title:
Near-infrared thermal emission from near-Earth asteroids:
  Aspect-dependent variability

abstract:
  Here we explore a technique for constraining physical properties of
near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) based on variability in thermal emission as a
function of viewing aspect. We present case studies of the low albedo,
near-Earth asteroids (285263) 1998 QE2 and (175706) 1996 FG3. The Near-Earth
Asteroid Thermal Model (NEATM) is used to fit signatures of thermal emission in
near-infrared (0.8 - 2.5 micron) spectral data. This analysis represents a
systematic study of thermal variability in the near-IR as a function of phase
angle. The observations of QE2 imply that carefully timed observations from
multiple viewing geometries can be used to constrain physical properties like
retrograde versus prograde pole orientation and thermal inertia. The FG3
results are more ambiguous with detected thermal variability possibly due to
systematic issues with NEATM, an unexpected prograde rotation state, or a
surface that is spectrally and thermally heterogenous. This study highlights
the potential diagnostic importance of high phase angle thermal measurements on
both sides of opposition. We find that the NEATM thermal beaming parameters
derived from our near-IR data tend to be of order 10's of percent higher than
parameters from ensemble analyses of longer wavelength data sets. However, a
systematic comparison of NEATM applied to data in different wavelength regimes
is needed to understand whether this offset is simply a reflection of small
number statistics or an intrinsic limitation of NEATM when applied to near-IR
data. With the small sample presented here, it remains unclear whether NEATM
modeling at near-IR wavelengths can robustly determine physical properties like
pole orientation and thermal inertia.


title: Scale-setting, flavour dependence and chiral symmetry restoration

abstract:
  We determine the flavour dependence of the renormalisation-group-invariant
running interaction through judicious use of both unquenched Dyson-Schwinger
equation and lattice results for QCD's gauge-sector two-point functions. An
important step is the introduction of a physical scale setting procedure that
enables a realistic expression of the effect of different numbers of active
quark flavours on the interaction. Using this running interaction in concert
with a well constrained class of dressed--gluon-quark vertices, we estimate the
critical number of active lighter-quarks above which dynamical chiral symmetry
breaking becomes impossible: $n_f^{\rm cr}\approx 9$; and hence in whose
neighbourhood QCD is plausibly a conformal theory.


title: Quantified CTL with imperfect information

abstract:
  Quantified CTL (QCTL) is a well-studied temporal logic that extends CTL with
quantification over atomic propositions. It has recently come to the fore as a
powerful intermediary framework to study logics for strategic reasoning. We
extend it to include imperfect information by parameterising quantifiers with
an observation that defines how well they observe the model, thus constraining
their behaviour. We consider two different semantics, one related to the notion
of no memory, the other to perfect recall. We study the expressiveness of our
logic, and show that it coincides with MSO for the first semantics and with MSO
with equal level for the second one. We establish that the model-checking
problem is Pspace-complete for the first semantics. While it is undecidable for
the second one, we identify a syntactic fragment, defined by a notion of
hierarchical formula, which we prove to be decidable thanks to an
automata-theoretic approach.


title: Critical points in Lovelock Black Holes

abstract:
  We review some of the results obtained by introducing a thermodynamic
pressure via the cosmological constant in a class of higher curvature theories
known as Lovelock gravity. In particular, we focus on a specific relation
between the higher-order Lovelock couplings that introduces a peculiar isolated
critical point for hyperbolic black holes characterized by non-standard
critical exponents.


title:
Andreev spectrum with high spin-orbit interactions: revealing spin
  splitting and topologically protected crossings

abstract:
  We investigate numerically the Andreev spectrum of a multichannel mesoscopic
quantum wire (N) with high spin-orbit interaction coupled to superconducting
electrodes (S), contrasting topological and non topological behaviors.
  In the non topological case, modeled by a square lattice with Rashba
interactions, we find that as soon as the normal quantum wires can host several
conduction channels, the spin degeneracy of Andreev levels is lifted by a phase
difference between the S reservoirs which breaks time reversal symmetry in zero
Zeeman field. The Andreev states remain degenerate at phases multiple of $\pi$
for which time reversal symmetry is preserved, giving rise to level crossings
which are not lifted by disorder. In contrast with the dc Josephson current,
the finite frequency admittance (susceptibility) is very sensitive to these
level crossings and the lifting of their degeneracy by a small Zeeman field.
More interesting is the case of the hexagonal lattice with next nearest
neighbor spin-orbit interactions which exhibit 1D topological helical edge
states \cite{Kane2005}. The finite frequency admittance carries then a very
specific signature at low temperature of a protected Andreev level crossing at
$\pi$ and zero energy in the form of a sharp peak split by a Zeeman field.


title: Blood Pulsation Intensity Video Mapping

abstract:
  In this study, we make non-invasive, remote, passive measurements of the
heart beat frequency and determine the map of blood pulsation intensity in a
region of interest (ROI) of skin. The ROI used was the forearm of a volunteer.
The method employs a regular video camera and visible light, and the video
acquisition takes less than 1 minute. The mean cardiac frequency found in our
volunteer was within 1 bpm of the ground-truth value simultaneously obtained
via earlobe plethysmography. Using the signals extracted from the video images,
we have determined an intensity map for the blood pulsation at the surface of
the skin. In this paper we present the experimental and data processing details
of the work and well as limitations of the technique.
  -----------------------------------------
  Neste estudo medimos a frequ\^encia card\'iaca de forma n\~ao invasiva,
remota e passiva e determinamos o mapa da atividade de pulsa\c{c}\~ao
sangu\'inea numa regi\~ao de interesse (ROI) da pele. A ROI utilizada foi o
antebra\c{c}o de um volunt\'ario. O m\'etodo utiliza uma c\^amara de v\'ideo
comum e luz vis\'ivel como processo de aquisi\c{c}\~ao do v\'ideo durando menos
de 1 minuto. A frequ\^encia card\'iaca m\'edia encontrada tem erro em torno de
1 batimento por minuto em rela\c{c}\~ao a uma medida simult\^anea usando
fotopletismografia de l\'obulo de orelha. A partir dos sinais extra\'idos das
imagens de v\'ideo, determinamos um mapa da intensidade da pulsa\c{c}\~ao
sangu\'inea na superf\'icie da pele. Apresentamos detalhes experimentais e de
processamento dos sinais, assim como limita\c{c}\~oes da t\'ecnica.


title: Aging and rejuvenation of active matter under topological constraints

abstract:
  The coupling of active, self-motile particles to topological constraints can
give rise to novel non-equilibrium dynamical patterns that lack any passive
counterpart. Here we study the behavior of self-propelled rods confined to a
compact spherical manifold by means of Brownian dynamics simulations. We
establish the state diagram and find that short active rods at sufficiently
high density exhibit a glass transition toward a disordered state characterized
by persistent self-spinning motion. By periodically melting and revitrifying
the spherical spinning glass, we observe clear signatures of time-dependent
aging and rejuvenation physics. We quantify the crucial role of activity in
these non-equilibrium processes, and rationalize the aging dynamics in terms of
an absorbing-state transition toward a more stable active glassy state. Our
results demonstrate both how concepts of passive glass phenomenology can carry
over into the realm of active matter, and how topology can enrich the
collective spatiotemporal dynamics in inherently non-equilibrium systems.


title: Free-Space Quantum Key Distribution

abstract:
  Based on the firm laws of physics rather than unproven foundations of
mathematical complexity, quantum cryptography provides a radically different
solution for encryption and promises unconditional security. Quantum
cryptography systems are typically built between two nodes connected to each
other through fiber optic. This chapter focuses on quantum cryptography systems
operating over free-space optical channels as a cost-effective and license-free
alternative to fiber optic counterparts. It provides an overview of the
different parts of an experimental free-space quantum communication link
developed in the Spanish National Research Council (Madrid, Spain).


title: Understanding deep learning requires rethinking generalization

abstract:
  Despite their massive size, successful deep artificial neural networks can
exhibit a remarkably small difference between training and test performance.
Conventional wisdom attributes small generalization error either to properties
of the model family, or to the regularization techniques used during training.
  Through extensive systematic experiments, we show how these traditional
approaches fail to explain why large neural networks generalize well in
practice. Specifically, our experiments establish that state-of-the-art
convolutional networks for image classification trained with stochastic
gradient methods easily fit a random labeling of the training data. This
phenomenon is qualitatively unaffected by explicit regularization, and occurs
even if we replace the true images by completely unstructured random noise. We
corroborate these experimental findings with a theoretical construction showing
that simple depth two neural networks already have perfect finite sample
expressivity as soon as the number of parameters exceeds the number of data
points as it usually does in practice.
  We interpret our experimental findings by comparison with traditional models.


title: Estimating Dynamic Treatment Regimes in Mobile Health Using V-learning

abstract:
  The vision for precision medicine is to use individual patient
characteristics to inform a personalized treatment plan that leads to the best
healthcare possible for each patient. Mobile technologies have an important
role to play in this vision as they offer a means to monitor a patient's health
status in real-time and subsequently to deliver interventions if, when, and in
the dose that they are needed. Dynamic treatment regimes formalize
individualized treatment plans as sequences of decision rules, one per stage of
clinical intervention, that map current patient information to a recommended
treatment. However, existing methods for estimating optimal dynamic treatment
regimes are designed for a small number of fixed decision points occurring on a
coarse time-scale. We propose a new reinforcement learning method for
estimating an optimal treatment regime that is applicable to data collected
using mobile technologies in an outpatient setting. The proposed method
accommodates an indefinite time horizon and minute-by-minute decision making
that are common in mobile health applications. We show the proposed estimators
are consistent and asymptotically normal under mild conditions. The proposed
methods are applied to estimate an optimal dynamic treatment regime for
controlling blood glucose levels in patients with type 1 diabetes.


title:
On the strict monotonicity of the first eigenvalue of the $p$-Laplacian
  on annuli

abstract:
  Let $B_1$ be a ball in $\mathbb{R}^N$ centred at the origin and $B_0$ be a
smaller ball compactly contained in $B_1$. For $p\in(1, \infty)$, using the
shape derivative method, we show that the first eigenvalue of the $p$-Laplacian
in annulus $B_1\setminus \overline{B_0}$ strictly decreases as the inner ball
moves towards the boundary of the outer ball. The analogous results for the
limit cases as $p \to 1$ and $p \to \infty$ are also discussed. Using our main
result, further we prove the nonradiality of the eigenfunctions associated with
the points on the first nontrivial curve of the Fu\v{c}ik spectrum of the
$p$-Laplacian on bounded radial domains.


