title: J. K. Ghosh's contribution to statistics: A brief outline

abstract:
  Professor Jayanta Kumar Ghosh has contributed massively to various areas of
Statistics over the last five decades. Here, we survey some of his most
important contributions. In roughly chronological order, we discuss his major
results in the areas of sequential analysis, foundations, asymptotics, and
Bayesian inference. It is seen that he progressed from thinking about data
points, to thinking about data summarization, to the limiting cases of data
summarization in as they relate to parameter estimation, and then to more
general aspects of modeling including prior and model selection.


title: Single-top hadroproduction in association with a W boson

abstract:
  We present the calculation of the Wt single-top production channel to
next-to-leading order in QCD, interfaced with parton showers within the MC@NLO
formalism. This channel provides a complementary way of investigating the
properties of the Wtb vertex, with respect to the s- and t-channels. We pay
special attention to the separation of this process from top quark pair
production.


title:
Pseudoscalar-meson--octet-baryon coupling constants in two-flavor
  lattice QCD

abstract:
  We evaluate the $\pi N!N$, $\pi\Sigma\Sigma$, $\pi\Lambda\Sigma$, $K\Lambda
N$ and $K \Sigma N $ coupling constants and the corresponding monopole masses
in lattice QCD with two flavors of dynamical quarks. The parameters
representing the SU(3)-flavor symmetry are computed at the point where the
three quark flavors are degenerate at the physical $s$-quark mass. In
particular, we obtain $\alpha\equiv F/(F+D)=0.395(6)$. The quark-mass
dependences of the coupling constants are obtained by changing the $u$- and the
$d$-quark masses. We find that the SU(3)-flavor parameters have weak quark-mass
dependence and thus the SU(3)-flavor symmetry is broken by only a few percent
at each quark-mass point we consider.


title: Mott Plateau in Trapped Bose-Fermi Mixture

abstract:
  Boson-Fermion mixture confined on an optical lattice is numerically studied.
Mott-plateau like behavior is observed under certain conditions in the density
profile of the bosons and fermions as one sees in bosonic atoms in a trap
potential. In the Mott plateau area, the total number of the bosons and
fermions at each site is kept to an integer value but both local density of the
bosons and that of the fermions take some intermediate values. Unlike bosonic
or fermionic Mott insulators, the bosons and fermions can move even in the Mott
plateau area by exchanging their positions. With Monte Carlo simulations we
demonstrate the formation of the Mott plateau, examine the property of the
bosons and fermions by measuring the densities and local density fluctuations,
and give discussion on this rather new state.


title:
Sequential tests and estimates after overrunning based on $p$-value
  combination

abstract:
  Often in sequential trials additional data become available after a stopping
boundary has been reached. A method of incorporating such information from
overrunning is developed, based on the ``adding weighted Zs'' method of
combining $p$-values. This yields a combined $p$-value for the primary test and
a median-unbiased estimate and confidence bounds for the parameter under test.
When the amount of overrunning information is proportional to the amount
available upon terminating the sequential test, exact inference methods are
provided; otherwise, approximate methods are given and evaluated. The context
is that of observing a Brownian motion with drift, with either linear stopping
boundaries in continuous time or discrete-time group-sequential boundaries. The
method is compared with other available methods and is exemplified with data
from two sequential clinical trials.


title:
Convergence and cluster structures in EU area according to fluctuations
  in macroeconomic indices

abstract:
  The cluster analysis methods are used in order to perform a comparative study
of 15 EU countries in relation with the fluctuations of some basic
macroeconomic indicators. The statistical distances between countries are
calculated for various moving time windows, and the time variation of the mean
statistical distance is investigated. The decreasing of the mean statistical
distance between EU countries is reflected in the correlated fluctuations of
the basic ME indicators: GDP, GDP/capita, Consumption and Investments. This
empirical evidence can be seen as an economic aspect of globalization. The
Moving Average Minimal Length Path (MAMLP) algorithm allows to search for a
cluster-like structures derived both from the hierarchical organization of
countries and from their relative movement inside the hierarchy. It is found
that the strongly correlated countries with respect to GDP fluctuations can be
partitioned into stable clusters. Some of the highly correlated countries, with
respect to GDP fluctuations, display strong correlations also in the Final
Consumption Expenditure, while others are strongly correlated in Gross Capital
Formation. On the other hand, one notices the similitude of the classifications
regarding GDP and Net Exports fluctuations as concerns the squared sum of the
correlation coefficients (so called country sensitivity). The final structure
proves to be robust against the constant size time window moving over the
scanned time interval. The policy implications of the above empirical results
concern the economic clusters arising in the presence of Marshallian
externalities and the relationships between trade barriers, R&D incentives and
growth that must be accounted in elaborating a cluster-promotion policy.


title:
Classification of complex naturally graded quasi-filiform Zinbiel
  algebras

abstract:
  In this work the description up to isomorphism of complex naturally graded
quasi-filiform Zinbiel algebras is obtained.


title: On predictive probability matching priors

abstract:
  We revisit the question of priors that achieve approximate matching of
Bayesian and frequentist predictive probabilities. Such priors may be thought
of as providing frequentist calibration of Bayesian prediction or simply as
devices for producing frequentist prediction regions. Here we analyse the
$O(n^{-1})$ term in the expansion of the coverage probability of a Bayesian
prediction region, as derived in [Ann. Statist. 28 (2000) 1414--1426]. Unlike
the situation for parametric matching, asymptotic predictive matching priors
may depend on the level $\alpha$. We investigate uniformly predictive matching
priors (UPMPs); that is, priors for which this $O(n^{-1})$ term is zero for all
$\alpha$. It was shown in [Ann. Statist. 28 (2000) 1414--1426] that, in the
case of quantile matching and a scalar parameter, if such a prior exists then
it must be Jeffreys' prior. In the present article we investigate UPMPs in the
multiparameter case and present some general results about the form, and
uniqueness or otherwise, of UPMPs for both quantile and highest predictive
density matching.


title: Deconvolution of Images Taken with the Suzaku X-ray Imaging Spectrometer

abstract:
  We present a non-iterative method to deconvolve the spatial response function
or the point spread function (PSF) from images taken with the Suzaku X-ray
Imaging Spectrometer (XIS). The method is optimized for analyses of extended
sources with high photon statistics. Suzaku has four XIS detectors each with
its own X-ray CCD and X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and has been providing unique
opportunities in spatially-resolved spectroscopic analyses of extended objects.
The detectors, however, suffer from broad and position-dependent PSFs with
their typical half-power density (HPD) of about 110''. In the authors' view,
this shortcoming has been preventing the high collecting area and high spectral
resolution of Suzaku to be fully exploited. The present method is intended to
recover spatial resolution to ~15'' over a dynamic range around 1:100 in the
brightness without assuming any source model. Our deconvolution proceeds in two
steps: An XIS image is multiplied with the inverse response matrix calculated
from its PSF after rebinning CCD pixels to larger-size tiles (typically 6''x
6''); The inverted image is then adaptively smoothed to obtain the final
deconvolved image. The PSF is modeled on a ray-tracing program and an observed
point-source image. The deconvolution method has been applied to images of
Centaurus A, PSR B1509-58 and RCW 89 taken by one XIS (XIS-1). The results have
been compared with images obtained with Chandra to conclude that the spatial
resolution has been recovered to ~20'' down to regions where surface brightness
is about 1:50 of the brightest tile in the image. We believe the spatial
resolution and the dynamic range can be improved in the future with higher
fidelity PSF modeling and higher precision pointing information.


title: Classical Scalar Field Potential in the Standard Model

abstract:
  The mechanism of particle mass generation in the Standard Model is discussed.
It is shown that non-zero vacuum expectation value of a scalar field together
with the proper symmetry of the Lagrangian allow a certain class of scalar
field potentials providing generation of gauge boson and fermion masses and
keeping the electroweak sector of the model unchanged. Applying the minimality
principle and certain additional conditions one can reduce the number of free
parameters in the model. Possible phenomenological consequences in the scalar
sector for different choices of the potential are discussed.


title: Polyakov-Nambu-Jona Lasinio model and Color-Flavor-Locked phase of QCD

abstract:
  The effect of Polyakov loop on the QCD phase diagram at high density is
studied within the Nambu-Jona Lasinio model with Polyakov loop (PNJL model). We
point out that the color neutrality is missing in the standard PNJL model at
finite density. Moreover, we discuss how the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase is
to be distorted by the inclusion of Polyakov loop.


title: A detailed study of the L1641N star formation region

abstract:
  We search for young stellar objects (YSOs) in the L1641N cluster and
characterize the star formation activity through determination of the age
distribution, mass function, spatial distribution, and the star formation
history.
  We detect a total of 216 (Spitzer or $I$ band) sources in L1641N, 89 of which
are YSO candidates. Most of the spectra are of M-type with H$\alpha$ strongly
in emission, and many have Li 6707 in absorption. The four brightest $I$ band
sources (F and G stars) are suggested as foreground stars, and the L1641N IRAS
source is shown to be the combined flux of at least four sources. We find that
the interstellar extinction is well-fit in the optical and near-IR by a power
law with an exponent of 1.58, although in the mid-IR the Spitzer observations
show a higher extinction than expected from theory. The median age of the YSO
sample is $\sim$1 Myr and the resulting MF has a flat distribution for low
masses down to the completeness limit. There is evidence of a constant star
formation rate of one star in 3.7 $\times$ 10$^4$ yr during the past few Myr.
We find 11 sources older than 10 Myr and a spatial separation between younger
and older YSOs, suggesting that many of the older stars formed in L1641N could
have left the cluster, giving the appearance of an increased star formation
rate with time.


title: A Lagrangean formalism for Hermitean matrix models

abstract:
  Eynard's formulation of Hermitean 1-matrix models in terms of intrinsic
quantities of an associated hyperelliptic Riemann surface is rephrased as a
Lagrangean field theory of a scalar particle propagating on the hyperelliptic
surface with multiple self-interactions and particle-source interactions. Both
types of interaction take place at the branch points of the hyperelliptic
surface.


title: A note on the ABC-PRC algorithm of Sissons et al. (2007)

abstract:
  This note describes the results of some tests of the ABC-PRC algorithm of
Sissons et al. (PNAS, 2007), and demonstrates with a toy example that the
method does not converge on the true posterior distribution.


