title: FIR line emission from high redshift galaxies

abstract:
  By combining high resolution, radiative transfer cosmological simulations of
z~6 galaxies with a sub-grid multi-phase model of their interstellar medium we
derive the expected intensity of several far infrared (FIR) emission lines ([C
II] 158 micron, [O I] 63 micron, and [N II] 122 micron) for different values of
the gas metallicity, Z. For Z = Z_sun the [C II] spectrum is very complex due
to the presence of several emitting clumps of individual size < 3 kpc; the peak
is displaced from the galaxy center by ~100 km/s. While the [O I] spectrum is
also similarly displaced, the [N II] line comes predominantly from the central
ionized regions of the galaxy. When integrated over ~500 km/s, the [C II] line
flux is 185 mJy km/s; 95% of such flux originates from the cold (T~250 K) H I
phase, and only 5% from the warm (T~5000 K) neutral medium. The [O I] and [N
II] fluxes are ~6 and ~90 times lower than the [C II] one, respectively. By
comparing our results with observations of Himiko, the most extended and
luminous Lyman Alpha Emitter (LAE) at z = 6.6, we find that the gas metallicity
in this source must be sub-solar. We conclude that the [C II] line from z~6
galaxies is detectable by the ALMA full array in 1.9 < t_ON < 7.7 hr observing
time, depending on Z.


title:
Two planetary companions around the K7 dwarf GJ 221 : a hot super-Earth
  and a candidate in the sub-Saturn desert range

abstract:
  We report two low mass companions orbiting the nearby K7 dwarf GJ 221 that
have emerged from re-analyzing 4.4 years of publicly available HARPS spectra
complemented with 2 years of high precision Doppler measurements with
Magellan/PFS. The HARPS measurements alone contain the clear signal of a low
mass companion with a period of 125 days and a minimum mass of 53.2 \mearth (GJ
221b), falling in a mass range where very few planet candidates have been found
(sub-Saturn desert). The addition of 17 PFS observations allow the confident
detection of a second low mass companion (6.5 \mearth) in a hot orbit (3.87
days period, GJ 221c). Spectrocopic and photometric calibrations suggest that
GJ 221 is slightly depleted ([Fe/H]$\sim$ -0.1) compared to the Sun so the
presence of two low mass companions in the system confirms the trend that
slightly reduced stellar metallicity does not prevent the formation of planets
in the super-Earth to sub-Saturn mass regime.


title:
The Redshift and Mass Dependence on the Formation of The Hubble Sequence
  at z>1 from CANDELS/UDS

abstract:
  In this paper we present a detailed study of the structures and morphologies
of a sample of 1188 massive galaxies with Mstar>10^10Msun between redshifts
z=1-3 within the Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) region of the Cosmic Assembly
Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) field. Using this
sample we determine how galaxy structure and morphology evolve with time. We
visually classify our sample into disks, ellipticals and peculiar systems and
correct for redshift effects on our classifications through simulations. We
find evolution in the fractions of galaxies at a given visual classification as
a function of redshift. The peculiar population is dominant at z>2 with a
substantial spheroid population, and a negligible disk population. We compute
the transition redshift, ztrans, where the combined fraction of spheroids and
disks is equal to that of peculiar galaxies, as ztrans=1.86+/-0.62 for galaxies
in our stellar mass range. We find that this changes as a function of stellar
mass, with Hubble-type systems becoming dominant at higher redshifts for higher
mass galaxies (ztrans=2.22+/-0.82), than for the lower mass galaxies
(ztrans=1.73+/-0.57). Higher mass galaxies become morphologically settled
before their lower mass counterparts, a form of morphological downsizing. We
furthermore compare our visual classifications with Sersic index, the
concentration, asymmetry and clumpiness (CAS) parameters, star formation rate
and rest frame U-B colour. We find links between the colour of a galaxy, its
star formation rate and how extended or peculiar it appears. Finally, we
discuss the negligible z>2 disk fraction based on visual morphologies and
speculate that this is an effect of forming disks appearing peculiar through
processes such as violent disk instabilities or mergers. We conclude that to
properly define high redshift morphology a new and more exact classification
scheme is needed.


title: On surfaces with zero vanishing cycles

abstract:
  We show that using an idea from a paper by Van de Ven one may obtain a simple
proof of Zak's classification of smooth projective surfaces with zero vanishing
cycles. This method of proof allows one to extend Zak's theorem to the case of
finite characteristic.


title: Symmetries of statistics on lattice paths between two boundaries

abstract:
  We prove that on the set of lattice paths with steps N=(0,1) and E=(1,0) that
lie between two fixed boundaries T and B (which are themselves lattice paths),
the statistics `number of E steps shared with B' and `number of E steps shared
with T' have a symmetric joint distribution. To do so, we give an involution
that switches these statistics, preserves additional parameters, and
generalizes to paths that contain steps S=(0,-1) at prescribed x-coordinates.
We also show that a similar equidistribution result for path statistics follows
from the fact that the Tutte polynomial of a matroid is independent of the
order of its ground set. We extend the two theorems to k-tuples of paths
between two boundaries, and we give some applications to Dyck paths,
generalizing a result of Deutsch, to watermelon configurations, to
pattern-avoiding permutations, and to the generalized Tamari lattice. Finally,
we prove a conjecture of Nicol\'as about the distribution of degrees of k
consecutive vertices in k-triangulations of a convex n-gon. To achieve this
goal, we provide a new statistic-preserving bijection between certain k-tuples
of non-crossing paths and k-flagged semistandard Young tableaux, which is based
on local moves reminiscent of jeu de taquin.


title:
The imaginary part of the gravitational action at asymptotic boundaries
  and horizons

abstract:
  We study the imaginary part of the Lorentzian gravitational action for
bounded regions, as described in arXiv:1301.7041. By comparing to a Euclidean
calculation, we explain the agreement between the formula for this imaginary
part and the formula for black hole entropy. We also clarify the topological
structure of the imaginary part in Lovelock gravity. We then evaluate the
action's imaginary part for some special regions. These include cylindrical
slabs spanning the exterior of a stationary black hole spacetime, 'maximal
diamonds' in various symmetric spacetimes, as well as local near-horizon
regions. In the first setup, the black hole's entropy and conserved charges
contribute to the action's imaginary and real parts, respectively. In the other
two setups, the imaginary part coincides with the relevant entropy.


title:
Spatial correlations of one dimensional driven-dissipative systems of
  Rydberg atoms

abstract:
  We consider a one-dimensional lattice of atoms with laser excitation to a
Rydberg state and spontaneous emission. The atoms are coupled due to the
dipole-dipole interaction of the Rydberg states. This driven-dissipative system
has a broad range of non-equilibrium phases, such as antiferromagnetic ordering
and bistability. Using the quantum trajectory method, we calculate the spatial
correlation function throughout the parameter space for up to 20 lattice sites.
We show that bistability significantly strengthens the spatial correlations and
entanglement.


title: Freezing Out Early Dark Energy

abstract:
  A phenomenological model of dark energy that tracks the baryonic and cold
dark matter at early times but resembles a cosmological constant at late times
is explored. In the transition between these two regimes, the dark energy
density drops rapidly as if it were a relic species that freezes out, during
which time the equation of state peaks at +1. Such an adjustment in the dark
energy density, as it shifts from scaling to potential-domination, could be the
signature of a trigger mechanism that helps explain the late-time cosmic
acceleration. We show that the non-negligible dark energy density at early
times, and the subsequent peak in the equation of state at the transition,
leave an imprint on the cosmic microwave background anisotropy pattern and the
rate of growth of large scale structure. The model introduces two new
parameters, consisting of the present-day equation of state and the redshift of
the freeze-out transition. A Monte Carlo Markov Chain analysis of a
ten-dimensional parameter space is performed to compare the model with
pre-Planck cosmic microwave background, large scale structure and supernova
data and measurements of the Hubble constant. We find that the transition
described by this model could have taken place as late as a redshift z~400. We
explore the capability of future cosmic microwave background and weak lensing
experiments to put tighter constraints on this model. The viability of this
model may suggest new directions in dark-energy model building that address the
coincidence problem.


title:
Detecting Perfect Transmission in Josephson Junctions on the Surface of
  Three Dimensional Topological Insulators

abstract:
  We consider Josephson junctions on surfaces of three dimensional topological
insulator nanowires. We find that in the presence of a parallel magnetic field,
short junctions on nanowires show signatures of a perfectly transmitted mode
capable of supporting Majorana fermions. Such signatures appear in the
current-phase relation in the presence or absence of the fermion parity
anomaly, and are most striking when considering the critical current as a
function of flux \Phi, which exhibits a peak at \Phi=h/2e. The peak sharpens in
the presence of disorder at low but finite chemical potentials, and can be
easily disentangled from weak-antilocalization effects. The peak also survives
at small but finite temperatures, and represents a realistic and robust
hallmark for perfect transmission and the emergence of Majorana physics inside
the wire.


title: In Situ Measurements of the Size and Density of Titan Aerosol Analogues

abstract:
  The organic haze produced from complex CH4/N2 chemistry in the atmosphere of
Titan plays an important role in processes that occur in the atmosphere and on
its surface. The haze particles act as condensation nuclei and are therefore
involved in Titan's methane hydrological cycle. They also may behave like
sediment on Titan's surface and participate in both fluvial and aeolian
processes. Models that seek to understand these processes require information
about the physical properties of the particles including their size and
density. Although measurements obtained by Cassini-Huygens have placed
constraints on the size of the haze particles, their densities remain unknown.
We have conducted a series of Titan atmosphere simulation experiments and
measured the size, number density, and particle density of Titan aerosol
analogues, or tholins, for CH4 concentrations from 0.01% to 10% using two
different energy sources, spark discharge and UV. We find that the densities
currently in use by many Titan models are higher than the measured densities of
our tholins.


title:
An Oscillating Langevin Antenna for Driving Plasma Turbulence
  Simulations

abstract:
  A unique method of driving Alfvenic turbulence via an oscillating Langevin
antenna is presented. This method of driving is motivated by a desire to inject
energy into a finite domain numerical simulation in a manner that models the
nonlinear transfer of energy from fluctuations in the turbulent cascade at
scales larger than the simulation domain.. The oscillating Langevin antenna is
shown to capture the essential features of the larger scale turbulence and
efficiently couple to the plasma, generating steady-state turbulence within one
characteristic turnaround time. The antenna is also sufficiently flexible to
explore both strong and weak regimes of Alfvenic plasma turbulence.

