title: Relative Hyperbolic Extensions of Groups and Cannon-Thurston Maps

abstract:
  Let $1\to (K,K_1)\to (G,N_G(K_1))\to(Q,Q_1)\to 1$ be a short exact sequence
of pairs of finitely generated groups with $K$ strongly hyperbolic relative to
proper subgroup $K_1$. Assuming that for all $g\in G$ there exists $k\in K$
such that $gK_1g^{-1}=kK_1k^{-1}$, we prove that there exists a quasi-isometric
section $s\colon Q \to G$. Further we prove that if $G$ is strongly hyperbolic
relative to the normalizer subgroup $N_G(K_1)$ and weakly hyperbolic relative
to $K_1$, then there exists a Cannon-Thurston map for the inclusion
$i\colon\Gamma_K\to \Gamma_G$.


title:
Simulating the collapse transition of a two-dimensional semiflexible
  lattice polymer

abstract:
  It has been revealed by mean-field theories and computer simulations that the
nature of the collapse transition of a polymer is influenced by its bending
stiffness $\epsilon_{\rm b}$. In two dimensions, a recent analytical work
demonstrated that the collapse transition of a partially directed lattice
polymer is always first-order as long as $\epsilon_{\rm b}$ is positive
  [H. Zhou {\em et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 97}, 158302 (2006)]. Here we
employ Monte Carlo simulation to investigate systematically the effect of
bending stiffness on the static properties of a 2D lattice polymer. The
system's phase-diagram at zero force is obtained. Depending on $\epsilon_{\rm
b}$ and the temperature $T$, the polymer can be in one of three phases:
crystal, disordered globule, or swollen coil. The crystal-globule transition is
discontinuous, the globule-coil transition is continuous. At moderate or high
values of $\epsilon_{\rm b}$ the intermediate globular phase disappears and the
polymer has only a discontinuous crystal-coil transition. When an external
force is applied, the force-induced collapse transition will either be
continuous or discontinuous, depending on whether the polymer is originally in
the globular or the crystal phase at zero force. The simulation results also
demonstrate an interesting scaling behavior of the polymer at the force-induced
globule-coil transition.


title:
Boundary form factors in the Smirnov--Fateev model with a diagonal
  boundary $S$ matrix

abstract:
  The boundary conditions with diagonal boundary $S$ matrix and the boundary
form factors for the Smirnov--Fateev model on a half line has been considered
in the framework of the free field representation. In contrast to the case of
the sine-Gordon model, in this case the free field representation is shown to
impose severe restrictions on the boundary $S$ matrix, so that a finite number
of solutions is only consistent with the free field realization.


title: Pure decoherence in quantum systems

abstract:
  A popular model of decoherence based on the linear coupling to harmonic
oscillator heat baths is analized and shown to be inappropriate in the regime
where decoherence dominates over energy dissipation, called pure decoherence
regime. The similar mechanism essentially related to the energy conservation
implies that, on the contrary to the recent conjectures, chaotic environments
can be less efficient decoherers than regular ones. Finally, the elastic
scattering mechanism is advocated as the simplest source of pure decoherence.


title:
Target Mass Corrections for the Virtual Photon Structure Functions to
  the Next-to-next-to-leading Order in QCD

abstract:
  We investigate target mass effects in the unpolarized virtual photon
structure functions $F_2^\gamma(x,Q^2,P^2)$ and $F_L^\gamma(x,Q^2,P^2)$ in
perturbative QCD for the kinematical region $\Lambda^2 \ll P^2 \ll Q^2$, where
$-Q^2(-P^2)$ is the mass squared of the probe (target) photon and $\Lambda$ is
the QCD scale parameter. We obtain the Nachtmann moments for the structure
functions and then, by inverting the moments, we get the expressions in closed
form for $F_2^\gamma(x,Q^2,P^2)$ up to the next-to-next-to-leading order and
for $F_L^\gamma(x,Q^2,P^2)$ up to the next-to-leading order, both of which
include the target mass corrections. Numerical analysis exhibits that target
mass effects appear at large $x$ and become sizable near $x_{\rm
max}(=1/(1+\frac{P^2}{Q^2}))$, the maximal value of $x$, as the ratio $P^2/Q^2$
increases.


title: Cognitive Networks Achieve Throughput Scaling of a Homogeneous Network

abstract:
  We study two distinct, but overlapping, networks that operate at the same
time, space, and frequency. The first network consists of $n$ randomly
distributed \emph{primary users}, which form either an ad hoc network, or an
infrastructure-supported ad hoc network with $l$ additional base stations. The
second network consists of $m$ randomly distributed, ad hoc secondary users or
cognitive users. The primary users have priority access to the spectrum and do
not need to change their communication protocol in the presence of secondary
users. The secondary users, however, need to adjust their protocol based on
knowledge about the locations of the primary nodes to bring little loss to the
primary network's throughput. By introducing preservation regions around
primary receivers and avoidance regions around primary base stations, we
propose two modified multihop routing protocols for the cognitive users. Base
on percolation theory, we show that when the secondary network is denser than
the primary network, both networks can simultaneously achieve the same
throughput scaling law as a stand-alone network. Furthermore, the primary
network throughput is subject to only a vanishingly fractional loss.
Specifically, for the ad hoc and the infrastructure-supported primary models,
the primary network achieves sum throughputs of order $n^{1/2}$ and
$\max\{n^{1/2},l\}$, respectively. For both primary network models, for any
$\delta>0$, the secondary network can achieve sum throughput of order
$m^{1/2-\delta}$ with an arbitrarily small fraction of outage. Thus, almost all
secondary source-destination pairs can communicate at a rate of order
$m^{-1/2-\delta}$.


title: On the graph-connectivity of skeleta of convex polytopes

abstract:
  Given a $d$-dimensional convex polytope $P$ and nonnegative integer $k$ not
exceeding $d-1$, let $G_k (P)$ denote the simple graph on the node set of
$k$-dimensional faces of $P$ in which two such faces are adjacent if there
exists a $(k+1)$-dimensional face of $P$ which contains them both. The graph
$G_k (P)$ is isomorphic to the dual graph of the $(d-k)$-dimensional skeleton
of the normal fan of $P$. For fixed values of $k$ and $d$, the largest integer
$m$ such that $G_k (P)$ is $m$-vertex-connected for all $d$-dimensional
polytopes $P$ is determined. This result generalizes Balinski's theorem on the
one-dimensional skeleton of a $d$-dimensional convex polytope.


title: Diagonal Representation for a Generic Matrix Valued Quantum Hamiltonian

abstract:
  A general method to derive the diagonal representation for a generic matrix
valued quantum Hamiltonian is proposed. In this approach new mathematical
objects like non-commuting operators evolving with the Planck constant promoted
as a running variable are introduced. This method leads to a formal compact
expression for the diagonal Hamiltonian which can be expanded in a power series
of the Planck constant. In particular, we provide an explicit expression for
the diagonal representation of a generic Hamiltonian to the second order in the
Planck constant. This last result is applied, as a physical illustration, to
Dirac electrons and neutrinos in external fields.

categories: math-ph cond-mat.other hep-th math.MP quant-ph


title:
On the extremal rays of the cone of positive, positive definite
  functions

abstract:
  The aim of this paper is to investigate the cone of non-negative, radial,
positive-definite functions in the set of continuous functions on $\R^d$.
Elements of this cone admit a Choquet integral representation in terms of the
extremals. The main feature of this article is to characterize some large
classes of such extremals. In particular, we show that there many other
extremals than the gaussians, thus disproving a conjecture of G. Choquet and
that no reasonable conjecture can be made on the full set of extremals. The
last feature of this article is to show that many characterizations of positive
definite functions available in the literature are actually particular cases of
the Choquet integral representations we obtain.


title: Entangling distant quantum dots using classical interference

abstract:
  We show that it is possible to employ reservoir engineering to turn two
distant and relatively bad cavities into one good cavity with a tunable
spontaneous decay rate. As a result, quantum computing schemes, that would
otherwise require the shuttling of atomic qubits in and out of an optical
resonator, can now be applied to distant quantum dots. To illustrate this we
transform a recent proposal to entangle two qubits via the observation of
macroscopic fluorescence signals [Metz et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 040503
(2006)] to the electron-spin states of two semiconductor quantum dots. Our
scheme requires neither the coherent control of qubit-qubit interactions nor
the detection of single photons. Moreover, the scheme is relatively robust
against spin-bath couplings, parameter fluctuations, and the spontaneous
emission of photons.


title: Phenomenology of spinless adjoints in two Universal Extra Dimensions

abstract:
  We discuss the phenomenology of $(1,1)$-mode adjoint scalars in the framework
of two Universal Extra Dimensions. The Kaluza-Klein (KK) towers of these
adjoint scalars arise in the 4-dimensional effective theory from the 6th
component of the gauge fields after compactification. Adjoint scalars can have
KK-number conserving as well as KK-number violating interactions. We calculate
the KK-number violating operators involving these scalars and two Standard
Model fields. Decay widths of these scalars into different channels have been
estimated. We have also briefly discussed pair-production and single production
of such scalars at the Large Hadron Collider.


title:
Prepotential approach to exact and quasi-exact solvabilities of
  Hermitian and non-Hermitian Hamiltonians

abstract:
  In this talk I present a simple and unified approach to both exact and
quasi-exact solvabilities of the one-dimensional Schr\"odinger equation. It is
based on the prepotential together with Bethe ansatz equations. This approach
gives the potential as well as the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues
simultaneously. In this approach the system is completely defined by the choice
of the change of variables, and the so-called zero-th order prepotential. We
illustrate the approach by several examples of Hermitian and non-Hermitian
Hamiltonians with real energies. The method can be easily extended to the
constructions of exactly and quasi-exactly solvable Dirac, Pauli, and
Fokker-Planck equations, and to quasinormal modes.


title:
DC transferred arc thermal plasma assisted growth of nanoparticles with
  different crystalline phases

abstract:
  The control of the crystalline phases of the nanoparticles grown in a
direct-current transferred-arc plasma-assisted reactor is reported. The
crystalline phases of the as synthesized nanoparticles are shown to critically
depend on the operating gas pressure. The paper reports about the change in the
crystalline phases of three distinct compounds namely aluminium oxide (Al2O3),
aluminium nitride (AlN) and iron oxide (FexOy). The major outcome of the
present work is that the phases having higher defect densities are more
probable to form at the sub-atmospheric operating pressure. The variations in
the crystalline structures are discussed on the basis of the equilibrium defect
density formed during the homogeneous nucleation. The as synthesized
nanoparticles were examined by X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission
electron microscopy. In addition, the confirmatory analysis for the crystalline
phases of the as synthesized iron oxides was carried out with the help of
Mossbauer spectroscopy.


