title: The Shapley Value in the Knaster Gain Game

abstract:
  In Briata, Dall'Aglio and Fragnelli (2012), the authors introduce a
cooperative game with transferable utility for allocating the gain of a
collusion among completely risk-averse agents involved in the fair division
procedure introduced by Knaster (1946). In this paper we analyze the Shapley
value (Shapley, 1953) of the game and propose its use as a measure of the
players' attitude towards collusion. Furthermore, we relate the sign of the
Shapley value with the ranking order of the players' evaluation, and show that
some players in a given ranking will always deter collusion. Finally, we
characterize the coalitions that maximize the gain from collusion, and suggest
an ad-hoc coalition formation mechanism.


title: Vortexlike excitations in the heavy-fermion superconductor CeIrIn$_5$

abstract:
  We report a systematic study of temperature- and field-dependent charge
($\boldsymbol{\rho}$) and entropy ($\mathbf{S}$) transport in the heavy-fermion
superconductor CeIrIn$_5$. Its large positive thermopower $S_{xx}$ is typical
of Ce-based Kondo lattice systems, and strong electronic correlations play an
important role in enhancing the Nernst signal $S_{xy}$. By separating the
off-diagonal Peltier coefficient $\alpha_{xy}$ from $S_{xy}$, we find that
$\alpha_{xy}$ becomes positive and greatly enhanced at temperatures well above
the bulk $T_c$. Compared with the non-magnetic analog LaIrIn$_5$, these results
suggest vortexlike excitations in a precursor state to unconventional
superconductivity in CeIrIn$_5$. This study sheds new light on the similarity
of heavy-fermion and cuprate superconductors and on the possibility of states
not characterized by the amplitude of an order parameter.


title: Statistical Risk Models

abstract:
  We give complete algorithms and source code for constructing statistical risk
models, including methods for fixing the number of risk factors. One such
method is based on eRank (effective rank) and yields results similar to (and
further validates) the method set forth in an earlier paper by one of us. We
also give a complete algorithm and source code for computing eigenvectors and
eigenvalues of a sample covariance matrix which requires i) no costly
iterations and ii) the number of operations linear in the number of returns.
The presentation is intended to be pedagogical and oriented toward practical
applications.


title:
Enhanced X-ray-phase-contrast-tomography brings new clarity to the
  2000-year-old 'voice' of Epicurean philosopher Philodemus

abstract:
  A collection of more than 1800 carbonized Greek and Latin papyri, discovered
in the Roman Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum in the middle of 18th century, is
the unique classical library survived from antiquity. These
ancient-Herculaneum-papyri were charred during 79 A.D. Vesuvius eruption, a
circumstance which providentially preserved them until now. This magnificent
collection contains valuable work by Greek philosophers, such as Epicurus,
Chrysippus and Philodemus, in particular an impressive amount of extensive
treatises by Philodemus of Gadara, an Epicurean philosopher of the 1st century
BC. The aim of the present study is to read extended and hitherto unknown
portions of text hidden inside carbonized-Herculaneum-papyri using enhanced
X-ray-phase-contrast-tomography (XPCT) non-destructive technique and a new set
of numerical algorithms for virtual-unrolling. This paper documents our success
in revealing the largest portion of Greek text ever detected so far inside
unopened scrolls, with unprecedented spatial resolution and contrast, all
without damaging these precious historical manuscripts. Parts of texts have
been decoded and the 'voice' of Epicurean philosopher Philodemus is brought
back again after 2000 years from rolled-up carbonized Herculaneum-papyri.


title: Model theory of $\mathrm{C}^*$-algebras

abstract:
  We begin the systematic model theoretic study of $\mathrm{C}^*$-algebras
using the tools of continuous logic.


title: Perfect snake-in-the-box codes for rank modulation

abstract:
  For odd n, the alternating group on n elements is generated by the
permutations that jump an element from any odd position to position 1. We prove
Hamiltonicity of the associated directed Cayley graph for all odd n not equal
to 5. (A result of Rankin implies that the graph is not Hamiltonian for n=5.)
This solves a problem arising in rank modulation schemes for flash memory. Our
result disproves a conjecture of Horovitz and Etzion, and proves another
conjecture of Yehezkeally and Schwartz.


title:
Hot nano-particles in polar or paramagnetic liquids interact as
  monopoles

abstract:
  When neutral nano-particles are heated or cooled in a polar liquid, they will
interact with each other as if they carry an electrostatic charge that is
proportional to the temperature difference between the particle and the
surrounding fluid. The same should hold for paramagnetic liquids, in which case
the nano-particles should behave as magnetic monopoles. However, the analogy
with electrostatics/magnetostatics is not complete: heated/cooled
nano-particles do not move under the influence of an applied field. They
should, however, interact as monopoles.


title: Vacuum type D initial data

abstract:
  A vacuum type D initial data set is a vacuum initial data set of the Einstein
field equations whose data development contains a region where the space-time
is of Petrov type D. In this paper we give a {\em systematic} characterisation
of a vacuum type D initial data set. By systematic we mean that the only
quantities involved are those appearing in the vacuum constraints, namely the
first fundamental form (Riemannian metric) and the second fundamental form. Our
characterisation is a set of conditions consisting of the vacuum constraints
and some additional differential equations for the first and second fundamental
forms. These conditions can be regarded as a system of partial differential
equations on a Riemannian manifold and the solutions of the system contain all
possible {\em regular} vacuum type D initial data sets. As an application we
particularise our conditions for the case of vacuum data whose data development
is a subset of the Kerr solution. This has applications in the formulation of
the non-linear stability problem of the Kerr black hole.


title:
Scalar Invariants of surfaces in conformal 3-sphere via Minkowski
  spacetime

abstract:
  For a surface in 3-sphere, by identifying the conformal round 3-sphere as the
projectivized positive light cone in Minkowski 5-spacetime, we use the
conformal Gauss map and the conformal transform to construct the associate
homogeneous 4-surface in Minkowski 5-spacetime. We then derive the local
fundamental theorem for a surface in conformal round 3-sphere from that of the
associate 4-surface in Minkowski 5-spacetime. More importantly, following the
idea of Fefferman and Graham, we construct local scalar invariants for a
surface in conformal round 3-sphere. One distinct feature of our construction
is to link the classic work of Blaschke to the works of Bryan and
Fefferman-Graham.


title: Phonon anomalies in some iron-telluride materials

abstract:
  The detailed temperature dependence of the infrared-active mode in
Fe$_{1.03}$Te ($T_N\simeq 68$ K) and Fe$_{1.13}$Te ($T_N\simeq 56$ K) has been
examined, and the position, width, strength, and asymmetry parameter determined
using an asymmetric Fano profile superimposed on an electronic background. In
both materials the frequency of the mode increases as the temperature is
reduced; however, there is also a slight asymmetry in the line shape,
indicating that the mode is coupled to either spin or charge excitations. Below
$T_N$ there is an anomalous decrease in frequency and the mode shows little
temperature dependence, at the same time becoming more symmetric, suggesting a
reduction in spin- or electron-phonon coupling. The frequency of the
infrared-active mode and the magnitude of the shift below $T_N$ are predicted
reasonably well by first-principles calculations; however, the predicted
splitting of the mode is not observed. In superconducting
FeTe$_{0.55}$Se$_{0.45}$ ($T_c\simeq 14$ K) the infrared-active $E_u$ mode
displays asymmetric line shape at all temperatures, which is most pronounced
between 100 - 200 K, indicating the presence of either spin- or electron-phonon
coupling, which may be a necessary prerequisite for superconductivity in this
class of materials.


title:
Numerical computation of shape factor for pair distribution function of
  nanoparticles using atomistic model

abstract:
  The atomic pair distribution function (PDF) for nano-particles has to be
corrected with a shape factor, also known as form factor, in order to take size
and shape effects into consideration. For most anisotropic shapes an analytical
formulation of the shape factor is a challenge. In this paper, we present a new
method to numerically compute the shape factor using atomistic model. This
numerical method to calculate PDF for a wide range of geometrical shapes is
demonstrated. In addition, a fitting formulation, which effectively converts
the numerical shape factors for some selected geometrical shapes to the
analytical forms, is presented.

categories: cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.other physics.comp-ph


title: Spherical Distance Metrics Applied to Protein Structure Classification

abstract:
  Structural relationships among proteins are important in the study of their
evolution as well as in drug design and development. The protein 3D structure
has been shown to be effective with respect to classifying proteins. Prior work
has shown that the Double Centroid Reduced Representation (DCRR) model is a
useful geometric representation for protein structure with respect to visual
models, reducing the quantity of modeled information for each amino acid, yet
retaining the most important geometrical and chemical features of each: the
centroids of the backbone and of the side-chain. DCRR has not yet been applied
in the calculation of geometric structural similarity. Meanwhile,
multi-dimensional indexing (MDI) of protein structure combines protein
structural analysis with distance metrics to facilitate structural similarity
queries and is also used for clustering protein structures into related groups.
In this respect, the combination of geometric models with MDI has been shown to
be effective. Prior work, notably Distance and Density based Protein Indexing
(DDPIn), applies MDI to protein models based on the geometry of the CA
backbone. DDPIn distance metrics are based on radial and density functions that
incorporate spherical-based metrics, and the indices are built from metric tree
(M-tree) structures. This work combines DCRR with DDPIn for the development of
new DCRR centroid-based metrics: spherical binning distance and inter-centroid
spherical distance. The use of DCRR models will provide additional significant
structural information via the inclusion of side-chain centroids. Additionally,
the newly developed distance metric functions combined with DCRR and M-tree
indexing attempt to improve upon the performance of prior work (DDPIn), given
the same data set, with respect to both individual k-nearest neighbor (kNN)
search queries as well as clustering all proteins in the index.


title:
A Bayesian approach for energy-based estimation of acoustic aberrations
  in high intensity focused ultrasound treatment

abstract:
  High intensity focused ultrasound is a non-invasive method for treatment of
diseased tissue that uses a beam of ultrasound to generate heat within a small
volume. A common challenge in application of this technique is that
heterogeneity of the biological medium can defocus the ultrasound beam. Here we
reduce the problem of refocusing the beam to the inverse problem of estimating
the acoustic aberration due to the biological tissue from acoustic radiative
force imaging data. We solve this inverse problem using a Bayesian framework
with a hierarchical prior and solve the inverse problem using a
Metropolis-within-Gibbs algorithm. The framework is tested using both synthetic
and experimental datasets. We demonstrate that our approach has the ability to
estimate the aberrations using small datasets, as little as 32 sonication
tests, which can lead to significant speedup in the treatment process.
Furthermore, our approach is compatible with a wide range of sonication tests
and can be applied to other energy-based measurement techniques.


