title: Higgs-Higgs Interaction. The One-Loop Amplitude in the Standard Model

abstract:
  The amplitude of Higgs-Higgs interaction is calculated in the Standard Model
in the framework of the Sirlin's renormalization scheme in the unitary gauge.
The one-loop corrections for lambda, the constant of 4-chi interaction are
compared with the previous results of L. Durand et al. obtained on using the
technique of the equivalence theorem, and in the different gauges.


title: A neural network approach to predicting and computing knot invariants

abstract:
  In this paper we use artificial neural networks to predict and help compute
the values of certain knot invariants. In particular, we show that neural
networks are able to predict when a knot is quasipositive with a high degree of
accuracy. Given a knot with unknown quasipositivity we use these predictions to
identify braid representatives that are likely to be quasipositive, which we
then subject to further testing to verify. Using these techniques we identify
84 new quasipositive 11 and 12-crossing knots. Furthermore, we show that neural
networks are also able to predict and help compute the slice genus and
Ozsv\'{a}th-Szab\'{o} $\tau$-invariant of knots.


title:
Protease-sensitive atelocollagen hydrogels promote healing in a diabetic
  wound model

abstract:
  The design of exudate-managing wound dressings is an established route to
accelerated healing, although such design remains a challenge from material and
manufacturing standpoints. Aiming towards the clinical translation of knowledge
gained in vitro with highly swollen rat tail collagen hydrogels, this study
investigated the healing capability in a diabetic mouse wound model of
telopeptide-free, protease-inhibiting collagen networks. 4 vinylbenzylation and
UV irradiation of type I atelocollagen (AC) led to hydrogel networks with
chemical and macroscopic properties comparable to previous collagen analogues,
attributable to similar lysine content and dichroic properties. After 4 days in
vitro, hydrogels induced nearly 50 RFU% reduction in matrix metalloproteinase
(MMP)-9 activity, whilst showing less than 20 wt.-% weight loss. After 20 days
in vivo, dry networks promoted 99% closure of 10x10 mm full thickness wounds
and accelerated neodermal tissue formation compared to Mepilex. This collagen
system can be equipped with multiple, customisable properties and functions key
to personalised chronic wound care.


title:
A Bivariate Spline Method for Second Order Elliptic Equations in
  Non-Divergence Form

abstract:
  A bivariate spline method is developed to numerically solve second order
elliptic partial differential equations (PDE) in non-divergence form. The
existence, uniqueness, stability as well as approximation properties of the
discretized solution will be established by using the well-known
Ladyzhenskaya-Babuska-Brezzi (LBB) condition. Bivariate splines, discontinuous
splines with smoothness constraints are used to implement the method. A plenty
of computational results based on splines of various degrees are presented to
demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our method.


title:
Modeling Heterogeneous Peer Assortment Effects using Finite Mixture
  Exponential Random Graph Models

abstract:
  This article develops a class of models called Sender/Receiver Finite Mixture
Exponential Random Graph Models (SRFM-ERGMs) that enables inference on
networks. This class of models extends the existing Exponential Random Graph
Modeling framework to allow analysts to model unobserved heterogeneity in the
effects of nodal covariates and network features. An empirical example
regarding substance use among adolescents is presented. Simulations across a
variety of conditions are used to evaluate the performance of this technique.
We conclude that that unobserved heterogeneity in effects of nodal covariates
can be a major cause of mis-fit in network models, and the SRFM-ERGM approach
can alleviate this misfit. Implications for the analysis of social networks in
psychological science are discussed.


title: Four-fold Massey products in Galois cohomology

abstract:
  In this paper, we develop a new necessary and sufficient condition for the
vanishing of 4-Massey products of elements in the mod-2 Galois cohomology of a
field. This new description allows us to define a splitting variety for
4-Massey products, which is shown in the Appendix to satisfy a local-to-global
principle over number fields. As a consequence, we prove that, for a number
field, all such 4-Massey products vanish whenever they are defined. This
provides new explicit restrictions on the structure of absolute Galois groups
of number fields.


title:
Galileo (1564-1642) and Kepler (1571-1630): the modern scientist and the
  mystic

abstract:
  The art of advertising one's scientific achievements, of which Galileo was an
early master, is a trademark of successful modern science. Dedicated believers
and mystics of science, such as Kepler, are less popular. Yet, an alleged
rigorous rationalist like Wolfgang Pauli found in his later troubled life a
kinship to Kepler's "archetypal ideas".


title: Demonstrating the Elliptical Orbit of Mars using Naked Eye Data

abstract:
  Over the course of 3.1 years we determined the position of Mars on 75 dates
using a handheld cross staff and two to five bright reference stars of known
right ascension and declination on each occasion. On average the observed
positions of Mars are within +/- 11 arc minutes of the true ecliptic latitudes
and ecliptic longitudes. After deriving the two dates of opposition to the Sun,
we were able to carry out a two stage analytical experiment on Mars' orbit.
From the 2015/2016 data we obtain a value of the eccentricity of 0.093 +/-
0.012. The 2015/2016 data can be fit reasonably well by adopting a circular
orbit for the Earth, but the 2017/2018 data must be fit with an ellipse for
Mars and an ellipse for the Earth. Applying the two ellipse model to the
2015/2016 data, we obtain an RMS error of the ecliptic longitudes of only +/-
7.5 arc minutes. While Kepler was able to derive the shape of Mars' orbit while
relying on data of Tycho Brahe accurate to +/- 2 arc minutes, today we may
assume an ellptical orbit, and we can show that much less accurate data are
consistent with an ellipse having an eccentricity equal to the modern accepted
value of 0.0934, within the errors.


title: Metastable pions in dense media

abstract:
  We study the leptonic decay of charged pions in a compact star environment.
Considering leptons as a degenerated Fermi system, pions are tightly
constrained to decay into these particles because their Fermi levels are
occupied. Thus, pion decay is only possible through thermal fluctuations. Under
these circumstances, pion lifetime is larger and hence can be considered to
reach a metastable state. We explore restrictions under which such a
metastability is possible. We also study conditions under which pions and
leptons already in chemical equilibrium can reach simultaneously the thermal
equilibrium, and obtain the neutrino emissivity from metastable pions.
Scenarios that favor this metastable state are protoneutron stars.


title:
Impact of New Gamow-Teller Strengths on Explosive Type Ia Supernova
  Nucleosynthesis

abstract:
  Recent experimental results have confirmed a possible reduction in the GT$_+$
strengths of pf-shell nuclei. These proton-rich nuclei are of relevance in the
deflagration and explosive burning phases of Type Ia supernovae. While prior GT
strengths result in nucleosynthesis predictions with a lower-than-expected
electron fraction, a reduction in the GT$_+$ strength can result in an slightly
increased electron fraction compared to previous shell model predictions,
though the enhancement is not as large as previous enhancements in going from
rates computed by Fuller, Fowler, and Newman based on an independent particle
model. A shell model parametrization has been developed which more closely
matches experimental GT strengths. The resultant electron-capture rates are
used in nucleosynthesis calculations for carbon deflagration and explosion
phases of Type Ia supernovae, and the final mass fractions are compared to
those obtained using more commonly-used rates.


title:
Enthalpy, Geometric Volume and Logarithmic correction to Entropy for
  Van-der-Waals Black Hole

abstract:
  If the negative cosmological constant is treated as a dynamical pressure and
if the volume be its thermodynamically conjugate variable then the
gravitational mass can be expressed as the total gravitational enthalpy rather
than the energy. Under these circumstances, a new phenomena emerges in the
context of extended phase space thermodynamics. We \emph{examine} here these
features for recently discovered Van-der-Waal (VDW) black hole (BH)
\cite{mann15} which is analogous to the VDW fluid. We show that the
thermodynamic volume is \emph{greater} than the naive geometric volume. We also
show that the \emph{Smarr-Gibbs-Duhem} relation is satisfied for this BH.
Furthermore, by computing the thermal specific heat we find the local
thermodynamic stability criterion for this BH. It has been observed that the BH
does \emph{not} possess any kind of second order phase transition. This is an
interesting feature of VDW BH by its own right. Moreover, we also derive
\emph{Cosmic-Censorship-Inequality} for this class of BH. In addition finally,
we compute the \emph{logarithmic correction} to the entropy of this BH due to
the quantum fluctuations around the thermal equilibrium.


title: Morita bundle gerbes

abstract:
  The aim of this paper is to give a survey of the theory of bundle gerbes. In
our approach we especially emphasize the unifying role of Morita equivalences
in this theory. We also discuss a higher analog of Morita bundle gerbes called
Morita 2-bundle gerbes.


title:
Semi-supervised Knowledge Transfer for Deep Learning from Private
  Training Data

abstract:
  Some machine learning applications involve training data that is sensitive,
such as the medical histories of patients in a clinical trial. A model may
inadvertently and implicitly store some of its training data; careful analysis
of the model may therefore reveal sensitive information.
  To address this problem, we demonstrate a generally applicable approach to
providing strong privacy guarantees for training data: Private Aggregation of
Teacher Ensembles (PATE). The approach combines, in a black-box fashion,
multiple models trained with disjoint datasets, such as records from different
subsets of users. Because they rely directly on sensitive data, these models
are not published, but instead used as "teachers" for a "student" model. The
student learns to predict an output chosen by noisy voting among all of the
teachers, and cannot directly access an individual teacher or the underlying
data or parameters. The student's privacy properties can be understood both
intuitively (since no single teacher and thus no single dataset dictates the
student's training) and formally, in terms of differential privacy. These
properties hold even if an adversary can not only query the student but also
inspect its internal workings.
  Compared with previous work, the approach imposes only weak assumptions on
how teachers are trained: it applies to any model, including non-convex models
like DNNs. We achieve state-of-the-art privacy/utility trade-offs on MNIST and
SVHN thanks to an improved privacy analysis and semi-supervised learning.


title: Modeling community structure and topics in dynamic text networks

abstract:
  The last decade has seen great progress in both dynamic network modeling and
topic modeling. This paper draws upon both areas to create a Bayesian method
that allows topic discovery to inform the latent network model and the network
structure to facilitate topic identification. We apply this method to the 467
top political blogs of 2012. Our results find complex community structure
within this set of blogs, where community membership depends strongly upon the
set of topics in which the blogger is interested.


