title:
Uncertainty quantification for proton-proton fusion in chiral effective
  field theory

abstract:
  We compute the $S$-factor of the proton-proton ($pp$) fusion reaction using
chiral effective field theory ($\chi$EFT) up to next-to-next-to-leading order
(NNLO) and perform a rigorous uncertainty analysis of the results. We quantify
the uncertainties due to (i) the computational method used to compute the $pp$
cross section in momentum space, (ii) the statistical uncertainties in the
low-energy coupling constants of $\chi$EFT, (iii) the systematic uncertainty
due to the $\chi$EFT cutoff, and (iv) systematic variations in the database
used to calibrate the nucleon-nucleon interaction. We also examine the
robustness of the polynomial extrapolation procedure, which is commonly used to
extract the threshold $S$-factor and its energy-derivatives. By performing a
statistical analysis of the polynomial fit of the energy-dependent $S$-factor
at several different energy intervals, we eliminate a systematic uncertainty
that can arise from the choice of the fit interval in our calculations. In
addition, we explore the statistical correlations between the $S$-factor and
few-nucleon observables such as the binding energies and point-proton radii of
$^{2,3}$H and $^3$He as well as the $D$-state probability and quadrupole moment
of $^2$H, and the $\beta$-decay of $^{3}$H. We find that, with the
state-of-the-art optimization of the nuclear Hamiltonian, the statistical
uncertainty in the threshold $S$-factor cannot be reduced beyond 0.7%.


title:
A large light-mass component of cosmic rays at 10^{17} - 10^{17.5} eV
  from radio observations

abstract:
  Cosmic rays are the highest energy particles found in nature. Measurements of
the mass composition of cosmic rays between 10^{17} eV and 10^{18} eV are
essential to understand whether this energy range is dominated by Galactic or
extragalactic sources. It has also been proposed that the astrophysical
neutrino signal comes from accelerators capable of producing cosmic rays of
these energies. Cosmic rays initiate cascades of secondary particles (air
showers) in the atmosphere and their masses are inferred from measurements of
the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum, Xmax, or the composition of shower
particles reaching the ground. Current measurements suffer from either low
precision, or a low duty cycle and a high energy threshold. Radio detection of
cosmic rays is a rapidly developing technique, suitable for determination of
Xmax with a duty cycle of in principle nearly 100%. The radiation is generated
by the separation of relativistic charged particles in the geomagnetic field
and a negative charge excess in the shower front. Here we report radio
measurements of Xmax with a mean precision of 16 g/cm^2 between
10^{17}-10^{17.5} eV. Because of the high resolution in $Xmax we can determine
the mass spectrum and find a mixed composition, containing a light mass
fraction of ~80%. Unless the extragalactic component becomes significant
already below 10^{17.5} eV, our measurements indicate an additional Galactic
component dominating at this energy range.


title: Sentiment Analysis in Scholarly Book Reviews

abstract:
  So far different studies have tackled the sentiment analysis in several
domains such as restaurant and movie reviews. But, this problem has not been
studied in scholarly book reviews which is different in terms of review style
and size. In this paper, we propose to combine different features in order to
be presented to a supervised classifiers which extract the opinion target
expressions and detect their polarities in scholarly book reviews. We construct
a labeled corpus for training and evaluating our methods in French book
reviews. We also evaluate them on English restaurant reviews in order to
measure their robustness across the domains and languages. The evaluation shows
that our methods are enough robust for English restaurant reviews and French
book reviews.


title: Spin Ferroquadrupolar Order in the Nematic Phase of FeSe

abstract:
  We provide evidence that spin ferroquadrupolar (FQ) order is the likely
ground state in the nonmagnetic nematic phase of stoichiometric FeSe. By
studying the variational mean-field phase diagram of a bilinear-biquadratic
Heisenberg model up to the 2nd nearest neighbor, we find the FQ phase in close
proximity to the columnar antiferromagnet commonly realized in iron-based
superconductors; the stability of FQ phase is further verified by the density
matrix renormalization group. The dynamical spin structure factor in the FQ
state is calculated with flavor-wave theory, which yields a qualitatively
consistent result with inelastic neutron scattering experiments on FeSe at both
low and high energies. We verify that FQ can coexist with $C_4$ breaking
environments in the mean-field calculation, and further discuss the possibility
that quantum fluctuations in FQ act as a source of nematicity.


title:
Integrated Sequence Tagging for Medieval Latin Using Deep Representation
  Learning

abstract:
  In this paper we consider two sequence tagging tasks for medieval Latin:
part-of-speech tagging and lemmatization. These are both basic, yet
foundational preprocessing steps in applications such as text re-use detection.
Nevertheless, they are generally complicated by the considerable orthographic
variation which is typical of medieval Latin. In Digital Classics, these tasks
are traditionally solved in a (i) cascaded and (ii) lexicon-dependent fashion.
For example, a lexicon is used to generate all the potential lemma-tag pairs
for a token, and next, a context-aware PoS-tagger is used to select the most
appropriate tag-lemma pair. Apart from the problems with out-of-lexicon items,
error percolation is a major downside of such approaches. In this paper we
explore the possibility to elegantly solve these tasks using a single,
integrated approach. For this, we make use of a layered neural network
architecture from the field of deep representation learning.


title:
FeS: Structure and Composition Relations to Superconductivity and
  Magnetism

abstract:
  Structure and composition of iron chalcogenides have a delicate relationship
with magnetism and superconductivity. In this report we investigate the iron
sulfide layered tetragonal phase (t-FeS), and compare with three-dimensional
hexagonal phase (h-FeS). X-ray diffraction reveals the absence of structural
transitions for both t- and h-FeS below room temperature, and gives phase
compositions of Fe0.93(1)S and Fe0.84(1)S, respectively, for the samples
studied here. The a lattice parameter of bigger than 3.68 A is significant for
causing bulk superconductivity in iron sulfide, which is controlled by
composition and structural details such as iron stoichiometry and concentration
of vacancy. While h-FeS with a = 3.4436(1) A has magnetic ordering well above
room temperature, our t-FeS with a =3.6779(8)A shows filamentary
superconductivity below Tc = 4 K with less than 15% superconducting volume
fraction. Also for t-FeS, the magnetic susceptibility shows an anomaly at ~ 15
K, and neutron diffraction reveals a commensurate antiferromagnetic ordering
below TN = 116 K, with wave vector km= (0.25,0.25,0) and 0.46(2)uB/Fe. Although
two synthesis routes are used here to stabilize t vs h crystal structures
(hydrothermal vs solid-state methods), both FeS compounds order on two
length-scales of ~1000 nm sheets or blocks and ~ 20 nm smaller particles, shown
by neutron scattering. First principles calculations reveal a high sensitivity
to the structure for the electronic and magnetic properties in t-FeS,
predicting marginal antiferromagnetic instability for our compound (sulfur
height of zS ~0.252) with an ordering energy of ~11 meV/Fe, while h-FeS is
magnetically stable.


title: High Resolution Weak Lensing Mass-Mapping Combining Shear and Flexion

abstract:
  We propose a new mass-mapping algorithm, specifically designed to recover
small-scale information from a combination of gravitational shear and flexion.
Including flexion allows us to supplement the shear on small scales in order to
increase the sensitivity to substructures and the overall resolution of the
convergence map without relying on strong lensing constraints. In order to
preserve all available small scale information, we avoid any binning of the
irregularly sampled input shear and flexion fields and treat the mass-mapping
problem as a general ill-posed inverse problem, regularised using a robust
multi-scale wavelet sparsity prior. The resulting algorithm incorporates
redshift, reduced shear, and reduced flexion measurements for individual
galaxies and is made highly efficient by the use of fast Fourier estimators. We
test our reconstruction method on a set of realistic weak lensing simulations
corresponding to typical HST/ACS cluster observations and demonstrate our
ability to recover substructures with the inclusion of flexion which are lost
if only shear information is used. In particular, we can detect substructures
at the 15$^{\prime \prime}$ scale well outside of the critical region of the
clusters. In addition, flexion also helps to constrain the shape of the central
regions of the main dark matter halos. Our mass-mapping software, called
Glimpse2D, is made freely available at
http://www.cosmostat.org/software/glimpse .


title:
Limiting Distribution of the Rightmost Particle in Catalytic Branching
  Brownian Motion

abstract:
  We study the model of binary branching Brownian motion with
spatially-inhomogeneous branching rate $\beta \delta_0(\cdot)$, where
$\delta_0(\cdot)$ is the Dirac delta function and $\beta$ is some positive
constant. We show that the distribution of the rightmost particle centred about
$\frac{\beta}{2}t$ converges to a mixture of Gumbel distributions according to
a martingale limit. Our results form a natural extension to S. Lalley and T.
Sellke [6] for the degenerate case of catalytic branching.


title:
Improved critical eigenfunction restriction estimates on Riemannian
  surfaces with nonpositive curvature

abstract:
  We show that one can obtain improved $L^4$ geodesic restriction estimates for
eigenfunctions on compact Riemannian surfaces with nonpositive curvature. We
achieve this by adapting Sogge's strategy in proving improved critical $L^p$
estimates. We first combine the improved $L^2$ restriction estimate of Blair
and Sogge and the classical improved $L^\infty$ estimate of B\'erard to obtain
an improved weak-type $L^4$ restriction estimate. We then upgrade this weak
estimate to a strong one by using the improved Lorentz space estimate of Bak
and Seeger. This estimate improves the $L^4$ restriction estimate of Burq,
G\'erard and Tzvetkov and Hu by a power of $(\log\log\lambda)^{-1}$. Moreover,
in the case of compact hyperbolic surfaces, we obtain further improvements in
terms of $(\log\lambda)^{-1}$ by applying the ideas from recent works of Chen,
Sogge and Blair, Sogge. We are able to compute various constants that appeared
in the work of Chen and Sogge explicitly, by proving detailed oscillatory
integral estimates and lifting calculations to the universal cover $\mathbb
H^2$.


title:
Robust quantum-network memory using decoherence-protected subspaces of
  nuclear spins

abstract:
  The realization of a network of quantum registers is an outstanding challenge
in quantum science and technology. We experimentally investigate a network node
that consists of a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center electronic spin
hyperfine-coupled to nearby nuclear spins. We demonstrate individual control
and readout of five nuclear spin qubits within one node. We then characterize
the storage of quantum superpositions in individual nuclear spins under
repeated application of a probabilistic optical inter-node entangling protocol.
We find that the storage fidelity is limited by dephasing during the electronic
spin reset after failed attempts. By encoding quantum states into a
decoherence-protected subspace of two nuclear spins we show that quantum
coherence can be maintained for over 1000 repetitions of the remote entangling
protocol. These results and insights pave the way towards remote entanglement
purification and the realisation of a quantum repeater using NV center quantum
network nodes.


