title:
Low-Loss THz Waveguide Bragg Grating using a Two-Wire Waveguide and a
  Paper Grating

abstract:
  We propose a novel kind of the low-loss THz Waveguide Bragg Grating (TWBG)
fabricated using plasmonic two-wire waveguide and a micromachined paper grating
for potential applications in THz communications. Two TWBGs were fabricated
with different periods and lengths. Transmission spectra of these TWBGs show 17
dB loss and 14 dB loss in the middle of their respective stop bands at 0.637
THz and 0.369 THz. Insertion loss of 1-4 dB in the whole 0.1-0.7 THz region was
also measured. Finally, TWBG modal dispersion relation, modal loss and field
distributions were studied numerically, and low-loss, high coupling efficiency
operation of TWBGs was confirmed.


title: An atomic clock with $10^{-18}$ instability

abstract:
  Atomic clocks have been transformational in science and technology, leading
to innovations such as global positioning, advanced communications, and tests
of fundamental constant variation. Next-generation optical atomic clocks can
extend the capability of these timekeepers, where researchers have long aspired
toward measurement precision at 1 part in $\bm{10^{18}}$. This milestone will
enable a second revolution of new timing applications such as relativistic
geodesy, enhanced Earth- and space-based navigation and telescopy, and new
tests on physics beyond the Standard Model. Here, we describe the development
and operation of two optical lattice clocks, both utilizing spin-polarized,
ultracold atomic ytterbium. A measurement comparing these systems demonstrates
an unprecedented atomic clock instability of $\bm{1.6\times 10^{-18}}$ after
only $\bm{7}$ hours of averaging.


title: The Optimal Hard Threshold for Singular Values is 4/sqrt(3)

abstract:
  We consider recovery of low-rank matrices from noisy data by hard
thresholding of singular values, where singular values below a prescribed
threshold $\lambda$ are set to 0. We study the asymptotic MSE in a framework
where the matrix size is large compared to the rank of the matrix to be
recovered, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the low-rank piece stays constant.
The AMSE-optimal choice of hard threshold, in the case of n-by-n matrix in
noise level \sigma, is simply $(4/\sqrt{3}) \sqrt{n}\sigma \approx 2.309
\sqrt{n}\sigma$ when $\sigma$ is known, or simply $2.858\cdot y_{med}$ when
$\sigma$ is unknown, where $y_{med}$ is the median empirical singular value.
For nonsquare $m$ by $n$ matrices with $m \neq n$, these thresholding
coefficients are replaced with different provided constants. In our asymptotic
framework, this thresholding rule adapts to unknown rank and to unknown noise
level in an optimal manner: it is always better than hard thresholding at any
other value, no matter what the matrix is that we are trying to recover, and is
always better than ideal Truncated SVD (TSVD), which truncates at the true rank
of the low-rank matrix we are trying to recover. Hard thresholding at the
recommended value to recover an n-by-n matrix of rank r guarantees an AMSE at
most $3nr\sigma^2$. In comparison, the guarantee provided by TSVD is
$5nr\sigma^2$, the guarantee provided by optimally tuned singular value soft
thresholding is $6nr\sigma^2$, and the best guarantee achievable by any
shrinkage of the data singular values is $2nr\sigma^2$. Empirical evidence
shows that these AMSE properties of the $4/\sqrt{3}$ thresholding rule remain
valid even for relatively small n, and that performance improvement over TSVD
and other shrinkage rules is substantial, turning it into the practical hard
threshold of choice.


title: Dike states in multiple quantum dots

abstract:
  We present a theoretical study of the collective optical effects which can
occur in groups of three and four quantum dots. We define conditions for stable
subradiant (dark) states, rapidly decaying superradiant states,and spontaneous
trapping of excitation. Each quantum dot is treated like a two-level system.
The quantum dots are though realistic, meaning that they may have different
transition energies and dipole moments. The dots interact via a short-range
coupling which allows excitation transfer across the dots, but conserves the
total population. We calculate the time evolution of single- and biexciton
states using the Linblad equation. In the steady state the individual
populations of each dot may have permanent oscillations with frequencies given
by the energy separation between the subradiant eigenstates.


title: A comparative study of non-Gaussianity in ILC-7yr CMB map

abstract:
  A detection or non detection of primordial non--Gaussianity (NG) by using the
cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) is a possible way to break the
degeneracy of early universe models. Since a single statistical estimator
hardly can be sensitive to all possible forms of NG which may be present in the
data, it is important to use different statistical estimators to study NG in
CMB. Recently, two new large-angle NG indicators based on skewness and kurtosis
of spherical caps or spherical cells of CMB sky have been proposed and used in
both CMB data and simulated maps. Here, we make a comparative study of these
two different procedures by examining the NG in the WMAP seven years ILC map.
We show that the spherical cells procedure detects a higher level of NG than
that obtained by the method with overlapping spherical caps.


title: Irrational Hilbert-Kunz multiplicities

abstract:
  We interpret Hilbert-Kunz theory of a graded ring of positive characteristic
in terms of Frobenius asymptotic of cohomology of vector bundles on projective
varieties. With this method we show that for almost all prime numbers there
exist three-dimensional quartic hypersurface domains and modules of finite
length with irrational Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity. From this we deduce that also
the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity of a local noetherian domain might be an
irrational number.


title: X-ray Transients in the Advanced LIGO/Virgo Horizon

abstract:
  Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo will be all-sky monitors for merging compact
objects within a few hundred Mpc. Finding the electromagnetic counterparts to
these events will require an understanding of the transient sky at low
red-shift (z<0.1). We performed a systematic search for extragalactic, low
red-shift, transient events in the XMM-Newton Slew Survey. In a flux limited
sample, we found that highly-variable objects comprised 10% of the sample, and
that of these, 10% were spatially coincident with cataloged optical galaxies.
This led to 4x10^-4 transients per square degree above a flux threshold of
3x10^-12 erg cm-2 s-1 [0.2-2 keV] which might be confused with LIGO/Virgo
counterparts. This represents the first extragalactic measurement of the soft
X-ray transient rate within the Advanced LIGO/Virgo horizon. Our search
revealed six objects that were spatially coincident with previously cataloged
galaxies, lacked evidence for optical AGNs, displayed high luminosities around
10^43 erg s-1, and varied in flux by more than a factor of ten when compared
with the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. At least four of these displayed properties
consistent with previously observed tidal disruption events.


title: Highly Effective Superconducting Vortex Pinning in Conformal Crystals

abstract:
  We have investigated the vortex dynamics in superconducting thin film devices
with non-uniform patterns of artificial pinning centers (APCs). The
magneto-transport properties of a conformal crystal and a randomly diluted APC
pattern are compared with that of a triangular reference lattice. We have found
that in both cases the magneto-resistance below the first matching field of the
triangular reference lattice is significantly reduced. For the conformal
crystal, the magneto-resistance is below the noise floor indicating highly
effective vortex pinning over a wide magnetic field range. Further, we have
discovered that for asymmetric patterns the R vs. H curves are mostly
symmetric.This implies that the enhanced vortex pinning is due to the
commensurability with a stripe in the non-uniform APC pattern and not due to a
rearrangement and compression of the whole vortex lattice.


title:
Thermodynamic scaling of dynamics in polymer melts: Predictions from the
  generalized entropy theory

abstract:
  Many glass-forming fluids exhibit a remarkable thermodynamic scaling in which
dynamic properties, such as the viscosity, the relaxation time, and the
diffusion constant, can be described under different thermodynamic conditions
in terms of a unique scaling function of the ratio rho^gamma/T, where rho is
the density, T is the temperature, and gamma is a material dependent constant.
Given the successes of the generalized entropy theory in elucidating the
influence of molecular details on the universal properties of glass-forming
polymers, this theory is extended here to investigate the thermodynamic scaling
in polymer melts. The predictions of theory are in accord with the appearance
of thermodynamic scaling for pressures not in excess of about 50 MPa. (The
failure at higher pressures arises due to inherent limitations of a lattice
model.) In line with arguments relating the magnitude of gamma to the steepness
of the repulsive part of the intermolecular potential, the abrupt, square-well
nature of the lattice model interactions lead, as expected, to much larger
values of the scaling exponent. Nevertheless, the theory is employed to study
how individual molecular parameters affect the scaling exponent in order to
extract a molecular understanding of the information content contained in the
exponent. The chain rigidity, cohesive energy, chain length, and the side group
length are all found to significantly affect the magnitude of the scaling
exponent, and the computed trends agree well with available experiments. The
variations of gamma with these molecular parameters are explained by
establishing a correlation between the computed molecular dependence of the
scaling exponent and the fragility. Thus, the efficiency of packing the
polymers is established as the universal physical mechanism determining both
the fragility and the scaling exponent gamma.


title:
Study of Superoutbursts and Superhumps in SU UMa Stars by the Kepler
  Light Curves of V344 Lyrae and V1504 Cygni

abstract:
  We have studied the short-cadence Kepler public light curves of SU UMa stars,
V344 Lyr and V1504 Cyg extending over a period of more than two years by using
power spectral analysis. We determined the orbital period of V344 Lyr to be
Porb=0.087903(1) d. We also reanalyzed the frequency variation of the negative
superhump in a complete supercycle of V1504 Cyg with additional data of the O-C
diagram, confirming that its characteristic variation is in accordance with the
thermal-tidal instability model. We present a new two-dimensional period
analysis based on a new method of a least absolute shrinkage and selection
operator (Lasso). The new method gives very sharp peaks in the power spectra,
and it is very useful for studying of the frequency variation in cataclysmic
variable stars. We also analyzed simultaneous frequency variations of the
positive and negative superhumps. If they are appropriately converted, it is
found that they vary in unison, indicating that they represent a disk-radius
variation. We have also studied the frequency (or period) variations of
positive superhumps during superoutbursts. These variations can be understood
in a qualitative way by combining of the disk radius variation and the
variation of pressure effects during a superoutburst. A sudden excitation of
oscillation with a frequency range near to the negative superhump (which we
call "impulsive negative superhump") was observed in the descending branch of
several outbursts of V344 Lyr. These events seem to have occurred just prior to
the next superoutburst, and to act as a "lead" of the impending superoutburst.