title: Benford's law and complex atomic spectra

abstract:
  We found that in transition arrays of complex atomic spectra, the strengths
of electric-dipolar lines obey Benford's law, which means that their
significant digits follow a logarithmic distribution favoring the smallest
values. This indicates that atomic processes result from the superposition of
uncorrelated probability laws and that the occurrence of digits reflects the
constraints induced by the selection rules. Furthermore, Benford's law can be a
useful test of theoretical spectroscopic models. Its applicability to the
statistics of electric-dipolar lines can be understood in the framework of
random matrix theory and is consistent with the Porter-Thomas law.


title:
A scheme for tunable quantum phase gate and effective preparation of
  graph-state entanglement

abstract:
  A scheme is presented for realizing a quantum phase gate with three-level
atoms, solid-state qubits--often called artificial atoms, or ions that share a
quantum data bus such as a single mode field in cavity QED system or a
collective vibrational state of trapped ions. In this scheme, the conditional
phase shift is tunable and controllable via the total effective interaction
time. Furthermore, we show that the method can be used for effective
preparation of graph-state entanglement, which are important resources for
quantum computation, quantum error correction, studies of multiparticle
entanglement, fundamental tests of non-locality and decoherence.


title: The Riemannian manifolds with boundary and large symmetry

abstract:
  Sixty years ago, S. B. Myers and N. E. Steenrod ({\it Ann. of Math.} {\bf 40}
(1939), 400-416) showed that the isometry group of a Riemannian manifold
without boundary has a structure of Lie group. Recently A. V. Bagaev and N. I.
Zhukova ({\it Siberian Math. J.} {\bf 48} (2007), 579-592) proved the same
result for a Riemannian orbifold. In this paper, we firstly show that the
isometry group of a Riemannian manifold $M$ with boundary has dimension at most
${1/2} \dim M (\dim M-1)$. Then we completely classify such Riemannian
manifolds with boundary that their isometry groups attain the preceding maximal
dimension.


title: On the Refinement of Liveness Properties of Distributed Systems

abstract:
  We present a new approach for reasoning about liveness properties of
distributed systems, represented as automata. Our approach is based on
simulation relations, and requires reasoning only over finite execution
fragments. Current simulation-relation based methods for reasoning about
liveness properties of automata require reasoning over entire executions, since
they involve a proof obligation of the form: if a concrete and abstract
execution ``correspond'' via the simulation, and the concrete execution is
live, then so is the abstract execution.
  Our contribution consists of (1) a formalism for defining liveness
properties, (2) a proof method for liveness properties based on that formalism,
and (3) two expressive completeness results: firstly, our formalism can express
any liveness property which satisfies a natural ``robustness'' condition, and
secondly, our formalism can express any liveness property at all, provided that
history variables can be used


title: Surface states and the charge of a dust particle in a plasma

abstract:
  We investigate electron and ion surface states of a negatively charged dust
particle in a gas discharge and identify the charge of the particle with the
electron surface density bound in the polarization-induced short-range part of
the particle potential. On that scale, ions do not affect the charge. They are
trapped in the shallow states of the Coulomb tail of the potential and act only
as screening charges. Using orbital-motion limited electron charging fluxes and
the particle temperature as an adjustable parameter, we obtain excellent
agreement with experimental data.


title:
Designed defects in 2D antidot lattices for quantum information
  processing

abstract:
  We propose a new physical implementation of spin qubits for quantum
information processing, namely defect states in antidot lattices defined in the
two-dimensional electron gas at a semiconductor heterostructure. Calculations
of the band structure of a periodic antidot lattice are presented. A point
defect is created by removing a single antidot, and calculations show that
localized states form within the defect, with an energy structure which is
robust against thermal dephasing. The exchange coupling between two electrons
residing in two tunnel-coupled defect states is calculated numerically. We find
results reminiscent of double quantum dot structures, indicating that the
suggested structure is a feasible physical implementation of spin qubits.


title:
Mott transition in bosonic systems: Insights from the variational
  approach

abstract:
  We study the Mott transition occurring for bosonic Hubbard models in one,
two, and three spatial dimensions, by means of a variational wave function
benchmarked by Green's function Monte Carlo calculations. We show that a very
accurate variational wave function, constructed by applying a long-range
Jastrow factor to the non-interacting boson ground state, can describe the
superfluid-insulator transition in any dimensionality. Moreover, by mapping the
quantum averages over such a wave function into the the partition function of a
classical model, important insights into the insulating phase are uncovered.
Finally, the evidence in favor of anomalous scenarios for the Mott transition
in two dimensions are reported whenever additional long-range repulsive
interactions are added to the Hamiltonian.


title: Enigmatic sub-luminous accreting neutron stars in our Galaxy

abstract:
  During the last few years a class of enigmatic sub-luminous accreting neutron
stars has been found in our Galaxy. They have peak X-ray luminosities (2-10
keV) of a few times 1E34 erg/s to a few times 1E35 erg/s, and both persistent
and transient sources have been found. I present a short overview of our
knowledge of these systems and what we can learn from them.


title:
Inflation and late-time cosmic acceleration in non-minimal
  Maxwell-$F(R)$ gravity and the generation of large-scale magnetic fields

abstract:
  We study inflation and late-time acceleration in the expansion of the
universe in non-minimal electromagnetism, in which the electromagnetic field
couples to the scalar curvature function. It is shown that power-law inflation
can be realized due to the non-minimal gravitational coupling of the
electromagnetic field, and that large-scale magnetic fields can be generated
due to the breaking of the conformal invariance of the electromagnetic field
through its non-minimal gravitational coupling. Furthermore, it is demonstrated
that both inflation and the late-time acceleration of the universe can be
realized in a modified Maxwell-$F(R)$ gravity which is consistent with solar
system tests and cosmological bounds and free of instabilities. At small
curvature typical for current universe the standard Maxwell theory is
recovered. We also consider classically equivalent form of non-minimal
Maxwell-$F(R)$ gravity, and propose the origin of the non-minimal gravitational
coupling function based on renormalization-group considerations.


title:
Phase diagram for Coulomb-frustrated phase separation in systems with
  negative short-range compressibility

abstract:
  Using numerical techniques and asymptotic expansions we obtain the phase
diagram of a paradigmatic model of Coulomb frustrated phase separation in
systems with negative short-range compressibility. The transition from the
homogeneous phase to the inhomogeneous phase is generically first order in
isotropic three-dimensional systems except for a critical point. Close to the
critical point, inhomogeneities are predicted to form a BCC lattice with
subsequent transitions to a triangular lattice of rods and a layered structure.
Inclusion of a strong anisotropy allows for second- and first-order transition
lines joined by a tricritical point.


title:
Field Theoretic Description of Ultrarelativistic Electron-Positron
  Plasmas

abstract:
  Ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasmas can be produced in high-intensity
laser fields and play a role in various astrophysical situations. Their
properties can be calculated using QED at finite temperature. Here we will use
perturbative QED at finite temperature for calculating various important
properties, such as the equation of state, dispersion relations of collective
plasma modes of photons and electrons, Debye screening, damping rates, mean
free paths, collision times, transport coefficients, and particle production
rates, of ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasmas. In particular, we will
focus on electron-positron plasmas produced with ultra-strong lasers.

categories: physics.plasm-ph astro-ph hep-ph nucl-th


title: Relativistic Newton and Coulomb Laws

abstract:
  The relativistic equations for the electromagnetic and gravitation
interactions are similar: The only Lagrangian equation is the equation with
Lorentz force. The potential satisfies the wave equation with the right - hand
side proprtional to the velocity of another particle multiplied by the delta -
function concentrated at the position of another particle. If the interaction
propagates at the speed of light, then the wave equation has the unique
solution: the Lienard - Wiechert potential. The Maxwell equations are
completely defined by the obtained relativistic Coulomb law. The Coulomb law
and the Newton gravity law differ from each other only in the choice of the
constants. If we choose in Coulomb law the electric charges equal to the masses
and choose the interaction constant of another sign, then we get Newton gravity
law. If we choose in the relativistic Coulomb law the electric charges equal to
the masses and choose the interaction constant of another sign, then we get the
relativistic Newton gravity law.


title: QCD sum rules analysis of the $B_{s}\to D_{sJ}(2460)l\nu $ decay

abstract:
  Using three point QCD sum rules method, the form factors relevant to the
semileptonic
  $B_{s}\to D_{sJ}(2460)\ell\nu$ decay are calculated. The $q^2$ dependencies
of these form factors are evaluated. The dependence of the asymmetry parameter
$\alpha$, characterizing the polarization of $D_{sJ}$ meson, on $q^2$ is
studied. This study gives useful information about the structure of the
$D_{sJ}$ meson. Finally the branching ratio of this decay is also estimated and
is shown that it can be easily detected at LHC.


title:
Coarse-grained lattice model for investigating the role of cooperativity
  in molecular recognition

abstract:
  Equilibrium aspects of molecular recognition of rigid biomolecules are
investigated using coarse-grained lattice models. The analysis is carried out
in two stages. First an ensemble of probe molecules is designed with respect to
the target biomolecule. The recognition ability of the probe ensemble is then
investigated by calculating the free energy of association. The influence of
cooperative and anti-cooperative effects accompanying the association of the
target and probe molecules is studied. Numerical findings are presented and
compared to analytical results which can be obtained in the limit of dominating
cooperativity and in the mean-field formulation of the models.


