title:
The Orlicz-Brunn-Minkowski theory: A general framework, additions, and
  inequalities

abstract:
  The Orlicz-Brunn-Minkowski theory, introduced by Lutwak, Yang, and Zhang, is
a new extension of the classical Brunn-Minkowski theory. It represents a
generalization of the $L_p$-Brunn-Minkowski theory, analogous to the way that
Orlicz spaces generalize $L_p$ spaces. For appropriate convex functions
$\varphi:[0,\infty)^m\to [0,\infty)$, a new way of combining arbitrary sets in
$\R^n$ is introduced. This operation, called Orlicz addition and denoted by
$+_{\varphi}$, has several desirable properties, but is not associative unless
it reduces to $L_p$ addition. A general framework is introduced for the
Orlicz-Brunn-Minkowski theory that includes both the new addition and
previously introduced concepts, and makes clear for the first time the relation
to Orlicz spaces and norms. It is also shown that Orlicz addition is intimately
related to a natural and fundamental generalization of Minkowski addition
called $M$-addition. The results obtained show, roughly speaking, that the
Orlicz-Brunn-Minkowski theory is the most general possible based on an addition
that retains all the basic geometrical properties enjoyed by the
$L_p$-Brunn-Minkowski theory.
  Inequalities of the Brunn-Minkowski type are obtained, both for $M$-addition
and Orlicz addition. The new Orlicz-Brunn-Minkowski inequality implies the
$L_p$-Brunn-Minkowski inequality. New Orlicz-Minkowski inequalities are
obtained that generalize the $L_p$-Minkowski inequality. One of these has
connections with the conjectured log-Brunn-Minkowski inequality of Lutwak,
Yang, and Zhang, and in fact these two inequalities together are shown to split
the classical Brunn-Minkowski inequality.


title:
Ground state energy of trimmed discrete Schr\"odinger operators and
  localization for trimmed Anderson models

abstract:
  We consider discrete Schr\"odinger operators of the form $H=-\Delta +V$ on
$\ell^2(\Z^d)$, where $\Delta$ is the discrete Laplacian and $V$ is a bounded
potential. Given $\Gamma \subset \Z^d$, the $\Gamma$-trimming of $H$ is the
restriction of $H$ to $\ell^2(\Z^d\setminus\Gamma)$, denoted by $H_\Gamma$. We
investigate the dependence of the ground state energy $E_\Gamma(H)=\inf \sigma
(H_\Gamma)$ on $\Gamma$. We show that for relatively dense proper subsets
$\Gamma$ of $\Z^d$ we always have $E_\Gamma(H)>E_\emptyset(H)$. We use this
lifting of the ground state energy to establish Wegner estimates and
localization at the bottom of the spectrum for $\Gamma$-trimmed Anderson
models, i.e., Anderson models with the random potential supported by the set
$\Gamma$


title:
The He II Theory Preserving the Symmetry of the Initial Hamiltonian of
  the System

abstract:
  The article suggests a method for the construction of the number of atoms
preserving microscopic He II theory. The suggested theory can provide the
ground state wave function (WF) as an expansion in series by small parameters.
In addition, errors in the definition of the WFs of the excited states turn out
to be vanishingly small while the system size increases. Predictions of the
proposed theory and of the Bogoliubov theory are identical if helium occupies a
simply connected volume. However, there are differences in the general case.
These differences are due to the fact that the operator of the occupation
number of the zero momentum state does not commute with the creation and
annihilation operators of phonons. This contradicts the Bogoliubov assumption
that the creation and annihilation operators of atoms in the zero momentum
state can be replaced by a c-number. The latter, as is known, should commute
with any operator. This should lead to a difference in the results of
calculation of helium flow through the tunnel transition. Therefore, the
suggested theory is not equivalent to Bogoliubov theory.


title:
Impact of H_2-based star formation model on the z>=6 luminosity function
  and the ionizing photon budget for reionization

abstract:
  We present the results of a numerical study examining the effect of H_2-based
star formation (SF) model on the rest-frame UV luminosity function and star
formation rate function (SFRF) of z>=6 galaxies, and the implications for
reionization. Using cosmological hydrodynamical simulations outfitted with an
H_2-SF model, we find good agreement with our previous results (non-H_2 SF
model) and observations at Muv<=-18. However at Muv>-18, we find that the LF
deviates from both our previous work and current observational extrapolations,
producing significantly fewer low-luminosity galaxies and exhibiting additional
turnover at the faint end. We constrain the redshift evolution of this turnover
point using a modified Schechter function that includes additional terms to
quantify the turnover magnitude (Muv^t) and subsequent slope (Beta). We find
that Muv^t evolves from Muv^t=-17.33 (at z=8) to -15.38 (z=6), while Beta
becomes shallower by \Delta Beta=0.22 during the same epoch. This occurs in an
Muv range which will be observable by JWST. By integrating the SFRF, we
determine that even though H_2-SF model significantly reduces the number
density of low luminosity galaxies at Muv>-18, it does not suppress the total
SFR density enough to affect the capability of SF to maintain reionization.


title: Tree-width and dimension

abstract:
  Over the last 30 years, researchers have investigated connections between
dimension for posets and planarity for graphs. Here we extend this line of
research to the structural graph theory parameter tree-width by proving that
the dimension of a finite poset is bounded in terms of its height and the
tree-width of its cover graph.


title:
Search for long-lived, multi-charged particles in pp collisions at
  sqrt(s)=7 TeV using the ATLAS detector

abstract:
  A search for highly ionising, penetrating particles with electric charges
from |q| = 2e to 6e is performed using the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large
Hadron Collider. Proton-proton collision data taken at sqrt(s)=7 TeV during the
2011 running period, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1,
are analysed. No signal candidates are observed, and 95% confidence level
cross-section upper limits are interpreted as mass-exclusion lower limits for a
simplified Drell--Yan production model. In this model, masses are excluded from
50 GeV up to 430, 480, 490, 470 and 420 GeV for charges 2e, 3e, 4e, 5e and 6e,
respectively.


title: Using Periodicity of Nucleotide Sequences

abstract:
  Withdrawn by arXiv administrators due to content entirely plagiarized from
other authors (not in arXiv).


title: An X-ray counterpart of HESS J1427-608 discovered with Suzaku

abstract:
  We report the discovery of an X-ray counterpart of the unidentified very high
energy gamma-ray source HESS J1427-608. In the sky field coincident with HESS
J1427-608, an extended source was found in the 2-8 keV band, and was designated
as Suzaku J1427-6051. Its X-ray radial profile has an extension of sigma=0.9'
+/- 0.1' if approximated by a Gaussian. The spectrum was well fitted by an
absorbed power-law with N_H=(1.1 +/- 0.3) times 10^23 cm^-2, Gamma=3.1
+0.6/-0.5, and the unabsorbed flux F_X=(9 +4/-2) times 10^-13 erg s^-1 cm^-2 in
the 2-10 keV band. Using XMM-Newton archive data, we found seven point sources
in the Suzaku source region. However, because their total flux and absorbing
column densities are more than an order of magnitude lower than those of Suzaku
J1427-6051, we consider that they are unrelated to the Suzaku source. Thus,
Suzaku J1427-6051 is considered to be a truly diffuse source and an X-ray
counterpart of HESS J1427-608. The possible nature of HESS J1427-608 is
discussed based on the observational properties.


title:
Adapted basic connections to a certain subfoliation on the tangent
  manifold of a Finsler space

abstract:
  On the slit tangent manifold $TM^0$ of a Finsler space $(M,F)$ there are
given some natural foliations as vertical foliation and some other fundamental
foliations produced by the vertical and horizontal Liouville vector fields, see
[A. Bejancu, H. R. Farran, Finsler Geometry and Natural Foliations on the
Tangent Bundle, Rep. Math. Physics 58, No. 1 (2006), 131-146]. In this paper we
consider a $(n,2n-1)$-codimensional subfoliation
$(\mathcal{F}_V,\mathcal{F}_{\Gamma})$ on $TM^0$ given by vertical foliation
$\mathcal{F}_V$ and the line foliation spanned by vertical Liouville vector
field $\Gamma$ and we give a triplet of basic connections adapted to this
subfoliation.


title:
Alternating trilinear forms on a 9-dimensional space and degenerations
  of (3,3)-polarized Abelian surfaces

abstract:
  We give a detailed analysis of the semisimple elements, in the sense of
Vinberg, of the third exterior power of a 9-dimensional vector space over an
algebraically closed field of characteristic different from 2 and 3. To a
general such element, one can naturally associate an Abelian surface X, which
is embedded in 8-dimensional projective space. We study the combinatorial
structure of this embedding and explicitly recover the genus 2 curve whose
Jacobian variety is X. We also classify the types of degenerations of X that
can occur. Taking the union over all Abelian surfaces in Heisenberg normal
form, we get a 5-dimensional variety which is a birational model for a genus 2
analogue of Shioda's modular surfaces. We find determinantal set-theoretic
equations for this variety and present some additional equations which
conjecturally generate the radical ideal.


title:
Comprehensive evaluation of differential expression analysis methods for
  RNA-seq data

abstract:
  High-throughput sequencing of RNA transcripts (RNA-seq) has become the method
of choice for detection of differential expression (DE). Concurrent with the
growing popularity of this technology there has been a significant research
effort devoted towards understanding the statistical properties of this data
and the development of analysis methods. We report on a comprehensive
evaluation of the commonly used DE methods using the SEQC benchmark data set.
We evaluate a number of key features including: assessment of normalization,
accuracy of DE detection, modeling of genes expressed in only one condition,
and the impact of sequencing depth and number of replications on identifying DE
genes. We find significant differences among the methods with no single method
consistently outperforming the others. Furthermore, the performance of
array-based approach is comparable to methods customized for RNA-seq data.
Perhaps most importantly, our results demonstrate that increasing the number of
replicate samples provides significantly more detection power than increased
sequencing depth.


title: Hilbert-Kunz functions over rings regular in codimension one

abstract:
  The aim of this manuscript is to discuss the Hilbert-Kunz functions over an
excellent local ring regular in codimension one. We study the shape of the
Hilbert-Kunz functions of modules and discuss the properties of the coefficient
of the second highest term in the function.
  Our results extend Huneke, McDermott and Monsky's result (Math. Res. Lett. 11
(2004), no. 4, 539-546) about the shape of the Hilbert-Kunz functions, and a
theorem of the second author (J. Algebra 304 (2006), no. 1, 487-499) for rings
with weaker conditions. In this paper, for a Cohen-Macaulay ring, we also
explores an equivalence condition under which the second coefficient vanishes
whenever the Hilbert-Kunz function of the ring is considered with respect to an
ideal primary to the maximal ideal and of finite projective dimension. We
introduce an additive error of the Hilbert-Kunz functions of modules on a short
exact sequence and give an estimate of such error.