title: On the breaking of statistical isotropy through inflationary relics

abstract:
  In this talk we elaborate on a mechanism to generate local contributions to
the curvature perturbation in isolated patches of the Cosmic Microwave
Background (CMB). The mechanism, based on the generation of an
out-of-equilibrium configuration in fluctuating scalar fields of mass $m\sim H$
during a sustained stage of fast-roll inflation, has been recently shown to be
capable of accounting for some of the most robust large-angle anomalies
detected in the CMB. In this talk, we show in detail how the embedding of the
mechanism into models including vector fields can result in the breaking of
statistical isotropy in isolated patches of the CMB.


title:
Manipulating waves by distilling frequencies: a tunable shunt-enabled
  rainbow trap

abstract:
  In this work, we propose and test a strategy for tunable, broadband wave
attenuation in electromechanical waveguides with shunted piezoelectric
inclusions. Our strategy is built upon the vast pre-existing literature on
vibration attenuation and bandgap generation in structures featuring periodic
arrays of piezo patches, but distinguishes itself for several key features.
First, we demystify the idea that periodicity is a requirement for wave
attenuation and bandgap formation. We further embrace the idea of "organized
disorder" by tuning the circuits as to resonate at distinct neighboring
frequencies. In doing so, we create a tunable "rainbow trap" [Tsakmakidis et
al. Nature 450, 397-401 (2007)] capable of attenuating waves with broadband
characteristics, by "distilling" (sequentially) seven frequencies from a
traveling wavepacket. Finally, we devote considerable attention to the
implications in terms of packet distortion of the spectral manipulation
introduced by shunting. This work is also meant to serve as a didactic tool for
those approaching the field of shunted piezoelectrics, and attempts to provide
a different perspective, with abundant details, on how to successfully design
an experimental setup involving resistive-inductive shunts.


title: Dissipation engineering of high-stress silicon nitride nanobeams

abstract:
  High-stress Si$_3$N$_4$ nanoresonators have become an attractive choice for
electro- and optomechanical devices. Membrane resonators can achieve quality
factor ($Q$) - frequency ($f$) products exceeding $10^{13}$ Hz, enabling (in
principle) quantum coherent operation at room temperature. String-like beam
resonators possess conventionally 10 times smaller $Q\cdot f$ products;
however, on account of their much larger $Q$-to-mass ratio and reduced mode
density, they remain a canonical choice for precision force, mass, and charge
sensing, and have recently enabled Heisenberg-limited position measurements at
cryogenic temperatures. Here we explore two techniques to enhance the
$Q$-factor of a nanomechanical beam. The techniques relate to two main loss
mechanisms: internal loss, which dominates for large aspect ratios and
$f\lesssim100$ MHz, and radiation loss, which dominates for small aspect ratios
and $f\gtrsim100$ MHz. First we show that by embedding a nanobeam in a 1D
phononic crystal, it is possible to localize its flexural motion and shield it
against radiation loss. Using this method, we realize $f>100$ MHz modes with
$Q\sim 10^4$, consistent with internal loss and contrasting sharply with
unshielded beams of similar dimensions. We then study the $Q\cdot f$ products
of high-order modes of mm-long nanobeams. Taking advantage of the mode-shape
dependence of stress-induced `loss-dilution', we realize a $f\approx 4$ MHz
mode with $Q\cdot f\approx9\cdot 10^{12}$ Hz. Our results can extend room
temperature quantum coherent operation to ultra-low-mass 1D nanomechanical
oscillators.


title: Exploring high-mass diphoton resonance without new colored states

abstract:
  A new heavy resonance may be observable at the LHC if it has a significant
decay branching fraction into a pair of photons. We entertain this possibility
by looking at the modest excess in the diphoton invariant mass spectrum around
750 GeV recently reported in the ATLAS and CMS experiments. Assuming that it is
a spinless boson, dubbed $\tilde s$, we consider it within a model containing
two weak scalar doublets having zero vacuum expectation values and a scalar
singlet in addition to the doublet responsible for breaking the electroweak
symmetry. The model also possesses three Dirac neutral singlet fermions, the
lightest one of which can play the role of dark matter and which participate
with the new doublet scalars in generating light neutrino masses radiatively.
We show that the model is consistent with all phenomenological constraints and
can yield a production cross section
$\sigma(pp\rightarrow\tilde{s}\rightarrow\gamma\gamma)$ of roughly the desired
size, mainly via the photon-fusion contribution, without involving extra
colored fermions or bosons. We also discuss other major decay modes of $\tilde
s$ which are potentially testable in upcoming LHC measurements.


title:
Computing Shortest Paths Using A*, Landmarks, and Polygon Inequalities
  (Abstract)

abstract:
  We introduce a new heuristic for the A* algorithm that references a data
structure much smaller than the one required by the ALT heuristic. This
heuristic's benefits are permitted by a new approach for computing lower bounds
using generalized polygon inequalities, leveraging distance information from
two landmarks as opposed to the common single landmark paradigm. In this paper,
we demonstrate that this heuristic stores a reduced amount of preprocessing
information in comparison to previous landmark algorithms while performing
faster search queries.


title:
The Kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect with Projected Fields: A Novel
  Probe of the Baryon Distribution with Planck, WMAP, and WISE Data

abstract:
  The kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect --- the Doppler boosting of
cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons due to Compton-scattering off free
electrons with non-zero bulk velocity --- probes the abundance and distribution
of baryons in the Universe. All kSZ measurements to date have explicitly
required spectroscopic redshifts. Here, we implement a novel estimator for the
kSZ -- large-scale structure cross-correlation based on projected fields: it
does not require redshift estimates for individual objects, allowing kSZ
measurements from large-scale imaging surveys. We apply this estimator to
cleaned CMB temperature maps constructed from Planck and Wilkinson Microwave
Anisotropy Probe data and a galaxy sample from the Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer (WISE). We measure the kSZ effect at 3.8-4.5$\sigma$ significance,
depending on the use of additional WISE galaxy bias constraints. We verify that
our measurements are robust to possible dust emission from the WISE galaxies.
Assuming the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, we directly constrain $(
{f_{b}}/{0.158} ) ( {f_{\rm free}}/{1.0} ) = 1.48 \pm 0.19$ (statistical error
only) at redshift $z \approx 0.4$, where $f_{b}$ is the fraction of matter in
baryonic form and $f_{\rm free}$ is the free electron fraction. This is the
tightest kSZ-derived constraint reported to date on these parameters. The
consistency between the $f_{b}$ value found here and the values inferred from
analyses of the primordial CMB and Big Bang nucleosynthesis verifies that
baryons approximately trace the dark matter distribution down to $\sim$Mpc
scales. While our projected-field estimator is already competitive with other
kSZ approaches when applied to current datasets (because we are able to use the
full-sky WISE photometric survey), it will yield enormous signal-to-noise when
applied to upcoming high-resolution, multi-frequency CMB surveys.


title: On parabolic external maps

abstract:
  We prove that any $C^{1+BV}$ degree $d \geq 2$ circle covering $h$ having all
periodic orbits weakly expanding, is conjugate in the same smoothness class to
a metrically expanding map. We use this to connect the space of parabolic
external maps (coming from the theory of parabolic-like maps) to metrically
expanding circle coverings.


title:
SiO: Not the perfect outflow tracer: Outflow studies of the massive star
  formation region IRAS 19410+2336

abstract:
  Aims: Previous observations of the young massive star formation region IRAS
19410+2336 have revealed strong outflow activity with several interacting
outflows. We aim to get a better understanding of the outflow activity in this
region by observing the SiO and H$^{13}$CO$^+$ emission with high angular
resolution. SiO is known to trace shocked gas, which is often associated with
young energetic outflows. With the H$^{13}$CO$^+$ data, we intend to better
understand the distribution of the quiescent gaseous component of the region.
Methods: The SiO observations in the J=2-1 v=0 transition and H$^{13}$CO$^+$
J=1-0 observations were performed by the Plateau de Bure Interferometer,
combined with IRAM 30 m single-dish observations, in order to get the missing
short-spacing information. We complement this new high-resolution observation
with earlier CO and H$_2$ data. Results: The SiO observations do not trace the
previously in CO and H$_2$ identified outflows well. Although we identify
regions of highly increased SiO abundance indicative of shock interaction,
there are hardly any bipolar structures in the data. The southern part of the
region, which exhibits strong H$_2$ emission, shows almost no SiO. The CO and
SiO data show only weak similarities, and the main SiO emission lies between
the two dominating dust clumps of the region. Conclusions: Most SiO emission is
likely to be a result of high-velocity shocks due to protostellar jets.
However, this does not explain all the emission features and additional
effects; for example, colliding gas flows at the interface of the two main
regions may play an important role in the origin of the emission. The present
SiO data show that several different effects can influence SiO emission, which
makes the interpretation of SiO data more difficult than often assumed.


title: On the Hojman conservation quantities in FRW Cosmology

abstract:
  In the present work we investigate the Hojman symmetry in FRW cosmology. In
particular, we use the Hojman symmetry to find conserved quantities of
particular cosmological models. Next, we study the Hojman symmetry in the
scalar-tensor cosmology and find corresponding exact forms of integrals of
motion. Finally, the formalism of the Hojman symmetry is extended to dynamical
systems with the higher-order equations of motion.


title: Evanescently coupled multimode spiral spectrometer

abstract:
  We designed a high-resolution compact spectrometer based on an
evanescently-coupled multimode spiral waveguide. Interference between the modes
in the waveguide forms a wavelength-dependent speckle pattern which is used as
a fingerprint to identify the input wavelength after calibration. Evanescent
coupling between neighboring arms of the spiral results in a non-resonant
broad-band enhancement of the spectral resolution. Experimentally, we
demonstrated a resolution of 0.01 nm at a wavelength of 1520 nm using a 250
{\mu}m radius spiral structure. Spectra containing 40 independent spectral
channels are recovered simultaneously and the operation bandwidth is
significantly increased by applying compressive sensing to sparse spectra
reconstruction.


