title:
Knowledge Management Strategies and Emerging Technologies -- An Overview
  Of the Underpinning Concepts

abstract:
  Among the essential elements of knowledge management is the use of
information and data, as well as the knowledge, skills, and abilities inherent
within communities, as well as their ideas, commitments, and motivations for
making good decisions as emerging technologies become more prevalent. Numerous
leading social scientists in this field have asserted that organisational
knowledge should be regarded as a strategic asset. There is a growing awareness
of the importance of gathering, locating, capturing, and sharing collective
knowledge and expertise of societies, and societies are urged to develop
effective and efficient methods of gathering, locating, capturing, and sharing
that knowledge in order to deal with problems and to benefit from
opportunities. People living in many countries and regions are interested in
implementing knowledge management processes and technologies, and many of them
have included knowledge management as an integral part of their overall
development strategies. The management of knowledge plays an increasingly
important role in global economic development (Bell, 1973, 1978). In order to
remain relevant in the modern world, organisations should not ignore knowledge
management and emerging technologies.


title: Einstein-Yang-Mills equations in the double null framework

abstract:
  We prove a semi-global gauge-invariant estimate for the solutions of the
characteristic initial value problem associated with the coupled
Einstein-Yang-Mills equations. In particular, we prove the existence of
\textit{a} future development of regular initial data on a pair of incoming and
outgoing null hypersurfaces emanating from a spacelike topological $2$-sphere.
This semi-global existence result is to be used in a potential future proof of
trapped surface formation in the context of coupled Einstein-Yang-Mills
dynamics.


title:
The diffuse supernova neutrino background as a probe of late-time
  neutrino mass generation

abstract:
  The relic neutrinos from old supernova explosions are among the most ancient
neutrino fluxes within experimental reach. Thus, the diffuse supernova neutrino
background (DSNB) could teach us if neutrino masses were different in the past
(redshifts $z\lesssim 5$). Oscillations inside the supernova depend strongly on
the neutrino mass-squared differences and the values of the mixing angles,
rendering the DSNB energy spectrum sensitive to variations of these parameters.
Considering a purely phenomenological parameterization of the neutrino masses
as a function of redshift, we compute the expected local DSNB spectrum here on
Earth. Given the current knowledge of neutrino oscillation parameters,
specially the fact that $|U_{e3}|^2$ is small, we find that the $\nu_e$
spectrum could be significantly different from standard expectations if
neutrinos were effectively massless at $z\gtrsim1$ as long as the neutrino mass
ordering is normal. On the other hand, the $\overline{\nu}_e$ flux is not
expected to be significantly impacted. Hence, a measurement of both the
neutrino and antineutrino components of the DSNB should allow one to test the
possibility of recent neutrino mass generation.


title:
The Directly-Imaged Exoplanet Host Star 51 Eridani is a Gamma Doradus
  Pulsator

abstract:
  51 Eri is well known for hosting a directly-imaged giant planet and for its
membership to the $\beta$ Pictoris moving group. Using two-minute cadence
photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), we detect
multi-periodic variability in 51 Eri that is consistent with pulsations of
Gamma Doradus ($\gamma$ Dor) stars. We identify the most significant pulsation
modes (with frequencies between $\sim$0.5-3.9 cycles/day and amplitudes ranging
between $\sim$1-2 mmag) as dipole and quadrupole gravity-modes, as well as
Rossby modes, as previously observed in Kepler $\gamma$ Dor stars. Our results
demonstrate that previously reported variability attributed to stellar rotation
is instead likely due to $\gamma$ Dor pulsations. Using the mean frequency of
the $l=1$ gravity-modes, together with empirical trends of the Kepler $\gamma$
Dor population, we estimate a plausible stellar core rotation period of
0.9$^{+0.3}_{-0.1}$ days for 51 Eri. We find no significant evidence for
transiting companions around 51 Eri in the residual light curve. The detection
of $\gamma$ Dor pulsations presented here, together with follow-up observations
and modeling, may enable the determination of an asteroseismic age for this
benchmark system. Future TESS observations would allow a constraint on the
stellar core rotation rate, which in turn traces the surface rotation rate, and
thus would help clarify whether or not the stellar equatorial plane and orbit
of 51 Eri b are coplanar.


title:
Non-Invertible Symmetries of $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM and Twisted
  Compactification

abstract:
  Non-invertible symmetries have recently been understood to provide
interesting contraints on RG flows of QFTs. In this work, we show how
non-invertible symmetries can also be used to generate entirely new RG flows,
by means of so-called "non-invertible twisted compactification". We illustrate
the idea in the example of twisted compactifications of 4d $\mathcal{N}=4$
super-Yang-Mills (SYM) to three dimensions. After giving a catalogue of
non-invertible symmetries descending from Montonen-Olive duality
transformations of 4d $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM, we show that twisted
compactification by non-invertible symmetries can be used to obtain 3d
$\mathcal{N}=6$ theories which appear otherwise unreachable if one restricts to
twists by invertible symmetries.


title:
Extragalactic magnetism with SOFIA (SALSA Legacy Program) -- IV: Program
  overview and first results on the polarization fraction

abstract:
  We present the first data release of the Survey on extragALactic magnetiSm
with SOFIA (SALSA Legacy Program) with a set of 14 nearby ($<20$ Mpc) galaxies
with resolved imaging polarimetric observations using HAWC+ from $53$ to $214$
$\mu$m at a resolution of $5-18$" ($90$ pc $-$ $1$ kpc). We introduce the
definitions and background on extragalactic magnetism, and present the
scientific motivation and sample selection of the program. Here, we focus on
the general trends in the emissive polarization fraction. Far-infrared
polarimetric observations trace the thermal polarized emission of magnetically
aligned dust grains across the galaxy disks with polarization fractions of
$P=0-15$% in the cold, $T_{d} = [19,48]$ K, and dense, $\log_{10}(N_{HI+H_{2}})
= [19.96,22.91]$, interstellar medium. The spiral galaxies show a median
$\langle P_{154\mu m} \rangle = 3.3\pm0.9 $% across the disks. We report the
first polarized spectrum of starburst galaxies showing a minimum within
$89-154$ $\mu$m. The falling $53-154$ $\mu$m polarized spectrum may be due to a
decrease in the dust grain alignment efficiency produced by variations in dust
temperatures along the line-of-sight in the galactic outflow. We find that the
starburst galaxies and the star-forming regions within normal galaxies have the
lowest polarization fractions. We find that 50% (7 out of 14) of the galaxies
require a broken power-law in the $P-N_{HI+H_{2}}$ and $P-T_{d}$ relations with
three different trends. Group 1 has a relative increase of anisotropic random
B-fields produced by compression or shear of B-fields in the galactic outflows,
starburst rings, and inner-bar of galaxies; and Groups 2 and 3 have a relative
increase of isotropic random B-fields driven by star-forming regions in the
spiral arms, and/or an increase of dust grain alignment efficiency caused by
shock-driven regions or evolutionary stages of a galaxy.


title:
On the Equivalence between SRS and PCO Formulations of Superstring
  Perturbation Theory

abstract:
  We establish the equivalence between two formulations of superstring
perturbation theory, one based on integration over the supermoduli space of
super Riemann surfaces (SRS), the other based on integration over the bosonic
moduli space with insertions of picture changing operators (PCO) on the
worldsheet and the vertical integration prescription, by showing how the latter
arises from a specific construction of the supermoduli integration contour.


title: Classical Cosmological Collider Physics and Primordial Features

abstract:
  Features in the inflationary landscape can inject extra energies to inflation
models and produce on-shell particles with masses much larger than the Hubble
scale of inflation. This possibility extends the energy reach of the program of
cosmological collider physics, in which signals associated with these particles
are generically Boltzmann-suppressed. We study the mechanisms of this classical
cosmological collider in two categories of primordial features. In the first
category, the primordial feature is classical oscillation, which includes the
case of coherent oscillation of a massive field and the case of oscillatory
features in the inflationary potential. The second category includes any sharp
feature in the inflation model. All these classical features can excite
unsuppressed quantum modes of other heavy fields which leave observational
signatures in primordial non-Gaussianities, including the information about the
particle spectra of these heavy degrees of freedom.


title: Brief history of the pion-nucleon sigma term

abstract:
  The pion-nucleon sigma term is a quantity involved in many important aspects
of particle and nuclear physics. In this review I show its origin and how it is
connected to important questions as the origin of mass of the ordinary matter,
studies of dark matter detection and nucleosynthesis. I mention the most common
methods used to obtain the sigma term, and comment on the extracted values. As
it is shown, the accepted value of the sigma term has been moving from
relatively low ($\sim 40$ MeV) to larger ones ($\sim 60$ MeV) until today,
where this controversy still persist.


title: Practical Jet Flavour Through NNLO

abstract:
  An infrared and collinear (IRC) safe definition of the partonic flavour of a
jet is vital for precision predictions of quantum chromodynamics at colliders.
Jet flavour definitions have been presented in the literature, but they are
typically defined through modification of the jet algorithm to be sensitive to
partonic flavour at every stage of the clustering. While this does ensure that
the sum of flavours in a jet is IRC safe, a flavour-sensitive clustering
procedure is difficult to apply to realistic data. We introduce a distinct and
novel approach to jet flavour that can be applied to any collection of partons
defined by any algorithm. Our definition of jet flavour is the sum of flavours
of all partons that remain after Soft Drop grooming, reclustered with the Jade
algorithm. We prove that this prescription is IRC safe through
next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO), and so can interface with the most
precise fixed-order calculations for jets available at present. We validate the
IRC safety of this definition with numeric fixed-order codes and further show
that jet flavour with Soft Drop reclustered with a generalised kT algorithm
fails to be IRC safe at NNLO.


