title:
Magnetic activity analysis for a sample of G-type main sequence
  \emph{Kepler} targets

abstract:
  The variation of a stellar light curve owing to the rotational modulation by
the magnetic features (starspots and faculae) on the star's surface can be used
to investigate the magnetic properties of the host star. In this paper, we use
the periodicity and magnitude of the light-curve variation, as two proxies,
suggested by (He et al. 2015), to study the stellar magnetic properties for a
large sample of G-type main sequence \emph{Kepler} targets, for which the
rotation periods recently determined by (McQuillan et al. 2014). By analyzing
the correlation between the two magnetic proxies, it is found that: (1) The two
proxies are positively correlated for most of the stars in our sample, and the
percentages of negative, zero, and positive correlation are $4.27\%$, $6.81\%$,
and $88.91\%$, respectively; (2) Negative correlation stars cannot have large
magnitude of light-curve variation; (3) with the increase of rotation period,
the relative number of positive correlation stars decreases and the negative
correlation one increases. These results indicate that the stars with shorter
rotation period tend to have positive correlation between the two proxies, and
a good portion of the positive correlation stars have larger magnitude of
light-curve variation (and hence more intense magnetic activities) than the
negative correlation stars.


title:
A numerical study of non-perturbative corrections to the Chiral
  Separation Effect in quenched finite-density QCD

abstract:
  We demonstrate the non-renormalization of the Chiral Separation Effect (CSE)
in quenched finite-density QCD in both confinement and deconfinement phases
using a recently developed numerical method which allows, for the first time,
to address the transport properties of exactly chiral, dense lattice fermions.
This finding suggests that CSE can be used to fix renormalization constants for
axial current density. Explaining the suppression of the CSE which we observe
for topologically nontrivial gauge field configurations on small lattices, we
also argue that CSE vanishes for self-dual non-Abelian fields inside instanton
cores.


title: Alpha-tocopherol inhibits pore formation in the oxidized bilayers

abstract:
  In biological membranes, alpha-tocopherols ({\alpha}-toc; vitamin E) protect
polyunsaturated lipids from free radicals. Although the interactions of
{\alpha}-toc with non-oxidized lipid bilayers have been studied, their on
oxidized bilayers remain unknown. In this study, atomistic molecular dynamics
(MD) simulations of oxidized lipid bilayers were performed with varying
concentrations of {\alpha}-toc. Bilayers with
1-palmitoyl-2-lauroyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (PLPC) lipids and its
aldehyde derivatives at 1:1 ratio were studied. Our simulations show that
oxidized lipids self-assemble into aggregates with a water pore rapidly
developing across the lipid bilayer. The free energy of transporting an
{\alpha}-toc molecule in a lipid bilayer suggests that {\alpha}-tocs can
passively adsorb into the bilayer. When {\alpha}-toc molecules were present at
low concentrations in bilayers containing oxidized lipids, the formation of
water pores was slowed down. At high {\alpha}-toc concentra-tions, no pores
were observed. Based on the simulations, we propose that the mechanism of how
{\alpha}-toc inhibits pore formation in bilayers with oxidized lipids is the
follow-ing: {\alpha}-tocs trap the polar groups of the oxidized lipids at the
membrane-water interface resulting in a decreased probability for the oxidized
lipids to reach contact with the two leaflets and initiate pore formation. This
demon-strates that {\alpha}-toc molecules not only protect the bilayer from
oxidation but also help to stabilize the bilayer after lipid peroxidation
occurs. These results will help in de-signing more efficient molecules to
protect membranes from oxidative stress.


title: Electromagnetic proton form factors in dual large-$N_c$ QCD: an update

abstract:
  An updated determination is presented of the electric and magnetic form
factors of the proton, in the framework of a dual-model realization of QCD in
the limit of an infinite number of colors. Very good agreement with data is
obtained in the space-like region up to $ q^2 \simeq - \,30 \,{GeV}^2$. In
particular, the ratio $\mu_P \, G_E(q^2) / G_M(q^2)$ is predicted in very good
agreement with recoil polarization measurements from Jefferson Lab, up to $q^2
\simeq - 8.5 \,{GeV}^2$. \end{abstract}


title:
CSAR 62 as negative-tone resist for high-contrast e-beam lithography at
  temperatures between 4 K and room temperature

abstract:
  The temperature dependence of the electron-beam sensitive resist CSAR 62 is
investigated in its negative-tone regime. The writing temperatures span a wide
range from 4 K to room temperature with the focus on the liquid helium
temperature regime. The importance of low temperature studies is motivated by
the application of CSAR 62 for deterministic nanophotonic device processing by
means of in-situ electron-beam lithography. At low temperature, CSAR 62
exhibits a high contrast of 10.5 and a resolution of 49 nm. The etch stability
is almost temperature independent and it is found that CSAR 62 does not suffer
from peeling which limits the low temperature application of the standard
electron-beam resist PMMA. As such, CSAR 62 is a very promising negative-tone
resist for in-situ electron-beam lithography of high quality nanostructures at
low temperature.


title: On the cardinality of almost discretely Lindelof spaces

abstract:
  A space is said to be "almost discretely Lindel\"of" if every discrete subset
can be covered by a Lindel\"of subspace. Juh\'asz, Tkachuk and Wilson asked
whether every almost discretely Lindel\"of first-countable Hausdorff space has
cardinality at most continuum. We prove that this is the case under
$2^{<\mathfrak{c}}=\mathfrak{c}$ (which is a consequence of Martin's Axiom, for
example) and for Urysohn spaces in ZFC, thus improving a result by Juh\'asz,
Soukup and Szentmikl\'ossy. We conclude with a few related results and
questions.


title: Thermal pure state path integral and emergent symmetry

abstract:
  We investigate a thermally isolated quantum many-body system with an external
control represented by a time-dependent parameter. We formulate a path integral
in terms of thermal pure states and derive an effective action for trajectories
in a thermodynamic state space, where the entropy appears with its conjugate
variable. In particular, for quasi-static operations, the symmetry for the
uniform translation of the conjugate variable emerges in the path integral.
This leads to the entropy as a Noether invariant.

categories: cond-mat.stat-mech gr-qc hep-th quant-ph


title: More on the $h$-critical numbers of finite abelian groups

abstract:
  For a finite abelian group $G$, a nonempty subset $A$ of $G$, and a positive
integer $h$, we let $hA$ denote the $h$-fold sumset of $A$; that is, $hA$ is
the collection of sums of $h$ not-necessarily-distinct elements of $A$.
Furthermore, for a positive integer $s$, we set $[0,s] A=\cup_{h=0}^s h A$. We
say that $A$ is a generating set of $G$ if there is a positive integer $s$ for
which $[0,s] A=G$.
  The $h$-critical number $\chi (G,h)$ of $G$ is defined as the smallest
positive integer $m$ for which $hA=G$ holds for every $m$-subset $A$ of $G$;
similarly, $\chi (G,[0,s])$ is the smallest positive integer $m$ for which
$[0,s]A=G$ holds for every $m$-subset $A$ of $G$. We define $\widehat{\chi} (G,
h)$ as the smallest positive integer $m$ for which $hA=G$ holds for every
generating $m$-subset $A$ of $G$; $\widehat{\chi} (G, [0,s])$ is defined
similarly.
  The value of $\chi (G,h)$ has been determined by this author for all $G$ and
$h$, and $\widehat{\chi} (G, [0,s])$ was introduced and resolved for some
special cases by Klopsch and Lev. Here we determine the remaining two
quantities in all cases.


title:
Investigating the influence of noise and distractors on the
  interpretation of neural networks

abstract:
  Understanding neural networks is becoming increasingly important. Over the
last few years different types of visualisation and explanation methods have
been proposed. However, none of them explicitly considered the behaviour in the
presence of noise and distracting elements. In this work, we will show how
noise and distracting dimensions can influence the result of an explanation
model. This gives a new theoretical insights to aid selection of the most
appropriate explanation model within the deep-Taylor decomposition framework.


title: Spectral correlations in finite-size Anderson insulators

abstract:
  We investigate spectral correlations in quasi one-dimensional Anderson
insulators with broken time-reversal symmetry. While energy levels are
uncorrelated in the thermodynamic limit of infinite wire-length, some
correlations remain in finite-size Anderson insulators. Asymptotic behaviors of
level-level correlations in these systems are known in the large- and
small-frequency limits, corresponding to the regime of classical diffusive
dynamics and the deep quantum regime of strong Anderson localization. Employing
non-perturbative methods and a mapping to the Coulomb-scattering problem,
recently introduced by {\it M.~A.~Skvortsov} and {\it P.~M.~Ostrovsky}, we
derive a closed analytical expression for the spectral statistics in the
classical-to-quantum region bridging the known asymptotic behaviors. We further
discuss how Poisson statistics at large energies develop into Wigner-Dyson
statistics as the wire-length decreases.


title:
Derivation of human chromatic discrimination ability from an
  information-theoretical notion of distance in color space

abstract:
  The accuracy with which humans can detect small chromatic differences varies
throughout color space. For example, we are far more precise when
discriminating two similar orange stimuli than two similar green stimuli. In
order for two colors to be perceived as different, the neurons representing
chromatic information must respond differently, and the difference must be
larger than the trial-to-trial variability of the response to each separate
color. Photoreceptors constitute the first stage in the processing of color
information; many more stages are required before humans can consciously report
whether two stimuli are perceived as chromatically distinguishable or not.
Therefore, although photoreceptor absorption curves are expected to influence
the accuracy of conscious discriminability, there is no reason to believe that
they should suffice to explain it. Here we develop information-theoretical
tools based on the Fisher metric that demonstrate that photoreceptor absorption
properties explain ~87% of the variance of human color discrimination ability,
as tested by previous behavioral experiments. In the context of this theory,
the bottleneck in chromatic information processing is determined by
photoreceptor absorption characteristics. Subsequent encoding stages modify
only marginally the chromatic discriminability at the photoreceptor level.


