title:
Eradicating Catastrophic Collapse in Interdependent Networks via
  Reinforced Nodes

abstract:
  In interdependent networks, it is usually assumed, based on percolation
theory, that nodes become nonfunctional if they lose connection to the network
giant component. However, in reality, some nodes, equipped with alternative
resources, together with their connected neighbors can still be functioning
once disconnected from the giant component. Here we propose and study a
generalized percolation model that introduces a fraction of reinforced nodes in
the interdependent networks that can function and support their neighborhood.
We analyze, both analytically and via simulations, the order parameter$-$the
functioning component$-$comprising both the giant component and smaller
components that include at least one reinforced node. Remarkably, we find that
for interdependent networks, we need to reinforce only a small fraction of
nodes to prevent abrupt catastrophic collapses. Moreover, we find that the
universal upper bound of this fraction is 0.1756 for two interdependent
Erd\H{o}s-R\'{e}nyi (ER) networks, regular-random (RR) networks and scale-free
(SF) networks with large average degrees. We also generalize our theory to
interdependent networks of networks (NON). Our findings might yield insight for
designing resilient interdependent infrastructure networks.


title: Anytime Inference in Valuation Algebras

abstract:
  Anytime inference is inference performed incrementally, with the accuracy of
the inference being controlled by a tunable parameter, usually time. Such
anytime inference algorithms are also usually interruptible, gradually
converging to the exact inference value until terminated. While anytime
inference algorithms for specific domains like probability potentials exist in
the literature, our objective in this article is to obtain an anytime inference
algorithm which is sufficiently generic to cover a wide range of domains. For
this we utilise the theory of generic inference as a basis for constructing an
anytime inference algorithm, and in particular, extending work done on ordered
valuation algebras. The novel contribution of this work is the construction of
anytime algorithms in a generic framework, which automatically gives us
instantiations in various useful domains. We also show how to apply this
generic framework for anytime inference in semiring induced valuation algebras,
an important subclass of valuation algebras, which includes instances like
probability potentials, disjunctive normal forms and distributive lattices.
  Keywords: Approximation; Anytime algorithms; Resource-bounded computation;
Generic inference; Valuation algebras; Local computation; Binary join trees.


title:
Empowering cash managers to achieve cost savings by improving predictive
  accuracy

abstract:
  Cash management is concerned with optimizing the short-term funding
requirements of a company. To this end, different optimization strategies have
been proposed to minimize costs using daily cash flow forecasts as the main
input to the models. However, the effect of the accuracy of such forecasts on
cash management policies has not been studied. In this article, using two real
data sets from the textile industry, we show that predictive accuracy is highly
correlated with cost savings when using daily forecasts in cash management
models. A new method is proposed to help cash managers estimate if efforts in
improving predictive accuracy are proportionally rewarded by cost savings. Our
results imply the need for an analysis of potential cost savings derived from
improving predictive accuracy. From that, the search for better forecasting
models is in place to improve cash management.


title: Experimental test of Mermin inequalities on a 5-qubit quantum computer

abstract:
  Violation of Mermin inequalities is tested on the 5-qubit IBM quantum
computer. For 3, 4 and 5 parties, quantum states that violate the corresponding
Mermin inequalities are constructed using quantum circuits on superconducting
qubits. Measurements on different basis are included as additional final gates
in the circuits. The experimental results obtained using the quantum computer
show violation of all Mermin inequalitites, with a clear degradation of the
results in the 5 qubit case. Though this quantum computer is not competitive to
test Mermin inequalities as compared to other techniques when applied to few
qubits, it does offer the opportunity to explore multipartite entanglement for
four and five qubits beyond the reach of other alternative technologies.


title:
Intrinsically-generated fluctuating activity in excitatory-inhibitory
  networks

abstract:
  Recurrent networks of non-linear units display a variety of dynamical regimes
depending on the structure of their synaptic connectivity. A particularly
remarkable phenomenon is the appearance of strongly fluctuating, chaotic
activity in networks of deterministic, but randomly connected rate units. How
this type of intrinsi- cally generated fluctuations appears in more realistic
networks of spiking neurons has been a long standing question. To ease the
comparison between rate and spiking networks, recent works investigated the
dynami- cal regimes of randomly-connected rate networks with segregated
excitatory and inhibitory populations, and firing rates constrained to be
positive. These works derived general dynamical mean field (DMF) equations
describing the fluctuating dynamics, but solved these equations only in the
case of purely inhibitory networks. Using a simplified excitatory-inhibitory
architecture in which DMF equations are more easily tractable, here we show
that the presence of excitation qualitatively modifies the fluctuating activity
compared to purely inhibitory networks. In presence of excitation,
intrinsically generated fluctuations induce a strong increase in mean firing
rates, a phenomenon that is much weaker in purely inhibitory networks.
Excitation moreover induces two different fluctuating regimes: for moderate
overall coupling, recurrent inhibition is sufficient to stabilize fluctuations,
for strong coupling, firing rates are stabilized solely by the upper bound
imposed on activity, even if inhibition is stronger than excitation. These
results extend to more general network architectures, and to rate networks
receiving noisy inputs mimicking spiking activity. Finally, we show that
signatures of the second dynamical regime appear in networks of
integrate-and-fire neurons.


title: Universal localisations via silting

abstract:
  We show that silting modules are closely related with localisations of rings.
More precisely, every partial silting module gives rise to a localisation at a
set of maps between countably generated projective modules and, conversely,
every universal localisation, in the sense of Cohn and Schofield, arises in
this way. To establish these results, we further explore the finite-type
classification of tilting classes and we use the morphism category to translate
silting modules into tilting objects. In particular, we prove that silting
modules are of finite type.


title:
Quantum correlations, separability and quantum coherence length in
  equilibrium many-body systems

abstract:
  Non-locality is a fundamental trait of quantum many-body systems, both at the
level of pure states, as well as at the level of mixed states. Due to
non-locality, mixed states of any two subsystems are correlated in a stronger
way than what can be accounted for by considering correlated probabilities of
occupying some microstates. In the case of equilibrium mixed states, we
explicitly build two-point quantum correlation functions, which capture the
specific, superior correlations of quantum systems at finite temperature, and
which are directly { accessible to experiments when correlating measurable
properties}. When non-vanishing, these correlation functions rule out a precise
form of separability of the equilibrium state. In particular, we show
numerically that quantum correlation functions generically exhibit a finite
\emph{quantum coherence length}, dictating the characteristic distance over
which degrees of freedom cannot be considered as separable. This coherence
length is completely disconnected from the correlation length of the system --
as it remains finite even when the correlation length of the system diverges at
finite temperature -- and it unveils the unique spatial structure of quantum
correlations.


title:
Evading Weinberg's no-go theorem to construct mass dimension one
  fermions: Constructing darkness

abstract:
  Recent theoretical work reporting the construction of a new quantum field of
spin one half fermions with mass dimension one requires that Weinberg's no go
theorem must be evaded. Here we show how this comes about. The essence of the
argument is to first define a quantum field with due care being taken in fixing
the locality phases attached to each of the expansion coefficients. The second
ingredient is to systematically construct the adjoint/dual of the field. The
Feynman-Dyson propagator constructed from the vacuum expectation value of the
field and its adjoint then yields the mass dimensionality of the field. For a
quantum field constructed from a complete set of eigenspinors of the charge
conjugation operator, with locality phases judiciously chosen, the
Feynman-Dyson propagator has mass dimension one. The Lorentz symmetry is
preserved, locality anticommutators are satisfied, without violating fermionic
statistics as needed for the spin one half field.


title:
A scanning drift tube apparatus for spatio-temporal mapping of electron
  swarms

abstract:
  A "scanning" drift tube apparatus, capable of mapping of the spatio-temporal
evolution of electron swarms, developing between two plane electrodes under the
effect of a homogeneous electric field, is presented. The electron swarms are
initiated by photoelectron pulses and the temporal distributions of the
electron flux are recorded while the electrode gap length (at a fixed electric
field strength) is varied. Operation of the system is tested and verified with
argon gas, the measured data are used for the evaluation of the electron bulk
drift velocity. The experimental results for the space-time maps of the
electron swarms - presented here for the first time - also allow clear
observation of deviations from hydrodynamic transport. The swarm maps are also
reproduced by particle simulations.


title: On a theorem of Grigor'yan, Hu and Lau

abstract:
  We refine a result of Grigor'yan, Hu and Lau to give a moment condition on a
heat kernel which characterizes the critical exponent at which a family of
Besov spaces associated to the Dirichlet energy becomes trivial.


title:
Relation Schema Induction using Tensor Factorization with Side
  Information

abstract:
  Given a set of documents from a specific domain (e.g., medical research
journals), how do we automatically build a Knowledge Graph (KG) for that
domain? Automatic identification of relations and their schemas, i.e., type
signature of arguments of relations (e.g., undergo(Patient, Surgery)), is an
important first step towards this goal. We refer to this problem as Relation
Schema Induction (RSI). In this paper, we propose Schema Induction using
Coupled Tensor Factorization (SICTF), a novel tensor factorization method for
relation schema induction. SICTF factorizes Open Information Extraction
(OpenIE) triples extracted from a domain corpus along with additional side
information in a principled way to induce relation schemas. To the best of our
knowledge, this is the first application of tensor factorization for the RSI
problem. Through extensive experiments on multiple real-world datasets, we find
that SICTF is not only more accurate than state-of-the-art baselines, but also
significantly faster (about 14x faster).


title:
Changing physical conditions in star-forming galaxies between redshifts
  0 < z < 4: [OIII]/Hb evolution

abstract:
  We investigate the redshift evolution of the [OIII]/Hb nebular emission line
ratio for a sample of galaxies spanning the redshift range 0 < z < 4. We
compare the observed evolution to a set of theoretical models which account for
the independent evolution of chemical abundance, ionization parameter and
interstellar-medium (ISM) pressure in star-forming galaxies with redshift.
Accounting for selection effects in the combined datasets, we show that the
evolution to higher [OIII]/Hb ratios with redshift is a real physical effect
which is best accounted for by a model in which the ionization parameter is
elevated from the average values typical of local star-forming galaxies, with a
possible simultaneous increase in the ISM pressure. We rule out the possibility
that the observed [OIII]/Hb evolution is purely due to metallicity evolution.
We discuss the implications of these results for using local empirical
metallicity calibrations to measure metallicities at high redshift, and briefly
discuss possible theoretical implications of our results.