title: The gravitational field of X-COP galaxy clusters

abstract:
  The mass profiles of massive dark matter halos are highly sensitive to the
nature of dark matter and potential modifications of the theory of gravity on
large scales. The $\Lambda$CDM paradigm makes strong predictions on the shape
of dark matter halos and on the dependence of the shape parameters on halo
mass, such that any deviation from the predicted universal shape would have
important implications for the fundamental properties of dark matter. Here we
use a set of 12 galaxy clusters with available deep X-ray and Sunyaev-Zeldovich
data to constrain the shape of the gravitational field with an unprecedented
level of precision over two decades in radius. On average, we find that the NFW
profile provides an excellent description of the recovered mass profiles, with
deviations of less than 10% over a wide radial range. However, there appears to
be more diversity in the shape of individual profiles than can be captured by
the NFW model. The average NFW concentration and its scatter agree very well
with the prediction of the $\Lambda$CDM framework. For a subset of systems, we
disentangle the gravitational field into the contribution of baryonic
components (gas, brightest cluster galaxy, and satellite galaxies) and that of
dark matter. The stellar content dominates the gravitational field inside
$\sim0.02R_{500}$ but is responsible for only 1-2% of the total gravitational
field inside $R_{200}$. The total baryon fraction reaches the cosmic value at
$R_{200}$ and slightly exceeds it beyond this point, possibly indicating a mild
level of nonthermal pressure support ($10-20\%$) in cluster outskirts. Finally,
the relation between observed and baryonic acceleration exhibits a complex
shape that strongly departs from the radial acceleration relation in spiral
galaxies, which shows that the aforementioned relation does not hold at the
galaxy-cluster scale.


title: Complete magnetic control over the superconducting thermoelectric effect

abstract:
  Giant thermoelectric effects are known to arise at the interface between
superconductors and strongly polarized ferromagnets, enabling the construction
of efficient thermoelectric generators. We predict that the thermopower of such
a generator can be completely controlled by a magnetic input signal: Not only
can the thermopower be toggled on and off by rotating a magnet, but it can even
be entirely reversed. This in situ control diverges from conventional
thermoelectrics, where the thermopower is usually fixed by the device design.


title:
Kepler and the Behemoth: Three Mini-Neptunes in a 40 Million Year Old
  Association

abstract:
  Stellar positions and velocities from Gaia are yielding a new view of open
cluster dispersal. Here we present an analysis of a group of stars spanning
Cepheus to Hercules, hereafter the Cep-Her complex. The group includes four
Kepler Objects of Interest: Kepler-1643 b ($2.32 \pm 0.14$ Earth-radii, 5.3 day
orbital period), KOI-7368 b ($2.22 \pm 0.12$ Earth-radii, 6.8 days), KOI-7913
Ab ($2.34 \pm 0.18$ Earth-radii, 24.2 days), and Kepler-1627 Ab ($3.85 \pm
0.11$ Earth-radii, 7.2 days). The latter Neptune-sized planet is in part of the
Cep-Her complex called the $\delta$ Lyr cluster (Bouma et al. 2022). Here we
focus on the former three systems, which are in other regions of the
association. Based on kinematic evidence from Gaia, stellar rotation periods
from TESS, and spectroscopy, these three objects are also approximately 40
million years (Myr) old. More specifically, we find that Kepler-1643 is
$46^{+9}_{-7}$ Myr old, based on its membership in a dense sub-cluster of the
complex called RSG-5. KOI-7368 and KOI-7913 are $36^{+10}_{-8}$ Myr old, and
are in a diffuse region that we call CH-2. Based on the transit shapes and high
resolution imaging, all three objects are most likely planets, with false
positive probabilities of $6 \times 10^{-9}$, $4 \times 10^{-3}$, and $1 \times
10^{-4}$ for Kepler-1643, KOI-7368, and KOI-7913 respectively. These planets
demonstrate that mini-Neptunes with sizes of approximately 2 Earth radii exist
at ages of 40 million years.


title:
The properties of the X-ray corona in the distant ($z=3.91$) quasar APM
  08279+5255

abstract:
  We present new joint XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations of APM 08279+5255, a
gravitationally-lensed, broad-absorption line quasar ($z=3.91$). After showing
a fairly stable flux ($f_{\rm2-10}\simeq4-5.5\times10^{-13}\rm~erg~s^{-1}$)
from 2000 to 2008, APM 08279+5255 was found in a fainter state in the latest
X-ray exposures ($f_{\rm2-10}\simeq2.7\times10^{-13}\rm~erg~s^{-1}$), which can
likely be ascribed to a lower X-ray activity. Moreover, the 2019 data present a
prominent Fe K$\alpha$ emission line and do not show any significant absorption
line. This fainter state, coupled to the first hard X-ray sampling of APM
08279+5255, allowed us to measure X-ray reflection and the high-energy cutoff
in this source for the first time. From the analysis of previous XMM-Newton and
Chandra observations, X-ray reflection is demonstrated to be a long-lasting
feature of this source, but less prominent prior to 2008, possibly due to a
stronger primary emission. The estimated high-energy cutoff ($E_{\rm
cut}=99_{-35}^{+91}$ keV) sets a new redshift record for the farthest ever
measured and places APM 08279+5255 in the allowed region of the
compactness-temperature diagram of X-ray coronae, in agreement with previous
results on high-$z$ quasars.


title:
A Submillimeter Perspective on the GOODS Fields (SUPER GOODS). V. Deep
  450 Micron Imaging

abstract:
  We present deep SCUBA-2 450 micron imaging of the two GOODS fields, achieving
a central rms of 1.14 mJy for the GOODS-N and 1.86 mJy for the GOODS-S. For
each field, we give a catalog of >4-sigma detections (79 and 16 sources,
respectively). We construct the 450 micron number counts, finding excellent
agreement with others from the literature. We match the 450 micron sources to
20 cm data (both fields) and ALMA 870 micron data (GOODS-S) to gauge the
accuracy of the 450 micron positions. We use the extensive redshift information
available on the fields to test how well redshift can be estimated from simple
flux ratios (450 micron/850 micron and 20 cm/850 micron), finding tight
correlations. We provide a catalog of candidate high-redshift submillimeter
galaxies. We look for evolution in dust temperature with redshift by fitting
the spectral energy distributions of the sources, but we do not find any
significant redshift evolution after accounting for the far-infrared
luminosity. We do not find evidence for 450 micron selection picking out warmer
sources than 850 micron selection. We find that a 450 micron selected sample
only adds low-redshift (z<1.5) galaxies beyond an 850 micron sample.


title:
Muon and electron $g-2$ anomalies in a flavor conserving 2HDM with an
  oblique view on the CDF $M_W$ value

abstract:
  We consider a type I or type X two Higgs doublets model with a modified
lepton sector. The generalized lepton sector is also flavor conserving but with
the new Yukawa couplings completely decoupled from lepton mass proportionality.
The model is one loop stable under renormalization group evolution and it
allows to reproduce the $g-2$ muon anomaly together with the different
scenarios one can consider for the electron $g-2$ anomaly, related to the
Cesium and/or to the Rubidium recoil measurements of the fine structure
constant. Thorough parameter space analyses are performed to constrain all the
model parameters in the different scenarios, either including or not including
the recent CDF measurement of the W boson mass. For light new scalars with
masses in the $0.2$-$1.0$ TeV range, the muon anomaly receives dominant one
loop contributions; it is for heavy new scalars with masses above $1.2$ TeV
that two loop Barr-Zee diagrams are needed. The electron $g-2$ anomaly, if any,
must always be obtained with the two loop contributions. The final allowed
regions are quite sensitive to the assumptions about perturbativity of Yukawa
couplings, which influence unexpected observables like the allowed scalar mass
ranges. On that respect, intermediate scalar masses, highly constrained by
direct LHC searches, are allowed provided that the new lepton Yukawa couplings
are fully scrutinized, including values up to 250 GeV. In the framework of a
complete model, fully numerically analysed, we show the implications of the
recent $M_{W}$ measurement.


title:
Uniform Recalibration of Common Spectrophotometry Standard Stars onto
  the CALSPEC System using the SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph

abstract:
  We calibrate spectrophotometric optical spectra of 32 stars commonly used as
standard stars, referenced to 14 stars already on the HST-based CALSPEC flux
system. Observations of CALSPEC and non-CALSPEC stars were obtained with the
SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph over the wavelength range 3300 A to 9400
A as calibration for the Nearby Supernova Factory cosmology experiment. In
total, this analysis used 4289 standard-star spectra taken on photometric
nights. As a modern cosmology analysis, all pre-submission methodological
decisions were made with the flux scale and external comparison results
blinded. The large number of spectra per star allows us to treat the
wavelength-by-wavelength calibration for all nights simultaneously with a
Bayesian hierarchical model, thereby enabling a consistent treatment of the
Type Ia supernova cosmology analysis and the calibration on which it critically
relies. We determine the typical per-observation repeatability (median 14 mmag
for exposures >~ 5 s), the Maunakea atmospheric transmission distribution
(median dispersion of 7 mmag with uncertainty 1 mmag), and the scatter internal
to our CALSPEC reference stars (median of 8 mmag). We also check our standards
against literature filter photometry, finding generally good agreement over the
full 12-magnitude range. Overall, the mean of our system is calibrated to the
mean of CALSPEC at the level of ~ 3 mmag. With our large number of
observations, careful crosschecks, and 14 reference stars, our results are the
best calibration yet achieved with an integral-field spectrograph, and among
the best calibrated surveys.


title: A Fragmentation Approach to Jet Flavor

abstract:
  An intuitive definition of the partonic flavor of a jet in quantum
chromodynamics is often only well-defined in the deep ultraviolet, where the
strong force becomes a free theory and a jet consists of a single parton.
However, measurements are performed in the infrared, where a jet consists of
numerous particles and requires an algorithmic procedure to define their phase
space boundaries. To connect these two regimes, we introduce a novel and simple
partonic jet flavor definition in the infrared. We define the jet flavor to be
the net flavor of the partons that lie exactly along the direction of the
Winner-Take-All recombination scheme axis of the jet, which is safe to all
orders under emissions of soft particles, but is not collinear safe. Collinear
divergences can be absorbed into a perturbative fragmentation function that
describes the evolution of the jet flavor from the ultraviolet to the infrared.
The evolution equations are linear and a small modification to traditional
DGLAP and we solve them to leading-logarithmic accuracy. The evolution
equations exhibit fixed points in the deep infrared, we demonstrate
quantitative agreement with parton shower simulations, and we present various
infrared and collinear safe observables that are sensitive to this flavor
definition.


