title: Distance Sensitive Bloom Filters Without False Negatives

abstract:
  A Bloom filter is a widely used data-structure for representing a set $S$ and
answering queries of the form "Is $x$ in $S$?". By allowing some false positive
answers (saying "yes" when the answer is in fact `no') Bloom filters use space
significantly below what is required for storing $S$. In the distance sensitive
setting we work with a set $S$ of (Hamming) vectors and seek a data structure
that offers a similar trade-off, but answers queries of the form "Is $x$ close
to an element of $S$?" (in Hamming distance). Previous work on distance
sensitive Bloom filters have accepted false positive and false negative
answers. Absence of false negatives is of critical importance in many
applications of Bloom filters, so it is natural to ask if this can be also
achieved in the distance sensitive setting. Our main contributions are upper
and lower bounds (that are tight in several cases) for space usage in the
distance sensitive setting where false negatives are not allowed.


title: On the equivalence of various definitions of mixed Poisson processes

abstract:
  Under mild assumptions the equivalence of the mixed Poisson process with
mixing parameter a real-valued random variable to the one with mixing
distribution as well as to the mixed Poisson process in the sense of Huang is
obtained, and a characterization of each one of the above mixed Poisson
processes in terms of disintegrations is provided. Moreover, some examples of
"canonical" probability spaces admitting counting processes satisfying the
equivalence of all above statements are given. Finally, it is shown that our
assumptions are essential for the characterization of mixed Poisson processes
in terms of disintegrations.


title: Uniform bounds on locations of zeros of partial theta function

abstract:
  We consider the partial theta function $\theta (q,z):=\sum
_{j=0}^{\infty}q^{j(j+1)/2}z^j$, where $(q,z)\in \mathbb{C}^2$, $|q|<1$. We
show that for any $0<\delta _0<\delta <1$, there exists $n_0\in \mathbb{N}$
such that for any $q$ with $\delta _0\leq |q|\leq \delta$ and for any $n\geq
n_0$ the function $\theta$ has exactly $n$ zeros with modulus $<|q|^{-n-1/2}$
counted with multiplicity.


title: Novel Criteria to Exclude the Surrogate Paradox and Their Optimalities

abstract:
  When the primary outcome is hard to collect, surrogate endpoint is typically
used as a substitute. However, even when the treatment has a positive average
causal effect (ACE) on the surrogate endpoint, which also has a positive ACE on
the primary outcome, it is still possible that the treatment has a negative ACE
on the primary outcome. Such a phenomenon is called the surrogate paradox and
greatly challenges the use of surrogate. In this paper, we provide novel
criteria to exclude the surrogate paradox. Unlike other conditions previously
proposed, our conditions are testable since they only involve observed data.
Furthermore, our criteria are optimal in the sense that they are sufficient and
"almost necessary" to exclude the paradox: if the conditions are satisfied, the
surrogate paradox is guaranteed to be absent while if the conditions fail,
there exists a data generating process with surrogate paradox that can generate
the same observed data. That is, our criteria capture all the information in
the observed data to exclude the surrogate paradox rather than relying on
unverifiable distributional assumptions.


title: Geodesic Convexity and Regularized Scatter Estimators

abstract:
  As observed by Auderset et al. (2005) and Wiesel (2012), viewing covariance
matrices as elements of a Riemannian manifold and using the concept of geodesic
convexity provide useful tools for studying M-estimators of multivariate
scatter. In this paper, we begin with a mathematically rigorous self-contained
overview of Riemannian geometry on the space of symmetric positive definite
matrices and of the notion of geodesic convexity. The overview contains both a
review as well as new results. In particular, we introduce and utilize first
and second order Taylor expansions with respect to geodesic parametrizations.
This enables us to give sufficient conditions for a function to be geodesically
convex. In addition, we introduce the concept of geodesic coercivity, which is
important in establishing the existence of a minimum to a geodesic convex
function. We also develop a general partial Newton algorithm for minimizing
smooth and strictly geodesically convex functions. We then use these results to
generate a fairly complete picture of the existence, uniqueness and computation
of regularized M-estimators of scatter defined using additive geodescially
convex penalty terms. Various such penalties are demonstrated which shrink an
estimator towards the identity matrix or multiples of the identity matrix.
Finally, we propose a cross-validation method for choosing the scaling
parameter for the penalty function, and illustrate our results using a
numerical example.


title:
Effect of 0.25 and 2.0 MeV He-ion irradiation on short-range ordering in
  model (EFDA) Fe-Cr alloys

abstract:
  The effect of He+ ion irradiation on a distribution of Cr atoms in model
(EFDA) Fe(100-x)Cr(x) (x=5.8, 10.75, 15.15) was studied by means of conversion
electrons Mossbauer spectroscopy. The alloys were irradiated to the dose of
1.2E16 ions per cm2 (7.5 dpa) with He+ of 0.25 and 2.0 MeV. The distribution of
Cr atoms within the first two coordination shells around the probe Fe atoms was
expressed in terms of the Warren-Cowley short-range order parameters alpha1
(first-neighbour shell, 1NN), alpha2 (second-neighbour shell, 2NN) and alpha12
(1NN+2NN. In non-irradiated alloys alpha1 was positive and alpha2 was negative
for all three samples which indicates an ordering of Cr atoms. Yet, the value
of alpha12 were close to zero, i.e. the distribution of Cr atoms averaged over
the first two coordination shells around the probe Fe atoms, was random. The
effect of the irradiation of the Fe5Cr sample is similar for the two energies
of the He+ projectiles viz. increase of number of Cr atoms in the 1NN and
decrease in the 2NN shell. Consequently, the degree of the ordering increased.
For the other two samples, the effect of the irradiation depends on the
composition, and it is stronger for the less energetic ions where, in the case
of Fe10Cr, the disordering disappeared and some traces of Cr clustering
(alpha12 weakly positive) can be seen. In the Fe15Cr sample the clustering is
clear. In the samples irradiated with 2.0 MeV ions the ordering also survived
in the samples with x=10.75 and 15.15, although its degree became smaller than
in the Fe5Cr sample. Small changes in the magnetic texture were revealed.


title:
On Secrecy Metrics for Physical Layer Security over Quasi-Static Fading
  Channels

abstract:
  Theoretical studies on physical layer security often adopt the secrecy outage
probability as the performance metric for wireless communications over
quasi-static fading channels. The secrecy outage probability has two
limitations from a practical point of view: a) it does not give any insight
into the eavesdropper's decodability of confidential messages; b) it cannot
characterize the amount of information leakage to the eavesdropper when an
outage occurs. Motivated by the limitations of the secrecy outage probability,
we propose three new secrecy metrics for secure transmissions over quasi-static
fading channels. The first metric establishes a link between the concept of
secrecy outage and the decodability of messages at the eavesdropper. The second
metric provides an error-probability-based secrecy metric which is typically
used for the practical implementation of secure wireless systems. The third
metric characterizes how much or how fast the confidential information is
leaked to the eavesdropper. We show that the proposed secrecy metrics
collectively give a more comprehensive understanding of physical layer security
over fading channels and enable one to appropriately design secure
communication systems with different views on how secrecy is measured.


title: Renormalizable theories with symmetry breaking

abstract:
  The description of symmetry breaking proposed by K. Symanzik within the
framework of renormalizable theories is generalized from the geometrical point
of view. For an arbitrary compact Lie group, a soft breaking of arbitrary
covariance, and an arbitrary field multiplet, the expected integrated Ward
identities are shown to hold to all orders of renormalized perturbation theory
provided the Lagrangian is suitably chosen. The corresponding local Ward
identity which provides the Lagrangian version of current algebra through the
coupling to an external, classical, Yang-Mills field, is then proved to hold up
to the classical Adler-Bardeen anomaly whose general form is written down. The
BPHZ renormalization scheme is used throughout in such a way that the algebraic
structure analyzed in the present context may serve as an introduction to the
study of fully quantized gauge theories.


title:
Dynamic Joint Uplink and Downlink Optimization for Uplink and Downlink
  Decoupling-Enabled 5G Heterogeneous Networks

abstract:
  The concept of user-centric and personalized service in the fifth generation
(5G) mobile networks encourages technical solutions such as dynamic asymmetric
uplink/downlink resource allocation and elastic association of cells to users
with decoupled uplink and downlink (DeUD) access. In this paper we develop a
joint uplink and downlink optimization algorithm for DeUD-enabled wireless
networks for adaptive joint uplink and downlink bandwidth allocation and power
control, under different link association policies. Based on a general model of
inter-cell interference, we propose a three-step optimization algorithm to
jointly optimize the uplink and downlink bandwidth allocation and power
control, using the fixed point approach for nonlinear operators with or without
monotonicity, to maximize the minimum level of quality of service satisfaction
per link, subjected to a general class of resource (power and bandwidth)
constraints. We present numerical results illustrating the theoretical findings
for network simulator in a real-world setting, and show the advantage of our
solution compared to the conventional proportional fairness resource allocation
schemes in both the coupled uplink and downlink (CoUD) access and the novel
link association schemes in DeUD.


title: On spanning trees with high internal degree

abstract:
  Alon and Wormald showed that any graph with minimum degree d contains a
spanning star forest in which every connected component is of size at least
\Omega((d/\log d)^{1/3}). They asked if any connected graph with minimum degree
at least d has a spanning tree in which every internal vertex has degree at
least cd/\log d, for some absolute constant c > 0.
  We give a simple example showing that this is not the case.


title:
Modeling the role of electron attachment rates on column density ratios
  for CnH-/CnH (n=4,6,8) in dense molecular clouds

abstract:
  (abridged) The fairly recent detection of a variety of anions in the
Interstellar Molecular Clouds have underlined the importance of realistically
modeling the processes governing their abundance. To this aim, our earlier
calculations for the radiative electron attachment (REA) rates for C4H-, C6H-,
and C8H- are employed to generate the corresponding column density ratios of
anion/neutral (A/N) relative abundances. The latter are then compared with
those obtained from observational measurements. The calculations involved the
time-dependent solutions of a large network of chemical processes over an
extended time interval and included a series of runs in which the values of REA
rates were repeatedly scaled. Macroscopic parameters for the clouds' modeling
were also varied to cover a broad range of physical environments. It was found
that, within the range and quality of the processes included in the present
network,and selected from state-of-the-art astrophysical databases, the REA
values required to match the observed A/N ratios needed to be reduced by orders
of magnitude for C4H- case, while the same rates for C6H- and C8H- only needed
to be scaled by much smaller factors. The results suggest that the generally
proposed formation of interstellar anions by REA mechanism is overestimated by
current models for the C4H- case, for which is likely to be an inefficient path
to formation. This path is thus providing a rather marginal contribution to the
observed abundances of C4H-, the latter being more likely to originate from
other chemical processes in the network, as we discuss in some detail in the
present work.Possible physical reasons for the much smaller differences against
observations found instead for the values of the (A/N) ratios in two other,
longer members of the series are put forward and analyzed within the
evolutionary modeling discussed in the present work.


