title:
Modeling Nucleation and Growth of Zinc Oxide During Discharge of Primary
  Zinc-Air Batteries

abstract:
  Metal-air batteries are among the most promising next-generation energy
storage devices. Relying on abundant materials and offering high energy
densities, potential applications lie in the fields of electro-mobility,
portable electronics, and stationary grid applications. Now, research on
secondary zinc-air batteries is revived, which are commercialized as primary
hearing aid batteries. One of the main obstacles for making zinc-air batteries
rechargeable is their poor lifetime due to the degradation of alkaline
electrolyte in contact with atmospheric carbon dioxide. In this article, we
present a continuum theory of a commercial Varta PowerOne button cell. Our
model contains dissolution of zinc and nucleation and growth of zinc oxide in
the anode, thermodynamically consistent electrolyte transport in porous media,
and multi-phase coexistance in the gas diffusion electrode. We perform
electrochemical measurements and validate our model. Excellent agreement
between theory and experiment is found and novel insights into the role of zinc
oxide nucleation and growth and carbon dioxide dissolution for discharge and
lifetime is presented. We demonstrate the implications of our work for the
development of rechargeable zinc-air batteries.


title: Vertex algebras and Hodge structures

abstract:
  We compare the context of Hodge structures with that of vertex algebras of
conformal field theory. Vertex algebras appear as the highest weight
representations of infinite dimensional Lie algebras. A correspondence between
Higgs bundles and opers already is known as non-abelian Hodge theorem due to C.
Simpson. The Beilinson-Bernstein localization (correspondence) also compares
the context of variation of Hodge structure with that of highest weight modules
over flag manifolds of semisimple Lie groups. A more general analogue of the
Bernstein correspondence over a local manifold can also be formulted in the
context of geometric Langlands correspondence. We discuss a generalized version
of Harish-Chandra modules called Wakimoto modules and a generalized
Harish-Chandra homomorphism. This text is mainly an expository discussion with
a new insight toward the two concepts. We conclude with an explanation of
geometric Langlands correspondence.


title:
Spectral weight and spatially modulated instabilities in holographic
  superfluids

abstract:
  Free fermions form a Fermi surface, which results in non-zero spectral weight
at low energy and finite wavevector. In this work, we find similar features in
holographic phases dual to strongly coupled quantum superfluid matter. At zero
temperature, the phases we consider exhibit semi-local criticality in the IR
and all the charge is carried by the scalar condensate outside the black hole
horizon. Depending on the value taken by the IR critical exponents, we find
Fermi surfaces in the transverse sector, Fermi shells in the longitudinal
sector or no spectral weight at all. When there is non-zero transverse spectral
weight, the IR can be subject to an instability at finite wavevector, the
endpoint of which is likely a spatially modulated phase.


title: A new method to subdivide a spherical surface into equal-area cells

abstract:
  A new method is proposed to divide a spherical surface into equal-area cells.
The method is based on dividing a sphere into several latitudinal bands of
near-constant span with further division of each band into equal-area cells. It
is simple in construction and provides more uniform latitude step be-tween
latitudinal bands than other methods of isolatitudinal equal-area tessellation
of a spherical surface.


title:
Bias reduction of peer influence effects with latent coordinates and
  community membership

abstract:
  The importance of peer influence on consumer actions plays a vital role in
marketing efforts. However, peer influence effects are often confounded with
latent homophily, which are unobserved commonalities that drive friendship.
Understanding causality has become one of the pressing issues of current
research. We present an approach to explicitly account for various causal
influences. We implement a simulation framework to show the effectiveness of
two latent homophily proxies, latent coordinates and community membership, in
improving peer influence effect estimates on game downloads in a Japanese
social network website. We demonstrate that latent homophily proxies have no
significant improvement in peer influence effect bias in the available website
data.


title:
The quantum development of an asymptotically Euclidean Cauchy
  hypersurface

abstract:
  In our model of quantum gravity the quantum development of a Cauchy
hypersurface is governed by a wave equation derived as the result of a
canonical quantization process. To find physically interesting solutions of the
wave equation we employ the separation of variables by considering a temporal
eigenvalue problem which has a complete countable set of eigenfunctions with
positive eigenvalues and also a spatial eigenvalue problem which has a complete
set of eigendistributions. Assuming that the Cauchy hypersurface is
asymtotically Euclidean we prove that the temporal eigenvalues are also spatial
eigenvalues and the product of corresponding eigenfunctions and
eigendistributions, which will be smooth functions with polynomial growth, are
the physically interesting solutions of the wave equation. We consider these
solutions to describe the quantum development of the Cauchy hypersurface.


title:
Electronic Physics and Possible Superconductivity in Layered
  Orthorhombic Cobalt Oxychalcogenides

abstract:
  We suggest that Cobalt-Oxychalcogenide layers constructed by vertex sharing
CoA$_2$O$_2$ (A=S,Se,Te) tetrahedra, such as BaCoAO, are strongly correlated
multi-orbital electron systems that can provide important clues on the cause of
unconventional superconductivity. Differing from cuprates and iron-based
superconductors, these systems lack of the C$_4$ rotational symmetry. However,
their parental compounds possess antiferromagnetic(AFM) Mott insulating states
through pure superexchange interactions and the low energy physics near Fermi
surfaces upon doping is also attributed mainly to the three t$_{2g}$ orbitals
that dominate the AFM interactions. We derive a low energy effective model for
these systems and predict that a d-wave-like superconducting state with
reasonable high transition temperature can emerge by suppressing the AFM
ordering even if the pairing symmetry can not be classified by the rotational
symmetry any more.


title: Reinforcement Learning With Temporal Logic Rewards

abstract:
  Reinforcement learning (RL) depends critically on the choice of reward
functions used to capture the de- sired behavior and constraints of a robot.
Usually, these are handcrafted by a expert designer and represent heuristics
for relatively simple tasks. Real world applications typically involve more
complex tasks with rich temporal and logical structure. In this paper we take
advantage of the expressive power of temporal logic (TL) to specify complex
rules the robot should follow, and incorporate domain knowledge into learning.
We propose Truncated Linear Temporal Logic (TLTL) as specifications language,
that is arguably well suited for the robotics applications, together with
quantitative semantics, i.e., robustness degree. We propose a RL approach to
learn tasks expressed as TLTL formulae that uses their associated robustness
degree as reward functions, instead of the manually crafted heuristics trying
to capture the same specifications. We show in simulated trials that learning
is faster and policies obtained using the proposed approach outperform the ones
learned using heuristic rewards in terms of the robustness degree, i.e., how
well the tasks are satisfied. Furthermore, we demonstrate the proposed RL
approach in a toast-placing task learned by a Baxter robot.


title:
BANDANA -- Body Area Network Device-to-device Authentication using
  Natural gAit

abstract:
  Secure spontaneous authentication between devices worn at arbitrary location
on the same body is a challenging, yet unsolved problem. We propose BANDANA,
the first-ever implicit secure device-to-device authentication scheme for
devices worn on the same body. Our approach leverages instantaneous variation
in acceleration patterns from gait sequences to extract always-fresh secure
secrets. It enables secure spontaneous pairing of devices worn on the same body
or interacted with. The method is robust against noise in sensor readings and
active attackers. We demonstrate the robustness of BANDANA on two gait datasets
and discuss the discriminability of intra- and inter-body cases, robustness to
statistical bias, as well as possible attack scenarios.


title:
A General Approach for Predicting the Behavior of the Supreme Court of
  the United States

abstract:
  Building on developments in machine learning and prior work in the science of
judicial prediction, we construct a model designed to predict the behavior of
the Supreme Court of the United States in a generalized, out-of-sample context.
To do so, we develop a time evolving random forest classifier which leverages
some unique feature engineering to predict more than 240,000 justice votes and
28,000 cases outcomes over nearly two centuries (1816-2015). Using only data
available prior to decision, our model outperforms null (baseline) models at
both the justice and case level under both parametric and non-parametric tests.
Over nearly two centuries, we achieve 70.2% accuracy at the case outcome level
and 71.9% at the justice vote level. More recently, over the past century, we
outperform an in-sample optimized null model by nearly 5%. Our performance is
consistent with, and improves on the general level of prediction demonstrated
by prior work; however, our model is distinctive because it can be applied
out-of-sample to the entire past and future of the Court, not a single term.
Our results represent an important advance for the science of quantitative
legal prediction and portend a range of other potential applications.


title: Acousto-optic effect in random media

abstract:
  We consider the acousto-optic effect in a random medium. We derive the
radiative transport equations that describe the propagation of
multiply-scattered light in a medium whose dielectric permittivity is modulated
by an acoustic wave. Using this result, we present an analysis of the
sensitivity of an acousto-optic measurement to the presence of a small
absorbing inhomogeneity.


title:
Self-consistent Dark Matter Simplified Models with an s-channel scalar
  mediator

abstract:
  We examine Simplified Models in which fermionic DM interacts with Standard
Model (SM) fermions via the exchange of an $s$-channel scalar mediator. The
single-mediator version of this model is not gauge invariant, and instead we
must consider models with two scalar mediators which mix and interfere. The
minimal gauge invariant scenario involves the mixing of a new singlet scalar
with the Standard Model Higgs boson, and is tightly constrained. We construct
two Higgs doublet model (2HDM) extensions of this scenario, where the singlet
mixes with the 2nd Higgs doublet. Compared with the one doublet model, this
provides greater freedom for the masses and mixing angle of the scalar
mediators, and their coupling to SM fermions. We outline constraints on these
models, and discuss Yukawa structures that allow enhanced couplings, yet keep
potentially dangerous flavour violating process under control. We examine the
direct detection phenomenology of these models, accounting for interference of
the scalar mediators, and interference of different quarks in the nucleus.
Regions of parameter space consistent with direct detection measurements are
determined.