title: On the gravitational stability of gravito-turbulent accretion disks

abstract:
  Low mass, self-gravitating accretion disks admit
quasi-steady,`gravito-turbulent' states in which cooling balances turbulent
viscous heating. However, numerical simulations show that gravito-turbulence
cannot be sustained beyond dynamical timescales when the cooling rate or
corresponding turbulent viscosity is too large. The result is disk
fragmentation. We motivate and quantify an interpretation of disk fragmentation
as the inability to maintain gravito-turbulence due to formal secondary
instabilities driven by: 1) cooling, which reduces pressure support; and/or 2)
viscosity, which reduces rotational support. We analyze the axisymmetric
gravitational stability of viscous, non-adiabatic accretion disks with internal
heating, external irradiation, and cooling in the shearing box approximation.
We consider parameterized cooling functions in 2D and 3D disks, as well as
radiative diffusion in 3D. We show that generally there is no critical cooling
rate/viscosity below which the disk is formally stable, although interesting
limits appear for unstable modes with lengthscales on the order of the disk
thickness. We apply this new linear theory to protoplanetary disks subject to
gravito-turbulence modeled as an effective viscosity, and cooling regulated by
dust opacity. We find that viscosity renders the disk beyond $\sim 60$AU
dynamically unstable on radial lengthscales a few times the local disk
thickness. This is coincident with the empirical condition for disk
fragmentation based on a maximum sustainable stress. We suggest turbulent
stresses can play an active role in realistic disk fragmentation by removing
rotational stabilization against self-gravity, and that the observed transition
in behavior from gravito-turbulent to fragmenting may reflect instability of
the gravito-turbulent state itself.


title: The Missing Satellite Problem in 3D

abstract:
  It is widely believed that the large discrepancy between the observed number
of satellite galaxies and the predicted number of dark subhalos can be resolved
via a variety of baryonic effects which suppress star formation in low mass
halos.Supporting this hypothesis, numerous high resolution simulations with
star formation, and associated feedback have been shown to reproduce the
satellite luminosity function around Milky Way-mass simulated galaxies at
redshift zero. However, a more stringent test of these models is their ability
to simultaneously match the satellite luminosity functions of a range of host
halo masses and redshifts. In this work we measure the luminosity function of
faint (sub-Small Magellanic Cloud luminosity) satellites around hosts with
stellar masses 10.5$<\log_{10}$M$_*$/M$_\odot<11.5$ to an unprecedented
redshift of 1.5. This new measurement of the satellite luminosity function
provides powerful new constraining power; we compare these results with
predictions from four different simulations and show that although the models
perform similarly over-all, no one model reproduces the satellite luminosity
function reliably at all redshifts and host stellar masses. This result
highlights the continued need for improvement in understanding the fundamental
physics that governs satellite galaxy evolution.


title: Vertical shear instability in the solar nebula

abstract:
  We quantify the thermodynamic requirement for the Vertical Shear Instability
and evaluate its relevance to realistic protoplanetary disks as a potential
route to hydrodynamic turbulence.


title:
High-resolution spectroscopy of a young, low-metallicity optically-thin
  L=0.02L* star-forming galaxy at z=3.12

abstract:
  We present VLT/X-Shooter and MUSE spectroscopy of an faint F814W=28.60+/-0.33
(Muv=-17.0), low mass (~<10^7 Msun) and compact (Reff=62pc) freshly
star-forming galaxy at z=3.1169 magnified (16x) by the Hubble Frontier Fields
galaxy cluster Abell S1063. Gravitational lensing allows for a significant jump
toward low-luminosity regimes, in moderately high resolution spectroscopy
(R=lambda/dlambda ~ 3000-7400). We measured CIV1548,1550, HeII1640,
OIII]1661,1666, CIII]1907,1909, Hbeta, [OIII]4959,5007, emission lines with
FWHM< 50 km/s and (de-lensed) fluxes spanning the interval 1.0x10^-19 -
2.0x10^-18 erg/s/cm2 at S/N=4-30. The double peaked Lya emission with
Delta_v(red-blue) = 280(+/-7)km/s and de-lensed fluxes
2.4_(blue)|8.5_(red)x10^-18 erg/s/cm2 (S/N=38_(blue)|110_(red)) indicate a low
column density of neutral hydrogen gas consistent with a highly ionized
interstellar medium as also inferred from the large [OIII]5007/[OII]3727>10
ratio. We detect CIV1548,1550 resonant doublet in emission, each component with
FWHM ~< 45 km/s, and redshifted by +51(+/-10)km/s relative to the systemic
redshift. We interpret this as nebular emission tracing an expanding
optically-thin interstellar medium. Both CIV1548,1550 and HeII1640 suggest the
presence of hot and massive stars (with a possible faint AGN). The ultraviolet
slope is remarkably blue, beta =-2.95 +/- 0.20 (F_lambda=lambda^beta),
consistent with a dust-free and young ~<20 Myr galaxy. Line ratios suggest an
oxygen abundance 12+log(O/H)<7.8. We are witnessing an early episode of
star-formation in which a relatively low NHI and negligible dust attenuation
might favor a leakage of ionizing radiation. This galaxy currently represents a
unique low-luminosity reference object for future studies of the reionization
epoch with JWST.


title:
The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey XVI. The Angular Momentum of
  Dwarf Early-Type Galaxies from Globular Cluster Satellites

abstract:
  We analyze the kinematics of six Virgo cluster dwarf early-type galaxies
(dEs) from their globular cluster (GC) systems. We present new Keck/DEIMOS
spectroscopy for three of them and reanalyze the data found in the literature
for the remaining three. We use two independent methods to estimate the
rotation amplitude (Vmax) and velocity dispersion (sigma_GC) of the GC systems
and evaluate their statistical significance by simulating non-rotating GC
systems with the same number of GC satellites and velocity uncertainties. Our
measured kinematics agree with the published values for the three galaxies from
the literature and, in all cases, some rotation is measured. However, our
simulations show that the null hypothesis of being non-rotating GC systems
cannot be ruled out. In the case of VCC1861, the measured Vmax and the
simulations indicate that it is not rotating. In the case of VCC1528, the null
hypothesis can be marginally ruled out, thus, it might be rotating although
further confirmation is needed. In our analysis, we find that, in general, the
measured Vmax tends to be overestimated and the measured sigma_GC tends to be
underestimated by amounts that depend on the intrinsic Vmax/sigma_GC, the
number of observed GCs (N_GC), and the velocity uncertainties. The bias is
negligible when N_GC>~20. In those cases where a large N_GC is not available,
it is imperative to obtain data with small velocity uncertainties. For
instance, errors of <2km/s lead to Vmax<10km/s for a system that is
intrinsically not rotating.


title:
Signatures of Gravitational Instability in Resolved Images of
  Protostellar Disks

abstract:
  Protostellar (class 0/I) disks, having masses comparable to those of their
nascent host stars, and fed continuously from their natal infalling envelopes,
are prone to gravitational instability (GI). Motivated by advances in
near-infrared (NIR) adaptive optics imaging and mm-wave interferometry, we
explore the observational signatures of GI in disks, using hydrodynamical and
Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations to synthesize NIR scattered light
images and mm dust continuum maps. Spiral arms induced by GI, located at disk
radii of hundreds of AUs, are local overdensities and have their photospheres
displaced to higher altitudes above the disk midplane, arms therefore scatter
more NIR light from their central stars than inter-arm regions, and are
detectable at distances up to 1 kpc by Gemini/GPI, VLT/SPHERE, and
Subaru/HiCIAO/SCExAO. By contrast, collapsed clumps formed by disk
fragmentation have such strong local gravitational fields that their scattering
photospheres are at lower altitudes, such fragments appear fainter than their
surroundings in NIR scattered light. Spiral arms and streamers recently imaged
in four FU Ori systems at NIR wavelengths resemble GI-induced structures and
support the interpretation that FUors are gravitationally unstable protostellar
disks. At mm wavelengths, both spirals and clumps appear brighter in thermal
emission than the ambient disk and can be detected by ALMA at distances up to
0.4 kpc with one-hour integration times at ~0.1 arcsec resolution. Collapsed
fragments having masses >=1 MJ can be detected by ALMA within ~10 minutes.


title:
The Co-Evolution of Total Density Profiles and Central Dark Matter
  Fractions in Simulated Early-Type Galaxies

abstract:
  We present evidence from cosmological hydrodynamical simulations for a
co-evolution of the slope of the total (dark and stellar) mass density profile,
gamma_tot, and the dark matter fraction within the half-mass radius, f_DM, in
early-type galaxies. The relation can be described as gamma_tot = A f_DM + B
for all systems at all redshifts. The trend is set by the decreasing importance
of gas dissipation towards lower redshifts and for more massive systems.
Early-type galaxies are smaller, more concentrated, have lower f_DM and steeper
gamma_tot at high redshifts and at lower masses for a given redshift; f_DM and
gamma_tot are good indicators for growth by "dry" merging. The values for A and
B change distinctively for different feedback models, and this relation can be
used as a test for such models. A similar correlation exists between gamma_tot
and the stellar mass surface density Sigma_*. A model with weak stellar
feedback and feedback from black holes is in best agreement with observations.
All simulations, independent of the assumed feedback model, predict steeper
gamma_tot and lower f_DM at higher redshifts. While the latter is in agreement
with the observed trends, the former is in conflict with lensing observations,
which indicate constant or decreasing gamma_tot. This discrepancy is shown to
be artificial: the observed trends can be reproduced from the simulations using
observational methodology to calculate the total density slopes.


title: NNLOPS accurate associated HW production

abstract:
  We present a next-to-next-to-leading order accurate description of associated
HW production consistently matched to a parton shower. The method is based on
reweighting events obtained with the HW plus one jet NLO accurate calculation
implemented in POWHEG, extended with the MiNLO procedure, to reproduce NNLO
accurate Born distributions. Since the Born kinematics is more complex than the
cases treated before, we use a parametrization of the Collins-Soper angles to
reduce the number of variables required for the reweighting. We present
phenomenological results at 13 TeV, with cuts suggested by the Higgs Cross
Section Working Group.


title: Persistent Hall response in a quantum quench

abstract:
  Out-of-equilibrium systems can host phenomena that transcend the usual
restrictions of equilibrium systems. Here we unveil how out-of-equilibrium
states, prepared via a quantum quench, can exhibit a non-zero Hall-type
response that persists at long times, and even when the instantaneous
Hamiltonian is time reversal symmetric; both these features starkly contrast
with equilibrium Hall currents. Interestingly, the persistent Hall effect
arises from processes beyond those captured by linear response, and is a
signature of the novel dynamics in out-of-equilibrium systems. We propose
quenches in two-band Dirac systems as natural venues to realize persistent Hall
currents, which exist when either mirror or time-reversal symmetry are broken
(before or after the quench). Its long time persistence, as well as sensitivity
to symmetry breaking, allow it to be used as a sensitive diagnostic of the
complex out-equilibrium dynamics readily controlled and probed in cold-atomic
optical lattice experiments.