title: Galois actions on Neron models of Jacobians

abstract:
  Let $X$ be a smooth curve defined over the fraction field $K$ of a complete
d.v.r. $R$, and let $K'/K$ be a tame extension. We study extensions of the $G =
\Gal(K'/K)$-action on $ X_{K'} $ to certain regular models of $X_{K'}$ over
$R'$, the integral closure of $R$ in $K'$. In particular, we consider the
induced action on the cohomology groups of the structure sheaf of the special
fiber of such a regular model, and obtain a formula for the Brauer trace of the
endomorphism induced by a group element on the alternating sum of the
cohomology groups.
  We apply these results to study a natural filtration of the special fiber of
the N\'eron model of the Jacobian of $X$ by closed, unipotent subgroup schemes.
We show that the jumps in this filtration only depend on the fiber type of the
special fiber of the minimal regular model with strict normal crossings for $X$
over $R$, and in particular are independent of the residue characteristic.
Furthermore, we obtain information about where these jumps occur. We also
compute the jumps for each of the finitely many possible fiber types for curves
of genus 1 and 2.


title:
Quantum Theory of Radical-Ion-Pair Recombination: A New Physical
  Paradigm for Low-Magnetic-Field Effects

abstract:
  A new paradigm emerging in the description of magnetic-sensitive
radical-ion-pair recombination reactions is presented. This paradigm is founded
on the realization that the recombination process of radical-ion pairs is a
continuous quantum measurement. In the regime of low magnetic fields we
describe the appearance of purely quantum phenomena, that fade away as the
magnetic field increases. We will analyze the magnetic sensitivity of these
reactions under this perspective and bridge the new full quantum theory with
the existing classical reaction theory applicable at high magnetic fields.
Based on the quantum theory of recombination we will then explain experimental
observations incompatible with classical reaction theory, in particular the
effect of deuteration on the magnetic sensitivity of radical-ion pair
recombination yields.


title: Weakly Convergent Nonparametric Forecasting of Stationary Time Series

abstract:
  The conditional distribution of the next outcome given the infinite past of a
stationary process can be inferred from finite but growing segments of the
past. Several schemes are known for constructing pointwise consistent
estimates, but they all demand prohibitive amounts of input data. In this paper
we consider real-valued time series and construct conditional distribution
estimates that make much more efficient use of the input data. The estimates
are consistent in a weak sense, and the question whether they are pointwise
consistent is still open. For finite-alphabet processes one may rely on a
universal data compression scheme like the Lempel-Ziv algorithm to construct
conditional probability mass function estimates that are consistent in expected
information divergence. Consistency in this strong sense cannot be attained in
a universal sense for all stationary processes with values in an infinite
alphabet, but weak consistency can. Some applications of the estimates to
on-line forecasting, regression and classification are discussed.


title:
Generation of nonground-state Bose-Einstein condensates by modulating
  atomic interactions

abstract:
  A technique is proposed for creating nonground-state Bose-Einstein
condensates in a trapping potential by means of the temporal modulation of
atomic interactions. Applying a time-dependent spatially homogeneous magnetic
field modifies the atomic scattering length. An alternating modulation of the
scattering length excites the condensate, which, under special conditions, can
be transferred to an excited nonlinear coherent mode. It is shown that there
occurs a phase-transition-like behavior in the time-averaged population
imbalance between the ground and excited states. The application of the
suggested technique to realistic experimental conditions is analyzed and it is
shown that the considered effect can be realized for experimentally available
condensates.


title:
The Heating of Thermal Electrons in Fast Collisionless Shocks: The
  Integral Role of Cosmic Rays

abstract:
  Understanding the heating of electrons to quasi-thermal energies at
collisionless shocks has broad implications for plasma astrophysics. It
directly impacts the interpretation of X-ray spectra from shocks, is important
for understanding how energy is partitioned between the thermal and cosmic ray
populations, and provides insight into the structure of the shock itself. In
Ghavamian, Laming & Rakowski (2007) we presented observational evidence for an
inverse square relation between the electron-to-proton temperature ratio and
the shock speed at the outer blast waves of supernova remnants in partially
neutral interstellar gas. There we outlined how lower hybrid waves generated in
the cosmic ray precursor could produce such a relationship by heating the
electrons to a common temperature independent of both shock speed and the
strength of the ambient magnetic field. Here we explore the mechanism of lower
hybrid wave heating of electrons in more detail. Specifically we examine the
growth rate of the lower hybrid waves for both the kinetic (resonant) and
reactive cases. We find that only the kinetic case exhibits a growing mode. At
low Alfv\'en Mach numbers (~15) the growth of lower hybrid waves can be faster
than the magnetic field amplification by modified Alfv\'en waves.


title: Intrinsic Cavity QED and Emergent Quasi-Normal Modes for Single Photon

abstract:
  We propose a special cavity design that is constructed by terminating a
one-dimensional waveguide with a perfect mirror at one end and doping a
two-level atom at the other. We show that this atom plays the intrinsic role of
a semi-transparent mirror for single photon transports such that quasi-normal
modes (QNM's) emerge spontaneously in the cavity system. This atomic mirror has
its reflection coefficient tunable through its level spacing and its coupling
to the cavity field, for which the cavity system can be regarded as a two-end
resonator with a continuously tunable leakage. The overall investigation
predicts the existence of quasi-bound states in the waveguide continuum. Solid
state implementations based on a dc-SQUID circuit and a defected line resonator
embedded in a photonic crystal are illustrated to show the experimental
accessibility of the generic model.


title:
Systematics of Identified Particle Production in pp, dAu and Au-Au
  Collisions at RHIC Energies

abstract:
  (Abstract is abridged for arXiv.) Identified mid-rapidity particle spectra
and freeze-out properties are presented for 200 GeV pp, 200 GeV dAu and 62.4
GeV Au-Au collisions, measured in the STAR-TPC. Evolution of the identified
particle spectra ($\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, p and $\overline{p}$) with charged
particle multiplicity and event centrality is investigated in detail. Thermal
model fits to the measured particle ratios yield a chemical freeze-out
temperature $\sim$ 155 MeV in 200 GeV pp, 200 GeV dAu and 62.4 GeV Au-Au
collisions. The extracted chemical freeze-out temperature is close to the
critical phase transition temperature predicted by lattice QCD calculations.
The kinetic freeze-out temperature extracted from hydrodynamically motivated
blast-wave models shows a continuous drop from pp, dAu and peripheral to
central Au-Au collisions, while the transverse flow velocity increases from
$\sim$ 0.2 in pp to $\sim$ 0.6 in central 200 GeV Au-Au collisions. The kinetic
freeze-out parameters in 62.4 GeV and 200 GeV Au-Au collisions seem to be
governed only by event multiplicity/centrality. In order to study the effect of
resonance decays on the kinetic freeze-out parameters, the data are fitted with
the blast-wave model including resonances. It is found that the thus extracted
parameters are consistent with those obtained without including resonances, the
resonance decays do not modify the spectral shapes significantly in the
measured $p_{T}$ region in STAR.


title: Price dynamics in a strategic model of trade between two regions

abstract:
  This paper develops a strategic model of trade between two regions in which,
depending on the relation among output, financial resources and transportation
costs, the adjustment of prices towards an equilibrium is studied. We derive
conditions on the relations among output and financial resources which produce
different types of Nash equilibria. The paths obtained in the process of
converging toward a steady state for prices under discrete-time and
continuous-time dynamics are derived and compared. It turns out that the
results in the two cases differ substantially. Some of the effects of random
disturbances on the price dynamics in continuous time are also studied.


title: Mixed state localizable entanglement for continuous variables

abstract:
  We investigate localization of entanglement of multipartite mixed Gaussian
states into a pair of modes by local Gaussian measurements on the remaining
modes and classical communication. We provide a detailed proof that for
arbitrary symmetric Gaussian state maximum entanglement can be localized by
homodyne detection of either amplitude or phase quadrature on each mode. We
then consider arbitrary mixed three-mode Gaussian states and show that the
optimal Gaussian measurement on one mode yielding maximum entanglement among
the other two modes can be determined by calculating roots of a high-order
polynomial. Finally, we discuss localization of entanglement with single-photon
detection.


title: Cosmology is not a Renormalization Group Flow

abstract:
  A critical examination is made of two simple implementations of the idea that
cosmology can be viewed as a renormalization group flow. Both implementations
are shown to fail when applied to a massless, minimally coupled scalar with a
quartic self-interaction on a locally de Sitter background. Cosmological
evolution in this model is not driven by any RG screening of couplings but
rather by inflationary particle production gradually filling an initially empty
universe with a sea of long wavelength scalars.


title:
Influence of the mirrors on the strong coupling regime in planar GaN
  microcavities

abstract:
  The optical properties of bulk $\lambda/2$ GaN microcavities working in the
strong light-matter coupling regime are investigated using angle-dependent
reflectivity and photoluminescence at 5 K and 300 K. The structures have an
Al$_{0.2}$Ga$_{0.8}$N/AlN distributed Bragg reflector as the bottom mirror and
either an aluminium mirror or a dielectric Bragg mirror as the top one. First,
the influence of the number of pairs of the bottom mirror on the Rabi splitting
is studied. The increase of the mirror penetration depth is correlated with a
reduction of the Rabi splitting. Second, the emission of the lower polariton
branch is observed at low temperature in a microcavity containing two Bragg
mirrors and exibiting a quality factor of 190. Our simulations using the
transfer-matrix formalism, taking into account the real structure of the
samples investigated are in good agreement with experimental results.


title:
A simple randomized algorithm for sequential prediction of ergodic time
  series

abstract:
  We present a simple randomized procedure for the prediction of a binary
sequence. The algorithm uses ideas from recent developments of the theory of
the prediction of individual sequences. We show that if the sequence is a
realization of a stationary and ergodic random process then the average number
of mistakes converges, almost surely, to that of the optimum, given by the
Bayes predictor. The desirable finite-sample properties of the predictor are
illustrated by its performance for Markov processes. In such cases the
predictor exhibits near optimal behavior even without knowing the order of the
Markov process. Prediction with side information is also considered.


title: Characterization of turbulence in inhomogeneous anisotropic flows

abstract:
  We introduce a global quantity $\delta$ that characterizes turbulent
fluctuations in inhomogeneous anisotropic flows. This time-dependent quantity
is based on spatial averages of global velocity fields rather than classical
temporal averages of local velocities. $\delta(t)$ provides a useful
quantitative characterization of any turbulent flow through generally only two
parameters, its time average $\bar \delta$ and its variance $\delta_2$.
Properties of $\bar \delta$ and $\delta_2$ are experimentally studied in the
typical case of the von K\'arm\'an flow and used to characterize the scale by
scale energy budget as a function of the forcing mode as well as the transition
between two flow topologies.


