title:
Minimizing Expected Cost Under Hard Boolean Constraints, with
  Applications to Quantitative Synthesis

abstract:
  In Boolean synthesis, we are given an LTL specification, and the goal is to
construct a transducer that realizes it against an adversarial environment.
Often, a specification contains both Boolean requirements that should be
satisfied against an adversarial environment, and multi-valued components that
refer to the quality of the satisfaction and whose expected cost we would like
to minimize with respect to a probabilistic environment.
  In this work we study, for the first time, mean-payoff games in which the
system aims at minimizing the expected cost against a probabilistic
environment, while surely satisfying an $\omega$-regular condition against an
adversarial environment. We consider the case the $\omega$-regular condition is
given as a parity objective or by an LTL formula. We show that in general,
optimal strategies need not exist, and moreover, the limit value cannot be
approximated by finite-memory strategies. We thus focus on computing the
limit-value, and give tight complexity bounds for synthesizing
$\epsilon$-optimal strategies for both finite-memory and infinite-memory
strategies.
  We show that our game naturally arises in various contexts of synthesis with
Boolean and multi-valued objectives. Beyond direct applications, in synthesis
with costs and rewards to certain behaviors, it allows us to compute the
minimal sensing cost of $\omega$-regular specifications -- a measure of quality
in which we look for a transducer that minimizes the expected number of signals
that are read from the input.


title:
Bergman-Einstein metrics, hyperbolic metrics and Stein spaces with
  spherical boundaries

abstract:
  In this new version, we give an affirmative solution to a conjecture of Cheng
proposed in 1979 which asserts that the Bergman metric of a smoothly bounded
strongly pseudoconvex domain in $\mathbb{C}^n, n\geq 2,$ is K\"ahler-Einstein
if and only if the domain is biholomorphic to the ball. We establish versions
of various classical theorems that are used in the solution for Stein spaces.
Among other things, we construct a hyperbolic metric over a Stein space with
spherical boundary. We also prove the Q. K. Lu type uniformization theorem for
Stein spaces with isolated normal singularities.


title:
Realizations of abstract regular polytopes from a representation
  theoretic view

abstract:
  Peter McMullen has developed a theory of realizations of abstract regular
polytopes, and has shown that the realizations up to congruence form a pointed
convex cone which is the direct product of certain irreducible subcones. We
show that each of these subcones is isomorphic to a set of positive
semi-definite hermitian matrices of dimension $m$ over either the real numbers,
the complex numbers or the quaternions. In particular, we correct an erroneous
computation of the dimension of these subcones by McMullen and Monson. We show
that the automorphism group of an abstract regular polytope can have an
irreducible character $\chi$ with $\chi\neq \overline{\chi}$ and with
arbitrarily large essential Wythoff dimension. This gives counterexamples to a
result of Herman and Monson, which was derived from the erroneous computation
mentioned before.
  We also discuss a relation between cosine vectors of certain pure
realizations and the spherical functions appearing in the theory of Gelfand
pairs.


title: Spectroscopy of phonons in dirty superconducting contacts

abstract:
  The nonlinearities of current-voltage characteristics (IVC) of
superconducting niobium point contacts for voltages of the order of the
characteristic phonon frequencies are investigated. It is shown that in
limiting by dirty contacts ${{l}_{1}}\ll d$ , (${{l}_{1}}$ is the momentum
mean-free path of electrons), features are observed on the IVC corresponding to
maxima in the first or second derivatives and are situated at energies close to
the characteristic phonon energies. These features are due to the energy
dependence of the excess current, since the nonlinearity of the IVC in the
normal state is several times smaller in absolute magnitude, and its second
derivative is monotonic. For a contact diameter $d$ of the order of several
tens of angstroms (the contact resistance is of the order of 100 $\Omega $),
the thermal effects can be neglected. It is assumed that in the region of the
constriction, the characteristic lengths of the system satisfy the relation
$\xi \gtrsim d>{{\Lambda }_{\varepsilon }}$ (${{\Lambda }_{\varepsilon }}$ is
the diffusion length for energy relaxation of the electrons, $\xi$ is the
coherence length) which makes possible inelastic transitions of electrons
between pair chemical potentials differing in energy by an account $eV$ ($V$ is
the voltage drop across the contact)


title:
Handshake electron transfer from hydrogen Rydberg atoms incident at a
  series of metallic thin films

abstract:
  Thin metallic films have a 1D quantum well along the surface normal
direction, which yields particle-in-a-box style electronic quantum states.
However the quantum well is not infinitely deep and the wavefunctions of these
states penetrate outside the surface where the electron is bound by its own
image-charge attraction. Therefore a series of discrete, vacant states reach
out from the thin film into the vacuum increasing the probability of electron
transfer from an external atom or molecule to the thin film, especially for the
resonant case where the quantum well energy matches that of the Rydberg atom.
  We show that `handshake' electron transfer from a highly excited Rydberg atom
to these thin-film states is experimentally measurable. Thicker films, have a
wider 1D box, changing the energetic distribution and image-state contribution
to the thin film wavefunctions, resulting in more resonances. Calculations
successfully predict the number of resonances and the nature of the thin-film
wavefunctions for a given film thickness.


title: Renormalization and Siegel disks for complex H\'enon maps

abstract:
  We use hyperbolicity of golden-mean renormalization of dissipative
H\'enon-like maps to prove that the boundaries of Siegel disks of sufficiently
dissipative quadratic complex H\'enon maps with golden-mean rotation number are
topological circles.
  Conditionally on an appropriate renormalization hyperbolicity property, we
derive the same result for Siegel disks of H\'enon maps with all eventually
periodic rotation numbers.


title: Stochastic Variance-Reduced ADMM

abstract:
  The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is a powerful
optimization solver in machine learning. Recently, stochastic ADMM has been
integrated with variance reduction methods for stochastic gradient, leading to
SAG-ADMM and SDCA-ADMM that have fast convergence rates and low iteration
complexities. However, their space requirements can still be high. In this
paper, we propose an integration of ADMM with the method of stochastic variance
reduced gradient (SVRG). Unlike another recent integration attempt called
SCAS-ADMM, the proposed algorithm retains the fast convergence benefits of
SAG-ADMM and SDCA-ADMM, but is more advantageous in that its storage
requirement is very low, even independent of the sample size $n$. We also
extend the proposed method for nonconvex problems, and obtain a convergence
rate of $O(1/T)$. Experimental results demonstrate that it is as fast as
SAG-ADMM and SDCA-ADMM, much faster than SCAS-ADMM, and can be used on much
bigger data sets.


title:
Violation of the action-reaction principle in an asymmetrically excited
  system

abstract:
  Violation of the action-reaction principle is shown to occur in the van der
Waals interaction between two atoms, one of which is excited. It is accompanied
by the transfer of linear momentum to the electromagnetic vacuum. The vacuum
momentum results from the asymmetric interference of the virtual photons
scattered off each atom along the interatomic direction, which is in itself a
manifestation of the optical theorem. This momentum, of equal strength and
opposite direction to the momentum gained by the two-atom system, is ultimately
released through directional spontaneous emission. A quantitative prediction of
this phenomenon is made in a two-alkali atom system. It is conjectured that
action-reaction violation takes place in any asymmetrically excited system.


title: Integrable nonlinear parity-time symmetric optical oscillator

abstract:
  The nonlinear dynamics of a balanced parity-time symmetric optical microring
arrangement are analytically investigated. By considering gain and loss
saturation effects, the pertinent conservation laws are explicitly obtained in
the Stokes domain-thus establishing integrability. Our analysis indicates the
existence of two regimes of oscillatory dynamics and frequency locking, both of
which are analogous to those expected in linear parity-time symmetric systems.
Unlike other saturable parity time symmetric systems considered before, the
model studied in this work first operates in the symmetric regime and then
enters the broken parity-time phase.


title:
Evidence of the Relationship between the Emerging Magnetic Fields,
  Electric Currents, and Solar Flares Observed on May 10, 2012

abstract:
  We have analyzed multi-wavelength observations and magnetic-field data for
the solar flare of May 10, 2012 (04:18 UT) and have detected a sign inversion
of the signal in the line-of-sight magnetic measurements in the umbra of a
small spot. This effect is associated, at least partly, with the emergence of a
new magnetic field. Almost at the same time, a burst of hard X-rays was
recorded, and a wave in the vacuum ultraviolet (EUV) range (a "sunquake") was
generated due to the impact of the disturbance in the energy release range on
the photosphere. At the beginning of the event, a sigmoid flare was recorded,
but it did not spread, as it usually does, along the polarity inversion
(neutral) line. SDO/HMI full-vector measurements were used to extrapolate the
AR 11476 magnetic field to the corona, and the distribution of vertical
currents $j_z$ in the photosphere was obtained. The distribution of currents in
the active region shows that the relationship between them and the occurrence
of flares is very intricate. We have corroborated that the expected "ideal"
behavior of the current system before and after the flare (e.g., see (Sharykin
and Kosovichev, 2015)) is observed only in the sigmoid region. The results
obtained were compared with the observations of two other flares recorded in
this AR on the same day, one of which was similar to the flare under discussion
and the other was of different type. Our results confirm that the formation and
eruption of large-scale magnetic flux ropes in sigmoid flares are associated
with the shear motions in the photosphere and the emergence of twisted magnetic
tubes, as well as with the subsequent development of the torus instability.


title:
Key courses of academic curriculum uncovered by data mining of students'
  grades

abstract:
  Learning is a complex cognitive process that depends not only on an
individual capability of knowledge absorption but it can be also influenced by
various group interactions and by the structure of an academic curriculum. We
have applied methods of statistical analyses and data mining (Principal
Component Analysis and Maximal Spanning Tree) for anonymized students' scores
at Faculty of Physics, Warsaw University of Technology. A slight negative
linear correlation exists between mean and variance of course grades, i.e.
courses with higher mean scores tend to possess a lower scores variance.
  There are courses playing a central role, e.g. their scores are highly
correlated to other scores and they are in the centre of corresponding Maximal
Spanning Trees. Other courses contribute significantly to students' score
variance as well to the first principal component and they are responsible for
differentiation of students' scores. Correlations of the first principal
component to courses' mean scores and scores variance suggest that this
component can be used for assigning ECTS points to a given course. The analyse
is independent from declared curricula of considered courses. The proposed
methodology is universal and can be applied for analysis of student's scores
and academic curriculum at any faculty.