title:
Multi-wavelength study of the supernova remnant Kes 79 (G33.6+0.1): On
  its supernova properties and expansion into a molecular environment

abstract:
  Kes 79 (G33.6+0.1) is an aspherical thermal composite supernova remnant (SNR)
observed across the electromagnetic spectrum and showing an unusual
highly-structured morphology, in addition to harboring a central compact object
(CCO). Using the CO J=1-0, J=2-1, and J=3-2 data, we provide the first direct
evidence and new morphological evidence to support the physical interaction
between the SNR and the molecular cloud at $V_LSR\sim 105$ km s$^{-1}$. We
revisit the 380 ks XMM-Newton observations and perform a dedicated spatially
resolved X-ray spectroscopic study with careful background subtraction. The
overall X-ray-emitting gas is characterized by an under-ionized ($\tau_c \sim
6\times 10^{11}$ cm^${-3}$) cool ($kT_c \approx 0.20$ keV) plasma with solar
abundances, plus an under-ionized ($\tau_h\sim 8\times 10^{10}$ cm$^{-3}$) hot
($kT_h\approx 0.80$ keV) plasma with elevated Ne, Mg, Si, S and Ar abundances.
Kes 79 appears to have a double-hemisphere morphology viewed along the
symmetric axis. Projection effect can explain the multiple shell structures and
the thermal composite morphology. The X-ray filaments, spatially correlated
with the 24 um IR filaments, are suggested to be due to the SNR shock
interaction with dense gas, while the halo forms from SNR breaking out into a
tenuous medium. The high-velocity, hot ($kT_h\sim 1.4$--1.6 keV) ejecta patch
with high metal abundances, together with the non-uniform metal distribution
across the SNR, indicating an asymmetric SN explosion of Kes 79. We refine the
Sedov age to 4.4--6.7 kyr and the mean shock velocity to 730 km s$^{-1}$. Our
multi-wavelength study suggests a progenitor mass of $\sim 15$--20 solar masses
for the core-collapse explosion that formed Kes 79 and its CCO, PSR J1852+0040.


title:
On Choosing Training and Testing Data for Supervised Algorithms in
  Ground Penetrating Radar Data for Buried Threat Detection

abstract:
  Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is one of the most popular and successful
sensing modalities that has been investigated for landmine and subsurface
threat detection. Many of the detection algorithms applied to this task are
supervised and therefore require labeled examples of target and non-target data
for training. Training data most often consists of 2-dimensional images (or
patches) of GPR data, from which features are extracted, and provided to the
classifier during training and testing. Identifying desirable training and
testing locations to extract patches, which we term "keypoints", is well
established in the literature. In contrast however, a large variety of
strategies have been proposed regarding keypoint utilization (e.g., how many of
the identified keypoints should be used at targets, or non-target, locations).
Given the variety keypoint utilization strategies that are available, it is
very unclear (i) which strategies are best, or (ii) whether the choice of
strategy has a large impact on classifier performance. We address these
questions by presenting a taxonomy of existing utilization strategies, and then
evaluating their effectiveness on a large dataset using many different
classifiers and features. We analyze the results and propose a new strategy,
called PatchSelect, which outperforms other strategies across all experiments.


title:
Molecular Packing Motifs Determine Charge-Transfer and Carrier Dynamics
  in Molecular Heterosystems: the Case of Pentacene - Perfluoropentacene

abstract:
  The great majority of electronic and optoelectronic devices depends on
interfaces between n-type and p-type semiconductors. Finding such matching
donor-acceptor systems in molecular crystals remains a challenging endeavor.
Structurally compatible molecules may not necessarily be suitable with respect
to their optical and electronic properties: large exciton binding energies may
favor bound electron-hole pairs rather than charge separation by exciton
dissociation, and free, band-like transport is challenging to achieve as
hopping commonly dominates charge motion. Structurally well-defined
pentacene-perfluoropentacene heterostructures in different polymorphs and
molecular orientations are model systems to study the relation of packing motif
and optical properties. These heterosystems feature two characteristic
interface-specific luminescence channels at around 1.4 and 1.5 eV. Their
relative emission strength strongly depends on the molecular alignment of the
respective donor and acceptor molecules. Evaluating their dynamics in
comparison with the corresponding unitary films reveals the role of
singlet-triplet intersystem crossing and different channels for carrier
injection into the interface-specific resonances.


title: A note on asymptotic Serre duality for jet differentials

abstract:
  We formulate and prove the existence of an asymptotic duality along the
fibers of the Green-Griffiths jet bundles over projective manifolds. The
existence of global sections for these bundles and also for their dual sheaves
has been established by the author and J. P. Demailly in a previous article,
[3].


title: Self-calibrating Neural Networks for Dimensionality Reduction

abstract:
  Recently, a novel family of biologically plausible online algorithms for
reducing the dimensionality of streaming data has been derived from the
similarity matching principle. In these algorithms, the number of output
dimensions can be determined adaptively by thresholding the singular values of
the input data matrix. However, setting such threshold requires knowing the
magnitude of the desired singular values in advance. Here we propose online
algorithms where the threshold is self-calibrating based on the singular values
computed from the existing observations. To derive these algorithms from the
similarity matching cost function we propose novel regularizers. As before,
these online algorithms can be implemented by Hebbian/anti-Hebbian neural
networks in which the learning rule depends on the chosen regularizer. We
demonstrate both mathematically and via simulation the effectiveness of these
online algorithms in various settings.


title: Large-area, ensemble molecular electronics: Motivation and challenges

abstract:
  We review charge transport across molecular monolayers, which is central to
molecular electronics (MoE) using large-area junctions (NmJ). We strive to
provide a wide conceptual overview of three main sub-topics. First, a broad
introduction places NmJ in perspective to related fields of research, and to
single molecule junctions (1mJ), in addition to a brief historical account. As
charge transport presents an ultra sensitive probe for the electronic
perfection of interfaces, in the second part ways to form both the monolayer
and the contacts are described to construct reliable, defect-free interfaces.
The last part is dedicated to understanding and analyses of current-voltage
(I-V) traces across molecular junctions. Notwithstanding the original
motivation of MoE, I-V traces are often not very sensitive to molecular details
and then provide a poor probe for chemical information. Instead we focus on how
to analyse the net electrical performance of molecular junctions, from a
functional device perspective. Finally, we shortly point to creation of a
built-in electric field as a key to achieve functionality, including non-linear
current-voltage characteristics that originate in the molecules or their
contacts to the electrodes.


title: Molecular Electronics by Chemical Modification of Semiconductor Surfaces

abstract:
  Inserting molecular monolayers within metal / semiconductor interfaces
provides one of the most powerful expressions of how minute chemical
modifications can affect electronic devices. This topic also has direct
importance for technology as it can help improve the efficiency of a variety of
electronic devices such as solar cells, LEDs, sensors and possible future
bioelectronic devices, which are based mostly on non-classical semiconducting
materials (section 1). The review covers the main aspects of using chemistry to
- control alignment of energy levels at interfaces (section 2): - passivate
interface states (section 3), - insert molecular dipoles at interfaces (section
4), - induce charge rearrangement at and around interfaces (section 5). After
setting the stage, we consider the unique current-voltage characteristics that
result from transport across metal / molecular monolayer / semiconductor
interfaces. Here we focus on the interplay between the monolayer as tunneling
barrier on the one hand, and the electrostatic barrier within the
semiconductor, due to its space-charge region (section 6), on the other hand,
as well as how different monolayer chemistries control each of the these
barriers. Section 7 provides practical tools to experimentally identify these
two barriers, and distinguish between them, after which section 8 concludes the
story with a summary and a view to the future. While this review is concerned
with hybrid semiconductor / molecular effects (see Refs. 1,2 for earlier
reviews on this topic), issues related to formation of monolayers and contacts,
as well as charge transport that is solely dominated by molecules, have been
reviewed elsewhere[3-6], including by us recently[7].


title:
Do retinal ganglion cells project natural scenes to their principal
  subspace and whiten them?

abstract:
  Several theories of early sensory processing suggest that it whitens sensory
stimuli. Here, we test three key predictions of the whitening theory using
recordings from 152 ganglion cells in salamander retina responding to natural
movies. We confirm the previous finding that firing rates of ganglion cells are
less correlated compared to natural scenes, although significant correlations
remain. We show that while the power spectrum of ganglion cells decays less
steeply than that of natural scenes, it is not completely flattened. Finally,
we find evidence that only the top principal components of the visual stimulus
are transmitted.


title: Interacting particle systems at the edge of multilevel Jack processes

abstract:
  We consider a multilevel continuous time Markov chain $X(s;N) = (X_i^j(s;N):
1 \leq i \leq j \leq N)$, which is defined by means of Jack symmetric functions
and forms a certain discretization of the multilevel Dyson Brownian motion. The
process $X(s;N)$ describes the evolution of a discrete interlacing particle
system with push-block interactions between the particles, which preserve the
interlacing property. We study the joint asymptotic separation of the particles
at the right edge of the ensemble as the number of levels and time tend to
infinity and show that the limit is described by a certain zero range process
with local interactions.


title:
Morita equivalence classes of blocks with elementary abelian defect
  groups of order 16

abstract:
  We classify the Morita equivalence classes of blocks with elementary abelian
defect groups of order $16$ with respect to a complete discrete valuation ring
with algebraically closed residue field of characteristic two. As a
consequence, blocks with this defect group are derived equivalent to their
Brauer correspondent in the normalizer of a defect group and so satisfy
Brou\'e's Conjecture.


title: Group G_{n}^{3} and imaginary generators

abstract:
  In the present paper, we construct a monomorphism from (Artin) pure braid
group $PB_{n}$ into a group, which is `bigger' than $PB_{n}$. Roughly speaking,
this mapping is defined on words of braids by adding `new generators' between
generators of $PB_{n}$. By this mapping we can get a new invariant for
classical braids. As one of application of this invariant, we will show
examples, which are minimal words in $PB_{n}$ and the minimality can be shown
by the invariant.


title: The structure of quadratic Gauss sums in Talbot effect

abstract:
  The field diffracted from a one-dimensional, coherently illuminated periodic
structure at fractional Talbot distances can be described as a coherent sum of
shifted units cells weighted by a set of phases given by quadratic Gauss sums.
We report on the computation of these sums by use of the properties of a
recently introduced integer $s$, which is constructed here directly from the
two coprime numbers $p$ that $q$ that define the fractional Talbot plane. Using
integer $s$, the computation is reduced, up to a global phase, to the trivial
completion of the exponential of the square of a sum. In addition, it is shown
that the Gauss sums can be reduced to two cases, depending only on the parity
of integer $q$. Explicit and simpler expressions for the two forms of integer
$s$ are also provided. The Gauss sums are presented as a Discrete Fourier
Transform pair between periodic sequences of length $q$ showing perfect
periodic autocorrelation. The relationship with one-dimensional multilevel
phase structures is exemplified by the study of Talbot array illuminators.
These results represent a simple means for the design and analysis of systems
employing the fractional Talbot effect.


