title: Equivalence of L0 and L1 Minimizations in Sudoku Problem

abstract:
  Sudoku puzzles can be formulated and solved as a sparse linear system of
equations. This problem is a very useful example for the Compressive Sensing
(CS) theoretical study. In this study, the equivalence of Sudoku puzzles L0 and
L1 minimizations is analyzed. In particular, 17-clue (smallest number of clues)
uniquely completable puzzles with sparse optimization algorithms are studied
and divided into two types, namely, type-I and -II puzzles. The solution of L1
minimization for the type-I puzzles is unique, and the sparse optimization
algorithms can solve all of them exactly. By contrast, the solution of L1
minimization is not unique for the type-II puzzles, and the results of
algorithms are incorrect for all these puzzles. Each empty cell for all type-II
puzzles is examined. Results show that some cells can change the equivalence of
L0 and L1 minimizations. These results may be helpful for the study of
equivalence of L0 and L1 norm minimization in CS.


title: Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS) 2015 Proceedings

abstract:
  These proceedings include full papers and research-in-progress papers
presented at the ACIS 2015 Conference in Adelaide, Australia from November 30th
to December 4th, 2015.


title: Universal Multiparty Data Exchange and Secret Key Agreement

abstract:
  Multiple parties observing correlated data seek to recover each other's data
and attain omniscience. To that end, they communicate interactively over a
noiseless broadcast channel - each bit transmitted over this channel is
received by all the parties. We give a universal interactive communication
protocol, termed the recursive data exchange protocol (RDE), which attains
omniscience for any sequence of data observed by the parties and provide an
individual sequence guarantee of performance. As a by-product, for observations
of length $n$, we show the universal rate optimality of RDE up to an
$\mathcal{O}\left(n^{-\frac 12}\sqrt{\log n}\right)$ term in a generative
setting where the data sequence is independent and identically distributed (in
time). Furthermore, drawing on the duality between omniscience and secret key
agreement due to Csiszar and Narayan, we obtain a universal protocol for
generating a multiparty secret key of rate at most $\mathcal{O}\left(n^{-\frac
12}\sqrt{\log n}\right)$ less than the maximum rate possible. A key feature of
RDE is its recursive structure whereby when a subset $A$ of parties recover
each-other's data, the rates appear as if the parties have been executing the
protocol in an alternative model where the parties in $A$ are collocated.


title: The volume of singular K\"ahler-Einstein Fano varieties

abstract:
  We show that the anti-canonical volume of an $n$-dimensional
K\"ahler-Einstein $\mathbb{Q}$-Fano variety is bounded from above by certain
invariants of the local singularities, namely
$\mathrm{lct}^n\cdot\mathrm{mult}$ for ideals and the normalized volume
function for real valuations. This refines a recent result by Fujita. As an
application, we get sharp volume upper bounds for K\"ahler-Einstein Fano
varieties with quotient singularities. Based on very recent results by Li and
the author, we show that a Fano manifold is K-semistable if and only if a de
Fernex-Ein-Musta\c{t}\u{a} type inequality holds on its affine cone.


title:
Search for the glueball content of hadrons in gamma p interactions at
  GlueX

abstract:
  We suggest a theoretical framework for the description of double photon and
proton-antiproton photoproduction off the proton gamma + p -> 2 gamma + p and
gamma + p -> antip + p + p which takes into account the contribution of the
scalar mesons f0(1370), f0(1500) and f0(1710). These scalars are considered as
mixed states of a glueball and nonstrange and strange quarkonia. Our framework
is based on the use of effective hadronic Lagrangians that phenomenologically
take into account two-gluon exchange effects governing the gamma + p -> 2 gamma
+ p and gamma + p -> antip + p + p processes. Present results can be used to
guide the possible search for these reactions by the GlueX Collaboration at
JLab.


title: Orbital minimization method with $\ell^1$ regularization

abstract:
  We consider a modification of the OMM energy functional which contains an
$\ell^1$ penalty term in order to find a sparse representation of the low-lying
eigenspace of self-adjoint operators. We analyze the local minima of the
modified functional as well as the convergence of the modified functional to
the original functional. Algorithms combining soft thresholding with gradient
descent are proposed for minimizing this new functional. Numerical tests
validate our approach. As an added bonus, we also prove the unanticipated and
remarkable property that every local minimum the OMM functional without the
$\ell^1$ term is also a global minimum.


title:
Multi-band gravitational-wave astronomy: parameter estimation and tests
  of general relativity with space and ground-based detectors

abstract:
  With the discovery of the black hole binary (BBH) coalescence GW150914 the
era of gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy has started. It has recently been
shown that BBH with masses comparable to or higher than GW150914 would be
visible in the eLISA band a few years before they finally merge in the band of
ground-based detectors. This would allow for pre-merger electromagnetic alerts,
dramatically increasing the chances of a joint detection, if BBH are indeed
luminous in the electromagnetic band. In this paper we explore a quite
different aspect of multi-band GW astronomy, and verify if, and to what extent,
measurement of masses and sky position with eLISA could improve parameter
estimation and tests of general relativity with ground-based detectors. We
generate a catalog of 200 BBH and find that having prior information from eLISA
can reduce the uncertainty in the measurement of source distance and primary
black hole spin by up to factor of 2 in ground-based GW detectors. The
component masses estimate from eLISA will not be refined by the ground based
detectors, whereas joint analysis will yield precise characterization of the
newly formed black hole and improve consistency tests of general relativity.


title: Predicting missing values in spatio-temporal satellite data

abstract:
  Remotely sensed data are sparse, which means that data have missing values,
for instance due to cloud cover. This is problematic for applications and
signal processing algorithms that require complete data sets. To address the
sparse data issue, we present a new gap-fill algorithm. The proposed method
predicts each missing value separately based on data points in a
spatio-temporal neighborhood around the missing data point. The computational
workload can be distributed among several computers, making the method suitable
for large datasets. The prediction of the missing values and the estimation of
the corresponding prediction uncertainties are based on sorting procedures and
quantile regression. The algorithm was applied to MODIS NDVI data from Alaska
and tested with realistic cloud cover scenarios featuring up to 50% missing
data. Validation against established software showed that the proposed method
has a good performance in terms of the root mean squared prediction error. The
procedure is implemented and available in the open-source R package gapfill. We
demonstrate the software performance with a real data example and show how it
can be tailored to specific data. Due to the flexible software design, users
can control and redesign major parts of the procedure with little effort. This
makes it an interesting tool for gap-filling satellite data and for the future
development of gap-fill procedures.


title: Phylogenetic trees and Euclidean embeddings

abstract:
  It was recently observed by de Vienne et al. that a simple square root
transformation of distances between taxa on a phylogenetic tree allowed for an
embedding of the taxa into Euclidean space. While the justification for this
was based on a diffusion model of continuous character evolution along the
tree, here we give a direct and elementary explanation for it that provides
substantial additional insight. We use this embedding to reinterpret the
differences between the NJ and BIONJ tree building algorithms, providing one
illustration of how this embedding reflects tree structures in data.


title: Enhanced Rates for Diphoton Resonances in the MSSM

abstract:
  We propose a simple mechanism for copiously producing heavy Higgs bosons with
enhanced decay rates to two photons at the LHC, within the context of the
Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM). In the
CP-conserving limit of the theory, such a diphoton resonance may be identified
with the heavier CP-even $H$ boson, whose gluon-fusion production and decay
into two photons are enhanced by loops of the lightest supersymmetric partner
of the top quark $\tilde{t}_1$ when its mass $m_{\tilde{t}_1}$ happens to be
near the $\tilde{t}^*_1\tilde{t}_1$ threshold, i.e.~for
$m_{\tilde{t}_1}\!\simeq \!\frac12 M_H$. The scenario requires a relatively low
supersymmetry-breaking scale $M_S\stackrel{<}{{}_\sim} 1$ TeV, but large values
of the higgsino mass parameter, $\mu \stackrel{>}{{}_\sim} 1$ TeV, that lead to
a strong $H \tilde{t}^*_1 \tilde{t}_1$ coupling. Such parameters can
accommodate the observed mass and standard-like couplings of the 125 GeV $h$
boson in the MSSM, while satisfying all other constraints from the LHC and dark
matter searches. Additional enhancement to the diphoton rate could be provided
by Coulombic QCD corrections and, to a lesser extent, by resonant contributions
due to $\tilde{t}_1^* \tilde{t}_1$ bound states. To discuss the characteristic
features of such a scenario, we consider as an illustrative example the case of
a diphoton resonance with a mass of approximately 750 GeV, for which an excess
was observed in the early LHC 13 TeV data and which later turned out to be
simply a statistical fluctuation.


title: Local convergence of spectra and pseudospectra

abstract:
  We prove local convergence results for the spectra and pseudospectra of
sequences of linear operators acting in different Hilbert spaces and converging
in generalised strong resolvent sense to an operator with possibly non-empty
essential spectrum. We establish local spectral exactness outside the limiting
essential spectrum, local $\varepsilon$-pseudospectral exactness outside the
limiting essential $\varepsilon$-near spectrum, and discuss properties of these
two notions including perturbation results.


title:
Hierarchical Bayesian Noise Inference for Robust Real-time Probabilistic
  Object Classification

abstract:
  Robust environment perception is essential for decision-making on robots
operating in complex domains. Principled treatment of uncertainty sources in a
robot's observation model is necessary for accurate mapping and object
detection. This is important not only for low-level observations (e.g.,
accelerometer data), but for high-level observations such as semantic object
labels as well. This paper presents an approach for filtering sequences of
object classification probabilities using online modeling of the noise
characteristics of the classifier outputs. A hierarchical Bayesian approach is
used to model per-class noise distributions, while simultaneously allowing
sharing of high-level noise characteristics between classes. The proposed
filtering scheme, called Hierarchical Bayesian Noise Inference (HBNI), is shown
to outperform classification accuracy of existing methods. The paper also
presents real-time filtered classification hardware experiments running fully
onboard a moving quadrotor, where the proposed approach is demonstrated to work
in a challenging domain where noise-agnostic filtering fails.


