title:
Implicit LOD using points ordering for processing and visualisation in
  Point Cloud Servers

abstract:
  Lidar datasets now commonly reach Billions of points and are very dense.
Using these point cloud becomes challenging, as the high number of points is
intractable for most applications and for visualisation.In this work we propose
a new paradigm to easily get a portable geometric Level Of Details (LOD) inside
a Point Cloud Server.The main idea is to not store the LOD information in an
external additional file, but instead to store it implicitly by exploiting the
order of the points.The point cloud is divided into groups (patches). These
patches are ordered so that their order gradually provides more and more
details on the patch. We demonstrate the interest of our method with several
classical uses of LOD, such as visualisation of massive point cloud, algorithm
acceleration, fast density peak detection and correction.


title: Differential Borel equivariant cohomology via connections

abstract:
  For a compact Lie group acting on a smooth manifold, we define the
differential cohomology of a certain quotient stack involving principal bundles
with connection. This produces differential equivariant cohomology groups that
map to the Cartan-Weil equivariant forms and to Borel's equivariant integral
cohomology. We show the Chern-Weil homomorphism for equivariant vector bundles
with connection naturally factors through differential equivariant cohomology.


title: Fast Cross-Polytope Locality-Sensitive Hashing

abstract:
  We provide a variant of cross-polytope locality sensitive hashing with
respect to angular distance which is provably optimal in asymptotic sensitivity
and enjoys $\mathcal{O}(d \ln d )$ hash computation time. Building on a recent
result (by Andoni, Indyk, Laarhoven, Razenshteyn, Schmidt, 2015), we show that
optimal asymptotic sensitivity for cross-polytope LSH is retained even when the
dense Gaussian matrix is replaced by a fast Johnson-Lindenstrauss transform
followed by discrete pseudo-rotation, reducing the hash computation time from
$\mathcal{O}(d^2)$ to $\mathcal{O}(d \ln d )$. Moreover, our scheme achieves
the optimal rate of convergence for sensitivity. By incorporating a
low-randomness Johnson-Lindenstrauss transform, our scheme can be modified to
require only $\mathcal{O}(\ln^9(d))$ random bits


title: Universal Quantum Computation with Hybrid Spin-Majorana Qubits

abstract:
  We theoretically propose a set of universal quantum gates acting on a hybrid
qubit formed by coupling a quantum dot spin qubit and Majorana fermion qubit.
First, we consider a quantum dot tunnel-coupled to two topological
superconductors. The effective spin-Majorana exchange facilitates a hybrid CNOT
gate for which either qubit can be the control or target. The second setup is a
modular scalable network of topological superconductors and quantum dots. As a
result of the exchange interaction between adjacent spin qubits, a CNOT gate is
implemented that acts on neighboring Majorana qubits, and eliminates the
necessity of inter-qubit braiding. In both setups the spin-Majorana exchange
interaction allows for a phase gate, acting on either the spin or the Majorana
qubit, and for a SWAP or hybrid SWAP gate which is sufficient for universal
quantum computation without projective measurements.


title: An SDN-based approach to enhance BGP security

abstract:
  BGP is vulnerable to a series of attacks. Many solutions have been proposed
in the past two decades, but the most effective remain largely undeployed. This
is due to three fundamental reasons: the solutions are too computationally
expensive for current routers, they require changes to BGP, and/or they do not
give the right incentives to promote deployment.
  In this abstract we propose a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) architecture
to secure BGP routing. Our solution, BGPSecX, targets an IXP and it includes
techniques to allow different IXPs to collaborate. With SDN we remove the
computational burden from routers and do not make changes to BGP. Targeting
IXPs and promoting inter-IXP collaboration enables the creation of incentives
to foster adoption of BGP security services.


title: Achieving Ultra-Low Latency in 5G Millimeter Wave Cellular Networks

abstract:
  The IMT 2020 requirements of 20 Gbps peak data rate and 1 millisecond latency
present significant engineering challenges for the design of 5G cellular
systems. Use of the millimeter wave (mmWave) bands above 10 GHz --- where vast
quantities of spectrum are available --- is a promising 5G candidate that may
be able to rise to the occasion.
  However, while the mmWave bands can support massive peak data rates,
delivering these data rates on end-to-end service while maintaining reliability
and ultra-low latency performance will require rethinking all layers of the
protocol stack. This papers surveys some of the challenges and possible
solutions for delivering end-to-end, reliable, ultra-low latency services in
mmWave cellular systems in terms of the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer,
congestion control and core network architecture.


title:
Improving Students' Understanding of Quantum Measurement Part 2:
  Development of Research-based Learning Tools

abstract:
  We describe the development and implementation of research-based learning
tools such as the Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorials (QuILTs) and peer
instruction tools to reduce students' common difficulties with issues related
to measurement in quantum mechanics. A preliminary evaluation shows that these
learning tools are effective in improving students' understanding of concepts
related to quantum measurement.


title:
Far-infrared/sub-millimetre properties of pre-stellar cores L1521E,
  L1521F and L1689B as revealed by the Herschel SPIRE instrument -- I. Central
  positions

abstract:
  Dust grains play a key role in the physics of star-forming regions, even
though they constitute only $\sim$1 % of the mass of the interstellar medium.
The derivation of accurate dust parameters such as temperature ($T_{dust}$),
emissivity spectral index ($\beta$) and column density requires broadband
continuum observations at far-infrared wavelengths. We present Herschel-SPIRE
Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) measurements of three starless cores:
L1521E, L1521F and L1689B, covering wavelengths between 194 and 671 $\mu$m.
This paper is the first to use our recently updated SPIRE-FTS intensity
calibration, yielding a direct match with SPIRE photometer measurements of
extended sources. In addition, we carefully assess the validity of calibration
schemes depending on source extent and on the strength of background emission.
The broadband far-infrared spectra for all three sources peak near 250 $\mu$m.
Our observations therefore provide much tighter constraints on the spectral
energy distribution (SED) shape than measurements that do not probe the SED
peak. The spectra are fitted using modified blackbody functions, allowing both
$T_{dust}$ and $\beta$ to vary as free parameters. This yields $T_{dust}$ of
9.8$\pm$0.2 K, 15.6$\pm$0.5 K and 10.9$\pm$0.2 K and corresponding $\beta$ of
2.6$\mp$0.9, 0.8$\mp$0.1 and 2.4$\mp$0.8 for L1521E, L1521F and L1689B
respectively. The derived core masses are 1.0$\pm$0.1, 0.10$\pm$0.01 and
0.49$\pm$0.05 $M_{\odot}$, respectively. The core mass/Jeans mass ratios for
L1521E and L1689B exceed unity indicating that they are unstable to
gravitational collapse, and thus pre-stellar cores. By comparison, the elevated
temperature and gravitational stability of L1521F support previous arguments
that this source is more evolved and likely a protostar.


title: Stopping dynamics of ions passing through correlated honeycomb clusters

abstract:
  A combined nonequilibrium Green functions-Ehrenfest dynamics approach is
developed that allows for a time-dependent study of the energy loss of a
charged particle penetrating a strongly correlated system at zero and finite
temperature. Numerical results are presented for finite inhomogeneous
two-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard models, where the many-electron dynamics in the
target are treated fully quantum mechanically and the motion of the projectile
is treated classically. The simulations are based on the solution of the
two-time Dyson (Keldysh-Kadanoff-Baym) equations using the second-order Born,
third-order and T-matrix approximations of the self-energy. As application, we
consider protons and helium nuclei with a kinetic energy between 1 and 500
keV/u passing through planar fragments of the two-dimensional honeycomb lattice
and, in particular, examine the influence of electron-electron correlations on
the energy exchange between projectile and electron system. We investigate the
time dependence of the projectile's kinetic energy (stopping power), the
electron density, the double occupancy and the photoemission spectrum. Finally,
we show that, for a suitable choice of the Hubbard model parameters, the
results for the stopping power are in fair agreement with ab-initio simulations
for particle irradiation of single-layer graphene.


title:
Streaming PCA: Matching Matrix Bernstein and Near-Optimal Finite Sample
  Guarantees for Oja's Algorithm

abstract:
  This work provides improved guarantees for streaming principle component
analysis (PCA). Given $A_1, \ldots, A_n\in \mathbb{R}^{d\times d}$ sampled
independently from distributions satisfying $\mathbb{E}[A_i] = \Sigma$ for
$\Sigma \succeq \mathbf{0}$, this work provides an $O(d)$-space linear-time
single-pass streaming algorithm for estimating the top eigenvector of $\Sigma$.
The algorithm nearly matches (and in certain cases improves upon) the accuracy
obtained by the standard batch method that computes top eigenvector of the
empirical covariance $\frac{1}{n} \sum_{i \in [n]} A_i$ as analyzed by the
matrix Bernstein inequality. Moreover, to achieve constant accuracy, our
algorithm improves upon the best previous known sample complexities of
streaming algorithms by either a multiplicative factor of $O(d)$ or
$1/\mathrm{gap}$ where $\mathrm{gap}$ is the relative distance between the top
two eigenvalues of $\Sigma$.
  These results are achieved through a novel analysis of the classic Oja's
algorithm, one of the oldest and most popular algorithms for streaming PCA. In
particular, this work shows that simply picking a random initial point $w_0$
and applying the update rule $w_{i + 1} = w_i + \eta_i A_i w_i$ suffices to
accurately estimate the top eigenvector, with a suitable choice of $\eta_i$. We
believe our result sheds light on how to efficiently perform streaming PCA both
in theory and in practice and we hope that our analysis may serve as the basis
for analyzing many variants and extensions of streaming PCA.


title: Extremal chiral $\mathcal N=4$ SCFT with $c=24$

abstract:
  We construct an extremal chiral $\mathcal N=4$ superconformal field theory
with central charge 24 from a $\mathbb Z_2$ orbifold of the chiral bosonic
theory with target $\mathbb R^{24}/\Lambda$, where $\Lambda$ is the Niemeier
lattice with root system $A_2^{12}$. This construction is analogous to
constructions of extremal chiral $\mathcal N=1$ and $\mathcal N=2$ CFTs with
$c=24$, where $\Lambda = \Lambda_{Leech}$ and the Niemeier lattice with root
system $A_1^{24}$, respectively. The theory has a discrete symmetry group
related to the sporadic group $M_{11}$.