title: ManyDSL: A Host for Many Languages

abstract:
  Domain-specific languages are becoming increasingly important. Almost every
application touches multiple domains. But how to define, use, and combine
multiple DSLs within the same application?
  The most common approach is to split the project along the domain boundaries
into multiple pieces and files. Each file is then compiled separately.
Alternatively, multiple languages can be embedded in a flexible host language:
within the same syntax a new domain semantic is provided. In this paper we
follow a less explored route of metamorphic languages. These languages are able
to modify their own syntax and semantics on the fly, thus becoming a more
flexible host for DSLs.
  Our language allows for dynamic creation of grammars and switching languages
where needed. We achieve this through a novel concept of Syntax-Directed
Execution. A language grammar includes semantic actions that are pieces of
functional code executed immediately during parsing. By avoiding additional
intermediate representation, connecting actions from different languages and
domains is greatly simplified. Still, actions can generate highly specialized
code though lambda encapsulation and Dynamic Staging.


title: Chow Groups of Abelian Varieties and Beilinson's Conjecture

abstract:
  In the present paper we introduce the property AA of a subsemigroup of the
endomorphism semigroup of an abelian variety, which holds for semigroup of
endomorphisms of an abelian variety defined over a number field, and show that
the orbit of any cycle under a semigroup with property AA in the Chow group
$\otimes\Q$ has finite dimensional span.


title:
CMB anomalies and the effects of local features of the inflaton
  potential

abstract:
  Recent analysis of the WMAP and Planck data have shown the presence of a dip
and a bump in the spectrum of primordial perturbations at the scales $k=0.002$
Mpc${}^{-1}$ and $k=0.0035$ Mpc${}^{-1}$ respectively. We analyze for the first
time the effects a local feature in the inflaton potential to explain the
observed deviations from scale invariance in the primordial spectrum. We
perform a best fit analysis of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation
temperature and polarization data. The effects of the features can improve the
agreement with observational data respect to the featureless model. The best
fit local feature affects the primordial curvature spectrum mainly in the
region of the bump, leaving the spectrum unaffected on other scales.


title:
A counterexample to the easy direction of the geometric Gersten
  conjecture

abstract:
  For finitely generated groups H and G, equipped with word metrics, a
translation-like action of H on G is a free action such that each element of H
acts by a map which has finite distance from the identity map in the uniform
metric. For example, if H is a subgroup of G, then right translation by
elements of H yields a translation-like action of H on G. Whyte asked whether a
group with no translation-like action by a Baumslag-Solitar group must be
hyperbolic, where the free abelian group of rank 2 is understood to be a
Baumslag-Solitar group. We show that the converse of this conjecture is false,
and in particular the fundamental group of a closed hyperbolic 3-manifold
admits a translation-like action by the free abelian group of rank 2.


title: Lipschitz 1-connectedness for some solvable Lie groups

abstract:
  A space X is said to be Lipschitz 1-connected if every L-Lipschitz loop in X
bounds a O(L)-Lipschitz disk. A Lipschitz 1-connected space admits a quadratic
isoperimetric inequality, but it is unknown whether the converse is true.
Cornulier and Tessera showed that certain solvable Lie groups have quadratic
isoperimetric inequalities, and we extend their result to show that these
groups are Lipschitz 1-connected.


title: Recent results from the Belle experiment

abstract:
  We review recent results from the Belle experiment, which took data at the
KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider in Japan. The experiment recorded about
1000 fb^{-1} of data running mainly at the \Upsilon(4S) and \Upsilon(5S)
resonances. The results presented here are obtained from the full data set.


title:
Flu Detector: Estimating influenza-like illness rates from online
  user-generated content

abstract:
  We provide a brief technical description of an online platform for disease
monitoring, titled as the Flu Detector (fludetector.cs.ucl.ac.uk). Flu
Detector, in its current version (v.0.5), uses either Twitter or Google search
data in conjunction with statistical Natural Language Processing models to
estimate the rate of influenza-like illness in the population of England. Its
back-end is a live service that collects online data, utilises modern
technologies for large-scale text processing, and finally applies statistical
inference models that are trained offline. The front-end visualises the various
disease rate estimates. Notably, the models based on Google data achieve a high
level of accuracy with respect to the most recent four flu seasons in England
(2012/13 to 2015/16). This highlighted Flu Detector as having a great potential
of becoming a complementary source to the domestic traditional flu surveillance
schemes.


title:
Short wavelength local instabilities of a circular Couette flow with
  radial temperature gradient

abstract:
  We perform a linearized local stability analysis for short-wavelength
perturbations of a circular Couette flow with the radial temperature gradient.
Axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric perturbations are considered and both the
thermal diffusivity and the kinematic viscosity of the fluid are taken into
account. The effect of the asymmetry of the heating both on the centrifugally
unstable flows and on the onset of the instabilities of the centrifugally
stable flows, including the flow with the Keplerian shear profile, is
thoroughly investigated. It is found that the inward temperature gradient
destabilizes the Rayleigh stable flow either via Hopf bifurcation if the liquid
is a very good heat conductor or via steady state bifurcation if viscosity
prevails over the thermal conductance.


title:
Relation between the mass modification of the heavy-light mesons and the
  chiral symmetry structure in dense matter

abstract:
  We point out that the study of the density dependences of the masses of
heavy-light mesons give some clues to the chiral symmetry structure in nuclear
matter. We include the omega meson effect as well as the sigma meson effect at
mean field level on the density dependence of the masses of heavy-light mesons
with chiral partner structure. It is found that the omega meson affects the
masses of the heavy-light mesons and their antiparticles in the opposite way,
while it affects the masses of chiral partners in the same way. This is because
the omega meson is sensitive to the baryon number of the light degrees included
in the heavy-light mesons. We also show that the mass difference between chiral
partners is proportional to the mean field of sigma, reflecting the partial
restoration of chiral symmetry in the nuclear matter. In addition to the
general illustration of the density dependence of the heavy-light meson masses,
we consider two concrete models for nuclear matter, the parity doublet model
and skyrmion crystal model in the sense of mean field approximation.


title: Boundaries of Dehn fillings

abstract:
  We begin an investigation into the behavior of Bowditch and Gromov boundaries
under the operation of Dehn filling. In particular we show many Dehn fillings
of a toral relatively hyperbolic group with 2-sphere boundary are hyperbolic
with 2-sphere boundary. As an application, we show that the Cannon conjecture
implies a relatively hyperbolic version of the Cannon conjecture.


title: A note on time-harmonic Maxwell equations on Riemannian manifolds

abstract:
  In this note we consider boundary value problems in electromagnetism. We
prove well-posedness results for the time-harmonic Maxwell equations in the
setting of Riemannian manifolds. We also consider the eigenvalue problem the
homogeneous time-harmonic Maxwell equations with zero boundary conditions.


title:
All-Dielectric Metasurfaces Based on Cross-Shaped Resonators for Color
  Pixels with Extended Gamut

abstract:
  Printing technology based on plasmonic structures has many advantages over
pigment based color printing such as high resolution, ultra-compact size and
low power consumption. However, due to high losses and broad resonance behavior
of metals in the visible spectrum, it becomes challenging to produce
well-defined colors. Here, we investigate cross-shaped dielectric
nanoresonators which enable high quality resonance in the visible spectral
regime and, hence, high quality colors. We numerically predict and
experimentally demonstrate that the proposed all-dielectric nanostructures
exhibit high quality colors with selective wavelengths, in particular, due to
lower losses as compared to metal based plasmonic filters. This results in
fundamental colors (RGB) with high hue and saturation. We further show that a
large gamut of colors can be achieved by selecting the appropriate length and
width of individual $Si$ nanoantennas. Moreover, the proposed all-dielectric
metasurface based color filters can be integrated with the well matured
fabrication technology of electronic devices.


title: Lifshitz Anomalies, Ward Identities and Split Dimensional Regularization

abstract:
  We analyze the structure of the stress-energy tensor correlation functions in
Lifshitz field theories and construct the corresponding anomalous Ward
identities. We develop a framework for calculating the anomaly coefficients
that employs a split dimensional regularization and the pole residues. We
demonstrate the procedure by calculating the free scalar Lifshitz scale
anomalies in $2+1$ spacetime dimensions. We find that the analysis of the
regularization dependent trivial terms requires a curved spacetime description
without a foliation structure. We discuss potential ambiguities in Lifshitz
scale anomaly definitions.


title: Link invariants from finite categorical groups

abstract:
  We define an invariant of tangles and framed tangles given a finite crossed
module and a pair of functions, called a Reidemeister pair, satisfying natural
properties. We give several examples of Reidemeister pairs derived from racks,
quandles, rack and quandle cocycles, and central extensions of groups. We prove
that our construction includes all rack and quandle cohomology (framed) link
invariants, as well as the Eisermann invariant of knots. We construct a class
of Reidemeister pairs which constitute a lifting of the Eisermann invariant,
and show through an example that this class is strictly stronger than the
Eisermann invariant itself.


title: Strength-Duration Relationship in an Excitable Medium

abstract:
  We consider the strength-duration relationship in one-dimensional spatially
extended excitable media. In a previous study [Idris and Biktashev 2008] set
out to separate initial (or boundary) conditions leading to propagation wave
solutions from those leading to decay solutions, an analytical criterion based
on an approximation of the (center-)stable manifold of a certain critical
solution was presented. The theoretical prediction in the case of
strength-extent curve was later on extended to cover a wider class of excitable
systems including multicomponent reaction-diffusion systems, systems with
non-self-adjoint linearized operators and in particular, systems with moving
critical solutions (critical fronts and critical pulses) [Bezekci et al. 2015].
In the present work, we consider extension of the theory to the case of
strength-duration curve.


title: Phase transition in the majority-vote model on the Archimedean lattices

abstract:
  The majority-vote model with noise was studied on the eleven Archimedean
lattices by the Monte-Carlo method and the finite-size scaling. The critical
noises and the critical exponents were obtained with unprecedented precision.
Contrary to some previous reports, we confirmed that the majority-vote model on
the Archimedean lattices belongs to the two-dimensional Ising universality
class. It was shown that very precise determination of the critical noise is
required to obtain proper values of the critical exponents.