title: Mass-luminosity relation and pulsational properties of Wolf-Rayet stars

abstract:
  Evolution of Population I stars with initial masses from 70M_\odot to
130M_\odot is considered under various assumptions on the mass loss rate \dot
M. The mass-luminosity relation of W-R stars is shown to be most sensitive to
the mass loss rate during the helium burning phase \dot M_{3\alpha}. Together
with the mass-luminosity relation obtained for all evolutionary sequences
several more exact relations are determined for the constant ratio
f_{3\alpha}=\dot M/\dot M_{3\alpha} with 0.5 \le f_{3\alpha} \le 3.
Evolutionary models of W-R stars were used as initial conditions in
hydrodynamic computations of radial nonlinear stellar oscillations. The
oscillation amplitude is larger in W-R stars with smaller initial mass or with
lower mass loss rate due to higher surface abundances of carbon and oxygen. In
the evolving W-R star the oscillation amplitude decreases with decreasing
stellar mass M and for M < 10M_\odot the sufficiently small nonlinear effects
allow us to calculate the integral of the mechanical work W done over the
pulsation cycle in each mass zone of the hydrodynamical model. The only
positive maximum on the radial dependence of W is in the layers with
temperature of T\sim 2e5K where oscillations are excited by the iron Z--bump
kappa-mechanism. Radial oscillations of W-R stars with mass of M > 10M_\odot
are shown to be also excited by the kappa-mechanism but the instability driving
zone is at the bottom of the envelope and pulsation motions exist in the form
of nonlinear running waves propagating outward from the inner layers of the
envelope.


title:
Displacement fields of point defects in two-dimensional colloidal
  crystals

abstract:
  Point defects such as interstitials, vacancies, and impurities in otherwise
perfect crystals induce complex displacement fields that are of long-range
nature. In the present paper we study numerically the response of a
two-dimensional colloidal crystal on a triangular lattice to the introduction
of an interstitial particle. While far from the defect position the resulting
displacement field is accurately described by linear elasticity theory, lattice
effects dominate in the vicinity of the defect. In comparing the results of
particle based simulations with continuum theory, it is crucial to employ
corresponding boundary conditions in both cases. For the periodic boundary
condition used here, the equations of elasticity theory can be solved in a
consistent way with the technique of Ewald summation familiar from the
electrostatics of periodically replicated systems of charges and dipoles. Very
good agreement of the displacement fields calculated in this way with those
determined in particle simulations is observed for distances of more than about
10 lattice constants. Closer to the interstitial, strongly anisotropic
displacement fields with exponential behavior can occur for certain defect
configurations. Here we rationalize this behavior with a simple bead-spring
that relates the exponential decay constant to the elastic constants of the
crystal.


title: Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces Bounded by Vertical Symmetry Planes

abstract:
  We give a uniform and elementary treatment of many classical and new triply
periodic minimal surfaces in Euclidean space, based on a Schwarz-Christoffel
formula for periodic polygons in the plane. Our surfaces share the property
that vertical symmetry planes cut them into simply connected pieces.


title: Double optical spring enhancement for gravitational wave detectors

abstract:
  Currently planned second-generation gravitational-wave laser interferometers
such as Advanced LIGO exploit the extensively investigated signal-recycling
(SR) technique. Candidate Advanced LIGO configurations are usually designed to
have two resonances within the detection band, around which the sensitivity is
enhanced: a stable optical resonance and an unstable optomechanical resonance -
which is upshifted from the pendulum frequency due to the so-called
optical-spring effect. Alternative to a feedback control system, we propose an
all-optical stabilization scheme, in which a second optical spring is employed,
and the test mass is trapped by a stable ponderomotive potential well induced
by two carrier light fields whose detunings have opposite signs. The double
optical spring also brings additional flexibility in re-shaping the noise
spectral density and optimizing toward specific gravitational-wave sources. The
presented scheme can be extended easily to a multi-optical-spring system that
allows further optimization.


title:
Improved chain mean-field theory for quasi-one-dimensional quantum
  magnets

abstract:
  A novel mean-field approximation for quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) quantum
magnets is formulated. Our new mean-field approach is based on the Bethe-type
effective-field theory, where thermal and quantum fluctuations between the
nearest-neighbor chains as well as those in each chain are taken into account
exactly. The self-consistent equation for the critical temperature contains the
boundary-field magnetic susceptibilities of a multichain cluster, which can be
evaluated accurately by some analytic or numerical methods, such as the
powerful quantum Monte Carlo method. We show that the accuracy of the critical
temperature of Q1D magnets as a function of the strength of interchain coupling
is significantly improved, compared with the conventional chain mean-field
theory. It is also demonstrated that our new approximation can predict
nontrivial dependence of critical temperature on the sign (i.e., ferromagnetic
or antiferromagnetic) of interchain coupling as well as on the impurity
concentration in randomly diluted Q1D Heisenberg antiferromagnets.


abstract:
  We investigate some properties of Bethe--Salpeter wave functions in
integrable models. In particular we illustrate the application of the operator
product expansion in determining the short distance behavior. The energy
dependence of the potentials obtained from such wave functions is studied, and
further we discuss the (limited) phenomenological significance of zero--energy
potentials.


title: NADA: A new code for studying self-gravitating tori around black holes

abstract:
  We present a new two-dimensional numerical code called Nada designed to solve
the full Einstein equations coupled to the general relativistic hydrodynamics
equations. The code is mainly intended for studies of self-gravitating
accretion disks (or tori) around black holes, although it is also suitable for
regular spacetimes. Concerning technical aspects the Einstein equations are
formulated and solved in the code using a formulation of the standard 3+1 (ADM)
system, the so-called BSSN approach. A key feature of the code is that
derivative terms in the spacetime evolution equations are computed using a
fourth-order centered finite difference approximation in conjunction with the
Cartoon method to impose the axisymmetry condition under Cartesian coordinates
(the choice in Nada), and the puncture/moving puncture approach to carry out
black hole evolutions. Correspondingly, the general relativistic hydrodynamics
equations are written in flux-conservative form and solved with
high-resolution, shock-capturing schemes. We perform and discuss a number of
tests to assess the accuracy and expected convergence of the code, namely
(single) black hole evolutions, shock tubes, and evolutions of both spherical
and rotating relativistic stars in equilibrium, the gravitational collapse of a
spherical relativistic star leading to the formation of a black hole. In
addition, paving the way for specific applications of the code, we also present
results from fully general relativistic numerical simulations of a system
formed by a black hole surrounded by a self-gravitating torus in equilibrium.


title: Recent progress on NNPDF for LHC

abstract:
  We present recent results of the NNPDF collaboration on a full DIS analysis
of Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs). Our method is based on the idea of
combining a Monte Carlo sampling of the probability measure in the space of
PDFs with the use of neural networks as unbiased universal interpolating
functions. The general structure of the project and the features of the fit are
described and compared to those of the traditional approaches.


title: Comment on "Cosmological Topological Massive Gravitons and Photons"

abstract:
  In a recent paper (arXiv: 0801.4566) it was shown that all global energy
eigenstates of asymptotically $AdS_3$ chiral gravity have non-negative energy
at the linearized level. This result was questioned (arXiv: 0803.3998) by
Carlip, Deser, Waldron and Wise (CDWW), who work on the Poincare patch. They
exhibit a linearized solution of chiral gravity and claim that it has negative
energy and is smooth at the boundary. We show that the solution of CDWW is
smooth only on that part of the boundary of $AdS_3$ included in the Poincare
patch. Extended to global $AdS_3$, it is divergent at the boundary point not
included in the Poincare patch. Hence it is consistent with the results of
(arXiv: 0801.4566).


title:
Typicality of pure states randomly sampled according to the Gaussian
  adjusted projected measure

abstract:
  Consider a mixed quantum mechanical state, describing a statistical ensemble
in terms of an arbitrary density operator $\rho$ of low purity, $\tr\rho^2\ll
1$, and yielding the ensemble averaged expectation value $\tr(\rho A)$ for any
observable $A$. Assuming that the given statistical ensemble $\rho$ is
generated by randomly sampling pure states $|\psi>$ according to the
corresponding so-called Gaussian adjusted projected measure $[$Goldstein et
al., J. Stat. Phys. 125, 1197 (2006)$]$, the expectation value $<\psi|A|\psi>$
is shown to be extremely close to the ensemble average $\tr(\rho A)$ for the
overwhelming majority of pure states $|\psi>$ and any experimentally realistic
observable $A$. In particular, such a `typicality' property holds whenever the
Hilbert space $\hr$ of the system contains a high dimensional subspace
$\hr_+\subset\hr$ with the property that all $|\psi>\in\hr_+$ are realized with
equal probability and all other $|\psi> \in\hr$ are excluded.


title: Limits on the speed of gravitational waves from pulsar timing

abstract:
  In this work, analyzing the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the field
of gravitational waves, we show the presence and significance of the so called
surfing effect for pulsar timing measurements. It is shown that, due to the
transverse nature of gravitational waves, the surfing effect leads to enormous
pulsar timing residuals if the speed of gravitational waves is smaller than
speed of light. This fact allows to place significant constraints on parameter
$\epsilon$, which characterizes the relative deviation of the speed of
gravitational waves from the speed of light. We show that the existing
constraints from pulsar timing measurements already place stringent limits on
$\epsilon$ and consequently on the mass of graviton $m_g$. These limits on
$m_g$ are three orders of magnitude stronger than the current constraints from
Solar System tests. The current constraints also allow to rule out massive
gravitons as possible candidates for cold dark matter in galactic halo. In the
near future, the gravitational wave background from extragalactic super massive
black hole binaries, along with the expected sub-microsecond pulsar timing
accuracy, will allow to achieve constrains of $\epsilon\lesssim 0.4\%$ and
possibly stronger.


title: Growing length and time scales in glass forming liquids

abstract:
  We study the growing time scales and length scales associated with dynamical
slow down for a realistic glass former, using computer simulations. We perform
finite size scaling to evaluate a length scale associated with dynamical
heterogeneity which grows as temperature decreases. However, relaxation times
which also grow with decreasing temperature, do not show the same kind of
scaling behavior with system size as the dynamical heterogeneity, indicating
that relaxation times are not solely determined by the length scale of
dynamical heterogeneity. We show that relaxation times are instead determined,
for all studied system sizes and temperatures, by configurational entropy, in
accordance with the Adam-Gibbs relation, but in disagreement with theoretical
expectations based on spin-glass models that configurational entropy is not
relevant at temperatures substantially above the critical temperature of mode
coupling theory. The temperature dependence of the heterogeneity length scale
shows significant deviations from theoretical expectations, and the length
scale one may extract from the system size dependence of the configurational
entropy has much weaker temperature dependence compared to the heterogeneity
length scale at all studied temperatures. Our results provide new insights into
the dynamics of glass-forming liquids and pose serious challenges to existing
theoretical descriptions.