title: Twisted Black Hole Is Taub-NUT

abstract:
  Recently a purportedly novel solution of the vacuum Einstein field equations
was discovered: it supposedly describes an asymptotically flat twisted black
hole in 4-dimensions whose exterior spacetime rotates in a peculiar manner --
the frame dragging in the northern hemisphere is opposite from that of the
southern hemisphere, which results in a globally vanishing angular momentum.
Furthermore it was shown that the spacetime has no curvature singularity. We
show that the geometry of this black hole spacetime is nevertheless not free of
pathological features. In particular, it harbors a rather drastic conical
singularity along the axis of rotation. In addition, there exist closed
timelike curves due to the fact that the constant r and constant t surfaces are
not globally Riemannian. In fact, none of these are that surprising since the
solution is just the Taub-NUT geometry. As such, despite the original claim
that the twisted black hole might have observational consequences, it cannot
be.


title: Uniform Recovery from Subgaussian Multi-Sensor Measurements

abstract:
  Parallel acquisition systems are employed successfully in a variety of
different sensing applications when a single sensor cannot provide enough
measurements for a high-quality reconstruction. In this paper, we consider
compressed sensing (CS) for parallel acquisition systems when the individual
sensors use subgaussian random sampling. Our main results are a series of
uniform recovery guarantees which relate the number of measurements required to
the basis in which the solution is sparse and certain characteristics of the
multi-sensor system, known as sensor profile matrices. In particular, we derive
sufficient conditions for optimal recovery, in the sense that the number of
measurements required per sensor decreases linearly with the total number of
sensors, and demonstrate explicit examples of multi-sensor systems for which
this holds. We establish these results by proving the so-called Asymmetric
Restricted Isometry Property (ARIP) for the sensing system and use this to
derive both nonuniversal and universal recovery guarantees. Compared to
existing work, our results not only lead to better stability and robustness
estimates but also provide simpler and sharper constants in the measurement
conditions. Finally, we show how the problem of CS with block-diagonal sensing
matrices can be viewed as a particular case of our multi-sensor framework.
Specializing our results to this setting leads to a recovery guarantee that is
at least as good as existing results.


title:
The average size of the 3-isogeny Selmer groups of elliptic curves $y^2
  = x^3 + k$

abstract:
  The elliptic curve $E_k \colon y^2 = x^3 + k$ admits a natural 3-isogeny
$\phi_k \colon E_k \to E_{-27k}$. We compute the average size of the
$\phi_k$-Selmer group as $k$ varies over the integers. Unlike previous results
of Bhargava and Shankar on $n$-Selmer groups of elliptic curves, we show that
this average can be very sensitive to congruence conditions on $k$; this
sensitivity can be precisely controlled by the Tamagawa numbers of $E_k$ and
$E_{-27k}$. As consequences, we prove that the average rank of the curves
$E_k$, $k\in\mathbb Z$, is less than 1.21 and over $23\%$ (resp. $41\%$) of the
curves in this family have rank 0 (resp. 3-Selmer rank 1).


title:
Spin transport in antiferromagnetic NiO and magnetoresistance in
  Y$_3$Fe$_5$O$_{12}$/NiO/Pt structures

abstract:
  We have studied spin transport and magnetoresistance in yttrium iron garnet
(YIG)/NiO/Pt trilayers with varied NiO thickness. To characterize the spin
transport through NiO we excite ferromagnetic resonance in YIG with a microwave
frequency magnetic field and detect the voltage associated with the inverse
spin-Hall effect (ISHE) in the Pt layer. The ISHE signal is found to decay
exponentially with the NiO thickness with a characteristic decay length of 3.9
nm. This is contrasted with the magnetoresistance in these same structures. The
symmetry of the magnetoresistive response is consistent with spin-Hall
magnetoresistance (SMR). However, in contrast to the ISHE response, as the NiO
thickness increases the SMR signal goes towards zero abruptly at a NiO
thickness of $\simeq$ 4 nm, highlighting the different length scales associated
with the spin-transport in NiO and SMR in such trilayers.


title:
The wind speeds, dust content, and mass-loss rates of evolved AGB and
  RSG stars at varying metallicity

abstract:
  We present the results of our survey of 1612 MHz circumstellar OH maser
emission from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and red supergiants (RSGs) in
the Large Magellanic Cloud. We have discovered four new circumstellar maser
sources in the LMC, and increased the number of reliable wind speeds from IR
stars in the LMC from 5 to 13. Using our new wind speeds, as well as those from
Galactic sources, we have derived an updated relation for dust driven winds:
$v_{exp} \propto Z L^{0.4}$. We compare the sub-solar metallicity LMC OH/IR
stars with carefully selected samples of more metal-rich OH/IR stars, also at
known distances, in the Galactic Centre and Galactic Bulge. For 8 of the Bulge
stars we derive pulsation periods for the first time, using near-IR photometry
from the VVV survey. We have modeled our LMC OH/IR stars and developed an
empirical method of deriving gas-to-dust ratios and mass loss rates by scaling
the models to the results from maser profiles. We have done this also for
samples in the Galactic Centre and Bulge and derived a new mass loss
prescription that includes luminosity, pulsation period, and gas-to-dust ratio
$\dot{M} = 1.06^{+3.5}_{-0.8} \rm{ \cdot
}10^{-5}\,(L/10^4\,\rm{L}_\odot)^{0.9\pm0.1}(P/500\,\rm{d})^{0.75\pm0.3}
(r_{gd}/200)^{-0.03\pm0.07}\,\rm{M_{\odot}}\, yr^{-1}$. The tightest
correlation is found between mass loss rate and luminosity. We find that the
gas-to-dust ratio has little effect on the mass loss of oxygen-rich AGB stars
and RSGs within the Galaxy and the LMC. This suggests that mass loss of
oxygen-rich AGB stars and RSGs is (nearly) independent of metallicity between a
half and twice solar.


title:
Interacting Weyl fermions: Phases, phase transitions and global phase
  diagram

abstract:
  We study the effects of short-range interactions on a generalized
three-dimensional Weyl semimetal, where the band touching points act as the
(anti)monopoles of Abelian Berry curvature of strength $n$. We show that any
local interaction has a \emph{negative} scaling dimension $-2/n$. Consequently
all Weyl semimetals are stable against weak short-range interactions. For
sufficiently strong interactions, we demonstrate that the Weyl semimetal either
undergoes a first order transition into a band insulator or a continuous
transition into a symmetry breaking phase. A translational symmetry breaking
axion insulator and a rotational symmetry breaking semimetal are two prominent
candidates for the broken symmetry phase. At the one-loop order, the
correlation length exponent for continuous transitions is $\nu=n/2$, indicating
their non-Gaussian nature for any $n>1$. We also discuss the scaling of the
thermodynamic and transport quantities in general Weyl semimetals as well as
inside the broken symmetry phases.


title:
Classification of non-homogeneous Fourier matrices associated with
  modular data up to rank 5

abstract:
  Modular data is an important topic of study in rational conformal field
theory. A modular datum defines finite dimensional representations of the
modular group $\mbox{SL}_2(\mathbf{Z})$. For every Fourier matrix in a modular
datum there exists an Allen matrix obtained from the Fourier matrix after
dividing each its row with the first entry of that row. In this paper, we
classify the non-homogenous Fourier matrices and non-homogenous Allen matrices
up to rank $5$. The methods developed here are useful for the classification of
the matrices of higher ranks. Also, we establish some results that are helpful
in recognizing the $C$-algebras not arising from Allen matrices by just looking
at the character table of the $C$-algebra, in particular, the first row of the
character table.


title:
Reply to "Comment on "Critical Point Scaling of Ising Spin Glasses in a
  Magnetic Field" "

abstract:
  In his Comment, Temesv\'{a}ri objects to a remark in our paper [Phys.\ Rev.\
B {\bf 91}, 104432 (2015)] that his result for the form of the Almeida-Thouless
(AT) line obtained in an earlier paper with Parisi [Nucl.\ Phys.\ B {\bf 858},
293 (2012)] in six dimensions can be obtained by taking the limit of $d \to 6$
in the equations valid for $d>6$, but that this violated one of the
inequalities needed for their validity. He is just pointing out that they gave
a derivation of the form of the AT line in six dimensions in [Nucl.\ Phys.\ B
{\bf 858}, 293 (2012)] which avoided this difficulty. However, it is still a
perturbative approach, and does not deal with the lack of a perturbative fixed
point found by Bray and Roberts [J. Phys. C {\bf 13}, 5405 (1980)] long ago.


title: The Habitability of Planets Orbiting M-dwarf Stars

abstract:
  The prospects for the habitability of M-dwarf planets have long been debated,
due to key differences between the unique stellar and planetary environments
around these low-mass stars, as compared to hotter, more luminous Sun-like
stars. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made by both space-
and ground-based observatories to measure the likelihood of small planets to
orbit in the habitable zones of M-dwarf stars. We now know that most M dwarfs
are hosts to closely-packed planetary systems characterized by a paucity of
Jupiter-mass planets and the presence of multiple rocky planets, with roughly a
third of these rocky M-dwarf planets orbiting within the habitable zone, where
they have the potential to support liquid water on their surfaces. Theoretical
studies have also quantified the effect on climate and habitability of the
interaction between the spectral energy distribution of M-dwarf stars and the
atmospheres and surfaces of their planets. These and other recent results fill
in knowledge gaps that existed at the time of the previous overview papers
published nearly a decade ago by Tarter et al. (2007) and Scalo et al. (2007).
In this review we provide a comprehensive picture of the current knowledge of
M-dwarf planet occurrence and habitability based on work done in this area over
the past decade, and summarize future directions planned in this quickly
evolving field.


title: A flavor-safe composite explanation of $R_K$

abstract:
  In these proceedings we discuss a flavor-safe explanation of the anomaly
found in $R_K= {\cal B}(B \to K \mu^+ \mu^-)/{\cal B}(B \to K e^+ e^-)$ by
LHCb, within the framework of composite Higgs models. We present a model
featuring a non-negligible degree of compositeness for all three generations of
right-handed leptons, which leads to a violation of lepton-flavor universality
in neutral current interactions while other constraints from quark- and
lepton-flavor physics are met. Moreoever, the particular embedding of the
lepton sector considered in this setup provides a parametrically enhanded
contribution to the Higgs mass that can weak considerably the need for
ultra-light top partners.