title:
Computing the hadronic vacuum polarization function by analytic
  continuation

abstract:
  We propose a method to compute the hadronic vacuum polarization function on
the lattice at continuous values of photon momenta bridging between the
spacelike and timelike regions. We provide two independent demonstrations to
show that this method leads to the desired hadronic vacuum polarization
function in Minkowski spacetime. We show with the example of the leading-order
QCD correction to the muon anomalous magnetic moment that this approach can
provide a valuable alternative method for calculations of physical quantities
where the hadronic vacuum polarization function enters.


title: Statistical Significance of Clustering using Soft Thresholding

abstract:
  Clustering methods have led to a number of important discoveries in
bioinformatics and beyond. A major challenge in their use is determining which
clusters represent important underlying structure, as opposed to spurious
sampling artifacts. This challenge is especially serious, and very few methods
are available, when the data are very high in dimension. Statistical
Significance of Clustering (SigClust) is a recently developed cluster
evaluation tool for high dimensional low sample size data. An important
component of the SigClust approach is the very definition of a single cluster
as a subset of data sampled from a multivariate Gaussian distribution. The
implementation of SigClust requires the estimation of the eigenvalues of the
covariance matrix for the null multivariate Gaussian distribution. We show that
the original eigenvalue estimation can lead to a test that suffers from severe
inflation of type-I error, in the important case where there are a few very
large eigenvalues. This paper addresses this critical challenge using a novel
likelihood based soft thresholding approach to estimate these eigenvalues,
which leads to a much improved SigClust. Major improvements in SigClust
performance are shown by both mathematical analysis, based on the new notion of
Theoretical Cluster Index, and extensive simulation studies. Applications to
some cancer genomic data further demonstrate the usefulness of these
improvements.


title: Metric structures associated to Finsler metrics

abstract:
  We investigate the relation between weighted quasi-metric Spaces and Finsler
Spaces. We show that the induced metric of a Randers space with reversible
geodesics is a weighted quasi-metric space.


title:
On the local-global principle for divisibility in the cohomology of
  elliptic curves

abstract:
  For every prime power p^n with p = 2 or 3 and n > 1 we give an example of an
elliptic curve over Q containing a rational point which is locally divisible by
p^n but is not divisible by p^n. For these same prime powers we construct
examples showing that the analogous local-global principle for divisibility in
the Weil-Ch\^atelet group can also fail.


title: Limit theorems for kernel density estimators under dependent samples

abstract:
  In this paper, we construct a moment inequality for mixing dependent random
variables, it is of independent interest. As applications, the consistency of
the kernel density estimation is investigated. Several limit theorems are
established: First, the central limit theorems for the kernel density estimator
$f_{n,K}(x)$ and its distribution function are constructed. Also, the
convergence rates of $\|f_{n,K}(x)-Ef_{n,K}(x)\|_{p}$ in sup-norm loss and
integral $L^{p}$-norm loss are proved. Moreover, the a.s. convergence rates of
the supremum of $|f_{n,K}(x)-Ef_{n,K}(x)|$ over a compact set and the whole
real line are obtained. It is showed, under suitable conditions on the mixing
rates, the kernel function and the bandwidths, that the optimal rates for
i.i.d. random variables are also optimal for dependent ones.


title:
Controlled strong coupling and absence of dark polaritons in
  microcavities with double quantum wells

abstract:
  We demonstrate an efficient switching between strong and weak exciton-photon
coupling regimes in microcavity-embedded asymmetric double quantum wells,
controlled by an applied electric field. We show that a fine tuning of the
electric field leads to drastic changes in the polariton properties, with the
polariton ground state being red-shifted by a few meV and having acquired
prominent features of a spatially indirect dipolar exciton. We study the
properties of dipolar exciton polaritons, called dipolaritons, on a microscopic
level and show that, unlike recent findings, they are not dark polaritons but,
owing to the finite size of the excition, are mixed states with comparable
contribution of the cavity photon, bright direct, and long-living indirect
exciton modes.


title:
Hierarchical Radio Resource Optimization for Heterogeneous Networks with
  Enhanced Inter-cell Interference Coordination (eICIC)

abstract:
  Interference is a major performance bottleneck in Heterogeneous Network
(HetNet) due to its multi-tier topological structure. We propose almost blank
resource block (ABRB) for interference control in HetNet. When an ABRB is
scheduled in a macro BS, a resource block (RB) with blank payload is
transmitted and this eliminates the interference from this macro BS to the pico
BSs. We study a two timescale hierarchical radio resource management (RRM)
scheme for HetNet with dynamic ABRB control. The long term controls, such as
dynamic ABRB, are adaptive to the large scale fading at a RRM server for
co-Tier and cross-Tier interference control. The short term control (user
scheduling) is adaptive to the local channel state information within each BS
to exploit the multi-user diversity. The two timescale optimization problem is
challenging due to the exponentially large solution space. We exploit the
sparsity in the interference graph of the HetNet topology and derive structural
properties for the optimal ABRB control. Based on that, we propose a two
timescale alternative optimization solution for the user scheduling and ABRB
control. The solution has low complexity and is asymptotically optimal at high
SNR. Simulations show that the proposed solution has significant gain over
various baselines.


title: Coupled-Plasmon-Controlled Transmission in Distributed Bragg Structures

abstract:
  Using the finite element method we investigate plasmon-mediated transmission
in a periodically modulated metal-insulator-metal (MIM) grating. We compute the
eigenmodes of a silver-silica-silver conformal coating atop an array of
close-packed silica rods, and correlate them with extinction and transmission
characteristics of the structure. We observe efficient coupling of impinging
plane-waves to gap plasmon modes, allowing control of both bandwidth and
intensity of the transmitted radiation.


title: Homomorphic Encryption: Theory & Applications

abstract:
  The goal of this chapter is to present a survey of homomorphic encryption
techniques and their applications. After a detailed discussion on the
introduction and motivation of the chapter, we present some basic concepts of
cryptography. The fundamental theories of homomorphic encryption are then
discussed with suitable examples. The chapter then provides a survey of some of
the classical homomorphic encryption schemes existing in the current
literature. Various applications and salient properties of homomorphic
encryption schemes are then discussed in detail. The chapter then introduces
the most important and recent research direction in the filed - fully
homomorphic encryption. A significant number of propositions on fully
homomorphic encryption is then discussed. Finally, the chapter concludes by
outlining some emerging research trends in this exicting field of cryptography.


title:
Measurement of exclusive $\Upsilon(1S)$ and $\Upsilon(2S)$ decays into
  Vector-Pseudoscalar final states

abstract:
  Using samples of 102 million $\Upsilon(1S)$ and 158 million $\Upsilon(2S)$
events collected with the Belle detector, we study exclusive hadronic decays of
these two bottomonium resonances to $\ks K^+ \pi^-$ and charge-conjugate (c.c.)
states, $\pi^+ \pi^- \pi^0 \pi^0$, and $\pi^+ \pi^- \pi^0$, and to the two-body
Vector-Pseudoscalar ($K^{\ast}(892)^0\bar{K}^0+ {\rm c.c.}$,
$K^{\ast}(892)^-K^+ + {\rm c.c.}$, $\omega\pi^0$, and $\rho\pi$) final states.
For the first time, signals are observed in the modes $\Upsilon(1S) \to \ks K^+
\pi^- + {\rm c.c.}$, $\pi^+ \pi^- \pi^0 \pi^0$, and $\Upsilon(2S) \to \pi^+
\pi^- \pi^0 \pi^0$, and evidence is found for the modes $\Upsilon(1S)\to \pi^+
\pi^- \pi^0$, $K^{\ast}(892)^0 \bar{K}^0+ {\rm c.c.}$, and $\Upsilon(2S) \to
\ks K^+ \pi^- + {\rm c.c.}$ Branching fractions are measured for all the
processes, while 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions
are also set for the modes with a statistical significance of less than
$3\sigma$. The ratios of the branching fractions of $\Upsilon(2S)$ and
$\Upsilon(1S)$ decays into the same final state are used to test a perturbative
QCD prediction for OZI-suppressed bottomonium decays.


title:
Probability Distribution of the Ratio of Consecutive Level Spacings in
  Interacting Particle Systems

abstract:
  We study the probability distribution of the ratio of consecutive level
spacings for embedded one plus two-body random matrix ensembles with and
without spin degree of freedom and for both fermion and boson systems. The
agreement between the numerical results and the recently derived analytic form
for the distribution and other related quantities is found to be close. This
establishes conclusively that local level fluctuations generated by embedded
ensembles follow the results of classical Gaussian ensembles.


title: Electronic structure of Co doped ZnO from the \textit{GW} perspective

abstract:
  In transition metal doped ZnO, the energy position of dopant 3$d$ states
relative to host conduction and valence bands is crucial in determining the
possibilty of long range ferromagnetism. Density functional theory based
estimates of the energy position of Co-3$d$ states in Co doped ZnO differ
substantially depending upon the choice of exchange-correlation functional. In
this work we investigate many-body $GW$ corrections on top of DFT$+U$ and
hybrid-DFT groundstates to provide a theoretical benchmark for the
quasiparticle energies in wurtzite ZnO:Co. Both single shot $G_0W_0$ as well as
partially self-consistent $GW_0$ wherein the wavefunctions are held fixed at
the DFT level but the eigenvalues in G are iterated, are considered. The
predicted energy position of the minority spin Co-$t_2$ states is 3.0-3.6 eV
above the ZnO conduction band minimum which is closer to hybrid-DFT based
estimates.


title:
Graphene on silicon nitride for optoelectromechanical micromembrane
  resonators

abstract:
  Due to their exceptional mechanical and optical properties, dielectric
silicon nitride (SiN) micromembrane resonators have become the centerpiece of
many optomechanical experiments. Efficient capacitive coupling of the membrane
to an electrical system would facilitate exciting hybrid optoelectromechanical
devices. However, capacitive coupling of such dielectric membranes is rather
weak. Here we add a single layer of graphene on SiN micromembranes and compare
electromechanical coupling and mechanical properties to bare dielectric
membranes and to membranes metallized with an aluminium layer. The
electrostatic coupling of graphene coated membranes is found to be equal to a
perfectly conductive membrane. Our results show that a single layer of graphene
substantially enhances the electromechanical capacitive coupling without
significantly adding mass, decreasing the superior mechanical quality factor or
affecting the optical properties of SiN micromembrane resonators.


title:
Some special values of hypergeometric series related to central values
  of automorphic $L$-functions

abstract:
  In a recent work, H.Narita presented problems concerning the strict
positivity of central values of certain automorphic $L$-functions in the form
of questions regarding special values of the hypergeometric series. In this
paper, we present partial answers to these questions using the theory of
orthogonal polynomials and three term relations of the hypergeometric series.