title:
Analysis and modelling of recurrent solar flares observed with
  Hinode/EIS on March 9, 2012

abstract:
  Three homologous C-class flares and one last M-class flare were observed by
both the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Hinode EUV Imaging
Spectrometer (EIS) in the AR 11429 on March 9, 2012. All the recurrent flares
occurred within a short interval of time (less than 4 hours), showed very
similar plasma morphology and were all confined, until the last one when a
large-scale eruption occurred. The C-class flares are characterized by the
appearance, at approximatively the same locations, of two bright and compact
footpoint sources of $\approx$~3--10~MK evaporating plasma, and a semi-circular
ribbon. During all the flares, the continuous brightening of a spine-like hot
plasma ($\approx$~10~MK) structure is also observed. Spectroscopic observations
with Hinode/EIS are used to measure and compare the blueshift velocities in the
\fexxiii\ emission line and the electron number density at the flare footpoints
for each flare. Similar velocities, of the order of 150--200~km~s$^{-1}$, are
observed during the C2.0 and C4.7 confined flares, in agreement with the values
reported by other authors in the study of the last M1.8 class flare. On the
other hand, lower electron number densities and temperatures tend to be
observed in flares with lower peak soft X-ray flux.In order to investigate the
homologous nature of the flares, we performed a Non-Linear Force-Free Field
(NLFFF) extrapolation of the 3D magnetic field configuration in the corona. The
NLFFF extrapolation and the Quasi-Separatrix Layers (QSLs) provide the magnetic
field context which explains the location of the kernels, spine-like and
semi-circular brightenings observed in the (non-eruptive) flares. Given the
absence of a coronal null point, we argue that the homologous flares were all
generated by the continuous recurrence of bald patch reconnection.


title:
Convolutional Neural Networks for Passive Monitoring of a Shallow Water
  Environment using a Single Sensor

abstract:
  A cost effective approach to remote monitoring of protected areas such as
marine reserves and restricted naval waters is to use passive sonar to detect,
classify, localize, and track marine vessel activity (including small boats and
autonomous underwater vehicles). Cepstral analysis of underwater acoustic data
enables the time delay between the direct path arrival and the first multipath
arrival to be measured, which in turn enables estimation of the instantaneous
range of the source (a small boat). However, this conventional method is
limited to ranges where the Lloyd's mirror effect (interference pattern formed
between the direct and first multipath arrivals) is discernible. This paper
proposes the use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for the joint
detection and ranging of broadband acoustic noise sources such as marine
vessels in conjunction with a data augmentation approach for improving network
performance in varied signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) situations. Performance is
compared with a conventional passive sonar ranging method for monitoring marine
vessel activity using real data from a single hydrophone mounted above the sea
floor. It is shown that CNNs operating on cepstrum data are able to detect the
presence and estimate the range of transiting vessels at greater distances than
the conventional method.


title:
The calibration of read-out-streak photometry in the XMM-Newton Optical
  Monitor and the construction of a bright-source catalogue

abstract:
  The dynamic range of the XMM-Newton Optical Monitor (XMM-OM) is limited at
the bright end by coincidence loss, the superposition of multiple photons in
the individual frames recorded from its micro-channel-plate (MCP) intensified
charge-coupled device (CCD) detector. One way to overcome this limitation is to
use photons that arrive during the frame transfer of the CCD, forming vertical
read-out streaks for bright sources. We calibrate these read-out streaks for
photometry of bright sources observed with XMM-OM. The bright source limit for
read-out streak photometry is set by the recharge time of the MCPs. For XMM-OM
we find that the MCP recharge time is 0.55 ms. We determine that the effective
bright limits for read-out streak photometry with XMM-OM are approximately 1.5
magnitudes brighter than the bright source limits for normal aperture
photometry in full-frame images. This translates into bright-source limits in
Vega magnitudes of UVW2=7.1, UVM2=8.0, UVW1=9.4, U=10.5, B=11.5, V=10.2 and
White=12.5 for data taken early in the mission. The limits brighten by up to
0.2 magnitudes, depending on filter, over the course of the mission as the
detector ages. The method is demonstrated by deriving UVW1 photometry for the
symbiotic nova RR Telescopii, and the new photometry is used to constrain the
e-folding time of its decaying UV emission. Using the read-out streak method,
we obtain photometry for 50 per cent of the missing UV source measurements in
version 2.1 of the XMM-Newton Serendipitous UV Source Survey (XMM-SUSS 2.1)
catalogue.


title: Convexity and some geometric properties

abstract:
  The main goal of this paper is to present results of existence and
non-existence of convex functions on Riemannian manifolds and, in the case of
the existence, we associate such functions to the geometry of the manifold.
Precisely, we prove that the conservativity of the geodesic flow on a Rieman-
nain manifold with infinite volume is an obstruction to the existence of convex
functions. Next, we present a geometric condition that ensures the existence of
(strictly) convex functions on a particular class of complete non-compact man-
ifolds, and, we use this fact to construct a manifold whose sectional curvature
assumes any real value greater than a negative constant and admits a strictly
convex function. In the last result we relate the geometry of a Riemannian
manifold of positive sectional curvature with the set of minimum points of a
convex function defined on the manifold.


title:
A Class of Functional Inequalities and their Applications to
  Fourth-Order Nonlinear Parabolic Equations

abstract:
  We study a class of fourth order nonlinear parabolic equations which include
the thin-film equation and the quantum drift-diffusion model as special cases.
We investigate these equations by first developing functional inequalities of
the type $ \int_\Omega u^{2\gamma-\alpha-\beta}\Delta u^\alpha\Delta u^\beta dx
\geq c\int_\Omega|\Delta u^\gamma |^2dx $, which seem to be of interest on
their own right.


title:
The energy loss effect of incoming quark in the Drell-Yan reaction off
  nuclei

abstract:
  By means of the analytic parameterizations of quenching weights based on
BDMPS formalism, the leading-order computations for nuclear Drell-Yan
differential cross section rations as a function of the quark momentum fraction
are performed with the nuclear geometry effect in Drell-Yan dimuon production.
The transport coefficient of the incoming quark energy loss in cold nuclear
matter is extracted with a global analysis of the experimental data from NA3
and E866 collaborations. The extracted transport coefficient with the analytic
parameterizations of BDMPS quenching weights is $\hat{q}=0.37\pm0.05$
GeV$^{2}$/fm. It is found that our predictions are in good agrement with the
experimental measurements, and especially the agreement of calculations with
NA3 experimental data has a significant improvement. The comparison of the
theoretical results and the corresponding experimental data demonstrates
intuitively that the energy loss effect of incoming quark is particularly
significant at lower incident proton energies. It is hoped that the obtained
results relevant to the NA3 experiment ($E_{beam}=150$ GeV) can provide useful
reference for the forthcoming E906 Sea Quest experiment ($E_{beam}=120$ GeV).


title: Entire radial and nonradial solutions for systems with critical growth

abstract:
  In this paper we establish existence of radial and nonradial solutions to the
system $$
  \begin{array}{ll}
  -\Delta u_1 = F_1(u_1,u_2)
  &\text{in }\mathbb{R}^N,\newline
  -\Delta u_2 = F_2(u_1,u_2)
  &\text{in }\mathbb{R}^N,\newline
  u_1\geq 0,\ u_2\geq 0 &\text{in }\mathbb{R}^N,\newline
  u_1,u_2\in D^{1,2}(\mathbb{R}^N),
  \end{array} $$ where $F_1,F_2$ are nonlinearities with critical behavior.


title:
Faint source star planetary microlensing: the discovery of the cold gas
  giant planet OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb

abstract:
  We report the discovery of a planet --- OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb --- via
gravitational microlensing. Observations for the lensing event were made by the
MOA, OGLE, Wise, RoboNET/LCOGT, MiNDSTEp and $\mu$FUN groups. All analyses of
the light curve data favour a lens system comprising a planetary mass orbiting
a host star. The most favoured binary lens model has a mass ratio between the
two lens masses of $(4.78 \pm 0.13)\times 10^{-3}$. Subject to some important
assumptions, a Bayesian probability density analysis suggests the lens system
comprises a $3.09_{-1.12}^{+1.02}$ M_jup planet orbiting a
$0.62_{-0.22}^{+0.20}$ M_sun host star at a deprojected orbital separation of
$4.40_{-1.46}^{+2.16}$ AU. The distance to the lens system is
$2.22_{-0.83}^{+0.96}$ kpc. Planet OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb provides additional
data to the growing number of cool planets discovered using gravitational
microlensing against which planetary formation theories may be tested. Most of
the light in the baseline of this event is expected to come from the lens and
thus high-resolution imaging observations could confirm our planetary model
interpretation.


title: Ear Decomposition and Balanced Neighborly Simplicial Manifolds

abstract:
  We find the first non-octahedral balanced 2-neighborly 3-sphere and the
balanced 2-neighborly triangulation of the lens space $L(3,1)$. Each
construction has 16 vertices. We show that there exists a balanced 3-neighborly
non-spherical 5-manifold with 18 vertices. We also show that the rank-selected
subcomplexes of a balanced simplicial sphere do not necessarily have an ear
decomposition.


title: Instantaneous Dynamics of QCD

abstract:
  We start from the observation that, in the confining phase of QCD, the
instantaneous color-Coulomb potential in Coulomb gauge is confining. This
suggests that, in the confining phase, the dynamics, as expressed in the set of
Schwinger-Dyson equations, may be dominated by the purely instantaneous terms.
We develop a calculational scheme that expresses the instantaneous dynamics in
the local formulation of QCD that includes a cut-off at the Gribov horizon.


title:
Upper bounds on the Q-spectral radius of book-free and/or $K_{s,t}$-free
  graphs

abstract:
  In this paper, we prove two results about the signless Laplacian spectral
radius $q(G)$ of a graph $G$ of order $n$ with maximum degree $\Delta$. Let
$B_{n}=K_{2}+\overline{K_{n}}$ denote a book, i.e., the graph $B_{n}$ consists
of $n$ triangles sharing an edge.
  (1) Let $1< k\leq l< \Delta < n$ and $G$ be a connected
\{$B_{k+1},K_{2,l+1}$\}-free graph of order $n$ with maximum degree $\Delta$.
Then $$\displaystyle q(G)\leq
\frac{1}{4}[3\Delta+k-2l+1+\sqrt{(3\Delta+k-2l+1)^{2}+16l(\Delta+n-1)}.$$ with
equality holds if and only if $G$ is a strongly regular graph with parameters
($\Delta$, $k$, $l$).
  (2) Let $s\geq t\geq 3$, and let $G$ be a connected $K_{s,t}$-free graph of
order $n$ $(n\geq s+t)$. Then $$q(G)\leq
n+(s-t+1)^{1/t}n^{1-1/t}+(t-1)(n-1)^{1-3/t}+t-3.$$


title: Post-common envelope PN, fundamental or irrelevant?

