title:
Hybrid graphene/silicon integrated optical isolators with photonic
  spin-orbit interaction

abstract:
  Optical isolators are an important building block in photonic computation and
communication. In traditional optics, isolators are realized with
magneto-optical garnets. However, it remains challenging to incorporate such
materials on an integrated platform because of the difficulty in material
growth and bulky device footprint. Here, we propose an ultracompact integrated
isolator by exploiting graphene's magneto-optical property on a
silicon-on-insulator platform. The photonic nonreciprocity is achieved because
the cyclotrons in graphene experiencing different optical spin exhibit
different response to counterpropagating light. Taking advantage of cavity
resonance effects, we have numerically optimized a device design, which shows
excellent isolation performance with the extinction ratio over 45 dB and the
insertion loss around 12 dB at a wavelength near 1.55 um. Featuring graphene's
CMOS compatibility and substantially reduced device footprint, our proposal
sheds light to monolithic integration of nonreciprocal photonic devices.


title:
Angular momentum and topology in semiconducting single-wall carbon
  nanotubes

abstract:
  Semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes are classified into two types by
means of orbital angular momentum of valley state, which is useful to study
their low energy electronic properties in finite-length. The classification is
given by an integer $d$, which is the greatest common divisor of two integers
$n$ and $m$ specifying the chirality of nanotubes, by analyzing cutting lines.
For the case that $d$ is equal to or greater than four, two lowest subbands
from two valleys have different angular momenta with respect to the nanotube
axis. Reflecting the decoupling of two valleys, discrete energy levels in
finite-length nanotubes exhibit nearly fourfold degeneracy and its small lift
by the spin-orbit interaction. For the case that $d$ is less than or equal to
two, in which two lowest subbands from two valleys have the same angular
momentum, discrete levels exhibit lift of fourfold degeneracy reflecting the
coupling of two valleys. Especially, two valleys are strongly coupled when the
chirality is close to the armchair chirality. An effective one-dimensional
lattice model is derived by extracting states with relevant angular momentum,
which reveals the valley coupling in the eigenstates. A bulk-edge
correspondence, relationship between number of edge states and the winding
number calculated in the corresponding bulk system, is analytically shown by
using the argument principle, which enables us to estimate the number of edge
states from the bulk property. The number of edge states depends not only on
the chirality but also on the shape of boundary.


title:
Measurement of Characteristic Impedance of Silicon Fiber Sheet based
  readout strips panel for RPC detector in INO

abstract:
  The India based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is a mega science project of
India, which is going to use near about 30, 000 Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC)
as active detector elements for the study of atmospheric neutrino oscillations.
Each RPC detector will consist of two orthogonally placed readout strips panel
for picking the signals generated in the gas chamber. The area of RPC detector
in INO-ICAL (Iron Calorimeter) experiment will be 2m x 2m, therefore the
dimension of readout strips panel will also be of 2m x 2m. To get undistorted
signals pass through the readout strips panel to frontend electronics, their
Characteristic Impedance should be matched with each other. For the matching of
Characteristic Impedance we have used the principle of termination. In the
present paper we will describe the need and search of new dielectric material
for the fabrication of flame resistant, waterproof and flexible readout pickup
strips panel. We will also describe the measurement of Characteristic Impedance
of plastic honeycomb based readout strips panel and Silicon Fiber sheet based
readout strips panel in a comparative way, and its variation under loading and
with time.


title: Asymptotics of Stochastic Protein Assembly Models

abstract:
  Self-assembly of proteins is a biological phenomenon which gives rise to
spontaneous formation of amyloid fibrils or polymers. The starting point of
this phase, called nucleation exhibits an important variability among
replicated experiments.To analyse the stochastic nature of this phenomenon, one
of the simplest models considers two populations of chemical components:
monomers and polymerised monomers. Initially there are only monomers. There are
two reactions for the polymerization of a monomer: either two monomers collide
to combine into two polymerised monomers or a monomer is polymerised after the
encounter of a polymerised monomer. It turns out that this simple model does
not explain completely the variability observed in the experiments. This paper
investigates extensions of this model to take into account other mechanisms of
the polymerization process that may have impact an impact on fluctuations.The
first variant consists in introducing a preliminary conformation step to take
into account the biological fact that, before being polymerised, a monomer has
two states, regular or misfolded. Only misfolded monomers can be polymerised so
that the fluctuations of the number of misfolded monomers can be also a source
of variability of the number of polymerised monomers. The second variant
represents the reaction rate $\alpha$ of spontaneous formation of a polymer as
of the order of $N^{-\nu}$, with $\nu$ some positive constant. First and second
order results for the starting instant of nucleation are derived from these
limit theorems. The proofs of the results rely on a study of a stochastic
averaging principle for a model related to an Ehrenfest urn model, and also on
a scaling analysis of a population model.


title:
A unified approach to the well-posedness of some non-Lambertian models
  in Shape-from-Shading theory

abstract:
  In this paper we show that the introduction of an attenuation factor in the
%image irradiance brightness equations relative to various perspective Shape
from Shading models allows to make the corresponding differential problems
well-posed. We propose a unified approach based on the theory of viscosity
solution and we show that the brightness equations with the attenuation term
admit a unique viscosity solution. We also discuss in detail the possible
boundary conditions that we can use for the Hamilton-Jacobi equations
associated to these models.


title:
On time adaptive critical variable exponent vectorial diffusion flows
  and their applications in image processing

abstract:
  Variable exponent spaces have found interesting applications in real world
problems. Recently, there have been considerable interest in utilizing
variational and evolution problems based on variable exponents for imaging
applications. The main classes of partial differential equations (PDEs) related
to the variable exponents involve the $p(\cdot)$-Laplacian. In imaging
applications, the variable exponent can approach the critical value $1$, and
this poses unique challenges in proving existence of solutions, which have not
been mastered earlier. In this work, we develop some additional functional
framework to study the time-dependent parabolic flows with critical variable
exponents. Specifically, we consider bounded vectorial partial variation (BVPV)
space and its variable exponent counterpart. We prove the existence of weak
solutions of critical vectorial $p(t,x)$-Laplacian flow in our variable
exponent space. For non-time-dependent variable exponent based critical
vectorial $p(x)$-Laplacian flow we obtain a semigroup solution. The results are
new even in the scalar case. This is a theory-oriented draft, and the full
paper will provide detailed experimental results on color image restoration
using various example for the variable exponents and compare them traditional
PDE based image processing procedures. Our results will indicate the
applicability of variable exponent Laplacian flows in image processing in
general and image restoration in particular.


title: Lie algebra of conformal Killing-Yano forms

abstract:
  We provide a generalization of the Lie algebra of conformal Killing vector
fields to conformal Killing-Yano forms. A new Lie bracket for conformal
Killing-Yano forms that corresponds to slightly modified Schouten-Nijenhuis
bracket of differential forms is proposed. We show that conformal Killing-Yano
forms satisfy a graded Lie algebra in constant curvature manifolds. It is also
proven that normal conformal Killing-Yano forms in Einstein manifolds also
satisfy a graded Lie algebra. The constructed graded Lie algebras reduce to the
graded Lie algebra of Killing-Yano forms and the Lie algebras of conformal
Killing and Killing vector fields in special cases.


title: Optical Activation of Germanium Plasmonic Antennas in the Mid Infrared

abstract:
  Impulsive interband excitation with femtosecond near-infrared pulses
establishes a plasma response in intrinsic germanium structures fabricated on a
silicon substrate. This direct approach activates the plasmonic resonance of
the Ge structures and enables their use as optical antennas up to the
mid-infrared spectral range. The optical switching lasts for hundreds of
picoseconds until charge recombination red-shifts the plasma frequency. The
full behavior of the structures is modeled by the electrodynamic response
established by an electron-hole plasma in a regular array of antennas.


title: Data Augmentation via Levy Processes

abstract:
  If a document is about travel, we may expect that short snippets of the
document should also be about travel. We introduce a general framework for
incorporating these types of invariances into a discriminative classifier. The
framework imagines data as being drawn from a slice of a Levy process. If we
slice the Levy process at an earlier point in time, we obtain additional
pseudo-examples, which can be used to train the classifier. We show that this
scheme has two desirable properties: it preserves the Bayes decision boundary,
and it is equivalent to fitting a generative model in the limit where we rewind
time back to 0. Our construction captures popular schemes such as Gaussian
feature noising and dropout training, as well as admitting new generalizations.


title: Non linear massive gravity as a gravitational $\sigma$-model

abstract:
  We show the direct analogy between the ghost-free non-linear formulation of
massive gravity and the standard $\sigma$-models well understood in the
literature. This issue explains why there are two non-trivial family of
solutions for the spherically symmetric case inside the non-linear massive
gravity formulations with two free-parameters $\alpha$ and $\beta$. In general,
the case $\beta<\alpha^2$ has a single physical vacuum state. On the other
hand, the case $\beta=\alpha^2$ contains a natural vacuum degeneracy. This is
in perfect analogy with the $\sigma$-model for scalar fields where depending on
the values taken by the parameters of the theory the vacuum can be single or
degenerate.


title:
Functional neuroanatomy of meditation: A review and meta-analysis of 78
  functional neuroimaging investigations

abstract:
  Meditation is a family of mental practices that encompasses a wide array of
techniques employing distinctive mental strategies. We systematically reviewed
78 functional neuroimaging (fMRI and PET) studies of meditation, and used
activation likelihood estimation to meta-analyze 257 peak foci from 31
experiments involving 527 participants. We found reliably dissociable patterns
of brain activation and deactivation for four common styles of meditation
(focused attention, mantra recitation, open monitoring, and
compassion/loving-kindness), and suggestive differences for three others
(visualization, sense-withdrawal, and non-dual awareness practices). Overall,
dissociable activation patterns are congruent with the psychological and
behavioral aims of each practice. Some brain areas are recruited consistently
across multiple techniques - including insula, pre/supplementary motor
cortices, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and frontopolar cortex - but
convergence is the exception rather than the rule. A preliminary effect-size
meta-analysis found medium effects for both activations (d = .59) and
deactivations (d = -.74), suggesting potential practical significance. Our
meta-analysis supports the neurophysiological dissociability of meditation
practices, but also raises many methodological concerns and suggests avenues
for future research.


