title:
Differences between Industrial Models of Autonomy and Systemic Models of
  Autonomy

abstract:
  This paper discusses the idea of levels of autonomy of systems - be this
technical or organic - and compares the insights with models employed by
industries used to describe maturity and capability of their products.


title:
Bubbles: a data management approach to create an advanced industrial
  interoperability layer for critical systems development applying reuse
  techniques

abstract:
  The development of critical systems is becoming more and more complex. The
overall tendency is that development costs raise. In order to cut cost of
development, companies are forced to build systems from proven components and
larger new systems from smaller older ones. Respective reuse activities involve
good number of people, tools and processes along different stages of the
development lifecycle which involve large numbers of tools. Some development is
directly planned for reuse. Planned reuse implies excellent knowledge
management and firm governance of reusable items. According to the current
state of the art, there are still practical problems in the two fields, mainly
because the governance and knowledge management is fragmented over the tools of
the toolchain. In our experience, the practical effect of this fragmentation is
that involved ancestor and derivation relationships are often undocumented or
not exploitable. Additionally, useful reuse is almost always dealing with
heterogeneous content which must be transferred from older to newer development
environments. In this process, interoperability proves either as biggest
obstacle or greatest help. In this paper, authors connect the topics
interoperability and knowledge management and propose to seek for ubiquitous
reuse via advanced interoperability features. A single concept from a larger
Technical Interoperability Concept (TIC) with the name bubble is presented.
Bubbles are expected to overcome existing barriers to cost-efficient reuse in
systems and software development lifecycles. That is why, the present paper
introduces and defines bubbles by showing how they simplify application of
repairs and changes and hence contribute to expansion of reuse at reduced cost.


title:
On the stability of type I blow up for the energy super critical heat
  equation

abstract:
  We consider the energy super critical semilinear heat equation $$\partial_t
u=\Delta u+u^{p}, \ \ x\in \mathbb R^3, \ \ p>5.$$ We first revisit the
construction of radially symmetric backward self similar solutions and propose
a bifurcation type argument which allows for a sharp control of the spectrum of
the corresponding linearized operator in suitable weighted spaces. We then show
how the sole knowledge of this spectral gap in weighted spaces implies the
finite codimensional non radial stability of these solutions for smooth well
localized initial data using energy bounds. The whole scheme draws a route map
for the derivation of the existence and stability of self similar blow up in
non radial energy super critical settings.


title: Idempotent states on locally compact quantum groups II

abstract:
  Correspondence between idempotent states and expected right-invariant
subalgebras is extended to non-coamenable, non-unimodular locally compact
quantum groups; in particular left convolution operators are shown to
automatically preserve the right Haar weight.


title:
Quark confinement potential examined by excitation energy of the
  Lambda_c and Lambda_b baryons in a quark-diquark model

abstract:
  The possibility to have diquark configuration in heavy baryons, such as
Lambda_c and Lambda_b, is examined by a nonrelativistic potential model with a
heavy quark and a light scalar diquark. Assuming that the Lambda_c and Lambda_b
baryons are composed of the heavy quark and the point-like scalar-isoscalar ud
diquark, we solve the two-body Schrodinger equation with the Coulomb plus
linear potential and obtain the energy spectra for the heavy baryons. Contrary
to our expectation, it is found that the potential determined by the quarkonium
spectra fails to reproduce the excitation spectra of the Lambda_c and Lambda_b
in the quark-diquark picture, while the Lambda_c and Lambda_b spectra is
reproduced with a half strength of the confinement string tension than for the
quarkonium. The finite size effect of the diquark is also examined and it is
found that introduction of a finite size diquark would resolve the failure of
the spectrum reproduction. The Xi_c excitation energy is also calculated and is
found to be smaller than Lambda_c in the quark-diquark model. This is not
consistent with the experimental observation.


title:
Runge-Kutta convolution quadrature and FEM-BEM coupling for the time
  dependent linear Schr\"odinger equation

abstract:
  We propose a numerical scheme to solve the time dependent linear
Schr\"odinger equation. The discretization is carried out by combining a
Runge-Kutta time-stepping scheme with a finite element discretization in space.
Since the Schr\"odinger equation is posed on the whole space $\R^d$ we combine
the interior finite element discretization with a convolution quadrature based
boundary element discretization. In this paper we analyze the resulting fully
discrete scheme in terms of stability and convergence rate. Numerical
experiments confirm the theoretical findings.


title: Cell planning for mobility management in heterogeneous cellular networks

abstract:
  In small cell networks, high mobility of users results in frequent handoff
and thus severely restricts the data rate for mobile users. To alleviate this
problem, we propose to use heterogeneous, two-tier network structure where
static users are served by both macro and micro base stations, whereas the
mobile (i.e., moving) users are served only by macro base stations having
larger cells; the idea is to prevent frequent data outage for mobile users due
to handoff. We use the classical two-tier Poisson network model with different
transmit powers (cf [1]), assume independent Poisson process of static users
and doubly stochastic Poisson process of mobile users moving at a constant
speed along infinite straight lines generated by a Poisson line process. Using
stochastic geometry, we calculate the average downlink data rate of the typical
static and mobile (i.e., moving) users, the latter accounted for handoff outage
periods. We consider also the average throughput of these two types of users
defined as their average data rates divided by the mean total number of users
co-served by the same base station. We find that if the density of a
homogeneous network and/or the speed of mobile users is high, it is
advantageous to let the mobile users connect only to some optimal fraction of
BSs to reduce the frequency of handoffs during which the connection is not
assured. If a heterogeneous structure of the network is allowed, one can
further jointly optimize the mean throughput of mobile and static users by
appropriately tuning the powers of micro and macro base stations subject to
some aggregate power constraint ensuring unchanged mean data rates of static
users via the network equivalence property (see [2]).


title: Electroweak Vacuum Stabilized by Moduli during/after Inflation

abstract:
  It is known that the present electroweak vacuum is likely to be metastable
and it may lead to a serious instability during/after inflation. We propose a
simple solution to the problem of vacuum instability during/after inflation. If
there is a moduli field which has Planck-suppressed interactions with the
standard model fields, the Higgs quartic coupling in the early universe
naturally takes a different value from the present one. A slight change of the
quartic coupling in the early universe makes the Higgs potential absolutely
stable and hence we are free from the vacuum instability during/after
inflation.


title:
An Innovative, Open, Interoperable Citizen Engagement Cloud Platform for
  Smart Government and Users' Interaction

abstract:
  This paper introduces an open, interoperable, and cloud-computing-based
citizen engagement platform for the management of administrative processes of
public administrations, which also increases the engagement of citizens. The
citizen engagement platform is the outcome of a 3-year Italian national project
called PRISMA (Interoperable cloud platforms for smart government). The aim of
the project is to constitute a new model of digital ecosystem that can support
and enable new methods of interaction among public administrations, citizens,
companies, and other stakeholders surrounding cities. The platform has been
defined by the media as a flexible (enable the addition of any kind of
application or service) and open (enable access to open services) Italian
"cloud" that allows public administrations to access to a vast knowledge base
represented as linked open data to be reused by a stakeholder community with
the aim of developing new applications ("Cloud Apps") tailored to the specific
needs of citizens. The platform has been used by Catania and Syracuse
municipalities, two of the main cities of southern Italy, located in the
Sicilian region. The fully adoption of the platform is rapidly spreading around
the whole region (local developers have already used available application
programming interfaces (APIs) to create additional services for citizens and
administrations) to such an extent that other provinces of Sicily and Italy in
general expressed their interest for its usage. The platform is available
online and, as mentioned above, is open source and provides APIs for full
exploitation.


title:
Full affine equivariance and weak natural transformations in numerical
  analysis - the case of B-Series

abstract:
  Many algorithms in numerical analysis are affine equivariant: they are immune
to changes of affine coordinates. This is because those algorithms are defined
using affine invariant constructions. There is, however, a crucial ingredient
missing: most algorithms are in fact defined regardless of the underlying
dimension. As a result, they are also invariant with respect to non-invertible
affine transformation from spaces of different dimensions. We formulate this
property precisely: these algorithms fall short of being natural
transformations between affine functors. We give a precise definition of what
we call a weak natural transformation between functors, and illustrate the
point using examples coming from numerical analysis, in particular B-Series.


title:
Spatially resolved Raman spectroscopy study of uniform and tapered InAs
  micro-nano wires: Correlation of strain and polytypism

abstract:
  The asymmetric peak at 212 - 218 cm-1 occurring in InAs micro-nano wires is
investigated using spatially resolved Raman spectroscopy (SRRS) of uniform,
bent and long tapered MNWs grown on a Si (001) substrate. It is attributed to
superposition of E2h phonon (wurtzite : WZ) and TO phonon (zinc blende : ZB) of
InAs. Polarized and wavelength dependent SRRS establishes the presence of WZ
and ZB phases in these MNWs. However, formation of WZ phase for larger diameter
InAs MNWs is not commensurate with existing growth mapping studies, which needs
to be understood further. Study of several of these MNWs suggest that the
fraction of WZ to ZB in a MNW is decided not only by diameter, but also by
local growth seeding/conditions leading to either tapered or uniform MNWs
formation, although, external growth conditions are same. Variation of these
frequencies that from bulk value are correlated to residual stress generated in
ZB and WZ phases due to presence of WZ and ZB phases, respectively.
Consistently, temperature dependent Raman data shows that there is a measurable
contribution of stress to dw/dT, a positive for ZB and negative for WZ phonons,
due to difference in their thermal expansions. Further, effective thermal
expansion coefficient of WZ InAs in presence of ZB phase is calculated to vary
in the range 10 - 19 x 10-6/K from base to tip of a MNW at 80 K, which is not
possible to determine otherwise.


title:
Multi-Level Analysis and Annotation of Arabic Corpora for Text-to-Sign
  Language MT

abstract:
  In this paper, we present an ongoing effort in lexical semantic analysis and
annotation of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) text, a semi automatic annotation
tool concerned with the morphologic, syntactic, and semantic levels of
description.