title:
A discussion on approximations for the determination of the maximum
  period of a simple pendulum

abstract:
  In this paper we deal with the care one must have in adopting approximations
in regard with terms he chooses to leave behind in the particular case of the
expression valid for the maximum period of a long pendulum oscillating near
Earth's surface.


title: 2D Euler equation on the strip: stability of a rectangular patch

abstract:
  We consider the 2D Euler equation of incompressible fluids on a strip and
prove the stability of the rectangular stationary state.


title:
The nature of relaxation processes revealed by the action signals of
  phase modulated light fields

abstract:
  We introduce a generalized theoretical approach to study action signals
induced by the absorption of two-photons from two phase modulated laser beams
and subject it to experimental testing for two types of photoactive samples,
solution of rhodamine 6G and GaP photodiode. In our experiment, the phases of
the laser beams are modulated at the frequencies f1 and f2, respectively. The
action signals, such as photoluminescence and photocurrent, which result from
the absorption of two photons, are isolated at frequencies m f (f=|f1-f2|,
m=0,1,2...). We demonstrate that the ratio of the amplitudes of the secondary
(m=2) and the primary (m=1) signals is sensitive to the type of relaxation
process taken place in the system and thus can be used for its identification.
Such sensitivity originates from cumulative effects of non-equilibrated state
of the system between the light pulses. When the cumulative effects are small,
i.e. the relaxation time is much shorter then the laser repetition rate or the
laser intensity is high enough to dominate the system behavior, the ratio
achieves its reference value 1:4 (the signature of two-photon absorption). In
the intermediate regimes the ratio changes rapidly with the growth of intensity
from zero value in case of second order relaxation process, while it
demonstrates slow monotonic decrease for linear relaxation. In the article we
also determine the value of the recombination rate in a GaP photodiode by using
the above approach.


title:
Review of state-of-the-arts in artificial intelligence with application
  to AI safety problem

abstract:
  Here, I review current state-of-the-arts in many areas of AI to estimate when
it's reasonable to expect human level AI development. Predictions of prominent
AI researchers vary broadly from very pessimistic predictions of Andrew Ng to
much more moderate predictions of Geoffrey Hinton and optimistic predictions of
Shane Legg, DeepMind cofounder. Given huge rate of progress in recent years and
this broad range of predictions of AI experts, AI safety questions are also
discussed.


title: Information encryption in the expert management of strategic uncertainty

abstract:
  Strategic agents in incomplete-information environments have a conflicted
relationship with uncertainty: it can keep them unpredictable to their
opponents, but it must also be overcome to predict the actions of those
opponents. We use a multivariate generalization of information theory to
characterize the information processing behavior of strategic reasoning
experts. We compare expert and novice poker players --- "sharks" and "fish" ---
over 1.75 million hands of online two-player No-Limit Texas Hold'em (NLHE).
Comparing the effects of privately known and publicly signaled information on
wagering behavior, we find that the behavior of sharks coheres with information
that emerges only from the interaction of public and private sources ---
"synergistic" information that does not exist in either source alone. This
implies that the effect of public information on shark behavior is better
encrypted: it cannot be reconstructed without access to the hidden state of
private cards. Integrative information processing affects not only one's own
strategic behavior, but the ability of others to predict it. By characterizing
the informational structure of complex strategic interactions, we offer a
detailed account of how experts extract, process, and conceal valuable
information in high-uncertainty, high-stakes competitive environments.


title:
Integrable magnetic geodesic flows on 2-torus: new example via
  quasi-linear system of PDEs

abstract:
  The only one example has been known of magnetic geodesic flow on the 2-torus
which has a polynomial in momenta integral independent of the Hamiltonian. In
this example the integral is linear in momenta and corresponds to a one
parametric group preserving the Lagrangian function of the magnetic flow. In
this paper the problem of integrability on one energy level is considered. This
problem can be reduced to a remarkable Semi-hamiltonian system of quasi-linear
PDEs and to the question of existence of smooth periodic solutions for this
system. Our main result states that the pair of Liouville metric with zero
magnetic field on the 2-torus can be analytically deformed to a Riemannian
metric with small magnetic field so that the magnetic geodesic flow on an
energy level is integrable by means of a quadratic in momenta integral. Thus
our construction gives a new example of smooth periodic solution to the
Semi-hamiltonian (Rich) quasi-linear system of PDEs.


title: Theta operators, Goss polynomials, and v-adic modular forms

abstract:
  We investigate hyperderivatives of Drinfeld modular forms and determine
formulas for these derivatives in terms of Goss polynomials for the kernel of
the Carlitz exponential. As a consequence we prove that v-adic modular forms in
the sense of Serre, as defined by Goss and Vincent, are preserved under
hyperdifferentiation. Moreover, upon multiplication by a Carlitz factorial,
hyperdifferentiation preserves v-integrality.


title:
Analysis of the fine structure of Sn$^{11+...14+}$ ions by optical
  spectroscopy in an electron beam ion trap

abstract:
  We experimentally re-evaluate the fine structure of Sn$^{11+...14+}$ ions.
These ions are essential in bright extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) plasma-light
sources for next-generation nanolithography, but their complex electronic
structure is an open challenge for both theory and experiment. We combine
optical spectroscopy of magnetic dipole $M1$ transitions, in a wavelength range
covering 260\,nm to 780\,nm, with charge-state selective ionization in an
electron beam ion trap. Our measurements confirm the predictive power of
\emph{ab initio} calculations based on Fock space coupled cluster theory. We
validate our line identification using semi-empirical Cowan calculations with
adjustable wavefunction parameters. Available Ritz combinations further
strengthen our analysis. Comparison with previous work suggests that line
identifications in the EUV need to be revisited.


title:
Multi-Phase Smart Relaying and Cooperative Jamming in Secure Cognitive
  Radio Networks

abstract:
  In this paper we investigate cooperative secure communications in a four-node
cognitive radio network where the secondary receiver is treated as a potential
eavesdropper with respect to the primary transmission. The secondary user is
allowed to transmit his own signals under the condition that the primary user's
secrecy rate and transmission scheme are intact. Under this setting we derive
the secondary user's achievable rates and the related constraints to guarantee
the primary user's weak secrecy rate, when Gelfand-Pinsker coding is used at
the secondary transmitter. In addition, we propose a multi-phase transmission
scheme to include 1) the phases of the clean relaying with cooperative jamming
and 2) the latency to successfully decode the primary message at the secondary
transmitter. A capacity upper bound for the secondary user is also derived.
Numerical results show that: 1) the proposed scheme can outperform the
traditional ones by properly selecting the secondary user's parameters of
different transmission schemes according to the relative positions of the
nodes; 2) the derived capacity upper bound is close to the secondary user's
achievable rate within 0.3 bits/channel use, especially when the secondary
transmitter/receiver is far/close enough to the primary receiver/transmitter,
respectively. Thereby, a smart secondary transmitter is able to adapt its
relaying and cooperative jamming to guarantee primary secrecy rates and to
transmit its own data at the same time from relevant geometric positions.


title: Semantic Spaces

abstract:
  Any natural language can be considered as a tool for producing large
databases (consisting of texts, written, or discursive). This tool for its
description in turn requires other large databases (dictionaries, grammars
etc.). Nowadays, the notion of database is associated with computer processing
and computer memory. However, a natural language resides also in human brains
and functions in human communication, from interpersonal to intergenerational
one. We discuss in this survey/research paper mathematical, in particular
geometric, constructions, which help to bridge these two worlds. In particular,
in this paper we consider the Vector Space Model of semantics based on
frequency matrices, as used in Natural Language Processing. We investigate
underlying geometries, formulated in terms of Grassmannians, projective spaces,
and flag varieties. We formulate the relation between vector space models and
semantic spaces based on semic axes in terms of projectability of subvarieties
in Grassmannians and projective spaces. We interpret Latent Semantics as a
geometric flow on Grassmannians. We also discuss how to formulate G\"ardenfors'
notion of "meeting of minds" in our geometric setting.


title: Variance of additive functions defined on random assemblies

abstract:
  An inequality for the variance of an additive function defined on random
decomposable structures, called assemblies, is established. The result
generalizes estimates obtained earlier in the cases of permutations and
mappings of a finite set into itself. It is analogous to the Tur\'an-Kubilius
inequality for additive number-theoretic functions.


title:
Viscosity methods for large deviations estimates for multiscale
  stochastic processes

abstract:
  We study singular perturbation problems for second order HJB equations in an
unbounded setting. The main applications are large deviations estimates for the
short maturity asymptotics of stochastic systems affected by a stochastic
volatility, where the volatility is modelled by a process evolving at a faster
time scale and satisfying some condition implying ergodicity.


title:
Power Transmittance of a Laterally Shifted Gaussian Beam through a
  Circular Aperture

abstract:
  Gaussian beams are often used in optical systems. The fundamental Gaussian
TEM00 mode is the most common of the Gaussian modes present in various optical
devices, systems and equipment. Within an optical system, it is common that
this Gaussian TEM00 beam passes through a circular aperture of a finite
diameter. Such circular apertures include irises, spatial filters, circular
Photo-Detectors (PDs) and optical mounts with circular rims. The magnitude of
optical power passing through a finite-sized circular aperture is
well-documented for cases where the Gaussian beam passes through the center of
the clear circular aperture, and is chopped off symmetrically in all radial
directions on a given plane. More often than not, a non-axial incident Gaussian
Beam is not blocked in a radially uniform manner by a circular aperture. Such
situations arise due to a lateral displacement of the beam from tilted glass
blocks, manufacturing errors and imperfect surface flatness or parallelness of
surfaces. The fraction of optical power of a laterally-shifted Gaussian Beam
passing through a circular aperture is calculated in this paper through
conventional integration techniques.


title:
Supplement: Going the Distance: Mapping Host Galaxies of LIGO and Virgo
  Sources in Three Dimensions Using Local Cosmography and Targeted Follow-up

abstract:
  This is a supplement to the Letter of Singer et al.
(https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.07333), in which we demonstrated a rapid algorithm
for obtaining joint 3D estimates of sky location and luminosity distance from
observations of binary neutron star mergers with Advanced LIGO and Virgo. We
argued that combining the reconstructed volumes with positions and redshifts of
possible host galaxies can provide large-aperture but small field of view
instruments with a manageable list of targets to search for optical or infrared
emission. In this Supplement, we document the new HEALPix-based file format for
3D localizations of gravitational-wave transients. We include Python sample
code to show the reader how to perform simple manipulations of the 3D sky maps
and extract ranked lists of likely host galaxies. Finally, we include
mathematical details of the rapid volume reconstruction algorithm.