title: How early is early dark energy?

abstract:
  We investigate constraints on early dark energy (EDE) from the Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy, taking into account data from WMAP9
combined with latest small scale measurements from the South Pole Telescope
(SPT). For a constant EDE fraction we propose a new parametrization with one
less parameter but still enough to provide similar results to the ones
previously studied in literature. The main emphasis of our analysis, however,
compares a new set of different EDE parametrizations that reveal how CMB
constraints depend on the redshift epoch at which Dark Energy was non
negligible. We find that bounds on EDE get substantially weaker if dark energy
starts to be non-negligible later, with early dark energy fraction Omega_e free
to go up to about 5% at 2 sigma if the onset of EDE happens at z < 100. Tight
bounds around 1-2% are obtained whenever dark energy is present at last
scattering, even if its effects switch off afterwards. We show that the CMB
mainly constrains the presence of Dark Energy at the time of its emission,
while EDE-modifications of the subsequent growth of structure are less
important.


title:
Planetary nebulae and HII regions in the spiral galaxy NGC 300. Clues on
  the evolution of abundance gradients and on AGB nucleosynthesis

abstract:
  We have obtained deep spectra of 26 planetary nebulae (PNe) and 9 compact HII
regions in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 300, and analyzed them together with
those of the giant HII regions previously observed. We have determined the
physical properties of all these objects and their He, N, O, Ne, S and Ar
abundances in a consistent way.
  We find that, globally, compact HII regions have abundance ratios similar to
those of giant HII regions, while PNe have systematically larger N/O ratios and
similar Ne/O and Ar/O ratios. We demonstrate that the nitrogen enhancement in
PNe cannot be only due to second dredge-up in the progenitor stars, since their
initial masses are around 2--2.5\,\msun. An extra mixing process is required,
perhaps driven by stellar rotation.
  Concerning the radial abundance distribution, PNe behave differently from HII
regions: in the central part of the galaxy their average O/H abundance ratio is
0.15 dex smaller. Their abundance dispersion at any galactocentric radius is
significantly larger than that shown by HII regions and many of them have O/H
values higher than HII regions at the same galactocentric distance. This
suggests that not only nitrogen, but also oxygen is affected by nucleosynthesis
in the PN progenitors, by an amount which depends at least on the stellar
rotation velocity and possibly other parameters. The formal O/H, Ne/H and Ar/He
abundance gradients from PNe are significantly shallower that from HII regions.
We argue that this indicates a steepening of the metallicity gradient in NGC
300 during the last Gyr, rather than an effect of radial stellar motions,
although the large observed dispersion makes this conclusion only tentative.


title:
Is the Sun Lighter than the Earth? Isotopic CO in the Photosphere,
  Viewed through the Lens of 3D Spectrum Synthesis

abstract:
  We consider the formation of solar infrared (2-6 micron) rovibrational bands
of carbon monoxide (CO) in CO5BOLD 3D convection models, with the aim to refine
abundances of the heavy isotopes of carbon (13C) and oxygen (18O,17O), to
compare with direct capture measurements of solar wind light ions by the
Genesis Discovery Mission. We find that previous, mainly 1D, analyses were
systematically biased toward lower isotopic ratios (e.g., R23= 12C/13C),
suggesting an isotopically "heavy" Sun contrary to accepted fractionation
processes thought to have operated in the primitive solar nebula. The new 3D
ratios for 13C and 18O are: R23= 91.4 +/- 1.3 (Rsun= 89.2); and R68= 511 +/- 10
(Rsun= 499), where the uncertainties are 1 sigma and "optimistic." We also
obtained R67= 2738 +/- 118 (Rsun= 2632), but we caution that the observed
12C17O features are extremely weak. The new solar ratios for the oxygen
isotopes fall between the terrestrial values and those reported by Genesis
(R68= 530, R6= 2798), although including both within 2 sigma error flags, and
go in the direction favoring recent theories for the oxygen isotope composition
of Ca-Al inclusions (CAI) in primitive meteorites. While not a major focus of
this work, we derive an oxygen abundance of 603 +/- 9 ppm (relative to
hydrogen; 8.78 on the logarithmic H= 12 scale). That the Sun likely is lighter
than the Earth, isotopically speaking, removes the necessity to invoke exotic
fractionation processes during the early construction of the inner solar
system.


title:
Ground-state and finite-temperature properties of spin liquid phase in
  the J1-J2 honeycomb model

abstract:
  In this paper we analyze the groundstate and finite-temperature properties of
a frustrated Heisenberg $J_1-J_2$ model on a honeycomb lattice by employing the
Schwinger boson technique. The phase diagram and spin gap as functions of
${J}_{2}/{J}_{1}$ are presented, showing that the exotic spin liquid phase lies
in $0.21<{J}_{2}/{J}_{1} <0.43$. The temperature and magnetic-field dependences
of specific heat, magnetic susceptibility and Knight shift are also presented.
We find the spin liquid state is robust with respect to external magnetic
field. These results provide clear information characterizing unusual
properties of the exotic spin liquid phase for further experiments.


title:
Description of F2 and FL at small x using a collinearly-improved BFKL
  resummation

abstract:
  We present a detailed description of the Q^2 and x dependence of the
structure functions F2 and FL as extracted from the Deep Inelastic Scattering
data at HERA in the small Bjorken x region. Making use of a
collinearly-improved BFKL equation at next-to-leading order and a treatment of
the running of the coupling using non-Abelian physical renormalization together
with the BLM scale choice allows us to reach low values of Q^2. We also provide
some predictions for future lepton-hadron colliders.


title:
A Systemic Study of 14 Southern Infrared Dark Clouds with the N2H+, HNC,
  HCO+, and HCN Lines

abstract:
  We have studied 14 southern infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) using the data taken
from the Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz (MALT90) survey and the
GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL mid-infrared survey of the inner Galaxy. The physical and
chemical characteristics of the 14 IRDCs are investigated using N2H+(1-0),
HNC(1-0), HCO+(1-0), and HCN(1-0) molecular lines. We find that the 14 IRDCs
are in different evolutionary stages from the "starless" to the sources with an
UCHII region. Three IRDCs are detected to have the star forming activities. The
integrated intensity ratios I(HCO+)/I(HCN), I(N2H+)/I(HCN), and I(HNC)/I(HCN)
are all about 1.5, which is different from the previous measurements,
suggesting that the integrated intensity ratios may be affected by the cloud
environments. The integrated intensities of HNC, HCO+ and HCN show a tight
correlation for the 14 IRDCs, implying a close link to the chemical evolution
of these three species in the IRDCs. The derived excitation temperature for
each IRDC is less than 25 K. We estimate the abundances of the four molecules
from 10^(-11) to 10^(-9), and the average abundance ratios N(HNC)/N(HCN) = 1.4+
-0.50, N(HNC)/N(HCO+) = 1.74 + - 0.22, N(HCN)/N(HCO+)= 1.21 + - 0.41.


title: High-$\pt$ processes measured with ALICE at the LHC

abstract:
  The study of single-particle and jet production in heavy-ion collisions
provides insights into the density of the medium and the energy-loss
mechanisms. The observed suppression of high-$\pt$ particle production is
generally attributed to energy loss of partons as they propagate through the
hot and dense QCD medium - Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP). Such measurements allow
the characterization of the QGP, the deconfined state of quarks and gluons,
predicted by QCD. In these proceedings we present the analysis results of
Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{\sNN}=2.76$ TeV recorded by ALICE. The nuclear
modification factors ($\RAA$) and the results from jet reconstruction in Pb--Pb
are presented. Comparison with other measurements and with theory models is
discussed.


title:
Measurement of the fragmentation fraction ratio $f_{s}/f_{d}$ and its
  dependence on $B$ meson kinematics

abstract:
  The relative production rate of $B^{0}_{s}$ and $B^{0}$ mesons is determined
with the hadronic decays $B^{0}_{s} \rightarrow D^{-}_{s}\pi^{+}$ and $B^0
\rightarrow D^{-}K^{+}$. The measurement uses data corresponding to 1.0
fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV
recorded in the forward region with the LHCb experiment. The ratio of
production rates, $f_{s}/f_{d}$, is measured to be $0.238 \pm 0.004 \pm 0.015
\pm 0.021 $, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic,
and the third theoretical. This is combined with a previous LHCb measurement to
obtain $f_{s}/f_{d} = 0.256 \pm 0.020$. The dependence of $f_{s}/f_{d}$ on the
transverse momentum and pseudorapidity of the $B$ meson is determined using the
decays $B^{0}_{s} \rightarrow D^{-}_{s}\pi^{+}$ and $B^{0} \rightarrow
D^{-}\pi^{+}$. There is evidence for a decrease with increasing transverse
momentum, whereas the ratio remains constant as a function of pseudorapidity.
In addition, the ratio of branching fractions of the decays $B^{0} \rightarrow
D^{-}K^{+}$ and $B^{0} \rightarrow D^{-}\pi^{+}$ is measured to be $0.0822 \pm
0.0011 (\textrm{stat}) \pm 0.0025 (\textrm{syst})$.


title: Critical behavior of random polymers

abstract:
  The aim of this paper is to investigate the distribution of a continuous
homopolymer in the presence of an attractive finitely supported potential. The
most intricate behavior can be observed if we simultaneously vary two
parameters: the temperature, which approaches the critical value, and the
length of the polymer, which tends to infinity. As the main result, we identify
the distributions that appear in the limit (after a diffusive scaling of the
original polymer measures) and depend on the relation between the two
parameters.


title:
The connection between Bayesian estimation of a Gaussian random field
  and RKHS

abstract:
  Reconstruction of a function from noisy data is often formulated as a
regularized optimization problem over an infinite-dimensional reproducing
kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). The solution describes the observed data and has a
small RKHS norm. When the data fit is measured using a quadratic loss, this
estimator has a known statistical interpretation. Given the noisy measurements,
the RKHS estimate represents the posterior mean (minimum variance estimate) of
a Gaussian random field with covariance proportional to the kernel associated
with the RKHS. In this paper, we provide a statistical interpretation when more
general losses are used, such as absolute value, Vapnik or Huber. Specifically,
for any finite set of sampling locations (including where the data were
collected), the MAP estimate for the signal samples is given by the RKHS
estimate evaluated at these locations.


title:
Split strongly abelian p-chief factors and first degree restricted
  cohomology

abstract:
  In this paper we investigate the relation between the multiplicities of split
strongly abelian p-chief factors of finite-dimensional restricted Lie algebras
and first degree restricted cohomology. As an application we obtain a
characterization of solvable restricted Lie algebras in terms of the
multiplicities of split strongly abelian p-chief factors. Moreover, we derive
some results in the representation theory of restricted Lie algebras related to
the principal block and the projective cover of the trivial irreducible module
of a finite-dimensional restricted Lie algebra. In particular, we obtain a
characterization of finite-dimensional solvable restricted Lie algebras in
terms of the second Loewy layer of the projective cover of the trivial
irreducible module. The analogues of these results are well known in the
modular representation theory of finite groups.