title: On Nambu's Fermion-Boson Relations for Superfluid $^3$He-B

abstract:
  Superfluid $^3$He is a spin-triplet ($S=1$), p-wave ($L=1$) BCS condensate of
Cooper pairs with total angular momentum $J=0$ in the ground state. In addition
to the breaking of $U(1)$ gauge symmetry, separate spin or orbital rotation
symmetry is broken to the maximal sub-group, $SO(3)_S\times SO(3)_L\rightarrow
SO(3)_J$. The Fermions acquire mass, $m_F\equiv\Delta$, where $\Delta$ is the
BCS gap. There are also 18 Bosonic excitations - 4 Nambu-Goldstone (NG) modes
and 14 massive amplitude Higgs (AH) modes. The Bosonic modes are labelled by
the total angular momentum, $J\in\{0,1,2\}$, and parity under particle-hole
symmetry, $C=\pm 1$. For each pair of angular momentum quantum numbers,
$J,J_z$, there are two Bosonic partners with $C=\pm 1$. Based this spectrum
Nambu proposed a sum rule connecting the Fermion and Boson masses for BCS type
theories, which for $^3$He-B is $M_{J^+}^2 + M_{J^-}^2 = 4m_F^2$ for each
family of Bosonic modes labelled by $J$, where $M_{J^C}$ is the mass of the
Bosonic mode with quantum numbers $(J,C)$. Nambu's sum rule (NSR) has recently
been discussed in the context of Nambu-Jona-Lasinio models for physics beyond
the standard model to speculate on possible partners to the recently discovered
Higgs Boson at higher energies. Here we point out that Nambu's Fermion-Boson
mass relations are not exact. Corrections to the Bosonic masses from (i)
leading order strong-coupling corrections to BCS theory, and (ii) polarization
of the parent Fermionic vacuum lead to violations of the sum-rule. Results for
these mass corrections are given in both the $T\rightarrow 0$ and $T\rightarrow
T_c$ limits. We also discuss experimental results, and theoretical analysis,
for the masses of the $J^{C}=2^{\pm}$ Higgs modes and the magnitude of the
violation of the NSR.


title: Forward-backward correlations between intensive observables

abstract:
  We demonstrate that the investigations of the forward-backward correlations
between intensive observables enable to obtain more clear signal about the
initial stage of hadronic interaction, e.g. about the process of string fusion,
compared to usual forward-backward multiplicity correlations. As an example,
the correlation between mean-event transverse momenta of charged particles in
separated rapidity intervals is considered. We performed calculations in the
framework of dipole-based Monte Carlo string fusion model. We obtained the
dependence of the correlation strength on the collision centrality for
different initial energies and colliding systems. It is shown that the
dependence reveals the decline of the correlation coefficient for most central
Pb-Pb collisions at LHC energy. We compare the results both with the ones
obtained in alternative models and with the ones obtained by us using various
MC generators.


title: On Unfair Permutations

abstract:
  In this paper we study the inverse of so-called unfair permutations, and
explore various properties of them. Our investigation begins with comparing
this class of permutations with uniformly random permutations, and showing that
they behave very much alike for locally dependent random variables. As an
example of a globally dependent statistic we use the number of inversions, and
show that this statistic satisfies a central limit theorem after proper
centering and scaling. A secondary example of a globally dependent statistic to
be studied will be the number of fixed points. Finally, we introduce two
different generalizations of inverse-unfair permutations.


title:
Asymptotically efficient estimators for self-similar stationary Gaussian
  noises under high frequency observations

abstract:
  This paper proposes feasible asymptotically efficient estimators for a
certain class of Gaussian noises with self-similar and stationary properties,
which includes the fractional Gaussian noise, under high frequency
observations. In this setting, the optimal rate of estimation depends on
whether either the Hurst or diffusion parameters is known or not. This is due
to the singularity of the asymptotic Fisher information matrix for simultaneous
estimation of the above two parameters. One of our key ideas is to extend the
Whittle estimation method to the situation of high frequency observations. We
show that our estimators are asymptotically efficient in Fisher's sense.


title: Strong Gravitational Lensing by the R-Charged Non-Extremal Black Hole

abstract:
  In this paper, gravitational lensing scenario due to the R-charged black hole
of five dimensional supergravity investigated. We study the effective potential
of traveling photons near the R-charged black hole and find some stable orbits
for the photons. We also find that the effect of the black hole charges is
increasing of the effective potential. We have shown that photons do not cross
the horizon of the very large R-charged black hole. By using the numerical
study we find that the black hole charges and non-extremality parameter
decrease value of the deflection angle.


title: Split degenerate states and stable p+ip phases from holography

abstract:
  In this paper, we investigate the p+$i$p superfluid phases in the complex
vector field holographic p-wave model. We find that in the probe limit, the
p+$i$p phase and the p-wave phase are equally stable, hence the p and $i$p
orders can be mixed with an arbitrary ratio to form more general p+$\lambda i$p
phases, which are also equally stable with the p-wave and p+$i$p phases. As a
result, the system possesses a degenerate thermal state in the superfluid
region. We further study the case with considering the back reaction on the
metric, and find that the degenerate ground states will be separated into
p-wave and p+$i$p phases, and the p-wave phase is more stable. Finally, due to
the different critical temperature of the zeroth order phase transitions from
p-wave and p+$i$p phases to the normal phase, there is a temperature region
where the p+$i$p phase exists but the p-wave phase doesn't. In this region we
find the stable p+$i$p phase for the first time.


title: Eliminate obstructions: curves on a 3-fold

abstract:
  By using higher K-theory, we reinterpret and generalize an idea on
eliminating obstructions to deforming cycles, which is known to Mark Green,
Phillip Griffiths and TingFai Ng(for the divisor case). As an application, we
show how to eliminate obstructions to deforming curves on a 3-fold. This
answers affirmatively an open question by TingFai Ng.


title: The metallicity dependence of envelope inflation in massive stars

abstract:
  Recently it has been found that models of massive stars reach the Eddington
limit in their interior, which leads to dilute extended envelopes. We perform a
comparative study of the envelope properties of massive stars at different
metallicities, with the aim to establish the impact of the stellar metallicity
on the effect of envelope inflation. We analyse published grids of
core-hydrogen burning massive star models computed with metallicities
appropriate for massive stars in the Milky Way, the LMC and the SMC, the very
metal poor dwarf galaxy I Zwicky 18, and for metal-free chemical composition.
Stellar models of all the investigated metallicities reach and exceed the
Eddington limit in their interior, aided by the opacity peaks of iron, helium
and hydrogen, and consequently develop inflated envelopes. Envelope inflation
leads to a redward bending of the zero-age main sequence and a broadening of
the main sequence band in the upper part of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. We
derive the limiting L/M-values as function of the stellar surface temperature
above which inflation occurs, and find them to be larger for lower metallicity.
While Galactic models show inflation above ~29 Msun, the corresponding mass
limit for Population III stars is ~150 Msun. While the masses of the inflated
envelopes are generally small, we find that they can reach 1-100 Msun in models
with effective temperatures below ~8000 K, with higher masses reached by models
of lower metallicity. Envelope inflation is expected to occur in sufficiently
massive stars at all metallicities, and is expected to lead to rapidly growing
pulsations, high macroturbulent velocities, and might well be related to the
unexplained variability observed in Luminous Blue Variables like S Doradus and
Eta Carina.


title: Resonances in Coupled-Channel Scattering

abstract:
  Excited hadrons are seen as resonances in the scattering of lighter stable
hadrons like $\pi$, $K$ and $\eta$. Many decay into multiple final states
necessitating coupled-channel analyses. Recently it has become possible to
obtain coupled-channel scattering amplitudes from lattice QCD. Using large
diverse bases of operators it is possible to obtain reliable finite volume
spectra at energies where multiple channels are open. Utilising the finite
volume formalism proposed by L\"uscher and extended by several others,
scattering amplitudes can be extracted from the finite volume spectra. Recent
applications will be discussed where the energy dependence of scattering
amplitudes is mapped out in several quantum numbers. These are then continued
to complex energies to extract resonance poles and couplings.


title:
Some non-existence results for a class of stochastic partial
  differential equations

abstract:
  Consider the following stochastic partial differential equation,
\begin{equation*} \partial_t u_t(x)=
  \mathcal{L}u_t(x)+ \sigma (u_t(x))\dot F(t,x)\quad{t>0}\quad\text{and}\quad
x\in R^d. \end{equation*} The operator $\mathcal{L}$ is the generator of a
strictly stable process and $\dot F$ is the random forcing term which is
assumed to be Gaussian. Under some additional conditions, most notably on
$\sigma$ and the initial condition, we show non-existence of global random
field solutions. Our results are new and complement earlier works.


title:
A Unified Theoretical Framework for Mapping Models for the Multi-State
  Hamiltonian

abstract:
  We propose a new unified theoretical framework to construct equivalent
representations of the multi-state Hamiltonian operator and present several
approaches for the mapping onto the Cartesian phase space. After mapping an
F-dimensional Hamiltonian onto an F+1- dimensional space, creation and
annihilation operators are defined such that the F+1 dimensional space is
complete for any combined excitations. Commutation and anti-commutation
relations are then naturally derived, which show that the underlying degrees of
freedom are neither bosons nor fermions. This sets the scene for developing
equivalent expressions of the Hamiltonian operator in quantum mechanics and
their classical/semiclassical counterparts. Six mapping models are presented as
examples. The framework also offers a novel way to derive such as the
well-known Meyer-Miller model.


title: Fermi/non-Fermi mixing in SU($N$) Kondo effect

abstract:
  We apply conformal field theory analysis to the $k$-channel SU($N$) Kondo
system, and find a peculiar behavior in the cases $N > k > 1$, which we call
Fermi/non-Fermi mixing: The low temperature scaling is described as the Fermi
liquid, while the zero temperature IR fixed point exhibits the non-Fermi liquid
signature. We also show that the Wilson ratio is no longer universal for the
cases $N > k > 1$. The deviation from the universal value of the Wilson ratio
could be used as an experimental signal of the Fermi/non-Fermi mixing.


title: Active learning with version spaces for object detection

abstract:
  Given an image, we would like to learn to detect objects belonging to
particular object categories. Common object detection methods train on large
annotated datasets which are annotated in terms of bounding boxes that contain
the object of interest. Previous works on object detection model the problem as
a structured regression problem which ranks the correct bounding boxes more
than the background ones. In this paper we develop algorithms which actively
obtain annotations from human annotators for a small set of images, instead of
all images, thereby reducing the annotation effort. Towards this goal, we make
the following contributions: 1. We develop a principled version space based
active learning method that solves for object detection as a structured
prediction problem in a weakly supervised setting 2. We also propose two
variants of the margin sampling strategy 3. We analyse the results on standard
object detection benchmarks that show that with only 20% of the data we can
obtain more than 95% of the localization accuracy of full supervision. Our
methods outperform random sampling and the classical uncertainty-based active
learning algorithms like entropy


title:
Photoinduced polarons in polymers. Time-resolved ESR analysis of polaron
  pairs in polymer:fullerene blends

abstract:
  The work concerns the analysis of experimental time-resolved ESR spectra in
photoexcited polymer:fullerene blend, consisting of poly(3-hexilthiophene) and
fullerene [6,6]-phenyl C_{61} -butyric acid methyl ester (at low temperature T
= 100 K). The spectra are assumed to be determined by spin-coherent pairs of
charged polarons P^{+} and P^{-} generated in the singlet state. The analysis
is made within simple model of a set of first order processes, in which
P^{+}P$^{-}-pair spin evolution is described by the stochastic Liouville
equation, allowing for fairly accurate description of experimental results.
Simple analytical interpretation of obtained numerical results demonstrates
that trESR spectra can be represented as a superposition of antiphase and CIDEP
contributions together with the conventional thermal one. These contributions
are shown to change their signs with the increase of time in agreement with
experimental observations.


