title:
TiO2 nanotubes with laterally spaced ordering enable optimized
  hierarchical structures with significantly enhanced photocatalytic H2
  generation

abstract:
  In the present work we grow self-organized TiO2 nanotube arrays with a
defined and controlled regular spacing between individual nanotubes. These
defined intertube gaps allow to build up hierarchical 1D-branched structures,
conformally coated on the nanotube walls using a layer by layer nanoparticle
TiO2 decoration of the individual tubes, i.e. having not only a high control
over the TiO2 nanotube host structure but also on the harvesting layers. After
optimizing the intertube spacing, we build host-guest arrays that show a
drastically enhanced performance in photocatalytic H2 generation, compared to
any arrangement of conventional TiO2 nanotubes or conventional TiO2
nanoparticle layers. We show this beneficial effect to be due to a combination
of increased large surface area (mainly provided by the nanoparticle layers)
with a fast transport of the harvested charge within the passivated 1D
nanotubes. We anticipate that this type of hierarchical structures based on
TiO2 nanotubes with adjustable spacing will find even wider application, as
they provide an unprecedented controllable combination of surface area and
carrier transport.


title:
Two-phase flow with surfactants: Diffuse interface models and their
  analysis

abstract:
  New diffuse interface and sharp interface models for soluble and insoluble
surfactants fulfilling energy inequalities are introduced. We discuss their
relation with the help of asymptotic analysis and present an existence result
for a particular diffuse interface model.


title:
A self-tuning Firefly algorithm to tune the parameters of Ant Colony
  System (ACSFA)

abstract:
  Ant colony system (ACS) is a promising approach which has been widely used in
problems such as Travelling Salesman Problems (TSP), Job shop scheduling
problems (JSP) and Quadratic Assignment problems (QAP). In its original
implementation, parameters of the algorithm were selected by trial and error
approach. Over the last few years, novel approaches have been proposed on
adapting the parameters of ACS in improving its performance. The aim of this
paper is to use a framework introduced for self-tuning optimization algorithms
combined with the firefly algorithm (FA) to tune the parameters of the ACS
solving symmetric TSP problems. The FA optimizes the problem specific
parameters of ACS while the parameters of the FA are tuned by the selected
framework itself. With this approach, the user neither has to work with the
parameters of ACS nor the parameters of FA. Using common symmetric TSP problems
we demonstrate that the framework fits well for the ACS. A detailed statistical
analysis further verifies the goodness of the new ACS over the existing ACS and
also of the other techniques used to tune the parameters of ACS.


title: A New Piggybacking Design for Systematic MDS Storage Codes

abstract:
  Distributed storage codes have important applications in the design of modern
storage systems. In a distributed storage system, every storage node has a
probability to fail and once an individual storage node fails, it must be
reconstructed using data stored in the surviving nodes. Computation load and
network bandwidth are two important issues we need to concern when repairing a
failed node. The traditional maximal distance separable (MDS) storage codes
have low repair complexity but high repair bandwidth. On the contrary, minimal
storage regenerating (MSR) codes have low repair bandwidth but high repair
complexity. Fortunately, the newly introduced piggyback codes combine the
advantages of both ones.
  In this paper, by introducing a novel piggybacking design framework for
systematic MDS codes, we construct a storage code whose average repair
bandwidth rate, i.e., the ratio of average repair bandwidth and the amount of
the original data, can be as low as $\frac{\sqrt{2r-1}}{r}$, which
significantly improves the ratio $\frac{r-1}{2r-1}$ of the previous result. In
the meanwhile, every failed systematic node of the new code can be
reconstructed quickly using the decoding algorithm of an MDS code, only with
some additional additions over the underlying finite field. This is very fast
compared with the complex matrix multiplications needed in the repair of a
failed node of an MSR code.


title:
Interfacial adsorption in two-dimensional pure and random-bond Potts
  models

abstract:
  We study using Monte Carlo simulations the finite-size scaling behavior of
the interfacial adsorption of the two-dimensional square-lattice $q$-states
Potts model. We consider the pure and random-bond versions of the Potts model
for $q = 3,4,5,8$ and $q = 10$, thus probing the interfacial properties at the
originally continuous, weak, and strong first-order phase transitions. For the
pure systems our results support the early scaling predictions for the size
dependence of the interfacial adsorption at both first- and second-order phase
transitions. For the disordered systems, the interfacial adsorption at the
(disordered induced) continuous transitions is discussed, applying standard
scaling arguments and invoking findings for bulk critical properties. The
self-averaging properties of the interfacial adsorption are also analyzed by
studying the infinite limit-size extrapolation of properly defined
signal-to-noise ratios.


title:
The gyraton solutions on generalized Melvin universe with cosmological
  constant

abstract:
  We present and analyze new exact gyraton solutions of algebraic type II on
generalized Melvin universe of type D which admit non-vanishing cosmological
constant $\Lambda$. We show that it generalizes both, gyraton solutions on
Melvin and on direct product spacetimes. When we set $\Lambda = 0$ we get
solutions on Melvin spacetime and for $\Sigma = 1$ we obtain solutions on
direct product spacetimes. We demonstrate that the solutions are member of the
Kundt family of spacetimes as its subcases. We show that the Einstein equations
reduce to a set of equations on the transverse 2-space. We also discuss the
polynomial scalar invariants which are non-constant in general but constant for
sub-solutions on direct product spacetimes.


title: Orbital angular momentum divider of light

abstract:
  Manipulation of orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light is essential in
OAM-based optical systems. Especially, OAM divider, which can convert the
incoming OAM mode into one or several new smaller modes in proportion at
different spatial paths, is very useful in OAM-based optical networks. However,
this useful tool was never reported yet. For the first time, we put forward a
passive OAM divider based on coordinate transformation. The device consists of
a Cartesian to log-polar coordinate converter and an inverse converter. The
first converter converts the OAM light into a rectangular-shaped plane light
with a transverse phase gradient. And the second converter converts the plane
light into multiple diffracted light. The OAM of zeroth-order diffracted light
is the product of the input OAM and the scaling parameter. The residual light
is output from other diffracted orders. Furthermore, we extend the scheme to
realize equal N-dividing of OAM and arbitrary dividing of OAM. The ability of
dividing OAM shows huge potential for OAM-based classical and quantum
information processing.


title:
A clustering tool for nucleotide sequences using Laplacian Eigenmaps and
  Gaussian Mixture Models

abstract:
  We propose a new procedure for clustering nucleotide sequences based on the
"Laplacian Eigenmaps" and Gaussian Mixture modelling. This proposal is then
applied to a set of 100 DNA sequences from the mitochondrially encoded NADH
dehydrogenase 3 (ND3) gene of a collection of Platyhelminthes and Nematoda
species. The resulting clusters are then shown to be consistent with the gene
phylogenetic tree computed using a maximum likelihood approach. This comparison
shows in particular that the clustering produced by the methodology combining
Laplacian Eigenmaps with Gaussian Mixture models is coherent with the phylogeny
as well as with the NCBI taxonomy. We also developed a Python package for this
procedure which is available online.


title: Model potential for the description of metal/organic interface states

abstract:
  We present an analytical one-dimensional model potential for the description
of electronic interface states that form at the interface between a metal
surface and flat-lying adlayers of $\pi$-conjugated organic molecules. The
model utilizes graphene as a universal representation of these organic
adlayers. It predicts the energy position of the interface state as well as the
overlap of its wave function with the bulk metal without free fitting
parameters. We show that the interface state's energy depends systematically on
the bond distance between the carbon backbone of the adayers and the metal. The
general applicability and robustness of the model is demonstrated by a
comparison of the calculated energies with numerous experimental results for a
number of flat-lying organic molecules on different closed-packed metal
surfaces that cover a large range of bond distances.


title: Word Embeddings and Their Use In Sentence Classification Tasks

abstract:
  This paper have two parts. In the first part we discuss word embeddings. We
discuss the need for them, some of the methods to create them, and some of
their interesting properties. We also compare them to image embeddings and see
how word embedding and image embedding can be combined to perform different
tasks. In the second part we implement a convolutional neural network trained
on top of pre-trained word vectors. The network is used for several
sentence-level classification tasks, and achieves state-of-art (or comparable)
results, demonstrating the great power of pre-trainted word embeddings over
random ones.


title:
Short term prediction of extreme returns based on the recurrence
  interval analysis

abstract:
  Being able to predict the occurrence of extreme returns is important in
financial risk management. Using the distribution of recurrence intervals---the
waiting time between consecutive extremes---we show that these extreme returns
are predictable on the short term. Examining a range of different types of
returns and thresholds we find that recurrence intervals follow a
$q$-exponential distribution, which we then use to theoretically derive the
hazard probability $W(\Delta t |t)$. Maximizing the usefulness of extreme
forecasts to define an optimized hazard threshold, we indicates a financial
extreme occurring within the next day when the hazard probability is greater
than the optimized threshold. Both in-sample tests and out-of-sample
predictions indicate that these forecasts are more accurate than a benchmark
that ignores the predictive signals. This recurrence interval finding deepens
our understanding of reoccurring extreme returns and can be applied to forecast
extremes in risk management.


title: On some spectral spaces associated to tensor triangulated categories

abstract:
  We consider a closure operator $c$ of finite type on the space $SMod(\mathcal
M)$ of thick $\mathcal K$-submodules of a triangulated category $\mathcal M$
that is a module over a tensor triangulated category $(\mathcal K,\otimes,1)$.
Our purpose is to show that the space $SMod^c(\mathcal M)$ of fixed points of
the operator $c$ is a spectral space that also carries the structure of a
topological monoid.


title:
Laser-Induced Electron Diffraction: Inversion of Photoelectron Spectra
  for Molecular Orbital Imaging

abstract:
  In this paper, we discuss the possibility of imaging molecular orbitals from
photoelectron spectra obtained via Laser Induced Electron Diffraction (LIED) in
linear molecules. This is an extension of our work published recently in
Physical Review A \textbf{94}, 023421 (2016) to the case of the HOMO-1 orbital
of the carbon dioxide molecule. We show that such an imaging technique has the
potential to image molecular orbitals at different internuclear distances in a
sub-femtosecond time scale and with a resolution of a fraction of an
Angstr\"om.


