title:
Atom-photon, two-mode entanglement and two-mode squeezing in the
  presence of cross-Kerr nonlinearity

abstract:
  The interaction of two quantized fields and three-level quantum system in a
lambda-type configuration is investigated in the presence of cross-Kerr
nonlinearity. We consider three models of coupling for the atom-photon
interaction. First, we study the dynamical behavior of the atom-photon
entanglement and show that increasing the cross-Kerr nonlinearity results in
different behaviors in three considered models. Moreover, it is demonstrated
that the two quantized modes can be entangled, on the other hand, by applying a
classical driving field to the lower levels. Increasing the classical driving
field destroys the long time atom-photon entanglement. Our results show that an
oscillatory two-mode squeezing can be generated in the absence of a driving
classical field and the cross-Kerr nonlinearity.


title:
Giant interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in MgO/CoFe/capping
  layer structures

abstract:
  Magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) based on CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB structures is of
great interest due to its application in the spin-transfer-torque magnetic
random access memory (STT-MRAM). Large interfacial perpendicular magnetic
anisotropy (PMA) is required to achieve high thermal stability. Here we use
first-principles calculations to investigate the magnetic anisotropy energy
(MAE) of MgO/CoFe/capping layer structures, where the capping materials include
5d metals Hf, Ta, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au and 6p metals Tl, Pb, Bi. We demonstrate
that it is feasible to enhance PMA by using proper capping materials.
Relatively large PMA is found in the structures with capping materials of Hf,
Ta, Os, Ir and Pb. More importantly, the MgO/CoFe/Bi structure gives rise to
giant PMA (6.09 mJ/m2), which is about three times larger than that of the
MgO/CoFe/Ta structure. The origin of the MAE is elucidated by examining the
contributions to MAE from each atomic layer and orbital. These findings provide
a comprehensive understanding of the PMA and point towards the possibility to
achieve advanced-node STT-MRAM with high thermal stability.


title: Planar Lenses at Visible Wavelengths

abstract:
  Sub-wavelength resolution imaging requires high numerical aperture (NA)
lenses, which are bulky and expensive. Metasurfaces allow the miniaturization
of conventional refractive optics into planar structures. We show that
high-aspect-ratio titanium dioxide metasurfaces can be fabricated and designed
as meta-lenses with NA = 0.8. Diffraction-limited focusing is demonstrated at
wavelengths of 405 nm, 532 nm, and 660 nm with corresponding efficiencies of
86%, 73%, and 66%. The meta-lenses can resolve nanoscale features separated by
sub-wavelength distances and provide magnification as high as 170x with image
qualities comparable to a state-of-the-art commercial objective. Our results
firmly establish that meta-lenses can have widespread applications in
laser-based microscopy, imaging, and spectroscopy.


title:
Two-dimensional Infrared Spectroscopy of vibrational polaritons of
  molecules in an optical cavity

abstract:
  Strong coupling of molecular vibrations to an infrared cavity mode affects
their nature by creating dressed polariton states. We show how the single and
double vibrational polariton manifolds may be controlled by varying the cavity
coupling strength, and probed by a time domain 2DIR technique, Double Quantum
Coherence (DQC). Applications are made to the amide-I ($CO$) and amide-II
($CN$) bond vibrations of $N-methylacetamide$ (NMA).


title:
Theory of valley-dependent transport in graphene-based lateral quantum
  structures

abstract:
  Modulation of electronic states in two-dimensional (2D) materials can be
achieved by using in-plane variations of the band gap or the average potential
in lateral quantum structures. In the atomic configurations with hexagonal
symmetry, this approach makes it possible to tailor the valleytronic properties
for potential device applications. In this work, we present a multi-band theory
to calculate the valley-dependent electron transport in graphene-based lateral
quantum structures. As an example, we consider the structures with a single
interface that exhibits an energy gap or potential discontinuity. The
theoretical formalism proceeds within the tight-binding description, by first
deriving the local bulk complex band structures in the regions of a constant
gap or potential and, next, joining the local wave functions across the
interface via a cell-averaged current operator to ensure the current
continuity. The theory is applied to the study of electron reflection off and
transmission through an interface. Both reflection and transmission are found
to exhibit valley-contrast behavior that can be used to generate
valley-polarized electron sources. The results vary with the type of
interfaces, as well as between monolayer and bilayer graphene based structures.
In the monolayer case, the valley contrast originates from the band warping and
only becomes sizable for incident carriers of high energy; whereas in
AB-stacked bilayer graphene, the vertical interlayer coupling emerges as an
additional important cause for valley contrast, and the favorable carrier
energy is also found to be drastically lower. Our numerical results clearly
demonstrate the propitious valleytronic properties of bilayer graphene
structures.


title:
Cell-cycle coupled expression minimizes random fluctuations in gene
  product levels

abstract:
  Expression of many genes varies as a cell transitions through different
cell-cycle stages. How coupling between stochastic expression and cell cycle
impacts cell-to-cell variability (noise) in the level of protein is not well
understood. We analyze a model, where a stable protein is synthesized in random
bursts, and the frequency with which bursts occur varies within the cell cycle.
Formulas quantifying the extent of fluctuations in the protein copy number are
derived and decomposed into components arising from the cell cycle and
stochastic processes. The latter stochastic component represents contributions
from bursty expression and errors incurred during partitioning of molecules
between daughter cells. These formulas reveal an interesting trade-off:
cell-cycle dependencies that amplify the noise contribution from bursty
expression also attenuate the contribution from partitioning errors. We
investigate existence of optimum strategies for coupling expression to the cell
cycle that minimize the stochastic component. Intriguingly, results show that a
zero production rate throughout the cell cycle, with expression only occurring
just before cell division minimizes noise from bursty expression for a fixed
mean protein level. In contrast, the optimal strategy in the case of
partitioning errors is to make the protein just after cell division. We provide
examples of regulatory proteins that are expressed only towards the end of cell
cycle, and argue that such strategies enhance robustness of cell-cycle
decisions to the intrinsic stochasticity of gene expression.


title: Homogeneous Rota-Baxter operators on $A_{\omega}$ (II)

abstract:
  In this paper we study $k$-order homogeneous Rota-Baxter operators with
weight $1$ on the simple $3$-Lie algebra $A_{\omega}$ (over a field of
characteristic zero), which is realized by an associative commutative algebra
$A$ and a derivation $\Delta$ and an involution $\omega$ (Lemma
\mref{lem:rbd3}). A $k$-order homogeneous Rota-Baxter operator on $A_{\omega}$
is a linear map $R$ satisfying $R(L_m)=f(m+k)L_{m+k}$ for all generators $\{
L_m~ |~ m\in \mathbb Z \}$ of $A_{\omega}$ and a map $f : \mathbb Z
\rightarrow\mathbb F$, where $k\in \mathbb Z$. We prove that $R$ is a $k$-order
homogeneous Rota-Baxter operator on $A_{\omega}$ of weight $1$ with $k\neq 0$
if and only if $R=0$ (see Theorems 3.2, and $R$ is a $0$-order homogeneous
Rota-Baxter operator on $A_{\omega}$ of weight $1$ if and only if $R$ is one of
the forty possibilities which are described in Theorems3.5, 3.7, 3.9, 3.10,
3.18, 3.21 and 3.22.


title: The force-free twisted magnetosphere of a neutron star

abstract:
  We present a detailed analysis of the properties of twisted, force-free
magnetospheres of non-rotating neutron stars, which are of interest in the
modelling of magnetar properties and evolution. In our models the magnetic
field smoothly matches to a current-free (vacuum) solution at some large
external radius, and they are specifically built to avoid pathological surface
currents at any of the interfaces. By exploring a large range of parameters, we
find a few remarkable general trends. We find that the total dipolar moment can
be increased by up to $40\%$ with respect to a vacuum model with the same
surface magnetic field, due to the contribution of magnetospheric currents to
the global magnetic field. Thus, estimates of the surface magnetic field based
on the large-scale dipolar braking torque are slightly overestimating the
surface value by the same amount. Consistently, there is a moderate increase in
the total energy of the model with respect to the vacuum solution of up to
$25\%$, which would be the available energy budget in the event of a fast,
global magnetospheric reorganization commonly associated with magnetar flares.
We have also found the interesting result of the existence of a critical twist
($\varphi_{\rm max} \lesssim 1.5$ rad), beyond which we cannot find any more
numerical solutions. Combining the models considered in this paper with the
evolution of the interior of neutron stars will allow us to study the influence
of the magnetosphere on the long-term magnetic, thermal, and rotational
evolution.


title: Slopes for higher rank Artin-Schreier-Witt Towers

abstract:
  We fix a monic polynomial $\bar f(x) \in \mathbb{F}_q[x]$ over a finite field
of characteristic $p$, and consider the
$\mathbb{Z}_{p^{\ell}}$-Artin-Schreier-Witt tower defined by $\bar f(x)$; this
is a tower of curves $\cdots \to C_m \to C_{m-1} \to \cdots \to C_0
=\mathbb{A}^1$, whose Galois group is canonically isomorphic to
$\mathbb{Z}_{p^\ell}$, the degree $\ell$ unramified extension of
$\mathbb{Z}_p$, which is abstractly isomorphic to $(\mathbb{Z}_p)^\ell$ as a
topological group. We study the Newton slopes of zeta functions of this tower
of curves. This reduces to the study of the Newton slopes of L-functions
associated to characters of the Galois group of this tower. We prove that, when
the conductor of the character is large enough, the Newton slopes of the
L-function asymptotically form a finite union of arithmetic progressions. As a
corollary, we prove the spectral halo property of the spectral variety
associated to the $\mathbb{Z}_{p^{\ell}}$-Artin-Schreier-Witt tower. This
extends the main result in [DWX] from rank one case $\ell=1$ to the higher rank
case $\ell\geq 1$.


