title: $t\bar{t}+V$ production in ATLAS

abstract:
  The latest ATLAS results for processes with a top quark pair and an
associated vector boson are presented here. The measurement of the production
cross sections for these processes is important for the direct determination of
the top quark couplings to gauge bosons and for constraints on new physics
models, in particular for models which go beyond the Standard Model regarding
the mechanism for the mass generation.


title:
Strong Field Molecular Ionization in the Impulsive Limit: Freezing
  Vibrations with Short Pulses

abstract:
  We study strong-field molecular ionization as a function of pulse duration.
Experimental measurements of the photoelectron yield for a number of molecules
reveal competition between different ionization continua (cationic states)
which depends strongly on pulse duration. Surprisingly, in the limit of short
pulse duration, we find that a single ionic continuum dominates the yield,
whereas multiple continua are produced for longer pulses. Using calculations
which take vibrational dynamics into account, we interpret our results in terms
of nuclear motion and non-adiabatic dynamics during the ionization process.


title: Rate Adaptation for Secure HARQ Protocols

abstract:
  This paper investigates the incremental-redundancy hybrid-automatic repeat
request (IR-HARQ) transmission over independent block-fading channels in the
presence of an eavesdropper, where the secrecy of the transmission is ensured
via introduction of dummy-messages. Since the encoder only knows the statistics
of the channel state, the secrecy and the reliability are defined in a
probabilistic framework. Unlike previous works on this subject, we design a
coding strategy tailored to IR-HARQ by splitting the dummy-message rate over
several rate parameters. These additional degrees of freedom improve the match
between the dummy-message rates and the realizations of the eavesdropper
channels. We evaluate the performance in terms of secrecy outage probability,
connection outage probability and throughput and we compare it with the
benchmark paper by Tang et al. Numerical examples illustrate that, comparing to
existing alternatives, splitting of the dummy-message rate provides higher
throughput and lower expected duration/average delay.


title: An Update on Monitoring Stellar Orbits in the Galactic Center

abstract:
  Using 25 years of data from uninterrupted monitoring of stellar orbits in the
Galactic Center, we present an update of the main results from this unique data
set: A measurement of mass of and distance to SgrA*. Our progress is not only
due to the eight year increase in time base, but also due to the improved
definition of the coordinate system. The star S2 continues to yield the best
constraints on the mass of and distance to SgrA*; the statistical errors of
0.13 x 10^6 M_sun and 0.12 kpc have halved compared to the previous study. The
S2 orbit fit is robust and does not need any prior information. Using
coordinate system priors, also the star S1 yields tight constraints on mass and
distance. For a combined orbit fit, we use 17 stars, which yields our current
best estimates for mass and distance: M = 4.28 +/- 0.10|stat. +/. 0.21|sys. x
10^6 M_sun and R_0 = 8.32 +/- 0.07|stat. +/- 0.14|sys. kpc. These numbers are
in agreement with the recent determination of R_0 from the statistical cluster
parallax. The positions of the mass, of the near-infrared flares from SgrA* and
of the radio source SgrA* agree to within 1mas. In total, we have determined
orbits for 40 stars so far, a sample which consists of 32 stars with randomly
oriented orbits and a thermal eccentricity distribution, plus eight stars for
which we can explicitly show that they are members of the clockwise disk of
young stars, and which have lower eccentricity orbits.


title: Dark matter physics in neutrino specific two Higgs doublet model

abstract:
  Although the seesaw mechanism is a natural explanation for the small neutrino
masses, there are cases when the Majorana mass terms for the right-handed
neutrinos are not allowed due to symmetry. In that case, if neutrino-specific
Higgs doublet is introduced, neutrinos become Dirac particles and their small
masses can be explained by its small VEV. We show that the same symmetry, which
we assume a global $U(1)_X$, can also be used to explain the stability of dark
matter. In our model, a new singlet scalar breaks the global symmetry
spontaneously down to a discrete $Z_2$ symmetry. The dark matter particle,
lightest $Z_2$-odd fermion, is stabilized. We discuss the phenomenology of dark
matter: relic density, direct detection, and indirect detection. We find that
the relic density can be explained by a novel Goldstone boson channel or by
resonance channel. In the most region of parameter space considered, the direct
detections is suppressed well below the current experimental bound. Our model
can be further tested in indirect detection experiments such as FermiLAT gamma
ray searches or neutrinoless double beta decay experiments.


title: Qudi: a modular python suite for experiment control and data processing

abstract:
  Qudi is a general, modular, multi-operating system suite written in Python 3
for controlling laboratory experiments. It provides a structured environment by
separating functionality into hardware abstraction, experiment logic and user
interface layers. The core feature set comprises a graphical user interface,
live data visualization, distributed execution over networks, rapid prototyping
via Jupyter notebooks, configuration management, and data recording. Currently,
the included modules are focused on confocal microscopy, quantum optics and
quantum information experiments, but an expansion into other fields is possible
and encouraged. Qudi is available from https://github.com/Ulm-IQO/qudi and is
freely useable under the GNU General Public Licence.


title: Nonabelian Higgs models: paving the way for asymptotic freedom

abstract:
  Asymptotically free renormalization group trajectories can be constructed in
nonabelian Higgs models with the aid of generalized boundary conditions imposed
on the renormalized action. We detail this construction within the languages of
simple low-order perturbation theory, effective field theory, as well as modern
functional renormalization group equations. We construct a family of explicit
scaling solutions using a controlled weak-coupling expansion in the
ultraviolet, and obtain a standard Wilsonian RG relevance classification of
perturbations about scaling solutions. We obtain global information about the
quasi-fixed function for the scalar potential by means of analytic asymptotic
expansions and numerical shooting methods. Further analytical evidence for such
asymptotically free theories is provided in the large-N limit. We estimate the
long-range properties of these theories, and identify initial/boundary
conditions giving rise to a conventional Higgs phase.


title: On some categorical-algebraic conditions in S-protomodular categories

abstract:
  In the context of protomodular categories, several additional conditions have
been considered in order to obtain a closer group-like behavior. Among them are
locally algebraic cartesian closedness and algebraic coherence. The recent
notion of S-protomodular category, whose main examples are the category of
monoids and, more generally, categories of monoids with operations and
Jo\'{o}nsson-Tarski varieties, raises a similar question: how to get a
description of S-protomodular categories with a strong monoid-like behavior. In
this paper we consider relative versions of the conditions mentioned above, in
order to exhibit the parallelism with the "absolute" protomodular context and
to obtain a hierarchy among S-protomodular categories.


title: Dynamic landscape models of coevolutionary games

abstract:
  Players of coevolutionary games may update not only their strategies but also
their networks of interaction. Based on interpreting the payoff of players as
fitness, dynamic landscape models are proposed. The modeling procedure is
carried out for Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) and Snowdrift (SD) games that both use
either birth--death (BD) or death--birth (DB) strategy updating. The main focus
is on using dynamic fitness landscapes as a mathematical model of
coevolutionary game dynamics. Hence, an alternative tool for analyzing
coevolutionary games becomes available, and landscape measures such as
modality, ruggedness and information content can be computed and analyzed. In
addition, fixation properties of the games and quantifiers characterizing the
interaction networks are calculated numerically. Relations are established
between landscape properties expressed by landscape measures and quantifiers of
coevolutionary game dynamics such as fixation probabilities, fixation times and
network properties.


title: Coxeter groups, symmetries, and rooted representations

abstract:
  Let $(W,S)$ be a Coxeter system, let $G$ be a group of symmetries of $(W,S)$
and let $f : W \to \GL (V)$ be the linear representation associated with a root
basis $(V, \langle .,. \rangle, \Pi)$.We assume that $G \subset \GL (V)$, and
that $G$ leaves invariant $\Pi$ and $\langle .,. \rangle$. We show that $W^G$
is a Coxeter group, we construct a subset $\tilde \Pi \subset V^G$ so that
$(V^G, \langle .,. \rangle, \tilde \Pi)$ is a root basis of $W^G$, and we show
that the induced representation $f^G : W^G \to \GL(V^G)$ is the linear
representation associated with $(V^G, \langle .,. \rangle, \tilde \Pi)$.In
particular, the latter is faithful. The fact that $W^G$ is a Coxeter group is
already known and is due to M\"uhlherr and H\'ee, but also follows directly
from the proof of the other results.


title: THz ultrastrong light-matter coupling

abstract:
  Cavity photon resonators with ultrastrong light-matter interactions are
attracting interest both in semiconductor and superconducting systems
displaying the capability to manipulate the cavity quantum electrodynamic
ground state with controllable physical properties. Here we review a series of
experiments aimed at probing the ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime,
where the vacuum Rabi splitting $\Omega$ is comparable to the bare transition
frequency $\omega$ . We present a new platform where the inter-Landau level
transition of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is strongly coupled to the
fundamental mode of deeply subwavelength split-ring resonators operating in the
mm-wave range. Record-high values of the normalized light-matter coupling ratio
$\frac{\Omega}{\omega}= 0.89$ are reached and the system appears highly
scalable far into the microwave range.


title:
Pilot Contamination is Not a Fundamental Asymptotic Limitation in
  Massive MIMO

abstract:
  Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) provides great improvements in
spectral efficiency over legacy cellular networks, by coherent combining of the
signals over a large antenna array and by spatial multiplexing of many users.
Since its inception, the coherent interference caused by pilot contamination
has been believed to be an impairment that does not vanish, even with an
unlimited number of antennas. In this work, we show that this belief is
incorrect and an artifact from using simplistic channel models and suboptimal
signal processing schemes. We focus on the uplink and prove that with multicell
MMSE combining, the spectral efficiency grows without bound as the number of
antennas increases, even under pilot contamination, under a condition of linear
independence between the channel covariance matrices. This condition is
generally satisfied, except in special cases that are hardly found in practice.


title: On the Eigenvalues of the ADER-WENO Galerkin Predictor

abstract:
  ADER-WENO methods have proved extremely useful in obtaining arbitrarily
high-order solutions to problems involving hyperbolic systems of PDEs. For
example, it has been demonstrated that for the same computational cost as a
Runge-Kutta scheme of a certain order, one can obtain an ADER scheme of one
higher order of accuracy. Additionally, Runge-Kutta schemes suffer from the
presence of Butcher barriers, limiting the order of temporal accuracy that one
can comfortably achieve. There are no such limitations present in ADER-WENO
schemes.
  The cumbersome analytical derivation of the temporal derivatives of the
solution required by the original ADER formulation has been replaced by the use
of a cell-wise local Galerkin predictor. The predictor can take either a
discontinuous or a continuous form. The Galerkin predictor is a high-order
polynomial reconstruction of the data in both space and time, found as the root
of a non-linear system.
  It has been conjectured that the eigenvalues of certain matrices appearing in
these non-linear systems are always zero, leading to desirable system
properties for certain classes of PDEs. It is proved here that this is in deed
the case for any number of spatial dimensions and any desired order of
accuracy, for both the discontinuous and continuous Galerkin variants. This
result is independent of the choice of reconstruction basis polynomials.


