title:
Spin measurements for 147Sm+n resonances: Further evidence for
  non-statistical effects

abstract:
  We have determined the spins J of resonances in the 147Sm(n,gamma) reaction
by measuring multiplicities of gamma-ray cascades following neutron capture.
Using this technique, we were able to determine J values for all but 14 of the
140 known resonances below En = 1 keV, including 41 firm J assignments for
resonances whose spins previously were either unknown or tentative. These new
spin assignments, together with previously determined resonance parameters,
allowed us to extract separate level spacings and neutron strength functions
for J = 3 and 4 resonances. Furthermore, several statistical test of the data
indicate that very few resonances of either spin have been missed below En =
700eV. Because a non-statistical effect recently was reported near En = 350 eV
from an analysis of 147Sm(n,alpha) data, we divided the data into two regions;
0 < En < 350 eV and 350 < En < 700 eV. Using neutron widths from a previous
measurement and published techniques for correcting for missed resonances and
for testing whether data are consistent with a Porter-Thomas distribution, we
found that the reduced-neutron-width distribution for resonances below 350 eV
is consistent with the expected Porter-Thomas distribution. On the other hand,
we found that reduced-neutron-width data in the 350 < En < 700 eV region are
inconsistent with a Porter-Thomas distribution, but in good agreement with a
chi-squared distribution having two or more degrees of freedom. We discuss
possible explanations for these observed non-statistical effects and their
possible relation to similar effects previously observed in other nuclides.


title:
Sharp bounds on the critical stability radius for relativistic charged
  spheres: I

abstract:
  This paper has been withdrawn since its content is included in the more
general version arXiv:0804.1882


title: The Thermal Evolution of the Donors in AM CVn Binaries

abstract:
  (Abridged) We calculate the full stellar-structural evolution of donors in AM
CVn systems formed through the WD channel coupled to the binary's evolution.
Contrary to assumptions made in prior modelling, these donors are not fully
convective over much of the AM CVn phase and do not evolve adiabatically under
mass loss indefinitely. Instead, we identify three distinct phases of
evolution: a mass transfer turn-on phase (during which the orbital period
continues to decrease even after contact, the donor contracts, and the mass
transfer rate accelerates to its maximum), a phase in which the donor expands
adiabatically in response to mass loss, and a cooling phase beginning at
orbital periods of approximately 45--55 minutes during which the donor
contracts. The physics that determines the behaviour in the first and third
phases, both of which are new outcomes of this study, are discussed in some
detail. We find the overall duration of the turn-on phase to be between $\sim
10^4$-$10^6$ yrs, significantly longer than prior estimates. We predict the
donor's luminosity and effective temperature. During the adiabatic expansion
phase (ignoring irradiation effects), the luminosity is approximately
$10^{-6}$--$10^{-4} L_\odot$ and the effective temperature is approximately
1000--1800 K. However, the flux generated in the accretion flow dominates the
donor's intrinsic light at all times. The impact of irradiation on the donor
extends the phase of adiabatic expansion to longer orbital periods and alters
the donor's observational characteristics. Irradiated donors during the
adiabatic phase can attain a surface luminosity of up to $\approx10^{-2}
L_\odot$. We argue that the turn-on and cooling phases both will leave
significant imprints on the AM CVn population's orbital period distribution.


title: Neutral hydrogen in galactic fountains

abstract:
  Simulations of an isolated Milky Way-like galaxy, in which supernovae power a
galactic fountain, reproduce the observed velocity and 21cm brightness
statistics of galactic neutral hydrogen (HI). The simulated galaxy consists of
a thin HI disk, similar in extent and brightness to that observed in the Milky
Way, and extra-planar neutral gas at a range of velocities due to the galactic
fountain. Mock observations of the neutral gas resemble the HI flux
measurements from the Leiden-Argentine-Bonn (LAB) HI, survey, including a
high-velocity tail which matches well with observations of high-velocity
clouds. The simulated high-velocity clouds are typically found close to the
galactic disk, with a typical line-of-sight distance of 13kpc from observers on
the solar circle. The fountain efficiently cycles matter from the centre of the
galaxy to its outskirts at a rate of around 0.5 M_sun/yr


title:
Ignition and Propagation of Magnetic Avalanches in Mn$_{12}$-Acetate:
  the effect of quantum tunneling

abstract:
  Using a wire heater to ignite magnetic avalanches in fixed magnetic field
applied along the easy axis of single crystals of the molecular magnet
Mn$_{12}$-acetate, we report fast local measurements of the temperature and
time-resolved measurements of the local magnetization as a function of magnetic
field. In addition to confirming maxima in the velocity of propagation, we find
that avalanches trigger at a threshold temperature which exhibits pronounced
minima at resonant magnetic fields, demonstrating that thermally assisted
quantum tunneling plays an important role in the ignition as well as the
propagation of magnetic avalanches in molecular magnets.


title: Primordial non-Gaussianity from two curvaton decays

abstract:
  We study a model where two scalar fields, that are subdominant during
inflation, decay into radiation some time after inflation has ended but before
primordial nucleosynthesis. Perturbations of these two curvaton fields can be
responsible for the primordial curvature perturbation. We write down the full
non-linear equations that relate the primordial perturbation to the curvaton
perturbations on large scales, calculate the power spectrum of the primordial
perturbation, and finally go to second order to find the non-linearity
parameter, fNL. We find large positive values of fNL if the energy densities of
the curvatons are sub-dominant when they decay, as in the single curvaton case.
But we also find a large fNL even if the curvatons dominate the total energy
density in the case when the inhomogeneous radiation produced by the first
curvaton decay is diluted by the decay of a second nearly homogeneous curvaton.
The minimum value min(fNL)=-5/4 which we find is the same as in the
single-curvaton case.


title: Multisource Bayesian sequential change detection

abstract:
  Suppose that local characteristics of several independent compound Poisson
and Wiener processes change suddenly and simultaneously at some unobservable
disorder time. The problem is to detect the disorder time as quickly as
possible after it happens and minimize the rate of false alarms at the same
time. These problems arise, for example, from managing product quality in
manufacturing systems and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. The
promptness and accuracy of detection rules improve greatly if multiple
independent information sources are available. Earlier work on sequential
change detection in continuous time does not provide optimal rules for
situations in which several marked count data and continuously changing signals
are simultaneously observable. In this paper, optimal Bayesian sequential
detection rules are developed for such problems when the marked count data is
in the form of independent compound Poisson processes, and the continuously
changing signals form a multi-dimensional Wiener process. An auxiliary optimal
stopping problem for a jump-diffusion process is solved by transforming it
first into a sequence of optimal stopping problems for a pure diffusion by
means of a jump operator. This method is new and can be very useful in other
applications as well, because it allows the use of the powerful optimal
stopping theory for diffusions.


title: Symmetric groups and conjugacy classes

abstract:
  Let S_n be the symmetric group on n-letters. Fix n>5. Given any nontrivial
$\alpha,\beta\in S_n$, we prove that the product $\alpha^{S_n}\beta^{S_n}$ of
the conjugacy classes $\alpha^{S_n}$ and $\beta^{S_n}$ is never a conjugacy
class. Furthermore, if n is not even and $n$ is not a multiple of three, then
$\alpha^{S_n}\beta^{S_n}$ is the union of at least three distinct conjugacy
classes. We also describe the elements $\alpha,\beta\in S_n$ in the case when
$\alpha^{S_n}\beta^{S_n}$ is the union of exactly two distinct conjugacy
classes.


title: GRB070610 : A Curious Galactic Transient

abstract:
  GRB 070610 is a typical high-energy event with a duration of 5s.Yet within
the burst localization we detect a highly unusual X-ray and optical transient,
SwiftJ195509.6+261406. We see high amplitude X-ray and optical variability on
very short time scales even at late times. Using near-infrared imaging assisted
by a laser guide star and adaptive optics, we identified the counterpart of
SwiftJ195509.6+261406. Late-time optical and near-infrared imaging constrain
the spectral type of the counterpart to be fainter than a K-dwarf assuming it
is of Galactic origin. It is possible that GRB 070610 and Swift
J195509.6+261406 are unrelated sources. However, the absence of a typical X-ray
afterglow from GRB 070610 in conjunction with the spatial and temporal
coincidence of the two motivate us to suggest that the sources are related. The
closest (imperfect) analog to Swift J195509.6+261406 is V4641 Sgr, an unusual
black hole binary. We suggest that Swift J195509.6+261406 along with V4641 Sgr
define a sub-class of stellar black hole binaries -- the fast X-ray novae. We
further suggest that fast X-ray novae are associated with bursts of gamma-rays.
If so, GRB 070610 defines a new class of celestial gamma-ray bursts and these
bursts dominate the long-duration GRB demographics


title:
Lateral distribution and the energy determination of showers along the
  ankle

abstract:
  The normalization constant of the lateral distribution function (LDF) of an
extensive air shower is a monotonous (almost linear) increasing function of the
energy of the primary. Therefore, the interpolated signal at some fixed
distance from the core can be calibrated to estimate the energy of the shower.
There is, somehow surprisingly, a reconstructed optimal distance, r_{opt}, at
which the effects on the inferred signal, S(r_{opt}), of the uncertainties on
true core location, LDF functional form and shower-to-shower fluctuations are
minimized. We calculate the value of r_{opt} as a function of surface detector
separation, energy and zenith angle and we demonstrate the advantage of using
the r_{opt} value of each individual shower instead of a same fixed distance
for every shower, specially in dealing with events with saturated stations. The
effects on the determined spectrum are also shown.


title: Optical Follow-up of New SMC Wing Be/X-ray Binaries

abstract:
  We investigate the optical counterparts of recently discovered Be/X-ray
binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud. In total four sources, SXP101, SXP700,
SXP348 and SXP65.8 were detected during the Chandra Survey of the Wing of the
SMC. SXP700 and SXP65.8 were previously unknown. Many optical ground based
telescopes have been utilised in the optical follow-up, providing coverage in
both the red and blue bands. This has led to the classification of all of the
counterparts as Be stars and confirms that three lie within the Galactic
spectral distribution of known Be/X-ray binaries. SXP101 lies outside this
distribution becoming the latest spectral type known. Monitoring of the Halpha
emission line suggests that all the sources bar SXP700 have highly variable
circumstellar disks, possibly a result of their comparatively short orbital
periods. Phase resolved X-ray spectroscopy has also been performed on SXP65.8,
revealing that the emission is indeed harder during the passage of the X-ray
beam through the line of sight.