title: Kepler exoplanets: a new method of population analysis

abstract:
  This paper introduces a new method of inferring the intrinsic exoplanet
population from Kepler data, based on the assumption that the frequency of
exoplanets can be represented by a smooth function of planet radius and period.
The method is applied to the two most recent data releases from the Kepler
project, q1-16 and q1-17, over the range of periods 0.5 to 512 days, and radii
0.5 to 16 Earth radii. Both of these releases have known biases, with the first
believed to contain excess false positives, and the second excess false
negatives, so any analysis of them should be viewed with caution. We apply the
new method of population estimation to these releases, treating them like
practice data sets. With this method, we tentatively find that the average
number of planets per star would be about $5.7\pm0.8$ for F stars, $5.0\pm0.2$
for G stars, $4.0\pm0.3$ for K stars, and $6.5\pm1.7$ for M stars, indicating a
decreasing trend with FGK spectral type, but an upward jump for M stars. A
second conclusion is that the number of planets per G star, per natural log
unit of period (days) and radii (Earths) at the period and radius of the Earth
around the Sun, is about $\Gamma_\oplus(G) = 1.1\pm 0.1$. A related parameter,
$\eta_{\oplus}$, which in addition depends on the range of period and radius
considered, is found to be $\eta_{\oplus}(G) \simeq 1.0 \pm 0.1 $. More
definitive conclusions, and validation of these preliminary values, await the
final release of Kepler's transiting exoplanet list.


title:
Comment on "A variational Bayesian approach for inverse problems with
  skew-t error distributions" (Guha et al., Journal of Computational Physics
  301 (2015) 377-393)

abstract:
  A brief comment on A variational Bayesian approach for inverse problems with
skew-t error distributions (Guha et al., Journal of Computational Physics 301
(2015) 377-393) is given in this letter.


title: A corpus of preposition supersenses in English web reviews

abstract:
  We present the first corpus annotated with preposition supersenses,
unlexicalized categories for semantic functions that can be marked by English
prepositions (Schneider et al., 2015). That scheme improves upon its
predecessors to better facilitate comprehensive manual annotation. Moreover,
unlike the previous schemes, the preposition supersenses are organized
hierarchically. Our data will be publicly released on the web upon publication.


title: The Unlikely Intersection Theory and the Cosmetic Surgery Conjecture

abstract:
  Update: The Cosmetic Surgery Conjecture modulo finitely many Dehn-filling
coefficients has been a well-known classical result, so the first main result
of this paper is not new. (But the author was initially unaware of this fact,
and the tools and techniques used here are very different from all the
classically known methods.) The second main result of the paper, that is, the
generalized Cosmetic Surgery Conjecture for the 2-cusped case is new, but
superseded by the author's later work.


title:
Stability of soliton families in nonlinear Schroedinger equations with
  non-parity-time-symmetric complex potentials

abstract:
  Stability of soliton families in one-dimensional nonlinear Schroedinger
equations with non-parity-time (PT)-symmetric complex potentials is
investigated numerically. It is shown that these solitons can be linearly
stable in a wide range of parameter values both below and above phase
transition. In addition, a pseudo-Hamiltonian-Hopf bifurcation is revealed,
where pairs of purely-imaginary eigenvalues in the linear-stability spectra of
solitons collide and bifurcate off the imaginary axis, creating oscillatory
instability, which resembles Hamiltonian-Hopf bifurcations of solitons in
Hamiltonian systems even though the present system is dissipative and
non-Hamiltonian. The most important numerical finding is that, eigenvalues of
linear-stability operators of these solitons appear in quartets $(\lambda,
-\lambda, \lambda^*, -\lambda^*)$, similar to conservative systems and
PT-symmetric systems. This quartet eigenvalue symmetry is very surprising for
non-PT-symmetric systems, and it has far-reaching consequences on the stability
behaviors of solitons.


title: Deeply Exploit Depth Information for Object Detection

abstract:
  This paper addresses the issue on how to more effectively coordinate the
depth with RGB aiming at boosting the performance of RGB-D object detection.
Particularly, we investigate two primary ideas under the CNN model: property
derivation and property fusion. Firstly, we propose that the depth can be
utilized not only as a type of extra information besides RGB but also to derive
more visual properties for comprehensively describing the objects of interest.
So a two-stage learning framework consisting of property derivation and fusion
is constructed. Here the properties can be derived either from the provided
color/depth or their pairs (e.g. the geometry contour adopted in this paper).
Secondly, we explore the fusion method of different properties in feature
learning, which is boiled down to, under the CNN model, from which layer the
properties should be fused together. The analysis shows that different semantic
properties should be learned separately and combined before passing into the
final classifier. Actually, such a detection way is in accordance with the
mechanism of the primary neural cortex (V1) in brain. We experimentally
evaluate the proposed method on the challenging dataset, and have achieved
state-of-the-art performance.


title: Small-large subgroups of the reals

abstract:
  We are interested in subgroups of the reals that are small in one and large
in another sense. We prove that, in ZFC, there exists a non-meager Lebesgue
null subgrooup of R, while it isconsistent there there is no non-null meager
subgroup of R.


title:
The environment and star formation of HII region Sh2-163: a
  multi-wavelength study

abstract:
  To investigate the environment of HII region Sh2-163 and search for evidence
of triggered star formation in this region, we performed a multi-wavelength
study of this HII region. Most of our data were taken from large-scale surveys:
2MASS, CGPS, MSX and SCUBA. We also made CO molecular line observations, using
the 13.7-m telescope. The ionized region of Sh2-163 is detected by both the
optical and radio continuum observations. Sh2-163 is partially bordered by an
arc-like photodissociation region (PDR), which is coincident with the strongest
optical and radio emissions, indicating interactions between the HII region and
the surrounding interstellar medium. Two molecular clouds were discovered on
the border of the PDR. The morphology of these two clouds suggests they are
compressed by the expansion of Sh2-163. In cloud A, we found two molecular
clumps. And it seems star formation in clump A2 is much more active than in
clump A1. In cloud B, we found new outflow activities and massive star(s) are
forming inside. Using 2MASS photometry, we tried to search for embedded young
stellar object (YSO) candidates in this region. The very good agreement between
CO emission, infrared shell and YSOs suggest that it is probably a star
formation region triggered by the expansion of Sh2-163.We also found the most
likely massive protostar related to IRAS 23314+6033.


title: Desiree: a Refinement Calculus for Requirements Problems

abstract:
  The requirements elicited from stakeholders are typically informal,
incomplete, ambiguous, and inconsistent. It is the task of Requirements
Engineering to transform them into an eligible (formal, sufficiently complete,
unambiguous, consistent, modifiable and traceable) requirements specification
of functions and qualities that the system-to-be needs to operationalize. To
address this requirements problem, we have proposed Desiree, a requirements
calculus for systematically transforming stakeholder requirements into an
eligible specification. In this paper, we define the semantics of the concepts
used to model requirements, and that of the operators used to refine and
operationalize requirements. We present a graphical modeling tool that supports
the entire framework, including the nine concepts, eight operators and the
transformation methodology. We use a Meeting Scheduler example to illustrate
the kinds of reasoning tasks that we can perform based on the given semantics.


title:
Laplacian Pyramid Reconstruction and Refinement for Semantic
  Segmentation

abstract:
  CNN architectures have terrific recognition performance but rely on spatial
pooling which makes it difficult to adapt them to tasks that require dense,
pixel-accurate labeling. This paper makes two contributions: (1) We demonstrate
that while the apparent spatial resolution of convolutional feature maps is
low, the high-dimensional feature representation contains significant sub-pixel
localization information. (2) We describe a multi-resolution reconstruction
architecture based on a Laplacian pyramid that uses skip connections from
higher resolution feature maps and multiplicative gating to successively refine
segment boundaries reconstructed from lower-resolution maps. This approach
yields state-of-the-art semantic segmentation results on the PASCAL VOC and
Cityscapes segmentation benchmarks without resorting to more complex
random-field inference or instance detection driven architectures.


title:
Software search is not a science, even among scientists: A survey of how
  scientists and engineers find software

abstract:
  Improved software discovery is a prerequisite for greater software reuse:
after all, if someone cannot find software for a particular task, they cannot
reuse it. Understanding people's approaches and preferences when they look for
software could help improve facilities for software discovery. We surveyed
people working in several scientific and engineering fields to better
understand their approaches and selection criteria. We found that even among
highly-trained people, the rudimentary approaches of relying on general Web
searches, the opinions of colleagues, and the literature were still the most
commonly used. However, those who were involved in software development
differed from nondevelopers in their use of social help sites, software project
repositories, software catalogs, and organization-specific mailing lists or
forums. For example, software developers in our sample were more likely to
search in community sites such as Stack Overflow even when seeking ready-to-run
software rather than source code, and likewise, asking colleagues was
significantly more important when looking for ready-to-run software. Our survey
also provides insight into the criteria that matter most to people when they
are searching for ready-to-run software. Finally, our survey also identifies
some factors that can prevent people from finding software.


title:
Robust and Low-Rank Representation for Fast Face Identification with
  Occlusions

abstract:
  In this paper we propose an iterative method to address the face
identification problem with block occlusions. Our approach utilizes a robust
representation based on two characteristics in order to model contiguous errors
(e.g., block occlusion) effectively. The first fits to the errors a
distribution described by a tailored loss function. The second describes the
error image as having a specific structure (resulting in low-rank in comparison
to image size). We will show that this joint characterization is effective for
describing errors with spatial continuity. Our approach is computationally
efficient due to the utilization of the Alternating Direction Method of
Multipliers (ADMM). A special case of our fast iterative algorithm leads to the
robust representation method which is normally used to handle non-contiguous
errors (e.g., pixel corruption). Extensive results on representative face
databases (in constrained and unconstrained environments) document the
effectiveness of our method over existing robust representation methods with
respect to both identification rates and computational time.
  Code is available at Github, where you can find implementations of the
F-LR-IRNNLS and F-IRNNLS (fast version of the RRC) :
https://github.com/miliadis/FIRC


title:
Decay of isotropic flow and anisotropic flow with rotation or magnetic
  field or both in a weakly nonlinear regime

abstract:
  We investigate numerically the decay of isotropic, rotating,
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), and rotating MHD flows in a periodic box. The
Reynolds number $Re$ defined with the box size and the initial velocity is
$100$ at which the flows are in a weakly nonlinear regime, i.e. not laminar but
far away from the fully turbulent state. The decay of isotropic flow has two
stages, the first stage for the development of small scales and the second
stage for the viscous dissipation. In the rapidly rotating flow, fast rotation
induces the inertial wave and causes the large-scale structure to inhibit the
development of the first stage and retard the flow decay. In the MHD flow, the
imposed field also causes the large-scale structure but facilitates the flow
decay in the first stage because of the energy conversion from flow to magnetic
field. Magnetic Reynolds number $Rm$ is important for the dynamics of the MHD
flow, namely a high $Rm$ induces the Alfv\'en wave but a low $Rm$ cannot. In
the rotating MHD flow, slower rotation tends to convert more kinetic energy to
magnetic energy. The orientation between the rotational and magnetic axes is
important for the dynamics of the rotating MHD flow, namely the energy
conversion is more efficient and the stronger wave is induced when the two axes
are not parallel than when they are parallel.