title:
The role of electron-vibron interaction and local pairing in
  conductivity and superconductivity of alkali-doped fullerides. The route to a
  room-temperature superconductor

abstract:
  We investigate the competition between the electron-vibron interaction
(interaction with the Jahn-Teller phonons) and the Coulomb repulsion in a
system with local pairing of electrons on the triply degenerate lowest
unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO). The electron-vibron interaction radically
changes conductivity and magnetic properties of alkali-doped fullerides AnC60,
which should be antiferromagnetic Mott insulators: we have found that materials
with n=1,2 and A=K,Rb are conductors but not superconductors; n=3 and A=K,Rb
are conductors (superconductors at low temperatures), but with A=Cs are Mott
insulators at normal pressure; n=2,4 are nonmagnetic Mott insulators. We have
shown that superconductivity, conductivity and insulation of these materials
have common nature. Based on the alkali-doped fullerides we propose a
hypothetical material with a significantly higher critical temperature using
the model of superconductivity with the external pair potential formulated in a
work K.V. Grigorishin Phys. Lett. A 381 3089 (2017).


title:
Laser-Induced Electron Diffraction: Alignment Defects and Symmetry
  Breaking

abstract:
  The fringe pattern that allows geometrical and orbital structure information
to be extracted from LIED spectra of symmetric molecules is shown to reflect a
symmetry conservation principle. We show that under a field polarization which
preserves certain symmetry elements of the molecule, the symmetry character of
the initial wave function is conserved during its time-evolution. We present a
symmetry analysis of a deviation from a perfect alignment by decomposing the
field into a major, symmetry-determining part, and a minor, symmetry breaking,
part. This decomposition leads to a corresponding factorization of the
time-evolution operator. The formalism is applied to the analysis of the
robustness of LIED readings and inversions with respect to deviations from a
perfect perpendicular and parallel alignment of a symmetric ABA triatomic
molecule. The results indicate a particularly strong stability of the type of
LIED spectra associated with the perpendicular alignment situation.


title: Intelligent Time-Adaptive Transient Stability Assessment System

abstract:
  Online identification of post-contingency transient stability is essential in
power system control, as it facilitates the grid operator to decide and
coordinate system failure correction control actions. Utilizing machine
learning methods with synchrophasor measurements for transient stability
assessment has received much attention recently with the gradual deployment of
wide-area protection and control systems. In this paper, we develop a transient
stability assessment system based on the long short-term memory network. By
proposing a temporal self-adaptive scheme, our proposed system aims to balance
the trade-off between assessment accuracy and response time, both of which may
be crucial in real-world scenarios. Compared with previous work, the most
significant enhancement is that our system learns from the temporal data
dependencies of the input data, which contributes to better assessment
accuracy. In addition, the model structure of our system is relatively less
complex, speeding up the model training process. Case studies on three power
systems demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed transient stability assessment
system.


title:
Atomistic origin of exchange anisotropy in $\gamma$-IrMn$_3$-CoFe
  bilayers

abstract:
  The exchange interaction determines the ferromagnetic (FM) or
antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering of atomic spins. When ferromagnets and
antiferromagnets are coupled together, they often exhibit the exchange bias
effect, a unidirectional interface exchange field causing a shift of the
magnetic hysteresis loop. The effective magnitude of this interface exchange
field is at most a few percent of the bulk exchange, arising from pinned
interfacial spins in the antiferromagnet. The pinned spins are known to
comprise a small fraction of the total number of interface spins, yet their
exact nature and physical origin has so far been elusive. Here we show that in
the technologically important $\gamma - IrMn_3/CoFe$ structure the pinned
interface spins are in fact delocalised over the whole interface layer. The
pinned spins arise from the small imbalance of the number of spins in each
magnetic sublattice in the antiferromagnet due to the natural atomic disorder.
These pinned spins are strongly coupled to the bulk antiferromagnet explaining
their remarkable stability. Moreover, we find that the ferromagnet strongly
distorts the interface spin structure of the antiferromagnet, causing a large
reversible interface magnetisation that does not contribute to exchange bias.
The unexpected delocalised nature of the pinned interface spins explains both
their small number and their stability, uncovering the mysterious microscopic
origin of the exchange bias effect.


title:
Distribution of Cr atoms in a strained and strain-relaxed Fe89.15Cr10.75
  alloy: M\"ossbauer effect study

abstract:
  A Fe89.15Cr10.75 alloy in a heavily strained (by cold rolling) and
strain-relaxed states was studied by means of the conversion electrons
M\"ossbauer spectroscopy (CEMS). Analysis of the spectra in terms of a
two-shell model revealed significant differences between the studied samples,
in particular, in values of the hyperfine field, a distribution of Cr atoms
within the first two neighbor-shells, the latter was expressed in terms of the
short-range order parameters, and in the magnetic texture.


title: Repolarization of Negative Muons by Polarized $^{209}$Bi Nuclei

abstract:
  A large $\mu^-$ polarization was achieved in muonic Bi atoms with the help of
the strong hyperfine field in a polarized nuclear target. Using $^{209}$Bi
nuclei polarized to ($59\pm9$)% in ferromagnetic BiMn, we observed a $\mu$-$e$
decay asymmetry of ($13.1\pm3.9$)%, which gives $\mu^-$ polarization per
nuclear polarization equal to $-1.07\pm 0.35$. This value is almost consistent
with $-0.792$ calculated for nuclei with spin $I= \frac{9}{2}$ and a positive
magnetic moment under the assumption that the hyperfine interaction becomes
effective in the lowest muonic states.


title: Things Bayes can't do

abstract:
  The problem of forecasting conditional probabilities of the next event given
the past is considered in a general probabilistic setting. Given an arbitrary
(large, uncountable) set C of predictors, we would like to construct a single
predictor that performs asymptotically as well as the best predictor in C, on
any data. Here we show that there are sets C for which such predictors exist,
but none of them is a Bayesian predictor with a prior concentrated on C. In
other words, there is a predictor with sublinear regret, but every Bayesian
predictor must have a linear regret. This negative finding is in sharp contrast
with previous results that establish the opposite for the case when one of the
predictors in $C$ achieves asymptotically vanishing error. In such a case, if
there is a predictor that achieves asymptotically vanishing error for any
measure in C, then there is a Bayesian predictor that also has this property,
and whose prior is concentrated on (a countable subset of) C.


title:
Modulation of unpolarized light in planar aligned subwavelength-pitch
  deformed-helix ferroelectric liquid crystals

abstract:
  We study the electro-optic properties of subwavelength-pitch deformed-helix
ferroelectric liquid crystals (DHFLC) illuminated with unpolarized light. In
the experimental setup based on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, it was
observed that the reference and the sample beams being both unpolarized produce
the interference pattern which is insensitive to rotation of in-plane optical
axes of the DHFLC cell. We find that the field-induced shift of the
interference fringes can be described in terms of the electrically dependent
Pancharatnam relative phase determined by the averaged phase shift, whereas the
visibility of the fringes is solely dictated by the phase retardation.


title: Hopf and Lie algebras in semi-additive Varieties

abstract:
  We study Hopf monoids in entropic semi-additive varieties with an emphasis on
adjunctions related to the enveloping monoid functor and the primitive element
functor. These investigations are based on the concept of the abelian core of a
semi-additive variety variety and its monoidal structure in case the variety is
entropic.


title: Continuous spin models on annealed generalized random graphs

abstract:
  We study Gibbs distributions of spins taking values in a general compact
Polish space, interacting via a pair potential along the edges of a generalized
random graph with a given asymptotic weight distribution $P$, obtained by
annealing over the random graph distribution.
  First we prove a variational formula for the corresponding annealed pressure
and provide criteria for absence of phase transitions in the general case.
  We furthermore study classes of models with second order phase transitions
which include rotation-invariant models on spheres and models on intervals, and
classify their critical exponents. We find critical exponents which are
modified relative to the corresponding mean-field values when $P$ becomes too
heavy-tailed, in which case they move continuously with the tail-exponent of
$P$. For large classes of models they are the same as for the Ising model
treated in \cite{DomGiaGibHofPri16}. On the other hand, we provide conditions
under which the model is in a different universality class, and construct an
explicit example of such a model on the interval.

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


title: Laser-coolable polyatomic molecules with heavy nuclei

abstract:
  Recently a number of diatomic and polyatomics molecules has been identified
as a prospective systems for Doppler/Sisyphus cooling. Doppler/Sisyphus cooling
allows to decrease the kinetic energy of molecules down to microkelvin
temperatures with high efficiency and then capture them to molecular traps,
including magneto-optical trap. Trapped molecules can be used for creation of
molecular fountains and/or performing controlled chemical reactions,
high-precision spectra measurements and a multitude of other applications.
Polyatomic molecules with heavy nuclei present considerable interest for the
search for "new physics" outside of Standard Model and other applications
including cold chemistry, photochemistry, quantum informatics etc. Herein we
would like to attract attention to radium monohydroxide molecule (RaOH) which
is on the one hand an amenable object for laser cooling and on the other hand
provides extensive possibilities for searching for P-odd and P,T-odd effects.
At the moment RaOH is the heaviest polyatomic molecule proposed for direct
cooling with lasers.


title:
Efficient Estimation of COM-Poisson Regression and Generalized Additive
  Model

abstract:
  The Conway-Maxwell-Poisson (CMP) or COM-Poison regression is a popular model
for count data due to its ability to capture both under dispersion and over
dispersion. However, CMP regression is limited when dealing with complex
nonlinear relationships. With today's wide availability of count data,
especially due to the growing collection of data on human and social behavior,
there is need for count data models that can capture complex nonlinear
relationships. One useful approach is additive models; but, there has been no
additive model implementation for the CMP distribution. To fill this void, we
first propose a flexible estimation framework for CMP regression based on
iterative reweighed least squares (IRLS) and then extend this model to allow
for additive components using a penalized splines approach. Because the CMP
distribution belongs to the exponential family, convergence of IRLS is
guaranteed under some regularity conditions. Further, it is also known that
IRLS provides smaller standard errors compared to gradient-based methods. We
illustrate the usefulness of this approach through extensive simulation studies
and using real data from a bike sharing system in Washington, DC.


title: Fundamental Physics With Cosmic High-Energy Gamma Rays

abstract:
  High-energy photons (above the MeV) are a powerful probe for astrophysics and
for fundamental physics under extreme conditions. During the recent years, our
knowledge of the high-energy gamma-ray sky has impressively progressed thanks
to the advent of new detectors for cosmic gamma rays, at ground (H.E.S.S.,
MAGIC, VERITAS, HAWC) and in space (AGILE, Fermi). This presentation reviews
the present status of the studies of fundamental physics problems with
high-energy gamma rays, and discusses the expected experimental developments.