title:
Anomalous Hyperfine Structure of the $^{229}$Th Ground-State Doublet in
  Muonic Atom

abstract:
  The hyperfine splitting of the ground and low-energy $3/2^+(7.8 \pm 0.5$ eV)
levels in the $^{229}$Th nucleus in muonic atom
($\mu^-_{1S_{1/2}}{}^{229}$Th$)^*$ has been calculated considering the
distribution of the nuclear magnetization in the framework of collective
nuclear model with the wave functions of the Nilsson model for the unpaired
neutron. It is shown that (a) the hyperfine splitting of the $3/2^+$ isomeric
state is anomalously weak, and the reduction of hyperfine structure in
comparison with the model of a point nuclear magnetic dipole is close to 100\%,
(b) partial inversion of levels of the $^{229}$Th ground-state doublet and
spontaneous decay of the ground state with excitation of the isomeric state
take place, (c) the energy of the isomeric transition lies in the range of
120--140 eV, which makes possible the direct observation of the transition,
registration of conversion electrons and measurement of the nuclear matrix
element.


title:
Strong Converse Exponent for State Dependent Channels With Full State
  Information at the Sender

abstract:
  We consider the state dependent channels with full state information with at
the sender. For this state dependent channel, the channel capacity was
determined by Gel'fand and Pinsker. In this paper, we study the correct
probability of decoding at rates above the capacity. We prove that when the
transmission rate is above the capacity this probability goes to zero
exponentially and derive an explicit lower bound of this exponent function.


title: Vacancy-induced enhancement of thermal conductivity in graphene

abstract:
  It is shown that the experimentally observed increase of the Young's modulus
in single-layer graphene with low density of point defects leads to a
noticeably enhancement of the thermal conductivity in a wide temperature range
due to increasing the longitudinal and transverse phonon velocities.


title:
Thread Progress Equalization: Dynamically Adaptive Power and Performance
  Optimization of Multi-threaded Applications

abstract:
  Dynamically adaptive multi-core architectures have been proposed as an
effective solution to optimize performance for peak power constrained
processors. In processors, the micro-architectural parameters or
voltage/frequency of each core to be changed at run-time, thus providing a
range of power/performance operating points for each core. In this paper, we
propose Thread Progress Equalization (TPEq), a run-time mechanism for power
constrained performance maximization of multithreaded applications running on
dynamically adaptive multicore processors. Compared to existing approaches,
TPEq (i) identifies and addresses two primary sources of inter-thread
heterogeneity in multithreaded applications, (ii) determines the optimal core
configurations in polynomial time with respect to the number of cores and
configurations, and (iii) requires no modifications in the user-level source
code. Our experimental evaluations demonstrate that TPEq outperforms
state-of-the-art run-time power/performance optimization techniques proposed in
literature for dynamically adaptive multicores by up to 23%.


title: Thermal Conductivity Coefficient from Microscopic Models

abstract:
  Thermal conductivity of hadron matter is studied using a microscopic
transport model, which will be used to simulate ultra-relativistic heavy ion
collisions at different energy densities, namely the Ultra-relativistic Quantum
Molecular Dynamics (UrQMD). The molecular dynamics simulation is performed for
a system of light mesons species (pion, rho, kaon) in a box with periodic
boundary conditions. The equilibrium state is investigated by studying chemical
equilibrium and thermal equilibrium of the system. Particle multiplicity
equilibrates with time, and the energy spectra of different light mesons
species have the same slopes and common temperatures when thermal equilibrium
is reached. Thermal conductivity transport coefficient is calculated from the
heat current - current correlations using the Green-Kubo relations.


title:
Learning Dexterous Manipulation for a Soft Robotic Hand from Human
  Demonstration

abstract:
  Dexterous multi-fingered hands can accomplish fine manipulation behaviors
that are infeasible with simple robotic grippers. However, sophisticated
multi-fingered hands are often expensive and fragile. Low-cost soft hands offer
an appealing alternative to more conventional devices, but present considerable
challenges in sensing and actuation, making them difficult to apply to more
complex manipulation tasks. In this paper, we describe an approach to learning
from demonstration that can be used to train soft robotic hands to perform
dexterous manipulation tasks. Our method uses object-centric demonstrations,
where a human demonstrates the desired motion of manipulated objects with their
own hands, and the robot autonomously learns to imitate these demonstrations
using reinforcement learning. We propose a novel algorithm that allows us to
blend and select a subset of the most feasible demonstrations to learn to
imitate on the hardware, which we use with an extension of the guided policy
search framework to use multiple demonstrations to learn generalizable neural
network policies. We demonstrate our approach on the RBO Hand 2, with learned
motor skills for turning a valve, manipulating an abacus, and grasping.


title:
Distributed Multi-Sensor Fusion Using Generalized Multi-Bernoulli
  Densities

abstract:
  The paper addresses distributed multi-target tracking in the framework of
generalized Covariance Intersection (GCI) over multistatic radar system. The
proposed method is based on the unlabeled version of generalized labeled
multi-Bernoulli (GLMB) family by discarding the labels, referred as generalized
multi-Bernoulli (GMB) family. However, it doesn't permit closed form solution
for GCI fusion with GMB family. To solve this challenging problem, firstly, we
propose an efficient approximation to the GMB family which preserves both the
probability hypothesis density (PHD) and cardinality distribution, named as
second-order approximation of GMB (SO-GMB) density. Then, we derive explicit
expression for the GCI fusion with SO-GMB density. Finally, we compare the
first-order approximation of GMB (FO-GMB) density with SO-GMB density in two
scenarios and make a concrete analysis of the advantages of the second-order
approximation. Simulation results are presented to verify the proposed
approach.


title:
Constraints on leptophilic light dark matter from internal heat flux of
  Earth

abstract:
  Dark Matter in Earth intersecting orbits can scatter off the electrons and
lose energy, and finally be gravitationally bound to Earth. Eventually they
lose enough energy and accumulate at the core. It is assumed that DM
annihilates/decays predominantly into Standard Model particles inside Earth.
The heat flux from these processes is compared with the experimentally measured
value of internal heat flux of Earth which is 44 TW. Assuming steady state
between capture and annihilation/decay, we put constraints on the scattering
cross section of DM with electrons as a function of their mass. For low mass
regions ($<10^{-2}$GeV), these constraints on leptophilic DM are better than
ones obtained from direct-detection experiments.


title:
A Diplexer-Based Receiver for Simultaneous Wireless Information and
  Power Transfer

abstract:
  Simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is an appealing
research area because both information and energy can be delivered to wireless
devices simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a diplexer-based receiver
architecture that can utilizes both the doubling frequency and baseband signals
after the mixer. The baseband signals are used for information decoding and the
doubling frequency signals are converted to direct current for energy
harvesting. We analyze the signal in the receiver and find that the power of
the energy harvested is equal to that of information decoded. Therefore, the
diplexer can be used as a power splitter with a power splitting factor of 0.5.
Specifically, we consider a multiuser multi-input single-output (MISO) system,
in which each user is equipped with the newly proposed receiver. The problem is
formulated as an optimization problem that minimizes the total transmitted
power subject to some constraints on each user's quality of service and energy
harvesting demand. We show that the problem thus formulated is a non-convex
quadratically constrained quadratic program (QCQP), which can be solved by
semi-definite relaxation.


title: Online Learning with Low Rank Experts

abstract:
  We consider the problem of prediction with expert advice when the losses of
the experts have low-dimensional structure: they are restricted to an unknown
$d$-dimensional subspace. We devise algorithms with regret bounds that are
independent of the number of experts and depend only on the rank $d$. For the
stochastic model we show a tight bound of $\Theta(\sqrt{dT})$, and extend it to
a setting of an approximate $d$ subspace. For the adversarial model we show an
upper bound of $O(d\sqrt{T})$ and a lower bound of $\Omega(\sqrt{dT})$.


title: A Discontinuous Neural Network for Non-Negative Sparse Approximation

abstract:
  This paper investigates a discontinuous neural network which is used as a
model of the mammalian olfactory system and can more generally be applied to
solve non-negative sparse approximation problems. By inherently limiting the
systems integrators to having non-negative outputs, the system function becomes
discontinuous since the integrators switch between being inactive and being
active. It is shown that the presented network converges to equilibrium points
which are solutions to general non-negative least squares optimization
problems. We specify a Caratheodory solution and prove that the network is
stable, provided that the system matrix has full column-rank. Under a mild
condition on the equilibrium point, we show that the network converges to its
equilibrium within a finite number of switches. Two applications of the neural
network are shown. Firstly, we apply the network as a model of the olfactory
system and show that in principle it may be capable of performing complex
sparse signal recovery tasks. Secondly, we generalize the application to
include non-negative sparse approximation problems and compare the recovery
performance to a classical non-negative basis pursuit denoising algorithm. We
conclude that the recovery performance differs only marginally from the
classical algorithm, while the neural network has the advantage that no
performance critical regularization parameter has to be chosen prior to
recovery.


title: HBT radii from the multipole Buda-Lund model

abstract:
  The Buda-Lund model describes an expanding hydrodynamical system with
ellipsoidal symmetry and fits the observed elliptic flow and oscillating HBT
radii successfully. The ellipsoidal symmetry can be characterized by the second
order harmonics of the transverse momentum distribution, and it can be also
observed in the azimuthal oscillation of the HBT radii measured versus the
second order reaction plane. The model may have to be changed to describe the
experimentally indicated higher order asymmetries. In this paper we detail an
extension of the Buda-Lund hydro model to investigate higher order flow
harmonics and the triangular dependence of the azimuthally sensitive HBT radii.


title:
First detection of GeV emission from an ultraluminous infrared galaxy:
  Arp 220 as seen with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

abstract:
  Cosmic rays (CRs) in starburst galaxies produce high energy gamma-rays by
colliding with the dense interstellar medium (ISM). Arp 220 is the nearest
ultra luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) that has star-formation at extreme
levels, so it has long been predicted to emit high-energy gamma-rays. However,
no evidence of gamma-ray emission was found despite intense efforts of search.
Here we report the discovery of high-energy gamma-ray emission above 200 MeV
from Arp 220 at a confidence level of $\sim 6.3 \sigma $ using 7.5 years of
\textsl {Fermi} Large Area Telescope observations. The gamma-ray emission shows
no significant variability over the observation period and it is consistent
with the quasi-linear scaling relation between the gamma-ray luminosity and
total infrared luminosity for star-forming galaxies, suggesting that these
gamma-rays arise from CR interactions. As the high density medium of Arp 220
makes it an ideal CR calorimeter, the gamma-ray luminosity can be used to
measure the efficiency of powering CRs by supernova (SN) remnants given a known
supernova rate in Arp 220. We find that this efficiency is about $4.2\pm2.6\%$
for CRs above 1 GeV.