categories: physics.plasm-ph astro-ph.SR physics.comp-ph physics.space-ph


title:
The benefits of completing homework for students with different
  aptitudes in an introductory physics course

abstract:
  We examine the relationship between homework completion and exam performance
for students having different physics aptitudes for five different semesters of
an introductory electricity and magnetism course. In our analysis, we plot exam
scores versus homework completion scores and calculate the slopes of the line
fits and the Pearson correlations. On average, completing many homework
problems correlated to better exam scores only for students with high physics
aptitude. Low aptitude physics students had a negative correlation between exam
performance and completing homework; the more homework problems they did, the
worse their performance was on exams. One explanation for this effect is that
the assigned homework problems placed an excessive cognitive load on low
aptitude students. As a result, no learning or even negative learning might
have taken place when low aptitude students attempted to do assigned homework.
Another explanation is based on the fact that the negative benefit effects
first appeared when magnetism concepts were introduced. According to this
explanation, low aptitude students had difficulty consolidating knowledge of
magnetic fields with previously-learned knowledge of electric fields. A third
possibility, that a high homework copying rate by low aptitude students impeded
learning, is rejected because two different analyses revealed no evidence of
homework copying.


title: Recursive-Cube-of-Rings (RCR) Revisited: Properties and Enhancement

abstract:
  We study recursive-cube-of-rings (RCR), a class of scalable graphs that can
potentially provide rich inter-connection network topology for the emerging
distributed and parallel computing infrastructure. Through rigorous proof and
validating examples, we have corrected previous misunderstandings on the
topological properties of these graphs, including node degree, symmetry,
diameter and bisection width. To fully harness the potential of structural
regularity through RCR construction, new edge connecting rules are proposed.
The modified graphs, referred to as {\it Class-II RCR}, are shown to possess
uniform node degrees, better connectivity and better network symmetry, and
hence will find better application in parallel computing.


title: Semi-entwining structures and their applications

abstract:
  Semi-entwining structures are proposed as concepts simpler than entwining
structures, yet they are shown to have interesting applications in constructing
intertwining operators and braided algebras, lifting functors, finding
solutions for Yang-Baxter systems, etc. While for entwining structures one can
associate corings, for semi-entwining structures one can associate comodule
algebra structures where the algebra involved is a bialgebra satisfying certain
properties.


title: On the homology of regular quotients

abstract:
  We construct a free resolution of $R/I^s$ over $R$ where $I\ideal R$ is
generated by a (finite or infinite) regular sequence. This generalizes the
Koszul complex for the case $s=1$. For $s>1$, we easily deduce that the algebra
structure of $\Tor^R_*(R/I,R/I^s)$ is trivial and the reduction map $R/I^s\lra
R/I^{s-1}$ induces the trivial map of algebras.


title: Fractional quantum Hall effect in a tilted magnetic field

abstract:
  We discuss the orbital effect of a tilted magnetic field on the quantum Hall
effect in parabolic quantum wells. Many-body states realized at the fractional
1/3 and 1/2 filling of the second electronic subband are studied using
finite-size exact diagonalization. In both cases, we obtain the phase diagram
consisting of a fractional quantum Hall fluid phase that persists for moderate
tilts, and eventually undergoes a direct transition to the stripe phase. It is
shown that tilting of the field probes the geometrical degree of freedom of
fractional quantum Hall fluids, and can be partly related to the effect of
band-mass anisotropy.


title:
Stochastic gradient descent algorithms for strongly convex functions at
  O(1/T) convergence rates

abstract:
  With a weighting scheme proportional to t, a traditional stochastic gradient
descent (SGD) algorithm achieves a high probability convergence rate of
O({\kappa}/T) for strongly convex functions, instead of O({\kappa} ln(T)/T). We
also prove that an accelerated SGD algorithm also achieves a rate of
O({\kappa}/T).


title:
SDSS J000555.90-100213.5: a hot, magnetic carbon-atmosphere WD rotating
  with a 2.1 day period

abstract:
  A surprisingly large fraction (70%) of hot, carbon dominated atmosphere (DQ)
white dwarfs are magnetic and/or photometrically variable on short timescales
up to ~1000 s. However, here we show that the hot DQ magnetic white dwarf SDSS
J000555.90-100213.5 is photometrically variable by 11% on a longer timescale,
with a period of 2.110 +/- 0.045 days. We find no evidence of the target
fluctuating on short timescales at an amplitude of <+/-0.5%. Short period hot
DQ white dwarfs have been interpreted as non-radial pulsators, but in the case
of SDSS J0005-1002, it is more likely that the variability is due to the
magnetic hot DQ white dwarf rotating. We suggest that some hot DQ white dwarfs,
varying on short timescales, should be more carefully examined to ascertain
whether the variability is due to rotation rather than pulsation. All hot DQs
should be monitored for long period modulations as an indicator of rotation and
magnetism.


title: Piecewise linear approximation of smooth functions of two variables

abstract:
  Given a piecewise linear (PL) function $p$ defined on an open subset of
$\R^n$, one may construct by elementary means a unique polyhedron with
multiplicities $\D(p)$ in the cotangent bundle $\R^n\times \R^{n*}$
representing the graph of the differential of $p$. Restricting to dimension 2,
we show that any smooth function $f(x,y)$ may be approximated by a sequence
$p_1,p_2,\dots$ of PL functions such that the areas of the $\D(p_i)$ are
locally dominated by the area of the graph of $df$ times a universal constant.


title: Repairing and Inpainting Damaged Images using Diffusion Tensor

abstract:
  Removing or repairing the imperfections of a digital images or videos is a
very active and attractive field of research belonging to the image inpainting
technique. This later has a wide range of applications, such as removing
scratches in old photographic image, removing text and logos or creating
cartoon and artistic effects. In this paper, we propose an efficient method to
repair a damaged image based on a non linear diffusion tensor. The idea is to
track perfectly the local geometry of the damaged image and allowing diffusion
only in the isophotes curves direction. To illustrate the effective performance
of our method, we present some experimental results on test and real
photographic color images


title:
STIS Coronagraphic Imaging of Fomalhaut: Main Belt Structure and the
  Orbit of Fomalhaut b

abstract:
  We present new optical coronagraphic data of the bright star Fomalhaut
obtained with the HST in 2010/2012 using STIS. Fomalhaut b is recovered at both
epochs to high significance. The observations include the discoveries of
tenuous nebulosity beyond the main dust belt detected to at least 209 AU
projected radius and a ~50 AU wide azimuthal gap in the belt northward of Fom
b. The morphology of Fomalhaut b appears elliptical in the STIS detections. We
show that residual noise in the processed data can plausibly result in point
sources appearing extended. A MCMC analysis demonstrates that the orbit of Fom
b is highly eccentric, with e=0.8+/-0.1, a=177+/-68 AU, and q = 32+/-24 AU. Fom
b is apsidally aligned with the belt and 90% of allowed orbits have mutual
inclination 36 deg or less. Fomalhaut b's orbit is belt-crossing in projection,
but only 12% of possible orbits have nodes within a 25 AU wide belt annulus
(133-158 AU). The high e invokes a dynamical history where Fom b may have
experienced a significant dynamical interaction with a hypothetical planet
Fomalhaut c, and the current orbital configuration may be relatively
short-lived. The new value for the periastron distance diminishes the Hill
radius of Fom b and any weakly bound satellite system surrounding a planet
would be sheared and dynamically heated at periapse. We argue that Fom b's
minimum mass is that of a dwarf planet in order for a circumplanetary satellite
system to remain bound to a sufficient radius from the planet to be consistent
with the dust scattered light hypothesis. Fom b may be optically bright because
the recent passage through periapse and/or the ascending node has increased the
erosion rates of planetary satellites. In the coplanar case, Fomalhaut b will
collide with the main belt around 2032, and the subsequent emergent phenomena
may help determine its physical nature.


title: BG Gem - a Poorly-Studied Binary with a Possible Black Hole Component

abstract:
  BG Gem is an eclipsing binary with a 91.6-day orbital period. The more
massive primary component does not seem to show absorption lines in the
spectrum, while the less massive secondary is thought to be a K-type star,
possibly a supergiant. These results were obtained with optical low-resolution
spectroscopy and photometry. The primary was suggested to be a black hole,
although with a low confidence. We present a high-resolution optical spectrum
of the system along with new BVR-photometry. Analysis of the spectrum shows
that the K-type star rotates rapidly at v sin i = 18 km/s compared to most
evolved stars of this temperature range. We also discuss constraints on the
secondary's luminosity using spectroscopic criteria and on the entire system
parameters using both the spectrum and photometry.


title: A System for Trapping Barium Ions in a Microfabricated Surface Trap

abstract:
  We have developed a vacuum chamber and control system for rapid testing of
microfabricated surface ion traps. Our system is modular in design and is based
on an in-vacuum printed circuit board with integrated filters. We have used
this system to successfully trap and cool barium ions and have achieved ion
'dark' lifetimes of 31.6 s +- 3.4 s with controlled shuttling of ions. We
provide a detailed description of the ion trap system including the in-vacuum
materials used, control electronics and neutral atom source. We discuss the
challenges presented in achieving a system which can work reliably over two
years of operations in which the trap under test was changed at least 10 times.


title:
X-ray spectral variability of seven LINER nuclei with XMM-Newton and
  Chandra data

abstract:
  One of the most important features in active galactic nuclei (AGN) is the
variability of their emission. Variability has been discovered at X-ray, UV,
and radio frequencies on time scales from hours to years. Among the AGN family
and according to theoretical studies, Low-Ionization Nuclear Emission Line
Region (LINER) nuclei would be variable objects on long time scales. Our
purpose is to investigate spectral X-ray variability in LINERs and to
understand the nature of these kinds of objects, as well as their accretion
mechanism. Chandra and XMM-Newton public archives were used to compile X-ray
spectra of seven LINER nuclei at different epochs with time scales of years. To
search for variability we fit all the spectra from the same object with a set
of models, in order to identify the parameters responsible for the variability
pattern. We also analyzed the light curves in order to search for short time
scale (from hours to days) variability. Whenever possible, UV variability was
also studied. We found spectral variability in four objects, with variations
mostly related to hard energies (2-10 keV). These variations are due to changes
in the soft excess, and/or changes in the absorber, and/or intrinsic variations
of the source. Another two galaxies seem not to vary. Short time scale
variations during individual observations were not found. Our analysis confirms
the previously reported anticorrelation between the X-ray spectral index and
the Eddington ratio, and also the correlation between the X-ray to UV flux
ratio and the Eddington ratio. These results support an Advection Dominated
Accretion Flow (ADAF) as the accretion mechanism in LINERs.