abstract:
  One in 5 planetary nebulae are ejected from common envelope binary
interactions but Kepler Space Telescope results are already showing this
proportion to be larger. Their properties, such as abundances can be starkly
different from those of the general population, so they should be considered
separately when using PN as chemical or population probes. Unfortunately
post-common envelope PN cannot be discerned using only their morphologies, but
this will change once we couple our new common envelope simulations with PN
formation models.


title: An optimization-based approach to calculating neutrino flavor evolution

abstract:
  We assess the utility of an optimization-based data assimilation (D.A.)
technique for treating the problem of nonlinear neutrino flavor transformation
in core collapse supernovae. D.A. uses measurements obtained from a physical
system to estimate the state variable evolution and parameter values of the
associated model. Formulated as an optimization procedure, D.A. can offer an
integration-blind approach to predicting model evolution, which offers an
advantage for models that thwart solution via traditional numerical integration
techniques. Further, D.A. performs most optimally for models whose equations of
motion are nonlinearly coupled. In this exploratory work, we consider a simple
steady-state model with two mono-energetic neutrino beams coherently
interacting with each other and a background medium. As this model can be
solved via numerical integration, we have an independent consistency check for
D.A. solutions. We find that the procedure can capture key features of flavor
evolution over the entire trajectory, even given measurements of neutrino
flavor only at the endpoint, and with an assumed known initial flavor
distribution. Further, the procedure permits an examination of the sensitivity
of flavor evolution to estimates of unknown model parameters, locates
degeneracies in parameter space, and can identify the specific measurements
required to break those degeneracies.


title:
Unified resolution of the $R(D)$ and $R(D^*)$ anomalies and the lepton
  flavor violating decay $h\to\mu\tau$

abstract:
  Taking advantage of the fact that the flavor of the neutrino in semileptonic
$B$ decays $B\to D^{(*)}\tau\nu$ is not known, we show how a minimal set of
higher-dimensional lepton flavor violating (LFV) operators can explain the
$R(D^{(*)})$ anomalies, and as a spin-off, can give rise to the LFV decay of
the Higgs boson, $h\to\mu\tau$. We also show how none but the minimal set of
operators survive the present data.


title:
The thermodynamic relationship between the RN-AdS black holes and the RN
  black hole in canonical ensemble

abstract:
  In this paper, by analyzing the thermodynamic properties of charged AdS black
hole and asymptotically flat space-time charged black hole in the vicinity of
the critical point, we establish the correspondence between the thermodynamic
parameters of asymptotically flat space-time and nonasymptotically flat
space-time, based on the equality of black hole horizon area in the two
different space-time. The relationship between the cavity radius (which is
introduced in the study of asymptotically flat space-time charged black holes)
and the cosmological constant (which is introduced in the study of
nonasymptotically flat space-time) is determined. The establishment of the
correspondence between the thermodynamics parameters in two different
space-time is beneficial to the mutual promotion of different time-space black
hole research, which is helpful to understand the thermodynamics and
quantumproperties of black hole in space-time.


title: Generalized Tonnetze

abstract:
  We study a generalization of the classical Riemannian Tonnetz to N-tone
equally tempered scales (for all N) and arbitrary triads. We classify all the
spaces that result. The torus turns out to be the most common possibility,
especially as N grows. Other spaces include 2-simplices, tetrahedra boundaries,
and the harmonic strip (in both its cylinder and Mobius band variants). The
final and most exotic space we find is something we call a `circle of
tetrahedra boundaries'. These are the Tonnetze for spaces of triads which
contain a tritone. They are closely related to Peck's Klein bottle Tonnetz.


title:
Non-linear Ion-Wake Excitation by the Time-Asymmetric Electron
  Wakefields of Intense Energy Sources with applications to the Crunch-in
  regime

abstract:
  A model for the excitation of a non-linear ion-wake mode by a train of plasma
electron oscillations in the non-linear time-asymmetric regime is developed
using analytical theory and particle-in-cell based computational solutions. The
ion-wake is shown to be a driven non-linear ion-acoustic wave in the form of a
cylindrical ion-soliton. The near-void and radially-outwards propagating
ion-wake channel of a few plasma skin-depth radius, is explored for application
to "Crunch-in" regime of positron acceleration. The coupling from the electron
wakefield mode to the ion-mode dictates the long-term evolution of the plasma
and the time for its relaxation back to an equilibrium, limiting the
repetition-rate of a plasma accelerator. Using an analytical model it is shown
that it is the time asymmetric phases of the oscillating radial electric fields
of the nearly-stationary electron bubble that excite time-averaged inertial ion
motion radially. The electron compression in the back of the bubble sucks-in
the ions whereas the space-charge within the bubble cavity expels them, driving
a cylindrical ion-soliton structure with on-axis and bubble-edge
density-spikes. Once formed, the channel-edge density-spike is sustained over
the length of the plasma and driven radially outwards by the thermal pressure
of the wake energy in electrons. Its channel-like structure is independent of
the energy-source, electromagnetic wave or particle beam, driving the bubble
electron wake. Particle-In-Cell simulations are used to study the ion-wake
soliton structure, its driven propagation and its use for positron acceleration
in the "Crunch-in" regime.

categories: physics.plasm-ph astro-ph.HE hep-ex nlin.PS physics.acc-ph


title:
General technique for analytical derivatives of post-projected
  Hartree-Fock

abstract:
  In electronic structure theory, the availability of analytical derivative is
one of the desired features for a method to be useful in practical
applications, as it allows for geometry optimization as well as computation of
molecular properties. With the recent advances in the development of
symmetry-projected Hartree-Fock (PHF) methods, we here aim at further
extensions by devising the analytic gradients of post-PHF approaches with a
special focus on spin-extended (spin-projected) configuration interaction with
single and double substitutions (ECISD). Just like standard single-reference
methods, the mean-field PHF part does not require the corresponding
coupled-perturbed equation to be solved, while the correlation energy term
needs the orbital relaxation effect to be accounted for, unless the underlying
molecular orbitals are variationally optimized in the presence of the
correlation energy. We present a general strategy for post-PHF analytical
gradients, which closely parallels that for single-reference methods, yet
addressing the major difference between them. The similarity between ECISD and
multi-reference CI not only in the energy but also in the optimized geometry is
clearly demonstrated by the numerical examples of ozone and cyclobutadiene.


title: Persistence and Sheaves

abstract:
  We study a variation of Carlsson and Zomorodian's persistent homology. As an
application, we analyze the persistent cellular sheaf cohomology of network
coding sheaves on deteriorating networks.


title:
Excited-State Structure Modifications Due to Molecular Substituents and
  Exciton Scattering in Conjugated Molecules

abstract:
  Attachment of chemical substituents (such as polar moieties) constitutes an
efficient and convenient way to modify physical and chemical properties of
conjugated polymers and oligomers. Associated modifications in the molecular
electronic states can be comprehensively described by examining scattering of
excitons in the polymer's backbone at the scattering center representing the
chemical substituent. Here, we implement effective tight-binding models as a
tool to examine the analytical properties of the exciton scattering matrices in
semi-infinite polymer chains with substitutions. We demonstrate that chemical
interactions between the substitution and attached polymer are adequately
described by the analytical properties of the scattering matrices. In
particular, resonant and bound electronic excitations are expressed via the
positions of zeros and poles of the scattering amplitude, analytically
continued to complex values of exciton quasi-momenta. We exemplify the
formulated concepts by analyzing excited states in conjugated phenylacetylenes
substituted by perylene.


title: Rehabilitation of PBE-GGA for Layered Materials

abstract:
  The structural and energetic properties of layered materials propose a
challenge to density functional theory with common semilocal approximations to
the exchange-correlation. By combining the most-widely used semilocal
generalized gradient approximation (GGA), Perdew--Burke--Ernzerhof (PBE), with
the revised Vydrov--Van Voorhis non-local correlation functional (rVV10), both
excellent structural and energetic properties of 28 layered materials were
recovered with a judicious parameter selection. We term the resulting
functional as PBE+rVV10L with "L" denoting for layered materials. Such
combination is not new, and involves only refitting a single global parameter,
however the resulting excellency suggests such corrected PBE for many aspects
of theoretical studies on layered materials. For comparison, we also present
the results for PBE+rVV10 where the parameter is determined by the 22
interaction energies between molecules.


title: Photoelastic force measurements in granular materials

abstract:
  Photoelastic techniques are used to make both qualitative and quantitative
measurements of the forces within idealized granular materials. The method is
based on placing a birefringent granular material between a pair of polarizing
filters, so that each region of the material rotates the polarization of light
according to the amount of local of stress. In this review paper, we summarize
past work using the technique, describe the optics underlying the technique,
and illustrate how it can be used to quantitatively determine the vector
contact forces between particles in a 2D granular system. We provide a
description of software resources available to perform this task, as well as
key techniques and resources for building an experimental apparatus.


title:
Wave vector star channel and star channel group in the reciprocal
  lattice space of crystal

abstract:
  In the paper, a new method determining the wave vector star channel in the
reciprocal lattice space of crystal in the light of the translational symmetry
breaking is proposed, and, in order to consider the phase transitions according
to the wave vector star channel, the conception of wave vector star channel
group is adopted. By this method, it is revealed that the phase transitions in
crystal are induced not by any arbitrary combinations of arms of the given
star, but by the selected combinations of arms which are satisfied by symmetry
of the parent phase. The wave vector star channel group is defined as the set
of elements of space group leaving the wave vector star channel invariant. We
show that the conception of wave vector star channel group can be efficiently
used in studying the translational symmetry breaking related to all the
Lifshitz wave vector stars of 230 space groups.


title:
Excess entropy production in quantum system: Quantum master equation
  approach

abstract:
  For open systems described by the quantum master equation (QME), we
investigate the excess entropy production under quasistatic operations between
nonequilibrium steady states. The average entropy production is composed of the
time integral of the instantaneous steady entropy production rate and the
excess entropy production. We propose to define average entropy production rate
using the average energy and particle currents, which are calculated by using
the full counting statistics with QME. The excess entropy production is given
by a line integral in the control parameter space and its integrand is called
the Berry-Sinitsyn-Nemenman (BSN) vector. In the weakly nonequilibrium regime,
we show that BSN vector is described by $\ln \breve{\rho}_0$ and $\rho_0$ where
$\rho_0$ is the instantaneous steady state of the QME and $\breve{\rho}_0$ is
that of the QME which is given by reversing the sign of the Lamb shift term. If
the system Hamiltonian is non-degenerate or the Lamb shift term is negligible,
the excess entropy production approximately reduces to the difference between
the von Neumann entropies of the system. Additionally, we point out that the
expression of the entropy production obtained in the classical Markov jump
process is different from our result and show that these are approximately
equivalent only in the weakly nonequilibrium regime.