title: Constraints on Axion-Like Particles from X-ray Observations of NGC1275

abstract:
  Axion-like particles (ALPs) can induce localised oscillatory modulations in
the spectra of photon sources passing through astrophysical magnetic fields.
Ultra-deep Chandra observations of the Perseus cluster contain over $5 \times
10^5$ counts from the AGN of the central cluster galaxy NGC1275, and represent
a dataset of extraordinary quality for ALP searches. We use this dataset to
search for X-ray spectral irregularities from the AGN. The absence of
irregularities at the O(30%) level allows us to place leading constraints on
the ALP-photon mixing parameter $g_{a\gamma\gamma} \lesssim 1.4 - 4.0 \times
10^{-12} {\rm GeV}^{-1}$ for $m_a \lesssim 10^{-12}$ eV, depending on
assumptions on the magnetic field realisation along the line of sight.


title: Study of glass properties as electrode for RPC

abstract:
  Operation and performance of the Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) mostly
depend on the quality and characteristics of the electrode materials. The
India-based Neutrino Observatory collaboration has chosen glass RPCs as the
active detector elements for its Iron Calorimeter detector and is going to
deploy RPCs in an unprecedented scale. Therefore, it is imperative that we
study the electrode material aspects in detail. We report here, systematic
characterization studies on the glasses from two manufacturers. RPC detectors
were built using these glasses and performances of the same were compared with
their material properties.


title: Compare and contrast between duals of fusion and discrete frames

abstract:
  Fusion frames are valuable generalizations of discrete frames. Most concepts
of fusion frames are shared by discrete frames. However, the dual setting is so
complicated. In particular, unlike discrete frames, two fusion frames are not
dual of each other in general. In this paper, we investigate the structure of
the duals of fusion frames and discuss the relation between the duals of fusion
frames with their associated discrete frames.


title:
Do logarithmic proximity measures outperform plain ones in graph
  clustering?

abstract:
  We consider a number of graph kernels and proximity measures including
commute time kernel, regularized Laplacian kernel, heat kernel, exponential
diffusion kernel (also called "communicability"), etc., and the corresponding
distances as applied to clustering nodes in random graphs and several
well-known datasets. The model of generating random graphs involves edge
probabilities for the pairs of nodes that belong to the same class or different
predefined classes of nodes. It turns out that in most cases, logarithmic
measures (i.e., measures resulting after taking logarithm of the proximities)
perform better while distinguishing underlying classes than the "plain"
measures. A comparison in terms of reject curves of inter-class and intra-class
distances confirms this conclusion. A similar conclusion can be made for
several well-known datasets. A possible origin of this effect is that most
kernels have a multiplicative nature, while the nature of distances used in
cluster algorithms is an additive one (cf. the triangle inequality). The
logarithmic transformation is a tool to transform the first nature to the
second one. Moreover, some distances corresponding to the logarithmic measures
possess a meaningful cutpoint additivity property. In our experiments, the
leader is usually the logarithmic Communicability measure. However, we indicate
some more complicated cases in which other measures, typically, Communicability
and plain Walk, can be the winners.


title: Strong-coupling and the Stripe phase of $^3$He

abstract:
  Thin films of superfluid $^3$He were predicted, based on weak-coupling BCS
theory, to have a stable phase which spontaneously breaks translational
symmetry in the plane of the film. This crystalline superfluid, or "stripe"
phase, develops as a one dimensional periodic array of domain walls separating
degenerate B phase domains. We report calculations of the phases and phase
diagram for superfluid $^3$He in thin films using a strong-coupling
Ginzburg-Landau theory that accurately reproduces the bulk $^3$He superfluid
phase diagram. We find that the stability of the Stripe phase is diminished
relative to the A phase, but the Stripe phase is stable in a large range of
temperatures, pressures, confinement, and surface conditions.


title:
Valence band electronic structure evolution of graphene oxide upon
  thermal annealing for optoelectronics

abstract:
  We report valence band electronic structure evolution of graphene oxide (GO)
upon its thermal reduction. Degree of oxygen functionalization was controlled
by annealing temperatures, and an electronic structure evolution was monitored
using real-time ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. We observed a drastic
increase in density of states around the Fermi level upon thermal annealing at
~600 oC. The result indicates that while there is an apparent band gap for GO
prior to a thermal reduction, the gap closes after an annealing around that
temperature. This trend of band gap closure was correlated with electrical,
chemical, and structural properties to determine a set of GO material
properties that is optimal for optoelectronics. The results revealed that
annealing at a temperature of ~500 oC leads to the desired properties,
demonstrated by a uniform and an order of magnitude enhanced photocurrent map
of an individual GO sheet compared to as-synthesized counterpart.


title:
Lambda-type sharp rise in the widths of Raman and infra-red line shape
  near the Widom line in super-critical water above its gas-liquid critical
  temperature

abstract:
  A lambda-type divergent rise of Raman linewidth of liquid nitrogen near its
critical temperature has been a subject of many discussions in the past[1-5].
Here we explore the possibility of such an anomaly in infra-red and Raman
spectroscopy of super-critical water (SCW) by varying the density across the
Widom line just above its critical temperature. Vibrational phase relaxation is
expected to be a sensitive probe of fluid dynamics. We carry out computer
simulations of two different model potentials (SPC/E and TIP4P/2005) to obtain
the necessary time correlation functions. An additional feature of this work is
a quantum chemical calculation of the anharmonicity parameter that largely
controls frequency fluctuations. We find a sharp rise in the vibrational
relaxation rate (or the line widths) for both the models as we travel across
the Widom line. The rise is noticeably less sharp in water than in nitrogen. We
attribute this difference to the faster relaxation rate in water. We
demonstrate that the anomalous rise is due to sharp increase in the mean square
frequency fluctuation and not due to any dynamical critical slowing down
because the time constant of the normalized frequency-frequency time
correlation functions show lack of any noticeable change as we move across the
Widom line. We present an explanation of the observed results using the mode
coupling theory of liquid dynamics.


title:
Evolution of a quantum harmonic oscillator coupled to a minimal thermal
  environment

abstract:
  In this paper it is studied the influence of a minimal thermal environment on
the dynamics of a quantum harmonic oscillator (labelled A), prepared in a
coherent state. The environment itself consists of a second oscillator
(labelled B), initially in a thermal state. Two types of interaction
Hamiltonians are considered, and the time-evolution of the reduced density
operator of oscillator A is compared to the one obtained from the usual master
equation approach, i.e., assuming that oscillator A is coupled to a large
reservoir. An analysis of the linear entropy evolution of oscillator A shows
that simplified models may be able to describe important features related to
the phenomenon of decoherence.

categories: quant-ph cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.stat-mech physics.optics


title: Invariant Set Theory

abstract:
  Invariant Set Theory (IST) is a realistic, locally causal theory of
fundamental physics which assumes a much stronger synergy between cosmology and
quantum physics than exists in contemporary theory. In IST the (quasi-cyclic)
universe $U$ is treated as a deterministic dynamical system evolving precisely
on a measure-zero fractal invariant subset $I_U$ of its state space. In this
approach, the geometry of $I_U$, and not a set of differential evolution
equations in space-time $\mathcal M_U$, provides the most primitive description
of the laws of physics. As such, IST is non-classical. The geometry of $I_U$ is
based on Cantor sets of space-time trajectories in state space, homeomorphic to
the algebraic set of $p$-adic integers, for large but finite $p$. In IST, the
non-commutativity of position and momentum observables arises from number
theory - in particular the non-commensurateness of $\phi$ and $\cos \phi$. The
complex Hilbert Space and the relativistic Dirac Equation respectively are
shown to describe $I_U$, and evolution on $I_U$, in the singular limit of IST
at $p=\infty$; particle properties such as de Broglie relationships arise from
the helical geometry of trajectories on $I_U$ in the neighbourhood of $\mathcal
M_U$. With the p-adic metric as a fundamental measure of distance on $I_U$,
certain key perturbations which seem conspiratorially small relative to the
more traditional Euclidean metric, take points away from $I_U$ and are
therefore unphysically large. This allows (the $\psi$-epistemic) IST to evade
the Bell and Pusey et al theorems without fine tuning or other objections. In
IST, the problem of quantum gravity becomes one of combining the
pseudo-Riemannian metric of $\mathcal M_U$ with the p-adic metric of $I_U$. A
generalisation of the field equations of general relativity which can achieve
this is proposed.


title: Regrets, learning and wisdom

abstract:
  This contribution discusses in what respect Econophysics may be able to
contribute to the rebuilding of economics theory. It focuses on aggregation,
individual vs collective learning and functional wisdom of the crowds.


title: Semi-classical and quantum Rabi models: in celebration of 80 years

abstract:
  This is an introduction to the special issue collection of articles on
"Semi-classical and quantum Rabi models" to be published in J. Phys. A to mark
the 80th anniversary of the Rabi model.

categories: quant-ph cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.supr-con math-ph math.MP


title: An Open Catalog for Supernova Data

abstract:
  We present the Open Supernova Catalog, an online collection of observations
and metadata for presently 36,000+ supernovae and related candidates. The
catalog is freely available on the web (https://sne.space), with its main
interface having been designed to be a user-friendly, rapidly-searchable table
accessible on desktop and mobile devices. In addition to the primary catalog
table containing supernova metadata, an individual page is generated for each
supernova which displays its available metadata, light curves, and spectra
spanning X-ray to radio frequencies. The data presented in the catalog is
automatically rebuilt on a daily basis and is constructed by parsing several
dozen sources, including the data presented in the supernova literature and
from secondary sources such as other web-based catalogs. Individual supernova
data is stored in the hierarchical, human- and machine-readable JSON format,
with the entirety of each supernova's data being contained within a single JSON
file bearing its name. The setup we present here, which is based upon open
source software maintained via git repositories hosted on github, enables
anyone to download the entirety of the supernova dataset to their home computer
in minutes, and to make contributions of their own data back to the catalog via
git. As the supernova dataset continues to grow, especially in the upcoming era
of all-sky synoptic telescopes which will increase the total number of events
by orders of magnitude, we hope that the catalog we have designed will be a
valuable tool for the community to analyze both historical and contemporary
supernovae.


title: A Wilsonian Energy-Momentum Tensor

abstract:
  For local conformal field theories, it is shown how to construct an
expression for the energy-momentum tensor in terms of a Wilsonian effective
Lagrangian. Tracelessness implies a single, unintegrated equation which
enforces both the Exact Renormalization Group equation and its partner encoding
invariance under special conformal transformations.


