title:
The role of the unstable equilibrium points in the transfer of matter in
  galactic potentials

abstract:
  We study the role of the unstable equilibrium points in the transfer of
matter in a galaxy using the potential of a rotating triaxial system. In
particular, we study the neighbourhood of these points for energy levels and
for main model parameters where the zero velocity curves just open and form a
bottleneck in the region. For these energies, the transfer of matter from the
inner to the outer parts and vice versa starts being possible. We study how the
dynamics around the unstable equilibrium points is driven, by performing a
partial normal form scheme and by computing the invariant manifolds of periodic
orbits and quasi-periodic orbits using the reduced Hamiltonian. In particular,
we compute some homoclinic and heteroclinic orbits playing a crucial role. Our
results also show that in slow rotating and/or axisymmetric systems the
hyperbolic character of the equilibrium points is cancelled, so that no
transfer of matter is possible through the bottleneck.


title: Normal-state transport properties of PrFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_y$ superconductor

abstract:
  We have synthesized oxygen-deficient fluorine-doped samples of nominal
composition PrFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_y$ to study the normal and superconducting state
properties. Resistivity of undoped PrFeAsO exhibits a strong anomaly at around
155 K due to the spin-density-wave instability. Fluorine doping ($x$=0.4,
$y$=0.12) suppresses this magnetic instability and drives the system to the
superconducting ground state with superconducting onset temperature 50 K. The
behavior of normal-state resistivity changes from $T^2$-like to $T$-linear to
sublinear in $T$ with increasing temperature indicating that both
electron-electron interaction and electron-phonon interaction are strong. From
the analysis of $T$ dependence of $\rho$, we have estimated the electron-phonon
coupling strength ($\lambda$) to be quite large (1.3).


title: Exclusive $\rho^0$ electroproduction on the proton at CLAS

abstract:
  The $e p\to e^\prime p \rho^0$ reaction has been measured, using the 5.754
GeV electron beam of Jefferson Lab and the CLAS detector. This represents the
largest ever set of data for this reaction in the valence region. Integrated
and differential cross sections are presented. The $W$, $Q^2$ and $t$
dependences of the cross section are compared to theoretical calculations based
on $t$-channel meson-exchange Regge theory on the one hand and on quark handbag
diagrams related to Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) on the other hand.
The Regge approach can describe at the $\approx$ 30% level most of the features
of the present data while the two GPD calculations that are presented in this
article which succesfully reproduce the high energy data strongly underestimate
the present data. The question is then raised whether this discrepancy
originates from an incomplete or inexact way of modelling the GPDs or the
associated hard scattering amplitude or whether the GPD formalism is simply
inapplicable in this region due to higher-twists contributions, incalculable at
present.


title: Biseparating maps between Lipschitz function spaces

abstract:
  For complete metric spaces $X$ and $Y$, a description of linear biseparating
maps between spaces of vector-valued Lipschitz functions defined on $X$ and $Y$
is provided. In particular it is proved that
  $X$ and $Y$ are bi-Lipschitz homeomorphic, and the automatic continuity of
such maps is derived in some cases. Besides, these results are used to
characterize the separating bijections between scalar-valued Lipschitz function
spaces when $Y$ is compact.


title:
Influence of defects on the electronic and magnetic properties of
  half-metallic CrAs, CrSe and CrSb zinc-blende compounds

abstract:
  We present an extended study of single impurity atoms and atomic swaps in
half-metallic CrAs, CrSb and CrSe zinc-blende compounds. Although the perfect
alloys present a rather large gap in the minority-spin band, all defects under
study, with the exception of void impurities at Cr and sp sites and Cr
impurities at sp sites (as long as no swap occurs), induce new states within
the gap. The Fermi level can be pinned within these new minority states
depending on the lattice constant used for the calculations and the
electronegativity of the sp atoms. Although these impurity states are localized
in space around the impurity atoms and very fast we regain the bulk behavior,
their interaction can lead to wide bands within the gap and thus loss of the
half-metallic character.


title:
Design Method for Electromagnetic Cloak with Arbitrary Shapes Based on
  Laplace's Equation

abstract:
  In transformation optics, the space transformation is viewed as the
deformation of a material. The permittivity and permeability tensors in the
transformed space are found to correlate with the deformation field of the
material. By solving the Laplace's equation, which describes how the material
will deform during a transformation, we can design electromagnetic cloaks with
arbitrary shapes if the boundary conditions of the cloak are considered. As
examples, the material parameters of the spherical and elliptical cylindrical
cloaks are derived based on the analytical solutions of the Laplace's equation.
For cloaks with irregular shapes, the material parameters of the transformation
medium are determined numerically by solving the Laplace's equation. Full-wave
simulations based on the Maxwell's equations validate the designed cloaks. The
proposed method can be easily extended to design other transformation materials
for electromagnetic and acoustic wave phenomena.


title:
Accuracy and Robustness of Clustering Algorithms for Small-Size
  Applications in Bioinformatics

abstract:
  The performance (accuracy and robustness) of several clustering algorithms is
studied for linearly dependent random variables in the presence of noise. It
turns out that the error percentage quickly increases when the number of
observations is less than the number of variables. This situation is common
situation in experiments with DNA microarrays. Moreover, an {\it a posteriori}
criterion to choose between two discordant clustering algorithm is presented.


title:
Measurement of beam-recoil observables Ox, Oz and target asymmetry for
  the reaction gamma p -> K Lambda

abstract:
  The double polarization (beam-recoil) observables Ox and Oz have been
measured for the reaction gamma p -> K Lambda from threshold production to
Egamma = 1500 MeV. The data were obtained with the linearly polarized beam of
the GRAAL facility. Values for the target asymmetry T could also be extracted
despite the use of an unpolarized target. Analyses of our results by two isobar
models tend to confirm the necessity to include new or poorly known resonances
in the 1900 MeV mass region.


title:
Derived equivalence classification of m-cluster tilted algebras of type
  A

abstract:
  We use the maximal faces of the $m$-cluster complex of type A to describe the
m-cluster tilted algebras of type A as quivers with relations. We then classify
connected components of m-cluster tilted algebras of type A up to derived
equivalence using tilting complexes directly related to the combinatorics of
the m-cluster complex of type A. This generalizes a result of Buan and Vatne.


title: Clear evasion of the uncertainty relation with very small probability

abstract:
  We entertain the idea that the uncertainty relation is not a principle, but
rather it is a consequence of quantum mechanics. The uncertainty relation is
then a probabilistic statement and can be clearly evaded in processes which
occur with a very small probability in a tiny sector of the phase space. This
clear evasion is typically realized when one utilizes indirect measurements,
and some examples of the clear evasion appear in the system with entanglement
though the entanglement by itself is not essential for the evasion. The
standard Kennard's relation and its interpretation remain intact in our
analysis.
  As an explicit example, we show that the clear evasion of the uncertainty
relation for coordinate and momentum in the diffraction process discussed by
Ballentine is realized in a tiny sector of the phase space with a very small
probability. We also examine the uncertainty relation for a two-spin system
with the EPR entanglement and show that no clear evasion takes place in this
system with the finite discrete degrees of freedom.


title:
On the artificial compressibility method for the Navier Stokes Fourier
  system

abstract:
  This paper deals with the approximation of the weak solutions of the
incompressible Navier Stokes Fourier system. In particular it extends the
artificial compressibility method for the Leray weak solutions of the Navier
Stokes equation, used by Temam, in the case of a bounded domain and later in
the case of the whole space. By exploiting the wave equation structure of the
pressure of the approximating system the convergence of the approximating
sequences is achieved by means of dispersive estimate of Strichartz type. It
will be proved that the projection of the approximating velocity fields on the
divergence free vectors is relatively compact and converges to a weak solution
of the incompressible Navier Stokes Fourier system.


title: Negative electric field dependence of mobility in TPD doped Polystyrene

abstract:
  A total negative field dependence of hole mobility down to low temperature
was observed in
N,N'-diphenyl-N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-(1,1'-biphenyl)-4,4'diamine (TPD) doped
in Polystyrene. The observed field dependence of mobility is explained on the
basis of low values of energetic and positional disorder present in the sample.
The low value of disorder is attributed to different morphology of the sample
due to aggregation/crystallization of TPD. Monte Carlo simulations were also
performed to understand the influence of aggregates on charge transport in
disordered medium with correlated site energies. The simulation supports our
experimental observations and justification on the basis of low values of
disorder parameters.


title:
Air Fluorescence Relevant for Cosmic-Ray Detection - Review of
  Pioneering Measurements

abstract:
  Cosmic rays with energies exceeding $10^{17}$ eV are frequently registered by
measurements of the fluorescence light emitted by extensive air showers. The
main uncertainty for the absolute energy scale of the measured air showers is
coming from the fluorescence light yield of electrons in air. The fluorescence
light yield has been studied in laboratory experiments. Pioneering measurements
between 1954 and 2000 are reviewed.


title: Formal semantics of language and the Richard-Berry paradox

abstract:
  The classical logical antinomy known as Richard-Berry paradox is combined
with plausible assumptions about the size i.e. the descriptional complexity of
Turing machines formalizing certain sentences, to show that formalization of
language leads to contradiction.


title: Quasi-convex density and determining subgroups of compact abelian groups

abstract:
  For an abelian topological group G let G^* denote the dual group of all
continuous characters endowed with the compact open topology. Given a closed
subset X of an infinite compact abelian group G such that w(X) < w(G) and an
open neighbourhood U of 0 in the circle group, we show that the set of all
characters which send X into U has the same size as G^*. (Here, w(G) denotes
the weight of G.) A subgroup D of G determines G if the restriction
homomorphism G^* --> D^* is an isomorphism between G^* and D^*. We prove that
w(G) = min {|D|: D is a subgroup of G that determines G} for every infinite
compact abelian group G. In particular, an infinite compact abelian group
determined by a countable subgroup is metrizable. This gives a negative answer
to questions of Comfort, Hernandez, Macario, Raczkowski and Trigos-Arrieta. As
an application, we furnish a short elementary proof of the result from [13]
that a compact abelian group G is metrizable provided that every dense subgroup
of G determines G.


title: SO(3) Gauge Symmetry and Nearly Tri-bimaximal Neutrino Mixing

abstract:
  In this note I mainly focus on the neutrino physics part in my talk and
report the most recent progress made in \cite{YLW0}. It is seen that the
Majorana features of neutrinos and SO(3) gauge flavor symmetry can
simultaneously explain the smallness of neutrino masses and nearly
tri-bimaximal neutrino mixing when combining together with the mechanism of
approximate global U(1) family symmetry. The mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ and
CP-violating phase are in general nonzero and testable experimentally at the
allowed sensitivity. The model also predicts the existence of vector-like
Majorana neutrinos and charged leptons as well as new Higgs bosons, some of
them can be light and explored at the LHC and ILC.