title:
Origin of interface magnetism in BiMnO3/SrTiO3 and LaAlO3/SrTiO3
  heterostructures

abstract:
  Possible ferromagnetism induced in otherwise non-magnetic materials has been
motivating intense research in complex oxide heterostructures. Here we show
that a confined magnetism is realized at the interface between SrTiO3 and two
insulating polar oxides, BiMnO3 and LaAlO3. By using polarization dependent
x-ray absorption spectroscopy, we find that in both cases the magnetic order is
stabilized by a negative exchange interaction between the electrons transferred
to the interface and local magnetic moments. These local magnetic moments are
associated to Ti3+ ions at the interface itself for LaAlO3/SrTiO3 and to Mn3+
ions in the overlayer for BiMnO3/SrTiO3. In LaAlO3/SrTiO3 the induced magnetic
moments are quenched by annealing in oxygen, suggesting a decisive role of
oxygen vacancies in the stabilization of interfacial magnetism.


title:
Switching Nonparametric Regression Models and the Motorcycle Data
  revisited

abstract:
  We propose a methodology to analyze data arising from a curve that, over its
domain, switches among J states. We consider a sequence of response variables,
where each response y depends on a covariate x according to an unobserved state
z. The states form a stochastic process and their possible values are
j=1,...,J. If z equals j the expected response of y is one of J unknown smooth
functions evaluated at x. We call this model a switching nonparametric
regression model. We develop an EM algorithm to estimate the parameters of the
latent state process and the functions corresponding to the J states. We also
obtain standard errors for the parameter estimates of the state process. We
conduct simulation studies to analyze the frequentist properties of our
estimates. We also apply the proposed methodology to the well-known motorcycle
data set treating the data as coming from more than one simulated accident run
with unobserved run labels.


title: Band-structure effects on superconductivity in Hubbard models

abstract:
  We study the influence of the band structure on the symmetry and
superconducting transition temperature in the (solvable) weak-coupling limit of
the repulsive Hubbard model. Among other results we find: 1) As a function of
increasing nematicity, starting from the square lattice (zero nematicity) limit
where nodal d-wave state is strongly preferred, there is a smooth evolution to
the quasi-1D limit, where a striking near-degeneracy is found between a p-wave-
and a d-wave-type paired states with accidental nodes on the
quasi-one-dimensional Fermi surfaces---a situation which may be relevant to the
Bechgaard salts. 2) In a bilayer system, we find a phase transition as a
function of increasing bilayer coupling from a d-wave to an $s_{\pm}$-wave
state reminiscent of the iron-based superconductors. 3) When an antinodal gap
is produced by charge-density-wave order, not only is the pairing scale
reduced, but the symmetry of the pairs switches from $d_{x^2-y^2} to $d_{xy}$;
in the context of the cuprates, this suggests that were the pseudo-gap entirely
due to a competing order, this would likely cause a corresponding symmetry
change of the superconducting order (which is not seen in experiment).


title: On Arithmetic Modular Categories

abstract:
  Modular categories are important algebraic structures in a variety of
subjects in mathematics and physics. We provide an explicit, motivated and
elementary definition of a modular category over a field of characteristic 0 as
an equivalence class of solutions to a set of polynomial equations. We conclude
that within each class of solutions, there is one which consists entirely of
algebraic numbers. These algebraic solutions make it possible to discuss
defining algebraic number fields of modular categories and their Galois twists.
One motivation for such a definition is an arithmetic theory of modular
categories which plays an important role in their classification. Another is to
facilitate implementation of computer-based tools to resolve computational and
classification problems intractible by other means. We observe some basic
properties of Galois twists of modular categories and make conjectures about
their relation to the the intrinsic data of modular categories.


title:
A Change of Solar He II EUV Global Network Structure of the Transition
  Region as an Indicator of Geo-Effectiveness of Solar Minima

abstract:
  Solar activity during 2007--2009 was very low, causing anomalously low
thermospheric density. A comparison of solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV)
irradiance in the He II spectral band (26 to 34 nm) from the Solar Extreme
ultraviolet Monitor (SEM), one of instruments on the Charge Element and Isotope
Analysis System (CELIAS) onboard of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
(SOHO) for the two latest solar minima showed a decrease of the absolute
irradiance of about 15 +- 6 % during the solar minimum between Cycles 23 and 24
compared with the Cycles 22/23 minimum when a yearly running mean filter was
used. We found that some local, shorter-term minima including those with the
same absolute EUV flux in the SEM spectral band show a larger concentration of
spatial power in the global network structure from the 30.4 nm SOHO Extreme
ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) images for the local minimum of 1996
compared with the minima of 2008--2011. We interpret this larger concentration
of spatial power in the transition region's global network structure as a
larger number of larger area features on the solar disk. Such changes in the
global network structure during solar minima may characterize, in part, the
geo-effectiveness of the solar He II EUV irradiance in addition to the
estimations based on its absolute levels.


title: Linear Logic without Units

abstract:
  We study categorical models for the unitless fragment of multiplicative
linear logic. We find that the appropriate notion of model is a special kind of
promonoidal category. Since the theory of promonoidal categories has not been
developed very thoroughly, at least in the published literature, we need to
develop it here. The most natural way to do this - and the simplest, once the
(substantial) groundwork has been laid - is to consider promonoidal categories
as an instance of the general theory of pseudomonoids in a monoidal bicategory.
Accordingly, we describe and explain the notions of monoidal bicategory and
pseudomonoid therein.
  The higher-dimensional nature of monoidal bicategories presents serious
notational difficulties, since to use the natural analogue of the commutative
diagrams used in ordinary category theory would require the use of
three-dimensional diagrams. We therefore introduce a novel technical device,
which we dub the calculus of components, that simplifies the business of
reasoning about a certain class of algebraic structure internal to a monoidal
bicategory. When viewed through this simplifying lens, the theory of
pseudomonoids turns out to be essentially formally identical to the ordinary
theory of monoidal categories. We indicate how the calculus of components may
be extended to cover structures that make use of the braiding in a braided
monoidal bicategory, and use this to study braided pseudomonoids.
  A higher-dimensional analogue of Cayley's theorem is proved, and used to
deduce a novel characterisation of the unit of a promonoidal category. This,
and the other preceding work, is then used to give two characterisations of the
categories that model the unitless fragment of intuitionistic multiplicative
linear logic. Finally we consider the non-intuitionistic case, where the second
characterisation in particular takes a surprisingly simple form.


title:
Two simple finite element methods for Reissner--Mindlin plates with
  clamped boundary condition

abstract:
  We present two simple finite element methods for the discretization of
Reissner--Mindlin plate equations with {\em clamped} boundary condition. These
finite element methods are based on discrete Lagrange multiplier spaces from
mortar finite element techniques. We prove optimal a priori error estimates for
both methods.


title: Asymptotic Coverage Probability and Rate in Massive MIMO Networks

abstract:
  Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is a transmission technique for
cellular systems that uses many antennas to support not-as-many users. Thus
far, the performance of massive MIMO has only been examined in finite cellular
networks. In this letter, we analyze its performance in random cellular
networks with Poisson distributed base station locations. Specifically, we
provide analytical expressions for the asymptotic coverage probability and rate
in both downlink and uplink when each base station has a large number of
antennas. The results show that, though limited by pilot contamination, massive
MIMO can provide significantly higher asymptotic data rate per user than the
single-antenna network.


title:
Measurement of Muon Antineutrino Quasi-Elastic Scattering on a
  Hydrocarbon Target at E_{\nu} ~ 3.5 GeV

abstract:
  We have isolated muon anti-neutrino charged-current quasi-elastic
interactions occurring in the segmented scintillator tracking region of the
MINERvA detector running in the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab. We measure the
flux-averaged differential cross-section, d{\sigma}/dQ^2, and compare to
several theoretical models of quasi-elastic scattering. Good agreement is
obtained with a model where the nucleon axial mass, M_A, is set to 0.99 GeV/c^2
but the nucleon vector form factors are modified to account for the observed
enhancement, relative to the free nucleon case, of the cross-section for the
exchange of transversely polarized photons in electron-nucleus scattering. Our
data at higher Q^2 favor this interpretation over an alternative in which the
axial mass is increased.


title:
MCMC methods for Gaussian process models using fast approximations for
  the likelihood

abstract:
  Gaussian Process (GP) models are a powerful and flexible tool for
non-parametric regression and classification. Computation for GP models is
intensive, since computing the posterior density, $\pi$, for covariance
function parameters requires computation of the covariance matrix, C, a $pn^2$
operation, where p is the number of covariates and n is the number of training
cases, and then inversion of C, an $n^3$ operation. We introduce MCMC methods
based on the "temporary mapping and caching" framework, using a fast
approximation, $\pi^*$, as the distribution needed to construct the temporary
space. We propose two implementations under this scheme: "mapping to a
discretizing chain", and "mapping with tempered transitions", both of which are
exactly correct MCMC methods for sampling $\pi$, even though their transitions
are constructed using an approximation. These methods are equivalent when their
tuning parameters are set at the simplest values, but differ in general. We
compare how well these methods work when using several approximations, finding
on synthetic datasets that a $\pi^*$ based on the "Subset of Data" (SOD) method
is almost always more efficient than standard MCMC using only $\pi$. On some
datasets, a more sophisticated $\pi^*$ based on the "Nystr\"om-Cholesky" method
works better than SOD.


title: The viscosity of silica fibres

abstract:
  The viscosity of an optical fibre over 1000 to 1150 {\deg}C is studied by
inscribing an optical fibre Bragg grating that can withstand temperatures up to
1200 {\deg}C and monitoring fibre elongation under load through the Bragg
wavelength shift. This optical interrogation offers high accuracy and
reliability compared to direct measurements of elongation, particularly at
lower temperatures, thus avoiding significant experimental error. An excellent
Arrhenius fit is obtained from which an activation energy for viscous flow of
Ea = 450 kJ/mol is extracted; addition of an additional temperature dependent
pre-exponential does not change this value. This value is less than that
idealised by some literature but consistent with other literature. The log plot
of viscosity is overall found to be consistent with that reported in the
literature for silica measurements on rod and beams, but substantially higher
to past work reported for optical fibres. The discrepancy from an idealised
activation energy Ea ~ 700 kJ/mol may be explained by noting the higher fictive
temperature of the fibre. On the other hand, past optical fibre results
obtained by beam bending with much lower values leave questions regarding the
method of viscosity measurement and the time taken for structural
equilibration. We note that because regenerated gratings already involve
post-annealing to stabilise their operation at higher temperature, the
structures are much more relaxed compared to normal fibres. This work
highlights the need to stabilize components for operation in harsh environments
before their application, despite some mechanical compromise. Given the
increasing expectation of all-optical waveguide technologies operating above
1000 {\deg}C, the need to study the behaviour of glass over the long term
brings added significance to the basic understanding of glass in this regime.


