title:
Transport enhancement from incoherent coupling between one-dimensional
  quantum conductors

abstract:
  We study the non-equilibrium transport properties of a highly anisotropic
two-dimensional lattice of spin-1/2 particles governed by a Heisenberg XXZ
Hamiltonian. The anisotropy of the lattice allows us to approximate the system
at finite temperature as an array of incoherently coupled one-dimensional
chains. We show that in the regime of strong intrachain interactions, the weak
interchain coupling considerably boosts spin transport in the driven system.
Interestingly, we show that this enhancement increases with the length of the
chains, which is related to superdiffusive spin transport. We describe the
mechanism behind this effect, compare it to a similar phenomenon in single
chains induced by dephasing, and explain why the former is much stronger.


title: Threshold for creating excitations in a stirred superfluid ring

abstract:
  We have measured the threshold for creating long-lived excitations when a
toroidal Bose-Einstein condensate is stirred by a rotating (optical) barrier of
variable height. When the barrier height is on the order of or greater than
half of the chemical potential, the critical barrier velocity at which we
observe a change in the circulation state is much less than the speed for sound
to propagate around the ring. In this regime we primarily observe discrete
jumps (phase slips) from the non-circulating initial state to a simple,
well-defined, persistent current state. For lower barrier heights, the critical
barrier velocity at which we observe a change in the circulation state is
higher, and approaches the effective sound speed for vanishing barrier height.
The response of the condensate in this small-barrier regime is more complex,
with vortex cores appearing in the bulk of the condensate. We find that the
variation of the excitation threshold with barrier height is in qualitative
agreement with the predictions of an effective 1D hydrodynamic model.


title:
PBH mass growth through radial accretion during the radiation dominated
  era

abstract:
  We model the radial accretion of radiation on Primordial Black Holes (PBH) by
numerically solving Einstein's equations coupled to an ultrarelativistic ideal
gas with equation of state $p=\rho/3$. We calculate the final mass of a black
hole by the integration of the accreted radiation energy density during the
leptonic era between $t\sim10^{-4}s$ to $t\sim 10^2s$ after the Big Bang. Our
results indicate that small PBHs with initial masses between $10^{-4}$ to
$1M_{\odot}$ may grow up to hundreds of solar masses, and thus can be SMBH
seeds. On the other hand, PBHs formed at $t\sim 1s$ with initial mass between
900 and $\sim 980M_{\odot}$, by the time $t\sim 100s$ show masses of $10^4$ to
$10^6M_{\odot}$ which are masses of seeds or already formed SMBHs. The fact
that we consider only radial flow implies that our results work well as
limiting cases, and it is expected that under more general scenarios the
accretion rates may change significantly. Nevertheless we show that it is
possible that SMBHs can be PBHs that grew due to the accretion of radiation.


title: Quasilocal angular momentum and center of mass in general relativity

abstract:
  For a spacelike 2-surface in spacetime, we propose a new definition of
quasi-local angular momentum and quasi-local center of mass, as an element in
the dual space of the Lie algebra of the Lorentz group. Together with previous
defined quasi-local energy-momentum, this completes the definition of conserved
quantities in general relativity at the quasi-local level. We justify this
definition by showing the consistency with the theory of special relativity and
expectations on an axially symmetric spacetime. The limits at spatial infinity
provide new definitions for total conserved quantities of an isolated system,
which do not depend on any asymptotically flat coordinate system or asymptotic
Killing field. The new proposal is free of ambiguities found in existing
definitions and presents the first definition that precisely describes the
dynamics of the Einstein equation.


title: Visualisations of coherent centre domains in local Polyakov loops

abstract:
  Quantum Chromodynamics exhibits a hadronic confined phase at low to moderate
temperatures and, at a critical temperature $T_C$, undergoes a transition to a
deconfined phase known as the quark-gluon plasma. The nature of this
deconfinement phase transition is probed through visualizations of the Polyakov
loop, a gauge independent order parameter. We produce visualizations that
provide novel insights into the structure and evolution of center clusters.
Using the HMC algorithm the percolation during the deconfinement transition is
observed. Using 3D rendering of the phase and magnitude of the Polyakov loop,
the fractal structure and correlations are examined. The evolution of the
center clusters as the gauge fields thermalize from below the critical
temperature to above it are also exposed. We observe deconfinement proceeding
through a competition for the dominance of a particular center phase. We use
stout-link smearing to remove small-scale noise in order to observe the
large-scale evolution of the center clusters. A correlation between the
magnitude of the Polyakov loop and the proximity of its phase to one of the
center phases of SU(3) is evident in the visualizations.


title:
Excitations and quasi-one-dimensionality in field-induced nematic and
  spin density wave states

abstract:
  We study the excitation spectrum and dynamical response functions for several
quasi-one-dimensional spin systems in magnetic fields without dipolar spin
order transverse to the field. This includes both nematic phases, which harbor
"hidden" breaking of spin-rotation symmetry about the field and have been
argued to occur in high fields in certain frustrated chain systems with
competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions, and spin density
wave states, in which spin-rotation symmetry is truly unbroken. Using
bosonization, field theory, and exact results on the integrable sine-Gordon
model, we establish the collective mode structure of these states, and show how
they can be distinguished experimentally.


title: Computational Tools for the Shot Noise with Random Amplitude

abstract:
  The following random recurrency: $$ W_{n+1} = U_{n+1} ( W_n + \Lambda_{n+1} )
$$ where $W_{-1}=0.$ is known to be associated with the shot noise : $$ W_{t} =
\sum_{0<t_k<t} \Lambda_{k} e^{-(t-t_k)} $$ where the $t_k$ are the dates of a
Poisson process, the $ U_i ;\ i = 0,1,... $ are independent uniform variables.
This can be extended to the triggered shot noise : $$ W_{t} = \sum_{0<t_{lk}<t}
\Lambda_{lk} e^{-(t-t_{lk})} , l=1,2,3,... $$ The random amplitudes
$\Lambda_i,\ i = 0,1,... $ are positive Dufresne independent variables or also
even density variables which characteristic function given by generalized
hypergeometric function.
  Keywords: Random Difference Equations,Triggered Shot Noise, Iterated
Cosine-Bessel functions, Logarithmic Distribution Functions,Saddle Point
Method, Asymptotic Calculations, Generalized Hypergeometric Functions, Psi
Functions.


title:
Impact of Report Message Scheduling (RMS) in 1G/10G EPON and GPON
  (Extended Version)

abstract:
  A wide array of dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) mechanisms have recently
been proposed for improving bandwidth utilization and reducing idle times and
packets delays in passive optical networks (PONs). The DBA evaluation studies
commonly assumed that the report message for communicating the bandwidth
demands of the distributed optical network units (ONUs) to the central optical
line terminal (OLT) is scheduled for the end of an ONU's upstream transmission,
after the ONU's payload data transmissions. In this article, we conduct a
detailed investigation of the impact of the report message scheduling (RMS),
either at the beginning (i.e., before the pay load data) or the end of an ONU
upstream transmission on PON performance. We analytically characterize the
reduction in channel idle time with reporting at the beginning of an upstream
transmission compared to reporting at the end. Our extensive simulation
experiments consider both the Ethernet Passive Optical Networking (EPON)
standard and the Gigabit PON (GPON) standard. We find that for DBAs with
offline sizing and scheduling of ONU upstream transmission grants at the end of
a polling cycle, which processes requests from all ONUs, reporting at the
beginning gives substantial reductions of mean packet delay at high loads. For
high-performing DBAs with online grant sizing and scheduling, which immediately
processes individual ONU requests, or interleaving of ONUs groups, both
reporting at the beginning or end give essentially the same average packet
delays.


title: Structure and Properties of {\alpha}-NaFeO2-type Ternary Sodium Iridates

abstract:
  The synthesis, structure, and elementary magnetic and electronic properties
are reported for layered compounds of the type Na3-xMIr2O6 and Na3-xM2IrO6,
where M is a transition metal from the 3d series (M=Zn, Cu, Ni, Co, Fe and Mn).
The rhombohedral structures, in space group R-3m, were determined by refinement
of neutron and synchrotron powder diffraction data. No clear evidence for long
range 2:1 or 1:2 honeycomb-like M/Ir ordering was found in the neutron powder
diffraction patterns except in the case of M = Zn, thus in general the
compounds are best designated as sodium deficient {\alpha}-NaFeO2-type phases
with formulas Na1-xM1/3Ir2/3O2 or Na1-xM2/3Ir1/3O2. Synchrotron powder
diffraction patterns indicate that several of the compounds likely have
honeycomb in-plane metal-iridium ordering with disordered stacking of the
layers. All the compounds are sodium deficient under our synthetic conditions
and are black and insulating. Weiss constants derived from magnetic
susceptibility measurements indicate that Na0.62Mn0.61Ir0.39O2,
Na0.80Fe2/3Ir1/3O2, Na0.92Ni1/3Ir2/3O2, Na0.86Cu1/3Ir2/3O2, and
Na0.89Zn1/3Ir2/3O2 display dominant antiferromagnetic interactions. For
Na0.90Co1/3Ir2/3O2 the dominant magnetic interactions at low temperature are
ferromagnetic while at high temperatures they are antiferromagnetic; there is
also a change in the effective moment. Low temperature specific heat
measurements (to 2 K) on Na0.92Ni1/3Ir2/3O2 indicate the presence of a broad
magnetic ordering transition. X-ray absorption spectroscopy shows that iridium
is at or close to the 4+ oxidation state in all compounds. 23Na nuclear
magnetic resonance measurements comparing Na2IrO3 to Na0.92Ni1/3Ir2/3O2 and
Na0.89Zn1/3Ir2/3O2 provide strong indications that the electron spins are
short-range ordered in the latter two materials. All of the compounds are spin
glasses.


title:
Long-lived selective spin echoes in dipolar solids under periodic and
  aperiodic pi-pulse trains

abstract:
  The application of Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) $\pi-$trains for
dynamically decoupling a system from its environment has been extensively
studied in a variety of physical systems. When applied to dipolar solids,
recent experiments have demonstrated that CPMG pulse trains can generate
long-lived spin echoes. While there still remains some controversy as to the
origins of these long-lived spin echoes under the CPMG sequence, there is a
general agreement that pulse errors during the $\pi-$pulses are a necessary
requirement. In this work, we develop a theory to describe the spin dynamics in
dipolar coupled spin-1/2 system under a CPMG($\phi_{1},\phi_{2}$) pulse train,
where $\phi_{1}$ and $\phi_{2}$ are the phases of the $\pi-$pulses. From our
theoretical framework, the propagator for the CPMG($\phi_{1},\phi_{2}$) pulse
train is equivalent to an effective ``pulsed'' spin-locking of single-quantum
coherences with phase $\pm\frac{\phi_{2}-3\phi_{1}}{2}$, which generates a
periodic quasiequilibrium that corresponds to the long-lived echoes. Numerical
simulations, along with experiments on both magnetically dilute, random spin
networks found in C$_{60}$ and C$_{70}$ and in non-dilute spin systems found in
adamantane and ferrocene, were performed and confirm the predictions from the
proposed theory.


