title:
Highly indistinguishable and strongly entangled photons from symmetric
  GaAs quantum dots

abstract:
  The development of scalable sources of non-classical light is fundamental to
unlock the technological potential of quantum photonics\cite{Kimble:Nat2008}.
Among the systems under investigation, semiconductor quantum dots are currently
emerging as near-optimal sources of indistinguishable single photons. However,
their performances as sources of entangled-photon pairs are in comparison still
modest. Experiments on conventional Stranski-Krastanow InGaAs quantum dots have
reported non-optimal levels of entanglement and indistinguishability of the
emitted photons. For applications such as entanglement teleportation and
quantum repeaters, both criteria have to be met simultaneously. In this work,
we show that this is possible focusing on a system that has received limited
attention so far: GaAs quantum dots grown via droplet etching. Using a
two-photon resonant excitation scheme, we demonstrate that these quantum dots
can emit triggered polarization-entangled photons with high purity
(g^(2)(0)=0.002 +/-0.002), high indistinguishability (0.93 +/-0.07) and high
entanglement fidelity (0.94 +/-0.01). Such unprecedented degree of
entanglement, which in contrast to InGaAs can theoretically reach near-unity
values, allows Bell's inequality (2.64 +/-0.01) to be violated without the aid
of temporal or spectral filtering. Our results show that if quantum-dot
entanglement resources are to be used for future quantum technologies, GaAs
might be the system of choice.


title:
Weak-lensing mass calibration of redMaPPer galaxy clusters in Dark
  Energy Survey Science Verification data

abstract:
  We use weak-lensing shear measurements to determine the mean mass of
optically selected galaxy clusters in Dark Energy Survey Science Verification
data. In a blinded analysis, we split the sample of more than 8,000 redMaPPer
clusters into 15 subsets, spanning ranges in the richness parameter $5 \leq
\lambda \leq 180$ and redshift $0.2 \leq z \leq 0.8$, and fit the averaged mass
density contrast profiles with a model that accounts for seven distinct sources
of systematic uncertainty: shear measurement and photometric redshift errors;
cluster-member contamination; miscentering; deviations from the NFW halo
profile; halo triaxiality; and line-of-sight projections. We combine the
inferred cluster masses to estimate the joint scaling relation between mass,
richness and redshift, $\mathcal{M}(\lambda,z) \varpropto M_0 \lambda^{F}
(1+z)^{G}$. We find $M_0 \equiv \langle
M_{200\mathrm{m}}\,|\,\lambda=30,z=0.5\rangle=\left[ 2.35 \pm 0.22\ \rm{(stat)}
\pm 0.12\ \rm{(sys)} \right] \cdot 10^{14}\ M_\odot$, with $F =
1.12\,\pm\,0.20\ \rm{(stat)}\, \pm\, 0.06\ \rm{(sys)}$ and $G = 0.18\,\pm\,
0.75\ \rm{(stat)}\, \pm\, 0.24\ \rm{(sys)}$. The amplitude of the mass-richness
relation is in excellent agreement with the weak-lensing calibration of
redMaPPer clusters in SDSS by Simet et al. (2016) and with the Saro et al.
(2015) calibration based on abundance matching of SPT-detected clusters. Our
results extend the redshift range over which the mass-richness relation of
redMaPPer clusters has been calibrated with weak lensing from $z\leq 0.3$ to
$z\leq0.8$. Calibration uncertainties of shear measurements and photometric
redshift estimates dominate our systematic error budget and require substantial
improvements for forthcoming studies.


title:
Phase sensing beyond the standard quantum limit with a truncated SU(1,1)
  interferometer

abstract:
  An SU(1,1) interferometer replaces the beamsplitters in a Mach-Zehnder
interferometer with nonlinear interactions and offers the potential of
achieving high phase sensitivity in applications with low optical powers. We
present a novel variation in which the second nonlinear interaction is replaced
with balanced homodyne detection. The phase-sensing quantum state is a two-mode
squeezed state produced by seeded four-wave-mixing in Rb vapor. Measurements as
a function of operating point show that even with $\approx35~\%$ loss this
device can surpass the standard quantum limit by 4~dB.


title:
The Deep and Transient Universe in the SVOM Era: New Challenges and
  Opportunities - Scientific prospects of the SVOM mission

abstract:
  To take advantage of the astrophysical potential of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs),
Chinese and French astrophysicists have engaged the SVOM mission (Space-based
multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor). Major advances in GRB
studies resulting from the synergy between space and ground observations, the
SVOM mission implements space and ground instrumentation. The scientific
objectives of the mission put a special emphasis on two categories of GRBs:
very distant GRBs at z$>$5 which constitute exceptional cosmological probes,
and faint/soft nearby GRBs which allow probing the nature of the progenitors
and the physics at work in the explosion. These goals have a major impact on
the design of the mission: the on-board hard X-ray imager is sensitive down to
4 keV and computes on line image and rate triggers, and the follow-up
telescopes on the ground are sensitive in the NIR. At the beginning of the next
decade, SVOM will be the main provider of GRB positions and spectral parameters
on very short time scale. The SVOM instruments will operate simultaneously with
a wide range of powerful astronomical devices. This rare instrumental
conjunction, combined with the relevance of the scientific topics connected
with GRB studies, warrants a remarkable scientific return for SVOM. In
addition, the SVOM instrumentation, primarily designed for GRB studies,
composes a unique multi-wavelength observatory with rapid slew capability that
will find multiple applications for the whole astronomy community beyond the
specific objectives linked to GRBs. This report lists the scientific themes
that will benefit from observations made with SVOM, whether they are specific
GRB topics, or more generally all the issues that can take advantage of the
multi-wavelength capabilities of SVOM.


title: Six-vertex models and the GUE-corners process

abstract:
  In this paper we consider a class of probability distributions on the
six-vertex model from statistical mechanics, which originate from the higher
spin vertex models of https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.05770. We define operators,
inspired by the Macdonald difference operators, which extract various
correlation functions, measuring the probability of observing different arrow
configurations. The development of our operators is largely based on the
properties of a remarkable family of symmetric rational functions, which were
previously studied in https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.0976.
  For the class of models we consider, the correlation functions can be
expressed in terms of multiple contour integrals, which are suitable for
asymptotic analysis. For a particular choice of parameters we analyze the limit
of the correlation functions through a steepest descent method. Combining this
asymptotic statement with some new results about Gibbs measures on
Gelfand-Tsetlin cones and patterns, we show that the asymptotic behavior of our
six-vertex model near the boundary is described by the GUE-corners process.

categories: math.PR cond-mat.stat-mech math-ph math.MP physics.data-an


title: Diffusion with nonlocal Robin boundary conditions

abstract:
  We investigate a second order elliptic differential operator $A_{\beta, \mu}$
on a bounded, open set $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^{d}$ with Lipschitz boundary
subject to a nonlocal boundary condition of Robin type. More precisely we have
$0\leq \beta\in L^{\infty}(\partial\Omega)$ and $\mu\colon \partial \Omega \to
\mathscr{M}(\overline{\Omega})$, and boundary conditions of the form \[
\partial_{\nu}^{\mathscr{A}}u(z)+\beta(z)u(z)=\int_{\overline{\Omega}}u(x)\mu(z)(dx),\
z\in\partial\Omega, \] where $\partial_{\nu}^{\mathscr{A}}$ denotes the weak
conormal derivative with respect to our differential operator. Under suitable
conditions on the coefficients of the differential operator and the function
$\mu$ we show that $A_{\beta, \mu}$ generates a holomorphic semigroup
$T_{\beta,\mu}$ on $L^{\infty}(\Omega)$ which enjoys the strong Feller
property. In particular, it takes values in $C(\overline{\Omega})$. Its
restriction to $C(\overline{\Omega})$ is strongly continuous and holomorphic.
We also establish positivity and contractivity of the semigroup under
additional assumptions and study the asymptotic behavior of the semigroup.


title: Model-Driven Design of Clinical Guidance Systems

abstract:
  Clinical guidance systems have been widely adopted to help medical staffs to
avoid preventable medical errors such as delay in diagnosis, treatment or
untended deviations from best practice guidelines. However, because patient
condition changes rapidly and medical staffs are usually overloaded in acute
care setting, how to ensure the correctness of the system reaction to those
rapid changes and managing interaction with physicians remains challenging. In
this paper, we propose a domain-specific model-driven design approach to
address these challenges for designing clinical guidance systems. Firstly, we
translate the relevant medical knowledge described in generic literature and
different best practice guidelines into a set of executable and indirectly
verifiable finite state machine models. We introduce an organ-centric paradigm
to construct clinical models, and also develop a physician model to track
physician-system interactions and deviations. Secondly, for verification of the
compositional system model, we translate the model into timed automata, based
on which, we formalize a set of clinical and system safety requirements as
computation tree logic(CTL) formulas and use the UPPAAL model checking tool to
formally verify those requirements. In this way, the correctness of the model
can be mathematically proved. Finally, we can automatically generate the
executable code from the verified model using the corresponding code generation
tools for finite state machine. For evaluation, we apply the approach to the
design of clinical guidance systems for cardiac arrest. The generated code can
be deployed and interact with existing guidance systems.


title:
Nonstructural acousto-injection luminescence in metalized lithium
  niobate wafers

abstract:
  We report the observations of nonstructural acousto-injection luminescence
(NAIL) from tantalized LiNbO3 wafers. The samples under study are the X cut or
Y cut wafers with the silver paste electrodes on opposite surfaces. The
thickness is 1 to 2 mm and other linear dimensions are in the range of 2 to 25
mm. Experiments are done at room temperature in the MHz-frequency range. Mainly
the fundamental shear ultrasound modes are excited in the samples.
Experimentally are measured the spectra of NAIL, photo-luminescence spectra,
acousto-electric properties, X Ray diffraction under NAIL. The NAIL and other
effects appear above certain threshold amplitude of the acoustical strain that
is about 10E-5. The involvement of the microstructural non-uniformity in the
effects observed is experimentally identified by the photo-luminescence of
point defects taken from different micro-regions of the samples. The data are
explained in terms of the considerable acoustic stresses and piezoelectric
fields that are capable injecting charge carriers from the metal contacts into
a crystal.