categories: physics.flu-dyn astro-ph.EP astro-ph.SR physics.geo-ph


title: Rate-Distortion Bounds on Bayes Risk in Supervised Learning

abstract:
  We present an information-theoretic framework for bounding the number of
labeled samples needed to train a classifier in a parametric Bayesian setting.
We derive bounds on the average $L_p$ distance between the learned classifier
and the true maximum a posteriori classifier, which are well-established
surrogates for the excess classification error due to imperfect learning. We
provide lower and upper bounds on the rate-distortion function, using $L_p$
loss as the distortion measure, of a maximum a priori classifier in terms of
the differential entropy of the posterior distribution and a quantity called
the interpolation dimension, which characterizes the complexity of the
parametric distribution family. In addition to expressing the information
content of a classifier in terms of lossy compression, the rate-distortion
function also expresses the minimum number of bits a learning machine needs to
extract from training data to learn a classifier to within a specified $L_p$
tolerance. We use results from universal source coding to express the
information content in the training data in terms of the Fisher information of
the parametric family and the number of training samples available. The result
is a framework for computing lower bounds on the Bayes $L_p$ risk. This
framework complements the well-known probably approximately correct (PAC)
framework, which provides minimax risk bounds involving the Vapnik-Chervonenkis
dimension or Rademacher complexity. Whereas the PAC framework provides upper
bounds the risk for the worst-case data distribution, the proposed
rate-distortion framework lower bounds the risk averaged over the data
distribution. We evaluate the bounds for a variety of data models, including
categorical, multinomial, and Gaussian models. In each case the bounds are
provably tight orderwise, and in two cases we prove that the bounds are tight
up to multiplicative constants.


title: Predicting Performance on MOOC Assessments using Multi-Regression Models

abstract:
  The past few years has seen the rapid growth of data min- ing approaches for
the analysis of data obtained from Mas- sive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The
objectives of this study are to develop approaches to predict the scores a stu-
dent may achieve on a given grade-related assessment based on information,
considered as prior performance or prior ac- tivity in the course. We develop a
personalized linear mul- tiple regression (PLMR) model to predict the grade for
a student, prior to attempting the assessment activity. The developed model is
real-time and tracks the participation of a student within a MOOC (via
click-stream server logs) and predicts the performance of a student on the next
as- sessment within the course offering. We perform a com- prehensive set of
experiments on data obtained from three openEdX MOOCs via a Stanford University
initiative. Our experimental results show the promise of the proposed ap-
proach in comparison to baseline approaches and also helps in identification of
key features that are associated with the study habits and learning behaviors
of students.


title:
Non-Adhesive Transfer Process of Carbon Nanotube Forests onto Flexible
  Kapton Substrates

abstract:
  Prevalence of electronic gadgets has been on the rise and among several
considerations that are important for furthering frontiers of utility of new
gadgets is mechanical flexibility of electronic systems. Flexible electronics
require functional materials to be held by flexible substrates that can be bent
to small radii of curvature. In addition, the functionality of the active
material has to remain intact during the process of bending. There have been
challenges in the transfer process of functional materials onto flexible
substrates as well as challenges in maintaining the functionality of these
materials during the bending process. Here we demonstrate transfer of carbon
nanotubes, a highly studied electronic material, onto flexible substrates,
mainly kapton. We study the optimum conditions of adhesion, pressure and
temperature required to obtain the strongest transferred layer. We further
study the limits on the radius of curvature that the substrate can be bent to.


title: Symmetry-broken states on networks of coupled oscillators

abstract:
  When identical oscillators are coupled together in a network, dynamical
steady states are often assumed to reflect network symmetries. Here we show
that alternative persistent states may also exist that break the symmetries of
the underlying coupling network. We further show that these symmetry-broken
coexistent states are analogous to those dubbed "chimera states," which can
occur when identical oscillators are coupled to one another in identical ways.


title: An innovative blazar classification based on radio jet kinematics

abstract:
  Blazars are usually classified following their synchrotron peak frequency
($\nu F(\nu)$ scale) as high, intermediate, low frequency peaked BL Lacs (HBLs,
IBLs, LBLs), and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), or, according to their
radio morphology at large scale, FR~I or FR~II. However, the diversity of
blazars is such that these classes seem insufficient to chart the specific
properties of each source. We propose to classify a wide sample of blazars
following the kinematic features of their radio jets seen in very long baseline
interferometry (VLBI). For this purpose we use public data from the MOJAVE
collaboration in which we select a sample of blazars with known redshift and
sufficient monitoring to constrain apparent velocities. We selected 161 blazars
from a sample of 200 sources. We identify three distinct classes of VLBI jets
depending on radio knot kinematics: class I with quasi-stationary knots, class
II with knots in relativistic motion from the radio core, and class I/II,
intermediate, showing quasi-stationary knots at the jet base and relativistic
motions downstream. A notable result is the good overlap of this kinematic
classification with the usual spectral classification; class I corresponds to
HBLs, class II to FSRQs, and class I/II to IBLs/LBLs. We deepen this study by
characterizing the physical parameters of jets from VLBI radio data. Hence we
focus on the singular case of the class I/II by the study of the blazar BL Lac
itself. Finally we show how the interpretation that radio knots are
recollimation shocks is fully appropriate to describe the characteristics of
these three classes.


title:
Comparison of continuous and discrete-time data-based modeling for
  hypoelliptic systems

abstract:
  We compare two approaches to the predictive modeling of dynamical systems
from partial observations at discrete times. The first is continuous in time,
where one uses data to infer a model in the form of stochastic differential
equations, which are then discretized for numerical solution. The second is
discrete in time, where one directly infers a discrete-time model in the form
of a nonlinear autoregression moving average model. The comparison is performed
in a special case where the observations are known to have been obtained from a
hypoelliptic stochastic differential equation. We show that the discrete-time
approach has better predictive skills, especially when the data are relatively
sparse in time. We discuss open questions as well as the broader significance
of the results.


title: Heisenberg Operator Approach for Spin Squeezing Dynamics

abstract:
  We reconsider the one-axis twisting Hamiltonian, which is commonly used for
generating spin squeezing, and treat its dynamics within the Heisenberg
operator approach. To this end we solve the underlying Heisenberg equations of
motion perturbatively and evaluate the expectation values of the resulting
time-dependent Heisenberg operators in order to determine approximately the
dynamics of spin squeezing. Comparing our results with those originating from
exact numerics reveals that they are more accurate than the commonly used
frozen spin approximation.


title: $\mathbb{Z}_q$-valued generalized bent functions in odd characteristics

abstract:
  In this paper, we investigate properties of functions from $\mathbb{Z}_{p}^n$
to $\mathbb{Z}_q$, where $p$ is an odd prime and $q$ is a positive integer
divided by $p$. we present the sufficient and necessary conditions for
bent-ness of such generalized Boolean functions in terms of classical $p$-ary
bent functions, when $q=p^k$. When $q$ is divided by $p$ but not a power of it,
we give an sufficient condition for weakly regular gbent functions. Some
related constructions are also obtained.


title: Problems With Evaluation of Word Embeddings Using Word Similarity Tasks

abstract:
  Lacking standardized extrinsic evaluation methods for vector representations
of words, the NLP community has relied heavily on word similarity tasks as a
proxy for intrinsic evaluation of word vectors. Word similarity evaluation,
which correlates the distance between vectors and human judgments of semantic
similarity is attractive, because it is computationally inexpensive and fast.
In this paper we present several problems associated with the evaluation of
word vectors on word similarity datasets, and summarize existing solutions. Our
study suggests that the use of word similarity tasks for evaluation of word
vectors is not sustainable and calls for further research on evaluation
methods.


title:
On-Average KL-Privacy and its equivalence to Generalization for
  Max-Entropy Mechanisms

abstract:
  We define On-Average KL-Privacy and present its properties and connections to
differential privacy, generalization and information-theoretic quantities
including max-information and mutual information. The new definition
significantly weakens differential privacy, while preserving its minimalistic
design features such as composition over small group and multiple queries as
well as closeness to post-processing. Moreover, we show that On-Average
KL-Privacy is **equivalent** to generalization for a large class of
commonly-used tools in statistics and machine learning that samples from Gibbs
distributions---a class of distributions that arises naturally from the maximum
entropy principle. In addition, a byproduct of our analysis yields a lower
bound for generalization error in terms of mutual information which reveals an
interesting interplay with known upper bounds that use the same quantity.


title:
Voltage assisted asymmetric nanoscale wear on ultra-smooth diamond like
  carbon thin films at high sliding speeds

abstract:
  The understanding of tribo- and electro-chemical phenomenons on the molecular
level at a sliding interface is a field of growing interest. Fundamental
chemical and physical insights of sliding surfaces are crucial for
understanding wear at an interface, particularly for nano or micro scale
devices operating at high sliding speeds. A complete investigation of the
electrochemical effects on high sliding speed interfaces requires a precise
monitoring of both the associated wear and surface chemical reactions at the
interface. Here, we demonstrate that head-disk interface inside a commercial
magnetic storage hard disk drive provides a unique system for such studies. The
results obtained shows that the voltage assisted electrochemical wear lead to
asymmetric wear on either side of sliding interface.