title: Optimal Jammer Placement in Wireless Localization Systems

abstract:
  In this study, the optimal jammer placement problem is proposed and analyzed
for wireless localization systems. In particular, the optimal location of a
jammer node is obtained by maximizing the minimum of the Cramer-Rao lower
bounds (CRLBs) for a number of target nodes under location related constraints
for the jammer node. For scenarios with more than two target nodes, theoretical
results are derived to specify conditions under which the jammer node is
located as close to a certain target node as possible, or the optimal location
of the jammer node is determined by two of the target nodes. Also, explicit
expressions are provided for the optimal location of the jammer node in the
presence of two target nodes. In addition, in the absence of distance
constraints for the jammer node, it is proved, for scenarios with more than two
target nodes, that the optimal jammer location lies on the convex hull formed
by the locations of the target nodes and is determined by two or three of the
target nodes, which have equalized CRLBs. Numerical examples are presented to
provide illustrations of the theoretical results in different scenarios.


title:
Constraining equilateral-type primordial non-Gaussianities from imaging
  surveys

abstract:
  We investigate expected constraints on equilateral-type primordial
non-Gaussianities from future/ongoing imaging surveys, making use of the fact
that they enhance the halo/galaxy bispectrum on large scales. As model
parameters to be constrained, in addition to $f_{\rm NL}^{\rm equil}$, which is
related to the primordial bispectrum, we consider $g_{\rm NL}^{(\partial
\sigma)^4}$, which is related to the primordial trispectrum that appeared in
the effective field theory of inflation. After calculating the angular
bispectra of the halo/galaxy clustering and weak gravitational lensing based on
the integrated perturbation theory, we perform Fisher matrix analysis for three
representative surveys. We find that among the three surveys, the tightest
constraints come from Large Synoptic Survey Telescope ; its expected $1\sigma$
errors on $f_{\rm NL}^{\rm equil}$ and $g_{\rm NL}^{(\partial \sigma)^4}$ are
respectively given by $7.0 \times 10^2$ and $4.9 \times 10^7$. Although this
constraint is somewhat looser than the one from the current cosmic microwave
background observation, since we obtain it independently, we can use this
constraint as a cross check. We also evaluate the uncertainty with our results
caused by using several approximations and discuss the possibility to obtain
tighter constraint on $f_{\rm NL}^{\rm equil}$ and $g_{\rm NL}^{(\partial
\sigma)^4}$.


title:
Exact derivation of a finite-size-scaling law and corrections to scaling
  in the geometric Galton-Watson process

abstract:
  The theory of finite-size scaling explains how the singular behavior of
thermodynamic quantities in the critical point of a phase transition emerges
when the size of the system becomes infinite. Usually, this theory is presented
in a phenomenological way. Here, we exactly demonstrate the existence of a
finite-size scaling law for the Galton-Watson branching processes when the
number of offsprings of each individual follows either a geometric distribution
or a generalized geometric distribution. We also derive the corrections to
scaling and the limits of validity of the finite-size scaling law away the
critical point. A mapping between branching processes and random walks allows
us to establish that these results also hold for the latter case, for which the
order parameter turns out to be the probability of hitting a distant boundary.


title: Detecting the Curvature of de Sitter Universe with Two Entangled Atoms

abstract:
  Casimir-Polder interaction arises from the vacuum fluctuations of quantum
field that depend on spacetime curvature and thus is spacetime-dependent. Here
we show how to use the resonance Casimir-Polder interaction (RCPI) between two
entangled atoms to detect spacetime curvature. We find that the RCPI of two
static entangled atoms in the de Sitter-invariant vacuum depends on the de
Sitter spacetime curvature relevant to the temperature felt by the static
observer. It is characterized by a $1/L^2$ power law decay when beyond a
characteristic length scale associated to the breakdown of a local inertial
description of the two-atom system. However, the RCPI of the same setup
embedded in a thermal bath in the Minkowski universe is temperature-independent
and is always characterized by a $1/L$ power law decay. Therefore, although a
single static atom in the de Sitter-invariant vacuum responds as if it were
bathed in thermal radiation in a Minkowski universe, using the distinct
difference between RCPI of two entangled atoms one can in principle distinguish
these two universes.


title:
Accurate all-electron $G_0W_0$ quasiparticle energies employing the
  full-potential augmented planewave method

abstract:
  The $GW$ approach of many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) has become a common
tool for calculating the electronic structure of materials. However, with
increasing number of published results, discrepancies between the values
obtained by different methods and codes become more and more apparent. For a
test set of small- and wide-gap semiconductors, we demonstrate how to reach the
numerically \emph{best} electronic structure within the framework of the
full-potential linearized augmented planewave (FLAPW) method. We first evaluate
the impact of local orbitals in the Kohn-Sham eigenvalue spectrum of the
underlying starting point. The role of the basis-set quality is then further
analyzed when calculating the $G_0W_0$ quasiparticle energies. Our results,
computed with the \exciting{} code, are compared to those obtained using the
projector-augmented planewave (PAW) formalism, finding overall, good agreement
between both methods. We also provide data produced with a typical FLAPW basis
set as a benchmark for other $G_0W_0$ implementations.


title:
Habitable worlds with JWST: transit spectroscopy of the TRAPPIST-1
  system?

abstract:
  The recent discovery of three Earth-sized, potentially habitable planets
around a nearby cool star, TRAPPIST-1, has provided three key targets for the
upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Depending on their atmospheric
characteristics and precise orbit configurations, it is possible that any of
the three planets may be in the liquid water habitable zone, meaning that they
may be capable of supporting life. We find that present-day Earth levels of
ozone, if present, would be detectable if JWST observes 60 transits for
innermost planet 1b and 30 transits for 1c and 1d.


title:
Enhancing Performance Bounds of Multiple-Ring Networks with Cyclic
  Dependencies based on Network Calculus

abstract:
  Tightening performance bounds of ring networks with cyclic dependencies is
still an open problem in the literature. In this paper, we tackle such a
challenging issue based on Network Calculus. First, we review the conventional
timing approaches in the area and identify their main limitations, in terms of
delay bounds pessimism. Afterwards, we have introduced a new concept called Pay
Multiplexing Only at Convergence points (PMOC) to overcome such limitations.
PMOC considers the flow serialization phenomena along the flow path, by paying
the bursts of interfering flows only at the convergence points. The guaranteed
endto- end service curves under such a concept have been defined and proved for
mono-ring and multiple-ring networks, as well as under Arbitrary and Fixed
Priority multiplexing. A sensitivity analysis of the computed delay bounds for
mono and multiple-ring networks is conducted with respect to various flow and
network parameters, and their tightness is assessed in comparison with an
achievable worst-case delay. A noticeable enhancement of the delay bounds, thus
network resource efficiency and scalability, is highlighted under our proposal
with reference to conventional approaches. Finally, the efficiency of the PMOC
approach to provide timing guarantees is confirmed in the case of a realistic
avionics application.


title: Unbeatable Set Consensus via Topological and Combinatorial Reasoning

abstract:
  The set consensus problem has played an important role in the study of
distributed systems for over two decades. Indeed, the search for lower bounds
and impossibility results for this problem spawned the topological approach to
distributed computing, which has given rise to new techniques in the design and
analysis of protocols. The design of efficient solutions to set consensus has
also proven to be challenging. In the synchronous crash failure model, the
literature contains a sequence of solutions to set consensus, each improving
upon the previous ones.
  This paper presents an unbeatable protocol for nonuniform k-set consensus in
the synchronous crash failure model. This is an efficient protocol whose
decision times cannot be improved upon. Moreover, the description of our
protocol is extremely succinct. Proving unbeatability of this protocol is a
nontrivial challenge. We provide two proofs for its unbeatability: one is a
subtle constructive combinatorial proof, and the other is a topological proof
of a new style. These two proofs provide new insight into the connection
between topological reasoning and combinatorial reasoning about protocols,
which has long been a subject of interest. In particular, our topological proof
reasons in a novel way about subcomplexes of the protocol complex, and sheds
light on an open question posed by Guerraoui and Pochon (2009). Finally, using
the machinery developed in the design of this unbeatable protocol, we propose a
protocol for uniform k-set consensus that beats all known solutions by a large
margin.


title: Electroweak-Skyrmion as Topological Dark Matter

abstract:
  We show the existence of a nontrivial topological configuration of the Higgs
field in the Standard Model with the Skyrme term. It is shown that the current
upper bound of the mass of the topological object is about 34 TeV. We discuss
the impact of the existence of the topological object on cosmology.


title:
Universal classification of twisted, strained and sheared graphene
  moir\'e superlattices

abstract:
  Moir\'e superlattices in graphene supported on various substrates have opened
a new avenue to engineer graphene's electronic properties. Yet, the exact
crystallographic structure on which their band structure depends remains highly
debated. In this scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory
study, we have analysed graphene samples grown on multilayer graphene prepared
onto SiC and on the close-packed surfaces of Re and Ir with ultra-high
precision. We resolve small-angle twists and shears in graphene, and identify
large unit cells comprising more than 1,000 carbon atoms and exhibiting
non-trivial nanopatterns for moir\'e superlattices, which are commensurate to
the graphene lattice. Finally, a general formalism applicable to any hexagonal
moir\'e is presented to classify all reported structures.


title: Analytic structure of QCD propagators in Minkowski space

abstract:
  Analytical functions for the propagators of QCD, including a set of chiral
quarks, are derived by a one-loop massive expansion in the Landau gauge, deep
in the infrared. By analytic continuation, the spectral functions are studied
in Minkowski space, yielding a direct proof of positivity violation and
confinement from first principles.The dynamical breaking of chiral symmetry is
described on the same footing of gluon mass generation, providing a unified
picture. While dealing with the exact Lagrangian, the expansion is based on
massive free-particle propagators, is safe in the infrared and is equivalent to
the standard perturbation theory in the UV. By dimensional regularization, all
diverging mass terms cancel exactly without including mass counterterms that
would spoil the gauge and chiral symmetry of the Lagrangian. Universal scaling
properties are predicted for the inverse dressing functions and shown to be
satisfied by the lattice data. Complex conjugated poles are found for the gluon
propagator, in agreement with the i-particle scenario.


title: Consistency Analysis for the Doubly Stochastic Dirichlet Process

abstract:
  This technical report proves components consistency for the Doubly Stochastic
Dirichlet Process with exponential convergence of posterior probability. We
also present the fundamental properties for DSDP as well as inference
algorithms. Simulation toy experiment and real-world experiment results for
single and multi-cluster also support the consistency proof. This report is
also a support document for the paper "Computationally Efficient Hyperspectral
Data Learning Based on the Doubly Stochastic Dirichlet Process".


