title: Noise activated dissociation of soft elastic contacts

abstract:
  Adhesive forces are capable of deforming a soft elastic object when it comes
in contact with a flat rigid substrate. The contact is in stable equilibrium if
the total energy of the system arising from the elastic and surface forces
exhibits a minimum at a zero or at a slightly negative load. However, as the
system is continually unloaded, the energy barrier decreases and it eventually
disappears, thus leading to a ballistic separation of the contact. While this
type of contact splitting has received wide recognition, what has not been much
appreciated with these types of soft adhesion problems is that rupture of a
contact can also occur at any finite sub critical load in the presence of a
noise. The soft contact problems are unique in that the noise can be a-thermal,
whereas the metastable and stable states of the thermodynamic potential can
arise from the competition of the elastic and the inter-facial energies of the
system. Analysis based on activated rate theory and simulations based on
stochastic dynamics show that the contact rupture dynamics is amenable to a
force and noise induced escape of a particle from a potential well that is
generic to various types of colloidal and macromolecular processes. These ideas
are useful in understanding the results of a recent experiment involving the
noise activated rolling dynamics of a rigid sphere on a surface, where it is
pinned by soft micro-fibrils.


title:
Well-posedness and shallow-water stability for a new Hamiltonian
  formulation of the water waves equations with vorticity

abstract:
  In this paper we derive a new formulation of the water waves equations with
vorticity that generalizes the well-known Zalkarov-Craig-Sulem formulation used
in the irrotational case. We prove the local well-posedness of this
formulation, and show that it is formally Hamiltonian. This new for- mulation
is cast in Eulerian variable, and in finite depth; we show that it can be used
to provide uniform bounds on the lifespan and on the norms of the solutions in
the singular shallow water regime. As an application to these re- sults, we
derive and provide the first rigorous justification of a shallow water model
for water waves in presence of vorticity; we show in particular that a third
equation must be added to the standard model to recover the velocity at the
surface from the averaged velocity.


title: Realizing topological states with polyatomic symmetric top molecules

abstract:
  We demonstrate that ultracold polyatomic symmetric top molecules, such as
methyl fluoride, loaded into an optical lattice and subject to DC electric and
microwave field dressing, can display topological order via a self-consistent
analog of a proximity effect in the internal state space of the molecule. The
non-trivial topology arises from pairwise transitions between internal states
induced by dipole-dipole interactions and made resonant by the field dressing.
Topological order is explicitly demonstrated by matrix product state
simulations on 1D chains. Additionally, we show that in the limit of pinned
molecules our description maps onto a long-range and anisotropic XYZ spin
model, where Majorana fermions are zero-energy edge excitations in the case of
nearest-neighbor couplings.


title: Molecular excitations: a new way to detect Dark matter

abstract:
  We believe that the Dark Matter (DM) search should be expanded into the
domain of detectors sensitive to molecular excitations, and so that we should
create detectors which are more sensitive to collisions with very light WIMPs.
In this paper we investigate in detail di-atomic molecules, such as Fused
Silica material with large OH-molecule content, and water molecules. Presently,
we do not have suitable low cost IR detectors to observe single photons,
however some OH-molecular excitations extend to visible and UV wavelengths, and
can be measured by Bialkali photocathodes. There are many other chemical
substances with di-atomic molecules, or more complex oil molecules, which could
be investigated also. This idea invites searches in experiments having large
target volumes of such materials coupled to a large array of single-photon
detectors with Bialkali or infrared-sensitive photocathodes.


title: Primary Cosmic Ray Proton Flux Measured by AMS-02

abstract:
  The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a high energy particle detector
designed to study origin and nature of cosmic rays up to a few TV from space.
It was installed on the International Space Station (ISS) on May 19, 2011.
During the first two years of operation AMS-02 performed precise measurements
of the proton flux. In the low rigidity range, from 1 GV to 20 GV, the proton
flux was daily measured with a statistical error less than 1%. In the same
rigidity range a gradual decrease due to Solar modulation effect and transit
variations due to Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejection were also observed. In
the rigidity range from 20 GV up to 100 GV instead, AMS-02 data show no drastic
variation and the results are consistent with other experiments. Above 100 GV,
AMS-02 proton flux exhibits a single power low behavior with no fine structures
nor brakes.


title: Evolution: Life has Evolved to Evolve

abstract:
  Jim Shapiro synthesizes a great many observations about the mechanisms of
evolution to reach the remarkable conclusion that large-scale modification,
exchange, and rearrangement of the genome are common and should be viewed as
fundamental features of life. In other words, the genome should be viewed not
as mostly read-only with a few rare mutations, but rather as a fully-fledged
read-write library of genetic functions under continuous revision. Revision of
the genome occurs during cellular replication, during multicellular
development, and during evolution of a population of individuals. DNA
formatting controls the timing and location of genetic rearrangements, gene
expression, and genetic repair. Each of these events is under the control of
precise cellular circuits. Shapiro reviews the toolbox of natural genetic
engineering that provides the functionalities necessary for efficient long-term
genome restructuring.


title: Long-term analysis of phenotypically structured models

abstract:
  Phenotypically structured equations arise in population biology to describe
the interaction of species with their environment that brings the nutrients.
This interaction usually leads to selection of the fittest individuals. Models
used in this area are highly nonlinear, and the question of long term behaviour
is usually not solved. However, there is a particular class of models for which
convergence to an Evolutionary Stable Distribution is proved, namely when the
quasi-static assumption is made. This means that the environment, and thus the
nutrient supply, reacts immediately to the population dynamics. One possible
proof is based on a Total Variation bound for the appropriate quantity. We
extend this proof to several cases where the nutrient is regenerated with
delay. A simple example is the chemostat with a rendering factor, then our
result does not use any smallness assumption. For a more general setting, we
can treat the case with a fast reaction of nutrient supply to the population
dynamics.


title:
On a class of weighted Gauss-type isoperimetric inequalities and
  applications to symmetrization

abstract:
  We solve a class of weighted isoperimetric problems of the form $$
  \min\left\{\int\_{\partial E}w e^V\,dx:\int\_E e^V\,dx={\rm constant}\right\}
$$ where $w$ and $V$ are suitable functions on $\R^d$. As a consequence, we
prove a comparison result for the solutions of degenerate elliptic equations.


title: Finding Optimal Strategies of Almost Acyclic Simple Stochatic Games

abstract:
  The optimal value computation for turned-based stochastic games with
reachability objectives, also known as simple stochastic games, is one of the
few problems in $NP \cap coNP$ which are not known to be in $P$. However, there
are some cases where these games can be easily solved, as for instance when the
underlying graph is acyclic. In this work, we try to extend this tractability
to several classes of games that can be thought as "almost" acyclic. We give
some fixed-parameter tractable or polynomial algorithms in terms of different
parameters such as the number of cycles or the size of the minimal feedback
vertex set.


title: Cohomological obstructions to Nielsen realization

abstract:
  For a based manifold (M,*), the question of whether the surjection Diff(M,*)
\rightarrow \pi_0 Diff(M,*) admits a section is an example of a Nielsen
realization problem. This question is related to a question about flat
connections on M-bundles and is meaningful for M of any dimension. In dimension
2, Bestvina-Church-Souto showed a section does not exist when M is closed and
has genus g\ge 2. Their techniques are cohomological and certain aspects are
specific to surfaces. We give new cohomological techniques to generalize their
result to many locally symmetric manifolds. The main tools include Chern-Weil
theory, Milnor-Wood inequalities, and Margulis superrigidity.


title:
Decomposition theorem and Riesz basis for axisymmetric potenials in the
  right hal-plane

abstract:
  The Weinstein equation with complex coefficients is the equation governing
generalized axisymmetric potentials (GASP) which can be written as
$L_m[u]=\Delta u+\left(m/x\right)\partial_x u =0$, where $m\in\mathbb{C}$. We
generalize results known for $m\in\mathbb{R}$ to $m\in\mathbb{C}$. We give
explicit expressions of fundamental solutions for Weinstein operators and their
estimates near singularities, then we prove a Green's formula for GASP in the
right half-plane $\mathbb{H}^+$ for Re $m<1$. We establish a new decomposition
theorem for the GASP in any annular domains for $m\in\mathbb{C}$, which is in
fact a generalization of the B\^ocher's decomposition theorem. In particular,
using bipolar coordinates, we prove for annuli that a family of solutions for
GASP equation in terms of associated Legendre functions of first and second
kind is complete. For $m\in\mathbb{C}$, we show that this family is even a
Riesz basis in some non-concentric circular annulus.


title:
Normalization and sub-formula property for Lambek with product and PCMLL
  -- Partially Commutative Multiplicative Linear Logic

abstract:
  This paper establishes the normalisation of natural deduction or lambda
calculus formulation of Intuitionistic Non Commutative Logic --- which involves
both commutative and non commutative connectives. This calculus first
introduced by de Groote and as opposed to the classical version by Abrusci and
Ruet admits a full entropy which allow order to be relaxed into any suborder.
Our result also includes, as a special case, the normalisation of natural
deduction the Lambek calculus with product, which is unsurprising but yet
unproved. Regarding Intuitionistic Non Commutative Logic with full entropy does
not have up to now a proof net syntax, and that for linguistic applications,
sequent calculi which are only more or less equivalent to natural deduction,
are not convenient because they lack the standard Curry-Howard isomorphism.


title: Topological invariance of the homological index

abstract:
  R. W. Carey and J. Pincus in [CaPi86] proposed and index theory for
non-Fredholm bounded operators T on a separable Hilbert space H such that TT* -
T*T is in the trace class. We showed in [CGK13] using Dirac-type operators
acting on sections of bundles over R^{2n} that we could construct bounded
operators T satisfying the more general condition that (1-TT*)^n - (1-T*T)^n is
trace class. We proposed there a "homological" index for these Dirac-type
operators given by Tr( (1-TT*)^n - (1-T*T)^n ). In this paper we show that the
index introduced in [CGK13] represents the result of a pairing between a cyclic
homology theory for the algebra generated by T and T* and its dual cohomology
theory. This leads us to establish homotopy invariance of our homological index
(in the sense of cyclic theory). We are then able to define in a very general
fashion a homological index for certain unbounded operators and prove
invariance of this index under a class of unbounded perturbations.


