title:
How limit cycles and quasi-cycles are related in systems with intrinsic
  noise

abstract:
  Fluctuations and noise may alter the behavior of dynamical systems
considerably. For example, oscillations may be sustained by demographic
fluctuations in biological systems where a stable fixed point is found in the
absence of noise. We here extend the theoretical analysis of such stochastic
effects to models which have a limit cycle for some range of the model
parameters. We formulate a description of fluctuations about the periodic orbit
which allows the relation between the stochastic oscillations in the fixed
point phase and the oscillations in the limit cycle phase to be elucidated. In
the case of the limit cycle, a suitable transformation into a co-moving frame
allow fluctuations transverse and longitudinal with respect to the limit cycle
to be effectively decoupled. While longitudinal fluctuations are of a diffusive
nature, those in the transverse direction follow a stochastic path more akin to
an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. Their power spectrum is computed analytically
within a van Kampen expansion in the inverse system size. This is carried out
in two different ways, and the subsequent comparison with numerical simulations
illustrates the effects that can occur due to diffusion in the longitudinal
direction.


title:
High-sensitivity monitoring of micromechanical vibration using optical
  whispering gallery mode resonators

abstract:
  The inherent coupling of optical and mechanical modes in high finesse optical
microresonators provide a natural, highly sensitive transduction mechanism for
micromechanical vibrations. Using homodyne and polarization spectroscopy
techniques, we achieve shot-noise limited displacement sensitivities of
10^(-19) m Hz^(-1/2). In an unprecedented manner, this enables the detection
and study of a variety of mechanical modes, which are identified as radial
breathing, flexural and torsional modes using 3-dimensional finite element
modelling. Furthermore, a broadband equivalent displacement noise is measured
and found to agree well with models for thermorefractive noise in silica
dielectric cavities. Implications for ground-state cooling, displacement
sensing and Kerr squeezing are discussed.


title: Unstable attractors in manifolds

abstract:
  Let $M$ be a locally compact metric space endowed with a continuous flow
$\phi : M \times \mathbb{R} \longrightarrow M$. Frequently an attractor $K$ for
$\phi$ exists which is of interest, not only in itself but also the dynamics in
its basin of attraction $\mathcal{A}(K)$. In this paper the class of {\sl
attractors with no external explosions}, which is intermediate between the well
known {\sl stable attractors} and the extremely wild {\sl unstable attractors},
is studied. We are mainly interested in their cohomological properties, as well
as in the strong relations which exist between their shape (in the sense of
Borsuk) and the topology of the phase space.


title: Are we scoring calories correct?

abstract: A new method of food stuff energetic value scoring is offered


title: High spin baryon in hot strongly coupled plasma

abstract:
  We consider a strings-junction holographic model of probe baryon in the
finite-temperature supersymmetric Yang-Mills dual of the AdS-Schwarzschild
black hole background. In particular, we investigate the screening length for
high spin baryon composed of rotating N_c heavy quarks. To rotate quarks by
finite force, we put hard infrared cutoff in the bulk and give quarks finite
mass. We find that N_c microscopic strings are embedded reasonably in the bulk
geometry when they have finite angular velocity \omega, similar to the meson
case. By defining the screening length as the critical separation of quarks, we
compute the \omega dependence of the baryon screening length numerically and
obtain a reasonable result which shows that baryons with high spin dissociate
more easily. Finally, we discuss the relation between J and E^2 for baryons.


title: Bernstein Operators for Extended Chebyshev Systems

abstract:
  Let $U_{n}\subset C^{n}[ a,b] $ be an extended Chebyshev space of dimension
$n+1$. Suppose that $f_{0}\in U_{n}$ is strictly positive and $% f_{1}\in
U_{n}$ has the property that $f_{1}/f_{0}$ is strictly increasing. We search
for conditions ensuring the existence of points $% t_{0},...,t_{n}\in [ a,b] $
and positive coefficients $\alpha_{0},...,\alpha_{n}$ such that for all $f\in
C[ a,b]$, the operator $B_{n}:C[ a,b] \to U_{n}$ defined by $%
B_{n}f=\sum_{k=0}^{n}f(t_{k}) \alpha_{k}p_{n,k}$ satisfies $% B_{n}f_{0}=f_{0}$
and $B_{n}f_{1}=f_{1}.$ Here it is assumed that $% p_{n,k},k=0,...,n$, is a
Bernstein basis, defined by the property that each $% p_{n,k}$ has a zero of
order $k$ at $a$ and a zero of order $n-k$ at $b.$


title: Type-III see-saw at LHC

abstract:
  Neutrino masses can be generated by fermion triplets with TeV-scale mass,
that would manifest at LHC as production of two leptons together with two heavy
SM vectors or higgs, giving rise to final states such as 2 leptons + 4 jets
(that can violate lepton number and/or lepton flavor) or 1 lepton +4 jets
+missing transverse energy. We devise cuts to suppress the SM backgrounds to
these signatures. Furthermore, for most of the mass range suggested by neutrino
data, triplet decays are detectably displaced from the production point,
allowing to infer the neutrino mass parameters. We compare with LHC signals of
type-I and type-II see-saw.


title:
Shape preserving properties of generalized Bernstein operators on
  Extended Chebyshev spaces

abstract:
  We study the existence and shape preserving properties of a generalized
Bernstein operator $B_{n}$ fixing a strictly positive function $f_{0}$, and a
second function $f_{1}$ such that $f_{1}/f_{0}$ is strictly increasing, within
the framework of extended Chebyshev spaces $U_{n}$. The first main result gives
an inductive criterion for existence: suppose there exists a Bernstein operator
$B_{n}:C[a,b]\to U_{n}$ with strictly increasing nodes, fixing $f_{0}, f_{1}\in
U_{n}$. If $U_{n}\subset U_{n + 1}$ and $U_{n + 1}$ has a non-negative
Bernstein basis, then there exists a Bernstein operator $B_{n+1}:C[a,b]\to
U_{n+1}$ with strictly increasing nodes, fixing $f_{0}$ and $f_{1}.$ In
particular, if $% f_{0},f_{1},...,f_{n}$ is a basis of $U_{n}$ such that the
linear span of $% f_{0},..,f_{k}$ is an extended Chebyshev space over $[ a,b] $
for each $k=0,...,n$, then there exists a Bernstein operator $B_{n}$ with
increasing nodes fixing $f_{0}$ and $f_{1}.$ The second main result says that
under the above assumptions the following inequalities hold B_{n}f\geq
B_{n+1}f\geq f for all $(f_{0},f_{1})$-convex functions $f\in C[ a,b] .$
Furthermore, $B_{n}f$ is $(f_{0},f_{1})$-convex for all $(f_{0},f_{1})$%
-convex functions $f\in C[ a,b] .$ In the specific case of exponential
polynomials we give alternative proofs of shape preserving properties by
computing derivatives of the generalized Bernstein polynomials.


title: Anomalous anomalous scaling?

abstract:
  Motivated by speculations about infrared deviations from the standard
behavior of local quantum field theories, we explore the possibility that such
effects might show up as an anomalous running of coupling constants. The most
sensitive probes are presently given by the anomalous magnetic moments of the
electron and the muon, that suggest that alpha_{em} runs 1.00047 +- 0.00018
times faster than predicted by the Standard Model. The running of alpha_{em}
and alpha_s up to the weak scale is confirmed with a precision at the % level.


title:
X(3872) and the bound state problem of $D^0\bar{D}^{\ast0}$
  ($\bar{D}^0{D}^{\ast0}$) in a chiral quark model

abstract:
  The bound state problem of $D^0\bar{D}^{\ast0}$ ($\bar{D}^0{D}^{\ast0}$) is
relevant to the molecular interpretation of the X(3872). We investigated this
problem in a chiral quark model by solving the resonating group method
equation. We found the system is unbound through S-wave $\pi$ and $\sigma$
interactions. The inclusion of $\rho$ and $\omega$ meson exchanges is helpful
to the formation of a molecule. Because the binding energy relies on the
coupling constants, we cannot draw a definite conclusion whether a molecular
state exists in $D^0\bar{D}^{\ast0}$ ($\bar{D}^0{D}^{\ast0}$) system. When
moving on to the bottom counterpart, we obtained an S-wave $B\bar{B}^\ast$
state.


title:
Wake field generation and nonlinear evolution in a magnetized
  electron-positron-ion plasma

abstract:
  The nonlinear propagation of a circularly polarized electromagnetic (CPEM)
wave in a strongly magnetized electron-positron-ion plasma is investigated. Two
coupled equations describing the interaction between a high-frequency CPEM wave
and the low-frequency electrostatic wake field are derived. It is found that
the generation of the wake fields depends on the presence of the ion species.
The wake field generation in turn leads to de-acceleration and frequency down
conversion of the electromagnetic pulse.


title: Bernstein operators for exponential polynomials

abstract:
  Let $L$ be a linear differential operator with constant coefficients of order
$n$ and complex eigenvalues $\lambda_{0},...,\lambda_{n}$. Assume that the set
$U_{n}$ of all solutions of the equation $Lf=0$ is closed under complex
conjugation. If the length of the interval $[ a,b] $ is smaller than $\pi
/M_{n}$, where $M_{n}:=\max \left\{| \text{Im}% \lambda_{j}| :j=0,...,n\right\}
$, then there exists a basis $p_{n,k}$%, $k=0,...n$, of the space $U_{n}$ with
the property that each $p_{n,k}$ has a zero of order $k$ at $a$ and a zero of
order $n-k$ at $b,$ and each $% p_{n,k}$ is positive on the open interval
$(a,b) .$ Under the additional assumption that $\lambda_{0}$ and $\lambda_{1}$
are real and distinct, our first main result states that there exist points $%
a=t_{0}<t_{1}<...<t_{n}=b$ and positive numbers $\alpha_{0},..,\alpha_{n}$%,
such that the operator \begin{equation*}
B_{n}f:=\sum_{k=0}^{n}\alpha_{k}f(t_{k}) p_{n,k}(x) \end{equation*} satisfies
$B_{n}e^{\lambda_{j}x}=e^{\lambda_{j}x}$, for $j=0,1.$ The second main result
gives a sufficient condition guaranteeing the uniform convergence of $B_{n}f$
to $f$ for each $f\in C[ a,b] $.


