathcal{R})$ gravity. We account for the
modifications introduced in the gravitational sector by using a recently
established correspondence between modified gravity with scalar matter and
general relativity with modified scalar matter. We focus on the quadratic
theory $f(\mathcal{R})=R+\xi R^2$ and compare its solutions with those found in
general relativity, exploring both positive and negative values of the coupling
parameter $\xi$. As matter source, a complex, massive scalar field with and
without self-interaction terms is considered. Our results show that the
existence curves of boson stars in Palatini $f(\mathcal{R})$ gravity are fairly
similar to those found in general relativity. Major differences are observed
for negative values of the coupling parameter which results in a repulsive
gravitational component for high enough scalar field density distributions.
Adding self-interactions makes the degeneracy between $f(\mathcal{R})$ and
general relativity even more pronounced, leaving very little room for
observational discrimination between the two theories.


  We derive a set of integral equations of the TBA type for the generalized
cusp anomalous dimension, or the quark antiquark potential on the three sphere,
as a function of the angles. We do this by considering a family of local
operators on a Wilson loop with charge L. In the large L limit the problem can
be solved in terms of a certain boundary reflection matrix. We determine this
reflection matrix by using the symmetries and the boundary crossing equation.
The cusp is introduced through a relative rotation between the two boundaries.
Then the TBA trick of exchanging space and time leads to an exact equation for
all values of L. The L=0 case corresponds to the cusped Wilson loop with no
operators inserted. We then derive a slightly simplified integral equation
which describes the small angle limit. We solve this equation up to three loops
in perturbation theory and match the results that were obtained with more
direct approaches.


  A coupled channel model with $\gamma N$, $KY$ and $\pi N$ channels has been
used to analyze the recent data of $\gamma p \to K^+ \Lambda$. The non-resonant
interactions within the subspace $KY \oplus \pi N$ are derived from effective
Lagrangians using a unitary transformation method. The direct photoproduction
reaction is obtained from a chiral constituent quark model with $SU(6)\otimes
O(3)$ breaking. Missing baryon resonances issues are briefly discussed.


  Outlier or anomaly detection is an important task in data analysis. We
discuss the problem from a geometrical perspective and provide a framework that
exploits the metric structure of a data set. Our approach rests on the manifold
assumption, i.e., that the observed, nominally high-dimensional data lie on a
much lower dimensional manifold and that this intrinsic structure can be
inferred with manifold learning methods. We show that exploiting this structure
significantly improves the detection of outlying observations in
high-dimensional data. We also suggest a novel, mathematically precise, and
widely applicable distinction between distributional and structural outliers
based on the geometry and topology of the data manifold that clarifies
conceptual ambiguities prevalent throughout the literature. Our experiments
focus on functional data as one class of structured high-dimensional data, but
the framework we propose is completely general and we include image and graph
data applications. Our results show that the outlier structure of
high-dimensional and non-tabular data can be detected and visualized using
manifold learning methods and quantified using standard outlier scoring methods
applied to the manifold embedding vectors.


  We investigate experimentally the statistical properties of a wind-generated
wave field and the spontaneous formation of rogue waves in an annular flume.
Unlike many experiments on rogue waves, where waves are mechanically generated,
here the wave field is forced naturally by wind as it is in the ocean. What is
unique about the present experiment is that the annular geometry of the tank
makes waves propagating circularly in an {\it unlimited-fetch} condition.
Within this peculiar framework, we discuss the temporal evolution of the
statistical properties of the surface elevation. We show that rogue waves and
heavy-tail statistics may develop naturally during the growth of the waves just
before the wave height reaches a stationary condition. Our results shed new
light on the formation of rogue waves in a natural environment.


  This text arises from teaching advanced undergraduate courses in differential
topology for the master curriculum in Mathematics at the University of Pisa. So
it is mainly addressed to motivated and collaborative master undergraduate
students, having nevertheless a limited mathematical background. Overall this
text is a collection of themes, in some cases advanced and of historical
importance, with the common feature that they can be treated with "bare hands".
This means by just combining certain cut-and-paste procedures and applications
of transversality, mainly through the multiplicative structure of the cobordism
rings of every smooth compact manifold; topics developed from scratch along
with the text.


  The infinite dimensional generalization of the quantum mechanics of extended
objects, namely, the quantum field theory of extended objects is presented. The
paradigm example studied in this paper is the Euclidean scalar field with a
$\lambda (\phi^{6})/6!$ interaction in four spacetime dimensions. The theory is
found to be finite when the virtual particle intermediate states are
characterized by fuzzy particles instead of ordinary pointlike particles.
Causality, Lorentz invariance, and unitarity (verified up to fourth order in
the coupling constant) are preserved in the theory. In addition, the
Kallen-Lehmann spectral representation for the propagator is discussed.