title: Multi-point Codes over Kummer Extensions

abstract:
  This paper is concerned with the construction of algebraic geometric codes
defined from Kummer extensions. It plays a significant role in the study of
such codes to describe bases for the Riemann-Roch spaces associated with
totally ramified places. Along this line, we give an explicit characterization
of Weierstrass semigroups and pure gaps. Additionally, we determine the floor
of a certain type of divisor introduced by Maharaj, Matthews and Pirsic.
Finally, we apply these results to find multi-point codes with good parameters.
As one of the examples, a presented code with parameters $ [254,228,\geqslant
16] $ over $ \mathbb{F}_{64} $ yields a new record.


title: A criteria of strong H-differentiability

abstract:
  We give a criteria for a Malliavin differentiable function to be strongly
H-differentiable.


title: Functional theories of thermoelectric phenomena

abstract:
  We review the progress that has been recently made in the application of
time-dependent density functional theory to thermoelectric phenomena. As the
field is very young, we emphasize open problems and fundamental issues. We
begin by introducing the formal structure of \emph{thermal density functional
theory}, a density functional theory with two basic variables -- the density
and the energy density -- and two conjugate fields -- the ordinary scalar
potential and Luttinger's thermomechanical potential. The static version of
this theory is contrasted with the familiar finite-temperature density
functional theory, in which only the density is a variable. We then proceed to
constructing the full time-dependent non equilibrium theory, including the
practically important Kohn-Sham equations that go with it. The theory is shown
to recover standard results of the Landauer theory for thermal transport in the
steady state, while showing greater flexibility by allowing a description of
fast thermal response, temperature oscillations and related phenomena. Several
results are presented here for the first time, i.e., the proof of invertibility
of the thermal response function in the linear regime, the full expression of
the thermal currents in the presence of Luttinger's thermomechanical potential,
an explicit prescription for the evaluation of the Kohn-Sham potentials in the
adiabatic local density approximation, a detailed discussion of the leading
dissipative corrections to the adiabatic local density approximation and the
thermal corrections to the resistivity that follow from it.


title: Periods of modular GL2-type abelian varieties and p-adic integration

abstract:
  Let F be a number field and N an integral ideal in its ring of integers. Let
f be a modular newform over F of level Gamma0(N) with rational Fourier
coefficients. Under certain additional conditions, Guitart-Masdeu-Sengun
constructed a p-adic lattice which is conjectured to be the Tate lattice of an
elliptic curve E whose L-function equals that of f. The aim of this note is to
generalize this construction when the Hecke eigenvalues of f generate a number
field of degree d >= 1, in which case the geometric object associated to f is
expected to be, in general, an abelian variety A of dimension d. We also
provide numerical evidence supporting the conjectural construction in the case
of abelian surfaces.


title: Laplacian spectral characterization of roses

abstract:
  A rose graph is a graph consisting of cycles that all meet in one vertex. We
show that except for two specific examples, these rose graphs are determined by
the Laplacian spectrum, thus proving a conjecture posed by Lui and Huang [F.J.
Liu and Q.X. Huang, Laplacian spectral characterization of 3-rose graphs,
Linear Algebra Appl. 439 (2013), 2914--2920]. We also show that if two rose
graphs have a so-called universal Laplacian matrix with the same spectrum, then
they must be isomorphic. In memory of Horst Sachs (1927-2016), we show the
specific case of the latter result for the adjacency matrix by using Sachs'
theorem and a new result on the number of matchings in the disjoint union of
paths.


title:
Two-dimensional Kac-Rice formula. Application to shot noise processes
  excursions

abstract:
  Given a deterministic function f:R^2->R atisfying suitable assump- tions, we
show that for h smooth with compact support, the integral of the Euler
characteristic of the excursion set of f above some level u against a test
function h corresponds to the Lebesgue integral on R^2 of a bounded quantity
depending on grad(f)(x),h(f(x)),h'(f(x)) and \partial_{ii}f(x),i = 1,2. This
formula can be seen as a 2-dimensional analogue of Kac-Rice formula. It yields
in particular that the left hand member is continuous in the argument f, for an
appropriate norm on the space of C2 functions. If f is a random field, the
expectation can be passed under integrals in this identity under minimal
requirements, not involving any density assumptions on the marginals of f or
his derivatives. We apply these results to give a weak expression of the mean
Euler characteristic of a shot noise process, and the finiteness of its
moments.


title:
A partial characterization of Hilbert quasi-polynomials in the
  non-standard case

abstract:
  The Hilbert function, its generating function and the Hilbert polynomial of a
graded ring R have been extensively studied since the famous paper of Hilbert:
Ueber die Theorie der algebraischen Formen [Hil90]. In particular, the
coefficients and the degree of the Hilbert polynomial play an important role in
Algebraic Geometry. If the ring grading is non-standard, then its Hilbert
function is not eventually equal to a polynomial but to a quasi-polynomial. It
turns out that a Hilbert quasi-polynomial P of degree n splits into a
polynomial S of degree n and a lower degree quasi-polynomial T. We have
completely determined the degree of T and the first few coefficients of P.
Moreover, the quasi-polynomial T has a periodic structure that we have
described. We have also implemented a software to compute effectively the
Hilbert quasi-polynomial for any quotient ring R/I.


title: Stability of Rank 2 Ulrich Bundles on Projective K3 Surfaces

abstract:
  Let $F\subseteq\mathbb P ^{a+1}$ be a non-degenerate $K3$ surface of degree
$2a$, where $a\ge2$. In this paper we deal with Ulrich bundles on $F$ of rank
$2$. We deal with their stability and we construct $K3$ surfaces endowed with
families of non-special Ulrich bundles of rank $2$ for each $a\ge2$.


title:
Electron-positron pair production in ion collisions at low velocity
  beyond Born approximation

abstract:
  We derive the spectrum and the total cross section of electromagnetic
$e^{+}e^{-}$ pair production in the collisions of two nuclei at low relative
velocity $\beta$. Both free-free and bound-free $e^{+}e^{-}$ pair production is
considered. The parameters $\eta_{A,B}=Z_{A,B}\alpha$ are assumed to be small
compared to unity but arbitrary compared to $\beta$ ($Z_{A,B}$ are the charge
numbers of the nuclei and $\alpha$ is the fine structure constant). Due to a
suppression of the Born term by high power of $\beta$, the first Coulomb
correction to the amplitude appears to be important at $\eta_{A,B}\gtrsim
\beta$. The effect of a finite nuclear mass is discussed. In contrast to the
result obtained in the infinite nuclear mass limit, the terms $\propto M^{-2}$
are not suppressed by the high power of $\beta$ and may easily dominate at
sufficiently small velocities.


title:
Large Deviations of a Network of Neurons with Dynamic Sparse Random
  Connections

abstract:
  In this work we determine a process-level Large Deviation Principle (LDP) for
a model of interacting particles indexed by a lattice $\mathbb{Z}^d$. The
connections are random, sparse and unscaled, so that the system converges in
the large size limit due to the probability of a connection between any two
particles decreasing as the system size increases. The particles are also
subject to noise (such as independent Brownian Motions). The method of proof is
to assume a process-level (or Level 3) LDP for the double-layer empirical
measure for the noise and connections, and then apply a series of
transformations to this to obtain an LDP for the process-level empirical
measure of our system. Although it is not explicitly necessary, we expect that
most applications of this work should involve an assumption of stationarity of
the probability law for the noise and connections under translations of the
lattice, so that the system converged to an ergodic probability law in the
large size limit. This work synthesizes the theory of large-size limits of
interacting particles with that of random graphs and matrices. It should
therefore be relevant to neuroscience and social networks theory in particular.


title:
The effect of disk inclination on the Main Sequence of star forming
  galaxies

abstract:
  We use the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) database to explore the effect of
the disk inclination angle on the derived star formation rate (SFR), hence on
the slope and width of the Main Sequence (MS) relation for star-forming
galaxies. We find that SFRs for nearly edge-on disks are underestimated by
factors ranging from $\sim$ 0.2 dex for low mass galaxies up to $\sim$ 0.4 dex
for high mass galaxies. This results in a substantially flatter MS relation for
high-inclination disks compared to that for less inclined ones, though the
global effect over the whole sample of star-forming galaxies is relatively
minor, given the small fraction of high-inclination disks. However, we also
find that galaxies with high-inclination disks represent a non negligible
fraction of galaxies populating the so-called green valley, with derived SFRs
intermediate between the MS and those of quenched, passively evolving galaxies.


title: Relativistic Gravity Gradiometry: The Mashhoon--Theiss Effect

abstract:
  In general relativity, relativistic gravity gradiometry involves the
measurement of the relativistic tidal matrix, which is theoretically obtained
from the projection of the Riemann curvature tensor onto the orthonormal tetrad
frame of an observer. The observer's 4-velocity vector defines its local
temporal axis and its local spatial frame is defined by a set of three
orthonormal nonrotating gyro directions. The general tidal matrix for the
timelike geodesics of Kerr spacetime has been calculated by Marck\cite{Marck}.
We are interested in the measured components of the curvature tensor along the
inclined "circular" geodesic orbit of a test mass about a slowly rotating
astronomical object of mass $M$ and angular momentum $J$. Therefore, we
specialize Marck's results to such a "circular" orbit that is tilted with
respect to the equatorial plane of the Kerr source. To linear order in $J$, we
recover the Mashhoon--Theiss effect, which is due to a small denominator
("resonance") phenomenon involving the frequency of geodetic precession. The
Mashhoon--Theiss effect shows up as a special long-period gravitomagnetic part
of the relativistic tidal matrix. The physical interpretation of this effect is
briefly discussed.