title: Kinetic Theory of Positron-Impact Ionization in Gases

abstract:
  A kinetic theory model is developed for positron-impact ionization (PII) with
neutral, rarefied gases. Particular attention is given to the sharing of
available energy between the post-ionization constituents. A simple model for
the energy-partition function that qualitatively captures the physics of
high-energy and near-threshold ionization is developed for PII, with free
parameters that can be used to fit the model to experimental data. By applying
the model to the measurements of Kover and Laricchia [1] for positrons in H2,
the role of energy-partitioning in PII for positron thermalisation is studied.
Although the overall thermalisation time is found to be relatively insensitive
to the energy-partitioning, the mean energy profiles at certain times can
differ by more than an order of magnitude for the various treatments of
energy-partitioning. This can significantly impact the number and energy
distribution of secondary electrons.


title:
High-Frequency and Type-C QPOs from Oscillating, Precessing Hot, Thick
  Flow

abstract:
  Motivated by recent studies showing an apparent correlation between the
high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) and the low-frequency, type-C
QPO in low-mass, black hole X-ray binaries (LMXBs), we explore a model that
explains all three QPOs in terms of an oscillating, precessing hot flow in the
truncated-disk geometry. Our model favors attributing the two high-frequency
QPOs, often occurring in a near 3:2 frequency ratio, to the breathing and
vertical epicyclic frequency modes of the hot, thick flow, although we can not
rule out the Keplerian and m=-1 radial epicyclic modes. In either case, the
type-C QPO is attributed to precession. The correlation of the QPOs comes from
the fact that all three frequencies are associated with the same geometrical
structure. While the exact QPO frequencies are sensitive to the black hole mass
and spin, their evolution over the course of an outburst is mainly tied to the
truncation radius between the geometrically thin, optically thick disk and the
inner, hot flow. We show that, in the case of the LMXB GRO J1655-40, this model
can explain the one simultaneous observation of all three QPOs and that an
extrapolation of the model appears to match lower frequency observations where
only two of the three components are seen. Thus, this model may be able to
unify multiple QPO observations using the properties of a single, simple,
geometrical model.


title: Physical and invariant models for defect network evolution

abstract:
  We revisit the velocity-dependent one-scale model for topological defect
evolution, and present a new alternative formulation in terms of a physical
(rather than invariant) characteristic length scale. While the two approaches
are equivalent (as we explicitly demonstrate), the new one is particularly
relevant when studying the evolution of ultra-relativistic defects. Moreover, a
comparison of the two provides further insight on the interpretation of the
model's two phenomenological parameters, $c$ related to energy losses and $k$
related to the curvature of the defects. As an illustration of the relevance of
the new formulation, we use it to study the evolution of cosmic string and
domain wall networks in contracting universes. We show that these networks are
ultra-relativistic and conformally contracted, with the physical length scale
behaving as $L_{ph}\propto a$ and the density as $\rho\propto a^{-4}$ (as in a
radiation fluid) in both cases. On the other hand the velocity and invariant
length respectively behave as $(\gamma v)\propto a^{-n}$ and $L_{inv}\propto
a^{\frac{4}{4-n}}$, where $n$ is the number of dimensions of the defect's
worldsheet. Finally we also study an alternative friction-dominated scenario
and show that the stretching and Kibble regimes identified in the case of
expanding universes can also occur for contracting ones.


title: Ribbonlength of folded ribbon unknots in the plane

abstract:
  We study Kauffman's model of folded ribbon knots: knots made of a thin strip
of paper folded flat in the plane. The ribbonlength is the length to width
ratio of such a ribbon, and it turns out that the way the ribbon is folded
influences the ribbonlength. We give an upper bound of $n\cot(\pi/n)$ for the
ribbonlength of $n$-stick unknots. We prove that the minimum ribbonlength for a
3-stick unknot with the same type of fold at each vertex is $3\sqrt{3}$, and
such a minimizer is an equilateral triangle. We end the paper with a discussion
of projection stick number and ribbonlength.


title: Growth of quasiconvex subgroups

abstract:
  We prove that non-elementary hyperbolic groups grow exponentially more
quickly than their infinite index quasiconvex subgroups. The proof uses the
classical tools of automatic structures and Perron-Frobenius theory.
  We also extend the main result to relatively hyperbolic groups and cubulated
groups. These extensions use the notion of growth tightness and the work of
Dahmani, Guirardel, and Osin on rotating families.


title: On the afterglow and progenitor of FRB 150418

abstract:
  Keane et al. recently detected a fading radio source following FRB 150418,
leading to the identification of a putative host galaxy at $z = 0.492 \pm
0.008$. Assuming that the fading source is the afterglow of FRB 150418, I model
the afterglow and constrain the isotropic energy of the explosion to be a few
$10^{50}$ erg, comparable to that of a short duration GRB. The outflow may have
a jet opening angle of $\sim 0.22$ rad, so that the beaming-corrected energy is
below $10^{49}$ erg. The results rule out most FRB progenitor models for this
FRB, but may be consistent with either of the following two scenarios. The
first scenario invokes a merger of an NS-NS binary, which produced an
undetected short GRB and a supra-massive neutron star, which subsequently
collapsed into a black hole, probably 100s of seconds after the short GRB. The
second scenario invokes a merger of a compact star binary (BH-BH, NS-NS, or
BH-NS) system whose pre-merger dynamical magnetospheric activities made the
FRB, which is followed by an undetected short GRB-like transient. The
gravitational wave (GW) event GW150914 would be a sister of FRB 150418 in this
second scenario. In both cases, one expects an exciting prospect of GW/FRB/GRB
associations.


title:
Single envelope equation modelling of multi-octave comb arrays in
  microresonators with quadratic and cubic nonlinearity

abstract:
  We numerically study, by means of the single envelope equation, the
generation of optical frequency combs ranging from the visible to the
mid-infrared spectral regions in resonators with quadratic and cubic
nonlinearities. Phase-matched quadratic wave-mixing processes among the comb
lines can be activated by low-power continuous wave pumping in the near
infrared of a radially poled lithium niobate whispering gallery resonator
(WGR). We examine both separate and co-existing intra-cavity doubly resonant
second-harmonic generation and parametric oscillation processes, and find that
modulation instabilities may lead to the formation of coupled comb arrays
extending over multiple octaves. In the temporal domain, the frequency combs
may correspond to pulse trains, or isolated pulses.


title: Measuring light-by-light scattering at the LHC and FCC

abstract:
  Elastic light-by-light scattering, $\gamma\gamma\to\gamma\gamma$, can be
measured in electromagnetic interactions of lead (Pb) ions at the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) and Future Circular Collider (FCC), using the large (quasi)real
photon fluxes available in ultraperipheral collisions. The
$\gamma\gamma\to\gamma\gamma$ cross sections for diphoton masses
m$_{\gamma\gamma}>$ 5 GeV in pp, pPb, and PbPb collisions at LHC ($\sqrt{\rm
s_{_{NN}}}$ = 5.5, 8.8, 14 TeV) and FCC ($\sqrt{\rm s_{_{NN}}}$ = 39, 63, 100
TeV) center-of-mass energies are presented. The measurement has controllable
backgrounds in PbPb collisions, and one expects about 70 and 2500 signal events
per year at the LHC and FCC respectively, after typical detector acceptance and
reconstruction efficiency selections.


title: Abelian Floquet symmetry-protected topological phases in one dimension

abstract:
  Time-dependent systems have recently been shown to support novel types of
topological order that cannot be realised in static systems. In this paper, we
consider a range of time-dependent, interacting systems in one dimension that
are protected by an Abelian symmetry group. We classify the distinct
topological phases that can exist in this setting and find that they may be
described by a bulk invariant associated with the unitary evolution of the
closed system. In the open system, nontrivial phases correspond to the
appearance of edge modes in the many-body quasienergy spectrum, which relate to
the bulk invariant through a form of bulk-edge correspondence. We introduce
simple models which realise nontrivial dynamical phases in a number of cases,
and outline a loop construction that can be used to generate such phases more
generally.


title: Volt-Ampere characteristic of "black box" with a negative resistance

abstract:
  This problem was given at Third Experimental Physics Olympiad "The day of the
resistor", 31 October 2015, Kumanovo, organized by the Regional Society of
Physicists of Strumica, Macedonia and the Sofia Branch of the Union of
Physicists in Bulgaria.


title:
All electrical propagating spin wave spectroscopy with broadband
  wavevector capability

abstract:
  We develop an all electrical experiment to perform the broadband
phase-resolved spectroscopy of propagating spin waves in micrometer sized thin
magnetic stripes. The magnetostatic surface spin waves are excited and detected
by scaled down to 125 nm wide inductive antennas, which award ultra broadband
wavevector capability. The wavevector selection can be done by applying an
excitation frequency above the ferromagnetic resonance. Wavevector
demultiplexing is done at the spin wave detector thanks to the rotation of the
spin wave phase upon propagation. A simple model accounts for the main features
of the apparatus transfer functions. Our approach opens an avenue for the all
electrical study of wavevector-dependent spin wave properties including
dispersion spectra or non-reciprocal propagation.


title: A flavour physics scenario for the 750 GeV diphoton anomaly

abstract:
  A simple variant of a realistic flavour symmetry scheme for fermion masses
and mixings provides a possible interpretation of the diphoton anomaly as an
electroweak singlet "flavon". The existence of TeV scale vector-like T-quarks
required to provide adequate values for CKM parameters can also naturally
account for the diphoton anomaly. Correlations between $V_{ub}$ and $V_{cb}$
with the vector-like T-quark mass can be predicted. Should the diphoton anomaly
survive in a future Run, our proposed interpretation can also be tested in
upcoming B and LHC studies.


title: Majorana spintronics

abstract:
  We propose a systematic magnetic-flux-free approach to detect, manipulate and
braid Majorana fermions in a semiconductor nanowire-based topological Josephson
junction by utilizing the Majorana spin degree of freedom. We find an intrinsic
$\pi$-phase difference between spin-triplet pairings enforced by the Majorana
zeros modes (MZMs) at the two ends of a one-dimensional spinful topological
superconductor. This $\pi$-phase is identified to be a spin-dependent
superconducting phase, referred to as the spin-phase, which we show to be
tunable by controlling spin-orbit coupling strength via electric gates. This
electric controllable spin-phase not only affects the coupling energy between
MZMs but also leads to a fractional Josephson effect in the absence of any
applied magnetic flux, which enables the efficient topological qubit readout.
We thus propose an all-electrically controlled superconductor-semiconductor
hybrid circuit to manipulate MZMs and to detect their non-Abelian braiding
statistics properties. Our work on spin properties of topological Josephson
effects potentially opens up a new thrust for spintronic applications with
Majorana-based semiconductor quantum circuits.