title:
Too small to form a galaxy: How the UV background determines the baryon
  fraction

abstract:
  The cosmic ultraviolet background (UVB) heats the intergalactic medium (IGM),
as a result the gas in dark matter halos below a certain mass is too hot to
cool within a Hubble time. The UVB effectively suppresses the formation of
dwarf galaxies. Using high resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations
we show that photo heating leads to small baryon fractions in halos below ~
6x10^9 h^{-1}M_sun, independent of the cosmic environment. The simulations are
carried out assuming a homogeneous UVB with flux densities as given by Haardt &
Madau (1996). A halo may stop to condense gas significantly after the universe
is reionised, namely when its mass falls below the characteristic mass scale
set by the photo heating. Assuming a spherical halo model we derive this
characteristic mass analytically and identify the main mechanisms that prevent
the gas from cooling in small halos. The theoretically derived characteristic
mass is smaller than the one obtained from observations. Increasing the energy
per ionising photon by a factor between four and eight would be sufficient to
reconcile both. This is equivalent to an average temperature of the IGM of ~
10^4 K. In this sense the faint end of the luminosity function may serve as a
calorimeter for the IGM.


title: Imaging spontaneous currents in superconducting arrays of pi-junctions

abstract:
  Superconductors separated by a thin tunneling barrier exhibit the Josephson
effect that allows charge transport at zero voltage, typically with no phase
shift between the superconductors in the lowest energy state. Recently,
Josephson junctions with ground state phase shifts of pi proposed by theory
three decades ago have been demonstrated. In superconducting loops,
pi-junctions cause spontaneous circulation of persistent currents in zero
magnetic field, analogous to spin-1/2 systems. Here we image the spontaneous
zero-field currents in superconducting networks of temperature-controlled
pi-junctions with weakly ferromagnetic barriers using a scanning SQUID
microscope. We find an onset of spontaneous supercurrents at the 0-pi
transition temperature of the junctions Tpi = 3 K. We image the currents in
non-uniformly frustrated arrays consisting of cells with even and odd numbers
of pi-junctions. Such arrays are attractive model systems for studying the
exotic phases of the 2D XY-model and achieving scalable adiabatic quantum
computers.


title:
Forward inclusive dijet production and azimuthal correlations in pA
  collisions

abstract:
  We derive forward inclusive dijet production in the scattering of a dilute
hadron off an arbitrary dense target, whose partons with small fraction of
momentum x are described by a Color Glass Condensate. Both multiple scattering
and non-linear QCD evolution at small-x are included. This is of relevance for
measurements of two-particle correlations in the proton direction of
proton-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. The azimuthal angle
distribution is peaked back to back and broadens as the momenta of the measured
particles gets closer to the saturation scale.


title: Nucleon Spin Structure with hadronic collisions at COMPASS

abstract:
  In order to illustrate the capabilities of COMPASS using a hadronic beam, I
review some of the azimuthal asymmetries in hadronic collisions, that allow for
the extraction of transversity, Sivers and Boer-Mulders functions, necessary to
explore the partonic spin structure of the nucleon. I also report on some Monte
Carlo simulations of such asymmetries for the production of Drell-Yan lepton
pairs from the collision of high-energy pions on a transversely polarized
proton target.


title: EBIT Charge-Exchange Measurements and Astrophysical Applications

abstract:
  The past decade has seen a surge of interest in astrophysical charge exchange
(CX). The impetus was the discovery of X-ray emission from comets in 1996, soon
followed by the observation of CX emission in planetary atmospheres and
throughout the heliosphere. Geocoronal and heliospheric CX are now recognized
to contribute a considerable fraction of the soft X-ray background, and
stellar-wind charge exchange is expected to occur in the astrospheres
surrounding many stars. CX may also contribute to X-ray line emission in
supernova remnants, the Galactic Center, and the Galactic Ridge. This article
summarizes the key aspects of CX X-ray emission and its astrophysical
relevance, and reviews related laboratory measurements and theoretical
predictions with particular attention to spectroscopy experiments conducted on
electron beam ion traps.


title: Heat Kernel Asymptotics on Homogeneous Bundles

abstract:
  We consider Laplacians acting on sections of homogeneous vector bundles over
symmetric spaces. By using an integral representation of the heat semi-group we
find a formal solution for the heat kernel diagonal that gives a generating
function for the whole sequence of heat invariants. We argue that the obtained
formal solution correctly reproduces the exact heat kernel diagonal after a
suitable regularization and analytical continuation.


title: Indirect signals from braneworlds

abstract:
  It has been suggested that our universe could be a 3-dimensional brane where
the SM fields live embedded in a D-dimensional space-time. In flexible
raneworlds, in addition to the SM fields, new degrees of freedom appear on the
brane associated to brane fluctuations. These new fields, known as branons, are
standard WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) and therefore natural
dark matter candidates, whose spontaneous annihilations can provide first
evidences for this scenario.


title:
The Chemical Evolution Of High Z Galaxies From The Relative Abundances
  Of N, Si, S, And Fe In Damped Lyman Alpha Systems

abstract:
  Abundances of N, Si, S, and Fe for 45 damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) have
been compiled and detailed one-zone chemical evolution models have been
constructed for 30 of them. Assuming continuous star formation, we found that
final abundances in each object can be modelled by adjusting only two
parameters, i.e. its time-averaged star formation efficiency and evolutionary
age, with ranges in our sample of 0.01-1.5 Gyr^-1 and 0.18-2.0 Gyr,
respectively. In addition, average star formation efficiency and evolutionary
age appear to be anticorrelated for the sample, suggesting that the star
formation efficiency in a typical DLA decreases with age. At the same time,
N/Si in DLAs is directly linked to an object's age. There is an apparent
bimodality in the distribution of N/Si values which could be the result of a
statistical accident or an effect produced by a truncated or flattened IMF. We
find that the mean and small dispersion of Si/Fe values is related to the
generally young ages of DLAs, wherein not all Fe has yet been expelled by Type
Ia supernovae. Finally, the large scatter and generally lower values of N/Si of
DLAs with respect to blue compact galaxies, despite their partially overlapping
metallicities, indicate that DLAs are generally younger than the latter.


title: Fractal states in quantum information processing

abstract:
  The fractal character of some quantum properties has been shown for systems
described by continuous variables. Here, a definition of quantum fractal states
is given that suits the discrete systems used in quantum information
processing, including quantum coding and quantum computing. Several important
examples are provided.


title: On the 2-point function of the O(N) model

abstract:
  The self-energy of the critical 3-dimensional O(N) model is calculated. The
analysis is performed in the context of the Non-Perturbative Renormalization
Group, by exploiting an approximation which takes into account contributions of
an infinite number of vertices. A very simple calculation yields the 2-point
function in the whole range of momenta, from the UV Gaussian regime to the
scaling one. Results are in good agreement with best estimates in the
literature for any value of N in all momenta regimes. This encourages the use
of this simple approximation procedure to calculate correlation functions at
finite momenta in other physical situations.


title: Minimal Universal Extra Dimensions

abstract:
  Highly degenerate spectra associated with universal extra dimensions (UED)
provide an interesting phenomenology not only from the point of view of
cosmology and astrophysics, but also for colliders. We study these exotic
signals for the simplest case, called minimal UED, where it is natural to find
slow charged particles, displaced vertices, tracks with non-vanishing impact
parameters, track kinks, and even vanishing charged tracks.


title: Double Horizon Limit, AdS Geometry and Entropy Function

abstract:
  We start from a generic metric which describes four dimensional stationary
black holes in an arbitrary theory of gravity and show that the AdS_2 part of
the near horizon geometry is a consequence of the double-horizon limit and
finiteness . We also show that the field configurations of the near horizon are
determined if the same conditions are applied to the equations of motion. This
is done by showing that in the double-horizon limit field equations at the
horizon decouple from the bulk of the space. Solving these equations gives the
near horizon field configurations. It is shown that these decoupled equations
can be obtained from an action derived from the original action by applying the
double-horizon condition. Our results agree with the entropy function method.


title: The impact of the fourth SM family on the Higgs observability at the LHC

abstract:
  It is shown that if the fourth SM fermion family exists then the Higgs boson
could be observed at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of few fb-1. The
Higgs discovery potential for different channels is discussed in the presence
of the fourth SM family.


title: Distributing the Kalman Filter for Large-Scale Systems

abstract:
  This paper derives a \emph{distributed} Kalman filter to estimate a sparsely
connected, large-scale, $n-$dimensional, dynamical system monitored by a
network of $N$ sensors. Local Kalman filters are implemented on the
($n_l-$dimensional, where $n_l\ll n$) sub-systems that are obtained after
spatially decomposing the large-scale system. The resulting sub-systems
overlap, which along with an assimilation procedure on the local Kalman
filters, preserve an $L$th order Gauss-Markovian structure of the centralized
error processes. The information loss due to the $L$th order Gauss-Markovian
approximation is controllable as it can be characterized by a divergence that
decreases as $L\uparrow$. The order of the approximation, $L$, leads to a lower
bound on the dimension of the sub-systems, hence, providing a criterion for
sub-system selection. The assimilation procedure is carried out on the local
error covariances with a distributed iterate collapse inversion (DICI)
algorithm that we introduce. The DICI algorithm computes the (approximated)
centralized Riccati and Lyapunov equations iteratively with only local
communication and low-order computation. We fuse the observations that are
common among the local Kalman filters using bipartite fusion graphs and
consensus averaging algorithms. The proposed algorithm achieves full
distribution of the Kalman filter that is coherent with the centralized Kalman
filter with an $L$th order Gaussian-Markovian structure on the centralized
error processes. Nowhere storage, communication, or computation of
$n-$dimensional vectors and matrices is needed; only $n_l \ll n$ dimensional
vectors and matrices are communicated or used in the computation at the
sensors.