title:
Algebraic Properties of Generalized Graph Laplacians: Resistor Networks,
  Critical Groups, and Homological Algebra

abstract:
  We propose an algebraic framework for generalized graph Laplacians which
unifies the study of resistor networks, the critical group, and the eigenvalues
of the Laplacian and adjacency matrices. Given a graph with boundary $G$
together with a generalized Laplacian $L$ with entries in a commutative ring
$R$, we define a generalized critical group $\Upsilon_R(G,L)$. We relate
$\Upsilon_R(G,L)$ to spaces of harmonic functions on the network using the Hom,
Tor, and Ext functors of homological algebra.
  We study how these algebraic objects transform under combinatorial operations
on the network $(G,L)$, including harmonic morphisms, layer-stripping, duality,
and symmetry. In particular, we use layer-stripping operations from the theory
of resistor networks to systematize discrete harmonic continuation. This leads
to an algebraic characterization of the graphs with boundary that can be
completely layer-stripped, an algorithm for simplifying computation of
$\Upsilon_R(G,L)$, and upper bounds for the number of invariant factors in the
critical group and the multiplicity of Laplacian eigenvalues in terms of
geometric quantities.


title: Smart Shires: The Revenge of Countrysides (Extended Version)

abstract:
  This paper discusses the need to devise novel strategies to create smart
services specifically designed to non-metropolitan areas, i.e. countrysides.
These solutions must be viable, cheap an should take into consideration the
different nature of countrysides, that cannot afford the deployment of services
designed for smart cities. These solutions would have an important social
impact for people leaving in these countrysides, and might slow down the
constant migration of citizens towards metropolis. In this work, we focus on
communication technologies and practical technological/software distributed
architectures. An important aspect for the real deployment of these smart
shires is their simulation. We show that priority-based broadcast schemes over
ad-hoc networks can represent an effective communication substrate to be used
in a software middleware promoting the creation of applications for smart shire
scenarios.


title: Electronic Instability and Anharmonicity in SnSe

abstract:
  The binary compound SnSe exhibits record high thermoelectric performance,
largely because of its very low thermal conductivity. The origin of the strong
phonon anharmonicity leading to the low thermal conductivity of SnSe is
investigated through first-principles calculations of the electronic structure
and phonons. It is shown that a Jahn-Teller instability of the electronic
structure is responsible for the high-temperature lattice distortion between
the Cmcm and Pnma phases. The coupling of phonon modes and the phase transition
mechanism are elucidated, emphasizing the connection with hybrid improper
ferroelectrics. This coupled instability of electronic orbitals and lattice
dynamics is the origin of the strong anharmonicity causing the ultralow thermal
conductivity in SnSe. Exploiting such bonding instabilities to generate strong
anharmonicity may provide a new rational to design efficient thermoelectric
materials.


title:
Unsupervised Representation Learning of Structured Radio Communication
  Signals

abstract:
  We explore unsupervised representation learning of radio communication
signals in raw sampled time series representation. We demonstrate that we can
learn modulation basis functions using convolutional autoencoders and visually
recognize their relationship to the analytic bases used in digital
communications. We also propose and evaluate quantitative met- rics for quality
of encoding using domain relevant performance metrics.


title:
Measuring Chern numbers above the Fermi level in the Type II Weyl
  semimetal Mo$_x$W$_{1-x}$Te$_2$

abstract:
  It has recently been proposed that electronic band structures in crystals
give rise to a previously overlooked type of Weyl fermion, which violates
Lorentz invariance and, consequently, is forbidden in particle physics. It was
further predicted that Mo$_x$W$_{1-x}$Te$_2$ may realize such a Type II Weyl
fermion. One crucial challenge is that the Weyl points in Mo$_x$W$_{1-x}$Te$_2$
are predicted to lie above the Fermi level. Here, by studying a simple model
for a Type II Weyl cone, we clarify the importance of accessing the unoccupied
band structure to demonstrate that Mo$_x$W$_{1-x}$Te$_2$ is a Weyl semimetal.
Then, we use pump-probe angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (pump-probe
ARPES) to directly observe the unoccupied band structure of
Mo$_x$W$_{1-x}$Te$_2$. For the first time, we directly access states $> 0.2$ eV
above the Fermi level. By comparing our results with $\textit{ab initio}$
calculations, we conclude that we directly observe the surface state containing
the topological Fermi arc. Our work opens the way to studying the unoccupied
band structure as well as the time-domain relaxation dynamics of
Mo$_x$W$_{1-x}$Te$_2$ and related transition metal dichalcogenides.


title: The Power Inverse Lindley Distribution

abstract:
  Several probability distributions have been proposed in the literature,
especially with the aim of obtaining models that are more flexible relative to
the behaviors of the density and hazard rate functions. Recently, a new
generalization of the Lindley distribution was proposed by Ghitany et al.
(2013), called power Lindley distribution. Another generaliza- tion was
proposed by Sharma et al. (2015), known as inverse Lindley distribution. In
this paper, a new distribution is proposed, which is obtained from these two
generalizations and named power inverse Lindley distribution. Some properties
of this new distribution and study of the behavior of maximum likelihood
estimators are presented and discussed. It is also applied considering real
data and compared with the fits obtained for already- known distributions. When
applied, the power inverse Lindley distribution was found to be a good
alternative for modeling survival data.


title: Optomechanical Multi-Mode Hamiltonian for Nanophotonic Waveguides

abstract:
  We develop a systematic method for deriving a quantum optical multi-mode
Hamiltonian for the interaction of photons and phonons in nanophotonic
dielectric materials by applying perturbation theory to the electromagnetic
Hamiltonian. The Hamiltonian covers radiation pressure and electrostrictive
interactions on equal footing. As a paradigmatic example, we apply our method
to a cylindrical nanoscale waveguide, and derive a Hamiltonian description of
Brillouin quantum optomechanics. We show analytically that in nanoscale
waveguides radiation pressure dominates over electrostriction, in agreement
with recent experiments. The calculated photon-phonon coupling parameters are
used to infer gain parameters of Stokes Brillouin scattering in good agreement
with experimental observations.


title:
Conduction electrons in acceptor-doped GaAs/GaAlAs heterostructures: a
  review

abstract:
  We review magneto-optical and magneto-transport effects in GaAs/GaAlAs
heterostructures doped in GaAlAs barriers with donors, providing
two-dimensional electron gas in GaAs quantum wells, and additionally doped with
smaller amounts of acceptors (mostly Be atoms) in the vicinity of 2DEG. One may
also deal with residual acceptors (mostly C atoms). The behavior of such
systems in the presence of a magnetic field differs appreciably from those
doped in the vicinity of 2DEG with donors.


title:
On the characterization of minimal surfaces with finite total curvature
  in $\mathbb H^2\times\mathbb R$ and $\widetilde{\rm PSL}_2(\mathbb{R},\tau)$

abstract:
  It is known that a complete immersed minimal surface with finite total
curvature in $\mathbb H^2\times\mathbb R$ is proper, has finite topology and
each one of its ends is asymptotic to a geodesic polygon at infinity (Hauswirth
and Rosenberg, 2006; Hauswirth, Nelli, Sa Earp and Toubiana, 2015). In this
paper we prove that these three properties characterize complete immersed
minimal surfaces with finite total curvature in $\mathbb H^2\times\mathbb R$.
As corollaries of this theorem we obtain characterizations for minimal
Scherk-type graphs and horizontal catenoids in $\mathbb H^2\times\mathbb R$. We
also prove that if a properly immersed minimal surface in $\widetilde{\rm
PSL}_2(\mathbb{R},\tau)$ has finite topology and each one of its ends is
asymptotic to a geodesic polygon at infinity, then it must have finite total
curvature.


title: Voronoi Choice Games

abstract:
  We study novel variations of Voronoi games and associated random processes
that we call Voronoi choice games. These games provide a rich framework for
studying questions regarding the power of small numbers of choices in
multi-player, competitive scenarios, and they further lead to many interesting,
non-trivial random processes that appear worthy of study.
  As an example of the type of problem we study, suppose a group of $n$ miners
are staking land claims through the following process: each miner has $m$
associated points independently and uniformly distributed on an underlying
space, so the $k$th miner will have associated points
$p_{k1},p_{k2},\ldots,p_{km}$. Each miner chooses one of these points as the
base point for their claim. Each miner obtains mining rights for the area of
the square that is closest to their chosen base, that is, they obtain the
Voronoi cell corresponding to their chosen point in the Voronoi diagram of the
$n$ chosen points. Each player's goal is simply to maximize the amount of land
under their control. What can we say about the players' strategy and the
equilibria of such games?
  In our main result, we derive bounds on the expected number of pure Nash
equilibria for a variation of the 1-dimensional game on the circle where a
player owns the arc starting from their point and moving clockwise to the next
point. This result uses interesting properties of random arc lengths on
circles, and demonstrates the challenges in analyzing these kinds of problems.
We also provide several other related results. In particular, for the
1-dimensional game on the circle, we show that a pure Nash equilibrium always
exists when each player owns the part of the circle nearest to their point, but
it is NP-hard to determine whether a pure Nash equilibrium exists in the
variant when each player owns the arc starting from their point clockwise to
the next point.


title: The Light Composite Higgs in Strong Extended Technicolor

abstract:
  This paper extends an earlier one describing the Higgs boson $H$ as a light
composite scalar in a strong extended technicolor model of electroweak symmetry
breaking. The Higgs mass $M_H$ is made much smaller than $\Lambda_{ETC}$ by
tuning the ETC coupling very close to the critical value for electroweak
symmetry breaking. The technicolor interaction, neglected in the earlier paper,
is considered here. Its weakness relative to extended technicolor is essential
to understanding the lightness of $H$ compared to the low-lying spin-one
technihadrons. Technicolor cannot be completely ignored, but implementing
technigluon exchange together with strong extended technicolor appears
difficult. We propose a solution that turns out to leave the results of the
earlier paper essentially unchanged. An argument is then presented that masses
of the spin-one technifermion bound states, $\rho_H$ and $a_H$, are much larger
than $M_H$ and, plausibly, controlled by technicolor. Assuming $M_{\rho_H}$ and
$M_{a_H}$ are in the TeV-energy region, we identify $\rho_H$ and $a_H$ with the
diboson excesses observed near $2\,{\rm TeV}$ by ATLAS and CMS in LHC Run 1
data, and we discuss their phenomenology for Runs 2 and 3.


title:
A Fundamental Tradeoff between Computation and Communication in
  Distributed Computing

abstract:
  How can we optimally trade extra computing power to reduce the communication
load in distributed computing? We answer this question by characterizing a
fundamental tradeoff between computation and communication in distributed
computing, i.e., the two are inversely proportional to each other.
  More specifically, a general distributed computing framework, motivated by
commonly used structures like MapReduce, is considered, where the overall
computation is decomposed into computing a set of "Map" and "Reduce" functions
distributedly across multiple computing nodes. A coded scheme, named "Coded
Distributed Computing" (CDC), is proposed to demonstrate that increasing the
computation load of the Map functions by a factor of $r$ (i.e., evaluating each
function at $r$ carefully chosen nodes) can create novel coding opportunities
that reduce the communication load by the same factor.
  An information-theoretic lower bound on the communication load is also
provided, which matches the communication load achieved by the CDC scheme. As a
result, the optimal computation-communication tradeoff in distributed computing
is exactly characterized.
  Finally, the coding techniques of CDC is applied to the Hadoop TeraSort
benchmark to develop a novel CodedTeraSort algorithm, which is empirically
demonstrated to speed up the overall job execution by $1.97\times$ -
$3.39\times$, for typical settings of interest.