title: Contextuality under weak assumptions

abstract:
  The presence of contextuality in quantum theory was first highlighted by
Bell, Kochen and Specker, who discovered that for quantum systems of three or
more dimensions, measurements cannot be viewed as revealing pre-existing
properties of the system. More precisely, no model can assign deterministic
outcomes to the projectors of a quantum measurement in a way that depends only
on the projector and not the context (the full set of projectors) in which it
appeared, despite the fact that the Born rule probabilities associated with
projectors are independent of the context. A more general, operational
definition of contextuality introduced by Spekkens, which we will term
"probabilistic contextuality", drops the assumption of determinism and allows
for operations other than measurements to be considered contextual.
Probabilistic noncontextuality represents the postulate that elements of an
operational theory that cannot be distinguished from each other based on the
statistics of arbitrarily many repeated experiments are ontologically
identical. In this paper, we introduce a framework that enables us to
distinguish between different noncontextuality assumptions in terms of the
relationships between the ontological representations of objects in the theory
given a certain relation between their operational representations. This
framework can be used to motivate and define a "possibilistic" analogue,
encapsulating the idea that elements of an operational theory that cannot be
unambiguously distinguished operationally can also not be unambiguously
distinguished ontologically. We then prove that possibilistic noncontextuality
is equivalent to an alternative notion proposed by Hardy. Finally, we
demonstrate that these weaker noncontextuality assumptions are sufficient to
prove alternative versions of known "no-go" theorems that constrain
$\psi$-epistemic models for quantum mechanics.


title: The topological cyclic homology of the dual circle

abstract:
  We give a new proof of a result of Lazarev, that the dual of the circle
$S^1_+$ in the category of spectra is equivalent to a strictly square-zero
extension as an associative ring spectrum. As an application, we calculate the
topological cyclic homology of $DS^1$ and rule out a Koszul-dual reformulation
of the Novikov conjecture.


title: Floquet topological phases with symmetry in all dimensions

abstract:
  Dynamical systems may host a number of remarkable symmetry-protected phases
that are qualitatively different from their static analogs. In this work, we
consider the phase space of symmetry-respecting unitary evolutions in detail
and identify several distinct classes of evolution that host novel dynamical
order. Using ideas from group cohomology, we construct a set of interacting
Floquet drives that generate dynamical symmetry-protected topological order for
each nontrivial cohomology class in every dimension, illustrating our
construction with explicit two-dimensional examples. We also identify a set of
symmetry-protected Floquet drives that lie outside of the group cohomology
construction, and a further class of symmetry-respecting topological drives
which host chiral edge modes. We use these special drives to define a notion of
phase (stable to a class of local perturbations in the bulk) and the concepts
of relative and absolute topological order, which can be applied to many
different classes of unitary evolutions. These include fully many-body
localized unitary evolutions and time crystals.


title: The variance of divisor sums in arithmetic progressions

abstract:
  We study the variance of sums of the $k$-fold divisor function $d_k(n)$ over
sparse arithmetic progressions, with averaging over both residue classes and
moduli. In a restricted range, we confirm an averaged version of a recent
conjecture about the asymptotics of this variance. This result is closely
related to moments of Dirichlet $L$-functions and our proof relies on the
asymptotic large sieve.


title:
Global well-posedness and blow-up on the energy space for the
  Inhomogeneous Nonlinear Schr\"odinger Equation

abstract:
  We consider the supercritical inhomogeneous nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation
(INLS)
  $$i\partial_t u+\Delta u+|x|^{-b}|u|^{2\sigma}u=0,$$ where
$(2-b)/N<\sigma<(2-b)/(N-2)$ and $0<b<\min\{2,N\}$. We prove a
Gagliardo-Nirenberg type estimate and use it to establish sufficient conditions
for global existence and blow-up in $H^1(\mathbb{R}^N)$.


title:
Dictionary Learning Strategies for Compressed Fiber Sensing Using a
  Probabilistic Sparse Model

abstract:
  We present a sparse estimation and dictionary learning framework for
compressed fiber sensing based on a probabilistic hierarchical sparse model. To
handle severe dictionary coherence, selective shrinkage is achieved using a
Weibull prior, which can be related to non-convex optimization with $p$-norm
constraints for $0 < p < 1$. In addition, we leverage the specific dictionary
structure to promote collective shrinkage based on a local similarity model.
This is incorporated in form of a kernel function in the joint prior density of
the sparse coefficients, thereby establishing a Markov random field-relation.
Approximate inference is accomplished using a hybrid technique that combines
Hamilton Monte Carlo and Gibbs sampling. To estimate the dictionary parameter,
we pursue two strategies, relying on either a deterministic or a probabilistic
model for the dictionary parameter. In the first strategy, the parameter is
estimated based on alternating estimation. In the second strategy, it is
jointly estimated along with the sparse coefficients. The performance is
evaluated in comparison to an existing method in various scenarios using
simulations and experimental data.


title: Exploitation of Semantic Keywords for Malicious Event Classification

abstract:
  Learning an event classifier is challenging when the scenes are semantically
different but visually similar. However, as humans, we typically handle such
tasks painlessly by adding our background semantic knowledge. Motivated by this
observation, we aim to provide an empirical study about how additional
information such as semantic keywords can boost up the discrimination of such
events. To demonstrate the validity of this study, we first construct a novel
Malicious Crowd Dataset containing crowd images with two events, benign and
malicious, which look visually similar. Note that the primary focus of this
paper is not to provide the state-of-the-art performance on this dataset but to
show the beneficial aspects of using semantically-driven keyword information.
By leveraging crowd-sourcing platforms, such as Amazon Mechanical Turk, we
collect semantic keywords associated with images and then subsequently identify
a subset of keywords (e.g. police, fire, etc.) unique to specific events. We
first show that by using recently introduced attention models, a naive
CNN-based event classifier actually learns to primarily focus on local
attributes associated with the discriminant semantic keywords identified by the
Turks. We further show that incorporating the keyword-driven information into
early- and late-fusion approaches can significantly enhance malicious event
classification.


title:
Nonlinear Profile Decomposition and the Concentration Phenomenon for
  Supercritical Generalized KdV Equations

abstract:
  A nonlinear profile decomposition is established for solutions of
supercritical generalized Korteweg-de Vries equations. As a consequence, we
obtain a concentration result for finite time blow-up solutions that are of
Type II.


title:
Observations of the Formation, Development, and Structure of a Current
  Sheet in an Eruptive Solar Flare

abstract:
  We present AIA observations of a structure we interpret as a current sheet
associated with an X4.9 flare and coronal mass ejection that occurred on
2014~February~25 in NOAA Active Region 11990. We characterize the properties of
the current sheet, finding that the sheet remains on the order of a few
thousand km thick for much of the duration of the event and that its
temperature generally ranged between $8-10\,\mathrm{MK}$. We also note the
presence of other phenomena believed to be associated with magnetic
reconnection in current sheets, including supra-arcade downflows and shrinking
loops. We estimate that the rate of reconnection during the event was $M_{A}
\approx 0.004-0.007$, a value consistent with model predictions. We conclude
with a discussion of the implications of this event for reconnection-based
eruption models.


title: Review of Action Recognition and Detection Methods

abstract:
  In computer vision, action recognition refers to the act of classifying an
action that is present in a given video and action detection involves locating
actions of interest in space and/or time. Videos, which contain photometric
information (e.g. RGB, intensity values) in a lattice structure, contain
information that can assist in identifying the action that has been imaged. The
process of action recognition and detection often begins with extracting useful
features and encoding them to ensure that the features are specific to serve
the task of action recognition and detection. Encoded features are then
processed through a classifier to identify the action class and their spatial
and/or temporal locations. In this report, a thorough review of various action
recognition and detection algorithms in computer vision is provided by
analyzing the two-step process of a typical action recognition and detection
algorithm: (i) extraction and encoding of features, and (ii) classifying
features into action classes. In efforts to ensure that computer vision-based
algorithms reach the capabilities that humans have of identifying actions
irrespective of various nuisance variables that may be present within the field
of view, the state-of-the-art methods are reviewed and some remaining problems
are addressed in the final chapter.


title:
Enhanced Object Detection via Fusion With Prior Beliefs from Image
  Classification

abstract:
  In this paper, we introduce a novel fusion method that can enhance object
detection performance by fusing decisions from two different types of computer
vision tasks: object detection and image classification. In the proposed work,
the class label of an image obtained from image classification is viewed as
prior knowledge about existence or non-existence of certain objects. The prior
knowledge is then fused with the decisions of object detection to improve
detection accuracy by mitigating false positives of an object detector that are
strongly contradicted with the prior knowledge. A recently introduced novel
fusion approach called dynamic belief fusion (DBF) is used to fuse the detector
output with the classification prior. Experimental results show that the
detection performance of all the detection algorithms used in the proposed work
is improved on benchmark datasets via the proposed fusion framework.


title: Data structures for quasistrict higher categories

abstract:
  We present new data structures for quasistrict higher categories, in which
associativity and unit laws hold strictly. Our approach has low axiomatic
complexity compared to traditional algebraic definitions of higher categories,
and we use it to give a practical definition of quasistrict 4-category. It is
also amenable to computer implementation, and we exploit this to give a new
machine-verified algebraic proof that every adjunction of 1-cells in a
quasistrict 4-category can be promoted to a coherent adjunction satisfying the
butterfly equations.


title:
Acceleration in Modified Gravity (MOG) and the Mass-Discrepancy Baryonic
  Relation

abstract:
  The equation of motion in the generally covariant modified gravity (MOG)
theory leads for weak gravitational fields and the non-relativistic limit to a
modification of the Newtonian gravitational acceleration law, expressed in
terms of two parameters $\alpha$ and $\mu$. The parameter $\alpha$ determines
the strength of the gravitational field and $\mu$ is the effective mass of the
vector field $\phi_\mu$, coupled with gravitational strength to baryonic
matter. The MOG acceleration law for weak field gravitation and
non-relativistic particles has been demonstrated to fit a wide range of
galaxies, galaxy clusters and the Bullet Cluster and Train Wreck Cluster
mergers. We demonstrate that the MOG acceleration law for a point mass source
is in agreement with the McGaugh et al., correlation between the radial
acceleration traced by galaxy rotation curves and the distribution of baryonic
matter for the SPARC sample of 153 rotationally supported spiral and irregular
galaxies.