title: Minimal relations and catenary degrees in Krull monoids

abstract:
  Let $H$ be a Krull monoid with class group $G$. Then $H$ is factorial if and
only if $G$ is trivial. Sets of lengths and sets of catenary degrees are well
studied invariants describing the arithmetic of $H$ in the non-factorial case.
In this note we focus on the set $Ca (H)$ of catenary degrees of $H$ and on the
set $\mathcal R (H)$ of distances in minimal relations. We show that every
finite nonempty subset of $\mathbb N_{\ge 2}$ can be realized as the set of
catenary degrees of a Krull monoid with finite class group. This answers
Problem 4.1 of {arXiv:1506.07587}. Suppose in addition that every class of $G$
contains a prime divisor. Then $Ca (H)\subset \mathcal R (H)$ and $\mathcal R
(H)$ contains a long interval. Under a reasonable condition on the Davenport
constant of $G$, $\mathcal R (H)$ coincides with this interval and the maximum
equals the catenary degree of $H$.


title: The Fourier expansion of \eta(z)\eta(2z)\eta(3z)/\eta(6z)

abstract:
  We compute the Fourier coefficients of the weight one modular form
$\eta(z)\eta(2z)\eta(3z)/\eta(6z)$ in terms of the number of representations of
an integer as a sum of two squares. We deduce a relation between this modular
form and translates of the modular form $\eta(z)^4/\eta(2z)^2$. In the last
section we use our main result to give an elementary proof of an identity by
Victor Kac.


title:
Bayesian inference for multiple Gaussian graphical models with
  application to metabolic association networks

abstract:
  We investigate the effect of cadmium (a toxic environmental pollutant) on the
correlation structure of a number of urinary metabolites using Gaussian
graphical models (GGMs). The inferred metabolic associations can provide
important information on the physiological state of a metabolic system and
insights on complex metabolic relationships. Using the fitted GGMs, we
construct differential networks, which highlight significant changes in
metabolite interactions under different experimental conditions. The analysis
of such metabolic association networks can reveal differences in the underlying
biological reactions caused by cadmium exposure. We consider Bayesian inference
and propose using the multiplicative (or Chung-Lu random graph) model as a
prior on the graphical space. In the multiplicative model, each edge is chosen
independently with probability equal to the product of the connectivities of
the end nodes. This class of prior is parsimonious yet highly flexible; it can
be used to encourage sparsity or graphs with a pre-specified degree
distribution when such prior knowledge is available. We extend the
multiplicative model to multiple GGMs linking the probability of edge inclusion
through logistic regression and demonstrate how this leads to joint inference
for multiple GGMs. A sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) algorithm is developed for
estimating the posterior distribution of the graphs.


title:
Unified Depth Prediction and Intrinsic Image Decomposition from a Single
  Image via Joint Convolutional Neural Fields

abstract:
  We present a method for jointly predicting a depth map and intrinsic images
from single-image input. The two tasks are formulated in a synergistic manner
through a joint conditional random field (CRF) that is solved using a novel
convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture, called the joint convolutional
neural field (JCNF) model. Tailored to our joint estimation problem, JCNF
differs from previous CNNs in its sharing of convolutional activations and
layers between networks for each task, its inference in the gradient domain
where there exists greater correlation between depth and intrinsic images, and
the incorporation of a gradient scale network that learns the confidence of
estimated gradients in order to effectively balance them in the solution. This
approach is shown to surpass state-of-the-art methods both on single-image
depth estimation and on intrinsic image decomposition.


title: Spectral splits of neutrinos as a BCS-BEC crossover type phenomenon

abstract:
  We show that the spectral split of a neutrino ensemble which initially
consists of electron type neutrinos, is analogous to the BCS-BEC crossover
already observed in ultra cold atomic gas experiments. Such a neutrino ensemble
mimics the deleptonization burst of a core collapse supernova. Although these
two phenomena belong to very different domains of physics, the propagation of
neutrinos from highly interacting inner regions of the supernova to the vacuum
is reminiscent of the evolution of Cooper pairs between weak and strong
interaction regimes during the crossover. The Hamiltonians and the
corresponding many-body states undergo very similar transformations if one
replaces the pair quasispin of the latter with the neutrino isospin of the
former.

categories: astro-ph.HE cond-mat.quant-gas hep-ph nucl-th


title: A separable Fr\'echet space of almost universal disposition

abstract:
  The Gurari\u{\i} space is the unique separable Banach space $\mathbb{G}$
which is of almost universal disposition for finite-dimensional Banach spaces,
which means that for every $\varepsilon>0$, for all finite-dimensional normed
spaces $E \subseteq F$, for every isometric embedding
${e}\colon{E}\to{\mathbb{G}}$ there exists an $\varepsilon$-isometric embedding
${f}\colon{F}\to{\mathbb{G}}$ such that $f \restriction E = e$.
  We show that $\mathbb{G}^{\mathbb{N}}$ with a special sequence of semi-norms
is of almost universal disposition for finite-dimensional graded Fr\'echet
spaces. The construction relies heavily on the universal operator on the
Gurari\u{\i} space, recently constructed by Garbuli\'nska-Wegrzyn and the third
author.
  This yields in particular that $\mathbb{G}^{\mathbb{N}}$ is universal in the
class of all separable Fr\'echet spaces.


title: Understanding the H-T phase diagram of the mono-axial helimagnet

abstract:
  Some unexpected features of the phase diagram of the monoaxial helimagnet in
presence of an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the chiral axis are
theoretically predicted. A rather general hamiltonian with long range
Heisenberg exchange and Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya interactions is considered. The
continuum limit simplifies the free energy, which contains only a few
parameters which in principle are determined by the many parameters of the
hamiltonian, although in practice they may be tuned to fit the experiments. The
phase diagram contains a Chiral Soliton Lattice phase and a forced
ferromagnetic phase separated by a line of phase transitions, which are of
second order at low T and of first order in the vicinity of the zero-field
ordering temperature, and are separated by a tricritical point. A highly non
linear Chiral Soliton Lattice, in which many harmonics contribute appreciably
to the spatial modulation of the local magnetic moment, develops only below the
tricritical temperature, and in this case the scaling shows a logarithmic
behaviour similar to that at T=0, which is a universal feature of the Chiral
Soliton Lattice. Below the tricritical temperature, the normalized soliton
density curves are found to be independent of T, in agreement with the
experimental results of magnetorresistance curves, while above the tricritical
temperature they show a noticeable temperature dependence. The implications in
the interpretation of experimental results of CrNb3S6 are discussed.


title:
Search for $2\beta$ decay of $^{106}$Cd with enriched $^{106}$CdWO$_4$
  crystal scintillator in coincidence with four HPGe detectors

abstract:
  A radiopure cadmium tungstate crystal scintillator, enriched in $^{106}$Cd to
66%, with mass of 216 g ($^{106}$CdWO$_4$), was used to search for double beta
decay processes in $^{106}$Cd in coincidence with four ultra-low background
high purity germanium detectors in a single cryostat. New improved limits on
the double beta processes in $^{106}$Cd have been set on the level of $10^{20}-
10^{21}$ yr after 13085 h of data taking. In particular, the half-life limit on
the two neutrino electron capture with positron emission,
$T_{1/2}^{2\nu\varepsilon\beta^+}\geq 1.1\times 10^{21}$ yr, has reached the
region of theoretical predictions. With this half-life limit the effective
nuclear matrix element for the $2\nu\varepsilon\beta^+$ decay is bounded as
$M^{2\nu\varepsilon\beta^+}_{eff}\le 1.1$. The resonant neutrinoless double
electron captures to the 2718 keV, 2741 keV and 2748 keV excited states of
$^{106}$Pd are restricted at the level of $T_{1/2} \geq
(8.5\times10^{20}-1.4\times10^{21}$) yr.


title: Spectral Asymptotics for Fractional Laplacians

abstract:
  In this article we consider fractional Laplacians which seem to be of
interest to probability theory. This is a rather new class of operators for us
but our methods works (with a twist, as usual). Our main goal is to derive a
two-term asymptotics as one-term asymptotics is easily obtained by R.~Seeley's
method.


title:
Influence of rhombohedral stacking order in the electrical resistance of
  bulk and mesoscopic graphite

abstract:
  The electrical, in-plane resistance as a function of temperature $R(T)$ of
bulk and mesoscopic thin graphite flakes obtained from the same batch was
investigated. Samples thicker than $\sim 30$ nm show metalliclike contribution
in a temperature range that increases with the sample thickness, whereas a
semiconductinglike behavior was observed for thinner samples. The temperature
dependence of the in-plane resistance of all measured samples and several
others from literature can be very well explained between 2 K and 1100 K
assuming three contributions in parallel: a metalliclike conducting path at the
interfaces between crystalline regions, composed of two semiconducting phases,
i.e. Bernal and rhombohedral stacking. From the fits of $R(T)$ we obtain a
semiconducting energy gap of $110 \pm 20$meV for the rhombohedral and $38\pm 8
$meV for the Bernal phase. The presence of these crystalline phases was
confirmed by x-ray diffraction measurements. We review similar experimental
data from literature of the last 33 years and two more theoretical models used
to fit $R(T)$.


title:
Manipulating localized matter waves in multi-component Bose-Einstein
  condensates

abstract:
  We analyze vector localized solutions of two-component Bose-Einstein
condensates (BECs) with variable nonlinearity parameter and external trap
potential through similarity transformation technique which transforms the two
coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations into a pair of coupled nonlinear
Schr\"{o}dinger equations with constant coefficients under a specific
integrability condition. In this analysis we consider three different types of
external trap potentials: a time-independent trap, a time-dependent monotonic
trap, and a time-dependent periodic trap. We point out the existence of
different interesting localized structures, namely rogue waves, dark-and bright
soliton-rogue wave, and rogue wave-breather-like wave for the above three cases
of trap potentials. We show how the vector localized density profiles in a
constant background get deformed when we tune the strength of the trap
parameter. Further we investigate the nature of the trajectories of the
nonautonomous rogue waves. We also construct the dark-dark rogue wave solution
for repulsive-repulsive interaction of two-component BECs and analyze the
associated characteristics for the three different kinds of traps. We then
deduce single, two and three composite rogue waves for three component BECs and
discuss the correlated characteristics when we tune the strength of the trap
parameter for different trap potentials.


