title:
CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING): I. Physical
  properties of molecular gas in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 2903

abstract:
  We present simultaneous mappings of J=1-0 emission of 12CO, 13CO, and C18O
molecules toward the whole disk (8' x 5' or 20.8 kpc x 13.0 kpc) of the nearby
barred spiral galaxy NGC 2903 with the Nobeyama Radio Observatory 45-m
telescope at an effective angular resolution of 20" (or 870 pc). We detected
12CO(J=1-0) emission over the disk of NGC 2903. In addition, significant
13CO(J=1-0) emission was found at the center and bar-ends, whereas we could not
detect any significant C18O(J=1-0) emission. In order to improve the
signal-to-noise ratio of CO emission and to obtain accurate line ratios of
12CO(J=2-1)/12CO(J=1-0) ($R_{2-1/1-0}$) and 13CO(J=1-0)/12CO(J=1-0)
($R_{13/12}$), we performed the stacking analysis for our 12CO(J=1-0),
13CO(J=1-0), and archival 12CO(J=2-1) spectra with velocity-axis alignment in
nine representative regions of NGC 2903. We successfully obtained the stacked
spectra of the three CO lines, and could measure averaged $R_{2-1/1-0}$ and
$R_{13/12}$ with high significance for all the regions. We found that both
$R_{2-1/1-0}$ and $R_{13/12}$ differ according to the regions, which reflects
the difference in the physical properties of molecular gas; i.e., density
($n_{\rm H_2}$) and kinetic temperature ($T_K$). We determined $n_{\rm H_2}$
and $T_K$ using $R_{2-1/1-0}$ and $R_{13/12}$ based on the large velocity
gradient approximation. The derived $n_{\rm H_2}$ ranges from ~ 1000 cm$^{-3}$
(in the bar, bar-ends, and spiral arms) to 3700 cm$^{-3}$ (at the center) and
the derived $T_K$ ranges from 10 K (in the bar and spiral arms) to 30 K (at the
center). We examined the dependence of star formation efficiencies (SFEs) on
$n_{\rm H_2}$ and $T_K$, and found the positive correlation between SFE and
$n_{\rm H_2}$ with the correlation coefficient for the least-square power-law
fit $R^2$ of 0.50. This suggests that molecular gas density governs the spatial
variations in SFEs.


title: Hadamard triples generate self-affine spectral measures

abstract:
  Let $R$ be an expanding matrix with integer entries and let $B,L$ be finite
integer digit sets so that $(R,B,L)$ form a Hadamard triple on ${\br}^d$ in the
sense that the matrix $$ \frac{1}{\sqrt{|\det R|}}\left[e^{2\pi i \langle
R^{-1}b,\ell\rangle}\right]_{\ell\in L,b\in B}
  $$ is unitary. We prove that the associated fractal self-affine measure $\mu
= \mu(R,B)$ obtained by an infinite convolution of atomic measures $$ \mu(R,B)
= \delta_{R^{-1} B}\ast\delta_{R^{-2}B}\ast\delta_{R^{-3}B}\ast... $$ is a
spectral measure, i.e., it admits an orthonormal basis of exponential functions
in $L^2(\mu)$. This settles a long-standing conjecture proposed by Jorgensen
and Pedersen and studied by many other authors. Moreover, we also show that if
we relax the Hadamard triple condition to an almost-Parseval-frame condition,
then we obtain a sufficient condition for a self-affine measure to admit
Fourier frames.


title:
Mutual Information Optimally Local Private Discrete Distribution
  Estimation

abstract:
  Consider statistical learning (e.g. discrete distribution estimation) with
local $\epsilon$-differential privacy, which preserves each data provider's
privacy locally, we aim to optimize statistical data utility under the privacy
constraints. Specifically, we study maximizing mutual information between a
provider's data and its private view, and give the exact mutual information
bound along with an attainable mechanism: $k$-subset mechanism as results. The
mutual information optimal mechanism randomly outputs a size $k$ subset of the
original data domain with delicate probability assignment, where $k$ varies
with the privacy level $\epsilon$ and the data domain size $d$. After analysing
the limitations of existing local private mechanisms from mutual information
perspective, we propose an efficient implementation of the $k$-subset mechanism
for discrete distribution estimation, and show its optimality guarantees over
existing approaches.


title: LWIP and Wi-Fi Boost Link Management

abstract:
  3GPP LWIP Release 13 technology and its prestandard version Wi-Fi Boost have
recently emerged as an efficient LTE and Wi-Fi integration at the IP layer,
allowing uplink on LTE and downlink on Wi-Fi. This solves all the contention
problems of Wi-Fi and allows an optimum usage of the unlicensed band for
downlink. In this paper, we present a new feature of Wi-Fi Boost, its radio
link management, which allows to steer the downlink traffic between both LTE
and Wi-Fi upon congestion detection in an intelligent manner. This customised
congestion detection algorithm is based on IP probing, and can work with any
Wi-Fi access point. Simulation results in a typical enterprise scenario show
that LWIP R13 and Wi-Fi Boost can enhance network performance up to 5x and 6x
over LTE-only, and 4x and 5x over Wi-Fi only networks, respectively, and that
the the proposed radio link management can further improve Wi-Fi Boost
performance over LWIP R13 up to 19 %. Based on the promising results, this
paper suggests to enhance LWIP R13 user feedback in future LTE releases.


title: Log-convex sequences and nonzero proximate orders

abstract:
  Summability methods for ultraholomorphic classes in sectors, defined in terms
of a strongly regular sequence $\mathbb{M}=(M_p)_{p\in\mathbb{N}_0}$, have been
put forward by A. Lastra, S. Malek and the second author [1], and their
validity depends on the possibility of associating to $\mathbb{M}$ a nonzero
proximate order. We provide several characterizations of this and other related
properties, in which the concept of regular variation for functions and
sequences plays a prominent role. In particular, we show how to construct
well-behaved strongly regular sequences from nonzero proximate orders.
  [1] A. Lastra, S. Malek and J. Sanz, Summability in general Carleman
ultraholomorphic classes, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 430 (2015), 1175--1206.


title: Satisfiability Checking meets Symbolic Computation (Project Paper)

abstract:
  Symbolic Computation and Satisfiability Checking are two research areas, both
having their individual scientific focus but sharing also common interests in
the development, implementation and application of decision procedures for
arithmetic theories. Despite their commonalities, the two communities are
rather weakly connected. The aim of our newly accepted SC-square project
(H2020-FETOPEN-CSA) is to strengthen the connection between these communities
by creating common platforms, initiating interaction and exchange, identifying
common challenges, and developing a common roadmap from theory along the way to
tools and (industrial) applications. In this paper we report on the aims and on
the first activities of this project, and formalise some relevant challenges
for the unified SC-square community.


title: Flagellar flows around bacterial swarms

abstract:
  Flagellated bacteria on nutrient-rich substrates can differentiate into a
swarming state and move in dense swarms across surfaces. A recent experiment
measured the flow in the fluid around an Escherichia coli swarm (Wu, Hosu and
Berg, 2011 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 108 4147). A systematic chiral flow was
observed in the clockwise direction (when viewed from above) ahead of the swarm
with flow speeds of about $10~\mu$m/s, about 3 times greater than the radial
velocity at the edge of the swarm. The working hypothesis is that this flow is
due to the action of cells stalled at the edge of a colony that extend their
flagellar filaments outwards, moving fluid over the virgin agar. In this work
we quantitatively test his hypothesis. We first build an analytical model of
the flow induced by a single flagellum in a thin film and then use the model,
and its extension to multiple flagella, to compare with experimental
measurements. The results we obtain are in agreement with the flagellar
hypothesis. The model provides further quantitative insight into the flagella
orientations and their spatial distributions as well as the tangential speed
profile. In particular, the model suggests that flagella are on average
pointing radially out of the swarm and are not wrapped tangentially.


title: An analysis of the logic of Riesz Spaces with strong unit

abstract:
  We study \L ukasiewicz logic enriched with a scalar multiplication with
scalars taken in $[0,1]$. Its algebraic models, called {\em Riesz MV-algebras},
are, up to isomorphism, unit intervals of Riesz spaces with a strong unit
endowed with an appropriate structure. When only rational scalars are
considered, one gets the class of {\em DMV-algebras} and a corresponding
logical system. Our research follows two objectives. The first one is to deepen
the connections between functional analysis and the logic of Riesz MV-algebras.
The second one is to study the finitely presented MV-algebras, DMV-algebras and
Riesz MV-algebras, connecting them from logical, algebraic and geometric
perspective.


title:
Dressed-state electromagnetically induced transparency for light storage
  in uniform phase spin-waves

abstract:
  We present, experimentally and theoretically, a scheme for dressed-state
electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a three-step cascade system
where a four-level system is mapped into an effective three-level system.
Theoretical analysis reveals that the scheme provides coherent state control
via adiabatic following and provides a generalized protocol for light storage
in uniform phase spin-waves that are insensitive to motional dephasing. The
three-step driving enables a number of other features including spatial
selectivity of the excitation region within the atomic medium, and kick-free
and Doppler-free excitation that produces narrow resonances in thermal vapor.
As a proof of concept we present an experimental demonstration of the
generalized EIT scheme using the $6S_{1/2} \rightarrow 6P_{3/2} \rightarrow
7S_{1/2} \rightarrow 8P_{1/2}$ excitation path in thermal cesium vapor. This
technique could be applied to cold and thermal ensembles to enable longer
storage times for Rydberg polaritons.


title: Neckpinch singularities in fractional mean curvature flows

abstract:
  In this paper we consider the evolution of sets by a fractional mean
curvature flow. Our main result states that for any dimension $n > 2$, there
exists an embedded surface in $\mathbb R^n$ evolving by fractional mean
curvature flow, which developes a singularity before it can shrink to a point.
When $n > 3$ this result generalizes the analogue result of Grayson for the
classical mean curvature flow. Interestingly, when $n = 2$, our result provides
instead a counterexample in the nonlocal framework to the well known Grayson
Theorem, which states that any smooth embedded curve in the plane evolving by
(classical) MCF shrinks to a point.


title:
Efficient nonparametric estimation and inference for the volatility
  function

abstract:
  During the last decades there has been increasing interest in modeling the
volatility of financial data. Several parametric models have been proposed to
this aim, starting from ARCH, GARCH and their variants, but often it is hard to
evaluate which one is the most suitable for the analyzed financial data. In
this paper we focus on nonparametric analysis of the volatility function for
mixing processes. Our approach encompasses many parametric frameworks and
supplies several tools which can be used to give evidence against or in favor
of a specific parametric model: nonparametric function estimation, confidence
bands and test for symmetry. Another contribution of this paper is to give an
alternative representation of the GARCH(1,1) model in terms of a
Nonparametric-ARCH(1) model, which avoids the use of the lagged volatility, so
that a more precise and more informative News Impact Function can be estimated
by our procedure. We prove the consistency of the proposed method and
investigate its empirical performance on synthetic and real datasets.
Surprisingly, for finite sample size, the simulation results show a better
performance of our nonparametric estimator compared with the MLE estimator of a
GARCH(1,1) model, even in the case of correct specification of the model.