  Computational methods are essential to provide waveforms from coalescing
black holes, which are expected to produce strong signals for the gravitational
wave observatories being developed. Although partial simulations of the
coalescence have been reported, scientifically useful waveforms have so far not
been delivered. The goal of the AppleswithApples (AwA) Alliance is to design,
coordinate and document standardized code tests for comparing numerical
relativity codes. The first round of AwA tests have now being completed and the
results are being analyzed. These initial tests are based upon periodic
boundary conditions designed to isolate performance of the main evolution code.
Here we describe and carry out an additional test with periodic boundary
conditions which deals with an essential feature of the black hole excision
problem, namely a non-vanishing shift. The test is a shifted version of the
existing AwA gauge wave test. We show how a shift introduces an exponentially
growing instability which violates the constraints of a standard harmonic
formulation of Einstein's equations. We analyze the Cauchy problem in a
harmonic gauge and discuss particular options for suppressing instabilities in
the gauge wave tests. We implement these techniques in a finite difference
evolution algorithm and present test results. Although our application here is
limited to a model problem, the techniques should benefit the simulation of
black holes using harmonic evolution codes.


  We study the self-similar behavior of the exchange-driven growth model, which
describes a process in which pairs of clusters, consisting of an integer number
of monomers, interact through the exchange of a single monomer. The rate of
exchange is given by an interaction kernel $K(k,l)$ which depends on the sizes
$k$ and $l$ of the two interacting clusters and is assumed to be of product
form $(k\,l)^\lambda$ for $\lambda \in [0,2)$. We rigorously establish the
coarsening rates and convergence to the self-similar profile found by Ben-Naim
and Krapivsky [7]. For the explicit kernel, the evolution is linked to a
discrete weighted heat equation on the positive integers by a nonlinear
time-change. For this equation, we establish a new weighted Nash inequality
that yields scaling-invariant decay and continuity estimates. Together with a
replacement identity that links the discrete operator to its continuous analog,
we derive a discrete-to-continuum scaling limit for the weighted heat equation.
Reverting the time-change under the use of additional moment estimates, the
analysis of the linear equation yields coarsening rates and self-similar
convergence of the exchange-driven growth model.


  We compare the large scale galaxy clustering in the new SDSS early data
release (EDR) with the clustering in the APM Galaxy Survey. We cut out pixel
maps (identical in size and shape) from the SDSS and APM data to allow a direct
comparison of the clustering. Here we concentrate our analysis on an equatorial
SDSS strip in the South Galactic Cap (EDR/SGC) with 166 deg^2, 2.5 wide and 65
degrees long. Only galaxies with Petrosian magnitudes 16.8 <g'<19.8 are
included to match the surface density of the 17< b_J<20 APM pixel maps (median
depth of 400 Mpc/h). Both the amplitude and shape of the angular 2-point
function and variance turn out to be in very good agreement with the APM on
scales smaller than 2 degrees (ie 15 Mpc/h). The 3-point function and skewness
are also in excellent agreement within a 90% confidence level. On one hand
these results illustrate that the EDR data and SDSS software pipelines, work
well and are suitable to do analysis of large scale clustering. On the other
hand it confirms that large scale clustering analysis is becoming "repeatable"
and therefore that our conclusions for structure formation models seem to stand
on solid scientific grounds.


  We propose a scenario in which dark energy and dark matter are described in a
unified manner. The ultralight pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone (pNG) boson, A, naturally
explains the observed magnitude of dark energy, while the bosonic supersymmetry
partner of the pNG boson, B, can be a dominant component of dark matter. The
decay of B into a pair of electron and positron may explain the 511 keV gamma
ray from the Galactic Center.


  The long-term resilient property of ecosystems has been quantified as
ecological robustness (RECO) in terms of the energy transfer over food webs.
The RECO of resilient ecosystems favors a balance of food webs' network
efficiency and redundancy. By integrating RECO with power system constraints,
the authors are able to optimize power systems' inherent resilience as
ecosystems through network design and system operation. A previous model used
on real power flows and aggregated redundant components for a rigorous mapping
between ecosystems and power systems. However, the reactive power flows also
determine power systems resilience; and the power components' redundancy is
part of the global network redundancy. These characteristics should be
considered for RECO-oriented evaluation and optimization for power systems.
Thus, this paper extends the model for quantifying RECO in power systems using
real, reactive, and apparent power flows with the consideration of redundant
placement of generators. Recalling the performance of RECO-oriented optimal
power flows under N-x contingencies, the analyses suggest reactive power flows
and redundant components should be included for RECO to capture power systems'
inherent resilience.