title:
Exploring Spatial Coherence in Inter-annual Changes and Annual Extremes
  of Rainfall over India

abstract:
  Forecasts of monsoon rainfall for India are made at national scale. But there
is spatial coherence and heterogeneity that is relevant to forecasting. This
paper considers year-to-year rainfall change and annual extremes at
sub-national scales. We use Data Mining techniques to gridded rain-gauge data
for 1901-2011 to characterize coherence and heterogeneity and identify
spatially homogeneous clusters. We study the direction of change in rainfall
between years (Phase), and extreme annual rainfall at both grid level and
national level. Grid-level Phase is found to be spatially coherent, and
significantly correlated with all-India mean rainfall (AIMR) phase. Grid-level
extreme-rainfall years are not strongly associated with corresponding extremes
in AIMR, although in extreme AIMR years local extremes of the same type occur
with higher spatial coherence. Years of extremes in AIMR entail widespread
phase of the corresponding sign. Furthermore, local extremes and phase are
found to frequently co-occur in spatially contiguous clusters.


title:
Fullerene antiferromagnetic reconstructed spinterface subsurface layer
  dominates multi-orbitals spin-splitting and large magnetic moment in C60

abstract:
  The interfaces between organic molecules and metal surfaces with layered
antiferromagnetic order have gained increasing interests in the field of
antiferromagnetic spintronics. The C60 layered AFM spinterfaces have been
studied for C60 bonded only to the outermost ferromagnetic layer. Using density
functional theory calculations, here we demonstrate that C60 adsorption can
reconstruct the layered AFM Cr(001) surface so that C60 bonds to the top two Cr
layers with opposite spin direction. Surface reconstruction drastically changes
C60 s spintronic properties 1 the spin-split p-d hybridization involve
multi-orbitals of C60 and metal double layers, 2 the subsurface layer dominates
the C60 spin properties, and 3) reconstruction induces a large magnetic moment
in C60 of 0.58 B, which is a synergetic effect of the top two layers as a
result of a magnetic direct-exchange interaction. Understanding these complex
spinterfaces phenomena is a crucial step for their device applications. The
surface reconstruction can be realized by annealing at above room temperature
in experiments.


title: The effect of radiative feedback on disc fragmentation

abstract:
  Protostellar discs may become massive enough to fragment producing secondary
low-mass objects: planets, brown dwarfs and low-mass stars. We study the effect
of radiative feedback from such newly-formed secondary objects using radiative
hydrodynamic simulations. We compare the results of simulations without any
radiative feedback from secondary objects with those where two types of
radiative feedback are considered: (i) continuous, and (ii) episodic. We find
that: (i) continuous radiative feedback stabilizes the disc and suppresses
further fragmentation, reducing the number secondary objects formed; (ii)
episodic feedback from secondary objects heats and stabilises the disc when the
outburst occurs, but shortly after the outburst stops, the disc becomes
unstable and fragments again. However, fewer secondary objects are formed
compared to the the case without radiative feedback. We also find that the mass
growth of secondary objects is mildly suppressed due to the effect of their
radiative feedback. However, their mass growth also depends on where they form
in the disc and on their subsequent interactions, such that their final masses
are not drastically different from the case without radiative feedback. We find
that the masses of secondary objects formed by disc fragmentation are from a
few M$_{\rm J}$ to a few 0.1 M$_{\odot}$. Planets formed by fragmentation tend
to be ejected from the disc. We conclude that planetary-mass objects on wide
orbits (wide-orbit planets) are unlikely to form by disc fragmentation.
Nevertheless, disc fragmentation may be a significant source of free-floating
planets and brown dwarfs.


title: Universality of Bayesian mixture predictors

abstract:
  The problem is that of sequential probability forecasting for finite-valued
time series. The data is generated by an unknown probability distribution over
the space of all one-way infinite sequences. It is known that this measure
belongs to a given set C, but the latter is completely arbitrary (uncountably
infinite, without any structure given). The performance is measured with
asymptotic average log loss. In this work it is shown that the minimax
asymptotic performance is always attainable, and it is attained by a convex
combination of a countably many measures from the set C (a Bayesian mixture).
This was previously only known for the case when the best achievable asymptotic
error is 0. This also contrasts previous results that show that in the
non-realizable case all Bayesian mixtures may be suboptimal, while there is a
predictor that achieves the optimal performance.


title:
An Improved Approach for Prediction of Parkinson's Disease using Machine
  Learning Techniques

abstract:
  Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the major public health problems in the
world. It is a well-known fact that around one million people suffer from
Parkinson's disease in the United States whereas the number of people suffering
from Parkinson's disease worldwide is around 5 million. Thus, it is important
to predict Parkinson's disease in early stages so that early plan for the
necessary treatment can be made. People are mostly familiar with the motor
symptoms of Parkinson's disease, however, an increasing amount of research is
being done to predict the Parkinson's disease from non-motor symptoms that
precede the motor ones. If an early and reliable prediction is possible then a
patient can get a proper treatment at the right time. Nonmotor symptoms
considered are Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep Behaviour Disorder (RBD) and
olfactory loss. Developing machine learning models that can help us in
predicting the disease can play a vital role in early prediction. In this
paper, we extend a work which used the non-motor features such as RBD and
olfactory loss. Along with this the extended work also uses important
biomarkers. In this paper, we try to model this classifier using different
machine learning models that have not been used before. We developed automated
diagnostic models using Multilayer Perceptron, BayesNet, Random Forest and
Boosted Logistic Regression. It has been observed that Boosted Logistic
Regression provides the best performance with an impressive accuracy of 97.159
% and the area under the ROC curve was 98.9%. Thus, it is concluded that these
models can be used for early prediction of Parkinson's disease.


title: Quantum-enhanced machine learning

abstract:
  The emerging field of quantum machine learning has the potential to
substantially aid in the problems and scope of artificial intelligence. This is
only enhanced by recent successes in the field of classical machine learning.
In this work we propose an approach for the systematic treatment of machine
learning, from the perspective of quantum information. Our approach is general
and covers all three main branches of machine learning: supervised,
unsupervised and reinforcement learning. While quantum improvements in
supervised and unsupervised learning have been reported, reinforcement learning
has received much less attention. Within our approach, we tackle the problem of
quantum enhancements in reinforcement learning as well, and propose a
systematic scheme for providing improvements. As an example, we show that
quadratic improvements in learning efficiency, and exponential improvements in
performance over limited time periods, can be obtained for a broad class of
learning problems.


title:
High-resolution structure of coexisting nanoscopic and microscopic lipid
  domains

abstract:
  We advanced a previously reported model for the \textit{in situ} scattering
data analysis of coexisting lipid domains in free-floating multilamellar
vesicles. Based on the scattering density profile of the individual domains we
considered in particular modifications due to positionally anticorrelated
domains or the presence of cholesterol. The latter aspect can be easily
extended to any other lipophilic molecule. This allowed us to retrieve elastic
and structural details (bending fluctuations, domain thickness, area per lipid)
of coexisting liquid-ordered/liquid-disordered domains, including the
partitioning of cholesterol from small-angle x-ray scattering experiments.
Moreover, the model also successfully fitted data of multilamellar vesicles
exhibiting nanoscopic domains, which displayed unlike coexisting micron-sized
domains no clear signal for two lamellar lattices. Our results indicate a
previously not observed translation of cholesterol toward the bilayer center of
nanoscopic liquid-ordered domains.


title:
New Photometrically Variable Magnetic Chemically Peculiar Stars in the
  ASAS-3 Archive

abstract:
  The magnetic Ap or CP2 stars are natural atomic and magnetic laboratories and
ideal testing grounds for the evaluation of model atmospheres. CP2 stars
exhibiting photometric variability are traditionally referred to as alpha2
Canum Venaticorum (ACV) variables. Strictly periodic changes are observed in
the spectra and brightness of these stars, which allow the derivation of
rotational periods. Related to this group of objects are the He-weak (CP4) and
He-rich stars, some of which are also known to undergo brightness changes due
to rotational modulation. Increasing the sample size of known rotational
periods among CP2/4 stars is an important task, which will contribute to our
understanding of these objects and their evolution in time. We have compiled an
extensive target list of magnetic chemically peculiar (CP2/4) stars. In
addition to that, a systematic investigation of early-type (spectral types B/A)
variable stars of undetermined type in the International Variable Star Index of
the AAVSO (VSX) yielded additional ACV candidates, which were included in our
sample. We investigated our sample stars using publicly available observations
from the ASAS-3 archive. We were able to identify another 360 stars exhibiting
photometric variability in the accuracy limit of the ASAS-3 data, thereby
concluding our search for photometrically variable magnetic chemically peculiar
stars in the ASAS-3 archive. Summary data, folded light curves and, if
available, information from the literature are presented for all variable stars
of our sample, which is composed of 334 bona-fide ACV variables, 23 ACV
candidates and three eclipsing binary systems. In particular, we call attention
to HD 66051 (V414 Pup), which was identified as an eclipsing binary system
showing obvious rotational modulation of the light curve due to the presence of
an ACV variable in the system.


title: Role of Experiments in the Progress of Science: Lessons from our History

abstract:
  I shall discuss the history of Indian astronomy, Aurveda (life science),
chemistry and metallurgy to illustrate how downgrading experiments from
scientific learning lead to the decline of ancient Indian science and
civilization. We shall see that in the glorious period of ancient Indian
civilization, lasting up to the 9th century, there was close interaction
between experimental investigations and theoretical analyses in each of these
sciences. This was further augmented by two-way interactions with the other
advanced civilizations of that time. But both these interactions came to an end
around 9th century, leading to the stagnation and decline of Indian science and
civilization over the next thousand years. This was the cause rather than the
consequence of its subjugation by external invaders, though it was no doubt
aggravated by the latter.


title:
Biderivations of W-algebra $W(2,2)$ and Virasoro algebra without
  skewsymmetric condition and their applications

abstract:
  In this paper, we characterize the biderivations of W-algebra $W(2,2)$ and
Virasoro algebra $Vir$ without skewsymmetric condition. We get two classes of
non-inner biderivations. As applications, we also get the forms of linear
commuting maps on W-algebra $W(2,2)$ and Virasoro algebra $Vir$.


title: On the IP Traffic Matrix Problem in Hybrid SDN/OSPF Networks

abstract:
  IP networks with a hybrid control plane deploy a distributed routing protocol
like OSPF and the centralized paradigm of SDN in parallel. The advantages and
disadvantages of a hybrid control plane have already been extensively discussed
in the literature. This paper examines to what extent hybrid SDN/OSPF can solve
the IP traffic matrix and related monitoring problems, inherent to the IP
layer. The problem persists in hybrid networks, as the required SDN byte
counters for a complete traffic matrix may not be sufficiently implemented (or
even not at all), or the deployed SDN nodes may be too few, or not adequately
located in the network. For such cases, we propose to augment the SDN traffic
statistics with SNMP-based measurements on IP backup links. We address
implementation and network function virtualization aspects of the required
hybrid monitoring infrastructure and discuss the timing issues of the
measurements based on hands-on experiences in our lab. We furthermore provide a
placement algorithm for SDN nodes and backup links that can guarantee a
complete IP traffic matrix.


