title: Spectrum of the Laplacian with weights

abstract:
  Given a compact Riemannian manifold (M, g) and two positive functions $\rho$
and $\sigma$, we are interested in the eigenvalues of the Dirichlet energy
functional weighted by $\sigma$, with respect to the L 2 inner product weighted
by $\rho$. Under some regularity conditions on $\rho$ and $\sigma$, these
eigenvalues are those of the operator $\rho$^{-1} div($\sigma$$\nabla$u) with
Neumann conditions on the boundary if $\partial$M = $\emptyset$. We investigate
the effect of the weights on eigenvalues and discuss the existence of lower and
upper bounds under the condition that the total mass is preserved.


title:
Mapping Morphological and Structural Properties of Lead Halide
  Perovskites by Scanning Nanofocus XRD

abstract:
  Scanning nanofocus X-ray diffraction (nXRD) performed at a synchrotron is
used for the first time to simultaneously probe the morphology and the
structural properties of spin-coated CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPI) perovskite films for
photovoltaic devices. MAPI films are spin-coated on a Si/SiO2/PEDOT:PSS
substrate held at different temperatures during the deposition in order to tune
the perovskite film coverage, and then investigated by nXRD, scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) and grazing incidence wide angle X-ray scatter-ing (GI-WAXS).
The advantages of nXRD over SEM and GI-WAXS are dis-cussed. A method to
visualize, selectively isolate, and structurally charac-terize single
perovskite grains buried within a complex, polycrystalline film is developed.
The results of nXRD measurements are correlated with solar cell device
measurements, and it is shown that spin-coating the perovskite precursor
solution at elevated temperatures leads to improved surface coverage and
enhanced solar cell performance.


title:
Gravitationally influenced particle creation models and late-time cosmic
  acceleration

abstract:
  In this work we focus on the gravitationally influenced adiabatic particle
creation process, a mechanism that does not need any dark energy or modified
gravity models to explain the current accelerating phase of the universe.
Introducing some particle creation models that generalize some previous models
in the literature, we constrain the cosmological scenarios using the latest
compilation of the Type Ia Supernovae data only, the first indicator of the
accelerating universe. Aside from the observational constraints on the models,
we examine the models using two model independent diagnoses, namely the
cosmography and $Om$. Further, we establish the general conditions to test the
thermodynamic viabilities of any particle creation model. Our analysis shows
that at late-time, the models have close resemblance to that of the
$\Lambda$CDM cosmology, and the models always satisfy the generalized second
law of thermodynamics under certain conditions.


title: A glitch in the millisecond pulsar J0613-0200

abstract:
  We present evidence for a small glitch in the spin evolution of the
millisecond pulsar J0613$-$0200, using the EPTA Data Release 1.0, combined with
Jodrell Bank analogue filterbank TOAs recorded with the Lovell telescope and
Effelsberg Pulsar Observing System TOAs. A spin frequency step of 0.82(3) nHz
and frequency derivative step of ${-1.6(39) \times 10^{-19}\,\text{Hz} \
\text{s}^{-1}}$ are measured at the epoch of MJD 50888(30). After PSR
B1821$-$24A, this is only the second glitch ever observed in a millisecond
pulsar, with a fractional size in frequency of ${\Delta \nu/\nu=2.5(1) \times
10^{-12}}$, which is several times smaller than the previous smallest glitch.
PSR J0613$-$0200 is used in gravitational wave searches with pulsar timing
arrays, and is to date only the second such pulsar to have experienced a glitch
in a combined 886 pulsar-years of observations. We find that accurately
modelling the glitch does not impact the timing precision for pulsar timing
array applications. We estimate that for the current set of millisecond pulsars
included in the International Pulsar Timing Array, there is a probability of
$\sim 50$% that another glitch will be observed in a timing array pulsar within
10 years.


title: GPU-based Real-time Triggering in the NA62 Experiment

abstract:
  Over the last few years the GPGPU (General-Purpose computing on Graphics
Processing Units) paradigm represented a remarkable development in the world of
computing. Computing for High-Energy Physics is no exception: several works
have demonstrated the effectiveness of the integration of GPU-based systems in
high level trigger of different experiments. On the other hand the use of GPUs
in the low level trigger systems, characterized by stringent real-time
constraints, such as tight time budget and high throughput, poses several
challenges. In this paper we focus on the low level trigger in the CERN NA62
experiment, investigating the use of real-time computing on GPUs in this
synchronous system. Our approach aimed at harvesting the GPU computing power to
build in real-time refined physics-related trigger primitives for the RICH
detector, as the the knowledge of Cerenkov rings parameters allows to build
stringent conditions for data selection at trigger level. Latencies of all
components of the trigger chain have been analyzed, pointing out that
networking is the most critical one. To keep the latency of data transfer task
under control, we devised NaNet, an FPGA-based PCIe Network Interface Card
(NIC) with GPUDirect capabilities. For the processing task, we developed
specific multiple ring trigger algorithms to leverage the parallel architecture
of GPUs and increase the processing throughput to keep up with the high event
rate. Results obtained during the first months of 2016 NA62 run are presented
and discussed.


title:
The Higgs transverse momentum spectrum with finite quark masses beyond
  leading order

abstract:
  We apply the leading-log high-energy resummation technique recently derived
by some of us to the transverse momentum (pt) distribution for production of a
Higgs boson in gluon fusion. We use our results to obtain information on
mass-dependent corrections to this observable, which is only known at leading
order when exact mass dependence is included. In the low pt region we discuss
the all-order exponentiation of collinear bottom mass logarithms. In the high
pt region we show that the infinite top mass approximation loses accuracy as a
power of pt, while the accuracy of the high-energy approximation is
approximately constant as pt grows. We argue that a good approximation to the
NLO result for pt >~200 GeV can be obtained by combining the full LO result
with a K-factor computed using the high-energy approximation.


title:
Deciphering Contributions to the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background from
  2 GeV to 2 TeV

abstract:
  Astrophysical sources outside the Milky Way, such as active galactic nuclei
and star-forming galaxies, leave their imprint on the gamma-ray sky as nearly
isotropic emission referred to as the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background (EGB).
While the brightest of these sources may be individually resolved, their
fainter counterparts contribute diffusely. In this work, we use a
recently-developed analysis method, called the Non-Poissonian Template Fit, on
up to 93 months of publicly-available data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope
to determine the properties of the point sources that comprise the EGB. This
analysis takes advantage of photon-count statistics to probe the aggregate
properties of these source populations below the sensitivity threshold of
published catalogs. We measure the source-count distributions and point-source
intensities, as a function of energy, from 2 GeV to 2 TeV. We find that the EGB
is dominated by point sources, likely blazars, in all seven energy sub-bins
considered. These results have implications for the interpretation of IceCube's
PeV neutrinos, which may originate from sources that contribute to the
non-blazar component of the EGB. Additionally, we comment on implications for
future TeV observatories such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array. We provide sky
maps showing locations most likely to contain these new sources at both low (<
50 GeV) and high (> 50 GeV) energies for use in future observations and
cross-correlation studies.