title: Systematic tests for position-dependent additive shear bias

abstract:
  We present new tests to identify stationary position-dependent additive shear
biases in weak gravitational lensing data sets. These tests are important
diagnostics for currently ongoing and planned cosmic shear surveys, as such
biases induce coherent shear patterns that can mimic and potentially bias the
cosmic shear signal. The central idea of these tests is to determine the
average ellipticity of all galaxies with shape measurements in a grid in the
pixel plane. The distribution of the absolute values of these averaged
ellipticities can be compared to randomized catalogues; a difference points to
systematics in the data. In addition, we introduce a method to quantify the
spatial correlation of the additive bias, which suppresses the contribution
from cosmic shear and therefore eases the identification of a
position-dependent additive shear bias in the data. We apply these tests to the
publicly available shear catalogues from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) and the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) and find evidence
for a small but non-negligible residual additive bias at small scales. As this
residual bias is smaller than the error on the shear correlation signal at
those scales, it is highly unlikely that it causes a significant bias in the
published cosmic shear results of CFHTLenS. In CFHTLenS, the amplitude of this
systematic signal is consistent with zero in fields where the number of stars
used to model the PSF is higher than average, suggesting that the
position-dependent additive shear bias originates from undersampled PSF
variations across the image.


title:
BOND: Bayesian Oxygen and Nitrogen abundance Determinations in giant H
  II regions using strong and semi-strong lines

abstract:
  We present BOND, a Bayesian code to simultaneously derive oxygen and nitrogen
abundances in giant H II regions. It compares observed emission lines to a grid
of photoionization models without assuming any relation between O/H and N/O.
Our grid spans a wide range in O/H, N/O and ionization parameter U, and covers
different starburst ages and nebular geometries. Varying starburst ages
accounts for variations in the ionizing radiation field hardness, which arise
due to the ageing of H II regions or the stochastic sampling of the initial
mass function. All previous approaches assume a strict relation between the
ionizing field and metallicity. The other novelty is extracting information on
the nebular physics from semi-strong emission lines. While strong lines ratios
alone ([O III]/Hbeta, [O II]/Hbeta and [N II]/Hbeta) lead to multiple O/H
solutions, the simultaneous use of [Ar III]/[Ne III] allows one to decide
whether an H II region is of high or low metallicity. Adding He I/Hbeta pins
down the hardness of the radiation field. We apply our method to H II regions
and blue compact dwarf galaxies, and find that the resulting N/O vs O/H
relation is as scattered as the one obtained from the temperature-based method.
As in previous strong-line methods calibrated on photoionization models, the
BOND O/H values are generally higher than temperature-based ones, which might
indicate the presence of temperature fluctuations or kappa distributions in
real nebulae, or a too soft ionizing radiation field in the models.


title:
The Spatially Resolved Dynamics of Dusty Starburst Galaxies in a z ~ 0.4
  Cluster: Beginning the Transition from Spirals to S0s

abstract:
  To investigate what drives the reversal of the morphology-density relation at
intermediate/high redshift, we present a multi-wavelength analysis of 27 dusty
starburst galaxies in the massive cluster Cl 0024+17 at z = 0.4. We combine
H-alpha dynamical maps from the VLT/FLAMES multi-IFU system with far-infrared
imaging using Herschel SPIRE and millimetre spectroscopy from IRAM/NOEMA, in
order to measure the dynamics, star formation rates and gas masses of this
sample. Most galaxies appear to be rotationally supported, with a median ratio
of rotational support to line-of-sight velocity dispersion v/sigma ~ 5 +/- 2,
and specific angular momentum lambda_R = 0.83 +/- 0.06 - comparable to field
spirals of a similar mass at this redshift. The star formation rates of 3 - 26
M_solar/yr and average 12 CO derived gas mass of 1 x 10^10 M_solar suggest gas
depletion timescales of ~ 1Gyr (~ 0.25 of the cluster crossing time). We derive
characteristic dust temperatures (mean T_dust = 26 +/- 1 K) consistent with
local galaxies of similar far-infrared luminosity, suggesting that the low
density gas is yet to be stripped. Taken together, these results suggest that
these starbursts have only recently accreted from the field, with star
formation rates likely enhanced due to the effects of ram pressure. In order to
make the transition to cluster S0s these galaxies must lose ~ 40% of their
specific angular momentum. We suggest this must occur > 1 Gyr later, after the
molecular gas has been depleted and/or stripped, via multiple tidal
interactions with other cluster members.


title:
Predictions for the Detection and Characterization of a Population of
  Free-Floating Planets with K2 Campaign 9

abstract:
  K2 Campaign 9 (K2C9) offers the first chance to measure parallaxes and masses
of members of the large population of free-floating planets (FFPs) that has
previously been inferred from measurements of the rate of short-timescale
microlensing events. Using detailed simulations of the nominal campaign
(ignoring the loss of events due to Kepler's emergency mode) and ground-based
microlensing surveys, we predict the number of events that can be detected if
there is a population of 1-Jupiter-mass FFPs matching current observational
constraints. Using a Fisher matrix analysis we also estimate the number of
detections for which it will be possible to measure the microlensing parallax,
angular Einstein radius and FFP mass. We predict that between 1.4 and 7.9
events will be detected in the K2 data, depending on the noise floor that can
be reached, but with the optimistic scenario being more likely. For nearly all
of these it will be possible to either measure the parallax or constrain it to
be probabilistically consistent with only planetary-mass lenses. We expect that
for between 0.42 and 0.98 events it will be possible to gain a complete
solution and measure the FFP mass. For the emergency mode truncated campaign,
these numbers are reduced by 20~percent. We argue that when combined with
prompt high-resolution imaging of a larger sample of short-timescale events,
K2C9 will conclusively determine if the putative FFP population is indeed both
planetary and free-floating.


title: Pair Fireball Precursors of Neutron Star Mergers

abstract:
  If at least one neutron star (NS) is magnetized in a binary NS merger, then
the orbital motion of the conducting companion during the final inspiral
induces a strong voltage and current along the magnetic field lines connecting
the NSs. If a modest fraction, eta, of the extracted electromagnetic power
extracted accelerates relativistic particles, the resulting gamma-ray emission
a compact volume will result in the formation of an electron-positron pair
fireball. Applying a steady-state pair wind model, we quantify the
detectability of the precursor fireball with gamma-ray satellites. For eta ~ 1
the gamma-ray detection horizon of D_max ~ 10(Bd/1e14 G)^{3/4} Mpc is much
closer than the Advanced LIGO/Virgo horizon of 200 Mpc, unless the NS surface
magnetic field strength is very large, Bd > 1e15 G. Given the quasi-isotropic
nature of the emission, mergers with weaker NS fields could contribute a nearby
population of short gamma-ray bursts. Power not dissipated close to the binary
is carried to infinity along the open field lines by a large scale Poynting
flux. Reconnection within this outflow, well outside of the pair photosphere,
provides a potential site for non-thermal emission, such as a coherent
millisecond radio burst.


title: $p$-adic AdS/CFT

abstract:
  We construct a $p$-adic analog to AdS/CFT, where an unramified extension of
the $p$-adic numbers replaces Euclidean space as the boundary and a version of
the Bruhat-Tits tree replaces the bulk. Correlation functions are computed in
the simple case of a single massive scalar in the bulk, with results that are
strikingly similar to ordinary holographic correlation functions when expressed
in terms of local zeta functions. We give some brief discussion of the geometry
of $p$-adic chordal distance and of Wilson loops. Our presentation includes an
introduction to $p$-adic numbers.


title:
Anti-Kibble-Zurek Behavior in Crossing the Quantum Critical Point of a
  Thermally Isolated System Driven by a Noisy Control Field

abstract:
  We show that a thermally isolated system driven across a quantum phase
transition by a noisy control field exhibits anti-Kibble-Zurek behavior,
whereby slower driving results in higher excitations. We characterize the
density of excitations as a function of the ramping rate and the noise
strength. The optimal driving time to minimize excitations is shown to scale as
a universal power law of the noise strength. Our findings reveal the
limitations of adiabatic protocols such as quantum annealing and demonstrate
the universality of the optimal ramping rate.


title:
Constraining the nature of dark matter with the star formation history
  of the faintest Local Group dwarf galaxy satellites

abstract:
  $\Lambda$-Warm Dark Matter (WDM) has been proposed as alternative scenario to
$\Lambda$ cold dark matter (CDM), motivated by discrepancies at the scale of
dwarf galaxies, with less small-scale power and realized by collisionless
particles with energies in the range $1-3$ keV. We present a new approach to
constrain the viability of such WDM models using star formation histories of
the dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) in the Local Group. We compare their high
time-resolution star formation histories (SFHs) obtained with HST-based color
magnitude diagrams with the range of possible collapse redshifts of their dark
matter halos expected in CDM and in different WDM scenarios. The collapse
redshift is inferred after determining a plausible infall mass of the subhalo.
This is based on the current mass of individual dwarf inferred from stellar
kinematics combined with results of cosmological simulations providing
information on the subhalo evolution. Since WDM subhalos close to the filtering
mass scale form significantly later than CDM, we show that they are in the
first place difficult to reconcile with a truncation of star formation
occurring as early as $z\geq 3$. The Ultra-Faint Dwarfs (UFDs) provide the most
stringent constraints. Using 6 UFDs with the best determination of the SFHs, we
show that we can exclude a 1 keV warm particle to a 2-$\sigma$ confidence
interval consistently with other methods reported in the literature. For some
objects the $2$ keV model is also excluded. We discuss the various caveats of
the method, most notably the low number of dwarfs with accurately determined
star formation histories and the uncertainties in the determination of the
infall mass of the subhalos. Our preliminary analysis serves as a pathfinder
for future investigations that will combine upcoming accurate SFHs for more
local dSphs with direct analysis of WDM cosmological simulations with baryons.


title: Currencies in resource theories

abstract:
  How may we quantify the value of physical resources, such as entangled
quantum states, heat baths or lasers? Existing resource theories give us
partial answers; however, these rely on idealizations, like perfectly
independent copies of states or exact knowledge of a quantum state. Here we
introduce the general tool of currencies to quantify realistic descriptions of
resources, applicable in experimental settings when we do not have perfect
control over a physical system, when only the neighbourhood of a state or some
of its properties are known, or when there is no obvious way to decompose a
global space into subsystems. Currencies are a special set of resources chosen
to quantify all others - like Bell pairs in LOCC or a lifted weight in
thermodynamics. We show that from very weak assumptions on the theory we can
already find useful currencies that give us necessary and sufficient conditions
for resource conversion, and we build up more results as we impose further
structure. This work is an application of Resource theories of knowledge
[arXiv:1511.08818], generalizing axiomatic approaches to thermodynamic entropy,
work and currencies made of local copies.