title: Landmark-based consonant voicing detection on multilingual corpora

abstract:
  This paper tests the hypothesis that distinctive feature classifiers anchored
at phonetic landmarks can be transferred cross-lingually without loss of
accuracy. Three consonant voicing classifiers were developed: (1) manually
selected acoustic features anchored at a phonetic landmark, (2) MFCCs (either
averaged across the segment or anchored at the landmark), and(3) acoustic
features computed using a convolutional neural network (CNN). All detectors are
trained on English data (TIMIT),and tested on English, Turkish, and Spanish
(performance measured using F1 and accuracy). Experiments demonstrate that
manual features outperform all MFCC classifiers, while CNNfeatures outperform
both. MFCC-based classifiers suffer an F1reduction of 16% absolute when
generalized from English to other languages. Manual features suffer only a 5%
F1 reduction,and CNN features actually perform better in Turkish and Span-ish
than in the training language, demonstrating that features capable of
representing long-term spectral dynamics (CNN and landmark-based features) are
able to generalize cross-lingually with little or no loss of accuracy


title:
Instability of asymptotically anti de Sitter black holes under Robin
  conditions at the timelike boundary

abstract:
  The static region outside the event horizon of an asymptotically anti de
Sitter black hole has a conformal timelike boundary $\mathscr{I}$ on which
boundary conditions have to be imposed for the evolution of linear fields from
initial data to be a well posed problem. Only homogeneous Dirichlet, Neumann or
Robin conditions preserve the action of the background isometry group on the
solution space. We study the case in which the modal decomposition of the
linear field leads to potentials not diverging at the conformal timelike
boundary. We prove that there is always an instability if Robin boundary
conditions with large enough $\gamma$ (the quotient between the values of the
derivative of the field and the field at the boundary) are allowed. We explain
the origin of this instability, show that for modes with nonnegative potentials
there is a single unstable state and prove a number of properties of this
state. Although our results apply in general to 1+1 wave equations on a half
infinite domain with a potential that is not singular at the boundary, our
motivation is to analyze the gravitational stability of the four dimensional
Schwarzschild anti de Sitter black holes (SAdS${}_4$) in the context of the
black hole non modal linear stability program initiated in Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.\
{\bf 112}, 191101 (2014), and the related supersymmetric type of duality
exchanging odd and even modes. We prove that this symmetry is broken except
when a combination of Dirichlet conditions in the even sector and a particular
Robin condition in the odd sector is enforced, or viceversa, and that only the
first of these two choices leads to a stable dynamics.


title: A family of formulas with reversal of high avoidability index

abstract:
  We present an infinite family of formulas with reversal whose avoidability
index is bounded between 4 and 5, and we show that several members of the
family have avoidability index 5. This family is particularly interesting due
to its size and the simple structure of its members. For each $k\in\{4,5\}$,
there are several previously known avoidable formulas (without reversal) of
avoidability index $k$, but they are small in number and they all have rather
complex structure.


title:
Measurement of the muon-neutrino charged-current cross section on water
  with zero pions

abstract:
  The Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) experiment is a 295-km long-baseline neutrino
experiment aimed towards the measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters
${\theta}_{13}$ and ${\theta}_{23}$. Precise measurement of these parameters
requires accurate knowledge of neutrino cross sections. We present a
flux-averaged double differential measurement of the charged-current cross
section on water with zero pions in the final state using the T2K off-axis near
detector, ND280. A selection of $\nu_\mu$ charged- current events occurring in
the Pi-Zero subdetector (P{\O}D) of ND280 is performed with $5.8 \times
10^{20}$ protons on target. The charged, outgoing tracks are required to enter
and be identified by the ND280 Tracker. The cross section is determined using
an unfolding technique. By separating the dataset into time periods when the
P{\O}D water layers are filled with water and when they are empty, a
subtraction method provides a distribution of $\nu_\mu$ interactions on water
only. Systematic uncertainties on the neutrino flux, interaction model, and
detector simulation are propagated numerically within the unfolding framework.


title:
Linear predictors for nonlinear dynamical systems: Koopman operator
  meets model predictive control

abstract:
  This paper presents a class of linear predictors for nonlinear controlled
dynamical systems. The basic idea is to lift the nonlinear dynamics into a
higher dimensional space where its evolution is approximately linear. In an
uncontrolled setting, this procedure amounts to a numerical approximation of
the Koopman operator associated to the nonlinear dynamics. In this work, we
extend the Koopman operator to controlled dynamical systems and compute a
finite-dimensional approximation of the operator in such a way that this
approximation has the form a linear controlled dynamical system. In numerical
examples, the linear predictors obtained in this way exhibit a performance
superior to existing linear predictors such as those based on local
linearization or the so-called Carleman linearization. Importantly, the
procedure to construct these linear predictors is completely data-driven and
extremely simple -- it boils down to a nonlinear transformation of the data
(the lifting) and a linear least squares problem in the lifted space that can
be readily solved for large data sets. These linear predictors can be readily
used to design controllers for the nonlinear dynamical system using linear
controller design methodologies. We focus in particular on model predictive
control (MPC) and show that MPC controllers designed in this way enjoy
computational complexity of the underlying optimization problem comparable to
that of MPC for a linear dynamical system of the same size. Importantly, linear
inequality constraints on the state and control inputs as well as nonlinear
constraints on the state can be imposed in a linear fashion in the proposed MPC
scheme. Similarly, cost functions nonlinear in the state variable can be
handled in a linear fashion. Numerical examples (including a high-dimensional
nonlinear PDE control) demonstrate the approach with the source code available
online.


title: Vision-aided Localization and Navigation Based on Trifocal Tensor

abstract:
  In this paper, a novel method for vision-aided navigation based on trifocal
tensor is presented. The main goal of the proposed method is to provide
position estimation in GPS-denied environments for vehicles equipped with a
standard inertial navigation systems(INS) and a single camera only. We treat
the trifocal tensor as the measurement model, being only concerned about the
vehicle state and do not estimate the the position of the tracked landmarks.
The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated using simulation and
experimental data.


title: Spectra and Bifurcations

abstract:
  The concept of spectrum for a class of non-linear wave equations is studied.
Instead of looking for stability, the key to the spectral structure is found in
the instability phenomena (bifurcations). This aspect is best seen in the
`classical model' of the non-linear wave mechanics. The solitons
(macro-localizations) are a part of the non-linear spectral problem; their
bifurcations reflect the dynamical symmetry breaking. The computer simulations
suggest that the bifurcations of the asymptotic behaviour occur also for the
general, non-stationary states. A~phenomenon of the soliton splitting is
observed.


title:
Dynamical Borel-Cantelli lemmas and rates of growth of Birkhoff sums of
  non-integrable observables on chaotic dynamical systems

abstract:
  We consider implications of dynamical Borel-Cantelli lemmas for rates of
growth of Birkhoff sums of non-integrable observables $\varphi(x) =
d(x,p)^{-k}$, $k>0$, on ergodic dynamical systems $(T,X,\mu)$ where $\mu(X) =
1$. Some general results are given as well as some more concrete examples
involving non-uniformly expanding maps, intermittent type maps as well as
uniformly hyperbolic systems.


title:
Magnetism and ultra-fast magnetization dynamics of Co and CoMn alloys at
  finite temperature

abstract:
  Temperature-dependent magnetic experiments like pump-probe measurements
generated by a pulsed laser have become a crucial technique for switching the
magnetization in the picosecond time scale. Apart from having practical
implications on the magnetic storage technology, the research field of
ultrafast magnetization poses also fundamental physical questions. To correctly
describe the time evolution of the atomic magnetic moments under the influence
of a temperature-dependent laser pulse, it remains crucial to know if the
magnetic material under investigation has magnetic excitation spectrum that is
more or less dependent on the magnetic configuration, e.g. as reflected by the
temperature dependence of the exchange interactions. In this article, we
demonstrate from first-principles theory that the magnetic excitation spectra
in Co with fcc, bcc and hcp structures are nearly identical in a wide range of
non-collinear magnetic configurations. This is a curious result of a balance
between the size of the magnetic moments and the strength of the Heisenberg
exchange interactions, that in themselves vary with configuration, but put
together in an effective spin Hamiltonian results in a configuration
independent effective model. We have used such a Hamiltonian, together with
ab-initio calculated damping parameters, to investigate the magnon dispersion
relationship as well as the ultrafast magnetisation dynamics of Co and Co-rich
CoMn alloys.


title: The impact of companions on stellar evolution

abstract:
  Stellar astrophysicists are increasingly taking into account the effects of
orbiting companions on stellar evolution. New discoveries, many thanks to
systematic time-domain surveys, have underlined the role of binary star
interactions in a range of astrophysical events, including some that were
previously interpreted as due uniquely to single stellar evolution. Here, we
review classical binary phenomena such as type Ia supernovae, and discuss new
phenomena such as intermediate luminosity transients, gravitational
wave-producing double black holes, or the interaction between stars and their
planets. Finally, we examine the reassessment of well-known phenomena in light
of interpretations that include both single and binary stars, for example
supernovae of type Ib and Ic or luminous blue variables. At the same time we
contextualise the new discoveries within the framework and nomenclature of the
corpus of knowledge on binary stellar evolution. The last decade has heralded
an era of revival in stellar astrophysics as the complexity of stellar
observations is increasingly interpreted with an interplay of single and binary
scenarios. The next decade, with the advent of massive projects such as the
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, the Square Kilometre Array, the James Webb
Space Telescope and increasingly sophisticated computational methods, will see
the birth of an expanded framework of stellar evolution that will have
repercussions in many other areas of astrophysics such as galactic evolution
and nucleosynthesis.


title: Simple Data and Workflow Management with the signac Framework

abstract:
  Researchers in the field of materials science, chemistry, and computational
physics are regularly posed with the challenge of managing large and
heterogeneous data spaces. The amount of data increases in lockstep with
computational efficiency multiplied by the amount of available computational
resources, which shifts the bottleneck in the scientific process from data
acquisition to data processing and analysis. We present a framework designed to
aid in the integration of various specialized data formats, tools and
workflows. The signac framework provides all basic components required to
create a well-defined and thus collectively accessible and searchable data
space, simplifying data access and modification through a homogeneous data
interface that is largely agnostic to the data source, i.e., computation or
experiment. The framework's data model is designed to not require absolute
commitment to the presented implementation, simplifying adaption into existing
data sets and workflows. This approach not only increases the efficiency with
which scientific results can be produced, but also significantly lowers
barriers for collaborations requiring shared data access.