title: The Norm of Gaussian Periods

abstract:
  Gaussian periods are cyclotomic integers with a long history in number theory
and connections to problems in combinatorics. We investigate the asymptotic
behavior of the absolute norm of a Gaussian period and provide a rate of
convergence in a case of Myerson's Conjecture for periods of arbitrary odd
length. Our method involves a result of Bombieri, Masser, and Zannier on
unlikely intersections in the algebraic torus as well as work of the author on
the diophantine approximations to a set definable in an o-minimal structure. In
the appendix we make a result of Lawton on Mahler measures quantitative.


title:
Exchange interactions in transition metal oxides: The role of oxygen
  spin polarization

abstract:
  Magnetism of transition metal (TM) oxides is usually described in terms of
the Heisenberg model, with orientation-independent interactions between the
spins. However, the applicability of such a model is not fully justified for TM
oxides because spin polarization of oxygen is usually ignored. In the
conventional model based on the Anderson principle, oxygen effects are
considered as a property of the TM ion and only TM interactions are relevant.
Here, we perform a systematic comparison between two approaches for spin
polarization on oxygen in typical TM oxides. To this end, we calculate the
exchange interactions in NiO, MnO, and hematite (Fe2O3) for different magnetic
configurations using the magnetic force theorem. We consider the full spin
Hamiltonian including oxygen sites, and also derive an effective model where
the spin polarization on oxygen renormalizes the exchange interactions between
TM sites. Surprisingly, the exchange interactions in NiO depend on the magnetic
state if spin polarization on oxygen is neglected, resulting in non-Heisenberg
behavior. In contrast, the inclusion of spin polarization in NiO makes the
Heisenberg model more applicable. Just the opposite, MnO behaves as a
Heisenberg magnet when oxygen spin polarization is neglected, but shows strong
non-Heisenberg effects when spin polarization on oxygen is included. In
hematite, both models result in non-Heisenberg behavior. General applicability
of the magnetic force theorem as well as the Heisenberg model to TM oxides is
discussed.


title:
PVR: Patch-to-Volume Reconstruction for Large Area Motion Correction of
  Fetal MRI

abstract:
  In this paper we present a novel method for the correction of motion
artifacts that are present in fetal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of
the whole uterus. Contrary to current slice-to-volume registration (SVR)
methods, requiring an inflexible anatomical enclosure of a single investigated
organ, the proposed patch-to-volume reconstruction (PVR) approach is able to
reconstruct a large field of view of non-rigidly deforming structures. It
relaxes rigid motion assumptions by introducing a specific amount of redundant
information that is exploited with parallelized patch-wise optimization,
super-resolution, and automatic outlier rejection. We further describe and
provide an efficient parallel implementation of PVR allowing its execution
within reasonable time on commercially available graphics processing units
(GPU), enabling its use in the clinical practice. We evaluate PVR's
computational overhead compared to standard methods and observe improved
reconstruction accuracy in presence of affine motion artifacts of approximately
30% compared to conventional SVR in synthetic experiments. Furthermore, we have
evaluated our method qualitatively and quantitatively on real fetal MRI data
subject to maternal breathing and sudden fetal movements. We evaluate
peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index (SSIM), and
cross correlation (CC) with respect to the originally acquired data and provide
a method for visual inspection of reconstruction uncertainty. With these
experiments we demonstrate successful application of PVR motion compensation to
the whole uterus, the human fetus, and the human placenta.


title:
Isomorphism between the multi-state Hamiltonian and the second-quantized
  many-electron Hamiltonian with only 1-electron interactions

abstract:
  We introduce the isomorphism between the multi-state Hamiltonian and the
second-quantized many-electron Hamiltonian (with only 1-electron interactions).
This suggests that all methods developed for the former can be employed for the
latter, and vice versa. The resonant level (Landauer) model for nonequilibrium
quantum transport is used as a proof-of-concept example. Such as the classical
mapping models for the multi-state Hamiltonian proposed in our previous work
[J. Chem. Phys. (submitted)] lead to exact results for this model problem. We
further demonstrate how these methods can also be applied to the
second-quantized many-electron Hamiltonian even when 2-electron interactions
are included.


title:
Split-gate point-contact for channelizing electron transport on
  MoS2/h-BN hybrid structures

abstract:
  Electrostatically defined nanoscale devices on two-dimensional semiconductor
heterostructures are the building blocks of various quantum electrical
circuits. Owing to its atomically flat interfaces and the inherent
two-dimensional nature, van der Waals heterostructures hold the advantage of
large-scale uniformity, flexibility and portability over the conventional bulk
semiconductor heterostructures. In this letter we show the operation of a
split-gate defined point contact device on a MoS2/h-BN heterostructure, a first
step towards realizing electrostatically gated quantum circuits on van der
Waals semiconductors. Our devices show signatures of channelized electron flow
and a complete shutdown of transport similar to the conventional point contacts
defined on bulk semiconductor heterostructures. We explore the role of
back-gate and the drain-source voltages on the pinch-off characteristics and,
we are able to tune the pinch-off characteristics by varying the back-gate
voltage at temperatures ranging from 4K to 300 K.


title: Imposing various boundary conditions on positive definite kernels

abstract:
  This work is motivated by the frequent occurrence of boundary value problems
with various boundary conditions in the modeling of some problems in
engineering and physical science. Here we propose a new technique to force the
positive definite kernels such as some radial basis functions to satisfy the
boundary conditions exactly. It can improve the applications of existing
methods based on positive definite kernels and radial basis functions
especially the pseudospectral radial basis function method for handling the
differential equations with more complicated boundary conditions. The proposed
method is applied to a singularly perturbed steady-state convection-diffusion
problem, two and three dimensional Poisson's equations with various boundary
conditions.


title:
Sub-millimeter Spatial Oscillations of Newton's Constant: Theoretical
  Models and Laboratory Tests

abstract:
  We investigate the viability of sub-millimeter wavelength oscillating
deviations from the Newtonian potential at both the theoretical and the
experimental/observational level. At the theoretical level such deviations are
generic predictions in a wide range of extensions of General Relativity (GR)
including $f(R)$ theories, massive Brans-Dicke theories, compactified extra
dimension models and nonlocal extensions of GR. However, the range of
parameters associated with such oscillating deviations is usually connected
with instabilities. An exception emerges in nonlocal gravity theories where
oscillating deviations from Newtonian potential occur naturally on
sub-millimeter scales without instabilities. As an example of a model with
unstable Newtonian oscillations we review an $f(R)$ expansion around General
Relativity of the form $f(R)=R+\frac{1}{6 m^2} R^2$ with $m^2<0$ pointing out
possible stabilization mechanisms. As an example of a model with stable
Newtonian oscillations we discuss nonlocal gravity theories. If such
oscillations are realized in Nature on sub-millimeter scales, a signature is
expected in torsion balance experiments testing Newton's law. We search for
such a signature in the torsion balance data of the Washington experiment
(combined torque residuals) testing Newton's law at sub-millimeter scales. We
show that an oscillating residual ansatz with spatial wavelength $\lambda
\simeq 0.1mm$ provides a better fit to the data compared to the residual
Newtonian constant ansatz by $\Delta \chi^2 = -15$. Similar improved fits, also
occur in about $10\%$ of Monte Carlo realizations of Newtonian data. Thus, the
significance level of this improved fit is at a level of not more than
$2\sigma$. The energy scale corresponding to this best fit wavelength is
identical to the dark energy length scale $\lambda_{de} \equiv\sqrt[4]{\hbar
c/\rho_{ de}}\approx 0.1mm$.


title: Loop corrections to pion and kaon neutrinoproduction

abstract:
  In this paper we study the next-to-leading order corrections to deeply
virtual pion and kaon production in neutrino experiments. We estimate these
corrections in the kinematics of the Minerva experiment at FERMILAB, and find
that they are sizable and increase the leading order cross-section by up to a
factor of two. We provide a code, which can be used for the evaluation of the
cross-sections, taking into account these corrections and employing various GPD
models.


title:
Kinetic theory of discontinuous shear thickening for a dilute gas-solid
  suspension

abstract:
  A kinetic theory for a dilute gas-solid suspension under a simple shear is
developed. With the aid of the corresponding Boltzmann equation, it is found
that the flow curve (stress-strain rate relation) has a S-shape as a crossover
from the Newtonian to the Bagnoldian for a granular suspension or from the
Newtonian to a fluid having a viscosity proportional to the square of the shear
rate for a suspension consisting of elastic particles. The existence of the
S-shape in the flow curve directly leads to a discontinuous shear thickening
(DST). This DST corresponds to the discontinuous transition of the kinetic
temperature between a quenched state and an ignited state. The results of the
event-driven Langevin simulation of hard spheres perfectly agree with the
theoretical results without any fitting parameter. The simulation confirms that
the DST takes place in the linearly unstable region of the uniformly sheared
state.


title:
Azimuthal Magnetorotational Instability at low and high magnetic Prandtl
  numbers

abstract:
  The magnetorotational instability (MRI) is considered to be one of the most
powerful sources of turbulence in hydrodynamically stable quasi-Keplerian
flows, such as those governing accretion disk flows. Although the linear
stability of these flows with applied external magnetic field has been studied
for decades, the influence of the instability on the outward angular momentum
transport, necessary for the accretion of the disk, is still not well known. In
this work we model Keplerian rotation with Taylor-Couette flow and imposed
azimuthal magnetic field using both linear and nonlinear approaches. We present
scalings of instability with Hartmann and Reynolds numbers via linear analysis
and direct numerical simulations (DNS) for the two magnetic Prandtl numbers of
$1.4 \cdot 10^{-6}$ and $1$. Inside of the instability domains modes with
different axial wavenumbers dominate, resulting in sub-domains of
instabilities, which appear different for each $Pm$. The DNS show the emergence
of 1- and 2-frequency spatio-temporally oscillating structures for $Pm=1$ close
the onset of instability, as well as significant enhancement of angular
momentum transport for $Pm=1$ as compared to $Pm=1.4 \cdot 10^{-6}$.