title:
On Randomized Fictitious Play for Approximating Saddle Points Over
  Convex Sets

abstract:
  Given two bounded convex sets $X\subseteq\RR^m$ and $Y\subseteq\RR^n,$
specified by membership oracles, and a continuous convex-concave function
$F:X\times Y\to\RR$, we consider the problem of computing an $\eps$-approximate
saddle point, that is, a pair $(x^*,y^*)\in X\times Y$ such that $\sup_{y\in Y}
F(x^*,y)\le \inf_{x\in
  X}F(x,y^*)+\eps.$ Grigoriadis and Khachiyan (1995) gave a simple randomized
variant of fictitious play for computing an $\eps$-approximate saddle point for
matrix games, that is, when $F$ is bilinear and the sets $X$ and $Y$ are
simplices. In this paper, we extend their method to the general case. In
particular, we show that, for functions of constant "width", an
$\eps$-approximate saddle point can be computed using
$O^*(\frac{(n+m)}{\eps^2}\ln R)$ random samples from log-concave distributions
over the convex sets $X$ and $Y$. It is assumed that $X$ and $Y$ have inscribed
balls of radius $1/R$ and circumscribing balls of radius $R$. As a consequence,
we obtain a simple randomized polynomial-time algorithm that computes such an
approximation faster than known methods for problems with bounded width and
when $\eps \in (0,1)$ is a fixed, but arbitrarily small constant. Our main tool
for achieving this result is the combination of the randomized fictitious play
with the recently developed results on sampling from convex sets.


title: Bounded dynamics of finite PT-symmetric magnetoinductive arrays

abstract:
  We examine the conditions for the existence of bounded dynamical phases for
finite PT-symmetric arrays of split-ring resonators. The dimer (N=2), trimer
(N=3) and pentamer (N=5) cases are solved in closed form, while for $N>5$
results were computed numerically for several gain/loss spatial distributions.
It is found that the parameter stability window decreases monotonically with
the size of the array.


title:
The non-perturbative BRST quartet mechanism in Landau gauge QCD:
  Ghost-gluon and ghost-quark bound states

abstract:
  The non-perturbative BRST quartet mechanism in infrared Landau gauge QCD is
presented. It is demonstrated that positivity violation for transverse gluons
allows to identify the gluon's non-perturbative BRST quartet. To describe the
respective BRST-daughter state a truncated Bethe-Salpeter equation for the
gluon-ghost bound state is investigated. An analogous construction for quarks
yields a truncated Bethe-Salpeter equation for the quark-ghost bound state. The
gluon-ghost bound state equation in two space-time dimensions has been
numerically solved.


title: Approximately counting semismooth integers

abstract:
  An integer $n$ is $(y,z)$-semismooth if $n=pm$ where $m$ is an integer with
all prime divisors $\le y$ and $p$ is 1 or a prime $\le z$. arge quantities of
semismooth integers are utilized in modern integer factoring algorithms, such
as the number field sieve, that incorporate the so-called large prime variant.
Thus, it is useful for factoring practitioners to be able to estimate the value
of $\Psi(x,y,z)$, the number of $(y,z)$-semismooth integers up to $x$, so that
they can better set algorithm parameters and minimize running times, which
could be weeks or months on a cluster supercomputer. In this paper, we explore
several algorithms to approximate $\Psi(x,y,z)$ using a generalization of
Buchstab's identity with numeric integration.


title: Some aspects of the orientation of galaxies in clusters

abstract:
  The analysis of Tully's groups of galaxies belonging to the Local
Supercluster (LSC) was performed. In the 1975 Hawley and Peebles presented the
method for investigations of the galaxies orientation in the large structures.
In our previous papers statistical test proposed by Hawley and Peebles for
investigation of this problem was analyzed in details and some improvements
were suggested. On this base the new method of the analysis of galactic
alignment in clusters was proposed. Using this method, God{\l}owski (2012)
analyzed the orientation of galaxies inside Tully's group founding no
significant deviations from isotropy both in orientation of position angles and
$\delta_D$ and $\eta$ angles as well, giving the spatial orientation of galaxy
planes. In the present paper we examined carefully and methodically the
dependence of alignment in Tully's groups on morphological type of galaxies.
Moreover, we discussed the consequences of different approximation of "true
shape" of the galaxies for different morphological types, possible influence of
this problem for investigation of spatial orientation of galaxies. In addition,
we discussed the implications of the obtained results for the theory of galaxy
formation as well.


title: About the Infinite Repetition of Histories in Space

abstract:
  This paper analyzes two different proposals, one by Ellis and Brundrit, based
on classical relativistic cosmology, the other by Garriga and Vilenkin, based
on the DH interpretation of quantum mechanics, both of which conclude that, in
an infinite universe, planets and living beings must be repeated an infinite
number of times. We point to some possible shortcomings in the arguments of
these authors. We conclude that the idea of an infinite repetition of histories
in space cannot be considered strictly speaking a consequence of current
physics and cosmology. Such ideas should be seen rather as examples of
{\guillemotleft}ironic science{\guillemotright} in the terminology of John
Horgan.


title:
Subcubic triangle-free graphs have fractional chromatic number at most
  14/5

abstract:
  We prove that every subcubic triangle-free graph has fractional chromatic
number at most 14/5, thus confirming a conjecture of Heckman and Thomas [A new
proof of the independence ratio of triangle-free cubic graphs. Discrete Math.
233 (2001), 233--237].


title: Hereditarily supercompact spaces

abstract:
  A topological space $X$ is called hereditarily supercompact if each closed
subspace of X is supercompact. By a combined result of Bula, Nikiel, Tuncali,
Tymchatyn, and Rudin, each monotonically normal compact Hausdorff space is
hereditarily supercompact. A dyadic compact space is hereditarily supercompact
if and only if it is metrizable. Under (MA + not CH) each separable
hereditarily supercompact space is hereditarily separable and hereditarily
Lindel\"of. This implies that under (MA + not CH) a scattered compact space is
metrizable if and only if it is separable and hereditarily supercompact. The
hereditary supercompactness is not productive: the product [0,1] x \alpha D of
the closed interval and the one-point compactification \alpha D of a discrete
space D of cardinality |D|\ge non(M) is not hereditarily supercompact (but is
Rosenthal compact and uniform Eberlein compact). Moreover, under the assumption
cof(M)=\omega_1 the space [0,1] x \alpha D contains a closed subspace X which
is first countable and hereditarily paracompact but not supercompact.


title: Unconstraint global polynomial optimization via Gradient Ideal

abstract:
  In this paper, we describe a new method to compute the minimum of a real
polynomial function and the ideal defining the points which minimize this
polynomial function, assuming that the minimizer ideal is zero-dimensional. Our
method is a generalization of Lasserre relaxation method and stops in a finite
number of steps. The proposed algorithm combines Border Basis, Moment Matrices
and Semidefinite Programming. In the case where the minimum is reached at a
finite number of points, it provides a border basis of the minimizer ideal.


title: On Left regular bands and real Conic-Line arrangements

abstract:
  An arrangement of curves in the real plane divides it into a collection of
faces. In the case of line arrangements, there exists an associative product
which gives this collection a structure of a left regular band. A natural
question is whether the same is possible for other arrangements. In this paper,
we try to answer this question for the simplest generalization of line
arrangements, that is, conic--line arrangements.
  Investigating the different algebraic structures induced by the face poset of
a conic--line arrangement, we present two different generalizations for the
product and its associated structures: an alternative left regular band and an
associative aperiodic semigroup. We also study the structure of sub left
regular bands induced by these arrangements. We finish with some chamber
counting results for conic--line arrangements.


title:
Vector-valued stochastic delay equations - a weak solution and its
  Markovian representation

abstract:
  A class of stochastic delay equations in Banach space $E$ driven by
cylindrical Wiener process is studied. We investigate two concepts of
solutions: weak and generalised strong, and give conditions under which they
are equivalent. We present an evolution equation approach in a Banach space
$\Ep{p}:=E\times L^p(-1,0;E)$ proving that the solutions can be reformulated as
$\Ep{p}$-valued Markov processes. Based on the Markovian representation we
prove the existence and continuity of the solutions. The results are applied to
stochastic delay partial differential equations with an application to neutral
networks and population dynamics.


title: Ferroelectric-Gated Terahertz Plasmonics on Graphene

abstract:
  Inspired by recent advancement of low-power ferroelectic-gated memories and
transistors, we propose a design of ferroelectic-gated nanoplasmonic devices
based on graphene sheets clamped in ferroelectric crystals. We show that the
two-dimensional plasmons in graphene strongly couple with the phonon-polaritons
in ferroelectrics at terahertz frequencies, leading to characteristic modal
wavelength of the order of 100--200 nm at only 3--4 THz. By patterning the
ferroelectrics into different domains, one can produce compact on-chip
plasmonic waveguides, which exhibit negligible crosstalk even at 50 nm
separation distance. Harnessing the memory effect of ferroelectrics, low-power
electro-optical switching can be achieved on these plasmonic waveguides.


title: Towards a determination of the tau lepton dipole moments

abstract:
  The tau anomalous magnetic moment (a_tau) and electric dipole moment (d_tau)
have not yet been observed. The present bounds on their values are of order
10^-2 and 10^-17 e*cm, respectively. We propose to measure a_tau with a
precision of O(10^-3) or better and improve the existing limits on d_tau using
precise tau- -> l- nu_tau \bar{nu}_l gamma (l=e or mu) data from
high-luminosity B factories. A detailed feasibility study of this method is
underway.


title:
Experimental study of libration-driven zonal flows in non-axisymmetric
  containers

abstract:
  Orbital dynamics that lead to longitudinal libration of celestial bodies also
result in an elliptically deformed equatorial core-mantle boundary. The
non-axisymmetry of the boundary leads to a topographic coupling between the
assumed rigidmantle and the underlying low viscosity fluid.The present
experimental study investigates theeffect of non axisymmetric boundaries on the
zonal flow driven by longitudinal libration. For large enough equatorial
ellipticity, we report intermittent space-filling turbulence in particular
bands of resonant frequency correlated with larger amplitude zonal flow. The
mechanism underlying the intermittent turbulence has yet to be unambiguously
determined. Nevertheless, recent numerical simulations in triaxial and biaxial
ellipsoids suggest that it may be associated with the growth and collapse of an
elliptical instability (Cebron et al., 2012). Outside of the band of resonance,
we find that the background flow is laminar and the zonal flow becomes
independent of the geometry at first order, in agreement with a non linear
mechanism in the Ekman boundary layer (e.g. Calkins et al.; 2010, Sauret and Le
Dizes, 2012b).