title: Ly$\alpha$ and UV Sizes of Green Pea Galaxies

abstract:
  Green Peas are nearby analogs of high-redshift Ly$\alpha$-emitting galaxies.
To probe their Ly$\alpha$ escape, we study the spatial profiles of Ly$\alpha$
and UV continuum emission of 24 Green Pea galaxies using the Cosmic Origins
Spectrograph (COS) on Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We extract the spatial
profiles of Ly$\alpha$ emission from their 2D COS spectra, and of UV continuum
from both the 2D spectra and NUV images. The Ly$\alpha$ emission shows more
extended spatial profiles than the UV continuum in most Green Peas. The
deconvolved Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) of the Ly$\alpha$ spatial profile is
about 2 to 4 times that of the UV continuum in most cases. Since Green Peas are
analogs of high-z LAEs, it suggests that most high-z LAEs likely have larger
Ly$\alpha$ sizes than UV sizes. We also compare the spatial profiles of
Ly$\alpha$ photons at blueshifted and redshifted velocities in eight Green Peas
with sufficient data quality, and find the blue wing of the Ly$\alpha$ line has
a larger spatial extent than the red wing in four Green Peas with comparatively
weak blue Ly$\alpha$ line wings. We show that Green Peas and MUSE $z=3-6$ LAEs
have similar Ly$\alpha$ and UV continuum sizes, which probably suggests
starbursts in both low-z and high-z LAEs drive similar gas outflows illuminated
by Ly$\alpha$ light. Five Lyman continuum (LyC) leakers in this sample have
similar Ly$\alpha$ to UV continuum size ratios (~1.4-4.3) to the other Green
Peas, indicating their LyC emission escape through ionized holes in the
interstellar medium.


title: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations reconstruction with pixels

abstract:
  Gravitational non-linear evolution induces a shift in the position of the
baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) peak together with a damping and broadening
of its shape that bias and degrades the accuracy with which the position of the
peak can be determined. BAO reconstruction is a technique developed to undo
part of the effect of non-linearities. We present and analyse a reconstruction
method that consists of displacing pixels instead of galaxies and whose
implementation is easier than the standard reconstruction method. We show that
this method is equivalent to the standard reconstruction technique in the limit
where the number of pixels becomes very large. This method is particularly
useful in surveys where individual galaxies are not resolved, as in 21cm
intensity mapping observations. We validate this method by reconstructing mock
pixelated maps, that we build from the distribution of matter and halos in
real- and redshift-space, from a large set of numerical simulations. We find
that this method is able to decrease the uncertainty in the BAO peak position
by 30-50% over the typical angular resolution scales of 21 cm intensity mapping
experiments.


title: Does the Milky Way Obey Spiral Galaxy Scaling Relations?

abstract:
  It is crucial to understand how the Milky Way, the galaxy we can study in the
most intimate detail, fits in amongst other galaxies. Key examples include the
Tully-Fisher relation (TFR) --- i.e., the tight correlation between luminosity
($L$) and rotational velocity ($V_\textrm{rot}$) --- and the 3-dimensional
luminosity-velocity-radius ($LVR$) scaling relation. Several past studies have
characterized the MW as a 1--1.5$\sigma$ outlier to the TFR. This study
reexamines such comparisons using new estimates of MW properties that are
robust to many of the systematic uncertainties that have been a problem in the
past and are based on assumptions consistent with those used for other spiral
galaxies. Comparing to scaling relations derived from modern extragalactic
data, we find that our Galaxy's properties are in excellent agreement with TFRs
defined using any SDSS-filter absolute magnitude, stellar mass, or baryonic
mass as the $L$ proxy. We next utilize disk scale length ($R_\textrm{d}$)
measurements to extend this investigation to the $LVR$ relation. Here we find
that our Galaxy lies farther from the relation than $\sim$90\% of other spiral
galaxies, yielding $\sim$9.5$\sigma$ evidence that it is unusually compact for
its $L$ and $V_\textrm{rot}$ (based on MW errors alone), a result that holds
for all of the $L$ proxies considered. The expected $R_\textrm{d}$ for the MW
from the $LVR$ relation is $\sim$5 kpc, nearly twice as large as the observed
value, with error estimates placing the two in tension at the $\sim$1.4$\sigma$
level. The compact scale length of the Galactic disk could be related to other
ways in which the MW has been found to be anomalous.


title: SWAG: Survey of Water and Ammonia in the Galactic Center

abstract:
  SWAG ("Survey of Water and Ammonia in the Galactic Center") is a multi-line
interferometric survey toward the Center of the Milky Way conducted with the
Australia Telescope Compact Array. The survey region spans the entire ~400pc
Central Molecular Zone and comprises ~42 spectral lines at pc spatial and
sub-km/s spectral resolution. In addition, we deeply map continuum intensity,
spectral index, and polarization at the frequencies where synchrotron,
free-free, and thermal dust sources emit. The observed spectral lines include
many transitions of ammonia, which we use to construct maps of molecular gas
temperature, opacity and gas formation temperature (see poster by Nico Krieger
et al., this volume). Water masers pinpoint the sites of active star formation
and other lines are good tracers for density, radiation field, shocks, and
ionization. This extremely rich survey forms a perfect basis to construct maps
of the physical parameters of the gas in this extreme environment.


title:
Constraints on the trilinear Higgs coupling from vector boson fusion and
  associated Higgs production at the LHC

abstract:
  We examine the constraints on the trilinear Higgs coupling $\lambda$ that
originate from associated ($Vh$) and vector boson fusion (VBF) Higgs production
in $pp$ collisions in the context of the Standard Model effective field theory.
The 1-loop contributions to $pp \to V h$ and $pp \to jj h$ that stem from
insertions of the dimension-6 operator $O_6 = - \lambda \left (H^\dagger H
\right )^3$ are calculated and combined with the ${\cal O} (\lambda)$
corrections to the partial decay widths of the Higgs boson. Employing
next-to-next-to-leading order QCD predictions, we analyse the sensitivity of
current and forthcoming measurements of the signal strengths in $Vh$ and VBF
Higgs production to changes in $\lambda$. We show that future LHC runs may be
able to probe modifications of $\lambda$ with a sensitivity similar to the one
that is expected to arise from determinations of double-Higgs production. The
sensitivity of differential $Vh$ and VBF Higgs distributions to a modified
$h^3$ coupling is also studied.


title: Disk-Wind Connection During the Heartbeats of GRS 1915+105

abstract:
  Disk and wind signatures are seen in the soft state of Galactic black holes,
while the jet is seen in the hard state. Here we study the disk-wind connection
in the $\rho$ class of variability in GRS 1915+105 using a joint NuSTAR-Chandra
observation. The source shows 50 sec limit cycle oscillations. By including new
information provided by the reflection spectrum, and using phase-resolved
spectroscopy, we find that the change in the inner disk inferred from the
blackbody emission is not matched by reflection measurements. The latter is
almost constant, independent of the continuum model. The two radii are
comparable only if the disk temperature color correction factor changes, an
effect that could be due to the changing opacity of the disk caused by changes
in metal abundances. The disk inclination is similar to that inferred from the
jet axis, and oscillates by ~10 deg. The simultaneous Chandra data show the
presence of two wind components with velocities between 500-5000 km/s, and
possibly two more with velocities reaching 20,000 km/s (~0.06 c). The column
densities are ~5e22 cm$^{-2}$. An upper limit to the wind response time of 2
sec is measured, implying a launch radius of <6e10 cm. The changes in wind
velocity and absorbed flux require the geometry of the wind to change during
the oscillations, constraining the wind to be launched from a distance of 290 -
1300 rg from the black hole. Both datasets support fundamental model
predictions in which a bulge originates in the inner disk and moves outward as
the instability progresses.


title: RedQueen: An Online Algorithm for Smart Broadcasting in Social Networks

abstract:
  Users in social networks whose posts stay at the top of their followers'{}
feeds the longest time are more likely to be noticed. Can we design an online
algorithm to help them decide when to post to stay at the top? In this paper,
we address this question as a novel optimal control problem for jump stochastic
differential equations. For a wide variety of feed dynamics, we show that the
optimal broadcasting intensity for any user is surprisingly simple -- it is
given by the position of her most recent post on each of her follower's feeds.
As a consequence, we are able to develop a simple and highly efficient online
algorithm, RedQueen, to sample the optimal times for the user to post.
Experiments on both synthetic and real data gathered from Twitter show that our
algorithm is able to consistently make a user's posts more visible over time,
is robust to volume changes on her followers' feeds, and significantly
outperforms the state of the art.


title:
A theoretical framework to predict the most likely ion path in particle
  imaging

abstract:
  In this work, a generic rigorous Bayesian formalism is introduced to predict
the most likely path of any ion crossing a medium between two detection points.
The path is predicted based on a combination of the particle scattering in the
material and measurements of its initial and final position, direction and
energy. The path estimate's precision is compared to the Monte Carlo simulated
path. Every ion from hydrogen to carbon is simulated in two scenarios to
estimate the accuracy achievable: one where the range is fixed and one where
the initial velocity is fixed. In the scenario where the range is kept
constant, the maximal root-mean-square error between the estimated path and the
Monte Carlo path drops significantly between the proton path estimate (0.50 mm)
and the helium path estimate (0.18 mm), but less so up to the carbon path
estimate (0.09 mm). In the scenario where the initial velocity is kept
constant, helium have systematically the minimal root-mean-square error
throughout the path. As a result, helium is found to be the optimal particle
for ion imaging.


title: Modeling the Dynamics of Online Learning Activity

abstract:
  People are increasingly relying on the Web and social media to find solutions
to their problems in a wide range of domains. In this online setting, closely
related problems often lead to the same characteristic learning pattern, in
which people sharing these problems visit related pieces of information,
perform almost identical queries or, more generally, take a series of similar
actions. In this paper, we introduce a novel modeling framework for clustering
continuous-time grouped streaming data, the hierarchical Dirichlet Hawkes
process (HDHP), which allows us to automatically uncover a wide variety of
learning patterns from detailed traces of learning activity. Our model allows
for efficient inference, scaling to millions of actions taken by thousands of
users. Experiments on real data gathered from Stack Overflow reveal that our
framework can recover meaningful learning patterns in terms of both content and
temporal dynamics, as well as accurately track users' interests and goals over
time.


title: Low-$\ell$ power suppression in punctuated inflation

abstract:
  Motivated by Planck confirmation of an anomalously low value of the CMB
temperature fluctuations up to multipole $\ell<40$, we in this paper try to
explain such feature by investigating case of punctuated inflation scenario.
This form of inflation potential is inspired by Minimal Super-symmetric
Standard Model (MSSM) wherein suppression of curvature perturbation power at
large scales is produced by introducing period of fast-roll phase of the
inflation sandwiched between two stages of slow-roll phase.
  We apply Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis to determine posterior
distribution and the best fit values of the model parameters using recent WMAP9
and Planck data. We show that WMAP9 and Planck results are consistent with each
other and that with Planck data we obtain tighter constraints for punctuated
inflation parameters. We find that punctuated inflation leads to better fit in
CMB data compared to simple power law model. The improvement in the fit to the
WMAP9 data is $\Delta \chi^2\sim 3.6$ and for Planck the improvement is $\Delta
\chi^2\sim 5.4$. We find that $AIC$ does not discriminate between punctuated
inflation and simple power law model for WMAP9 data. However, for Planck data
we find that punctuated inflation is moderately preferred over a simple power
law model.