title:
Gravitational collapse in f(R) gravity for a spherically symmetric
  spacetime admitting a homothetic Killing vector

abstract:
  The gravitational collapse of a spherical distribution, in a class of f(R)
theories of gravity, where f(R) is power function of R, is discussed. The
spacetime is assumed to admit a homothetic Killing vector. In the collapsing
modes, some of the situations indeed hit a singularity, but they are all
covered with an apparent horizon. Some peculiar cases are observed where the
collapsing body settles to a constant radius at a given value of the radial
coordinate.


title:
The effect of component variations on the gate fidelity in linear
  optical networks

abstract:
  We investigate the effect of variations in beam splitter transmissions and
path length differences in the nonlinear sign gate that is used for linear
optical quantum computing. We identify two implementations of the gate, and
show that the sensitivity to variations in their components differs
significantly between them. Therefore, circuits that require a precision
implementation may benefit from additional circuit analysis of component
variations to identify the most practical implementation. We suggest possible
routes to efficient circuit analysis in terms of quantum parameter estimation.


title: Lighting the dark molecular gas: H$_{2}$ as a direct tracer

abstract:
  Robust knowledge of molecular gas mass is critical for understanding star
formation in galaxies. The H$_{2}$ molecule does not emit efficiently in the
cold interstellar medium, hence the molecular gas content of galaxies is
typically inferred using indirect tracers. At low metallicity and in other
extreme environments, these tracers can be subject to substantial biases. We
present a new method of estimating total molecular gas mass in galaxies
directly from pure mid-infrared rotational H$_{2}$ emission. By assuming a
power-law distribution of H$_{2}$ rotational temperatures, we can accurately
model H$_{2}$ excitation and reliably obtain warm ($T\!\gtrsim\!100$ K) H$_{2}$
gas masses by varying only the power law's slope. With sensitivities typical of
Spitzer/IRS, we are able to directly probe the H$_{2}$ content via rotational
emission down to ~80 K, accounting for ~15% of the total molecular gas mass in
a galaxy. By extrapolating the fitted power law temperature distributions to a
calibrated \emph{single} lower cutoff temperature, the model also recovers the
total molecular content within a factor of ~2.2 in a diverse sample of
galaxies, and a subset of broken power law models performs similarly well. In
ULIRGs, the fraction of warm H$_{2}$ gas rises with dust temperature, with some
dependency on $\alpha_\mathrm{CO}$. In a sample of five low metallicity
galaxies ranging down to 12+log[O/H]=7.8, the model yields molecular masses up
to ~100 times larger than implied by CO, in good agreement with other methods
based on dust mass and star formation depletion timescale. This technique
offers real promise for assessing molecular content in the early universe where
CO and dust-based methods may fail.


title:
Value distribution of the sequences of the derivatives of iterated
  polynomials

abstract:
  We establish the equidistribution of the sequence of the averaged pullbacks
of a Dirac measure at any value in $\mathbb{C}\setminus\{0\}$ under the
derivatives of the iterations of a polynomials $f\in\mathbb{C}[z]$ of degree
more than one towards the $f$-equilibrium (or canonical) measure $\mu_f$ on
$\mathbb{P}^1$. We also show that for every $C^2$ test function on
$\mathbb{P}^1$, the convergence is exponentially fast up to a polar subset of
exceptional values in $\mathbb{C}$. A parameter space analog of the latter
quantitative result for the monic and centered unicritical polynomials family
is also established.


title:
Behavior and path planning for the coalition of cognitive robots in
  smart relocation tasks

abstract:
  In this paper we outline the approach of solving special type of navigation
tasks for robotic systems, when a coalition of robots (agents) acts in the 2D
environment, which can be modified by the actions, and share the same goal
location. The latter is originally unreachable for some members of the
coalition, but the common task still can be accomplished as the agents can
assist each other (e.g. by modifying the environment). We call such tasks smart
relocation tasks (as the can not be solved by pure path planning methods) and
study spatial and behavior interaction of robots while solving them. We use
cognitive approach and introduce semiotic knowledge representation - sign world
model which underlines behavioral planning methodology. Planning is viewed as a
recursive search process in the hierarchical state-space induced by sings with
path planning signs reside on the lowest level. Reaching this level triggers
path planning which is accomplished by state of the art grid-based planners
focused on producing smooth paths (e.g. LIAN) and thus indirectly guarantying
feasibility of that paths against agent's dynamic constraints.


title: When a negative weak value -1 plays the counterpart of a probability 1

abstract:
  When the weak value of a projector is 1, a quantum system behaves as in that
eigenstate with probability 1. By definition, however, the weak value may take
an anomalous value lying outside the range of probability like -1. From the
viewpoint of a physical effect, we show that such a negative weak value of -1
can be regarded as the counterpart of the ordinary value of 1. Using photons,
we experimentally verify it as the symmetrical shift in polarization depending
on the weak value given by pre-postselection of the path state. Unlike
observation of a weak value as an ensemble average via weak measurements, the
effect of a weak value is definitely confirmed in two photon interference: the
symmetrical shift corresponding to the weak value can be directly observed as
the rotation angle of a half wave plate.


title: Visual Tracking via Shallow and Deep Collaborative Model

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a robust tracking method based on the collaboration
of a generative model and a discriminative classifier, where features are
learned by shallow and deep architectures, respectively. For the generative
model, we introduce a block-based incremental learning scheme, in which a local
binary mask is constructed to deal with occlusion. The similarity degrees
between the local patches and their corresponding subspace are integrated to
formulate a more accurate global appearance model. In the discriminative model,
we exploit the advances of deep learning architectures to learn generic
features which are robust to both background clutters and foreground appearance
variations. To this end, we first construct a discriminative training set from
auxiliary video sequences. A deep classification neural network is then trained
offline on this training set. Through online fine-tuning, both the hierarchical
feature extractor and the classifier can be adapted to the appearance change of
the target for effective online tracking. The collaboration of these two models
achieves a good balance in handling occlusion and target appearance change,
which are two contradictory challenging factors in visual tracking. Both
quantitative and qualitative evaluations against several state-of-the-art
algorithms on challenging image sequences demonstrate the accuracy and the
robustness of the proposed tracker.


title:
Minmax Tree Facility Location and Sink Evacuation with Dynamic Confluent
  Flows

abstract:
  Let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph modelling a building or road network in which edges
have-both travel times (lengths) and capacities associated with them. An edge's
capacity is the number of people that can enter that edge in a unit of time.
  In emergencies, people evacuate towards the exits. If too many people try to
evacuate through the same edge, congestion builds up and slows down the
evacuation.
  Graphs with both lengths and capacities are known as Dynamic Flow networks.
An evacuation plan for $G$ consists of a choice of exit locations and a
partition of the people at the vertices into groups, with each group evacuating
to the same exit. The evacuation time of a plan is the time it takes until the
last person evacuates. The $k$-sink evacuation problem is to provide an
evacuation plan with $k$ exit locations that minimizes the evacuation time. It
is known that this problem is NP-Hard for general graphs but no polynomial time
algorithm was previously known even for the case of $G$ a tree. This paper
presents an $O(n k^2 \log^5 n)$ algorithm for the $k$-sink evacuation problem
on trees. Our algorithms also apply to a more general class of problems, which
we call minmax tree facility location.


title:
Influence of complex disorder on skew-scattering Hall effects in
  $L1_0$-ordered FePt alloy

abstract:
  We show by first-principles calculations that the skew-scattering anomalous
Hall and spin-Hall angles of L$1_0$-ordered FePt drastically depend on
different types of disorder. A different sign of the AHE is obtained when
slightly deviating from the stoichiometric ratio towards the Fe-rich side as
compared to the Pt-rich side. For stoichiometric samples, short-range ordering
of defects has a profound effect on the Hall angles and can change them by a
factor of $2$ as compared to the case of uncorrelated disorder. This might
explain the vast range of anomalous Hall angles measured in experiments, which
undergo different preparation procedures and thus might differ in their
crystallographic quality.


title: Light speed variation from gamma ray burst GRB 160509A

abstract:
  It is postulated in Einstein's relativity that the speed of light in vacuum
is a constant for all observers. However, the effect of quantum gravity could
bring an energy dependence of light speed. Even a tiny speed variation, when
amplified by the cosmological distance, may be revealed by the observed time
lags between photons with different energies from astrophysical sources. From
the newly detected long gamma ray burst GRB~160509A, we find evidence to
support the prediction for a linear form modification of light speed in
cosmological space.


title:
On the volume and the Chern-Simons invariant for the $2$-bridge knot
  orbifolds

abstract:
  We extend some part of the unpublished paper written by Mednykh and
Rasskazov. Using the approach indicated in this paper we derive the
Riley-Mednykh polynomial for some family of the $2$-bridge knot orbifolds. As a
result we obtain explicit formulae for the volume of cone-manifolds and the
Chern-Simons invariant of orbifolds of the knot with Conway's notation
$C(2n,4)$.


title:
Laboratory von H\'amos X-ray Spectroscopy for Routine Sample
  Characterization

abstract:
  High energy resolution, hard X-ray spectroscopies are powerful element
selective probes of the electronic and local structure of matter, with diverse
applications in chemistry, physics, biology and materials science. The routine
application of these techniques is hindered by the complicated and slow access
to synchrotron radiation facilities. Here we propose a new, economic, easily
operated laboratory high resolution von H\'amos type X-ray spectrometer, which
offers rapid transmission experiments for X-ray absorption, and is also capable
of recording X-ray emission spectra. The use of a cylindrical analyzer crystal
and a position sensitive detector enabled us to build a maintenance free,
flexible setup with low operational costs, while delivering synchrotron grade
signal to noise measurements in reasonable acquisition times. We demonstrate
the proof of principle and give examples for both measurement types. Finally,
tracking of a several day long chemical transformation, a case better suited
for laboratory than synchrotron investigation, is also presented.