title: Some proof theoretical remarks on quantification in ordinary language

abstract:
  This paper surveys the common approach to quantification and generalised
quantification in formal linguistics and philosophy of language. We point out
how this general setting departs from empirical linguistic data, and give some
hints for a different view based on proof theory, which on many aspects gets
closer to the language itself. We stress the importance of Hilbert's oper- ator
epsilon and tau for, respectively, existential and universal quantifications.
Indeed, these operators help a lot to construct semantic representation close
to natural language, in particular with quantified noun phrases as individual
terms. We also define guidelines for the design of the proof rules
corresponding to generalised quantifiers.


title:
Characterization of the Quantized Hall Insulator Phase in the Quantum
  Critical Regime

abstract:
  The conductivity $\sigma$ and resistivity $\rho$ tensors of the disordered
Hofstadter model are mapped as functions of Fermi energy $E_F$ and temperature
$T$ in the quantum critical regime of the plateau-insulator transition (PIT).
The finite-size errors are eliminated by using the non-commutative
Kubo-formula. The results reproduce all the key experimental characteristics of
this transition in Integer Quantum Hall (IQHE) systems. In particular, the
Quantized Hall Insulator (QHI) phase is detected and analyzed. The presently
accepted characterization of the QHI phase in the quantum critical regime,
based entirely on experimental data, is fully supported by our theoretical
investigation.


title:
A Deep Search for Extended Radio Continuum Emission From Dwarf
  Spheroidal Galaxies: Implications for Particle Dark Matter

abstract:
  We present deep radio observations of four nearby dwarf spheroidal (dSph)
galaxies, designed to detect extended synchrotron emission resulting from
weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter annihilations in their
halos. Models by Colafrancesco et al. (CPU07) predict the existence of
angularly large, smoothly distributed radio halos in such systems, that stem
from electron and positron annihilation products spiraling in a turbulent
magnetic field. We map a total of 40.5 deg^2 around the Draco, Ursa Major II,
Coma Berenices, and Willman 1 dSphs with the GBT at 1.4 GHz to detect this
annihilation signature, greatly reducing discrete-source confusion using the
NVSS catalog. We construct radial surface brightness profiles from each of the
subtracted maps, and jackknife the data to quantify the significance of the
features therein. At the 10 arcmin resolution of our observations, foregrounds
contribute a standard deviation of 1.8 - 5.7 mJy/beam to our high-latitude
maps, with the emission in the Draco and Coma dominated by foregrounds. On the
other hand, we find no significant emission in the Ursa Major II and Willman 1
fields, and explore the implications of non-detections in these fields for
particle dark matter using the fiducial models of CPU07. For a WIMP mass of 100
GeV annihilating into $b\bar{b}$ final states and B = 1 muG, upper limits on
the annihilation cross-section for Ursa Major II and Willman I are
log<ov,cm^3/s> < -25 for the prefereed set of charged particle propagation
parameters adopted by CPU07; this is comparable to that inferred at gamma-ray
energies from the two-year Fermi-LAT data. We discuss three avenues for
improving the constraints on <ov> presented here, and conclude that deep radio
observations of dSphs are highly complementary to indirect WIMP searches at
higher energies.


title:
Comments on the Influence of Disorder for Pinning Model in Correlated
  Gaussian Environment

abstract:
  We study the random pinning model, in the case of a Gaussian environment
presenting power-law decaying correlations, of exponent decay a>0. We comment
on the annealed (i.e. averaged over disorder) model, which is far from being
trivial, and we discuss the influence of disorder on the critical properties of
the system. We show that the annealed critical exponent \nu^{ann} is the same
as the homogeneous one \nu^{pur}, provided that correlations are decaying fast
enough (a>2). If correlations are summable (a>1), we also show that the
disordered phase transition is at least of order 2, showing disorder relevance
if \nu^{pur}<2. If correlations are not summable (a<1), we show that the phase
transition disappears.


title:
The Critical Curve of the Random Pinning and Copolymer Models at Weak
  Coupling

abstract:
  We study random pinning and copolymer models, when the return distribution of
the underlying renewal process has a polynomial tail with finite mean. We
compute the asymptotic behavior of the critical curves of the models in the
weak coupling regime, showing that it is universal. This proves a conjecture of
Bolthausen, den Hollander and Opoku for copolymer models (ref. [8]), which we
also extend to pinning models.


title:
Capacity Results for Binary Fading Interference Channels with Delayed
  CSIT

abstract:
  To study the effect of lack of up-to-date channel state information at the
transmitters (CSIT), we consider two-user binary fading interference channels
with Delayed-CSIT. We characterize the capacity region for such channels under
homogeneous assumption where channel gains have identical and independent
distributions across time and space, eliminating the possibility of exploiting
time/space correlation. We introduce and discuss several novel coding
opportunities created by outdated CSIT that can enlarge the achievable rate
region. The capacity-achieving scheme relies on accurate combination,
concatenation, and merging of these opportunities, depending on the channel
statistics. The outer-bounds are based on an extremal inequality we develop for
a binary broadcast channel with Delayed-CSIT. We further extend the results and
characterize the capacity region when output feedback links are available from
the receivers to the transmitters in addition to the delayed knowledge of the
channel state information. We also discuss the extension of our results to the
non-homogeneous setting.


title: Dual quantum information splitting with degenerate graph states

abstract:
  We propose a protocol for secret sharing, called dual quantum information
splitting (DQIS), that reverses the roles of state and channel in standard
quantum information splitting. In this method, a secret is shared via
teleportation of a fiducial input state over an entangled state that encodes
the secret in a graph state basis. By performing a test of violation of a Bell
inequality on the encoded state, the legitimate parties determine if the
violation is sufficiently high to permit distilling secret bits. Thus, the code
space must be maximally and exclusively nonlocal. To this end, we propose two
ways to obtain code words that are degenerate with respect to a Bell operator.
The security of DQIS comes from monogamy of nonlocal correlations, which we
illustrate by means of a simple single-qubit attack model. The nonlocal basis
of security of our protocol makes it suitable for security in general
monogamous theories and in the more stringent, device-independent cryptographic
scenario.


title: Percolations on random maps I: half-plane models

abstract:
  We study Bernoulli percolations on random lattices of the half-plane obtained
as local limit of uniform planar triangulations or quadrangulations. Using the
characteristic spatial Markov property or peeling process of these random
lattices we prove a surprisingly simple universal formula for the critical
threshold for bond and face percolations on these graphs. Our techniques also
permit us to compute off-critical and critical exponents related to percolation
clusters such as the volume and the perimeter.


title: Asymptotically conical Calabi-Yau metrics on quasi-projective varieties

abstract:
  Let X be a compact Kahler orbifold without \C-codimension-1 singularities.
Let D be a suborbifold divisor in X such that D \supset Sing(X) and -pK_X =
q[D] for some p, q \in \N with q > p. Assume that D is Fano. We prove the
following two main results. (1) If D is Kahler-Einstein, then, applying results
from our previous paper, we show that each Kahler class on X\D contains a
unique asymptotically conical Ricci-flat Kahler metric, converging to its
tangent cone at infinity at a rate of O(r^{-1-\epsilon}) if X is smooth. This
provides a definitive version of a theorem of Tian and Yau. (2) We introduce
new methods to prove an analogous statement (with rate O(r^{-0.0128})) when X =
Bl_{p}P^3 and D = Bl_{p_1,p_2}P^2 is the strict transform of a smooth quadric
through p in P^3. Here D is no longer Kahler-Einstein, but the normal
S^1-bundle to D in X admits an irregular Sasaki-Einstein structure which is
compatible with its canonical CR structure. This provides the first example of
an affine Calabi-Yau manifold of Euclidean volume growth with irregular tangent
cone at infinity.


title:
Astrophysical neutrino flavor ratios in the presence of sterile
  neutrinos

abstract:
  Astrophysical objects such as active-galactic nuclei (AGN) and gamma-ray
bursts (GRBs) can be sources of high energy, astrophysical neutrinos. The decay
of charged pions produces electron and muon-flavor neutrinos from the primary
decay of the pion, and from the secondary decay of the resulting charged
lepton. At low energies we expect the flavor ratio
$\Phi_{\nu_e}:\Phi_{\nu_\mu}:\Phi_{\nu_\tau}$ to be $1:2:0$ at the source. We
are interested in the flavor ratios as measured on Earth after the neutrinos
propagate over cosmic distance scales from the source. If we only consider
vacuum flavor transition probabilities between the three active flavors then we
expect a measured flavor ratio of $1:1:1$ up to small corrections from
$\theta_{13}$ and non-maximal $\theta_{23}$. When we include mixing with two
additional flavors of sterile neutrinos then we see corrections to this ratio
up to $\sim 30%$. Furthermore, if we consider energy-loss of the charged
leptons involved in the pion decay from cosmic sources then these flux ratios
depend on the neutrino energy. We examine these energy-dependent flavor ratios
using a specific model for sterile neutrino mixing, and compare to expected
ratios when only three neutrino flavors are considered. At energies $E_\nu >$ 1
TeV the flavor ratios observed in experiments such as IceCube can probe the
existence of sterile neutrinos.


title: A novel derivation of the rotating black hole metric

abstract:
  We derive the rotating black hole metric by appealing to ellipsoidal symmetry
of space and a general guiding principle of incorporation of the Newtonian
acceleration for massive and no acceleration for massless particles.


title: Cosmological constraints on a decomposed Chaplygin gas

abstract:
  Any unified dark matter cosmology can be decomposed into dark matter
interacting with vacuum energy, without introducing any additional degrees of
freedom. We present observational constraints on an interacting vacuum plus
dark energy corresponding to a generalised Chaplygin gas cosmology. We consider
two distinct models for the interaction leading to either a barotropic equation
of state or dark matter that follows geodesics, corresponding to a rest-frame
sound speed equal to the adiabatic sound speed or zero sound speed,
respectively. For the barotropic model, the most stringent constraint on
$\alpha$ comes from the combination of CMB+SNIa+LSS(m) gives
$\alpha<5.66\times10^{-6}$ at the 95% confidence level, which indicates that
the barotropic model must be extremely close to the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. For
the case where the dark matter follows geodesics, perturbations have zero sound
speed, and CMB+SNIa+gISW then gives the much weaker constraint
$-0.15<\alpha<0.26$ at the 95% confidence level.


title:
A vertical Liouville subfoliation on the cotangent bundle of a Cartan
  space and some related structures

abstract:
  In this paper we study some problems related to a vertical Liouville
distribution (called vertical Liouville-Hamilton distribution) on the cotangent
bundle of a Cartan space. We study the existence of some linear connections of
Vr\u{a}nceanu type on Cartan spaces related to some foliated structures. Also,
we identify a certain $(n,2n-1)$--codimensional subfoliation
$(\mathcal{F}_V,\mathcal{F}_{C^*})$ on $T^*M_0$ given by vertical foliation
$\mathcal{F}_V$ and the line foliation $\mathcal{F}_{C^*}$ spanned by the
vertical Liouville-Hamilton vector field $C^*$ and we give a triplet of basic
connections adapted to this subfoliation. Finally, using the vertical Liouville
foliation $\mathcal{F}_{V_{C^*}}$ and the natural almost complex structure on
$T^*M_0$ we study some aspects concerning the cohomology of $c$--indicatrix
cotangent bundle.