title:
On the Standard Model Predictions for Rare K and B Decay Branching
  Ratios: 2022

abstract:
  In this decade one expects a very significant progress in measuring the
branching ratios for several rare $K$ and $B$ decays, in particular for the
decays $K^+\to\pi^+\nu\bar\nu$, $K_L\to\pi^0\nu\bar\nu$, $B_s\to\mu^+\mu^+$ and
$B_d\to\mu^+\mu^+$. On the theory side a very significant progress on
calculating these branching ratios has been achieved in the last thirty years
culminating recently in rather precise SM predictions for them. It is then
unfortunate that some papers still cite the results for $K^+\to\pi^+\nu\bar\nu$
and $K_L\to\pi^0\nu\bar\nu$ presented by us in 2015. They are clearly out of
date. Similar comments apply to predictions for $B_{s,d}\to\mu^+\mu^-$. In this
note I want to stress again that, in view of the tensions between various
determinations of $V_{cb}$ in tree-level decays, presently, the only trustable
SM predictions for the branching ratios in question can be obtained by
eliminating their dependence on the CKM parameters with the help of
$|\varepsilon_K|$, $\Delta M_s$, $\Delta M_d$ and $S_{\psi K_S}$, evaluated in
the SM. In this context I am astonished by statements made by some computer
code practitioners that setting in this strategy these four $\Delta F=2$
observables to their experimental values is an assumption. The goal of this
strategy is not to make an overall SM fit but to predict the SM branching
ratios. In the SM there are no new physics (NP) contributions to $\Delta F=2$
transitions and no assumption on the absence of NP is needed. Moreover,
presently NP is not required to describe simultaneously the very precise data
on $|\varepsilon_K|$, $\Delta M_s$, $\Delta M_d$ and $S_{\psi K_S}$. This
strategy for obtaining true SM predictions for rare decay branching ratios is
moreover not polluted by hadronic uncertainies and observed anomalies in
semi-leptonic decays used often in global analyses.


title: Axion wormholes with massive dilaton

abstract:
  If Euclidean wormholes contribute meaningfully to the path integral of
quantum gravity they can have important implications for particle physics and
cosmology. The dominant effects arise from wormholes whose sizes are comparable
to the cut-off scale of effective field theory, for which ultraviolet
corrections become relevant. We study corrections to classical axion wormhole
solutions in string motivated scenarios in which the dilaton partner of the
axion becomes massive. We find corrections near the neck region which are
consistent with a recent version of the weak gravity conjecture for axions.


title:
Viable quark-lepton Yukawa ratios and nucleon decay predictions in
  $SU(5)$ GUTs with type-II seesaw

abstract:
  We investigate the viability of predictive schemes for quark-lepton Yukawa
ratios and nucleon decay in non-supersymmetric SU(5) Grand Unified Theories
(GUTs) where neutrino masses are generated by a type II seesaw mechanism. The
scalar sector of the considered scenario contains 5-, 24- and 45-dimensional
representations plus a 15-dimensional representation for realising the type II
seesaw. Predictions for the ratios of the quark and lepton Yukawa couplings
emerge when the relevant entries of the Yukawa matrices are generated from
single joint GUT operators (i.e. under the condition of "single operator
dominance"). Focusing on the 2nd and 3rd family and hierarchical Yukawa
matrices, we show that only two sets of predictions,
$\frac{y_\tau}{y_b}=\frac{3}{2}$, $\frac{y_\mu}{y_s}=\frac{9}{2}$ and
$\frac{y_\tau}{y_b}=2$, $\frac{y_\mu}{y_s}=6$ are viable. To further
investigate both options, we extend the minimal scenarios to two "toy models",
including the 1st family of charged fermions, and calculate the models'
predictions, e.g. for the nucleon decay rates and for the masses of the light
relics that are potentially within reach of colliders.


title:
Efficient variational synthesis of quantum circuits with coherent
  multi-start optimization

abstract:
  We consider the problem of the variational quantum circuit synthesis into a
gate set consisting of the CNOT gate and arbitrary single-qubit (1q) gates with
the primary target being the minimization of the CNOT count. First we note that
along with the discrete architecture search suffering from the combinatorial
explosion of complexity, optimization over 1q gates can also be a crucial
roadblock due to the omnipresence of local minimums (well known in the context
of variational quantum algorithms but apparently underappreciated in the
context of the variational compiling). Taking the issue seriously, we make an
extensive search over the initial conditions an essential part of our approach.
Another key idea we propose is to use parametrized two-qubit (2q) controlled
phase gates, which can interpolate between the identity gate and the CNOT gate,
and allow a continuous relaxation of the discrete architecture search, which
can be executed jointly with the optimization over 1q gates. This coherent
optimization of the architecture together with 1q gates appears to work
surprisingly well in practice, sometimes even outperforming optimization over
1q gates alone (for fixed optimal architectures). As illustrative examples and
applications we derive 8 CNOT and T depth 3 decomposition of the 3q Toffoli
gate on the nearest-neighbor topology, rediscover known best decompositions of
the 4q Toffoli gate on all 4q topologies including a 1 CNOT gate improvement on
the star-shaped topology, and propose decomposition of the 5q Toffoli gate on
the nearest-neighbor topology with 48 CNOT gates. We also benchmark the
performance of our approach on a number of 5q quantum circuits from the
ibm_qx_mapping database showing that it is highly competitive with the existing
software. The algorithm developed in this work is available as a Python package
CPFlow.


title: Demonstration of universal time-reversal for quantum processes

abstract:
  Although the laws of classical physics are deterministic, thermodynamics
gives rise to an arrow of time through irreversible processes. In quantum
mechanics the unitary nature of the time evolution makes it intrinsically
reversible, however the question of how to revert an unknown time evolution
nevertheless remains. Remarkably, there have been several recent demonstrations
of protocols for reverting unknown unitaries in scenarios where even the
interactions with the target system are unknown. The practical use of these
universal rewinding protocols is limited by their probabilistic nature, raising
the fundamental question of whether time-reversal could be performed
deterministically. Here we show that quantum physics indeed allows for
deterministic universal time-reversal by exploiting the non-commuting nature of
quantum operators, and demonstrate a recursive protocol for two-level quantum
systems with an arbitrarily high probability of success. Using a photonic
platform we demonstrate our protocol, reverting the discrete time evolution of
a polarization state with an average state fidelity of over 95%. Our protocol,
requiring no knowledge of the quantum process to be rewound, is optimal in its
running time, and brings quantum rewinding into a regime of practical
relevance.


title:
Constraints on dark matter self-interaction from the internal density
  profiles of X-COP galaxy clusters

abstract:
  TThe fundamental properties of the postulated dark matter (DM) affect the
internal structure of gravitationally-bound structures. In the cold dark matter
paradigm, DM particles interact only via gravity. Their distribution is well
represented by an Einasto profile with shape parameter $\alpha\approx0.18$, in
the smallest dwarf galaxies or the most massive galaxy clusters alike.
Conversely, if dark matter particles self-interact via additional forces, we
expect the mass density profiles of DM halos to flatten in their central
regions, thereby increasing the Einasto shape parameter. We measure the
structural properties of the 12 massive X-COP galaxy clusters from observations
of their hot gaseous atmosphere using the X-ray observatory XMM-Newton, and of
the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect using the Planck all-sky survey. After removing
morphologically disturbed systems, we measure Einasto shape parameters with
mean $\langle\alpha\rangle = 0.19 \pm 0.03$ and intrinsic scatter
$\sigma_{\alpha}=0.06$, in close agreement with the prediction of the cold dark
matter paradigm. We use cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of cluster
formation with self-interacting DM (BAHAMAS-SIDM) to determine how the Einasto
shape parameter depends on the self-interaction cross section. We use the
fitted relation to turn our measurements of $\alpha$ into constraints on the
self-interaction cross section, which imply $\sigma/m < 0.19$ cm$^2$/g (95%
confidence level) at collision velocity $v_\mathrm{DM-DM}\sim1,000$ km/s. This
is lower than the interaction cross-section required for dark matter
self-interactions to solve the core-cusp problem in dwarf spheroidal galaxies,
unless the cross section is a strong function of velocity.


title:
A Radio-selected Population of Dark, Long Gamma-ray Bursts: Comparison
  to the Long Gamma-ray Burst Population and Implications for Host Dust
  Distributions

abstract:
  We present cm-band and mm-band afterglow observations of five long-duration
$\gamma$-ray bursts (GRBs; GRB 130131A, 130420B, 130609A, 131229A, 140713A)
with dust-obscured optical afterglow emission, known as "dark" GRBs. We detect
the radio afterglow of two of the dark GRBs (GRB 130131A and 140713A), along
with a tentative detection of a third (GRB 131229A) with the Karl G. Jansky
Very Large Array (VLA). Supplemented by three additional VLA-detected dark GRBs
from the literature, we present uniform modeling of their broadband afterglows.
We derive high line-of-sight dust extinctions of $A_{V, \rm GRB} \gtrsim 2.2 -
10.6~{\rm mag}$. Additionally, we model the host galaxies of the six bursts in
our sample, and derive host galaxy dust extinctions of $A_{V, \rm Host} \approx
0.3-4.7~{\rm mag}$. Across all tested $\gamma$-ray (fluence and duration) and
afterglow properties (energy scales, geometries and circumburst densities), we
find dark GRBs to be representative of more typical unobscured long GRBs,
except in fluence, for which observational biases and inconsistent
classification may influence the dark GRB distribution. Additionally, we find
that $A_{V, \rm GRB}$ is not related to a uniform distribution of dust
throughout the host, nor to the extremely local environment of the burst,
indicating that a larger scale patchy dust distribution is the cause of the
high line-of-sight extinction. Since radio observations are invaluable to
revealing heavily dust-obscured GRBs, we make predictions for the detection of
radio emission from host star formation with the next generation VLA.


title:
5d Higgs Branches from M-theory on quasi-homogeneous cDV threefold
  singularities

abstract:
  We classify rank zero 5d SCFTs geometrically engineered from M-theory on
quasi-homogeneous compound Du Val isolated threefold singularities. For all
such theories, we characterize the Higgs Branch, by computing the dimension,
the continuous and discrete symmetry groups, as well as more refined details
such as the charges of the hypermultiplets under these groups. We derive these
data by means of a gauge-theoretic method, that we have recently introduced,
based on establishing a correspondence between an adjoint Higgs field and the
M-theory geometry. As a byproduct, this further allows us to construct several
T-brane backgrounds, that yield inequivalent 5d spectra but are associated with
the same geometry.