title: Limits on Pop III star formation with the most iron-poor stars

abstract:
  We study the impact of star-forming mini-haloes, and the Initial Mass
Function (IMF) of Population III (Pop III) stars, on the Galactic halo
Metallicity Distribution Function (MDF) and on the properties of C-enhanced and
C-normal stars at [Fe/H]<-3. For our investigation we use a data-constrained
merger tree model for the Milky Way formation, which has been improved to
self-consistently describe the physical processes regulating star-formation in
mini-haloes, including the poor sampling of the Pop III IMF. We find that only
when star-forming mini-haloes are included the low-Fe tail of the MDF is
correctly reproduced, showing a plateau that is built up by C-enhanced
metal-poor (CEMP) stars imprinted by primordial faint supernovae. The
incomplete sampling of the Pop III IMF in inefficiently star-forming
mini-haloes (< $10^{-3}$ $M_\odot$/yr) strongly limits the formation of Pair
Instability Supernovae (PISNe), with progenitor masses $m_{\rm
popIII}$=[140-260] $M_\odot$, even when a flat Pop III IMF is assumed.
Second-generation stars formed in environments polluted at >50% level by PISNe
are thus extremely rare, corresponding to $\approx$ 0.25% of the total stellar
population at [Fe/H]<-2, which is consistent with recent observations. The
low-Fe tail of the MDF strongly depends on the Pop III IMF shape and mass
range. Given the current statistics, we find that a flat Pop III IMF model with
$m_{\rm popIII}$=[10-300] $M_\odot$ is disfavoured by observations. We present
testable predictions for Pop III stars extending down to lower masses, with
$m_{\rm popIII}$=[0.1-300] $M_\odot$.


title:
Real-time broadening of non-equilibrium density profiles and the role of
  the specific initial-state realization

abstract:
  The real-time broadening of density profiles starting from non-equilibrium
states is at the center of transport in condensed-matter systems and dynamics
in ultracold atomic gases. Initial profiles close to equilibrium are expected
to evolve according to linear response, e.g., as given by the current
correlator evaluated exactly at equilibrium. Significantly off equilibrium,
linear response is expected to break down and even a description in terms of
canonical ensembles is questionable. We unveil that single pure states with
density profiles of maximum amplitude yield a broadening in perfect agreement
with linear response, if the structure of these states involves randomness in
terms of decoherent off-diagonal density-matrix elements. While these states
allow for spin diffusion in the XXZ spin-1/2 chain at large exchange
anisotropies, coherences yield entirely different behavior.


title:
How to fold intricately: using theory and experiments to unravel the
  properties of knotted proteins

abstract:
  Over the years, advances in experimental and computational methods have
helped us to understand the role of thermodynamic, kinetic and active
(chaperone-aided) effects in coordinating the folding steps required to
achieving a knotted native state. Here, we review such developments by paying
particular attention to the complementarity of experimental and computational
studies. Key open issues that could be tackled with either or both approaches
are finally pointed out.


title: Disorder Operators and their Descendants

abstract:
  I review the concept of a {\em disorder operator}, introduced originally by
Kadanoff in the context of the two-dimensional Ising model. Disorder operators
acquire an expectation value in the disordered phase of the classical spin
system. This concept has had applications and implications to many areas of
physics ranging from quantum spin chains to gauge theories to topological
phases of matter. In this paper I describe the role that disorder operators
play in our understanding of ordered, disordered and topological phases of
matter. The role of disorder operators, and their generalizations, and their
connection with dualities in different systems, as well as with Majorana
fermions and parafermions, is discussed in detail. Their role in recent
fermion-boson and boson-boson dualities is briefly discussed.


title:
Ultraluminous X-ray bursts in two ultracompact companions to nearby
  elliptical galaxies

abstract:
  An X-ray flaring source was found near the galaxy NGC 4697. Two flares were
seen, separated by four years. The flux increased by a factor of 90 on a
timescale of about one minute. Both flares were very brief. There is no optical
counterpart at the position of the flares, but if the source was at the
distance of NGC 4697, the luminosities were 10^39 erg/s. Here we report the
results of a search of archival X-ray data for 70 nearby galaxies looking for
similar such flares. We found two flaring sources in globular clusters or
ultra-compact dwarf companions of parent elliptical galaxies. One source flared
once to a peak luminosity of 9 x 10^40 erg/s, while the other flared five times
to 10^40 erg/s. All of the flare rise times were <1 minute, and they then
decayed over about an hour. When not flaring, the sources appear to be normal
accreting neutron star or black hole X-ray binaries, but they are located in
old stellar populations, unlike the magnetars, anomalous X-ray pulsars or soft
gamma repeaters that have repetitive flares of similar luminosities.


title:
What is the right way to quench star formation in semi-analytic model of
  galaxy formation?

abstract:
  Semi-analytic models of galaxy formation are powerful tools to study the
evolution of galaxy population in a cosmological context. However, most models
over-predict the number of low-mass galaxies at high redshifts and the color of
model galaxies are not right in the sense that low-mass satellite galaxies are
too red and centrals are too blue. The recent version of the L-Galaxies model
by Henriques et al.(H15) is a step forward to solve these problems by
reproducing the evolution of stellar mass function and the overall fraction of
red galaxies. In this paper we compare the two model predictions of L-Galaxies
(the other is Guo et al. , G13) to the SDSS data in detail. We find that in the
H15 model the red fraction of central galaxies now agrees with the data due to
their implementation of strong AGN feedback, but the stellar mass of centrals
in massive haloes is now slightly lower than the data. For satellite galaxies,
the red fraction of low-mass galaxies ($\log M_{*}/M_{\odot} < 10$) also agrees
with the data, but the color of massive satellites ($10 < \log M_{*}/M_{\odot}
< 11$) is slightly bluer. The correct color of centrals and bluer color of
massive satellites indicate that the quenching in massive satellites are not
strong enough. We also find that there are too much red spirals and less
bulge-dominated galaxies in both H15 and G13 models. Our results suggest that
additional mechanisms, such as more minor merger or disk instability, are
needed to slightly increase the stellar mass of central galaxy in massive
galaxies, mainly in the bulge component, and the bulge dominated galaxy will be
quenched or then be quenched by any other mechanisms.


title: Spontaneous Baryogenesis without Baryon Isocurvature

abstract:
  We propose a new class of spontaneous baryogenesis models that does not
produce baryon isocurvature perturbations. The baryon chemical potential in
these models is independent of the field value of the baryon-generating scalar,
hence the scalar field fluctuations are blocked from propagating into the
baryon isocurvature. We demonstrate this mechanism in simple examples where
spontaneous baryogenesis is driven by a non-canonical scalar field. The
suppression of the baryon isocurvature allows spontaneous baryogenesis to be
compatible even with high-scale inflation.


title:
Probing the semiconductor to semimetal transition in InAs/GaSb double
  quantum wells by magneto-infrared spectroscopy

abstract:
  We perform a magneto-infrared spectroscopy study of the semiconductor to
semimetal transition of InAs/GaSb double quantum wells from the normal to the
inverted state. We show that owing to the low carrier density of our samples
(approaching the intrinsic limit), the magneto-absorption spectra evolve from a
single cyclotron resonance peak in the normal state to multiple absorption
peaks in the inverted state with distinct magnetic field dependence. Using an
eight-band Pidgeon-Brown model, we explain all the major absorption peaks
observed in our experiment. We demonstrate that the semiconductor to semimetal
transition can be realized by manipulating the quantum confinement, the strain,
and the magnetic field. Our work paves the way for band engineering of optimal
InAs/GaSb structures for realizing novel topological states as well as for
device applications in the terahertz regime.


title: Hidden momentum and the Abraham-Minkowski debate

abstract:
  We use an extended version of electrodynamics, which admits the existence of
magnetic charges and currents, to discuss how different models for electric and
magnetic dipoles do or do not carry hidden momentum under the influence of
external electromagnetic fields. Based on that, we discuss how the models
adopted for the electric and magnetic dipoles from the particles that compose a
material medium influence the expression for the electromagnetic part of the
light momentum in the medium. We show that Abraham expression is compatible
with electric dipoles formed by electric charges and magnetic dipoles formed by
magnetic charges, while Minkowski expression is compatible with electric
dipoles formed by magnetic currents and magnetic dipoles formed by electric
currents. The expression $\varepsilon_0\mathbf{E}\times\mathbf{B}$, on the
other hand, is shown to be compatible with electric dipoles formed by electric
charges and magnetic dipoles formed by electric currents, which are much more
natural models. So this expression has an interesting interpretation in the
Abraham-Minkowski debate about the momentum of light in a medium: It is the
expression compatible with the nonexistence of magnetic charges. We also
provide a simple justification of why Abraham and Minkowski momenta can be
associated with the kinetic and canonical momentum of light, respectively.


title:
SCExAO and GPI $YJH$ Band Photometry and Integral Field Spectroscopy of
  the Young Brown Dwarf Companion to HD 1160

abstract:
  We present high signal-to-noise ratio, precise $YJH$ photometry and $Y$ band
(\gpiwave~$\mu$m) spectroscopy of HD 1160 B, a young substellar companion
discovered from the Gemini NICI Planet Finding Campaign, using the Subaru
Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics instrument and the Gemini Planet Imager.
HD 1160 B has typical mid-M dwarf-like infrared colors and a spectral type of
M5.5$^{+1.0}_{-0.5}$, where the blue edge of our $Y$ band spectrum rules out
earlier spectral types. Atmospheric modeling suggests HD 1160 B having an
effective temperature of 3000--3100 $K$, a surface gravity of log $g$ = 4--4.5,
a radius of~\bestfitradius~$R_{\rm J}$, and a luminosity of log $L$/$L_{\odot}
= -2.76 \pm 0.05$. Neither the primary's Hertzspring-Russell diagram position
nor atmospheric modeling of HD 1160 B show evidence for a sub-solar
metallicity. The interpretation of the HD 1160 B depends on which stellar
system components are used to estimate an age. Considering HD 1160 A, B and C
jointly, we derive an age of 80--125 Myr, implying that HD 1160 B straddles the
hydrogen-burning limit (70--90 $M_{\rm J}$). If we consider HD 1160 A alone,
younger ages (20--125 Myr) and a brown dwarf-like mass (35--90 $M_{\rm J}$) are
possible. Interferometric measurements of the primary, a precise GAIA parallax,
and moderate resolution spectroscopy can better constrain the system's age and
how HD 1160 B fits within the context of (sub)stellar evolution.