title:
Defining Temperatures of Granular Powders Analogously with
  Thermodynamics to Understand the Jamming Phenomena

abstract:
  For the purpose of applying laws or principles originated from thermal
systems to granular athermal systems, we may need to properly define the
critical temperature concept in granular powders. The conventional
environmental temperature in thermal systems is too weak to drive movements of
particles in granular powders and cannot function as a thermal energy
indicator. For maintaining the same functionality as in thermal systems, the
temperature in granular powders is defined analogously and uniformly in this
article. The newly defined granular temperature is utilized to describe and
explain one of the most important phenomena observed in granular powders, the
jamming transition, by introducing jamming temperature and jamming volume
fraction concepts. The predictions from the equations of the jamming volume
fractions for several cases like granular powders under shear or vibration are
in line with experimental observations and empirical solutions in powder
handlings. The goal of this article is to establish similar concepts in
granular powders, allowing granular powders to be described with common laws or
principles we are familiar with in thermal systems. Our intention is to build a
bridge between thermal systems and granular powders to account for many
similarities already found between these two systems.


title: AA-stacked Bilayer Graphene Quantum Dots in Magnetic Field

abstract:
  By applying the infinite-mass boundary condition, we analytically calculate
the confined states and the corresponding wave functions of AA-stacked bilayer
graphene quantum {dots} in the presence of an uniform magnetic field $B$. It is
found that the energy spectrum shows two set of levels, which are the double
copies of the energy spectrum for single layer graphene, shifted up-down by
$+\gamma$ and $-\gamma$, respectively. However, the obtained spectrum exhibits
different symmetries between the electron and hole states as well as the
intervalley symmetries. It is noticed that, the applied magnetic field breaks
all symmetries, except one related to the intervalley electron-hole symmetry,
i.e. $E^e(\tau,m)=-E^h(\tau,m)$. Two different regimes of confinement are
found: the first one is due to the infinite-mass barrier at weak $B$ and the
second is dominated by the magnetic field as long as $B$ is large. We
numerically investigated the basics features of the energy spectrum to show the
main similarities and differences with respect to monolayer graphene,
AB-stacked bilayer graphene and semiconductor quantum dots.


title:
Parabolic sublinear operators with rough kernel generated by parabolic
  Calder\'on-Zygmund operators and parabolic local Campanato space estimates
  for their commutators on the parabolic generalized local Morrey spaces

abstract:
  In this paper, the author introduces parabolic generalized local Morrey
spaces and gets the boundedness of a large class of parabolic rough operators
on them. The author also establihes the parabolic local Campanato space
estimates for their commutators on parabolic generalized local Morrey spaces.
As its special cases, the corresponding results of parabolic sublinear
operators with rough kernel and their commutators can be deduced, respec-
tively. At last, parabolic Marcinkiewicz operator which satisfies the
conditions of these theorems can be considered as an example.


title:
Lecture Notes on Three Supersymmetric/Topological Systems in Quantum
  Field Theory

abstract:
  ((1+1)-dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ super-symmetric field theory and
(3+1)-dimensional ${\cal N}=2$ super-symmetric gauge theory are discussed in a,
more or less, unified way, designed to identify the quantum BPS states in both
systems. Euclidean 4-dimensional gauge theory with ${\cal N}=2$ twisted
super-symmetry is also analized. ${\bf C}^\infty$-topological invariants are
identified as certain n-point correlation functions in this QFT framework. The
twist of the effective dual Abelian gauge theory is briefly described, both
from mathematical and physical viewpoints. The physical nature of the
topological defects arising in these systems, kinks, BPS and Dirac monopoles,
BPST instantons, Liouville and Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen selfdual vortices,
etcetera, is analyzed,
  The thread of the story connecting the QFT systems treated respectively in
Sections \S.3 and \S.4 is the process of TWIST that leads from a conventional
extended Supersymetric Gauge Theory to the topological ${\cal N}=2$ SUSY
Donaldson QFT. Within Section \S.3 the $SL(2,\mathbb{Z}$-dualities establish a
link between the weak coupling regime of the original gauge theory and the
Wilsonian (abelian) effective gauge theory arising at low energies. We shall
also look after the reminiscences of these dualities between the twisted TQFT
systems of Section \S.4.


title:
Hubble Space Telescope observations of the host galaxies and
  environments of calcium-rich supernovae

abstract:
  Calcium-rich supernovae represent a significant challenge for our
understanding of the fates of stellar systems. They are less luminous than
other supernova (SN) types and they evolve more rapidly to reveal nebular
spectra dominated by strong calcium lines with weak or absent signatures of
other intermediate- and iron-group elements, which are seen in other SNe.
Strikingly, their explosion sites also mark them out as distinct from other SN
types. Their galactocentric offset distribution is strongly skewed to very
large offsets (around one third are offset greater than 20 kpc), meaning they
do not trace the stellar light of their hosts. Many of the suggestions to
explain this extreme offset distribution have invoked the necessity for unusual
formation sites such as globular clusters or dwarf satellite galaxies, which
are therefore difficult to detect. Building on previous work attempting to
detect host systems of nearby Ca-rich SNe, we here present Hubble Space
Telescope imaging of 5 members of the class - 3 exhibiting large offsets and 2
coincident with the disk of their hosts. We find no underlying sources at the
explosion sites of any of our sample. Combining with previous work, the lack of
a host system now appears to be a ubiquitous feature amongst Ca-rich SNe. In
this case the offset distribution is most readily explained as a signature of
high-velocity progenitor systems that have travelled significant distances
before exploding.


title: Modeling the Lyman-alpha Forest in Collisionless Simulations

abstract:
  Cosmological hydrodynamic simulations can accurately predict the properties
of the intergalactic medium (IGM), but only under the condition of retaining
high spatial resolution necessary to resolve density fluctuations in the IGM.
This resolution constraint prohibits simulating large volumes, such as those
probed by BOSS and future surveys, like DESI and 4MOST. To overcome this
limitation, we present Iteratively Matched Statistics (IMS), a novel method to
accurately model the Lyman-alpha forest with collisionless N-body simulations,
where the relevant density fluctuations are unresolved. We use a small-box,
high-resolution hydrodynamic simulation to obtain the probability distribution
function (PDF) and the power spectrum of the real-space Lyman-alpha forest
flux. These two statistics are iteratively mapped onto a pseudo-flux field of
an N-body simulation, which we construct from the matter density. We
demonstrate that our method can perfectly reproduce line-of-sight observables,
such as the PDF and power spectrum, and accurately reproduce the 3D flux power
spectrum (5-20%). We quantify the performance of the commonly used Gaussian
smoothing technique and show that it has significantly lower accuracy (20-80%),
especially for N-body simulations with achievable mean inter-particle
separations in large-volume simulations. In addition, we show that IMS produces
reasonable and smooth spectra, making it a powerful tool for modeling the IGM
in large cosmological volumes and for producing realistic "mock" skies for
Lyman-alpha forest surveys.


title:
Heavy Fermion Bound States for Diphoton Excess at 750GeV $\sim$ Collider
  and Cosmological Constraints $\sim$

abstract:
  A colored heavy particle with sufficiently small width may form
non-relativistic bound states when they are produced at the large hadron
collider\,(LHC), and they can annihilate into a diphoton final state. The
invariant mass of the diphoton would be around twice of the colored particle
mass. In this paper, we study if such bound state can be responsible for the
750 GeV diphoton excess reported by ATLAS and CMS. We found that the best-fit
signal cross section is obtained for the SU(2)$_L$ singlet colored fermion $X$
with $Y_X=4/3$. Having such an exotic hypercharge, the particle is expected to
decay through some higher dimensional operators, consistent with the small
width assumption. The decay of $X$ may involve a stable particle $\chi$, if
both $X$ and $\chi$ are odd under some conserved $Z_2$ symmetry. In that case,
the particle $X$ suffers from the constraints of jets + missing $E_T$ searches
by ATLAS and CMS at 8 TeV and 13 TeV. We found that such a scenario still
survives if the mass difference between $X$ and $\chi$ is above $\sim$ 30 GeV
for $m_X \sim 375$ GeV. Even assuming pair annihilation of $\chi$ is small, the
relic density of $\chi$ is small enough if the mass difference between $X$ and
$\chi$ is smaller than $\sim$ 40 GeV.


title: Brightest Group Galaxies: Stellar Mass and Star Formation Rate (paper I)

abstract:
  We study the distribution and evolution of the stellar mass and the star
formation rate (SFR) of the brightest group galaxies (BGGs) over $ 0.04<z<1.3 $
using a large sample of $ 407 $ X-ray galaxy groups selected from the COSMOS,
AEGIS, and XMM-LSS fields. We compare our results with predictions from the
semi-analytic models based on the Millennium simulation. In contrast to model
predictions, we find that, as the universe evolves, the stellar mass
distribution evolves towards a normal distribution. This distribution tends to
skew to low mass BGGs at all redshifts implying the presence of a star-forming
population of the BGGs with $ M_S\sim10^{10.5} M_{\odot} $ which results in the
shape of the stellar mass distribution deviating from a normal distribution. In
agreement with models and previous studies, we find that the mean stellar mass
of BGGs grows with time by a factor of $\sim2$ between $z=1.3$ to $z=0.1$,
however, the significant growth occurs above $ z=0.4$. The BGGs are not
entirely a dormant population of galaxies, as low mass BGGs in low mass halos
are more active in forming stars than the BGGs in more massive halos, over the
same redshift range. We find that the average SFR of the BGGs evolves steeply
with redshift and fraction of the passive BGGs increases as a function of
increasing stellar mass and halo mass. Finally, we show that the specific SFR
of the BGGs within halos with $ M_{200} \leq 10^{13.4} M_{\odot} $ decreases
with increasing halo mass at $ z<0.4 $.


title:
Magnetic moments in a helical edge can make weak correlations seem
  strong

abstract:
  We study the effect of localized magnetic moments on the conductance of a
helical edge. Interaction with a local moment is an effective backscattering
mechanism for the edge electrons. We evaluate the resulting differential
conductance as a function of temperature $T$ and applied bias $V$ for any value
of $V/T$. Backscattering off magnetic moments, combined with the weak repulsion
between the edge electrons results in a power-law temperature and voltage
dependence of the conductance; the corresponding small positive exponent is
indicative of insulating behavior. Local moments may naturally appear due to
charge disorder in a narrow-gap semiconductor. Our results provide an
alternative interpretation of the recent experiment by Li et al. \cite{Li15}
where a power-law suppression of the conductance was attributed to strong
electron repulsion within the edge, with the value of Luttinger liquid
parameter $K$ fine-tuned close to $1/4$.