title:
Effects of Orbital Eccentricity on Extrasolar Planet Transit Detection
  and Lightcurves

abstract:
  It is shown herein that planets with eccentric orbits are more likely to
transit than circularly orbiting planets with the same semimajor axis by a
factor of (1-e^2)^{-1}. If the orbital parameters of discovered transiting
planets are known, as from follow-up radial velocity observations, then the
transit-detected planet population is easily debiased of this effect. The
duration of a planet's transit depends upon of its eccentricity and longitude
of periastron; transits near periastron are shorter, and those near apoastron
last longer, for a given impact parameter. If fitting for the stellar radius
with the other transit parameters, this effect causes a systematic error in the
resulting measurements. If the stellar radius is instead held fixed at a value
measured independently, then it is possible to place a lower limit on the
planet's eccentricity using photometry alone. Orbital accelerations cause a
difference in the planet's ingress and egress durations that lead to an
asymmetry in the transit lightcurve that could be used along with the transit
velocity measurement to uniquely measure the planet's eccentricity and
longitude of periapsis. However, the effect is too small to be measured with
current technology. The habitability of transiting terrestrial planets found by
Kepler depends on those planets' orbital eccentricities. While Kepler will be
able to place lower limits on those planets' orbital eccentricity, the actual
value for any given planet will likely remain unknown.


title:
Extracting current-induced spins: spin boundary conditions at narrow
  Hall contacts

abstract:
  We consider the possibility to extract spins that are generated by an
electric current in a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba-Dresselhaus
spin-orbit interaction (R2DEG) in the Hall geometry. To this end, we discuss
boundary conditions for the spin accumulations between a spin-orbit coupled
region and contact without spin-orbit coupling, i.e. a normal two-dimensional
electron gas (2DEG). We demonstrate that in contrast to contacts that extend
along the whole sample, a spin accumulation can diffuse into the normal region
through finite contacts and detected by e.g. ferromagnets. For an
impedance-matched narrow contact the spin accumulation in the 2DEG is equal to
the current induced spin accumulation in the bulk of R2DEG up to a
geometry-dependent numerical factor.


title:
Simplicity of C*-algebras associated to row-finite locally convex
  higher-rank graphs

abstract:
  In previous work, the authors showed that the C*-algebra C*(\Lambda) of a
row-finite higher-rank graph \Lambda with no sources is simple if and only if
\Lambda is both cofinal and aperiodic. In this paper, we generalise this result
to row-finite higher-rank graphs which are locally convex (but may contain
sources). Our main tool is Farthing's "removing sources" construction which
embeds a row-finite locally convex higher-rank graph in a row-finite
higher-rank graph with no sources in such a way that the associated C*-algebras
are Morita equivalent.


title: Severe right Ore sets and universal localisation

abstract:
  We introduce the notion of a severe right Ore set in the main as a tool to
study universal localisations of rings but also to provide a short proof of P.
M. Cohn's classification of homomorphisms from a ring to a division ring. We
prove that the category of finitely presented modules over a universal
localisation is equivalent to a localisation at a severe right Ore set of the
category of finitely presented modules over the original ring. This allows us
to describe the structure of finitely presented modules over the universal
localisation as modules over the original ring.


title: Dark Matter Decaying Now

abstract:
  The instability of dark matter may produce visible signals in the spectrum of
cosmic gamma-rays. We consider this possibility in frameworks with additional
spatial dimensions and supersymmetry. Examples of particles include
superweakly-interacting massive particles such as gravitinos in supersymmetry
models, the lightest Kaluza-Klein (KK) state in models with universal extra
dimensions, and weakly-interacting massive particles such as branons in
flexible brane-worlds.


title: Higgs decays in supersymmetric models with light neutralinos

abstract:
  In the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, neutralinos lighter than 50 GeV
are compatible with all accelerator, precision, and cosmological bounds. Such
neutralinos might constitute a relevant decay channel for the Higgs boson,
modifying its expected signatures at hadron colliders. We study the branching
ratio h --> \chi\chi and determine the region in the supersymmetric parameter
space where it is sizable. We have found that, in fact, the Higgs may
dominantly decay into neutralino pairs. Besides, as a result of this new
channel, the branching ratio into visible modes, such as h --> \gamma\gamma,
gets suppressed.


title: Classifying the Unclassifiables

abstract:
  In 1955 George Mackey suggested that there is a fundamental dichotomy in the
unitary representation theory of locally compact second countable groups. He
felt that there cannnot be a reasonable classification theory for the unitary
representations of a group G for which the dual is a non-smooth Borel space.
Mackey's precise conjecture regarding when this is the case was subsequently
verified by Glimm. This approach to "classifiability" can be applied in many
other branches of mathematics. Included in this article is a sketch of some of
the exciting new developments that have been made in this direction. Evidence
is given that there should be extensions of Mackey's ideas to such "finitistic"
problems as the classification of the finite p-groups. In a different
direction, Mackey's thoughts about quantization are also briefly discussed.


title: Holography from loop quantum gravity

abstract:
  We show that holography arises naturally in the context of spherically
symmetric loop quantum gravity. The result is not dependent on detailed
assumptions about the dynamics of the theory being considered. It ties strongly
the amount of information contained in a region of space to the tight
mathematical underpinnings of loop quantum geometry, at least in this
particular context.


title:
An Event-Driven Hybrid Molecular Dynamics and Direct Simulation Monte
  Carlo Algorithm

abstract:
  A novel Stochastic Event-Driven Molecular Dynamics (SEDMD) algorithm is
developed for the simulation of polymer chains suspended in a solvent. The
polymers are represented as chains of hard spheres tethered by square wells and
interact with the solvent particles with hard core potentials. The algorithm
uses Event-Driven Molecular Dynamics (EDMD) for the simulation of the polymer
chain and the interactions between the chain beads and the surrounding solvent
particles. The interactions between the solvent particles themselves are not
treated deterministically as in event-driven algorithms, rather, the momentum
and energy exchange in the solvent is determined stochastically using the
Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. The coupling between the solvent
and the solute is consistently represented at the particle level, however,
unlike full MD simulations of both the solvent and the solute, the spatial
structure of the solvent is ignored. The algorithm is described in detail and
applied to the study of the dynamics of a polymer chain tethered to a hard wall
subjected to uniform shear. The algorithm closely reproduces full MD
simulations with two orders of magnitude greater efficiency. Results do not
confirm the existence of periodic (cycling) motion of the polymer chain.


title:
The Edge of the Wedge Theorem for Tempered Ultrahyperfunctions II. A
  Generalized Version

abstract: Withdrawn by author - Superseded by arXiv:0910.5106 [math.FA].


title:
Many-body quantum coherence and interaction blockade in Josephson-linked
  Bose-Einstein condensates

abstract:
  We study many-body quantum coherence and interaction blockade in two
Josephson-linked Bose-Einstein condensates. We introduce universal operators
for characterizing many-body coherence without limitations on the system
symmetry and total particle number $N$. We reproduce the results for both
coherence fluctuations and number squeezing in {\em symmetric} systems of large
$N$, and reveal several peculiar phenomena that may occur in {\em asymmetric}
systems and systems of small $N$. For asymmetric systems, we show that, due to
an interplay between asymmetry and inter-particle interaction, the coherence
fluctuations are suppressed dramatically when $|E_{C}/E_{J}|\ll 1$, and both
{\it resonant tunneling} and {\it interaction blockade} take place for large
values of $|E_{C}/E_{J}|$, where $E_C$ and $E_J$ are the interaction and
tunneling energies, respectively. We emphasize that the resonant tunneling and
interaction blockade may allow creating single-atom devices with promising
technology applications. We demonstrate that for the systems at finite
temperatures the formation of self-trapped states causes an anomalous behavior.


title: The Far-Infrared Properties of Spatially Resolved AKARI Observations

abstract:
  We present the spatially resolved observations of IRAS sources from the
Japanese infrared astronomy satellite AKARI All-Sky Survey during the
performance verification (PV) phase of the mission. We extracted reliable point
sources matched with IRAS point source catalogue. By comparing IRAS and AKARI
fluxes, we found that the flux measurements of some IRAS sources could have
been over or underestimated and affected by the local background rather than
the global background. We also found possible candidates for new AKARI sources
and confirmed that AKARI observations resolved IRAS sources into multiple
sources. All-Sky Survey observations are expected to verify the accuracies of
IRAS flux measurements and to find new extragalactic point sources.


title: On algebraically integrable outer billiards

abstract:
  We prove that if the outer billiard map around a plane oval is algebraically
integrable in a certain non-degenerate sense then the oval is an ellipse.


title: Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxies and the M_BH - sigma Relation

abstract:
  We have studied the location of narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies and
broad-line Seyfert 1 (BLS1) galaxies on the M_BH - sigma relation of non-active
galaxies. We find that NLS1 galaxies as a class - as well as the BLS1 galaxies
of our comparison sample - do follow the M_BH-sigma relation of non-active
galaxies if we use the width of the [SII]6716,6731 emission lines as surrogate
for stellar velocity dispersion, sigma_*. We also find that the width of
[OIII]5007 is a good surrogate for sigma_*, but only after (a) removal of
asymmetric blue wings, and, more important, after (b) excluding core [OIII]
lines with strong blueshifts (i.e., excluding galaxies which have their [OIII]
velocity fields dominated by radial motions, presumably outflows). The same
galaxies which are extreme outliers in [OIII] still follow the M_BH - sigma
relation in [SII]. We confirm previous findings that NLS1 galaxies are
systematically off-set from the M_BH - sigma relation if the full [OIII]
profile is used to measure sigma. We systematically investigate the influence
of several parameters on the NSL1 galaxies' location on the M_BH - sigma plane:
[OIII]_core blueshift, L/L_Edd, intensity ratio FeII/H_beta, NLR density, and
absolute magnitude. Implications for NLS1 models and for their evolution along
the M_BH - sigma relation are discussed.


title: Universal localisations of hereditary rings

abstract:
  We describe all possible universal localisations of a hereditary ring in
terms of suitable full subcategories of the category of finitely presented
modules. For these universal localisations we then identify the category of
finitely presented bound modules over the universal localisation as being
equivalent to a certain full subcategory of the category of finitely presented
bound modules over the original ring. We also describe the abelian monoid of
finitely generated projective modules over the universal localisation.