title:
Free Magnetic Energy in Solar Active Regions above the Minimum-Energy
  Relaxed State

abstract:
  To understand the physics of solar flares, including the local reorganisation
of the magnetic field and the acceleration of energetic particles, we have
first to estimate the free magnetic energy available for such phenomena, which
can be converted into kinetic and thermal energy. The free magnetic energy is
the excess energy of a magnetic configuration compared to the minimum-energy
state, which is a linear force-free field if the magnetic helicity of the
configuration is conserved. We investigate the values of the free magnetic
energy estimated from either the excess energy in extrapolated fields or the
magnetic virial theorem. For four different active regions, we have
reconstructed the nonlinear force-free field and the linear force-free field
corresponding to the minimum-energy state. The free magnetic energies are then
computed. From the energy budget and the observed magnetic activity in the
active region, we conclude that the free energy above the minimum-energy state
gives a better estimate and more insights into the flare process than the free
energy above the potential field state.


title:
Collapse of solitary waves near transition from supercritical to
  subcritical bifurcations

abstract:
  We study both analytically and numerically the nonlinear stage of the
instability of one-dimensional solitons in a small vicinity of the transition
point from supercritical to subcritical bifurcations in the framework of the
generalized nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation. It is shown that near the
collapsing time the pulse amplitude and its width demonstrate the self-similar
behavior with a small asymmetry at the pulse tails due to self-steepening. This
theory is applied to both solitary interfacial deep-water waves and envelope
water waves with a finite depth and short optical pulses in fibers as well.


title: Monge-Ampere boundary measures

abstract:
  We study swept-out Monge-Ampere measures of plurisubharmonic functions and
boundary values related to these measures.


title: Partitions of $\mathbb{Z}_n$ into Arithmetic Progressions

abstract:
  We introduce the notion of arithmetic progression blocks or AP-blocks of
$\mathbb{Z}_n$, which can be represented as sequences of the form $(x, x+m,
x+2m, ..., x+(i-1)m) \pmod n$. Then we consider the problem of partitioning
$\mathbb{Z}_n$ into AP-blocks for a given difference $m$. We show that subject
to a technical condition, the number of partitions of $\mathbb{Z}_n$ into
$m$-AP-blocks of a given type is independent of $m$. When we restrict our
attention to blocks of sizes one or two, we are led to a combinatorial
interpretation of a formula recently derived by Mansour and Sun as a
generalization of the Kaplansky numbers. These numbers have also occurred as
the coefficients in Waring's formula for symmetric functions.


title:
Rotational quenching rate coefficients for H_2 in collisions with H_2
  from 2 to 10,000 K

abstract:
  Rate coefficients for rotational transitions in H_2 induced by H_2 impact are
presented. Extensive quantum mechanical coupled-channel calculations based on a
recently published (H_2)_2 potential energy surface were performed. The
potential energy surface used here is presumed to be more reliable than
surfaces used in previous work. Rotational transition cross sections with
initial levels J <= 8 were computed for collision energies ranging between
0.0001 and 2.5 eV, and the corresponding rate coefficients were calculated for
the temperature range 2 < T <10,000 K. In general, agreement with earlier
calculations, which were limited to 100-6000 K, is good though discrepancies
are found at the lowest and highest temperatures. Low-density-limit cooling
functions due to para- and ortho-H_2 collisions are obtained from the
collisional rate coefficients. Implications of the new results for non-thermal
H_2 rotational distributions in molecular regions are also investigated.


title: Knots as possible excitations of the quantum Yang-Mills fields

abstract:
  A hypothetical picture of massive excitations of 4-dimensional Yang-Mills
quantum field theory as closed knotted fat strings is described.


title:
A Critical Analysis of Universality and Kirchhoff's Law: A Return to
  Stewart's Law of Thermal Emission

abstract:
  It has been advanced, on experimental (P.-M. Robitaille, IEEE Trans. Plasma
Sci. 2003, v. 31(6), 1263-1267) and theoretical (P.M. Robitaille, Progr. Phys.
2006, v.2, 22-23) grounds, that blackbody radiation is not universal and
remains closely linked to the emission of graphite and soot. In order to
strengthen such claims, a conceptual analysis of the proofs for universality is
presented. This treatment reveals that Gustav Robert Kirchhoff has not properly
considered the combined effects of absorption, reflection, and the directional
nature of emission in real materials. In one instance, this leads to an
unintended movement away from thermal equilibrium within cavities. Using
equilibrium arguments, it is demonstrated that the radiation within perfectly
reflecting or arbitrary cavities does not necessarily correspond to that
emitted by a blackbody.


title:
Motion of Spin 1/2 Massless Particle in a Curved Spacetime. II. Field
  Lagrangian Approach

abstract:
  Earlier we obtained quasi-classical equations of motion of spin 1/2 massless
particle in a curved spacetime on base of simple Lagrangian model \cite{al2}.
Now we suggest an approach to derive the equations in framework of field
theory. Noether theorem formulated in terms of Cartan' formalism of orthonormal
frames gives equations for current of spin of the field and tensor of
stress-energy. It is shown that under eikonal approximation the above mentioned
equations can be reduced to equations for worldline of the particle and
equation of spin of the particle along the worldline. This way conformity
between corpuscular considerations of spin 1/2 massless particle and approach
in framework of spinor field theory in curved spacetime is demonstrated.


title: A circumnuclear disk of atomic hydrogen in Centaurus A

abstract:
  We present new observations, performed with the Australia Telescope Compact
Array, of the HI absorption in the central regions of Centaurus A. For the
first time, absorption is detected against the radio core at velocities
blueshifted with respect to the systemic velocity. Moreover, the data show that
the nuclear redshifted absorption component is broader than reported before.
With these new results, the kinematics of the HI in the inner regions of Cen A
appears very similar to that observed in emission for the molecular
circumnuclear disk. This suggests that the central HI absorption is not, as was
previously claimed, evidence of gas infall into the AGN, but instead is due to
a cold, circumnuclear disk.


title:
Noncommutative Geometry in the Framework of Differential Graded
  Categories

abstract:
  In this survey article we discuss a framework of noncommutative geometry with
differential graded categories as models for spaces. We outline a construction
of the category of noncommutative spaces and also include a discussion on
noncommutative motives. We propose a motivic measure with values in a motivic
ring. This enables us to introduce certain zeta functions of noncommutative
spaces.


title:
Overall and Pairwise Segregation Tests Based on Nearest Neighbor
  Contingency Tables

abstract:
  Multivariate interaction between two or more classes (or species) has
important consequences in many fields and causes multivariate clustering
patterns such as segregation or association. The spatial segregation occurs
when members of a class tend to be found near members of the same class (i.e.,
near conspecifics) while spatial association occurs when members of a class
tend to be found near members of the other class or classes. These patterns can
be studied using a nearest neighbor contingency table (NNCT). The null
hypothesis is randomness in the nearest neighbor (NN) structure, which may
result from -- among other patterns -- random labeling (RL) or complete spatial
randomness (CSR) of points from two or more classes (which is called the CSR
independence, henceforth). In this article, we introduce new versions of
overall and cell-specific tests based on NNCTs (i.e., NNCT-tests) and compare
them with Dixon's overall and cell-specific tests. These NNCT-tests provide
information on the spatial interaction between the classes at small scales
(i.e., around the average NN distances between the points). Overall tests are
used to detect any deviation from the null case, while the cell-specific tests
are post hoc pairwise spatial interaction tests that are applied when the
overall test yields a significant result. We analyze the distributional
properties of these tests; assess the finite sample performance of the tests by
an extensive Monte Carlo simulation study. Furthermore, we show that the new
NNCT-tests have better performance in terms of Type I error and power. We also
illustrate these NNCT-tests on two real life data sets.


title: Strong lensing with positive cosmological constant

abstract:
  Strong lensing by an isolated spherically symmetric mass distribution is
considered in presence of a positive cosmological constant. Deflection angles
and time delay are computed and compared to the multiple image of the quasar
SDSS J1004+4112.


title:
The probability of exceeding a piecewise deterministic barrier by the
  heavy-tailed renewal compound process

abstract:
  We analyze the asymptotics of crossing a high piecewise linear barriers by a
renewal compound process with the subexponential jumps. The study is motivated
by ruin probabilities of two insurance companies (or two branches of the same
company) that divide between them both claims and premia in some specified
proportions when the initial reserves of both companies tend to infinity.


title:
Separability and Entanglement of Quantum States Based on Covariance
  Matrices

abstract:
  We investigate the separability of quantum states based on covariance
matrices. Separability criteria are presented for multipartite states. The
lower bound of concurrence proposed in Phys. Rev. A. 75, 052320 (2007) is
improved by optimizing the local orthonormal observables.


title: Vibronic spectroscopy of an artificial molecule

abstract:
  With advanced fabrication techniques it is possible to make nanoscale
electronic structures that have discrete energy levels. Such structures are
called artificial atoms because of analogy with true atoms. Examples of such
atoms are quantum dots in semiconductor heterostructures and Josephson-junction
qubits. It is also possible to have artificial atoms interacting with each
other. This is an artificial molecule in the sense that the electronic states
are analogous to the ones in a molecule. In this letter we present a different
type of artificial molecule that, in addition to electronic states, also
includes the analog of nuclear vibrations in a diatomic molecule. Some of the
earlier experiments could be interpreted using this analogy, including qubits
coupled to oscillators and qubits driven by an intense field. In our case the
electronic states of the molecule are represented by a Josephson-junction
qubit, and the nuclear separation corresponds to the magnetic flux in a loop
containing the qubit and an LC oscillator. We probe the vibronic transitions,
where both the electronic and vibrational states change simultaneously, and
find that they are analogous to true molecules. The vibronic transitions could
be used for sideband cooling of the oscillator, and we see damping up to
sidebands of order 10.


title: On reductions of families of crystalline Galois representations

abstract:
  Let K_{f} be the finite unramified extension of Q_{p} of degree f and E any
finite large enough coefficient field containing K_{f}. We construct analytic
families of \'etale (Phi,Gamma)-modules which give rise to families of
crystalline E-representations of the absolute Galois group G_{K_{f}} of K_{f}.
For any irreducible effective two-dimensional crystalline E-representation of
G_{K_{f}} with labeled Hodge-Tate weights {0,-k_{i}}_{{\tau}_{i}} induced from
a crystalline character of G_{K_{2f}}, we construct an infinite family of
crystalline E-representations of G_{K_{f}} of the same Hodge-Tate type which
contains it. As an application, we compute the semisimplified mod p reductions
of the members of each such family.