title:
On the link between infinite horizon control and quasi-stationary
  distributions

abstract:
  We study infinite horizon control of continuous-time non-linear branching
processes with almost sure extinction for general (positive or negative)
discount. Our main goal is to study the link between infinite horizon control
of these processes and an optimization problem involving their quasi-stationary
distributions and the corresponding extinction rates. More precisely, we obtain
an equivalent of the value function when the discount parameter is close to the
threshold where the value function becomes infinite, and we characterize the
optimal Markov control in this limit. To achieve this, we present a new proof
of the dynamic programming principle based upon a pseudo-Markov property for
controlled jump processes. We also prove the convergence to a unique
quasi-stationary distribution of non-linear branching processes controlled by a
Markov control conditioned on non-extinction.


title:
An explicit volume formula for the link $7_3^2 (\alpha, \alpha)$
  cone-manifolds

abstract:
  We calculate the volume of the $7_3^2$ link cone-manifolds using the
Schl\"afli formula. As an application, we give the volume of the cyclic
coverings over the link.


title:
Swimming of a linear chain with a cargo in an incompressible viscous
  fluid with inertia

abstract:
  An approximation to the added mass matrix of an assembly of spheres is
constructed on the basis of potential flow theory for situations where one
sphere is much larger than the others. In the approximation the flow potential
near a small sphere is assumed to be dipolar, but near the large sphere it
involves all higher order multipoles. The analysis is based on an exact result
for the potential of a magnetic dipole in the presence of a superconducting
sphere. Subsequently, the approximate added mass hydrodynamic interactions are
used in a calculation of the swimming velocity and rate of dissipation of
linear chain structures consisting of a number of small spheres and a single
large one, with account also of frictional hydrodynamic interactions. The
results derived for periodic swimming on the basis of a kinematic approach are
compared with bilinear theory, valid for small amplitude of stroke, and with
the numerical solution of the approximate equations of motion. The calculations
cover the whole range of scale number between the friction-dominated Stokes
limit and the inertia-dominated regime.


title: Infrared fingerprints of few-layer black phosphorus

abstract:
  Black phosphorus is an infrared layered material. Its bandgap complements
other widely studied two-dimensional materials: zero-gap graphene and
visible/near-infrared gap transition metal dichalcogenides. Though highly
desirable, a comprehensive infrared characterization is still lacking. Here we
report a systematic infrared study of mechanically exfoliated few-layer black
phosphorus, with thickness ranging from 2 to 15 layers and photon energy
spanning from 0.25 to 1.36 eV. Each few-layer black phosphorus exhibits a
thickness-dependent unique infrared spectrum with a series of absorption
resonances, which reveals the underlying electronic structure evolution and
serves as its IR fingerprints. Surprisingly, unexpected absorption features,
which are associated with the forbidden optical transitions, have been
observed. Furthermore, we unambiguously demonstrate that controllable uniaxial
strain can be used as a convenient and effective approach to tune the
electronic structure of few-layer black phosphorus. Our study paves the way for
black phosphorus applications in infrared photonics and optoelectronics.


title:
Rotation Curve and Mass Distribution in the Galaxy from the Velocities
  of Objects at Distances up to 200 kpc

abstract:
  Three three-component (bulge, disk, halo) model Galactic gravitational
potentials differing by the expression for the dark matter halo are considered.
The central (bulge) and disk components are described by the Miyamoto-Nagai
expressions. The Allen-Santill'an (I), Wilkinson-Evans (II), and
Navarro-Frenk-White (III) models are used to describe the halo. A set of
present-day observational data in the range of Galactocentric distances R from
0 to 200 kpc is used to refine the parameters of these models. The model
rotation curves have been fitted to the observed velocities by taking into
account the constraints on the local matter density \rho_\odotand the force
K_{z=1.1} acting perpendicularly to the Galactic plane. The Galactic mass
within a sphere of radius 50 kpc,
  M_G (R<=50 kpc)=(0.41+/-0.12)x10^12 M_\odot, is shown to satisfy all three
models. The differences between the models become increasingly significant with
increasing radius R. In model I, the Galactic mass within a sphere of radius
200 kpc turns out to be greatest among the models considered,
  M_G (R<=200 kpc)=(1.45+/-0.30)x10^12 M_\odot, and the smallest value has been
found in model II,
  M_G (R<=200 kpc)=(0.61+/-0.12)x10^{12} M_\odot.
  In our view, model III is the best one among those considered, because it
ensures the smallest residual between the data and the constructed model
rotation curve provided that the constraints on the local parameters hold with
a high accuracy. Here, the Galactic mass is
  M_G (R<=200 kpc)=(0.75+/-0.19)x10^12 M_\odot.
  A comparative analysis with the models by Irrgang et al. (2013), including
those using the integration of orbits for the two globular clusters NGC 104 and
NGC 1851 as an example, has been performed. The third model is shown to have
subjected to a significant improvement.


title: Deviations in Tribimaximal Mixing From Sterile Neutrino Sector

abstract:
  We explore the possibility of generating a non-zero $U_{e3}$ element of the
neutrino mixing matrix from tribimaximal neutrino mixing by adding a light
sterile neutrino to the active neutrinos. Small active-sterile mixing can
provide the necessary deviation from tribimaximal mixing to generate a non-zero
$\theta_{13}$ and atmospheric mixing $\theta_{23}$ different from maximal.
Assuming no CP-violation, we study the phenomenological impact of sterile
neutrinos in the context of current neutrino oscillation data. The tribimaximal
pattern is broken in such a manner that the second column of tribimaximal
mixing remains intact in the neutrino mixing matrix.


title: Late time cosmic acceleration from natural infrared cutoff?

abstract:
  In this paper, inspired by the ultraviolet deformation of the
Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker geometry in loop quantum cosmology, we
formulate an infrared-modified cosmological model. We obtain the associated
deformed Friedmann and Raychaudhuri equations and we show that the late time
cosmic acceleration can be addressed by the infrared corrections. As a
particular example, we applied the setup to the case of matter dominated
universe. This model has the same number of parameters as $\Lambda$CDM, but a
dynamical dark energy generates in the matter dominated era at the late time.
According to our model, as the universe expands, the energy density of the cold
dark matter dilutes and when the Hubble parameter approaches to its minimum,
the infrared effects dominate such that the effective equation of state
parameter smoothly changes from $w_{_{\rm eff}}=0$ to $w_{_{\rm eff}}=-2$.
Interestingly and nontrivially, the unstable de Sitter phase with $w_{_{\rm
eff}}=-1$ is corresponding to $\Omega_m=\Omega_d =0.5$ and the universe crosses
the phantom divide from the quintessence phase with $w_{_{\rm eff}}>-1$ and
$\Omega_m> \Omega_d$ to the phantom phase with $w_{_{\rm eff}}<-1$ and $
\Omega_m<\Omega_d$ which shows that the model is observationally viable. The
results show that the universe finally ends up in a big rip singularity for a
finite time proportional to the inverse of the minimum of the Hubble parameter.
Moreover, we consider the dynamical stability of the model and we show that the
universe starts from the matter dominated era at the past attractor with
$w_{_{\rm eff}}=0$ and ends up in a future attractor at the big rip with
$w_{_{\rm eff}}=-2$.


title:
An evaluation of the central value of the automorphic scattering
  determinant

abstract:
  Let $M$ be a finite volume, non-compact hyperbolic Riemann surface, possibly
with elliptic fixed points, and let $\phi(s)$ denote the automorphic scattering
determinant. From the known functional equation $\phi(s)\phi(1-s)=1$ one
concludes that $\phi(1/2)^{2} = 1$. However, except for the relatively few
instances when $\phi(s)$ is explicitly computable, one does not know
$\phi(1/2)$. In this article we address this problem and prove the following
result. Let $N$ and $P$ denote the number of zeros and poles, respectively, of
$\phi(s)$ in $(1/2,\infty)$, counted with multiplicities. Let $d(1)$ be the
coefficient of the leading term from the Dirichlet series component of
$\phi(s)$. Then $\phi(1/2)=(-1)^{N+P} \cdot \mathrm{sgn}(d(1))$.


title:
An accretion-jet model for M87: interpreting the spectral energy
  distribution and Faraday rotation measure

abstract:
  M87 is arguably the best supermassive black hole (BH) to explore the jet
and/or accretion physics due to its proximity and fruitful high-resolution
multi-waveband observations. We model the multi-wavelength spectral energy
distribution (SED) of M87 core that observed at a scale of 0.4 arcsec ($\sim
10^5R_{\rm g}$, $R_{\rm g}$ is gravitational radius) as recently presented by
Prieto et al. Similar to Sgr A*, we find that the millimeter bump as observed
by Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) can be modeled by the
synchrotron emission of the thermal electrons in advection dominated accretion
flow (ADAF), while the low-frequency radio emission and X-ray emission may
dominantly come from the jet. The millimeter radiation from ADAF dominantly
come from the region within $10R_{\rm g}$, which is roughly consistent with the
recent very long baseline interferometry observations at 230\,GHz. We further
calculate the Faraday rotation measure (RM) from both ADAF and jet models, and
find that the RM predicted from the ADAF is roughly consistent with the
measured value while the RM predicted from the jet is much higher if jet
velocity close to the BH is low or moderate (e.g., $v_{\rm
jet}\lesssim0.6\,c$). With the constraints from the SED modeling and RM, we
find that the accretion rate close to the BH horizon is $\sim
(0.2-1)\times10^{-3}{M}_{\odot} \rm yr^{-1}\ll\dot{\it M}_{\rm B}\sim 0.2\it
{M}_{\odot} \rm yr^{-1}$ ($\dot{M}_{\rm B}$ is Bondi accretion rate), where the
electron density profile, $n_{\rm e}\propto r^{\sim -1}$, in the accretion flow
is consistent with that determined from X-ray observation inside the Bondi
radius and recent numerical simulations.


title: Elastic Coulomb breakup of $^{34}$Na

abstract:
  Purpose : The aim of this paper is to study the elastic Coulomb breakup of
$^{34}$Na on $^{208}$Pb to give us a core of $^{33}$Na with a neutron and in
the process we try and investigate the one neutron separation energy and the
ground state configuration of $^{34}$Na.
  Method : A fully quantum mechanical Coulomb breakup theory within the
architecture of post-form finite range distorted wave Born approximation
extended to include the effects of deformation is used to research the elastic
Coulomb breakup of $^{34}$Na on $^{208}$Pb at 100 MeV/u. The triple
differential cross-section calculated for the breakup is integrated over the
desired components to find the total cross-section, momentum and angular
distributions as well as the average momenta, along with the energy-angular
distributions.
  Results : The total one neutron removal cross-section is calculated to test
the possible ground state configurations of $^{34}$Na. The average momentum
results along with energy-angular calculations indicate $^{34}$Na to have a
halo structure. The parallel momentum distributions with narrow full widths at
half maxima signify the same.
  Conclusion : We have attempted to analyse the possible ground state
configurations of $^{34}$Na and in congruity with the patterns in the `island
of inversion' conclude that even without deformation, $^{34}$Na should be a
neutron halo with a predominant contribution to its ground state most probably
coming from $^{33}$Na($3/2^{+}$) $\otimes$ $2p_{3/2}\nu$ configuration. We also
surmise that it would certainly be useful and rewarding to test our predictions
with an experiment to put stricter limits on its ground state configuration and
binding energy.