title:
Theoretical uncertainty of the supersymmetric dark matter relic density
  from scheme and scale variations

abstract:
  For particle physics observables at colliders such as the LHC at CERN, it has
been common practice for many decades to estimate the theoretical uncertainty
by studying the variations of the predicted cross sections with a priori
unpredictable scales. In astroparticle physics, this has so far not been
possible, since most of the observables were calculated at Born level only, so
that the renormalization scheme and scale dependence could not be studied in a
meaningful way. In this paper, we present the first quantitative study of the
theoretical uncertainty of the neutralino dark matter relic density from scheme
and scale variations. We first explain in detail how the renormalization scale
enters the tree-level calculations through coupling constants, masses and
mixing angles. We then demonstrate a reduction of the renormalization scale
dependence through one-loop SUSY-QCD corrections in many different dark matter
annihilation channels and enhanced perturbative stability of a mixed
on-shell/$\bar{\rm DR}$ renormalization scheme over a pure $\bar{\rm DR}$
scheme in the top-quark sector. In the stop-stop annihilation channel, the
Sommerfeld enhancement and its scale dependence are shown to be of particular
importance. Finally, the impact of our higher-order SUSY-QCD corrections and
their scale uncertainties are studied in three typical scenarios of the
phenomenological Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with eleven parameters
(pMSSM-11). We find that the theoretical uncertainty is reduced in many cases
and can become comparable to the size of the experimental one in some
scenarios.


title: Quantum Cosmology from Group Field Theory Condensates: a Review

abstract:
  We give, in some detail, a critical overview over recent work towards
deriving a cosmological phenomenology from the fundamental quantum dynamics of
group field theory (GFT), based on the picture of a macroscopic universe as a
"condensate" of a large number of quanta of geometry which are given by
excitations of the GFT field over a "no-space" vacuum. We emphasise conceptual
foundations, relations to other research programmes in GFT and the wider
context of loop quantum gravity (LQG), and connections to the quantum physics
of real Bose-Einstein condensates. We show how to extract an effective dynamics
for GFT condensates from the microscopic GFT physics, and how to compare it
with predictions of more conventional quantum cosmology models, in particular
loop quantum cosmology (LQC). No detailed familiarity with the GFT formalism is
assumed.


title: Rapid thermal co-annihilation through bound states in QCD

abstract:
  The co-annihilation rate of heavy particles close to thermal equilibrium,
which plays a role in many classic dark matter scenarios, can be "simulated" in
QCD by considering the pair annihilation rate of a heavy quark and antiquark at
a temperature of a few hundred MeV. We show that the so-called Sommerfeld
factors, parameterizing the rate, can be defined and measured
non-perturbatively within the NRQCD framework. Lattice measurements indicate a
modest suppression in the octet channel, in reasonable agreement with
perturbation theory, and a large enhancement in the singlet channel, much above
the perturbative prediction. The additional enhancement is suggested to
originate from bound state formation and subsequent decay. Making use of a
Green's function based method to incorporate thermal corrections in
perturbative co-annihilation rate computations, we show that qualitative
agreement with lattice data can be found once thermally broadened bound states
are accounted for. We suggest that our formalism may also be applicable to
specific dark matter models which have complicated bound state structures.


title:
Equation of state for neutron stars with hyperons by the variational
  method

abstract:
  We investigate the effects of the odd-state part of bare $\Lambda \Lambda$
interactions on the structure of neutron stars (NSs) by constructing equations
of state (EOSs) for uniform nuclear matter containing $\Lambda$ and $\Sigma^-$
hyperons with use of the cluster variational method. The isoscalar part of the
Argonne v18 two-nucleon potential and the Urbana IX three-nucleon potential are
employed as the interactions between nucleons, whereas, as the bare $\Lambda N$
and even-state $\Lambda \Lambda$ interactions, two-body central potentials that
are determined so as to reproduce the experimental data on single- and
double-$\Lambda$ hypernuclei are adopted. In addition, the $\Sigma^- N$
interaction is constructed so as to reproduce the empirical single-particle
potential of $\Sigma^-$ in symmetric nuclear matter. Since the odd-state part
of the $\Lambda \Lambda$ interaction is not known owing to lack of experimental
data, we construct four EOSs of hyperonic nuclear matter, each with a different
odd-state part of the $\Lambda \Lambda$ interaction. The EOS obtained for NS
matter becomes stiffer as the odd-state $\Lambda \Lambda$ interaction becomes
more repulsive, and correspondingly the maximum mass of NSs increases. It is
interesting that the onset density of $\Sigma^-$ depends strongly on the
repulsion of the odd-state $\Lambda \Lambda$ interaction. Furthermore, we take
into account the three-baryon repulsive force to obtain results that are
consistent with observational data on heavy NSs.


title: Constraints on $Z^\prime$ Boson within Minimal Flavor Violation

abstract:
  We explore a $Z^\prime$ boson coupled only with the Standard Model (SM)
fermions ($Z^\prime f\bar{f}$) in the framework of Minimal Flavor Violation. We
study its effects on the processes with lepton flavor violation $\ell_j\to
\ell_i\ell_k\bar{\ell}_l$, $\ell_j\to\ell_i\gamma$, $\mu^{-}N\to e^- N$, quark
flavor changing neutral currents $b\to s \ell^+\ell^-$, neutral $B$ and $K$
meson mixing, and $e^+e^-\to f\bar{f}$ at the LEP experiment to constrain the
parameter space of $Z^\prime$ mass and couplings. We find that among those
relevant processes, $\mu\to e\gamma$, $\mu\to 3e$, $\mu$-$e$ conversion and
$e^+e^-\to f\bar{f}$ can put more stringent bounds on $Z^\prime f\bar{f}$
couplings normalized by $Z^\prime$ mass. Its implications on various processes
are obtained, such as $B$ and $K$ mixing and $B/K\to M \ell_1 \bar\ell_2$
decays. In addition, we also make analysis on $Z^\prime$ signatures at the LHC
with $\sqrt{s}=8$ and 13 TeV.


title: Neutrino mass without cosmic variance

abstract:
  Measuring the absolute scale of the neutrino masses is one of the most
exciting opportunities available with near-term cosmological datasets. Two
quantities that are sensitive to neutrino mass, scale-dependent halo bias
$b(k)$ and the linear growth parameter $f(k)$ inferred from redshift-space
distortions, can be measured without cosmic variance. Unlike the amplitude of
the matter power spectrum, which always has a finite error, the error on $b(k)$
and $f(k)$ continues to decrease as the number density of tracers increases.
This paper presents forecasts for statistics of galaxy and lensing fields that
are sensitive to neutrino mass via $b(k)$ and $f(k)$. The constraints on
neutrino mass from the auto- and cross-power spectra of spectroscopic and
photometric galaxy samples are weakened by scale-dependent bias unless a very
high density of tracers is available. In the high density limit, using multiple
tracers allows cosmic-variance to be beaten and the forecasted errors on
neutrino mass shrink dramatically. In practice, beating the cosmic variance
errors on neutrino mass with $b(k)$ will be a challenge, but this signal is
nevertheless a new probe of neutrino effects on structure formation that is
interesting in its own right.


title: Recognising Multidimensional Euclidean Preferences

abstract:
  Euclidean preferences are a widely studied preference model, in which
decision makers and alternatives are embedded in d-dimensional Euclidean space.
Decision makers prefer those alternatives closer to them. This model, also
known as multidimensional unfolding, has applications in economics,
psychometrics, marketing, and many other fields. We study the problem of
deciding whether a given preference profile is d-Euclidean. For the
one-dimensional case, polynomial-time algorithms are known. We show that, in
contrast, for every other fixed dimension d > 1, the recognition problem is
equivalent to the existential theory of the reals (ETR), and so in particular
NP-hard. We further show that some Euclidean preference profiles require
exponentially many bits in order to specify any Euclidean embedding, and prove
that the domain of d-Euclidean preferences does not admit a finite forbidden
minor characterisation for any d > 1. We also study dichotomous preferencesand
the behaviour of other metrics, and survey a variety of related work.


title: Mass of Kerr-Newman Black Holes in an external magnetic field

abstract:
  The explicit solution for a Kerr-Newman black hole immersed in an external
magnetic field, sometimes called the Melvin-Kerr-Newman black hole, has been
derived by Ernst and Wild in 1976. In this paper, we clarify the first law and
Smarr formula for black holes in a magnetic field. We then define the unique
mass which is integrable and reduces to the Kerr-Newman mass in the absence of
magnetic field. This defines the thermodynamic potentials of the black hole.
Quite strikingly, the mass coincides with the standard Christodoulou-Ruffini
mass of a black hole as a function of the entropy, angular momentum and
electric charge.


title: A Cancer Biotherapy Resource

abstract:
  Cancer Biotherapy (CB), as opposed to cancer chemotherapy, is the use of
macromolecular, biological agents instead of organic chemicals or drugs to
treat cancer. Biological agents usually have higher selectivity and have less
toxic side effects than chemical agents. The I.S.B.T.C., being the only major
information database for CB, seems lacking in some crucial information on
various cancer biotherapy regimens. It is thus necessary to have a
comprehensive curated CB database. The database accessible to cancer patients
and also should be a sounding board for scientific ideas by cancer researchers.
The database/web server has information about main families of cancer
biotherapy regimens to date, namely, Protein Kinase Inhibitors, Ras Pathway
Inhibitors, Cell-Cycle Active Agents, MAbs (monoclonal antibodies), ADEPT
(Antibody-Directed Enzyme Pro-Drug Therapy), Cytokines, Anti-Angiogenesis
Agents, Cancer Vaccines, Cell-based Immunotherapeutics, Gene Therapy,
Hematopoietic Growth Factors, Retinoids, and CAAT. For each biotherapy regimen,
we will extract the following attributes in populating the database: Cancer
type, Gene/s and gene product/s involved, Gene sequence, Organs affected,
Reference papers, Clinical phase/stage, Survival rate, Clinical test center
locations, Cost, Patient blogs, Researcher blogs, and Future work. The database
will be accessible to public through a website and had FAQs for making it
understandable to the laymen and discussion page for researchers to express
their views and ideas. In addition to information about the biotherapy
regimens, the website will link to other biologically significant databases
like structural proteomics, metabolomics, glycomics, and lipidomics databases,
as well as to news around the world regarding cancer therapy results. The
database attributes would be regularly updated for novel attributes as
discoveries are made.


