title:
Average distance of random pure states from maximally entangled and
  coherent states

abstract:
  It is well known that random bipartite pure states are typically maximally
entangled within an arbitrarily small error. Showing that the marginals of
random bipartite pure states are typically extremely close to the maximally
mixed state, is a way to prove the above. However, a more direct way to prove
the above is to estimate the distance of random bipartite pure states from the
set of maximally entangled states. Here, we find the average distance between a
random bipartite pure state and the set of maximally entanglement states as
quantified by three different quantifiers of the distance and investigate the
typical properties of the same. We then consider random pure states of a single
quantum system and give an account of the typicality of the average $l_1$ norm
of coherence for these states scaled by the maximum value of the $l_1$ norm of
coherence. We also calculate the variance of the $l_1$ norm of coherence of
random pure states to elaborate more on the typical nature of the scaled
average $l_1$ norm of coherence. Moreover, We compute the distance of a random
pure state from the set of maximally coherent states and obtain the average
distance.


title: Risk-Averse $\omega$-regular Markov Decision Process Control

abstract:
  Many control problems in environments that can be modeled as Markov decision
processes (MDPs) concern infinite-time horizon specifications. The classical
aim in this context is to compute a control policy that maximizes the
probability of satisfying the specification. In many scenarios, there is
however a non-zero probability of failure in every step of the system's
execution. For infinite-time horizon specifications, this implies that the
specification is violated with probability 1 in the long run no matter what
policy is chosen, which prevents previous policy computation methods from being
useful in these scenarios.
  In this paper, we introduce a new optimization criterion for MDP policies
that captures the task of working towards the satisfaction of some
infinite-time horizon $\omega$-regular specification. The new criterion is
applicable to MDPs in which the violation of the specification cannot be
avoided in the long run. We give an algorithm to compute policies that are
optimal in this criterion and show that it captures the ideas of optimism and
risk-averseness in MDP control: while the computed policies are optimistic in
that a MDP run enters a failure state relatively late, they are risk-averse by
always maximizing the probability to reach their respective next goal state. We
give results on two robot control scenarios to validate the usability of
risk-averse MDP policies.


title: All autoequivalences are spherical twists

abstract:
  In this short note we observe that, for purely formal reasons, any
autoequivalence can be constructed as a twist around a spherical functor. As an
example, we show how the P-twists constructed by Huybrechts and Thomas can be
formulated as spherical twists.


title: Stationary solutions and connecting orbits for $p$-Laplace equation

abstract:
  We deal with one dimensional $p$-Laplace equation of the form $$ u_t =
(|u_x|^{p-2} u_x )_x + f(x,u), \ x\in (0,l), \ t>0, $$ under Dirichlet boundary
condition, where $p>2$ and $f\colon [0,l]\times \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}$ is a
continuous function with $f(x,0)=0$. We will prove that if there is at least
one eigenvalue of the $p$-Laplace operator between $\lim_{u\to 0}
f(x,u)/|u|^{p-2}u$ and $\lim_{|u|\to +\infty} f(x,u)/|u|^{p-2}u$, then there
exists a nontrivial stationary solution. Moreover we show the existence of a
connecting orbit between stationary solutions. The results are obtained by use
of Conley type homotopy index and continuation along $p$ techniques. We obtain
stronger results than by use of fixed point index and additionally get the
existence of a connecting orbit.


title: Selective AP-sequence Based Indoor Localization without Site Survey

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose an indoor localization system employing ordered
sequence of access points (APs) based on received signal strength (RSS). Unlike
existing indoor localization systems, our approach does not require any
time-consuming and laborious site survey phase to characterize the radio
signals in the environment. To be precise, we construct the fingerprint map by
cutting the layouts of the interested area into regions with only the knowledge
of positions of APs. This can be done offline within a second and has a
potential for practical use. The localization is then achieved by matching the
ordered AP-sequence to the ones in the fingerprint map. Different from
traditional fingerprinting that employing all APs information, we use only
selected APs to perform localization, due to the fact that, without site
survey, the possibility in obtaining the correct AP sequence is lower if it
involves more APs. Experimental results show that, the proposed system achieves
localization accuracy < 5m with an accumulative density function (CDF) of 50%
to 60% depending on the density of APs. Furthermore, we observe that, using all
APs for localization might not achieve the best localization accuracy, e.g. in
our case, 4 APs out of total 7 APs achieves the best performance. In practice,
the number of APs used to perform localization should be a design parameter
based on the placement of APs.


title:
Improving naturalness in Gauge Mediation with non-unified messenger
  sectors

abstract:
  We study models of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking with messengers that
do not belong to complete representations of grand-unified gauge groups. We
show that certain setups characterized by heavy Wino can greatly improve the
fine tuning with respect to models with unified messengers, such as minimal
gauge mediation. The typical models with low tuning feature multi-TeV
superparticles, with the exception of the Higgsinos and possibly Bino and
right-handed sleptons. As a consequence, the absence of signals for
supersymmetry at the LHC is trivially accommodated in our framework. On the
other hand, testing these models will be challenging at the LHC. We finally
show that the gravitino can be a consistent candidate for cold dark matter,
provided a rather low reheating temperature, if a standard thermal history of
the universe is assumed.


title:
Excitation of plasmonic nanoantennas with nonresonant and resonant
  electron tunnelling

abstract:
  A rigorous theory of photon emission accompanied inelastic tunnelling inside
the gap of plasmonic nanoantennas has been developed. The disappointingly low
efficiency of the electrical excitation of surface plasmon polaritons in these
structures can be increased by orders of magnitude when a resonant tunnelling
structure is incorporated inside the gap. Resonant tunnelling assisted surface
plasmon emitter may become a key element in future electrically-driven
nanoplasmonic circuits.


title: Cyclic Coloring of Plane Graphs with Maximum Face Size 16 and 17

abstract:
  Plummer and Toft conjectured in 1987 that the vertices of every 3-connected
plane graph with maximum face size D can be colored using at most D+2 colors in
such a way that no face is incident with two vertices of the same color. The
conjecture has been proven for D=3, D=4 and D>=18. We prove the conjecture for
D=16 and D=17.


title: Local multiplicity of continuous maps between manifolds

abstract:
  Let $M$ and $N$ be smooth (real or complex) manifolds, and let $M$ be
equipped with some Riemannian metric. A continuous map $f\colon
M\longrightarrow N$ admits a local $k$-multiplicity if, for every real number
$\omega >0$, there exist $k$ pairwise distinct points $x_1,\ldots,x_k$ in $M$
such that $f(x_1)=\cdots=f(x_k)$ and $\diam\{x_1,\ldots,x_k\}<\omega$. In this
paper we systematically study the existence of local $k$-mutiplicities and
derive criteria for the existence of local $k$-multiplicity in terms of
Stiefel--Whitney classes and Chern classes of the vector bundle $f^*\tau
N\oplus(-\tau M)$. For example, as a corollary of one criterion we deduce that
for $k\geq 2$ a power of $2$, $M$ a compact smooth manifold with the integer
$s:=\max\{\ell : \bar{w}_{\ell}(M)\neq 0\}$, and $N$ a parallelizable smooth
manifold, if $s\geq \dim N-\dim M+1$ and $\bar{w}_{s}(M)^{k-1}\neq 0$, any
continuous map $M\longrightarrow N$ admits a local $k$-multiplicity.
Furthermore, as a special case of this corollary we recover, when $k=2$, the
classical criterion for the non-existence of an immersion $M\looparrowright N$
between manifolds $M$ and $N$.


title: Quantum correlations of few dipolar bosons in a double-well trap

abstract:
  We consider $N$ interacting dipolar bosonic atoms at zero temperature in a
double-well potential. This system is described by the two-space-mode extended
Bose-Hubbard (EBH) Hamiltonian which includes (in addition to the familiar BH
terms) the nearest-neighbor interaction, correlated hopping and bosonic-pair
hopping. For systems with $N=2$ and $N=3$ particles we calculate analytically
both the ground state and the Fisher information, the coherence visibility, and
the entanglement entropy that characterize the correlations of the lowest
energy state. The structure of the ground state crucially depends on the
correlated hopping $K_c$. On one hand we find that this process makes possible
the occurrence of Schr\"odinger-cat states even if the onsite interatomic
attraction is not strong enough to guarantee the formation of such states. On
the other hand, in the presence of a strong onsite attraction, sufficiently
large values of $|K_c|$ destroys the cat-like state in favor of a delocalized
atomic coherent state.


title: The log-convexity of the poly-Cauchy numbers

abstract:
  In 2013, Komatsu introduced the poly-Cauchy numbers, which generalize Cauchy
numbers. Several generalizations of poly-Cauchy numbers have been considered
since then. One particular type of generalizations is that of
multiparameter-poly-Cauchy numbers. In this paper, we study the log-convexity
of the multiparameter-poly-Cauchy numbers of the first kind and of the second
kind. In addition, we also discuss the log-behavior of
multiparameter-poly-Cauchy numbers.


title: Solving functional flow equations with pseudo-spectral methods

abstract:
  We apply pseudo-spectral methods to integrate functional flow equations with
high accuracy, extending earlier work on functional fixed point equations
\cite{Borchardt:2015rxa}. The advantages of our method are illustrated with the
help of two classes of models: first, to make contact with literature, we
investigate flows of the O$(N)$-model in 3 dimensions, for $N=1, 4$ and in the
large $N$ limit. For the case of a fractal dimension, $d=2.4$, and $N=1$, we
follow the flow along a separatrix from a multicritical fixed point to the
Wilson-Fisher fixed point over almost 13 orders of magnitude. As a second
example, we consider flows of bounded quantum-mechanical potentials, which can
be considered as a toy model for Higgs inflation. Such flows pose substantial
numerical difficulties, and represent a perfect test bed to exemplify the power
of pseudo-spectral methods.


title: Derivatives of isotropic positive definite functions on spheres

abstract:
  We show that isotropic positive definite functions on the $d$-dimensional
sphere which are $2k$ times differentiable at zero have $2k+[(d-1)/2]$
continuous derivatives on $(0,\pi)$. This result is analogous to the result for
radial positive definite functions on Euclidean spaces. We prove optimality of
the result for all odd dimensions. The proof relies on mont\'ee, descente and
turning bands operators on spheres which parallel the corresponding operators
originating in the work of Matheron for radial positive definite functions on
Euclidian spaces.


