title: Quantum mechanical sum rules for two model systems

abstract:
  Sum rules have played an important role in the development of many branches
of physics since the earliest days of quantum mechanics. We present examples of
one-dimensional quantum mechanical sum rules and apply them in two familiar
systems, the infinite well and the single delta-function potential. These cases
illustrate the different ways in which such sum rules can be realized, and the
varying mathematical techniques by which they can be confirmed. Using the same
methods, we also evaluate the second-order energy shifts arising from the
introduction of a constant external field, namely the Stark effect.


title: Black Holes at the LHC

abstract:
  In these two lectures, we will address the topic of the creation of small
black holes during particle collisions in a ground-based accelerator, such as
LHC, in the context of a higher-dimensional theory. We will cover the main
assumptions, criteria and estimates for their creation, and we will discuss
their properties after their formation. The most important observable effect
associated with their creation is likely to be the emission of Hawking
radiation during their evaporation process. After presenting the mathematical
formalism for its study, we will review the current results for the emission of
particles both on the brane and in the bulk. We will finish with a discussion
of the methodology that will be used to study these spectra, and the observable
signatures that will help us identify the black-hole events.


title: Noise dephasing in the edge states of the Integer Quantum Hall regime

abstract:
  An electronic Mach Zehnder interferometer is used in the integer quantum hall
regime at filling factor 2, to study the dephasing of the interferences. This
is found to be induced by the electrical noise existing in the edge states
capacitively coupled to each others. Electrical shot noise created in one
channel leads to phase randomization in the other, which destroys the
interference pattern. These findings are extended to the dephasing induced by
thermal noise instead of shot noise: it explains the underlying mechanism
responsible for the finite temperature coherence time $\tau_\phi(T)$ of the
edge states at filling factor 2, measured in a recent experiment. Finally, we
present here a theory of the dephasing based on Gaussian noise, which is found
in excellent agreement with our experimental results.


title: L\'evy-flight intermixing: anomalous nanoscale diffusion in Pt/Ti

abstract:
  Probing the anomalous nanoscale intermixing using molecular dynamics (MD)
simulations in Pt/Ti bilayer we reveal the superdiffusive nature of interfacial
atomic transport. It is shown that the Pt atoms undergo anomalous atomic
transport across the anisotropic interface of Pt/Ti with suprisingly high rates
which can be characterized as L\'evy flights. L\'evy flight is not a unique
phenomenon in nature, however, no such events have been reported yet for bulk
interdiffusion. In particular, the low-energy (0.5 keV) ion-sputtering induced
transient enhanced intermixing has been studied by MD simulations. Ab initio
density functional calculations have been used to check and reparametrize the
employed heteronuclear interatomic potential. The L\'evy-intermixing behavior
explains the high diffusity tail in the concentration profile obtained by Auger
electron spectroscopy depth profiling (AES-DP) analysis in Pt/Ti bilayer
(reported in ref.: P. S\"ule, {\em et al.}, J. Appl. Phys., {\bf 101}, 043502
(2007)).


title:
Modelling light-cone distribution amplitudes from non-relativistic bound
  states

abstract:
  We calculate light-cone distribution amplitudes for non-relativistic bound
states, including radiative corrections from relativistic gluon exchange to
first order in the strong coupling constant. We distinguish between bound
states of quarks with equal (or similar) mass, m_1 ~ m_2, and between bound
states where the quark masses are hierarchical, m_1 >> m_2. For both cases we
calculate the distribution amplitudes at the non-relativistic scale and discuss
the renormalization-group evolution for the leading-twist and 2-particle
distributions. Our results apply to hard exclusive reactions with
non-relativistic bound states in the QCD factorization approach like, for
instance, (B_c -> eta_c l nu) or (e^+ e^- -> J/psi eta_c). They also serve as a
toy model for light-cone distribution amplitudes of light mesons or heavy B and
D mesons, for which certain model-independent properties can be derived. In
particular, we calculate the anomalous dimension for the B meson distribution
amplitude phi_B^-(w) in the Wandzura-Wilczek approximation and derive the
according solution of the evolution equation at leading logarithmic accuracy.


title:
Nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation for a superfluid Fermi gas from BCS to
  Bose crossover

abstract:
  We introduce a quasi-analytic nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with beyond
mean-field corrections to describe the dynamics of a zero-temperature dilute
superfluid Fermi gas in the crossover from the weak-coupling
Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) regime, where $k_F|a| \ll 1$ with $a$ the
s-wave scattering length and $k_F$ the Fermi momentum, through the unitarity
limit, $k_Fa \to \pm \infty$, to the Bose regime where $k_Fa >0$. The energy of
our model is parametrized using the known asymptotic behavior in the BCS, Bose,
and the unitarity limits and is in excellent agreement with accurate Green
function Monte Carlo calculations. The model generates good results for
frequencies of collective breathing oscillation of a trapped Fermi superfluid.


title: Method of Image and Transmission through Semi-infinite Nanowires

abstract:
  The method of functional integral bosonization is extended to examine the
transmission properties of semi-infinite nanowires. In particular, it is shown
that edge states will arise at the end point of the dimerized semi-infinite
spin-chain and by combining the method of image and the bosonization technique,
the system can be properly bosonized. Based on the bosonized action and a
renormalization group analysis, it is shown that unlike scattering due to
single bulk impurity in the nanowire, the scattering potential remains relevant
even for slightly attractive potential due to the interaction between the edge
state and its image. When the strength of potential goes beyond a critical
strength, the tip of the semi-infinite nanowire may become insulating.


title:
Evolution of the metal content of the intra-cluster medium with
  hydrodynamical simulations

abstract:
  We present a comparison between simulation results and X-ray observational
data on the evolution of the metallicity of the intra-cluster medium (ICM). The
simulations of galaxy clusters were performed with the Tree-SPH Gadget2 code
that includes a detailed model of chemical evolution, by assuming three
different shapes for the stellar initial mass function (IMF), namely the
Salpeter (1955), Kroupa (2001) and Arimoto-Yoshii (1987) IMF. Our simulations
predict significant radial gradients of the Iron abundance, which extend over
the whole cluster virialized region. At larger radii, we do not detect any
flattening of the metallicity profiles. As for the evolution of the ICM metal
(Iron) abundance out to z=1, we find that it is determined by the combined
action of (i) the sinking of already enriched gas, (ii) the ongoing metal
production in galaxies and (iii) the locking of ICM metals in newborn stars. As
a result, rather than suppressing the metallicity evolution, stopping star
formation at z=1 has the effect of producing an even too fast evolution of the
emission-weighted ICM metallicity with too high values at low redshift.
Finally, we compare simulations with the observed rate of type-Ia supernovae
per unit B-band luminosity (SnU_B). We find that our simulated clusters do not
reproduce the decreasing trend of SnU_B at low redshift, unless star formation
is truncated at z=1.


title: Comparative Smootheology

abstract:
  We compare various different definitions of "the category of smooth objects".
The definitions compared are due to Chen, Fr\"olicher, Sikorski, Smith, and
Souriau. The method of comparison is to construct functors between the
categories that enable us to see how the categories relate to each other. This
produces a diagram of categories with the category of Fr\"olicher spaces
sitting at its centre. Our method of study involves finding a general context
into which these categories can be placed. This involves considering categories
wherein objects are considered in relation to a certain collection of standard
test objects. This therefore applies beyond the question of categories of
smooth spaces.


title: Adsorption-Desorption Kinetics: A Review of a Classical Problem

abstract:
  In this work we have analyzed the adsorption-desorption kinetics in the
framework of the lattice gas model. We have shown that the coefficients
representing the transition probabilities must be carefully chosen even when
they fulfill the principle of detailed balance, otherwise the observables
arising from the kinetics present anomalous behavior. We have demonstrated that
when the adsorption $A_i$ and desorption $D_i$ coefficients are linearly
related through a parameter $\gamma$, there are values of lateral interaction,
$V$, that lead to bad behavior in the kinetics. We have shown a phase diagram
for the allowed values of $V$ and $\gamma$, concluding that detailed balance
does not guarantee a correct physical behavior of the observables obtained from
the rate equations like adsorption isotherms, sticking coefficients and thermal
desorption spectra. Alternatively, we have introduced a description of the
adsorption-desorption processes based in a simple but consistent energetic
argument that leads to a correct behavior of the observables without physical
inconsistencies.


title: Neutron stars and their magnetic fields

abstract:
  Neutron stars have the strongest magnetic fields known anywhere in the
Universe. In this review, I intend to give a pedagogical discussion of some of
the related physics. Neutron stars exist because of Pauli's exclusion
principle, in two senses: 1) It makes it difficult to squeeze particles too
close together, in this way allowing a mechanical equilibrium state in the
presence of extremely strong gravity. 2) The occupation of low-energy proton
and electron states makes it impossible for low-energy neutrons to beta decay.
A corollary of the second statement is that charged particles are necessarily
present inside a neutron star, allowing currents to flow. Since these particles
are degenerate, they collide very little, and therefore make it possible for
the star to support strong, organized magnetic fields over long times. These
show themselves in pulsars and are the most likely energy source for the high
X-ray and gamma-ray luminosity ``magnetars''. I briefly discuss the possible
origin of this field and some physical constraints on its equilibrium
configurations.


title: Digraph Decompositions and Monotonicity in Digraph Searching

abstract:
  We consider monotonicity problems for graph searching games. Variants of
these games - defined by the type of moves allowed for the players - have been
found to be closely connected to graph decompositions and associated width
measures such as path- or tree-width. Of particular interest is the question
whether these games are monotone, i.e. whether the cops can catch a robber
without ever allowing the robber to reach positions that have been cleared
before. The monotonicity problem for graph searching games has intensely been
studied in the literature, but for two types of games the problem was left
unresolved. These are the games on digraphs where the robber is invisible and
lazy or visible and fast. In this paper, we solve the problems by giving
examples showing that both types of games are non-monotone. Graph searching
games on digraphs are closely related to recent proposals for digraph
decompositions generalising tree-width to directed graphs. These proposals have
partly been motivated by attempts to develop a structure theory for digraphs
similar to the graph minor theory developed by Robertson and Seymour for
undirected graphs, and partly by the immense number of algorithmic results
using tree-width of undirected graphs and the hope that part of this success
might be reproducible on digraphs using a directed tree-width. Unfortunately
the number of applications for the digraphs measures introduced so far is still
small. We therefore explore the limits of the algorithmic applicability of
digraph decompositions. In particular, we show that various natural candidates
for problems that might benefit from digraphs having small directed tree-width
remain NP-complete even on almost acyclic graphs.