title: Unusual behavior in the first excited state lifetime of catechol

abstract:
  We are presenting vibrationally selective pump-probe measurements of the
first electronic excited-state (pp*) lifetime of jet-cooled neutral catechol
(1,2-dihydroxybenzene). The lifetime of the 0-0 transition is very short (7 ps)
as rationalized by the small pp*/psigma* gap calculated. However the lifetimes
implying higher out-of-plane vibrational levels are longer (~11 ps). This
emphasizes the role of the out-of-plane vibration in the pp*/psigma* coupling
not only in its nature but also in the number of quanta


title:
Fre'chet Generalized Trajectories and Minimizers for Variational
  Problems of Low Coercivity

abstract:
  We address consecutively two problems. First we introduce a class of so
called Fre'chet generalized controls for a multi-input control-affine system
with non-commuting controlled vector fields. For each control of the class one
is able to define a unique generalized trajectory,and the input-to-trajectory
map turns out to be continuous with respect to the Fre'chet metric. On the
other side, the class of generalized controls is broad enough to settle the
second problem, which is proving existence of generalized minimizers of
Lagrange variational problem with functionals of low (in particular linear)
growth. Besides we study possibility of Lavrentiev-type gap between the infima
of the functionals in the spaces of ordinary and generalized controls.


title: Mass and radius constraints for compact stars and the QCD phase diagram

abstract:
  We suggest a new Bayesian analysis using disjunct M-R constraints for
extracting probability measures for cold, dense matter equations of state. One
of the key issues of such an analysis is the question of a deconfinement
transition in compact stars and whether it proceeds as a crossover or rather as
a first order transition. The latter question is relevant for the possible
existence of a critical endpoint in the QCD phase diagram under scrutiny in
present and upcoming heavy-ion collision experiments.


title: Transport properties of fully screened Kondo models

abstract:
  We study the non-equilibrium transport properties of fully (exactly) screened
Kondo quantum dots subject to a finite bias voltage or a finite temperature.
Firstly, we calculate the Fermi-liquid coefficients of the conductance for
models with arbitrary spin, i.e. its leading behaviour for small bias voltages
or temperatures. Secondly, we determine the low-temperature behaviour of the
static susceptibility from the exactly known Bethe Ansatz results for the
magnetisation. Thirdly, we study the crossover from strong to weak coupling in
the spin-1/2 and the spin-1 models coupled to one or two screening channels
respectively. Using a real-time renormalisation group method we calculate the
static and dynamical spin-spin correlation functions for the spin-1/2 model as
well as the linear and differential conductance and the static susceptibility
for the spin-1 model. We define various Kondo scales and discuss their
relations. We assess the validity of the renormalisation-group treatment by
comparing with known results for the temperature dependence of the linear
conductance and static susceptibility as well as the Fermi-liquid behaviour at
low energies.


title:
Efficient Gradient-Based Inference through Transformations between Bayes
  Nets and Neural Nets

abstract:
  Hierarchical Bayesian networks and neural networks with stochastic hidden
units are commonly perceived as two separate types of models. We show that
either of these types of models can often be transformed into an instance of
the other, by switching between centered and differentiable non-centered
parameterizations of the latent variables. The choice of parameterization
greatly influences the efficiency of gradient-based posterior inference; we
show that they are often complementary to eachother, we clarify when each
parameterization is preferred and show how inference can be made robust. In the
non-centered form, a simple Monte Carlo estimator of the marginal likelihood
can be used for learning the parameters. Theoretical results are supported by
experiments.


title:
An integrated processor for photonic quantum states using a broadband
  light-matter interface

abstract:
  Faithful storage and coherent manipulation of quantum optical pulses are key
for long distance quantum communications and quantum computing. Combining these
functions in a light-matter interface that can be integrated on-chip with other
photonic quantum technologies, e.g. sources of entangled photons, is an
important step towards these applications. To date there have only been a few
demonstrations of coherent pulse manipulation utilizing optical storage devices
compatible with quantum states, and that only in atomic gas media (making
integration difficult) and with limited capabilities. Here we describe how a
broadband waveguide quantum memory based on the Atomic Frequency Comb (AFC)
protocol can be used as a programmable processor for essentially arbitrary
spectral and temporal manipulations of individual quantum optical pulses. Using
weak coherent optical pulses at the few photon level, we experimentally
demonstrate sequencing, time-to-frequency multiplexing and demultiplexing,
splitting, interfering, temporal and spectral filtering, compressing and
stretching as well as selective delaying. Our integrated light-matter interface
offers high-rate, robust and easily configurable manipulation of quantum
optical pulses and brings fully practical optical quantum devices one step
closer to reality. Furthermore, as the AFC protocol is suitable for storage of
intense light pulses, our processor may also find applications in classical
communications.


title: On Tarski's Decidability Problem

abstract:
  This note provides a brief guide to the current state of the literature on
Tarski's problems with emphasis on features that distinguish the approach based
on combinatorial and algorithmic group theory from the topological approach to
Tarski's problem. We use this note to provide corrections to some typos and to
address some misconceptions from the recent report by Z. Sela about the
relations between the concepts and results in the approaches to the Tarski
problems. We were forced to read Sela's papers to be able to address some of
his comments, and found errors in his papers 6, 3 and 4 on Diophantine Geometry
published in GAFA and Israel J. Math. which we mention in Section 4. His
proceedings of the ICM 2002 paper also contains wrong Theorem 6 (to make it
correct one has to change the definition of non-elementary hyperbolic
$\omega$-residually free towers to make them equivalent to our coordinate
groups of regular NTQ systems.)


title: On a class of quantum channels, open random walks and recurrence

abstract:
  We study a particular class of trace-preserving completely positive maps,
called PQ-channels, for which classical and quantum evolutions are isolated in
a certain sense. By combining open quantum random walks with a notion of
recurrence, we are able to describe criteria for recurrence of the walk related
to this class of channels. Positive recurrence for open walks is also discussed
in this context.


title:
Evidence for $s$-channel Single-Top-Quark Production in Events with one
  Charged Lepton and two Jets at CDF

abstract:
  We report evidence for $s$-channel single-top-quark production in
proton-antiproton collisions at center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}= 1.96
\mathrm{TeV}$ using a data set that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of
$9.4 \mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We
select events consistent with the $s$-channel process including two jets and
one leptonically decaying $W$ boson. The observed significance is $3.8$
standard deviations with respect to the background-only prediction. Assuming a
top-quark mass of $172.5 \mathrm{GeV}/c^2$, we measure the $s$-channel cross
section to be $1.41^{+0.44}_{-0.42} \mathrm{pb}$.


title: Local algorithms for independent sets are half-optimal

abstract:
  We show that the largest density of factor of i.i.d. independent sets on the
d-regular tree is asymptotically at most (log d)/d as d tends to infinity. This
matches the lower bound given by previous constructions. It follows that the
largest independent sets given by local algorithms on random d-regular graphs
have the same asymptotic density. In contrast, the density of the largest
independent sets on these graphs is asymptotically 2(log d)/d. We also prove
analogous results for Poisson-Galton-Watson trees, which yield bounds for local
algorithms on sparse Erdos-Renyi graphs.


title:
turboTDDFT 2.0 - Hybrid functionals and new algorithms within
  time-dependent density-functional perturbation theory

abstract:
  We present a new release of the turboTDDFT code featuring an implementation
of hybrid functionals, a recently introduced pseudo-Hermitian variant of the
Liouville-Lanczos approach to time-dependent density-functional perturbation
theory, and a newly developed Davidson-like algorithm to compute selected
interior eigenvalues/vectors of the Liouvillian super-operator. Our
implementation is thoroughly validated against benchmark calculations performed
on the cyanin (C$_{21}$O$_{11}$H$_{21}$) molecule using the Gaussian09 and
turboTDDFT 1.0 codes.


title: Large order Reynolds expansions for the Navier-Stokes equations

abstract:
  We consider the Cauchy problem for the incompressible homogeneous
Navier-Stokes (NS) equations on a d-dimensional torus, in the C^infinity
formulation described, e.g., in [25]. In [22][25] it was shown how to obtain
quantitative estimates on the exact solution of the NS Cauchy problem via the
"a posteriori" analysis of an approximate solution; such estimates concern the
interval of existence of the exact solution and its distance from the
approximate solution. In the present paper we consider an approximate solutions
of the NS Cauchy problem having the form u^N(t) = sum_{j=0}^N R^j u_j(t), where
R is the "mathematical" Reynolds number (the reciprocal of the kinematic
viscosity) and the coefficients u_j(t) are determined stipulating that the NS
equations be satisfied up to an error O(R^{N+1}). This subject was already
treated in [24], where, as an application, the Reynolds expansion of order N=5
in dimension d=3 was considered for the initial datum of Behr-Necas-Wu (BNW).
In the present paper, these results are enriched regarding both the theoretical
analysis and the applications. Concerning the theoretical aspect, we refine the
approach of [24] following [25] and use the symmetries of the initial datum in
building up the expansion. Concerning the applicative aspect we consider two
more (d=3) initial data, namely, the vortices of Taylor-Green (TG) and
Kida-Murakami (KM); the Reynolds expansions for the BNW, TG and KM data are
performed via a Python program, attaining orders between N=12 and N=20. Our a
posteriori analysis proves, amongst else, that the solution of the NS equations
with anyone of the above three data is global if R is below an explicitly
computed critical value. Our critical Reynolds numbers are below the ones
characterizing the turbulent regime; however these bounds have a sound
theoretical support, are fully quantitative and improve previous results of
global existence.


title:
What does a measurement of mass and/or radius of a neutron star
  constrain: Equation of state or gravity?