title: Simultaneous Surface Reflectance and Fluorescence Spectra Estimation

abstract:
  There is widespread interest in estimating the fluorescence properties of
natural materials in an image. However, the separation between reflected and
fluoresced components is difficult, because it is impossible to distinguish
reflected and fluoresced photons without controlling the illuminant spectrum.
We show how to jointly estimate the reflectance and fluorescence from a single
set of images acquired under multiple illuminants. We present a framework based
on a linear approximation to the physical equations describing image formation
in terms of surface spectral reflectance and fluorescence due to multiple
fluorophores. We relax the non-convex, inverse estimation problem in order to
jointly estimate the reflectance and fluorescence properties in a single
optimization step and we use the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers
(ADMM) approach to efficiently find a solution. We provide a software
implementation of the solver for our method and prior methods. We evaluate the
accuracy and reliability of the method using both simulations and experimental
data. To acquire data to test the methods, we built a custom imaging system
using a monochrome camera, a filter wheel with bandpass transmissive filters
and a small number of light emitting diodes. We compared the system and
algorithm performance with the ground truth as well as with prior methods. Our
approach produces lower errors compared to earlier algorithms.


title: Orienting Transversals and Transition Polynomials of Multimatroids

abstract:
  Multimatroids generalize matroids, delta-matroids, and isotropic systems, and
transition polynomials of multimatroids subsume various polynomials for these
latter combinatorial structures, such as the interlace polynomial and the
Tutte-Martin polynomial.
  We prove evaluations of the Tutte-Martin polynomial of isotropic systems from
Bouchet directly and more efficiently in the context of transition polynomials
of multimatroids. Moreover, we generalize some related evaluations of the
transition polynomial of 4-regular graphs from Jaeger to multimatroids. These
evaluations are obtained in a uniform and matroid-theoretic way. We also
translate the evaluations in terms of the interlace polynomial of graphs.
Finally, we give an excluded-minor theorem for the class of binary tight
3-matroids (a subclass of multimatroids) based on the excluded-minor theorem
for the class of binary delta-matroids from Bouchet.


title: Cost functionals for large (uniform and simply generated) random trees

abstract:
  Additive tree functionals allow to represent the cost of many
divide-and-conquer algorithms. We give an invariance principle for such tree
functionals for the Catalan model (random tree uniformly distributed among the
full binary ordered trees with given number of internal nodes) and for simply
generated trees (including random tree uniformly distributed among the ordered
trees with given number of nodes). In the Catalan model, this relies on the
natural embedding of binary trees into the Brownian excursion and then on
elementary second moment computations. We recover results first given by Fill
and Kapur (2004) and then by Fill and Janson (2009). In the simply generated
case, this relies on the convergence of conditioned Galton-Watson towards
stable L\'evy trees. We recover results first given by Janson (2003 and 2016)
in the quadratic case and give a generalization to the stable case.


title:
Guiding catalytically active particles with chemically patterned
  surfaces

abstract:
  Catalytically active Janus particles suspended in solution create gradients
in the chemical composition of the solution along their surfaces, as well as
along any nearby container walls. The former leads to self-phoresis, while the
latter gives rise to chemi-osmosis, providing an additional contribution to
self-motility. Chemi-osmosis strongly depends on the molecular interactions
between the diffusing chemical species and the wall. We show analytically,
using an approximate "point-particle" approach, that by chemically patterning a
planar substrate one can direct the motion of Janus particles: the induced
chemi-osmotic flows can cause particles to either "dock" at the chemical step
between the two materials, or to follow a chemical stripe. These theoretical
predictions are confirmed by full numerical calculations. Generically, docking
occurs for particles which tend to move away from their catalytic caps, while
stripe-following occurs in the opposite case. Our analysis reveals the physical
mechanisms governing this behavior.


title: Serious limitations of the strong equivalence principle

abstract:
  It is well known that an accelerated charged particle radiates away energy.
However, whether an accelerated neutral composite particle radiates away energy
is unclear. We study decoherent Larmor radiation from an accelerated neutral
composite object. We find that the neutral object's long wavelength radiation
is highly suppressed because radiation from different charges is canceled out.
However, the neutral object radiates high energy or short wavelength radiation
without any suppression. In that case, radiation from each particle can be
treated independently, and it is called the decoherent radiation. We compare a
hydrogen atom's decoherent Larmor radiation with its gravitational radiation
while the atom is in a circular orbit around a star. Gravitational radiation is
stronger than the electromagnetic radiation if the orbital radius is larger
than some critical radius. Since the decoherent radiation is related to the
object's structure, this implies that the strong equivalence principle which
states that gravitational motion does not depend on an object's constitution
has severe limitations..


title: The connection between Dirac dynamic and parity symmetry

abstract:
  Dirac spinors are important objects in the current literature, the algebraic
structure presented in the text-books is a general method to write it, however,
not unique. The purpose of the present work is to show an alternative approach
to construct Dirac spinors, considering the interchange between the Lorentz
representation space (1/2,0) and (0,1/2) made by the "Magic of Pauli matrices"
and not by parity, as commonly it was thought. As it is well known, parity
operator is related with the Dirac dynamics. The major focus is to establish
the relation between Dirac dynamics with parity operator, the reverse path
shown in L. D. Speran\c{c}a (2014).


title: Extra-dimensional confinement of quantum particles

abstract:
  A basic theoretical framework is developed in which elementary particles have
a component of their wave function extending into higher spatial dimensions.
This model postulates an extension of the Schrodinger equation to include a 4th
and 5th spatial component. A higher-dimensional simple harmonic oscillator
confining potential localizes particles into 3-d space, characterizing the
brane tension which confines Standard Model particles to the sub-manifold.
Quantum effects allow a non-zero probability for a particle's evanescent
existence in the higher dimensions, and suggest an experimental test for the
validity of this model via particles being temporarily excited into the first
excited state of the extra-dimensional potential well, in which their
probability of existing in 3-d space transiently drops to zero. Several
consistency checks of the outcomes of this extra-dimensional model are included
in this paper. Among the outcomes of this model are: a match with the quantum
phenomenon of zitterbewegung; the predicted intrinsic spin angular momentum is
of order h/2Pi; the magnetic moment of the electron is determined with a
gyromagnetic ratio of 2; the nuclear force hard core radius is accurately
predicted; the ratio of the up and down quark masses is found to be mu/md=0.56,
consistent with QCD theory; a self-consistent derivation of special
relativistic effects is given; possible explanations of the Planck mass and
Planck length, and a possible explanation of the origin of electric charge. In
addition, a simple application of higher-dimensional particle effects to the
astrophysics of stars is briefly examined, showing that radical physical
inconsistencies are not evident. Finally, this model suggests a possible
explanation of dark matter as the fractional probability manifestations of a
ladder of the higher-dimensional symmetric excited states of ordinary
particles.


title: Color Homography

abstract:
  We show the surprising result that colors across a change in viewing
condition (changing light color, shading and camera) are related by a
homography. Our homography color correction application delivers improved color
fidelity compared with the linear least-square.


title:
Quantifying structure-property relationships during resistance spot
  welding of an aluminum 6061-T6 joint

abstract:
  Microstructure-property relationships of resistance spot welded 6061-T6
aluminum alloy lap joints were investigated via mechanical testing and
microscopy techniques. Quasi-static tensile and novel shear punch tests were
employed to measure the mechanical properties of the distinct weld regions.
Quasi-static tensile and shear punch tests revealed constantly decreasing
strength and ductility as the weld center was approached. For instance, the
ultimate tensile strength of the fusion zone decreased by ~52% from the parent
material (341 MPa to 162 MPa) while the yield strength decreased by ~62% (312
MPa to 120 MPa). The process-induced microstructures were analyzed with
scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy to elucidate the underlying
cause of the reduced mechanical properties. Fractography reveals void growth
from particles being the dominant damage mechanism in the parent material as
compared to void nucleation in the fusion zone. Overall, significant changes in
the mechanical behavior across the weld are the result of a change in
microstructure congruent with a loss of T6 condition (precipitate coarsening).


title:
Microscopic modeling of the effect of phonons on the optical properties
  of solid-state emitters

abstract:
  Understanding the effect of vibrations in optically active nano systems is
crucial for successfully implementing applications in molecular-based
electro-optical devices, quantum information communications, single photon
sources, and fluorescent markers for biological measurements. Here, we present
a first-principles microscopic description of the role of phonons on the
isotopic shift presented in the optical emission spectrum associated to the
negatively charged silicon-vacancy color center in diamond. We use the
spin-boson model and estimate the electron-phonon interactions using a
symmetrized molecular description of the electronic states and a force-constant
model to describe molecular vibrations. Group theoretical arguments and
dynamical symmetry breaking are presented in order to explain the optical
properties of the zero-phonon line and the isotopic shift of the phonon
sideband.


title:
An Empirical Study and Analysis of Generalized Zero-Shot Learning for
  Object Recognition in the Wild

abstract:
  Zero-shot learning (ZSL) methods have been studied in the unrealistic setting
where test data are assumed to come from unseen classes only. In this paper, we
advocate studying the problem of generalized zero-shot learning (GZSL) where
the test data's class memberships are unconstrained. We show empirically that
naively using the classifiers constructed by ZSL approaches does not perform
well in the generalized setting. Motivated by this, we propose a simple but
effective calibration method that can be used to balance two conflicting
forces: recognizing data from seen classes versus those from unseen ones. We
develop a performance metric to characterize such a trade-off and examine the
utility of this metric in evaluating various ZSL approaches. Our analysis
further shows that there is a large gap between the performance of existing
approaches and an upper bound established via idealized semantic embeddings,
suggesting that improving class semantic embeddings is vital to GZSL.