categories: quant-ph cond-mat.stat-mech math-ph math.MP


title:
Intrinsic alignments in redMaPPer clusters -- I. Central galaxy
  alignments and angular segregation of satellites

abstract:
  The shapes of cluster central galaxies are not randomly oriented, but rather
exhibit coherent alignments with the shapes of their parent clusters as well as
with the surrounding large-scale structures. In this work, we aim to identify
the galaxy and cluster quantities that most strongly predict the central galaxy
alignment phenomenon among a large parameter space with a sample of 8237
clusters and 94817 members within 0.1<z<0.35, based on the redMaPPer cluster
catalog constructed from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We first quantify the
alignment between the projected central galaxy shapes and the distribution of
member satellites, to understand what central galaxy and cluster properties
most strongly correlate with these alignments. Next, we investigate the angular
segregation of satellites with respect to their central galaxy major axis
directions, to identify the satellite properties that most strongly predict
their angular segregation. We find that central galaxies are more aligned with
their member galaxy distributions in clusters that are more elongated and have
higher richness, and for central galaxies with larger physical size, higher
luminosity and centering probability, and redder color. Satellites with redder
color, higher luminosity, located closer to the central galaxy, and with
smaller ellipticity show a stronger angular segregation toward their central
galaxy major axes. Finally, we provide physical explanations for some of the
identified correlations, and discuss the connection to theories of central
galaxy alignments, the impact of primordial alignments with tidal fields, and
the importance of anisotropic accretion.


title:
Temperature Structure and Atmospheric Circulation of Dry, Tidally Locked
  Rocky Exoplanets

abstract:
  Next-generation space telescopes will observe the atmospheres of rocky
planets orbiting nearby M-dwarfs. Understanding these observations will require
well-developed theory in addition to numerical simulations. Here we present
theoretical models for the temperature structure and atmospheric circulation of
dry, tidally locked rocky exoplanets with grey radiative transfer and test them
using a general circulation model (GCM). First, we develop a
radiative-convective model that captures surface temperatures of slowly
rotating and cool atmospheres. Second, we show that the atmospheric circulation
acts as a global heat engine, which places strong constraints on large-scale
wind speeds. Third, we develop a radiative-convective-subsiding model which
extends our radiative-convective model to hot and thin atmospheres. We find
that rocky planets develop large day-night temperature gradients at a ratio of
wave-to-radiative timescales up to two orders of magnitude smaller than the
value suggested by work on hot Jupiters. The small ratio is due to the heat
engine inefficiency and asymmetry between updrafts and subsidence in convecting
atmospheres. Fourth, we show using GCM simulations that rotation only has a
strong effect on temperature structure if the atmosphere is hot or thin. Our
models let us map out atmospheric scenarios for planets such as GJ 1132b and
show how thermal phase curves could constrain them. Measuring phase curves of
short-period planets will require similar amounts of time on the James Webb
Space Telescope as detecting molecules via transit spectroscopy, so future
observations should pursue both techniques.


title: PRECESSION: Dynamics of spinning black-hole binaries with python

abstract:
  We present the numerical code PRECESSION: a new open-source python module to
study the dynamics of precessing black-hole binaries in the post-Newtonian
regime. The code provides a comprehensive toolbox to (i) study the evolution of
the black-hole spins along their precession cycles, (ii) perform
gravitational-wave driven binary inspirals using both orbit-averaged and
precession-averaged integrations, and (iii) predict the properties of the
merger remnant through fitting formulae obtained from numerical-relativity
simulations. PRECESSION is a ready-to-use tool to add the black-hole spin
dynamics to larger-scale numerical studies such as gravitational-wave parameter
estimation codes, population synthesis models to predict gravitational-wave
event rates, galaxy merger trees and cosmological simulations of structure
formation. PRECESSION provides fast and reliable integration methods to
propagate statistical samples of black-hole binaries from/to large separations
where they form to/from small separations where they become detectable, thus
linking gravitational-wave observations of spinning black-hole binaries to
their astrophysical formation history. The code is also a useful tool to
compute initial parameters for numerical-relativity simulations targeting
specific precessing systems. PRECESSION can be installed from the Python
Package Index and it is freely distributed under version control on Github,
where further documentation is provided.

categories: astro-ph.HE astro-ph.CO astro-ph.GA gr-qc


title: Permutations contained in transitive subgroups

abstract:
  In the first paper in this series we estimated the probability that a random
permutation $\pi\in\mathcal{S}_n$ has a fixed set of a given size. In this
paper, we elaborate on the same method to estimate the probability that $\pi$
has $m$ disjoint fixed sets of prescribed sizes $k_1,\dots,k_m$, where
$k_1+\cdots+k_m=n$. We deduce an estimate for the proportion of permutations
contained in a transitive subgroup other than $\mathcal{S}_n$ or
$\mathcal{A}_n$. This theorem consists of two parts: an estimate for the
proportion of permutations contained in an imprimitive transitive subgroup, and
an estimate for the proportion of permutations contained in a primitive
subgroup other than $\mathcal{S}_n$ or $\mathcal{A}_n$.


title: Onset of transverse instabilities of confined dark solitons

abstract:
  We investigate propagating dark soliton solutions of the two-dimensional
defocusing nonlinear Schr\"odinger / Gross-Pitaevskii (NLS/GP) equation that
are transversely confined to propagate in an infinitely long channel. Families
of single, vortex, and multi-lobed solitons are computed using a
spectrally-accurate numerical scheme. The multi-lobed solitons are unstable to
small transverse perturbations. However, the single-lobed solitons are stable
if they are sufficiently confined along the transverse direction, which
explains their effective one-dimensional dynamics. The emergence of a
transverse modulational instability is characterized in terms of a spectral
bifurcation. The critical confinement width for this bifurcation is found to
coincide with the existence of a propagating vortex solution and the onset of a
"snaking" instability in the dark soliton dynamics that, in turn, give rise to
vortex or multi-vortex excitations. These results shed light on the
superfluidic hydrodynamics of dispersive shock waves in Bose-Einstein
condensates and nonlinear optics.


title: Towards a Reconstruction of General Bulk Metrics

abstract:
  We prove that the metric of a general holographic spacetime can be
reconstructed (up to an overall conformal factor) from distinguished spatial
slices - "light-cone cuts" - of the conformal boundary. Our prescription is
covariant and applies to bulk points in causal contact with the boundary.
Furthermore, we describe a procedure for determining the light-cone cuts
corresponding to bulk points in the causal wedge of the boundary in terms of
the divergences of correlators in the dual field theory. Possible extensions
for determining the conformal factor and including the cuts of points outside
of the causal wedge are discussed. We also comment on implications for
subregion/subregion duality.


title:
Lie symmetries of (1+2) nonautonomous evolution equations in Financial
  Mathematics

abstract:
  We analyse two classes of $(1+2)$ evolution equations which are of special
interest in Financial Mathematics, namely the Two-dimensional Black-Scholes
Equation and the equation for the Two-factor Commodities Problem. Our approach
is that of Lie Symmetry Analysis. We study these equations for the case in
which they are autonomous and for the case in which the parameters of the
equations are unspecified functions of time. For the autonomous Black-Scholes
Equation we find that the symmetry is maximal and so the equation is reducible
to the $(1+2)$ Classical Heat Equation. This is not the case for the
nonautonomous equation for which the number of symmetries is submaximal. In the
case of the two-factor equation the number of symmetries is submaximal in both
autonomous and nonautonomous cases. When the solution symmetries are used to
reduce each equation to a $(1+1)$ equation, the resulting equation is of
maximal symmetry and so equivalent to the $(1+1)$ Classical Heat Equation.


title:
Chill-Pass: Using Neuro-Physiological Responses to Chill Music to Defeat
  Coercion Attacks

abstract:
  Current alphanumeric and biometric authentication systems cannot withstand
situations where a user is coerced into releasing their authentication
materials under hostile circumstances. Existing approaches of coercion
resistant authentication systems (CRAS) propose authentication factors such as
implicit learning tasks, which are non-transferable, but still have the
drawback that an attacker can force the victim (causing stress) to perform the
task in order to gain unauthorized access. Alternatively, there could be cases
where the user could claim that they were coerced into giving up the
authentication materials, whereas in reality they acted as an insider attacker.
Therefore, being able to detect stress during authentication also helps to
achieve non-repudiation in such cases. To address these concerns, we need CRAS
that have both the non-transferable property as well as a mechanism to detect
stress related to coercion. In this paper, we study the feasibility of using
Chill (intensely pleasurable) music as a stimulus to elicit unique
neuro-physiological responses that can be used as an authenticating factor for
CRAS. Chill music and stress are both stimuli for a neuro-chemical called
Dopamine. However, they release the Dopamine at different parts of the brain,
resulting in different neuro-physiological responses, which gives us both the
non-transferable and stress-detection properties necessary for CRAS. We have
experimentally validated our proposed Chill music based CRAS using human
subjects and measuring their neuro-physiological responses on our prototype
system. Based on the 100 samples collected from the subjects, we were able to
successfully authenticate the subjects with an accuracy of over 90\%. Our work
not only demonstrates the potential of Chill music as a unique stimulus for
CRAS, but also paves the path of wider adoption of CRAS in general.


title: Negative Entropies in Casimir and Casimir-Polder Interactions

abstract:
  It has been increasingly becoming clear that Casimir and Casimir-Polder
entropies may be negative in certain regions of temperature and separation. In
fact, the occurrence of negative entropy seems to be a nearly ubiquitous
phenomenon. This is most highlighted in the quantum vacuum interaction of a
nanoparticle with a conducting plate or between two nanoparticles. It has been
argued that this phenomenon does not violate physical intuition, since the
total entropy, including the self-entropies of the plate and the nanoparticle,
should be positive. New calculations, in fact, seem to bear this out at least
in certain cases.


title:
Quantitatively analyzing intrinsic plasmonic chirality by tracking the
  interplay of electric and magnetic dipole modes

abstract:
  Plasmonic chirality exhibits great potential for novel nanooptical devices
due to the generation of a strong chiroptical response. Previous reports on
plasmonic chirality explanations are mainly based on phase retardation and
coupling. We propose a quantitative model similar to the chiral molecules for
explaining the mechanism of the intrinsic plasmonic chirality quantitatively
based on the interplay and mixing of electric and magnetic dipole modes, which
forms a mixed electric and magnetic polarizability. The analysis method is also
suitable for small chiral object down to quasi-static limit without phase delay
and expected to be a universal rule.