title:
On the penetration of meridional circulation below the solar convection
  zone

abstract:
  Meridional flows with velocities of a few meters per second are observed in
the uppermost regions of the solar convection zone. The amplitude and pattern
of the flows deeper in the solar interior, in particular near the top of the
radiative region, are of crucial importance to a wide range of solar
magnetohydrodynamical processes. In this paper, we provide a systematic study
of the penetration of large-scale meridional flows from the convection zone
into the radiative zone. In particular, we study the effects of the assumed
boundary conditions applied at the convective-radiative interface on the deeper
flows. Using simplified analytical models in conjunction with more complete
numerical methods, we show that penetration of the convectively-driven
meridional flows into the deeper interior is not necessarily limited to a
shallow Ekman depth but can penetrate much deeper, depending on how the
convective-radiative interface flows are modeled.


title: Dynamic Boundaries in Asymmetric Exclusion Processes

abstract:
  We investigate the dynamics of a one-dimensional asymmetric exclusion process
with Langmuir kinetics and a fluctuating wall. At the left boundary, particles
are injected onto the lattice; from there, the particles hop to the right.
Along the lattice, particles can adsorb or desorb, and the right boundary is
defined by a wall particle. The confining wall particle has intrinsic forward
and backward hopping, a net leftward drift, and cannot desorb. Performing Monte
Carlo simulations and using a moving-frame finite segment approach coupled to
mean field theory, we find the parameter regimes in which the wall acquires a
steady state position. In other regimes, the wall will either drift to the left
and fall off the lattice at the injection site, or drift indefinitely to the
right. Our results are discussed in the context of non-equilibrium phases of
the system, fluctuating boundary layers, and particle densities in the lab
frame versus the frame of the fluctuating wall.


title:
Recoilless Resonance Absorption of Tritium Antineutrinos and Time-Energy
  Uncertainty Relation

abstract:
  We discuss neutrino oscillations in an experiment with M\"ossbauer recoilless
resonance absorbtion of tritium antineutrinos, proposed recently by Raghavan.
We demonstrate that small energy uncertainty of antineutrinos which ensures a
large resonance absorption cross section is in a conflict with the energy
uncertainty which, according to the time-energy uncertainty relation, is
necessary for neutrino oscillations to happen. The search for neutrino
oscillations in the M\"ossbauer neutrino experiment would be an important test
of the applicability of the time-energy uncertainty relation to a newly
discovered interference phenomenon.


title: An Introduction to Quantum Computing

abstract:
  Quantum Computing is a new and exciting field at the intersection of
mathematics, computer science and physics. It concerns a utilization of quantum
mechanics to improve the efficiency of computation. Here we present a gentle
introduction to some of the ideas in quantum computing. The paper begins by
motivating the central ideas of quantum mechanics and quantum computation with
simple toy models. From there we move on to a formal presentation of the small
fraction of (finite dimensional) quantum mechanics that we will need for basic
quantum computation. Central notions of quantum architecture (qubits and
quantum gates) are described. The paper ends with a presentation of one of the
simplest quantum algorithms: Deutsch's algorithm. Our presentation demands
neither advanced mathematics nor advanced physics.


title:
Magnifying perfect lens and superlens design by coordinate
  transformation

abstract:
  The coordinate transformation technique is applied to the design of perfect
lenses and superlenses. In particular, anisotropic metamaterials that magnify
two-dimensional planar images beyond the diffraction limit are designed by the
use of oblate spheroidal coordinates. The oblate spheroidal perfect lens or
superlens can naturally be used in reverse for lithography of planar
subwavelength patterns.


title:
Type Ia and II supernovae contributions to the metal enrichment in
  intra-cluster medium observed with Suzaku

abstract:
  We studied the properties of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) in two clusters
of galaxies (AWM 7 and Abell 1060) and two groups (HCG 62 and NGC 507) with the
X-ray Observatory Suzaku. Based on spatially resolved energy spectra, we
measured for the first time precise cumulative ICM metal masses within 0.1 and
~0.3 r_{180}. Comparing our results with supernova nucleosynthesis models, the
number ratio of type II (SNe II) to type Ia (SNe Ia) is estimated to be ~3.5,
assuming the metal mass in the ICM is represented by the sum of products
synthesized in SNe Ia and SNe II. Normalized by the K-band luminosities of
present galaxies, and including the metals in stars, the integrated number of
past SNe II explosions is estimated to be close to or somewhat higher than the
star formation rate determined from Hubble Deep Field observations.


title:
Field-induced incommensurate order for the quasi-one-dimensional XXZ
  model in a magnetic field

abstract:
  We investigate phase transitions of the quasi-one-dimensional XXZ model in a
magnetic field, using the bosonization combined with the mean field treatment
of the inter-chain interaction. We then find that the field induced
incommensurate order is certainly realized in the low field region, while the
transverse staggered order appears in the high field region. On the basis of
the result, we discuss the field-induced phase transition recently observed for
BaCo2V2O8.


title:
Hydrogen Balmer line formation in solar flares affected by return
  currents

abstract:
  Aims. We investigate the effect of the electric return currents in solar
flares on the profiles of hydrogen Balmer lines. We consider the monoenergetic
approximation for the primary beam and runaway model of the neutralizing return
current. Methods. Propagation of the 10 keV electron beam from a coronal
reconnection site is considered for the semiempirical chromosphere model F1. We
estimate the local number density of return current using two approximations
for beam energy fluxes between $4\times 10^{11}$ and $1\times 10^{12} {\rm erg
cm^{-2} s^{-1}}$. Inelastic collisions of beam and return-current electrons
with hydrogen are included according to their energy distributions, and the
hydrogen Balmer line intensities are computed using an NLTE radiative transfer
approach. Results. In comparison to traditional NLTE models of solar flares
that neglect the return-current effects, we found a significant increase
emission in the Balmer line cores due to nonthermal excitation by return
current. Contrary to the model without return current, the line shapes are
sensitive to a beam flux. It is the result of variation in the return-current
energy that is close to the hydrogen excitation thresholds and the density of
return-current electrons.


title:
A Comprehensive View of Circumstellar Disks in Chamaeleon I: Infrared
  Excess, Accretion Signatures and Binarity

abstract:
  We present a comprehensive study of disks around 81 young low-mass stars and
brown dwarfs in the nearby ~2-Myr-old Chamaeleon I star-forming region. We use
mid-infrared photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope, supplemented by
findings from ground-based high-resolution optical spectroscopy and adaptive
optics imaging. We derive disk fractions of 52 (+/-6) % and 58 (+6/-7) % based
on 8-micron and 24-micron colour excesses, respectively, consistent with those
reported for other clusters of similar age. Within the uncertainties, the disk
frequency in our sample of K3-M8 objects in Cha I does not depend on stellar
mass. Diskless and disk-bearing objects have similar spatial distributions.
There are no obvious transition disks in our sample, implying a rapid timescale
for the inner disk clearing process; however, we find two objects with weak
excess at 3-8 microns and substantial excess at 24 microns, which may indicate
grain growth and dust settling in the inner disk. For a sub-sample of 35
objects with high-resolution spectra, we investigate the connection between
accretion signatures and dusty disks: in the vast majority of cases (29/35) the
two are well correlated, suggesting that, on average, the timescale for gas
dissipation is similar to that for clearing the inner dust disk. The exceptions
are six objects for which dust disks appear to persist even though accretion
has ceased or dropped below measurable levels. Adaptive optics images of 65 of
our targets reveal that 17 have companions at (projected) separations of 10-80
AU. Of the five <20 AU binaries, four lack infrared excess, possibly indicating
that a close companion leads to faster disk dispersal. The closest binary with
excess is separated by ~20 AU, which sets an upper limit of ~8 AU for the outer
disk radius. (abridged)


title: Probing e-e interactions in a periodic array of GaAs quantum wires

abstract:
  We present the results of non-linear tunnelling spectroscopy between an array
of independent quantum wires and an adjacent two-dimensional electron gas
(2DEG) in a double-quantum-well structure. The two layers are separately
contacted using a surface-gate scheme, and the wires are all very regular, with
dimensions chosen carefully so that there is minimal modulation of the 2DEG by
the gates defining the wires. We have mapped the dispersion spectrum of the 1D
wires down to the depletion of the last 1D subband by measuring the conductance
\emph{G} as a function of the in-plane magnetic field \emph{B}, the interlayer
bias $V_{\rm dc}$ and the wire gate voltage. There is a strong suppression of
tunnelling at zero bias, with temperature and dc-bias dependences consistent
with power laws, as expected for a Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid caused by
electron-electron interactions in the wires. In addition, the current peaks fit
the free-electron model quite well, but with just one 1D subband there is extra
structure that may indicate interactions.


title:
Generalized Parton Distributions from Hadronic Observables: Non-Zero
  Skewness

abstract:
  We propose a physically motivated parametrization for the unpolarized
generalized parton distributions, H and E, valid at both zero and non-zero
values of the skewness variable, \zeta. Our approach follows a previous
detailed study of the \zeta=0 case where H and E were determined using
constraints from simultaneous fits of the experimental data on both the nucleon
elastic form factors and the deep inelastic structure functions in the non
singlet sector. Additional constraints at \zeta \neq 0 are provided by lattice
calculations of the higher moments of generalized parton distributions. We
illustrate a method for extracting generalized parton distributions from
lattice moments based on a reconstruction using sets of orthogonal polynomials.
The inclusion in our fit of data on Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering is also
discussed. Our method provides a step towards a model independent extraction of
generalized distributions from the data. It also provides an alternative to
double distributions based phenomenological models in that we are able to
satisfy the polynomiality condition by construction, using a combination of
experimental data and lattice, without resorting to any specific mathematical
construct.


title: Sharp k-order Sobolev inequalities in the hyperbolic space ${\Bbb H}^n$

abstract:
  In this paper, we obtain the sharp $k$-th order Sobolev inequalities in the
hyperbolic space ${\H}^n$ for all $k=1,2,3,\cdots$. This gives an answer to an
open question raised by Aubin in [5, p.$\;$176-177] for $W^{k,2}({\H}^n)$ with
$k>1$. In addition, we prove that the associated Sobolev constants are optimal.


