title: Effect of lensing non-Gaussianity on the CMB power spectra

abstract:
  Observed CMB anisotropies are lensed, and the lensed power spectra can be
calculated accurately assuming the lensing deflections are Gaussian. However,
the lensing deflections are actually slightly non-Gaussian due to both
non-linear large-scale structure growth and post-Born corrections. We calculate
the leading correction to the lensed CMB power spectra from the
non-Gaussianity, which is determined by the lensing bispectrum. The
lowest-order result gives $\sim 0.3\%$ corrections to the BB and EE
polarization spectra on small-scales, however we show that the effect on EE is
reduced by about a factor of two by higher-order Gaussian lensing smoothing,
rendering the total effect safely negligible for the foreseeable future. We
give a simple analytic model for the signal expected from skewness of the
large-scale lensing field; the effect is similar to a net demagnification and
hence a small change in acoustic scale (and therefore out of phase with the
dominant lensing smoothing that predominantly affects the peaks and troughs of
the power spectrum).


title: Fast and Simple Optimization for Poisson Likelihood Models

abstract:
  Poisson likelihood models have been prevalently used in imaging, social
networks, and time series analysis. We propose fast, simple,
theoretically-grounded, and versatile, optimization algorithms for Poisson
likelihood modeling. The Poisson log-likelihood is concave but not
Lipschitz-continuous. Since almost all gradient-based optimization algorithms
rely on Lipschitz-continuity, optimizing Poisson likelihood models with a
guarantee of convergence can be challenging, especially for large-scale
problems.
  We present a new perspective allowing to efficiently optimize a wide range of
penalized Poisson likelihood objectives. We show that an appropriate saddle
point reformulation enjoys a favorable geometry and a smooth structure.
Therefore, we can design a new gradient-based optimization algorithm with
$O(1/t)$ convergence rate, in contrast to the usual $O(1/\sqrt{t})$ rate of
non-smooth minimization alternatives. Furthermore, in order to tackle problems
with large samples, we also develop a randomized block-decomposition variant
that enjoys the same convergence rate yet more efficient iteration cost.
  Experimental results on several point process applications including social
network estimation and temporal recommendation show that the proposed algorithm
and its randomized block variant outperform existing methods both on synthetic
and real-world datasets.


title: Mean-field avalanches in jammed spheres

abstract:
  Disordered systems are characterized by the existence of many sample-
dependent local energy minima, that cause a stepwise response when the system
is perturbed. In this article we use an approach based on elementary
probabilistic methods to compute the complete probability distribution of the
jumps (static avalanches) in the response of mean-field systems described by
replica symmetry breaking; we find a precise condition for having a power-law
behavior in the distribution of avalanches caused by small perturbations, and
we show that our predictions are in remarkable agreement both with previous
results and with what is found in simulations of three dimensional systems of
soft-spheres, either at jamming or at slightly higher densities.


title: Gravitational and mass distribution effects on stationary superwinds

abstract:
  Here, we model the effect of non-uniform dynamical mass distributions and
their associated gravitational fields on the stationary galactic superwind
solution. We do this by considering an analogue injection of mass and energy
from stellar winds and SNe. We consider both compact dark-matter and baryonic
haloes that does not extend further from the galaxies optical radii $R_{\rm
opt}$ as well as extended gravitationally-interacting ones. We consider halo
profiles that emulate the results of recent cosmological simulations and
coincide also with observational estimations from galaxy surveys. This allows
to compare the analytical superwind solution with outflows from different kinds
of galaxies. We give analytical formulae that establish when an outflow is
possible and also characterize distinct flow regimes and enrichment scenarios.
We also constraint the parameter space by giving approximate limits above which
gravitation, self-gravitation and radiative cooling can inhibit the stationary
flow. We obtain analytical expressions for the free superwind hydrodynamical
profiles. We find that the existence or inhibition of the superwind solution
highly depends on the steepness and concentration of the dynamical mass and the
mass and energy injection rates. We compare our results with observational data
and a recent numerical work. We put our results in the context of the
mass-metallicity relationship to discuss observational evidence related to the
selective loss of metals from the least massive galaxies and also discuss the
case of massive galaxies.


title: Low-Dimensional Shaping for High-Dimensional Lattice Codes

abstract:
  We propose two low-complexity lattice code constructions that have
competitive coding and shaping gains. The first construction, named systematic
Voronoi shaping, maps short blocks of integers to the dithered Voronoi
integers, which are dithered integers that are uniformly distributed over the
Voronoi region of a low-dimensional shaping lattice. Then, these dithered
Voronoi integers are encoded using a high-dimensional lattice retaining the
same shaping and coding gains of low and high-dimensional lattices. A drawback
to this construction is that there is no isomorphism between the underlying
message and the lattice code, preventing its use in applications such as
compute-and- forward. Therefore we propose a second construction, called mixed
nested lattice codes, in which a high-dimensional coding lattice is nested
inside a concatenation of low-dimensional shaping lattices. This construction
not only retains the same shaping/coding gains as first construction but also
provides the desired algebraic structure. We numerically study these methods,
for point-to-point channels as well as compute-and-forward using low-density
lattice codes (LDLCs) as coding lattices and E8 and Barnes-Wall as shaping
lattices. Numerical results indicate a shaping gain of up to 0.86 dB, compared
to the state-of-the-art of 0.4 dB; furthermore, the proposed method has lower
complexity than state-of-the-art approaches.


title: Synchronizing Automata with Extremal Properties

abstract:
  We present a few classes of synchronizing automata exhibiting certain
extremal properties with regard to synchronization. The first is a series of
automata with subsets whose shortest extending words are of length
$\varTheta(n^2)$, where $n$ is the number of states of the automaton. This
disproves a conjecture that every subset in a strongly connected synchronizing
automaton is $cn$-extendable, for some constant $c$, and in particular, shows
that the cubic upper bound on the length of the shortest reset words cannot be
improved generally by means of the extension method. A detailed analysis shows
that the automata in the series have subsets that require words as long as
$n^2/4+O(n)$ in order to be extended by at least one element.
  We also discuss possible relaxations of the conjecture, and propose the
image-extension conjecture, which would lead to a quadratic upper bound on the
length of the shortest reset words. In this regard we present another class of
automata, which turn out to be counterexamples to a key claim in a recent
attempt to improve the Pin-Frankl bound for reset words.
  Finally, we present two new series of slowly irreducibly synchronizing
automata over a ternary alphabet, whose lengths of the shortest reset words are
$n^2-3n+3$ and $n^2-3n+2$, respectively. These are the first examples of such
series of automata for alphabets of size larger than two.


title:
Modeling the microscopic electrical properties of thrombin binding
  aptamer (TBA) for label-free biosensors

abstract:
  Aptamers are chemically produced oligonucleotides, able to bind a variety of
targets such as drugs, proteins and pathogens with high sensitivity and
selectivity. Therefore, aptamers are largely employed for producing label-free
biosensors, with significant applications in diagnostics and drug delivery. In
particular, the anti-thrombin aptamers are biomolecules of high interest for
clinical use, because of their ability to recognize and bind the thrombin
enzyme. Among them, the DNA 15-mer thrombin-binding aptamer (TBA), has been
widely explored concerning both its structure, which was resolved with
different techniques, and its function, especially about the possibility of
using it as the active part of biosensors. This paper proposes a microscopic
model of the electrical properties of TBA and the aptamer-thrombin complex,
combining information from both structure and function. The novelty consists in
describing both the aptamer alone and the complex as an impedance network, thus
going deeper inside the issues addressed in an emerging electronics branch
known as proteotronics. The theoretical results are compared and validated with
Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy measurements reported in the literature.
Finally, the model suggests resistance measurements as a novel tool for testing
aptamer-target affinity.

categories: physics.bio-ph cond-mat.soft physics.chem-ph q-bio.BM


title: Donors in Ge as Qubits: Establishing Physical Attributes

abstract:
  Quantum electronic devices at the single impurity level demand an
understanding of the physical attributes of dopants at an unprecedented
accuracy. Germanium-based technologies have been developed recently, creating a
necessity to adapt the latest theoretical tools to the unique electronic
structure of this material. We investigate basic properties of donors in Ge
which are not known experimentally, but are indispensable for qubit
implementations. Our approach provides a description of the wavefunction at
multiscale, associating microscopic information from Density Functional Theory
and envelope functions from state of the art multivalley effective mass
calculations, including a central cell correction designed to reproduce the
energetics of all group V donor species (P, As, Sb and Bi). With this
formalism, we predict the binding energies of negatively ionized donors (D-
state). Furthermore, we investigate the signatures of buried donors to be
expected from Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM). The naive assumption that
attributes of donor electrons in other semiconductors may be extrapolated to Ge
is shown to fail, similar to earlier attempts to recreate in Si qubits designed
for GaAs. Our results suggest that the mature techniques available for qubit
realizations may be adapted to germanium to some extent, but the peculiarities
of the Ge band structure will demand new ideas for fabrication and control.


title: Tunable Weyl Semi-metal and its Possible Realization in Optical Lattice

abstract:
  Weyl semimetal (WSM) is an exotic topological state in condensed matter
physics. In this paper, based on a two-band cubic lattice model, we studied
WSMs with a pair of tunable Weyl nodes. It is pointed out that there exist
three types of WSMs with different tilt strengths: type-I WSM, type-II WSM and
type-1.5 WSM. In particular, type-1.5 WSM has one type-I node and one type-II
node. We studied chiral modes, surface Fermi arcs and quantum anomalous Hall
effect in different types of WSMs. In addition, we give an experimental setup
to realize the different types of WSMs based on timely technique.


title:
Shape-resonant superconductivity in nanofilms: from weak to strong
  coupling

abstract:
  Ultrathin superconductors of different materials are becoming a powerful
platform to find mechanisms for enhancement of superconductivity, exploiting
shape resonances in different superconducting properties. Here we evaluate the
superconducting gap and its spatial profile, the multiple gap components, and
the chemical potential, of generic superconducting nanofilms, considering the
pairing attraction and its energy scale as tunable parameters, from weak to
strong coupling, at fixed electron density. Superconducting properties are
evaluated at mean field level as a function of the thickness of the nanofilm,
in order to characterize the shape resonances in the superconducting gap. We
find that the most pronounced shape resonances are generated for weakly coupled
superconductors, while approaching the strong coupling regime the shape
resonances are rounded by a mixing of the subbands due to the large energy gaps
extending over large energy scales. Finally, we find that the spatial profile,
transverse to the nanofilm, of the superconducting gap acquires a flat behavior
in the shape resonance region, indicating that a robust and uniform multigap
superconducting state can arise at resonance.