title: The defocused observations of bright sources with Athena/X-IFU

abstract:
  The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray
spectrometer of ESA's Athena X-ray observatory. It will deliver X-ray data in
the 0.2-12 keV band with an unprecedented spectral resolution of 2.5 eV up to 7
keV. During the observation of very bright X-ray sources, the X-IFU detectors
will receive high photon rates. The count rate capability of the X-IFU will be
improved by using the defocusing option, which will enable the observations of
extremely bright sources with fluxes up to $\simeq 1$ Crab. In the defocused
mode, the point spread function (PSF) of the telescope will be spread over a
large number of pixels. In this case, each pixel receives a small fraction of
the overall flux. Due to the energy dependence of the PSF, this mode will
generate energy dependent artefacts increasing with count rate if not analysed
properly. To account for the degradation of the energy resolution with pulse
separation in a pixel, a grading scheme (here four grades) will be defined to
affect the proper energy response to each event. This will create selection
effects preventing the use of the nominal Auxiliary Response File (ARF) for all
events. We present a new method for the reconstruction of the spectra obtained
from observations performed with a PSF that varies as a function of energy. We
apply our method to the case of the X-IFU spectra obtained during the defocused
observations. We use the end-to-end SIXTE simulator to model defocused X-IFU
observations. Then we estimate new ARF for each of the grades by calculating
the effective area at the level of each pixel. Our method allows us to
successfully reconstruct the spectra of bright sources when employed in the
defocused mode, without any bias. Finally, we address how various sources of
uncertainty related to our knowledge of the PSF as a function of energy affect
our results.


title:
The Redshift Evolution of Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources out to z~0.5:
  Comparison with X-Ray Binary Populations and Contribution to the Cosmic X-Ray
  Background

abstract:
  Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are thought to be powerful X-ray binaries
(XRBs) and may contribute significantly to the redshift-dependent X-ray
emission from star forming galaxies. We have assembled a uniform sample of 259
ULXs over the redshift range z=0.002-0.51 to constrain their physical nature
and their contribution to the Cosmic X-Ray Background (CXB). The sample is
constructed by crossmatching galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with
the Chandra Source Catalog and selecting off-nuclear X-ray sources after
applying astrometric corrections. The fraction of contaminants is ~30% and
shows no evolution with redshift. The host galaxy star formation rates (SFRs)
are systematically elevated relative to the parent sample when matched in host
stellar mass. The specific SFRs suggest a slight preference for high-mass XRBs,
and the X-ray luminosity scaling relations with host galaxy stellar mass and
SFR indicate that the highest redshift sources represent relatively luminous
XRB populations that dominate their host galaxy X-ray emission. The fraction of
galaxies hosting at least one ULX of a given luminosity increases with redshift
over the full range of our sample, as expected if ULXs are preferentially found
in galaxies with high SFRs and low metallicities. At z~0.5, the ULX X-ray flux
is consistent with the X-ray emission from star-forming galaxies. Moreover,
ULXs may account for up to ~40% of the integrated flux from XRBs in the normal
galaxy population out to z~0.5, suggesting they may contribute significantly to
the overall ionizing radiation from galaxies.


title:
Neurocompositional computing: From the Central Paradox of Cognition to a
  new generation of AI systems

abstract:
  What explains the dramatic progress from 20th-century to 21st-century AI, and
how can the remaining limitations of current AI be overcome? The widely
accepted narrative attributes this progress to massive increases in the
quantity of computational and data resources available to support statistical
learning in deep artificial neural networks. We show that an additional crucial
factor is the development of a new type of computation. Neurocompositional
computing adopts two principles that must be simultaneously respected to enable
human-level cognition: the principles of Compositionality and Continuity. These
have seemed irreconcilable until the recent mathematical discovery that
compositionality can be realized not only through discrete methods of symbolic
computing, but also through novel forms of continuous neural computing. The
revolutionary recent progress in AI has resulted from the use of limited forms
of neurocompositional computing. New, deeper forms of neurocompositional
computing create AI systems that are more robust, accurate, and comprehensible.


title: Measuring Galactic Dark Matter through Unsupervised Machine Learning

abstract:
  Measuring the density profile of dark matter in the Solar neighborhood has
important implications for both dark matter theory and experiment. In this
work, we apply autoregressive flows to stars from a realistic simulation of a
Milky Way-type galaxy to learn -- in an unsupervised way -- the stellar phase
space density and its derivatives. With these as inputs, and under the
assumption of dynamic equilibrium, the gravitational acceleration field and
mass density can be calculated directly from the Boltzmann Equation without the
need to assume either cylindrical symmetry or specific functional forms for the
galaxy's mass density. We demonstrate our approach can accurately reconstruct
the mass density and acceleration profiles of the simulated galaxy, even in the
presence of Gaia-like errors in the kinematic measurements.


title:
Transition to chaos in extended systems and their quantum impurity
  models

abstract:
  Chaos sets a fundamental limit to quantum-information processing schemes. We
study the onset of chaos in spatially extended quantum many-body systems that
are relevant to quantum optical devices. We consider an extended version of the
Tavis-Cummings model on a finite chain. By studying level-spacing statistics,
adjacent gap ratios, and spectral form factors, we observe the transition from
integrability to chaos as the hopping between the Tavis-Cummings sites is
increased above a finite value. The results are obtained by means of exact
numerical diagonalization which becomes notoriously hard for extended lattice
geometries. In an attempt to circumvent these difficulties, we identify a
minimal single-site quantum impurity model which successfully captures the
spectral properties of the lattice model. This approach is intended to be
adaptable to other lattice models with large local Hilbert spaces.


title:
A universal quantum rewinding protocol with an arbitrarily high
  probability of success

abstract:
  We present a universal mechanism that, acting on any target qubit, propagates
it to the state it had T time units before the experiment started. This
protocol works by setting the target on a superposition of flight paths, where
it is acted on by uncharacterized, but repeatable, quantum operations.
Independently of the effect of each of these individual operations on the
target, the successful interference of the paths causes it to leap to its past
state. We prove that, for generic interaction effects, the system will reach
the desired state with probability 1 after some finite number of steps.


title: Large $N$ fractons

abstract:
  We consider theories of fractons with $N$ fields. These theories have exotic
spacetime symmetries, including a conserved dipole moment. Using collective
fields we solve these models to leading order in large $N$. The large $N$
solution reveals that these models are strongly correlated, and that
interactions generate a momentum-dependent self-energy. Dipole symmetry is
spontaneously broken throughout the phase diagram of these models, leading to a
low-energy Goldstone description of what we dub "dipole superfluids."


title:
Hausa Visual Genome: A Dataset for Multi-Modal English to Hausa Machine
  Translation

abstract:
  Multi-modal Machine Translation (MMT) enables the use of visual information
to enhance the quality of translations. The visual information can serve as a
valuable piece of context information to decrease the ambiguity of input
sentences. Despite the increasing popularity of such a technique, good and
sizeable datasets are scarce, limiting the full extent of their potential.
Hausa, a Chadic language, is a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It
is estimated that about 100 to 150 million people speak the language, with more
than 80 million indigenous speakers. This is more than any of the other Chadic
languages. Despite a large number of speakers, the Hausa language is considered
low-resource in natural language processing (NLP). This is due to the absence
of sufficient resources to implement most NLP tasks. While some datasets exist,
they are either scarce, machine-generated, or in the religious domain.
Therefore, there is a need to create training and evaluation data for
implementing machine learning tasks and bridging the research gap in the
language. This work presents the Hausa Visual Genome (HaVG), a dataset that
contains the description of an image or a section within the image in Hausa and
its equivalent in English. To prepare the dataset, we started by translating
the English description of the images in the Hindi Visual Genome (HVG) into
Hausa automatically. Afterward, the synthetic Hausa data was carefully
post-edited considering the respective images. The dataset comprises 32,923
images and their descriptions that are divided into training, development,
test, and challenge test set. The Hausa Visual Genome is the first dataset of
its kind and can be used for Hausa-English machine translation, multi-modal
research, and image description, among various other natural language
processing and generation tasks.


title: Buoyancy and Marangoni Effects on Horizontal Ribbon Growth

abstract:
  Unsteady simulations of horizontal ribbon growth of silicon were performed
that included both Marangoni and buoyancy effects. A chaotic flow was observed
dominated by strong Marangoni-driven jets emerging near the local temperature
minima on the free surface. This oscillatory flow caused the vertical position
of the leading edge of the sheet to fluctuate, resulting in corrugations on the
top surface of the ribbon. Additionally, larger amplitude and wavelength
nonuniformities appeared on the bottom of the sheet resulting in a sheet with
varying thickness. Lastly, the unsteady flow caused temporal variations in
growth rate, which when converted to distance using the pull speed, matched the
wavelengths observed on the top surface. All three of these phenomena have been
observed experimentally: The median of the surface wavelengths and amplitudes
decreased with increasing temperature sensitivity of surface tension and had
wavelengths on the same order as experiments for a sensitivity corresponding to
uncontaminated silicon. Oscillations in growth rate have been observed using
passive antimony demarcation and thickness variations have been measured after
sheet removal. These results indicate that the chaotic flow makes producing
thin uniform sheets using HRG challenging.


title: D-DPCC: Deep Dynamic Point Cloud Compression via 3D Motion Prediction

abstract:
  The non-uniformly distributed nature of the 3D dynamic point cloud (DPC)
brings significant challenges to its high-efficient inter-frame compression.
This paper proposes a novel 3D sparse convolution-based Deep Dynamic Point
Cloud Compression (D-DPCC) network to compensate and compress the DPC geometry
with 3D motion estimation and motion compensation in the feature space. In the
proposed D-DPCC network, we design a {\it Multi-scale Motion Fusion} (MMF)
module to accurately estimate the 3D optical flow between the feature
representations of adjacent point cloud frames. Specifically, we utilize a 3D
sparse convolution-based encoder to obtain the latent representation for motion
estimation in the feature space and introduce the proposed MMF module for fused
3D motion embedding. Besides, for motion compensation, we propose a 3D {\it
Adaptively Weighted Interpolation} (3DAWI) algorithm with a penalty coefficient
to adaptively decrease the impact of distant neighbors. We compress the motion
embedding and the residual with a lossy autoencoder-based network. To our
knowledge, this paper is the first work proposing an end-to-end deep dynamic
point cloud compression framework. The experimental result shows that the
proposed D-DPCC framework achieves an average 76\% BD-Rate (Bjontegaard Delta
Rate) gains against state-of-the-art Video-based Point Cloud Compression
(V-PCC) v13 in inter mode.


title:
Role of slow, out-of-equilibrium modes on the dynamic structure factor
  near the QCD critical point

abstract:
  The role of slow out of equilibrium modes (OEM), introduced to extend the
validity of hydrodynamics near the QCD critical point on the power spectrum of
dynamical density fluctuations has been studied. We have used the equation of
motion of slow modes for the situation when the extensive nature of
thermodynamics is not altered due to the introduction of OEM. We find that the
extensivity condition puts an extra constraint on the coupling of OEM with the
four divergence of velocity. The dynamic structure factor (Snn) in presence of
the OEM shows four Lorentzian peaks asymmetrically positioned about $\omega
(\text{frequency})=0$, whereas the dynamic structure factor without the
presence of any OEM shows three well-known Lorentzian peaks. The width of the
peaks are reduced in presence of OEM. We find that the asymmetric peaks
originate due to the coupling of the out-of-equilibrium modes with the
hydrodynamic modes. It is also shown that the OEM has negligible effects on Snn
if first order hydrodynamics (relativistic Navier-Stokes) is used. The
introduction of OEM reduces the width of the Rayleigh peak indicating the
reduction in the decay rate of the fluctuation which leads to slowing down, a
well-known characteristics of the critical end point (CEP).


