title:
Scattering of coherent pulses on a two-level system - single-photon
  generation

abstract:
  In this work, we consider a two-level system (TLS) coupled to a
one-dimensional continuum of bosonic modes in a transmission line. Using the
master equation approach, a method for determining the photon number
distribution of the scattered field is outlined. Specifically, results for the
reflected field when driving the TLS with a coherent pulse are given. While the
one-photon probability is enhanced compared to the incident coherent field, the
system is still not a good deterministic single-photon source. Extending the
system to contain two separate transmission lines, however, output fields with
one-photon probabilities close to unity can be reached.


title:
Classifying $GL(2,\mathbb Z) \ltimes \mathbb Z^{2}$-orbits by subgroups
  of $\mathbb R$

abstract:
  Let $\mathcal G_2$ denote the affine group $GL(2,\mathbb Z) \ltimes \mathbb
Z^{2}$. For every point $x=(x_1,x_2) \in \R2$ let $\orb(x)=\{y\in\R2\mid
y=\gamma(x)$ for some $\gamma \in \mathcal{G}_2 \}$. Let $G_{x}$ be the
subgroup of the additive group $\mathbb R$ generated by $x_1,x_2, 1$. If
$\rank(G_x)\in \{1,3\}$ then $\orb(x)=\{y\in\R2\mid G_y=G_x\}$. If
$\rank(G_x)=2$, knowledge of $G_x$ is not sufficient in general to uniquely
recover $\orb(x)$: rather, $G_x$ classifies precisely $\max(1,\phi(d)/2)$
different orbits, where $d$ is the denominator of the smallest positive nonzero
rational in $G_x$ and $\phi$ is Euler function. To get a complete
classification, polyhedral geometry provides an integer $c_x\geq 1$ such that
$\orb(y)=\orb(x) $ iff $(G_{x},c_{x})=(G_{y},c_{{y}})$.


title:
Novel aspects of radiation reaction in the classical and the quantum
  regime

abstract:
  This work is dedicated to the study of radiation reaction signatures in the
framework of classical and quantum electrodynamics. Since there has been no
distinct experimental validation of radiation reaction and its underlying
equations so far and its impact is expected to be substantial for the
construction of new experimental devices, e.g., quantum x-free electron lasers,
a profound understanding of radiation reaction effects is of special interest.
Here, we describe how the inclusion of quantum radiation reaction effects
changes the dynamics of ultra-relativistic electron beams colliding with
intense laser pulses significantly. Thereafter, the angular distribution of
emitted radiation is demonstrated to be strongly altered in the quantum
framework, if in addition to single photon emission also higher order photon
emissions are considered. Furthermore, stimulated Raman scattering of an
ultra-intense laser pulse in plasmas is examined and forward Raman scattering
is found to be significantly increased by the inclusion of radiation reaction
effects in the classical regime. The numerical simulations in this work show
the feasibility of an experimental verification of the predicted effects with
presently available lasers and electron accelerators.


title:
Self-diffusion and structural properties of confined fluids in dynamic
  coexistence

abstract:
  Self-diffusion and radial distribution functions are studied in a strongly
confined Lennard-Jones fluid. Surprisingly, in the solid-liquid phase
transition region, where the system exhibits dynamic coexistence, the
self-diffusion constants are shown to present up to three-fold variations from
solid to liquid phases at fixed temperature, while the radial distribution
function corresponding to both the liquid and the solid phases are essentially
indistinguishable.


title: A Be-type star with a black hole companion

abstract:
  Stellar-mass black holes have all been discovered through X-ray emission,
which arises from the accretion of gas from their binary companions (this gas
is either stripped from low-mass stars or supplied as winds from massive ones).
Binary evolution models also predict the existence of black holes accreting
from the equatorial envelope of rapidly spinning Be-type stars (stars of the Be
type are hot blue irregular variables showing characteristic spectral emission
lines of hydrogen). Of the ~80 Be X-ray binaries known in the Galaxy, however,
only pulsating neutron stars have been found as companions. A black hole was
formally allowed as a solution for the companion to the Be star MWC 656 (also
known as HD 215227), although that was based on a single radial velocity curve
of the Be star, a mistaken spectral classification and rough estimates of the
inclination angle. Here we report observations of an accretion disk line
mirroring the orbit of the Be star. This, together with an improved radial
velocity curve of the Be star through fitting sharp Fe II profiles from the
equatorial disk, and a refined Be classification (to that of a B1.5-B2 III
star), reveals a black hole of 3.8 to 6.9 solar masses orbiting MWC 656, the
candidate counterpart of the gamma-ray source AGL J2241+4454. The black hole is
X-ray quiescent and fed by a radiatively inefficient accretion flow giving a
luminosity less than 1.6 x 10-7 times the Eddington luminosity. This implies
that Be binaries with black-hole companions are difficult to detect by
conventional X-ray surveys.


title: The $K$-theory of assemblers

abstract:
  In this paper we introduce the notion of an assembler, which formally encodes
"cutting and pasting" data. An assembler has an associated $K$-theory spectrum,
in which $\pi_0$ is the free abelian group of objects of the assembler modulo
the cutting and pasting relations, and in which the higher homotopy groups
encode further geometric invariants. The goal of this paper is to prove
structural theorems about this $K$-theory spectrum, including analogs of
Quillen's localization and d\'evissage theorems. We demonstrate the uses of
these theorems by analysing the assembler associated to the Grothendieck ring
of varieties and the assembler associated to scissors congruence groups of
polytopes.


title:
Minimal value set polynomials and a generalization of the Hermitian
  curve

abstract:
  We use a recent characterization of minimal value set polynomials and $q$-
Frobenius nonclassical curves to construct curves that generalize the Hermitian
curve. The genus $g$ and the number $N$ of $\mathbb{F}_q$-rational points of
the curves are computed and, for a special family of these curves, we determine
the Weierstrass semigroup at the unique point at infinity. These special curves
yield new examples of Castle curves and improve on a previous example of
Garcia-Stichtenoth of curves with large ratio $N/g$.


title: Testing Equivalence of Polynomials under Shifts

abstract:
  Two polynomials $f, g \in \mathbb{F}[x_1, \ldots, x_n]$ are called
shift-equivalent if there exists a vector $(a_1, \ldots, a_n) \in \mathbb{F}^n$
such that the polynomial identity $f(x_1+a_1, \ldots, x_n+a_n) \equiv
g(x_1,\ldots,x_n)$ holds. Our main result is a new randomized algorithm that
tests whether two given polynomials are shift equivalent. Our algorithm runs in
time polynomial in the circuit size of the polynomials, to which it is given
black box access. This complements a previous work of Grigoriev (Theoretical
Computer Science, 1997) who gave a deterministic algorithm running in time
$n^{O(d)}$ for degree $d$ polynomials.
  Our algorithm uses randomness only to solve instances of the Polynomial
Identity Testing (PIT) problem. Hence, if one could de-randomize PIT (a
long-standing open problem in complexity) a de-randomization of our algorithm
would follow. This establishes an equivalence between de-randomizing
shift-equivalence testing and de-randomizing PIT (both in the black-box and the
white-box setting). For certain restricted models, such as Read Once Branching
Programs, we already obtain a deterministic algorithm using existing PIT
results.


title:
The Redner - Ben-Avraham - Kahng coagulation system with constant
  coefficients: the finite dimensional case

abstract:
  We study the behaviour as $t\to\infty$ of solutions $(c_j(t))$ to the
Redner--Ben-Avraham--Kahng coagulation system with positive and compactly
supported initial data, rigorously proving and slightly extending results
originally established in [4] by means of formal arguments.


title: Fluctuation theorems without time-reversal symmetry

abstract:
  Fluctuation theorems establish deep relations between observables away from
thermal equilibrium. Until recently, the research on fluctuation theorems was
focused on time-reversal-invariant systems. In this review we address some
newly discovered fluctuation relations that hold without time-reversal
symmetry, in particular, in the presence of an external magnetic field. One
family of relations connects non-linear transport coefficients in the opposite
magnetic fields. Another family relates currents and noises at a fixed
direction of the magnetic field in chiral systems, such as the edges of some
quantum Hall liquids. We review the recent experimental and theoretical
research, including the controversy on the microreversibility without
time-reversal symmetry, consider the applications of fluctuation theorems to
the physics of topological states of matter, and discuss open problems.


title:
Physical Realizability and Mean Square Performance of Translation
  Invariant Networks of Interacting Linear Quantum Stochastic Systems

abstract:
  This paper is concerned with translation invariant networks of linear quantum
stochastic systems with nearest neighbour interaction mediated by boson fields.
The systems are associated with sites of a one-dimensional chain or a
multidimensional lattice and are governed by coupled linear quantum stochastic
differential equations (QSDEs). Such interconnections of open quantum systems
are relevant, for example, to the phonon theory of crystalline solids, atom
trapping in optical lattices and quantum metamaterials. In order to represent a
large-scale open quantum harmonic oscillator, the coefficients of the coupled
QSDEs must satisfy certain physical realizability conditions. These are
established in the form of matrix algebraic equations for the parameters of an
individual building block of the network and its interaction with the
neighbours and external fields. We also discuss the computation of mean square
performance functionals with block Toeplitz weighting matrices for such systems
in the thermodynamic limit per site for unboundedly increasing fragments of the
lattice.


title: Surname statistics - Crossing the boundary between disciplines

abstract:
  Regarding "Surname distribution in population genetics and in statistical
physics" by Rossi, we add comments on the following two points: One is a
difference in his renormalization-group formulation from the traditional one in
statistical physics despite apparent similarity. The other is the potential
importance of the entropy maximization principle under constraints governing
the evolution of surname statistics.


title: Induced gauge potentials in reduced density matrix dynamics

abstract:
  The combination of interactions and nonadiabaticity in many body systems is
shown to induce magnetic gauge potentials in the equation of motion for the
one-body reduced density matrix as well as the effective Schroedinger equation
for the natural orbitals. The consequences of induced gauge geometry for charge
and energy transfer are illustrated in the exact nonlinear dynamics of a
three-site Hubbard ring ramped into a Floquet state by a time dependent
circulating electric potential. Remarkably, the pumped charge flows against the
driving in the strongly interacting regime, and the quasienergy level shift,
which defines the work done on the system, can become negative.


title: Accelerator experiments contradicting general relativity

abstract:
  The deflection of gamma-rays in Earth's gravitational field is tested in
laser Compton scattering at high energy accelerators. Within a formalism
connecting the bending angle to the photon's momentum it follows that detected
gamma-ray spectra are inconsistent with a deflection magnitude of 2.78 nrad,
predicted by Einstein's gravity theory. Moreover, preliminary results for 13-28
GeV photons from two different laboratories show opposite - away from the Earth
- deflection, amounting to 33.8-0.8 prad. I conclude that general relativity,
which describes gravity at low energies precisely, break down at high energies.