title: Partition and generating function zeros in adsorbing self-avoiding walks

abstract:
  The Lee-Yang theory of adsorbing self-avoiding walks is presented. It is
shown that Lee-Yang zeros of the generating function of this model
asymptotically accumulate uniformly on a circle in the complex plane, and that
Fisher zeros of the partition function distribute in the complex plane such
that a positive fraction are located in annular regions centered at the origin.
These results are examined in a numerical study of adsorbing self-avoiding
walks in the square and cubic lattices. The numerical data are consistent with
the rigorous results; for example, Lee-Yang zeros are found to accumulate on a
circle in the complex plane and a positive fraction of partition function zeros
appear to accumulate on a critical circle. The radial and angular distribution
of partition function zeros are also examined and it is found to be consistent
with the rigorous results on the Fisher zeros of interacting lattice clusters.


title: Which Findings from the Functional Neuromaging Literature Can We Trust?

abstract:
  In their recent "Cluster Failure" paper, Eklund and colleagues cast doubt on
the accuracy of a widely used statistical test in functional neuroimaging.
Here, we leverage nonparametric methods that control the false discovery rate
to offer more nuanced, quantitative guidance about which findings in the
existing literature can be trusted. We show that, in the task studies examined
by Eklund et al., most clusters originally reported to be significant are
indeed trustworthy by the false discovery rate benchmark.


title: Testing Sparsity over Known and Unknown Bases

abstract:
  Sparsity is a basic property of real vectors that is exploited in a wide
variety of applications. In this work, we describe property testing algorithms
for sparsity that observe a low-dimensional projection of the input.
  We consider two settings. In the first setting, for a given design matrix A
in R^{d x m}, we test whether an input vector y in R^d equals Ax for some
k-sparse unit vector x. Our algorithm projects the input onto O(k \eps^{-2} log
m) dimensions, accepts if the property holds, rejects if ||y - Ax|| > \eps for
any O(k/\eps^2)-sparse vector x, and runs in time polynomial in m. Our
algorithm is based on the approximate Caratheodory's theorem. Previously known
algorithms that solve the problem for arbitrary A with qualitatively similar
guarantees run in exponential time.
  In the second setting, the design matrix A is unknown. Given input vectors
y_1, y_2,...,y_p in R^d whose concatenation as columns forms Y in R^{d x p} ,
the goal is to decide whether Y=AX for matrices A in R^{d x m} and X in R^{m x
p} such that each column of X is k-sparse, or whether Y is "far" from having
such a decomposition. We give such a testing algorithm which projects the input
vectors to O(log p/\eps^2) dimensions and assumes that the unknown A satisfies
k-restricted isometry. Our analysis gives a new robust characterization of
gaussian width in terms of sparsity.


title:
Fuzzy-based Propagation of Prior Knowledge to Improve Large-Scale Image
  Analysis Pipelines

abstract:
  Many automatically analyzable scientific questions are well-posed and offer a
variety of information about the expected outcome a priori. Although often
being neglected, this prior knowledge can be systematically exploited to make
automated analysis operations sensitive to a desired phenomenon or to evaluate
extracted content with respect to this prior knowledge. For instance, the
performance of processing operators can be greatly enhanced by a more focused
detection strategy and the direct information about the ambiguity inherent in
the extracted data. We present a new concept for the estimation and propagation
of uncertainty involved in image analysis operators. This allows using simple
processing operators that are suitable for analyzing large-scale 3D+t
microscopy images without compromising the result quality. On the foundation of
fuzzy set theory, we transform available prior knowledge into a mathematical
representation and extensively use it enhance the result quality of various
processing operators. All presented concepts are illustrated on a typical
bioimage analysis pipeline comprised of seed point detection, segmentation,
multiview fusion and tracking. Furthermore, the functionality of the proposed
approach is validated on a comprehensive simulated 3D+t benchmark data set that
mimics embryonic development and on large-scale light-sheet microscopy data of
a zebrafish embryo. The general concept introduced in this contribution
represents a new approach to efficiently exploit prior knowledge to improve the
result quality of image analysis pipelines. Especially, the automated analysis
of terabyte-scale microscopy data will benefit from sophisticated and efficient
algorithms that enable a quantitative and fast readout. The generality of the
concept, however, makes it also applicable to practically any other field with
processing strategies that are arranged as linear pipelines.


title:
Observation of Dirac surface states in the noncentrosymmetric
  superconductor BiPd

abstract:
  Materials with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) have in recent years become a
subject of intense research due to their potential applications in spintronics
and quantum information technology. In particular, in systems which break
inversion symmetry, SOC facilitates the Rashba-Dresselhaus effect, leading to a
lifting of spin degeneracy in the bulk and intricate spin textures of the Bloch
wave functions. Here, by combining angular resolved photoemission (ARPES) and
low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements with
relativistic first-principles band structure calculations, we examine the role
of SOC in single crystals of noncentrosymmetric BiPd. We report the detection
of several Dirac surface states, one of which exhibits an extremely large spin
splitting. Unlike the surface states in inversion-symmetric systems, the Dirac
surface states of BiPd have completely different properties at opposite faces
of the crystal and are not trivially linked by symmetry. The spin-splitting of
the surface states exhibits a strong anisotropy by itself, which can be linked
to the low in-plane symmetry of the surface termination.


title: Packing Loose Hamilton Cycles

abstract:
  A subset $C$ of edges in a $k$-uniform hypergraph $H$ is a \emph{loose
Hamilton cycle} if $C$ covers all the vertices of $H$ and there exists a cyclic
ordering of these vertices such that the edges in $C$ are segments of that
order and such that every two consecutive edges share exactly one vertex. The
binomial random $k$-uniform hypergraph $H^k_{n,p}$ has vertex set $[n]$ and an
edge set $E$ obtained by adding each $k$-tuple $e\in \binom{[n]}{k}$ to $E$
with probability $p$, independently at random.
  Here we consider the problem of finding edge-disjoint loose Hamilton cycles
covering all but $o(|E|)$ edges, referred to as the \emph{packing problem}.
While it is known that the threshold probability for the appearance of a loose
Hamilton cycle in $H^k_{n,p}$ is $p=\Theta\left(\frac{\log n}{n^{k-1}}\right)$,
the best known bounds for the packing problem are around
$p=\text{polylog}(n)/n$. Here we make substantial progress and prove the
following asymptotically (up to a polylog$(n)$ factor) best possible result:
For $p\geq \log^{C}n/n^{k-1}$, a random $k$-uniform hypergraph $H^k_{n,p}$ with
high probability contains $N:=(1-o(1))\frac{\binom{n}{k}p}{n/(k-1)}$
edge-disjoint loose Hamilton cycles.
  Our proof utilizes and modifies the idea of "online sprinkling" recently
introduced by Vu and the first author.


title: Theory for the Acoustic Raman Modes of Proteins

abstract:
  We present a theoretical analysis that associates the resonances of
extraordinary acoustic Raman (EAR) spectroscopy [Wheaton et al., Nat Photon 9,
68 (2015)] with the collective modes of proteins. The theory uses the
anisotropic elastic network model to find the protein acoustic modes, and
calculates Raman intensity by treating the protein as a polarizable ellipsoid.
Reasonable agreement is found between EAR spectra and our theory. Protein
acoustic modes have been extensively studied theoretically to assess the role
they play in protein function; this result suggests EAR as a new experimental
tool for studies of protein acoustic modes.


title:
A quantum optical description of losses in ring resonators based on
  field operator transformations

abstract:
  In this work we examine loss in ring resonator networks from an "operator
valued phasor addition" approach (or OVPA approach) which considers the
multiple transmission and cross coupling paths of a quantum field traversing a
ring resonator coupled to one or two external waveguide buses. We demonstrate
the consistency of our approach by the preservation of the operator commutation
relation of the out-coupled bus mode. We compare our results to those obtained
from the conventional quantum Langevin approach which introduces noise
operators in addition to the quantum Heisenberg equations in order to preserve
commutation relations in the presence of loss. It is shown that the two
expressions agree in the neighborhood of a cavity resonance where the Langevin
approach is applicable, whereas the operator valued phasor addition expression
we derive is more general, remaining valid far from resonances.


title: Learning Online Alignments with Continuous Rewards Policy Gradient

abstract:
  Sequence-to-sequence models with soft attention had significant success in
machine translation, speech recognition, and question answering. Though capable
and easy to use, they require that the entirety of the input sequence is
available at the beginning of inference, an assumption that is not valid for
instantaneous translation and speech recognition. To address this problem, we
present a new method for solving sequence-to-sequence problems using hard
online alignments instead of soft offline alignments. The online alignments
model is able to start producing outputs without the need to first process the
entire input sequence. A highly accurate online sequence-to-sequence model is
useful because it can be used to build an accurate voice-based instantaneous
translator. Our model uses hard binary stochastic decisions to select the
timesteps at which outputs will be produced. The model is trained to produce
these stochastic decisions using a standard policy gradient method. In our
experiments, we show that this model achieves encouraging performance on TIMIT
and Wall Street Journal (WSJ) speech recognition datasets.


title: A Multivariate Hawkes Process with Gaps in Observations

abstract:
  Given a collection of entities (or nodes) in a network and our intermittent
observations of activities from each entity, an important problem is to learn
the hidden edges depicting directional relationships among these entities.
Here, we study causal relationships (excitations) that are realized by a
multivariate Hawkes process. The multivariate Hawkes process (MHP) and its
variations (spatio-temporal point processes) have been used to study contagion
in earthquakes, crimes, neural spiking activities, the stock and foreign
exchange markets, etc. In this paper, we consider the multivariate Hawkes
process with gaps in observations (MHPG). We propose a variational problem for
detecting sparsely hidden relationships with a multivariate Hawkes process that
takes into account the gaps from each entity. We bypass the problem of dealing
with a large amount of missing events by introducing a small number of unknown
boundary conditions. In the case where our observations are sparse (e.g. from
10% to 30%), we show through numerical simulations that robust recovery with
MHPG is still possible even if the lengths of the observed intervals are small
but they are chosen accordingly. The numerical results also show that the
knowledge of gaps and imposing the right boundary conditions are very crucial
in discovering the underlying patterns and hidden relationships.


title: Entanglement hamiltonians in two-dimensional conformal field theory

abstract:
  We enumerate the cases in 2d conformal field theory where the logarithm of
the reduced density matrix (the entanglement or modular hamiltonian) may be
written as an integral over the energy-momentum tensor times a local weight.
These include known examples and new ones corresponding to the time-dependent
scenarios of a global and local quench. In these latter cases the entanglement
hamiltonian depends on the momentum density as well as the energy density. In
all cases the entanglement spectrum is that of the appropriate boundary CFT. We
emphasize the role of boundary conditions at the entangling surface and the
appearance of boundary entropies as universal O(1) terms in the entanglement
entropy.


