title:
Positive or Negative? The Impact of X-ray Feedback on the Formation of
  Direct Collapse Black Hole Seeds

abstract:
  A nearby source of Lyman-Werner (LW) photons is thought to be a central
component in dissociating H$_2$ and allowing for the formation of a direct
collapse black hole seed. Nearby sources are also expected to produce copious
amounts of hydrogen ionising photons and X-ray photons. We study here the
feedback effects of the X-ray photons by including a spectrum due to high-mass
X-ray binaries on top of a galaxy with a stellar spectrum. We explicitly trace
photon packages emerging from the nearby source and track the radiative and
chemical effects of the multi-frequency source $(E_{\rm photon} = \rm{0.76\ eV
\rightarrow 7500\ eV}$). We find that X-rays have a strongly negative feedback
effect, compared to a stellar only source, when the radiative source is placed
at a separation greater than $\gtrsim 1 \ \rm kpc$. The X-rays heat the low and
medium density gas in the envelope surrounding the collapsing halo suppressing
the mass inflow. The result is a smaller enclosed mass compared to the stellar
only case. However, for separations of $\lesssim 1 \ \rm kpc$, the feedback
effects of the X-rays becomes somewhat neutral. The enhanced LW intensity at
close separations dissociates more H$_2$ and this gas is heated due to stellar
photons alone, the addition of X-rays is then not significant. This distance
dependence of X-ray feedback suggests that a Goldilocks zone exists close to a
forming galaxy where X-ray photons have a much smaller negative feedback effect
and ideal conditions exist for creating massive black hole seeds.


title:
The distribution of path lengths of self avoiding walks on
  Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi networks

abstract:
  We present an analytical and numerical study of the paths of self avoiding
walks (SAWs) on random networks. Since these walks do not retrace their paths,
they effectively delete the nodes they visit, together with their links, thus
pruning the network. The walkers hop between neighboring nodes, until they
reach a dead-end node from which they cannot proceed. Focusing on
Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi networks we show that the pruned networks maintain a Poisson
degree distribution, $p_t(k)$, with an average degree, $\langle k \rangle_t$,
that decreases linearly in time. We enumerate the SAW paths of any given length
and find that the number of paths, $n_T(\ell)$, increases dramatically as a
function of $\ell$. We also obtain analytical results for the path-length
distribution, $P(\ell)$, of the SAW paths which are actually pursued, starting
from a random initial node. It turns out that $P(\ell)$ follows the Gompertz
distribution, which means that the termination probability of an SAW path
increases with its length.


title: Higgs--Flavon Mixing and $h \rightarrow \mu\tau$

abstract:
  ATLAS and CMS have reported an excess in the flavor violating decay of the
Higgs boson, $h \rightarrow \mu \tau$. We show that this result can be
accommodated through a mixing of the Higgs with a flavon, the field responsible
for generating the Yukawa matrices in the lepton sector. We employ a version of
the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism at the electroweak scale, with only the leptons
and the flavon transforming non--trivially under the corresponding symmetry
group. Non--observation of charged lepton flavor violation (LFV) in other
processes imposes important constraints on the model, which we find to be
satisfied in substantial regions of parameter space.


title:
Continuous wave single photon transistor based on a superconducting
  circuit

abstract:
  We propose a microwave frequency single photon transistor which can operate
under continuous wave probing, and represents an efficient single microwave
photon detector. It can be realized using an impedance matched system of a
three level artificial ladder-type atom coupled to two microwave cavities
connected to input/output waveguides. Using a classical drive on the upper
transition, we find parameter space where a single photon control pulse
incident on one of cavities can be fully absorbed into hybridized excited
states. This subsequently leads to series of quantum jumps in the upper
manifold and the appearance of a photon flux leaving the second cavity through
a separate input/output port. The proposal does not require time variation of
the probe signals, thus corresponding to a passive version of single photon
transistor. The resulting device is robust to qubit dephasing processes,
possesses low dark count rate for large anharmonicity, and can be readily
implemented using current technology.


title:
Channel Reconstruction for SVD-ZF Precoding in Massive 3D-MIMO Systems
  Low-Complexity Algorithm

abstract:
  In this paper, we study the low-complexity channel reconstruction methods for
downlink precoding in massive MIMO systems. When the user is allocated less
streams than the number of its antennas, the BS or user usually utilizes the
singular value decomposition (SVD) factorizations to get the effective
channels, whose dimension is equal to the num of streams. This process is
called channel reconstruction in BS for TDD mode. However, with the increasing
of antennas in BS, the computation burden of SVD is becoming incredibly high.
As a countermeasure, we propose a series of novel low-complexity channel
reconstruction methods for downlink zero-forcing precoding (ZF). We adopt
randomized algorithms to construct an approximate SVD, which could reduce the
dimensions of the matrix, especially when approximating an input matrix with a
low-rank element. Besides, this method could automatically modify the
parameters to adapt arbitrary number demand of streams from users. The
simulation results show that the proposed methods only cost less than 30% float
computation than the traditional SVD-ZF method, while keeping nearly the same
performance of 1Gbps with 128 BS antennas.


title: Existence theorems of the fractional Yamabe problem

abstract:
  Let $X$ be an asymptotically hyperbolic manifold and $M$ its conformal
infinity. This paper is devoted to deduce several existence results of the
fractional Yamabe problem on $M$ under various geometric assumptions on $X$ and
$M$: Firstly, we handle when the boundary $M$ has a point at which the mean
curvature is negative. Secondly, we re-encounter the case when $M$ has zero
mean curvature and is either non-umbilic or umbilic but non-locally conformally
flat. As a result, we replace the geometric restrictions given by
Gonz\'alez-Qing (Analysis and PDE, 2013) and Gonz\'alez-Wang (arXiv:1503.02862)
with simpler ones. Also, inspired by Marques (Comm. Anal. Geom., 2007) and
Almaraz (Pacific J. Math., 2010), we study lower-dimensional manifolds.
Finally, the situation when $X$ is Poincar\'e-Einstein, $M$ is either locally
conformally flat or 2-dimensional is covered under the validity of the positive
mass theorem for the fractional conformal Laplacians.


title:
Nonequilibrium quantum dynamics and transport: from integrability to
  many-body localization

abstract:
  We review the non-equilibrium dynamics of many-body quantum systems after a
quantum quench with spatial inhomogeneities, either in the Hamiltonian or in
the initial state. We focus on integrable and many-body localized systems that
fail to self-thermalize in isolation and for which the standard hydrodynamical
picture breaks down. The emphasis is on universal dynamics, non-equilibrium
steady states and new dynamical phases of matter, and on phase transitions far
from thermal equilibrium. We describe how the infinite number of conservation
laws of integrable and many-body localized systems lead to complex
non-equilibrium states beyond the traditional dogma of statistical mechanics.


title: Multivariate peaks over thresholds models

abstract:
  Multivariate peaks over thresholds modeling based on generalized Pareto
distributions has up to now only been used in few and mostly 2-dimensional
situations. This paper contributes theoretical understanding, physically based
models, inference tools, and simulation methods to support routine use, with an
aim at higher dimensions. We derive a general point process model for extreme
episodes in data, and show how conditioning the distribution of extreme
episodes on threshold exceedance gives four basic representations of the family
of generalized Pareto distributions. The first representation is constructed on
the real scale of the observations. The second one starts with a model on a
standard exponential scale which then is transformed to the real scale. The
third and fourth are reformulations of a spectral representation proposed in A.
Ferreira and L. de Haan [Bernoulli 20 (2014) 1717--1737]. Numerically tractable
forms of densities and censored densities are found and give tools for flexible
parametric likelihood inference. New simulation algorithms, explicit formulas
for probabilities and conditional probabilities, and conditions which make the
conditional distribution of weighted component sums generalized Pareto are
derived.


title:
Sufficiency of quantum non-Gaussianity for discrete-variable quantum key
  distribution over noisy channel

abstract:
  Quantum key distribution can be enhanced and extended if nonclassical
single-photon states of light are used. We study a connection between the
security of quantum key distribution and quantum non-Gaussianity of light
arriving at the receiver's detection system after the propagation through a
noisy quantum channel, being under full control of an eavesdropper performing
general collective attacks. We show that while quantum nonclassicality
exhibited by the light arriving at the receiver's station is a necessary
indication of the security of the discrete-variable protocols, quantum
non-Gaussianity can be a sufficient indication of their security. Therefore,
checking for non-Gaussianity of this light by performing standard
autocorrelation function measurement can be used for prior verification of the
usability of prepare-and-measure schemes. It can play similar role to the prior
verification of the quantum correlations sufficient to violate Bell
inequalities for entanglement-based protocols.


title: Atomic Entailment and Atomic Inconsistency and Classical Entailment

abstract:
  In this paper we put forward a new solution of the well-known problem of
relevant logics, i.e. we construct an atomic entailment. Hence, we construct a
system of predicate calculus based on the atomic entailment. Next, we establish
the definition of atomic inconsistency. The atomic inconsistency establishes an
infinite class of inconsistent, but non-trivial systems. In this paper we
construct the new definition of the classical entailment, into the bargain.


title: A geometry where everything is better than nice

abstract:
  We present a riemannian structure on the disk that has a remarkably rich
structure. Geodesics are hypocycloids and the (negative of the) laplacian has
integer spectrum with multiplicity the Dirichlet divisor function.
Eigenfunctions of the laplacian are orthogonal polynomials naturally suited to
the analysis of acoustic scattering in layered media.


title:
An Algorithm for Calculating Terms of a Number Sequence using an
  Auxiliary Sequence

abstract:
  Number sequences defined by a linear recursion relation are studied by means
of generating functions. Indices of the terms in the recursion relation have
arbitrary differenses. In addition to formulas for the nth term an algorithm is
derived for calculating the nth term even without an expression in closed form.


title:
Variational Autoencoders for Feature Detection of Magnetic Resonance
  Imaging Data

abstract:
  Independent component analysis (ICA), as an approach to the blind
source-separation (BSS) problem, has become the de-facto standard in many
medical imaging settings. Despite successes and a large ongoing research
effort, the limitation of ICA to square linear transformations have not been
overcome, so that general INFOMAX is still far from being realized. As an
alternative, we present feature analysis in medical imaging as a problem solved
by Helmholtz machines, which include dimensionality reduction and
reconstruction of the raw data under the same objective, and which recently
have overcome major difficulties in inference and learning with deep and
nonlinear configurations. We demonstrate one approach to training Helmholtz
machines, variational auto-encoders (VAE), as a viable approach toward feature
extraction with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data.