title:
The derivation of Particle Monte Carlo methods for plasma modeling from
  transport equations

abstract:
  We analyze here in some detail, the derivation of the Particle and Monte
Carlo methods of plasma simulation, such as Particle in Cell (PIC), Monte Carlo
(MC) and Particle in Cell / Monte Carlo (PIC/MC) from formal manipulation of
transport equations.


title: Charm and Bottom Production Measurements at the LHC

abstract:
  Early data of the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the LHC will allow us to
measure the cross sections for beauty and heavy quarkonia production in
proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV to a reasonable
precision. Different experimental approaches employing single or di-muon
triggered events and b-tagging methods are discussed. The potential for
extracting the polarization of vector states from the decays J/psi to mu+ mu-
and Y to mu+ mu- is presented.


title:
Effect of anisotropy on the ground-state magnetic ordering of the
  spin-half quantum $J_1^{XXZ}$--$J_2^{XXZ}$ model on the square lattice

abstract:
  We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of the 2D quantum
$J_{1}^{XXZ}$--$J_{2}^{XXZ}$ spin-1/2 anisotropic Heisenberg model on the
square lattice. In particular, the effects of the anisotropy $\Delta$ on the
$z$-aligned N\'{e}el and (collinear) stripe states, as well as on the
$xy$-planar-aligned N\'{e}el and collinear stripe states, are examined. All
four of these quasiclassical states are chosen in turn as model states on top
of which we systematically include the quantum correlations using a coupled
cluster method analysis carried out to very high orders. We find strong
evidence for two {\it quantum triple points} (QTP's) at ($\Delta ^{c} = -0.10
\pm 0.15, J_{2}^{c}/J_{1} = 0.505 \pm 0.015$) and ($\Delta ^{c} = 2.05 \pm
0.15, J_{2}^{c}/J_{1} = 0.530 \pm 0.015$), between which an intermediate
magnetically-disordered phase emerges to separate the quasiclassical N\'{e}el
and stripe collinear phases. Above the upper QTP ($\Delta \gtrsim 2.0$) we find
a direct first-order phase transition between the N\'{e}el and stripe phases,
exactly as for the classical case. The $z$-aligned and $xy$-planar-aligned
phases meet precisely at $\Delta = 1$, also as for the classical case. For all
values of the anisotropy parameter between those of the two QTP's there exists
a narrow range of values of $J_{2}/J_{1}$, $\alpha^{c_1}(\Delta)<J_{2}/J_{1}
<\alpha^{c_2}(\Delta)$, centered near the point of maximum classical
frustration, $J_{2}/J_{1} = {1/2}$, for which the intermediate phase exists.
This range is widest precisely at the isotropic point, $\Delta = 1$, where
$\alpha^{c_1}(1) = 0.44 \pm 0.01$ and $\alpha^{c_2}(1) = 0.59 \pm 0.01$. The
two QTP's are characterized by values $\Delta = \Delta^{c}$ at which
$\alpha^{c_1}(\Delta^{c})=\alpha^{c_2}(\Delta^{c})$.


title: RR Pic (1925): A Chandra X-ray View

abstract:
  We present the Chandra ACIS-S3 data of the old classical nova RR Pic (1925).
The source has a count rate of 0.067+/-0.002 c/s in the 0.3-5.0 keV energy
range. We detect the orbital period of the underlying binary system in the
X-ray wavelengths. We also find that the neutral Hydrogen column density
differs for orbital minimum and orbital maximum spectra with values
0.25(+0.23-0.18)x10^22 cm^-2 and 0.64(+0.13-0.14)x10^22 cm^-2 at 3sigma
confidence level. The X-ray spectrum of RR Pic can be represented by a
composite model of bremsstrahlung with a photoelectric absorption, two
absorption lines centered around 1.1-1.4 keV and 5 Gaussian lines centered at
emission lines around 0.3-1.1 keV corresponding to various transitions of S, N,
O, C, Ne and Fe . The bremsstrahlung temperature derived from the fits range
from 0.99 to 1.60 keV and the unabsorbed X-ray flux is found to be
2.5(+0.4-1.2)x10^-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 in the 0.3-5.0 keV range with a luminosity
of (1.1\pm0.2)x10^31 erg s^-1 at 600 pc. We also detect excess emission in the
spectrum possibly originating from the reverse shock in the ejecta.


title: The Molecular Hydrogen Explorer H2EX

abstract:
  The Molecular Hydrogen Explorer, H2EX, was proposed in response to the ESA
2015 - 2025 Cosmic Vision Call as a medium class space mission with NASA and
CSA participations. The mission, conceived to understand the formation of
galaxies, stars and planets from molecular hydrogen, is designed to observe the
first rotational lines of the H2 molecule (28.2, 17.0, 12.3 and 9.7 micron)
over a wide field, and at high spectral resolution. H2EX can provide an
inventory of warm (> 100 K) molecular gas in a broad variety of objects,
including nearby young star clusters, galactic molecular clouds, active
galactic nuclei, local and distant galaxies. The rich array of molecular,
atomic and ionic lines, as well as solid state features available in the 8 to
29 micron spectral range brings additional science dimensions to H2EX. We
present the optical and mechanical design of the H2EX payload based on an
innovative Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (IFTS) fed by a 1.2m
telescope. The 20'x20' field of view is imaged on two 1024x1024 Si:As
detectors. The maximum resolution of 0.032 cm^-1 (FWHM) means a velocity
resolution of 10 km s^-1 for the 0-0 S(3) line at 9.7 micron. This instrument
offers the large field of view necessary to survey extended emission in the
Galaxy and local Universe galaxies as well as to perform unbiased extragalactic
and circumstellar disks surveys. The high spectral resolution makes H2EX
uniquely suited to study the dynamics of H2 in all these environments. The
mission plan is made of seven wide-field spectro-imaging legacy programs, from
the cosmic web to galactic young star clusters, within a nominal two years
mission. The payload has been designed to re-use the Planck platform and
passive cooling design.


title:
Measurements of neutrons produced by high-energy muons at the Boulby
  Underground Laboratory

abstract:
  We present the first measurements of the muon-induced neutron flux at the
Boulby Underground Laboratory. The experiment was carried out with an 0.73
tonne liquid scintillator that also served as an anticoincidence system for the
ZEPLIN-II direct dark matter search. The experimental method exploited the
delayed coincidences between high-energy muon signals and gamma-rays from
radiative neutron capture on hydrogen or other elements. The muon-induced
neutron rate, defined as the average number of detected neutrons per detected
muon, was measured as $0.079 \pm 0.003$ (stat.) neutrons/muon using
neutron-capture signals above 0.55 MeV in a time window of 40-190 $\mu$s after
the muon trigger. Accurate Monte Carlo simulations of the neutron production,
transport and detection in a precisely modeled laboratory and experimental
setup using the GEANT4 toolkit gave a result 1.8 times higher than the measured
value. The difference greatly exceeds all statistical and systematic
uncertainties. As the vast majority of neutrons detected in the current setup
were produced in lead we evaluated from our measurements the neutron yield in
lead as $(1.31 \pm 0.06) \times 10^{-3}$ neutrons/muon/(g/cm$^2$) for a mean
muon energy of about 260 GeV.


title:
The trace formula for quantum graphs with general self adjoint boundary
  conditions

abstract:
  We consider compact metric graphs with an arbitrary self adjoint realisation
of the differential Laplacian. After discussing spectral properties of
Laplacians, we prove several versions of trace formulae, relating Laplace
spectra to sums over periodic orbits on the graph. This includes trace formulae
with, respectively, absolutely and conditionally convergent periodic orbit
sums; the convergence depending on properties of the test functions used. We
also prove a trace formula for the heat kernel and provide small-$t$
asymptotics for the trace of the heat kernel.


title: The low energy frontier: probes with photons

abstract:
  I discuss different aspects of the phenomenology of hypothetical sub eV mass
particles arising in the context of extensions of the standard model. I focus
on a simple extension based on an additional U(1) gauge symmetry and its
corresponding gauge boson, called ``hidden photon''. Kinetic mixing with the
standard photon leads to photon-hidden photon oscillations that are searched
for in laboratory experiments like ALPS at DESY. Hidden photons produced in the
interior of the Sun could be also detected in axion helioscopes like CAST at
CERN and could play an interesting role in late cosmology, where the presence
of additional feebly interacting relativistic particles seems to be favored.
All these effects disappear as the hidden photon mass decreases, allowing
phenomenologically large kinetic mixings. However, in this case such a hidden
photon will even play a role in gauge coupling unification.


title: Poisson-Dirichlet Distribution with Small Mutation Rate

abstract:
  The behavior of the Poisson-Dirichlet distribution with small mutation rate
is studied through large deviations. The structure of the rate function
indicates that the number of alleles is finite at the instant when mutation
appears. The large deviation results are then used to study the asymptotic
behavior of the homozygosity, and the Poisson-Dirichlet distribution with
symmetric selection. The latter shows that several alleles can coexist when
selection intensity goes to infinity in a particular way as the mutation rate
approaches zero.


title:
Fluid transport at low Reynolds number with magnetically actuated
  artificial cilia

abstract:
  By numerical modeling we investigate fluid transport in low-Reynolds-number
flow achieved with a special elastic filament or artifical cilium attached to a
planar surface. The filament is made of superparamagnetic particles linked
together by DNA double strands. An external magnetic field induces dipolar
interactions between the beads of the filament which provides a convenient way
of actuating the cilium in a well-controlled manner. The filament has recently
been used to successfully construct the first artificial micro-swimmer [R.
Dreyfus at al., Nature 437, 862 (2005)]. In our numerical study we introduce a
measure, which we call pumping performance, to quantify the fluid transport
induced by the magnetically actuated cilium and identify an optimum stroke
pattern of the filament. It consists of a slow transport stroke and a fast
recovery stroke. Our detailed parameter study also reveals that for
sufficiently large magnetic fields the artificial cilium is mainly governed by
the Mason number that compares frictional to magnetic forces. Initial studies
on multi-cilia systems show that the pumping performance is very sensitive to
the imposed phase lag between neighboring cilia, i.e., to the details of the
initiated metachronal wave.


title: A new calculation for D(e,e'p)n at GeV energies

abstract:
  We perform a fully relativistic calculation of the D(e,e'p)n reaction in the
impulse approximation. We employ the Gross equation to describe the deuteron
ground state, and we use the SAID parametrization of the full NN scattering
amplitude to describe the final state interactions (FSIs). We include both
on-shell and positive-energy off-shell contributions in our FSI calculation. We
show results for momentum distributions and angular distributions of the
differential cross section, as well as for various asymmetries. We identify
kinematic regions where various parts of the final state interactions are
relevant, and discuss the theoretical uncertainties connected with calculations
at high missing momenta.