title:
Cross-over from retro to specular Andreev reflections in bilayer
  graphene

abstract:
  Ongoing experimental progress in the preparation of ultra-clean
graphene/superconductor (SC) interfaces enabled the recent observation of
specular interband Andreev reflections (AR) at bilayer graphene
(BLG)/NbSe$_{2}$ van der Waals interfaces [Nature Physics 12, (2016)].
Motivated by this experiment we theoretically study the differential
conductance across a BLG/SC interface at the continuous transition from high to
ultra-low Fermi energies $E_{F}$ in BLG. Using the Bogoliubov-deGennes
equations and the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formalism we derive analytical
expressions for the differential conductance across the BLG/SC interface. We
find a characteristic signature of the cross-over from intra-band retro- (high
$E_{F}$) to inter-band specular (low $E_{F}$) ARs, that manifests itself in a
strongly suppressed interfacial conductance when the excitation energy
$|\varepsilon |=|E_{F}|<\Delta $ (the SC gap). The sharpness of these
conductance dips is strongly dependent on the size of the potential step at the
BLG/SC interface $U_{0}$.


title: Engineering and Manipulating Exciton Wave Packets

abstract:
  When a semiconductor absorbs light, the resulting electron-hole superposition
amounts to a uncontrolled quantum ripple that eventually degenerates into
diffusion. If the conformation of these excitonic superpositions could be
engineered, though, they would constitute a new means of transporting
information and energy. We show that properly designed laser pulses can be used
to create such excitonic wave packets. They can be formed with a prescribed
speed, direction and spectral make-up that allows them to be selectively
passed, rejected or even dissociated using superlattices. Their coherence also
provides a handle for manipulation using active, external controls. Energy and
information can be conveniently processed and subsequently removed at a distant
site by reversing the original procedure to produce a stimulated emission. The
ability to create, manage and remove structured excitons comprises the
foundation for opto-excitonic circuits with application to a wide range of
quantum information, energy and light-flow technologies. The paradigm is
demonstrated using both Tight-Binding and Time-Domain Density Functional Theory
simulations.


title:
Statistical Measurement of the Gamma-ray Source-count Distribution as a
  Function of Energy

abstract:
  Statistical properties of photon count maps have recently been proven as a
new tool to study the composition of the gamma-ray sky with high precision. We
employ the 1-point probability distribution function of 6 years of Fermi-LAT
data to measure the source-count distribution dN/dS and the diffuse components
of the high-latitude gamma-ray sky as a function of energy. To that aim, we
analyze the gamma-ray emission in five adjacent energy bands between 1 GeV and
171 GeV. It is demonstrated that the source-count distribution as a function of
flux is compatible with a broken power law up to energies of ~50 GeV. The index
below the break is between 1.95 and 2.0. For higher energies, a simple
power-law fits the data, with an index of 2.2^{+0.7}_{-0.3} in the energy band
between 50 GeV and 171 GeV. Upper limits on further possible breaks as well as
the angular power of unresolved sources are derived. We find that point-source
populations probed by this method can explain 83^{+7}_{-13}% (81^{+52}_{-19}%)
of the extragalactic gamma-ray background between 1.04 GeV and 1.99 GeV (50 GeV
and 171 GeV). The method has excellent capabilities for constraining the
gamma-ray luminosity function and the spectra of unresolved blazars.


title:
Experimental elucidation of the origin of the `double spin resonances'
  in Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$

abstract:
  We report a combined study of the spin resonances and superconducting gaps
for underdoped ($T_c=19$ K), optimally doped ($T_c=25$ K), and overdoped
($T_c=19$ K) Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$ single crystals with inelastic
neutron scattering and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We find a
quasi two dimensional spin resonance whose energy scales with the
superconducting gap in all three compounds. In addition, anisotropic low energy
spin excitation enhancements in the superconducting state have been deduced and
characterized for the under and optimally doped compounds. Our data suggest
that the quasi two dimensional spin resonance is a spin exciton that
corresponds to the spin singlet-triplet excitations of the itinerant electrons.
However, the intensity enhancements of the anisotropic spin excitations are
dominated by the out-of-plane spin excitations of the ordered moments due to
the suppression of damping in the superconducting state. Hence we offer a new
interpretation of the double energy scales differing from previous
interpretations based on anisotropic superconducting energy gaps, and
systematically explain the doping-dependent trend across the phase diagram.


title: Large mass hierarchies from strongly-coupled dynamics

abstract:
  Besides the Higgs particle discovered in 2012, with mass 125 GeV, recent LHC
data show tentative signals for new resonances in diboson as well as diphoton
searches at high center-of-mass energies (2 TeV and 750 GeV, respectively). If
these signals are confirmed (or other new resonances are discovered at the TeV
scale), the large hierarchies between masses of new bosons require a dynamical
explanation. Motivated by these tentative signals of new physics, we
investigate the theoretical possibility that large hierarchies in the masses of
glueballs could arise dynamically in new strongly-coupled gauge theories
extending the standard model of particle physics. We study lattice data on
non-Abelian gauge theories in the (near-)conformal regime as well as a simple
toy model in the context of gauge/gravity dualities. We focus our attention on
the ratio $R$ between the mass of the lightest spin-2 and spin-0 resonances,
that for technical reasons is a particularly convenient and clean observable to
study. For models in which (non-perturbative) large anomalous dimensions arise
dynamically, we show indications that this mass ratio can be large, with $R>5$.
Moreover, our results suggest that $R$ might be related to universal properties
of the IR fixed point. Our findings provide an interesting step towards
understanding large mass ratios in the non-perturbative regime of quantum field
theories with (near) IR conformal behaviour.


title: A model for Rayleigh-Taylor mixing and interface turn-over

abstract:
  We first develop a new mathematical model for two-fluid interface motion,
subjected to the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability in two-dimensional fluid
flow, which in its simplest form, is given by $ h_{tt}(\alpha,t) = A g\,
\Lambda h - \frac{\sigma}{\rho^++\rho^-} \Lambda^3 h - A \partial_\alpha(H h_t
h_t) $, where $\Lambda = H \partial_ \alpha $ and $H$ denotes the Hilbert
transform. In this so-called $h$-model, $A$ is the Atwood number, $g$ is the
acceleration, $ \sigma $ is surface tension, and $\rho^\pm$ denotes the
densities of the two fluids. Under a certain stability condition, we prove that
this so-called $h$-model is both locally and globally well-posed. Numerical
simulations of the $h$-model show that the interface can quickly grow due to
nonlinearity, and then stabilize when the lighter fluid is on top of the
heavier fluid and acceleration is directed downward. In the unstable case of a
heavier fluid being supported by the lighter fluid, we find good agreement for
the growth of the mixing layer with experimental data in the "rocket rig"
experiment of Read of Youngs.
  We then derive an RT interface model with a general parameterization
$z(\alpha,t)$ such that $ z_{tt}= \Lambda\bigg{[}\frac{A}{|\partial_\alpha
z|^2}H\left(z_t\cdot (\partial_\alpha z)^\perp H(z_t\cdot (\partial_\alpha
z)^\perp)\right)
  + A g z_2 \bigg{]} \frac{(\partial_\alpha z)^\perp}{|\partial_\alpha z|^2}
  +z_t\cdot (\partial_\alpha z)^\perp\left(\frac{(\partial_\alpha
z_t)^\perp}{|\partial_\alpha z|^2}-\frac{(\partial_\alpha z)^\perp
2(\partial_\alpha z\cdot \partial_\alpha z_t)}{|\partial_\alpha z|^4}\right)$.
  This more general RT $z$-model allows for interface turn-over. Numerical
simulations of the $z$-model show an even better agreement with the predicted
mixing layer growth for the "rocket rig" experiment.


title:
Unquenching the meson spectrum: a model study of excited $\rho$
  resonances

abstract:
  Quark models taking into account the dynamical effects of hadronic decay
often produce very different predictions for mass shifts in the hadron
spectrum. The consequences for meson spectroscopy can be dramatic and
completely obscure the underlying confining force. Recent unquenched lattice
calculations of mesonic resonances that also include meson-meson interpolators
provide a touchstone for such models, despite the present limitations in
applicability. On the experimental side, the $\rho(770)$ meson and its several
observed radial recurrences are a fertile testing ground for both quark models
and lattice computations. Here we apply a unitarised quark model that has been
successful in the description of many enigmatic mesons to these vector $\rho$
resonances and the corresponding $P$-wave $\pi\pi$ phase shifts. This work is
in progress, with encouraging preliminary results.


title: Ferromagnetism in orthorhombic RAgAl3 (R = Ce and Pr) compounds

abstract:
  We present a detailed study on magnetic, thermodynamic and transport
properties of polycrystalline RAgAl3(R = Ce and Pr) compounds. Both compounds
crystallize in orthorhombic structure, which is distorted from the tetragonal
BaAl4 structure with the space group Cmcm. Heat capacity measurement indicates
the bulk magnetic ordering of the compounds. CeAgAl3 and PrAgAl3 order
ferromagnetically at TC = 3.8 K and 5.8 K, respectively as it was confirmed
from magnetic measurements. CeAgAl3 exhibits heavy Fermion behaviour. The
Schottky behaviour in heat capacity data was observed in both compounds. The
crystalline electric field (CEF) analysis of the magnetic parts of heat
capacity of CeAgAl3 and PrAgAl3 yielded to a CEF level scheme with three
doublets and nine singlets and with an overall splitting of 51 K and 180 K,
respectively. Fit yielded a magnetic doublet state for CeAgAl3, whereas for
PrAgAl3 a pseudo-doublet ground-state with an energy difference of 15 K has
been obtained. The resistivity measurements display a low temperature drop at
the magnetic ordering temperature of the compounds. Negative magnetoresistance
(MR) due to the ferromagnetic ordering has been observed for both Ce and Pr
compounds.


title: ABtree: An Algorithm for Subgroup-Based Treatment Assignment

abstract:
  Given two possible treatments, there may exist subgroups who benefit greater
from one treatment than the other. This problem is relevant to the field of
marketing, where treatments may correspond to different ways of selling a
product. It is similarly relevant to the field of public policy, where
treatments may correspond to specific government programs. And finally,
personalized medicine is a field wholly devoted to understanding which
subgroups of individuals will benefit from particular medical treatments. We
present a computationally fast tree-based method, ABtree, for treatment effect
differentiation. Unlike other methods, ABtree specifically produces decision
rules for optimal treatment assignment on a per-individual basis. The treatment
choices are selected for maximizing the overall occurrence of a desired binary
outcome, conditional on a set of covariates. In this poster, we present the
methodology on tree growth and pruning, and show performance results when
applied to simulated data as well as real data.