title:
Polaronic contributions to oxidation and hole conductivity in
  acceptor-doped BaZrO$_3$

abstract:
  Acceptor-doped perovskite oxides like BaZrO$_3$ are showing great potential
as materials for renewable energy technologies where hydrogen acts an energy
carrier, such as solid oxide fuel cells and hydrogen separation membranes.
While ionic transport in these materials has been investigated intensively, the
electronic counterpart has received much less attention and further exploration
in this field is required. Here, we use density functional theory (DFT) to
study hole polarons and their impact on hole conductivity in Y-doped BaZrO$_3$.
Three different approaches have been used to remedy the self-interaction error
of local and semi-local exchange-correlation functionals: DFT$+U$, pSIC-DFT and
hybrid functionals. Self-trapped holes are found to be energetically favorable
by about $-$0.1 eV and the presence of yttrium results in further
stabilization. Polaron migration is predicted to occur through intraoctahedral
transfer and polaron rotational processes, which are associated with adiabatic
barriers of about 0.1 eV. However, the rather small energies associated with
polaron formation and migration suggest that the hole becomes delocalized and
band-like at elevated temperatures. These results together with an endothermic
oxidation reaction [A. Lindman et al., Phys. Rev. B 91, 245114 (2015)] yield a
picture that is consistent with experimental data for the hole conductivity.
The results we present here provide new insight into hole transport in
acceptor-doped BaZrO$_3$ and similar materials, which will be of value in the
future development of sustainable technologies.


title: On the Statistical Analysis of Practical SPARQL Queries

abstract:
  In this paper, we analyze some basic features of SPARQL queries coming from
our practical world in a statistical way. These features include three
statistic features such as the occurrence frequency of triple patterns,
fragments, well-designed patterns and four semantic features such as
monotonicity, non-monotonicity, weak monotonicity (old solutions are still
served as parts of new solutions when some new triples are added) and
satisfiability. All these features contribute to characterize SPARQL queries in
different dimensions. We hope that this statistical analysis would provide some
useful observation for researchers and engineers who are interested in what
practical SPARQL queries look like, so that they could develop some practical
heuristics for processing SPARQL queries and build SPARQL query processing
engines and benchmarks. Besides, they can narrow the scope of their problems by
avoiding those cases that do possibly not happen in our practical world.


title: Mini-course: property of rapid decay

abstract:
  These are the notes for the mini-course on the property of rapid decay given
at the Erwin Schr\"odinger Institute in Vienna between March 14th and 18th,
2016, as a part of the Measured Group Theory program. They include parts which
were omitted during the lectures, and omit some parts which were included in
the lectures (and now I think that they shouldn't have been). We explore the
definitions of property RD and its permanence properties, discuss the centroid
property and relative centroid property defined by Mark Sapir, and give proofs
that certain classes of groups have RD.


title: The Hodge diamond of O'Grady's 6-dimensional example

abstract:
  We realize O'Grady's six dimensional example of irreducible holomorphic
symplectic manifold as a quotient of an IHS manifold of K3$^{[3]}$-type by a
birational involution, thereby computing its Hodge numbers.


title: Efficient Approximation of Well-Designed SPARQL Queries

abstract:
  Query response time often influences user experience in the real world.
However, it possibly takes more time to answer a query with its all exact
solutions, especially when it contains the OPT operations since the OPT
operation is the least conventional operator in SPARQL. So it becomes essential
to make a trade-off between the query response time and the accuracy of their
solutions. In this paper, based on the depth of the OPT operation occurring in
a query, we propose an approach to obtain its all approximate queries with less
depth of the OPT operation. This paper mainly discusses those queries with
well-designed patterns since the OPT operation in a well-designed pattern is
really "optional". Firstly, we transform a well-designed pattern in OPT normal
form into a well-designed tree, whose inner nodes are labeled by OPT operation
and leaf nodes are labeled by patterns containing other operations such as the
AND operation and the FILTER operation. Secondly, based on this well-designed
tree, we remove "optional" well-designed subtrees with less depth of the OPT
operation and then obtain approximate queries with different depths of the OPT
operation. Finally, we evaluate the approximate query efficiency with the
degree of approximation.


title:
Galactic and extragalactic contributions to the astrophysical muon
  neutrino signal

abstract:
  Spectral and anisotropy properties of IceCube astrophysical neutrino signal
reveal an evidence for a significant Galactic contribution to the neutrino flux
in Southern hemisphere. We check if the Galactic contribution is detectable in
the astrophysical muon neutrino flux observed from a low positive declinations
region of the Northern sky. Estimating the Galactic neutrino flux in this part
of the sky from gamma-ray and Southern sky neutrino data, we find that the
Northern sky astrophysical muon neutrino signal shows an excess over the
Galactic flux. This points to the presence of an additional hard spectrum
(extragalactic or large scale Galactic halo) component of astrophysical
neutrino flux. We show that the Galactic flux component should still be
detectable in the muon neutrino data in a decade long IceCube exposure.


title:
Emergence of coupling-induced oscillations and broken symmetries in
  heterogeneously driven nonlinear reaction networks

abstract:
  Many natural systems including the brain comprise coupled non-uniformly
stimulated elements. In this paper we show that heterogeneously driven networks
of excitatory-inhibitory units exhibit striking collective phenomena, including
spontaneous oscillations upon coupling. On varying the coupling strength a
novel transition is seen wherein the pattern symmetries of stimulated and
unstimulated groups undergo mutual exchange. The system exhibits coexisting
chaotic and non-chaotic attractors - an intriguing result in view of earlier
reports of varying degrees of chaoticity in the brain.


title:
Dust-driven winds of AGB stars: The critical interplay of atmospheric
  shocks and luminosity variations

abstract:
  Winds of AGB stars are thought to be driven by a combination of
pulsation-induced shock waves and radiation pressure on dust. In dynamic
atmosphere and wind models, the stellar pulsation is often simulated by
prescribing a simple sinusoidal variation in velocity and luminosity at the
inner boundary of the model atmosphere. We experiment with different forms of
the luminosity variation in order to assess the effects on the wind velocity
and mass-loss rate, when progressing from the simple sinusoidal recipe towards
more realistic descriptions. Using state-of-the-art dynamical models of C-rich
AGB stars, a range of different asymmetric shapes of the luminosity variation
and a range of phase shifts of the luminosity variation relative to the radial
variation are tested. These tests are performed on two stellar atmosphere
models. The first model has dust condensation and, as a consequence, a stellar
wind is triggered, while the second model lacks both dust and wind. The first
model with dust and stellar wind is very sensitive to moderate changes in the
luminosity variation. There is a complex relationship between the luminosity
minimum, and dust condensation: changing the phase corresponding to minimum
luminosity can either increase or decrease mass-loss rate and wind velocity.
The luminosity maximum dominates the radiative pressure on the dust, which in
turn, is important for driving the wind. These effects of changed luminosity
variation are coupled with the dust formation. In contrast there is very little
change to the structure of the model without dust. Changing the luminosity
variation, both by introducing a phase shift and by modifying the shape,
influences wind velocity and the mass-loss rate. To improve wind models it
would probably be desirable to extract boundary conditions from 3D dynamical
interior models or stellar pulsation models.


title:
An Original Correction Method for Indoor Ultra Wide Band Ranging-based
  Localisation System

abstract:
  During this decade, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) brought an increasing
interest in the industrial and research world. One of their applications is the
indoor localization. The ranging, i.e. the distance evaluation mechanism
between nodes, is required to determine the position of the nodes. The research
work presented in this article aims to use Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radio links to
achieve an efficient ranging, based on Time of Flight (ToF) measurement. A good
solution consists in integrating ranging traffic into the usual network
mes-sages. However, the ToF ranging process is based on information exchanges
which are temporally constrained. Once this information is encapsulated into
the usual messages, the temporal constraint cannot be honoured, resulting in
important ranging errors due to clock drifts. To mitigate these errors, we have
introduced an original dynamic correction technique which enables a precision
of twenty centimetres allowing the inclusion of ranging traffic in usual
traffic


title:
PhD dissertation (in Polish): Ergodyczne w{\l}asno\'sci pewnych
  stochastycznych uk{\l}ad\'ow dynamicznych

abstract:
  The dissertation describes ergodic properties of some stochastic dynamical
systems generated by Markov chains with values in the state space which is a
Polish space. The mathematical model describing the process of cell division is
analyzed. The assumptions are satisfied, among others, by the model introduced
by J.J. Tyson and K.B. Hannsgen, J. Math. Biol. (1986). Within the thesis the
existence of a unique invariant measure is established and asymptotic stability
of the model is verified. In addition, the rate of convergence of the sequence
of measures, transformed by the subsequent iterations of Markov operator, to
the unique invariant measure is evaluated. Further investigation of the model
(in terms of its ergodic properties) concerns establishing the proofs of the
central limit theorem and the law of the iterated logarithm. The results
presented in the dissertation solve interesting mathematical problems, but,
since they are inspired by the biological process of cell division, they may be
also important for biology.


title: Gaussian decay of Harmonic Oscillators and related models

abstract:
  We prove that the decay of the eigenfunctions of harmonic oscillators,
uniform electric or magnetic fields is not stable under 0-order complex
perturbations, even if bounded, of these Hamiltonians, in the sense that we can
produce solutions to the evolutionary Schr\"odinger flows associated to the
Hamiltonians, with a stronger Gaussian decay at two distinct times. We then
characterize, in a quantitative way, the sharpest possible Gaussian decay of
solutions as a function of the oscillation frequency or the strength of the
field, depending on the Hamiltonian which is considered. This is connected to
the Hardy's Uncertainty Principle for free Schr\"odinger evolutions.


title:
Some estimates for generalized commutators of rough fractional maximal
  and integral operators on generalized weighted Morrey spaces

abstract:
  In this paper, we establish BMO estimates for generalized commutators of
rough fractional maximal and integral operators on generalized weighted Morrey
spaces, respectively.