title:
A Hybrid Classical/Quantum Approach for Large-Scale Studies of Quantum
  Systems with Density Matrix Embedding Theory

abstract:
  Determining ground state energies of quantum systems by hybrid
classical/quantum methods has emerged as a promising candidate application for
near-term quantum computational resources. Short of large-scale fault-tolerant
quantum computers, small-scale devices can be leveraged with current
computational techniques to identify important subspaces of relatively large
Hamiltonians. Inspired by the work that described the merging of dynamical
mean-field theory (DMFT) with a small-scale quantum computational resource as
an impurity solver [Bauer et al., arXiv:1510.03859v2], we describe an
alternative embedding scheme, density matrix embedding theory (DMET), that
naturally fits with the output from the variational quantum eigensolver and
other hybrid approaches. This approach is validated using a quantum abstract
machine simulator [Smith et al., arXiv:1608.03355] that reproduces the ground
state energy of the Hubbard model converged to the infinite limit.


title: From Interacting Particles to Equilibrium Statistical Ensembles

abstract:
  We argue that a particle language provides a conceptually simple framework
for the description of anomalous equilibration in isolated quantum systems. We
address this paradigm in the context of integrable models, which are those with
particles that are stable against decay. In particular, we demonstrate that a
complete description of equilibrium ensembles for interacting integrable models
requires a formulation built from the mode occupation numbers of the underlying
particle content, mirroring the case of non-interacting particles. This yields
an intuitive physical interpretation of generalized Gibbs ensembles, and
reconciles them with the microcanonical ensemble. We explain how previous
attempts to identify an appropriate ensemble overlooked an essential piece of
information, and provide explicit examples in the context of quantum quenches.


title:
KGEval: Estimating Accuracy of Automatically Constructed Knowledge
  Graphs

abstract:
  Automatic construction of large knowledge graphs (KG) by mining web-scale
text datasets has received considerable attention recently. Estimating accuracy
of such automatically constructed KGs is a challenging problem due to their
size and diversity. This important problem has largely been ignored in prior
research we fill this gap and propose KGEval. KGEval binds facts of a KG using
coupling constraints and crowdsources the facts that infer correctness of large
parts of the KG. We demonstrate that the objective optimized by KGEval is
submodular and NP-hard, allowing guarantees for our approximation algorithm.
Through extensive experiments on real-world datasets, we demonstrate that
KGEval is able to estimate KG accuracy more accurately compared to other
competitive baselines, while requiring significantly lesser number of human
evaluations.


title:
Attosecond electronic and nuclear quantum photodynamics of ozone
  monitored with time and angle resolved photoelectron spectra

abstract:
  Recently we reported a series of numerical simulations proving that it is
possible in principle to create an electronic wave packet and subsequent
electronic motion in a neutral molecule photoexcited by a UV pump pulse within
a few femtoseconds. We considered the ozone molecule: for this system the
electronic wave packet leads to a dissociation process. In the present work, we
investigate more specifically the time-resolved photoelectron angular
distribution of the ozone molecule that provides a much more detailed
description of the evolution of the electronic wave packet. We thus show that
this experimental technique should be able to give access to observing in real
time the creation of an electronic wave packet in a neutral molecule and its
impact on a chemical process.


title:
Three observational differences for binary black holes detections with
  second and third generation gravitational-wave detectors

abstract:
  Advanced gravitational-wave observatories, such as LIGO and Virgo, will
detect hundreds of gravitational waves emitted by binary black holes in the
next few years. The collection of detected sources is expected to have certain
properties. It is expected that a selection bias will exist toward higher mass
systems, that most events will be oriented with their angular momentum pointing
to or away from Earth, and that quiet events will be much more numerous than
loud events. In this paper we show how all these assumptions are only true for
existing detectors and do not have any universality. Using an network of
proposed third-generation gravitational wave detectors, we show how each of
these assumptions must be revised and we discuss several consequences on the
characterization of the sources.


title: Generalised quadratic forms and the u-invariant

abstract:
  The u-invariant of a field is the supremum of the dimensions of anisotropic
quadratic forms over the field. We define corresponding u-invariants for
hermitian and generalised quadratic forms over a division algebra with
involution in characteristic 2 and investigate the relationships between them.
We also investigate these invariants in the case of a quaternion algebra and in
particular when this quaternion algebra is the unique quaternion division
algebra over a field.


title:
Transportation inequalities for non-globally dissipative SDEs with jumps
  via Malliavin calculus and coupling

abstract:
  By using the mirror coupling for solutions of SDEs driven by pure jump L\'evy
processes, we extend some transportation and concentration inequalities, which
were previously known only in the case where the coefficients in the equation
satisfy a global dissipativity condition. Furthermore, by using the mirror
coupling for the jump part and the coupling by reflection for the Brownian
part, we extend analogous results for jump diffusions. To this end, we improve
some previous results concerning such couplings and show how to combine the
jump and the Brownian case. As a crucial step in our proof, we develop a novel
method of bounding Malliavin derivatives of solutions of SDEs with both jump
and Gaussian noise, which involves the coupling technique and which might be of
independent interest. The bounds we obtain are new even in the case of
diffusions without jumps.


title:
Parameter estimation for binary black holes with networks of third
  generation gravitational-wave detectors

abstract:
  The two binary black-hole (BBH) coalescences detected by LIGO, GW150914 and
GW151226, were relatively nearby sources, with a redshift of ~0.1. As the
sensitivity of Advanced LIGO and Virgo increases in the next few years, they
will eventually detect stellar-mass BBHs up to redshifts of ~1. However, these
are still relatively small distances compared with the size of the Universe, or
with those encountered in most areas of astrophysics. In order to study BBH
during the epoch of reionization, or black holes born from population III
stars, more sensitive instruments are needed. Third-generation
gravitational-wave detectors, such as the Einstein Telescope or the Cosmic
Explorer are already in an advanced R&D stage. These detectors will be roughly
a factor of 10 more sensitive in strain than the current generation, and be
able to detect BBH mergers beyond a redshift of 20. In this paper we quantify
the precision with which these new facilities will be able to estimate the
parameters of stellar-mass, heavy, and intermediate-mass BBH as a function of
their redshifts and the number of detectors. We show that having only two
detectors would result in relatively poor estimates of black hole intrinsic
masses; a situation improved with three or four instruments. Larger
improvements are visible for the sky localization, although it is not yet clear
whether BBHs are luminous in the electromagnetic or neutrino band. The
measurement of the spin parameters, on the other hand, do not improve
significantly as more detectors are added to the network since redshift
information are not required to measure spin.


title: Learning to Protect Communications with Adversarial Neural Cryptography

abstract:
  We ask whether neural networks can learn to use secret keys to protect
information from other neural networks. Specifically, we focus on ensuring
confidentiality properties in a multiagent system, and we specify those
properties in terms of an adversary. Thus, a system may consist of neural
networks named Alice and Bob, and we aim to limit what a third neural network
named Eve learns from eavesdropping on the communication between Alice and Bob.
We do not prescribe specific cryptographic algorithms to these neural networks;
instead, we train end-to-end, adversarially. We demonstrate that the neural
networks can learn how to perform forms of encryption and decryption, and also
how to apply these operations selectively in order to meet confidentiality
goals.


title:
Analyzing the cosmic variance limit of remote dipole measurements of the
  cosmic microwave background using the large-scale kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich
  effect

abstract:
  Due to cosmic variance we cannot learn any more about large-scale
inhomogeneities from the primary cosmic microwave background (CMB) alone. More
information on large scales is essential for resolving large angular scale
anomalies in the CMB. Here we consider cross correlating the large-scale
kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect and probes of large-scale structure, a
technique known as kSZ tomography. The statistically anisotropic component of
the cross correlation encodes the CMB dipole as seen by free electrons
throughout the observable Universe, providing information about long wavelength
inhomogeneities. We compute the large angular scale power asymmetry,
constructing the appropriate transfer functions, and estimate the cosmic
variance limited signal to noise for a variety of redshift bin configurations.
The signal to noise is significant over a large range of power multipoles and
numbers of bins. We present a simple mode counting argument indicating that kSZ
tomography can be used to estimate more modes than the primary CMB on
comparable scales. A basic forecast indicates that a first detection could be
made with next-generation CMB experiments and galaxy surveys. This paper
motivates a more systematic investigation of how close to the cosmic variance
limit it will be possible to get with future observations.


title: Bit-pragmatic Deep Neural Network Computing

abstract:
  We quantify a source of ineffectual computations when processing the
multiplications of the convolutional layers in Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) and
propose Pragmatic (PRA), an architecture that exploits it improving performance
and energy efficiency. The source of these ineffectual computations is best
understood in the context of conventional multipliers which generate internally
multiple terms, that is, products of the multiplicand and powers of two, which
added together produce the final product [1]. At runtime, many of these terms
are zero as they are generated when the multiplicand is combined with the
zero-bits of the multiplicator. While conventional bit-parallel multipliers
calculate all terms in parallel to reduce individual product latency, PRA
calculates only the non-zero terms using a) on-the-fly conversion of the
multiplicator representation into an explicit list of powers of two, and b)
hybrid bit-parallel multplicand/bit-serial multiplicator processing units. PRA
exploits two sources of ineffectual computations: 1) the aforementioned zero
product terms which are the result of the lack of explicitness in the
multiplicator representation, and 2) the excess in the representation precision
used for both multiplicants and multiplicators, e.g., [2]. Measurements
demonstrate that for the convolutional layers, a straightforward variant of PRA
improves performance by 2.6x over the DaDiaNao (DaDN) accelerator [3] and by
1.4x over STR [4]. Similarly, PRA improves energy efficiency by 28% and 10% on
average compared to DaDN and STR. An improved cross lane synchronication scheme
boosts performance improvements to 3.1x over DaDN. Finally, Pragmatic benefits
persist even with an 8-bit quantized representation [5].


title: Optical Properties of Synthetic Cannabinoids with Negative Indexes

abstract:
  Some kinds of psychoactive drugs have the structures which are called
split-ring resonators (SRRs). SRRs might result in negative permittivity and
permeability simultaneously in electromagnetic field. Simultaneous negative
indexes can lead to the famous phenomenon of negative refraction. This optical
property makes it possible to distinguish synthetic cannabinoids from other
abusive psychoactive drugs in the UV-vis region. This optical method is
non-damaged and superior in forensic science. In this paper, we use
tight-binding model calculating the permittivity and permeability of the main
ingredients of synthetic cannabinoids. At the same time, we give two more
results of zolpidem and caffeine. Further we discuss the negative refraction of
the category of zepam qualitatively.