title:
Higher Spin Currents with Arbitrary N in the N=1 Stringy Coset Minimal
  Model

abstract:
  In the N=1 supersymmetric coset model based on (A_{N-1}^{(1)} \oplus
A_{N-1}^{(1)}, A_{N-1}^{(1)}) at level (k, N), the lowest N=1 higher spin
supercurrent with spins-(5/2, 3), in terms of two independent numerator WZW
currents, is reviewed. By calculating the operator product expansions (OPE)
between this N=1 higher spin supercurrent and itself, the next two N=1 higher
spin supercurrents can be generated with spins-(7/2, 4) and (4, 9/2). These
four currents are polynomials of degree 3, 4, 4, 4 in the first numerator WZW
currents with level k. The complete nonlinear OPE of the lowest N=1 higher spin
supercurrent for general N is obtained. The three-point functions involving two
scalar primaries with one spin-2 current or spin-3 current are calculated in
the large N limit for all values of the 't Hooft coupling. In particular, the
light states that appeared in the case when the second level was fixed by 1 are
no longer light ones because the eigenvalues are finite in the large N limit.


title:
The role of presumed probability density function in the simulation of
  non premixed turbulent combustion

abstract:
  Flamelet Progress Variable (FPV) combustion models allow the evaluation of
all thermo chemical quantities in a reacting flow by computing only the mixture
fraction Z and a progress variable C. When using such a method to predict a
turbulent combustion in conjunction with a turbulence model, a probability
density function (PDF) is required to evaluate statistical averages (e.g.,
Favre average) of chemical quantities. The choice of the PDF is a compromise
between computational costs and accuracy level. The aim of this paper is to
investigate the influence of the PDF choice and its modeling aspects in the
simulation of non premixed turbulent combustion. Three different models are
considered: the standard one, based on the choice of a beta distribution for Z
and a Dirac distribution for C; a model employing a beta distribution for both
Z and C; a third model obtained using a beta distribution for Z and the
statistical most likely distribution (SMLD) for C. The standard model, although
widely used, doesn't take into account the interaction between turbulence and
chemical kinetics as well as the dependence of the progress variable not only
on its mean but also on its variance. The SMLD approach establishes a
systematic framework to incorporate informations from an arbitrary number of
moments, thus providing an improvement over conventionally employed presumed
PDF closure models. The rational behind the choice of the three PDFs is
described in some details and the prediction capability of the corresponding
models is tested versus well known test cases, namely, the Sandia flames, and a
test case for supersonic combustion provided by Cheng.


title: Robust portfolio optimization using pseudodistances

abstract:
  The presence of outliers in financial asset returns is a frequently occuring
phenomenon and may lead to unreliable mean-variance optimized portfolios. This
fact is due to the unbounded influence that outliers can have on the mean
returns and covariance estimators that are inputs in the optimization
procedure. In the present paper we consider new robust estimators of location
and covariance obtained by minimizing an empirical version of a pseudodistance
between the assumed model and the true model underlying the data. We prove
statistical properties of the new mean and covariance matrix estimators, such
as affine equivariance, B-robustness and efficiency. These estimators can be
easily used in place of the classical estimators, thereby providing robust
optimized portfolios. A Monte Carlo simulation study and an application to real
data show the advantages of the proposed approach.


title: Compressed Simulation of evolutions of the XY-model

abstract:
  We extend the notion of compressed quantum simulation to the XY-model. We
derive a quantum circuit processing log(n) qubits which simulates the 1D
XY-model describing n qubits. In particular, we demonstrate how the adiabatic
evolution can be realized on this exponentially smaller system and how the
magnetization, which witnesses a quantum phase transition can be observed.
Furthermore, we analyze several dynamical processes, like quantum quenching and
finite time evolution and derive the corresponding compressed quantum circuit.


title: Cosmological dynamics of tachyonic teleparallel dark energy

abstract:
  A detailed dynamical analysis of the tachyonic teleparallel dark energy
model, in which a non-canonical scalar field (tachyon field) is non-minimally
coupled to gravitation, is performed. It is found that, when the non-minimal
coupling is ruled by a dynamically changing coefficient $\alpha\equiv
f_{,\phi}/\sqrt{f}$, with $f(\phi)$ an arbitrary function of the scalar field
$\phi$, the universe may experience a field-matter-dominated era "$\phi$MDE",
in which it has some portions of the energy density of $\phi$ in the matter
dominated era. This is the most significant difference in relation to the
so-called teleparallel dark energy scenario, in which a canonical scalar field
(quintessence) is non-minimally coupled to gravitation.


title:
Beam test of a one-dimensional position sensitive chamber on synchrotron
  radiation

abstract:
  One-dimensional single-wire chamber was developed to provide high position
resolution for powder diffraction experiments with synchrotron radiation. A
diffraction test using the sample of SiO2 has been accomplished at 1W2B
laboratory of Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Source. The data of beam test were
analyzed and some diffraction angles were obtained. The experimental results
were in good agreement with standard data from ICDD powder diffraction file.
The precision of diffraction angles was 1% to 4.7%. Most of relative errors
between measured values of diffraction angles and existing data were less than
1%. As for the detector, the best position resolution in the test was 138 um
(sigma value) with an X-ray tube. Finally, discussions of the results were
given. The major factor that affected the precision of measurement was
deviation from the flat structure of detector. The effect was analyzed and it
came to a conclusion that it would be the optimal measurement scheme when the
distance between the powder sample and detector was from 400 mm to 600 mm.


title: D-loops

abstract:
  $D$-loops are loops with the antiautomorphic inverse property. The class of
such loops is larger than the class of IP-loops. The smallest $D$-loops which
is not an IP-loop has six elements. We prove several basic properties of such
loops and present methods of constructions of $D$-loops from IP-loops.
Unfortunately, a loop isotopic to a $D$-loop may not be a $D$-loop.


title: Properties of Bipolar Fuzzy Hypergraphs

abstract:
  In this article, we apply the concept of bipolar fuzzy sets to hypergraphs
and investigate some properties of bipolar fuzzy hypergraphs. We introduce the
notion of $A-$ tempered bipolar fuzzy hypergraphs and present some of their
properties. We also present application examples of bipolar fuzzy hypergraphs.


title: Categorising the operator algebras of groupoids and higher-rank graphs

abstract:
  This dissertation concerns the classification of groupoid and higher-rank
graph C*-algebras and has two main components. Firstly, for a groupoid it is
shown that the notions of strength of convergence in the orbit space and
measure-theoretic accumulation along the orbits are equivalent ways of
realising multiplicity numbers associated to a sequence of induced
representations of the groupoid C*-algebra. Examples of directed graphs are
given, showing how to determine the multiplicity numbers associated to various
sequences of induced representations of the directed graph C*-algebras.
  The second component of this dissertation uses path groupoids to develop
various characterisations of the C*-algebras of higher-rank graphs. Necessary
and sufficient conditions are developed for the Cuntz-Krieger C*-algebras of
row-finite higher-rank graphs to be liminal and to be postliminal. When Kumjian
and Pask's path groupoid is principal, it is shown precisely when these
C*-algebras have bounded trace, are Fell, and have continuous trace. Necessary
and sufficient conditions are provided for the path groupoids of row-finite
higher-rank graphs without sources to have closed orbits and to have locally
closed orbits. When these path groupoids are principal, necessary and
sufficient conditions are provided for them to be integrable, to be Cartan and
to be proper.


title: Simulation of a Channel with Another Channel

abstract:
  In this paper, we study the problem of simulating a DMC channel from another
DMC channel under an average-case and an exact model. We present several
achievability and infeasibility results, with tight characterizations in
special cases. In particular for the exact model, we fully characterize when a
BSC channel can be simulated from a BEC channel when there is no shared
randomness. We also provide infeasibility and achievability results for
simulation of a binary channel from another binary channel in the case of no
shared randomness. To do this, we use properties of R\'enyi capacity of a given
order. We also introduce a notion of "channel diameter" which is shown to be
additive and satisfy a data processing inequality.


title:
Milky Way Demographics with the VVV Survey II. Color Transformations and
  Near-Infrared Photometry for 136 Million Stars in the Southern Galactic Disk

abstract:
  The new multi-epoch near-infrared VVV survey (VISTA Variables in the Via
Lactea) is sampling 562 sq. deg of the Galactic bulge and adjacent regions of
the disk. Accurate astrometry established for the region surveyed allows the
VVV data to be merged with overlapping surveys (e.g., GLIMPSE, WISE, 2MASS,
etc.), thereby enabling the construction of longer baseline spectral energy
distributions for astronomical targets. However, in order to maximize use of
the VVV data, a set of transformation equations are required to place the VVV
JHKs photometry onto the 2MASS system. The impetus for this work is to develop
those transformations via a comparison of 2MASS targets in 152 VVV fields
sampling the Galactic disk. The transformation coefficients derived exhibit a
reliance on variables such as extinction. The transformed data were
subsequently employed to establish a mean reddening law of
E_{J-H}/E_{H-Ks}=2.13 +/- 0.04, which is the most precise determination to date
and merely emphasizes the pertinence of the VVV data for determining such
important parameters.


title: Spin-current induced Kondo-resonance splitting of a single cobalt atom

abstract:
  We use a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope to study the interplay
between the Kondo effect of a single-atom contact and a spin current. To this
end, a nickel tip is coated by a thick layer of copper and brought into contact
with a single Co atom adsorbed on a Cu(100) surface. We show that upon contact
the Kondo resonance of Co is spin split and attribute the splitting to the spin
current produced by the nickel tip and flowing across the copper spacer. A
quantitative line shape analysis indicates that the spin polarization of the
junction amounts up to 18%, but decreases when a pristine nickel tip is
directly contacted to the Co atom.


title:
Anisotropic total variation flow of non-divergence type on a higher
  dimensional torus

abstract:
  We extend the theory of viscosity solutions to a class of very singular
nonlinear parabolic problems of non-divergence form in a periodic domain of an
arbitrary dimension with diffusion given by an anisotropic total variation
energy. We give a proof of a comparison principle, an outline of a proof of the
stability under approximation by regularized parabolic problems, and an
existence theorem for general continuous initial data, which extend the results
recently obtained by the authors.


title:
\"OAGM/AAPR 2013 - The 37th Annual Workshop of the Austrian Association
  for Pattern Recognition

abstract:
  In this editorial, the organizers summarize facts and background about the
event.