title:
First principles study of helium, carbon and nitrogen in austenite,
  dilute austenitic iron alloys and nickel

abstract:
  An extensive set of first-principles density functional theory calculations
have been performed to study the behaviour of He, C and N solutes in austenite,
dilute Fe-Cr-Ni austenitic alloys and Ni in order to investigate their
influence on the microstructural evolution of austenitic steel alloys under
irradiation.


title:
MaGICC Thick Disk I: Comparing a Simulated Disk Formed with Stellar
  Feedback to the Milky Way

abstract:
  We analyse the structure and chemical enrichment of a Milky Way-like galaxy
with a stellar mass of 2 10^{10} M_sun, formed in a cosmological hydrodynamical
simulation. It is disk-dominated with a flat rotation curve, and has a disk
scale length similar to the Milky Way's, but a velocity dispersion that is ~50%
higher. Examining stars in narrow [Fe/H] and [\alpha/Fe] abundance ranges, we
find remarkable qualitative agreement between this simulation and observations:
a) The old stars lie in a thickened distribution with a short scale length,
while the young stars form a thinner disk, with scale lengths decreasing, as
[Fe/H] increases. b) Consequently, there is a distinct outward metallicity
gradient. c) Mono-abundance populations exist with a continuous distribution of
scale heights (from thin to thick). However, the simulated galaxy has a
distinct and substantive very thick disk (h_z~1.5 kpc), not seen in the Milky
Way. The broad agreement between simulations and observations allows us to test
the validity of observational proxies used in the literature: we find in the
simulation that mono-abundance populations are good proxies for single age
populations (<1 Gyr) for most abundances.


title: The Growth in Size and Mass of Cluster Galaxies since z=2

abstract:
  We study the formation and evolution of Brightest Cluster Galaxies starting
from a $z=2$ population of quiescent ellipticals and following them to $z=0$.
To this end, we use a suite of nine high-resolution dark matter-only
simulations of galaxy clusters in a $\Lambda$CDM universe. We develop a scheme
in which simulation particles are weighted to generate realistic and
dynamically stable stellar density profiles at $z=2$. Our initial conditions
assign a stellar mass to every identified dark halo as expected from abundance
matching; assuming there exists a one-to-one relation between the visible
properties of galaxies and their host haloes. We set the sizes of the luminous
components according to the observed relations for $z\sim2$ massive quiescent
galaxies. We study the evolution of the mass-size relation, the fate of
satellite galaxies and the mass aggregation of the cluster central. From $z=2$,
these galaxies grow on average in size by a factor 5 to 10 of and in mass by 2
to 3. The stellar mass growth rate of the simulated BCGs in our sample is of
1.9 in the range $0.3<z<1.0$ consistent with observations, and of 1.5 in the
range $0.0<z<0.3$. Furthermore the satellite galaxies evolve to the present day
mass-size relation by $z=0$. Assuming passively evolving stellar populations,
we present surface brightness profiles for our cluster centrals which resemble
those observed for the cDs in similar mass clusters both at $z=0$ and at $z=1$.
This demonstrates that the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology does indeed predict minor and
major mergers to occur in galaxy clusters with the frequency and mass ratio
distribution required to explain the observed growth in size of passive
galaxies since $z=2$. Our experiment shows that Brightest Cluster Galaxies can
form through dissipationless mergers of quiescent massive $z=2$ galaxies,
without substantial additional star formation.


title:
A Virtual Observatory Census to Address Dwarfs Origins. AVOCADO - I.
  Science goals, sample selection and analysis tools

abstract:
  (Abridged) AVOCADO aims at establishing firm conclusions on the formation and
evolution of dwarf galaxies by constructing and analysing a homogeneous,
multiwavelength dataset for a statistically significant sample of approximately
6500 nearby dwarfs (M_i > -18 mag). We present the sample selection criteria
and describe the suite of analysis tools, some of them developed in the
framework of the Virtual Observatory. We make use of optical spectra and
UV-to-NIR imaging of the dwarf sample to derive SFRs, stellar masses, ages and
metallicities - which are further supplemented with structural parameters that
are used to classify them morphologically. This dataset, coupled with a
detailed characterisation of each dwarf's environment, allows for a fully
comprehensive investigation of their origins and to track the potential
evolutionary paths between the different dwarf types. We characterise the local
environment of all dwarfs in our sample, paying special attention to trends
with current star formation activity. We find that virtually all quiescent
dwarfs are located in the vicinity (projected distances < 1.5 Mpc) of L*
companions, consistent with recent results. While star-forming dwarfs are
preferentially found at separations of the order of 1 Mpc, there appears to be
a tail towards low separations (<100 kpc) in the distribution of projected
distances. We speculate that, modulo projection effects, this probably
represents a genuine population of late-type dwarfs caught upon first infall
about their host and before environmental quenching has fully operated. In this
context, these results suggest that internal mechanisms -such as gas exhaustion
via star formation or feedback effects- are not sufficient to completely cease
the star formation activity in dwarf galaxies, and that becoming the satellite
of a massive central galaxy appears to be a necessary condition to create a
quiescent dwarf.


title: Do jets precess... or even move at all?

abstract:
  Observations of accreting black holes often provoke suggestions that their
jets precess. The precession is usually supposed to result from a combination
of the Lense-Thirring effect and accretion disc viscosity. We show that this is
unlikely for any type of black hole system, as the disc generally has too
little angular momentum compared with a spinning hole to cause any significant
movement of the jet direction across the sky on short timescales. Uncorrelated
accretion events, as in the chaotic accretion picture of active galactic
nuclei, change AGN jet directions only on timescales \gtrsim 10^7 yr. In this
picture AGN jet directions are stable on shorter timescales, but uncorrelated
with any structure of the host galaxy, as observed. We argue that observations
of black-hole jets precessing on timescales short compared to the accretion
time would be a strong indication that the accretion disc, and not the standard
Blandford-Znajek mechanism, is responsible for driving the jet. This would be
particularly convincing in a tidal disruption event. We suggest that additional
disc physics is needed to explain any jet precession on timescales short
compared with the accretion time. Possibilities include the radiation warping
instability, or disc tearing.


title:
High-pressure, low-abundance water in bipolar outflows. Results from a
  Herschel-WISH survey

abstract:
  (Abridged) We present a survey of the water emission in a sample of more than
20 outflows from low mass young stellar objects with the goal of characterizing
the physical and chemical conditions of the emitting gas. We have used the HIFI
and PACS instruments on board the Herschel Space Observatory to observe the two
fundamental lines of ortho-water at 557 and 1670 GHz. These observations were
part of the "Water In Star-forming regions with Herschel" (WISH) key program,
and have been complemented with CO and H2 data. We find that the emission from
water has a different spatial and velocity distribution from that of the J=1-0
and 2-1 transitions of CO, but it has a similar spatial distribution to H2, and
its intensity follows the H2 intensity derived from IRAC images. This suggests
that water traces the outflow gas at hundreds of kelvins responsible for the H2
emission, and not the component at tens of kelvins typical of low-J CO
emission. A warm origin of the water emission is confirmed by a remarkable
correlation between the intensities of the 557 and 1670 GHz lines, which also
indicates the emitting gas has a narrow range of excitations. A non-LTE
radiative transfer analysis shows that while there is some ambiguity on the
exact combination of density and temperature values, the gas thermal pressure
nT is constrained within less than a factor of 2. The typical nT over the
sample is 4 10^{9} cm^{-3}K, which represents an increase of 10^4 with respect
to the ambient value. The data also constrain within a factor of 2 the water
column density. When this quantity is combined with H2 column densities, the
typical water abundance is only 3 10^{-7}, with an uncertainty of a factor of
3. Our data challenge current C-shock models of water production due to a
combination of wing-line profiles, high gas compressions, and low abundances.


title: Incorporating Space-Time Within Medium-Modified Jet Event Generators

abstract:
  We outline a novel approach to develop an in-medium shower Monte-Carlo event
generator based on the higher-twist formalism of jet modification. By undoing
one of the light-cone integrals which sets the corresponding light-cone
momentum to be equal in the amplitude and the complex conjugate, we introduce
an uncertainty in the smaller light-cone momentum component. This allows for
the generalization of the standard analytic formalism to a Wigner transform
like formalism, where the non-conjugate large light-cone momentum and position
are retained for each parton. Jets are generated event-by-event by simulating
this Wigner transform kernel. Simple results for longitudinal distributions of
partons and hadrons from jets propagating through a hot brick of strongly
interacting matter are presented. Values of the transport coefficient $\hat{q}$
are dialed to match phenomenologically relevant cases.


title:
Incommensurate dynamic correlations in the quasi-two-dimensional spin
  liquid BiCu2PO6

abstract:
  We report detailed inelastic neutron scattering measurements on single
crystals of the frustrated two-leg ladder BiCu2PO6, whose ground state is
described as a spin liquid phase with no long-range order down to 6 K. Two
branches of steeply dispersing long-lived spin excitations are observed with
excitation gaps of \Delta_1 = 1.90(9) meV and \Delta_2 = 3.95(8) meV.
Significant frustrating next-nearest neighbour interactions along the ladder
leg drive the minimum of each excitation branch to incommensurate wavevectors
\zeta_1 = 0.574\pi and \zeta_2 = 0.553\pi for the lower and upper energy
branches respectively. The temperature dependence of the excitation spectrum
near the gap energy is consistent with thermal activation into singly and
doubly degenerate excited states. The observed magnetic excitation spectrum as
well as earlier thermodynamic data could be consistently explained by the
presence of strong anisotropic interactions in the ground state Hamiltonian.


title:
The spectral energy distributions of K+A galaxies from the UV to the
  mid-IR: stellar populations, star formation and hot dust

abstract:
  We present spectrum synthesis fits to 808 K+A galaxies selected from the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and population synthesis of their spectral
energy distributions, extending from the far UV (0.15 micron) to the mid IR (22
micron), based on the results of STARLIGHT code fitting to the SDSS spectra.
Our modelling shows that K+A galaxies have undergone a large starburst,
involving a median 50% of their present stellar masses, superposed over an
older stellar population. The metal abundance of the intermediate-age stars
shows that star formation did not take place in pristine gas, but was part of a
dramatic increase in the star formation rates for originally gas-rich objects.
We find no evidence for on-going QSO activity in the UV, which is well modeled
by the emission of intermediate-age stars. We use K+A galaxies as local
counterparts of high redshift objects to test for the presence of Thermally
Pulsing AGB stars in similarly-aged populations and find no excess in the
infrared due to emission from such stars, arguing that more distant galaxies
are indeed old and massive at their redshift. All of our galaxies show
significant excesses in the mid-IR compared to the light from their stars. We
fit this ad hoc with a 300K blackbody. Possible sources include TP-AGB stars,
obscured young star clusters and hidden AGNs, heating a significant dust
component.