title: OBDA Constraints for Effective Query Answering (Extended Version)

abstract:
  In Ontology Based Data Access (OBDA) users pose SPARQL queries over an
ontology that lies on top of relational datasources. These queries are
translated on-the-fly into SQL queries by OBDA systems. Standard SPARQL-to-SQL
translation techniques in OBDA often produce SQL queries containing redundant
joins and unions, even after a number of semantic and structural optimizations.
These redundancies are detrimental to the performance of query answering,
especially in complex industrial OBDA scenarios with large enterprise
databases. To address this issue, we introduce two novel notions of OBDA
constraints and show how to exploit them for efficient query answering. We
conduct an extensive set of experiments on large datasets using real world data
and queries, showing that these techniques strongly improve the performance of
query answering up to orders of magnitude.


title: Competing magnetic interactions in the orthorhombic GdNiAl3

abstract:
  Magnetization and heat capacity measurements of ternary rare earth
intermetallic compound GdNiAl3 demonstrate para to ferromagnetic transition at
Tc=165.5K. In addition multiple short range magnetic transitions observed below
Tc are suggestive of competing interactions in this compound. As a result of
this a weak Griffiths phase type behaviour is observed in the paramagnetic
region. This complex behaviour is rather supported by the random orientation of
Ni centered tricapped trigonal prisms with additional Al atoms in the
structure. Heat capacity and resistivity data display an interesting peak at 72
K, which is highly unaffected by magnetic fields up to 90KOe.


title: An Algorithmic Framework for Labeling Road Maps

abstract:
  Given an unlabeled road map, we consider, from an algorithmic perspective,
the cartographic problem to place non-overlapping road labels embedded in their
roads. We first decompose the road network into logically coherent road
sections, e.g., parts of roads between two junctions. Based on this
decomposition, we present and implement a new and versatile framework for
placing labels in road maps such that the number of labeled road sections is
maximized. In an experimental evaluation with road maps of 11 major cities we
show that our proposed labeling algorithm is both fast in practice and that it
reaches near-optimal solution quality, where optimal solutions are obtained by
mixed-integer linear programming. In comparison to the standard OpenStreetMap
renderer Mapnik, our algorithm labels 31% more road sections in average.


title:
Canonical bases for the quantum enveloping algebra of gl(m|1) and its
  modules

abstract:
  We construct a crystal basis for the negative half of the quantum group U
associated to the standard super Cartan datum of gl(m|1), which is compatible
with known crystals on Kac modules and simple modules. We show that these
crystals admit globalization functions which produce compatible canonical
bases. We then define a braid group action on a family of quantum groups
including U, and use this action to show that our canonical basis agrees with
those constructed from PBW bases. Finally, we explicitly compute some
small-rank examples.


title: $(\delta, \chi_{_{\sf FF}})$-bounded families of graphs

abstract:
  For any graph $G$, the First-Fit (or Grundy) chromatic number of $G$, denoted
by $\chi_{_{\sf FF}}(G)$, is defined as the maximum number of colors used by
the First-Fit (greedy) coloring of the vertices of $G$. We call a family
$\mathcal{F}$ of graphs $(\delta, \chi_{_{\sf FF}})$-bounded if there exists a
function $f(x)$ with $f(x)\rightarrow \infty$ as $x\rightarrow \infty$ such
that for any graph $G$ from the family one has $\chi_{_{\sf FF}}(G)\geq
f(\delta(G))$, where $\delta(G)$ is the minimum degree of $G$. We first give
some results concerning $(\delta, \chi_{_{\sf FF}})$-bounded families and
obtain a few such families. Then we prove that for any positive integer $\ell$,
$Forb(K_{\ell,\ell})$ is $(\delta, \chi_{_{\sf FF}})$-bounded, where
$K_{\ell,\ell}$ is complete bipartite graph. We conjecture that if $G$ is any
$C_4$-free graph then $\chi_{_{\sf FF}}(G)\geq \delta(G)+1$. We prove the
validity of this conjecture for chordal graphs, complement of bipartite graphs
and graphs with low minimum degree.


title: Scattering amplitudes from a deconstruction of Feynman diagrams

abstract:
  We show how to apply the BCFW recursion relation to Feynman loop integrals
with the help of the Feynman-tree theorem. We deconstruct in this way all
Feynman diagrams in terms of on-shell subamplitudes. Every cut originating from
the Feynman-tree theorem corresponds to an integration over the phase space of
an unobserved particle pair. We argue that we can calculate scattering
amplitudes alternatively by the construction of on-shell and gauge-invariant
subamplitudes.


title:
A method for evaluating models that use galaxy rotation curves to derive
  the density profiles

abstract:
  There are some approaches, either based on General Relativity (GR) or
modified gravity, that use galaxy rotation curves to derive the matter density
of the corresponding galaxy, and this procedure would either indicate a partial
or a complete elimination of dark matter in galaxies. Here we review these
approaches, clarify the difficulties on this inverted procedure, present a
method for evaluating them, and use it to test two specific approaches that are
based on GR: the Cooperstock-Tieu (CT) and the Balasin-Grumiller (BG)
approaches. Using this new method, we find that neither of the tested
approaches can satisfactorily fit the observational data without dark matter.
The CT approach results can be significantly improved if some dark matter is
considered, while for the BG approach no usual dark matter halo can improve its
results.


title:
A First Look at Quality of Mobile Live Streaming Experience: the Case of
  Periscope

abstract:
  Live multimedia streaming from mobile devices is rapidly gaining popularity
but little is known about the QoE they provide. In this paper, we examine the
Periscope service. We first crawl the service in order to understand its usage
patterns. Then, we study the protocols used, the typical quality of experience
indicators, such as playback smoothness and latency, video quality, and the
energy consumption of the Android application.


title: Axiomatizations for downward XPath on Data Trees

abstract:
  We give sound and complete axiomatizations for XPath with data tests by
"equality" or "inequality", and containing the single "child" axis. This
data-aware logic predicts over data trees, which are tree-like structures whose
every node contains a label from a finite alphabet and a data value from an
infinite domain. The language allows us to compare data values of two nodes but
cannot access the data values themselves (i.e. there is no comparison by
constants). Our axioms are in the style of equational logic, extending the
axiomatization of data-oblivious XPath, by B. ten Cate, T. Litak and M. Marx.
We axiomatize the full logic with tests by "equality" and "inequality", and
also a simpler fragment with "equality" tests only. Our axiomatizations apply
both to node expressions and path expressions. The proof of completeness relies
on a novel normal form theorem for XPath with data tests.


title:
Depletion region surface effects in electron beam induced current
  measurements

abstract:
  Electron beam induced current (EBIC) is a powerful characterization technique
which offers the high spatial resolution needed to study polycrystalline solar
cells. Current models of EBIC assume that excitations in the $p$-$n$ junction
depletion region result in perfect charge collection efficiency. However we
find that in CdTe and Si samples prepared by focused ion beam (FIB) milling,
there is a reduced and nonuniform EBIC lineshape for excitations in the
depletion region. Motivated by this, we present a model of the EBIC response
for excitations in the depletion region which includes the effects of surface
recombination from both charge-neutral and charged surfaces. For neutral
surfaces we present a simple analytical formula which describes the numerical
data well, while the charged surface response depends qualitatively on the
location of the surface Fermi level relative to the bulk Fermi level. We find
the experimental data on FIB-prepared Si solar cells is most consistent with a
charged surface, and discuss the implications for EBIC experiments on
polycrystalline materials.


title:
Superconducting Pb stripline resonators in parallel magnetic field and
  their application for microwave spectroscopy

abstract:
  Planar superconducting microwave resonators are key elements in a variety of
technical applications and also act as sensitive probes for microwave
spectroscopy of various materials of interest. Here superconducting Pb is a
suitable material as a basis for microwave stripline resonators.
  To utilize Pb stripline resonators in a variable magnetic field (e.g. in
ESR), the electrodynamics of such resonators in finite magnetic field has to be
well understood. Therefore we performed microwave transmission measurements on
superconducting Pb stripline resonators in a variable, parallel magnetic field.
We determined surface resistance, penetration depth as well as real and
imaginary parts, \sigma$_1$ and \sigma$_2$, of the complex conductivity of
superconducting Pb as a function of magnetic field. Here we find features
reminiscent of those in temperature-dependent measurements, such as a maximum
in \sigma$_1$ (coherence peak). At magnetic fields above the critical field of
this type-I superconductor we still find low-loss microwave response, which we
assign to remaining superconductivity in the form of filaments within the Pb.
Hysteresis effects are found in the quality factor of resonances once the swept
magnetic field has exceeded the critical magnetic field. This is due to normal
conducting areas that are pinned and can therefore persist in the
superconducting phase. Besides zero-field-cooling we show an alternative way to
eliminate these even at T<T$_c$. Based on our microwave data, we determine the
critical magnetic field and the critical temperature of Pb in a temperature
range between 1.6K and 6.5K and magnetic fields up to 140mT, showing good
agreement with BCS predictions. We study a Sn sample in a Pb resonator to
demonstrate the applicability of superconducting Pb stripline resonators in the
experimental study of other (super-)conducting materials in a variable magnetic
field.


title:
Prompt emission from GRB 150915A in the GeV energy range detected at
  ground by the New-Tupi detector: A review

abstract:
  Since 2014, a new detector (New-Tupi) consisting of four plastic
scintillators ($150 \times 75 \times 5 cm^3$) placed in pairs and located in
Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been used for the search of transient
solar events and photomuons from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). On September 15,
2015, at 21:18:24 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 150915A (trigger 655721). The GRB light curve shows a weak complex
structure of long duration $T_{90}=164.7 \pm 49.7 $ s, and a fluence in the
15-150 keV band of $8.0 \pm 1.8 \times 10^{-7}erg/cm^2$. GRB 150915A was
fortuitously located in the field of view of the New-Tupi detector, and a
search for prompt emission in the GeV energy range is presented here. The
analysis was made using the "scaler" or "single-particle" technique. The
New-Tupi detector registered a counting rate excess peak of duration
$T_{90}=(6.1\pm 0.6)$ s with a signal significance $(4.4\pm 0.5)\sigma$, (and
not $6.9\sigma$ as reported in the previous version). The signal is within the
T90 duration of the Swift BAT GRB, with an estimated "excess" fluence of
$F_S(E>0.1 GeV)=1.3 \pm 0.3 \times 10^{-6} erg/cm^2$. This value can be
considered the lower limit of the gamma ray fluence in the GeV energy region.
However, the Poisson probability of the event to be a background fluctuation is
$5.0 \times 10^{-6}$ and it appears in the counting rate of the New-Tupi
detector with an annual rate $\sim 76$. In addition, the signal has a
significance of only $2\sigma$ in the time profiles with a bin above 2 seconds.
Thus we conclude that the event has a high probability to be background
fluctuation.