title: Cube-Split: Structured Quantizers on the Grassmannian of Lines

abstract:
  This paper introduces a new quantization scheme for real and complex
Grassmannian sources. The proposed approach relies on a structured codebook
based on a geometric construction of a collection of bent grids defined from an
initial mesh on the unit-norm sphere. The associated encoding and decoding
algorithms have very low complexity (equivalent to a scalar quantizer), while
their efficiency (in terms of the achieved distortion) is on par with the best
known structured approaches, and compares well with the theoretical bounds.
These properties make this codebook suitable for high-resolutions, real-time
applications such as channel state feedback in massive multiple-input
multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems.


title: The Edelstein effect in the presence of impurity spin-orbit scattering

abstract:
  In this paper we study the current-induced spin polarization in a
two-dimensional electron gas, known also as the Edelstein effect. Compared to
previous treatments, we consider both the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit
interaction as well as the spin-orbit interaction from impurity scattering. In
evaluating the Kubo formula for the spin polarization response to an applied
electric field, we explicitly take into account the side-jump and
skew-scattering effects. We show that the inclusion of side-jump and
skew-scattering modifies the expression of the current-induced spin
polarization.


title:
Electronic properties of a heavy-fermion U(Ru0.92Rh0.08)2Si2 single
  crystal

abstract:
  We report the crystal structure and highly-anisotropic magnetic, transport
and thermal properties of an exceptionally good single crystal of
U(Ru0.92Rh0.08)2Si2 prepared using a modified Czochralski method. Our study,
that also includes neutron diffraction results, shows all the heavy-fermion
signatures of pristine URu2Si2 , however, the superconductivity, hidden order
and remanent weak antiferromagnetic orders are absent. Instead, the ground
state of the doped system can be classified as a spin liquid that preserves the
heavy-fermion character. U(Ru0.92Rh0.08)2Si2 exhibits a short-range magnetic
order distinguished by reflections of a Lorentzian profile at qIII = (1/2 1/2
1/2) positions that disappear above approx. 15 K. The short-range order seems
to be a precursor of a long-range magnetic order that occurs with higher Rh
concentration. We indicate that these short-range fluctuations involve, at
least partially, inelastic scattering processes.


title: Watching the coherent birth of polaron pairs in conjugated polymers

abstract:
  Organic semiconductors have the remarkable property that their optical
excitation not only generates charge-neutral electron-hole pairs (excitons) but
also charge-separated polaron pairs with high yield. The microscopic mechanisms
underlying this charge separation have been debated for many years. Here we use
ultrafast two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy to study the dynamics of
polaron pair formation in a prototypical polymer thin film on a sub-20-fs time
scale. We observe multi-period peak oscillations persisting for up to about 1
ps as distinct signatures of vibronic quantum coherence at room temperature.
The measured two-dimensional spectra show pronounced peak splittings revealing
that the elementary optical excitations of this polymer are hybridized
exciton-polaron-pairs, strongly coupled to a dominant underdamped vibrational
mode. Coherent vibronic coupling induces ultrafast polaron pair formation,
accelerates the charge separation dynamics and makes it insensitive to
disorder. These findings open up new perspectives for tailoring
light-to-current conversion in organic materials.

categories: cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.soft physics.chem-ph quant-ph


title: Computable g- Frames

abstract:
  The notion of g-frames for Hilbert spaces was introduced and studied by
Wenchang Sun [16] as a generalization of the notion of frames. In this paper,
we define computable g-frames in computable Hilbert spaces and obtain
computable versions of some of their characterizations and related results.


title: Modeling peer and external influence in online social networks

abstract:
  Opinion polls mediated through a social network can give us, in addition to
usual demographics data like age, gender and geographic location, a friendship
structure between voters and the temporal dynamics of their activity during the
voting process. Using a Facebook application we collected friendship
relationships, demographics and votes of over ten thousand users on the
referendum on the definition of marriage in Croatia held on 1st of December
2013. We also collected data on online news articles mentioning our
application. Publication of these articles align closely with large peaks of
voting activity, indicating that these external events have a crucial influence
in engaging the voters. Also, existence of strongly connected friendship
communities where majority of users vote during short time period, and the fact
that majority of users in general tend to friend users that voted the same
suggest that peer influence also has its role in engaging the voters. As we are
not able to track activity of our users at all times, and we do not know their
motivations for expressing their votes through our application, the question is
whether we can infer peer and external influence using friendship network of
users and the times of their voting. We propose a new method for estimation of
magnitude of peer and external influence in friendship network and demonstrate
its validity on both simulated and actual data.


title: Synthesis of photochromic oxygen-containing yttrium hydride

abstract:
  Photochromic oxygen-containing yttrium hydride has been synthesized using a
two step process. The process consists of an initial sputter deposition of
oxygen-free yttrium hydride YH$_\mathrm{x}$, followed by a controlled reaction
with air that causes incorporation of oxygen into the material. An in-situ
study of the YH$_\mathrm{x}$ as it reacted with oxygen was made possible by
applying an aluminium capping layer with a low but non-zero oxygen permeability
prior to air exposure. During the reaction, the visual appearance of the
YH$_\mathrm{x}$ went from dark and opaque to transparent and yellowish. This
transition was accredited incorporation of oxygen into the material, as shown
through analysis with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and x-ray
photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). Grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD)
studies revealed an fcc structure both before and after oxygen exposure, with a
lattice parameter that increased from 5.2 {\AA} to 5.4 {\AA} during the
reaction. With the lattice parameter in the oxygen free YH$_\mathrm{x}$ being
equal to that reported earlier for YH$_\mathrm{2}$, our findings suggest that
the non-reacted YH$_\mathrm{x}$ in this study is in-fact YH$_\mathrm{2}$.


title:
The Hubble Space Telescope UV Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular
  Clusters -- XI. The horizontal branch in NGC\,6388 and NGC\,6441

abstract:
  The Hubble Space Telescope UV Legacy survey of Galactic Globular Clusters
(GC) is characterising many different aspects of their multiple stellar
populations. The "Grundahl-jump" (G-jump) is a discontinuity in ultraviolet
brightness of blue horizontal branch (HB) stars, signalling the onset of
radiative metal levitation. The HB Legacy data confirmed that the G-jump is
located at the same T$_{eff}$ ($\simeq$11,500 K) in nearly all clusters. The
only exceptions are the metal-rich clusters NGC 6388 and NGC 6441, where the
G-jump occurs at T$_{eff}\simeq$13-14,000K. We compute synthetic HB models
based on new evolutionary tracks including the effect of helium diffusion, and
approximately accounting for the effect of metal levitation in a stable
atmosphere. Our models show that the G-jump location depends on the interplay
between the timescale of diffusion and the timescale of the evolution in the
T$_{eff}$ range 11,500 K$\lessapprox$T$_{eff}\lessapprox$14,000 K. The G-jump
becomes hotter than 11,500 K only for stars that have, in this T$_{eff}$ range,
a helium mass fraction Y>0.35. Similarly high Y values are also consistent with
the modelling of the HB in NGC 6388 and NGC 6441. In these clusters we predict
that a significant fraction of HB stars show helium in their spectra above
11,500 K, and full helium settling should only be found beyond the hotter
G-jump.


title: Confinement-Deconfinement transition in $SU(2)+$Higgs Theory

abstract:
  We study the confinement-deconfinement transition in $SU(2)$ gauge theory in
the presence of massless bosons using lattice Monte Carlo simulations. The
nature of this transition depends on the temporal extent ($N_\tau$) of the
Euclidean lattice. We find that the transition is a cross-over for $N_\tau=2,4$
and second order with $3D$ Ising universality class for $N_\tau=8$. Our results
show that the second order transition is accompanied by realization of the
$Z_2$ symmetry.


title: VNF Placement with Replication for Load Balancing in NFV Networks

abstract:
  Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a new paradigm, enabling service
innovation through virtualization of traditional network functions located
flexibly in the network in form of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). Since VNFs
can only be placed onto servers located in networked data centers, which is the
NFV's salient feature, the traffic directed to these data center areas has
significant impact on network load balancing. Network load balancing can be
even more critical for an ordered sequence of VNFs, also known as Service
Function Chains (SFCs), a common cloud and network service approach today. To
balance the network load, VNF's can be placed in a smaller cluster of servers
in the network thus minimizing the distance to the data center. The
optimization of the placement of these clusters is a challenge as also other
factors need to be considered, such as the resource utilization. To address
this issue, we study the problem of VNF placement with replications, and
especially the potential of VNFs replications to help load balance the network.
We design and compare three optimization methods, including Linear Programing
(LP) model, Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Random Fit Placement Algorithm (RFPA)
for the allocation and replication of VNFs. Our results show that the optimum
placement and replication can significantly improve load balancing, for which
we also propose a GA heuristics applicable to larger networks.


title: Large Halloween Asteroid at Lunar Distance

abstract:
  The near-Earth asteroid (NEA) 2015 TB145 had a very close encounter with
Earth at 1.3 lunar distances on October 31, 2015. We obtained 3-band
mid-infrared observations with the ESO VLT-VISIR instrument and visual
lightcurves during the close-encounter phase. The NEA has a (most likely)
rotation period of 2.939 +/- 0.005 hours and the visual lightcurve shows a
peak-to-peak amplitude of approximately 0.12+/-0.02 mag. We estimate a V-R
colour of 0.56+/-0.05 mag from MPC database entries. Applying different phase
relations to the available R-/V-band observations produced H_R = 18.6 mag
(standard H-G calculations) or H_R = 19.2 mag & H_V = 19.8 mag (via the H-G12
procedure), with large uncertainties of approximately 1 mag. We performed a
detailed thermophysical model analysis by using spherical and ellipsoidal shape
models. The thermal properties are best explained by an equator-on (+/- ~30
deg) viewing geometry during our measurements with a thermal inertia in the
range 250-700 Jm-2s-0.5K-1 (retrograde rotation) or above 500 Jm-2s-0.5K-1
(prograde rotation). We find that the NEA has a minimum size of 625 m, a
maximum size of just below 700 m, and a slightly elongated shape with a/b ~1.1.
The best match to all thermal measurements is found for: (i) Thermal inertia of
900 Jm-2s-0.5K-1; D_eff = 644 m, p_V = 5.5% (prograde rotation); regolith grain
sizes of ~50-100 mm; (ii) thermal inertia of 400 Jm-2s-0.5K-1; D_eff = 667 m,
p_V = 5.1% (retrograde rotation); regolith grain sizes of ~10-20 mm. A
near-Earth asteroid model (NEATM) confirms an object size well above 600 m,
significantly larger than early estimates based on radar measurements. We give
recommendations for improved observing strategies for similar events in the
future.