  This paper studies a defense approach against a swarm of adversarial agents.
We employ a closed formation (`StringNet') of defending agents around the
adversarial agents to restrict their motion and guide them to a safe area while
navigating in an obstacle-populated environment. Control laws for forming the
StringNet and guiding it to a safe area are developed, and the stability of the
closed-loop system is analyzed formally. The adversarial swarm is assumed to
move as a flock in the presence of rectangular obstacles. Simulation results
are provided to demonstrate the efficacy of the approach.


  We consider the optimal control of linear systems over wireless MIMO fading
channels, where the MIMO wireless fading and random access of the remote
controller may cause intermittent controllability or uncontrollability of the
closed-loop control system. We formulate the optimal control design over random
access MIMO fading channels as an infinite horizon average cost Markov decision
process (MDP), and we propose a novel state reduction technique such that the
optimality condition is transformed into a time-invariant reduced-state Bellman
optimality equation. We provide the closed-form characterizations on the
existence and uniqueness of the optimal control solution via analyzing the
reduced-state Bellman optimality equation. Specifically, in the case that the
closed-loop system is almost surely controllable, we show that the optimal
control solution always exists and is unique. In the case that MIMO fading
channels and the random access of the remote controller destroy the closed-loop
controllability, we propose a novel controllable and uncontrollable positive
semidefinite (PSD) cone decomposition induced by the singular value
decomposition (SVD) of the MIMO fading channel contaminated control input
matrix. Based on the decomposed fine-grained reduced-state Bellman optimality
equation, we further propose a closed-form sufficient condition for both the
existence and the uniqueness of the optimal control solution. The closed-form
sufficient condition reveals the fact that the optimal control action may still
exist even if the closed-loop system suffers from intermittent controllability
or almost sure uncontrollability.


  In this note, we give a short proof of the localization formula for the loop
space Chern character of a compact Riemannian spin manifold M, using the
rescaled spinor bundle on the tangent groupoid associated to M.


  Four-terminal resistances, both longitudinal and diagonal, of a locally gated
graphene device are measured in the quantum-Hall (QH) regime. In sharp
distinction from previous two-terminal studies [J. R. Williams \textit{et al.},
Science {\bf 317}, 638 (2007); B. \"{O}zyilmaz \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev.
Lett. {\bf 99}, 166804 (2007)], asymmetric QH resistances are observed, which
provide information on reflection as well as transmission of the QH edge
states. Most quantized values of resistances are well analyzed by the
assumption that all edge states are equally populated. Contrary to the
expectation, however, a 5/2 transmission of the edge states is also found,
which may be caused by incomplete mode mixing and/or by the presence of
counter-propagating edge states. This four-terminal scheme can be conveniently
used to study the edge-state equilibration in locally gated graphene devices as
well as mono- and multi-layer graphene hybrid structures.


  Two-level atoms coupled with single-mode cavity photons are predicted to
exhibit a quantum phase transition when the coupling strength exceeds a
critical value, entering a phase in which atomic polarization and photonic
field are finite even at zero temperature and without external driving.
However, this phenomenon, the superradiant phase transition (SRPT), is
forbidden by a no-go theorem due to the existence of the diamagnetic term in
the Hamiltonian. Here, we present spectroscopic evidence for a magnonic SRPT in
ErFeO$_3$, where the role of the photonic mode (two-level atoms) in the
photonic SRPT is played by an Fe$^{3+}$ magnon mode (Er$^{3+}$ spins). The
absence of the diamagnetic term in the Fe$^{3+}$-Er$^{3+}$ exchange coupling
ensures that the no-go theorem does not apply. Terahertz and gigahertz
magnetospectroscopy experiments revealed the signatures of the SRPT -- a kink
and a softening, respectively, of two spin-magnon hybridized modes at the
critical point.


  While voice user interfaces offer increased accessibility due to hands-free
and eyes-free interactions, older adults often have challenges such as
constructing structured requests and perceiving how such devices operate.
Voice-first user interfaces have the potential to address these challenges by
enabling multimodal interactions. Standalone voice + touchscreen Voice
Assistants (VAs), such as Echo Show, are specific types of devices that adopt
such interfaces and are gaining popularity. However, the affordances of the
additional touchscreen for older adults are unknown. Through a 40-day
real-world deployment with older adults living independently, we present a
within-subjects study (N = 16; age M = 82.5, SD = 7.77, min. = 70, max. = 97)
to understand how a built-in touchscreen might benefit older adults during
device setup, conducting self-report diary survey, and general uses. We found
that while participants appreciated the visual outputs, they still preferred to
respond via speech instead of touch. We identified six design implications that
can inform future innovations of senior-friendly VAs for managing healthcare
and improving quality of life.