title:
Very Efficient Spin Polarization Analysis (VESPA): New Exchange
  Scattering-based Setup for Spin-resolved ARPES at APE-NFFA Beamline at
  Elettra

abstract:
  Complete Photoemission Experiments, enabling to measure the full quantum set
of the photoelectron final state, are in high demand for the study of materials
and nanostructures whose properties are determined by strong electron and spin
correlations. We report here on the implementation of the new spin polarimeter
VESPA (Very Efficient Spin Polarization Analysis) at the APE-NFFA Beamline at
Elettra that is based on the exchange coupling between the photoelectron spin
and a ferromagnetic surface in a reflectometry setup. The system was designed
to be integrated with a dedicated Scienta-Omicron DA30 electron energy analyzer
allowing for two simultaneous reflectometry measurements, along perpendicular
axes, that, after magnetization switching of the two targets allow to perform
the 3D vectorial reconstruction of the spin polarization while operating the
DA30 in high resolution mode. VESPA represents the very first installation for
spin resolved ARPES (SPARPES) at the Elettra synchrotron in Trieste, and is
being heavily exploited by SPARPES users since fall 2015.


title:
The Effect of Shallow vs. Deep Level Doping on the Performance of
  Thermoelectric Materials

abstract:
  It is well known that the efficiency of a good thermoelectric material should
be optimized with respect to doping concentration. However, much less attention
has been paid to the optimization of the dopant's energy level. Thermoelectric
materials doped with shallow levels may experience a dramatic reduction in
their figures of merit at high temperatures due to the excitation of minority
carriers that reduces the Seebeck coefficient and increases bipolar heat
conduction. Doping with deep level impurities can delay the excitation of
minority carriers as it requires a higher temperature to ionize all dopants. We
find through modeling that, depending on the material type and temperature
range of operation, different impurity levels (shallow or deep) will be desired
to optimize the efficiency of a thermoelectric material. For different
materials, we further clarify where the most preferable position of the
impurity level within the band gap falls. Our research provides insights in
choosing the most appropriate dopants for a thermoelectric material in order to
maximize the device efficiency.


title: Automatic Image De-fencing System

abstract:
  Tourists and Wild-life photographers are often hindered in capturing their
cherished images or videos by a fence that limits accessibility to the scene of
interest. The situation has been exacerbated by growing concerns of security at
public places and a need exists to provide a tool that can be used for
post-processing such fenced videos to produce a de-fenced image. There are
several challenges in this problem, we identify them as Robust detection of
fence/occlusions and Estimating pixel motion of background scenes and Filling
in the fence/occlusions by utilizing information in multiple frames of the
input video. In this work, we aim to build an automatic post-processing tool
that can efficiently rid the input video of occlusion artifacts like fences.
Our work is distinguished by two major contributions. The first is the
introduction of learning based technique to detect the fences patterns with
complicated backgrounds. The second is the formulation of objective function
and further minimization through loopy belief propagation to fill-in the fence
pixels. We observe that grids of Histogram of oriented gradients descriptor
using Support vector machines based classifier significantly outperforms
detection accuracy of texels in a lattice. We present results of experiments
using several real-world videos to demonstrate the effectiveness of the
proposed fence detection and de-fencing algorithm.


title: Quantum Trilogy: Discrete Toda, Y-System and Chaos

abstract:
  We discuss a discretization of the quantum Toda field theory associated with
a semisimple finite-dimensional Lie algebra or a tamely-laced
infinite-dimensional Kac-Moody algebra $G$, generalizing the previous
construction of discrete quantum Liouville theory for the case $G=A_1$. The
model is defined on a discrete two-dimensional lattice, whose spatial direction
is of length $L$. In addition we also find a "discretized extra dimension"
whose width is given by the rank $r$ of $G$, which decompactifies in the large
$r$ limit. For the case of $G=A_N$ or $A_{N-1}^{(1)}$, we find a symmetry
exchanging $L$ and $N$ under appropriate spatial boundary conditions. The
dynamical time evolution rule of the model is a quantizations of the so-called
Y-system, and the theory can be well-described by the quantum cluster algebra.
We discuss possible implications for recent discussions of quantum chaos, and
comment on the relation with the quantum higher Teichmuller theory of type
$A_N$.

categories: hep-th cond-mat.stat-mech math.QA nlin.CD


title:
Explaining the variability of WD 1145+017 with simulations of asteroid
  tidal disruption

abstract:
  Post-main-sequence planetary science has been galvanised by the striking
variability, depth and shape of the photometric transit curves due to objects
orbiting white dwarf WD 1145+017, a star which also hosts a dusty debris disc
and circumstellar gas, and displays strong metal atmospheric pollution.
However, the physical properties of the likely asteroid which is discharging
disintegrating fragments remain largely unconstrained from the observations.
This process has not yet been modelled numerically. Here, we use the N-body
code PKDGRAV to compute dissipation properties for asteroids of different
spins, densities, masses, and eccentricities. We simulate both homogeneous and
differentiated asteroids, for up to two years, and find that the disruption
timescale is strongly dependent on density and eccentricity, but weakly
dependent on mass and spin. We find that primarily rocky differentiated bodies
with moderate (~3-4 g/cm^3) bulk densities on near-circular (e <~ 0.1) orbits
can remain intact while occasionally shedding mass from their mantles. These
results suggest that the asteroid orbiting WD 1145+017 is differentiated,
resides just outside of the Roche radius for bulk density but just inside the
Roche radius for mantle density, and is more akin physically to an asteroid
like Vesta instead of one like Itokawa.


title:
The overlooked role of stellar variability in the extended main sequence
  of LMC intermediate-age clusters

abstract:
  Intermediate-age star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud show extended
main sequence turn offs (MSTOs), which are not consistent with a canonical
single stellar population. These broad turn offs have been interpreted as
evidence for extended star formation and/or stellar rotation. Since most of
these studies use single frames per filter to do the photometry, the presence
of variable stars near the MSTO in these clusters has remained unnoticed and
their impact totally ignored. We model the influence of Delta Scuti using
synthetic CMDs, adding variable stars following different levels of incidence
and amplitude distributions. We show that Delta Scuti observed at a single
phase will produce a broadening of the MSTO without affecting other areas of a
CMD like the upper MS or the red clump; furthermore, the amount of spread
introduced correlates with cluster age as observed. This broadening is
constrained to ages ~ 1-3 Gyr when the MSTO area crosses the instability strip,
which is also consistent with observations. Variable stars cannot explain
bifurcated MSTOs or the extended MSTOs seen in some young clusters, but they
can make an important contribution to the extended MSTOs in intermediate-age
clusters.


title:
The second closest gamma-ray burst: sub-luminous GRB 111005A with no
  supernova in a super-solar metallicity environment

abstract:
  We report the detection of the radio afterglow of a long gamma-ray burst
(GRB) 111005A at 5-345 GHz, including the very long baseline interferometry
observations with the positional error of 0.2 mas. The afterglow position is
coincident with the disk of a galaxy ESO 580-49 at z= 0.01326 (~1" from its
center), which makes GRB 111005A the second closest GRB known to date, after
GRB 980425. The radio afterglow of GRB 111005A was an order of magnitude less
luminous than those of local low-luminosity GRBs, and obviously than those of
cosmological GRBs. The radio flux was approximately constant and then
experienced an unusually rapid decay a month after the GRB explosion. Similarly
to only two other GRBs, we did not find the associated supernovae (SN), despite
deep near- and mid-infrared observations 1-9 days after the GRB explosion,
reaching ~20 times fainter than other SNe associated with GRBs. Moreover, we
measured twice solar metallicity for the GRB location. The low gamma-ray and
radio luminosities, rapid decay, lack of a SN, and super-solar metallicity
suggest that GRB 111005A represents a different rare class of GRBs than typical
core-collapse events. We modelled the spectral energy distribution of the GRB
111005A host finding that it is a dwarf, moderately star-forming galaxy,
similar to the host of GRB 980425. The existence of two local GRBs in such
galaxies is still consistent with the hypothesis that the GRB rate is
proportional to the cosmic star formation rate (SFR) density, but suggests that
the GRB rate is biased towards low SFRs. Using the far-infrared detection of
ESO 580-49, we conclude that the hosts of both GRBs 111005A and 980425 exhibit
lower dust content than what would be expected from their stellar masses and
optical colours.


title:
Non-Higgsable abelian gauge symmetry and F-theory on fiber products of
  rational elliptic surfaces

abstract:
  We construct a general class of Calabi--Yau threefolds from fiber products of
rational elliptic surfaces with section, generalizing a construction of Schoen
to include all Kodaira fiber types. The resulting threefolds each have two
elliptic fibrations with section over rational elliptic surfaces and blowups
thereof. These elliptic fibrations generally have nonzero Mordell--Weil rank.
Each of the elliptic fibrations has a physical interpretation in terms of a
six-dimensional F-theory model with one or more non-Higgsable abelian gauge
fields. Many of the models in this class have mild singularities that do not
admit a Calabi--Yau resolution; this does not seem to compromise the physical
integrity of the theory and can be associated in some cases with massless
hypermultiplets localized at the singular loci. In some of these constructions,
however, we find examples of abelian gauge fields that cannot be "unHiggsed" to
a nonabelian gauge field without producing unphysical singularities that cannot
be resolved. The models studied here can also be used to exhibit T-duality for
a class of little string theories.


title: Topological surface superconductivity in doped Weyl loop materials

abstract:
  We study surface superconductivity involving the `drumhead' surface states of
(doped) Weyl loop materials. The leading weak coupling instability in the bulk
is toward a chiral superconducting order, which fully gaps the Fermi surface.
In this state the surface also becomes superconducting, with $p+ip$ symmetry.
We show that the surface SC state is "topological" as long as it is fully
gapped, and the system traps Majoarana modes wherever a vortex line enters or
exits the bulk. In contrast to true 2D $p+ip$ superconductors, these Majorana
zero modes arise even in the "strong pairing" regime where the chemical
potential is entirely above/below the drumhead. We also consider conventional
$s$-wave pairing, and show that in this case the surface hosts a flat band of
charge neutral Majorana fermions, whose momentum range is given by the
projection of the bulk Fermi surface. Weyl loop materials thus provide access
to new forms of topological superconductivity.