title:
Path-controlled time reordering of paired photons in a dressed
  three-level cascade

abstract:
  The two-photon dressing of a "three-level ladder" system, here the ground
state, the exciton and the biexciton of a semiconductor quantum dot, leads to
new eigenstates and allows one to manipulate the time ordering of the paired
photons without unitary post processing. We show that, after spectral
post-selection of the single dressed states, the time ordering of the cascaded
photons can be removed or conserved. Our joint experimental and theoretical
study demonstrates the high potential of a "ladder" system to be a versatile
source of orthogonally polarized, bunched or antibunched pairs of photons.


title: Open charm physics with Heavy Ions: theoretical overview

abstract:
  The peculiar role of heavy-flavour observables in relativistic heavy-ion
collisions is discussed. Produced in the early stage, $c$ and $b$ quarks cross
the hot medium arising from the collision, interacting strongly with the
latter, until they hadronize. Depending on the strength of the interaction
heavy quarks may or not approach kinetic equilibrium with the plasma, tending
in the first case to follow the collective flow of the expanding fireball. The
presence of a hot deconfined medium may also affect heavy-quark hadronization,
being possible for them to recombine with the surrounding light thermal
partons, so that the final heavy-flavour hadrons inherit part of the flow of
the medium. Here we show how it is possible to develop a complete transport
setup allowing one to describe heavy-flavour production in high-energy nuclear
collisions, displaying some major results one can obtain. Information coming
from recent lattice-QCD simulations concerning both the heavy-flavour transport
coefficients in the hot QCD plasma and the nature of the charmed degrees around
the deconfinement transition is also presented. Finally, the possibility that
the formation of a hot deconfined medium even in small systems
(high-multiplicity p-Au and d-Au collisions, so far) may affect also
heavy-flavour observables is investigated.


title:
Single-Molecule Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Spectrum of
  Non-Resonant Aromatic Amine Showing Raman Forbidden Bands

abstract:
  We present the experimentally obtained single-molecule (SM) surface-enhanced
Raman scattering (SERS) spectrum of 4-aminibenzenethiol (4-ABT), also known as
para-aminothiophenol (PATP). Measured at a 4-ABT concentration of 8 * 10^-10 M,
the spectra show Raman forbidden modes. The SM-SERS spectrum of 4-ABT obtained
using a non-resonant visible laser is different from the previously reported
SERS spectra of 4-ABT, and could not be reconstructed using quantum mechanical
calculations. Careful classical assignments (not based on quantum-mechanical
calculations) are reported, and indicate that differences in the reported
spectra of 4-ABT are mainly due to the appearance of Raman forbidden bands. The
presence of Raman forbidden bands can be explained by the charge-transfer (CT)
effect of 4-ABT adsorbed on the silver nanostructures, indicating a breakdown
of Raman selection rules at the SERS hotspot.


title: Properties of JP = 1/2+ baryon octets at low energy

abstract:
  The statistical model in combination with detailed balance principle is able
to phenomenological calculate and analyze spin and flavor dependent properties
like magnetic moments (with effective masses, effective charge, with both
effective mass and effective charge), quark spin polarization and distribution,
strangeness suppression factor. The magnetic moments of the octet baryons are
analyzed within the statistical model, by putting emphasis on the SU(3)
symmetry breaking effects generated by the mass difference between the strange
and non strange quarks. The work presented here assume hadrons with a sea
having admixture of quark-gluon Fock states. The results obtained have been
compared with theoretical models and experimental data.


title:
Probabilistic metrology or how some measurement outcomes render
  ultra-precise estimates

abstract:
  We show on theoretical grounds that, even in the presence of noise,
probabilistic measurement strategies (which have a certain probability of
failure or abstention) can provide, upon a heralded successful outcome,
estimates with a precision that exceeds the deterministic bounds for the
average precision. This establishes a new ultimate bound on the phase
estimation precision of particular measurement outcomes (or sequence of
outcomes). For probe systems subject to local dephasing, we quantify such
precision limit as a function of the probability of failure that can be
tolerated. Our results show that the possibility of abstaining can set back the
detrimental effects of noise.


title: Gluon TMDs in the small-$x$ limit

abstract:
  In high-energy scattering processes involving two or more hadrons one can
measure observables that are sensitive to partonic transverse momentum, which
is encoded in so-called transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution
functions (PDFs), also called TMDs. These functions correspond to Fourier
transforms of matrix elements that contain process-dependent gauge links. As
the energy associated to the collision process increases, one becomes more
sensitive to the small-$x$ region which is dominated by gluon rather than quark
TMDs. In this paper we study the leading-twist gluon TMDs in the small-$x$
limit for the dipole-type gauge link structure, for both unpolarized and vector
polarized hadrons. In the limit $x\to0$, the gluon-gluon correlator reduces to
a correlator that consists of a single Wilson loop. This is used to obtain a
simple description of gluon TMDs in the small-$x$ region: some of the functions
vanish, while others become proportional to each other.


title:
Approximate eigenvalue distribution of a cylindrically isotropic noise
  sample covariance matrix

abstract:
  The statistical behavior of the eigenvalues of the sample covariance matrix
(SCM) plays a key role in determining the performance of adaptive beamformers
(ABF) in presence of noise. This paper presents a method to compute the
approximate eigenvalue density function (EDF) for the SCM of a \cin{} field
when only a finite number of shapshots are available. The EDF of the ensemble
covariance matrix (ECM) is modeled as an atomic density with many fewer atoms
than the SCM size. The model results in substantial computational savings over
more direct methods of computing the EDF. The approximate EDF obtained from
this method agrees closely with histograms of eigenvalues obtained from
simulation.


title:
Localization and delocalization dynamics of photons in linearly coupled
  cavity arrays

abstract:
  Localization and delocalization of two photons in an array of cavities are
examined. Role of entanglement and relative phase of the initial state in the
occurrence of localization or delocalization during time evolution is
elucidated.


title:
A unified approach to explain contrary effects of hysteresis and
  smoothing in nonsmooth systems

abstract:
  Piecewise smooth dynamical systems make use of discontinuities to model
switching between regions of smooth evolution. This introduces an ambiguity in
prescribing dynamics at the discontinuity: should it be given by a limiting
value on one side or other of the discontinuity, or a member of some set
containing those values? One way to remove the ambiguity is to regularize the
discontinuity, the most common being either to smooth out the discontinuity, or
to introduce a hysteresis between switching in one direction or the other
across the discontinuity. Here we show that the two can in general lead to
qualitatively different dynamical outcomes. We then define a higher dimensional
model with both smoothing and hysteresis, and study the competing limits in
which hysteretic or smoothing effect dominate the behaviour, only the former of
which correspond to Filippov's standard `sliding modes'.


title:
A boundary value problem of a generalised linear discrete time system
  with no solutions and infinitely many solutions

abstract:
  In this article we study a class of generalised linear systems of difference
equations with given boundary conditions and assume that the boundary value
problem is non-consistent, i.e. it has infinite many or no solutions. We take
into consideration the case that the coefficients are square constant matrices
with the leading coefficient singular and provide optimal solutions. Numerical
examples are given to justify our theory.


title:
Measure Transformed Quasi Score Test with Application to Location
  Mismatch Detection

abstract:
  In this paper, we develop a generalization of the Gaussian quasi score test
(GQST) for composite binary hypothesis testing. The proposed test, called
measure transformed GQST (MT-GQST), is based on the score-function of the
measure transformed Gaussian quasi maximum likelihood estimator (MT-GQMLE) that
operates by empirically fitting a Gaussian model to a transformed probability
measure of the data. By judicious choice of the transform we show that, unlike
the GQST, the proposed MT-GQST involves higher-order statistical moments and
can gain resilience to outliers, leading to significant mitigation of the model
mismatch effect on the decision performance. A data-driven procedure for
optimal selection of the measure transformation parameters is developed that
minimizes the spectral norm of the empirical asymptotic error-covariance of the
MT-GQMLE. This amounts to maximization of an empirical worst-case asymptotic
local power at a fixed asymptotic size. The MT-GQST is applied to location
mismatch detection of a near-field point source in a simulation example that
illustrates its robustness to outliers.


title:
A survey of symbolic methods for establishing equivalence-based
  properties in cryptographic protocols

abstract:
  Cryptographic protocols aim at securing communications over insecure networks
such as the Internet, where dishonest users may listen to communications and
interfere with them. A secure communication has a different meaning depending
on the underlying application. It ranges from the confidentiality of a data to
e.g. verifiability in electronic voting systems. Another example of a security
notion is privacy.
  Formal symbolic models have proved their usefulness for analysing the
security of protocols. Until quite recently, most results focused on trace
properties like confidentiality or authentication. There are however several
security properties, which cannot be defined (or cannot be naturally defined)
as trace properties and require a notion of behavioural equivalence. Typical
examples are anonymity, and privacy related properties. During the last decade,
several results and verification tools have been developed to analyse
equivalence-based security properties.
  We propose here a synthesis of decidability and undecidability results for
equivalence-based security properties. Moreover, we give an overview of
existing verification tools that may be used to verify equivalence-based
security properties.


title: Restoring genuine tripartite entanglement under local amplitude damping

abstract:
  We investigate the possibility to restore genuine tripartite entanglement
under local amplitude damping. We show that it is possible to protect genuine
entanglement using CNOT and Hadamard gates. We analyze several ordering of such
recovery operations. We find that for recovery operations applied after
exposing qubits to decoherence, there is no enhancement in lifetime of genuine
entanglement. Actual retrieval of entanglement is only possible when reversal
scheme is applied before and after the decoherence process. We find that
retrieval of entanglement for mixture of $|\widetilde{W}\rangle$ state with
white noise is more evident than the respective mixture of $|W\rangle$ state.
We also find the retrieval of entanglement for similar mixture of $|GHZ\rangle$
state as well.