title: Gravitational Positive Energy Theorems from Information Inequalities

abstract:
  In this paper we argue that classical, asymptotically AdS spacetimes that
arise as states in consistent ultraviolet completions of Einstein gravity
coupled to matter must satisfy an infinite family of positive energy
conditions. To each ball-shaped spatial region $B$ of the boundary spacetime,
we can associate a bulk spatial region $\Sigma_B$ between $B$ and the bulk
extremal surface $\tilde{B}$ with the same boundary as $B$. We show that there
exists a natural notion of a gravitational energy for every such region that is
non-negative, and non-increasing as one makes the region smaller. The results
follow from identifying this gravitational energy with a quantum relative
entropy in the associated dual CFT state. The positivity and monotonicity
properties of the gravitational energy are implied by the positivity and
monotonicity of relative entropy, which holds universally in all quantum
systems.


title:
The importance of sigma bonding electrons for the accurate description
  of electron correlation in graphene

abstract:
  Electron correlation in graphene is unique because of the interplay of the
Dirac cone dispersion of $\pi$ electrons with long range Coulomb interaction.
The random phase approximation predicts no metallic screening at long distance
and low energy because of the zero density of states at Fermi level, so one
might expect that graphene should be a poorly screened system. However,
empirically graphene is a weakly interacting semimetal, which leads to the
question of how electron correlations take place in graphene at different
length scales. We address this question by computing the equal time and dynamic
structure factor $S(\vec q)$ and $S(\vec q, \omega)$ of freestanding graphene
using {\it ab-initio} fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo and the random phase
approximation. We find that the $\sigma$ electrons contribute strongly to
$S(\vec q,\omega)$ for relevant experimental values of $\omega$ even at
distances up to around 80 \AA. These findings illustrate how the emergent
physics from underlying Coulomb interactions results in the observed weakly
correlated semimetal.


title: Hamiltonian formulation towards minimization of viscous fluid fingering

abstract:
  A variational approach has been recently employed to determine the ideal
time-dependent injection rate Q(t) that minimizes fingering formation when a
fluid is injected in a Hele-Shaw cell filled with another fluid of much greater
viscosity. However, such a calculation is approximate in nature, since it has
been performed by assuming a high capillary number regime. In this work, we go
one step further, and utilize a Hamiltonian formulation to obtain an analytical
exact solution for Q(t), now valid for arbitrary values of the capillary
number. Moreover, this Hamiltonian scheme is applied to calculate the
corresponding injection rate that minimizes fingering formation in a uniform
three-dimensional porous media. An analysis of the improvement offered by these
exact injection rate expressions in comparison with previous approximate
results is also provided.


title: Implementing Strassen's Algorithm with BLIS

abstract:
  We dispel with "street wisdom" regarding the practical implementation of
Strassen's algorithm for matrix-matrix multiplication (DGEMM). Conventional
wisdom: it is only practical for very large matrices. Our implementation is
practical for small matrices. Conventional wisdom: the matrices being
multiplied should be relatively square. Our implementation is practical for
rank-k updates, where k is relatively small (a shape of importance for
libraries like LAPACK). Conventional wisdom: it inherently requires substantial
workspace. Our implementation requires no workspace beyond buffers already
incorporated into conventional high-performance DGEMM implementations.
Conventional wisdom: a Strassen DGEMM interface must pass in workspace. Our
implementation requires no such workspace and can be plug-compatible with the
standard DGEMM interface. Conventional wisdom: it is hard to demonstrate
speedup on multi-core architectures. Our implementation demonstrates speedup
over conventional DGEMM even on an Intel(R) Xeon Phi(TM) coprocessor utilizing
240 threads. We show how a distributed memory matrix-matrix multiplication also
benefits from these advances.


title:
Newer method of string comparison: the Modified Moving Contracting
  Window Pattern Algorithm

abstract:
  This paper presents a new algorithm, the Modified Moving Contracting Window
Pattern Algorithm (CMCWPM), for the calculation of field similarity. It
strongly relies on previous work by Yang et al. (2001), correcting previous
work in which characters marked as inaccessible for further pattern matching
were not treated as boundaries between subfields, occasionally leading to
higher than expected scores of field similarity. A reference Python
implementation is provided.


title:
Spin-lattice-coupled order in Heisenberg antiferromagnets on the
  pyrochlore lattice

abstract:
  Effects of local lattice distortions on the spin ordering are investigated
for the antiferromagnetic classical Heisenberg model on the pyrochlore lattice.
It is found by Monte Carlo simulations that the spin-lattice coupling (SLC)
originating from site phonons induces a first-order transition into two
different types of collinear magnetic ordered states. The state realized at
stronger SLC is cubic symmetric characterized by the magnetic (1/2,1/2,1/2)
Bragg peaks, while that at weaker SLC is tetragonal symmetric characterized by
the (1,1,0) ones, each accompanied by the commensurate local lattice
distortions. Experimental implications to chromium spinels are discussed.


title:
On the Co-existence of TD-LTE and Radar over 3.5 GHz Band: An
  Experimental Study

abstract:
  This paper presents a pioneering study based on a series of experiments on
the operation of commercial Time-Division Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE) systems
in the presence of pulsed interfering signals in the 3550-3650 MHz band. TD-LTE
operations were carried out in channels overlapping and adjacent to the high
power SPN-43 radar with various frequency offsets between the two systems to
evaluate the susceptibility of LTE to a high power interfering signal. Our
results demonstrate that LTE communication using low antenna heights was not
adversely affected by the pulsed interfering signal operating on adjacent
frequencies irrespective of the distance of interfering transmitter.
Performance was degraded only for very close distances (1-2 km) of overlapping
frequencies of interfering transmitter.


title:
Measurement of the CKM angle $\gamma$ using $B^0 \rightarrow D K^{*0}$
  with $D \rightarrow K^0_S \pi^+ \pi^-$ decays

abstract:
  A model-dependent amplitude analysis of the decay $B^0\rightarrow
D(K^0_S\pi^+\pi^-) K^{*0}$ is performed using proton-proton collision data
corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0fb$^{-1}$, recorded at
$\sqrt{s}=7$ and $8 TeV$ by the LHCb experiment. The CP violation observables
$x_{\pm}$ and $y_{\pm}$, sensitive to the CKM angle $\gamma$, are measured to
be \begin{eqnarray*} x_- &=& -0.15 \pm 0.14 \pm 0.03 \pm 0.01, y_- &=& 0.25 \pm
0.15 \pm 0.06 \pm 0.01, x_+ &=& 0.05 \pm 0.24 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.01, y_+ &=&
-0.65^{+0.24}_{-0.23} \pm 0.08 \pm 0.01, \end{eqnarray*} where the first
uncertainties are statistical, the second systematic and the third arise from
the uncertainty on the $D\rightarrow K^0_S \pi^+\pi^-$ amplitude model. These
are the most precise measurements of these observables. They correspond to
$\gamma=(80^{+21}_{-22})^{\circ}$ and $r_{B^0}=0.39\pm0.13$, where $r_{B^0}$ is
the magnitude of the ratio of the suppressed and favoured $B^0\rightarrow D K^+
\pi^-$ decay amplitudes, in a $K\pi$ mass region of $\pm50 MeV$ around the
$K^*(892)^0$ mass and for an absolute value of the cosine of the $K^{*0}$ decay
angle larger than $0.4$.


title: Dualized Simple Type Theory

abstract:
  We propose a new bi-intuitionistic type theory called Dualized Type Theory
(DTT). It is a simple type theory with perfect intuitionistic duality, and
corresponds to a single-sided polarized sequent calculus. We prove DTT strongly
normalizing, and prove type preservation. DTT is based on a new propositional
bi-intuitionistic logic called Dualized Intuitionistic Logic (DIL) that builds
on Pinto and Uustalu's logic L. DIL is a simplification of L by removing
several admissible inference rules while maintaining consistency and
completeness. Furthermore, DIL is defined using a dualized syntax by labeling
formulas and logical connectives with polarities thus reducing the number of
inference rules needed to define the logic. We give a direct proof of
consistency, but prove completeness by reduction to L.


title: Interaction-Free Measurements of Optical Semitransparent Objects

abstract:
  We substitute the fully absorbing obstacle in the Elitzur-Vaidman experiment
by a semitransparent object and show that the probabilities of detection can be
manipulated in dependence of the transparency of such an object. Then, we
connect our results with the delayed choice experiment proposed by Wheeler. It
is found that the transparency of the obstacle determines either a
particle-like or a wave-like behaviour of a test photon.


title:
Numerical Computations and Computer Assisted Proofs of Periodic Orbits
  of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky Equation

abstract:
  We present numerical results and computer assisted proofs of the existence of
periodic orbits for the Kuramoto-Sivashinky equation. These two results are
based on writing down the existence of periodic orbits as zeros of functionals.
This leads to the use of Newton's algorithm for the numerical computation of
the solutions and, with some a posteriori analysis in combination with rigorous
interval arithmetic, to the rigorous verification of the existence of
solutions. This is a particular case of the methodology developed in [19] for
several types of orbits. An independent implementation, covering overlapping
but different ground, using different functional setups appears in [33].


title:
A Framework for the Numerical Computation and a Posteriori Verification
  of Invariant Objects of Evolution Equations

abstract:
  We develop a theoretical framework for computer-assisted proofs of the
existence of invariant objects in semilinear PDEs. The invariant objects
considered in this paper are equilibrium points, traveling waves, periodic
orbits and invariant manifolds attached to fixed points or periodic orbits. The
core of the study is writing down the invariance condition as a zero of an
operator. These operators are in general not continuous, so one needs to smooth
them by means of preconditioners before classical fixed point theorems can be
applied. We develop in detail all the aspects of how to work with these
objects: how to precondition the equations, how to work with the nonlinear
terms, which function spaces can be useful, and how to work with them in a
computationally rigorous way. In two companion papers, we present two different
implementations of the tools developed in this paper to study periodic orbits.


title: A quantum optical model for the dynamics of high harmonic generation

abstract:
  We investigate a two-level atom in the field of a strong laser pulse. The
resulting time-dependent polarization is the source of a radiation the
frequency components of which are essentially harmonics of the driving field's
carrier frequency. The time evolution of this secondary radiation is analyzed
in terms of the expectation values of the photon number operators for a large
number of electromagnetic modes that are initially in the vacuum state. Our
method is based on a multimode version of the Jaynes-Cummings-Paul model and
can be generalized to different radiating systems as well. We show, that after
the exciting pulse, the final distribution of the photon numbers is close to
the conventional (Fourier transform-based) power spectrum of the secondary
radiation. The details of the high harmonic spectra are also analyzed, for
many-cycle excitations a clear physical interpretation can be given in terms of
the Floquet quasi-energies. A first step towards the determination of the
photon statistics of the HHG modes reveals states with slightly
super-Poissonian distribution.