categories: cond-mat.str-el cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.supr-con


title: Gravitational Waves From SU(N) Glueball Dark Matter

abstract:
  A hidden sector with pure non-abelian gauge symmetry is an elegant and just
about the simplest model of dark matter. In this model the dark matter
candidate is the lightest bound state made of the confined gauge fields, the
dark glueball. In spite of its simplicity, the model has been shown to have
several interesting non-standard implications in cosmology. In this work, we
explore the gravitational waves from binary boson stars made of
self-gravitating dark glueball fields as a natural and important consequence.
We derive the dark SU($N$) star mass and radius as functions of the only two
fundamental parameters in the model, the glueball mass $m$ and the number of
colors $N$, and identify the regions that could be probed by the LIGO and
future gravitational wave observatories.


title:
The RESOLVE Survey Atomic Gas Census and Environmental Influences on
  Galaxy Gas Reservoirs

abstract:
  We present the HI mass inventory for the RESOLVE survey, a volume-limited,
multi-wavelength census of >1500 z=0 galaxies spanning diverse environments and
complete in baryonic mass down to dwarfs of 10^9 Msun. This first 21cm data
release provides robust detections or strong upper limits (1.4M_HI < 5 to 10%
of stellar mass M_stars) for 94% of RESOLVE. We examine global atomic
gas-to-stellar mass ratios (G/S) in relation to galaxy environment using
several metrics: group dark matter halo mass M_h , central/satellite
designation, relative mass density of the cosmic web, and distance to nearest
massive group. We find that at fixed M_stars, satellites have decreasing G/S
with increasing M_h starting clearly at M_h = 10^12 Msun, suggesting the
presence of starvation and/or stripping mechanisms associated with halo gas
heating in intermediate-mass groups. The analogous relationship for centrals is
uncertain because halo abundance matching builds in relationships between
central G/S, stellar mass, and halo mass, which depend on the integrated group
property used as a proxy for halo mass (stellar or baryonic mass). On larger
scales G/S trends are less sensitive to the abundance matching method. At fixed
M_h < 10^12 Msun, the fraction of gas-poor centrals increases with large-scale
structure density. In overdense regions, we identify a rare population of
gas-poor centrals in low-mass (M_h < 10^11.4 Msun) halos primarily located
within 1.5 times the virial radius of more massive (M_h > 10^12 Msun) halos,
suggesting that gas stripping and/or starvation may be induced by interactions
with larger halos or the surrounding cosmic web. We find that the detailed
relationship between G/S and environment varies when we examine different
subvolumes of RESOLVE independently, which we suggest may be a signature of
assembly bias.


title:
General Constraints on Dark Matter Decay from the Cosmic Microwave
  Background

abstract:
  Precise measurements of the temperature and polarization anisotropies of the
cosmic microwave background can be used to constrain the annihilation and decay
of dark matter. In this work, we demonstrate via principal component analysis
that the imprint of dark matter decay on the cosmic microwave background can be
approximately parameterized by a single number for any given dark matter model.
We develop a simple prescription for computing this model-dependent
detectability factor, and demonstrate how this approach can be used to set
model-independent bounds on a large class of decaying dark matter scenarios. We
repeat our analysis for decay lifetimes shorter than the age of the universe,
allowing us to set constraints on metastable species other than the dark matter
decaying at early times, and decays that only liberate a tiny fraction of the
dark matter mass energy. We set precise bounds and validate our principal
component analysis using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach and Planck 2015
data.


title: The K Shortest Paths Problem with Application to Routing

abstract:
  Due to the computational complexity of finding almost shortest simple paths,
we propose that identifying a larger collection of (nonbacktracking) paths is
more efficient than finding almost shortest simple paths on positively weighted
real-world networks. First, we present an easy to implement $O(m\log m+kL)$
solution for finding all (nonbacktracking) paths with bounded length $D$
between two arbitrary nodes on a positively weighted graph, where $L$ is an
upperbound for the number of nodes in any of the $k$ outputted paths.
Subsequently, we illustrate that for undirected Chung-Lu random graphs, the
ratio between the number of nonbacktracking and simple paths asymptotically
approaches $1$ with high probability for a wide range of parameters. We then
consider an application to the almost shortest paths algorithm to measure path
diversity for internet routing in a snapshot of the Autonomous System graph
subject to an edge deletion process.


title: The Sum of Four Squares Over Real Quadratic Number Fields

abstract:
  Well-known results of Lagrange and Jacobi prove that the every $m \in \mathbb
N$ can be expressed as a sum of four integer squares, and the number $r(m)$ of
such representations can be given by an explicit formula in $m$. In this paper,
we prove that the only real quadratic number field for which the sum of four
squares is universal is $\mathbb Q(\sqrt{5})$. We provide explicit formulas for
$r(m)$ for $K= \mathbb Q (\sqrt{2})$ and $K= \mathbb Q(\sqrt{5})$. We then
consider the theta series of the sum of four squares over any real quadratic
number field, providing explicit upper and lower bounds for the Eisenstein
coefficients. Last, we include examples of the complete theta series
decomposition of the sum of four squares over $\mathbb Q (\sqrt{3})$, $\mathbb
Q (\sqrt{13})$ and $\mathbb Q (\sqrt{17})$.


title:
Attack Analysis Results for Adversarial Engagement 1 of the DARPA
  Transparent Computing Program

abstract:
  This report presents attack analysis results of the first adversarial
engagement event stream for the first engagement of the DARPA TC program
conducted in October 2016. The analysis was performed by Stony Brook University
and University of Illinois at Chicago. The findings in this report are obtained
without prior knowledge of the attacks conducted.


title: Ripple Distribution for Nonlinear Fibre-Optic Channels

abstract:
  Since Shannon proved that Gaussian distribution is the optimum for a linear
channel with additive white Gaussian noise and he calculated the corresponding
channel capacity, it remains the most applied distribution in optical
communications while the capacity result is celebrated as the seminal linear
Shannon limit. Yet, when it is applied in nonlinear channels (e.g.
fiber-optics) it has been shown to be non-optimum, yielding the same result as
for uncoded transmission in the high nonlinear regime. This has led to the
notion of nonlinear Shannon limit, which predicts vanishing capacity at high
nonlinearity. However, recent findings indicate that non-Gaussian distribution
may lead to improved capacity estimations, urging for an exciting search for
novel methods in nonlinear optical communications. Here for the first time, we
show that it is possible to transmit information above the existing limits by
using a novel probabilistic shaping of the input signal, which we call ripple
distribution


title: Higher-spin currents in the Gross-Neveu model at $1/n^2$

abstract:
  We calculate the anomalous dimensions of higher-spin currents, both singlet
and non-singlet, in the Gross-Neveu model at the $1/n^2$ order. It was
conjectured that in the critical regime this model is dual to a higher-spin
gauge theory on $AdS_4$. The $AdS/CFT$ correspondence predicts that the masses
of higher-spin fields correspond to the scaling dimensions of the singlet
currents in the Gross-Neveu model.


title:
New fully empirical calibrations of strong-line metallicity indicators
  in star forming galaxies

abstract:
  We derive new empirical calibrations for strong-line diagnostics of gas phase
metallicity in local star forming galaxies by uniformly applying the Te method
over the full metallicity range probed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).
To measure electron temperatures at high metallicity, where the auroral lines
needed are not detected in single galaxies, we stacked spectra of more than
110,000 galaxies from the SDSS in bins of log[O II]/H$\beta$ and log[O
III]/H$\beta$. This stacking scheme does not assume any dependence of
metallicity on mass or star formation rate, but only that galaxies with the
same line ratios have the same oxygen abundance. We provide calibrations which
span more than 1 dex in metallicity and are entirely defined on a consistent
absolute Te metallicity scale for galaxies. We apply our calibrations to the
SDSS sample and find that they provide consistent metallicity estimates to
within 0.05 dex.


title: Safety Verification of Deep Neural Networks

abstract:
  Deep neural networks have achieved impressive experimental results in image
classification, but can surprisingly be unstable with respect to adversarial
perturbations, that is, minimal changes to the input image that cause the
network to misclassify it. With potential applications including perception
modules and end-to-end controllers for self-driving cars, this raises concerns
about their safety. We develop a novel automated verification framework for
feed-forward multi-layer neural networks based on Satisfiability Modulo Theory
(SMT). We focus on safety of image classification decisions with respect to
image manipulations, such as scratches or changes to camera angle or lighting
conditions that would result in the same class being assigned by a human, and
define safety for an individual decision in terms of invariance of the
classification within a small neighbourhood of the original image. We enable
exhaustive search of the region by employing discretisation, and propagate the
analysis layer by layer. Our method works directly with the network code and,
in contrast to existing methods, can guarantee that adversarial examples, if
they exist, are found for the given region and family of manipulations. If
found, adversarial examples can be shown to human testers and/or used to
fine-tune the network. We implement the techniques using Z3 and evaluate them
on state-of-the-art networks, including regularised and deep learning networks.
We also compare against existing techniques to search for adversarial examples
and estimate network robustness.


title: Recovering Metabolic Networks using A Novel Hyperlink Prediction Method

abstract:
  Studying metabolic networks is vital for many areas such as novel drugs and
bio-fuels. For biologists, a key challenge is that many reactions are
impractical or expensive to be found through experiments. Our task is to
recover the missing reactions. By exploiting the problem structure, we model
reaction recovery as a hyperlink prediction problem, where each reaction is
regarded as a hyperlink connecting its participating vertices (metabolites).
Different from the traditional link prediction problem where two nodes form a
link, a hyperlink can involve an arbitrary number of nodes. Since the
cardinality of a hyperlink is variable, existing classifiers based on a fixed
number of input features become infeasible. Traditional methods, such as common
neighbors and Katz index, are not applicable either, since they are restricted
to pairwise similarities. In this paper, we propose a novel hyperlink
prediction algorithm, called Matrix Boosting (MATBoost). MATBoost conducts
inference jointly in the incidence space and adjacency space by performing an
iterative completion-matching optimization. We carry out extensive experiments
to show that MATBoost achieves state-of-the-art performance. For a metabolic
network with 1805 metabolites and 2583 reactions, our algorithm can
successfully recover nearly 200 reactions out of 400 missing reactions.