title:
Design of a CZT Gamma-Camera for GRB and Fast Transient Follow-up: a
  Wide-Field-Monitor for the EDGE Mission

abstract:
  The success of the SWIFT/BAT and INTEGRAL missions has definitely opened a
new window for follow-up and deep study of the transient gamma-ray sky. This
now appears as the access key to important progresses in the area of
cosmological research and deep understanding of the physics of compact objects.
To detect in near real-time explosive events like Gamma-Ray bursts,
thermonuclear flashes from Neutron Stars and other types of X-ray outbursts we
have developed a concept for a wide-field gamma-ray coded mask instrument
working in the range 8-200 keV, having a sensitivity of 0.4 ph cm-2 s-1 in 1s
(15-150 keV) and arcmin location accuracy over a sky region as wide as 3sr.
This scientific requirement can be achieved by means of two large area, high
spatial resolution CZT detection planes made of arrays of relatively large
(~1cm2) crystals, which are in turn read out as matrices of smaller pixels. To
achieve such a wide Field-Of-View the two units can be placed at the sides of a
S/C platform serving a payload with a complex of powerful X-ray instruments, as
designed for the EDGE mission. The two units will be equipped with powerful
signal read out system and data handling electronics, providing accurate
on-board reconstruction of the source positions for fast, autonomous target
acquisition by the X-ray telescopes.


title:
The Galactic population of HMXBs as seen with INTEGRAL during its four
  first years of activity

abstract:
  We collected the parameters (position, absorption, spin, orbital period,
etc..), when known, of all Galactic sources detected by INTEGRAL during its
four first years of activity. We use these parameters to test theoretical
predictions. For example, it is clear that HMXBs tend to be found mostly in the
tangential direction of the Galactic arms, while LMXBs tend to be clustered in
the Galactic bulge. We then focus on HMXBs and present two possible new tools,
in addition to the well-known ``Corbet-diagram'', to distinguish between
Be-HMXBs and Sg-HMXBs


title: Form factors of boundary exponential operators in the sinh-Gordon model

abstract:
  Using the recently introduced boundary form factor bootstrap equations, the
form factors of boundary exponential operators in the sinh-Gordon model are
constructed. The ultraviolet scaling dimension and the normalization of these
operators are checked against previously known results. The construction
presented in this paper can be applied to determine form factors of relevant
primary boundary operators in general integrable boundary quantum field
theories.


title: A Survey of Simple Permutations

abstract:
  We survey the known results about simple permutations. In particular, we
present a number of recent enumerative and structural results pertaining to
simple permutations, and show how simple permutations play an important role in
the study of permutation classes. We demonstrate how classes containing only
finitely many simple permutations satisfy a number of special properties
relating to enumeration, partial well-order and the property of being finitely
based.


title: Clusters of galaxies: beyond the thermal view

abstract:
  We present the work of an international team at the International Space
Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern that worked together to review the current
observational and theoretical status of the non-virialised X-ray emission
components in clusters of galaxies. The subject is important for the study of
large-scale hierarchical structure formation and to shed light on the "missing
baryon" problem. The topics of the team work include thermal emission and
absorption from the warm-hot intergalactic medium, non-thermal X-ray emission
in clusters of galaxies, physical processes and chemical enrichment of this
medium and clusters of galaxies, and the relationship between all these
processes. One of the main goals of the team is to write and discuss a series
of review papers on this subject. These reviews are intended as introductory
text and reference for scientists wishing to work actively in this field. The
team consists of sixteen experts in observations, theory and numerical
simulations.


title:
Possible signature of hypernova nucleosynthesis in a beryllium rich halo
  dwarf

abstract:
  As part of a large survey of halo and thick disc stars, we found one halo
star, HD 106038, exceptionally overabundant in beryllium. In spite of its low
metallicity, [Fe/H] = -1.26, the star has log(Be/H) = -10.60, which is similar
to the solar meteoritic abundance, log(Be/H) = -10.58. This abundance is more
than ten times higher the abundance of stars with similar metallicity and
cannot be explained by models of chemical evolution of the Galaxy that include
the standard theory of cosmic-ray spallation. No other halo star exhibiting
such a beryllium overabundance is known. In addition, overabundances of Li, Si,
Ni, Y, and Ba are also observed. We suggest that all these chemical
peculiarities, but the Ba abundance, can be simultaneously explained if the
star was formed in the vicinity of a hypernova.


title: Universality of Many-Body States in Rotating Bose and Fermi Systems

abstract:
  We propose a universal transformation from a many-boson state to a
corresponding many-fermion state in the lowest Landau level approximation of
rotating many-body systems, inspired by the Laughlin wave function and by the
Jain composite-fermion construction. We employ the exact-diagonalization
technique for finding the many-body states. The overlap between the transformed
boson ground state and the true fermion ground state is calculated in order to
measure the quality of the transformation. For very small and high angular
momenta, the overlap is typically above 90%. For intermediate angular momenta,
mixing between states complicates the picture and leads to small ground-state
overlaps at some angular momenta.


title:
Lower large deviations and laws of large numbers for maximal flows
  through a box in first passage percolation

abstract:
  We consider the standard first passage percolation model in $\mathbb{Z}^d$
for $d\geq 2$. We are interested in two quantities, the maximal flow $\tau$
between the lower half and the upper half of the box, and the maximal flow
$\phi$ between the top and the bottom of the box. A standard subadditive
argument yields the law of large numbers for $\tau$ in rational directions.
Kesten and Zhang have proved the law of large numbers for $\tau$ and $\phi$
when the sides of the box are parallel to the coordinate hyperplanes: the two
variables grow linearly with the surface $s$ of the basis of the box, with the
same deterministic speed. We study the probabilities that the rescaled
variables $\tau /s$ and $\phi /s$ are abnormally small. For $\tau$, the box can
have any orientation, whereas for $\phi$, we require either that the box is
sufficiently flat, or that its sides are parallel to the coordinate
hyperplanes. We show that these probabilities decay exponentially fast with
$s$, when $s$ grows to infinity. Moreover, we prove an associated large
deviation principle of speed $s$ for $\tau /s$ and $\phi /s$, and we improve
the conditions required to obtain the law of large numbers for these variables.


title: Clusters of galaxies: setting the stage

abstract:
  Clusters of galaxies are self-gravitating systems of mass ~10^14-10^15 Msun.
They consist of dark matter (~80 %), hot diffuse intracluster plasma (< 20 %)
and a small fraction of stars, dust, and cold gas, mostly locked in galaxies.
In most clusters, scaling relations between their properties testify that the
cluster components are in approximate dynamical equilibrium within the cluster
gravitational potential well. However, spatially inhomogeneous thermal and
non-thermal emission of the intracluster medium (ICM), observed in some
clusters in the X-ray and radio bands, and the kinematic and morphological
segregation of galaxies are a signature of non-gravitational processes, ongoing
cluster merging and interactions. In the current bottom-up scenario for the
formation of cosmic structure, clusters are the most massive nodes of the
filamentary large-scale structure of the cosmic web and form by anisotropic and
episodic accretion of mass. In this model of the universe dominated by cold
dark matter, at the present time most baryons are expected to be in a diffuse
component rather than in stars and galaxies; moreover, ~50 % of this diffuse
component has temperature ~0.01-1 keV and permeates the filamentary
distribution of the dark matter. The temperature of this Warm-Hot Intergalactic
Medium (WHIM) increases with the local density and its search in the outer
regions of clusters and lower density regions has been the quest of much recent
observational effort. Over the last thirty years, an impressive coherent
picture of the formation and evolution of cosmic structures has emerged from
the intense interplay between observations, theory and numerical experiments.
Future efforts will continue to test whether this picture keeps being valid,
needs corrections or suffers dramatic failures in its predictive power.


title:
Pareto and Boltzmann-Gibbs behaviors in a deterministic multi-agent
  system

abstract:
  A deterministic system of interacting agents is considered as a model for
economic dynamics. The dynamics of the system is described by a coupled map
lattice with near neighbor interactions. The evolution of each agent results
from the competition between two factors: the agent's own tendency to grow and
the environmental influence that moderates this growth. Depending on the values
of the parameters that control these factors, the system can display Pareto or
Boltzmann-Gibbs statistical behaviors in its asymptotic dynamical regime. The
regions where these behaviors appear are calculated on the space of parameters
of the system. Other statistical properties, such as the mean wealth, the
standard deviation, and the Gini coefficient characterizing the degree of
equity in the wealth distribution are also calculated on the space of
parameters of the system.

categories: q-fin.GN cond-mat.stat-mech cs.MA nlin.AO nlin.CD physics.comp-ph physics.soc-ph


title: Detecting change-points in a discrete distribution via model selection

abstract:
  This paper is concerned with the detection of multiple change-points in the
joint distribution of independent categorical variables. The procedures
introduced rely on model selection and are based on a penalized least-squares
criterion. Their performance is assessed from a nonasymptotic point of view.
Using a special collection of models, a preliminary estimator is built.
According to an existing model selection theorem, it satisfies an oracle-type
inequality. Moreover, thanks to an approximation result demonstrated in this
paper, it is also proved to be adaptive in the minimax sense. In order to
eliminate some irrelevant change-points selected by that first estimator, a
two-stage procedure is proposed, that also enjoys some adaptivity property.
Besides, the first estimator can be computed with a complexity only linear in
the size of the data. A heuristic method allows to implement the second
procedure quite satisfactorily with the same computational complexity.


title:
Circumstellar water vapour in M-type AGB stars: Radiative transfer
  models, abundances and predictions for HIFI

abstract:
  Aims: By performing a detailed radiative transfer analysis, we determine
fractional abundances of circumstellar H2O in the envelopes around six M-type
asymptotic giant branch stars. The models are also used to predict H2O spectral
line emission for the upcoming Herschel/HIFI mission.
  Methods: We use Infrared space observatory long wavelength spectrometer
spectra to constrain the circumstellar fractional abundance distribution of
ortho-H2O, using a non-local thermal equilibrium, and non-local, radiative
transfer code based on the accelerated lambda iteration formalism. The
mass-loss rates and kinetic temperature structures for the sample stars are
determined through radiative transfer modelling of CO line emission based on
the Monte-Carlo method. The density and temperature profiles of the
circumstellar dust grains are determined through spectral energy distribution
modelling using the publicly available code Dusty.
  Results: The determined ortho-H2O abundances lie between 1e-4 and 1.5e-3
relative to H2, with the exception of WX Psc, which has a much lower estimated
ortho-H2O abundance of only 2e-6, possibly indicating H_2O adsorption onto dust
grains or recent mass-loss-rate modulations. The estimated abundances are
uncertain by, at best, a factor of a few.
  Conclusions: The high water abundance found for the majority of the sources
suggests that either the `normal' chemical processes are very effective in
producing H2O, or else non-local thermal equilibrium atmospheric chemistry,
grain surface reactions, or a release of H_2O (e.g. from icy bodies like Kuiper
belt objects) play a role. We provide predictions for ortho-H2O lines in the
spectral window of Herschel/HIFI.