title:
Frequency-Modulated Magneto-Acoustic Detection and Imaging: Challenges,
  Experimental Procedures, and B-Scan Images

abstract:
  Magneto-acoustic tomography combines near-field radio-frequency (RF) and
ultrasound with the aim of creating a safe, high resolution, high contrast
hybrid imaging technique. We present continuous-wave magneto-acoustic imaging
techniques, which improve SNR and/or reduce the required peak-to-average
excitation power ratio, to make further integration and larger fields of view
feasible. This method relies on the coherency between RF excitation and the
resulting ultrasound generated through Lorentz force interactions, which was
confirmed by our previous work. We provide detailed methodology, clarify the
details of experiments, and explain how the presence of magneto-acoustic
phenomenon was verified. An example magneto-acoustic B-scan image is acquired
in order to illustrate the capability of magneto-acoustic tomography in
highlighting boundaries where electrical conductivity alters, such as between
different tissues.


title:
A Framework for End-to-End Evaluation of 5G mmWave Cellular Networks in
  ns-3

abstract:
  The growing demand for ubiquitous mobile data services along with the
scarcity of spectrum in the sub-6 GHz bands has given rise to the recent
interest in developing wireless systems that can exploit the large amount of
spectrum available in the millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency range. Due to its
potential for multi-gigabit and ultra-low latency links, mmWave technology is
expected to play a central role in 5th Generation (5G) cellular networks.
Overcoming the poor radio propagation and sensitivity to blockages at higher
frequencies presents major challenges, which is why much of the current
research is focused at the physical layer. However, innovations will be
required at all layers of the protocol stack to effectively utilize the large
air link capacity and provide the end-to-end performance required by future
networks.
  Discrete-event network simulation will be an invaluable tool for researchers
to evaluate novel 5G protocols and systems from an end-to-end perspective. In
this work, we present the first-of-its-kind, open-source framework for modeling
mmWave cellular networks in the ns-3 simulator. Channel models are provided
along with a configurable physical and MAC-layer implementation, which can be
interfaced with the higher-layer protocols and core network model from the ns-3
LTE module to simulate end-to-end connectivity. The framework is demonstrated
through several example simulations showing the performance of our custom
mmWave stack.


title:
Higher order approximation of analytic sets by topologically equivalent
  algebraic sets

abstract:
  It is known that every germ of an analytic set is homeomorphic to the germ of
an algebraic set. In this paper we show that the homeomorphism can be chosen in
such a way that the analytic and algebraic germs are tangent with any
prescribed order of tangency. Moreover, the space of arcs contained in the
algebraic germ approximates the space of arcs contained in the analytic one, in
the sense that they are identical up to a prescribed truncation order.


title: On the thin-shell conjecture for the Schatten classes

abstract:
  We study the thin-shell conjecture for the Schatten classes. In particular,
we establish the conjecture for the operator norm; we also improve on the best
known bound for the Schatten classes, due to Barthe and Cordero-Erausquin [F.
Barthe and D. Cordero-Erausquin, "Invariances in variance estimates",
Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 106 (2013): 33-64], for a few
more cases. Moreover, we show that a necessary condition for the conjecture to
be true for any of the Schatten classes is a rather strong negative correlation
property: this implies of course that, for the cases for which we already have
the conjecture (as for example for the operator norm), but in fact also for all
the cases for which we can get a better estimate than the one in [F. Barthe and
D. Cordero-Erausquin, "Invariances in variance estimates"], this negative
correlation property follows. For the proofs, our starting point is techniques
that were employed for the Schatten classes with regard to other problems in
[H. K\"onig, M. Meyer and A. Pajor, "The isotropy constants of the Schatten
classes are bounded", Mathematische Annalen 312 (1998): 773-783] and [O.
Gu\'edon and G. Paouris, "Concentration of mass on the Schatten classes",
Annales de l'Institut Henri Poincar\'e, Probabilit\'e et Statistiques 43
(2007): 87-99].


title: The noisy voter model on complex networks

abstract:
  We propose a new analytical method to study stochastic, binary-state models
on complex networks. Moving beyond the usual mean-field theories, this
alternative approach is based on the introduction of an annealed approximation
for uncorrelated networks, allowing to deal with the network structure as
parametric heterogeneity. As an illustration, we study the noisy voter model, a
modification of the original voter model including random changes of state. The
proposed method is able to unfold the dependence of the model not only on the
mean degree (the mean-field prediction) but also on more complex averages over
the degree distribution. In particular, we find that the degree heterogeneity
---variance of the underlying degree distribution--- has a strong influence on
the location of the critical point of a noise-induced, finite-size transition
occurring in the model, on the local ordering of the system, and on the
functional form of its temporal correlations. Finally, we show how this latter
point opens the possibility of inferring the degree heterogeneity of the
underlying network by observing only the aggregate behavior of the system as a
whole, an issue of interest for systems where only macroscopic, population
level variables can be measured.

categories: physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI q-fin.GN


title:
Bilinear Kakeya-Nikodym averages of eigenfunctions on compact Riemannian
  surfaces

abstract:
  We obtain an improvement of the bilinear estimates of Burq, G\'erard and
Tzvetkov in the spirit of the refined Kakeya-Nikodym estimates of Blair and the
second author. We do this by using microlocal techniques and a bilinear version
of H\"ormander's oscillatory integral theorem.


title:
Stochastic Model of Tumor-induced Angiogenesis: Ensemble Averages and
  Deterministic Equations

abstract:
  A recent conceptual model of tumor-driven angiogenesis including branching,
elongation, and anastomosis of blood vessels captures some of the intrinsic
multiscale structures of this complex system, yet allowing to extract a
deterministic integro-partial differential description of the vessel tip
density [Phys. Rev. E 90, 062716 (2014)]. Here we solve the stochastic model,
show that ensemble averages over many realizations correspond to the
deterministic equations, and fit the anastomosis rate coefficient so that the
total number of vessel tips evolves similarly in the deterministic and ensemble
averaged stochastic descriptions.


title: Ultrafast Outflows from Black Hole Mergers with a Mini-Disk

abstract:
  Recently, the direct detection of gravitational waves from black hole (BH)
mergers was announced by the Advanced LIGO Collaboration. Multi-messenger
counterparts of stellar-mass BH mergers are of interest, and it had been
suggested that a small disk or celestial body may be involved in the binary of
two BHs. To test such possibilities, we consider the fate of a wind powered by
an active mini-disk in a relatively short, super-Eddington accretion episode
onto a BH with ~10-100 solar masses. We show that its thermal emission could be
seen as a fast optical transient with the duration from hours to days. We also
find that the coasting outflow forms external shocks due to interaction with
the interstellar medium, whose synchrotron emission might be expected in the
radio band on a time scale of years. Finally, we also discuss a possible jet
component and the associated high-energy neutrino emission as well as
ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray acceleration.


title:
Slowly rotating neutron stars in the nonminimal derivative coupling
  sector of Horndeski gravity

abstract:
  This work is devoted to the construction of slowly rotating neutron stars in
the framework of the nonminimal derivative coupling sector of Horndeski theory.
We match the large radius expansion of spherically symmetric solutions with
cosmological solutions and we find that the most viable model has only one free
parameter. Then, by using several tabulated and realistic equations of state,
we establish numerically the upper bound for this parameter in order to
construct neutron stars in the slow rotation approximation with the maximal
mass observed today. We finally study the surface redshift and the inertia of
these objects and compare them with known data.


title: Complexity of Manipulating Sequential Allocation

abstract:
  Sequential allocation is a simple allocation mechanism in which agents are
given pre-specified turns and each agents gets the most preferred item that is
still available. It has long been known that sequential allocation is not
strategyproof.
  Bouveret and Lang (2014) presented a polynomial-time algorithm to compute a
best response of an agent with respect to additively separable utilities and
claimed that (1) their algorithm correctly finds a best response, and (2) each
best response results in the same allocation for the manipulator. We show that
both claims are false via an example. We then show that in fact the problem of
computing a best response is NP-complete. On the other hand, the insights and
results of Bouveret and Lang (2014) for the case of two agents still hold.


title:
Partial regularity of almost minimizing rectifiable G chains in Hilbert
  space

abstract:
  We adapt to an infinite dimensional ambient space E.R. Reifenberg's
epiperimetric inequality and a quantitative version of D. Preiss' second
moments computations to establish that the set of regular points of an almost
mass minimizing rectifiable $G$ chain in $\ell_2$ is dense in its support,
whenever the group $G$ of coefficients is so that $\{\|g\| : g \in G \}$ is
discrete and closed.


title:
Quantum $f$-divergence preserving maps on positive semidefinite
  operators acting on finite dimensional Hilbert spaces

abstract:
  We determine the structure of all bijections on the cone of positive
semidefinite operators which preserve the quantum $f$-divergence for an
arbitrary strictly convex function $f$ defined on the positive halfline. It
turns out that any such transformation is implemented by either a unitary or an
antiunitary operator.


title:
Bunching of numbers in a non-ideal roulette: the key to winning
  strategies

abstract:
  Chances of a gambler are always lower than chances of a casino in the case of
an ideal, mathematically perfect roulette, if the capital of the gambler is
limited and the minimum and maximum allowed bets are limited by the casino.
However, a realistic roulette is not ideal: the probabilities of realisation of
different numbers slightly deviate. Describing this deviation by a statistical
distribution with a width {\delta} we find a critical {\delta} that equalizes
chances of gambler and casino in the case of a simple strategy of the game: the
gambler always puts equal bets to the last N numbers. For up-critical {\delta}
the expected return of the roulette becomes positive. We show that the dramatic
increase of gambler's chances is a manifestation of bunching of numbers in a
non-ideal roulette. We also estimate the critical starting capital needed to
ensure the low risk game for an indefinite time.


title:
Observation of Interaction-Induced Modulations of a Quantum Hall
  Liquid's Area

abstract:
  Studies of electronic interferometers, based on edge channel transport in the
quantum Hall effect regime, have been stimulated by the search for evidence of
abelian and non-abelian anyonic statistics of fractional charges.These studies
found the ubiquitous electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer to be Coulomb
dominated, thus masking coherent Aharonov-Bohm interference. Typically, the
main signature of the Coulomb dominated regime is the lack of interference of
the outer most edge channel as the magnetic field is varied. This seemingly
surprising behavior is explained by the shrinkage of the interference area with
increasing magnetic field, thus keeping the number of electrons and the
enclosed flux constant. The model further stipulates, but with no experimental
evidence thus far, that once the area shrinks by a size corresponding to an
entire flux-quantum, it abruptly inflates to its original size leading to an
unobservable 2{\pi} phase jump. Here we report on the observation of such area
breathing by performing a partial screening of the Coulomb interactions. The
novelty is that the variation of the phase induced by the external knobs is not
fully cancelled by the area response. We infer the area variations (with a
resolution on the order of ~50 nm$^{2}$) from conductance measurements. The
latter are sensitive to the continuous phase variations, and reveal abrupt
phase-jumps (smaller than 2{\pi}). Based on our results, we propose a new
experimental tool for probing anyonic statistics.