title: Factorization of the Quantum Fractional Oscillator

abstract:
  The applicability of the factorization method is extended to the case of
quantum fractional-differential Hamiltonians. In contrast with the conventional
factorization, it is shown that the `factorization energy' is now a
fractional-differential operator rather than a constant. As a first example,
the energies and wave-functions of a fractional version of the quantum
oscillator are determined. Interestingly, the energy eigenvalues are expressed
as power-laws of the momentum in terms of the non-integer differential order of
the eigenvalue equation.


title: Projective embedding of log Riemann surfaces and K-stability

abstract:
  Given a smooth polarized Riemann surface (X, L) endowed with a hyperbolic
metric $\omega$ with cusp singularities along a divisor D, we show the L^2
projective embedding of (X, D) defined by L^k is asymptotically almost balanced
in a weighted sense. The proof depends on sufficiently precise understanding of
the behavior of the Bergman kernel in three regions, with the most crucial one
being the neck region around D. This is the first step towards understanding
the algebro-geometric stability of extremal K\"ahler metrics with
singularities.


title: RECOLA: REcursive Computation of One-Loop Amplitudes

abstract:
  We present the Fortran95 program Recola for the perturbative computation of
next-to-leading-order transition amplitudes in the Standard Model of particle
physics. The code provides numerical results in the 't Hooft-Feynman gauge. It
uses the complex-mass scheme and allows for a consistent isolation of resonant
contributions. Dimensional regularization is employed for ultraviolet and
infrared singularities, with the alternative possibility of treating collinear
and soft singularities in mass regularization. Recola supports various
renormalization schemes for the electromagnetic and a dynamical Nf-flavour
scheme for the strong coupling constant. The calculation of
next-to-leading-order squared amplitudes, summed over spin and colour, is
supported as well as the computation of colour- and spin-correlated
leading-order squared amplitudes needed in the dipole subtraction formalism.


title:
The Resistance Perturbation Distance: A Metric for the Analysis of
  Dynamic Networks

abstract:
  To quantify the fundamental evolution of time-varying networks, and detect
abnormal behavior, one needs a notion of temporal difference that captures
significant organizational changes between two successive instants. In this
work, we propose a family of distances that can be tuned to quantify structural
changes occurring on a graph at different scales: from the local scale formed
by the neighbors of each vertex, to the largest scale that quantifies the
connections between clusters, or communities. Our approach results in the
definition of a true distance, and not merely a notion of similarity. We
propose fast (linear in the number of edges) randomized algorithms that can
quickly compute an approximation to the graph metric. The third contribution
involves a fast algorithm to increase the robustness of a network by optimally
decreasing the Kirchhoff index. Finally, we conduct several experiments on
synthetic graphs and real networks, and we demonstrate that we can detect
configurational changes that are directly related to the hidden variables
governing the evolution of dynamic networks.


title: Information Flows in Encrypted Databases

abstract:
  In encrypted databases, sensitive data is protected from an untrusted server
by encrypting columns using partially homomorphic encryption schemes, and
storing encryption keys in a trusted client. However, encrypting columns and
protecting encryption keys does not ensure confidentiality - sensitive data can
leak during query processing due to information flows through the trusted
client. In this paper, we propose SecureSQL, an encrypted database that
partitions query processing between an untrusted server and a trusted client
while ensuring the absence of information flows. Our evaluation based on OLTP
benchmarks suggests that SecureSQL can protect against explicit flows with low
overheads (< 30%). However, protecting against implicit flows can be expensive
because it precludes the use of key databases optimizations and introduces
additional round trips between client and server.


title: Complex structures and zero-curvature equations for sigma-models

abstract:
  We construct zero-curvature representations for the equations of motion of a
class of sigma-models with complex homogeneous target spaces, not necessarily
symmetric. We show that in the symmetric case the proposed flat connection is
gauge-equivalent to the conventional one.


title: Steiner Ratio and Steiner-Gromov Ratio of Gromov-Hausdorff Space

abstract:
  In the present paper we investigate the metric space $\cal M$ consisting of
isometry classes of compact metric spaces, endowed with the Gromov-Hausdorff
metric. We show that for any finite subset $M$ from a sufficiently small
neighborhood of a generic finite metric space, providing $M$ consists of finite
metric spaces with the same number of points, each Steiner minimal tree in
$\cal M$ connecting $M$ is a minimal filling for $M$. As a consequence, we
prove that the both Steiner ratio and Gromov-Steiner ratio of $\cal M$ are
equal to $1/2$.


title:
Regression with missing Ys: An improved strategy for analyzing multiply
  imputed data

abstract:
  When fitting a generalized linear model -- such as a linear regression, a
logistic regression, or a hierarchical linear model -- analysts often wonder
how to handle missing values of the dependent variable Y. If missing values
have been filled in using multiple imputation, the usual advice is to use the
imputed Y values in analysis. We show, however, that using imputed Ys can add
needless noise to the estimates. Better estimates can usually be obtained using
a modified strategy that we call multiple imputation, then deletion (MID).
Under MID, all cases are used for imputation, but following imputation cases
with imputed Y values are excluded from the analysis. When there is something
wrong with the imputed Y values, MID protects the estimates from the
problematic imputations. And when the imputed Y values are acceptable, MID
usually offers somewhat more efficient estimates than an ordinary MI strategy.


title:
Moving Past the Minimum Information Partition: How To Quickly and
  Accurately Calculate Integrated Information

abstract:
  An outstanding challenge with the Integrated Information Theory of
Consciousness (IIT) is to find a way of rapidly and accurately calculating
integrated information from neural data. A number of measures of integrated
information based on time series data have been proposed, but most measures
require finding the Minimum Information Partition of a network, which is
computationally expensive and not practical for real brain data. Here, we
introduce a novel partition, the Maximum Modularity Partition, across which to
quickly calculate integrated information. We also introduce a novel detection
task on simulated data to evaluate the performance of integrated information
measures across different partitions. We show that integrated information can
be reliably and quickly calculated across the Maximum Modularity Partition, as
well as the previously proposed atomic partition, even in relatively large
networks, which constitutes an advance in researchers' ability to empirically
test the predictions of IIT in real brain data.


title: Reliability Testing Strategy - Reliability in Software Engineering

abstract:
  This paper presents the core principles of reliability in software
engineering - outlining why reliability testing is critical and specifying the
process of measuring reliability. The paper provides insight for both novice
and experts in the software engineering field for assessing failure intensity
as well as predicting failure of software systems. Measurements are conducted
by utilizing information from an operational profile to further enhance a test
plan and test cases, all of which this paper demonstrates how to implement.


title: Growth of bacteria in 3-d colonies

abstract:
  The dynamics of growth of bacterial populations has been extensively studied
for planktonic cells in well-agitated liquid culture, in which all cells have
equal access to nutrients. In the real world, bacteria are more likely to live
in physically structured habitats as colonies, within which individual cells
vary in their access to nutrients. The dynamics of bacterial growth in such
conditions is poorly understood, and, unlike that for liquid culture, there is
not a standard broadly used mathematical model for bacterial populations
growing in colonies in three dimensions (3-d). By extending the classic Monod
model of resource-limited population growth to allow for spatial heterogeneity
in the bacterial access to nutrients, we develop a 3-d model of colonies, in
which bacteria consume diffusing nutrients in their vicinity. By following the
changes in density of E.coli in liquid and embedded in glucose-limited soft
agar, we evaluate the fit of this model to experimental data. The model
accounts for the experimentally observed presence of a sub-exponential,
diffusion-limited growth regime in colonies, which is absent in liquid
cultures. The model predicts and our experiments confirm that, as a consequence
of inter-colony competition for the diffusing nutrients and of cell death,
there is a non-monotonic relationship between total number of colonies within
the habitat and the total number of individual cells in all of these colonies.
This combined theoretical-experimental study reveals that, within 3-d colonies,
E.coli cells are loosely packed, and colonies produce about 2.5 times as many
cells as the liquid culture from the same amount of nutrients. Our model
provides a baseline description of bacterial growth in 3-d, deviations from
which can be used to identify phenotypic heterogeneities and inter-cellular
interactions that further contribute to the structure of bacterial communities.


title: Falsifying Baryogenesis with Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

abstract:
  We discuss the relation between lepton number violation at high and low
energies, particularly, the constraints on baryogenesis models, which would be
implied by an observation of neutrinoless double beta decay. The primordial
baryon asymmetry can be washed out by effective lepton number violating
operators triggering neutrinoless double beta decay in combination with
sphaleron processes. A generic conclusion is that popular models of
baryogenesis are excluded if a non-standard mechanism of neutrinoless double
beta decay, i.e., other than the standard light neutrino exchange, is observed.
Apart from the effective field approach, we also outline the possible extension
of our arguments to a general UV-completed model.


title:
Cosmology with photometric weak lensing surveys: constraints with
  redshift tomography of convergence peaks and moments

abstract:
  Weak gravitational lensing is becoming a mature technique for constraining
cosmological parameters, and future surveys will be able to constrain the dark
energy equation of state $w$. When analyzing galaxy surveys, redshift
information has proven to be a valuable addition to angular shear correlations.
We forecast parameter constraints on the triplet $(\Omega_m,w,\sigma_8)$ for an
LSST-like photometric galaxy survey, using tomography of the shear-shear power
spectrum, convergence peak counts and higher convergence moments. We find that
redshift tomography with the power spectrum reduces the area of the $1\sigma$
confidence interval in $(\Omega_m,w)$ space by a factor of 8 with respect to
the case of the single highest redshift bin. We also find that adding
non-Gaussian information from the peak counts and higher-order moments of the
convergence field and its spatial derivatives further reduces the constrained
area in $(\Omega_m,w)$ by a factor of 3 and 4, respectively. When we add cosmic
microwave background parameter priors from Planck to our analysis, tomography
improves power spectrum constraints by a factor of 3. Adding moments yields an
improvement by an additional factor of 2, and adding both moments and peaks
improves by almost a factor of 3, over power spectrum tomography alone. We
evaluate the effect of uncorrected systematic photometric redshift errors on
the parameter constraints. We find that different statistics lead to different
bias directions in parameter space, suggesting the possibility of eliminating
this bias via self-calibration.