title:
High-Performance and Distributed Computing in a Probabilistic Finite
  Element Comparison Study of the Human Lower Leg Model with Total Knee
  Replacement

abstract:
  Reliability theory is used to assess the sensitivity of a passive flexion and
active flexion of the human lower leg Finite Element (FE) models with Total
Knee Replacement (TKR) to the variability in the input parameters of the
respective FE models. The sensitivity of the active flexion simulating the
stair ascent of the human lower leg FE model with TKR was presented before in
[1,2] whereas now in this paper a comparison is made with the passive flexion
of the human lower leg FE model with TKR. First, with the Monte Carlo
Simulation Technique (MCST), a number of randomly generated input data of the
FE model(s) are obtained based on the normal standard deviations of the
respective input parameters. Then a series of FE simulations are done and the
output kinematics and peak contact pressures are obtained for the respective FE
models (passive flexion and/or active flexion models). Seven output performance
measures are reported for the passive flexion model and one more parameter was
reported for the active flexion FE model (patello-femoral peak contact
pressure) in [1]. A sensitivity study will be performed based on the Response
Surface Method (RSM) to identify the key parameters that influence the
kinematics and peak contact pressures of the passive flexion FE model. Another
two MCST and RSM-based probabilistic FE analyses will be performed based on a
reduced list of 19 key input parameters. In total 4 probabilistic FE analyses
will be performed: 2 probabilistic FE analyses (MCST and RSM) based on an
extended set of 78 input variables and another 2 probabilistic FE analyses
(MCST and RSM) based on a reduced set of 19 input variables. Due to the likely
computation cost in order to make hundreds of FE simulations with MCST, a
high-performance and distributed computing system will be used for the passive
flexion FE model the same as it was used for the active flexion FE model in
[1].


title:
On Correlation Functions of Vertex Operator Algebras Associated to
  Jordan Algebras

abstract:
  In this paper we study certain vertex operator algebras associated to Jordan
algebras and compute the correlation function of basic fields


title: Cryptanalysis of an Identity-Based Authenticated Key Exchange Protocol

abstract:
  Authenticated Key Exchange (AKE) protocols represent an important
cryptographic mechanism that enables several parties to communicate securely
over an open network. Elashry, Mu and Susilo proposed in 2015 an Identity Based
Authenticated Key Exchange (IBAKE) protocol where different parties establish
secure communication by means of their public identities. The authors also
introduced a new security notion for IBAKE protocols called resiliency, that
is, if a shared secret between a group of parties is compromised or leaked,
they can generate another completely new shared secret without the need to set
up a new key exchange session. They then proved that their IBAKE protocol
satisfies this security notion.
  We analyze the security of their protocol and prove that it has a major
security flaw which renders it insecure against an impersonation attack. We
also disprove the resiliency property of their scheme by proposing an attack
where an adversary can compute any share secret key if just one secret bit is
leaked.


title:
From asymptotic freedom toward heavy quarkonia within the
  renormalization group procedure for effective particles

abstract:
  The renormalization group procedure for effective particles (RGPEP),
developed as a nonperturbative tool for constructing bound states in quantum
field theories, is applied to QCD. The approach stems from the similarity
renormalization group and introduces the concept of effective particles. It has
been shown that the RGPEP passes the test of exhibiting asymptotic freedom. We
present the running of the Hamiltonian coupling with the renormalization-group
scale and summarize the basic elements needed in the formulation of the
bound-state problem.


title:
Frequency regulators for the nonperturbative renormalization group: A
  general study and the model A as a benchmark

abstract:
  We derive the necessary conditions for implementing a regulator that depends
on both momentum and frequency in the nonperturbative renormalization group
flow equations of out-of-equilibrium statistical systems. We consider model A
as a benchmark and compute its dynamical critical exponent $z$. This allows us
to show that frequency regulators compatible with causality and the
fluctuation-dissipation theorem can be devised. We show that when the Principle
of Minimal Sensitivity (PMS) is employed to optimize the critical exponents
$\eta$, $\nu$ and $z$, the use of frequency regulators becomes necessary to
make the PMS a self-consistent criterion.


title:
Tracking Control of Fully-actuated Mechanical port-Hamiltonian Systems
  using Sliding Manifolds and Contraction

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a novel trajectory tracking controller for
fully-actuated mechanical port-Hamiltonian (pH) systems, which is based on
recent advances in contraction-based control theory. Our proposed controller
renders a desired sliding manifold (where the reference trajectory lies)
attractive by making the corresponding error system partially contracting.
Finally, we present numerical simulation results where a SCARA robot is
commanded by our proposed tracking control law.


title: Approximate Furthest Neighbor with Application to Annulus Query

abstract:
  Much recent work has been devoted to approximate nearest neighbor queries.
Motivated by applications in recommender systems, we consider approximate
furthest neighbor (AFN) queries and present a simple, fast, and highly
practical data structure for answering AFN queries in high- dimensional
Euclidean space. The method builds on the technique of In- dyk (SODA 2003),
storing random projections to provide sublinear query time for AFN. However, we
introduce a different query algorithm, improving on Indyk's approximation
factor and reducing the running time by a logarithmic factor. We also present a
variation based on a query- independent ordering of the database points; while
this does not have the provable approximation factor of the query-dependent
data structure, it offers significant improvement in time and space complexity.
We give a theoretical analysis, and experimental results. As an application,
the query-dependent approach is used for deriving a data structure for the
approximate annulus query problem, which is defined as follows: given an input
set S and two parameters r > 0 and w >= 1, construct a data structure that
returns for each query point q a point p in S such that the distance between p
and q is at least r/w and at most wr.


title: Anomaly in RTT relation for DIM algebra and network matrix models

abstract:
  We discuss the recent proposal of arXiv:1608.05351 about generalization of
the RTT relation to network matrix models. We show that the RTT relation in
these models is modified by a nontrivial, but essentially abelian anomaly
cocycle, which we explicitly evaluate for the free field representations of the
quantum toroidal algebra. This cocycle is responsible for the braiding, which
permutes the external legs in the q-deformed conformal block and its 5d/6d
gauge theory counterpart, i.e. the non-perturbative Nekrasov functions. Thus,
it defines their modular properties and symmetry. We show how to cancel the
anomaly using a construction somewhat similar to the anomaly matching condition
in gauge theory. We also describe the singular limit to the affine Yangian (4d
Nekrasov functions), which breaks the spectral duality.


title: Correlation Clustering with Low-Rank Matrices

abstract:
  Correlation clustering is a technique for aggregating data based on
qualitative information about which pairs of objects are labeled 'similar' or
'dissimilar.' Because the optimization problem is NP-hard, much of the previous
literature focuses on finding approximation algorithms. In this paper we
explore how to solve the correlation clustering objective exactly when the data
to be clustered can be represented by a low-rank matrix. We prove in particular
that correlation clustering can be solved in polynomial time when the
underlying matrix is positive semidefinite with small constant rank, but that
the task remains NP-hard in the presence of even one negative eigenvalue. Based
on our theoretical results, we develop an algorithm for efficiently "solving"
low-rank positive semidefinite correlation clustering by employing a procedure
for zonotope vertex enumeration. We demonstrate the effectiveness and speed of
our algorithm by using it to solve several clustering problems on both
synthetic and real-world data.


title: Groebner Bases for Everyone with CoCoA-5 and CoCoALib

abstract:
  We present a survey on the developments related to Groebner bases, and show
explicit examples in CoCoA. The CoCoA project dates back to 1987: its aim was
to create a "mathematician"-friendly computational laboratory for studying
Commutative Algebra, most especially Groebner bases. Always maintaining this
"friendly" tradition, the project has grown and evolved, and the software has
been completely rewritten. CoCoA offers Groebner bases for all levels of
interest: from the basic, explicit call in the interactive system CoCoA-5, to
problem-specific optimized implementations, to the computer--computer
communication with the open source C++ software library, CoCoALib, or the
prototype OpenMath-based server. The openness and clean design of CoCoALib and
CoCoA-5 are intended to offer different levels of usage, and to encourage
external contributions.


title: $6\pi$ Josephson effect in Majorana box devices

abstract:
  We study Majorana devices featuring a competition between superconductivity
and multi-channel Kondo physics. Our proposal extends previous work on
single-channel Kondo systems to a topologically nontrivial setting of non-Fermi
liquid type, where topological superconductor wires (with gap $\Delta$)
represent leads tunnel-coupled to a Coulomb-blockaded Majorana box. On the box,
a spin degree of freedom with Kondo temperature $T_K$ is nonlocally defined in
terms of Majorana states. For $\Delta\gg T_K$, the destruction of Kondo
screening by superconductivity implies a $4\pi$-periodic Josephson
current-phase relation. Using a strong-coupling analysis in the opposite regime
$\Delta \ll T_K$, we find a $6\pi$-periodic Josephson relation for three leads,
with critical current $I_c\approx e\Delta^2/ \hbar T_K$, corresponding to the
transfer of fractionalized charges $e^*=2e/3$.


title: Variational Graph Auto-Encoders

abstract:
  We introduce the variational graph auto-encoder (VGAE), a framework for
unsupervised learning on graph-structured data based on the variational
auto-encoder (VAE). This model makes use of latent variables and is capable of
learning interpretable latent representations for undirected graphs. We
demonstrate this model using a graph convolutional network (GCN) encoder and a
simple inner product decoder. Our model achieves competitive results on a link
prediction task in citation networks. In contrast to most existing models for
unsupervised learning on graph-structured data and link prediction, our model
can naturally incorporate node features, which significantly improves
predictive performance on a number of benchmark datasets.


title:
The origin of single low-mass WDs: another problem that consequential
  angular momentum loss in CVs might solve

abstract:
  Low-mass helium-core white-dwarfs (WDs) with masses below 0.5 Msun are known
to be formed in binary star systems but unexpectedly a significant fraction of
them seem to be single. On the other hand, in Cataclysmic Variables (CVs) a
large number of low-mass WD primary stars is predicted but not observed. We
recently showed that the latter problem can be solved if consequential angular
momentum loss causes especially CVs with low-mass WDs to merge and form single
stars. Here we simulate the population of single WDs resulting from single star
evolution and from binary star mergers taking into account these new merging
CVs. We show that according to the revised model of CV evolution, merging CVs
might be the dominant channel leading to the formation of low-mass single WDs
and that the predicted relative numbers are consistent with observations. This
can be interpreted as further evidence for the revised model of CV evolution we
recently suggested. This model includes consequential angular momentum loss
that increases with decreasing WD mass and might not only explain the absence
of low-mass WD primaries in CVs but also the existence of single low-mass WDs.