title:
Study of the photon-induced formation and subsequent desorption of CH3
  OH and H2 CO in interstellar ice analogs

abstract:
  Methanol and formaldehyde are two simple organic molecules that are
ubiquitously detected in the interstellar medium. An origin in the solid phase
and a subsequent nonthermal desorption into the gas phase is often invoked to
explain their abundances in some of the environments where they are found.
Experimental simulations under astrophysically relevant conditions have been
carried out to find a suitable mechanism for that process. We explore the in
situ formation and subsequent photon-induced desorption of these species,
studying the UV photoprocessing of pure ethanol ice, and a more realistic
binary H2O:CH4 ice analog. Ice samples deposited onto an infrared transparent
window at 8 K were UV-irradiated using a microwave-discharged hydrogen flow
lamp. Evidence of photochemical production of these two species and subsequent
UV-photon-induced desorption into the gas phase were searched for by means of a
Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and a quadrupole mass spectrometer,
respectively. Formation of CH3OH was only observed during photoprocessing of
the H2O:CH4 ice analog, but no photon-induced desorption was detected.
Photochemical production of H2CO was observed in both series of experiments.
Photochemidesorption of formaldehyde, i.e., photon-induced formation on the ice
surface and inmediate desorption, was observed, with a yield of 4.4 x 10-4
(molecules/incident photon) when the H2O:CH4 ice analogs were photoprocessed.
While certain C-bearing species, in particular H2CO, were found to desorb upon
irradiation, nonthermal desorption of CH3OH was not observed. So far, there is
no experimental evidence of any efficient CH3 OH desorption induced by UV
photons.


title: Latin Puzzles

abstract:
  Based on a previous generalization by the author of Latin squares to Latin
boards, this paper generalizes partial Latin squares and related objects like
partial Latin squares, completable partial Latin squares and Latin square
puzzles. The latter challenge players to complete partial Latin squares, Sudoku
being the most popular variant nowadays.
  The present generalization results in partial Latin boards, completable
partial Latin boards and Latin puzzles. Provided examples of Latin puzzles
illustrate how they differ from puzzles based on Latin squares. The examples
include Sudoku Ripeto and Custom Sudoku, two new Sudoku variants. This is
followed by a discussion of methods to find Latin boards and Latin puzzles
amenable to being solved by human players, with an emphasis on those based on
constraint programming. The paper also includes an analysis of objective and
subjective ways to measure the difficulty of Latin puzzles.


title: Accelerated Fitting of Stellar Spectra

abstract:
  Stellar spectra are often modeled and fit by interpolating within a
rectilinear grid of synthetic spectra to derive the stars' labels: stellar
parameters and elemental abundances. However, the number of synthetic spectra
needed for a rectilinear grid grows exponentially with the label space
dimensions, precluding the simultaneous and self-consistent fitting of more
than a few elemental abundances. Shortcuts such as fitting subsets of labels
separately can introduce unknown systematics and do not produce correct error
covariances in the derived labels. In this paper we present a new approach --
CHAT (Convex Hull Adaptive Tessellation) -- which includes several new ideas
for inexpensively generating a sufficient stellar synthetic library, using
linear algebra and the concept of an adaptive, data-driven grid. A convex hull
approximates the region where the data lie in the label space. A variety of
tests with mock datasets demonstrate that CHAT can reduce the number of
required synthetic model calculations by three orders of magnitude in an 8D
label space. The reduction will be even larger for higher-dimensional label
spaces. In CHAT the computational effort increases only linearly with the
number of labels that are fit simultaneously. Around each of these grid points
in label space an approximate synthetic spectrum can be generated through
linear expansion using a set of "gradient spectra" that represent flux
derivatives at every wavelength point with respect to all labels. These
techniques provide new opportunities to fit the full stellar spectra from large
surveys with 15-30 labels simultaneously.


title: The First Stars: formation under cosmic ray feedback

abstract:
  We explore the impact of a cosmic ray (CR) background generated by supernova
explosions from the first stars on star-forming metal-free gas in a minihalo at
$z\sim25$. Starting from cosmological initial conditions, we use the smoothed
particle hydrodynamics code GADGET-2 to follow gas collapsing under the
influence of a CR background up to densities of $n=10^{12}\,{\rm cm}^{-3}$, at
which point we form sink particles. Using a suite of simulations with two sets
of initial conditions and employing a range of CR background models, we follow
each simulation for $5000\,$yr after the first sink forms. CRs both heat and
ionise the gas, boosting ${\rm H}_2$ formation. Additional ${\rm H}_2$ enhances
the cooling efficiency of the gas, allowing it to fulfil the Rees-Ostriker
criterion sooner and expediting the collapse, such that each simulation reaches
high densities at a different epoch. As it exits the loitering phase, the
thermodynamic path of the collapsing gas converges to that seen in the absence
of any CR background. By the time the gas approaches sink formation densities,
the thermodynamic state of the gas is thus remarkably similar across all
simulations. This leads to a robust characteristic mass that is largely
independent of the CR background, of order $\sim$ a few $\times10\,{\rm
M}_{\odot}$ even as the CR background strength varies by five orders of
magnitude.


title: 1D Many-body localized Floquet systems II: Symmetry-Broken phases

abstract:
  Recent work suggests that a sharp definition of `phase of matter' can be
given for periodically driven `Floquet' quantum systems exhibiting many-body
localization. In this work we propose a classification of the phases of
interacting Floquet localized systems with (completely) spontaneously broken
symmetries -- we focus on the one dimensional case, but our results appear to
generalize to higher dimensions. We find that the different Floquet phases
correspond to elements of $Z(G)$, the centre of the symmetry group in question.
In a previous paper we offered a companion classification of unbroken, i.e.,
paramagnetic phases.


title:
Suzaku X-ray Observations of the Nearest Non-Cool Core Cluster, Antlia:
  Dynamically Young but with Remarkably Relaxed Outskirts

abstract:
  We present the results of seven Suzaku mosaic observations (>200 ks in total)
of the nearest non-cool core cluster, the Antlia Cluster (or Group), beyond its
degree-scale virial radius in its eastern direction. The temperature is
consistent with the scaled profiles of many other clusters. Its pressure
follows the universal profile. The density slope in its outskirts is
significantly steeper than that of the nearest cool core cluster (Virgo) with a
similar temperature as Antlia, but shallower than those of the massive
clusters. The entropy increases all the way out to R_200, which is consistent
in value with the baseline model predicted by a gravity heating-only mechanism
in the outskirts. Antlia is quite relaxed in this direction. However, the
entropy inside ~R_500 is significantly higher than the baseline model, which is
similar to many other nearby low mass clusters or groups. The enclosed gas-mass
fraction does not exceed the cosmic value out to 1.3R_200. Thus, there is no
evidence of significant gas clumping, electron-ion non-equipartition, or
departure from the hydrostatic equilibrium approximation that are suggested to
explain the entropy and gas fraction anomalies found in the outskirts of some
massive clusters. We also present scaling relations for the gas fraction
(f_gas,200), entropy (K_200), and temperature (T_500) using 22 groups and
clusters with published data in the literature. The enclosed baryon fraction at
R_200 is broadly consistent with the cosmic value. The power law slope of the
K_200-T_500 relation is 0.638+/-0.205. The entropy deficit at R_200 cannot be
fully accounted for by the bias or deviation in the gas fraction.


title: The promise of multi-band gravitational wave astronomy

abstract:
  We show that the black hole binary (BHB) coalescence rates inferred from the
advanced LIGO (aLIGO) detection of GW150914 imply an unexpectedly loud GW sky
at milli-Hz frequencies accessible to the evolving Laser Interferometer Space
Antenna (eLISA), with several outstanding consequences. First, up to thousands
of BHB will be individually resolvable by eLISA; second, millions of non
resolvable BHBs will build a confusion noise detectable with signal-to-noise
ratio of few to hundreds; third -- and perhaps most importantly -- up to
hundreds of BHBs individually resolvable by eLISA will coalesce in the aLIGO
band within ten years. eLISA observations will tell aLIGO and all
electromagnetic probes weeks in advance when and where these BHB coalescences
are going to occur, with uncertainties of <10s and <1deg^2. This will allow the
pre-pointing of telescopes to realize coincident GW and multi-wavelength
electromagnetic observations of BHB mergers. Time coincidence is critical
because prompt emission associated to a BHB merger will likely have a duration
comparable to the dynamical time-scale of the systems, and is only possible
with low frequency GW alerts.


title:
Numerical simulations of stellar collapse in scalar-tensor theories of
  gravity

abstract:
  We present numerical-relativity simulations of spherically symmetric core
collapse and compact-object formation in scalar-tensor theories of gravity. The
additional scalar degree of freedom introduces a propagating monopole
gravitational-wave mode. Detection of monopole scalar waves with current and
future gravitational-wave experiments may constitute smoking gun evidence for
strong-field modifications of General Relativity. We collapse both polytropic
and more realistic pre-supernova profiles using a high-resolution
shock-capturing scheme and an approximate prescription for the nuclear equation
of state. The most promising sources of scalar radiation are protoneutron stars
collapsing to black holes. In case of a Galactic core collapse event forming a
black hole, Advanced LIGO may be able to place independent constraints on the
parameters of the theory at a level comparable to current Solar-System and
binary-pulsar measurements. In the region of the parameter space admitting
spontaneously scalarised stars, transition to configurations with prominent
scalar hair before black-hole formation further enhances the emitted signal.
Although a more realistic treatment of the microphysics is necessary to fully
investigate the occurrence of spontaneous scalarisation of neutron star
remnants, we speculate that formation of such objects could constrain the
parameters of the theory beyond the current bounds obtained with Solar-System
and binary-pulsar experiments.


title:
Proper definition and evolution of generalized transverse momentum
  distributions

abstract:
  We consider one of the most fundamental sets of hadronic matrix elements,
namely the generalized transverse momentum distributions (GTMDs), and argue
that their existing definitions lack proper evolution properties. By exploiting
the similarity of GTMDs with the much better understood transverse momentum
distributions, we argue that the existing definitions of GTMDs have to include
an additional dependence on soft gluon radiation in order to render them
properly defined. With this, we manage to obtain the evolution kernel of all
(un)polarized quark and gluon GTMDs, which turns out to be spin independent. As
a byproduct, all large logarithms can be resummed up to
next-to-next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy with the currently known
perturbative ingredients.