title: Neutron Structure Functions

abstract:
  Neutron structure functions can be extracted from proton and deuteron data
and a representation of the deuteron structure. This procedure does not require
DIS approximations or quark structure assumptions. We find that the results
depend critically on properly accounting for the Q^2 dependence of proton and
deuteron data. We interpolate the data to fixed Q^2, and extract the ratio of
neutron to proton structure functions. The extracted ratio decreases with
increasing x, up to x \approx 0.9, while there are no data available to
constrain the behavior at larger x.


title: New vistas of the meson structure in QCD from low to high energies

abstract:
  This talk presents issues pertaining to the quark structure of the pion
within QCD, both from the theoretical and from the experimental point of view.
We review and discuss the pion-photon transition form factor and the pion's
electromagnetic form factor vs. corresponding experimental data from the CLEO
Collaboration and the JLab. We also examine the extent to which recent
high-precision lattice computations of the second moment of the pion's
distribution amplitude conform with theoretical models. Finally, we include
predictions for the azimuthal asymmetry of the $\mu^+$ distribution in the
polarized $\mu$-pair-induced DY production employing various pion distribution
amplitudes.


title:
Full Diversity Blind Signal Designs for Unique Identification of
  Frequency Selective Channels

abstract:
  In this paper, we develop two kinds of novel closed-form decompositions on
phase shift keying (PSK) constellations by exploiting linear congruence
equation theory: the one for factorizing a $pq$-PSK constellation into a
product of a $p$-PSK constellation and a $q$-PSK constellation, and the other
for decomposing a specific complex number into a difference of a $p$-PSK
constellation and a $q$-PSK constellation. With this, we propose a simple
signal design technique to blindly and uniquely identify frequency selective
channels with zero-padded block transmission under noise-free environments by
only using the first two block received signal vectors. Furthermore, a
closed-form solution to determine the transmitted signals and the channel
coefficients is obtained. In the Gaussian noise and Rayleigh fading
environment, we prove that the newly proposed signaling scheme enables
non-coherent full diversity for the Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT)
receiver.


title: Dibosons at the Tevatron

abstract:
  Recent developments in the study diboson production at the Tevatron are
reviewed. These include indications at the 2.6 sigma level for a radiation
amplitude zero in the W gamma process at D0 and a 4.4 sigma signal for ZZ
production in hadron collisions from CDF.


title:
Variational characterizations of the effective multiplication factor of
  a nuclear reactor core

abstract:
  We derive some new inf-sup and sup-inf formulae for the so-called effective
multiplication factor arising in the study of reactor analysis. We treat in a
same formalism the transport equation and the energy-dependent diffusion
equation.


title:
An ab-initio evaluation of the local effective interactions in the $\rm
  Na_{x} Co O_2$ familly

abstract:
  We used quantum chemical ab initio methods to determine the effective
parameters of Hubbard and $t-J$ models for the $\rm Na_{x}CoO_2$ compounds (x=0
and 0.5). As for the superconducting compound we found the $a_{1g}$ cobalt
orbitals above the $e_g^\prime$ ones by a few hundreds of meV due to the
$e_g^\prime$--$e_g$ hybridization of the cobalt $3d$ orbitals. The correlation
strength was found to increase with the sodium content $x$ while the in-plane
AFM coupling decreases. The less correlated system was found to be the pure
$CoO_2$, however it is still strongly correlated and very close to the Mott
transition. Indeed we found $U/t\sim 15$, which is the critical value for the
Mott transition in a triangular lattice. Finally, one finds the magnetic
exchanges in the $\rm CoO_2$ layers, strongly dependant of the weak local
structural distortions.


title: The cone of lower semicontinuous traces on a C*-algebra

abstract:
  The cone of lower semicontinuous traces is studied with a view to its use as
an invariant. Its properties include compactness, Hausdorffness, and continuity
with respect to inductive limits. A suitable notion of dual cone is given. The
cone of lower semicontinuous 2-quasitraces on a (non-exact) C*-algebra is
considered as well. These results are applied to the study of the Cuntz
semigroup. It is shown that if a C*-algebra absorbs the Jiang-Su algebra, then
the subsemigroup of its Cuntz semigroup consisting of the purely non-compact
elements is isomorphic to the dual cone of the cone of lower semicontinuous
2-quasitraces. This yields a computation of the Cuntz semigroup for the
following two classes of C*-algebras: C*-algebras that absorb the Jiang-Su
algebra and have no non-zero simple subquotients, and simple C*-algebras that
absorb the Jiang-Su algebra.


title:
Nonlinear unbalanced Bessel beams in the collapse of Gaussian beams
  arrested by nonlinear losses

abstract:
  Collapse of a Gaussian beam in self-focusing Kerr media arrested by nonlinear
losses may lead to the spontaneous formation of a quasi-stationary nonlinear
unbalanced Bessel beam with finite energy, which can propagate without
significant distortion over tens of diffraction lengths, and without peak
intensity attenuation while the beam power is drastically diminishing.


title:
Bandwidth enhancement for parametric amplifiers operated in chirped
  multi-beam mode

abstract:
  In this paper we discuss the bandwidth enhancement that can be achieved in
multi-Joule optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) systems
exploiting the tunability of parametric amplification. In particular, we
consider a pair of single pass amplifiers based on potassium dideuterium
phosphate (DKDP), pumped by the second harmonic of Nd:glass and tuned to
amplify adjacent regions of the signal spectrum. We demonstrate that a
bandwidth enhancement up to 50% is possible in two configurations; in the first
case, one of the two amplifiers is operated near its non-collinear broadband
limit; to allow for effective recombination and recompression of the outgoing
signals this configuration requires filtering and phase manipulation of the
spectral tail of the amplified pulses. In the second case, effective
recombination can be achieved simply by spectral filtering: in this
configuration, the optimization of the parameters of the amplifiers (pulse,
crystal orientation and crystal length) does not follow the recipes of
non-collinear OPCPA.


title: Membranes on Calibrations

abstract:
  M2-branes can blow up into BPS funnels that end on calibrated intersections
of M5-branes. In this quick note, we make the observation that the constraints
required for the consistency of these solutions are automatic in
Bagger-Lambert-Gustavsson (BLG) theory, thanks to the fundamental identity and
the supersymmetry of the calibration. We use this to explain how the previous
ad hoc fuzzy funnel constructions emerge in this picture, and make some
comments about the role of the 3-algebra trace form in the derivation.


title:
Cognitive Architecture for Direction of Attention Founded on Subliminal
  Memory Searches, Pseudorandom and Nonstop

abstract:
  By way of explaining how a brain works logically, human associative memory is
modeled with logical and memory neurons, corresponding to standard digital
circuits. The resulting cognitive architecture incorporates basic psychological
elements such as short term and long term memory. Novel to the architecture are
memory searches using cues chosen pseudorandomly from short term memory.
Recalls alternated with sensory images, many tens per second, are analyzed
subliminally as an ongoing process, to determine a direction of attention in
short term memory.


title: Klein-Gordon and Dirac gyroscopes

abstract:
  The formulation of a rigid body in relativistic quantum mechanics is studied.
Departing from an alternate approach at the relativistic classical level, the
corresponding Klein-Gordon and Dirac operators for the rigid body are obtained
in covariant form. The resulting wave equations are shown to be consistent, by
construction, with earlier definitions of a relativistic rigid body by Aldinger
et al (1983). Wave functions and spectra for both cases are obtained
explicitly, including the Dirac gyroscope with asymmetries.


title: Three-dimensional eccentric discs around Be stars

abstract:
  One-armed oscillation modes in the circumstellar discs of Be stars may
explain the cyclical variations in their emission lines. We show that a
three-dimensional effect, involving vertical motion and neglected in previous
treatments, profoundly influences the dynamics. Using a secular theory of
eccentric discs that reduces the problem to a second-order differential
equation, we show that confined prograde modes are obtained for all reasonable
disc temperatures and stellar rotation rates. We confirm these results using a
numerical analysis of the full set of linearized equations for
three-dimensional isothermal discs including viscous terms that couple the
horizontal motions at different altitudes. In order to make these modes grow,
viscous damping must be overcome by an excitation mechanism such as viscous
overstability.


title: Deterministic definition of the capital risk

abstract:
  In this paper we propose a look at the capital risk problem inspired by
deterministic, known from classical mechanics, problem of juggling. We propose
capital equivalents to the Newton's laws of motion and on this basis we
determine the most secure form of credit repayment with regard to maximisation
of profit. Then we extend the Newton's laws to models in linear spaces of
arbitrary dimension with the help of matrix rates of return. The matrix rates
describe the evolution of multidimensional capital and they are sensitive to
both quantitative changes of individual elements and flows between them. This
allows us for simultaneous analysis of evolution of complex capital in both
continuous and discrete time models.


title: Derived deformations of Artin stacks

abstract:
  We generalise the techniques of arXiv:0908.1963 to describe derived
deformations in simplicial categories. This allows us to consider deformation
problems with higher automorphisms, such as chain complexes (which have
homotopies) and stacks (which have 2-automorphisms). We also give a general
approach for studying deformations of diagrams.


title:
Effect of Collective Flavor Oscillations on the Diffuse Supernova
  Neutrino Background

abstract:
  Collective flavor oscillations driven by neutrino-neutrino self interaction
inside core-collapse supernovae have now been shown to bring drastic changes in
the resultant neutrino fluxes. This would in turn significantly affect the
diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB), created by all core-collapse
supernovae that have exploded in the past. In view of these collective effects,
we re-analyze the potential of detecting the DSNB in currently running and
planned large-scale detectors meant for detecting both electron neutrinos and
antineutrinos. The next generation detectors should be able to observe DSNB
fluxes. Under certain conducive conditions, one could learn about neutrino
parameters. For instance, it might be possible to determine the neutrino mass
hierarchy, even if theta_{13} is almost zero.


title: Rigidity of Quasi-Einstein Metrics

abstract:
  We call a metric quasi-Einstein if the $m$-Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor is a
constant multiple of the metric tensor. This is a generalization of Einstein
metrics, which contains gradient Ricci solitons and is also closely related to
the construction of the warped product Einstein metrics. We study properties of
quasi-Einstein metrics and prove several rigidity results. We also give a
splitting theorem for some K\"ahler quasi-Einstein metrics.