title:
Raoult's law revisited: accurately predicting equilibrium relative
  humidity points for humidity control experiments

abstract:
  The equilibrium relative humidity values for a number of the most commonly
used precipitants in biological macromolecule crystallisation have been
measured using a new humidity control device. A simple argument in statistical
mechanics demonstrates that the saturated vapour pressure of a solvent is
proportional to its mole fraction in an ideal solution (Raoult's Law). The same
argument can be extended to the case where solvent and solute molecules are of
different size.


title:
Emergent Weyl fermion excitations in TaP explored by 181-Ta quadrupole
  resonance

abstract:
  The $^{181}$Ta quadrupole resonance (NQR) technique has been utilized to
investigate the microscopic magnetic properties of the Weyl semi-metal TaP. We
found three zero-field NQR signals associated with the transition between the
quadrupole split levels for Ta with $I$=7/2 nuclear spin. A quadrupole coupling
constant, $\nu_{\mathrm{Q}}$ =19.250 MHz, and an asymmetric parameter of the
electric field gradient, $\eta$ = 0.423 were extracted, in good agreement with
band structure calculations. In order to examine the magnetic excitations, the
temperature dependence of the spin lattice relaxation rate
(1/$T_{\mathrm{1}}T$) has been measured for the $f_{\mathrm{2}}$-line ($\pm$5/2
$\leftrightarrow$ $\pm$3/2 transition). We found that there exists two regimes
with quite different relaxation processes. Above $T\text{*}$ $\approx$ 30 K, a
pronounced (1/$T_{\mathrm{1}}T$) $\propto$ $T^{2}$ behavior was found, which is
attributed to the magnetic excitations at the Weyl nodes with temperature
dependent orbital hyperfine coupling. Below $T\text{*}$, the relaxation is
mainly governed by Korringa process with 1/$T_{\mathrm{1}}T$ = constant,
accompanied by an additional $T^{-1/2}$ type dependence to fit our experimental
data. We show that Ta-NQR is a novel probe for the bulk Weyl fermions and their
excitations.


title: Theta angle in holographic QCD

abstract:
  V-QCD is a class of effective holographic models for QCD which fully includes
the backreaction of quarks to gluon dynamics. The physics of the theta-angle
and the axial anomaly can be consistently included in these models. We analyze
their phase diagrams over ranges of values of the quark mass, N_f/N_c, and
theta, computing observables such as the topological susceptibility and the
meson masses. At small quark mass, where effective chiral Lagrangians are
reliable, they agree with the predictions of V-QCD.


title: Dirac oscillator and minimal length

abstract:
  We show how to solve the Dirac oscillator with a minimal length by using
previous results on the harmonic oscillator in a Snyder algebra.


title:
The ALMA-PILS survey: First detections of ethylene oxide, acetone and
  propanal toward the low-mass protostar IRAS 16293-2422

abstract:
  One of the open questions in astrochemistry is how complex organic and
prebiotic molecules are formed. Aims. Our aim is to start the process of
compiling an inventory of oxygen-bearing complex organic molecules toward the
solar-type Class 0 protostellar binary IRAS16293-2422 from an unbiased spectral
survey with ALMA (PILS). Here we focus on the new detections of ethylene oxide
(c-C$_2$H$_4$O), acetone (CH$_3$COCH$_3$), and propanal (C$_2$H$_5$CHO).
Methods. With ALMA, we surveyed the spectral range from 329 to 363 GHz at
0.5$"$ (60 AU diameter) resolution. Using a simple model for the molecular
emission in LTE, the excitation temperatures and column densities of each
species were constrained. Results. We successfully detect propanal (44 lines),
ethylene oxide (20 lines) and acetone (186 lines) toward one component of the
protostellar binary, IRAS16293B. The high resolution maps demonstrate that the
emission for all investigated species originates from the compact central
region close to the protostar. This, along with a derived common excitation
temperature of $\sim$ 125 K, is consistent with a coexistence of these
molecules in the same gas. Conclusions. The observations mark the first
detections of acetone, propanal and ethylene oxide toward a low-mass protostar.
The relative abundance ratios of the two sets of isomers
(CH$_3$COCH$_3$/C$_2$H$_5$CHO $\sim$ 8 and CH$_3$CHO/c-C$_2$H$_4$O $\sim$ 12)
are comparable to previous observations toward high-mass protostars. The
majority of observed abundance ratios from these results as well as those
measured toward high-mass protostars are up to an order of magnitude above the
predictions from chemical models. This may reflect either missing reactions or
uncertain rates in the chemical networks. The physical conditions, such as
temperatures or densities, used in the models, may not be applicable to
solar-type protostars either.


title: Effective potentials induced by self-assembly of patchy particles

abstract:
  Effective colloid-colloid interactions can be tailored through the addition
of a complex cosolute. Here we investigate the case of a cosolute made by
self-assembling patchy particles. Depending on the valence, these particles can
form either polymer chains or branched structures. We numerically calculate the
effective potential $V_{eff}$ between two colloids immersed in a suspension of
reversible patchy particles, exploring a wide region of the cosolute phase
diagram and the role of valence. In addition to well-known excluded volume and
depletion effects, we find that, under appropriate conditions, $V_{eff}$ is
completely attractive but shows an oscillatory character. In the case of
polymerizing cosolute, this results from the fact that chains are efficiently
confined by the colloids through the onset of local order. This argument is
then generalized to the case of particles with higher valence, under the
condition that they are still able to maintain a fully bonded organization upon
confinement. The resulting effective potentials are relevant for understanding
the behavior of complex mixtures in crowded environments, but may also be
exploited for tuning colloidal self-assembly at preferred target distances in
order to build desired superstructures.


title: A variational problem arising in registration of diffusion tensor images

abstract:
  The existence of a global minimizer for a variational problem arising in
registration of diffusion tensor images is proved, which ensures that there is
a regular spatial transformation for the registration of diffusion tensor
images.


title:
Time-scale characteristics of Kasai river hydrological regime
  variability for 1940-1999

abstract:
  The present study was undertaken with the aim of contributing to the
characterization of the nonstationary variability of the hydrological regime of
the Kasai River using the wavelet analysis for 1940-1999. The rainfalls and
discharge over Kasai Basin have marked fluctuations with a perceptible downward
trend and some shift around 1950, 1960, 1970, 1983 and 1994. The results show
that rainfalls over Kasai basin and the discharge at Ilebo station patterns
exhibit a strong annual oscillation and some intermittent oscillations in 2-8
years (1950-1975, 1983-1995) and 8-16 years (1970-1999) time scales. The
wavelet coherence analysis reveals a weak possible connection between
hydrological variables (rainfalls, discharge) and climate indices relative to
sea surface temperature and atmospheric circulation over Atlantic tropical,
Indian and Pacific Oceans (coherence less than 0.55).


title: Quantum loop corrections of charged dS black hole

abstract:
  In this paper, a charged black hole in de Sitter space considered and
logarithmic corrected entropy used to study thermodynamics. Logarithmic
corrections of entropy comes from thermal fluctuations which play role of
quantum loop corrections. In that case we are able to study the effect of
quantum loop on the black hole thermodynamics and statistics. As black hole is
a gravitational object, so it helps to obtain some information about the
quantum gravity. The first and second laws of thermodynamics investigated for
logarithmic corrected case and find that is only valid for the charged dS black
hole. We show that the black hole phase transition disappear in presence of
logarithmic correction.


title:
Improved weather generator algorithm for multisite simulation of
  precipitation and temperature

abstract:
  The KnnCAD Version 4 weather generator algorithm for nonparametric, multisite
simulations of temperature and precipitation data is presented. The K-nearest
neighbour weather generator essentially reshuffles the historical data, with
replacement. In KnnCAD Version 4, a block resampling scheme is introduced to
preserve the temporal correlation structure in temperature data. Perturbation
of the reshuffled variable data is also added to enhance the generation of
extreme values. A case study of the Upper Thames River Basin in Ontario, Canada
is performed and the model is shown to simulate effectively the historical
characteristics at the site. The KnnCAD Version 4 approach offers a major
advantage over parametric and semi-parametric weather generators as it can be
applied to multiple sites for simulation of temperatures and precipitation
amounts without making assumptions regarding the spatial correlations and the
probability distributions for each variable.


title:
Anomaly in the HTSC system (BiPb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10-{\delta} at the
  temperature 203.7K

abstract:
  Broadening of the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) line of the
paramagnetic probe decorated on the superconducting system surface was detected
at the temperature T>Tc. The source of the anomaly and the conditions of its
emergence were revealed. The analysis of the experimental results with taking
into account the literature data serves as the basis to consider that the
observed broadening of the EPR line of the paramagnetic probe at 203.7K
resulted from the transition of the system under study into the superconducting
state.


title:
Probing phase coupling between two spin-torque nano-oscillators with
  external source

abstract:
  Phase coupling between auto-oscillators is central for achieving coherent
responses such as synchronization. Here we present an experimental approach to
probe it in the case of two dipolarly coupled spin-torque vortex
nano-oscillators using an external microwave field. By phase-locking one
oscillator to the microwave field, we observe frequency pulling on the second
oscillator. From coupled Thiele equations we show analytically that this
frequency pulling results from concerted actions of dipolar and microwave
couplings. The analysis allows us to determine the amplitude of dipolar
coupling and the phase lag of each oscillator, yielding important information
for the implementation of large oscillator networks.


title:
Robustness and fragility of Markovian dynamics in a qubit dephasing
  channel

abstract:
  The Markovian dynamics of a qubit is investigated in the scheme of random
unitary dynamics, where Kraus operators are changed by an extra noise. The
behavior of Markovianity is explored in the perturbed scenario. We provide a
new algorithm for checking CP-divisibility (Markovianity) of a dynamical map.


title: Robopol: Optical polarisation monitoring of blazars

abstract:
  The RoboPol program has been monitoring the $R$-band linear polarisation
parameters of an unbiased sample of 60 gamma-ray-loud blazars and a "control"
sample of 15 gamma-ray-quite ones. The prime drive for the program has been the
systematic study of the temporal behaviour of the optical polarisation and
particularly the potential association of smooth and long rotations of the
polarisation angle with flaring activity at high energies. Here we present the
program and discuss a list of selected topics from our studies of the first
three observing seasons (2013--2015) both in the angle and in the amplitude
domain.


title: On the mixing time of the flip walk on triangulations of the sphere

abstract:
  A simple way to sample a uniform triangulation of the sphere with a fixed
number $n$ of vertices is a Monte-Carlo method: we start from an arbitrary
triangulation and flip repeatedly a uniformly chosen edge. We give a lower
bound in $n^{5/4}$ on the mixing time of this Markov chain.