title: Universality limits for generalized Jacobi measures

abstract:
  In this paper universality limits are studied in connection with measures
which exhibit power-type singular behavior somewhere in their support. We
extend the results of Lubinsky for Jacobi measures supported on $ [-1,1] $ to
generalized Jacobi measures supported on a compact subset of the real line,
where the singularity can be located in the interior or at an endpoint of the
support. The analysis is based upon the Riemann-Hilbert method, Christoffel
functions, the polynomial inverse image method of Totik and the normal family
approach of Lubinsky.


title: The (2,3)-generation of the special linear groups over finite fields

abstract:
  We complete the classification of the finite special linear groups $\SL_n(q)$
which are $(2,3)$-generated, i.e., which are generated by an involution and an
element of order $3$. This also gives the classification of the finite simple
groups $\PSL_n(q)$ which are $(2,3)$-generated.


title:
Solutions of the Schr\"odinger equation given by solutions of the
  Hamilton--Jacobi equation

abstract:
  We find the form of the potential depending on the coordinates and the time
such that a solution, $S$, of the Hamilton--Jacobi equation yields an exact
solution, $\exp ({\rm i} S/\hbar)$, of the corresponding Schr\"odinger
equation.


title: Universal Dependencies for Learner English

abstract:
  We introduce the Treebank of Learner English (TLE), the first publicly
available syntactic treebank for English as a Second Language (ESL). The TLE
provides manually annotated POS tags and Universal Dependency (UD) trees for
5,124 sentences from the Cambridge First Certificate in English (FCE) corpus.
The UD annotations are tied to a pre-existing error annotation of the FCE,
whereby full syntactic analyses are provided for both the original and error
corrected versions of each sentence. Further on, we delineate ESL annotation
guidelines that allow for consistent syntactic treatment of ungrammatical
English. Finally, we benchmark POS tagging and dependency parsing performance
on the TLE dataset and measure the effect of grammatical errors on parsing
accuracy. We envision the treebank to support a wide range of linguistic and
computational research on second language acquisition as well as automatic
processing of ungrammatical language. The treebank is available at
universaldependencies.org. The annotation manual used in this project and a
graphical query engine are available at esltreebank.org.


title: Sharp transitions in low-number quantum dots Bayesian magnetometry

abstract:
  We consider Bayesian estimate of static magnetic field, characterized by a
prior Gaussian probability distribution, in systems of a few electron quantum
dot spins interacting with infinite temperature spin environment via hyperfine
interaction. Sudden transitions among optimal states and measurements are
observed. Usefulness of measuring occupation levels is shown for all times of
the evolution, together with the role of entanglement in the optimal scenario.
For low values of magnetic field, memory effects stemming from the interaction
with environment provide limited metrological advantage.


title: Boosted-bottom jet tagging and BSM searches

abstract:
  I present a new scheme for tagging boosted heavy flavor jets called "$\mu_x$
tagging" and its application to TeV-scale physics beyond the Standard Model.
Using muons from B hadron decay to define a particular combination "x" of
angular information, and jet substructure variables, we identify a clean
($\epsilon_{\mathrm{fake}}/\epsilon_b\sim 1/100$) good efficiency ($\epsilon_b
= 14\%$) tag. I demonstrate the usefulness of this new scheme by showing the
reach for discovery of leptophobic $Z^\prime\to b\bar b$ and $tH^\pm\to t t b$.


title:
Signal Regression Models for Location, Scale and Shape with an
  Application to Stock Returns

abstract:
  We discuss scalar-on-function regression models where all parameters of the
assumed response distribution can be modeled depending on covariates. We thus
combine signal regression models with generalized additive models for location,
scale and shape (GAMLSS). We compare two fundamentally different methods for
estimation, a gradient boosting and a penalized likelihood based approach, and
address practically important points like identifiability and model choice.
Estimation by a component-wise gradient boosting algorithm allows for high
dimensional data settings and variable selection. Estimation by a penalized
likelihood based approach has the advantage of directly provided statistical
inference. The motivating application is a time series of stock returns where
it is of interest to model both the expectation and the variance depending on
lagged response values and functional liquidity curves.


title: Transition matrix from a random walk

abstract:
  Given a random walk a method is presented to produce a matrix of transition
probabilities that is consistent with that random walk. The method is a kind of
reverse application of the usual ergodicity and is tested by using a transition
matrix to produce a path and then using that path to create the estimate. The
two matrices and their predictions are then compared. A variety of situations
test the method, random matrices, metastable configurations (for which
ergodicity often does not apply) and explicit violation of detailed balance.


title: Modeling and Analyzing Millimeter Wave Cellular Systems

abstract:
  We provide a comprehensive overview of mathematical models and analytical
techniques for millimeter wave (mmWave) cellular systems. The two fundamental
physical differences from conventional Sub-6GHz cellular systems are (i)
vulnerability to blocking, and (ii) the need for significant directionality at
the transmitter and/or receiver, which is achieved through the use of large
antenna arrays of small individual elements. We overview and compare models for
both of these factors, and present a baseline analytical approach based on
stochastic geometry that allows the computation of the statistical
distributions of the downlink signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR)
and also the per link data rate, which depends on the SINR as well as the
average load. There are many implications of the models and analysis: (a)
mmWave systems are significantly more noise-limited than at Sub-6GHz for most
parameter configurations; (b) initial access is much more difficult in mmWave;
(c) self-backhauling is more viable than in Sub-6GHz systems which makes
ultra-dense deployments more viable, but this leads to increasingly
interference-limited behavior; and (d) in sharp contrast to Sub-6GHz systems
cellular operators can mutually benefit by sharing their spectrum licenses
despite the uncontrolled interference that results from doing so. We conclude
by outlining several important extensions of the baseline model, many of which
are promising avenues for future research.


title: The Densest k-Subhypergraph Problem

abstract:
  The Densest $k$-Subgraph (D$k$S) problem, and its corresponding minimization
problem Smallest $p$-Edge Subgraph (S$p$ES), have come to play a central role
in approximation algorithms. This is due both to their practical importance,
and their usefulness as a tool for solving and establishing approximation
bounds for other problems. These two problems are not well understood, and it
is widely believed that they do not an admit a subpolynomial approximation
ratio (although the best known hardness results do not rule this out).
  In this paper we generalize both D$k$S and S$p$ES from graphs to hypergraphs.
We consider the Densest $k$-Subhypergraph problem (given a hypergraph $(V, E)$,
find a subset $W\subseteq V$ of $k$ vertices so as to maximize the number of
hyperedges contained in $W$) and define the Minimum $p$-Union problem (given a
hypergraph, choose $p$ of the hyperedges so as to minimize the number of
vertices in their union). We focus in particular on the case where all
hyperedges have size 3, as this is the simplest non-graph setting. For this
case we provide an $O(n^{4(4-\sqrt{3})/13 + \epsilon}) \leq
O(n^{0.697831+\epsilon})$-approximation (for arbitrary constant $\epsilon > 0$)
for Densest $k$-Subhypergraph and an $\tilde O(n^{2/5})$-approximation for
Minimum $p$-Union. We also give an $O(\sqrt{m})$-approximation for Minimum
$p$-Union in general hypergraphs. Finally, we examine the interesting special
case of interval hypergraphs (instances where the vertices are a subset of the
natural numbers and the hyperedges are intervals of the line) and prove that
both problems admit an exact polynomial time solution on these instances.


title:
Search for gluinos in events with an isolated lepton, jets and missing
  transverse momentum at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

abstract:
  The results of a search for gluinos in final states with an isolated electron
or muon, multiple jets and large missing transverse momentum using
proton--proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV
are presented. The dataset used was recorded in 2015 by the ATLAS experiment at
the Large Hadron Collider and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3.2
fb$^{-1}$. Six signal selections are defined that best exploit the signal
characteristics. The data agree with the Standard Model background expectation
in all six signal selections, and the largest deviation is a 2.1 standard
deviation excess. The results are interpreted in a simplified model where
pair-produced gluinos decay via the lightest chargino to the lightest
neutralino. In this model, gluinos are excluded up to masses of approximately
1.6 TeV depending on the mass spectrum of the simplified model, thus surpassing
the limits of previous searches.


title:
Effect of chain stiffness on the dynamics and microstructure of
  crystallizable bead-spring polymer melts

abstract:
  We constrast the dynamics in model unentangled polymer melts of chains of
three different stiffnesses: flexible, intermediate, and rodlike. Flexible and
rodlike chains, which readily solidify into close-packed crystals (respectively
with randomly oriented and nematically aligned chains), display simple melt
dynamics with Arrhenius temperature dependence and a discontinuous change upon
solidification. Intermediate-stiffness chains, however, are fragile
glass-formers displaying Vogel-Fulcher dynamical arrest, despite the fact that
they also possess a nematic-close-packed crystalline ground state. To connect
this difference in dynamics to the differing microstructure of the melts, we
examine how various measures of structure, including cluster-level metrics
recently introduced in studies of colloidal systems, vary with chain stiffness
and temperature. No clear static-structural cause of the dynamical arrest is
found. However, we find that the intermediate-stiffness chains display
qualitatively different dynamical heterogeneity. Specifically, their stringlike
correlated motion (cooperative rearrangement) is correlated along chain
backbones in a way not found for either flexible or rodlike chains. This
activated "crawling" motion seems to be the cause of the dynamical arrest
observed for these systems, and shows that the factors controlling the
crystallization vs.\ glass formation competition in polymers likely depend
nonmonotonically on chain stiffness.


title:
Initial conditions for hydrodynamics from weakly coupled pre-equilibrium
  evolution

abstract:
  We use effective kinetic theory, accurate at weak coupling, to simulate the
pre-equilibrium evolution of transverse energy and flow perturbations in
heavy-ion collisions. We provide a Green function which propagates the initial
perturbations to the energy-momentum tensor at a time when hydrodynamics
becomes applicable. With this map, the complete pre-thermal evolution from
saturated nuclei to hydrodynamics can be modelled in a perturbatively
controlled way.