title: Modes of failures in disordered solids

abstract:
  The two principal ingredients determining the failure modes of disordered
solids are the level of heterogeneity and the length scale of the region
affected in the solid following a local failure. While the latter facilitates
damage nucleation, the former leads to diffused damage, the two extreme failure
modes. In this study, using the random fiber bundle model as a prototype for
disorder solids, we classify every failure modes that are the results of
interplay between these two effects. We obtain scaling criteria for the
different modes and propose a general phase diagram that provides a framework
for understanding previous theoretical and experimental attempts of
interpolation between these modes.


title:
Sensitivity analysis for an unobserved moderator in
  RCT-to-target-population generalization of treatment effects

abstract:
  In the presence of treatment effect heterogeneity, the average treatment
effect (ATE) in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) may differ from the average
effect of the same treatment if applied to a target population of interest. If
all treatment effect moderators are observed in the RCT and in a dataset
representing the target population, we can obtain an estimate for the target
population ATE by adjusting for the difference in the distribution of the
moderators between the two samples. This paper considers sensitivity analyses
for two situations: (1) where we cannot adjust for a specific moderator $V$
observed in the RCT because we do not observe it in the target population; and
(2) where we are concerned that the treatment effect may be moderated by
factors not observed even in the RCT, which we represent as a composite
moderator $U$. In both situations, the outcome is not observed in the target
population. For situation (1), we offer three sensitivity analysis methods
based on (i) an outcome model, (ii) full weighting adjustment, and (iii)
partial weighting combined with an outcome model. For situation (2), we offer
two sensitivity analyses based on (iv) a bias formula and (v) partial weighting
combined with a bias formula. We apply methods (i) and (iii) to an example
where the interest is to generalize from a smoking cessation RCT conducted with
participants of alcohol/illicit drug use treatment programs to the target
population of people who seek treatment for alcohol/illicit drug use in the US
who are also cigarette smokers. In this case a treatment effect moderator is
observed in the RCT but not in the target population dataset.


title:
Kinetic study of rigid polyurethane foams thermal decomposition by
  artificial neural network

abstract:
  Kinetic models of solid thermal decomposition are traditionally used for
individual fit of isothermal decomposition experimental data. However, this
methodology can provide unacceptable errors in some cases. To solve this
problem, a neural network (MLP) was developed and adopted in this work. The
implemented algorithm uses the rate constants as predetermined weights between
the input and intermediate layer and kinetic models as activation functions of
neurons in the hidden layer. The contribution of each model in the overall fit
of the experimental data is calculated as the weights between the intermediate
and output layer. In this way, the phenomenon is better described as a sum of
kinetic processes. Two rigid polyurethane foam samples: loaded with Al2O3 and
no inorganic filler were used in this work. The R3 model described the thermal
decomposition kinetic process for all temperatures for both foams with smaller
residual error. However, the network residual errors are on average 102 times
lower compared to this individual kinetic model. This improved methodology
allows detailed study of physical processes and therefore a more accurate
determination of kinetic parameters such as the activation energy and frequency
factor.


title:
Decreased aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage incidence rate in elderly
  population than in middle aged population: a retrospective analysis of 8,144
  cases in Mainland China

abstract:
  Purpose: Rupture of an intracranial aneurysm is the most common cause of
subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH), which is a life-threatening acute
cerebrovascular event that typically affects working-age people. This study
aims to investigate the aneurysmal SAH incidence rate in elderly population
than in middle aged population in China. Materials and methods: Aneurysmal SAH
cases were collected retrospectively from the archives of 21 hospitals in
Mainland China. All the cases collected were from September 2016 and backward
consecutively for a period of time up to 8 years. SAH was initially diagnosed
by brain computed tomography, and CT angiography (CTA) or digital subtraction
angiography (DSA) was followed and SAH was confirmed to be due to cerebral
aneurysm. When for cases multiple bleeding occurred, the age of the first SAH
was used in this study. The toltal incidence from all hospital at each age were
summed together for females and males; then adjusted by the total population
number at each age for females and males. The total population data was from
the 2010 population census of the People's Republic of China. Results: In total
there were 8,144 cases, with 4,861 females and 3,283 males. Our analysis shows
for both females and males the relative aneurysmal SAH rate started to decrease
after around 65 years old. The males the relative aneurysmal SAH rate might
have started to decrease after around 55 years old. Conclusion: In contrast to
previous reports, our data demonstrated a decreased aneurysmal subarachnoid
hemorrhage incidence rate in elderly population than in middle aged population.
Our data therefore support the hypothesis that aneurysms do not grow
progressively once they form but probably either rupture or stabilize and that
very elderly patients are at a reduced risk of rupture compared with atients
who are younger with the same-sized aneurysms.


title: Cut-off method for endogeny of recursive tree processes

abstract:
  Given a solution to a recursive distributional equation, a natural (and
non-trivial) question is whether the corresponding recursive tree process is
endogenous. That is, whether the random environment almost surely defines the
tree process. We propose a new method of proving endogeny, which applies to
various processes. As explicit examples, we establish endogeny of the random
metrics on non-pivotal hierarchical graphs defined by multiplicative cascades
and of mean-field optimization problems as the mean-field matching and
travelling salesman problems in pseudo-dimension q>1.


title: Population estimation from mobile network traffic metadata

abstract:
  Smartphones and other mobile devices are today pervasive across the globe. As
an interesting side effect of the surge in mobile communications, mobile
network operators can now easily collect a wealth of high-resolution data on
the habits of large user populations. The information extracted from mobile
network traffic data is very relevant in the context of population mapping: it
provides a tool for the automatic and live estimation of population densities,
overcoming the limitations of traditional data sources such as censuses and
surveys. In this paper, we propose a new approach to infer population densities
at urban scales, based on aggregated mobile network traffic metadata. Our
approach allows estimating both static and dynamic populations, achieves a
significant improvement in terms of accuracy with respect to state-of-the-art
solutions in the literature, and is validated on different city scenarios.


title: Bases for spaces of highest weight vectors in arbitrary characteristic

abstract:
  Let k be an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic. First we
give explicit bases for the highest weight vectors for the action of GL_r x
GL_s on the coordinate ring k[Mat_{rs}^m] of m-tuples of r x s-matrices. It
turns out that this is done most conveniently by giving an explicit good GL_r x
GL_s-filtration on k[Mat_{rs}^m]. Then we deduce from this result explicit
spanning sets of the k[Mat_n]^{GL_n}-modules of highest weight vectors in the
coordinate ring k[Mat_n] under the conjugation action of GL_n.


title:
Mean-Field Variational Inference for Gradient Matching with Gaussian
  Processes

abstract:
  Gradient matching with Gaussian processes is a promising tool for learning
parameters of ordinary differential equations (ODE's). The essence of gradient
matching is to model the prior over state variables as a Gaussian process which
implies that the joint distribution given the ODE's and GP kernels is also
Gaussian distributed. The state-derivatives are integrated out analytically
since they are modelled as latent variables. However, the state variables
themselves are also latent variables because they are contaminated by noise.
Previous work sampled the state variables since integrating them out is
\textit{not} analytically tractable. In this paper we use mean-field
approximation to establish tight variational lower bounds that decouple state
variables and are therefore, in contrast to the integral over state variables,
analytically tractable and even concave for a restricted family of ODE's,
including nonlinear and periodic ODE's. Such variational lower bounds
facilitate "hill climbing" to determine the maximum a posteriori estimate of
ODE parameters. An additional advantage of our approach over sampling methods
is the determination of a proxy to the intractable posterior distribution over
state variables given observations and the ODE's.


title: A Noisy-Influence Regularity Lemma for Boolean Functions

abstract:
  We present a regularity lemma for Boolean functions $f:\{-1,1\}^n \to
\{-1,1\}$ based on noisy influence, a measure of how locally correlated $f$ is
with each input bit. We provide an application of the regularity lemma to
weaken the conditions on the Majority is Stablest Theorem. We also prove a
"homogenized" version stating that there is a set of input bits so that most
restrictions of $f$ on those bits have small noisy influences. These results
were sketched out by [OSTW10], but never published. With their permission, we
present the full details here.


title:
Physical parameters of late M-type members of Chamaleon I and TW Hydrae
  Association: Dust settling, age dispersion and activity

abstract:
  Although mid-to-late type M dwarfs are the most common stars in our stellar
neighborhood, our knowledge of these objects is still limited. Open questions
include the evolution of their angular momentum, internal structures, dust
settling in their atmospheres, age dispersion within populations. In addition,
at young ages, late-type Ms have masses below the hydrogen burning limit and
therefore are key objects in the debate on the brown dwarf mechanism of
formation. In this work we determine and study in detail the physical
parameters of two samples of young, late M-type sources belonging to either the
Chamaeleon I Dark Cloud or the TW Hydrae Association and compare them with the
results obtained in the literature for other young clusters and also for older,
field, dwarfs. We used multi-wavelength photometry to construct and analyze
SEDs to determine general properties of the photosphere and disk presence. We
also used low resolution optical and near-infrared spectroscopy to study
activity, accretion, gravity and effective temperature sensitive indicators. We
propose a VO-based spectral index that is both temperature and age sensitive.
We derived physical parameters using independent techniques confirming the
already common feature/problem of the age/luminosity spread. In particular, we
highlight two brown dwarfs showing very similar temperatures but clearly
different surface gravity (explained invoking extreme early accretion). We also
show how, despite large improvement in the dust treatment in theoretical
models, there is still room for further progress in the simultaneous
reproduction of the optical and near-infrared features of these cold young
objects.


title:
Improved Method to extract Nucleon Helicity Distributions using Event
  Weighting

abstract:
  An improved analysis method to extract quark helicity distributions in
leading order (LO) QCD from semi-inclusive double spin asymmetries in deep
inelastic scattering is presented. The method relies on the fact that
fragmentation functions, describing the fragmentation of a quark into a hadron,
have a strong dependence on the energy fraction $z$ of the observed hadron.
Hadrons with large $z$ contain more information about the struck quark. This
can be used in a weighting procedure to improve the figure of merit (= inverse
of variance). In numerical examples it is shown that one could gain 15-39\%
depending on the quark flavor and cut on $z$.
  Mathematically the problem can be described as finding an optimal solution in
terms of the figure of merit for parameters $\boldsymbol \Theta$ determined
from a system of linear equations ${\bf B}(x) {\boldsymbol \Theta} ={\bf
Y}(x)$, where the measured input vector ${\bf Y}(x)$ is given as event
distributions depending on a random variable $x$, the coefficients of the
matrix ${\bf B}(x)$ depend as well on $x$, whereas the parameter vector
$\boldsymbol\Theta$ to be determined does not.