title:
The nonlinear stochastic Schr\"odinger equation via stochastic
  Strichartz estimates

abstract:
  We consider the stochastic NLS with nonlinear Stratonovic noise for initial
values in $L^2(R^d)$ and prove local existence and uniqueness of a mild
solution for subcritical and critical nonlinearities. The proof is based on
deterministic and stochastic Strichartz estimates. In the subcritical case, we
prove that the solution is global, if we impose an additional assumption on the
nonlinear noise.


title: Relativistic Stern-Gerlach Deflection: Hamiltonian Formulation

abstract:
  A Hamiltonian formalism is employed to elucidate the effects of the
Stern-Gerlach force on beams of relativistic spin-polarized particles, for
passage through a localized region with a static magnetic or electric field
gradient. The problem of the spin-orbit coupling for nonrelativistic bounded
motion in a central potential (hydrogen-like atoms, in particular) is also
briefly studied.


title:
What planetary nebulae can tell us about jets in core collapse
  supernovae

abstract:
  We compare the morphology of the core collapse supernova remnant (CCSNR) W49B
with the morphology of many planetary nebulae (PNe), and deduce the orientation
of the jets that shaped this CCSNR and estimate their energy. We find
morphological features that are shared by some PNe and by the CCSNR W49B. In
PNe these features, such as a barrel-shaped main body, are thought to be shaped
by jets. We use these morphological similarities to deduce that the jets that
shaped SNR W49B were launched along the symmetry axis of the `barrel', and to
speculate that this CCSNR has two opposite lobes (or ears), that are too faint
to be observed. We crudely estimate that the jets that shaped the CCSNR into a
barrel shape had a kinetic energy that amounts to about one quarter to one
third of the energy of the entire CCSNR. The morphological similarities
strengthen the suggestion that jets play a central role in the explosion of
massive stars.


title: Optimal Conventional Measurements for Quantum-Enhanced Interferometry

abstract:
  A major obstacle to attain the fundamental precision limit of the phase
estimation in an interferometry is the identification and implementation of the
optimal measurement. Here we demonstrate that this can be accomplished by the
use of three conventional measurements among interferometers with Bayesian
estimation techniques. Conditions that hold for the precision limit to be
attained with these measurements are obtained by explicitly calculating the
Fisher information. Remarkably, these conditions are naturally satisfied in
most interferometric experiments. We apply our results to an experiment of
atomic spectroscopy and examine robustness of phase sensitivity for the
two-axis counter-twisted state suffering from detection noise.


title:
Autonomous Landing of a Multirotor Micro Air Vehicle on a High Velocity
  Ground Vehicle

abstract:
  While autonomous multirotor micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) are uniquely well
suited for certain types of missions benefiting from stationary flight
capabilities, their more widespread usage still faces many hurdles, due in
particular to their limited range and the difficulty of fully automating their
deployment and retrieval. In this paper we address these issues by solving the
problem of the automated landing of a quadcopter on a ground vehicle moving at
relatively high speed. We present our system architecture, including the
structure of our Kalman filter for the estimation of the relative position and
velocity between the quadcopter and the landing pad, as well as our controller
design for the full rendezvous and landing maneuvers. The system is
experimentally validated by successfully landing in multiple trials a
commercial quadcopter on the roof of a car moving at speeds of up to 50 km/h.


title:
Detection of polarized quasi-periodic microstructure emission in
  millisecond pulsars

abstract:
  Microstructure emission, involving short time scale, often quasi-periodic,
intensity fluctuations in subpulse emission, is well known in normal period
pulsars. In this letter, we present the first detections of quasi-periodic
microstructure emission from millisecond pulsars (MSPs), from Giant Metrewave
Radio Telescope (GMRT) observations of two MSPs at 325 and 610 MHz. Similar to
the characteristics of microstructure observed in normal period pulsars, we
find that these features are often highly polarized, and exhibit quasi-periodic
behavior on top of broader subpulse emission, with periods of the order of a
few $\mu$s. By measuring their widths and periodicities from single pulse
intensity profiles and their autocorrelation functions, we extend the
microstructure timescale - rotation period relationship by more than an order
of magnitude down to rotation periods $\sim$ 5 ms, and find it to be consistent
with the relationship derived earlier for normal pulsars. The similarity of
behavior is remarkable, given the significantly different physical properties
of MSPs and normal period pulsars, and rules out several previous speculations
about the possible different characteristics of microstructure in MSP radio
emission. We discuss the possible reasons for the non-detection of these
features in previous high time resolution MSP studies along with the physical
implications of our results, both in terms of a geometric beam sweeping model
and temporal modulation model for micropulse production.


title:
Characterization of Power Absorption Response of Periodic 3D Structures
  to Partially Coherent Fields

abstract:
  In many applications of absorbing structures it is important to understand
their spatial response to incident fields, for example in thermal solar panels,
bolometric imaging and controlling radiative heat transfer. In practice, the
illuminating field often originates from thermal sources and is only spatially
partially coherent when reaching the absorbing device. In this paper, we
present a method to fully characterize the way a structure can absorb such
partially coherent fields. The method is presented for any 3D material and
accounts for the partial coherence and partial polarization of the incident
light. This characterization can be achieved numerically using simulation
results or experimentally using the Energy Absorption Interferometry (EAI) that
has been described previously in the literature. The absorbing structure is
characterized through a set of absorbing functions, onto which any partially
coherent field can be projected. This set is compact for any structure of
finite extent and the absorbing function discrete for periodic structures.


title: Robustness of QMA against witness noise

abstract:
  Using the tool of concatenated stabilizer coding, we prove that the
complexity class QMA remains unchanged even if every witness qubit is disturbed
by constant noise. This result may not only be relevant for physical
implementations of verifying protocols but also attacking the relationship
between the complexity classes QMA, QCMA and BQP, which can be reformulated in
this unified framework of a verifying protocol receiving a disturbed witness.
While QCMA and BQP are described by fully dephasing and depolarizing channels
on the witness qubits, respectively, our result proves QMA to be robust against
27% dephasing and 18% depolarizing noise.


title:
Bloch oscillations and accelerated Bose-Einstein condensates in an
  optical lattice

abstract:
  We discuss the method for the measurement of the gravity acceleration g by
means of Bloch oscillations of an accelerated BEC in an optical lattice. This
method has a theoretical critical point due to the fact that the period of the
Bloch oscillations depends, in principle, on the initial shape of the BEC
wavepacket. Here, by making use of the nearest-neighbor model for the numerical
analysis of the BEC wavefunction, we show that in real experiments the period
of the Bloch oscillations does not really depend on the shape of the initial
wavepacket and that the relative uncertainty, due to the fact that the initial
shape of the wavepacket may be asymmetrical, is smaller than the one due to
experimental errors. Furthermore, we also show that the relation between the
oscillation period and the scattering length of the BEC's atoms is linear; this
fact suggest us a new experimental procedure for the measurement of the
scattering length of atoms.


title:
Semileptonic $\Lambda_b \to \bar \nu_l l \Lambda_c(2595)$ and $\Lambda_b
  \to \bar \nu_l l \Lambda_c(2625)$ decays in the molecular picture of
  $\Lambda_c(2595)$ and $\Lambda_c(2625)$

abstract:
  We evaluate the partial decay widths for the semileptonic $\Lambda_b \to \bar
\nu_l l \Lambda_c(2595)$ and $\Lambda_b \to \bar \nu_l l \Lambda_c(2625)$
decays from the perspective that these two $\Lambda^*_c$ resonances are
dynamically generated from the $DN$ and $D^*N$ interaction with coupled
channels. We find that the ratio of the rates obtained for these two reactions
is compatible with present experimental data and is very sensitive to the $D^*
N$ coupling, which becomes essential to obtain agreement with experiment.
Together with the results obtained for the $\Lambda_b \to \pi^- \Lambda^*_c$
reactions, it gives strong support to the molecular picture of the two
$\Lambda^*_c$ resonances and the important role of the $D^*N$ component
neglected in prior studies of the $\Lambda_c(2595)$ from the molecular
perspective.


title:
Uranium ferromagnet with negligible magnetocrystalline anisotropy -
  $\mathrm{U_{4}Ru_{7}Ge_{6}}$

abstract:
  Strong magnetocrystalline anisotropy is a well-known property of uranium
compounds. The almost isotropic ferromagnetism in $\mathrm{U_{4}Ru_{7}Ge_{6}}$
reported in this paper represents a striking exception. We present results of
magnetization, AC susceptibility, thermal expansion, specific heat and
electrical resistivity measurements performed on a $\mathrm{U_{4}Ru_{7}Ge_{6}}$
single crystal at various temperatures and magnetic fields and discuss them in
conjunction with results of first-principles electronic-structure calculations.
$\mathrm{U_{4}Ru_{7}Ge_{6}}$ behaves as an itinerant 5$f$-electron ferromagnet
($T_{\mathrm{C}}= 10.7 K$, $\mu_{\mathrm{S}}= 0.85 \mu_{\mathrm{B}}/f.u.$ at
1.9 K. The ground-state easy-magnetization direction is along the [111] axis of
the cubic lattice. The anisotropy field $\mu_{0}H_{\mathrm{a}}$ along the [001]
direction is only of $\sim0.3 T$, which is at least 3 orders of magnitude
smaller value than in other U ferromagnets. At $T_{r}=5.9 K$ the easy
magnetization direction changes for [001] which holds at temperatures up to
$T_{\mathrm{C}}$. The magnetoelastic interaction induces a rhombohedral
(tetragonal) distortion of the paramagnetic cubic crystal lattice in case of
the [111]([001]) easy-magnetization direction. The rhombohedral distortion is
connected with two crystallographically inequivalent U sites. The ab initio
calculated ground-state magnetic moment of $1.01 \mu_{\mathrm{B}}/f.u.$ is
oriented along [111]. The two crystallographically inequivalent U sites are a
consequence of spin-orbit coupling of the U 5$f$-electrons. In the excited
state which is only 0.9 meV above the ground state the moment points to the
[001] direction in agreement with experiment.


title:
Asymptotic expansions for factorial moments of some distributions in the
  analysis of algorithms

abstract:
  We establish asymptotic expansions for factorial moments of following
distributions: number of cycles in a random permutation, number of inversions
in a random permutation, and number of comparisons used by the randomized quick
sort algorithm.To achieve this we use singularity analysis of certain type of
generating functions due to Flajolet and Odlyzko.