title: Nucleon charge exchange on the deuteron: A critical review

abstract:
  The existing experimental data on the d(n,p)nn and d(p,n)pp cross sections in
the forward direction are reviewed in terms of the Dean sum rule. It is shown
that the measurement of the ratio of the charge exchange on the deuteron to
that on the proton might, if taken together with other experimental data, allow
a direct construction of the np -> np scattering amplitude in the backward
direction with few ambiguities.


title: Closed formula for the relative entropy of entanglement

abstract:
  The long-standing problem of finding a closed formula for the relative
entropy of entanglement (REE) for two qubits is addressed. A compact-form
solution to the inverse problem, which characterizes an entangled state for a
given closest separable state, is obtained. Analysis of the formula for a large
class of entangled states strongly suggests that a compact analytical solution
of the original problem, which corresponds to finding the closest separable
state for a given entangled state, can be given only in some special cases. A
few applications of the compact-form formula are given to show additivity of
the REE, to relate the REE with the Rains upper bound for distillable
entanglement, and to show that a Bell state does not have a unique closest
separable state.


title: Essays on the theory of elliptic hypergeometric functions

abstract:
  We give a brief review of the main results of the theory of elliptic
hypergeometric functions -- a new class of special functions of mathematical
physics. We prove the most general univariate exact integration formula
generalizing Euler's beta integral, which is called the elliptic beta integral.
An elliptic analogue of the Gauss hypergeometric function is constructed
together with the elliptic hypergeometric equation for it. Biorthogonality
relations for this function and its particular subcases are described. We list
known elliptic beta integrals on root systems and consider symmetry
transformations for the corresponding elliptic hypergeometric functions of the
higher order.


title: ADM canonical formalism for gravitating spinning objects

abstract:
  In general relativity, systems of spinning classical particles are
implemented into the canonical formalism of Arnowitt, Deser, and Misner [1].
The implementation is made with the aid of a symmetric stress-energy tensor and
not a 4-dimensional covariant action functional. The formalism is valid to
terms linear in the single spin variables and up to and including the
next-to-leading order approximation in the gravitational spin-interaction part.
The field-source terms for the spinning particles occurring in the Hamiltonian
are obtained from their expressions in Minkowski space with canonical variables
through 3-dimensional covariant generalizations as well as from a suitable
shift of projections of the curved spacetime stress-energy tensor originally
given within covariant spin supplementary conditions. The applied coordinate
conditions are the generalized isotropic ones introduced by Arnowitt, Deser,
and Misner. As applications, the Hamiltonian of two spinning compact bodies
with next-to-leading order gravitational spin-orbit coupling, recently obtained
by Damour, Jaranowski, and Schaefer [2], is rederived and the derivation of the
next-to-leading order gravitational spin(1)-spin(2) Hamiltonian, shown for the
first time in [3], is presented.


title: Numerical Study of a Microscopic Artificial Swimmer

abstract:
  We present a detailed numerical study of a microscopic artificial swimmer
realized recently by Dreyfus et al. in experiments [R. Dreyfus et al., Nature
437, 862 (2005)]. It consists of an elastic filament composed of
superparamagnetic particles that are linked together by DNA strands. Attached
to a load particle, the resulting swimmer is actuated by an oscillating
external magnetic field so that it performs a non-reciprocal motion in order to
move forward. We model the superparamagnetic filament by a bead-spring
configuration that resists bending like a rigid rod and whose beads experience
friction with the surrounding fluid and hydrodynamic interactions with each
other. We show that, aside from finite-size effects, its dynamics is governed
by the dimensionless sperm number, the magnitude of the magnetic field, and the
angular amplitude of the field's oscillating direction. Then we study the mean
velocity and the efficiency of the swimmer as a function of these parameters
and the size of the load particle. In particular, we clarify that the real
velocity of the swimmer is influenced by two main factors, namely the shape of
the beating filament (determined by the sperm number and the magnetic-field
strength) and the oscillation frequency. Furthermore, the load size influences
the performance of the swimmer and has to be chosen as a compromise between the
largest swimming velocity and the best efficiency. Finally, we demonstrate that
the direction of the swimming velocity changes in a symmetry-breaking
transition when the angular amplitude of the field's oscillating direction is
increased, in agreement with experiments.


title: Exact General Relativistic Discs and the Advance of Perihelion

abstract:
  The advance of perihelion for geodesic motion on the galactic plane of some
exact general relativistic disc solutions is calculated. Approximate analytical
and numerical results are presented for the static Chazy-Curzon and the
Schwarzschild discs in Weyl coordinates, the Schwarzschid disc in isotropic
coordinantes and the stationary Kerr disc in the Weyl-Lewis-Papapetrou metrics.
It is found that for these disc models the advance of perihelion may be an
increasing or decreasing function of the orbital excentricity. The precession
due to Newtonian gravity for these disc models is also calculated.


title:
Unusual polarization patterns in flat epitaxial ferroelectric
  nanoparticles

abstract:
  Interest in epitaxial ferroelectric nanoislands was growing rapidly in recent
years driven by their potential for devices, especially ultradense memories.
Recent advances in the "bottom- up" (self-assembly) nanometer scale techniques
have opened up the opportunities of fabricating high-quality epitaxial
ferroelectric nanoislands with extremely small thickness and lateral size on
the order of 1 nm and 20 nm, respectively. On the other hand, recent emergence
of powerful probes, such as piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), has enabled
imaging of a local domain structure with sub-10 nm resolution. In spite of
those developments, a clear understanding of the polarization patterns in
epitaxial ferroelectric nanoislands is lacking, and some important
characteristics, like a critical lateral size for ferroelectricity, are not yet
established. Here, we perform ab-initio studies of non-electroded epitaxial
Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O3 and BaTiO3 nanoislands and show the existence of novel
polarization patterns driven by the misfit strains and/or anisotropy energy.
The results allow interpretation of the data and design of the ferroelectric
nanostructures with tailored response to external field.


title: Separating hard and soft scales in hard processes in a QCD plasma

abstract:
  We present a picture of hard processes in a hot plasma in terms of the hard
scale part of the process, where perturbative QCD should be applicable, and the
soft scale part of the process, where we look to the AdS/CFT correspondence for
guidance to possible strong effective coupling phenomena. In particular we
estimate $\hat{q}$, the transport coefficient, supposing that at soft scales
partons in the plasma all cascade to small-$x$-values as indicated by strong
coupling SYM theory.


title:
Dispersion of a single $4f$ impurity state in photoemission spectra of
  Yb/W(110)

abstract:
  Angle-resolved photoemission spectra of a monolayer of Yb on W(110) reveal
energy splittings and dispersion of the Yb 4f states that are obviously due to
their hybridization with W-derived valence bands. These effects occur at well
defined points of the surface Brillouin zone although a smearing over
reciprocal space is expected from the structural incoherence of the Yb and W
lattices. We conclude therefore that dispersion is not related to the periodic
arrangement of the $4f$ states but reflects the k-dependent interaction of a
single Yb 4f impurity with W bands.


title: q-deformed su(2|2) boundary S-matrices via the ZF algebra

abstract:
  Beisert and Koroteev have recently found a bulk S-matrix corresponding to a
q-deformation of the centrally-extended su(2|2) algebra of AdS/CFT. We
formulate the associated Zamolodchikov-Faddeev algebra, using which we derive
factorizable boundary S-matrices that generalize those of Hofman and Maldacena.


title:
Origin and control of spin currents in a magnetic triplet Josephson
  junction

abstract:
  We study the appearance of a Josephson spin current in a model triplet
superconductor junction with a magnetically-active tunnelling barrier. We find
three distinct mechanisms for producing a spin current, and we provide a
detailed discussion of the symmetry properties and the physical origins of
each. By combining these three basic mechanisms, we find that it is possible to
exercise fine control over the spin currents. In particular, we show that
unlike the charge current, the spin currents on either side of the barrier need
not be identical.


title:
Investigating the exclusive protoproduction of dileptons at high
  energies

abstract:
  Using the high energy color dipole approach, we study the exclusive
photoproduction of lepton pairs. We use simple models for the elementary
dipole-hadron scattering amplitude that captures main features of the
dependence on atomic number A, on energy and on momentum transfer t. This
investigation is complementary to conventional partonic description of timelike
Compton scattering, which considers quark handbag diagrams at leading order in
$\alpha_s$ and simple models of the relevant generalized parton distributions
(GPDs). These calculations are input in electromagnetic interactions in pp and
AA collisions to measured at the LHC.


title:
Interplay of mesoscopic and Kondo effects for transmission amplitude of
  few-level quantum dots

abstract:
  The magnitude and phase of the transmission amplitude of a multi-level
quantum dot is calculated for the mesoscopic regime of level spacing large
compared to level width. The interplay between Kondo correlations and the
influence by neighboring levels is discussed. As in the single-level case, the
Kondo plateaus of magnitude and phase disappear with increasing temperature. At
certain gate voltages, ``stationary'' points are found at which the
transmission phase is independent of temperature. Depending on the mesoscopic
parameters of the adjacent levels (like relative sign and magnitude of
tunneling matrix elements), the stationary points are shifted to or repelled by
the neighboring level.


title:
Hidden symmetries, null geodesics, and photon capture in the Sen black
  hole

abstract:
  Important classes of null geodesics and hidden symmetries in the Sen black
hole are investigated. First, we obtain the principal null geodesics and
circular photon orbits. Then, an irreducible rank-two Killing tensor and a
conformal Killing tensor are derived, which represent the hidden symmetries.
Analyzing the properties of Killing tensors, we clarify why the Hamilton-Jacobi
and wave equations are separable in this spacetime. We also investigate the
gravitational capture of photons by the Sen black hole and compare the result
with those by the various charged/rotating black holes and naked singularities
in the Kerr-Newman family. For these black holes and naked singularities, we
show the capture regions in a two dimensional impact parameter space (or
equivalently the ``shadows'' observed at infinity) to form a variety of shapes
such as the disk, circle, dot, arc, and their combinations.


title: Light front QED$_{1+1}$ at finite temperature

abstract:
  We investigate thermodynamic properties of quantum electrodynamics in 1+1
dimensions (QED$_{1+1}$) utilizing light front dynamics. Therefore we derive
the partition function of the canonical ensemble in discrete light cone
quantization, and calculate the thermodynamical potential. This central
quantity is evaluated for different system sizes and coupling strengths. We
investigate the continuum limit and the thermodynamical limit and present basic
thermodynamical quantities such as pressure, energy, and entropy, as a function
of temperature for the interacting system. The results are compared to the
ideal bosonic and fermionic cases.