title: On a generalization of the seating couples problem

abstract:
  We prove a conjecture of Adamaszek generalizing the seating couples problem
to the case of $2n$ seats. Concretely, we prove that given a positive integer
$n$ and $d_1,\ldots,d_n\in(\mathbb{Z}/2n)^*$ we can partition $\mathbb{Z}/2n$
into $n$ pairs with differences $d_1,\ldots,d_n$.


title:
Exact quantum field mappings between different experiments on quantum
  gases

abstract:
  Experiments on trapped quantum gases can probe challenging regimes of quantum
many-body dynamics, where strong interactions or non-equilibrium states prevent
exact solutions. Here we present an exact result which holds even when no exact
solutions can be found: a class of spacetime mappings of different experiments
onto each other, as long as the gas particles interact via two-body potentials
which possess a scaling property that most real interactions do possess. Since
our result is an identity relating second-quantized field operators in the
Heisenberg picture of quantum mechanics, it is otherwise general; it applies to
arbitrary measurements on any mixtures of Bose or Fermi gases, in arbitrary
initial states. Practical applications of this mapping include perfect
simulation of non-trivial experiments with other experiments which may be
easier to perform.


title: Safety Verification of Output Feedback Controllers for Nonlinear Systems

abstract:
  A high-gain observer is used for a class of feedback linearisable nonlinear
systems to synthesize safety-preserving controllers over the observer output. A
bound on the distance between trajectories under state and output feedback is
derived, and shown to converge to zero as a function of the gain parameter of
an observer. We can therefore recover safety properties under output feedback
and control saturation constraints by synthesizing a controller as if the full
state were available. We specifically design feedback linearising controllers
that satisfy certain properties, such as stability, and then construct the
associated maximal safety-invariant set, namely the largest set of all initial
states that are guaranteed to produce safe trajectories over a given (possibly
infinite) time horizon.


title: Coupling Multiple SU(2) Groups Into A SU(3) Group Structure

abstract:
  A specific algebraic coupling model involving multiple quantization axes is
presented in which previously indistinguishable SU(2) symmetry groups become
distinguishable when coupled into a SU(3) group structure. The model reveals
new intrinsic angular momentum (or isospin) eigenvectors whose structural
symmetries are detailed, some of which are not available for groups having only
one quantization axis available for configurations. Additionally, an intrinsic
cyclic ordering of the quantization axes and internal geometric phase relations
between the basis states naturally fall out from the algebraic properties of
the group. The nature of the coupling into a SU(3) symmetry group also allows
for the definition of both positive and negative basis states along each
quantization axis relative to the center of the group. These basis states
configurations mimic those observed in color-charge and electroweak theories.


title:
Enhancement of thermoelectric properties by energy filtering:
  Theoretical potential and experimental reality in nanostructured ZnSb

abstract:
  Energy filtering has been suggested by many authors as a means to improve
thermoelectric properties. The idea is to filter away low-energy charge
carriers in order to increase Seebeck coefficient without compromising
electronic conductivity. This concept was investigated in the present paper for
a specific material (ZnSb) by a combination of first-principles atomic-scale
calculations, Boltzmann transport theory, and experimental studies of the same
system. The potential of filtering in this material was first quantified, and
it was as an example found that the power factor could be enhanced by an order
of magnitude when the filter barrier height was 0.5~eV. Measured values of the
Hall carrier concentration in bulk ZnSb were then used to calibrate the
transport calculations, and nanostructured ZnSb with average grain size around
70~nm was processed to achieve filtering as suggested previously in the
literature. Various scattering mechanisms were employed in the transport
calculations and compared with the measured transport properties in
nanostructured ZnSb as a function of temperature. Reasonable correspondence
between theory and experiment could be achieved when a combination of constant
lifetime scattering and energy filtering with a 0.25~eV barrier was employed.
However, the difference between bulk and nanostructured samples was not
sufficient to justify the introduction of an energy filtering mechanism. The
reasons for this and possibilities to achieve filtering were discussed in the
paper.


title: Evaluationally coprime linear polynomials

abstract:
  Two polynomials, $f,g \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ are evaluationally coprime at x if
$\gcd(f(x),g(x))=1$. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for two such
linear polynomials to have a positive proportion of evaluated coprime values.


title:
Kahler Moduli Inflation in Type IIB Compactifications: A random tumble
  through the Calabi-Yau landscape

abstract:
  In this paper we present an initial exploration of the Calabi-Yau landscape
in the context of Kahler moduli inflation. We review how the slow-roll
requirement on the scalar potential translates to a geometric constraint on the
Kahler geometry of the vacuum. This constraint leads to a hard bound on the
moduli space geometry and we consider the effects of this constraint on the
string landscape that arises in type IIB string compactifications on an O3/O7
orientifold. Most notably we find that the inflationary constraint is
independent of the moduli space dimension and only 6.57% of geometries
inspected support high-scale Kahler moduli inflation.


title: Wake Structure of Wind Turbines in Yaw under Uniform Inflow Conditions

abstract:
  Reducing wake losses in wind farms by deflecting the wakes through turbine
yawing has been shown to be a feasible wind farm controls approach.
Nonetheless, the effectiveness of yawing depends not only on the degree of wake
deflection but also on the resulting shape of the wake. In this work, the
deflection and morphology of wakes behind a wind turbine operating in yawed
conditions are studied using wind tunnel experiments of a wind turbine modeled
as a porous disk in a uniform inflow. First, by measuring velocity
distributions at various downstream positions and comparing with prior studies,
we confirm that the non-rotating wind turbine model in yaw generates realistic
wake deflections. Second, we characterize the wake shape and make first
observations of what is termed a curled wake, displaying significant spanwise
asymmetry. The wake curling observed in the experiments is also reproduced
qualitatively in large eddy simulations using both actuator disk and actuator
line models. When a wind turbine is yawed for the benefit of downstream
turbines, the asymmetric shape of the wake must be taken into account since it
affects how much of it intersects the downstream turbines.


title:
The relaxed-polar mechanism of locally optimal Cosserat rotations for an
  idealized nanoindentation and comparison with 3D-EBSD experiments

abstract:
  The rotation ${\rm polar}(F) \in {\rm SO}(3)$ arises as the unique orthogonal
factor of the right polar decomposition $F = {\rm polar}(F) \cdot U$ of a given
invertible matrix $F \in {\rm GL}^+(3)$. In the context of nonlinear elasticity
Grioli (1940) discovered a geometric variational characterization of ${\rm
polar}(F)$ as a unique energy-minimizing rotation. In preceding works, we have
analyzed a generalization of Grioli's variational approach with weights
(material parameters) $\mu > 0$ and $\mu_c \geq 0$ (Grioli: $\mu = \mu_c$). The
energy subject to minimization coincides with the Cosserat shear-stretch
contribution arising in any geometrically nonlinear, isotropic and quadratic
Cosserat continuum model formulated in the deformation gradient field $F :=
\nabla\varphi: \Omega \to {\rm GL}^+(3)$ and the microrotation field $R: \Omega
\to {\rm SO}(3)$. The corresponding set of non-classical energy-minimizing
rotations $$
  {\rm rpolar}^\pm_{\mu,\mu_c}(F) := \substack{{\rm argmin}\\ R\,\in\,{\rm
SO(3)}}
  \Big\{ W_{\mu, \mu_c}(R\,;F) := \mu\, || {\rm sym}(R^TF - 1)||^2 + \mu_c\,
||{\rm skew}(R^TF - 1)||^2 \Big\} $$ represents a new relaxed-polar mechanism.
Our goal is to motivate this mechanism by presenting it in a relevant setting.
To this end, we explicitly construct a deformation mapping $\varphi_{\rm nano}$
which models an idealized nanoindentation and compare the corresponding optimal
rotation patterns ${\rm rpolar}^\pm_{1,0}(F_{\rm nano})$ with experimentally
obtained 3D-EBSD measurements of the disorientation angle of lattice rotations
due to a nanoindentation in solid copper. We observe that the non-classical
relaxed-polar mechanism can produce interesting counter-rotations. A possible
link between Cosserat theory and finite multiplicative plasticity theory on
small scales is also explored.


title: In-vivo mutation rates and fitness landscape of HIV-1

abstract:
  Mutation rates and fitness costs of deleterious mutations are difficult to
measure in vivo but essential for a quantitative understanding of evolution.
Using whole genome deep sequencing data from longitudinal samples during
untreated HIV-1 infection, we estimated mutation rates and fitness costs in
HIV-1 from the temporal dynamics of genetic variation. At approximately neutral
sites, mutations accumulate with a rate of 1.2 x 10^-5 per site per day, in
agreement with the rate measured in cell cultures. The rate from G to A is
largest, followed by the other transitions C to T, T to C, and A to G, while
transversions are more rare. At non-neutral sites, most mutations reduce virus
replication; using a model of mutation selection balance, we estimated the
fitness cost of mutations at every site in the HIV-1 genome. About half of all
nonsynonymous mutations have large fitness costs (greater than 10\%), while
most synonymous mutations have costs below 1\%. The cost of synonymous
mutations is especially low in most of gag and pol, while much higher costs are
observed in important RNA structures and regulatory regions. The intrapatient
fitness cost estimates are consistent across multiple patients, suggesting that
the deleterious part of the fitness landscape is universal and explains a large
fraction of global HIV-1 group M diversity.


title: A proof of security for a key-policy RS-ABE scheme

abstract:
  A revocable-storage attribute-based encryption (RS-ABE) scheme is an
encryption scheme which extends attribute-based encryption by intro- ducing
user revocation. A key-policy RS-ABE scheme links each key to an access
structure. We propose a new key-policy RS-ABE scheme whose security we prove in
term of indistinguishability under a chosen-plaintext attack (IND-CPA).


title: On the exotic Grassmannian and its nilpotent variety

abstract:
  Given a decomposition of a vector space $V=V_1\oplus V_2$, the direct product
$\mathfrak{X}$ of the projective space $\mathbb{P}(V_1)$ with a Grassmann
variety $\mathrm{Gr}_k(V)$ can be viewed as a double flag variety for the
symmetric pair $(G,K)=(\mathrm{GL}(V),\mathrm{GL}(V_1)\times\mathrm{GL}(V_2))$.
Relying on the conormal variety for the action of $K$ on $\mathfrak{X}$, we
show a geometric correspondence between the $K$-orbits of $\mathfrak{X}$ and
the $K$-orbits of some appropriate exotic nilpotent cone. We also give a
combinatorial interpretation of this correspondence in some special cases. Our
construction is inspired by a classical result of Steinberg and by the recent
work of Henderson and Trapa for the symmetric pair
$(\mathrm{GL}(V),\mathrm{Sp}(V))$.