title: On Solution of fractional kinetic equation Involving k-Struve function

abstract:
  In the present research article, we investigate solutions for fractional
kinetic equations, involving $\mathtt{k}$-Struve functions, some of the salient
properties of which we present. The method used is Laplace transform based. the
methodology and results can be adopted and extended to various related
fractional problems in mathematical physics.


title:
The role of interplay between coefficients in the $G$-convergence of
  some elliptic equations

abstract:
  We study the behavior of the solutions $u$ of the linear Dirichlet problems
$- \mathrm{div} (M(x) \nabla u) + a(x) u = f(x)$ with respect to perturbations
of the matrix $M(x)$ (with respect to the $G$-convergence) and with respect to
perturbations of the nonnegative coefficient $a(x)$ and of the right hand side
$f(x)$ satisfying the condition $|f (x)| \leq Q \, a (x)$.


title: Self-interlacing polynomials

abstract:
  We describe a new subclass of the class of real polynomials with real simple
roots called self-interlacing polynomials. This subclass is isomorphic to the
class of real Hurwitz stable polynomials (all roots in the open left
half-plane). In the work, we present basic properties of self-interlacing
polynomials and their relations with Hurwitz and Hankel matrices as well as
with Stiltjes type of continued fractions. We also establish "self-interlacing"
analogues of the well-known Hurwitz and Li\'enard-Chipart criterions for stable
polynomials. A criterion of Hurwitz stability of polynomials in terms of minors
of certain Hankel matrices is established.


title:
Pathway fractional integral operators involving $\mathtt{k}$-Struve
  function

abstract:
  A new generalization called $\mathtt{k}$-Struve function and its properties
given by Nisar and saiful very recently. In this paper, we establish the
pathway fractional integral representation of $\mathtt{k}$-Struve function.
Many special cases also established to obtain the pathway integral
representation of classical Struve function.


title:
Spatio-Temporal Movements in Team Sports: A Visualization approach using
  Motion Charts

abstract:
  To analyze the movements and to study the trajectories of players is a
crucial need for a team when it looks to improve its chances of winning a match
or to understand its performances. State of the art tracking systems now
produce spatio-temporal traces of player trajectories with high definition and
frequency that has facilitated a variety of research efforts to extract insight
from the trajectories. Despite many methods borrowed from different disciplines
(machine learning, network and complex systems, GIS, computer vision,
statistics) has been proposed to answer to the needs of teams, a friendly and
easy-to-use approach to visualize spatio-temporal movements is still missing.
This paper suggests the use of gvisMotionChart function in GoogleVis R package.
I present and discuss results of a basketball case study. Data refers to a
match played by an italian team militant in "C-gold" league on March 22nd,
2016. With this case study I show that such a visualization approach could be
useful in supporting researcher on preliminar stages of their analysis on
sports' movements, and to facilitate the interpretation of their results.


title: Large-Scale Shape Retrieval with Sparse 3D Convolutional Neural Networks

abstract:
  In this paper we present results of performance evaluation of S3DCNN - a
Sparse 3D Convolutional Neural Network - on a large-scale 3D Shape benchmark
ModelNet40, and measure how it is impacted by voxel resolution of input shape.
We demonstrate comparable classification and retrieval performance to
state-of-the-art models, but with much less computational costs in training and
inference phases. We also notice that benefits of higher input resolution can
be limited by an ability of a neural network to generalize high level features.


title:
Wavelet Monte Carlo dynamics: a new algorithm for simulating the
  hydrodynamics of interacting Brownian particles

abstract:
  We develop a new algorithm for the Brownian dynamics of soft matter systems
that evolves time by spatially correlated Monte Carlo moves. The algorithm uses
vector wavelets as its basic moves and produces hydrodynamics in the low
Reynolds number regime propagated according to the Oseen tensor. When small
moves are removed the correlations closely approximate the Rotne-Prager tensor,
itself widely used to correct for deficiencies in Oseen. We also include plane
wave moves to provide the longest range correlations, which we detail for both
infinite and periodic systems. The computational cost of the algorithm scales
competitively with the number of particles simulated, $N$, scaling as $N\ln N$
in homogeneous systems and as $N$ in dilute systems. In comparisons to
established lattice Boltzmann and Brownian dynamics algorithms the wavelet
method was found to be only a factor of order 1 times more expensive than the
cheaper lattice Boltzmann algorithm in marginally semi-dilute simulations,
while it is significantly faster than both algorithms at large $N$ in dilute
simulations. We also validate the algorithm by checking it reproduces the
correct dynamics and equilibrium properties of simple single polymer systems,
as well as verifying the effect of periodicity on the mobility tensor.


title: An optical multimode fiber as pseudothermal light source

abstract:
  We report on a novel pseudothermal light source based on laser light coupled
into an optical multimode fiber. The setup is simple, of low cost, exhibits
inherently high directional light emission and allows for a flexible
arrangement. By measuring the photon statistics and spatial two point intensity
correlations in the far field we show that the setup exhibits all
characteristics of a gaussian random source.


title:
Who's that Actor? Automatic Labelling of Actors in TV series starting
  from IMDB Images

abstract:
  In this work, we aim at automatically labeling actors in a TV series. Rather
than relying on transcripts and subtitles, as has been demonstrated in the
past, we show how to achieve this goal starting from a set of example images of
each of the main actors involved, collected from the Internet Movie Database
(IMDB). The problem then becomes one of domain adaptation: actors' IMDB photos
are typically taken at awards ceremonies and are quite different from their
appearances in TV series. In each series as well, there is considerable change
in actor appearance due to makeup, lighting, ageing, etc. To bridge this gap,
we propose a graph-matching based self-labelling algorithm, which we coin HSL
(Hungarian Self Labeling). Further, we propose a new edge cost to be used in
this context, as well as an extension that is more robust to outliers, where
prototypical faces for each of the actors are selected based on a hierarchical
clustering procedure. We conduct experiments with 15 episodes from 3 different
TV series and demonstrate automatic annotation with an accuracy of 90% and up.


title: Nucleon spin and quark content at the physical point

abstract:
  We present results on the spin and quark content of the nucleon using $N_f=2$
twisted mass clover-improved fermion simulations with a pion mass close to its
physical value. We use recently developed methods to obtain accurate results
for both connected and disconnected contributions. We provide results for the
axial charge, quark and gluon momentum fraction as well as the light, strange
and charm $\sigma$-terms.


title: Non-equilibrium dilepton production in hadronic transport approaches

abstract:
  In this work the non-equilibrium dilepton production from a hadronic
transport approach (SMASH) is presented. The dilepton emission from the
hadronic stage is of interest for current HADES results measured at GSI in the
beam energy range from 1.25 - 3.5 GeV. Also at high collision energies
(RHIC/LHC) the later dilute stages of the reaction are dominated by hadronic
dynamics. The newly developed hadronic transport approach called SMASH
(=Simulating Many Accelerated Strongly-interacting Hadrons) is introduced
first. After explaining the basic interaction mechanisms, a comparison of
elementary cross sections for pion production to experimental data is shown.
The dilepton production within SMASH is explained in detail. The main
contribution to the dilepton spectra in the low energy regime of
GSI/FAIR/RHIC-BES originates from resonance decays. Results of the dilepton
production with SMASH such as invariant mass spectra are shown.


title:
Optimal estimation and discrimination of excess noise in thermal and
  amplifier channels

abstract:
  We determine a fundamental upper bound on the performance of any adaptive
protocol for discrimination or estimation of a channel which has an unknown
parameter encoded in the state of its environment. Since our approach relies on
the principle of data processing, the bound applies to a variety of
discrimination measures, including quantum relative entropy, hypothesis testing
relative entropy, R\'enyi relative entropy, fidelity, and quantum Fisher
information. We apply the upper bound to thermal (amplifier) channels with a
known transmissivity (gain) but unknown excess noise. In these cases, we find
that the upper bounds are achievable for several discrimination measures of
interest, and the method for doing so is non-adaptive, employing a highly
squeezed two-mode vacuum state at the input of each channel use. Estimating the
excess noise of a thermal channel is of principal interest for the security of
quantum key distribution, in the setting where a fiber-optic cable has a known
transmissivity but a tampering eavesdropper alters the excess noise on the
channel, so that estimating the excess noise as precisely as possible is
desirable. Finally, we outline a practical strategy which can be used to
achieve these limits.


title: Homoclinic invariants of ergodic actions

abstract:
  We consider a family of homoclinic groups and Gordin's type invariants of
measure-preserving actions, state their connections with factors, full groups,
ranks, rigidity, multiple mixing and realize such invariants in the class of
Gaussian and Poisson suspensions.


title:
Long-range properties and data validity for hydrogeological time series:
  the case of the Paglia river

abstract:
  This paper explores a large collection of about 377,000 observations,
spanning more than 20 years with a frequency of 30 minutes, of the streamflow
of the Paglia river, in central Italy. We analyze the long-term persistence
properties of the series by computing the Hurst exponent, not only in its
original form but also under an evolutionary point of view by analyzing the
Hurst exponents over a rolling windows basis. The methodological tool adopted
for the persistence is the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), which is
classically known as suitable for our purpose. As an ancillary exploration, we
implement a control on the data validity by assessing if the data exhibit the
regularity stated by Benford's law. Results are interesting under different
viewpoints. First, we show that the Paglia river streamflow exhibits
periodicities which broadly suggest the existence of some common behaviour with
El Nino and the North Atlantic Oscillations: this specifically points to a (not
necessarily direct) effect of these oceanic phenomena on the hydrogeological
equilibria of very far geographical zones: however, such an hypothesis needs
further analyses to be validated. Second, the series of streamflows shows an
antipersistent behaviour. Third, data are not consistent with Benford's law:
this suggests that the measurement criteria should be opportunely revised.
Fourth, the streamflow distribution is well approximated by a discrete
generalized Beta distribution: this is well in accordance with the measured
streamflows being the outcome of a complex system.