title: Boron and nitrogen doping in graphene antidot lattices

abstract:
  Bottom-up fabrication of graphene antidot lattices (GALs) has previously
yielded atomically precise structures with sub-nanometer periodicity. Focusing
on this type of experimentally realized GAL, we perform density functional
theory calculations on the pristine structure as well as GALs with edge carbon
atoms substituted with boron or nitrogen. We show that p- and n-type doping
levels emerge with activation energies that depend on the level of
hydrogenation at the impurity. Furthermore, a tight-binding parameterization
together with a Green's function method are used to describe more dilute
doping.


title:
Limiting First Order Phase Transitions in Dark Gauge Sectors from
  Gravitational Waves experiments

abstract:
  We discuss the possibility to indirectly test First Order Phase Transitions
of hidden sectors. We study the interesting example of a {\it dark standard
model} with a deformed parameter space in the Higgs potential. A dark
electroweak phase transition can be limited from next future experiments like
eLISA and DECIGO.


title: Cops and Robbers on Intersection Graphs

abstract:
  The cop number of a graph $G$ is the smallest $k$ such that $k$ cops win the
game of cops and robber on $G$. We investigate the maximum cop number of
geometric intersection graphs, which are graphs whose vertices are represented
by geometric shapes and edges by their intersections. We establish the
following dichotomy for previously studied classes of intersection graphs:
  The intersection graphs of arc-connected sets in the plane (called string
graphs) have cop number at most 15, and more generally, the intersection graphs
of arc-connected subsets of a surface have cop number at most $10g+15$ in case
of orientable surface of genus $g$, and at most $10g'+15$ in case of
non-orientable surface of Euler genus $g'$. For more restricted classes of
intersection graphs, we obtain better bounds: the maximum cop number of
interval filament graphs is two, and the maximum cop number of outer-string
graphs is between 3 and 4.
  The intersection graphs of disconnected 2-dimensional sets or of
3-dimensional sets have unbounded cop number even in very restricted settings.
For instance, we show that the cop number is unbounded on intersection graphs
of two-element subsets of a line, as well as on intersection graphs of
3-dimensional unit balls, of 3-dimensional unit cubes or of 3-dimensional
axis-aligned unit segments.


title:
Gap control in phosphorene/BN structures from first principles
  calculations

abstract:
  Using both DFT as well as $G_0W_0$ calculations, we investigate static and
dynamic effects on the phosphorene band gap upon deposition and encapsulation
on/in BN multilayers. We demonstrate how competing long- and short-range
effects cause the phosphorene band gap to increase at low P - BN interlayer
spacings, while the band gap is found to drop below that of isolated
phosphorene in the BN/P bilayer at intermediate distances around 4 \AA.
Subsequent stacking of BN layers, i.e. BN/BN/P and BN/BN/BN/P is found to have
a negligible effect at the DFT level while at the $G_0W_0$ increased screening
lowers the band gap as compared to the BN/P bilayer. Encapsulation between two
BN layer is found to increase the phosphorene band gap by a value approximately
twice that observed when going from freestanding phosphorene to BN/P. We
further investigate the use of the $\rm{GLLB-SC}$ functional as a starting
point for $G_0W_0$ calculations showing it to, in the case of phosphorene,
yield results close to those obtained from $GW_0@\rm{PBE}$ calculations.


title:
Reverberation Mapping of the Broad-line Region in NGC 5548: Evidence for
  Radiation Pressure?

abstract:
  NGC 5548 is the best-observed reverberation-mapped active galactic nucleus
with long-term, intensive monitoring. Here we report results from a new
observational campaign between January and July, 2015. We measure the centroid
time lag of the broad H$\beta$ emission line with respect to the 5100 \AA
continuum and obtain $\tau_{\rm cent} = 7.20^{+1.33}_{-0.35}$ days in the rest
frame. This yields a black hole mass of $M_{\bullet}=8.71^{+3.21}_{-2.61} $x$
10^{7}M_{\odot}$ using a broad H$\beta$ line dispersion of $3124\pm302$ km
s$^{-1}$ and a virial factor of $f_{_{\rm BLR}}=6.3\pm1.5$ for the broad-line
region (BLR), consistent with the mass measurements from previous H$\beta$
campaigns. The high-quality data allow us to construct a velocity-binned delay
map for the broad H$\beta$ line, which shows a symmetric response pattern
around the line center, a plausible kinematic signature of virialized motion of
the BLR. Combining all the available measurements of H$\beta$ time lags and the
associated mean 5100 {\AA} luminosities over 18 campaigns between 1989 and
2015, we find that the H$\beta$ BLR size varies with the mean optical
luminosity, but, interestingly, with a possible delay of $2.35_{-1.25}^{+3.47}$
yrs. This delay coincides with the typical BLR dynamical timescale of NGC 5548,
indicating that the BLR undergoes dynamical changes, possibly driven by
radiation pressure.


title:
High-energy emitting BL Lacs and high-energy neutrinos - Prospects for
  the direct association with IceCube and KM3NeT

abstract:
  The origin of the high-energy flux of neutrinos detected by IceCube is still
unknown. Recent works report the evidence for a possible positional correlation
between the reconstructed neutrino arrival directions and the positions in the
sky of low power, high-energy emitting BL Lac objects (HBL). Assuming that
$\gamma$-ray emitting HBL form the bulk of the sources of high-energy neutrinos
above 100 TeV, we intend to calculate the number of events expected to be
detected for each source by IceCube and KM3NeT. Based on a simple
theoretically-motivated framework inspired by the structured jet scenario for
these sources, we postulate a direct proportionality between high-energy
$\gamma$-ray and neutrino fluxes. We calculate the expected neutrino event rate
for the HBL sources of the Second Fermi-LAT Catalog of High-Energy Sources
(2FHL) for IceCube and the presently under construction KM3NeT using
declination-dependent and exposure-weighted effective areas. We provide a list
of 2FHL HBL with the calculated number of events. For IceCube, the derived
count rate for several sources is relatively high, of the order of $\lesssim$1
yr$^{-1}$, consistently with the recent findings of a possible positional
correlation. For KM3NeT the calculated rates are higher, with several sources
with expected rate exceeding 1 yr$^{-1}$. This, coupled with the improved
angular resolution, implies that the HBL origin can be effectively tested with
few years of observation of KM3NeT (and IceCube Gen2, for which similar
performances are foreseen) through the direct association of neutrinos and
single HBL. Our results show that if -- as hinted by recent works -- HBL
represent a possible population of high-energy neutrino emitters, several
single sources should be identified in few years of exposure of KM3NeT,
highlighting the importance of the improved angular resolution anticipated for
KM3NeT and IceCube Gen2.


title:
Varying the resolution of the Rouse model on temporal and spatial
  scales: application to multiscale modelling of DNA dynamics

abstract:
  A multi-resolution bead-spring model for polymer dynamics is developed as a
generalization of the Rouse model. A polymer chain is described using beads of
variable sizes connected by springs with variable spring constants. A numerical
scheme which can use different timesteps to advance the positions of different
beads is presented and analyzed. The position of a particular bead is only
updated at integer multiples of the timesteps associated with its connecting
springs. This approach extends the Rouse model to a multiscale model on both
spatial and temporal scales, allowing simulations of localized regions of a
polymer chain with high spatial and temporal resolution, while using a coarser
modelling approach to describe the rest of the polymer chain. A method for
changing the model resolution on-the-fly is developed using the
Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. It is shown that this approach maintains key
statistics of the end-to-end distance and diffusion of the polymer filament and
makes computational savings when applied to a model for the binding of a
protein to the DNA filament.


title:
Discontinuous transition in an equilibrium percolation model with
  suppression

abstract:
  Discontinuous transition is observed in the equilibrium cluster properties of
a percolation model with suppressed cluster growth as the growth parameter g0
is tuned to the critical threshold at sufficiently low initial seed
concentration rho in contrast to the previously reported results on non-
equilibrium growth models. In the present model, the growth process follows all
the criteria of the original percolation model except continuously updated
occupation probability of the lattice sites that suppresses the growth of a
cluster according to its size. As rho varied from higher values to smaller
values, a line of continuous transition points encounters a coexistence region
of spanning and non- spanning large clusters. At sufficiently small values of
rho (less equal 0.05), the growth parameter g0 exceeds the usual percolation
threshold and generates compact spanning clusters leading to discontinuous
transitions.


title:
CNN-based Patch Matching for Optical Flow with Thresholded Hinge
  Embedding Loss

abstract:
  Learning based approaches have not yet achieved their full potential in
optical flow estimation, where their performance still trails heuristic
approaches. In this paper, we present a CNN based patch matching approach for
optical flow estimation. An important contribution of our approach is a novel
thresholded loss for Siamese networks. We demonstrate that our loss performs
clearly better than existing losses. It also allows to speed up training by a
factor of 2 in our tests. Furthermore, we present a novel way for calculating
CNN based features for different image scales, which performs better than
existing methods. We also discuss new ways of evaluating the robustness of
trained features for the application of patch matching for optical flow. An
interesting discovery in our paper is that low-pass filtering of feature maps
can increase the robustness of features created by CNNs. We proved the
competitive performance of our approach by submitting it to the KITTI 2012,
KITTI 2015 and MPI-Sintel evaluation portals where we obtained state-of-the-art
results on all three datasets.


title:
Glimpses of stellar surfaces. I. Spot evolution and differential
  rotation of the planet host star Kepler-210

abstract:
  We use high accuracy photometric data obtained with the Kepler satellite to
monitor the activity modulations of the Kepler-210 planet host star over a time
span of more than four years. Following the phenomenology of the star's light
curve in combination with a five spot model, we identify six different
so-called spot seasons. A characteristic, which is common in the majority of
the seasons, is the persistent appearance of spots in a specific range of
longitudes on the stellar surface. The most prominent period of the observed
activity modulations is different for each season and appears to evolve
following a specific pattern, resembling the changes in the sunspot periods
during the solar magnetic cycle. Under the hypothesis that the star exhibits
solar-like differential rotation, we suggest differential rotation values of
Kepler-210 that are similar to or smaller than that of the Sun. Finally, we
estimate spot life times between 60 days and 90 days, taking into consideration
the evolution of the total covered stellar surface computed from our model.