title:
Characterization of the tail of the distribution of earthquake
  magnitudes by combining the GEV and GPD descriptions of Extreme Value Theory

abstract:
  We present a generic and powerful approach to study the statistics of extreme
phenomena (meteorology, finance, biology...) that we apply to the statistical
estimation of the tail of the distribution of earthquake sizes. The chief
innovation is to combine the two main limit theorems of Extreme Value Theory
(EVT) that allow us to derive the distribution of T-maxima (maximum magnitude
occurring in sequential time intervals of duration T) for arbitrary T. We
propose a method for the estimation of the unknown parameters involved in the
two limit theorems corresponding to the Generalized Extreme Value distribution
(GEV) and to the Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD). We establish the direct
relations between the parameters of these distributions, which permit to
evaluate the distribution of the T-maxima for arbitrary T. The duality between
the GEV and GPD provides a new way to check the consistency of the estimation
of the tail characteristics of the distribution of earthquake magnitudes for
earthquake occurring over arbitrary time interval. We develop several
procedures and check points to decrease the scatter of the estimates and to
verify their consistency. We test our full procedure on the global Harvard
catalog (1977-2006) and on the Fennoscandia catalog (1900-2005). For the global
catalog, we obtain the following estimates: Mmax = 9.53 +- 0.52;
quantile(0.97)==9.21 +- 0.20. For Fennoscandia, we obtain Mmax = 5.76 +- 0.165;
quantile(0.97) =5.44 +- 0.073. The estimates of all related parameters for the
GEV and GPD, including the most important form parameter, are also provided.


title: Highlights from PHENIX - II

abstract:
  This contribution highlights recent results from the PHENIX Collaboration at
RHIC with emphasis on those obtained through lepton and photon measurements in
PHENIX.


title:
Zone center phonons of the orthorhombic RMnO3 (R = Pr, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho)
  perovskites

abstract:
  A short range force constant model (SRFCM) has been applied for the first
time to investigate the phonons in RMnO3 (R = Pr, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho) perovskites
in their orthorhombic phase. The calculations with 17 stretching and bending
force constants provide good agreement for the observed Raman frequencies. The
infrared frequencies have been assigned for the first time.
  PACS Codes: 36.20.Ng, 33.20.Fb, 34.20.Cf


title: Energy Loss by Gravitational Viscosity

abstract:
  Due to Lorentz invariance of General Relativity gravitational interaction is
limited to the speed of light. Thus for particles, moving within a matter
field, retardation leads to loss of energy by emission of gravitational
radiation. This 'gravitomagnetic' effect, applied to motion in homogeneous mass
filled space, acts like a viscous force, slowing down every motion in the
universe on the Hubble time scale. The energy loss rate exactly equals the red
shift of photons in an expanding universe, thus showing the equivalence of
wavelength stretching in the wave picture and energy loss in the photon
picture. The loss mechanism is not restricted to an expanding universe,
however, but would also be present in a static Einstein universe.


title: Non-Gaussianity and purity in finite dimension

abstract:
  We address truncated states of continuous variable systems and analyze their
statistical properties numerically by generating random states in
finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. In particular, we focus to the distribution
of purity and non-Gaussianity for dimension up to d=21. We found that both
quantities are distributed around typical values with variances that decrease
for increasing dimension. Approximate formulas for typical purity and
non-Gaussianity as a function of the dimension are derived.


title:
Connectivity and Dynamics of Neuronal Networks as Defined by the Shape
  of Individual Neurons

abstract:
  Neuronal networks constitute a special class of dynamical systems, as they
are formed by individual geometrical components, namely the neurons. In the
existing literature, relatively little attention has been given to the
influence of neuron shape on the overall connectivity and dynamics of the
emerging networks. The current work addresses this issue by considering
simplified neuronal shapes consisting of circular regions (soma/axons) with
spokes (dendrites). Networks are grown by placing these patterns randomly in
the 2D plane and establishing connections whenever a piece of dendrite falls
inside an axon. Several topological and dynamical properties of the resulting
graph are measured, including the degree distribution, clustering coefficients,
symmetry of connections, size of the largest connected component, as well as
three hierarchical measurements of the local topology. By varying the number of
processes of the individual basic patterns, we can quantify relationships
between the individual neuronal shape and the topological and dynamical
features of the networks. Integrate-and-fire dynamics on these networks is also
investigated with respect to transient activation from a source node,
indicating that long-range connections play an important role in the
propagation of avalanches.


title:
Breathing mode frequencies of a rotating Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC
  crossover region

abstract:
  We study the breathing mode frequencies of a rotating Fermi gas trapped in a
harmonic plus radial quartic potential. We find that as the radial
anharmonicity increases, the lowest order radial mode frequency increases while
the next lowest order radial mode frequency decreases. Then at a critical
anharmonicity, these two modes merge and beyond this merge the cloud is
unstable against the oscillations. The critical anharmonicity depends on both
rotational frequency and the chemical potential. As a result of the large
chemical potential in the BCS regime, even with a weak anharmonicity the lowest
order mode frequency increases with decreasing the attractive interaction. For
large enough anharmonicities in the weak coupling BCS limit, we find that the
excitation of the breathing mode frequencies make the atomic cloud unstable.


title:
On the class of chiral symmetry representations with scalar and
  pseudoscalar fields

abstract:
  In the following few pages an account is given of a theme, which I began in
1966 and followed to the present.


title:
Negative differential resistance and pulsed current induced multi-level
  resistivity switching in charge ordered and disordered manganites

abstract:
  We have investigated direct and pulsed current induced electroresistance in
two manganites with different electronic and magnetic ground states:
charge-orbital ordered 50 % Ca doped NdMnO3 and 50 % Mn doped LaNiO3. It has
been shown that negative differential resistance observed at high current
density in these compounds is related to Joule heating. However, bi-level and
multi-level resistivity switching induced by variations in pulse width and
pulse period at low current density can not be attributable to Joule heating
alone. We discuss possible origins.


title:
Generalized Principle of limiting 4-dimensional symmetry.Relativistic
  length expansion in accelerated system revisited

abstract:
  In this article, Generalized Principle of "limiting 4-dimensional symmetry":
The laws of physics in non-inertial frames must display the 4-dimensional
symmetry of the Generalized Lorentz-Poincare group in the limit of zero
acceleration,is proposed.Classical solution of the relativistic length
expansion in general accelerated system revisited.


title:
Quantifying the non-Gaussian character of a quantum state by quantum
  relative entropy

abstract:
  We introduce a novel measure to quantify the non-Gaussian character of a
quantum state: the quantum relative entropy between the state under examination
and a reference Gaussian state. We analyze in details the properties of our
measure and illustrate its relationships with relevant quantities in quantum
information as the Holevo bound and the conditional entropy; in particular a
necessary condition for the Gaussian character of a quantum channel is also
derived. The evolution of non-Gaussianity (nonG) is analyzedfor quantum states
undergoing conditional Gaussification towards twin-beam and de-Gaussification
driven by Kerr interaction. Our analysis allows to assess nonG as a resource
for quantum information and, in turn, to evaluate the performances of
Gaussification and de-Gaussification protocols.


title:
The eta invariant in the doubly K\"ahlerian conformally compact Einstein
  case

abstract:
  On a 3-manifold bounding a compact 4-manifold, let a conformal structure be
induced from a complete Einstein metric which conformally compactifies to a
K\"ahler metric. Formulas are derived for the eta invariant of this conformal
structure under additional assumptions. One such assumption is that the
K\"ahler metric admits a special K\"ahler-Ricci potential in the sense defined
by Derdzinski and Maschler. Another is that the K\"ahler metric is part of an
ambitoric structure, in the sense defined by Apostolov, Calderbank and
Gauduchon, as well as a toric one. The formulas are derived using the
Duistermaat-Heckman theorem. This result is closely related to earlier work of
Hitchin on the Einstein selfdual case.


title: Hadronic Molecules and the f0(980)/a0(980)

abstract:
  We discuss a possible interpretation of the f0(980) and a0(980) mesons as
hadronic molecules - bound states of K and Kbar mesons. Using a
phenomenological Lagrangian approach we calculate the strong f0(980) to pi pi
and a0(980) to pi eta as well as the electromagnetic f0(980) to gamma gamma and
a0(980) to gamma gamma decays. The covariant and gauge invariant model, which
also allows for finite size effects of the hadronic molecule, delivers results
in good agreement with available data and results of other theoretical
approaches.


title:
The removal of the polarization errors in low frequency dielectric
  spectroscopy

abstract:
  Electrode polarization error is the biggest problem when measuring the low
frequency dielectric properties of electrolytes or suspensions of particles,
including cells, in electrolytes. We present a simple and robust method to
remove the polarization error, which we demonstrate to work on weak and strong
ionic electrolytes as well as on cell suspensions. The method assumes no
particular behavior of the electrode polarization impedance; it makes use of
the fact that the effect dies out with frequency. The method allows for direct
measurement of the polarization impedance, whose behavior with the applied
voltages, electrode distance and ionic concentration is investigated.


title: Parton Energy Loss in Collinear Expansion

abstract:
  We demonstrate that the N=1 rescattering contribution to the gluon radiation
from a fast massless quark in eA DIS vanishes in the collinear approximation.
It is shown that the nonzero N=1 gluon spectrum obtained in the higher-twist
approach by Guo, Wang and Zhang is a consequence of unjustified neglecting some
important terms in the collinear expansion.


title: Heat Kernel Analysis on Infinite-Dimensional Heisenberg Groups

abstract:
  We introduce a class of non-commutative Heisenberg like infinite dimensional
Lie groups based on an abstract Wiener space. The Ricci curvature tensor for
these groups is computed and shown to be bounded. Brownian motion and the
corresponding heat kernel measures, $\{\nu_t\}_{t>0},$ are also studied. We
show that these heat kernel measures admit: 1) Gaussian like upper bounds, 2)
Cameron-Martin type quasi-invariance results, 3) good $L^p$ -- bounds on the
corresponding Radon-Nykodim derivatives, 4) integration by parts formulas, and
5) logarithmic Sobolev inequalities. The last three results heavily rely on the
boundedness of the Ricci tensor.


title: Quantum Mechanics of Proca Fields

abstract:
  We construct the most general physically admissible positive-definite inner
product on the space of Proca fields. Up to a trivial scaling this defines a
five-parameter family of Lorentz invariant inner products that we use to
construct a genuine Hilbert space for the quantum mechanics of Proca fields. If
we identify the generator of time-translations with the Hamiltonian, we obtain
a unitary quantum system that describes first-quantized Proca fields and does
not involve the conventional restriction to the positive-frequency fields. We
provide a rather comprehensive analysis of this system. In particular, we
examine the conserved current density responsible for the conservation of the
probabilities, explore the global gauge symmetry underlying the conservation of
the probabilities, obtain a probability current density, construct position,
momentum, helicity, spin, and angular momentum operators, and determine the
localized Proca fields. We also compute the generalized parity ($\cP$),
generalized time-reversal ($\cT$), and generalized charge or chirality ($\cC$)
operators for this system and offer a physical interpretation for its
$\cP\cT$-, $\cC$-, and $\cC\cP\cT$-symmetries.