  We use the recently introduced lifted product to construct a family of
Quantum Low Density Parity Check Codes (QLDPC codes). The codes we obtain can
be viewed as stacks of surface codes that are interconnected, leading to the
name lift-connected surface (LCS) codes. LCS codes offer a wide range of
parameters - a particularly striking feature is that they show interesting
properties that are favorable compared to the standard surface code already at
moderate numbers of physical qubits in the order of tens. We present and
analyze the construction and provide numerical simulation results for the
logical error rate under code capacity and phenomenological noise. These
results show that LCS codes attain thresholds that are comparable to
corresponding (non-connected) copies of surface codes, while the logical error
rate can be orders of magnitude lower, even for representatives with the same
parameters. This provides a code family showing the potential of modern product
constructions at already small qubit numbers. Their amenability to 3D-local
connectivity renders them particularly relevant for near-term implementations.


  A semi-microscopic approach, based on the continuum-random-phase
Approximation (CRPA) method, is applied to describe the main properties
(strength function, transition density, direct-nucleon-decay branching ratios)
of the overtone of the isoscalar giant monopole resonance. Results of the
calculation are presented for 208Pb in comparison with those obtained for the
isoscalar monopole and dipole giant resonances within the same approach.


  The physical layer security in the up-link of the wireless communication
systems is often modeled as the multiple access wiretap channel (MAC-WT), and
recently it has received a lot attention. In this paper, the MAC-WT has been
re-visited by considering the situation that the legitimate receiver feeds his
received channel output back to the transmitters via two noiseless channels,
respectively. This model is called the MAC-WT with noiseless feedback. Inner
and outer bounds on the secrecy capacity region of this feedback model are
provided. To be specific, we first present a decode-and-forward (DF) inner
bound on the secrecy capacity region of this feedback model, and this bound is
constructed by allowing each transmitter to decode the other one's transmitted
message from the feedback, and then each transmitter uses the decoded message
to re-encode his own messages, i.e., this DF inner bound allows the independent
transmitters to co-operate with each other. Then, we provide a hybrid inner
bound which is strictly larger than the DF inner bound, and it is constructed
by using the feedback as a tool not only to allow the independent transmitters
to co-operate with each other, but also to generate two secret keys
respectively shared between the legitimate receiver and the two transmitters.
Finally, we give a sato-type outer bound on the secrecy capacity region of this
feedback model. The results of this paper are further explained via a Gaussian
example.


  The real compact supergroup $S^{1|1}$ is analized from different perspectives
and its representation theory is studied. We prove it is the only (up to
isomorphism) supergroup, which is a real form of $({\mathbf C}^{1|1})^\times$
with reduced Lie group $S^1$, and a link with SUSY structures on ${\mathbf
C}^{1|1}$ is established. We describe a large family of complex semisimple
representations of $S^{1|1}$ and we show that any $S^{1|1}$-representation
whose weights are all nonzero is a direct sum of members of our family. We also
compute the matrix elements of the members of this family and we give a proof
of the Peter-Weyl theorem for $S^{1|1}$.


  We present a technique to improve the slow-light performance of a
side-coupled spaced sequence of resonators (SCISSOR) combined with a stimulated
Brillouin scattering (SBS) gain medium in optical fiber. We evaluate device
performance of SCISSOR-only and SCISSOR + SBS systems for different numbers of
cascaded resonators from 1 to 70 using two different data fidelity metrics
including eye-opening and mutual information. A practical system design is
demonstrated by analyzing its performance in terms of fractional delay, power
transmission, and data fidelity. We observe that the results from the two
metrics are in good agreement. Based on system optimization under practical
resource and fidelity constraints, the SCISSOR consisting of 70 cascaded
resonators provides a fractional delay of 8 with 22 dB attenuation at a signal
bit rate of 10 Gbps. The combined optimal SCISSOR (with 70 resonators) + SBS
system provides a improved fractional delay up to 17 with unit power
transmission under the same constraints.


  Multi-task learning (MTL) is frequently used in settings where a target task
has to be learnt based on limited training data, but knowledge can be leveraged
from related auxiliary tasks. While MTL can improve task performance overall
relative to single-task learning (STL), these improvements can hide negative
transfer (NT), where STL may deliver better performance for many individual
tasks. Asymmetric multitask feature learning (AMTFL) is an approach that tries
to address this by allowing tasks with higher loss values to have smaller
influence on feature representations for learning other tasks. Task loss values
do not necessarily indicate reliability of models for a specific task. We
present examples of NT in two orthogonal datasets (image recognition and
pharmacogenomics) and tackle this challenge by using aleatoric homoscedastic
uncertainty to capture the relative confidence between tasks, and set weights
for task loss. Our results show that this approach reduces NT providing a new
approach to enable robust MTL.