title:
Ultra-Efficient Thermophotovoltaics Exploiting Spectral Filtering by the
  Photovoltaic Band-Edge

abstract:
  Thermophotovotaics convert thermal radiation from local heat sources to
electricity. A new breakthrough in creating highly efficient thin-film solar
cells can potentially enable thermophotovoltaic systems with unprecedented high
efficiency. The current 28.8% single-junction solar efficiency record, by Alta
Devices, was achieved by recognizing that a good solar cell needs to reflect
infrared band-edge radiation at the back surface, to effectively recycle
infrared luminescent photons. The effort to reflect band-edge luminescence in
solar cells has serendipitously created the technology to reflect all infrared
wavelengths, which can revolutionize thermophotovoltaics. We have never before
had such high back reflectivity for sub-bandgap radiation, permitting
step-function spectral control for the first time. Thus, contemporary
efficiency advances in solar photovoltaic cells create the possibility of
realizing a $>50\%$ efficient thermophotovoltaic system.


title:
The Instrumental Variable Method for Estimating Local Average Treatment
  Regime Effects

abstract:
  We propose the instrumental variable regime (IVR) method to estimate the
causal effects of multiple sequential treatments. This method serves to address
the problem of endogenous selections of sequential treatments. An IVR is a
sequence of instrumental variables in which each IV instruments for an
endogenous treatment variable. Our proposed method generalizes the LATE model
in Imbens and Angrist (1994) from a single treatment to many treatments applied
sequentially. More precisely, with the IVR this model allows for estimating the
local average treatment regime effects (LATRE), possibly conditional on a set
of initial covariates. Though there exist studies in this area that use IVR,
all of them require a structural functional form assumption. Our method is
novel in that we do not require any such assumption. Thus unlike previous
approaches, ours is robust to model misspecifications, which usually occur in
treatment regime settings. The ideas and estimators in this paper are motivated
and illustrated through a contextual example showing the use of IVR in
estimating the treatment regime effect of advertisements on purchasing
behaviors when advertisements are displayed in multiple periods. We demonstrate
the performance of the proposed method with simulations.


title: Axial Super-resolution Evanescent Wave Tomography

abstract:
  Optical tomographic reconstruction of a 3D nanoscale specimen is hindered by
the axial diffraction limit, which is 2-3 times worse than the focal plane
resolution. We propose and experimentally demonstrate an axial super-resolution
evanescent wave tomography (AxSET) method that enables the use of regular
evanescent wave microscopes like Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence
Microscope (TIRF) beyond surface imaging, and achieve tomographic
reconstruction with axial super-resolution. Our proposed method based on
Fourier reconstruction achieves axial super-resolution by extracting
information from multiple sets of three-dimensional fluorescence images when
the sample is illuminated by an evanescent wave. We propose a procedure to
extract super-resolution features from the incremental penetration of an
evanescent wave and support our theory by 1D (along the optical axis) and 3D
simulations. We validate our claims by experimentally demonstrating tomographic
reconstruction of microtubules in HeLa cells with an axial resolution of
$\sim$130 nm. Our method does not require any additional optical components or
sample preparation. The proposed method can be combined with focal plane
super-resolution techniques like STORM and can also be adapted for THz and
microwave near-field tomography.


title:
CMV biorthogonal Laurent polynomials. II: Christoffel formulas for
  Geronimus-Uvarov perturbations

abstract:
  This paper is a continuation of the recent paper "CMV biorthogonal Laurent
polynomials: Christoffel formulas for Christoffel and Geronimus
transformations" by the same authors. The behavior of quasidefinite
sesquilinear forms for Laurent polynomials in the complex plane, characterized
by bivariate linear functionals, and corresponding CMV biorthogonal Laurent
polynomial families --including Sobolev and discrete Sobolev orthogonalities---
under two type of Geronimus--Uvarov transformations is studied. Either the
linear functionals are multiplied by a Laurent polynomial and divided by the
complex conjugate of a Laurent polynomial, with the addition of appropriate
masses (linear functionals supported on the zeros of the perturbing Laurent
polynomial in the denominator) or vice-versa, multiplied by the complex
conjugate of a Laurent polynomial and divided by a Laurent polynomial. The
connection formulas for the CMV biorthogonal Laurent polynomials, their norms,
and Christoffel--Darboux kernels are given. For prepared Laurent polynomials
these connection formulas lead to quasideterminantal (quotient of determinants)
Christoffel formulas expressing an arbitrary degree perturbed biorthogonal
Laurent polynomial in terms of $2N_{\mathfrak C}+2N_\Gamma$ unperturbed
biorthogonal Laurent polynomials, their second kind functions or
Christoffel--Darboux kernel and its mixed versions. When the linear functionals
are supported on the unit circle, a particularly relevant role is played by the
reciprocal polynomial, and the Christoffel formulas provide now with two
possible ways of expressing the same perturbed quantities in terms of the
original ones, one using only the nonperturbed biorthogonal family of Laurent
polynomials, and the other using the Christoffel--Darboux kernel and its mixed
versions.


title:
Developments for the IsoDAR@KamLAND and DAE{\delta}ALUS Decay-At-Rest
  Neutrino Experiments

abstract:
  Configurations of the IsoDAR and DAE{\delta}ALUS decay-at-rest neutrino
experiments are described. Injector and cyclotron developments aimed at
substantial increases in beam current are discussed. The IsoDAR layout and
target are described, and this experiment is compared to other programs
searching for sterile neutrinos.


title:
Existence and regularity results for weak solutions to $(p,q)$-elliptic
  systems in divergence form

abstract:
  We prove existence and regularity results for weak solutions of non linear
elliptic systems with non variational structure satisfying $(p,q)$-growth
conditions. In particular we are able to prove higher differentiability results
under a dimension-free gap between $p$ and $q$.


title:
Structure in Sheared Supercooled Liquids: Dynamical Rearrangements of an
  Effective System of Icosahedra

abstract:
  We consider a binary Lennard-Jones glassformer whose super-Arrhenius dynamics
are correlated with the formation of particles organized into icosahedra under
simple steady state shear. We recast this glassformer as an effective system of
icosahedra [Pinney et al. J. Chem. Phys. 143 244507 (2015)]. From the observed
population of icosahedra in each steady state, we obtain an effective
temperature which is linearly dependent on the shear rate in the range
considered. Upon shear banding, the system separates into a region of high
shear rate and a region of low shear rate. The effective temperatures obtained
in each case show that the low shear regions correspond to a significantly
lower temperature than the high shear regions. Taking a weighted average of the
effective temperature of these regions (weight determined by region size)
yields an estimate of the effective temperature which compares well with an
effective temperature based on the global mesocluster population of the whole
system.


title: Anomalous dynamics and the choice of Poincar\'e recurrence-set

abstract:
  We investigate the dependence of Poincar\'e recurrence-times statistics on
the choice of recurrence-set, by sampling the dynamics of two- and
four-dimensional Hamiltonian maps. We derive a method that allows us to
visualize the direct relation between the shape of a recurrence-set and the
values of its return probability distribution in arbitrary phase-space
dimensions. Such procedure, which is shown to be quite effective in the
detection of tiny regions of regular motion, allows to explain it why similar
recurrence-sets have very different distributions and how to modify them in
order to enhance their return probabilities. Applied on data, this permits to
understand the co-existence of extremely long, transient power-like decays
whose anomalous exponent depends on the chosen recurrence-set.


title: Rotation of an immersed cylinder sliding near a thin elastic coating

abstract:
  It is known that an object translating parallel to a soft wall in a viscous
fluid produces hydro- dynamic stresses that deform the wall, which, in turn,
results in a lift force on the object. Recent experiments with cylinders
sliding under gravity near a soft incline, which confirmed theoretical
arguments for the lift force, also reported an unexplained steady-state
rotation of the cylinders [Saintyves et al. PNAS 113(21), 2016]. Motivated by
these observations, we show, in the lubrication limit, that an infinite
cylinder that translates in a viscous fluid parallel to a soft wall at constant
speed and separation distance must also rotate in order to remain free of
torque. Using the Lorentz reciprocal theorem, we show analytically that for
small deformations of the elastic layer, the angular velocity of the cylinder
scales with the cube of the sliding speed. These predictions are confirmed
numerically. We then apply the theory to the gravity-driven motion of a
cylinder near a soft incline and find qualitative agreement with the
experimental observations, namely that a softer elastic layer results in a
greater angular speed of the cylinder.


title: The Sum-Product Theorem: A Foundation for Learning Tractable Models

abstract:
  Inference in expressive probabilistic models is generally intractable, which
makes them difficult to learn and limits their applicability. Sum-product
networks are a class of deep models where, surprisingly, inference remains
tractable even when an arbitrary number of hidden layers are present. In this
paper, we generalize this result to a much broader set of learning problems:
all those where inference consists of summing a function over a semiring. This
includes satisfiability, constraint satisfaction, optimization, integration,
and others. In any semiring, for summation to be tractable it suffices that the
factors of every product have disjoint scopes. This unifies and extends many
previous results in the literature. Enforcing this condition at learning time
thus ensures that the learned models are tractable. We illustrate the power and
generality of this approach by applying it to a new type of structured
prediction problem: learning a nonconvex function that can be globally
optimized in polynomial time. We show empirically that this greatly outperforms
the standard approach of learning without regard to the cost of optimization.


title:
Cross-correlation of weak lensing and gamma rays: implications for the
  nature of dark matter

abstract:
  We measure the cross-correlation between Fermi-LAT gamma-ray photons and over
1000 deg$^2$ of weak lensing data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS), the Red Cluster Sequence Lensing Survey (RCSLenS),
and the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS). We present the first measurement of
tomographic weak lensing cross-correlations and the first application of
spectral binning to cross-correlations between gamma rays and weak lensing. The
measurements are performed using an angular power spectrum estimator while the
covariance is estimated using an analytical prescription. We verify the
accuracy of our covariance estimate by comparing it to two internal covariance
estimators. Based on the non-detection of a cross-correlation signal, we derive
constraints on weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter. We
compute exclusion limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section
$\langle\sigma_\rm{ann} v \rangle$, decay rate $\Gamma_\rm{dec}$, and particle
mass $m_\rm{DM}$. We find that in the absence of a cross-correlation signal,
tomography does not significantly improve the constraining power of the
analysis. Assuming a strong contribution to the gamma-ray flux due to
small-scale clustering of dark matter and accounting for known astrophysical
sources of gamma rays, we exclude the thermal relic cross-section for particle
masses of $m_\rm{DM}\lesssim 20$ GeV.