title: Synchronous Hybrid Message-Adversary

abstract:
  The theory of distributed computing, lagging in its development behind
practice, has been biased in its modelling by employing mechanisms within the
model mimicking reality. Reality means, processors can fail. But theory is
about predicting consequences of reality, hence if we capture reality by
"artificial models," but those nevertheless make analysis simpler, we should
pursue the artificial models.
  Recently the idea was advocated to analyze distributed systems and view
processors as infallible. It is the message delivery substrate that causes
problems. This view not only can effectively emulate reality, but above all
seems to allow to view any past models as \emph{synchronous} models.
Synchronous models are easier to analyze than asynchronous ones. Furthermore,
it gives rise to models we haven't contemplated in the past. One such model,
presented here, is the Hybrid Message-Adversary. We motivate this model through
the need to analyze Byzantine faults. The Hybrid model exhibits a phenomenon
not seen in the past.


title: On The Dunkl Intertwining Opereator

abstract:
  Dunkl operators are differential-difference operators parametrized by a
finite reflection group and a weight function. The commutative algebra
generated by these operators generalizes the algebra of standard differential
operators and intertwines with this latter by the so-called intertwining
operator. In this paper, we give an integral representation for the operator
$V_k\circ e^{\Delta/2}$ for an arbitrary Weyl group and a large class of
regular weights $k$ containing those of non negative real parts. Our
representing measures are absolute continuous with respect the Lebesgue measure
in $\Rd$, which allows us to derive out new results about the intertwining
operator $V_k$ and the Dunkl kernel $E_k$. We show in particular that the
operator $V_k\circ e^{\Delta/2}$ extends uniquely as a bounded operator to a
large class of functions which are not necessarily differentiables. In the case
of non negative weights, this operator is shown to be positivity-preserving.


title:
Nonhomogeneous distributions and optimal quantizers for Sierpi\'nski
  carpets

abstract:
  The purpose of quantization of a probability distribution is to estimate the
probability by a discrete probability with finite support. In this paper, a
nonhomogeneous probability measure $P$ on $\mathbb R^2$ which has support the
Sierpi\'nski carpet generated by a set of four contractive similarity mappings
with equal similarity ratios has been considered . For this probability
measure, the optimal sets of $n$-means and the $n$th quantization errors are
investigated for all $n\geq 2$.


title:
A Generic Minimal Discrete Model for Toroidal Moments and Its
  Experimental Realization

abstract:
  It is well known that a closed loop of magnetic dipoles can give rise to the
rather elusive toroidal moment. However, artificial structures required to
generate the necessary magnetic moments are typically optically large, complex
to make and easily compromised by the kinetic inductance at high frequencies.
Instead of using magnetic dipoles, we propose a minimal model based on just
three aligned discrete electric dipoles in which the occurrence of resonant
toroidal modes is guaranteed by symmetry. The advantage of this model is its
simplicity and the same model supports toroidal moments from the microwave
regime up to optical frequencies as exemplified by a three-antenna array and a
system consisting of three nano-sized plasmonic particles. Both the microwave
and high-frequency configurations exhibit non-radiating "anapoles". Experiments
in the microwave regime confirm the theoretical predictions.


title: Coherence and incoherence collective behavior in financial market

abstract:
  Financial markets have been extensively studied as highly complex evolving
systems. In this paper, we quantify financial price fluctuations through a
coupled dynamical system composed of phase oscillators. We find a Financial
Coherence and Incoherence (FCI) coexistence collective behavior emerges as the
system evolves into the stable state, in which the stocks split into two
groups: one is represented by coherent, phase-locked oscillators, the other is
composed of incoherent, drifting oscillators. It is demonstrated that the size
of the coherent stock groups fluctuates during the economic periods according
to real-world financial instabilities or shocks. Further, we introduce the
coherent characteristic matrix to characterize the involvement dynamics of
stocks in the coherent groups. Clustering results on the matrix provides a
novel manifestation of the correlations among stocks in the economic periods.
Our analysis for components of the groups is consistent with the Global
Industry Classification Standard (GICS) classification and can also figure out
features for newly developed industries. These results can provide potentially
implications on characterizing inner dynamical structure of financial markets
and making optimal investment tragedies.


title:
Injectivity theorem for pseudo-effective line bundles and its
  applications

abstract:
  We formulate and establish a generalization of Koll'ar's injectivity theorem
for adjoint bundles twisted by a suitable multiplier ideal sheaf. As
applications, we generalize Koll'ar's vanishing theorem, Koll'ar's
torsion-freeness, generic vanishing theorem, and so on, for pseudo-effective
line bundles. Our approach is not Hodge theoretic but analytic, which enables
us to treat singular hermitian metrics with nonalgebraic singularities. For the
proof of the main injectivity theorem, we use the theory of harmonic integrals
on noncompact K"ahler manifolds. For applications, we prove a Bertini-type
theorem on the restriction of multiplier ideal sheaves to general members of
free linear systems, which seems to be of independent interest.


title: Goodness-of-fit analysis of the Cosmicflows-2 database of velocities

abstract:
  The goodness-of-fit (GoF) of the Cosmicflows-2 (CF2) database of peculiar
velocities with the LCDM standard model of cosmology is presented. Standard
application of the Chi^2 statistics of the full database, of its 4,838 data
points, is hampered by the small scale nonlinear dynamics which is not
accounted for by the (linear regime) velocity power spectrum. The bulk velocity
constitutes a highly compressed representation of the data which filters out
the small scales non-linear modes. Hence the statistics of the bulk flow
provides an efficient tool for assessing the GoF of the data given a model. The
particular approach introduced here is to use the (spherical top-hat window)
bulk velocity extracted from the Wiener filter reconstruction of the 3D
velocity field as a linear low pass filtered highly compressed representation
of the CF2 data. An ensemble 2250 random linear realizations of the WMAP/LCDM
model has been used to calculate the bulk velocity auto-covariance matrix. We
find that the CF2 data is consistent with the WMAP/LCDM model to better than
the 2 sigma confidence limits. This provides a further validation that the CF2
database is consistent with the standard model of cosmology.


title:
Holomorphic submanifolds of some hypercomplex manifolds with Hermitian
  and Norden metrics

abstract:
  In this paper we initiate the study of submanifolds of almost hypercomplex
manifolds with Hermitian and Norden metrics. Object of investigations are
holomorphic submanifolds of the hypercomplex manifolds which are locally
conformally equivalent to the hyper-K\"ahler manifolds of the considered type.
Necessary and sufficient conditions the investigated holomorphic submanifolds
to be totally umbilical or totally geodesic are obtained. Examples of the
examined submanifolds are constructed.


title:
A Robust Zero-Calibration RF-based Localization System for Realistic
  Environments

abstract:
  Due to the noisy indoor radio propagation channel, Radio Frequency (RF)-based
location determination systems usually require a tedious calibration phase to
construct an RF fingerprint of the area of interest. This fingerprint varies
with the used mobile device, changes of the transmit power of smart access
points (APs), and dynamic changes in the environment; requiring re-calibration
of the area of interest; which reduces the technology ease of use. In this
paper, we present IncVoronoi: a novel system that can provide zero-calibration
accurate RF-based indoor localization that works in realistic environments. The
basic idea is that the relative relation between the received signal strength
from two APs at a certain location reflects the relative distance from this
location to the respective APs. Building on this, IncVoronoi incrementally
reduces the user ambiguity region based on refining the Voronoi tessellation of
the area of interest. IncVoronoi also includes a number of modules to
efficiently run in realtime as well as to handle practical deployment issues
including the noisy wireless environment, obstacles in the environment,
heterogeneous devices hardware, and smart APs. We have deployed IncVoronoi on
different Android phones using the iBeacons technology in a university campus.
Evaluation of IncVoronoi with a side-by-side comparison with traditional
fingerprinting techniques shows that it can achieve a consistent median
accuracy of 2.8m under different scenarios with a low beacon density of one
beacon every 44m2. Compared to fingerprinting techniques, whose accuracy
degrades by at least 156%, this accuracy comes with no training overhead and is
robust to the different user devices, different transmit powers, and over
temporal changes in the environment. This highlights the promise of IncVoronoi
as a next generation indoor localization system.


title: Bayesian Overlapping Community Detection in Dynamic Networks

abstract:
  Detecting community structures in social networks has gained considerable
attention in recent years. However, lack of prior knowledge about the number of
communities, and their overlapping nature have made community detection a
challenging problem. Moreover, many of the existing methods only consider
static networks, while most of real world networks are dynamic and evolve over
time. Hence, finding consistent overlapping communities in dynamic networks
without any prior knowledge about the number of communities is still an
interesting open research problem. In this paper, we present an overlapping
community detection method for dynamic networks called Dynamic Bayesian
Overlapping Community Detector (DBOCD). DBOCD assumes that in every snapshot of
network, overlapping parts of communities are dense areas and utilizes link
communities instead of common node communities. Using Recurrent Chinese
Restaurant Process and community structure of the network in the last snapshot,
DBOCD simultaneously extracts the number of communities and soft community
memberships of nodes while maintaining the consistency of communities over
time. We evaluated DBOCD on both synthetic and real dynamic data-sets to assess
its ability to find overlapping communities in different types of network
evolution. The results show that DBOCD outperforms the recent state of the art
dynamic community detection methods.


title:
Detecting Ground Control Points via Convolutional Neural Network for
  Stereo Matching

abstract:
  In this paper, we present a novel approach to detect ground control points
(GCPs) for stereo matching problem. First of all, we train a convolutional
neural network (CNN) on a large stereo set, and compute the matching confidence
of each pixel by using the trained CNN model. Secondly, we present a ground
control points selection scheme according to the maximum matching confidence of
each pixel. Finally, the selected GCPs are used to refine the matching costs,
and we apply the new matching costs to perform optimization with semi-global
matching algorithm for improving the final disparity maps. We evaluate our
approach on the KITTI 2012 stereo benchmark dataset. Our experiments show that
the proposed approach significantly improves the accuracy of disparity maps.


title: New Constructions of SD and MR Codes over Small Finite Fields

abstract:
  Data storage applications require erasure-correcting codes with prescribed
sets of dependencies between data symbols and redundant symbols. The most
common arrangement is to have $k$ data symbols and $h$ redundant symbols (that
each depends on all data symbols) be partitioned into a number of disjoint
groups, where for each group one allocates an additional (local) redundant
symbol storing the parity of all symbols in the group. A code as above is
maximally recoverable, if it corrects all erasure patterns that are information
theoretically correctable given the dependency constraints. A slightly weaker
guarantee is provided by SD codes.
  One key consideration in the design of MR and SD codes is the size of the
finite field underlying the code as using small finite fields facilitates
encoding and decoding operations. In this paper we present new explicit
constructions of SD and MR codes over small finite fields.