title:
Explicit parametrix and local limit theorems for some degenerate
  diffusion processes

abstract:
  For a class of degenerate diffusion processes of rank 2, i.e. when only
Poisson brackets of order one are needed to span the whole space, we obtain a
parametrix representation of the density from which we derive some explicit
Gaussian controls that characterize the additional singularity induced by the
degeneracy. We then give a local limit theorem with the usual convergence rate
for an associated Markov chain approximation. The key point is that the "weak"
degeneracy allows to exploit the techniques first introduced by Konakov and
Molchanov and then developed by Konakov and Mammen that rely on Gaussian
approximations.


title: Canonical Lagrangian Dynamics and General Relativity

abstract:
  Building towards a more covariant approach to canonical classical and quantum
gravity we outline an approach to constrained dynamics that de-emphasizes the
role of the Hamiltonian phase space and highlights the role of the Lagrangian
phase space. We identify a "Lagrangian one-form" to replace the standard
symplectic one-form, which we use to construct the canonical constraints and an
associated constraint algebra. The method is particularly useful for generally
covariant systems and systems with a degenerate canonical symplectic form, such
as Einstein Cartan gravity, to which we apply the method explicitly. We find
that one can demonstrate the closure of the constraints without gauge fixing
the Lorentz group or introducing primary constraints on the phase space
variables. Finally, using geometric quantization techniques, we briefly discuss
implications of the formalism for the quantum theory.


abstract:
  Using the complete numerical solution of a time-dependent three-dimensional
mean-field model we study the Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas
(SFG) at zero temperature formed in a combined axially-symmetric harmonic plus
one-dimensional periodic optical-lattice (OL) potentials after displacing the
harmonic trap along the axial OL axis. We study the dependence of Josephson
frequency on the strength of the OL potential. The Josephson frequency
decreases with increasing strength as found in the experiment of Cataliotti et
al. [Science 293 (2001) 843] for a Bose-Einstein condensate and of the
experiment of Pezze et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 120401] for an ideal
Fermi gas. We demonstrate a breakdown of Josephson oscillation in the SFG for a
large displacement of the harmonic trap. These features of Josephson
oscillation of a SFG can be tested experimentally.


title:
Moments of the Spin Structure Functions g_1^p and g_1^d for 0.05 < Q^2 <
  3.0 GeV^2

abstract:
  The spin structure functions g_1 for the proton and the deuteron have been
measured over a wide kinematic range in x and Q2 using 1.6 and 5.7 GeV
longitudinally polarized electrons incident upon polarized NH_3 and ND_3
targets at Jefferson Lab. Scattered electrons were detected in the CEBAF Large
Acceptance Spectrometer, for 0.05 < Q^2 < 5 GeV^2 and W < 3 GeV. The first
moments of g_1 for the proton and deuteron are presented -- both have a
negative slope at low Q^2, as predicted by the extended Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn
sum rule. The first result for the generalized forward spin polarizability of
the proton gamma_0^p is also reported. This quantity shows strong Q^2
dependence at low Q^2, while Q^6\gamma_0^p seems to flatten out at the highest
Q^2 accessed by our experiment. Although the first moments of g_1 are
consistent with Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) calculations up to
approximately Q^2 = 0.06 GeV^2, a significant discrepancy is observed between
the \gamma_0^p data and ChPT for gamma_0^p, even at the lowest Q2.


title: Waiting Times and Noise in Single Particle Transport

abstract:
  The waiting time distribution $w(\tau)$, i.e. the probability for a delay
$\tau$ between two subsequent transition (`jumps') of particles, is a
statistical tool in (quantum) transport. Using generalized Master equations for
systems coupled to external particle reservoirs, one can establish relations
between $w(\tau)$ and other statistical transport quantities such as the noise
spectrum and the Full Counting Statistics. It turns out that $w(\tau)$ usually
contains additional information on system parameters and properties such as
quantum coherence, the number of internal states, or the entropy of the current
channels that participate in transport.


title: Textual Fingerprinting with Texts from Parkin, Bassewitz, and Leander

abstract:
  Current research in author profiling to discover a legal author's fingerprint
does not only follow examinations based on statistical parameters only but
include more and more dynamic methods that can learn and that react adaptable
to the specific behavior of an author. But the question on how to appropriately
represent a text is still one of the fundamental tasks, and the problem of
which attribute should be used to fingerprint the author's style is still not
exactly defined. In this work, we focus on linguistic selection of attributes
to fingerprint the style of the authors Parkin, Bassewitz and Leander. We use
texts of the genre Fairy Tale as it has a clear style and texts of a shorter
size with a straightforward story-line and a simple language.


title: Colloidal crystal growth at externally imposed nucleation clusters

abstract:
  We study the conditions under which and how an imposed cluster of fixed
colloidal particles at prescribed positions triggers crystal nucleation from a
metastable colloidal fluid. Dynamical density functional theory of freezing and
Brownian dynamics simulations are applied to a two-dimensional colloidal system
with dipolar interactions. The externally imposed nucleation clusters involve
colloidal particles either on a rhombic lattice or along two linear arrays
separated by a gap. Crystal growth occurs after the peaks of the nucleation
cluster have first relaxed to a cutout of the stable bulk crystal.


title: The Shape and Topology of the Universe

abstract:
  What is the shape of the Universe? Is it curved or flat, finite or infinite ?
Is space "wrapped around" to create ghost images of faraway cosmic sources? We
review how tessellations allow to build multiply-connected 3D Riemannian spaces
useful for cosmology. We discuss more particularly the proposal of a finite,
positively curved, dodecahedral space for explaining some puzzling features of
the cosmic microwave background radiation, as revealed by the 2003-2006 WMAP
data releases.


title:
A Pulsational Model for the Orthogonal Polarization Modes in Radio
  Pulsars

abstract:
  In an earlier paper, we introduced a model for pulsars in which non-radial
oscillations of high spherical degree (\el) aligned to the magnetic axis of a
spinning neutron star were able to reproduce subpulses like those observed in
single-pulse measurements of pulsar intensity. The model did not address
polarization, which is an integral part of pulsar emission. Observations show
that many pulsars emit radio waves that appear to be the superposition of two
linearly polarized emission modes with orthogonal polarization angles. In this
paper, we extend our model to incorporate linear polarization. As before, we
propose that pulsational displacements of stellar material modulate the pulsar
emission, but now we apply this modulation to a linearly-polarized mode of
emission, as might be produced by curvature radiation. We further introduce a
second polarization mode, orthogonal to the first, that is modulated by
pulsational velocities. We combine these modes in superposition to model the
observed Stokes parameters in radio pulsars.


title: Orbits and Pulsations of the Classical \zeta Aurigae Binaries

abstract:
  We have derived new orbits for zeta Aur, 32 Cyg, and 31 Cyg with observations
from the TSU Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope and used them to identify
non-orbital velocities of the cool supergiant components of these systems. We
measure periods in those deviations, identify unexpected long-period changes in
the radial velocities, and place upper limits on the rotation of these stars.
These radial-velocity variations are not obviously consistent with radial
pulsation theory, given what we know about the masses and sizes of the
components. Our concurrent photometry detected the non-radial pulsations driven
by tides (ellipsoidal variation) in both zeta Aur and 32 Cyg, at a level and
phasing roughly consistent with simple theory to first order, although they
seem to require moderately large gravity darkening. However, the K component of
32 Cyg must be considerably bigger than expected, or have larger gravity
darkening than zeta Aur, to fit its amplitude. However, again there is precious
little evidence for the normal radial pulsation of cool stars in our
photometry. H-alpha shows some evidence for chromospheric heating by the B
component in both zeta Aur and 32 Cyg, and the three stars show among them a
meager ~ 2--3 outbursts in their winds of the sort seen occasionally in cool
supergiants. We point out two fundamental questions in the interpretation of
these stars, (1) whether it is appropriate to model the surface brightness as
gravity darkening and (2) whether much of the non-orbital velocity structure
may actually represent changes in the convective flows in the stars'
atmospheres.


title:
Limits on the X-ray and optical luminosity of the progenitor of the type
  Ia supernova SN2007sr

abstract:
  We present HST/WFPC2, GALEX and Chandra observations of the position of the
type Ia supernova SN2007sr in the Antennae galaxies, taken before the
explosion. No source is found in any of the observations, allowing us to put
interesting constraints on the progenitor luminosity. In total there is about
450 kilosecond of Chandra data, spread over 7 different observations. Limiting
magnitudes of FUV (23.7 AB mag), NUV (23.8 AB mag), F555W (26.5 Vega mag) and
F814W (24.5-25 Vega mag) are derived. The distance to the Antennae is
surprisingly poorly known, with almost a factor of 2 difference between the
latest distance based on the tip of the red giant branch (13.3 Mpc) and the
distance derived from the SN2007sr light curve (25 Mpc). Using these distances
we derive limits on absolute optical and UV magnitudes of any progenitor but
these are still above the brightest (symbiotic) proposed progenitors. From the
Chandra data a 3 sigma upper limit to the X-ray luminosity of 0.5 -- 8.0 10^37
erg/s in the 0.3-1 keV range is found. This is below the X-ray luminosity of
the potential progenitor of the type Ia supernova 2007on that we recently
discovered and for which we report a corrected X-ray luminosity. If that
progenitor is confirmed it suggests the two supernovae have different
progenitors. The X-ray limit is comparable to the brightest supersoft X-ray
sources in the Galaxy, the LMC and the SMC and significantly below the
luminosities of the brightest supersoft and quasi-soft X-ray sources found in
nearby galaxies, ruling out such sources as progenitors of this type Ia
supernova.


title:
Two More Candidate AM Canum Venaticorum (AM CVn) Binaries from the Sloan
  Digital Sky Survey

abstract:
  AM CVn systems are a select group of ultracompact binaries with the shortest
orbital periods of any known binary subclass; mass-transfer is likely from a
low-mass (partially-)degenerate secondary onto a white dwarf primary, driven by
gravitational radiation. In the past few years, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS) has provided five new AM CVns. Here we report on two further candidates
selected from more recent SDSS data. SDSS J1208+3550 is similar to the earlier
SDSS discoveries, recognized as an AM CVn via its distinctive spectrum which is
dominated by helium emission. From the expanded SDSS Data Release 6 (DR6)
spectroscopic area, we provide an updated surface density estimate for such AM
CVns of order 10^{-3.1} to 10^{-2.5} per deg^2 for 15<g<20.5. In addition, we
present another new candidate AM CVn, SDSS J2047+0008, that was discovered in
the course of followup of SDSS-II supernova candidates. It shows nova-like
outbursts in multi-epoch imaging data; in contrast to the other SDSS AM CVn
discoveries, its (outburst) spectrum is dominated by helium absorption lines,
reminiscent of KL Dra and 2003aw. The variability selection of SDSS J2047+0008
from the 300 deg^2 of SDSS Stripe 82 presages further AM CVn discoveries in
future deep, multicolor, and time-domain surveys such as LSST. The new
additions bring the total SDSS yield to seven AM CVns thus far, a substantial
contribution to this rare subclass, versus the dozen previously known.