title:
Modeling the Dispersion and Polarization Content of Gravitational Waves
  for Tests of General Relativity

abstract:
  We propose a generic, phenomenological approach to modifying the dispersion
of gravitational waves, independent of corrections to the generation mechanism.
This model-independent approach encapsulates all previously proposed
parametrizations, including Lorentz violation in the Standard-Model Extension,
and provides a roadmap for additional theories. Furthermore, we present a
general approach to include modulations to the gravitational-wave polarization
content. The framework developed here can be implemented in existing data
analysis pipelines for future gravitational-wave observation runs.


title: Blowup with vorticity control for a 2D model of the Boussinesq equations

abstract:
  We propose a system of equations with nonlocal flux in two space dimensions
which is closely modeled after the 2D Boussinesq equations in a hyperbolic flow
scenario. Our equations involve a simplified vorticity stretching term and
Biot-Savart law and provide insight into the underlying intrinsic mechanisms of
singularity formation. We prove stable, controlled finite time blowup involving
upper and lower bounds on the vorticity up to the time of blowup for a wide
class of initial data.


title: On the magnetotransport of Weyl semimetals due to the chiral anomaly

abstract:
  We study electric field and temperature gradient driven magnetoconductivity
of a Weyl semimetal system. To analyze the responses, we utilize the kinetic
equation with semiclassical equations of motion modified by the Berry curvature
and orbital magnetization of the wave-packet. Apart from known positive
quadratic magnetoconductivity, we show that due to chiral anomaly, the
magnetconductivity can become non-analytic function of the magnetic field,
proportional to 3/2 power of the magnetic field at finite temperatures. We also
show that time-reversal symmetry breaking tilt of the Dirac cones results in
linear magnetoconductivity. This is due to one-dimensional chiral anomaly the
tilt is responsible for.


title:
SUBARU prime focus spectrograph: integration, testing and performance
  for the first spectrograph

abstract:
  The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) of the Subaru Measurement of Images and
Redshifts (SuMIRe) project for Subaru telescope consists in four identical
spectrographs fed by 600 fibers each. Each spectrograph is composed by an
optical entrance unit that creates a collimated beam and distributes the light
to three channels, two visibles and one near infrared. This paper presents the
on-going effort for the tests & integration process for the first spectrograph
channel: we have developed a detailed Assembly Integration and Test (AIT) plan,
as well as the methods, detailed processes and I&T tools. We describe the tools
we designed to assemble the parts and to test the performance of the
spectrograph. We also report on the thermal acceptance tests we performed on
the first visible camera unit. We also report on and discuss the technical
difficulties that did appear during this integration phase. Finally, we detail
the important logistic process that is require to transport the components from
other country to Marseille.


title:
Complex symmetric composition operators induced by linear fractional
  transformations

abstract:
  In this paper we give the answers to two open questions on complex symmetric
composition operators. By doing this, we give a complete description of complex
symmetric composition operators whose symbols are linear fractional.


title: Amplitude analysis of $B^{-} \to D^{+} \pi^{-} \pi^{-}$ decays

abstract:
  The Dalitz plot analysis technique is used to study the resonant
substructures of $B^{-} \to D^{+} \pi^{-} \pi^{-}$ decays in a data sample
corresponding to 3.0 ${\rm fb}^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data recorded by the
LHCb experiment during 2011 and 2012. A model-independent analysis of the
angular moments demonstrates the presence of resonances with spins 1, 2 and 3
at high $D^{+}\pi^{-}$ mass. The data are fitted with an amplitude model
composed of a quasi-model-independent function to describe the $D^{+}\pi^{-}$
S-wave together with virtual contributions from the $D^{*}(2007)^{0}$ and
$B^{*0}$ states, and components corresponding to the $D^{*}_{2}(2460)^{0}$,
$D^{*}_{1}(2680)^{0}$, $D^{*}_{3}(2760)^{0}$ and $D^{*}_{2}(3000)^{0}$
resonances. The masses and widths of these resonances are determined together
with the branching fractions for their production in $B^{-} \to D^{+} \pi^{-}
\pi^{-}$ decays. The $D^{+}\pi^{-}$ S-wave has phase motion consistent with
that expected due to the presence of the $D^{*}_{0}(2400)^{0}$ state. These
results constitute the first observations of the $D^{*}_{3}(2760)^{0}$ and
$D^{*}_{2}(3000)^{0}$ resonances.


title:
Linear Batalin-Vilkovisky quantization as a functor of
  $\infty$-categories

abstract:
  We study linear Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) quantization, which is a derived and
shifted version of the Weyl quantization of symplectic vector spaces. Using a
variety of homotopical machinery, we implement this construction as a symmetric
monoidal functor of $\infty$-categories. We also show that this construction
has a number of pleasant properties: It has a natural extension to derived
algebraic geometry, it can be fed into the higher Morita category of
$E_n$-algebras to produce a "higher BV quantization" functor, and when
restricted to formal moduli problems, it behaves like a determinant. Along the
way we also use our machinery to give an algebraic construction of
$E_n$-enveloping algebras for shifted Lie algebras.


title:
Balancing selfishness and norm conformity can explain human behavior in
  large-scale Prisoner's Dilemma games and can poise human groups near
  criticality

abstract:
  Cooperation is central to the success of human societies as it is crucial for
overcoming some of the most pressing social challenges of our time. Yet how
human cooperation is achieved and may persist is still a main puzzle in the
social and biological sciences. Recently, scholars have recognized the
importance of social norms as solutions to major local and large-scale
collective action problems, from the management of water resources to the
reduction of smoking in public places to the change in fertility practices. Yet
a well-founded model of the effect of social norms on human cooperation is
still lacking. Using statistical physics techniques and integrating findings
from cognitive and behavioral sciences, we present an analytically-tractable
model in which individuals base their decisions to cooperate both on the
economic rewards they obtain and on the degree to which their action comply
with social norms. Results from this parsimonious model are in agreement with
what has been observed in recent large-scale experiments with humans. We also
find the phase diagram of the model and show that the experimental human group
is poised near a critical point, a regime where recent work suggests living
systems respond to changing external conditions in an efficient and coordinated
manner.


title: Approximating set multi-covers

abstract:
  Johnson and Lov\'asz and Stein proved independently that any hypergraph
satisfies $\tau\leq (1+\ln \Delta)\tau^{\ast}$, where $\tau$ is the transversal
number, $\tau^{\ast}$ is its fractional version, and $\Delta$ denotes the
maximum degree. We prove $\tau_f\leq c \tau^{\ast}\max\{\ln \Delta, f\}$ for
the $f$-fold transversal number $\tau_f$. Similarly to Johnson, Lov\'asz and
Stein, we also show that this bound can be achieved non-probabilistically,
using a greedy algorithm.
  As a combinatorial application, we prove an estimate on how fast $\tau_f/f$
converges to $\tau^{\ast}$. As a geometric application, we obtain an upper
bound on the minimal density of an $f$-fold covering of the $d$-dimensional
Euclidean space by translates of any convex body.


title:
Horizon Fluffs: Near Horizon Soft Hairs as Microstates of Generic AdS3
  Black Holes

abstract:
  In [1] the horizon fluffs proposal is put forward to identify microstates of
generic non-extremal three-dimensional Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black
holes. The proposal is that black hole microstates, which were dubbed as
horizon fluffs, are states labelled by the conserved charges associated with
non-trivial diffeomorphisms on the near horizon geometry and these states are
not in the coadjoint orbits of the asymptotic Virasoro algebra at the
Brown-Henneaux central charge, associated with the BTZ black holes. It is also
known that AdS3 Einstein gravity has more general black hole solutions than the
BTZ family which are generically described by two periodic, but otherwise
arbitrary, holomorphic and anti-holomorphic functions. We show that these
general AdS3 black holes which are typically conformal descendants of the BTZ
black holes and are characterised by the associated Virasoro coadjoint orbits,
appear as coherent states in the asymptotic symmetry algebra corresponding to
the black hole family. We apply the horizon fluffs proposal to these generic
AdS3 black holes and identify the corresponding microstates. We then perform
microstate counting and compute the entropy. The entropy appears to be an orbit
invariant quantity, providing an important check for the horizon fluffs
proposal.


title: Binomial Andrews-Gordon-Bressoud identities

abstract: Binomial versions of the Andrews-Gordon-Bressoud identities are given.


title:
High-temperature miscibility of iron and rock during terrestrial planet
  formation

abstract:
  The accretion of a terrestrial body and differentiation of its silicate/oxide
mantle from iron core provide abundant energy for heating its interior to
temperatures much higher than the present day Earth. The consequences of
differentiation on the structure and composition of planets are typically
addressed considering only the interaction of molten iron with an immiscible
`rocky' phase. We demonstrate that mixing in a representative system of liquid
or solid MgO and liquid iron to a single homogeneous liquid occurs at
sufficiently low temperature to be present in the aftermath of a giant impact.
Applying the thermodynamic integration technique to density functional theory
molecular dynamics simulations, we determine the solvus closure temperature for
the Fe-MgO system for pressures up to 400 GPa. Solvus closure occurs at
$\sim$4000 K at low pressure, and has a weak positive pressure dependence, such
that its gradient with respect to depth is less steep than an adiabatic
temperature profile. This predicts a new mode of core-mantle differentiation
following the most energetic giant impacts, with exsolution of iron from the
mixture beginning in the outer layers of the planet. We demonstrate that
high-temperature equilibration results in delivery of nominally insoluble
Mg-rich material to the early core. Since MgO is the least soluble major mantle
component in iron at low temperatures, these results may represent an upper
bound on temperature for mixing in terrestrial planets.