title:
Estimation and simulation of foraging trips in land-based marine
  predators

abstract:
  The behaviour of colony-based marine predators is the focus of much research
globally. Large telemetry and tracking data sets have been collected for this
group of animals, and are accompanied by many theoretical studies of optimal
foraging strategies. However, relatively few studies have detailed statistical
methods for inferring behaviours in central place foraging trips. In this paper
we describe an approach based on hidden Markov models, which splits foraging
trips into segments labelled as "outbound", "search", "forage", and "inbound".
By structuring the hidden Markov model transition matrix appropriately, the
model naturally handles the sequence of behaviours within a foraging trip.
Additionally, by structuring the model in this way, we are able to develop
realistic simulations from the fitted model. We demonstrate our approach on
data from southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) tagged on Kerguelen Island
in the Southern Ocean. We discuss the differences between our 4-state model and
the widely used 2-state model, and the advantages and disadvantages of
employing a more complex model.


title:
Phonon-particle coupling effects in odd-even double mass differences of
  semi-magic nuclei

abstract:
  A method is developed to consider the particle-phonon coupling (PC) effects
in the calculation of the odd-even double mass differences (DMD) in semi-magic
nuclei starting from the free $NN$-potential. The PC correction $\delta
\Sigma^{\rm PC}$ to the mass operator $\Sigma$ is found in
$g_L^2$-approximation, $g_L$ being the vertex of creating the $L$-phonon. The
tadpole term of the operator $\delta \Sigma^{\rm PC}$ is taken into account.
The method is based on a direct, without any use of the perturbation theory,
solution of the Dyson equation with the mass operator
$\Sigma(\epsilon){=}\Sigma_0{+}\delta \Sigma^{\rm PC}(\epsilon)$ for finding
the single-particle energies and $Z$-factors. In its turn, they are used as an
input for finding different PC corrections to the DMD values. Results for a
chain of even semi-magic nuclei $^{200-206}$Pb show that the inclusion of the
PC corrections makes agreement with the experimental data significantly better.


title:
Role of quantum fluctuations in structural dynamics of liquids of light
  molecules

abstract:
  A possible role of quantum effects, such as tunneling and zero-point energy,
in the structural dynamics of supercooled liquids is studied by dielectric
spectroscopy. Presented results demonstrate that the liquids, bulk
3-methylpentane 3MP and confined normal and deuterated water have low glass
transition temperature and unusually low for their class of materials steepness
of the temperature dependence of structural relaxation, or fragility. Although
we do not find any signs of tunneling in structural relaxation of these
liquids, their unusually low fragility can be well described by the influence
of the quantum fluctuations. Confined water presents especially interesting
case in comparison to the earlier data on bulk low-density amorphous and vapor
deposited water. Confined water exhibits much weaker isotope effect than bulk
water, although the effect is still significant. We show that it can be
ascribed to the change of the energy barrier for relaxation due to a decrease
in the zero-point energy upon D-H substitution. The observed difference in the
behavior of confined and bulk water demonstrates high sensitivity of quantum
effects to the barrier heights and structure of water. Moreover, these results
demonstrate that extrapolation of confined water properties to the bulk water
behavior is questionable.


title:
Compact and "compact" operators on the standard Hilbert module over a
  $W^*$ algebra

abstract:
  We construct a topology on the standard Hilbert module $l^2(\mathcal A)$ over
a unital $W^*$-algebra $\mathcal A$ such that any "compact" operator, (i.e.\
any operator in the norm closure of the linear span of the operators of the
form $x\mapsto\left<y,x\right>z$) maps bounded sets into totally bounded sets.


title:
Measuring the Attenuation Length of Water in the CHIPS-M Water Cherenkov
  Detector

abstract:
  The water at the proposed site of the CHIPS water Cherenkov detector has been
studied to measure its attenuation length for Cherenkov light as a function of
filtering time. A scaled model of the CHIPS detector filled with water from the
Wentworth 2W pit, proposed site of the CHIPS deployment, in conjunction with a
3.2\unit{m} vertical column filled with this water, was used to study the
transmission of 405nm laser light. Results consistent with attenuation lengths
of up to 100m were observed for this wavelength with filtration and UV
sterilization alone.


title:
Scale-Dependent Pedotransfer Functions Reliability for Estimating
  Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity

abstract:
  Saturated hydraulic conductivity Ksat is a fundamental characteristic in
modeling flow and contaminant transport in soils and sediments. Therefore, many
models have been developed to estimate Ksat from easily measureable parameters,
such as textural properties, bulk density, etc. However, Ksat is not only
affected by textural and structural characteristics, but also by scale e.g.,
internal diameter and height. Using the UNSODA database and the contrast
pattern aided regression (CPXR) method, we recently developed scale-dependent
pedotransfer functions to estimate Ksat from textural data, bulk density, and
sample dimensions. The main objectives of this study were evaluating the
proposed pedotransfer functions using a larger database, and comparing them
with seven other models. For this purpose, we selected more than nineteen
thousands soil samples from all around the United States. Results showed that
the scale-dependent pedotransfer functions estimated Ksat more accurately than
seven other models frequently used in the literature.


title:
Spin-torque switching in large size nano-magnet with perpendicular
  magnetic fields

abstract:
  DC current induced magnetization reversal and magnetization oscillation was
observed in 500 nm large size Co90Fe10/Cu/Ni80Fe20 pillars. A perpendicular
external field enhanced the coercive field separation between the reference
layer (Co90Fe10) and free layer (Ni80Fe20) in the pseudo spin valve, allowing a
large window of external magnetic field for exploring the free-layer reversal.
The magnetization precession was manifested in terms of the multiple peaks on
the differential resistance curves. Depending on the bias current and applied
field, the regions of magnetic switching and magnetization precession on a
dynamical stability diagram has been discussed in details. Micromagnetic
simulations are shown to be in good agreement with experimental results and
provide insight for synchronization of inhomogenieties in large sized device.
The ability to manipulate spin-dynamics on large size devices could prove
useful for increasing the output power of the spin-transfer nano-oscillators
(STNOs).


title: Permutation tests in the two-sample problem for functional data

abstract:
  Three different permutation test schemes are discussed and compared in the
context of the two-sample problem for functional data. One of the procedures
was essentially introduced by Lopez-Pintado and Romo (2009), using notions of
functional data depth to adapt the ideas originally proposed by Liu and Singh
(1993) for multivariate data. Of the new methods introduced here, one is also
based on functional data depths, but uses a different way (inspired by
Meta-Analysis) to assess the significance of the depth differences. The second
new method presented here adapts, to the functional data setting, the
k-nearest-neighbors statistic of Schilling (1986). The three methods are
compared among them and against the test of Horvath and Kokoszka (2012) in
simulated examples and real data. The comparison considers the performance of
the statistics in terms of statistical power and in terms of computational
cost.


title: Discreteness of interior transmission eigenvalues revisited

abstract:
  This paper is devoted to the discreteness of the transmission eigenvalue
problems. It is known that this problem is not self-adjoint and a priori
estimates are non-standard and do not hold in general. Two approaches are used.
The first one is based on the multiplier technique and the second one is based
on the Fourier analysis. The key point of the analysis is to establish the
compactness and the uniqueness for Cauchy problems under various conditions.
Using these approaches, we are able to rediscover quite a few known
discreteness results in the literature and obtain various new results for which
only the information near the boundary are required and there might be no
contrast of the coefficients on the boundary.


title:
Observables, evolution equation,and stationary states equation in the
  joint probability representation of quantum mechanics

abstract:
  Symplectic and optical joint probability representations of quantum mechanics
are considered, in which the functions describing the states are the
probability distributions with all random arguments (except the argument of
time ). The general formalism of quantizers and dequantizers determining the
star product quantization scheme in these representations is given. Taking the
Gaussian functions as the distributions of the tomographic parameters the
correspondence rules for most interesting physical operators are found and the
expressions of the dual symbols of operators in the form of singular and
regular generalized functions are derived. Evolution equations and stationary
states equations for symplectic and optical joint probability distributions are
obtained.


title:
Polarization-dependent interference between dipole moments of a
  resonantly excited quantum dot

abstract:
  Resonant photoluminescence excitation (RPLE) spectra of a neutral InGaAs
quantum dot show an unconventional line-shape that depends on the detection
polarization. We characterize this phenomenon by performing
polarization-dependent RPLE measurements and simulating the measured spectra
with a 3-level quantum model. This analysis enables us to extract the coherence
between the two exciton states from the measured spectra. The good agreement
between the data and model indicates that the interference between coherent
scatterings from both fine structure split exciton states is the key to
understanding this phenomenon.


title: On holomorphic functions with cluster sets of finite linear measure

abstract:
  We prove that if f is a holomorphic function on the open unit disc in C whose
cluster set C(f) has finite linear measure and is such that the complement of
C(f) has finitely many components, then the derivative of f belongs to the
Hardy space H^1.


title:
A Lie theoretical construction of a Landau-Ginzburg model without
  projective mirrors

abstract:
  We describe the Fukaya-Seidel category of a Landau-Ginzburg model LG(2) for
the semisimple adjoint orbit of sl(2,C). We prove that this category is
equivalent to a full triangulated subcategory of the category of coherent
sheaves on the second Hirzebruch surface. We show that no projective variety
can be mirror to LG(2), and that this remains so after compactification.


title:
Collisional relaxation in the inhomogeneous Hamiltonian-Mean-Field
  model: diffusion coefficients

abstract:
  Systems of particles with long range interactions present two important
processes: first, the formation of out-of-equilibrium quasi-stationary states
(QSS), and the collisional relaxation towards Maxwell-Boltzmann equilibrium in
a much longer timescale. In this paper, we study the collisional relaxation in
the Hamiltonian-Mean-Field model (HMF) using the appropriate kinetic equations
for a system of $N$ particles at order $1/N$ : the Landau equation when
collective effects are neglected and the Lenard-Balescu equation when they are
taken into account. We derive explicit expressions for the diffusion
coefficients using both equations for any magnetization, and we obtain analytic
expressions for highly clustered configurations. An important conclusion is
that in this system collective effects are crucial in order to describe the
relaxation dynamics. We compare the diffusion calculated with the kinetic
equations with simulations set up to simulate the system with or without
collective effects, obtaining a very good agreement between theory and
simulations.