categories: astro-ph.HE astro-ph.CO astro-ph.GA hep-ph


title:
Galaxy metallicities depend primarily on stellar mass and molecular gas
  mass

abstract:
  In this work we present an analysis of the behaviour of galaxies in a
four-dimensional parameter space defined by stellar mass, metallicity, star
formation rate, and molecular gas mass. We analyse a combined sample of 227
galaxies, which draws from a number of surveys across the redshift range 0 < z
< 2 (> 90% of the sample at z~0), and covers > 3 decades in stellar mass.Using
Principle Component Analysis, we demonstrate that galaxies in our sample lie on
a 2-dimensional plane within this 4D parameter space, indicative of galaxies
that exist in an equilibrium between gas inflow and outflow. Furthermore, we
find that the metallicity of galaxies depends only on stellar mass and
molecular gas mass. In other words, gas-phase metallicity has a negligible
dependence on star formation rate, once the correlated effect of molecular gas
content is accounted for. The well-known `fundamental metallicity relation',
which describes a close and tight relationship between metallicity and SFR (at
fixed stellar mass) is therefore entirely a by-product of the underlying
physical relationship with molecular gas mass (via the Schmidt-Kennicutt
relation).


title:
Numerical evidence for a chiral spin liquid in the XXZ antiferromagnetic
  Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice at $m=\frac{2}{3}$ magnetization

abstract:
  We perform an exact diagonalization study of the spin-$1/2$ XXZ Heisenberg
antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice at finite magnetization $m = \frac{2}{3}$
with an emphasis on the XY point ($J_z = 0$), and in the presence of a small
chiral term. Recent analytic work by Kumar, Sun and Fradkin [Phys. Rev. B 90,
174409 (2014)] on the same model, using a newly developed flux attachment
transformation, predicts a plateau at this value of the magnetization described
by a chiral spin liquid (CSL) with a spin Hall conductance of $\sigma_{xy} =
\frac{1}{2}$. Such a state is topological in nature, has a ground state
degeneracy and exhibits fractional excitations. We analyze the degeneracy
structure in the low energy manifold, identify the candidate topological states
and use them to compute the modular matrices and Chern numbers all of which
strongly agree with expected theoretical behavior for the $\sigma_{xy} =
\frac{1}{2}$ CSL. We argue that the evidence suggests the CSL is robust even in
the limit of zero external chirality.


title: Master Symmetry for Holographic Wilson Loops

abstract:
  We identify the symmetry underlying the recently observed spectral-parameter
transformations of holographic Wilson loops alias minimal surfaces in AdS/CFT.
The generator of this nonlocal symmetry is shown to furnish a raising operator
on the classical Yangian-type charges of symmetric coset models. We explicitly
demonstrate how this master symmetry acts on strong-coupling Wilson loops and
indicate a possible extension to arbitrary coupling.


title:
Electronic quasiparticles in the quantum dimer model: density matrix
  renormalization group results

abstract:
  We study a recently proposed quantum dimer model for the pseudogap metal
state of the cuprates. The model contains bosonic dimers, representing a
spin-singlet valence bond between a pair of electrons, and fermionic dimers,
representing a quasiparticle with spin-$1/2$ and charge $+e$. By density matrix
renormalization group calculations on a long but finite cylinder, we obtain the
ground-state density distribution of the fermionic dimers for a number of
different total densities. From the Friedel oscillations at open boundaries, we
deduce that the Fermi surface consists of small hole pockets near $(\pi/2,
\pi/2)$, and this feature persists up to a doping density of $1/16$. We also
compute the entanglement entropy and find that it closely matches the sum of
the entanglement entropies of a critical boson and a low density of free
fermions. Our results support the existence of a fractionalized Fermi liquid in
this model.


title:
Forward Modeling of Large-Scale Structure: An open-source approach with
  Halotools

abstract:
  We present the first stable release of Halotools (v0.2), a community-driven
Python package designed to build and test models of the galaxy-halo connection.
Halotools provides a modular platform for creating mock universes of galaxies
starting from a catalog of dark matter halos obtained from a cosmological
simulation. The package supports many of the common forms used to describe
galaxy-halo models: the halo occupation distribution (HOD), the conditional
luminosity function (CLF), abundance matching, and alternatives to these models
that include effects such as environmental quenching or variable galaxy
assembly bias. Satellite galaxies can be modeled to live in subhalos, or to
follow custom number density profiles within their halos, including spatial
and/or velocity bias with respect to the dark matter profile. The package has
an optimized toolkit to make mock observations on a synthetic galaxy
population, including galaxy clustering, galaxy-galaxy lensing, galaxy group
identification, RSD multipoles, void statistics, pairwise velocities and
others, allowing direct comparison to observations. Halotools is
object-oriented, enabling complex models to be built from a set of simple,
interchangeable components, including those of your own creation. Halotools has
an automated testing suite and is exhaustively documented on
http://halotools.readthedocs.io, which includes quickstart guides, source code
notes and a large collection of tutorials. The documentation is effectively an
online textbook on how to build and study empirical models of galaxy formation
with Python.


title:
The MOSDEF Survey: Detection of [OIII]$\lambda$4363 and the
  direct-method oxygen abundance of a star-forming galaxy at z=3.08

abstract:
  We present measurements of the electron-temperature based oxygen abundance
for a highly star-forming galaxy at z=3.08, COSMOS-1908. This is the highest
redshift at which [OIII]$\lambda$4363 has been detected, and the first time
that this line has been measured at z>2. We estimate an oxygen abundance of
12+log(O/H)$=8.00^{+0.13}_{-0.14}$. This galaxy is a low-mass ($10^{9.3}$
M$_{\odot}$), highly star-forming ($\sim50$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$) system that
hosts a young stellar population ($\sim160$ Myr). We investigate the physical
conditions of the ionized gas in COSMOS-1908 and find that this galaxy has a
high ionization parameter, little nebular reddening ($E(B-V)_{\rm gas}<0.14$),
and a high electron density ($n_e\sim500$ cm$^{-3}$). We compare the ratios of
strong oxygen, neon, and hydrogen lines to the direct-method oxygen abundance
for COSMOS-1908 and additional star-forming galaxies at z=0-1.8 with
[OIII]$\lambda$4363 measurements, and show that galaxies at z$\sim$1-3 follow
the same strong-line correlations as galaxies in the local universe. This
agreement suggests that the relationship between ionization parameter and O/H
is similar for z$\sim$0 and high-redshift galaxies. These results imply that
metallicity calibrations based on lines of oxygen, neon, and hydrogen do not
strongly evolve with redshift and can reliably estimate abundances out to
z$\sim$3, paving the way for robust measurements of the evolution of the
mass-metallicity relation to high redshift.


title:
Conformal Symmetry Breaking and Thermodynamics of Near-Extremal Black
  Holes

abstract:
  It has been argued recently by Almheiri and Polchinski that the near-horizon
conformal symmetry of extremal black holes must be broken due to gravitational
backreaction at an IR scale linear in $G_N$. In this paper, we show that this
scale coincides with the so-called `thermodynamic mass gap' of near-extremal
black holes, a scale which signals the breakdown of their thermodynamic
description. We also develop a method which extends the analysis of Almheiri
and Polchinski to more complicated models with extremal throats by studying the
bulk linearized quantum field theory. Moreover, we show how their original
model correctly captures the universal physics of the near-horizon region of
near-extremal black holes at tree level, and conclude that this equivalence of
the conformal breaking and mass gap scale is general.