title:
Quantum corrections to dynamical holographic thermalization:
  entanglement entropy and other non-local observables

abstract:
  We investigate the thermalization time scale in the planar limit of the SU(N)
N=4 SYM plasma at strong yet finite 't Hooft coupling by considering its
supergravity dual description, including the full O(alpha'^3) type IIB string
theory corrections. We also discuss on the effects of the leading non-planar
corrections. We use extended geometric probes in the bulk which are dual to
different non-local observables in the N=4 SYM theory. This is carried out
within the framework of dynamical holographic thermalization.


title:
Calibrated Multivariate Regression with Application to Neural Semantic
  Basis Discovery

abstract:
  We propose a calibrated multivariate regression method named CMR for fitting
high dimensional multivariate regression models. Compared with existing
methods, CMR calibrates regularization for each regression task with respect to
its noise level so that it simultaneously attains improved finite-sample
performance and tuning insensitiveness. Theoretically, we provide sufficient
conditions under which CMR achieves the optimal rate of convergence in
parameter estimation. Computationally, we propose an efficient smoothed
proximal gradient algorithm with a worst-case numerical rate of convergence
$\cO(1/\epsilon)$, where $\epsilon$ is a pre-specified accuracy of the
objective function value. We conduct thorough numerical simulations to
illustrate that CMR consistently outperforms other high dimensional
multivariate regression methods. We also apply CMR to solve a brain activity
prediction problem and find that it is as competitive as a handcrafted model
created by human experts. The R package \texttt{camel} implementing the
proposed method is available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network
\url{http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/camel/}.


title:
Squeezed light in an optical parametric oscillator network with coherent
  feedback quantum control

abstract:
  We present squeezing and anti-squeezing spectra of the output from a
degenerate optical parametric oscillator (OPO) network arranged in different
coherent quantum feedback configurations. One OPO serves as a quantum plant,
the other as a quantum controller. The addition of coherent feedback enables
shaping of the output squeezing spectrum of the plant, and is found to be
capable of pushing the frequency of maximum squeezing away from the optical
driving frequency and broadening the spectrum over a wider frequency band. The
experimental results are in excellent agreement with the developed theory, and
illustrate the use of coherent quantum feedback to engineer the quantum-optical
properties of the plant OPO output.


title:
Finite temperature Casimir effect on spherical shells in
  (D+1)-dimensional spacetime and its high temperature limit

abstract:
  We consider the finite temperature Casimir free energy acting on a spherical
shell in (D+1)-dimensional Minkowski spacetime due to the vacuum fluctuations
of scalar and electromagnetic fields. Dirichlet, Neumann, perfectly conducting
and infinitely permeable boundary conditions are considered. The Casimir free
energy is regularized using zeta functional regularization technique. To
renormalize the Casimir free energy, we compute the heat kernel coefficients
$c_n$, $0\leq n\leq D+1$, from the zeta function $\zeta(s)$. After
renormalization, the high temperature leading term of the Casimir free energy
is $-c_DT\ln T-T \zeta'(0)/2$. Explicit expressions for the renormalized
Casimir free energy and $\zeta'(0)$ are derived. The dependence of the
renormalized Casimir free energy on temperature is shown graphically.


title: Mechanism of acoustic emissions from booming sand dunes

abstract:
  The classical elastic mechanics shows that the fundamental frequency of a
sand grain chain is similar to the typical frequency of acoustic emission
generated by the booming dunes. The "song of dunes" is therefore considered to
originate from the resonance of grain chains occurring within a solid layer
only several centimeters thick.


title: Three Dimensional Steady Subsonic Euler Flows in Bounded Nozzles

abstract:
  In this paper, we study the existence and uniqueness of three dimensional
steady Euler flows in rectangular nozzles when prescribing normal component of
momentum at both the entrance and exit. If, in addition, the normal component
of the voriticity and the variation of Bernoulli's function at the exit are
both zero, then there exists a unique subsonic potential flow when the
magnitude of the normal component of the momentum is less than a critical
number. As the magnitude of the normal component of the momentum approaches the
critical number, the associated flows converge to a subsonic-sonic flow.
Furthermore, when the normal component of vorticity and the variation of
Bernoulli's function are both small, the existence of subsonic Euler flows is
established. The proof of these results is based on a new formulation for the
Euler system, a priori estimate for nonlinear elliptic equations with nonlinear
boundary conditions, detailed study for a linear div-curl system, and delicate
estimate for the transport equations.


title:
Measurement of Muon Neutrino Quasi-Elastic Scattering on a Hydrocarbon
  Target at E_{\nu} ~ 3.5 GeV

abstract:
  We report a study of muon neutrino charged-current quasi-elastic events in
the segmented scintillator inner tracker of the MINERvA experiment running in
the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab. The events were selected by requiring a
{\mu}^- and low calorimetric recoil energy separated from the interaction
vertex. We measure the flux-averaged differential cross-section,
d{\sigma}/dQ^2, and study the low energy particle content of the final state.
Deviations are found between the measured d{\sigma}/dQ^2 and the expectations
of a model of independent nucleons in a relativistic Fermi gas. We also observe
an excess of energy near the vertex consistent with multiple protons in the
final state.


title: On the singularities of effective loci of line bundles

abstract:
  We prove that every irreducible component of semi-regular loci of effective
line bundles in the Picard scheme of a smooth projective variety has at worst
rational singularities. This generalizes Kempf's result on rational
singularities of $W^0_d$ for smooth curves. We also work out an example of such
loci for a ruled surface.


title: Capacity of a Simple Intercellular Signal Transduction Channel

abstract:
  We model the ligand-receptor molecular communication channel with a
discrete-time Markov model, and show how to obtain the capacity of this
channel. We show that the capacity-achieving input distribution is iid;
further, unusually for a channel with memory, we show that feedback does not
increase the capacity of this channel.


title: High Spatial Resolution Observations of Loops in the Solar Corona

abstract:
  Understanding how the solar corona is structured is of fundamental importance
to determining how the Sun's upper atmosphere is heated to high temperatures.
Recent spectroscopic studies have suggested that an instrument with a spatial
resolution of 200km or better is necessary to resolve coronal loops. The High
Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) achieved this performance on a rocket flight
in July 2012. We use Hi-C data to measure the Gaussian widths of 91 loops
observed in the solar corona and find a distribution that peaks at about 270km.
We also use Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) data for a subset of these loops
and find temperature distributions that are generally very narrow. These
observations provide further evidence that loops in the solar corona are often
structured at a scale of several hundred kilometers, well above the spatial
scale of many proposed physical mechanisms.


title: The abundance of H2O and HDO in Orion KL from Herschel/HIFI

abstract:
  Using a broadband, high spectral resolution survey toward Orion KL acquired
with Herschel/HIFI as part of the HEXOS key program, we derive the abundances
of H$_2$O and HDO in the different spatial/velocity components associated with
this massive star-forming region: the Hot Core, Compact Ridge, and Plateau. A
total of 20 transitions of H$_2$$^{18}$O, 14 of H$_2$$^{17}$O, 37 of
HD$^{16}$O, 6 of HD$^{18}$O, and 6 of D$_2$O are used in the analysis, spanning
from ground state transitions to over 1200 K in upper-state energy.
Low-excitation lines are detected in multiple components, but the
highest-excitation lines ($E_u >$ 500 K) are well modeled as emitting from a
small ($\sim 2"$) clump with a high abundance of H$_2$O ($\chi = 6.5 \times
10^{-4}$ relative to H$_2$) and a HDO/H$_2$O ratio of 0.003. Using high spatial
resolution ($1.5" \times 1.1"$) images of two transitions of HDO measured by
ALMA as part of its science verification phase, we identify this component as
located near, but not directly coincident with, known continuum sources in the
Hot Core region. Significant HDO/H$_2$O fractionation is also seen in the
Compact Ridge and Plateau components. The outflowing gas, observed with both
emission and absorption components, has a lower HDO/H$_2$O ratio than the
compact components in Orion KL, which we propose could be due to modification
by gas-phase shock chemistry.


title:
Automated Calibration System for a High-Precision Measurement of
  Neutrino Mixing Angle $\theta_{13}$ with the Daya Bay Antineutrino Detectors

abstract:
  We describe the automated calibration system for the antineutrino detectors
in the Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment. This system consists of 24 identical units
instrumented on 8 identical 20-ton liquid scintillator detectors. Each unit is
a fully automated robotic system capable of deploying an LED and various
radioactive sources into the detector along given vertical axes. Selected
results from performance studies of the calibration system are reported.


title:
Exploiting ecological principles to better understand cancer progression
  and treatment

abstract:
  A small but growing number of people are finding interesting parallels
between ecosystems as studied by ecologists (think of a Savanna or the Amazon
rain forest or a Coral reef) and tumours1-3. The idea of viewing cancer from an
ecological perspective has many implications but fundamentally, it means that
we should not see cancer just as a group of mutated cells. A more useful
definition of cancer is to consider it a disruption in the complex balance of
many interacting cellular and microenvironmental elements in a specific organ.
This perspective means that organs undergoing carcinogenesis should be seen as
sophisticated ecosystems in homeostasis that cancer cells can disrupt. It also
makes cancer seem even more complex but may ultimately provides isights that
make it more treatable. Here we discuss how ecological principles can be used
to better understand cancer progression and treatment, using several
mathematical and computational models to illustrate our argument.


title: Logarithmic Quantile Estimation for Rank Statistics

abstract:
  We prove an almost sure weak limit theorem for simple linear rank statistics
for samples with continuous distributions functions. As a corollary the result
extends to samples with ties, and the vector version of an a.s. central limit
theorem for vectors of linear rank statistics. Moreover, we derive such a weak
convergence result for some quadratic forms. These results are then applied to
quantile estimation, and to hypothesis testing for nonparametric statistical
designs, here demonstrated by the c-sample problem, where the samples may be
dependent. In general, the method is known to be comparable to the bootstrap
and other nonparametric methods (\cite{THA, FRI}) and we confirm this finding
for the c-sample problem.