title:
A quick method to identify secular resonances in multi-planet systems
  with a binary companion

abstract:
  Gravitational perturbations in multi-planet systems caused by an accompanying
star are the subject of this investigation. Our dynamical model is based on the
binary star HD41004 AB where a giant planet orbits HD41004 A. We modify the
orbital parameters of this system and analyze the motion of a hypothetical
test-planet surrounding HD41004 A on an interior orbit to the detected giant
planet. Our numerical computations indicate perturbations due to mean motion
and secular resonances. The locations of these resonances are usually connected
to high eccentricity and highly inclined motion depending strongly on the
binary-planet architecture.As the positions of mean motion resonances can
easily be determined, the main purpose of this study is to present a new
semi-analytical method to determine the location of a secular resonance without
huge computational effort.


title: The top threshold effect in the $\gamma\gamma$ production at the LHC

abstract:
  We compute the top quark threshold contributions to the $\gamma\gamma$
production at the LHC. They appear when the invariant mass of the photon pair,
$M_{\gamma\gamma}$ just exceeds two times the mass of the top quark and induce
some feature in the $M_{\gamma\gamma}$ distribution. We determine the magnitude
of this threshold effect and characterize this feature with a simple empirical
fitting function to show that it is possible to observe this effect at the LHC
in future. We also explore some possible improvements that may enhance its
significance.


title:
North-south asymmetry in small and large sunspot group activity and
  violation of even-odd solar cycle rule

abstract:
  According to Gnevyshev-Ohl (G-O) rule an odd-numbered cycle is stronger than
its preceding even-numbered cycle. In the modern time the cycle pair (22, 23)
violated this rule. By using the combined Greenwich Photoheliographic Results
(GPR) and Solar Optical Observing Network (SOON) sunspot group data during the
period 1874-2015, and Debrecen Photoheliographic Data (DPD) of sunspot groups
during the period 1974-2015, here we have found that the solar cycle pair (22,
23) violated the G-O rule because, besides during cycle 23 a large deficiency
of small sunspot groups in both the northern and the southern hemispheres,
during cycle 22 a large abundance of small sunspot groups in the southern
hemisphere. In the case of large and small sunspot groups the cycle pair (22,
23) violated the G-O rule in the northern and southern hemispheres,
respectively, suggesting the north-south asymmetry in solar activity has a
significant contribution in the violation of G-O rule. The amplitude of solar
cycle 24 is smaller than that of solar cycle 23. However, Coronal Mass
Ejections (CMEs) rate in the rising phases of the cycles 23 and 24 are almost
same (even slightly large in cycle 24). From both the SOON and the DPD sunspot
group data here we have also found that on the average the ratio of the number
(counts) of large sunspot groups to the number of small sunspot groups is
larger in the rising phase of cycle 24 than that in the corresponding phase of
cycle 23. We suggest this could be a potential reason for the aforesaid
discrepancy in the CME rates during the rising phases of cycles 23 and 24.
These results have significant implication on solar cycle mechanism


title: On Edge Caching in the Presence of Malicious Users

abstract:
  In this paper we investigate the problem of optimal cache placement in the
presence of malicious mobile users in heterogeneous networks, where small-cell
base stations are equipped with caches in order to reduce the overall backhaul
load. In particular the malicious users aim at maximizing the congestion of
files at the backhaul, i.e., at maximizing the average backhaul rate. For that
adversarial model, we derive the achievable average backhaul rate of the
heterogeneous network. Moreover, we study the system performance from a
game-theoretic perspective, by naturally considering a zero-sum Stackelberg
game between the macro-cell base station and the malicious users. We then
thoroughly investigate the system performance in the presence of adversaries
and we analyze the influence of the system parameters, such as the network
topology and the capabilities of the small-cell base stations, on the overall
performance of edge caching at the Stackelberg equilibrium. Our results
highlight the impact of the malicious users on the overall caching performance
of the network and they furthermore show the importance of an adversary-aware
content placement at the small-cell base stations.


title: Spatio-Temporal Image Boundary Extrapolation

abstract:
  Boundary prediction in images as well as video has been a very active topic
of research and organizing visual information into boundaries and segments is
believed to be a corner stone of visual perception. While prior work has
focused on predicting boundaries for observed frames, our work aims at
predicting boundaries of future unobserved frames. This requires our model to
learn about the fate of boundaries and extrapolate motion patterns. We
experiment on established real-world video segmentation dataset, which provides
a testbed for this new task. We show for the first time spatio-temporal
boundary extrapolation in this challenging scenario. Furthermore, we show
long-term prediction of boundaries in situations where the motion is governed
by the laws of physics. We successfully predict boundaries in a billiard
scenario without any assumptions of a strong parametric model or any object
notion. We argue that our model has with minimalistic model assumptions derived
a notion of 'intuitive physics' that can be applied to novel scenes.


title:
Non-Gaussian Random Generators in Bacteria Foraging Algorithm for
  Multiobjective Optimization

abstract:
  Random generators or stochastic engines are a key component in the structure
of metaheuristic algorithms. This work investigates the effects of non-Gaussian
stochastic engines on the performance of metaheuristics when solving a
real-world optimization problem. In this work, the bacteria foraging algorithm
(BFA) was employed in tandem with four random generators (stochastic engines).
The stochastic engines operate using the Weibull distribution, Gamma
distribution, Gaussian distribution and a chaotic mechanism. The two
non-Gaussian distributions are the Weibull and Gamma distributions. In this
work, the approaches developed were implemented on the real-world
multi-objective resin bonded sand mould problem. The Pareto frontiers obtained
were benchmarked using two metrics; the hyper volume indicator (HVI) and the
proposed Average Explorative Rate (AER) metric. Detail discussions from various
perspectives on the effects of non-Gaussian random generators in metaheuristics
are provided.


title:
The first stars of the Rho Ophiuchi Dark Cloud. XMM-Newton view of Rho
  Oph and its neighbors

abstract:
  Star formation in molecular clouds can be triggered by the dynamical action
of winds from massive stars. Furthermore, X-ray and UV fluxes from massive
stars can influence the life time of surrounding circumstellar disks. We
present the results of a 53 ks XMM-Newton observation centered on the Rho
Ophiuchi A+B binary system. Rho Ophiiuchi lies in the center of a ring of dust,
likely formed by the action of its winds. This region is different from the
dense core of the cloud (L1688 Core F) where star formation is at work. X-rays
are detected from Rho Ophiuchi as well as a group of surrounding X-ray sources.
We detected 89 X-ray sources, 47 of them have at least one counterpart in 2MASS
+ All-WISE catalogs. Based on IR and X-ray properties, we can distinguish
between young stellar objects (YSOs) belonging to the cloud and background
objects. Among the cloud members, we detect 3 debris disk objects and 22
disk-less / Class III young stars. We show that these stars have ages in $5-10$
Myr, and are significantly older than the YSOs in L1688. We speculate that they
are the result of an early burst of star formation in the cloud. An X-ray
energy of $\ge5\times10^{44}$ ergs has been injected into the surrounding
medium during the past $5$ Myr, we discuss the effects of such energy budget in
relation to the cloud properties and dynamics.


title: Experiments in Linear Template Combination using Genetic Algorithms

abstract:
  Natural Language Generation systems typically have two parts - strategic
('what to say') and tactical ('how to say'). We present our experiments in
building an unsupervised corpus-driven template based tactical NLG system. We
consider templates as a sequence of words containing gaps. Our idea is based on
the observation that templates are grammatical locally (within their textual
span). We posit the construction of a sentence as a highly restricted sequence
of such templates. This work is an attempt to explore the resulting search
space using Genetic Algorithms to arrive at acceptable solutions. We present a
baseline implementation of this approach which outputs gapped text.


title: Riemannian stochastic variance reduced gradient on Grassmann manifold

abstract:
  Stochastic variance reduction algorithms have recently become popular for
minimizing the average of a large, but finite, number of loss functions. In
this paper, we propose a novel Riemannian extension of the Euclidean stochastic
variance reduced gradient algorithm (R-SVRG) to a compact manifold search
space. To this end, we show the developments on the Grassmann manifold. The key
challenges of averaging, addition, and subtraction of multiple gradients are
addressed with notions like logarithm mapping and parallel translation of
vectors on the Grassmann manifold. We present a global convergence analysis of
the proposed algorithm with decay step-sizes and a local convergence rate
analysis under fixed step-size with some natural assumptions. The proposed
algorithm is applied on a number of problems on the Grassmann manifold like
principal components analysis, low-rank matrix completion, and the Karcher mean
computation. In all these cases, the proposed algorithm outperforms the
standard Riemannian stochastic gradient descent algorithm.


title: Emergent Horizons and Causal Structures in Holography

abstract:
  The open string metric arises kinematically in studying fluctuations of open
string degrees of freedom on a D-brane. An observer, living on a probe D-brane,
can send signals through the spacetime by using such fluctuations on the probe,
that propagate in accordance with a metric which is conformal to the open
string metric. Event horizons can emerge in the open string metric when one
considers a D-brane with an electric field on its worldvolume. Here, we
emphasize the role of and investigate, in details, the causal structure of the
resulting open string event horizon and demonstrate, among other things, its
close similarities to an usual black hole event horizon in asymptotically
AdS-spaces. To that end, we analyze relevant geodesics, Penrose diagrams and
various causal holographic observables for a given open string metric. For
analytical control, most of our calculations are performed in an asymptotically
AdS$_3$-background, however, we argue that the physics is qualitatively the
same in higher dimensions. We also discuss how this open string metric arises
from an underlying D-brane configuration in string theory.


title: Quickest Moving Object Detection

abstract:
  We present a general framework and method for simultaneous detection and
segmentation of an object in a video that moves (or comes into view of the
camera) at some unknown time in the video. The method is an online approach
based on motion segmentation, and it operates under dynamic backgrounds caused
by a moving camera or moving nuisances. The goal of the method is to detect and
segment the object as soon as it moves. Due to stochastic variability in the
video and unreliability of the motion signal, several frames are needed to
reliably detect the object. The method is designed to detect and segment with
minimum delay subject to a constraint on the false alarm rate. The method is
derived as a problem of Quickest Change Detection. Experiments on a dataset
show the effectiveness of our method in minimizing detection delay subject to
false alarm constraints.