title:
Large Plastic Scintillator Panels with WLS Fiber Readout; Optimization
  of Components

abstract:
  Results are presented on R&D efforts to design and build large size veto
panels, optimized for underground low background experiments, in the most
efficient and economical way using commercially available components. A variety
of plastic scintillators, photomultiplier tubes, wavelength shifting fibers,
and light reflector combinations were tested. Results of these studies and
performance of a 2.2 meter long panel are presented.


title:
Hyperbolic and non-hyperbolic chaos in a pair of coupled alternately
  excited FitzHugh-Nagumo systems

abstract:
  We investigate a possibility of realization of structurally stable chaotic
dynamics in neural systems. The considered model of interacting neurons
consists of a pair of coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo systems, with the parameters
being periodically modulated in antiphase, so that the neurons undergo
alternate excitation with a successive transmission of the phase of
oscillations from one neuron to another. It is shown that 4D map arising in a
stroboscopic Poincare section of the model flow system possesses a hyperbolic
strange attractor of the Smale-Williams type. The dynamical regime observed in
the system represents a sequence of amplitude bursts, in which the phase
dynamics of oscillatory spikes is described by chaotic mapping of Bernoulli
type. The results are confirmed by numerical calculation of Lyapunov exponents
and their parameter dependencies, as well as by direct computation of the
distributions of angles between stable and unstable tangent subspaces of
chaotic trajectories.


title: String Theory of the Regge Intercept

abstract:
  Using the Polchinski-Strominger effective string theory in covariant gauge,
we compute the mass of a rotating string in D dimensions with large angular
momenta J, in one or two planes, in fixed ratio, up to and including first
subleading order in the large J expansion. This constitutes a first-principles
calculation of the value for the order $J^0$ contribution to the mass-squared
of a meson on the leading Regge trajectory in planar QCD with bosonic quarks.
For open strings with Neumann boundary conditions, and for closed strings in
$D\geq 5$, the order $J^0$ term in the mass-squared is exactly calculated by
the semiclassical approximation. This term in the expansion is universal and
independent of the details of the theory, assuming only D-dimensional Poincare
invariance and the absence of other infinite-range excitations on the string
worldvolume, beyond the Nambu-Goldstone bosons.


title: Dynamical sectors of a relativistic two particle model

abstract:
  We reconsider a model of two relativistic particles interacting via a
multiplicative potential, as an example of a simple dynamical system with
sectors, or branches, with different dynamics and degrees of freedom.The
presence or absence of sectors depends on the values of rest masses. Some
aspects of the canonical quantization are described. The model could be
interpreted as a bigravity model in one dimension.


title: Optimal detection of intersections between convex polyhedra

abstract:
  For a polyhedron $P$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$, denote by $|P|$ its combinatorial
complexity, i.e., the number of faces of all dimensions of the polyhedra. In
this paper, we revisit the classic problem of preprocessing polyhedra
independently so that given two preprocessed polyhedra $P$ and $Q$ in
$\mathbb{R}^d$, each translated and rotated, their intersection can be tested
rapidly.
  For $d=3$ we show how to perform such a test in $O(\log |P| + \log |Q|)$ time
after linear preprocessing time and space. This running time is the best
possible and improves upon the last best known query time of $O(\log|P|
\log|Q|)$ by Dobkin and Kirkpatrick (1990).
  We then generalize our method to any constant dimension $d$, achieving the
same optimal $O(\log |P| + \log |Q|)$ query time using a representation of size
$O(|P|^{\lfloor d/2\rfloor + \varepsilon})$ for any $\varepsilon>0$ arbitrarily
small. This answers an even older question posed by Dobkin and Kirkpatrick 30
years ago.
  In addition, we provide an alternative $O(\log |P| + \log |Q|)$ algorithm to
test the intersection of two convex polygons $P$ and $Q$ in the plane.


title:
Infrared-Faint Radio Sources: A New Population of High-redshift Radio
  Galaxies

abstract:
  We present a sample of 1317 Infrared-Faint Radio Sources (IFRSs) that, for
the first time, are reliably detected in the infrared, generated by
cross-correlating the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) all-sky survey
with major radio surveys. Our IFRSs are brighter in both radio and infrared
than the first generation IFRSs that were undetected in the infrared by the
Spitzer Space Telescope. We present the first spectroscopic redshifts of IFRSs,
and find that all but one of the IFRSs with spectroscopy has z > 2. We also
report the first X-ray counterparts of IFRSs, and present an analysis of radio
spectra and polarization, and show that they include Gigahertz-Peaked Spectrum,
Compact Steep Spectrum, and Ultra-Steep Spectrum sources. These results,
together with their WISE infrared colours and radio morphologies, imply that
our sample of IFRSs represents a population of radio-loud Active Galactic
Nuclei at z > 2. We conclude that our sample consists of lower-redshift
counterparts of the extreme first generation IFRSs, suggesting that the fainter
IFRSs are at even higher redshift.


title:
High Throughput Virtual Screening with Data Level Parallelism in
  Multi-core Processors

abstract:
  Improving the throughput of molecular docking, a computationally intensive
phase of the virtual screening process, is a highly sought area of research
since it has a significant weight in the drug designing process. With such
improvements, the world might find cures for incurable diseases like HIV
disease and Cancer sooner. Our approach presented in this paper is to utilize a
multi-core environment to introduce Data Level Parallelism (DLP) to the
Autodock Vina software, which is a widely used for molecular docking software.
Autodock Vina already exploits Instruction Level Parallelism (ILP) in
multi-core environments and therefore optimized for such environments. However,
with the results we have obtained, it can be clearly seen that our approach has
enhanced the throughput of the already optimized software by more than six
times. This will dramatically reduce the time consumed for the lead
identification phase in drug designing along with the shift in the processor
technology from multi-core to many-core of the current era. Therefore, we
believe that the contribution of this project will effectively make it possible
to expand the number of small molecules docked against a drug target and
improving the chances to design drugs for incurable diseases.


title: Composite Channel Estimation in Massive MIMO Systems

abstract:
  We consider a multiuser (MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)
time-division duplexing (TDD) system in which the base station (BS) is equipped
with a large number of antennas for communicating with single-antenna mobile
users. In such a system the BS has to estimate the channel state information
(CSI) that includes large-scale fading coefficients (LSFCs) and small-scale
fading coefficients (SSFCs) by uplink pilots. Although information about the
former FCs are indispensable in a MU-MIMO or distributed MIMO system, they are
usually ignored or assumed perfectly known when treating the MIMO CSI
estimation problem. We take advantage of the large spatial samples of a massive
MIMO BS to derive accurate LSFC estimates in the absence of SSFC information.
With estimated LSFCs, SSFCs are then obtained using a rank-reduced (RR) channel
model which in essence transforms the channel vector into a lower dimension
representation.
  We analyze the mean squared error (MSE) performance of the proposed composite
channel estimator and prove that the separable angle of arrival (AoA)
information provided by the RR model is beneficial for enhancing the
estimator's performance, especially when the angle spread of the uplink signal
is not too large.


title: Squared-Norm Empirical Process in Banach Space

abstract:
  This note extends a recent result of Mendelson on the supremum of a quadratic
process to squared norms of functions taking values in a Banach space. Our
method of proof is a reduction by a symmetrization argument and observation
about the subadditivity of the generic chaining functional. We provide an
application to the supremum of a linear process in the sample covariance matrix
indexed by finite rank, positive definite matrices.


title: Dynamic Limit Growth Indices in Discrete Time

abstract:
  We propose a new class of mappings, called Dynamic Limit Growth Indices, that
are designed to measure the long-run performance of a financial portfolio in
discrete time setup. We study various important properties for this new class
of measures, and in particular, we provide necessary and sufficient condition
for a Dynamic Limit Growth Index to be a dynamic assessment index. We also
establish their connection with classical dynamic acceptability indices, and we
show how to construct examples of Dynamic Limit Growth Indices using dynamic
risk measures and dynamic certainty equivalents. Finally, we propose a new
definition of time consistency, suitable for these indices, and we study time
consistency for the most notable representative of this class -- the dynamic
analog of risk sensitive criterion.


title:
A limit theorem at the spectral edge for corners of time-dependent
  Wigner matrices

abstract:
  For the eigenvalues of principal submatrices of stochastically evolving
Wigner matrices, we construct and study the edge scaling limit: a random
decreasing sequence of continuous functions of two variables, which at every
point has the distribution of the Airy point process. The analysis is based on
the methods developed by Soshnikov to study the extreme eigenvalues of a single
Wigner matrix.


title: tt* Geometry in 3 and 4 Dimensions

abstract:
  We consider the vacuum geometry of supersymmetric theories with 4
supercharges, on a flat toroidal geometry. The 2 dimensional vacuum geometry is
known to be captured by the $tt^*$ geometry. In the case of 3 dimensions, the
parameter space is $(T^{2}\times {\mathbb R})^N$ and the vacuum geometry turns
out to be a solution to a generalization of monopole equations in $3N$
dimensions where the relevant topological ring is that of line operators. We
compute the generalization of the 2d cigar amplitudes, which lead to $S^2\times
S^1$ or $S^3$ partition functions which are distinct from the supersymmetric
partition functions on these spaces, but reduce to them in a certain limit. We
show the sense in which these amplitudes generalize the structure of 3d
Chern-Simons theories and 2d RCFT's. In the case of 4 dimensions the parameter
space is of the form $(T^3\times {\mathbb R})^M\times T^{3N}$, and the vacuum
geometry is a solution to a mixture of generalized monopole equations and
generalized instanton equations (known as hyper-holomorphic connections). In
this case the topological rings are associated to surface operators. We discuss
the physical meaning of the generalized Nahm transforms which act on all of
these geometries.