title: Scale-invariance of parity-invariant three-dimensional QED

abstract:
  We present numerical evidences using overlap fermions for a scale-invariant
behavior of parity-invariant three-dimensional QED with two flavors of massless
two-component fermions. Using finite-size scaling of the low-lying eigenvalues
of the massless anti-Hermitian overlap Dirac operator, we rule out the presence
of bilinear condensate and estimate the mass anomalous dimension. The
eigenvectors associated with these low-lying eigenvalues suggest critical
behavior in the sense of a metal-insulator transition. We show that there is no
mass gap in the scalar and vector correlators in the infinite volume theory.
The vector correlator does not acquire an anomalous dimension. The anomalous
dimension associated with the long-distance behavior of the scalar correlator
is consistent with the mass anomalous dimension.

categories: hep-th cond-mat.str-el cond-mat.supr-con hep-lat


title:
Towards correcting atmospheric beam wander via pump beam control in a
  down conversion process

abstract:
  Correlated photon pairs produced by a spontaneous parametric down conversion
(SPDC) process can be used for secure quantum communication over long distances
including free space transmission over a link through turbulent atmosphere. We
experimentally investigate the possibility to utilize the intrinsic strong
correlation between the pump and output photon spatial modes to mitigate the
negative targeting effects of atmospheric beam wander. Our approach is based on
a demonstration observing the deflection of the beam on a spatially resolved
array of single photon avalanche diodes (SPAD-array).


title: How tetraquarks can generate a second chiral phase transition

abstract:
  We consider how tetraquarks can affect the chiral phase transition in
theories like QCD, with light quarks coupled to three colors. For two flavors
the tetraquark field is an isosinglet, and its effect is minimal. For three
flavors, however, the tetraquark field transforms in the same representation of
the chiral symmetry group as the usual chiral order parameter, and so for very
light quarks there may be two chiral phase transitions, which are both of first
order. In QCD, results from the lattice indicate that any transition from the
tetraquark condensate is a smooth crossover. In the plane of temperature and
quark chemical potential, though, a crossover line for the tetraquark
condensate is naturally related to the transition line for color
superconductivity. For four flavors we suggest that a triquark field,
antisymmetric in both flavor and color, combine to form hexaquarks.


title: Circular polarization of the CMB: Foregrounds and detection prospects

abstract:
  The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is one of the finest probes of
cosmology. Its all-sky temperature and linear polarization (LP) fluctuations
have been measured precisely at a level of deltaT/TCMB ~10^{-6}. In comparison,
circular polarization (CP) of the CMB, however, has not been precisely
explored. Current upper limit on the CP of the CMB is at a level of deltaV/TCMB
~10^{-4} and is limited on large scales. Some of the cosmologically important
sources which can induce a CP in the CMB include early universe symmetry
breaking, primordial magnetic field, galaxy clusters and Pop III stars (also
known as the First stars). Among these sources, Pop III stars are expected to
induce the strongest signal with levels strongly dependent on the frequency of
observation and on the number, Np, of the Pop III stars per halo.
Optimistically, a CP signal in the CMB due to the Pop III stars could be at a
level of deltaV/TCMB ~ 2x10^{-7} in scales of 1 degree at 10 GHz, which is much
smaller than the currently existing upper limits on the CP measurements.
Primary foregrounds in the cosmological CP detection will come from the
galactic synchrotron emission (GSE), which is naturally (intrinsically)
circularly polarized. We use data-driven models of the galactic magnetic field
(GMF), thermal electron density and relativistic electron density to simulate
all-sky maps of the galactic CP in different frequencies. This work also points
out that the galactic CP levels are important below 50 GHz and is an important
factor for telescopes aiming to detect primordial B-modes using CP as a
systematics rejection channel. Final results on detectability are summarized in
Fig (11-13).


title: Stability of the pion string in a thermal and dense medium

abstract:
  We investigate the stability of the pion string in a thermal bath and a dense
medium. We find that stability is dependent on the order of the chiral
transition. String core stability within the experimentally allowed regime is
found only if the chiral transition is second order, and even there the stable
region is small, i.e., the temperature below which the core is unstable is
close to the critical temperature of the phase transition. We also find that
the presence of a dense medium, in addition to the thermal bath, enhances the
experimentally accessible region with stable strings. We also argue that once
the string core decays, the "effective winding" of the string persists at large
distances from the string core. Our analysis is done both in the chiral limit,
which is mainly what has been explored in the literature up to now, and for the
physical $h \ne 0$ case, where a conceptual framework is set up for addressing
this regime and some simple estimates are done.


title: Conformal Ricci Collineations of Plane Symmetric Static Spacetimes

abstract:
  This article explores the Conformal Ricci Collineations (CRCs) for the
plane-symmetric static spacetime. The non-linear coupled CRC equations are
solved to get the general form of conformal Ricci symmetries. In the
non-degenerate case, it turns out that the dimension of the Lie algebra of CRCs
is finite. In the case were the Ricci tensor is degenerate, it found that the
algebra of CRCs for the plane-symmetric static spacetime is mostly, but not
always, infinite dimensional. In one case of degenerate Ricci tensor, we solved
the differential constraints completely and a spacetime metric is obtained
along with CRCs. We found ten possible cases of finite and infinite dimensional
Lie algebras of CRCs for the considered spacetime.


title:
Do Circumnuclear Dense Gas Disks Drive Mass Accretion onto Supermassive
  Black Holes?

abstract:
  We present a positive correlation between the mass of dense molecular gas
($M_{\rm dense}$) of $\sim 100$ pc scale circumnuclear disks (CNDs) and the
black hole mass accretion rate ($\dot{M}_{\rm BH}$) in total 10 Seyfert
galaxies, based on data compiled from the literature and an archive (median
aperture $\theta_{\rm med}$ = 220 pc). A typical $M_{\rm dense}$ of CNDs is
10$^{7-8}$ $M_\odot$, estimated from the luminosity of the dense gas tracer,
the HCN($1-0$) emission line. Because dense molecular gas is the site of star
formation, this correlation is virtually equivalent to the one between nuclear
star formation rate and $\dot{M}_{\rm BH}$ revealed previously. Moreover, the
$M_{\rm dense}-\dot{M}_{\rm BH}$ correlation was tighter for CND-scale gas than
for the gas on kpc or larger scales. This indicates that CNDs likely play an
important role in fueling black holes, whereas $>$kpc scale gas does not. To
demonstrate a possible approach for studying the CND-scale accretion process
with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), we used a mass
accretion model where angular momentum loss due to supernova explosions is
vital. Based on the model prediction, we suggest that only the partial fraction
of the mass accreted from the CND ($\dot{M}_{\rm acc}$) is consumed as
$\dot{M}_{\rm BH}$. However, $\dot{M}_{\rm acc}$ agrees well with the total
nuclear mass flow rate (i.e., $\dot{M}_{\rm BH}$ + outflow rate). Although
these results are still tentative with large uncertainties, they support the
view that star formation in CNDs can drive mass accretion onto supermassive
black holes in Seyfert galaxies.


title: Zero-mass limit of a Dirac spinor with general spin orientation

abstract:
  The helicity eigenstates which describe the fermions with a special spin
orientation (parallel or antiparallel to the direction of momentum) provide
considerable simplification in calculations. Hence, it is generally preferred
to use helicity basis during the calculations in Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
or Quantum Field Theory. Possibly because of the above reason, the Dirac
spinors describing a general spin orientation have been ignored in many
textbooks. Although the helicity eigenstates give almost complete understanding
of the behavior of the free Dirac solutions, the zero-mass limit is one of its
exception. The zero-mass behavior of the free spinor with general spin
orientation and its relation with chirality eigenstates has been skipped in
textbooks and hence it deserves a clear, detailed investigation. In this paper
we obtain the free Dirac spinors describing a general spin orientation and
examine their zero-mass limit. We also briefly discuss some of the implications
of this small-mass behavior of the spinors on particle physics.