title: Polyakov loop in 2+1 flavor QCD from low to high temperatures

abstract:
  We study the free energy of a static quark in QCD with 2+1 flavors in a wide
temperature region, 116 MeV $< T < $ 5814 MeV, using the highly improved
staggered quark (HISQ) action. We analyze the transition region in detail,
obtain the entropy of a static quark, show that it peaks at temperatures close
to the chiral crossover temperature and also revisit the temperature dependence
of the Polyakov loop susceptibilities using gradient flow. We discuss the
implications of our findings for the deconfinement and chiral crossover
phenomena at physical values of the quark masses. Finally a comparison of the
lattice results at high temperatures with the weak-coupling calculations is
presented.


title:
Variability Among Stars in the M 67 Field from Kepler/K2-Campaign-5
  Light Curves

abstract:
  We examine the photometric variability of stars in the M 67 field using
Kepler/K2-Campaign-5 light curves. Variabilities and periods were determined
for 639 stars. The mean photometric period of 28 single Sun-like members stars
in M 67 is 23.4 +/- 1.2 d. This corresponds to a gyro-age of 3.7 +/- 0.3 Gyr,
assuming the periods can be associated with rotation. The intrinsic
variabilities of the solar analogs are greater than the Sun's variability, as
measure from VIRGO fluxes. We also find evidence that the single cluster
members have a different distribution of variability than the binary members.


title: On the injective dimension of F-finite modules and holonomic D-modules

abstract:
  Let $R$ be a regular local ring containing a field $k$ of characteristic $p$
and $M$ be an $\mathscr{F}$-finite module. In this paper, we study the
injective dimension of $M$. We prove that $\operatorname{dim}_R(M) -1
\leq\operatorname{inj.dim}_R(M)$. If $R = k[[x_1,\ldots,x_n]]$ where $k$ is a
field of characteristic $0$ we prove the analogous result for a class of
holonomic $\mathscr{D}$-modules which contains local cohomology modules.


title:
Multi-scale modelling of supercapacitors: From molecular simulations to
  a transmission line model

abstract:
  We perform molecular dynamics simulations of a typical nanoporous-carbon
based supercapacitors. The organic electrolyte consists in
1-ethyl-3-methyl--imidazolium and hexafluorophosphate ions dissolved in
acetonitrile. We simulate systems at equilibrium, for various applied voltages.
This allows us to determine the relevant thermodynamic (capacitance) and
transport (in-pore resistivities) properties. These quantities are then
injected in a transmission line model for testing its ability to predict the
charging properties of the device. The results from this macroscopic model are
in good agreement with non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, which
validates its use for interpreting electrochemical impedance experiments.


title: Nonperturbative approach to relativistic quantum communication channels

abstract:
  We investigate the transmission of both classical and quantum information
between two arbitrary observers in globally hyperbolic spacetimes using a
quantum field as a communication channel. The field is supposed to be in some
arbitrary quasifree state and no choice of representation of its canonical
commutation relations is made. Both sender and receiver possess some localized
two-level quantum system with which they can interact with the quantum field to
prepare the input and receive the output of the channel, respectively. The
interaction between the two-level systems and the quantum field is such that
one can trace out the field degrees of freedom exactly and thus obtain the
quantum channel in a nonperturbative way. We end the paper determining the
unassisted as well as the entanglement-assisted classical and quantum channel
capacities.


title:
Exponential Convergence to the Maxwell Distribution For Spatially
  Inhomogenous Boltzmann Equations

abstract:
  We consider the rate of convergence of solutions of spatially inhomogenous
Boltzmann equations, with hard sphere potentials, to some equilibriums, called
Maxwellians. Maxwellians are spatially homogenous static Maxwell velocity
distributions with different temperatures and mean velocities. We study
solutions in weighted space $L^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{3}\times \mathbb{T}^3)$. We
prove a conjecture of C. Villani: assume the solution is sufficiently localized
and sufficiently smooth, then the solution, in $L^{1}$-space, converges to a
Maxwellian, exponentially fast in time.


title:
Dimension reduction in heterogeneous neural networks: generalized
  Polynomial Chaos (gPC) and ANalysis-Of-VAriance (ANOVA)

abstract:
  We propose, and illustrate via a neural network example, two different
approaches to coarse-graining large heterogeneous networks. Both approaches are
inspired from, and use tools developed in, methods for uncertainty
quantification in systems with multiple uncertain parameters - in our case, the
parameters are heterogeneously distributed on the network nodes. The approach
shows promise in accelerating large scale network simulations as well as
coarse-grained fixed point, periodic solution and stability analysis. We also
demonstrate that the approach can successfully deal with structural as well as
intrinsic heterogeneities.


title: Imaging Spectroscopic Ellipsometry of Mono- and Few-layer MoS2

abstract:
  Micromechanically exfoliated mono- and multilayers of molybdenum disulfide
(MoS2) are investigated by spectroscopic imaging ellipsometry. In combination
with knife edge illumination, MoS2 flakes can be detected and classified on
arbitrary flat and also transparent substrates with a lateral resolution down
to 1 to 2 um. The complex dielectric functions from mono- and trilayer MoS2 are
presented. They are extracted from a multilayer model to fit the measured
ellipsometric angles employing an anisotropic and an isotropic fit approach. We
find that the energies of the critical points of the optical constants can be
treated to be independent of the utilized model, whereas the magnitude of the
optical constants varies with the used model. The anisotropic model suggests a
maximum absorbance for a MoS2 sheet supported by sapphire of about 14 % for
monolayer and of 10 % for trilayer MoS2. Furthermore, the lateral homogeneity
of the complex dielectric function for monolayer MoS2 is investigated with a
spatial resolution of 2 um. Only minor fluctuations are observed. No evidence
for strain, for a significant amount of disorder or lattice defects can be
found in the wrinkle-free regions of the MoS2 monolayer from complementary
Raman spectroscopy measurements. We assume that the minor lateral variation in
the optical constants are caused by lateral modification in the van der Waals
interaction presumably caused by the preparation using micromechanical
exfoliation and viscoelastic stamping.


title:
Insights into planet formation from debris disks: I. The solar system as
  an archetype for planetesimal evolution

abstract:
  Circumstellar disks have long been regarded as windows into planetary
systems. The advent of high sensitivity, high resolution imaging in the
submillimetre where both the solid and gas components of disks can be detected
opens up new possibilities for understanding the dynamical histories of these
systems and therefore, a better ability to place our own solar system, which
hosts a highly evolved debris disk, in context. Comparisons of dust masses from
protoplanetary and debris disks have revealed a stark downturn in mass in
millimetre-sized grains around a stellar age of 10 Myr, ostensibly in the
"transition disk" phase, suggesting a period of rapid accretion of such grains
onto planetesimals. This rapid formation phase is in keeping with radionucleide
studies of Kuiper Belt Objects in the solar system. Importantly, this suggests
that any thermal gradients in the gas of disks of this era will be "frozen in"
to the planetesimals as they rapidly accrete from the solids and ices in their
vicinity. Measurements of radial gradients in thermal tracers such as DHO, DCN
and other tracers can therefore provide insight into the nascent solar system's
abudances. In studies of dynamical evolution of the solar system, it is tacitly
assumed that such abundances can reveal the location of formation for bodies
now found in the asteroid belt and Kuiper belt. Similarly, evidence of gas
detected from collisional evolution in young debris disks could potentially
reveal how rapidly objects have dynamically evolved in those systems, most of
which will be significantly younger than the solar system.


title:
Engineering chiral density waves and topological band structures by
  multiple-$Q$ superpositions of collinear up-up-down-down orders

abstract:
  Magnetic orders characterized by multiple ordering vectors harbor
noncollinear and noncoplanar spin textures and can be a source of unusual
electronic properties through the spin Berry phase mechanism. We theoretically
show that such multiple-$Q$ states are stabilized in itinerant magnets in the
form of superpositions of collinear up-up-down-down (UUDD) spin states, which
accompany the density waves of vector and scalar chirality. The result is drawn
by examining the ground state of the Kondo lattice model with classical
localized moments, especially when the Fermi surface is tuned to be partially
nested by the symmetry-related commensurate vectors. We unveil the instability
toward the multiple-$Q$ UUDD states with chirality density waves, using the
perturbative theory, variational calculations, and large-scale Langevin
dynamics simulations. We also show that the chirality density waves can induce
rich nontrivial topology of electronic structures, such as the massless Dirac
semimetal, Chern insulator with quantized topological Hall response, and
peculiar edge states which depend on the phase of chirality density waves at
the edges.


title: Effect of Self Diagnosis on Subsequent Problem Solving Performance

abstract:
  "Self-diagnosis tasks" aim at fostering diagnostic behavior by explicitly
requiring students to present diagnosis as part of the activity of reviewing
their problem solutions. The recitation classes in an introductory physics
class (~200 students) were split into a control group and three experimental
groups in which different levels of guidance was provided for performing the
self-diagnosis activities. We have been a) investigating how students in each
group performed on subsequent near and far transfer questions given as part of
the exams; and b) comparing student's initial scores on their quizzes with
their performance on the exams, as well as comparing student's self-diagnosis
scores with their performance on the exams. We discuss some hypotheses about
the students' ability to self-diagnose with different levels of scaffolding
support and emphasize the importance of teaching students how to diagnosis
their own mistakes. Our findings suggest that struggling with minimal support
during in-class self-diagnosis can trigger out-of-class self-diagnosis.
Students therefore may be motivated to make sense of the problem they may have
not been able to self diagnose, whether independently or in a collaborative
effort.


title: Bouncing Universes in Scalar-Tensor Gravity Around Conformal Invariance

abstract:
  We consider the possibility to produce a bouncing universe in the framework
of scalar-tensor gravity when the scalar field has a nonconformal coupling to
the Ricci scalar. We prove that bouncing universes regular in the future with
essentially the same dynamics as for the conformal coupling case do exist when
the coupling deviates slightly from it. This is found numerically for more
substantial deviations as well. In some cases however new features are found
like the ability of the system to leave the effective phantom regime.


title:
Generation and Evaluation of Space-Time Trajectories of Photovoltaic
  Power

abstract:
  In the probabilistic energy forecasting literature, emphasis is mainly placed
on deriving marginal predictive densities for which each random variable is
dealt with individually. Such marginals description is sufficient for power
systems related operational problems if and only if optimal decisions are to be
made for each lead-time and each location independently of each other. However,
many of these operational processes are temporally and spatially coupled, while
uncertainty in photovoltaic (PV) generation is strongly dependent in time and
in space. This issue is addressed here by analysing and capturing
spatio-temporal dependencies in PV generation. Multivariate predictive
distributions are modelled and space-time trajectories describing the potential
evolution of forecast errors through successive lead-times and locations are
generated. Discrimination ability of the relevant scoring rules on performance
assessment of space-time trajectories of PV generation is also studied.
Finally, the advantage of taking into account space-time correlations over
probabilistic and point forecasts is investigated. The empirical investigation
is based on the solar PV dataset of the Global Energy Forecasting Competition
(GEFCom) 2014.