title:
Visualization of the effect of structural supermodulation on electronic
  structure in IrTe$_{2}$ by scanning tunneling spectroscopy

abstract:
  We report on the scanning tunneling spectroscopy experiments on single
crystals of IrTe$_{2}$. A structural supermodulation and a local
density-of-states (LDOS) modulation with a wave vector of $q$ =
1/5$\times$$2\pi /a_{0}$ ($a_{0}$ is the lattice constant in the $ab$-plane)
have been observed at 4.2K where the sample is in the monoclinic phase. %We
cannot find an energy gap emerging reproducibly.% on the region where the
supermodulation resides. As synchronized with the supermodulation, the LDOS
spatially modulates within two energy ranges (below -200 meV and around -100
meV). We further investigated the effect of the local perturbations including
the antiphase boundaries and the twin boundaries on the LDOS. These
perturbations also modify the LDOS below -200 meV and around -100 meV, even
though the lattice distortions induced by these perturbations appear to be
different from those by the supermodulation. Our results indicating several
microscopic structural effects on the LDOS seem to offer crucial keys for the
establishment of the microscopic model describing the parent state.


title: Neutral B meson mixing with static heavy and domain-wall light quarks

abstract:
  Neutral B meson mixing matrix elements and B meson decay constants are
calculated. Static approximation is used for b quark and domain-wall fermion
formalism is employed for light quarks. The calculations are done on 2+1 flavor
dynamical ensembles, whose lattice spacings are 0.086 fm and 0.11 fm with a
fixed physical spatial volume of about (2.7 fm)^3. In the static quark action,
link-smearings are used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. We employ two
kinds of link-smearings and their results are combined in taking a continuum
limit. For the matching between the lattice and the continuum theory, one-loop
perturbative calculations are used including O(a) improvements to reduce
discretization errors. We obtain SU(3) braking ratio \xi=1.222(60) in the
static limit of b quark.


title:
Testing universal relations of neutron stars with a nonlinear
  matter-gravity coupling theory

abstract:
  Due to our ignorance of the equation of state (EOS) beyond nuclear density,
there is still no unique theoretical model for neutron stars (NSs). It is
therefore surprising that universal EOS-independent relations connecting
different physical quantities of neutron stars can exist. Lau et al. [ApJ, 714,
1234 (2010)] found that the frequency of the $f$-mode oscillation, the mass,
and the moment of inertia are connected by universal relations. More recently,
Yagi and Yunes [Science, 341, 365 (2013)] discovered the I-Love-Q universal
relations among the mass, the moment of inertia, the Love number, and the
quadrupole moment. In this paper, we study these universal relations in the
Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) gravity. This theory differs from general
relativity (GR) significantly only at high densities due to the nonlinear
coupling between matter and gravity. It thus provides us an ideal case to test
how robust the universal relations of NSs are with respect to the change of the
gravity theory. Thanks to the apparent EOS formulation of EiBI gravity
developed recently by Delsate and Steinhoff [Phys. Rev. Lett., 109, 021101
(2012)], we are able to study the universal relations in EiBI gravity using the
same techniques as those in GR. We find that the universal relations in EiBI
gravity are essentially the same as those in GR. Our work shows that, within
the currently viable coupling constant, there exists at least one modified
gravity theory that is indistinguishable from GR in view of the unexpected
universal relations.


title: Regularity criteria for the 3D MHD equations in term of velocity

abstract:
  In this paper we consider three-dimensional incompressible
magnetohydrodynamics equations. By using interpolation inequalities in
anisotropic Lebesgue space, we provide regularity criteria involving the
velocity or alternatively involving the fractional derivative of velocity in
one direction, which generalize some known results.


title: A Tur\'an-type problem on distance two

abstract:
  A new tur\'an-type problem on distances on graphs was introduced by Tyomkyn
and Uzzell. In this paper, we focus on the case that the distance is two. We
primely show that for any value of $n$, a graph on $n$ vertices without three
vertices pairwise at distance $2$, if it has a vertex $v \in V(G)$, whose
neighbours are covered by at most two cliques, then it has at most $(n^2 - 1)/4
+ 1$ pairs of vertices at distance $2$. This partially answers a guess of
Tyomkyn and Uzzell [Tyomkyn, M., Uzzell, A.J.: A new Tur\'an-Type promble on
distaces of graphs. Graphs Combin. {\bf 29}(6), 1927--1942 (2012)].


title: Mpemba Paradox Revisited -- Numerical Reinforcement

abstract:
  Inspired by responses to the work (arXiv:1310.6514), we solved the
one-dimensional, nonlinear Fourier initial and boundary condition problem using
the finite element method. Examination of all possible parameters reveals the
following: 1. Hydrogen bond has memory effect to emit energy at a rate, or with
a relaxation time, depending on initial energy storage. 2. Skin super-solidity
creates gradients in thermal diffusion coefficient for heat conduction in
liquid with the optimal skin-bulk ratio of 1.48. 3. Convection alone produces
no such effect. 4. Mpemba effect happens only in the highly non-diabetic
source-path-drain cycling system.


title:
Global versus local optimality in feedback-controlled qubit
  purification: new insights from minimizing R\'enyi entropies

abstract:
  It was first shown by Jacobs, in 2003, that the process of qubit state
purification by continuous measurement of one observable can be enhanced, on
average, by unitary feedback control. Here, we quantify this by the reduction
in any one of the family of R\'enyi entropies $S_\alpha$, with $0< \alpha <
\infty$, at some terminal time, revealing the rich structure of stochastic
quantum control even for this simple problem. We generalize Jacobs' original
argument, which was for (the unique) impurity measure with a linear evolution
map under his protocol, by replacing linearity with convexity, thereby making
it applicable to R\'enyi entropies $S_\alpha$ for $\alpha$ in a finite interval
about $1$. Even with this generalization, Jacobs' argument fails to identify
the surprising fact, which we prove by Bellman's principle of dynamic
programming, that his protocol is globally optimal for all R\'enyi entropies
whose decrease is locally maximized by that protocol. Also surprisingly, even
though there is a range of R\'enyi entropies whose decrease is always locally
maximized by the null-control protocol, that null-control protocol cannot be
shown to be globally optimal in any instance. These results highlight the
non-intuitive relation between local and global optimality in stochastic
quantum control.


title: Pulsar wind model for the spin-down behavior of intermittent pulsars

abstract:
  Intermittent pulsars are part-time radio pulsars. They have higher slow down
rate in the on state (radio-loud) than in the off state (radio-quiet). This
gives the evidence that particle wind may play an important role in pulsar
spindown. The effect of particle acceleration is included in modeling the
rotational energy loss rate of the neutron star. Applying the pulsar wind model
to the three intermittent pulsars (PSR B1931+24, PSR J1841-0500, and PSR
J1832+0029), their magnetic field and inclination angle are calculated
simultaneously. The theoretical braking indices of intermittent pulsars are
also given. In the pulsar wind model, the density of the particle wind can
always be the Goldreich-Julian density. This may ensure that different on
states of intermittent pulsars are stable. The duty cycle of particle wind can
be determined from timing observations. It is consistent with the duty cycle of
the on state. Inclination angle and braking index observations of intermittent
pulsars may help to test different models of particle acceleration. At present,
the inverse Compton scattering induced space charge limited flow with field
saturation model can be ruled out.


title: The Truth Behind the Myth of the Folk Theorem

abstract:
  We study the problem of computing an $\epsilon$-Nash equilibrium in repeated
games. Earlier work by Borgs et al. [2010] suggests that this problem is
intractable. We show that if we make a slight change to their model---modeling
the players as polynomial-time Turing machines that maintain state ---and make
some standard cryptographic hardness assumptions (the existence of public-key
encryption), the problem can actually be solved in polynomial time. Our
algorithm works not only for games with a finite number of players, but also
for constant-degree graphical games.
  As Nash equilibrium is a weak solution concept for extensive form games, we
additionally define and study an appropriate notion of a subgame-perfect
equilibrium for computationally bounded players, and show how to efficiently
find such an equilibrium in repeated games (again, making standard
cryptographic hardness assumptions).


title: Scale invariance and broken electroweak symmetry may coexist together

abstract:
  Here we show that local scale invariance -- invariance under Weyl rescalings
-- may safely coexist with broken electroweak symmetry if assume the Weyl
geometric theory to govern the affine structure of spacetime. We find that
within the resulting scale invariant theory of gravity cosmological inflation
is enough to explain the large hierarchy between the Higgs and Planck masses.


abstract:
  We prove $L^2$ orbital stability of Dirac solitons in the massive Thirring
model. Our analysis uses local well posedness of the massive Thirring model in
$L^2$, conservation of the charge functional, and the auto--B\"{a}cklund
transformation. The latter transformation exists because the massive Thirring
model is integrable via the inverse scattering transform method.


title:
High-quality Image Restoration from Partial Mixed Adaptive-Random
  Measurements

abstract:
  A novel framework to construct an efficient sensing (measurement) matrix,
called mixed adaptive-random (MAR) matrix, is introduced for directly acquiring
a compressed image representation. The mixed sampling (sensing) procedure
hybridizes adaptive edge measurements extracted from a low-resolution image
with uniform random measurements predefined for the high-resolution image to be
recovered. The mixed sensing matrix seamlessly captures important information
of an image, and meanwhile approximately satisfies the restricted isometry
property. To recover the high-resolution image from MAR measurements, the total
variation algorithm based on the compressive sensing theory is employed for
solving the Lagrangian regularization problem. Both peak signal-to-noise ratio
and structural similarity results demonstrate the MAR sensing framework shows
much better recovery performance than the completely random sensing one. The
work is particularly helpful for high-performance and lost-cost data
acquisition.


title: Rashba Spin-Orbit Anisotropy and the Electric Field Control of Magnetism

abstract:
  The control of the magnetism of ultra-thin ferromagnetic layers using an
electric field rather than a current, if large enough, would lead to many
technologically important applications. To date, while it is usually assumed
the changes in the magnetic anisotropy, leading to such a control, arises from
surface charge doping of the magnetic layer, a number of key experiments cannot
be understood within such a scenario. Much studied is the fact that, for
non-magnetic metals or semi-conductors, a large surface electric field gives
rise to a Rashba spin-orbit coupling which leads to a spin-splitting of the
conduction electrons. For a magnet, this splitting is modified by the exchange
field resulting in a large magnetic anisotropy energy via the
Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya mechanism. This different, yet traditional, path to an
electrically induced anisotropy energy can explain the electric field,
thickness, and material dependence reported in many experiments.


title: Are peculiar velocity surveys competitive as a cosmological probe?