title:
The quasi-universality of chondrule size as a constraint for chondrule
  formation models

abstract:
  Primitive meteorites are dominated by millimeter-size silicate spherules
called chondrules. The nature of the high-temperature events that produced them
in the early solar system remains enigmatic. Beside their thermal history, one
important clue is provided by their size which shows remarkably little
variation (less than a factor of 6 for the mean chondrule radius of most
chondrites) despite the extensive range of ages and heliocentric distances
sampled. It is however unclear whether chondrule size is due to the chondrule
melting process itself, or has been simply inherited from the precursor
material, or yet results from some sorting process. I examine these different
possibilities in terms of their analytical size predictions. Unless the
chondrule-forming "window" was very narrow, radial sorting can be excluded as
size-determining processes because of the large variations it would predict.
Molten planetesimal collision or impact melting models, which derive chondrules
from the fragmentation of larger melt bodies, would likewise predict too much
size variability by themselves; more generally any size modification during
chondrule formation is limited in extent by evidence from compound chondrules
and the considerable compositional variability of chondrules. Turbulent
concentration would predict a low size variability but lack of evidence of any
accretion bias in carbonaceous chondrites may be difficult to reconcile with
any form of local sorting upon agglomeration. Growth by sticking (especially if
bouncing-limited) of aggregates as chondrule precursors would yield limited
variations of their final radius in space and time, and would be consistent
with the relatively similar size of other chondrite components such as
refractory inclusions. This suggests that the chondrule-melting process(es)
simply melted such nebular aggregates with little modification of mass.


title:
Unstable quasiparticles as a source of thermodynamic instabilities in
  the thermal nonlocal Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model

abstract:
  It has already been shown that in thermal nonlocal Nambu-Jona-Lasinio models
some unphysical behavior, such as a negative pressure, may arise. In this
article, it is shown how this behavior can be related to the pressence of
highly unstable poles of the propagator of the model, for both the Gaussian and
Lorentzian regulators cases. Computations are carried out within the real time
formalism, which allows to isolate the contributions from different poles and
identify the source of these instabilities. It has also been shown in recent
articles how these instabilities are softened by the inclusion of the Polyakov
loop when a Gaussian regulator is considered. This article shows how the
softening of instabilities can be understood by studying the effect of the
Polyakov loop on the poles of the propagator for the Gaussian regulator.


title: Fiber Products of Measures and Quantum Foundations

abstract:
  With a view to quantum foundations, we define the concepts of an empirical
model (a probabilistic model describing measurements and outcomes), a
hidden-variable model (an empirical model augmented by unobserved variables),
and various properties of hidden-variable models, for the case of infinite
measurement spaces and finite outcome spaces. Thus, our framework is general
enough to include, for example, quantum experiments that involve spin
measurements at arbitrary relative angles. Within this framework, we use the
concept of the fiber product of measures to prove general versions of two
determinization results about hidden-variable models. Specifically, we prove
that: (i) every empirical model can be realized by a deterministic
hidden-variable model; (ii) for every hidden-variable model satisfying locality
and lambda-independence, there is a realization-equivalent hidden-variable
model satisfying determinism and lambda-independence.


title:
A theorem for the closed-form evaluation of the first generalized
  Stieltjes constant at rational arguments and some related summations

abstract:
  Recently, it was conjectured that the first generalized Stieltjes constant at
rational argument may be always expressed by means of Euler's constant, the
first Stieltjes constant, the $\Gamma$-function at rational argument(s) and
some relatively simple, perhaps even elementary, function. This conjecture was
based on the evaluation of $\gamma_1(1/2)$, $\gamma_1(1/3)$, $\gamma_1(2/3)$,
$\gamma_1(1/4)$, $\gamma_1(3/4)$, $\gamma_1(1/6)$, $\gamma_1(5/6)$, which could
be expressed in this way. This article completes this previous study and
provides an elegant theorem which allows to evaluate the first generalized
Stieltjes constant at any rational argument. Several related summation
formul{\ae} involving the first generalized Stieltjes constant and the Digamma
function are also presented. In passing, an interesting integral representation
for the logarithm of the $\Gamma$-function at rational argument is also
obtained. Finally, it is shown that similar theorems may be derived for higher
Stieltjes constants as well; in particular, for the second Stieltjes constant
the theorem is provided in an explicit form.


title: Quasicrystals, model sets, and automatic sequences

abstract:
  We survey mathematical properties of quasicrystals, first from the point of
view of harmonic analysis, then from the point of view of morphic and automatic
sequences.
  Nous proposons un tour d'horizon de propri\'et\'es math\'ematiques des
quasicristaux, d'abord du point de vue de l'analyse harmonique, ensuite du
point de vue des suites morphiques et automatiques.


title: A Canonical Hidden-Variable Space

abstract:
  The hidden-variable question is whether or not various properties ---
randomness or correlation, for example --- that are observed in the outcomes of
an experiment can be explained via introduction of extra (hidden) variables
which are unobserved by the experimenter. The question can be asked in both the
classical and quantum domains. In the latter, it is fundamental to the
interpretation of the quantum formalism (Bell [1964], Kochen and Specker
[1967], and others). In building a suitable mathematical model of an
experiment, the physical set-up will guide us on how to model the observable
variables --- i.e., the measurement and outcome spaces. But, by definition, we
cannot know what structure to put on the hidden-variable space. Nevertheless,
we show that, under a measure-theoretic condition, the hidden-variable question
can be put into a canonical form. The condition is that the $\sigma$-algebras
on the measurement and outcome spaces are countably generated. An argument
using a classical result on isomorphisms of measure algebras then shows that
the hidden-variable space can always be taken to be the unit interval equipped
with the Lebesgue measure on the Borel sets.


title:
Thue, Combinatorics on words, and conjectures inspired by the Thue-Morse
  sequence

abstract:
  Nous d\'ecrivons quelques r\'esultats r\'ecents sur la suite de Thue-Morse,
ainsi que des questions ou conjectures, dont l'une, due \`a Shevelev, est
r\'esolue dans cet article.
  We describe some recent results on the Thue-Morse sequence. We also list open
questions and conjectures, one of which is due to Shevelev and proved in this
paper.


title:
Noninertial effects on the ground state energy of a massive scalar field
  in the cosmic string spacetime

abstract:
  We investigate the influence of noninertial effects on the ground state
energy of a massive scalar field in the cosmic string spacetime. We generalize
the results obtained by Khusnutdinov and Bordag [N. R. Khusnutdinov and M.
Bordag, Phys. Rev. D 59, 064017 (1999)] to a noninertial reference frame and
show, by contrast, that a non-vanishing contribution to the ground state energy
stems from the noninertial effects. Moreover, we show that there is no
influence of the curvature of the spacetime on this non-vanishing contribution
to the ground state energy of a massive scalar field.


title:
Titan Magnetic Tail: Does its Configuration correspond to the Induced
  Magnetosphere?

abstract:
  Magnetic field structure observed in numerous Cassini flybys in the region of
Titan interaction with the corotating flow of Kronian magnetosheric plasma
contradicts the classical picture of the ideal induced magnetosphere produced
by the magnetic field line draping about the obstacle. Clear draping is
observed only upstream the Titan, but not in the Titan magnetic wake. We
consider the magnetic field tension downstream the Titan magnetic tail and show
that the magnetic field direction is not consistent with the induced
magnetosphere produced by magnetic field lines draping. We arrive at the
conclusion that the mechanisms alternative to the induced magnetosphere
formation should be considered for the Titan magnetic surrounding.


title: Multiple soft-mode vibrations of lead zirconate

abstract:
  Polarized Raman, IR and time-domain THz spectroscopy of orthorhombic lead
zirconate single crystals yielded a comprehensive picture of
temperature-dependent quasiharmonic frequencies of its low-frequency phonon
modes. It is argued that these modes primarily involve vibration of Pb and/or
oxygen octahedra librations and their relation to particular phonon modes of
the parent cubic phase is proposed. Counts of the observed IR and Raman active
modes belonging to distinct irreducible representations agree quite well with
group-theory predictions. The most remarkable finding is the considerably
enhanced frequency renormalization of the y-polarized polar modes, resulting in
a pronounced low temperature dielectric anisotropy. Results are discussed in
terms of contemporary phenomenological theory of antiferroelectricity.


title:
The form-invariance of wave equations without requiring a priori
  relations between field variables

abstract:
  According to the principle of relativity, the equations describing the laws
of physics should have the same forms in all admissible frames of reference,
i.e., form-invariance is an intrinsic property of correct wave equations.
However, so far in the design of metamaterials by transformation methods, the
form-invariance is always proved by using certain relations between field
variables before and after coordinate transformation. The main contribution of
this paper is to give general proofs of form-invariance of electromagnetic,
sound and elastic wave equations in the global Cartesian coordinate system
without using any assumption of the relation between field variables. The
results show that electromagnetic wave equations and sound wave equations are
intrinsically form-invariant, but traditional elastodynamic equations are not.
As a by-product, one can naturally obtain new elastodynamic equations in the
time domain that are locally accurate to describe the elastic wave propagation
in inhomogeneous media. The validity of these new equations is demonstrated by
some numerical simulations of a perfect elastic wave rotator and an approximate
elastic wave cloak. These findings are important for solving inverse scattering
problems in many fields such as seismology, nondestructive evaluation and
metamaterials.


title: Conductance spectroscopy in ferromanget/superconductor hybrids

abstract:
  We present theoretical model for the proximity effect in F-SFF-F structures
(F is ferromagnet, S is superconductor) with non-collinear magnetizations
vectors in the F-layers and with arbitrary magnitudes of exchange fields.
Electrical conductance of these structures is analyzed within the
Keldysh-Usadel formalism in the diffusive regime as a function of a
misorientation angle between magnetizations of the F-layers and transparencies
of SF and FF interfaces. We show that long-range triplet superconducting
correlations manifest themselves either as a zero-bias peak in the case of
perfect transparency of FF interface, or as a two-peak structure in the case of
finite transparency. The predicted features may serve as a diagnostic tool for
characterization of interfaces in superconducting hybrid structures


title:
BSMBench: a flexible and scalable supercomputer benchmark from
  computational particle physics

abstract:
  Lattice Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD), and by extension its parent field,
Lattice Gauge Theory (LGT), make up a significant fraction of supercomputing
cycles worldwide. As such, it would be irresponsible not to evaluate machines'
suitability for such applications. To this end, a benchmark has been developed
to assess the performance of LGT applications on modern HPC platforms. Distinct
from previous QCD-based benchmarks, this allows probing the behaviour of a
variety of theories, which allows varying the ratio of demands between on-node
computations and inter-node communications. The results of testing this
benchmark on various recent HPC platforms are presented, and directions for
future development are discussed.