title: Domination polynomial of clique cover product of graphs

abstract:
  Let $G$ be a simple graph of order $n$. The domination polynomial of $G$ is
the polynomial $D(G, x)=\sum_{i=1}^n d(G,i) x^i$, where $d(G,i)$ is the number
of dominating sets of $G$ of size $i$. For two graphs $G$ and $H$, let
$\mathcal{C} = \{C_1,C_2, \cdots, C_k\}$ be a clique cover of $G$ and
$U\subseteq V(H)$. We consider clique cover product which denoted by
$G^\mathcal{C} \star H^U$ and obtained from $G$ as follows: for each clique
$C_i \in \mathcal{C}$, add a copy of the graph $H$ and join every vertex of
$C_i$ to every vertex of $U$. We prove that the domination polynomial of clique
cover product $G^\mathcal{C} \star H^{V(H)}$ or simply $G^\mathcal{C} \star H$
is
  \[
  D(G^\mathcal{C} \star H,x)=\prod_{i=1}^k\Big
[\big((1+x)^{n_i}-1\big)(1+x)^{|V(H)|}+D(H,x)\Big], \] where each clique $C_i
\in \mathcal{C}$ has $n_i$ vertices. As results, we study the
$\mathcal{D}$-equivalence classes of some families of graphs. Also we
completely describe the $\mathcal{D}$-equivalence classes of friendship graphs
constructed by coalescence $n$ copies of the cycle graph of length three with a
common vertex.


title: Entanglement Entropy Evolution under Double-trace Deformation

abstract:
  In this paper, we study the bulk entanglement entropy evolution in conical
BTZ black bole background using the heat kernel method. This is motivated by
exploring the new examples where quantum corrections of entanglement entropy
give the leading contribution. We find that in the large black hole limit the
bulk entanglement entropy decreases under the double-trace deformation which is
consistent with the holographic $c$ theorem and in the small black hole limit
the bulk entanglement entropy increases under the double-trace deformation.


title: Geometric properties of $\log$-polyharmonic mappings

abstract:
  In this paper, a class of $\log$-polyharmonic mappings
$\mathcal{L}_p\mathcal{H}$ together with its subclass
$\mathcal{L}_p\mathcal{H}(G)$ in the unit disk $\mathbb{D}=\{z: |z|<1\}$ is
introduced, and several geometrical properties such as the starlikeness,
convexity and univalence are investigated. In particular, we consider the
Goodman-Saff conjecture and prove that the conjecture is true in
$\mathcal{L}_p\mathcal{H}(G)$.


title: Parallel distinguishability of quantum operations

abstract:
  We find that the perfect distinguishability of two quantum operations by a
parallel scheme depends only on an operator subspace generated from their
Choi-Kraus operators. We further show that any operator subspace can be
obtained from two quantum operations in such a way. This connection enables us
to study the parallel distinguishability of operator subspaces directly without
explicitly referring to the underlining quantum operations. We obtain a
necessary and sufficient condition for the parallel distinguishability of an
operator subspace that is either one-dimensional or Hermitian. In both cases
the condition is equivalent to the non-existence of positive definite operator
in the subspace, and an optimal discrimination protocol is obtained. Finally,
we provide more examples to show that the non-existence of positive definite
operator is sufficient for many other cases, but in general it is only a
necessary condition.


title: Non-ergodic phases in strongly disordered random regular graphs

abstract:
  We combine numerical diagonalization with a semi-analytical calculations to
prove the existence of the intermediate non-ergodic but delocalized phase in
the Anderson model on disordered hierarchical lattices. We suggest a new
generalized population dynamics that is able to detect the violation of
ergodicity of the delocalized states within the Abou-Chakra, Anderson and
Thouless recursive scheme. This result is supplemented by statistics of random
wave functions extracted from exact diagonalization of the Anderson model on
ensemble of disordered Random Regular Graphs (RRG) of N sites with the
connectivity K=2. By extrapolation of the results of both approaches to
N->infinity we obtain the fractal dimensions D_{1}(W) and D_{2}(W) as well as
the population dynamic exponent D(W) with the accuracy sufficient to claim that
they are non-trivial in the broad interval of disorder strength W_{E}<W<W_{c}.
The thorough analysis of the exact diagonalization results for RRG with
N>10^{5} reveals a singularity in D_{1,2}(W)-dependencies which provides a
clear evidence for the first order transition between the two delocalized
phases on RRG at W_{E}\approx 10.0. We discuss the implications of these
results for quantum and classical non-integrable and many-body systems.


title:
Tapping opportunity of tiny shaped particles and role of precursor in
  developing shaped particles

abstract:
  Metallic colloids are frequently used in industry and provide understanding
of science at microns to nanometers scales along with their applicability for
various technologically important applications. Present investigations deal
morphology-structure of gold, silver and their binary composition while
processing the certain amount of their solutions in a newly designed process
and tap opportunities of developing tiny shaped particles. At tuned ratio of
pulse OFF to ON time and when gold solution was processed, several tiny shaped
particles developed at solution surface. Such tiny particles deal force at the
tip of each converted structure of smooth element under the steady-state
immersing behavior pointing toward common centre to pack for developing
different geometric anisotropic shaped particles. Under identical parameters
along with pulse time, processing solutions of silver nitrate and binary
composition of chloroauric acid-silver nitrate result into develop tiny
particles having no specific shape where their packing deal mixed behavior of
force resulting into develop distorted particles. Elongation and deformation of
gold and silver atoms while in different structures is because of the
plastically-driven behavior of electrons as per stretching of their clamped
energy knots. In structure of three-dimensional where electrons of atoms do not
deal transition require for elongation they retain the structure as it is known
in hcp structure or two-dimensional structure. Different nature of precursors
along with morphology-structure of particles is discussed in this paper opening
abundant avenues of research.


title: A counterexample for a problem on quasi Baer modules

abstract:
  In this note we answer two questions on quasi-Baer modules raised by Lee and
Rizvi in J.Algebra (2016).


title:
On the real-rootedness of the local $h$-polynomials of edgewise
  subdivisions

abstract:
  Athanasiadis conjectured that, for every positive integer $r$, the local
$h$-polynomial of the $r$th edgewise subdivision of any simplex has only real
zeros. In this paper, based on the theory of interlacing polynomials, we prove
that a family of polynomials related to the desired local $h$-polynomial is
interlacing and hence confirm Athanasiadis' conjecture.


title: Homologous prominence non-radial eruptions: A case study

abstract:
  The present study provides important details on homologous eruptions of a
solar prominence that occurred in active region NOAA 10904 on 2006 August 22.
We report on the preeruptive phase of the homologous feature as well as the
kinematics and the morphology of a forth from a series of prominence eruptions
that is critical in defining the nature of the previous consecutive eruptions.
The evolution of the overlying coronal field during homologous eruptions is
discussed and a new observational criterion for homologous eruptions is
provided. We find a distinctive sequence of three activation periods each of
them containing preeruptive precursors such as a brightening and enlarging of
the prominence body followed by small surge- like ejections from its southern
end observed in the radio 17 GHz. We analyse a fourth eruption that clearly
indicates a full reformation of the prominence after the third eruption. The
fourth eruption although occurring 11 hrs later has an identical morphology,
the same angle of propagation with respect to the radial direction, as well as
similar kinematic evolution as the previous three eruptions. We find an
important feature of the homologous eruptive prominence sequence that is the
maximum height increase of each consecutive eruption. The present analysis
establishes that all four eruptions observed in H{\alpha} are of confined type
with the third eruption undergoing a thermal disappearance during its eruptive
phase. We suggest that the observation of the same direction of the magnetic
flux rope (MFR) ejections can be consider as an additional observational
criterion for MFR homology. This observational indication for homologous
eruptions is important, especially in the case of events of typical or poorly
distinguishable morphology of eruptive solar phenomena.


title: Full characterization of a carbon nanotube parallel double quantum dot

abstract:
  We have measured the differential conductance of a parallel carbon nanotube
(CNT) double quantum dot (DQD) with strong inter-dot capacitance and inter-dot
tunnel coupling. Nominally, the device consists of a single CNT with two
contacts. However, we identify two sets of Coulomb blockade (CB) diamonds that
do not block transport individually, which suggest that two quantum dots (QDs)
are contacted in parallel. We find strong and periodic anti-crossings in the
gate and bias dependence, which are only possible if the QDs have similar
characteristics. We discuss qualitatively the level spectrum and the involved
transport processes in this device and extract the DQD coupling parameters.
These results lead us to believe that clean and undoped QDs are formed parallel
to the CNT axis, possibly on the outer and inner shells of a multi-wall CNT, or
in a double-stranded CNT bundle.


title:
The {\it ab initio} calculation of spectra of open shell diatomic
  molecules

abstract:
  The spectra (rotational, rotation-vibrational or electronic) of diatomic
molecules due to transitions involving only closed-shell ($^1\Sigma$)
electronic states follow very regular, simple patterns and their theoretical
analysis is usually straightforward. On the other hand, open-shell electronic
states lead to more complicated spectral patterns and, moreover, often appear
as a manifold of closely lying electronic states, leading to perturbations with
even larger complexity. This is especially true when at least one of the atoms
is a transition metal. Traditionally these complex cases have been analysed
using approaches based on perturbation theory, with semi-empirical parameters
determined by fitting to spectral data.
  Recently the needs of two rather diverse scientific areas have driven the
demand for improved theoretical models of open-shell diatomic systems based on
an \emph{ab initio} approach, these areas are ultracold chemistry and the
astrophysics of "cool" stars, brown dwarfs and most recently extrasolar
planets. However, the complex electronic structure of these molecules combined
with the accuracy requirements of high-resolution spectroscopy render such an
approach particularly challenging. This review describes recent progress in
developing methods for directly solving the effective Schr\"odinger equation
for open-shell diatomic molecules, with a focus on molecules containing a
transtion metal. It considers four aspects of the problem: 1. The electronic
structure problem, 2. Non-perturbative treatments of the curve couplings, 3.
The solution of the nuclear motion Schr\"odinger equation, 4. The generation of
accurate electric dipole transition intensities. Examples of applications are
used to illustrate these issues.