abstract:
  Peculiar velocity surveys, which measure galaxy peculiar velocities directly
from standard candles in addition to redshifts, can provide strong constraints
on the linear growth rate of cosmological large-scale structure at low
redshift. The improvement originates from the physical relationship between
galaxy density and peculiar velocity, which substantially reduces cosmic
variance. We present the results of Fisher matrix forecasts of correlated
fields of galaxy density and velocity. Peculiar velocity can improve the growth
rate constraints by about a factor of two compared to density alone, if we can
use all the information for wavenumber k < 0.2 h/Mpc. Future peculiar velocity
surveys, TAIPAN, and the all-sky HI surveys, WALLABY and WNSHS, can measure the
growth rate, f*sigma8 to 3 per cent at z ~ 0.025. Although the velocity
subsample is about an order of magnitude smaller than the redshift sample from
the same survey, it improves the constraint by 40 per cent compared to the same
survey without velocity measurements. Peculiar velocity surveys can also
measure the growth rate as a function of wavenumber with 15-30 per cent
uncertainties in bins with widths 0.01 h/Mpc in the range 0.02 h/Mpc < k < 0.1
h/Mpc, which is a large improvement over galaxy density only. Such measurements
on very large scales can detect signatures of modified gravity or
non-Gaussianity through scale-dependent growth rate or galaxy bias. We use
N-body simulations to improve the modelling of auto- and cross-power spectra of
galaxy density and peculiar velocity by introducing a new redshift-space
distortion term to the velocity, which has been neglected in previous studies.
The velocity power spectrum has a damping in redshift space, which is larger
than that naively expected from the similar effect in the galaxy power
spectrum.


title: The Combinatorics of $\mathsf{A_2}$-webs

abstract:
  The nonelliptic $\mathsf{A_2}$-webs with $k$ "$+$"s on the top boundary and
$3n-2k$ "$-$"s on the bottom boundary combinatorially model the space
$\mathsf{Hom}_{\mathfrak{sl}_3}(\mathsf{V}^{\otimes (3n-2k)},
\mathsf{V}^{\otimes k})$ of $\mathfrak{sl}_3$-module maps on tensor powers of
the natural $3$-dimensional $\mathfrak{sl}_3$-module $\mathsf{V}$, and they
have connections with the combinatorics of Springer varieties. Petersen,
Pylyavskyy, and Rhodes showed that the set of such $\mathsf{A_2}$-webs and the
set of semistandard tableaux of shape $(3^n)$ and type
$\{1^2,\dots,k^2,k+1,\dots, 3n-k\}$ have the same cardinalities. In this work,
we use the $\sf{m}$-diagrams introduced by Tymoczko and the Robinson-Schensted
correspondence to construct an explicit bijection, different from the one given
by Russell, between these two sets. In establishing our result, we show that
the pair of standard tableaux constructed using the notion of path depth is the
same as the pair constructed from applying the Robinson-Schensted
correspondence to a $3\,2\,1$-avoiding permutation. We also obtain a bijection
between such pairs of standard tableaux and Westbury's $\mathsf{A_2}$ flow
diagrams.


title: Reliability-output Decoding of Tail-biting Convolutional Codes

abstract:
  We present extensions to Raghavan and Baum's reliability-output Viterbi
algorithm (ROVA) to accommodate tail-biting convolutional codes. These
tail-biting reliability-output algorithms compute the exact word-error
probability of the decoded codeword after first calculating the posterior
probability of the decoded tail-biting codeword's starting state. One approach
employs a state-estimation algorithm that selects the maximum a posteriori
state based on the posterior distribution of the starting states. Another
approach is an approximation to the exact tail-biting ROVA that estimates the
word-error probability. A comparison of the computational complexity of each
approach is discussed in detail. The presented reliability-output algorithms
apply to both feedforward and feedback tail-biting convolutional encoders.
These tail-biting reliability-output algorithms are suitable for use in
reliability-based retransmission schemes with short blocklengths, in which
terminated convolutional codes would introduce rate loss.


title: Discovery of Proteomics based on Machine learning

abstract:
  The ultimate target of proteomics identification is to identify and quantify
the protein in the organism. Mass spectrometry (MS) based on label-free protein
quantitation has mainly focused on analysis of peptide spectral counts and ion
peak heights. Using several observed peptides (proteotypic) can identify the
origin protein. However, each peptide's possibility to be detected was severely
influenced by the peptide physicochemical properties, which confounded the
results of MS accounting. Using about a million peptide identification
generated by four different kinds of proteomic platforms, we successfully
identified >16,000 proteotypic peptides. We used machine learning
classification to derive peptide detection probabilities that are used to
predict the number of trypic peptides to be observed, which can serve to
estimate the absolutely abundance of protein with highly accuracy. We used the
data of peptides (provides by CAS lab) to derive the best model from different
kinds of methods. We first employed SVM and Random Forest classifier to
identify the proteotypic and unobserved peptides, and then searched the best
parameter for better prediction results. Considering the excellent performance
of our model, we can calculate the absolutely estimation of protein abundance.


title:
Search for doubly charmed baryons and study of charmed strange baryons
  at Belle

abstract:
  We report results of a study of doubly charmed baryons and charmed strange
baryons. The analysis is performed using a 980 fb^-1 data sample collected with
the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^+e^- collider. We search for
doubly charmed baryons Xi_cc^+(+) with the Lambda_c^+K^-pi^+(pi^+) and
Xi_c^0pi^+(pi^+) final states. No significant signal is observed. We also
search for two excited charmed strange baryons, Xi_c(3055)^+ and Xi_c(3123)^+
with the Sigma_c^++(2455)K^- and Sigma_c^++(2520)K^- final states. The
Xi_c(3055)^+ signal is observed with a significance of 6.6 standard deviations
including systematic uncertainty, while no signature of the Xi_c(3123)^+ is
seen. We also study properties of the Xi_c(2645)^+ and measure a width of 2.6
+- 0.2 (stat) +- 0.4 (syst) MeV/c^2, which is the first significant
determination.


title: A Note on the Quantum Collision and Set Equality Problems

abstract:
  The results showing a quantum query complexity of $\Theta(N^{1/3})$ for the
collision problem do not apply to random functions. The issues are two-fold.
First, the $\Omega(N^{1/3})$ lower bound only applies when the range is no
larger than the domain, which precludes many of the cryptographically
interesting applications. Second, most of the results in the literature only
apply to $r$-to-1 functions, which are quite different from random functions.
Understanding the collision problem for random functions is of great importance
to cryptography, and we seek to fill the gaps of knowledge for this problem. To
that end, we prove that, as expected, a quantum query complexity of
$\Theta(N^{1/3})$ holds for all interesting domain and range sizes. Our proofs
are simple, and combine existing techniques with several novel tricks to obtain
the desired results. Using our techniques, we also give an optimal
$\Omega(N^{1/3})$ lower bound for the set equality problem. This new lower
bound can be used to improve the relationship between classical randomized
query complexity and quantum query complexity for so-called
permutation-symmetric functions.


title:
Boundary Interactions for the Semi-Infinite q-Boson System and
  Hyperoctahedral Hall-Littlewood Polynomials

abstract:
  We present a semi-infinite q-boson system endowed with a four-parameter
boundary interaction. The n-particle Hamiltonian is diagonalized by generalized
Hall-Littlewood polynomials with hyperoctahedral symmetry that arise as a
degeneration of the Macdonald-Koornwinder polynomials and were recently studied
in detail by Venkateswaran.


title: Submillimeter H2O masers in water-fountain nebulae

abstract:
  We report the first detection of submillimeter water maser emission toward
water-fountain nebulae, which are post-AGB stars that exhibit high-velocity
water masers. Using APEX we found emission in the ortho-H2O (10_29-9_36)
transition at 321.226 GHz toward three sources: IRAS 15445-5449, IRAS
18043-2116 and IRAS 18286-0959. Similarly to the 22 GHz masers, the
submillimeter water masers are expanding with a velocity larger than that of
the OH masers, suggesting that these masers also originate in fast bipolar
outflows. In IRAS 18043-2116 and IRAS 18286-0959, which figure among the
sources with the fastest water masers, the velocity range of the 321 GHz masers
coincides with that of the 22 GHz masers, indicating that they likely coexist.
Towards IRAS 15445-5449 the submillimeter masers appear in a different velocity
range, indicating that they are tracing different regions. The intensity of the
submillimeter masers is comparable to that of the 22 GHz masers, implying that
the kinetic temperature of the region where the masers originate should be Tk >
1000 K. We propose that the passage of two shocks through the same gas can
create the conditions necessary to explain the presence of strong high-velocity
321 GHz masers coexisting with the 22 GHz masers in the same region.


title: On the Shrinkable U.S.C. Decomposition Spaces of Spheres

abstract:
  Let $G$ be a u.s.c decomposition of $S^n$, $H_G$ denote the set of
nondegenerate elements and $\pi$ be the projection of $S^n$ onto $S^n/G$.
Suppose that each point in the decomposition space has arbitrarily small
neighborhoods with ($n-1$)-sphere frontiers which miss $\pi(H_G)$, and such
frontiers satisfies the Mismatch Property. Then this paper shows that this
condition implies $S^n/G$ is homeomorphic to $S^n$ ($n\geq 4$). This answers a
weakened form of a conjecture asked by Daverman [3, p. 61]. In the case $n=3$,
the strong form of the conjecture has an affirmative answer from Woodruff [12].


title: Analysis of Distributed Stochastic Dual Coordinate Ascent

abstract:
  In \citep{Yangnips13}, the author presented distributed stochastic dual
coordinate ascent (DisDCA) algorithms for solving large-scale regularized loss
minimization. Extraordinary performances have been observed and reported for
the well-motivated updates, as referred to the practical updates, compared to
the naive updates. However, no serious analysis has been provided to understand
the updates and therefore the convergence rates. In the paper, we bridge the
gap by providing a theoretical analysis of the convergence rates of the
practical DisDCA algorithm. Our analysis helped by empirical studies has shown
that it could yield an exponential speed-up in the convergence by increasing
the number of dual updates at each iteration. This result justifies the
superior performances of the practical DisDCA as compared to the naive variant.
As a byproduct, our analysis also reveals the convergence behavior of the
one-communication DisDCA.


title: A comparative study of two lattice approaches to two-body systems

abstract:
  We present a method to extract the spectrum of two-particle systems on the
lattice from wave functions computed in lattice simulations. The energies of
the Hamiltonian eigenstates are extracted from the eigenvalues of a matrix,
similar to a potential, constrained by the wave functions. This method is
compared with the traditional variational method in the isospin 2 $\pi\pi$
system.


title: Haagerup approximation property for arbitrary von Neumann algebras

abstract:
  We attempt presenting a notion of the Haagerup approximation property for an
arbitrary von Neumann algebra by using its standard form. We also prove the
expected heredity results for this property.


title: A supercharacter approach to Heilbronn sums

abstract:
  Various algebraic properties of Heilbronn's exponential sum can be deduced
through the use of supercharacter theory, a novel extension of classical
character theory due to Diaconis-Isaacs and Andre. This perspective yields a
variety of formulas and provides a method for computing the number of solutions
to Fermat-type congruences.