title:
Evidence of phonon-assisted tunnelling in electrical conduction through
  DNA molecules

abstract:
  We propose a phonon-assisted tunnelling model for explanation of conductivity
dependence on temperature and temperature-dependent I-V characteristics in
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules. The capability of this model for
explanation of conductivity peculiarities in DNA is illustrated by comparison
of the temperature dependent I-V data extracted from some articles with
tunnelling rate dependences on temperature and field strength computed
according to the phonon-assisted tunnelling theory.
  PACS Codes: 87.15.-v, 71.38.-k, 73.40.Gk


title:
Charge dynamics in thermally and doping induced insulator-metal
  transitions of (Ti1-xVx)2O3

abstract:
  Charge dynamics of (Ti1-xVx)2O3 with x=0-0.06 has been investigated by
measurements of charge transport and optical conductivity spectra in a wide
temperature range of 2-600K with the focus on the thermally and doping induced
insulator-metal transitions (IMTs). The optical conductivity peaks for the
interband transitions in the 3d t2g manifold are observed in the both
insulating and metallic states, while their large variation (by ~0.4 eV) with
change of temperature and doping level scales with that of the Ti-Ti dimer bond
length, indicating the weakened singlet bond in the course of IMTs. The
thermally and V-doping induced IMTs are driven with the increase in carrier
density by band-crossing and hole-doping, respectively, in contrast to the
canonical IMT of correlated oxides accompanied by the whole collapse of the
Mott gap.


title: Fast Universal Algorithms for Robustness Analysis

abstract:
  In this paper, we develop efficient randomized algorithms for estimating
probabilistic robustness margin and constructing robustness degradation curve
for uncertain dynamic systems. One remarkable feature of these algorithms is
their universal applicability to robustness analysis problems with arbitrary
robustness requirements and uncertainty bounding set. In contrast to existing
probabilistic methods, our approach does not depend on the feasibility of
computing deterministic robustness margin. We have developed efficient methods
such as probabilistic comparison, probabilistic bisection and backward
iteration to facilitate the computation. In particular, confidence interval for
binomial random variables has been frequently used in the estimation of
probabilistic robustness margin and in the accuracy evaluation of estimating
robustness degradation function. Motivated by the importance of fast computing
of binomial confidence interval in the context of probabilistic robustness
analysis, we have derived an explicit formula for constructing the confidence
interval of binomial parameter with guaranteed coverage probability. The
formula overcomes the limitation of normal approximation which is asymptotic in
nature and thus inevitably introduce unknown errors in applications. Moreover,
the formula is extremely simple and very tight in comparison with classic
Clopper-Pearson's approach.


title: Evidence for Energy Regularity in the Mendeleev Periodic Table

abstract:
  We show that the dependence of the total energy of the atoms on their atomic
number follows a q-exponential (function proposed by C. Tsallis), for almost
all elements of the periodic table. The result is qualitatively explained in
terms of the way the atomic configurations are arranged to minimize energy.


title:
Interface between Hermitian and non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in a model
  calculation

abstract:
  We consider the interaction between the Hermitian world, represented by a
real delta-function potential $-\alpha\delta(x)$, and the non-Hermitian world,
represented by a PT-symmetric pair of delta functions with imaginary
coefficients $i\beta(\delta(x-L)-\delta(x+L))$. In the context of standard
quantum mechanics, the effect of the introduction of the imaginary delta
functions on the bound-state energy of the real delta function and its
associated wave-function is small for L large. However, scattering from the
combined potentials does not conserve probability as conventionally defined.
Both these problems can be studied instead in the context of quasi-Hermiticity,
whereby quantum mechanics is endowed with a new metric $\eta$, and consequently
a new wave-function $\Psi(x)$, defined in terms of the original wave-function
$\psi(x)$ by means of $\eta$. In this picture, working perturbatively in
$\beta$, the bound-state wave-function is actually unchanged from its
unperturbed form for $|x|<< L$. However, the scattering wave-function, for
$|x|>>L$, is changed in a significant manner. In particular there are incoming
and outgoing waves on both sides of the potential. One can then no longer talk
in terms of reflection and transmission coefficients, but the total
right-moving flux is now conserved.


title: Arithmetical rank of the cyclic and bicyclic graphs

abstract:
  We show that for the edge ideals of the graphs consisting of one cycle or two
cycles of any length connected through a vertex or a path, the arithmetical
rank equals the projective dimension.


title:
Bifurcation Loci of Exponential Maps and Quadratic Polynomials: Local
  Connectivity, Triviality of Fibers, and Density of Hyperbolicity

abstract:
  We study the bifurcation loci of quadratic (and unicritical) polynomials and
exponential maps. We outline a proof that the exponential bifurcation locus is
connected; this is an analog to Douady and Hubbard's celebrated theorem that
(the boundary of) the Mandelbrot set is connected.
  For these parameter spaces, a fundamental conjecture is that hyperbolic
dynamics is dense. For quadratic polynomials, this would follow from the famous
stronger conjecture that the bifurcation locus (or equivalently the Mandelbrot
set) is locally connected. It turns out that a formally slightly weaker
statement is sufficient, namely that every point in the bifurcation locus is
the landing point of a parameter ray.
  For exponential maps, the bifurcation locus is not locally connected. We
describe a different conjecture (triviality of fibers) which naturally
generalizes the role that local connectivity has for quadratic or unicritical
polynomials.


title: Study on the spectrum of the injected relativistic protons

abstract:
  About 10TeV gamma-ray emission within 10 pc region from the Galactic Center
had been reported by 4 independent groups. Considering that this TeV gamma-ray
emission is produced via a hadronic model, and the relativistic protons came
from the tidal disruption of stars by massive black holes, we investigate the
spectral nature of the injected relativistic protons required by the hadronic
model. The calculation was carried on the tidal disruption of the different
types of stars and the different propagation mechanisms of protons in the
interstellar medium. Compared with the observation data from HESS, we find for
the best fitting that the power-law index of the spectrum of the injected
protons is about -1.9, when a red giant star is tidally disrupted, and the
effective confinement of protons diffusion mechanism is adopted.


title:
Sample Reuse Techniques of Randomized Algorithms for Control under
  Uncertainty

abstract:
  Sample reuse techniques have significantly reduced the numerical complexity
of probabilistic robustness analysis. Existing results show that for a nested
collection of hyper-spheres the complexity of the problem of performing $N$
equivalent i.i.d. (identical and independent) experiments for each sphere is
absolutely bounded, independent of the number of spheres and depending only on
the initial and final radii.
  In this chapter we elevate sample reuse to a new level of generality and
establish that the numerical complexity of performing $N$ equivalent i.i.d.
experiments for a chain of sets is absolutely bounded if the sets are nested.
Each set does not even have to be connected, as long as the nested property
holds. Thus, for example, the result permits the integration of deterministic
and probabilistic analysis to eliminate regions from an uncertainty set and
reduce even further the complexity of some problems. With a more general view,
the result enables the analysis of complex decision problems mixing real-valued
and discrete-valued random variables.


title: NAPX: A Polynomial Time Approximation Scheme for the Noah's Ark Problem

abstract:
  The Noah's Ark Problem (NAP) is an NP-Hard optimization problem with
relevance to ecological conservation management. It asks to maximize the
phylogenetic diversity (PD) of a set of taxa given a fixed budget, where each
taxon is associated with a cost of conservation and a probability of
extinction. NAP has received renewed interest with the rise in availability of
genetic sequence data, allowing PD to be used as a practical measure of
biodiversity. However, only simplified instances of the problem, where one or
more parameters are fixed as constants, have as of yet been addressed in the
literature. We present NAPX, the first algorithm for the general version of NAP
that returns a $1 - \epsilon$ approximation of the optimal solution. It runs in
$O(\frac{n B^2 h^2 \log^2n}{\log^2(1 - \epsilon)})$ time where $n$ is the
number of species, and $B$ is the total budget and $h$ is the height of the
input tree. We also provide improved bounds for its expected running time.


title:
Eliminating Trapping Sets in Low-Density Parity Check Codes by using
  Tanner Graph Covers

abstract:
  We discuss error floor asympotics and present a method for improving the
performance of low-density parity check (LDPC) codes in the high SNR (error
floor) region.
  The method is based on Tanner graph covers that do not have trapping sets
from the original code. The advantages of the method are that it is universal,
as it can be applied to any LDPC code/channel/decoding algorithm and it
improves performance at the expense of increasing the code length, without
losing the code regularity, without changing the decoding algorithm, and, under
certain conditions, without lowering the code rate. The proposed method can be
modified to construct convolutional LDPC codes also.
  The method is illustrated by modifying Tanner, MacKay and Margulis codes to
improve performance on the binary symmetric channel (BSC) under the Gallager B
decoding algorithm. Decoding results on AWGN channel are also presented to
illustrate that optimizing codes for one channel/decoding algorithm can lead to
performance improvement on other channels.


title:
Influence of sintering temperature on resistivity, magnetoresistance and
  thermopower of La0.67Ca0.33MnO3

abstract:
  A systematic investigation of La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 manganites has been
undertaken, mainly to understand the influence of varying crystallite size
(nanometer range) on electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility and
thermoelectric power. The materials were prepared by the sol-gel method of
sintering at four different temperatures between 800 and 1100 degrees C. The
samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction and data were analyzed using
Rietveld refinement. The metal-insulator transition temperatures (TP) are found
to increase with increasing sintering temperatures, while the magnetic
transition temperatures (TC) decrease. The electrical resistivity and
thermoelectric power data at low temperatures (T < TP) have been analyzed by
considering various scattering phenomena, while the high temperature (T > TP)
data were analyzed with Mott's small polaron hopping conduction mechanisms.
PACS Codes: 73.50.Lw, 75.47.Gk, 75.47.Lx


title:
Fast Parallel Frequency Sweeping Algorithms for Robust ${\cal
  D}$-Stability Margin

abstract:
  This paper considers the robust ${\cal D}$-stability margin problem under
polynomic structured real parametric uncertainty. Based on the work of De
Gaston and Safonov (1988), we have developed techniques such as, a parallel
frequency sweeping strategy, different domain splitting schemes, which
significantly reduce the computational complexity and guarantee the
convergence.