title: Mechanical Graphene

abstract:
  We present a model of a mechanical system with a vibrational mode spectrum
identical to the spectrum of electronic excitations in a tight-binding model of
graphene. The model consists of point masses connected by elastic couplings,
called "tri-bonds," that implement certain three-body interactions, which can
be tuned by varying parameters that correspond to the relative hopping
amplitudes on the different bond directions in graphene. In the mechanical
model, this is accomplished by varying the location of a pivot point that
determines the allowed rigid rotations of a single tri-bond. The infinite
system constitutes a Maxwell lattice, with the number of degrees of freedom
equal to the number of constraints imposed by the tri-bonds. We construct the
equilibrium and compatibility matrices and analyze the model's phase diagram,
which includes spectra with Weyl points for some placements of the pivot and
topologically polarized phases for others. We then discuss the edge modes and
associated states of self stress for strips cut from the periodic lattice.
Finally, we suggest a physical realization of the tri-bond, which allows access
to parameter regimes not available to experiments on (strained) graphene and
may be used to create other two-dimensional mechanical metamaterials with
different spectral features.


title:
Human Task Monitoring and Contextual Analysis for Domain Specific
  Business Processes

abstract:
  Monitoring the execution of business processes and activities composing them
is an essential capability of Business Process Management (BPM) Suites. Human
tasks are a particular type of business activities, and the understanding of
their execution is essential in effectively managing both the processes and
human resources. This paper proposes a monitoring framework with a capability
to monitor and analyze the human tasks in a domain specific setting and
contextually correlate the task execution patterns to the workload distribution
on human users. The framework uses the notion of concept probes that match the
business concepts used in definition of business processes. The proposed human
task monitoring and contextual analysis (HTMCA) component considers multiple
artifacts involved in the execution of a human task, rather than focusing only
on classic activity/task metrics retrieved from BPM engines.This approach
aspires to provide two main advantages to organizations using it. Firstly, it
enhances the understanding of the workload of human users that participate in
people-intensive business processes under various roles. Secondly, it gives
organizations tools and insight for fine-tuning their user performance taking
into account the specific context of their business various artifacts domains.
The proposed framework builds on previous work that lays the basis of
vendor-independent, concept-centric BPM monitoring, and provides the critical
missing element of human task understanding. This has the potential to
significantly benefit any BPM deployment and the validation work is in advanced
stages of building a full prototype that demonstrates this value in a realistic
industrial setting.


title: Fractal Dimension and Universality in Avascular Tumor Growth

abstract:
  The comprehension of tumor growth is a intriguing subject for scientists. New
researches has been constantly required to better understand the complexity of
this phenomenon. In this paper, we pursue a physical description that account
for some experimental facts involving avascular tumor growth. We have proposed
an explanation of some phenomenological (macroscopic) aspects of tumor, as the
spatial form and the way it growths, from a individual-level (microscopic)
formulation. The model proposed here is based on a simple principle:
competitive interaction between the cells dependent on their mutual distances.
As a result, we reproduce many empirical evidences observed in real tumors, as
exponential growth in their early stages followed by a power law growth. The
model also reproduces the fractal space distribution of tumor cells and the
universal behavior presented in animals and tumor growth, conform reported by
West, Guiot {\it et. al.}\cite{West2001,Guiot2003}. The results suggest that
the universal similarity between tumor and animal growth comes from the fact
that both are described by the same growth equation - the Bertalanffy-Richards
model - even they does not necessarily share the same biophysical properties.


title: The 2012 July 23 Backside Eruption: An Extreme Energetic Particle Event?

abstract:
  The backside coronal mass ejection (CME) of 2012 July 23 had a short Sun to
Earth shock transit time (18.5 hours). The associated solar energetic particle
(SEP) event had a >10 MeV proton flux peaking at ~5000 pfu, and the energetic
storm particle (ESP) event was an order of magnitude larger, making it the most
intense event in the space era at these energies. By a detailed analysis of the
CME, shock, and SEP characteristics, we find that the July 23 event is
consistent with a high-energy SEP event (accelerating particles to GeV
energies). The time of maximum and fluence spectra in the range 10-100 MeV were
very hard, similar to those of ground level enhancement (GLE) events. We found
a hierarchical relationship between the CME initial speeds and the fluence
spectral indices: CMEs with low initial speeds had SEP events with the softest
spectra, while those with highest initial speeds had SEP events with the
hardest spectra. CMEs attaining intermediate speeds result in moderately hard
spectra. The July 23 event was in the group of hard-spectrum events. During the
July 23 event, the shock speed (>2000 km s^-1), the initial acceleration (~1.70
km s^-2), and the shock formation height (~1.5 solar radii) were all typical of
GLE events. The associated type II burst had emission components from metric to
kilometric wavelengths suggesting a strong shock. These observation confirm
that the 2012 July 23 event is likely to be an extreme event in terms of the
energetic particles it accelerated.


title: Soft-/rapidity- anomalous dimensions correspondence

abstract:
  We establish a correspondence between ultraviolet singularities of soft
factors for multiparticle production and rapidity singularities of soft factors
for multiparton scattering. This correspondence is a consequence of the
conformal mapping between scattering geometries. The correspondence is valid to
all orders of perturbation theory and in this way provides one with a proof of
rapidity renormalization procedure for multiparton scattering (including the
transverse momentum dependent (TMD) factorization as a special case). As a
by-product, we obtain an exact relation between the rapidity anomalous
dimension and the well-known soft anomalous dimension. The three-loop
expressions for TMD and a general multiparton scattering rapidity anomalous
dimension are derived.


title: Big Batch SGD: Automated Inference using Adaptive Batch Sizes

abstract:
  Classical stochastic gradient methods for optimization rely on noisy gradient
approximations that become progressively less accurate as iterates approach a
solution. The large noise and small signal in the resulting gradients makes it
difficult to use them for adaptive stepsize selection and automatic stopping.
We propose alternative "big batch" SGD schemes that adaptively grow the batch
size over time to maintain a nearly constant signal-to-noise ratio in the
gradient approximation. The resulting methods have similar convergence rates to
classical SGD, and do not require convexity of the objective. The high fidelity
gradients enable automated learning rate selection and do not require stepsize
decay. Big batch methods are thus easily automated and can run with little or
no oversight.


title:
Closed formulas for fractional chromatic polynomials of some common
  classes of graphs

abstract:
  Chromatic polynomials have been studied extensively, giving us results such
as the Fundamental Reduction Theorem and closed formulas for the chromatic
polynomials of common classes of graphs. Though, none of those extend to the
context of fractional colorings. We thus present closed formulas for the
"fractional" chromatic polynomial - a function that counts the number of
distinct $b$-fold $\lambda$-colorings on a given graph - of complete graphs,
trees and forests, as well as a generalized form of the Fundamental Reduction
Theorem.


title: Surjective holomorphic maps onto Oka manifolds

abstract:
  Let $X$ be a connected Oka manifold, and let $S$ be a Stein manifold with
$\mathrm{dim} S \geq \mathrm{dim} X$. We show that every continuous map $S\to
X$ is homotopic to a surjective strongly dominating holomorphic map $S\to X$.
We also find strongly dominating algebraic morphisms from the affine $n$-space
onto any compact $n$-dimensional algebraically subelliptic manifold. Motivated
by these results, we propose a new holomorphic flexibility property of complex
manifolds, the basic Oka property with surjectivity, which could potentially
provide another characterization of the class of Oka manifolds.


title:
Estimation of multiple change points under a generalised
  Ornstein-Uhlenbeck framework

abstract:
  The use of an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process is ubiquitous in business,
economics and finance to capture various price processes and evolution of
economic indicators exhibiting mean-reverting properties. When structural
changes happen, economic dynamics drastically change and the times at which
these occur are of particular interest to policy makers, investors and
financial product providers. This paper addresses the change-point problem
under a generalised OU model and investigates the associated statistical
inference. We propose two estimation methods to locate multiple change points
and show the asymptotic properties of the estimators. An informational approach
is employed in detecting the change points, and the consistency of our methods
is also theoretically demonstrated. Estimation is considered under the setting
where both the number and location of change points are unknown. Three
computing algorithms are further developed for implementation. The practical
applicability of our methods is illustrated using simulated and observed
financial market data.


title: Decision Tree Classification on Outsourced Data

abstract:
  This paper proposes a client-server decision tree learning method for
outsourced private data. The privacy model is anatomization/fragmentation: the
server sees data values, but the link between sensitive and identifying
information is encrypted with a key known only to clients. Clients have limited
processing and storage capability. Both sensitive and identifying information
thus are stored on the server. The approach presented also retains most
processing at the server, and client-side processing is amortized over
predictions made by the clients. Experiments on various datasets show that the
method produces decision trees approaching the accuracy of a non-private
decision tree, while substantially reducing the client's computing resource
requirements.


title: A theory for non-Abelian superfluid dynamics

abstract:
  We write down a theory for non-Abelian superfluids with a partially broken
(semisimple) Lie group. We adapt the offshell formalism of hydrodynamics to
superfluids and use it to comment on the superfluid transport compatible with
the second law of thermodynamics. We find that the second law can be also used
to derive the Josephson equation, which governs dynamics of the Goldstone
modes. In the course of our analysis, we derive an alternate and mutually
distinct parametrization of the recently proposed classification of
hydrodynamic transport and generalize it to superfluids.


title: Cosmological Implications of Trace-Charged Dark Matter

abstract:
  Trace charge imbalances can explain puzzling cosmological observations such
as the large `missing' fraction of electrons in cosmic rays and their contrast
to the charge-neutral solar wind, the extreme energy sources that sustain
pulsars, quasars, galactic jets and active galactic nuclei (AGN), the origin
and nature of `dark matter' galaxy haloes, and the apparent acceleration of the
expansion of the Universe. When there are $\sim \num{9e-19}$ amounts of excess
$\ce{H3+}$ or $\ce{H-}$ within cold diffuse clouds of $\ce{H2}$, residual
repulsive Coulomb forces between these few unbalanced charges are comparable to
the gravitational attractions between the many nucleons. Thus, trace-charged
dark matter is inert with respect to static electrogravitional
self-attractions, but responds to electromagnetic fields and gravitational
attractions with uncharged matter. Trace charge is also the ionic catalyst that
keeps dark matter in the state of unseen clouds of cold molecular hydrogen plus
trace $\ce{H3+}$. Once warm enough to partially ionize, bright matter
preferentially expels its net charge to become nearly charge-neutral. Planets
surrounding stars become charge neutral as they bathe in a charge-neutral
stellar wind. In contrast, around trace-charged AGNs, black holes, and
pulsars,newly ionized protons along with a significant fraction of entrained
dark matter are Coulomb-expelled to relativistic velocities in polar jets.
Extrasolar cosmic rays generated by these would be strongly proton-dominated,
as observed. Initial trace charge imbalances could originate at the onset of
the the Big Bang by segregation of an electron-rich shell to peripheral
expanding matter of the Universe.