title:
Specific Heat and Electrical Transport Properties of Sn0.8Ag0.2Te
  Superconductor

abstract:
  Sn0.8Ag0.2Te is a new superconductor with Tc ~ 2.4 K. The superconducting
properties of Sn0.8Ag0.2Te have been investigated by specific heat measurements
under magnetic fields. Bulk nature of superconductivity was confirmed from the
amplitude of the specific heat jump at the superconducting transition, and the
amplitude is consistent with fully-gapped superconductivity. Upper critical
field was estimated from specific heat and electrical resistivity measurements
under magnetic fields. The Hall coefficient was positive, suggesting that the
Ag acts as a p-type dopant in Sn0.8Ag0.2Te.


title: Generalised Hermite-Gaussian beams and mode transformations

abstract:
  Generalised Hermite-Gaussian modes (gHG modes), an extended notion of
Hermite-Gaussian modes (HG modes), are formed by the summation of normal HG
modes with a characteristic function $\alpha$, which can be used to unite
conventional HG modes and Laguerre-Gaussian modes (LG modes). An infinite
number of normalised orthogonal modes can thus be obtained by modulation of the
function $\alpha$. The gHG mode notion provides a useful tool in analysis of
the deformation and transformation phenomena occurring in propagation of HG and
LG modes with astigmatic perturbation.


title: Resonantly enhanced filamentation in gases

abstract:
  In this Letter, a low-loss Kerr-driven optical filament in Krypton gas is
experimentally reported in the ultraviolet. The experimental findings are
supported by ab initio quantum calculations describing the atomic optical
response. Higher-order Kerr effect induced by three-photon resonant transitions
is identified as the underlying physical mechanism responsible for the
intensity stabilization during the filamentation process, while ionization
plays only a minor role. This result goes beyond the commonly-admitted paradigm
of filamentation, in which ionization is a necessary condition of the filament
intensity clamping. At resonance, it is also experimentally demonstrated that
the filament length is greatly extended because of a strong decrease of the
optical losses.


title: Supervised Transformer Network for Efficient Face Detection

abstract:
  Large pose variations remain to be a challenge that confronts real-word face
detection. We propose a new cascaded Convolutional Neural Network, dubbed the
name Supervised Transformer Network, to address this challenge. The first stage
is a multi-task Region Proposal Network (RPN), which simultaneously predicts
candidate face regions along with associated facial landmarks. The candidate
regions are then warped by mapping the detected facial landmarks to their
canonical positions to better normalize the face patterns. The second stage,
which is a RCNN, then verifies if the warped candidate regions are valid faces
or not. We conduct end-to-end learning of the cascaded network, including
optimizing the canonical positions of the facial landmarks. This supervised
learning of the transformations automatically selects the best scale to
differentiate face/non-face patterns. By combining feature maps from both
stages of the network, we achieve state-of-the-art detection accuracies on
several public benchmarks. For real-time performance, we run the cascaded
network only on regions of interests produced from a boosting cascade face
detector. Our detector runs at 30 FPS on a single CPU core for a VGA-resolution
image.


title: Dark matter halos and the M-\sigma relation for supermassive black holes

abstract:
  We develop models of two-component spherical galaxies to establish scaling
relations linking the properties of spheroids at $z=0$ (total stellar masses,
effective radii $R_e$ and velocity dispersions within $R_e$) to the properties
of their dark-matter halos at both $z=0$ and higher redshifts. . Our main
motivation is the widely accepted idea that the accretion-driven growth of
supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in protogalaxies is limited by quasar-mode
feedback and gas blow-out. The SMBH masses, $M_{\rm{BH}}$, should then be
connected to the dark-matter potential wells at the redshift $z_{\rm{qso}}$ of
the blow-out. We specifically consider the example of a power-law dependence on
the maximum circular speed in a protogalactic dark-matter halo:
$M_{\rm{BH}}\propto V^4_{\rm{d,pk}}$, as could be expected if quasar-mode
feedback were momentum-driven. For halos with a given $V_{\rm{d,pk}}$ at a
given $z_{\rm{qso}}\ge 0$, our model scaling relations give a typical stellar
velocity dispersion $\sigma_{\rm{ap}}(R_e)$ at $z=0$. Thus, they transform a
theoretical $M_{\rm{BH}}$-$V_{\rm{d,pk}}$ relation into a prediction for an
observable $M_{\rm{BH}}$-$\sigma_{\rm{ap}}(R_e)$ relation. We find the latter
to be distinctly non-linear in log-log space. Its shape depends on the generic
redshift-evolution of halos in a {$\Lambda$}CDM cosmology and the systematic
variation of stellar-to-dark matter mass fraction at $z=0$, in addition to any
assumptions about the physics underlying the $M_{\rm{BH}}$-$V_{\rm{d,pk}}$
relation. Despite some clear limitations of the form we use for $M_{\rm{BH}}$
versus $V_{\rm{d,pk}}$, and even though we do not include any SMBH growth
through dry mergers at low redshift, our results for
$M_{\rm{BH}}$-$\sigma_{\rm{ap}}(R_e)$ compare well to data for local early
types if we take $z_{\rm{qso}} \sim$ 2-4.


title:
Self-Gravitating Static Non-Critical Black Holes in 4$D$
  Einstein-Klein-Gordon System with Nonminimal Derivative Coupling

abstract:
  We study static non-critical hairy black holes of four dimensional
gravitational model with nonminimal derivative coupling and a scalar potential
turned on. By taking an ansatz, namely, the first derivative of the scalar
field is proportional to square root of a metric function, we reduce the
Einstein field equation and the scalar field equation of motions into a single
highly nonlinear differential equation. This setup implies that the hair is
secondary-like since the scalar charge-like depends on the non-constant
mass-like quantity in the asymptotic limit. Then, we show that near boundaries
the solution is not the critical point of the scalar potential and the
effective geometries become spaces of constant scalar curvature.


title:
Global explicit particle-in-cell simulations of the nonstationary bow
  shock and magnetosphere

abstract:
  We carry out two-dimensional global particle-in-cell simulations of the
interaction between the solar wind and a dipole field to study the formation of
the bow shock and magnetosphere. A self-reforming bow shock ahead of a dipole
field is presented by using relatively high temporal-spatial resolutions. We
find that (1) the bow shock and the magnetosphere are formed and reach a
quasi-stable state after several ion cyclotron periods, and (2) under the Bz
southward solar wind condition the bow shock undergoes a self-reformation for
low \b{eta}i and high MA. Simultaneously, a magnetic reconnection in the
magnetotail is found. For high \b{eta}i and low MA, the shock becomes
quasi-stationary, and the magnetotail reconnection disappears. In addition, (3)
the magnetopause deflects the magnetosheath plasmas. The sheath particles
injected at the quasi-perpendicular region of the bow shock can be convected to
downstream of an oblique shock region. A fraction of these sheath particles can
leak out from the magnetosheath at the wings of the bow shock. Hence, the
downstream situation is more complicated than that for a planar shock produced
in local simulations.


title:
Self-consistent double-hybrid density-functional theory using the
  optimized-effective-potential method

abstract:
  We introduce an orbital-optimized double-hybrid (DH) scheme using the
optimized-effective-potential (OEP) method. The orbitals are optimized using a
local potential corresponding to the complete exchange-correlation energy
expression including the second-order M{{\o}}ller-Plesset (MP2) correlation
contribution. We have implemented a one-parameter version of this OEP-based
self-consistent DH scheme using the BLYP density-functional approximation and
compared it to the corresponding non-self-consistent DH scheme for calculations
on a few closed-shell atoms and molecules. While the OEP-based self-consistency
does not provide any improvement for the calculations of ground-state total
energies and ionization potentials, it does improve the accuracy of electron
affinities and restores the meaning of the LUMO orbital energy as being
connected to a neutral excitation energy. Moreover, the OEP-based
self-consistent DH scheme provides reasonably accurate exchange-correlation
potentials and correlated densities.


title: Morphological transitions of sliding drops: Dynamics and bifurcations

abstract:
  We study fully three-dimensional droplets that slide down an incline by
employing a thin-film equation that accounts for capillarity, wettability, and
a lateral driving force in small-gradient (or long-wave) approximation. In
particular, we focus on qualitative changes in the morphology and behavior of
stationary sliding drops. We employ the inclination angle of the substrate as
control parameter and use continuation techniques to analyze for several fixed
droplet sizes the bifurcation diagram of stationary droplets, their linear
stability, and relevant eigenmodes. The obtained predictions on existence
ranges and instabilities are tested via direct numerical simulations that are
also used to investigate a branch of time-periodic behavior (corresponding to
repeated breakup-coalescence cycles, where the breakup is also denoted as
pearling) which emerges at a global instability, the related hysteresis in
behavior, and a period-doubling cascade. The nontrivial oscillatory behavior
close to a Hopf bifurcation of drops with a finite-length tail is also studied.
Finally, it is shown that the main features of the bifurcation diagram follow
scaling laws over several decades of the droplet size.


title:
On unconditional well-posedness for the periodic modified korteweg-de
  vries equation

abstract:
  We prove that the modified KdV equation is unconditionally well-posed in H s
(T) for s $\ge$ 1/3.


title:
On the spectral radius of a random matrix: an upper bound without fourth
  moment

abstract:
  Consider a square matrix with independent and identically distributed entries
of zero mean and unit variance. It is well known that if the entries have a
finite fourth moment, then, in high dimension, with high probability, the
spectral radius is close to the square root of the dimension. We conjecture
that this holds true under the sole assumption of zero mean and unit variance,
in other words that there are no outliers in the circular law. In this work we
establish the conjecture in the case of symmetrically distributed entries with
a finite moment of order larger than two. The proof uses the method of moments
combined with a novel truncation technique for cycle weights that might be of
independent interest.


title:
Exact Maximum Entropy Inverse Optimal Control for Modelling Human
  Attention Switching and Control

abstract:
  Maximum Causal Entropy (MCE) Inverse Optimal Control (IOC) has become an
effective tool for modelling human behaviour in many control tasks. Its
advantage over classic techniques for estimating human policies is the
transferability of the inferred objectives: Behaviour can be predicted in
variations of the control task by policy computation using a relaxed optimality
criterion. However, exact policy inference is often computationally intractable
in control problems with imperfect state observation. In this work, we present
a model class that allows modelling human control of two tasks of which only
one be perfectly observed at a time requiring attention switching. We show how
efficient and exact objective and policy inference via MCE can be conducted for
these control problems. Both MCE-IOC and Maximum Causal Likelihood (MCL)-IOC, a
variant of the original MCE approach, as well as Direct Policy Estimation (DPE)
are evaluated using simulated and real behavioural data. Prediction error and
generalization over changes in the control process are both considered in the
evaluation. The results show a clear advantage of both IOC methods over DPE,
especially in the transfer over variation of the control process. MCE and MCL
performed similar when training on a large set of simulated data, but differed
significantly on small sets and real data.