abstract:
  Neutron stars (NSs) are thought to be excellent laboratories for determining
the equation of state (EoS) of cold dense matter. Their strong gravity suggests
that they can also be used to constrain gravity models. The mass and radius
(M-R) of a NS both depend on the choice of EoS and gravity, meaning that NSs
cannot be simultaneously good laboratories for both of these questions. A
measurement of M-R would constrain the less well known physics input. The
assumption that M-R measurements can be used to constrain EoS-presumes general
relativity (GR) is the ultimate model of gravity in the classical regime. We
calculate the radial profile of compactness and curvature (square root of the
full contraction of the Weyl tensor) within a NS and determine the domain not
probed by the Solar System tests of GR. We find that, except for a tiny sphere
of radius less than a millimeter at the center, the curvature is several orders
of magnitude above the values present in Solar System tests. The compactness is
beyond the solar surface value for r>10 m, and increases by 5 orders of
magnitude towards the surface. With the density being only an order of
magnitude higher than that probed by nuclear scattering experiments, our
results suggest that the employment of GR as the theory of gravity describing
the hydrostatic equilibrium of NSs is a rather remarkable extrapolation from
the regime of tested validity, as opposed to that of EoS models. Our larger
ignorance of gravity within NSs suggests that a measurement of M-R constrains
gravity rather than EoS, and given that EoS has yet to be determined by nucleon
scattering experiments, M-R measurements cannot tightly constrain the gravity
models either. Near the surface the curvature and compactness attain their
largest values, while EoS in this region is fairly well known. This renders the
crust as the best site to look for deviations from GR.


title:
Robust protocols for securely expanding randomness and distributing keys
  using untrusted quantum devices

abstract:
  Randomness is a vital resource for modern day information processing,
especially for cryptography. A wide range of applications critically rely on
abundant, high quality random numbers generated securely. Here we show how to
expand a random seed at an exponential rate without trusting the underlying
quantum devices. Our approach is secure against the most general adversaries,
and has the following new features: cryptographic level of security, tolerating
a constant level of imprecision in the devices, requiring only a unit size
quantum memory per device component for the honest implementation, and allowing
a large natural class of constructions for the protocol. In conjunct with a
recent work by Chung, Shi and Wu, it also leads to robust unbounded expansion
using just 2 multi-part devices. When adapted for distributing cryptographic
keys, our method achieves, for the first time, exponential expansion combined
with cryptographic security and noise tolerance. The proof proceeds by showing
that the Renyi divergence of the outputs of the protocol (for a specific
bounding operator) decreases linearly as the protocol iterates. At the heart of
the proof are a new uncertainty principle on quantum measurements, and a method
for simulating trusted measurements with untrusted devices.


title: Legendrian knots and constructible sheaves

abstract:
  We study the unwrapped Fukaya category of Lagrangian branes ending on a
Legendrian knot. Our knots live at contact infinity in the cotangent bundle of
a surface, the Fukaya category of which is equivalent to the category of
constructible sheaves on the surface itself. Consequently, our category can be
described as constructible sheaves with singular support controlled by the
front projection of the knot. We use a theorem of Guillermou-Kashiwara-Schapira
to show that the resulting category is invariant under Legendrian isotopies,
and conjecture it is equivalent to the representation category of the
Chekanov-Eliashberg differential graded algebra.
  We also find two connections to topological knot theory. First, drawing a
positive braid closure on the annulus, the moduli space of rank-n objects maps
to the space of local systems on a circle. The second page of the spectral
sequence associated to the weight filtration on the pushforward of the constant
sheaf is the (colored-by-n) triply-graded Khovanov-Rozansky homology. Second,
drawing a positive braid closure in the plane, the number of points of our
moduli spaces over a finite field with q elements recovers the lowest
coefficient in 'a' of the HOMFLY polynomial of the braid closure.


title: Complexity Analysis of Reversible Logic Synthesis

abstract:
  Reversible logic circuit is a necessary construction for achieving ultra low
power dissipation as well as for prominent post-CMOS computing technologies
such as Quantum computing. Consequently automatic synthesis of a Boolean
function using elementary reversible logic gates has received significant
research attention in recent times, creating the domain of reversible logic
synthesis. In this paper, we study the complexity of reversible logic
synthesis. The problem is separately studied for bounded-ancilla and
ancilla-free optimal synthesis approaches. The computational complexity for
both cases are linked to known/presumed hard problems. Finally, experiments are
performed with a shortest-path based reversible logic synthesis approach and a
(0-1) ILP-based formulation.


title: Fastlim: a fast LHC limit calculator

abstract:
  Fastlim is a tool to calculate conservative limits on extensions of the
Standard Model from direct LHC searches without performing any Monte Carlo
event generation. The program reconstructs the visible cross sections from
pre-calculated efficiency tables and cross section tables for simplified event
topologies. As a proof of concept of the approach, we have implemented searches
relevant for supersymmetric models with R-parity conservation. Fastlim takes
the spectrum and coupling information of a given model point and provides, for
each signal region of the implemented analyses, the visible cross sections
normalised to the corresponding upper limit, reported by the experiments, as
well as the exclusion $p$-value. To demonstrate the utility of the program we
study the sensitivity of the recent ATLAS missing energy searches to the
parameter space of natural SUSY models. The program structure allows the
straight-forward inclusion of external efficiency tables and can be generalised
to R-parity violating scenarios and non-SUSY models. This paper serves as a
self-contained user guide, and indicates the conventions and approximations
used.


title: Starburst-AGN mixing: I. NGC 7130

abstract:
  We present an integral field spectroscopic study of the Luminous Infrared
Galaxy (LIRG) NGC 7130, a known starburst-AGN composite galaxy. We employ
standard emission line ratio diagnostics and maps of velocity dispersion and
velocity field to investigate how the dominant ionising sources change as a
function of radius. From the signatures of both star formation and AGN activity
we show that NGC 7130 is a remarkably clean case of starburst-AGN mixing. We
find a smooth transition from AGN dominated emission in the centre to pure star
forming activity further out, from which we can estimate the radius of the
extended narrow line region to be 1.8 +/- 0.8 kpc. We calculate that the
fraction of [OIII] luminosity due to star formation and AGN activity is 30 +/-
2% and 70 +/- 3% respectively, and that the fraction of H-alpha luminosity due
to star formation and AGN activity is 65 +/- 3% and 35 +/- 2% respectively. We
conclude with a discussion of the importance and potential of starburst-AGN
mixing for future studies of the starburst-AGN connection.


title:
Photoassociation of ultracold molecules near a Feshbach resonance as a
  probe of the electron-proton mass ratio variation

abstract:
  We show that the photoassociation (PA) rate of ultracold diatomic molecules
in the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance could be used to probe variations of
the electron-to-proton mass ratio $\beta = m_e/m_p$, a quantity related to
other fundamental constants via the $\Lambda_{\mathrm{QCD}}$ scale. The PA rate
exhibits two features near a Feshbach resonance, a minimum and a maximum, which
are very sensitive to the details of the interactions and the exact mass of the
system. The effect and detection threshold are illustrated in the formation
rates of ultracold Li$_2$ and LiNa molecules by performing coupled-channel
calculations in an external magnetic field. We find that the PA rate is
particularly sensitive near narrow Feshbach resonances in heavy molecules,
where it might be possible to detect relative variability of $\beta$ on the
order of $10^{-15}-10^{-16}$. We also use a two-channel model to derive a
proportionality relation between the variation of the PA rate and $\beta$
applicable to diatomic molecules.


title: True Limits to Precision via Unique Quantum Probe

abstract:
  Quantum instruments derived from composite systems allow greater measurement
precision than their classical counterparts due to coherences maintained
between N components; spins, atoms or photons. Decoherence that plagues
real-world devices can be particle loss, or thermal excitation and relaxation,
or dephasing due to external noise sources -- and also due to prior parameter
uncertainty. All these adversely affect precision estimation of time, phase or
frequency. We develop a novel technique uncovering the uniquely optimal probe
states of the N `qubits' alongside new tight bounds on precision under local
and collective mechanisms of these noise types above. For large quantum
ensembles where numerical techniques fail, the problem reduces by analogy to
finding the ground state of a 1-D particle in a potential well; the shape of
the well is dictated by the type and strength of decoherence. The formalism is
applied to prototypical Mach-Zehnder and Ramsey interferometers to discover the
ultimate performance of real-world instruments.


title:
Multidimensional spectroscopy with entangled light; loop vs ladder delay
  scanning protocols

abstract:
  Multidimensional optical signals are commonly recorded by varying the delays
between time ordered pulses. These control the evolution of the density matrix
and are described by ladder diagrams. We propose a new non-time-ordered
protocol based on following the time evolution of the wavefunction and
described by loop diagrams. The time variables in this protocol allow to
observe different types of resonances and reveal information about intraband
dephasing not readily available by time ordered techniques. The time variables
involved in this protocol become coupled when using entangled light, which
provides high selectivity and background free measurement of the various
resonances. Entangled light can resolve certain states even when strong
background due to fast dephasing suppresses the resonant features when probed
by classical light.


title: The Figure of the Sun from Ground-based Experiments

abstract:
  The figure of the Sun reflects its inner structure and dynamics, influencing
also the perihelion precession of close orbiting bodies, like Mercury. To study
the solar figure from ground, the deformation on the solar image induced by the
atmosphere has to be known up to one part over a million, and this is done
through differential refraction models: a historical review of them is drafted.
The solar oblateness has been investigated in order to validate alternative
theories to General Relativity and to understand the internal dynamics of our
star. The solar figure should possess only micro departures from sphericity
according to the standard stellar structure theory and helioseismology data,
though variations along the cycle has been observed. Ground-based and satellite
data show contrasting observational results. The oblateness measured onboard
RHESSI satellite, the one of SDS onboard a stratospheric ballon and that one of
the Astrolabe of Rio de Janeiro are presented with their implications in
classical and relativistic gravitation. The perspectives offered by the
reflecting heliometer in the future measurement of the oblateness are depicted.


title: On the relation between the spin and the magnetic moment of the proton

abstract:
  In the context of the quark model of hadrons the spin and the magnetic moment
of proton can not be taken proportional. This is in contradiction with the
widely used relation between these two properties of the proton. This apparent
difficulty is addressed by the most elementary notions of the relevant physics.
In particular it is emphasized that the widely used relation is only valid in
the lowest orders of perturbation, in which transitions between different
baryons do not occur. For other processes where such transitions do occur, such
as inelastic scattering off the protons, the quark model relation for the
magnetic moment is used to give an estimation for the amplitude of transition
between states with different total spins.


title: Some simplicial complexes of universal Osborn loops

abstract:
  A loop is shown to be a universal Osborn loop if and only if it has a
particular simplicial complex. A loop is shown to be a universal Osborn loop
and obeys two new identities if and only if it has another particular
simplicial complex. A universal Osborn loop and four of its isotopes are shown
to form a rectangular pyramid in a $3$-dimensional space.