title: A duality-based approach for distributed min-max optimization

abstract:
  In this paper we consider a distributed optimization scenario in which a set
of processors aims at cooperatively solving a class of min-max optimization
problems. This set-up is motivated by peak-demand minimization problems in
smart grids. Here, the goal is to minimize the peak value over a finite horizon
with: (i) the demand at each time instant being the sum of contributions from
different devices, and (ii) the device states at different time instants being
coupled through local constraints (e.g., the dynamics). The min-max structure
and the double coupling (through the devices and over the time horizon) makes
this problem challenging in a distributed set-up (e.g., existing distributed
dual decomposition approaches cannot be applied). We propose a distributed
algorithm based on the combination of duality methods and properties from
min-max optimization. Specifically, we repeatedly apply duality theory and
properly introduce ad-hoc slack variables in order to derive a series of
equivalent problems. On the resulting problem we apply a dual subgradient
method, which turns out to be a distributed algorithm consisting of a
minimization on the original primal variables and a suitable dual update. We
prove the convergence of the proposed algorithm in objective value. Moreover,
we show that every limit point of the primal sequence is an optimal (feasible)
solution. Finally, we provide numerical computations for a peak-demand
optimization problem in a network of thermostatically controlled loads.


title:
Multi-Objective Service Composition in Ubiquitous Environments with
  Service Dependencies

abstract:
  Service composition is a widely used method in ubiquitous computing that
enables accomplishing complex tasks required by users based on elementary
(hardware and software) services available in ubiquitous environments. To
ensure that users experience the best Quality of Service (QoS) with respect to
their quality needs, service composition has to be QoS-aware. Establishing
QoS-aware service compositions entails efficient service selection taking into
account the QoS requirements of users. A challenging issue towards this purpose
is to consider service selection under global QoS requirements (i.e.,
requirements imposed by the user on the whole task), which is of high
computational cost. This challenge is even more relevant when we consider the
dynamics, limited computational resources and timeliness constraints of
ubiquitous environments. To cope with the above challenge, we present QASSA, an
efficient service selection algorithm that provides the appropriate ground for
QoS-aware service composition in ubiquitous environments. QASSA formulates
service selection under global QoS requirements as a set-based optimisation
problem, and solves this problem by combining local and global selection
techniques. In particular, it introduces a novel way of using clustering
techniques to enable fine-grained management of trade-offs between QoS
objectives. QASSA further considers: (i) dependencies between services, (ii)
adaptation at run-time, and (iii) both centralised and distributed design
fashions. Results of experimental studies performed using real QoS data are
presented to illustrate the timeliness and optimality of QASSA.


title: DESP-C++: A Discrete-Event Simulation Package for C++

abstract:
  DESP-C++ is a C++ discrete-event random simulation engine that has been
designed to be fast, very easy to use and expand, and valid. DESP-C++ is based
on the resource view. Its complete architecture is presented in detail, as well
as a short " user manual ". The validity of DESP-C++ is demonstrated by the
simulation of three significant models. In each case, the simulation results
obtained with DESP-C++ match those obtained with a validated simulation
software: QNAP2. The versatility of DESP-C++ is also illustrated this way,
since the modelled systems are very different from each other: a simple
production system, the dining philosopher classical deadlock problem, and a
complex object-oriented database management system.


title:
On the information to work conversion: a view from ancient
  fluctuation-dissipation relations

abstract:
  The "generalized fluctuation-dissipation relations", which had anticipated
the "fluctuation theorems" fifteen years before, are applied to presently
popular "information to useful work conversion" to demonstrate that its success
and bounds are determined by a specific "insider" information rather than
formal one


title: Benchmarking OODBs with a Generic Tool

abstract:
  We present in this paper a generic object-oriented benchmark (OCB: the Object
Clustering Benchmark) that has been designed to evaluate the performances of
Object-Oriented Data-bases (OODBs), and more specifically the performances of
clustering policies within OODBs. OCB is generic because its sample database
may be customized to fit any of the databases in-troduced by the main existing
benchmarks, e.g., OO1 (Object Operation 1) or OO7. The first version of OCB was
purposely clustering-oriented due to a clustering-oriented workload, but OCB
has been thoroughly extended to be able to suit other purposes. Eventually,
OCB's code is compact and easily portable. OCB has been validated through two
implementations: one within the O2 OODB and another one within the Texas
persistent object store. The perfor-mances of a specific clustering policy
called DSTC (Dynamic, Statistical, Tunable Clustering) have also been evaluated
with OCB.


title: A test of local Lorentz invariance with Compton scattering asymmetry

abstract:
  We report on a measurement of the constancy and anisotropy of the speed of
light relative to the electrons in photon-electron scattering. We used the
Compton scattering asymmetry measured by the new Compton polarimeter in Hall~C
at Jefferson Lab to test for deviations from unity of the vacuum refractive
index ($n$). For photon energies in the range of 9 - 46 MeV, we obtain a new
limit of $1-n < 1.4 \times 10^{-8}$. In addition, the absence of sidereal
variation over the six month period of the measurement constrains any
anisotropies in the speed of light. These constitute the first study of Lorentz
invariance using Compton asymmetry. Within the minimal standard model extension
framework, our result yield limits on the photon and electron coefficients
$\tilde{\kappa}_{0^+}^{YZ}, c_{TX}, \tilde{\kappa}_{0^+}^{ZX}$, and $c_{TY}$.
Although, these limits are several orders of magnitude larger than the current
best limits, they demonstrate the feasibility of using Compton asymmetry for
tests of Lorentz invariance. Future parity violating electron scattering
experiments at Jefferson Lab will use higher energy electrons enabling better
constraints.


title:
On the classes of higher-order Jensen-convex functions and Wright-convex
  functions, II

abstract:
  Recently Nikodem, Rajba and W\k{a}sowicz compared the classes of
n-Wright-convex functions and n-Jensen-convex functions by showing that the
first one is a proper subclass of the latter one, whenever n is an odd natural
number. Till now the case of even n was an open problem. In this paper the
complete solution is given: it is shown that the inclusion is proper for any
natural n. The classes of strongly n-Wright-convex and strongly n-Jensen-convex
functions are also compared (with the same assertion).


title: Superrotation Charge and Supertranslation Hair on Black Holes

abstract:
  It is shown that black hole spacetimes in classical Einstein gravity are
characterized by, in addition to their ADM mass $M$, momentum $\vec P$, angular
momentum $\vec J$ and boost charge $\vec K$, an infinite head of
supertranslation hair. The distinct black holes are distinguished by classical
superrotation charges measured at infinity. Solutions with supertranslation
hair are diffeomorphic to the Schwarzschild spacetime, but the diffeomorphisms
are part of the BMS subgroup and act nontrivially on the physical phase space.
It is shown that a black hole can be supertranslated by throwing in an
asymmetric shock wave. A leading-order Bondi-gauge expression is derived for
the linearized horizon supertranslation charge and shown to generate, via the
Dirac bracket, supertranslations on the linearized phase space of gravitational
excitations of the horizon. The considerations of this paper are largely
classical augmented by comments on their implications for the quantum theory.


title:
Simulation of clustering algorithms in OODBs in order to evaluate their
  performances

abstract:
  A good object clustering is critical to the performance of object-oriented
databases. However, it always involves some kind of overhead for the system.
The aim of this paper is to propose a modelling methodology in order to
evaluate the performances of different clustering policies. This methodology
has been used to compare the performances of three clustering algorithms found
in the literature (Cactis, CK and ORION) that we considered representative of
the current research in the field of object clustering. The actual performance
evaluation was performed using simulation. Simulation experiments showed that
the Cactis algorithm is better than the ORION algorithm and that the CK
algorithm totally outperforms both other algorithms in terms of response time
and clustering overhead.


title: A comparison study of object-oriented database clustering techniques

abstract:
  It is widely acknowledged that a good object clustering is critical to the
performance of OODBs. Clustering means storing related objects close together
on secondary storage so that when one object is accessed from disk, all its
related objects are also brought into memory. Then access to these related
objects is a main memory access that is much faster than a disk access. The aim
of this paper is to compare the performance of three clustering algorithms:
Cactis, CK and ORION. Simulation experiments we performed showed that the
Cactis algorithm is better than the ORION algorithm and that the CK algorithm
totally out-performs both other algorithms in terms of response time and
clustering overhead.


title:
Orbifold k\"ahler groups and the shafarevich conjecture for hirzebruch's
  covering surfaces with equal weights

abstract:
  This article is devoted to examples of (orbifold) K\"ahler groups from the
perspective of the so-called Shafarevich conjecture on holomorphic convexity.
It aims at pointing out that every quasi-projective complex manifold with an
'interesting' fundamental group gives rise to interesting instances of this
long-standing open question. Complements of line arrangements are one of the
better known classes of quasi-projective complex surfaces with an interesting
fundamental group. We solve the corresponding instance of the Shafarevich
conjecture partially giving a proof that the universal covering surface of a
Hirzebruch's covering surface with equal weights is holomorphically convex. The
final section reduces the Shafarevich conjecture to a question related to the
Serre problem.


title: Optimal stopping with f -expectations: the irregular case

abstract:
  We consider the optimal stopping problem with non-linear $f$-expectation
(induced by a BSDE) without making any regularity assumptions on the reward
process $\xi$. and with general filtration. We show that the value family can
be aggregated by an optional process $Y$. We characterize the process $Y$ as
the $\mathcal{E}^f$-Snell envelope of $\xi$. We also establish an infinitesimal
characterization of the value process $Y$ in terms of a Reflected BSDE with
$\xi$ as the obstacle. To do this, we first establish a comparison theorem for
irregular RBSDEs. We give an application to the pricing of American options
with irregular pay-off in an imperfect market model.


title: Image Based Appraisal of Real Estate Properties

abstract:
  Real estate appraisal, which is the process of estimating the price for real
estate properties, is crucial for both buys and sellers as the basis for
negotiation and transaction. Traditionally, the repeat sales model has been
widely adopted to estimate real estate price. However, it depends the design
and calculation of a complex economic related index, which is challenging to
estimate accurately. Today, real estate brokers provide easy access to detailed
online information on real estate properties to their clients. We are
interested in estimating the real estate price from these large amounts of
easily accessed data. In particular, we analyze the prediction power of online
house pictures, which is one of the key factors for online users to make a
potential visiting decision. The development of robust computer vision
algorithms makes the analysis of visual content possible. In this work, we
employ a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to predict real estate price using the
state-of-the-art visual features. The experimental results indicate that our
model outperforms several of other state-of-the-art baseline algorithms in
terms of both mean absolute error (MAE) and mean absolute percentage error
(MAPE).