title:
Tl2LaCl5 (Ce3+): New Fast and Efficient Scintillator for X- and
  {\gamma}-ray detection

abstract:
  Scintillation properties of the new Tl2LaCl5: xCe3+ where x = 0, 0.5, 1 and
10 mole % (TLC: Ce3+) single crystals are presented. Two zones vertical
Bridgman technique is used for the growth of this scintillation material. High
Z-number (79) of this material offer excellent detection efficiency for X- and
{\gamma}-rays. Grown samples are characterized under X- and {\gamma}-rays
excitation in order to find the emission wavelength, energy resolution, light
yield, and decay time. Emission spectra exhibit Ce3+ emission bands between 350
- 550 nm and peaking at 389 nm. The obtained energy resolution and light yield
increases with high Ce-concentration. Energy resolution and light yield of
10%Ce-doped sample are found to be 6.9% (FWHM) and 51,000+-5000 ph/MeV,
respectively at room temperature. For the grown samples, two exponential decay
time constants are found. The measured decay time constants showed variation in
their values with respect to Ce-concentrations in the host crystal. Fast decay
time constant of 31 ns with 87% light emission is found for 10%Ce sample.
Scintillation results suggested that TLC will be one of the promising next
generation scintillator for the medical imaging techniques such as Positron
Emission Tomography (PET).


title:
Feedback in Clouds II: UV Photoionisation and the first supernova in a
  massive cloud

abstract:
  Molecular cloud structure is regulated by stellar feedback in various forms.
Two of the most important feedback processes are UV photoionisation and
supernovae from massive stars. However, the precise response of the cloud to
these processes, and the interaction between them, remains an open question. In
particular, we wish to know under which conditions the cloud can be dispersed
by feedback, which in turn can give us hints as to how feedback regulates the
star formation inside the cloud. We perform a suite of radiative
magnetohydrodynamic simulations of a 10^5 solar mass cloud with embedded
sources of ionising radiation and supernovae, including multiple supernovae and
a hypernova model. A UV source corresponding to 10% of the mass of the cloud is
required to disperse the cloud, suggesting that the star formation efficiency
should be on the order of 10%. A single supernova is unable to significantly
affect the evolution of the cloud. However, energetic hypernovae and multiple
supernovae are able to add significant quantities of momentum to the cloud,
approximately 10^{43} g cm/s of momentum per 10^{51} ergs of supernova energy.
This is on the lower range of estimates in other works, since dense gas clumps
that remain embedded inside the HII region cause rapid cooling in the supernova
blast. We argue that supernovae alone are unable to regulate star formation in
molecular clouds, and that strong pre-supernova feedback is required to allow
supernova blastwaves to propagate efficiently into the interstellar medium


title: Variational calculus for diffusions

abstract:
  We expand the classic variational formulation of
$-\log\mathbb{E}\left[e^{-f}\right]$ to the case where f depends on a
diffusion, and not only a on Brownian motion, while decreasing the
integrability hypothesis on f. We also give an entropic characterisation of the
invertibility of a perturbation of a diffusion and discuss the attainability of
the infimum in the aforementioned variational formulation.


title: Construction and Skorohod representation of a fractional K-rough path

abstract:
  We go ahead with the study initiated in [3] about a heat-equation model with
non-linear perturbation driven by a space-time fractional noise. Using general
results from Hairer's theory of regularity structures, the analysis reduces to
the construction of a so-called K-rough path (above the noise), a notion we
introduce here as a compromise between regularity structures formalism and
rough paths theory. The exhibition of such a K-rough path at order three allows
us to cover the whole roughness domain that extends up to the standard
space-time white noise situation. We also provide a representation of this
abstract K-rough path in terms of Skorohod stochastic integrals.


title:
Parity Oblivious d-Level Random Access Codes and Class of
  Noncontextuality Inequalities

abstract:
  One of the fundamental results in quantum foundations is the Kochen-Specker
no-go theorem. For the quantum theory, the no-go theorem excludes the
possibility of a class of hidden variable models where value attribution is
context independent. Recently, the notion of contextuality has been generalized
for different operational procedures and it has been shown that preparation
contextuality of mixed quantum states can be a useful resource in an
information-processing task called parity-oblivious multiplexing. Here, we
introduce a new class of information processing tasks, namely d-level parity
oblivious random access codes and obtain bounds on the success probabilities of
performing such tasks in any preparation noncontextual theory. These bounds
constitute noncontextuality inequalities for any value of d. For d=3, using a
set of mutually asymmetric biased bases we show that the corresponding
noncontextual bound is violated by quantum theory. We also show quantum
violation of the inequalities for some other higher values of d. This reveals
operational usefulness of preparation contextuality of higher level quantum
systems.


title:
Transmission and tunneling probability in two-band metals: influence of
  magnetic breakdown on the Onsager phase of quantum oscillations

abstract:
  Tunneling amplitude through magnetic breakdown (MB) gap is considered for two
bands Fermi surfaces illustrated in many organic metals. In particular, the
S-matrix associated to the wave-function transmission through the MB gap for
the relevant class of differential equations is the main object allowing the
determination of tunneling probabilities and phases. The calculated
transmission coefficients include a field-dependent Onsager phase. As a result,
quantum oscillations are not periodic in 1/B for finite magnetic breakdown gap.
Exact and approximate methods are proposed for computing ratio amplitudes of
the wave-function in interacting two-band models.


title:
Concurrent parametrization against static and kinetic information leads
  to more robust coarse-grained force fields

abstract:
  The parametrization of coarse-grained (CG) simulation models for molecular
systems often aims at reproducing static properties alone. The reduced
molecular friction of the CG representation usually results in faster, albeit
inconsistent, dynamics. In this work, we rely on Markov state models to
simultaneously characterize the static and kinetic properties of two CG peptide
force fields---one top-down and one bottom-up. Instead of a rigorous evolution
of CG dynamics (e.g., using a generalized Langevin equation), we attempt to
improve the description of kinetics by simply altering the existing CG models,
which employ standard Langevin dynamics. By varying masses and relevant
force-field parameters, we can improve the timescale separation of the slow
kinetic processes, achieve a more consistent ratio of mean-first-passage times
between metastable states, and refine the relative free-energies between these
states. Importantly, we show that the incorporation of kinetic information into
a structure-based parametrization improves the description of the helix-coil
transition sampled by a minimal CG model. While structure-based models
understabilize the helical state, kinetic constraints help identify CG models
that improve the ratio of forward/backward timescales by effectively hindering
the sampling of spurious conformational intermediate states.


title: From chaos to order through mixing

abstract:
  In this article we consider the possibility of controlling the dynamics of
nonlinear discrete systems. A new method of control is by mixing states of the
system (or the functions of these states) calculated on previous steps. This
approach allows us to locally stabilize a priori unknown cycles of a given
length. As a special case, we have a cycle stabilization using nonlinear
feedback. Several examples are considered.


title: On the complexity of partial derivatives

abstract:
  The method of partial derivatives is one of the most successful lower bound
methods for arithmetic circuits. It uses as a complexity measure the dimension
of the span of the partial derivatives of a polynomial. In this paper, we
consider this complexity measure as a computational problem: for an input
polynomial given as the sum of its nonzero monomials, what is the complexity of
computing the dimension of its space of partial derivatives? We show that this
problem is #P-hard and we ask whether it belongs to #P. We analyze the "trace
method", recently used in combinatorics and in algebraic complexity to lower
bound the rank of certain matrices. We show that this method provides a
polynomial-time computable lower bound on the dimension of the span of partial
derivatives, and from this method we derive closed-form lower bounds. We leave
as an open problem the existence of an approximation algorithm with reasonable
performance guarantees.A slightly shorter version of this paper was presented
at STACS'17. In this new version we have corrected a typo in Section 4.1, and
added a reference to Shitov's work on tensor rank.


title: Active colloids in the context of chemical kinetics

abstract:
  We study a mesoscopic model of a chemically active colloidal particle which
on certain parts of its surface promotes chemical reactions in the surrounding
solution. For reasons of simplicity and conceptual clarity, we focus on the
case in which only electrically neutral species are present in the solution and
on chemical reactions which are described by first order kinetics. Within a
self-consistent approach we explicitly determine the steady state product and
reactant number density fields around the colloid as functionals of the
interaction potentials of the various molecular species in solution with the
colloid. By using Teubner's reciprocal theorem, this allows us to compute and
to interpret -- in a transparent way in terms of the classical Smoluchowski
theory of chemical kinetics -- the external force needed to keep such a
catalytically active colloid at rest (\textit{stall} force) or, equivalently,
the corresponding velocity of the colloid \textit{if} it is free to move. We
use the particular case of triangular-well interaction potentials as a
benchmark example for applying the general theoretical framework developed
here. For this latter case, we derive explicit expressions for the dependences
of the quantities of interest on the diffusion coefficients of the chemical
species, the reaction rate constant, the coverage by catalyst, the size of the
colloid, as well as on the parameters of the interaction potentials. These
expressions provide a detailed picture of the phenomenology associated with
catalytically-active colloids and self-diffusiophoresis.


title: Circular plate capacitor with different disks

abstract:
  In this paper we write a system of integral equations for a capacitor
composed by two disks of different radii, generalizing Love's equation for
equal disks. We compute the complete asymptotic form of the capacitance matrix
both for large and small distances obtaining a generalization of Kirchhoff's
formula for the latter case.


title:
The QACITS pointing sensor: from theory to on-sky operation on
  Keck/NIRC2

abstract:
  Small inner working angle coronagraphs are essential to benefit from the full
potential of large and future extremely large ground-based telescopes,
especially in the context of the detection and characterization of exoplanets.
Among existing solutions, the vortex coronagraph stands as one of the most
effective and promising solutions. However, for focal-plane coronagraph, a
small inner working angle comes necessarily at the cost of a high sensitivity
to pointing errors. This is the reason why a pointing control system is
imperative to stabilize the star on the vortex center against pointing drifts
due to mechanical flexures, that generally occur during observation due for
instance to temperature and/or gravity variations. We have therefore developed
a technique called QACITS (Quadrant Analysis of Coronagraphic Images for
Tip-tilt Sensing), which is based on the analysis of the coronagraphic image
shape to infer the amount of pointing error. It has been shown that the flux
gradient in the image is directly related to the amount of tip-tilt affecting
the beam. The main advantage of this technique is that it does not require any
additional setup and can thus be easily implemented on all current facilities
equipped with a vortex phase mask. In this paper, we focus on the
implementation of the QACITS sensor at Keck/NIRC2, where an L-band AGPM has
been recently commissioned (June and October 2015), successfully validating the
QACITS estimator in the case of a centrally obstructed pupil. The algorithm has
been designed to be easily handled by any user observing in vortex mode, which
is available for science in shared risk mode since 2016B.