title: Entanglement And Non-Trivial Topologies

abstract:
  We consider states defined on non-trivial topologies of Torus, Mobius and
Torus-Mobius. Adequate operators leading to the construction of coherent
states, two-mode coherent states and entangled states are derived and we show a
class of entangled states on Torus that are related to the entanglement of
photons by orbital angular momentum states.

categories: quant-ph cond-mat.str-el hep-th math-ph math.MP


title: Large-deviation properties of resilience of transportation networks

abstract:
  Distributions of the resilience of transport networks are studied
numerically, in particular the large-deviation tails. Thus, not only typical
quantities like average or variance but the distributions over the (almost)
full support can be studied. For a proof of principle, a simple transport model
based on the edge-betweenness and three abstract yet widely studied random
network ensembles are considered here: Erdoes-Renyi random networks with finite
connectivity, small world networks and spatial networks embedded in a
two-dimensional plane. Using specific numerical large-deviation techniques,
probability densities as small as 10^(-80) are obtained here. This allows one
to study typical but also the most and the least resilient networks. The
resulting distributions fulfill the mathematical large-deviation principle,
i.e., can be well described by rate functions in the thermodynamic limit. The
analysis of the limiting rate function reveals that the resilience follows an
exponential distribution almost everywhere. An analysis of the structure of the
network shows that the most-resilient networks can be obtained, as a rule of
thumb, by minimizing the diameter of a network. Also, trivially, by including
more links a network can typically be made more resilient. On the other hand,
the least-resilient networks are very rare and characterized by one (or few)
small core(s) to which all other nodes are connected. In total, the spatial
network ensemble turns out to be most suitable for obtaining and studying
resilience of real mostly finite-dimensional networks. Studying this ensemble
in combination with the presented large-deviation approach for more realistic,
in particular dynamic transport networks appears to be very promising.


title: Dynamics of Many-Body Localization

abstract:
  Following the field theoretic approach of Basko et al., Ann. Phys. 321, 1126
(2006), we study in detail the real-time dynamics of a system expected to
exhibit many-body localization. In particular, for time scales inaccessible to
exact methods, we demonstrate that within the second-Born approximation that
the temporal decay of the density-density correlation function is
non-exponential and is consistent with a finite value for $t\to\infty$, as
expected in a non-ergodic state. This behavior persists over a wide range of
disorder and interaction strengths. We discuss the implications of our findings
with respect to dynamical phase boundaries based both on exact diagonalization
studies and as well as those established by the methods of Ref. 1.


title:
Direct calculation of the Entanglement Spectrum in Quantum Monte Carlo
  with application to \textit{ab initio} Hamiltonians

abstract:
  Several algorithms have been proposed to calculate the spatial entanglement
spectrum from high order Renyi entropies. In this work we present an
alternative approach for computing the entanglement spectrum with quantum Monte
Carlo for both continuum and lattice Hamiltonians. This method provides direct
access to the matrix elements of the spatially reduced density matrix and we
determine an estimator that can be used in variational Monte Carlo as well as
other Monte Carlo methods. The algorithm is based on using a generalization of
the Swap operator, which can be extended to calculate a general class of
density matrices that can include combinations of spin, space, particle and
even momentum coordinates. We demonstrate the method by applying it to the
Hydrogen and Nitrogen molecules and describe for the first time how the spatial
entanglement spectrum encodes a covalent bond that includes all the many body
correlations.


title: Images of the Origin of Mass

abstract:
  Recent years have brought considerable progress with studies of the
bound-state problem in continuum QCD. A small part of that made with Dyson
Schwinger equations is highlighted herein. Topics covered include:
opportunities provided by precision experimental studies of the (far) valence
region; and capitalising upon new data on hadron elastic and transition form
factors.


title:
Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to $W \gamma$ production in
  association with two jets

abstract:
  The QCD-induced $W^\pm \gamma$ production channels in association with two
jets are computed at next-to-leading order QCD accuracy. The W bosons decay
leptonicly and full off-shell and finite width effects as well as spin
correlations are taken into account. These processes are important backgrounds
to beyond Standard Model physics searches and also relevant to test the nature
of the quartic gauge couplings of the Standard Model. The next-to-leading order
corrections reduce the scale uncertainty significantly and show a non-trivial
phase space dependence. Our code will be publicly available as part of the
parton level Monte Carlo program VBFNLO.


title: Scale-dependent bias in the BAO-scale intergalactic neutral hydrogen

abstract:
  I discuss fluctuations in the neutral hydrogen (HI) density of the z~2.3
intergalactic medium and show that their relation to cosmic overdensity is
strongly scale-dependent. This behaviour arises from a linearized version of
the well-known "proximity effect", in which bright sources suppress atomic
hydrogen density. Using a novel, systematic and detailed linear-theory
radiative transfer calculation, I demonstrate how HI density consequently
anti-correlates with total matter density when averaged on scales exceeding the
Lyman-limit mean-free-path.
  The radiative transfer thumbprint is highly distinctive and should be
measurable in the Lyman-alpha forest. Effects extend to sufficiently small
scales to generate significant distortion of the correlation function shape
around the baryon acoustic oscillation peak, although the peak location shifts
only by 1.2 percent for a mean source bias of b_j=3. The distortion changes
significantly with b_j and other astrophysical parameters; measuring it should
provide a helpful observational constraint on the nature of ionizing photon
sources in the near future.


title: CP Violation from Finite Groups

abstract:
  We discuss the origin of CP violation in settings with a discrete (flavor)
symmetry $G$. We show that physical CP transformations always have to be
class-inverting automorphisms of $G$. This allows us to categorize finite
groups into three types: (i) Groups that do not exhibit such an automorphism
and, therefore, in generic settings, explicitly violate CP. In settings based
on such groups, CP violation can have pure group-theoretic origin and can be
related to the complexity of some Clebsch-Gordan coefficients. (ii) Groups for
which one can find a CP basis in which all the Clebsch-Gordan coefficients are
real. For such groups, imposing CP invariance restricts the phases of coupling
coefficients. (iii) Groups that do not admit real Clebsch-Gordan coefficients
but possess a class-inverting automorphism that can be used to define a proper
(generalized) CP transformation. For such groups, imposing CP invariance can
lead to an additional symmetry that forbids certain couplings. We make use of
the so-called twisted Frobenius-Schur indicator to distinguish between the
three types of discrete groups. With $\Delta(27)$, $T^{\prime}$, and
$\Sigma(72)$ we present one explicit example for each type of group, thereby
illustrating the CP properties of models based on them. We also show that
certain operations that have been dubbed generalized CP transformations in the
recent literature do not lead to physical CP conservation.


title:
Light cone effect on the reionization 21-cm signal II: Evolution,
  anisotropies and observational implications

abstract:
  Measurements of the HI 21-cm power spectra from the reionization epoch will
be influenced by the evolution of the signal along the line-of-sight direction
of any observed volume. We use numerical as well as semi-numerical simulations
of reionization in a cubic volume of 607 Mpc across to study this so-called
light cone effect on the HI 21-cm power spectrum. We find that the light cone
effect has the largest impact at two different stages of reionization: one when
reionization is $\sim 20\%$ and other when it is $\sim 80\%$ completed. We find
a factor of $\sim 4$ amplification of the power spectrum at the largest scale
available in our simulations. We do not find any significant anisotropy in the
21-cm power spectrum due to the light cone effect. We argue that for the power
spectrum to become anisotropic, the light cone effect would have to make the
ionized bubbles significantly elongated or compressed along the line-of-sight,
which would require extreme reionization scenarios. We also calculate the
two-point correlation functions parallel and perpendicular to the line-of-sight
and find them to differ. Finally, we calculate an optimum frequency bandwidth
below which the light cone effect can be neglected when extracting power
spectra from observations. We find that if one is willing to accept a $10 \%$
error due to the light cone effect, the optimum frequency bandwidth for $k=
0.056 \, \rm{Mpc}^{-1}$ is $\sim 7.5$ MHz. For $k = 0.15$ and $0.41 \,
\rm{Mpc}^{-1}$ the optimum bandwidth is $\sim 11$ and $\sim 16$ MHz
respectively.


title: Forming Circumbinary Planets: N-body Simulations of Kepler-34

abstract:
  Observations of circumbinary planets orbiting very close to the central stars
have shown that planet formation may occur in a very hostile environment, where
the gravitational pull from the binary should be very strong on the primordial
protoplanetary disk. Elevated impact velocities and orbit crossings from
eccentricity oscillations are the primary contributors towards high energy,
potentially destructive collisions that inhibit the growth of aspiring planets.
In this work, we conduct high resolution, inter-particle gravity enabled N-body
simulations to investigate the feasibility of planetesimal growth in the
Kepler-34 system. We improve upon previous work by including planetesimal disk
self-gravity and an extensive collision model to accurately handle
inter-planetesimal interactions. We find that super-catastrophic erosion events
are the dominant mechanism up to and including the orbital radius of
Kepler-34(AB)b, making in-situ growth unlikely. It is more plausible that
Kepler-34(AB)b migrated from a region beyond 1.5 AU. Based on the conclusions
that we have made for Kepler-34 it seems likely that all of the currently known
circumbinary planets have also migrated significantly from their formation
location with the possible exception of Kepler-47(AB)c.