title:
Understanding Preservation Theorems, Chapter VI of Proper and Improper
  Forcing, I

abstract:
  This is an exposition of the first two sections of Chapter VI of Shelah's
book Proper and Improper Forcing. It covers various preservation theorems for
CS iteration of proper forcing (omega-omega bounding, Sacks property, P-point
property, etc.)


title: Phonon excitation and instabilities in biased graphene nanoconstrictions

abstract:
  We calculate the phonons in a graphene nanoconstriction(GNC) in the presence
of a high current density. The Joule-heating, current-induced forces, and
coupling to electrode phonons is evaluated using first principles
nonequilibrium DFT-NEGF calculations. Close to a resonance in the electronic
structure we observe a strongly nonlinear heating with bias and breakdown of
the harmonic approximation. This behavior results from negatively damped
phonons driven by the current. The effect may limit the stability and capacity
of graphene nanoconstrictions to carry high currents.


title:
Topological transitions of interacting bosons in one-dimensional
  bi-chromatic optical lattices

abstract:
  Ultra-cold atoms in 1D bi-chromatic lattices constitute a surprisingly simple
system for the study of topological insulators. We show that topological phase
transitions constitute a general feature of bosons in 1D bi-chromatic lattices,
and that these transitions may occur both as a function of the superlattice
strength and due to inter-site interactions. We discuss in addition the
topological character of incommensurate density wave phases in quasi-periodic
lattices.


title:
Soliton interaction mediated by cascaded four wave mixing with
  dispersive waves

abstract:
  We demonstrate that trapping of dispersive waves between two optical solitons
takes place when resonant scattering of the waves on the solitons leads to
nearly perfect reflections. The momentum transfer from the radiation to
solitons results in their mutual attraction and a subsequent collision. The
spectrum of the trapped radiation can either expand or shrink in the course of
the propagation, which is controlled by arranging either collision or
separation of the solitons.


title: On symplectic self-adjointness of Hamiltonian operator matrices

abstract:
  Symplectic self-adjointness of Hamiltonian operator matrices is studied,
which arises in symplectic elasticity and optimal control. For the cases of
diagonal domain and off-diagonal domain, necessary and sufficient conditions
are shown. The proofs use Frobenius-Schur fractorizations of unbounded operator
matrices. Under additional assumptions, sufficient conditions based on
perturbation method are obtained. The theory is applied to a problem in
symplectic elasticity.


title: Newton's cradles in optics: From to N-soliton fission to soliton chains

abstract:
  A mechanism for creating a Newton's cradle (NC) in nonlinear light wavetrains
under the action of the third-order dispersion (TOD) is demonstrated. The
formation of the NC structure plays an important role in the process of fission
of higher-order N-solitons in optical fibers. After the splitting of the
initial N--soliton into a nonuniform chain of fundamental quasi-solitons, the
tallest one travels along the entire chain, through consecutive collisions with
other solitons, and then escapes, while the remaining chain of pulses stays as
a bound state, due to the radiation-mediated interaction between them.
Increasing the initial soliton's order, $N$, leads to the transmission through,
and release of additional solitons with enhanced power, along with the emission
of radiation, which may demonstrate a broadband supercontinuum spectrum. The NC
dynamical regime remains robust in the presence of extra perturbations, such as
the Raman and self-steepening effects, and dispersions terms above the third
order. It is demonstrated that essentially the same NC mechanism is induced by
the TOD in finite segments of periodic wavetrains (in particular, soliton
chains). A strong difference from the mechanical NC is that the TOD-driven
pulse passing through the soliton array collects energy and momentum from other
solitons. Thus, uniform and non-uniforms arrays of nonlinear wave pulses offer
an essential extension of the mechanical NC, in which the quasi-particles,
unlike mechanical beads, interact inelastically, exchanging energy and
generating radiation. Nevertheless, the characteristic phenomenology of NC
chains may be clearly identified in these nonlinear-wave settings too.


title:
Experiments suggesting that the distribution of the hyperbolic length of
  closed geodesics sampling by word length is Gaussian

abstract:
  Each free homotopy class of directed closed curves on a surface with boundary
can be described by a cyclic reduced word in the generators of the fundamental
group and their inverses. The word length is the number of letters of the
cyclic word.
  If the surface has a hyperbolic metric with geodesic boundary, the geometric
length of the class is the length of the unique geodesic.
  By computer experiments, we investigate the distribution of the geometric
length among all classes with a given word length in the pair of pants surface.
Our experiments strongly suggest that the distribution is normal.


title:
Performance of Opportunistic Fixed Gain Bidirectional Relaying With
  Outdated CSI

abstract:
  This paper studies the impact of using outdated channel state information for
relay selection on the performance of a network where two sources communicate
with each other via fixed-gain amplifyand- forward relays. For a Rayleigh faded
channel, closed-form expressions for the outage probability, moment generating
function and symbol error rate are derived. Simulations results are also
presented to corroborate the derived analytical results. It is shown that
adding relays does not improve the performance if the channel is substantially
outdated. Furthermore, relay location is also taken into consideration and it
is shown that the performance can be improved by placing the relay closer to
the source whose channel is more outdated.


title: Massive Stars in the Galaxies of the Local Group

abstract:
  The star-forming galaxies of the Local Group act as our laboratories for
testing massive star evolutionary models. In this review, I briefly summarize
what we believe we know about massive star evolution, and the connection
between OB stars, Luminous Blue Variables, yellow supergiants, red supergiants,
and Wolf-Rayet stars. The difficulties and recent successes in identifying
these various types of massive stars in the neighboring galaxies of the Local
Group will be discussed.


title: Model-free CPPI

abstract:
  We consider Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance (CPPI) and its dynamic
extension, which may be called Dynamic Proportion Portfolio Insurance (DPPI).
It is shown that these investment strategies work within the setting of
F\"ollmer's pathwise It\^o calculus, which makes no probabilistic assumptions
whatsoever. This shows, on the one hand, that CPPI and DPPI are completely
independent of any choice of a particular model for the dynamics of asset
prices. They even make sense beyond the class of semimartingale sample paths
and can be successfully defined for models admitting arbitrage, including some
models based on fractional Brownian motion. On the other hand, the result can
be seen as a case study for the general issue of robustness in the face of
model uncertainty in finance.


title: Effective results on nonlinear ergodic averages in CAT$(\kappa)$ spaces

abstract:
  In this paper we apply proof mining techniques to compute, in the setting of
CAT$(\kappa)$ spaces (with $\kappa >0$), effective and highly uniform rates of
asymptotic regularity and metastability for a nonlinear generalization of the
ergodic averages, known as the Halpern iteration. In this way, we obtain a
uniform quantitative version of a nonlinear extension of the classical von
Neumann mean ergodic theorem.


title: Multimode Coupling by Boundary Wave Scattering

abstract:
  We show that coupling among multiple resonances can be conveniently
introduced and controlled by boundary wave scattering. We demonstrate this
principle in optical microcavities of quasi-circular shape, where the couplings
of multiple modes are determined by the scattering from different harmonic
boundary deformations. We analyze these couplings using a perturbation theory,
which gives an intuitive understanding of the first-order and higher-order
scattering processes. Different scattering paths between two boundary waves can
either enhance or reduce their coupling strength. The effect of controlled
multimode coupling is most pronounced in the direction of output from an open
cavity, which can cause a dramatic change of the external cavity field
distribution.


title:
Reduce Meaningless Words for Joint Chinese Word Segmentation and
  Part-of-speech Tagging

abstract:
  Conventional statistics-based methods for joint Chinese word segmentation and
part-of-speech tagging (S&T) have generalization ability to recognize new words
that do not appear in the training data. An undesirable side effect is that a
number of meaningless words will be incorrectly created. We propose an
effective and efficient framework for S&T that introduces features to
significantly reduce meaningless words generation. A general lexicon, Wikepedia
and a large-scale raw corpus of 200 billion characters are used to generate
word-based features for the wordhood. The word-lattice based framework consists
of a character-based model and a word-based model in order to employ our
word-based features. Experiments on Penn Chinese treebank 5 show that this
method has a 62.9% reduction of meaningless word generation in comparison with
the baseline. As a result, the F1 measure for segmentation is increased to
0.984.


title: A remark on algebraic immunity of Boolean functions

abstract:
  In this correspondence, an equivalent definition of algebraic immunity of
Boolean functions is posed, which can clear up the confusion caused by the
proof of optimal algebraic immunity of the Carlet-Feng function and some other
functions constructed by virtue of Carlet and Feng's idea.


title:
High-energy gamma-ray emission from Cyg X-1 measured by Fermi and its
  theoretical implications

abstract:
  We have obtained measurements and upper limits on the emission of Cyg X-1 in
the photon energy range of 0.03--300 GeV based on observations by Fermi. We
present the results separately for the hard and soft spectral states, as well
for all of the analysed data. In the hard state, we detect a weak steady
emission in the 0.1--10 GeV range with a power-law photon index of
Gamma=2.6+-0.2 at a 4 sigma statistical significance. This measurement, even if
considered to be an upper limit, strongly constrains Compton emission of the
steady radio jet, present in that state. The number of relativistic electrons
in the jet has to be low enough for the spectral components due to Compton
upscattering of the stellar blackbody and synchrotron radiation to be within
the observed fluxes. If optically-thin synchrotron emission of the jet is to
account for the MeV tail, as implied by the recently-claimed strong
polarization in that energy range, the magnetic field in the jet has to be much
above equipartition. The GeV-range measurements also strongly constrain models
of hot accretion flows, most likely present in the hard state, in which
gamma-rays are produced from decay of neutral pions produced in collisions of
energetic ions in an inner part of the flow. In the soft state, the obtained
upper limits constrain electron acceleration in a non-thermal corona, most
likely present around a blackbody accretion disc. The coronal emission above 30
MeV has to be rather weak, which is most readily explained by absorption of
gamma-rays in pair-producing photon-photon collisions. Then, the size of the
bulk of the corona is less than a few tens of the gravitational radii.