title:
Herschel protocluster survey: A search for dusty star-forming galaxies
  in protoclusters at z=2-3

abstract:
  We present a Herschel/SPIRE survey of three protoclusters at z=2-3
(2QZCluster, HS1700, SSA22). Based on the SPIRE colours (S350/S250 and
S500/S350) of 250 $\mu$m sources, we selected high redshift dusty star-forming
galaxies potentially associated with the protoclusters. In the 2QZCluster
field, we found a 4-sigma overdensity of six SPIRE sources around 4.5' (~2.2
Mpc) from a density peak of H$\alpha$ emitters at z=2.2. In the HS1700 field,
we found a 5-sigma overdensity of eight SPIRE sources around 2.1' (~1.0 Mpc)
from a density peak of LBGs at z=2.3. We did not find any significant
overdensities in SSA22 field, but we found three 500 $\mu$m sources are
concentrated 3' (~1.4 Mpc) east to the LAEs overdensity. If all the SPIRE
sources in these three overdensities are associated with protoclusters, the
inferred star-formation rate densities are 10$^3$-10$^4$ times higher than the
average value at the same redshifts. This suggests that dusty star-formation
activity could be very strongly enhanced in z~2-3 protoclusters. Further
observations are needed to confirm the redshifts of the SPIRE sources and to
investigate what processes enhance the dusty star-formation activity in z~2-3
protoclusters.


title: Semiparametric energy-based probabilistic models

abstract:
  Probabilistic models can be defined by an energy function, where the
probability of each state is proportional to the exponential of the state's
negative energy. This paper considers a generalization of energy-based models
in which the probability of a state is proportional to an arbitrary positive,
strictly decreasing, and twice differentiable function of the state's energy.
The precise shape of the nonlinear map from energies to unnormalized
probabilities has to be learned from data together with the parameters of the
energy function. As a case study we show that the above generalization of a
fully visible Boltzmann machine yields an accurate model of neural activity of
retinal ganglion cells. We attribute this success to the model's ability to
easily capture distributions whose probabilities span a large dynamic range, a
possible consequence of latent variables that globally couple the system.
Similar features have recently been observed in many datasets, suggesting that
our new method has wide applicability.


title:
Exponential Communication Complexity Advantage from Quantum
  Superposition of the Direction of Communication

abstract:
  In communication complexity, a number of distant parties have the task of
calculating a distributed function of their inputs, while minimizing the amount
of communication between them. It is known that with quantum resources, such as
entanglement and quantum channels, one can obtain significant reductions in the
communication complexity of some tasks. In this work, we study the role of the
quantum superposition of the direction of communication as a resource for
communication complexity. We present a tripartite communication task for which
such a superposition allows for an exponential saving in communication,
compared to one-way quantum (or classical) communication; the advantage also
holds when we allow for protocols with bounded error probability.


title:
Quantum Electron Plasma, Visible and Ultraviolet P-wave and Thin
  Metallic Film

abstract:
  The interaction of the visible and ultraviolet electromagnetic P-wave with
the thin flat metallic film localized between two dielectric media is studied
numerically in the framework of the quantum degenerate electron plasma
approach. The reflectance, transmittance and absorptance power coefficients are
chosen for investigation. It is shown that for the frequencies in the visible
and ultraviolet ranges, the quantum power coefficients differ from the ones
evaluated in framework of both the classical spatial dispersion and the Drude -
Lorentz approaches.


title:
Thermoelectric and electrical transport in mesoscopic two-dimensional
  electron gases

abstract:
  We review some of our recent experimental studies on low-carrier
concentration, mesoscopic two-dimensional electron gases (m2DEGs). The m2DEGs
show a range of striking characteristics including a complete avoidance of the
strongly localised regime even when the electrical resistivity $\rho >> h/e^2$,
giant thermoelectric response, and an apparent decoupling of charge and
thermoelectric transport. We analyse the results and demonstrate that these
observations can be explained based on the assumption that the charge carriers
retain phase coherence over the m2DEG dimensions. Intriguingly, this would
imply phase coherence on lengthscales of up to 10 $\mu$m and temperature $T$ up
to 10 K which is significantly greater than conventionally expected in
GaAs-based 2DEGs. Such unprecedentedly large phase coherence lengths open up
several possibilities in quantum information and computation schemes.


title:
Interplay of nonclassicality and entanglement of two-mode Gaussian
  fields generated in optical parametric processes

abstract:
  The behavior of general nonclassical two-mode Gaussian states at a beam
splitter is investigated. Single-mode nonclassicality as well as two-mode
entanglement of both input and output states are analyzed suggesting their
suitable quantifiers. These quantifiers are derived from local and global
invariants of linear unitary two-mode transformations such that the sum of
input (or output) local nonclassicality measures and entanglement measure gives
a global invariant. This invariant quantifies the global nonclassicality
resource. Mutual transformations of local nonclassicalities and entanglement
induced by the beam splitter are analyzed considering incident noisy twin
beams, single-mode noisy squeezed vacuum states, and states encompassing both
squeezed states and twin beams. A rich tapestry of interesting nonclassical
output states is predicted.


title:
Population-balance description of shear-induced clustering, gelation and
  suspension viscosity in sheared DLVO colloids

abstract:
  Application of shear flow to charge-stabilized aqueous colloidal suspensions
is ubiquitous in industrial applications and as a means to achieve controlled
field-induced assembly of nanoparticles. Yet, applying shear flow to a
charge-stabilized colloidal suspension, which is initially monodisperse and in
quasi-equilibrium leads to non-trivial clustering phenomena (and sometimes to a
gelation transition), dominated by the complex interplay between DLVO
interactions and shear flow. The quantitative understanding of these strongly
nonequilibrium phenomena is still far from being complete. By taking advantage
of a recent shear-induced aggregation rate theory developed in our group, we
present here a systematic numerical study, based on the governing master
kinetic equation (population-balance) for the shear-induced clustering and
breakup of colloids exposed to shear flow. In the presence of sufficiently
stable particles, the clustering kinetics is characterized by an initial very
slow growth, controlled by repulsion. During this regime, particles are slowly
aggregating to form clusters, the reactivity of which increases along with
their size growth. When their size reaches a critical threshold, a very rapid,
explosive-like growth follows, where shear forces are able to overcome the
energy barrier between particles. This stage terminates when a dynamic balance
between shear-induced aggregation and cluster breakage is reached. It is also
observed that these systems are characterized by a cluster mass distribution
that for a long time presents a well-defined bimodality. The model predictions
are quantitatively in excellent agreement with available experimental data,
showing how the theoretical picture is able to quantitatively account for the
underlying nonequilibrum physics.


title:
Phase transition for black holes in dilatonic Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet
  theory of gravitation

abstract:
  We study the thermodynamic properties of a black hole and the Hawking-Page
phase transition in the asymptotically anti--de Sitter spacetime in the
dilatonic Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory of gravitation. We show how the
higher-order curvature terms can influence both the thermodynamic properties
and the phase transition. We evaluate both heat capacity and free energy
difference to determine the local and global thermodynamic stabilities,
respectively. We find that the phase transition occurs from the thermal
anti--de Sitter to a small spherical black hole geometry and occurs to a
hyperbolic black hole geometry in the (dilatonic) Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory
of gravitation unlike those in Einstein's theory of gravitation.


title:
Sunspot rotation. II. Effects of varying the field strength and twist of
  an emerging flux tube

abstract:
  Context. Observations of flux emergence indicate that rotational velocities
may develop within sunspots. However, the dependence of this rotation on
sub-photospheric field strength and twist remains largely unknown.
  Aims. We investigate the effects of varying the initial field strength and
twist of an emerging sub-photospheric magnetic flux tube on the rotation of the
sunspots at the photosphere.
  Methods. We consider a simple model of a stratified domain with a
sub-photospheric interior layer and three overlying atmospheric layers. A
twisted arched flux tube is inserted in the interior and is allowed to rise
into the atmosphere. To achieve this, the MHD equations are solved using the
Lagrangian-remap code, Lare3d. We perform a parameter study by independently
varying the sub-photospheric magnetic field strength and twist.
  Results. Altering the initial field strength and twist significantly affects
the tube's evolution and the rotational motions that develop at the
photosphere. The rotation angle, vorticity, and current show a direct
dependence on the initial field strength. We find that an increase in field
strength increases the angle through which the fieldlines rotate, the length of
fieldlines extending into the atmosphere, and the magnetic energy transported
to the atmosphere. This also affects the amount of residual twist in the
interior. The length of the fieldlines is crucial as we predict the twist per
unit length equilibrates to a lower value on longer fieldlines. No such direct
dependence is found when we modify the twist owing to the complex effect this
has on the tension force acting on the tube. However, there is still a clear
ordering in quantities such as the rotation angle, helicity, and free energy
with higher initial twist cases being related to sunspots that rotate more
rapidly, transporting more helicity and magnetic energy to the atmosphere.


title: Understanding the $\rm C_3H_2$ cyclic-to-linear ratio in L1544

abstract:
  Aims. We aim to understand the high cyclic-to-linear $\rm C_3H_2$ ratio ($32
\pm 4$) observed toward L1544 by Spezzano et al. (2016). Methods. We combine a
gas-grain chemical model with a physical model for L1544 to simulate the column
densities of cyclic and linear $\rm C_3H_2$ observed toward L1544. The most
important reactions for the formation and destruction of both forms of $\rm
C_3H_2$ are identified, and their relative rate coefficients are varied to find
the best match to the observations. Results. We find that the ratio of the rate
coefficients of $\rm C_3H_3^+ + e^- \longrightarrow C_3H_2 + H$ for cyclic and
linear $\rm C_3H_2$ must be $\sim 20$ in order to reproduce the observations,
depending on the branching ratios assumed for the $\rm C_3H_3^+ + e^-
\longrightarrow C_3H + H_2$ reaction. In current astrochemical networks it is
assumed that cyclic and linear $\rm C_3H_2$ are formed in a 1:1 ratio in the
aforementioned reactions. Laboratory studies and/or theoretical calculations
are needed to confirm the results of our chemical modeling based on
observational constraints.