title:
Physical Properties of Emission-Line Galaxies at z ~ 2 from
  Near-Infrared Spectroscopy with Magellan FIRE

abstract:
  We present results from near-infrared spectroscopy of 26 emission-line
galaxies at z ~ 2 obtained with the FIRE spectrometer on the Magellan Baade
telescope. The sample was selected from the WISP survey, which uses the
near-infrared grism of the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 to detect
emission-line galaxies over 0.3 < z < 2.3. Our FIRE follow-up spectroscopy
(R~5000) over 1.0-2.5 micron permits detailed measurements of physical
properties of the z~2 emission-line galaxies. Dust-corrected star formation
rates for the sample range from ~5-100 M_sun yr-1. We derive a median
metallicity for the sample of ~0.45 Z_sun, and the estimated stellar masses
range from ~10^8.5 - 10^9.5 M_sun. The average ionization parameters measured
for the sample are typically much higher than what is found for local
star-forming galaxies. We derive composite spectra from the FIRE sample, from
which we infer typical nebular electron densities of ~100-400 cm^-3. Based on
the location of the galaxies and composite spectra on BPT diagrams, we do not
find evidence for significant AGN activity in the sample. Most of the galaxies
as well as the composites are offset in the BPT diagram toward higher [O
III]/H-beta at a given [N II]/H-alpha, in agreement with other observations of
z > 1 star-forming galaxies, but composite spectra derived from the sample do
not show an appreciable offset from the local star-forming sequence on the [O
III]/H-beta versus [S II]/H-alpha diagram. We infer a high nitrogen-to-oxygen
abundance ratio from the composite spectrum, which may contribute to the offset
of the high-redshift galaxies from the local star-forming sequence in the [O
III]/H-beta versus [N II]/H-alpha diagram. We speculate that the elevated
nitrogen abundance could result from substantial numbers of Wolf-Rayet stars in
starbursting galaxies at z~2. (Abridged)


title:
Identifying Keystone Species in the Human Gut Microbiome from
  Metagenomic Timeseries using Sparse Linear Regression

abstract:
  Human associated microbial communities exert tremendous influence over human
health and disease. With modern metagenomic sequencing methods it is possible
to follow the relative abundance of microbes in a community over time. These
microbial communities exhibit rich ecological dynamics and an important goal of
microbial ecology is to infer the interactions between species from sequence
data. Any algorithm for inferring species interactions must overcome three
obstacles: 1) a correlation between the abundances of two species does not
imply that those species are interacting, 2) the sum constraint on the relative
abundances obtained from metagenomic studies makes it difficult to infer the
parameters in timeseries models, and 3) errors due to experimental uncertainty,
or mis-assignment of sequencing reads into operational taxonomic units, bias
inferences of species interactions. Here we introduce an approach, Learning
Interactions from MIcrobial Time Series (LIMITS), that overcomes these
obstacles. LIMITS uses sparse linear regression with boostrap aggregation to
infer a discrete-time Lotka-Volterra model for microbial dynamics. We tested
LIMITS on synthetic data and showed that it could reliably infer the topology
of the inter-species ecological interactions. We then used LIMITS to
characterize the species interactions in the gut microbiomes of two individuals
and found that the interaction networks varied significantly between
individuals. Furthermore, we found that the interaction networks of the two
individuals are dominated by distinct "keystone species", Bacteroides fragilis
and Bacteroided stercosis, that have a disproportionate influence on the
structure of the gut microbiome even though they are only found in moderate
abundance. Based on our results, we hypothesize that the abundances of certain
keystone species may be responsible for individuality in the human gut
microbiome.


title:
Gamma-ray anisotropies from dark matter in the Milky Way: the role of
  the radial distribution

abstract:
  The annihilation of dark matter particles in the halo of galaxies may end up
into gamma rays, which travel almost unperturbed till to their detection at
Earth. This annihilation signal can exhibit an anisotropic behavior quantified
by the angular power spectrum, whose properties strongly depend on the dark
matter distribution and its clumpiness. We use high resolution pure dark matter
N-body simulations to quantify the contribution of different components (main
halo and satellites) to the global signal as a function of the analytical
profile adopted to describe the numerical results. We find that the smooth main
halo dominates the angular power spectrum of the gamma-ray signal up to quite
large multipoles, where the sub-haloes anisotropy signal starts to emerge, but
the transition multipole strongly depends on the assumed radial profile. The
extrapolation down to radii not resolved by current numerical simulations can
affect both the normalization and the shape of the gamma-ray angular power
spectrum. For the sub-haloes described by an asymptotically cored dark matter
distribution, the angular power spectrum shows an overall smaller normalization
and a flattening at high multipoles. Our results show the criticality of the
dark matter density profile shape in gamma-ray anisotropy searches, and
evaluate quantitatively the intrinsic errors occurring when extrapolating the
dark matter radial profiles down to spatial scales not yet explored by
numerical simulations.


title:
Influence of Magnetorotational Instability on Neutrino Heating: A New
  Mechanism for Weakly Magnetized Core-Collapse Supernovae

abstract:
  We investigated the impacts of magnetorotational instability (MRI) on the
dynamics of weakly magnetized, rapidly rotating core-collapse by conducting
high resolution MHD simulations in axisymmetry with simplified neutrino
transfer. We found that an initially sub-magnetar class magnetic field is
drastically amplified by MRI and substantially affects the dynamics thereafter.
Although the magnetic pressure is not strong enough to eject matter, the
amplified magnetic field efficiently transfers angular momentum from higher to
lower latitudes, which causes the expansion of the heating region at low
latitudes due to the extra centrifugal force. This then enhance the efficiency
of neutrino heating and eventually leads to neutrino-driven explosion. This is
a new scenario of core-collapse supernovae that has never been demonstrated by
numerical simulations so far.


title: Statistical description of the flavor structure of the nucleon sea

abstract:
  The theoretical foundations of the quantum statistical approach to parton
distributions are reviewed together with the phenomenological motivations from
a few specific features of Deep Inelastic Scattering data. The chiral
properties of QCD lead to strong relations between quarks and antiquarks
distributions and automatically account for the flavor and helicity symmetry
breaking of the sea. We are able to describe both unpolarized and polarized
structure functions in terms of a small number of parameters. The extension to
include their transverse momentum dependence will be also briefly considered.


title:
Radiative neutrino mass generation linked to neutrino mixing and
  $0\nu\beta\beta$-decay predictions

abstract:
  We discuss the connection between the origin of neutrino masses and their
mixings which arises in a class of scenarios with radiatively induced neutrino
masses. In these scenarios, the neutrino mass matrix acquires textures with two
entries close to zero in the basis where the charged-lepton mass matrix is
diagonal. This results in specific constraints on the neutrino mixing
parameters, which leads to the prediction of (i) a normal ordering of neutrino
masses with the lightest neutrino mass in the $\sim$ meV range and (ii)
testable correlations among the various mixing angles, including a nonzero
$\theta_{13}$ angle with its exact value correlated with the values of the
atmospheric angle $\theta_{23}$ and the $CP$ phase $\delta$. We quantify the
impact of deviations from exact zeroes in the mass matrix texture and connect
it to the amount of hierarchy among Yukawa couplings. These scenarios of
radiative neutrino mass generation also give rise to new short-range
contributions to neutrinoless double beta decay, which dominate over the usual
light-neutrino exchange contribution. As a result, this class of models can
have a sizable neutrinoless double beta decay rate, in the range of upcoming
experiments despite the normal mass ordering of neutrinos.


title:
Jet Substructure Templates: Data-driven QCD Backgrounds for Fat Jet
  Searches

abstract:
  QCD is often the dominant background to new physics searches for which jet
substructure provides a useful handle. Due to the challenges associated with
modeling this background, data-driven approaches are necessary. This paper
presents a novel method for determining QCD predictions using templates --
probability distribution functions for jet substructure properties as a
function of kinematic inputs. Templates can be extracted from a control region
and then used to compute background distributions in the signal region. Using
Monte Carlo, we illustrate the procedure with two case studies and show that
the template approach effectively models the relevant QCD background. This work
strongly motivates the application of these techniques to LHC data.


title:
Scaling Relations for the Cosmological "Constant" in Five-Dimensional
  Relativity

abstract:
  When the cosmological "constant" is derived from modern five-dimensional
relativity, exact solutions imply that for small systems it scales in
proportion to the square of the mass. However, a duality transformation implies
that for large systems it scales as the inverse square of the mass.


title: Degree reduction and graininess for Kakeya-type sets in $\mathbb{R}^3$

abstract:
  Let $\frak T$ be a set of cylindrical tubes in $\mathbb{R}^3$ of length $N$
and radius 1. If the union of the tubes has volume $N^{3 - \sigma}$, and each
point in the union lies in tubes pointing in three quantitatively different
directions, and if a technical assumption holds, then at scale $N^\sigma$, the
tubes are clustered into rectangular slabs of dimension $1 \times N^\sigma
\times N^\sigma$. This estimate generalizes the graininess estimate proven by
Katz-Laba-Tao. The proof is based on modeling the union of tubes with a
high-degree polynomial.


title:
{\it K}-Shell Photoionization of B-like Atomic Nitrogen Ions: Experiment
  and Theory

abstract:
  Measurements of absolute cross sections for the {\it K}-shell photoionization
of B-like atomic nitrogen ions were carried out utilizing the ion-photon
merged-beam technique at the SOLEIL synchrotron radiation facility in
Saint-Aubin, France. High-resolution spectroscopy with E/$\Delta$E $\approx$
13,500 was the maximum resolution achieved. We have investigated two photon
energy regions: 404 eV -- 409 eV and 439 eV -- 442 eV. Resonance peaks found in
the experimental measured cross sections are compared with theoretical
estimates from the multi-configuration Dirac - Fock, R-matrix and empirical
methods, allowing identification of the strong 1s $\rightarrow$ 2p and the
weaker 1s $\rightarrow$ 3p resonances in the observed {\it K}-shell spectra of
this B-like nitrogen ion.


title: Redshift drift test of exotic singularity universes

abstract:
  We discuss how dynamical dark energy universes with exotic singularities may
be distinguished from the standard $\Lambda$CDM model on the basis of their
redshift drift signal, for which measurements both in the acceleration phase
and in the deep matter era will be provided by forthcoming astrophysical
facilities. Two specific classes of exotic singularity models are studied:
sudden future singularity models and finite scale factor singularity models. In
each class we identify the models which can mimic $\Lambda$CDM and play the
role of dark energy as well as models for which redshift drift signals are
significantly different from $\Lambda$CDM and the test can differentiate
between them.