title: WEPSAM: Weakly Pre-Learnt Saliency Model

abstract:
  Visual saliency detection tries to mimic human vision psychology which
concentrates on sparse, important areas in natural image. Saliency prediction
research has been traditionally based on low level features such as contrast,
edge, etc. Recent thrust in saliency prediction research is to learn high level
semantics using ground truth eye fixation datasets. In this paper we present,
WEPSAM : Weakly Pre-Learnt Saliency Model as a pioneering effort of using
domain specific pre-learing on ImageNet for saliency prediction using a light
weight CNN architecture. The paper proposes a two step hierarchical learning,
in which the first step is to develop a framework for weakly pre-training on a
large scale dataset such as ImageNet which is void of human eye fixation maps.
The second step refines the pre-trained model on a limited set of ground truth
fixations. Analysis of loss on iSUN and SALICON datasets reveal that
pre-trained network converges much faster compared to randomly initialized
network. WEPSAM also outperforms some recent state-of-the-art saliency
prediction models on the challenging MIT300 dataset.


title:
Heterogeneous resource allocation can change social hierarchy in public
  goods games

abstract:
  Public Goods Games represent one of the most useful tools to study group
interactions between individuals. However, even if they could provide an
explanation for the emergence and stability of cooperation in modern societies,
they are not able to reproduce some key features observed in social and
economical interactions. The typical shape of wealth distribution - known as
Pareto Law - and the microscopic organization of wealth production are two of
them. Here, we introduce a modification to the classical formulation of Public
Goods Games that allows for the emergence of both of these features from first
principles. Unlike traditional Public Goods Games on networks, where players
contribute equally to all the games in which they participate, we allow
individuals to redistribute their contribution according to what they earned in
previous rounds. Results from numerical simulations show that not only a Pareto
distribution for the payoffs naturally emerges but also that if players don't
invest enough in one round they can act as defectors even if they are formally
cooperators. Finally, we also show that the players self-organize in a very
productive backbone that covers almost perfectly the minimum spanning tree of
the underlying interaction network. Our results not only give an explanation
for the presence of the wealth heterogeneity observed in real data but also
points to a conceptual change regarding how cooperation is defined in
collective dilemmas.


title: Laser Interferometers as Dark Matter Detectors

abstract:
  While global cosmological and local galactic abundance of dark matter is well
established, its identity, physical size and composition remain a mystery. In
this paper, we analyze an important question of dark matter detectability
through its gravitational interaction, using current and next generation
gravitational-wave observatories to look for macroscopic (kilogram-scale or
larger) objects. Keeping the size of the dark matter objects to be smaller than
the physical dimensions of the detectors, and keeping their mass as free
parameters, we derive the expected event rates. For favorable choice of mass,
we find that dark matter interactions could be detected in space-based
detectors such as LISA at a rate of one per ten years. We then assume the
existence of an additional Yukawa force between dark matter and regular matter.
By choosing the range of the force to be comparable to the size of the
detectors, we derive the levels of sensitivity to such a new force, which
exceeds the sensitivity of other probes in a wide range of parameters. For
sufficiently large Yukawa coupling strength, the rate of dark matter events can
then exceed 10 per year for both ground- and space-based detectors. Thus,
gravitational-wave observatories can make an important contribution to a global
effort of searching for non-gravitational interactions of dark matter.


title: The scaling relations and star formation laws of ministarburst complexes

abstract:
  The scaling relations and the star formation laws for molecular cloud
complexes in the Milky Way is investigated. We compare their masses $M_{\rm
gas}$, mass surface densities $\Sigma_{M_{\rm gas}}$, radii $R$, velocity
dispersions $\sigma$, star formation rates $SFR$, and SFR densities
$\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ with those of structures ranging from cores, clumps, Giant
Molecular Clouds (GMCs), to Molecular Cloud Complexes (MCCs), and to Galaxies,
spanning 8 orders of magnitudes in size and 13 orders of magnitudes in mass.
MCC are mostly large ($R>50$ pc), massive ($\sim 10^{6}$\,\msun)
gravitationally unbound cloud structures. This results in the following
universal relations:
  $\sigma\sim R^{0.5}$, $M_{\rm gas}\sim R^{2}$, $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}\sim
\Sigma_{M_{\rm gas}}^{1.5}$, ${SFR}\sim {M_{\rm gas}}^{0.9}$, and ${SFR}\sim
{\sigma}^{2.7}$.
  Variations in the slopes and the coefficients of these relations are found at
individual scales signifying different physics acting at different scales.
Additionally, there are breaks at the MCC scale in the $\sigma-R$ relation and
between the starburst and the normal star-forming objects in the $SFR-M_{\rm
gas}$ and $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$-$\Sigma_{\rm M_{\rm gas}}$ relations. We propose
to use the Schmidt-Kennicutt diagram to distinguish the starburst from the
normal star-forming structures by applying a $\Sigma_{M_{\rm gas}}$ threshold
of $\sim100$\,\msun pc$^{-2}$ and a $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ threshold of 1\,\msun
yr$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-2}$. Mini-starburst complexes have enhanced $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$
($>$1\,\msun yr$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-2}$), probably caused by dynamic events such as
radiation pressure, colliding flows, or spiral arm gravitational instability.
Because of the dynamical evolution, gravitational boundedness does not play a
significant role in characterizing the star formation activity of MCCs,
especially the mini-starburst complexes.


title:
Communication Cost for Updating Linear Functions when Message Updates
  are Sparse: Connections to Maximally Recoverable Codes

abstract:
  We consider a communication problem in which an update of the source message
needs to be conveyed to one or more distant receivers that are interested in
maintaining specific linear functions of the source message. The setting is one
in which the updates are sparse in nature, and where neither the source nor the
receiver(s) is aware of the exact {\em difference vector}, but only know the
amount of sparsity that is present in the difference-vector. Under this
setting, we are interested in devising linear encoding and decoding schemes
that minimize the communication cost involved. We show that the optimal
solution to this problem is closely related to the notion of maximally
recoverable codes (MRCs), which were originally introduced in the context of
coding for storage systems. In the context of storage, MRCs guarantee optimal
erasure protection when the system is partially constrained to have local
parity relations among the storage nodes. In our problem, we show that optimal
solutions exist if and only if MRCs of certain kind (identified by the desired
linear functions) exist. We consider point-to-point and broadcast versions of
the problem, and identify connections to MRCs under both these settings. For
the point-to-point setting, we show that our linear-encoder based achievable
scheme is optimal even when non-linear encoding is permitted. The theory is
illustrated in the context of updating erasure coded storage nodes. We present
examples based on modern storage codes such as the minimum bandwidth
regenerating codes.


title: New Results on Linear Size Distance Preservers

abstract:
  Given $p$ node pairs in an $n$-node graph, a distance preserver is a sparse
subgraph that agrees with the original graph on all of the given pairwise
distances. We prove the following bounds on the number of edges needed for a
distance preserver:
  - Any $p$ node pairs in a directed weighted graph have a distance preserver
on $O(n + n^{2/3} p)$ edges.
  - Any $p = \Omega\left(\frac{n^2}{rs(n)}\right)$ node pairs in an undirected
unweighted graph have a distance preserver on $O(p)$ edges, where $rs(n)$ is
the Ruzsa-Szemer\'edi function from combinatorial graph theory.
  - As a lower bound, there are examples where one needs $\omega(\sigma^2)$
edges to preserve all pairwise distances within a subset of $\sigma =
o(n^{2/3})$ nodes in an undirected weighted graph. If we additionally require
that the graph is unweighted, then the range of this lower bound falls slightly
to $\sigma \le n^{2/3 - o(1)}$.


title: Decentralized Dynamic Discriminative Dictionary Learning

abstract:
  We consider discriminative dictionary learning in a distributed online
setting, where a network of agents aims to learn a common set of dictionary
elements of a feature space and model parameters while sequentially receiving
observations. We formulate this problem as a distributed stochastic program
with a non-convex objective and present a block variant of the Arrow-Hurwicz
saddle point algorithm to solve it. Using Lagrange multipliers to penalize the
discrepancy between them, only neighboring nodes exchange model information. We
show that decisions made with this saddle point algorithm asymptotically
achieve a first-order stationarity condition on average.


title: Perron's method for pathwise viscosity solutions

abstract:
  We use Perron's method to construct viscosity solutions of fully nonlinear
degenerate parabolic pathwise (rough) partial differential equations. This
provides an intrinsic method for proving the existence of solutions that relies
only on a comparison principle, rather than considering equations driven by
smooth approximating paths. The result covers the case of multidimensional
geometric rough path noise, where the noise coefficients depend nontrivially on
space and on the gradient of the solution. Also included in this note is a
discussion of the comparison principle and a summary of the pathwise equations
for which one has been proved.


title:
Numerical simulations with the finite element method for the Burgers'
  equation on the real line

abstract:
  In this paper we present a simple and accurate second order finite element
scheme to simulate the Burgers' equation on the whole real line and subjected
to initial conditions with compact support. The numerical simulations are
performed by considering a sequence of auxiliary spatially dimensionless
Dirichlet's problems parameterized by the domain's semidiameter L. Gaining
advantage from the well-known convective-diffusive effects of the Burgers'
equation, computations start by choosing L larger than the semidiameter of the
support of the initial condition and, as solution diffuses out, L is increased
appropriately. By direct comparisons between numerical and analytic solutions
and its asymptotic behavior, we conclude this simple scheme is very accurate
and can be applied to numerically investigate properties of this and similar
equations on infinite domains.


title:
On the Delay of Geographical Caching Methods in Two-Tiered Heterogeneous
  Networks

abstract:
  We consider a hierarchical network that consists of mobile users, a
two-tiered cellular network (namely small cells and macro cells) and central
routers, each of which follows a Poisson point process (PPP). In this scenario,
small cells with limited-capacity backhaul are able to cache content under a
given set of randomized caching policies and storage constraints. Moreover, we
consider three different content popularity models, namely fixed content
popularity, distance-dependent and load-dependent, in order to model the
spatio-temporal behavior of users' content request patterns. We derive
expressions for the average delay of users assuming perfect knowledge of
content popularity distributions and randomized caching policies. Although the
trend of the average delay for all three content popularity models is
essentially identical, our results show that the overall performance of
cached-enabled heterogeneous networks can be substantially improved, especially
under the load-dependent content popularity model.