title: Centralizers in Free Group Algebras and Nonsingular Curves

abstract:
  The centralizer of any non-scalar element of a free group algebra over a
field is the coordinate ring of a nonsingular curve.


title: On-chip Inter-modal Brillouin Scattering

abstract:
  Stimulated Brillouin interactions mediate nonlinear coupling between photons
and acoustic phonons through an optomechanical three-wave interaction. Though
these nonlinearities were previously very weak in silicon photonic systems, the
recent emergence of new optomechanical waveguide structures have transformed
Brillouin processes into one of the strongest and most tailorable on-chip
nonlinear interactions. New technologies based on Brillouin couplings have
formed a basis for amplification, filtering, and nonreciprocal signal
processing techniques. In this paper, we demonstrate strong guided-wave
Brillouin scattering between light fields guided in distinct spatial modes of a
silicon waveguide for the first time. This inter-modal coupling creates
dispersive symmetry breaking between Stokes and anti-Stokes processes,
permitting single-sideband amplification and wave dynamics that permit
near-unity power conversion. Combining these physics with integrated
mode-multiplexers enables novel device topologies and eliminates the need for
optical circulators or narrowband spectral filtering to separate pump and
signal waves as in traditional Brillouin processes. We demonstrate 3.5 dB of
optical gain, over 2.3 dB of net amplification, and 50% single-sideband energy
transfer between two optical modes in a pure silicon waveguide, expanding the
design space for flexible on-chip light sources, amplifiers, nonreciprocal
devices, and signal processing technologies.


title:
Neighborhood radius estimation for Arnold's miniversal deformations of
  complex and $p$-adic matrices

abstract:
  V.I. Arnold (1971) constructed a simple normal form to which all complex
matrices $B$ in a neighborhood $U$ of a given square matrix $A$ can be reduced
by similarity transformations that smoothly depend on the entries of $B$. We
calculate the radius of the neighborhood $U$. A.A. Mailybaev (1999, 2001)
constructed a reducing similarity transformation in the form of Taylor series;
we construct this transformation by another method. We extend Arnold's normal
form to matrices over the field $\mathbb Q_p$ of $p$-adic numbers and the field
$\mathbb F((T))$ of Laurent series over a field $\mathbb F$.


title: Neural Networks Models for Entity Discovery and Linking

abstract:
  This paper describes the USTC_NELSLIP systems submitted to the Trilingual
Entity Detection and Linking (EDL) track in 2016 TAC Knowledge Base Population
(KBP) contests. We have built two systems for entity discovery and mention
detection (MD): one uses the conditional RNNLM and the other one uses the
attention-based encoder-decoder framework. The entity linking (EL) system
consists of two modules: a rule based candidate generation and a neural
networks probability ranking model. Moreover, some simple string matching rules
are used for NIL clustering. At the end, our best system has achieved an F1
score of 0.624 in the end-to-end typed mention ceaf plus metric.


title: Robust Geo-neutrino Results

abstract:
  Geo-neutrino observations probe the quantities and distributions of
terrestrial heat-producing elements uranium and thorium. The quantities of
these elements gauge global radiogenic power, offering insights into the origin
and thermal history of the Earth. The distributions reveal the initial
partitioning and subsequent transport of these trace elements between metallic
core, silicate mantle, and crust types. Ongoing observations at underground
sites in Japan and Italy record the energies but not the directions of
geo-neutrinos from uranium and thorium. Without directions pointing back to
source regions, disentangling the signals from various reservoirs requires
resolution of differing rates or energy spectra at separate sites. Due to
limited statistics and site contrast, however, the observations at Japan and
Italy do not yet measure distinct rates or energy spectra. Further analyses of
the observations that derive fluxes, determine a signal from the mantle, and
assess the global radiogenic power of uranium and thorium, depend on
geochemical assumptions and model predictions. This letter discusses
opportunities for eliminating or minimizing these dependencies through
observations at dissimilar sites, producing robust geo-neutrino results.


title:
A Novel Algorithm for Extracting the Parton Distribution Amplitude from
  the Euclidean Bethe-Salpeter Wave Function

abstract:
  We propose a new numerical method to compute parton distribution
amplitude(PDA) from the Euclidean Bethe-Salpeter wave function. The essential
step is to extract the weight function in the Nakanishi representation of the
Bethe-Salpeter wave function in Euclidean space, which is an ill-posed
inversion problem, via the maximum entropy method(MEM). The Nakanishi weight
function as well as the corresponding light-front PDA can be well determined.
We confirm the previous works on PDA computation therein the different method
has been performed.


title:
THE NEXT GENERATION VIRGO CLUSTER SURVEY. XIV. Shell feature early-type
  dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster

abstract:
  The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey is a deep (with a $2\sigma$
detection limit $\mu_g$ = 29~mag~arcsec$^{-2}$ in the $g-$band) optical
panchromatic survey targeting the Virgo cluster from its core to virial radius,
for a total areal coverage of 104 square degrees. As such, the survey is well
suited for the study of galaxies' outskirts, haloes and low surface brightness
features that arise from dynamical interactions within the cluster environment.
We report the discovery of extremely faint ($\mu_g$ $>$ 25 mag arcsec$^{-2}$)
shells in three Virgo cluster early-type dwarf galaxies, VCC~1361, VCC~1447 and
VCC~1668. Among them, VCC~1447 has an absolute magnitude M$_{g}$ = -11.71 mag
and is {\it the least massive galaxy with a shell system discovered to date}.
We present a detailed study of these low surface brightness features. We detect
between three and four shells in each of our galaxies. Within the
uncertainties, we find no evidence of a color difference between the galaxy
main body and shell features. The observed arcs of the shells are located upto
several effective radii of the galaxies. We further explore the origin of these
low surface brightness features with the help of idealized numerical
simulations. We find that a near equal mass merger is best able to reproduce
the main properties of the shells, including their quite symmetric appearance
and their alignment along the major axis of the galaxy. The simulations provide
support for a formation scenario in which a recent merger, between two
near-equal mass, gas-free dwarf galaxies forms the observed shell systems.


title: Moving Participants Turtle Consensus

abstract:
  We present Moving Participants Turtle Consensus (MPTC), an asynchronous
consensus protocol for crash and Byzantine-tolerant distributed systems. MPTC
uses various moving target defense strategies to tolerate certain
Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks issued by an adversary capable of compromising
a bounded portion of the system. MPTC supports on the fly reconfiguration of
the consensus strategy as well as of the processes executing this strategy when
solving the problem of agreement. It uses existing cryptographic techniques to
ensure that reconfiguration takes place in an unpredictable fashion thus
eliminating the adversary's advantage on predicting protocol and
execution-specific information that can be used against the protocol.
  We implement MPTC as well as a State Machine Replication protocol and
evaluate our design under different attack scenarios. Our evaluation shows that
MPTC approximates best case scenario performance even under a well-coordinated
DoS attack.


title: SDSS J122958.84+000138.0: A Compact, Optically red galaxy

abstract:
  We report a new compact galaxy, SDSS J122958.84+000138.0 (SDSS J1229+0001),
which has unique morphological and stellar population properties that are rare
in observations of the nearby universe. SDSS J1229+0001 has an $r$-band
absolute magnitude (M$_{r}$) and half-light radius (R$_{h}$) of $-$17.75 mag
and 520 pc, respectively. Located in a fairly low density environment,
morphologically it is akin to a typical early-type galaxy as it has a smooth
appearance and red colour. But, interestingly, it possesses centrally
concentrated star forming activity with a significant amount of dust. We
present an analysis of structural and stellar population properties using
archival images and VLT/FORS2 spectroscopy. Analysis of UKIDSS H-band image
shows that the observed light distribution is better fitted with two components
S\'ersic function with inner and outer component effective radii 190 and 330
pc, respectively. Whereas, overall half-light radius measured in H-band is much
smaller compared to optical, i.e 290 pc. We prepared a Spectral Energy
Distribution (SED) from optical to FIR and interpret it to derive
star-formation rate, dust mass and stellar mass. We find that the SDSS
J1229+0001 has dust mass M$_{dust}$ = 5.1 $\times$ 10$^{5}$ M$_{\sun}$ with a
dust to stellar mass ratio log(M$_{dust}$/M$_{*}$) = $-$3.5. While the observed
stellar population properties are -- to some extent -- similar to that of a
typical S0 galaxy, a unified view from stellar population and structural
properties may suggests that SDSS J1229+0001 is a {\it smoking gun} example of
a compact early-type galaxy in formation.


title: Isoperimetric inequality on CR-manifolds with nonnegative $Q'$-curvature

abstract:
  In this paper, we study contact forms on the three- dimensional Heisenberg
manifold with its standard CR structure. We discover that the $Q'$-curvature,
introduced by Branson, Fontana and Morpurgo [BFM13] on the CR three-sphere and
then generalized to any pseudo-Einstein CR three manifold by Case and Yang
[CY95], controls the isoperimetric inequality on such a CR-manifold. To show
this, we first prove that the nonnegative Webster curvature at infinity deduces
that the metric is normal, which is analogous to the behavior on a Riemannian
four-manifold.


title: Search for Flavor Changing Neutral Current in Top Production and Decays

abstract:
  Searches for flavor changing neutral currents in top production and decay
using data collected by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at
$\sqrt{s}$ = 7 and 8 TeV are presented, corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of around 5 fb$^{-1}$ and 20 fb$^{-1}$. FCNC searches are conducted
to probe $tqZ$, $tq\gamma$, $tqH$, and $tgq$ interactions in various channels.
By the time of the 38$^{th}$ ICHEP conference in 2016, the upper limits on
$\mathcal{B}(t \to u\gamma)$ $<$ 0.013%, $\mathcal{B}(t \to ug)$ $<$ 0.036%,
$\mathcal{B}(t \to uZ)$ $<$ 0.05% and $\mathcal{B}(t \to uH)$ $<$ 0.42% at the
95% confidence level had been obtained by the CMS collaboration.


title: Construction Inspection through Spatial Database

abstract:
  This paper presents a novel pipeline for development of an efficient set of
tools for extracting information from the video of a structure, captured by an
Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to produce as-built documentation to aid
inspection of large multi-storied building during construction. Our system uses
the output from a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping system and a 3D CAD
model of the structure in order to construct a spatial database to store images
into the 3D CAD model space. This allows the user to perform a spatial query
for images through spatial indexing into the 3D CAD model space. The image
returned by the spatial query is used to extract metric information. The
spatial database is also used to generate a 3D textured model which provides a
visual as-built documentation.