title: Hadron-nuclei collisions at high energies

abstract:
  A brief historical review is made of the hadron-hadron (hh) total cross
section and hadron-nucleus absorption cross section measurements, made mainly
at high energy proton synchrotrons. Then I shall discuss low p_tprocesses,
including diffraction processes and fragmentation of nuclei in nucleus-nucleus
collisions. Nucleus-nucleus collisions at higher energy colliders are then
considered, mainly in the context of the search for the gluon quark plasma.
Conclusions and a short discussion on perspectives follow.


title: Mass accretion rates in self-regulated disks of T Tauri stars

abstract:
  We have studied numerically the evolution of protostellar disks around
intermediate and upper mass T Tauri stars (0.25 M_sun < M_st < 3.0 M_sun) that
have formed self-consistently from the collapse of molecular cloud cores. In
the T Tauri phase, disks settle into a self-regulated state, with low-amplitude
nonaxisymmetric density perturbations persisting for at least several million
years. Our main finding is that the global effect of gravitational torques due
to these perturbations is to produce disk accretion rates that are of the
correct magnitude to explain observed accretion onto T Tauri stars. Our models
yield a correlation between accretion rate M_dot and stellar mass M_st that has
a best fit M_dot \propto M_st^{1.7}, in good agreement with recent
observations. We also predict a near-linear correlation between the disk
accretion rate and the disk mass.


title: Sh2-205: I. The surrounding interstellar medium

abstract:
  We present a study of the HII region Sh2-205 and its environs, based on data
obtained from the CGPS, 12CO observations, and MSX data. We find that Sh2-205
can be separated in three independent optical structures: SH 149.25-0.0, SH
148.83-0.67, and LBN 148.11-0.45. The derived spectral indices show the thermal
nature of SH 148.83-0.67 and LBN 148.11-0.45. The morphology of SH 148.83-0.67,
both in the optical and radio data, along with the energetic requ irements
indicate that this feature is an interstellar bubble powered by the UV photons
of HD 24431 (O9 III). LBN 148.11-0.45 has the morphology of a classic al HII
region and their ionizing sources remain uncertain. Dust and molecular gas are
found related to LBN 148.11-0.45.Particularly, a photodissociation region is
detected at the interface between the ionized and molecular regions. If the
proposed exciting star HD 24094 were an O8--O9 type star, as suggested by its
near-infrared colors, its UV photon flux would be enough to explain the
ionization of the nebula. The optical, radio continuum, and 21-cm line data
allow us to conclude that SH 148.83-0.67 is an interstellar bubble powered by
the energetic action of HD 24431. The associated neutral atomic and ionized
masses are 180 Mo and 300 Mo, respectively. The emission of SH 149.25-0.0 is
too faint to derive the dust and gas parameters. An HI shell centered at (l,b)
= (149.0, 1.5) was also identified. It correlates morphologically with
molecular gas emission. The neutral atomic and molecular masses are 1600 Mo and
2.6 x 10^4 Mo, respectively. The open cluster NGC 1444 is the most probable
responsible for shaping this HI structure.


title:
Understanding Life with Molecular Dynamics and Thermodynamics: Comment
  on Nature 451, 240-243 (2008)

abstract:
  One of the important challenges facing high resolution molecular dynamics
calculations is to reproduce biological functions that occur in the macroscopic
world and involve macroscopic variables. Some of these functions can be well
described by reduced models, with few parameters, over a wide range of
conditions, even though the functions are complex. We are all eager to see how
molecular dynamics will accurately estimate the thermodynamic variables that
define and control so many macroscopic biological functions.


title: PuMaII: A wide band pulsar machine for the WSRT

abstract:
  The Pulsar Machine II (PuMa II) is the new flexible pulsar processing backend
system at the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), specifically
designed to take advantage of the upgraded WSRT. The instrument is based on a
computer cluster running the Linux operating system, with minimal custom
hardware. A maximum of 160 MHz analogue bandwidth sampled as 8X20 MHz subbands
with 8-bit resolution can be recorded on disks attached to separate computer
nodes. Processing of the data is done in the additional 32-nodes allowing near
real time coherent dedispersion for most pulsars observed at the WSRT. This has
doubled the bandwidth for pulsar observations in general, and has enabled the
use of coherent dedispersion over a bandwidth eight times larger than was
previously possible at the WSRT. PuMa II is one of the widest bandwidth
coherent dedispersion machines currently in use and has a maximum time
resolution of 50ns. The system is now routinely used for high precision pulsar
timing studies, polarization studies, single pulse work and a variety of other
observational work.


title: Quantum bouncer with quadratic dissipation

abstract:
  The energy loss due to a quadratic velocity dependent force on a quantum
particle bouncing on a perfectly reflecting surface is obtained for a full
cycle of motion. We approach this problem by means of a new effective
phenomenological Hamiltonian which corresponds to the actual energy of the
system and obtained the correction to the eigenvalues of the energy in first
order quantum perturbation theory for the case of weak dissipation.


title:
CIX - A Detector for Spectral Enhanced X-ray Imaging by Simultaneous
  Counting and Integrating

abstract:
  A hybrid pixel detector based on the concept of simultaneous charge
integration and photon counting will be presented. The second generation of a
counting and integrating X-ray prototype CMOS chip (CIX) has been operated with
different direct converting sensor materials (CdZnTe and CdTe) bump bonded to
its 8x8 pixel matrix. Photon counting devices give excellent results for low to
medium X-ray fluxes but saturate at high rates while charge integration allows
the detection of very high fluxes but is limited at low rates by the finite
signal to noise ratio. The combination of both signal processing concepts
therefore extends the resolvable dynamic range of the X-ray detector. In
addition, for a large region of the dynamic range, where counter and integrator
operate simultaneously, the mean energy of the detected X-ray spectrum can be
calculated. This spectral information can be used to enhance the contrast of
the X-ray image. The advantages of the counting and integrating signal
processing concept and the performance of the imaging system will be reviewed.
The properties of the system with respect to dynamic range and sensor response
will be discussed and examples of imaging with additional spectral information
will be presented.


title: Exact mean first-passage time on the T-graph

abstract:
  We consider a simple random walk on the T-fractal and we calculate the exact
mean time $\tau^g$ to first reach the central node $i_0$. The mean is performed
over the set of possible walks from a given origin and over the set of starting
points uniformly distributed throughout the sites of the graph, except $i_0$.
By means of analytic techniques based on decimation procedures, we find the
explicit expression for $\tau^g$ as a function of the generation $g$ and of the
volume $V$ of the underlying fractal. Our results agree with the asymptotic
ones already known for diffusion on the T-fractal and, more generally, they are
consistent with the standard laws describing diffusion on low-dimensional
structures.


title: Towards a Real-time Transient Classification Engine

abstract:
  Temporal sampling does more than add another axis to the vector of
observables. Instead, under the recognition that how objects change (and move)
in time speaks directly to the physics underlying astronomical phenomena,
next-generation wide-field synoptic surveys are poised to revolutionize our
understanding of just about anything that goes bump in the night (which is just
about everything at some level). Still, even the most ambitious surveys will
require targeted spectroscopic follow-up to fill in the physical details of
newly discovered transients. We are now building a new system intended to
ingest and classify transient phenomena in near real-time from high-throughput
imaging data streams. Described herein, the Transient Classification Project at
Berkeley will be making use of classification techniques operating on
``features'' extracted from time series and contextual (static) information. We
also highlight the need for a community adoption of a standard representation
of astronomical time series data (i.e., ``VOTimeseries'').


title:
Renormalized area and properly embedded minimal surfaces in hyperbolic
  3-manifolds

abstract:
  If $Y$ is a properly embedded minimal surface in a convex cocompact
hyperbolic 3-manifold $M$ with boundary at infinity an embedded curve $\gamma$,
then Graham and Witten showed how to define a renormalized area $\calA$ of $Y$
via Hadamard regularization. We study renormalized area as a functional on the
space of all such minimal surfaces. This requires a closer examination of these
moduli spaces; following White and Coskunuzer, we prove these are Banach
manifolds and that the natural map taking $Y$ to $\gamma$ is Fredholm of index
zero and proper, which leads to the existence of a $\ZZ$-valued degree theory
for this mapping. We show that $\calA(Y)$ can be expressed as a sum of the
Euler characteristic of $Y$ and the total integral of norm squared of the
trace-free second fundamental form of $Y$. An extension of renormalized area to
a wider class of nonminimal surfaces has a similar formula also involving the
integral of mean curvature squared. We prove a formula for the first variation
of renormalized area, and characterize the critical points when $M = \HH^3$ and
$\gamma$ has a single component. All of these results have analogues for
4-dimensional Poincar\'e-Einstein metrics. We conclude by discussing the
relationship of $\calA$ to the Willmore functional.


title:
A note on quantum chaology and gamma approximations to eigenvalue
  spacings for infinite random matrices

abstract:
  Quantum counterparts of certain simple classical systems can exhibit chaotic
behaviour through the statistics of their energy levels and the irregular
spectra of chaotic systems are modelled by eigenvalues of infinite random
matrices. We use known bounds on the distribution function for eigenvalue
spacings for the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble (GOE) of infinite random real
symmetric matrices and show that gamma distributions, which have an important
uniqueness property, can yield an approximation to the GOE distribution. That
has the advantage that then both chaotic and non chaotic cases fit in the
information geometric framework of the manifold of gamma distributions, which
has been the subject of recent work on neighbourhoods of randomness for general
stochastic systems. Additionally, gamma distributions give approximations, to
eigenvalue spacings for the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE) of infinite random
hermitian matrices and for the Gaussian symplectic ensemble (GSE) of infinite
random hermitian matrices with real quaternionic elements, except near the
origin. Gamma distributions do not precisely model the various analytic systems
discussed here, but some features may be useful in studies of qualitative
generic properties in applications to data from real systems which manifestly
seem to exhibit behaviour reminiscent of near-random processes.