title: The dust covering factor in active galactic nuclei

abstract:
  The primary source of emission of active galactic nuclei (AGN), the accretion
disk, is surrounded by an optically and geometrically thick dusty structure
("the so-called dusty torus"). The infrared radiation emitted by the dust is
nothing but a reprocessed fraction of the accretion disk emission, so the ratio
of the torus to the AGN luminosity ($L_{\text{torus}}/L_{\text{AGN}}$) should
correspond to the fraction of the sky obscured by dust, i.e. the covering
factor. We undertook a critical investigation of the
$L_{\text{torus}}/L_{\text{AGN}}$ as the dust covering factor proxy. Using
state-of-the-art 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code, we calculated a grid
of spectral energy distributions (SEDs) emitted by the clumpy two-phase dusty
structure. With this grid of SEDs, we studied the relation between
$L_{\text{torus}}/L_{\text{AGN}}$ and the dust covering factor for different
parameters of the torus. We found that in the case of type 1 AGNs the torus
anisotropy makes $L_{\text{torus}}/L_{\text{AGN}}$ underestimate low covering
factors and overestimate high covering factors. In type 2 AGNs
$L_{\text{torus}}/L_{\text{AGN}}$ always underestimates covering factors. Our
results provide a novel easy-to-use method to account for anisotropy and obtain
correct covering factors. Using two samples from the literature, we
demonstrated the importance of our result for inferring the obscured AGN
fraction. We found that after the anisotropy is properly accounted for, the
dust covering factors show very weak dependence on $L_{\text{AGN}}$, with
values in the range of $\approx0.6-0.7$. Our results also suggest a higher
fraction of obscured AGNs at high luminosities than those found by X-ray
surveys, in part owing to the presence of a Compton-thick AGN population
predicted by population synthesis models.


title: Oxygen, neon, and iron X-ray absorption in the local interstellar medium

abstract:
  We present a detailed study of X-ray absorption in the local interstellar
medium by analyzing the X-ray spectra of 24 galactic sources obtained with the
{\it Chandra} High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer and the {\it
XMM-Newton} Reflection Grating Spectrometer. By modeling the continuum with a
simple broken power-law and by implementing the new {\tt ISMabs} X-ray
absorption model, we have estimated the total H, O, Ne, and Fe column densities
towards the observed sources. We have determined the absorbing material
distribution as a function of source distance and galactic latitude--longitude.
Direct estimates of the fractions of neutrally, singly, and doubly ionized
species of O, Ne, and Fe reveal the dominance of the cold component, thus
indicating an overall low degree of ionization. Our results are expected to be
sensitive to the model used to describe the continuum in all sources.


title:
NIHAO VIII: Circum-galactic medium and outflows - The puzzles of HI and
  OVI gas distributions

abstract:
  We study the hot and cold circum-galactic medium (CGM) of 86 galaxies of the
cosmological, hydrodynamical simulation suite NIHAO. NIHAO allows a study of
how the $z=0$ CGM varies across 5 orders of magnitude of stellar mass using OVI
and HI as proxies for hot and cold gas. The cool HI covering fraction and
column density profiles match observations well, particularly in the inner CGM.
OVI shows increasing column densities with mass, a trend seemingly echoed in
the observations. As in multiple previous simulations, the OVI column densities
in simulations are lower than observed and optically thick HI does not extend
as far out as in observations. We take a look at the collisional ionisation
fraction of OVI as a function of halo mass. We make observable predictions of
the bipolarity of outflows and their effect on the general shape of the CGM.
Bipolar outflows can be seen out to around 40 kpc in intermediate and low mass
halos ($M_{\mathrm{halo}}<10^{11}M_{\mathrm{sun}}$), but outside that radius,
the CGM is too well mixed to detect an elongated shape. Larger halos have
extended gas discs beyond the stellar disc that dominate the shape of the inner
CGM. The simulated CGM is remarkably spherical even in low mass simulations.
The chemical enrichment of both halo and disc gas follow expected increasing
trends as a function of halo mass that are well fit with power laws. These
relations can be used in non-hydrodynamic models, such as semi-analytic models.


title:
Fully-Automated Precision Predictions for Heavy Neutrino Production
  Mechanisms at Hadron Colliders

abstract:
  Motivated by TeV-scale neutrino mass models, we propose a systematic
treatment of heavy neutrino $(N)$ production at hadron colliders. Our simple
and efficient modeling of the vector boson fusion (VBF) $W^\pm\gamma\rightarrow
N\ell^\pm$ and $N\ell^\pm+nj$ signal definitions resolve collinear and soft
divergences that have plagued past studies, and is applicable to other
color-singlet processes, e.g., associated Higgs $(W^\pm h)$, sparticle
$(\tilde{\ell}^\pm\tilde{\nu_\ell})$, and charged Higgs $(h^{\pm\pm}h^{\mp})$
production. We present, for the first time, a comparison of all leading $N$
production modes, including both gluon fusion (GF) $gg\rightarrow
Z^*/h^*\rightarrow N\overset{(-)}{\nu_\ell}$ and VBF. We obtain fully
differential results up to next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD accuracy using a
Monte Carlo tool chain linking FeynRules, N{\small LO}CT, and
MadGraph5\_aMC@NLO. Associated model files are publicly available. At the 14
TeV LHC, the leading order GF rate is small and comparable to the NLO
$N\ell^\pm+1j$ rate; at a future 100 TeV Very Large Hadron Collider, GF
dominates for $m_N={300-1500}$ GeV, beyond which VBF takes lead.


title:
Experimental determination of irreversible entropy production in
  out-of-equilibrium mesoscopic quantum systems

abstract:
  By making use of a recently proposed framework for the inference of
thermodynamic irreversibility in bosonic quantum systems, we experimentally
measure and characterize the entropy production rates in the non-equilibrium
steady state of two different physical systems -- a micro-mechanical resonator
and a Bose-Einstein condensate -- each coupled to a high finesse cavity and
hence also subject to optical loss. Key features of our setups, such as cooling
of the mechanical resonator and signatures of a structural quantum phase
transition in the condensate are reflected in the entropy production rates. Our
work demonstrates the possibility to explore irreversibility in driven
mesoscopic quantum systems and paves the way to a systematic experimental
assessment of entropy production beyond the microscopic limit.

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


title:
Near infrared diffuse interstellar bands toward the Cygnus OB2
  association

abstract:
  We obtained the near-infrared (NIR) high-resolution
($R\equiv\lambda/\Delta\lambda\sim20,000$) spectra of the seven brightest
early-type stars in the Cygnus OB2 association for investigating the
environmental dependence of diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs). The WINERED
spectrograph mounted on the Araki 1.3m telescope in Japan was used to collect
data. All 20 of the known DIBs within the wavelength coverage of WINERED
($0.91<\lambda<1.36\mu$m) were clearly detected along all lines of sight
because of their high flux density in the NIR wavelength range and the large
extinction. The equivalent widths (EWs) of DIBs were not correlated with the
column densities of C$_2$ molecules, which trace the patchy dense component,
suggesting that the NIR DIB carriers are distributed mainly in the diffuse
component. On the basis of the correlations among the NIR DIBs both for stars
in Cyg OB2 and stars observed previously, $\lambda\lambda$10780, 10792, 11797,
12623, and 13175 are found to constitute a "family", in which the DIBs are
correlated well over the wide EW range. In contrast, the EW of $\lambda$10504
is found to remain almost constant over the stars in Cyg OB2. The extinction
estimated from the average EW of $\lambda$10504 ($A_V\sim3.6$mag) roughly
corresponds to the lower limit of the extinction distribution of OB stars in
Cyg OB2. This suggests that $\lambda$10504 is absorbed only by the foreground
clouds, implying that the carrier of $\lambda$10504 is completely destroyed in
Cyg OB2, probably by the strong UV radiation field. The different behaviors of
the DIBs may be caused by different properties of the DIB carriers.


title: The Black Hole - Bulge Mass Relation in Megamaser Host Galaxies

abstract:
  We present HST images for nine megamaser disk galaxies with the primary goal
of studying photometric BH-galaxy scaling relations. The megamaser disks
provide the highest-precision extragalactic BH mass measurements, while our
high-resolution HST imaging affords us the opportunity to decompose the complex
nuclei of their late-type hosts in detail. Based on the morphologies and shapes
of the galaxy nuclei, we argue that most of these galaxies' central regions
contain secularly evolving components (pseudo-bulges), and in many cases we
photometrically identify co-existing "classical" bulge components as well.
Using these decompositions, we draw the following conclusions: (1) The
megamaser BH masses span two orders of magnitude ($10^6$ -- $10^8 M_\odot$)
while the stellar mass of their spiral host galaxies are all $\sim 10^{11}
M_\odot$ within a factor of three; (2) the BH masses at a given bulge mass or
total stellar mass in the megamaser host spiral galaxies tend to be lower than
expected, when compared to an extrapolation of the BH-bulge relation based on
early-type galaxies; (3) the observed large intrinsic scatter of BH masses in
the megamaser host galaxies raises the question of whether scaling relations
exist in spiral galaxies.


title: Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays and Black Hole Mergers

abstract:
  The recent detection of the gravitational wave source GW150914 by the LIGO
collaboration motivates a speculative source for the origin of ultrahigh energy
cosmic rays as a possible byproduct of the immense energies achieved in black
hole mergers, provided that the black holes have spin as seems inevitable and
there are relic magnetic fields and disk debris remaining from the formation of
the black holes or from their accretion history. We argue that given the modest
efficiency $< 0.01$ required per event per unit of gravitational wave energy
release, merging black holes potentially provide an environment for
accelerating cosmic rays to ultrahigh energies.


title: Anomalies, equivalence and renormalization of cosmological frames

abstract:
  We study the question of whether two frames of a given physical theory are
equivalent or not in the presence of quantum corrections. By using field theory
arguments we claim that equivalence is broken in the presence of anomalous
symmetries in one of the frames. This is particularized to the case of the
relation between the Einstein and Jordan frames in scalar-tensor theories used
to describe early Universe dynamics. Although in this case a regularization
that cancels the anomaly exists, the renormalized theory always develop a
non-vanishing contribution to the S-matrix that is present only in the Jordan
frame, promoting the different frames to different physical theories that must
be UV completed in a different way.