title: Nonlinear field theory with topological solitons: Skyrme models

abstract:
  In this talk, we give new insight into one of the best-known nonlinear field
theories, the Skyrme model. We present some exact relevant solutions coming
from different new versions (gauged BPS baby as well as vector BPS Skyrme
models) giving rise to topological solitons, and highlighting the BPS character
of the theory.


title: Spectral instability for even non-selfadjoint anharmonic oscillators

abstract:
  We study the instability of the spectrum for a class of non-selfadjoint
anharmonic oscillators, estimating the behavior of the instability indices (i.
e. the norm of spectral projections) associated with the large eigenvalues of
these oscillators. We get asymptotic expansions for the instability indices,
extending the results of Davies and Davies-Kuijlaars.


title: On detecting harmonic oscillations

abstract:
  In this paper, we focus on the following testing problem: assume that we are
given observations of a real-valued signal along the grid $0,1,\ldots,N-1$,
corrupted by white Gaussian noise. We want to distinguish between two
hypotheses: (a) the signal is a nuisance - a linear combination of $d_n$
harmonic oscillations of known frequencies, and (b) signal is the sum of a
nuisance and a linear combination of a given number $d_s$ of harmonic
oscillations with unknown frequencies, and such that the distance (measured in
the uniform norm on the grid) between the signal and the set of nuisances is at
least $\rho>0$. We propose a computationally efficient test for distinguishing
between (a) and (b) and show that its "resolution" (the smallest value of
$\rho$ for which (a) and (b) are distinguished with a given confidence
$1-\alpha$) is $\mathrm{O}(\sqrt{\ln(N/\alpha)/N})$, with the hidden factor
depending solely on $d_n$ and $d_s$ and independent of the frequencies in
question. We show that this resolution, up to a factor which is polynomial in
$d_n,d_s$ and logarithmic in $N$, is the best possible under circumstances. We
further extend the outlined results to the case of nuisances and signals close
to linear combinations of harmonic oscillations, and provide illustrative
numerical results.


title:
Expansion dynamics of interacting bosons in homogeneous lattices in one
  and two dimensions

abstract:
  We experimentally and numerically investigate the expansion of initially
localized ultracold bosons in homogeneous one- and two-dimensional optical
lattices. We find that both dimensionality and interaction strength crucially
influence these non-equilibrium dynamics. While the atoms expand ballistically
in all integrable limits, deviations from these limits dramatically suppress
the expansion and lead to the appearance of almost bimodal cloud shapes,
indicating diffusive dynamics in the center surrounded by ballistic wings. For
strongly interacting bosons, we observe a dimensional crossover of the dynamics
from ballistic in the one-dimensional hard-core case to diffusive in two
dimensions, as well as a similar crossover when higher occupancies are
introduced into the system.


title: How the diffuse Universe cools

abstract:
  In this work we investigate the cooling channels of diffuse gas (i.e. n_H<0.1
cm^-3) in cosmology. We aim to identify the wavelengths where most of the
energy is radiated in the form of emission lines or continuum radiation, and
the main elements and ions responsible for the emission. We use a subset of
cosmological, hydrodynamical runs from the OWLS project to calculate the
emission of diffuse gas and its evolution with time. We find that at z=0 (z=2)
about 70 (80) per cent of the energy emitted by diffuse gas is carried by
emission lines, with the continuum radiation contributing the remainder.
Hydrogen lines in the Lyman series are the primary contributors to the line
emission, with a share of 16 (20) per cent. Oxygen lines are the main metal
contributors at high redshift, while silicon, carbon and iron lines are
strongest at low redshift, when the contributions of AGB stars and supernova Ia
explosions to the metal budget become important and when there is more hot gas.
The ionic species carrying the most energy are OIII, CII, CIII, SiII, SiIII,
FeII and SIII. The great majority of energy is emitted in the UV band
(lambda=100-4000 A), both as continuum radiation and line emission. With almost
no exception, all the strongest lines fall in this band. At high energies,
continuum radiation is dominant (e.g., 80 per cent in the X-ray band), while
lines contribute progressively more at lower energies. While the results do
depend on the details of the numerical implementation of the physical processes
modelled in the simulations, the comparison of results from different
simulations demonstrates that the variations are overall small, and that the
conclusions are fairly robust. Given the overwhelming importance of UV emission
for the cooling of diffuse gas, it is desirable to build instruments dedicated
to the detection and characterisation of diffuse UV emission.


title: The probability that planar loop-erased random walk uses a given edge

abstract:
  We give a new proof of a result of Rick Kenyon that the probability that an
edge in the middle of an n x n square is used in a loop-erased walk connecting
opposites sides is of order n^{-3/4}. We, in fact, improve the result by
showing that this estimate is correct up to multiplicative constants.


title: Online Learning with Pairwise Loss Functions

abstract:
  Efficient online learning with pairwise loss functions is a crucial component
in building large-scale learning system that maximizes the area under the
Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve. In this paper we investigate the
generalization performance of online learning algorithms with pairwise loss
functions. We show that the existing proof techniques for generalization bounds
of online algorithms with a univariate loss can not be directly applied to
pairwise losses. In this paper, we derive the first result providing
data-dependent bounds for the average risk of the sequence of hypotheses
generated by an arbitrary online learner in terms of an easily computable
statistic, and show how to extract a low risk hypothesis from the sequence. We
demonstrate the generality of our results by applying it to two important
problems in machine learning. First, we analyze two online algorithms for
bipartite ranking; one being a natural extension of the perceptron algorithm
and the other using online convex optimization. Secondly, we provide an
analysis for the risk bound for an online algorithm for supervised metric
learning.


title:
The Maximum Energy of Accelerated Particles in Relativistic
  Collisionless Shocks

abstract:
  The afterglow emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is usually interpreted as
synchrotron radiation from electrons accelerated at the GRB external shock,
that propagates with relativistic velocities into the magnetized interstellar
medium. By means of multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we
investigate the acceleration performance of weakly magnetized relativistic
shocks, in the magnetization range 0<sigma<1e-1. The pre-shock magnetic field
is orthogonal to the flow, as generically expected for relativistic shocks. We
find that relativistic perpendicular shocks propagating in electron-positron
plasmas are efficient particle accelerators if the magnetization is sigma<1e-3.
For electron-ion plasmas, the transition to efficient acceleration occurs for
sigma<3e-5. Here, the acceleration process proceeds similarly for the two
species, since the electrons enter the shock nearly in equipartition with the
ions, as a result of strong pre-heating in the self-generated upstream
turbulence. In both electron-positron and electron-ion shocks, we find that the
maximum energy of the accelerated particles scales in time as t^(1/2). This
scaling is shallower than the so-called (and commonly assumed) Bohm limit, and
it naturally results from the small-scale nature of the Weibel turbulence
generated in the shock layer. In magnetized plasmas, the energy of the
accelerated particles increases until it reaches a saturation value that scales
with the magnetization as sigma^(-1/4). Further energization is prevented by
the fact that the self-generated turbulence is confined within a finite region
of thickness proportional to sigma^(-1/2) around the shock. Our results can
provide physically-grounded inputs for models of non-thermal emission from a
variety of astrophysical sources, with particular relevance to GRB afterglows.


title: Generalized Cut-Set Bounds for Broadcast Networks

abstract:
  A broadcast network is a classical network with all source messages
collocated at a single source node. For broadcast networks, the standard
cut-set bounds, which are known to be loose in general, are closely related to
union as a specific set operation to combine the basic cuts of the network.
This paper provides a new set of network coding bounds for general broadcast
networks. These bounds combine the basic cuts of the network via a variety of
set operations (not just the union) and are established via only the
submodularity of Shannon entropy. The tightness of these bounds are
demonstrated via applications to combination networks.


title: Light Sources Based on Relativistic Ion Beams

abstract:
  Possible parameters of Light Sources (LS) based on Backward Rayleigh
Scattering (BRS) of laser photons on relativistic ion beams in storage rings
are discussed. It was shown that the parameters of the LS based on the RHIC
storage ring (dedicated to High Energy Physics now) satisfy the requirements of
the 2d generation LS. Using the ordinary or enhanced radiative cooling of ion
beams in storage rings by broad-band lasers will permit to decrease essentially
their emittance, dimensions, angular and energy spreads and convert them to the
next generation of LS.


title: Finite semigroups embed in finitely presented congruence-free monoids

abstract:
  We prove that every finite semigroup embeds in a finitely presented
congruence-free monoid, and pose some questions around the Boone-Higman
Conjecture.


title:
Multi-photon quantum interference with high visibility using multiport
  beam splitters

abstract:
  Multi-photon states can be produced in multiple parametric down conversion
(PDC) processes. The nonlinear crystal in such a case is pumped with high
power. In theory, the more populated these states are, the deeper is the
conflict with local realistic description. However, the interference contrast
in multi-photon PDC experiments can be quite low for high pumping. We show how
the contrast can be improved. The idea employs currently accessible optical
devices, the multiport beam splitters. They are capable of splitting the
incoming light in one input mode to $M$ output modes. Our scheme works as a
POVM filter. It may provide a feasible CHSH-Bell inequality test, and thus can
be useful in e.g. schemes reducing communication complexity.


title: Normalization of Quaternionic Polynomials

abstract:
  Quaternionic polynomials are generated by quaternionic variables and the
quaternionic product. This paper proposes the generating ideal of quaternionic
polynomials in tensor algebra, finds the Groebner base of the ideal in the case
of pure imaginary quaternionic variables, and describes the normal forms of
such quaternionic polynomials explicitly.


title: Charge conservation protected topological phases

abstract:
  We discuss the relation between particle number conservation and topological
phases. In four spatial dimensions, we find that systems belonging to different
topological phases in the presence of a U(1) charge conservation can be
connected adiabatically, i.e., without closing the gap, upon intermediately
breaking this local symmetry by a superconducting term. The time reversal
preserving topological insulator states in 2D and 3D which can be obtained from
the 4D parent state by dimensional reduction inherit this protection by charge
conservation. Hence, all topological insulators can be adiabatically connected
to a trivial insulating state without breaking time reversal symmetry, provided
an intermediate superconducting term is allowed during the adiabatic
deformation. Conversely, in one spatial dimension, non-symmetry-protected
topological phases occur only in systems that break U(1) charge conservation.
These results can intuitively be understood by considering a natural embedding
of the classifying spaces of charge conserving Hamiltonians into the
corresponding Bogoliubov de Gennes classes.