title:
Optimal Estimation of Slope Vector in High-dimensional Linear
  Transformation Model

abstract:
  In a linear transformation model, there exists an unknown monotone nonlinear
transformation function such that the transformed response variable and the
predictor variables satisfy a linear regression model. In this paper, we
present CENet, a new method for estimating the slope vector and simultaneously
performing variable selection in the high-dimensional sparse linear
transformation model. CENet is the solution to a convex optimization problem
and can be computed efficiently from an algorithm with guaranteed convergence
to the global optimum. We show that under a pairwise elliptical distribution
assumption on each predictor-transformed-response pair and some regularity
conditions, CENet attains the same optimal rate of convergence as the best
regression method in the high-dimensional sparse linear regression model. To
the best of our limited knowledge, this is the first such result in the
literature. We demonstrate the empirical performance of CENet on both simulated
and real datasets. We also discuss the connection of CENet with some nonlinear
regression/multivariate methods proposed in the literature.


title:
Effect of User Mobility on the Performance of Device-to-Device Networks
  with Distributed Caching

abstract:
  We consider a distributed caching device-to-device (D2D) network in which a
user's file of interest is cached as several portions in the storage of other
devices in the network. Assuming that the user needs to obtain all these file
portions, the portions cached farther away naturally become the performance
bottleneck. This is due to the fact that dominant interferers may be closer to
the receiver than the serving device. Using a simple stochastic geometry model,
we concretely demonstrate that this bottleneck can be loosened if the users are
mobile. Gains obtained from mobility are quantified in terms of coverage
probability.


title:
An explicit generating function arising in counting binomial
  coefficients divisible by powers of primes

abstract:
  For a prime $p$ and nonnegative integers $j$ and $n$ let $\vartheta_p(j,n)$
be the number of entries in the $n$-th row of Pascal's triangle that are
exactly divisible by $p^j$. Moreover, for a finite sequence $w=(w_{r-1}\cdots
w_0)\neq (0,\ldots,0)$ in $\{0,\ldots,p-1\}$ we denote by $\lvert n\rvert_w$
the number of times that $w$ appears as a factor (contiguous subsequence) of
the base-$p$ expansion $n=(n_{\mu-1}\cdots n_0)_p$ of $n$. It follows from the
work of Barat and Grabner (Digital functions and distribution of binomial
coefficients, J. London Math. Soc. (2) 64(3), 2001), that
$\vartheta_p(j,n)/\vartheta_p(0,n)$ is given by a polynomial $P_j$ in the
variables $X_w$, where $w$ are certain finite words in $\{0,\ldots,p-1\}$, and
each variable $X_w$ is set to $\lvert n\rvert_w$. This was later made explicit
by Rowland (The number of nonzero binomial coefficients modulo $p^\alpha$, J.
Comb. Number Theory 3(1), 2011), independently from Barat and Grabner's work,
and Rowland described and implemented an algorithm computing these polynomials
$P_j$. In this paper, we express the coefficients of $P_j$ using generating
functions, and we prove that these generating functions can be determined
explicitly by means of a recurrence relation. Moreover, we prove that $P_j$ is
uniquely determined, and we note that the proof of our main theorem also
provides a new proof of its existence. Besides providing insight into the
structure of the polynomials $P_j$, our results allow us to compute them in a
very efficient way.


title:
A Review of Co-saliency Detection Technique: Fundamentals, Applications,
  and Challenges

abstract:
  Co-saliency detection is a newly emerging and rapidly growing research area
in computer vision community. As a novel branch of visual saliency, co-saliency
detection refers to the discovery of common and salient foregrounds from two or
more relevant images, and can be widely used in many computer vision tasks. The
existing co-saliency detection algorithms mainly consist of three components:
extracting effective features to represent the image regions, exploring the
informative cues or factors to characterize co-saliency, and designing
effective computational frameworks to formulate co-saliency. Although numerous
methods have been developed, the literature is still lacking a deep review and
evaluation of co-saliency detection techniques. In this paper, we aim at
providing a comprehensive review of the fundamentals, challenges, and
applications of co-saliency detection. Specifically, we provide an overview of
some related computer vision works, review the history of co-saliency
detection, summarize and categorize the major algorithms in this research area,
discuss some open issues in this area, present the potential applications of
co-saliency detection, and finally point out some unsolved challenges and
promising future works. We expect this review to be beneficial to both fresh
and senior researchers in this field, and give insights to researchers in other
related areas regarding the utility of co-saliency detection algorithms.


title:
Microresonator Brillouin Laser Stabilization Using a Microfabricated
  Rubidium Cell

abstract:
  We frequency stabilize the output of a miniature stimulated Brillouin
scattering (SBS) laser to rubidium atoms in a microfabricated cell to realize a
laser system with frequency stability at the $10^{-11}$ level over seven
decades in averaging time. In addition, our system has the advantages of
robustness, low cost and the potential for integration that would lead to still
further miniaturization. The SBS laser operating at 1560 nm exhibits a spectral
linewidth of 820 Hz, but its frequency drifts over a few MHz on the 1 hour
timescale. By locking the second harmonic of the SBS laser to the Rb reference,
we reduce this drift by a factor of $10^3$ to the level of a few kHz over the
course of an hour. For our combined SBS and Rb laser system, we measure a
frequency noise of $4\times10^4$ $Hz^2/Hz$ at 10 Hz offset frequency which
rapidly rolls off to a level of 0.2 $Hz^2/Hz$ at 100 kHz offset. The
corresponding Allan deviation is $\leq2\times10^{-11}$ for averaging times
spanning $10^{-4}$ to $10^3$ s. By optically dividing the signal of the laser
down to microwave frequencies, we generate an RF signal at 2 GHz with phase
noise at the level of -76 dBc/Hz and -140 dBc/Hz at offset frequencies of 10 Hz
and 10 kHz, respectively.


title: Variations in the fine structure constant constraining gravity theories

abstract:
  In this paper, we investigate how the fine structure constant, $\alpha$,
locally varies in the presence of a static and spherically symmetric
gravitational source. The procedure consists in calculating the solution and
the energy eigenvalues of a massive scalar field around that source,
considering the weak-field regimen. From this result, we obtain expressions for
an spatially variable fine structure constant by considering suitable
modifications in the involved parameters admitting some scenarios of
semi-classical and quantum gravities. Constraints on free parameters of the
approached theories are calculated from astrophysical observations of the
emission spectra of a white dwarf. Such constraints are finally compared with
those ones obtained in the literature.


title: Semi-supervised Vocabulary-informed Learning

abstract:
  Despite significant progress in object categorization, in recent years, a
number of important challenges remain, mainly, ability to learn from limited
labeled data and ability to recognize object classes within large, potentially
open, set of labels. Zero-shot learning is one way of addressing these
challenges, but it has only been shown to work with limited sized class
vocabularies and typically requires separation between supervised and
unsupervised classes, allowing former to inform the latter but not vice versa.
We propose the notion of semi-supervised vocabulary-informed learning to
alleviate the above mentioned challenges and address problems of supervised,
zero-shot and open set recognition using a unified framework. Specifically, we
propose a maximum margin framework for semantic manifold-based recognition that
incorporates distance constraints from (both supervised and unsupervised)
vocabulary atoms, ensuring that labeled samples are projected closest to their
correct prototypes, in the embedding space, than to others. We show that
resulting model shows improvements in supervised, zero-shot, and large open set
recognition, with up to 310K class vocabulary on AwA and ImageNet datasets.


title:
Optimal k-Leader Selection for Coherence and Convergence Rate in
  One-Dimensional Networks

abstract:
  We study the problem of optimal leader selection in consensus networks under
two performance measures (1) formation coherence when subject to additive
perturbations, as quantified by the steady-state variance of the deviation from
the desired trajectory, and (2) convergence rate to a consensus value. The
objective is to identify the set of $k$ leaders that optimizes the chosen
performance measure. In both cases, an optimal leader set can be found by an
exhaustive search over all possible leader sets; however, this approach is not
scalable to large networks. In recent years, several works have proposed
approximation algorithms to the $k$-leader selection problem, yet the question
of whether there exists an efficient, non-combinatorial method to identify the
optimal leader set remains open. This work takes a first step towards answering
this question. We show that, in one-dimensional weighted graphs, namely path
graphs and ring graphs, the $k$-leader selection problem can be solved in
polynomial time (in both $k$ and the network size $n$). We give an $O(n^3)$
solution for optimal $k$-leader selection in path graphs and an $O(kn^3)$
solution for optimal $k$-leader selection in ring graphs.


title:
Deep Learning for Reward Design to Improve Monte Carlo Tree Search in
  ATARI Games

abstract:
  Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) methods have proven powerful in planning for
sequential decision-making problems such as Go and video games, but their
performance can be poor when the planning depth and sampling trajectories are
limited or when the rewards are sparse. We present an adaptation of PGRD
(policy-gradient for reward-design) for learning a reward-bonus function to
improve UCT (a MCTS algorithm). Unlike previous applications of PGRD in which
the space of reward-bonus functions was limited to linear functions of
hand-coded state-action-features, we use PGRD with a multi-layer convolutional
neural network to automatically learn features from raw perception as well as
to adapt the non-linear reward-bonus function parameters. We also adopt a
variance-reducing gradient method to improve PGRD's performance. The new method
improves UCT's performance on multiple ATARI games compared to UCT without the
reward bonus. Combining PGRD and Deep Learning in this way should make adapting
rewards for MCTS algorithms far more widely and practically applicable than
before.


title: Understanding Illicit Drug Use Behaviors by Mining Social Media

abstract:
  Drug use by people is on the rise and is of great interest to public health
agencies and law enforcement agencies. As found by the National Survey on Drug
Use and Health, 20 million Americans aged 12 years or older consumed illicit
drugs in the past few 30 days. Given their ubiquity in everyday life, drug
abuse related studies have received much and constant attention. However, most
of the existing studies rely on surveys. Surveys present a fair number of
problems because of their nature. Surveys on sensitive topics such as illicit
drug use may not be answered truthfully by the people taking them. Selecting a
representative sample to survey is another major challenge. In this paper, we
explore the possibility of using big data from social media in order to
understand illicit drug use behaviors. Instagram posts are collected using drug
related terms by analyzing the hashtags supplied with each post. A large and
dynamic dictionary of frequent illicit drug related slang is used to find these
posts. These posts are studied to find common drug consumption behaviors with
regard to time of day and week. Furthermore, by studying the accounts followed
by the users of drug related posts, we hope to discover common interests shared
by drug users.