title: Chiral corrections to the $1^{-+}$ exotic meson mass

abstract:
  We first construct the effective chiral Lagrangians for the $1^{-+}$ exotic
mesons. With the infrared regularization scheme, we derive the one-loop
infrared singular chiral corrections to the $\pi_1(1600)$ mass explicitly. We
investigate the variation of the different chiral corrections with the pion
mass under two schemes. Hopefully, the explicit non-analytical chiral
structures will be helpful to the chiral extrapolation of the lattice data from
the dynamical lattice QCD simulation of either the exotic light hybrid meson or
tetraquark state.


title:
Testing Gravity Using Galaxy Clusters: New Constraints on Beyond
  Horndeski Theories

abstract:
  The Beyond Horndeski class of alternative gravity theories allow for
Self-accelerating de-Sitter cosmologies with no need for a cosmological
constant. This makes them viable alternatives to $\Lambda$CDM and so testing
their small-scale predictions against General Relativity is of paramount
importance. These theories generically predict deviations in both the Newtonian
force law and the gravitational lensing of light inside extended objects.
Therefore, by simultaneously fitting the X-ray and lensing profiles of galaxy
clusters new constraints can be obtained. In this work, we apply this
methodology to the stacked profiles of 58 high-redshift ($ 0.1<z<1.2$) clusters
using X-ray surface brightness profiles from the XMM Cluster Survey and weak
lensing profiles from CFHTLenS. By performing a multi-parameter Markov chain
Monte Carlo analysis, we are able to place new constraints on the parameters
governing deviations from Newton's law $\Upsilon_{1}=-0.11^{+0.93}_{-0.67}$ and
light bending $\Upsilon_{2}=-0.22^{+1.22}_{-1.19}$. Both constraints are
consistent with General Relativity, for which $\Upsilon_{1}=\Upsilon_{2}=0$. We
present here the first observational constraints on $\Upsilon_{2}$, as well as
the first extragalactic measurement of both parameters.


title: Energy exchange in driven open quantum systems at strong coupling

abstract:
  The time-dependent energy transfer in a driven quantum system strongly
coupled to a heat bath is studied within an influence functional approach.
Exact formal expressions for the statistics of energy dissipation into the
different channels are derived. The general method is applied to the driven
dissipative two-state system. It is shown that the energy flows obey a balance
relation, and that, for strong coupling, the interaction may constitute the
major dissipative channel. Results in analytic form are presented for a
particular value of strong Ohmic dissipation. The energy flows show interesting
behaviors including driving-induced coherences and quantum stochastic
resonances.


title:
Lattice strain and tilt mapping in stressed Ge microstructures using
  X-ray Laue micro-diffraction and rainbow-filtering

abstract:
  Micro-Laue diffraction and simultaneous rainbow-filtered micro-diffraction
were used to measure accurately the full strain tensor and the lattice
orientation distribution at the sub-micron scale in highly strained, suspended
Ge micro-devices. A numerical approach to obtain the full strain tensor from
the deviatoric strain measurement alone is also demonstrated and used for
faster full strain mapping. We performed the measurements in a series of
micro-devices under either uniaxial or biaxial stress and found an excellent
agreement with numerical simulations. This shows the superior potential of Laue
micro-diffraction for the investigation of highly strained micro-devices.


title: The classical origin of modern mathematics

abstract:
  The aim of this paper is to study the historical evolution of mathematical
thinking and its spatial spreading. To do so, we have collected and integrated
data from different online academic datasets. In its final stage, the database
includes a large number (N~200K) of advisor-student relationships, with
affiliations and keywords on their research topic, over several centuries, from
the 14th century until today. We focus on two different topics, the evolving
importance of countries and of the research disciplines over time. Moreover we
study the database at three levels, its global statistics, the mesoscale
networks connecting countries and disciplines, and the genealogical level.

categories: math.HO cs.CY physics.data-an physics.soc-ph


title: Evaluating the Impact of Treating the Optimal Subgroup

abstract:
  Suppose we have a binary treatment used to influence an outcome. Given data
from an observational or controlled study, we wish to determine whether or not
there exists some subset of observed covariates in which the treatment is more
effective than the standard practice of no treatment. Furthermore, we wish to
quantify the improvement in population mean outcome that will be seen if this
subgroup receives treatment and the rest of the population remains untreated.
We show that this problem is surprisingly challenging given how often it is an
(at least implicit) study objective. Blindly applying standard techniques fails
to yield any apparent asymptotic results, while using existing techniques to
confront the non-regularity does not necessarily help at distributions where
there is no treatment effect. Here we describe an approach to estimate the
impact of treating the subgroup which benefits from treatment that is valid in
a nonparametric model and is able to deal with the case where there is no
treatment effect. The approach is a slight modification of an approach that
recently appeared in the individualized medicine literature.


title:
NMR signal for particles diffusing under potentials: From path integrals
  and numerical methods to a new model of diffusion anisotropy

abstract:
  We study the influence of diffusion on NMR experiments when the molecules
undergo random motion under the influence of a force field, and place special
emphasis on parabolic (Hookean) potentials. To this end, the problem is studied
using path integral methods. Explicit relationships are derived for commonly
employed gradient waveforms involving pulsed and oscillating gradients. The
Bloch-Torrey equation, describing the temporal evolution of magnetization, is
modified by incorporating potentials. A general solution to this equation is
obtained for the case of parabolic potential by adopting the multiple
correlation function (MCF) formalism, which has been used in the past to
quantify the effects of restricted diffusion. Both analytical and MCF results
were found to be in agreement with random walk simulations. A multi-dimensional
formulation of the problem is introduced that leads to a new characterization
of diffusion anisotropy. Unlike for the case of traditional methods that employ
a diffusion tensor, anisotropy originates from the tensorial force constant,
and bulk diffusivity is retained in the formulation. Our findings suggest that
some features of the NMR signal that have traditionally been attributed to
restricted diffusion are accommodated by the Hookean model. Under certain
conditions, the formalism can be envisioned to provide a viable approximation
to the mathematically more challenging restricted diffusion problems.


title: Analyzing coevolutionary games with dynamic fitness landscapes

abstract:
  Coevolutionary games cast players that may change their strategies as well as
their networks of interaction. In this paper a framework is introduced for
describing coevolutionary game dynamics by landscape models. It is shown that
coevolutionary games invoke dynamic landscapes. Numerical experiments are shown
for a prisoner's dilemma (PD) and a snow drift (SD) game that both use either
birth-death (BD) or death-birth (DB) strategy updating. The resulting
landscapes are analyzed with respect to modality and ruggedness


title: Precision physics with pile-up insensitive observables

abstract:
  To deepen the search for beyond the Standard Model physics, the Large Hadron
Collider is pushing to higher and higher luminosity. At high luminosity,
precision physics becomes increasingly difficult due to contamination from
additional proton collisions per bunch crossing called pile-up. In recent
years, many methods have been developed to cull this excess mostly low-energy
radiation away from important signal regions, but it has been unclear if these
methods were amenable to systematically-improvable theoretical understanding.
In this paper, it is shown that one such method, soft drop jet grooming, has
excellent theoretical properties: it is ultra-local, depending on only
radiation within a jet, and it is free of non-global logarithms. Calculations
of the soft drop jet mass and related observables are presented at
next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy matched to next-to-next-to-leading
fixed-order in perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics. Once measured at the Large
Hadron Collider, precision comparisons between theory and data can be made,
essentially independent of the amount of pile-up contamination.


title:
Elastic constants and thermodynamical quantities for crystal lattices
  from many-body perturbation theory

abstract:
  The method of many body Green's functions is used to derive algebraic
expressions for the different elastic and thermodynamical quantities such as
the free energy, internal energy, entropy, heat capacity, elastic constants
(adiabatic and isothermal) and the coefficient of thermal expansion. The
perturbation expansion is developed up to third-order and diagrams
corresponding to the equations are represented. The present results extend the
existing ones by giving expressions for the elastic constants of arbitrary
order and terms which are higher-order in the interatomic force constants that
have been obtained earlier. The perturbation expansion in terms of arbitrary
macroscopical parameters is considered and the similarity of expansions with
respect to different parameters is emphasized. A physical interpretation of the
harmonic phonon eigenvectors is considered. To the author's knowledge, no such
similar interpretation of the harmonic phonon eigenvectors has been given in
the literature before.


title:
Non-Abelian clouds around Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes: the
  existence line

abstract:
  A known feature of electrically charged Reissner-Nordstr\"om-anti-de Sitter
planar black holes is that they can become unstable when considered as
solutions of Einstein--Yang-Mills theory. The mechanism for this is that the
linearized Yang-Mills equations in the background of the Reissner-Nordstr\"om
(RN) black holes possess a normalizable zero mode, resulting in non-Abelian
(nA) magnetic clouds near the horizon. In this work we show that the same
pattern may occur also for asymptotically flat RN black holes. Different from
the anti-de Sitter case, in the Minkowskian background the prerequisite for the
existence of the nA clouds is $i)$ a large enough gauge group and $ii)$ the
presence of some extra interaction terms in the matter Lagrangian. To
illustrate this mechanism we present two specific examples, one in four and the
other in five dimensional asymptotically flat spacetime. In the first case, we
augment the usual $SU(3)$ Yang-Mills Lagrangian with higher order (quartic)
curvature term, while for the second one we add the Chern-Simons density to the
$SO(6)$ Yang-Mills system. In both cases, an Abelian gauge symmetry is
spontaneously broken near a RN black hole horizon with the appearance of a
condensate of nA gauge fields. In addition to these two examples, we review the
corresponding picture for anti-de Sitter black holes. All these solutions are
studied both analytically and numerically, existence proofs being provided for
nA clouds in the background of RN black holes. The proofs use shooting
techniques which are suggested by and in turn offer insights for our numerical
methods. They indicate that, for a black hole of given mass, appropriate
electric charge values are required to ensure the existence of solutions
interpolating desired boundary behavior at the horizons and spatial infinity.