title:
Complexity of the relaxed Peaceman-Rachford splitting method for the sum
  of two maximal strongly monotone operators

abstract:
  This paper considers the relaxed Peaceman-Rachford (PR) splitting method for
finding an approximate solution of a monotone inclusion whose underlying
operator consists of the sum of two maximal strongly monotone operators. Using
general results obtained in the setting of a non-Euclidean hybrid proximal
extragradient framework, we extend a previous convergence result on the
iterates generated by the relaxed PR splitting method, as well as establish new
pointwise and ergodic convergence rate results for the method whenever an
associated relaxation parameter is within a certain interval. An example is
also discussed to demonstrate that the iterates may not converge when the
relaxation parameter is outside this interval.


title:
Search for dijet resonances in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 13
  TeV and constraints on dark matter and other models

abstract:
  A search is presented for narrow resonances decaying to dijet final states in
proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV using data corresponding to an
integrated luminosity of 12.9 inverse femtobarns. The dijet mass spectrum is
well described by a smooth parameterization and no significant evidence for the
production of new particles is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level
are reported on the production cross section for narrow resonances with masses
above 0.6 TeV. In the context of specific models, the limits exclude string
resonances with masses below 7.4 TeV, scalar diquarks below 6.9 TeV, axigluons
and colorons below 5.5 TeV, excited quarks below 5.4 TeV, color-octet scalars
below 3.0 TeV, W' bosons below 2.7 TeV, Z' bosons below 2.1 TeV and between 2.3
and 2.6 TeV, and RS gravitons below 1.9 TeV. These extend previous limits in
the dijet channel. Vector and axial-vector mediators in a simplified model of
interactions between quarks and dark matter are excluded below 2.0 TeV. The
first limits in the dijet channel on dark matter mediators are presented as
functions of dark matter mass and are compared to the exclusions of dark matter
in direct detection experiments.


title:
Measuring the branching ratios from the $y^8 {\rm P}_{9/2}$ state to
  metastable states in europium

abstract:
  We measure the branching ratios from the $y^8{\rm P}_{9/2}$ excited state to
six metastable states of europium through fluorescence spectroscopy of an
atomic beam. The sum of the six branching ratios is estimated to be
$1.05(2)\times 10^{-3}$. This research provides us with insightful information
to determine the feasibility of using the $a^8{\rm S}_{7/2} - y^8{\rm P}_{9/2}$
transition in order to implement the Zeeman slowing for europium atoms in the
ground state. Based on this result, we also propose a scheme for Zeeman slowing
and magneto-optical trapping, using a specific metastable state which has a
cyclic transition.


title:
Factoring onto $\mathbb{Z}^d$ subshifts with the finite extension
  property

abstract:
  We define the finite extension property for $d$-dimensional subshifts, which
generalizes the topological strong spatial mixing condition defined by
Brice\~no (2016), and we prove that this property is invariant under
topological conjugacy. Moreover, we prove that for every $d$, every
$d$-dimensional block gluing subshift factors onto every $d$-dimensional
subshift which has strictly lower entropy, a fixed point, and the finite
extension property. This result extends a theorem from Boyle, Pavlov, and
Schraudner (2010), which requires that the factor contain a safe symbol.


title: Some integrals related to the Basel problem

abstract:
  We evaluate several arctangent and logarithmic integrals depending on a
parameter. This provides a closed form summation of certain series and also
gives integral and series representation of some classical constants.


title: A decomposition of the group algebra of a hyperoctahedral group

abstract:
  The descent algebra of a finite Coxeter group W is a subalgebra of the group
algebra defined by Solomon. Descent algebras of symmetric groups have
properties that are not shared by other Coxeter groups. For instance, the
natural map from the descent algebra of a symmetric group to its character ring
is a surjection with kernel equal the Jacobson radical. Thus, the descent
algebra implicitly encodes information about the representations of the
symmetric group, and a complete set of primitive idempotents in the character
ring leads to a decomposition of the group algebra into a sum of right ideals
indexed by partitions. Stanley asked whether this decomposition of the regular
representation of a symmetric group could be realized as a sum of
representations induced from linear characters of centralizers. This question
was answered positively by Bergeron, Bergeron, and Garsia, using a connection
with the free Lie algebra on n letters, and independently by Douglass,
Pfeiffer, and Roehrle, who connected the decomposition with the configuration
space of n-tuples of distinct complex numbers. The Mantaci-Reutenauer algebra
of a hyperoctahedral group is a subalgebra of the group algebra that contains
the descent algebra. Bonnafe and Hohlweg showed that the natural map from the
Mantaci-Reutenauer algebra to the character ring is a surjection with kernel
equal the Jacobson radical. In 2008, Bonnafe asked whether the analog to
Stanley's question about the decomposition of the group algebra into a sum of
induced linear characters holds. In this paper, we give a positive answer to
Bonnafe's question by explicitly constructing the required linear characters.


title: Asymptotic expansions of the inverse of the Beta distribution

abstract:
  In this work in progress, we study the asymptotic behaviour of the
$p$-quantile of the Beta distribution, i.e. the quantity $q$ defined implicitly
by $\int_0^q t^{a - 1} (1 - t)^{b - 1} \text{d} t = p B (a, b)$, as a function
of the first parameter $a$. In particular, we derive asymptotic expansions of
and $q$ and its logarithm at $0$ and $\infty$. Moreover, we provide some
relations between Bell and N{\o}rlund Polynomials, a generalisation of
Bernoulli numbers. Finally, we provide Maple and Sage algorithms for computing
the terms of the asymptotic expansions.


title:
Geometry of the smallest 1-form Laplacian eigenvalue on hyperbolic
  manifolds

abstract:
  We relate small 1-form Laplacian eigenvalues to relative cycle complexity on
closed hyperbolic manifolds: small eigenvalues correspond to closed geodesics
no multiple of which bounds a surface of small genus.
  We describe potential applications of this equivalence principle toward
proving optimal torsion homology growth in families of hyperbolic 3-manifolds
Benjamini-Schramm converging to $\mathbb{H}^3.$


title: Convergence Vague (IA) - Suites de Vecteurs Al\'eatoires

abstract:
  This monograph aims at presenting the core weak convergence theory for
sequences of random vectors with values in $\mathbb{R}^k$. In some places, a
more general formulation in metric spaces is provided. It lays out the
necessary foundation that paves the way to applications in particular subfields
of the theory. In particular, the needs of Asymptotic Statistics are addressed.
A whole chapter is devoted to weak convergence in $\mathbb{R}$ where specific
tools, for example for handling weak convergence of sequences using independent
and indentically distributed random variables such that the Renyi's
representations by means of standard uniform or exponential random variables,
are stated. The function empirical process is presented as a powerful tool for
solving a considerable number of asymptotic problems in Statistics. The text is
written in a self-contained approach whith the proofs of all used results at
the exception of the general Skorohod-Wichura Theorem


title:
The Korean 1592--1593 Record of a Guest Star: An `impostor' of the
  Cassiopeia A Supernova?

abstract:
  The missing historical record of the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova (SN)
event implies a large extinction to the SN, possibly greater than the
interstellar extinction to the current SN remnant. Here we investigate the
possibility that the guest star that appeared near Cas A in 1592--1593 in
Korean history books could have been an `impostor' of the Cas A SN, i.e., a
luminous transient that appeared to be a SN but did not destroy the progenitor
star, with strong mass loss to have provided extra circumstellar extinction. We
first review the Korean records and show that a spatial coincidence between the
guest star and Cas A cannot be ruled out, as opposed to previous studies. Based
on modern astrophysical findings on core-collapse SN, we argue that Cas A could
have had an impostor and derive its anticipated properties. It turned out that
the Cas A SN impostor must have been bright ($M_V =-14.7 \pm 2.2$ mag) and an
amount of dust with visual extinction of $\ge 2.8\pm 2.2 $ mag should have
formed in the ejected envelope and/or in a strong wind afterwards. The mass
loss needs to have been spherically asymmetric in order to see the light echo
from the SN event but not the one from the impostor event.


title: Approximation of plurisubharmonic functions on complex varieties

abstract:
  We prove some results which give sufficient conditions so that pointwise
approximation of negative plurisubharmonic functions on complex varieties by
continuous plurisubharmonic ones is possible.


title:
Simple and Efficient Parallelization for Probabilistic Temporal Tensor
  Factorization

abstract:
  Probabilistic Temporal Tensor Factorization (PTTF) is an effective algorithm
to model the temporal tensor data. It leverages a time constraint to capture
the evolving properties of tensor data. Nowadays the exploding dataset demands
a large scale PTTF analysis, and a parallel solution is critical to accommodate
the trend. Whereas, the parallelization of PTTF still remains unexplored. In
this paper, we propose a simple yet efficient Parallel Probabilistic Temporal
Tensor Factorization, referred to as P$^2$T$^2$F, to provide a scalable PTTF
solution. P$^2$T$^2$F is fundamentally disparate from existing parallel tensor
factorizations by considering the probabilistic decomposition and the temporal
effects of tensor data. It adopts a new tensor data split strategy to subdivide
a large tensor into independent sub-tensors, the computation of which is
inherently parallel. We train P$^2$T$^2$F with an efficient algorithm of
stochastic Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers, and show that the
convergence is guaranteed. Experiments on several real-word tensor datasets
demonstrate that P$^2$T$^2$F is a highly effective and efficiently scalable
algorithm dedicated for large scale probabilistic temporal tensor analysis.


title: Collision-based Testers are Optimal for Uniformity and Closeness

abstract:
  We study the fundamental problems of (i) uniformity testing of a discrete
distribution, and (ii) closeness testing between two discrete distributions
with bounded $\ell_2$-norm. These problems have been extensively studied in
distribution testing and sample-optimal estimators are known for
them~\cite{Paninski:08, CDVV14, VV14, DKN:15}.
  In this work, we show that the original collision-based testers proposed for
these problems ~\cite{GRdist:00, BFR+:00} are sample-optimal, up to constant
factors. Previous analyses showed sample complexity upper bounds for these
testers that are optimal as a function of the domain size $n$, but suboptimal
by polynomial factors in the error parameter $\epsilon$. Our main contribution
is a new tight analysis establishing that these collision-based testers are
information-theoretically optimal, up to constant factors, both in the
dependence on $n$ and in the dependence on $\epsilon$.