title: Solar cycle variation of real CME latitudes

abstract:
  With the assumption of radial motion and uniform longitudinal distribution of
coronal mass ejections (CMEs), we propose a method to eliminate projection
effects from the apparent observed CME latitude distribution. This method has
been applied to SOHO LASCO data from 1996 January to 2006 December. As a
result, we find that the real CME latitude distribution had the following
characteristics: (1) High-latitude CMEs ($\theta>60^{\circ}$ where $\theta$ is
the latitude) constituted 3% of all CMEs and mainly occurred during the time
when the polar magnetic fields reversed sign. The latitudinal drift of the
high-latitude CMEs was correlated with that of the heliospheric current sheet.
(2) 4% of all CMEs occurred in the range $45^{\circ}\leq\theta\leq60^{\circ}$.
These mid-latitude CMEs occurred primarily in 2000, near the middle of 2002 and
in 2005, respectively, forming a prominent three-peak structure; (3) The
highest occurrence probability of low-latitude ($\theta< 45^{\circ}$) CMEs was
at the minimum and during the declining phase of the solar cycle. However, the
highest occurrence rate of low-latitude CMEs was at the maximum and during the
declining phase of the solar cycle. The latitudinal evolution of low-latitude
CMEs did not follow the Sp\"{o}rer sunspot law, which suggests that many CMEs
originated outside of active regions.


title:
Capacity Region of the Finite-State Multiple Access Channel with and
  without Feedback

abstract:
  The capacity region of the Finite-State Multiple Access Channel (FS-MAC) with
feedback that may be an arbitrary time-invariant function of the channel output
samples is considered. We characterize both an inner and an outer bound for
this region, using Masseys's directed information. These bounds are shown to
coincide, and hence yield the capacity region, of FS-MACs where the state
process is stationary and ergodic and not affected by the inputs.
  Though `multi-letter' in general, our results yield explicit conclusions when
applied to specific scenarios of interest. E.g., our results allow us to:
  - Identify a large class of FS-MACs, that includes the additive mod-2 noise
MAC where the noise may have memory, for which feedback does not enlarge the
capacity region.
  - Deduce that, for a general FS-MAC with states that are not affected by the
input, if the capacity (region) without feedback is zero, then so is the
capacity (region) with feedback.
  - Deduce that the capacity region of a MAC that can be decomposed into a
`multiplexer' concatenated by a point-to-point channel (with, without, or with
partial feedback), the capacity region is given by $\sum_{m} R_m \leq C$, where
C is the capacity of the point to point channel and m indexes the encoders.
Moreover, we show that for this family of channels source-channel coding
separation holds.


title:
Wavelength-scale stationary-wave integrated Fourier-transform
  spectrometry

abstract:
  Spectrometry is a general physical-analysis approach for investigating
light-matter interactions. However, the complex designs of existing
spectrometers render them resistant to simplification and miniaturization, both
of which are vital for applications in micro- and nanotechnology and which are
now undergoing intensive research. Stationary-wave integrated Fourier-transform
spectrometry (SWIFTS)-an approach based on direct intensity detection of a
standing wave resulting from either reflection (as in the principle of colour
photography by Gabriel Lippmann) or counterpropagative interference
phenomenon-is expected to be able to overcome this drawback. Here, we present a
SWIFTS-based spectrometer relying on an original optical near-field detection
method in which optical nanoprobes are used to sample directly the evanescent
standing wave in the waveguide. Combined with integrated optics, we report a
way of reducing the volume of the spectrometer to a few hundreds of cubic
wavelengths. This is the first attempt, using SWIFTS, to produce a very small
integrated one-dimensional spectrometer suitable for applications where
microspectrometers are essential.


title: A simply connected surface of general type with p_g=0 and K^2=3

abstract:
  Motivated by a recent result of Y. Lee and the second author[7], we construct
a simply connected minimal complex surface of general type with p_g=0 and K^2=3
using a rational blow-down surgery and Q-Gorenstein smoothing theory. In a
similar fashion, we also construct a new simply connected symplectic 4-manifold
with b_2^+=1 and K^2=4.


title: Efficiency of feedback process in cavity quantum electrodynamics

abstract:
  Utilizing the continuous frequency mode quantization scheme, we study from
first principle the efficiency of a feedback scheme that can generate maximally
entangled states of two atoms in an optical cavity through their interactions
with a single input photon. The spectral function of the photon emitted from
the cavity, which will be used as the input of the next round in the feedback
process, is obtained analytically. We find that the spectral function of the
photon is modified in each round and deviates from the original one. The
efficiency of the feedback scheme consequently deteriorates gradually after
several rounds of operation.


title:
A new formulation of asset trading games in continuous time with
  essential forcing of variation exponent

abstract:
  We introduce a new formulation of asset trading games in continuous time in
the framework of the game-theoretic probability established by Shafer and Vovk
(Probability and Finance: It's Only a Game! (2001) Wiley). In our formulation,
the market moves continuously, but an investor trades in discrete times, which
can depend on the past path of the market. We prove that an investor can
essentially force that the asset price path behaves with the variation exponent
exactly equal to two. Our proof is based on embedding high-frequency
discrete-time games into the continuous-time game and the use of the Bayesian
strategy of Kumon, Takemura and Takeuchi (Stoch. Anal. Appl. 26 (2008)
1161--1180) for discrete-time coin-tossing games. We also show that the main
growth part of the investor's capital processes is clearly described by the
information quantities, which are derived from the Kullback--Leibler
information with respect to the empirical fluctuation of the asset price.


title: Area Invariance of Apparent Horizons under Arbitrary Boosts

abstract:
  It is a well known analytic result in general relativity that the
2-dimensional area of the apparent horizon of a black hole remains invariant
regardless of the motion of the observer, and in fact is independent of the $
t=constant $ slice, which can be quite arbitrary in general relativity.
Nonetheless the explicit computation of horizon area is often substantially
more difficult in some frames (complicated by the coordinate form of the
metric), than in other frames. Here we give an explicit demonstration for very
restricted metric forms of (Schwarzschild and Kerr) vacuum black holes. In the
Kerr-Schild coordinate expression for these spacetimes they have an explicit
Lorentz-invariant form. We consider {\it boosted} versions with the black hole
moving through the coordinate system. Since these are stationary black hole
spacetimes, the apparent horizons are two dimensional cross sections of their
event horizons, so we compute the areas of apparent horizons in the boosted
space with (boosted) $ t = constant $, and obtain the same result as in the
unboosted case. Note that while the invariance of area is generic, we deal only
with black holes in the Kerr-Schild form, and consider only one particularly
simple change of slicing which amounts to a boost. Even with these restrictions
we find that the results illuminate the physics of the horizon as a null
surface and provide a useful pedagogical tool. As far as we can determine, this
is the first explicit calculation of this type demonstrating the area
invariance of horizons. Further, these calculations are directly relevant to
transformations that arise in computational representation of moving black
holes. We present an application of this result to initial data for boosted
black holes.


title: Discreteness-induced Transition in Catalytic Reaction Networks

abstract:
  Drastic change in dynamics and statistics in a chemical reaction system,
induced by smallness in the molecule number, is reported. Through stochastic
simulations for random catalytic reaction networks, transition to a novel state
is observed with the decrease in the total molecule number N, characterized by:
i) large fluctuations in chemical concentrations as a result of intermittent
switching over several states with extinction of some molecule species and ii)
strong deviation of time averaged distribution of chemical concentrations from
that expected in the continuum limit, i.e., $N \to \infty$. The origin of
transition is explained by the deficiency of molecule leading to termination of
some reactions. The critical number of molecules for the transition is obtained
as a function of the number of molecules species M and that of reaction paths
K, while total reaction rates, scaled properly, are shown to follow a universal
form as a function of NK/M.


title:
Quenching Dynamics of a quantum XY spin-1/2 chain in presence of a
  transverse field

abstract:
  We study the quantum dynamics of a one-dimensional spin-1/2 anisotropic XY
model in a transverse field when the transverse field or the anisotropic
interaction is quenched at a slow but uniform rate. The two quenching schemes
are called transverse and anisotropic quenching respectively. Our emphasis in
this paper is on the anisotropic quenching scheme and we compare the results
with those of the other scheme. In the process of anisotropic quenching, the
system crosses all the quantum critical lines of the phase diagram where the
relaxation time diverges. The evolution is non-adiabatic in the time interval
when the parameters are close to their critical values, and is adiabatic
otherwise. The density of defects produced due to non-adiabatic transitions is
calculated by mapping the many-particle system to an equivalent Landau-Zener
problem and is generally found to vary as $1/\sqrt{\tau}$, where $\tau$ is the
characteristic time scale of quenching, a scenario that supports the
Kibble-Zurek mechanism. Interestingly, in the case of anisotropic quenching,
there exists an additional non-adiabatic transition, in comparison to the
transverse quenching case, with the corresponding probability peaking at an
incommensurate value of the wave vector. In the special case in which the
system passes through a multi-critical point, the defect density is found to
vary as $1/\tau^{1/6}$. The von Neumann entropy of the final state is shown to
maximize at a quenching rate around which the ordering of the final state
changes from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic.


title: Expert Elicitation for Reliable System Design

abstract:
  This paper reviews the role of expert judgement to support reliability
assessments within the systems engineering design process. Generic design
processes are described to give the context and a discussion is given about the
nature of the reliability assessments required in the different systems
engineering phases. It is argued that, as far as meeting reliability
requirements is concerned, the whole design process is more akin to a
statistical control process than to a straightforward statistical problem of
assessing an unknown distribution. This leads to features of the expert
judgement problem in the design context which are substantially different from
those seen, for example, in risk assessment. In particular, the role of experts
in problem structuring and in developing failure mitigation options is much
more prominent, and there is a need to take into account the reliability
potential for future mitigation measures downstream in the system life cycle.
An overview is given of the stakeholders typically involved in large scale
systems engineering design projects, and this is used to argue the need for
methods that expose potential judgemental biases in order to generate analyses
that can be said to provide rational consensus about uncertainties. Finally, a
number of key points are developed with the aim of moving toward a framework
that provides a holistic method for tracking reliability assessment through the
design process.


title:
Searching for Stable Na-ordered Phases in Single Crystal Samples of
  gamma-NaxCoO2

abstract:
  We report on the preparation and characterization of single crystal gamma
phase NaxCoO2 with 0.25 < x < 0.84 using a non-aqueous electrochemical
chronoamperemetry technique. By carefully mapping the overpotential versus x
(for x < 0.84), we find six distinct stable phases with Na levels corresponding
to x ~ 0.75, 0.71, 0.50, 0.43, 0.33 and 0.25. The composition with x ~0.55
appears to have a critical Na concentration which separates samples with
different magnetic behavior as well as different Na ion diffusion mechanisms.
Chemical analysis of an aged crystal reveals different Na ion diffusion
mechanisms above and below x_c ~ 0.53, where the diffusion process above x_c
has a diffusion coefficient about five times larger than that below x_c. The
series of crystals were studied with X-ray diffraction, susceptibility, and
transport measurements. The crystal with x = 0.5 shows a weak ferromagnetic
transition below T=27 K in addition to the usual transitions at T = 51 K and 88
K. The resistivity of the Curie-Weiss metallic Na0.71CoO2 composition has a
very low residual resistivity, which attests to the high homogeneity of the
crystals prepared by this improved electrochemical method. Our results on the
various stable crystal compositions point to the importance of Na ion ordering
across the phase diagram.