title: Bounds for absolute moments of order statistics

abstract:
  The bounds for absolute moments of order statistics are established. Let
$X_1,\dots ,X_n$ be independent identically distributed real-valued random
variables and let $X_{1:n}\le \dots \le X_{n:n}$ be the corresponding order
statistics. The absolute moments $\textbf{E}|X_{i:n}|^k$, $k>0$, are estimated
via the absolute moment $\textbf{E}|X_1|^{\delta}$, $\delta>0$, for all $i$
such that $k\delta^{-1}\leq i \leq n-k\delta^{-1}+1$ with order
$(n^2i^{-1}(n-i)^{-1})^{k\delta^{-1}}$ in $i$ and $n$. These estimates are able
to be of some use as a~tool to argue in different probability limit theorems.


title: The Descriptive Complexity of Subgraph Isomorphism without Numerics

abstract:
  Let $F$ be a connected graph with $\ell$ vertices. The existence of a
subgraph isomorphic to $F$ can be defined in first-order logic with quantifier
depth no better than $\ell$, simply because no first-order formula of smaller
quantifier depth can distinguish between the complete graphs $K_\ell$ and
$K_{\ell-1}$. We show that, for some $F$, the existence of an $F$ subgraph in
\emph{sufficiently large} connected graphs is definable with quantifier depth
$\ell-3$. On the other hand, this is never possible with quantifier depth
better than $\ell/2$. If we, however, consider definitions over connected
graphs with sufficiently large treewidth, the quantifier depth can for some $F$
be arbitrarily small comparing to $\ell$ but never smaller than the treewidth
of $F$. Moreover, the definitions over highly connected graphs require
quantifier depth strictly more than the density of $F$. Finally, we determine
the exact values of these descriptive complexity parameters for all connected
pattern graphs $F$ on 4 vertices.


title:
Harnack inequality for kinetic Fokker-Planck equations with rough
  coefficients and application to the Landau equation

abstract:
  We extend the De Giorgi--Nash--Moser theory to a class of kinetic
Fokker-Planck equations and deduce new results on the Landau-Coulomb equation.
More precisely, we first study the H{\"o}lder regularity and establish a
Harnack inequality for solutions to a general linear equation of Fokker-Planck
type whose coefficients are merely measurable and essentially bounded, i.e.
assuming no regularity on the coefficients in order to later derive results for
non-linear problems. This general equation has the formal structure of the
hypoelliptic equations "of type II" , sometimes also called ultraparabolic
equations of Kolmogorov type, but with rough coefficients: it combines a
first-order skew-symmetric operator with a second-order elliptic operator
involving derivatives along only part of the coordinates and with rough
coefficients. These general results are then applied to the non-negative
essentially bounded weak solutions of the Landau equation with inverse-power
law $\gamma$ $\in$ [--d, 1] whose mass, energy and entropy density are bounded
and mass is bounded away from 0, and we deduce the H{\"o}lder regularity of
these solutions.


title:
Compton Thick AGN in the 70 Month Swift-BAT All-Sky Hard X-ray Survey: a
  Bayesian approach

abstract:
  The 70-month Swift/BAT catalogue provides a sensitive view of the
extragalactic X-ray sky at hard energies (>10 keV) containing about 800 Active
Galactic Nuclei. We explore its content in heavily obscured, Compton-thick AGN
by combining the BAT (14-195 keV) with the lower energy XRT (0.3-10 keV) data.
We apply a Bayesian methodology using Markov chains to estimate the exact
probability distribution of the column density for each source. We find 53
possible Compton-thick sources (with probability 3 to 100%) translating to a
~7% fraction of the AGN in our sample. We derive the first parametric
luminosity function of Compton-thick AGN. The unabsorbed luminosity function
can be represented by a double power-law with a break at $L_{\star} 2 \times
10^{42}$ $\rm ergs~s^{-1}$ in the 20-40 keV band.


title: Perturbations of Positive Semigroups on AM-Spaces

abstract:
  We consider positive perturbations of positive semigroups on AM-spaces and
prove a result which is the dual counterpart of a famous perturbation result of
Desch in AL-spaces. As an application we consider unbounded perturbations of
the shift semigroup.


title:
On the Numerical Solution of Nonlinear Fractional-Integro Differential
  Equations

abstract:
  In the present study, a numerical method, perturbation-iteration algorithm
(shortly PIA), have been employed to give approximate solutions of nonlinear
fractional-integro differential equations (FIDEs). Comparing with the exact
solution, the PIA produces reliable and accurate results for FIDEs.


title:
Direct observation of spatio-temporal dynamics of short electron bunches
  in storage rings

abstract:
  In recent synchrotron radiation facilities, the use of short (picosecond)
electron bunches is a powerful method for producing giant pulses of Terahertz
Coherent Synchrotron Radiation (THz CSR). Here we report on the first direct
observation of these pulse shapes with a few picoseconds resolution, and of
their dynamics over a long time. We thus confirm in a very direct way the
theories predicting an interplay between two physical processes. Below a
critical bunch charge, we observe a train of identical THz pulses (a broadband
Terahertz comb) stemming from the shortness of the electron bunches. Above this
threshold, a large part of the emission is dominated by drifting structures,
which appear through spontaneous self-organization. These challenging
single-shot THz recordings are made possible by using a recently developed
photonic time stretch detector with a high sensitivity. The experiment has been
realized at the SOLEIL storage ring.


title:
Assisting Drivers During Overtaking Using Car-2-Car Communication and
  Multi-Agent Systems

abstract:
  A warning system for assisting drivers during overtaking maneuvers is
proposed. The system relies on Car-2-Car communication technologies and
multi-agent systems. A protocol for safety overtaking is proposed based on ACL
communicative acts. The mathematical model for safety overtaking used Kalman
filter to minimize localization error.


title:
Mining Arguments from Cancer Documents Using Natural Language Processing
  and Ontologies

abstract:
  In the medical domain, the continuous stream of scientific research contains
contradictory results supported by arguments and counter-arguments. As medical
expertise occurs at different levels, part of the human agents have
difficulties to face the huge amount of studies, but also to understand the
reasons and pieces of evidences claimed by the proponents and the opponents of
the debated topic. To better understand the supporting arguments for new
findings related to current state of the art in the medical domain we need
tools able to identify arguments in scientific papers. Our work here aims to
fill the above technological gap.
  Quite aware of the difficulty of this task, we embark to this road by relying
on the well-known interleaving of domain knowledge with natural language
processing. To formalise the existing medical knowledge, we rely on ontologies.
To structure the argumentation model we use also the expressivity and reasoning
capabilities of Description Logics. To perform argumentation mining we
formalise various linguistic patterns in a rule-based language. We tested our
solution against a corpus of scientific papers related to breast cancer. The
run experiments show a F-measure between 0.71 and 0.86 for identifying
conclusions of an argument and between 0.65 and 0.86 for identifying premises
of an argument.


title:
Harmonization of conflicting medical opinions using argumentation
  protocols and textual entailment - a case study on Parkinson disease

abstract:
  Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease,
affecting more than 1.2 million people in Europe. Medications are available for
the management of its symptoms, but the exact cause of the disease is unknown
and there is currently no cure on the market. To better understand the
relations between new findings and current medical knowledge, we need tools
able to analyse published medical papers based on natural language processing
and tools capable to identify various relationships of new findings with the
current medical knowledge. Our work aims to fill the above technological gap.
  To identify conflicting information in medical documents, we enact textual
entailment technology. To encapsulate existing medical knowledge, we rely on
ontologies. To connect the formal axioms in ontologies with natural text in
medical articles, we exploit ontology verbalisation techniques. To assess the
level of disagreement between human agents with respect to a medical issue, we
rely on fuzzy aggregation. To harmonize this disagreement, we design mediation
protocols within a multi-agent framework.


title:
{\em Ab initio} Quantum Monte Carlo simulation of the warm dense
  electron gas in the thermodynamic limit

abstract:
  We perform \emph{ab initio} quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations of the warm
dense uniform electron gas in the thermodynamic limit. By combining QMC data
with linear response theory we are able to remove finite-size errors from the
potential energy over the entire warm dense regime, overcoming the deficiencies
of the existing finite-size corrections by Brown \emph{et al.}~[PRL
\textbf{110}, 146405 (2013)]. Extensive new QMC results for up to $N=1000$
electrons enable us to compute the potential energy $V$ and the
exchange-correlation free energy $F_{xc}$ of the macroscopic electron gas with
an unprecedented accuracy of $|\Delta V|/|V|, |\Delta F_{xc}|/|F|_{xc} \sim
10^{-3}$. A comparison of our new data to the recent parametrization of
$F_{xc}$ by Karasiev {\em et al.} [PRL {\bf 112}, 076403 (2014)] reveals
significant deviations to the latter.


title: Algorithmic statistics: forty years later

abstract:
  Algorithmic statistics has two different (and almost orthogonal) motivations.
From the philosophical point of view, it tries to formalize how the statistics
works and why some statistical models are better than others. After this notion
of a "good model" is introduced, a natural question arises: it is possible that
for some piece of data there is no good model? If yes, how often these bad
("non-stochastic") data appear "in real life"?
  Another, more technical motivation comes from algorithmic information theory.
In this theory a notion of complexity of a finite object (=amount of
information in this object) is introduced; it assigns to every object some
number, called its algorithmic complexity (or Kolmogorov complexity).
Algorithmic statistic provides a more fine-grained classification: for each
finite object some curve is defined that characterizes its behavior. It turns
out that several different definitions give (approximately) the same curve.
  In this survey we try to provide an exposition of the main results in the
field (including full proofs for the most important ones), as well as some
historical comments. We assume that the reader is familiar with the main
notions of algorithmic information (Kolmogorov complexity) theory.


title:
Computing exponentially faster: Implementing a nondeterministic
  universal Turing machine using DNA

abstract:
  The theory of computer science is based around Universal Turing Machines
(UTMs): abstract machines able to execute all possible algorithms. Modern
digital computers are physical embodiments of UTMs. The nondeterministic
polynomial (NP) time complexity class of problems is the most significant in
computer science, and an efficient (i.e. polynomial P) way to solve such
problems would be of profound economic and social importance. By definition
nondeterministic UTMs (NUTMs) solve NP complete problems in P time. However,
NUTMs have previously been believed to be physically impossible to construct.
Thue string rewriting systems are computationally equivalent to UTMs, and are
naturally nondeterministic. Here we describe the physical design for a NUTM
that implements a universal Thue system. The design exploits the ability of DNA
to replicate to execute an exponential number of computational paths in P time.
Each Thue rewriting step is embodied in a DNA edit implemented using a novel
combination of polymerase chain reactions and site-directed mutagenesis. We
demonstrate that this design works using both computational modelling and in
vitro molecular biology experimentation. The current design has limitations,
such as restricted error-correction. However, it opens up the prospect of
engineering NUTM based computers able to outperform all standard computers on
important practical problems.