title: Conditional Monte Carlo: A Change-of-Variables Approach

abstract:
  Conditional Monte Carlo (CMC) has been widely used for sensitivity estimation
with discontinuous integrands as a standard simulation technique. A major
limitation of using CMC in this context is that finding conditioning variables
to ensure continuity and tractability of the resulting conditional expectation
is often problem dependent and may be difficult. In this paper, we attempt to
circumvent this difficulty by proposing a change-of-variables approach to CMC,
leading to efficient sensitivity estimators under mild conditions that are
satisfied by a wide class of discontinuous integrands. These estimators do not
rely on the structure of the simulation models and are less problem dependent.
The value of the proposed approach is exemplified through applications in
sensitivity estimation for financial options and gradient estimation of
chance-constrained optimization problems.


title:
Analysis of UV and EUV emission from impacts on the Sun after 2011 June
  7 eruptive flare

abstract:
  On 2011 June 7 debris from a large filament eruption fell back to the Sun
causing bright ultraviolet (UV) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) splashes across
the surface. These impacts may give clues on the process of stellar accretion.
The aim is to investigate how the impact emission is influenced by structures
in the falling ejecta and at the solar surface. We determine the UV and EUV
light curves of a sample of impacts. The ballistic impact velocity is estimated
from the ejection and landing times and, where possible, compared with the
velocity derived by tracking the downflows in SDO/AIA and STEREO/EUVI images.
Estimates of the column density before impact are made from the darkness of the
falling plasma in the 193 A channel. The impact velocities were between 230 and
450 km/s. All impacts produced bright EUV emission at the impact site but
bright UV was only observed when the impacting fragments reached the
chromosphere. There was no clear relation between EUV intensity and kinetic
energy. Low UV to EUV intensity ratios (I{UV}/I{EUV}) were seen (i) from
impacts of low column-density fragments, (ii) when splashes, produced by some
impacts, prevented subsequent fragments from reaching the chromosphere, and
(iii) from an impact in an active region. The earliest impacts with the lowest
velocity (~250 km/s) had the highest I{UV}/I{EUV}. The I{UV}/I{EUV} decreases
with impact velocity, magnetic field at the impact site, and EUV ionising flux.
Many of the infalling fragments dissipate above the chromosphere either due to
ionisation and trapping in magnetic structures, or to them encountering a
splash from an earlier impact. If the same happens in accreting stars then the
reduced X-ray compared to optical emission that has been observed is more
likely due to absorption by the trailing stream than locally at the impact
site.


title: Coupling of Hidden Sector

abstract:
  A hypothetic Hidden Sector of the Universe, consisting of sterile fermions
("sterinos") and sterile mediating bosons ("sterons") of mass dimension 1 (not
2!) - the last described by an antisymmetric tensor field - requires to exist
also a scalar isovector and scalar isoscalar in order to be able to construct
electroweak invariant coupling (before spontaneously breaking its symmetry).


title:
Forward and Inverse Uncertainty Quantification using Multilevel Monte
  Carlo Algorithms for an Elliptic Nonlocal Equation

abstract:
  This paper considers uncertainty quantification for an elliptic nonlocal
equation. In particular, it is assumed that the parameters which define the
kernel in the nonlocal operator are uncertain and a priori distributed
according to a probability measure. It is shown that the induced probability
measure on some quantities of interest arising from functionals of the solution
to the equation with random inputs is well-defined; as is the posterior
distribution on parameters given observations. As the elliptic nonlocal
equation cannot be solved approximate posteriors are constructed. The
multilevel Monte Carlo (MLMC) and multilevel sequential Monte Carlo (MLSMC)
sampling algorithms are used for a priori and a posteriori estimation,
respectively, of quantities of interest. These algorithms reduce the amount of
work to estimate posterior expectations, for a given level of error, relative
to Monte Carlo and i.i.d. sampling from the posterior at a given level of
approximation of the solution of the elliptic nonlocal equation.


title: Shapes of rotating nonsingular black hole shadows

abstract:
  It is believed that curvature singularities are a creation of general
relativity and hence, in the absence of a quantum gravity, models of
nonsingular black holes have received significant attention. We study the
shadow (apparent shape), an optical appearance because of its strong
gravitational field, cast by a nonsingular black hole which is characterized by
three parameters, i.e., mass ($M$), spin ($a$), and a deviation parameter
($k$). The nonsingular black hole under consideration, is a generalization of
the Kerr black hole {that} can be recognized asymptotically ($r>>k, k>0$)
explicitly as the Kerr-Newman black hole, and in the limit $k \rightarrow 0$ as
the Kerr black hole. It turns out that the shadow of a nonsingular black hole
is a dark zone covered by {a} deformed circle. Interestingly, it is seen that
the shadow of a black hole is affected due to the parameter $k$. Indeed, for a
given $a$, the size of a shadow reduces as the parameter $k$ increases and the
shadow becomes more distorted as we increase the value of the parameter $k$
when compared with the analogous Kerr black hole shadow. We also investigate,
in detail, how the ergoregion of a black hole is changed due to the deviation
parameter $k$.


title: Replica symmetry breaking for anisotropic magnets with quenched disorder

abstract:
  We study critical behaviour of a magnet with cubic anisotropy and quenched
scalar disorder which is taken into account by replica method. We derive to
first order in $\epsilon$ approximation the renormalization group equations
taking into account possible replica symmetry breaking. We study the stability
of the replica symmetric fixed points with respect to perturbations without (in
general case) replica symmetry. However, we find that if a fixed point is
stable with respect to replica symmetric deviations, it is also stable with
respect to deviations without replica symmetry.

categories: cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.dis-nn math-ph math.MP


title:
Space-resolved diffusing wave spectroscopy measurements of the
  macroscopic deformation and the microscopic dynamics in tensile strain tests

abstract:
  We couple a laser-based, space-resolved dynamic light scattering apparatus to
a universal testing machine for mechanical extensional tests. We perform
simultaneous optical and mechanical measurements on polyether ether ketone, a
semi-crystalline polymer widely used in the industry. Due to the high turbidity
of the sample, light is multiply scattered by the sample and the diffusing wave
spectroscopy (DWS) formalism is used to interpret the data. Space-resolved DWS
yields spatial maps of the sample strain and of the microscopic dynamics. An
excellent agreement is found between the strain maps thus obtained and those
measured by a conventional stereo-correlation bench. The microscopic dynamics
reveals both affine motion and plastic rearrangements. Thanks to the extreme
sensitivity of DWS to displacements as small as 1 nm, plastic activity and its
spatial localization can be detected at an early stage of the sample
deformation, making the technique presented here a valuable complement to
existing material characterization methods.


title:
Consensus and Voting on Large Graphs: An Application of Graph Limit
  Theory

abstract:
  Building on recent work by Medvedev (2014) we establish new connections
between a basic consensus model, called the voting model, and the theory of
graph limits. We show that in the voting model if consensus is attained in the
continuum limit then solutions to the finite model will eventually be close to
a constant function, and a class of graph limits which guarantee consensus is
identified. It is also proven that the dynamics in the continuum limit can be
decomposed as a direct sum of dynamics on the connected components, using
Janson's definition of connectivity for graph limits. This implies that without
loss of generality it may be assumed that the continuum voting model occurs on
a connected graph limit.


title: Stratified Monte Carlo simulation of Markov chains

abstract:
  We present several Monte Carlo strategies for simulating discrete-time Markov
chains with continuous multi-dimensional state space; we focus on stratified
techniques. We first analyze the variance of the calculation of the measure of
a domain included in the unit hypercube, when stratified samples are used. We
then show that each step of the simulation of a Markov chain can be reduced to
the numerical integration of the indicator function of a subdomain of the unit
hypercube. Our approach for Markov chains simulates N copies of the chain in
parallel using stratified sampling and the copies are sorted after each step,
according to their successive coordinates. We analyze variance reduction on
examples of pricing of European and Asian options: enhanced efficiency of
stratified strategies is shown.


title: Parabolic Induction and Geometry of Orbital Varieties for GL(n)

abstract:
  Ariki and Ginzburg, after the previous work of Zelevinsky on orbital
varieties, proved that multiplicities in a total parabolically induced
representations are given by the value at q=1 of Kazhdan-Lusztig Polynomials
associated to the symmetric groups. In my thesis I explore the geometry of
orbital varieties and I essentially obtain two important results:
  - first I prove a conjecture of Zelevinksy on a property of independence of
total parabolically induced representations.
  - More crucially I give a strategy to compute multiplicities in general
parabolically induced representations using the product of perverse sheaves
introduced by Lusztig.


title:
Disentangling regular and chaotic motion in the standard map using
  complex network analysis of recurrences in phase space

abstract:
  Recurrence in the phase space of complex systems is a well-studied
phenomenon, which has provided deep insights into the nonlinear dynamics of
such systems. For dissipative systems, characteristics based on recurrence
plots have recently attracted much interest for discriminating qualitatively
different types of dynamics in terms of measures of complexity, dynamical
invariants, or even structural characteristics of the underlying attractor's
geometry in phase space. Here, we demonstrate that the latter approach also
provides a corresponding distinction between different co-existing dynamical
regimes of the standard map, a paradigmatic example of a low-dimensional
conservative system. Specifically, we show that the recently developed approach
of recurrence network analysis provides potentially useful geometric
characteristics distinguishing between regular and chaotic orbits. We find that
chaotic orbits in an intermittent laminar phase (commonly referred to as sticky
orbits) have a distinct geometric structure possibly differing in a subtle way
from those of regular orbits, which is highlighted by different recurrence
network properties obtained from relatively short time series. Thus, this
approach can help discriminating regular orbits from laminar phases of chaotic
ones, which presents a persistent challenge to many existing chaos detection
techniques.


title: No-arbitrage bounds for the forward smile given marginals

abstract:
  We explore the robust replication of forward-start straddles given quoted
(Call and Put options) market data. One approach to this problem classically
follows semi-infinite linear programming arguments, and we propose a
discretisation scheme to reduce its dimensionality and hence its complexity.
Alternatively, one can consider the dual problem, consisting in finding optimal
martingale measures under which the upper and the lower bounds are attained.
Semi-analytical solutions to this dual problem were proposed by Hobson and
Klimmek (2013) and by Hobson and Neuberger (2008). We recast this dual approach
as a finite dimensional linear programme, and reconcile numerically, in the
Black-Scholes and in the Heston model, the two approaches.