title:
Light-cone like spreading of single-particle correlations in the
  Bose-Hubbard model after a quantum quench in the strong coupling regime

abstract:
  We study the spreading of correlations in space and time after a quantum
quench in the Bose Hubbard model. We derive equations of motion for the
single-particle Green's function within the contour-time formalism, allowing us
to study dynamics in the strong coupling regime. We discuss the numerical
solutions of these equations and calculate the single-particle density matrix
for quenches in the Mott phase. We demonstrate light-cone like spreading of
correlations in the Mott phase in one, two, and three dimensions and calculate
propagation velocities in each dimension.


title: Topological entanglement negativity in Chern-Simons theories

abstract:
  We study the topological entanglement negativity between two spatial regions
in (2+1)-dimensional Chern-Simons gauge theories by using the replica trick and
the surgery method. For a bipartitioned or tripartitioned spatial manifold, we
show how the topological entanglement negativity depends on the presence of
quasiparticles and the choice of ground states. In particular, for two adjacent
non-contractible regions on a tripartitioned torus, the entanglement negativity
provides a simple way to distinguish Abelian and non-Abelian theories. Our
method applies to a Chern-Simons gauge theory defined on an arbitrary oriented
(2+1)-dimensional spacetime manifold. Our results agree with the edge theory
approach in a recent work (X. Wen, S. Matsuura and S. Ryu, arXiv:1603.08534).


title: Quantum Unique Ergodicity for half-integral weight forms

abstract:
  We investigate the analogue of the Quantum Unique Ergodicity (QUE) conjecture
for half-integral weight automorphic forms. Assuming the Generalized Riemann
Hypothesis (GRH) we establish QUE for both half-integral weight holomorphic
Hecke cusp forms for $\Gamma_0(4)$ lying in Kohnen's plus subspace and for
half-integral weight Hecke Maa{\ss} cusp forms for $\Gamma_0(4)$ lying in
Kohnen's plus subspace. By combining the former result along with an argument
of Rudnick, it follows that under GRH the zeros of these holomorphic Hecke cusp
equidistribute with respect to hyperbolic measure on $\Gamma_0(4)\backslash
\mathbb H$ as the weight tends to infinity.


title: The Distance to M51

abstract:
  Great investments of observing time have been dedicated to the study of
nearby spiral galaxies with diverse goals ranging from understanding the star
formation process to characterizing their dark matter distributions. Accurate
distances are fundamental to interpreting observations of these galaxies, yet
many of the best studied nearby galaxies have distances based on methods with
relatively large uncertainties. We have started a program to derive accurate
distances to these galaxies. Here we measure the distance to M51 - the
Whirlpool galaxy - from newly obtained Hubble Space Telescope optical imaging
using the tip of the red giant branch method. We measure the distance modulus
to be 8.58+/-0.10 Mpc (statistical), corresponding to a distance modulus of
29.67+/-0.02 mag. Our distance is an improvement over previous results as we
use a well-calibrated, stable distance indicator, precision photometry in a
optimally selected field of view, and a Bayesian Maximum Likelihood technique
that reduces measurement uncertainties.


title: Restrictions on Submanifolds via Focal Radius Bounds

abstract:
  We give an optimal estimate for the norm of any submanifold's second
fundamental form in terms of its focal radius and the lower sectional curvature
bound of the ambient manifold.
  This is a special case of a similar theorem for intermediate Ricci curvature,
and leads to a $C^{1,\alpha}$ compactness result for submanifolds, as well as a
"soul-type" structure theorem for manifolds with nonnegative
$k^{th}$--intermediate Ricci curvature that have a closed submanifold with
dimension $\geq k$ and infinite focal radius.
  To prove these results, we use the comparison lemma for Jacobi fields from
arXiv:1603.04050 that exploits Wilking's transverse Jacobi equation. The
comparison lemma also yields new information about group actions, Riemannian
submersions, and submetries, including generalizations to intermediate Ricci
curvature of results of Chen and Grove.


title: Box-Counting Dimension Using Triangles

abstract:
  An alternate definition of the box-counting dimension is proposed, to provide
a better approximation for fractals involving rotation such as the 'Bradley
Spiral' structure. A curve fitting comparison of this definition with the
box-counting dimension is also presented.


title: A scale dependent black hole in three-dimensional space-time

abstract:
  Scale dependence at the level of the effective action is a generic result of
quantum field theory. Allowing for scale dependence of the gravitational
couplings leads to a generalization of the corresponding field equations. In
this work, those equations are solved by imposing the "null energy condition"
in three-dimensional space time with stationary spherical symmetry. The
constants of integration are given in terms of the classical BTZ parameters
plus one additional constant, that parametrizes the strength of the scale
dependence. The properties such as asymptotics, horizon structure, and
thermodynamics are discussed. It is found that the black hole entropy shows a
remarkable transition from the usual "area~law" to an "area~$\times$~radius"
law.


title:
Efficient single photon emission from a high-purity hexagonal boron
  nitride crystal

abstract:
  Among a variety of layered materials used as building blocks in van der Waals
heterostructures, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) appears as an ideal platform
for hosting optically-active defects owing to its large bandgap ($\sim 6$ eV).
Here we study the optical response of a high-purity hBN crystal under green
laser illumination. By means of photon correlation measurements, we identify
individual defects emitting a highly photostable fluorescence under ambient
conditions. A detailed analysis of the photophysical properties reveals a high
quantum efficiency of the radiative transition, leading to a single photon
source with very high brightness. These results illustrate how the wide range
of applications offered by hBN could be further extended to photonic-based
quantum information science and metrology.


title: Axioms for consensus functions on the n-cube

abstract:
  An elementary general result is proved that allows for simple
characterizations of well-known location/consensus functions (median, mean and
center) on the n-cube. In addition, alternate new characterizations are given
for the median and anti-median functions on the n-cube.


title: Dividing by zero - how bad is it, really?

abstract:
  In computable analysis testing a real number for being zero is a fundamental
example of a non-computable task. This causes problems for division: We cannot
ensure that the number we want to divide by is not zero. In many cases, any
real number would be an acceptable outcome if the divisor is zero - but even
this cannot be done in a computable way.
  In this note we investigate the strength of the computational problem "Robust
division": Given a pair of real numbers, the first not greater than the other,
output their quotient if well-defined and any real number else. The formal
framework is provided by Weihrauch reducibility. One particular result is that
having later calls to the problem depending on the outcomes of earlier ones is
strictly more powerful than performing all calls concurrently. However, having
a nesting depths of two already provides the full power. This solves an open
problem raised at a recent Dagstuhl meeting on Weihrauch reducibility.
  As application for "Robust division", we show that it suffices to execute
Gaussian elimination.