title:
A generalized voter model with time-decaying memory on a multilayer
  network

abstract:
  By incorporating a multilayer network and time-decaying memory into the
original voter model, the coupled effects of spatial and temporal cumulation of
peer pressure on consensus are investigated. Heterogeneity in peer pressure and
time-decaying mechanism are both found to be detrimental to consensus. The
transition points, below which a consensus can always be reached and above
which two opposed opinions are more likely to coexist, are found. A mean-field
analysis indicates that the phase transitions in the present model are governed
by the cumulative influence of peer pressure and the updating threshold. A
functional relation between the consensus threshold and the decaying rate of
the influence of peer pressure is found. As to the time to reach a consensus,
it is governed by the coupling of the memory length and the decaying rate. An
intermediate decaying rate may lead to much lower time to reach a consensus.


title: The Soft, Fluctuating UVB at $z\sim6$ as Traced by C IV, SiIV, and CII

abstract:
  The sources that drove cosmological reionization left clues regarding their
identity in the slope and inhomogeneity of the ultraviolet ionizing background
(UVB): Bright quasars (QSOs) generate a hard UVB with predominantly large-scale
fluctuations while Population II stars generate a softer one with smaller-scale
fluctuations. Metal absorbers probe the UVB's slope because different ions are
sensitive to different energies. Likewise, they probe spatial fluctuations
because they originate in regions where a galaxy-driven UVB is harder and more
intense. We take a first step towards studying the reionization-epoch UVB's
slope and inhomogeneity by comparing observations of 12 metal absorbers at
$z\sim6$ versus predictions from a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation using
three different UVBs: a soft, spatially-inhomogeneous "galaxies+QSOs" UVB; a
homogeneous "galaxies+QSOs" UVB (Haardt & Madau 2012); and a QSOs-only model.
All UVBs reproduce the observed column density distributions of CII, SiIV, and
CIV reasonably well although high-column, high-ionization absorbers are
underproduced, reflecting numerical limitations. With upper limits treated as
detections, only a soft, fluctuating UVB reproduces both the observed SiIV/CIV
and CII/CIV distributions. The QSOs-only UVB overpredicts both CIV/CII and
CIV/SiIV, indicating that it is too hard. The Haardt & Madau (2012) UVB
underpredicts CIV/SiIV, suggesting that it lacks amplifications near galaxies.
Hence current observations prefer a soft, fluctuating UVB as expected from a
predominantly Population II background although they cannot rule out a harder
one. Future observations probing a factor of two deeper in metal column density
will distinguish between the soft, fluctuating and QSOs-only UVBs.


title: Tangles and the Mona Lisa

abstract:
  We show how an image can, in principle, be described by the tangles of the
graph of its pixels.
  The tangle-tree theorem provides a nested set of separations that efficiently
distinguish all the distinguishable tangles in a graph. This translates to a
small data set from which the image can be reconstructed.
  The tangle duality theorem says that a graph either has a certain-order
tangle or a tree-structure witnessing that this cannot exist. This tells us the
maximum resolution at which the image contains meaningful information.


title: Information Theoretic-Learning Auto-Encoder

abstract:
  We propose Information Theoretic-Learning (ITL) divergence measures for
variational regularization of neural networks. We also explore ITL-regularized
autoencoders as an alternative to variational autoencoding bayes, adversarial
autoencoders and generative adversarial networks for randomly generating sample
data without explicitly defining a partition function. This paper also
formalizes, generative moment matching networks under the ITL framework.


title:
Trap assisted tunneling and its effect on subthreshold swing of tunnel
  field effect transistors

abstract:
  We provide a detailed study of the interface Trap Assisted Tunneling (TAT)
mechanism in tunnel field effect transistors to show how it contributes a major
leakage current path before the Band To Band Tunneling (BTBT) is initiated.
With a modified Shockley-Read-Hall formalism, we show that at room temperature,
the phonon assisted TAT current always dominates and obscures the steep turn ON
of the BTBT current for common densities of traps. Our results are applicable
to top gate, double gate and gate all around structures where the traps are
positioned between the source-channel tunneling region. Since the TAT has
strong dependence on electric field, any effort to increase the BTBT current by
enhancing local electric field also increases the leakage current. Unless the
BTBT current can be increased separately, calculations show that the trap
density Dit has to be decreased by 40-100 times compared with the state of the
art in order for the steep turn ON (for III-V materials) to be clearly
observable at room temperature. We find that the combination of the intrinsic
sharpness of the band edges (Urbach tail) and the surface trap density
determines the subthreshold swing.


title: Input Aggregated Network for Face Video Representation

abstract:
  Recently, deep neural network has shown promising performance in face image
recognition. The inputs of most networks are face images, and there is hardly
any work reported in literature on network with face videos as input. To
sufficiently discover the useful information contained in face videos, we
present a novel network architecture called input aggregated network which is
able to learn fixed-length representations for variable-length face videos. To
accomplish this goal, an aggregation unit is designed to model a face video
with various frames as a point on a Riemannian manifold, and the mapping unit
aims at mapping the point into high-dimensional space where face videos
belonging to the same subject are close-by and others are distant. These two
units together with the frame representation unit build an end-to-end learning
system which can learn representations of face videos for the specific tasks.
Experiments on two public face video datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of
the proposed network.


title:
Proof of the Irrationality of the Square Root of Two in Babylonian
  Geometry Problem Tablets

abstract:
  One of the greatest achievements of Greek mathematics is the proof that the
square root of 2 is irrational. It has not been thought that the Babylonians
appreciated the concept of irrationality and certainly that they did not prove
that the square root of two is irrational. Here we show that two Babylonian
geometry problem tablets contain a simple proof of the irrationality of the
square root of two. It is not known, as yet, if the Babylonians appreciated
that these tablets indeed contained this proof.


title:
Summation formulae for the bilateral basic hypergeometric series
  ${}_1\psi_1 ( a; b; q, z )$

abstract:
  We give summation formulae for the bilateral basic hypergeometric series
${}_1\psi_1( a; b; q, z )$ through Ramanujan's summation formula, which are
generalizations of nontrivial identities found in the physics of
three-dimensional Abelian mirror symmetry on $\mathbf{R}P^2 \times S^1$. We
also show the $q \to 1 - 0$ limit of our summation formulae.


title:
Algorithms for structured matrix-vector product of optimal bilinear
  complexity

abstract:
  We present explicit algorithms for computing structured matrix-vector
products that are optimal in the sense of Strassen, i.e., using a provably
minimum number of multiplications. These structures include
Toeplitz/Hankel/circulant, symmetric, Toeplitz-plus-Hankel, sparse, and
multilevel structures. The last category include \textsc{bttb}, \textsc{bhhb},
\textsc{bccb} but also any arbitrarily complicated nested structures built out
of other structures.


title:
Generation and analysis of correlated pairs of photons on board a
  nanosatellite

abstract:
  Satellites carrying sources of entangled photons could establish a global
quantum network, enabling private encryption keys between any two points on
Earth. Despite numerous proposals, demonstration of space-based quantum systems
has been limited due to the cost of traditional satellites. We are using very
small spacecraft to accelerate progress. We report the in-orbit operation of a
photon pair source aboard a 1.65 kg nanosatellite and demonstrate pair
generation and polarization correlation under space conditions. The in-orbit
photon correlations exhibit a contrast of 97+/-2%, matching ground-based tests.
This pathfinding mission overcomes the challenge of demonstrating in-orbit
performance for the components of future entangled photon experiments. Ongoing
operation establishes the in-orbit lifetime of these critical components. More
generally, this demonstrates the ability for nanosatellites to enable faster
progress in space-based research.


title:
Admissible state and physical constraints preserving schemes for
  relativistic magnetohydrodynamic equations

abstract:
  This paper first studies the admissible state set $\mathcal G$ of
relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD). It paves a way for developing
physical-constraints-preserving (PCP) schemes for RMHD equations with the
solutions in $\mathcal G$. To overcome the difficulties arising from the
extremely strong nonlinearities and no explicit formulas of the primitive
variables and flux vectors with respect to the conservative vector, two
equivalent forms of $\mathcal G$ with explicit constraints on the conservative
vector are skillfully discovered. The first is derived by analyzing roots of
several polynomials and transferring successively them, and further used to
prove the convexity of $\mathcal G$ with the aid of semi-positive definiteness
of the second fundamental form of a hypersurface. While the second is derived
based on the convexity and then used to show the orthogonal invariance of
$\mathcal G$. The Lax-Friedrichs (LxF) splitting property does not hold
generally for nonzero magnetic field, but by a constructive inequality and
pivotal techniques, we discover the generalized LxF splitting properties,
combining the convex combination of some LxF splitting terms with a discrete
divergence-free condition of magnetic field. Based on above analyses, several
one- and two-dimensional PCP schemes are then studied. In 1D case, a
first-order accurate LxF type scheme is first proved to be PCP under the CFL
condition, and then high-order PCP schemes are proposed via a PCP limiter. In
2D case, the discrete divergence-free condition and PCP property are analyzed
for a first-order LxF scheme, and two sufficient conditions are derived for
high-order accurate PCP schemes. Our analysis reveals in theory for the first
time that the discrete divergence-free condition is closely connected with the
PCP property. Several numerical examples demonstrate theoretical findings and
performance of numerical schemes.


title:
Unique determination of the index of refraction from phase-less
  near-field data in two dimensions

abstract:
  Motivated by non-destructive testing of optical fiber, we consider the
problem of determining the index of refraction of a two-dimensional medium from
magnitude of the total field resulting from known incident plane waves at a
fixed frequency. The finiteness of the fiber cross section allows us to assume
that the index of refraction is variable over a compact set. The measurement
set is a closed curve, e.g., a circle of fixed radius, containing the fiber
cross section. We use complex geometric optics (CGO) solutions to show that the
inverse problem for the unknown index of refraction is unique in $C^{k}$ for
large enough $k$. The key tool in this work is the multi-term expansion of the
CGO solutions which we rely on to address the uniqueness question.