title: Low-temperature crystal and magnetic structure of $\alpha$-RuCl3

abstract:
  Single crystals of the Kitaev spin-liquid candidate $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ have
been studied to determine low-temperature bulk properties, structure and the
magnetic ground state. Refinements of x-ray diffraction data show that the low
temperature crystal structure is described by space group $C2/m$ with a
nearly-perfect honeycomb lattice exhibiting less than 0.2 \% in-plane
distortion. The as-grown single crystals exhibit only one sharp magnetic
transition at $T_{N}$ = 7~K. The magnetic order below this temperature exhibits
a propagation vector of $k$ = (0, 1, 1/3), which coincides with a 3-layer
stacking of the $C2/m$ unit cells. Magnetic transitions at higher temperatures
up to 14~K can be introduced by deformations of the crystal that result in
regions in the crystal with a 2-layer stacking sequence. The best fit symmetry
allowed magnetic structure of the as-grown crystals shows that the spins lie in
the $ac$-plane, with a zigzag configuration in each honeycomb layer. The three
layer repeat out-of-plane structure can be refined as a 120$^o$ spiral order or
a collinear structure with spin direction 35$^o$ away from the $a$-axis. The
collinear spin configuration yields a slightly better fit and also is
physically preferred. The average ordered moment in either structure is less
than 0.45(5) $\mu_B$ per Ru$^{3+}$ ion.


title: Representing Rod-Shaped Protein 3D Structures in Cylindrical Coordinates

abstract:
  Based on overall 3D structure, proteins may be grouped into two broad
categories, namely, globular proteins (spheroproteins), and elongated or
rod-shaped proteins (RSP). The former comprises a significant majority of
proteins. This work concerns the second category. Unlike a spheroprotein, an
RSP possesses a conspicuous axis along its longest dimension. To take advantage
of this symmetry element, we decided to represent RSPs using cylindrical
coordinates, (rho, theta, z), with the z-axis as the main axis, and one tip of
the protein at the origin. A "tip" is one of two extreme points in the protein
lying along the protein axis along its longest dimension. We first identify the
two tips, T1 and T2, of the RSP using a protein graphics software, then
determine their (Cartesian) coordinates, (h, k, l) and (m, n, o), respectively.
Arbitrarily selecting T1 as the tip at the origin, we translate the protein by
subtracting (h, k, l) from all structural coordinates. We then find the angle
alpha between vector T1-T2 and the positive z-axis by computing the scalar
product of vectors T1- T2 and OP where P is an arbitrary point along the
positive z-axis. We typically use (0, 0, p) where p is a suitable positive
number. Then we compute the cross product of the two vectors to determine the
axis about which we should rotate vector T1-T2 to make it coincide with the
positive z-axis. We use a matrix form of Rodrigues' formula to do the rotation.
We then apply the Cartesian to cylindrical coordinate transformation equations
to the system. We have applied the above transformation to 15 RSPs: 1QCE, 2JJ7,
2KPE, 3K2A, 3LHP, 2LOE, 2L3H, 2L1P, 1KSG, 1KSJ, 1KSH, 2KOL, 2KZG, 2KPF and
3MQC. We have also created a web server that can take the PDB coordinate file
of an RSP and output its cylindrical coordinates. The URL of our web server
will be announced publicly in due course.


title: Bayesian Inference of Diffusion Networks with Unknown Infection Times

abstract:
  The analysis of diffusion processes in real-world propagation scenarios often
involves estimating variables that are not directly observed. These hidden
variables include parental relationships, the strengths of connections between
nodes, and the moments of time that infection occurs. In this paper, we propose
a framework in which all three sets of parameters are assumed to be hidden and
we develop a Bayesian approach to infer them. After justifying the model
assumptions, we evaluate the performance efficiency of our proposed approach
through numerical simulations on synthetic datasets and real-world diffusion
processes.


title:
Size-Independent Quantification of Ligand Binding Site Depth in Receptor
  Proteins

abstract:
  We have developed a web server that implements two complementary methods to
quantify the depth of ligand binding site (LBS) in protein-ligand complexes:
the "secant plane" (SP) and "tangent sphere" (TS) methods. The protein
molecular centroid (global centroid, GC), and the LBS centroid (local centroid,
LC) are first determined. The SP is the plane passing through the LC and normal
to the line passing through the LC and the GC. The "exterior side" of the SP is
the side opposite GC. The TS is the sphere with center at GC and tangent to the
SP at LC. The percentage of protein atoms inside the TS (TS index) and on the
exterior side of the SP (SP index), are complementary measures of LBS depth.
The SPi is directly proportional to LBS depth while the TSi is inversely
proportional. We tested the two methods using a test set of 67
well-characterized protein-ligand structures (Laskowski, et al. 1996), as well
as that of an artificial protein in the form of a grid of points in the overall
shape of a sphere and in which LBS of any depth can be specified. Results from
both the SP and TS methods agree well with reported data (ibid.), and results
from the artificial case confirm that both methods are suitable measures of LBS
depth. The web server may be used in two modes. In the "ligand mode", user
inputs the protein PDB coordinates as well as those of the ligand. The "LBS
mode" is the same as the former, except that the ligand coordinates are assumed
to be unavailable; hence the user inputs what s/he believes to be the
coordinates of the LBS amino acid residues. In both cases, the web server
outputs the SP and TS indices. LBS depth is usually directly related to the
amount of conformational change a protein undergoes upon ligand binding -
ability to quantify it could allows meaningful comparison of protein
flexibility and dynamics. The URL of our web server will be announced publicly
in due course.


title: Interference-Normalised Least Mean Square Algorithm

abstract:
  An interference-normalised least mean square (INLMS) algorithm for robust
adaptive filtering is proposed. The INLMS algorithm extends the
gradient-adaptive learning rate approach to the case where the signals are
non-stationary. In particular, we show that the INLMS algorithm can work even
for highly non-stationary interference signals, where previous
gradient-adaptive learning rate algorithms fail.


title:
Visualization of Protein 3D Structures in Reduced Representation with
  Simultaneous Display of Intra- and Inter-Molecular Interactions

abstract:
  Protein structure representation is an important tool in structural biology.
There exists different methods of representing the protein 3D structures and
different biologists favor different methods based on the information they
require. Currently there is no available method of protein 3D structure
representation which captures enough chemical information from the protein
sequence and clearly shows the intra-molecular and the inter-molecular H-bonds
and VDW interactions at the same time. This project aims to reduce the 3D
structure of a protein and display the reduced representation along with
intermolecular and the intra- molecular H-bonds and van der Waals interactions.
A reduced protein representation has a significantly lower atomicity (i.e.,
number of atom coordinates) than one which is in all- atom representation. In
this work, we transform the protein structure from all-atom representation"
(AAR) to double-centroid reduced representation (DCRR), which contains amino
acid backbone (N, CA, C', O) and side chain (CB and beyond) centroid
coordinates instead of atomic coordinates. Another aim of this project is to
develop a visualization interface for the reduced representation. This
interface is implemented in MATLAB and displays the protein in DCRR along with
its inter-molecular, as well as intra-molecular, interaction. Visually, DCRR is
easier to comprehend than AAR. We also developed a Web Server called the
Protein DCRR Web Server wherein users can enter the PDB id or upload a modeled
protein and get the DCRR of that protein. The back end to the Web Server is a
database which has the reduced representation for all the x-ray
crystallographic structure in the PDB.


title:
Hierarchical Conflict Propagation: Sequence Learning in a Recurrent Deep
  Neural Network

abstract:
  Recurrent neural networks (RNN) are capable of learning to encode and exploit
activation history over an arbitrary timescale. However, in practice, state of
the art gradient descent based training methods are known to suffer from
difficulties in learning long term dependencies. Here, we describe a novel
training method that involves concurrent parallel cloned networks, each sharing
the same weights, each trained at different stimulus phase and each maintaining
independent activation histories. Training proceeds by recursively performing
batch-updates over the parallel clones as activation history is progressively
increased. This allows conflicts to propagate hierarchically from short-term
contexts towards longer-term contexts until they are resolved. We illustrate
the parallel clones method and hierarchical conflict propagation with a
character-level deep RNN tasked with memorizing a paragraph of Moby Dick (by
Herman Melville).


title:
Prediction of Flavin Mononucleotide (FMN) Binding Sites in Proteins
  Using the 3D Search Motif Method and Double-Centroid Reduced Representation
  of Protein 3D Structures

abstract:
  A pharmacophore consists of the parts of the structure of the ligand that are
sufficient to express the biological and pharmacological effects of the ligand.
It is usually a substructure of the entire structure of the ligand. Small
organic molecules called ligands or metabolites in the cell form complexes with
biomolecules (usually proteins) to serve different purposes. The sites at which
the ligands bind are known as ligand binding sites, which are essentially
"pockets" which have complementary shapes and patterns of charge distribution
with the ligands. Sometimes a pocket is induced by the ligand itself. If we
study different bound conformations of ligands it is found that they share a
specific three- dimensional pattern that is more or less common and is
responsible for its binding and which is complementary in three-dimensional
geometry and charge distribution pattern with its cognate binding site in the
protein. This work studies the three dimensional structure of the consensus
ligand binding site for the ligand FMN. A training set for the ligand binding
sites was made and a 3D consensus binding site motif was determined for FMN.
The FMN system was studied and its binding sites in its respective regulator
proteins. The ability to identify ligand binding site by scanning the 3D
binding site consensus motif in protein 3D structures is an important step in
drug target discovery. Once a pharmacophore template is found it can also be
used to design other potential molecules that can bind to it and thus serve as
novel drugs.