title: VERITAS and VLBA Observations of HESS J1943+213

abstract:
  HESS J1943+213 is a very high energy (VHE; 100 GeV) {\gamma}-ray source in
the direction of the Galactic plane. 38 hours of deep VERITAS observations
taken over two seasons detect the source with ~20 {\sigma} significance.
Monitoring observations of HESS J1943+213 show a remarkably stable flux and
spectrum in VHE {\gamma}-rays. Studies exploring the classification of HESS
J1943+213 are converging towards accepting the source as an extreme synchrotron
BL Lac object. Specifically, overall SED characteristics of the source, the
detection of a potential host galaxy in near-IR imaging, and VLBI observations
of the HESS J1943+213 radio counterpart showing extended jet-like emission at
milliarcsecond scale and core flux density variability establish the source as
a blazar. Recent Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of the source
(shown here for the first time) confirm the extended structure found in the 1.6
GHz band and detect the jet-like component in the 4.6 GHz and the 7.3 GHz
bands. The spectral indices of the core and the jet-like components derived
from the VLBA observations are in a range typical for blazars. HESS J1943+213
fits the extreme HBL description; however, with variability detected only at
milliarcseconds scales in radio, it appears to be an abnormally stable VHE
{\gamma}-ray blazar.


title:
Confined Random Walkers in Dimensions Higher Than One and Analysis of
  Transmission of Infection in Epidemics

abstract:
  A pair of random walkers, the motion of each of which in two dimensions is
confined spatially by the action of a quadratic potential centered at different
locations for the two walks, are analyzed in the context of reaction-diffusion.
The application sought is to the process of transmission of infection in
epidemics. The walkers are animals such as rodents in considerations of the
Hantavirus epidemic, infected or susceptible, the reaction is the transmission
of infection, and the confining potential represents the tendency of the
animals to stay in the neighborhood of their home range centers. Calculations
are based on a recently developed formalism (Kenkre and Sugaya, Bull. Math.
Bio. 76, 3016 (2014)) structured around analytic solutions of a Smoluchowski
equation and one of its aims is the resolution of peculiar but well-known
problems of reaction-diffusion theory in 2-dimensions. In the present analysis,
reaction occurs not at points but in spatial regions of dimensions larger than
0. The analysis uncovers interesting nonintuitive phenomena one of which is
similar to that encountered in the 1-dimensional analysis given in the quoted
article, and another specific to the fact that the reaction region is spatially
extended. The analysis additionally provides a realistic description of
observations on animals transmitting infection while moving on what is
effectively a 2-dimensional landscape. Along with the general formalism and
explicit 1-dimensional analysis given in Bull. Math. Bio. 76, 3016 (2014), the
present work forms a model calculational tool for the analysis for the
transmission of infection in dilute systems.


title:
Parallelisation of PyHEADTAIL, a Collective Beam Dynamics Code for
  Particle Accelerator Physics

abstract:
  The longitudinal tracking engine of the particle accelerator simulation
application PyHEADTAIL shows a heavy potential for parallelisation. For basic
beam circulation, the tracking functionality with the leap-frog algorithm is
extracted and compared between a sequential C and a concurrent CUDA C API
implementation for 1 million revolutions. Including the sequential data I/O in
both versions, a pure speedup of up to S = 100 is observed which is in the
order of magnitude of what is expected from Amdahl's law. From O(100)
macro-particles on the overhead of initialising the GPU CUDA device appears
outweighed by the concurrent computations on the 448 available CUDA cores.


title: All-passive pixel super-resolution of time-stretch imaging

abstract:
  Based on image encoding in a serial-temporal format, optical time-stretch
imaging entails a stringent requirement of state-of-the- art fast data
acquisition unit in order to preserve high image resolution at an ultrahigh
frame rate --- hampering the widespread utilities of such technology. Here, we
propose a pixel super-resolution (pixel-SR) technique tailored for time-stretch
imaging that preserves pixel resolution at a relaxed sampling rate. It
harnesses the subpixel shifts between image frames inherently introduced by
asynchronous digital sampling of the continuous time-stretch imaging process.
Precise pixel registration is thus accomplished without any active
opto-mechanical subpixel-shift control or other additional hardware. Here, we
present the experimental pixel-SR image reconstruction pipeline that restores
high-resolution time-stretch images of microparticles and biological cells
(phytoplankton) at a relaxed sampling rate (approx. 2--5 GSa/s) --- more than
four times lower than the originally required readout rate (20 GSa/s) --- is
thus effective for high-throughput label-free, morphology-based cellular
classification down to single-cell precision. Upon integration with the
high-throughput image processing technology, this pixel-SR time- stretch
imaging technique represents a cost-effective and practical solution for large
scale cell-based phenotypic screening in biomedical diagnosis and machine
vision for quality control in manufacturing.


title: Restricted Stirling and Lah number matrices and their inverses

abstract:
  Given $R \subseteq \mathbb{N}$ let ${n \brace k}_R$, ${n \brack k}_R$, and
$L(n,k)_R$ be the number of ways of partitioning the set $[n]$ into $k$
non-empty subsets, cycles and lists, respectively, with each block having
cardinality in $R$. We refer to these as the $R$-restricted Stirling numbers of
the second and first kind and the $R$-restricted Lah numbers, respectively.
Note that the classical Stirling numbers of the second kind and first kind, and
Lah numbers are ${n \brace k} = {n \brace k}_{\mathbb{N}}$, ${n \brack k} = {n
\brack k}_{\mathbb{N}} $ and $L(n,k) = L(n,k)_{\mathbb{N}}$, respectively.
  The matrices $[{n \brace k}]_{n,k \geq 1}$, $[{n \brack k}]_{n,k \geq 1}$ and
$[L(n,k)]_{n,k \geq 1}$ have inverses $[(-1)^{n-k}{n \brack k}]_{n,k \geq 1}$,
$[(-1)^{n-k} {n \brace k}]_{n,k \geq 1}$ and $[(-1)^{n-k} L(n,k)]_{n,k \geq 1}$
respectively. The inverse matrices $[{n \brace k}_R]^{-1}_{n,k \geq 1}$, $[{n
\brack k}_R]^{-1}_{n,k \geq 1}$ and $[L(n,k)_R]^{-1}_{n,k \geq 1}$ exist if and
only if $1 \in R$. We express each entry of each of these matrices as the
difference between the cardinalities of two explicitly defined families of
labeled forests. In particular the entries of $[{n \brace k}_{[r]}]^{-1}_{n,k
\geq 1}$ have combinatorial interpretations, affirmatively answering a question
of Choi, Long, Ng and Smith from 2006.
  If $1,2 \in R$ and if for all $n \in R$ with $n$ odd and $n \geq 3$, we have
$n \pm 1 \in R$, we additionally show that each entry of $[{n \brace
k}_R]^{-1}_{n,k \geq 1}$, $[{n \brack k}_R]^{-1}_{n,k \geq 1}$ and
$[L(n,k)_R]^{-1}_{n,k \geq 1}$ is up to an explicit sign the cardinality of a
single explicitly defined family of labeled forests. Our results also provide
combinatorial interpretations of the $k$th Whitney numbers of the first and
second kinds of $\Pi_n^{1,d}$, the poset of partitions of $[n]$ that have each
part size congruent to $1$ mod $d$.


title:
Products of primes in arithmetic progressions: a footnote in parity
  breaking

abstract:
  We prove that, if $x$ and $q\leqslant x^{1/16}$ are two parameters, then for
any invertible residue class $a$ modulo $q$ there exists a product of exactly
three primes, each one below $x^{1/3}$, that is congruent to $a$ modulo $q$.


title: A Brief Update on the CMZoom Survey

abstract:
  The inner few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way, the Central Molecular Zone
(CMZ), is our closest laboratory for understanding star formation in the
extreme environments (hot, dense, turbulent gas) that once dominated the
universe. We present an update on the first large-area survey to expose the
sites of star formation across the CMZ at high-resolution in submillimeter
wavelengths: the CMZoom survey with the Submillimeter Array (SMA). We identify
the locations of dense cores and search for signatures of embedded star
formation. CMZoom is a three-year survey in its final year and is mapping out
the highest column density regions of the CMZ in dust continuum and a variety
of spectral lines around 1.3 mm. CMZoom combines SMA compact and subcompact
configurations with single-dish data from BGPS and the APEX telescope,
achieving an angular resolution of about 4" (0.2 pc) and good image fidelity up
to large spatial scales.


title: Analytic solution for Gauged Dirac-Weyl equation in $(2+1)$-dimensions

abstract:
  A gauged Dirac-Weyl equation in (2+1)-dimension is considered. This equation
has the particularity to describe the states of a graphene Dirac matter. In
particular we are interested in matter interacting with a Chern-Simons gauge
fields. We show that exact self-dual solutions are admitted. These solutions
are the same as those supported by nonrelativistic matter interacting with a
Chern-Simons gauge field.


title:
Optimal and near-optimal probe states for quantum metrology of number
  conserving two-mode bosonic Hamiltonians

abstract:
  We derive families of optimal and near-optimal probe states for quantum
estimation of the coupling constants of a general two-mode number-conserving
bosonic Hamiltonian describing one-body and two-body dynamics. We find that the
optimal states for estimating the dephasing of the modes, the self-interaction
strength, and the contact interaction strength are related to the NOON states,
whereas the optimal states for estimation of the intermode single particle
tunneling amplitude are superpositions of antipodal SU(2) coherent states. For
estimation of the amplitude of pair tunneling and the amplitude of
density-dependent single particle tunneling processes, respectively, we
introduce classes of variational superposition probe states that provide near
perfect saturation of the corresponding quantum Cram\'{e}r-Rao bounds. We show
that the ground state of the pair tunneling term in the Hamiltonian has a high
fidelity with the optimal states for estimation of a single particle tunneling
amplitude, suggesting that high-performance probes for tunneling amplitude
estimation may be produced by tuning the two-mode system through a quantum
phase transition.