title:
Multiple magnetic states within the A-phase determined by
  field-orientation dependence of Mn0.9Fe0.1Si

abstract:
  We report three distinct regions within the A-phase in Fe-doped MnSi, based
on the evolution of magnetoresistance and the Hall effect as a function of
orientation of applied field. Fe impurities as pinning centers and crystalline
anisotropy are found non-negligible only at the boundary of the A-phase.
Electrical transport characteristics unique to the A-phase not only remain
robust, but also indicate a freely rotating skyrmion lattice, decoupled from
underlying crystal structure or impurity pinning.


title:
Optimally convergent HDG method for third-order Korteweg-de Vries type
  equations

abstract:
  We develop and analyze a new hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) method
for solving third-order Korteweg-de Vries type equations. The approximate
solutions are defined by a discrete version of a characterization of the exact
solution in terms of the solutions to local problems on each element which are
patched together through transmission conditions on element interfaces. We
prove that the semi-discrete scheme is stable with proper choices of
stabilization function in the numerical traces. For the linearized equation, we
carry out error analysis and show that the approximations to the exact solution
and its derivatives have optimal convergence rates. In numerical experiments,
we use an implicit scheme for time discretization and the Newton-Raphson method
for solving systems of nonlinear equations, and observe optimal convergence
rates for both the linear and the nonlinear third-order equations.


title: Biquasiles and Dual Graph Diagrams

abstract:
  We introduce \textit{dual graph diagrams} representing oriented knots and
links. We use these combinatorial structures to define corresponding algebraic
structures we call \textit{biquasiles} whose axioms are motivated by dual graph
Reidemeister moves, generalizing the Dehn presentation of the knot group
analogously to the way quandles and biquandles generalize the Wirtinger
presentation. We use these structures to define invariants of oriented knots
and links and provide examples.


title:
Singular diffusionless limits of double-diffusive instabilities in
  magnetohydrodynamics

abstract:
  We study local instabilities of a differentially rotating viscous flow of
electrically conducting incompressible fluid subject to an external azimuthal
magnetic field. In the presence of the magnetic field the hydrodynamically
stable flow can demonstrate non - axisymmetric azimuthal magnetorotational
instability (AMRI) both in the diffusionless case and in the double-diffusive
case with viscous and ohmic dissipation. Performing stability analysis of
amplitude transport equations of short-wavelength approximation, we find that
the threshold of the diffusionless AMRI via the Hamilton-Hopf bifurcation is a
singular limit of the thresholds of the viscous and resistive AMRI
corresponding to the dissipative Hopf bifurcation and manifests itself as the
Whitney umbrella singular point. A smooth transition between the two types of
instabilities is possible only if the magnetic Prandtl number is equal to
unity, $\rm Pm=1$. At a fixed $\rm Pm\ne 1$ the threshold of the
double-diffusive AMRI is displaced by finite distance in the parameter space
with respect to the diffusionless case even in the zero dissipation limit. The
complete neutral stability surface contains three Whitney umbrella singular
points and two mutually orthogonal intervals of self-intersection. At these
singularities the double-diffusive system reduces to a marginally stable system
which is either Hamiltonian or parity-time (PT) symmetric.

categories: astro-ph.SR math-ph math.DS math.MP physics.flu-dyn physics.plasm-ph


title: The cohomology of $\mathcal{M}_{0,n}$ as an FI-module

abstract:
  In this paper we revisit the cohomology groups of the moduli space of
$n$-pointed curves of genus zero using the FI-module perspective introduced by
Church-Ellenberg-Farb. We recover known results about the corresponding
representations of the symmetric group.


title:
Learning Cost-Effective Treatment Regimes using Markov Decision
  Processes

abstract:
  Decision makers, such as doctors and judges, make crucial decisions such as
recommending treatments to patients, and granting bails to defendants on a
daily basis. Such decisions typically involve weighting the potential benefits
of taking an action against the costs involved. In this work, we aim to
automate this task of learning \emph{cost-effective, interpretable and
actionable treatment regimes}. We formulate this as a problem of learning a
decision list -- a sequence of if-then-else rules -- which maps characteristics
of subjects (eg., diagnostic test results of patients) to treatments. We
propose a novel objective to construct a decision list which maximizes outcomes
for the population, and minimizes overall costs. We model the problem of
learning such a list as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) and employ a variant of
the Upper Confidence Bound for Trees (UCT) strategy which leverages customized
checks for pruning the search space effectively. Experimental results on real
world observational data capturing judicial bail decisions and treatment
recommendations for asthma patients demonstrate the effectiveness of our
approach.


title:
Convergence Analysis for Second Order Accurate Convex Splitting Schemes
  for the Periodic Nonlocal Allen-Cahn and Cahn-Hilliard Equations

abstract:
  In this paper we provide a detailed convergence analysis for fully discrete
second order (in both time and space) numerical schemes for nonlocal Allen-Cahn
(nAC) and nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard (nCH) equations. The unconditional unique
solvability and energy stability ensures $\ell^4$ stability. The convergence
analysis for the nAC equation follows the standard procedure of consistency and
stability estimate for the numerical error function. For the nCH equation, due
to the complicated form of the nonlinear term, a careful expansion of its
discrete gradient is undertaken and an $H^{-1}$ inner product estimate of this
nonlinear numerical error is derived to establish convergence. In addition, an
a-priori $W^{1,\infty}$ bound of the numerical solution at the discrete level
is needed in the error estimate. Such a bound can be obtained by performing a
higher order consistency analysis by using asymptotic expansions for the
numerical solution. Following the technique originally proposed by Strang
(e.g., 1964), instead of the standard comparison between the exact and
numerical solutions, an error estimate between the numerical solution and the
constructed approximate solution yields an $O( s^3 + h^4)$ convergence in
$\ell^\infty (0, T; \ell^2)$ norm, which leads to the necessary bound under a
standard constraint $s \le C h$. Here, we also prove convergence of the scheme
in the maximum norm under the same constraint.


title: Optimal Control for Network Coding Broadcast

abstract:
  Random linear network coding (RLNC) has been shown to efficiently improve the
network performance in terms of reducing transmission delays and increasing the
throughput in broadcast and multicast communications. However, it can result in
increased storage and computational complexity at the receivers end. In our
previous work we considered the broadcast transmission of large file to N
receivers. We showed that the storage and complexity requirements at the
receivers end can be greatly reduced when segmenting the file into smaller
blocks and applying RLNC to these blocks. To that purpose, we proposed a packet
scheduling policy, namely the Least Received. In this work we will prove the
optimality of our previously proposed policy, in terms of file transfer
completion time, when N = 2. We will model our system as a Markov Decision
Process and prove the optimality of the policy using Dynamic Programming. Our
intuition is that the Least Received policy may be optimal regardless of the
number of receivers. Towards that end, we will provide experimental results
that verify that ntuition.


title:
Tracy-Widom fluctuations for perturbations of the log-gamma polymer in
  intermediate disorder

abstract:
  The free-energy fluctuations of the discrete directed polymer in 1+1
dimensions is conjecturally in the Tracy-Widom universality class at all finite
temperatures and in the intermediate disorder regime. Sepp\"al\"ainen's
log-gamma polymer was proven to have GUE Tracy-Widom fluctuations in a
restricted temperature range by Borodin et. al. (2013). We remove this
restriction, and extend this result into the intermediate disorder regime. This
result also identifies the scale of fluctuations of the log-gamma polymer in
the intermediate disorder regime, and thus verifies a conjecture of Alberts et.
al. (2010). Using a perturbation argument, we show that any polymer that
matches a certain number of moments with the log-gamma polymer also has
Tracy-Widom fluctuations in intermediate disorder.


title: Graded Betti numbers of good filtrations

abstract:
  The asymptotic behavior of graded Betti numbers of powers of homogeneous
ideals in a polynomial ring over a field has recently been reviewed. We extend
quasi polynomial behavior of graded Betti numbers of powers of homogenous
ideals to Z-graded algebra over Notherian local ring. Furthermore our main
result treats the Betti table of filtrations which is finite or integral over
the Rees algebra.


title: Legendrian Fronts for Affine Varieties

abstract:
  In this article we study Weinstein structures endowed with a Lefschetz
fibration in terms of the Legendrian front projection. First we provide a
systematic recipe for translating from a Weinstein Lefschetz bifibration to a
Legendrian handlebody. Then we present several applications of this technique
to symplectic topology. This includes the detection of flexibility and rigidity
for several families of Weinstein manifolds and the existence of closed exact
Lagrangian submanifolds. In addition, we prove that the Koras--Russell cubic is
Stein deformation equivalent to affine complex 3-space and verify the affine
parts of the algebraic mirrors of two Weinstein 4-manifolds.


title:
Data Polygamy: The Many-Many Relationships among Urban Spatio-Temporal
  Data Sets

abstract:
  The increasing ability to collect data from urban environments, coupled with
a push towards openness by governments, has resulted in the availability of
numerous spatio-temporal data sets covering diverse aspects of a city.
Discovering relationships between these data sets can produce new insights by
enabling domain experts to not only test but also generate hypotheses. However,
discovering these relationships is difficult. First, a relationship between two
data sets may occur only at certain locations and/or time periods. Second, the
sheer number and size of the data sets, coupled with the diverse spatial and
temporal scales at which the data is available, presents computational
challenges on all fronts, from indexing and querying to analyzing them.
Finally, it is non-trivial to differentiate between meaningful and spurious
relationships. To address these challenges, we propose Data Polygamy, a
scalable topology-based framework that allows users to query for statistically
significant relationships between spatio-temporal data sets. We have performed
an experimental evaluation using over 300 spatial-temporal urban data sets
which shows that our approach is scalable and effective at identifying
interesting relationships.


title:
Distance signless Laplacian spectral radius and Hamiltonian properties
  of graphs

abstract:
  In this paper, first, we establish a sufficient condition for a bipartite
graph to be Hamilton-connected. Furthermore, we also give two sufficient
conditions on distance signless Laplacian spectral radius for a graph to be
Hamilton-connected and traceable from every vertex, respectively. Last, we
obtain a sufficient condition for a graph to be Hamiltonian in terms of the
distance signless Laplacian spectral radius of $G^{C}$.