title: Stick-Slip Motion of the Wigner Solid on Liquid Helium

abstract:
  We present time-resolved transport measurements of a Wigner solid (WS) on the
surface of liquid Helium confined in a micron-scale channel. At rest, the WS is
`dressed' by a cloud of quantised capillary waves (ripplons). Under a driving
force, we find that repeated WS-ripplon decoupling leads to stick-slip current
oscillations, the frequency of which can be tuned by adjusting the temperature,
pressing electric field, or electron density. The WS on liquid He is a
promising system for the study of polaron-like decoupling dynamics.


title: Confidence regions for entries of a large precision matrix

abstract:
  Precision matrices play important roles in many practical applications.
Motivated by temporally dependent multivariate data in modern social and
scientific studies, we consider the statistical inference of precision matrices
for high-dimensional time dependent observations. Specifically, we propose a
data-driven procedure to construct a class of simultaneous confidence regions
for the precision coefficients within an index set of interest. The confidence
regions can be applied to test for specific structures of a precision matrix
and to recover its nonzero components. We first construct an estimator of the
underlying precision matrix via penalized node-wise regressions, and then
develope the Gaussian approximation results on the maximal difference between
the estimated and true precision matrices. A computationally feasible
parametric bootstrap algorithm is developed to implement the proposed
procedure. Theoretical results indicate that the proposed procedure works well
without the second order cross-time stationary assumption on the data and
sparse structure conditions on the long-run covariance of the estimates.
Simulation studies and a real example on S&P 500 stock return data confirm the
performance of the proposed approach.


title: Nucleon Helicity and Transversity Parton Distributions from Lattice QCD

abstract:
  We present the first lattice-QCD calculation of the isovector polarized
parton distribution functions (both helicity and transversity) using the
large-momentum effective field theory (LaMET) approach for direct Bjorken-$x$
dependence. We first review the detailed steps of the procedure in the
unpolarized case, then generalize to the helicity and transversity cases. We
also derive a new mass-correction formulation for all three cases. We then
compare the effects of each finite-momentum correction using lattice data
calculated at $M_\pi\approx 310$ MeV. Finally, we discuss the implications of
these results for the poorly known antiquark structure and predict the
sea-flavor asymmetry in the transversely polarized nucleon.


title:
Information Processing by Nonlinear Phase Dynamics in Locally Connected
  Arrays

abstract:
  Research toward powerful information processing systems that circumvent the
interconnect bottleneck by exploiting the nonlinear evolution of multiple phase
dynamics in locally connected arrays is discussed. We focus on a scheme in
which logic states are defined by the electrical phase of a dynamic process and
information processing is realized through interactions between the elements in
the array. Simulation results are given for networks comprised of neuron-like
integrate-and-fire elements, which could potentially be implemented by
ultra-small tunnel junctions, molecules and other types of nanoscale elements.
This approach could lead to powerful information processing systems due to
massive parallelism in simple, highly scalable nano-architectures. The rational
for this approach, its advantages, simulation results, critical issues, and
future research directions are discussed.


title: Properties of Carbon-Oxygen White Dwarfs From Monte Carlo Stellar Models

abstract:
  We investigate properties of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs with respect to the
composite uncertainties in the reaction rates using the stellar evolution
toolkit, Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) and the
probability density functions in the reaction rate library STARLIB. These are
the first Monte Carlo stellar evolution studies that use complete stellar
models. Focusing on 3 M$_{\odot}$ models evolved from the pre main-sequence to
the first thermal pulse, we survey the remnant core mass, composition, and
structure properties as a function of 26 STARLIB reaction rates covering
hydrogen and helium burning using a Principal Component Analysis and Spearman
Rank-Order Correlation. Relative to the arithmetic mean value, we find the
width of the 95\% confidence interval to be $\Delta M_{{\rm 1TP}}$ $\approx$
0.019 M$_{\odot}$ for the core mass at the first thermal pulse,
$\Delta$$t_{\rm{1TP}}$ $\approx$ 12.50 Myr for the age, $\Delta \log(T_{{\rm
c}}/{\rm K}) \approx$ 0.013 for the central temperature, $\Delta
\log(\rho_{{\rm c}}/{\rm g \ cm}^{-3}) \approx$ 0.060 for the central density,
$\Delta Y_{\rm{e,c}} \approx$ 2.6$\times$10$^{-5}$ for the central electron
fraction, $\Delta X_{\rm c}(^{22}\rm{Ne}) \approx$ 5.8$\times$10$^{-4}$,
$\Delta X_{\rm c}(^{12}\rm{C}) \approx$ 0.392, and $\Delta X_{\rm
c}(^{16}\rm{O}) \approx$ 0.392. Uncertainties in the experimental
$^{12}$C($\alpha,\gamma)^{16}\rm{O}$, triple-$\alpha$, and
$^{14}$N($p,\gamma)^{15}\rm{O}$ reaction rates dominate these variations. We
also consider a grid of 1 to 6 M$_{\odot}$ models evolved from the pre
main-sequence to the final white dwarf to probe the sensitivity of the
initial-final mass relation to experimental uncertainties in the hydrogen and
helium reaction rates.


title: Spitzer mid-infrared spectroscopic observations of planetary nebulae

abstract:
  We present Spitzer Space Telescope archival mid-infrared (mid-IR)
spectroscopy of a sample of eleven planetary nebulae (PNe). The observations,
acquired with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS), cover the spectral range
5.2-14.5 {\mu}m that includes the H2 0-0 S(2) to S(7) rotational emission
lines. This wavelength coverage has allowed us to derive the Boltzmann
distribution and calculate the H2 rotational excitation temperature (Tex). The
derived excitation temperatures have consistent values ~900+/-70 K for
different sources despite their different structural components. We also report
the detection of mid-IR ionic lines of [Ar III], [S IV], and [Ne II] in most
objects, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features in a few cases. The
decline of the [Ar III]/[Ne II] line ratio with the stellar effective
temperature can be explained either by a true neon enrichment or by high
density circumstellar regions of PNe that presumably descend from higher mass
progenitor stars.


title: Learning Representations for Automatic Colorization

abstract:
  We develop a fully automatic image colorization system. Our approach
leverages recent advances in deep networks, exploiting both low-level and
semantic representations. As many scene elements naturally appear according to
multimodal color distributions, we train our model to predict per-pixel color
histograms. This intermediate output can be used to automatically generate a
color image, or further manipulated prior to image formation. On both fully and
partially automatic colorization tasks, we outperform existing methods. We also
explore colorization as a vehicle for self-supervised visual representation
learning.


title:
Implementation of a FPGA-Based Feature Detection and Networking System
  for Real-time Traffic Monitoring

abstract:
  With the growing demand of real-time traffic monitoring nowadays,
software-based image processing can hardly meet the real-time data processing
requirement due to the serial data processing nature. In this paper, the
implementation of a hardware-based feature detection and networking system
prototype for real-time traffic monitoring as well as data transmission is
presented. The hardware architecture of the proposed system is mainly composed
of three parts: data collection, feature detection, and data transmission.
Overall, the presented prototype can tolerate a high data rate of about 60
frames per second. By integrating the feature detection and data transmission
functions, the presented system can be further developed for various VANET
application scenarios to improve road safety and traffic efficiency. For
example, detection of vehicles that violate traffic rules, parking enforcement,
etc.


title: Patterns of Activity in a Global Model of a Solar Active Region

abstract:
  In this work we investigate the global activity patterns predicted from a
model active region heated by distributions of nanoflares that have a range of
frequencies. What differs is the average frequency of the distributions. The
activity patterns are manifested in time lag maps of narrow-band instrument
channel pairs. We combine hydrodynamic and forward modeling codes with a
magnetic field extrapolation to create a model active region and apply the time
lag method to synthetic observations. Our aim is not to reproduce a particular
set of observations in detail, but to recover some typical properties and
patterns observed in active regions. Our key findings are the following. 1.
cooling dominates the time lag signature and the time lags between the channel
pairs are generally consistent with observed values. 2. shorter coronal loops
in the core cool more quickly than longer loops at the periphery. 3. all
channel pairs show zero time lag when the line-of-sight passes through coronal
loop foot-points. 4. there is strong evidence that plasma must be re-energized
on a time scale comparable to the cooling timescale to reproduce the observed
coronal activity, but it is likely that a relatively broad spectrum of heating
frequencies are operating across active regions. 5. due to their highly dynamic
nature, we find nanoflare trains produce zero time lags along entire flux tubes
in our model active region that are seen between the same channel pairs in
observed active regions.


title: Entropic interpretation of the Hawking-Moss bounce

abstract:
  We revisit the derivation of the Hawking-Moss transition rate. Using the
static coordinates, we show that the Euclidean action is entirely determined by
the contribution of the entropy of de Sitter space which is proportional to the
surface area of the horizon. This holographic feature is common to any static
spacetime with a horizon on which the shift vector vanishes.


title: On the Universality of the Bound-Zone Peculiar Velocity Profile

abstract:
  A numerical evidence for the universality of the bound-zone peculiar velocity
profile in a LambdaCDM universe is presented. Analyzing the dark matter halo
catalogs from the Millennium-II simulation, we determine the average peculiar
velocity profiles of the objects located in the bound zones around massive
group-size halos at various redshifts and compare them to an analytic formula
characterized by two parameters, the amplitude and slope of the profile. The
best-fit values of the two parameters are found to be robust against the
changes of the mass scales and the key cosmological parameters. It is also
found that the amplitude and slope parameters of the bound-zone peculiar
velocity profile are constant but only in the limited ranges of redshifts. In
the dark matter dominated epoch corresponding to z> 0.6 the two parameters have
constant values. In the transition period corresponding to 0.2=< z=< 0.6 when
the density of Lambda begins to exceed that of dark matter the two parameters
grow almost linearly with redshifts. At later epochs z<0.2 when the
Lambda-domination prevails the two parameters regain constancy settling upon
higher constant values. Noting that the length of the transition period depends
on the amount of Lambda and speculating that the linear evolution of the
profile with redshifts in the transition period is a unique feature of the
Lambda-dominated universe, we suggest that the redshift evolution of the
bound-zone peculiar velocity profile should be a powerful local discriminator
of dark energy candidates.