title: Extractable entanglement from a Euclidean hourglass

abstract:
  We previously proposed that entanglement across a planar surface can be
obtained from the partition function on a Euclidean hourglass geometry. Here we
extend the prescription to spherical entangling surfaces in conformal field
theory. We use the prescription to evaluate log terms in the entropy of a CFT
in two dimensions, a conformally-coupled scalar in four dimensions, and a
Maxwell field in four dimensions. For Maxwell we reproduce the extractable
entropy obtained by Soni and Trivedi. We take this as evidence that the
hourglass prescription provides a Euclidean technique for evaluating
extractable entropy in quantum field theory.


title: Transformers in Time-series Analysis: A Tutorial

abstract:
  Transformer architecture has widespread applications, particularly in Natural
Language Processing and computer vision. Recently Transformers have been
employed in various aspects of time-series analysis. This tutorial provides an
overview of the Transformer architecture, its applications, and a collection of
examples from recent research papers in time-series analysis. We delve into an
explanation of the core components of the Transformer, including the
self-attention mechanism, positional encoding, multi-head, and encoder/decoder.
Several enhancements to the initial, Transformer architecture are highlighted
to tackle time-series tasks. The tutorial also provides best practices and
techniques to overcome the challenge of effectively training Transformers for
time-series analysis.


title:
Coloured symmetries of rational homology 3-spheres that cover
  right-angled polytopes

abstract:
  In the present paper we study hyperbolic manifolds that are rational homology
3-spheres obtained by colouring of right--angled polytopes. We study the
existence (or absence) of different kinds of symmetries of rational homology
spheres that preserve the tessellation of the manifold into polytopes. We also
describe how to create colourings with given symmetries.


title: Perfect tensor hyperthreads

abstract:
  Bit threads, a dual description of the Ryu-Takyanagi formula for holographic
entanglement entropy (EE), can be interpreted as a distillation of the quantum
information to a collection of Bell pairs between different boundary regions.
In this article we discuss a generalization to hyperthreads which can connect
more than two boundary regions leading to a rich and diverse class of convex
programs. By modeling the contributions of different species of hyperthreads to
the EEs of perfect tensors we argue that this framework may be useful for
helping us to begin to probe the multipartite entanglement of holographic
systems. Furthermore, we demonstrate how this technology can potentially be
used to understand holographic entropy cone inequalities and may provide an
avenue to address issues of locking.


title:
Efficient quantum algorithm for nonlinear reaction-diffusion equations
  and energy estimation

abstract:
  Nonlinear differential equations exhibit rich phenomena in many fields but
are notoriously challenging to solve. Recently, Liu et al. [1] demonstrated the
first efficient quantum algorithm for dissipative quadratic differential
equations under the condition $R < 1$, where $R$ measures the ratio of
nonlinearity to dissipation using the $\ell_2$ norm. Here we develop an
efficient quantum algorithm based on [1] for reaction-diffusion equations, a
class of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). To achieve this, we
improve upon the Carleman linearization approach introduced in [1] to obtain a
faster convergence rate under the condition $R_D < 1$, where $R_D$ measures the
ratio of nonlinearity to dissipation using the $\ell_{\infty}$ norm. Since
$R_D$ is independent of the number of spatial grid points $n$ while $R$
increases with $n$, the criterion $R_D<1$ is significantly milder than $R<1$
for high-dimensional systems and can stay convergent under grid refinement for
approximating PDEs. As applications of our quantum algorithm we consider the
Fisher-KPP and Allen-Cahn equations, which have interpretations in classical
physics. In particular, we show how to estimate the mean square kinetic energy
in the solution by postprocessing the quantum state that encodes it to extract
derivative information.


title:
Cost-Aware Evaluation and Model Scaling for LiDAR-Based 3D Object
  Detection

abstract:
  Considerable research efforts have been devoted to LiDAR-based 3D object
detection and its empirical performance has been significantly improved. While
the progress has been encouraging, we observe an overlooked issue: it is not
yet common practice to compare different 3D detectors under the same cost,
e.g., inference latency. This makes it difficult to quantify the true
performance gain brought by recently proposed architecture designs. The goal of
this work is to conduct a cost-aware evaluation of LiDAR-based 3D object
detectors. Specifically, we focus on SECOND, a simple grid-based one-stage
detector, and analyze its performance under different costs by scaling its
original architecture. Then we compare the family of scaled SECOND with recent
3D detection methods, such as Voxel R-CNN and PV-RCNN++. The results are
surprising. We find that, if allowed to use the same latency, SECOND can match
the performance of PV-RCNN++, the current state-of-the-art method on the Waymo
Open Dataset. Scaled SECOND also easily outperforms many recent 3D detection
methods published during the past year. We recommend future research control
the inference cost in their empirical comparison and include the family of
scaled SECOND as a strong baseline when presenting novel 3D detection methods.


title: Geometric Hydrodynamics in Open Problems

abstract:
  Geometric Hydrodynamics has flourished ever since the celebrated 1966 paper
of V. Arnold. In this paper we present a collection of open problems along with
several new constructions in fluid dynamics and a concise survey of recent
developments and achievements in this area. The topics discussed include
variational settings for different types of fluids, models for invariant
metrics, the Cauchy and boundary value problems, partial analyticity of
solutions to the Euler equations, their steady and singular vorticity
solutions, differential and Hamiltonian geometry of diffeomorphism groups,
long-time behaviour of fluids, as well as mechanical models of direct and
inverse cascades.


title:
Freeze-in Dark Matter and $\Delta {\rm N}_{\rm eff}$ via Light Dirac
  Neutrino Portal

abstract:
  We propose a scenario where dark matter (DM) and dark radiation ($\Delta {\rm
N}_{\rm eff}$) can be generated non-thermally due to the presence of a light
Dirac neutrino portal between the standard model (SM) and dark sector
particles. The SM is minimally extended by three right handed neutrinos
($\nu_R$), a Dirac fermion DM candidate ($\psi$) and a complex scalar ($\phi$),
transforming non-trivially under an unbroken $\mathbb{Z}_4$ symmetry while
being singlets under the SM gauge group. While DM and $\nu_R$ couplings are
considered to be tiny in order to be in the non-thermal or freeze-in regime,
$\phi$ can be produced either thermally or non-thermally depending upon the
strength of its Higgs portal coupling. We consider both these possibilities and
find out the resulting DM abundance and $\Delta {\rm N}_{\rm eff}$ via
freeze-in mechanism to constrain the model parameters in the light of Planck
2018 data. We find that the scenario where $\phi$ remains out of equilibrium
throughout or after a certain epoch allows more parameter space consistent with
DM phenomenology and $\Delta {\rm N}_{\rm eff}$ in view of Planck 2018 data.
The next generation experiments like CMB-S4, SPT-3G etc. will have the required
sensitivities to probe a major portion of the entire model parameter space,
offering a promising way of probing such non-thermal DM scenario which typical
direct detection experiments are not much sensitive to.


title:
Approximate solutions for robust multiobjective optimization programming
  in Asplund spaces

abstract:
  In this paper, we study a nonsmooth/nonconvex multiobjective optimization
problem with uncertain constraints in arbitrary Asplund spaces. We first
provide necessary optimality condition in a fuzzy form for approximate weakly
robust efficient solutions and then establish necessary optimality theorem for
approximate weakly robust quasi-efficient solutions of the problem in the sense
of the limiting subdifferential by exploiting a fuzzy optimality condition in
terms of the Frechet subdifferential. Sufficient conditions for approximate
(weakly) robust quasi-efficient solutions to such a problem are also driven
under the new concept of generalized pseudo convex functions. Finally, we
address an approximate Mond-Weir-type dual robust problem to the reference
problem and explore weak, strong, and converse duality properties under
assumptions of pseudo convexity.


title: O(2)-symmetry of 3D steady gradient Ricci solitons

abstract:
  For any 3D steady gradient Ricci soliton with positive curvature, we prove
that it must be isometric to the Bryant soliton if it is asymptotic to a ray.
Otherwise, it is asymptotic to a sector and hence a flying wing. We show that
all 3D flying wings are O(2)-symmetric. Therefore, all 3D steady gradient Ricci
solitons are O(2)-symmetric.


title:
The Time Programmable Frequency Comb: Generation and Application to
  Quantum-Limited Dual-Comb Ranging

abstract:
  The classic self-referenced frequency comb acts as an unrivaled ruler for
precision optical metrology in both time and frequency. Two decades after its
invention, the frequency comb is now used in numerous active sensing
applications. Many of these applications, however, are limited by the tradeoffs
inherent in the rigidity of the comb output and operate far from
quantum-limited sensitivity. Here we demonstrate an agile programmable
frequency comb where the pulse time and phase are digitally controlled with +/-
2 attosecond accuracy. This agility enables quantum-limited sensitivity in
sensing applications since the programmable comb can be configured to
coherently track weak returning pulse trains at the shot-noise limit. To
highlight its capabilities, we use this programmable comb in a ranging system,
reducing the detection threshold by ~5,000-fold to enable nearly
quantum-limited ranging at mean pulse photon number of 1/77 while retaining the
full accuracy and precision of a rigid frequency comb. Beyond ranging and
imaging, applications in time/frequency metrology, comb-based spectroscopy,
pump-probe experiments, and compressive sensing should benefit from coherent
control of the comb-pulse time and phase.


title: Random multi-hooking networks

abstract:
  We introduce a broad class of multi-hooking networks, wherein multiple copies
of a seed are hooked at each step at random locations, and the number of copies
follows a predetermined building sequence of numbers.
  We analyze the degree profile in random multi-hooking networks by tracking
two kinds of node degrees -- the local average degree of a specific node over
time and the global overall average degree in the graph. The former experiences
phases and the latter is invariant with respect to the type of building
sequence and is somewhat similar to the average degree in the initial seed. We
also discuss the expected number of nodes of the smallest degree.
  Additionally, we study distances in the network through the lens of the
average total path length, the average depth of a node, the eccentricity of a
node, and the diameter of the graph.