title:
Quantum Image Representation Through Two-Dimensional Quantum States and
  Normalized Amplitude

abstract:
  We propose a novel method for image representation in quantum computers,
which uses the two-dimensional (2-D) quantum states to locate each pixel in an
image through row-location and column-location vectors for identifying each
pixel location. The quantum state of an image is the linear superposition of
the tensor product of the m-qubits row-location vector and the n-qubits
column-location vector of each pixel. It enables the natural quantum
representation of rectangular images that other methods lack. The
amplitude/intensity of each pixel is incorporated into the coefficient values
of the pixel's quantum state, without using any qubits. Due to the fact that
linear superposition, tensor product and qubits form the fundamental basis of
quantum computing, the proposed method presents the machine level
representation of images on quantum computers. Unlike other methods, this
method is a pure quantum representation without any classical components.


title:
Investigation of GEM-Micromegas Detector on X-ray Beam of Synchrotron
  Radiation

abstract:
  To solve the discharge of the standard Bulk Micromegas and GEM detector, the
GEM-Micromegas detector was developed in Institute of High Energy Physics.
Taking into account the advantages of the two detectors, one GEM foil was set
as a preamplifier on the mesh of Micromegas in the structure and the GEM
preamplification decreased the working voltage of Micromegas to reduce the
effect of the discharge significantly. In the paper, the performance of
detector in X-ray beam was studied at 1W2B laboratory of Beijing Synchrotron
Radiation Facility. Finally, the result of the energy resolution under various
X-ray energies was given in different working gases. It indicated that the
GEM-Micromegas detector had the energy response capability in all the energy
range and it could work better than the standard Bulk-Micromegas.


title:
Experimental Performance of a Quantum Simulator: Optimizing Adiabatic
  Evolution and Identifying Many-Body Ground States

abstract:
  We use local adiabatic evolution to experimentally create and determine the
ground state spin ordering of a fully-connected Ising model with up to 14
spins. Local adiabatic evolution -- in which the system evolution rate is a
function of the instantaneous energy gap -- is found to maximize the ground
state probability compared with other adiabatic methods while only requiring
knowledge of the lowest $\sim N$ of the $2^N$ Hamiltonian eigenvalues. We also
demonstrate that the ground state ordering can be experimentally identified as
the most probable of all possible spin configurations, even when the evolution
is highly non-adiabatic.


title:
Programming with Personalized PageRank: A Locally Groundable First-Order
  Probabilistic Logic

abstract:
  In many probabilistic first-order representation systems, inference is
performed by "grounding"---i.e., mapping it to a propositional representation,
and then performing propositional inference. With a large database of facts,
groundings can be very large, making inference and learning computationally
expensive. Here we present a first-order probabilistic language which is
well-suited to approximate "local" grounding: every query $Q$ can be
approximately grounded with a small graph. The language is an extension of
stochastic logic programs where inference is performed by a variant of
personalized PageRank. Experimentally, we show that the approach performs well
without weight learning on an entity resolution task; that supervised
weight-learning improves accuracy; and that grounding time is independent of DB
size. We also show that order-of-magnitude speedups are possible by
parallelizing learning.


title:
Minimal Entangled States and Modular Matrix for Fractional Quantum Hall
  Effect in Topological Flat Bands

abstract:
  We perform an exact diagonalization study of the topological order in
topological flat band models through calculating entanglement entropy and
spectra of low energy states. We identify multiple independent minimal
entangled states, which form a set of orthogonal basis states for the
ground-state manifold. We extract the modular transformation matrices S (U)
which contains the information of mutual (self) statistics, quantum dimensions
and fusion rule of quasi-particles. Moreover, we demonstrate that these
matrices are robust and universal in the whole topological phase against
different perturbations until the quantum phase transition takes place.


title:
Block-diagonal reduction of matrices over commutative rings I.
  (Decomposition of modules vs decomposition of their support)

abstract:
  Consider rectangular matrices over a commutative ring R. Assume the ideal of
maximal minors factorizes, I_m(A)=J_1*J_2. When is A left-right equivalent to a
block-diagonal matrix? (When does the module/sheaf Coker(A) decompose as the
corresponding direct sum?) If R is not a principal ideal ring (or a close
relative of a PIR) one needs additional assumptions on A. No necessary and
sufficient criterion for such block-diagonal reduction is known.
  In this part we establish the following:
  * The persistence of (in)decomposability under the change of rings. For
example, the passage to Noetherian/local/complete rings, the decomposability of
A over a graded ring R vs the decomposability of Coker(A) locally at the points
of Proj(R), the restriction to a subscheme in Spec(R).
  * The necessary and sufficient condition for decomposability of square
matrices in the case: det(A)=f_1*f_2 is not a zero divisor and f_1,f_2 are
co-prime.
  As an immediate application we give criteria of simultaneous (block-)diagonal
reduction for tuples of matrices over a field, i.e. linear determinantal
representations.


title: Global well-posedness for the homogeneous Landau equation

abstract:
  Global well-posedness and exponential decay to equilibrium are proved for the
homogeneous Landau equation from kinetic theory. The initial distribution is
only assumed to be bounded and decaying sufficiently fast at infinity. In
particular, discontinuous initial configurations that might be far from
equilibrium are covered. Despite the lack of a comparison principle for the
equation, the proof of existence relies on barrier arguments and parabolic
regularity theory. Uniqueness and decay to equilibrium are then obtained
through weighted integral inequalities. Although the focus is on the spatially
homogeneous case with Coulomb potential, the methods introduced here may be
applied elsewhere in nonlinear kinetic theory.


title: M5 algebra and SO(5,5) duality

abstract:
  We present "M5 algebra" to derive Courant brackets of the generalized
geometry of $T\oplus \Lambda^2T^\ast \oplus \Lambda^5T^\ast$: The Courant
bracket generates the generalized diffeomorphism including gauge
transformations of three and six form gauge fields. The Dirac bracket between
selfdual gauge fields on a M5-brane gives a $C^{[3]}$-twisted contribution to
the Courant brackets. For M-theory compactified on a five dimensional torus the
U-duality symmetry is SO(5,5) and the M5 algebra basis is in the 16-dimensional
spinor representation. The M5 worldvolume diffeomorphism constraints can be
written as bilinear forms of the basis and transform as a SO(5,5) vector. We
also present an extended space spanned by the 16-dimensional coordinates with
section conditions determined from the M5 worldvolume diffeomorphism
constraints.


title:
Statistics of work and fluctuation theorems for microcanonical initial
  states

abstract:
  The work performed on a system in a microcanonical state by changes in a
control parameter is characterized in terms of its statistics. The transition
probabilities between eigenstates of the system Hamiltonians at the beginning
and the end of the parameter change obey a detailed balance-like relation from
which various forms of the microcanonical fluctuation theorem are obtained. As
an example, sudden deformations of a two dimensional harmonic oscillator
potential are considered and the validity of the microcanonical Jarzynski
equality connecting the degrees of degeneracy of energy eigenvalues before and
after the control parameter change is confirmed.


title: Remarks on Entanglement and Subjectivity

abstract:
  It is maintained that the phenomenon of entanglement, as presented by Bohm,
admits, for every observation, a subjective interpretation which is free from
action at a distance or superluminal transmission of information.


title:
Relative trace formulas and subconvexity estimates of L-functions for
  Hilbert modular forms

abstract:
  We elaborate an explicit version of the relative trace formula on $\PGL(2)$
over a totally real number field for the toral periods of Hilbert cusp forms
along the diagonal split torus. As an application, we prove (i) a spectral
equidistribution result in the level aspect for Satake parameters of
holomorphic Hilbert cusp forms weighted by central $L$-values, and (ii) a bound
of quadratic base change $L$-functions for Hilbert cusp forms with a subconvex
exponent in the weight aspect.


title:
Exponents of interchain correlation for self-avoiding walks and knotted
  self-avoiding polygons

abstract:
  We show numerically that critical exponents for two-point interchain
correlation of an infinite chain characterize those of finite chains in
Self-Avoiding Walk (SAW) and Self-Avoiding Polygon (SAP) under a topological
constraint. We evaluate short-distance exponents $\theta(i,j)$ through the
probability distribution functions of the distance between the $i$th and $j$th
vertices of $N$-step SAW (or SAP with a knot) for all pairs ($1 \le i, j \le
N$). We construct the contour plot of $\theta(i,j)$, and express it as a
function of $i$ and $j$. We suggest that it has quite a simple structure. Here
exponents $\theta(i,j)$ generalize des Cloizeaux's three critical exponents for
short-distance interchain correlation of SAW, and we show the crossover among
them. We also evaluate the diffusion coefficient of knotted SAP for a few knot
types, which can be calculated with the probability distribution functions of
the distance between two nodes.


title: Direct Evidence for Synchronization in Japanese Business Cycle

abstract:
  We have analyzed the Indices of Industrial Production (Seasonal Adjustment
Index) for a long period of 240 months (January 1988 to December 2007) to
develop a deeper understanding of the economic shocks. The angular frequencies
estimated using the Hilbert transformation, are almost identical for the 16
industrial sectors. Moreover, the partial phase locking was observed for the 16
sectors. These are the direct evidence of the synchronization in the Japanese
business cycle. We also showed that the information of the economic shock is
carried by the phase time-series. The common shock and individual shocks are
separated using phase time-series. The former dominates the economic shock in
all of 1992, 1998 and 2001. The obtained results suggest that the business
cycle may be described as a dynamics of the coupled limit-cycle oscillators
exposed to the common shocks and random individual shocks.


title: Three-tangle and Three-\pi\ for a class of tripartite mixed states

abstract:
  We study the tripartite entanglement for a class of mixed states defined by
the mixture of GHZ and W states, \rho=p|GHZ><GHZ|+(1-p)|W><W|. Based on the
Caratheodory theorem and the periodicity assumption, the possible optimal
decomposition of the states has been derived, which is not independent on the
detailed measure of entanglement. We find that, according to p, there are two
different decompositions containing 3 or 4 quantum states in the decomposition
respectively. When the decomposition contains 3 quantum states, the tripartite
entanglement of the mixed state is simply the entanglement of superposition
states of GHZ and W. When the decomposition contains 4 quantum states, the
tripartite entanglement of the mixed state is a liner function of p. We also
study the relations between the three-tangle and three-\pi. It is shown that
the three-tangle is smaller than the three-\pi. Moreover, the three-\pi\ has a
minimal point in the interval 0 and 1, while the three-tangle is a non
decreasing function of p.