title: Chain-Assisted Charge Transport in Semicrystalline Conjugated Polymers

abstract:
  Charge-carrier transport in a paradigmatic semicrystalline polymer
semiconductor (P3HT) is important for both fundamental understanding and
applications. In samples with enhanced structural disorder due to ad-hoc point
defects, the mobility displays rich behavior as a function of electric field
(F) and temperature (T). At low T, the mobility increases with the applied
field, but upon further increasing T, the field-dependence becomes shallower.
Eventually, at the highest T considered, the slope changes sign and the
mobility then decreases with the field. This phenomenon can be interpreted with
our model as a result of the competition between intrachain conductive-like
transport (which slows on increasing F) and interchain activated transport
(which is faster at higher F). The former is controlling at high T where
interchain hops are strictly limited to nearest-neighbor monomers on adjacent
chains. At low T, instead, interchain hops to distant sites are allowed and
control the positive correlation of the mobility with the field.


title:
Applications of normal forms for weighted Leavitt path algebras: simple
  rings and domains

abstract:
  Weighted Leavitt path algebras (wLpas) are a generalisation of Leavitt path
algebras (with graphs of weight 1) and cover the algebras $L_K(n, n + k)$
constructed by Leavitt. Using Bergman's Diamond lemma, we give normal forms for
elements of a weighted Leavitt path algebra. This allows us to produce a basis
for a wLpa. Using the normal form we classify the wLpas which are domains,
simple and graded simple rings. For a large class of weighted Leavitt path
algebras we establish a local valuation and as a consequence we prove that
these algebras are prime, semiprimitive and nonsingular but contrary to Leavitt
path algebras, they are not graded von Neumann regular.


title: 3D MHD modeling of twisted coronal loops

abstract:
  We perform MHD modeling of a single bright coronal loop to include the
interaction with a non-uniform magnetic field. The field is stressed by random
footpoint rotation in the central region and its energy is dissipated into
heating by growing currents through anomalous magnetic diffusivity that
switches on in the corona above a current density threshold. We model an entire
single magnetic flux tube, in the solar atmosphere extending from the high-beta
chromosphere to the low-beta corona through the steep transition region. The
magnetic field expands from the chromosphere to the corona. The maximum
resolution is ~30 km. We obtain an overall evolution typical of loop models and
realistic loop emission in the EUV and X-ray bands. The plasma confined in the
flux tube is heated to active region temperatures (~3 MK) after ~2/3 hr.
Upflows from the chromosphere up to ~100 km/s fill the core of the flux tube to
densities above 10^9 cm^-3. More heating is released in the low corona than the
high corona and is finely structured both in space and time.


title:
A short proof of the asymptotic of the minimum of the branching random
  walk after time $n$

abstract:
  We write $R_n$ for the minimal position attained after time $n$ by a
branching random walk in the boundary case. In this article, we prove that $R_n
- \frac{1}{2} \log n$ converges in law toward a shifted Gumbel distribution.


abstract:
  We characterise, for each $p$ in $[1,\infty) \setminus \{2\}$, the class of
$L^p$ spherical multipliers on homogeneous trees in terms of $L^p$ Fourier
multipliers on the torus.


title:
A note on tropical curves and the Newton diagrams of plane curve
  singularities

abstract:
  For a convenient and Newton non-degenerate singularity, the Milnor number is
computed from the complement of its Newton diagram in the first quadrant,
so-called Kouchnirenko's formula. In this paper, we consider tropical curves
dual to subdivisions of this complement for a plane curve singularity and show
the existence of a tropical curve satisfying a certain formula, which looks
like a well-known formula for a real morsification due to A'Campo and
Gusein-Zade.


title:
A Pohozaev-type formula and Quantization of Horizontal Half-Harmonic
  Maps

abstract:
  In a recent paper the first and the third authors introduced the notion of
horizontal \alpha-harmonic map, with respect to a given C^1 planes distribution
P_T on all R^m. The goal of this paper is to investigate compactness and
quantization properties of sequences of horizontal 1/2- harmonic maps u_k in
1D. The quantization analysis is obtained through a precise asymptotic
development of the energy of u_k in the neck regions and a subtle application
of new Pohozaev-type formulae.


title:
A constructive proof of Tarski's theorem on quantifier elimination in
  the theory of ACF

abstract:
  Assume that $ACF$ denotes the theory of algebraically closed fields. The
renowned theorem of A. Tarski states that $ACF$ admits quantifier elimination.
In this paper we give a constructive proof of Tarski's theorem on quantifier
elimination in $ACF$. This means that for a given formula $\varphi$ of the
language of fields we construct a quantifier-free formula $\varphi'$ such that
$ACF\vdash\varphi\leftrightarrow\varphi'$. We devote the last section of the
paper to show some applications of this constructive version in mathematics and
physics.


title:
Distribution-dependent concentration inequalities for tighter
  generalization bounds

abstract:
  Concentration inequalities are indispensable tools for studying the
generalization capacity of learning models. Hoeffding's and McDiarmid's
inequalities are commonly used, giving bounds independent of the data
distribution. Although this makes them widely applicable, a drawback is that
the bounds can be too loose in some specific cases. Although efforts have been
devoted to improving the bounds, we find that the bounds can be further
tightened in some distribution-dependent scenarios and conditions for the
inequalities can be relaxed. In particular, we propose four types of conditions
for probabilistic boundedness and bounded differences, and derive several
distribution-dependent extensions of Hoeffding's and McDiarmid's inequalities.
These extensions provide bounds for functions not satisfying the conditions of
the existing inequalities, and in some special cases, tighter bounds.
Furthermore, we obtain generalization bounds for unbounded and
hierarchy-bounded loss functions. Finally we discuss the potential applications
of our extensions to learning theory.


title:
Distributed Algorithms for Robust Convex Optimization via the Scenario
  Approach

abstract:
  This paper proposes distributed algorithms to solve robust convex
optimization (RCO) when the constraints are affected by nonlinear uncertainty.
We adopt a scenario approach by randomly sampling the uncertainty set. To
facilitate the computational task, instead of using a single centralized
processor to obtain a "global solution" of the scenario problem (SP), we resort
to {\it multiple interconnected processors} that are distributed among
different nodes of a network to simultaneously solve the SP. Then, we propose a
primal-dual sub-gradient algorithm and a random projection algorithm to
distributedly solve the SP over undirected and directed graphs, respectively.
Both algorithms are given in an explicit recursive form with simple iterations,
which are especially suited for processors with limited computational
capability. We show that, if the underlying graph is strongly connected, each
node asymptotically computes a common optimal solution to the SP with a
convergence rate $O(1/(\sum_{t=1}^k\zeta^t))$ where $\{\zeta^t\}$ is a sequence
of appropriately decreasing stepsizes. That is, the RCO is effectively solved
in a distributed way. The relations with the existing literature on robust
convex programs are thoroughly discussed and an example of robust system
identification is included to validate the effectiveness of our distributed
algorithms.


title:
Ab initio calculation of thermodynamic, transport, and optical
  properties of CH$_2$ plastics

abstract:
  This work covers an ab initio calculation of thermodynamic, transport, and
optical properties of plastics of the effective composition CH$_2$ at density
0.954 g/cm$^3$ in the temperature range from 5 kK up to 100 kK. The calculation
is based on the quantum molecular dynamics, density functional theory and the
Kubo-Greenwood formula. The temperature dependence of the static electrical
conductivity $\sigma(T)$ has a step-like shape: $\sigma(T)$ grows rapidly for 5
kK <= $T$ <= 10 kK and is almost constant for 20 kK <= $T$ <= 60 kK. The
additional analysis based on the investigation of the electron density of
states (DOS) is performed. The rapid growth of $\sigma(T)$ at 5 kK<= $T$ <= 10
kK is connected with the increase of DOS at the electron energy equal to the
chemical potential $\epsilon = \mu$. The frequency dependence of the dynamic
electrical conductivity $\sigma_1(\omega)$ at 5 kK has the distinct non-Drude
shape with the peak at $\omega \approx 10$ eV. This behavior of
$\sigma_1(\omega)$ was explained by the dip at the electron DOS.


title:
Experimental Realisation of a Thermal Squeezed State of Levitated
  Optomechanics

abstract:
  We experimentally squeeze the thermal motional state of an optically
levitated nanosphere, by fast switching between two trapping frequencies. The
measured phase space distribution of our particle shows the typical shape of a
squeezed thermal state, from which we infer up to 2.7dB of squeezing along one
motional direction. The experiment features a large number of thermal
excitations, therefore remaining in the classical regime. Nevertheless, we
argue that the manipulation scheme described here could be used to achieve
squeezing below the zero-point level, if preceded by ground state cooling of
the levitated mechanical oscillator. Additionally, a higher degree of squeezing
could in principle be achieved by repeating the frequency-switching protocol
multiple times.


title:
On enhanced corrections from quasi-degenerate states to heavy quarkonium
  observables

abstract:
  It is well known that in perturbation theory existence of quasi-degenerate
states can rearrange the order counting. For a heavy quarkonium system,
naively, enhanced effects ($l$-changing mixing effects) could contribute
already to the first-order and third-order corrections to the wave function and
the energy level, respectively, in expansion in $\alpha_s$. We present a
formulation and note that the corresponding (lowest-order) corrections vanish
due to absence of the relevant off-diagonal matrix elements. As a result, in
the quarkonium energy level and leptonic decay width, the enhanced effects are
expected to appear, respectively, in the fifth- and fourth-order corrections
and beyond.


title: Scaling of Information in Turbulence

abstract:
  We propose a new perspective on Turbulence using Information Theory. We
compute the entropy rate of a turbulent velocity signal and we particularly
focus on its dependence on the scale. We first report how the entropy rate is
able to describe the distribution of information amongst scales, and how one
can use it to isolate the injection, inertial and dissipative ranges, in
perfect agreement with the Batchelor model and with a fBM model. In a second
stage, we design a conditioning procedure in order to finely probe the
asymmetries in the statistics that are responsible for the energy cascade. Our
approach is very generic and can be applied to any multiscale complex system.