title: The intermediate-mass star-forming region Lynds 1340. An optical view

abstract:
  We have performed an optical spectroscopic and photometric search for young
stellar objects associated with the molecular cloud Lynds 1340, and examined
the structure of the cloud by constructing an extinction map, based on SDSS
data. The new extinction map suggests a shallow, strongly fragmented cloud,
having a mass of some 3700~Msun. Longslit spectroscopic observations of the
brightest stars over the area of L1340 revealed that the most massive star
associated with L1340 is a B4 type, about 5 solar mass star. The new
spectroscopic and photometric data of the intermediate mass members led to a
revised distance of 825 (+110 /-80) pc, and revealed seven members of the young
stellar population with M > 2 solar masses. Our search for H alpha emission
line stars, conducted with the Wide Field Grism Spectrograph 2 on the 2.2-meter
telescope of the University of Hawaii and covering a 30 arcmin x 40 arcmin
area, resulted in the detection of 75 candidate low-mass pre-main sequence
stars, 58 of which are new. We constructed spectral energy distributions of our
target stars, based on SDSS, 2MASS, Spitzer, and WISE photometric data, derived
their spectral types, extinctions, and luminosities from BVRIJ fluxes,
estimated masses by means of pre-main sequence evolutionary models, and
examined the disk properties utilizing the 2-24 micron interval of the spectral
energy distribution. We measured the equivalent width of the H alpha lines and
derived accretion rates. The optically selected sample of pre-main sequence
stars has a median effective temperature of 3970 K, stellar mass 0.7 Msun, and
accretion rate of 7.6 10^{-9} Msun/yr.


title:
Dark matter component decaying after recombination: lensing constraints
  with Planck data

abstract:
  It has been recently suggested~\cite{Berezhiani:2015yta} that emerging
tension between cosmological parameter values derived in high-redshift (CMB
anisotropy) and low-redshift (cluster counts, Hubble constant) measurements can
be reconciled in a model which contains subdominant fraction of dark matter
decaying after recombination. We check the model against the CMB Planck data.
We find that lensing of the CMB anisotropies by the large-scale structure gives
strong extra constraints on this model, limiting the fraction as $F<8\%$ at
2\,$\sigma$ confidence level. However, investigating the combined data set of
CMB and conflicting low-$z$ measurements, we obtain that the model with
$F\approx2\!-\!5$\% exhibits better fit (by 1.5-3\,$\sigma$ depending on the
lensing priors) compared to that of the concordance $\Lambda$CDM cosmological
model.


title: Recent Developments in Spatial Graph Theory

abstract:
  This article presents a survey of some recent results in the theory of
spatial graphs. In particular, we highlight results related to intrinsic
knotting and linking and results about symmetries of spatial graphs. In both
cases we consider spatial graphs in $S^3$ as well as in other $3$-manifolds.


title:
Strain-induced transformation of charge-density waves and mechanical
  anomalies in the quasi one-dimensional conductors TaS_3 and K_{0.3}MoO_3

abstract:
  We report studies of low-field conductivity, sigma, of the orthorhombic TaS_3
samples as a function of strain, epsilon. In the Peierls state the
sigma(epsilon) dependencies show hysteresis. A similar hysteresis loop is
observed for K_{0.3}MoO_3. For nano-sized TaS_3 samples the sigma(epsilon)
curves show step-like changes associated with the "quantization" of the wave
vector, q, of the charge-density wave (CDW). The dependences clearly reveal the
change of the q-vector with strain. In contrast with the traditional concept, q
is found to increase with sample expansion. This means that the stretch-induced
anomalies cannot be explained by the transition of the CDW to fourfold
commensurability with the pristine lattice (lock-in transition). Alternatively,
we suppose, that at the critical stretch a CDW with larger amplitude and
modified q-vector forms. Further, the models describing metastable length
states and drop of the Young modulus on CDW depinning in terms of longitudinal
CDW strain, require reconsideration. Presumably, transverse effects should be
taken into account.


title:
vDNN: Virtualized Deep Neural Networks for Scalable, Memory-Efficient
  Neural Network Design

abstract:
  The most widely used machine learning frameworks require users to carefully
tune their memory usage so that the deep neural network (DNN) fits into the
DRAM capacity of a GPU. This restriction hampers a researcher's flexibility to
study different machine learning algorithms, forcing them to either use a less
desirable network architecture or parallelize the processing across multiple
GPUs. We propose a runtime memory manager that virtualizes the memory usage of
DNNs such that both GPU and CPU memory can simultaneously be utilized for
training larger DNNs. Our virtualized DNN (vDNN) reduces the average GPU memory
usage of AlexNet by up to 89%, OverFeat by 91%, and GoogLeNet by 95%, a
significant reduction in memory requirements of DNNs. Similar experiments on
VGG-16, one of the deepest and memory hungry DNNs to date, demonstrate the
memory-efficiency of our proposal. vDNN enables VGG-16 with batch size 256
(requiring 28 GB of memory) to be trained on a single NVIDIA Titan X GPU card
containing 12 GB of memory, with 18% performance loss compared to a
hypothetical, oracular GPU with enough memory to hold the entire DNN.


title:
Asymptotic analysis for a very fast diffusion equation arising from the
  1D quantization problem

abstract:
  In this paper we study the asymptotic behavior of a very fast diffusion PDE
in 1D with periodic boundary conditions. This equation is motivated by the
gradient flow approach to the problem of quantization of measures introduced in
\cite{CGI1}. We prove exponential convergence to equilibrium under minimal
assumptions on the data, and we also provide sufficient conditions for
$W_2$-stability of solutions.


title:
Realizing the supersymmetric inverse seesaw model in the framework of
  R-parity violation

abstract:
  If, on one hand, the inverse seesaw is the paradigm of TeV scale seesaw
mechanism, on the other it is a challenge to find scenarios capable of
realizing it. In this work we propose a scenario, based on the framework of
R-parity violation, that realizes minimally the supersymmetric inverse seesaw
mechanism. In it the energy scale parameters involved in the mechanism are
recognized as the vacuum expectation values of the scalars that compose the
singlet superfields $\hat N^C$ and $\hat S$. We develop also the scalar sector
of the model and show that the Higgs mass receives a new tree-level
contribution that, when combined with the standard contribution plus loop
correction, is capable of attaining $125$GeV without resort to heavy stops.


title: Auto-JacoBin: Auto-encoder Jacobian Binary Hashing

abstract:
  Binary codes can be used to speed up nearest neighbor search tasks in large
scale data sets as they are efficient for both storage and retrieval. In this
paper, we propose a robust auto-encoder model that preserves the geometric
relationships of high-dimensional data sets in Hamming space. This is done by
considering a noise-removing function in a region surrounding the manifold
where the training data points lie. This function is defined with the property
that it projects the data points near the manifold into the manifold wisely,
and we approximate this function by its first order approximation. Experimental
results show that the proposed method achieves better than state-of-the-art
results on three large scale high dimensional data sets.


title: PCA Method for Automated Detection of Mispronounced Words

abstract:
  This paper presents a method for detecting mispronunciations with the aim of
improving Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) tools used by foreign
language learners. The algorithm is based on Principle Component Analysis
(PCA). It is hierarchical with each successive step refining the estimate to
classify the test word as being either mispronounced or correct. Preprocessing
before detection, like normalization and time-scale modification, is
implemented to guarantee uniformity of the feature vectors input to the
detection system. The performance using various features including spectrograms
and Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) are compared and evaluated.
Best results were obtained using MFCCs, achieving up to 99% accuracy in word
verification and 93% in native/non-native classification. Compared with Hidden
Markov Models (HMMs) which are used pervasively in recognition application,
this particular approach is computational efficient and effective when training
data is limited.


title:
A classical proof that the algebraic homotopy class of a rational
  function is the residue pairing

abstract:
  Cazanave has identified the algebraic homotopy class of a rational function
of $1$ variable with an explicit nondegenerate symmetric bilinear form. Here we
show that Hurwitz's proof of a classical result about real rational functions
essentially gives an alternative proof of the stable part of Cazanave's result.
We also explain how this result can be interpreted in terms of the residue
pairing and that this interpretation relates the result to the signature
theorem of Eisenbud, Khimshiashvili, and Levine, showing that Cazanave's result
answers a question posed by Eisenbud for polynomial functions in $1$ variable.
Finally, we announce results answering this question for functions in an
arbitrary number of variables.


title:
Constraining the CMB Optical Depth Through the Dispersion Measure of
  Cosmological Radio Transients

abstract:
  The dispersion measure of extragalactic radio transients, such as of recently
discovered Fast Radio Burst FRB150418, can be used to measure the column
density of free electrons in the intergalactic medium. The same electrons also
scatter the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photons, affecting precision
measurements of cosmological parameters. We explore the connection between the
dispersion measure of radio transients existing during the Epoch of
Reionization (EoR) and the total optical depth for the CMB, $\tau_{CMB}$,
showing that the existence of such transients would provide a new sensitive
probe of $\tau_{CMB}$. As an example, we consider the population of FRBs.
Assuming they exist during the EoR, we show that: (i) such sources can probe
the reionization history by measuring $\tau_{CMB}$ to sub-percent accuracy, and
(ii) they can be detected with high significance by an instrument such as the
Square Kilometer Array.


title: Signs of magnetic acceleration and multi-zone emission in GRB 080825C

abstract:
  One of the major results from the study of gamma-ray bursts with the Fermi
Gamma-ray Space Telescope has been the confirmation that several emission
components can be present in the energy spectrum. Here we reanalyse the
spectrum of GRB 080825C using data from the Fermi LAT and GBM instruments.
Although fairly weak, it is the first gamma-ray burst detected by the
Fermi-LAT. We improve on the original analysis by using the LAT Low Energy
(LLE) events covering the 30-00 MeV band. We find evidence of an additional
component above the main emission peak (modelled using a Band function) with a
significance of 3.5 $\sigma$ in 2 out of the 4 time bins. The component is well
fitted by a Planck function, but shows unusual behaviour: the peak energy
increases in the prompt emission phase, reaching energies of several MeV. This
is the first time such a trend has been seen, and implies that the origin of
this component is different from those previously detected. We suggest that the
two spectral components likely arise in different regions of the outflow, and
that strong constraints can be achieved by assuming one of them originates from
the photosphere. The most promising model appears to be that the high-energy
peak is the result of photospheric emission in a Poynting flux dominated
outflow where the magnetisation increases with time.


title:
Adaptive Frequency Cepstral Coefficients for Word Mispronunciation
  Detection

abstract:
  Systems based on automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology can provide
important functionality in computer assisted language learning applications.
This is a young but growing area of research motivated by the large number of
students studying foreign languages. Here we propose a Hidden Markov Model
(HMM)-based method to detect mispronunciations. Exploiting the specific dialog
scripting employed in language learning software, HMMs are trained for
different pronunciations. New adaptive features have been developed and
obtained through an adaptive warping of the frequency scale prior to computing
the cepstral coefficients. The optimization criterion used for the warping
function is to maximize separation of two major groups of pronunciations
(native and non-native) in terms of classification rate. Experimental results
show that the adaptive frequency scale yields a better coefficient
representation leading to higher classification rates in comparison with
conventional HMMs using Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients.