title:
Cognitive Forwarding Control in Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks with Slow
  Fading Channels

abstract:
  We propose a decentralized stochastic control solution for the broadcast
message dissemination problem in wireless ad hoc networks with slow fading
channels. We formulate the control problem as a dynamic robust game which is
well justified by two key observations; first, the shared nature of the
wireless medium which inevitably cross-couples the nodes' forwarding decisions,
thus binding them together as strategic players; second, the stochastic
dynamics associated with the link qualities which renders the transmission
costs noisy, thus motivating a robust formulation. Given the non stationarity
induced by the fading process, an online solution for the formulated game would
then require an adaptive procedure capable of both convergence to and tracking
strategic equilibria as the environment changes. To this end, we deploy the
strategic and non stationary learning algorithm of regret tracking, the
temporally adaptive variant of the celebrated regret matching algorithm, to
guarantee the emergence and active tracking of the correlated equilibria in the
dynamic robust forwarding game. We also make provision for exploiting the
channel state information, when available, to enhance the convergence speed of
the learning algorithm by conducting an accurate transmission cost estimation.
This cost estimate can basically serve as a model which spares the algorithm
from extra action exploration, thus rendering the learning process more sample
efficient. Simulation results reveal that our proposed solution excels in terms
of both the number of transmissions and load distribution while also
maintaining near perfect delivery ratio, especially in dense crowded
environments.


title: Dissipative preparation of large W states in Optical Cavities

abstract:
  Two novel schemes are proposed for the dissipative preparation of large W
states, of the order of ten qubits, within the context of Cavity QED. By
utilizing properties of the irreducible representations of su(3), we are able
to construct protocols in which it is possible to restrict the open system
dynamics to a fully symmetric irreducible subspace of the total Hilbert space,
and hence obtain analytic solutions for effective ground state dynamics of
arbitrary sized ensembles of $\Lambda$ atoms within an optical cavity. In the
proposed schemes, the natural decay processes of spontaneous emission and
photon loss are no longer undesirable, but essential to the required dynamics.
All aspects of the proposed schemes relevant to implementation in currently
available optical cavities are explored, especially with respect to increasing
system size.


title:
Testing the rotating lighthouse model with the double pulsar system PSR
  J0737-3039A/B

abstract:
  Each of the two pulsars in the double pulsar PSR J0737-3039A/B system
exhibits not only the pulses emanating from itself, but also displays
modulations near the pulse period of the other. Freire et al. (2009, MNRAS,
396, 1764) have put forward a technique using the modulation of B by A to
determine the sense of rotation of pulsar A relative to its orbital motion,
among other quantities. In this paper, we present another technique with the
same purpose. While the Freire et al. approach analyzes pulse arrival times,
ours instead uses periods or frequencies (their inverses), which can be
experimentally determined via power spectral analysis similar to that used in
pulsar searches. Our technique is based on the apparent change in spin period
of a body when it is measured from an orbiting platform (the other pulsar), and
is shown to be entirely analogous to the difference between the sidereal and
solar spin period of the Earth (i.e., the sidereal and solar day). Two benefits
of this approach are its conceptual and computational simplicity. The direct
detection of spin with this technique will observationally validate the
rotating lighthouse model of pulsar emission, while the detection of the
relative directions of spin and orbital angular momenta has important
evolutionary implications. Our technique can be used on other binary systems
exhibiting mutually induced phenomena.


title:
Coronal origin of the polarization of the high-energy emission of Cygnus
  X-1

abstract:
  Cygnus X-1 is the candidate with the highest probability of containing a
black hole among the X-ray binary systems in the Galaxy. It is also by far the
most often studied of these objects. Recently, the International Gamma-Ray
Astrophysics Laboratory Imager onboard then Integral satellite ({\it
INTEGRAL}/IBIS) detected strong polarization in the high-energy radiation of
this source, between 400 keV and 2 MeV. This radiation has been attributed to a
jet launched by the black hole. We consider whether the corona around the black
hole might be the site of production of the polarized emission instead of the
jet. We studied self-consistently the injection of nonthermal particles in the
hot, magnetized plasma around the black hole. We show that both the high-energy
spectrum and polarization of Cygnus X-1 in the low-hard state can originate in
the corona, without needing to invoke a jet. We estimate the degree of
polarization in the intermediate state, where there is no jet, to provide a
tool to test our model. Contrary to the commonly accepted view, the jet might
not be the source of the MeV polarized tail in the spectrum of Cygnus X-1.


title: A Deterministic Annealing Approach to Witsenhausen's Counterexample

abstract:
  This paper proposes a numerical method, based on information theoretic ideas,
to a class of distributed control problems. As a particular test case, the
well-known and numerically "over-mined" problem of decentralized control and
implicit communication, commonly referred to as Witsenhausen's counterexample,
is considered. The method provides a small improvement over the best numerical
result so far for this benchmark problem. The key idea is to randomize the
zero-delay mappings. which become "soft", probabilistic mappings to be
optimized in a deterministic annealing process, by incorporating a Shannon
entropy constraint in the problem formulation. The entropy of the mapping is
controlled and gradually lowered to zero to obtain deterministic mappings,
while avoiding poor local minima. Proposed method obtains new mappings that
shed light on the structure of the optimal solution, as well as achieving a
small improvement in total cost over the state of the art in numerical
approaches to this problem.


title: Inflationary Cosmology after Planck 2013

abstract:
  I give a general review of inflationary cosmology and of its present status,
in view of the 2013 data release by the Planck satellite. A specific emphasis
is given to the new broad class of theories, the cosmological attractors, which
have nearly model-independent predictions converging at the sweet spot of the
Planck data in the (n_s,r) plane. I also discuss the problem of initial
conditions for the theories favored by the Planck data.


title: Planck 2013 and Superconformal Symmetry

abstract:
  We explain why the concept of a spontaneously broken superconformal symmetry
is useful to describe inflationary models favored by the Planck. Non-minimal
coupling of complex scalars to curvature, N(X, X*) R, is compulsory for
superconformal symmetry. Here N is the Kahler potential of the embedding moduli
space, including the inflaton and the conformon. It appears that such a
non-minimal coupling allows generic chaotic models of inflation to reach an
agreement with the observable (n_{s},r) values. We describe here the
superconformal versions of the cosmological attractors whose bosonic part was
presented in lectures of A. Linde in this volume. A distinguishing feature of
this class of models is that they tend to lead to very similar predictions
which are not very sensitive with respect to strong modifications of the
theory. The (super)conformal symmetry underlying (super)gravity allows a
universal description of a large class of models which agree with observations
and predict the tensor to scalar ratio 10^{-3} < r < 10^{-1}.


title: ODE to $L^p$ norms

abstract:
  In this paper we relate the geometry of Banach spaces to the theory of
differential equations, apparently in a new way. We will construct Banach
function space norms arising as weak solutions to ordinary differential
equations of first order. This provides as a special case a new way of defining
varying exponent $L^p$ spaces, different from the Orlicz type approach. We
explain heuristically how the definition of the norm by means of the particular
ODE is justified. The resulting class of spaces includes the classical $L^p$
spaces as a special case. We present an ODE-free means of defining the norms
investigated.


title: Dissipative preparation of generalised Bell states

abstract:
  A scheme is presented for the dissipative preparation of generalised Bell
states of two-qubits, within the context of cavity QED. In the suggested
protocol the dissipative processes of spontaneous emission and cavity loss are
no longer undesirable, but essential to the required dynamics. Extremely long
lived target states are achieved, with fidelities of near unity, utilising
cooperativities corresponding to currently available optical cavities.
Furthermore, the suggested protocol exhibits excellent scaling of relevant
characteristics, with respect to cooperativity, such that improved results may
be obtained as the development of experimental capabilities continues.


title:
Pulsatile localized dynamics in delayed neural-field equations in
  arbitrary dimension

abstract:
  Neural field equations are integro-differential systems describing the
macroscopic activity of spatially extended pieces of cortex. In such cortical
assemblies, the propagation of information and the transmission machinery
induce communication delays, due to the transport of information (propagation
delays) and to the synaptic machinery (constant delays). We investigate the
role of these delays on the formation of structured spatiotemporal patterns for
these systems in arbitrary dimensions. We focus on localized activity, either
induced by the presence of a localized stimulus (pulses) or by transitions
between two levels of activity (fronts). Linear stability analysis allows to
reveal the existence of Hopf bifurcation curves induced by the delays, along
different modes that may be symmetric or asymmetric. We show that instabilities
strongly depend on the dimension, and in particular may exhibit transversal
instabilities along invariant directions. These instabilities yield pulsatile
localized activity, and depending on the symmetry of the destabilized modes,
either produce spatiotemporal breathing or sloshing patterns.


title:
Boson sampling with displaced single-photon Fock states versus
  single-photon-added coherent states---The quantum-classical divide and
  computational-complexity transitions in linear optics

abstract:
  Boson sampling is a specific quantum computation, which is likely hard to
implement efficiently on a classical computer. The task is to sample the output
photon number distribution of a linear optical interferometric network, which
is fed with single-photon Fock state inputs. A question that has been asked is
if the sampling problems associated with any other input quantum states of
light (other than the Fock states) to a linear optical network and suitable
output detection strategies are also of similar computational complexity as
boson sampling. We consider the states that differ from the Fock states by a
displacement operation, namely the displaced Fock states and the photon-added
coherent states. It is easy to show that the sampling problem associated with
displaced single-photon Fock states and a displaced photon number detection
scheme is in the same complexity class as boson sampling for all values of
displacement. On the other hand, we show that the sampling problem associated
with single-photon-added coherent states and the same displaced photon number
detection scheme demonstrates a computational complexity transition. It
transitions from being just as hard as boson sampling when the input coherent
amplitudes are sufficiently small, to a classically simulatable problem in the
limit of large coherent amplitudes.


title:
Approximate Computation of DFT without Performing Any Multiplications:
  Applications to Radar Signal Processing

abstract:
  In many practical problems it is not necessary to compute the DFT in a
perfect manner including some radar problems. In this article a new
multiplication free algorithm for approximate computation of the DFT is
introduced. All multiplications $(a\times b)$ in DFT are replaced by an
operator which computes $sign(a\times b)(|a|+|b|)$. The new transform is
especially useful when the signal processing algorithm requires correlations.
Ambiguity function in radar signal processing requires high number of
multiplications to compute the correlations. This new additive operator is used
to decrease the number of multiplications. Simulation examples involving
passive radars are presented.