title:
A Belief Propagation Based Framework for Soft Multiple-Symbol
  Differential Detection

abstract:
  Soft noncoherent detection, which relies on calculating the \textit{a
posteriori} probabilities (APPs) of the bits transmitted with no channel
estimation, is imperative for achieving excellent detection performance in
high-dimensional wireless communications. In this paper, a high-performance
belief propagation (BP)-based soft multiple-symbol differential detection
(MSDD) framework, dubbed BP-MSDD, is proposed with its illustrative application
in differential space-time block-code (DSTBC)-aided ultra-wideband impulse
radio (UWB-IR) systems. Firstly, we revisit the signal sampling with the aid of
a trellis structure and decompose the trellis into multiple subtrellises.
Furthermore, we derive an APP calculation algorithm, in which the
forward-and-backward message passing mechanism of BP operates on the
subtrellises. The proposed BP-MSDD is capable of significantly outperforming
the conventional hard-decision MSDDs. However, the computational complexity of
the BP-MSDD increases exponentially with the number of MSDD trellis states. To
circumvent this excessive complexity for practical implementations, we
reformulate the BP-MSDD, and additionally propose a Viterbi algorithm
(VA)-based hard-decision MSDD (VA-HMSDD) and a VA-based soft-decision MSDD
(VA-SMSDD). Moreover, both the proposed BP-MSDD and VA-SMSDD can be exploited
in conjunction with soft channel decoding to obtain powerful iterative
detection and decoding based receivers. Simulation results demonstrate the
effectiveness of the proposed algorithms in DSTBC-aided UWB-IR systems.


title: An alternate description of equivariant connections

abstract:
  In this note, we consider a Lie group G acting on a manifold M. We prove that
the category of bundles with connection on the differential quotient stack is
equivalent to the category of G-equivariant bundles on M with G-invariant
connection.


title: A Physical Metaphor to Study Semantic Drift

abstract:
  In accessibility tests for digital preservation, over time we experience
drifts of localized and labelled content in statistical models of evolving
semantics represented as a vector field. This articulates the need to detect,
measure, interpret and model outcomes of knowledge dynamics. To this end we
employ a high-performance machine learning algorithm for the training of
extremely large emergent self-organizing maps for exploratory data analysis.
The working hypothesis we present here is that the dynamics of semantic drifts
can be modeled on a relaxed version of Newtonian mechanics called social
mechanics. By using term distances as a measure of semantic relatedness vs.
their PageRank values indicating social importance and applied as variable
`term mass', gravitation as a metaphor to express changes in the semantic
content of a vector field lends a new perspective for experimentation. From
`term gravitation' over time, one can compute its generating potential whose
fluctuations manifest modifications in pairwise term similarity vs. social
importance, thereby updating Osgood's semantic differential. The dataset
examined is the public catalog metadata of Tate Galleries, London.


title: A Direct Probe of the Evolutionary History of the Primordial Universe

abstract:
  Since Hubble and Lamaitre's discovery of the expanding universe using
galaxies till the recent discovery of the accelerating universe using standard
candles, direct measurements of the evolution of the scale factor of the
universe a(t) have played central roles in establishing the standard model of
cosmology. In this letter, we show that such a measurement may be extended to
the primordial universe using massive fields as standard clocks, providing a
direct evidence for the scenario responsible for the Big Bang. This is a short
and non-technical introduction to the idea of classical and quantum primordial
standard clocks.


title: The Euler characteristic correction to the Kaehler potential - revisited

abstract:
  We confirm the leading $\alpha'^3$ correction to the 4d, $\mathcal N = 1$
K\"{a}hler potential of type IIB orientifold compactifications, proportional to
the Euler characteristic of the Calabi-Yau threefold (BBHL correction). We
present the explicit solution for the $\alpha'^3$-modified internal background
metric in terms of the non-harmonic part of the third Chern form of the leading
order Calabi-Yau manifold. The corrected internal manifold is almost Calabi-Yau
and admits an $SU(3)$ structure with non-vanishing torsion. We also find that
the full ten-dimensional Einstein frame background metric is multiplied by a
non-trivial Weyl factor. Performing a Kaluza-Klein reduction on the modified
background we derive the $\alpha'^3$-corrected kinetic terms for the dilaton
and the K\"{a}hler deformations of the internal Calabi-Yau threefold for
arbitrary $h^{1,1}$. We analyze these kinetic terms in the 4d, $\mathcal N = 2$
un-orientifolded theory, confirming the expected correction to the K\"ahler
moduli space prepotential, as well as in the 4d, $\mathcal N = 1$ orientifolded
theory, thus determining the corrections to the K\"ahler potential and K\"ahler
coordinates.


title:
New evidence for charge-sign dependent modulation during the solar
  minimum of 2006 to 2009

abstract:
  The PAMELA space experiment, in orbit since 2006, has measured cosmic rays
through the most recent A < 0 solar minimum activity period. During this entire
time, galactic electrons and protons have been detected down to 70 MV and 400
MV, respectively, and their differential intensity variation in time has been
monitored with unprecedented accuracy. These observations are used to show how
differently electrons and protons responded to the quiet modulation conditions
that prevailed from 2006 to 2009. It is well known that particle drifts, as one
of four major mechanisms for the solar modulation of cosmic rays, cause
charge-sign dependent solar modulation. Solar minimum activity periods provide
optimal conditions to study these drift effects. The observed behaviour is
compared to the solutions of a three-dimensional model for cosmic rays in the
heliosphere, including drifts. The numerical results confirm that the
difference in the evolution of electron and proton spectra during the last
prolonged solar minimum is attributed to a large extent to particle drifts. We
therefore present new evidence of charge-sign dependent solar modulation, with
perspective on its peculiarities for the observed period from 2006 to 2009.


title: Learning to Rank for Synthesizing Planning Heuristics

abstract:
  We investigate learning heuristics for domain-specific planning. Prior work
framed learning a heuristic as an ordinary regression problem. However, in a
greedy best-first search, the ordering of states induced by a heuristic is more
indicative of the resulting planner's performance than mean squared error.
Thus, we instead frame learning a heuristic as a learning to rank problem which
we solve using a RankSVM formulation. Additionally, we introduce new methods
for computing features that capture temporal interactions in an approximate
plan. Our experiments on recent International Planning Competition problems
show that the RankSVM learned heuristics outperform both the original
heuristics and heuristics learned through ordinary regression.


title: Graphicality, C^0 convergence, and the Calabi homomorphism

abstract:
  Consider a sequence of compactly supported Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms
$\phi_k$ of an exact symplectic manifold, all of which are "graphical" in the
sense that their graphs are identified by a Darboux-Weinstein chart with the
image of a one-form. We show by an elementary argument that if the $\phi_k$
$C^0$-converge to the identity then their Calabi invariants converge to zero.
This generalizes a result of Oh, in which the ambient manifold was the two-disk
and an additional assumption was made on the Hamiltonians generating the
$\phi_k$. We discuss connections to the open problem of whether the Calabi
homomorphism extends to the Hamiltonian homeomorphism group. The proof is based
on a relationship between the Calabi invariant of a $C^0$-small Hamiltonian
diffeomorphism and the generalized phase function of its graph.


title: Differential forms, Fukaya $A_\infty$ algebras, and Gromov-Witten axioms

abstract:
  Consider the differential forms $A^*(L)$ on a Lagrangian submanifold $L
\subset X$. Following ideas of Fukaya-Oh-Ohta-Ono, we construct a family of
cyclic unital curved $A_\infty$ structures on $A^*(L),$ parameterized by the
cohomology of $X$ relative to $L.$ The family of $A_\infty$ structures
satisfies properties analogous to the axioms of Gromov-Witten theory. Our
construction is canonical up to $A_\infty$ pseudoisotopy. We work in the
situation that moduli spaces are regular and boundary evaluation maps are
submersions, and thus we do not use the theory of the virtual fundamental
class.


title: Elephant Random Walks and their connection to P\'olya-type urns

abstract:
  In this paper, we explain the connection between the Elephant Random Walk
(ERW) and an urn model \`a la P\'olya and derive functional limit theorems for
the former. The ERW model was introduced by Sch\"utz and Trimper [2004] to
study memory effects in a one-dimensional discrete-time random walk with a
complete memory of its past. The influence of the memory is measured in terms
of a parameter $p$ between zero and one. In the past years, a considerable
effort has been undertaken to understand the large-scale behavior of the ERW,
depending on the choice of $p$. Here, we use known results on urns to
explicitly solve the ERW in all memory regimes. The method works as well for
ERWs in higher dimensions and is widely applicable to related models.


title: The IMF as a function of supersonic turbulence

abstract:
  Recent studies seem to suggest that the stellar initial mass function (IMF)
in early-type galaxies might be different from a classical Kroupa or Chabrier
IMF, i.e. contain a larger fraction of the total mass in low-mass stars. From a
theoretical point of view, supersonic turbulence has been the subject of
interest in many analytical theories proposing a strong correlation with the
characteristic mass of the core mass function (CMF) in star forming regions,
and as a consequence with the stellar IMF. Performing two suites of smoothed
particles hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations with different mass resolutions, we
aim at testing the effects of variations in the turbulent properties of a
dense, star forming molecular cloud on the shape of the system mass function in
different density regimes. While analytical theories predict a shift of the
peak of the CMF towards lower masses with increasing velocity dispersion of the
cloud, we observe in the low-density regime the opposite trend, with high Mach
numbers giving rise to a top-heavy mass distribution. For the high-density
regime we do not find any trend correlating the Mach number with the
characteristic mass of the resulting IMF, implying that the dynamics of
protostellar accretion discs and fragmentation on small scales is not strongly
affected by turbulence driven at the scale of the cloud. Furthermore, we
suggest that a significant fraction of dense cores are disrupted by turbulence
before stars can be formed in their interior through gravitational collapse.
Although this particular study has limitations in its numerical resolution, we
suggest that our results, along with those from other studies, cast doubt on
the turbulent fragmentation models on the IMF that simply map the CMF to the
IMF.


title: Neutrino Oscillations as a Probe of Light Scalar Dark Matter

abstract:
  We consider a class of models involving interactions between ultra-light
scalar dark matter and Standard Model neutrinos. Such couplings modify the
neutrino mass splittings and mixing angles to include additional components
that vary in time periodically with a frequency and amplitude set by the mass
and energy density of the dark matter. Null results from recent searches for
anomalous periodicities in the solar neutrino flux strongly constrain the dark
matter-neutrino coupling to be orders of magnitude below current and projected
limits derived from observations of the cosmic microwave background.


title: Most general AdS_3 boundary conditions

abstract:
  We consider the most general asymptotically anti-de Sitter boundary
conditions in three-dimensional Einstein gravity with negative cosmological
constant. The metric contains in total twelve independent functions, six of
which are interpreted as chemical potentials (or non-normalizable fluctuations)
and the other half as canonical boundary charges (or normalizable
fluctuations). Their presence modifies the usual Fefferman-Graham expansion.
The asymptotic symmetry algebra consists of two sl(2)_k current algebras, the
levels of which are given by k=l/(4G_N), where l is the AdS radius and G_N the
three-dimensional Newton constant.