title:
Links Between Sums Over Paths in Bernoulli's Triangles and the Fibonacci
  Numbers

abstract:
  We investigate paths in Bernoulli's triangles, and derive several relations
linking the partial sums of binomial coefficients to the Fibonacci numbers.


title: Standard model physics from an algebra?

abstract:
  This thesis constitutes a first attempt to derive aspects of standard model
particle physics from little more than an algebra. Here, we argue that physical
concepts such as particles, causality, and irreversible time may result from
the algebra acting on itself. We then focus on a special case by considering
the algebra $\mathbb{R}\otimes\mathbb{C}\otimes\mathbb{H}\otimes\mathbb{O}$.
Using nothing more than
$\mathbb{R}\otimes\mathbb{C}\otimes\mathbb{H}\otimes\mathbb{O}$ acting on
itself, we set out to find standard model particle representations.
  From the complex quaternionic portion of the algebra, we find generalized
ideals, and show that they describe concisely all of the Lorentz
representations of the standard model. From the complex octonionic portion of
the algebra, we find minimal left ideals, and show that they mirror the
behaviour of a generation of quarks and leptons under $su(3)_c$ and
$u(1)_{em}$. We then demonstrate a rudimentary electroweak model which yields a
straightforward explanation as to why $SU(2)_L$ acts only on left-handed
states. This holds in the case of leptons.
  Finally, we demonstrate how $\mathbb{C}\otimes\mathbb{O}$ can generate a
64-$\mathbb{C}$-dimensional algebra, wherein we find the $SU(3)_c$ irreducible
representations corresponding to three generations of quarks and leptons. We
then conclude by showing how to arrive at all 48 electric charges.


title:
Nonexistence results for elliptic differential inequalities with a
  potential in bounded domains

abstract:
  In this paper we are concerned with a class of elliptic differential
inequalities with a potential in bounded domains both of $\mathbf{R}^m$ and of
Riemannian manifolds. In particular, we investigate the effect of the behavior
of the potential at the boundary of the domain on nonexistence of nonnegative
solutions.


title: Kazdan-Warner equation on graph in the negative case

abstract:
  Let $G=(V,E)$ be a connected finite graph. In this short paper, we
reinvestigate the Kazdan-Warner equation $$\Delta u=c-he^u$$ with $c<0$ on $G$,
where $h$ defined on $V$ is a known function. Grigor'yan, Lin and Yang
\cite{GLY} showed that if the Kazdan-Warner equation has a solution, then
$\overline{h}$, the average value of $h$, is negative. Conversely, if
$\overline{h}<0$, then there exists a number $c_-(h)<0$, such that the
Kazdan-Warner equation is solvable for every $0>c>c_-(h)$ and it is not
solvable for $c<c_-(h)$. Moreover, if $h\leq0$ and $h\not\equiv0$, then
$c_-(h)=-\infty$.
  Inspired by Chen and Li's work \cite{CL}, we ask naturally: \begin{center} Is
the Kazdan-Warner equation solvable for $c=c_-(h)$? \end{center} In this paper,
we answer the question affirmatively. We show that if $c_-(h)=-\infty$, then
$h\leq0$ and $h\not\equiv0$. Moreover, if $c_-(h)>-\infty$, then there exists
at least one solution to the Kazdan-Warner equation with $c=c_-(h)$.


title: Flow harmonics from self-consistent particlization of a viscous fluid

abstract:
  The quantitative extraction of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) properties from
heavy-ion data, such as its specific shear viscosity $\eta /s$, typically
requires comparison to viscous hydrodynamic or "hybrid" hydrodynamics+transport
simulations. In either case, one has to convert the fluid to hadrons, yet
without additional theory input the conversion is ambiguous for dissipative
fluids. Here, shear viscous phase-space corrections calculated using linearized
transport theory are applied in Cooper-Frye freezeout to quantify the effects
on anisotropic flow coefficients $v_n(p_T)$ at both RHIC and LHC energies.
Expanding upon our previous flow harmonics studies [1,2], we calculate pion and
proton $v_2(p_T)$, $v_4(p_T)$, and $v_6(p_T)$. Unlike in Ref. [1], we
incorporate a hadron gas that is chemically frozen below a temperature of 175
MeV, and use hypersurfaces from realistic viscous hydrodynamic simulations.
With additive quark model cross sections and relative phase-space corrections
with $p^{3/2}$ momentum dependence, rather than the quadratic Grad form, we
find at moderately high transverse momentum noticeably higher $v_4(p_T)$ and
$v_6(p_T)$ for protons than for pions. In addition, the value of $\eta /s$
deduced from elliptic flow data differs by nearly 50\% from the value extracted
using the naive "democratic Grad" form of freeze-out distributions. To
facilitate the use of the self-consistent viscous corrections calculated here
in hydrodynamic and hybrid calculations, we also present convenient
parameterizations of the corrections for the various hadron species (cf. Table
I).


title:
Magnetism of a sigma-phase Fe60V40 alloy: magnetic susceptibilities and
  magnetocaloric effect studies

abstract:
  Magnetic properties of a sigma-phase Fe60V40 intermetallic compound were
studied by means of ac and dc magnetic susceptibility and magnetocaloric effect
measurements. The compound is a soft magnet yet it was found to behave like a
re-entrant spin-glass system. The magnetic ordering temperature was found to be
T_C ca.170 K, while the spin-freezing temperature was ca.164 K. Its relative
shift per decade of ac frequency was 0.002, a value smaller than that typical
of canonical spin-glasses. Magnetic entropy change, DeltaS, in the vicinity of
T_C was determined for magnetic field, H, ranging between 5 and 50 kOe.
Analysis of DeltaS in terms of the power law yielded the critical exponent, n,
vs. temperature with the minimum value of 0.75 at T_C, while from the analysis
of a relative shift of the maximum value of DeltaS with the field a critical
exponent Delta=1.7 was obtained. Based on scaling laws relationships values of
other two exponents viz. betha=0.6 and gamma=1 were determined.


title:
Correctness Attraction: A Study of Stability of Software Behavior Under
  Runtime Perturbation

abstract:
  Can the execution of a software be perturbed without breaking the correctness
of the output? In this paper, we devise a novel protocol to answer this rarely
investigated question. In an experimental study, we observe that many
perturbations do not break the correctness in ten subject programs. We call
this phenomenon ``correctness attraction''. The uniqueness of this protocol is
that it considers a systematic exploration of the perturbation space as well as
perfect oracles to determine the correctness of the output. To this extent, our
findings on the stability of software under execution perturbations have a
level of validity that has never been reported before in the scarce related
work. A qualitative manual analysis enables us to set up the first taxonomy
ever of the reasons behind correctness attraction.


title:
Quantum tunneling during interstellar surface-catalyzed formation of
  water: the reaction H + H$_2$O$_2$ $\rightarrow$ H$_2$O + OH

abstract:
  The final step of the water formation network on interstellar grain surfaces
starting from the H + O$_2$ route is the reaction between H and H$_2$O$_2$.
This reaction is known to have a high activation energy and therefore at low
temperatures it can only proceed via tunneling. To date, however, no rate
constants are available at temperatures below 200 K. In this work, we use
instanton theory to compute rate constants for the title reaction with and
without isotopic substitutions down to temperatures of 50 K. The calculations
are based on density functional theory, with additional benchmarks for the
activation energy using unrestricted single-reference and multireference
coupled-cluster single-point energies. Gas-phase bimolecular rate constants are
calculated and compared with available experimental data not only for H +
H$_2$O$_2$ $\rightarrow$ H$_2$O + OH, but also for H + H$_2$O$_2$ $\rightarrow$
H$_2$ + HO$_2$. We find a branching ratio where the title reaction is favored
by at least two orders of magnitude at 114 K. In the interstellar medium this
reaction predominantly occurs on water surfaces, which increases the
probability that the two reactants meet. To mimic this one, two, or three
spectator H2O molecules are added to the system. Eley-Rideal bimolecular and
Langmuir-Hinshelwood unimolecular rate constants are presented here. The
kinetic isotope effects for the various cases are compared to experimental data
as well as to expressions commonly used in astrochemical models. Both the
rectangular barrier and the Eckart approximations lead to errors of about an
order of magnitude. Finally, fits of the rate constants are provided as input
for astrochemical models.


title:
On Mixing in Pairwise Markov Random Fields with Application to Social
  Networks

abstract:
  We consider pairwise Markov random fields which have a number of important
applications in statistical physics, image processing and machine learning such
as Ising model and labeling problem to name a couple. Our own motivation comes
from the need to produce synthetic models for social networks with attributes.
First, we give conditions for rapid mixing of the associated Glauber dynamics
and consider interesting particular cases. Then, for pairwise Markov random
fields with submodular energy functions we construct monotone perfect
simulation.


title:
All of the Sky: HEALPix Density Maps of Gaia-scale Datasets from the
  Database to the Desktop

abstract:
  The Gaia Archive provides access to observations of around a billion sky
sources. The primary access to this archive is via TAP services such as GACS
and ARI-Gaia, which allow execution of SQL-like queries against a large remote
database returning a result set of manageable size for client-side use. Such
services are generally used for extracting relatively small source lists
according to potentially complex selection criteria. But they can also be used
to obtain statistical information about all, or a large fraction of, the
observed sources by building histogram-like results.
  We examine here the practicalities of producing and consuming all-sky HEALPix
weighted density maps in this way for Gaia and other large datasets. We present
some modest requirements on TAP/RDBMS services to enable such queries, and
discuss visualisation and serialization options for the results including some
new capabilities in recent versions of TOPCAT.


title:
On the stability of the solitary waves to the (generalized) kawahara
  equation

abstract:
  In this paper we investigate the orbital stability of solitary waves to the
(generalized) Kawahara equation (gKW) which is a fifth order dispersive
equation. For some values of the power of the nonlinearity, we prove the
orbital stability in the energy space H 2 (R) of two branches of even solitary
waves of gKW by combining the well-known spectral method introduced by Benjamin
[3] with continuity arguments. We construct the first family of even solitons
by applying the implicit function theorem in the neighborhood of the explicit
solitons of gKW found by Dey et al. [8]. The second family consists of even
travelling waves with low speeds. They are solutions of a constraint
minimization problem on the line and rescaling of perturbations of the soliton
of gKdV with speed 1.