title: Entropy, biological evolution and the psychological arrow of time

abstract:
  We argue that in Universes where future and past differ only by the entropy
content a psychological arrow of time pointing in the direction of entropy
increase can arise from natural selection in biological evolution. We show that
this effect can be demonstrated in very simple toy computer simulations of
evolution in an entropy increasing or decreasing environment.


title: A semiclassical condition for chaos based on Pesin theorem

abstract:
  A semiclassical method to determine if the classical limit of a quantum
system is chaotic or not, based on Pesin theorem, is presented. The method is
applied to a phenomenological Gamow--type model and it is concluded that its
classical limit is chaotic.


title: `Gauging' time reversal symmetry in tensor network states

abstract:
  It is well known that unitary symmetries can be `gauged', i.e. defined to act
in a local way, which leads to a corresponding gauge field. Gauging, for
example, the charge conservation symmetry leads to electromagnetic gauge
fields. It is an open question whether an analogous process is possible for
time reversal which is an anti-unitary symmetry. Here we discuss a route to
gauging time reversal symmetry which applies to gapped quantum ground states
that admit a tensor network representation. The tensor network representation
of quantum states provides a notion of locality for the wave function
coefficient and hence a notion of locality for the action of complex
conjugation in anti-unitary symmetries. Based on that, we show how time
reversal can be applied locally and also describe time reversal symmetry twists
which act as gauge fluxes through nontrivial loops in the system. As with
unitary symmetries, gauging time reversal provides useful access to the
physical properties of the system. We show how topological invariants of
certain time reversal symmetric topological phases in $D=1,2$ are readily
extracted using these ideas.


title: Coordinate Descent with Online Adaptation of Coordinate Frequencies

abstract:
  Coordinate descent (CD) algorithms have become the method of choice for
solving a number of optimization problems in machine learning. They are
particularly popular for training linear models, including linear support
vector machine classification, LASSO regression, and logistic regression.
  We consider general CD with non-uniform selection of coordinates. Instead of
fixing selection frequencies beforehand we propose an online adaptation
mechanism for this important parameter, called the adaptive coordinate
frequencies (ACF) method. This mechanism removes the need to estimate optimal
coordinate frequencies beforehand, and it automatically reacts to changing
requirements during an optimization run.
  We demonstrate the usefulness of our ACF-CD approach for a variety of
optimization problems arising in machine learning contexts. Our algorithm
offers significant speed-ups over state-of-the-art training methods.


title: Slowly converging Yamabe flows

abstract:
  We characterize the rate of convergence of a converging volume-normalized
Yamabe flow in terms of Morse theoretic properties of the limiting metric. If
the limiting metric is an integrable critical point for the Yamabe functional
(for example, this holds when the critical point is non-degenerate), then we
show that the flow converges exponentially fast. In general, we make use of a
suitable Lojasiewicz-Simon inequality to prove that the slowest the flow will
converge is polynomially. When the limit metric satisfies an Adams-Simon type
condition we prove that there exist flows converging to it exactly at a
polynomial rate. We conclude by constructing explicit examples to show that
this does occur; these seem to be the first examples of a slowly converging
solution to a geometric flow.


title:
On the Effect of Nuclear Response Functions in Dark Matter Direct
  Detection

abstract:
  We examine the effect of nuclear response functions, as laid out in
[Fitzpatrick et al, arXiv:1203.3542], on dark matter (DM) direct detection in
the context of well-motivated UV completions, including electric and magnetic
dipoles, anapole, spin-orbit, and pseudoscalar-mediated DM. Together, these
encompass five of the six nuclear responses extracted from the non-relativistic
effective theory of [Fitzpatrick et al, arXiv:1203.3542] (with the sixth
difficult to UV complete), with two of the six combinations corresponding to
standard spin-independent and -dependent responses. For constraints from
existing direct detection experiments, we find that only the COUPP constraint,
due to its heavy iodine target with large angular momentum and an unpaired
spin, and its large energy range sensitivity, is substantially modified by the
new responses compared to what would be inferred using the standard form
factors to model the energy dependence of the response. For heavy targets such
as xenon and germanium, the behavior of the new nuclear responses as recoil
energy increases can be substantially different than that of the standard
responses, but this has almost no impact on the constraints derived from
experiments such as LUX, XENON100 and CDMS since the maximum nuclear recoil
energy detected in these experiments is relatively low. We simulate mock data
for 80 and 250 GeV DM candidates utilizing the new nuclear responses to
highlight how they might affect a putative signal, and find the new responses
are most important for momentum-suppressed interactions such as the magnetic
dipole or pseudoscalar-mediated interaction when the target is relatively heavy
(such as xenon and iodine).


title: Composite Charge 8/3 Resonances at the LHC

abstract:
  In composite Higgs models with partial compositeness, the small value of the
observed Higgs mass implies the existence of light fermionic resonances, the
top partners, whose quantum numbers are determined by the symmetry (and
symmetry breaking) structure of the theory. Here we study light top partners
with electric charge 8/3, which are predicted, for instance, in some of the
most natural composite Higgs realizations. We recast data from two same sign
lepton searches and from searches for microscopic blackholes into a bound on
its mass, M8/3 > 940 GeV. Furthermore, we compare potential reach of these
searches with a specifically designed search for three same-sign lepton, both
at 8 and 14 TeV. We provide a simplified model, suitable for collider analysis.


title:
Enduring Quests-Daring Visions (NASA Astrophysics in the Next Three
  Decades)

abstract:
  The past three decades have seen prodigious advances in astronomy and
astrophysics. Beginning with the exploration of our solar system and continuing
through the pioneering Explorers and Great Observatories of today, NASA
missions have made essential contributions to these advances. This roadmap
presents a science-driven 30-year vision for the future of NASA Astrophysics
that builds on these achievements to address some of our most ancient and
fundamental questions: Are we alone? How did we get here? How does the universe
work? The search for the answers constitutes the Enduring Quests of this
roadmap. Building on the priorities identified in New Worlds, New Horizons, we
envision future science investigations laid out in three Eras, with each
representing roughly ten years of mission development in a given field. The
immediate Near-Term Era covers ongoing NASA-led activities and planned
missions. This will be followed by the missions of the Formative Era, which
will build on the preceding technological developments and scientific
discoveries, with remarkable capabilities that will enable breakthroughs across
the landscape of astrophysics. These will then lay the foundations for the
Daring Visions of the Visionary Era: missions and explorations that will take
us deep into unchartered scientific and technological terrain. The roadmap
outlined herein will require the vision and wherewithal to undertake highly
ambitious programs over the next 30 years. The discoveries that emerge will
inspire generations of citizen scientists young and old, and inspire all of
humanity for decades to come.


title: Constraining Dark Energy through the Stability of Cosmic Structures

abstract:
  For a general dark-energy equation of state, we estimate the maximum possible
radius of massive structures that are not destabilized by the acceleration of
the cosmological expansion. A comparison with known stable structures
constrains the equation of state. The robustness of the constraint can be
enhanced through the accumulation of additional astrophysical data and a better
understanding of the dynamics of bound cosmic structures.


title:
No universal minimum-mass extrasolar nebula: Evidence against in-situ
  accretion of systems of hot super-Earths

abstract:
  It has been proposed that the observed systems of hot super-Earths formed in
situ from high-mass disks. By fitting a disk profile to the entire population
of Kepler planet candidates, Chiang & Laughlin (2013) constructed a
"minimum-mass extrasolar nebula" with surface density profile Sigma r^-1.6.
Here we use multiple-planet systems to show that it is inconsistent to assume a
universal disk profile. Systems with 3-6 low-mass planets (or planet
candidates) produce a diversity of minimum-mass disks with surface density
profiles ranging from Sigma r^-3.2 to Sigma r^0.5 (5th-95th percentile). By
simulating the transit detection of populations of synthetic planetary systems
designed to match the properties of observed super-Earth systems, we show that
a universal disk profile is statistically excluded at high confidence. Rather,
the underlying distribution of minimum-mass disks is characterized by a broad
range of surface density slopes. Models of gaseous disks can only explain a
narrow range of slopes (roughly between r^0 and r^-1.5). Yet accretion of
terrestrial planets in a gas-free environment preserves the initial radial
distribution of building blocks. The known systems of hot super-Earths must
therefore not represent the structure of their parent gas disks and can not
have predominantly formed in situ. We instead interpret the diversity of disk
slopes as the imprint of a process that re-arranged the solids relative to the
gas in the inner parts of protoplanetary disks. A plausible mechanism is inward
type 1 migration of Mars- to Earth-mass planetary embryos, perhaps followed by
a final assembly phase.


title:
Relating jet structure to photometric variability: the Herbig Ae star HD
  163296

abstract:
  Herbig Ae/Be stars are intermediate-mass pre-main sequence stars surrounded
by circumstellar dust disks. Some are observed to produce jets, whose
appearance as a sequence of shock fronts (knots) suggests a past episodic
outflow variability. This "jet fossil record" can be used to reconstruct the
outflow history. We present the first optical to near-infrared (NIR)
VLT/X-shooter spectra of the jet from the Herbig Ae star HD 163296. We
determine physical conditions in the knots, as well as their kinematic "launch
epochs". Knots are formed simultaneously on either side of the disk, with a
regular interval of ~16 yr. The velocity dispersion versus jet velocity and the
energy input are comparable in both lobes. However, the mass loss rate,
velocity, and shock conditions are asymmetric. We find Mjet/Macc ~ 0.01-0.1,
consistent with magneto-centrifugal jet launching models. No evidence for dust
is found in the high-velocity jet, suggesting it is launched within the
sublimation radius (<0.5 au). The jet inclination measured from proper motions
and radial velocities confirms it is perpendicular to the disk. A tentative
relation is found between the structure of the jet and the photometric
variability of the source. Episodes of NIR brightening were previously detected
and attributed to a dusty disk wind. We report for the first time significant
optical fadings lasting from a few days up to a year, coinciding with the NIR
brightenings. These are likely caused by dust lifted high above the disk plane;
this supports the disk wind scenario. The disk wind is launched at a larger
radius than the high-velocity atomic jet, although their outflow variability
may have a common origin. No significant relation between outflow and accretion
variability could be established. Our findings confirm that this source
undergoes periodic ejection events, which may be coupled with dust ejections
above the disk plane.