title: Spontaneous vortex phases in ferromagnet-superconductor nanocomposites

abstract:
  The interplay between superconductivity and magnetism gives rise to many
intriguing and exciting phenomena. In this Letter we report about a novel
manifestation of this interplay: a temperature induced phase transition between
different spontaneous vortex phases in lead superconducting films with embedded
magnetic nanoparticles. Unlike common vortices in superconductors the vortex
phase appears without any applied magnetic field. The vortices nucleate
exclusively due to the stray field of the magnetic nanoparticles, which serve
the dual role of providing the internal field and simultaneously acting as
pinning centers. As in usual superconductors, one can move the spontaneous
vortices with an applied electric current. Transport measurements reveal
dynamical phase transitions that depend on temperature (T) and applied field
(H) and support the obtained (H-T) phase diagram. In particular, we used a
scaling analysis to characterize a transition from a liquid to a novel
disordered solid resembling a vortex glass.


title: Magnetic Fields in Dark Cloud Cores: Arecibo OH Zeeman Observations

abstract:
  We have carried out an extensive survey of magnetic field strengths toward
dark cloud cores in order to test models of star formation: ambipolar-diffusion
driven or turbulence driven. The survey involved $\sim500$ hours of observing
with the Arecibo telescope in order to make sensitive OH Zeeman observations
toward 34 dark cloud cores. Nine new probable detections were achieved at the
2.5-sigma level; the certainty of the detections varies from solid to marginal,
so we discuss each probable detection separately. However, our analysis
includes all the measurements and does not depend on whether each position has
a detection or just a sensitive measurement. Rather, the analysis establishes
mean (or median) values over the set of observed cores for relevant
astrophysical quantities. The results are that the mass-to-flux ratio is
supercritical by $\sim 2$, and that the ratio of turbulent to magnetic energies
is also $\sim 2$. These results are compatible with both models of star
formation. However, these OH Zeeman observations do establish for the first
time on a statistically sound basis the energetic importance of magnetic fields
in dark cloud cores at densities of order $10^{3-4}$ cm$^{-3}$, and they lay
the foundation for further observations that could provide a more definitive
test.


title:
Sonic Mach Cones Induced by Fast Partons in a Perturbative Quark-Gluon
  Plasma

abstract:
  We derive the space-time distribution of energy and momentum deposited by a
fast parton traversing a weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma by treating the fast
part on as the source of an external color field perturbing the medium. We then
use our result as a source term for the linearized hydrodynamical equations of
the medium. We show that the solution contains a sonic Mach cone and a
dissipative wake if the parton moves at a supersonic speed.


title:
Measurement of $\boldmath {B_s^0}$ mixing parameters from the
  flavor-tagged decay

abstract:
  From an analysis of the flavor-tagged decay \bsdec we obtain the width
difference between the $B_s^0$ light and heavy mass eigenstates, $\Delta
\Gamma_s \equiv \Gamma_L - \Gamma_H = 0.19 \pm 0.07 {\rm (stat)}\thinspace
^{+0.02}_{-0.01} {\rm (syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$, and the CP-violating phase, $\phi_{s}
=-0.57 ^{+0.24}_{-0.30} {\rm (stat)}\thinspace ^{+0.07}_{-0.02} {\rm (syst)}$.
The allowed 90% C.L. intervals of $\Delta \Gamma_s$ and $\phi_s$ are $0.06
<\Delta \Gamma_s <0.30$ ps$^{-1}$ and $-1.20 <\phi_s < 0.06$, respectively. The
data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.8 fb$^{-1}$
accumulated with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider.


title:
Quantum Correlation Bounds for Quantum Information Experiments
  Optimization: the Wigner Inequality Case

abstract:
  Violation of modified Wigner inequality by means binary bipartite quantum
system allows the discrimination between the quantum world and the classical
local-realistic one, and also ensures the security of Ekert-like quantum key
distribution protocol. In this paper we study both theoretically and
experimentally the bounds of quantum correlation associated to the modified
Wigner's inequality finding the optimal experimental configuration for its
maximal violation. We also extend this analysis to the implementation of
Ekert's protocol.


title: Black hole bound states in AdS_3 x S^2

abstract:
  We systematically construct the geometries dual to the 1+1 dimensional (0,4)
conformal field theories that arise in the low-energy description of wrapped
M5-branes in S^1 x CY_3 compactifications of M-theory. This includes a large
number of multicentered black hole bound states asymptotic to AdS_3 x S^2. In
addition, we find many geometries that develop multiple, mutually decoupled
AdS_3 x S^2 throats. We argue there is a useful one to one correspondence
between the connected components of the space of solutions and particular
limits of type IIA attractor flow trees. We point out that there is a
thermodynamic instability of small supersymmetric BTZ black holes to
localization on the S^2, a supersymmetric and exactly solvable analog of the
well known AdS-Schwarzschild localization instability, and identify this with
the ``Entropy Enigma'' in four dimensions. We discuss the phase transition this
suggests, and initiate the CFT interpretation of these results.


title: Using Alloy to model-check visual design notations

abstract:
  This paper explores the process of validation for the abstract syntax of a
graphical notation. We define an unified specification for five of the UML
diagrams used by the Discovery Method and, in this document, we illustrate how
diagrams can be represented in Alloy and checked against our specification in
order to know if these are valid under the Discovery notation.


title:
A Quantitative Non-radial Oscillation Model for the Subpulses in PSR
  B0943+10

abstract:
  In this paper, we analyze time series measurements of PSR B0943+10 and fit
them with a non-radial oscillation model. The model we apply was first
developed for total intensity measurements in an earlier paper, and expanded to
encompass linear polarization in a companion paper to this one. We use PSR
B0943+10 for the initial tests of our model because it has a simple geometry,
it has been exhaustively studied in the literature, and its behavior is
well-documented. As prelude to quantitative fitting, we have reanalyzed
previously published archival data of PSR B0943+10 and uncovered subtle but
significant behavior that is difficult to explain in the framework of the
drifting spark model. Our fits of a non-radial oscillation model are able to
successfully reproduce the observed behavior in this pulsar.


title: Plasma Turbulence in the Local Bubble

abstract:
  Turbulence in the Local Bubble could play an important role in the
thermodynamics of the gas that is there. The best astronomical technique for
measuring turbulence in astrophysical plasmas is radio scintillation.
Measurements of the level of scattering to the nearby pulsar B0950+08 by
Philips and Clegg in 1992 showed a markedly lower value for the line-of-sight
averaged turbulent intensity parameter $<C_N^2>$ than is observed for other
pulsars, consistent with radio wave propagation through a highly rarefied
plasma. In this paper, we discuss the observational progress that has been made
since that time. At present, there are four pulsars (B0950+08, B1133+16,
J0437-4715, and B0809+74) whose lines of sight seem to lie mainly within the
local bubble. The mean densities and line of sight components of the
interstellar magnetic field along these lines of sight are smaller than nominal
values for pulsars, but not by as much expected. Three of the four pulsars also
have measurements of interstellar scintillation. The value of the parameter
$<C_N^2>$ is smaller than normal for two of them, but is completely nominal for
the third. This inconclusive status of affairs could be improved by
measurements and analysis of ``arcs'' in ``secondary spectra'' of pulsars.


title: Cylindrical Wiener processes

abstract:
  In this work cylindrical Wiener processes on Banach spaces are defined by
means of cylindrical stochastic processes, which are a well considered
mathematical object. This approach allows a definition which is a simple
straightforward extension of the real-valued situation. We apply this
definition to introduce a stochastic integral with respect to cylindrical
Wiener processes. Again, this definition is a straightforward extension of the
real-valued situation which results now in simple conditions on the integrand.
In particular, we do not have to put any geometric constraints on the Banach
space under consideration. Finally, we relate this integral to well-known
stochastic integrals in literature.


title:
Evolution of Brane-Localised Standard Model Fields in Gauss-Bonnet
  theory

abstract:
  We study the massless scalar, Dirac and electro-magnetic fields propagating
on a 4D-brane, which is embedded in higher dimensional Gauss-Bonnet space-time.
We calculate, in time-domain, the fundamental quasi-normal modes of a
spherically symmetric black hole for such fields. We observe also a universal
behavior, independent on a field and value of the Gauss-Bonnet parameter, at
asymptotically late time.


title:
Mathematical framework for detection and quantification of nonclassical
  correlation

abstract:
  Existing measures of bipartite nonclassical correlation that is typically
characterized by nonvanishing nonlocalizable information under the zero-way
CLOCC protocol are expensive in computational cost. We define and evaluate
economical measures on the basis of a new class of maps,
eigenvalue-preserving-but-not-completely-eigenvalue-preserving (EnCE) maps. The
class is in analogy to the class of positive-but-not-completely-positive (PnCP)
maps that have been commonly used in the entanglement theories. Linear and
nonlinear EnCE maps are investigated. We also prove subadditivity of the
measures in a form of logarithmic fidelity.


title:
Determination of the Strong Phase in D0 -> K+pi- Using
  Quantum-Correlated Measurements

abstract:
  We exploit the quantum coherence between pair-produced D0 and D0bar in
psi(3770) decays to study charm mixing, which is characterized by the
parameters x and y, and to make a first determination of the relative strong
phase \delta between D0 -> K+pi- and D0bar -> K+pi-. Using 281 pb^-1 of e^+e^-
collision data collected with the CLEO-c detector at E_cm = 3.77 GeV, as well
as branching fraction input and time-integrated measurements of R_M =
(x^2+y^2)/2 and R_{WS} = Gamma(D0 -> K+pi-)/Gamma(D0bar -> K+pi-) from other
experiments, we find \cos\delta = 1.03 +0.31-0.17 +- 0.06, where the
uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. By further
including other mixing parameter measurements, we obtain an alternate
measurement of \cos\delta = 1.10 +- 0.35 +- 0.07, as well as x\sin\delta = (4.4
+2.7-1.8 +- 2.9) x 10^-3 and \delta = 22 +11-12 +9-11 degrees.


title: Dark matter subhalos and the dwarf satellites of the Milky Way

abstract:
  The Via Lactea simulation of the dark matter halo of the Milky Way predicts
the existence of many thousands of bound subhalos distributed approximately
with equal mass per decade of mass. Here we show that: a) a similar steeply
rising subhalo mass function is also present at redshift 0.5 in an
elliptical-sized halo simulated with comparable resolution in a different
cosmology. Compared to Via Lactea, this run produces nearly a factor of two
more subhalos with large circular velocities; b) the fraction of Via Lactea
mass brought in by subhalos that have a surviving bound remnant today with
present-day peak circular velocity Vmax>2 km/s (>10 km/s) is 45% (30%); c)
because of tidal mass loss, the number of subhalos surviving today that reached
a peak circular velocity of >10 km/s throughout their lifetime exceeds half a
thousand, five times larger than their present-day abundance and more than
twenty times larger than the number of known satellites of the Milky Way; e)
unless the circular velocity profiles of Galactic satellites peak at values
significantly higher that expected from the stellar line-of-sight velocity
dispersion, only about one in five subhalos with Vmax>20 km/s today must be
housing a luminous dwarf; f) small dark matter clumps appear to be relatively
inefficient at forming stars even well beyond the virial radius; g) the
observed Milky Way satellites appear to follow the overall dark matter
distribution of Via Lactea, while the largest simulated subhalos today are
found preferentially at larger radii; h) subhalos have central densities that
increase with Vmax and reach 0.1-0.3 Msun/pc3 comparable to the central
densities inferred in dwarf spheroidals with core radii >250 pc.