categories: cs.DS cs.IT cs.LG math.IT math.ST stat.TH


title:
Remarks on the Hardy type inequalities with remainder terms in the
  framework of equalities

abstract:
  We study the Hardy type inequalities in the framework of equalities. We
present equalities which immediately imply Hardy type inequalities by dropping
the remainder term. Simultaneously we give a characterization of the class of
functions which makes the remainder term vanish. A point of our observation is
to apply an orthogonality properties in general Hilbert space, and which gives
a simple and direct understanding of the Hardy type inequalities as well as the
nonexistence of nontrivial extremizers.


title: Continuity of solutions of a class of fractional equations

abstract:
  In practice many problems related to space/time fractional equations depend
on fractional parameters. But these fractional parameters are not known a
priori in modelling problems. Hence continuity of the solutions with respect to
these parameters is important for modelling purposes.
  In this paper we will study the continuity of the solutions of a class of
equations including the Abel equations of the first and second kind, and time
fractional diffusion type equations. We consider continuity with respect to the
fractional parameters as well as the initial value.

categories: math.AP math-ph math.FA math.MP math.PR math.SP


title:
Rashba-Dirac cones at the tungsten surface: Insights from a
  tight-binding model and thin film subband structure

abstract:
  A tight-binding model of bcc tungsten that includes spin-orbit coupling is
developed and applied to the surface states of (110) tungsten thin films. The
model describes accurately the anisotropic Dirac cone-like dispersion and
Rashba-like spin polarization of the surface states, including the crucial
effect of the relaxation of the surface atomic layer of the tungsten towards
the bulk. It is shown that the surface relaxation affects the tungsten surface
states because it results in increased overlaps between atomic orbitals of the
surface atomic layer and nearby layers whereas electric fields that are due to
charge transfer between the tungsten and the vacuum near the surface or between
the bulk and surface layers do not significantly affect the Rashba-Dirac
surface states. It is found that hybridization with bulk modes has differing
strengths for thin film surface states belonging to the upper and lower
Rashba-Dirac cones and results in $reversal$ of the directions of travel of
spin $\uparrow$ and $\downarrow$ electrons in most of the upper Rashba-Dirac
cone relative to those expected from phenomenology. It is also shown that
intrasite (not intersite) matrix elements of the spin-orbit Hamiltonian are
primarily responsible for the formation of the Rashba-Dirac cones, and their
spin polarization. This finding should be considered when modeling topological
insulators, the spin Hall effect and related phenomena.


title: Positroids have the Rayleigh property

abstract:
  The Rayleigh property is a negative correlation property of electrical
networks, which was generalized to matroids by Choe and Wagner. We prove that
positroids, a class of matroid introduced by Postnikov which have seen many
recent applications in both math and physics, have the Rayleigh property.


title:
Flat solutions of some non-Lipschitz autonomous semilinear equations may
  be stable for $N\geq 3$

abstract:
  We prove that flat ground state solutions ($i.e.$ minimizing the energy and
with gradient vanishing on the boundary of the domain) of the Dirichlet problem
associated to some semilinear autonomous elliptic equations with a strong
absorption term given by a non-Lipschitz function are unstable for dimensions
$N=1,2$ and they can be stable for $N\geq 3$ for suitable values of the
involved exponents.


title:
Results from a Calibration of XENON100 Using a Source of Dissolved
  Radon-220

abstract:
  A Rn-220 source is deployed on the XENON100 dark matter detector in order to
address the challenges in calibration of tonne-scale liquid noble element
detectors. We show that the Pb-212 beta emission can be used for low-energy
electronic recoil calibration in searches for dark matter. The isotope spreads
throughout the entire active region of the detector, and its activity naturally
decays below background level within a week after the source is closed. We find
no increase in the activity of the troublesome Rn-222 background after
calibration. Alpha emitters are also distributed throughout the detector and
facilitate calibration of its response to Rn-222. Using the delayed coincidence
of Rn-220/Po-216, we map for the first time the convective motion of particles
in the XENON100 detector. Additionally, we make a competitive measurement of
the half-life of Po-212, t = 293.9+-(1.0)+-(0.6) ns.


title:
Local random configuration-tree theory for string repetition and
  facilitated dynamics of glass

abstract:
  We derive a microscopic theory of glassy dynamics based on the transport of
voids by micro-string motions, each of which involves particles arranged in a
line hopping simultaneously displacing one another. Disorder is modeled by a
random energy landscape quenched in the configuration space of distinguishable
particles, but transient in the physical space as expected for glassy fluids.
We study the evolution of local regions with m coupled voids. At low
temperature, energetically accessible local particle configurations can be
organized into a random tree with nodes and edges denoting configurations and
micro-string propagations respectively. Such trees defined in the configuration
space naturally describe systems defined in two- or three-dimensional physical
space. A micro-string propagation initiated by a void can facilitate similar
motions by other voids via perturbing the random energy landscape, realizing
path interactions between voids or equivalently string interactions. We obtain
explicit expressions of the particle diffusion coefficient and a particle
return probability. Under our approximation, as temperature decreases, random
trees of energetically accessible configurations exhibit a sequence of
percolation transitions in the configuration space, with local regions
containing fewer coupled voids entering the non-percolating immobile phase
first. Dynamics is dominated by coupled voids of an optimal group size, which
increases as temperature decreases. Comparison with a distinguishable-particle
lattice model (DPLM) of glass shows very good quantitative agreements using
only two adjustable parameters related to typical energy fluctuations and the
interaction range of the micro-strings.


title: Chemistry in a forming protoplanetary disk: main accretion phase

abstract:
  We investigate the chemistry in a radiation-hydrodynamics model of
star-forming core which evolves from a cold ($\sim 10$ K) prestellar core to
the main accretion phase in $\sim 10^5$ yr. A rotationally-supported
gravitationally unstable disk is formed around a protostar. We extract the
temporal variation of physical parameters in $\sim 1.5 \times 10^3$ SPH
particles which end up in the disk, and perform post-processing calculations of
the gas-grain chemistry adopting a three-phase model. Inside the disk, the SPH
particles migrate both inward and outward. Since a significant fraction of
volatiles such as CO can be trapped in the water-dominant ice in the
three-phase model, the ice mantle composition depends not only on the current
position in the disk but also on whether the dust grain has ever experienced
higher temperatures than the water sublimation temperature. Stable molecules
such as H$_2$O, CH$_4$, NH$_3$ and CH$_3$OH are already abundant at the onset
of gravitational collapse and simply sublimated as the fluid parcels migrate
inside the water snow line. On the other hand, various molecules such as carbon
chains and complex organic molecules (COMs) are formed in the disk. COMs
abundance sensitively depends on the outcomes of photodissociation and
diffusion rates of photofragments in bulk ice mantle. As for S-bearing species,
H$_2$S ice is abundant in the collapse phase. In the warm regions in the disk,
H$_2$S is sublimated to be destroyed, while SO, H$_2$CS, OCS and SO$_2$ become
abundant.


title: Diverse types of percolation transitions

abstract:
  Percolation has long served as a model for diverse phenomena and systems. The
percolation transition, that is, the formation of a giant cluster on a
macroscopic scale, is known as one of the most robust continuous transitions.
Recently, however, many abrupt percolation transitions have been observed in
complex systems. To illustrate such phenomena, considerable effort has been
made to introduce models and construct theoretical frameworks for explosive,
discontinuous, and hybrid percolation transitions. Experimental results have
also been reported. In this review article, we describe such percolation
models, their critical behaviors and universal features, and real-world
phenomena.


title: Adaptive Deep Pyramid Matching for Remote Sensing Scene Classification

abstract:
  Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have attracted increasing attention in
the remote sensing community. Most CNNs only take the last fully-connected
layers as features for the classification of remotely sensed images, discarding
the other convolutional layer features which may also be helpful for
classification purposes. In this paper, we propose a new adaptive deep pyramid
matching (ADPM) model that takes advantage of the features from all of the
convolutional layers for remote sensing image classification. To this end, the
optimal fusing weights for different convolutional layers are learned from the
data itself. In remotely sensed scenes, the objects of interest exhibit
different scales in distinct scenes, and even a single scene may contain
objects with different sizes. To address this issue, we select the CNN with
spatial pyramid pooling (SPP-net) as the basic deep network, and further
construct a multi-scale ADPM model to learn complementary information from
multi-scale images. Our experiments have been conducted using two widely used
remote sensing image databases, and the results show that the proposed method
significantly improves the performance when compared to other state-of-the-art
methods.


title:
Multitracer technique for galaxy bispectrum - An application to
  constraints on non-local primordial non-Gaussianities -

abstract:
  We explore the use of galaxy bispectra with multitracer technique as a
possible probe of primordial non-Gaussianities. We forecast future constraints
on non-linearity parameters, $f_{\rm NL}^{\rm eq}$ and $f_{\rm NL}^{\rm orth}$,
which respectively characterize the equilateral- and orthogonal-types
primordial bispectra, and show that the multitracer analysis would be effective
with reducing the cosmic-variance noise if the number density of galaxies is
high enough. We find that the measurement of galaxy bispectrum by future galaxy
surveys can reach the constraints on the non-local type primordial
non-Gaussianities to the level severer than current one which has been obtained
by cosmic microwave background observations.


title:
Learning Multi-Scale Deep Features for High-Resolution Satellite Image
  Classification

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a multi-scale deep feature learning method for
high-resolution satellite image classification. Specifically, we firstly warp
the original satellite image into multiple different scales. The images in each
scale are employed to train a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN).
However, simultaneously training multiple DCNNs is time-consuming. To address
this issue, we explore DCNN with spatial pyramid pooling (SPP-net). Since
different SPP-nets have the same number of parameters, which share the
identical initial values, and only fine-tuning the parameters in
fully-connected layers ensures the effectiveness of each network, thereby
greatly accelerating the training process. Then, the multi-scale satellite
images are fed into their corresponding SPP-nets respectively to extract
multi-scale deep features. Finally, a multiple kernel learning method is
developed to automatically learn the optimal combination of such features.
Experiments on two difficult datasets show that the proposed method achieves
favorable performance compared to other state-of-the-art methods.