title:
The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). Never mind the
  gaps: comparing techniques to restore homogeneous sky coverage

abstract:
  [Abridged] Non-uniform sampling and gaps in sky coverage are common in galaxy
redshift surveys, but these effects can degrade galaxy counts-in-cells and
density estimates. We carry out a comparison of methods that aim to fill the
gaps to correct for the systematic effects. Our study is motivated by the
analysis of the VIMOS Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS), a flux-limited
survey (i<22.5) based on one-pass observations with VIMOS, with gaps covering
25% of the surveyed area and a mean sampling rate of 35%. Our findings are
applicable to other surveys with similar observing strategies. We compare 1)
two algorithms based on photometric redshift, that assign redshifts to galaxies
based on the spectroscopic redshifts of the nearest neighbours, 2) two Bayesian
methods, the Wiener filter and the Poisson-Lognormal filter. Using galaxy mock
catalogues we quantify the accuracy of the counts-in-cells measurements on
scales of R=5 and 8 Mpc/h after applying each of these methods. We also study
how they perform to account for spectroscopic redshift error and inhomogeneous
and sparse sampling rate. We find that in VIPERS the errors in counts-in-cells
measurements on R<10 Mpc/h scales are dominated by the sparseness of the
sample. All methods underpredict by 20-35% the counts at high densities. This
systematic bias is of the same order as random errors. No method outperforms
the others. Random and systematic errors decrease for larger cells. We show
that it is possible to separate the lowest and highest densities on scales of 5
Mpc/h at redshifts 0.5<z<1.1, over a large volume such as in VIPERS survey.
This is vital for the characterisation of cosmic variance and rare populations
(e.g, brightest galaxies) in environmental studies at these redshifts.


title: Gravity Waves from Kerr/CFT

abstract:
  Dynamics at large redshift near the horizon of an extreme Kerr black hole are
governed by an infinite-dimensional conformal symmetry. This symmetry may be
exploited to analytically, rather than numerically, compute a variety of
potentially observable processes. In this paper we compute and study the
conformal transformation properties of the gravitational radiation emitted by
an orbiting mass in the large-redshift near-horizon region.


title:
Low-Mass X-ray Binaries and Globular Clusters Streamers and Arcs in
  NGC4278

abstract:
  We report significant inhomogeneities in the projected two-dimensional (2D)
spatial distributions of Low-Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) and Globular Clusters
(GCs) of the intermediate mass elliptical galaxy NGC4278. In the inner region
of NGC4278, a significant arc-like excess of LMXBs extending south of the
center at ~50" in the western side of the galaxy can be associated to a similar
over-density of the spatial distribution of red GCs from~Brassington et al.
(2009). Using a recent catalog of GCs produced by Usher et al.(2013) and
covering the whole field of the NGC4278 galaxy, we have discovered two other
significant density structures outside the D25 isophote to the W and E of the
center of NGC4278, associated to an over-density and an under-density
respectively. We discuss the nature of these structures in the context of the
similar spatial inhomogeneities discovered in the LMXBs and GCs populations of
NGC4649 and NGC4261, respectively. These features suggest streamers from
disrupted and accreted dwarf companions.


title: Future Prospects for Stau in Higgs Coupling to Di-photon

abstract:
  We study future prospects of the stau which contributes to the Higgs coupling
to di-photon. The coupling is sensitive to new physics and planned to be
measured at percent levels in future colliders. We show that, if the excess of
the coupling is measured to be larger than 4 %, the lightest stau is predicted
to be lighter than about 200 GeV by taking vacuum meta-stability conditions
into account. Such a stau can be discovered at ILC. Moreover, we show how
accurately the stau contribution to the coupling can be reconstructed from the
information that is available at ILC. We also argue that, if the stau mixing
angle is measured, the mass of the heaviest stau can be predicted by measuring
the Higgs coupling, even when the heaviest stau is not yet discovered at the
early stage of ILC.


title: Stellar haloes outshine disc truncations in low-inclined spirals

abstract:
  The absence of stellar disc truncations in low-inclined spiral galaxies has
been a matter of debate in the last decade. Disc truncations are often observed
in highly inclined galaxies but no obvious detection of this feature has so far
been made in face-on spirals. Here we show, using a simple exponential disc
plus stellar halo model based on current observational constraints, that
truncations in face-on projections occur at surface brightness levels
comparable to the brightness of stellar haloes at the same radial distance. In
this sense, stellar haloes outshine the galaxy disc at the expected position of
the truncations, forcing their studies only in highly inclined (edge-on)
orientations.


title: Experimental Proposal to Detect Topological Ground State Degeneracy

abstract:
  One of the most profound features of topologically ordered states of matter,
such as the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states, is that they possess
topology-dependent ground state degeneracies that are robust to all local
perturbations. Here we propose to directly detect these topological
degeneracies in an experimentally accessible setup. The detection scheme uses
electrical conductance measurements in a double layer FQH system with
appropriately patterned top and bottom gates. We discuss two experimental
platforms; in the first, the detection of topologically degenerate states
coincides with the detection of $Z_N$ parafermion zero modes. We map the
relevant physics to a single-channel $Z_N$ quantum impurity model, providing a
novel generalization of the Kondo model. Our proposal can also be adapted to
detect the $Z_N$ parafermion zero modes recently discovered in FQH line
junctions proximitized with superconductivity.


title: UV Cascade in Classical Yang-Mills via Kinetic Theory

abstract:
  We show that classical Yang-Mills theory with statistically homogeneous and
isotropic initial conditions has a kinetic description and approaches a scaling
solution at late times. We find the scaling solution by explicitly solving the
Boltzmann equations, including all dominant processes (elastic and
number-changing). Above a scale $p_{max} \propto t^{1/7}$ the occupancy falls
exponentially in $p$. For asymptotically late times and sufficiently small
momenta the occupancy scales as $f(p)\propto 1/p$, but this behavior sets in
only at very late time scales. We find quantitative agreement of our results
with lattice simulations, for times and momenta within the range of validity of
kinetic theory.


title:
Unitarity in a Lorentz symmetry breaking model with higher-order
  operators

abstract:
  We analyze the unitarity of a modified QED with higher-order terms that
violate Lorentz symmetry. We make an explicit calculation to verify unitarity
at the one-loop level. As expected we find negative norm states that could in
principle lead to a violation of unitarity. However, we show that these states
become massive in Euclidean space and do not contribute to the discontinuity.


title: LLR-based Successive Cancellation List Decoding of Polar Codes

abstract:
  We show that successive cancellation list decoding can be formulated
exclusively using log-likelihood ratios. In addition to numerical stability,
the log-likelihood ratio based formulation has useful properties which simplify
the sorting step involved in successive cancellation list decoding. We propose
a hardware architecture of the successive cancellation list decoder in the
log-likelihood ratio domain which, compared to a log-likelihood domain
implementation, requires less irregular and smaller memories. This
simplification together with the gains in the metric sorter, lead to $56\%$ to
$137\%$ higher throughput per unit area than other recently proposed
architectures. We then evaluate the empirical performance of the CRC-aided
successive cancellation list decoder at different list sizes using different
CRCs and conclude that it is important to adapt the CRC length to the list size
in order to achieve the best error-rate performance of concatenated polar
codes. Finally, we synthesize conventional successive cancellation decoders at
large block-lengths with the same block-error probability as our proposed
CRC-aided successive cancellation list decoders to demonstrate that, while our
decoders have slightly lower throughput and larger area, they have a
significantly smaller decoding latency.


title:
Towards stellar effective temperatures and diameters at one per cent
  accuracy for future surveys

abstract:
  The apparent size of stars is a crucial benchmark for fundamental stellar
properties such as effective temperatures, radii and surface gravities. While
interferometric measurements of stellar angular diameters are the most direct
method to gauge these, they are still limited to relatively nearby and bright
stars, which are saturated in most of the modern photometric surveys. This
dichotomy prevents us from safely extending well calibrated relations to the
faint stars targeted in large spectroscopic and photometric surveys. Here, we
alleviate this obstacle by presenting SAAO near-infrared JHK observations of 55
stars: 16 of them have interferometric angular diameters, and the rest are in
common with the 2MASS (unsaturated) dataset, allowing us to tie the effective
temperatures and angular diameters derived via the Infrared Flux Method to the
interferometric scale. We extend the test to recent interferometric
measurements of unsaturated 2MASS stars, including giants, and the metal-poor
benchmark target HD122563. With a critical evaluation of the systematics
involved, we conclude that a 1% accuracy in fundamental stellar parameters is
usually within reach. Caution, however, must be used when indirectly testing a
temperature scale via colour relations, as well as when assessing the
reliability of interferometric measurements, especially at sub-milliarcsec
level. As a result, rather different effective temperature scales can be
compatible with a given subset of interferometric data. We highlight some
caveats to be aware of in such a quest, and suggest a simple method to check
against systematics in fundamental measurements. A new diagnostic combination
seismic radii with astrometric distances is also presented.


title: A search for long period variables in Globular Clusters: M22 and IC4499

abstract:
  We report on the results of a long time photometric monitoring of the two
metal poor Galactic globular clusters M22 and IC4499 searching for long period
variables (LPVs) on the upper giant branch. We detected 22 new LPVs in the
field of M22 and confirmed the variability of six known variables. Periods
could be determined for 16 of them. In the field of IC4499 we detected and
characterized 2 new LPVs. Cluster membership is evaluated for all the variables
based on photometry and literature data, and the location of the stars in
logP-K-diagram is discussed. Our findings give further support to the presence
of LPVs at metallicities as low as [Fe/H]=-1.7. The luminosity range where LPVs
are found in metal poor clusters is lower than in more metal rich clusters.


title:
Anomalous diameter dependence of thermal transport in ultra-narrow Si
  nanowires

abstract:
  We present atomistic valence force field calculations of thermal transport in
Si nanowires of diameters from 12nm down to 1nm. We show that as the diameter
is reduced, the phonon density-of-states and transmission function acquire a
finite value at low frequency, in contrast to approaching zero as in the bulk
material. It turns out that this effect results in what Ziman described as the
"problem of long longitudinal waves" [1], which states that the thermal
conductivity of a material increases as its length is increased due to the
vanishing scattering for long-wavelength phonons. We show that this thermal
transport improvement also appears in nanowires as their diameter is decreased
below D=5nm (not only as the length increases) originating from the increase in
the density of the long wavevector modes. The observation is present under
ballistic transport conditions, and further enhanced with the introduction of
phonon-phonon scattering. Because of this, in such ultra-narrow nanowires, as
the diameter is reduced, phonon transport is dominated more and more by lower
energy phonons with longer mean-free paths. We show that ~80% of the heat is
carried by phonons with energies less than 5meV, most with mean-free paths of
several hundreds of nanometers.