title: Assessing and Comparing Mutation-based Fault Localization Techniques

abstract:
  Recent research demonstrated that mutation-based fault localization
techniques are relatively accurate and practical. However, these methods have
never been compared and have only been assessed with simple hand-seeded faults.
Therefore, their actual practicality is questionable when it comes to real-wold
faults. To deal with this limitation we asses and compare the two main
mutation-based fault localization methods, named Metallaxis and MUSE, on a set
of real-world programs and faults. Our results based on three typical
evaluation metrics indicate that mutation-based fault localization methods are
relatively accurate and provide relevant information to developers. Overall,
our result indicate that Metallaxis and MUSE require 18% and 37% of the program
statements to find the sought faults. Additionally, both methods locate 50% and
80% of the studied faults when developers inspect 10 and 25 statements.


title:
Spatiotemporal steering of photoelectron emission in multiphoton
  above-threshold ionization

abstract:
  We experimentally demonstrate spatiotemporal steering of photoelectron
emission in multiphoton above-threshold single ionization of atoms exposed to a
phase-controlled orthogonally polarized two-color (OTC) laser pulse. Spatial
and energy resolved photoelectron angular distributions are measured as a
function of the laser phase, allowing us to look into the fine structures and
emission dynamics. The slow and fast photoelectrons, distinguished by the
energy larger or smaller than 2Up with Up being the ponderomotive energy of a
free electron in the laser field, have distinct spatiotemporal dependences of
the laser waveform. The phase-of-phase of the slow electron oscillates as
functions of both the energy and emission direction, however, the fast electron
present rather flat phase structure which merely depends on its emission
direction. Three-dimensional generalized quantum trajectory Monte Carlo
simulations are performed to explore the sub-cycle dynamics of the electron
emission in the phase-controlled OTC pulse.


title:
Sectoral co-movements in the Indian stock market: A mesoscopic network
  analysis

abstract:
  In this article we review several techniques to extract information from
stock market data. We discuss recurrence analysis of time series, decomposition
of aggregate correlation matrices to study co-movements in financial data,
stock level partial correlations with market indices, multidimensional scaling
and minimum spanning tree. We apply these techniques to daily return time
series from the Indian stock market. The analysis allows us to construct
networks based on correlation matrices of individual stocks in one hand and on
the other, we discuss dynamics of market indices. Thus both micro level and
macro level dynamics can be analyzed using such tools. We use the
multi-dimensional scaling methods to visualize the sectoral structure of the
stock market, and analyze the comovements among the sectoral stocks. Finally,
we construct a mesoscopic network based on sectoral indices. Minimum spanning
tree technique is seen to be extremely useful in order to separate
technologically related sectors and the mapping corresponds to actual
production relationship to a reasonable extent.


title: Determinacy separations for class games

abstract:
  We show, assuming weak large cardinals, that in the context of games played
in a proper class of moves, clopen determinacy is strictly weaker than open
determinacy. The proof amounts to an analysis of a certain level of $L$ that
exists under large cardinal assumptions weaker than an inaccessible. Our
argument is sufficiently general to give a family of determinacy separation
results applying in any setting where the universal class is sufficiently
closed; e.g., in third, seventh, or $(\omega+2)$th order arithmetic. We also
prove bounds on the strength of Borel determinacy for proper class games. These
results answer questions of Gitman and Hamkins.


title: Spanning Circuits in Regular Matroids

abstract:
  We consider the fundamental Matroid Theory problem of finding a circuit in a
matroid spanning a set T of given terminal elements. For graphic matroids this
corresponds to the problem of finding a simple cycle passing through a set of
given terminal edges in a graph. The algorithmic study of the problem on
regular matroids, a superclass of graphic matroids, was initiated by
Gaven\v{c}iak, Kr\'al', and Oum [ICALP'12], who proved that the case of the
problem with |T|=2 is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) when parameterized by the
length of the circuit. We extend the result of Gaven\v{c}iak, Kr\'al', and Oum
by showing that for regular matroids
  - the Minimum Spanning Circuit problem, deciding whether there is a circuit
with at most \ell elements containing T, is FPT parameterized by k=\ell-|T|;
  - the Spanning Circuit problem, deciding whether there is a circuit
containing T, is FPT parameterized by |T|. We note that extending our
algorithmic findings to binary matroids, a superclass of regular matroids, is
highly unlikely: Minimum Spanning Circuit parameterized by \ell is W[1]-hard on
binary matroids even when |T|=1. We also show a limit to how far our results
can be strengthened by considering a smaller parameter. More precisely, we
prove that Minimum Spanning Circuit parameterized by |T| is W[1]-hard even on
cographic matroids, a proper subclass of regular matroids.


title: Counting primes by sums of frequencies

abstract:
  We introduce the sequence $(a_n) \subset (0,1]$ and prove that the asymptotic
behaviour of $\sum_{k=1}^n a_k$ is the same than $\pi(n)$, the prime-counting
function. We also obtain that $\pi(n) \sim n a_n$ and we estimate
$\frac{1}{a_n}-\frac{n}{\pi(n)}$ showing that $\lim_{n \rightarrow \infty}
\frac{1}{a_n}-\frac{n}{\pi(n)}$ is convergent.


title:
Helicity statistics in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence and
  turbulence models

abstract:
  We study the statistical properties of helicity in direct numerical
simulations of fully developed homogeneous and isotropic turbulence and in a
class of turbulence shell models. We consider correlation functions based on
combinations of vorticity and velocity increments that are not invariant under
mirror symmetry. We also study the scaling properties of high-order structure
functions based on the moments of the velocity increments projected on a subset
of modes with either positive or negative helicity (chirality). We show that
mirror symmetry is recovered at small-scales, i.e., chiral terms are subleading
and they are well captured by a dimensional argument plus anomalous
corrections. These findings are also supported by a high Reynolds numbers study
of helical shell models with the same chiral symmetry of Navier-Stokes
equations.


title: Fate of superconductivity in disordered Dirac and semi-Dirac semimetals

abstract:
  The influence of weak disorder on the superconductivity in ordinary metals
can be formally described by the Abrikosov-Gorkov diagrammatic approach. The
vertex correction is ignored in this approach because an inequality $k_F l \gg
1$, where $k_F$ is the Fermi momentum and $l$ mean free path, is satisfied in
ordinary metals with a large Fermi surface. In a Dirac semimetal that has
discrete Fermi points, this inequality may break down even for arbitrarily weak
disorder since $k_F \rightarrow 0$, and thus the vertex correction could be
important. We incorporate the vertex correction into the self-consistent
equations of the superconducting gap and the disorder scattering rate, and then
apply the generalized approach to study how $s$-wave superconductivity is
affected by random chemical potential in two- and three-dimensional Dirac
semimetals, as well as two-dimensional semi-Dirac semimetal. In the clean
limit, superconductivity is formed only when the pairing interaction strength
is greater than some critical value in these materials. Adding random chemical
potential to the system promotes superconductivity by generating a finite
fermionic density of states at the Fermi level. In three-dimensional Dirac
semimetal, the critical attraction strength is reduced by weak disorder, but
remains finite. In the other two cases, superconductivity is induced by
arbitrarily weak attraction. Including the vertex correction does not change
these qualitative results, and actually could further promote superconductivity
in the weak-attraction regime. Bilayer graphene is quite special in that its
zero-energy density of states is nonzero despite the existence of Fermi points.
Due to this peculiar property, superconductivity is always slightly suppressed
by random chemical potential, and the impact of vertex correction is nearly
negligible.


title: Bendlets: A Second-Order Shearlet Transform with Bent Elements

abstract:
  We introduce bendlets, a shearlet-like system that is based on anisotropic
scaling, translation, shearing, and bending of a compactly supported generator.
With shearing being linear and bending quadratic in spatial coordinates,
bendlets provide what we term a second-order shearlet system. As we show in
this article, the decay rates of the associated transform enable the precise
characterization of location, orientation and curvature of discontinuities in
piecewise constant images. These results yield an improvement over existing
directional representation systems where curvature only controls the constant
of the decay rate of the transform. We also detail the construction of shearlet
systems of arbitrary order. A practical implementation of bendlets is provided
as an extension of the ShearLab toolbox, which we use to verify our theoretical
classification results.


title: Spectral pairs, Alexander modules, and boundary manifolds

abstract:
  Let $f: \CN \rightarrow \C $ be a reduced polynomial map, with $D=f^{-1}(0)$,
$\U=\CN \setminus D$ and boundary manifold $M=\partial \U$. Assume that $f$ is
transversal at infinity and $D$ has only isolated singularities. Then the only
interesting non-trivial Alexander modules of $\U$ and resp. $M$ appear in the
middle degree $n$. We revisit the mixed Hodge structures on these Alexander
modules and study their associated spectral pairs (or equivariant mixed Hodge
numbers). We obtain upper bounds for the spectral pairs of the $n$-th Alexander
module of $\U$, which can be viewed as a Hodge-theoretic refinement of
Libgober's divisibility result for the corresponding Alexander polynomials. For
the boundary manifold $M$, we show that the spectral pairs associated to the
non-unipotent part of the $n$-th Alexander module of $M$ can be computed in
terms of local contributions (coming from the singularities of $D$) and
contributions from "infinity".


title: Uncertainty Relations for Quantum Coherence

abstract:
  Coherence of a quantum state intrinsically depends on the choice of the
reference basis. A natural question to ask is the following: if we use two or
more incompatible reference bases, can~there be some trade-off relation between
the coherence measures in different reference bases? We show that the quantum
coherence of a state as quantified by the relative entropy of coherence in two
or more noncommuting reference bases respects uncertainty like relations for a
given state of single and bipartite quantum systems. In the case of bipartite
systems, we find that the presence of entanglement may tighten the above
relation. Further, we find an upper bound on the sum of the relative entropies
of coherence of bipartite quantum states in two noncommuting reference bases.
Moreover, we provide an upper bound on the absolute value of the difference of
the relative entropies of coherence calculated with respect to two incompatible
bases.