title: Supermode-Density-Wave-Polariton Condensation

abstract:
  Phase transitions, where observable properties of a many-body system change
discontinuously, can occur in both open and closed systems. Ultracold atoms
have provided an exemplary model system to demonstrate the physics of
closed-system phase transitions, confirming many theoretical models and
results. Our understanding of dissipative phase transitions in quantum systems
is less developed, and experiments that probe this physics even less so. By
placing cold atoms in optical cavities, and inducing strong coupling between
light and excitations of the atoms, one can experimentally study phase
transitions of open quantum systems. Here we observe and study a novel form of
nonequilibrium phase transition, the condensation of
supermode-density-wave-polaritons. These polaritons are formed from a hybrid
"supermode" of cavity photons coupled to atomic density waves of a quantum gas.
Because the cavity supports multiple photon spatial modes, and because the
matter-light coupling can be comparable to the energy splitting of these modes,
the composition of the supermode polariton is changed by the matter-light
coupling upon condensation. These results, found in the few-mode-degenerate
cavity regime, demonstrate the potential of fully multimode cavities to exhibit
physics beyond mean-field theories. Such systems will provide experimental
access to nontrivial phase transitions in driven dissipative quantum systems as
well as enabling the studies of novel non-equilibrium spin glasses and
neuromorphic computation.


title: Optimal discrete measures for Riesz potentials

abstract:
  For $s\geqslant d$, we obtain the leading term as $N\to \infty$ of the
maximal weighted $N$-point Riesz $s$-polarization (or Chebyshev constant) for a
certain class of $d$-rectifiable compact subsets of $\mathbb{R}^p$. This class
includes compact subsets of $d$-dimensional $C^1$ manifolds whose boundary
relative to the manifold has $\mathcal{H}_d$-measure zero, as well as finite
unions of such sets when their pairwise intersections have
$\mathcal{H}_d$-measure zero. We also explicitly find the weak$^*$ limit
distribution of asymptotically optimal $N$-point polarization configurations as
$N\to \infty$.


title: D-wave superconductivity in boson+fermion dimer models

abstract:
  We present a slave-particle mean-field study of the mixed boson+fermion
quantum dimer model introduced by Punk, Allais, and Sachdev [PNAS 112, 9552
(2015)] to describe the physics of the pseudogap phase in cuprate
superconductors. Our analysis naturally leads to four charge e fermion pockets
whose total area is equal to the hole doping p, for a range of parameters
consistent with the t-J model for high temperature superconductivity. Here we
find that the dimers are unstable to d-wave superconductivity at low
temperatures. The region of the phase diagram with d-wave rather than s-wave
superconductivity matches well with the appearance of the four fermion pockets.
In the superconducting regime, the dispersion contains eight Dirac cones along
the diagonals of the Brillouin zone.


title: Modeling Missing Data in Clinical Time Series with RNNs

abstract:
  We demonstrate a simple strategy to cope with missing data in sequential
inputs, addressing the task of multilabel classification of diagnoses given
clinical time series. Collected from the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU)
at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, our data consists of multivariate time
series of observations. The measurements are irregularly spaced, leading to
missingness patterns in temporally discretized sequences. While these artifacts
are typically handled by imputation, we achieve superior predictive performance
by treating the artifacts as features. Unlike linear models, recurrent neural
networks can realize this improvement using only simple binary indicators of
missingness. For linear models, we show an alternative strategy to capture this
signal. Training models on missingness patterns only, we show that for some
diseases, what tests are run can be as predictive as the results themselves.


title:
Bounds on supersymmetric effective operators from heavy diphoton
  searches

abstract:
  We identify the bounds on supersymmetric effective operators beyond MSSM,
from heavy diphoton resonance ($X$) negative searches at the LHC, where $X$ is
identified with the neutral CP-even (odd) $H$ ($A$) or both (mass degenerate).
While minimal supersymmetric models (MSSM, etc) comply with the data, a leading
effective operator of $d=6$ can contribute significantly to diphoton production
$\sigma\sim 1$ fb, well above its MSSM value and in conflict with recent data.
Both the $b\bar b$ and $gg$ production mechanisms of $H$ and $A$ can contribute
comparably to this. We examine the dependence of the diphoton cross section
$\sigma$ on the values of $m_X$, $\Lambda$ and $\tan\beta$, under the
experimental constraints from the SM-like higgs couplings $hgg$ and
$h\gamma\gamma$ (due to mixing) and from the $b\bar b$ and $t\bar t$ searches.
These give $\Lambda$ larger than $\sim 5$ TeV for $m_X$ in the range $0.5-1$
TeV. We show how to generate the $d=6$ effective operator from microscopic
(renormalizable) models. This demands the presence of vector-like states beyond
the MSSM spectrum (and eventually but not necessarily a gauge singlet), of mass
near $\Lambda$ and thus outside the LHC reach.


title:
A Stochastic Multi-scale Approach for Numerical Modeling of Complex
  Materials - Application to Uniaxial Cyclic Response of Concrete

abstract:
  In complex materials, numerous intertwined phenomena underlie the overall
response at macroscale. These phenomena can pertain to different engineering
fields (mechanical , chemical, electrical), occur at different scales, can
appear as uncertain, and are nonlinear. Interacting with complex materials thus
calls for developing nonlinear computational approaches where multi-scale
techniques that grasp key phenomena at the relevant scale need to be mingled
with stochastic methods accounting for uncertainties. In this chapter, we
develop such a computational approach for modeling the mechanical response of a
representative volume of concrete in uniaxial cyclic loading. A mesoscale is
defined such that it represents an equivalent heterogeneous medium: nonlinear
local response is modeled in the framework of Thermodynamics with Internal
Variables; spatial variability of the local response is represented by
correlated random vector fields generated with the Spectral Representation
Method. Macroscale response is recovered through standard ho-mogenization
procedure from Micromechanics and shows salient features of the uniaxial cyclic
response of concrete that are not explicitly modeled at mesoscale.


title: Regularized Nonlinear Acceleration

abstract:
  We describe a convergence acceleration technique for unconstrained
optimization problems. Our scheme computes estimates of the optimum from a
nonlinear average of the iterates produced by any optimization method. The
weights in this average are computed via a simple linear system, whose solution
can be updated online. This acceleration scheme runs in parallel to the base
algorithm, providing improved estimates of the solution on the fly, while the
original optimization method is running. Numerical experiments are detailed on
classical classification problems.


title:
Least upper bound of the exact formula for optimal quantization of some
  uniform Cantor distributions

abstract:
  The quantization scheme in probability theory deals with finding a best
approximation of a given probability distribution by a probability distribution
that is supported on finitely many points. Let $P$ be a Borel probability
measure on $\mathbb R$ such that $P=\frac 12 P\circ S_1^{-1}+\frac 12 P\circ
S_2^{-1},$ where $S_1$ and $S_2$ are two contractive similarity mappings given
by $S_1(x)=rx$ and $S_2(x)=rx+1-r$ for $0<r<\frac 12$ and $x\in \mathbb R$.
Then, $P$ is supported on the Cantor set generated by $S_1$ and $S_2$. The case
$r=\frac 13$ was treated by Graf and Luschgy who gave an exact formula for the
unique optimal quantization of the Cantor distribution $P$ (Math. Nachr., 183
(1997), 113-133). In this paper, we compute the precise range of $r$-values to
which Graf-Luschgy formula extends.


title:
Dependence of the Sr-to-Ba and Sr-to-Eu Ratio on the Nuclear Equation of
  State in Metal Poor Halo Stars

abstract:
  A model is proposed in which the light r-process element enrichment in
metal-poor stars is explained via enrichment from a truncated r-process, or
"tr-process." The truncation of the r-process from a generic core-collapse
event followed by a collapse into an accretion-induced black hole is examined
in the framework of a galactic chemical evolution model. The constraints on
this model imposed by observations of extremely metal-poor stars are explained,
and the upper limits in the [Sr/Ba] distributions are found to be related to
the nuclear equation of state in a collapse scenario. The scatter in [Sr/Ba]
and [Sr/Eu] as a function of metallicity has been found to be consistent with
turbulent ejection in core collapse supernovae. Adaptations of this model are
evaluated to account for the scatter in isotopic observables. This is done by
assuming mixing in ejecta in a supernova event.