title:
Uniform spin susceptibility and spin-gap phenomenon in the BCS-BEC
  crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas

abstract:
  We investigate the uniform spin susceptibility $\chi_{\rm s}$ in the BCS
(Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover regime
of an ultracold Fermi gas. Including pairing fluctuations within the framework
of an extended $T$-matrix approximation, we show that $\chi_{\rm s}$ exhibits
non-monotonic temperature dependence in the normal state. In particular,
$\chi_{\rm s}$ is suppressed near the superfluid phase transition temperature
$T_{\rm c}$ due to strong pairing fluctuations. To characterize this anomalous
behavior, we introduce the spin-gap temperature $T_{\rm s}$ as the temperature
at which $\chi_{\rm s}$ takes a maximum value. Determining $T_{\rm s}$ in the
whole BCS-BEC crossover region, we identify the spin-gap regime in the phase
diagram of a Fermi gas in terms of the temperature and the strength of a
pairing interaction. We also clarify how the spin-gap phenomenon is related to
the pseudogap phenomenon appearing in the single-particle density of states.
Our results indicate that an ultracold Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover
region is a very useful system to examine the pseudogap phenomenon and the
spin-gap phenomenon in a unified manner.


title: Four quotient set gems

abstract:
  Our aim in this note is to present four remarkable facts about quotient sets.
These observations seem to have been overlooked by the Monthly, despite its
intense coverage of quotient sets over the years.


title: Blind Fractional Interference Alignment

abstract:
  Fractional Interference Alignment (FIA) is a transmission scheme which
achieves any value between [0,1] for the Symbols transmitted per Antenna per
Channel use (SpAC). FIA was designed in [1] specifically for Finite Alphabet
(FA) signals, under the constraint that the Minimum Distance (MD) detector is
used at all the receivers. Similar to classical interference alignment, the FIA
precoder also needs perfect channel state information at all the transmitters
(CSIT). In this work, a novel Blind Fractional Interference Alignment (B-FIA)
scheme is introduced, where the basic assumption is that CSIT is not available.
We consider two popular channel models, namely: Broadcast channel, and
Interference channel. For these two channel models, the maximum achievable
value of SpAC satisfying the constraints of the MD detector is obtained, but
with no CSIT, and also a precoder design is provided to obtain any value of
SpAC in the achievable range.
  Further, the precoder structure provided has one distinct advantage:
interference channel state information at the receiver (I-CSIR) is not needed,
when all the transmitters and receivers are equipped with one antenna each.
When two or more antennas are used at both ends, I-CSIR must be available to
obtain the maximum achievable value of SpAC. The receiver designs for both the
Minimum Distance and the Maximum Likelihood (ML) decoders are discussed, where
the interference statistics is estimated from the received signal samples.
Simulation results of the B-FIA show that the ML decoder with estimated
statistics achieves a significantly better error rate performance when compared
to the MD decoder with known statistics, since the MD decoder assumes the
interference plus noise term as colored Gaussian noise.


title:
Efficient Multi-Robot Motion Planning for Unlabeled Discs in Simple
  Polygons

abstract:
  We consider the following motion-planning problem: we are given $m$ unit
discs in a simple polygon with $n$ vertices, each at their own start position,
and we want to move the discs to a given set of $m$ target positions. Contrary
to the standard (labeled) version of the problem, each disc is allowed to be
moved to any target position, as long as in the end every target position is
occupied. We show that this unlabeled version of the problem can be solved in
$O(n\log n+mn+m^2)$ time, assuming that the start and target positions are at
least some minimal distance from each other. This is in sharp contrast to the
standard (labeled) and more general multi-robot motion-planning problem for
discs moving in a simple polygon, which is known to be strongly NP-hard.


title:
Conic geometric optimisation on the manifold of positive definite
  matrices

abstract:
  We develop \emph{geometric optimisation} on the manifold of Hermitian
positive definite (HPD) matrices. In particular, we consider optimising two
types of cost functions: (i) geodesically convex (g-convex); and (ii)
log-nonexpansive (LN). G-convex functions are nonconvex in the usual euclidean
sense, but convex along the manifold and thus allow global optimisation. LN
functions may fail to be even g-convex, but still remain globally optimisable
due to their special structure. We develop theoretical tools to recognise and
generate g-convex functions as well as cone theoretic fixed-point optimisation
algorithms. We illustrate our techniques by applying them to maximum-likelihood
parameter estimation for elliptically contoured distributions (a rich class
that substantially generalises the multivariate normal distribution). We
compare our fixed-point algorithms with sophisticated manifold optimisation
methods and obtain notable speedups.


title: A Deployment Process for Strategic Measurement Systems

abstract:
  Explicitly linking software-related activities to an organisation's
higher-level goals has been shown to be critical for organizational success.
GQM+Strategies provides mechanisms for explicitly linking goals and strategies,
based on goal-oriented strategic measurement systems. Deploying such strategic
measurement systems in an organization is highly challenging. Experience has
shown that a clear deployment strategy is needed for achieving sustainable
success. In particular, an adequate deployment process as well as corresponding
tool support can facilitate the deployment. This paper introduces the
systematical GQM+Strategies deployment process and gives an overview of
GQM+Strategies modelling and associated tool support. Additionally, it provides
an overview of industrial applications and describes success factors and
benefits for the usage of GQM+Strategies.


title:
Background radioactivity of construction materials, raw substance and
  ready-made CaMoO4 crystals

abstract:
  The results of measurements of natural radioactive isotopes content in
different source materials of natural and enriched composition used for CaMoO4
scintillation crystal growing are presented. The crystals are to be used in the
experiment to search for double neutrinoless betas-decay of Mo-100.


title:
Adapting Software Quality Models: Practical Challenges, Approach, and
  First Empirical Results

abstract:
  Measuring and evaluating software quality has become a fundamental task. Many
models have been proposed to support stakeholders in dealing with software
quality. However, in most cases, quality models do not fit perfectly for the
target application context. Since approaches for efficiently adapting quality
models are largely missing, many quality models in practice are built from
scratch or reuse only high-level concepts of existing models. We present a
tool-supported approach for the efficient adaptation of quality models. An
initial empirical investigation indicates that the quality models obtained
applying the proposed approach are considerably more consistently and
appropriately adapted than those obtained following an ad-hoc approach.
Further, we could observe that model adaptation is significantly more efficient
(~factor 8) when using this approach.


title: Using Early Quality Assurance Metrics to Focus Testing Activities

abstract:
  Testing of software or software-based systems and services is considered as
one of the most effort-consuming activities in the lifecycle. This applies
especially to those domains where highly iterative development and continuous
integration cannot be applied. Several approaches have been proposed to use
measurement as a means to improve test effectiveness and efficiency. Most of
them rely on using product data, historical data, or in-process data that is
not related to quality assurance ac- tivities. Very few approaches use data
from early quality assurance activities such as inspection data in order to
focus testing activities and thereby reduce test effort. This article gives an
overview of potential benefits of using data from early defect detection
activities, potentially in addition to other data, in order to focus testing
activities. In addition, the article sketches an integrated inspection and
testing process and its evaluation in the context of two case studies. Taking
the study limitations into account, the results show an overall reduction of
testing effort by up to 34%, which mirrors an efficiency improvement of up to
about 50% for testing.


title: Microscopic study of chiral rotation in odd-odd A $\sim$ 100 nuclei

abstract:
  A systematic study of the doublet bands observed in odd-odd mass $\sim$ 100
is performed using the microscopic triaxial projected shell model approach.
This mass region has depicted some novel features which are not observed in
other mass regions, for instance, it has been observed that two chiral bands
cross diabatically in $^{106}$Ag. It is demonstrated that this unique feature
is due to crossing of the two 2-quasiparticle configurations having different
intrinsic structures. Further, we provide a complete set of transition
probabilities for all the six-isotopes studied in this work and it is shown
that the predicted transitions are in good agreement with the available
experimental data.


title:
On the (non) existence of viscosity solutions of multi--time
  Hamilton--Jacobi equations

abstract:
  We prove that the multi--time Hamilton--Jacobi equation in general cannot be
solved in the viscosity sense, in the non-convex setting, even when the
Hamiltonians are in involution.


title: Simple Model of Splitting Instability in Swollen Membranes

abstract:
  A simple one-dimensional mechanical model is proposed for splitting
instability in swollen membranes. The splitting instability occurs by ring
constriction. The bifurcation can be both subcritical and supercritical,
depending on the slenderness of spheroidal membranes. The lower critical point
is estimated theoretically for the simplest circular system. Necking
instability occurs in a spheroidal membrane when the twist angle in the
boundary conditions is increased.


title: Nonlocalized cluster dynamics and nuclear molecular structure

abstract:
  A container picture is proposed for understanding cluster dynamics where the
clusters make nonlocalized motion occupying the lowest orbit of the cluster
mean-field potential characterized by the size parameter $``B"$ in the THSR
(Tohsaki-Horiuchi-Schuck-R\"{o}pke) wave function. The nonlocalized cluster
aspects of the inversion-doublet bands in $^{20}$Ne which have been considered
as a typical manifestation of localized clustering are discussed. So far
unexplained puzzling features of the THSR wave function, namely that after
angular-momentum projection for two cluster systems the prolate THSR wave
function is almost 100$\%$ equivalent to an oblate THSR wave function is
clarified. It is shown that the true intrinsic two-cluster THSR configuration
is nonetheless prolate. The proposal of the container picture is based on the
fact that typical cluster systems, 2$\alpha$, 3$\alpha$, and $\alpha$+$^{16}$O,
are all well described by a single THSR wave function. It will be shown for the
case of linear-chain states with two and three $\alpha$-clusters as well as for
the $\alpha$+$^{16}$O system that localization is entirely of kinematical
origin, that is, due to the inter-cluster Pauli repulsion. It is concluded that
this feature is general for nuclear cluster states.


title: Pairing effects on spinodal decomposition of asymmetric nuclear matter

abstract:
  We investigate the impact of pairing correlations on the behavior of unstable
asymmetric nuclear matter at low temperature. We focus on the relative role of
the pairing interaction, coupling nucleons of the same type (neutrons or
protons), with respect to the symmetry potential, which enhances the
neutron-proton attraction, along the clusterization process driven by spinodal
instabilities. It is found that, especially at the transition temperature from
the normal to the superfluid phase, pairing effects may induce significant
variations in the isotopic content of the clusterized matter. This analysis is
potentially useful to gather information on the temperature dependence of
nuclear pairing and, in general, on the properties of clusterized low-density
matter, of interest also in the astrophysical context.