title:
Quality Measures of Parameter Tuning for Aggregated Multi-Objective
  Temporal Planning

abstract:
  Parameter tuning is recognized today as a crucial ingredient when tackling an
optimization problem. Several meta-optimization methods have been proposed to
find the best parameter set for a given optimization algorithm and (set of)
problem instances. When the objective of the optimization is some scalar
quality of the solution given by the target algorithm, this quality is also
used as the basis for the quality of parameter sets. But in the case of
multi-objective optimization by aggregation, the set of solutions is given by
several single-objective runs with different weights on the objectives, and it
turns out that the hypervolume of the final population of each single-objective
run might be a better indicator of the global performance of the aggregation
method than the best fitness in its population. This paper discusses this issue
on a case study in multi-objective temporal planning using the evolutionary
planner DaE-YAHSP and the meta-optimizer ParamILS. The results clearly show how
ParamILS makes a difference between both approaches, and demonstrate that
indeed, in this context, using the hypervolume indicator as ParamILS target is
the best choice. Other issues pertaining to parameter tuning in the proposed
context are also discussed.


title: The Erd\H{o}s-Szekeres problem for non-crossing convex sets

abstract:
  We show an equivalence between a conjecture of Bisztriczky and Fejes T{\'o}th
about arrangements of planar convex bodies and a conjecture of Goodman and
Pollack about point sets in topological affine planes. As a corollary of this
equivalence we improve the upper bound of Pach and T\'{o}th on the
Erd\H{o}s-Szekeres theorem for disjoint convex bodies, as well as the recent
upper bound obtained by Fox, Pach, Sudakov and Suk, on the Erd\H{o}s-Szekeres
theorem for non-crossing convex bodies. Our methods also imply improvements on
the positive fraction Erd\H{os}-Szekeres theorem for disjoint (and
non-crossing) convex bodies, as well as a generalization of the partitioned
Erd\H{o}s-Szekeres theorem of P\'{o}r and Valtr to arrangements of non-crossing
convex bodies.


title:
Bimodality of Galaxy Disk Central Surface Brightness Distribution in the
  Spitzer 3.6 micron band

abstract:
  We report on measurements of the disk central surface brightnesses (mu0) at
3.6 microns for 438 galaxies selected by distance and absolute magnitude
cutoffs from the 2350+ galaxies in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in
Galaxies (S4G), one of the largest and deepest homogeneous mid-infrared
datasets of nearby galaxies. Our sample contains nearly 3 times more galaxies
than the most recent study of the mu0 distribution. We demonstrate that there
is a bimodality in the distribution of mu0. Between the low and high surface
brightness galaxy regimes there is a lack of intermediate surface brightness
galaxies.
  Caveats invoked in the literature from small number statistics to the
knowledge of the environmental influences, and possible biases from low signal
to noise data or corrections for galaxy inclination are investigated. Analyses
show that the bimodal distribution of mu0 cannot be due to any of these biases
or statistical fluctuations. It is highly probable that galaxies settle in two
stable modes: a dark matter dominated mode where the dark matter dominates at
all radii - this gives birth to low surface brightness galaxies - and a
baryonic matter dominated mode where the baryons dominate the dark matter in
the central parts - this gives rise to the high surface brightness disks. The
lack of intermediate surface brightness objects suggests that galaxies avoid
(staying in) a mode where dark matter and baryons are co-dominant in the
central parts of galaxies.


title: Quantum Thermodynamics

abstract:
  Quantum thermodynamics addresses the emergence of thermodynamical laws from
quantum mechanics. The link is based on the intimate connection of quantum
thermodynamics with the theory of open quantum systems. Quantum mechanics
inserts dynamics into thermodynamics giving a sound foundation to
finite-time-thermodynamics. The emergence of the 0-law I-law II-law and III-law
of thermodynamics from quantum considerations is presented. The emphasis is on
consistence between the two theories which address the same subject from
different foundations. We claim that inconsistency is the result of faulty
analysis pointing to flaws in approximations.


title: Beyond Physical Connections: Tree Models in Human Pose Estimation

abstract:
  Simple tree models for articulated objects prevails in the last decade.
However, it is also believed that these simple tree models are not capable of
capturing large variations in many scenarios, such as human pose estimation.
This paper attempts to address three questions: 1) are simple tree models
sufficient? more specifically, 2) how to use tree models effectively in human
pose estimation? and 3) how shall we use combined parts together with single
parts efficiently?
  Assuming we have a set of single parts and combined parts, and the goal is to
estimate a joint distribution of their locations. We surprisingly find that no
latent variables are introduced in the Leeds Sport Dataset (LSP) during
learning latent trees for deformable model, which aims at approximating the
joint distributions of body part locations using minimal tree structure. This
suggests one can straightforwardly use a mixed representation of single and
combined parts to approximate their joint distribution in a simple tree model.
As such, one only needs to build Visual Categories of the combined parts, and
then perform inference on the learned latent tree. Our method outperformed the
state of the art on the LSP, both in the scenarios when the training images are
from the same dataset and from the PARSE dataset. Experiments on animal images
from the VOC challenge further support our findings.


title: CHEOPS: A Transit Photometry Mission for ESA's Small Mission Programme

abstract:
  Ground based radial velocity (RV) searches continue to discover exoplanets
below Neptune mass down to Earth mass. Furthermore, ground based transit
searches now reach milli-mag photometric precision and can discover Neptune
size planets around bright stars. These searches will find exoplanets around
bright stars anywhere on the sky, their discoveries representing prime science
targets for further study due to the proximity and brightness of their host
stars. A mission for transit follow-up measurements of these prime targets is
currently lacking. The first ESA S-class mission CHEOPS (CHaracterizing
ExoPlanet Satellite) will fill this gap. It will perform ultra-high precision
photometric monitoring of selected bright target stars almost anywhere on the
sky with sufficient precision to detect Earth sized transits. It will be able
to detect transits of RV-planets by photometric monitoring if the geometric
configuration results in a transit. For Hot Neptunes discovered from the
ground, CHEOPS will be able to improve the transit light curve so that the
radius can be determined precisely. Because of the host stars' brightness, high
precision RV measurements will be possible for all targets. All planets
observed in transit by CHEOPS will be validated and their masses will be known.
This will provide valuable data for constraining the mass-radius relation of
exoplanets, especially in the Neptune-mass regime. During the planned 3.5 year
mission, about 500 targets will be observed. There will be 20% of open time
available for the community to develop new science programmes.


title: On the Lebesgue Property of Monotone Convex Functions

abstract:
  The Lebesgue property (order-continuity) of a monotone convex function on a
solid vector space of measurable functions is characterized in terms of (1) the
weak inf-compactness of the conjugate function on the order-continuous dual
space, (2) the attainment of the supremum in the dual representation by
order-continuous linear functionals. This generalizes and unifies several
recent results obtained in the context of convex risk measures.


title: Transport anomalies due to anisotropic interband scattering

abstract:
  Unexpected transport behavior can arise due to anisotropic single-particle
scattering in multiband systems. Specifically, we show within a semiclassical
Boltzmann approach beyond the relaxation-time approximation that anisotropic
scattering between electronlike and holelike Fermi surfaces generically leads
to negative transport times, which in turn cause negative magnetoresistance, an
extremum in the Hall coefficient, and a reduction of the resistivity. The
anisotropy required for this to occur decreases with increasing mismatch
between the Fermi-surface radii.


title:
SPIDER VIII - Constraints on the Stellar Initial Mass Function of
  Early-type Galaxies from a Variety of Spectral Features

abstract:
  We perform a spectroscopic study to constrain the stellar Initial Mass
Function (IMF) by using a large sample of 24,781 early-type galaxies from the
SDSS-based SPIDER survey. Clear evidence is found of a trend between IMF and
central velocity dispersion, sigma0, evolving from a standard Kroupa/Chabrier
IMF at 100km/s towards a more bottom-heavy IMF with increasing sigma0, becoming
steeper than the Salpeter function at sigma0>220km/s. We analyze a variety of
spectral indices, corrected to solar scale by means of semi-empirical
correlations, and fitted simultaneously with extended MILES (MIUSCAT) stellar
population models. Our analysis suggests that sigma0, rather than [alpha/Fe],
drives the IMF variation. Although our analysis cannot discriminate between a
single power-law (unimodal) and a low-mass (<0.5MSun) tapered (bimodal) IMF, we
can robustly constrain the fraction in low-mass stars at birth, that is found
to increase from 20% at sigma0~100km/s, up to 80% at sigma0~300km/s. Additional
constraints can be provided with stellar mass-to-light (M/L) ratios: unimodal
models predict M/L significantly larger than dynamical M/L, across the whole
sigma0 range, whereas a bimodal IMF is compatible. Our results are robust
against individual abundance variations. No significant variation is found in
Na and Ca in addition to the expected change from the correlation between
[alpha/Fe] and sigma0. [Abridged]


title:
Study on the non-periodicity of the generalized Thue-Morse sequences
  generated by cyclic permutations

abstract:
  First we generalize the Thue-Morse sequence (the generalized Thue-Morse
sequences) by a cyclic permutations and p-adic system, and consider the
necessary-sufficient condition that it is non-periodic. Moreover if the
generalized Thue-Morse sequence is not periodic, then all equally spaced
subsequences of the generalized Thue-Morse sequences are not periodic. Finally
we apply recently combinatorial transcendence results to the generalized
non-periodic Thue-Morse sequence, we can found many transcendental numbers.


title: Spreading Information in Mobile Wireless Networks

abstract:
  Device-to-device (D2D) communication enables us to spread information in the
local area without infrastructure support. In this paper, we focus on
information spreading in mobile wireless networks where all nodes move around.
The source nodes deliver a given information packet to mobile users using D2D
communication as an underlay to the cellular uplink. By stochastic geometry, we
derive the average number of nodes that have successfully received a given
information packet as a function of the transmission power and the number of
transmissions. Based on these results, we formulate a redundancy minimization
problem under the maximum transmission power and delay constraints. By solving
the problem, we provide an optimal rule for the transmission power of the
source node.


title:
The effects of computer assisted and distance learning of geometric
  modelling

abstract:
  The effects of computer-assisted and distance learning of geometric modeling
and computer aided geometric design are studied. It was shown that computer
algebra systems and dynamic geometric environments can be considered as
excellent tools for teaching mathematical concepts of mentioned areas, and
distance education technologies would be indispensable for consolidation of
successfully passed topics.


title: Plasma panel-based radiation detectors

abstract:
  The plasma panel sensor (PPS) is a gaseous micropattern radiation detector
under current development. It has many operational and fabrication principles
common to plasma display panels. It comprises a dense matrix of small, gas
plasma discharge cells within a hermetically sealed panel. As in plasma display
panels, it uses nonreactive, intrinsically radiation-hard materials such as
glass substrates, refractory metal electrodes, and mostly inert gas mixtures.
We are developing these devices primarily as thin, low-mass detectors with gas
gaps from a few hundred microns to a few millimeters. The PPS is a high gain,
inherently digital device with the potential for fast response times, fine
position resolution (<50-mm RMS) and low cost. In this paper, we report on
prototype PPS experimental results in detecting betas, protons, and cosmic
muons, and we extrapolate on the PPS potential for applications including the
detection of alphas, heavy ions at low-to-medium energy, thermal neutrons, and
X-rays.