title: Pushouts of categories, derived limits and colimits

abstract:
  In a paper by Ford, it is claimed that to any pushout square of categories
with all involved functors injective, there is associated an exact
"Mayer--Vietoris" sequence of derived (co)limits. We provide a counter-example
to this general statement. Further, we construct the Mayer--Vietoris sequence
under some restrictions that cover the well-known case of a pushout square of
group monomorphisms.


title:
Decidability of the extension problem for maps into odd-dimensional
  spheres

abstract:
  In a recent paper, it was shown that the problem of existence of a continuous
map $X \to Y$ extending a given map $A \to Y$ defined on a subspace $A
\subseteq X$ is undecidable, even for $Y$ an even-dimensional sphere. In the
present paper, we prove that the same problem for $Y$ an odd-dimensional sphere
is decidable. More generally, the same holds for any $d$-connected target space
$Y$ whose homotopy groups $\pi_k Y$ are finite for $k>2d$.


title:
The PdBI Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey (PAWS): Multi-phase cold gas
  kinematic of M51

abstract:
  The kinematic complexity and the favorable position of M51 on the sky make
this galaxy an ideal target to test different theories of spiral arm dynamics.
Taking advantage of the new high resolution PdBI Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey
(PAWS) data, we undertake a detailed kinematic study of M51 to characterize and
quantify the origin and nature of the non-circular motions. Using a tilted-ring
analysis supported by several other archival datasets we update the estimation
of M51's position angle (PA=(173 +/- 3) deg) and inclination (i=(22 +/- 5)
deg). Harmonic decomposition of the high resolution (40 pc) CO velocity field
shows the first kinematic evidence of an m=3 wave in the inner disk of M51 with
a corotation at R(CR,m=3)=1.1 +/- 0.1 kpc and a pattern speed of Omega_p(m=3) =
140 km/(s kpc). This mode seems to be excited by the nuclear bar, while the
beat frequencies generated by the coupling between the m=3 mode and the main
spiral structure confirm its density-wave nature. We observe also a signature
of an m=1 mode that is likely responsible for the lopsidedness of M51 at small
and large radii. We provide a simple method to estimate the radial variation of
the amplitude of the spiral perturbation (Vsp) attributed to the different
modes. The main spiral arm structure has <Vsp>=50-70 km/s, while the streaming
velocity associated with the m=1 and m=3 modes is, in general, 2 times lower.
Our joint analysis of HI and CO velocity fields at low and high spatial
resolution reveals that the atomic and molecular gas phases respond differently
to the spiral perturbation due to their different vertical distribution and
emission morphology.


title:
Large Alphabet Compression and Predictive Distributions through
  Poissonization and Tilting

abstract:
  This paper introduces a convenient strategy for coding and predicting
sequences of independent, identically distributed random variables generated
from a large alphabet of size $m$. In particular, the size of the sample is
allowed to be variable. The employment of a Poisson model and tilting method
simplifies the implementation and analysis through independence. The resulting
strategy is optimal within the class of distributions satisfying a moment
condition, and is close to optimal for the class of all i.i.d distributions on
strings of a given length. Moreover, the method can be used to code and predict
strings with a condition on the tail of the ordered counts. It can also be
applied to distributions in an envelope class.


title: Disentangling Strong Dynamics through Quantum Interferometry

abstract:
  We present a new probe of strongly coupled electroweak symmetry breaking at
the 14 TeV LHC by measuring a phase shift in the event distribution as a
function of the decay azimuthal angles in massive gauge boson scattering. A
large phase shift arises from an interference effect between the strongly
interacting longitudinal modes and the transverse modes of the gauge bosons. We
find that even very broad resonances of masses up to 900 GeV can be probed at
3$\sigma$ significance with a 3000 fb$^{-1}$ run of the LHC by using this
technique. We also present the estimated reach for a future 50 TeV
proton-proton collider.


title: An Experimental Evaluation of List Coloring Algorithms

abstract:
  The list coloring problem is a variant of vertex coloring where a vertex may
be colored only a color from a prescribed set. Several applications of vertex
coloring are more appropriately modelled as instances of list coloring and thus
we argue that it is an important problem to consider. Regardless of the
importance of list coloring, few published algorithms exist for it. In this
paper we review the only two existing ones we could find and propose an exact
branch and bound one. We conduct an experimental evaluation of the three
algorithms.


title:
Pressure-Induced $0-\pi$ Transitions and Supercurrent Crossover in
  Antiferromagnetic Weak Links

abstract:
  We compute self-consistently the Josephson current in a
superconductor-antiferromagnet-superconductor junction using a lattice model,
focusing on $0-\pi$ transitions occurring when the width of the
antiferromagnetic region changes from an even to an odd number of lattice
sites. Previous studies predicted $0-\pi$ transitions when alternating between
an even and an odd number of sites for sufficiently strong antiferromagnetic
order. We study numerically the magnitude of the threshold value for this to
occur, and also explain the physics behind its existence in terms of the
phase-shifts picked up by the quasiparticles constituting the supercurrent in
the antiferromagnet. Moreover, we show that this threshold value allows for
\textit{pressure-induced $0-\pi$ transitions} by destroying the
antiferromagnetic nesting properties of the Fermi surface, a phenomenon which
has no counterpart in ferromagnetic Josephson junctions, {offering a new way to
tune the quantum ground state of a Josephson junction without the need of
multiple samples.


title: Eisenstein Hecke algebras and conjectures in Iwasawa theory

abstract:
  We formulate a weak Gorenstein property for the Eisenstein component of the
p-adic Hecke algebra associated to modular forms. We show that this weak
Gorenstein property holds if and only if a weak form of Sharifi's conjecture
and a weak form of Greenberg's conjecture hold.


title: Results on Panoramic Spectroscopy of MRK 171

abstract:
  Observations of Mrk 171, aimed at conduction of panoramic spectroscopy, were
undertaken with the Byurakan 2.6-m telescope using spectrograph VAGR. Within
the two components of the galaxy, there were differentiated eight condensations
of starforming activity, i.e. HII regions, and no sign of AGN activity was
revealed inspite of existing suggestions.


title:
On Probabilistic Applicative Bisimulation and Call-by-Value
  $\lambda$-Calculi (Long Version)

abstract:
  Probabilistic applicative bisimulation is a recently introduced coinductive
methodology for program equivalence in a probabilistic, higher-order, setting.
In this paper, the technique is applied to a typed, call-by-value,
lambda-calculus. Surprisingly, the obtained relation coincides with context
equivalence, contrary to what happens when call-by-name evaluation is
considered. Even more surprisingly, full-abstraction only holds in a symmetric
setting.


title: The Monge-Amp\`ere Equation with Guillemin Boundary Conditions

abstract:
  Existence and boundary regularity away from the corners are established for
two-dimensional Monge-Amp\`{e}re equations on convex polytopes with Guillemin
boundary conditions. An important step is to derive an expansion in terms of
functions $y^n$ and $y^n\log y$ for solutions to equations of the form $\det
D^2u(x,y) = y^{-1}$ in a half-ball.


title:
Lightweight and Secure Two-Party Range Queries over Outsourced Encrypted
  Databases

abstract:
  With the many benefits of cloud computing, an entity may want to outsource
its data and their related analytics tasks to a cloud. When data are sensitive,
it is in the interest of the entity to outsource encrypted data to the cloud;
however, this limits the types of operations that can be performed on the cloud
side. Especially, evaluating queries over the encrypted data stored on the
cloud without the entity performing any computation and without ever decrypting
the data become a very challenging problem. In this paper, we propose solutions
to conduct range queries over outsourced encrypted data. The existing methods
leak valuable information to the cloud which can violate the security guarantee
of the underlying encryption schemes. In general, the main security primitive
used to evaluate range queries is secure comparison (SC) of encrypted integers.
However, we observe that the existing SC protocols are not very efficient. To
this end, we first propose a novel SC scheme that takes encrypted integers and
outputs encrypted comparison result. We empirically show its practical
advantage over the current state-of-the-art. We then utilize the proposed SC
scheme to construct two new secure range query protocols. Our protocols protect
data confidentiality, privacy of user's query, and also preserve the semantic
security of the encrypted data; therefore, they are more secure than the
existing protocols. Furthermore, our second protocol is lightweight at the user
end, and it can allow an authorized user to use any device with limited storage
and computing capability to perform the range queries over outsourced encrypted
data.


title:
The High-$z$ Universe Confronts Warm Dark Matter: Galaxy Counts,
  Reionization and the Nature of Dark Matter

abstract:
  We use $N$-body simulations to show that high-redshift galaxy counts provide
an interesting constraint on the nature of dark matter, specifically Warm Dark
Matter (WDM), owing to the lack of early structure formation these models. Our
simulations include three WDM models with thermal-production masses of 0.8 keV,
1.3 keV, and 2.6 keV, as well as CDM. Assuming a relationship between dark halo
mass and galaxy luminosity that is set by the observed luminosity function at
bright magnitudes, we find that 0.8 keV WDM is disfavored by direct galaxy
counts in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field at $>\!\!10\sigma$. Similarly, 1.3 keV
WDM is statistically inconsistent at $2.2\sigma$. Future observations with JWST
(and possibly HST via the Frontier Fields) could rule out $1.3$ keV WDM at high
significance, and may be sensitive to WDM masses greater than 2.6 keV. We also
examine the ability of galaxies in these WDM models to reionize the universe,
and find that 0.8 keV and 1.3 keV WDM produce optical depths to the Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB) that are inconsistent at 68% C.L. with current
Planck results, even with extremely high ionizing radiation escape fractions,
and 2.6 keV WDM requires an optimistic escape fraction to yield an optical
depth consistent with Planck data. Although CMB optical depth calculations are
model dependent, we find a strong challenge for stellar processes alone to
reionize the universe in a 0.8 keV and 1.3 keV WDM cosmology.


title:
Landau-Zener transitions mediated by an environment: population transfer
  and energy dissipation

abstract:
  We study Landau-Zener transitions between two states with the addition of a
shared discretized continuum. The continuum allows for population decay from
the initial state as well as indirect transitions between the two states. The
probability of nonadiabatic transition in this multichannel model preserves the
standard Landau-Zener functional form except for a shift in the usual
exponential factor, reflecting population transfer into the continuum. We
provide an intuitive explanation for this behavior assuming independent
individual transitions between pairs of states. In contrast, the probability of
survival in the ground state at long time shows a novel, non-monotonic,
functional form, with an oscillatory behavior in the sweep rate at low sweep
rate values. We contrast the behavior of this open-multistate model to other
generalized Landau-Zener models incorporating an environment: the stochastic
Landau-Zener model and the dissipative case, where energy dissipation and
thermal excitations affect the adiabatic region. Finally, we present evidence
that the continuum of states may act to shield the two-state Landau-Zener
transition probability from the effect of noise.