title:
Comparison between Eulerian diagnostics and finite-size Lyapunov
  exponents computed from altimetry in the Algerian basin

abstract:
  Transport and mixing properties of surface currents can be detected from
altimetric data by both Eulerian and Lagrangian diagnostics. In contrast with
Eulerian diagnostics, Lagrangian tools like the local Lyapunov exponents have
the advantage of exploiting both spatial and temporal variability of the
velocity field and are in principle able to unveil subgrid filaments generated
by chaotic stirring. However, one may wonder whether this theoretical advantage
is of practical interest in real-data, mesoscale and submesoscale analysis,
because of the uncertainties and resolution of altimetric products, and the
non-passive nature of biogeochemical tracers. Here we compare the ability of
standard Eulerian diagnostics and the finite-size Lyapunov exponent in
detecting instantaneaous and climatological transport and mixing properties. By
comparing with sea-surface temperature patterns, we find that the two
diagnostics provide similar results for slowly evolving eddies like the first
Alboran gyre. However, the Lyapunov exponent is also able to predict the
(sub-)mesoscale filamentary process occuring along the Algerian current and
above the Balearic Abyssal Plain. Such filaments are also observed, with some
mismatch, in sea-surface temperature patterns. Climatologies of Lyapunov
exponents do not show any compact relation with other Eulerian diagnostics,
unveiling a different structure even at the basin scale. We conclude that
filamentation dynamics can be detected by reprocessing available altimetric
data with Lagrangian tools, giving insight into (sub-)mesoscale stirring
processes relevant to tracer observations and complementing traditional
Eulerian diagnostics.


title:
Fermi-surface evolution across the magnetic phase transition in the
  Kondo lattice model

abstract:
  We derive, by means of an extended Gutzwiller wavefunction and within the
Gutzwiller approximation, the phase diagram of the Kondo lattice model. We find
that generically, namely in the absence of nesting, the model displays an
$f$-electron Mott localization accompanied by a discontinuous change of the
conduction electron Fermi surface as well as by magnetism. When the non
interacting Fermi surface is close to nesting, the Mott localization
disentangles from the onset of magnetism. First the paramagnetic heavy fermion
metal turns continuously into an itinerant magnet - the Fermi surface evolves
smoothly across the transition - and afterwards Mott localization intervenes
with a discontinuous rearrangement of the Fermi surface. We find that the
$f$-electron localization remains even if magnetism is prevented, and is still
accompanied by a sharp transfer of spectral weigth at the Fermi energy within
the Brillouin zone. We further show that the Mott localization can be also
induced by an external magnetic field, in which case it occurs concomitantly
with a metamagnetic transition.


title:
A fast method for Stokes profile synthesis -- Radiative transfer
  modeling for ZDI and Stokes profile inversion

abstract:
  The major challenges for a fully polarized radiative transfer driven approach
to Zeeman-Doppler imaging are still the enormous computational requirements. In
every cycle of the iterative interplay between the forward process (spectral
synthesis) and the inverse process (derivative based optimization) the Stokes
profile synthesis requires several thousand evaluations of the polarized
radiative transfer equation for a given stellar surface model. To cope with
these computational demands and to allow for the incorporation of a full Stokes
profile synthesis into Doppler- and Zeeman-Doppler imaging applications as well
as into large scale solar Stokes profile inversions, we present a novel fast
and accurate synthesis method for calculating local Stokes profiles. Our
approach is based on artificial neural network models, which we use to
approximate the complex non-linear mapping between the most important
atmospheric parameters and the corresponding Stokes profiles. A number of
specialized artificial neural networks, are used to model the functional
relation between the model atmosphere, magnetic field strength, field
inclination, and field azimuth, on one hand and the individual components
(I,Q,U,V) of the Stokes profiles, on the other hand. We performed an extensive
statistical evaluation and show that our new approach yields accurate local as
well as disk-integrated Stokes profiles over a wide range of atmospheric
conditions. The mean rms errors for the Stokes I and V profiles are well below
0.2% compared to the exact numerical solution. Errors for Stokes Q and U are in
the range of 1%. Our approach does not only offer an accurate approximation to
the LTE polarized radiative transfer it, moreover, accelerates the synthesis by
a factor of more than 1000.


title: A modification of Oersted experiment

abstract:
  The paper describes a simple setup of Oersted experiment. A planar coil of
wires has been used to deflect vigorously the magnetic needle (more than 80
angular degrees) when a current of up to 1 A flows along it. Based on
theoretical analysis the torque on the magnetic field is analytically expressed
taking into account the inhomogeneity of the field and the needle shape. What
is more, a procedure to measure the Earth's magnetic component is implied and
implemented and its magnitude has been estimated following the same steps.


title:
Singular convergence of nonlinear hyperbolic chemotaxis systems to
  Keller--Segel type models

abstract:
  In this paper we deal with diffusive relaxation limits of nonlinear systems
of Euler type modeling chemotactic movement of cells toward Keller--Segel type
systems. The approximating systems are either hyperbolic--parabolic or
hyperbolic--elliptic. They all feature a nonlinear pressure term arising from a
\emph{volume filling effect} which takes into account the fact that cells do
not interpenetrate. The main convergence result relies on compensated
compactness tools and is obtained for large initial data under suitable
assumptions on the approximating solutions. In order to justify such
assumptions, we also prove an existence result for initial data which are small
perturbation of a constant state. Such result is proven via classical
Friedrichs's symmetrization and linearization. In order to simplify the
coverage, we restrict to the two--dimensional case with periodical boundary
conditions.


title: Resonance beating of light stored using atomic spinor polaritons

abstract:
  We investigate the storage of light in atomic rubidium vapor using a
multilevel-tripod scheme. In the system, two collective dark polariton modes
exist, forming an effective spinor quasiparticle. Storage of light is performed
by dynamically reducing the optical group velocity to zero. After releasing the
stored pulse, a beating of the two reaccelerated optical modes is monitored.
The observed beating signal oscillates at an atomic transition frequency,
opening the way to novel quantum limited measurements of atomic resonance
frequencies and quantum switches.


title:
Holographic dark energy interacting with dark matter in a Closed
  Universe

abstract:
  A cosmological model of an holographic dark energy interacting with dark
matter throughout a decaying term of the form $Q=3(\lambda_1\rho_{DE} +
\lambda_2\rho_m) H$ is investigated. General constraint on the parameters of
the model are found when accelerated expansion is imposed and we found a
phantom scenarios, without any reference to a specific equation of state for
the dark energy. The behavior of equation of stated for dark energy is also
discussed.


title: Chemical functionalization of graphene with defects

abstract:
  Defects change essentially not only electronic but also chemical properties
of graphene being centers of its chemical activity. Their functionalization is
a way to modify electronic and crystal structure of graphene which may be
important for graphene-based nanoelectronics. Using hydrogen as an example, we
have simulated a chemistry of imperfect graphene for a broad class of defects
(Stone-Wales defects, bivacancy, nitrogen substitution impurity, and zigzag
edges) by density functional calculations. We have studied also an effect of
finite width of graphene nanoribbons on their chemical properties. It is shown
that magnetism at graphene edges is fragile with respect to oxidation and,
therefore, a chemical protection of the graphene edges may be required for
application of graphene in spintronics. At the same time, hydrogenation of the
Stone-Wales defects may be a perspective way to create magnetic carbon.


title:
Comment on "Isotope effect in high-Tc superconductors" (D. R. Harshman,
  J. D. Dow, and A. T. Fiory, Physical Review B v.77, 024523 (2008))

abstract:
  We show that the recent reinterpretation of oxygen isotope effects in cuprate
superconductors by D. R. Harshman et al. is mathematically and physically
incorrect violating the Anderson theorem and the Coulomb law.


title:
Standard Model and New Physics: theoretical and experimental
  perspectives

abstract:
  In this summary we present the current status of the Standard Model of strong
and electroweak interactions from the theoretical and experimental point of
view. Some discussion is also devoted to the exploration of possible New
Physics signals beyond the Standard Model.


title: BC-infinity Calogero-Moser operator and super Jacobi polynomials

abstract:
  An infinite-dimensional version of Calogero-Moser operator of $BC$-type and
the corresponding Jacobi symmetric functions are introduced and studied,
including the analogues of Pieri formula and Okounkov's binomial formula. We
use this to describe all the ideals linearly generated by the Jacobi symmetric
functions and show that the deformed $BC(m,n)$ Calogero-Moser operators,
introduced in our earlier work, appear here in a natural way as the
restrictions of the $BC_{\infty}$ operator to the corresponding
finite-dimensional subvarieties. As a corollary we have the integrability of
these quantum systems and all the main formulas for the related super Jacobi
polynomials.


title: Groupoid actions as quantale modules

abstract:
  For an arbitrary localic etale groupoid G we provide simple descriptions, in
terms of modules over the quantale O(G) of the groupoid, of the continuous
actions of G, including actions on open maps and sheaves. The category of
G-actions is isomorphic to a corresponding category of O(G)-modules, and as a
corollary we obtain a new quantale based representation of etendues.


title: A Note on a Generalization of Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury formula

abstract:
  The article presents a generalization of Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury (SMW)
formula for the inversion of a matrix of the form A+sum(U)k)*V(k),k=1..N).


title: Classical and quantum scattering by a gravitational center

abstract:
  The small angle scattering (by a gravitational field) of classical and
quantum particles is considered and compared. It is suggested that the
differences in small angle scattering of particles with spin 0, 1, 2 are due to
the nonzero probability of forward scattering for particles described by a wave
packet. It is suggested that measurements of the deflection of light in the
vicinity of the Sun will decide which coordinate system is the privileged one.


title:
Walking on fractals: diffusion and self-avoiding walks on percolation
  clusters

abstract:
  We consider random walks (RWs) and self-avoiding walks (SAWs) on disordered
lattices directly at the percolation threshold. Applying numerical simulations,
we study the scaling behavior of the models on the incipient percolation
cluster in space dimensions d=2, 3, 4. Our analysis yields estimates of
universal exponents, governing the scaling laws for configurational properties
of RWs and SAWs.