title:
There is No Standard Model of ZFC and ZFC_2 with Henkin
  semantics.Generalized Lob's Theorem.Strong Reflection Principles and Large
  Cardinal Axioms.Consistency Results in Topology

abstract:
  In this article we proved so-called strong reflection principles
corresponding to formal theories Th which has omega-models. An posible
generalization of the Lob's theorem is considered.Main results is: (1) let $k$
be an inaccessible cardinal, then $\neg Con(ZFC+\exists k)$,(2) there is a
Lindel\"of $T_3$ indestructible space of pseudocharacter $\leqslant \aleph_1$
and size $\aleph_2$ in $L$.


title:
Role of internal gases and creep of Ag in controlling the critical
  current density of Ag-sheathed Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox wires

abstract:
  High engineering critical current density JE of >500 A/mm2 at 20 T and 4.2 K
can be regularly achieved in Ag-sheathed multifilamentary Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox
(Bi-2212) round wire when the sample length is several centimeters. However,
JE(20 T) in Bi-2212 wires of several meters length, as well as longer pieces
wound in coils, rarely exceeds 200 A/mm2. Moreover, long-length wires often
exhibit signs of Bi-2212 leakage after melt processing that are rarely found in
short, open-end samples. We studied the length dependence of JE of
state-of-the-art powder-in-tube (PIT) Bi-2212 wires and gases released by them
during melt processing using mass spectroscopy, confirming that JE degradation
with length is due to wire swelling produced by high internal gas pressures at
elevated temperatures [1,2]. We further modeled the gas transport in Bi-2212
wires and examined the wire expansion at critical stages of the melt processing
of as-drawn PIT wires and the wires that received a degassing treatment or a
cold-densification treatment before melt processing. These investigations
showed that internal gas pressure in long-length wires drives creep of the Ag
sheath during the heat treatment, causing wire to expand, lowering the density
of Bi-2212 filaments, and therefore degrading the wire JE; the creep rupture of
silver sheath naturally leads to the leakage of Bi-2212 liquid. Our work shows
that proper control of such creep is the key to preventing Bi-2212 leakage and
achieving high JE in long-length Bi-2212 conductors and coils.


title: Irregular Singularities in the H3+ WZW Model

abstract:
  We propose a definition of irregular vertex operators in the H3+ WZW model.
Our definition is compatible with the duality [1] between the H3+ WZW model and
Liouville theory, and we provide the explicit map between correlation functions
of irregular vertex operators in the two conformal field theories. Our
definition of irregular vertex operators is motivated by relations to partition
functions of N=2 gauge theory and scattering amplitudes in N=4 gauge theory


title:
A countable series of bisimple $\mathcal{H}$-trivial finitely presented
  congruence-free monoids

abstract:
  We provide a countable series of bisimple $\mathcal{H}$-trivial finitely
presented congruence-free monoids.


title: The Roberge-Weiss transition and 't Hooft loops

abstract:
  Roberge and Weiss showed that for SU(N) gauge theories, phase transitions
occur in the presence of an imaginary quark chemical potential. We show that at
asymptotically high temperature, where the phase transition is of first order,
that even with dynamical quarks 't Hooft loops of arbitrary Z(N) charge are
well defined at the phase boundary. To leading order in weak coupling, the 't
Hooft loop satisfies Casimir scaling in the pure glue theory, but not with
quarks. Because the chemical potential is imaginary, typically the interaction
measure is negative on one side of the phase transition. Using a matrix model
to model the deconfining phase transition, we compute the phase diagram for
heavy quarks, in the plane of temperature and imaginary chemical potential. In
general we find intersecting lines of first order transitions. Using a modified
Polyakov loop which is Roberge-Weiss symmetric, we suggest that the interface
tension is related to the 't Hooft loop only at high temperature, where the
imaginary part of this Polyakov loop, and not the real part, is discontinuous
across the phase boundary.


title:
Quantum dynamics and kinematics from a statistical model selected by the
  principle of Locality

abstract:
  Quantum mechanics predicts correlation between spacelike separated events
which is widely argued to violate the principle of Local Causality. By
contrast, here we shall show that the Schr\"odinger equation with Born's
statistical interpretation of wave function and uncertainty relation can be
derived from a statistical model of microscopic stochastic deviation from
classical mechanics which is selected uniquely, up to a free parameter, by the
principle of Local Causality. Quantization is thus argued to be physical and
Planck constant acquires an interpretation as the average stochastic deviation
from classical mechanics in a microscopic time scale. Unlike canonical
quantization, the resulting quantum system always has a definite configuration
all the time as in classical mechanics, fluctuating randomly along a continuous
trajectory. The average of the relevant physical quantities over the
distribution of the configuration are shown to be equal numerically to the
quantum mechanical average of the corresponding Hermitian operators over a
quantum state.


title:
On Estimating Non-uniform Density Distributions using N Nearest
  Neighbors

abstract:
  We consider density estimators based on the nearest neighbors method applied
to discrete point distibutions in spaces of arbitrary dimensionality. If the
density is constant, the volume of a hypersphere centered at a random location
is proportional to the expected number of points falling within the hypersphere
radius. The distance to the $N$-th nearest neighbor alone is then a sufficient
statistic for the density. In the non-uniform case the proportionality is
distorted. We model this distortion by normalizing hypersphere volumes to the
largest one and expressing the resulting distribution in terms of the Legendre
polynomials. Using Monte Carlo simulations we show that this approach can be
used to effectively address the tradeoff between smoothing bias and estimator
variance for sparsely sampled distributions.


title: Analysis of the resonant components in B0->J/\psi pi+pi-

abstract:
  Interpretation of CP violation measurements using charmonium decays, in both
the B0 and Bs systems, can be subject to changes due to "penguin" type
diagrams. These effects can be investigated using measurements of the
Cabibbo-suppressed B0->J/\psi pi+pi- decays. The final state composition of
this channel is investigated using a 1.0/fb sample of data produced in 7 TeV pp
collisions at the LHC and collected by the LHCb experiment. A modified Dalitz
plot analysis is performed using both the invariant mass spectra and the decay
angular distributions. An improved measurement of the B0->J/\psi pi+pi-
branching fraction of (3.97 +/-0.09+/- 0.11 +/- 0.16)x10^{-5} is reported where
the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic and the third is
due to the uncertainty of the branching fraction of the decay B- -> J/\psi K-
used as a normalization channel. In the J/\psi pi+pi- final state significant
production of f0(500) and rho(770) resonances is found, both of which can be
used for CP violation studies. In contrast evidence for the f0(980) resonance
is not found, thus establishing the first upper limit on the branching fraction
product B(B0->J/\psi f0(980) x B(f0(980)-> pi+ pi-) < 1.1x10^{-6}, leading to
an upper limit on the absolute value of the mixing angle of the f0(980)$ with
the f0(500) of <31 degrees, both at 90% confidence level.


title: Why Size Matters: Feature Coding as Nystrom Sampling

abstract:
  Recently, the computer vision and machine learning community has been in
favor of feature extraction pipelines that rely on a coding step followed by a
linear classifier, due to their overall simplicity, well understood properties
of linear classifiers, and their computational efficiency. In this paper we
propose a novel view of this pipeline based on kernel methods and Nystrom
sampling. In particular, we focus on the coding of a data point with a local
representation based on a dictionary with fewer elements than the number of
data points, and view it as an approximation to the actual function that would
compute pair-wise similarity to all data points (often too many to compute in
practice), followed by a Nystrom sampling step to select a subset of all data
points.
  Furthermore, since bounds are known on the approximation power of Nystrom
sampling as a function of how many samples (i.e. dictionary size) we consider,
we can derive bounds on the approximation of the exact (but expensive to
compute) kernel matrix, and use it as a proxy to predict accuracy as a function
of the dictionary size, which has been observed to increase but also to
saturate as we increase its size. This model may help explaining the positive
effect of the codebook size and justifying the need to stack more layers (often
referred to as deep learning), as flat models empirically saturate as we add
more complexity.


title:
Toward the Automatic Generation of a Semantic VRML Model from
  Unorganized 3D Point Clouds

abstract:
  This paper presents our experience regarding the creation of 3D semantic
facility model out of unorganized 3D point clouds. Thus, a knowledge-based
detection approach of objects using the OWL ontology language is presented.
This knowledge is used to define SWRL detection rules. In addition, the
combination of 3D processing built-ins and topological Built-Ins in SWRL rules
aims at combining geometrical analysis of 3D point clouds and specialist's
knowledge. This combination allows more flexible and intelligent detection and
the annotation of objects contained in 3D point clouds. The created WiDOP
prototype takes a set of 3D point clouds as input, and produces an indexed
scene of colored objects visualized within VRML language as output. The context
of the study is the detection of railway objects materialized within the
Deutsche Bahn scene such as signals, technical cupboards, electric poles, etc.
Therefore, the resulting enriched and populated domain ontology, that contains
the annotations of objects in the point clouds, is used to feed a GIS system.


title: Pulses and Snakes in Ginzburg--Landau Equation

abstract:
  Using a variational formulation for partial differential equations (PDEs)
combined with numerical simulations on ordinary differential equations (ODEs),
we find two categories (pulses and snakes) of dissipative solitons, and analyze
the dependence of both their shape and stability on the physical parameters of
the cubic-quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE). In contrast to the regular
solitary waves investigated in numerous integrable and non-integrable systems
over the last three decades, these dissipative solitons are not stationary in
time. Rather, they are spatially confined pulse-type structures whose envelopes
exhibit complicated temporal dynamics. Numerical simulations reveal very
interesting bifurcations sequences as the parameters of the CGLE are varied.
Our predictions on the variation of the soliton amplitude, width, position,
speed and phase of the solutions using the variational formulation agree with
simulation results.


title:
Galaxy pairs in the Sloan digital sky survey - VII: The merger --
  luminous infra-red galaxy connection

abstract:
  We use a sample of 9397 low z galaxies with a close companion to investigate
the connection between mergers and luminous infra-red (IR) galaxies (LIRGs).
The pairs are selected from the SDSS and have projected separations rp < 80
kpc, relative velocities dv < 300 km/s and stellar mass ratios within a factor
1:10. The IR luminosities (LIR) of galaxies in the pair and (mass, z and
environment-matched) control samples are determined from the SDSS -- IRAS
matched catalog of Hwang et al. (2010). We find a trend for increasing LIRG
fraction towards smaller pair separations, peaking at a factor of ~ 5--10 above
the median control fraction at the smallest separations (rp < 20 kpc), but
remaining elevated by a factor ~ 2--3 even out to 80 kpc (the widest
separations in our sample). We also find that LIRGs are most likely to be found
in high mass galaxies which have an approximately equal mass companion. We
confirm the results of previous studies that both the active galactic nucleus
(AGN) fraction and merger fraction increase strongly as a function of IR
luminosity. About 7% of LIRGs are associated with major mergers, as defined
within the criteria and mass completion of our sample. Finally, we quantify a
SFR offset (Delta SFR) as the enhancement (or decrement) relative to
star-forming galaxies of the same mass and redshift. We demonstrate that there
is a clear connection between the Delta SFR and the classification of a galaxy
as a LIRG that is mass dependent. Most of the LIRGs in our merger sample are
relatively high mass galaxies (log M* > 10.5), likely because the SFR
enhancement required to produce LIRG luminosities is more modest than at low
masses. The Delta SFR offers a redshift-independent metric for the
identification of the galaxies with the most enhanced star forming rates that
does not rely on fixed LIR boundaries.