title:
Long Range Electromagnetic Effects involving Neutral Systems and
  Effective Field Theory

abstract:
  We analyze the electromagnetic scattering of massive particles with and
without spin wherein one particle (or both) is electrically neutral. Using the
techniques of effective field theory, we isolate the leading long distance
effects, both classical and quantum mechanical. For spinless systems results
are identical to those obtained earlier via more elaborate dispersive methods.
However, we also find new results if either or both particles carry apin.


title: Doping graphene with metal contacts

abstract:
  Making devices with graphene necessarily involves making contacts with
metals. We use density functional theory to study how graphene is doped by
adsorption on metal substrates and find that weak bonding on Al, Ag, Cu, Au and
Pt, while preserving its unique electronic structure, can still shift the Fermi
level with respect to the conical point by $\sim 0.5$ eV. At equilibrium
separations, the crossover from $p$-type to $n$-type doping occurs for a metal
work function of $\sim 5.4$ eV, a value much larger than the graphene work
function of 4.5 eV. The numerical results for the Fermi level shift in graphene
are described very well by a simple analytical model which characterizes the
metal solely in terms of its work function, greatly extending their
applicability.


title:
Determination of the D0 -> K+pi- Relative Strong Phase Using
  Quantum-Correlated Measurements in e+e- -> D0 D0bar at CLEO

abstract:
  We exploit the quantum coherence between pair-produced D0 and D0bar in
psi(3770) decays to study charm mixing, which is characterized by the
parameters x and y, and to make a first determination of the relative strong
phase \delta between doubly Cabibbo-suppressed D0 -> K+pi- and Cabibbo-favored
D0bar -> K+pi-. We analyze a sample of 1.0 million D0D0bar pairs from 281 pb^-1
of e+e- collision data collected with the CLEO-c detector at E_cm = 3.77 GeV.
By combining CLEO-c measurements with branching fraction input and
time-integrated measurements of R_M = (x^2+y^2)/2 and R_{WS} = Gamma(D0 ->
K+pi-)/Gamma(D0bar -> K+pi-) from other experiments, we find \cos\delta = 1.03
+0.31-0.17 +- 0.06, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic,
respectively. In addition, by further including external measurements of charm
mixing parameters, we obtain an alternate measurement of \cos\delta = 1.10 +-
0.35 +- 0.07, as well as x\sin\delta = (4.4 +2.7-1.8 +- 2.9) x 10^-3 and \delta
= 22 +11-12 +9-11 degrees.


title: On possibility of topological interpretation of quantum mechanics

abstract:
  Geometrical model for quantum objects is suggested. It is shown that
equations for free material Dirac field and for Maxwell electromagnetic field
can be considered as relations describing propagation of the space topological
defects. This interpretation explains irrational properties of quantum objects
such as wave-corpuscular duality, stochastic behavior, instantaneous nonlocal
correlation in EPR-paradox, the light velocity invariance and so on. It is
shown also that Dirac equation for hydrogen atom can be also considered as
relation describing the space topological defect. Electromagnetic potentials
appears within this approach as connectivities of the defect universal covering
space and gauge invariance of electromagnetic field happens to be a natural
consequence of topological interpretation. Proposed approach can be also
considered as a nonlocal model with hidden variables. Preliminary results were
published by parts early, and here they are presented completely.


title:
Phase transition in the 3-state Potts antiferromagnet on the diced
  lattice

abstract:
  We prove that the 3-state Potts antiferromagnet on the diced lattice (dual of
the kagome lattice) has entropically-driven long-range order at low
temperatures (including zero). We then present Monte Carlo simulations, using a
cluster algorithm, of the 3-state and 4-state models. The 3-state model has a
phase transition to the high-temperature disordered phase at v = e^J - 1 =
-0.860599 +- 0.000004 that appears to be in the universality class of the
3-state Potts ferromagnet. The 4-state model is disordered throughout the
physical region, including at zero temperature.

categories: cond-mat.stat-mech hep-lat math-ph math.MP


title: Quantum approach to adaptive mutations. Didactic introduction

abstract:
  A didactic introduction, dated by 1999, to the ideas of the papers
arXiv:q-bio/0701050 and arXiv:0704.0034


title:
Proof of the Main Conjecture of Noncommutative Iwasawa Theory for
  Totally Real Number Fields in Certain Cases

abstract:
  Fix an odd prime $p$. Let $G$ be a compact $p$-adic Lie group containing a
closed, normal, pro-$p$ subgroup $H$ which is abelian and such that $G/H$ is
isomorphic to the additive group of $p$-adic integers $\mathbbZ_p$ . First we
assume that $H$ is finite and compute the Whitehead group of the Iwasawa
algebra, $\Lambda(G)$, of $G$. We also prove some results about certain
localisation of $\Lambda(G)$ needed in Iwasawa theory. Let $F$ be a totally
real number field and let $F_{\infty}$ be an admissible $p$-adic Lie extension
of $F$ with Galois group $G$. The computation of the Whitehead groups are used
to show that the Main Conjecture for the extension $F_{\infty}/F$ can be
deduced from certain congruences between abelian $p$-adic zeta functions of
Delige and Ribet. We prove these congruences with certain assumptions on $G$.
This gives a proof of the Main Conjecture in many interesting cases such as
$\mathbb{Z}_p\rtimes


title:
Complete 2mm Spectral Line Survey (130-170 GHz) of Sgr B2N, Sgr B2OH,
  IRC +10 216, Orion (KL), Orion-S, W51M, and W3(IRS5)

abstract:
  We report a complete 2mm spectral line survey (130-170 GHz) taken with the
NRAO 12m Telescope between 1993 and 1995 toward the following sources: Sgr B2N,
Sgr B2OH, IRC +10 216, Orion (KL), Orion-S, W51M, and W3(IRS5).
  Until very recently, this project was entirely the work of B. E. Turner. He
wrote the original proposal, given below without changes or updates, and did
all of the observing. B.E. Turner has fallen seriously ill and can no longer
continue to work on the analysis of these data. The notes that follow the
proposal give further information about the project and important information
for users of these data.
  The data are distributed using the Spectral Line Search Engine (SLiSE)
developed by A. J. Remijan and M. J. Remijan. SLiSE is a data display tool that
will contain all the fully reduced and calibrated archived data taken as part
of this 2mm survey. SLiSE is fast, easy to use, and contains the necessary
functionality to display the data taken from spectral line searches. For
example, SLiSE contains functions to overlay possible molecule identifications
based on a current line catalog as well as overlaying H and He recombination
lines. It is a Java-based applet, so it is platform independent and easily
accessed online. The only caveat is that SLiSE was built using Java 1.5, so an
update to the user's Java may be necessary.
  We request users of these data to give B.E. Turner and this work the
appropriate citation and credit.


title: Spatially asymptotic S-matrix from general boundary formulation

abstract:
  We construct a new type of S-matrix in quantum field theory using the general
boundary formulation. In contrast to the usual S-matrix the space of free
asymptotic states is located at spatial rather than at temporal infinity.
Hence, the new S-matrix applies to situations where interactions may remain
important at all times, but become negligible with distance. We show that the
new S-matrix is equivalent to the usual one in situations where both apply.
This equivalence is mediated by an isomorphism between the respective
asymptotic state spaces that we construct. We introduce coherent states that
allow us to obtain explicit expressions for the new S-matrix. In our formalism
crossing symmetry becomes a manifest rather than a derived feature of the
S-matrix.


title: Pattern avoidance in "flattened" partitions

abstract:
  To flatten a set partition (with apologies to Mathematica) means to form a
permutation by erasing the dividers between its blocks. Of course, the result
depends on how the blocks are listed. For the usual listing--increasing entries
in each block and blocks arranged in increasing order of their first
entries--we count the partitions of [n] whose flattening avoids a single
3-letter pattern. Five counting sequences arise: a null sequence, the powers of
2, the Fibonacci numbers, the Catalan numbers, and the binomial transform of
the Catalan numbers.


title: Fixed Points of Generalized Conjugations

abstract:
  Conjugation, or Legendre transformation, is a basic tool in convex analysis,
rational mechanics, economics and optimization. It maps a function on a linear
topological space into another one, defined in the dual of the linear space by
coupling these space by meas of the duality product.
  Generalized conjugation extends classical conjugation to any pair of domains,
using an arbitrary coupling function between these spaces. This generalization
of conjugation is now being widely used in optima transportation problems,
variational analysis and also optimization.
  If the coupled spaces are equal, generalized conjugations define order
reversing maps of a family of functions into itself. In this case, is natural
to ask for the existence of fixed points of the conjugation, that is, functions
which are equal to their (generalized) conjugateds. Here we prove that any
generalized symmetric conjugation has fixed points. The basic tool of the proof
is a variational principle involving the order reversing feature of the
conjugation.
  As an application of this abstract result, we will extend to real linear
topological spaces a fixed-point theorem for Fitzpatrick's functions,
previously proved in Banach spaces.


title:
Faraday resonance in dynamical bar instability of differentially
  rotating stars

abstract:
  We investigate the nonlinear behaviour of the dynamically unstable rotating
star for the bar mode by three-dimensional hydrodynamics in Newtonian gravity.
We find that an oscillation along the rotation axis is induced throughout the
growth of the unstable bar mode, and that its characteristic frequency is twice
as that of the bar mode, which oscillates mainly along the equatorial plane. A
possibility to observe Faraday resonance in gravitational waves is demonstrated
and discussed.


title:
The first version Buffered Large Analog Bandwidth (BLAB1) ASIC for high
  luminosity collider and extensive radio neutrino detectors

abstract:
  Future detectors for high luminosity particle identification and ultra high
energy neutrino observation would benefit from a digitizer capable of recording
sensor elements with high analog bandwidth and large record depth, in a
cost-effective, compact and low-power way. A first version of the Buffered
Large Analog Bandwidth (BLAB1) ASIC has been designed based upon the lessons
learned from the development of the Large Analog Bandwidth Recorder and
Digitizer with Ordered Readout (LABRADOR) ASIC. While this LABRADOR ASIC has
been very successful and forms the basis of a generation of new, large-scale
radio neutrino detectors, its limited sampling depth is a major drawback. A
prototype has been designed and fabricated with 65k deep sampling at
multi-GSa/s operation. We present test results and directions for future
evolution of this sampling technique.