title: Stochastic Programming with Probability

abstract:
  In this work we study optimization problems subject to a failure constraint.
This constraint is expressed in terms of a condition that causes failure,
representing a physical or technical breakdown. We formulate the problem in
terms of a probability constraint, where the level of "confidence" is a
modelling parameter and has the interpretation that the probability of failure
should not exceed that level. Application of the stochastic Arrow-Hurwicz
algorithm poses two difficulties: one is structural and arises from the lack of
convexity of the probability constraint, and the other is the estimation of the
gradient of the probability constraint. We develop two gradient estimators with
decreasing bias via a convolution method and a finite difference technique,
respectively, and we provide a full analysis of convergence of the algorithms.
Convergence results are used to tune the parameters of the numerical algorithms
in order to achieve best convergence rates, and numerical results are included
via an example of application in finance.


title:
Precise dipole moments and quadrupole coupling constants of the cis and
  trans conformers of 3-aminophenol: Determination of the absolute conformation

abstract:
  The rotational constants and the nitrogen nuclear quadrupole coupling
constants of cis-3-aminophenol and trans-3-aminophenol are determined using
Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy. We examine several $J=2\leftarrow{}1$
and $1\leftarrow{}0$ hyperfine-resolved rotational transitions for both
conformers. The transitions are fit to a rigid rotor Hamiltonian including
nuclear quadrupole coupling to account for the nitrogen nucleus. For
cis-3-aminophenol we obtain rotational constants of A=3734.930 MHz, B=1823.2095
MHz, and C=1226.493 MHz, for trans-3-aminophenol of A=3730.1676 MHz,
B=1828.25774 MHz, and C=1228.1948 MHz. The dipole moments are precisely
determined using Stark effect measurements for several hyperfine transitions to
$\mu_a=1.7735$ D, $\mu_b=1.5195$ D for cis-3-aminophenol and $\mu_a=0.5563$ D,
$\mu_b=0.5376$ D for trans-3-aminophenol. Whereas the rotational constants and
quadrupole coupling constants do not allow to determinate the absolute
configuration of the two conformers, this assignment is straight-forward based
on the dipole moments. High-level \emph{ab initio} calculations (B3LYP/6-31G^*
to MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ) are performed providing error estimates of rotational
constants and dipole moments obtained for large molecules by these theoretical
methods.


title: Localizing the Elliott conjecture at strongly self-absorbing C*-algebras

abstract:
  We formally introduce the concept of localizing the Elliott conjecture at a
given strongly self-absorbing C*-algebra $D$; we also explain how the known
classification theorems for nuclear C*-algebras fit into this concept. As a new
result in this direction, we employ recent results of Lin to show that (under a
mild K-theoretic condition) the class of separable, unital, simple C*-algebras
with locally finite decomposition rank and UCT, and for which projections
separate traces, satisfies the Elliott conjecture localized at the Jiang-Su
algebra Z.
  Our main result is formulated in a more general way; this allows us to
outline a strategy to possibly remove the trace space condition as well as the
K-theory restriction entirely. When regarding both our result and the recent
classification theorem of Elliott, Gong and Li as generalizations of the real
rank zero case, the two approaches are perpendicular in a certain sense. The
strategy to attack the general case aims at combining these two approaches.
  Our classification theorem covers simple ASH algebras for which projections
separate traces (and the K-groups of which have finitely generated torsion
part); it does, however, not at all depend on an inductive limit structure.
Also, in the monotracial case it does not rely on the existence or absence of
projections in any way. In fact, it is the first such result which, in a
natural way, covers all known unital, separable, simple, nuclear and stably
finite C*-algebras of real rank zero (the K-groups of which have finitely
generated torsion part) as well as the (projectionless) Jiang-Su algebra
itself.


title:
Uniqueness of ground states of some coupled nonlinear Schrodinger
  systems and their application

abstract:
  We establish the uniqueness of ground states of some coupled nonlinear
Schrodinger systems in the whole space. We firstly use Schwartz symmetrization
to obtain the existence of ground states for a more general case. To prove the
uniqueness of ground states, we use the radial symmetry of the ground states to
transform the systems into an ordinary differential system, and then we use the
integral forms of the system. More interestingly, as an application of our
uniqueness results, we derive a sharp vector-valued Gagliardo-Nirenberg
inequality.


abstract: Comment: Expert Elicitation for Reliable System Design [arXiv:0708.0279]


title:
Uniqueness of positive bound states to Schrodinger systems with critical
  exponents

abstract:
  We prove the uniqueness for the positive solutions of the following elliptic
systems: \begin{eqnarray*} \left\{\begin{array}{ll} - \lap (u(x)) =
u(x)^{\alpha}v(x)^{\beta}
  - \lap (v(x)) = u(x)^{\beta} v(x)^{\alpha} \end{array} \right.
\end{eqnarray*} Here $x\in R^n$, $n\geq 3$, and $1\leq \alpha, \beta\leq
\frac{n+2}{n-2}$ with $\alpha+\beta=\frac{n+2}{n-2}$. In the special case when
$n=3$ and $\alpha =2, \beta=3$, the systems come from the stationary
Schrodinger system with critical exponents for Bose-Einstein condensate. As a
key step, we prove the radial symmetry of the positive solutions to the
elliptic system above with critical exponents.


title: Comment: Expert Elicitation for Reliable System Design


title:
Pulsation tomography of rapidly oscillating Ap stars. Resolving the
  third dimension in peculiar pulsating stellar atmospheres

abstract:
  We present detailed analysis of the vertical pulsation mode cross-section in
ten rapidly oscillating Ap (roAp) stars based on spectroscopic time-series
observations. The aim of this analysis is to derive from observations a
complete picture of how the amplitude and phase of magnetoacoustic waves depend
on depth. We find common features in the pulsational behaviour of roAp stars.
Within a sample of representative elements the lowest amplitudes are detected
for Eu II (and Fe in 33 Lib and in HD 19918), then pulsations go through the
layers where Halpha core, Nd, and Pr lines are formed. There RV amplitude
reaches its maximum, and after that decreases in most stars. The maximum RV of
the second REE ions is always delayed relative to the first ions. The largest
phase shifts are detected in Tb III and Th III lines. Pulsational variability
of the Th III lines is detected here for the first time. The Y II lines deviate
from this picture, showing even lower amplitudes than Eu II lines but half a
period phase shift relative to other weakly pulsating lines. The roAp stars
exhibit similarity in the depth-dependence of pulsation phase and amplitude,
indicating similar chemical stratification and comparable vertical mode
cross-sections. In general, pulsations waves are represented by a superposition
of the running and standing wave components. In the atmospheres of roAp stars
with the pulsation frequency below the acoustic cut-off frequency, pulsations
have a standing-wave character in the deeper layers and behave like a running
wave in the outer layers. Cooler roAp stars develop a running wave higher in
the atmosphere. In stars with pulsation frequency close to the acoustic cut-off
one, pulsation waves have a running character starting from deep layers.
(Abridged)


title:
HST multi-epoch imaging of the PSR B0540-69 system unveils a highly
  dynamic synchrotron nebula

abstract:
  PSR B0540-69 is the Crab twin in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Age, energetic
and overall behaviour of the two pulsars are very similar. The same is true for
the general appearance of their pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). Analysis of Hubble
Space Telescope images spanning 10 years unveiled significant variability in
the PWN surrounding PSR B0540-69, with a hot spot moving at ~0.04c. Such
behaviour, reminiscent of the variability observed in the Crab nebula along the
counter-jet direction, may suggest an alternative scenario for the geometry of
the system. The same data were used to assess the pulsar proper motion. The
null displacement recorded over 10 y allowed us to set a 3sigma upper limit of
290 km/s to the pulsar velocity.


title: Quantum Entanglement of Neutrino Pairs

abstract:
  It is practically shown that a pair of neutrinos from tau decay can form a
flavor entangled state. With this kind of state we show that the locality
constrains imposed by Bell inequality are violated by the quantum mechanics,
and an experimental test of this effect is feasible within the earth's length
scale. Theoretically, the quantum entanglement of neutrino pairs can be
employed to the use of long distance cryptography distribution in a protocol
similar to the BB84.


title:
Comment on ``Geometric phase of entangled spin pairs in a magnetic
  field''

abstract:
  The degree of entanglement between two spins may change due to interaction.
About this we find that a wrong result in a recent work by Ge and Wadati [Phys.
Rev. A {\bf72}, 052101(2005)] which breach the basic principle.


abstract: Rejoinder: Expert Elicitation for Reliable System Design [arXiv:0708.0279]


title:
The influence of device geometry on many-body effects in quantum point
  contacts: Signatures of the 0.7 anomaly, exchange and Kondo

abstract:
  The conductance of a quantum point contact (QPC) shows several features that
result from many-body electron interactions. The spin degeneracy in zero
magnetic field appears to be spontaneously lifted due to the so-called 0.7
anomaly. Further, the g-factor for electrons in the QPC is enhanced, and a
zero-bias peak in the conductance points to similarities with transport through
a Kondo impurity. We report here how these many-body effects depend on QPC
geometry. We find a clear relation between the enhanced g-factor and the
subband spacing in our QPCs, and can relate this to the device geometry with
electrostatic modeling of the QPC potential. We also measured the zero-field
energy splitting related to the 0.7 anomaly, and studied how it evolves into a
splitting that is the sum of the Zeeman effect and a field-independent exchange
contribution when applying a magnetic field. While this exchange contribution
shows sample-to-sample fluctuations and no clear dependence on QPC geometry, it
is for all QPCs correlated with the zero-field splitting of the 0.7 anomaly.
This provides evidence that the splitting of the 0.7 anomaly is dominated by
this field-independent exchange splitting. Signatures of the Kondo effect also
show no regular dependence on QPC geometry, but are possibly correlated with
splitting of the 0.7 anomaly.