title: Almost all matroids are non-representable

abstract:
  We prove that, as $n$ approaches infinity, the proportion of $n$-element
matroids that are representable tends to zero.


title:
Growth rates of permutation classes: categorization up to the
  uncountability threshold

abstract:
  In the antecedent paper to this it was established that there is an algebraic
number $\xi\approx 2.30522$ such that while there are uncountably many growth
rates of permutation classes arbitrarily close to $\xi$, there are only
countably many less than $\xi$. Here we provide a complete characterization of
the growth rates less than $\xi$. In particular, this classification
establishes that $\xi$ is the least accumulation point from above of growth
rates and that all growth rates less than or equal to $\xi$ are achieved by
finitely based classes. A significant part of this classification is achieved
via a reconstruction result for sum indecomposable permutations. We conclude by
refuting a suggestion of Klazar, showing that $\xi$ is an accumulation point
from above of growth rates of finitely based permutation classes.


title: Finite Field-dependent Symmetry in Thirring Model

abstract:
  In this paper, we consider a $D$-dimensional massive Thirring model with
($2<D<4$). We derive an extended BRST symmetry of the theory with finite
field-dependent parameter. Further we compute the Jacobian of functional
measure under such an extended transformation. Remarkably, we find that such
Jacobian extends the BRST exact part of the action which leads to a mapping
between different gauges. We illustrate this with the help of Lorentz and
$R_\xi$ gauges. We also discuss the results in Batalin-Vilkovisky framework.


title: K2-110 b - a massive mini-Neptune exoplanet

abstract:
  We report the discovery of the exoplanet K2-110 b (previously EPIC212521166b)
from K2 photometry orbiting in a 13.8637d period around an old, metal-poor K3
dwarf star. With a V-band magnitude of 11.9, K2-110 is particularly amenable to
RV follow-up. A joint analysis of K2 photometry and high-precision RVs from 28
HARPS and HARPS-N spectra reveal it to have a radius of 2.6$\pm 0.1 R_{\oplus}$
and a mass of 16.7$\pm 3.2$~M$_{\oplus}$, hence a density of $5.2\pm1.2$
g.cm$^{-3}$, making it one of the most massive planets yet to be found with a
sub-Neptune radius. When accounting for compression, the resulting Earth-like
density is best fitted by a 0.2 M$_{\oplus}$ hydrogen atmosphere over an 16.5
M$_{\oplus}$ Earth-like interior, although the planet could also have
significant water content. At 0.1~AU, even taking into account the old stellar
age of $8 \pm 3$ Gyr, the planet is unlikely to have been significantly
affected by EUV evaporation. However the planet likely disc-migrated to its
current position making the lack of a thick H$_2$ atmosphere puzzling. This
analysis has made K2-110 b one of the best-characterised mini-Neptunes with
density constrained to less than 30%.


title:
Efficiently making (almost) any concurrency control mechanism
  serializable

abstract:
  Concurrency control (CC) algorithms must trade off strictness for
performance. Serializable CC schemes generally pay higher cost to prevent
anomalies, both in runtime overhead and in efforts wasted by aborting
transactions. We propose the serial safety net (SSN), a
serializability-enforcing certifier which can be applied with minimal overhead
on top of various CC schemes that offer higher performance but admit anomalies,
such as snapshot isolation and read committed. The underlying CC retains
control of scheduling and transactional accesses, while SSN tracks the
resulting dependencies. At commit time, SSN performs an efficient validation
test by examining only direct dependencies of the committing transaction to
determine whether it can commit safely or must abort to avoid a potential
dependency cycle.
  SSN performs robustly for various workloads. It maintains the characteristics
of the underlying CC without biasing toward certain types of transactions,
though the underlying CC might. Besides traditional OLTP workloads, SSN also
allows efficient handling of heterogeneous workloads with long, read-mostly
transactions. SSN can avoid tracking the majority of reads (thus reducing the
overhead of serializability certification) and still produce serializable
executions with little overhead. The dependency tracking and validation tests
can be done efficiently, fully parallel and latch-free, for multi-version
systems on modern hardware with substantial core count and large main memory.
  We demonstrate the efficiency, accuracy and robustness of SSN using extensive
simulations and an implementation that overlays snapshot isolation in ERMIA, a
memory-optimized OLTP engine that is capable of running different CC schemes.
Evaluation results confirm that SSN is a promising approach to serializability
with robust performance and low overhead for various workloads.


title: Primordial tensor modes of the early Universe

abstract:
  We study cosmological tensor perturbations on a quantized background within
the hybrid quantization approach. In particular, we consider a flat,
homogeneous and isotropic spacetime and small tensor inhomogeneities on it. We
truncate the action to second order in the perturbations. The dynamics is ruled
by a homogeneous scalar constraint. We carry out a canonical transformation in
the system where the Hamiltonian for the tensor perturbations takes a canonical
form. The new tensor modes now admit a standard Fock quantization with a
unitary dynamics. We then combine this representation with a generic quantum
scheme for the homogeneous sector. We adopt a Born-Oppenheimer ansatz for the
solutions to the constraint operator, previously employed to study the dynamics
of scalar inhomogeneities. We analyze the approximations that allow us to
recover, on the one hand, a Schr\"odinger equation similar to the one emerging
in the dressed metric approach and, on the other hand, the ones necessary for
the effective evolution equations of these primordial tensor modes within the
hybrid approach to be valid. Finally, we consider loop quantum cosmology as an
example where these quantization techniques can be applied and compare with
other approaches.


title: The Thermonuclear Runaway and the Classical Nova Outburst

abstract:
  Nova explosions occur on the white dwarf component of a Cataclysmic Variable
binary stellar system that is accreting matter lost by its companion. When
sufficient material has been accreted by the white dwarf, a thermonuclear
runaway occurs and ejects material in what is observed as a Classical Nova
explosion. We describe both the recent advances in our understanding of the
progress of the outburst and outline some of the puzzles that are still
outstanding. We report on the effects of improving both the nuclear reaction
rate library and including a modern nuclear reaction network in our
one-dimensional, fully implicit, hydrodynamic computer code. In addition, there
has been progress in observational studies of Supernovae Ia with implications
about the progenitors and we discuss that in this review.


title:
The NNLO QCD corrections to Z boson production at large transverse
  momentum

abstract:
  The transverse momentum distribution of massive neutral vector bosons can be
measured to high accuracy at hadron colliders. The transverse momentum is
caused by a partonic recoil, and is determined by QCD dynamics. We compute the
single and double-differential transverse momentum distributions for fully
inclusive $Z/\gamma^*$ production including leptonic decay to
next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative QCD. We also compute the
same distributions normalised to the cross sections for inclusive $Z/\gamma^*$
production, i.e. integrated over the transverse momentum of the lepton pair. We
compare our predictions for the fiducial cross sections to the 8 TeV data set
from the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, which both observed a tension between
data and NLO theory predictions, using the experimental cuts and binning. We
find that the inclusion of the NNLO QCD effects does not fully resolve the
tension with the data for the unnormalised $p^Z_T$ distribution. However, we
observe that normalising the NNLO $Z$-boson transverse momentum distribution by
the NNLO Drell-Yan cross section substantially improves the agreement between
experimental data and theory, and opens the way for precision QCD studies of
this observable.


title: $\mu$SR and magnetometry study of superconducting 5% Pt doped IrTe$_2$

abstract:
  We present magnetometry and muon spin rotation ($\mu$SR) measurements of the
superconducting dichalcogenide Ir$_{0.95}$Pt$_{0.05}$Te$_2$. From both sets of
measurements we calculate the penetration depth and thence superfluid density
as a function of temperature. The temperature dependence of the superfluid
densities from both sets of data indicate fully gapped superconductivity that
can be fit to a conventional s-wave model and yiel fitting parameters
consistent with a BCS weak coupling superconductor. We therefore see no
evidence for exotic superconductivity in Ir$_{0.95}$Pt$_{0.05}$Te$_2$.


title: Growth rates of permutation classes: from countable to uncountable

abstract:
  We establish that there is an algebraic number $\xi\approx 2.30522$ such that
while there are uncountably many growth rates of permutation classes
arbitrarily close to $\xi,$ there are only countably many less than $\xi$.
Central to the proof are various structural notions regarding generalized grid
classes and a new property of permutation classes called concentration. The
classification of growth rates up to $\xi$ is completed in a subsequent paper.


title:
Probability distributions for directed polymers in random media with
  correlated noise

abstract:
  The probability distribution for the free energy of directed polymers in
random media (DPRM) with uncorrelated noise in $d=1+1$ dimensions satisfies the
Tracy-Widom distribution. We inquire if and how this universal distribution is
modified in the presence of spatially correlated noise. The width of the
distribution scales as the DPRM length to an exponent $\beta$, in good (but not
full) agreement with previous renormalization group and numerical results. The
scaled probability is well described by the Tracy-Widom form for uncorrelated
noise, but becomes symmetric with increasing correlation exponent. We thus find
a class of distributions that continuously interpolates between Tracy-Widom and
Gaussian forms.


title: Octant of $\theta_{23}$ in danger with a light sterile neutrino

abstract:
  Present global fits of world neutrino data hint towards non-maximal
$\theta_{23}$ with two nearly degenerate solutions, one in the lower octant
($\theta_{23} <\pi/4$), and the other in the higher octant ($\theta_{23}
>\pi/4$). This octant ambiguity of $\theta_{23}$ is one of the fundamental
issues in the neutrino sector, and its resolution is a crucial goal of
next-generation long-baseline (LBL) experiments. In this letter, we address for
the first time, the impact of a light eV-scale sterile neutrino towards such a
measurement, taking the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) as a case
study. In the so-called 3+1 scheme involving three active and one sterile
neutrino, the $\nu_\mu \to \nu_e$ transition probability probed in the LBL
experiments acquires a new interference term via active-sterile oscillations.
We find that this novel interference term can mimic a swap of the $\theta_{23}$
octant, even if one uses the information from both neutrino and antineutrino
channels. As a consequence, the sensitivity to the octant of $\theta_{23}$ can
be completely lost and this may have serious implications in our understanding
of neutrinos from both the experimental and theoretical perspectives.