title: On Tsfasman--Vl\u{a}du\c{t} Invariants of Infinite Global Fields

abstract:
  In this article we study certain asymptotic properties of global fields. We
consider the set of Tsfasman-Vladuts invariants of infinite global fields and
answer some natural questions arising from their work. In particular, we prove
the existence of infinite global fields having finitely many strictly positive
invariants at given places, and the existence of infinite number fields with
certain prescribed invariants being zero. We also give precisions on the
deficiency of infinite global fields and on the primes decomposition in those
fields.


title: The spectrum of charmed mesons from dynamical anisotropic lattices

abstract:
  We present our preliminary analysis for the chamonium and D$_s$ spectra
obtained from N$_f=2$ dynamical anisotropic lattices. We use 12$^3\times 80$
lattices with lattice spacing $a_t=7.35$ GeV$^{-1}$ and anisotropy of six.
Meson correlators are computed using all-to-all propagators together with
variational analysis.


title: On the Linear Stability of Weakly-Ionized, Magnetized Planar Shear Flows

abstract:
  We investigate the effects of ambipolar diffusion and the Hall effect on the
stability of weakly-ionized, magnetized planar shear flows. Employing a local
approach similar to the shearing-sheet approximation, we solve for the
evolution of linear perturbations in both streamwise-symmetric and
non-streamwise-symmetric geometries using WKB techniques and/or numerical
methods. We find that instability arises from the combination of shear and
non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic processes, and is a result of the ability of
these processes to influence the free energy path between the perturbations and
the shear. They turn what would be simple linear-in-time growth due to current
and vortex stretching from shear into exponentially-growing instabilities. Our
results aid in understanding previous work on the behaviour of weakly-ionized
accretion discs. In particular, the recent finding that the Hall effect and
ambipolar diffusion destabilize both positive and negative angular velocity
gradients acquires a natural explanation in the more general context of this
paper. We construct a simple toy model for these instabilities based upon
transformation operators (shears, rotations, and projections) that captures
both their qualitative and, in certain cases, exact quantitative behaviour.


title: FUV and X-ray absorption in the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium

abstract:
  The Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) arises from shock-heated gas
collapsing in large-scale filaments and probably harbours a substantial
fraction of the baryons in the local Universe. Absorption-line measurements in
the ultraviolet (UV) and in the X-ray band currently represent the best method
to study the WHIM at low redshifts. We here describe the physical properties of
the WHIM and the concepts behind WHIM absorption line measurements of H I and
high ions such as O VI, O VII, and O VIII in the far-ultraviolet and X-ray
band. We review results of recent WHIM absorption line studies carried out with
UV and X-ray satellites such as FUSE, HST, Chandra, and XMM-Newton and discuss
their implications for our knowledge of the WHIM.


title: Laws of Large Numbers for Continuous Belief Measures on Compact Spaces

abstract:
  We prove for outer continuous belief measures defined on compact spaces
strong and weak laws of large numbers as Kolmogorov's one for measures. These
results contribute to M. Marinacci's (Journal of Economic Theory 84 (1999)
145-195) though with different methods.


title:
Soft X-ray and extreme ultraviolet excess emission from clusters of
  galaxies

abstract:
  An excess over the extrapolation to the extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray
ranges of the thermal emission from the hot intracluster medium has been
detected in a number of clusters of galaxies. We briefly present each of the
satellites (EUVE, ROSAT PSPC and BeppoSAX, and presently XMM-Newton, Chandra
and Suzaku) and their corresponding instrumental issues, which are responsible
for the fact that this soft excess remains controversial in a number of cases.
We then review the evidence for this soft X-ray excess and discuss the possible
mechanisms (thermal and non-thermal) which could be responsible for this
emission.


title: On the multiple q-Genocchi and Euler numbers

abstract:
  The purpose of this paper is to present a systemic study of some families of
multiple q-Genocchi and euler numbers by using multivariate q-Volkenborn
integral. From the studies of those q-Genocchi numbers and polynomials of
higher order we derive some interesting identities related to q-Genocchi
numbers and polynomials of higher order.


title: Delayed-choice test of complementarity with single photons

abstract:
  We report an experimental test of complementarity using clock-triggered
single-photon pulses emitted by an individual N-V color center in a diamond
nanocrystal. The single photons are sent into a Mach-Zehnder interferometer
with an output beamsplitter of adjustable reflection coefficient R. In
addition, the choice of introducing or removing this beamsplitter is random and
relativistically space-like separated from the entering of the photon inside
the interferometer, as required for the Wheeler's delayed-choice regime. Each
set value of R allows us to observe interference with visibility V and to
obtain incomplete which-path information characterized by the
distinguishability D. The measured values of V and D are found to obey the
complementarity relation V^2 + D^2 =< 1.


title: Imprecise Markov chains and their limit behaviour

abstract:
  When the initial and transition probabilities of a finite Markov chain in
discrete time are not well known, we should perform a sensitivity analysis.
This can be done by considering as basic uncertainty models the so-called
credal sets that these probabilities are known or believed to belong to, and by
allowing the probabilities to vary over such sets. This leads to the definition
of an imprecise Markov chain. We show that the time evolution of such a system
can be studied very efficiently using so-called lower and upper expectations,
which are equivalent mathematical representations of credal sets. We also study
how the inferred credal set about the state at time n evolves as n goes to
infinity: under quite unrestrictive conditions, it converges to a uniquely
invariant credal set, regardless of the credal set given for the initial state.
This leads to a non-trivial generalisation of the classical Perron-Frobenius
Theorem to imprecise Markov chains.


title:
Risk of Population Extinction from Periodic and Abrupt Changes of
  Environment

abstract:
  A simulation model of a population having internal (genetic) structure is
presented. The population is subject to selection pressure coming from the
environment which is the same in the whole system but changes in time.
Reproduction has a sexual character with recombination and mutation. Two cases
are considered - oscillatory changes of the environment and abrupt ones
(catastrophes). We show how the survival chance of a population depends on
maximum allowed size of the population, the length of the genotypes
characterising individuals, selection pressure and the characteristics of the
climate changes, either their period of oscillations or the scale of the abrupt
shift.


title: Nonthermal phenomena in clusters of galaxies

abstract:
  Recent observations of high energy (> 20 keV) X-ray emission in a few
clusters of galaxies broaden our knowledge of physical phenomena in the
intracluster space. This emission is likely to be nonthermal, probably
resulting from Compton scattering of relativistic electrons by the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) radiation. Direct evidence for the presence of
relativistic electrons in some 50 clusters comes from measurements of extended
radio emission in their central regions. We briefly review the main results
from observations of extended regions of radio emission, and Faraday rotation
measurements of background and cluster radio sources. The main focus of the
review are searches for nonthermal X-ray emission conducted with past and
currently operating satellites, which yielded appreciable evidence for
nonthermal emission components in the spectra of a few clusters. This evidence
is clearly not unequivocal, due to substantial observational and systematic
uncertainties, in addition to virtually complete lack of spatial information.
If indeed the emission has its origin in Compton scattering of relativistic
electrons by the CMB, then the mean magnetic field strength and density of
relativistic electrons in the cluster can be directly determined. Knowledge of
these basic nonthermal quantities is valuable for the detailed description of
processes in intracluster gas and for the origin of magnetic fields.


title:
The Parameterised Post-Newtonian Limit of Fourth-Order Theories of
  Gravity

abstract:
  We determine the full post-Newtonian limit of theories of gravity that extend
general relativity by replacing the Ricci scalar, R, in the generating
Lagrangian by some analytic function, f(R). We restrict ourselves to theories
that admit Minkowski space as a suitable background, and perform a perturbative
expansion in the manner prescribed by the parameterised post-Newtonian
formalism. Extra potentials are found to be present that are not accounted for
in the usual treatment, and a discussion is provided on how they may be used to
observationally distinguished these theories from general relativity at the
post-Newtonian level.


title: Law of large numbers for non-additive measures

abstract:
  Our aim is to give for some classes non-additive measures some limit
theorems. For balanced games we obtain a weak and strong law of large numbers
for bounded random variables, a sharper conclusion is obtain with exact games.
We provide an extension to upper enveloppe measures.


title: Observations of extended radio emission in clusters

abstract:
  We review observations of extended regions of radio emission in clusters;
these include diffuse emission in `relics', and the large central regions
commonly referred to as `halos'. The spectral observations, as well as Faraday
rotation measurements of background and cluster radio sources, provide the main
evidence for large-scale intracluster magnetic fields and significant densities
of relativistic electrons. Implications from these observations on acceleration
mechanisms of these electrons are reviewed, including turbulent and shock
acceleration, and also the origin of some of the electrons in collisions of
relativistic protons by ambient protons in the (thermal) gas. Improved
knowledge of non-thermal phenomena in clusters requires more extensive and
detailed radio measurements; we briefly review prospects for future
observations.


title: Tetra-bonding of C, N and O at solid surface

abstract:
  In order to gain advanced understanding of the kinetics and dynamics of C, N,
and O reacting with a solid surface, it is necessary to consider the reaction
from the perspectives of bond formation, bond dissociation, bond relaxation,
bond vibration, and the associated charge redistribution and polarization and
the energetic response of the involved atoms and valence electrons. The
sp-orbital hybridization is found necessary for these concerned reactions
associated with strongly anisotropic bonding and valence identities and the
localized energy states of bonding pairs, nonbonding lone pairs, and the lone
pair induced antibonding dipoles, as well as the hydrogen bond like and C-H
bond like states, which could unify the observations using atomistic
microscopy, crystallography, electronic spectroscopy, vibronic spectroscopy,
and thermal desorption spectroscopy and provide guidelines for materials
design.


title: Open-Closed String Correspondence in Open String Field Theory

abstract:
  We address the problem of describing different closed string backgrounds in
background independent open string field theory: A shift in the closed string
background corresponds to a collective excitation of open strings. As an
illustration we apply the formalism to the case where the closed string
background is a group manifold.


title: Monster symmetry and Extremal CFTs

abstract:
  We test some recent conjectures about extremal selfdual CFTs, which are the
candidate holographic duals of pure gravity in $AdS_3$. We prove that no $c=48$
extremal selfdual CFT or SCFT may possess Monster symmetry. Furthermore, we
disprove a recent argument against the existence of extremal selfdual CFTs of
large central charge.