title:
Search for new phenomena in different-flavour high-mass dilepton final
  states in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

abstract:
  A search is performed for a heavy particle decaying into different flavour
dilepton pairs ($e\mu$, $e\tau$ or $\mu\tau$), using 3.2 $fb^{-1}$ of
proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV collected in 2015 by the
ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess over the Standard Model
prediction is observed. Limits at the 95% credibility level are set on the mass
of a $Z^{\prime}$ boson with lepton-flavour-violating couplings at 3.0, 2.7 and
2.6 TeV, and on the mass of a supersymmetric $\tau$ sneutrino with
$R$-parity-violating couplings at 2.3, 2.2 and 1.9 TeV, for $e\mu$, $e\tau$ and
$\mu\tau$ final states, respectively. The results are also interpreted as
limits on the threshold mass for quantum black hole production.


title:
Glimpses of stellar surfaces. II. Origins of the photometric modulations
  and timing variations of KOI-1452

abstract:
  The deviations of the mid-transit times of an exoplanet from a linear
ephemeris are usually the result of gravitational interactions with other
bodies in the system. However, these types of transit timing variations (TTV)
can also be introduced by the influences of star spots on the shape of the
transit profile. Here we use the method of unsharp masking to investigate the
photometric light curves of planets with ambiguous TTV to compare the features
in their O - C diagram with the occurrence and in-transit positions of
spot-crossing events. This method seems to be particularly useful for the
examination of transit light curves with only small numbers of in-transit data
points, i.e., the long cadence light curves from Kepler satellite. As a proof
of concept we apply this method to the light curve and the estimated eclipse
timing variations of the eclipsing binary KOI-1452, for which we prove their
non-gravitational nature. Furthermore, we use the method to study the rotation
properties of the primary star of the system KOI-1452 and show that the spots
responsible for the timing variations rotate with different periods than the
most prominent periods of the system's light curve. We argue that the main
contribution in the measured photometric variability of KOI-1452 originates in
g-mode oscillations, which makes the primary star of the system a {\gamma}-Dor
type variable candidate.


title:
Cohomology of idempotent braidings, with applications to factorizable
  monoids

abstract:
  We develop new methods for computing the Hochschild (co)homology of monoids
which can be presented as the structure monoids of idempotent set-theoretic
solutions to the Yang--Baxter equation. These include free and symmetric
monoids; factorizable monoids, for which we find a generalization of the
K{\"u}nneth formula for direct products; and plactic monoids. Our key result is
an identification of the (co)homologies in question with those of the
underlying YBE solutions, via the explicit quantum symmetrizer map. This
partially answers questions of Farinati--Garc{\'i}a-Galofre and Dilian Yang. We
also obtain new structural results on the (co)homology of general YBE
solutions.


title:
M31N 2008-12a - the remarkable recurrent nova in M31: Pan-chromatic
  observations of the 2015 eruption

abstract:
  The Andromeda Galaxy recurrent nova M31N 2008-12a had been observed in
eruption ten times, including yearly eruptions from 2008-2014. With a measured
recurrence period of $P_\mathrm{rec}=351\pm13$ days (we believe the true value
to be half of this) and a white dwarf very close to the Chandrasekhar limit,
M31N 2008-12a has become the leading pre-explosion supernova type Ia progenitor
candidate. Following multi-wavelength follow-up observations of the 2013 and
2014 eruptions, we initiated a campaign to ensure early detection of the
predicted 2015 eruption, which triggered ambitious ground and space-based
follow-up programs. In this paper we present the 2015 detection; visible to
near-infrared photometry and visible spectroscopy; and ultraviolet and X-ray
observations from the Swift observatory. The LCOGT 2m (Hawaii) discovered the
2015 eruption, estimated to have commenced at Aug. $28.28\pm0.12$ UT. The
2013-2015 eruptions are remarkably similar at all wavelengths. New early
spectroscopic observations reveal short-lived emission from material with
velocities $\sim13000$ km s$^{-1}$, possibly collimated outflows. Photometric
and spectroscopic observations of the eruption provide strong evidence
supporting a red giant donor. An apparently stochastic variability during the
early super-soft X-ray phase was comparable in amplitude and duration to past
eruptions, but the 2013 and 2015 eruptions show evidence of a brief flux dip
during this phase. The multi-eruption Swift/XRT spectra show tentative evidence
of high-ionization emission lines above a high-temperature continuum. Following
Henze et al. (2015a), the updated recurrence period based on all known
eruptions is $P_\mathrm{rec}=174\pm10$ d, and we expect the next eruption of
M31N 2008-12a to occur around mid-Sep. 2016.


title: An Energy stable Monolithic Eulerian Fluid-Structure Numerical Scheme *

abstract:
  The conservation laws of continuum mechanic written in an Eulerian frame make
no difference between fluids and solids except in the expression of the stress
tensors, usually with Newton's hypothesis for the fluids and Helmholtz
potentials of energy for hyperelastic solids. By taking the velocities as
unknown , monolithic methods for fluid structure interactions (FSI) are built.
In this article such a formulation is analyzed when the fluid is compressible
and the fluid is incompressible. The idea is not new but the progress of mesh
generators and numerical schemes like the Characteristics-Galerkin method
render this approach feasible and reasonably robust. In this article the method
and its discretization are presented, stability is discussed by through an
energy estimate. A numerical section discusses implementation issues and
presents a few simple tests.


title: Lindblad Equation for the Inelastic Loss of Ultracold Atoms

abstract:
  The loss of ultracold trapped atoms due to deeply inelastic reactions has
previously been taken into account in effective field theories for low-energy
atoms by adding local anti-Hermitian terms to the effective Hamiltonian. Here
we show that when multi-atom systems are considered, an additional modification
is required in the equation governing the density matrix. We define an
effective density matrix by tracing over the states containing high-momentum
atoms produced by deeply inelastic reactions. We show that it satisfies a
Lindblad equation, with local Lindblad operators determined by the local
anti-Hermitian terms in the effective Hamiltonian. We use the Lindblad equation
to derive the universal relation for the two-atom inelastic loss rate for
fermions with two spin states and the universal relation for the three-atom
inelastic loss rate for identical bosons.


title:
Improving Semantic Embedding Consistency by Metric Learning for
  Zero-Shot Classification

abstract:
  This paper addresses the task of zero-shot image classification. The key
contribution of the proposed approach is to control the semantic embedding of
images -- one of the main ingredients of zero-shot learning -- by formulating
it as a metric learning problem. The optimized empirical criterion associates
two types of sub-task constraints: metric discriminating capacity and accurate
attribute prediction. This results in a novel expression of zero-shot learning
not requiring the notion of class in the training phase: only pairs of
image/attributes, augmented with a consistency indicator, are given as ground
truth. At test time, the learned model can predict the consistency of a test
image with a given set of attributes , allowing flexible ways to produce
recognition inferences. Despite its simplicity, the proposed approach gives
state-of-the-art results on four challenging datasets used for zero-shot
recognition evaluation.


title:
Read-Tuned STT-RAM and eDRAM Cache Hierarchies for Throughput and Energy
  Enhancement

abstract:
  As capacity and complexity of on-chip cache memory hierarchy increases, the
service cost to the critical loads from Last Level Cache (LLC), which are
frequently repeated, has become a major concern. The processor may stall for a
considerable interval while waiting to access the data stored in the cache
blocks in LLC, if there are no independent instructions to execute. To provide
accelerated service to the critical loads requests from LLC, this work
concentrates on leveraging the additional capacity offered by replacing
SRAM-based L2 with Spin-Transfer Torque Random Access Memory (STT-RAM) to
accommodate frequently accessed cache blocks in exclusive read mode in favor of
reducing the overall read service time. Our proposed technique partitions L2
cache into two STT-RAM arrangements with different write performance and data
retention time. The retention-relaxed STT-RAM arrays are utilized to
effectively deal with the regular L2 cache requests while the high retention
STT-RAM arrays in L2 are selected for maintaining repeatedly read accessed
cache blocks from LLC by incurring negligible energy consumption for data
retention. Our experimental results show that the proposed technique can reduce
the mean L2 read miss ratio by 51.4% and increase the IPC by 11.7% on average
across PARSEC benchmark suite while significantly decreasing the total L2
energy consumption compared to conventional SRAM-based L2 design.


title: Android Malware Detection: an Eigenspace Analysis Approach

abstract:
  The battle to mitigate Android malware has become more critical with the
emergence of new strains incorporating increasingly sophisticated evasion
techniques, in turn necessitating more advanced detection capabilities. Hence,
in this paper we propose and evaluate a machine learning based approach based
on eigenspace analysis for Android malware detection using features derived
from static analysis characterization of Android applications. Empirical
evaluation with a dataset of real malware and benign samples show that
detection rate of over 96% with a very low false positive rate is achievable
using the proposed method.


title:
Correspondence of Many-flavor Limit and Kaluza-Klein Degrees of Freedom
  in the Description of Compact Stars

abstract:
  We present the correspondence between non-interacting multi-hadron fermion
star equation of state in the many-flavor limit and the degrees of freedom of a
Kaluza\,--\,Klein compact star. Many flavors can be interpreted in this
framework as one extra compacti\-fied spatial dimension with various,
more-and-more massive hadron state excitations. The effect of increasing the
degrees of freedom was investigated on the equation of state and in connection
with the mass-radius relation, $M(R)$. The maximum mass of the star,
$M_{\mathrm{max}}$ were also calculated as a function of the maximum number of
excited states, $n$ and the size of the compactified extra dimension,
$R_{\mathrm{c}}$.


title:
Walking on Partial Footholds Including Line Contacts with the Humanoid
  Robot Atlas

abstract:
  We present a method for humanoid robot walking on partial footholds such as
small stepping stones and rocks with sharp surfaces. Our algorithm does not
rely on prior knowledge of the foothold, but information about an expected
foothold can be used to improve the stepping performance. After a step is
taken, the robot explores the new contact surface by attempting to shift the
center of pressure around the foot. The available foothold is inferred by the
way in which the foot rotates about contact edges and/or by the achieved center
of pressure locations on the foot during exploration. This estimated contact
area is then used by a whole body momentum-based control algorithm. To walk and
balance on partial footholds, we combine fast, dynamic stepping with the use of
upper body angular momentum to regain balance. We applied this method to the
Atlas humanoid designed by Boston Dynamics to walk over small contact surfaces,
such as line and point contacts. We present experimental results and discuss
performance limitations.