title:
Magnetic properties of low-moment ferrimagnetic Heusler Cr2CoGa thin
  films grown by molecular beam epitaxy

abstract:
  Recently, theorists have predicted many materials with a low magnetic moment
and large spin-polarization for spintronic applications. These compounds are
predicted to form in the inverse Heusler structure, however, many of these
compounds have been found to phase segregate. In this study, ordered Cr2CoGa
thin films were synthesized without phase segregation using molecular beam
epitaxy. The present as-grown films exhibit a low magnetic moment from
antiferromagnetically coupled Cr and Co atoms as measured with SQUID
magnetometry and soft X-ray magnetic circular dichroism. Electrical
measurements demonstrated a thermally-activated semiconductor-like resistivity
with an activation energy of 87 meV. These results confirm spin gapless
semiconducting behavior, which makes these thin films well positioned for
future devices.


title: Monitoring test under nonparametric random effects model

abstract:
  Factors such as climate change, forest fire and plague of insects, lead to
concerns on the mechanical strength of plantation materials. To address such
concerns, these products must be closely monitored. This leads to the need of
updating lumber quality monitoring procedures in American Society for Testing
and Materials (ASTM) Standard D1990 (adopted in 1991) from time to time. A key
component of monitoring is an effective method for detecting the change in
lower percentiles of the solid lumber strength based on multiple samples. In a
recent study by Verrill et al.\ (2015), eight statistical tests proposed by
wood scientists were examined thoroughly based on real and simulated data sets.
These tests are found unsatisfactory in differing aspects such as seriously
inflated false alarm rate when observations are clustered, suboptimal power
properties, or having inconvenient ad hoc rejection regions. A contributing
factor behind suboptimal performance is that most of these tests are not
developed to detect the change in quantiles. In this paper, we use a
nonparametric random effects model to handle the within cluster correlations,
composite empirical likelihood to avoid explicit modelling of the correlations
structure, and a density ratio model to combine the information from multiple
samples. In addition, we propose a cluster-based bootstrapping procedure to
construct the monitoring test on quantiles which satisfactorily controls the
type I error in the presence of within cluster correlation. The performance of
the test is examined through simulation experiments and a real world example.
The new method is generally applicable, not confined to the motivating example.


title: Chern-Simons Theory and Wilson Loops in the Brillouin Zone

abstract:
  Berry connection is conventionally defined as a static gauge field in the
Brillouin zone. Here we show that for three-dimensional (3d) time-reversal
invariant superconductors, a generalized Berry gauge field behaves as a
fluctuating field of a Chern-Simons gauge theory. The gapless nodal lines in
the momentum space play the role of Wilson loop observables, while their
linking and knot invariants modify the gravitational theta angle. This angle
induces a topological gravitomagnetoelectric effect where a temperature
gradient induces a rotational energy flow. We also show how topological strings
may be realized in the 6 dimensional phase space, where the physical space
defects play the role of topological D-branes.


title:
The cost of swimming in generalized Newtonian fluids: Experiments with
  C. elegans

abstract:
  Numerous natural processes are contingent on microorganisms' ability to swim
through fluids with non-Newtonian rheology. Here, we use the model organism
Caenorhabditis elegans and tracking methods to experimentally investigate the
dynamics of undulatory swimming in shear-thinning fluids. Theory and simulation
have proposed that the cost of swimming, or mechanical power, should be lower
in a shear-thinning fluid compared to a Newtonian fluid of the same zero-shear
viscosity. We aim to provide an experimental investigation into the cost of
swimming in a shear-thinning fluid from (i) an estimate of the mechanical power
of the swimmer and (ii) the viscous dissipation rate of the flow field, which
should yield equivalent results for a self-propelled low Reynolds number
swimmer. We find the cost of swimming in shear-thinning fluids is less than or
equal to the cost of swimming in Newtonian fluids of the same zero-shear
viscosity; furthermore, the cost of swimming in shear-thinning fluids scales
with a fluid's effective viscosity and can be predicted using fluid rheology
and simple swimming kinematics. Our results agree reasonably well with previous
theoretical predictions and provide a framework for understanding the cost of
swimming in generalized Newtonian fluids.


title: Small-footprint Highway Deep Neural Networks for Speech Recognition

abstract:
  State-of-the-art speech recognition systems typically employ neural network
acoustic models. However, compared to Gaussian mixture models, deep neural
network (DNN) based acoustic models often have many more model parameters,
making it challenging for them to be deployed on resource-constrained
platforms, such as mobile devices. In this paper, we study the application of
the recently proposed highway deep neural network (HDNN) for training
small-footprint acoustic models. HDNNs are a depth-gated feedforward neural
network, which include two types of gate functions to facilitate the
information flow through different layers. Our study demonstrates that HDNNs
are more compact than regular DNNs for acoustic modeling, i.e., they can
achieve comparable recognition accuracy with many fewer model parameters.
Furthermore, HDNNs are more controllable than DNNs: the gate functions of an
HDNN can control the behavior of the whole network using a very small number of
model parameters. Finally, we show that HDNNs are more adaptable than DNNs. For
example, simply updating the gate functions using adaptation data can result in
considerable gains in accuracy. We demonstrate these aspects by experiments
using the publicly available AMI corpus, which has around 80 hours of training
data.


title: Subgroups of almost finitely presented groups

abstract: We show that every countable group embeds in a group of type $FP_2$.


title: Bootstrapping Pure Quantum Gravity in AdS3

abstract:
  The three-dimensional pure quantum gravity with negative cosmological
constant is supposed to be dual to the extremal conformal field theory of
central charge $c=24k$ in two dimensions. We employ the conformal bootstrap
method to analyze the extremal CFTs, and find numerical evidence for the
non-existence of the extremal CFTs for sufficiently large central charge ($k
\ge 20$). We also explore near-extremal CFTs, a small modification of extremal
ones, and find similar evidence for their non-existence for large central
charge. This indicates, under the assumption of holomorphic factorization, the
pure gravity in the weakly curved AdS$_3$ do not exist as a consistent quantum
theory.


title:
Statistical Learning Theory Approach for Data Classification with
  l-diversity

abstract:
  Corporations are retaining ever-larger corpuses of personal data; the
frequency or breaches and corresponding privacy impact have been rising
accordingly. One way to mitigate this risk is through use of anonymized data,
limiting the exposure of individual data to only where it is absolutely needed.
This would seem particularly appropriate for data mining, where the goal is
generalizable knowledge rather than data on specific individuals. In practice,
corporate data miners often insist on original data, for fear that they might
"miss something" with anonymized or differentially private approaches. This
paper provides a theoretical justification for the use of anonymized data.
Specifically, we show that a support vector classifier trained on anatomized
data satisfying l-diversity should be expected to do as well as on the original
data. Anatomy preserves all data values, but introduces uncertainty in the
mapping between identifying and sensitive values, thus satisfying l-diversity.
The theoretical effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated using
several publicly available datasets, showing that we outperform the state of
the art for support vector classification using training data protected by
k-anonymity, and are comparable to learning on the original data.


title: Random matrix approaches to open quantum systems

abstract:
  Over the past decades, a great body of theoretical and mathematical work has
been devoted to random-matrix descriptions of open quantum systems. In these
notes, based on lectures delivered at the Les Houches Summer School "Stochastic
Processes and Random Matrices" in July 2015, we review the physical origins and
mathematical structures of the underlying models, and collect key predictions
which give insight into the typical system behaviour. In particular, we aim to
give an idea how the different features are interlinked. The notes mainly focus
on elastic scattering but also include a short detour to interacting systems,
which we motivate by the overarching question of ergodicity. The first chapters
introduce general notions from random matrix theory, such as the ten
universality classes and ensembles of hermitian, unitary, positive-definite and
non-hermitian matrices. We then review microscopic scattering models that form
the basis for statistical descriptions, and consider signatures of random
scattering in decay, dynamics and transport. The last chapter briefly touches
on Anderson localization and localization in interacting systems.


title: phylodyn: an R package for phylodynamic simulation and inference

abstract:
  We introduce phylodyn, an R package for phylodynamic analysis based on gene
genealogies. The package main functionality is Bayesian nonparametric
estimation of effective population size fluctuations over time. Our
implementation includes several Markov chain Monte Carlo-based methods and an
integrated nested Laplace approximation-based approach for phylodynamic
inference that have been developed in recent years. Genealogical data describe
the timed ancestral relationships of individuals sampled from a population of
interest. Here, individuals are assumed to be sampled at the same point in time
(isochronous sampling) or at different points in time (heterochronous
sampling); in addition, sampling events can be modeled with preferential
sampling, which means that the intensity of sampling events is allowed to
depend on the effective population size trajectory. We assume the coalescent
and the sequentially Markov coalescent processes as generative models of
genealogies. We include several coalescent simulation functions that are useful
for testing our phylodynamics methods via simulation studies. We compare the
performance and outputs of various methods implemented in phylodyn and outline
their strengths and weaknesses. R package phylodyn is available at
https://github.com/mdkarcher/phylodyn.


title:
Higher-order statistical correlations and mutual information among
  particles in a quantum well

abstract:
  The influence of wave function symmetry on statistical correlation is studied
for the case of three non-interacting spin-free quantum particles in a
unidimensional box, in position and in momentum space. Higher-order statistical
correlations occurring among the three particles in this quantum system is
quantified via higher-order mutual information and compared to the correlation
between pairs of variables in this model, and to the correlation in the
two-particle system. The results for the higher-order mutual information show
that there are states where the symmetric wave functions are more correlated
than the antisymmetric ones with same quantum numbers. This holds in position
as well as in momentum space. This behavior is opposite to that observed for
the correlation between pairs of variables in this model, and the two-particle
system, where the antisymmetric wave functions are in general more correlated.
These results are also consistent with those observed in a system of three
uncoupled oscillators. The use of higher-order mutual information as a
correlation measure, is monitored and examined by considering a superposition
of states or systems with two Slater determinants.


title: Finding Representative Points in Multivariate Data Using PCA

abstract:
  The idea of representation has been used in various fields of study from data
analysis to political science. In this paper, we define representativeness and
describe a method to isolate data points that can represent the entire data
set. Also, we show how the minimum set of representative data points can be
generated. We use data from GLOBE (a project to study the effects on Land
Change based on a set of parameters that include temperature, forest cover,
human population, atmospheric parameters and many other variables) to test &
validate the algorithm. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to reduce
the dimensions of the multivariate data set, so that the representative points
can be generated efficiently and its Representativeness has been compared
against Random Sampling of points from the data set.