title: X-ray Detected Active Galactic Nuclei in Dwarf Galaxies at $0<z<1$

abstract:
  We present a sample of accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in dwarf
galaxies at $z<1$. We identify dwarf galaxies in the NEWFIRM Medium Band Survey
with stellar masses $M_{\star}<3\times 10^{9} M_{\odot}$ that have
spectroscopic redshifts from the DEEP2 survey and lie within the region covered
by deep (flux limit of $\sim 5\times 10^{-17} - 6\times 10^{-16} \rm{erg \
cm}^{-2} \ \rm{s}^{-1}$) archival Chandra X-ray data. From our sample of $605$
dwarf galaxies, $10$ exhibit X-ray emission consistent with that arising from
AGN activity. If black hole mass scales roughly with stellar mass, then we
expect that these AGN are powered by SMBHs with masses of $\sim 10^5-10^6 \
M_{\odot}$ and typical Eddington ratios $\sim 5\%$. Furthermore, we find an AGN
fraction consistent with extrapolations of other searches of $\sim 0.6-3\%$ for
$10^9 \ M_{\odot} \leq M_{\star} \leq 3\times 10^{9} \ M_{\odot}$ and
$0.1<z<0.6$. Our AGN fraction is in good agreement with a semi-analytic model,
suggesting that as we search larger volumes we may use comparisons between
observed AGN fractions and models to understand seeding mechanisms in the early
universe.


title:
Hierarchical Formation in Action: Characterizing Accelerated Galaxy
  Evolution in Compact Groups Using Whole-Sky WISE Data

abstract:
  Compact groups provide an environment to study the growth of galaxies amid
multiple prolonged interactions. With their dense galaxy concentrations and
relatively low velocity dispersions, compact groups mimic the conditions of
hierarchical galaxy assembly. Compact group galaxies are known to show a
bimodality in $Spitzer$ IRAC infrared colorspace: galaxies are preferentially
either quiescent with low specific star formation rates, or are prolifically
forming stars---galaxies with moderate levels of specific star formation are
rare. Previous $Spitzer$ IRAC studies identifying this "canyon" have been
limited by small number statistics. We utilize whole-sky WISE data to study 163
compact groups, thereby tripling our previous sample and including more
galaxies with intermediate mid-IR colors indicative of moderate specific star
formation rates (SSFRs). We define a distinct WISE mid-IR color-space
($\log[{\frac{\rm f_{12}}{\rm f_{4.6}}}]$ vs. $\log[{\frac{\rm f_{22}}{\rm
f_{3.4}}}]$) that we use to identify canyon galaxies from the larger sample. We
confirm that compact group galaxies show a bimodal distribution in the
mid-infrared and identify 37 canyon galaxies with reliable photometry and
intermediate mid-IR colors. Morphologically, we find that the canyon harbors a
large population of both Sa-Sbc and E/S0 type galaxies, and that they fall on
the optical red sequence rather than the green valley. Finally, we provide a
catalog of WISE photometry for 567 of 652 galaxies selected from the sample of
163 compact groups.


title: Average diagonal entropy in non-equilibrium isolated quantum systems

abstract:
  The diagonal entropy was introduced as a good entropy candidate especially
for isolated quantum systems out of equilibrium. Here we present an analytical
calculation of the average diagonal entropy for systems undergoing unitary
evolution and an external perturbation in the form of a cyclic quench. We
compare our analytical findings with numerical simulations of various many-body
quantum systems. Our calculations elucidate various heuristic relations
proposed recently in the literature.


title: Postulates and measurements in Everett's Quantum Mechanics

abstract:
  Everett's Relative State Interpretation (aka Many Worlds Interpretation) has
gained increasing interest due to the progress understanding the role of
decoherence. In order to fulfill its promise as an intellectually economic
realistic description of the physical world, two postulates are formulated. In
short they are 1) for a system with continuous coordinates $\mathbf x$,
discrete variable $j$, and state $\psi_j(\mathbf x)$, the density
$\rho_j(x)=|\psi_j(x)|^2$ gives the distribution of the location of the system
with the respect to the variables $x$ and $j$; 2) an equation of motion for the
state $i\hbar \partial_t \psi = H\psi$. The contents of the standard
(Copenhagen) postulates are derived including the quantum probabilities (Born's
rule).


title: Spectral analysis of non-local Schr\"odinger operators

abstract:
  We study spectral properties of convolution operators $\mathcal L$ and their
perturbations $H=\mathcal L+v(x)$ by compactly supported potentials. Results
are applied to determine the front propagation of a population density governed
by operator $H$ with a compactly supported initial density provided that $H$
has positive eigenvalues. If there is no positive spectrum, then the
stabilization of the population density is proved.


title: Low-energy $^{6}$He scattering in a microscopic model

abstract:
  A microscopic version of the Continuum Discretized Coupled Channel (CDCC)
method is used to investigate $^{6}$He scattering on $^{27}$Al, $^{58}$Ni,
$^{120}$Sn, and $^{208}$Pb at energies around the Coulomb barrier. The $^{6}$He
nucleus is described by an antisymmetric 6-nucleon wave function, defined in
the Resonating Group Method. The $^{6}$He continuum is simulated by
square-integrable positive-energy states. The model is based only on well known
nucleon-target potentials, and is therefore does not depend on any adjustable
parameter. I show that experimental elastic cross sections are fairly well
reproduced. The calculation suggests that breakup effects increase for high
target masses. For a light system such as $^{6}$He+$^{27}$Al, breakup effects
are small, and a single-channel approximation provides fair results. This
property is explained by a very simple model, based on the sharp-cut-off
approximation for the scattering matrix. I also investigate the $^{6}$He-target
optical potentials, which confirm that breakup channels are more and more
important when the mass increases. At large distances, polarization effects
increase the Coulomb barrier, and provide a long-tail absorption component in
the imaginary part of the nucleus-nucleus interaction.


title:
Entropy of extremal black holes: horizon limits through charged thin
  shells, a unified approach

abstract:
  Using a unified approach we study the entropy of extremal black holes through
the entropy of an electrically charged thin shell. We encounter three cases in
which a shell can be taken to its own gravitational or horizon radius and
become an extremal spacetime. In case 1, we use a non extremal shell, calculate
all the thermodynamics quantities including the entropy, take it to the horizon
radius, and then take the extremal limit. In case 2, we take the extremal limit
and the horizon radius limit simultaneously, i.e., as the shell approaches its
horizon radius it also approaches extremality. In case 3, we build first an
extremal shell, and then take its horizon radius. We find that the
thermodynamic quantities in general have different expressions in the three
different cases. The entropy is the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy $ S=A_+/4$
(where $A_+$ is the horizon area) in cases 1 and 2, and in case 3 it can be any
well-behaved function of $A_+$. The contributions from the various
thermodynamic quantities for the entropy in all three cases are distinct.
Indeed, in cases 1 and 2 the limits agree in what concerns the entropy but they
disagree in the behavior of all other thermodynamic quantities. Cases 2 and 3
disagree in what concerns the entropy but agree in the behavior of the local
temperature and electric potential. Case 2 is in a sense intermediate between
cases 1 and 3. Our approach sheds light on the extremal black hole entropy
issue.


title: Modelling the Central Constant Emission X-ray component of eta Carinae

abstract:
  The X-ray emission of $\eta$ Carinae shows multiple features at various
spatial and temporal scales. The central constant emission (CCE) component is
centred on the binary and arises from spatial scales much smaller than the
bipolar Homunculus nebula, but likely larger than the central wind--wind
collision region between the stars as it does not vary over the $\sim$2-3 month
X-ray minimum when it can be observed. Using large-scale 3D smoothed particle
hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations, we model both the colliding-wind region
between the stars, and the region where the secondary wind collides with
primary wind ejected from the previous periastron passage. The simulations
extend out to one hundred semimajor axes and make two limiting assumptions
(strong coupling and no coupling) about the influence of the primary radiation
field on the secondary wind. We perform 3D radiative transfer calculations on
the SPH output to synthesize the X-ray emission, with the aim of reproducing
the CCE spectrum. For the preferred primary mass-loss rate
$\dot{M}_A\approx8.5\times10^{-4}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$, the model spectra well
reproduce the observation as the strong- and no-coupling spectra bound the CCE
observation for longitude of periastron $\omega\approx252^\circ$, and
bound/converge on the observation for $\omega\approx90^\circ$. This suggests
that $\eta$ Carinae has moderate coupling between the primary radiation and
secondary wind, that both the region between the stars and the comoving
collision on the backside of the secondary generate the CCE, and that the CCE
cannot place constraints on the binary's line of sight. We also discuss
comparisons with common X-ray fitting parameters.


title:
Neutron Star Mass-Radius Constraints of the Quiescent Low-mass X-ray
  Binaries X7 and X5 in the Globular Cluster 47 Tuc

abstract:
  We present Chandra ACIS-S sub-array observations of the quiescent neutron
star low-mass X-ray binaries X7 and X5 in the globular cluster 47 Tuc. The
large reduction in photon pile-up compared to previous deep exposures enables a
substantial improvement in the spectroscopic determination of the neutron star
radius and mass of these neutron stars. Modeling the thermal emission from the
neutron star surface with a non-magnetized hydrogen atmosphere and accounting
for numerous sources of uncertainties, we obtain for the neutron star in X7 a
radius of $R=11.1^{+0.8}_{-0.7}$ km for an assumed stellar mass of $M=1.4$
M$_{\odot}$ (68% C.L.). We argue, based on astrophysical grounds, that the
presence of a He atmosphere is unlikely for this source. Due to eclipses and
variable absorption, the quiescent low-mass X-ray binary X5 provides less
stringent constraints, leading to a radius of $R=9.6^{+0.9}_{-1.1}$ km,
assuming a hydrogen atmosphere and a mass of $M=1.4$ M$_{\odot}$. When combined
with all other existing spectroscopic radius measurements, these measurements
strongly favor radii in the 9.9-11.2 km range for a ~1.5 M$_{\odot}$ neutron
star and point to a dense matter equation of state that is somewhat softer than
the nucleonic ones that are consistent with laboratory experiments at low
densities.


title:
Classification and regression tree methods for incomplete data from
  sample surveys

abstract:
  Analysis of sample survey data often requires adjustments to account for
missing data in the outcome variables of principal interest. Standard
adjustment methods based on item imputation or on propensity weighting factors
rely heavily on the availability of auxiliary variables for both responding and
non-responding units. Application of these adjustment methods can be especially
challenging in cases for which the auxiliary variables are numerous and are
themselves subject to substantial incomplete-data problems. This paper shows
how classification and regression trees and forests can overcome some of the
computational difficulties. An in-depth simulation study based on
incomplete-data patterns encountered in the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey is
used to compare the methods with two standard methods for estimating a
population mean in terms of bias, mean squared error, computational speed and
number of variables that can be analyzed.