title: One-dimensional Arterial Network Model for Bypass Grafts Assessment

abstract:
  We propose an arterial network model based on 1D blood hemodynamic equations
to study the behavior of different vascular surgical bypass grafts in case of
an arterial occlusive pathology: an obliteration or stenosis of the iliac
artery. We investigate the performances of three different bypass grafts
(Aorto-Femoral, Axillo-Femoral and cross-over Femoral) depending on the degree
of obliteration of the stenosis. Numerical simulations show that all bypass
grafts are efficient since we retrieve in all cases the normal hemodynamics in
the stenosed region while ensuring at the same time a global healthy
circulation. We analyze in particular the Axillo-Femoral bypass graft by
performing hundreds of simulations by varying the values of the Young's modulus
[0.1--50 MPa] and the radius [0.01--5 cm] of the bypass graft. We show that the
Young's modulus and radius of commercial bypass grafts are optimal in terms of
hemodynamic considerations. The numerical findings prove that this approach
could be used to optimize or plan surgeries for specific patients, to perform
parameter's statistics and error propagation evaluations by running extensive
simulations, or to characterize numerically specific bypass grafts.


title:
What is a Fog Node A Tutorial on Current Concepts towards a Common
  Definition

abstract:
  Fog computing has emerged as a promising technology that can bring the cloud
applications closer to the physical IoT devices at the network edge. While it
is widely known what cloud computing is, and how data centers can build the
cloud infrastructure and how applications can make use of this infrastructure,
there is no common picture on what fog computing and a fog node, as its main
building block, really is. One of the first attempts to define a fog node was
made by Cisco, qualifying a fog computing system as a mini-cloud, located at
the edge of the network and implemented through a variety of edge devices,
interconnected by a variety, mostly wireless, communication technologies. Thus,
a fog node would be the infrastructure implementing the said mini-cloud. Other
proposals have their own definition of what a fog node is, usually in relation
to a specific edge device, a specific use case or an application. In this
paper, we first survey the state of the art in technologies for fog computing
nodes as building blocks of fog computing, paying special attention to the
contributions that analyze the role edge devices play in the fog node
definition. We summarize and compare the concepts, lessons learned from their
implementation, and show how a conceptual framework is emerging towards a
unifying fog node definition. We focus on core functionalities of a fog node as
well as in the accompanying opportunities and challenges towards their
practical realization in the near future.


title:
Times series averaging and denoising from a probabilistic perspective on
  time-elastic kernels

abstract:
  In the light of regularized dynamic time warping kernels, this paper
re-considers the concept of time elastic centroid for a setof time series. We
derive a new algorithm based on a probabilistic interpretation of kernel
alignment matrices. This algorithm expressesthe averaging process in terms of a
stochastic alignment automata. It uses an iterative agglomerative heuristic
method for averagingthe aligned samples, while also averaging the times of
occurrence of the aligned samples. By comparing classification accuracies for45
heterogeneous time series datasets obtained by first nearest centroid/medoid
classifiers we show that: i) centroid-basedapproaches significantly outperform
medoid-based approaches, ii) for the considered datasets, our algorithm that
combines averagingin the sample space and along the time axes, emerges as the
most significantly robust model for time-elastic averaging with apromising
noise reduction capability. We also demonstrate its benefit in an isolated
gesture recognition experiment and its ability tosignificantly reduce the size
of training instance sets. Finally we highlight its denoising capability using
demonstrative synthetic data:we show that it is possible to retrieve, from few
noisy instances, a signal whose components are scattered in a wide spectral
band.


title:
Rho meson decay width in SU(2) gauge theories with 2 fundamental
  flavours

abstract:
  SU(2) gauge theories with two quark flavours in the fundamental
representation are among the most promising theories of composite dynamics
describing the electroweak sector. Three out of five Goldstone bosons in these
models become the longitudinal components of the W and Z bosons giving them
mass. Like in QCD, we expect a spectrum of excitations which appear as
resonances in vector boson scattering, in particular the vector resonance
corresponding to the rho-meson in QCD. In this talk I will present the
preliminary results of the first calculation of the rho-meson decay width in
this theory, which is analogous to rho to two pions decay calculation in QCD.
The results presented were calculated in a moving frame with total momentum
(0,0,1) on two ensembles. Future plans include using 3 moving frames on a
larger set of ensembles to extract the resonance parameters more reliably and
also take the chiral and continuum limits.


title: Dimension of self-affine sets for fixed translation vectors

abstract:
  An affine iterated function system is a finite collection of affine
invertible contractions and the invariant set associated to the mappings is
called self-affine. In 1988, Falconer proved that, for given matrices, the
Hausdorff dimension of the self-affine set is the affinity dimension for
Lebesgue almost every translation vectors. Similar statement was proven by
Jordan, Pollicott, and Simon in 2007 for the dimension of self-affine measures.
In this article, we have an orthogonal approach. We introduce a class of
self-affine systems in which, given translation vectors, we get the same
results for Lebesgue almost all matrices. The proofs rely on Ledrappier-Young
theory that was recently verified for affine iterated function systems by
B\'ar\'any and K\"aenm\"aki, and a new transversality condition, and in
particular they do not depend on properties of the Furstenberg measure. This
allows our results to hold for self-affine sets and measures in any Euclidean
space.


title:
High order expansions for renewal functions and applications to ruin
  theory

abstract:
  A high order expansion of the renewal function is provided under the
assumption that the inter-renewal time distribution is light tailed with finite
moment generating function g on a neighborhood of 0. This expansion relies on
complex analysis and is expressed in terms of the residues of the function 1/(1
-- g). Under the assumption that g can be extended into a meromorphic function
on the complex plane and some technical conditions, we obtain even an exact
expansion of the renewal function. An application to risk theory is given where
we consider high order expansion of the ruin probability for the standard
compound Poisson risk model. This precises the well known Cr\'amer-Lundberg
approximation of the ruin probability when the initial reserve is large.


title:
Averages of ratios of the Riemann zeta-function and correlations of
  divisor sums

abstract:
  We establish a connection between the ratios conjecture for the Riemann
zeta-function and a conjecture concerning correlations of convolutions of
M\"{o}bius and divisor functions. Specifically, we prove that the ratios
conjecture and an arithmetic correlations conjecture imply the same result.
This provides new support for the ratios conjecture, which previously had been
motivated by analogy with formulae in random matrix theory and by a heuristic
recipe. Our main theorem generalises a recent calculation pertaining to the
special case of two-over-two ratios.


title:
Atomistic simulation of finite temperature magnetism of nanoparticles:
  application to cobalt clusters on Au(111)

abstract:
  We developed a technique to determine suitable spin models for small embedded
clusters of arbitrary geometry by combining the spin-cluster expansion with the
relativistic disordered local moment scheme. We present results for uncovered
and covered hexagonal Co clusters on Au(111) surface, and use classical Monte
Carlo simulations to study the temperature dependent properties of the systems.
To test the new method we compare the calculated spin-model parameters of the
uncovered clusters with those of a Co monolayer deposited on Au(111). In
general, the isotropic and DM interactions are larger between atoms at the
perimeter than at the center of the clusters. For Co clusters covered by Au,
both the contribution to the magnetic anisotropy and the easy axis direction of
the perimeter atoms differ from those of the inner atoms due to reduced
symmetry. We investigate the spin reversals of the covered clusters with
perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and by measuring the magnetization variance
in the easy direction we suggest a technique to determine the blocking
temperature of superparamagnetic particles. We also determine the N\'eel
relaxation time from the Monte Carlo simulations and find that it satisfies the
N\'eel--Arrhenius law with an energy barrier close to the magnetic anisotropy
energy of the clusters.


title:
A new fractional operator of variable order: application in the
  description of anomalous diffusion

abstract:
  In this paper, a new fractional operator of variable order with the use of
the monotonic increasing function is proposed in sense of Caputo type. The
properties in term of the Laplace and Fourier transforms are analyzed and the
results for the anomalous diffusion equations of variable order are discussed.
The new formulation is efficient in modeling a class of concentrations in the
complex transport process.


title: Coins that Change Their Weights

abstract:
  As in many coin puzzles, we have several identical-looking coins, with one of
them fake and the rest real. The real coins weigh the same. Our fake coin is
special in that it can change its weight. The coin can pretend to be a real
coin, a fake coin that is lighter than a real one, and a fake coin that is
heavier than a real one. In addition to this, each time the coin is on the
scale, it changes its weight in a predetermined fashion.
  In this paper, we seek to find our fake coin using a balance scale and the
smallest number of weighings.
  We consider different possibilities for the fake coin. We discuss coins that
change weight between two states or between three states. The 2- state coin
that changes weight from lighter to real and back has been studied before, so
we concentrate on the 2-state coin that changes weight from lighter to heavier,
and back. We also study the 3-state coin, which changes its weight from lighter
to heavier to real, and back to lighter.
  Given the total number of coins and the starting state of the fake coin, we
calculate the smallest number of weighings needed to identify the fake coin. We
provide an oblivious optimal strategy for this number of weighings. We also
discuss what happens if the starting state is not known or mixed. In such
cases, adaptive strategies are often more powerful than oblivious ones.


title:
A variational model with fractional-order regularization term arising in
  registration of diffusion tensor image

abstract:
  In this paper, a new variational model with fractional-order regularization
term arising in registration of diffusion tensor image(DTI) is presented.
Moreover, the existence of its solution is proved to ensure that there is a
regular solution for this model.


title: Computational Mapping of the Ground Reflectivity with Laser Scanners

abstract:
  In this investigation we focus on the problem of mapping the ground
reflectivity with multiple laser scanners mounted on mobile robots/vehicles.
The problem originates because regions of the ground become populated with a
varying number of reflectivity measurements whose value depends on the observer
and its corresponding perspective. Here, we propose a novel automatic,
data-driven computational mapping framework specifically aimed at preserving
edge sharpness in the map reconstruction process and that considers the sources
of measurement variation. Our new formulation generates map-perspective
gradients and applies sub-set selection fusion and de-noising operators to
these through iterative algorithms that minimize an $\ell_1$ sparse regularized
least squares formulation. Reconstruction of the ground reflectivity is then
carried out based on Poisson's formulation posed as an $\ell_2$ term promoting
consistency with the fused gradient of map-perspectives and a term that ensures
equality constraints with reference measurement data. We demonstrate our new
framework outperforms the capabilities of existing ones with experiments
realized on Ford's fleet of autonomous vehicles. For example, we show we can
achieve map enhancement (i.e., contrast enhancement), artifact removal,
de-noising and map-stitching without requiring an additional reflectivity
adjustment to calibrate sensors to the specific mounting and robot/vehicle
motion.