title:
Development of Disciplined Interpretation Using Computational Modeling
  in the Elementary Science Classroom

abstract:
  Studies of scientists building models show that the development of scientific
models involves a great deal of subjectivity. However, science as experienced
in school settings typically emphasizes an overly objective and rationalistic
view. In this paper, we argue for focusing on the development of disciplined
interpretation as an epistemic and representational practice that progressively
deepens students' computational modeling in science by valuing, rather than
deemphasizing, the subjective nature of the experience of modeling. We report
results from a study in which fourth grade children engaged in computational
modeling throughout the academic year. We present three salient themes that
characterize the development of students' disciplined interpretations in terms
of their development of computational modeling as a way of seeing and doing
science.


title:
Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model and Thermalization on the Boundary of Many-Body
  Localized Fermionic Symmetry Protected Topological States

abstract:
  We consider the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model as an effective theory arising
at the zero-dimensional boundary of a many-body localized, Fermionic symmetry
protected topological (SPT) phase in one spatial dimension. The Fermions at the
boundary are always fully interacting. We find that the boundary is thermalized
and investigate how its boundary anomaly, dictated by the bulk SPT order, is
encoded in the quantum chaotic eigenspectrum of the SYK model. We show that
depending on the SPT symmetry class, the boundary many-body level statistics
cycle in a systematic manner through those of the three different Wigner-Dyson
random matrix ensembles with a periodicity in the topological index that
matches the interaction-reduced classification of the bulk SPT states. We
consider all three symmetry classes BDI, AIII, and CII, whose SPT phases are
classified in one spatial dimension by $\mathbb{Z}$ in the absence of
interactions. For symmetry class BDI, we derive the eight-fold periodicity of
the Wigner-Dyson statistics by using Clifford algebras.


title: W-boson plus jet differential distributions at NNLO in QCD

abstract:
  We present a detailed phenomenological study of W-boson production in
association with a jet through next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in
perturbative QCD. Fiducial cross sections and differential distributions for
both 8 TeV and 13 TeV LHC collisions are presented, as are results for both the
inclusive one-jet bin and the exclusive one-jet bin. Two different event
selection criteria are considered: a general selection with standard cuts used
in experimental analyses, and a boosted selection that focuses on high
transverse momentum jets. We discuss the higher-order corrections in detail and
identify for which observables and phase space regions the QCD perturbative
expansion is under good theoretical control, and where additional work is
needed. For most distributions and phase space regions the QCD perturbative
expansion exhibits good convergence after the inclusion of the NNLO
corrections.


title: Cosmological models in Weyl geometrical scalar-tensor theory

abstract:
  We investigate cosmological models in a recently proposed geometrical theory
of gravity, in which the scalar field appears as part of the space-time
geometry. We extend the previous theory to include a scalar potential in the
action. We solve the vacuum field equations for different choices of the scalar
potential and give a detailed analysis of the solutions. We show that in some
cases a cosmological scenario is found that seems to suggest the appearance of
a geometric phase transition. We build a toy model, in which the accelerated
expansion of the early universe is driven by pure geometry.


title: Blind score normalization method for PLDA based speaker recognition

abstract:
  Probabilistic Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLDA) has become state-of-the-art
method for modeling $i$-vector space in speaker recognition task. However the
performance degradation is observed if enrollment data size differs from one
speaker to another. This paper presents a solution to such problem by
introducing new PLDA scoring normalization technique. Normalization parameters
are derived in a blind way, so that, unlike traditional \textit{ZT-norm}, no
extra development data is required. Moreover, proposed method has shown to be
optimal in terms of detection cost function. The experiments conducted on NIST
SRE 2014 database demonstrate an improved accuracy in a mixed enrollment number
condition.


title:
Limit Order Book and its modelling in terms of Gibbs Grand-Canonical
  Ensemble

abstract:
  In the domain of the so called Econophysics some attempts already have been
made for applying the theory of Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics to
economics and financial markets. In this paper a similar approach is made from
a different perspective, trying to model the limit order book and price
formation process of a given stock by the Grand-Canonical Gibbs Ensemble for
the bid and ask processes. As a consequence we can define in a meaningful way
expressions for the temperatures of the ensembles of bid orders and of ask
orders, which are a function of maximum bid, minimum ask and closure prices of
the stock as well as of the exchanged volume of shares. It is demonstrated that
the difference between the ask and bid orders temperatures can be related to
the VAO (Volume Accumulation Oscillator) indicator, empirically defined in
Technical Analysis of stock markets. Furthermore the distributions for bid and
ask orders derived by the theory can be subject to well defined validations
against real data, giving a falsifiable character to the model.


title:
Are Incoherent Operations Physically Consistent? -- A Critical
  Examination of Incoherent Operations

abstract:
  Considerable work has recently been directed toward developing resource
theories of quantum coherence. In most approaches, a state is said to possess
quantum coherence if it is not diagonal in some specified basis. In this letter
we establish a criterion of physical consistency for any resource theory in
terms of physical implementation of the free operations, and we show that all
currently proposed basis-dependent theories of coherence fail to satisfy this
criterion. We further characterize the physically consistent resource theory of
coherence and find its operational power to be quite limited. After relaxing
the condition of physical consistency, we introduce the class of
dephasing-covariant incoherent operations, present a number of new coherent
monotones based on relative R\'{e}nyi entropies, and study incoherent state
transformations under different operational classes. In particular, we derive
necessary and sufficient conditions for qubit state transformations and show
these conditions hold for all classes of incoherent operations.


title:
How does variability in cells aging and growth rates influence the
  malthus parameter?

abstract:
  The aim of this study is to compare the growth speed of different cell
populations measured by their Malthus parameter. We focus on both the
age-structured and size-structured equations. A first population (of reference)
is composed of cells all aging or growing at the same rate $\bar v$. A second
population (with variability) is composed of cells each aging or growing at a
rate $v$ drawn according to a non-degenerated distribution $\rho$ with mean
$\bar v$. In a first part, analytical answers -- based on the study of an
eigenproblem -- are provided for the age-structured model. In a second part,
numerical answers -- based on stochastic simulations -- are derived for the
size-structured model. It appears numerically that the population with
variability proliferates more slowly than the population of reference (for
experimentally plausible division rates). The decrease in the Malthus parameter
we measure, around 2% for distributions $\rho$ with realistic coefficients of
variations around 15-20\%, is determinant since it controls the {\it
exponential} growth of the whole population.


title:
Electrical Potential, Mass Transport and Velocity Distribution of
  Electro-osmotic Flow in a Nanochannel by Incorporating the Variation of
  Dielectric Constant of Aqueous Electrolyte Solution

abstract:
  We consider a coupled system of Navier Stokes, Maxwell Stefan and Poisson
Boltzmann equations by incorporating the variation of dielectric constant,
which governs the electro osmotic flow in nano channel, describing the
evolution of the velocity, concentration and potential fields of dissolved
constituents in an aqueous electrolyte solution. We apply the finite difference
technique to solve one and two dimensional systems of these equations. The
solutions give an extremely accurate prediction of the dielectric constant for
a variety of salts and a wide range of concentrations.


title: Modelling collinear and spatially correlated data

abstract:
  In this work we present a statistical approach to distinguish and interpret
the complex relationship between several predictors and a response variable at
the small area level, in the presence of i) high correlation between the
predictors and ii) spatial correlation for the response. Covariates which are
highly correlated create collinearity problems when used in a standard multiple
regression model. Many methods have been proposed in the literature to address
this issue. A very common approach is to create an index which aggregates all
the highly correlated variables of interest. For example, it is well known that
there is a relationship between social deprivation measured through the
Multiple Deprivation Index (IMD) and air pollution; this index is then used as
a confounder in assessing the effect of air pollution on health outcomes (e.g.
respiratory hospital admissions or mortality). However it would be more
informative to look specifically at each domain of the IMD and at its
relationship with air pollution to better understand its role as a confounder
in the epidemiological analyses. In this paper we illustrate how the complex
relationships between the domains of IMD and air pollution can be deconstructed
and analysed using profile regression, a Bayesian non-parametric model for
clustering responses and covariates simultaneously. Moreover, we include an
intrinsic spatial conditional autoregressive (ICAR) term to account for the
spatial correlation of the response variable.


title:
Generalized focus point and mass spectra comparison of highly natural
  SUGRA GUT models

abstract:
  Supergravity grand unified models (SUGRA GUTs) are highly motivated and allow
for a high degree of electroweak naturalness when the superpotential parameter
mu~ 100-300 GeV (preferring values closer to 100 GeV). We first illustrate that
models with radiatively-driven naturalness enjoy a generalized focus-point
behavior wherein all soft terms are correlated instead of just scalar masses.
Next, we generate spectra from four SUGRA GUT archetypes: 1. SO(10) models
where the Higgs doublets live in different 10-dimensional irreducible
representations (irreps), 2. models based on SO(10) where the Higgs multiplets
live in a single 10-dimensional irrep but with D-term scalar mass splitting, 3.
models based on SU(5) and 4. a more general SUGRA model with 12 independent
parameters. Electroweak naturalness implies for all models a spectrum of light
higgsinos with m(higgsinos)< 300 GeV and gluinos with m(gluino)< 2-4 TeV.
However, masses and mixing in the third generation sfermion sector differ
distinctly between the models. These latter differences would be most easily
tested at a linear e^+e^- collider with \sqrt{s}~ multi-TeV-scale but
measurements at a 50-100 TeV hadron collider are also possible.


title:
Distributed measurement of mode coupling in birefringent fibers with
  random polarization modes

abstract:
  A scanning white light interferometer is developed to measure the distributed
polarization coupling (DPC) in high birefringence polarization maintaining
fibers (PMFs). Traditionally, this technique requests only one polarization
mode to be excited or both polarization modes to be excited with equal
intensity in the PMF. Thus, an accurate alignment of the polarization direction
with the principal axis in PMF is strictly required, which is not facilely
realized in practical measurement. This paper develops a method to measure the
spatial distribution of polarization mode coupling with random modes excited
using a white light Michelson interferometer. The influence of incident
polarization extinction ratio (PER) on polarization coupling detection is
evaluated theoretically and experimentally. It is also analyzed and validated
in corresponding measurement that the sensitivity of the polarization coupling
detection system can be improved more than 100 times with the rotation of the
analyzer.


title:
Design and experiment of electronic speckle shearing phase-shifting
  pattern interferometer

abstract:
  An electronic speckle shearing phase-shifting pattern interferometer (ESSPPI)
based on Michelson interferometer was based in this paper. A rotatable mirror
driven by a step motor in one of its reflective arm is used to generate an
adjustable shearing and the mirror driven by piezoelectric transducer (PZT) in
the other reflective arm was used to realize phaseshifting. In the experiments,
the deformation of an aluminum plate with the same extern-force on different
positions and different forces on the same position is measured. Meanwhile, the
phase distribution and phase-unwrap image of the aluminum plate with the
extern-force on its center position is obtained by the four-step phase-shifting
method.