title:
Origins of Anomalous Transport in Disordered Media: Structural and
  Dynamic Controls

abstract:
  We quantitatively identify the origin of anomalous transport in a
representative model of a heterogeneous system---tracer migration in the
complex flow patterns of a lognormally distributed hydraulic conductivity ($K$)
field. The transport, determined by a particle tracking technique, is
characterized by breakthrough curves; the ensemble averaged curves document
anomalous transport in this system, which is entirely accounted for by a
truncated power-law distribution of local transition times $\psi(t)$ within the
framework of a continuous time random walk. Unique to this study is the linking
of $\psi(t)$ directly to the system heterogeneity. We assess the statistics of
the dominant preferred pathways by forming a particle-visitation weighted
histogram $\{wK\}$. Converting the ln($K$) dependence of $\{wK\}$ into time
yields the equivalence of $\{wK\}$ and $\psi(t)$, and shows the part of
$\{wK\}$ that forms the power-law of $\psi(t)$, which is the origin of
anomalous transport. We also derive an expression defining the power law
exponent in terms of the $\{wK\}$ parameters. This equivalence is a remarkable
result, particularly given the correlated $K$-field, the complexity of the flow
field and the statistics of the particle transitions.


title: Possible sorting mechanism for microparticles in an evanescent field

abstract:
  Mie scattering theory is used to calculate radiation forces on a dielectric
microsphere illuminated by evanescent waves, produced by laser light
transmitted obliquely through a flat horizontal dielectric surface. The
incident field is identified with the evanescent field, and both $p$ and $s$
polarizations are considered. Our investigation consists of three parts. First,
after highlighting the basic formalism, we report results for the radiation
force published in an earlier paper [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B {\bf 12}, 2429 (1995)],
correcting a few trivial calculational errors. Second - the main objective of
our paper - is to show how the vertical (lifting) force on microspheres,
typically via a proper adjustment of the laser frequency, can be used to
separate spheres differing by a slight amount in their refractive index. This
is caused by an oscillatory behavior in the force with respect to the
nondimensional wave number $\alpha$ in the surrounding medium. Fine-tuning the
wave number $\alpha$, relative to the given refractive indices in the system,
may lead to particle expulsion. The sorting mechanism turns out to be feasible
when $\alpha$ is about 18-20 or larger, which actually is in the region of
practical interest. Finally, we investigate how variations in the angle of
incidence $\theta_1$ for the laser beam influences the resulting radiation
force.


title:
Enhanced thermoelectric performance in spark plasma textured bulk n-type
  BiTe2.7Se0.3 and p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3

abstract:
  Bulk p and n-type bismuth telluride were prepared using spark plasma
texturization method. The texture development along the uniaxial load in the
001 direction is confirmed from both x-ray diffraction analysis and Electron
Backscattering Diffraction measurements. Interestingly, those textured samples
outperform the samples prepared by conventional spark plasma sintering (SPS)
leading to a reduced thermal conductivity in the ab-plane. The textured samples
of n- type BiTe2.7Se0.3 and p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 showed a 42% and 33%
enhancement in figure of merit at room temperature respectively, as compared to
their SPS counterparts, opening the route for applications.


title:
Chiral d-wave superconducting state in the core of a doubly quantized
  s-wave vortex in graphene

abstract:
  We show that the intrinsic chiral $d_{x^2-y^2} \pm id_{xy}$-wave
superconducting pairing in doped graphene is significantly strengthened in the
core region of a doubly quantized s-wave superconducting vortex produced in a
graphene-superconductor hybrid structure. The chiral d-wave state is induced by
proximity effect, which transfers the center-of-mass angular momentum of the
s-wave vortex to the orbital angular momentum of the chiral d-wave Cooper
pairs. The proximity effect is enhanced by the circular geometry of the vortex
and we find a $[1 + (T-T_{c,J})^2]^{-1}$ temperature dependence for the chiral
d-wave core amplitude, where $T_{c,J}$ is its intrinsic bulk transition
temperature. We further propose to detect the chiral d-wave state by studying
the temperature dependence of the low-energy local density of states in the
vortex core, which displays a sudden radial change as function of the strength
of the d-wave core state.


title:
Impact of Local Lattice Disorder on Spin and Orbital Orders in
  Ca$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$RuO$_4$

abstract:
  We have studied relationship between local lattice disorder, Ru 4$d$
spin-orbit interaction, and global spin/orbital orders of
Ca$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$RuO$_4$ in the Sr-rich and Ca-rich regions of its phase diagram
by using unrestricted Hartree-Fock calculation on a $8\times8$ RuO$_4$ lattice
model. The calculations show that the local elongation of RuO$_6$ octahedron in
an antiferromagnetic insulator Ca$_2$RuO$_4$ induces local orbital change with
making the Mott gap narrower. On the other hand, local compression of RuO$_6$
octahedron in a paramagnetic metal Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ induces global
antiferromagnetic or ferromagnetic states. This result is consistent with a
recent systematic $\mu$SR study by Carlo {\it et al.} which has revealed the
static antiferromagnetic order at low temperature in the Sr-rich region.


title: Geometric Registration of High-genus Surfaces

abstract:
  This paper presents a method to obtain geometric registrations between
high-genus ($g\geq 1$) surfaces. Surface registration between simple surfaces,
such as simply-connected open surfaces, has been well studied. However, very
few works have been carried out for the registration of high-genus surfaces.
The high-genus topology of the surface poses great challenge for surface
registration. A possible approach is to partition surfaces into
simply-connected patches and registration is done patch by patch. Consistent
cuts are required, which are usually difficult to obtain and prone to error. In
this work, we propose an effective way to obtain geometric registration between
high-genus surfaces without introducing consistent cuts. The key idea is to
conformally parameterize the surface into its universal covering space, which
is either the Euclidean plane or the hyperbolic disk embedded in
$\mathbb{R}^2$. Registration can then be done on the universal covering space
by minimizing a shape mismatching energy measuring the geometric dissimilarity
between the two surfaces. Our proposed algorithm effectively computes a smooth
registration between high-genus surfaces that matches geometric information as
much as possible. The algorithm can also be applied to find a smooth and
bijective registration minimizing any general energy functionals. Numerical
experiments on high-genus surface data show that our proposed method is
effective for registering high-genus surfaces with geometric matching. We also
applied the method to register anatomical structures for medical imaging, which
demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed algorithm.


title:
Triggers for displaced decays of long-lived neutral particles in the
  ATLAS detector

abstract:
  A set of three dedicated triggers designed to detect long-lived neutral
particles decaying throughout the ATLAS detector to a pair of hadronic jets is
described. The efficiencies of the triggers for selecting displaced decays as a
function of the decay position are presented for simulated events. The effect
of pile-up interactions on the trigger efficiencies and the dependence of the
trigger rate on instantaneous luminosity during the 2012 data-taking period at
the LHC are discussed.


title: On finite-dimensional subalgebras of derivation Lie algebras

abstract:
  Let $\mathbb{K}$ be a field, $R$ be an associative and commutative
$\mathbb{K}$-algebra and $L$ be a Lie algebra over $\mathbb{K}$. We give some
descriptions of injections from $L$ to Lie algebra of $\mathbb{K}$-derivations
of $R$ in the terms of $L$.


title:
Kinetic Formulation of the Kohn-Sham Equations for ab initio Electronic
  Structure Calculations

abstract:
  We introduce a new approach to density functional theory based on kinetic
theory, showing that the Kohn-Sham equations can be derived as a macroscopic
limit of a suitable Boltzmann kinetic equation in the limit of small mean free
path versus the typical scale of density gradients (Chapman-Enskog expansion).
To derive the approach, we first write the Schr\"odinger equation as a special
case of a Boltzmann equation for a gas of quasi-particles, with the potential
playing the role of an external source that generates and destroys particles,
so as to drive the system towards the ground state. The ions are treated as
classical particles, using the Born-Oppenheimer dynamics, or by imposing
concurrent evolution with the electronic orbitals. In order to provide
quantitative support to our approach, we implement a discrete (lattice) model
and compute, the exchange and correlation energies of simple atoms, and the
geometrical configuration of the methane molecule. Excellent agreement with
values in the literature is found.


title: Radio seismology of the outer solar corona

abstract:
  Observed oscillations of coronal loops in EUV lines have been successfully
used to estimate plasma parameters in the inner corona (< 0.2 R_0, where R_0 is
the solar radius). However, coronal seismology in EUV lines fails for higher
altitudes because of rapid decrease in line intensity. We aim to use radio
observations to estimate the plasma parameters of the outer solar corona (> 0.2
R_0). We use the large Ukrainian radio telescope URAN-2 to observe type IV
radio burst at the frequency range of 8-32 MHz during the time interval of
09:50-12:30 UT in April 14, 2011. The burst was connected to C2.3 flare, which
occurred in AR 11190 during 09:38-09:49 UT. The dynamic spectrum of radio
emission shows clear quasi-periodic variations in the emission intensity at
almost all frequencies. Wavelet analysis at four different frequencies (29 MHz,
25 MHz, 22 MHz and 14 MHz) shows the quasi-periodic variation of emission
intensity with periods of 34 min and 23 min. The periodic variations can be
explained by the first and second harmonics of vertical kink oscillation of
transequatorial coronal loops, which were excited by the same flare. The apex
of transequatorial loops may reach up to 1.2 R_0 altitude. We derive and solve
the dispersion relation of trapped MHD oscillations in a longitudinally
inhomogeneous magnetic slab. The analysis shows that a thin (with width to
length ratio of 0.1), dense (with the ratio of internal and external densities
of > 20) magnetic slab with weak longitudinal inhomogeneity may trap the
observed oscillations. Seismologically estimated Alfv\'en speed inside the loop
at the height of 1 R_0 is 1000 km/s. Then the magnetic field strength at this
height is estimated as 0.9 G. Extrapolation of magnetic field strength to the
inner corona gives 10 G at the height of 0.1 R_0.