title: Learning Dynamic Robot-to-Human Object Handover from Human Feedback

abstract:
  Object handover is a basic, but essential capability for robots interacting
with humans in many applications, e.g., caring for the elderly and assisting
workers in manufacturing workshops. It appears deceptively simple, as humans
perform object handover almost flawlessly. The success of humans, however,
belies the complexity of object handover as collaborative physical interaction
between two agents with limited communication. This paper presents a learning
algorithm for dynamic object handover, for example, when a robot hands over
water bottles to marathon runners passing by the water station. We formulate
the problem as contextual policy search, in which the robot learns object
handover by interacting with the human. A key challenge here is to learn the
latent reward of the handover task under noisy human feedback. Preliminary
experiments show that the robot learns to hand over a water bottle naturally
and that it adapts to the dynamics of human motion. One challenge for the
future is to combine the model-free learning algorithm with a model-based
planning approach and enable the robot to adapt over human preferences and
object characteristics, such as shape, weight, and surface texture.


title: $C^{1,\alpha}$ regularity for the normalized $p$-Poisson problem

abstract:
  We consider the normalized $p$-Poisson problem $$-\Delta^N_p u=f \qquad
\text{in}\quad \Omega.$$ The normalized $p$-Laplacian $\Delta_p^{N}u:=|D
u|^{2-p}\Delta_p u$ is in non-divergence form and arises for example from
stochastic games. We prove $C^{1,\alpha}_{loc}$ regularity with nearly optimal
$\alpha$ for viscosity solutions of this problem. In the case $f\in
L^{\infty}\cap C$ and $p>1$ we use methods both from viscosity and weak theory,
whereas in the case $f\in L^q\cap C$, $q>\max(n,\frac p2,2)$, and $p>2$ we rely
on the tools of nonlinear potential theory.


title:
Local comparability of measures, averaging and maximal averaging
  operators

abstract:
  We explore the consequences for the boundedness properties of averaging and
maximal averaging operators, of the following local comparabiliity condition
for measures: Intersecting balls of the same radius have comparable sizes.
Since in geometrically doubling spaces this property yields the same results as
doubling, we study under which circumstances it is equivalent to the latter
condition, and when it is more general. We also study the concrete case of the
standard gaussian measure, where this property fails, but nevertheles averaging
operators are uniformly bounded, with respect to the radius, in $L^1$. However,
such bounds grow exponentially fast with the dimension, very much unlike the
case of Lebesgue measure.


title: Incorporating Copying Mechanism in Sequence-to-Sequence Learning

abstract:
  We address an important problem in sequence-to-sequence (Seq2Seq) learning
referred to as copying, in which certain segments in the input sequence are
selectively replicated in the output sequence. A similar phenomenon is
observable in human language communication. For example, humans tend to repeat
entity names or even long phrases in conversation. The challenge with regard to
copying in Seq2Seq is that new machinery is needed to decide when to perform
the operation. In this paper, we incorporate copying into neural network-based
Seq2Seq learning and propose a new model called CopyNet with encoder-decoder
structure. CopyNet can nicely integrate the regular way of word generation in
the decoder with the new copying mechanism which can choose sub-sequences in
the input sequence and put them at proper places in the output sequence. Our
empirical study on both synthetic data sets and real world data sets
demonstrates the efficacy of CopyNet. For example, CopyNet can outperform
regular RNN-based model with remarkable margins on text summarization tasks.


title:
Large spatially-resolved rectification in a donor-acceptor molecular
  heterojunction

abstract:
  We demonstrate that rectification ratios (RR) of >250 (>1000) at biases of
0.5 V (1.2 V) are achievable at the two-molecule limit for donor-acceptor
bilayers of pentacene on fullerene on Cu using scanning tunneling spectroscopy
and microscopy. Using first-principles calculations, we show that the system
behaves as a molecular Schottky diode with a tunneling transport mechanism from
semiconducting pentacene to Cu-hybridized metallic fullerene. Low-bias RRs vary
by two orders-of-magnitude at the edge of these molecular heterojunctions due
to increased Stark shifts and confinement effects.


title:
Comparison of three Statistical Classification Techniques for Maser
  Identification

abstract:
  We applied three statistical classification techniques - linear discriminant
analysis (LDA), logistic regression and random forests - to three astronomical
datasets associated with searches for interstellar masers. We compared the
performance of these methods in identifying whether specific mid-infrared or
millimetre continuum sources are likely to have associated interstellar masers.
We also discuss the ease, or otherwise, with which the results of each
classification technique can be interpreted. Non-parametric methods have the
potential to make accurate predictions when there are complex relationships
between critical parameters. We found that for the small datasets the
parametric methods logistic regression and LDA performed best, for the largest
dataset the non-parametric method of random forests performed with comparable
accuracy to parametric techniques, rather than any significant improvement.
This suggests that at least for the specific examples investigated here
accuracy of the predictions obtained is not being limited by the use of
parametric models. We also found that for LDA, transformation of the data to
match a normal distribution in the input parameters led to big improvements in
accuracy. The different classification techniques had significant overlap in
their predictions, further astronomical observations will enable the accuracy
of these predictions to be tested.


title:
The decay $\tau \rightarrow K^{0}K^{-}\nu_{\tau}$ in the extended
  Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model

abstract:
  The full and differential widths of the decay $\tau \rightarrow
K^{0}K^{-}\nu_{\tau}$ are calculated in the framework of the extended
Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. The contributions of the subprocesses with the
intermediate vector mesons $\rho$(770) and $\rho$(1450) are taken into account.
The obtained results are in satisfactory agreement with the experimental data.


title:
Pointwise estimates for solutions of semilinear parabolic inequalities
  with a potential

abstract:
  We obtain pointwise estimates for solutions of semilinear parabolic equations
with a potential on connected domains both of $\mathbb R^n$ and of general
Riemannian manifolds.


title: Appearance Harmonization for Single Image Shadow Removal

abstract:
  Shadows often create unwanted artifacts in photographs, and removing them can
be very challenging. Previous shadow removal methods often produce de-shadowed
regions that are visually inconsistent with the rest of the image. In this work
we propose a fully automatic shadow region harmonization approach that improves
the appearance compatibility of the de-shadowed region as typically produced by
previous methods. It is based on a shadow-guided patch-based image synthesis
approach that reconstructs the shadow region using patches sampled from
non-shadowed regions. The result is then refined based on the reconstruction
confidence to handle unique image patterns. Many shadow removal results and
comparisons are show the effectiveness of our improvement. Quantitative
evaluation on a benchmark dataset suggests that our automatic shadow
harmonization approach effectively improves upon the state-of-the-art.


title: Improving the Single Scalar Consistency Relation

abstract:
  We propose a test of single-scalar inflation based on using the well-measured
scalar power spectrum to reconstruct the tensor power spectrum, up to a single
integration constant. Our test is a sort of integrated version of the
single-scalar consistency relation. This sort of test can be used effectively,
even when the tensor power spectrum is measured too poorly to resolve the
tensor spectral index. We give an example using simulated data based on a
hypothetical detection with tensor-to-scalar ratio $r = 0.01$. Our test can
also be employed for correlating scalar and tensor features in the far future
when the data is good.


title:
Joint System and Algorithm Design for Computationally Efficient Fan Beam
  Coded Aperture X-ray Coherent Scatter Imaging

abstract:
  In x-ray coherent scatter tomography, tomographic measurements of the forward
scatter distribution are used to infer scatter densities within a volume. A
radiopaque 2D pattern placed between the object and the detector array enables
the disambiguation between different scatter events. The use of a fan beam
source illumination to speed up data acquisition relative to a pencil beam
presents computational challenges. To facilitate the use of iterative
algorithms based on a penalized Poisson log-likelihood function, efficient
computational implementation of the forward and backward models are needed. Our
proposed implementation exploits physical symmetries and structural properties
of the system and suggests a joint system-algorithm design, where the system
design choices are influenced by computational considerations, and in turn lead
to reduced reconstruction time. Computational-time speedups of approximately
146 and 32 are achieved in the computation of the forward and backward models,
respectively. Results validating the forward model and reconstruction algorithm
are presented on simulated analytic and Monte Carlo data.


title:
Non-classicality in mental states : an experimental study with ambiguous
  audio (music) stimuli

abstract:
  This paper attempts to address the question that whether the present physical
or mathematical theories are sufficient to understand the complexities of human
brain when it interacts with the external environment in the form of an
auditory stimulus.There have been efforts reporting that the introduction of
ambiguity in visual stimuli causes effects which can't be explained
classically.In this paper,it is investigated whether ambiguity in auditory
stimuli can introduce any non-classical effects in human brain.Simple
experiments were performed on normal subjects where they listened to an
ambiguous auditory signal and responded to a question with 'yes' or 'no'.The
outcome of the test showed that the classical formula of total probability does
not hold true in this case.Results were interesting and indicate that there is
a definite non-classicality in mental states in perception of ambiguous audio
stimuli.


title: Covariantized Matrix theory for D-particles

abstract:
  We reformulate the Matrix theory of D-particles in a manifestly
Lorentz-covariant fashion in the sense of 11 dimesnional flat Minkowski
space-time, from the viewpoint of the so-called DLCQ interpretation of the
light-front Matrix theory. The theory is characterized by various symmetry
properties including higher gauge symmetries, which contain the usual SU($N$)
symmetry as a special case and are extended from the structure naturally
appearing in association with a discretized version of Nambu's 3-bracket. The
theory is scale invariant, and the emergence of the 11 dimensional
gravitational length, or M-theory scale, is interpreted as a consequence of a
breaking of the scaling symmetry through a super-selection rule. In the
light-front gauge with the DLCQ compactification of 11 dimensions, the theory
reduces to the usual light-front formulation. In the time-like gauge with the
ordinary M-theory spatial compactification, it reduces to a non-Abelian
Born-Infeld-like theory, which in the limit of large $N$ becomes equivalent
with the original BFSS theory.


title: Leapfrogging Kelvin waves

abstract:
  Two vortex rings can form a localized configuration whereby they continually
pass through one another in an alternating fashion. This phenomenon is called
leapfrogging. Using parameters suitable for superfluid helium-4, we describe a
recurrence phenomenon that is similar to leapfrogging, which occurs for two
coaxial straight vortex filaments with the same Kelvin wave mode. For
small-amplitude Kelvin waves we demonstrate that our full Biot-Savart
simulations closely follow predictions obtained from a simpified model that
provides an analytical approximation developed for nearly parallel vortices.
Our results are also relevant to thin-cored helical vortices in classical
fluids.