title:
Polarized parallel transport and uniruled divisors on deformations of
  generalized Kummer varieties

abstract:
  In this note we characterize polarized parallel transport operators on
irreducible holomorphic symplectic varieties which are deformations of
generalized Kummer varieties. We then apply such characterization to show the
existence of ample uniruled divisors on these varieties and derive some
interesting consequences on their Chow group of 0-cycles.


title:
Reconfigurable Optical Quantum Networks Using Multimode Quantum
  Frequency Combs and Pulse Shaping

abstract:
  Multimode entanglement is quintessential for the design and fabrication of
quantum networks, which play a central role in quantum information processing
and quantum metrology. However, an experimental setup is generally constructed
with a specific network configuration in mind and therefore exhibits reduced
versatility and scalability. The present work demonstrates an on-demand,
reconfigurable quantum network simulator, using an intrinsically multimode
quantum resource and a homodyne detection apparatus. Without altering either
the initial squeezing source or experimen- tal architecture, we realize the
construction of thirteen cluster states of various size and connectivity as
well as the implementation of a secret sharing protocol. In particular, this
simulator enables the interrogation of quantum correlations and fluctuations
for a Gaussian quantum network. This initi- ates a new avenue for implementing
on-demand quantum information processing by only adapting the measurement
process and not the experimental layout.


title: AndorEstimator: Android based Software Cost Estimation Application

abstract:
  The main aim of the proposed system is to assist the software development
team to estimate the cost, effort and maintenance of the project under
development. Android-based platform, namely MIT App Inventor is used for the
development of application, which contains visual block programming language.
The current study has following uniqueness of (1)Accuracy of results,(2)user
friendly environment(3)no such application is available on android platform to
the best of our knowledge. Questionnaire regarding CoCoMo model is developed
and circulated by using objective qualitative method. Findings: The estimation
module of our application is quite important with respect to facilitating the
students of software engineering for performing CoCoMo-based cost estimation
easily, and enabling the software developers for performing software cost
estimation easily. The cost estimator based on CoCoMo model is developed on
android platform however, to the best of our knowledge no such application is
available. This system can be used by business and educational stakeholders,
such as students, software developers, and business organizations


title:
Estimating Depth from Monocular Images as Classification Using Deep
  Fully Convolutional Residual Networks

abstract:
  Depth estimation from single monocular images is a key component of scene
understanding and has benefited largely from deep convolutional neural networks
(CNN) recently. In this article, we take advantage of the recent deep residual
networks and propose a simple yet effective approach to this problem. We
formulate depth estimation as a pixel-wise classification task. Specifically,
we first discretize the continuous depth values into multiple bins and label
the bins according to their depth range. Then we train fully convolutional deep
residual networks to predict the depth label of each pixel. Performing discrete
depth label classification instead of continuous depth value regression allows
us to predict a confidence in the form of probability distribution. We further
apply fully-connected conditional random fields (CRF) as a post processing step
to enforce local smoothness interactions, which improves the results. We
evaluate our approach on both indoor and outdoor datasets and achieve
state-of-the-art performance.


title:
Conjugation-invariant norms on the commutator subgroup of the infinite
  braid group

abstract:
  In this paper, we give a proof of the result of Brandenbursky and K\c{e}dra
which says that the commutator subgroup of the infinite braid group admits
stably unbounded norms. Moreover, we observe the norms which we constructed are
equivalent to the biinvariant word norm studied by Brandenbursky and K\c{e}dra.


title: Combinatorial analysis of growth models for series-parallel networks

abstract:
  We give combinatorial descriptions of two stochastic growth models for
series-parallel networks introduced by Hosam Mahmoud by encoding the growth
process via recursive tree structures. Using decompositions of the tree
structures and applying analytic combinatorics methods allows a study of
quantities in the corresponding series-parallel networks. For both models we
obtain limiting distribution results for the degree of the poles and the length
of a random source-to-sink path, and furthermore we get asymptotic results for
the expected number of source-to-sink paths.


title: Study of polytropes with Generalized polytropic Equation of State

abstract:
  The aim of this paper is to discuss the theory of Newtonian and relativistic
polytropes with generalized polytropic equation of state. For this purpose, we
formulated the general framework to discuss the physical properties of
polytrops with anisotropic inner fluid distribution under conformally flat
condition in the presence of charge. We investigate the stability of these
polytrops in the vicinity of generalized polytropic equation through
Tolman-mass. It is concluded that one of the derived models is physically
acceptable.


title: An institutional approach to computational social creativity

abstract:
  Modelling the creativity that takes place in social settings presents a range
of theoretical challenges. Mel Rhodes's classic "4Ps" of creativity, the
"Person, Process, Product, and Press," offer an initial typology. Here,
Rhodes's ideas are connected with Elinor Ostrom's work on the analysis of
economic governance to generate several "creativity design principles." These
principles frame a survey of the shared concepts that structure the contexts
that support creative work. The concepts are connected to the idea of
computational "tests" to foreground the relationship with standard computing
practice, and to draw out specific recommendations for the further development
of computational creativity culture.


title: Moderate deviations for a stochastic wave equation in dimension three

abstract:
  In this paper, we proved a central limit theorem and established a moderate
deviation principle for a perturbed stochastic wave equation defined on
$[0,T]\times \rr^3$. This equation is driven by a Gaussian noise, white in time
and correlated in space. The weak convergence approach plays an important role.


title: Block structure vs scope extrusion: between innocence and omniscience

abstract:
  We study the semantic meaning of block structure using game semantics. To
that end, we introduce the notion of block-innocent strategies and characterise
call-by-value computation with block-allocated storage through soundness,
finite definability and universality results. This puts us in a good position
to conduct a comparative study of purely functional computation, computation
with block storage as well as that with dynamic memory allocation. For example,
we can show that dynamic variable allocation can be replaced with
block-allocated variables exactly when the term involved (open or closed) is of
base type and that block-allocated storage can be replaced with purely
functional computation when types of order two are involved. To illustrate the
restrictive nature of block structure further, we prove a decidability result
for a finitary fragment of call-by-value Idealized Algol for which it is known
that allowing for dynamic memory allocation leads to undecidability.


title:
General quantum constraints on detector noise in continuous linear
  measurements

abstract:
  In quantum sensing and metrology, an important class of measurement is the
continuous linear measurement, in which the detector is coupled to the system
of interest linearly and continuously in time. One key aspect involved is the
quantum noise of the detector, arising from quantum fluctuations in the
detector input and output. It determines how fast we acquire information about
the system and also influences the system evolution in terms of measurement
backaction. We therefore often categorize it as the so-called imprecision noise
and quantum backaction noise. There is a general Heisenberg-like uncertainty
relation that constrains the magnitude of and the correlation between these two
types of quantum noise. The main result of this paper is to show that, when the
detector becomes ideal, i.e., at the quantum limit with minimum uncertainty,
not only does the uncertainty relation takes the equal sign as expected, but
also there are two new equalities. This general result is illustrated by using
the typical cavity QED setup with the system being either a qubit or a
mechanical oscillator. Particularly, the dispersive readout of a qubit state,
and the measurement of mechanical motional sideband asymmetry are considered.


title: HOMFLY polynomials in representation [3,1] for 3-strand braids

abstract:
  This paper is a new step in the project of systematic description of colored
knot polynomials started in arXiv:1506.00339. In this paper, we managed to
explicitly find the inclusive Racah matrix, i.e. the whole set of mixing
matrices in channels R^3->Q with all possible Q, for R=[3,1]. The calculation
is made possible by the use of a newly-developed efficient highest-weight
method, still it remains tedious. The result allows one to evaluate and
investigate [3,1]-colored polynomials for arbitrary 3-strand knots, and this
confirms many previous conjectures on various factorizations, universality, and
differential expansions. We consider in some detail the next-to-twist-knots
three-strand family (n,-1|1,-1) and deduce its colored HOMFLY. Also confirmed
and clarified is the eigenvalue hypothesis for the Racah matrices, which
promises to provide a shortcut to generic formulas for arbitrary
representations.


title:
Full Duplex Emulation via Spatial Separation of Half Duplex Nodes in a
  Planar Cellular Network

abstract:
  A Full Duplex Base Station (FD-BS) can be used to serve simultaneously two
Half-Duplex (HD) Mobile Stations (MSs), one working in the uplink and one in
the downlink, respectively. The same functionality can be realized by having
two interconnected and spatially separated Half Duplex Base Stations (HD-BSs),
which is a scheme termed \emph{CoMPflex} (CoMP for In-Band Wireless Full
Duplex). A FD-BS can be seen as a special case of CoMPflex with separation
distance zero. In this paper we study the performance of CoMPflex in a
two-dimensional cellular scenario using stochastic geometry and compare it to
the one achieved by FD-BSs. By deriving the Cumulative Distribution Functions,
we show that CoMPflex brings BSs closer to the MSs they are serving, while
increasing the distance between a MS and interfering MSs. Furthermore, the
results show that CoMPflex brings benefits over FD-BS in terms of communication
reliability. Following the trend of wireless network densification, CoMPflex
can be regarded as a method with a great potential to effectively use the dense
HD deployments.


title: Information Recovery in Shuffled Graphs via Graph Matching

abstract:
  While many multiple graph inference methodologies operate under the implicit
assumption that an explicit vertex correspondence is known across the vertex
sets of the graphs, in practice these correspondences may only be partially or
errorfully known. Herein, we provide an information theoretic foundation for
understanding the practical impact that errorfully observed vertex
correspondences can have on subsequent inference, and the capacity of graph
matching methods to recover the lost vertex alignment and inferential
performance. Working in the correlated stochastic blockmodel setting, we
establish a duality between the loss of mutual information due to an errorfully
observed vertex correspondence and the ability of graph matching algorithms to
recover the true correspondence across graphs. In the process, we establish a
phase transition for graph matchability in terms of the correlation across
graphs, and we conjecture the analogous phase transition for the relative
information loss due to shuffling vertex labels. We demonstrate the practical
effect that graph shuffling---and matching---can have on subsequent inference,
with examples from two sample graph hypothesis testing and joint spectral graph
clustering.