title:
A Plane Wave Discontinuous Galerkin Method with a Dirichlet-to-Neumann
  Boundary Condition for the Scattering Problem in Acoustics

abstract:
  We consider the numerical solution of an acoustic scattering problem by the
Plane Wave Discontinuous Galerkin Method (PWDG) in the exterior of a bounded
domain in $\mathbb{R}^2$. In order to apply the PWDG method, we introduce an
artificial boundary to truncate the domain, and we impose a non-local
Dirichlet-to-Neumann (DtN) boundary conditions on the artificial curve. To
define the method, we introduce new consistent numerical fluxes that
incorporate the truncated series of the DtN map. Error estimates with respect
to the truncation order of the DtN map, and with respect to mesh width are
derived. Numerical results suggest that the accuracy of the PWDG method for the
acoustic scattering problem can be significantly improved by using DtN boundary
conditions.


title: Noether Symmetry Approach in $f(\mathcal{G},T)$ Gravity

abstract:
  We explore the recently introduced modified Gauss-Bonnet gravity [1],
$f(\mathcal{G},T)$ pragmatic with $\mathcal{G}$, the Gauss-Bonnet term, and
${T}$, the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. Noether symmetry approach has
been used to develop some cosmologically viable $f(\mathcal{G},T)$ gravity
models. The Noether equations of modified gravity are reported for flat FRW
universe. Two specific models have been studied to determine the conserved
quantities and exact solutions. In particular, the well known deSitter solution
is reconstructed for some specific choice of $f(\mathcal{G},T)$ gravity model.


title: On the possibility of habitable Trojan planets in binary star systems

abstract:
  Approximately 60 percent of all stars in the solar neighbourhood (up to 80
percent in our Milky Way) are members of binary or multiple star systems. This
fact led to the speculations that many more planets may exist in binary systems
than are currently known. To estimate the habitability of exoplanetary systems,
we have to define the so-called habitable zone (HZ). The HZ is defined as a
region around a star where a planet would receive enough radiation to maintain
liquid water on its surface and to be able to build a stable atmosphere. We
search for new dynamical configurations - where planets may stay in stable
orbits - to increase the probability to find a planet like the Earth. Therefore
we investigated five candidates and found that two systems (HD 41004 and HD
196885) which have small stable regions.


title:
Luminescence imaging of photoelectron spin precession during drift in
  p-type GaAs

abstract:
  Using a microfabricated, p-type GaAs Hall bar, is it shown that the combined
application of co-planar electric and magnetic fields enables the observation
at 50 K of spatial oscillations of the photoluminescence circular polarization
due to the precession of drifting spin-polarized photoelec- trons. Observation
of these oscillations as a function of electric field E gives a direct
measurement of the minority carrier drift mobility and reveals that, for E =
800 V/cm, spin coherence is preserved over a length as large as 25{\mu}m.


title: On the possibility of torsion detection from neutrino cosmology and PMF

abstract:
  A cosmological neutrino sea model is used to place bounds on torsion and
Lorentz violation and primordial magnetic fields. When one uses gravitational
newtonian constant $G_{N}$ we obtain more stringent bounds than the ones
obtained by Kostelecky and Russel [PRL,(2001)] which is of the order of
$T^{0}\le{10^{-31}GeV}$ axial torsion, which is $T^{0}\le{10^{-38}GeV}$. When
the strong gravity f-meson dominance gravitational constant
$G_{f}\sim{10^{38}G_{N}}$ the torsion bound LV is too high of the order of
$10^{-2}GeV$. Primordial magnetic field bounds also based on neutrino
oscillation is founded to be $B_{\nu}\sim{10^{21}G}$ which is compatible with
Enqvist et al [PRL.(1998)]. Earlier the author [MPLA (2011)]has found a bound
for torsion of the order $10^{-37}GeV$ from CP ${\alpha}^{2}-dynamos$ which
still not as stringent as the present limit of this paper. By computing the
ratio $r=\frac{{\rho}_{B}}{{\rho}_{\gamma}}\sim{10^{-37}}$ in the case of
Planck temperatures, shows that r maybe too low to need dynamo action amplify
magnetic fields. The most important result of the paper is that making use of
cosmological neutrinos in early universe a detectable torsion value of
$T\sim{10MeV}$ in present level of energies of LHC is obtained.


title: Topological Light Nodal Lines in FCC Lattice

abstract:
  Light cone with the speed of light independent of its wavelength in vacuum
has been known for long time. In the present work, we unveil that in a
face-centered-cubic (fcc) lattice of dielectric spheres novel light cones can
be created over closed loops in momentum space, dubbed as nodal lines (NL), and
that as a consequence of the nontrivial topology of NL interface states with a
drumhead-shaped band structure appear where light can be slowed down
significantly. We discuss that photonic pseudogaps found in previous
experimental and theoretical studies for fcc photonic crystals are consistent
with the present finding of NL. This offers a unique chance to confirm the
existence of NL as a novel topological state.


title: Limbo: A Fast and Flexible Library for Bayesian Optimization

abstract:
  Limbo is an open-source C++11 library for Bayesian optimization which is
designed to be both highly flexible and very fast. It can be used to optimize
functions for which the gradient is unknown, evaluations are expensive, and
runtime cost matters (e.g., on embedded systems or robots). Benchmarks on
standard functions show that Limbo is about 2 times faster than BayesOpt
(another C++ library) for a similar accuracy.


title:
A model for approximately stretched-exponential relaxation with
  continuously varying stretching exponents

abstract:
  Relaxation in glasses is often approximated by a stretched-exponential form:
$f(t) = A \exp [-(t/\tau)^{\beta}]$. Here, we show that the relaxation in a
model of sheared non-Brownian suspensions developed by Cort\'e et al. [Nature
Phys. 4, 420 (2008)] can be well approximated by a stretched exponential with
an exponent $\beta$ that depends on the strain amplitude: $0.25 < \beta < 1$.
In a one-dimensional version of the model, we show how the relaxation
originates from density fluctuations in the initial particle configurations.
Our analysis is in good agreement with numerical simulations and reveals a
functional form for the relaxation that is distinct from, but well approximated
by, a stretched-exponential function.


title: Weighted scoring rules and hypothesis testing

abstract:
  We discuss weighted scoring rules for forecast evaluation and their
connection to hypothesis testing. First, a general construction principle for
strictly locally proper weighted scoring rules based on conditional densities
and scoring rules for probability forecasts is proposed. We show how
likelihood-based weighted scoring rules from the literature fit into this
framework, and also introduce a weighted version of the Hyv\"arinen score,
which is a local scoring rule in the sense that it only depends on the forecast
density and its derivatives at the observation, and does not require evaluation
of integrals. Further, we discuss the relation to hypothesis testing. Using a
weighted scoring rule introduces a censoring mechanism, in which the form of
the density is irrelevant outside the region of interest. For the resulting
testing problem with composite null - and alternative hypotheses, we construct
optimal tests, and identify the associated weighted scoring rule. As a
practical consequence, using a weighted scoring rule allows to decide in favor
of a forecast which is superior to a competing forecast on a region of
interest, even though it may be inferior outside this region. A simulation
study and an application to financial time-series data illustrate these
findings.


title:
Characterization of a cylindrical plastic {\beta}-detector with Monte
  Carlo simulations of optical photons

abstract:
  In this work we report on the Monte Carlo study performed to understand and
reproduce experimental measurements of a new plastic \b{eta}-detector with
cylindrical geometry. Since energy deposition simulations differ from the
experimental measurements for such a geometry, we show how the simulation of
production and transport of optical photons does allow one to obtain the shapes
of the experimental spectra. Moreover, taking into account the computational
effort associated with this kind of simulation, we develop a method to convert
the simulations of energy deposited into light collected, depending only on the
interaction point in the detector. This method represents a useful solution
when extensive simulations have to be done, as in the case of the calculation
of the response function of the spectrometer in a total absorption {\gamma}-ray
spectroscopy analysis.


title: A Nodewise Regression Approach to Estimating Large Portfolios

abstract:
  This paper investigates the large sample properties of the variance, weights,
and risk of high-dimensional portfolios where the inverse of the covariance
matrix of excess asset returns is estimated using a technique called nodewise
regression. Nodewise regression provides a direct estimator for the inverse
covariance matrix using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator
(Lasso) of Tibshirani (1994) to estimate the entries of a sparse precision
matrix. We show that the variance, weights, and risk of the global minimum
variance portfolios and the Markowitz mean-variance portfolios are consistently
estimated with more assets than observations. We show, empirically, that the
nodewise regression-based approach performs well in comparison to factor models
and shrinkage methods.


title: On the growth of the Kronecker coefficients: accompanying appendices

abstract:
  This text is an appendix to our work "On the growth of Kronecker
coefficients", arXiv:1607.02887. Here, we provide some complementary theorems,
remarks, and calculations that for the sake of space are not going to appear
into the final version of our paper.
  We follow the same terminology and notation. External references to numbered
equations, theorems, etc. are pointers to arXiv:1607.02887.


title:
Hadron Resonance Gas Model for An Arbitrarily Large Number of Different
  Hard-Core Radii

abstract:
  We develop a novel formulation of the hadron-resonance gas model which,
besides a hard-core repulsion, explicitly accounts for the surface tension
induced by the interaction between the particles. Such an equation of state
allows us to go beyond the Van der Waals approximation for any number of
different hard-core radii. A comparison with the Carnahan-Starling equation of
state shows that the new model is valid for packing fractions 0.2-0.22, while
the usual Van der Waals model is inapplicable at packing fractions above
0.1-0.11. Moreover, it is shown that the equation of state with induced surface
tension is softer than the one of hard spheres and remains causal at higher
particle densities. The great advantage of our model is that there are only two
equations to be solved and it does not depend on the various values of the
hard-core radii used for different hadronic resonances. Using this novel
equation of state we obtain a high-quality fit of the ALICE hadron
multiplicities measured at center-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV per nucleon.
Furthermore, using the traditional hadron-resonance gas model with
multi-component hard-core repulsion and the novel one we investigate the
recently suggested model in which the proper volume of a hadron is proportional
to its mass. We find that the high-temperature maximum of $\chi^2/ndf$ observed
in the latter model always appears in the region located far above the limit of
its applicability.


title: SPEAKE(a)R: Turn Speakers to Microphones for Fun and Profit

abstract:
  It is possible to manipulate the headphones (or earphones) connected to a
computer, silently turning them into a pair of eavesdropping microphones - with
software alone. The same is also true for some types of loudspeakers. This
paper focuses on this threat in a cyber-security context. We present
SPEAKE(a)R, a software that can covertly turn the headphones connected to a PC
into a microphone. We present technical background and explain why most of PCs
and laptops are susceptible to this type of attack. We examine an attack
scenario in which malware can use a computer as an eavesdropping device, even
when a microphone is not present, muted, taped, or turned off. We measure the
signal quality and the effective distance, and survey the defensive
countermeasures.