title: Circle actions and scalar curvature

abstract:
  We construct metrics of positive scalar curvature on manifolds with circle
actions. One of our main results is that there exist $S^1$-invariant metrics of
positive scalar curvature on every $S^1$-manifold which has a fixed point
component of codimension 2. As a consequence we can prove that there are
non-invariant metrics of positive scalar curvature on many manifolds with
circle actions. Results from equivariant bordism allow us to show that there is
an invariant metric of positive scalar curvature on the connected sum of two
copies of a simply connected semi-free $S^1$-manifold $M$ of dimension at least
six provided that $M$ is not $\text{spin}$ or that $M$ is $\text{spin}$ and the
$S^1$-action is of odd type. If $M$ is spin and the $S^1$-action of even type
then there is a $k>0$ such that the equivariant connected sum of $2^k$ copies
of $M$ admits an invariant metric of positive scalar curvature if and only if a
generalized $\hat{A}$-genus of $M/S^1$ vanishes.


title: Harold Knox-Shaw and the Helwan Observatory

abstract:
  Harold Knox-Shaw (1885-1970) worked at the Helwan Observatory in Egypt from
1907 to 1924. The Observatory was equipped with a 30-inch (76 cm) reflector
that was financed and constructed by the Birmingham industrialist, John
Reynolds (1874-1949), to benefit from the clearer skies and more southerly
latitude compared with Britain. Knox-Shaw obtained the first photograph of
Halley's Comet on its 1910 perihelion passage. He also carried out
morphological studies on nebulae and may have been the first to identify what
later became to be known as elliptical galaxies as a distinct class of object.
Photographic analysis of the variable nebula NGC 6729 in Corona Australis
enabled him to conclude that the changes in brightness and shape were
correlated with the light travel time from the illuminating star, R CrA.


title: Modified methods of stellar magnetic field measurements

abstract:
  The standard methods of the magnetic field measurement, based on an analysis
of the relation between the Stokes $V$-parameter and the first derivative of
the total line profile intensity, were modified by applying a linear integral
operator $\hat{L}$ to the both sides of this relation. As the operator
$\hat{L}$, the operator of the wavelet transform with DOG-wavelets is used. The
key advantage of the proposed method is an effective suppression of the noise
contribution to the line profile and the Stokes parameter $V$. The efficiency
of the method has been studied using the model line profiles with various noise
contributions. To test the proposed method, the spectropolarimetric
observations of the A0-type star $\alpha^2\,$ CVn, young O-type star $\theta^1$
Ori C and A0 supergiant HD 92207 were used. The longitudinal magnetic field
strengths for these stars calculated by our method appeared to be in a good
agreement with those determined by other methods.


title:
Electronic properties and metrology of the diamond NV- center under
  pressure

abstract:
  The negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV-) center in diamond has realized
new frontiers in quantum technology. Here, the center's optical and spin
resonances are observed under hydrostatic pressures up to 60 GPa. Our
observations motivate powerful new techniques to measure pressure and image
high pressure magnetic and electric phenomena. Our observations further reveal
a fundamental inadequacy of the current model of the center and provide new
insight into its electronic structure.


title:
Dynamics, CO depletion, and deuterium fractionation of the dense
  condensations within the fragmented prestellar core Orion B9-SMM 6

abstract:
  We present APEX observations of C17O(2-1), N2H+(3-2), and N2D+(3-2) towards
the subfragments inside the prestellar core SMM 6 in Orion B9. We combined
these spectral line data with our previous SABOCA 350-{\mu}m dust continuum map
of the source. The subfragments are characterised by subsonic internal
non-thermal motions ({\sigma}NT~0.5cs), and most of them appear to be
gravitationally bound. The dispersion of the N2H+ velocity centroids among the
condensations is very low (0.02 km/s). The CO depletion factors we derive,
fD=0.8+/-0.4 - 3.6+/-1.5, do not suggest any significant CO freeze-out but this
may be due to the canonical CO abundance we adopt. The fractional abundances of
N2H+ and N2D+ with respect to H2 are found to be ~0.9-2.3x10^-9 and
~4.9-9.9x10^-10, respectively. The deuterium fractionation of N2H+, or the
N2D+/N2H+ column density ratio, lies in the range 0.30+/-0.07 - 0.43+/-0.09.
The detected substructure inside SMM 6 is likely the result of cylindrical
Jeans-type gravitational fragmentation. We estimate the timescale for this
fragmentation to be ~1.8x10^5 yr. The condensations are unlikely to be able to
interact with one another and coalesce before local gravitational collapse
ensues. Moreover, significant mass growth of the condensations via
competitive-like accretion from the parent core seems unfeasible. The high
level of molecular deuteration in the condensations suggests that gas-phase CO
should be strongly depleted. It also points towards an advanced stage of
chemical evolution. The subfragments of SMM 6 might therefore be near the onset
of gravitational collapse, but whether they can form protostellar or substellar
objects (brown dwarfs) depends on the local star formation efficiency and
remains to be clarified.


title: Spin-Orbit Force from Lattice QCD

abstract:
  We present a first attempt to determine nucleon-nucleon potentials in the
parity-odd sector, which appear in 1P1, 3P0, 3P1, 3P2-3F2 channels, in Nf=2
lattice QCD simulations. These potentials are constructed from the
Nambu-Bethe-Salpeter wave functions for J^P=0^-, 1^- and 2^-, which correspond
to A1^-, T1^- and T2^- + E^- representation of the cubic group, respectively.
We have found a large and attractive spin-orbit potential VLS(r) in the
isospin-triplet channel, which is qualitatively consistent with the
phenomenological determination from the experimental scattering phase shifts.
The potentials obtained from lattice QCD are used to calculate the scattering
phase shifts in 1P1, 3P0, 3P1 and 3P2-3F2 channels. The strong attractive
spin-orbit force and a weak repulsive central force in spin-triplet P-wave
channels lead to an attraction in the 3P2 channel, which is related to the
P-wave neutron paring in neutron stars.


title: Orbit decidability, applications and variations

abstract:
  We present the notion of orbit decidability into a more general framework,
exploring interesting generalizations and variations of this algorithmic
problem. A recent theorem by Bogopolski-Martino-Ventura gave a renovated
protagonism to this notion and motivated several interesting algebraic
applications.


title: An Epistemic Perspective on Consistency of Concurrent Computations

abstract:
  Consistency properties of concurrent computations, e.g., sequential
consistency, linearizability, or eventual consistency, are essential for
devising correct concurrent algorithms. In this paper, we present a logical
formalization of such consistency properties that is based on a standard logic
of knowledge. Our formalization provides a declarative perspective on what is
imposed by consistency requirements and provides some interesting unifying
insight on differently looking properties.


title: Superposition of COGARCH processes

abstract:
  We suggest three superpositions of COGARCH (supCOGARCH) volatility processes
driven by L\'evy processes or L\'evy bases. We investigate second-order
properties, jump behaviour, and prove that they exhibit Pareto-like tails.
Corresponding price processes are defined and studied. We find that the
supCOGARCH models allow for more flexible autocovariance structures than the
COGARCH. Moreover, other than most financial volatility models, the supCOGARCH
processes do not exhibit a deterministic relationship between price and
volatility jumps. Furthermore, in one supCOGARCH model not all volatility jumps
entail a price jump, while in another supCOGARCH model not all price jumps
necessarily lead to volatility jumps.


title:
Dependence of low redshift Type Ia Supernovae luminosities on host
  galaxies

abstract:
  We study the relation of Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) with host galaxies from
a large low redshift sample. By examining the Hubble residuals of the entire
sample from the best-fit cosmology, we show that SNe Ia in passive hosts are
brighter than those in star-forming hosts after light curve correction at
2.1{\sigma}confidence level. We find that SNe Ia in high luminosity hosts are
brighter after light-curve correction at>3{\sigma}confidence level. We also
find that SNe Ia in large size galaxies are brighter after light-curve
correction at?2{\sigma} confidence level. We demonstrate that the residual
linearly depends on host luminosity at a confidence of 4{\sigma}or host size at
a confidence of 3.3{\sigma}.


title: Two barium stars in the Galactic bulge

abstract:
  Barium stars conserve important information on the s-process and the third
dredge-up in intermediate mass stars. Their discovery in various environments
is therefore of great help to test nucleosynthesis and mixing models. Our aim
is to analyse two stars with a very strong barium line detected in a large
survey of red giants in the Galactic bulge. Abundance analysis was done
comparing synthetic model spectra based on the COMARCS code with our medium
resolution spectra. Abundances of Ba, La, Y, and Fe were determined. Beside the
two main targets, the analysis was also applied to two comparison stars. We
confirm that both stars are barium stars. They are the first ones of this kind
identified in the Galactic bulge. Their barium excesses are among the largest
values found up to now. The elemental abundances are compared with current
nucleosynthesis and mixing models. Furthermore, we estimate a frequency of
barium stars in the Galactic bulge of about 1%, which is identical to the value
for disc stars.


title: Fast Collision Checking: From Single Robots to Multi-Robot Teams

abstract:
  We examine three different algorithms that enable the collision certificate
method from [Bialkowski, et al.] to handle the case of a centralized
multi-robot team. By taking advantage of symmetries in the configuration space
of multi-robot teams, our methods can significantly reduce the number of
collision checks vs. both [Bialkowski, et al.] and standard collision checking
implementations.


title: Symmetry and resonant modes in platonic grating stacks

abstract:
  We study the flexural wave modes existing in finite stacks of gratings
containing rigid, zero-radius pins. We group the modes into even and odd
classes, and derive dispersion equations for each. We study the recently
discovered EDIT (elasto-dynamically inhibited transmission) phenomenon, and
relate it to the occurrence of trapped waves of even and odd symmetries being
simultaneously resonant. We show how the EDIT interaction may be steered over a
wide range of frequencies and angles, using a strategy in which the
single-grating reflectance is kept high, so enabling the quality factors of the
even and odd resonances to be kept large.


title: Core-excitation three-cluster model description of ^8He and ^10He

abstract:
  We introduce a new model applying to the core-nucleus and two-neutron system.
The Faddeev equations of 6He-n-n and 8He-n-n systems for 8He and 10He are
solved, respectively. The potential of the subsystem in the model has been
determined to make a coupling both of the ground state and the excited one
inside the core nucleus. By a similar mechanism the three-nucleon system is
solved with the three-body force originating from an isobar excitation of the
nucleon. Inputting only the information of subsystem energy levels and widths
we get the coupling constants of rank 1 Yamaguchi potential between the core
nucleus and neutron. We calculate the Faddeev three-cluster equations to obtain
the low-lying energy levels of 8He and 10He. The 1- state of 10He, which has
not been detected yet in experiments, is located in the energy level between
the 0+ and 2+ states.