title:
Dynamic Teams and Decentralized Control Problems with Substitutable
  Actions

abstract:
  This paper considers two problems -- a dynamic team problem and a
decentralized control problem. The problems we consider do not belong to the
known classes of "simpler" dynamic team/decentralized control problems such as
partially nested or quadratically invariant problems. However, we show that our
problems admit simple solutions under an assumption referred to as the
substitutability assumption. Intuitively, substitutability in a team (resp.
decentralized control) problem means that the effects of one team member's
(resp. controller's) action on the cost function and the information (resp.
state dynamics) can be achieved by an action of another member (resp.
controller). For the non-partially-nested LQG dynamic team problem, it is shown
that under certain conditions linear strategies are optimal. For the
non-partially-nested decentralized LQG control problem, the state structure can
be exploited to obtain optimal control strategies with recursively update-able
sufficient statistics. These results suggest that substitutability can work as
a counterpart of the information structure requirements that enable
simplification of dynamic teams and decentralized control problems.


title: Molecular studies of Planetary Nebulae

abstract:
  Circumstellar envelopes (CEs) around evolved stars are an active site for the
production of molecules. After evolving through the Asymptotic Giant Branch
(AGB), proto-planetary nebula (PPN), to planetary nebula (PN) phases, CEs
ultimately merge with the interstellar medium (ISM). The study of molecules in
PNe, therefore, is essential to understanding the transition from stellar to
interstellar materials. So far, over 20 molecular species have been discovered
in PNe. The molecular composition of PNe is rather different from those of AGB
and PPNe, suggesting that the molecules synthesized in PN progenitors have been
heavily processed by strong ultraviolet radiation from the central star.
Intriguingly, fullerenes and complex organic compounds having aromatic and
aliphatic structures can be rapidly formed and largely survive during the
PPN/PN evolution. The similar molecular compositions in PNe and diffuse clouds
as well as the detection of C$_{60}^+$ in the ISM reinforce the view that the
mass-loss from PNe can significantly enrich the ISM with molecular species,
some of which may be responsible for the diffuse interstellar bands. In this
contribution, I briefly summarize some recent observations of molecules in PNe,
with emphasis on their implications on circumstellar chemistry.


title:
Non-existence of eternal solutions to Lagrangian mean curvature flow
  with non-negative Ricci curvature

abstract:
  In this paper, we derive a mean curvature estimate for eternal solutions
(including translating solutions) of almost-calibrated Lagrangian mean
curvature flow in complex Euclidean space. As a consequence, we show a
non-existence result for eternal solutions of almost-calibrated Lagrangian mean
curvature flow.


title:
Electronic structure of Ba(Zn0.875Mn0.125)2As2 studied by angle-resolved
  photoemission spectroscopy

abstract:
  Electronic structure of single crystalline
Ba(Zn$_{0.875}$Mn$_{0.125}$)$_{2}$As$_{2}$, parent compound of the recently
founded high-temperature ferromagnetic semiconductor, was studied by
high-resolution photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). Through systematically
photon energy and polarization dependent measurements, the energy bands along
the out-of-plane and in-plane directions were experimentally determined. Except
the localized states of Mn, the measured band dispersions agree very well with
the first-principle calculations of undoped BaZn$_{2}$As$_{2}$. A new feature
related to Mn 3d states was identified at the binding energies of about -1.6 eV
besides the previously observed feature at about -3.3 eV. We suggest that the
hybridization between Mn and As orbitals strongly enhanced the density of
states around -1.6 eV. Although our resolution is much better compared with
previous soft X-ray photoemission experiments, no clear hybridization gap
between Mn 3d states and the valence bands proposed by previous model
calculations was detected.


title: Generalized Entropies and the Similarity of Texts

abstract:
  We show how generalized Gibbs-Shannon entropies can provide new insights on
the statistical properties of texts. The universal distribution of word
frequencies (Zipf's law) implies that the generalized entropies, computed at
the word level, are dominated by words in a specific range of frequencies. Here
we show that this is the case not only for the generalized entropies but also
for the generalized (Jensen-Shannon) divergences, used to compute the
similarity between different texts. This finding allows us to identify the
contribution of specific words (and word frequencies) for the different
generalized entropies and also to estimate the size of the databases needed to
obtain a reliable estimation of the divergences. We test our results in large
databases of books (from the Google n-gram database) and scientific papers
(indexed by Web of Science).


title:
Ultrasensitive Self-powered large area planar GaN UV-photodetector using
  reduced graphene oxide electrodes

abstract:
  A simplistic design of a self-powered UV-photodetector device based on hybrid
r-GO/GaN is demonstrated. Under zero bias, the fabricated hybrid photodetector
shows a photosensivity of ~ 85% while ohmic contact GaN photodetector with
identical device structure exhibits only ~ 5.3% photosensivity at 350 nm
illumination (18 microWatt/cm^2). The responsivity and detectivity of the
hybrid device were found to be 1.54 mA/W and 1.45x10^10 Jones (cm Hz^(1/2)
W^(-1)), respectively at zero bias under 350 nm illumination (18
microWatt/cm^2) with fast response (60 ms), recovery time (267 ms) and
excellent repeatability. Power density-dependent responsivity & detectivity
revealed ultrasensitive behaviour under low light conditions. The source of
observed self-powered effect in hybrid photodetector is attributed to the
depletion region formed at the r-GO and GaN quasi-ohmic interface.


title: Equidistribution problems of complex dynamics in higher dimension

abstract:
  Equidistribution of the orbits of points, subvarieties or of periodic points
in complex dynamics is a fundamental problem. It is often related to strong
ergodic properties of the dynamical system and to a deep understanding of
analytic cycles, or more generally positive closed currents, of arbitrary
dimension and degree. The later topic includes the study of the potentials and
super-potentials of positive closed currents, their intersection with or
without dimension excess. In this paper, we will survey some results and tools
developed during the last two decades. Related concepts, new techniques and
open problems will be presented.


title:
UTCNN: a Deep Learning Model of Stance Classificationon on Social Media
  Text

abstract:
  Most neural network models for document classification on social media focus
on text infor-mation to the neglect of other information on these platforms. In
this paper, we classify post stance on social media channels and develop UTCNN,
a neural network model that incorporates user tastes, topic tastes, and user
comments on posts. UTCNN not only works on social media texts, but also
analyzes texts in forums and message boards. Experiments performed on Chinese
Facebook data and English online debate forum data show that UTCNN achieves a
0.755 macro-average f-score for supportive, neutral, and unsupportive stance
classes on Facebook data, which is significantly better than models in which
either user, topic, or comment information is withheld. This model design
greatly mitigates the lack of data for the minor class without the use of
oversampling. In addition, UTCNN yields a 0.842 accuracy on English online
debate forum data, which also significantly outperforms results from previous
work as well as other deep learning models, showing that UTCNN performs well
regardless of language or platform.


title:
Well-posedness and regularity for quasilinear degenerate
  parabolic-hyperbolic SPDE

abstract:
  We study quasilinear degenerate parabolic-hyperbolic stochastic partial
differential equations with general multiplicative noise within the framework
of kinetic solutions. Our results are twofold: First, we establish new
regularity results based on averaging techniques. Second, we prove the
existence and uniqueness of solutions in a full $L^1$ setting requiring no
growth assumptions on the nonlinearities. In addition, we prove a comparison
result and an $L^1$-contraction property for the solutions.


title:
Hamiltonian structures of isomonodromic deformations on moduli spaces of
  parabolic connections

abstract:
  In this paper, we treat moduli spaces of parabolic connections. We take
\'etale coverings of the moduli spaces, and we construct a Hamiltonian
structure of an algebraic vector field determined by the isomonodromic
deformation for each \'etale morphism.


title:
Contrasting Spectral Signatures and Sensitivities of CPA-Lasing in a
  $\cal PT$-Symmetric Periodic Structure

abstract:
  The CPA-laser is a coexisting state of coherent perfect absorption and lasing
that was proposed in parity-time ($\cal PT$) symmetric photonic systems. In
this work we show that the spectral signature of a CPA-laser displayed by the
singular value spectrum of the scattering matrix ($S$) can be orders of
magnitude wider than that displayed by the eigenvalue spectrum of $S$. Since
the former reflects how strongly light can be absorbed or amplified and the
latter announces the spontaneous symmetry breaking of $S$, these contrasting
spectral signatures indicate that near perfect absorption and extremely strong
amplification can be achieved even in the $\cal PT$-symmetric phase of $S$,
which is known for and defined by its flux-conserving eigenstates. We also show
that these contrasting spectral signatures are accompanied by strikingly
different sensitivities to disorder and imperfection, suggesting that the
eigenvalue spectrum is potentially suitable for sensing and the singular value
spectrum for robust switching.


title: Antiferromagnetic order in epitaxial FeSe films on SrTiO3

abstract:
  Single monolayer FeSe film grown on Nb-doped SrTiO$_3$(001) substrate shows
the highest superconducting transition temperature (T$_C$ $\sim$ 100 K) among
the iron-based superconductors (iron-pnictide), while T$_C$ of bulk FeSe is
only $\sim$ 8 K. Antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations were believed to be
crucial in iron-pnictides, which has inspired several proposals to understand
the FeSe/SrTiO$_3$ system. Although bulk FeSe does not show the
antiferromagnetic order, calculations suggest that the parent FeSe/SrTiO$_3$
films are AFM. Experimentally, due to lacking of direct probe, the magnetic
state of FeSe/SrTiO$_3$ films remains mysterious. Here, we report the direct
evidences of the antiferromagnetic order in the parent FeSe/SrTiO$_3$ films by
the magnetic exchange bias effect measurements. The phase transition
temperature is $\geq$ 140 K for single monolayer film. The AFM order disappears
after electron doping.


title: Thermodynamics of Schwarzschild-Beltrami-de Sitter Black Hole

abstract:
  In this paper, we investigate the thermodynamical properties of
Schwarzschild-Beltrami-de Sitter black hole introduced by Mu-Lin Yan \textit{et
al.} in 2013 by introducing inertial Beltrami coordinates to traditional
non-inertial Schwarzschild-de Sitter metric which is the exact static spherical
symmetry solution of Einstein equation with a positive cosmological constant
$\Lambda$. Based on this new metric, we compute entropy on all horizons and we
give the entropy bound of the black hole. Hawking temperatures are calculated
by considering a perturbation to entropy relations due to that the spacetime
described by this inertial coordinates is no longer a stationary spacetime in
which surface gravity related to Hawking temperature is defined well on killing
horizon. We also get the Smarr relations and the first law of thermodynamics.
We find that the Schwarzschild-Beltrami-de Sitter black hole seems to have
similar thermodynamical properties to Schwarzschild-de Sitter black hole in the
comparison between their corresponding thermodynamical quantities, although the
new black hole metric is described by inertial coordinates which exclude the
effects of inertial force.