title:
Direct mass measurements of neutron-rich $^{86}$Kr projectile fragments
  and the persistence of neutron magic number $N$ = 32 in Sc isotopes

abstract:
  In this paper, we present direct mass measurements of neutron-rich $^{86}$Kr
projectile fragments conducted at the HIRFL-CSR facility in Lanzhou by
employing the Isochronous Mass Spectrometry (IMS) method. The new mass excesses
of $^{52-54}$Sc nuclides are determined to be -40492(82), -38928(114),
-34654(540) keV, which show a significant increase of binding energy compared
to the reported ones in the Atomic Mass Evaluation 2012 (AME12). In particular,
$^{53}$Sc and $^{54}$Sc are more bound by 0.8 MeV and 1.0 MeV, respectively.
The behavior of the two neutron separation energy with neutron numbers
indicates a strong sub-shell closure at neutron number $N$ = 32 in Sc isotopes.


title:
A construction of non--flat non--homogeneous symmetric parabolic
  geometries

abstract:
  We construct a series of examples of non--flat non--homogeneous parabolic
geometries that carry a symmetry of the parabolic geometry at each point.


title:
The cross-correlation between 3d cosmic shear and the integrated
  Sachs-Wolfe effect

abstract:
  We present the first calculation of the cross-correlation between
three-dimensional cosmic shear and the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (iSW) effect.
Both signals are combined in a single formalism, which permits the computation
of the full covariance matrix. In order to avoid the uncertainties presented by
the non-linear evolution of the matter power spectrum and intrinsic alignments
of galaxies, our analysis is restricted to large scales, i.e. multipoles below
l=1000. We demonstrate in a Fisher analysis that this reduction compared to
other studies of three-dimensional weak lensing extending to smaller scales is
compensated by the information that is gained if the additional iSW signal and
in particular its cross-correlation with lensing data are considered. Given the
observational standards of upcoming weak lensing surveys like Euclid, marginal
errors on cosmological parameters decrease by ten per cent compared to a cosmic
shear experiment if both types of information are combined without a CMB prior.
Once the constraining power of CMB data is added, the improvement becomes
marginal.


title: The mathematics of non-linear metrics for nested networks

abstract:
  Numerical analysis of data from international trade and ecological networks
has shown that the non-linear fitness-complexity metric is the best candidate
to rank nodes by importance in bipartite networks that exhibit a nested
structure. Despite its relevance for real networks, the mathematical properties
of the metric and its variants remain largely unexplored. Here, we perform an
analytic and numeric study of the fitness-complexity metric and a new variant,
called minimal extremal metric. We rigorously derive exact expressions for node
scores for perfectly nested networks and show that these expressions explain
the non-trivial convergence properties of the metrics. A comparison between the
fitness-complexity metric and the minimal extremal metric on real data reveals
that the latter can produce improved rankings if the input data are reliable.


title: Sharp sup-norm Bayesian curve estimation

abstract:
  Sup-norm curve estimation is a fundamental statistical problem and, in
principle, a premise for the construction of confidence bands for
infinite-dimensional parameters. In a Bayesian framework, the issue of whether
the sup-norm-concentration- of-posterior-measure approach proposed by Gin\'e
and Nickl (2011), which involves solving a testing problem exploiting
concentration properties of kernel and projection-type density estimators
around their expectations, can yield minimax-optimal rates is herein settled in
the affirmative beyond conjugate-prior settings obtaining sharp rates for
common prior-model pairs like random histograms, Dirichlet Gaussian or Laplace
mixtures, which can be employed for density, regression or quantile estimation.


title: Coulomb and electron-phonon interactions in metals

abstract:
  An accurate and consistent theory of phonons in metals requires that all
long-range Coulomb interactions between charged particles (electrons and ions)
be treated on equal footing. So far, all attempts to deal with this
non-perturbative system were relying on uncontrolled approximations in the
absence of small parameters. In this work, we develop the Diagrammatic Monte
Carlo approach for a two-component Coulomb system that obtains the solution to
this fundamental problem in an approximation free way by computing vertex
corrections from higher-order skeleton graphs. The feasibility of the method is
demonstrated by calculating the spectrum of longitudinal acoustic phonons in a
simple cubic lattice, determining their sound velocity, and obtaining the
phonon spectral densities by analytic continuation of the Matsubara Green's
functions. Final results are checked against the lowest-order fully
self-consistent GW-approximation in both adiabatic and non-adiabatic regimes.


title: The movement of a forager: Strategies for the efficient use of resources

abstract:
  We study a simple model of a foraging animal that modifies the substrate on
which it moves. This substrate provides its only resource, and the forager
manage it by taking a limited portion at each visited site. The resource
recovers its value after the visit following a relaxation law. We study
different scenarios to analyze the efficiency of the managing strategy,
corresponding to control the bite size. We observe the non trivial emergence of
a home range, that is visited in a periodic way. The duration of the
corresponding cycles and the transient until it emerges is affected by the bite
size. Our results show that the most efficient use of the resource, measured as
the balance between gathering and travelled distance, corresponds to foragers
that take larger portions but without exhausting the resource. We also analyze
the use of space determining the number of attractors of the dynamics, and we
observe that it depends on the bite size and the recovery time of the resource.


title: Open string T-duality in a weakly curved background

abstract:
  We consider a theory of an open string moving in a weakly curved background,
composed of a constant metric and a linearly coordinate dependent Kalb-Ramond
field with an infinitesimal field strength. We find its T-dual using the
generalized Buscher procedure developed for the closed string moving in a
weakly curved background, and the fact that solving the boundary conditions,
the open string theory transforms to the effective closed string theory. So,
T-dualizing the effective theory along all effective directions we obtain its
T-dual theory and resume the open sting theory which has such an effective
theory. In this way we obtain the open string theory T-dual.


title: Some Remarks on Expanding Maps

abstract:
  In this work we treat a famous topic in Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems:
uniformly expanding maps. We relate regularity of expanding maps and
conjugacies with Lyapunov exponents, metric and topological entropies for
expanding maps of the circle. In Theorem C, we present a result of rigidity of
expanding maps on the torus $\mathbb{T}^2,$ after we naturally generalize it in
higher dimensions. Here, we present techniques involving ordinary differential
equations to study rigidity problems of expanding maps. Along of this work we
provide another proof of a Shub-Sullivan's Theorem, concerning the regularity
of the conjugacy between expanding endomorphism of the circle.


title:
A class of second-order cone eigenvalue complementarity problems for
  higher-order tensors

abstract:
  In this paper, we consider the second-order cone tensor eigenvalue
complementarity problem (SOCTEiCP) and present three different reformulations
to the model under consideration. Specifically, for the general SOCTEiCP, we
first show its equivalence to a particular variational inequality under
reasonable conditions. A notable benefit is that such a reformulation possibly
provides an efficient way for the study of properties of the problem. Then, for
the symmetric and sub-symmetric SOCTEiCPs, we reformulate them as appropriate
nonlinear programming problems, which are extremely beneficial for designing
reliable solvers to find solutions of the considered problem. Finally, we
report some preliminary numerical results to verify our theoretical results.


title: Inelastic Magnon Scattering

abstract:
  We study the worldsheet S-matrix of a string attached to a D-brane in
AdS$_5\times$S$^5$. The D-brane is either a giant graviton or a dual giant
graviton. In the gauge theory, the operators we consider belong to the
$su(2|3)$ sector of the theory. Magnon excitations of open strings can exhibit
both elastic (when magnons in the bulk of the string scatter) and inelastic
(when magnons at the endpoint of an open string participate) scattering. Both
of these $S$-matrices are determined (up to an overall phase) by the
$su(2|2)^2$ global symmetry of the theory. In this note we study the $S$-matrix
for inelastic scattering. We show that it exhibits poles corresponding to
boundstates of bulk and boundary magnons. A crossing equation is derived for
the overall phase. It reproduces the crossing equation for maximal giant
gravitons, in the appropriate limit. Finally, scattering in the $su(2)$ sector
is computed to two loops. This two loop result, which determines the overall
phase to two loops, will be useful when a unique solution to the crossing
equation is to be selected.


title:
Simulation Study Comparing Two Tests of Second-order Stationarity and
  Confidence Intervals for Localized Autocovariance

abstract:
  This report compares two tests of second-order stationarity through
simulation. It also provides several examples of localised autocovariances and
their approximate confidence intervals on different real and simulated data
sets. An empirical verification of an asymptotic Gaussianity result is also
demonstrated. The commands use to produce figures in a companion paper are also
described.


title: Fractional Order Malaria Model With Temporary Immunity

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose and analyze a new fractional order malaria model
with temporary immunity. We extend the existing malaria model to include
fractional derivatives. Basic reproduction number is computed using the next
generation matrix method. Model equilibria are determined and their local
asymptotic stability analysis are considered. An efficient Adams-type
predictor-corrector method is used to solve the initial value problem. Finally,
phase plane portraits are generated to describe the dynamics between
susceptible fractions of human hosts and infected fractions of mosquito
vectors.


title:
Masses of open charm and bottom tetraquark states in a relativized quark
  model

abstract:
  We study the masses of open charm and bottom tetraquark states within the
diquark-antidiquark scenario in the relativized quark model proposed by Godfrey
and Isgur. The diquark and antidiquark masses are firstly solved by relativized
quark potential, and then treated as the usual antiquark and quark,
respectively. The masses of tetraquark states are obtained by solving the
Schr\"{o}dinger-type equation between the new diquark and antidiquark. We find
the masses of $sq\bar b\bar q$ tetraquark configuration are much higher than
that of $X(5568)$. This conclusion disfavors the possibility of $X(5568)$ as a
tetraquark state within the diquark-antidiquark scenario. Further experimental
searches are needed to clarify the nature of the signal observed by D0
collaboration.


title:
Blast-wave model description of the HBT radii measured in $pp$
  collisions at the LHC energies

abstract:
  Blast-wave model is applied to describe the Hanbury-Brown--Twiss (HBT) radii
of pionic systems produced in pp collisions at the LHC energies.