title:
"Open Innovation" and "Triple Helix" Models of Innovation: Can Synergy
  in Innovation Systems Be Measured?

abstract:
  The model of "Open Innovations" (OI) can be compared with the "Triple Helix
of University-Industry-Government Relations" (TH) as attempts to find surplus
value in bringing industrial innovation closer to public R&D. Whereas the firm
is central in the model of OI, the TH adds multi-centeredness: in addition to
firms, universities and (e.g., regional) governments can take leading roles in
innovation eco-systems. In addition to the (transversal) technology transfer at
each moment of time, one can focus on the dynamics in the feedback loops. Under
specifiable conditions, feedback loops can be turned into feedforward ones that
drive innovation eco-systems towards self-organization and the auto-catalytic
generation of new options. The generation of options can be more important than
historical realizations ("best practices") for the longer-term viability of
knowledge-based innovation systems. A system without sufficient options, for
example, is locked-in. The generation of redundancy -- the Triple Helix
indicator -- can be used as a measure of unrealized but technologically
feasible options given a historical configuration. Different coordination
mechanisms (markets, policies, knowledge) provide different perspectives on the
same information and thus generate redundancy. Increased redundancy not only
stimulates innovation in an eco-system by reducing the prevailing uncertainty;
it also enhances the synergy in and innovativeness of an innovation system.


title: White Paper: Brief overview of current practices for open consultation

abstract:
  The purpose of this document is to provide a brief overview of open
consultation approaches in the current, international setting and propose a
role for Information Technologies (IT) as a disruptive force in this setting.


title:
Covalent Nitrogen Doping and Compressive Strain in MoS2 by Remote N2
  Plasma Exposure

abstract:
  Controllable doping of two-dimensional materials is highly desired for ideal
device performance in both hetero- and p-n homo-junctions. Herein, we propose
an effective strategy for doping of MoS2 with nitrogen through a remote N2
plasma surface treatment. By monitoring the surface chemistry of MoS2 upon N2
plasma exposure using in-situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we identified
the presence of covalently bonded nitrogen in MoS2, where substitution of the
chalcogen sulfur by nitrogen is determined as the doping mechanism.
Furthermore, the electrical characterization demonstrates that p-type doping of
MoS2 is achieved by nitrogen doping, in agreement with theoretical predictions.
Notably, we found that the presence of nitrogen can induce compressive strain
in the MoS2 structure, which represents the first evidence of strain induced by
substitutional doping in a transition metal dichalcogenide material. Finally,
our first principle calculations support the experimental demonstration of such
strain, and a correlation between nitrogen doping concentration and compressive
strain in MoS2 is elucidated.


title:
Benchmarking of dynamically corrected gates for the exchange-only spin
  qubit in $1/f$ noise environment

abstract:
  We study theoretically the responses of the dynamically corrected gates to
time-dependent noises in the exchange-only spin qubit system. We consider $1/f$
noises having spectra proportional to $1/\omega^\alpha$, where the exponent
$\alpha$ indicates the strength of correlation within the noise. The quantum
gate errors due to noises are extracted from a numerical simulation of
Randomized Benchmarking, and are compared between the application of
uncorrected operations and that of dynamically corrected gates robust against
the hyperfine noise. We have found that for $\alpha\gtrsim1.5$, the dynamically
corrected gates offer considerable reduction in the gate error and such
reduction is approximately two orders of magnitude for the experimentally
relevant noise exponent. On the other hand, no improvement of the gate fidelity
is provided for $\alpha\lesssim1.5$. This critical value $\alpha_c\approx1.5$
is comparatively larger than that for the cases for the singlet-triplet qubits.
The filter transfer functions corresponding to the dynamically corrected gates
are also computed and compared to those derived from uncorrected pulses. Our
results suggest that the dynamically corrected gates are useful measures to
suppress the hyperfine noise when operating the exchange-only qubits.


title: Gauge dependence of the AdS instability problem

abstract:
  Previous work on the AdS instability problem within the two-time framework
(TTF) has found an "oscillating singularity" whose presence depends on the
gauge choice. We give a physical interpretation of this singularity as a
diverging redshift between the boundary and the center of AdS. This signals a
genuine breakdown of the linearized gravity. One can also identify the
diverging redshift through a back-reaction calculation purely in the boundary
gauge, where the TTF result stays regular.


title:
Hybrid asymptotic-numerical approach for estimating first passage time
  densities of the two-dimensional narrow capture problem

abstract:
  A hybrid asymptotic-numerical method is presented for obtaining the full
probability distribution of capture times of a random walker by multiple small
traps located inside a bounded two-dimensional domain with reflective
boundaries. As motivation for this study, we calculate the variance in the
capture time of a random walker by a single interior trap and determine this
quantity to be comparable in magnitude to the mean. This implies that the mean
is not necessarily reflective of typical capture times and that the full
density must be determined. To solve the underlying diffusion equation, the
method of Laplace transforms is used to obtain an elliptic problem of modified
Helmholtz type. In the limit of vanishing trap sizes, each trap is represented
as a Dirac point source which permits the solution of the transform equation to
be represented as a superposition of Helmholtz Green's functions. Using this
solution, we construct asymptotic short time solutions of the first passage
time density which captures peaks associated with rapid capture by the
absorbing traps. When numerical evaluation of the Helmholtz Green's function is
employed followed by numerical inversion of the Laplace transform, the method
reproduces the density for larger times. We demonstrate the accuracy of our
solution technique with comparison to statistics obtained from a time-dependent
solution of the diffusion equation and discrete particle simulations. In
particular, we demonstrate that the method is capable of capturing the
multimodal behavior in the capture time density that arises when the traps are
strategically arranged. The hybrid method presented can be applied to scenarios
involving both arbitrary domains and trap shapes.


title:
Combining predictive distributions for statistical post-processing of
  ensemble forecasts

abstract:
  Statistical post-processing techniques are now widely used to correct
systematic biases and errors in calibration of ensemble forecasts obtained from
multiple runs of numerical weather prediction models. A standard approach is
the ensemble model output statistics (EMOS) method, a distributional regression
approach where the forecast distribution is given by a single parametric law
with parameters depending on the ensemble members. Choosing an appropriate
parametric family for the weather variable of interest is a critical, however,
often non-trivial task, and has been the focus of much recent research. In this
article, we assess the merits of combining predictive distributions from
multiple EMOS models based on different parametric families. In four case
studies with wind speed and precipitation forecasts from two ensemble
prediction systems, we study whether state of the art forecast combination
methods are able to improve forecast skill.


title:
Euclidean distance matrices and separations in communication complexity
  theory

abstract:
  A Euclidean distance matrix $D(\alpha)$ is defined by
$D_{ij}=(\alpha_i-\alpha_j)^2$, where $\alpha=(\alpha_1,\ldots,\alpha_n)$ is a
real vector. We prove that $D(\alpha)$ cannot be written as a sum of
$\left[2\sqrt{n}-2\right]$ nonnegative rank-one matrices, provided that the
coordinates of $\alpha$ are algebraically independent. This result allows one
to solve several open problems in computation theory. In particular, we provide
an asymptotically optimal separation between the complexities of quantum and
classical communication protocols computing a matrix in expectation.


title:
The Actias system: supervised multi-strategy learning paradigm using
  categorical logic

abstract:
  One of the most difficult problems in the development of intelligent systems
is the construction of the underlying knowledge base. As a consequence, the
rate of progress in the development of this type of system is directly related
to the speed with which knowledge bases can be assembled, and on its quality.
We attempt to solve the knowledge acquisition problem, for a Business
Information System, developing a supervised multistrategy learning paradigm.
This paradigm is centred on a collaborative data mining strategy, where groups
of experts collaborate using data-mining process on the supervised acquisition
of new knowledge extracted from heterogeneous machine learning data models.
  The Actias system is our approach to this paradigm. It is the result of
applying the graphic logic based language of sketches to knowledge integration.
The system is a data mining collaborative workplace, where the Information
System knowledge base is an algebraic structure. It results from the
integration of background knowledge with new insights extracted from data
models, generated for specific data modelling tasks, and represented as rules
using the sketches language.


title: Triangulum galaxy viewed by Planck

abstract:
  We used Planck data to study the M33 galaxy and find a substantial
temperature asymmetry with respect to its minor axis projected onto the sky
plane. This temperature asymmetry correlates well with the HI velocity field at
21 cm, at least within a galactocentric distance of 0.5 degree, and it is found
to extend up to about 3 degrees from the galaxy center. We conclude that the
revealed effect, that is, the temperature asymmetry and its extension, implies
that we detected the differential rotation of the M33 galaxy and of its
extended baryonic halo.


title: Automatically Reinforcing a Game AI

abstract:
  A recent research trend in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the combination of
several programs into one single, stronger, program; this is termed portfolio
methods. We here investigate the application of such methods to Game Playing
Programs (GPPs). In addition, we consider the case in which only one GPP is
available - by decomposing this single GPP into several ones through the use of
parameters or even simply random seeds. These portfolio methods are trained in
a learning phase. We propose two different offline approaches. The simplest
one, BestArm, is a straightforward optimization of seeds or parame- ters; it
performs quite well against the original GPP, but performs poorly against an
opponent which repeats games and learns. The second one, namely Nash-portfolio,
performs similarly in a "one game" test, and is much more robust against an
opponent who learns. We also propose an online learning portfolio, which tests
several of the GPP repeatedly and progressively switches to the best one -
using a bandit algorithm.


title: Event-Driven Implicit Authentication for Mobile Access Control

abstract:
  In order to protect user privacy on mobile devices, an event-driven implicit
authentication scheme is proposed in this paper. Several methods of utilizing
the scheme for recognizing legitimate user behavior are investigated. The
investigated methods compute an aggregate score and a threshold in real-time to
determine the trust level of the current user using real data derived from user
interaction with the device. The proposed scheme is designed to: operate
completely in the background, require minimal training period, enable high user
recognition rate for implicit authentication, and prompt detection of abnormal
activity that can be used to trigger explicitly authenticated access control.
In this paper, we investigate threshold computation through standard deviation
and EWMA (exponentially weighted moving average) based algorithms. The result
of extensive experiments on user data collected over a period of several weeks
from an Android phone indicates that our proposed approach is feasible and
effective for lightweight real-time implicit authentication on mobile
smartphones.