title:
Nodal superconducting gap structure in the quasi-one-dimensional
  Cs$_2$Cr$_3$As$_3$ investigated using $\mu$SR measurements

abstract:
  The superconducting ground state of the newly discovered superconductor
Cs$_2$Cr$_3$As$_3$ with a quasi-one-dimensional crystal structure ($T_{\bf
c}\sim$ 2.1(1) K) has been investigated using magnetization and muon-spin
relaxation or rotation ($\mu$SR), both zero-field (ZF) and transverse-field
(TF), measurements. Our ZF $\mu$SR measurements reveal the presence of spin
fluctuations below 4 K and the ZF relaxation rate ($\lambda$) shows enhancement
below $T_{\bf c}\sim$ 2.1 K, which might indicate that the superconducting
state is unconventional. This observation suggests that the electrons are
paired via unconventional channels such as spin fluctuations, as proposed on
the basis of theoretical models. Our analysis of the TF $\mu$SR results shows
that the temperature dependence of the superfluid density is fitted better with
a nodal gap structure than an isotropic s-wave model for the superconducting
gap. The observation of a nodal gap in Cs$_2$Cr$_3$As$_3$ is consistent with
that observed in the isostructural K$_2$Cr$_3$As$_3$ compound through TF
$\mu$SR measurements. Furthermore, from our TF $\mu$SR study we have estimated
the magnetic penetration depth $\lambda_{\mathrm{L}}$$(0)$ = 954 nm,
superconducting carrier density $n_s = 4.98 \times 10^{26}~ $m$^{-3}$, and
carrier's effective-mass enhancement $m^*$ = 1.61m$_{e}$.


title: Augur: Mining Human Behaviors from Fiction to Power Interactive Systems

abstract:
  From smart homes that prepare coffee when we wake, to phones that know not to
interrupt us during important conversations, our collective visions of HCI
imagine a future in which computers understand a broad range of human
behaviors. Today our systems fall short of these visions, however, because this
range of behaviors is too large for designers or programmers to capture
manually. In this paper, we instead demonstrate it is possible to mine a broad
knowledge base of human behavior by analyzing more than one billion words of
modern fiction. Our resulting knowledge base, Augur, trains vector models that
can predict many thousands of user activities from surrounding objects in
modern contexts: for example, whether a user may be eating food, meeting with a
friend, or taking a selfie. Augur uses these predictions to identify actions
that people commonly take on objects in the world and estimate a user's future
activities given their current situation. We demonstrate Augur-powered,
activity-based systems such as a phone that silences itself when the odds of
you answering it are low, and a dynamic music player that adjusts to your
present activity. A field deployment of an Augur-powered wearable camera
resulted in 96% recall and 71% precision on its unsupervised predictions of
common daily activities. A second evaluation where human judges rated the
system's predictions over a broad set of input images found that 94% were rated
sensible.


title:
Asymptotic Expansions for Resonances in the Presence of Small
  Anisotropic Imperfections

abstract:
  We provide a rigorous derivation of an asymptotic formula for perturbations
in the resonance values caused by the presence of finite number of anisotropic
imperfections of small shapes with constitutive parameters different from the
background conductivity. The asymptotic expansion is carried out with respect
to the size of the imperfections. The main feature of the method is to yield a
robust procedure making it possible to recover information about the location,
shape, and material properties of the anisotropic imperfections.


title: Empath: Understanding Topic Signals in Large-Scale Text

abstract:
  Human language is colored by a broad range of topics, but existing text
analysis tools only focus on a small number of them. We present Empath, a tool
that can generate and validate new lexical categories on demand from a small
set of seed terms (like "bleed" and "punch" to generate the category violence).
Empath draws connotations between words and phrases by deep learning a neural
embedding across more than 1.8 billion words of modern fiction. Given a small
set of seed words that characterize a category, Empath uses its neural
embedding to discover new related terms, then validates the category with a
crowd-powered filter. Empath also analyzes text across 200 built-in,
pre-validated categories we have generated from common topics in our web
dataset, like neglect, government, and social media. We show that Empath's
data-driven, human validated categories are highly correlated (r=0.906) with
similar categories in LIWC.


title:
CO observations and investigation of triggered star formation towards
  N10 infrared bubble and surroundings

abstract:
  We studied the environment of the dust bubble N10 in molecular emission.
Infrared bubbles, first detected by the GLIMPSE survey at 8.0 $\mu$m, are ideal
regions to investigate the effect of the expansion of the HII region on its
surroundings eventual triggered star formation at its borders. In this work, we
present a multi-wavelength study of N10. This bubble is especially interesting
as infrared studies of the young stellar content suggest a scenario of ongoing
star formation, possibly triggered, on the edge of the HII region. We carried
out observations of $^{12}$CO(1-0) and $^{13}$CO(1-0) emission at PMO 13.7-m
towards N10. We also analyzed the IR and sub-mm emission on this region and
compare those different tracers to obtain a detailed view of the interaction
between the expanding HII region and the molecular gas. We also estimated the
parameters of the denser cold dust condensation and of the ionized gas inside
the shell. Bright CO emission was detected and two molecular clumps were
identified, from which we have derived physical parameters. We also estimate
the parameters for the densest cold dust condensation and for the ionized gas
inside the shell. The comparison between the dynamical age of this region and
the fragmentation time scale favors the "Radiation-Driven Implosion" mechanism
of star formation. N10 reveals to be specially interesting case with gas
structures in a narrow frontier between HII region and surrounding molecular
material, and with a range of ages of YSOs situated in region indicating
triggered star formation.


title: Mathematical control theory, the immune system, and cancer

abstract:
  Simple ideas, endowed from the mathematical theory of control, are used in
order to analyze in general grounds the human immune system. The general
principles are minimization of the pathogen load and economy of resources. They
should constrain the parameters describing the immune system. In the simplest
linear model, for example, where the response is proportional to the load, the
annihilation rate of pathogens in any tissue should be greater than the
pathogen's average rate of growth. When nonlinearities are added, a reference
value for the number of pathogens is set, and a stability condition emerges,
which relates strength of regular threats, barrier height and annihilation
rate. The stability condition allows a qualitative comparison between tissues.
On the other hand, in cancer immunity, the linear model leads to an expression
for the lifetime risk, which accounts for both the effects of carcinogens
(endogenous or external) and the immune response.


title:
The Milky Way Project and ATLASGAL: The distribution and physical
  properties of cold clumps near infrared bubbles

abstract:
  We present a statistical study of the distribution and physical properties of
cold dense material in and around the inner Galactic Plane near infrared
bubbles as catalogued by the Milky Way Project citizen scientists. Using data
from the ATLASGAL 870 um survey, we show that 48 +/- 2% of all cold clumps in
the studied survey region (|l| <= 65 degrees, |b| <= 1 degree) are found in
close proximity to a bubble, and 25 +/- 2% appear directly projected towards a
bubble rim. A two-point correlation analysis confirms the strong correlation of
massive cold clumps with expanding bubbles. It shows an overdensity of clumps
along bubble rims that grows with increasing bubble size, which shows how
interstellar medium material is reordered on large scales by bubble expansion
around regions of massive star formation. The highest column density clumps
appear resistent to the expansion, remaining overdense towards the bubbles'
interior rather than being swept up by the expanding edge. Spectroscopic
observations in ammonia show that cold dust clumps near bubbles appear to be
denser, hotter and more turbulent than those in the field, offering
circumstantial evidence that bubble-associated clumps are more likely to be
forming stars. These observed differences in physical conditions persist for
beyond the region of the bubble rims.


title:
Simulated stellar kinematics studies of high-redshift galaxies with the
  HARMONI Integral Field Spectrograph

abstract:
  We present a study into the capabilities of integrated and spatially resolved
integral field spectroscopy of galaxies at z=2-4 with the future HARMONI
spectrograph for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) using the
simulation pipeline, HSIM. We focus particularly on the instrument's
capabilities in stellar absorption line integral field spectroscopy, which will
allow us to study the stellar kinematics and stellar population
characteristics. Such measurements for star-forming and passive galaxies around
the peak star formation era will provide a critical insight into the star
formation, quenching and mass assembly history of high-z, and thus present-day
galaxies. First, we perform a signal-to-noise study for passive galaxies at a
range of stellar masses for z=2-4, assuming different light profiles; for this
population we estimate integrated stellar absorption line spectroscopy with
HARMONI will be limited to galaxies with M_star > 10^10.7 solar masses. Second,
we use HSIM to perform a mock observation of a typical star-forming 10^10 solar
mass galaxy at z=3 generated from the high-resolution cosmological simulation
NutFB. We demonstrate that the input stellar kinematics of the simulated galaxy
can be accurately recovered from the integrated spectrum in a 15-hour
observation, using common analysis tools. Whilst spatially resolved
spectroscopy is likely to remain out of reach for this particular galaxy, we
estimate HARMONI's performance limits in this regime from our findings. This
study demonstrates how instrument simulators such as HSIM can be used to
quantify instrument performance and study observational biases on kinematics
retrieval; and shows the potential of making observational predictions from
cosmological simulation output data.


title: Vector and axial vector mesons in a nonlocal chiral quark model

abstract:
  Basic features of nonstrange vector and axial vector mesons are analyzed in
the framework of a chiral quark model that includes nonlocal four fermion
couplings. Unknown model parameters are determined from some input values of
masses and decay constants, while nonlocal form factors are taken from a fit to
lattice QCD results for effective quark propagators. Numerical results show a
good agreement with the observed meson phenomenology.


title: Revisiting a Nice Cycle Lemma and its Consequences

abstract:
  We correct some errors and omissions primarily in a paper
[Albertson&Hutchinson2004], discovered by R.B. Richter, and also some in a
proof of [Thomassen1993] and of [Yu1997]. We give a short proof of Thomassen's
theorem that every triangulation of a surface with all noncontractible cycles
sufficiently long can be 5-colored; part of the shortness is due to the use of
the Four Color Theorem, which is not used in Thomassen's original proof.


title:
A Convex Approach for Stability Analysis of Coupled PDEs using Lyapunov
  Functionals

abstract:
  In this paper, we present an algorithm for stability analysis of systems
described by coupled linear Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) with constant
coefficients and mixed boundary conditions. Our approach uses positive matrices
to parameterize functionals which are positive or negative on certain function
spaces. Applying this parameterization to construct Lyapunov functionals with
negative derivative allows us to express stability conditions as a set of LMI
constraints which can be constructed using SOSTOOLS and tested using standard
SDP solvers such as SeDuMi. The results are tested using a simple numerical
example and compared results obtained from simulation using a standard form of
discretization.