title:
Constraining Red-shift Parametrization Parameters in Brans-Dicke Theory:
  Evolution of Open Confidence Contours

abstract:
  In Brans Dicke theory of gravity, from the nature of the scalar
field-potential considered, the dark energy, dark matter, radiation densities
predicted by different observations and the closedness of the universe
considered, we can fix our $\omega_{BD}$, the Brans Dicke parameter, keeping
only the thing in mind that from different solar system constrains it must be
greater than $5\times 10^{5}$. Once we have a value, satisfying the required
lower boundary, in our hand we proceed for setting unknown parameters of the
different dark energy models' EoS parameter. In this paper we work with three
well known red shift parametrizations of dark energy EoS. To constrain their
free parameters for Brans Dicke theory of gravity we take twelve point red
shift vs Hubble's parameter data and perform $\chi^{2}$ test. We present the
observational data analysis mechanism for Stern, Stern+BAO and Stern+BAO+CMB
observations. Minimising $\chi^2$, we obtain the best fit values and draw
different confidence contours. We analyze the contours physically. Also we
examine the best fit of distance modulus for our theoretical models and the
Supernovae Type Ia Union2 sample. For Brans Dicke theory of gravity the
difference from the mainstream confidence contouring method of data analysis id
that the confidence contours evolved are not at all closed contours like a
circle or a ellipse. Rather they are found to be open contours allowing the
free parameters to float inside a infinite region of parameter space. However,
negative EoSs are likely to evolve from the best fit values.


title: Thermodynamic limit of the Nekrasov-type formula for E-string theory

abstract:
  We give a proof of the Nekrasov-type formula proposed by one of the authors
for the Seiberg-Witten prepotential for the E-string theory on R^4 x T^2. We
take the thermodynamic limit of the Nekrasov-type formula following the example
of Nekrasov-Okounkov and reproduce the Seiberg-Witten description of the
prepotential. The Seiberg-Witten curve obtained directly from the Nekrasov-type
formula is of genus greater than one. We find that this curve is transformed
into the known elliptic curve by a simple map. We consider the cases in which
the low energy theory has E_8, E_7+A_1 or E_6+A_2 as a global symmetry.


title:
Optical manipulation of the exciton charge state in single layer
  tungsten disulfide

abstract:
  Raman scattering and photoluminescence (PL) emission are used to investigate
a single layer of tungsten disulfide (WS$_{2}$) obtained by exfoliating n-type
bulk crystals. Direct gap emission with both neutral and charged exciton
recombination is observed in the low temperature PL spectra. The ratio between
the trion and exciton emission can be tuned simply by varying the excitation
power. Moreover, the intensity of the trion emission can be independently tuned
using additional sub band gap laser excitation.


title: Quantum field theories on the Lefschetz thimble

abstract:
  In these proceedings, we summarize the Lefschetz thimble approach to the sign
problem of Quantum Field Theories. In particular, we review its motivations,
and we summarize the results of the application of two different algorithms to
two test models.


title:
Large deviations, Basic information theorem for fitness preferential
  attachment random networks

abstract:
  For fitness preferential attachment random networks, we define the empirical
degree and pair measure, which counts the number of vertices of a given degree
and the number of edges with given fits, and the sample path empirical degree
distribution. For the empirical degree and pair distribution for the fitness
preferential attachment random networks, we find a large deviation upper bound.
From this result we obtain a weak law of large numbers for the empirical degree
and pair distribution, and the basic information theorem or an asymptotic
equipartition property for fitness preferential attachment random networks.


title:
Faster and Sample Near-Optimal Algorithms for Proper Learning Mixtures
  of Gaussians

abstract:
  We provide an algorithm for properly learning mixtures of two
single-dimensional Gaussians without any separability assumptions. Given
$\tilde{O}(1/\varepsilon^2)$ samples from an unknown mixture, our algorithm
outputs a mixture that is $\varepsilon$-close in total variation distance, in
time $\tilde{O}(1/\varepsilon^5)$. Our sample complexity is optimal up to
logarithmic factors, and significantly improves upon both Kalai et al., whose
algorithm has a prohibitive dependence on $1/\varepsilon$, and Feldman et al.,
whose algorithm requires bounds on the mixture parameters and depends
pseudo-polynomially in these parameters.
  One of our main contributions is an improved and generalized algorithm for
selecting a good candidate distribution from among competing hypotheses.
Namely, given a collection of $N$ hypotheses containing at least one candidate
that is $\varepsilon$-close to an unknown distribution, our algorithm outputs a
candidate which is $O(\varepsilon)$-close to the distribution. The algorithm
requires ${O}(\log{N}/\varepsilon^2)$ samples from the unknown distribution and
${O}(N \log N/\varepsilon^2)$ time, which improves previous such results (such
as the Scheff\'e estimator) from a quadratic dependence of the running time on
$N$ to quasilinear. Given the wide use of such results for the purpose of
hypothesis selection, our improved algorithm implies immediate improvements to
any such use.


title: On the Lie integrability theorem for the Chaplygin ball

abstract:
  The necessary number of commuting vector fields for the Chaplygin ball in the
absolute space is constructed. We propose to get these vector fields in
framework of the Poisson geometry similar to the Hamiltonian mechanics.


title: Pinning force scaling analysis of Fe-based high-Tc superconductors

abstract:
  Pinning force data, Fp, of a variety of Fe-based high-Tc superconductors
(11-, 111-, 122- and 1111-type) were analyzed by means of a scaling approach
based on own experimental data and an extensive collection of literature data.
The literature data were mostly replotted, but also converted from critical
current measurements together with data for the irreversibility line when
available from the same authors. Using the scaling approaches of Dew-Hughes and
Kramer, we determined the scaling behavior and the best fits to the theory. The
data of most experiments analyzed show a good scaling behavior at high
temperatures when plotting the normalized pinning force Fp/Fp,max versus the
irreversibility field, Hirr. The resulting peak positions, h0, were found at
0.3 for the 11-type materials, at 0.48 for the 111-type materials, between 0.32
and 0.5 for the 1111-type materials and between 0.25 and 0.71 for the 122-type
materials. This high peak position ensures a good performance of the materials
in high applied magnetic fields and is, therefore, a very promising result
concerning the possible applications of the Fe-based high-Tc superconductors.


title: How to use 2D gel electrophoresis in plant proteomics

abstract:
  Two-dimensional electrophoresis has nurtured the birth of proteomics. It is
however no longer the exclusive setup used in proteomics, with the development
of shotgun proteomics techniques that appear more fancy and fashionable
nowadays.Nevertheless, 2D gel-based proteomics still has valuable features, and
sometimes unique ones, which make it often an attractive choice when a
proteomics strategy must be selected. These features are detailed in this
chapter, as is the rationale for selecting or not 2D gel-based proteomics as a
proteomic strategy.


title: Coincidences of a shifted hexagonal lattice and the hexagonal packing

abstract:
  A geometric study of twin and grain boundaries in crystals and quasicrystals
is achieved via coincidence site lattices (CSLs) and coincidence site modules
(CSMs), respectively. Recently, coincidences of shifted lattices and
multilattices (i.e. finite unions of shifted copies of a lattice) have been
investigated. Here, we solve the coincidence problem for a shifted hexagonal
lattice. This result allows us to analyze the coincidence isometries of the
hexagonal packing by viewing the hexagonal packing as a multilattice.


abstract:
  In this paper we obtain a characterization of the convergence of the partial
sum operator related to Fourier--Jacobi expansions in Morrey spaces.


title: An algebraic study of linkages with helical joints

abstract:
  Methods from algebra and algebraic geometry have been used in various ways to
study linkages in kinematics. These methods have failed so far for the study of
linkages with helical joints (joints with screw motion), because of the
presence of some non-algebraic relations. In this article, we explore a
delicate reduction of some analytic equations in kinematics to algebraic
questions via a theorem of Ax. As an application, we give a classification of
mobile closed 5-linkages with revolute, prismatic, and helical joints.


title:
The embedding tensor of Scherk-Schwarz flux compactifications from
  eleven dimensions

abstract:
  We study the Scherk-Schwarz reduction of D=11 supergravity with background
fluxes in the context of a recently developed framework pertaining to D=11
supergravity. We derive the embedding tensor of the associated four-dimensional
maximal gauged theories directly from eleven dimensions by exploiting the
generalised vielbein postulates, and by analysing the couplings of the full set
of 56 electric and magnetic gauge fields to the generalised vielbeine. The
treatment presented here will apply more generally to other reductions of
$D=11$ supergravity to maximal gauged theories in four dimensions.


title: Critical Exponents in Two Dimensions and Pseudo-\epsilon\ Expansion

abstract:
  The critical behavior of two-dimensional $n$-vector $\lambda\phi^4$ field
model is studied within the framework of pseudo-$\epsilon$ expansion approach.
Pseudo-$\epsilon$ expansions for Wilson fixed point location $g^*$ and critical
exponents originating from five-loop 2D renormalization group series are
derived. Numerical estimates obtained within Pad\'e and Pad\'e-Borel
resummation procedures as well as by direct summation are presented for $n =
1$, $n = 0$ and $n = -1$, i. e. for the models which are exactly solvable. The
pseudo-$\epsilon$ expansions for $g^*$, critical exponents $\gamma$ and $\nu$
have small lower-order coefficients and slow increasing higher-order ones. As a
result, direct summation of these series with optimal cut off provides
numerical estimates that are no worse than those given by the resummation
approaches mentioned. This enables one to consider the pseudo-$\epsilon$
expansion technique itself as some specific resummation method.

categories: cond-mat.stat-mech hep-lat hep-ph hep-th


title: Far-infrared extinction mapping of infrared dark clouds

abstract:
  Progress in understanding star formation requires detailed observational
constraints on the initial conditions, i.e. dense clumps and cores in giant
molecular clouds that are on the verge of gravitational instability. Such
structures have been studied by their extinction of Near-Infrared (NIR) and,
more recently, Mid-Infrared (MIR) background light. It has been somewhat more
of a surprise to find that there are regions that appear as dark shadows at
Far-Infrared (FIR) wavelengths as long as $\sim$100$\mu m$. Here we develop
analysis methods of FIR images from Spitzer-MIPS and Herschel-PACS that allow
quantitative measurements of cloud mass surface density, $\Sigma$. The method
builds upon that developed for MIR extinction mapping (MIREX) (Butler and Tan
2012), in particular involving a search for independent saturated, i.e. very
opaque, regions that allow measurement of the foreground intensity. We focus on
three massive starless core/clumps in IRDC G028.37+00.07, deriving mass surface
density maps from 3.5 to 70$\mu m$. A by-product of this analysis is
measurement of the spectral energy distribution of the diffuse foreground
emission. The lower opacity at 70$\mu m$ allows us to probe to higher $\Sigma$
values, up to $\sim1\:{\rm{g\:cm}^{-2}}$ in the densest parts of the
core/clumps. Comparison of the $\Sigma$ maps at different wavelengths
constrains the shape of the MIR-FIR dust opacity law in IRDCs. We find it is
most consistent with the thick ice mantle models of Ossenkopf and Henning
(1994). There is tentative evidence for grain ice mantle growth as one goes
from lower to higher $\Sigma$ regions.