title: Experimental summary: step-by-step towards new physics

abstract:
  We summarize some highlights from experimental results presented at the XIIth
International Conference on Beauty, Charm, and Hyperons in Hadronic
Interactions, held at George Mason University June 12-18, 2016.


title: Higher-order Landau-Devonshire theory for BaTiO3

abstract:
  The higher-order Landau-Devonshire theory for BaTiO3 is proposed. The
structural stabilities of some Landau potentials proposed for the phenomenology
of BaTiO3 until now are discussed in the framework of the singularity theory.
We confirm that the structurally stable Landau potential has to contain at
least all the invariants up to eighth power when the three parameters vary in
the experiment. We propose the tenth order Landau potential for adequate
description of the various experimental data for BaTiO3 crystal. We show that
the results of the phenomenology based on the tenth potential are in good
agreement with experimental data on the spontaneous polarization, dielectric
constants, dielectric susceptibility and piezoelectric coefficients versus the
temperature and the electric field.


title: An Attention-Driven Approach of No-Reference Image Quality Assessment

abstract:
  In this paper, we present a novel method of no-reference image quality
assessment (NR-IQA), which is to predict the perceptual quality score of a
given image without using any reference image. The proposed method harnesses
three functions (i) the visual attention mechanism, which affects many aspects
of visual perception including image quality assessment, however, is overlooked
in the NR-IQA literature. The method assumes that the fixation areas on an
image contain key information to the process of IQA. (ii) the robust averaging
strategy, which is a means \--- supported by psychology studies \--- to
integrating multiple/step-wise evidence to make a final perceptual judgment.
(iii) the multi-task learning, which is believed to be an effectual means to
shape representation learning and could result in a more generalized model.
  To exploit the synergy of the three, we consider the NR-IQA as a dynamic
perception process, in which the model samples a sequence of "informative"
areas and aggregates the information to learn a representation for the tasks of
jointly predicting the image quality score and the distortion type.
  The model learning is implemented by a reinforcement strategy, in which the
rewards of both tasks guide the learning of the optimal sampling policy to
acquire the "task-informative" image regions so that the predictions can be
made accurately and efficiently (in terms of the sampling steps). The
reinforcement learning is realized by a deep network with the policy gradient
method and trained through back-propagation.
  In experiments, the model is tested on the TID2008 dataset and it outperforms
several state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, the model is very efficient in
the sense that a small number of fixations are used in NR-IQA.


title:
Wave vector substar group in reciprocal lattice space and its
  representation

abstract:
  In the paper we establish the new conception of the wave vector substar group
and its representation that, in the study on translational symmetry breaking of
crystal, can only consider the particular arms of wave vector star taking part
in phase transition, but not all arms of wave vector star, unlike the
traditional Landau theory. We show that using the new conception, we can
effectively investigate the interesting physical properties of crystals
associated with translational symmetry breaking. We can see that the studies on
the complicated phase transitions related to reducible representations, such as
phase transitions in perovskite KMnF3 multiferroics crystal and high
temperature superconductor La2/3Mg1/2W1/2O3 (La4Mg3W3O18) compound, are much
simplified by the new conception, and the theory of the wave vector substar
group and its representation becomes a powerful mathematical tool being able to
promote actively the study of various symmetry breaking phenomena of solid
state crystals .


title: Counterpart of the Weyl tensor for Rarita-Schwinger type fields

abstract:
  In dimensions larger than 3 a modified field strength for Rarita-Schwinger
type fields is constructed whose components are not constrained by the field
equations. In supergravity theories the result provides a modified
(supercovariant) gravitino field strength related by supersymmetry to the
(supercovariantized) Weyl tensor. In various cases, such as for free
Rarita-Schwinger type gauge fields and for gravitino fields in several
supergravity theories, the modified field strength coincides on-shell with the
usual field strength. A corresponding result for first order derivatives of
Dirac type spinor fields is also presented.


title:
Zeeman-insensitive cooling of a single atom to its two-dimensional
  motional ground state in tightly focused optical tweezers

abstract:
  We combine near--deterministic preparation of a single atom with Raman
sideband cooling, to create a push button mechanism to prepare a single atom in
the motional ground state of tightly focused optical tweezers. In the 2D radial
plane, we achieve a large ground state fidelity for the entire procedure
(loading and cooling) of $\sim$0.73, while the ground state occupancy is
$\sim$0.88 for realizations with a single atom present. For 1D axial cooling,
we attain a ground state fraction of $\sim$0.52. The combined 3D cooling
provides a ground state population of $\sim$0.11. Our Raman sideband cooling
variation is indifferent to magnetic field fluctuations, allowing wide--spread
unshielded experimental implementations. Our work provides a pathway towards a
range of coherent few body experiments.


title: A complete classification of cubic function fields over any finite field

abstract:
  We classify all cubic function fields over any finite field, particularly
developing a complete Galois theory which includes those cases when the
constant field is missing certain roots of unity. In doing so, we find criteria
which allow one to easily read ramification and splitting data from the
generating equation, in analogy to the known theory for Artin-Schreier and
Kummer extensions. We also describe explicit irreducibility criteria, integral
bases, and Galois actions in terms of canonical generating equations.


title: Properties of compact center-stable submanifolds

abstract:
  We show that a partially hyperbolic system can have at most a finite number
of compact center-stable submanifolds. We also give sufficient conditions for
these submanifolds to exist and consider the question of whether they can
intersect each other.


title:
Monolayer enhanced thermoelectric properties compared with bulk for
  BiTeBr

abstract:
  It is believed that nanostructuring is an effective way to achieve excellent
thermoelectric performance. In the work, by combining the first-principles
calculations and semiclassical Boltzmann transport theory, we investigate the
thermoelectric properties of bulk and monolayer BiTeBr including both the
electron and phonon transports. The generalized gradient approximation (GGA)
plus spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is employed for the electron part, and GGA for
the phonon part. It is found that SOC has important effects on electronic
transport coefficients because of SOC-induced obvious influences on energy band
structures. In p-type doping, monolayer has larger Seebeck coefficient than
bulk in wide doping range, which is beneficial to excellent thermoelectric
performance. The calculated average lattice thermal conductivity of bulk is
1.71 $\mathrm{W m^{-1} K^{-1}}$ at room temperature, which is close to
experimental value 1.3 $\mathrm{W m^{-1} K^{-1}}$. Calculated results show that
monolayer has better $ZT_e$ and lower lattice thermal conductivity than bulk,
which suggests that monolayer has better thermoelectric performance than bulk.
The lower lattice thermal conductivity in monolayer than bulk is due to shorter
phonon lifetimes. By comparing the experimental electrical conductivity of bulk
with calculated value, the scattering time is determined for 3.3 $\times$
$10^{-14}$ s. Based on electron and phonon transport coefficients, the
thermoelectric figure of merit $ZT$ of bulk and monolayer are calculated. It is
found that monolayer has higher peak $ZT$ than bulk, and the peak $ZT$ of
monolayer can be as high as 0.55 in n-type doping and 0.75 in p-type doping at
room temperature. These results imply that monolayer BiTeBr may be a potential
two-dimensional (2D) thermoelectric material, which can stimulate further
experimental works to synthesize monolayer BiTeBr.


title:
Symmetric formulation of neutrino oscillations in matter and its
  intrinsic connection to renormalization-group equations

abstract:
  In this article, we point out that the effective Hamiltonian for neutrino
oscillations in matter is invariant under the transformation of the mixing
angle $\theta^{}_{12} \to \theta^{}_{12} - \pi/2$ and the exchange of first two
neutrino masses $m^{}_1 \leftrightarrow m^{}_2$, if the standard
parametrization of lepton flavor mixing matrix is adopted. To maintain this
symmetry in perturbative calculations, we present a symmetric formulation of
the effective Hamiltonian by introducing an $\eta$-gauge neutrino mass-squared
difference $\Delta^{}_* \equiv \eta \Delta^{}_{31} + (1-\eta)\Delta^{}_{32}$
for $0 \leq \eta \leq 1$, where $\Delta^{}_{ji} \equiv m^2_j - m^2_i$ for $ji =
21, 31, 32$, and show that only $\eta = 1/2$, $\eta = \cos^2\theta^{}_{12}$ or
$\eta = \sin^2 \theta^{}_{12}$ is allowed. Furthermore, we prove that $\eta =
\cos^2 \theta^{}_{12}$ is the best choice to derive more accurate and compact
neutrino oscillation probabilities, by implementing the approach of
renromalization-group equations. The validity of this approach becomes
transparent when an analogy is made between the parameter $\eta$ herein and the
renormalization scale $\mu$ in relativistic quantum field theories.


title:
On the signless Laplacian spectral radius of $C_{4}$-free $k$-cyclic
  graphs

abstract:
  A $k$-cyclic graph is a connected graph of order $n$ and size $n+k-1$. In
this paper, we determine the maximal signless Laplacian spectral radius and the
corresponding extremal graph among all $C_{4}$-free $k$-cyclic graphs of order
$n$. Furthermore, we determine the first three unicyclic, and bicyclic,
$C_{4}$-free graphs whose spectral radius of the signless Laplacian is maximal.
Similar results are obtained for the (combinatorial) Laplacian.


title: Fitness, Apprenticeship, and Polynomials

abstract:
  This article discusses the design of the Apprenticeship Program at the Fields
Institute, held 21 August - 3 September 2016. Six themes from combinatorial
algebraic geometry were selected for the two weeks: curves, surfaces,
Grassmannians, convexity, abelian combinatorics, parameters and moduli. The
activities were structured into fitness, research and scholarship.
Combinatorics and concrete computations with polynomials (and theta functions)
empowers young scholars in algebraic geometry, and it helps them to connect
with the historic roots of their field. We illustrate our perspective for the
threefold obtained by blowing up six points in $\mathbb{P}^3$.


title: Sweeping costs of planar domains

abstract:
  Let D be a Jordan domain in the plane. We consider a pursuit-evasion,
contamination clearing, or sensor sweep problem in which the pursuer at each
point in time is modeled by a continuous curve, called the sensor curve. Both
time and space are continuous, and the intruders are invisible to the pursuer.
Given D, what is the shortest length of a sensor curve necessary to provide a
sweep of domain D, so that no continuously-moving intruder in D can avoid being
hit by the curve? We define this length to be the sweeping cost of D. We
provide an analytic formula for the sweeping cost of any Jordan domain in terms
of the geodesic Frechet distance between two curves on the boundary of D with
non-equal winding numbers. As a consequence, we show that the sweeping cost of
any convex domain is equal to its width, and that a convex domain of unit area
with maximal sweeping cost is the equilateral triangle.