title: Reliability

abstract:
  This special volume of Statistical Sciences presents some innovative, if not
provocative, ideas in the area of reliability, or perhaps more appropriately
named, integrated system assessment. In this age of exponential growth in
science, engineering and technology, the capability to evaluate the
performance, reliability and safety of complex systems presents new challenges.
Today's methodology must respond to the ever-increasing demands for such
evaluations to provide key information for decision and policy makers at all
levels of government and industry--problems ranging from international security
to space exploration. We, the co-editors of this volume and the authors,
believe that scientific progress in reliability assessment requires the
development of processes, methods and tools that combine diverse information
types (e.g., experiments, computer simulations, expert knowledge) from diverse
sources (e.g., scientists, engineers, business developers, technology
integrators, decision makers) to assess quantitative performance metrics that
can aid decision making under uncertainty. These are highly interdisciplinary
problems. The principal role of statistical sciences is to bring statistical
rigor, thinking and methodology to these problems.


title: Quantum Ergodicity for products of hyperbolic planes

abstract:
  For manifolds with geodesic flow that is ergodic on the unit tangent bundle,
the quantum ergodicity theorem implies that almost all Laplacian eigenfunctions
become equidistributed as the eigenvalue goes to infinity. For a locally
symmetric space with a universal cover that is a product of several upper half
planes, the geodesic flow has constants of motion so it can not be ergodic. It
is, however, ergodic when restricted to the submanifolds defined by these
constants. In accordance, we show that almost all eigenfunctions become
equidistributed on these submanifolds.


title: Partition test and sexual motivation in male mice

abstract:
  Theoretical analysis of own and literature investigations of sexual
motivation with the use of the partition test [Kudryavtseva, 1987, 1994] in
male mice was carried out. It has been shown that appearance of a receptive
female in the neighboring compartment of common cage separated by perforated
transparent partition produces the enhancement of testosterone level in blood
and stimulates the behavioral activity near partition as a reaction to the
receptive female in naive males. In many studies this behavioral activity is
considered as sexual motivation, arising in this experimental context in male
mice. The lack of correlation between behavioral parameters and gonad reaction
of males on receptive female, uninterconnected changes of these two parameters
as well as the lack of sexual behavior between naive male and female when
partition is removed cast doubt on this data interpretation. It has been
supposed that in naive males behavioral reaction to a receptive female is
induced by positive incentive - odor of the female associated with nursing and
warmth from mother and other females which look after posterity. Short-term
increase of the level of testosterone (possessing rewarding properties) is
innate stimulus-response reaction which stimulates and prolongs behavioral
interest of male to receptive female. It has been supposed that after sexual
experience female odor is associated in experienced males with sexual behavior
directed to the sexual partner and resulted in the formation of sexual
motivation. The data are considered also in the light of the theory of
motivated behavior including "liking", "wanting" and "learning" [Robinson and
Berridge, 1993, 2000].


title:
First polarimetric observations and modeling of the FeH F^4 Delta-X^4
  Delta system

abstract:
  Lines of diatomic molecules are more temperature and pressure sensitive than
atomic lines, which makes them ideal tools for studying cool stellar
atmospheres an internal structure of sunspots and starspots. The FeH F^4
Delta-X^4 Delta system represents such an example that exhibits in addition a
large magnetic field sensitivity. The current theoretical descriptions of these
transitions including the molecular constants involved are only based on
intensity measurements because polarimetric observations have not been
available so far, which limits their diagnostic value. We present for the first
time spectropolarimetric observations of the FeH F^4 Delta-X^4 Delta system
measured in sunspots to investigate their diagnostic capabilities for probing
solar and stellar magnetic fields. We investigate whether the current
theoretical model of FeH can reproduce the observed Stokes profiles including
their magnetic properties. The polarimetric observations are compared with
synthetic Stokes profiles modeled with radiative transfer calculations. This
allows us to infer the temperature and the magnetic field strength of the
observed sunspots. We find that the current theory successfully reproduces the
magnetic properties of a large number of lines in the FeH F^4 Delta-X^4 Delta
system. In a few cases the observations indicate a larger Zeeman splitting than
predicted by the theory. There, our observations have provided additional
constraints, which allowed us to determine empirical molecular constants. The
FeH F^4 Delta-X^4 Delta system is found to be a very sensitive magnetic
diagnostic tool. Polarimetric data of these lines provide us with more direct
information to study the coolest parts of astrophysical objects.


title: Spectral properties of quarks above T_c in quenched lattice QCD

abstract:
  We analyze the quark spectral function above the critical temperature for
deconfinement in quenched lattice QCD using clover improved Wilson fermions in
Landau gauge. We show that the temporal quark correlator is well reproduced by
a two-pole approximation for the spectral function and analyze the bare quark
mass dependence of both poles as well as their residues. In the chiral limit we
find that the quark spectral function has two collective modes which correspond
to the normal and plasmino excitations. At large values of the bare quark mass
the spectral function is dominated by a single pole.


title: Asymptotic behavior of flat surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space

abstract:
  In this paper, we investigate the asymptotic behavior of regular ends of flat
surfaces in the hyperbolic 3-space H^3. Galvez, Martinez and Milan showed that
when the singular set does not accumulate at an end, the end is asymptotic to a
rotationally symmetric flat surface. As a refinement of their result, we show
that the asymptotic order (called "pitch" p) of the end determines the limiting
shape, even when the singular set does accumulate at the end. If the singular
set is bounded away from the end, we have -1<p<=0. If the singular set
accumulates at the end, the pitch p is a positive rational number not equal to
1. Choosing appropriate positive integers n and m so that p=n/m, suitable
slices of the end by horospheres are asymptotic to d-coverings (d-times wrapped
coverings) of epicycloids or d-coverings of hypocycloids with 2n_0 cusps and
whose normal directions have winding number m_0, where n=n_0d, m=m_0d (n_0, m_0
are integers or half-integers) and d is the greatest common divisor of m-n and
m+n. Furthermore, it is known that the caustics of flat surfaces are also flat.
So, as an application, we give a useful explicit formula for the pitch of ends
of caustics of complete flat fronts.


title:
Fast recognition of single molecules based on single event photon
  statistics

abstract:
  Mandel Q-parameter, which is determined from single event photon statistics,
provides an alternative to differentiate single-molecule with fluorescence
detection. In this work, by using the Q-parameter of the sample fluorescence
compared to that of an ideal double-molecule system with the same average
photon number, we present a novel and fast approach for identifying single
molecules based on single event photon statistics analyses, compared with
commonly used two-time correlation measurements. The error estimates for
critical values of photon statistics are also presented for single-molecule
determination.


title: Monitoring Networked Applications With Incremental Quantile Estimation

abstract:
  Networked applications have software components that reside on different
computers. Email, for example, has database, processing, and user interface
components that can be distributed across a network and shared by users in
different locations or work groups. End-to-end performance and reliability
metrics describe the software quality experienced by these groups of users,
taking into account all the software components in the pipeline. Each user
produces only some of the data needed to understand the quality of the
application for the group, so group performance metrics are obtained by
combining summary statistics that each end computer periodically (and
automatically) sends to a central server. The group quality metrics usually
focus on medians and tail quantiles rather than on averages. Distributed
quantile estimation is challenging, though, especially when passing large
amounts of data around the network solely to compute quality metrics is
undesirable. This paper describes an Incremental Quantile (IQ) estimation
method that is designed for performance monitoring at arbitrary levels of
network aggregation and time resolution when only a limited amount of data can
be transferred. Applications to both real and simulated data are provided.


title:
Adiabatically switched-on electrical bias in continuous systems, and the
  Landauer-Buttiker formula

abstract:
  Consider a three dimensional system which looks like a cross-connected pipe
system, i.e. a small sample coupled to a finite number of leads. We investigate
the current running through this system, in the linear response regime, when we
adiabatically turn on an electrical bias between leads. The main technical tool
is the use of a finite volume regularization, which allows us to define the
current coming out of a lead as the time derivative of its charge. We finally
prove that in virtually all physically interesting situations, the conductivity
tensor is given by a Landauer-B{\"u}ttiker type formula.

categories: cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.stat-mech math-ph math.MP


title:
Improved measurement of time-dependent CP violation in B0 -> J/Psi pi0
  decays

abstract:
  We report improved measurements of time-dependent CP violation parameters for
$B^0(\bar{B}^0) \to J/\psi \pi^0$ decay. This analysis is based on 535 million
$B\bar{B}$ pairs accumulated at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance with the Belle
detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^+e^- collider. From the distribution
of proper time intervals between the two B decays, we obtain the following CP
violation parameters $\mathcal{S}_{J/\psi \pi^0} = -0.65\pm0.21
(\rm{stat})\pm0.05 (\rm{syst})$ and $\mathcal{A}_{J/\psi \pi^0} = +0.08\pm0.16
(\rm{stat})\pm0.05 (\rm{syst})$, which are consistent with Standard Model
expectations.


title: Quantization of Atomic and Nuclear Rest Masses

abstract:
  We were able to quantize phenomenologically the first time the atomic and
nuclear rest masses. Note that this quantization rule is justified for atoms
and nuclei with different A, N and Z and the nuclei and atoms represent a
coherent synchronized systems - a complex of coupled oscillators (resonators).
The cooperative resonance synchronization mechanisms are responsible for
explanation of how the electron volt world can influence the nuclear mega
electron volt world. It means that we created new possibilities for inducing
and controlling nuclear reactions by atomic processes.


title:
Rapid formation of exponential disks and bulges at high redshift from
  the dynamical evolution of clump cluster and chain galaxies

abstract:
  Many galaxies at high redshift have peculiar morphologies dominated by
10^8-10^9 Mo kpc-sized clumps. Using numerical simulations, we show that these
"clump clusters" can result from fragmentation in gravitationally unstable
primordial disks. They appear as "chain galaxies" when observed edge-on. In
less than 1 Gyr, clump formation, migration, disruption, and interaction with
the disk cause these systems to evolve from initially uniform disks into
regular spiral galaxies with an exponential or double-exponential disk profile
and a central bulge. The inner exponential is the initial disk size and the
outer exponential is from material flung out by spiral arms and clump torques.
A nuclear black hole may form at the same time as the bulge from smaller black
holes that grow inside the dense cores of each clump. The properties and
lifetimes of the clumps in our models are consistent with observations of the
clumps in high redshift galaxies, and the stellar motions in our models are
consistent with the observed velocity dispersions and lack of organized
rotation in chain galaxies. We suggest that violently unstable disks are the
first step in spiral galaxy formation. The associated starburst activity gives
a short timescale for the initial stellar disk to form.