title: Dendritic Spine Shape Analysis: A Clustering Perspective

abstract:
  Functional properties of neurons are strongly coupled with their morphology.
Changes in neuronal activity alter morphological characteristics of dendritic
spines. First step towards understanding the structure-function relationship is
to group spines into main spine classes reported in the literature. Shape
analysis of dendritic spines can help neuroscientists understand the underlying
relationships. Due to unavailability of reliable automated tools, this analysis
is currently performed manually which is a time-intensive and subjective task.
Several studies on spine shape classification have been reported in the
literature, however, there is an on-going debate on whether distinct spine
shape classes exist or whether spines should be modeled through a continuum of
shape variations. Another challenge is the subjectivity and bias that is
introduced due to the supervised nature of classification approaches. In this
paper, we aim to address these issues by presenting a clustering perspective.
In this context, clustering may serve both confirmation of known patterns and
discovery of new ones. We perform cluster analysis on two-photon microscopic
images of spines using morphological, shape, and appearance based features and
gain insights into the spine shape analysis problem. We use histogram of
oriented gradients (HOG), disjunctive normal shape models (DNSM), morphological
features, and intensity profile based features for cluster analysis. We use
x-means to perform cluster analysis that selects the number of clusters
automatically using the Bayesian information criterion (BIC). For all features,
this analysis produces 4 clusters and we observe the formation of at least one
cluster consisting of spines which are difficult to be assigned to a known
class. This observation supports the argument of intermediate shape types.


title:
Answer to the Comments on the paper "A study of phantom scalar field
  cosmology using Lie and Noether symmetries" by A. Paliathanasis, et al.
  arXiv:1605.05147

abstract:
  This is a short communication in reference to the comments in (arXiv:
1605.05147) of our paper in Int. J. Mod. Phys. D 25, 1650051 (2016). We have
tried to answer to the comments or criticism in the paper.


title: Simplified Limits on Resonances at the LHC

abstract:
  In the earliest stages of evaluating new collider data, especially if a small
excess may be present, it would be useful to have a method for comparing the
data with entire classes of models, to get an immediate sense of which classes
could conceivably be relevant. In this paper, we propose a method that applies
when the new physics invoked to explain the excess corresponds to the
production and decay of a single, relatively narrow, $s$-channel resonance. A
simplifed model of the resonance allows us to convert an estimated signal cross
section into model-independent bounds on the product of the branching ratios
corresponding to production and decay. This quickly reveals whether a given
class of models could possibly produce a signal of the required size at the
LHC. Our work sets up a general framework, outlines how it operates for
resonances with different numbers of production and decay modes, and analyzes
cases of current experimental interest, including resonances decaying to
dibosons, diphotons, dileptons, or dijets. If the LHC experiments were to
report their searches for new resonances beyond the standard model in the
simplified limits variable $\zeta$ defined in this paper, that would make it
far easier to avoid blind alleys and home in on the most likely candidate
models to explain any observed excesses.


title:
Using the local gas-phase oxygen abundances to explore a
  metallicity-dependence in SNe Ia luminosities

abstract:
  We present an analysis of the gas-phase oxygen abundances of a sample of 28
galaxies in the local Universe (z < 0.02) hosting Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia).
The data were obtained with the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope (WHT). We
derive local oxygen abundances for the regions where the SNe Ia exploded by
calculating oxygen gradients through each galaxy (when possible) or assuming
the oxygen abundance of the closest HII region. The sample selection only
considered galaxies for which distances not based on the the SN Ia method are
available. Then, we use a principal component analysis to study the dependence
of the absolute magnitudes on the color of the SN Ia, the oxygen abundances of
the region where they exploded, and the stretch of the SN light curve. We
demonstrate that our previous result suggesting a metallicity-dependence on the
SN Ia luminosity for not-reddened SNe Ia (Moreno-Raya et al. 2016) can be
extended to our whole sample. These results reinforce the need of including a
metallicity proxy, such as the oxygen abundance of the host galaxy, to minimize
the systematic effect induced by the metallicity-dependence of the SN Ia
luminosity in future studies of SNe Ia at cosmological distances.


title: An Approximation Algorithm for the Art Gallery Problem

abstract:
  Given a simple polygon $\mathcal{P}$ on $n$ vertices, two points $x,y$ in
$\mathcal{P}$ are said to be visible to each other if the line segment between
$x$ and $y$ is contained in $\mathcal{P}$. The Point Guard Art Gallery problem
asks for a minimum set $S$ such that every point in $\mathcal{P}$ is visible
from a point in $S$. The set $S$ is referred to as guards. Assuming integer
coordinates and a specific general position assumption, we present the first
$O(\log \text{OPT})$-approximation algorithm for the point guard problem for
simple polygons. This algorithm combines ideas of a paper of Efrat and
Har-Peled [Inf. Process. Lett. 2006] and Deshpande et. al. [WADS 2007]. We also
point out a mistake in the latter.


title: Suspended Monolayer Graphene under True Uniaxial Deformation

abstract:
  2D crystals, such as graphene, exhibit the higher strength and stiffness of
any other known man-made or natural material. So far, this assertion has been
primarily based on modelling predictions and on bending experiments in
combination with pertinent modelling. True uniaxial loading of suspended
graphene is not easy to accomplish; however such an experiment is of paramount
importance in order to assess the intrinsic properties of graphene without the
influence of an underlying substrate. In this work we report on uniaxial
tension of graphene up to moderate strains of 0.8% ca.. This has been made
possible by sandwiching the graphene flake between two polymethylmethacrylate
(PMMA) layers and by suspending its central part by the removal of a section of
PMMA with e-beam lithography. True uniaxial deformation is confirmed by the
measured large phonon shifts with strain by Raman spectroscopy and the
indication of lateral buckling (similar to what is observed for thin
macroscopic membranes under tension). Finally, we also report on how the stress
is transferred to the suspended specimen through the adhesive grips and
determine the value of interfacial shear stress that is required for efficient
axial loading in such a system.


title: Dual Purpose Hashing

abstract:
  Recent years have seen more and more demand for a unified framework to
address multiple realistic image retrieval tasks concerning both category and
attributes. Considering the scale of modern datasets, hashing is favorable for
its low complexity. However, most existing hashing methods are designed to
preserve one single kind of similarity, thus improper for dealing with the
different tasks simultaneously. To overcome this limitation, we propose a new
hashing method, named Dual Purpose Hashing (DPH), which jointly preserves the
category and attribute similarities by exploiting the Convolutional Neural
Network (CNN) models to hierarchically capture the correlations between
category and attributes. Since images with both category and attribute labels
are scarce, our method is designed to take the abundant partially labelled
images on the Internet as training inputs. With such a framework, the binary
codes of new-coming images can be readily obtained by quantizing the network
outputs of a binary-like layer, and the attributes can be recovered from the
codes easily. Experiments on two large-scale datasets show that our dual
purpose hash codes can achieve comparable or even better performance than those
state-of-the-art methods specifically designed for each individual retrieval
task, while being more compact than the compared methods.


title: Verbal Perception and the Word Length Effect

abstract:
  A theoretical framework is proposed for the understanding of verbal
perception -- the conversion of words into meaning, modeled as a compromise
between lexical demands and contextual constraints -- and the theory is tested
against experiments on short-term memory. The observation that lists of short
words are recalled better than lists of long ones has been a long-standing
subject of controversy, further complicated by the apparent inversion of the
effect for mixed lists. In the framework here proposed, these behaviors emerge
as an effect of the different level of localization of short and long words in
semantic space. Events corresponding to the recognition of a nonlocal word have
a clustering property in phase space, which facilitates associative retrieval.
The standard word-length effect arises directly from this property, and the
inverse effect from its breakdown. An analysis of data from the PEERS
experiments (Healey and Kahana, 2016) confirms the main predictions of the
theory. Further predictions are listed and new experiments are proposed.
Finally, an interpretation of the above results is presented.


title: Invariants of Fokker-Planck equations

abstract:
  A weak invariant of a stochastic system is defined in such a way that its
expectation value with respect to the distribution function as a solution of
the associated Fokker-Planck equation is constant in time. A general formula is
given for time evolution of fluctuations of the invariants. An application to
the problem of share price in finance is illustrated. It is shown how this
theory makes it possible to reduce the growth rate of the fluctuations.


title: Magnetic field evolution and reversals in spiral galaxies

abstract:
  We study the evolution of galactic magnetic fields using 3D smoothed particle
magnetohydrodynamics (SPMHD) simulations of galaxies with an imposed spiral
potential. We consider the appearance of reversals of the field, and
amplification of the field. We find magnetic field reversals occur when the
velocity jump across the spiral shock is above $\approx$20km s$^{-1}$,
occurring where the velocity change is highest, typically at the inner Lindblad
resonance (ILR) in our models. Reversals also occur at corotation, where the
direction of the velocity field reverses in the co-rotating frame of a spiral
arm. They occur earlier with a stronger amplitude spiral potential, and later
or not at all with weaker or no spiral arms. The presence of a reversal at a
radii of around 4--6 kpc in our fiducial model is consistent with a reversal
identified in the Milky Way, though we caution that alternative Galaxy models
could give a similar reversal. We find that relatively high resolution, a few
million particles in SPMHD, is required to produce consistent behaviour of the
magnetic field. Amplification of the magnetic field occurs in the models, and
while some may be genuinely attributable to differential rotation or spiral
arms, some may be a numerical artefact. We check our results using Athena,
finding reversals but less amplification of the field, suggesting that some of
the amplification of the field with SPMHD is numerical.


title:
Comparison of CME/shock propagation models with heliospheric imaging and
  in situ observations

abstract:
  The prediction of the arrival time for fast coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and
their associated shocks is highly desirable in space weather studies. In this
paper, we use two shock propagation models, i.e. Data Guided Shock Time Of
Arrival (DGSTOA) and Data Guided Shock Propagation Model (DGSPM), to predict
the kinematical evolution of interplanetary shocks associated with fast CMEs.
DGSTOA is based on the similarity theory of shock waves in the solar wind
reference frame, and DGSPM on the non-similarity theory in the stationary
reference frame. The inputs are the kinematics of the CME front at the maximum
speed moment obtained from the geometric triangulation method applied to STEREO
imaging observations together with the Harmonic Mean approximation. The outputs
provide the subsequent propagation of the associated shock. We apply these
models to the CMEs on 2012 January 19, January 23, and March 7. We find that
the shock models predict reasonably well the shock's propagation after the
impulsive acceleration. The shock's arrival time and local propagation speed at
Earth predicted by these models are consistent with in situ measurements of
WIND. We also employ the Drag-Based Model (DBM) as a comparison, and find that
it predicts a steeper deceleration than the shock models after the rapid
deceleration phase. The predictions of DBM at 1 AU agree with the following
ICME or sheath structure, not the preceding shock. These results demonstrate
the applicability of the shock models used here for future arrival time
prediction of interplanetary shocks associated with fast CMEs.