title: On shrinking targets for Z^m actions on tori

abstract:
  Let A be an n by m matrix with real entries. Consider the set Bad_A of x \in
[0,1)^n for which there exists a constant c(x)>0 such that for any q \in Z^m
the distance between x and the point {Aq} is at least c(x) |q|^{-m/n}. It is
shown that the intersection of Bad_A with any suitably regular fractal set is
of maximal Hausdorff dimension. The linear form systems investigated in this
paper are natural extensions of irrational rotations of the circle. Even in the
latter one-dimensional case, the results obtained are new.


title:
Analytical Solution for Wave Propagation in Stratified Poroelastic
  Medium. Part I: the 2D Case

abstract:
  We are interested in the modeling of wave propagation in poroelastic media.
We consider the biphasic Biot's model in an infinite bilayered medium, with a
plane interface. We adopt the Cagniard-De Hoop's technique. This report is
devoted to the calculation of analytical solutions in two dimensions. The
solutions we present here have been used to validate numerical codes.


title: Pseudo-random Sequences Generated by Cellular Automata

abstract:
  Generation of pseudo random sequences by cellular automata, as well as by
hybrid cellular automata is surveyed. An application to the fast evaluation and
FPGA implementation of some classes of boolean functions is sketched out.


title:
Pre-selectable integer quantum conductance of electrochemically
  fabricated silver point contacts

abstract:
  The controlled fabrication of well-ordered atomic-scale metallic contacts is
of great interest: it is expected that the experimentally observed high
percentage of point contacts with a conductance at non-integer multiples of the
conductance quantum G_0 = 2e^2/h in simple metals is correlated to defects
resulting from the fabrication process. Here we demonstrate a combined
electrochemical deposition and annealing method which allows the controlled
fabrication of point contacts with pre-selectable integer quantum conductance.
The resulting conductance measurements on silver point contacts are compared
with tight-binding-like conductance calculations of modeled idealized junction
geometries between two silver crystals with a predefined number of contact
atoms.


title: Multiple Scattering and Visco-Thermal Effects on 2D Phononic Crystal

abstract:
  In this paper, we are interested in the transition between regimes here
either visco-thermal or multiple scattering effects dominate for the
propagation of acoustic waves through a 2D regular square array of rigid
cylinders embedded in air. An extension of the numerical method using
Schl\"omilch series is performed in order to account for visco-thermal losses.
Comparison withexperimental data and results from classical homogenization
theory allows to study the transition between a low frequency limit (where
viscous and thermal effects dominate) and a high frequency regime (where
multiple scattering effects become predominant). For this particular geometry,
a large frequency domain where visco-thermal and multiple scattering effects
coexist is found.


title:
On the strong approximation and functional limit laws for the increments
  of the non-overlapping k-spacings processes

abstract:
  The first aim of the present paper, is to establish strong approximations of
the uniform non-overlapping k-spacings process extending the results of Aly et
al. (1984). Our methods rely on the invariance principle in Mason and van Zwet
(1987). The second goal, is to generalize the Dindar (1997) results for the
increments of the spacings quantile process to the uniforme non-overlapping
k-spacings quantile process. We apply the last result to characterize the limit
laws of functionals of the increments k-spacings quantile process.


title: Blackbox computation of $A_\infty$-algebras

abstract:
  Kadeishvili's proof of the minimality theorem induces an algorithm for the
inductive computation of an $A_\infty$-algebra structure on the homology of a
dg-algebra.
  In this paper, we prove that for one class of dg-algebras, the resulting
computation will generate a complete $A_\infty$-algebra structure after a
finite amount of computational work.


title: Chains of Skyrmions

abstract:
  Skyrme chains are topologically-nontrivial solutions of the Skyrme model
which are (quasi-)periodic in one spatial direction. We report numerical and
analytic investigations which show that such solutions exist. Chains of
1-skyrmions are reasonably well approximated both as parallel vortex-antivortex
pairs, and in terms of the holonomy of Yang-Mills calorons. As the period
increases, the 1-skyrmions clump together, for example giving chains of
2-skyrmions or 4-skyrmions.


title: Heat capacity of liquids: an approach from the solid phase

abstract:
  We calculate the energy and heat capacity of a liquid on the basis of its
elastic properties and vibrational states. The experimental decrease of liquid
heat capacity with temperature is attributed to the increasing loss of two
transverse modes with frequency $\omega<1/\tau$, where $\tau$ is liquid
relaxation time. In a simple model, liquid heat capacity is related to
viscosity and is compared with the experimental data of mercury. We also
calculate the vibrational energy of a quantum liquid, and show that transverse
phonons can not be excited in the low-temperature limit. Finally, we discuss
the implications of the proposed approach to liquids for the problem of glass
transition.


title:
A comparison of approximate gravitational lens equations and a proposal
  for an improved new one

abstract:
  Keeping the exact general relativistic treatment of light bending as a
reference, we compare the accuracy of commonly used approximate lens equations.
We conclude that the best approximate lens equation is the Ohanian lens
equation, for which we present a new expression in terms of distances between
observer, lens and source planes. We also examine a realistic gravitational
lensing case, showing that the precision of the Ohanian lens equation might be
required for a reliable treatment of gravitational lensing and a correct
extraction of the full information about gravitational physics.


title: Black hole mass and variability in quasars

abstract:
  We report on a study that finds a positive correlation between black hole
mass and variability amplitude in quasars. Roughly 100 quasars at z<0.75 were
selected by matching objects from the QUEST1 Variability Survey with
broad-lined objects from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Black hole masses were
estimated with the virial method using the broad Hbeta line, and variability
was characterized from the QUEST1 light curves. The correlation between black
hole mass and variability amplitude is significant at the 99% level or better
and does not appear to be caused by obvious selection effects inherent to
flux-limited samples. It is most evident for rest frame time lags of the order
a few months up to the QUEST1 maximum temporal resolution of about 2 years. The
correlation between black hole mass and variability amplitude means that the
more massive black holes have larger percentage flux variations. Over 2-3
orders of magnitude in black hole mass, the amplitude increases by
approximately 0.2 mag. A likely explanation for the correlation is that the
more massive black holes are starving and produce larger flux variations
because they do not have a steady inflow of gaseous fuel. Assuming that the
variability arises from changes in the accretion rate Li & Cao [8] show that
flux variations similar to those observed are expected as a consequence of the
more massive black holes having cooler accretion disks.


title:
Understanding the problem of glass transition on the basis of elastic
  interactions in a liquid

abstract:
  We review the recently proposed elastic approach to glass transition. This
approach is based on a simple and a physically transparent idea of elastic
interactions between local relaxation events in a liquid. Central to this
picture is the range of this interaction. Its increase on lowering the
temperature explains several important open questions in the area of glass
transition, including universal relaxation laws and dynamic crossovers. In
particular, we show how the proposed theory explains (1) the physical origin of
cooperativity of relaxation; (2) the origin of the crossover from exponential
to non-exponential relaxation at $\tau=$1 ps, where $\tau$ is liquid relaxation
time; (3) the origin of the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann law; (4) the origin of
stretched-exponential relaxation; (5) the absence of divergence of $\tau$ at
the VFT temperature $T_0$ and the crossover to a more Arrhenius relaxation at
$\tau\approx 10^{-6}$ sec; (6) the origin of liquid ``fragility''; and (7) the
relationship between non-exponentiality of relaxation and relaxation time.


abstract:
  A new structural model for the Si(331)-(12x1) reconstruction is proposed.
Based on scanning tunneling microscopy images of unprecedented resolution,
low-energy electron diffraction data, and first-principles total-energy
calculations, we demonstrate that the reconstructed Si(331) surface shares the
same elementary building blocks as the Si(110)-(16x2) surface, establishing the
pentamer as a universal building block for complex silicon surface
reconstructions.


title:
Correlation effects on the doped triangular lattice in view of the
  physics of sodium-rich Na$_x$CoO$_2$

abstract:
  The peculiar correlation effects on the triangular lattice are studied by
means of the rotationally invariant slave boson method in a cellular cluster
approach. Hence nonlocal correlations are included in a short-range regime.
Their impact for the single-band Hubbard model is studied at half filling,
i.e., on the Mott transition, and with doping. Using the realistic band
structure of Na$_x$CoO$_2$, we may also shed light on the cobaltate physics for
$x$$\ge$1/3, with the in-plane transition from antiferromagnetic tendencies
towards the onset of ferromagnetism for a finite Hubbard $U$.


title: Ideals with an assigned initial ideal

abstract:
  The stratum St(J,<) (the homogeneous stratum Sth(J,<) respectively) of a
monomial ideal J in a polynomial ring R is the family of all (homogeneous)
ideals of R whose initial ideal with respect to the term order < is J. St(J,<)
and Sth(J,<) have a natural structure of affine schemes. Moreover they are
homogeneous w.r.t. a non-standard grading called level. This property allows us
to draw consequences that are interesting from both a theoretical and a
computational point of view. For instance a smooth stratum is always isomorphic
to an affine space (Corollary 3.6). As applications, in Sec. 5 we prove that
strata and homogeneous strata w.r.t. any term ordering < of every saturated
Lex-segment ideal J are smooth. For Sth(J,Lex) we also give a formula for the
dimension. In the same way in Sec. 6 we consider any ideal R in k[x0,..., xn]
generated by a saturated RevLex-segment ideal in k[x,y,z]. We also prove that
Sth(R,RevLex) is smooth and give a formula for its dimension.


title: Determining Cosmological Parameters with Latest Observational Data

abstract:
  In this paper, we combine the latest observational data, including the WMAP
five-year data (WMAP5), BOOMERanG, CBI, VSA, ACBAR, as well as the Baryon
Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) and Type Ia Supernoave (SN) "Union" compilation
(307 sample) to determine the cosmological parameters. Our results show that
the $\Lambda$CDM model remains a good fit to the current data. In a flat
universe, we obtain the tight limit on the constant EoS of dark energy as,
$w=-0.977\pm0.056$ ($1 \sigma$). For the dynamical dark energy models with time
evolving EoS, we find that the best-fit values are $w_0=-1.08$ and $w_1=0.368$,
implying the preference of Quintom model whose EoS gets across the cosmological
constant boundary. For the curvature of universe, our results give
$-0.012<\Omega_k<0.009$ (95% C.L.) when fixing $w_{\DE}=-1$. When considering
the dynamics of dark energy, the flat universe is still a good fit to the
current data. Regarding the neutrino mass limit, we obtain the upper limits,
$\sum m_{\nu}<0.533$ eV (95% C.L.) within the framework of the flat
$\Lambda$CDM model. When adding the SDSS Lyman-$\alpha$ forest power spectrum
data, the constraint on $\sum m_{\nu}$ can be significantly improved, $\sum
m_{\nu}<0.161$ eV (95% C.L.). Assuming that the primordial fluctuations are
adiabatic with a power law spectrum, within the $\Lambda$CDM model, we find
that the upper limit on the ratio of the tensor to scalar is $r<0.200$ (95%
C.L.) and the inflationary models with the slope $n_s\geq1$ are excluded at
more than $2 \sigma$ confidence level. However, in the framework of dynamical
dark energy models, the allowed region in the parameter space of ($n_s$,$r$) is
enlarged significantly. Finally, we find no evidence for the large running of
the spectral index. (Abridged)


title: Quantifying Timing Leaks and Cost Optimisation

abstract:
  We develop a new notion of security against timing attacks where the attacker
is able to simultaneously observe the execution time of a program and the
probability of the values of low variables. We then show how to measure the
security of a program with respect to this notion via a computable estimate of
the timing leakage and use this estimate for cost optimisation.