title:
Scale-multiplicative semigroups and geometry: automorphism groups of
  trees

abstract:
  A scale-multiplicative semigroup in a totally disconnected, locally compact
group $G$ is one for which the restriction of the scale function on $G$ is
multiplicative. The maximal scale-multiplicative semigroups in groups acting
2-transitively on the set of ends of trees without leaves are determined in
this paper and shown to correspond to geometric features of the tree.


title: Distribution modulo one and diophantine approximation by Yann Bugeaud

abstract:
  Review of the book: Distribution modulo one and Diophantine approximation, by
Yann Bugeaud, Cambridge University Press 2012. ISBN 978-0521111690, 316 pp.


title: A new construction of the Drinfeld-Sokolov Hierarchies

abstract:
  The Drinfeld-Sokolov hierarchies are integrable hierarchies associated with
every affine Lie algebra. We present a new construction of such hierarchies,
which only requires the computations of a formal Laurent series.


title:
A $\mathbb{Z}_4^3$-grading on a 56-dimensional simple structurable
  algebra and related fine gradings on the simple Lie algebras of type E

abstract:
  We describe two constructions of a certain $\mathbb{Z}_4^3$-grading on the
so-called Brown algebra (a simple structurable algebra of dimension 56 and
skew-dimension 1) over an algebraically closed field of characteristic
different from 2 and 3. We also show how this grading gives rise to several
interesting fine gradings on exceptional simple Lie algebras of types E6, E7
and E8.


title: Lepton flavor violation in supersymmetric low-scale seesaw models

abstract:
  The minimal supersymmetric standard model with a low scale see-saw mechanism
is presented. Within this framework, the lepton flavour violation in the
charged lepton sector is thoroughly studied. Special attention is paid to the
individual loop contributions due to the heavy neutrinos $N_{1,2,3}$,
sneutrinos $\tilde{N}_{1,2,3}$ and soft SUSY-breaking terms. For the first
time, the complete set of box diagrams is included, in addition to the photon
and $Z$-boson mediated interactions. The complete set of chiral amplitudes and
their associate form-factors related to the neutrinoless three-body charged
lepton flavor violating decays of the muon and tau, such as $\mu \to eee$,
$\tau \to \mu\mu\mu$, $\tau \to e\mu\mu$ and $\tau \to ee\mu$, as well as the
coherent $\mu \to e$ conversion in nuclei, were derived. The obtained
analytical results are general and can be applied to most of the New Physics
models with charged lepton flavor violation. This systematic analysis has
revealed the existence of two new box form factors, which have not been
considered before in the existing literature in this area of physics.
  In the same model, the systematic study of one-loop contributions to the muon
anomalous magnetic dipole moment $a_\mu$ and the electron electric dipole
moment $d_e$ is performed. Special attention is paid to the effect of the
sneutrino soft SUSY-breaking parameters, $B_\nu$ and $A_\nu$, and their
universal CP phases ($\theta$ and $\phi$) on $a_\mu$ and $d_e$.


title: Dynamical quark mass generation

abstract:
  Taking inspiration from lattice QCD results, we argue that a non-perturbative
mass term for fermions can be generated as a consequence of the dynamical
phenomenon of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, in turn triggered by the
explicitly breaking of chiral symmetry induced by the critical Wilson term in
the action. In a pure lattice QCD-like theory this mass term cannot be
separated from the unavoidably associated linearly divergent contribution.
However, if QCD with a Wilson term is enlarged to a theory where also a scalar
field is present, coupled to a doublet of SU(2) fermions via a Yukawa
interaction, then in the phase where the scalar field takes a non-vanishing
(large) expectation value, a dynamically generated and ``naturally'' light
fermion mass (numerically unrelated to the expectation value of the scalar
field) is seen to emerge, at a critical value of the Yukawa coupling where the
symmetry of the model is maximally enhanced.


title:
Checking Temporal Properties of Presburger Counter Systems using
  Reachability Analysis

abstract:
  Counter systems are a well-known and powerful modeling notation for
specifying infinite-state systems. In this paper we target the problem of
checking temporal properties of counter systems. We first focus on checking
liveness properties only, and propose two semi decision techniques for these
properties. Both these techniques return a formula that encodes the set of
reachable states of a given system that satisfy a given liveness property. A
novel aspect of our techniques is that they use reachability analysis
techniques, which are well studied in the literature, as black boxes, and are
hence able to compute precise answers on a much wider class of systems than
previous approaches for the same problem. Secondly, they compute their results
by iterative expansion or contraction, and hence permit an approximate solution
to be obtained at any point. We state the formal properties of our techniques,
and also provide experimental results using standard benchmarks to show the
usefulness of our approaches. Finally, we provide a technique for checking
arbitrary CTL temporal properties, which use the liveness property checking
techniques mentioned above as black boxes.


title:
Magnetic excitation in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering of
  Sr$_2$IrO$_4$: A localized spin picture

abstract:
  We study the magnetic excitations in 5d transition-metal oxide Sr$_2$IrO$_4$
on the basis of the Heisenberg model with small anisotropic terms on a square
lattice. We calculate the correlation functions by using the Green's functions
in the spin-wave approximation. The spin waves are split into two modes with
slightly different energies due to the anisotropic terms. It is shown that the
spin correlation functions of the y and z components are composed of a single
peak corresponding to each mode. We analyze the process of resonant inelastic
x-ray scattering (RIXS) without relying on the fast collision approximation to
obtain the local scattering operator. The RIXS intensity is derived as a sum of
the correlation functions of the y and z spin components. We demonstrate that
the RIXS intensity as a function of energy shows two-peak structure brought
about by the two modes, which could be observed in the RIXS experiment.


title: A Dynamical Approach to Viscosity Solutions of Hamilton-Jacobi Equations

abstract:
  In this paper, we consider the following Hamilton-Jacobi equation with
initial condition: \begin{equation*} \begin{cases}
\partial_tu(x,t)+H(x,t,u(x,t),\partial_xu(x,t))=0, u(x,0)=\phi(x). \end{cases}
\end{equation*} Under some assumptions on the convexity of $H(x,t,u,p)$ w.r.t.
$p$, we develop a dynamical approach to viscosity solutions and show that there
exists an intrinsic connection between viscosity solutions and certain minimal
characteristics.


title:
Solving Variational Inequalities with Monotone Operators on Domains
  Given by Linear Minimization Oracles

abstract:
  The standard algorithms for solving large-scale convex-concave saddle point
problems, or, more generally, variational inequalities with monotone operators,
are proximal type algorithms which at every iteration need to compute a
prox-mapping, that is, to minimize over problem's domain $X$ the sum of a
linear form and the specific convex distance-generating function underlying the
algorithms in question. Relative computational simplicity of prox-mappings,
which is the standard requirement when implementing proximal algorithms,
clearly implies the possibility to equip $X$ with a relatively computationally
cheap Linear Minimization Oracle (LMO) able to minimize over $X$ linear forms.
There are, however, important situations where a cheap LMO indeed is available,
but where no proximal setup with easy-to-compute prox-mappings is known. This
fact motivates our goal in this paper, which is to develop techniques for
solving variational inequalities with monotone operators on domains given by
Linear Minimization Oracles. The techniques we develope can be viewed as a
substantial extension of the proposed in [5] method of nonsmooth convex
minimization over an LMO-represented domain.


title: Vortices on surfaces with cylindrical ends

abstract:
  We consider Riemann surfaces obtained from nodal curves with infinite
cylinders in the place of nodal and marked points, and study the space of
finite energy vortices defined on these surfaces. To compactify the space of
vortices, we need to consider stable vortices - these incorporate breaking of
cylinders and sphere bubbling in the fibers. In this paper, we prove that the
space of gauge equivalence classes of stable vortices representing a fixed
equivariant homology class is compact and Hausdorff under the Gromov topology.
We also show that this space is homeomorphic to the moduli space of quasimaps
defined by Ciocan-Fontanine, Kim and Maulik.


title:
A Necessary and Sufficient Condition for the Existence of Potential
  Functions for Heterogeneous Routing Games

abstract:
  We study a heterogeneous routing game in which vehicles might belong to more
than one type. The type determines the cost of traveling along an edge as a
function of the flow of various types of vehicles over that edge. We relax the
assumptions needed for the existence of a Nash equilibrium in this
heterogeneous routing game. We extend the available results to present
necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a potential function.
We characterize a set of tolls that guarantee the existence of a potential
function when only two types of users are participating in the game. We present
an upper bound for the price of anarchy (i.e., the worst-case ratio of the
social cost calculated for a Nash equilibrium over the social cost for a
socially optimal flow) for the case in which only two types of players are
participating in a game with affine edge cost functions. A heterogeneous
routing game with vehicle platooning incentives is used as an example
throughout the article to clarify the concepts and to validate the results.


title: Large-scale chaos and fluctuations in active nematics

abstract:
  We show that "dry" active nematics, e.g. collections of shaken elongated
granular particles, exhibit large-scale spatiotemporal chaos made of
interacting dense, ordered, band-like structures in a parameter region
including the linear onset of nematic order. These results are obtained from
the study of the relatively simple and well-known (deterministic) hydrodynamic
equations describing these systems in a dilute limit, and of a self-propelled
particle Vicsek-like model for this class of active matter. In this last case,
revisiting the status of the strong fluctuations and long-range correlations
now considered as landmarks of orientationally-ordered active phases, we show
that the giant number fluctuations observed in the chaotic phase are a trivial
consequence of density segregation. However anomalous density fluctuations are
present in the homogeneous quasi-ordered nematic phase and characterized by a
non-trivial scaling exponent.