title:
Heavily Reddened z~2 Type 1 Quasars II: H-alpha Star Formation
  Constraints from SINFONI IFU Observations

abstract:
  We use near infrared integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopy to search for
H$\alpha$ emission associated with star formation in a sample of 28 heavily
reddened ($E(B-V)\simeq$0.5-1.9), hyperluminous
($log(L_{bol}/ergs^{-1})\simeq$47-48) broad-line quasars at $z\simeq$1.4-2.7.
Sixteen of the 28 quasars show evidence for star formation with an average
extinction-corrected star formation rate (SFR) of 320$\pm$70M$_\odot$yr$^{-1}$.
A stacked spectrum of the detections shows weak [NII], consistent with star
formation as the origin of the narrow H$\alpha$ emission. The star-forming
regions are spatially unresolved in 11 of the 16 detections and constrained to
lie within $\sim$6kpc of the quasar emission. In the five resolved detections
we find the star-forming regions are extended on scales of $\sim$8kpc around
the quasar emission. The prevalence of high SFRs is consistent with the
identification of the heavily reddened quasar population as representing a
transitional phase from apparent `starburst galaxies' to optically-luminous
quasars. Upper limits are determined for 10 quasars in which star formation is
undetected. In two of the quasars the SFR is constrained to be relatively
modest, $<$50M$_\odot$yr$^{-1}$, but significantly higher levels of star
formation could be present in the other eight quasars. The combination of the
16 strong star formation detections and the eight high SFR limits means that
high levels of star formation may be present in the majority of the sample.
Higher spatial resolution data, of multiple emission lines, will allow us to
better understand the interplay between star formation and Active Galactic
Nucleus (AGN) activity in these transitioning quasars.


title:
The Kontsevich matrix integral: convergence to the Painlev\'e hierarchy
  and Stokes' phenomenon

abstract:
  We show that the Kontsevich integral on $n\times n$ matrices ($n< \infty$) is
the isomonodromic tau function associated to a $2\times 2$ Riemann--Hilbert
problem. The approach allows us to gain control of the analysis of the
convergence as $n\to\infty$. By an appropriate choice of the external source
matrix in Kontsevich's integral, we show that the limit produces the
isomonodromic tau function of a special tronqu\'ee solution of the first
Painlev\'e hierarchy, and we identify the solution in terms of the Stokes' data
of the associated linear problem. We also show that there are several tau
functions that are analytic in appropriate sectors of the space of parameters
and that the formal Witten-Kontsevich tau function is the asymptotic expansion
of each of them in their respective sectors, thus providing an analytic tool to
analyze its nonlinear Stokes' phenomenon.


title:
Efficiencies of power plants, quasi-static models and the geometric-mean
  temperature

abstract:
  Observed efficiencies of industrial power plants are often approximated by
the square-root formula: $1-\sqrt{T_-/T_+}$, where $T_+ (T_-)$ is the highest
(lowest) temperature achieved in the plant. This expression can be derived
within finite-time thermodynamics, or, by entropy generation minimization,
based on finite rates of processes. A closely related quantity is the optimal
value of the intermediate temperature for the hot stream, which is given by the
geometric-mean value: $\sqrt{T_+ T_-}$. It is proposed to model the operation
of plants by quasi-static work extraction models, with one reservoir
(source/sink) as finite, while the other as practically infinite. No
simplifying assumption is made on the nature of the finite system. This
description is consistent with two model hypotheses, each yielding a specific
value of the intermediate temperature. We show that the expected value of the
intermediate temperature, defined as the arithmetic mean, is very closely given
by the geometric-mean value. The definition is motivated as the use of
inductive inference in the presence of limited information.


title: Parity Game Reductions

abstract:
  Parity games play a central role in model checking and satisfiability
checking. Solving parity games is computationally expensive, among others due
to the size of the games, which, for model checking problems, can easily
contain $10^9$ vertices or beyond. Equivalence relations can be used to reduce
the size of a parity game, thereby potentially alleviating part of the
computational burden. We reconsider (governed) bisimulation and (governed)
stuttering bisimulation, and we give detailed proofs that these relations are
equivalences, have unique quotients and they approximate the winning regions of
parity games. Furthermore, we present game-based characterisations of these
relations. Using these characterisations our equivalences are compared to
relations for parity games that can be found in the literature, such as direct
simulation equivalence and delayed simulation equivalence. To complete the
overview we develop coinductive characterisations of direct- and delayed
simulation equivalence and we establish a lattice of equivalences for parity
games.


title: Ferroelectric imprint in annealed Bi0.9La0.1Fe0.9Mn0.1O3 thin films

abstract:
  The present work reports the study of the optimized processing conditions of
Bi0.9La0.1Fe0.9Mn0.1O3 thin films, grown by RF sputtering on platinum metalized
silicon substrates. The combination of deposition at relatively low substrate
temperature followed by adequate ex situ annealing leads to thin films with
smooth surface morphology and the formation of a high-quality monophasic layer,
with the (100)c preferable orientation. The annealed films show ferroelectric
imprint.


title:
Interoperability in the OpenDreamKit Project: The Math-in-the-Middle
  Approach

abstract:
  OpenDreamKit --- "Open Digital Research Environment Toolkit for the
Advancement of Mathematics" --- is an H2020 EU Research Infrastructure project
that aims at supporting, over the period 2015--2019, the ecosystem of
open-source mathematical software systems. From that, OpenDreamKit will deliver
a flexible toolkit enabling research groups to set up Virtual Research
Environments, customised to meet the varied needs of research projects in pure
mathematics and applications.
  An important step in the OpenDreamKit endeavor is to foster the
interoperability between a variety of systems, ranging from computer algebra
systems over mathematical databases to front-ends. This is the mission of the
integration work package (WP6). We report on experiments and future plans with
the \emph{Math-in-the-Middle} approach. This information architecture consists
in a central mathematical ontology that documents the domain and fixes a joint
vocabulary, combined with specifications of the functionalities of the various
systems. Interaction between systems can then be enriched by pivoting off this
information architecture.


title: Reduced norms and the Riemann-Roch theorem for Abelian varieties

abstract:
  We explain how the Riemann-Roch theorem for divisors on an abelian variety
$A$ is related to the reduced norms of the Wedderburn components of
$\operatorname{End}^0(A)$ the $\mathbb{Q}$-endomorphism algebra of $A$. We then
describe consequences and examples.


title: Mildly obscured active galaxies and the cosmic X-ray background

abstract:
  The diffuse cosmic X-ray background (CXB) is the sum of the emission of
discrete sources, mostly massive black-holes accreting matter in active
galactic nuclei (AGN). The CXB spectrum differs from the integration of the
spectra of individual sources, calling for a large population, undetected so
far, of strongly obscured Compton thick AGN. Such objects are predicted by
unified models, which attribute most of the AGN diversity to their inclination
on the line of sight, and play an important role for the understanding of the
growth of black holes in the early Universe. The fraction of obscured AGN at
low redshift can be derived from the observed CXB spectrum assuming AGN
spectral templates and luminosity functions. We show that high signal-to-noise
average hard X-ray spectra, derived from more than a billion seconds of
effective exposure time with the Swift/BAT instrument, imply that mildly
obscured Compton thin AGN feature a strong reflection and contribute massively
to the CXB. A population of Compton thick AGN larger than that effectively
detected is not required, as no more than 6\% of the CXB flux can be attributed
to them. The stronger reflection observed in mildly obscured AGN suggests that
the covering fraction of the gas and dust surrounding their central engines is
a key factor in shaping their appearance. These mildly obscured AGN are easier
to study at high redshift than Compton thick sources.


title: The Symmetric signature of cyclic quotient singularities

abstract:
  The symmetric signature is an invariant of local domains which was recently
introduced by Brenner and the first author in an attempt to find a replacement
for the $F$-signature in characteristic zero. In the present note we compute
the symmetric signature for two-dimensional cyclic quotient singularities, i.e.
invariant subrings $k[[u,v]]^G$ of rings of formal power series under the
action of a cyclic group $G$. Equivalently, these rings arise as the
completions (at the irrelevant ideal) of two-dimensional normal toric rings. We
show that for this class of rings the symmetric signature coincides with the
$F$-signature.


title:
Factorization of network reliability with perfect nodes II: Connectivity
  matrix

abstract:
  We prove the determinant connectivity matrix formula. Mathematically, the
proof introduces novel techniques based on an algebraic approach and
connectivity properties. Although this is the second part of a previous paper
and has its original motivation there, the paper is self contained and the
result is interesting in itself.


title:
Foundations of Strangeness Nuclear Physics derived from chiral Effective
  Field Theory

abstract:
  Dense compact objects like neutron stars or black holes have always been one
of Gerry Brown's favorite research topics. This is closely related to the
effects of strangeness in nuclear physics. Here, we review the chiral Effective
Field Theory approach to interactions involving nucleons and hyperons, the
possible existence of strange dibaryons, the fate of hyperons in nuclear matter
and the present status of three-body forces involving hyperons and nucleons.


title: Deep Learning in Bioinformatics

abstract:
  In the era of big data, transformation of biomedical big data into valuable
knowledge has been one of the most important challenges in bioinformatics. Deep
learning has advanced rapidly since the early 2000s and now demonstrates
state-of-the-art performance in various fields. Accordingly, application of
deep learning in bioinformatics to gain insight from data has been emphasized
in both academia and industry. Here, we review deep learning in bioinformatics,
presenting examples of current research. To provide a useful and comprehensive
perspective, we categorize research both by the bioinformatics domain (i.e.,
omics, biomedical imaging, biomedical signal processing) and deep learning
architecture (i.e., deep neural networks, convolutional neural networks,
recurrent neural networks, emergent architectures) and present brief
descriptions of each study. Additionally, we discuss theoretical and practical
issues of deep learning in bioinformatics and suggest future research
directions. We believe that this review will provide valuable insights and
serve as a starting point for researchers to apply deep learning approaches in
their bioinformatics studies.


title:
A fitness-driven cross-diffusion system from polulation dynamics as a
  gradient flow

abstract:
  We consider a fitness-driven model of dispersal of $N$ interacting
populations, which was previously studied merely in the case $N=1$. Based on
some optimal transport distance recently introduced, we identify the model as a
gradient flow in the metric space of Radon measures. We prove existence of
global non-negative weak solutions to the corresponding system of parabolic
PDEs, which involves degenerate cross-diffusion. Under some additional
hypotheses and using a new multicomponent Poincar\'e-Beckner functional
inequality, we show that the solutions converge exponentially to an ideal free
distribution in the long time regime.