title: Effect of Coulomb scattering on graphene conductivity

abstract:
  The effect of Coulomb scattering on graphene conductivity in field effect
transistor structures is discussed. Inter-particle scattering
(electron-electron, hole-hole, and electron-hole) and scattering on charged
defects are taken into account in a wide range of gate voltages. It is shown
that an intrinsic conductivity of graphene (purely ambipolar system where both
electron and hole densities exactly coincide) is defined by strong
electron-hole scattering. It has a universal value independent of temperature.
We give an explicit derivation based on scaling theory. When there is even a
small discrepancy in electron and hole densities caused by applied gate voltage
the conductivity is determined by both strong electron-hole scattering and weak
external scattering: on defects or phonons. We suggest that a density of
charged defects (occupancy of defects) depends on Fermi energy to explain a
sub-linear dependence of conductivity on a fairly high gate voltage observed in
experiments. We also eliminate contradictions between experimental data
obtained in deposited and suspended graphene structures regarding graphene
conductivity.


title:
Exact Jastrow-Slater wave function for the one-dimensional Luttinger
  model

abstract:
  We show that it is possible to describe the ground state of the Luttinger
model in terms of a Jastrow-Slater wave function. Moreover, our findings reveal
that one-particle excitations and their corresponding dynamics can be
faithfully represented only when a Jastrow factor of a similar form is applied
to a coherent superposition of many Slater determinants. We discuss the
possible relevance of this approach for the theoretical description of
photoemission spectra in higher dimensionality, where the present wave function
can be straightforwardly generalized and can be used as a variational ansatz,
that is exact for the 1D Luttinger model.


title:
The SU(2) X U(1) Electroweak Model based on the Nonlinearly Realized
  Gauge Group

abstract:
  The electroweak model is formulated on the nonlinearly realized gauge group
SU(2) X U(1). This implies that in perturbation theory no Higgs field is
present. The paper provides the effective action at the tree level, the Slavnov
Taylor identity (necessary for the proof of unitarity), the local functional
equation (used for the control of the amplitudes involving the Goldstone
bosons) and the subtraction procedure (nonstandard, since the theory is not
power-counting renormalizable). Particular attention is devoted to the number
of independent parameters relevant for the vector mesons; in fact there is the
possibility of introducing two mass parameters. With this choice the relation
between the ratio of the intermediate vector meson masses and the Weinberg
angle depends on an extra free parameter. We briefly outline a method for
dealing with \gamma_5 in dimensional regularization. The model is formulated in
the Landau gauge for sake of simplicity and conciseness: the QED Ward identity
has a simple and intriguing form.


title: Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and BSM Physics (A Review)

abstract:
  In this talk, I shall first discuss the standard model Higgs mechanism and
then highlight some of its deficiencies making a case for the need to go beyond
the standard model (BSM). The BSM tour will be guided by symmetry arguments. I
shall pick up four specific BSM scenarios, namely, supersymmetry, Little Higgs,
Gauge-Higgs unification, and the Higgsless approach. The discussion will be
confined mainly on their electroweak symmetry breaking aspects.


title:
The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment. Final Reductions of the
  OGLE-III Data

abstract:
  We describe methods applied to the final photometric reductions and
calibrations to the standard system of the images collected during the third
phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment survey - OGLE-III.
Astrometric reduction methods are also presented.
  The OGLE-III data constitute a unique data set covering the Magellanic
Clouds, Galactic bulge and Galactic disk fields monitored regularly every clear
night since 2001 and being significant extension and continuation of the
earlier OGLE observations. With the earlier OGLE-II and OGLE-I photometry some
of the observed fields have now 16-year long photometric coverage.


title:
The Distribution, Excitation and Formation of Cometary Molecules:
  Methanol, Methyl Cyanide and Ethylene Glycol

abstract:
  We present an interferometric and single dish study of small organic species
toward Comets C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) and C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) using the BIMA
interferometer at 3 mm and the ARO 12m telescope at 2 mm. For Comet Hale-Bopp,
both the single-dish and interferometer observations of CH3OH indicate an
excitation temperature of 105+/-5 K and an average production rate ratio
Q(CH3OH)/Q(H2O)~1.3% at ~1 AU. Additionally, the aperture synthesis
observations of CH3OH suggest a distribution well described by a spherical
outflow and no evidence of significant extended emission. Single-dish
observations of CH3CN in Comet Hale-Bopp indicate an excitation temperature of
200+/-10 K and a production rate ratio of Q(CH3CN)/Q(H2O)~0.017% at ~1 AU. The
non-detection of a previously claimed transition of cometary (CH2OH)2 toward
Comet Hale-Bopp with the 12m telescope indicates a compact distribution of
emission, D<9'' (<8500 km). For the single-dish observations of Comet T7
LINEAR, we find an excitation temperature of CH3OH of 35+/-5 K and a CH3OH
production rate ratio of Q(CH3OH)/Q(H2O)~1.5% at ~0.3 AU. Our data support
current chemical models that CH3OH, CH3CN and (CH2OH)2 are parent nuclear
species distributed into the coma via direct sublimation off cometary ices from
the nucleus with no evidence of significant production in the outer coma.


title: Birational geometry of singular Fano varieties

abstract:
  We prove divisorial canonicity of Fano hypersurfaces and double spaces of
general position with elementary singularities.


title: One-way quantum computation with two-photon multiqubit cluster states

abstract:
  We describe in detail the application of four qubit cluster states, built on
the simultaneous entanglement of two photons in the degrees of freedom of
polarization and linear momentum, for the realization of a complete set of
basic one-way quantum computation operations. These consist of arbitrary single
qubit rotations, either probabilistic or deterministic, and simple two qubit
gates, such as a c-not gate for equatorial qubits and a universal c-phase (CZ)
gate acting on arbitrary target qubits. Other basic computation operations,
such as the Grover's search and the Deutsch's algorithms, have been realized by
using these states. In all the cases we obtained a high value of the operation
fidelities. These results demonstrate that cluster states of two photons
entangled in many degrees of freedom are good candidates for the realization of
more complex quantum computation operations based on a larger number of qubits.


title:
The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and Faraday rotation contributions of
  galaxy groups to the CMB angular power spectrum

abstract:
  The S-Z effect and Faraday rotation from halos are examined over a wide mass
range, an including gas condensation and magnetic field evolution.
Contributions to the CMB angular power spectrum are evaluated for galaxy
clusters, galaxy groups and galaxies. Smaller mass halos are found to play a
more important role than massive halos for the B-mode polarisation associated
with the S-Z CMB anisotropies. The B-modes from Faraday rotation dominate the
secondary B-modes caused by gravitational lensing at l > 3000. Measurement of
B-mode polarisation in combination with the S-Z power spectrum can potentially
provide important constraints on intracluster magnetic field and gas evolution
at early epochs.


title:
The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment. OGLE-III Photometric Maps
  of the Large Magellanic Cloud

abstract:
  We present the OGLE-III Photometric Maps of the Large Magellanic Cloud. They
cover about 40 square degrees of the LMC and contain mean, calibrated VI
photometry and astrometry of about 35 million stars observed during seven
observing seasons of the third phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing
Experiment - OGLE-III.
  We discuss the quality of data and present color-magnitude diagrams of
selected fields. The OGLE-III Photometric Maps of the LMC are available to the
astronomical community from the OGLE Internet archive.


title: Hopf cyclic cohomology in braided monoidal categories

abstract:
  We extend the formalism of Hopf cyclic cohomology to the context of braided
categories. For a Hopf algebra in a braided monoidal abelian category we
introduce the notion of stable anti-Yetter-Drinfeld module. We associate a
para-cocyclic and a cocyclic object to a braided Hopf algebra endowed with a
braided modular pair in involution in the sense of Connes and Moscovici. When
the braiding is symmetric the full formalism of Hopf cyclic cohomology with
coefficients can be extended to our categorical setting.


title: Status and prospects of the IceCube neutrino telescope

abstract:
  The IceCube neutrino observatory, under construction at the South Pole,
consists of three sub-detectors: a km-scale array of digital optical modules
deployed deep in the ice, the AMANDA neutrino telescope and the surface array
IceTop. We summarize results from searches for cosmic neutrinos with the AMANDA
telescope and review expected sensitivities for IceCube at various installation
phases. Reliability and robustness of installation at the South Pole has been
demonstrated during the past four successful construction seasons. The 40
installed IceCube strings are working well. We are developing detailed plans
for the final construction of IceCube, including extensions optimized for low
and high energy. We describe the IceCube Deep Core project which will extend
the low energy response of IceCube.


title: Alcove geometry and a translation principle for the Brauer algebra

abstract:
  There are similarities between algebraic Lie theory and a geometric
description of the blocks of the Brauer algebra in characteristic zero.
Motivated by this, we study the alcove geometry of a certain reflection group
action. We provide analogues of translation functors for a tower of
recollement, and use these to construct Morita equivalences between blocks
containing weights in the same facet. Moreover, we show that the determination
of decomposition numbers for the Brauer algebra in characteristic zero can be
reduced to a study of the block containing the weight 0. We define parabolic
Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials for the Brauer algebra and show in certain low rank
examples that they determine standard module decomposition numbers and
filtrations.


title: Decay of soliton-like perturbations into vortex - anti vortex pairs

abstract:
  This paper suggests a method for an experiment to create dark soliton-like
waves in a trapped atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). With the phase
imprinting method, a soliton-like disturbance is produced along the x-axis. The
method is used in two cases (with and without rotation of an asymmetric
trapping potential). The disturbance in a two-dimensional system is unstable.
The soliton-like perturbation is found to decay into more stable vortex pairs
together with a burst of sound wave. The simulations are performed by solving
the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation (2D GPE). The successive dynamics
of the wave function are studied by monitoring the evolution of density and
phase profile.