title:
Myopic Policies for Non-Preemptive Scheduling of Jobs with Decaying
  Value

abstract:
  In many scheduling applications, minimizing delays is of high importance. One
adverse effect of such delays is that the reward for completion of a job may
decay over time. Indeed in healthcare settings, delays in access to care can
result in worse outcomes, such as an increase in mortality risk. Motivated by
managing hospital operations in disaster scenarios, as well as other
applications in perishable inventory control and information services, we
consider non-preemptive scheduling of jobs whose internal value decays over
time. Because solving for the optimal scheduling policy is computationally
intractable, we focus our attention on the performance of three intuitive
heuristics: (1) a policy which maximizes the expected immediate reward, (2) a
policy which maximizes the expected immediate reward rate, and (3) a policy
which prioritizes jobs with imminent deadlines. We provide performance
guarantees for all three policies and show that many of these performance
bounds are tight. In addition, we provide numerical experiments and simulations
to compare how the policies perform in a variety of scenarios. Our theoretical
and numerical results allow us to establish rules-of-thumb for applying these
heuristics in a variety of situations, including patient scheduling scenarios.


title: Combinatorial proof of the transcendence of $L(1,\chi_s)/\Pi$

abstract:
  We give a combinatorial proof of the transcendence of $L(1,\chi_s)/\Pi$,
where $L(1,\chi_s)$ (resp. $\Pi$) is the analogue in characteristic $p$ of the
function $L$ of Dirichlet (resp. $\pi$). This result has been proven by G.
Damamme using the criteria of de Mathan. Our proof is based on the Theorem of
Christol and another property of $k$-automatic sequences.


title:
Indirect Detection Constraints on s and t Channel Simplified Models of
  Dark Matter

abstract:
  Recent Fermi-LAT observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Milky Way
have placed strong limits on the gamma-ray flux from dark matter annihilation.
In order to produce the strongest limit on the dark matter annihilation
cross-section, the observations of each dwarf galaxy have typically been
"stacked" in a joint-likelihood analysis, utilizing optical observations to
constrain the dark matter density profile in each dwarf. These limits have
typically been computed only for singular annihilation final states, such as
$b\bar{b}$ or $\tau^+\tau^-$. In this paper, we generalize this approach by
producing an independent joint-likelihood analysis to set constraints on models
where the dark matter particle annihilates to multiple final state fermions. We
interpret these results in the context of the most popular simplified models,
including those with s- and t-channel dark matter annihilation through scalar
and vector mediators. We present our results as constraints on the minimum dark
matter mass and the mediator sector parameters. Additionally, we compare our
simplified model results to those of Effective Field Theory contact
interactions in the high-mass limit.


title:
Credit allocation based on journal impact factor and coauthorship
  contribution

abstract:
  Some research institutions demand researchers to distribute the incomes they
earn from publishing papers to their researchers and/or co-authors. In this
study, we deal with the Impact Factor-based ranking journal as a criteria for
the correct distribution of these incomes. We also include the Authorship
Credit factor for distribution of the incomes among authors, using the
geometric progression of Cantor's theory and the Harmonic Credit Index.
Depending on the ranking of the journal, the proposed model develops a proper
publication credit allocation among all authors. Moreover, our tool can be
deployed in the evaluation of an institution for a funding program, as well as
calculating the amounts necessary to incentivize research among personnel.


title: Rare decays of B mesons via on-shell sterile neutrinos

abstract:
  In view of the projected high number of produced $B$ mesons in Belle II
experiment ($\sim 10^{10}$ per year), in addition to the presently ongoing
LHC-b, we calculate the rate of decay for the rare decays of $B$ mesons via a
sterile on-shell neutrino $N$, which subsequently may decay leptonically or
semileptonically within the detector: $B \to (D^{(*)}) \ell_1^{\pm} N$, then $N
\to \ell_1^{\pm} \ell_2^{\mp} \nu$ or $N \to \ell^{\pm} \pi^\mp$. Here, $\ell_1
\not= \ell_2$ in order to avoid serious QED background. We account for the
possible effects of the strong neutrino lifetime on the observability of the
rare decays. If no charmed mesons ($D^{(*)}$) are produced at the first vertex
of the sterile neutrino, a strong CKM-suppression becomes effective; this is
not true if we consider instead the decays of $B_c$ mesons which can be
produced copiously in LHC-b. The production of charmed mesons $D^{(*)}$ at the
first vertex offers an attractive possibility because it avoids strong
CKM-suppression. Such rare decays of $B$ mesons could be detected at Belle II
experiment, with $N$ neutrino either decaying within the detector or
manifesting itself as a massive missing momentum.


title: A Lecture on Integration by Parts

abstract:
  Integration by parts (IBP) has acquired a bad reputation. While it allows us
to compute a wide variety of integrals when other methods fall short, its
implementation is often seen as plodding and confusing. Readers familiar with
tabular IBP understand that, in particular cases, it has the capacity to
significantly streamline and shorten computation. In this paper, we establish a
tabular approach to IBP that is completely general and, more importantly, a
powerful tool that promotes exploration and creativity.


title:
Mutual information for symmetric rank-one matrix estimation: A proof of
  the replica formula

abstract:
  Factorizing low-rank matrices has many applications in machine learning and
statistics. For probabilistic models in the Bayes optimal setting, a general
expression for the mutual information has been proposed using heuristic
statistical physics computations, and proven in few specific cases. Here, we
show how to rigorously prove the conjectured formula for the symmetric rank-one
case. This allows to express the minimal mean-square-error and to characterize
the detectability phase transitions in a large set of estimation problems
ranging from community detection to sparse PCA. We also show that for a large
set of parameters, an iterative algorithm called approximate message-passing is
Bayes optimal. There exists, however, a gap between what currently known
polynomial algorithms can do and what is expected information theoretically.
Additionally, the proof technique has an interest of its own and exploits three
essential ingredients: the interpolation method introduced in statistical
physics by Guerra, the analysis of the approximate message-passing algorithm
and the theory of spatial coupling and threshold saturation in coding. Our
approach is generic and applicable to other open problems in statistical
estimation where heuristic statistical physics predictions are available.

categories: cs.IT cond-mat.dis-nn cs.LG math-ph math.IT math.MP


title: Algebraic Geometric codes from Kummer Extensions

abstract:
  For Kummer extensions defined by $y^m = f (x)$, where $f (x)$ is a separable
polynomial over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, we compute the number of
Weierstrass gaps at two totally ramified places. For many totally ramified
places we give a criterion to find pure gaps at these points and present
families of pure gaps. We then apply our results to construct many points
algebraic geometric codes with good parameters.