title:
Forward Modelling of Standing Kink Modes in Coronal Loops I. Synthetic
  Views

abstract:
  Kink magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves are frequently observed in various
magnetic structures of the solar atmosphere. They may contribute significantly
to coronal heating and could be used as a tool to diagnose the solar plasma. In
this study, we synthesise the \ion{Fe}{9} $\lambda171.073$ emission of a
coronal loop supporting a standing kink MHD mode. The kink MHD wave solution of
a plasma cylinder is mapped into a semi-torus structure to simulate a curved
coronal loop. We decompose the solution into a quasi-rigid kink motion and a
quadrupole term, which dominate the plasma inside and outside the flux tube,
respectively. At the loop edges, the line-of-sight integrates relatively more
ambient plasma, and the background emission becomes significant. The plasma
motion associated with the quadrupole term causes spectral line broadening and
emission suppression. The periodic intensity suppression will modulate the
integrated intensity and the effective loop width, which both exhibit
oscillatory variations at half of the kink period. The quadrupole term can be
directly observed as a pendular motion at front view.


title: Depth Superresolution using Motion Adaptive Regularization

abstract:
  Spatial resolution of depth sensors is often significantly lower compared to
that of conventional optical cameras. Recent work has explored the idea of
improving the resolution of depth using higher resolution intensity as a side
information. In this paper, we demonstrate that further incorporating temporal
information in videos can significantly improve the results. In particular, we
propose a novel approach that improves depth resolution, exploiting the
space-time redundancy in the depth and intensity using motion-adaptive low-rank
regularization. Experiments confirm that the proposed approach substantially
improves the quality of the estimated high-resolution depth. Our approach can
be a first component in systems using vision techniques that rely on high
resolution depth information.


title:
Low Complexity Hybrid Precoding and Channel Estimation Based on
  Hierarchical Multi-Beam Search for Millimeter-Wave MIMO Systems

abstract:
  In millimeter-wave (mmWave) MIMO systems, while a hybrid digital/analog
precoding structure offers the potential to increase the achievable rate, it
also faces the challenge of the need of a low-complexity design. In specific,
the hybrid precoding may require matrix operations with a scale of antenna
size, which is generally large in mmWave communication. Moreover, the channel
estimation is also rather time consuming due to the large number of antennas at
both Tx/Rx sides. In this paper, a low-complexity hybrid precoding and channel
estimation approach is proposed. In the channel estimation phase, a
hierarchical multi-beam search scheme is proposed to fast acquire $N_{\rm{S}}$
(the number of streams) multipath components (MPCs)/clusters with the highest
powers. In the hybrid precoding phase, the analog and digital precodings are
decoupled. The analog precoding is designed to steer along the $N_{\rm{S}}$
acquired MPCs/clusters at both Tx/Rx sides, shaping an equivalent
$N_{\rm{S}}\times N_{\rm{S}}$ baseband channel, while the digital precoding
performs operations in the baseband with the reduced-scale channel. Performance
evaluations show that, compared with a state-of-the-art scheme, while achieving
a close or even better performance when the number of radio-frequency (RF)
chains or streams is small, both the computational complexity of the hybrid
precoding and the time complexity of the channel estimation are greatly
reduced.


title: Verified compilation of space-efficient reversible circuits

abstract:
  The generation of reversible circuits from high-level code is an important
problem in several application domains, including low-power electronics and
quantum computing. Existing tools compile and optimize reversible circuits for
various metrics, such as the overall circuit size or the total amount of space
required to implement a given function reversibly. However, little effort has
been spent on verifying the correctness of the results, an issue of particular
importance in quantum computing. There, compilation allows not only mapping to
hardware, but also the estimation of resources required to implement a given
quantum algorithm, a process that is crucial for identifying which algorithms
will outperform their classical counterparts. We present a reversible circuit
compiler called ReVerC, which has been formally verified in F* and compiles
circuits that operate correctly with respect to the input program. Our compiler
compiles the Revs language to combinational reversible circuits with as few
ancillary bits as possible, and provably cleans temporary values.


title: Riemann Solvers and Alfven Waves in Black Hole Magnetospheres

abstract:
  In the magnetosphere of a rotating black hole, an inner Alfven critical
surface (IACS) must be crossed by inflowing plasma. Inside the IACS, Alfven
waves are inward directed toward the black hole. The majority of the proper
volume of the active region of spacetime (the ergosphere) is inside of the
IACS. The charge and the totally transverse momentum flux (the momentum flux
transverse to both the wave normal and the unperturbed magnetic field) are both
determined exclusively by the Alfven polarization. Thus, it is important for
numerical simulations of black hole magnetospheres to minimize the dissipation
of Alfven waves. Elements of the dissipated wave emerge in adjacent cells
regardless of the IACS, there is no mechanism to prevent Alfvenic information
from crossing outward. Thus, numerical dissipation can affect how simulated
magnetospheres attain the substantial Goldreich-Julian charge density
associated with the rotating magnetic field. In order to help minimize
dissipation of Alfven waves in relativistic numerical simulations we have
formulated a one-dimensional Riemann solver, called HLLI, which incorporates
the Alfven discontinuity and the contact discontinuity. We have also formulated
a multidimensional Riemann solver, called MuSIC, that enables low dissipation
propagation of Alfven waves in multiple dimensions. The importance of higher
order schemes in lowering the numerical dissipation of Alfven waves is also
catalogued.


title:
More power to the people: getting the most from a dielectric elastomer
  generator

abstract:
  A dielectric elastomer generator (DEG) can be used for converting mechanical
energy from natural motion sources such as walking, waves, trees etc, into
electrical energy. A DEG is comprised of a soft and flexible Dielectric
Elastomer capacitor (DE), a Priming Circuit (PC), which transfers high
potential charge onto/off the DE electrodes, and a power extraction circuit
which harvests the generated power. To generate power, the PC must charge and
discharge the DE in synchronization with the DE's capacitance change. A simple
circuit to do this exists: the self-priming circuit (SPC). The SPC consists of
diodes and capacitors which passively switch between charge delivery and charge
receiving states in synchronization with the DE's capacitance change. Until now
there has been no understanding of how to design a SPC in order to maximize
harvested energy from the dielectric elastomer (DE). A new mathematical model
for a SPC is presented, leading to design and optimization. An accuracy of 0.1%
between model, simulation and experiment is obtained once losses are taken into
consideration. The behavior of the SPC is shown to be related to the maximum
and minimum capacitance's of the DE, but is largley unaffected by the exact
capacitance waveform


title: Searching for supersymmetry scalelessly

abstract:
  In this paper we propose a scale invariant search strategy for hadronic top
or bottom plus missing energy final states. We present a method which shows
flat efficiencies and background rejection factors over broad ranges of
parameters and masses. The resulting search can be easily recast into a limit
on alternative models. We show the strength of the method in a natural SUSY
setup where stop and sbottom squarks are pair produced and decay into
hadronically decaying top quarks or bottom quarks and higgsinos.


title: Strong Coupling in F-theory and Geometrically Non-Higgsable Seven-branes

abstract:
  Geometrically non-Higgsable seven-branes carry gauge sectors that cannot be
broken by complex structure deformation, and there is growing evidence that
such configurations are typical in F-theory. We study strongly coupled physics
associated with these branes. Axiodilaton profiles are computed using
Ramanujan's theories of elliptic functions to alternative bases, showing
explicitly that the string coupling is order one in the vicinity of the brane;
that it sources nilpotent $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ monodromy and therefore the
associated brane charges are modular; and that essentially all F-theory
compactifications have regions with order one string coupling. It is shown that
non-perturbative $SU(3)$ and $SU(2)$ seven-branes are related to weakly coupled
counterparts with D7-branes via deformation-induced Hanany-Witten moves on
$(p,q)$ string junctions that turn them into fundamental open strings; only the
former may exist for generic complex structure. D3-brane near these and the
Kodaira type II seven-branes probe Argyres-Douglas theories. The BPS states of
slightly deformed theories are shown to be dyonic string junctions.


title: Reversible Markov chain estimation using convex-concave programming

abstract:
  We present a convex-concave reformulation of the reversible Markov chain
estimation problem and outline an efficient numerical scheme for the solution
of the resulting problem based on a primal-dual interior point method for
monotone variational inequalities. Extensions to situations in which
information about the stationary vector is available can also be solved via the
convex- concave reformulation. The method can be generalized and applied to the
discrete transition matrix reweighting analysis method to perform inference
from independent chains with specified couplings between the stationary
probabilities. The proposed approach offers a significant speed-up compared to
a fixed-point iteration for a number of relevant applications.


title: An improvement on the Rado bound for the centerline depth

abstract:
  Let $\mu$ be a Borel probability measure in $\mathbb R^d$. For a $k$-flat
$\alpha$ consider the value $\inf \mu(H)$, where $H$ runs through all
half-spaces containing $\alpha$. This infimum is called the half-space depth of
$\alpha$.
  Bukh, Matou\v{s}ek and Nivasch conjectured that for every $\mu$ and every $0
\leq k < d$ there exists a $k$-flat with the depth at least $\tfrac{k + 1}{k +
d + 1}$. The Rado Centerpoint Theorem implies a lower bound of $\tfrac{1}{d + 1
- k}$ (the Rado bound), which is, in general, much weaker. Whenever the Rado
bound coincides with the bound conjectured by Bukh, Matou\v{s}ek and Nivasch,
i.e., for $k = 0$ and $k = d - 1$, it is known to be optimal.
  In this paper we show that for all other pairs $(d, k)$ one can improve on
the Rado bound. If $k = 1$ and $d \geq 3$ we show that there is a 1-dimensional
line with the depth at least $\tfrac{1}{d} + \tfrac{1}{3d^3}$. As a corollary,
for all $(d, k)$ satisfying $0 < k < d - 1$ there exists a $k$-flat with depth
at least $\tfrac{1}{d + 1 - k} + \tfrac{1}{3(d + 1 - k)^3}$.


title: Nature of the Quantum Potential

abstract:
  In this paper we suggest a natural interpretation of the de Broglie-Bohm
quantum potential, as the energy due to the oscillating electromagnetic field
(virtual photon) coupled with moving charged particle. Generalization of the
Schr\"{o}dinger equation is obtained. The wave function is shown to be the
eigenfunction of the Sturm - Liouville problem in which we expand virtual
photon to include it implicitly into consideration. It is shown the non -
locality of quantum mechanics is related only with virtual photon. As an
example, the zero - energy of harmonic oscillator is obtained from classical
equations.