title:
Nearest-Neighbor Detection of Atoms in a 1D Optical Lattice by
  Fluorescence Imaging

abstract:
  We overcome the diffraction limit in fluorescence imaging of neutral atoms in
a sparsely filled one-dimensional optical lattice. At a periodicity of 433 nm,
we reliably infer the separation of two atoms down to nearest neighbors. We
observe light induced losses of atoms occupying the same lattice site, while
for atoms in adjacent lattice sites, no losses due to light induced
interactions occur. Our method points towards characterization of correlated
quantum states in optical lattice systems with filling factors of up to one
atom per lattice site.


title: Baker-Akhiezer function as iterated residue and Selberg-type integral

abstract:
  A simple integral formula as an iterated residue is presented for the
Baker-Akhiezer function related to $A_n$ type root system both in the rational
and trigonometric cases. We present also a formula for the Baker-Akhiezer
function as a Selberg-type integral and generalise it to the deformed
$A_{n,1}$-case. These formulas can be interpreted as new cases of explicit
evaluation of Selberg-type integrals.


title: f(R) Cosmology from q-Theory

abstract:
  From a macroscopic theory of the quantum vacuum in terms of conserved
relativistic charges (generically denoted by q^{(a)} with label a), we have
obtained, in the low-energy limit, a particular type of f(R) model relevant to
cosmology. The macroscopic quantum-vacuum theory allows us to distinguish
between different phenomenological f(R) models on physical grounds.


title:
Rationality of the vertex algebra $V_L^+$ when $L$ is a nondegenerate
  even lattice of arbitrary rank

abstract:
  In this paper we prove that the vertex algebra $V_L^+$ is rational if $L$ is
a negative definite even lattice of finite rank, or if $L$ is a non-degenerate
even lattice of a finite rank that is neither positive definite nor negative
definite. In particular, for such even lattices $L$, we show that the Zhu
algebras of the vertex algebras $V_L^+$ are semisimple. This extends the result
of Abe which establishes the rationality of $V_L^+$ when $L$ is a positive
definite even lattice of finite rank.


title: Modelling interest rates by correlated multi-factor CIR-like processes

abstract:
  We investigate the joint description of the interest-rate term stuctures of
Italy and an AAA-rated European country by mean of a --here proposed--
correlated CIR-like bivariate model where one of the state variables is
interpreted as a benchmark risk-free rate and the other as a credit spread. The
model is constructed by requiring the strict positivity of interest rates and
the asymptotic decoupling of the joint distribution of the two state variables
on a long time horizon. The second condition is met by imposing the
reversibility of the process with respect to a product measure, the first is
then implemented by using the tools of potential theory. It turns out that
these conditions select a class of non-affine models, out of which we choose
one that is quadratic in the two state variables both in the drift and
diffusion matrix. We perform a numerical analysis of the model by investigating
a cross section of the term structures comparing the results with those
obtained with an uncoupled bivariate CIR model.


title:
Conditional density estimation in a censored single-index regression
  model

abstract:
  Under a single-index regression assumption, we introduce a new semiparametric
procedure to estimate a conditional density of a censored response. The
regression model can be seen as a generalization of Cox regression model and
also as a profitable tool to perform dimension reduction under censoring. This
technique extends the results of Delecroix et al. (2003). We derive consistency
and asymptotic normality of our estimator of the index parameter by proving its
asymptotic equivalence with the (uncomputable) maximum likelihood estimator,
using martingales results for counting processes and arguments of empirical
processes theory. Furthermore, we provide a new adaptive procedure which allows
us both to chose the smoothing parameter involved in our approach and to
circumvent the weak performances of Kaplan-Meier estimator (1958) in the
right-tail of the distribution. Through a simulation study, we study the
behavior of our estimator for small samples.


title: Nonlinear electron and spin transport in semiconductor superlattices

abstract:
  Nonlinear charge transport in strongly coupled semiconductor superlattices is
described by Wigner-Poisson kinetic equations involving one or two minibands.
Electron-electron collisions are treated within the Hartree approximation
whereas other inelastic collisions are described by a modified BGK
(Bhatnaghar-Gross-Krook) model. The hyperbolic limit is such that the collision
frequencies are of the same order as the Bloch frequencies due to the electric
field and the corresponding terms in the kinetic equation are dominant. In this
limit, spatially nonlocal drift-diffusion balance equations for the miniband
populations and the electric field are derived by means of the Chapman-Enskog
perturbation technique. For a lateral superlattice with spin-orbit interaction,
electrons with spin up or down have different energies and their corresponding
drift-diffusion equations can be used to calculate spin-polarized currents and
electron spin polarization. Numerical solutions show stable self-sustained
oscillations of the current and the spin polarization through a voltage biased
lateral superlattice thereby providing an example of superlattice spin
oscillator.


title: Studies on the Origin and Evolution of Codon Bias

abstract:
  Background: There is a 3-fold redundancy in the Genetic Code; most amino
acids are encoded by more than one codon. These synonymous codons are not used
equally; there is a Codon Usage Bias (CUB). This article will provide novel
information about the origin and evolution of this bias.
  Results: Codon Usage Bias (CUB, defined here as deviation from equal usage of
synonymous codons) was studied in 113 species. The average CUB was 29.3 +/-
1.1% (S.E.M, n=113) of the theoretical maximum and declined progressively with
evolution and increasing genome complexity. A Pan-Genomic Codon Usage Frequency
(CUF) Table was constructed to describe genome-wide relationships among codons.
Significant correlations were found between the number of synonymous codons and
(i) the frequency of the respective amino acids (ii) the size of CUB. Numerous,
statistically highly significant, internal correlations were found among codons
and the nucleic acids they comprise. These strong correlations made it possible
to predict missing synonymous codons (wobble bases) reliably from the remaining
codons or codon residues.
  Conclusions: The results put the concept of "codon bias" into a novel
perspective. The internal connectivity of codons indicates that all synonymous
codons might be integrated parts of the Genetic Code with equal importance in
maintaining its functional integrity.


title:
The Photon Wavefunction: a covariant formulation and equivalence with
  QED

abstract:
  We discuss the limits of the photon wavefunction (PWF) formalism, which is
experiencing a revival in these days from the new practical applications in
photonics and quantum optics. We build a Dirac-like equation for the PWF
written in a manifestly covariant form and show that, in presence of charged
matter fields, it reproduces the standard formulation of (classical)
Electrodinamics. This shows the inconsistency of the attempts to construct a
quantum theory of interacting photons, based on the so called photon
wavefunction approach, alternative to standard QED. PWF formalism can then be
used to provide an easier description of the propagation of free photons, when
the photon number remains fixed in time.


title:
Local convergence analysis of inexact Newton-like methods under majorant
  condition

abstract:
  We present a local convergence analysis of inexact Newton-like methods for
solving nonlinear equations under majorant conditions. This analysis provides
an estimate of the convergence radius and a clear relationship between the
majorant function, which relaxes the Lipschitz continuity of the derivative,
and the nonlinear operator under consideration. It also allow us to obtain some
important special cases


title: AGN Host Galaxies

abstract:
  In this series of four lectures, I discuss four important aspects of AGN host
galaxies. In Lecture #1, I address the starburst-AGN connection. First, I
briefly review the primary diagnostic tools that are used to quantify and
distinguish star formation and nuclear activity. Next I describe the best
evidence for a connection between these two processes, first at low luminosity
and then at high luminosity. In the last section, I summarize the main results
and offer possible explanations. In Lecture #2, I discuss our current
understanding of ultraluminous infrared galaxies. First, I describe the general
properties of ULIRGs, comparing the local sample with their distant
counterparts. Then I discuss the role of ULIRGs in the formation and evolution
of spheroids and their massive black holes. The discussion of their possible
role in the metal enrichment of the IGM through superwinds is postponed until
Lecture #3. In this third lecture, I discuss the importance of feedback
processes in the local and distant universe. The emphasis is on mechanical
feedback. I describe the basic physics of winds, a few classic examples of
winds in the local universe, the statistical properties of winds, near and far,
and their impact on galaxy formation and evolution. A list of potential thesis
projects is given at the end. The fourth and final lecture is on elemental
abundances as tracers of star formation. First, I explain the basic principles
behind chemical evolution, and describe three simple models whose predictions
are compared with observations in the Milky Way. Next I discuss and give an
interpretation of the results of abundance determinations in local quiescent
and starburst galaxies before discussing elemental abundances in the more
distant universe.


title: Geometric Frustration in Buckled Colloidal Monolayers

abstract:
  Geometric frustration arises when lattice structure prevents simultaneous
minimization of local interactions. It leads to highly degenerate ground states
and, subsequently, complex phases of matter such as water ice, spin ice and
frustrated magnetic materials. Here we report a simple geometrically frustrated
system composed of closely packed colloidal spheres confined between parallel
walls. Diameter-tunable microgel spheres are self-assembled into a buckled
triangular lattice with either up or down displacements analogous to an
antiferromagnetic Ising model on a triangular lattice. Experiment and theory
reveal single-particle dynamics governed by in-plane lattice distortions that
partially relieve frustration and produce ground-states with zigzagging stripes
and subextensive entropy, rather than the more random configurations and
extensive entropy of the antiferromagnetic Ising model. This tunable soft
matter system provides an uncharted arena in which the dynamics of frustration,
thermal excitations and defects can be directly visualized.


title:
A transference principle for general groups and functional calculus on
  UMD spaces

abstract:
  We prove a transference principle for general (i.e., not necessarily bounded)
strongly continuous groups on Banach spaces. If the Banach space has the UMD
property, the transference principle leads to estimates for the functional
calculus of the group generator. In the Hilbert space case, the results cover
classical theorems of McIntosh and Boyadzhiev-de Laubenfels; in the UMD case
they are analogues of classical results by Hieber and Pruess. By using
functional calculus methods, consequences for sectorial operators are derived.
For instance it is proved, that every generator of a cosine function on a UMD
space has bounded H-infinity calculus on sectors.