title: MOMOS-MT: Mobile Monophonic System for Music Transcription

abstract:
  Music holds a significant cultural role in social identity and in the
encouragement of socialization. Technology, by the destruction of physical and
cultural distance, has lead to many changes in musical themes and the complete
loss of forms. Yet, it also allows for the preservation and distribution of
music from societies without a history of written sheet music. This paper
presents early work on a tool for musicians and ethnomusicologists to
transcribe sheet music from monophonic voiced pieces for preservation and
distribution. Using FFT, the system detects the pitch frequencies, also other
methods detect note durations, tempo, time signatures and generates sheet
music. The final system is able to be used in mobile platforms allowing the
user to take recordings and produce sheet music in situ to a performance.


title:
Computation of NLO Processes Involving Heavy Quarks Using Loop-Tree
  Duality

abstract:
  We present a new method to compute higher-order corrections to physical
cross-sections, at Next-to-Leading Order and beyond. This method, based on the
Loop Tree Duality, leads to locally integrable expressions in four dimensions.
By introducing a physically motivated momentum mapping between the momenta
involved in the real and the virtual contributions, infrared singularities
naturally cancel at integrand level, without the need to introduce subtraction
counter-terms. Ultraviolet singularities are dealt with by using dual
representations of suitable counter-terms, with some subtleties regarding the
self-energy contributions. As an example, we apply this method to compute the
$1\to2$ decay rate in the context of a scalar toy model with massive particles.


title:
Multi-mirror imaging optics for low-loss transport of divergent neutron
  beams and tailored wavelength spectra

abstract:
  A neutron optical transport system is proposed which comprises nested short
elliptical mirrors located halfway between two common focal points M and M'. It
images cold neutrons from a diverging beam or a source with finite size at M by
single reflections onto a spot of similar size at M'. Direct view onto the
neutron source is blocked by a central absorber with little impact on the
transported solid angle. Geometric neutron losses due to source size can be
kept small using modern supermirrors and distances M-M' of a few tens of
metres. Very short flat mirrors can be used in practical implementations.
Transport with a minimum of reflections remedies losses due to multiple
reflections that are common in long elliptical neutron guides. Moreover,
well-defined reflection angles lead to new possibilities for enhancing the
spectral quality of primary beams, such as clear-cut discrimination of short
neutron wavelengths or beam monochromation using bandpass supermirrors.
Multi-mirror imaging systems may thus complement or even replace ordinary
neutron guides, in particular at the European Spallation Source.


title:
On the diameter of dual graphs of Stanley-Reisner rings with Serre
  $(S_2)$ property and Hirsch type bounds on abstractions of polytopes

abstract:
  Let $R$ be a Noetherian commutative ring of positive dimension. The
Hochster-Huneke graph of $R$ (sometimes called the dual graph of Spec $R$ and
denoted by $\mathcal{G} (R)$) is defined as follows: the vertices are the
minimal prime ideals of $R$, and the edges are the pairs of prime ideals
$(P_1,P_2)$ with height $(P_1 + P_2) = 1$. If $R$ satisfies Serre's property
$(S_2)$, then $\mathcal{G} (R)$ is connected. In this note, we provide lower
and upper bounds for the maximum diameter of Hochster-Huneke graphs of
Stanley-Reisner rings satisfying $(S_2)$. These bounds depend on the number of
variables and the dimension. Hochster-Huneke graphs of $(S_2)$ Stanley-Reisner
rings are a natural abstraction of the $1$-skeletons of polyhedra. We discuss
how our bounds imply new Hirsch-type bounds on $1$-skeletons of polyhedra.


title: Properties of strongly dipolar Bose gases beyond the Born approximation

abstract:
  Strongly dipolar Bose gases can form liquid droplets stabilized by quantum
fluctuations. In theoretical description of this phenomenon, low energy
scattering amplitude is utilized as an effective potential. We show that for
magnetic atoms corrections with respect to Born approximation arise, and derive
modified pseudopotential using realistic interaction model. We discuss the
resulting changes in collective mode frequencies and droplet stability diagram.
Our results are relevant for recent experiments with erbium and dysprosium
atoms.


title: Efficient Inter-Geodesic Distance Computation and Fast Classical Scaling

abstract:
  Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is a dimensionality reduction tool used for
information analysis, data visualization and manifold learning. Most MDS
procedures embed data points in low-dimensional Euclidean (flat) domains, such
that distances between the points are as close as possible to given inter-point
dissimilarities. We present an efficient solver for classical scaling, a
specific MDS model, by extrapolating the information provided by distances
measured from a subset of the points to the remainder. The computational and
space complexities of the new MDS methods are thereby reduced from quadratic to
quasi-linear in the number of data points. Incorporating both local and global
information about the data allows us to construct a low-rank approximation of
the inter-geodesic distances between the data points. As a by-product, the
proposed method allows for efficient computation of geodesic distances.


title: Entropy, topological theories and emergent quantum mechanics

abstract:
  The classical thermostatics of equilibrium processes is shown to possess a
quantum-mechanical dual theory with a finite-dimensional Hilbert space of
quantum states. Specifically, the kernel of a certain Hamiltonian operator
becomes the Hilbert space of quasistatic quantum mechanics. The relation of
thermostatics to topological field theory is also discussed in the context of
the emergent approach to quantum theory, where the concept of entropy plays a
key role.


title: Some remarks on contact variations in the first Heisenberg group

abstract:
  We show that in the first sub-Riemannian Heisenberg group there are intrinsic
graphs of smooth functions that are both critical and stable points of the
sub-Riemannian perimeter under compactly supported variations of contact
diffeomorphisms, despite the fact that they are not area-minimizing surfaces.
In particular, we show that if $f:\mathbb{R}^2\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ is a
$C^1$-intrinsic function, and $\nabla^f\nabla^ff=0$, then the first contact
variation of the sub-Riemannian area of its intrinsic graph is zero and the
second contact variation is positive.


title: Competing \nu = 5/2 fractional quantum Hall states in confined geometry

abstract:
  Some theories predict that the filling factor 5/2 fractional quantum Hall
state can exhibit non-Abelian statistics, which makes it a candidate for
fault-tolerant topological quantum computation. Although the non-Abelian
Pfaffian state and its particle-hole conjugate, the anti-Pfaffian state, are
the most plausible wave functions for the 5/2 state, there are a number of
alternatives with either Abelian or non-Abelian statistics. Recent experiments
suggest that the tunneling exponents are more consistent with an Abelian state
rather than a non-Abelian state. Here, we present edge-current-tunneling
experiments in geometrically confined quantum point contacts, which indicate
that Abelian and non-Abelian states compete at filling factor 5/2. Our results
are consistent with a transition from an Abelian state to a non-Abelian state
in a single quantum point contact when the confinement is tuned. Our
observation suggests that there is an intrinsic non-Abelian 5/2 ground state,
but that the appropriate confinement is necessary to maintain it. This
observation is important not only for understanding the physics of the 5/2
state, but also for the design of future topological quantum computation
devices.


title: Geodesic Distance Descriptors

abstract:
  The Gromov-Hausdorff (GH) distance is traditionally used for measuring
distances between metric spaces. It is defined as the minimal distortion of
embedding one surface into the other, while the optimal correspondence can be
described as the map that minimizes this distortion. Solving such a
minimization is a hard combinatorial problem that requires pre-computation and
storing of all pairwise geodesic distances for the matched surfaces. A popular
way for compact representation of functions on surfaces is by projecting them
into the leading eigenfunctions of the Laplace-Beltrami Operator (LBO). When
truncated, The basis of the LBO is known to be the optimal for representing
functions with bounded gradient in a min-max sense. Methods such as
Spectral-GMDS exploit this idea to simplify and efficiently approximate a
minimization related to the GH distance by operating in the truncated spectral
domain, and obtain state of the art results for matching of nearly isometric
shapes. However, when considering only a specific set of functions on the
surface, such as geodesic distances, an optimized basis could be considered as
an even better alternative. Here, we define the geodesic distance basis, which
is optimal for compact approximation of geodesic distances, in terms of
Frobenius norm. We use the suggested basis to extract the Geodesic Distance
Descriptor (GDD), which encodes the geodesic distances information as a linear
combination of the basis functions. We then show how these ideas can be used to
efficiently and accurately approximate the metric spaces matching problem with
almost no loss of information. These observations are used to construct a very
simple and efficient procedure for shape correspondence. Experimental results
show that the GDD improves both accuracy and efficiency of state of the art
shape matching procedures.


title:
The Peak Structure in the In-Flight ${}^{3}\text{He} ( K^{-} , \,
  \Lambda p ) n$ Reaction Around the $\bar{K} N N$ Threshold

abstract:
  We theoretically investigate the origin of the peak structure around the
$K^{-} p p$ threshold observed in the in-flight ${}^{3}\text{He} ( K^{-} , \,
\Lambda p ) n$ reaction in the recent E15 experiment at J-PARC. For this
purpose, we consider two scenarios to produce the peak. One is that the
$\Lambda (1405)$ is generated but it does not correlate with $p$, and the
uncorrelated $\Lambda (1405) p$ system subsequently decays into $\Lambda p$.
The other one is that the $\bar{K} N N$ bound state is indeed generated and
decays into $\Lambda p$. As a result, the experimental signal is qualitatively
well reproduced in the $\bar{K} N N$ bound scenario, definitely discarding the
uncorrelated $\Lambda (1405) p$ one.


title: An o-minimal Szemer\'edi-Trotter theorem

abstract:
  We prove an analog of the Szemer\'edi-Trotter theorem in the plane for
definable curves and points in any o-minimal structure over an arbitrary real
closed field $\mathrm{R}$. One new ingredient in the proof is an extension of
the well known crossing number inequality for graphs to the case of embeddings
in any o-minimal structure over an arbitrary real closed field.


title: External Cavity Diode Laser Setup with Two Interference Filters

abstract:
  We present an external cavity diode laser setup using two identical,
commercially available interference filters operated in the blue wavelength
range around 450 nm. The combination of the two filters decreases the
transmission width, while increasing the edge steepness without a significant
reduction in peak transmittance. Due to the broad spectral transmission of such
interference filters compared to the internal mode spacing of blue laser
diodes, an additional locking scheme, based on H\"ansch-Couillaud locking to a
cavity, has been added to improve the stability. The laser is stabilized to a
line in the tellurium spectrum via saturation spectroscopy, and
single-frequency operation for a duration of two days is demonstrated by
monitoring the error signal of the lock and the piezo drive compensating the
length change of the external resonator due to air pressure variations.
Additionally, transmission curves of the filters and the spectra of a sample of
diodes are given.