title:
Chromospheric Nanoflares as a Source of Coronal Plasma: II. Repeating
  Nanoflares

abstract:
  The million degree plasma of the solar corona must be supplied by the
underlying layers of the atmosphere. The mechanism and location of energy
release, and the precise source of coronal plasma, remain unresolved. In
earlier work we pursued the idea that warm plasma is supplied to the corona via
direct heating of the chromosphere by nanoflares, contrary to the prevailing
belief that the corona is heated in-situ and the chromosphere is subsequently
energized and ablated by thermal conduction. We found that single
(low-frequency) chromospheric nanoflares could not explain the observed
intensities, Doppler-shifts, and red/blue asymmetries in Fe XII and XIV
emission lines. In the present work we follow up on another suggestion that the
corona could be powered by chromospheric nanoflares that repeat on a timescale
substantially shorter than the cooling/draining timescale. That is, a single
magnetic strand is re-supplied with coronal plasma before the existing plasma
has time to cool and drain. We perform a series of hydrodynamic experiments and
predict the Fe XII and XIV line intensities, Doppler-shifts, and red/blue
asymmetries. We find that our predicted quantities disagree dramatically with
observations and fully developed loop structures cannot be created by
intermediate- or high-frequency chromospheric nanoflares. We conclude that the
mechanism ultimately responsible for producing coronal plasma operates above
the chromosphere, but this does not preclude the possibility of a similar
mechanism powering the chromosphere; extreme examples of which may be
responsible for heating chromospheric plasma to transition region temperatures
(e.g. type II spicules).


title: Real-time Adaptive Prediction Method for Smooth Haptic Rendering

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a real-time adaptive prediction method to calculate
smooth and accurate haptic feedback in complex scenarios. Smooth haptic
feedback is an important task for haptic rendering with complex virtual
objects. However, commonly the update rate of the haptic rendering may drop
down during multi-point contact in complex scenarios because high computational
cost is required for collision detection and physically-based dynamic
simulation. If the haptic rendering is done at a lower update rate, it may
cause discontinuous or instable force/torque feedback. Therefore, to implement
smooth and accurate haptic rendering, the update rate of force/torque
calculation should be kept in a high and constant frequency. In the proposed
method, the auto-regressive model with real-time coefficients update is
proposed to predict interactive forces/torques during the physical simulation.
In addition, we introduce a spline function to dynamically interpolate smooth
forces/torques in haptic display according to the update rate of physical
simulation. In the experiments, we show the feasibility of the proposed method
and compare its performance with other methods and algorithms. The result shows
that the proposed method can provide smooth and accurate haptic force feedback
at a high update rate for complex scenarios.


title: Side Channel Attacks on STTRAM and Low-Overhead Countermeasures

abstract:
  Spin Transfer Torque RAM (STTRAM) is a promising candidate for Last Level
Cache (LLC) due to high endurance, high density and low leakage. One of the
major disadvantages of STTRAM is high write latency and write current.
Additionally, the latency and current depends on the polarity of the data being
written. These features introduce major security vulnerabilities and expose the
cache memory to side channel attacks. In this paper we propose a novel side
channel attack model where the adversary can monitor the supply current of the
memory array to partially identify the sensitive cache data that is being read
or written. We propose several low cost solutions such as short retention
STTRAM, 1-bit parity, multi-bit random write and constant current write driver
to mitigate the attack. 1-bit parity reduces the number of distinct write
current states by 30% for 32-bit word and the current signature is further
obfuscated by multi-bit random writes. The constant current write makes it more
challenging for the attacker to extract the entire word using a single supply
current signature.


title:
Generation and protection of steady-state quantum correlations due to
  quantum channels with memory

abstract:
  We have proposed a scheme of the generation and preservation of two-qubit
steady state quantum correlations through quantum channels where successive
uses of the channels are correlated. Different types of noisy channels with
memory, such as amplitude damping, phase-damping, and depolarizing channels
have been taken into account. Some analytical or numerical results are
presented. The effect of channels with memory on dynamics of quantum
correlations has been discussed in detail. The results show that, steady state
entanglement between two independent qubits without entanglement subject to
amplitude damping channel with memory can be generated. Besides, we compare the
dynamics of entanglement with that of quantum discord when a two-qubit system
is prepared in an entangled state. We show that entanglement dynamics suddenly
disappears, while quantum discord displays only in the asymptotic limit.
Two-qubit quantum correlations can be preserved at a long time in the limit of
$\mu\rightarrow1$.


title: Learning Executable Semantic Parsers for Natural Language Understanding

abstract:
  For building question answering systems and natural language interfaces,
semantic parsing has emerged as an important and powerful paradigm. Semantic
parsers map natural language into logical forms, the classic representation for
many important linguistic phenomena. The modern twist is that we are interested
in learning semantic parsers from data, which introduces a new layer of
statistical and computational issues. This article lays out the components of a
statistical semantic parser, highlighting the key challenges. We will see that
semantic parsing is a rich fusion of the logical and the statistical world, and
that this fusion will play an integral role in the future of natural language
understanding systems.


title:
Stitching Stabilizer: Two-frame-stitching Video Stabilization for
  Embedded Systems

abstract:
  In conventional electronic video stabilization, the stabilized frame is
obtained by cropping the input frame to cancel camera shake. While a small
cropping size results in strong stabilization, it does not provide us
satisfactory results from the viewpoint of image quality, because it narrows
the angle of view. By fusing several frames, we can effectively expand the area
of input frames, and achieve strong stabilization even with a large cropping
size. Several methods for doing so have been studied. However, their
computational costs are too high for embedded systems such as smartphones.
  We propose a simple, yet surprisingly effective algorithm, called the
stitching stabilizer. It stitches only two frames together with a minimal
computational cost. It can achieve real-time processes in embedded systems, for
Full HD and 30 FPS videos. To clearly show the effect, we apply it to
hyperlapse. Using several clips, we show it produces more strongly stabilized
and natural results than the existing solutions from Microsoft and Instagram.


title:
Recursive Neural Conditional Random Fields for Aspect-based Sentiment
  Analysis

abstract:
  In aspect-based sentiment analysis, extracting aspect terms along with the
opinions being expressed from user-generated content is one of the most
important subtasks. Previous studies have shown that exploiting connections
between aspect and opinion terms is promising for this task. In this paper, we
propose a novel joint model that integrates recursive neural networks and
conditional random fields into a unified framework for explicit aspect and
opinion terms co-extraction. The proposed model learns high-level
discriminative features and double propagate information between aspect and
opinion terms, simultaneously. Moreover, it is flexible to incorporate
hand-crafted features into the proposed model to further boost its information
extraction performance. Experimental results on the SemEval Challenge 2014
dataset show the superiority of our proposed model over several baseline
methods as well as the winning systems of the challenge.


title: Image Super-Resolution Based on Sparsity Prior via Smoothed $l_0$ Norm

abstract:
  In this paper we aim to tackle the problem of reconstructing a
high-resolution image from a single low-resolution input image, known as single
image super-resolution. In the literature, sparse representation has been used
to address this problem, where it is assumed that both low-resolution and
high-resolution images share the same sparse representation over a pair of
coupled jointly trained dictionaries. This assumption enables us to use the
compressed sensing theory to find the jointly sparse representation via the
low-resolution image and then use it to recover the high-resolution image.
However, sparse representation of a signal over a known dictionary is an
ill-posed, combinatorial optimization problem. Here we propose an algorithm
that adopts the smoothed $l_0$-norm (SL0) approach to find the jointly sparse
representation. Improved quality of the reconstructed image is obtained for
most images in terms of both peak signal-to-noise-ratio (PSNR) and structural
similarity (SSIM) measures.


title: Lepton flavor violating Higgs boson decay $h\to\mu\tau$ at the ILC

abstract:
  We study the possible reach of the proposed International Linear Collider
(ILC) in exploring the lepton flavor violating (LFV) Higgs boson decay
$h\to\mu\tau$. Two generic types of models are investigated, both involving an
extended scalar sector. For the first type, the rest of the scalars are heavy
and beyond the reach of ILC but the LFV decay occurs through a tiny admixture
of the Standard Model (SM) doublet with the heavy degrees of freedom. In the
second class, which is more constrained from the existing data, the SM Higgs
boson does not have any LFV decay but there are other scalars degenerate with
it that gives rise to the LFV signal. We show that ILC can pin down the
branching fraction of $h\to\mu\tau$, and hence the effective LFV Yukawa
coupling, to a very small value, due to the fact that there are signal channels
with unlike flavor leptons but no missing energy. It turns out that the
low-energy options of the ILC, namely, $\sqrt{s}=250$ or 500 GeV are better to
investigate such channels, and the option of beam polarization helps too. At
least an order of magnitude improvement is envisaged over the existing limits.


title:
Study of $\Lambda_b\to \Lambda (\phi,\eta^{(\prime)})$ and $\Lambda_b\to
  \Lambda K^+K^-$ decays

abstract:
  We study the charmless two-body $\Lambda_b\to \Lambda (\phi,\eta^{(\prime)})$
and three-body $\Lambda_b\to \Lambda K^+K^- $ decays. We obtain ${\cal
B}(\Lambda_b\to \Lambda\phi)=(3.53\pm 0.24)\times 10^{-6}$ to agree with the
recent LHCb measurement. However, we find that ${\cal B}(\Lambda_b\to
\Lambda(\phi\to)K^+ K^-)=(1.71\pm 0.12)\times 10^{-6}$ is unable to explain the
LHCb observation of ${\cal B}(\Lambda_b\to\Lambda K^+ K^-)=(15.9\pm 1.2\pm
1.2\pm 2.0)\times 10^{-6}$, which implies the possibility for other
contributions, such as that from the resonant $\Lambda_b\to K^-
N^*,\,N^*\to\Lambda K^+$ decay with $N^*$ as a higher-wave baryon state. For
$\Lambda_b\to \Lambda \eta^{(\prime)}$, we show that ${\cal B}(\Lambda_b\to
\Lambda\eta,\,\Lambda\eta^\prime)= (1.47\pm 0.35,1.83\pm 0.58)\times 10^{-6}$,
which are consistent with the current data of $(9.3^{+7.3}_{-5.3},<3.1)\times
10^{-6}$, respectively. Our results also support the relation of ${\cal
B}(\Lambda_b\to \Lambda\eta) \simeq {\cal B}(\Lambda_b\to\Lambda\eta^\prime)$,
given by the previous study.


title: Equations associated to the Principal Congruence Subgroup of Level Eight

abstract:
  The purpose of this paper is to find an equation with respect to the
principal congruence subgroup of level eight without considering modular
functions.


title: Weak diamond and Galvin's property

abstract:
  We prove that the Devlin-Shelah weak diamond implies Galvin's property. On
the other hand, Galvin's property is consistent with the negation of the weak
diamond, and even with Martin's axiom. We show that the proper forcing axiom
implies a relative to the negation of Galvin's property for $\aleph_1$.