title: Sums of variables at the onset of chaos

abstract:
  We explain how specific dynamical properties give rise to the limit
distribution of sums of deterministic variables at the transition to chaos via
the period-doubling route. We study the sums of successive positions generated
by an ensemble of initial conditions uniformly distributed in the entire phase
space of a unimodal map as represented by the logistic map. We find that these
sums acquire their salient, multiscale, features from the repellor preimage
structure that dominates the dynamics toward the attractors along the
period-doubling cascade. And we explain how these properties transmit from the
sums to their distribution. Specifically, we show how the stationary
distribution of sums of positions at the Feigebaum point is built up from those
associated with the supercycle attractors forming a hierarchical structure with
multifractal and discrete scale invariance properties.


title:
Anisotropy mapping in rat brains using Intermolecular Multiple Quantum
  Coherence Effects

abstract:
  This document reports an unconventional and rapidly developing approach to
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using intermolecular multiple-quantum
coherences (iMQCs). Rat brain images are acquired using iMQCs. We detect iMQCs
between spins that are 10 {\mu}m to 500 {\mu}m apart. The interaction between
spins is dependent on different directions. We can choose the directions on
physical Z, Y and X axis by choosing correlation gradients along those
directions. As an important application, iMQCs can be used for anisotropy
mapping. In the rat brains, we investigate tissue microstructure. We simulated
images expected from rat brains without microstructure. We compare those with
experimental results to prove that the dipolar field from the overall shape
only has small contributions to the experimental iMQC signal. Because of the
underlying low signal to noise ratio (SNR) in iMQCs, this anisotropy mapping
method still has comparatively large potentials to grow. The ultimate goal of
my project is to develop creative and effective methods of tissue
microstructure anisotropy mapping. Recently we found that combining phase data
of iMQCs images with phase data of modified-crazed images is very promising to
construct microstructure maps. Some information and initial results are shown
in this document.


title: Collapse Models and Perceptual Processes

abstract:
  Theories including a collapse mechanism have been presented various years
ago. They are based on a modification of standard quantum mechanics in which
nonlinear and stochastic terms are added to the evolution equation. Their
principal merits derive from the fact that they are mathematically precise
schemes accounting, on the basis of a unique universal dynamical principle,
both for the quantum behavior of microscopic systems as well as for the
reduction associated to measurement processes and for the classical behavior of
macroscopic objects. Since such theories qualify themselves not as new
interpretations but as modifications of the standard theory they can be, in
principle, tested against quantum mechanics. Recently, various investigations
identifying possible crucial test have been discussed. In spite of the extreme
difficulty to perform such tests it seems that recent technological
developments allow at least to put precise limits on the parameters
characterizing the modifications of the evolution equation. Here we will simply
mention some of the recent investigations in this direction, while we will
mainly concentrate our attention to the way in which collapse theories account
for definite perceptual process. The differences between the case of reductions
induced by perceptions and those related to measurement procedures by means of
standard macroscopic devices will be discussed. On this basis, we suggest a
precise experimental test of collapse theories involving conscious observers.
We make plausible, by discussing in detail a toy model, that the modified
dynamics can give rise to quite small but systematic errors in the visual
perceptual process.


title:
GRB 120422A/SN 2012bz: Bridging the Gap between Low- And High-Luminosity
  GRBs

abstract:
  At low redshift, a handful of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been discovered
with peak luminosities ($L_{\rm iso} < 10^{48.5}~\rm{erg\,s}^{-1}$)
substantially lower than the average of the more distant ones ($L_{\rm iso} >
10^{49.5}~\rm{erg\,s}^{-1}$). The properties of several low-luminosity
(low-$L$) GRBs indicate that they can be due to shock break-out, as opposed to
the emission from ultrarelativistic jets. Owing to this, it is highly debated
how both populations are connected, and whether there is a continuum between
them. The burst at redshift $z=0.283$ from 2012 April 22 is one of the very few
examples of intermediate-$L$ GRBs with a $\gamma$-ray luminosity of
$L\sim10^{48.9}~\rm{erg\,s}^{-1}$ that have been detected up to now. Together
with the robust detection of its accompanying supernova SN 2012bz, it has the
potential to answer important questions on the origin of low- and high-$L$ GRBs
and the GRB-SN connection. We carried out a spectroscopy campaign using medium-
and low-resolution spectrographs at 6--10-m class telescopes, covering the time
span of 37.3 days, and a multi-wavelength imaging campaign from radio to X-ray
energies over a duration of $\sim270$ days. Furthermore, we used a tuneable
filter centred at H$\alpha$ to map star formation in the host galaxy and the
surrounding galaxies. We used these data to extract and model the properties of
different radiation components and incorporate spectral-energy-distribution
fitting techniques to extract the properties of the host galaxy. Modelling the
light curve and spectral energy distribution from the radio to the X-rays
revealed the blast-wave to expand with an initial Lorentz factor of
$\Gamma_0\sim60$, low for a high-$L$ GRB, and that the afterglow had an
exceptional low peak luminosity-density of
$\lesssim2\times10^{30}~\rm{erg\,s}^{-1}\,\rm{Hz}^{-1}$ in the sub-mm.
[Abridged]


title: Barred S0 Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

abstract:
  This study uses r-band images from the Eighth Data Release of the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey (SDSS DR8) to study bars in lenticular (S0) galaxies in one
of the nearest rich cluster environments, the Coma cluster. We develop
techniques for bar detection, and assess their success when applied to SDSS
image data. To detect and characterise bars we perform 2D bulge+disk+bar light
decompositions of galaxy images with GALFIT. Using a sample of artificial
galaxy images we determine the faintest magnitude at which bars can be
successfully measured at the depth and resolution of SDSS. We perform detailed
decompositions of 83 S0 galaxies in Coma, 64 from a central sample, and 19 from
a cluster outskirts sample. For the central sample, the S0 bar fraction is
72^{+5}_{-6}%. This value is significantly higher than that obtained using an
ellipse fitting method for bar detection, 48^{+6}_{-6}%. At a fixed luminosity,
barred S0s are redder in (g-r) colour than unbarred S0s by 0.02 mag. The
frequency and strength of bars increase towards fainter luminosities. Neither
central metallicity nor stellar age distributions differ significantly between
barred and unbarred S0s. There is an increase in the bar fraction towards the
cluster core, but this is at a low significance level. Bars have at most a weak
correlation with cluster-centric radius.


title:
Evidence for a superconducting origin of prominent features of the
  in-plane infrared response of underdoped cuprates and implications of their
  persistence above $T_{\mathrm{c}}$

abstract:
  We report on results of our analysis of published experimental data of the
in-plane infrared response of two representative underdoped
high-$T_{\mathrm{c}}$ cuprate superconductors, focusing on a characteristic gap
feature in the spectra of the real part of the conductivity and the
corresponding structures of the memory function, that develop below a
temperature $T^{\mathrm{ons}}$ considerably higher than $T_{\mathrm{c}}$.
Several arguments based on comparisons of the data with results of our
calculations are provided indicating that the features are due to
superconductivity and that $T^{\mathrm{ons}}$ marks the onset of a precursor
superconducting phase.


title: Dark Solitons with Majorana Fermions in Spin-Orbit-Coupled Fermi Gases

abstract:
  We show that a single dark soliton can exist in a spin-orbit-coupled Fermi
gas with a high spin imbalance, where spin-orbit coupling favors uniform
superfluids over non-uniform Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov states, leading
to dark soliton excitations in highly imbalanced gases. Above a critical spin
imbalance, two topological Majorana fermions (MFs) without interactions can
coexist inside a dark soliton, paving a way for manipulating MFs through
controlling solitons. At the topological transition point, the atom density
contrast across the soliton suddenly vanishes, suggesting a signature for
identifying topological solitons.


title:
Crystals of bound states in the magnetization plateaus of the
  Shastry-Sutherland model

abstract:
  Using infinite projected entangled-pair states (iPEPS), we show that the
Shastry-Sutherland model in an external magnetic field has low-magnetization
plateaus which, in contrast to previous predictions, correspond to crystals of
bound states of triplets, and {\it not} to crystals of triplets. The first
sizable plateaus appear at magnetization 1/8, 2/15 and 1/6, in agreement with
experiments on the orthogonal-dimer antiferromagnet SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$, and
they can be naturally understood as regular patterns of bound states, including
the intriguing 2/15 one. We also show that, even in a confined geometry, two
triplets bind into a {\it localized} bound state with $S_z=2$. Finally, we
discuss the role of competing domain-wall and supersolid phases as well as that
of additional anisotropic interactions.


title:
Effectiveness of WISE colour-based selection techniques to uncover
  obscured AGN

abstract:
  We present a highly reliable and efficient mid-infrared colour-based
selection technique for luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) using the
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) survey. Our technique is designed to
identify objects with red mid-infrared power-law spectral energy distributions.
We studied the dependency of our mid-infrared selection on the AGN intrinsic
luminosity and the effectiveness of our technique to uncover obscured AGN
missed in X-ray surveys. To do so we used two samples of luminous AGN
independently selected in hard X-ray and optical surveys. We used the largest
catalogue of 887 [OIII]5007-selected type 2 quasars (QSO2s) at z<0.83 in the
literature from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and the 258 hard (>4.5
keV) X-ray-selected AGN from the Bright Ultrahard XMM-Newton Survey (BUXS). The
effectiveness of our mid-infrared selection technique increases with the AGN
luminosity. At high luminosities and at least up to z~1 our technique is very
effective at identifying both Compton-thin and Compton-thick AGN.


title: The $k$-metric dimension of corona product graphs

abstract:
  Given a connected simple graph $G=(V,E)$, and a positive integer $k$, a set
$S\subseteq V$ is said to be a $k$-metric generator for $G$ if and only if for
any pair of different vertices $u,v\in V$, there exist at least $k$ vertices
$w_1,w_2,...,w_k\in S$ such that $d_G(u,w_i)\ne d_G(v,w_i)$, for every $i\in
\{1,...,k\}$, where $d_G(x,y)$ is the length of a shortest path between $x$ and
$y$. A $k$-metric generator of minimum cardinality in $G$ is called a
$k$-metric basis and its cardinality, the $k$-metric dimension of $G$. In this
article we study the $k$-metric dimension of corona product graphs
$G\odot\mathcal{H}$, where $G$ is a graph of order $n$ and $\mathcal{H}$ is a
family of $n$ non-trivial graphs. Specifically, we give some necessary and
sufficient conditions for the existence of a $k$-metric basis in a connected
corona graph. Moreover, we obtain tight bounds and closed formulae for the
$k$-metric dimension of connected corona graphs.