title:
Transient Carrier Dynamics in a Mott Insulator with Antiferromagnetic
  Order

abstract:
  We study transient dynamics of hole carriers injected at a certain time into
a Mott insulator with antiferromagnetic long range order. This is termed
``dynamical hole doping" as contrast with chemical hole doping. Theoretical
framework for the transient carrier dynamics are presented based on the two
dimensional $t-J$ model. Time dependences of the optical conductivity spectra
as well as the one-particle excitation spectra are calculated based on the
Keldysh Green's function formalism at zero temperature combined with the
self-consistent Born approximation. At early stage after dynamical hole doping,
the Drude component appears, and then incoherent components originating from
hole-magnon scatterings start to grow. Fast oscillatory behavior due to
coherent magnon, and slow relaxation dynamics are confirmed in the spectra.
Time profiles are interpreted as that doped bare holes are dressed by magnon
clouds, and are relaxed into spin polaron quasi-particle states. Characteristic
relaxation times for Drude and incoherent peaks strongly depend on momentum of
a dynamically doped hole, and the exchange constant. Implications to the recent
pump-probe experiments are discussed.


title:
The effect of including molecular opacities of variable composition on
  the evolution of intermediate-mass AGB stars

abstract:
  Calculations from stellar evolutionary models of low- and intermediate-mass
asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars provide predictions of elemental abundances
and yields for comparison to observations. However, there are many
uncertainties that reduce the accuracy of these predictions. One such
uncertainty involves the treatment of low-temperature molecular opacities that
account for the surface abundance variations of C, N, and O. A number of prior
calculations of intermediate-mass AGB stellar models that incorporate both
efficient third dredge-up and hot bottom burning include a molecular opacity
treatment which does not consider the depletion of C and O due to hot bottom
burning. Here we update the molecular opacity treatment and investigate the
effect of this improvement on calculations of intermediate-mass AGB stellar
models. We perform tests on two masses, 5 M$_{\odot}$ and 6 M$_{\odot}$, and
two metallicities, $Z~=~0.001$ and $Z~=~0.02$, to quantify the variations
between two opacity treatments. We find that several evolutionary properties
(e.g. radius, $T_{\rm eff}$ and $T_{\rm bce}$) are dependent on the opacity
treatment. Larger structural differences occur for the $Z~=~0.001$ models
compared to the $Z~=~0.02$ models indicating that the opacity treatment has a
more significant effect at lower metallicity. As a consequence of the
structural changes, the predictions of isotopic yields are slightly affected
with most isotopes experiencing changes up to 60 per cent for the $Z~=~0.001$
models and 20 per cent for the $Z~=~0.02$ models. Despite this moderate effect,
we conclude that it is more fitting to use variable molecular opacities for
models undergoing hot bottom burning.


title:
Interfacing single photons and single quantum dots with photonic
  nanostructures

abstract:
  Photonic nanostructures provide means of tailoring the interaction between
light and matter and the past decade has witnessed a tremendous experimental
and theoretical progress in this subject. In particular, the combination with
semiconductor quantum dots has proven successful. This manuscript reviews
quantum optics with excitons in single quantum dots embedded in photonic
nanostructures. The ability to engineer the light-matter interaction strength
in integrated photonic nanostructures enables a range of fundamental
quantum-electrodynamics experiments on, e.g., spontaneous-emission control,
modified Lamb shifts, and enhanced dipole-dipole interaction. Furthermore,
highly efficient single-photon sources and giant photon nonlinearities may be
implemented with immediate applications for photonic quantum-information
processing. The review summarizes the general theoretical framework of photon
emission including the role of dephasing processes, and applies it to photonic
nanostructures of current interest, such as photonic-crystal cavities and
waveguides, dielectric nanowires, and plasmonic waveguides. The introduced
concepts are generally applicable in quantum nanophotonics and apply to a large
extent also to other quantum emitters, such as molecules, nitrogen vacancy
ceters, or atoms. Finally, the progress and future prospects of applications in
quantum-information processing are considered.

categories: quant-ph cond-mat.mes-hall physics.atom-ph physics.optics


title: Performance of Ultra-Fast Silicon Detectors

abstract:
  The development of Low-Gain Avalanche Detectors has opened up the possibility
of manufacturing silicon detectors with signal larger than that of traditional
sensors. In this paper we explore the timing performance of Low-Gain Avalanche
Detectors, and in particular we demonstrate the possibility of obtaining
ultra-fast silicon detector with time resolution of less than 20 picosecond.


title:
What's Inside the Cone? Numerically reconstructing the metric from
  observations

abstract:
  We investigate the possibility of using Gaussian process regression to smooth
data on the current past null-cone for use as the input to a relativistic
integration scheme. The algorithm we present is designed to reconstruct the
metric of spacetime within the class of spherically symmetric dust universes,
with or without a cosmological constant. Assuming that gravity is well
described by General Relativity, we demonstrate how the algorithm can be
employed to test the Copernican principle based on currently available
observations. It is shown that currently available data is not sufficient for a
conclusive result. The intrinsic noise present in realistic data presents a
challenge for our smoothing algorithm and we discuss some of its limitations as
well as possible extensions to it. We conclude by demonstrating how a direct
determination of the cosmological constant is possible using redshift drift
data.


title:
Lattice dynamical signature of charge density wave formation in
  underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+x

abstract:
  We report a detailed Raman scattering study of the lattice dynamics in
detwinned single crystals of the underdoped high temperature superconductor
YBa2Cu3O6+x (x=0.75, 0.6, 0.55 and 0.45). Whereas at room temperature the
phonon spectra of these compounds are similar to that of optimally doped
YBa2Cu3O6.99, additional Raman-active modes appear upon cooling below ~170-200
K in underdoped crystals. The temperature dependence of these new features
indicates that they are associated with the incommensurate charge density wave
state recently discovered using synchrotron x-ray scattering techniques on the
same single crystals. Raman scattering has thus the potential to explore the
evolution of this state under extreme conditions.


title: On the conversion of neutron stars into quark stars

abstract:
  The possible existence of two families of compact stars, neutron stars and
quark stars, naturally leads to a scenario in which a conversion process
between the two stellar objects occurs with a consequent release of energy of
the order of $10^{53}$ erg. We discuss recent hydrodynamical simulations of the
burning process and neutrino diffusion simulations of cooling of a newly formed
strange star. We also briefly discuss this scenario in connection with recent
measurements of masses and radii of compact stars.


title:
Equivalences of 5-dimensional CR-manifolds IV: Six ambiguity matrix
  groups (Initial G-structures)

abstract:
  Class I CR manifolds have initial G-structure a certain 4-dimensional
subgroup of GL_3(C). Class II CR manifolds have initial G-structure a certain
10-dimensional subgroup of GL_4(C). Class III-1 CR manifolds have initial
G-structure a certain 10-dimensional subgroup of GL_5(C). Class III-2 CR
manifolds have initial G-structure a certain 18-dimensional subgroup of
GL_5(C). Class IV-1 CR manifolds have initial G-structure a certain
13-dimensional subgroup of GL_5(C). Class IV-2 CR manifolds have initial
G-structure a certain 10-dimensional subgroup of GL_5(C).


title:
Explicit Convergence Rate of a Distributed Alternating Direction Method
  of Multipliers

abstract:
  Consider a set of N agents seeking to solve distributively the minimization
problem $\inf_{x} \sum_{n = 1}^N f_n(x)$ where the convex functions $f_n$ are
local to the agents. The popular Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers
has the potential to handle distributed optimization problems of this kind. We
provide a general reformulation of the problem and obtain a class of
distributed algorithms which encompass various network architectures. The rate
of convergence of our method is considered. It is assumed that the infimum of
the problem is reached at a point $x_\star$, the functions $f_n$ are twice
differentiable at this point and $\sum \nabla^2 f_n(x_\star) > 0$ in the
positive definite ordering of symmetric matrices. With these assumptions, it is
shown that the convergence to the consensus $x_\star$ is linear and the exact
rate is provided. Application examples where this rate can be optimized with
respect to the ADMM free parameter $\rho$ are also given.


title:
Physical characteristics and cation distribution of NiFe2O4 thin films
  with high resistivity prepared by reactive co-sputtering

abstract:
  We fabricated NiFe2O thin films on MgAl2O4 (001) substrates by reactive dc
magnetron co-sputtering in a pure oxygen atmosphere at different substrate
temperatures. The film properties were investigated by various techniques with
a focus on their structure, surface topography, magnetic characteristics, and
transport properties. Structural analysis revealed a good crystallization with
epitaxial growth and low roughness and a similar quality as in films grown by
pulsed laser deposition. Electrical conductivity measurements showed high room
temperature resistivity (12 Ohmm), but low activation energy, indicating an
extrinsic transport mechanism. A band gap of about 1.55 eV was found by optical
spectroscopy. Detailed x-ray spectroscopy studies confirmed the samples to be
ferrimagnetic with fully compensated Fe moments. By comparison with multiplet
calculations of the spectra we found that the cation valencies are to a large
extent Ni2+ and Fe3+.


title: The dust content of QSO hosts at high redshift

abstract:
  Infrared observations of high-z quasar (QSO) hosts indicate the presence of
large masses of dust in the early universe. When combined with other
observables, such as neutral gas masses and star formation rates, the dust
content of z~6 QSO hosts may help constraining their star formation history. We
have collected a database of 58 sources from the literature discovered by
various surveys and observed in the FIR. We have interpreted the available data
by means of chemical evolution models for forming proto-spheroids,
investigating the role of the major parameters regulating star formation and
dust production. For a few systems, given the derived small dynamical masses,
the observed dust content can be explained only assuming a top-heavy initial
mass function, an enhanced star formation efficiency and an increased rate of
dust accretion. However, the possibility that, for some systems, the dynamical
mass has been underestimated cannot be excluded. If this were the case, the
dust mass can be accounted for by standard model assumptions. We provide
predictions regarding the abundance of the descendants of QSO hosts; albeit
rare, such systems should be present and detectable by future deep surveys such
as Euclid already at z>4.


title:
A family of estimators for estimating the population mean in simple
  random sampling under measurement errors

abstract:
  In this article we have suggested an improved estimator for estimating the
population mean in simple random sampling using auxiliary information under the
presence of measurement errors. The mean square error (MSE) of the proposed
estimator has been derived under large sample approximation. Besides,
considering the minimum case of the MSE equation, the efficient conditions
between the proposed and existing estimators are obtained. These theoretical
findings are supported by a numerical example.


title:
The electromagnetic scattering problem with Generalized Impedance
  Boundary Conditions

abstract:
  In this paper we consider the electromagnetic scattering problem by an
obstacle characterised by a Generalized Impedance Boundary Condition in the
harmonic regime. These boundary conditions are well known to provide accurate
models for thin layers or imperfectly conducting bodies. We give two different
formulations of the scattering problem and we provide some general assumptions
on the boundary condition under which the scattering problem has at most one
solution. We also prove that it is well-posed for three different boundary
conditions which involve second order surface differential operators under weak
sign assumptions on the coefficients defining the surface operators.