title:
Transport of solids in protoplanetary disks: Comparing meteorites and
  astrophysical models

abstract:
  We review models of chondrite component transport in the gaseous
protoplanetary disk. Refractory inclusions were likely transported by turbulent
diffusion and possible early disk expansion, and required low turbulence for
their subsequent preservation in the disk, possibly in a dead zone. Chondrules
were produced locally but did not necessarily accrete shortly after formation.
Water may have been enhanced in the inner disk because of inward drift of
solids from further out, but likely not by more than a factor of a few.
Incomplete condensation in chondrites may be due to slow reaction kinetics
during temperature decrease. While carbonaceous chondrite compositions might be
reproduced in a ``two-component'' picture (Anders 1964), such components would
not correspond to simple petrographic constituents, although part of the
refractory element fractionations in chondrites may be due to the inward drift
of refractory inclusions. Overall, considerations of chondrite component
transport alone favor an earlier formation for carbonaceous chondrites relative
to their noncarbonaceous counterparts, but independent objections have yet to
be resolved.


title:
Nucleation and stabilization of carbon-rich structures in interstellar
  media

abstract:
  We study conditions under which carbon clusters of different sizes form and
stabilize. {We describe an approach to equilibrium by simulating tenuous carbon
gas dynamics to long times.} First, we use reactive molecular dynamics
simulations to describe the nucleation of long chains, large clusters, and
complex cage structures in carbon and hydrogen rich interstellar gas phases. We
study how temperature, particle density, presence of hydrogen, and carbon
inflow affect the nucleation of molecular moieties with different
characteristics, in accordance with astrophysical conditions. We extend the
simulations to densities which are orders of magnitude lower than current
laboratory densities, to temperatures relevant to circumstellar environments of
planetary nebulae, and to longtime (microsecond) formation timescales. We
correlate cluster size distributions from dynamical simulations with
thermodynamic equilibrium intuitions, where at low temperatures and gas
densities, entropy plays a significant role.


title: Contribution of Berry Curvature to Thermoelectric Effects

abstract:
  Within the semiclassical Boltzmann transport theory, the formula for Seebeck
coefficient $S$ is derived for an isotropic two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG)
system that exhibits anomalous Hall effect (AHE) and anomalous Nernst effect
(ANE) originating from Berry curvature on their bands. Deviation of $S$ from
the value $S_0$ estimated neglecting Berry curvarture is computed for a special
case of 2DEG with Zeeman and Rashba terms. The result shows that, under certain
conditions the contribution of Berry curvature to Seebeck effect could be
non-negligible. Further study is needed to clarify the effect of additional
contributions from mechanisms of AHE and ANE other than pure Berry curvature.


title: Predictive Modeling of Cholera Outbreaks in Bangladesh

abstract:
  Despite seasonal cholera outbreaks in Bangladesh, little is known about the
relationship between environmental conditions and cholera cases. We seek to
develop a predictive model for cholera outbreaks in Bangladesh based on
environmental predictors. To do this, we estimate the contribution of
environmental variables, such as water depth and water temperature, to cholera
outbreaks in the context of a disease transmission model. We implement a method
which simultaneously accounts for disease dynamics and environmental variables
in a Susceptible-Infected-Recovered-Susceptible (SIRS) model. The entire system
is treated as a continuous-time hidden Markov model, where the hidden Markov
states are the numbers of people who are susceptible, infected, or recovered at
each time point, and the observed states are the numbers of cholera cases
reported. We use a Bayesian framework to fit this hidden SIRS model,
implementing particle Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to sample from the
posterior distribution of the environmental and transmission parameters given
the observed data. We test this method using both simulation and data from
Mathbaria, Bangladesh. Parameter estimates are used to make short-term
predictions that capture the formation and decline of epidemic peaks. We
demonstrate that our model can successfully predict an increase in the number
of infected individuals in the population weeks before the observed number of
cholera cases increases, which could allow for early notification of an
epidemic and timely allocation of resources.


title: One-dimensional weakly nonlinear model equations for Rossby waves

abstract:
  In this study we explore several possibilities for modelling weakly nonlinear
Rossby waves in fluid of constant depth, which propagate predominantly in one
direction. The model equations obtained include the BBM equation, as well as
the integrable KdV and Degasperis-Procesi equations.


title: Plank theorems via successive inradii

abstract:
  In the 1930's, Tarski introduced his plank problem at a time when the field
discrete geometry was about to born. It is quite remarkable that Tarski's
question and its variants continue to generate interest in the geometric as
well as analytic aspects of coverings by planks in the present time as well.
Besides giving a short survey on the status of the affine plank conjecture of
Bang (1950) we prove some new partial results for the successive inradii of the
convex bodies involved. The underlying geometric structures are successive
hyperplane cuts introduced several years ago by Conway and inductive tilings
introduced recently by Akopyan and Karasev.


title: The universal abelian variety over A_5

abstract:
  We establish a structure result for the universal abelian variety over the
moduli space A_5, in terms of discriminant curves of conic bundles over a del
Pezzo surface. In particular, this gives a very simple unirational
parametrization of the boundary divisor of the moduli space A_6 of principally
polarized abelian varieties of dimension 6. Using this we derive a lower bound
on the slope of all effective divisors on A_6.


title:
A Physical Model of a Smart Magneto-Composite Material and the
  Methodology of Research of the Elastic Properties of Nano Magnetic Composite
  Materials

abstract:
  In this study, we show that any system consisting of magnetic dipoles forming
ordered or disordered configurations can be simplified to a form mathematically
equivalent to a system consisting of two magnetic dipoles. It is shown that the
energy of all kinds of magnetic dipole systems can be written as
$E=\frac{\beta}{\alpha^3}$, where $\alpha$ is the nearest distance between the
dipoles and $\beta$ is a certain constant depending on the magnetic moments of
dipoles and configuration. Using this fact we model any nano-magnetic composite
material by a simple two-magnetic dipole system. Then we experimentaly and
theoreticaly show that under certain conditions the elastic properties of the
composite material can be changed using exernal magnetic field which leads to
creation of smart composite materials.


title: CRISM south polar mapping: First Mars year of observations

abstract:
  We report on mapping of the south polar region of Mars using data from the
Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument. Our
observations have led to the following discoveries: 1. Water ice is present in
the form of pole-circling clouds originating from the circum-Hellas region,
beginning prior to Ls=162 and diminishing markedly at Ls=200-204. 2. It has
previously been inferred by temperature measurements(Titus et al., 2003) and
CO2-H2O mixture spectral models (Langevin et al., 2007) that surface water ice
was present in the Cryptic Region in the final stages of sublimation. The high
resolution of CRISM has revealed regions where only water ice is present (not a
CO2-H2O ice mixture). This water ice disappears completely by Ls=252 and may be
the source of water vapor observed by CRISM in southern latitudes between
Ls=240-260 (Smith, et al., this issue). 3. We have estimated surface CO2 ice
grain size distributions for the South Pole Residual Cap (SPRC) and the
seasonal CO2 ice cap that covers it throughout summer spring and summer. Our
analysis suggests that grain sizes peak at Ls=191-199 with an apparent grain
size of ~7 +/-1 cm. By the end of the summer period our analysis demonstrates
minimum apparent grain sizes of ~5 +/-1 mm predominate in the SPRC. 4. Fine
grained CO2 ice condenses from Ls=0-40, and extends symmetrically away from the
geographic pole, extending beyond 80 deg S by Ls=4-10. No evidence for unusual
CO2 depositional processes in the Cryptic Region is observed up to Ls=16.


title:
Blow-up criterion for the compressible magnetohydrodynamic equations
  with vacuum

abstract:
  In this paper, the 3-D compressible MHD equations with initial vacuum or
infinity electric conductivity is considered. We prove that the $L^\infty$
norms of the deformation tensor $D(u)$ and the absolute temperature $\theta$
control the possible blow-up (see [5][18][20]) for strong solutions, which
means that if a solution of the compressible MHD equations is initially regular
and loses its regularity at some later time, then the formation of singularity
must be caused by losing the bound of $D(u)$ and $\theta$ as the critical time
approaches. The viscosity coefficients are only restricted by the physical
conditions. Our criterion (see (\ref{eq:2.911})) is similar to [17] for $3$-D
incompressible Euler equations, [10] for $3$-D compressible isentropic
Navier-stokes equations and [22]for $3$-D compressible isentropic MHD
equations.


title: How Does Latent Semantic Analysis Work? A Visualisation Approach

abstract:
  By using a small example, an analogy to photographic compression, and a
simple visualization using heatmaps, we show that latent semantic analysis
(LSA) is able to extract what appears to be semantic meaning of words from a
set of documents by blurring the distinctions between the words.


title: Turan Problems and Shadows II: Trees

abstract:
  The expansion $G^+$ of a graph $G$ is the 3-uniform hypergraph obtained from
$G$ by enlarging each edge of $G$ with a vertex disjoint from $V(G)$ such that
distinct edges are enlarged by distinct vertices. Let ex$_r(n,F)$ denote the
maximum number of edges in an $r$-uniform hypergraph with $n$ vertices not
containing any copy of $F$. The authors \cite{KMV} recently determined
ex$_3(n,G^+)$ more generally, namely when $G$ is a path or cycle, thus settling
conjectures of F\"uredi-Jiang \cite{FJ} (for cycles) and F\"uredi-Jiang-Seiver
\cite{FJS} (for paths). Here we continue this project by determining the
asymptotics for ex$_3(n,G^+)$ when $G$ is any fixed forest. This settles a
conjecture of F\"uredi \cite{Furedi}. Using our methods, we also show that for
any graph $G$, either ex$_3(n,G^{+}) \leq \left(\frac{1}{2} + o(1)\right)n^2$
or ex$_3(n,G^{+}) \geq (1 + o(1))n^2,$ thereby exhibiting a jump for the
Tur\'an number of expansions.


title: Enumeration of nonisomorphic Hamiltonian cycles on square grid graphs

abstract:
  The enumeration of Hamiltonian cycles on 2n*2n grids of nodes is a
longstanding problem in combinatorics. Previous work has concentrated on
counting all cycles. The current work enumerates nonisomorphic cycles -- that
is, the number of isomorphism classes (up to all symmetry operations of the
square). It is shown that the matrix method used previously can be modified to
count cycles with all combinations of reflective and 180-degree rotational
symmetry. Cycles with 90-degree rotational symmetry were counted by a direct
search, using a modification of Knuth's Dancing Links algorithm. From these
counts, the numbers of nonisomorphic cycles were calculated for n<=10.