title: Neurohex: A Deep Q-learning Hex Agent

abstract:
  DeepMind's recent spectacular success in using deep convolutional neural nets
and machine learning to build superhuman level agents --- e.g. for Atari games
via deep Q-learning and for the game of Go via Reinforcement Learning ---
raises many questions, including to what extent these methods will succeed in
other domains. In this paper we consider DQL for the game of Hex: after
supervised initialization, we use selfplay to train NeuroHex, an 11-layer CNN
that plays Hex on the 13x13 board. Hex is the classic two-player alternate-turn
stone placement game played on a rhombus of hexagonal cells in which the winner
is whomever connects their two opposing sides. Despite the large action and
state space, our system trains a Q-network capable of strong play with no
search. After two weeks of Q-learning, NeuroHex achieves win-rates of 20.4% as
first player and 2.1% as second player against a 1-second/move version of
MoHex, the current ICGA Olympiad Hex champion. Our data suggests further
improvement might be possible with more training time.


title:
WavmatND: A MATLAB Package for Non-Decimated Wavelet Transform and its
  Applications

abstract:
  A non-decimated wavelet transform (NDWT) is a popular version of wavelet
transforms because of its many advantages in applications. The inherent
redundancy of this transform proved beneficial in tasks of signal denoising and
scaling assessment. To facilitate the use of NDWT, we built a MATLAB package,
{\bf WavmatND}, which has three novel features: First, for signals of moderate
size the proposed method reduces computation time of the NDWT by replacing
repetitive convolutions with matrix multiplications. Second, submatrices of an
NDWT matrix can be rescaled, which enables a straightforward inverse transform.
Finally, the method has no constraints on a size of the input signal in one or
in two dimensions, so signals of non-dyadic length and rectangular
two-dimensional signals with non-dyadic sides can be readily transformed. We
provide illustrative examples and a tutorial to assist users in application of
this stand-alone package.


title: On Guarding Orthogonal Polygons with Sliding Cameras

abstract:
  A sliding camera inside an orthogonal polygon $P$ is a point guard that
travels back and forth along an orthogonal line segment $\gamma$ in $P$. The
sliding camera $g$ can see a point $p$ in $P$ if the perpendicular from $p$
onto $\gamma$ is inside $P$. In this paper, we give the first constant-factor
approximation algorithm for the problem of guarding $P$ with the minimum number
of sliding cameras. Next, we show that the sliding guards problem is
linear-time solvable if the (suitably defined) dual graph of the polygon has
bounded treewidth. Finally, we study art gallery theorems for sliding cameras,
thus, give upper and lower bounds in terms of the number of guards needed
relative to the number of vertices $n$.


title: On $r$-Guarding Thin Orthogonal Polygons

abstract:
  Guarding a polygon with few guards is an old and well-studied problem in
computational geometry. Here we consider the following variant: We assume that
the polygon is orthogonal and thin in some sense, and we consider a point $p$
to guard a point $q$ if and only if the minimum axis-aligned rectangle spanned
by $p$ and $q$ is inside the polygon. A simple proof shows that this problem is
NP-hard on orthogonal polygons with holes, even if the polygon is thin. If
there are no holes, then a thin polygon becomes a tree polygon in the sense
that the so-called dual graph of the polygon is a tree. It was known that
finding the minimum set of $r$-guards is polynomial for tree polygons, but the
run-time was $\tilde{O}(n^{17})$. We show here that with a different approach
the running time becomes linear, answering a question posed by Biedl et al.
(SoCG 2011). Furthermore, the approach is much more general, allowing to
specify subsets of points to guard and guards to use, and it generalizes to
polygons with $h$ holes or thickness $K$, becoming fixed-parameter tractable in
$h+K$.


title: Double Thompson Sampling for Dueling Bandits

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a Double Thompson Sampling (D-TS) algorithm for
dueling bandit problems. As indicated by its name, D-TS selects both the first
and the second candidates according to Thompson Sampling. Specifically, D-TS
maintains a posterior distribution for the preference matrix, and chooses the
pair of arms for comparison by sampling twice from the posterior distribution.
This simple algorithm applies to general Copeland dueling bandits, including
Condorcet dueling bandits as its special case. For general Copeland dueling
bandits, we show that D-TS achieves $O(K^2 \log T)$ regret. For Condorcet
dueling bandits, we further simplify the D-TS algorithm and show that the
simplified D-TS algorithm achieves $O(K \log T + K^2 \log \log T)$ regret.
Simulation results based on both synthetic and real-world data demonstrate the
efficiency of the proposed D-TS algorithm.


title: Makeup like a superstar: Deep Localized Makeup Transfer Network

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a novel Deep Localized Makeup Transfer Network to
automatically recommend the most suitable makeup for a female and synthesis the
makeup on her face. Given a before-makeup face, her most suitable makeup is
determined automatically. Then, both the beforemakeup and the reference faces
are fed into the proposed Deep Transfer Network to generate the after-makeup
face. Our end-to-end makeup transfer network have several nice properties
including: (1) with complete functions: including foundation, lip gloss, and
eye shadow transfer; (2) cosmetic specific: different cosmetics are transferred
in different manners; (3) localized: different cosmetics are applied on
different facial regions; (4) producing naturally looking results without
obvious artifacts; (5) controllable makeup lightness: various results from
light makeup to heavy makeup can be generated. Qualitative and quantitative
experiments show that our network performs much better than the methods of [Guo
and Sim, 2009] and two variants of NerualStyle [Gatys et al., 2015a].


title: Voting with Feet: Who are Leaving Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump?

abstract:
  From a crowded field with 17 candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump
have emerged as the two front-runners in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
The two candidates each boast more than 5 million followers on Twitter, and at
the same time both have witnessed hundreds of thousands of people leave their
camps. In this paper we attempt to characterize individuals who have left
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump between September 2015 and March 2016.
  Our study focuses on three dimensions of social demographics: social capital,
gender, and age. Within each camp, we compare the characteristics of the
current followers with former followers, i.e., individuals who have left since
September 2015. We use the number of followers to measure social capital, and
profile images to infer gender and age. For classifying gender, we train a
convolutional neural network (CNN). For age, we use the Face++ API.
  Our study shows that for both candidates followers with more social capital
are more likely to leave (or switch camps). For both candidates females make up
a larger presence among unfollowers than among current followers. Somewhat
surprisingly, the effect is particularly pronounced for Clinton. Lastly,
middle-aged individuals are more likely to leave Trump, and the young are more
likely to leave Hillary Clinton.


title:
The limit of finite sample breakdown point of Tukey's halfspace median
  for general data

abstract:
  Under special conditions on data set and underlying distribution, the limit
of finite sample breakdown point of Tukey's halfspace median ($\frac{1} {3}$)
has been obtained in literature. In this paper, we establish the result under
\emph{weaker assumption} imposed on underlying distribution (halfspace
symmetry) and on data set (not necessary in general position). The
representation of Tukey's sample depth regions for data set \emph{not necessary
in general position} is also obtained, as a by-product of our derivation.


title: On Conjugacy of MASAs in Graph $C^*$-Algebras

abstract:
  For a large class of finite graphs $E$, we show that whenever $\alpha$ is a
vertex-fixing quasi-free automorphism of the corresponding graph $C^*$-algebra
$C^*(E)$ such that $\alpha({\mathcal D}_E) \neq{\mathcal D}_E$, where
${\mathcal D}_E$ is the canonical MASA in $C^*(E)$, then $\alpha({\mathcal
D}_E)\neq w{\mathcal D}_E w^*$ for all unitaries $w\in C^*(E)$. That is, the
two MASAs ${\mathcal D}_E$ and $\alpha({\mathcal D}_E)$ of $C^*(E)$ are outer
but not inner conjugate. Passing to an isomorphic $C^*$-algebra by changing the
underlying graph makes this result applicable to certain non quasi-free
automorphisms as well.


title:
Testing gravity of a regular and slowly rotating phantom black hole by
  quasi-periodic oscillations

abstract:
  We extend firstly the regular phantom black hole solution to a slowly
rotating black hole case and find that the phantom field depresses the angular
velocity of the event horizon and suppresses the super-radiation of black hole.
We also probe the dependence of quasi-periodic oscillations frequencies in
relativistic precession model on the phantom parameter. With the observation
data of GRO J1655-40, we make a constraint on the parameters of the regular and
slowly rotating phantom black hole. Our results show that although the best-fit
value of the phantom parameter $b$ is small, the allowed value of $b$ in the
$1\sigma$ region is $b<0.619$, which means that the phantom theoretical model
can not be excluded by the constraint from quasi-periodic oscillations with the
observation data of GRO J1655-40.


title:
Helmholtz equation in a semi-infinite strip with impedance boundary
  conditions of the third and fifth orders

abstract:
  Two boundary value problems for the Helmholtz equation in a semi-infinite
strip are considered. The main feature of these problems is that, in addition
to the function and its normal derivative on the boundary, the functionals of
the boundary conditions possess tangential derivatives of the second and fourth
orders. Also, the setting of the problems is complimented by certain edge
conditions at the two vertices of the semi-strip. The problems model wave
propagation in a semi-infinite waveguide with membrane and plate walls. A
technique for the exact solution of these fluid-structure interaction problems
is proposed. It requires application of two Laplace transforms with respect to
both variables with the parameter of the second transform being a certain
function of the first Laplace transform parameter. Ultimately, this method
yields two scalar Riemann-Hilbert problems with the same coefficient and
different right-hand sides. The dependence of the existence and uniqueness
results of the physical model problems on the index of the Riemann-Hilbert
problem is discussed.


title: Modeling the Evolution of Gene-Culture Divergence

abstract:
  We present a model for evolving agents using both genetic and cultural
inheritance mechanisms. Within each agent our model maintains two distinct
information stores we call the genome and the memome. Processes of adaptation
are modeled as evolutionary processes at each level of adaptation
(phylogenetic, ontogenetic, sociogenetic). We review relevant competing models
and we show how our model improves on previous attempts to model genetic and
cultural evolutionary processes. In particular we argue our model can achieve
divergent gene-culture co-evolution.