title:
Learning about the Recent Star Formation History of Galaxy Disks by
  Comparing their Far-Infrared and Radio Morphologies: Cosmic-Ray Electron
  Diffusion after Star Formation Episodes

abstract:
  We present results on the interstellar medium (ISM) properties of 29 galaxies
based on a comparison of {\it Spitzer} far-infrared and Westerbork Synthesis
Radio Telescope radio continuum imagery. Of these 29 galaxies, 18 are close
enough to resolve at $\la$1 kpc scales at 70 $\micron$ and 22 cm. We extend the
\citet{ejm06a,ejm06b} approach of smoothing infrared images to approximate
cosmic-ray (CR) electron spreading and thus largely reproduce the appearance of
radio images. Using a wavelet analysis we decompose each 70 $\micron$ image
into one component containing the star-forming {\it structures} and a second
one for the diffuse {\it disk}. The components are smoothed separately, and
their combination compared to a free-free corrected 22 cm radio image; the
scale-lengths are then varied to best match the radio and smoothed infrared
images. We find that late-type spirals having high amounts of ongoing star
formation benefit most from the two-component method. We also find that the
disk component dominates for galaxies having low star formation activity,
whereas the structure component dominates at high star formation activity. We
propose that this result arises from an age effect rather than from differences
in CR electron diffusion due to varying ISM parameters. The bulk of the CR
electron population in actively star-forming galaxies is significantly younger
than that in less active galaxies due to recent episodes of enhanced star
formation; these galaxies are observed within $\sim10^{8}$ yr since the onset
of the most recent star formation episode. The sample irregulars have
anomalously low best-fit scale-lengths for their surface brightnesses compared
to the rest of the sample spirals which we attribute to enhanced CR electron
escape.


title:
Harmonic measure and winding of random conformal paths: A Coulomb gas
  perspective

abstract:
  We consider random conformally invariant paths in the complex plane (SLEs).
Using the Coulomb gas method in conformal field theory, we rederive the mixed
multifractal exponents associated with both the harmonic measure and winding
(rotation or monodromy) near such critical curves, previously obtained by
quantum gravity methods. The results also extend to the general cases of
harmonic measure moments and winding of multiple paths in a star configuration.

categories: cond-mat.stat-mech math-ph math.MP math.PR


title:
How the Intracluster Medium Affects the Far-Infrared--Radio Correlation
  within Virgo Cluster Galaxies

abstract:
  We present a study on the effects of the intracluster medium (ICM) on the
interstellar medium (ISM) of 10 Virgo cluster galaxies using {\it Spitzer}
far-infrared (FIR) and VLA radio continuum imaging. Relying on the FIR-radio
correlation {\it within} normal galaxies, we use our infrared data to create
model radio maps which we compare to the observed radio images. For 6 of our
sample galaxies we find regions along their outer edges that are highly
deficient in the radio compared with our models. We believe these observations
are the signatures of ICM ram pressure. For NGC 4522 we find the radio deficit
region to lie just exterior to a region of high radio polarization and flat
radio spectral index, however the total radio continuum in this region does not
appear significantly enhanced. This scenario seems consistent for other
galaxies with radio polarization data in the literature. We also find that
galaxies having local radio deficits appear to have enhanced global radio
fluxes. Our preferred physical picture is that the observed radio deficit
regions arise from the ICM wind sweeping away cosmic-ray (CR) electrons and the
associated magnetic field, thereby creating synchrotron tails observed for some
of our galaxies. CR particles are also re-accelerated by ICM-driven shocklets
behind the observed radio deficit regions which in turn enhances the remaining
radio disk brightness. The high radio polarization and lack of coincidental
signatures in the total synchrotron power in these regions arises from shear,
and possibly mild compression, as the ICM wind drags and stretches the magnetic
field.


title:
Mass and Redshift Dependence of Star Formation in Relaxed Galaxy
  Clusters

abstract:
  We investigate the star-formation properties of dynamically relaxed galaxy
clusters as a function of cluster mass for 308 low-redshift clusters drawn from
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) C4 cluster catalog. It is important to
establish if cluster star-formation properties have a mass dependence before
comparing clusters at different epochs, and here we use cluster velocity
dispersion as a measure of cluster mass. We find that the total stellar mass,
the number of star-forming galaxies, and total star-formation rate scale
linearly with the number of member galaxies, with no residual dependence on
cluster velocity dispersion. With the mass-dependence of cluster star-formation
rates established, we compare the SDSS clusters with a sample of z = 0.75
clusters from the literature and find that on average the total H-alpha
luminosity of the high-redshift clusters is 10 times greater than that of the
low-redshift clusters. This can be explained by a decline in the H-alpha
luminosities of individual cluster galaxies by a factor of up to 10 since z =
0.75. The magnitude of this evolution is comparable to that of field galaxies
over a similar redshift interval, and thus the effect of the cluster
environment on the evolution of star-forming galaxies is at most modest. Our
results suggest that the physical mechanism driving the evolution of cluster
star-formation rates is independent of cluster mass, at least for clusters with
velocity dispersion greater than 450 km/s, and operates over a fairly long
timescale such that the star-formation rates of individual galaxies decline by
an order of magnitude over ~7 billion years. (Abridged)


title: A refined Jones polynomial for symmetric unions

abstract:
  Motivated by the study of ribbon knots we explore symmetric unions, a
beautiful construction introduced by Kinoshita and Terasaka in 1957. For
symmetric diagrams we develop a two-variable refinement $W_D(s,t)$ of the Jones
polynomial that is invariant under symmetric Reidemeister moves. Here the two
variables $s$ and $t$ are associated to the two types of crossings,
respectively on and off the symmetry axis. From sample calculations we deduce
that a ribbon knot can have essentially distinct symmetric union presentations
even if the partial knots are the same.
  If $D$ is a symmetric union diagram representing a ribbon knot $K$, then the
polynomial $W_D(s,t)$ nicely reflects the geometric properties of $K$. In
particular it elucidates the connection between the Jones polynomials of $K$
and its partial knots $K_\pm$: we obtain $W_D(t,t) = V_K(t)$ and $W_D(-1,t) =
V_{K_-}(t) \cdot V_{K_+}(t)$, which has the form of a symmetric product $f(t)
\cdot f(t^{-1})$ reminiscent of the Alexander polynomial of ribbon knots.


title: Non-homogeneity-driven Universe acceleration

abstract:
  Class of spherically symmetric Stephani cosmological models is examined in
the context of evolution type. It is assumed that the equation of state at the
symmetry center of the models is barotropic. Classification of cosmological
models is performed depending on different values and signs of two free
parameters. It is shown that for (hyperbolic geometry) dust-like cosmological
model exhibits accelerated expansion at later stages of evolution. The Hubble
and deceleration parameters are defined in the model and it is shown that the
deceleration parameter decreases with the distance becoming negative for
sufficiently distant galaxies. Redshift-magnitude relation is calculated and
discussed in the context of SnIa observational data. It is noticed that the
most distant supernovae of type Ia fit quite well to the redshift-magnitude
relation calculated in the considered model without introducing the
cosmological constant. It is also shown that the age of the universe in the
model is longer than in the Friedmann model corresponding to the same Hubble
and energy density parameters.


title: The Kuiper Belt Luminosity Function from m(R)=21 to 26

abstract:
  We have performed an ecliptic imaging survey of the Kuiper belt with our
deepest and widest field achieving a limiting flux of m(g') = 26.4, with a sky
coverage of 3.0 square-degrees. This is the largest coverage of any other
Kuiper belt survey to this depth. We detect 72 objects, two of which have been
previously observed. We have improved the Bayesian maximum likelihood fitting
technique presented in Gladman et al. (1998) to account for calibration and sky
density variations and have used this to determine the luminosity function of
the Kuiper belt. Combining our detections with previous surveys, we find the
luminosity function is well represented by a single power-law with slope alpha
= 0.65 +/- 0.05 and an on ecliptic sky density of 1 object per square-degree
brighter than m(R)=23.42 +/- 0.13. Assuming constant albedos, this slope
suggests a differential size-distribution slope of 4.25 +/- 0.25, which is
steeper than the Dohnanyi slope of 3.5 expected if the belt is in a state of
collisional equilibrium. We find no evidence for a roll-over or knee in the
luminosity function and reject such models brightward of m(R) ~ 24.6.


title: The Exact String Black-Hole behind the hadronic Rindler horizon?

abstract:
  The recently suggested interpretation of the universal hadronic freeze-out
temperature T_f ~ 170 Mev - found for all high energy scattering processes that
produce hadrons: e+ e-, p p, p anti-p, pi p, etc. and N N' (heavy-ion
collisions) - as a Unruh temperature triggers here the search for the
gravitational black-hole that in its near-horizon approximation better
simulates this hadronic phenomenon. To identify such a black-hole we begin our
gravity-gauge theory phenomenologies matching by asking the question: which
black-hole behind that Rindler horizon could reproduce the experimental
behavior of T_f (\sqrt{s}) in N N', where \sqrt{s} is the collision energy.
Provided certain natural assumptions hold, we show that the exact string
black-hole turns out to be the best candidate (as it fits the available data on
T_f (\sqrt{s})) and that its limiting case, the Witten black-hole, is the
unique candidate to explain the constant T_f for all elementary scattering
processes at large energy. We also are able to propose an effective description
of the screening of the hadronic string tension sigma(mu_b) due to the baryon
density effects on T_f.


title: The Jones polynomial of ribbon links

abstract:
  For every n-component ribbon link L we prove that the Jones polynomial V(L)
is divisible by the polynomial V(O^n) of the trivial link. This integrality
property allows us to define a generalized determinant det V(L) :=
[V(L)/V(O^n)]_(t=-1), for which we derive congruences reminiscent of the Arf
invariant: every ribbon link L = (K_1,...,K_n) satisfies det V(L) = det(K_1)
>... det(K_n) modulo 32, whence in particular det V(L) = 1 modulo 8.
  These results motivate to study the power series expansion V(L) =
\sum_{k=0}^\infty d_k(L) h^k at t=-1, instead of t=1 as usual. We obtain a
family of link invariants d_k(L), starting with the link determinant d_0(L) =
det(L) obtained from a Seifert surface S spanning L. The invariants d_k(L) are
not of finite type with respect to crossing changes of L, but they turn out to
be of finite type with respect to band crossing changes of S. This discovery is
the starting point of a theory of surface invariants of finite type, which
promises to reconcile quantum invariants with the theory of Seifert surfaces,
or more generally ribbon surfaces.