title: On Grothendieck's Riemann-Roch Theorem

abstract:
  We prove that, for smooth quasi-projective varieties over a field, the
$K$-theory $K(X)$ of vector bundles is the universal cohomology theory where
$c_1(L\otimes \bar L)=c_1(L)+c_1(\bar L)-c_1(L)c_1(\bar L)$. Then, we show that
Grothendieck's Riemann-Roch theorem is a direct consequence of this universal
property, as well as the universal property of the graded $K$-theory
$GK^\bullet (X)\otimes \mathbb{Q}$.


title: Neutron phase spin echo

abstract:
  A novel neutron spin resonance technique is presented based on the well-know
neutron spin echo method. In a first proof-of-principle measurement using a
monochromatic neutron beam, it is demonstrated that relative velocity changes
of down to a precision of $4 \times 10^{-7}$ can be resolved, corresponding to
an energy resolution of better than 3~neV. Currently, the sensitivity is only
limited by counting statistics and not by systematic effects. An improvement by
another two orders of magnitude can be achieved with a dedicated setup,
allowing for energy resolutions in the 10~peV regime. The new technique is
ideally suited for investigations in the field of precision fundamental neutron
physics, but will also be beneficial in scattering applications.


title: Operator algebras and vertex operator algebras

abstract:
  In two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) the building blocks are given
by chiral CFTs, i.e.~CFTs on the unit circle (compactified light-ray). They are
generated by quantum fields depending on one light-ray coordinate only. There
are two mathematical formulations of chiral CFT, the one based on vertex
operator algebras (VOAs) and the one based on conformal nets. We describe some
recent results which, for first time, gives a general construction of conformal
nets from (unitary) VOAs.


title: Localized Lasso for High-Dimensional Regression

abstract:
  We introduce the localized Lasso, which is suited for learning models that
are both interpretable and have a high predictive power in problems with high
dimensionality $d$ and small sample size $n$. More specifically, we consider a
function defined by local sparse models, one at each data point. We introduce
sample-wise network regularization to borrow strength across the models, and
sample-wise exclusive group sparsity (a.k.a., $\ell_{1,2}$ norm) to introduce
diversity into the choice of feature sets in the local models. The local models
are interpretable in terms of similarity of their sparsity patterns. The cost
function is convex, and thus has a globally optimal solution. Moreover, we
propose a simple yet efficient iterative least-squares based optimization
procedure for the localized Lasso, which does not need a tuning parameter, and
is guaranteed to converge to a globally optimal solution. The solution is
empirically shown to outperform alternatives for both simulated and genomic
personalized medicine data.


title: Latent Predictor Networks for Code Generation

abstract:
  Many language generation tasks require the production of text conditioned on
both structured and unstructured inputs. We present a novel neural network
architecture which generates an output sequence conditioned on an arbitrary
number of input functions. Crucially, our approach allows both the choice of
conditioning context and the granularity of generation, for example characters
or tokens, to be marginalised, thus permitting scalable and effective training.
Using this framework, we address the problem of generating programming code
from a mixed natural language and structured specification. We create two new
data sets for this paradigm derived from the collectible trading card games
Magic the Gathering and Hearthstone. On these, and a third preexisting corpus,
we demonstrate that marginalising multiple predictors allows our model to
outperform strong benchmarks.


title:
A test for the theory of colliding winds: the periastron passage of 9
  Sagittarii I. X-ray and optical spectroscopy

abstract:
  The long-period, highly eccentric O-star binary 9 Sgr, known for its
non-thermal radio emission and its relatively bright X-ray emission, went
through its periastron in 2013. Such an event can be used to observationally
test the predictions of the theory of colliding stellar winds over a broad
range of wavelengths. We have conducted a multi-wavelength monitoring campaign
of 9 Sgr around the 2013 periastron. In this paper, we focus on X-ray
observations and optical spectroscopy. The optical spectra allow us to revisit
the orbital solution of 9 Sgr and to refine its orbital period to 9.1 years.
The X-ray flux is maximum at periastron over all energy bands, but with clear
differences as a function of energy. The largest variations are observed at
energies above 2 keV, whilst the spectrum in the soft band (0.5 - 1.0 keV)
remains mostly unchanged indicating that it arises far from the collision
region, in the inner winds of the individual components. The level of the hard
emission at periastron clearly deviates from the 1/r relation expected for an
adiabatic wind interaction zone, whilst this relation seems to hold at the
other phases covered by our observations. The spectra taken at phase 0.946
reveal a clear Fe xxv line at 6.7 keV, but no such line is detected at
periastron (phi = 0.000) although a simple model predicts a strong line that
should be easily visible in the data. The peculiarities of the X-ray spectrum
of 9 Sgr could reflect the impact of radiative inhibition as well as a
phase-dependent efficiency of particle acceleration on the shock properties.


title: Cosmic ray driven Galactic winds

abstract:
  The escape of cosmic rays from the Galaxy leads to a gradient in the cosmic
ray pressure that acts as a force on the background plasma, in the direction
opposite to the gravitational pull. If this force is large enough to win
against gravity, a wind can be launched that removes gas from the Galaxy,
thereby regulating several physical processes, including star formation. The
dynamics of these cosmic ray driven winds is intrinsically non-linear in that
the spectrum of cosmic rays determines the characteristics of the wind
(velocity, pressure, magnetic field) and in turn the wind dynamics affects the
cosmic ray spectrum. Moreover, the gradient of the cosmic ray distribution
function causes excitation of Alfven waves, that in turn determine the
scattering properties of cosmic rays, namely their diffusive transport. These
effects all feed into each other so that what we see at the Earth is the result
of these non-linear effects. Here we investigate the launch and evolution of
such winds, and we determine the implications for the spectrum of cosmic rays
by solving together the hydrodynamical equations for the wind and the transport
equation for cosmic rays under the action of self-generated diffusion and
advection with the wind and the self-excited Alfven waves.


title: Tamed EM scheme of Neutral Stochastic Differential Delay Equations

abstract:
  In this paper, we investigate the convergence of the tamed Euler-Maruyama
(EM) scheme for a class of neutral stochastic differential delay equations. The
strong convergence results of the tamed EM scheme are presented under global
and local non-Lipschitz conditions, respectively. Moreover, under a global
Lipschitz condition, we provide the rate of the convergence of tamed EM, which
is smaller than the rate convergence of classical EM scheme one half.


title: Nanoscale precision of 3D polymerisation via polarisation control

abstract:
  A systematic analysis of polarization effects in a direct write femtosecond
laser 3D lithography is presented. It is newly shown that coupling between
linear polarization of the writing light electric field and temperature
gradient can be used to fine-tune feature sizes in structuring of photoresists
at a nanoscale. The vectorial Debye focusing is used to simulate polarization
effects and a controlled variation up to 20% in the linewidth is shown
experimentally for the identical axial extent of the polymerised features. The
revealed mechanisms are relevant for a wide range of phenomena of light-matter
interaction at tight focusing in laser-tweezers and in plasmonic or dielectric
sub-wavelength focusing where strong light intensity and thermal gradients
coexist.


title: A model of three coupled wave guides and third order exceptional points

abstract:
  A ${\cal PT }$-symmetric model for three interacting wave guides is
investigated. Each wave guide is represented by an attractive $\delta$-function
potential being in equidistant positions. The two outer potentials are complex
describing loss and gain, respectively. The real parts of the outer potentials
are assumed to be equal. The major focus of the study lies on the occurrence of
an exceptional point of third order and the physical effects of such
singularity. While some results resemble those from similar studies with two
wave guides, the three wave guides appear to have a richer structure. Emphasis
is placed on the fine tuning in the approach of the EP3 as this appears to be a
particular challenge for an experimental realization.


title:
The Method of Reflections, Homogenization and Screening for Poisson and
  Stokes Equations in Perforated Domains

abstract:
  We study the convergence of the Method of Reflections for the Dirichlet
problem of the Poisson and the Stokes equations in perforated domains which
consist in the exterior of balls. We prove that the method converges if the
balls are contained in a bounded region and the density of the electrostatic
capacity of the balls is sufficiently small. If the capacity density is too
large or the balls extend to the whole space, the method diverges, but we
provide a suitable modification of the method that converges to the solution of
the Dirichlet problem also in this case. We give new proofs of classical
homogenization results for the Dirichlet problem of the Poisson and the Stokes
equations in perforated domains using the (modified) Method of Reflections.


title:
An Optimal Polarization Tracking Algorithm for Lithium-Niobate-based
  Polarization Controllers

abstract:
  We present an optimal algorithm for the three-stage arbitrary polarization
tracking using Lithium-Niobate-based Polarization Controllers: device
calibration, polarization state rotation, and stabilization. The theoretical
model representing the lithium-niobate-based polarization controller is derived
and the methodology is successfully applied. Results are numerically simulated
in the MATLAB environment.


title:
Wannier functions and Z_2 invariants in time-reversal symmetric
  topological insulators

abstract:
  We provide a constructive proof of exponentially localized Wannier functions
and related Bloch frames in 1- and 2-dimensional time-reversal symmetric (TRS)
topological insulators. The construction is formulated in terms of periodic TRS
families of projectors (corresponding, in applications, to the eigenprojectors
on an arbitrary number of relevant energy bands), and is thus
model-independent. The possibility to enforce also a TRS constraint on the
frame is investigated. This leads to a topological obstruction in dimension 2,
related to $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological phases.
  We review several proposals for $\mathbb{Z}_2$ indices that distinguish these
topological phases, including the ones by Fu--Kane [Phys. Rev. B 74 (2006),
195312], Prodan [Phys. Rev. B 83 (2011), 235115], Graf--Porta [Commun. Math.
Phys. 324 (2013), 851] and Fiorenza--Monaco--Panati [Commun. Math. Phys., in
press]. We show that all these formulations are equivalent. In particular, this
allows to prove a geometric formula for the the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant of
2-dimensional TRS topological insulators, originally indicated in [Phys. Rev. B
74 (2006), 195312], which expresses it in terms of the Berry connection and the
Berry curvature.