title: Investigating prominence turbulence with Hinode SOT Dopplergrams

abstract:
  Quiescent prominences host a diverse range of flows, including
Rayleigh-Taylor instability driven upflows and impulsive downflows, and so it
is no surprise that turbulent motions also exist. As prominences are believed
to have a mean horizontal guide field, investigating any turbulence they host
could shed light on the nature of MHD turbulence in a wide range of
astrophysical systems. In this paper we have investigated the nature of the
turbulent prominence motions using structure function analysis on the velocity
increments estimated from H$\alpha$ Dopplergrams constructed with observational
data from Hinode SOT. The pdf of the velocity increments shows that as we look
at increasingly small spatial separations the distribution displays greater
departure from a reference Gaussian distribution, hinting at intermittency in
the velocity field. Analysis of the even order structure functions for both the
horizontal and vertical separations showed the existence of two distinct
regions displaying different exponents of the power law with the break in the
power law at approximately 2000km. We hypothesise this to be a result of
internal turbulence excited in the prominence by the dynamic flows of the
system found at this spatial scale. We found that the scaling exponents of the
p-th order structure functions for these two regions generally followed the p/2
(smaller scales) and p/4 (larger scales) laws that are the same as those
predicted for weak MHD turbulence and Kraichnan-Iroshnikov turbulence
respectively. However, the existence of the p/4 scaling at larger scales than
the p/2 scaling is inconsistent with the increasing nonlinearity expected in
MHD turbulence. Estimating the heating from the turbulent energy dissipation
showed that this turbulent heating would be very inefficient, but that the mass
diffusion through turbulence driven reconnection was of the order of
$10^{10}$cm$^2$/s.

categories: astro-ph.SR nlin.CD physics.flu-dyn physics.plasm-ph


title:
Extremal properties and morphisms of finite ultrametric spaces and their
  representing trees

abstract:
  We study extremal properties of finite ultrametric spaces $X$ and related
properties of representing trees $T_X$. The notion of weak similarity for such
spaces is introduced and related morphisms of labeled rooted trees are found.
It is shown that the finite rooted trees are isomorphic to the rooted trees of
nonsingular balls of special finite ultrametric spaces. We also found
conditions under which the isomorphism of representing trees $T_X$ and $T_Y$
implies the isometricity of ultrametric spaces $X$ and $Y$.


title:
Tangent cones of Hermitian Yang-Mills connections with isolated
  singularities

abstract:
  We give a simple direct proof of uniqueness of tangent cones for singular
projectively Hermitian Yang-Mills connections on reflexive sheaves at isolated
singularities modelled on $\mu$-polystable holomorphic bundles over
$\mathbf{P}^{n-1}$.


title:
Weakly Anisotropic Noncentrosymmetric Superconductors with Radial Line
  Nodes and Thermodynamical Anomalies

abstract:
  In noncentrosymmetric superconductors (NCSs), the inversion symmetry (IS) is
most commonly broken by an antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling (SOC) removing the
spin degeneracy and splitting the Fermi surface (FS) into two branches. A two
component condensate is then produced with a doublet pair potential mixing an
even singlet and an odd triplet. When the triplet and the singlet strengths are
comparable, the pair potential can have rich nodes. The angular line nodes
(ALNs) are associated with strong anisotropy and they are widely studied in the
literature. When the anisotropy is not strong, they can be replaced by other
types of nodes in closed or open forms affecting the low temperature
properties.
  Here, we focus on the weakly anisotropic case and the line nodes in the
superconducting plane which become circular in the limit of full isotropy. We
study the topology of these radial line nodes (RLNs) and show that it is
characterized by the $Z_2$ classification similar to the Quantum-Spin-Hall
Insulators. From the thermodynamical perspective, the RLNs cause, even in the
topological phases, an exponentially suppressed low temperature behaviour which
can be mistaken by nodeless s-wave pairing, thus, providing an explanation to a
number of recent experiments with contraversial pairing symmetries. In the rare
case when the RLN is on the Fermi surface, the exponential suppression is
replaced by a linear temperature dependence. The RLNs are difficult to detect,
and for this reason, they may have escaped experimental attention. We
demonstrate that Andreev conductance measurements with clean interfaces can
efficiently probe the weakly anisotropic samples where the RLNs are expected to
be found.


title:
On the motion of free interface in two-dimensional ideal incompressible
  MHD

abstract:
  For the free boundary problem of the plasma-vacuum interface to ideal
incompressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) in two-dimensional space, the a
priori estimates of solutions are proved in Sobolev norms by adopting a
geometrical point of view. In the vacuum region, the magnetic field is
described by the div-curl system of pre-Maxwell dynamics, while at the
interface the total pressure is continuous and the magnetic field is tangent to
the boundary. We prove that the $L^2$ norms of any order covariant derivatives
of the magnetic field in vacuum and on the boundaries are bounded in terms of
initial data and the second fundamental forms of the free interface and the
rigid wall.


title:
Concentration of ground state solution for a fractional Hamiltonian
  Systems

abstract:
  In this paper we are concerned with the existence of ground states solutions
for the following fractional Hamiltonian systems $$ \left\{ \begin{array}{ll}
-_tD^\alpha_\infty(_{-\infty}D^\alpha_t u(t)) - \lambda L(t)u(t)+\nabla
W(t,u(t))=0,\\[0.1cm] u \in H^\alpha (\mathbb{R},\mathbb{R}^n), \end{array}
\right.\qquad(\hbox{FHS})_\lambda$$ where $\alpha\in (1/2,1)$, $t\in
\mathbb{R}$, $u\in \mathbb{R}^n$, $\lambda>0$ is a parameter, $L\in
C(\mathbb{R},\mathbb{R}^{n^2})$ is a symmetric matrix for all $t\in
\mathbb{R}$, $W\in C^1(\mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{R}^n,\mathbb{R})$ and $\nabla
W(t,u)$ is the gradient of $W(t,u)$ at $u$. Assuming that $L(t)$ is a positive
semi-definite symmetric matrix for all $t\in \mathbb{R}$, that is, $L(t)\equiv
0$ is allowed to occur in some finite interval $T$ of $\mathbb{R}$, $W(t,u)$
satisfies Ambrosetti-Rabinowitz condition and some other reasonable hypotheses,
we show that (FHS)$_\lambda$ has a ground sate solution which vanishes on
$\mathbb{R}\setminus T$ as $\lambda \to \infty$, and converges to $u\in
H^\alpha(\mathbb{R}, \mathbb{R}^n)$, where $u\in E_{0}^{\alpha}$ is a ground
state solution of the Dirichlet BVP for fractional systems on the finite
interval $T$. Recent results are generalized and significantly improved.


title:
Hierarchical fringe tracker to co-phase and coherence very large optical
  interferometers

abstract:
  The full scientific potential of the VLTI with its second generation
instruments MATISSE and GRAVITY require fringe tracking up to magnitudes K>14
with the UTs and K>10 with the ATs. The GRAVITY fringe tracker (FT) will be
limited to K~10.5 with UTs and K~7.5 with ATs, for fundamental conceptual
reasons: the flux of each telescope is distributed among 3 cophasing pairs and
then among 5 spectral channels for coherencing. To overcome this limit we
propose a new FT concept, called Hierarchical Fringe Tracker (HFT) that cophase
pairs of apertures with all the flux from two apertures and only one spectral
channel. When the pair is cophased, most of the flux is transmitted as if it
was produced by an unique single mode beam and then used to cophase pairs of
pairs and then pairs of groups. At the deeper level, the flux is used in an
optimized dispersed fringe device for coherencing. On the VLTI such a system
allows a gain of about 3 magnitudes over the GRAVITY FT. On interferometers
with more apertures such as CHARA (6 telescopes) or a future Planet Formation
Imager (12 to 20 telescopes), the HFT would be even more decisive, as its
performance does not decrease with the number of apertures. It would allow
building a PFI reaching a coherent magnitude H~10 with 16 apertures with
diameters smaller than 2 m. We present the HFT concept, the first steps of its
feasibility demonstration from computer simulations and the optical design of a
4 telescopes HFT prototype.


title: Observation of the annihilation decay mode $B^{0}\to K^{+}K^{-}$

abstract:
  A search for the $B^{0}\to K^{+}K^{-}$ decay is performed using
$pp$-collision data collected by LHCb. The data set corresponds to integrated
luminosities of 1 and 2 fb$^{-1}$ at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV,
respectively. This decay is observed for the first time, with a significance of
more than five standard deviations. The analysis also results in an improved
measurement of the branching fraction for the $B_s^0\to \pi^+\pi^-$ decay. The
measured branching fractions are $BR(B^0\to K^+K^-) = (7.80 \pm 1.27 \pm 0.81
\pm 0.21) \times 10^{-8}$ and $BR(B_s^0\to\pi^+\pi^-) = (6.91 \pm 0.54 \pm 0.63
\pm 0.19 \pm 0.40) \times 10^{-7}$. The first uncertainty is statistical, the
second is systematic, the third is due to the uncertainty on the $B^0\to
K^+\pi^-$ branching fraction used as a normalization. For the $B_s^0$ mode, the
fourth accounts for the uncertainty on the ratio of the probabilities for $b$
quarks to hadronize into $B_s^0$ and $B^0$ mesons.


title: Cophasing the Planet Formation Imager

abstract:
  The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) is a project for a very large optical
interferometer intended to obtain images of the planet formation process at
scales as small as the Hill sphere of giant exoplanets. Its main science
instruments will work in the thermal infrared but it will be cophased in the
near infrared, where it requires also some capacity for scientific imaging. PFI
imaging and resolution specifications imply an array of 12 to 20 apertures and
baselines up to a few kilometers cophased at near infrared coherent magnitudes
as large as 10. This paper discusses various cophasing architectures and the
corresponding minimum diameter of individual apertures, which is the dominant
element of PFI cost estimates. From a global analysis of the possible
combinations of pairwise fringe sensors, we show that conventional approaches
used in current interferometers imply the use of prohibitively large telescopes
and we indicate the innovative strategies that would allow building PFI with
affordable apertures smaller than 2 m in diameter. The approach with the best
potential appears to be Hierarchical Fringe Tracking based on "two beams
spatial filters" that cophase pairs of neighboring telescopes with all the
efficiency of a two telescopes fringe tracker and transmit most of the flux as
if it was produced by an unique single mode aperture to cophase pairs of pairs
and then pairs of groups of apertures. We consider also the adaptation to PFI
of more conventional approaches such as a combination of GRAVITY like fringe
trackers or single or multiple chains of 2T fringe trackers.


title:
Joint MOO of Transmit Precoding and Receiver Design in a Downlink Time
  Switching MISO SWIPT System

abstract:
  In this paper, we consider a time-switching (TS) co-located simultaneous
wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) system consisting of multiple
multi-antenna access points which serve multiple single antenna users. In this
scenario, we propose a multi-objective optimization (MOO) framework to design
jointly the Pareto optimal beamforming vector and the TS ratio for each
receiver. The objective is to maximize the utility vector including the
achieved data rates and the harvested energies of all users simultaneously.
This problem is a non-convex rank-constrained MOO problem which is relaxed and
transformed into a non-convex semidefinite program (SDP) based on the weighted
Chebycheff method. The majorization-minimization algorithm is utilized to solve
the nonconvex SDP and the optimal solution is proved to satisfy the rank
constraint. We also study the problem of optimizing the beamforming vectors in
a fixed TS ratio scenario with the same approach. Numerical results are
provided for two coordinated access points with MISO configuration. The results
illustrate the trade-off between harvested energy and information data rate
objectives and show the effect of optimizing the precoding strategy and TS
ratio on this trade-off.