title: The Pfaff lattice on symplectic matrices

abstract:
  The Pfaff lattice is an integrable system arising from the SR-group
factorization in an analogous way to how the Toda lattice arises from the
QR-group factorization. In our recent paper [{\it Intern. Math. Res. Notices},
(2007) rnm120], we studied the Pfaff lattice hierarchy for the case where the
Lax matrix is defined to be a lower Hessenberg matrix.
  In this paper we deal with the case of a symplectic lower Hessenberg Lax
matrix, this forces the Lax matrix to take a tridiagonal shape. We then show
that the odd members of the Pfaff lattice hierarchy are trivial, while the even
members are equivalent to the indefinite Toda lattice hierarchy defined in [Y.
Kodama and J. Ye, {\it Physica D}, {\bf 91} (1996) 321-339]. This is analogous
to the case of the Toda lattice hierarchy in the relation to the Kac-van
Moerbeke system. In the case with initial matrix having only real or imaginary
eigenvalues, the fixed points of the even flows are given by $2\times 2$ block
diagonal matrices with zero diagonals. We also consider a family of
skew-orthogonal polynomials with symplectic recursion relation related to the
Pfaff lattice, and find that they are succinctly expressed in terms of
orthogonal polynomials appearing in the indefinite Toda lattice.


title: The Fibonacci quantum walk and its cassical trace map

abstract:
  We study the quantum walk in momentum space using a coin arranged in
quasi-periodic sequences following a Fibonacci prescription. We build for this
system a classical map based on the trace of the evolution operator. The
sub-ballistic behavior of this quantum walk is connected with the power-law
decay of the time correlations of the trace map.


title: Simple Bounds from the Perturbative Regime of Inflation

abstract:
  We examine the conditions under which a perturbative expansion around an
inflating background is valid. When inflation is driven by a single field with
a general sound speed, we find a lower limit on the sound speed related to the
amplitude of the inflationary power spectrum. Generalizing the sound speed
constraints to include scale dependence can limit the number of e-folds
obtained in the perturbative regime and restrict otherwise apparently viable
models. We also show that for models with a low sound speed, eternal inflation
cannot occur in the perturbative regime.


title:
Competition between charge and spin order in the $t-U-V$ extended
  Hubbard model on the triangular lattice

abstract:
  Several new classes of compounds can be modeled in first approximation by
electrons on the triangular lattice that interact through on-site repulsion $U$
as well as nearest-neighbor repulsion $V$. This extended Hubbard model on a
triangular lattice has been studied mostly in the strong coupling limit for
only a few types of instabilities. Using the extended two-particle self
consistent approach (ETPSC), that is valid at weak to intermediate coupling, we
present an unbiased study of the density and interaction dependent crossover
diagram for spin and charge density wave instabilities of the normal state at
arbitrary wave vector. When $U$ dominates over $V$ and electron filling is
large, instabilities are chiefly in the spin sector and are controlled mostly
by Fermi surface properties. Increasing $V$ eventually leads to charge
instabilities. In the latter case, it is mostly the wave vector dependence of
the vertex that determines the wave vector of the instability rather than Fermi
surface properties. At small filling, non-trivial instabilities appear only
beyond the weak coupling limit. There again, charge density wave instabilities
are favored over a wide range of dopings by large $V$ at wave vectors
corresponding to $\sqrt(3) \times \sqrt(3)$ superlattice in real space.
Commensurate fillings do not play a special role for this instability.
Increasing $U$ leads to competition with ferromagnetism. At negative values of
$U$ or $V$, neglecting superconducting fluctuations, one finds that charge
instabilities are favored. In general, the crossover diagram presents a rich
variety of instabilities. We also show that thermal charge-density wave
fluctuations in the renormalized classical regime can open a pseudogap in the
single-particle spectral weight, just as spin or superconducting fluctuations.


title: Spitzer/IRAC Observations of AGB stars

abstract:
  We present here the first observation of galactic AGB stars with the InfraRed
Array Camera (IRAC) onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our sample consists of
48 AGB stars of different chemical signature, mass loss rate and variability
class. For each star we have measured IRAC photometry and colors. Preliminary
results shows that IRAC colors are sensitive to spectroscopic features
associated to molecules and dust in the AGB wind. Period is only loosely
correlated to the brightness of the stars in the IRAC bands. We do find,
however, a tight period-color relation for sources classified as semiregular
variables. This may be interpreted as the lack of warm dust in the wind of the
sources in this class, as opposed to Mira variables that show higher infrared
excess in all IRAC bands.


title: Magnetic properties of Ag(2)VOP(2)O(7): an unexpected spin dimer system

abstract:
  Magnetic properties of the silver vanadium phosphate Ag(2)VOP(2)O(7) are
studied by means of magnetic susceptibility measurements and electronic
structure calculations. In spite of the layered crystal structure suggesting 1D
or 2D magnetic behavior, this compound can be understood as a spin dimer
system. The fit of the magnetic susceptibility indicates an intradimer
interaction of about 30 K in perfect agreement with the computational results.
Our study emphasizes the possible pitfalls in interpreting experimental data on
structural basis only and points out the importance of microscopic models for
the understanding of the magnetic properties of vanadium phosphates.


title: Cocycle Deformations of Algebraic Identities and R-matrices

abstract:
  For an arbitrary identity L=R between compositions of maps L and R on tensors
of vector spaces V, a general construction of a 2-cocycle condition is given.
These 2-cocycles correspond to those obtained in deformation theories of
algebras. The construction is applied to a canceling pairings and copairings,
with explicit examples with calculations. Relations to the Kauffman bracket and
knot invariants are discussed.


title: Superconducting Nanocircuits for Topologically Protected Qubits

abstract:
  For successful realization of a quantum computer, its building blocks
(qubits) should be simultaneously scalable and sufficiently protected from
environmental noise. Recently, a novel approach to the protection of
superconducting qubits has been proposed. The idea is to prevent errors at the
"hardware" level, by building a fault-free (topologically protected) logical
qubit from "faulty" physical qubits with properly engineered interactions
between them. It has been predicted that the decoupling of a protected logical
qubit from local noises would grow exponentially with the number of physical
qubits. Here we report on the proof-of-concept experiments with a prototype
device which consists of twelve physical qubits made of nanoscale Josephson
junctions. We observed that due to properly tuned quantum fluctuations, this
qubit is protected against magnetic flux variations well beyond linear order,
in agreement with theoretical predictions. These results demonstrate the
feasibility of topologically protected superconducting qubits.


title: Cosmological Constraints on Invisible Decay of Dark Matter

abstract:
  The cold dark matter may be in a meta-stable state and decays to other
particles with a very long lifetime. If the decaying products of the dark
matter are weakly interacting, e.g. neutrinos, then it would have little impact
on astrophysical processes and is therefore difficult to observe. However, such
a decay would affect the expansion history of the Universe because of the
change of the equation of state. We utilize a high-quality type Ia supernovae
(SN Ia) data set selected from several resent observations and the position of
the first peak of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) angular spectrum given
by the WMAP three-year data to constrain the dark matter decay-to-neutrino rate
$\Gamma=\alpha \Gamma_{\chi}$, where $\alpha$ is the fraction of the rest mass
which gets converted to neutrinos, and $\Gamma_{\chi}$ is the decay width. We
find that $\Gamma^{-1} > 0.7\times10^3$ Gyr at 95.5% confidence level.


title: Predictive approach to some quantum paradoxes

abstract:
  In classical probability theory, the best predictor of a future observation
of a random variable $X,$ is its expected value $E_P[X]$ when no other
information is available When information consisting in the observation of
another random variable $Y$ is available, then the best predictor of $X$ is
another random variable $E_P[X|Y].$ It is the purpose of this note to explore
the analogue of this in the case of quantum mechanics. We shall see that
exactly as in classical prediction theory, when the result of an observation is
taken into account by means of a non-commutative conditional expectation, some
of the usual paradoxes cease to be such.


title:
Molecular line mapping of the giant molecular cloud associated with RCW
  106 - II. Column density and dynamical state of the clumps

abstract:
  We present a fully sampled C^{18}O (1-0) map towards the southern giant
molecular cloud (GMC) associated with the HII region RCW 106, and use it in
combination with previous ^{13}CO (1-0) mapping to estimate the gas column
density as a function of position and velocity. We find localized regions of
significant ^{13}CO optical depth in the northern part of the cloud, with
several of the high-opacity clouds in this region likely associated with a
limb-brightened shell around the HII region G333.6-0.2. Optical depth
corrections broaden the distribution of column densities in the cloud, yielding
a log-normal distribution as predicted by simulations of turbulence.
Decomposing the ^{13}CO and C^{18}O data cubes into clumps, we find relatively
weak correlations between size and linewidth, and a more sensitive dependence
of luminosity on size than would be predicted by a constant average column
density. The clump mass spectrum has a slope near -1.7, consistent with
previous studies. The most massive clumps appear to have gravitational binding
energies well in excess of virial equilibrium; we discuss possible
explanations, which include magnetic support and neglect of time-varying
surface terms in the virial theorem. Unlike molecular clouds as a whole, the
clumps within the RCW 106 GMC, while elongated, appear to show random
orientations with respect to the Galactic plane.


title: Mapping among manifolds 1

abstract:
  In this paper we have build the modified Hamiltonian formalism for geometric
objects like the Jacobi fields and metric tensors. In this approach Jacobi
fields and metric tensors are mapped among manifold. As an application, we have
mapped a general n-dimensional Riemannian manifold to a n-dimensional maximally
symmetric spacetime.


title: Approximation Resistant Predicates From Pairwise Independence

abstract:
  We study the approximability of predicates on $k$ variables from a domain
$[q]$, and give a new sufficient condition for such predicates to be
approximation resistant under the Unique Games Conjecture. Specifically, we
show that a predicate $P$ is approximation resistant if there exists a balanced
pairwise independent distribution over $[q]^k$ whose support is contained in
the set of satisfying assignments to $P$.


title:
Theory of high-order harmonic generation from molecules by intense laser
  pulses

abstract:
  We show that high-order harmonics generated from molecules by intense laser
pulses can be expressed as the product of a returning electron wave packet and
the photo-recombination cross section (PRCS) where the electron wave packet can
be obtained from simple strong-field approximation (SFA) or from a companion
atomic target. Using these wave packets but replacing the PRCS obtained from
SFA or from the atomic target by the accurate PRCS from molecules, the
resulting HHG spectra are shown to agree well with the benchmark results from
direct numerical solution of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation, for the
case of H$_2^+$ in laser fields. The result illustrates that these powerful
theoretical tools can be used for obtaining high-order harmonic spectra from
molecules. More importantly, the results imply that the PRCS extracted from
laser-induced HHG spectra can be used for time-resolved dynamic chemical
imaging of transient molecules with temporal resolutions down to a few
femtoseconds.