title:
Derivation of Reference Distribution Functions for Tokamak-plasmas by
  Statistical Thermodynamics

abstract:
  A general approach for deriving the expression of reference distribution
functions by statistical thermodynamics is illustrated, and applied to the case
of a magnetically confined plasma. The local equilibrium is defined by imposing
the minimum entropy production, which applies only to the linear regime near a
stationary thermodynamically non-equilibrium state and the maximum entropy
principle under the scale invariance restrictions. This procedure may be
adopted for a system subject to an arbitrary number of thermodynamic forces,
however, for concreteness, we analyze, afterwords, a magnetically confined
plasma subject to three thermodynamic forces, and three energy sources: i) the
total Ohmic heat, supplied by the transformer coil, ii) the energy supplied by
Neutral Beam Injection (NBI), and iii) the RF energy supplied by Ion Cyclotron
Resonant Heating (ICRH) system which heats the minority population. In this
limit case, we show that the derived expression of the distribution function is
more general than that one, which is currently used for fitting the numerical
steady-state solutions obtained by simulating the plasma by gyro-kinetic codes.
An application to a simple model of fully ionized plasmas submitted to an
external source is discussed. Through kinetic theory, we fixed the values of
the free parameters linking them with the external power supplies. The
singularity at low energy in the proposed distribution function is related to
the intermittency in the turbulent plasma.


title: Simulating Tissue Morphogenesis and Signaling

abstract:
  During embryonic development tissue morphogenesis and signaling are tightly
coupled. It is therefore important to simulate both tissue morphogenesis and
signaling simultaneously in in silico models of developmental processes. The
resolution of the processes depends on the questions of interest. As part of
this chapter we will introduce different descriptions of tissue morphogenesis.
In the most simple approximation tissue is a continuous domain and tissue
expansion is described according to a pre-defined function of time (and
possibly space). In a slightly more advanced version the expansion speed and
direction of the tissue may depend on a signaling variable that evolves on the
domain. Both versions will be referred to as 'prescribed growth'. Alternatively
tissue can be regarded as incompressible fluid and can be described with
Navier-Stokes equations. Local cell expansion, proliferation, and death are
then incorporated by a source term. In other applications the cell boundaries
may be important and cell-based models must be introduced. Finally, cells may
move within the tissue, a process best described by agent-based models.


title:
Massive black hole factories: Supermassive and quasi-star formation in
  primordial halos

abstract:
  Supermassive stars and quasi-stars (massive stars with a central black hole)
are both considered as potential progenitors for the formation of supermassive
black holes. They are expected to form from rapidly accreting protostars in
massive primordial halos. We explore how long rapidly accreting protostars
remain on the Hayashi track, implying large protostellar radii and weak
accretion luminosity feedback. We assess the potential role of energy
production in the nuclear core, and determine what regulates the evolution of
such protostars into quasi-stars or supermassive stars. We follow the
contraction of characteristic mass scales in rapidly accreting protostars, and
infer the timescales for them to reach nuclear densities. We compare the
characteristic timescales for nuclear burning with those for which the extended
protostellar envelope can be maintained. We find that the extended envelope can
be maintained up to protostellar masses of 3.6x10^8 \dot{m}^3 solar, where
\dot{m} denotes the accretion rate in solar masses per year. We expect the
nuclear core to exhaust its hydrogen content in 7x10^6 yrs. If accretion rates
\dot{m}>>0.14 can still be maintained at this point, a black hole may form
within the accreting envelope, leading to a quasi-star. Alternatively, the
accreting object will gravitationally contract to become a main-sequence
supermassive star. Due to the limited gas reservoir in dark matter halos with
10^7 solar masses, the accretion rate onto the central object may drop at late
times, implying the formation of supermassive stars as the typical outcome of
direct collapse. However, if high accretion rates are maintained, a quasi-star
with an interior black hole may form.


title:
The $L^2$-cohomology of a bounded smooth Stein Domain is not necessarily
  Hausdorff

abstract:
  We give an example of a pseudoconvex domain in a complex manifold whose
$L^2$-Dolbeault cohomology is non-Hausdorff, yet the domain is Stein. The
domain is a smoothly bounded Levi-flat domain in a two complex-dimensional
compact complex manifold. The domain is biholomorphic to a product domain in
$\mathbb{C}^2$, hence Stein. This implies that for $q>0$, the usual Dolbeault
cohomology with respect to smooth forms vanishes in degree $(p,q)$. But the
$L^2$-Cauchy-Riemann operator on the domain does not have closed range on
$(2,1)$-forms and consequently its $L^2$-Dolbeault cohomology is not Hausdorff.


title:
Transient dynamics and steady state behavior of the Anderson-Holstein
  model with a superconducting lead

abstract:
  We analyze the nonequilibrium dynamics and steady-state behavior of the
two-terminal Anderson-Holstein model with a superconducting and a normal
conducting lead. In the deep Kondo limit we develop an analytical description
if no phonons are included and a rate equation approach when phonons are
present. Both cases are compared with the numerically exact diagrammatic Monte
Carlo method obtaining a good agreement. For small voltages we find a
pronounced enhancement of phonon sidebands due to the SC DOS.


title: Gluon splitting in a shockwave

abstract:
  The study of azimuthal correlations in particle production at forward
rapidities in proton-nucleus collisions provides direct information about high
gluon density effects, like gluon saturation, in the nuclear wavefunction. In
the kinematical conditions for proton-lead collisions at the LHC, the forward
di-hadron production is dominated by partonic processes in which a gluon from
the proton splits into a pair of gluons, while undergoing multiple scattering
off the dense gluon system in the nucleus. We compute the corresponding
cross-section using the Colour Glass Condensate effective theory, which enables
us to include the effects of multiple scattering and gluon saturation in the
leading logarithmic approximation at high energy. This opens the way towards
systematic studies of angular correlations in two-gluon production, similar to
previous studies for quark-gluon production in the literature. We consider in
more detail two special kinematical limits: the "back-to-back correlation
limit", where the transverse momenta of the produced gluons are much larger
than the nuclear saturation momentum, and the "double parton scattering limit",
where the two gluons are produced by a nearly collinear splitting occurring
prior to the collision. We argue that saturation effects remain important even
for relatively high transverse momenta (i.e. for nearly back-to-back
configurations), leading to geometric scaling in the azimuthal distribution.


title:
Extended Linear Response for Bioanalytical Applications Using Multiple
  Enzymes

abstract:
  We develop a framework for optimizing a novel approach to extending the
linear range of bioanalytical systems and biosensors by utilizing two enzymes
with different kinetic responses to the input chemical as their substrate. Data
for the flow-injection amperometric system devised for detection of lysine
based on the function of L-Lysine-alpha-Oxidase and Lysine-2-monooxygenase are
analyzed. Lysine is a homotropic substrate for the latter enzyme. We elucidate
the mechanism for extending the linear response range and develop optimization
techniques for future applications of such systems.


title:
The arc complex and contact geometry: non-destabilizable planar open
  book decompositions of the tight contact 3-sphere

abstract:
  In this note we introduce the (homologically essential) arc complex of a
surface as a tool for studying properties of open book decompositions and
contact structures. After characterizing destabilizability in terms of the
essential translation distance of the monodromy of an open book we given an
application of this result to show that there are planer open books of the
standard contact structure on the 3-sphere with 5 (or any number larger than 5)
boundary components that do not destabilize. We also show that any planar open
book with 4 or fewer boundary components does destabilize.


title:
Two-Input Enzymatic Logic Gates Made Sigmoid by Modifications of the
  Biocatalytic Reaction Cascades

abstract:
  Computing based on biochemical processes is a newest rapidly developing field
of unconventional information and signal processing. In this paper we present
results of our research in the field of biochemical computing and summarize the
obtained numerical and experimental data for implementations of the standard
two-input OR and AND gates with double-sigmoid shape of the output signal. This
form of response was obtained as a function of the two inputs in each of the
realized biochemical systems. The enzymatic gate processes in the first system
were activated with two chemical inputs and resulted in optically detected
chromogen oxidation, which happens when either one or both of the inputs are
present. In this case, the biochemical system is functioning as the OR gate. We
demonstrate that the addition of a "filtering" biocatalytic process leads to a
considerable reduction of the noise transmission factor and the resulting gate
response has sigmoid shape in both inputs. The second system was developed for
functioning as an AND gate, where the output signal was activated only by a
simultaneous action of two enzymatic biomarkers. This response can be used as
an indicator of liver damage, but only if both of these of the inputs are
present at their elevated, pathophysiological values of concentrations. A
kinetic numerical model was developed and used to estimate the range of
parameters for which the experimentally realized logic gate is close to
optimal. We also analyzed the system to evaluate its noise-handling properties.


title:
On Hadamard's global inverse function theorem (On global inversion of
  homogeneous maps)

abstract:
  Hadamard's global inverse theorem provides conditions for a function to be
globally invertible on Rn. In this note we show that the conditions are robust
enough for the conclusion to hold even if we relax the conditions by removing
the assumption at a finite number of points. As a consequence, we get a global
inverse function theorem for homogeneous functions.


title:
Loop Variable Representation of Classical Higher Dimensional Gravity and
  the Hilbert Space Grassmannian

abstract:
  In this paper, an attempt is made to represent 5+1 dimensional gravity (via
ADM formalism) in terms of the loop constructions introduced by the author in a
companion paper. The "momenta" and "velocity" from the earlier paper, which
were proven to be cobordant loops in 6 D; are used as the new loop variables.
In the process, the Hamiltonian, Diffeomorphism and Gauss constraints are
written in polynomials of these loop variables. Other constraints such as the
"Q" constraint and simplicity constraints arise due to greater degrees of
freedom. We then undergo the Master Constraint treatment to resolve the
constraints. Then, a pre-quantum version of the theory is examined; and the
properties of the Grassmannian of the Hilbert Space are explored.


title: Solid-fluid dynamics of yield-stress fluids

abstract:
  On the example of two-phase continua experiencing stress induced solid-fluid
phase transitions we explore the use of the Euler structure in the formulation
of the governing equations. The Euler structure guarantees that solutions of
the time evolution equations possessing it are compatible with mechanics and
with thermodynamics. The former compatibility means that the equations are
local conservation laws of the Godunov type and the latter compatibility means
that the entropy does not decrease during the time evolution. In numerical
illustrations, in which the one-dimensional Riemann problem is explored, we
require that the Euler structure is also preserved in the discretization.


title:
Hermite-Hadamard type integral inequalities for functions whose first
  derivatives are of convexity

abstract:
  In the paper, the authors establish some new Hermite-Hadamard type
inequalities for functions whose first derivatives are of convexity and apply
these inequalities to construct inequalities of special means.