title: RXTE and INTEGRAL observations of IGR J19140+0951

abstract:
  We have used the RXTE and INTEGRAL satellites simultaneously to observe the
High Mass X-ray binary IGR J19140+0951. The spectra obtained in the 3-80 keV
range have allowed us to perform a precise spectral analysis of the system
along its binary orbit. The spectral evolution confirms the supergiant nature
of the companion star and the neutron star nature of the compact object. Using
a simple stellar wind model to describe the evolution of the photoelectric
absorption, we were able to restrict the orbital inclination angle in the range
37-75 degrees. This analysis leads to a wind mass-loss rate from the companion
star of ~ 10e-7 Msun/year, consistent with its expected spectral type. We have
detected a soft excess in at least three observations, for the first time for
this source. Such soft excesses have been reported in several HMXBs in the
past. We discuss the possible origin of this excess, and suggest, based on its
spectral properties and occurrences prior to the superior conjunction, that it
may be explained as the reprocessing of the X-ray emission originating from the
neutron star by the surrounding ionised gas.


title: Testing Cold Dark Matter with the hierarchical buildup of stellar light

abstract:
  (Abridged) We demonstrate that the tenet of hierarchical structure growth
leads directly to a robust, falsifiable prediction for the correlation between
stellar fraction (fstar) and total system mass (M500) of galaxy groups and
clusters. This prediction is relatively insensitive to the details of baryonic
physics or cosmological parameters. In particular, if the fstar-M500 relation
is fixed and does not evolve with redshift, CDM models predict the logarithmic
slope of this relation to be b>-0.3. This constraint can be weakened if the
fstar-M500 relation evolves strongly, but this implies more stars must be
formed in situ in groups at low redshift. Conservatively requiring that at
least half the stars in groups were formed by z=1, the constraint from
evolution models is b>-0.35. Since the most massive clusters (M500=1E15 Msun)
are observed to have fstar=0.01, this means that groups with M500=5E13 Msun
must have fstar<0.03. Recent observations by Gonzalez et al. (2007) indicate a
much steeper relation, with fstar>0.04 in groups, leading to b=-0.64. If
confirmed, this would rule out hierarchical structure formation models: today's
clusters could not have been built from today's groups, or even from the
higher-redshift progenitors of those groups. We perform a careful analysis of
these and other data to identify the most important systematic uncertainties in
their measurements. Although correlated uncertainties on stellar and total
masses might explain the steep observed relation, the data are only consistent
with theory if the observed group masses are systematically underestimated.


title: The Acoustic Detection of Ultra High Energy Neutrinos

abstract:
  Attempts have been made to parameterise the thermoacoustic emission of
particle cascades induced by EeV neutrinos interacting in the sea.
Understanding the characteristic radiation from such an event allows us to
predict the pressure pulse observed by underwater acoustic sensors distributed
in kilometre scale arrays. We find that detectors encompassing thousands of
cubic kilometres are required, with a minimum of 100 hydrophones per kilometre
cubed, in order to observe the flux of neutrinos predicted by the attenuation
of ultra high energy cosmic rays on cosmic microwave background photons. The
pressure threshold of such an array must be in the range 5-10 mPa and the said
detector will have to operate for five years or more. Additionally a
qualitative analysis of the first acoustic data recorded by the Rona hydrophone
array off the north-west coast of Scotland is reported.


title:
Long-time electron spin storage via dynamical suppression of
  hyperfine-induced decoherence in a quantum dot

abstract:
  The coherence time of an electron spin decohered by the nuclear spin
environment in a quantum dot can be substantially increased by subjecting the
electron to suitable dynamical decoupling sequences. We analyze the performance
of high-level decoupling protocols by using a combination of analytical and
exact numerical methods, and by paying special attention to the regimes of
large inter-pulse delays and long-time dynamics, which are outside the reach of
standard average Hamiltonian theory descriptions. We demonstrate that dynamical
decoupling can remain efficient far beyond its formal domain of applicability,
and find that a protocol exploiting concatenated design provides best
performance for this system in the relevant parameter range. In situations
where the initial electron state is known, protocols able to completely freeze
decoherence at long times are constructed and characterized. The impact of
system and control non-idealities is also assessed, including the effect of
intra-bath dipolar interaction, magnetic field bias and bath polarization, as
well as systematic pulse imperfections. While small bias field and small bath
polarization degrade the decoupling fidelity, enhanced performance and temporal
modulation result from strong applied fields and high polarizations. Overall,
we find that if the relative errors of the control parameters do not exceed 5%,
decoupling protocols can still prolong the coherence time by up to two orders
of magnitude.


title:
Wilson Coefficients in the Operator Product Expansion of Scalar Currents
  at Finite Temperature

abstract:
  In this paper, we investigate operator product expansion for thermal
correlation function of the two scalar currents. Due to breakdown of Lorentz
invariance at finite temperature, more operators of the same dimension appear
in the operator product expansion than at zero temperature. We calculated
Wilson coefficients in the short distance expansion and obtain operator product
expansion for thermal correlation function in terms of quark condensate, gluon
condensate, quark energy density and gluon energy density.


title: Beta decay of Neutron-Rich 53-56Ca

abstract:
  Beta-decay properties of neutron-rich Ca isotopes have been obtained.
Half-life values were determined for the first time for 54Ca [86(7) ms], 55Ca
[22(2) ms], and 56Ca [11(2) ms]. The half-life of 230(6) ms deduced for 53Ca is
significantly longer than reported previously, where the decay chain 53K ->
53Ca -> 53Sc was considered. A delayed gamma ray with energy 247 keV as
identified following beta decay of 54Ca, and is proposed to depopulate the
first 1+ level in 54Sc. The beta-decay properties compare favorably with the
results of shell model calculations completed in the full pf-space with the
GXPF1 interaction. The half-lives of the neutron-rich Ca isotopes are also
compared with gross beta-decay theory. The systematic trend of the neutron-rich
Ca half-lives is consistent with the presence of a subshell gap at N=32.


title: Cosmological shock waves

abstract:
  Large-scale structure formation, accretion and merging processes, AGN
activity produce cosmological gas shocks. The shocks convert a fraction of the
energy of gravitationally accelerated flows to internal energy of the gas.
Being the main gas-heating agent, cosmological shocks could amplify magnetic
fields and accelerate energetic particles via the multi-fluid plasma relaxation
processes. We first discuss the basic properties of standard single-fluid
shocks. Cosmological plasma shocks are expected to be collisionless. We then
review the plasma processes responsible for the microscopic structure of
collisionless shocks. A tiny fraction of the particles crossing the shock is
injected into the non-thermal energetic component that could get a substantial
part of the ram pressure power dissipated at the shock. The energetic particles
penetrate deep into the shock upstream producing an extended shock precursor.
Scaling relations for postshock ion temperature and entropy as functions of
shock velocity in strong collisionless multi-fluid shocks are discussed. We
show that the multi-fluid nature of collisionless shocks results in excessive
gas compression, energetic particle acceleration, precursor gas heating,
magnetic field amplification and non-thermal emission. Multi-fluid shocks
provide a reduced gas entropy production and could also modify the observable
thermodynamic scaling relations for clusters of galaxies.


title:
Hamilton-Pontryagin Integrators on Lie Groups: Introduction and
  Structure-Preserving Properties

abstract:
  In this paper structure-preserving time-integrators for rigid body-type
mechanical systems are derived from a discrete Hamilton-Pontryagin variational
principle. From this principle one can derive a novel class of variational
partitioned Runge-Kutta methods on Lie groups. Included among these integrators
are generalizations of symplectic Euler and St\"{o}rmer-Verlet integrators from
flat spaces to Lie groups. Because of their variational design, these
integrators preserve a discrete momentum map (in the presence of symmetry) and
a symplectic form.
  In a companion paper, we perform a numerical analysis of these methods and
report on numerical experiments on the rigid body and chaotic dynamics of an
underwater vehicle. The numerics reveal that these variational integrators
possess structure-preserving properties that methods designed to preserve
momentum (using the coadjoint action of the Lie group) and energy (for example,
by projection) lack.


title:
A Novel VLSI Technology to Manufacture High-Density Thermoelectric
  Cooling Devices

abstract:
  This paper describes a novel integrated circuit technology to manufacture
high-density thermoelectric devices on a semiconductor wafer. With no moving
parts, a thermoelectric cooler operates quietly, allows cooling below ambient
temperature, and may be used for temperature control or heating if the
direction of current flow is reversed. By using a monolithic process to
increase the number of thermoelectric couples, the proposed solid-state cooling
technology can be combined with traditional air cooling, liquid cooling, and
phase-change cooling to yield greater heat flux and provide better cooling
capability.


title: Dynamically sequestered F-term uplifting in extra dimension

abstract:
  We study concretely several issues altogether, moduli stabilization, the
dynamical supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking, the uplifting of SUSY anti-de Sitter
(AdS) vacuum and the sequestering of hidden sector, in a simple supergravity
model with a single extra dimension. The sequestering is achieved dynamically
by a wavefunction localization in extra dimension. The expressions for the
visible sector soft SUSY breaking terms as well as the hidden sector potential
are shown explicitly in our model. We find that the tree-level soft scalar mass
and the A-term can be suppressed at a SUSY breaking Minkowski minimum where the
radius modulus is stabilized, while gaugino masses would be a mirage type.


title: Dependency of Heat Transfer Rate on the Brinkman Number in Microchannels

abstract:
  Heat generation from electronics increases with the advent of high-density
integrated circuit technology. To come up with the heat generation, microscale
cooling has been thought as a promising technology. Prediction of heat transfer
rate is crucial in design of microscale cooling device but is not clearly
understood yet. This work proposes a new correlation between heat transfer rate
and Brinkman number which is nondimensional number of viscosity, flow velocity
and temperature. It is expected that the equation proposed by this work can be
useful to design microchannel cooling device.


title:
A New Apparatus for Detecting Micron-Scale Deviations from Newtonian
  Gravity

abstract:
  We describe the design and construction of a new apparatus for detecting or
constraining deviations from Newtonian gravity at short length scales. The
apparatus consists of a new type of probe with rotary mass actuation and
cantilever-based force detection which is used to directly measure the force
between two micromachined masses separated by tens of microns. We present the
first data from the experiment, and discuss the prospects of more precisely
constraining or detecting non-Newtonian effects using this probe. Currently,
the sensitivity to attractive mass-dependent forces is equal to the best
existing limits at length scales near 5 microns. No non-Newtonian effects are
detected at that level.