title: Color-flavor locked superconductor in a magnetic field

abstract:
  We study the effects of moderately strong magnetic fields on the properties
of color-flavor locked color superconducting quark matter in the framework of
the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. We find that the energy gaps, which describe the
color superconducting pairing as well as the magnetization, are oscillating
functions of the magnetic field. Also, we observe that the oscillations of the
magnetization can be so strong that homogeneous quark matter becomes metastable
for a range of parameters. We suggest that this points to the possibility of
magnetic domains or other types of magnetic inhomogeneities in the quark cores
of magnetars.


title:
Galaxies:kinematics as a proof of the existence of a universal field of
  minimum acceleration

abstract:
  Taking into account only luminous objects, the kinematics of clusters of
galaxies, galaxies and their interior, require a much higher mass than the
luminous one to explain the observations. This situation has provoked more than
30 years of intense research and has stimulated hypothesis like the dark
matter. Also new mechanical theories, different from Newton (like the Modified
Newtonian Dynamics), have been proposed. We here present an alternative:
theoretical and observational data strongly suggest the existence of a
universal field of minimum acceleration of the order of c/t, c the speed of
light and t the age of the Universe. We keep our reasoning within the present
state of the art of Quantum Mechanics, Relativity and Newtonian Mechanics. With
this approach the kinematics of the luminous objects are explained without any
additional assumption. At the same time the sizes of all structures in the
Universe, from protons up to the Universe, are explained as due to the constant
action of this field.


title: Curvature of almost quaternion-Hermitian manifolds

abstract:
  We study the decomposition of the Riemannian curvature R tensor of an almost
quaternion-Hermitian manifold under the action of its structure group
Sp(n)Sp(1). Using the minimal connection, we show that most components are
determined by the intrinsic torsion \xi and its covariant derivative
\widetilde\nabla\xi and determine relations between the decompositions of
\xi\otimes\xi, \widetilde\nabla\xi and R. We pay particular attention to the
behaviour of the Ricci curvature and the q-Ricci curvature.


title: Large inductive dimension of the Smirnov remainder

abstract:
  The purpose of this paper is to investigate the large inductive dimension of
the remainder of the Smirnov compactification of the n-dimensional Euclidean
space with the usual metric, and give an application of it.


title:
Lagrangian Structure Functions in Turbulence: A Quantitative Comparison
  between Experiment and Direct Numerical Simulation

abstract:
  A detailed comparison between data from experimental measurements and
numerical simulations of Lagrangian velocity structure functions in turbulence
is presented. By integrating information from experiments and numerics, a
quantitative understanding of the velocity scaling properties over a wide range
of time scales and Reynolds numbers is achieved. The local scaling properties
of the Lagrangian velocity increments for the experimental and numerical data
are in good quantitative agreement for all time lags. The degree of
intermittency changes when measured close to the Kolmogorov time scales or at
larger time lags. This study resolves apparent disagreements between experiment
and numerics.


title:
Anomalous Scaling and Refined Similarity of an Active Scalar in a Model
  of Homogeneous Turbulent Convection

abstract:
  Anomalous scaling in the statistics of an active scalar in homogeneous
turbulent convection is studied using a dynamical shell model. We extend
refined similarity ideas for homogeneous and isotropic turbulence to
homogeneous turbulent convection and attribute the origin of the anomalous
scaling to variations of the entropy transfer rate. We verify the consequences
and thus the validity of our hypothesis by showing that the conditional
statistics of the active scalar and the velocity at fixed values of entropy
transfer rate are not anomalous but have simple scaling with exponents given by
dimensional considerations, and that the intermittency corrections are given by
the scaling exponents of the moments of the entropy transfer rate.


title: Heating by Acoustic Waves of Multiphase Media

abstract:
  We study the emission and dissipation of acoustic waves from cool dense
clouds in pressure equilibrium with a hot, volume-filling dilute gas component.
In our model, the clouds are exposed to a source of ionizing radiation whose
flux level varies with time, forcing the clouds to pulsate. We estimate the
rate at which acoustic energy is radiated away by an ensemble of clouds and the
rate at which it is absorbed by, and dissipated in, the hot dilute phase. We
show that acoustic energy can be a substantial heating source of the hot gas
phase when the mass in the cool component is a substantial fraction of the
total gas mass. We investigate the applicability of our results to the
multiphase media of several astrophysical systems, including quasar outflows
and cooling flows. We find that acoustic heating can have a substantial effect
on the thermal properties of the hot phase in those systems.


title:
Imaging correlated wave functions of few-electron quantum dots: Theory
  and scanning tunneling spectroscopy experiments

abstract:
  We show both theoretically and experimentally that scanning tunneling
spectroscopy (STS) images of semiconductor quantum dots may display clear
signatures of electron-electron correlation. We apply many-body tunneling
theory to a realistic model which fully takes into account correlation effects
and dot anisotropy. Comparing measured STS images of freestanding InAs quantum
dots with those calculated by the full configuration interaction method, we
explain the wave function sequence in terms of images of one- and two-electron
states. The STS map corresponding to double charging is significantly distorted
by electron correlation with respect to the non-interacting case.


title: Anisotropic thermo-elasticity in 2D -- Part II: Applications

abstract:
  In this note we present concrete applications of the general treatment of
anisotropic thermo-elasticity developed in Part I.


title: Searching For Helical Magnetic Fields in Active Galactic Nuclei

abstract:
  Previously, a multi-wavelength (2cm, 4cm and 6cm) polarization study by
Gabuzda, Murray and Cronin (2004) showed systematic Faraday Rotation gradients
across the parsec-scale jets of several BL Lac objects, interpreted as evidence
for helical magnetic (B) fields - the gradients were taken to be due to the
systematic variation of the line-of-sight B field across the jet. We present
here new results for the parsec-scale Faraday Rotation distributions for eight
additional BL Lac objects, based on polarization data obtained with the Very
Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at two wavelengths near each of the 2cm, 4cm and 6cm
bands. The Rotation Measure (RM) maps for all these sources indicate gradients
across their jets, as expected if these jets have helical B fields. Such
gradients are also detected in the cores of several sources. This provides
evidence that these gradients are present in appreciable regions of the jets
and are not isolated phenomena. We also observe reversals in the RM gradient in
the core region as compared to the gradient in the jet in at least three
sources.


abstract:
  Comment: Monitoring Networked Applications With Incremental Quantile
Estimation [arXiv:0708.0302]


title: Blind background prediction using a bifurcated analysis scheme

abstract:
  A technique for background prediction using data, but maintaining a closed
signal box is described. The result is extended to two background sources.
Conditions on the applicability under correlated cuts are described. This
technique is applied to both a toy model and an analysis of data from a rare
neutral kaon decay experiment.


title: Global asymptotic stability for a class of nonlinear chemical equations

abstract:
  We consider a class of nonlinear differential equations that arises in the
study of chemical reaction systems that are known to be locally asymptotically
stable and prove that they are in fact globally asymptotically stable. More
specifically, we will consider chemical reaction systems that are weakly
reversible, have a deficiency of zero, and are equipped with mass action
kinetics. We show that if for each $c \in \R_{> 0}^m$ the intersection of the
stoichiometric compatibility class $c + S$ with the subsets on the boundary
that could potentially contain equilibria, $L_W$, are at most discrete, then
global asymptotic stability follows. Previous global stability results for the
systems considered in this paper required $(c + S) \cap L_W = \emptyset$ for
each $c \in \R^m_{> 0}$, and so this paper can be viewed as an extension of
those works.


title:
Analytic results on long distance entanglement mediated by gapped spin
  chains

abstract:
  We give an analytical description of long distance entanglement (LDE)
mediated by one-dimensional quantum spin chains recently found in numerical
studies. We develop a formalism that allows the computation of LDE for weakly
interacting probes with gapped many-body systems. At zero temperature, a DC
response function determines the ability of the physical system to generate
genuine quantum correlations between the probes. We show that the biquadratic
Heisenberg spin-1 chain is able to produce LDE in the thermodynamical limit and
that the finite antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain maximally entangles two
spin-1/2 probes very far apart. These results support the current perspective
of using quantum spin chains as entanglers or quantum channels in quantum
information devices.


title: Brown-York Energy and Radial Geodesics

abstract:
  We compare the Brown-York (BY) and the standard Misner-Sharp (MS) quasilocal
energies for round spheres in spherically symmetric space-times from the point
of view of radial geodesics. In particular, we show that the relation between
the BY and MS energies is precisely analogous to that between the
(relativistic) energy E of a geodesic and the effective (Newtonian) energy
E_{eff} appearing in the geodesic equation, thus shedding some light on the
relation between the two. Moreover, for Schwarzschild-like metrics we establish
a general relationship between the BY energy and the geodesic effective
potential which explains and generalises the recently observed connection
between negative BY energy and the repulsive behaviour of geodesics in the
Reissner-Nordstrom metric. We also comment on the extension of this connection
between geodesics and the quasilocal BY energy to regions inside a horizon.


title: Harmonic Analysis over adelic spaces

abstract:
  Extending ideas of A.N. Parshin and D.V. Osipov, Harmonic Analysis is
developed for filtered infinite dimensional modules over a ring. We establish
Pontryagin duality, the Fourier inversion formula, Plancherel formula and
Poisson summation formula for all dimensions.


title: Multi-dimensional Numerical Scheme for Resistive Relativistic MHD

abstract:
  The paper describes a new upwind conservative numerical scheme for special
relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics with scalar resistivity. The
magnetic field is kept approximately divergence free and the divergence of the
electric field consistent with the electric charge distribution via the method
of Generalized Lagrange Multiplier. The hyperbolic fluxes are computed using
the HLL prescription and the source terms are accounted via the time-splitting
technique. The results of test simulations show that the scheme can handle
equally well both resistive current sheets and shock waves and thus can be a
useful tool for studying phenomena of relativistic astrophysics that involve
both colliding supersonic flows and magnetic reconnection.