title: Finding a Mate With Eusocial Skills

abstract:
  Sexual reproductive behavior has a necessary social coordination component as
willing and capable partners must both be in the right place at the right time.
It has recently been demonstrated that many social organizations that support
sexual reproduction can evolve in the absence of social coordination between
agents (e.g. herding, assortative mating, and natal philopatry). In this paper
we explore these results by including social transfer mechanisms to our agents
and contrasting their reproductive behavior with a control group without social
transfer mechanisms. We conclude that similar behaviors emerge in our social
learning agents as those that emerged in the non-social learning agents. Social
learners were more inclined towards natal philopatry. Social learners also
evolved a culture of eusociality including reproductive division of labor.


title: Divergent Cumulative Cultural Evolution

abstract:
  Divergent cumulative cultural evolution occurs when the cultural evolutionary
trajectory diverges from the biological evolutionary trajectory. We consider
the conditions under which divergent cumulative cultural evolution can occur.
We hypothesize that two conditions are necessary. First that genetic and
cultural information are stored separately in the agent. Second cultural
information must be transferred horizontally between agents of different
generations. We implement a model with these properties and show evidence of
divergent cultural evolution under both cooperative and competitive selection
pressures.


title:
On an example for the Uniform Tauberian theorem in abstract control
  systems

abstract:
  The paper is devoted to the asymptotic behavior of value functions of
abstract control problem with the long-time and discounted averages. The
Uniform Tauberian Theorem for these problems states that the uniform
convergence of value functions for long-time~averages (as the horizon tends to
infinity) is equivalent to the uniform convergence of value functions for
discounted averages (as the discount tends to zero), and that the limits are
identical. According to Miquel Oliu-Barton and Guillaume Vigeral, this
assertion holds if the set of all feasible processes is closed with respect to
concatenation. In this paper, we refine this condition.


title:
Up and down quark masses and corrections to Dashen's theorem from
  lattice QCD and quenched QED

abstract:
  In a previous letter (arXiv:1306.2287) we determined the isospin mass
splittings of the baryon octet from a lattice calculation based on quenched QED
and $N_f{=}2{+}1$ QCD simulations with 5 lattice spacings down to
$0.054~\mathrm{fm}$, lattice sizes up to $6~\mathrm{fm}$ and average up-down
quark masses all the way down to their physical value. Using the same data we
determine here the corrections to Dashen's theorem and the individual up and
down quark masses. For the parameter which quantifies violations to Dashens's
theorem, we obtain $\epsilon=0.73(2)(5)(17)$, where the first error is
statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is an estimate of the QED
quenching error. For the light quark masses we obtain,
$m_u=2.27(6)(5)(4)~\mathrm{MeV}$ and $m_d=4.67(6)(5)(4)~\mathrm{MeV}$ in the
$\bar{\mathrm{MS}}$ scheme at $2~\mathrm{GeV}$ and the isospin breaking ratios
$m_u/m_d=0.485(11)(8)(14)$, $R=38.2(1.1)(0.8)(1.4)$ and
$Q=23.4(0.4)(0.3)(0.4)$. Our results exclude the $m_u=0$ solution to the strong
CP problem by more than $24$ standard deviations.


title:
Topological correspondence of multiple ergodic averages of nilpotent
  group actions

abstract:
  Let $(X,\Gamma)$ be a topological system, where $\Gamma$ is a nilpotent group
generated by $T_1,\ldots, T_d$ such that for each $T\in \Gamma$, $T\neq
e_\Gamma$, $(X,T)$ is weakly mixing and minimal. For $d,k\in \mathbb{N}$, let
$p_{i,j}(n), 1\le i\le k, 1\le j\le d$ be polynomials with rational
coefficients taking integer values on the integers and $p_{i,j}(0)=0$. We show
that if the expressions $g_i(n)=T_1^{p_{i,1}(n)}\cdots T_d^{p_{i,d}(n)}$
depends nontrivially on $n$ for $i=1,2,\cdots,k$, and for all $i\neq j\in
\{1,2,\ldots,k\}$ the expressions $g_i(n)g_j(n)^{-1}$ depend nontrivially on
$n$, then there is a residual set $X_0$ of $X$ such that for all $x\in X_0$
\begin{equation*} \{(g_1(n)x, g_2(n)x,\ldots, g_k(n)x)\in X^k:n\in \mathbb{Z}\}
\end{equation*} is dense in $X^k$.


title:
Anisotropic transport and optical spectroscopy study on
  antiferromagentic triangular lattice EuCd_2As_2: an interplay between
  magnetism and charge transport properties

abstract:
  We present anisotropic transport and optical spectroscopy studies on
EuCd_2As_2. The measurements reveal that EuCd_2As_2 is a low carrier density
semimetal with moderate anisotropic resistivity ratio. The charge carriers
experience very strong scattering from Eu magnetic moments, resulting in a
Kondo-like increase of resistivity at low temperature. Below the
antiferromagnetic transition temperature at $T_N$= 9.5 K, the resistivity drops
sharply due to the reduced scattering from the ordered Eu moments.
Nevertheless, the anisotropic ratio of $\rho_c/\rho_{ab}$ keeps increasing,
suggesting that the antiferromagnetic coupling is along the c-axis. The optical
spectroscopy measurement further reveals, besides an overdamped reflectance
plasma edge at low energy, a strong coupling between phonon and electronic
continuum. Our study suggests that EuCd_2As_2 is a promising candidate
displaying intriguing interplay among charge, magnetism and the underlying
crystal lattice.


title:
Mathematical Formalism of Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics for Nonlinear
  Chemical Reaction Systems with General Rate Law

abstract:
  This paper studies a mathematical formalism of nonequilibrium thermodynamics
for chemical reaction models with $N$ species, $M$ reactions, and general rate
law. We establish a mathematical basis for J. W. Gibbs' macroscopic chemical
thermodynamics under G. N. Lewis' kinetic law of entire equilibrium (detailed
balance in nonlinear chemistry kinetics). In doing so, the equilibrium
thermodynamics is then naturally generalized to nonequilibrium settings without
detailed balance. The kinetic models are represented by a Markovian jumping
process. A generalized macroscopic chemical free energy function and its
associated balance equation with nonnegative source and sink are the major
discoveries. The proof is based on the large deviation principle of this type
of Markov processes. A general fluctuation dissipation theorem for stochastic
reaction kinetics is also proved. The mathematical theory illustrates how a
novel macroscopic dynamic law can emerges from the mesoscopic kinetics in a
multi-scale system.

categories: math-ph cond-mat.stat-mech math.MP physics.chem-ph


title: Analytic adjoint ideal sheaves associated to plurisubharmonic functions

abstract:
  In this article, we will present that the analytic adjoint ideal sheaves
associated to plurisubharmonic functions are not coherent.


title:
Green's function and infinite-time bubbling in the critical nonlinear
  heat equation

abstract:
  Let $\Omega$ be a smooth bounded domain in $\R^n$, $n\ge 5$. We consider the
semilinear heat equation at the critical Sobolev exponent $$ u_t = \Delta u +
u^{\frac{n+2}{n-2}} \inn \Omega\times (0,\infty), \quad u =0 \onn
\pp\Omega\times (0,\infty). $$
  Let $G(x,y)$ be the Dirichlet Green's function of $-\Delta$ in $\Omega$ and
$H(x,y)$ its regular part. Let $q_j\in \Omega$, $j=1,\ldots,k$, be points such
that the matrix $$
  \left [ \begin{matrix} H(q_1, q_1) & -G(q_1,q_2) &\cdots & -G(q_1, q_k)
-G(q_1,q_2) & H(q_2,q_2) & -G(q_2,q_3) \cdots & -G(q_3,q_k) \vdots & & \ddots&
\vdots -G(q_1,q_k) &\cdots& -G(q_{k-1}, q_k) & H(q_k,q_k) \end{matrix} \right ]
$$ is positive definite. For any $k\ge 1$ such points indeed exist. We prove
the existence of a positive smooth solution $u(x,t)$ which blows-up by bubbling
in infinite time near those points. More precisely, for large time $t$, $u$
takes the approximate form $$ u(x,t) \approx \sum_{j=1}^k \alpha_n \left (
\frac { \mu_j(t)} { \mu_j(t)^2 + |x-\xi_j(t)|^2 } \right )^{\frac {n-2}2} . $$
Here $\xi_j(t) \to q_j$ and $0<\mu_j(t) \to 0$, as $t \to \infty$. We find that
$\mu_j(t) \sim t^{-\frac 1{n-4}} $ as $t\to +\infty$, when $n\geq 5$.


title: Stability of Blow Up for a 1D model of Axisymmetric 3D Euler Equation

abstract:
  The question of the global regularity vs finite time blow up in solutions of
the 3D incompressible Euler equation is a major open problem of modern applied
analysis. In this paper, we study a class of one-dimensional models of the
axisymmetric hyperbolic boundary blow up scenario for the 3D Euler equation
proposed by Hou and Luo based on extensive numerical simulations. These models
generalize the 1D Hou-Luo model suggested in Hou & Luo's paper, for which
finite time blow up has been established in the paper by Kyudong Choi, Thomas
Y. Hou, Alexander Kiselev, Guo Luo, Vladimir Sverak, Yao Yao. The main new
aspects of this work are twofold. First, we establish finite time blow up for a
model that is a closer approximation of the three dimensional case than the
original Hou-Luo model, in the sense that it contains relevant lower order
terms in the Biot-Savart law that have been discarded in the paper by Hou &
Luo's and the paper by Choi et al.. Secondly, we show that the blow up
mechanism is quite robust, by considering a broader family of models with the
same main term as in the Hou-Luo model. Such blow up stability result may be
useful in further work on understanding the 3D hyperbolic blow up scenario.


title: Spatial Patterns in Urban Systems

abstract:
  Understanding the morphology of an urban system is an important step toward
unveiling the dynamical processes of its growth and development. At the
foundation of every urban system, transportation system is undeniably a crucial
component in powering the life of the entire urban system. In this work, we
study the spatial pattern of $73$ cities across the globe by analysing the
distribution of public transport points within the cities. The analysis reveals
that different spatial distributions of points could be classified into four
groups with distinct features, indicating whether the points are clustered,
dispersed or regularly distributed. From visual inspection, we observe that the
cities with regularly distributed patterns do not have apparent centre in
contrast to the other two types in which star-node structure, i.e. monocentric,
can be clearly observed. Furthermore, the results provide evidence for the
existence of two different types of urban system: well-planned and organically
grown. We also study the spatial distribution of another important urban
entity, the amenities, and find that it possesses universal properties
regardless of the city's spatial pattern type. This result has one important
implication that at small scale of locality, the urban dynamics cannot be
controlled even though the regulation can be done at large scale of the entire
urban system. The relation between the distribution of amenities within the
city and its spatial pattern is also discussed.