title: Random Number Conversion and LOCC Conversion via Restricted Storage

abstract:
  We consider random number conversion (RNC) through random number storage with
restricted size. We clarify the relation between the performance of RNC and the
size of storage in the framework of first- and second- order asymptotics, and
derive their rate regions. Then, we show that the results for RNC with
restricted storage recover those for conventional RNC without storage in the
limit of storage size. To treat RNC via restricted storage, we introduce a new
kind of probability distributions named generalized Rayleigh-normal
distributions. Using the generalized Rayleigh-normal distributions, we can
describe the second-order asymptotic behaviour of RNC via restricted storage in
a unified manner. As an application to quantum information theory, we analyze
LOCC conversion via entanglement storage with restricted size. Moreover, we
derive the optimal LOCC compression rate under a constraint of conversion
accuracy.


title: Strong Pressure Dependent Electron-Phonon Coupling in FeSe

abstract:
  We have computed the correlated electronic structure of FeSe and its
dependence on the A1g mode versus compression. Using the self-consistent
density functional theory - dynamical mean field theory (DFT-DMFT) with
continuous time quantum Monte Carlo (CTQMC), we find that there is greatly
enhanced coupling between some correlated electron states and the A1g lattice
distortion. Superconductivity in FeSe shows a very strong sensitivity to
pressure, with an increase in Tc of almost a factor of 5 within a few GPa,
followed by a drop, despite monotonic pressure dependence of almost all
electronic properties. We find that the maximum A1g deformation potential
behaves similar to the experimental Tc. In contrast, the maximum deformation
potential in DFT for this mode increases monotonically with increasing
pressure.


title: Vertex operators of ghost number three in Type IIB supergravity

abstract:
  We study the cohomology of the massless BRST complex of the Type IIB pure
spinor superstring in flat space. In particular, we find that the cohomology at
the ghost number three is nontrivial and transforms in the same representation
of the supersymmetry algebra as the solutions of the linearized classical
supergravity equations. Modulo some finite dimensional spaces, the ghost number
three cohomology is the same as the ghost number two cohomology. We also
comment on the difference between the naive and semi-relative cohomology, and
the role of b-ghost.


title:
Chemical abundances in bright giants of the globular cluster M62 (NGC
  6266)

abstract:
  With the exception of Terzan 5, all the Galactic globular clusters that
possess significant metallicity spreads, such as omega Cen and M22, are
preferentially the more luminous clusters with extended horizontal branches.
Here we present radial velocities and chemical abundances for seven bright
giants in the globular cluster M62, a previously little-studied cluster. With
M_V = -9.18, M62 is the ninth most luminous Galactic globular cluster and has
an extended horizontal branch. Within our sample, we find (i) no evidence for a
dispersion in metallicity, [Fe/H], beyond the measurement uncertainties, (ii)
star-to-star abundance variations for C, O, Na and Al with the usual
correlations between these elements as seen in other globular clusters, and
(iii) a global enrichment for the elements Zr, Ba and La at the level [X/Fe] =
+0.4 dex. For elements heavier than La, the abundance ratios are consistent
with the scaled-solar $r$-process distribution. Below La, the abundances are
anomalous when compared to the scaled-solar s-process or r-process
distributions. For these elements, the abundance signature in M62 is in
agreement with predictions of the s-process from fast-rotating massive stars,
although the high [Rb/Y] ratio we measure may be a challenge to this scenario.


title:
Adaptive Link Selection Strategies for Distributed Estimation in
  Wireless Sensor Networks

abstract:
  In this work, we propose adaptive link selection strategies for distributed
estimation in diffusion-type wireless networks. We develop an exhaustive
search-based link selection algorithm and a sparsity-inspired link selection
algorithm that can exploit the topology of networks with poor-quality links. In
the exhaustive search-based algorithm, we choose the set of neighbors that
results in the smallest excess mean square error (EMSE) for a specific node. In
the sparsity-inspired link selection algorithm, a convex regularization is
introduced to devise a sparsity-inspired link selection algorithm. The proposed
algorithms have the ability to equip diffusion-type wireless networks and to
significantly improve their performance. Simulation results illustrate that the
proposed algorithms have lower EMSE values, a better convergence rate and
significantly improve the network performance when compared with existing
methods.


title:
A C++ template library for efficient forward-time population genetic
  simulation of large populations

abstract:
  fwdpp is a C++ library of routines intended to facilitate the development of
forward-time simulations under arbitrary mutation and fitness models. The
library design provides a combination of speed, low memory overhead, and
modeling flexibility not currently available from other forward simulation
tools. The library is particularly useful when the simulation of large
populations is required, as programs implemented using the library are much
more efficient that other available forward simulation programs.


title: Neutrino Oscillation from Magnetized Strange Stars

abstract:
  Strange-quark matter (SQM) is a likely candidate of the ground state of
nuclear matter. Along with many other equations of state (EoSs), SQM seemed to
be severely constrained by the recent discoveries of the 1.97 $M_\odot$ PSR
J1614-2230 and the 2.01 $M_\odot$ PSR J0348+0432. However with new,
$O(\alpha_c^2)$, perturbative calculations, SQM seems to be able to accommodate
masses as large as $\sim 2.75 M_\odot$. The literature of SQM stars or strange
stars includes estimates of internal magnetic fields as large as $10^{20}$ G,
which are unlikely to be formed as they would require $\sim 10^{57}$ erg to be
produced. Nonetheless, if strange stars may hold magnetar-strength fields
($10^{15}$ G), their internal fields are likely to reach magnetic fields as
large as $10^{17}$ G. We consider neutrinos with energies of some MeV and
oscillation parameters from solar, atmospheric and accelerator experiments. We
study the possibility of resonant oscillation of neutrinos in strange stars.


title: Diffraction manipulation by four-wave mixing

abstract:
  We suggest a scheme to manipulate paraxial diffraction by utilizing the
dependency of a four-wave mixing process on the relative angle between the
light fields. A microscopic model for four-wave mixing in a Lambda-type level
structure is introduced and compared to recent experimental data. We show that
images with feature size as low as 10 micrometers can propagate with very
little or even negative diffraction. The mechanism is completely different from
that conserving the shape of spatial solitons in nonlinear media, as here
diffraction is suppressed for arbitrary spatial profiles. At the same time, the
gain inherent to the nonlinear process prevents loss and allows for operating
at high optical depths. Our scheme does not rely on atomic motion and is thus
applicable to both gaseous and solid media.


title: The mass of light-cones

abstract:
  We give an elementary proof of positivity of total gravitational energy in
space-times containing complete smooth light-cones.


title: Detection of Phase Shift Events

abstract:
  We consider the problem of change-point estimation of the instantaneous phase
of an observed time series. Such change points, or phase shifts, can be markers
of information transfer in complex systems; their analysis occurring in
geology, biology and physics, but most notably in neuroscience. We develop two
non-parametric approaches to this problem: the cumulative summation (CUSUM) and
phase derivative (PD) estimators. In general the CUSUM estimator has higher
power for identifying single shift events, while the PD estimator has better
temporal resolution for multiple ones. A system of weakly coupled Rossler
attractors provides an application in which there are high levels of systematic
and time-dependent noise. Shift identification is also performed on beta-band
activity from electroencephalogram recordings of a visual attention task, an
unsupervised application which requires high temporal resolution.


title:
Constraining the Nature of Two Ly-alpha Emitters detected by ALMA at z =
  4.7

abstract:
  We report optical VLT FORS2 spectroscopy of the two Ly-alpha emitters (LAEs)
companions to the quasi-stellar object (QSO) - sub-millimetre galaxy (SMG)
system BRI1202-0725 at z = 4.7, which have recently been detected in the
[CII]158um line by the Atacama Large Millimetre/Sub-millimetre Array (ALMA). We
detect Ly-alpha emission from both sources and so confirm that these Ly-alpha
emitter candidates are physically associated with the BRI1202- 0725 system. We
also report the lack of detection of any high ionisation emission lines (N V,
Si IV, C IV and He II) and find that these systems are likely not photoionised
by the quasar, leaving in situ star formation as the main powering source of
these LAEs. We also find that both LAEs have Ly-alpha emission much broader
(1300 km/s) than the [CII] emission and broader than most LAEs. In addition,
both LAEs have roughly symmetric Ly-alpha profiles implying that both systems
are within the HII sphere produced by the quasar. This is the first time that
the proximity zone of a quasar is probed by exploiting nearby Ly-alpha
emitters. We discuss the observational properties of these galaxies in the
context of recent galaxy formation models.


title: Effect of quantum nuclear motion on hydrogen bonding

abstract:
  This work considers how the properties of hydrogen bonded complexes,
D-H....A, are modified by the quantum motion of the shared proton. Using a
simple two-diabatic state model Hamiltonian, the analysis of the symmetric
case, where the donor (D) and acceptor (A) have the same proton affinity, is
carried out. For quantitative comparisons, a parametrization specific to the
O-H....O complexes is used. The vibrational energy levels of the
one-dimensional ground state adiabatic potential of the model are used to make
quantitative comparisons with a vast body of condensed phase data, spanning a
donor-acceptor separation (R) range of about 2.4-3.0 A, i.e., from strong to
weak bonds. The position of the proton and its longitudinal vibrational
frequency, along with the isotope effects in both are discussed. An analysis of
the secondary geometric isotope effects, using a simple extension of the
two-state model, yields an improved agreement of the predicted variation with R
of frequency isotope effects. The role of the bending modes in also considered:
their quantum effects compete with those of the stretching mode for certain
ranges of H-bond strengths. In spite of the economy in the parametrization of
the model used, it offers key insights into the defining features of H-bonds,
and semi-quantitatively captures several experimental trends.


title:
Some open problems and conjectures on submanifolds of finite type:
  recent development

abstract:
  Submanifolds of finite type were introduced by the author during the late
1970s. The first results on this subject were collected in author's books
[26,29]. In 1991, a list of twelve open problems and three conjectures on
finite type submanifolds was published in [40]. A detailed survey of the
results, up to 1996, on this subject was given by the author in [48]. Recently,
the study of finite type submanifolds, in particular, of biharmonic
submanifolds, have received a growing attention with many progresses since the
beginning of this century. In this article, we provide a detailed account of
recent development on the problems and conjectures listed in [40].