title:
Universality in the neutron$-^{19}$C scattering using finite range
  separable interactions

abstract:
  We report a study on the low-energy properties of the elastic $s-$wave
scattering of a neutron ($n$) in the carbon isotope $^{19}$C near the critical
condition for the occurrence of an excited Efimov state in the three-body
$n-n-^{18}$C system. For the separation energy of the two halo neutrons in
$^{20}$C we use the available experimental data. We also investigate to which
extent the universal scaling laws, strictly valid in the zero-range limit, will
survive when using finite-range interactions. By allowing to vary the
$n-^{18}$C binding energy, a scaling behavior for the real and imaginary parts
of the $s-$wave phase-shift $\delta_0$ is verified, emerging some universal
characteristics given by the pole-position of $k\cot(\delta_0^R)$ and
effective-range parameters.


title:
Ultrasensitive 1D field-effect phototransistor: CH$_3$NH$_3$PbI$_3$
  nanowire sensitized individual carbon nanotube

abstract:
  Field-effect phototransistors were fabricated based on individual carbon
nanotubes (CNTs) sensitized by CH$_3$NH$_3$PbI$_3$ nanowires (MAPbI$_3$NW).
These devices represent light responsivities of R=7.7x10$^5$ A/W at
low-lighting conditions in the nWmm$^{-2}$ range, unprecedented among CNT-based
photo detectors. At high incident power (~1 mWmm$^{-2}$), light soaking results
in a negative photocurrent, the device turns insulating. We interpret the
phenomenon as a result of efficient electron-hole separation and charge
transfer of holes from the perovskite to the carbon nanotube, which improves
conductance by increasing the number of carriers, but leaves electrons behind.
At high illumination intensity the random electrostatic potential of these
quench the mobility in the nanotube. The single CNT device geometry allows the
local study of the MAPbI$_3$NW/CNT interface for metallic and semiconducting
CNTs separately. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy studies of
CNT-CH$_3$NH$_3$PbI$_3$ composites revealed that photo-doping takes place at
the interface.


title: On {0,1} CP Tensors and CP Multi-hypergraphs

abstract:
  A doubly nonnegative matrix can be written as a Gramian matrix, and a
completely positive matrix can therefore be written as a Gramian matrix of some
nonnegative vectors. In this paper, we introduce Gramian tensors and study
2-dimension completely positive tensors and {0,1} CP tensors. Also investigated
are the complete positive multi-hypergraph, a generalized form of a cp graph.
We also provide a necessary and sufficient condition for a 2-dimensional tensor
to be completely positive.


title: AutoMOS: Learning a non-intrusive assessor of naturalness-of-speech

abstract:
  Developers of text-to-speech synthesizers (TTS) often make use of human
raters to assess the quality of synthesized speech. We demonstrate that we can
model human raters' mean opinion scores (MOS) of synthesized speech using a
deep recurrent neural network whose inputs consist solely of a raw waveform.
Our best models provide utterance-level estimates of MOS only moderately
inferior to sampled human ratings, as shown by Pearson and Spearman
correlations. When multiple utterances are scored and averaged, a scenario
common in synthesizer quality assessment, AutoMOS achieves correlations
approaching those of human raters. The AutoMOS model has a number of
applications, such as the ability to explore the parameter space of a speech
synthesizer without requiring a human-in-the-loop.


title: Bound state properties of ABC-stacked trilayer graphene quantum dots

abstract:
  The few-layer graphene quantum dot provides a promising platform for quantum
computing with both spin and valley degrees of freedom. Gate-defined quantum
dots in particular can avoid noise from edge disorders. In connection with the
recent experimental efforts [Y. Song et al., Nano Lett. 16, 6245 (2016)], we
investigate the bound state properties of trilayer graphene (TLG) quantum dots
(QDs) through numerical simulations. We show that the valley degeneracy can be
lifted by breaking the time reversal symmetry through the application of a
perpendicular magnetic field. The spectrum under such a potential exhibits a
transition from one group of Landau levels to the other group, which can be
understood analytically through perturbation theory. Our results provide
insight to the transport property of TLG QDs, with possible applications to
study of spin qubits and valleytronics in TLG QDs.


title:
First limits on the very-high energy gamma-ray afterglow emission of a
  fast radio burst: H.E.S.S. observations of FRB 150418

abstract:
  Aims: Following the detection of the fast radio burst FRB150418 by the SUPERB
project at the Parkes radio telescope, we aim to search for very-high energy
gamma-ray afterglow emission. Methods: Follow-up observations in the very-high
energy gamma-ray domain were obtained with the H.E.S.S. imaging atmospheric
Cherenkov telescope system within 14.5 hours of the radio burst. Results: The
obtained 1.4 hours of gamma-ray observations are presented and discussed. At
the 99 % C.L. we obtained an integral upper limit on the gamma-ray flux of
(E>350 GeV) < 1.33 x 10^-8 m^-2s^-1. Differential flux upper limits as function
of the photon energy were derived and used to constrain the intrinsic
high-energy afterglow emission of FRB 150418. Conclusions: No hints for
high-energy afterglow emission of FRB 150418 were found. Taking absorption on
the extragalactic background light into account and assuming a distance of z =
0.492 based on radio and optical counterpart studies and consistent with the
FRB dispersion, we constrain the gamma-ray luminosity at 1 TeV to L < 5.1 x
10^47 erg/s at 99% C.L.


title: Gauge theory and little gauge theory

abstract:
  The gauge theory is the most important type of the field theory, in which the
interactions of the elementary particles are described by the exchange of the
gauge bosons.In this article, the gauge theory is reexamined as geometry of the
vector space, and a new concept of "little gauge theory" is introduced. A key
peculiarity of the little gauge theory is that the theory is able to give a
restriction for form of the connection field. Based on the little gauge theory,
Cartan geometry, a charged boson and the Dirac fermion field theory are
investigated. In particular, the Dirac fermion field theory leads to an
extension of Sogami's covariant derivative. And it is interpreted that Higgs
bosons are included in new fields introduced in this article.


title: Remark on Hopf images in quantum permutation groups $S_n^+$

abstract:
  Motivated by a question of A.~Skalski and P.M.~So{\l}tan about inner
faithfulness of the S.~Curran's map, we revisit the results and techniques of
T.~Banica and J.~Bichon's Crelle paper and study some group-theoretic
properties of the quantum permutation group on $4$ points. This enables us not
only to answer the aforementioned question in positive in case $n=4, k=2$, but
also to classify the automorphisms of $S_4^+$, describe all the embeddings
$O_{-1}(2)\subset S_4^+$ and show that all the copies of $O_{-1}(2)$ inside
$S_4^+$ are conjugate. We then use these results to show that the criterion we
applied to answer the aforementioned question does not admit converse.


title: Towards a new quantum cognition model

abstract:
  This article presents a new quantum-like model for cognition explicitly based
on knowledge. It is shown that this model, called QKT (quantum knowledge-based
theory), is able to coherently describe some experimental results that are
problematic for the prior quantum-like decision models. In particular, I
consider the experimental results relevant to the post-decision cognitive
dissonance, the problems relevant to the question order effect and response
replicability, and those relevant to the grand-reciprocity equations. A new set
of postulates is proposed, which evidence the different meaning given to the
projectors and to the quantum states. In the final part, I show that the use of
quantum gates can help to better describe and understand the evolution of
quantum-like models.


title:
A Comparison Between the Stability Properties in a DDE Model for
  Leukemia and the Modified Fractional Counterpart

abstract:
  In this paper, a delay differential equations (DDEs) model of leukemia is
introduced and its dynamical properties are investigated in comparison with the
modified fractional-order system where the Caputo's derivative is used. The
model takes into account three types of division that a stem-like cell can
undergo and cell competition between healthy and leukemia cell populations. The
action of the immune system on the leukemic cell populations is also
considered. The stability properties of the equilibrium points are established
through numerical results and the differences between the two types of
approaches are discussed. Medical conclusions are drawn in view of the obtained
numerical simulations.


title:
Constructive martingale representation in functional It\^o calculus: a
  local martingale extension

abstract:
  The constructive martingale representation theorem of functional It\^o
calculus is extended, from the space of square integrable martingales, to the
space of local martingales. The setting is that of an augmented filtration
generated by a Wiener process.


title: CMC spheres in the Heisenberg group

abstract:
  We study a family of spheres with constant mean curvature (CMC) in the
Riemannian Heisenberg group $H^1$. These spheres are conjectured to be the
isoperimetric sets of $H^1$. We prove several results supporting this
conjecture. We also focus our attention on the sub-Riemannian limit.


title: Parasitic Momentum Flux in the Tokamak Core

abstract:
  A geometrical correction to the E x B drift causes an outward flux of
cocurrent momentum whenever electrostatic potential energy is transferred to
ion parallel flows. The robust symmetry breaking follows from the free energy
flow in phase space and does not depend on any assumed linear eigenmode
structure, acting both for axisymmetric fluctuations (such as geodesic acoustic
modes) as well as more general nonaxisymmetric fluctuations. The resulting
rotation peaking is countercurrent and scales as electron temperature over
plasma current. This peaking mechanism can only act when fluctuations are
low-frequency enough to excite ion parallel flows, which may explain some
recent experimental observations related to rotation reversals.


title: Evidence of the mixed phase formation in nucleus-nucleus collisions

abstract:
  Searchers for various irregularities in the behavior of thermodynamic
quantities at chemical freeze-out (CFO) are rather important in a view of
experimental studies of quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Using the multicomponent
hadron resonance gas model (HRGM), developed in (Sagun, 2014; Bugaev et al.,
2015), we performed a high-quality fit of 111 hadronic ratios measured for 14
values of the center of mass collision energies between 2.7 GeV and 200 GeV
with the overall fit quality $\chi^2/dof \simeq 0.95$. In addition to
previously reported singularities (Bugaev et al., 2015) at CFO we found that
the hadron yield ratios $\frac{\Lambda}{p}$, $\frac{K^{+}}{p}$,
$\frac{K^{+}}{\Lambda}$, $\frac{\Omega^{-}}{p}$ and $\frac{\Xi^{-}}{p}$
measured in central nuclear collisions demonstrate a significant change of
slope in the same range of center of mass collision energy $\sqrt{s_{NN}} =
4.3-4.9$ GeV (Bugaev et al., 2015). This change of slopes is accompanied by a
dramatic increase of resonance decays at CFO.
  Also at CFO the trace anomaly and baryonic density demonstrate the pronounced
peaks at the collision energy $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 4.9 $ GeV. We argue that all
these and previously found irregularities provide an evidence for the QGP
formation in nuclear collisions at about $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 4.9 $ GeV.