title:
Finite Range Decomposition for Gaussian Measures with Improved
  Regularity

abstract:
  We consider a family of gradient Gaussian vector fields on the torus
$(\mathbb{Z}/L^N\mathbb{Z})^d$. Adams, Koteck\'{y}, M\"{u}ller and
independently Bauerschmidt established the existence of a uniform finite range
decomposition of the corresponding covariance operators, i.e., the covariance
can be written as a sum of covariance operators supported on increasing cubes
with diameter $L^k$. We improve this result and show that the decay behaviour
of the kernels in Fourier space can be controlled. Then we show the regularity
of the integration map that convolves functionals with the partial measures of
the finite range decomposition. In particular the new finite range
decomposition avoids the loss of regularity which arises in the renormalisation
group approach to anisotropic problems in statistical mechanics.


title:
Boundary conditions for macroscale waves in an elastic system with
  microscale heterogeneity

abstract:
  Multiscale modelling aims to systematically construct macroscale models of
materials with fine microscale structure. However, macroscale boundary
conditions are typically not systematically derived, but rely on heuristic
arguments, potentially resulting in a macroscale model which fails to
adequately capture the behaviour of the microscale system. We derive the
macroscale boundary conditions of the macroscale model for longitudinal wave
propagation on a lattice with periodically varying density and elasticity. We
model the macroscale dynamics of the microscale Dirichlet, Robin-like,
Cauchy-like and mixed boundary value problem. Numerical experiments test the
new methodology. Our method of deriving boundary conditions significantly
improves the accuracy of the macroscale models. The methodology developed here
can be adapted to a wide range of multiscale wave propagation problems.


title: statmod: Probability Calculations for the Inverse Gaussian Distribution

abstract:
  The inverse Gaussian distribution (IGD) is a well known and often used
probability distribution for which fully reliable numerical algorithms have not
been available. Our aim in this article is to develop software for this
distribution for the R programming environment. We develop fast, reliable basic
probability functions (dinvgauss, pinvgauss, qinvgauss and rinvgauss) that work
for all possible parameter values and which achieve close to full machine
accuracy. The most challenging task is to compute quantiles for given
cumulative probabilities and we develop a simple but elegant mathematical
solution to this problem. We show that Newton's method for finding the
quantiles of a IGD always converges monotonically when started from the mode of
the distribution. Simple Taylor series expansions are used to improve accuracy
on the log-scale. The IGD probability functions provide the same options and
obey the same conventions as do probability functions provided in the standard
R stats package. The IGD functions are part of the statmod package available
from the CRAN repository.


title:
Optimal power dispatch in networks of high-dimensional models of
  synchronous machines

abstract:
  This paper investigates the problem of optimal frequency regulation of
multi-machine power networks where each synchronous machine is described by a
sixth order model. By analyzing the physical energy stored in the network and
the generators, a port-Hamiltonian representation of the multi-machine system
is obtained. Moreover, it is shown that the open-loop system is passive with
respect to its steady states which implies that passive controllers can be used
to control the multi-machine network. As a special case, a distributed
consensus based controller is designed that regulates the frequency and
minimizes a global quadratic generation cost in the presence of a constant
unknown demand. In addition, the proposed controller allows freedom in choosing
any desired connected undirected weighted communication graph.


title: HST STIS observations of the mixing layer in the Cat's Eye Nebula

abstract:
  Planetary nebulae (PNe) are expected to have a ~10$^{5}$ K interface layer
between the $\geq$10$^{6}$ K inner hot bubble and the ~10$^{4}$ K optical
nebular shell. The PN structure and evolution, and the X-ray emission depend
critically on the efficiency of mixing of material at this interface layer.
However, neither its location nor its spatial extent has ever been determined
so far. Using high-spatial resolution HST STIS spectroscopic observations of
the N V 1239,1243 lines in the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), we have detected
this interface layer and determined its location, extent, and physical
properties for the first time in a PN. We confirm that this interface layer, as
revealed by the spatial distribution of the N V 1239 line emission, is located
between the hot bubble and the optical nebular shell. We estimate a thickness
of 1.5$\times$10$^{16}$ cm and an electron density of ~200 cm$^{-3}$ for the
mixing layer. With a thermal pressure of ~2$\times$10$^{-8}$ dyn cm$^{-2}$, the
mixing layer is in pressure equilibrium with the hot bubble and ionized nebular
rim of NGC 6543.


title: Long-term study of Mkn 421 with the HAGAR Array of Telescopes

abstract:
  Context:The HAGAR Telescope Array at Hanle, Ladakh has been regularly
monitoring the nearby blazar Mkn 421 for the past 7yrs.
  Aims: Blazars show flux variability in all timescales across the
electromagnetic spectrum. While there is abundant literature characterizing the
short term flares from different blazars, comparatively little work has been
done to study the long term variability. We aim to study the long term temporal
and spectral variability in the radiation from Mkn 421 during 2009-2015.
  Methods: We quantify the variability and lognormality from the radio to the
VHE bands, and compute the correlations between the various wavebands using the
z-transformed discrete correlation function. We construct the Spectral Energy
Distribution (SED) contemporaneous with HAGAR observation seasons and fit it
with a one zone synchrotron self Compton model to study the spectral
variability.
  Results: The flux is found to be highly variable across all time scales. The
variability is energy dependant, and is maximum in the X-ray and Very High
Energy (VHE) bands. A strong correlation is found between the Fermi-LAT (gamma)
and radio bands, and between Fermi-LAT and optical, but none between Fermi-LAT
and X-ray. Lognormality in the flux distribution is clearly detected. This is
the third blazar, following BL~Lac and PKS~2155$+$304 to show this behavior.
The SED can be well fit by a one zone SSC model, and variations in the flux
states can be attributed mainly due to changes in the particle distribution. A
strong correlation is seen between the break energy $\gamma_b$ of the particle
spectrum and the total bolometric luminosity.


title: Higgs bundles and applications

abstract:
  This short note gives an overview of how a few conjectures and theorems of
the author and collaborators fit together. It was prepared for Oberwolfach's
workshop Differentialgeometrie im Gro{\ss}en, 28 June - 4 July 2015, and
contains no new results.


title:
Configuration mixings and light-front relativistic quark model
  predictions for the electroexcitation of the Delta(1232)3/2+, N(1440)1/2+,
  and Delta(1600)3/2+

abstract:
  We investigate the impact of the configurations mixings that follow from
QCD-inspired interquark forces on our results for the electroexcitation of the
Delta(1232)3/2+, N(1440)1/2+, and Delta(1600)3/2+ obtained earlier in the
light-front relativistic quark model. We have shown that the configurations
mixings increase the 3q contribution to the gamma* N -> Delta(1232)3/2+
magnetic-dipole form factor at Q2=0 from 42% to 63% and significantly improve
the agreement with experiment for the gamma* p -> N(1440)1/2+ transverse
helicity amplitude at Q2 > 1.5GeV2. For the gamma* N -> Delta(1600)3/2+
transition, configuration mixings change strongly the results obtained earlier
for the N and Delta(1600)3/2+ taken as pure states in the multiplets [56,0+]
and [56',0+].


title:
Low Temperature Thermal Hall Conductivity of a Nodal Chiral
  Superconductor

abstract:
  Motivated by Sr2RuO4, we consider a chiral superconductor where the gap is
strongly suppressed along certain momentum directions. We evaluate the thermal
Hall conductivity in the gapless regime, i.e., at temperature small compared
with the impurity band width \gamma, taking the simplest model of isotropic
impurity scattering. We find that, under favorable circumstances, this thermal
Hall conductivity can be quite significant, and is smaller than the diagonal
component (the universal thermal conductivity) only by a factor of 1/ ln(2
\Delta_M/\gamma), where \Delta_M is the maximum gap.


title: Compact support property of SuperBrownian Motion in random environments

abstract:
  In this paper, we prove the compact support property for a class of nonlinear
SPDE including the equation that the density of one-dimensional Super-Brownian
Motion in random environment satisfies.


title: Phase transition results for three Ramsey-like theorems

abstract:
  We classify a sharp phase transition threshold for Friedman's finite adjacent
Ramsey theorem. We extend the method for showing this result to two previously
known classifications involving Ramsey theorem variants: the Paris--Harrington
theorem and the Kanamori--McAloon theorem. We also provide tools to remove
ad-hoc arguments from the proofs of phase transition results as much as
currently possible.


title: Invertible sums of matrices

abstract:
  We give an elementary proof of a Caratheodory-type result on the
invertibility of a sum of matrices, due first to Facchini and Barioli. The
proof yields a polynomial identity, expressing the determinant of a large sum
of matrices in terms of determinants of smaller sums. Interpreting these
results over an arbitrary commutative ring gives a stabilization result for a
filtered family of ideals of determinants. Generalizing in another direction
gives a characterization of local rings. An analogous result for semilocal
rings is also given -- interestingly, the semilocal case reduces to the case of
matrices.


title: On the exponent of the automorphism group of a compact Riemann surface

abstract:
  Let $X$ be a compact Riemann surface of genus $g\geq 2$, and let $Aut(X)$ be
its group of automorphims. We show that the exponent of $Aut(X)$ is bounded by
$42(g-1)$. We also determine explicitly the infinitely many values of $g$ for
which this bound is reached and the corresponding groups. Finally we discuss
related questions for subgroups $G$ of $Aut(X)$ that are subject to additional
conditions, for example being solvable.


title:
Superfluidity enhanced by spin-flip tunnelling in the presence of a
  magnetic field

abstract:
  It is well-known that when the magnetic field is stronger than a critical
value, the spin imbalance can break the Cooper pairs of electrons and hence
hinder the superconductivity in a spin-singlet channel. In a bilayer system of
ultra-cold Fermi gases, however, we demonstrate that the critical value of the
magnetic field at zero temperature can be significantly increased by including
a spin-flip tunnelling, which opens a gap in the spin-triplet channel near the
Fermi surface and hence reduces the influence of the effective magnetic field
on the superfluidity. The phase transition also changes from first order to
second order when the tunnelling exceeds a critical value. Considering a
realistic experiment, this mechanism can be implemented by applying an
intralayer Raman coupling between the spin states with a phase difference
between the two layers.


title:
$\Delta$ self-energy at finite temperature and density and the $\pi N$
  cross-section

abstract:
  The self energy of $\Delta$-baryon is evaluated at finite temperature and
density using the real time formalism of thermal field theory. The
Dyson-Schwinger equation is used to get the exact thermal propagator followed
by the spectral function of $\Delta$. The $\pi N$ scattering cross section
obtained using explicit $\Delta$ exchange is normalized to the experimental
data in vacuum and its medium modification is implemented by means of the exact
thermal propagator. A significant suppression of the peak of the cross-section
is observed at higher temperature and baryon density. Effects on the mean
relaxation time of nucleons and the temperature dependence of the shear
viscosity of a pion nucleon gas are demonstrated.