title: A Possible Role for Entropy in Creative Cognition

abstract:
  This paper states the case for applying the conceptual and analytic tools
associated with the study of entropy in physical systems to cognition, focusing
on creative cognition. It is proposed that minds modify their contents and
adapt to their environments to minimize psychological entropy:
arousal-provoking uncertainty, which can be experienced negatively as anxiety,
or positively as a wellspring for creativity (or both). Thus, intrinsically
motivated creativity begins with detection of high psychological entropy
material (e.g., a question or inconsistency), which provokes uncertainty and is
arousal-inducing. This material is recursively considering from new contexts
until it is sufficiently restructured that arousal dissipates and entropy
reaches an acceptable level. Restructuring involves neural synchrony and
dynamic binding, and may be facilitated by temporarily shifting to a more
associative mode of thought. The creative outcome may similarly induce
restructuring in others, and thereby contribute to the cultural evolution of
more nuanced understandings. Thus, the concept of entropy could play a unifying
role in cognitive science as a driver of thought and action, and in cultural
studies as the driver of the creative innovations that fuel cultural evolution.
The paper concludes with an invitation for cross-disciplinary exploration of
this potential new arena of entropy studies.


title:
MgGa2O4 spinel barrier for magnetic tunnel junctions: coherent tunneling
  and low barrier height

abstract:
  Epitaxial Fe/magnesium gallium spinel oxide (MgGa2O4)/Fe(001) magnetic tunnel
junctions (MTJs) were fabricated by magnetron sputtering. Tunnel
magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio up to 121% at room temperature (196% at 4 K) was
observed, suggesting a TMR enhancement by the coherent tunneling effect in the
MgGa2O4 barrier. The MgGa2O4 layer had a spinel structure and it showed good
lattice matching with the Fe layers owing to slight tetragonal lattice
distortion of MgGa2O4. Barrier thickness dependence of the tunneling resistance
and current-voltage characteristics revealed that the barrier height of the
MgGa2O4 barrier is much lower than that in an MgAl2O4 barrier. This study
demonstrates the potential of Ga-based spinel oxides for MTJ barriers having a
large TMR ratio at a low resistance area product.


title:
Deep Recurrent Neural Network for Mobile Human Activity Recognition with
  High Throughput

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a method of human activity recognition with high
throughput from raw accelerometer data applying a deep recurrent neural network
(DRNN), and investigate various architectures and its combination to find the
best parameter values. The "high throughput" refers to short time at a time of
recognition. We investigated various parameters and architectures of the DRNN
by using the training dataset of 432 trials with 6 activity classes from 7
people. The maximum recognition rate was 95.42% and 83.43% against the test
data of 108 segmented trials each of which has single activity class and 18
multiple sequential trials, respectively. Here, the maximum recognition rates
by traditional methods were 71.65% and 54.97% for each. In addition, the
efficiency of the found parameters was evaluated by using additional dataset.
Further, as for throughput of the recognition per unit time, the constructed
DRNN was requiring only 1.347 [ms], while the best traditional method required
11.031 [ms] which includes 11.027 [ms] for feature calculation. These
advantages are caused by the compact and small architecture of the constructed
real time oriented DRNN.


title: Greedy Step Averaging: A parameter-free stochastic optimization method

abstract:
  In this paper we present the greedy step averaging(GSA) method, a
parameter-free stochastic optimization algorithm for a variety of machine
learning problems. As a gradient-based optimization method, GSA makes use of
the information from the minimizer of a single sample's loss function, and
takes average strategy to calculate reasonable learning rate sequence. While
most existing gradient-based algorithms introduce an increasing number of hyper
parameters or try to make a trade-off between computational cost and
convergence rate, GSA avoids the manual tuning of learning rate and brings in
no more hyper parameters or extra cost. We perform exhaustive numerical
experiments for logistic and softmax regression to compare our method with the
other state of the art ones on 16 datasets. Results show that GSA is robust on
various scenarios.


title: The Neural Basis and Evolution of Divergent and Convergent Thought

abstract:
  This chapter takes as its departure point a neural level theory of insight
that arose from studies of the sparse, distributed, content-addressable
architecture of associative memory. It is argued that convergent thought is
most fruitfully characterized in terms of, not the generation of a single
correct solution (as it is conventionally construed), but using concepts in
their most compact form by activating neural cell assemblies that respond to
their most typical properties. This allows them to be deployed in a
conventional manner such that effort is reserved for exploring causal
relationships. Conversely, it is argued that divergent thought is most
fruitfully characterized in terms of, not the generation of multiple solutions
(as it is conventionally construed), but using concepts in a form that is,
albeit expanded, constrained by the situation, by activating neural cell
assemblies that respond to context-specific atypical properties. This allows
them to be deployed in a manner that is conducive to exploring unconventional
yet potentially relevant associations, and unearthing potentially useful
relationships of correlation. Thus, divergent thought can involve as few as one
idea. This proposal is compatible with widespread beliefs that (1) most
creative tasks require not many solutions but one, yet entail both divergent
and convergent thinking, and (2) not all problems with multiple solutions
require creative thinking, and conversely, some problems with single solution
do require creative thought. The chapter discusses how the ability to shift
between convergent and divergent modes of thought may have evolved, and it
concludes with educational and vocational implications.


title: Strong decays of $2^+$ charm and charm-strange mesons

abstract:
  In this paper, we calculate the strong decays of $2^+$ heavy-light states,
namely, the charmed $D^*_2(2460)^0$ meson and the charm-strange
$D^*_{s2}(2573)^+$ meson. The method we adopt is the reduction formula, PCAC
relation and low energy theorem, following which, the transition amplitudes are
calculated. The wave functions of the heavy mesons involved are achieved by
solving the instantaneous Bethe-Salpeter equation. As the OZI-allowed two-body
strong decays give the dominant contribution, they can be used to estimate to
total widths of mesons. Our results are: $\Gamma[D^*_2(2460)^0]=51.3$ MeV and
$\Gamma[D^*_{s2}(2573)^+]=19.6$ MeV. The ratios of branching ratios of two main
channels are $Br[D^*_2(2460)^0\rightarrow D^+\pi^-]/Br[D^*_2(2460)^0\rightarrow
D^{\ast+}\pi^-]=2.13$ and $Br[D^*_{s2}(2573)^+\rightarrow D^{\ast 0}
K^+]/Br[D^*_{s2}(2573)^+\rightarrow D^0K^+]=0.08$, respectively.


title: Density correlations and transport in models of many-body localization

abstract:
  We present a review of recent theoretical results concerning the many-body
localization (MBL) phenomenon, with the emphasis on dynamical density
correlations and transport quantities. They are shown to be closely related,
providing a comprehensive description of the ergodic-to-nonergodic transition,
consistent with experimental findings. While the focus is set mostly on the
one-dimensional model of interacting spinless fermions, we also present
evidence for the absence of full MBL in the one-dimensional Hubbard model and
for the density-wave decay induced by the inter-chain coupling.


title:
On-chip electro-optic tuning of a lithium niobate microresonator with
  integrated in-plane microelectrodes

abstract:
  We demonstrate electro-optic tuning of an on-chip lithium niobate
microresonator with integrated in-plane microelectrodes. First two metallic
microelectrodes on the substrate were formed via femtosecond laser process.
Then a high-Q lithium niobate microresonator located between the
microelectrodes was fabricated by femtosecond laser direct writing accompanied
by focused ion beam milling. Due to the efficient structure designing, high
electro-optical tuning coefficient of 3.41 pm/V was observed.


title:
Constraints on halo formation from cross-correlations with correlated
  variables

abstract:
  Cross-correlations between biased tracers and the dark matter field encode
information about the physical variables which characterize these tracers.
However, if the physical variables of interest are correlated with one another,
then extracting this information is not as straightforward as one might naively
have thought. We show how to exploit these correlations so as to estimate
scale-independent bias factors of all orders in a model-independent way. We
also show that failure to account for this will lead to incorrect conclusions
about which variables matter and which do not. Morever, accounting for this
allows one to use the scale dependence of bias to constrain the physics of halo
formation; to date the argument has been phrased the other way around. We
illustrate by showing that the scale dependence of linear and nonlinear bias,
measured on nonlinear scales, can be used to provide consistent estimates of
how the critical density for halo formation depends on halo mass. Our methods
work even when the bias is nonlocal and stochastic, such as when, in addition
to the spherically averaged density field and its derivatives, the quadrupolar
shear field also matters for halo formation. In such models, the nonlocal bias
factors are closely related to the more familiar local nonlinear bias factors,
which are much easier to measure. Our analysis emphasizes the fact that biased
tracers are biased because they do not sample fields (density, velocity, shear,
etc.) at all positions in space in the same way that the dark matter does.


title:
Ground state properties of $\mathrm{Na_2IrO_3}$ determined from
  $\textit{ab initio}$ Hamiltonian and its extensions containing Kitaev and
  extended Heisenberg interactions

abstract:
  We investigate the ground state properties of $\mathrm{Na_2IrO_3}$ based on
numerical calculations of the recently proposed {\it ab initio} Hamiltonian
represented by Kitaev and extended Heisenberg interactions. To overcome the
limitation posed by small tractable system sizes in the exact diagonalization
study employed in a previous study (Yamaji $\textit{et al.}$, Phys. Rev. Lett.
$\textbf{113}$, 107201 (2014)), we apply two-dimensional density matrix
renomalization group, and infinite-size tensor-network method. By calculating
at much larger system sizes, we critically test the validity of the exact
diagonalization results. The results consistently indicate that the ground
state of $\mathrm{Na_2IrO_3}$ is a magnetically ordered state with zigzag
configuration in agreement with experimental observations and the previous
diagonalization study. Applications of the two independent methods in addition
to the exact diagonalization study further uncover a consistent and rich phase
diagram near the zigzag phase beyond the accessibility of the exact
diagonalization. For example, in the parameter space away from the $\textit{ab
initio}$ value of $\mathrm{Na_2IrO_3}$ controlled by the trigonal distortion,
we find three phases: (i) an ordered phase with the magnetic moment aligned
mutually in $120$ degrees orientation on every third hexagon, (ii) a
magnetically ordered phase with a $16$-site unit-cell, and (iii) an ordered
phase with presumably incommensurate periodicity of the moment. It suggests
that potentially rich magnetic structures may appear in
$A_\mathrm{2}\mathrm{IrO_3}$ compounds for $A$ other than Na. The present
results also serve to establish the accuracy of the first-principles approach
in reproducing the available experimental results thereby further contribute to
find a route to realize the Kitaev spin liquid.