title:
Elasticity of a semiflexible filament with a discontinuous tension due
  to a cross-link or a molecular motor

abstract:
  We analyze the stretching elasticity of a wormlike chain with a tension
discontinuity resulting from a Hookean spring connecting its backbone to a
fixed point. The elasticity of isolated semiflexible filaments has been the
subject in a significant body of literature, primarily because of its relevance
to the mechanics of biological matter. In real systems, however, these
filaments are usually part of supramolecular structures involving cross-linkers
or molecular motors which cause tension discontinuities. Our model is intended
as a minimal structural element incorporating such a discontinuity. We obtain
analytical results in the weakly bending limit of the filament, concerning its
force-extension relation and the response of the two parts in which the
filament is divided by the spring. For a small tension discontinuity, the
linear response of the filament extension to this discontinuity strongly
depends on the external tension. For large external tension $f$, the spring
force contributes a subdominant correction $\sim 1/f^{3/2}$ to the well known
$\sim 1/\sqrt{f}$ dependence of the end-to-end extension.


title:
On a differential equation with Caputo-Fabrizio fractional derivative of
  order $1<\beta\leq 2$ and application to mass-spring-damper system

abstract:
  In this work, we investigate a linear differential equation involving
Caputo-Fabrizio fractional derivative of order $1<\beta\leq 2$. Under some
assumptions the considered equation is reduced to an integer order differential
equation and solutions for different cases are obtained in explicit forms. We
also prove a uniqueness of a solution of an initial value problem with a
nonlinear differential equation containing the Caputo-Fabrizio derivative.
Application of our result to the mass-spring-damper motion is also presented.


title:
Explaining Two Recent Intermediate Luminosity Optical Transients (ILOTs)
  by a Binary Interaction and Jets

abstract:
  We propose that two recent intermediate luminosity optical transients
(ILOTs), M31LRN 2015 and SN 2015bh (SNHunt 275; PTF 13efv) can be accounted for
with a stellar binary model involving mass transfer that leads to the launching
of jets. We inspect observations of the ILOT M31LRN 2015 and conclude that it
cannot be explained by the onset of a common envelope evolution (CEE). Instead
we conjecture that a $M \simeq 1 - 3 ~\rm{M_\odot}$ main sequence star accreted
$\simeq 0.04 ~\rm{M_\odot}$ from the giant star, possibly during a periastron
passage. The main sequence star accreted mass through an accretion disc, that
launches jets. The radiation from the disk and the collision of the jets with
the ambient gas can account for the luminosity of the event. Along similar
lines, we suggest that the 2013 eruption of SN 2015bh (SNHunt~275) can also be
explained by the High-Accretion-Powered ILOT (HAPI) model. In this case a
massive secondary star $M_2 \gtrsim 10 ~\rm{M_\odot}$ accreted $\approx 0.05
~\rm{M_\odot}$ from a much more massive and more evolved star during a
periastron passage. If the much more energetic 2015 outburst of SN 2015bh
(SNHunt 275) was not a supernova explosion, it might have been a full almost
head-on merger event, or else can be accounted for by a the HAPI-jets model in
a very highly eccentric orbit.


title:
From Local Chaos to Critical Slowing Down: A Theory of the Functional
  Connectivity of Small Neural Circuits

abstract:
  Functional connectivity is a fundamental property of neural networks that
quantifies the segregation and integration of information between cortical
areas. Due to mathematical complexity, a theory that could explain how the
parameters of mesoscopic networks composed of a few tens of neurons affect the
functional connectivity is still to be formulated. Yet, many interesting
problems in neuroscience involve the study of networks composed of a small
number of neurons. Based on a recent study of the dynamics of small neural
circuits, we combine the analysis of local bifurcations of multi-population
neural networks of arbitrary size with the analytical calculation of the
functional connectivity. We study the functional connectivity in different
regimes, showing that external stimuli cause the network to switch from
asynchronous states characterized by weak correlation and low variability
(local chaos), to synchronous states characterized by strong correlations and
wide temporal fluctuations (critical slowing down). Local chaos typically
occurs in large networks, but here we show that it can also be generated by
strong stimuli in small neural circuits. On the other side, critical slowing
down is expected to occur when the stimulus moves the network close to a local
bifurcation. In particular, strongly positive correlations occur at the
saddle-node and Andronov-Hopf bifurcations of the network, while strongly
negative correlations occur when the network undergoes a spontaneous
symmetry-breaking at the branching-point bifurcations. These results prove that
the functional connectivity of firing-rate network models is strongly affected
by the external stimuli even if the anatomical connections are fixed, and
suggest an effective mechanism through which biological networks can
dynamically modulate the encoding and integration of sensory information.


title: The PASTEL catalogue: 2016 version

abstract:
  The bibliographical compilation of stellar atmospheric parameters (Teff,
logg, [Fe/H]) relying on high-resolution, high signal-to-noise spectroscopy
started in the eighties with the so-called [Fe/H] catalogue, and was continued
in 2010 with the PASTEL catalogue, which also includes determinations of Teff
alone, based on various methods. Here we present an update of the PASTEL
catalogue. The main journals and the CDS database have been surveyed to find
relevant publications presenting new determinations of atmospheric parameters.
As of February 2016, PASTEL includes 64082 determinations of either Teff or
(Teff, logg, [Fe/H]) for 31401 stars, corresponding to 1142 bibliographical
references. Some 11197 stars have a determination of the three parameters
(Teff, logg, [Fe/H]) with a high-quality spectroscopic metallicity.


title:
Local efficiency of integrated goodness-of-fit tests under skew
  alternatives

abstract:
  The efficiency of distribution-free {\it integrated} goodness-of-fit tests
was studied by Henze and Nikitin (2000, 2002) under location alternatives. We
calculate local Bahadur efficiencies of these tests under more realistic
generalized skew alternatives. They turn out to be unexpectedly high.


title:
Triviality of a model of particles with point interactions in the
  thermodynamic limit

abstract:
  We consider a model of fermions interacting via point interactions, defined
via a certain weighted Dirichlet form. While for two particles the interaction
corresponds to infinite scattering length, the presence of further particles
effectively decreases the interaction strength. We show that the model becomes
trivial in the thermodynamic limit, in the sense that the free energy density
at any given particle density and temperature agrees with the corresponding
expression for non-interacting particles.


title:
First-principles Modelling of SrTiO3 based Oxides for Thermoelectric
  Applications

abstract:
  Using first-principles electronic structure calculations, we studied the
electronic and thermoelectric properties of SrTiO3 based oxide materials and
their nanostructures identifying those nanostructures which possess highly
anisotropic electronic bands. We showed recently that highly anisotropic
flat-and-dispersive bands can maximize the thermoelectric power factor, and at
the same time they can produce low dimensional electronic transport in bulk
semiconductors. Although most of the considered nanostructures show such highly
anisotropic bands, their predicted thermoelectric performance is not improved
over that of SrTiO3. Besides highly anisotropic character, we emphasize the
importance of the large weights of electronic states participating in transport
and the small effective mass of charge carriers along the transport direction.
These requirements may be better achieved in binary transition metal oxides
than in ABO3 perovskite oxide materials.


title:
Threshold and strong threshold solutions of a semilinear parabolic
  equation

abstract:
  If $p>1+2/n$ then the equation $u_t-\Delta u = u^p, \quad x\in{\mathbb R}^n,\
t>0,$ possesses both positive global solutions and positive solutions which
blow up in finite time. We study the large time behavior of radial positive
solutions lying on the borderline between global existence and blow-up.


title:
Revealing the role of molecular rigidity on the fragility evolution of
  glass-forming liquids

abstract:
  If quenched fast enough, a liquid is able to avoid crystallization and will
remain in a metastable supercooled state down to the glass transition, with an
important increase in viscosity upon further cooling. There are important
differences in the way liquids relax as they approach the glass transition,
rapid or slow variation in dynamic quantities under moderate temperature
changes, and a simple means to quantify such variations is provided by the
concept of "fragility". Here, we report molecular dynamics simulations of a
typical network-forming glass, Ge-Se, and find that the relaxation behaviour of
the supercooled liquid is strongly correlated to the variation of rigidity with
temperature and the spatial distribution of the corresponding topological
constraints which, ultimately connect to fragility minima. This permits
extending the fragility concept to aspects of topology/rigidity, and to the
degree of homogeneity of the atomic-sale interactions for a variety of
structural glasses.


title: When is a polynomially growing automorphism of $F_n$ geometric ?

abstract:
  The main result of this paper is an algorithmic answer to the question raised
in the title, up to replacing the given $\hat{\phi} \in Out(F_n)$ by a positive
power.
  In order to provide this algorithm, it is shown that every polynomially
growing automorphism $\hat \phi$ can be represented by an iterated Dehn twist
on some graph-of-groups $\cal{G}$ with $\pi_1{\cal{G}} = F_n$. One then uses
results of two previous papers \cite{KY01, KY02} as well as some classical
results such as the Whitehead algorithm to prove the claim.


title: Formation of supermassive black hole seeds

abstract:
  The detection of quasars at $z>6$ unveils the presence of supermassive black
holes (BHs) of a few billion solar masses. The rapid formation process of these
extreme objects remains a fascinating and open issue. Such discovery implies
that seed black holes must have formed early on, and grown via either rapid
accretion or BH/galaxy mergers. In this theoretical review, we discuss in
detail various BH seed formation mechanisms and the physical processes at play
during their assembly. We discuss the three most popular BH formation
scenarios, involving the (i) core-collapse of massive stars, (ii) dynamical
evolution of dense nuclear star clusters, (iii) collapse of a protogalactic
metal free gas cloud. This article aims at giving a broad introduction and an
overview of the most advanced research in the field.


title: Particle tracking around surface nanobubbles

abstract:
  The exceptionally long lifetime of surface nanobubbles remains one of the
biggest questions in the field. One of the proposed mechanisms for the
stability is the \emph{dynamic equilibrium} model, which describes a constant
flux of gas in and out of the bubble. Here, we describe results from particle
tracking experiments to measure this flow. The results are analysed by
measuring the Vorono\"i cell size distribution, the diffusion, and speed of the
tracer particles. We show that there is no detectable difference in the
movement of particles above nanobubble-laden surfaces, as compared to
nanobubble-free surfaces.