title: Polarized-Deuteron Stripping Reaction at Intermediate Energies

abstract:
  A general analytical expressions for the cross-section and the polarization
of nucleons arising in the inclusive deuteron stripping reaction have been
derived in the diffraction approximation. The nucleon-nucleus phases were
calculated in the framework of Glauber formalism and making use of the
double-folding potential. The tabulated distributions of the target nucleus
density and the realistic deuteron wave function with correct asymptotic at
large nucleon-nucleon distances were used. The calculated angular dependences
for the cross-sections and the analyzing powers of the $(\vec{d},p)$ reaction
are in good agreement with corresponding experimental data.


title: The notes on thin shells

abstract:
  Geometry of the spacetime with a spherical shell embedded in it is studied in
two coordinate systems - in Kodama-Schwarzschild coordinates and in Gaussian
normal coordinates. We consider transformations between the coordinate systems
as in the 4D spacetime so as at the surface $\S$ swept in the spacetime by the
spherical shell. Extrinsic curvatures of the surface swept by the shell are
calculated in both coordinate systems. Applications to the Israel junction
conditions are discussed.


title:
A Comprehensive Ab Initio Study of Electronic, Optical and Cohesive
  Properties of Silicon Quantum Dots of Various Morphologies and Sizes up to
  Infinity

abstract:
  We present a comprehensive and integrated model-independent ab initio study
of the structural, cohesive, electronic, and optical properties of silicon
quantum dots of various morphologies and sizes in the framework of all-electron
static and time-dependent density functional theory (DFT, TDFT), using the
well-tested B3LYP and other properly chosen functional(s). Our raw ab initio
results for all these properties for hydrogen passivated nanocrystals of
various growth models and sizes from 1 to 32 Angstroms, are subsequently
fitted, using power-law dependence with judicially selected exponents, based on
dimensional and other plausibility arguments. As a result, we can reproduce
with excellent accuracy not only known experimental and well-tested theoretical
results in the regions of overlap, but we can also extrapolate successfully all
the way to infinity, reproducing the band gap of crystalline silicon with
almost chemical accuracy as well as the cohesive energy of the infinite crystal
with very good accuracy. Thus, our results could be safely used, among others,
as interpolation and extrapolation formulas not only for cohesive energy and
band gap, but also for interrelated properties, such as dielectric constant and
index of refraction of silicon nanocrystals of various sizes all the way up to
infinity.


title:
A stress-controlled shear cell for small-angle light scattering and
  microscopy

abstract:
  We develop and thoroughly test a stress-controlled, parallel plates shear
cell that can be coupled to an optical microscope or a small angle light
scattering setup, for simultaneous investigation of the rheological properties
and the microscopic structure of soft materials under an imposed shear stress.
In order to minimize friction, the cell is based on an air bearing linear
stage, the stress is applied through a contactless magnetic actuator, and the
strain is measured through optical sensors. We discuss the contributions of
inertia and of the small residual friction to the measured signal and
demonstrate the performance of our device in both oscillating and step stress
experiments on a variety of viscoelastic materials.


title: My Favorite Object L1551 IRS 5

abstract:
  The L1551-IRS 5 source and its associated atomic jet and molecular outflow
has been studied for over 40 years. In this overview of the source this
fascinating object and its properties are reviewed and its importance today is
re-evaluated.


title: Determinant Formula for Parabolic Verma Modules of Lie Superalgebras

abstract:
  We prove a determinant formula for a parabolic Verma module of a Lie
superalgebra, previously conjectured by the second author. Our determinant
formula generalizes the previous results of Jantzen for a parabolic Verma
module of a (non-super) Lie algebra, and of Kac concerning a (non-parabolic)
Verma module for a Lie superalgebra. The resulting formula is expected to have
a variety of applications in the study of higher-dimensional supersymmetric
conformal field theories. We also discuss irreducibility criteria for the Verma
module.


title: Some Ree and Suzuki curves are not Galois covered by the Hermitian curve

abstract:
  The Deligne-Lusztig curves associated to the algebraic groups of type
$^2A_2$, $^2B_2$, and $^2G_2$ are classical examples of maximal curves over
finite fields. The Hermitian curve $\mathcal H_q$ is maximal over $\mathbb
F_{q^2}$, for any prime power $q$, the Suzuki curve $\mathcal S_q$ is maximal
over $\mathbb F_{q^4}$, for $q=2^{2h+1}$, $h\geq1$ and the Ree curve $\mathcal
R_q$ is maximal over $\mathbb F_{q^6}$, for $q=3^{2h+1}$, $h\geq0$. In this
paper we show that $\mathcal S_8$ is not Galois covered by $\mathcal H_{64}$.
We also give a proof for an unpublished result due to Rains and Zieve stating
that $\mathcal R_3$ is not Galois covered by $\mathcal H_{27}$. Furthermore, we
determine the spectrum of genera of Galois subcovers of $\mathcal H_{27}$, and
we point out that some Galois subcovers of $\mathcal R_3$ are not Galois
subcovers of $\mathcal H_{27}$.


title:
Neutrino Mass Matrices from Two Zero 3x2 Yukawa Textures and Minimal d=5
  Entries

abstract:
  Aiming to relate leptonic CP violating phase $\delta $ to the cosmological CP
asymmetry, we study the extension of MSSM by two quasi-degenerate (strictly
degenerate at tree level) right-handed neutrinos and consider all possible two
texture zero 3x2 Yukawa matrices plus one $\Delta L=2$ dimension five (d=5)
operator contributing to the light neutrino mass matrix. We classify all
experimentally viable mass matrices, leading to several predictions, and
analytically derive predictive relations. We also relate the CP violating
$\delta$ phase to the CP phase of the thermal leptogenesis.


title: A Self-Paced Regularization Framework for Multi-Label Learning

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a novel multi-label learning framework, called
Multi-Label Self-Paced Learning (MLSPL), in an attempt to incorporate the
self-paced learning strategy into multi-label learning regime. In light of the
benefits of adopting the easy-to-hard strategy proposed by self-paced learning,
the devised MLSPL aims to learn multiple labels jointly by gradually including
label learning tasks and instances into model training from the easy to the
hard. We first introduce a self-paced function as a regularizer in the
multi-label learning formulation, so as to simultaneously rank priorities of
the label learning tasks and the instances in each learning iteration.
Considering that different multi-label learning scenarios often need different
self-paced schemes during optimization, we thus propose a general way to find
the desired self-paced functions. Experimental results on three benchmark
datasets suggest the state-of-the-art performance of our approach.


title:
Multiple-angle formulas of generalized trigonometric functions with two
  parameters

abstract:
  Generalized trigonometric functions with two parameters were introduced by
Dr\'{a}bek and Man\'{a}sevich to study an inhomogeneous eigenvalue problem of
the $p$-Laplacian. Concerning these functions, no multiple-angle formula has
been known except for the classical cases and a special case discovered by
Edmunds, Gurka and Lang, not to mention addition theorems. In this paper, we
will present new multiple-angle formulas which are established between two
kinds of the generalized trigonometric functions, and apply the formulas to
generalize classical topics related to the trigonometric functions and the
lemniscate function.


title:
Lax representation of the hyperbolic van Diejen dynamics with two
  coupling parameters

abstract:
  In this paper, we construct a Lax pair for the classical hyperbolic van
Diejen system with two independent coupling parameters. Built upon this
construction, we show that the dynamics can be solved by a projection method,
which in turn allows us to initiate the study of the scattering properties. As
a consequence, we prove the equivalence between the first integrals provided by
the eigenvalues of the Lax matrix and the family of van Diejen's commuting
Hamiltonians. Also, at the end of the paper, we propose a candidate for the Lax
matrix of the hyperbolic van Diejen system with three independent coupling
constants.


title:
Measurement of the branching ratio of $\bar{B}^0 \rightarrow D^{*+}
  \tau^- \bar{\nu}_{\tau}$ relative to $\bar{B}^0 \rightarrow D^{*+} \ell^-
  \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ decays with a semileptonic tagging method

abstract:
  We report a measurement of ratio ${\cal R}(D^*) = {\cal B}(\bar{B}^0
\rightarrow D^{*+} \tau^- \bar{\nu}_{\tau})/{\cal B}(\bar{B}^0 \rightarrow
D^{*+} \ell^- \bar{\nu}_{\ell})$, where $\ell$ denotes an electron or a muon.
The results are based on a data sample containing $772\times10^6$ $B\bar{B}$
pairs recorded at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at the
KEKB $e^+ e^-$ collider. We select a sample of $B^0 \bar{B}^0$ pairs by
reconstructing both $B$ mesons in semileptonic decays to $D^{*\mp} \ell^{\pm}$.
We measure ${\cal R}(D^*)= 0.302 \pm 0.030({\rm stat)} \pm 0.011({\rm syst)}$,
which is within $1.6 \sigma$ of the Standard Model theoretical expectation,
where $\sigma$ is the standard deviation including systematic uncertainties.


title: A Liouville hyperbolic souvlaki

abstract:
  We construct a transient bounded-degree graph no transient subgraph of which
embeds in any surface of finite genus.
  Moreover, we construct a transient, Liouville, bounded-degree,
Gromov--hyperbolic graph with trivial hyperbolic boundary that has no transient
subtree. This answers a question of Benjamini. This graph also yields a
(further) counterexample to a conjecture of Benjamini and Schramm.


title: Review of candidates of binary systems with an RR Lyrae component

abstract:
  We present an overview and current status of research on RR Lyrae stars in
binary systems. In present days the number of binary candidates has steeply
increased and suggested that multiple stellar systems with an RR Lyrae
component is much higher than previously thought. We discuss the probability of
their detection using various observing methods, compare recent results
regarding selection effects, period distribution, proposed orbital parameters
and the Blazhko effect.


title: On subsets of the normal rational curve

abstract:
  A normal rational curve of the $(k-1)$-dimensional projective space over
${\mathbb F}_q$ is an arc of size $q+1$, since any $k$ points of the curve span
the whole space. In this article we will prove that if $q$ is odd then a subset
of size $3k-6$ of a normal rational curve cannot be extended to an arc of size
$q+2$. In fact, we prove something slightly stronger. Suppose that $q$ is odd
and $E$ is a $(2k-3)$-subset of an arc $G$ of size $3k-6$. If $G$ projects to a
subset of a conic from every $(k-3)$-subset of $E$ then $G$ cannot be extended
to an arc of size $q+2$. Stated in terms of error-correcting codes we prove
that a $k$-dimensional linear maximum distance separable code of length $3k-6$
over a field ${\mathbb F}_q$ of odd characteristic, which can be extended to a
Reed-Solomon code of length $q+1$, cannot be extended to a linear maximum
distance separable code of length $q+2$.