title:
Causality - Complexity - Consistency: Can Space-Time Be Based on Logic
  and Computation?

abstract:
  The difficulty of explaining non-local correlations in a fixed causal
structure sheds new light on the old debate on whether space and time are to be
seen as fundamental. Refraining from assuming space-time as given a priori has
a number of consequences. First, the usual definitions of randomness depend on
a causal structure and turn meaningless. So motivated, we propose an intrinsic,
physically motivated measure for the randomness of a string of bits: its length
minus its normalized work value, a quantity we closely relate to its Kolmogorov
complexity (the length of the shortest program making a universal Turing
machine output this string). We test this alternative concept of randomness for
the example of non-local correlations, and we end up with a reasoning that
leads to similar conclusions as in, but is conceptually more direct than, the
probabilistic view since only the outcomes of measurements that can actually
all be carried out together are put into relation to each other. In the same
context-free spirit, we connect the logical reversibility of an evolution to
the second law of thermodynamics and the arrow of time. Refining this, we end
up with a speculation on the emergence of a space-time structure on bit strings
in terms of data-compressibility relations. Finally, we show that logical
consistency, by which we replace the abandoned causality, it strictly weaker a
constraint than the latter in the multi-party case.


title: Neptune's Orbital Migration Was Grainy, Not Smooth

abstract:
  The Kuiper belt is a population of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune.
The complex orbital structure of the Kuiper belt, including several categories
of objects inside and outside of resonances with Neptune, emerged as a result
of Neptune's migration into an outer planetesimal disk. An outstanding problem
with the existing migration models is that they invariably predict excessively
large resonant populations, while observations show that the non-resonant
orbits are in fact common (e.g., the main belt population is 2-4 times larger
than Plutinos in the 3:2 resonance). Here we show that this problem can
resolved if it is assumed that Neptune's migration was grainy, as expected from
scattering encounters of Neptune with massive planetesimals. The grainy
migration acts to destabilize resonant bodies with large libration amplitudes,
a fraction of which ends up on stable non-resonant orbits. Thus, the
non-resonant--to--resonant ratio obtained with the grainy migration is higher,
up to ~10 times higher for the range of parameters investigated here, than in a
model with smooth migration. The grainy migration leads to a narrower
distribution of the libration amplitudes in the 3:2 resonance. The best fit to
observations is obtained when it is assumed that the outer planetesimal disk
below 30 AU contained 1000-4000 Plutos, or ~1000 bodies twice as massive as
Pluto. We find that the probability for an outer disk object to end up on a
stable orbit in the Kuiper belt is ~10^{-3}. Together, these results are
consistent with having only two (known) Pluto-mass bodies in the Kuiper belt
today (Pluto and Eris). The combined mass of Pluto-class objects in the
original disk was ~2-8 Earth masses (M_Earth), which represents 10-40% of the
estimated disk mass (M_disk ~ 20 M_Earth).


title:
Recovering the number of clusters in data sets with noise features using
  feature rescaling factors

abstract:
  In this paper we introduce three methods for re-scaling data sets aiming at
improving the likelihood of clustering validity indexes to return the true
number of spherical Gaussian clusters with additional noise features. Our
method obtains feature re-scaling factors taking into account the structure of
a given data set and the intuitive idea that different features may have
different degrees of relevance at different clusters.
  We experiment with the Silhouette (using squared Euclidean, Manhattan, and
the p$^{th}$ power of the Minkowski distance), Dunn's, Calinski-Harabasz and
Hartigan indexes on data sets with spherical Gaussian clusters with and without
noise features. We conclude that our methods indeed increase the chances of
estimating the true number of clusters in a data set.


title: Einstein-Maxwell-Anti-de-Sitter spinning solitons

abstract:
  Electrostatics on global Anti-de-Sitter (AdS) spacetime is sharply different
from that on global Minkowski spacetime. It admits a multipolar expansion with
everywhere regular, finite energy solutions, for every multipole moment except
the monopole (arXiv:1507.04370). A similar statement holds for global AdS
magnetostatics. We show that everywhere regular, finite energy, electric plus
magnetic fields exist on AdS in three distinct classes: $(I)$ with
non-vanishing total angular momentum $J$; $(II)$ with vanishing $J$ but
non-zero angular momentum density, $T^t_\varphi$; $(III)$ with vanishing $J$
and $T^t_\varphi$. Considering backreaction, these configurations remain
everywhere smooth and finite energy, and we find, for example,
Einstein-Maxwell-AdS solitons that are globally - Type I - or locally (but not
globally) - Type II - spinning. This backreaction is considered first
perturbatively, using analytical methods and then non-perturbatively, by
constructing numerical solutions of the fully non-linear Einstein-Maxwell-AdS
system. The variation of the energy and total angular momentum with the
boundary data is explicitly exhibited for one example of a spinning soliton.


title: On spaces with connected Higson coronas

abstract:
  In this paper, we characterise metric spaces which have topologically
connected Higson coronas. The characterisation is given by a natural
categorical condition applied in the coarse category. We also give a
characterisation in terms of coarse cohomology, and consider the special case
of finitely generated groups and the more general case of abstract coarse
spaces. Along the way, we exhibit some connections to the notion of
$\omega$-excisive decomposition introduced by Higson, Roe and Yu, and give a
categorical characterisation of such decompositions.


title: Lassoing saddle splay and the geometrical control of topological defects

abstract:
  Systems with holes, such as colloidal handlebodies and toroidal droplets,
have been studied in the nematic liquid crystal (NLC) 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl
(5CB): both point and ring topological defects can occur within each hole and
around the system, while conserving the system's overall topological charge.
However, what has not been fully appreciated is the ability to manipulate the
hole geometry with homeotropic (perpendicular) anchoring conditions to induce
complex, saddle-like deformations. We exploit this by creating an array of
holes suspended in an NLC cell with oriented planar (parallel) anchoring at the
cell boundaries. We study both 5CB and a binary mixture of bicyclohexane
derivatives (CCN-47 and CCN-55). Through simulations and experiments, we study
how the bulk saddle deformations of each hole interact to create novel defect
structures, including an array of disclination lines, reminiscent of those
found in liquid crystal blue phases. The line locations are tunable via the NLC
elastic constants, the cell geometry, and the size and spacing of holes in the
array. This research lays the groundwork for the control of complex elastic
deformations of varying length scales via geometrical cues in materials that
are renowned in the display industry for their stability and easy
manipulability.


title:
Structure and magnetic properties of {\it Ln}MnSbO ({\it Ln} = La and
  Ce) and CeMnAsO

abstract:
  Neutron powder diffraction (NPD) study of \textit{Ln}MnSbO (\textit{Ln }$=$
La or Ce) reveals differences between the magnetic ground state of the two
compounds due to the strong Ce-Mn coupling compared to La-Mn. The two compounds
adopt the \textit{P4/nmm} space group down to 2 K and whereas magnetization
measurements do not show obvious anomaly at high temperatures, NPD reveals a
C-type antiferromagnetic (AFM) order below $T_{\mathrm{N}} = 255 $ K for
LaMnSbO and 240 K for CeMnSbO. While the magnetic structure of LaMnSbO is
preserved to base temperature, a sharp transition at $T_{\mathrm{SR}} = 4.5 $K
is observed in CeMnSbO due to a spin-reorientation (SR) transition of the
Mn$^{\mathrm{2+}}$ magnetic moments from pointing along the $c$-axis to the
\textit{ab}-plane. The SR transition in CeMnSbO is accompanied by a
simultaneous long-range AFM ordering of the Ce moments which indicates that the
Mn SR transition is driven by the Ce-Mn coupling. The ordered moments are found
to be somewhat smaller than those expected for Mn$^{\mathrm{2+}}$ ($S = 5/2$)
in insulators, but large enough to suggest that these compounds belong to the
class of local-moment antiferromagnets. The lower $T_{\mathrm{N\thinspace }}$
found in these two compounds compared to the As-based counterparts
($T_{\mathrm{N}} = 317$ for LaMnAsO, $T_{\mathrm{N}} = 347$ K for CeMnAsO)
indicates that the Mn-$Pn$ ($Pn=$ As or Sb) hybridization that mediates the
superexchange Mn-$Pn$-Mn coupling is weaker for the Sb-based compounds.


title: Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Team Sports -- A Survey

abstract:
  Team-based invasion sports such as football, basketball and hockey are
similar in the sense that the players are able to move freely around the
playing area; and that player and team performance cannot be fully analysed
without considering the movements and interactions of all players as a group.
State of the art object tracking systems now produce spatio-temporal traces of
player trajectories with high definition and high frequency, and this, in turn,
has facilitated a variety of research efforts, across many disciplines, to
extract insight from the trajectories. We survey recent research efforts that
use spatio-temporal data from team sports as input, and involve non-trivial
computation. This article categorises the research efforts in a coherent
framework and identifies a number of open research questions.


title: Comparing Graphs of Different Sizes

abstract:
  We consider two notions describing how one finite graph may be larger than
another. Using them, we prove several theorems for such pairs that compare the
number of spanning trees, the return probabilities of random walks, and the
number of independent sets, among other combinatorial quantities. Our methods
involve inequalities for determinants, for traces of functions of operators,
and for entropy.


title: Arithmetic of singular character varieties and their $E$-polynomials

abstract:
  We calculate the $E$-polynomials of the $SL_3(\mathbb{C})$ and
$GL_3(\mathbb{C})$-character varieties of compact oriented surfaces of any
genus and the $E$-polynomials of the $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$ and
$GL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character varieties of compact non-orientable surfaces of
any Euler characteristic. Our methods also give a new and significantly simpler
computation of the $E$-polynomials of the $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character
varieties of compact orientable surfaces, which were computed by Logares,
Mu\~noz and Newstead for genus $g=1,2$ and by Martinez and Mu\~noz for $g \ge
3$. Our technique is based on the arithmetic of character varieties over finite
fields. More specifically, we show how to extend the approach of Hausel and
Rodriguez-Villegas used for non-singular (twisted) character varieties to the
singular (untwisted) case.