title: Stability of anti-canonically balanced metrics

abstract:
  We study the asymptotic behavior of quantized Ding functionals along Bergman
geodesic rays and prove that the slope at infinity can be expressed in terms of
Donaldson-Futaki invariants and Chow weights. Based on the slope formula, we
introduce a new algebro-geometric stability on Fano manifolds and show that the
existence of anti-canonically balanced metrics implies our stability. The
relation between our stability and others is also discussed. As another
application of the slope formula, we get the lower bound estimate on the Calabi
like functionals on Fano manifolds.


title:
THOR: A New and Flexible Global Circulation Model to Explore Planetary
  Atmospheres

abstract:
  We have designed and developed, from scratch, a global circulation model
named THOR that solves the three-dimensional non-hydrostatic Euler equations.
Our general approach lifts the commonly used assumptions of a shallow
atmosphere and hydrostatic equilibrium. We solve the "pole problem" (where
converging meridians on a sphere lead to increasingly smaller time steps near
the poles) by implementing an icosahedral grid. Irregularities in the grid,
which lead to grid imprinting, are smoothed using the "spring dynamics"
technique. We validate our implementation of spring dynamics by examining
calculations of the divergence and gradient of test functions. To prevent the
computational time step from being bottlenecked by having to resolve sound
waves, we implement a split-explicit method together with a horizontally
explicit and vertically implicit integration. We validate our global
circulation model by reproducing the Earth and also the hot Jupiter-like
benchmark tests. THOR was designed to run on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs),
which allows for physics modules (radiative transfer, clouds, chemistry) to be
added in the future, and is part of the open-source Exoclimes Simulation
Platform (ESP; www.exoclime.org).


title: Adaptive Fused LASSO in Grouped Quantile Regression

abstract:
  This paper considers quantile model with grouped explanatory variables. In
order to have the sparsity of the parameter groups but also the sparsity
between two successive groups of variables, we propose and study an adaptive
fused group LASSO quantile estimator. The number of variable groups can be
fixed or divergent. We find the convergence rate under classical assumptions
and we show that the proposed estimator satisfies the oracle properties.


title: Scientific Computing Using Consumer Video-Gaming Hardware Devices

abstract:
  Commodity video-gaming hardware (consoles, graphics cards, tablets, etc.)
performance has been advancing at a rapid pace owing to strong consumer demand
and stiff market competition. Gaming hardware devices are currently amongst the
most powerful and cost-effective computational technologies available in
quantity. In this article, we evaluate a sample of current generation
video-gaming hardware devices for scientific computing and compare their
performance with specialized supercomputing general purpose graphics processing
units (GPGPUs). We use the OpenCL SHOC benchmark suite, which is a measure of
the performance of compute hardware on various different scientific application
kernels, and also a popular public distributed computing application,
Einstein@Home in the field of gravitational physics for the purposes of this
evaluation.


title:
Challenges for Efficient Query Evaluation on Structured Probabilistic
  Data

abstract:
  Query answering over probabilistic data is an important task but is generally
intractable. However, a new approach for this problem has recently been
proposed, based on structural decompositions of input databases, following,
e.g., tree decompositions. This paper presents a vision for a database
management system for probabilistic data built following this structural
approach. We review our existing and ongoing work on this topic and highlight
many theoretical and practical challenges that remain to be addressed.


title:
Partial Diffusion Recursive Least-Squares for Distributed Estimation
  under Noisy Links Condition

abstract:
  Partial diffusion-based recursive least squares (PDRLS) is an effective
method for reducing computational load and power consumption in adaptive
network implementation. In this method, each node shares a part of its
intermediate estimate vector with its neighbors at each iteration. PDRLS
algorithm reduces the internode communications relative to the full-diffusion
RLS algorithm. This selection of estimate entries becomes more appealing when
the information fuse over noisy links. In this paper, we study the steady-state
performance of PDRLS algorithm in presence of noisy links and investigate its
convergence in both mean and mean-square senses. We also derive a theoretical
expression for its steady-state meansquare deviation (MSD). The simulation
results illustrate that the stability conditions for PDRLS under noisy links
are not sufficient to guarantee its convergence. Strictly speaking, considering
nonideal links condition adds a new complexity to the estimation problem for
which the PDRLS algorithm becomes unstable and do not converge for any value of
the forgetting factor.


title: Exploiting Vagueness for Multi-Agent Consensus

abstract:
  A framework for consensus modelling is introduced using Kleene's three valued
logic as a means to express vagueness in agents' beliefs. Explicitly borderline
cases are inherent to propositions involving vague concepts where sentences of
a propositional language may be absolutely true, absolutely false or
borderline. By exploiting these intermediate truth values, we can allow agents
to adopt a more vague interpretation of underlying concepts in order to weaken
their beliefs and reduce the levels of inconsistency, so as to achieve
consensus. We consider a consensus combination operation which results in
agents adopting the borderline truth value as a shared viewpoint if they are in
direct conflict. Simulation experiments are presented which show that applying
this operator to agents chosen at random (subject to a consistency threshold)
from a population, with initially diverse opinions, results in convergence to a
smaller set of more precise shared beliefs. Furthermore, if the choice of
agents for combination is dependent on the payoff of their beliefs, this acting
as a proxy for performance or usefulness, then the system converges to beliefs
which, on average, have higher payoff.


title: Doubling Up on Supersymmetry in the Higgs Sector

abstract:
  We explore the possibility that physics at the TeV scale possesses
approximate $N = 2$ supersymmetry, which is reduced to the $N=1$ minimal
supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) at the electroweak scale.
This doubling of supersymmetry modifies the Higgs sector of the theory, with
consequences for the masses, mixings and couplings of the MSSM Higgs bosons,
whose phenomenological consequences we explore in this paper. The mass of the
lightest neutral Higgs boson $h$ is independent of $\tan \beta$ at the tree
level, and the decoupling limit is realized whatever the values of the heavy
Higgs boson masses. Radiative corrections to the top quark and stop squarks
dominate over those due to particles in $N=2$ gauge multiplets. We assume that
these radiative corrections fix $m_h \simeq 125$ GeV, whatever the masses of
the other neutral Higgs bosons $H, A$, a scenario that we term the $h$2MSSM.
Since the $H, A$ bosons decouple from the $W$ and $Z$ bosons in the $h$2MSSM at
tree level, only the LHC constraints on $H, A$ and $H^\pm$ couplings to
fermions are applicable. These and the indirect constraints from LHC
measurements of $h$ couplings are consistent with $m_A \gtrsim 200$ GeV for
$\tan \beta \in (2, 8)$ in the $h$2MSSM.


title: A general framework for variational calculus on Wiener space

abstract:
  We provide a framework to derive a variational formulation for
$-\log\mathbb{E}_\nu\left[e^{-f}\right]$ for a large class of measures $\nu$.
We use a family of perturbations of the identity $(W^u)$ whose invertibility we
characterize thanks to entropy. This yields results of strong existence for
various stochastic differential equations. We also discuss the attainability of
the infimum in the variational formulation and we derive a Pr\'ekopa-Leindler
theorem for the measure $\nu$.


title: Decentralized Opportunistic Access for D2D Underlaid Cellular Networks

abstract:
  We propose a decentralized access control scheme for interference management
in D2D (device-to-device) underlaid cellular networks. Our method combines
SIR-aware link activation with cellular exclusion regions in a case where D2D
links opportunistically access the licensed cellular spectrum. Analytical
expressions and tight approximations for the coverage probabilities of cellular
and D2D links are derived. We characterize the impact of the guard zone radius
and the SIR threshold on the D2D area spectral efficiency and cellular
coverage. A tractable approach was proposed in order to find the SIR threshold
and guard zone radius, which maximize the area spectral efficiency of the D2D
communication while ensuring sufficient coverage probability for cellular
uplink users. Simulations validate the accuracy of our analytical results and
show the performance gain of our proposed scheme compared to existing
state-of-the-art solutions.


title: Core level binding energies in solids from first-principles

abstract:
  A general method is presented to calculate absolute binding energies of core
levels in metals and insulators, based on a penalty functional and an exact
Coulomb cutoff method in a framework of the density functional theory. The
spurious interaction of core holes between supercells is avoided by the exact
Coulomb cutoff method, while the variational penalty functional enables us to
treat multiplet splittings due to chemical shift, spin-orbit coupling, and
exchange interaction on equal footing, both of which are not accessible by
previous methods. It is demonstrated that the absolute binding energies of core
levels for both metals and insulators are calculated by the proposed method in
a mean absolute (percentage) error of 0.4 eV (0.16~\%) for eight cases compared
to experimental values measured with X-ray photoemission spectroscopy within a
generalized gradient approximation to the exchange-correlation functional.


title:
Beyond Vibrationally Mediated Electron Transfer: Coherent Phenomena
  Induced by Ultrafast Charge Separation

abstract:
  Wave packet propagation succeeding electron transfer (ET) from alizarin dye
molecules into the nanocrystalline TiO2 semiconductor has been studied by
ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy. Due to the ultrafast time scale of
the ET reaction of about 6 fs the system shows substantial differences to
molecular ET systems. We show that the ET process is not mediated by molecular
vibrations and therefore classical ET theories lose their applicability. Here
the ET reaction itself prepares a vibrational wave packet and not the
electromagnetic excitation by the laser pulse. Furthermore, the generation of
phonons during polaron formation in the TiO2 lattice is observed in real time
for this system. The presented investigations enable an unambiguous assignment
of the involved photoinduced mechanisms and can contribute to a corresponding
extension of molecular ET theories to ultrafast ET systems like alizarin/TiO2.


title: Evaporation/Hadronization Correspondence

abstract:
  A holographic duality is proposed between black hole evaporation in the bulk
and hadronization (confinement) in dual field theory. Information paradox is
discussed in this duality. We also propose that the recently introduced semi
black brane solution is holographically dual to a mixed plasma of quarks,
gluons and hadrons in global equilibrium.


title: Fast Algorithms for Diameter-Optimally Augmenting Paths and Trees

abstract:
  We consider the problem of augmenting an n-vertex graph embedded in a metric
space, by inserting one additional edge in order to minimize the diameter of
the resulting graph. We present exact algorithms for the cases when (i) the
input graph is a path, running in O(n \log^3 n) time, and (ii) the input graph
is a tree, running in O(n^2 \log n) time. We also present an algorithm that
computes a (1+\eps)-approximation in O(n + 1/\eps^3) time, for paths in R^d,
where d is a constant.