title: Nonlinear optimization for matroid intersection and extensions

abstract:
  We address optimization of nonlinear functions of the form $f(Wx)$, where
$f:\R^d\to \R$ is a nonlinear function, $W$ is a $d\times n$ matrix, and
feasible $x$ are in some large finite set $F$ of integer points in $\R^n$. One
motivation is multi-objective discrete optimization, where $f$ trades off the
linear functions given by the rows of $W$. Another motivation is to extend
known results about polynomial-time linear optimization over discrete
structures to nonlinear optimization. We assume that the convex hull of $F$ is
well-described by linear inequalities. For example, the set of characteristic
vectors of common bases of a pair of matroids on a common ground set. When $F$
is well described, $f$ is convex (or even quasiconvex), and $W$ has a fixed
number of rows and is unary encoded or with entries in a fixed set, we give an
efficient deterministic algorithm for maximization. When $F$ is well described,
$f$ is a norm, and binary-encoded $W$ is nonnegative, we give an efficient
deterministic constant-approximation algorithm for maximization. When $F$ is
well described, $f$ is ``ray concave'' and non-decreasing, and $W$ has a fixed
number of rows and is unary encoded or with entries in a fixed set, we give an
efficient deterministic constant-approximation algorithm for minimization. When
$F$ is the set of characteristic vectors of common bases of a pair of vectorial
matroids on a common ground set, $f$ is arbitrary, and $W$ has a fixed number
of rows and is unary encoded, we give an efficient randomized algorithm for
optimization.


title: A Distributed Process Infrastructure for a Distributed Data Structure

abstract:
  The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is continuing to grow outside the
bounds of its initial function as a metadata framework and into the domain of
general-purpose data modeling. This expansion has been facilitated by the
continued increase in the capacity and speed of RDF database repositories known
as triple-stores. High-end RDF triple-stores can hold and process on the order
of 10 billion triples. In an effort to provide a seamless integration of the
data contained in RDF repositories, the Linked Data community is providing
specifications for linking RDF data sets into a universal distributed graph
that can be traversed by both man and machine. While the seamless integration
of RDF data sets is important, at the scale of the data sets that currently
exist and will ultimately grow to become, the "download and index" philosophy
of the World Wide Web will not so easily map over to the Semantic Web. This
essay discusses the importance of adding a distributed RDF process
infrastructure to the current distributed RDF data structure.


title: Gauge fields and curvature in graphene

abstract:
  The low energy excitations of graphene can be described by a massless Dirac
equation in two spacial dimensions. Curved graphene is proposed to be described
by coupling the Dirac equation to the corresponding curved space. This
covariant formalism gives rise to an effective hamiltonian with various extra
terms. Some of them can be put in direct correspondence with more standard
tight binding or elasticity models while others are more difficult to grasp in
standard condensed matter approaches. We discuss this issue, propose models for
singular and regular curvature and describe the physical consequences of the
various proposals.


title:
Stochastic modeling in nanoscale biophysics: Subdiffusion within
  proteins

abstract:
  Advances in nanotechnology have allowed scientists to study biological
processes on an unprecedented nanoscale molecule-by-molecule basis, opening the
door to addressing many important biological problems. A phenomenon observed in
recent nanoscale single-molecule biophysics experiments is subdiffusion, which
largely departs from the classical Brownian diffusion theory. In this paper, by
incorporating fractional Gaussian noise into the generalized Langevin equation,
we formulate a model to describe subdiffusion. We conduct a detailed analysis
of the model, including (i) a spectral analysis of the stochastic
integro-differential equations introduced in the model and (ii) a microscopic
derivation of the model from a system of interacting particles. In addition to
its analytical tractability and clear physical underpinning, the model is
capable of explaining data collected in fluorescence studies on single protein
molecules. Excellent agreement between the model prediction and the
single-molecule experimental data is seen.


title:
Tracing Galaxy Formation with Stellar Halos II: Relating Substructure in
  Phase- and Abundance-Space to Accretion Histories

abstract:
  This paper explores the mapping between the observable properties of a
stellar halo in phase- and abundance-space and the parent galaxy's accretion
history in terms of the characteristic epoch of accretion and mass and orbits
of progenitor objects. The study utilizes a suite of eleven stellar halo models
constructed within the context of a standard LCDM cosmology. The results
demonstrate that coordinate-space studies are sensitive to the recent (0-8
Gyears ago) merger histories of galaxies (this timescale corresponds to the
last few to tens of percent of mass accretion for a Milky-Way-type galaxy).
Specifically, the {\it frequency, sky coverage} and {\it fraction of stars} in
substructures in the stellar halo as a function of surface brightness are
indicators of the importance of recent merging and of the luminosity function
of infalling dwarfs. The {\it morphology} of features serves as a guide to the
orbital distribution of those dwarfs. Constraints on the earlier merger history
(> 8 Gyears ago) can be gleaned from the abundance patterns in halo stars:
within our models, dramatic differences in the dominant epoch of accretion or
luminosity function of progenitor objects leave clear signatures in the
[alpha/Fe] and [Fe/H] distributions of the stellar halo - halos dominated by
very early accretion have higher average [alpha/Fe], while those dominated by
high luminosity satellites have higher [Fe/H]. This intuition can be applied to
reconstruct much about the merger histories of nearby galaxies from current and
future data sets.


title: Possible pairing states of the Fe-based superconductors

abstract:
  We consider the minimal two-band model for the Fe-based superconductors with
a phenomenological pairing interaction which mimics short-range
antiferromagnetic (AFM) fluctuations. Two superconducting (SC) gap solutions
are found to exist with the model: sign-changing s-wave gap ($\pm$s-wave) and
double d-wave gap states. Both solutions hold the approximate relation
$\Delta_{h} ^{max} N_h \approx \Delta_{e} ^{max} N_e$, a generic feature of two
band model with a dominant interband pairing interaction. We carried out the
calculations of the SC properties of the both SC states such as the density of
states, temperature dependencies of spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/T_1$,
Knight shift, and penetration depth, particularly taking into account of the
interband coherence factors. The results are discussed in comparison with the
currently available experimental data.


title: DMT of weighted Parallel Channels: Application to Broadcast Channel

abstract:
  In a broadcast channel with random packet arrival and transmission queues,
the stability of the system is achieved by maximizing a weighted sum rate
capacity with suitable weights that depend on the queue size. The weighted sum
rate capacity using Dirty Paper Coding (DPC) and Zero Forcing (ZF) is
asymptotically equivalent to the weighted sum capacity over parallel
single-channels. In this paper, we study the Diversity Multiplexing Tradeoff
(DMT) of the fading broadcast channel under a fixed weighted sum rate capacity
constraint. The DMT of both identical and different parallel weighted MISO
channels is first derived. Finally, we deduce the DMT of a broadcast channel
using DPC and ZF precoders.


title: Kohn-Luttinger superconductivity in graphene

abstract:
  We investigate the development of superconductivity in graphene when the
Fermi level becomes close to one of the Van Hove singularities of the electron
system. The origin of the pairing instability lies in the strong anisotropy of
the e-e scattering at the Van Hove filling, which leads to a channel with
attractive coupling when making the projection of the BCS vertex on the
symmetry modes with nontrivial angular dependence along the Fermi line. We show
that the scale of the superconducting instability may be pushed up to
temperatures larger than 10 K, depending on the ability to tune the system to
the proximity of the Van Hove singularity.


title: UTM, a universal simulator for lightcurves of transiting systems

abstract:
  The Universal Transit Modeller (UTM) is a light-curve simulator for all kinds
of transiting or eclipsing configurations between arbitrary numbers of several
types of objects, which may be stars, planets, planetary moons, and planetary
rings. Applications of UTM to date have been mainly in the generation of
light-curves for the testing of detection algorithms. For the preparation of
such test for the Corot Mission, a special version has been used to generate
multicolour light-curves in Corot's passbands. A separate fitting program, UFIT
(Universal Fitter) is part of the UTM distribution and may be used to derive
best fits to light-curves for any set of continuously variable parameters.
UTM/UFIT is written in IDL code and its source is released in the public domain
under the GNU General Public License.


title: Etale groupoids as germ groupoids and their base extensions

abstract:
  We introduce the notion of wide representation of an inverse semigroup and
prove that with a suitably defined topology there is a space of germs of such a
representation which has the structure of an etale groupoid. This gives an
elegant description of Paterson's universal groupoid and of the translation
groupoid of Skandalis, Tu, and Yu. In addition we characterize the inverse
semigroups that arise from groupoids, leading to a precise bijection between
the class of etale groupoids and the class of complete and infinitely
distributive inverse monoids equipped with suitable representations, and we
explain the sense in which quantales and localic groupoids carry a
generalization of this correspondence.


title:
Channel polarization: A method for constructing capacity-achieving codes
  for symmetric binary-input memoryless channels

abstract:
  A method is proposed, called channel polarization, to construct code
sequences that achieve the symmetric capacity $I(W)$ of any given binary-input
discrete memoryless channel (B-DMC) $W$. The symmetric capacity is the highest
rate achievable subject to using the input letters of the channel with equal
probability. Channel polarization refers to the fact that it is possible to
synthesize, out of $N$ independent copies of a given B-DMC $W$, a second set of
$N$ binary-input channels $\{W_N^{(i)}:1\le i\le N\}$ such that, as $N$ becomes
large, the fraction of indices $i$ for which $I(W_N^{(i)})$ is near 1
approaches $I(W)$ and the fraction for which $I(W_N^{(i)})$ is near 0
approaches $1-I(W)$. The polarized channels $\{W_N^{(i)}\}$ are
well-conditioned for channel coding: one need only send data at rate 1 through
those with capacity near 1 and at rate 0 through the remaining. Codes
constructed on the basis of this idea are called polar codes. The paper proves
that, given any B-DMC $W$ with $I(W)>0$ and any target rate $R < I(W)$, there
exists a sequence of polar codes $\{{\mathscr C}_n;n\ge 1\}$ such that
${\mathscr C}_n$ has block-length $N=2^n$, rate $\ge R$, and probability of
block error under successive cancellation decoding bounded as $P_{e}(N,R) \le
\bigoh(N^{-\frac14})$ independently of the code rate. This performance is
achievable by encoders and decoders with complexity $O(N\log N)$ for each.


title: Gamma-Ray Bursts and Particle Astrophysics

abstract:
  Gamma-ray bursts are violent events occurring randomly in the sky. In this
review, I will present the fireball model, proposed to explain the phenomenon
of gamma-ray bursts. This model has important consequences for the production
and observation at Earth of gravitational waves, high energy neutrinos, cosmic
rays and high energy photons, and the second part of this review will be
focused on these aspects. A last section will briefly discuss the topic of the
use of gamma-ray bursts as standard candles and possible cosmological studies.