title:
Higgs bosons production and decay at future $e^+e^-$ linear colliders as
  a probe of the B-L model

abstract:
  We study the phenomenology of the light and heavy Higgs boson production and
decay in the context of a $U(1)_{B-L}$ extension of the Standard Model with an
additional $Z'$ boson at future $e^+e^-$ linear colliders with center-of-mass
energies of $\sqrt{s}=500-3000\hspace{0.8mm}GeV$ and integrated luminosities of
${\cal L}=500-2000\hspace{0.8mm}fb^{-1}$. The study includes the processes
$e^{+}e^{-}\rightarrow (Z, Z') \to Zh$ and $e^{+}e^{-}\rightarrow (Z, Z') \to
ZH$, considering both the resonant and non-resonant effects. We find that the
total number of expected $Zh$ and $ZH$ events can reach 909,124 and 97,487,
respectively, which is a very optimistic scenario and thus it would be possible
to perform precision measurements for both Higgs bosons $h$ and $H$, as well as
for the $Z'$ boson in future high-energy and high-luminosity $e^+e^-$ colliders
experiments. Our study complements other studies on the B-L model and on the
Higgs-strahlung processes $e^{+}e^{-}\rightarrow (Z, Z') \to Zh$ and
$e^{+}e^{-}\rightarrow (Z, Z') \to ZH$.


title: Sample Complexity of Automated Mechanism Design

abstract:
  The design of revenue-maximizing combinatorial auctions, i.e. multi-item
auctions over bundles of goods, is one of the most fundamental problems in
computational economics, unsolved even for two bidders and two items for sale.
In the traditional economic models, it is assumed that the bidders' valuations
are drawn from an underlying distribution and that the auction designer has
perfect knowledge of this distribution. Despite this strong and oftentimes
unrealistic assumption, it is remarkable that the revenue-maximizing
combinatorial auction remains unknown. In recent years, automated mechanism
design has emerged as one of the most practical and promising approaches to
designing high-revenue combinatorial auctions. The most scalable automated
mechanism design algorithms take as input samples from the bidders' valuation
distribution and then search for a high-revenue auction in a rich auction
class. In this work, we provide the first sample complexity analysis for the
standard hierarchy of deterministic combinatorial auction classes used in
automated mechanism design. In particular, we provide tight sample complexity
bounds on the number of samples needed to guarantee that the empirical revenue
of the designed mechanism on the samples is close to its expected revenue on
the underlying, unknown distribution over bidder valuations, for each of the
auction classes in the hierarchy. In addition to helping set automated
mechanism design on firm foundations, our results also push the boundaries of
learning theory. In particular, the hypothesis functions used in our contexts
are defined through multi-stage combinatorial optimization procedures, rather
than simple decision boundaries, as are common in machine learning.


title: Inference for Instrumental Variables: A Randomization Inference Approach

abstract:
  The method of instrumental variables (IV) provides a framework to study
causal effects in both randomized experiments with noncompliance and in
observational studies where natural circumstances produce as-if random nudges
to accept treatment. Traditionally, inference for IV relied on asymptotic
approximations of the distribution of the Wald estimator or two-stage least
squares, often with structural modeling assumptions and/or moment conditions.
In this paper, we utilize the randomization inference approach to IV inference.
First, we outline the exact method, which uses the randomized assignment of
treatment in experiments as a basis for inference, but lacks a closed-form
solution and may be computationally infeasible in many applications. We then
provide an alternative to the exact method, the almost exact method, which is
computationally feasible but retains the advantages of the exact method. We
also review asymptotic methods of inference, including those associated with
two-stage least squares, and analytically compare them to randomization
inference methods. We also perform additional comparisons using a set of
simulations. We conclude with three different applications from the social
sciences.


title:
Building a large-area GEM-based readout chamber for the upgrade of the
  ALICE TPC

abstract:
  A large Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is the main device for tracking and
charged-particle identification in the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC. After
the second long shutdown in 2019-2020, the LHC will deliver Pb beams colliding
at an interaction rate up to 50 kHz, which is about a factor of 100 above the
present read-out rate of the TPC. To fully exploit the LHC potential the TPC
will be upgraded based on the Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) technology.
  A prototype of an ALICE TPC Outer Read-Out Chamber (OROC) was equipped with
twelve large-size GEM foils as amplification stage to demonstrate the
feasibility of replacing the current Multi Wire Proportional Chambers with the
new technology. With a total area of $\sim$0.76 m$^2$ it is the largest
GEM-based detector built to date. The GEM OROC was installed within a test
field cage and commissioned with radioactive sources.


title:
Pair ${(bc)}$ diquarks production in high energy proton--proton
  collisions

abstract:
  The cross section of pair double heavy diquark production process
$pp\to(bc)+(\bar b \bar c)+X$ is calculated in the leading order of gluonic
fusion channel with all four possible color and spin combinations
$[^1S_0]_{\bar3}$, $[^1S_0]_{6}$, $[^3S_1]_{\bar3}$, and $[^3S_1]_{6}$ for each
of the two final diquarks taken into account. Several sources of relativistic
corrections to the cross section are handled in the framework of relativistic
quark model. Perturbative $\mathcal O(v^2)$ corrections originating from the
production amplitude expansions in heavy quark relative velocity~$v$ depend on
the color and spin states of the final particles, but can be generally
considered as unimportant ones giving maximally 12\% improvement in numerically
significant cases. Modifications of the quark--quark and antiquark--antiquark
bound state wave functions caused by the appropriate generalization of the
Breit interaction potential have rather severe impact on the cross section
suppressing it almost three times. Under assumption of antitriplets and
sextuplets' nonperturbative parameters having the same order of magnitude, it
is shown that the color-sextet mechanism strongly dominates pair diquark
production in both nonrelativistic and relativistic approximations.


title:
Signal background interference effects in heavy scalar production and
  decay to a top-anti-top pair

abstract:
  We analyse the production of a top quark pair through a heavy scalar at the
LHC. We first review the main features of the signal as well as the
interference with the top-anti-top background at leading order in QCD. We then
study higher order QCD effects. While the background and the signal can be
obtained at NNLO and NLO in QCD respectively, that is not the case for their
interference, which is currently known only at LO. In order to improve the
accuracy of the prediction for the interference term, we consider the effects
of extra QCD radiation, i.e. the $2 \to 3$ (loop-induced) processes and obtain
an estimate of the NLO corrections. As a result, we find that the contribution
of the interference is important both at the total cross-section level and,
most importantly, for the line-shape of the heavy scalar. In particular for
resonances with widths larger than a couple of percent of the resonance mass,
the interference term distorts the invariant mass distribution and generically
leads to a non-trivial peak-dip structure. We study this process in a
simplified model involving an additional scalar or pseudoscalar resonance as
well as in the Two-Higgs-Doublet-Model for a set of representative benchmarks.
We present the constraints on simplified models featuring an extra scalar as
set by the LHC searches for top-anti-top resonances, and the implications of
the 750 GeV diphoton excess recently reported by CMS and ATLAS for the top pair
production assuming a scalar or a pseudoscalar resonance.


title:
Photometric Measurements of H2O Ice Crystallinity on Trans-Neptunian
  Objects

abstract:
  We present a measurement of H2O ice crystallinity on the surface of
trans-neptunian objects (TNOs) with near-infrared narrow-band imaging. The
newly developed photometric technique allows us to efficiently determine the
strength of an 1.65-um absorption feature in crystalline H2O ice. Our data for
three large objects, Haumea, Quaoar, and Orcus, which are known to contain
crystalline H2O ice on the surfaces, show a reasonable result with high
fractions of the crystalline phase. It can also be pointed out that if the
H2O-ice grain size is larger than ~20 um, the crystallinities of these objects
are obviously below 1.0, which suggest the presence of the amorphous phase.
Especially, Orcus exhibits a high abundance of amorphous H2O ice compared to
Haumea and Quaoar, possibly indicating a correlation between bulk density of
the bodies and surface crystallization degree. We also found the presence of
crystalline H2O ice on Typhon and 2008 AP129, both of which are smaller than
the minimum size limit for inducing cryovolcanism as well as a transition from
amorphous to crystalline through the thermal evolution due to the decay of
long-lived isotopes.