title: Grid Noise in Moving Mesh Codes: Fixing The Volume Inconsistency Problem

abstract:
  Current Voronoi based moving mesh hydro codes suffer from "grid noise". We
identify the cause of this noise as the volume inconsistency error, where the
volume that is transferred between cells is inconsistent with the
hydrodynamical calculations. As a result, the codes do not achieve second order
convergence. In this paper we describe how a simple fix allows Voronoi based
moving mesh codes to attain second order convergence. The fix is based on the
understanding that the volume exchanged between cells should be consistent with
the hydrodynamical calculations. We benchmark our fix with three test problems
and show that it can significantly improve the computational accuracy. We also
examine the effect of initial mesh initialization and present an improved model
for the Green-Gauss based gradient estimator.


title:
Pilot Power Allocation Through User Grouping in Multi-Cell Massive MIMO
  Systems

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a relative channel estimation error (RCEE) metric,
and derive closed-form expressions for its expectation $\rm {Exp}_{rcee}$ and
the achievable uplink rate holding for any number of base station antennas $M$,
with the least squares (LS) and minimum mean squared error (MMSE) estimation
methods. It is found that RCEE and $\rm {Exp}_{rcee}$ converge to the same
constant value when $M\rightarrow\infty$, resulting in the pilot power
allocation (PPA) is substantially simplified and a PPA algorithm is proposed to
minimize the average $\rm {Exp}_{rcee}$ per user with a total pilot power
budget $P$ in multi-cell massive multiple-input multiple-output systems.
Numerical results show that the PPA algorithm brings considerable gains for the
LS estimation compared with equal PPA (EPPA), while the gains are only
significant with large frequency reuse factor (FRF) for the MMSE estimation.
Moreover, for large FRF and large $P$, the performance of the LS approaches to
the performance of the MMSE, which means that simple LS estimation method is a
very viable when co-channel interference is small. For the achievable uplink
rate, the PPA scheme delivers almost the same average achievable uplink rate
and improves the minimum achievable uplink rate compared with the EPPA scheme.


title: The Modular Arbitrary-Order Ocean-Atmosphere Model: MAOOAM v1.0

abstract:
  This paper describes a reduced-order quasi-geostrophic coupled
ocean-atmosphere model that allows for an arbitrary number of atmospheric and
oceanic modes to be retained in the spectral decomposition. The modularity of
this new model allows one to easily modify the model physics. Using this new
model, coined the "Modular Arbitrary-Order Ocean-Atmosphere Model" (MAOOAM), we
analyse the dependence of the model dynamics on the truncation level of the
spectral expansion, and unveil spurious behaviour that may exist at low
resolution by a comparison with the higher-resolution configurations. In
particular, we assess the robustness of the coupled low-frequency variability
when the number of modes is increased. An "optimal" configuration is proposed
for which the ocean resolution is sufficiently high, while the total number of
modes is small enough to allow for a tractable and extensive analysis of the
dynamics.


title:
Smart Grid Testbed for Demand Focused Energy Management in End User
  Environments

abstract:
  Successful deployment of smart grids necessitates experimental validities of
their state-of-the-art designs in two-way communications, real-time demand
response and monitoring of consumers' energy usage behavior. The objective is
to observe consumers' energy usage pattern and exploit this information to
assist the grid in designing incentives, energy management mechanisms, and
real-time demand response protocols; so as help the grid achieving lower costs
and improve energy supply stability. Further, by feeding the observed
information back to the consumers instantaneously, it is also possible to
promote energy efficient behavior among the users. To this end, this paper
performs a literature survey on smart grid testbeds around the world, and
presents the main accomplishments towards realizing a smart grid testbed at the
Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). The testbed is able to
monitor, analyze and evaluate smart grid communication network design and
control mechanisms, and test the suitability of various communications networks
for both residential and commercial buildings. The testbeds are deployed within
the SUTD student dormitories and the main university campus to monitor and
record end-user energy consumption in real-time, which will enable us to design
incentives, control algorithms and real-time demand response schemes. The
testbed also provides an effective channel to evaluate the needs on
communication networks to support various smart grid applications. In addition,
our initial results demonstrate that our testbed can provide an effective
platform to identify energy wastage, and prompt the needs of a secure
communications channel as the energy usage pattern can provide privacy related
information on individual user.


title:
Fast Algorithms for the Computation of the Minimum Distance of a Random
  Linear Code

abstract:
  The minimum distance of a code is an important concept in information theory.
Hence, computing the minimum distance of a code with a minimum computational
cost is a crucial process to many problems in this area. In this paper, we
present and evaluate a family of algorithms and implementations to compute the
minimum distance of a random linear code over $\mathbb{F}_{2}$ that are faster
than different current implementations. In addition to the basic sequential
implementations, we present parallel and vectorized implementations that render
high performances on modern architectures. The attained performance results
show the benefits of the developed optimized algorithms, which obtain
remarkable performance improvements compared with state-of-the-art
implementations widely used nowadays.


title: Note on the Theory of Correlation Functions

abstract:
  The purpose of this note is to improve the current theoretical results for
the correlation functions of the Mobius sequence $\{\mu(n): n\geq 1 \}$ and the
Liouville sequence $\{\lambda(n): n\geq 1 \}$.


title: Convolution in Convolution for Network in Network

abstract:
  Network in Netwrok (NiN) is an effective instance and an important extension
of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) consisting of alternating convolutional
layers and pooling layers. Instead of using a linear filter for convolution,
NiN utilizes shallow MultiLayer Perceptron (MLP), a nonlinear function, to
replace the linear filter. Because of the powerfulness of MLP and $ 1\times 1 $
convolutions in spatial domain, NiN has stronger ability of feature
representation and hence results in better recognition rate. However, MLP
itself consists of fully connected layers which give rise to a large number of
parameters. In this paper, we propose to replace dense shallow MLP with sparse
shallow MLP. One or more layers of the sparse shallow MLP are sparely connected
in the channel dimension or channel-spatial domain. The proposed method is
implemented by applying unshared convolution across the channel dimension and
applying shared convolution across the spatial dimension in some computational
layers. The proposed method is called CiC. Experimental results on the CIFAR10
dataset, augmented CIFAR10 dataset, and CIFAR100 dataset demonstrate the
effectiveness of the proposed CiC method.


title:
The Function-Indexed Sequential Empirical Process under Long-Range
  Dependence

abstract:
  Let $(X_j)_{j\geq1}$ be a multivariate long-range dependent Gaussian process.
We study the asymptotic behavior of the corresponding sequential empirical
process indexed by a class of functions. If some entropy condition is satisfied
we have weak convergence to a linear combination of Hermite processes.


title: On bulk singularities in the random normal matrix model

abstract:
  We extend the method of rescaled Ward identities of Ameur-Kang-Makarov to
study the distribution of eigenvalues close to a bulk singularity, i.e. a point
in the interior of the droplet where the density of the classical equilibrium
measure vanishes. We prove results to the effect that a certain "dominant part"
of the Taylor expansion determines the microscopic properties near a bulk
singularity. A description of the distribution is given in terms of a special
entire function, which depends on the nature of the singularity (a
Mittag-Leffler function in the case of a rotationally symmetric singularity).


title:
Small data scattering for energy-subcritical and critical Nonlinear
  Klein Gordon equations on product spaces

abstract:
  We study small data scattering of solutions to Nonlinear Klein-Gordon
equations with suitable pure power nonlinearities, posed on $\mathbb{R}^d\times
\mathcal{M}^k$ with $k\leq2$ and $d\geq1$ and $\mathcal{M}^k$ a compact
Riemannian manifold. As a special case we cover the $H^1-$critical NLKG on
$\mathbb{R} \times M^2$.


title:
Identification of fast-changing signals by means of adaptive chaotic
  transformations

abstract:
  The adaptive approach of strongly non-linear fast-changing signals
identification is discussed. The approach is devised by adaptive sampling based
on chaotic mapping in yourself of a signal. Presented sampling way may be
utilized online in the automatic control of chemical reactor (throughout
identification of concentrations and temperature oscillations in real-time), in
medicine (throughout identification of ECG and EEG signals in real-time), etc.
In this paper, we presented it to identify the Weierstrass function and ECG
signal.


title: On Hamiltonian alternating cycles and paths

abstract:
  We undertake a study on computing Hamiltonian alternating cycles and paths on
bicolored point sets. This has been an intensively studied problem, not always
with a solution, when the paths and cycles are also required to be plane. In
this paper, we relax the constraint on the cycles and paths from being plane to
being 1-plane, and deal with the same type of questions as those for the plane
case, obtaining a remarkable variety of results. Among them, we prove that a
1-plane Hamiltonian alternating cycle on a bicolored point set in general
position can always be obtained, and that when the point set is in convex
position, every Hamiltonian alternating cycle with minimum number of crossings
is 1-plane. Further, for point sets in convex position, we provide $O(n)$ and
$O(n^2)$ time algorithms for computing, respectively, Hamiltonian alternating
cycles and paths with minimum number of crossings.


title: Fully Convolutional Attention Networks for Fine-Grained Recognition

abstract:
  Fine-grained recognition is challenging due to its subtle local inter-class
differences versus large intra-class variations such as poses. A key to address
this problem is to localize discriminative parts to extract pose-invariant
features. However, ground-truth part annotations can be expensive to acquire.
Moreover, it is hard to define parts for many fine-grained classes. This work
introduces Fully Convolutional Attention Networks (FCANs), a reinforcement
learning framework to optimally glimpse local discriminative regions adaptive
to different fine-grained domains. Compared to previous methods, our approach
enjoys three advantages: 1) the weakly-supervised reinforcement learning
procedure requires no expensive part annotations; 2) the fully-convolutional
architecture speeds up both training and testing; 3) the greedy reward strategy
accelerates the convergence of the learning. We demonstrate the effectiveness
of our method with extensive experiments on four challenging fine-grained
benchmark datasets, including CUB-200-2011, Stanford Dogs, Stanford Cars and
Food-101.


title:
Contributions to the Monte Carlo study of the magnetic properties of
  nanomaterials such as graphyne and graphone

abstract:
  Attracted by the importance of new materials in nanotechnology area, this
thesis develops this research field while deepening results. We started by
introducing the more sophisticated simulation and calculation methods, such as
the Monte Carlo method, the mean field theory, the effectif field theory and
the transfer matrix. Subsequently, we studied the magnetic and hysteretic
properties of the materials. Then we have detailed some of our contributions
related to the materials based on graphene and ferrimagnetic nanomaterials with
different morphologies. We discussed the effect of defects on the thermodynamic
properties of these novel materials. Particular attention was paid to the
physical parameters that influence the compensation behavior that is of crucial
importance for technological applications such as thermo-optical recording.
With all these elements, we are opened ourselves up to the latest developments
in physics of new materials. Finally, we finished with the conclusion and
perspectives.