title: Swift XRT Observations of the Possible Dark Galaxy VIRGOHI 21

abstract:
  \swift \xrt observations of the \hi line source \VV were performed on April
22 and April 26, 2008 for a total exposure time of 9.2ks. This is the first
pointed X-ray observation of \VV, a putative dark galaxy in the Virgo cluster,
and no photons were detected from this source. The non-detection of extended
X-ray emission within the angular extent of the \hi source corresponds to a 99%
confidence upper limit of $2.1 \times 10^{-14}$\ergcms in the 0.3--2.0 keV
band. The equivalent upper limit to the amount of diffuse hot gas associated
with \VV is in the range $4\times 10^{7} - 2 \times 10^8$ \msun for a hot gas
temperature between 0.1 and 1 keV. The non-detection also corresponds to a
99%-confidence upper limit on the flux from a point-like source of $8\times
10^{-15}$\ergcms in the 0.3--2.0 keV band. We discuss the constraints on the
nature of \VV imposed by these observations and the theoretical implications of
these results.


title: Equilibrium Simulation of the Slip Coefficient in Nanoscale Pores

abstract:
  Accurate prediction of interfacial slip in nanoscale channels is required by
many microfluidic applications. Existing hydrodynamic solutions based on
Maxwellian boundary conditions include an empirical parameter that depends on
material properties and pore dimensions. This paper presents a derivation of a
new expression for the slip coefficient that is not based on the assumptions
concerning the details of solid-fluid collisions and whose parameters are
obtainable from \textit{equilibrium} simulation. The results for the slip
coefficient and flow rates are in good agreement with non-equilibrium molecular
dynamics simulation.


title: Extremal black disks in QCD

abstract:
  We argue that in the high energy QCD a true black disk wave function
necessarily contains many quarks. This corresponds to necessity of non-vacuum
reggeon loops in formation of a black disk. The result comes from decomposition
of the black disk S-matrix in characters on group manifold.


title: Decoherence measurement of single phonons using spectral interference

abstract:
  A technique to measure the decoherence time of optical phonons in a solid is
presented. Phonons are excited with a pair of time delayed 80 fs, near infrared
pulses via spontaneous, transient Raman scattering. The fringe visibility of
the resulting Stokes pulse pair, as a function of time delay, is used to
measure the phonon dephasing time. The method avoids the need to use either
narrow band or few femtosecond pulses and is useful for low phonon excitations.
The dephasing time of phonons created in bulk diamond is measured to be tau =
6.8ps (1.56cm-1).


title:
Parallel Branch and Bound Algorithm for Computing Maximal Structured
  Singular Value

abstract:
  In this paper, we have developed a parallel branch and bound algorithm which
computes the maximal structured singular value $\mu$ without tightly bounding
$\mu$ for each frequency and thus significantly reduce the computational
complexity.


title:
Homopolar bond formation in ZnV$_2$O$_4$ close to a metal-insulator
  transition

abstract:
  Electronic structure calculations for spinel vanadate ZnV$_2$O$_4$ show that
partial electronic delocalization in this system leads to structural
instabilities. These are a consequence of the proximity to the
itinerant-electron boundary, not being related to orbital ordering. We discuss
how this mechanism naturally couples charge and lattice degrees of freedom in
magnetic insulators close to such a crossover. For the case of ZnV$_2$O$_4$,
this leads to the formation of V-V dimers along the [011] and [101] directions
that readily accounts for the intriguing magnetic structure of ZnV$_2$O$_4$.


title:
Optical second harmonic generation in Yttrium Aluminum Borate single
  crystals (theoretical simulation and experiment)

abstract:
  Experimental measurements of the second order susceptibilities for the second
harmonic generation are reported for YAl3(BO3)4 (YAB) single crystals for the
two principal tensor components xyz and yyy. First principles calculation of
the linear and nonlinear optical susceptibilities for Yttrium Aluminum Borate
YAl3(BO3)4 (YAB) crystal have been carried out within a framework of the
full-potential linear augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. Our calculations
show a large anisotropy of the linear and nonlinear optical susceptibilities.
The observed dependences of the second order susceptibilities for the static
frequency limit and for the frequency may be a consequence of different
contribution of electron-phonon interactions. The imaginary parts of the second
order SHG susceptibility chi_{123}^{(2)}(omega), chi_{112}^{(2)}(omega),
chi_{222}^{(2)}(omega), and chi_{213}^{(2)}(omega) are evaluated. We find that
the 2(omega) inter-band and intra-band contributions to the real and imaginary
parts of chi_{ijk}^{(2)}\l(omega) show opposite signs. The calculated second
order susceptibilities are in reasonably good agreement with the experimental
measurements.


title: Universal Cycles of Discrete Functions

abstract:
  A connected digraph in which the in-degree of any vertex equals its
out-degree is Eulerian; this baseline result is used as the basis of existence
proofs for universal cycles (also known as deBruijn cycles or $U$-cycles) of
several combinatorial objects. We present new results on the existence of
universal cycles of certain classes of functions. These include onto functions,
and 1-inequitable sequences on a binary alphabet. In each case the
connectedness of the underlying graph is the non-trivial aspect to be
established.


title:
On Abstract Strichartz Estimates and the Strauss Conjecture for
  Nontrapping Obstacles

abstract:
  The purpose of this paper is to show how local energy decay estimates for
certain linear wave equations involving compact perturbations of the standard
Laplacian lead to optimal global existence theorems for the corresponding small
amplitude nonlinear wave equations with power nonlinearities. To achieve this
goal, at least for spatial dimensions $n=3$ and 4, we shall show how the
aforementioned linear decay estimates can be combined with "abstract
Strichartz" estimates for the free wave equation to prove corresponding
estimates for the perturbed wave equation when $n\ge3$. As we shall see, we are
only partially successful in the latter endeavor when the dimension is equal to
two, and therefore, at present, our applications to nonlinear wave equations in
this case are limited.


title: Exchange coupled perpendicular media

abstract:
  The potential of exchange spring bilayers and graded media is reviewed. An
analytical model for the optimization of graded media gives an optimal value of
the magnetic polarization of Js = 0.8 T. The optimum design allows for
thermally stable grains with grain diameters in the order of 3.3 nm, which
supports ultra high density up to 5 to 10 Tbit per inch2. The switching field
distribution is significantly reduced in bilayer media and graded media
compared to single phase media. For the graded media the switching field
distribution is reduced by about a factor of two. For bilayer media the minimum
switching field distribution is obtained for soft layer anisotropies about one
fifth of the hard layer anisotropy. The influence of precessional switching on
the reversal time and the reversal field is investigated in detail for magnetic
bilayers. Exchange spring bilayers can be reversed with field pulses of 20 ps.


title:
Origin of electron-hole asymmetry in the scanning tunneling spectrum of
  $Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta}$

abstract:
  We have developed a material specific theoretical framework for modelling
scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) of high temperature superconducting
materials in the normal as well as the superconducting state. Results for
$Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta}$ (Bi2212) show clearly that the tunneling process
strongly modifies the STS spectrum from the local density of states (LDOS) of
the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbital of Cu. The dominant tunneling channel to the surface
Bi involves the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbitals of the four neighbouring Cu atoms. In
accord with experimental observations, the computed spectrum displays a
remarkable asymmetry between the processes of electron injection and
extraction, which arises from contributions of Cu $d_{z^2}$ and other orbitals
to the tunneling current.


title:
Contribution of drifting carriers to the Casimir-Lifshitz and
  Casimir-Polder interactions with semiconductor materials

abstract:
  We develop a new theory for Casimir-Lifshitz and Casimir-Polder interactions
with semiconductor surfaces that takes into account charge drift in the bulk
material. The corresponding frequency-dependent dispersion relations describe a
crossover between Lifshitz results for dielectrics and for good conductors. In
the quasi-static limit, our calculated reflection amplitudes coincide with
those recently computed to account for Debye screening in the thermal Lifshitz
force with conducting surfaces with small density of carriers.


title: Electroweak Resonant Leptogenesis in the Singlet Majoron Model

abstract:
  We study resonant leptogenesis at the electroweak phase transition in the
singlet Majoron model with right-handed neutrinos. We consider a scenario,
where the SM gauge group and the lepton number break down spontaneously during
a second-order electroweak phase transition. We calculate the flavour- and
temperature-dependent leptonic asymmetries, by including the novel
contributions from the transverse polarisations of the W+/- and Z bosons. The
required resummation of the gauge-dependent off-shell heavy-neutrino
self-energies is consistently treated within the gauge-invariant framework of
the Pinch Technique. Taking into consideration the freeze-out dynamics of
sphalerons, we delineate the parameter space of the model that is compatible
with successful electroweak resonant leptogenesis. The phenomenological and
astrophysical implications of the model are discussed.


title: Restricted Radon transforms and projections of planar sets

abstract:
  We establish a mixed norm estimate for the Radon transform in the plane when
the set of directions has fractional dimension. This estimate is used to prove
a result about an exceptional set of directions connected with projections of
planar sets. That leads to a conjecture analogous to a well-known conjecture of
Furstenberg.


title: Action-angle coordinates for integrable systems on Poisson manifolds

abstract:
  We prove the action-angle theorem in the general, and most natural, context
of integrable systems on Poisson manifolds, thereby generalizing the classical
proof, which is given in the context of symplectic manifolds. The topological
part of the proof parallels the proof of the symplectic case, but the rest of
the proof is quite different, since we are naturally led to using the calculus
of polyvector fields, rather than differential forms; in particular, we use in
the end a Poisson version of the classical Caratheodory-Jacobi-Lie theorem,
which we also prove. At the end of the article, we generalize the action-angle
theorem to the setting of non-commutative integrable systems on Poisson
manifolds.


title:
Complex Spontaneous Flows and Concentration Banding in Active Polar
  Films

abstract:
  We study the dynamical properties of active polar liquid crystalline films.
Like active nematic films, active polar films undergo a dynamical transitions
to spontaneously flowing steady-states. Spontaneous flow in polar fluids is,
however, always accompanied by strong concentration inhomogeneities or
"banding" not seen in nematics. In addition, a spectacular property unique to
polar active films is their ability to generate spontaneously oscillating and
banded flows even at low activity. The oscillatory flows become increasingly
complicated for strong polarity.


title:
Turbulence in Extrasolar Planetary Systems Implies that Mean Motion
  Resonances are Rare

abstract:
  This paper considers the effects of turbulence on mean motion resonances in
extrasolar planetary systems and predicts that systems rarely survive in a
resonant configuration. A growing number of systems are reported to be in
resonance, which is thought to arise from the planet migration process. If
planets are brought together and moved inward through torques produced by
circumstellar disks, then disk turbulence can act to prevent planets from
staying in a resonant configuration. This paper studies this process through
numerical simulations and via analytic model equations, where both approaches
include stochastic forcing terms due to turbulence. We explore how the
amplitude and forcing time intervals of the turbulence affect the maintenance
of mean motion resonances. If turbulence is common in circumstellar disks
during the epoch of planet migration, with the amplitudes indicated by current
MHD simulations, then planetary systems that remain deep in mean motion
resonance are predicted to be rare. More specifically, the fraction of resonant
systems that survive over a typical disk lifetime of 1 Myr is of order 0.01. If
mean motion resonances are found to be common, their existence would place
tight constraints on the amplitude and duty cycle of turbulent fluctuations in
circumstellar disks. These results can be combined by expressing the expected
fraction of surviving resonant systems in the approximate form P_b = C /
N_{orb}^{1/2}, where the dimensionless parameter C = 10 - 50 and where N_{orb}
is the number of orbits for which turbulence is active.