title:
Collapse or no collapse? What is the best ontology of quantum mechanics
  in the primitive ontology framework?

abstract:
  Recalling the state of the art in the interpretation of quantum physics, this
paper emphasizes that one cannot simply add a collapse parameter to the
Schr\~A{\P}dinger equation in order to solve the measurement problem. If one
does so, one is also committed to a primitive ontology of a configuration of
matter in physical space in order to have something in the ontology that
constitutes the determinate measurement outcomes. The paper then argues that in
the light of this consequence, the collapse postulate loses its attractiveness
in comparison to an ontology of persisting particles moving on continuous
trajectories according to a deterministic law.


title:
Sequential Peer Prediction: Learning to Elicit Effort using Posted
  Prices

abstract:
  Peer prediction mechanisms are often adopted to elicit truthful contributions
from crowd workers when no ground-truth verification is available. Recently,
mechanisms of this type have been developed to incentivize effort exertion, in
addition to truthful elicitation. In this paper, we study a sequential peer
prediction problem where a data requester wants to dynamically determine the
reward level to optimize the trade-off between the quality of information
elicited from workers and the total expected payment. In this problem, workers
have homogeneous expertise and heterogeneous cost for exerting effort, both
unknown to the requester. We propose a sequential posted-price mechanism to
dynamically learn the optimal reward level from workers' contributions and to
incentivize effort exertion and truthful reporting. We show that (1) in our
mechanism, workers exerting effort according to a non-degenerate threshold
policy and then reporting truthfully is an equilibrium that returns highest
utility for each worker, and (2) The regret of our learning mechanism w.r.t.
offering the optimal reward (price) is upper bounded by $\tilde{O}(T^{3/4})$
where $T$ is the learning horizon. We further show the power of our learning
approach when the reports of workers do not necessarily follow the
game-theoretic equilibrium.


title:
The Geometry of Speed Limiting Resources in Physical Models of
  Computation

abstract:
  We study the maximum speed of quantum computation and how it is affected by
limitations on physical resources. We show how the resulting concepts
generalize to a broader class of physical models of computation within
dynamical systems and introduce a specific algebraic structure representing
these speed limits. We derive a family of quantum speed limit results in
resource-constrained quantum systems with pure states and a finite dimensional
state space, by using a geometric method based on right invariant action
functionals on $SU(N)$. We show that when the action functional is
bi-invariant, the minimum time for implementing any quantum gate using a
potentially time-dependent Hamiltonian is equal to the minimum time when using
a constant Hamiltonian, thus constant Hamiltonians are time optimal for these
constraints. We give an explicit formula for the time in these cases, in terms
of the resource constraint. We show how our method produces a rich family of
speed limit results, of which the generalized Margolus--Levitin theorem and the
Mandelstam--Tamm inequality are special cases. We discuss the broader context
of geometric approaches to speed limits in physical computation, including the
way geometric approaches to quantum speed limits are a model for physical speed
limits to computation arising from a limited resource.


title: Non-metric Quantum Cosmology

abstract:
  Scalar-tensor theory has arbitrary functions of the scalar field in front of
the geometric and scalar terms in the Lagrangain. The extent to which these
arbitrary functions appear in the Wheeler-deWitt wavefunction of mini-super
Robertson-Walker spacetimes is discussed. The function of the scalar field in
front of the Einstein-Hilbert action allows a current to be constructed which
suggests transfer from matter to geometry of aspects of the wavefunction.


title: Remarks on a rumor propagation model

abstract:
  This short note contains a few comments and corrections about some recent
models for the spread of rumors in a population. We consider a system of
ordinary differential equations which describes the evolution of
Ignorant-Spreaders-Stiflers in time. State of the art of analytical
understanding of those equations is based on studying asymptotic solutions of
the rumor spreading equations. In this work we find a First Integral of these
differential equations. We qualitatively discuss the evolution of the system in
the light of those new more precise solutions.


title:
Newton gauge cosmological perturbations for static spherically symmetric
  modifications of the de Sitter metric

abstract:
  Static coordinates can be convenient to solve the vacuum Einstein's equations
in presence of spherical symmetry, but for cosmological applications comoving
coordinates are more suitable to describe an expanding Universe, especially in
the framework of cosmological perturbation theory (CPT). Using CPT we develop a
method to transform static spherically symmetric (SSS) modifications of the de
Sitter solution from static coordinates to the Newton gauge. We test the method
with the Schwarzschild de Sitter (SDS) metric and then derive general
expressions for the Bardeen's potentials for a class of SSS metrics obtained by
adding to the de Sitter metric a term linear in the mass and proportional to a
general function of the radius. Using the gauge invariance of the Bardeen's
potentials we then obtain a gauge invariant definition of the turn around
radius. We apply the method to an SSS solution of the Brans-Dicke theory,
confirming the results obtained independently by solving the perturbation
equations in the Newton gauge. The Bardeen's potentials are then derived for
new SSS metrics involving logarithmic, power law and exponential modifications
of the de Sitter metric. We also apply the method to SSS metrics which give
flat rotation curves, computing the radial energy density profile in comoving
coordinates in presence of a cosmological constant.


title: ECO: Efficient Convolution Operators for Tracking

abstract:
  In recent years, Discriminative Correlation Filter (DCF) based methods have
significantly advanced the state-of-the-art in tracking. However, in the
pursuit of ever increasing tracking performance, their characteristic speed and
real-time capability have gradually faded. Further, the increasingly complex
models, with massive number of trainable parameters, have introduced the risk
of severe over-fitting. In this work, we tackle the key causes behind the
problems of computational complexity and over-fitting, with the aim of
simultaneously improving both speed and performance.
  We revisit the core DCF formulation and introduce: (i) a factorized
convolution operator, which drastically reduces the number of parameters in the
model; (ii) a compact generative model of the training sample distribution,
that significantly reduces memory and time complexity, while providing better
diversity of samples; (iii) a conservative model update strategy with improved
robustness and reduced complexity. We perform comprehensive experiments on four
benchmarks: VOT2016, UAV123, OTB-2015, and TempleColor. When using expensive
deep features, our tracker provides a 20-fold speedup and achieves a 13.0%
relative gain in Expected Average Overlap compared to the top ranked method in
the VOT2016 challenge. Moreover, our fast variant, using hand-crafted features,
operates at 60 Hz on a single CPU, while obtaining 65.0% AUC on OTB-2015.


title:
On structure, family and parameter estimation of hierarchical
  Archimedean copulas

abstract:
  Research on structure determination and parameter estimation of hierarchical
Archimedean copulas (HACs) has so far mostly focused on the case in which all
appearing Archimedean copulas belong to the same Archimedean family. The
present work addresses this issue and proposes a new approach for estimating
HACs that involve different Archimedean families. It is based on employing
goodness-of-fit test statistics directly into HAC estimation. The approach is
summarized in a simple algorithm, its theoretical justification is given and
its applicability is illustrated by several experiments, which include
estimation of HACs involving up to five different Archimedean families.


title: Robust Variational Inference

abstract:
  Variational inference is a powerful tool for approximate inference. However,
it mainly focuses on the evidence lower bound as variational objective and the
development of other measures for variational inference is a promising area of
research. This paper proposes a robust modification of evidence and a lower
bound for the evidence, which is applicable when the majority of the training
set samples are random noise objects. We provide experiments for variational
autoencoders to show advantage of the objective over the evidence lower bound
on synthetic datasets obtained by adding uninformative noise objects to MNIST
and OMNIGLOT. Additionally, for the original MNIST and OMNIGLOT datasets we
observe a small improvement over the non-robust evidence lower bound.


title: Introduzione alla Cosmologia

abstract:
  Introductory lectures notes on cosmology, aimed at master students in physics
and based on a course held at Milano University (in Italian).


title:
Carrier emission of n-type Gallium Nitride illuminated by femtosecond
  laser pulses

abstract:
  The carrier emission efficiency of light emitting diodes is of fundamental
importance for many technological applications, including the performance of
GaN and other semiconductor photocathodes. We have measured the evolution of
the emitted carriers and the associated transient electric field after
femtosecond laser excitation of n-type GaN single crystals. These processes
were studied using subpicosecond, ultrashort, electron pulses and explained by
means of a three-layer analytical model. We find that for pump laser
intensities on the order of 10^11 W/cm^2, the electrons that escaped from the
crystal surface have a charge of about 2.7 pc and a velocity of about 1.8
um/ps. The associated transient electrical field evolves at intervals ranging
from picoseconds to nanoseconds. These results provide a dynamic perspective on
the photoemission properties of semiconductor photocathodes.


title:
Stably accessing octave-spanning microresonator frequency combs in the
  soliton regime

abstract:
  Microresonator frequency combs can be an enabling technology for optical
frequency synthesis and timekeeping in low size, weight, and power
architectures. Such systems require comb operation in low-noise, phase-coherent
states such as solitons, with broad spectral bandwidths (e.g., octave-spanning)
for self-referencing to detect the carrier-envelope offset frequency. However,
stably accessing such states is complicated by thermo-optic dispersion. For
example, in the Si3N4 platform, precisely dispersion-engineered structures can
support broadband operation, but microsecond thermal time constants have
necessitated fast pump power or frequency control to stabilize the solitons. In
contrast, here we consider how broadband soliton states can be accessed with
simple pump laser frequency tuning, at a rate much slower than the thermal
dynamics. We demonstrate octave-spanning soliton frequency combs in Si3N4
microresonators, including the generation of a multi-soliton state with a pump
power near 40 mW and a single-soliton state with a pump power near 120 mW. We
also develop a simplified two-step analysis to explain how these states are
accessed in a thermally stable way without fast control of the pump laser, and
outline the required thermal properties for such operation. Our model agrees
with experimental results as well as numerical simulations based on a
Lugiato-Lefever equation that incorporates thermo-optic dispersion. Moreover,
it also explains an experimental observation that a member of an adjacent mode
family on the red-detuned side of the pump mode can mitigate the thermal
requirements for accessing soliton states.