title: Radio-loudness of Active Galaxies and the Black Hole Evolution

abstract:
  Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) form two distinct sequences on the
radio-loudness -- Eddington-ratio plane. The `upper' sequence contains radio
selected AGNs, the `lower' sequence is composed mainly of optically selected
AGNs. The sequences mark the upper bounds for the radio-loudness of two
distinct populations of AGNs, hosted respectively by elliptical and disk
galaxies. Both sequences show the same dependence of the radio-loudness on the
Eddington ratio (an increase with decreasing Eddington ratio), which suggests
that another parameter in addition to the accretion rate must play a role in
determining the efficiency of jet production in AGNs. We speculate that this
additional parameter is the spin of the black hole, assuming that black holes
in giant elliptical galaxies have (on average) much larger spins than black
holes in disc galaxies. Possible evolutionary scenarios leading to such a spin
dichotomy are discussed. The galaxy-morphology related radio-dichotomy breaks
down at high accretion rates where the dominant fraction of luminous quasars
being hosted by giant ellipticals is radio quiet. This indicates that the
production of powerful jets at high accretion rates is in most cases suppressed
and, in analogy to X-ray binary systems (XRB) during high and very high states,
may be intermittent. Such intermittency can be caused by switches between two
different accretion modes, assuming that only during one of them an outflow
from the central engine is sufficiently collimated to form a relativistic jet.


title: Theory of smeared quantum phase transitions

abstract:
  We present an analytical strong-disorder renormalization group theory of the
quantum phase transition in the dissipative random transverse-field Ising
chain. For Ohmic dissipation, we solve the renormalization flow equations
analytically, yielding asymptotically exact results for the low-temperature
properties of the system. We find that the interplay between quantum
fluctuations and Ohmic dissipation destroys the quantum critical point by
smearing. We also determine the phase diagram and the behavior of observables
in the vicinity of the smeared quantum phase transition.


title:
Hysteresis, transient oscillations, and nonhysteretic switching in
  resonantly modulated large-spin systems

abstract:
  We study the classical dynamics of resonantly modulated large-spin systems in
a strong magnetic field. We show that these systems have special symmetry. It
leads to characteristic nonlinear effects. They include abrupt switching
between magnetization branches with varying modulating field without hysteresis
and a specific pattern of switching in the presence of multistability and
hysteresis. Along with steady forced vibrations the transverse spin components
can display transient vibrations at a combination of the Larmor frequency and a
slower frequency determined by the anisotropy energy. The analysis is based on
a microscopic theory that takes into account relaxation mechanisms important
for single-molecule magnets and other large-spin systems. We find how the
Landau-Lifshitz model should be modified in order to describe the classical
spin dynamics. The occurrence of transient oscillations depends on the
interrelation between the relaxation parameters.


title: Compressed Counting

abstract:
  Counting is among the most fundamental operations in computing. For example,
counting the pth frequency moment has been a very active area of research, in
theoretical computer science, databases, and data mining. When p=1, the task
(i.e., counting the sum) can be accomplished using a simple counter.
  Compressed Counting (CC) is proposed for efficiently computing the pth
frequency moment of a data stream signal A_t, where 0<p<=2. CC is applicable if
the streaming data follow the Turnstile model, with the restriction that at the
time t for the evaluation, A_t[i]>= 0, which includes the strict Turnstile
model as a special case. For natural data streams encountered in practice, this
restriction is minor.
  The underly technique for CC is what we call skewed stable random
projections, which captures the intuition that, when p=1 a simple counter
suffices, and when p = 1+/\Delta with small \Delta, the sample complexity of a
counter system should be low (continuously as a function of \Delta). We show at
small \Delta the sample complexity (number of projections) k = O(1/\epsilon)
instead of O(1/\epsilon^2).
  Compressed Counting can serve a basic building block for other tasks in
statistics and computing, for example, estimation entropies of data streams,
parameter estimations using the method of moments and maximum likelihood.
  Finally, another contribution is an algorithm for approximating the
logarithmic norm, \sum_{i=1}^D\log A_t[i], and logarithmic distance. The
logarithmic distance is useful in machine learning practice with heavy-tailed
data.


title: Software graphs and programmer awareness

abstract:
  Dependencies between types in object-oriented software can be viewed as
directed graphs, with types as nodes and dependencies as edges. The in-degree
and out-degree distributions of such graphs have quite different forms, with
the former resembling a power-law distribution and the latter an exponential
distribution. This effect appears to be independent of application or type
relationship. A simple generative model is proposed to explore the proposition
that the difference arises because the programmer is aware of the out-degree of
a type but not of its in-degree. The model reproduces the two distributions,
and compares reasonably well to those observed in 14 different type
relationships across 12 different Java applications.


title:
Geometric prequantization of a modified Seiberg-Witten moduli space in 2
  dimensions

abstract:
  In this paper we consider a dimensional reduction of slightly modified
  Seiberg-Witten equations, the modification being a different choice of the
Pauli matrices which go into defining the equations. We get interesting
equations with a Higgs field, spinors and a connection. We show interesting
solutions of these equations. Then we go on to show a family of symplectic
structures on the moduli space of these equations which can be geometrically
prequantized using the Quillen determinant line bundle.


title:
Three-dimensional Simulations of Accretion to Stars with Complex
  Magnetic Fields

abstract:
  Disk accretion to rotating stars with complex magnetic fields is investigated
using full three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. The studied
magnetic configurations include superpositions of misaligned dipole and
quadrupole fields and off-centre dipoles. The simulations show that when the
quadrupole component is comparable to the dipole component, the magnetic field
has a complex structure with three major magnetic poles on the surface of the
star and three sets of loops of field lines connecting them. A significant
amount of matter flows to the quadrupole "belt", forming a ring-like hot spot
on the star. If the maximum strength of the magnetic field on the star is
fixed, then we observe that the mass accretion rate, the torque on the star,
and the area covered by hot spots are several times smaller in the
quadrupole-dominant cases than in the pure dipole cases. The influence of the
quadrupole component on the shape of the hot spots becomes noticeable when the
ratio of the quadrupole and dipole field strengths $B_q/B_d\gtrsim0.5$, and
becomes dominant when $B_q/B_d\gtrsim1$. In the case of an off-centre dipole
field, most of the matter flows through a one-armed accretion stream, forming a
large hot spot on the surface, with a second much smaller secondary spot. The
light curves may have simple, sinusoidal shapes, thus mimicking stars with pure
dipole fields. Or, they may be complex and unusual. In some cases the light
curves may be indicators of a complex field, in particular if the inclination
angle is known independently. We also note that in the case of complex fields,
magnetospheric gaps are often not empty, and this may be important for the
survival of close-in exosolar planets.


title:
The RR Lyrae Period-Luminosity-(Pseudo-)Color and
  Period-Color-(Pseudo-)Color Relations in the Str\"omgren Photometric System:
  Theoretical Calibration

abstract:
  We present a theoretical calibration of the RR Lyrae period-luminosity-color
and period-color-color relations in the multiband uvby Stroemgren photometric
system. Our theoretical work is based on calculations of synthetic horizontal
branches (HBs) for four different metallicities, fully taking into account
evolutionary effects for a wide range in metallicities and HB morphologies.
While our results show that "pure" period-luminosity and period-color relations
do not exist in the Stroemgren system, which is due to the large scatter that
is brought about by evolutionary effects when the uvby bandpasses are used,
they also reveal that such scatter can be almost completely taken into account
by incorporating Stroemgren pseudo-color [C_0 = (u-v)_0 - (v-b)_0] terms into
those equations, thus leading to tight period-luminosity-{\em pseudo}-color
(PLpsC) and period-color-{\em pseudo}-color (PCpsC) relations. We provide the
latter in the form of analytical fits, so that they can be applied with high
precision even in the case of field stars. In view of the very small
sensitivity of C_0 to interstellar reddening, our PLpsC and PCpsC relations
should be especially useful for the derivation of high-precision distance and
reddening values. In this sense, we carry out a first application of our
relations to field RR Lyrae stars, finding evidence that the stars RR Lyr, SU
Dra, and SS Leo -- but not SV Hya -- are somewhat overluminous (by amounts
ranging from ~0.05 to 0.20 mag in y, and thus V) with respect to the average
for other RR Lyrae stars of similar metallicity.


title: D4 Flavor Symmetry for Neutrino Masses and Mixing

abstract:
  We present the $D_4\times Z_2$ flavor symmetry, which is different from the
previous work by Grimus and Lavoura. Our model reduces to the standard model in
the low energy and there is no FCNC at the tree level. Putting the experimental
data, parameters are fixed, and then the implication of our model is discussed.
The condition to realize the tri-bimaximal mixing is presented. The possibility
for stringy realization of our model is also discussed.


title: Bar constructions and Quillen homology of modules over operads

abstract:
  We show that topological Quillen homology of algebras and modules over
operads in symmetric spectra can be calculated by realizations of simplicial
bar constructions. Working with several model category structures, we give a
homotopical proof after showing that certain homotopy colimits in algebras and
modules over operads can be easily understood. A key result here, which lies at
the heart of this paper, is showing that the forgetful functor commutes with
certain homotopy colimits. We also prove analogous results for algebras and
modules over operads in unbounded chain complexes.


title:
Drift effects and the cosmic ray density gradient in a solar rotation
  period: First observation with the Global Muon Detector Network (GMDN)

abstract:
  We present for the first time hourly variations of the spatial density
gradient of 50 GeV cosmic rays within a sample solar rotation period in 2006.
By inversely solving the transport equation, including diffusion, we deduce the
gradient from the anisotropy that is derived from the observation made by the
Global Muon Detector Network (GMDN). The anisotropy obtained by applying a new
analysis method to the GMDN data is precise and free from atmospheric
temperature effects on the muon count rate recorded by ground based detectors.
We find the derived north-south gradient perpendicular to the ecliptic plane is
oriented toward the Helioshperic Current Sheet (HCS) (i.e. southward in the
toward sector of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) and northward in the
away sector). The orientation of the gradient component parallel to the
ecliptic plane remains similar in both sectors with an enhancement of its
magnitude seen after the Earth crosses the HCS. These temporal features are
interpreted in terms of a local maximum of the cosmic ray density at the HCS.
This is consistent with the prediction of the drift model for the $A<0$ epoch.
By comparing the observed gradient with the numerical prediction of a simple
drift model, we conclude that particle drifts in the large-scale magnetic field
play an important role in organizing the density gradient, at least in the
present $A<0$ epoch. We also found that corotating interaction regions did not
have such a notable effect. Observations with the GMDN provide us with a new
tool for investigating cosmic ray transport in the IMF.