title: Early dark energy, the Hubble-parameter tension, and the string axiverse

abstract:
  Precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum
are in excellent agreement with the predictions of the standard $\Lambda$CDM
cosmological model. However, there is some tension between the value of the
Hubble parameter $H_0$ inferred from the CMB and that inferred from
observations of the Universe at lower redshifts, and the unusually small value
of the dark-energy density is a puzzling ingredient of the model. In this
paper, we explore a scenario with a new exotic energy density that behaves like
a cosmological constant at early times and then decays quickly at some critical
redshift $z_c$. An exotic energy density like this is motivated by some
string-axiverse-inspired scenarios for dark energy. By increasing the expansion
rate at early times, the very precisely determined angular scale of the sound
horizon at decoupling can be preserved with a larger Hubble constant. We find,
however, that the Planck temperature power spectrum tightly constrains the
magnitude of the early dark-energy density and thus any shift in the Hubble
constant obtained from the CMB. If the reionization optical depth is required
to be smaller than the Planck 2016 $2\sigma$ upper bound $\tau\lesssim 0.0774$,
then early dark energy allows a Hubble-parameter shift of at most 1.6
km~s$^{-1}$~Mpc$^{-1}$ (at $z_c\simeq 1585$), too small to fully alleviate the
Hubble-parameter tension. Only if $\tau$ is increased by more than $5\sigma$
can the CMB Hubble parameter be brought into agreement with that from local
measurements. In the process, we derive strong constraints to the contribution
of early dark energy at the time of recombination---it can never exceed
$\sim2\%$ of the radiation/matter density for $10 \lesssim z_c \lesssim 10^5$.


title:
Principal Shapes and Squeezed Limits in the Effective Field Theory of
  Large Scale Structure

abstract:
  We apply an orthogonalization procedure on the effective field theory of
large scale structure (EFT of LSS) shapes, relevant for the angle-averaged
bispectrum and non-Gaussian covariance of the matter power spectrum at one
loop. Assuming natural-sized EFT parameters, this identifies a linear
combination of EFT shapes - referred to as the principal shape - that gives the
dominant contribution for the whole kinematic plane, with subdominant
combinations suppressed by a few orders of magnitude. For the covariance, our
orthogonal transformation is in excellent agreement with a principal component
analysis applied to available data. Additionally we find that, for both
observables, the coefficients of the principal shapes are well approximated by
the EFT coefficients appearing in the squeezed limit, and are thus measurable
from power spectrum response functions. Employing data from N-body simulations
for the growth-only response, we measure the single EFT coefficient describing
the angle-averaged bispectrum with $\mathcal{O}(10\%)$ precision. These methods
of shape orthogonalization and measurement of coefficients from response
functions are valuable tools for developing the EFT of LSS framework, and can
be applied to more general observables.


title: Magnetoelectrics in Disordered Topological Insulator Josephson Junctions

abstract:
  We theoretically study the coupling of electric charge and spin polarization
in an equilibrium and nonequilibrium electric transport across a two
dimensional Josephson configuration comprised of disordered surface channels of
a three dimensional topological insulator. In the equilibriun state of the
system we predict the Edelstein effect, which is much more pronounced than its
counterpart in conventional spin orbit coupled materials. Employing a
quasiclassical Keldysh technique, we demonstrate that the ground state of
system can be experimentally shifted into arbitrary macroscopic superconducting
phase differences other than the standard `$0$' or `$\pi$', constituting a
$\phi_0$-junction, solely by modulating a quasiparticle flow injection into the
junction. We propose a feasible experiment where the quasiparticles are
injected into the topological insulator surface by means of a normal electrode
and voltage gradient so that oppositely oriented stationary spin densities can
be developed along the interfaces and allow for directly making use of the
spin-momentum locking nature of Dirac fermions in the surface channels. The
$\phi_0$-state is proportional to the voltage difference applied between the
injector electrode and superconducting terminals that calibrates the injection
rate of particles and, therefore, the $\phi_0$ shift.

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


title:
Complementarity of Resonant Scalar, Vector-Like Quark and Superpartner
  Searches in Elucidating New Phenomena

abstract:
  The elucidation of the nature of new phenomena requires a multi-pronged
approach to understand the essential physics that underlies it. As an example,
we study the simplified model containing a new scalar singlet accompanied by
vector-like quarks, as motivated by the recent diphoton excess at the LHC. To
be specific, we investigate three models with $SU(2)_L$-doublet, vector-like
quarks with Yukawa couplings to a new scalar singlet and which also couple
off-diagonally to corresponding Standard Model fermions of the first or third
generation through the usual Higgs boson. We demonstrate that three classes of
searches can play important and complementary roles in constraining this model.
In particular, we find that missing energy searches designed for superparticle
production, supply superior sensitivity for vector-like quarks than the
dedicated new quark searches themselves.


title:
Connecting the dots: Time-reversal symmetric Weyl Semimetals with
  tunable Fermi arcs

abstract:
  We propose a one-parameter family of noninteracting lattice models for Weyl
semimetals with 4 Weyl nodes and tunable Fermi arcs. These 2-band model
Hamiltonians are time-reversal symmetric with $\mathrm{T}^2 = + 1$, and tuning
the parameter changes the connectivity of the Fermi arcs continuously without
affecting the location and chiralities of the Weyl nodes in the bulk Brillouin
zone. The bulk polarization and magnetization are shown to vary with this
parameter, a dependence inaccessible to the low energy effective field theory.


title: The Radiative Z2 Breaking Twin Higgs

abstract:
  In twin Higgs model, the Higgs boson mass is protected by a $Z_2$ symmetry.
The $Z_2$ symmetry needs to be broken either explicitly or spontaneously to
obtain misalignment between electroweak and new physics vacua. We propose a
novel $Z_2$ breaking mechanism, in which the $Z_2$ is spontaneously broken by
radiative corrections to the Higgs potential. Two twin Higgses with different
vacua are needed, and vacuum misalignment is realized by opposite but
comparable contributions from gauge and Yukawa interactions to the potential.
Due to fully radiative symmetry breaking, the Higgs sector is completely
determined by twin Higgs vacuum, Yukawa and gauge couplings. There are eight
pseudo-Goldstone bosons: the Higgs boson, inert doublet Higgs, and three twin
scalars. We show the 125 GeV Higgs mass and constraints from Higgs coupling
measurements could be satisfied.


title: Grand challenges in protoplanetary disc modelling

abstract:
  The Protoplanetary Discussions conference --- held in Edinburgh, UK, from 7th
--11th March 2016 --- included several open sessions led by participants. This
paper reports on the discussions collectively concerned with the multiphysics
modelling of protoplanetary discs, including the self-consistent calculation of
gas and dust dynamics, radiative transfer and chemistry. After a short
introduction to each of these disciplines in isolation, we identify a series of
burning questions and grand challenges associated with their continuing
development and integration. We then discuss potential pathways towards solving
these challenges, grouped by strategical, technical and collaborative
developments. This paper is not intended to be a review, but rather to motivate
and direct future research and collaboration across typically distinct fields
based on \textit{community driven input}, to encourage further progress in our
understanding of circumstellar and protoplanetary discs.


title: KIC 8462852 Faded Throughout the Kepler Mission

abstract:
  KIC 8462852 is a superficially ordinary main sequence F star for which Kepler
detected an unusual series of brief dimming events. We obtain accurate relative
photometry of KIC 8462852 from the Kepler full frame images, finding that the
brightness of KIC 8462852 monotonically decreased over the four years it was
observed by Kepler. Over the first ~1000 days, KIC 8462852 faded approximately
linearly at a rate of 0.341 +/- 0.041%/yr, for a total decline of 0.9%. KIC
8462852 then dimmed much more rapidly in the next ~200 days, with its flux
dropping by more than 2%. For the final ~200 days of Kepler photometry the
magnitude remained approximately constant, although the data are also
consistent with the decline rate measured for the first 2.7 yr. Of a sample of
193 nearby comparison stars and 355 stars with similar stellar parameters, none
exhibit the rapid decline by 2% or the cumulative fading by 3% of KIC 8462852.
Moreover, of these comparison stars, only one changes brightness as quickly as
the 0.341%/yr measured for KIC 8462852 during the first three years of the
Kepler mission. We examine whether the rapid decline could be caused by a cloud
of transiting circumstellar material, finding while such a cloud could evade
detection in sub-mm observations, the transit ingress and duration cannot be
explained by a simple cloud model. Moreover, this model cannot account for the
observed longer-term dimming. No known or proposed stellar phenomena can fully
explain all aspects of the observed light curve.


title:
Quantum Simulation of Generic Many-Body Open System Dynamics Using
  Classical Noise

abstract:
  We introduce a scheme for the quantum simulation of many-body decoherence
based on the unitary evolution of a stochastic Hamiltonian. Modulating the
strength of the interactions with stochastic processes, we show that the
noise-averaged density matrix simulates an effectively open dynamics governed
by $k$-body Lindblad operators. Markovian dynamics can be accessed with
white-noise fluctuations; non-Markovian dynamics requires colored noise. The
time scale governing the fidelity decay under many-body decoherence is shown to
scale as $N^{-2k}$ with the system size $N$. Our proposal can be readily
implemented in a variety of quantum platforms including optical lattices,
superconducting circuits and trapped ions.


title: Top Quark Mass Calibration for Monte Carlo Event Generators

abstract:
  The most precise top quark mass measurements use kinematic reconstruction
methods, determining the top mass parameter of a Monte Carlo event generator,
$m_t^{\rm MC}$. Due to hadronization and parton shower dynamics, relating
$m_t^{\rm MC}$ to a field theory mass is difficult. We present a calibration
procedure to determine this relation using hadron level QCD predictions for
observables with kinematic mass sensitivity. Fitting $e^+e^-$ 2-Jettiness
calculations at NLL/NNLL order to Pythia 8.205, $m_t^{\rm MC}$ differs from the
pole mass by $900$/$600$ MeV, and agrees with the MSR mass within
uncertainties, $m_t^{\rm MC}\simeq m_{t,1\,{\rm GeV}}^{\rm MSR}$.