title:
Induced electrostatic self-interaction in the spacetime of a global
  monopole with inner structure

abstract:
  In this work we analise the electrostatic self-energy and self-force on a
point-like electric charged particle induced by a global monopole spacetime
considering a inner structure to it. In order to develop this analysis we
calculate the three-dimensional Green function associated with this physical
system. We explicitly show that for points inside and outside the monopole's
core the self-energy presents two distinct contributions. The first is induced
by the geometry associated with the spacetime under consideration, and the
second one is a correction due to the non-vanishing inner structure attributed
to it. Considering specifically the ballpoint-pen model for the region inside,
we were able to obtain exact expressions for the self-energies in the regions
outside and inside the monopole's core.


title: Modeling UX Ursae Majoris: An abundance of challenges

abstract:
  We present a system model for optical and far UV spectra of the nova-like
variable UX UMa involving a white dwarf, secondary star, gas stream, hot spot
and accretion disk using our code BINSYN and based on an initially adopted
system distance. Calculated SED intensity data successfully fit successive
tomographically-extracted annuli longward of the Balmer limit but require a
postulated `iron curtain' shortward of the Balmer limit that is applied to the
annulus section closest to the secondary star, while postulated recombination
emission fills in the model SED shortward of the Balmer limit and is applied to
the annulus section more remote from the secondary star. The same model fits
$UBV$ 1954 light curves by Walker and Herbig. Fits to $HST$ $FOS$ spectra are
approximate but require assumed time-variable changes in the SED. Comparable
effects, possibly involving variable absorption, afflict $FUSE$ spectra.


title: The NMSSM with m_h > 115 GeV and a moderate stop mass

abstract:
  We study the generic NMSSM with the coupling \lambda S H_1 H_2 at the limit
of perturbativity, \lambda~0.7-0.8, and a moderate stop mass, m_{\tilde{t}} <
300 GeV. Respecting the LEP2 bounds and insisting on naturalness, we delimit
the allowed region of parameter space and we study the spectrum and
phenomenology of the relatively light new particles.


title: Essentially Reductive Weighted Shift Hilbert Modules

abstract:
  We discuss the relation between questions regarding the essential normality
of finitely generated essentially spherical isometries and some results and
conjectures of Arveson and Guo-Wang on the closure of homogeneous ideals in the
m-shift space. We establish a general results for the case of two tuples and
ideals with one dimensional zero variety. Further, we show how to reduce the
analogous question for quasi-homogeneous ideals, to those results for
homogeneous ones. Finally, we show that the essential reductivity of positive
regular Hilbert modules is directly related to a generalization of the Arveson
problem.


title: Unambiguous state discrimination: optimal solution and case study

abstract:
  We present a generic study of unambiguous discrimination between two mixed
quantum states. We derive operational optimality conditions and show that the
optimal measurements can be classified according to their rank. In Hilbert
space dimensions smaller or equal to five this leads to the complete optimal
solution. We demonstrate our method with a physical example, namely the
unambiguous comparison of n quantum states, and find the optimal success
probability.


title: Resonances in Models of Spin Dependent Point Interactions

abstract:
  In dimension $d=1,2,3$ we define a family of two-channel Hamiltonians
obtained as point perturbations of the generator of the free decoupled
dynamics. Within the family we choose two Hamiltonians, $\hat H_0$ and $\hat
H_\ve$, giving rise respectively to the unperturbed and to the perturbed
evolution. The Hamiltonian $\hat H_0$ does not couple the channels and has an
eigenvalue embedded in the continuous spectrum. The Hamiltonian $\hat H_\ve$ is
a small perturbation, in resolvent sense, of $\hat H_0$ and exhibits a small
coupling between the channels.
  We take advantage of the complete solvability of our model to prove with
simple arguments that the embedded eigenvalue of $\hat H_0$ shifts into a
resonance for $\hat H_\ve$. In dimension three we analyze details of the time
behavior of the projection onto the region of the spectrum close to the
resonance.


title:
From Equilibrium to Steady State: The Transient Dynamics of Colloidal
  Liquids under Shear

abstract:
  We investigate stresses and particle motion during the start up of flow in a
colloidal dispersion close to arrest into a glassy state. A combination of
molecular dynamics simulation, mode coupling theory and confocal microscopy
experiment is used to investigate the origins of the widely observed stress
overshoot and (previously not reported) super-diffusive motion in the transient
dynamics. A link between the macro-rheological stress versus strain curves and
the microscopic particle motion is established. Negative correlations in the
transient auto-correlation function of the potential stresses are found
responsible for both phenomena, and arise even for homogeneous flows and almost
Gaussian particle displacements.


title: Tools for top physics at D0

abstract:
  Top quark measurements rely on the jet energy calibration and often on
b-quark identification. We discuss these and other tools and how they apply to
top quark analyses at D0. In particular some of the nuances that result from
D0's data driven approach to these issues are presented.


title:
On the behaviors of solution near possible blow-up time in the
  incompressible Euler and related equations

abstract:
  We study behaviors of scalar quantities near the possible blow-up time, which
is made of smooth solutions of the Euler equations, Navier-Stokes equations and
the surface quasi-geostrophic equations. Integrating the dynamical equations of
the scaling invariant norms, we derive the possible blow-up behaviors of the
above quantities, from which we obtain new type of blow-up criteria and some
necessary conditions for the blow-up.


title:
Chiral Symmetry and Electron Spin Relaxation of Lithium Donors in
  Silicon

abstract:
  We report theoretical and experimental studies of the longitudinal electron
spin and orbital relaxation time of interstitial Li donors in $^{28}$Si. We
predict that despite the near-degeneracy of the ground-state manifold the spin
relaxation times are extremely long for the temperatures below 0.3 K. This
prediction is based on a new finding of the chiral symmetry of the donor
states, which presists in the presence of random strains and magnetic fields
parallel to one of the cubic axes. Experimentally observed kinetics of
magnetization reversal at 2.1 K and 4.5 K are in a very close agreement with
the theory. To explain these kinetics we introduced a new mechanism of spin
decoherence based on a combination of a small off-site displacement of the Li
atom and an umklapp phonon process. Both these factors weakly break chiral
symmetry and enable the long-term spin relaxation.


title:
Temperature-dependent Fermi surface of 2H-TaSe2 driven by competing
  density wave order fluctuations

abstract:
  Temperature evolution of the 2H-TaSe2 Fermi surface (FS) is studied by
high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES).
High-accuracy determination of the FS geometry was possible after measuring
electron momenta and velocities along all high-symmetry directions as a
function of temperature with subsequent fitting to a tight-binding model. The
estimated incommensurability parameter of the nesting vector agrees with that
of the incommensurate charge modulations. We observe detectable nonmonotonic
temperature dependence of the FS shape, which we show to be consistent with the
analogous behavior of the pseudogap. These changes in the electronic structure
could stem from the competition of commensurate and incommensurate charge
density wave order fluctuations, explaining the puzzling reopening of the
pseudogap observed in the normal state of both transition metal dichalcogenides
and high-Tc cuprates.


title: No Evidence for Particles

abstract:
  There are a number of experiments and observations that appear to argue for
the existence of particles, including the photoelectric and Compton effects,
exposure of only one film grain by a spread-out photon wave function, and
particle-like trajectories in bubble chambers. It can be shown, however, that
all the particle-like phenomena can be explained by using properties of the
wave functions/state vectors alone. Thus there is no evidence for particles.
Wave-particle duality arises because the wave functions alone have both
wave-like and particle-like properties. Further the results of the Bell-Aspect
experiment and other experiments on entangled systems, which seem to imply
peculiar properties for particles if they exist, are easily and naturally
understood if reality consists of the state vectors alone. The linear
equation-Hilbert space structure for the state vectors, by itself, can explain
every mystery in quantum mechanics except the origin of the probability law.


title:
Disordered two-dimensional superconductors: roles of temperature and
  interaction strength

abstract:
  We have considered the half-filled disordered attractive Hubbard model on a
square lattice, in which the on-site attraction is switched off on a fraction
$f$ of sites, while keeping a finite $U$ on the remaining ones. Through Quantum
Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations for several values of $f$ and $U$, and for system
sizes ranging from $8\times 8$ to $16\times 16$, we have calculated the
configurational averages of the equal-time pair structure factor $P_s$, and,
for a more restricted set of variables, the helicity modulus, $\rho_s$, as
functions of temperature. Two finite-size scaling {\it ansatze} for $P_s$ have
been used, one for zero-temperature and the other for finite temperatures. We
have found that the system sustains superconductivity in the ground state up to
a critical impurity concentration, $f_c$, which increases with $U$, at least up
to U=4 (in units of the hopping energy). Also, the normalized zero-temperature
gap as a function of $f$ shows a maximum near $f\sim 0.07$, for $2\lesssim
U\lesssim 6$. Analyses of the helicity modulus and of the pair structure factor
led to the determination of the critical temperature as a function of $f$, for
$U=3,$ 4 and 6: they also show maxima near $f\sim 0.07$, with the highest $T_c$
increasing with $U$ in this range. We argue that, overall, the observed
behavior results from both the breakdown of CDW-superconductivity degeneracy
and the fact that free sites tend to "push" electrons towards attractive sites,
the latter effect being more drastic at weak couplings.


title:
Resonant Spin Excitation in the High Temperature Superconductor
  Ba0.6K0.4Fe2As2

abstract:
  The recent observations of superconductivity at temperatures up to 55K in
compounds containing layers of iron arsenide have revealed a new class of high
temperature superconductors that show striking similarities to the more
familiar cuprates. In both series of compounds, the onset of superconductivity
is associated with the suppression of magnetic order by doping holes and/or
electrons into the band leading to theories in which magnetic fluctuations are
either responsible for or strongly coupled to the superconducting order
parameter. In the cuprates, theories of magnetic pairing have been invoked to
explain the observation of a resonant magnetic excitation that scales in energy
with the superconducting energy gap and is suppressed above the superconducting
transition temperature, Tc. Such resonant excitations have been shown by
inelastic neutron scattering to be a universal feature of the cuprate
superconductors, and have even been observed in heavy fermion superconductors
with much lower transition temperatures. In this paper, we show neutron
scattering evidence of a resonant excitation in Ba0.6K0.4Fe2As2, which is a
superconductor below 38K, at the momentum transfer associated with magnetic
order in the undoped compound, BaFe2As2, and at an energy transfer that is
consistent with scaling in other strongly correlated electron superconductors.
As in the cuprates, the peak disappears at Tc providing the first experimental
confirmation of a strong coupling of the magnetic fluctuation spectrum to the
superconducting order parameter in the new iron arsenide superconductors.