title:
Development of EHD Ion-Drag Micropump for Microscale Electronics Cooling
  Systems

abstract:
  In this investigation, the numerical simulation of electrohydrodynamic (EHD)
ion-drag micropumps with micropillar electrode geometries have been performed.
The effect of micropillar height and electrode spacing on the performance of
the micropumps was investigated. The performance of the EHD micropump improved
with increased applied voltage and decreased electrode spacing. The optimum
micropillar height for the micropump with electrode spacing of 40$\mu$m and
channel height of 100$\mu$m at 200V was 40$\mu$m, where a maximum mass flow
rate of 0.18g/min was predicted. Compared to that of planar electrodes, the 3D
micropillar electrode geometry enhanced the overall performance of the EHD
micropumps.


title: Capacity Bounds for Peak-Constrained Multiantenna Wideband Channels

abstract:
  We derive bounds on the noncoherent capacity of a very general class of
multiple-input multiple-output channels that allow for selectivity in time and
frequency as well as for spatial correlation. The bounds apply to
peak-constrained inputs; they are explicit in the channel's scattering
function, are useful for a large range of bandwidth, and allow to coarsely
identify the capacity-optimal combination of bandwidth and number of transmit
antennas. Furthermore, we obtain a closed-form expression for the first-order
Taylor series expansion of capacity in the limit of infinite bandwidth. From
this expression, we conclude that in the wideband regime: (i) it is optimal to
use only one transmit antenna when the channel is spatially uncorrelated; (ii)
rank-one statistical beamforming is optimal if the channel is spatially
correlated; and (iii) spatial correlation, be it at the transmitter, the
receiver, or both, is beneficial.


title:
Evaluation of the impact of solder die attach versus epoxy die attach in
  a state of the art power package

abstract:
  Subject of this paper is the thermal investigation of epoxy (EDA) and solder
(SDA) die attaches by a comparison of an ASIC with multiple heat sources in
different package assemblies. Static and transient thermal measurements and
simulations were performed to investigate the thermal behavior of two samples
in a state of the art QFP power package differing only in the die attach
material (EDA and SDA).


title:
New Reliability Assessment Method for Solder Joints in BGA Package by
  Considering the Interaction between Design Factors

abstract:
  As the integration and the miniaturization of electronics devices, design
space become narrower and interactions between design factors affect their
reliability. This paper presents a methodology of quantifying the interaction
of each design factor in electronics devices. Thermal fatigue reliability of
BGA assembly was assessed with the consideration of the interaction between
design factors. Sensitivity analysis shows the influence of each design factor
to inelastic strain range of a solder joint characterizing the thermal fatigue
life if no interaction occurs. However, there is the interaction in BGA
assembly since inelastic strain range depends on not only a mismatch in CTE but
also a warpage of components. Clustering can help engineers to clarify the
relation between design factors. The variation in the influence was taken to
quantify the interaction of each design factor. Based on the interaction,
simple evaluating approach of inelastic strain range for the BGA assembly was
also developed. BGA package was simplified into a homogeneous component and
equivalent CTE wascalculated from the warpage of BGA and PCB. The estimated
equation was derived by using the response surface method as a function of
design factors. Based upon these analytical results, design engineers can rate
each factor's effect on reliability and assess the reliability of their basic
design plan at the concept design stage.


title: Spin qubits in antidot lattices

abstract:
  We suggest and study designed defects in an otherwise periodic potential
modulation of a two-dimensional electron gas as an alternative approach to
electron spin based quantum information processing in the solid-state using
conventional gate-defined quantum dots. We calculate the band structure and
density of states for a periodic potential modulation, referred to as an
antidot lattice, and find that localized states appear, when designed defects
are introduced in the lattice. Such defect states may form the building blocks
for quantum computing in a large antidot lattice, allowing for coherent
electron transport between distant defect states in the lattice and tunnel
coupling of neighboring defect states with corresponding electrostatically
controllable exchange coupling between different electron spins.


title:
Method of Images for the Fast Calculation of Temperature Distributions
  in Packaged VLSI Chips

abstract:
  Thermal aware routing and placement algorithms are important in industry.
Currently, there are reasonably fast Green's function based algorithms that
calculate the temperature distribution in a chip made from a stack of different
materials. However, the layers are all assumed to have the same size, thus
neglecting the important fact that the thermal mounts which are placed
underneath the chip can be significantly larger than the chip itself. In an
earlier publication, we showed that the image blurring technique can be used to
calculate quickly temperature distribution in realistic packages. For this
method to be effective, temperature distribution for several point heat sources
at the center and at the corner and edges of the chip should be calculated
using finite element analysis (FEA) or measured. In addition, more accurate
results require correction by a weighting function that will need several FEA
simulations. In this paper, we introduce the method of images that take the
symmetry of the thermal boundary conditions into account. Thus with only "two"
finite element simulations, the steady-state temperature distribution for an
arbitrary complex power dissipation profile in a packaged chip can be
calculated. Several simulation results are presented. It is shown that the
power blurring technique together with the method of images can reproduce the
temperature profile with an error less than 0.5%.


title: Short time die attach characterisation of semiconductor devices

abstract:
  Thermal qualification of the die attach of semiconductor devices is a very
important element in the device characterization as the temperature of the chip
is strongly affected by the quality of the die attach. Voids or delaminations
in this layer may cause higher temperature elevation and thus damage or shorter
lifetime. Thermal test of each device in the manufacturing process would be the
best solution for eliminating the devices with wrong die attach layer. In this
paper we will present the short time thermal transient measurement method and
the structure function evaluation through simulations and measurements for die
attach characterization. We will also present a method for eliminating the very
time consuming calibration process. Using the proposed methods even the in-line
testing of LEDs can be accomplished.


title: Equilibration processes in the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium

abstract:
  The Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) is thought to contribute about 40-50
% to the baryonic budget at the present evolution stage of the universe. The
observed large scale structure is likely to be due to gravitational growth of
density fluctuations in the post-inflation era. The evolving cosmic web is
governed by non-linear gravitational growth of the initially weak density
fluctuations in the dark energy dominated cosmology. Non-linear structure
formation, accretion and merging processes, star forming and AGN activity
produce gas shocks in the WHIM. Shock waves are converting a fraction of the
gravitation power to thermal and non-thermal emission of baryonic/leptonic
matter. They provide the most likely way to power the luminous matter in the
WHIM. The plasma shocks in the WHIM are expected to be collisionless.
Collisionless shocks produce a highly non-equilibrium state with anisotropic
temperatures and a large differences in ion and electron temperatures. We
discuss the ion and electron heating by the collisionless shocks and then
review the plasma processes responsible for the Coulomb equilibration and
collisional ionisation equilibrium of oxygen ions in the WHIM. MHD-turbulence
produced by the strong collisionless shocks could provide a sizeable
non-thermal contribution to the observed Doppler parameter of the UV line
spectra of the WHIM.


title: Utility of transient testing to characterize thermal interface materials

abstract:
  This paper analyzes a transient method for the characterization of
low-resistance thermal interfaces of microelectronic packages. The transient
method can yield additional information about the package not available with
traditional static methods at the cost of greater numerical complexity,
hardware requirements, and sensitivity to noise. While the method is
established for package-level thermal analysis of mounted and assembled parts,
its ability to measure the relatively minor thermal impedance of thin thermal
interface material (TIM) layers has not yet been fully studied. We combine the
transient thermal test with displacement measurements of the bond line
thickness to fully characterize the interface.


title: On World Religion Adherence Distribution Evolution

abstract:
  Religious adherence can be considered as a degree of freedom, in a
statistical physics sense, for a human agent belonging to a population. The
distribution, performance and life time of religions can thus be studied having
in mind heterogeneous interacting agent modeling in mind. We present a
comprehensive analysis of 58 so called religion (to be better defined in the
main text) evolutions, as measured through their number of adherents between
1900 and 2000, - data taken from the World Christian Encyclopedia: 40 are
considered to be ''presently growing'' cases, including 11 turn overs in the XX
century; 18 are ''presently decaying'', among which 12 are found to have had a
recent maximum, in the XIX or the XX century. The Avrami-Kolmogorov
differential equation which usually describes solid state transformations, like
crystal growth, is used in each case in order to obtain the preferential
attachment parameter introduced previously. It is often found close to unity,
indicating a smooth evolution. However large values suggest the occurrence of
extreme cases which we conjecture are controlled by so called external fields.
A few cases indicate the likeliness of a detachment process. We discuss
different growing and decaying religions, and illustrate various fits. Some
cases seem to indicate the lack of reliability of the data. Others, departure
from Avrami law. We point out two difficulties in the analysis : (i) the
''precise'' original time of apparition of a religion, (ii) the time of its
maximum, both informations being necessary for integrating reliably any
evolution equation. Moreover the Avrami evolution equation might be surely
improved, in particular, and somewhat obviously, for the decaying religion
cases.


title: Thermal radiation processes

abstract:
  We discuss the different physical processes that are important to understand
the thermal X-ray emission and absorption spectra of the diffuse gas in
clusters of galaxies and the warm-hot intergalactic medium. The ionisation
balance, line and continuum emission and absorption properties are reviewed and
several practical examples are given that illustrate the most important
diagnostic features in the X-ray spectra.


title: Nemo: a computational tool for analyzing nematode locomotion

abstract:
  The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans responds to an impressive range of
chemical, mechanical and thermal stimuli and is extensively used to investigate
the molecular mechanisms that mediate chemosensation, mechanotransduction and
thermosensation. The main behavioral output of these responses is manifested as
alterations in animal locomotion. Monitoring and examination of such
alterations requires tools to capture and quantify features of nematode
movement. In this paper, we introduce Nemo (nematode movement), a
computationally efficient and robust two-dimensional object tracking algorithm
for automated detection and analysis of C. elegans locomotion. This algorithm
enables precise measurement and feature extraction of nematode movement
components. In addition, we develop a Graphical User Interface designed to
facilitate processing and interpretation of movement data. While, in this
study, we focus on the simple sinusoidal locomotion of C. elegans, our approach
can be readily adapted to handle complicated locomotory behaviour patterns by
including additional movement characteristics and parameters subject to
quantification. Our software tool offers the capacity to extract, analyze and
measure nematode locomotion features by processing simple video files. By
allowing precise and quantitative assessment of behavioral traits, this tool
will assist the genetic dissection and elucidation of the molecular mechanisms
underlying specific behavioral responses.