title: On the Structural Origin of the Single-ion Magnetic Anisotropy in LuFeO3

abstract:
  Electronic structures for the conduction bands of both hexagonal and
orthorhombic LuFeO3 thin films have been measured using x-ray absorption
spectroscopy at oxygen K (O K) edge. Dramatic differences in both the spectra
shape and the linear dichroism are observed. These differences in the spectra
can be explained using the differences in crystal field splitting of the metal
(Fe and Lu) electronic states and the differences in O 2p-Fe 3d and O 2p-Lu 5d
hybridizations. While the oxidation states has not changed, the spectra are
sensitive to the changes in the local environments of the Fe3+ and Lu3+ sites
in the hexagonal and orthorhombic structures. Using the crystal-field splitting
and the hybridizations that are extracted from the measured electronic
structures and the structural distortion information, we derived the
occupancies of the spin minority states in Fe3+, which are non-zero and uneven.
The single ion anisotropy on Fe3+ sites is found to originate from these uneven
occupancies of the spin minority states via spin-orbit coupling in LuFeO3.


title:
Theoretical and computational analysis of second- and third-harmonic
  generation in periodically patterned graphene and transition-metal
  dichalcogenide monolayers

abstract:
  Remarkable optical and electrical properties of two-dimensional (2D)
materials, such as graphene and transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMDC)
monolayers, offer vast technological potential for novel and improved
optoelectronic nanodevices, many of which relying on nonlinear optical effects
in these 2D materials. This article introduces a highly effective numerical
method for efficient and accurate description of linear and nonlinear optical
effects in nanostructured 2D materials embedded in periodic photonic structures
containing regular three-dimensional (3D) optical materials, such as
diffraction gratings and periodic metamaterials. The proposed method builds
upon the rigorous coupled-wave analysis and incorporates the nonlinear optical
response of 2D materials by means of modified electromagnetic boundary
conditions. This allows one to reduce the mathematical framework of the
numerical method to an inhomogeneous scattering matrix formalism, which makes
it more accurate and efficient than previously used approaches. An overview of
linear and nonlinear optical properties of graphene and TMDC monolayers is
given and the various features of the corresponding optical spectra are
explored numerically and discussed. To illustrate the versatility of our
numerical method, we use it to investigate the linear and nonlinear
multiresonant optical response of 2D-3D heteromaterials for enhanced and
tunable second- and third-harmonic generation. In particular, by employing a
structured 2D material optically coupled to a patterned slab waveguide, we
study the interplay between geometric resonances associated to guiding modes of
periodically patterned slab waveguides and plasmon or exciton resonances of 2D
materials.


title:
Field-induced transition of the magnetic ground state from A-type
  antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic order in CsCo2Se2

abstract:
  We report on the magnetic properties of CsCo$_2$Se$_2$ with ThCr$_2$Si$_2$
structure, which we have characterized through a series of magnetization and
neutron diffraction measurements. We find that CsCo$_2$Se2$_2$ undergoes a
phase transition to an antiferromagnetically ordered state with a N\'eel
temperature of $T_{\rm N} \approx$ 66 K. The nearest neighbour interactions are
ferromagnetic as observed by the positive Curie-Weiss temperature of $\Theta
\approx$ 51.0 K. We find that the magnetic structure of CsCo$_2$Se$_2$ consists
of ferromagnetic sheets, which are stacked antiferromagnetically along the
tetragonal \textit{c}-axis, generally referred to as A-type antiferromagnetic
order. The observed magnitude of the ordered magnetic moment at $T$ = 1.5 K is
found to be only 0.20(1)$\mu_{\rm Bohr}$/Co. Already in comparably small
magnetic fields of $\mu_0 H_{MM}$(5K) $\approx$ 0.3 T, we observe a
metamagnetic transition that can be attributed to spin-rearrangements of
CsCo$_2$Se$_2$, with the moments fully ferromagnetically saturated in a
magnetic field of $\mu_0 H_{\rm FM}$(5K) $\approx$ 6.4 T. We discuss the entire
experimentally deduced magnetic phase diagram for CsCo$_2$Se$_2$ with respect
to its unconventionally weak magnetic coupling. Our study characterizes
CsCo$_2$Se$_2$, which is chemically and electronically posed closely to the
$A_xFe_{2-y}Se_2$ superconductors, as a host of versatile magnetic
interactions.


title: Proton Tomography Through Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering

abstract:
  In this prize talk, I recall some of the history surrounding the discovery of
deeply virtual Compton scattering, and explain why it is an exciting
experimental tool to obtain novel tomographic pictures of the nucleons at
Jefferson Lab 12 GeV facility and the planned Electron-Ion Collider in the
United States.


title:
MARLow: A Joint Multiplanar Autoregressive and Low-Rank Approach for
  Image Completion

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a novel multiplanar autoregressive (AR) model to
exploit the correlation in cross-dimensional planes of a similar patch group
collected in an image, which has long been neglected by previous AR models. On
that basis, we then present a joint multiplanar AR and low-rank based approach
(MARLow) for image completion from random sampling, which exploits the nonlocal
self-similarity within natural images more effectively. Specifically, the
multiplanar AR model constraints the local stationarity in different
cross-sections of the patch group, while the low-rank minimization captures the
intrinsic coherence of nonlocal patches. The proposed approach can be readily
extended to multichannel images (e.g. color images), by simultaneously
considering the correlation in different channels. Experimental results
demonstrate that the proposed approach significantly outperforms
state-of-the-art methods, even if the pixel missing rate is as high as 90%.


title:
An evaluation of randomized machine learning methods for redundant data:
  Predicting short and medium-term suicide risk from administrative records and
  risk assessments

abstract:
  Accurate prediction of suicide risk in mental health patients remains an open
problem. Existing methods including clinician judgments have acceptable
sensitivity, but yield many false positives. Exploiting administrative data has
a great potential, but the data has high dimensionality and redundancies in the
recording processes. We investigate the efficacy of three most effective
randomized machine learning techniques random forests, gradient boosting
machines, and deep neural nets with dropout in predicting suicide risk. Using a
cohort of mental health patients from a regional Australian hospital, we
compare the predictive performance with popular traditional approaches
clinician judgments based on a checklist, sparse logistic regression and
decision trees. The randomized methods demonstrated robustness against data
redundancies and superior predictive performance on AUC and F-measure.


title: Interpolation in Algebraic Geometry

abstract:
  This is an expanded version of the two papers "Interpolation of Varieties of
Minimal Degree" and "Interpolation Problems: Del Pezzo Surfaces." It is well
known that one can find a rational normal curve in $\mathbb P^n$ through $n+3$
general points. More recently, it was shown that one can always find nonspecial
curves through the expected number of general points and linear spaces. After
some expository material regarding scrolls, we consider the generalization of
this question to varieties of all dimensions and explain why smooth varieties
of minimal degree satisfy interpolation. We give twenty-two equivalent
formulations of interpolation. We also classify when Castelnuovo curves satisfy
weak interpolation. In the appendix, we prove that del Pezzo surfaces satisfy
weak interpolation. Our techniques for proving interpolation include
deformation theory, degeneration and specialization, and association.


title: Graph Partitioning Methods for Fast Parallel Quantum Molecular Dynamics

abstract:
  We study a graph partitioning problem motivated by the simulation of the
physical movement of multi-body systems on an atomistic level, where the forces
are calculated from a quantum mechanical description of the electrons. Several
advanced algorithms have been published in the literature for such simulations
that are based on evaluations of matrix polynomials. We aim at efficiently
parallelizing these computations by using a special type of graph partitioning.
For this, we represent the zero-nonzero structure of a thresholded matrix as a
graph and partition that graph into several components. The matrix polynomial
is then evaluated for each separate submatrix corresponding to the subgraphs
and the evaluated submatrix polynomials are used to assemble the final result
for the full matrix polynomial. The paper provides a rigorous definition as
well as a mathematical justification of this partitioning problem. We use
several algorithms to compute graph partitions and experimentally evaluate
their performance with respect to the quality of the partition obtained with
each method and the time needed to produce it.


title: Sensitivity, proximal extension and higher order almost automorphy

abstract:
  Let $(X,T)$ be a topological dynamical system, and $\mathcal{F}$ be a family
of subsets of $\mathbb{Z}_+$. $(X,T)$ is strongly $\mathcal{F}$-sensitive, if
there is $\delta>0$ such that for each non-empty open subset $U$, there are
$x,y\in U$ with $\{n\in\mathbb{Z}_+: d(T^nx,T^ny)>\delta\}\in\mathcal{F}$. Let
$\mathcal{F}_t$ (resp. $\mathcal{F}_{ip}$, $\mathcal{F}_{fip}$) be consisting
of thick sets (resp. IP-sets, subsets containing arbitrarily long finite
IP-sets).
  The following Auslander-Yorke's type dichotomy theorems are obtained: (1) a
minimal system is either strongly $\mathcal{F}_{fip}$-sensitive or an almost
one-to-one extension of its $\infty$-step nilfactor. (2) a minimal system is
either strongly $\mathcal{F}_{ip}$-sensitive or an almost one-to-one extension
of its maximal distal factor. (3) a minimal system is either strongly
$\mathcal{F}_{t}$-sensitive or a proximal extension of its maximal distal
factor.


title: Information Sources on a Bratteli diagram

abstract:
  A Bratteli diagram is a type of graph in which the vertices are split into
finite subsets occupying an infinite sequence of levels, starting with a bottom
level and moving to successively higher levels along edges connecting
consecutive levels. An information source on a Bratteli diagram consists of a
sequence of PMFs on the vertex sets at each level that are compatible under
edge transport. By imposing a regularity condition on the Bratteli diagram, we
obtain various results for its information sources including ergodic and
entropy rate decomposition theorems, a Shannon-Mcmillan-Breiman theorem, and
lossless and lossy source coding theorems. Proof methodology exploits the
Vershik transformation on the path space of a Bratteli diagram. Some results
for finite alphabet stationary sequential information sources are seen to be a
special case of the results of this paper.


title: The Energy-Momentum Tensor(s) in Classical Gauge Theories

abstract:
  We give an introduction to, and review of, the energy-momentum tensors in
classical gauge field theories in Minkowski space, and to some extent also in
curved space-time. For the canonical energy-momentum tensor of non-Abelian
gauge fields and of matter fields coupled to such fields, we present a new and
simple improvement procedure based on gauge invariance for constructing a gauge
invariant, symmetric energy-momentum tensor. The relationship with the
Einstein-Hilbert tensor following from the coupling to a gravitational field is
also discussed.