title: Quantum gravity: the Inverse problem

abstract:
  Quantizing the gravitational field described by General relativity being a
notorious difficult, unsolved and maybe meaningless problem I use in this essay
a different strategy: I consider a linear theory in the framework of Special
relativity where the potentials are the components of four linear forms.
General relativity and other similar covariant non linear theories can be
formulated in this way. The theory that I propose is Lorentz invariant, linear,
simple, and can be quantized following similar steps to those that led to
quantum electrodynamics.


title: Convergence of LCA Flows to (C)LASSO Solutions

abstract:
  This paper establishes several convergence results about flows of the
dynamical system LCA (Locally Competitive Algorithm) to the mixed
$\ell_2$-$\ell_1$ minimization problem LASSO and the constrained version,
called CLASSO here, where the parameters are required to be non-negative.
(C)LASSO problems are closely related to various important applications
including efficient coding, image recognition and image reconstruction. That
the solution of (C)LASSO can be determined by LCA allows the former to be
solved in novel ways such as through a physical realization of analog circuits
or on non-von Neumann computers. As discussed in the paper, previous works that
show convergence of LCA to LASSO are incomplete, and do not consider CLASSO.
The main contributions of this paper are a particular generalization of
LaSalle's invariance principle and its application to rigorously establish
LCA's convergence to (C)LASSO.


title:
Quantum Information Aspects on Bulk and Nano Interacting Fermi System:
  Spin-Space Density Matrix Approach

abstract:
  In this paper, we investigate quantum correlation of an interacting Fermi
system, which is a nodal superconductor (d-wave superconductor) at zero
temperature, via quantum entanglement of two electron spins forming Cooper
pairs (Werner state), tripartite and quantum discord. After calculating
single-electron Green functions, the two-electron space-spin density matrix,
which has X-state form, is obtained. The dependence of quantum correlation to
the relative distance of electrons spins of Cooper pair and energy gap is
investigated. One of the results is, for d-wave case, concurrence (as a measure
of entanglement), quantum discord and tripartite are sensitive to the change of
magnitude of gap. Another result is both concurrence and discord oscillate.
Then, we consider three-dimensional rectangular nano-superconducting grain in
the weak coupling frame. The nano-size effect is entered via gap fluctuation.
The dependence of quantum correlation to length of superconductor and lower
bound of robustness of tripartite entanglement are determined. Moreover, we
show that quantum correlation of d-wave nano-size superconducting grain
strongly depends on length of grain (in contrast to s-wave case). In general,
it is found that the length of grain lower, the effect of nano-size on quantum
correlation higher. Quantum tripartite for nano-scale d-wave superconductor is
better than for bulk d-wave superconductor. However, we find out both bulk and
nano-size s-wave superconductors have the same tripartite. Furthermore,
entanglement length and quantum correlation length are investigated and it is
shown that there is a length of superconductor in which discord becomes zero.
Also, for a given fixed length of superconductor, both a peak in discord and a
peak in concurrence occur simultaneously.


title: Novel Dynamical Phenomena in Magnetic systems

abstract:
  Dynamics of Ising models is a much studied phenomenon and has emerged as a
rich field of present-day research. An important dynamical feature commonly
studied is the quenching phenomenon below the critical temperature. In this
thesis we have studied the zero temperature quenching dynamics of different
Ising spin systems. First we have studied the zero temperature quenching
dynamics of two dimensional Ising spin system with competating interactions.
Then we have studied the effect of randomness or disorder on the quenching
dynamics of Ising spin system. We have studied the effect of the nature of
randomness on zero temperature quenching dynamics of one dimensional Ising
model on two type of complex networks. A model for opinion dynamics also has
been proposed in this thesis, in which the binary opinions of the individuals
are determined according to the size of their neighboring domains. This model
can be equivalently defined in terms of Ising spin variables and the various
quantities studied have one to one correspondence with magnetic systems.
Introducing disorder in this model through a parameter called rigidity
parameter $\rho$ (probability that people are completely rigid and never change
their opinion), the transition to a heterogeneous society at $\rho = 0^{+}$ is
obtained. The Model (Model I) has been generalized introducing a parameter
named as size sensitivity parameter to modify the dynamics of the proposed
model and a macroscopic crossover in time is observed for the intermediate
values of this parameter.


title: Dirac loops in trigonally connected 3D lattices

abstract:
  We consider different generalizations of the honeycomb lattice to three
dimensional structures. We address the family of the hyper-honeycomb lattice,
which is made up of alternating layers of 2D honeycomb nano-ribbons, with each
layer rotated by $\pi/2$ with the layer below. When the orbitals of the lattice
sites are symmetric with respect to the planes of the trigonal links, these
structures can produce a Dirac loop, a closed line of Dirac nodes in momentum
space. For orbitals that break that symmetry, such as the carbon $p$-wave
orbitals, hyper-honeycomb lattices do not possess the loop structure. We also
consider a new structure, the screw hyper-honeycomb, in which the successive
layers of parallel units are rotated by $2\pi/3$. This structure has a Dirac
loop if reflection symmetry in the unit cell is imposed, regardless the
symmetry of the onsite orbitals. We discuss the implementation of those systems
in optical lattices.


title: Getting More Out Of Syntax with PropS

abstract:
  Semantic NLP applications often rely on dependency trees to recognize major
elements of the proposition structure of sentences. Yet, while much semantic
structure is indeed expressed by syntax, many phenomena are not easily read out
of dependency trees, often leading to further ad-hoc heuristic post-processing
or to information loss. To directly address the needs of semantic applications,
we present PropS -- an output representation designed to explicitly and
uniformly express much of the proposition structure which is implied from
syntax, and an associated tool for extracting it from dependency trees.


title:
Functional linear instrumental regression under second order
  stationarity

abstract:
  We consider the problem of estimating the slope parameter in functional
linear instrumental regression, where in the presence of an instrument W, i.e.,
an exogenous random function, a scalar response Y is modeled in dependence of
an endogenous random function X. Assuming second order stationarity jointly for
X and W a nonparametric estimator of the functional slope parameter and its
derivatives is proposed based on an n-sample of (Y,X,W). In this paper the
minimax optimal rate of convergence of the estimator is derived assuming that
the slope parameter belongs to the well-known Sobolev space of periodic
functions. We discuss the cases that the cross-covariance operator associated
to the random functions X and W is finitely, infinitely or in some general form
smoothing.


title:
Learning Topology of the Power Distribution Grid with and without
  Missing Data

abstract:
  Distribution grids refer to the part of the power grid that delivers
electricity from substations to the loads. Structurally a distribution grid is
operated in one of several radial/tree-like topologies that are derived from an
original loopy grid graph by opening switches on some lines. Due to limited
presence of real-time switch monitoring devices, the operating structure needs
to be estimated indirectly. This paper presents a new learning algorithm that
uses only nodal voltage measurements to determine the operational radial
structure. The algorithm is based on the key result stating that the correct
operating structure is the optimal solution of the minimum-weight spanning tree
problem over the original loopy graph where weights on all permissible
edges/lines (open or closed) is the variance of nodal voltage difference at the
edge ends. Compared to existing work, this spanning tree based approach has
significantly lower complexity as it does not require information on line
parameters. Further, a modified learning algorithm is developed for cases when
the input voltage measurements are limited to only a subset of the total grid
nodes. Performance of the algorithms (with and without missing data) is
demonstrated by experiments on test cases.


title:
Degrees of Freedom of the MIMO 2x2 Interference Network with General
  Message Sets

abstract:
  We establish the DoF region for the MIMO 2x2 interference network with a
general message set, consisting of nine messages, one for each pair of a subset
of transmitters at which that message is known and a subset of receivers where
that message is desired. An outer bound on the general nine-message network is
obtained and then it is shown to be tight, establishing the DoF region for the
most general antenna setting wherein all four nodes have an arbitrary number of
antennas each. The DoF-optimal scheme is applicable to the MIMO 2x2 network
with constant channel coefficients, and hence, a fortiori, to time/frequency
varying channel scenarios. In particular, a linear precoding scheme is proposed
that can achieve all the DoF tuples in the DoF region. In it, the precise roles
played by transmit zero-forcing, interference alignment, random beamforming,
symbol extensions and asymmetric complex signaling are delineated. For
instance, we identify a class of antenna settings in which ACS is required to
achieve the fractional-valued corner points. Evidently, the DoF regions of all
previously unknown cases of the 2x2 interference network with a subset of the
nine-messages are established as special cases of the general result of this
paper. In particular, the DoF region of the well-known four-message (and even
three-message) MIMO X channel is established. This problem had remained open
despite previous studies which had found inner and outer bounds that were not
tight in general. Hence, the DoF regions of all special cases obtained from the
general DoF region of the nine-message 2x2 interference network of this work
that include at least three of the four X channel messages are new, among many
others. Our work sheds light on how the same physical 2x2 network could be used
by a suitable choice of message sets to take most advantage of the channel
resource in a flexible and efficient manner.


title: DHCAL with Minimal Absorber: Measurements with Positrons

abstract:
  In special tests, the active layers of the CALICE Digital Hadron Calorimeter
prototype, the DHCAL, were exposed to low energy particle beams, without being
interleaved by absorber plates. The thickness of each layer corresponded
approximately to 0.29 radiation lengths or 0.034 nuclear interaction lengths,
defined mostly by the copper and steel skins of the detector cassettes. This
paper reports on measurements performed with this device in the Fermilab test
beam with positrons in the energy range of 1 to 10 GeV. The measurements are
compared to simulations based on GEANT4 and a standalone program to emulate the
detailed response of the active elements.


title:
Design, Construction and Commissioning of the Digital Hadron Calorimeter
  - DHCAL

abstract:
  A novel hadron calorimeter is being developed for future lepton colliding
beam detectors. The calorimeter is optimized for the application of Particle
Flow Algorithms (PFAs) to the measurement of hadronic jets and features a very
finely segmented readout with 1 x 1 cm2 cells. The active media of the
calorimeter are Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) with a digital, i.e. one-bit,
readout. To first order the energy of incident particles in this calorimeter is
reconstructed as being proportional to the number of pads with a signal over a
given threshold. A large-scale prototype calorimeter with approximately 500,000
readout channels has been built and underwent extensive testing in the Fermilab
and CERN test beams. This paper reports on the design, construction, and
commissioning of this prototype calorimeter.