title:
The production of unknown neutron-rich isotopes in $^{238}$U+$^{238}$U
  collisions at near-barrier energy

abstract:
  The production cross sections for primary and residual fragments with charge
number from $Z$=70 to 120 produced in the collision of $^{238}$U+$^{238}$U at
7.0 MeV/nucleon are calculated by the improved quantum molecular dynamics
(ImQMD) model incorporated with the statistical evaporation model (HIVAP code).
The calculation results predict that about sixty unknown neutron-rich isotopes
from element Ra ($Z$=88) to Db ($Z$=105) can be produced with the production
cross sections above the lower bound of $10^{-8}$ mb in this reaction. And
almost all of unknown neutron-rich isotopes are emitted at the laboratory
angles $\theta_{lab}\leq$ 60$^\circ$. Two cases, i.e. the production of the
unknown uranium isotopes with $A\geq$ 244 and that of rutherfordium with
$A\geq$ 269 are investigated for understanding the production mechanism of
unknown neutron-rich isotopes. It is found that for the former case the
collision time between two uranium nuclei is shorter and the primary fragments
producing the residues have smaller excitation energies of $\leq$ 30 MeV and
the outgoing angles of those residues cover a range of 30$^\circ$-60$^\circ$.
For the later case, the longer collision time is needed for a large number of
nucleons being transferred and thus it results in the higher excitation
energies and smaller outgoing angles of primary fragments, and eventually
results in a very small production cross section for the residues of Rf with
$A\geq$ 269 which have a small interval of outgoing angles of
$\theta_{lab}$=40$^\circ$-50$^\circ$.


title:
Uniqueness of singular self-similar solutions of a semilinear parabolic
  equation

abstract:
  We study the uniqueness of singular radial (forward and backward)
self-similar positive solutions of the equation $u_t-\Delta u = u^p, \quad
x\in{\mathbb R}^n,\ t>0,$ where $p\geq(n+2)/(n-2)_+$.


title: Stick-jump mode in surface droplet dissolution

abstract:
  The analogy between evaporating surface droplets in air to dissolving
long-chain alcohol droplets in water is worked out. We show that next to the
three known modi for surface droplet evaporation or dissolution (constant
contact angle mode, constant contact radius mode, and stick-slide mode), a
fourth mode exists for small droplets on supposedly smooth substrates, namely
the stick-jump mode: intermittent contact line pinning causes the droplet to
switch between sticking and jumping during the dissolution. We present
experimental data and compare them to theory to predict the dissolution time in
this stick-jump mode. We also explain why these jumps were easily observed for
microscale droplets but not for larger droplets.


title:
Global existence of weak solutions of a model for electrolyte solutions
  - Part 1: Two-component case

abstract:
  This paper analytically investigates the Darcy-Poisson-Nernst-Planck system.
This system is a mathematical model for electrolyte solutions. In this paper,
we consider electrolyte solutions, which consist of a neutral fluid and two
suspended oppositely charged chemical species with arbitrary valencies z_1 > 0
> z_2. We prove global existence and uniqueness of weak solutions in two space
dimensions and three space dimensions. So far, most of the existence results
have been proven for symmetric electrolyte solutions. These solutions consist
of a neutral fluid and two suspended charged chemical species with symmetric
valencies +/-z. As many electrolyte solutions in biological applications and
hydrodynamical applications are not symmetric, the presented extension of the
previous existence results is an important step.


title: On common zeros of eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator

abstract:
  We consider the eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator $\Delta $ on a compact
Riemannian manifold of dimension $n$. For $M$ homogeneous with irreducible
isotropy representation and for a fixed eigenvalue of $\Delta $ we find the
average number of common zeros of $n$ eigenfunctions. For this we compute the
volume of the image of $M$ under an equivariant immersion into a sphere.


title:
Spectroscopy of cold rubidium Rydberg atoms for applications in quantum
  information

abstract:
  Atoms in highly excited (Rydberg) states have a number of unique properties
which make them attractive for applications in quantum information. These are
large dipole moments, lifetimes and polarizabilities, as well as strong
long-range interactions between Rydberg atoms. Experimental methods of laser
cooling and precision spectroscopy enable the trapping and manipulation of
single Rydberg atoms and applying them for practical implementation of quantum
gates over qubits of a quantum computer based on single neutral atoms in
optical traps. In this paper, we give a review of the experimental and
theoretical work performed by the authors at the Rzhanov Institute of
Semiconductor Physics SB RAS and Novosibirsk State University on laser and
microwave spectroscopy of cold Rb Rydberg atoms in a magneto-optical trap and
on their possible applications in quantum information. We also give a brief
review of studies done by other groups in this area.


title: Hierarchical Joint Remote State Preparation in Noisy Environment

abstract:
  A novel scheme for quantum communication having substantial applications in
practical life is designed and analyzed. Specifically, we have proposed a
hierarchical counterpart of the joint remote state preparation (JRSP) protocol,
where two senders can jointly and remotely prepare a quantum state. One sender
has the information regarding amplitude, while the other one has the phase
information of a quantum state to be jointly prepared at the receiver's port.
However, there exists a hierarchy among the receivers, as far as powers to
reconstruct the quantum state is concerned. A 5-qubit cluster state has been
used here to perform the task. Further, it is established that the proposed
scheme for hierarchical JRSP (HJRSP) is of enormous practical importance in
critical situations involving defense and other sectors, where it is essential
to ensure that an important decision/order that can severely affect a society
or an organization is not taken by a single person, and once the order is
issued all the receivers don't possess an equal right to implement it. Further,
the effect of different noise models (e.g., amplitude damping (AD), phase
damping (PD), collective noise and Pauli noise models) on the HJRSP protocol
proposed here is investigated. It is found that in AD and PD noise models a
higher power agent can reconstruct the quantum state to be remotely prepared
with higher fidelity than that done by the lower power agent(s). In contrast,
the opposite may happen in the presence of collective noise models. We have
also proposed a scheme for probabilistic HJRSP using a non-maximally entangled
5-qubit cluster state.


title:
Switched graphs of some strongly regular graphs related to the
  symplectic graph

abstract:
  Applying a method of Godsil and McKay \cite{GM} to some graphs related to the
symplectic graph, a series of new infinite families of strongly regular graphs
with parameters
$(2^n\pm2^{(n-1)/2},2^{n-1}\pm2^{(n-1)/2},2^{n-2}\pm2^{(n-3)/2},2^{n-2}\pm2^{(n-1)/2})$
are constructed for any odd $n \geq 5$. The construction is described in terms
of geometry of quadric in projective space. The binary linear codes of the
switched graphs are $[2^n \mp 2^{\frac{n-1}{2}},n+3,2^{t+1}]_2$-code or $[2^n
\mp 2^{\frac{n-1}{2}},n+3,2^{t+2}]_2$-code.


abstract:
  The $ER(2)$-cohomology of $B\mathbb{Z}/(2^q)$ and $\mathbb{C}P^n$ are
computed along with the Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence for
$ER(2)^*(\mathbb{C}P^\infty)$. This, along with other papers in this series,
gives us the $ER(2)$-cohomology of all Eilenberg-MacLane spaces. Since $ER(2)$
is $TMF_0(3)$ after a suitable completion, these computations also take care of
that theory.


title: Spinor-Helicity Three-Point Amplitudes from Local Cubic Interactions

abstract:
  We make an explicit link between the cubic interactions of off-shell fields
and the on-shell three-point amplitudes in four dimensions. Both the cubic
interactions and the on-shell three-point amplitudes had been independently
classified in the literature, but their relation has not been made explicit.
The aim of this note is to provide such a relation and discuss similarities and
differences of their constructions. For the completeness of our analysis, we
also derive the covariant form of all parity-odd massless vertices.


title: Relaxation and physical aging in network glasses: a review

abstract:
  Recent progresses in the description of glassy relaxation and ageing are
reviewed for the wide class of network-forming materials such as $GeO_2$,
Ge$_x$Se$_{1-x}$, silicates (SiO$_2$-Na$_2$O) or borates (B$_2$O$_3$-Li$_2$O),
all of them having an important usefulness in domestic, geological or
optoelectronic applications. A brief introduction of the glass transition
phenomenology is given, together with the salient features that are revealed
both from theory and experiments. Standard experimental methods used for the
characterization of the slowing down of the dynamics are reviewed. We then
discuss the important role played by aspect of network topology and rigidity
for the understanding of the relaxation of the glass transition, while also
permitting analytical predictions of glass properties from simple and
insightful models based on the network structure. We also emphasize the great
utility of computer simulations which probe the dynamics at the molecular
level, and permit to calculate various structure-related functions in
connection with glassy relaxation and the physics of ageing which reveals the
off-equilibrium nature of glasses. We discuss the notion of spatial variations
of structure which leads to the picture of "{\em dynamic heterogeneities}", and
recent results of this important topic for network glasses are also reviewed.


title:
High field properties of typical perovskite ferroelectrics by
  first-principles modeling

abstract:
  Using first-principles calculations, we estimated the impact of large applied
electric E fields on the structural, dielectric, and ferroelectric properties
of typical ferroelectrics. At large fields, the structural parameters change
significantly, decreasing the strain between the different structural phases.
This effect favours a polarization rotation model for ferroelectric switching
in which the electronic polarization rotates between the directions of
tetragonal, rhombohedral and orthorhombic phases. We estimate coercive fields
E_c ~31 MV/m and ~52 MV/m at zero temperature for bulk ferroelectric
monodomains of BaTiO3 and PbTiO3, respectively. The dielectric permittivity and
tunability of BaTiO3 are the least affected at large fields, making this
material attractive for applications in electronics and energy storage.


title: Exposing nanobubble-like objects to a degassed environment

abstract:
  The primary attribute of interest of surface nanobubbles is their unusual
stability and a number of theories trying to explain this have been put
forward. Interestingly, the dissolution of nanobubbles is a topic that did not
receive a lot of attention yet. In this work we applied two different
experimental procedures which should cause gaseous nanobubbles to completely
dissolve. In our experiments we nucleated nanobubble-like objects by putting a
drop of water on HOPG using a plastic syringe and disposable needle. In method
A, the nanobubble-like objects were exposed to a flow of degassed water (1.17
mg/l) for 96 hours. In method B, the ambient pressure was lowered in order to
degas the liquid and the nanobubble-like objects. Interestingly, the
nanobubble-like objects remained stable after exposure to both methods. After
thorough investigation of the procedures and materials used during our
experiments, we found that the nanobubble-like object were induced by the use
of disposable needles in which PDMS contaminated the water. It is very
important for the nanobubble community to be aware of the fact that, although
features look and behave like nanobubbles, in some cases they might in fact be
or induced by contamination. The presence of contamination could also resolve
some inconsistencies found in the nanobubble literature.


title: Asymptotic behaviour of the Boltzmann equation as a cosmological model

abstract:
  As a Newtonian cosmological model the Vlasov-Poisson-Boltzmann system is
considered, and a slightly modified Boltzmann equation, which describes the
stability of an expanding universe, is derived. Asymptotic behaviour of
solutions turns out to depend on the expansion of the universe, and in this
paper we consider the soft potential case and will obtain asymptotic behaviour.