title: Generation of time-bin entangled photons without temporal post-selection

abstract:
  We report on the implementation of a new interferometric scheme that allows
the generation of photon pairs entangled in the time-energy degree of freedom.
This scheme does not require any kind of temporal post-selection on the
generated pairs and can be used even with lasers with short coherence time.


title: Geometric and spectral properties of locally tessellating planar graphs

abstract:
  In this article, we derive bounds for values of the global geometry of
locally tessellating planar graphs, namely, the Cheeger constant and
exponential growth, in terms of combinatorial curvatures. We also discuss
spectral implications for the Laplacians.


title: Shear viscosity of hadronic gas mixtures

abstract:
  We investigate the effects of baryon chemical potential \mu on the shear
viscosity coefficient \eta and the viscosity to entropy density ratio \eta/s of
a pion-nucleon gas mixture. We find that \eta is an increasing function of T
and \mu, while the ratio \eta/s turns to a decreasing function in a wide region
of T-\mu plane. In the kinematical region we studied, the smallest value of
\eta/s is about 0.3.


title: Non-singular Brane cosmology with a Kalb-Ramond field

abstract:
  We present a model in which a 3-brane is embedded in a warped 5-dimensional
background with a dilaton and a Kalb-Ramond 2-form. We show that it is possible
to find static solutions of the form of charged dS/AdS-like black hole which
could have a negative mass parameter. The motion of the 3-brane in this bulk
generates an effective 4-dimensional bouncing cosmology induced by the negative
dark radiation term. This model avoids the instabilities that arises for
previous non-singular braneworld cosmologies in a Reissner-Nordstr{\o}m-AdS
bulk.}


title: Improved constructions of quantum automata

abstract:
  We present a simple construction of quantum automata which achieve an
exponential advantage over classical finite automata. Our automata use
\frac{4}{\epsilon} \log 2p + O(1) states to recognize a language that requires
p states classically. The construction is both substantially simpler and
achieves a better constant in the front of \log p than the previously known
construction of Ambainis and Freivalds (quant-ph/9802062).
  Similarly to Ambainis and Freivalds, our construction is by a probabilistic
argument. We consider the possibility to derandomize it and present some
results in this direction.


title:
Riccati and Ermakov Equations in Time-Dependent and Time-Independent
  Quantum Systems

abstract:
  The time-evolution of the maximum and the width of exact analytic wave packet
(WP) solutions of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation (SE) represents the
particle and wave aspects, respectively, of the quantum system. The dynamics of
the maximum, located at the mean value of position, is governed by the
Newtonian equation of the corresponding classical problem. The width, which is
directly proportional to the position uncertainty, obeys a complex nonlinear
Riccati equation which can be transformed into a real nonlinear Ermakov
equation. The coupled pair of these equations yields a dynamical invariant
which plays a key role in our investigation. It can be expressed in terms of a
complex variable that linearizes the Riccati equation. This variable also
provides the time-dependent parameters that characterize the Green's function,
or Feynman kernel, of the corresponding problem. From there, also the relation
between the classical and quantum dynamics of the systems can be obtained.
Furthermore, the close connection between the Ermakov invariant and the Wigner
function will be shown. Factorization of the dynamical invariant allows for
comparison with creation/annihilation operators and supersymmetry where the
partner potentials fulfil (real) Riccati equations. This provides the link to a
nonlinear formulation of time-independent quantum mechanics in terms of an
Ermakov equation for the amplitude of the stationary state wave functions
combined with a conservation law. Comparison with SUSY and the time-dependent
problems concludes our analysis.


title: Comparison theory and smooth minimal C*-dynamics

abstract:
  We prove that the C*-algebra of a minimal diffeomorphism satisfies
Blackadar's Fundamental Comparability Property for positive elements. This
leads to the classification, in terms of K-theory and traces, of the
isomorphism classes of countably generated Hilbert modules over such algebras,
and to a similar classification for the closures of unitary orbits of
self-adjoint elements. We also obtain a structure theorem for the Cuntz
semigroup in this setting, and prove a conjecture of Blackadar and Handelman:
the lower semicontinuous dimension functions are weakly dense in the space of
all dimension functions. These results continue to hold in the broader setting
of unital simple ASH algebras with slow dimension growth and stable rank one.
Our main tool is a sharp bound on the radius of comparison of a recursive
subhomogeneous C*-algebra. This is also used to construct uncountably many
non-Morita-equivalent simple separable amenable C*-algebras with the same
K-theory and tracial state space, providing a C*-algebraic analogue of McDuff's
uncountable family of II_1 factors. We prove in passing that the range of the
radius of comparison is exhausted by simple C*-algebras.


title:
Parameter estimation of spinning binary inspirals using Markov-chain
  Monte Carlo

abstract:
  We present a Markov-chain Monte-Carlo (MCMC) technique to study the source
parameters of gravitational-wave signals from the inspirals of stellar-mass
compact binaries detected with ground-based gravitational-wave detectors such
as LIGO and Virgo, for the case where spin is present in the more massive
compact object in the binary. We discuss aspects of the MCMC algorithm that
allow us to sample the parameter space in an efficient way. We show sample runs
that illustrate the possibilities of our MCMC code and the difficulties that we
encounter.


title: Generalized W-Class State and its Monogamy Relation

abstract:
  We generalize the W class of states from $n$ qubits to $n$ qudits and prove
that their entanglement is fully characterized by their partial entanglements
even for the case of the mixture that consists of a W-class state and a product
state $\ket{0}^{\otimes n}$.


title: Evolution equations in QCD and QED

abstract:
  Evolution equations of YFS and DGLAP types in leading order are considered.
They are compared in terms of mathematical properties and solutions. In
particular, it is discussed how the properties of evolution kernels affect
solutions. Finally, comparison of solutions obtained numerically are presented.


title:
A Functional Model of Development and Expression in an Artificial
  Organism

abstract:
  This paper is placed at the intersection-point between the study of
theoretical computational models aimed at capturing the essence of genetic
regulatory networks and the field of Artificial Embryology (or Computational
Development). A model is proposed, with the objective of providing an effective
way to generate arbitrary forms by using evolutionary-developmental techniques.
Preliminary experiments have been performed.


title: Cosmic velocity--gravity relation in redshift space

abstract:
  We propose a simple way to estimate the parameter beta = Omega_m^(0.6)/b from
three-dimensional galaxy surveys. Our method consists in measuring the relation
between the cosmological velocity and gravity fields, and thus requires
peculiar velocity measurements. The relation is measured *directly in redshift
space*, so there is no need to reconstruct the density field in real space. In
linear theory, the radial components of the gravity and velocity fields in
redshift space are expected to be tightly correlated, with a slope given, in
the distant observer approximation, by g / v = (1 + 6 beta / 5 + 3 beta^2 /
7)^(1/2) / beta. We test extensively this relation using controlled numerical
experiments based on a cosmological N-body simulation. To perform the
measurements, we propose a new and rather simple adaptive interpolation scheme
to estimate the velocity and the gravity field on a grid. One of the most
striking results is that nonlinear effects, including `fingers of God', affect
mainly the tails of the joint probability distribution function (PDF) of the
velocity and gravity field: the 1--1.5 sigma region around the maximum of the
PDF is *dominated by the linear theory regime*, both in real and redshift
space. This is understood explicitly by using the spherical collapse model as a
proxy of nonlinear dynamics. Applications of the method to real galaxy catalogs
are discussed, including a preliminary investigation on homogeneous (volume
limited) `galaxy' samples extracted from the simulation with simple
prescriptions based on halo and sub-structure identification, to quantify the
effects of the bias between the galaxy and the total matter distibution, and of
shot noise (ABRIDGED).


title: Dynamics of Global Entanglement under Decoherence

abstract:
  We investigate the dynamics of global entanglement, the Meyer-Wallach
measure, under decoherence, analytically. We study two important class of
multi-partite entangled states, the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger and the W
state. We obtain exact results for various models of system-environment
interactions (decoherence). Our results shows distinctly different scaling
behavior for these initially entangled states indicating a relative robustness
of the W state, consistent with previous studies.


title: Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars.XIII

abstract:
  Radial-velocity measurements and sine-curve fits to the orbital radial
velocity variations are presented for ten close binary systems: EG Cep,V1191
Cyg, V1003 Her, BD+7_3142, V357 Peg, V407 Peg, V1123 Tau, V1128 Tau, HH UMa,
and PY Vir. While most of the studied eclipsing systems are contact binaries,
EG Cep is a detached or a semi-detached double-lined binary and V1003 Her is a
close binary of an uncertain type seen at a very low inclination angle. We
discovered two previously unknown triple systems, BD+7_3142 and PY Vir, both
with late spectral-type (K2V) binaries. Of interest is the low-mass ratio (q =
0.106) close binary V1191 Cyg showing an extremely fast period increase; the
system has a very short period for its spectral type and shows a W-type light
curve, a feature rather unexpected for such a low mass-ratio system.


title: Grammatical Evolution with Restarts for Fast Fractal Generation

abstract:
  In a previous work, the authors proposed a Grammatical Evolution algorithm to
automatically generate Lindenmayer Systems which represent fractal curves with
a pre-determined fractal dimension. This paper gives strong statistical
evidence that the probability distributions of the execution time of that
algorithm exhibits a heavy tail with an hyperbolic probability decay for long
executions, which explains the erratic performance of different executions of
the algorithm. Three different restart strategies have been incorporated in the
algorithm to mitigate the problems associated to heavy tail distributions: the
first assumes full knowledge of the execution time probability distribution,
the second and third assume no knowledge. These strategies exploit the fact
that the probability of finding a solution in short executions is
non-negligible and yield a severe reduction, both in the expected execution
time (up to one order of magnitude) and in its variance, which is reduced from
an infinite to a finite value.


title: Detecting of photons in optical fields of complicated spatial structure

abstract:
  We show that a photon detector, sensitive to the gradients of electromagnetic
fields, or to magnetic fields, should be a useful tool to characterize the
quantum properties of spatially-dependent optical fields. We discuss the
excitation of an atom on a magnetic dipole or electric quadrupole transitions
with the spiral photons of a Laguerre-Gauss (LG) or Bessel beams. We show that
these beams are not true hollow beams, due to the presence of magnetic fields
and gradients of electric fields on beam axis. This approach paves the way to
an analysis at the quantum level of the spatial structure and angular momentum
properties of singular light beams.