title:
Design, Construction and Testing of the Digital Hadron Calorimeter
  (DHCAL) Electronics

abstract:
  A novel hadron calorimeter is being developed for future lepton colliding
beam detectors. The calorimeter is optimized for the application of Particle
Flow Algorithms (PFAs) to the measurement of hadronic jets and features a very
finely segmented readout with 1 x 1 cm2 cells. The active media of the
calorimeter are Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) with a digital, i.e. one-bit,
readout. To first order the energy of incident particles in this calorimeter is
reconstructed as being proportional to the number of pads with a signal over a
given threshold. A large-scale prototype calorimeter with approximately 500,000
readout channels has been built and underwent extensive testing in the Fermilab
and CERN test beams. This paper reports on the design, construction, and
commissioning of the electronic readout system of this prototype calorimeter.
The system is based on the DCAL front-end chip and a VME-based back-end.


title: A Macroscopically Effective Lorentz Gauge Theory of Gravity

abstract:
  Following the ideas of effective field theories, we derive classically
effective field equations of recently developed Lorentz gauge theory of
gravity. It is shown that Newton's gravitational constant emerges as an
effective coupling parameter if an extremely small length is integrated out of
the underlying theory. The linear version of the effective theory is shown to
be fully consistent with the Newtonian gravity. We also derive a numerical
solution for the interior of a star and show that in the non-linear regions,
the behavior of the effective theory deviates from the predictions of general
relativity.


title:
Using the SAL technique for spatial verification of cloud processes: A
  sensitivity analysis

abstract:
  The feature based spatial verification method SAL is applied to cloud data,
i.e. two-dimensional spatial fields of total cloud cover and spectral radiance.
Model output is obtained from the COSMO-DE forward operator SynSat and compared
to SEVIRI satellite data. The aim of this study is twofold. First, to assess
the applicability of SAL to this kind of data, and second, to analyze the role
of external object identification algorithms (OIA) and the effects of
observational uncertainties on the resulting scores.
  As a feature based method, SAL requires external OIA. A comparison of three
different algorithms shows that the threshold level, which is a fundamental
part of all studied algorithms, induces high sensitivity and unstable behavior
of object dependent SAL scores (i.e. even very small changes in parameter
values can lead to large changes in the resulting scores). An in-depth
statistical analysis reveals significant effects on distributional quantities
commonly used in the interpretation of SAL, e.g. median and interquartile
distance. Two sensitivity indicators based on the univariate cumulative
distribution functions are derived. They allow to asses the sensitivity of the
SAL scores to threshold level changes without computationally expensive
iterative calculations of SAL for various thresholds. The mathematical
structure of these indicators connects the sensitivity of the SAL scores to
parameter changes with the effect of observational uncertainties.
  Finally, the discriminating power of SAL is studied. It is shown, that - for
large-scale cloud data - changes in the parameters may have larger effects on
the object dependent SAL scores (i.e. the S and L2 scores) than a complete loss
of temporal collocation.


title:
Next Generation High Brightness Electron Beams From Ultra-High Field
  Cryogenic Radiofrequency Photocathode Sources

abstract:
  Recent studies of the performance of radio-frequency (RF) copper cavities
operated at cryogenic temperatures have shown a dramatic increase in the
maximum achievable surface electric field. We propose to exploit this
development to enable a new generation of photoinjectors operated at cryogenic
temperatures that may attain, through enhancement of the launch field at the
photocathode, a significant increase in five-dimensional electron beam
brightness. We present detailed studies of the beam dynamics associated with
such a system, by examining an S-band photoinjector operated at 250 MV/m peak
electric field that reaches normalized emittances in the 40 nm-rad range at
charges (100-200 pC) suitable for use in a hard X-ray free-electron laser
(XFEL) scenario based on the LCLS. In this case, we show by start-to-end
simulations that the properties of this source may give rise to high efficiency
operation of an XFEL, and permit extension of the photon energy reach by an
order of magnitude, to over 80 keV. The brightness needed for such XFELs is
achieved through low source emittances in tandem with high current after
compression. In the XFEL examples analyzed, the emittances during final
compression are preserved using micro-bunching techniques. Extreme low
emittance scenarios obtained at pC charge, appropriate for significantly
extending temporal resolution limits of ultrafast electron diffraction and
microscopy experiments, are also reviewed. While the increase in brightness in
a cryogenic photoinjector is mainly due to the augmentation of the emission
current density via field enhancement, further possible increases in
performance arising from lowering the intrinsic cathode emittance in cryogenic
operation are also analyzed. Issues in experimental implementation, including
cavity optimization for lowering cryogenic thermal dissipation, external
coupling, and cryo-cooler system are discussed.


title: Surface Tension of Ab Initio Liquid Water at the Water-Air Interface

abstract:
  We report calculations of the surface tension of the water-air interface
using ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations. We investigate the
simulation cell size dependence of the surface tension of water from force
field molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, which show that the calculated
surface tension increases with increasing simulation cell size, thereby
illustrating that a correction for finite size effects is required for the
small system used in the AIMD simulation. The AIMD simulations reveal that the
double-{\xi} basis set overestimates the experimentally measured surface
tension due to the Pulay stress, while the triple and quadruple-{\xi} basis
sets give similar results. We further demonstrate that the van der Waals
corrections critically affect the surface tension. AIMD simulations without the
van der Waals correction substantially underestimate the surface tension, while
van der Waals correction with the Grimme's D2 technique results in the value
for the surface tension that is too high. The Grimme's D3 van der Waals
correction provides a surface tension close to the experimental value. Whereas
the specific choices for the van der Waals correction and basis sets critically
affect the calculated surface tension, the surface tension is remarkably
insensitive to the details of the exchange and correlation functionals, which
highlights the impact of long-range interactions on the surface tension. These
simulated values provide important benchmarks, both for improving van der Waals
corrections, and AIMD simulations of aqueous interfaces.


title:
Queue-Aware Energy-Efficient Joint Remote Radio Head Activation and
  Beamforming in Cloud Radio Access Networks

abstract:
  In this paper, we study the stochastic optimization of cloud radio access
networks (C-RANs) by joint remote radio head (RRH) activation and beamforming
in the downlink. Unlike most previous works that only consider a static
optimization framework with full traffic buffers, we formulate a dynamic
optimization problem by explicitly considering the effects of random traffic
arrivals and time-varying channel fading. The stochastic formulation can
quantify the tradeoff between power consumption and queuing delay. Leveraging
on the Lyapunov optimization technique, the stochastic optimization problem can
be transformed into a per-slot penalized weighted sum rate maximization
problem, which is shown to be non-deterministic polynomial-time hard. Based on
the equivalence between the penalized weighted sum rate maximization problem
and the penalized weighted minimum mean square error (WMMSE) problem, the group
sparse beamforming optimization based WMMSE algorithm and the relaxed integer
programming based WMMSE algorithm are proposed to efficiently obtain the joint
RRH activation and beamforming policy. Both algorithms can converge to a
stationary solution with low-complexity and can be implemented in a parallel
manner, thus they are highly scalable to large-scale C-RANs. In addition, these
two proposed algorithms provide a flexible and efficient means to adjust the
power-delay tradeoff on demand.


title: Introduction to Tensor Calculus

abstract:
  These are general notes on tensor calculus which can be used as a reference
for an introductory course on tensor algebra and calculus. A basic knowledge of
calculus and linear algebra with some commonly used mathematical terminology is
presumed.


title:
SourcererCC and SourcererCC-I: Tools to Detect Clones in Batch mode and
  During Software Development

abstract:
  Given the availability of large source-code repositories, there has been a
large number of applications for large-scale clone detection. Unfortunately,
despite a decade of active research, there is a marked lack in clone detectors
that scale to big software systems or large repositories, specifically for
detecting near-miss (Type 3) clones where significant editing activities may
take place in the cloned code. This paper demonstrates: (i) SourcererCC, a
token-based clone detector that targets the first three clone types, and
exploits an index to achieve scalability to large inter-project repositories
using a standard workstation. It uses an optimized inverted-index to quickly
query the potential clones of a given code block. Filtering heuristics based on
token ordering are used to significantly reduce the size of the index, the
number of code-block comparisons needed to detect the clones, as well as the
number of required token-comparisons needed to judge a potential clone, and
(ii) SourcererCC-I, an Eclipse plug-in, that uses SourcererCC's core engine to
identify and navigate clones (both inter and intra project) in real-time during
software development. In our experiments, comparing SourcererCC with the
state-of-the-art tools, we found that it is the only clone detection tool to
successfully scale to 250 MLOC on a standard workstation with 12 GB RAM and
efficiently detect the first three types of clones (precision 86% and recall
86-100%). Link to the demo: https://youtu.be/l7F_9Qp-ks4


title: Eyring equation and the second order rate law: Overcoming a paradox

abstract:
  The standard transition state theory (TST) of bimolecular reactions was
recently shown to lead to a rate law in disagreement with the expected second
order rate law [Bonnet L., Rayez J.-C. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 2010, 110, 2355].
An alternative derivation was proposed which allows to overcome this paradox.
This derivation allows to get at the same time the good rate law and Eyring
equation for the rate constant. The purpose of this paper is to provide
rigorous and convincing theoretical arguments in order to strengthen these
developments and improve their visibility.


title: A combined method for synthesis of superconducting Cu doped Bi2Se3

abstract:
  We present a two-step technique for the synthesis of superconducting
CuxBi2Se3. Cu0.15Bi2Se3 single crystals were synthesized using the melt-growth
method. Although these samples are non-superconducting, they can be employed to
generate high quality superconducting samples if used as precursors in the
following electrochemical synthesis step. Samples made from Cu0.15Bi2Se3
reliably exhibit zero-resistance even under the non-optimal quenching
condition, while samples made from pristine Bi2Se3 require fine tuning of the
quenching conditions to achieve similar performance. Moreover, under the
optimal quenching condition, the average superconducting shielding fraction was
still lower in the samples made from pristine Bi2Se3 than in the samples made
from Cu0.15Bi2Se3. These results suggest that the pre-doped Cu atoms facilitate
the formation of a superconducting percolation network. We also discuss the
useful clues that we gathered about the locations of Cu dopants that are
responsible for superconductivity.


title:
Mean curvature flow of noncompact hypersurfaces with Type-II curvature
  blow-up

abstract:
  We study the phenomenon of Type-II curvature blow-up in mean curvature flows
of rotationally symmetric noncompact embedded hypersurfaces. Using analytic
techniques based on formal matched asymptotics and the construction of upper
and lower barrier solutions enveloping formal solutions with prescribed
behavior, we show that for each initial hypersurface considered, a mean
curvature flow solution exhibits the following behavior near the "vanishing"
time $T$: (1) The highest curvature concentrates at the tip of the hypersurface
(an umbilic point), and for each choice of the parameter $\gamma>1/2$, there is
a solution with the highest curvature blowing up at the rate $(T-t)^{-(\gamma
+1/2)}$. (2) In a neighborhood of the tip, the solution converges to a
translating soliton which is a higher-dimensional analogue of the "Grim Reaper"
solution for the curve-shortening flow. (3) Away from the tip, the flow surface
approaches a collapsing cylinder at a characteristic rate dependent on the
parameter $\gamma$.