title: Smoothing analysis of HLSII storage ring magnets

abstract:
  In order to improve the quality and stability of synchrotron light, Hefei
Light Source has a major upgrade. Higher accuracy is necessary for installation
and alignment of the storage ring magnets. It is not necessarily essential that
the magnets are positioned exactly. In fact, the aim is to adjust neighboring
magnets with a high accuracy to one another; in other words, these neighboring
magnets are positioned on a smoothing curve. The paper presents an attempt to
develop a reliable smoothing method based on curve fitting of least squares and
iteration according to the structure characteristics of HLSII. The method
significantly reduces the adjusting amount and range of the storage ring
magnets. It improves productivity by a factor of one times.


title:
A speculative study of non-linear Arrhenius plot by using fractional
  calculus

abstract:
  In this study, the Van't Hoff differential equation is taken under
consideration by making use of fractional derivative tools. In this context,
the nonlinear Arrhenius behaviour can be obtained and some experimental values
of reaction rate as function of temperature were fitted, with the proposed
model. The new model showed better performance to fit rate constant data for
different kinetics process, when compared with Arrhenius law. In these case,
the Van't Hoff differential equation with noniteger order found relative
percentage error less that 3% within experimental error. The fractional order
plays an important role in modeling temperature dependence of these kinetic
processes. Thus it provides a new perspective in the handling of many problems
(e.g., as solubility as function of temperature; temperature dependency of the
viscosity and conductivity, etc).


title: From Taub-NUT to Kaluza-Klein magnetic monopole

abstract:
  We present a Kaluza-Klien vacuum solution which closely resembles the
Taub-NUT magnetic monopole and we investigate its physical properties as viewed
from four space-time dimensions. We show that the Taub-NUT Kaluza-Klein vacuum
solution in five dimensions is a static magnetic monopole. We find that the
four dimensional matter properties do not obey the equation of state of
radiation and there is no event horizon. A comparison with the available
magnetic monopole solutions and the issue of vanishing and negative mass are
discussed.


title:
DBI action of real linear superfield in 4D ${\cal N}=1$ conformal
  supergravity

abstract:
  We construct the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) action of a real linear multiplet in
4D $\mathcal{N}=1$ supergravity. Based on conformal supergravity, we derive the
general condition under which the DBI action can be realized, and show that it
can be constructed in the new minimal supergravity. We also generalize it to
the matter coupled system.


title: Functional relations of solutions of q-difference equations

abstract:
  In this paper, we study the algebraic relations satisfied by the solutions of
$q$-difference equations and their transforms with respect to an auxiliary
operator. Our main tool is the parametrized Galois theories developed in two
papers. The first part of this paper is concerned with the case where the
auxiliary operator is a derivation, whereas the second part deals a
$\mathbf{q'}$-difference operator. In both cases, we give criteria to guaranty
the algebraic independence of a series, solution of a $q$-difference equation,
with either its successive derivatives or its $\mathbf{q'}$-transforms. We
apply our results to $q$-hypergeometric series.


title: Line Search for Averaged Operator Iteration

abstract:
  Many popular first order algorithms for convex optimization, such as
forward-backward splitting, Douglas-Rachford splitting, and the alternating
direction method of multipliers (ADMM), can be formulated as averaged iteration
of a nonexpansive mapping. In this paper we propose a line search for averaged
iteration that preserves the theoretical convergence guarantee, while often
accelerating practical convergence. We discuss several general cases in which
the additional computational cost of the line search is modest compared to the
savings obtained.


title:
A new model to predict weak-lensing peak counts III. Filtering technique
  comparisons

abstract:
  This is the third in a series of papers that develop a new and flexible model
to predict weak-lensing (WL) peak counts, which have been shown to be a very
valuable non-Gaussian probe of cosmology. In this paper, we compare the
cosmological information extracted from WL peak counts using different
filtering techniques of the galaxy shear data, including linear filtering with
a Gaussian and two compensated filters (the starlet wavelet and the aperture
mass), and the nonlinear filtering method MRLens. We present improvements to
our model that account for realistic survey conditions, which are masks,
shear-to-convergence transformations, and non-constant noise. We create
simulated peak counts from our stochastic model, from which we obtain
constraints on the matter density $\Omega_\mathrm{m}$, the power spectrum
normalisation $\sigma_8$, and the dark-energy parameter $w_0$. We use two
methods for parameter inference, a copula likelihood, and approximate Bayesian
computation (ABC). We measure the contour width in the
$\Omega_\mathrm{m}$-$\sigma_8$ degeneracy direction and the figure of merit to
compare parameter constraints from different filtering techniques. We find that
starlet filtering outperforms the Gaussian kernel, and that including peak
counts from different smoothing scales helps to lift parameter degeneracies.
Peak counts from different smoothing scales with a compensated filter show very
little cross-correlation, and adding information from different scales can
therefore strongly enhance the available information. Measuring peak counts
separately from different scales yields tighter constraints than using a
combined peak histogram from a single map that includes multiscale information.
Our results suggest that a compensated filter function with counts included
separately from different smoothing scales yields the tightest constraints on
cosmological parameters from WL peaks.


title:
Measurements of $\pi^{\pm}$ differential yields from the surface of the
  T2K replica target for incoming 31 GeV/c protons with the NA61/SHINE
  spectrometer at the CERN SPS

abstract:
  Measurements of particle emission from a replica of the T2K 90 cm-long carbon
target were performed in the NA61/SHINE experiment at CERN SPS, using data
collected during a high-statistics run in 2009. An efficient use of the
long-target measurements for neutrino flux predictions in T2K requires
dedicated reconstruction and analysis techniques. Fully-corrected differential
yields of $\pi^\pm$-mesons from the surface of the T2K replica target for
incoming 31 GeV/c protons are presented. A possible strategy to implement these
results into the T2K neutrino beam predictions is discussed and the propagation
of the uncertainties of these results to the final neutrino flux is performed.


title:
Strong completeness and semi-flows for stochastic differential equations
  with monotone drift

abstract:
  It is well-known that a stochastic differential equation (sde) on a Euclidean
space driven by a (possibly infinite-dimensional) Brownian motion with
Lipschitz coefficients generates a stochastic flow of homeomorphisms. If the
Lipschitz condition is replaced by an appropriate one-sided Lipschitz condition
(sometimes called monotonicity condition) and the number of driving Brownian
motions is finite, then existence and uniqueness of global solutions for each
fixed initial condition is also well-known. In this paper we show that under a
slightly stronger one-sided Lipschitz condition the solutions still generate a
stochastic semiflow which is jointly continuous in all variables (but which is
generally neither one-to-one nor onto). We also address the question of strong
$\Delta$-completeness which means that there exists a modification of the
solution which if restricted to any set of dimension $\Delta$ is almost surely
continuous with respect to the initial condition.


title:
Insights into the emission of the blazar 1ES 1011+496 through
  unprecedented broadband observations during 2011 and 2012

abstract:
  1ES 1011+496 $(z=0.212)$ was discovered in very high energy (VHE, E >100 GeV)
$\gamma$-rays with MAGIC in 2007. The absence of simultaneous data at lower
energies led to a rather incomplete characterization of the broadband spectral
energy distribution (SED). We study the source properties and the emission
mechanisms, probing whether a simple one-zone synchrotron-self-Compton (SSC)
scenario is able to explain the observed broadband spectrum. We analyzed VHE to
radio data from 2011 and 2012 collected by MAGIC, $Fermi$-LAT, $Swift$, KVA,
OVRO, and Mets\"ahovi in addition to optical polarimetry data and radio maps
from the Liverpool Telescope and MOJAVE. The VHE spectrum was fit with a simple
power law with a photon index of $3.69\pm0.22$ and a flux above 150 GeV of
$(1.46\pm0.16)\times10^{-11}$ ph cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. 1ES 1011+496 was found to
be in a generally quiescent state at all observed wavelengths, showing only
moderate variability from radio to X-rays. A low degree of polarization of less
than 10% was measured in optical, while some bright features polarized up to
60% were observed in the radio jet. A similar trend in the rotation of the
electric vector position angle was found in optical and radio. The radio maps
indicated a superluminal motion of $1.8\pm0.4\,c$, which is the highest speed
statistically significantly measured so far in a high-frequency-peaked BL Lac.
For the first time, the high-energy bump in the broadband SED of 1ES 1011+496
could be fully characterized from 0.1 GeV to 1 TeV which permitted a more
reliable interpretation within the one-zone SSC scenario. The polarimetry data
suggest that at least part of the optical emission has its origin in some of
the bright radio features, while the low polarization in optical might be due
to the contribution of parts of the radio jet with different orientations of
the magnetic field to the optical emission.


title: Energy-Efficient ConvNets Through Approximate Computing

abstract:
  Recently ConvNets or convolutional neural networks (CNN) have come up as
state-of-the-art classification and detection algorithms, achieving near-human
performance in visual detection. However, ConvNet algorithms are typically very
computation and memory intensive. In order to be able to embed ConvNet-based
classification into wearable platforms and embedded systems such as smartphones
or ubiquitous electronics for the internet-of-things, their energy consumption
should be reduced drastically. This paper proposes methods based on approximate
computing to reduce energy consumption in state-of-the-art ConvNet
accelerators. By combining techniques both at the system- and circuit level, we
can gain energy in the systems arithmetic: up to 30x without losing
classification accuracy and more than 100x at 99% classification accuracy,
compared to the commonly used 16-bit fixed point number format.