title:
The decay characteristic of $^{22}$Si and its ground-state mass
  significantly affected by three-nucleon forces

abstract:
  The decay of the proton-rich nucleus $^{22}$Si was studied by a silicon array
coupled with germanium clover detectors. Nine charged-particle groups are
observed and most of them are recognized as $\beta$-delayed proton emission. A
charged-particle group at 5600 keV is identified experimentally as
$\beta$-delayed two-proton emission from the isobaric analog state of
$^{22}$Al. Another charged-particle emission without any $\beta$ particle at
the low energy less than 300 keV is observed. The half-life of $^{22}$Si is
determined as 27.5 (18) ms. The experimental results of $\beta$-decay of
$^{22}$Si are compared and in nice agreement with shell-model calculations. The
mass excess of the ground state of $^{22}$Si deduced from the experimental data
shows that three-nucleon (3N) forces with repulsive contributions have
significant effects on nuclei near the proton drip line.


title:
Excitation function of the alpha particle induced nuclear reactions on
  enriched $^{116}$Cd, production of the theranostic isotope $^{117m}$Sn

abstract:
  $^{117m}$Sn is one of the radioisotopes can be beneficially produced through
alpha particle irradiation. The targets were prepared by deposition of
$^{116}$Cd metal onto high purity 12 $\mu$m thick Cu backing. The average
deposited thickness was 21.9 $\mu$m. The beam energy was thoroughly measured by
Time of Flight (TOF) methods and proved to be 51.2 MeV. For the experiment the
well-established stacked foil technique was used. In addition to the Cd
targets, Ti foils were also inserted into the stacks for energy and intensity
monitoring. The Cu backings were also used for monitoring and as recoil catcher
of the reaction products from the cadmium layer. The activities of the
irradiated foils were measured with HPGe detector for gamma-ray spectrometry
and cross section values were determined. As a result excitation functions for
the formation of $^{117m}$Sn, $^{117m,g}$In, $^{116m}$In, $^{115m}$In and
$^{115m,g}$Cd from enriched $^{116}$Cd were deduced and compared with the
available literature data and with the results of the nuclear reaction model
code calculations EMPIRE 3.2 and TALYS 1.8. Yield curves were also deduced for
the measured nuclear reactions and compared with the literature.


title:
Opportunistic Device-to-Device Communication in Cellular networks: From
  Theory to Practice

abstract:
  This dissertation studies different aspects of D2D communications and its
impact on the key performance indicators of the network. We design an
architecture for the collaboration of cellular users by means of timely
exploited D2D opportunities. We begin by presenting the analytical study on
opportunistic outband D2D communications. The study reveals the great potential
of opportunistic outband D2D communications for enhancing energy efficiency,
fairness, and capacity of cellular networks when groups of D2D users can be
form and managed in the cellular network. Then we introduce a protocol that is
compatible with the latest release of IEEE and 3GPP standards and allows for
implementation of our proposal in a today's cellular network. To validate our
analytical findings, we use our experimental Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based
testbed to further study our proposal in a real world scenario. The
experimental results confirm the outstanding potential of opportunistic outband
D2D communications. Finally, we investigate the performance merits and
disadvantages of different D2D modes. Our investigation reveals, despite the
common belief, that all D2D modes are complementary and their merits are
scenario based.


title:
Analysis of sudden variations in photospheric magnetic fields during a
  large flare and their influences in the solar atmosphere

abstract:
  The solar active region NOAA 11719 produced a large two-ribbon flare on 11
April 2013. We have investigated the sudden variations in the photospheric
magnetic fields in this active region during the flare employing the
magnetograms obtained in the spectral line Fe I 6173 Angstrom by the
Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard Solar Dynamics Observatory
(SDO). The analysis of the line-of-sight magnetograms from HMI show sudden and
persistent magnetic field changes at different locations of the active region
before the onset of the flare and during the flare. The vector magnetic field
observations available from HMI also show coincident variations in the total
magnetic field strength and its inclination angle at these locations. Using the
simultaneous Dopplergrams obtained from HMI, we observe perturbations in the
photospheric Doppler signals following the sudden changes in the magnetic
fields in the aforementioned locations. The power spectrum analysis of these
velocity signals show enhanced acoustic power in these affected locations
during the flare as compared to the pre-flare condition. Accompanying these
observations, we have also used the near-simultaneous chromospheric
observations obtained in the spectral line H-alpha 6562.8 Angstrom by the
Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) to study the evolution of flare ribbons
and intensity oscillations in the active region. The H-alpha intensity
oscillations also show enhanced oscillatory power during the flare in the
aforementioned locations. These results indicate that the transient Lorentz
force associated with the sudden changes in the magnetic fields could drive the
localized photospheric and chromospheric oscillations, like the flare-induced
oscillations in the solar atmosphere.


title:
Static, quasistatic and dynamic analysis for scaled Perona-Malik
  functionals

abstract:
  We present an asymptotic description of local minimization problems, and of
quasi-static and dynamic evolutions of scaled Perona-Malik functionals. The
scaling is chosen such that these energies $\Gamma$-converge to the
Mumford-Shah functional by a result by Morini and Negri.


title:
$\Lambda_b \to \pi^- (D_s^-) \Lambda_c(2595),~\pi^- (D_s^-)
  \Lambda_c(2625)$ decays and $DN,~D^*N$ molecular components

abstract:
  From the perspective that the $\Lambda_c(2595)$ and $\Lambda_c(2625)$ are
dynamically generated resonances from the $DN,~D^*N$ interaction and coupled
channels, we have evaluated the rates for $\Lambda_b \to \pi^- \Lambda_c(2595)$
and $\Lambda_b \to \pi^- \Lambda_c(2625)$ up to a global unknown factor that
allows us to calculate the ratio of rates and compare with experiment, where
good agreement is found. Similarly, we can also make predictions for the ratio
of rates of the, yet unknown, decays of $\Lambda_b \to D_s^- \Lambda_c(2595)$
and $\Lambda_b \to D_s^- \Lambda_c(2625)$ and make estimates for their
individual branching fractions.


title: Ultralight scalars as cosmological dark matter

abstract:
  An intriguing alternative to cold dark matter (CDM) is that the dark matter
is a light ( $m \sim 10^{-22}$ eV) boson having a de Broglie wavelength
$\lambda \sim 1$ kpc, often called fuzzy dark matter (FDM). We describe the
arguments from particle physics that motivate FDM, review previous work on its
astrophysical signatures, and analyze several unexplored aspects of its
behavior. In particular, (i) FDM halos smaller than about $10^7 (m/10^{-22}
{\rm eV})^{-3/2} M_\odot$ do not form. (ii) FDM halos are comprised of a core
that is a stationary, minimum-energy configuration called a "soliton",
surrounded by an envelope that resembles a CDM halo. (iii) The transition
between soliton and envelope is determined by a relaxation process analogous to
two-body relaxation in gravitating systems, which proceeds as if the halo were
composed of particles with mass $\sim \rho\lambda^3$ where $\rho$ is the halo
density. (iv) Relaxation may have substantial effects on the stellar disk and
bulge in the inner parts of disk galaxies. (v) Relaxation can produce FDM disks
but an FDM disk in the solar neighborhood must have a half-thickness of at
least $300 (m/10^{-22} {\rm eV})^{-2/3}$ pc. (vi) Solitonic FDM sub-halos
evaporate by tunneling through the tidal radius and this limits the minimum
sub-halo mass inside 30 kpc of the Milky Way to roughly $10^8 (m/10^{-22} {\rm
eV})^{-3/2} M_\odot$. (vii) If the dark matter in the Fornax dwarf galaxy is
composed of CDM, most of the globular clusters observed in that galaxy should
have long ago spiraled to its center, and this problem is resolved if the dark
matter is FDM.


title:
Local well-posedness for the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation in the
  intersection of modulation spaces $M_{p, q}^s(\mathbb{R}^d) \cap M_{\infty,
  1}(\mathbb{R}^d)$

abstract:
  We introduce a Littlewood-Paley characterization of modulation spaces and use
it to give an alternative proof of the algebra property, somehow implicitly
contained in Sugimoto (2011), of the intersection $M^s_{p,q}(\mathbb{R}^d) \cap
M_{\infty, 1}(\mathbb{R}^d)$ for $d \in \mathbb{N}$, $p, q \in [1, \infty]$ and
$s \geq 0$. We employ this algebra property to show the local well-posedness of
the Cauchy problem for the cubic nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation in the above
intersection. This improves Theorem 1.1 by B\'enyi and Okoudjou (2009), where
only the case $q = 1$ is considered, and closes a gap in the literature. If $q
> 1$ and $s > d \left(1 - \frac{1}{q}\right)$ or if $q = 1$ and $s \geq 0$ then
$M^s_{p,q}(\mathbb{R}^d) \hookrightarrow M_{\infty, 1}(\mathbb{R}^d)$ and the
above intersection is superfluous. For this case we also reobtain a
H\"older-type inequality for modulation spaces.


title:
Minimal digit sets for parallel addition in non-standard numeration
  systems

abstract:
  We study parallel algorithms for addition of numbers having finite
representation in a positional numeration system defined by a base $\beta$ in
$\mathbb{C}$ and a finite digit set $\mathcal{A}$ of contiguous integers
containing $0$. For a fixed base $\beta$, we focus on the question of the size
of the alphabet allowing to perform addition in constant time independently of
the length of representation of the summands. We produce lower bounds on the
size of such alphabet $\mathcal{A}$. For several types of well studied bases
(negative integer, complex numbers $ -1 + \imath$, $2 \imath$, and $\imath
\sqrt{2}$, quadratic Pisot unit, and the non-integer rational base), we give
explicit parallel algorithms performing addition in constant time. Moreover we
show that digit sets used by these algorithms are the smallest possible.


title:
Application of Advanced techniques for metal identification and
  characterization

abstract:
  The appraisal of metallic materials requires application of advanced
characterisation techniques. In this paper, the use has been made of Scanning
Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD)
and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy techniques to characterise
morphological, structural and chemical composition of 316-stainless steel and
unknown brass sample. The determined lattice parameter of unknown brass sample
was 3.6812A and consisted of 63% Cu and 37% Zn by weight. The XRD analysis
indicated a faced-centred-cubic crystal structure and the sample concluded to
be an alpha brass. The measured dislocation density in 316-stainless steel
increased with increasing plastic strain and the dislocation structures varied
from relatively uniform distribution at low strains to cell-like structures at
high strains. The spread of X-ray diffraction peak related linearly with the
dislocation content of 316-stainless steel.