title:
New infinite families of pseudo-Anosov maps with vanishing
  Sah-Arnoux-Fathi invariant

abstract:
  We show that an orientable pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism has vanishing
Sah-Arnoux-Fathi invariant if and only if the minimal polynomial of its
dilatation is not reciprocal. We relate this to works of Margalit-Spallone and
Birman, Brinkmann and Kawamuro. Mainly, we use Veech's construction of
pseudo-Anosov maps to give explicit pseudo-Anosov maps of vanishing
Sah-Arnoux-Fathi invariant. In particular, we give new infinite families of
such maps in genus 3.


title: Solar models with new low-metal abundances

abstract:
  In the last decade, the photospheric abundances of the Sun had been revised
several times by many observers. The standard solar models (SSM) constructed
with the new low-metal abundances disagree with helioseismic results and
detected neutrino fluxes. The solar model problem has been puzzled some stellar
physicists for more than ten years. Rotation, enhanced diffusion, convection
overshoot, and magnetic fields are used to reconcile the new abundances with
helioseismology. The \textbf{too} low-helium \textbf{subsurface abundance} in
enhanced diffusion models can be improved by the mixing caused by rotation and
magnetic fields. The problem of the depth of the convective zone in rotating
models can be resolved by convection overshoot. Consequently the
Asplund-Grevesse-Sauval rotation model including overshooting (AGSR) reproduces
the seismically inferred sound-speed and density profiles, and the convection
zone depth as well as the Grevesse and Sauval (GS98) model computed before. But
this model fails to reproduce the surface helium abundance which is 0.2393
($2.6$ $\sigma$ away from the seismic value) and neutrino fluxes. The magnetic
model called AGSM keeps the agreement of the AGSR and improves the prediction
of the surface helium abundance. The observed separation ratios $r_{02}$ and
$r_{13}$ are reasonably reproduced by AGSM. Moreover, neutrino fluxes
calculated by this model are not far from the detected neutrino fluxes and the
predictions of previous works.


title:
Fully Coupled Simulation of the Plasma Liquid Interface and Interfacial
  Coefficient Effects

abstract:
  There is a growing interest in the study of coupled plasma-liquid systems
because of their applications to biomedicine, biological and chemical
disinfection, agriculture, and other areas. Without an understanding of the
near-surface gas dynamics, modellers are left to make assumptions about the
interfacial conditions. For instance it is commonly assumed that the surface
loss or sticking coefficient of gas-phase electrons at the interface is equal
to 1. In this work we explore the consequences of this assumption and introduce
a couple of ways to think about the electron interfacial condition. In one set
of simulations we impose a kinetic condition with varying surface loss
coefficient on the gas phase interfacial electrons. In a second set of
simulations we introduce a Henry's law like condition at the interface in which
the gas-phase electron concentration is assumed to be in thermodynamic
equilibrium with the liquid-phase electron concentration. It is shown that for
a range of electron Henry coefficients spanning a range of known hydrophilic
specie Henry coefficients, the gas phase electron density in the anode can vary
by orders of magnitude. Varying reflection of electrons by the interface also
has consequences for the electron energy profile. This variation in anode
electron density and energy as a function of the interface characteristics
could also lead to significant variation in near-surface gas chemistries when
such reactions are included in the model; this could very well in turn affect
the reactive species impinging on the liquid surface. We draw the conclusion
that in order to make more confident model predictions about plasma-liquid
systems, finer scale simulations and/or new experimental techniques must be
used to elucidate the near-surface gas phase electron dynamics.


title: Chrono CDI: Coherent diffractive imaging of time-evolving samples

abstract:
  Bragg coherent x-ray diffractive imaging is a powerful technique for
investigating dynamic nanoscale processes in nanoparticles immersed in
reactive, realistic environments. Its temporal resolution is limited, however,
by the oversampling requirements of 3D phase retrieval. Here we show that
incorporating the entire measurement time series, which is typically a
continuous physical process, into phase retrieval allows the oversampling
requirement at each time step to be reduced leading to a subsequent improvement
in the temporal resolution by a factor of 2 to 20 times. The increased time
resolution will allow imaging of faster dynamics and of radiation dose
sensitive samples. This approach, which we call "chrono CDI", may find use in
improving time resolution in other imaging techniques.


title:
Phase transitions in a frustrated biquadratic Heisenberg model with
  coupled orbital degree of freedom for iron-based superconductors

abstract:
  In this work, we study a biquadratic Heisenberg model with coupled orbital
degree of freedom using Monte Carlo simulation in order to investigate the
phase transitions in iron-based superconductors. The antiferro-quadrupolar
state, which may be related to the magnetism of FeSe [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115,
116401 (2015)], is stabilized by the anisotropic biquadratic interaction
induced by a ferro-orbital-ordered state. It is revealed that the orbital and
nematic transitions occur at the same temperature for all the cases, supporting
the mechanism of the orbital-driven nematicity as revealed in most recent
experiments [Nat. Mater. 14, 210 (2015)]. In addition, it is suggested that the
orbital interaction may lead to the separation of the structural and magnetic
phase transitions as observed in many families of iron pnictides.


title: Network Morphism

abstract:
  We present in this paper a systematic study on how to morph a well-trained
neural network to a new one so that its network function can be completely
preserved. We define this as \emph{network morphism} in this research. After
morphing a parent network, the child network is expected to inherit the
knowledge from its parent network and also has the potential to continue
growing into a more powerful one with much shortened training time. The first
requirement for this network morphism is its ability to handle diverse morphing
types of networks, including changes of depth, width, kernel size, and even
subnet. To meet this requirement, we first introduce the network morphism
equations, and then develop novel morphing algorithms for all these morphing
types for both classic and convolutional neural networks. The second
requirement for this network morphism is its ability to deal with non-linearity
in a network. We propose a family of parametric-activation functions to
facilitate the morphing of any continuous non-linear activation neurons.
Experimental results on benchmark datasets and typical neural networks
demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed network morphism scheme.


title: A Godement-Jacquet type integral and the metaplectic Shalika model

abstract:
  We present a novel integral representation for a quotient of global
automorphic L-functions, the symmetric square over the exterior square. The
pole of this integral characterizes a period of a residual representation of an
Eisenstein series. As such, the integral itself constitutes a period, of an
arithmetic nature. The construction involves the study of local and global
aspects of a new model for double covers of general linear groups, the
metaplectic Shalika model. In particular, we prove uniqueness results over
p-adic and Archimedean fields, and a new Casselman-Shalika type formula.


title:
Motion and Communication Co-optimization with Path Planning and Online
  Channel Estimation

abstract:
  This paper considers the problem of optimally balancing motion energy and
communication transmission energy of a mobile robot tasked with transmitting a
given number of data bits to a remote station, while navigating to a
prespecified destination in a given amount of time. The problem is cast in the
setting of optimal control, where the robot has to choose its path,
acceleration, and transmission rate along the path so as to minimize its energy
required for transmission and motion, while satisfying various power and
communication constraints. We use realistic models for the robot's channel
estimation, motion dynamics, and power and energy costs. The main contribution
of the paper is to show how to co-optimize robot's path along with other
communication and motion variables. Two versions of the problem are solved: the
first is defined offline by assuming that all the channel measurements are
taken before the robots starts moving, while in the second the channel
estimation is updated while the robot is in motion, and hence it is solved
online. In both cases we utilize an in-house algorithm that computes
near-optimal solutions in little time, which enables its use in the online
setting. The optimization strategy is described in detail and validated by
simulation of realistic scenarios.


title: Measures on differentiable stacks

abstract:
  We introduce and study measures and densities (= geometric measures) on
differentiable stacks, using a rather straightforward generalization of
Haefliger's approach to leaf spaces and to transverse measures for foliations.
In general we prove Morita invariance, a Stokes formula which provides
reinterpretations in terms of (Ruelle-Sullivan type) algebroid currents, and a
Van Est isomorphism. In the proper case we reduce the theory to classical
(Radon) measures on the underlying space, we provide explicit (Weyl-type)
formulas that shed light on Weinstein's notion of volumes of differentiable
stacks, in particular, in the symplectic case, we prove the conjecture left
open in Weinstein's "The volume of a differentiable stack". We also revisit the
notion of Haar systems (and the existence of cut-off functions). Our original
motivation comes from the study of Poisson manifolds of compact types, which
provide two important examples of such measures: the affine and the
Duistermaat-Heckman measures.


title:
Universal pinning energy barrier for driven domain walls in thin
  ferromagnetic films

abstract:
  We report a comparative study of magnetic field driven domain wall motion in
thin films made of different magnetic materials for a wide range of field and
temperature. The full thermally activated creep motion, observed below the
depinning threshold, is shown to be described by a unique universal energy
barrier function. Our findings should be relevant for other systems whose
dynamics can be modeled by elastic interfaces moving on disordered energy
landscapes.


title: Capacity of Systems with Queue-Length Dependent Service Quality

abstract:
  We study the information-theoretic limit of reliable information processing
by a server with queue-length dependent quality of service. We define the
capacity for such a system as the number of bits reliably processed per unit
time, and characterize it in terms of queuing system parameters. We also
characterize the distributions of the arrival and service processes that
maximize and minimize the capacity of such systems in a discrete-time setting.
For arrival processes with at most one arrival per time slot, we observed a
minimum around the memoryless distribution. We also studied the case of
multiple arrivals per time slot, and observed that burstiness in arrival has
adverse effects on the system. The problem is theoretically motivated by an
effort to incorporate the notion of reliability in queueing systems, and is
applicable in the contexts of crowdsourcing, multimedia communication, and
stream computing.


title:
Explosive solutions of parabolic stochastic partial differential
  equations with L$\acute{e}$vy noise

abstract:
  In this paper, we study the explosive solutions to a class of parbolic
stochastic semilinear differential equations driven by a L$\acute{\mbox{e}}$vy
type noise. The sufficient conditions are presented to guarantee the existence
of a unique positive solution of the stochastic partial differential equation
under investigation. Moreover, we show that the positive solutions will blow up
in finite time in mean $L^{p}$-norm sense, provided that the initial data, the
nonlinear term and the multiplicative noise satisfies some conditions. Several
examples are presented to illustrated the theory. Finally, we establish a
global existence theorem based on a Lyapunov functional and prove that a
stochastic Allen-Cahn equation driven by L$\acute{\mbox{e}}$vy noise has a
global solution.