title:
Enhancing Bitcoin Security and Performance with Strong Consistency via
  Collective Signing

abstract:
  While showing great promise, Bitcoin requires users to wait tens of minutes
for transactions to commit, and even then, offering only probabilistic
guarantees. This paper introduces ByzCoin, a novel Byzantine consensus protocol
that leverages scalable collective signing to commit Bitcoin transactions
irreversibly within seconds. ByzCoin achieves Byzantine consensus while
preserving Bitcoin's open membership by dynamically forming hash
power-proportionate consensus groups that represent recently-successful block
miners. ByzCoin employs communication trees to optimize transaction commitment
and verification under normal operation while guaranteeing safety and liveness
under Byzantine faults, up to a near-optimal tolerance of f faulty group
members among 3f + 2 total. ByzCoin mitigates double spending and selfish
mining attacks by producing collectively signed transaction blocks within one
minute of transaction submission. Tree-structured communication further reduces
this latency to less than 30 seconds. Due to these optimizations, ByzCoin
achieves a throughput higher than PayPal currently handles, with a confirmation
latency of 15-20 seconds.


title: Optimal consumption and investment with liquid and illiquid assets

abstract:
  We consider an optimal consumption/investment problem to maximize expected
utility from consumption. In this market model, the investor is allowed to
choose a portfolio which consists of one bond, one liquid risky asset (no
transaction costs) and one illiquid risky asset (proportional transaction
costs). We fully characterize the optimal consumption and trading strategies in
terms of the solution of the free boundary ODE with an integral constraint. We
find an explicit characterization of model parameters for the well-posedness of
the problem, and show that the problem is well-posed if and only if there
exists a shadow price process. Finally, we describe how the investor's optimal
strategy is affected by the additional opportunity of trading the liquid risky
asset, compared to the simpler model with one bond and one illiquid risky
asset.


title:
On the effect of elastic nonlinearity on aquatic propulsion caused by
  propagating flexural waves

abstract:
  In the present paper, the initial theoretical results on wave-like aquatic
propulsion of marine craft by propagating flexural waves are reported. Recent
experimental investigations of small model boats propelled by propagating
flexural waves carried out by the present author and his co-workers
demonstrated viability of this type of propulsion as an alternative to a
well-known screw propeller. In the attempts of theoretical explanation of the
obtained experimental results using the theory of Lighthill for fish
locomotion, it was found that this theory predicts zero thrust for such model
boats, which is in contradiction with the results of the experiments. One
should note in this connection that the theory developed by Lighthill assumes
that the amplitudes of propulsive waves created by fish body motion grow from
zero on the front (at fish heads) to their maximum values at the tails. This is
consistent with fish body motion in nature, but is not compatible with the
behaviour of localised flexural waves used for propulsion in the experimental
model vessels. To overcome the problem of predicting zero thrust for the above
vessels, it is suggested in the present work that nonlinear distortion of
localised flexural waves may be responsible for generation of thrust. This
hypothesis is explored in the present work by adding nonlinear harmonics of
propulsive flexural waves to the formula derived by Lighthill for generated
thrust. For simplicity, only the lowest (third) harmonic growing linearly with
the distance of propagation was used. The resulting formula for the averaged
thrust shows that, due to the effect of the third harmonic, the thrust is no
longer zero, thereby demonstrating that nonlinear distortion of the propulsive
flexural waves may be paramount for the existence of wave-like aquatic
propulsion of small marine craft using freely propagating flexural waves.


title:
A search for Secluded Dark Matter in the Sun with the ANTARES neutrino
  telescope

abstract:
  A search for Secluded Dark Matter annihilation in the Sun using 2007-2012
data of the ANTARES neutrino telescope is presented. Three different cases are
considered: a) detection of dimuons that result from the decay of the mediator,
or neutrino detection from: b) mediator that decays into a dimuon and, in turn,
into neutrinos, and c) mediator that decays directly into neutrinos. As no
significant excess over background is observed, constraints are derived on the
dark matter mass and the lifetime of the mediator.


title:
Topological Phases in InAs$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$: From Novel Topological
  Semimetal to Majorana Wire

abstract:
  Superconductor proximitized one-dimensional semiconductor nanowires with
strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI) are at this time the most promising
candidates for the realization of topological quantum information processing.
In current experiments the SOI originates predominantly from extrinsic fields,
induced by finite size effects and applied gate voltages. The dependence of the
topological transition in these devices on microscopic details makes scaling to
a large number of devices difficult unless a material with dominant intrinsic
bulk SOI is used. Here we show that wires made of certain ordered alloys
InAs$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$ have spin-splittings up to 20 times larger than those
reached in pristine InSb wires. In particular, we show this for a stable
ordered CuPt-structure at $x = 0.5$, which has an inverted band ordering and
realizes a novel type of a topological semimetal with triple degeneracy points
in the bulk spectrum that produce topological surface Fermi arcs.
Experimentally achievable strains can drive this compound either into a
topological insulator phase, or restore the normal band ordering making the
CuPt-ordered InAs$_{0.5}$Sb$_{0.5}$ a semiconductor with a large intrinsic
linear in $k$ bulk spin splitting.


title:
Relations Between a Topological Game and the $G_{\delta}$-diagonal
  property

abstract:
  We present a selection principle $S_1(\mathcal{O},\mathcal{H})$ that
characterizes the $G_{\delta}$-diagonal property. We also present a topological
game induced by this selection principle and we study the relations between
this game and the $G_{\delta}$-property. Finally, we give some applications and
examples.


title: Hopf-algebraic Renormalization of QED in the linear covariant Gauge

abstract:
  In the context of massless quantum electrodynamics (QED) with a linear
covariant gauge fixing, the connection between the counterterm and the
Hopf-algebraic approach to renormalization is examined. The coproduct formula
of Green's functions contains two invariant charges, which give rise to
different renormalization group functions. All formulas are tested by explicit
computations to third loop order. The possibility of a finite electron
self-energy by fixing a generalized linear covariant gauge is discussed. An
analysis of subdivergences leads to the conclusion that such a gauge only
exists in quenched QED.


title: Hyperbolic Anderson Model with space-time homogeneous Gaussian noise

abstract:
  In this article, we study the stochastic wave equation in arbitrary spatial
dimension $d$, with a multiplicative term of the form $\sigma(u)=u$, also known
in the literature as the Hyperbolic Anderson Model. This equation is perturbed
by a general Gaussian noise, which is homogeneous in both space and time. We
prove the existence and uniqueness of a solution of this equation (in the
Skorohod sense) and the H\"older continuity of its sample paths, under the same
respective conditions on the spatial spectral measure of the noise as in the
case of the white noise in time, regardless of the temporal covariance function
of the noise.


title:
Insulating nature of strongly correlated massless Dirac fermions in an
  organic crystal

abstract:
  Through resistivity measurements of an organic crystal hosting massless Dirac
fermions with a charge-ordering instability, we reveal the effect of
interactions among Dirac fermions on the charge transport. A low-temperature
resistivity upturn appears robustly irrespectively of pressure and is enhanced
while approaching the critical pressure of charge ordering, indicating that the
insulating behavior originates from short-range Coulomb interactions.
Observation of apparently vanishing gap in the charge-ordered phase accords
with the theoretical prediction of the non-topological edge states.


title:
A (not so?) novel explanation for the very special initial state of the
  universe

abstract:
  We put forward a proposal that combines objective collapse models, developed
in connection with quantum-foundational questions, with the so-called Weyl
curvature hypothesis, introduced by Roger Penrose as an attempt to account for
the very special initial state of the universe. In particular, we explain how a
curvature dependence of the collapse rate in such models, an idea already shown
to help in the context of black holes and information loss, could also offer a
dynamical justification for Penrose's conjecture.


title:
Distributional Behaviors of Time-averaged Observables in Langevin
  Equation with Fluctuating Diffusivity: Normal Diffusion but Anomalous
  Fluctuations

abstract:
  We consider Langevin equation with dichotomously fluctuating diffusivity,
where the diffusion coefficient changes dichotomously in time, in order to
study fluctuations of time-averaged observables in temporary heterogeneous
diffusion process. We find that occupation time statistics is a powerful tool
for calculating the time-averaged mean square displacement in the model. We
show that the time-averaged diffusion coefficients are intrinsically random
when the mean sojourn time for one of the states diverges. Our model provides
anomalous fluctuations of time-averaged diffusivity, which have relevance to
large fluctuations of the diffusion coefficient in single-particle-tracking
experiments.


title: Synthesis of fast multiplication algorithms for arbitrary tensors

abstract:
  A method of fast linear transform algorithm synthesis for an arbitrary
tensor, matrix, or vector is proposed. The method is based on factorization of
a tensor and using the factors for building computational structures performing
fast tensor - vector multiplication on a computer or dedicated hardware
platform.


title:
Data-Driven Real-Time Power Dispatch for Maximizing Variable Renewable
  Generation

abstract:
  Traditional power dispatch methods have difficulties in accommodating
large-scale variable renewable generation (VRG) and have resulted in
unnecessary VRG spillage in the practical industry. The recent
dispatchable-interval-based methods have the potential to reduce VRG
curtailment, but the dispatchable intervals are not allocated effectively due
to the lack of exploiting historical dispatch records of VRG units. To bridge
this gap, this paper proposes a novel data-driven real-time dispatch approach
to maximize VRG utili-zation by using do-not-exceed (DNE) limits. This approach
defines the maximum generation output ranges that the system can ac-commodate
without compromising reliability. The DNE limits of VRG units and operating
base points of conventional units are co-optimized by hybrid stochastic and
robust optimization, and the decision models are formulated as mixed-integer
linear programs by the sample average approximation technique exploiting
historical VRG data. A strategy for selecting historical data samples is also
proposed to capture the VRG uncertainty more accurately under variant
prediction output levels. Computational experiments show the effectiveness of
the proposed methods.


title:
Dirichlet approximation of equilibrium distributions in Cannings models
  with mutation

abstract:
  Consider a haploid population of fixed finite size with a finite number of
allele types and having Cannings exchangeable genealogy with neutral mutation.
The stationary distribution of the Markov chain of allele counts in each
generation is an important quantity in population genetics but has no tractable
description in general. We provide upper bounds on the distributional distance
between the Dirichlet distribution and this finite population stationary
distribution for the Wright-Fisher genealogy with general mutation structure
and the Cannings exchangeable genealogy with parent independent mutation
structure. In the first case, the bound is small if the population is large and
the mutations do not depend too much on parent type; "too much" is naturally
quantified by our bound. In the second case, the bound is small if the
population is large and the chance of three-mergers in the Cannings genealogy
is small relative to the chance of two-mergers; this is the same condition to
ensure convergence of the genealogy to Kingman's coalescent. These results
follow from a new development of Stein's method for the Dirichlet distribution
based on Barbour's generator approach and a probabilistic description of the
semigroup of the Wright-Fisher diffusion due to Griffiths, and Li and Tavar\'e.