title: A Comparative Study of STA on Large Scale Global Optimization

abstract:
  State transition algorithm has been emerging as a new intelligent global
optimization method in recent few years. The standard continuous STA has
demonstrated powerful global search ability for global optimization problems
whose dimension is no more than 100. In this study, we give a test report to
present the performance of standard continuous STA for large scale global
optimization when compared with other state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms.
From the experimental results, it is shown that the standard continuous STA
still works well for almost all of the test problems, and its global search
ability is much superior to its competitors.


title: A Survey of Memristive Threshold Logic Circuits

abstract:
  In this paper, we review the different memristive threshold logic (MTL)
circuits that are inspired from the synaptic action of flow of
neurotransmitters in the biological brain. Brain like generalisation ability
and area minimisation of these threshold logic circuits aim towards crossing
the Moores law boundaries at device, circuits and systems levels.Fast switching
memory, signal processing, control systems, programmable logic, image
processing, reconfigurable computing, and pattern recognition are identified as
some of the potential applications of MTL systems. The physical realization of
nanoscale devices with memristive behaviour from materials like TiO2,
ferroelectrics, silicon, and polymers has accelerated research effort in these
application areas inspiring the scientific community to pursue design of high
speed, low cost, low power and high density neuromorphic architectures.


title:
The role of major gas-rich mergers on the evolution of galaxies from the
  blue cloud to the red sequence

abstract:
  With the aim of exploring the fast evolutionary path from the blue cloud of
star-forming galaxies to the red sequence of quiescent galaxies in the local
universe, we select a local advanced merging infrared luminous and
ultraluminous galaxy (adv-merger (U)LIRGs) sample and perform careful dust
extinction corrections to investigate their positions in the SFR-$M_{\ast}$,
u-r and NUV-r color-mass diagrams. The sample consists of 89 (U)LIRGs at the
late merger stage, obtained from cross-correlating the IRAS Point Source
Catalog Redshift Survey and 1 Jy ULIRGs samples with the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey DR7 database. Our results show that $74\%\pm 5\%$ of adv-merger (U)LIRGs
are localized above the $1\, \sigma$ line of the local star-forming galaxy main
sequence. We also find that all adv-merger (U)LIRGs are more massive than and
as blue as the blue cloud galaxies after corrections of Galactic and internal
dust extinctions, with $95\%\pm 2\%$ and $81\%\pm 4\%$ of them outside the blue
cloud on the u-r and NUV-r color-mass diagrams, respectively. These results,
combined with the short timescale for exhausting the molecular gas reservoir in
adv-merger (U)LIRGs ($3\times 10^{7}$ to $3\times 10^{8}$ years), imply that
the adv-merger (U)LIRGs are likely at the starting point of the fast
evolutionary track previously proposed by several groups. While the number
density of adv-merger (U)LIRGs is only $\sim 0.1\%$ of the blue cloud
star-forming galaxies in the local universe, this evolutionary track may play a
more important role at high redshift.


title: On the Remodeling Conjecture for Toric Calabi-Yau 3-Orbifolds

abstract:
  The Remodeling Conjecture proposed by Bouchard-Klemm-Mari\~{n}o-Pasquetti
(BKMP) [arXiv:0709.1453, arXiv:0807.0597] relates the A-model open and closed
topological string amplitudes (the all genus open and closed Gromov-Witten
invariants) of a semi-projective toric Calabi-Yau 3-manifold/3-orbifold to the
Eynard-Orantin invariants of its mirror curve. It is an all genus open-closed
mirror symmetry for toric Calabi-Yau 3-manifolds/3-orbifolds. In this paper, we
present a proof of the BKMP Remodeling Conjecture for all genus open-closed
orbifold Gromov-Witten invariants of an arbitrary semi-projective toric
Calabi-Yau 3-orbifold relative to an outer framed Aganagic-Vafa Lagrangian
brane. We also prove the conjecture in the closed string sector at all genera.


title:
Analytical Studies of Fragmented-Spectrum Multi-Level OFDM-CDMA
  Technique in Cognitive Radio Networks

abstract:
  In this paper, we present a multi-user resource allocation framework using
fragmented-spectrum synchronous OFDM-CDMA modulation over a frequency-selective
fading channel. In particular, given pre-existing communications in the
spectrum where the system is operating, a channel sensing and estimation method
is used to obtain information of subcarrier availability. Given this
information, some real-valued multi-level orthogonal codes, which are
orthogonal codes with values of $\{\pm1,\pm2,\pm3,\pm4, ... \}$, are provided
for emerging new users, i.e., cognitive radio users. Additionally, we have
obtained a closed form expression for bit error rate of cognitive radio
receivers in terms of detection probability of primary users, CR users' sensing
time and CR users' signal to noise ratio. Moreover, simulation results obtained
in this paper indicate the precision with which the analytical results have
been obtained in modeling the aforementioned system.


title:
Approximate Residual Balancing: De-Biased Inference of Average Treatment
  Effects in High Dimensions

abstract:
  There are many settings where researchers are interested in estimating
average treatment effects and are willing to rely on the unconfoundedness
assumption, which requires that the treatment assignment be as good as random
conditional on pre-treatment variables. The unconfoundedness assumption is
often more plausible if a large number of pre-treatment variables are included
in the analysis, but this can worsen the performance of standard approaches to
treatment effect estimation. In this paper, we develop a method for de-biasing
penalized regression adjustments to allow sparse regression methods like the
lasso to be used for sqrt{n}-consistent inference of average treatment effects
in high-dimensional linear models. Given linearity, we do not need to assume
that the treatment propensities are estimable, or that the average treatment
effect is a sparse contrast of the outcome model parameters. Rather, in
addition standard assumptions used to make lasso regression on the outcome
model consistent under 1-norm error, we only require overlap, i.e., that the
propensity score be uniformly bounded away from 0 and 1. Procedurally, our
method combines balancing weights with a regularized regression adjustment.


title: The Point Spread Function Reconstruction by Using Moffatlets - I

abstract:
  The shear measurement is a crucial task in the current and the future weak
lensing survey projects. And the reconstruction of the point spread
function(PSF) is one of the essential steps. In this work, we present three
different methods, including Gaussianlets, Moffatlets and EMPCA to quantify
their efficiency on PSF reconstruction using four sets of simulated LSST star
images. Gaussianlets and Moffatlets are two different sets of basis functions
whose profiles are based on Gaussian and Moffat functions respectively.
Expectation Maximization(EM) PCA is a statistical method performing iterative
procedure to find principal components of an ensemble of star images. Our tests
show that: 1) Moffatlets always perform better than Gaussianlets. 2) EMPCA is
more compact and flexible, but the noise existing in the Principal Components
(PCs) will contaminate the size and ellipticity of PSF while Moffatlets keeps
them very well.


title:
Metric geometry of normal K\"ahler spaces, energy properness, and
  existence of canonical metrics

abstract:
  Let $(X,\omega)$ be a compact normal K\"ahler space, with Hodge metric
$\omega$. In this paper, the last in a sequence of works studying the
relationship between energy properness and canonical K\"ahler metrics, we
introduce a geodesic metric structure on $\mathcal H_{\omega}(X)$, the space of
K\"ahler potentials, whose completion is the finite energy space $\mathcal
E^1_{\omega}(X)$. Using this metric structure and the results of
Berman-Boucksom-Eyssidieux-Guedj-Zeriahi as ingredients in the
existence/properness principle of Rubinstein and the author, we show that
existence of K\"ahler-Einstein metrics on log Fano pairs is equivalent to
properness of the K-energy in a suitable sense. To our knowledge, this result
represents the first characterization of general log Fano pairs admitting
K\"ahler-Einstein metrics. We also discuss the analogous result for
K\"ahler-Ricci solitons on Fano varieties.


title: On the Grundy number of Cameron graphs

abstract:
  The Grundy number of a graph is the maximal number of colors attained by a
first-fit coloring of the graph. The class of Cameron graphs is the Seidel
switching class of cographs. In this paper we show that the Grundy number is
computable in polynomial time for Cameron graphs.


title: Induced Hausdorff metrics on quotient spaces

abstract:
  Let $G$ be a group, $(M,d)$ be a metric space, $X$ be a compact subspace of
$M$ and $\varphi:G\times M \rightarrow M$ be a left action by homeomorphisms of
$G$ on $M$. Denote $gp=f(g,p)$. The isotropy subgroup of $G$ with respect to
$X$ is defined by $H_X=\{g\in G; gX=X\}$. In this work we define the induced
Hausdorff metric on $G/H_X$ by $d_X(gH_X,hH_X)=d_H(gX,hX)$, where $d_H$ is the
Hausdorff distance on $M$. Let $\hat d_X$ be the intrinsic metric induced by
$d_X$. In this work we study the geometry of $(G/H_X,d_X)$ and $(G/H_X,\hat
d_X)$. In particular, we prove that if $G$ is a Lie group, $M$ is a
differentiable manifold endowed with a metric $d$ which is locally Lipschitz
equivalent to a Finsler metric, $X$ is a compact subset of $M$ and $\varphi:G
\times M \rightarrow M$ is a smooth left action by isometries of $G$ on $M$,
then $(G/H_X,\hat d_X)$ is $C^0$-Finsler.


title:
Worst-case Complexity of Cyclic Coordinate Descent: $O(n^2)$ Gap with
  Randomized Version

abstract:
  This paper concerns the worst-case complexity of cyclic coordinate descent
(C-CD) for minimizing a convex quadratic function, which is equivalent to
Gauss-Seidel method and can be transformed to Kaczmarz method and projection
onto convex sets (POCS). We observe that the known provable complexity of C-CD
can be $O(n^2)$ times slower than randomized coordinate descent (R-CD), but no
example was rigorously proven to exhibit such a large gap. In this paper we
show that the gap indeed exists. We prove that there exists an example for
which C-CD takes at least $O(n^4 \kappa_{\text{CD}} \log\frac{1}{\epsilon})$
operations, where $\kappa_{\text{CD}}$ is related to Demmel's condition number
and it determines the convergence rate of R-CD. It implies that in the worst
case C-CD can indeed be $O(n^2)$ times slower than R-CD, which has complexity
$O( n^2 \kappa_{\text{CD}} \log\frac{1}{\epsilon})$. Note that for this
example, the gap exists for any fixed update order, not just a particular
order. Based on the example, we establish several almost tight complexity
bounds of C-CD for quadratic problems. One difficulty with the analysis is that
the spectral radius of a non-symmetric iteration matrix does not necessarily
constitute a \textit{lower bound} for the convergence rate.
  An immediate consequence is that for Gauss-Seidel method, Kaczmarz method and
POCS, there is also an $O(n^2) $ gap between the cyclic versions and randomized
versions (for solving linear systems). We also show that the classical
convergence rate of POCS by Smith, Solmon and Wager [1] is always worse and
sometimes can be infinitely times worse than our bound.