title:
Multiple current sheet systems in the outer heliosphere: Energy release
  and turbulence

abstract:
  In the outer heliosphere, beyond the solar wind termination shock, it is
expected that the warped heliospheric current sheet forms a region of
closely-packed, multiple, thin current sheets. Such a system may be subject to
the ion-kinetic tearing instability, and hence generate magnetic islands and
hot populations of ions associated with magnetic reconnection. Reconnection
processes in this environment have important implications for local particle
transport, and for particle acceleration at reconnection sites and in
turbulence. We study this complex environment by means of three-dimensional
hybrid simulations over long time scales, in order to capture the evolution
from linear growth of the tearing instability to a fully developed turbulent
state at late times. The final state develops from the highly ordered initial
state via both forward and inverse cascades. Component and spectral anisotropy
in the magnetic fluctuations is present when a guide field is included. The
inclusion of a population of new-born interstellar pickup protons does not
strongly affect these results. Finally, we conclude that reconnection between
multiple current sheets can act as an important source of turbulence in the
outer heliosphere, with implications for energetic particle acceleration and
propagation.


title:
Direct Detection of Lyman Continuum Escape from Local Starburst Galaxies
  with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph

abstract:
  We report on the detection of Lyman continuum radiation in two nearby
starburst galaxies. Tol 0440-381, Tol 1247-232 and Mrk 54 were observed with
the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph onboard the Hubble Space Telescopes. The three
galaxies have radial velocities of ~13,000 km/s, permitting a ~35 A window on
the restframe Lyman continuum shortward of the Milky Way Lyman edge at 912 A.
The chosen instrument configuration using the G140L grating covers the spectral
range from 912 to 2,000 {\AA}. We developed a dedicated background subtraction
method to account for temporal and spatial background variations of the
detector, which is crucial at the low flux levels around 912 A. This modified
pipeline allowed us to significantly improve the statistical and systematic
detector noise and will be made available to the community. We detect Lyman
continuum in all three galaxies. However, we conservatively interpret the
emission in Tol 0440-381 as an upper limit due to possible contamination by
geocoronal Lyman series lines. We determined the current star-formation
properties from the far-ultraviolet continuum and spectral lines and used
synthesis models to predict the Lyman continuum radiation emitted by the
current population of hot stars. We discuss the various model uncertainties
such as, among others, atmospheres and evolution models. Lyman continuum escape
fractions were derived from a comparison between the observed and predicted
Lyman continuum fluxes. Tol 1247-232, Mrk 54 and Tol 0440-381 have absolute
escape fractions of (4.5 +/- 1.2)%, (2.5 +/- 0.72)% and <(7.1 +/- 1.1)%,
respectively.


title:
Early Warning of Human Crowds Based on Query Data from Baidu Map:
  Analysis Based on Shanghai Stampede

abstract:
  Without sufficient preparation and on-site management, the mass scale
unexpected huge human crowd is a serious threat to public safety. A recent
impressive tragedy is the 2014 Shanghai Stampede, where 36 people were killed
and 49 were injured in celebration of the New Year's Eve on December 31th 2014
in the Shanghai Bund. Due to the innately stochastic and complicated individual
movement, it is not easy to predict collective gatherings, which potentially
leads to crowd events. In this paper, with leveraging the big data generated on
Baidu map, we propose a novel approach to early warning such potential crowd
disasters, which has profound public benefits. An insightful observation is
that, with the prevalence and convenience of mobile map service, users usually
search on the Baidu map to plan a routine. Therefore, aggregating users' query
data on Baidu map can obtain priori and indication information for estimating
future human population in a specific area ahead of time. Our careful analysis
and deep investigation on the Baidu map data on various events also
demonstrates a strong correlation pattern between the number of map query and
the number of positioning users in an area. Based on such observation, we
propose a decision method utilizing query data on Baidu map to invoke warnings
for potential crowd events about 1-3 hours in advance. Then we also construct a
machine learning model with heterogeneous data (such as query data and mobile
positioning data) to quantitatively measure the risk of the potential crowd
disasters. We evaluate the effectiveness of our methods on the data of Baidu
map.


title: Some new $I_\lambda$-lacunary statistical convergence

abstract:
  In this paper, we introduce some new $I_\lambda$-lacunary statistically
convergent sequence spaces of order $\alpha$ defined by a Musielak-Orlicz
function. We study some relations between $I_\lambda$-lacunary statistically
convergence with lacunary $I_\lambda$-summable sequences. Moreover we also
study about the $I_\lambda$-lacunary statistically convergence of sequences in
topological groups and give some important inclusion theorems.


title: Doubly Random Parallel Stochastic Methods for Large Scale Learning

abstract:
  We consider learning problems over training sets in which both, the number of
training examples and the dimension of the feature vectors, are large. To solve
these problems we propose the random parallel stochastic algorithm (RAPSA). We
call the algorithm random parallel because it utilizes multiple processors to
operate in a randomly chosen subset of blocks of the feature vector. We call
the algorithm parallel stochastic because processors choose elements of the
training set randomly and independently. Algorithms that are parallel in either
of these dimensions exist, but RAPSA is the first attempt at a methodology that
is parallel in both, the selection of blocks and the selection of elements of
the training set. In RAPSA, processors utilize the randomly chosen functions to
compute the stochastic gradient component associated with a randomly chosen
block. The technical contribution of this paper is to show that this minimally
coordinated algorithm converges to the optimal classifier when the training
objective is convex. In particular, we show that: (i) When using decreasing
stepsizes, RAPSA converges almost surely over the random choice of blocks and
functions. (ii) When using constant stepsizes, convergence is to a neighborhood
of optimality with a rate that is linear in expectation. RAPSA is numerically
evaluated on the MNIST digit recognition problem.


title:
Time and Frequency Injection into a Stabilized Fiber Link for
  Multi-clock Dissemination Network

abstract:
  Owing to the characteristics of ultra-low loss and anti-electromagnetic
interference, using optical fiber to deliver time and frequency signal has been
a preferred choice for high precise clock dissemination and comparison. As a
brilliant idea, one has been able to reproduce ultra-stable signals from one
local station to multiple users. In this paper, we take a step further. A
concept of multi-clock (in different locations) dissemination for
multi-terminals is presented. By injecting frequency signals into one
stabilized ring-like fiber network, the relative stabilities of 3.4e-14@1s for
a master clock dissemination and 5.1e-14@1s for a slave clock dissemination
have been achieved. The proposed scheme can greatly simplify the future 'N' to
'N' time and frequency dissemination network, especially facing a multi-clock
comparison situation.


title: Energy relaxation rate and its mesoscopic fluctuations in quantum dots

abstract:
  We analyze the applicability of the Fermi-golden-rule description of
quasiparticle relaxation in a closed diffusive quantum dot with
electron-electron interaction. Assuming that single-particle levels are already
resolved but the initial stage of quasiparticle disintegration can still be
described by a simple exponential decay, we calculate the average inelastic
energy relaxation rate of single-particle excitations and its mesoscopic
fluctuations. The smallness of mesoscopic fluctuations can then be used as a
criterion for the validity of the Fermi-golden-rule description. Technically,
we implement the real-space Keldysh diagram technique, handling correlations in
the quasi-discrete spectrum non-perturbatively by means of the non-linear
supersymmetric sigma model. The unitary symmetry class is considered for
simplicity. Our approach is complementary to the lattice-model analysis of Fock
space: thought we are not able to describe many-body localization, we derive
the exact lowest-order expression for mesoscopic fluctuations of the relaxation
rate, making no assumptions on the matrix elements of the interaction. It is
shown that for the quasiparticle with the energy $\varepsilon$ on top of the
thermal state with the temperature $T$, fluctuations of its energy width become
large and the Fermi-golden-rule description breaks down at
$\max\{\varepsilon,T\}\sim\Delta\sqrt{g}$, where $\Delta$ is the mean level
spacing in the quantum dot, and $g$ is its dimensionless conductance.


title:
Multi-domain machine translation enhancements by parallel data
  extraction from comparable corpora

abstract:
  Parallel texts are a relatively rare language resource, however, they
constitute a very useful research material with a wide range of applications.
This study presents and analyses new methodologies we developed for obtaining
such data from previously built comparable corpora. The methodologies are
automatic and unsupervised which makes them good for large scale research. The
task is highly practical as non-parallel multilingual data occur much more
frequently than parallel corpora and accessing them is easy, although parallel
sentences are a considerably more useful resource. In this study, we propose a
method of automatic web crawling in order to build topic-aligned comparable
corpora, e.g. based on the Wikipedia or Euronews.com. We also developed new
methods of obtaining parallel sentences from comparable data and proposed
methods of filtration of corpora capable of selecting inconsistent or only
partially equivalent translations. Our methods are easily scalable to other
languages. Evaluation of the quality of the created corpora was performed by
analysing the impact of their use on statistical machine translation systems.
Experiments were presented on the basis of the Polish-English language pair for
texts from different domains, i.e. lectures, phrasebooks, film dialogues,
European Parliament proceedings and texts contained medicines leaflets. We also
tested a second method of creating parallel corpora based on data from
comparable corpora which allows for automatically expanding the existing corpus
of sentences about a given domain on the basis of analogies found between them.
It does not require, therefore, having past parallel resources in order to
train a classifier.


title: A nonparametric test for Cox processes

abstract:
  In a functional setting, we propose two test statistics to highlight the
Poisson nature of a Cox process when n copies of the process are available. Our
approach involves a comparison of the empirical mean and the empirical variance
of the functional data and can be seen as an extended version of a classical
overdispersion test for counting data. The limiting distributions of our
statistics are derived using a functional central limit theorem for c`adl`ag
martingales. We also study the asymptotic power of our tests under some local
alternatives. Our procedure is easily implementable and does not require any
knowledge of covariates. A numerical study reveals the good performances of the
method. We also present two applications of our tests to real data sets.


title:
Electroosmotically enabled Electrorheological Effects in a Planar
  Nematic Crystal Flow

abstract:
  Study of electrokinetics of nematic liquid crystals (LCs) with dissolved
impurities hold utmost importance in understanding director distribution
characteristics and modified flow rheology. However, no concrete theory for the
non-uniform potential and ionic species distribution, due to an induced
electrical double layer (EDL) at the LC-substrate interface, derived from
fundamental principles have been put forward in this regard. In this work, we
have developed coupled governing equations from fundamental free energy
considerations for the potential distribution and the director configuration of
the nematic LC within the induced electrical double layer which is generated
due to certain physico-chemical interactions at the LC-substrate interface.
With these considerations, an electroosmotically-enabled nematodynamics for a
particular LC, namely, MBBA, with strong planar anchoring at the boundaries is
studied. We obtained multiple solution for director configuration, which is an
integral characteristics of nematic flow solutions, and investigated for the
most stable solution employing an entropic analysis. We finally proceed to
depicts the electroosmotic flow features of the nematic LC wherein we focused
on the spontaneous development of the electrorheological effect and the
resulting elastic description of the nematic LC for the most stable solution
obtained.