title: Analysis of the Visually Detectable Wear Progress on Ball Screws

abstract:
  The actual progression of pitting on ball screw drive spindles is not well
known since previous studies have only relied on the investigation of indirect
wear effects (e. g. temperature, motor current, structure-borne noise). Using
images from a camera system for ball screw drives, this paper elaborates on the
visual analysis of pitting itself. Due to its direct, condition-based
assessment of the wear state, an image-based approach offers several
advantages, such as: Good interpretability, low influence of environmental
conditions, and high spatial resolution. The study presented in this paper is
based on a dataset containing the entire wear progression from original
condition to component failure of ten ball screw drive spindles. The dataset is
being analyzed regarding the following parameters: Axial length, tangential
length, and surface area of each pit, the total number of pits, and the time of
initial visual appearance of each pit. The results provide evidence that wear
development can be quantified based on visual wear characteristics. In
addition, using the dedicated camera system, the actual course of the growth
curve of individual pits can be captured during machine operation. Using the
findings of the analysis, the authors propose a formula for standards-based
wear quantification based on geometric wear characteristics.


title: Complexity via Replica Trick

abstract:
  We consider the complexity of a single-sided AdS black hole as modelled by an
end-of-the-world brane. In addition, we present multi-boundary partition
functions and matter correlation functions for such a setting. We compute the
complexity using a modified replica trick corresponding to the "quenched
geodesic length" in JT gravity. The late-time behaviour of complexity shows a
saturation to a constant value of order $e^{S_0}$ following a period of linear
growth. Furthermore, we show that our approach leads to an improved result for
the variance of complexity, namely it being time-independent at late times. We
conclude by commenting on the introduction of dynamical end-of-the-world
branes.


title: Friction on layered media: How deep do phonons reach?

abstract:
  We theoretically study the frictional damping of a small probe object on a
coated planar surface, analyzing the resulting phonon modes via a theory of
viscoelasticity. Three different types of excitations are found to contribute
to friction in distinct ways: traveling (3D) spherical waves, traveling (2D)
surface waves, and evanescent waves. While traveling waves transport energy
away from the probe, determined by long range elastic properties (wavelength),
evanescent waves transform energy into heat in a near-field range,
characterized by the size of the probe. Thus, fundamentally different behaviors
are predicted, depending on coating thickness and material properties.


title:
Deep Learning-Based Super-Resolution and De-Noising for XMM-Newton
  Images

abstract:
  The field of artificial intelligence based image enhancement has been rapidly
evolving over the last few years and is able to produce impressive results on
non-astronomical images. In this work we present the first application of
Machine Learning based super-resolution (SR) and de-noising (DN) to enhance
X-ray images from the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton telescope. Using
XMM-Newton images in band [0.5,2] keV from the European Photon Imaging Camera
pn detector (EPIC-pn), we develop XMM-SuperRes and XMM-DeNoise deep
learning-based models that can generate enhanced SR and DN images from real
observations. The models are trained on realistic XMM-Newton simulations such
that XMM-SuperRes will output images with two times smaller point-spread
function and with improved noise characteristics. The XMM-DeNoise model is
trained to produce images with 2.5x the input exposure time from 20 to 50 ks.
When tested on real images, DN improves the image quality by 8.2%, as
quantified by the global peak-signal-to-noise ratio. These enhanced images
allow identification of features that are otherwise hard or impossible to
perceive in the original or in filtered/smoothed images with traditional
methods. We demonstrate the feasibility of using our deep learning models to
enhance XMM-Newton X-ray images to increase their scientific value in a way
that could benefit the legacy of the XMM-Newton archive.


title:
Closure-theoretic proofs of uniform bounds on symbolic powers in regular
  rings

abstract:
  We give short, closure-theoretic proofs for uniform bounds on the growth of
symbolic powers of ideals in regular rings. The author recently proved these
bounds in mixed characteristic using a new version of perfectoid/big
Cohen-Macaulay test ideals, with special cases obtained earlier by Ma and
Schwede. In mixed characteristic, we instead use Heitmann's full extended plus
(epf) closure, Jiang's weak epf (wepf) closure, and R.G.'s results on closure
operations that induce big Cohen-Macaulay algebras. Our strategy also applies
to any Dietz closure satisfying R.G.'s algebra axiom and a
Brian\c{c}on-Skoda-type theorem, and hence yields new proofs of these results
on uniform bounds on the growth of symbolic powers of ideals in regular rings
of all characteristics. In equal characteristic, these results on symbolic
powers are due to Ein-Lazarsfeld-Smith, Hochster-Huneke, Takagi-Yoshida, and
Johnson.


title: Phonon-modulated-hopping Polarons: X-representation Technique

abstract:
  Motivated by the problem of polaron effect due to phonon-modulated hopping,
we formulate a generic Monte Carlo technique for solving it in the coordinate
representation for both the particle and atomic displacements. The method
applies to a broad class of models; the only condition is that the hopping
amplitude be sign-positive. A dramatic simplification of the scheme, with the
corresponding efficiency gain, takes place in models with dispersionless
phonons. Our study sheds important light on the nature and universality of the
most striking qualitative and quantitative effects demonstrated by the
"standard" (Peierls/Su-Schrieffer-Heeger) model based on the linearized
displacement-modulated hopping.


title: Emotion-Controllable Generalized Talking Face Generation

abstract:
  Despite the significant progress in recent years, very few of the AI-based
talking face generation methods attempt to render natural emotions. Moreover,
the scope of the methods is majorly limited to the characteristics of the
training dataset, hence they fail to generalize to arbitrary unseen faces. In
this paper, we propose a one-shot facial geometry-aware emotional talking face
generation method that can generalize to arbitrary faces. We propose a graph
convolutional neural network that uses speech content feature, along with an
independent emotion input to generate emotion and speech-induced motion on
facial geometry-aware landmark representation. This representation is further
used in our optical flow-guided texture generation network for producing the
texture. We propose a two-branch texture generation network, with motion and
texture branches designed to consider the motion and texture content
independently. Compared to the previous emotion talking face methods, our
method can adapt to arbitrary faces captured in-the-wild by fine-tuning with
only a single image of the target identity in neutral emotion.


title: SELC: Self-Ensemble Label Correction Improves Learning with Noisy Labels

abstract:
  Deep neural networks are prone to overfitting noisy labels, resulting in poor
generalization performance. To overcome this problem, we present a simple and
effective method self-ensemble label correction (SELC) to progressively correct
noisy labels and refine the model. We look deeper into the memorization
behavior in training with noisy labels and observe that the network outputs are
reliable in the early stage. To retain this reliable knowledge, SELC uses
ensemble predictions formed by an exponential moving average of network outputs
to update the original noisy labels. We show that training with SELC refines
the model by gradually reducing supervision from noisy labels and increasing
supervision from ensemble predictions. Despite its simplicity, compared with
many state-of-the-art methods, SELC obtains more promising and stable results
in the presence of class-conditional, instance-dependent, and real-world label
noise. The code is available at https://github.com/MacLLL/SELC.


title: Leximax Approximations and Representative Cohort Selection

abstract:
  Finding a representative cohort from a broad pool of candidates is a goal
that arises in many contexts such as choosing governing committees and consumer
panels. While there are many ways to define the degree to which a cohort
represents a population, a very appealing solution concept is lexicographic
maximality (leximax) which offers a natural (pareto-optimal like)
interpretation that the utility of no population can be increased without
decreasing the utility of a population that is already worse off. However,
finding a leximax solution can be highly dependent on small variations in the
utility of certain groups. In this work, we explore new notions of approximate
leximax solutions with three distinct motivations: better algorithmic
efficiency, exploiting significant utility improvements, and robustness to
noise. Among other definitional contributions, we give a new notion of an
approximate leximax that satisfies a similarly appealing semantic
interpretation and relate it to algorithmically-feasible approximate leximax
notions. When group utilities are linear over cohort candidates, we give an
efficient polynomial-time algorithm for finding a leximax distribution over
cohort candidates in the exact as well as in the approximate setting.
Furthermore, we show that finding an integer solution to leximax cohort
selection with linear utilities is NP-Hard.


title: Reproducing Kernels and New Approaches in Compositional Data Analysis

abstract:
  Compositional data, such as human gut microbiomes, consist of non-negative
variables whose only the relative values to other variables are available.
Analyzing compositional data such as human gut microbiomes needs a careful
treatment of the geometry of the data. A common geometrical understanding of
compositional data is via a regular simplex. Majority of existing approaches
rely on a log-ratio or power transformations to overcome the innate simplicial
geometry. In this work, based on the key observation that a compositional data
are projective in nature, and on the intrinsic connection between projective
and spherical geometry, we re-interpret the compositional domain as the
quotient topology of a sphere modded out by a group action. This
re-interpretation allows us to understand the function space on compositional
domains in terms of that on spheres and to use spherical harmonics theory along
with reflection group actions for constructing a compositional Reproducing
Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS). This construction of RKHS for compositional data
will widely open research avenues for future methodology developments. In
particular, well-developed kernel embedding methods can be now introduced to
compositional data analysis. The polynomial nature of compositional RKHS has
both theoretical and computational benefits. The wide applicability of the
proposed theoretical framework is exemplified with nonparametric density
estimation and kernel exponential family for compositional data.


title:
Saliency map using features derived from spiking neural networks of
  primate visual cortex

abstract:
  We propose a framework inspired by biological vision systems to produce
saliency maps of digital images. Well-known computational models for receptive
fields of areas in the visual cortex that are specialized for color and
orientation perception are used. To model the connectivity between these areas
we use the CARLsim library which is a spiking neural network(SNN) simulator.
The spikes generated by CARLsim, then serve as extracted features and input to
our saliency detection algorithm. This new method of saliency detection is
described and applied to benchmark images.


title: Tight Product Monogamy Inequality for Entanglement

abstract:
  Quantum entanglement for multiparty system has a unique feature when it comes
to sharing its property among various subsystems. This is famously stated as
the monogamy of entanglement. The traditional monogamy of concurrence for
tripartite system was proved in a sum form. Recently, it was found that
concurrence also respects a monogamy in the product form. Here, we prove a
tight monogamy relation in the product form for the concurrence of pure
tripartite systems. We illustrate our relation with several examples, including
the canonical three qubit states, where this monogamy relation is saturated.