title: Asymptotic expansion of the heat kernel for orbifolds

abstract:
  We study the relationship between the geometry and the Laplace spectrum of a
Riemannian orbifold O via its heat kernel; as in the manifold case, the
time-zero asymptotic expansion of the heat kernel furnishes geometric
information about O. In the case of a good Riemannian orbifold (i.e., an
orbifold arising as the orbit space of a manifold under the action of a
discrete group of isometries), H. Donnelly proved the existence of the heat
kernel and constructed the asymptotic expansion for the heat trace. We extend
Donnelly's work to the case of general compact orbifolds. Moreover, in both the
good case and the general case, we express the heat invariants in a form that
clarifies the asymptotic contribution of each part of the singular set of the
orbifold. We calculate several terms in the asymptotic expansion explicitly in
the case of two-dimensional orbifolds; we use these terms to prove that the
spectrum distinguishes elements within various classes of two-dimensional
orbifolds.


title: Higher order derivative estimates for finite-difference schemes

abstract:
  We give sufficient conditions under which solutions of finite-difference
schemes in the space variable for second order possibly degenerate parabolic
and elliptic equations admit estimates of spatial derivatives up to any given
order independent of the mesh size.


title: Galaxy Size Problem at z=3: Simulated Galaxies Are Too Small

abstract:
  Using state-of-the-art adaptive mesh refinement cosmological hydrodynamic
simulations with a spatial resolution of proper 0.21kpc/h in refined subregions
embedded within a comoving cosmological volume (27.4Mpc/h)^3, we investigate
the sizes of galaxies at z=3 in the standard cold dark matter model where
reionization is assumed to complete at zri~6. Our simulated galaxies are found
to be significantly smaller than the observed ones: while more than one half of
the galaxies observed by HST and VLT ranging from rest-frame UV to optical
bands with stellar masses larger than 2E10 Msun have half-light radii larger
than 2kpc/h, none of the simulated massive galaxies in the same mass range have
half-light radii larger than 2kpc/h, after taking into account dust extinction.
Corroborative evidence is provided by the rotation curves of the simulated
galaxies with total masses of 1E11-1E12Msun, which display values 300-1000km/s
at small radii (0.5kpc/h) due to high stellar concentration in the central
regions, larger than those of any well observed galaxies. Possible physical
mechanisms to resolve this serious problem include: (1) an early reionization
at zri>>6 to suppress gas condensation hence star formation, (2) a strong,
internal energetic feedback from stars or central black holes to reduce the
overall star formation efficiency, or (3) a substantial small-scale cutoff in
the matter power spectrum.


title:
A Search for Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies on Arcminute
  Scales with Bolocam

abstract:
  We have surveyed two science fields totaling one square degree with Bolocam
at 2.1 mm to search for secondary CMB anisotropies caused by the Sunyaev-
Zel'dovich effect (SZE). The fields are in the Lynx and Subaru/XMM SDS1 fields.
Our survey is sensitive to angular scales with an effective angular multipole
of l_eff = 5700 with FWHM_l = 2800 and has an angular resolution of 60
arcseconds FWHM. Our data provide no evidence for anisotropy. We are able to
constrain the level of total astronomical anisotropy, modeled as a flat
bandpower in C_l, with frequentist 68%, 90%, and 95% CL upper limits of 590,
760, and 830 uKCMB^2. We statistically subtract the known contribution from
primary CMB anisotropy, including cosmic variance, to obtain constraints on the
SZE anisotropy contribution. Now including flux calibration uncertainty, our
frequentist 68%, 90% and 95% CL upper limits on a flat bandpower in C_l are
690, 960, and 1000 uKCMB^2. When we instead employ the analytic spectrum
suggested by Komatsu and Seljak (2002), and account for the non-Gaussianity of
the SZE anisotropy signal, we obtain upper limits on the average amplitude of
their spectrum weighted by our transfer function of 790, 1060, and 1080
uKCMB^2. We obtain a 90% CL upper limit on sigma8, which normalizes the power
spectrum of density fluctuations, of 1.57. These are the first constraints on
anisotropy and sigma8 from survey data at these angular scales at frequencies
near 150 GHz.


title: New Approach to Bounded Quantum--Mechanical Models

abstract:
  We develop an approach for the treatment of one--dimensional bounded
quantum--mechanical models by straightforward modification of a successful
method for unbounded ones. We apply the new approach to a simple example and
show that it provides solutions to both the bounded and unbounded type of
models simultaneously


title:
Lyman alpha Radiative Transfer in Cosmological Simulations using
  Adaptive Mesh Refinement

abstract:
  A numerical code for solving various Lyman alpha (Lya) radiative transfer
(RT) problems is presented. The code is suitable for an arbitrary,
three-dimensional distribution of Lya emissivity, gas temperature, density, and
velocity field. Capable of handling Lya RT in an adaptively refined grid-based
structure, it enables detailed investigation of the effects of clumpiness of
the interstellar (or intergalactic) medium. The code is tested against various
geometrically and physically idealized configurations for which analytical
solutions exist, and subsequently applied to three "Lyman-break galaxies",
extracted from high-resolution cosmological simulations at redshift z = 3.6.
Proper treatment of the Lya scattering reveals a diversity of surface
brightness (SB) and line profiles. Specifically, for a given galaxy the maximum
observed SB can vary by an order of magnitude, and the total flux by a factor
of 3 - 6, depending on the viewing angle. This may provide an explanation for
differences in observed properties of high-redshift galaxies, and in particular
a possible physical link between Lyman-break galaxies and regular Lya emitters.


title: Black Hole Growth from Cosmological N-body Simulations

abstract:
  (Abridged) We use high resolution cosmological N-body simulations to study
the growth of intermediate to supermassive black holes from redshift 49 to
zero. We track the growth of black holes from the seeds of population III stars
to black holes in the range of 10^3 < M < 10^7 Msun -- not quasars, but rather
IMBH to low-mass SMBHs. These lower mass black holes are the primary observable
for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). The large-scale dynamics of
the black holes are followed accurately within the simulation down to scales of
1 kpc; thereafter, we follow the merger analytically from the last dynamical
friction phase to black hole coalescence. We find that the merger rate of these
black holes is R~25 per year between 8 < z < 11 and R = 10 per year at z=3.
Before the merger occurs the incoming IMBH may be observed with a next
generation of X-ray telescopes as a ULX source with a rate of about ~ 3 - 7 per
year for 1 < z < 5. We develop an analytic prescription that captures the most
important black hole growth mechanisms: galaxy merger-driven gas accretion and
black hole coalescence. Using this, we find that SMBH at the center of Milky
Way type galaxy was in place with most of its mass by z = 4.7, and most of the
growth was driven by gas accretion excited by major mergers. Hundreds of black
holes have failed to coalesce with the SMBH by z=0, some with masses of 10000
Msun, orbiting within the dark matter halo with luminosities up to ~ 30000
Lsun. These X-ray sources can easily be observed with Chandra at ~ 100 kpc.


title: Marketing in Random Networks

abstract:
  Viral marketing takes advantage of preexisting social networks among
customers to achieve large changes in behaviour. Models of influence spread
have been studied in a number of domains, including the effect of "word of
mouth" in the promotion of new products or the diffusion of technologies. A
social network can be represented by a graph where the nodes are individuals
and the edges indicate a form of social relationship. The flow of influence
through this network can be thought of as an increasing process of active
nodes: as individuals become aware of new technologies, they have the potential
to pass them on to their neighbours. The goal of marketing is to trigger a
large cascade of adoptions. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model that
allows to analyze the dynamics of the cascading sequence of nodes switching to
the new technology. To this end we describe a continuous-time and a
discrete-time models and analyse the proportion of nodes that adopt the new
technology over time.


title:
The White Dwarf Population in NGC 1039 (M34) and the White Dwarf
  Initial-Final Mass Relation

abstract:
  We present the first detailed photometric and spectroscopic study of the
white dwarfs (WDs) in the field of the ~225 Myr old (log tau_cl = 8.35) open
cluster NGC 1039 (M34) as part of the ongoing Lick-Arizona White Dwarf Survey.
Using wide-field UBV imaging, we photometrically select 44 WD candidates in
this field. We spectroscopically identify 19 of these objects as WDs; 17 are
hydrogen-atmosphere DA WDs, one is a helium-atmosphere DB WD, and one is a cool
DC WD that exhibits no detectable absorption lines. We find an effective
temperature (T_eff) and surface gravity (log g) for each DA WD by fitting
Balmer-line profiles from model atmospheres to the observed spectra. WD
evolutionary models are then invoked to derive masses and cooling times for
each DA WD. Of the 17 DAs, five are at the approximate distance modulus of the
cluster. Another WD with a distance modulus 0.45 mag brighter than that of the
cluster could be a double-degenerate binary cluster member, but is more likely
to be a field WD. We place the five single cluster member WDs in the empirical
initial-final mass relation and find that three of them lie very close to the
previously derived linear relation; two have WD masses significantly below the
relation. These outliers may have experienced some sort of enhanced mass loss
or binary evolution; however, it is quite possible that these WDs are simply
interlopers from the field WD population. Eight of the 17 DA WDs show
significant CaII K absorption; comparison of the absorption strength with the
WD distances suggests that the absorption is interstellar, though this cannot
be confirmed with the current data.


title: Dynamically SUSY Breaking SQCD on F-Theory Seven-Branes

abstract:
  We study how dynamically breaking SQCD can be obtained on two intersecting
seven-branes in F-theory. In the mechanism which we present in this paper one
of the seven-branes is responsible for producing the low-energy gauge group and
the other one is for generating vector bundle moduli. The fundamental matter
charged under the gauge group is localized on the intersection. The mass of the
matter fields is controlled by the vector bundle moduli. The analysis of under
what conditions a sufficient number of the fundamental flavors becomes light
turns out to be equivalent to the analysis of non-perturbative superpotentials
for vector bundle moduli in Heterotic M-theory. We give an example in which we
present an explicit equation in the moduli space whose zero locus corresponds
to the fundamental fields becoming light. This allows us to provide a local
F-theory realization of massive ${\cal N}=1$, $SU(N_c)$ SQCD in the free
magnetic range which dynamically breaks supersymmetry.


title: An elementary proof of a series evaluation in terms of harmonic numbers

abstract:
  An elementary proof of an identity by Lyons, Paule and Riese is given. It is
simpler than all the 3 published proofs.


title:
Unification of bulk and interface electroresistive switching in oxide
  systems

abstract:
  We demonstrate that the physical mechanism behind electroresistive switching
in oxide Schottky systems is electroformation, as in insulating oxides.
Negative resistance shown by the hysteretic current-voltage curves proves that
impact ionization is at the origin of the switching. Analyses of the
capacitance-voltage and conductance-voltage curves through a simple model show
that an atomic rearrangement is involved in the process. Switching in these
systems is a bulk effect, not strictly confined at the interface but at the
charge space region.