title: Membership Inference Attacks against Machine Learning Models

abstract:
  We quantitatively investigate how machine learning models leak information
about the individual data records on which they were trained. We focus on the
basic membership inference attack: given a data record and black-box access to
a model, determine if the record was in the model's training dataset. To
perform membership inference against a target model, we make adversarial use of
machine learning and train our own inference model to recognize differences in
the target model's predictions on the inputs that it trained on versus the
inputs that it did not train on.
  We empirically evaluate our inference techniques on classification models
trained by commercial "machine learning as a service" providers such as Google
and Amazon. Using realistic datasets and classification tasks, including a
hospital discharge dataset whose membership is sensitive from the privacy
perspective, we show that these models can be vulnerable to membership
inference attacks. We then investigate the factors that influence this leakage
and evaluate mitigation strategies.


title:
From Network Reliability to the Ising Model: A Parallel Scheme for
  Estimating the Joint Density of States

abstract:
  Network reliability is the probability that a dynamical system composed of
discrete elements interacting on a network will be found in a configuration
that satisfies a particular property. We introduce a new reliability property,
Ising feasibility, for which the network reliability is the Ising model s
partition function. As shown by Moore and Shannon, the network reliability can
be separated into two factors: structural, solely determined by the network
topology, and dynamical, determined by the underlying dynamics. In this case,
the structural factor is known as the joint density of states. Using methods
developed to approximate the structural factor for other reliability
properties, we simulate the joint density of states, yielding an approximation
for the partition function. Based on a detailed examination of why naive Monte
Carlo sampling gives a poor approximation, we introduce a novel parallel scheme
for estimating the joint density of states using a Markov chain Monte Carlo
method with a spin exchange random walk. This parallel scheme makes simulating
the Ising model in the presence of an external field practical on small
computer clusters for networks with arbitrary topology with 10 to 6 energy
levels and more than 10 to 308 microstates.


title:
Foliation dependence of black hole apparent horizons in spherical
  symmetry

abstract:
  Numerical studies of gravitational collapse to black holes make use of
apparent horizons, which are intrinsically foliation-dependent. We expose the
problem and discuss possible solutions using the Hawking quasilocal mass. In
spherical symmetry, we present a physically sensible approach to the problem by
restricting to spherically symmetric spacetime slicings. In spherical symmetry
the apparent horizons are gauge-independent in any spherically symmetric
foliation but physical quantities associated with them, such as surface gravity
and temperature, are not. The widely used comoving and Kodama foliations, which
are of particular interest, are discussed in detail.


title:
String-Averaging Incremental Subgradients for Constrained Convex
  Optimization with Applications to Reconstruction of Tomographic Images

abstract:
  We present a method for non-smooth convex minimization which is based on
subgradient directions and string-averaging techniques. In this approach, the
set of available data is split into sequences (strings) and a given iterate is
processed independently along each string, possibly in parallel, by an
incremental subgradient method (ISM). The end-points of all strings are
averaged to form the next iterate. The method is useful to solve sparse and
large-scale non-smooth convex optimization problems, such as those arising in
tomographic imaging. A convergence analysis is provided under realistic,
standard conditions. Numerical tests are performed in a tomographic image
reconstruction application, showing good performance for the convergence speed
when measured as the decrease ratio of the objective function, in comparison to
classical ISM.


title: Robot Vision Architecture for Autonomous Clothes Manipulation

abstract:
  This paper presents a novel robot vision architecture for perceiving generic
3D clothes configurations. Our architecture is hierarchically structured,
starting from low-level curvatures, across mid-level geometric shapes \&
topology descriptions; and finally approaching high-level semantic surface
structure descriptions. We demonstrate our robot vision architecture in a
customised dual-arm industrial robot with our self-designed, off-the-self
stereo vision system, carrying out autonomous grasping and dual-arm flattening.
It is worth noting that the proposed dual-arm flattening approach is unique
among the state-of-the-art robot autonomous system, which is the major
contribution of this paper. The experimental results show that the proposed
dual-arm flattening using stereo vision system remarkably outperforms the
single-arm flattening and widely-cited Kinect-based sensing system for
dexterous manipulation tasks. In addition, the proposed grasping approach
achieves satisfactory performance on grasping various kind of garments,
verifying the capability of proposed visual perception architecture to be
adapted to more than one clothing manipulation tasks.


title:
NP-hard sets are not sparse unless P=NP: An exposition of a simple proof
  of Mahaney's Theorem, with applications

abstract:
  Mahaney's Theorem states that, assuming $\mathsf{P} \neq \mathsf{NP}$, no
NP-hard set can have a polynomially bounded number of yes-instances at each
input length. We give an exposition of a very simple unpublished proof of
Manindra Agrawal whose ideas appear in Agrawal-Arvind ("Geometric sets of low
information content," Theoret. Comp. Sci., 1996). This proof is so simple that
it can easily be taught to undergraduates or a general graduate CS audience -
not just theorists! - in about 10 minutes, which the author has done
successfully several times. We also include applications of Mahaney's Theorem
to fundamental questions that bright undergraduates would ask which could be
used to fill the remaining hour of a lecture, as well as an application (due to
Ikenmeyer, Mulmuley, and Walter, arXiv:1507.02955) to the representation theory
of the symmetric group and the Geometric Complexity Theory Program. To this
author, the fact that sparsity results on NP-complete sets have an application
to classical questions in representation theory says that they are not only a
gem of classical theoretical computer science, but indeed a gem of mathematics.


title: Systolic Pressure in Different Percents of Stenosis at Major Arteries

abstract:
  - Modeling Human cardiovascular system is always an important issue. One of
the most effective methods is using lumped model to reach to a complete model
of human cardiovascular system. Such modeling with advanced considerations is
used in this paper. Some of these considerations are as follow: Exact
simulating of ventricles as pressure suppliers, peristaltic motion of
descending arteries as additional suppliers, and dividing each vessel into more
than one compartment to reach more accurate answers. Finally a circuit with
more than 150 RLC segments and different elements is made. Then the
verification of our complex circuit is done and at the end, obstruction as an
important abnormality is investigated. For this aim different percents of
obstruction in vital arteries are considered and the results are brought as
different graphs at the end. According to physiological texts the citation of
our simulation and its results are obvious. To earn productive information
about arteries characteristics a 36-vessels model was chosen from biological
sources.


title: A multifractal analysis for cuspidal windings on hyperbolic surfaces

abstract:
  In this paper we investigate the multifractal decomposition of the limit set
of a finitely generated, free Fuchsian group with respect to the mean cusp
winding number. We will completely determine its multifractal spectrum by means
of a certain free energy function and show that the Hausdorff dimension of sets
consisting of limit points with the same scaling exponent coincides with the
Legendre transform of this free energy function. As a by-product we generalise
previously obtained results on the multifractal formalism for infinite iterated
function systems to the setting of infinite graph directed Markov systems.


title:
Boundary representations of operator spaces, and compact rectangular
  matrix convex sets

abstract:
  We initiate the study of matrix convexity for operator spaces. We define the
notion of compact rectangular matrix convex set, and prove the natural analogs
of the Krein-Milman and the bipolar theorems in this context. We deduce a
canonical correspondence between compact rectangular matrix convex sets and
operator spaces. We also introduce the notion of boundary representation for an
operator space, and prove the natural analog of Arveson's conjecture: every
operator space is completely normed by its boundary representations. This
yields a canonical construction of the triple envelope of an operator space.


title:
First and second-order metal-insulator phase transitions and topological
  aspects of a Hubbard-Rashba system

abstract:
  This paper considers a model consisting of a kinetic term, Rashba spin-orbit
coupling and short-range Coulomb interaction at zero-temperature. The Coulomb
interaction is decoupled by a mean-field approximation in the spin channel
using field theory methods. The results feature a first-order phase transition
for any finite value of the chemical potential and quantum criticality for
vanishing chemical potential. The Hall conductivity is also computed using Kubo
formula in a mean-field effective Hamiltonian. In the limit of infinite mass
the kinetic term vanishes and all the phase transitions are of second order, in
this case spontaneous symmetry breaking mechanism adds a ferromagnetic metallic
phase to the system and features a zero-temperature quantization of the Hall
conductivity in the insulating one.


title:
Balls Isoperimetric in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with Volume and Perimeter
  Densities $r^m$ and $r^k$

abstract:
  We have discovered a "little" gap in our proof of the sharp conjecture that
in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with volume and perimeter densities $r^m$ and $r^k$, balls
about the origin are uniquely isoperimetric if $0 < m \leq k - k/(n+k-1)$, that
is, if they are stable (and $m > 0$). The implicit unjustified assumption is
that the generating curve is convex.


title: A trace finite element method for PDEs on evolving surfaces

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose an approach for solving PDEs on evolving surfaces
using a combination of the trace finite element method and a fast marching
method. The numerical approach is based on the Eulerian description of the
surface problem and employs a time-independent background mesh that is not
fitted to the surface. The surface and its evolution may be given implicitly,
for example, by the level set method. Extension of the PDE off the surface is
not required. The method introduced in this paper naturally allows a surface to
undergo topological changes and experience local geometric singularities. In
the simplest setting, the numerical method is second order accurate in space
and time. Higher order variants are feasible, but not studied in this paper. We
show results of several numerical experiments, which demonstrate the
convergence properties of the method and its ability to handle the case of the
surface with topological changes.


title: Uniform fellow traveling between surgery paths in the sphere graph

abstract:
  We show that the Hausdorff distance between any forward and any backward
surgery paths in the sphere graph is at most 2. From this it follows that the
Hausdorff distance between any two surgery paths with the same initial sphere
system and same target sphere system is at most 4. Our proof relies on
understanding how surgeries affect the Guirardel core associated to sphere
systems. We show that applying a surgery is equivalent to performing a Rips
move on the Guirardel core.


title: The fate of chaotic strings in a confining geometry

abstract:
  We study chaotic motion of classical closed strings in the five-dimensional
Anti-de Sitter (AdS) soliton spacetime. We first revisit classical chaos using
a cohomogeneity-1 string ansatz. We then consider turbulent behaviors of the
classical strings when the spatial dependence of the string world-sheet is
included. Sensitivity to initial conditions in chaotic systems suggests that
the string under chaos tends to stretch in the AdS soliton spacetime in a
Lyapunov timescale. In this process, the orbital angular momentum transfers to
internal spin due to the turbulence on the string. It follows that the string
stays around the tip of the AdS soliton with a jumbled profile. We evaluate the
spectra of conserved quantities and discuss their universal power-law scalings
in the turbulent behaviors.