title: Universal Features of Spin Transport and Breaking of Unitary Symmetries

abstract:
  When time-reversal symmetry is broken, quantum coherent systems with and
without spin rotational symmetry exhibit the same universal behavior in their
electric transport properties. We show that spin transport discriminates
between these two cases. In systems with large charge conductance, spin
transport is essentially insensitive to the breaking of time-reversal symmetry.
However, in the opposite limit of a single exit channel, spin currents vanish
identically in the presence of time-reversal symmetry, but are turned on by
breaking it with an orbital magnetic field.


title:
Thermoelectric Properties of Intermetallic Semiconducting RuIn3 and
  Metallic IrIn3

abstract:
  Low temperature (<400 K) thermoelectric properties of semiconducting RuIn3
and metallic IrIn3 are reported. RuIn3 is a narrow band gap semiconductor with
a large n-type Seebeck coefficient at room temperature (S(290K)~400 {\mu}V/K),
but the thermoelectric Figure of merit (ZT(290K) = 0.007) is small because of
high electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity ({\kappa}(290 K) ~ 2.0 W/m
K). IrIn3 is a metal with low thermopower at room temperature (S(290K)~20
{\mu}V/K) . Iridium substitution on the ruthenium site has a dramatic effect on
transport properties, which leads to a large improvement in the power factor
and corresponding Figure of merit (ZT(380 K) = 0.053), improving the efficiency
of the material by an over of magnitude.


title: Exceptional ballistic transport in epitaxial graphene nanoribbons

abstract:
  Graphene electronics has motivated much of graphene science for the past
decade. A primary goal was to develop high mobility semiconducting graphene
with a band gap that is large enough for high performance applications.
Graphene ribbons were thought to be semiconductors with these properties,
however efforts to produce ribbons with useful bandgaps and high mobility has
had limited success. We show here that high quality epitaxial graphene
nanoribbons 40 nm in width, with annealed edges, grown on sidewall SiC are not
semiconductors, but single channel room temperature ballistic conductors for
lengths up to at least 16 micrometers. Mobilities exceeding one million
corresponding to a sheet resistance below 1 Ohm have been observed, thereby
surpassing two dimensional graphene by 3 orders of magnitude and theoretical
predictions for perfect graphene by more than a factor of 10. The graphene
ribbons behave as electronic waveguides or quantum dots. We show that transport
in these ribbons is dominated by two components of the ground state transverse
waveguide mode, one that is ballistic and temperature independent, and a second
thermally activated component that appears to be ballistic at room temperature
and insulating at cryogenic temperatures. At room temperature the resistance of
both components abruptly increases with increasing length, one at a length of
160 nm and the other at 16 micrometers. These properties appear to be related
to the lowest energy quantum states in the charge neutral ribbons. Since
epitaxial graphene nanoribbons are readily produced by the thousands, their
room temperature ballistic transport properties can be used in advanced
nanoelectronics as well.


title:
Superconducting and Critical Current Properties of NiBi3 Thin Films on
  Carbon Microfibers and Sapphire

abstract:
  The superconducting and critical current properties of thin films of NiBi3
formed on the surface of carbon microfibers and sapphire substrates are
reported. The NiBi3 coated carbon microfibers were prepared by reacting 7
{\mu}m diameter Ni-coated (~ 80 nm) carbon fibers with Bi vapor, and thin films
on sapphire were formed by exposing electron-beam deposited Ni films (~ 40 -
120 nm) to Bi vapor. The microfibers and films show Tc = 4.3 K and 4.4
K,respectively, which were slightly higher than that reported for bulk
polycrystalline NiBi3. The critical current density (Jc) was measured below the
transition temperature and is well described by the Ginzburg-Landau power-law.


title:
Efficient MRF Energy Propagation for Video Segmentation via Bilateral
  Filters

abstract:
  Segmentation of an object from a video is a challenging task in multimedia
applications. Depending on the application, automatic or interactive methods
are desired; however, regardless of the application type, efficient computation
of video object segmentation is crucial for time-critical applications;
specifically, mobile and interactive applications require near real-time
efficiencies. In this paper, we address the problem of video segmentation from
the perspective of efficiency. We initially redefine the problem of video
object segmentation as the propagation of MRF energies along the temporal
domain. For this purpose, a novel and efficient method is proposed to propagate
MRF energies throughout the frames via bilateral filters without using any
global texture, color or shape model. Recently presented bi-exponential filter
is utilized for efficiency, whereas a novel technique is also developed to
dynamically solve graph-cuts for varying, non-lattice graphs in general linear
filtering scenario. These improvements are experimented for both automatic and
interactive video segmentation scenarios. Moreover, in addition to the
efficiency, segmentation quality is also tested both quantitatively and
qualitatively. Indeed, for some challenging examples, significant time
efficiency is observed without loss of segmentation quality.


title:
Natural selection. VI. Partitioning the information in fitness and
  characters by path analysis

abstract:
  Three steps aid in the analysis of selection. First, describe phenotypes by
their component causes. Components include genes, maternal effects, symbionts,
and any other predictors of phenotype that are of interest. Second, describe
fitness by its component causes, such as an individual's phenotype, its
neighbors' phenotypes, resource availability, and so on. Third, put the
predictors of phenotype and fitness into an exact equation for evolutionary
change, providing a complete expression of selection and other evolutionary
processes. The complete expression separates the distinct causal roles of the
various hypothesized components of phenotypes and fitness. Traditionally, those
components are given by the covariance, variance, and regression terms of
evolutionary models. I show how to interpret those statistical expressions with
respect to information theory. The resulting interpretation allows one to read
the fundamental equations of selection and evolution as sentences that express
how various causes lead to the accumulation of information by selection and the
decay of information by other evolutionary processes. The interpretation in
terms of information leads to a deeper understanding of selection and
heritability, and a clearer sense of how to formulate causal hypotheses about
evolutionary process. Kin selection appears as a particular type of causal
analysis that partitions social effects into meaningful components.


title:
Search for a Higgs boson in diphoton final states with the D0 detector
  in 9.6 fb-1 of p-pbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV

abstract:
  We present a search for a Higgs boson decaying into a pair of photons based
on 9.6 fb-1 of p-pbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV collected with the D0
detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The search employs multivariate
techniques to discriminate signal from the non-resonant background and is
separately optimized for a standard model and a fermiophobic Higgs boson. No
significant excess of data above the background prediction is observed and
upper limits on the product of the cross section and branching fraction are
derived at the 95% confidence level as a function of Higgs boson mass. For a
standard model Higgs boson with mass of 125 GeV, the observed (expected) upper
limits are a factor of 12.8 (8.7) above the standard model prediction. The
existence of a fermiophobic Higgs boson with mass in the 100-113 GeV range is
excluded at the 95% confidence level.


title: Local Graph Coloring and Index Coding

abstract:
  We present a novel upper bound for the optimal index coding rate. Our bound
uses a graph theoretic quantity called the local chromatic number. We show how
a good local coloring can be used to create a good index code. The local
coloring is used as an alignment guide to assign index coding vectors from a
general position MDS code. We further show that a natural LP relaxation yields
an even stronger index code. Our bounds provably outperform the state of the
art on index coding but at most by a constant factor.


title:
Studying light propagation in a locally homogeneous universe through an
  extended Dyer-Roeder approach

abstract:
  Light is affected by local inhomogeneities in its propagation, which may
alter distances and so cosmological parameter estimation. In the era of
precision cosmology, the presence of inhomogeneities may induce systematic
errors if not properly accounted. In this vein, a new interpretation of the
conventional Dyer-Roeder (DR) approach by allowing light received from distant
sources to travel in regions denser than average is proposed. It is argued that
the existence of a distribution of small and moderate cosmic voids (or "black
regions") implies that its matter content was redistributed to the homogeneous
and clustered matter components with the former becoming denser than the cosmic
average in the absence of voids. Phenomenologically, this means that the DR
smoothness parameter (denoted here by $\alpha_E$) can be greater than unity,
and, therefore, all previous analyses constraining it should be rediscussed
with a free upper limit. Accordingly, by performing a statistical analysis
involving 557 type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from Union2 compilation data in a
flat $\Lambda$CDM model we obtain for the extended parameter,
$\alpha_E=1.26^{+0.68}_{-0.54}$ ($1\sigma$). The effects of $\alpha_E$ are also
analyzed for generic $\Lambda$CDM models and flat XCDM cosmologies. For both
models, we find that a value of $\alpha_E$ greater than unity is able to
harmonize SNe Ia and cosmic microwave background observations thereby
alleviating the well-known tension between low and high redshift data. Finally,
a simple toy model based on the existence of cosmic voids is proposed in order
to justify why $\alpha_E$ can be greater than unity as required by supernovae
data.


title:
Measurement of South Pole ice transparency with the IceCube LED
  calibration system

abstract:
  The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, approximately 1 km^3 in size, is now
complete with 86 strings deployed in the Antarctic ice. IceCube detects the
Cherenkov radiation emitted by charged particles passing through or created in
the ice. To realize the full potential of the detector, the properties of light
propagation in the ice in and around the detector must be well understood. This
report presents a new method of fitting the model of light propagation in the
ice to a data set of in-situ light source events collected with IceCube. The
resulting set of derived parameters, namely the measured values of scattering
and absorption coefficients vs. depth, is presented and a comparison of IceCube
data with simulations based on the new model is shown.


title: Polymer Bose--Einstein Condensates

abstract:
  In this work we analyze a non--interacting one dimensional polymer
Bose--Einstein condensate in an harmonic trap within the semiclassical
approximation. We use an effective Hamiltonian coming from the polymer
quantization that arises in loop quantum gravity. We calculate the number of
particles in order to obtain the critical temperature. The Bose--Einstein
functions are replaced by series, whose high order terms are related to powers
of the polymer length. It is shown that the condensation temperature presents a
shift respect to the standard case, for small values of the polymer scale. In
typical experimental conditions, it is possible to establish a bound for
$\lambda^{2}$ up to $ \lesssim 10 ^{-16}$m$^2$. To improve this bound we should
decrease the frequency of the trap and also decrease the number of particles.