title:
The Three Faces of Omega_m: Testing Gravity with Low and High Redshift
  SN Ia Surveys

abstract:
  Peculiar velocities of galaxies hosting Type Ia supernovae generate a
significant systematic effect in deriving the dark energy equation of state w,
at level of a few percent. Here we illustrate how the peculiar velocity effect
in SN Ia data can be turned from a 'systematic' into a probe of cosmological
parameters. We assume a flat Lambda-Cold Dark Matter model (w=-1) and use low
and high redshift SN Ia data to derive simultaneously three distinct estimates
of the matter density Omega_m which appear in the problem: from the geometry,
from the dynamics and from the shape of the matter power spectrum. We find that
each of the three Omega_m's agree with the canonical value Omega_m=0.25 to
within 1 sigma, for reasonably assumed fluctuation amplitude and Hubble
parameter. This is consistent with the standard cosmological scenario for both
the geometry and the growth of structure. For fixed Omega_m = 0.25 for all
three Omega_m's, we constrain gamma = 0.72 +/- 0.21 in the growth factor
Omega_m(z)^gamma, so we cannot currently distinguish between standard Einstein
gravity and predictions from some modified gravity models. Future surveys of
thousands of SN Ia, or inclusion of peculiar velocity data, could significantly
improve the above tests.


title:
A Semi-Empirical Study of the Mass Distribution of Horizontal Branch
  Stars in M3 (NGC 5272)

abstract:
  Horizontal branch (HB) stars in globular clusters offer us a probe of the
mass loss mechanisms taking place in red giants. For M3 (NGC 5272), different
shapes for the HB mass distribution have been suggested, including Gaussian and
sharply bimodal alternatives. Here we study the mass distribution of HB stars
in M3 by comparing evolutionary tracks and photometric observations. Our
approach is thus of a semi-empirical nature, describing as it does the mass
distribution that is favored from the standpoint of canonical stellar
evolutionary predictions for the distribution of stars across the CMD. We
locate, for each individual HB star, the evolutionary track whose distance from
the star's observed color and magnitude is a minimum. Artificial tests reveal
that our method would be able to detect a bimodal mass distribution, if
present. We study the impact of different procedures for taking into account
the evolutionary speed, and conclude that they have but a small effect upon the
inferred mass distribution. We find that a Gaussian shape, though providing a
reasonable first approximation, fails to account for the detailed shape of M3's
HB mass distribution: the latter may have skewness and kurtosis that deviate
slightly from a perfectly Gaussian solution. Alternatively, the excess of stars
towards the wings of the distribution may also be accounted for in terms of a
bimodal distribution in which both the low- and the high-mass modes are normal,
the former being significantly wider than the latter. However, we also show
that the inferred distribution of evolutionary times is inconsistent with
theoretical expectations. This result is confirmed on the basis of three
independent sets of HB models, suggesting that the latter underestimate the
effects of evolution away from the zero-age HB. (abridged)


title:
Adaptive Optics Photometry and Astrometry of Binary Stars. III. A Faint
  Companion Search of O-Star Systems

abstract:
  We present the results of an adaptive optics survey for faint companions
among Galactic O-type star systems (V < 8) using the Advanced Electro-Optical
System (AEOS) 3.6-meter telescope on Haleakala. We surveyed these O star
systems in I-band, typically being able to detect a companion with a magnitude
difference of about 6 in the projected separation range of 0.5 to 1.0
arcseconds, and of about 9.5 in the range of 1.0 to 5.0 arcseconds. In the
course of the survey, we discovered 40 new companions among 31 of the 116
objects examined and made astrometric and differential magnitude measurements
of 24 additional known pairs, several of them being confirmation detections. We
present new astrometric orbits for two binaries, BU 1032AB (WDS 05387-0236; sig
Ori AB) and SEE 322 (WDS 17158-3344; HD 155889AB). We lack magnitude
differences for other filter bands, so it is difficult to determine physical
from line-of-sight companions, but we present empirical arguments for the
limiting magnitude difference where field contamination is significant.


title: Top Physics at LHC

abstract:
  The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will provide a huge amount of top-antitop
events, making the LHC a top quark factory, producing 1 tt pair per second at a
luminosity of 10^33cm-2s-1. A large top quark sample will be available from the
start of LHC and will play an important role in commissioning the CMS and ATLAS
detectors. An overview of the top quark measurements during the first
data-taking period is given.


title: To Code or Not To Code in Multi-Hop Relay Channels

abstract:
  Multi-hop relay channels use multiple relay stages, each with multiple relay
nodes, to facilitate communication between a source and destination.
Previously, distributed space-time coding was used to maximize diversity gain.
Assuming a low-rate feedback link from the destination to each relay stage and
the source, this paper proposes end-to-end antenna selection strategies as an
alternative to distributed space-time coding. One-way (where only the source
has data for destination) and two-way (where the destination also has data for
the source) multi-hop relay channels are considered with both the full-duplex
and half duplex relay nodes. End-to-end antenna selection strategies are
designed and proven to achieve maximum diversity gain by using a single antenna
path (using single antenna of the source, each relay stage and the destination)
with the maximum signal-to-noise ratio at the destination. For the half-duplex
case, two single antenna paths with the two best signal-to-noise ratios in
alternate time slots are used to overcome the rate loss with half-duplex nodes,
with a small diversity gain penalty. Finally to answer the question, whether to
code (distributed space-time code) or not (the proposed end-to-end antenna
selection strategy) in a multi-hop relay channel, end-to-end antenna selection
strategy and distributed space-time coding is compared with respect to several
important performance metrics.


title: Generalized parton correlation functions for a spin-0 hadron

abstract:
  The fully unintegrated, off-diagonal quark-quark correlator for a spin-0
hadron is parameterized in terms of so-called generalized parton correlation
functions. Such objects are of relevance for the phenomenology of certain hard
exclusive reactions. In particular, they can be considered as {\it mother
distributions} of generalized parton distributions on the one hand and
transverse momentum dependent parton distributions on the other. Therefore, our
study provides new, model-independent insights into the recently proposed
nontrivial relations between generalized and transverse momentum dependent
parton distributions. As a by-product we obtain the first complete
classification of generalized parton distributions beyond leading twist.


title: Effects of the South Atlantic Anomaly on the muon flux at sea level

abstract:
  The goal of this study is to examine the response and changes of the muon
intensity at ground, due to magnetic anomaly over south Atlantic. Based on the
data of two directional muon telescopes and located at 22S and 43W. These
coordinates are inside of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region, a dip in the
magnetosphere. This characteristic offers to the muon telescopes the lowest
rigidity of response to cosmic protons and ions ($\geq 0.4$ GV). The
magnetosphere's dip is responsible for several processes, such as the high
conductivity of the atmospheric layers due to the precipitation of energetic
particles in this region and an zonal electric field known as the pre-reversal
electric field (PRE) with an enhancement at evening hours. In addition the open
magnetosphere, propitiate the magnetic reconnections of the IMF lines that will
take place in this site in the day side. These factors are responsible for an
unusually large particle flux present in the SAA region, including particles
with energies above the pion production threshold. The main effect is an
increase of the muon intensity ($E_{\mu}>0.2GeV$) at ground, in the day side,
in up to ten times. We show that it is correlated with the pre-reversal
electric field, and propitiate the observation of muon enhancements due to
small solar transient events, such as corotating interaction region (CIR) and
micro-flares. Details of these results are reported in this paper.


title: Smooth analysis of the condition number and the least singular value

abstract:
  Let $\a$ be a complex random variable with mean zero and bounded variance.
Let $N_{n}$ be the random matrix of size $n$ whose entries are iid copies of
$\a$ and $M$ be a fixed matrix of the same size. The goal of this paper is to
give a general estimate for the condition number and least singular value of
the matrix $M + N_{n}$, generalizing an earlier result of Spielman and Teng for
the case when $\a$ is gaussian.
  Our investigation reveals an interesting fact that the "core" matrix $M$ does
play a role on tail bounds for the least singular value of $M+N_{n} $. This
does not occur in Spielman-Teng studies when $\a$ is gaussian.
  Consequently, our general estimate involves the norm $\|M\|$.
  In the special case when $\|M\|$ is relatively small, this estimate is nearly
optimal and extends or refines existing results.


title: High-energy String Scatterings of Compactified Open String

abstract:
  We calculate high-energy massive string scattering amplitudes of compactified
open string. We derive infinite linear relations, or stringy symmetries, among
soft high-energy string scattering amplitudes of different string states in the
Gross kinematic regime (GR). In addition, we systematically analyze all hard
power-law and soft exponential fall-off regimes of high-energy compactified
open string scatterings by comparing the scatterings with their 26D
noncompactified counterparts. In particular, we discover the existence of a
power-law regime at fixed angle and an exponential fall-off regime at small
angle for high-energy compactified open string scatterings. The linear
relations break down as expected in all power-law regimes. The analysis can be
extended to the high-energy scatterings of the compactified closed string,
which corrects and extends the previous results in [28] .


title: A New Perspective on Covariant Canonical Gravity

abstract:
  We present a new approach to the covariant canonical formulation of
Einstein-Cartan gravity that preserves the full Lorentz group as the local
gauge group. The method exploits lessons learned from gravity in 2+1 dimensions
regarding the relation between gravity and a general gauge theory. The
dynamical variables are simply the frame field and the spin-connection
pulled-back to the hypersurface, thereby eliminating the need for simplicity
constraints on the momenta. A consequence of this is a degenerate
(pre)symplectic form, which appears to be a necessary feature of the
Einstein-Cartan formulation. A new feature unique to this approach arises when
the constraint algebra is computed: the algebra is a deformation of the de
Sitter, anti-de Sitter, or Poincar\'{e} algebra (depending on the value of the
cosmological constant) with the deformation parameter being the conformal Weyl
tensor.


title:
The magnetized steel and scintillator calorimeters of the MINOS
  experiment

abstract:
  The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) experiment uses an
accelerator-produced neutrino beam to perform precision measurements of the
neutrino oscillation parameters in the "atmospheric neutrino" sector associated
with muon neutrino disappearance. This long-baseline experiment measures
neutrino interactions in Fermilab's NuMI neutrino beam with a near detector at
Fermilab and again 735 km downstream with a far detector in the Soudan
Underground Laboratory in northern Minnesota. The two detectors are magnetized
steel-scintillator tracking calorimeters. They are designed to be as similar as
possible in order to ensure that differences in detector response have minimal
impact on the comparisons of event rates, energy spectra and topologies that
are essential to MINOS measurements of oscillation parameters. The design,
construction, calibration and performance of the far and near detectors are
described in this paper.