title: A note on order-type homogeneous point sets

abstract:
  Let OT_d(n) be the smallest integer N such that every N-element point
sequence in R^d in general position contains an order-type homogeneous subset
of size n, where a set is order-type homogeneous if all (d+1)-tuples from this
set have the same orientation. It is known that a point sequence in R^d that is
order-type homogeneous forms the vertex set of a convex polytope that is
combinatorially equivalent to a cyclic polytope in R^d. Two famous theorems of
Erdos and Szekeres from 1935 imply that OT_1(n) = Theta(n^2) and OT_2(n) =
2^(Theta(n)). For d \geq 3, we give new bounds for OT_d(n). In particular:
  1. We show that OT_3(n) = 2^(2^(Theta(n))), answering a question of
Eli\'a\v{s} and Matou\v{s}ek.
  2. For d \geq 4, we show that OT_d(n) is bounded above by an exponential
tower of height d with O(n) in the topmost exponent.


title: Quantum degenerate mixtures of strontium and rubidium atoms

abstract:
  We report on the realization of quantum degenerate gas mixtures of the
alkaline-earth element strontium with the alkali element rubidium. A key
ingredient of our scheme is sympathetic cooling of Rb by Sr atoms that are
continuously laser cooled on a narrow linewidth transition. This versatile
technique allows us to produce ultracold gas mixtures with a phase-space
density of up to 0.06 for both elements. By further evaporative cooling we
create double Bose-Einstein condensates of 87Rb with either 88Sr or 84Sr,
reaching more than 10^5 condensed atoms per element for the 84Sr-87Rb mixture.
These quantum gas mixtures constitute an important step towards the production
of a quantum gas of polar, open-shell RbSr molecules.


title: Immune networks: multi-tasking capabilities near saturation

abstract:
  Pattern-diluted associative networks were introduced recently as models for
the immune system, with nodes representing T-lymphocytes and stored patterns
representing signalling protocols between T- and B-lymphocytes. It was shown
earlier that in the regime of extreme pattern dilution, a system with $N_T$
T-lymphocytes can manage a number $N_B!=!\order(N_T^\delta)$ of B-lymphocytes
simultaneously, with $\delta!<!1$. Here we study this model in the extensive
load regime $N_B!=!\alpha N_T$, with also a high degree of pattern dilution, in
agreement with immunological findings. We use graph theory and statistical
mechanical analysis based on replica methods to show that in the
finite-connectivity regime, where each T-lymphocyte interacts with a finite
number of B-lymphocytes as $N_T\to\infty$, the T-lymphocytes can coordinate
effective immune responses to an extensive number of distinct antigen invasions
in parallel. As $\alpha$ increases, the system eventually undergoes a second
order transition to a phase with clonal cross-talk interference, where the
system's performance degrades gracefully. Mathematically, the model is
equivalent to a spin system on a finitely connected graph with many short
loops, so one would expect the available analytical methods, which all assume
locally tree-like graphs, to fail. Yet it turns out to be solvable. Our results
are supported by numerical simulations.


title: Micro-lensed single-mode optical fiber with high numerical aperture

abstract:
  We show that the output mode of a single-mode optical fiber can be directly
focused to a sub-wavelength waist with a finite working distance by tapering
the fiber to a diameter of the order of the wavelength and terminating it with
a spherically/hemispherically shaped tip. Numerical simulations show that a
beam waist with a width of as small as 0.62\lambda can be formed. We fabricate
micro-lensed fibers and construct a probe-scanning confocal reflection
microscope. Measurements on gold nano-particles show a spatial profile with a
width of 0.29\lambda for \lambda = 850 nm, which is in good agreement with the
numerical simulations. Due to their monolithic structures, these micro-lensed
fibers will be flexible substitutes for conventional compound lenses in various
experimental conditions such as cryogenic temperature and ultra-high vacuum.


title:
Pure bound field corrections to the atomic energy levels and the proton
  size puzzle

abstract:
  Reinforcement of the puzzle about the proton charge radius r, stimulated by
the recent experiments with muonic hydrogen induced news discussions on the
subject, and now some physicists are ready to adopt the exotic properties of
muon, lying beyond the Standard Model, in order to explain the difference
between the results of muonic hydrogen experiments (r=0.84087(39) fm) and
CODATA-2010 value r=0.8775(51) fm based on electron-proton scattering and H
spectroscopy. In the present contribution we suggest a way to achieve a
progress in the entire problem via paying attention on a logical inconsistency
of fundamental equations of atomic physics, constructed by analogy with
corresponding classical equations without, however, taking into account a
purely bound nature of electromagnetic field generated by electrically bound
particles in the stationary energy states. We suggest eliminating this
inconsistency via introducing some appropriate correcting factors into these
equations, which involve the requirement of total momentum conservation in the
system of bound particles in the absence of electromagnetic radiation. We
further show that this approach allows not only eliminating long-standing
discrepancies between theory and experiment in physics of simple atoms, but
also yields the same estimation for the proton size in the classic 2S-2P Lamb
shift in hydrogen, 1S Lamb shift in hydrogen, and 2S-2P Lamb shift in muonic
hydrogen, with the mean value r=0.841 fm. Finally, we suggest the crucial
experiment for verification of the validity of pure bound field corrections:
the measurement of lifetime of bound moun in meso-atoms with large Z, where the
standard calculations and our predictions essentially deviate from each other,
and some of the available experimental results (Yovanovitch, Phys. Rev. 117
(1960) 1580) strongly support our approach.


title: The common ancestor process revisited

abstract:
  We consider the Moran model in continuous time with two types, mutation, and
selection. We concentrate on the ancestral line and its stationary type
distribution. Building on work by Fearnhead (J. Appl. Prob. 39 (2002), 38-54)
and Taylor (Electron. J. Probab. 12 (2007), 808-847), we characterise this
distribution via the fixation probability of the offspring of all individuals
of favourable type (regardless of the offspring's types). We concentrate on a
finite population and stay with the resulting discrete setting all the way
through. This way, we extend previous results and gain new insight into the
underlying particle picture.


title: Two-dimensional SIR epidemics with long range infection

abstract:
  We extend a recent study of susceptible-infected-removed epidemic processes
with long range infection (referred to as I in the following) from
1-dimensional lattices to lattices in two dimensions. As in I we use hashing to
simulate very large lattices for which finite size effects can be neglected, in
spite of the assumed power law $p({\bf x})\sim |{\bf x}|^{-\sigma-2}$ for the
probability that a site can infect another site a distance vector ${\bf x}$
apart. As in I we present detailed results for the critical case, for the
supercritical case with $\sigma = 2$, and for the supercritical case with $0<
\sigma < 2$. For the latter we verify the stretched exponential growth of the
infected cluster with time predicted by M. Biskup. For $\sigma=2$ we find
generic power laws with $\sigma-$dependent exponents in the supercritical
phase, but no Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) like critical point as in 1-d. Instead
of diverging exponentially with the distance from the critical point, the
correlation length increases with an inverse power, as in an ordinary critical
point. Finally we study the dependence of the critical exponents on $\sigma$ in
the regime $0<\sigma <2$, and compare with field theoretic predictions. In
particular we discuss in detail whether the critical behavior for $\sigma$
slightly less than 2 is in the short range universality class, as conjectured
recently by F. Linder {\it et al.}. As in I we also consider a modified version
of the model where only some of the contacts are long range, the others being
between nearest neighbors. If the number of the latter reaches the percolation
threshold, the critical behavior is changed but the supercritical behavior
stays qualitatively the same.


title: Computing quantum discord is NP-complete

abstract:
  We study the computational complexity of quantum discord (a measure of
quantum correlation beyond entanglement), and prove that computing quantum
discord is NP-complete. Therefore, quantum discord is computationally
intractable: the running time of any algorithm for computing quantum discord is
believed to grow exponentially with the dimension of the Hilbert space so that
computing quantum discord in a quantum system of moderate size is not possible
in practice. As by-products, some entanglement measures (namely entanglement
cost, entanglement of formation, relative entropy of entanglement, squashed
entanglement, classical squashed entanglement, conditional entanglement of
mutual information, and broadcast regularization of mutual information) and
constrained Holevo capacity are NP-hard/NP-complete to compute. These
complexity-theoretic results are directly applicable in common randomness
distillation, quantum state merging, entanglement distillation, superdense
coding, and quantum teleportation; they may offer significant insights into
quantum information processing. Moreover, we prove the NP-completeness of two
typical problems: linear optimization over classical states and detecting
classical states in a convex set, providing evidence that working with
classical states is generically computationally intractable.


title: Weighted circle actions on the Heegaard quantum sphere

abstract:
  Weighted circle actions on the quantum Heeqaard 3-sphere are considered. The
fixed point algebras, termed quantum weighted Heegaard spheres, and their
representations are classified and described on algebraic and topological
levels. On the algebraic side, coordinate algebras of quantum weighted Heegaard
spheres are interpreted as generalised Weyl algebras, quantum principal circle
bundles and Fredholm modules over them are constructed, and the associated line
bundles are shown to be non-trivial by an explicit calculation of their Chern
numbers. On the topological side, the C*-algebras of continuous functions on
quantum weighted Heegaard spheres are described and their K-groups are
calculated.


title:
Non-equilibrium dynamics of photo-excited electrons in graphene:
  collinear scattering, Auger processes, and the impact of screening

abstract:
  We present a combined analytical and numerical study of the early stages
(sub-100fs) of the non-equilibrium dynamics of photo-excited electrons in
graphene. We employ the semiclassical Boltzmann equation with a collision
integral that includes contributions from electron-electron (e-e) and
electron-optical phonon interactions. Taking advantage of circular symmetry and
employing the massless Dirac Fermion (MDF) Hamiltonian, we are able to perform
an essentially analytical study of the e-e contribution to the collision
integral. This allows us to take particular care of subtle collinear scattering
processes - processes in which incoming and outgoing momenta of the scattering
particles lie on the same line - including carrier multiplication (CM) and
Auger recombination (AR). These processes have a vanishing phase space for two
dimensional MDF bare bands. However, we argue that electron-lifetime effects,
seen in experiments based on angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, provide
a natural pathway to regularize this pathology, yielding a finite contribution
due to CM and AR to the Coulomb collision integral. Finally, we discuss in
detail the role of physics beyond the Fermi golden rule by including screening
in the matrix element of the Coulomb interaction at the level of the Random
Phase Approximation (RPA), focusing in particular on the consequences of
various approximations including static RPA screening, which maximizes the
impact of CM and AR processes, and dynamical RPA screening, which completely
suppresses them.