title: The cumulant Green's functions method for the Hubbard model

abstract:
  We study the single-band Hubbard model in the presence of an external
magnetic field using the cumulant Green's functions method (CGFM). The starting
point of the method is to diagonalize a cluster containing N correlated sites
(seed) and employ the cumulants calculated from the cluster solution to obtain
the full Green's functions for the lattice. All calculations are done directly,
and no self-consistent process is needed. We benchmark the one-dimensional
results for the gap, the ground-state energy, and the double occupancy obtained
from the CGFM against the corresponding exact results of the thermodynamic
Bethe ansatz and the quantum transfer matrix methods. The results for the CGFM
tend systematically to the exact one as the cluster size increases. The
particle-hole symmetry of the density of states is fulfilled. The method can be
applied to any parameter space for one, two, or three-dimensional Hubbard
Hamiltonians and can also be extended to other strongly correlated models, like
the Anderson Hamiltonian, the t-J, Kondo, and Coqblin-Schrieffer models.
  We also calculate the effects of positive magnetic fields as a function of
the chemical potential, and we identify a finite cluster effect (Phase VI)
characterized by a partially filled band and negative magnetization (n_{up} <
n_{down}). This phase survives for clusters containing up to N=8 sites but
tends to disappear as the size of the cluster increases. Other than that, these
clusters can be used as correlated quantum dots that can be used to realize a
single-electron transistor when connected to different leads. We calculate the
phase diagram, including the new cluster phase, using the magnetic field and
chemical potential as parameters for N=7.


title: Finsler pp-waves and the Penrose Limit

abstract:
  The Penrose plane wave limit is a remarkable property of Lorentzian
spacetimes. Here, we discuss its extension to Finsler spacetimes by introducing
suitable lightlike coordinates and adapting the Lorentzian definition of
pp-waves. New examples of such Finsler pp-waves are also presented.


title:
Paving the Way for Mature Secondary Research: The Seven Types of
  Literature Review

abstract:
  Confusion over different kinds of secondary research, and their divergent
purposes, is undermining the effectiveness and usefulness of secondary studies
in software engineering. This short paper therefore explains the differences
between ad hoc reviews, case surveys, critical reviews, meta-analyses (aka
systematic literature reviews), meta-synthesis (aka thematic analysis), rapid
reviews and scoping reviews (aka systematic mapping studies). We envision that
these guidelines will help researchers better select and describe their
literature reviews, while helping reviewers select more appropriate evaluation
criteria.


title:
Investigating the Constraints on Primordial Features with Future Cosmic
  Microwave Background and Galaxy Surveys

abstract:
  In this article, we do a thorough investigation of the competency of the
forthcoming Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Galaxy surveys in probing the
features in the primordial power spectrum. Primordial features are specific
model-dependent corrections on top of the standard power-law inflationary power
spectrum; the functional form being given by different inflationary scenarios.
Signature of any significant departure from the feature-less power spectrum
will enable us to decipher the intricacies of the inflationary Universe. Here,
we delve into three major yet distinct features, namely, Bump feature, Sharp
feature signal, and Resonance feature signal. To analyse the features, we adopt
a specific template for each feature model. We estimate the possible
constraints on the feature parameters by employing Fisher matrix forecast
analysis for the upcoming CMB missions such as CMB-S4, CORE-M5, LiteBIRD, PICO
conjointly with DESI, and EUCLID galaxy surveys. To this end, we make use of
four distinct observations to forecast on the bounds on the model parameters,
namely, CMB, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), Galaxy Clustering and
Gravitational Weak Lensing or Cosmic Shear and their permissible synergy. For
large scale structure (LSS) information, we consider different upper limits of
scale for different redshifts for the purpose of circumventing the propagation
of the errors stemming from the uncertainties on nonlinear scales into the
constraints on the feature parameters. A comparative analysis of all three
features has been done to estimate relative capabilities of these upcoming
observations in shedding light on this crucial aspect of precision cosmology.


title:
Classical and Quantum Solvers for Joint Network/Servers Power
  Optimization

abstract:
  The digital transformation that Telecommunications and ICT domains are
crossing today, is posing several new challenges to Telecom Operators. These
challenges require solving complex problems such as: dimensioning and
scheduling of virtual/real resources in data centers; automating real-time
management/control and orchestration of networks processes; optimizing energy
consumption; and overall, ensuring networks and services stability. These
problems are usually tackled with methods and algorithms that find suboptimal
solutions, for computational efficiency reasons. In this work, we consider a
Virtual Data Center scenario where virtual machine consolidation must be
performed with joint minimization of network/servers power consumption. For
this scenario, we provide an ILP model, the equivalent binary model and the
steps towards the equivalent Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO)
model that is suitable for being solved by means of quantum optimization
algorithms. Finally, we compare the computational complexity of classical and
quantum solvers from a theoretical perspective.


title:
The Theory of Artificial Immutability: Protecting Algorithmic Groups
  Under Anti-Discrimination Law

abstract:
  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly used to make important decisions
about people. While issues of AI bias and proxy discrimination are well
explored, less focus has been paid to the harms created by profiling based on
groups that do not map to or correlate with legally protected groups such as
sex or ethnicity. This raises a question: are existing equality laws able to
protect against emergent AI-driven inequality? This article examines the legal
status of algorithmic groups in North American and European non-discrimination
doctrine, law, and jurisprudence and will show that algorithmic groups are not
comparable to traditional protected groups. Nonetheless, these new groups are
worthy of protection. I propose a new theory of harm - "the theory of
artificial immutability" - that aims to bring AI groups within the scope of the
law. My theory describes how algorithmic groups act as de facto immutable
characteristics in practice that limit people's autonomy and prevent them from
achieving important goals.


title:
3D Convolutional Neural Networks for Dendrite Segmentation Using
  Fine-Tuning and Hyperparameter Optimization

abstract:
  Dendritic microstructures are ubiquitous in nature and are the primary
solidification morphologies in metallic materials. Techniques such as x-ray
computed tomography (XCT) have provided new insights into dendritic phase
transformation phenomena. However, manual identification of dendritic
morphologies in microscopy data can be both labor intensive and potentially
ambiguous. The analysis of 3D datasets is particularly challenging due to their
large sizes (terabytes) and the presence of artifacts scattered within the
imaged volumes. In this study, we trained 3D convolutional neural networks
(CNNs) to segment 3D datasets. Three CNN architectures were investigated,
including a new 3D version of FCDense. We show that using hyperparameter
optimization (HPO) and fine-tuning techniques, both 2D and 3D CNN architectures
can be trained to outperform the previous state of the art. The 3D U-Net
architecture trained in this study produced the best segmentations according to
quantitative metrics (pixel-wise accuracy of 99.84% and a boundary displacement
error of 0.58 pixels), while 3D FCDense produced the smoothest boundaries and
best segmentations according to visual inspection. The trained 3D CNNs are able
to segment entire 852 x 852 x 250 voxel 3D volumes in only ~60 seconds, thus
hastening the progress towards a deeper understanding of phase transformation
phenomena such as dendritic solidification.


title:
A Case Study on Parallel HDF5 Dataset Concatenation for High Energy
  Physics Data Analysis

abstract:
  In High Energy Physics (HEP), experimentalists generate large volumes of data
that, when analyzed, helps us better understand the fundamental particles and
their interactions. This data is often captured in many files of small size,
creating a data management challenge for scientists. In order to better
facilitate data management, transfer, and analysis on large scale platforms, it
is advantageous to aggregate data further into a smaller number of larger
files. However, this translation process can consume significant time and
resources, and if performed incorrectly the resulting aggregated files can be
inefficient for highly parallel access during analysis on large scale
platforms. In this paper, we present our case study on parallel I/O strategies
and HDF5 features for reducing data aggregation time, making effective use of
compression, and ensuring efficient access to the resulting data during
analysis at scale. We focus on NOvA detector data in this case study, a
large-scale HEP experiment generating many terabytes of data. The lessons
learned from our case study inform the handling of similar datasets, thus
expanding community knowledge related to this common data management task.


title: Experimental determination of the QCD effective charge $\alpha_{g_1}(Q)$

abstract:
  The QCD effective charge $\alpha_{g_1}(Q)$ is an observable that
characterizes the magnitude of the strong interaction. At high momentum $Q$, it
coincides with the QCD running coupling $\alpha_{\rm s}(Q)$. At low $Q$, it
offers a nonperturbative definition of the running coupling. We have extracted
$\alpha_{g_1}(Q)$ from measurements carried out at Jefferson Lab that span the
very low to moderately high $Q$ domain, $0.14 \leq Q \leq 2.18$ GeV. The
precision of the new results is much improved over the previous extractions and
the reach in $Q$ at the lower end is significantly expanded. The data show that
$\alpha_{g_1}(Q)$ becomes $Q$-independent at very low $Q$. They compare well
with two recent predictions of the QCD effective charge based on
Dyson-Schwinger equations and on the AdS/CFT duality.


title:
Remarks on the critical dimension of left-handed string and its
  quasiconformal nature

abstract:
  The chiral string without a singular gauge limit is argued to have the same
critical dimension as its corresponding conventional closed string. Thus, its
central charge would be the same as its conventional counterpart in the
conformal gauge. Here, we would re-examine the critical dimension of the chiral
string in the singular Hohm-Siegel-Zwiebach limit. A straight forward
calculation of the operator product expansion (OPE) of the corresponding
would-be stress tensor shows that the central charge term is not the same as
its conventional counterpart when taking the singular limit. Instead of having
a conformal transformation on the worldsheet, the coordinate reparametrization
provides a set of quasiconformal mappings.


title: Reversing an Imperative Concurrent Programming Language

abstract:
  We introduce a method of reversing the execution of imperative concurrent
programs. Given an irreversible program, we describe the process of producing
two versions. The first performs forward execution and saves information
necessary for reversal. The second uses this saved information to simulate
reversal. We propose using identifiers to overcome challenges of reversing
concurrent programs. We prove this reversibility to be correct, showing that
the initial program state is restored and that all saved information is used
(garbage-free).