title:
Characterization of Surface Deformation Behavior, Mechanical and
  Physical Properties of Modified-clay Bricks

abstract:
  The demand for building material is ever increasing owing to population
growth. Compacted clay bricks are an important integral building material
especially for low cost durable and affordable housing segment. This is a
valued building material since its properties can be modified to suit various
loading conditions. In this paper, the mechanical and physical properties of
clay bricks modified with varying proportions of sawdust and polystyrene are
determined. Increment of non-clay material proportion in the modified-clay
bricks increases their porosity and water absorbency while their bulk
densities, compressive and flexural strengths decreases. The use is made of
Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) method to assess the surface deformation
behavior of the modified-clay bricks under uniaxial compressive loading. The
distribution of surface deformation as assessed through PIV method is
relatively uniform in pure-clay bricks while modified-clay bricks indicates a
non-uniform deformation localized near the loading point at low strains. The
strain distribution progressively spread out in the modifiedclay brick as the
failure point is approached.


title: On the Cosmic Ray Driven Firehose Instability

abstract:
  The role of the non-resonant firehose instability in conditions relevant to
the precursors of supernova remnant shocks is considered. Using a second order
tensor expansion of the Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation we illustrate the
necessary conditions for the firehose to operate. It is found that for very
fast shocks, the diffusion approximation predicts that the linear firehose
growth rate is marginally faster than its resonant counterpart. Preliminary
hybrid MHD-Vlasov-Fokker-Planck simulation results using young supernova
relevant parameters are presented.


title:
Violent environment of the inner disk of RW Aur A probed by the 2010 and
  2015 dimming events

abstract:
  RW Aur is a young binary system showing strong signatures of a recent tidal
encounter between the circumprimary disk and the secondary star. The primary
star has recently undergone two major dimming events ($\Delta$mag $\approx$ 2
in V-band), whose origin is still under debate. To shed light on the mechanism
leading to the dimming events, we study the extinction properties, accretion
variability, and gas kinematics using absorption lines from the material
obscuring star RW Aur A. We compare our moderate resolution X-Shooter spectra
of the dim state of RW Aur A with other spectral observations. In particular,
we analyse archival high resolution UVES spectra obtained during the bright
state of the system, in order to track the evolution of the spectral properties
across the second dimming event. The spectrum obtained during the dim state
shows narrow absorption lines in the Na and K optical doublets, where the
former is saturated. With a velocity of -60 km/s these lines indicate that
during the dim state the disk wind is either enhanced, or significantly
displaced into the line of sight. The photometric evolution across the dimming
event shows a gray extinction, and is correlated with a significant reduction
of the EW of all photospheric lines. Emission lines tracing accretion do not
vary significantly across the dimming. We conclude that the dimming event is
related to a major perturbation on the inner disk. We suggest that the inner
disk is occulting (most of) the star, and thus its photosphere, but is not
occulting the accretion regions within a few stellar radii. Since observations
of the outer disk indicate that the disk is modestly inclined (45 - 60 deg), we
propose that the inner disk might be warped by a yet unseen (sub-)stellar
companion, which may also explain the 2.77 day periodic variability of the
spectral lines.


title:
Theory of magnetic ordering in the heavy rare earths: ab-initio
  electronic origin of pair- and four- spin interactions

abstract:
  We describe an ab-initio disordered local moment theory for long period
magnetic phases and investigate the temperature and magnetic field dependence
of the magnetic states in the heavy rare earth elements (HRE), namely
paramagnetic, conical and helical anti-ferromagnetic(HAFM), fan and
ferromagnetic (FM) states. We obtain a generic HRE magnetic phase diagram which
is consequent on the response of the common HRE valence electronic structure to
f-electron magnetic moment ordering. The theory directly links the first order
HAFM-FM transition to the loss of Fermi surface nesting as well as providing a
template for analysing the other phases and exposing where f-electron
correlation effects are particularly intricate. Gadolinium, for a range of
hexagonal, close-packed lattice constants, c and a, is the prototype and
applications to other HREs are made straightforwardly by scaling the pair and
quartic local moment interactions with de Gennes factors and choosing
appropriate lanthanide contracted c and $a$ values.


title: Optimal In-Place Suffix Sorting

abstract:
  The suffix array is a fundamental data structure for many applications that
involve string searching and data compression. Designing time/space-efficient
suffix array construction algorithms has attracted significant attention and
considerable advances have been made for the past 20 years. We obtain the
\emph{first} in-place suffix array construction algorithms that are optimal
both in time and space for (read-only) integer alphabets. Concretely, we make
the following contributions:
  1. For integer alphabets, we obtain the first suffix sorting algorithm which
takes linear time and uses only $O(1)$ workspace (the workspace is the total
space needed beyond the input string and the output suffix array). The input
string may be modified during the execution of the algorithm, but should be
restored upon termination of the algorithm.
  2. We strengthen the first result by providing the first in-place linear time
algorithm for read-only integer alphabets with $|\Sigma|=O(n)$ (i.e., the input
string cannot be modified). This algorithm settles the open problem posed by
Franceschini and Muthukrishnan in ICALP 2007. The open problem asked to design
in-place algorithms in $o(n\log n)$ time and ultimately, in $O(n)$ time for
(read-only) integer alphabets with $|\Sigma| \leq n$. Our result is in fact
slightly stronger since we allow $|\Sigma|=O(n)$.
  3. Besides, for the read-only general alphabets (i.e., only comparisons are
allowed), we present an optimal in-place $O(n\log n)$ time suffix sorting
algorithm, recovering the result obtained by Franceschini and Muthukrishnan
which was an open problem posed by Manzini and Ferragina in ESA 2002.


title: Alexander-Beck modules detect the unknot

abstract:
  We introduce the Alexander-Beck module of a knot as a canonical refinement of
the classical Alexander module, and we prove that this new invariant is an
unknot-detector.


title:
Shape optimization of active and passive drag-reducing devices on a
  D-shaped bluff body

abstract:
  Shape optimization of an active and a passive drag-reducing device on a
two-dimensional D-shaped bluff body is performed. The two devices are: Coanda
actuator, and randomly-shaped trailing-edge flap. The optimization sequence is
performed by coupling the genetic algorithm software DAKOTA to the mesh
generator Pointwise and to the CFD solver OpenFOAM. For the the active device
the cost functional is the power ratio, whereas for the passive device it is
the drag coefficient. The optimization leads to total power savings of $\approx
70\%$ for the optimal Coanda actuator, and a 40\% drag reduction for the
optimal flap. This reduction is mainly achieved through streamlining the base
flow and suppressing the vortex shedding. The addition of either an active or a
passive device creates two additional smaller recirculation regions in the base
cavity that shifts the larger recirculation region away from the body and
increases the base pressure. The results are validated against more refined
URANS simulations for selected cases.


title:
Pulsed photoelectric coherent manipulation and detection of NV centre
  spins in diamond

abstract:
  Hybrid photoelectric detection of NV magnetic resonances (PDMR) is
anticipated to lead to scalable quantum chip technology. To achieve this goal,
it is crucial to prove that PDMR readout is compatible with the coherent spin
control. Here we present PDMR MW pulse protocols that filter background
currents related to ionization of NS0 defects and achieve a high contrast and
S/N ratio. We demonstrate Rabi and Ramsey protocols on shallow
nitrogen-implanted electronic grade diamond and the coherent readout of ~ 5 NV
spins, as a first step towards the fabrication of scalable photoelectric
quantum devices.


title:
On-line algorithms for multiplication and division in real and complex
  numeration systems

abstract:
  A positional numeration system is given by a base and by a set of digits. The
base is a real or complex number $\beta$ such that $|\beta|>1$, and the digit
set $A$ is a finite set of digits including $0$. Thus a number can be seen as a
finite or infinite string of digits. An on-line algorithm processes the input
piece-by-piece in a serial fashion. On-line arithmetic, introduced by Trivedi
and Ercegovac, is a mode of computation where operands and results flow through
arithmetic units in a digit serial manner, starting with the most significant
digit.
  In this paper, we first formulate a generalized version of the on-line
algorithms for multiplication and division of Trivedi and Ercegovac for the
cases that $\beta$ is any real or complex number, and digits are real or
complex. We then define the so-called OL Property, and show that if $(\beta,
A)$ has the OL Property, then on-line multiplication and division are feasible
by the Trivedi-Ercegovac algorithms. For a real base $\beta$ and a digit set
$A$ of contiguous integers, the system $(\beta, A)$ has the OL Property if $\#
A > |\beta|$. For a complex base $\beta$ and symmetric digit set $A$ of
contiguous integers, the system $(\beta, A)$ has the OL Property if $\# A >
\beta\overline{\beta} + |\beta + \overline{\beta}|$. Provided that addition and
subtraction are realizable in parallel in the system $(\beta, A)$ and that
preprocessing of the denominator is possible, our on-line algorithms for
multiplication and division have linear time complexity. Three examples are
presented in detail: base $\beta=\frac{3+\sqrt{5}}{2}$ with digits
$A=\{-1,0,1\}$; base $\beta=2i$ with digits $A = \{-2,-1, 0,1,2\}$; and base
$\beta = -\frac{3}{2} + i \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} = -1 + \omega$, where $\omega =
\exp{\frac{2i\pi}{3}}$, with digits $A = \{0, \pm 1, \pm \omega, \pm \omega^2
\}$.


title:
Vector-like deformations of relativistic quantum phase-space and
  relativistic kinematics

abstract:
  We study a family of noncommutative spacetimes constructed by one
four-vector. The large set of coordinate commutation relations described in
this way includes many cases that are widely studied in the literature. The
Hopf-algebra symmetries of these noncommutative spacetimes, as well as the
structures of star product and twist, are introduced and considered at first
order in the deformation, described by four parameters. We also study the
deformations to relativistic kinematics implied by this framework, and
calculate the most general expression for the momentum dependence of the
Lorentz transformations on momenta, which is an effect that is required by
consistency. At the end of the paper we analyse the phenomenological
consequences of this large family of vector-like deformations on particles
propagation in spacetime. This leads to a set of characteristic
phenomenological effects.


title: Overview of recent azimuthal correlation measurements from ALICE

abstract:
  Azimuthal correlations are a powerful tool to probe the properties and the
evolution of the collision system. In this proceedings, we will review the
recent azimuthal correlation measurements from ALICE at the LHC. The comparison
to other experimental measurements and various theoretical calculations will be
discussed as well.