title:
SST and North American Tropical Cyclone Landfall: A Statistical Modeling
  Study

abstract:
  We employ a statistical model of North Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) tracks
to investigate the relationship between sea-surface temperature (SST) and North
American TC landfall rates. The track model is conditioned on summer SST in the
tropical North Atlantic being in either the 19 hottest or the 19 coldest years
in the period 1950-2005. For each conditioning many synthetic TCs are generated
and landfall rates computed. Compared to direct analysis of historical
landfall, the track model reduces the sampling error by projecting information
from the entire basin onto the coast. There are 46% more TCs in hot years than
cold in the model, which is highly significant compared to random sampling and
corroborates well documented trends in North Atlantic TC number in recent
decades. In the absence of other effects, this difference results in a
significant increase in model landfall rates in hot years, uniform along the
coast. Hot-cold differences in the geographic distribution of genesis and in TC
propagation do not significantly alter the overall landfall-rate difference in
the model, and the net landfall rate is 1/4.7 yr in hot years and 1/3.1 yr in
cold years. SST influence on genesis site and propagation does modify the
geographic distribution of landfall, however. The Yucatan suffers 3 times
greater landfall rate in hot years than cold, while the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast
exhibits no significant change. Landfall probabilities increase in hot years
compared to all years in Florida, the U.S Gulf coast, the Mexican Gulf coast,
and Yucatan with at least 95% confidence.


title:
Nature of c-axis coupling in underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 with varying
  degrees of disorder

abstract:
  The dependence of the Josephson Plasma Resonance (JPR) frequency in heavily
underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+\delta on temperature and controlled pointlike
disorder, introduced by high-energy electron irradiation, is cross-correlated
and compared to the behavior of the ab-plane penetration depth. It is found
that the zero temperature plasma frequency, representative of the superfluid
component of the c-axis spectral weight, decreases proportionally with T_c when
the disorder is increased. The temperature dependence of the JPR frequency is
the same for all disorder levels, including pristine crystals. The reduction of
the c-axis superfluid density as function of disorder is accounted for by
pair-breaking induced by impurity scattering in the CuO2 planes, rather than by
quantum fluctuations of the superconducting phase. The reduction of the c-axis
superfluid density as function of temperature follows a T^{2}--law and is
accounted for by quasi-particle hopping through impurity induced interlayer
states.


title: Noise correlations of the ultra-cold Fermi gas in an optical lattice

abstract:
  In this paper we study the density noise correlations of the two component
Fermi gas in optical lattices. Three different type of phases, the BCS-state
(Bardeen, Cooper, and Schieffer), the FFLO-state (Fulde, Ferrel, Larkin, and
Ovchinnikov), and BP (breach pair) state, are considered. We show how these
states differ in their noise correlations. The noise correlations are
calculated not only at zero temperature, but also at non-zero temperatures
paying particular attention to how much the finite temperature effects might
complicate the detection of different phases. Since one-dimensional systems
have been shown to be very promising candidates to observe FFLO states, we
apply our results also to the computation of correlation signals in a
one-dimensional lattice. We find that the density noise correlations reveal
important information about the structure of the underlying order parameter as
well as about the quasiparticle dispersions.


title: Nonthermal radiation mechanisms

abstract:
  In this paper we review the possible radiation mechanisms for the observed
non-thermal emission in clusters of galaxies, with a primary focus on the radio
and hard X-ray emission. We show that the difficulty with the non-thermal,
non-relativistic Bremsstrahlung model for the hard X-ray emission, first
pointed out by Petrosian (2001) using a cold target approximation, is somewhat
alleviated when one treats the problem more exactly by including the fact that
the background plasma particle energies are on average a factor of 10 below the
energy of the non-thermal particles. This increases the lifetime of the
non-thermal particles, and as a result decreases the extreme energy
requirement, but at most by a factor of three. We then review the synchrotron
and so-called inverse Compton emission by relativistic electrons, which when
compared with observations can constrain the value of the magnetic field and
energy of relativistic electrons. This model requires a low value of the
magnetic field which is far from the equipartition value. We briefly review the
possibilities of gamma-ray emission and prospects for GLAST observations. We
also present a toy model of the non-thermal electron spectra that are produced
by the acceleration mechanisms discussed in an accompanying paper.


title:
An implicit numerical algorithm for solving the general relativistic
  hydrodynamical equations around accreting compact objects

abstract:
  An implicit algorithm for solving the equations of general relativistic
hydrodynamics in conservative form in three-dimensional axi-symmetry is
presented. This algorithm is a direct extension of the pseudo-Newtonian
implicit radiative magnetohydrodynamical solver -IRMHD- into the general
relativistic regime.
  We adopt the Boyer-Lindquist coordinates and formulate the hydrodynamical
equations in the fixed background of a Kerr black hole. The set of equations
are solved implicitly using the hierarchical solution scenario (HSS). The HSS
is efficient, robust and enables the use of a variety of solution procedures
that range from a purely explicit up to fully implicit schemes. The
discretization of the HD-equations is based on the finite volume formulation
and the defect-correction iteration strategy for recovering higher order
spatial and temporal accuracies. Depending on the astrophysical problem, a
variety of relaxation methods can be applied. In particular the vectorized
black-white Line-Gauss-Seidel relaxation method is most suitable for modeling
accretion flows with shocks, whereas the Approximate Factorization Method is
for weakly compressible flows.
  The results of several test calculations that verify the accuracy and
robustness of the algorithm are shown. Extending the algorithm to enable
solving the non-ideal MHD equations in the general relativistic regime is the
subject of our ongoing research.


title: Convective envelopes in rotating OB stars

abstract:
  We study the effects of rotation on the outer convective zones of massive
stars. We examine the effects of rotation on the thermal gradient and on the
Solberg--Hoiland term by analytical developments and by numerical models.
Writing the criterion for convection in rotating envelopes, we show that the
effects of rotation on the thermal gradient are much larger and of opposite
sign to the effect of the Solberg-Hoiland criterion. On the whole, rotation
favors convection in stellar envelopes at the equator and to a smaller extent
at the poles. In a rotating 20 Msun star at 94% of the critical angular
velocity, there are two convective envelopes, with the bigger one having a
thickness of 13.2% of the equatorial radius. In the non-rotating model, the
corresponding convective zone has a thickness of only 4.6% of the radius. The
occurrence of outer convection in massive stars has many consequences.


title:
Magnetization reversal driven by spin-injection : a mesoscopic
  spin-transfer effect

abstract:
  A mesoscopic description of spin-transfer effect is proposed, based on the
spin-injection mechanism occurring at the junction with a ferromagnet. The
effect of spin-injection is to modify locally, in the ferromagnetic
configuration space, the density of magnetic moments. The corresponding
gradient leads to a current-dependent diffusion process of the magnetization.
In order to describe this effect, the dynamics of the magnetization of a
ferromagnetic single domain is reconsidered in the framework of the
thermokinetic theory of mesoscopic systems. Assuming an Onsager
cross-coefficient that couples the currents, it is shown that spin-dependent
electric transport leads to a correction of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert
equation of the ferromagnetic order parameter with supplementary diffusion
terms. The consequence of spin-injection in terms of activation process of the
ferromagnet is deduced, and the expressions of the effective energy barrier and
of the critical current are derived. Magnetic fluctuations are calculated: the
correction to the fluctuations is similar to that predicted for the activation.
These predictions are consistent with the measurements of spin-transfer
obtained in the activation regime and for ferromagnetic resonance under
spin-injection.


title: Magnetism of CoO polymorphs

abstract:
  A microscopic explanation for the room temperature ferromagnetism in diluted
ZnO:Co is at present rather elusive. Although standard secondary phases can
usually be ruled out, it is less clear whether regions with high Co
concentration coexist with undoped portions of the film, i.e. whether some form
of CoO polymorph can be responsible for the magnetic signal. Since X-ray
usually excludes the presence of the native rock-salt phase, the study of CoO
polymorphs becomes particularly interesting. In this work we investigate
theoretically the magnetism of CoO in both the wurtzite and zincblende phases.
By using a combination of density functional theory with the LDA+$U$
approximation and Monte Carlo simulations we demonstrate that wurtzite and
zincblende CoO have a complex frustrated anti-ferromagnetic ground state with
no net magnetic moment in the bulk. Most importantly the estimated critical
temperatures are well below room temperature for both cases. This suggests that
bulk CoO polymorphs are not responsible for the room temperature magnetism
observed for ZnO:Co, although the role of clusters with uncompensated spins or
arranged in a spinodal decomposed structure still remains an open question.


title: Five-dimensional rotating black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory

abstract:
  We present arguments for the existence of five-dimensional rotating black
holes with equal magnitude angular momenta in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory with
negative cosmological constant. These solutions posses a regular horizon of
spherical topology and approach asymptotically an Anti-de Sitter spacetime
background. We discuss the general properties of these solutions and, using an
adapted counterterm prescription, we compute their entropy and conserved
charges.


title: Study Of Spatial Biological Systems Using a Graphical User Interface

abstract:
  In this paper, we describe a Graphical User Interface (GUI) designed to
manage large quantities of image data of a biological system. After setting the
design requirements for the system, we developed an ecology quantification GUI
that assists biologists in analysing data. We focus on the main features of the
interface and we present the results and an evaluation of the system. Finally,
we provide some directions for some future work.


title: Simulation techniques for cosmological simulations

abstract:
  Modern cosmological observations allow us to study in great detail the
evolution and history of the large scale structure hierarchy. The fundamental
problem of accurate constraints on the cosmological parameters, within a given
cosmological model, requires precise modelling of the observed structure. In
this paper we briefly review the current most effective techniques of large
scale structure simulations, emphasising both their advantages and
shortcomings. Starting with basics of the direct N-body simulations appropriate
to modelling cold dark matter evolution, we then discuss the direct-sum
technique GRAPE, particle-mesh (PM) and hybrid methods, combining the PM and
the tree algorithms. Simulations of baryonic matter in the Universe often use
hydrodynamic codes based on both particle methods that discretise mass, and
grid-based methods. We briefly describe Eulerian grid methods, and also some
variants of Lagrangian smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) methods.