title:
Resummation of High Order Corrections in Higgs Boson Plus Jet Production
  at the LHC

abstract:
  We study the effect of multiple parton radiation to Higgs boson plus jet
production at the LHC, by applying the transverse momentum dependent (TMD)
factorization formalism to resum large logarithmic contributions to all orders
in the expansion of the strong interaction coupling. We show that the
appropriate resummation scale should be the jet transverse momentum, rather
than the partonic center of mass energy which has been normally used in the TMD
resummation formalism. Furthermore, the transverse momentum distribution of the
Higgs boson, particularly near the lower cut-off applied on the jet transverse
momentum, can only be reliably predicted by the resummation calculation which
is free of the so-called Sudakov-shoulder singularity problem, present in
fixed-order calculations.


title: A q-Analog of Foulke's conjecture

abstract:
  We propose a $q$-analog of classical plethystic conjectures due to Foulkes.
In our conjectures, a divided difference of plethysms of Hall-Littlewood
polynomials $H_n(\mathbf{x};q)$ replaces the analogous difference of plethysms
of complete homogeneous symmetric functions $h_n(\mathbf{x})$ in Foulkes
conjecture. At $q=0$, we get back the original statement of Foulkes, and we
show that our version holds at $q=1$. We discuss further supporting evidence,
as well as various generalizations.


title: Taming Limits with Approximate Networking

abstract:
  Internet is the linchpin of modern society, which the various threads of
modern life weave around. But being a part of the bigger energy-guzzling
industrial economy, it is vulnerable to disruption. It is widely believed that
our society is exhausting its vital resources to meet our energy requirements,
and the cheap fossil fuel fiesta will soon abate as we cross the tipping point
of global oil production. We will then enter the long arc of scarcity,
constraints, and limits---a post-peak "long emergency" that may subsist for a
long time. To avoid the collapse of the networking ecosystem in this long
emergency, it is imperative that we start thinking about how networking should
adapt to these adverse "undeveloping" societal conditions. We propose using the
idea of "\textit{approximate networking}"---which will provide
\textit{good-enough} networking services by employing
\textit{contextually-appropriate} tradeoffs---to survive, or even thrive, in
the conditions of scarcity and limits.


title: Effective Path Towards Relativistic Transients at Millimeter Wavelengths

abstract:
  We refine the method towards extraction of sub-cycle transients in the 0.1-1
THz frequency (mm-wavelength) range from optical rectification in lithium
niobate using tilted pulse fronts. Our scheme exploits previously unexplored
spatio-temporal shaping of the pump pulses, resulting in highly efficient and
near diffraction-limited sub-THz transients reaching 0.2 GV/m electric field
strengths in free-space using only mJ-level optical ps-pulses. We address
experimentally and theoretically the means to producing above-GV/m relativistic
sub-THz transients with proper beam confinement and under moderate pumping
conditions, thereby bringing widespread access to strong-field and nonlinear
terahertz applications and devices.


title:
Sensitivity-Based Model Updating for Structural Damage Identification
  Using Total Variation Regularization

abstract:
  Sensitivity-based Finite Element Model Updating (FEMU) is one of the widely
accepted techniques used for damage identification in structures. FEMU can be
formulated as a numerical optimization problem and solved iteratively making
automatic updating of the uncertain model parameters by minimizing the
difference between measured and analytical structural properties. However, in
the presence of noise in the measurements, the updating results are usually
prone to errors. This is mathematically described as instability of the damage
identification as an inverse problem. One way to resolve this problem is by
using regularization. In this paper we investigate regularization methods based
on the minimization of the total variation of the uncertain model parameters
and compare this solution with a rather frequently used regularization based on
an interpolation technique. For well-localized damages the results show a clear
advantage of the proposed solution in terms of the identified location and
severity of damage compared with the interpolation based solution.
  For a practical test of the proposed method we use a reinforced concrete
plate. Measurements and analysis were repeated first on an undamaged plate, and
then after applying four different degrees of damage.


title: Finite-Type Invariants of order one for long virtual knots

abstract:
  We extend to the long virtual knot case the constructions first presented by
A. Henrich and later generalized by the author to the framed virtual knot case.
These consist of three Vassiliev invariants of order one, including a universal
one, as well as the notions of a based matrix and a singular based matrix and
their relation to long flat virtual knots.


title:
Robust Localization and Tracking of Simultaneous Moving Sound Sources
  Using Beamforming and Particle Filtering

abstract:
  Mobile robots in real-life settings would benefit from being able to localize
and track sound sources. Such a capability can help localizing a person or an
interesting event in the environment, and also provides enhanced processing for
other capabilities such as speech recognition. To give this capability to a
robot, the challenge is not only to localize simultaneous sound sources, but to
track them over time. In this paper we propose a robust sound source
localization and tracking method using an array of eight microphones. The
method is based on a frequency-domain implementation of a steered beamformer
along with a particle filter-based tracking algorithm. Results show that a
mobile robot can localize and track in real-time multiple moving sources of
different types over a range of 7 meters. These new capabilities allow a mobile
robot to interact using more natural means with people in real life settings.


title: Phenomenology of the Z-boson plus jet process at NNLO

abstract:
  We present a detailed phenomenological study of Z-boson production in
association with a jet through next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in
perturbative QCD. Fiducial cross sections and differential distributions for
both 8 TeV and 13 TeV LHC collisions are presented. We study the impact of
different parton distribution functions (PDFs) on predictions for the Z+jet
process. Upon inclusion of the NNLO corrections, the residual scale uncertainty
is reduced such that both the total rate and the transverse momentum
distributions can be used to discriminate between various PDF sets.


title: Autonomous navigation for low-altitude UAVs in urban areas

abstract:
  In recent years, consumer Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have become very popular,
everyone can buy and fly a drone without previous experience, which raises
concern in regards to regulations and public safety. In this paper, we present
a novel approach towards enabling safe operation of such vehicles in urban
areas. Our method uses geodetically accurate dataset images with Geographical
Information System (GIS) data of road networks and buildings provided by Google
Maps, to compute a weighted A* shortest path from start to end locations of a
mission. Weights represent the potential risk of injuries for individuals in
all categories of land-use, i.e. flying over buildings is considered safer than
above roads. We enable safe UAV operation in regards to 1- land-use by
computing a static global path dependent on environmental structures, and 2-
avoiding flying over moving objects such as cars and pedestrians by dynamically
optimizing the path locally during the flight. As all input sources are first
geo-registered, pixels and GPS coordinates are equivalent, it therefore allows
us to generate an automated and user-friendly mission with GPS waypoints
readable by consumer drones' autopilots. We simulated 54 missions and show
significant improvement in maximizing UAV's standoff distance to moving objects
with a quantified safety parameter over 40 times better than the naive straight
line navigation.


title: B\"urgi's "Kunstweg" - geometric approach

abstract:
  Placing regular 4n-sided polygons correctly, equations between sine and sums
of sines show up -- exactly these equations are used in B\"urgi's method to
approximate sines.


title:
A Probabilistic proof of some integral formulas involving the Meijer
  $G$-function

abstract:
  New integral formulas involving the Meijer $G$-function are derived using
recent results concerning distributional characterisations and distributional
transformations in probability theory.


title: Attosecond pulse characterization with coherent Rydberg wavepackets

abstract:
  We propose a new technique to fully characterize the temporal structure of
extreme ultraviolet pulses by ionizing a bound coherent electronic wavepacket.
The populated energy levels make it possible to interfere different spectral
components leading to quantum beats in the photoelectron spectrum as a function
of the delay between ionization and initiation of the wavepacket. The influence
of the dipole phase, which is the main obstacle for state-of-the-art pulse
characterization schemes, can be eliminated by angle integration of the
photoelectron spectrum. We show that particularly atomic Rydberg wavepackets
are ideal and that wavepackets involving multiple electronic states provide
redundant information which can be used to cross-check the consistency of the
phase reconstruction.


title:
Excitation of radiationless anapole mode of isotropic dielectric
  nanoparticles with tightly focused radially polarized beam

abstract:
  A high index dielectric nano-sphere can be excited and yet remain
radiationless. A method to excite the non-radiating anapole mode of a high
index isotropic dielectric nanosphere is presented. With tightly focused
radially polarized beam illumination, the main-contributing electric dipole
mode and magnetic modes can be zero with only a weak electric quadruple
contributing to the total scattering. Further, with a standing wave
illumination formed by two counter-propagating focused radially polarized beam
under $4\pi$ configuration, the ideal radiationless ananpole can be excited.


title:
Quantum-Noise-Limited Sensitivity-Enhancement of a Passive Optical
  Cavity by a Fast-Light Medium

abstract:
  We demonstrate for a passive optical cavity containing a dispersive atomic
medium, the increase in scale factor near the critical anomalous dispersion is
not cancelled by mode broadening or attenuation, resulting in an overall
increase in the predicted quantum-noise-limited sensitivity. Enhancements of
over two orders of magnitude are measured in the scale factor, which translates
to greater than an order-of-magnitude enhancement in the predicted
quantum-noise-limited measurement precision, by temperature tuning a
low-pressure vapor of non-interacting atoms in a low-finesse cavity close to
the critical anomalous dispersion condition. The predicted enhancement in
sensitivity is confirmed through Monte-Carlo numerical simulations.


title: Existence of quasinormal modes for Kerr-AdS black holes

abstract:
  This paper establishes the existence of quasinormal frequencies converging
exponentially to the real axis for the Klein--Gordon equation on a Kerr-AdS
spacetime when Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed at the conformal
boundary. The proof is adapted from results in Euclidean scattering about the
existence of scattering poles generated by time-periodic approximate solutions
to the wave equation.


title: On forbidden induced subgraphs for unit disk graphs

abstract:
  A unit disk graph is the intersection graph of disks of equal radii in the
plane. The class of unit disk graphs is hereditary, and therefore admits a
characterization in terms of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs. In spite of
quite active study of unit disk graphs very little is known about minimal
forbidden induced subgraphs for this class. We found only finitely many minimal
non unit disk graphs in the literature. In this paper we study in a systematic
way forbidden induced subgraphs for the class of unit disk graphs. We develop
several structural and geometrical tools, and use them to reveal infinitely
many new minimal non unit disk graphs. Further we use these results to
investigate structure of co-bipartite unit disk graphs. In particular, we give
structural characterization of those co-bipartite unit disk graphs whose edges
between parts form a C4-free bipartite graph, and show that bipartite
complements of these graphs are also unit disk graphs. Our results lead us to
propose a conjecture that the class of co-bipartite unit disk graphs is closed
under bipartite complementation.