title: Statistical Delay Bound for WirelessHART Networks

abstract:
  In this paper we provide a performance analysis framework for wireless
industrial networks by deriving a service curve and a bound on the delay
violation probability. For this purpose we use the (min,x) stochastic network
calculus as well as a recently presented recursive formula for an end-to-end
delay bound of wireless heterogeneous networks. The derived results are mapped
to WirelessHART networks used in process automation and were validated via
simulations. In addition to WirelessHART, our results can be applied to any
wireless network whose physical layer conforms the IEEE 802.15.4 standard,
while its MAC protocol incorporates TDMA and channel hopping, like e.g.
ISA100.11a or TSCH-based networks. The provided delay analysis is especially
useful during the network design phase, offering further research potential
towards optimal routing and power management in QoS-constrained wireless
industrial networks.


title:
Propagation of gravitational waves in an expanding background in the
  presence of a point mass

abstract:
  We solve the Laplace equation $\Box h_{ij}=0$ describing the propagation of
gravitational waves in an expanding background metric with a power law scale
factor in the presence of a point mass in the weak field approximation
(Newtonian McVittie background). We use boundary conditions at large distances
from the mass corresponding to a standing spherical gravitational wave in an
expanding background which is equivalent to a linear combination of an incoming
and an outgoing propagating gravitational wave. We compare the solution with
the corresponding solution in the absence of the point mass and show that the
point mass increases the amplitude of the wave and also decreases its frequency
(as observed by an observer at infinity) in accordance with gravitational time
delay.


title: Parabolic implosion for endomorphisms of $\mathbb{C}^2$

abstract:
  We give an estimate of the discontinuity of the large Julia set for a
perturbation of a class of maps tangent to the identity, by means of a
two-dimensional Lavaurs Theorem. We adapt to our situation a strategy due to
Bedford, Smillie and Ueda in the semiattracting setting. We also prove the
discontinuity of the filled Julia set for such perturbations of regular
polynomials.


title: Focusing light by wavefront shaping through disorder and nonlinearity

abstract:
  Wavefront shaping is a powerful technique that can be used to focus light
through scattering media, which can be important for imaging through scattering
samples such as tissue. The method is based on the assumption that the field at
the output of the medium is a linear superposition of the modes traveling
through different paths in the medium. However, when the scattering medium also
exhibits nonlinearity, as may occur in multiphoton microscopy, this assumption
is violated and the applicability of wavefront shaping becomes unclear. Here we
show, using a simple model system with a scattering layer followed by a
nonlinear layer, that with adaptive optimization of the wavefront light can
still be controlled and focused through a scattering medium in the presence of
nonlinearity. Notably, we find that moderate positive nonlinearity can serve to
significantly increase the focused fraction of power, whereas negative
nonlinearity reduces it.


title: Defect formula for nodal complete intersection threefolds

abstract:
  We generalize Werner's defect formula for nodal hypersurfaces in $\mathbb
P^{4}$ to the case of a nodal complete intersection threefold.


title: $\infty-\infty$: vacuum energy and virtual black-holes

abstract:
  We discuss other contributions to the vacuum energy of quantum field theories
and quantum gravity, which have not been considered in literature. As is well
known, the presence of virtual particles in vacuum provides the so famous and
puzzling contributions to the vacuum energy. As is well known, these mainly
come from loop integrations over the four-momenta space. However, we argue that
these also imply the presence of a mass density of virtual particles in every
volume cell of space-time. The most important contribution comes from quantum
gravity $S^{2}\times S^{2}$ bubbles, corresponding to virtual black hole pairs.
The presence of virtual masses could lead to another paradox: the space-time
itself would have an intrinsic virtual mass density contribution leading to a
disastrous contraction - as is known, no negative masses exist in general
relativity. We dub this effect {\it the cosmological problem of second type}:
if not other counter-terms existed, the vacuum energy would be inevitably
destabilized by virtual-mass contributions. It would be conceivable that the
cosmological problem of second type could solve the first one. Virtual masses
renormalize the vacuum energy to an unpredicted parameter, as in the
renormalization procedure of the Standard Model charges. In the limit of
$M_{Pl}\rightarrow \infty$ (Pauli-Villars limit), virtual black holes have a
mass density providing an infinite counter-term to the vacuum energy divergent
contribution $M_{Pl} \rightarrow \infty$ (assuming $M_{UV}=M_{Pl}$). Therefore,
in the same Schwinger-Feynman-Tomonaga attitude, the problem of a divergent
vacuum energy could be analogous to the {\it put-by-hand} procedure used for
Standard Model parameters.


title: Investigation of the concept of beauty via a lock-in feedback experiment

abstract:
  Lock-in feedback circuits are routinely used in physics laboratories all
around the world to extract small signals out of a noisy environment. In a
recent paper (M. Kaptein, R. van Emden, and D. Iannuzzi, paper under review),
we have shown that one can adapt the algorithm exploited in those circuits to
gain insight in behavioral economics. In this paper, we extend this concept to
a very subjective socio-philosophical concept: the concept of beauty. We run an
experiment on 7414 volunteers, asking them to express their opinion on the
physical features of an avatar. Each participant was prompted with an image
whose features were adjusted sequentially via a lock-in feedback algorithm
driven by the opinion expressed by the previous participants. Our results show
that the method allows one to identify the most attractive features of the
avatar.


title:
Irreversible Evolution of a Wave Packet in The Rigged Hilbert Space
  Quantum Mechanics

abstract:
  It is well known that a state with complex energy cannot be the eigenstate of
a self-adjoint operator, like the Hamiltonian. Resonances, i.e. states with
exponentially decaying observables, are not vectors belonging to the
conventional Hilbert space. One can describe these resonances in an unusual
mathematical formalism, based on the so-called Rigged Hilbert Space (RHS). In
the RHS, the states with complex energy are denoted as Gamow Vectors (GV), and
they model decay processes. We study GV of the Reversed Harmonic Oscillator
(RHO), and we analytically and numerically investigate the unstable evolution
of wave packets. We introduce the background function to study initial data not
composed only by a summation of GV and we analyse different wave packets
belonging to specific function spaces. Our work furnishes support to the idea
that irreversible wave propagations can be investigated by means of Rigged
Hilbert Space Quantum Mechanics and provides insights for the experimental
investigation of irreversible dynamics.


title:
algcomparison: Comparing the Performance of Graphical Structure Learning
  Algorithms with TETRAD

abstract:
  In this report we describe a tool for comparing the performance of graphical
causal structure learning algorithms implemented in the TETRAD freeware suite
of causal analysis methods. Currently the tool is available as package in the
TETRAD source code (written in Java). Simulations can be done varying the
number of runs, sample sizes, and data modalities. Performance on this
simulated data can then be compared for a number of algorithms, with parameters
varied and with performance statistics as selected, producing a publishable
report. The package presented here may also be used to compare structure
learning methods across platforms and programming languages, i.e., to compare
algorithms implemented in TETRAD with those implemented in MATLAB, Python, or
R.


title: Laser Gyroscopes, Gravity, and the SME

abstract:
  In this contribution to the CPT'16 proceedings, we illustrate the potential
use of ring-laser systems in searching for Lorentz violation in the framework
of the Standard-Model Extension. We present expressions for the
Lorentz-violating contribution to the ring-laser signal for a sample system and
make sensitivity estimates for the GINGER project.


title:
MLPnP - A Real-Time Maximum Likelihood Solution to the
  Perspective-n-Point Problem

abstract:
  In this paper, a statistically optimal solution to the Perspective-n-Point
(PnP) problem is presented. Many solutions to the PnP problem are geometrically
optimal, but do not consider the uncertainties of the observations. In
addition, it would be desirable to have an internal estimation of the accuracy
of the estimated rotation and translation parameters of the camera pose. Thus,
we propose a novel maximum likelihood solution to the PnP problem, that
incorporates image observation uncertainties and remains real-time capable at
the same time. Further, the presented method is general, as is works with 3D
direction vectors instead of 2D image points and is thus able to cope with
arbitrary central camera models. This is achieved by projecting (and thus
reducing) the covariance matrices of the observations to the corresponding
vector tangent space.


title: Evolving Horava Cosmological Horizons

abstract:
  Several sets of radially propagating null congruence generators are exploited
in order to form 3-dimensional marginally trapped surfaces, referred to as
black hole and cosmological apparent horizons in a Horava universe. Based on
this method, we deal with the characteristics of the 2-dimensional space-like
spheres of symmetry and the peculiarities of having trapping horizons.
Moreover, we apply this method in standard expanding and contracting FLRW
cosmological models of a Horava universe to investigate the conditions under
which the extra parameters of the theory may lead to trapped/anti-trapped
surfaces both in the future and in the past. We also include the cases of
negative time, referred to as the finite past, and discuss the formation of
anti-trapped surfaces inside the cosmological apparent horizons.


title: Classical space-time as Rydberg states of underlying quantum geometries

abstract:
  Classical macroscopic space-time is pictured in terms of Rydberg states of an
underlying discritzed `atomic' quantum geometry at Planck scales. While quantum
geometry on such scales involves several very short lived transitions changing
curvature and topologies, the Rydberg states have very long lifetimes, going as
a high power of the quantum number n. This means space-time on macroscopic
scales are almost infinitely stable. The large degeneracy in the Rydberg
levels, with high n, can also account for a large black hole entropy, as well
as long lifetime of massive black holes to quantum decays. We have a possible
promising paradigm to link quantum geometry at Planck scales, to classical
space-time.


title:
Projected Entangled Pair States with non-Abelian gauge symmetries: an
  SU(2) study

abstract:
  Over the last years, Projected Entangled Pair States have demonstrated great
power for the study of many body systems, as they naturally describe ground
states of gapped many body Hamiltonians, and suggest a constructive way to
encode and classify their symmetries. The PEPS study is not only limited to
global symmetries, but has also been extended and applied for local symmetries,
allowing to use them for the description of states in lattice gauge theories.
In this paper we discuss PEPS with a local, SU(2) gauge symmetry, and
demonstrate the use of PEPS features and techniques for the study of a simple
family of many body states with a non-Abelian gauge symmetry. We present, in
particular, the construction of fermionic PEPS able to describe both two-color
fermionic matter and the degrees of freedom of an SU(2) gauge field with a
suitable truncation.


title:
A DEMATEL-Based Completion Method for Incomplete Pairwise Comparison
  Matrix in AHP

abstract:
  Pairwise comparison matrix as a crucial component of AHP, presents the
prefer- ence relations among alternatives. However, in many cases, the pairwise
comparison matrix is difficult to complete, which obstructs the subsequent
operations of the clas- sical AHP. In this paper, based on DEMATEL which has
ability to derive the total relation matrix from direct relation matrix, a new
completion method for incomplete pairwise comparison matrix is proposed. The
proposed method provides a new per- spective to estimate the missing values
with explicit physical meaning. Besides, the proposed method has low
computational cost. This promising method has a wide application in
multi-criteria decision-making.