title:
Operationalised product quality models and assessment: The Quamoco
  approach

abstract:
  Software quality models provide either abstract quality characteristics or
concrete quality measurements; there is no seamless integration of these two
aspects. Reasons for this include the complexity of quality and the various
quality profiles in different domains which make it difficult to build
operationalised quality models. In the project Quamoco, we developed a
comprehensive approach for closing this gap. It combined constructive research,
which involved quality experts from academia and industry in workshops, sprint
work and reviews, with empirical studies. All deliverables within the project
were peer-reviewed by two project members from a different area. Most
deliverables were developed in two or three iterations and underwent an
evaluation. We contribute a comprehensive quality modelling and assessment
approach: (1) A meta quality model defines the structure of operationalised
quality models. It includes the concept of a product factor, which bridges the
gap between concrete measurements and abstract quality aspects, and allows
modularisation to create modules for specific domains. (2) A largely
technology-independent base quality model reduces the effort and complexity of
building quality models for specific domains. For Java and C# systems, we
refined it with about 300 concrete product factors and 500 measures. (3) A
concrete and comprehensive quality assessment approach makes use of the
concepts in the meta-model. (4) An empirical evaluation of the above results
using real-world software systems. (5) The extensive, open-source tool support
is in a mature state. (6) The model for embedded software systems is a
proof-of-concept for domain-specific quality models. We provide a broad basis
for the development and application of quality models in industrial practice as
well as a basis for further extension, validation and comparison with other
approaches in research.


title:
The ALHAMBRA survey : $B-$band luminosity function of quiescent and
  star-forming galaxies at $0.2 \leq z < 1$ by PDF analysis

abstract:
  Our goal is to study the evolution of the $B-$band luminosity function (LF)
since $z=1$ using ALHAMBRA data. We used the photometric redshift and the
$I-$band selection magnitude probability distribution functions (PDFs) of those
ALHAMBRA galaxies with $I\leq24$ mag to compute the posterior LF. We
statistically studied quiescent and star-forming galaxies using the template
information encoded in the PDFs. The LF covariance matrix in
redshift-magnitude-galaxy type space was computed, including the cosmic
variance. That was estimated from the intrinsic dispersion of the LF
measurements in the 48 ALHAMBRA sub-fields. The uncertainty due to the
photometric redshift prior is also included in our analysis. We modelled the LF
with a redshift-dependent Schechter function affected by the same selection
effects than the data. The measured ALHAMBRA LF at $0.2\leq z<1$ and the
evolving Schechter parameters both for quiescent and star-forming galaxies
agree with previous results in the literature. The estimated redshift evolution
of $M_B^* \propto Qz$ is $Q_{\rm SF}=-1.03\pm0.08$ and $Q_{\rm
Q}=-0.80\pm0.08$, and of $\log \phi^* \propto Pz$ is $P_{\rm SF}=-0.01\pm0.03$
and $P_{\rm Q}=-0.41\pm0.05$. The measured faint-end slopes are $\alpha_{\rm
SF}=-1.29\pm0.02$ and $\alpha_{\rm Q}=-0.53\pm0.04$. We find a significant
population of faint quiescent galaxies, modelled by a second Schechter function
with slope $\beta=-1.31\pm0.11$. We find a factor $2.55\pm0.14$ decrease in the
luminosity density $j_B$ of star-forming galaxies, and a factor $1.25\pm0.16$
increase in the $j_B$ of quiescent ones since $z=1$, confirming the continuous
build-up of the quiescent population with cosmic time. The contribution of the
faint quiescent population to $j_B$ increases from 3% at $z=1$ to 6% at $z=0$.
The developed methodology will be applied to future multi-filter surveys such
as J-PAS.


title:
Efficient Convolutional Auto-Encoding via Random Convexification and
  Frequency-Domain Minimization

abstract:
  The omnipresence of deep learning architectures such as deep convolutional
neural networks (CNN)s is fueled by the synergistic combination of
ever-increasing labeled datasets and specialized hardware. Despite the
indisputable success, the reliance on huge amounts of labeled data and
specialized hardware can be a limiting factor when approaching new
applications. To help alleviating these limitations, we propose an efficient
learning strategy for layer-wise unsupervised training of deep CNNs on
conventional hardware in acceptable time. Our proposed strategy consists of
randomly convexifying the reconstruction contractive auto-encoding (RCAE)
learning objective and solving the resulting large-scale convex minimization
problem in the frequency domain via coordinate descent (CD). The main
advantages of our proposed learning strategy are: (1) single tunable
optimization parameter; (2) fast and guaranteed convergence; (3) possibilities
for full parallelization. Numerical experiments show that our proposed learning
strategy scales (in the worst case) linearly with image size, number of filters
and filter size.


title:
Non-Gaussianity in two-field inflation beyond the slow-roll
  approximation

abstract:
  We use the long-wavelength formalism to investigate the level of bispectral
non-Gaussianity produced in two-field inflation models with standard kinetic
terms. Even though the Planck satellite has so far not detected any primordial
non-Gaussianity, it has tightened the constraints significantly, and it is
important to better understand what regions of inflation model space have been
ruled out, as well as prepare for the next generation of experiments that might
reach the important milestone of Delta f_NL(local) = 1. We derive an
alternative formulation of the previously derived integral expression for f_NL,
which makes it easier to physically interpret the result and see which types of
potentials can produce large non-Gaussianity. We apply this to the case of a
sum potential and show that it is very difficult to satisfy simultaneously the
conditions for a large f_NL and the observational constraints on the spectral
index n_s. In the case of the sum of two monomial potentials and a constant we
explicitly show in which small region of parameter space this is possible, and
we show how to construct such a model. Finally, the new general expression for
f_NL also allows us to prove that for the sum potential the explicit
expressions derived within the slow-roll approximation remain valid even when
the slow-roll approximation is broken during the turn of the field trajectory
(as long as only the epsilon slow-roll parameter remains small).


title: Relative $2$-Segal spaces

abstract:
  We introduce a relative version of the $2$-Segal simplicial spaces defined by
Dyckerhoff and Kapranov and G\'{a}lvez-Carrillo, Kock and Tonks. Examples of
relative $2$-Segal spaces include the categorified unoriented cyclic nerve,
real pseudoholomorphic polygons in almost complex manifolds and the
$\mathcal{R}_{\bullet}$-construction from Grothendieck-Witt theory. We show
that a relative $2$-Segal space defines a categorical representation of the
Hall algebra associated to the base $2$-Segal space. In this way, after
decategorification we recover a number of known constructions of Hall algebra
representations. We also describe some higher categorical interpretations of
relative $2$-Segal spaces.


title: Joint Copying and Restricted Generation for Paraphrase

abstract:
  Many natural language generation tasks, such as abstractive summarization and
text simplification, are paraphrase-orientated. In these tasks, copying and
rewriting are two main writing modes. Most previous sequence-to-sequence
(Seq2Seq) models use a single decoder and neglect this fact. In this paper, we
develop a novel Seq2Seq model to fuse a copying decoder and a restricted
generative decoder. The copying decoder finds the position to be copied based
on a typical attention model. The generative decoder produces words limited in
the source-specific vocabulary. To combine the two decoders and determine the
final output, we develop a predictor to predict the mode of copying or
rewriting. This predictor can be guided by the actual writing mode in the
training data. We conduct extensive experiments on two different paraphrase
datasets. The result shows that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art
approaches in terms of both informativeness and language quality.


title: An Overabundance of Low-density Neptune-like Planets

abstract:
  We present a uniform analysis of the atmospheric escape rate of Neptune-like
planets with estimated radius and mass (restricted to $M_{\rm
p}<30\,M_{\oplus}$). For each planet we compute the restricted Jeans escape
parameter, $\Lambda$, for a hydrogen atom evaluated at the planetary mass,
radius, and equilibrium temperature. Values of $\Lambda\lesssim20$ suggest
extremely high mass-loss rates. We identify 27 planets (out of 167) that are
simultaneously consistent with hydrogen-dominated atmospheres and are expected
to exhibit extreme mass-loss rates. We further estimate the mass-loss rates
($L_{\rm hy}$) of these planets with tailored atmospheric hydrodynamic models.
We compare $L_{\rm hy}$ to the energy-limited (maximum-possible high-energy
driven) mass-loss rates. We confirm that 25 planets (15\% of the sample)
exhibit extremely high mass-loss rates ($L_{\rm hy}>0.1\,M_{\oplus}{\rm
Gyr}^{-1}$), well in excess of the energy-limited mass-loss rates. This
constitutes a contradiction, since the hydrogen envelopes cannot be retained
given the high mass-loss rates. We hypothesize that these planets are not truly
under such high mass-loss rates. Instead, either hydrodynamic models
overestimate the mass-loss rates, transit-timing-variation measurements
underestimate the planetary masses, optical transit observations overestimate
the planetary radii (due to high-altitude clouds), or Neptunes have
consistently higher albedos than Jupiter planets. We conclude that at least one
of these established estimations/techniques is consistently producing biased
values for Neptune planets. Such an important fraction of exoplanets with
misinterpreted parameters can significantly bias our view of populations
studies, like the observed mass--radius distribution of exoplanets for example.


title: Aspects of Leptonic Flavour Mixing

abstract:
  Since the discovery of neutrino oscillations many ideas have been put forward
to explain the special features of the leptonic mixing and the differences with
respect to the quark sector. In this talk I review some of these proposals,
emphasizing especially their predictability. In the light of the new data, I
first revisit fixed-point relations among mixing angles and phases. Then I
briefly comment on radiative neutrino masses. Finally I discuss the role of
flavour symmetries. Given the very many existing models I focus on two classes
of models. On the one hand I illustrate the ability of models based on a
generalization of the anarchy idea in reproducing the main features of both the
quark and the lepton spectrum, also in a GUT framework. On the other hand I
discuss less ambitious but more predictive models based on discrete flavour
symmetries, centered on the properties of the leptonic mixing matrix.


title: Improving Multi-Document Summarization via Text Classification

abstract:
  Developed so far, multi-document summarization has reached its bottleneck due
to the lack of sufficient training data and diverse categories of documents.
Text classification just makes up for these deficiencies. In this paper, we
propose a novel summarization system called TCSum, which leverages plentiful
text classification data to improve the performance of multi-document
summarization. TCSum projects documents onto distributed representations which
act as a bridge between text classification and summarization. It also utilizes
the classification results to produce summaries of different styles. Extensive
experiments on DUC generic multi-document summarization datasets show that,
TCSum can achieve the state-of-the-art performance without using any
hand-crafted features and has the capability to catch the variations of summary
styles with respect to different text categories.