title:
Exponential capacity of associative memories under quantum annealing
  recall

abstract:
  Associative memory models, in theoretical neuro- and computer sciences, can
generally store a sublinear number of memories. We show that using quantum
annealing for recall tasks endows associative memory models with exponential
storage capacities. Theoretically, we obtain the radius of attractor basins,
$R(N)$, and the capacity, $C(N)$, of such a scheme and their tradeoffs. Our
calculations establish that for randomly chosen memories the capacity of a
model using the Hebbian learning rule with recall via quantum annealing is
exponential in the size of the problem, $C(N)=\mathcal{O}(e^{C_1N}),~C_1\geq0$,
and succeeds on randomly chosen memory sets with a probability of
$(1-e^{-C_2N}),~C_2\geq0$ with $C_1+C_2=(.5-f)^2/(1-f)$, where,
$f=R(N)/N,~0\leq f\leq .5$ is the radius of attraction in terms of Hamming
distance of an input probe from a stored memory as a fraction of the problem
size. We demonstrate the application of this scheme on a programmable quantum
annealing device - the Dwave processor.


title:
Reachability-Based Safety and Goal Satisfaction of Unmanned Aerial
  Platoons on Air Highways

abstract:
  Recently, there has been immense interest in using unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs) for civilian operations. As a result, unmanned aerial systems traffic
management is needed to ensure the safety and goal satisfaction of potentially
thousands of UAVs flying simultaneously. Currently, the analysis of large
multi-agent systems cannot tractably provide these guarantees if the agents'
set of maneuvers is unrestricted. In this paper, platoons of UAVs flying on air
highways is proposed to impose an airspace structure that allows for tractable
analysis. For the air highway placement problem, the fast marching method is
used to produce a sequence of air highways that minimizes the cost of flying
from an origin to any destination. The placement of air highways can be updated
in real-time to accommodate sudden airspace changes. Within platoons traveling
on air highways, each vehicle is modeled as a hybrid system. Using
Hamilton-Jacobi reachability, safety and goal satisfaction are guaranteed for
all mode transitions. For a single altitude range, the proposed approach
guarantees safety for one safety breach per vehicle, in the unlikely event of
multiple safety breaches, safety can be guaranteed over multiple altitude
ranges. We demonstrate the platooning concept through simulations of three
representative scenarios.


title: Learning to Abstain from Binary Prediction

abstract:
  A binary classifier capable of abstaining from making a label prediction has
two goals in tension: minimizing errors, and avoiding abstaining unnecessarily
often. In this work, we exactly characterize the best achievable tradeoff
between these two goals in a general semi-supervised setting, given an ensemble
of predictors of varying competence as well as unlabeled data on which we wish
to predict or abstain. We give an algorithm for learning a classifier in this
setting which trades off its errors with abstentions in a minimax optimal
manner, is as efficient as linear learning and prediction, and is demonstrably
practical. Our analysis extends to a large class of loss functions and other
scenarios, including ensembles comprised of specialists that can themselves
abstain.


title:
Holographic Curvature Perturbations in a Cosmology with a Space-Like
  Singularity

abstract:
  We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations in an anti-de-Sitter
(AdS) bulk through a cosmological singularity by mapping the dynamics onto the
boundary conformal fields theory by means of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We
consider a deformed AdS space-time obtained by considering a time-dependent
dilaton which induces a curvature singularity in the bulk at a time which we
call $t = 0$, and which asymptotically approaches AdS both for large positive
and negative times. The boundary field theory becomes free when the bulk
curvature goes to infinity. Hence, the evolution of the fluctuations is under
better controle on the boundary than in the bulk. To avoid unbounded particle
production across the bounce it is necessary to smooth out the curvature
singularity at very high curvatures. We show how the bulk cosmological
perturbations can be mapped onto boundary gauge field fluctuations. We evolve
the latter and compare the spectrum of fluctuations on the infrared scales
relevant for cosmological observations before and after the bounce point. We
find that the index of the power spectrum of fluctuations is the same before
and after the bounce.


title:
Melting of a nonequilibrium vortex crystal in a fluid film with polymers
  : elastic versus fluid turbulence

abstract:
  We perform a direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the forced, incompressible
two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equation coupled with the FENE-P equations for
the polymer-conformation tensor. The forcing is such that, without polymers and
at low Reynolds numbers $\mbox{Re}$, the film attains a steady state that is a
square lattice of vortices and anti-vortices. We find that, as we increase the
Weissenberg number $\mbox{Wi}$, a sequence of nonequilibrium phase transitions
transforms this lattice, first to spatially distorted, but temporally steady,
crystals and then to a sequence of crystals that oscillate in time,
periodically, at low $\mbox{Wi}$, and quasiperiodically, for slightly larger
$\mbox{Wi}$. Finally, the system becomes disordered and displays spatiotemporal
chaos and elastic turbulence. We then obtain the nonequilibrium phase diagram
for this system, in the $\mbox{Wi} - \Omega$ plane, where $\Omega \propto
{\mbox{Re}}$, and show that (a) the boundary between the crystalline and
turbulent phases has a complicated, fractal-type character and (b) the
Okubo-Weiss parameter $\Lambda$ provides us with a natural measure for
characterizing the phases and transitions in this diagram.


title:
Efficient Bayesian Inference for Multivariate Factor Stochastic
  Volatility Models

abstract:
  We discuss efficient Bayesian estimation of dynamic covariance matrices in
multivariate time series through a factor stochastic volatility model. In
particular, we propose two interweaving strategies (Yu and Meng, Journal of
Computational and Graphical Statistics, 20(3), 531-570, 2011) to substantially
accelerate convergence and mixing of standard MCMC approaches. Similar to
marginal data augmentation techniques, the proposed acceleration procedures
exploit non-identifiability issues which frequently arise in factor models. Our
new interweaving strategies are easy to implement and come at almost no extra
computational cost; nevertheless, they can boost estimation efficiency by
several orders of magnitude as is shown in extensive simulation studies. To
conclude, the application of our algorithm to a 26-dimensional exchange rate
data set illustrates the superior performance of the new approach for
real-world data.


title:
A Cost-based Placement Algorithm for Multiple Virtual Security
  Appliances in Cloud using SDN: MO-UFLP(Multi-Ordered Uncapacitated Facility
  Location Problem)

abstract:
  Software Defined Networking (SDN), has introduced many advanced platforms for
managing networks and adopting different security tools with them, but the cost
of these platforms should be considered as well. In this paper, we present an
extension of the existing approach to the optimal placement of virtual security
appliances in a pre-defined network setting. The approach proposed by Bouet [1]
only considered one security appliance, we extended his approach to several
virtual security appliances. We conducted several simulation tests showing good
performances of our approach. To show the feasibility, we implemented our
approach using SDN and virtual security appliances and integrated it into
OpenStack. This extension adapts UFLP algorithm to real world situations where
several middle boxes need to be deployed to satisfy security needs for the
applications deployed in the cloud. We realized this approach by implementing
"OpenStack on top of OpenStack" , a nested OpenStack implementation with
OpenDayLight as the SDN controller .


title:
Capacitated Kinetic Clustering in Mobile Networks by Optimal
  Transportation Theory

abstract:
  We consider the problem of capacitated kinetic clustering in which $n$ mobile
terminals and $k$ base stations with respective operating capacities are given.
The task is to assign the mobile terminals to the base stations such that the
total squared distance from each terminal to its assigned base station is
minimized and the capacity constraints are satisfied. This paper focuses on the
development of \emph{distributed} and computationally efficient algorithms that
adapt to the motion of both terminals and base stations. Suggested by the
optimal transportation theory, we exploit the structural property of the
optimal solution, which can be represented by a power diagram on the base
stations such that the total usage of nodes within each power cell equals the
capacity of the corresponding base station. We show by using the kinetic data
structure framework the first analytical upper bound on the number of changes
in the optimal solution, i.e., its stability. On the algorithm side, using the
power diagram formulation we show that the solution can be represented in size
proportional to the number of base stations and can be solved by an iterative,
local algorithm. In particular, this algorithm can naturally exploit the
continuity of motion and has orders of magnitude faster than existing solutions
using min-cost matching and linear programming, and thus is able to handle
large scale data under mobility.


title:
Converse effect of pressure on quadrupolar and magnetic transition in
  Ce$_{3}$Pd$_{20}$Si$_{6}$

abstract:
  The heavy fermion compound Ce$_{3}$Pd$_{20}$Si$_{6}$ displays unconventional
quantum criticality as the lower of two consecutive phase transitions is fully
suppressed by magnetic field. Here we report on the effects of pressure as
additional tuning parameter. Specific heat and electrical resistivity
measurements reveal a converse effect of pressure on the two transitions,
leading to the merging of both transitions at 6.2 kbar. The field-induced
quantum criticality is robust under pressure tuning. We rationalize our
findings within an extended version of the global phase diagram for
antiferromagnetic heavy fermion quantum criticality.


title: Associative Memories and Human-Robot Social Interaction

abstract:
  In this position paper, we discuss how the use of a cognitive architecture
based on unsupervised clustering (the Kohonen Self-Organizing Map) enables us
to meet our goals of efficient action selection in a mobile robot. This
architecture provides several opportunities for human-robot interaction, and we
discuss how its features facilitate these interactions.


title: Harnessing disordered quantum dynamics for machine learning

abstract:
  Quantum computer has an amazing potential of fast information processing.
However, realisation of a digital quantum computer is still a challenging
problem requiring highly accurate controls and key application strategies. Here
we propose a novel platform, quantum reservoir computing, to solve these issues
successfully by exploiting natural quantum dynamics, which is ubiquitous in
laboratories nowadays, for machine learning. In this framework, nonlinear
dynamics including classical chaos can be universally emulated in quantum
systems. A number of numerical experiments show that quantum systems consisting
of at most seven qubits possess computational capabilities comparable to
conventional recurrent neural networks of 500 nodes. This discovery opens up a
new paradigm for information processing with artificial intelligence powered by
quantum physics.


title:
Stability of stochastic differential equations with respect to
  time-changed Brownian motions

abstract:
  In this paper, the stability behaviors of stochastic differential equations
(SDEs) driven by time-changed Brownian motions are discussed. Based on the
generalized Lyapunov method and stochastic analysis, necessary conditions are
provided for solutions of time-changed SDEs to be stable in differential
senses, such as stochastic stability, stochastically asymptotic stability and
globally stochastically asymptotic stability. Also, a connection between the
stability of the solution to the time-changed SDEs and that to their
corresponding non-time-changed SDEs is revealed by applying the duality
theorem. Finally, two examples are provided to illustrate the theoretical
results.