title:
Efficiency and uniformity measurements of a light concentrator in
  combination with a SiPM array

abstract:
  A position sensitive Cherenkov detector was built, consisting of 64 SiPMs
with an active area of 3x3 mm^2 and a pixel size of 100x100 \mu m^2. The
sensitive area is increased by a light concentrator which consists of 64
pyramid-shaped funnels. These funnels have an entrance area of 7x7 mm^2 and an
exit area of 3x3 mm^2, guaranteeing a sufficient position resolution e.g. for
the barrel DIRC detector of the PANDA experiment at FAIR. The efficiency and
uniformity of the light concentrator in combination with the SiPM array was
tested by scanning the array in two dimensions, using a pulsed light beam.
Results of these tests and comparison with simulations are given here.


title: Thermally-Assisted Spin-Transfer Torque Dynamics in Energy Space

abstract:
  We consider the general Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert theory underlying the
magnetization dynamics of a macrospin magnet subject to spin-torque effects and
thermal fluctuations. Thermally activated dynamical properties are analyzed by
averaging the full magnetization equations over constant- energy orbits. After
averaging, all the relevant dynamical scenarios are a function of the ratio
between hard and easy axis anisotropies. We derive analytically the range of
currents for which limit cycles exist and discuss the regimes in which the
constant energy orbit averaging technique is applicable.


title: Optimal Groupon Allocations

abstract:
  Group-buying websites represented by Groupon.com are very popular in
electronic commerce and online shopping nowadays. They have multiple slots to
provide deals with significant discounts to their visitors every day. The
current user traffic allocation mostly relies on human decisions. We study the
problem of automatically allocating the user traffic of a group-buying website
to different deals to maximize the total revenue and refer to it as the
Group-buying Allocation Problem (\GAP). The key challenge of \GAP\ is how to
handle the tipping point (lower bound) and the purchase limit (upper bound) of
each deal. We formulate \GAP\ as a knapsack-like problem with variable-sized
items and majorization constraints. Our main results for \GAP\ can be
summarized as follows. (1) We first show that for a special case of \GAP, in
which the lower bound equals the upper bound for each deal, there is a simple
dynamic programming-based algorithm that can find an optimal allocation in
pseudo-polynomial time. (2) The general case of \GAP\ is much more difficult
than the special case. To solve the problem, we first discover several
structural properties of the optimal allocation, and then design a two-layer
dynamic programming-based algorithm leveraging those properties. This algorithm
can find an optimal allocation in pseudo-polynomial time. (3) We convert the
two-layer dynamic programming based algorithm to a fully polynomial time
approximation scheme (FPTAS), using the technique developed in
\cite{ibarra1975fast}, combined with some careful modifications of the dynamic
programs. Besides these results, we further investigate some natural
generalizations of \GAP, and propose effective algorithms.


title: Dimensions of Ext-groups of Weyl modules for GL_2

abstract:
  Let F be an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic p. The
third author and Will Turner gave an explicit description of the extension
algebra of Weyl modules for GL_2(F). This, in particular, produced an explicit
basis. We examine this basis and use it to give upper and lower bounds for the
growth behaviour of the dimensions of Ext-groups. Moreover, we implement an
algorithm to determine the dimension of any given Ext-group.


title: On Dependence Logic

abstract:
  We give an overview of some developments in dependence and independence
logic. This is a tiny selection, intended for a newcomer, from a rapidly
growing literature on the topic. Furthermore, we discuss conditional
independence atoms and we prove that conditional and non-conditional
independence logic are equivalent. Finally, we briefly discuss an application
of our logics to belief representation.


title:
Homogenization approach to water transport in plant tissues with
  periodic microstructures

abstract:
  Water flow in plant tissues takes place in two different physical domains
separated by semipermeable membranes: cell insides and cell walls. The assembly
of all cell insides and cell walls are termed symplast and apoplast,
respectively. Water transport is pressure driven in both, where osmosis plays
an essential role in membrane crossing. In this paper, a microscopic model of
water flow and transport of an osmotically active solute in a plant tissue is
considered. The model is posed on the scale of a single cell and the tissue is
assumed to be composed of periodically distributed cells. The flow in the
symplast can be regarded as a viscous Stokes flow, while Darcy's law applies in
the porous apoplast. Transmission conditions at the interface (semipermeable
membrane) are obtained by balancing the mass fluxes through the interface and
by describing the protein mediated transport as a surface reaction. Applying
homogenization techniques, macroscopic equations for water and solute transport
in a plant tissue are derived. The macroscopic problem is given by a Darcy law
with a force term proportional to the difference in concentrations of the
osmotically active solute in the symplast and apoplast; i.e. the flow is also
driven by the local concentration difference and its direction can be different
than the one prescribed by the pressure gradient.


title: Agent Based Intelligent Alert System for Smart-Phones

abstract:
  The paper deals with the design of an agent which modifies and enhances the
various alert systems in the smartphones. The actions of the agent includes
sorting the notifications abiding to human thinking, helping the user to have a
safe conversation, assisting in tracking back the reach-ability status of the
caller when needed, conveying the user about the notifications in times of
situations like drained battery and smartly alerting the user in situations
like sleeping. The agent uses the information gathered from a survey, to modify
the existing methods of alerts and produce alerts which abide by the human
cognitive responses.


title: Stretching of a Freely Jointed Chain in Two-Dimensions

abstract:
  Although the stretching of polymers and biomolecules is important in numerous
settings, their response when confined to two-dimensions is relatively
poorly-studied. In this paper, we derive closed-form analytical expressions for
the two-dimensional force-extension response of a freely-jointed chain under
force control. Our principal results relate end-to-end distance to total force
under two modes of stretching: i) when force is applied only to the free of the
chain, and ii) when the applied force is distributed uniformly throughout the
chain. We have verified both analytical models by Brownian dynamics simulation
of molecules adsorbed strongly to a substrate. The total force required is
always larger if distributed throughout the chain than when it is only applied
to one end of the chain, and the nature of its divergence to infinity as
extension approaches contour length is different.


title: Quantum ergodicity for a point scatterer on the three-dimensional torus

abstract:
  Consider a point scatterer (the Laplacian perturbed by a delta-potential) on
the standard three-dimensional flat torus. Together with the eigenfunctions of
the Laplacian which vanish at the point, this operator has a set of new,
perturbed eigenfunctions. In a recent paper, the author was able to show that
all of the perturbed eigenfunctions are uniformly distributed in configuration
space. In this paper we prove that almost all of these eigenfunctions are
uniformly distributed in phase space, i.e. we prove quantum ergodicity for the
subspace of the perturbed eigenfunctions. An analogue result for a point
scatterer on the two-dimensional torus was recently proved by Kurlberg and
Uebersch\"ar.


title: Algebraicity and implicit definability in set theory

abstract:
  We analyze the effect of replacing several natural uses of definability in
set theory by the weaker model-theoretic notion of algebraicity. We find, for
example, that the class of hereditarily ordinal algebraic sets is the same as
the class of hereditarily ordinal definable sets, that is, HOA = HOD. Moreover,
we show that every (pointwise) algebraic model of ZF is actually pointwise
definable. Finally, we consider the implicitly constructible universe Imp---an
algebraic analogue of the constructible universe---which is obtained by
iteratively adding not only the sets that are definable over what has been
built so far, but also those that are algebraic (or equivalently, implicitly
definable) over the existing structure. While we know Imp can differ from L,
the subtler properties of this new inner model are just now coming to light.
Many questions remain open.


title:
Codismantlability and projective dimension of the Stanley-Reisner ring
  of special hypergraphs

abstract:
  In this paper firstly, we generalize the concept of codismantlable graphs to
hypergraphs and show that some special vertex decomposable hypergraphs are
codismantlable. Then we generalize the concept of bouquet in graphs to
hypergraphs to extend some combinatorial invariants of graphs about
disjointness of a set of bouquets. We use these invariants to characterize the
projective dimension of Stanley-Reisner ring of special hypergraphs in some
sense.


title: On affine motions and universal rigidity of tensegrity frameworks

abstract:
  Recently, Alfakih and Ye [Lin. Algebra Appl. 438:31--36, 2013] proved that if
an $r$-dimensional bar framework $(G,p)$ on $n \geq r+2$ nodes in general
position in $\R^r$ admits a positive semidefinite stress matrix with rank
$n-r-1$, then $(G,p)$ is universally rigid. In this paper, we generalize this
result in two directions. First, we extend this result to tensegrity
frameworks. Second, we replace the general position assumption by the weaker
assumption that in configuration $p$, each point and its neighbors in $G$
affinely span $\R^r$.


title: Questions related to Bitcoin and other Informational Money

abstract:
  A collection of questions about Bitcoin and its hypothetical relatives
Bitguilder and Bitpenny is formulated. These questions concern technical issues
about protocols, security issues, issues about the formalizations of
informational monies in various contexts, and issues about forms of use and
misuse. Some questions are formulated in the more general setting of
informational monies and near-monies.
  We also formulate questions about legal, psychological, and ethical aspects
of informational money. Finally we formulate a number of questions concerning
the economical merits of and outlooks for Bitcoin.


title:
On the definition and interpretation of a static quark anti-quark
  potential in the colour-adjoint channel

abstract:
  We study possibilities to define a static quark anti-quark pair in a
colour-adjoint orientation based on Wilson loops with generator insertions,
using both lattice QCD and leading order perturbation theory in various gauges.
Non-perturbatively, the only way to obtain non-zero results while maintaining
positivity of the Hamiltonian is by some form of temporal gauge. In this case
the correlator is equivalent to a gauge invariant correlation function of a
static quark anti-quark pair and a static adjoint quark, the resulting
three-point potential is attractive. Saturating open colour indices with colour
magnetic fields instead also leads to a gauge invariant correlator. However
this object is found to couple to the singlet sector only. There appears to be
no lattice observable that reproduces the repulsive adjoint potential predicted
by perturbation theory in Lorenz or Coulomb gauges.


title: Fluctuation analysis of the three agent groups herding model

abstract:
  We derive a system of stochastic differential equations simulating the
dynamics of the three agent groups with herding interaction. Proposed approach
can be valuable in the modeling of the complex socio-economic systems with
similar composition of the agents. We demonstrate how the sophisticated
statistical features of the absolute return in the financial markets can be
reproduced by extending the herding interaction of the agents and introducing
the third agent state. As well we consider possible extension of proposed
herding model introducing additional exogenous noise. Such consistent
microscopic and macroscopic model precisely reproduces empirical power law
statistics of the return in the financial markets.