title:
A biological model of scabies infection dynamics and treatment explains
  why mass drug administration does not lead to elimination

abstract:
  Despite a low global prevalence, infections with Sarcoptes scabiei, or
scabies, are still common in remote communities such as in northern Australia
and the Solomon Islands. Mass drug administration (MDA) has been utilised in
these communities, and although prevalence drops substantially initially, these
reductions have not been sustained. We develop a compartmental model of scabies
infection dynamics and incorporate both ovicidal and non-ovicidal treatment
regimes. By including the dynamics of mass drug administration, we are able to
reproduce the phenomena of an initial reduction in prevalence, followed by the
recrudescence of infection levels in the population. We show that even under a
`perfect' two-round MDA, eradication of scabies under a non-ovicidal treatment
scheme is almost impossible. We then go on to consider how the probability of
elimination varies with the number of treatment rounds delivered in an MDA. We
find that even with infeasibly large numbers of treatment rounds, elimination
remains challenging.


title: On kernel design for regularized LTI system identification

abstract:
  There are two key issues for the kernel-based regularization method: one is
how to design a suitable kernel to embed in the kernel the prior knowledge of
the LTI system to be identified, and the other one is how to tune the kernel
such that the resulting regularized impulse response estimator can achieve a
good bias-variance tradeoff. In this paper, we focus on the issue of kernel
design. Depending on the type of the prior knowledge, we propose two methods to
design kernels: one is from a machine learning perspective and the other one is
from a system theory perspective. We also provide analysis results for both
methods, which not only enhances our understanding for the existing kernels but
also directs the design of new kernels.


title: Saito duality and the classical theory of arithmetic functions

abstract:
  We study Saito duality and Fourier-Ramanujan transform for power sums and
multiplicities of monodromy roots.


title: Linear Residuals and Gallai-Simplicial Complexes

abstract:
  In this paper, we give a new algebraic criterion for the {\em shellability}
of (non-pure) simplicial complex $\Delta$ over $[n]$, shellable in the sense of
Bj\"orner and Wachs \cite{BW}. We show that the spanning simplicial complex of
doubly uni-cyclic graph is non-pure shellable. Moreover, we introduce the
concept of Gallai-simplicial complex $\Delta_{\Gamma}(G)$ of a finite simple
graph $G$. We applied the obtained criterion to discuss the shellability of
Gallai simplicial complexes associated to various classes of graphs..


title:
Anomalous localization behaviors in disordered pseudospin systems:
  Beyond the conventional Anderson picture

abstract:
  We discovered novel Anderson localization behaviors of pseudospin systems in
a 1D disordered potential. For a pseudospin-1 system, due to the absence of
backscattering under normal incidence and the presence of a conical band
structure, the wave localization behaviors are entirely different from those of
normal disordered systems. We show both numerically and analytically that there
exists a critical strength of random potential ($W_c$), which is equal to the
incident energy ($E$), below which the localization length $\xi$ decreases with
the random strength $W$ for a fixed incident angle $\theta$. But the
localization length drops abruptly to a minimum at $W=W_c$ and rises
immediately afterwards, which has never been observed in ordinary materials.
The incidence angle dependence of the localization length has different
asymptotic behaviors in two regions of random strength, with $\xi \propto
\sin^{-4}\theta$ when $W<W_c$ and $\xi \propto \sin^{-2}\theta$ when $W>W_c$.
Experimentally, for a given disordered sample with a fixed randomness strength
$W$, the incident wave with incident energy $E$ will experience two different
types of localization, depending on whether $E>W$ or $E<W$. The existence of a
sharp transition at $E=W$ is due to the emergence of evanescent waves in the
systems when $E<W$. Such localization behavior is unique to pseudospin-1
systems. For pseudospin-1/2 systems, there is a minimum localization length as
randomness increases, but the transition from decreasing to increasing
localization length at the minimum is smooth rather than abrupt. In both
decreasing and increasing regions, the $\theta$ -dependence of the localization
length has the same asymptotic behavior $\xi \propto \sin^{-2}\theta$.

categories: cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.mtrl-sci physics.optics


title: Abundance scaling in stars, nebulae and galaxies

abstract:
  We present a new basis for scaling abundances with total metallicity in
nebular photoionisation models, based on extensive Milky Way stellar abundance
data, to replace the uniform scaling normally used in the analysis of HII
regions. Our goal is to provide a single scaling method and local abundance
reference standard for use in nebular modelling and its key inputs, the stellar
atmosphere and evolutionary track models. We introduce a parametric enrichment
factor, zeta, to describe how atomic abundances scale with total abundance, and
which allows for a simple conversion between scales based on different
reference elements (usually oxygen or iron) . The models and parametric
description provide a more physically realistic approach than simple uniform
abundance scaling. With appropriate parameters, the methods described here may
be applied to HII regions in the Milky Way, large and dwarf galaxies in the
local universe, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), and to star forming regions at
high redshift.


title: Corruption Robust Phase Retrieval via Linear Programming

abstract:
  We consider the problem of phase retrieval from corrupted magnitude
observations. In particular we show that a fixed $x_0 \in \mathbb{R}^n$ can be
recovered exactly from corrupted magnitude measurements $|\langle a_i, x_0
\rangle | + \eta_i, \quad i =1,2\ldots m$ with high probability for $m = O(n)$,
where $a_i \in \mathbb{R}^n$ are i.i.d standard Gaussian and $\eta \in
\mathbb{R}^m$ has fixed sparse support and is otherwise arbitrary, by using a
version of the PhaseMax algorithm augmented with slack variables subject to a
penalty. This linear programming formulation, which we call RobustPhaseMax,
operates in the natural parameter space, and our proofs rely on a direct
analysis of the optimality conditions using concentration inequalities.


title: Yaglom limit for stable processes in cones

abstract:
  We give the asymptotics of the tail of the distribution of the first exit
time of the isotropic $\alpha$-stable L\'evy process from the Lipschitz cone in
$\mathbb{R}^d$. We obtain the Yaglom limit for the killed stable process for
the cone. We construct and estimate entrance laws for the process from the
vertex into the cone. For the symmetric Cauchy process and the positive
half-line we give a spectral representation of the Yaglom limit. Our approach
relies on the scalings of the stable process and the cone, which allow to
express the temporal asymptotics of the distribution of the process at infinity
by means of the spatial asymptotics of harmonic functions of the process at the
vertex; on the representation of the probability of survival of the process in
the cone as a Green potential; and on the approximate factorization of the heat
kernel of the cone, which secures compactness and yields a limiting (Yaglom)
measure by means of Prokhorov's theorem.


title: A relative tensor product of subfactors over a modular tensor category

abstract:
  We define and study a certain relative tensor product of subfactors over a
modular tensor category. This gives a relative tensor product of two completely
rational heterotic full local conformal nets with trivial superselection
structures over a common chiral representation category. In particular, we have
a new realization of fusion rules of modular invariants. This also gives a
mathematical definition of a composition of two gapped domain walls between
topological phases.


title:
PIGMIL: Positive Instance Detection via Graph Updating for Multiple
  Instance Learning

abstract:
  Positive instance detection, especially for these in positive bags (true
positive instances, TPIs), plays a key role for multiple instance learning
(MIL) arising from a specific classification problem only provided with bag (a
set of instances) label information. However, most previous MIL methods on this
issue ignore the global similarity among positive instances and that negative
instances are non-i.i.d., usually resulting in the detection of TPI not precise
and sensitive to outliers. To the end, we propose a positive instance detection
via graph updating for multiple instance learning, called PIGMIL, to detect TPI
accurately. PIGMIL selects instances from working sets (WSs) of some working
bags (WBs) as positive candidate pool (PCP). The global similarity among
positive instances and the robust discrimination of instances of PCP from
negative instances are measured to construct the consistent similarity and
discrimination graph (CSDG). As a result, the primary goal (i.e. TPI detection)
is transformed into PCP updating, which is approximated efficiently by updating
CSDG with a random walk ranking algorithm and an instance updating strategy. At
last bags are transformed into feature representation vector based on the
identified TPIs to train a classifier. Extensive experiments demonstrate the
high precision of PIGMIL's detection of TPIs and its excellent performance
compared to classic baseline MIL methods.


title: Reading Comprehension using Entity-based Memory Network

abstract:
  This paper introduces a novel neural network model for question answering,
the \emph{entity-based memory network}. It enhances neural networks' ability of
representing and calculating information over a long period by keeping records
of entities contained in text. The core component is a memory pool which
comprises entities' states. These entities' states are continuously updated
according to the input text. Questions with regard to the input text are used
to search the memory pool for related entities and answers are further
predicted based on the states of retrieved entities. Compared with previous
memory network models, the proposed model is capable of handling fine-grained
information and more sophisticated relations based on entities. We formulated
several different tasks as question answering problems and tested the proposed
model. Experiments reported satisfying results.


title:
Observation of Fano resonance using a coupled resonator metamaterial
  composed of meta-atoms arranged by double periodicity

abstract:
  We studied the transmission characteristics of a planar metamaterial
consisting of an array of electric split-ring resonators (eSRRs) with double
periodicity. Because of coupling between different resonant modes induced by
different lattice periods in metamaterials with double periodicity, the
appearance of Fano resonance can be expected in the same manner as that in the
case of coupled classical oscillators. We fabricated complementary eSRRs and
verified that a Fano-like spectral shape appeared in the transmission spectra
of eSRRs with double periodicity in the terahertz region.


title: Theory of Fundamental Bessel Functions of High Rank

abstract:
  In this article, we shall study fundamental Bessel functions for
$\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{F})$ arising from the Vorono\"i summation formula for
any rank $n$ and field $\mathbb{F} = \mathbb{R}$ or $\mathbb{C}$, with focus on
developing their analytic and asymptotic theory. The main implements and
subjects of our study of fundamental Bessel functions are their formal integral
representations and Bessel differential equations. We shall prove the
asymptotic formulae for fundamental Bessel functions and explicit connection
formulae for the Bessel differential equations.