title:
Large neighborhoods with implicit customer selection for vehicle routing
  problems with profits

abstract:
  We consider several Vehicle Routing Problems (VRP) with profits, which seek
to select a subset of customers, each one being associated with a profit, and
to design service itineraries. When the sum of profits is maximized under
distance constraints, the problem is usually called team orienteering problem.
The capacitated profitable tour problem seeks to maximize profits minus travel
costs under capacity constraints. Finally, in the VRP with private fleet and
common carrier, some customers can be delegated to an external carrier subject
to a cost. Three families of combined decisions must be taken: customers
selection, assignment to vehicles, and sequencing of deliveries for each route.
  We propose a new neighborhood search for these problems which explores an
exponential number of solutions in pseudo polynomial time. The search is
conducted with standard VRP neighborhoods on an "exhaustive" solution
representation, visiting all customers. Since visiting all customers is usually
infeasible or sub-optimal, an efficient "Select" algorithm, based on resource
constrained shortest paths, is repeatedly used on any new route to find the
optimal subsequence of visits to customers. The good performance of these
neighborhood structures is demonstrated by extensive computational experiments
with a local search, an iterated local search and a hybrid genetic algorithm.
Intriguingly, even a local-improvement method to the first local optimum of
this neighborhood achieves an average gap of 0.09% on classic team orienteering
benchmark instances, rivaling with the current state-of-the-art metaheuristics.
Promising research avenues on hybridizations with more standard routing
neighborhoods are also open.


title: Relationship between Nichols braided Lie algebras and Nichols algebras

abstract:
  We establish the relationship among Nichols algebras, Nichols braided Lie
algebras and Nichols Lie algebras. We prove two results: (i) Nichols algebra
$\mathfrak B(V)$ is finite-dimensional if and only if Nichols braided Lie
algebra $\mathfrak L(V)$ is finite-dimensional if there does not exist any
$m$-infinity element in $\mathfrak B(V)$; (ii) Nichols Lie algebra $\mathfrak
L^-(V)$ is infinite dimensional if $ D^-$ is infinite. We give the sufficient
conditions for Nichols braided Lie algebra $\mathfrak L(V)$ to be a homomorphic
image of a braided Lie algebra generated by $V$ with defining relations.


title: Limits of Random Trees II

abstract:
  Local convergence of bounded degree graphs was introduced by Benjamini and
Schramm. This result was extended further by Lyons to bounded average degree
graphs. In this paper we study the convergence of random tree sequences with
given degree distributions. Denote by ${\cal D}_n$ the set of possible degree
sequences of a tree on $n$ nodes. Let ${\bm D}_n$ be a random variable on
${\cal D}_n$ and ${\bm T}({\bm D}_n)$ be a uniform random tree with degree
sequence ${\bm D}_n$. We show that the sequence ${\bm T}({\bm D}_n)$ converges
in probability if and only if ${\bm D}_n\to {\bm D}=({\bm D}(i))_{i=1}^\infty$,
where ${\bm D}(i)\sim {\bm D}(j)$, $\mathds{E}({\bm D}(1))=2$ and ${\bm D}(1)$
is a random variable on $\mathds{N}^+$.


title:
Competition between alpha-decay and beta-decay for Heavy and Superheavy
  Nuclei

abstract:
  In this work, the $\beta$-stable region for Z $\geq$ 90 is proposed. The
calculated $\beta$-stable nuclei in the $\beta$-stable region are in good
agreement with the ones obtained by M\"{o}ller \emph{et al}.. The half-lives of
the nuclei close to the $\beta$-stable region are calculated and the
competition between $\alpha$-decay and $\beta$-decay is systematically
investigated. The calculated half-lives and the suggested decay modes are well
in line with the experimental results. The predictions for half-lives and decay
modes of the nuclei with Z = 107$-$110 are presented.


title: Dog Bone Triplet Metamaterial Wave Plate

abstract:
  Metamaterials are artificially made sub-wavelength structures arranged in
periodic arrays. They can be designed to interact with electromagnetic
radiation in many different and interesting ways such as allowing radiation to
experience a negative refractive index (NRI). We have used this technique to
design and build a quasi-optical Half Wave Plate (HWP) that exhibits a large
birefringence by virtue of having a positive refractive index in one axis and a
NRI in the other. Previous implementations of such NRI-HWP have been narrow
band ($\sim$1-3%) due to the inherent reliance on needing a resonance to create
the NRI region. We manufacture a W-band prototype of a novel HWP that uses the
Pancharatnam method to extend the bandwidth (up to more than twice) of a usual
NRI-HWP. Our simulated and experimentally obtained results despite their
differences show that a broadening of a flat region of the phase difference is
possible even with the initially steep gradient for a single plate.


title: Strong environmental coupling in a Josephson parametric amplifier

abstract:
  We present a lumped-element Josephson parametric amplifier designed to
operate with strong coupling to the environment. In this regime, we observe
broadband frequency dependent amplification with multi-peaked gain profiles. We
account for this behaviour using the "pumpistor" model which allows for
frequency dependent variation of the external impedance. Using this
understanding, we demonstrate control over gain profiles through changes in the
environment impedance at a given frequency. With strong coupling to a suitable
external impedance we observe a significant increase in dynamic range, and
large amplification bandwidth up to 700 MHz giving near quantum-limited
performance.


title:
From infinitesimal to full contact between rough surfaces: evolution of
  the contact area

abstract:
  We carry out a statistically meaningful study on self-affine rough surfaces
in elastic frictionless non-adhesive contact. We study the evolution of the
true contact area under increasing squeezing pressure. Rough surfaces are
squeezed from zero up to full contact, which enables us to compare the
numerical results both with asperity based models at light pressures and with
Persson's contact model for the entire range of pressures. Through the contact
perimeter we estimate the error bounds inherent to contact area calculation in
discrete problems.
  A large number of roughness realizations enables us to compute reliably the
derivative of the contact area with respect to the pressure. In contrast to
Persson's model and in agreement with asperity based models, we demonstrate
that at light pressures it is a decreasing convex function. The nonlinearity of
the contact area evolution, preserved for the entire range of pressures, is
especially strong close to infinitesimal contact. This fact makes difficult an
accurate investigation of contact at light pressure and prevents the evaluation
of the proportionality coefficient, which is predicted by analytical models. A
good agreement of numerical results with Persson's model is obtained for the
shape of the area-pressure curve especially near full contact. We investigate
the effects of the cutoff wavenumbers in surface spectrum onto the contact area
evolution. Nayak's parameter is one of the central characteristics of
roughness, it also plays an important role in rough contact mechanics, but its
effect is significantly weaker than predicted by asperity based models. We give
a detailed derivation of a new phenomenological contact evolution law; also we
derive formulae that link Nayak's parameter and density of asperities with
Hurst exponent and cutoffs wavenumbers.


title:
Finite-length Analysis on Tail probability for Markov Chain and
  Application to Simple Hypothesis Testing

abstract:
  Using terminologies of information geometry, we derive upper and lower bounds
of the tail probability of the sample mean. Employing these bounds, we obtain
upper and lower bounds of the minimum error probability of the 2nd kind of
error under the exponential constraint for the error probability of the 1st
kind of error in a simple hypothesis testing for a finite-length Markov chain,
which yields the Hoeffding type bound. For these derivations, we derive upper
and lower bounds of cumulant generating function for Markov chain. As a
byproduct, we obtain another simple proof of central limit theorem for Markov
chain.


title: Jack-Laurent symmetric functions for special values of parameters

abstract:
  We consider the Jack--Laurent symmetric functions for special values of
parameters p_0=n+k^{-1}m, where k is not rational and m and n are natural
numbers. In general, the coefficients of such functions may have poles at these
values of p_0. The action of the corresponding algebra of quantum
Calogero-Moser integrals D(k,p_0) on the space of Laurent symmetric functions
defines the decomposition into generalised eigenspaces. We construct a basis in
each generalised eigenspace as certain linear combinations of the Jack--Laurent
symmetric functions, which are regular at p_0=n+k^{-1}m, and describe the
action of D(k,p_0) in these eigenspaces.


title:
Periodic Radio Continuum Emission Associated with the beta Cephei Star
  V2187 Cyg

abstract:
  We present new optical time-resolved photometry and medium-resolution
spectroscopy of V2187 Cyg. We confirm its classification as a beta Cephei star
based on sinusoidal light variations with a period of 0.2539 days and mean
amplitudes of 0.037 and 0.042 magnitudes in "i" and "V", respectively. We
classified the spectrum of this star B2-3V with no evidence of variations in
the profiles of its absorption lines in timescales of hours or days. The
stellar spectrum is totally absent of emission lines. We detected unexpected
faint radio continuum emission (between 0.4 and 0.8 mJy at 6-cm) showing a
sinusoidal variation with a period of 12.8 days. The radio spectrum is thermal.
We searched in the Very Large Array archive for radio continuum emission toward
other 15 beta Cephei stars. None of these additional stars, some of them much
closer to the Sun than V2187 Cyg, was detected, indicating that radio emission
is extremely uncommon toward beta Cephei stars.


title: Hadronic description for Omega baryon photoproduction

abstract:
  In the present work, we investigate subsequential production of three kaons
and $\Omega^-$ baryon based on an effective Lagrangian approach. We only
consider the intermediate states with the light mass baryon to suggest the
minimum of the total cross section. Coupling constants for verteces of
meson-octet baryons are fixed from the empirical data and/or quark models
together with SU(3) symmetry considerations and these for meson-decouplet are
predicted not only quark model but also Chiral-quark soliton model calculation.
Gauge invariance of the resulting amplitude is maintained by introducing the
contact currents by extending the gauge-invariant approach of Haberzettl for
one-meson photoproduction to two-meson photoproduction.


title:
Magnetohydrodynamics, charged currents and directed flow in heavy ion
  collisions

abstract:
  The hot QCD matter produced in any heavy ion collision with a nonzero impact
parameter is produced within a strong magnetic field. We study the imprint that
these fields leave on the azimuthal distributions and correlations of the
produced charged hadrons. The magnetic field is time-dependent and the medium
is expanding, which leads to the induction of charged currents due to the
combination of Faraday and Hall effects. We find that these currents result in
a charge- dependent directed flow v1 that is odd in rapidity and odd under
charge exchange. It can be detected by measuring correlations between the
directed flow of charged hadrons at different rapidities, $\langle
v_1^\pm(y_1)v_1^\pm(y_2)\rangle$.