title:
ArcLink: Optimization Techniques to Build and Retrieve the Temporal Web
  Graph

abstract:
  Archiving the web is socially and culturally critical, but presents problems
of scale. The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine can replay captured web pages
as they existed at a certain point in time, but it has limited ability to
provide extensive content and structural metadata about the web graph. While
the live web has developed a rich ecosystem of APIs to facilitate web
applications (e.g., APIs from Google and Twitter), the web archiving community
has not yet broadly implemented this level of access.
  We present ArcLink, a proof-of-concept system that complements open source
Wayback Machine installations by optimizing the construction, storage, and
access to the temporal web graph. We divide the web graph construction into
four stages (filtering, extraction, storage, and access) and explore
optimization for each stage. ArcLink extends the current Web archive interfaces
to return content and structural metadata for each URI. We show how this API
can be applied to such applications as retrieving inlinks, outlinks,
anchortext, and PageRank.


title:
Coding for Computing Irreducible Markovian Functions of Sources with
  Memory

abstract:
  One open problem in source coding is to characterize the limits of
representing losslessly a non-identity discrete function of the data encoded
independently by the encoders of several correlated sources with memory. This
paper investigates this problem under Markovian conditions, namely either the
sources or the functions considered are Markovian. We propose using linear
mappings over finite rings as encoders. If the function considered admits
certain polynomial structure, the linear encoders can make use of this
structure to establish "implicit collaboration" and boost the performance. In
fact, this approach universally applies to any scenario (arbitrary function)
because any discrete function admits a polynomial presentation of required
format.
  There are several useful discoveries in the paper. The first says that linear
encoder over non-field ring can be equally optimal for compressing data
generated by an irreducible Markov source. Secondly, regarding the previous
function-encoding problem, there are infinitely many circumstances where linear
encoder over non-field ring strictly outperforms its field counterpart. To be
more precise, it is seen that the set of coding rates achieved by linear
encoder over certain non-field rings is strictly larger than the one achieved
by the field version, regardless which finite field is considered. Therefore,
in this sense, linear coding over finite field is not optimal. In addition, for
certain scenarios where the sources do not possess the ergodic property, our
ring approach is still able to offer a solution.


title:
The least weakly compact cardinal can be unfoldable, weakly measurable
  and nearly $\theta$-supercompact

abstract:
  We prove from suitable large cardinal hypotheses that the least weakly
compact cardinal can be unfoldable, weakly measurable and even nearly
$\theta$-supercompact, for any desired $\theta$. In addition, we prove several
global results showing how the entire class of weakly compact cardinals, a
proper class, can be made to coincide with the class of unfoldable cardinals,
with the class of weakly measurable cardinals or with the class of nearly
$\theta_\kappa$-supercompact cardinals $\kappa$, for nearly any desired
function $\kappa\mapsto\theta_\kappa$. These results answer several questions
that had been open in the literature and extend to these large cardinals the
identity-crises phenomenon, first identified by Magidor with the strongly
compact cardinals.


title: A note on monitoring ratios of two Weibull percentiles

abstract:
  This note introduces a new Bayesian control chart to compare two processes by
monitoring the ratio of their percentiles under Weibull assumption. Both
in-control and out-of-control parameters are supposed unknown. The chart
analyses the sampling data directly, instead of transforming them in order to
comply with the usual normality assumption, as most charts do. The chart uses
the whole accumulated knowledge, resulting from the current and all the past
samples, to monitor the current value of the ratio. Two real applications in
the wood industry and in the concrete industry give a first picture of the
features of the chart.


title:
Note on multidimensional Breeden-Litzenberger representation for state
  price densities

abstract:
  In this note, we consider European options of type $h(X^1_T, X^2_T,\ldots,
X^n_T)$ depending on several underlying assets. We give a multidimensional
version of the result of Breeden and Litzenberger \cite{Breeden} on the
relation between derivatives of the call price and the risk-neutral density of
the underlying asset. The pricing measure is assumed to be absolutely
continuous with respect to the Lebesgue measure on the state space.


title: On a regular modified Schwarzschild spacetime

abstract:
  A modified version of the Schwarzschild geometry is proposed. The source of
curvature comes from an anisotropic fluid with $p_{r} = -\rho$ and fluctuating
tangential pressures. The event horizon has zero surface gravity but the
invariant acceleration of a static observer is finite there. The Tolman - Komar
energy of the gravitational fluid changes sign on the horizon, equals the black
hole mass at infinity and is vanishing at $r = 0$. There is a nonzero surface
stress tensor on the horizon due to a jump of the extrinsic curvature.
Near-horizon geometry resembles the Robinson - Bertotti metric and not the
Rindler metric which corresponds to the standard Schwarzschild spacetime. The
modified metric has no signature flip when the horizon is crossed and all
physical parameters are finite throughout the spacetime.


title:
Internal kinematics and dynamical models of dwarf spheroidal galaxies
  around the Milky Way

abstract:
  We review our current understanding of the internal dynamical properties of
the dwarf spheroidal galaxies surrounding the Milky Way. These are the most
dark matter dominated galaxies, and as such may be considered ideal
laboratories to test the current concordance cosmological model, and in
particular provide constraints on the nature of the dominant form of dark
matter. We discuss the latest observations of the kinematics of stars in these
systems, and how these may be used to derive their mass distribution. We tour
through the various dynamical techniques used, with emphasis on the
complementarity and limitations, and discuss what the results imply also in the
context of cosmological models. Finally we provide an outlook on exciting
developments in this field.


title: Designer ideals with high Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity

abstract:
  The purpose of this paper is to give a simple geometric construction of
ideals whose Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity is large compared to the generating
degree. Moreover, our ideals have the property that the Castelnuovo-Mumford
regularity is revealed as late in the resolution as desired.


title: Hybrid plasmonic terahertz fibers for sensing applications

abstract:
  A novel plasmonic THz fiber featuring two metallic wires in a porous
dielectric cladding is studied for resonant sensing applications. In our
design, introduction of even lossless analytes into the fiber core leads to
significant changes in the modal losses, which is used as a transduction
mechanism.


title:
Representation and duality of the untyped lambda-calculus in nominal
  lattice and topological semantics, with a proof of topological completeness

abstract:
  We give a semantics for the lambda-calculus based on a topological duality
theorem in nominal sets. A novel interpretation of lambda is given in terms of
adjoints, and lambda-terms are interpreted absolutely as sets (no valuation is
necessary).


title:
Leaky Mode Engineering: A General Design Principle for Dielectric
  Optical Antenna Solar Absorbers

abstract:
  We present a general principle for the rational design of dielectric optical
antennas with optimal solar absorption enhancement: leaky mode engineering.
This builds upon our previous study that demonstrates the solar absorption of a
material with a given volume only dependent on the density and the radiative
loss of leaky modes of the material. Here we systematically examine the
correlation among the modal properties (density and radiative loss) of leaky
modes, physical features, and solar absorption of dielectric antenna
structures. Our analysis clearly points out the general guidelineS for the
design of dielectric optical antennas with optimal solar absorption
enhancement: a) using 0D structures; b) the shape does not matter much; c)
heterostructuring with non-absorbing materials is a promising strategy; d) the
design of a large-scale nanostructure array can use the solar absorption of
single nanostructures as a reasonable reference.


title: The Private Classical Capacity of a Partially Degradable Quantum Channel

abstract:
  For a partially degradable (PD) channel, the channel output state can be used
to simulate the degraded environment state. The quantum capacity of a PD
channel has been proven to be additive. Here, we show that the private
classical capacity of arbitrary dimensional PD channels is equal to the quantum
capacity of the channel and also single-letterizes. We prove that higher rates
of private classical communication can be achieved over a PD channel in
comparison to standard degradable channels.


title:
On the classification of complete area-stationary and stable surfaces in
  the sub-Riemannian Sol manifold

abstract:
  We study the classification of area-stationary and stable $C^2$ regular
surfaces in the space of the rigid motions of the Minkowski plane E(1,1),
equipped with its sub-Riemannian structure. We construct examples of
area-stationary surfaces that are not foliated by sub-Riemannian geodesics. We
also prove that there exist an infinite number of $C^2$ area-stationary
surfaces with a singular curve. Finally we show the stability of $C^2$
area-stationary surfaces foliated by sub-Riemannian geodesics.


title:
Clustering determines the survivor for competing Brownian and L\'evy
  walkers

abstract:
  The competition between two ecologically similar species that use the same
resources and differ from each other only in the type of spatial motion they
undergo is studied. The latter is assumed to be described either by Brownian
motion or L\'evy flights. Competition is taken into account by assuming that
individuals reproduce in a density-dependent fashion. It is observed that no
influence of the type of motion occurs when the two species are in a well-mixed
unstructured state. However, as soon as the species develop spatial clustering,
the one forming more concentrated clusters gets a competitive advantage and
eliminates the other. Similar competitive advantage would occur between walkers
of the same type but with different diffusivities if this leads also to
different clustering. Coexistence of both species is also possible under
certain conditions.


title: Pseudopotentials for high-throughput DFT calculations

abstract:
  The increasing use of high-throughput density-functional theory (DFT)
calculations in the computational design and optimization of materials requires
the availability of a comprehensive set of soft and transferable
pseudopotentials. Here we present design criteria and testing results for a new
open-source "GBRV" ultrasoft pseudopotential library that has been optimized
for use in high-throughput DFT calculations. We benchmark the GBRV potentials,
as well as two other pseudopotential sets available in the literature, to
all-electron calculations in order to validate their accuracy. The results
allow us to draw conclusions about the accuracy of modern pseudopotentials in a
variety of chemical environments.


title: Introduction to Sporadic Groups for physicists

abstract:
  We describe the collection of finite simple groups, with a view on physical
applications. We recall first the prime cyclic groups $Z_p$, and the
alternating groups $Alt_{n>4}$. After a quick revision of finite fields
$\mathbb{F}_q$, $q = p^f$, with $p$ prime, we consider the 16 families of
finite simple groups of Lie type. There are also 26 \emph{extra} "sporadic"
groups, which gather in three interconnected "generations" (with 5+7+8 groups)
plus the Pariah groups (6). We point out a couple of physical applications,
including constructing the biggest sporadic group, the "Monster" group, with
close to $10^{54}$ elements from arguments of physics, and also the relation of
some Mathieu groups with compactification in string and M-theory.