title: Modeling the spread of the Zika virus using topological data analysis

abstract:
  Zika virus (ZIKV), a disease spread primarily through the Aedes aegypti
mosquito, was identified in Brazil in 2015 and was declared a global health
emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). Epidemiologists often use
common state-level attributes such as population density and temperature to
determine the spread of disease. By applying techniques from topological data
analysis, we believe that epidemiologists will be able to better predict how
ZIKV will spread. We use the Vietoris-Rips filtration on high-density mosquito
locations in Brazil to create simplicial complexes, from which we extract
homology group generators. Previously epidemiologists have not relied on
topological data analysis to model disease spread. Evaluating our model on ZIKV
case data in the states of Brazil demonstrates the value of these techniques
for the improved assessment of vector-borne diseases.


title: Tuning of Hybrid Oligomers via Nanoscale fs-Laser Reshaping

abstract:
  Various clusters of metallic or dielectric nanoparticles can exhibit sharp
Fano resonances originating from at least two modes interference of different
spectral width. However, for practical applications such as biosensing or
nonlinear nanophotonics, the fine-tuning of the Fano resonances is generally
required. Here, we propose and demonstrate a novel type of hybrid oligomers
consisting of asymmetric metal-dielectric (Au/Si) nanoparticles with a sharp
Fano resonance in visible range, which has a predominantly magnetic origin. We
demonstrate both, numerically and experimentally, that such hybrid nanoparticle
oligomers allow fine-tuning of the Fano resonance via fs-laser induced melting
of Au nanoparticles at the nanometer scale. We show that the Fano resonance
wavelength can be changed by fs-laser reshaping very precisely (within 15~nm)
being accompanied by a reconfiguration of its profile.


title: Classification of exoplanets according to density

abstract:
  Considering probability distribution as a function of the average density
$\bar{\rho}$ computed for 424 extrasolar planets we identify three log-normal
Gaussian population components. The two most populous components at
$\bar{\rho}\simeq0.7$ g/cc and $\bar{\rho}\simeq7$ g/cc are the ice/gas giants
and iron/rock super-Earths, respectively. A third component at
$\bar{\rho}\simeq30$ g/cc is consistent with brown dwarfs, i.e., electron
degeneracy supported objects. We note presence of several extreme density
planetary objects.


title: Text-guided Attention Model for Image Captioning

abstract:
  Visual attention plays an important role to understand images and
demonstrates its effectiveness in generating natural language descriptions of
images. On the other hand, recent studies show that language associated with an
image can steer visual attention in the scene during our cognitive process.
Inspired by this, we introduce a text-guided attention model for image
captioning, which learns to drive visual attention using associated captions.
For this model, we propose an exemplar-based learning approach that retrieves
from training data associated captions with each image, and use them to learn
attention on visual features. Our attention model enables to describe a
detailed state of scenes by distinguishing small or confusable objects
effectively. We validate our model on MS-COCO Captioning benchmark and achieve
the state-of-the-art performance in standard metrics.


title: Magnetic brightening and control of dark excitons in monolayer WSe2

abstract:
  Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) crystals, as direct-gap
materials with unusually strong light-matter interaction, have attracted much
recent attention. In contrast to the initial understanding, the minima of the
conduction band are predicted to be spin split. Because of this splitting and
the spin-polarized character of the valence bands, the lowest-lying excitonic
states in WX2 (X=S, Se) are expected to be spin-forbidden and optically dark.
To date, however, there has been no direct experimental probe of these dark
band-edge excitons, which strongly influence the light emission properties of
the material. Here we show how an in-plane magnetic field can brighten the dark
excitonic states and allow their properties to be revealed experimentally in
monolayer WSe2. In particular, precise energy levels for both the neutral and
charged dark excitons were obtained and compared with ab-initio calculations
using the GW-BSE approach. Greatly increased emission and valley lifetimes were
observed for the brightened dark states as a result of their spin
configuration. These studies directly probe the excitonic spin manifold and
provide a new route to tune the optical and valley properties of these
prototypical two-dimensional semiconductors.


title: Non-Commutative Vector Bundles for Non-Unital Algebras

abstract:
  We revisit the characterisation of modules over non-unital $C^*$-algebras
analogous to modules of sections of vector bundles. A fullness condition on the
associated multiplier module characterises a class of modules which closely
mirror the commutative case. We also investigate the multiplier-module
construction in the context of bi-Hilbertian bimodules, particularly those of
finite numerical index and finite Watatani index.


title:
Circulant Matrix Representation of PN-sequences with Ideal
  Autocorrelation Property

abstract:
  In this paper, we investigate PN-sequences with ideal autocorrelation
property and the consequences of this property on the number of +1s and -1s and
run structure of sequences. We begin by discussing and surveying about the
length of PNsequences with ideal autocorrelation property. From our discussion
and survey we introduce circulant matrix representation of PN-sequence. Through
circulant matrix representation we obtain system of non-linear equations that
lead to ideal autocorrelation property. Rewriting PN-sequence and its
autocorrelation property in {0,1} leads to a definition based on Hamming weight
and Hamming distance and hence we can easily prove some results on the
PN-sequences with ideal autocorrelation property.


title:
Global Estimation of Neonatal Mortality using a Bayesian Hierarchical
  Splines Regression Model

abstract:
  In recent years, much of the focus in monitoring child mortality has been on
assessing changes in the under-five mortality rate (U5MR). However, as the U5MR
decreases, the share of neonatal deaths (within the first month) tends to
increase, warranting increased efforts in monitoring this indicator in addition
to the U5MR. A Bayesian splines regression model is presented for estimating
neonatal mortality rates (NMR) for all countries. In the model, the
relationship between NMR and U5MR is assessed and used to inform estimates, and
spline regression models are used to capture country-specific trends. As such,
the resulting NMR estimates incorporate trends in overall child mortality while
also capturing data-driven trends. The model is fitted to 195 countries using
the database from the United Nations Interagency Group for Child Mortality
Estimation, producing estimates from 1990, or earlier if data are available,
until 2015. The results suggest that, above a U5MR of 34 deaths per 1000 live
births, at the global level, a 1 per cent increase in the U5MR leads to a 0.6
per cent decrease in the ratio of NMR to U5MR. Below a U5MR of 34 deaths per
1000 live births, the proportion of deaths under-five that are neonatal is
constant at around 54 per cent. However, the relationship between U5MR and NMR
varies across countries. The model has now been adopted by the United Nations
Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.


title: Quartz tuning fork as a probe of surface waves

abstract:
  Quartz tuning forks are high-quality mechanical oscillators widely used in
low temperature physics as viscometers, thermometers and pressure sensors. We
demonstrate that a fork placed in liquid helium near the surface of solid
helium is very sensitive to the oscillations of the solid-liquid interface. We
developed a double-resonance read-out technique which allowed us to detect
oscillations of the surface with an accuracy of 1 Angs in 10 sec. Using this
technique we have investigated crystallization waves in 4He down to 10 mK. In
contrast to previous studies of crystallization waves, our measurement scheme
has very low dissipation, on the order of 20 pW, which allows us to carry out
experiments even at sub-mK temperatures. We propose to use this scheme in the
search for crystallization waves in 3He, which exist only at temperatures well
below 0.5 mK.


title:
Description and triviality of the loop products and coproducts for
  rational Gorenstein spaces

abstract:
  F\'elix and Thomas extended the loop products and coproducts to
simply-connected Gorenstein spaces. We explicitly describe these operations
with rational coefficients in terms of Sullivan models. Moreover, by this
description, we prove some results on triviality of these operations. They
include a variant of the result of Tamanoi, and generalizations of that of
F\'elix and Thomas and that of Naito.


title:
Statistical imprints of CMB B-type polarization leakage in an incomplete
  sky survey analysis

abstract:
  One of the main goals of modern cosmology is to search for primordial
gravitational waves by looking on their imprints in the B-type polarization in
the cosmic microwave background radiation. However, this signal is contaminated
by various sources, including cosmic weak lensing, foreground radiations,
instrumental noises, as well as the E-to-B leakage caused by the partial sky
surveys, which should be well understood to avoid the misinterpretation of the
observed data. In this paper, we adopt the E/B decomposition method suggested
by Smith in 2006, and study the imprints of E-to-B leakage residuals in the
constructed B-type polarization maps, $\mathcal{B}(\hat{n})$, by employing
various statistical tools. We find that the effects of E-to-B leakage are
negligible for the $\mathcal{B}$-mode power spectrum, as well as the skewness
and kurtosis analyses of $\mathcal{B}$-maps. However, if employing the
morphological statistical tools, including Minkowski functionals and/or Betti
numbers, we find the effect of leakage can be detected at very high confidence
level, which shows that in the morphological analysis, the leakage can play a
significant role as a contaminant for measuring the primordial B-mode signal
and must be taken into account for a correct explanation of the data.


title:
One-loop pentagon integral with one offshell leg in $d$ dimensions from
  differential equations in $\epsilon$-form

abstract:
  We apply differential equations technique to the calculation of the one-loop
massless diagram with one offshell legs. Using reduction to $\epsilon$-form, we
managed to obtain a simple one-fold integral representation exact in space-time
dimensionality. Expansion of the obtained result in $\epsilon$ and analytical
continuation to physical region are discussed.


title: Moduli of sheaves supported on curves of genus two in a quadric surface

abstract:
  We study the moduli space of stable sheaves of Euler characteristic 1,
supported on curves of arithmetic genus 2 contained in a smooth quadric
surface. We show that this moduli space is rational. We give a classification
of the stable sheaves involving locally free resolutions or extensions. We
compute the Betti numbers by studying the variation of the moduli spaces of
alpha-semi-stable pairs.


title: Darwinian Selection Induces Lamarckian Adaptation in a Holobiont Model

abstract:
  Current models of animal evolution focus on selection of individuals,
ignoring the much faster selection of symbiotic bacteria. Here we take
host-symbiont interactions into account by introducing a Population
Genetics-like model of holobionts exposed to toxic stress. The stress can be
alleviated by selection of resistant individuals (host and bacteria) and by
secretion of a detoxification agent ("detox"). By defining a new measure,
termed the Lamarckian, we show that selection of resistant bacteria over one
generation of hosts leads to stress-dependent increase in the tolerance of the
host's offspring. This benefit is mediated by co-alleviation of toxic and
physiologic stress. Prolonged exposure leads to further adaptation by 'group
selection' of bacterial communities with higher detox per bacterium. These
findings show that Lamarckian adaptation can arise via interactions between two
levels of Darwinian selection within a holobiont system. The conclusions and
modelling framework are applicable to diverse types of holobiont systems.