title:
Topological phase transitions and universality in the Haldane-Hubbard
  model

abstract:
  We study the Haldane-Hubbard model by exact Renormalization Group techniques.
We construct the topological phase diagram, for weak interactions. We predict
that many-body interactions induce a shift of the transition line. The presence
of new intermediate phases, absent in the non interacting case, is rigorously
excluded at weak coupling. Despite the nontrivial renormalization of the wave
function and of the Fermi velocity, the conductivity is universal: at the
renormalized critical line, both the discontinuity of the transverse
conductivity and the longitudinal conductivity do not depend on the
interaction, thanks to remarkable cancellations due to lattice Ward Identities.


title:
The Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand complex for rank one semi simple Lie
  groups as a Kasparov module

abstract:
  We construct a Fredhom module representing the Kasparov gamma element in
G-equivariant KK-theory for G a semisimple Lie group of real rank one. This is
the main step of our proof of the Baum-Connes conjecture for such groups.


title: Dynamics of Generalised Derivations and Elementary Operators

abstract:
  We identify concrete examples of hypercyclic generalised derivations acting
on separable ideals of operators and establish some necessary conditions for
their hypercyclicity. We also consider the dynamics of elementary operators
acting on particular Banach algebras, which reveals surprising hypercyclic
behaviour on the space of bounded linear operators on the Banach space
constructed by Argyros and Haydon.


title:
Three-Dimensional Rotating Couette Flow Via The Generalised Quasilinear
  Approximation

abstract:
  We examine the effectiveness of the Generalised Quasilinear (GQL)
Approximation introduced by Marston et al (2016). This approximation splits the
variables into large and small scales in directions where there is a
translational symmetry and removes nonlinear interactions involving only small
scales. We utilise as a paradigm problem three-dimensional, turbulent, rotating
Couette flow. We compare the results obtained from Direct Numerical Solution of
the equations with those from Quasilinear (QL) and GQL calculations. In this
three-dimensional setting, there is a choice of cut-off wavenumber for the GQL
approximation both in the streamwise and in the spanwise directions. We
demonstrate that the GQL approximation significantly improves the accuracy of
mean flows, spectra and two-point correlation functions over models that are
quasilinear in any of the translationally invariant directions, even if only a
few streamwise and spanwise modes are included. We argue that this provides
significant support for a programme of Direct Statistical Simulation utilising
the GQL approximation.


title: $\chi$-bounded families of oriented graphs

abstract:
  A famous conjecture of Gy\'arf\'as and Sumner states for any tree $T$ and
integer $k$, if the chromatic number of a graph is large enough, either the
graph contains a clique of size $k$ or it contains $T$ as an induced subgraph.
We discuss some results and open problems about extensions of this conjecture
to oriented graphs. We conjecture that for every oriented star $S$ and integer
$k$, if the chromatic number of a digraph is large enough, either the digraph
contains a clique of size $k$ or it contains $S$ as an induced subgraph. As an
evidence, we prove that for any oriented star $S$, every oriented graph with
sufficiently large chromatic number contains either a transitive tournament of
order $3$ or $S$ as an induced subdigraph. We then study for which sets ${\cal
P}$ of orientations of $P_4$ (the path on four vertices) similar statements
hold. We establish some positive and negative results.


title:
Generalized SURE for optimal shrinkage of singular values in low-rank
  matrix denoising

abstract:
  We consider the problem of estimating a low-rank signal matrix from noisy
measurements under the assumption that the distribution of the data matrix
belongs to an exponential family. In this setting, we derive generalized
Stein's unbiased risk estimation (SURE) formulas that hold for any spectral
estimators which shrink or threshold the singular values of the data matrix.
This leads to new data-driven spectral estimators, whose optimality is
discussed using tools from random matrix theory and through numerical
experiments. Under the spiked population model and in the asymptotic setting
where the dimensions of the data matrix are let going to infinity, some
theoretical properties of our approach are compared to recent results on
asymptotically optimal shrinking rules for Gaussian noise. It also leads to new
procedures for singular values shrinkage in finite-dimensional matrix denoising
for Gamma-distributed and Poisson-distributed measurements.


title: A note on Malliavin smoothness on the L\'evy space

abstract:
  We consider Malliavin calculus based on the It\^o chaos decomposition of
square integrable random variables on the L\'evy space. We show that when a
random variable satisfies a certain measurability condition, its
differentiability and fractional differentiability can be determined by
weighted Lebesgue spaces. The measurability condition is satisfied for all
random variables if the underlying L\'evy process is a compound Poisson process
on a finite time interval.


title: Microwave Magneto-Chiral Effect in a Noncentro-symmetric Magnet CuB2O4

abstract:
  We have investigated microwave nonreciprocity in a noncentro-symmetric magnet
CuB2O4. We simultaneously observed differently originated nonreciprocities; the
classical magnetic dipolar effect and the magneto-chiral (MCh) effect. By
rotating magnetic field in a tetragonal plane, we clearly unveil qualitative
difference between them. The MCh effect signal reveals chiral transitions from
one enantiomer to the other via intermediate achiral state. We show
magnetoelectric effect plays an essential role for the emergence of microwave
MCh effect.


title: Open system trajectories specify fluctuating work but not heat

abstract:
  Based on the explicit knowledge of a Hamiltonian of mean force, the classical
statistical mechanics and equilibrium thermodynamics of open systems in contact
with a thermal environment at arbitrary interaction strength can be formulated.
Even though the Hamiltonian of mean force uniquely determines the equilibrium
phase space probability density of a strongly coupled open system the knowledge
of this probability density alone is insufficient to determine the Hamiltonian
of mean force, needed in constructing the underlying statistical mechanics and
thermodynamics. We demonstrate that under the assumption that the Hamiltonian
of mean force is known, an extension of thermodynamic structures from the level
of averaged quantities to fluctuating objects (i.e. a stochastic
thermodynamics) is possible. However, such a construction undesirably involves
also a vast ambiguity. This situation is rooted in the eminent lack of a
physical guiding principle allowing to distinguish a physically meaningful
theory out of a multitude of other equally conceivable ones.


title: Refined Lower Bounds for Adversarial Bandits

abstract:
  We provide new lower bounds on the regret that must be suffered by
adversarial bandit algorithms. The new results show that recent upper bounds
that either (a) hold with high-probability or (b) depend on the total lossof
the best arm or (c) depend on the quadratic variation of the losses, are close
to tight. Besides this we prove two impossibility results. First, the existence
of a single arm that is optimal in every round cannot improve the regret in the
worst case. Second, the regret cannot scale with the effective range of the
losses. In contrast, both results are possible in the full-information setting.


title: Rigid ideals by deforming quadratic letterplace ideals

abstract:
  We compute the deformation space of quadratic letterplace ideals $L(2,P)$ of
finite posets $P$ when its Hasse diagram is a rooted tree. These deformations
are unobstructed. The deformed family has a polynomial ring as the base ring.
The ideal $J(2,P)$ defining the full family of deformations is a rigid ideal
and we compute it explicitly. In simple example cases $J(2,P)$ is the ideal of
maximal minors of a generic matrix, the Pfaffians of a skew-symmetric matrix,
and a ladder determinantal ideal.


title: Multipliers between model spaces

abstract: In this paper we examine the multipliers from one model space to another.


title: Linear Credit Risk Models

abstract:
  We introduce a novel class of credit risk models in which the drift of the
survival process of a firm is a linear function of the factors. The prices of
defaultable bonds and credit default swaps (CDS) are linear-rational in the
factors. The price of a CDS option can be uniformly approximated by polynomials
in the factors. Multi-name models can produce simultaneous defaults, generate
positively as well as negatively correlated default intensities, and
accommodate stochastic interest rates. A calibration study illustrates the
versatility of these models by fitting CDS spread time series. A numerical
analysis validates the efficiency of the option price approximation method.


title:
Solution to sign problems in models of interacting fermions and quantum
  spins

abstract:
  We show that solutions to fermion sign problems in the CT-INT formulation can
be extended to systems involving fermions interacting with dynamical quantum
spins. While these sign problems seem unsolvable in the auxiliary field
approach, solutions emerge in the worldline representation of quantum spins.
Combining the idea with meron-cluster methods, we are able to extend the
solvable models even further. We demonstrate these novel solutions to sign
problems by considering several examples of strongly correlated systems.


title:
A new projection method for finding the closest point in the
  intersection of convex sets

abstract:
  In this paper we present a new iterative projection method for finding the
closest point in the intersection of convex sets to any arbitrary point in a
Hilbert space. This method, termed AAMR for averaged alternating modified
reflections, can be viewed as an adequate modification of the Douglas--Rachford
method that yields a solution to the best approximation problem. Under a
constraint qualification at the point of interest, we show strong convergence
of the method. In fact, the so-called strong CHIP fully characterizes the
convergence of the AAMR method for every point in the space. We report some
promising numerical experiments where we compare the performance of AAMR
against other projection methods for finding the closest point in the
intersection of pairs of finite dimensional subspaces.


title: Computing Web-scale Topic Models using an Asynchronous Parameter Server

abstract:
  Topic models such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) have been widely used
in information retrieval for tasks ranging from smoothing and feedback methods
to tools for exploratory search and discovery. However, classical methods for
inferring topic models do not scale up to the massive size of today's publicly
available Web-scale data sets. The state-of-the-art approaches rely on custom
strategies, implementations and hardware to facilitate their asynchronous,
communication-intensive workloads.
  We present APS-LDA, which integrates state-of-the-art topic modeling with
cluster computing frameworks such as Spark using a novel asynchronous parameter
server. Advantages of this integration include convenient usage of existing
data processing pipelines and eliminating the need for disk writes as data can
be kept in memory from start to finish. Our goal is not to outperform highly
customized implementations, but to propose a general high-performance topic
modeling framework that can easily be used in today's data processing
pipelines. We compare APS-LDA to the existing Spark LDA implementations and
show that our system can, on a 480-core cluster, process up to 135 times more
data and 10 times more topics without sacrificing model quality.