title:
Quantum-optical magnets with competing short- and long-range
  interactions: Rydberg-dressed spin lattice in an optical cavity

abstract:
  The fields of quantum simulation with cold atoms [1] and quantum optics [2]
are currently being merged. In a set of recent pathbreaking experiments with
atoms in optical cavities [3,4] lattice quantum many-body systems with both, a
short-range interaction and a strong interaction potential of infinite range
-mediated by a quantized optical light field- were realized. A theoretical
modelling of these systems faces considerable complexity at the interface of:
(i) spontaneous symmetry-breaking and emergent phases of interacting many-body
systems with a large number of atoms $N\rightarrow\infty$, (ii) quantum optics
and the dynamics of fluctuating light fields, and (iii) non-equilibrium physics
of driven, open quantum systems. Here we propose what is possibly the simplest,
quantum-optical magnet with competing short- and long-range interactions, in
which all three elements can be analyzed comprehensively: a Rydberg-dressed
spin lattice [5] coherently coupled to a single photon mode. Solving a set of
coupled even-odd sublattice Master equations for atomic spin and photon
mean-field amplitudes, we find three key results. (R1): Superradiance and a
coherent photon field can coexist with spontaneously broken magnetic
translation symmetry. The latter is induced by the short-range nearest-neighbor
interaction from weakly admixed Rydberg levels. (R2): This broken even-odd
sublattice symmetry leaves its imprint in the light via a novel peak in the
cavity spectrum beyond the conventional polariton modes. (R3): The combined
effect of atomic spontaneous emission, drive, and interactions can lead to
phases with anomalous photon number oscillations. Extensions of our work
include nano-photonic crystals coupled to interacting atoms and multi-mode
photon dynamics in Rydberg systems.


title: Superconducting instability in non-Fermi liquids

abstract:
  We use renormalization group (RG) analysis and dimensional regularization
techniques to study potential superconductivity-inducing four-fermion
interactions in systems with critical Fermi surfaces of general dimensions
($m$) and co-dimensions ($d-m$), arising as a result of quasiparticle
interaction with a gapless Ising-nematic order parameter. These are examples of
non-Fermi liquid states in $d$ spatial dimensions. Our formalism allows us to
treat the corresponding zero-temperature low-energy effective theory in a
controlled approximation close to the upper critical dimension $d=d_c(m)$. The
fixed points are identified from the RG flow equations, as functions of $d$ and
$m$. We find that the flow towards the non-Fermi liquid fixed point is
preempted by Cooper pair formation for both the physical cases of $(d=3, m=2)$
and $(d=2, m=1)$. In fact, there is a strong enhancement of superconductivity
by the order parameter fluctuations at the quantum critical point.


title: Dwarf Nova Outbursts with Magnetorotational Turbulence

abstract:
  The phenomenological Disc Instability Model has been successful in
reproducing the observed light curves of dwarf nova outbursts by invoking an
enhanced Shakura-Sunyaev $\alpha$ parameter $\sim0.1-0.2$ in outburst compared
to a low value $\sim0.01$ in quiescence. Recent thermodynamically consistent
simulations of magnetorotational (MRI) turbulence with appropriate opacities
and equation of state for dwarf nova accretion discs have found that thermal
convection enhances $\alpha$ in discs in outburst, but only near the hydrogen
ionization transition. At higher temperatures, convection no longer exists and
$\alpha$ returns to the low value comparable to that in quiescence. In order to
check whether this enhancement near the hydrogen ionization transition is
sufficient to reproduce observed light curves, we incorporate this MRI-based
variation in $\alpha$ into the Disc Instability Model, as well as
simulation-based models of turbulent dissipation and convective transport.
These MRI-based models can successfully reproduce observed outburst and
quiescence durations, as well as outburst amplitudes, albeit with different
parameters from the standard Disc Instability Models. The MRI-based model
lightcurves exhibit reflares in the decay from outburst, which are not
generally observed in dwarf novae. However, we highlight the problematic
aspects of the quiescence physics in the Disc Instability Model and MRI
simulations that are responsible for this behavior.


title:
Correlation and Relaxation Times for a Stochastic Process with a
  Fat-Tailed Steady-State Distribution

abstract:
  We study a stochastic process defined by the interaction strength for the
return to the mean and a stochastic term proportional to the magnitude of the
variable. Its steady-state distribution is the Inverse Gamma distribution,
whose power-law tail exponent is determined by the ratio of the interaction
strength to stochasticity. Its time-dependence is characterized by a set of
discrete times describing relaxation of respective cumulants to their
steady-state values. We show that as the progressively lower cumulants diverge
with the increase of stochasticity, so do their relaxation times. We
analytically evaluate the correlation function and show that it is determined
by the longest of these times, namely the inverse interaction strength, which
is also the relaxation time of the mean. We also investigate relaxation of the
entire distribution to the steady state and the distribution of relaxations
times, which we argue to be Inverse Gaussian.


title:
Angular momentum properties of haloes and their baryon content in the
  Illustris simulation

abstract:
  The angular momentum properties of virialised dark matter haloes have been
measured with good statistics in collisionless N-body simulations, but an
equally accurate analysis of the baryonic spin is still missing. We employ the
Illustris simulation suite, one of the first simulations of galaxy formation
with full hydrodynamics that produces a realistic galaxy population in a
sizeable volume, to quantify the baryonic spin properties for more than $\sim$
320,000 haloes. We first compare the systematic differences between different
spin parameter and halo definitions, and the impact of sample selection
criteria on the derived properties. We confirm that dark matter only haloes
exhibit a close to self-similar spin distribution in mass and redshift of
lognormal form. However, the physics of galaxy formation radically changes the
baryonic spin distribution. While the dark matter component remains largely
unaffected, strong trends with mass and redshift appear for the spin of diffuse
gas and the formed stellar component. With time the baryons staying bound to
the halo develop a misalignment of their spin vector with respect to dark
matter, and increase their specific angular momentum by a factor of $\sim$ 1.3
in the non-radiative case and $\sim$ 1.8 in the full physics setup at z = 0. We
show that this enhancement in baryonic spin can be explained by the combined
effect of specific angular momentum transfer from dark matter onto gas during
mergers and from feedback expelling low specific angular momentum gas from the
halo. Our results challenge certain models for spin evolution and underline the
significant changes induced by baryonic physics in the structure of haloes.


title:
Upper Limits on the 21 cm Power Spectrum at z = 5.9 from Quasar
  Absorption Line Spectroscopy

abstract:
  We present upper limits on the 21 cm power spectrum at $z = 5.9$ calculated
from the model-independent limit on the neutral fraction of the intergalactic
medium of $x_{\rm H{\small I }} < 0.06 + 0.05\ (1\sigma)$ derived from dark
pixel statistics of quasar absorption spectra. Using 21CMMC, a Markov chain
Monte Carlo Epoch of Reionization analysis code, we explore the probability
distribution of 21 cm power spectra consistent with this constraint on the
neutral fraction. We present 99 per cent confidence upper limits of
$\Delta^2(k) < 10$ to $20\ {\rm mK}^2$ over a range of $k$ from 0.5 to $2.0\
h{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, with the exact limit dependent on the sampled $k$ mode. This
limit can be used as a null test for 21 cm experiments: a detection of power at
$z=5.9$ in excess of this value is highly suggestive of residual foreground
contamination or other systematic errors affecting the analysis.


title: Canonical description of the new LHCb resonances

abstract:
  The LHCb Collaboration has recently observed four $J/\psi\phi$ structures
called $X(4140)$, $X(4274)$, $X(4500)$ and $X(4700)$ in the $B^{+}\to
J/\psi\phi K^{+}$ decays. We study them herein using a nonrelativistic
constituent quark model in which the degrees of freedom are quark-antiquark and
meson-meson components. The $X(4140)$ resonance appears as a cusp in the
$J/\psi\phi$ channel due to the near coincidence of the
$D_{s}^{\pm}D_{s}^{\ast\pm}$ and $J/\psi\phi$ mass thresholds. The remaining
three $X(4274)$, $X(4500)$ and $X(4700)$ appear as conventional charmonium
states with quantum numbers $3^{3}P_{1}$, $4^{3}P_{0}$ and $5^{3}P_{0}$,
respectively; and whose masses and widths are slightly modified due to their
coupling with the corresponding closest meson-meson thresholds. A particular
feature of our quark model is a lattice-based screened linear confining
interaction that has been constrained in the light quark sector and usually
produces higher excited heavy-quark states with lower masses than standard
quark model predictions.


title: Floquet engineering from long-range to short-range interactions

abstract:
  Quantum simulators based on atoms or molecules often have long-range
interactions due to dipolar or Coulomb interactions. We present a method based
on Floquet engineering to turn a long-range interaction into a short-range one.
By modulating a magnetic-field gradient with one or a few frequencies, one
reshapes the interaction profile, such that the system behaves as if it only
had nearest-neighbor interactions. Our approach works in both one and two
dimensions and for both spin-1/2 and spin-1 systems. It does not require
individual addressing, and is applicable to all experimental systems with
long-range interactions: trapped ions, polar molecules, Rydberg atoms,
nitrogen-vacancy centers, and cavity QED. Our approach allows one achieve a
short-range interaction without relying on Hubbard superexchange.


title: NIHAO XI: Formation of Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies by outflows

abstract:
  We address the origin of Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies (UDGs), which have stellar
masses typical of dwarf galaxies but effective radii of Milky Way-sized
objects. Their formation mechanism, and whether they are failed $\rm L_{\star}$
galaxies or diffuse dwarfs, are challenging issues. Using zoom-in cosmological
simulations from the NIHAO project, we show that UDG analogues form naturally
in medium-mass haloes due to episodes of gas outflows associated with star
formation. The simulated UDGs live in isolated haloes of masses $10^{10-11}\rm
M_{\odot}$, have stellar masses of $10^{7-8.5}\rm M_{\odot}$, effective radii
larger than 1 kpc and dark matter cores. They show a broad range of colors, an
average S\'ersic index of 0.83, a typical distribution of halo spin and
concentration, and a non-negligible HI gas mass of $10^{7-9}\rm M_{\odot}$,
which correlates with the extent of the galaxy. Gas availability is crucial to
the internal processes that form UDGs: feedback driven gas outflows, and
subsequent dark matter and stellar expansion, are the key to reproduce faint,
yet unusually extended, galaxies. This scenario implies that UDGs represent a
dwarf population of low surface brightness galaxies and should exist in the
field. The largest isolated UDGs should contain more HI gas than less extended
dwarfs of similar $\rm M_{\star}$.


title:
Emergent local integrals of motion without a complete set of localized
  eigenstates

abstract:
  Systems where all energy eigenstates are localized are known to display an
emergent local integrability, in the sense that one can construct an extensive
number of operators that commute with the Hamiltonian and are localized in real
space. Here we show that emergent local integrability does not require a
complete set of localized eigenstates. Given a set of localized eigenstates
comprising a nonzero fraction $(1-f)$ of the full many body spectrum, one can
construct an extensive number of integrals of motion which are local in the
sense that they have {\it nonzero weight} in a compact region of real space, in
the thermodynamic limit. However, these modified integrals of motion have a
`global dressing' whose weight vanishes as $\sim f$ as $f \rightarrow 0$. In
this sense, the existence of a {\it non-zero fraction} of localized eigenstates
is sufficient for emergent local integrability. We discuss the implications of
our findings for systems where the spectrum contains delocalized states, for
systems with projected Hilbert spaces, and for the robustness of quantum
integrability.