title: Interface Matching and Combining Techniques for Services Integration

abstract:
  The development of many highly dynamic environments, like pervasive
environments, introduces the possibility to use geographically close-related
services. Dynamically integrating and unintegrating these services in running
applications is a key challenge for this use. In this article, we classify
service integration issues according to interfaces exported by services and
internal combining techniques. We also propose a contextual integration
service, IntegServ, and an interface, Integrable, for developing services.


title: Explicit Construction of a Robust Family of Compact Inertial Manifolds

abstract:
  A construction of a robust family of compact inertial manifolds is presented.
The result aims to complete an analysis of certain types of attracting sets for
a class of dissipative infinite dimensional dynamical systems. Application to a
hyperbolically relaxed Chaffee-Infante reaction diffusion equation is also
discussed.


title:
Searches for B meson decays to phiphi, phirho, phifzero(980), and
  fzero(980)fzero(980) final states

abstract:
  We present the results of searches for B decays to charmless final states
involving phi, fzero(980), and charged or neutral rho mesons. The data sample
corresponds to 384 million BBbar pairs collected with the babar detector
operating at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy epem collider at SLAC. We find no
significant signals and determine the following 90% confidence level upper
limits on the branching fractions, including systematic uncertainties:
  B(B0->phiphi) < 2.0 x 10^-7,
  B(B+->phirho+) < 30 x 10^-7,
  B(B0->phirho0) < 3.3 x 10^-7,
  B(B0-phif0) x B(f0->pi+pi-) < 3.8 x 10^-7, and
  B(B0->f0f0) x B(f0->pi+pi-) x B(f0->K+K-) < 2.3 x 10^-7


title:
The Unprecedented Giant Coupling of Fe-spin State and the As-As
  Hybridization in Iron-Pnictide

abstract:
  From first principles calculations we unravel surprisingly strong
interactions between arsenic ions in iron-pnictides, the strength of which is
controlled by the Fe-spin state. Reducing the Fe-magnetic moment, weakens the
Fe-As bonding, and in turn, increases As-As interactions, causing giant
reduction in the c-axis. For CaFe$_2$As$_2$ system, this reduction is as large
as 1.4 \AA. Since the large c-reduction has been recently observed only under
high-pressure\cite{cTphase}, our results suggest that the iron magnetic moment
should be present in Fe-pnictides at all times at ambient pressure. Finally,
the conventional electron-phonon coupling in the collapsed phase of
CaFe$_2$As$_2$ gives a maximum $T_c$ of 0.6 K and can not explain the $\sim12$
K superconductivity observed in some experiments. Implications of these
findings on the mechanism of superconductivity in iron-pnictides are discussed.


title:
The saturation threshold of public opinion: are aggressive media
  campaigns always effective?

abstract:
  An important aspect that must be considered when studying opinion formation
phenomena is the different social attitude of the agents taking part in the
process. Different kinds of interconnections and of interacting behaviours
should be associated to the agents depending on their opinion: radicals tend to
self-segregate but, on the other hand, have a stronger capacity to convince
neutral agents. Other important questions arise when the official media
strongly promotes one position. The different perception that each agent has of
the official information can lead, in case of monopolistic and aggressive
media, to a reaction effect in the population that starts to create massive
antagonist clusters.


title: Quantum and classical correlations in waveguide lattices

abstract:
  We study quantum and classical Hanbury Brown-Twiss correlations in waveguide
lattices. We develop a theory for the propagation of photon pairs in the
lattice, predicting the emergence of nontrivial quantum interferences unique to
lattice systems. Experimentally, we observe the classical counterpart of these
interferences using intensity correlation measurements. We discuss the
correspondence between the classical and quantum correlations, and consider
path-entangled input states which do not have a classical analogue. Our results
demonstrate that waveguide lattices can be used as a robust and highly
controllable tool for manipulating quantum states, and offer new ways of
studying the quantum properties of light.


title:
An extended class of orthogonal polynomials defined by a Sturm-Liouville
  problem

abstract:
  We present two infinite sequences of polynomial eigenfunctions of a
Sturm-Liouville problem. As opposed to the classical orthogonal polynomial
systems, these sequences start with a polynomial of degree one. We denote these
polynomials as $X_1$-Jacobi and $X_1$-Laguerre and we prove that they are
orthogonal with respect to a positive definite inner product defined over the
the compact interval $[-1,1]$ or the half-line $[0,\infty)$, respectively, and
they are a basis of the corresponding $L^2$ Hilbert spaces. Moreover, we prove
a converse statement similar to Bochner's theorem for the classical orthogonal
polynomial systems: if a self-adjoint second order operator has a complete set
of polynomial eigenfunctions $\{p_i\}_{i=1}^\infty$, then it must be either the
$X_1$-Jacobi or the $X_1$-Laguerre Sturm-Liouville problem. A Rodrigues-type
formula can be derived for both of the $X_1$ polynomial sequences.


title: Note on the growth of Area functions

abstract:
  A new proof of the inequalities of D. J. Hallenbeck for the Area functions of
multipliers of fractional Cauchy transforms is given.


title:
Nonlinear stationary solutions of the Wigner and Wigner-Poisson
  equations

abstract:
  Exact nonlinear stationary solutions of the one-dimensional Wigner and
Wigner-Poisson equations in the terms of the Wigner functions that depend not
only on the energy but also on position are presented. In this way, the
Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal modes of the classical plasma are adapted for the
quantum formalism in the phase space. The solutions are constructed for the
case of a quartic oscillator potential, as well as for the self-consistent
Wigner-Poisson case. Conditions for well-behaved physically meaningful
equilibrium Wigner functions are discussed.


title: Comments on General Gauge Mediation

abstract:
  There has been interest in generalizing models of gauge mediation of
supersymmetry breaking. As shown by Meade, Seiberg, and Shih (MSS), the soft
masses of general gauge mediation can be expressed in terms of the current
two-point functions of the susy-breaking sector. We here give a simple
extension of their result which provides, for general gauge mediation, the full
effective potential for squark pseudo-D-flat directions. The effective
potential reduces to the sfermion soft masses near the origin, and the full
potential, away from the origin, can be useful for cosmological applications.
We also generalize the soft masses and effective potential to allow for general
gauge mediation by Higgsed gauge groups. Finally, we discuss general gauge
mediation in the limit of small F-terms, and how the results of MSS connect
with the analytic continuation in superspace results, based on a spurion
analysis.


title:
The unusual volatile composition of the Halley-type comet 8P/Tuttle:
  Addressing the existence of an Inner Oort Cloud

abstract:
  We measured organic volatiles (CH4, CH3OH, C2H6, H2CO), CO, and water in
comet 8P/Tuttle, a comet from the Oort cloud reservoir now in a short-period
Halley-type orbit. We compare its composition with two other comets in
Halley-type orbits, and with comets of the "organics-normal" and
"organics-depleted" classes. Chemical gradients are expected in the
comet-forming region of the proto-planetary disk, and an individual comet
should reflect its specific heritage. If Halley-type comets came from the inner
Oort cloud as proposed, we see no common characteristics that could distinguish
such comets from those that were stored in the outer Oort cloud.


title: On the partial trace over collective spin-degrees of freedom

abstract:
  We derive analytical properties for the degeneracy $\nu(N,j)$ occurring in
the decomposition $\bigoplus\limits_{j}^\frac{N}{2}\nu(N,j)\mathbb C^{2j+1}$ of
the state space $\mathbb C^{2\otimes N}$. We also investigate the dynamics of
two qubits coupled via Ising interactions to separate spin baths, and we study
the thermodynamic limit.


title:
Vibronic potentials in chemical physics: adiabatic approximation vs.
  supersymmetry

abstract:
  We analyze the supersymmetric features of isolated double-well potentials,
both symmetric ones and ones under an asymmetric perturbation. Our studies are
in concert with results obtained elsewhere. Further on, a particular interest
is paid to double- and single-valley potentials occurring in pairs on applying
the adiabatic approximation to coupled electron-vibrational mode systems. Among
the latter are Holstein's small polarons and the vibronic (off-center)
band-species performing a finite-orbital-momentum helical motion. Our results
seem to revive an earlier assertion for the existence of artifacts in the
adiabatic approximation.


title: Four-photon scattering in birefringent fibers

abstract:
  Four-photon scattering in nonlinear waveguides is an important physical
process that allows photon-pair generation in well defined guided modes, with
high rate and reasonably low noise. Most of the experiments to date used the
scalar four-photon scattering process in which the pump photons and the
scattered photons have the same polarization. In birefringent waveguides,
vectorial four-photon scattering is also allowed: these vectorial scattering
processes involve photons with different polarizations. In this article, the
theory of four-photon scattering in nonlinear, birefringent, and dispersive
fibers is developed in the framework of the quantum theory of light. The work
focusses on the spectral properties and quantum correlations (including
entanglement) of photon-pairs generated in high-birefringence and
low-birefringence fibers.


title: Continuous Crystallization in Hexagonally-Ordered Materials

abstract:
  We demonstrate that the phase transition from columnar-hexagonal liquid
crystal to hexagonal-crystalline solid falls into an unusual universality
class, which in three-dimensional allows for both discontinuous transitions as
well as continuous transitions, characterized by a single set of exponents. We
show by a renormalization group calculation (to first order in $\epsilon =
4-d$) that the critical exponents of the continuous transition are precisely
those of the XY model, which gives rise to a continuous evolution of elastic
moduli. Although the fixed points of the present model are found to be
identical to the XY model, the elastic compliance to deformations in the plane
of hexagonal order, $\mu$, is nonetheless shown to critically influence the
crystallization transition, with the continuous transition being driven to
first order by fluctuations as the in plane response grows weaker, $\mu \to 0$.


title:
The Collinear Magnetic Phases of the Geometrically-Frustrated
  Antiferromagnet CuFeO$_2$: The Importance of Stacking

abstract:
  The correct stacking of hexagonal layers is used to obtain accurate estimates
for the exchange and anisotropy parameters of the geometrically-frustrated
antiferromagnet CuFeO$_2$. Those parameters are highly constrained by the
stability of a collinear metamagnetic phase between fields of 13.5 and 20 T.
Constrained fits of the spin-wave frequencies of the collinear $\uudd $ phase
below 7 T are used to identify the magnetic unit cell of the metamagnetic
$\uuudd $ phase, which contains two hexagonal layers and 10 Fe$^{3+}$ spins.