title:
Adaptive Parameter Selection in Evolutionary Algorithms by Reinforcement
  Learning with Dynamic Discretization of Parameter Range

abstract:
  Online parameter controllers for evolutionary algorithms adjust values of
parameters during the run of an evolutionary algorithm. Recently a new
efficient parameter controller based on reinforcement learning was proposed by
Karafotias et al. In this method ranges of parameters are discretized into
several intervals before the run. However, performing adaptive discretization
during the run may increase efficiency of an evolutionary algorithm. Aleti et
al. proposed another efficient controller with adaptive discretization.
  In the present paper we propose a parameter controller based on reinforcement
learning with adaptive discretization. The proposed controller is compared with
the existing parameter adjusting methods on several test problems using
different configurations of an evolutionary algorithm. For the test problems,
we consider four continuous functions, namely the sphere function, the
Rosenbrock function, the Levi function and the Rastrigin function. Results show
that the new controller outperforms the other controllers on most of the
considered test problems.


title: Robust Inflation from Fibrous Strings

abstract:
  Successful inflationary models should (i) describe the data well; (ii) arise
generically from sensible UV completions; (iii) be insensitive to detailed
fine-tunings of parameters and (iv) make interesting new predictions. We argue
that a class of models with these properties is characterized by relatively
simple potentials with a constant term and negative exponentials. We here
continue earlier work exploring UV completions for these models, including the
key (though often ignored) issue of modulus stabilisation, to assess the
robustness of their predictions. We show that string models where the inflaton
is a fibration modulus seem to be robust due to an effective rescaling
symmetry, and fairly generic since most known Calabi-Yau manifolds are
fibrations. This class of models is characterized by a generic relation between
the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ and the spectral index $n_s$ of the form $r
\propto (n_s -1)^2$ where the proportionality constant depends on the nature of
the effects used to develop the inflationary potential and the topology of the
internal space. In particular we find that the largest values of the
tensor-to-scalar ratio that can be obtained by generalizing the original set-up
are of order $r \lesssim 0.01$. We contrast this general picture with specific
popular models, such as the Starobinsky scenario and $\alpha$-attractors.
Finally, we argue the self consistency of large-field inflationary models can
strongly constrain non-supersymmetric inflationary mechanisms.


title:
Characterising brain network topologies: a dynamic analysis approach
  using heat kernels

abstract:
  Network theory provides a principled abstraction of the human brain: reducing
a complex system into a simpler representation from which to investigate brain
organisation. Recent advancement in the neuroimaging field are towards
representing brain connectivity as a dynamic process in order to gain a deeper
understanding of how the brain is organised for information transport. In this
paper we propose a network modelling approach based on the heat kernel to
capture the process of heat diffusion in complex networks. By applying the heat
kernel to structural brain networks, we define new features which quantify
change in energy flow. Identifying suitable features which can classify
networks between cohorts is useful towards understanding the effect of disease
on brain architecture. We demonstrate the discriminative power of heat kernel
features in both synthetic and clinical preterm data. By generating an
extensive range of synthetic networks with varying density and randomisation,
we investigate how heat flows in the networks in relation to changes in network
topology. We demonstrate that our proposed features provide a metric of network
efficiency and may be indicative of organisational principles commonly
associated with, for example, small-world architecture. In addition, we show
the potential of these features to characterise and classify between network
topologies. We further demonstrate our methodology in a clinical setting by
applying it to a large cohort of preterm babies scanned at term equivalent age
from which diffusion networks were computed. We show that our heat kernel
features are able to successfully predict motor function measured at two years
of age (sensitivity, specificity, F-score, accuracy = 75.0, 82.5, 78.6, 82.3%,
respectively.


title: Widths of highly excited shape resonances

abstract:
  We study the widths of shape resonances for the semiclassical
multi-dimensional Schr\"odinger operator, in the case where the frequency
remains close to some value strictly larger than the bottom of the well. Under
a condition on the behavior of the resonant state inside the well, we obtain an
optimal lower bound for the widths.


title:
Determining the Inter-Particle Force-Laws in Amorphous Solids from a
  Visual Image

abstract:
  We consider the problem of how to determine the force laws in an amorphous
system of interacting particles. Given the positions of the centers of mass of
the constituent particles we propose a new algorithm to determine the
inter-particle force-laws. Having $n$ different types of constituents we
determine the coefficients in the Laurent polynomials for the $n(n+1)/2$
possibly different force-laws. A visual providing the particle positions in
addition to a measurement of the pressure is all that is required. The
algorithm proposed includes a part that can correct for experimental errors in
the positions of the particles. Such a correction of unavoidable measurement
errors is expected to benefit many experiments in the field.


title:
New approach to the resummation of logarithms in Higgs-boson decays to a
  vector quarkonium plus a photon

abstract:
  We present a calculation of the rates for Higgs-boson decays to a vector
heavy-quarkonium state plus a photon, where the heavy quarkonium states are the
J/psi and the Upsilon(nS) states, with n=1, 2, or 3. The calculation is carried
out in the light-cone formalism, combined with nonrelativistic QCD
factorization, and is accurate at leading order in m_Q^2/m_H^2, where m_Q is
the heavy-quark mass and m_H is the Higgs-boson mass. The calculation contains
corrections through next-to-leading order in the strong-coupling constant
alpha_s and the square of the heavy-quark velocity v, and includes a
resummation of logarithms of m_H^2/m_Q^2 at next-to-leading logarithmic
accuracy. We have developed a new method, which makes use of Abel summation,
accelerated through the use of Pade approximants, to deal with divergences in
the resummed expressions for the quarkonium light-cone distribution amplitudes.
This approach allows us to make definitive calculations of the resummation
effects. Contributions from the order-alpha_s and order-v^2 corrections to the
light-cone distribution amplitudes that we obtain with this new method differ
substantially from the corresponding contributions that one obtains from a
model light-cone distribution amplitude [M. Koenig and M. Neubert, J. High
Energy Phys. 08 (2015) 012]. Our results for the real parts of the
direct-process amplitudes are considerably smaller than those from one earlier
calculation [G. T. Bodwin, H. S. Chung, J.-H. Ee, J. Lee, and F. Petriello,
Phys. Rev. D 90, 113010 (2014)], reducing the sensitivity to the
Higgs-boson--heavy-quark couplings, and are somewhat smaller than those from
another earlier calculation [M. Koenig and M. Neubert, J. High Energy Phys. 08
(2015) 012]. However, our results for the standard-model Higgs-boson branching
fractions are in good agreement with those in M. Koenig and M. Neubert, J. High
Energy Phys. 08 (2015) 012.


title: von K\'arm\'an-Howarth equation for three-dimensional two-fluid plasmas

abstract:
  We derive the von K\'arm\'an-Howarth equation for a full three dimensional
incompressible two-fluid plasma. In the long-time limit and for very large
Reynolds numbers we obtain the equivalent of the hydrodynamic "four-fifth" law.
This exact law predicts the scaling of the third-order two-point correlation
functions, and puts a strong constraint on the plasma turbulent dynamics.
Finally, we derive a simple expression for the 4/5 law in terms of third-order
structure functions, which is appropriate for comparison with in-situ
measurements in the solar wind at different spatial ranges.


title:
The 21 cm signal and the interplay between dark matter annihilations and
  astrophysical processes

abstract:
  Future dedicated radio interferometers, including HERA and SKA, are very
promising tools that aim to study the epoch of reionization and beyond via
measurements of the 21 cm signal from neutral hydrogen. Dark matter (DM)
annihilations into charged particles change the thermal history of the Universe
and, as a consequence, affect the 21 cm signal. Accurately predicting the
effect of DM strongly relies on the modeling of annihilations inside halos. In
this work, we use up-to-date computations of the energy deposition rates by the
products from DM annihilations, a proper treatment of the contribution from DM
annihilations in halos, as well as values of the annihilation cross section
allowed by the most recent cosmological measurements from the Planck satellite.
Given current uncertainties on the description of the astrophysical processes
driving the epochs of reionization, X-ray heating and Lyman-$\alpha$ pumping,
we find that disentangling DM signatures from purely astrophysical effects,
related to early-time star formation processes or late-time galaxy X-ray
emissions, will be a challenging task. We conclude that only annihilations of
DM particles with masses of $\sim100$ MeV, could leave an unambiguous imprint
on the 21 cm signal and, in particular, on the 21 cm power spectrum. This is in
contrast to previous, more optimistic results in the literature, which have
claimed that strong signatures might also be present even for much higher DM
masses. Additional measurements of the 21 cm signal at different cosmic epochs
will be crucial in order to break the strong parameter degeneracies between DM
annihilations and astrophysical effects and undoubtedly single out a DM imprint
for masses different from $\sim100$ MeV.


title:
Integrable dissipative exclusion process: Correlation functions and
  physical properties

abstract:
  We study a one-parameter generalization of the symmetric simple exclusion
process on a one dimensional lattice. In addition to the usual dynamics (where
particles can hop with equal rates to the left or to the right with an
exclusion constraint), annihilation and creation of pairs can occur. The system
is driven out of equilibrium by two reservoirs at the boundaries. In this
setting the model is still integrable: it is related to the open XXZ spin chain
through a gauge transformation. This allows us to compute the full spectrum of
the Markov matrix using Bethe equations. Then, we derive the spectral gap in
the thermodynamical limit. We also show that the stationary state can be
expressed in a matrix product form permitting to compute the multi-points
correlation functions as well as the mean value of the lattice current and of
the creation-annihilation current. Finally the variance of the lattice current
is exactly computed for a finite size system. In the thermodynamical limit, it
matches perfectly the value obtained from the associated macroscopic
fluctuation theory. It provides a confirmation of the macroscopic fluctuation
theory for dissipative system from a microscopic point of view.