title:
Isospin Projected Antisymmetrized Molecular Dynamics and its Application
  to ${}^{10}$B

abstract:
  To investigate $pn$ pair correlations in $N=Z=\textrm{odd}$ nuclei, we
develop a new framework based on the generator coordinate method of the
$\beta\gamma$ constraint antisymmetrized molecular dynamics. In the framework,
the isospin projection is performed before the energy variation to obtain the
wave function optimized for each isospin. We apply the method to ${}^{10}
\textrm{B}$ and show that it works well to describe coexistence of $T=0$ and
$T=1$ states in low-energy spectra. Structures of low-lying states and $pn$
correlations are investigated. Strong $M1$($0^+_1\rightarrow 1^+_1$) and
$E2$($1^+_1\rightarrow 1^+_2$) transitions are understood by the spin
excitation of the $pn$ pair and the rotation of a deformed core, respectively.


title:
On the possible gamma-ray burst -- gravitational wave association in
  GW150914

abstract:
  Data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor satellite observatory suggested
that the recently discovered gravitational wave source, a pair of two
coalescing black holes, was related to a gamma-ray burst. The observed
high-energy electromagnetic radiation (above 50 keV) originated from a weak
transient source and lasted for about 1 second. Its localization is consistent
with the direction to GW150914. We speculate about the possible scenario for
the formation of a gamma-ray burst accompanied by the gravitational-wave
signal. Our model invokes a tight binary system consisting of a massive star
and a black hole which leads to the triggering of a collapse of the star's
nucleus, the formation of a second black hole, and finally to the binary black
hole merger. For the most-likely configuration of the binary spin vectors with
respect to the orbital angular momentum in the GW150914 event, the recoil speed
(kick velocity) acquired by the final black hole through gravitational wave
emission is of the order of a few hundred km/s and this might be sufficient to
get it closer to the envelope of surrounding material and capture a small
fraction of matter from the remnant of the host star. The gamma-ray burst is
produced by the accretion of this remnant matter onto the final black hole. The
moderate spin of the final black hole suggests that the gamma-ray burst jet is
powered by weak neutrino emission rather than the Blandford-Znajek mechanism,
and hence explains the low power available for the observed GRB signal.


title: Spectrum of commuting graphs of some classes of finite groups

abstract:
  In this paper, we initiate the study of spectrum of the commuting graphs of
finite non-abelian groups. We first compute the spectrum of this graph for
several classes of finite groups, in particular AC-groups. We show that the
commuting graphs of finite non-abelian AC-groups are integral. We also show
that the commuting graph of a finite non-abelian group $G$ is integral if $G$
is not isomorphic to the symmetric group of degree $4$ and the commuting graph
of $G$ is planar. Further it is shown that the commuting graph of $G$ is
integral if the commuting graph of $G$ is toroidal.


title: New minimal (4; n)-regular matchstick graphs

abstract:
  A matchstick graph is a graph drawn with straight edges in the plane such
that the edges have unit length, and non-adjacent edges do not intersect. We
call a matchstick graph ($m;n)$-regular if every vertex has only degree $m$ or
$n$. In this article the authors present the latest known $(4;n)$-regular
matchstick graphs for $4\leq n\leq11$ with a minimum number of vertices.


title:
Modification of narrow ablating capillaries under the influence of
  multiple femtosecond laser pulses

abstract:
  Powerful femtosecond laser pulses that propagate through narrow ablating
capillaries cause modification of capillary walls, which is studied
experimentally and theoretically. At low intensities, laser-induced periodic
surface structures (LIPSS) and porous coating composed of sub-micron particles
appear on the walls. At higher intensities, the surface is covered by deposited
droplets of the size up to 10 $\mu$m. In both cases, the ablated material forms
a solid plug that completely blocks the capillary after several hundreds or
thousands of pulses. The suggested theoretical model indicates that plug
formation is a universal effect. It must take place in any narrow tube subject
to ablation under the action of short laser pulses.


title: Complete Hamiltonian formalism for inertial waves in rotating fluids

abstract:
  Complete Hamiltonian formalism is suggested for inertial waves in rotating
incompressible fluid. Resonance three-wave interaction processes -- decay
instability and confluence of two waves -- are shown to play a key role in the
weakly nonlinear dynamics and statistics of inertial waves in the rapid
rotation case. Future applications of the Hamiltonian approach in inertial wave
theory are investigated and discussed.


title: Room temperature tetragonal noncollinear antiferromagnet Pt$_2$MnGa

abstract:
  Here we present the tetragonal stoichiometric Heusler compound Pt$_2$MnGa
with the noncollinear AFM order stable up to 350 K. It is resolved by the
neutron diffraction as a helical spiral propagating along the tetragonal axis.
Ab-initio calculations suggest a pure exchange origin of the spiral and explain
its helical character being stabilized by a large basal plane
magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA). Together with the inversion-symmetric
crystal structure, this provides a bi-stability of a spiral with respect to the
right- and left-handed magnetic helices. Despite the large MCA, the long period
of a helix might greatly facilitate the switch of the helicity by the
precessional reorientation, suggesting Pt$_2$MnGa as a potential candidate for
the vector-helicity based non-volatile magnetic memory.


title:
An integral-transform approach to the bioheat transfer problems in
  magnetic hyperthermia

abstract:
  Our purpose in this study was to present an integral-transform approach to
the analytical solutions of the Pennes's bioheat transfer equation and to apply
it to the calculation of temperature distribution in tissues in hyperthermia
with magnetic nanoparticles (magnetic hyperthermia). The validity of our method
was investigated by comparison with the analytical solutions obtained by the
Green's function method for point and shell heat sources and the numerical
solutions obtained by the finite-difference method for Gaussin-distributed and
step-function sources. There was good agreement between the radial profiles of
temperature calculated by our method and those obtained by the Green's function
method. There was also good agreement between our method and the
finite-difference method except for the central temperature for a step-function
source that had approximately a 0.3% difference. We also found that the
equations describing the steady-state solutions for point and shell sources
obtained by our method agreed with those obtained by the Green's function
method. These results appear to indicate the validity of our method. In
conclusion, we presented an integral-transform approach to the bioheat transfer
problems in magnetic hyperthermia, and this study demonstrated the validity of
our method. The analytical solutions presented in this study will be useful for
gaining some insight into the heat diffusion process during magnetic
hyperthermia, for testing numerical codes and/or more complcated approaches,
and for performing sensitivity analysis and optimization of the parameters that
affect the thermal diffusion process in magnetic hyperthermia.


title: Trust Exploitation and Attention Competition: A Game Theoretical Model

abstract:
  The proliferation of Social Network Sites (SNSs) has greatly reformed the way
of information dissemination, but also provided a new venue for hosts with
impure motivations to disseminate malicious information. Social trust is the
basis for information dissemination in SNSs. Malicious hosts judiciously and
dynamically make the balance between maintaining its social trust and selfishly
maximizing its malicious gain over a long time-span. Studying the optimal
response strategies for each malicious host could assist to design the best
system maneuver so as to achieve the targeted level of overall malicious
activities. In this paper, we propose an interaction-based social trust model,
and formulate the maximization of long-term malicious gains of multiple
competing hosts as a non-cooperative differential game. Through rigorous
analysis, optimal response strategies are identified and the best system
maneuver mechanism is presented. Extensive numerical studies further verify the
analytical results.


title:
Log Fano structures and Cox rings of blow-ups of products of projective
  spaces

abstract:
  The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, we determine which blow-ups of
products of projective spaces at general points are varieties of Fano type, and
give boundary divisors making these spaces log Fano pairs. Secondly, we
describe generators of the Cox rings of some cases.


title: Quantum backflow effect and nonclassicality

abstract:
  The quantum backflow effect is a counterintuitive behavior of the probability
current of a free particle, which may be negative even for states with
vanishing negative momentum component. Here we address the notion of
nonclassicality arising from the backflow effect, i.e. from the negativity of
the probability current, and analyze its relationships with the notion of
nonclassicality based on the negativity of the Wigner function. Our results
suggest that backflow is linked to a different, and in fact more restrictive,
notion of nonclassicality, the negativity of the Wigner function being only a
necessary prerequisite for its occurrence. This hierarchical structure may be
confirmed by looking at the addition of thermal noise, which more easily
destroys the negativity of the probability current than the negativity of the
Wigner function itself.


title: Normalization in Lie algebras via mould calculus and applications

abstract:
  We establish Ecalle's mould calculus in an abstract Lie-theoretic setting and
use it to solve a normalization problem, which covers several formal normal
form problems in the theory of dynamical systems. The mould formalism allows us
to reduce the Lie-theoretic problem to a mould equation, the solutions of which
are remarkably explicit and can be fully described by means of a gauge
transformation group. The dynamical applications include the construction of
Poincar{\'e}-Dulac formal normal forms for a vector field around an equilibrium
point, a formal infinite-order multiphase averaging procedure for vector fields
with fast angular variables (Hamiltonian or not), or the construction of
Birkhoff normal forms both in classical and quantum situations. As a by-product
we obtain, in the case of harmonic oscillators, the convergence of the quantum
Birkhoff form to the classical one, without any Diophantine hypothesis on the
frequencies of the unperturbed Hamiltonians.


title: Neural Random Forests

abstract:
  Given an ensemble of randomized regression trees, it is possible to
restructure them as a collection of multilayered neural networks with
particular connection weights. Following this principle, we reformulate the
random forest method of Breiman (2001) into a neural network setting, and in
turn propose two new hybrid procedures that we call neural random forests. Both
predictors exploit prior knowledge of regression trees for their architecture,
have less parameters to tune than standard networks, and less restrictions on
the geometry of the decision boundaries than trees. Consistency results are
proved, and substantial numerical evidence is provided on both synthetic and
real data sets to assess the excellent performance of our methods in a large
variety of prediction problems.


title:
Effects of the Electronic Structure, Phase Transition and Localized
  Dynamics of Atoms in the Formation of Tiny Particles of Gold

abstract:
  In addition to the self-governing properties, tiny metallic colloids are the
building blocks of larger particles. This topic has been a subject of many
studies. Tiny particles of different sizes developed under three different
experiments are discussed in this work. The development of a tiny-sized
particle depends on the attained dynamics of atoms. When atoms of the compact
monolayer assembly bind by a nanoenergy packet, the developed tiny-sized
particle elongates atoms of arrays into the structures of smooth elements at
the solution surface. The impinging electron streams at a fixed angle can
elongate the already elongated atoms of arrays. Travelling photons along the
interface influence the modified atoms. Gold atoms can also develop different
tiny particles inside the solution. In addition to the dynamics of atoms,
miscellaneous factors can contribute in the development of such tiny particles.
Atoms in the form of tiny clusters can also amalgamate to develop a tiny-sized
particle. In the third kind of tiny particle, amalgamated atoms can bind by
executing electron dynamics. However, not all of the atoms can bind by the
electron dynamics. This study very concisely highlights the fundamental process
of developing a variety of tiny particles in which electronic structure, phase
transition and localized dynamics of gold atoms influence the structure. The
study targets the specific discussion that how atoms of tiny-sized particles
bind, and how travelling photons along the air-solution interface influence
their structure. Several possibilities may be opened through pulse-based
process to develop engineered materials.