title: On the Circle Covering Theorem by A. W. Goodman and R. E. Goodman

abstract:
  In 1945, A. W. Goodman and R. E. Goodman proved the following conjecture by
P. Erd\H{o}s: Given a family of (round) disks of radii $r_1$, $\ldots$, $r_n$
in the plane it is always possible to cover them by a disk of radius $R = \sum
r_i$, provided they cannot be separated into two subfamilies by a straight line
disjoint from the disks. In this note we show that essentially the same idea
may work for different analogues and generalizations of their result. In
particular, we prove the following: Given a family of positive homothetic
copies of a fixed convex body $K \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ with homothety
coefficients $\tau_1, \ldots, \tau_n > 0$ it is always possible to cover them
by a translate of $\frac{d+1}{2}\left(\sum \tau_i\right)K$, provided they
cannot be separated into two subfamilies by a hyperplane disjoint from the
homothets.


title: Generalised Ramsey numbers for two sets of cycles

abstract:
  We determine several generalised Ramsey numbers for two sets $\Gamma_1$ and
$\Gamma_2$ of cycles, in particular, all generalised Ramsey numbers
$R(\Gamma_1,\Gamma_2)$ such that $\Gamma_1$ or $\Gamma_2$ contains a cycle of
length at most $6$, or the shortest cycle in each set is even. This generalises
previous results of Erd\H{o}s, Faudree, Rosta, Rousseau, and Schelp from the
1970s. Notably, including both $C_3$ and $C_4$ in one of the sets, makes very
little difference from including only $C_4$. Furthermore, we give a conjecture
for the general case. We also describe many $(\Gamma_1,\Gamma_2)$-avoiding
graphs, including a complete characterisation of most
$(\Gamma_1,\Gamma_2)$-critical graphs, i.e., $(\Gamma_1,\Gamma_2)$-avoiding
graphs on $R(\Gamma_1,\Gamma_2)-1$ vertices, such that $\Gamma_1$ or $\Gamma_2$
contains a cycle of length at most $5$. For length $4$, this is an easy
extension of a recent result of Wu, Sun, and Radziszowski, in which
$|\Gamma_1|=|\Gamma_2|=1$. For lengths $3$ and $5$, our results are new even in
this special case.
  Keywords: generalised Ramsey number, critical graph, cycle, set of cycles


title: Open dynamics under rapid repeated interaction

abstract:
  We investigate the emergent open dynamics of a quantum system that undergoes
rapid repeated unitary interactions with a sequence of ancillary systems. We
study in detail how decoherence appears as a subleading effect when a quantum
system is 'bombarded' by a quick succession of ancillas. In the most general
case, these ancillas are a) taken from an ensemble of quantum systems of
different dimensions, b) prepared in different states, and c) interacting with
the system through different Hamiltonians. We derive an upper bound on
decoherence rates in this regime, and show how a rich variety of phenomena in
open dynamics (such as projection, thermalization, purification, and dephasing)
can emerge out of our general model of repeated interaction. Furthermore, we
show a fundamental link between the strength of the leading order dissipation
and the intrinsic "unpredictability" in the system-ancilla interaction. We also
discuss how these results encompass and extend results obtained with other
earlier models of repeated interaction.


title: Factors and actors leading to the adoption of a JavaScript framework

abstract:
  The increasing popularity of JavaScript has led to a variety of JavaScript
frameworks that aim to help developers to address programming tasks. However,
the number of JavaScript frameworks has risen rapidly to thousands of versions.
It is challenging for practitioners to identify the frameworks that best fit
their needs and to develop new ones which fit such needs. Furthermore, there is
a lack of knowledge regarding what drives developers towards the choice. This
paper explores the factors and actors that lead to the choice of a JavaScript
framework. We conducted a qualitative interpretive study of semi-structured
interviews. We interviewed 18 decision makers regarding the JavaScript
framework selection, up to reaching theoretical saturation. Through coding the
interview responses, we offer a model of desirable JavaScript framework
adoption factors. The factors are grouped into categories that are derived via
the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. The factors are
performance expectancy (performance, size), effort expectancy (automatization,
learnability, complexity, understandability), social influence (competitor
analysis, collegial advice, community size, community responsiveness),
facilitating conditions (suitability, updates, modularity, isolation,
extensibility), and price value. A combination of four actors, which are
customer, developer, team, and team leader, leads to the choice. Our model
contributes to the body of knowledge related to the adoption of technology by
software engineers. As a practical implication, our model is useful for
decision makers when evaluating JavaScript frameworks, as well as for
developers for producing desirable frameworks.


title:
Discovery of transient infrared emission from dust heated by stellar
  tidal disruption flares

abstract:
  Stars that pass within the Roche radius of a supermassive black hole will be
tidally disrupted, yielding a sudden injection of gas close to the black hole
horizon which produces an electromagnetic flare. A few dozen of these flares
have been discovered in recent years, but current observations provide poor
constraints on the bolometric luminosity and total accreted mass of these
events. Using images from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), we
have discovered transient 3.4 micron emission from several previously known
tidal disruption flares. The observations can be explained by dust heated to
its sublimation temperature due to the intense radiation of the tidal flare.
From the break in the infrared light curve we infer that this hot dust is
located ~0.1 pc from the supermassive black hole. Since the dust has been
heated by absorbing UV and (potentially) soft X-ray photons of the flare, the
reprocessing light curve yields an estimate of the bolometric flare luminosity.
For the flare PTF-09ge, we infer that the most likely value of the luminosity
integrated over frequencies at which dust can absorb photons is $8\times
10^{44}$ erg/s, with a factor of 3 uncertainty due to the unknown temperature
of the dust. This bolometric luminosity is a factor ~10 larger than the
observed black body luminosity. Our work is the first to probe dust in the
nuclei of non-active galaxies on sub-parsec scales. The observed infrared
luminosity implies a covering factor ~1% for the nuclear dust in the host
galaxies.


title: Infinite-dimensional Categorical Quantum Mechanics

abstract:
  We use non-standard analysis to define a category
$^\star\!\operatorname{Hilb}$ suitable for categorical quantum mechanics in
arbitrary separable Hilbert spaces, and we show that standard bounded operators
can be suitably embedded in it. We show the existence of unital special
commutative $\dagger$-Frobenius algebras, and we conclude
$^\star\!\operatorname{Hilb}$ to be compact closed, with partial traces and a
Hilbert-Schmidt inner product on morphisms. We exemplify our techniques on the
textbook case of 1-dimensional wavefunctions with periodic boundary conditions:
we show the momentum and position observables to be well defined, and to give
rise to a strongly complementary pair of unital commutative $\dagger$-Frobenius
algebras.


title:
Doping induced electronic phase separation and coulomb bubbles in
  layered superconductors

abstract:
  We have studied properties of quantum charge fluids interacting with random
impurities or heavy polarons using a microscopic Hamiltonian with the full
many-body Coulomb interaction with the use of variational many-body formalism.
At zero temperature and high enough density the bosonic fluid is
superconducting, but when density decreases the Coulomb interaction will be
strongly over-screened and impurities or polarons begin to trap charge carriers
forming bound quasiparticle like clusters, which we call Coulomb bubbles or
clumps. These bubbles are embedded inside the superconductor and form nuclei of
a new insulating state- the local Charge Density Wave(CDW). The growth of a
bubble is terminated by the Coulomb force. The fluid contains two groups of
charge carriers associated with free and localized states. The insulating state
arises via a percolation of the insulating islands of bubbles, which cluster
and prevent the flow of the electrical supercurrent through the system.
  The picture is consistent with the Gorkov and Teitelbaum (GT) analysis of the
transport, Hall effect data and the ARPES spectra as well as with nanoscale
superstructures observed in Scanning Tunneling Microscope(STM) experiments. The
scenario of the clump formation may be also applicable to pnictides, where two
types of clumps may arise even at very high temperatures. The paper has been
published in the book "Condensed Matter Theories" volume 24.


title: What does the Bullet Cluster tell us about self-interacting dark matter?

abstract:
  We perform numerical simulations of the merging galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56
(the Bullet Cluster), including the effects of elastic dark matter scattering.
In a similar manner to the stripping of gas by ram pressure, dark matter
self-interactions would transfer momentum between the two galaxy cluster dark
matter haloes, causing them to lag behind the collisionless galaxies. The
absence of an observed separation between the dark matter and stellar
components in the Bullet Cluster has been used to place upper limits on the
cross-section for dark matter scattering. We emphasise the importance of
analysing simulations in an observationally-motivated manner, finding that the
way in which the positions of the various components are measured can have a
larger impact on derived constraints on dark matter's self-interaction
cross-section than reasonable changes to the initial conditions for the merger.
In particular, we find that the methods used in previous studies to place some
of the tightest constraints on this cross-section do not reflect what is done
observationally, and overstate the Bullet Cluster's ability to constrain the
particle properties of dark matter. We introduce the first simulations of the
Bullet Cluster including both self-interacting dark matter and gas. We find
that as the gas is stripped it introduces radially-dependent asymmetries into
the stellar and dark matter distributions. As the techniques used to determine
the positions of the dark matter and galaxies are sensitive to different radial
scales, these asymmetries can lead to erroneously measured offsets between dark
matter and galaxies even when they are spatially coincident.


title: 750 GeV Diphotons from Supersymmetry with Dirac Gauginos

abstract:
  Motivated by the recent excess in the diphoton invariant mass near 750 GeV,
we explore a supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model that includes the
minimal set of superpartners as well as additional Dirac partner chiral
superfields in the adjoint representation for each gauge group. The bino
partner pseudoscalar is identified as the 750 GeV resonance, while
superpotential interactions between it and the gluino (wino) partners yield
production via gluon fusion (decay to photon pairs) at one-loop. The gauginos
and these additional adjoint superpartners are married by a Dirac mass and must
also have Majorana masses. While a large wino partner Majorana mass is
necessary to explain the excess, the gluino can be approximately Dirac-like,
providing benefits consistent with being both "supersoft" (loop corrections to
the scalar masses from Dirac gauginos are free of logarithmic enhancements) and
"supersafe" (the experimental limits on the squark/gluino masses can be relaxed
due to the reduced production rate). Consistency with the measured Standard
Model-like Higgs boson mass is imposed, and a numerical exploration of the
parameter space is provided. Models that can account for the diphoton excess
are additionally characterized by having couplings that can remain perturbative
up to very high scales, while remaining consistent with experimental
constraints, the Higgs boson mass, and an electroweak scale which is not
excessively fine tuned.