title:
MC$^2$: Dynamical Analysis of the Merging Galaxy Cluster MACS
  J1149.5+2223

abstract:
  We present an analysis of the merging cluster MACS J1149.5+2223 using
archival imaging from Subaru/Suprime-Cam and multi-object spectroscopy from
Keck/DEIMOS and Gemini/GMOS. We employ two and three dimensional substructure
tests and determine that MACS J1149.5+2223 is composed of two separate mergers
between three subclusters occurring $\sim$1 Gyr apart. The primary merger gives
rise to elongated X-ray morphology and a radio relic in the southeast. The
brightest cluster galaxy is a member of the northern subcluster of the primary
merger. This subcluster is very massive
(16.7$^{+\text{1.25}}_{-\text{1.60}}\times\text{10}^{\text{14}}$ M$_{\odot}$).
The southern subcluster is also very massive
(10.8$^{+\text{3.37}}_{-\text{3.54}}\times\text{10}^{\text{14}}$ M$_{\odot}$),
yet it lacks an associated X-ray surface brightness peak, and it has been
unidentified previously despite the detailed study of this \emph{Frontier
Field} cluster. A secondary merger is occurring in the north along the line of
sight with a third, less massive, subcluster
(1.20$^{+\text{0.19}}_{-\text{0.34}}\times\text{10}^{\text{14}}$ M$_{\odot}$).
We perform a Monte Carlo dynamical analysis on the main merger and estimate a
collision speed at pericenter of 2770$^{+\text{610}}_{-\text{310}}$ km
s$^{-\text{1}}$. We show the merger to be returning from apocenter with core
passage occurring 1.16$^{+\text{0.50}}_{-\text{0.25}}$ Gyr before the observed
state. We identify the line of sight merging subcluster in a strong lensing
analysis in the literature and show that it is likely bound to MACS J1149
despite having reached an extreme collision velocity of $\sim$4000 km
s$^{-\text{1}}$.


title: Non-Abelian bubbles in microstate geometries

abstract:
  We find the first smooth microstate geometries with non-Abelian fields. The
solutions constitute an extension of the BPS three-charge smooth microstates.
These consist in general families of regular supersymmetric solutions with
non-trivial topology, i.e. bubbles, of $\mathcal{N}=1$, $d=5$
Super-Einstein-Yang-Mills theory, having the asymptotic charges of a black hole
or black ring but with no horizon. The non-Abelian fields make their presence
at the very heart of the microstate structure: the physical size of the bubbles
is affected by the non-Abelian topological charge they carry, which combines
with the Abelian flux threading the bubbles to hold them up. Interestingly the
non-Abelian fields carry a set of adjustable continuous parameters that do not
alter the asymptotics of the solutions but modify the local geometry. This
feature can be used to obtain a classically infinite number of microstate
solutions with the asymptotics of a single black hole or black ring.


title: Invariant random subgroups and action versus representation maximality

abstract:
  We show that weak containment of free ergodic measure-preserving actions of
$\mathbf{F}_\infty$ is not equivalent to weak containment of the corresponding
Koopman representations. This result is based on the construction of an
invariant random subgroup of $\mathbf{F}_\infty$ which is supported on the
maximal actions.


title:
Probing Gluon Helicity with Dijets from $\sqrt s$ = 510 GeV Polarized
  Proton Collisions at STAR

abstract:
  The production of jets in polarized proton collisions at STAR is dominated by
quark-gluon and gluon-gluon scattering processes. The dijet longitudinal
double-spin asymmetry $(A_{LL})$ is sensitive to the helicity distributions and
may be used to extract information about the gluon helicity contribution
$\Delta{g(x,Q^2)}$ to the spin of the proton. Previous STAR jet measurements at
$\sqrt s$ = 200 GeV show evidence of polarized gluons for gluon momentum
fractions above 0.05. The measurement of dijet $A_{LL}$ at $\sqrt s$ = 510 GeV
will extend the current constraints on $\Delta{g(x,Q^2)}$ to lower gluon
momentum fractions and allow for the reconstruction of the partonic kinematics
at leading order. These proceedings present preliminary results from the dijet
$A_{LL}$ measurement from $\sim50 pb^{-1}$ of $\sim50 \%$ polarized proton data
taken during the 2012 RHIC run.


title: All-optical mode conversion via spatially-multimode four-wave mixing

abstract:
  We experimentally demonstrate the conversion of a Gaussian beam to an
approximate Bessel-Gauss mode by making use of a non-collinear four-wave mixing
process in hot atomic vapor. The presence of a strong, spatially non-Gaussian
pump both converts the probe beam into a non-Gaussian mode, and generates a
conjugate beam that is in a similar non-Gaussian mode. The resulting probe and
conjugate modes are compared to the output of a Gaussian beam incident on an
annular aperture that is then spatially filtered according to the
phase-matching conditions imposed by the four-wave mixing process. We find that
the resulting experimental data agrees well with both numerical simulations, as
well as analytical formulae describing the effects of annular apertures on
Gaussian modes. These results show that spatially-multimode gain platforms may
be used as a new method of mode conversion.


title:
Prospects for detecting the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect of Earth-like
  planets: the test case of TRAPPIST-1b and c

abstract:
  The Rossiter-McLaughlin effect is the principal method of determining the
sky-projected spin--orbit angle ($\beta$) of transiting planets. Taking the
example of the recently discovered TRAPPIST-1 system, we explore how ultracool
dwarfs facilitate the measurement of the spin--orbit angle for Earth-sized
planets by creating an effect that can be an order of magnitude more ample than
the Doppler reflex motion caused by the planet if the star is undergoing rapid
rotation. In TRAPPIST-1's case we expect the semi-amplitudes of the
Rossiter-McLaughlin effect to be $40-50$ m/s for the known transiting planets.
Accounting for stellar jitter expected for ultracool dwarfs, instrumental
noise, and assuming radial velocity precisions both demonstrated and
anticipated for upcoming near-infrared spectrographs, we quantify the
observational effort required to measure the planets' masses and spin--orbit
angles. We conclude that if the planetary system is well-aligned then $\beta$
can be measured to a precision of $\lesssim 10^{\circ}$ if the spectrograph is
stable at the level of 2 m/s. We also investigate the measure of $\Delta
\beta$, the mutual inclination, when multiple transiting planets are present in
the system. Lastly, we note that the rapid rotation rate of many late M-dwarfs
will amplify the Rossiter-McLaughlin signal to the point where variations in
the chromatic Rossiter-McLaughlin effect from atmospheric absorbers should be
detectable.


title:
FFRob: Leveraging Symbolic Planning for Efficient Task and Motion
  Planning

abstract:
  Mobile manipulation problems involving many objects are challenging to solve
due to the high dimensionality and multi-modality of their hybrid configuration
spaces. Planners that perform a purely geometric search are prohibitively slow
for solving these problems because they are unable to factor the configuration
space. Symbolic task planners can efficiently construct plans involving many
variables but cannot represent the geometric and kinematic constraints required
in manipulation. We present the FFRob algorithm for solving task and motion
planning problems. First, we introduce Extended Action Specification (EAS) as a
general purpose planning representation that supports arbitrary predicates as
conditions. We adapt existing heuristic search ideas for solving \proc{strips}
planning problems, particularly delete-relaxations, to solve EAS problem
instances. We then apply the EAS representation and planners to manipulation
problems resulting in FFRob. FFRob iteratively discretizes task and motion
planning problems using batch sampling of manipulation primitives and a
multi-query roadmap structure that can be conditionalized to evaluate
reachability under different placements of movable objects. This structure
enables the EAS planner to efficiently compute heuristics that incorporate
geometric and kinematic planning constraints to give a tight estimate of the
distance to the goal. Additionally, we show FFRob is probabilistically complete
and has finite expected runtime. Finally, we empirically demonstrate FFRob's
effectiveness on complex and diverse task and motion planning tasks including
rearrangement planning and navigation among movable objects.


title: Neutrino flavor transformation in the lepton-asymmetric universe

abstract:
  We investigate neutrino flavor transformation in the early universe in the
presence of a lepton asymmetry, focusing on a two-flavor system with 1 - 3
mixing parameters. We identify five distinct regimes that emerge in an
approximate treatment neglecting collisions as the initial lepton asymmetry at
high temperature is varied from values comparable to current constraints on the
lepton number down to values at which the neutrino-neutrino forward-scattering
potential is negligible. The characteristic phenomena occurring in these
regimes are (1) large synchronized oscillations, (2) minimal flavor
transformation, (3) asymmetric (neutrino- or antineutrino-only) MSW, (4)
partial MSW, and (5) symmetric MSW. We examine our numerical results in the
framework of adiabaticity, and we illustrate how they are modified by
collisional damping. Finally, we point out the existence of matter-neutrino
resonances in the early universe and show that they suffer from
non-adiabaticity.


title:
Robust Signal Reconstruction Using the Prolate Spherical Wave Functions
  and Maximum Correntropy Criterion

abstract:
  Signal Reconstruction is one of the most important problem in signal
processing. This paper proposes a novel signal reconstruction method based on
the prolate spherical wave functions (PSWFs) and maximum correntropy criterion
(MCC). The PSWFs are a kind of special functions, which have been proved having
good performance in signal reconstruction. However, the existing PSWFs based
reconstruction methods only consider the mean square error (MSE) criterion as
the cost functions. The MSE criterion is sensitive to the non-Gaussian noise,
since it is builded up by the Gaussian assumption. Therefore, for the impulsive
noise or outliers, the MSE based reconstruction methods will lead to the large
reconstruction error. The proposed MCC and PSWFs based robust signal
reconstruction method can reduce the impact of large and non-Gaussian noise.
The experimental results on the synthetic signals show that the proposed method
can improve the MSE with notable gains in most cases.