title:
Diphoton excess from hidden U(1) gauge symmetry with large kinetic
  mixing

abstract:
  We show that the 750 GeV diphoton excess can be explained by introducing
vector-like quarks and hidden fermions charged under a hidden U(1) gauge
symmetry, which has a relatively large coupling constant as well as a
significant kinetic mixing with U(1)$_Y$. With the large kinetic mixing, the
standard model gauge couplings unify around $10^{17}$ GeV, suggesting the grand
unified theory without too rapid proton decay. Our scenario predicts events
with a photon and missing transverse momentum, and its cross section is related
to that for the diphoton excess through the kinetic mixing. We also discuss
other possible collider signatures and cosmology, including various ways to
evade constraints on exotic stable charged particles. In some cases where the
750 GeV diphoton excess is due to diaxion decays, our scenario also predicts
triphoton and tetraphoton signals.


title:
$\it{Ab}$ $\it{initio}$ nuclear many-body perturbation calculations in
  the Hartree-Fock basis

abstract:
  Starting from realistic nuclear forces, the chiral N$^3$LO and JISP16, we
have applied many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) to the structure of
closed-shell nuclei, $^4$He and $^{16}$O. The two-body N$^3$LO interaction is
softened by a similarity renormalization group transformation while JISP16 is
adopted without renormalization. The MBPT calculations are performed within the
Hartree-Fock (HF) bases. The angular momentum coupled scheme is used, which can
reduce the computational task. Corrections up to the third order in energy and
up to the second order in radius are evaluated. Higher-order corrections in the
HF basis are small relative to the leading-order perturbative result. Using the
anti-symmetrized Goldstone diagram expansions of the wave function, we directly
correct the one-body density for the calculation of the radius, rather than
calculate corrections to the occupation propabilities of single-particle orbits
as found in other treatments. We compare our results with other methods where
available and find good agreement. This supports the conclusion that our
methods produce reasonably converged results with these interactions. We also
compare our results with experimental data.


title: Local derivations on measurable operators and commutativity

abstract:
  We prove that a von Neumann algebra $M$ is abelian if and only if the square
of every derivation on the algebra $S(M)$ of measurable operators, affiliated
with $M$, is a local derivation. We also show that for general associative
unital algebras this is not true.


title:
Radial distribution function for hard spheres in fractal dimensions: A
  heuristic approximation

abstract:
  Analytic approximations for the radial distribution function, the structure
factor, and the equation of state of hard-core fluids in fractal dimension $d$
($1 \leq d \leq 3$) are developed as heuristic interpolations from the
knowledge of the exact and Percus-Yevick results for the hard-rod and
hard-sphere fluids, respectively. In order to assess their value, such
approximate results are compared with those of recent Monte Carlo simulations
and numerical solutions of the Percus-Yevick equation for fractal dimension [M.
Heinen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{115}, 097801 (2015)], a good agreement
being observed.


title: Jet-determination of symmetries of parabolic geometries

abstract:
  We establish 2-jet determinacy for the symmetry algebra of the underlying
structure of any (complex or real) parabolic geometry. At non-flat points, we
prove that the symmetry algebra is in fact 1-jet determined. Moreover, we prove
1-jet determinacy at any point for a variety of non-flat parabolic geometries -
in particular torsion-free, parabolic contact, and several other classes.


title:
Hydrogen Bonding: A Mechanism for Tuning Electronic and Optical
  Properties of Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Frameworks

abstract:
  Here we demonstrate that significant progress in this area may be achieved by
introducing structural elements that form hydrogen bonds with environment.
Considering several examples of hybrid framework materials with different
structural ordering containing protonated sulfonium cation H3S+ that forms
strong hydrogen bonds with electronegative halogen anions (Cl-, F-), we found
that hydrogen bonding increases the structural stability of the material and
may be used for tuning electronic states near the bandgap. We suggest that such
a behavior has a universal character and should be observed in hybrid
inorganic-organic framework materials containing protonated cations. This
effect may serve as a viable route for optoelectronic and photovoltaic
applications.


title:
Achievable Moderate Deviations Asymptotics for Streaming Compression of
  Correlated Sources

abstract:
  Motivated by streaming multi-view video coding and wireless sensor networks,
we consider the problem of blockwise streaming compression of a pair of
correlated sources, which we term streaming Slepian-Wolf coding. We study the
moderate deviations regime in which the rate pairs of a sequence of codes
converge, along a straight line, to various points on the boundary of the
Slepian-Wolf region at a speed slower than the inverse square root of the
blocklength $n$, while the error probability decays subexponentially fast in
$n$. Our main result focuses on directions of approaches to corner points of
the Slepian-Wolf region. It states that for each correlated source and all
corner points, there exists a non-empty subset of directions of approaches such
that the moderate deviations constant (the constant of proportionality for the
subexponential decay of the error probability) is enhanced (over the
non-streaming case) by at least a factor of $T$, the block delay of decoding
source block pairs. We specialize our main result to the setting of streaming
lossless source coding and generalize this result to the setting where we have
different delay requirements for each of the two source blocks. The proof of
our main result involves the use of various analytical tools and amalgamates
several ideas from the recent information-theoretic streaming literature. We
adapt the so-called truncated memory encoding idea from Draper and Khisti
(2011) and Lee, Tan, and Khisti (2016) to ensure that the effect of error
accumulation is nullified in the limit of large blocklengths. We also adapt the
use of the so-called minimum weighted empirical suffix entropy decoder which
was used by Draper, Chang, and Sahai (2014) to derive achievable error
exponents for symbolwise streaming Slepian-Wolf coding.


title:
Phase transitions and critical phenomena of tiny grains carbon films
  synthesized in microwave-based vapor deposition system

abstract:
  Different peak trends of tiny grains carbon film have been observed under the
investigations of Raman spectroscopy and energy loss spectroscopy. Carbon films
known in nanocrystalline and ultra-nanocrystalline diamond films are
synthesized by employing microwave-based vapor deposition system. Carbon atoms
exhibit several state behaviors depending on the incurred positions of their
electrons. Different morphology of tiny grains under different chamber pressure
is related to different rate of arriving typical energies at/near substrate
surface. Those tiny grains of carbon film which evolved in graphitic state
atoms are converted to structure of smooth elements where elongation of atoms
of one-dimensional arrays is as per exerting surface format forces along
opposite poles from their centers. Such tiny grains in the film are the cause
of v1 peak under the investigation of the Raman spectrum because of the
enhanced propagation of input laser signals through channelized inter-state
electron gaps of elongated graphitic state atoms. Those tiny grains of carbon
film which evolved in fullerene state are the cause of v2 peak. The tiny grains
related to v1 peak possess a low intensity as compared to the ones which
comprised atoms having state behaviors known in their exceptional hardness.
Tiny grains representing v1 peak in the Raman spectrum are also the cause of
field emission characteristic of a carbon film. Different peak recordings were
made for the Raman at defined positions indicating a different state of carbon
atoms for a different phase of deposited tiny grains, which is in line to their
energy loss spectroscopy.


title: Closing the Gap for Makespan Scheduling via Sparsification Techniques

abstract:
  Makespan scheduling on identical machines is one of the most basic and
fundamental packing problems studied in the discrete optimization literature.
It asks for an assignment of $n$ jobs to a set of $m$ identical machines that
minimizes the makespan. The problem is strongly NP-hard, and thus we do not
expect a $(1+\epsilon)$-approximation algorithm with a running time that
depends polynomially on $1/\epsilon$. Furthermore, Chen et al. [3] recently
showed that a running time of $2^{(1/\epsilon)^{1-\delta}}+\text{poly}(n)$ for
any $\delta>0$ would imply that the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH) fails. A
long sequence of algorithms have been developed that try to obtain low
dependencies on $1/\epsilon$, the better of which achieves a running time of
$2^{\tilde{O}(1/\epsilon^2)}+O(n\log n)$ [11]. In this paper we obtain an
algorithm with a running time of $2^{\tilde{O}(1/\epsilon)}+O(n\log n)$, which
is tight under ETH up to logarithmic factors on the exponent.
  Our main technical contribution is a new structural result on the
configuration-IP. More precisely, we show the existence of a highly symmetric
and sparse optimal solution, in which all but a constant number of machines are
assigned a configuration with small support. This structure can then be
exploited by integer programming techniques and enumeration. We believe that
our structural result is of independent interest and should find applications
to other settings. In particular, we show how the structure can be applied to
the minimum makespan problem on related machines and to a larger class of
objective functions on parallel machines. For all these cases we obtain an
efficient PTAS with running time $2^{\tilde{O}(1/\epsilon)} + \text{poly}(n)$.


title: Nonlocal effects in metallic nanoparticles: the kinetic approach outlook

abstract:
  For the metallic nanoparticles, smaller than the free electron path, an
impact of the particle's surface on the nonlocal effects emerging is shown.
Light-induced current inside the particle begins to depend on the spatial
derivatives of the field that leads to modification of Maxwell's equations.
Consequently, the results of Mie theory as well as definitions of the
dielectric function and optical conductivity should be revisited. For the
sphere-shaped nanoparticle, the explicit expression for the high-frequency
current with account of nonlocality is obtained. The dependence of the nonlocal
contribution on the light frequency and particle's size is discussed.


title: Theory of a Weak-Link Superconductor-Ferromagnet Josephson Structure

abstract:
  We propose a model for the theoretical description of a weak-link Josephson
junction, in which the weak link is spin-polarized due to proximity to a
ferromagnetic metal (S-(F|S)-S). Employing Usadel transport theory appropriate
for diffusive systems, we show that the weak link is described within the
framework of Andreev circuit theory by an effective self-energy resulting from
the implementation of spin-dependent boundary conditions. This leads to a
considerable simplification of the model, and allows for an efficient numerical
treatment. As an application of our model, we show numerical calculations of
important physical observables such as the local density of states,
proximity-induced minigaps, spin-magnetization, and the phase and
temperature-dependence of Josephson currents of the S-(F|S)-S system. We
discuss multi-valued current-phase relationships at low temperatures as well as
their crossover to sinusoidal form at high temperatures. Additionally, we
numerically treat (S-F-S) systems that exhibit a magnetic domain wall in the F
region and calculate the temperature- dependence of the critical currents.