title: The Space of Planar Soap Bubble Clusters

abstract:
  Soap bubbles and foams have been extensively studied by scientists,
engineers, and mathematicians as models for organisms and materials, with
applications ranging from extinguishing fires to mining to baking bread. Here
we provide some basic results on the space of planar clusters of n bubbles of
fixed topology. We show for example that such a space of clusters with positive
second variation is an n-dimensional manifold, although the larger space
without the positive second variation assumption can have singularities.
Earlier work of Moukarzel showed how to realize a cluster as a generalized
Voronoi partition, though not canonically.


title: On the p-adic valuation of Stirling numbers of the first kind

abstract:
  For all integers $n \geq k \geq 1$, define $H(n,k) := \sum 1 / (i_1 \cdots
i_k)$, where the sum is extended over all positive integers $i_1 < \cdots < i_k
\leq n$. These quantities are closely related to the Stirling numbers of the
first kind by the identity $H(n,k) = s(n + 1, k + 1) / n!$. Motivated by the
works of Erd\H{o}s-Niven and Chen-Tang, we study the $p$-adic valuation of
$H(n,k)$. In particular, for any prime number $p$, integer $k \geq 2$, and $x
\geq (k-1)p$, we prove that $\nu_p(H(n,k)) < -(k - 1)(\log_p(n/(k - 1)) - 1)$
for all positive integers $n \in [(k-1)p, x]$ whose base $p$ representations
start with the base $p$ representation of $k - 1$, but at most $3x^{0.835}$
exceptions. We also generalize a result of Lengyel by giving a description of
$\nu_2(H(n,2))$ in terms of an infinite binary sequence.


title:
Event-triggered output feedback stabilization via dynamic high-gain
  scaling

abstract:
  -This work addresses output feedback stabilization via event triggered output
feedback. In the first part of the paper, linear systems are considered,
whereas the second part shows that a dynamic event triggered output feedback
control law can achieve feedback stabilization of the origin for a class of
nonlinear systems by employing dynamic high-gain techniques.


title: Superfluid transition in the attractive Hofstadter-Hubbard model

abstract:
  We consider a Fermi gas that is loaded onto a square optical lattice and
subjected to a perpendicular artificial magnetic field, and determine its
superfluid transition boundary by adopting a BCS-like mean-field approach in
momentum space. The multi-band structure of the single-particle Hofstadter
spectrum is taken explicitly into account while deriving a generalized pairing
equation. We present the numerical solutions as functions of the artificial
magnetic flux, interaction strength, Zeeman field, chemical potential, and
temperature, with a special emphasis on the roles played by the density of
single-particle states and center-of-mass momentum of Cooper pairs.


title: Hierarchical Memory Networks

abstract:
  Memory networks are neural networks with an explicit memory component that
can be both read and written to by the network. The memory is often addressed
in a soft way using a softmax function, making end-to-end training with
backpropagation possible. However, this is not computationally scalable for
applications which require the network to read from extremely large memories.
On the other hand, it is well known that hard attention mechanisms based on
reinforcement learning are challenging to train successfully. In this paper, we
explore a form of hierarchical memory network, which can be considered as a
hybrid between hard and soft attention memory networks. The memory is organized
in a hierarchical structure such that reading from it is done with less
computation than soft attention over a flat memory, while also being easier to
train than hard attention over a flat memory. Specifically, we propose to
incorporate Maximum Inner Product Search (MIPS) in the training and inference
procedures for our hierarchical memory network. We explore the use of various
state-of-the art approximate MIPS techniques and report results on
SimpleQuestions, a challenging large scale factoid question answering task.


title: Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of entangled Hermite-Gauss modes

abstract:
  Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference is demonstrated experimentally for
entangled photon pairs in the Hermite-Gauss (HG) basis. We use two Dove prisms
in one of the paths of the photons to manipulate the entangled quantum state
that enters the HOM interferometer. It is demonstrated that, when entangled
photon pairs are in a symmetric Bell state in the Laguerre-Gauss (LG) basis,
then they will remain symmetric after decomposing them into the HG basis,
thereby resulting in no coincidence events after the HOM interference. On the
other hand, if the photon pairs are in an antisymmetric Bell state in the LG
basis, then they will also be antisymmetric in the HG basis, thereby producing
only coincidence events as a result of the HOM interference.


title: First successful satellite laser ranging with a fibre-based transmitter

abstract:
  Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) is an established technology used for geodesy,
fundamental science and precise orbit determination. This paper reports on the
first successful SLR measurement from the German Aerospace Center research
observatory in Stuttgart. While many SLR stations are in operation, the
experiment described here is unique in several ways: The modular system has
been assembled completely from commercial off-the-shelf components, which
increases flexibility and significantly reduces hardware costs. To our
knowledge it has been the first time that an SLR measurement has been conducted
using an optical fibre rather than a coud\'e path to direct the light from the
laser source onto the telescope. The transmitter operates at an output power of
about 75 mW and a repetition rate of 3 kHz, and at a wavelength of 1064 nm. Due
to its rather small diameter of only 80 {\mu}{\mu}m, the receiver detector
features a low noise rate of less than 2 kHz and can be operated without gating
in many cases. With this set-up, clear return signals have been received from
several orbital objects equipped with retroreflectors. In its current
configuration, the system does not yet achieve the same performance as other
SLR systems in terms of precision, maximum distance and the capability of
daylight ranging; however, plans to overcome these limitations are outlined.


title: The entangling power of a "glocal" dissipative map

abstract:
  We consider a model of two qubits dissipating into both local and global
environments (generally at non-zero temperatures), with the possibility of
interpolating between purely local dissipation and purely global one. The
corresponding dissipative dynamical map is characterized in terms of its Kraus
operators focusing on the stationary regime. We then determine conditions under
which entanglement can be induced by the action of such a map. It results
(rather counterintuitively) that in order to have entanglement in the presence
of local environment, this latter must be at nonzero temperature.


title: Combinatorial mixed valuations

abstract:
  Combinatorial mixed valuations associated to translation-invariant valuations
on polytopes are introduced. In contrast to the construction of mixed
valuations via polarization, combinatorial mixed valuations reflect and often
inherit properties of inhomogeneous valuations. In particular, it is shown that
under mild assumptions combinatorial mixed valuations are monotone and hence
nonnegative. For combinatorially positive valuations, this has strong
computational implications. Applied to the discrete volume, the results
generalize and strengthen work of Bihan (2015) on discrete mixed volumes. For
rational polytopes, it is proved that combinatorial mixed monotonicity is
equivalent to monotonicity. Stronger even, a conjecture is substantiated that
combinatorial mixed monotonicity implies the homogeneous monotonicity in the
sense of Bernig--Fu (2011).


title: Non-existence for fractionally damped fractional differential problems

abstract:
  In this paper, we are concerned with a fractional differential inequality
containing a lower order fractional derivative and a polynomial source term in
the right hand side. A non-existence of non-trivial global solutions result is
proved in an appropriate space by means of the test-function method. The range
of blow up is found to depend only on the lower order derivative. This is in
line with the well-known fact for an internally weakly damped wave equation
that solutions will converge to solutions of the parabolic part.


title:
Bit complexity for multi-homogeneous polynomial system solving
  Application to polynomial minimization

abstract:
  Multi-homogeneous polynomial systems arise in many applications. We provide
bit complexity estimates for solving them which, up to a few extra other
factors, are quadratic in the number of solutions and linear in the height of
the input system under some genericity assumptions. The assumptions essentially
imply that the Jacobian matrix of the system under study has maximal rank at
the solution set and that this solution set if finite. The algorithm is
probabilistic and a probability analysis is provided. Next, we apply these
results to the problem of optimizing a linear map on the real trace of an
algebraic set. Under some genericity assumptions, we provide bit complexity
estimates for solving this polynomial minimization problem.


title:
Characterizing filaments in regions of high-mass star formation:
  High-resolution submilimeter imaging of the massive star-forming complex NGC
  6334 with ArT\'eMiS

abstract:
  Herschel observations of nearby molecular clouds suggest that interstellar
filaments and prestellar cores represent two fundamental steps in the star
formation process. The observations support a picture of low-mass star
formation according to which ~ 0.1 pc-wide filaments form first in the cold
interstellar medium, probably as a result of large-scale compression of
interstellar matter by supersonic turbulent flows, and then prestellar cores
arise from gravitational fragmentation of the densest filaments. Whether this
scenario also applies to regions of high-mass star formation is an open
question, in part because Herschel data cannot resolve the inner width of
filaments in the nearest regions of massive star formation.
  We used the bolometer camera ArTeMiS on the APEX telescope to map the central
part of the NGC6334 complex at a factor of > 3 higher resolution than Herschel
at 350 microns. Combining ArTeMiS data with Herschel data allowed us to study
the structure of the main filament of the complex with a resolution of 8" or <
0.07 pc at d ~ 1.7 kpc.
  Our study confirms that this filament is a very dense, massive linear
structure with a line mass ranging from ~ 500 Msun/pc to ~ 2000 Msun/pc over
nearly 10 pc. It also demonstrates that its inner width remains as narrow as W
~ 0.15 +- 0.05 pc all along the filament length, within a factor of < 2 of the
characteristic 0.1 pc value found with Herschel for lower-mass filaments in the
Gould Belt. While it is not completely clear whether the NGC 6334 filament will
form massive stars or not in the future, it is two to three orders of magnitude
denser than the majority of filaments observed in Gould Belt clouds, and yet
has a very similar inner width. This points to a common physical mechanism for
setting the filament width and suggests that some important structural
properties of nearby clouds also hold in high-mass star forming regions.


title: Weight theory for ultraproducts

abstract:
  For a family of von Neumann algebras $\mathcal{M}_j$ equipped with normal
weights $\varphi_j$ we define the ultraproduct weight $(\varphi_j)_\omega$ on
the Groh--Raynaud ultrapower $\prod_{j, \omega} \mathcal{M}_j$. We prove
results about Tomita-Takesaki modular theory and consider ultraproducts of
spatial derivatives. This extends results by Ando--Haagerup and Raynaud for the
state case. We give some applications to noncommutative $L^p$-spaces and
indicate how ultraproducts of weights appear naturally in transference results
for Schur and Fourier multipliers. Using ideas from complex interpolation with
respect to ultraproduct weights, we give a new proof of a theorem by Raynaud
which shows that $\prod_{j, \omega} L^p(\mathcal{M}_j) \simeq L^p(\prod_{j,
\omega} \mathcal{M}_j )$. We complement the paper by showing that spatial
derivatives take a natural form in terms of noncommutative $L^p$-spaces.