title: Extension of the ratio method to low energy

abstract:
  Background: The ratio method has been proposed as a means to remove the
reaction model dependence in the study of halo nuclei. Purpose: Originally, it
was developed for higher energies but given the potential interest in applying
the method at lower energy, in this work we explore its validity at 20
MeV/nucleon. Method: The ratio method takes the ratio of the breakup angular
distribution and the summed angular distribution (which includes elastic,
inelastic and breakup) and uses this observable to constrain the features of
the original halo wave function. In this work we use the Continuum Discretized
Coupled Channel method and the Coulomb-corrected Dynamical Eikonal
Approximation for the study. Results: We study the reactions of 11Be on 12C,
40Ca and 208Pb at 20 MeV/nucleon. We compare the various theoretical
descriptions and explore the dependence of our result on the core-target
interaction. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that the ratio method is valid
at these lower beam energies.


title: Noisy Broadcast Networks with Receiver Caching

abstract:
  We study noisy broadcast networks with local cache memories at the receivers,
where the transmitter can pre-store information even before learning the
receivers' requests. We mostly focus on packet-erasure broadcast networks with
two disjoint sets of receivers: a set of weak receivers with all-equal erasure
probabilities and equal cache sizes and a set of strong receivers with
all-equal erasure probabilities and no cache memories. We present lower and
upper bounds on the capacity-memory tradeoff of this network. The lower bound
is achieved by a new joint cache-channel coding idea and significantly improves
on schemes that are based on separate cache-channel coding. We discuss how this
coding idea could be extended to more general discrete memoryless broadcast
channels and to unequal cache sizes. Our upper bound holds for all
stochastically degraded broadcast channels.
  For the described packet-erasure broadcast network, our lower and upper
bounds are tight when there is a single weak receiver (and any number of strong
receivers) and the cache memory size does not exceed a given threshold. When
there are a single weak receiver, a single strong receiver, and two files, then
we can strengthen our upper and lower bounds so as they coincide over a wide
regime of cache sizes.
  Finally, we completely characterise the rate-memory tradeoff for general
discrete-memoryless broadcast channels with arbitrary cache memory sizes and
arbitrary (asymmetric) rates when all receivers always demand exactly the same
file.


title:
Cage effect in supercooled molecular liquids: local anisotropies and
  collective solid-like response

abstract:
  Both local geometry and collective, extended excitations drive the moves of a
particle in the cage of its neighbours in dense liquids. The strength of their
influence is investigated by Molecular Dynamics simulations of a supercooled
liquid of fully-flexible trimers with semirigid or rigid bonds. The rattling in
the cage is investigated on different length scales. First, the rattling
anisotropy due to local order is characterized by two order parameters sensing
the monomers succeeding or failing to escape from the cage. Then, the
collective response of the surroundings excited by the monomer-monomer
collisions is considered. The collective response is initially restricted to
the nearest neighbours of the colliding particle by a Voronoi analysis
revealing elastic contributions. Then, the long-range excitation of the
farthest neighbours is scrutinised by searching spatially-extended correlations
between the simultaneous fast displacements of the caged particle and the
surroundings. It is found that the longitudinal component has stronger spatial
modulation than the transverse one with wavelength of about one particle
diameter, in close resemblance with experimental findings on colloids. It is
concluded that the cage rattling is largely affected by solid-like extended
modes.


title:
A necessary and sufficient condition for the subexponentiality of
  product distribution

abstract:
  Let X and Y be two independent and nonnegative random variables with
corresponding distributions F and G. Denote by H the distribution of the
product XY , called the product convolution of F and G. Cline and Samorodnitsky
(1994) proposed sufficient conditions for H to be subexponential, given the
subexponentiality of F. Relying on a related result of Tang (2008) on the
long-tail of product convolution, we obtain a necessary and sufficient
condition for the subexponentiality of H, given that of F. We also study the
reverse problem and obtain sufficient conditions for the subexponentiality of F
given that of H. Finally, we apply the obtained results to the asymptotic study
of the ruin probability in a discrete-time insurance risk model with stochastic
returns.


title: Accretion onto a Kiselev black hole

abstract:
  We consider accretion onto a Kiselev black hole. We obtain the fundamental
equations for accretion without the back-reaction. We determine the general
analytic expressions for the critical points and the mass accretion rate and
find the physical conditions the critical points should fulfill. The case of
polytropic gas are discussed in detail. It turns out that the quintessence
parameter plays an important role in the accretion process.


title:
Asymmetric Move Selection Strategies in Monte-Carlo Tree Search:
  Minimizing the Simple Regret at Max Nodes

abstract:
  The combination of multi-armed bandit (MAB) algorithms with Monte-Carlo tree
search (MCTS) has made a significant impact in various research fields. The UCT
algorithm, which combines the UCB bandit algorithm with MCTS, is a good example
of the success of this combination. The recent breakthrough made by AlphaGo,
which incorporates convolutional neural networks with bandit algorithms in
MCTS, also highlights the necessity of bandit algorithms in MCTS. However,
despite the various investigations carried out on MCTS, nearly all of them
still follow the paradigm of treating every node as an independent instance of
the MAB problem, and applying the same bandit algorithm and heuristics on every
node. As a result, this paradigm may leave some properties of the game tree
unexploited. In this work, we propose that max nodes and min nodes have
different concerns regarding their value estimation, and different bandit
algorithms should be applied accordingly. We develop the Asymmetric-MCTS
algorithm, which is an MCTS variant that applies a simple regret algorithm on
max nodes, and the UCB algorithm on min nodes. We will demonstrate the
performance of the Asymmetric-MCTS algorithm on the game of $9\times 9$ Go,
$9\times 9$ NoGo, and Othello.


title: Breaking of Bell inequalities from $S_4$ symmetry: the three orbits case

abstract:
  The recently proposed (Phys. Rev. A90 (2014), 062121 and Phys. Rev. A91
(2015), 052110) group theoretical approach to the problem of breaking the Bell
inequalities is applied to $S_4$ group. The Bell inequalities based on the
choice of three orbits in the representation space corresponding to standard
representation of $S_4$ are derived and their breaking is described. The
corresponding nonlocal games are analyzed.


title: A journey through loop braid groups

abstract:
  In this paper we introduce distinct approaches to loop braid groups, a
generalisation of braid groups, and unify all the definitions that have
appeared so far in literature, with a complete proof of the equivalence of
these definitions. These groups have in fact been an object of interest in
different domains of mathematics and mathematical physics, and have been
called, in addition to loop braid groups, with several names such as of motion
groups, groups of permutation-conjugacy automorphisms, braid-permutation
groups, welded braid groups and untwisted ring groups. In parallel to this, we
introduce an extension of these groups that appears to be a more natural
generalisation of braid groups from the topological point of view. Throughout
the text we motivate the interest in studying loop braid groups and give
references to some of their applications.


title: On the Performance of Mismatched Data Detection in Large MIMO Systems

abstract:
  We investigate the performance of mismatched data detection in large
multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, where the prior distribution of
the transmit signal used in the data detector differs from the true prior. To
minimize the performance loss caused by this prior mismatch, we include a
tuning stage into our recently-proposed large MIMO approximate message passing
(LAMA) algorithm, which allows us to develop mismatched LAMA algorithms with
optimal as well as sub-optimal tuning. We show that carefully-selected priors
often enable simpler and computationally more efficient algorithms compared to
LAMA with the true prior while achieving near-optimal performance. A
performance analysis of our algorithms for a Gaussian prior and a uniform prior
within a hypercube covering the QAM constellation recovers classical and recent
results on linear and non-linear MIMO data detection, respectively.


title: Does the diffusion DM-DE interaction model solve cosmological puzzles?

abstract:
  We study dynamics of cosmological models with diffusion effects modeling dark
matter and dark energy interactions. We show the simple model with diffusion
between the cosmological constant sector and dark matter, where the canonical
scaling law of dark matter $(\rho_{dm,0}a^{-3}(t))$ is modified by an additive
$\epsilon(t)=\gamma t a^{-3}(t)$ to the form
$\rho_{dm}=\rho_{dm,0}a^{-3}(t)+\epsilon(t)$. We reduced this model to the
autonomous dynamical system and investigate it using dynamical system methods.
This system possesses a two-dimensional invariant submanifold on which the
DM-DE interaction can be analyzed on the phase plane. The state variables are
density parameter for matter (dark and visible) and parameter $\delta$
characterizing the rate of growth of energy transfer between the dark sectors.
A corresponding dynamical system belongs to a general class of jungle type of
cosmologies represented by coupled cosmological models in a Lotka-Volterra
framework. We demonstrate that the de Sitter solution is a global attractor for
all trajectories in the phase space and there are two repellers: the
Einstein-de Sitter universe and the de Sitter universe state dominating by the
diffusion effects. We distinguish in the phase space trajectories, which become
in good agreement with the data. They should intersect a rectangle with sides
of $\Omega_{m,0}\in [0.2724, 0.3624]$, $\delta \in [0.0000, 0.0364]$ at the
95\% CL. Our model could solve some of the puzzles of the $\Lambda$CDM model,
such as the coincidence and fine-tuning problems. In the context of the
coincidence problem, our model can explain the present ratio of $\rho_{m}$ to
$\rho_{de}$, which is equal $0.4576^{+0.1109}_{-0.0831}$ at a 2$\sigma$
confidence level.


title: The tempered discrete Linnik distribution

abstract:
  A tempered version of the discrete Linnik distribution is introduced in order
to obtain integer-valued distribution families connected to stable laws. The
proposal constitutes a generalization of the well-known Poisson-Tweedie law,
which is actually a tempered discrete stable law. The features of the new
tempered discrete Linnik distribution are explored by providing a series of
identities in law - which describe its genesis in terms of mixture and compound
Poisson law, as well as in terms of mixture discrete stable law. A manageable
expression of the corresponding probability function is also provided and
several special cases are analysed.