title: Three-dimensional skyrmionic cocoons in magnetic multilayers

abstract:
  Three-dimensional (3D) topological spin textures emerge as promising
quasi-particles for encoding information in future spintronic devices. The
third dimension provides more malleability regarding their magnetic properties
as well as more flexibility for potential applications. However, the
stabilization and characterization of such quasi-particles in easily
implementable systems remain a work in progress. Here we observe a new type of
3D magnetic textures that we called skyrmionic cocoons that sits in the
interior of magnetic thin films multilayers and possesses a characteristic
ellipsoidal shape. Interestingly, these cocoons can coexist with more standard
`tubular' skyrmions going through all the multilayer as evidenced by the
existence of two very different contrasts in the MFM images recorded at room
temperature. The presence of these novel skyrmionic textures as well as the
understanding of their layer resolved chiral and topological properties have
been investigated by micromagnetic simulations. In order to experimentally
stabilize the combination of 3D skyrmion tubes and cocoons, we have elaborated
metallic multilayers in which the magnetic properties, notably the anisotropy,
of the magnetic films in the stacks is varied depending on their vertical
position. Finally, in complement to the magnetic imaging, we also measure the
magneto-resistive response of the multilayers as a function of the magnetic
field, and succeed to fit its evolution using the 3D micromagnetic simulations
as inputs for the magnetic configuration. The excellent agreement that is
reached brings additional evidence of the presence of skyrmionic cocoons that
hence can be electrically detected.


title:
Searching for anomalous top quark interactions with proton tagging and
  timing detectors at the LHC

abstract:
  We study the LHC sensitivity to new broad neutral resonances produced in
two-photon fusion and decaying to a top quark pair, $\gamma\gamma \to
t\bar{t}$. This is probed in central exclusive $t\bar{t}$ production in
proton-proton collisions, $pp \to p t\bar{t} p$. We use the tagging of the
intact protons by PPS (CMS) and AFP (ATLAS) and consider the semi-leptonic
$t\bar t$ channel. The sensitivity is also mapped onto a set of dimension-8
$\gamma\gamma t\bar{t}$ operators in the large mass limit. Using the
kinematical correlations between the intact protons and the reconstructed
$t\bar{t}$ system, we obtain a sensitivity to the couplings of the dimension-8
operators of $1.4 \cdot 10^{-11}~\mathrm{GeV}^{-4}$ at 95% CL. The sensitivity
to the anomalous couplings is significantly improved down to about $7\cdot
10^{-12}~\mathrm{GeV}^{-4}$ if the proton time-of-flight is known with a
precision of 20 ps in future measurements. The 95% CL sensitivity to broad
neutral resonances reaches masses of order $ 1500~\mathrm{GeV} $ when using
timing information.


title:
Bayesian Inference of Phenomenological EoS of Neutron Stars with Recent
  Observations

abstract:
  The description of stellar interior remains as a big challenge for the
nuclear astrophysics community. The consolidated knowledge is restricted to
density regions around the saturation of hadronic matter $\rho _{0} = 2.8\times
10^{14} {\rm\ g\ cm^{-3}}$, regimes where our nuclear models are successfully
applied. As one moves towards higher densities and extreme conditions up to
five to twenty times $\rho_{0}$, little can be said about the microphysics of
such objects. Here, we employ a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) strategy to
access the variability of polytropic three-pircewised models for neutron star
equation of state. With a fixed description of the hadronic matter, we explore
a variety of models for the high density regimes leading to stellar masses up
to $2.5\ M_{\odot}$. In addition, we also discuss the use of a Bayesian power
regression model with heteroscedastic error. The set of EoS from the Laser
Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) was used as inputs and
treated as data set for testing case.


title: Integrating Structural and Reduced-Form Methods in Empirical Finance

abstract:
  I discuss various ways in which inference based on the estimation of the
parameters of statistical models (reduced-form estimation) can be combined with
inference based on the estimation of the parameters of economic models
(structural estimation). I discuss five basic categories of integration:
directly combining the two methods, using statistical models to simplify
structural estimation, using structural estimation to extend the validity of
reduced-form results, using reduced-form techniques to assess the external
validity of structural estimations, and using structural estimation as a sample
selection remedy. I illustrate each of these methods with examples from
corporate finance, banking, and personal finance.


title: Ultrafast imaging of coherent polariton propagation and interactions

abstract:
  Semiconductor excitations can hybridize with cavity photons to form
exciton-polaritons (EPs) with remarkable properties, including light-like
energy flow combined with matter-like interactions. To fully harness these
properties, EPs must maintain long-range coherence despite exciton-mediated
interactions with lattice phonons. To address this open question, we develop a
nonlinear momentum-resolved optical approach that images EPs in real space on
femtosecond scales. We directly visualize EP wavepacket propagation in
two-dimensional halide perovskite microcavities, allowing precise
quantification of EP interactions with lattice phonons and reservoir exciton
states throughout their lifetimes. We show that EP-lattice interactions
strongly renormalize EP group velocities at high exciton content without
sacrificing long-range coherence, enabling ballistic propagation to be
maintained for up to half-exciton EPs. These results concur with our quantum
simulations of dynamic disorder shielding through light-matter hybridization.
We extend our measurements to molecular polaritons and self-hybridized EPs in
two-dimensional materials, testifying to the remarkable generalizability of our
approach.


title:
Structural lubricity of physisorbed gold clusters on graphite and its
  breakdown: Role of boundary conditions and contact lines

abstract:
  The sliding motion of gold slabs adsorbed on a graphite substrate is
simulated using molecular-dynamics. The central quantity of interest is the
mean lateral force, i.e., the kinetic friction rather than the maximum lateral
forces, which correlate with the static friction. For most set-ups, we find
Stokesian damping to resist sliding. However, velocity-insensitive (Coulomb)
friction is observed for finite-width slabs sliding parallel to the armchair
direction if the bottommost layer of the three graphite layers is kept at zero
stress rather than at zero displacement. Although the resulting kinetic
friction remain much below the noise produced by the erratic fluctuations of
(conservative) forces typical for structurally lubric contacts, the nature of
the instabilities leading to Coulomb friction could be characterized as
quasi-discontinuous dynamics of the Moir\'e patterns formed by the normal
displacements near a propagating contact line. It appears that the interaction
of the graphite with the second gold layer is responsible for the symmetry
breaking occurring in the interface when a contact line moves parallel to the
armchair rather than to the zigzag direction.


title:
Automatic derivation of fermionic many-body theories based on general
  Fermi vacua

abstract:
  This paper describes Wick&d, an implementation of the algebra of
second-quantized operators normal ordered with respect to general correlated
references and the corresponding Wick theorem [W. Kutzelnigg and D. Mukherjee,
J. Chem. Phys. 107, 432 (1997)]. Wick&d employs a compact representation of
operators and a backtracking algorithm to efficiently evaluate Wick
contractions. Since Wick&d can handle both fully and partially contracted
terms, it can be applied to both projective and Fock-space many-body
formalisms. To demonstrate the usefulness of Wick&d, we use it to evaluate the
single-reference coupled cluster equations up to octuple excitations and report
an automated derivation and implementation of the second-order driven
similarity renormalization group multireference perturbation theory
(DSRG-MRPT2).


title:
VAE-Loco: Versatile Quadruped Locomotion by Learning a Disentangled Gait
  Representation

abstract:
  Quadruped locomotion is rapidly maturing to a degree where robots now
routinely traverse a variety of unstructured terrains. However, while gaits can
be varied typically by selecting from a range of pre-computed styles, current
planners are unable to vary key gait parameters continuously while the robot is
in motion. The synthesis, on-the-fly, of gaits with unexpected operational
characteristics or even the blending of dynamic manoeuvres lies beyond the
capabilities of the current state-of-the-art. In this work we address this
limitation by learning a latent space capturing the key stance phases
constituting a particular gait. This is achieved via a generative model trained
on a single trot style, which encourages disentanglement such that application
of a drive signal to a single dimension of the latent state induces holistic
plans synthesising a continuous variety of trot styles. We demonstrate that
specific properties of the drive signal map directly to gait parameters such as
cadence, footstep height and full stance duration. Due to the nature of our
approach these synthesised gaits are continuously variable online during robot
operation and robustly capture a richness of movement significantly exceeding
the relatively narrow behaviour seen during training. In addition, the use of a
generative model facilitates the detection and mitigation of disturbances to
provide a versatile and robust planning framework. We evaluate our approach on
two versions of the real ANYmal quadruped robots and demonstrate that our
method achieves a continuous blend of dynamic trot styles whilst being robust
and reactive to external perturbations.


title:
Using Machine Learning to Evaluate Real Estate Prices Using Location Big
  Data

abstract:
  With everyone trying to enter the real estate market nowadays, knowing the
proper valuations for residential and commercial properties has become crucial.
Past researchers have been known to utilize static real estate data (e.g.
number of beds, baths, square footage) or even a combination of real estate and
demographic information to predict property prices. In this investigation, we
attempted to improve upon past research. So we decided to explore a unique
approach: we wanted to determine if mobile location data could be used to
improve the predictive power of popular regression and tree-based models. To
prepare our data for our models, we processed the mobility data by attaching it
to individual properties from the real estate data that aggregated users within
500 meters of the property for each day of the week. We removed people that
lived within 500 meters of each property, so each property's aggregated
mobility data only contained non-resident census features. On top of these
dynamic census features, we also included static census features, including the
number of people in the area, the average proportion of people commuting, and
the number of residents in the area. Finally, we tested multiple models to
predict real estate prices. Our proposed model is two stacked random forest
modules combined using a ridge regression that uses the random forest outputs
as predictors. The first random forest model used static features only and the
second random forest model used dynamic features only. Comparing our models
with and without the dynamic mobile location features concludes the model with
dynamic mobile location features achieves 3/% percent lower mean squared error
than the same model but without dynamic mobile location features.


title:
The pedagogical value of the four-dimensional picture II: Another way of
  looking at the electromagnetic field

abstract:
  The concept of electromagnetic field can be neatly formulated by recognizing
that the simplest form of the four-force is indeed feasible. We show that
Maxwell's equations almost entirely stem from the properties of spacetime,
notably from the fact that our world has dimension d = 4. Their complete
reconstruction requires three additional assumptions which are seemingly
divorced from geometry, but, actually, may have much to do with the spacetime
properties.


title:
Determining the equation of state of neutron stars with Einstein
  Telescope using tidal effects and r-mode excitations from a population of
  binary inspirals

abstract:
  Third-generation gravitational wave (GW) observatories such as Einstein
Telescope (ET) and Cosmic Explorer (CE) will be ideal instruments to probe the
structure of neutron stars through the GWs they emit when undergoing binary
coalescence. In this work we make predictions about how well ET in particular
will enable us to reconstruct the neutron star equation of state through
observations of tens of binary neutron star coalescences with signal-to-noise
ratios in the hundreds. We restrict ourselves to information that can be
extracted from the inspiral, which includes tidal effects and possibly r-mode
resonances. In treating the latter we go beyond the Newtonian approximation,
introducing and utilizing new universal relations. We find that the ability to
observe resonant r-modes would have a noticeable impact on neutron star
equation of state measurements with ET.