title: Paraconsistency and Word Puzzles

abstract:
  Word puzzles and the problem of their representations in logic languages have
received considerable attention in the last decade (Ponnuru et al. 2004;
Shapiro 2011; Baral and Dzifcak 2012; Schwitter 2013). Of special interest is
the problem of generating such representations directly from natural language
(NL) or controlled natural language (CNL). An interesting variation of this
problem, and to the best of our knowledge, scarcely explored variation in this
context, is when the input information is inconsistent. In such situations, the
existing encodings of word puzzles produce inconsistent representations and
break down. In this paper, we bring the well-known type of paraconsistent
logics, called Annotated Predicate Calculus (APC) (Kifer and Lozinskii 1992),
to bear on the problem. We introduce a new kind of non-monotonic semantics for
APC, called consistency preferred stable models and argue that it makes APC
into a suitable platform for dealing with inconsistency in word puzzles and,
more generally, in NL sentences. We also devise a number of general principles
to help the user choose among the different representations of NL sentences,
which might seem equivalent but, in fact, behave differently when inconsistent
information is taken into account. These principles can be incorporated into
existing CNL translators, such as Attempto Controlled English (ACE) (Fuchs et
al. 2008) and PENG Light (White and Schwitter 2009). Finally, we show that APC
with the consistency preferred stable model semantics can be equivalently
embedded in ASP with preferences over stable models, and we use this embedding
to implement this version of APC in Clingo (Gebser et al. 2011) and its Asprin
add-on (Brewka et al. 2015).


title: Retinal Vessel Segmentation Using A New Topological Method

abstract:
  A novel topological segmentation of retinal images represents blood vessels
as connected regions in the continuous image plane, having shape-related
analytic and geometric properties. This paper presents topological segmentation
results from the DRIVE retinal image database.


title:
Geomorphologic Mapping of Titan's Polar Terrains: Constraining Surface
  Processes and Landscape Evolution

abstract:
  We present a geomorphologic map of Titan's polar terrains. The map was
generated from a combination of Cassini Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and
Imaging Science Subsystem imaging products, as well as altimetry, SARTopo and
radargrammetry topographic datasets. In combining imagery with topographic
data, our geomorphologic map reveals a stratigraphic sequence from which we
infer process interactions between units. In mapping both polar regions with
the same geomorphologic units, we conclude that processes that formed the
terrains of the north polar region also acted to form the landscape we observe
at the south. Uniform, SAR-dark plains are interpreted as sedimentary deposits,
and are bounded by moderately dissected uplands. These plains contain the
highest density of filled and empty lake depressions, and canyons. These units
unconformably overlay a basement rock that outcrops as mountains and SAR-bright
dissected terrains at various elevations across both poles. All these units are
then superposed by surficial units that slope towards the seas, suggestive of
subsequent overland transport of sediment. From estimates of the depths of the
embedded empty depressions and canyons that drain into the seas, the SAR-dark
plains must be >600 m thick in places, though the thickness may vary across the
poles. At the lowest elevations of each polar region, there are large seas,
which are currently liquid methane/ethane filled at the north and empty at the
south. The large plains deposits and the surrounding hillslopes may represent
remnant landforms that are a result of previously vast polar oceans, where
larger liquid bodies may have allowed for a sustained accumulation of soluble
and insoluble sediments, potentially forming layered sedimentary deposits.
Coupled with vertical crustal movements, the resulting layers would be of
varying solubilities and erosional resistances.


title: Reply to "Comment on 'Quantum massive conformal gravity' by F. F. Faria"

abstract:
  Recently in (Eur. Phys. J. C 76:341, 2016) [arXiv:1604.08706], Myung has
suggested that the renormalizability of massive conformal gravity is
meaningless unless the massive ghost states of the theory are stable. Here we
show that massive conformal gravity can be renormalizable having unstable ghost
states.


title: Some properties of the dissipative model of strain-gradient plasticity

abstract:
  A theoretical and computational investigation is carried out of a dissipative
model of rate-independent strain-gradient plasticity and its regularization. It
is shown that the flow relation, when expressed in terms of the Cauchy stress,
is necessarily global. The most convenient approach to formulating the flow
relation is through the use of a dissipation function. It is shown, however,
that the task of obtaining the dual version, in the form of a normality
relation, is a complex one. A numerical investigation casts further light on
the response using the dissipative theory in situations of non-proportional
loading. The elastic gap, a feature reported in recent investigations, is
observed in situations in which passivation has been imposed. It is shown
computationally that the gap may be regarded as an efficient path between a
load-deformation response corresponding to micro-free boundary conditions, and
that corresponding to micro-hard boundary conditions, in which plastic strains
are set equal to zero.


title:
Orientational order on surfaces - the coupling of topology, geometry,
  and dynamics

abstract:
  We consider the numerical investigation of surface bound orientational order
using unit tangential vector fields by means of a gradient-flow equation of a
weak surface Frank-Oseen energy. The energy is composed of intrinsic and
extrinsic contributions, as well as a penalization term to enforce the unity of
the vector field. Four different numerical discretizations, namely a discrete
exterior calculus approach, a method based on vector spherical harmonics, a
surface finite-element method, and an approach utilizing an implicit surface
description, the diffuse interface method, are described and compared with each
other for surfaces with Euler characteristic 2. We demonstrate the influence of
geometric properties on realizations of the Poincare-Hopf theorem and show
examples where the energy is decreased by introducing additional orientational
defects.

categories: math.NA cond-mat.soft math-ph math.MP physics.comp-ph


title: Modified Iterated Crank-Nicolson Method with Improved Accuracy

abstract:
  The iterated Crank-Nicolson (ICN) method is a successful numerical algorithm
in numerical relativity for solving partial differential equations. The
$\theta$-ICN method is the extension of the original ICN method where $\theta$
is the weight when averaging the predicted and corrected values. It has better
stability when $\theta$ is chosen to be larger than 0.5, but the accuracy is
reduced since the $\theta$-ICN method is second order accurate only when
$\theta$ = 0.5. In this paper, we propose two modified $\theta$-ICN algorithms
that have second order of convergence rate when $\theta$ is not 0.5, based on
two different ways to choose the weight $\theta$. The first approach employs
two geometrically averaged $\theta$s in two iterations within one time step,
and the second one uses arithmetically averaged $\theta$s for two consecutive
time steps while $\theta$ remains the same in each time step. The stability and
second order accuracy of our methods are verified using stability and
truncation error analysis and are demonstrated by numerical examples on linear
and semi-linear hyperbolic partial differential equations and Burgers'
equation.


title: Heavy Ion Induced SEU Sensitivity Evaluation of 3D Integrated SRAMs

abstract:
  Heavy ions induced single event upset (SEU) sensitivity of three-dimensional
integrated SRAMs are evaluated by using Monte Carlo sumulation methods based on
Geant4. The cross sections of SEUs and Multi Cell Upsets (MCUs) for 3D SRAM are
simulated by using heavy ions with different energies and LETs. The results
show that the sensitivity of different die of 3D SRAM has obvious discrepancies
at low LET. Average percentage of MCUs of 3D SRAMs rises from 17.2% to 32.95%
when LET increases from 42.19 MeV cm2/mg to 58.57MeV cm2/mg. As for a certain
LET, the percentage of MCUs shows a notable distinction between face-to-face
structure and back-to-face structure. For back-to-face structure, the
percentage of MCUs increases with the deeper die. However, the face-to-face die
presents the relatively low percentage of MCUs. The comparison of SEU cross
sections for planar SRAMs and experiment data are conducted to indicate the
effectiveness of our simulation method. Finally, we compare the upset cross
sections of planar process and 3D integrated SRAMs. Results demonstrate that
the sensitivity of 3D SRAMs is not more than that of planar SRAMs and the 3D
structure can be become a great potential application for aerospace and
military domain.


title:
Real space mean-field theory of a spin-1 Bose gas in synthetic
  dimensions

abstract:
  The internal degrees of freedom provided by ultracold atoms give a route for
realizing higher dimensional physics in systems with limited spatial
dimensions. Non-spatial degrees of freedom in these systems are dubbed
"synthetic dimensions". This connection is useful from an experimental
standpoint but complicated by the fact that interactions alter the condensate
ground state. Here we use the Gross-Pitaevskii equation to study ground state
properties of a spin-1 Bose gas under the combined influence of an optical
lattice, spin-orbit coupling, and interactions at the mean field level. The
associated phases depend on the sign of the spin-dependent interaction
parameter and the strength of the optical lattice potential. We find "charge"
and spin density wave phases which are directly related to helical spin order
in real space and affect the behavior of edge currents in the synthetic
dimension. We determine the resulting phase diagram as a function of the
spin-orbit coupling and spin-dependent interaction strength, considering both
attractive (ferromagnetic) and repulsive (polar) spin-dependent interactions.
Our results are applicable to current and future experiments, specifically with
$^{87}$Rb, $^{7}$Li, $^{41}$K, and $^{23}$Na.


title:
Stiffer double-stranded DNA in two-dimensional confinement due to
  bending anisotropy

abstract:
  Using analytical approach and Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations, we study the
elastic behaviour of the intrinsically twisted elastic ribbons with bending
anisotropy, such as double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), in two-dimensional (2D)
confinement. We show that, due to the bending anisotropy, the persistence
length of dsDNA in 2D conformations is always greater than 3D conformations.
This result is in consistence with the measured values for DNA persistence
length in 2D and 3D in equal biological conditions. We also show that in 2D, an
anisotropic, intrinsically twisted polymer exhibits an implicit twist-bend
coupling, which leads to the kink formations with a half helical turn
periodicity along the bent polymer.


title: The aggregation equation with Newtonian potential

abstract:
  The viscous and inviscid aggregation equation with Newtonian potential models
a number of different physical systems, and has close analogs in 2D
incompressible fluid mechanics. We consider a slight generalization of these
equations in the whole space, establishing well-posedness and spatial decay of
the viscous equations, and obtaining the convergence of viscous solutions to
the inviscid solution as the viscosity goes to zero.


title:
Phenomenology of an $SU(2) \times SU(2) \times U(1)$ model with
  lepton-flavour non-universality

abstract:
  We investigate a gauge extension of the Standard Model in light of the
observed hints of lepton universality violation in $b \to c \ell \nu$ and $b
\to s \ell^+ \ell^-$ decays at BaBar, Belle and LHCb. The model consists of an
extended gauge group $\mathrm{SU(2)}_{1} \times \mathrm{SU(2)}_{2} \times
\mathrm{U(1)}_Y$ which breaks spontaneously around the TeV scale to the
electroweak gauge group. Fermion mixing effects with vector-like fermions give
rise to potentially large new physics contributions in flavour transitions
mediated by $W^{\prime}$ and $Z^{\prime}$ bosons. This model can ease tensions
in $B$-physics data while satisfying stringent bounds from flavour physics, tau
decays, and electroweak precision data. Possible ways to test the proposed new
physics scenario with upcoming experimental measurements are discussed. Among
other predictions, the lepton flavour violating ratios $R_M$, with $M = K^*,
\phi$, are found to be reduced with respect to the Standard Model expectation
$R_M \simeq 1$.