title: New classes of parameterized differential Galois groups

abstract:
  This paper is on the inverse parameterized differential Galois problem. We
show that surprisingly many groups do not occur as parameterized differential
Galois groups over K(x) even when K is algebraically closed. We then combine
the method of patching over fields with a suitable version of Galois descent to
prove that certain groups do occur as parameterized differential Galois groups
over k((t))(x). This class includes linear differential algebraic groups that
are generated by finitely many unipotent elements and also semisimple connected
linear algebraic groups.


title: On The Capacity Of Noisy Computations

abstract:
  This paper presents an analysis of the concept of capacity for noisy com-
putations, i.e. functions implemented by unreliable or random devices. An
information theoretic model of noisy computation of a perfect function f
(measurable function between sequence spaces) thanks to an unreliable device
(random channel) F is given: a noisy computation is a product fxF of channels.
A model of reliable computation based on input encoding and output decoding is
also proposed. These models extend those of noisy communication channel and of
reliable communication through a noisy channel. The capacity of a noisy
computation is defined and justified by a coding theorem and a converse. Under
some constraints on the encoding process, capacity is the upper bound of input
rates allowing reliable computation, i.e. decodability of noisy outputs into
expected outputs. These results hold when the one-sided random processes under
concern are asymptotic mean stationary (AMS) and ergodic. In addition, some
characterizations of AMS and ergodic noisy computations are given based on
stability properties of the perfect function f and of the random channel F.
These results are derived from the more general framework of channel products.
Finally, a way to apply the noisy and reliable computation models to cases
where the perfect function f is defined according to a formal computational
model is proposed.


title:
Smooth non-extremal D1-D5-P solutions as charged gravitational
  instantons

abstract:
  We present an alternative and more direct construction of the
non-supersymmetric D1-D5-P supergravity solutions found by Jejjala, Madden,
Ross and Titchener. We show that these solutions --- with all three charges and
both rotations turned on --- can be viewed as a charged version of the
Myers-Perry instanton. We present an inverse scattering construction of the
Myers-Perry instanton metric in Euclidean five-dimensional gravity. The angular
momentum bounds in this construction turn out to be precisely the ones
necessary for the smooth microstate geometries. We add charges on the
Myers-Perry instanton using appropriate SO(4,4) hidden symmetry
transformations. The full construction can be viewed as an extension and
simplification of a previous work by Katsimpouri, Kleinschmidt and Virmani.


title: Locality, bulk equations of motion and the conformal bootstrap

abstract:
  We develop an approach to construct local bulk operators in a CFT to order
$1/N^2$. Since 4-point functions are not fixed by conformal invariance we use
the OPE to categorize possible forms for a bulk operator. Using previous
results on 3-point functions we construct a local bulk operator in each OPE
channel. We then impose the condition that the bulk operators constructed in
different channels agree, and hence give rise to a well-defined bulk operator.
We refer to this condition as the "bulk bootstrap." We argue and explicitly
show in some examples that the bulk bootstrap leads to some of the same results
as the regular conformal bootstrap. In fact the bulk bootstrap provides an
easier way to determine some CFT data, since it does not require knowing the
form of the conformal blocks. This analysis clarifies previous results on the
relation between bulk locality and the bootstrap for theories with a $1/N$
expansion, and it identifies a simple and direct way in which OPE coefficients
and anomalous dimensions determine the bulk equations of motion to order
$1/N^2$.


title: Receiver operation characteristics of quantum state discrimination

abstract:
  We provide a description of the problem of the discrimination of two quantum
states in terms of receiver operation characteristics analysis, a prevalent
approach in classical statistics. Receiveroperation characteristics diagrams
provide an expressive representation of the problem, in which quantities such
as the fidelity and the trace distance also appear explicitly. In addition we
introduce an alternative quantum generalization of the classical Bhattacharyya
coefficient. We evaluate our quantum Bhattacharyya coefficient for certain
situations and describe some of its properties. These properties make it
applicable as another possible quantifier of the similarity of quantum states.


title:
Odderon and Pomeron as Fractal Dimension in $pp$ and $\bar{p}p$ Total
  Cross Sections

abstract:
  In this paper one presents a naive parametrization to $pp$ and $\bar{p}p$
total cross sections. The main goal of this parametrization is to study the
possible fractal structure present in the total cross section. The result of
the fitting procedure shows two different fractal dimensions: a negative
(low-energies) and a positive (high-energies). The negative fractal dimension
represents the emptiness of the total cross section structure and the positive
represents the filling up process with the energy increase. Hence, the total
cross section presents a multifractal behavior. At low-energies, the odderon
exchange may be associated with the negative fractal dimension and at
high-energies, the pomeron may be associated with the positive fractal
dimension. Therefore, the exchange of odderons and pomerons may be viewed as a
transition from a less well-defined to a more well-defined internal structure,
depending on the energy.


title: Discovery of a loose star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud

abstract:
  We present results for an up-to-date uncatalogued star cluster projected
towards the Eastern side of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) outer disc. The
new object was discovered from a search of loose star cluster in the Magellanic
Clouds' (MCs) outskirts using kernel density estimators on Washington CT1 deep
images. Contrarily to what would be commonly expected, the star cluster
resulted to be a young object (log(t /yr) = 8.45) with a slightly subsolar
metal content (Z = 0.013) and a total mass of 650Mo. Its core, half-mass and
tidal radii also are within the frequent values of LMC star clusters. However,
the new star cluster is placed at the Small Magellanic Cloud distance and at
11.3 kpc from the LMC centre. We speculate with the possibility that it was
born in the inner body of the LMC and soon after expeled into the intergalactic
space during the recent Milky Way/MCs interaction. Nevertheless, radial
velocity and chemical abundance measurements are needed to further understand
its origin, as well as extensive search for loose star clusters in order to
constrain the effectiveness of star cluster scattering during galaxy
interactions.


title:
Subgroup graph methods for presentations of finitely generated groups
  and the connectivity of associated simplicial complexes

abstract:
  In this article we generalize the theory of subgroup graphs of subgroups of
free groups to finite index subgroups $H$ of finitely generated groups $G$. We
study and prove various properties of $H$ in relation to its subgroup graph
$\Gamma(H)$. For a finitely generated group $G$ we consider the poset
$P_{\text{fi}}(G)$ of all right cosets of all proper finite index subgroups of
$G$. We use the theory of subgroup graphs to prove that for many finitely
generated infinite groups the order complex $\Delta P_{\text{fi}} (G)$ and the
corresponding nerve complex are contractible.


title:
Using real-time cluster configurations of streaming asynchronous
  features as online state descriptors in financial markets

abstract:
  We present a scheme for online, unsupervised state discovery and detection
from streaming, multi-featured, asynchronous data in high-frequency financial
markets. Online feature correlations are computed using an unbiased, lossless
Fourier estimator. A high-speed maximum likelihood clustering algorithm is then
used to find the feature cluster configuration which best explains the
structure in the correlation matrix. We conjecture that this feature
configuration is a candidate descriptor for the temporal state of the system.
Using a simple cluster configuration similarity metric, we are able to
enumerate the state space based on prevailing feature configurations. The
proposed state representation removes the need for human-driven data
pre-processing for state attribute specification, allowing a learning agent to
find structure in streaming data, discern changes in the system, enumerate its
perceived state space and learn suitable action-selection policies.


title:
New distance measures for classifying X-ray astronomy data into stellar
  classes

abstract:
  The classification of the X-ray sources into classes (such as extragalactic
sources, background stars, ...) is an essential task in astronomy. Typically,
one of the classes corresponds to extragalactic radiation, whose photon
emission behaviour is well characterized by a homogeneous Poisson process. We
propose to use normalized versions of the Wasserstein and Zolotarev distances
to quantify the deviation of the distribution of photon interarrival times from
the exponential class. Our main motivation is the analysis of a massive dataset
from X-ray astronomy obtained by the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP).
This project yielded a large catalog of 1616 X-ray cosmic sources in the Orion
Nebula region, with their series of photon arrival times and associated
energies. We consider the plug-in estimators of these metrics, determine their
asymptotic distributions, and illustrate their finite-sample performance with a
Monte Carlo study. We estimate these metrics for each COUP source from three
different classes. We conclude that our proposal provides a striking amount of
information on the nature of the photon emitting sources. Further, these
variables have the ability to identify X-ray sources wrongly catalogued before.
As an appealing conclusion, we show that some sources, previously classified as
extragalactic emissions, have a much higher probability of being young stars in
Orion Nebula.


title:
Generating Factoid Questions With Recurrent Neural Networks: The 30M
  Factoid Question-Answer Corpus

abstract:
  Over the past decade, large-scale supervised learning corpora have enabled
machine learning researchers to make substantial advances. However, to this
date, there are no large-scale question-answer corpora available. In this paper
we present the 30M Factoid Question-Answer Corpus, an enormous question answer
pair corpus produced by applying a novel neural network architecture on the
knowledge base Freebase to transduce facts into natural language questions. The
produced question answer pairs are evaluated both by human evaluators and using
automatic evaluation metrics, including well-established machine translation
and sentence similarity metrics. Across all evaluation criteria the
question-generation model outperforms the competing template-based baseline.
Furthermore, when presented to human evaluators, the generated questions appear
comparable in quality to real human-generated questions.


title:
Comparative study on mesh-based and mesh-less coupled CFD-DEM methods to
  model particle-laden flow

abstract:
  A comparative study on mesh-based and mesh-less Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) approaches coupled with the Discrete Element Method (DEM) is presented.
As the mesh-based CFD approach a Finite Volume Method (FVM) is used. A Smoothed
Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method represents mesh-less CFD. The unresolved
fluid model is governed by the locally averaged Navier-Stokes equations. A
newly developed model for applying boundary conditions in the SPH is described
and validation tests are performed. With the help of the presented comparative
tests, the similarities and differences of DEM-FVM and DEM-SPH methods are
discussed. Three test cases, comprised of a single solid particle sedimentation
test, flow through a porous block and sedimentation of a porous block, are
performed using both methods. Drag forces acting on solid particles highly
depend on local fluid fractions. For comparative reasons, the size of a cell in
FVM is chosen such that fluid fractions match those computed in SPH. In
general, DEM-FVM and DEM-SPH methods exhibit good agreement with analytic
reference results. Differences between DEM-SPH and DEM-FVM approaches were
found mostly due to differences in computed local fluid fractions.