title:
Scanning tunneling spectroscopy of superconductivity on surfaces of
  LiTi2O4(111) thin films

abstract:
  Unique superconductivity at surfaces/interfaces, as exemplified by
LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces, and the high transition temperature in ultrathin FeSe
films, have triggered intense debates on how superconductivity is affected in
atomic and electronic reconstructions. The surface of superconducting cubic
spinel oxide LiTi2O4 is another interesting system because its inherent surface
electronic and atomic reconstructions add complexity to superconducting
properties. Investigations of such surfaces are hampered by the lack of single
crystals or high-quality thin films. Here, using low-temperature scanning
tunneling microscopy, we report an unexpected small superconducting energy gap
and a long coherence length on the surface of LiTi2O4 (111) epitaxial thin
films. Furthermore, we find that a pseudogap opening at the Fermi energy
modifies the surface superconductivity. Our results open an avenue, exploring
anomalous superconductivity on the surface of cubic transition-metal oxides
where the electronic states are spontaneously modulated with involving rich
many-body interactions.


title:
Note on families of pairing-friendly elliptic curves with small
  embedding degree

abstract:
  Pairing-based cryptographic schemes require so-called pairing-friendly
elliptic curves, which have special properties. The set of pairing-friendly
elliptic curves that are generated by given polynomials form a complete family.
Although a complete family with a $\rho$-value of 1 is the ideal case, there is
only one such example that is known, this was given by Barreto and Naehrig. We
prove that there are no ideal families with embedding degree 3, 4, or 6 and
that many complete families with embedding degree 8 or 12 are nonideal, even if
we chose noncyclotomic families.


title:
Search for Higgs boson off-shell production in proton-proton collisions
  at 7 and 8 TeV and derivation of constraints on its total decay width

abstract:
  A search is presented for the Higgs boson off-shell production in gluon
fusion and vector boson fusion processes with the Higgs boson decaying into a
W+W- pair and the W bosons decaying leptonically. The data observed in this
analysis are used to constrain the Higgs boson total decay width. The analysis
is based on the data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding
to integrated luminosities of 4.9 inverse femtobarns at a centre-of-mass energy
of 7 TeV and 19.4 inverse femtobarns at 8 TeV, respectively. An observed
(expected) upper limit on the off-shell Higgs boson event yield normalised to
the standard model prediction of 2.4 (6.2) is obtained at the 95% CL for the
gluon fusion process and of 19.3 (34.4) for the vector boson fusion process.
Observed and expected limits on the total width of 26 and 66 MeV are found,
respectively, at the 95% confidence level (CL). These limits are combined with
the previous result in the ZZ channel leading to observed and expected 95% CL
upper limits on the width of 13 and 26 MeV, respectively.


title: Robust Energy Harvesting Based on a Stackelberg Game

abstract:
  We study a Stackelberg game between a base station and a multi-antenna power
beacon for wireless energy harvesting in a multiple sensor node scenario.
Assuming imperfect CSI between the sensor nodes and the power beacon, we
propose a utility function that is based on throughput non-outage probability
at the base station. We provide an analytical solution for the equilibrium in
case of a single sensor node. For the general case consisting of multiple
sensor nodes, we provide upper and lower bounds on the power and price
(players' strategies). We compare the bounds with solutions resulting from an
exhaustive search and a relaxed semidefinite program, and find the upper bound
to be tight.


title:
Coherent Magneto-Optical Effects in Topological Insulators: Excitation
  Near the Absorption Edge

abstract:
  We study coherent optics in topological insulator surface states with broken
time-reversal symmetry and develop a theory for the dynamical Hall effect
driven by intense electromagnetic field. The influence of optical Stark effect
enters as nonlinear dependence on the optical field in the resulting Faraday
$\theta_F$ and Kerr $\theta_K$ rotations. This nonlinear correction is found to
decrease $\theta_F$ with the strength of the A.C. electric field, whereas
$\theta_K$ exhibits a non-monotonic behavior. We also assess the effects of
relaxation and dephasing on the Hall and magneto-optical responses when the
frequency detuning is comparable to the inverse lifetime of the conduction
electrons.


title: Symmetric Gini Covariance and Correlation

abstract:
  Standard Gini covariance and Gini correlation play important roles in
measuring the dependence of random variables with heavy tails. However, the
asymmetry brings a substantial difficulty in interpretation. In this paper, we
propose a symmetric Gini-type covariance and a symmetric Gini correlation
($\rho_g$) based on the joint rank function. The proposed correlation $\rho_g$
is more robust than the Pearson correlation but less robust than the Kendall's
$\tau$ correlation. We establish the relationship between $\rho_g$ and the
linear correlation $\rho$ for a class of random vectors in the family of
elliptical distributions, which allows us to estimate $\rho$ based on
estimation of $\rho_g$. The asymptotic normality of the resulting estimators of
$\rho$ are studied through two approaches: one from influence function and the
other from U-statistics and the delta method. We compare asymptotic
efficiencies of linear correlation estimators based on the symmetric Gini,
regular Gini, Pearson and Kendall's $\tau$ under various distributions. In
addition to reasonably balancing between robustness and efficiency, the
proposed measure $\rho_g$ demonstrates superior finite sample performance,
which makes it attractive in applications.


title: Improving Initial Conditions for Cosmological $N$-Body Simulations

abstract:
  In cosmological $N$-body simulations, the representation of dark matter as
discrete "macroparticles" suppresses the growth of structure, such that
simulations no longer reproduce linear theory on small scales near $k_{\rm
Nyquist}$. Marcos et al. demonstrate that this is due to sparse sampling of
modes near $k_{\rm Nyquist}$ and that the often-assumed continuum growing modes
are not proper growing modes of the particle system. We develop initial
conditions that respect the particle linear theory growing modes and then
rescale the mode amplitudes to account for growth suppression. These ICs also
allow us to take advantage of our very accurate $N$-body code Abacus to
implement 2LPT in configuration space. The combination of 2LPT and rescaling
improves the accuracy of the late-time power spectra, halo mass functions, and
halo clustering. In particular, we achieve 1% accuracy in the power spectrum
down to $k_{\rm Nyquist}$, versus $k_{\rm Nyquist}/4$ without rescaling or
$k_{\rm Nyquist}/13$ without 2LPT, relative to an oversampled reference
simulation. We anticipate that our 2LPT will be useful for large simulations
where FFTs are expensive and that rescaling will be useful for suites of
medium-resolution simulations used in cosmic emulators and galaxy survey mock
catalogs. Code to generate initial conditions is available at
https://github.com/lgarrison/zeldovich-PLT


title:
The hot pick-up technique for batch assembly of van der Waals
  heterostructures

abstract:
  The assembly of individual two-dimensional materials into van der Waals
heterostructures enables the construction of layered three-dimensional
materials with desirable electronic and optical properties. A core problem in
the fabrication of these structures is the formation of clean interfaces
between the individual two-dimensional materials which would affect device
performance. We present here a technique for the rapid batch fabrication of van
der Waals heterostructures, demonstrated by the controlled production of 22
mono-, bi- and trilayer graphene stacks encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride
with close to 100% yield. For the monolayer devices we found semiclassical mean
free paths up to 0.9 micrometer, with the narrowest samples showing clear
indications of the transport being affected by boundary scattering. The
presented method readily lends itself to fabrication of van der Waals
heterostructures in both ambient and controlled atmospheres, while the ability
to assemble pre-patterned layers paves the way for complex three-dimensional
architectures.


title:
Wave Instabilities and Unidirectional Light Flow in a Cavity with
  Rotating Walls

abstract:
  We investigate the conditions for the emergence of wave instabilities in a
vacuum cavity delimited by cylindrical metallic walls under rotation. It is
shown that for a small vacuum gap and for an angular velocity exceeding a
certain threshold, the interactions between the surface plasmon polaritons
supported by each wall give rise to an unstable behavior of the electromagnetic
field manifested in an exponential growth with time. The instabilities occur
only for certain modes of oscillation and are due to the transformation of
kinetic energy into electromagnetic energy. We also study the possibility of
having asymmetric light flows and optical isolation relying on the relative
motion of the cavity walls.


title:
Superintegrable systems with a position dependent mass : Kepler-related
  and Oscillator-related systems

abstract:
  The superintegrability of two-dimensional Hamiltonians with a position
dependent mass (pdm) is studied (the kinetic term contains a factor $m$ that
depends of the radial coordinate). First, the properties of Killing vectors are
studied and the associated Noether momenta are obtained. Then the existence of
several families of superintegrable Hamiltonians is proved and the quadratic
integrals of motion are explicitly obtained. These families include, as
particular cases, some systems previously obtained making use of different
approaches. We also relate the superintegrability of some of these pdm systems
with the existence of complex functions endowed with interesting Poisson
bracket properties. Finally the relation of these pdm Hamiltonians with the
Euclidean Kepler problem and with the Euclidean harmonic oscillator is
analyzed.


title:
A Novel Framework for Online Amnesic Trajectory Compression in
  Resource-constrained Environments

abstract:
  State-of-the-art trajectory compression methods usually involve high
space-time complexity or yield unsatisfactory compression rates, leading to
rapid exhaustion of memory, computation, storage and energy resources. Their
ability is commonly limited when operating in a resource-constrained
environment especially when the data volume (even when compressed) far exceeds
the storage limit. Hence we propose a novel online framework for error-bounded
trajectory compression and ageing called the Amnesic Bounded Quadrant System
(ABQS), whose core is the Bounded Quadrant System (BQS) algorithm family that
includes a normal version (BQS), Fast version (FBQS), and a Progressive version
(PBQS). ABQS intelligently manages a given storage and compresses the
trajectories with different error tolerances subject to their ages. In the
experiments, we conduct comprehensive evaluations for the BQS algorithm family
and the ABQS framework. Using empirical GPS traces from flying foxes and cars,
and synthetic data from simulation, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the
standalone BQS algorithms in significantly reducing the time and space
complexity of trajectory compression, while greatly improving the compression
rates of the state-of-the-art algorithms (up to 45%). We also show that the
operational time of the target resource-constrained hardware platform can be
prolonged by up to 41%. We then verify that with ABQS, given data volumes that
are far greater than storage space, ABQS is able to achieve 15 to 400 times
smaller errors than the baselines. We also show that the algorithm is robust to
extreme trajectory shapes.