title: Hadronic Physics at CLEO-c

abstract:
  The charmonium system provides an opportunity to explore a wide variety of
topics in hadronic physics. Studies of the properties of and transitions among
cc-bar states yield insight into relativistic and non-perturbative QCD effects.
At the same time, studies of the decays of charmonium states are a window into
gluon dynamics and the role of glueball mixing in the production of light quark
states. A collection of preliminary results utilizing the full CLEO-c psi(2S)
data sample is presented including two-body branching fractions of chi_cJ
decays, a precision measurement of the h_c mass, and results on the hindered M1
transition: psi(2S) -> gamma eta_c.


title:
Atomic kinetic energy, momentum distribution and structure of solid neon
  at zero-temperature

abstract:
  We report on the calculation of the ground-state atomic kinetic energy,
$E_{k}$, and momentum distribution of solid Ne by means of the diffusion Monte
Carlo method and Aziz HFD-B pair potential. This approach is shown to perform
notably for this crystal since we obtain very good agreement with respect to
experimental thermodynamic data. Additionally, we study the structural
properties of solid Ne at densities near the equilibrium by estimating the
radial pair-distribution function, Lindemann's ratio and atomic density profile
around the positions of the perfect crystalline lattice. Our value for $E_{k}$
at the equilibrium density is $41.51(6)$ K, which agrees perfectly with the
recent prediction made by Timms {\it et al.}, $41(2)$ K, based on their
deep-inelastic neutron scattering experiments carried out over the temperature
range $4 - 20$ K, and also with previous path integral Monte Carlo results
obtained with the Lennard-Jones and Aziz HFD-C2 atomic pairwise interactions.
The one-body density function of solid Ne is calculated accurately and found to
fit perfectly, within statistical uncertainty, to a Gaussian curve.
Furthermore, we analyze the degree of anharmonicity of solid Ne by calculating
some of its microscopic ground-state properties within traditional harmonic
approaches. We provide insightful comparison to solid $^4$He in terms of the
Debye model, in order to size the relevance of anharmonic effects in Ne.


title: Paires de structures de contact sur les vari\'et\'es de dimension trois

abstract:
  We introduce a notion of positive pair of contact structures on a 3-manifold
which generalizes a previous definition of Eliashberg-Thurston and Mitsumatsu.
Such a pair gives rise to a locally integrable plane field $\lambda$. We prove
that if $\lambda$ is uniquely integrable and if both structures of the pair are
tight, then the integral foliation of $\lambda$ doesn't contain any Reeb
component whose core curve is homologous to zero. Moreover, the ambient
manifold carries a Reebless foliation. We also show a stability theorem "\`a la
Reeb" for positive pairs of tight contact structures.


title: Equilibrium States for Partially Hyperbolic Horseshoes

abstract:
  In this paper, we study ergodic features of invariant measures for the
partially hyperbolic horseshoe at the boundary of uniformly hyperbolic
diffeomorphisms constructed in \cite{DHRS07}. Despite the fact that the
non-wandering set is a horseshoe, it contains intervals. We prove that every
recurrent point has non-zero Lyapunov exponents and all ergodic invariant
measures are hyperbolic. As a consequence, we obtain the existence of
equilibrium measures for any continuous potential. We also obtain an example of
a family of $C^\infty$ potentials with phase transition.


title:
United Quark and Neutrino Mixing Matrices with Universal Pair of
  CP-Violating Phases

abstract:
  The Standard Model quark and neutrino mixing matrices are of independent
empirical origin, but they do suggest unification. In this paper I obtained two
united one-parameter quark and neutrino mixing matrices inferred from two
semi-empirical deviation-from-mass-degeneracy (DMD) flavor rules (quadratic
DMD-hierarchy rule and Dirac-Majorana DMD-duality rule) without use of the
common exact-flavor-symmetry suggestions for that particular unification
problem. One small empirical parameter quantitatively defines the pattern of
particle flavor physics. The main predictions are: 1) hierarchical connections
between the 2 large solar and atmospheric neutrino mixing angels, and the 2
small quark mixing angels, 2) universal sequence of 14 equality relations to
that one-empirical-parameter of the quark and neutrino mixing-matrix
parameters, CP-phases and lepton mass ratios, which are free dimensionless
constants in the Standard Model, 3) complementarity connections between doubled
large neutrino and small quark mixing angles, 4) tentative solution of the
CP-violation problem in framework of Standard Model mixing matrix phenomenology
by suggesting a universal set of two nonzero values ~58.8 and ~31.2 degrees for
Dirac and Majorana CP-violating phases.


title:
Reducing Average and Peak Temperatures of VLSI CMOS Digital Circuits by
  Means of Heuristic Scheduling Algorithm

abstract:
  This paper presents a BPD (Balanced Power Dissipation) heuristic scheduling
algorithm applied to VLSI CMOS digital circuits/systems in order to reduce the
global computational demand and provide balanced power dissipation of
computational units of the designed digital VLSI CMOS system during the task
assignment stage. It results in reduction of the average and peak temperatures
of VLSI CMOS digital circuits. The elaborated algorithm is based on balanced
power dissipation of local computational (processing) units and does not
deteriorate the throughput of the whole VLSI CMOS digital system.


title:
Vibration Combined High Temperature Cycle Tests for Capacitive MEMS
  Accelerometers

abstract:
  In this paper vibration combined high temperature cycle tests for packaged
capacitive SOI-MEMS accelerometers are presented. The aim of these tests is to
provide useful Design for Reliability information for MEMS designers. A high
temperature test chamber and a chopper-stabilized read-out circuitry were
designed and realized at BME - DED. Twenty thermal cycles of combined
Temperature Cycle Test and Fatigue Vibration Test has been carried out on 5
samples. Statistical evaluation of the test results showed that degradation has
started in 3 out of the 5 samples.


title:
Phase-coherent timing of the accreting millisecond pulsar SAX
  J1748.9-2021

abstract:
  We present a phase-coherent timing analysis of the intermittent accreting
millisecond pulsar SAX J1748.9-2021. A new timing solution for the pulsar spin
period and the Keplerian binary orbital parameters was achieved by phase
connecting all episodes of intermittent pulsations visible during the 2001
outburst. We investigate the pulse profile shapes, their energy dependence and
the possible influence of Type I X-ray bursts on the time of arrival and
fractional amplitude of the pulsations. We find that the timing solution of SAX
J1748.9-2021 shows an erratic behavior when selecting different subsets of
data, that is related to substantial timing noise in the timing post-fit
residuals. The pulse profiles are very sinusoidal and their fractional
amplitude increases linearly with energy and no second harmonic is detected.
The reason why this pulsar is intermittent is still unknown but we can rule out
a one-to-one correspondence between Type I X-ray bursts and the appearance of
the pulsations.


title: Thermodynamical properties of the ICM from hydrodynamical simulations

abstract:
  Modern hydrodynamical simulations offer nowadays a powerful means to trace
the evolution of the X-ray properties of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) during
the cosmological history of the hierarchical build up of galaxy clusters. In
this paper we review the current status of these simulations and how their
predictions fare in reproducing the most recent X-ray observations of clusters.
After briefly discussing the shortcomings of the self-similar model, based on
assuming that gravity only drives the evolution of the ICM, we discuss how the
processes of gas cooling and non-gravitational heating are expected to bring
model predictions into better agreement with observational data. We then
present results from the hydrodynamical simulations, performed by different
groups, and how they compare with observational data. As terms of comparison,
we use X-ray scaling relations between mass, luminosity, temperature and
pressure, as well as the profiles of temperature and entropy. The results of
this comparison can be summarised as follows: (a) simulations, which include
gas cooling, star formation and supernova feedback, are generally successful in
reproducing the X-ray properties of the ICM outside the core regions; (b)
simulations generally fail in reproducing the observed ``cool core'' structure,
in that they have serious difficulties in regulating overcooling, thereby
producing steep negative central temperature profiles. This discrepancy calls
for the need of introducing other physical processes, such as energy feedback
from active galactic nuclei, which should compensate the radiative losses of
the gas with high density, low entropy and short cooling time, which is
observed to reside in the innermost regions of galaxy clusters.


title: The What, Who, Where, When, Why and How of Context-Awareness

abstract:
  The understanding of context and context-awareness is very important for the
areas of handheld and ubiquitous computing. Unfortunately, at present, there
has not been a satisfactory definition of these two concepts that would lead to
a more effective communication in humancomputer interaction. As a result, on
the one hand, application designers are not able to choose what context to use
in their applications and on the other, they cannot determine the type of
context-awareness behaviours their applications should exhibit. In this work,
we aim to provide answers to some fundamental questions that could enlighten us
on the definition of context and its functionality.


title: An evolution of the IR-Radio correlation?

abstract:
  Using extremely deep (rms 3.3 microJy/bm) 1.4GHz sub-arcsecond resolution
MERLIN + VLA radio observations of a 8'.5 by 8'.5 field centred upon the Hubble
Deep Field North, in conjunction with Spitzer 24 micron data we present an
investigation of the radio-MIR correlation at very low flux densities. By
stacking individual sources within these data we are able to extend the
MIR-radio correlation to the extremely faint (~microJy and even sub-microJy)
radio source population. Tentatively we demonstrate a small deviation from the
correlation for the faintest MIR sources. We suggest that this small observed
change in the gradient of the correlation is the result of a suppression of the
MIR emission in faint star-forming galaxies. This deviation potentially has
significant implications for using either the MIR or non-thermal radio emission
as a star-formation tracer at low luminosities.


title: An evolution of the IR-Radio correlation at very low flux densities?

abstract:
  In this paper we investigate the radio-MIR correlation at very low flux
densities using extremely deep 1.4 GHz sub-arcsecond angular resolution
MERLIN+VLA observations of a 8'.5 by 8'.5 field centred upon the Hubble Deep
Field North, in conjunction with Spitzer 24micron data. From these results the
MIR-radio correlation is extended to the very faint (~microJy) radio source
population. Tentatively we detect a small deviation from the correlation at the
faintest IR flux densities. We suggest that this small observed change in the
gradient of the correlation is the result of a suppression of the MIR emission
in faint star-forming galaxies. This deviation potentially has significant
implications for using either the MIR or non-thermal radio emission as a
star-formation tracer of very low luminosity galaxies.