title:
Local and Global low-regularity solutions to the Generalized Leray-alpha
  equations

abstract:
  It has recently become common to study many different approximating equations
of the Navier-Stokes equation. One of these is the Leray-$\alpha$ equation,
which regularizes the Navier-Stokes equation by replacing (in most locations)
the solution $u$ in the equation with $(1-\alpha^2\triangle)u$ the operator
$(1-\alpha^2\triangle)$. Another is the generalized Navier-Stokes equation,
which replaces the Laplacian with a Fourier multiplier with symbol of the form
$|\xi|^\gamma$ ($\gamma=2$ is the standard Navier-Stokes equation), and
recently in [14] Tao also considered multipliers of the form
$|\xi|^\gamma/g(|\xi|)$, where $g$ is (essentially) a logarithm. The
generalized Leray-$\alpha$ equation combines these two modifications by
incorporating the regularizing term and replacing the Laplacians with more
general Fourier multipliers, including allowing for $g$ terms similar to those
used in [14]. Our goal in this paper is to obtain existence and uniqueness
results with low regularity and/or non-$L^2$ initial data. We will also use
energy estimates to extend some of these local existence results to global
existence results.


title: An All-Sky Sample of Intermediate-Mass Star-Forming Regions

abstract:
  We present an all-sky sample of 984 candidate intermediate-mass Galactic
star-forming regions color-selected from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite
(IRAS) Point Source Catalog and morphologically classify each object using
mid-infrared Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) images. Of the 984
candidates, 616 are probable star-forming regions (62.6%), 128 are filamentary
structures (13.0%), 39 are point-like objects of unknown nature (4.0%), and 201
are galaxies (20.4%). We conduct a study of four of these regions, IRAS
00259+5625, IRAS 00420+5530, IRAS 01080+5717, and IRAS 05380+2020, at Galactic
latitudes |b| > 5 degrees using optical spectroscopy from the Wyoming Infrared
Observatory along with near-infrared photometry from the Two-Micron All Sky
Survey to investigate their stellar content. New optical spectra,
color-magnitude diagrams, and color-color diagrams reveal their extinctions,
spectrophotometric distances, and the presence of small stellar clusters
containing 20-78 solar masses of stars. These low-mass diffuse star clusters
contain 65-250 stars for a typical initial mass function, including one or more
mid-B stars as their most massive constituents. Using infrared spectral energy
distributions we identify young stellar objects near each region and assign
probable masses and evolutionary stages to the protostars. The total infrared
luminosity lies in the range 190 to 960 solar luminosities, consistent with the
sum of the luminosities of the individually identified young stellar objects.


title: A hunt for dual radio active galactic nuclei in the VLASS

abstract:
  This whitepaper describes how the VLASS could be designed in a manner to
allow the identification of candidate dual active galactic nuclei (AGN) at
separations <7 kpc. Dual AGN represent a clear marker of two supermassive black
holes within an ongoing merger. A dual AGN survey will provide a wealth of
studies in structure growth and gravitational-wave science. Radio wavelengths
are ideal for identifying close pairs, as disturbed stellar and gaseous
material can obscure their presence in optical and shorter wavelengths. With
sufficiently high resolution and sensitivity, a large-scale radio imaging
survey like the VLASS will uncover many of these systems and provide the means
to broadly study the radio properties of candidate dual systems revealed at
other wavelengths. We determine that the ideal survey for our purposes will be
at as high a resolution as possible, with significantly more science return in
A array at L-band or higher, or B array at C-band or higher. We describe a
range of potential survey parameters within this document. Based on the
analysis outlined in this whitepaper, our ideal survey would create a catalogue
of $\gtrsim$100 dual AGN in either: 1) a medium-sensitivity (~1 mJy detection
threshold), wide-field (few thousand square degree) survey, or 2) a
high-sensitivity (~10 uJy threshold) survey of several hundred square degrees.


title:
Regularity of free boundaries in anisotropic capillarity problems and
  the validity of Young's law

abstract:
  Local volume-constrained minimizers in anisotropic capillarity problems
develop free boundaries on the walls of their containers. We prove the
regularity of the free boundary outside a closed negligible set, showing in
particular the validity of Young's law at almost every point of the free
boundary. Our regularity results are not specific to capillarity problems, and
actually apply to sets of finite perimeter (and thus to codimension one integer
rectifiable currents) arising as minimizers in other variational problems with
free boundaries.


title: Alternating Projection, Ptychographic Imaging and Phase Synchronization

abstract:
  We demonstrate necessary and sufficient conditions of the local convergence
of the alternating projection algorithm to a unique solution up to a global
phase factor. Additionally, for the ptychography imaging problem, we discuss
phase synchronization and graph connection Laplacian, and show how to construct
an accurate initial guess to accelerate convergence speed to handle the big
imaging data in the coming new light source era.


title:
Analytic Pulse Sequence Construction for Exchange-Only Quantum
  Computation

abstract:
  We present pulse sequences for two-qubit gates acting on encoded qubits for
exchange-only quantum computation. Previous work finding such sequences has
always required numerical methods due to the large search space of unitary
operators acting on the space of the encoded qubits. By contrast, our
construction can be understood entirely in terms of three-dimensional rotations
of effective spin-1/2 pseudospins which allows us to use geometric intuition to
determine the required sequence of operations analytically. The price we pay
for this simplification is that, at 39 pulses, our sequences are significantly
longer than the best numerically obtained sequences.


title: Generalized effective-medium theory for metamaterials

abstract:
  We present an effective-medium model for calculating the frequency-dependent
effective permittivity $\epsilon(\omega)$ and permeability $\mu(\omega)$ of
metamaterial composites containing spherical particles with arbitrary
permittivity and permeability. The model is derived from the zero-scattering
condition within the dipole approximation, but does not invoke any additional
long-wavelength approximations. As a result, it captures the effects of spatial
dispersion and predicts a finite effective refractive index and antiresonances
in $\epsilon(\omega)$ and $\mu(\omega)$, in agreement with numerical
finite-element calculations.


title:
Effective field theory of modified gravity with two scalar fields: dark
  energy and dark matter

abstract:
  We present a framework for discussing the cosmology of dark energy and dark
matter based on two scalar degrees of freedom. An effective field theory of
cosmological perturbations is employed. A unitary gauge choice renders the dark
energy field into the gravitational sector, for which we adopt a generic
Lagrangian depending on three-dimensional geometrical scalar quantities arising
in the ADM decomposition. We add to this dark-energy associated gravitational
sector a scalar field $\phi$ and its kinetic energy $X$ as dark matter
variables. Compared to the single-field case, we find that there are additional
conditions to obey in order to keep the equations of motion for linear
cosmological perturbations at second order. For such a second-order multi-field
theory we derive conditions under which ghosts and Laplacian instabilities of
the scalar and tensor perturbations are absent. We apply our general results to
models with dark energy emerging in the framework of the Horndeski theory and
dark matter described by a k-essence Lagrangian $P(\phi,X)$. We derive the
effective coupling between such an imperfect-fluid dark matter and the
gravitational sector under the quasi-static approximation on sub-horizon
scales. By considering the purely kinetic Lagrangian $P(X)$ as a particular
case, the formalism is verified to reproduce the gravitational coupling of a
perfect-fluid dark matter.


title:
$C^{2,\alpha}$ estimates for nonlinear elliptic equations in complex and
  almost complex geometry

abstract:
  We describe how to use the perturbation theory of Caffarelli to prove
Evans-Krylov type $C^{2,\alpha}$ estimates for solutions of nonlinear elliptic
equations in complex geometry, assuming a bound on the Laplacian of the
solution. Our results can be used to replace the various Evans-Krylov type
arguments in the complex geometry literature with a sharper and more unified
approach. In addition, our methods extend to almost-complex manifolds, and we
use this to obtain a new local estimate for an equation of Donaldson.


title: Taming the Monster: A Fast and Simple Algorithm for Contextual Bandits

abstract:
  We present a new algorithm for the contextual bandit learning problem, where
the learner repeatedly takes one of $K$ actions in response to the observed
context, and observes the reward only for that chosen action. Our method
assumes access to an oracle for solving fully supervised cost-sensitive
classification problems and achieves the statistically optimal regret guarantee
with only $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{KT/\log N})$ oracle calls across all $T$ rounds,
where $N$ is the number of policies in the policy class we compete against. By
doing so, we obtain the most practical contextual bandit learning algorithm
amongst approaches that work for general policy classes. We further conduct a
proof-of-concept experiment which demonstrates the excellent computational and
prediction performance of (an online variant of) our algorithm relative to
several baselines.


title: Generating Extractive Summaries of Scientific Paradigms

abstract:
  Researchers and scientists increasingly find themselves in the position of
having to quickly understand large amounts of technical material. Our goal is
to effectively serve this need by using bibliometric text mining and
summarization techniques to generate summaries of scientific literature. We
show how we can use citations to produce automatically generated, readily
consumable, technical extractive summaries. We first propose C-LexRank, a model
for summarizing single scientific articles based on citations, which employs
community detection and extracts salient information-rich sentences. Next, we
further extend our experiments to summarize a set of papers, which cover the
same scientific topic. We generate extractive summaries of a set of Question
Answering (QA) and Dependency Parsing (DP) papers, their abstracts, and their
citation sentences and show that citations have unique information amenable to
creating a summary.


title: Optimal Rectangle Packing: An Absolute Placement Approach

abstract:
  We consider the problem of finding all enclosing rectangles of minimum area
that can contain a given set of rectangles without overlap. Our rectangle
packer chooses the x-coordinates of all the rectangles before any of the
y-coordinates. We then transform the problem into a perfect-packing problem
with no empty space by adding additional rectangles. To determine the
y-coordinates, we branch on the different rectangles that can be placed in each
empty position. Our packer allows us to extend the known solutions for a
consecutive-square benchmark from 27 to 32 squares. We also introduce three new
benchmarks, avoiding properties that make a benchmark easy, such as rectangles
with shared dimensions. Our third benchmark consists of rectangles of
increasingly high precision. To pack them efficiently, we limit the rectangles
coordinates and the bounding box dimensions to the set of subset sums of the
rectangles dimensions. Overall, our algorithms represent the current
state-of-the-art for this problem, outperforming other algorithms by orders of
magnitude, depending on the benchmark.