title: Novel strain-induced low dimensional confinement structures

abstract:
  We propose new confinement structures similar to heterostructures and
superlattices. The new heteostructures can be obtained by applying strain to a
single material in a periodic or aperiodic way. The conversion of an indirect
gap into an optical active direct or quasi-direct gap problem has also been
investigated together with the role of zone folding in this phenomenon.


title: An Asymptotic Formula for the Sequence ||exp(i n h(t))||_A

abstract:
  Given a function f with an absolutely convergent Fourier series, we define
the norm of f as ||f||_A = the sum of absolute values of the Fourier
coefficients of f. We study the behavior of ||f^n||_A as n goes to infinity,
for f of the form exp(ih(t)) where h is a real, odd and twice continuously
differentiable function such that h(t + 2\pi) = h(t) + 2k\pi for some integer
k. We obtain a remarkably simple asymptotic formula for the case when h'' has
no zeros in (0,\pi) and satisfies an additional condition near 0 and near \pi.
Corollaries of our formula are an asymptotic formula due to D.Girard, and a
formula on Bessel functions, due to G.Stey.


title: On the X-ray/TeV connection in Galactic jet sources

abstract:
  There are three Galactic jet sources, from which TeV emission has been
detected: LS 5039, LS I +61 303 and Cygnus X-1. These three sources show
power-law tails at X-rays and soft gamma-rays that could indicate a non-thermal
origin for this radiation. In addition, all three sources apparently show
correlated and complex behavior at X-ray and TeV energies. In some cases, this
complex behavior is related to the orbital motion (e.g. LS 5039, LS I +61 303),
and in some others it is related to some transient event occurring in the
system (e.g. Cygnus X-1, and likely also LS I +61 303 and LS 5039). Based on
modeling or energetic grounds, it seems difficult to explain the emission in
the X-/soft gamma-ray and the TeV bands as coming from the same region (i.e.
one-zone). We also point out the importance of the pair creation phenomena in
these systems, which harbor a massive and hot star, for the radio and the X-ray
emission, since a secondary pair radiation component may be significant in
these energy ranges. Finally, we discuss that in fact the presence of the star
can indeed have strong impact on, beside the non-thermal radiation production,
the jet dynamics.


title:
Statistics of multiphoton events in spontaneous parametric
  down-conversion

abstract:
  We present an experimental characterization of the statistics of multiple
photon pairs produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion realized in a
nonlinear medium pumped by high-energy ultrashort pulses from a regenerative
amplifier. The photon number resolved measurement has been implemented with the
help of a fiber loop detector. We introduce an effective theoretical
description of the observed statistics based on parameters that can be assigned
direct physical nterpretation. These parameters, determined for our source from
the collected experimental data, characterize the usefulness of down-conversion
sources in multiphoton interference schemes that underlie protocols for quantum
information processing and communication.


title:
Lattice points on the plane ax+by+cz=d and the diophantine system
  ax+by+cz=d ex+fy+gz=h

abstract:
  The subject matter of this work are the linear, three variable diophantine
equation ax+by+cz=d (1), and the diophantine system ax+by+cz=d (2) ex+fy+gz=h
with the coefficients a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h being integers. Introductory number
theory books, typically contain only a brief outline of how to solve equation
(1). Even less or no material is offered on the system (2). The purpose of this
work is to fill this gap. After some preliminary, introductory material, which
includes the general solution of the two variable linear diophantine equation
ax+by=c(material which we use later in the paper); we present a complete and
detailed analysis of equation (1). We determine the precise conditions that the
coefficients a,b,c,d must satisfy in order for integer solutions to exist. We
then derive a two-parameter, parametric description of The solution set. The
solution set of (1), if not empty, consists of all integer triples (x,y,z) that
satisfy (1). Geometrically, this is interpreted as the set of all lattice
points in 3-D space which lie on the plane with equation (1). Similarly, we
offer an exhaustive analysis of the system (2) by determining the precise
conditions that the coeffients must satisfy in order for integer solutions to
exist. We offer seven examples with detailed solutions.


title: From Simplified BLG Action to the First-Quantized M-Theory

abstract:
  Concise summary of the recent progress in the search for the world-volume
action for multiple M2 branes. After a recent discovery of simplified version
of BLG action, which is based on the ordinary Lie-algebra structure, does not
have coupling constants and extra dynamical fields, attention should be
switched to the study of M2 brane dynamics. A viable brane analogue of Polyakov
formalism and Belavin-Knizhnik theorem for strings can probably be provided by
Palatini formalism for 3d (super)gravity.


title:
Determining the WIMP mass from a single direct detection experiment, a
  more detailed study

abstract:
  The energy spectrum of nuclear recoils in Weakly Interacting Massive Particle
(WIMP) direct detection experiments depends on the underlying WIMP mass. We
study how the accuracy with which the WIMP mass could be determined by a single
direct detection experiment depends on the detector configuration and the WIMP
properties. We investigate the effects of varying the underlying WIMP mass and
cross-section, the detector target nucleus, exposure, energy threshold and
maximum energy, the local circular speed and the background event rate and
spectrum. The number of events observed is directly proportional to both the
exposure and the cross-section, therefore these quantities have the greatest
bearing on the accuracy of the WIMP mass determination. The relative
capabilities of different detectors to determine the WIMP mass depend not only
on the WIMP and target masses, but also on their energy thresholds. We find
that the rapid decrease of the nuclear form factor with increasing momentum
transfer which occurs for heavy nuclei, means that heavy nuclei will not
necessarily be able to measure the mass of heavy WIMPs more accurately.
Uncertainty in the local circular speed and non-negligible background would
both lead to systematic errors in the WIMP mass determination. With a single
detector it will be difficult to disentangle a WIMP signal (and the WIMP mass)
from background if the background spectrum has a similar shape to the WIMP
spectrum (i.e. exponential background, or flat background and a heavy WIMP).


title:
The prospects for producing ultracold NH$_3$ molecules by sympathetic
  cooling: a survey of interaction potentials

abstract:
  We investigate the possibility of producing ultracold NH3 molecules by
sympathetic cooling in a bath of ultracold atoms. We consider the interactions
of NH3 with alkali-metal and alkaline-earth atoms, and with Xe, using ab initio
coupled-cluster calculations. For Rb-NH3 and Xe-NH3 we develop full potential
energy surfaces, while for the other systems we characterize the stationary
points (global and local minima and saddle points). We also calculate isotropic
and anisotropic Van der Waals C6 coefficients for all the systems. The
potential energy surfaces for interaction of NH3 with alkali-metal and
alkaline-earth atoms all show deep potential wells and strong anisotropies. The
well depths vary from 887 1/cm for Mg-NH3 to 5104 1/cm for Li-NH3. This
suggests that all these systems will exhibit strong inelasticity whenever
inelastic collisions are energetically allowed and that sympathetic cooling
will work only when both the atoms and the molecules are already in their
lowest internal states. Xe-NH3 is more weakly bound and less anisotropic.


title: Computing stability of multi-dimensional travelling waves

abstract:
  We present a numerical method for computing the pure-point spectrum
associated with the linear stability of multi-dimensional travelling fronts to
parabolic nonlinear systems. Our method is based on the Evans function shooting
approach. Transverse to the direction of propagation we project the spectral
equations onto a finite Fourier basis. This generates a large, linear,
one-dimensional system of equations for the longitudinal Fourier coefficients.
We construct the stable and unstable solution subspaces associated with the
longitudinal far-field zero boundary conditions, retaining only the information
required for matching, by integrating the Riccati equations associated with the
underlying Grassmannian manifolds. The Evans function is then the matching
condition measuring the linear dependence of the stable and unstable subspaces
and thus determines eigenvalues. As a model application, we study the stability
of two-dimensional wrinkled front solutions to a cubic autocatalysis model
system. We compare our shooting approach with the continuous orthogonalization
method of Humpherys and Zumbrun. We then also compare these with standard
projection methods that directly project the spectral problem onto a finite
multi-dimensional basis satisfying the boundary conditions.


title: The physics of non-thermal radiation in microquasars

abstract:
  Microquasars are binary systems that harbor a normal star and a compact
object (black-hole or neutron star), and show relativistic outflows (or jets).
The matter that forms these jets is of likely stellar origin, previously
expelled from the star and trapped in the potential well of the compact object.
This matter is accreted by the compact object, forming a disk due to its
angular momentum, and is eventually ejected in the form of a bipolar outflow
(the jets), which generates radio emission and could also be a very high-energy
emitter. To study and understand the radiation from microquasars, there is a
set of elements that can play a major role and are to be taken into account:
the photons and the expelled matter from the star in the case of high-mass
systems; the accreted matter radiation; the jet; the magnetic field carried by
the jet or filling the binary system; and the medium surrounding the
microquasar at large scales (~pc). In this lecture, we consider these elements
of the microquasar scenario and briefly describe the physical conditions and
processes involved in the production of non-thermal radiation from radio to
gamma-rays. The required energetics, particle acceleration and transport,
several radiative mechanisms, and the impact of different photon absorption
processes, are discussed.


title: Quenched and Annealed Critical Points in Polymer Pinning Models

abstract:
  We consider a polymer with configuration modeled by the path of a Markov
chain, interacting with a potential $u+V_n$ which the chain encounters when it
visits a special state 0 at time $n$. The disorder $(V_n)$ is a fixed
realization of an i.i.d. sequence. The polymer is pinned, i.e. the chain spends
a positive fraction of its time at state 0, when $u$ exceeds a critical value.
We assume that for the Markov chain in the absence of the potential, the
probability of an excursion from 0 of length $n$ has the form $n^{-c}\phi(n)$
with $c \geq 1$ and $\phi$ slowly varying. Comparing to the corresponding
annealed system, in which the $V_n$ are effectively replaced by a constant, it
is known that the quenched and annealed critical points differ at all
temperatures for $3/2<c<2$ and $c>2$, but only at low temperatures for $c<3/2$.
For high temperatures and $3/2<c<2$ we establish the exact order of the gap
between critical points, as a function of temperature. For the borderline case
$c=3/2$ we show that the gap is positive provided $\phi(n) \to 0$ as $n \to
\infty$, and for $c >3/2$ with arbitrary temperature we provide a new proof
that the gap is positive, and extend it to $c=2$.


title:
Galaxy Evolution in Hickson Compact Groups: The Role of Ram Pressure
  Stripping and Strangulation

abstract:
  Galaxies in compact groups tend to be deficient in neutral hydrogen compared
to isolated galaxies of similar optical properties. In order to investigate the
role played by a hot intragroup medium (IGM) for the removal and destruction of
HI in these systems, we have performed a Chandra and XMM-Newton study of eight
of the most HI deficient Hickson compact groups. Diffuse X-ray emission
associated with an IGM is detected in four of the groups, suggesting that
galaxy-IGM interactions are not the dominant mechanism driving cold gas out of
the group members. No clear evidence is seen for any of the members being
currently stripped of any hot gas, nor for galaxies to show enhanced nuclear
X-ray activity in the X-ray bright or most HI deficient groups. Combining the
inferred IGM distributions with analytical models of representative disc
galaxies orbiting within each group, we estimate the HI mass loss due to ram
pressure and viscous stripping. While these processes are generally
insufficient to explain observed HI deficiencies, they could still be important
for HI removal in the X-ray bright groups, potentially removing more than half
of the ISM in the X-ray bright HCG 97. Ram pressure may also have facilitated
strangulation through the removal of galactic coronal gas. In X-ray undetected
groups, tidal interactions could be playing a prominent role, but it remains an
open question whether they can fully account for the observed HI deficiencies.


title:
Approximating the Value Functions of Stochastic Knapsack Problems: A
  Homogeneous Monge-Amp\'ere Equation and Its Stochastic Counterparts

abstract:
  Stochastic knapsack problem originally was a versatile model for controls in
telecommunication networks. Recently, it draws attentions of revenue management
community by serving as a basic model for allocating resources over time. We
develop approximation schemes for knapsack problems in this paper, a system of
nonlinear but solvable partial differential equations and stochastic partial
differential equation are shown to be the limit of the process that following
the optimal solution of the stochastic knapsack problem.


title: Structure of the Vacuum in Deformed Supersymmetric Chiral Models

abstract:
  We analyze the vacuum structure of N=1/2 chiral supersymmetric theories in
deformed superspace. In particular we study O'Raifeartaigh models with
C-deformed superpotentials and canonical and non-canonical deformed Kahler
potentials. We find conditions under which the vacuum configurations are
affected by the deformations.


title:
Statistical Analysis of the Metropolitan Seoul Subway System: Network
  Structure and Passenger Flows

abstract:
  The Metropolitan Seoul Subway system, consisting of 380 stations, provides
the major transportation mode in the metropolitan Seoul area. Focusing on the
network structure, we analyze statistical properties and topological
consequences of the subway system. We further study the passenger flows on the
system, and find that the flow weight distribution exhibits a power-law
behavior. In addition, the degree distribution of the spanning tree of the
flows also follows a power law.


title: A parametric model for dark energy

abstract:
  Determining the mechanism behind the current cosmic acceleration constitutes
a major question nowadays in theoretical physics. If the dark energy route is
taken, this problem may potentially bring to light new insights not only in
Cosmology but also in high energy physics theories. Following this approach, we
explore in this paper some cosmological consequences of a new time-dependent
parameterization for the dark energy equation of state (EoS), which is a well
behaved function of the redshift $z$ over the entire cosmological evolution,
i.e., $z\in [-1,\infty)$. This parameterization allows us to divide the
parametric plane $(w_0,w_1)$ in defined regions associated to distinct classes
of dark energy models that can be confirmed or excluded from a confrontation
with current observational data. A statistical analysis involving the most
recent observations from type Ia supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillation peak,
Cosmic Microwave Background shift parameter and Hubble evolution $H(z)$ is
performed to check the observational viability of the EoS parameterization here
proposed.


title:
Light scattering and localization in an ultracold and dense atomic
  system

abstract:
  The quantum optical response of high density ultracold atomic systems is
critical to a wide range of fundamentally and technically important physical
processes. These include quantum image storage, optically based quantum
repeaters and ultracold molecule formation. We present here a microscopic
analysis of the light scattering on such a system, and we compare it with a
corresponding description based on macroscopic Maxwell theory. Results are
discussed in the context of the spectral resonance structure, time-dependent
response, and the light localization problem.


title: Isotropy, entropy, and energy scaling

abstract:
  Two principles explain emergence. First, in the Receipt's reference frame,
Deg(S) = 4/3 Deg(R), where Supply S is an isotropic radiative energy source,
Receipt R receives S's energy, and Deg is a system's degrees of freedom based
on its mean path length. S's 1/3 more degrees of freedom relative to R enables
R's growth and increasing complexity. Second, rho(R) = Deg(R) times rho(r),
where rho(R) represents the collective rate of R and rho(r) represents the rate
of an individual in R: as Deg(R) increases due to the first principle, the
multiplier effect of networking in R increases. A universe like ours with
isotropic energy distribution, in which both principles are operative, is
therefore predisposed to exhibit emergence, and, for reasons shown, a
ubiquitous role for the natural logarithm.


title:
Bias-driven local density of states alterations and transport in
  ballistic molecular devices

abstract:
  We study dynamic nonequilibrium electron charging phenomena in ballistic
molecular devices at room temperature that compromise their response to bias
and whose nature is evidently distinguishable from static Schottky-type
potential barriers. Using various metallic/semiconducting carbon nanotubes and
alkane dithiol molecules as active parts of a molecular bridge, we perform
self-consistent quantum transport calculations under the nonequilibrium Green's
function formalism coupled to a three-dimensional Poisson solver for a mutual
description of chemistry and electrostatics. Our results sketch a particular
tracking relationship between the device's local density of states and the
contact electrochemical potentials that can effectively condition the
conduction process by altering the electronic structure of the molecular
system. Such change is unassociated to electronic/phononic scattering effects
while its extent is highly correlated to the conducting character of the
system, giving rise to an increase of the intrinsic resistance of molecules
with a semiconducting character and a symmetric mass-center disposition.


title:
The Minkowski question mark function: explicit series for the dyadic
  period function and moments

abstract:
  Previously, several natural integral transforms of the Minkowski question
mark function F(x) were introduced by the author. Each of them is uniquely
characterized by certain regularity conditions and the functional equation,
thus encoding intrinsic information about F(x). One of them - the dyadic period
function G(z) - was defined as a Stieltjes transform. In this paper we
introduce a family of "distributions" F_p(x) for Re p>=1, such that F_1(x) is
the question mark function and F_2(x) is a discrete distribution with support
on x=1. We prove that the generating function of moments of F_p(x) satisfies
the three term functional equation. This has an independent interest, though
our main concern is the information it provides about F(x). This approach
yields the following main result: we prove that the dyadic period function is a
sum of infinite series of rational functions with rational coefficients.


title: Highlights from PHENIX - I

abstract:
  This contribution highlights recent results from the PHENIX Collaboration at
RHIC. It covers global variables, flow and 2--particle correlations. A second
contribution in this issue, by T.C.Awes, covers PHENIX results on heavy quarks,
leptons and photons.


title: Shock propagation and stability in causal dissipative hydrodynamics

abstract:
  We studied the shock propagation and its stability with the causal
dissipative hydrodynamics in 1+1 dimensional systems. We show that the presence
of the usual viscosity is not enough to stabilize the solution. This problem is
solved by introducing an additional viscosity which is related to the
coarse-graining scale of the theory.


title:
MOST detects SPBe pulsations in HD 127756 & HD 217543: Asteroseismic
  rotation rates independent of vsini

abstract:
  The MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars) satellite has
discovered SPBe (Slowly Pulsating Be) oscillations in the stars HD 127756
(B1/B2 Vne) and HD 217543 (B3 Vpe). For HD 127756, 30 significant frequencies
are identified from 31 days of nearly continuous photometry; for HD 217543, up
to 40 significant frequencies from 26 days of data. In both cases, the
oscillations fall into three distinct frequency ranges, consistent with models
of the stars. The variations are caused by nonradial g-modes (and possibly
r-modes) distorted by rapid rotation and excited by the opacity mechanism near
the iron opacity bump. A comparison of pulsation models and observed frequency
groups yields a rotation frequency for each star, independently of vsini. The
rotation rates of these stars, as well as those of the SPBe stars previously
discovered by MOST, HD 163868 and $\beta$ CMi, are all close to their critical
values.


title: Cosmic Flows on 100 Mpc/h scales

abstract:
  To study galactic motions on the largest available scales, we require bulk
flow moments whose window functions have as narrow a peak as possible and
having as small an amplitude as possible outside the peak. Typically the
moments found using the maximum likelihood estimate weights do not meet these
criteria. We present a new method for calculating weights for moments that
essentially allow us to "design" the moment's window function, subject, of
course, to the distribution and uncertainties of the available data.


title: Towards Precision Measurements of $\gamma$: CLEO-c's Pivotal Role

abstract:
  Strategies that utilise the interference effects within $B^{\pm} \to
DK^{\pm}$ decays hold great potential for improving our sensitivity to the CKM
angle $\gamma$. However, in order to exploit fully this potential, detailed
knowledge of the D meson decay structure is required. This essential
information can be obtained from the quantum correlated $\psi(3770)$ datasets
at CLEO-c. Results of such analyses involving the decay mode $D \to
K\pi\pi\pi$, and their importance in the context of LHCb, will be presented.


title:
A Wireless Embedded Tongue Tactile Biofeedback System for Balance
  Control

abstract:
  We describe the architecture of an original biofeedback system for balance
improvement for fall prevention and present results of a feasibility study. The
underlying principle of this biofeedback consists of providing supplementary
information related to foot sole pressure distribution through a wireless
embedded tongue-placed tactile output device. Twelve young healthy adults
voluntarily participated in this experiment. They were asked to stand as
immobile as possible with their eyes closed in two conditions of nobiofeedback
and biofeedback. Centre of foot pressure (CoP) displacements were recorded
using a force platform. Results showed reduced CoP displacements in the
biofeedback relative to the no-biofeedback condition. On the whole, the present
findings evidence the effectiveness of this system in improving postural
control on young healthy adults. Further investigations are needed to
strengthen the potential clinical value of this device.


title:
Fractional spins and static correlation error in density functional
  theory

abstract:
  Electronic states with fractional spins arise in systems with large static
correlation (strongly correlated systems). Such fractional-spin states are
shown to be ensembles of degenerate ground states with normal spins. It is
proven here that the energy of the exact functional for fractional-spin states
is a constant, equal to the energy of the comprising degenerate pure spin
states. Dramatic deviations from this exact constancy condition exist with all
approximate functionals, leading to large static correlation errors for
strongly correlated systems, such as chemical bond dissociation and band
structure of Mott insulators. This is demonstrated with numerical calculations
for several molecular systems. Approximating the constancy behavior for
fractional spins should be a major aim in functional constructions and should
open the frontier for DFT to describe strongly correlated systems. The key
results are also shown to apply in reduced density-matrix functional theory.