title: The Yang-Mills heat equation with finite action

abstract:
  The existence and uniqueness of solutions to the Yang-Mills heat equation is
proven over three dimensional Euclidean space and over a bounded open convex
set therein. The initial data is taken to lie in the Sobolev space of order one
half, which is the critical Sobolev index for this equation over a three
dimensional manifold. The existence is proven by solving first an augmented,
strictly parabolic equation and then gauge transforming the solution to a
solution of the Yang-Mills heat equation itself. The gauge functions needed to
carry out this procedure lie in the critical gauge group of Sobolev regularity
three halves, which is a complete topological group in a natural metric but is
not a Hilbert Lie group. The nature of this group must be understood in order
to carry out the reconstruction procedure. Solutions to the Yang-Mills heat
equation are shown to be strong solutions modulo these gauge functions. Energy
inequalities and Neumann domination inequalities are used to establish needed
initial behavior properties of solutions to the augmented equation.


title:
No Contact Terms for the Magnetic Field in Lorentz- and CPT-Violating
  Electrodynamics

abstract:
  In a Lorentz- and CPT-violating modification of electrodynamics, the fields
of a moving charge are known to have unusual singularities. This raises the
question of whether the singular behavior may include $\delta$-function contact
terms, similar to those that appear in the fields of idealized dipoles.
However, by calculating the magnetic field of an infinite straight wire in this
theory, we demonstrate that there are no such contact terms in the magnetic
field of a moving point charge


title: Universal temporal features of rankings in competitive sports and games

abstract:
  Many complex phenomena, from the selection of traits in biological systems to
hierarchy formation in social and economic entities, show signs of competition
and heterogeneous performance in the temporal evolution of their components,
which may eventually lead to stratified structures such as the wealth
distribution worldwide. However, it is still unclear whether the road to
hierarchical complexity is determined by the particularities of each phenomena,
or if there are universal mechanisms of stratification common to many systems.
Human sports and games, with their (varied but simplified) rules of competition
and measures of performance, serve as an ideal test bed to look for universal
features of hierarchy formation. With this goal in mind, we analyse here the
behaviour of players and team rankings over time for several sports and games.
Even though, for a given time, the distribution of performance ranks varies
across activities, we find statistical regularities in the dynamics of ranks.
Specifically the rank diversity, a measure of the number of elements occupying
a given rank over a length of time, has the same functional form in sports and
games as in languages, another system where competition is determined by the
use or disuse of grammatical structures. Our results support the notion that
hierarchical phenomena may be driven by the same underlying mechanisms of rank
formation, regardless of the nature of their components. Moreover, such
regularities can in principle be used to predict lifetimes of rank occupancy,
thus increasing our ability to forecast stratification in the presence of
competition.


title:
Doppler tomography of the Double Periodic Variable HD 170582 at low and
  high stage

abstract:
  HD170582 is an interacting binary of the Double Periodic Variable (DPV) type,
showing ellipsoidal variability with a period of 16.87 days along with a long
photometric cycle of 587 days. It was recently studied by Mennickent et al.
(2015), who found a slightly evolved B-type star surrounded by a luminous
accretion disc fed by a Roche-lobe overflowing A-type giant. Here we extend
their analysis presenting new spectroscopic data and studying the Balmer
emission lines. We find orbitally modulated double-peak Halpha and Hbeta
emissions whose strength also vary in the long-term. In addition, Doppler maps
of the emission lines reveal sites of enhanced line emission in the 1st and 4th
velocity quadrants, the first one consistent with the position of one of the
bright zones detected by the light curve analysis. We find a difference between
Doppler maps at high and low stage of the long cycle; evidence that the
emission is optically thicker at high state in the stream-disc impact region,
possibly reflecting a larger mass transfer rate. We compare the system
parameters with a grid of synthetic binary evolutionary tracks and find the
best fitting model. The system is found to be semi-detached, in a conservative
Case-B mass transfer stage, with age 7.68E7 yr and mass transfer rate 1.6E-6
Msun/yr. For 5 well-studied DPVs, the disc luminosity scales with the primary
mass and is much larger than the theoretical accretion luminosity.


title: Rationalizing Neural Predictions

abstract:
  Prediction without justification has limited applicability. As a remedy, we
learn to extract pieces of input text as justifications -- rationales -- that
are tailored to be short and coherent, yet sufficient for making the same
prediction. Our approach combines two modular components, generator and
encoder, which are trained to operate well together. The generator specifies a
distribution over text fragments as candidate rationales and these are passed
through the encoder for prediction. Rationales are never given during training.
Instead, the model is regularized by desiderata for rationales. We evaluate the
approach on multi-aspect sentiment analysis against manually annotated test
cases. Our approach outperforms attention-based baseline by a significant
margin. We also successfully illustrate the method on the question retrieval
task.


title:
Convergence Analysis of Asynchronous Consensus in Discrete-time
  Multi-agent Systems with Fixed Topology

abstract:
  In this paper, we study a convergence condition for asynchronous consensus
problems in multi-agent systems. The convergence in this context implies the
asynchronous consensus value converges to the synchronous one and is unique.
Although it is reported in the literature that the consensus value under
asynchronous communications may not coincide with the synchronous consensus
value, it has not received much attention. In some applications, the
discrepancy between them may result in serious consequences. For such
applications it is critical to determine under what conditions the asynchronous
consensus value is the same as the synchronous consensus value. We illustrate
these issues with a few examples and then provide a condition, which guarantees
that the asynchronous consensus value converges to the synchronous one. The
validity of the proposed result is verified with simulations.


title: Single machine scheduling with job-dependent machine deterioration

abstract:
  We consider the single machine scheduling problem with job-dependent machine
deterioration. In the problem, we are given a single machine with an initial
non-negative maintenance level, and a set of jobs each with a non-preemptive
processing time and a machine deterioration. Such a machine deterioration
quantifies the decrement in the machine maintenance level after processing the
job. To avoid machine breakdown, one should guarantee a non-negative
maintenance level at any time point; and whenever necessary, a maintenance
activity must be allocated for restoring the machine maintenance level. The
goal of the problem is to schedule the jobs and the maintenance activities such
that the total completion time of jobs is minimized. There are two variants of
maintenance activities: in the partial maintenance case each activity can be
allocated to increase the machine maintenance level to any level not exceeding
the maximum; in the full maintenance case every activity must be allocated to
increase the machine maintenance level to the maximum. In a recent work, the
problem in the full maintenance case has been proven NP-hard; several special
cases of the problem in the partial maintenance case were shown solvable in
polynomial time, but the complexity of the general problem is left open. In
this paper we first prove that the problem in the partial maintenance case is
NP-hard, thus settling the open problem; we then design a $2$-approximation
algorithm.


title: A new class of non-identifiable skew symmetric tensors

abstract:
  We prove that the generic element of the fifth secant variety
$\sigma_5(Gr(\mathbb{P}^2,\mathbb{P}^9)) \subset \mathbb{P}(\bigwedge^3
\mathbb{C}^{10})$ of the Grassmannian of planes of $\mathbb{P}^9$ has exactly
two decompositions as a sum of five projective classes of decomposable
skew-symmetric tensors. {We show that this, {together with $Gr(\mathbb{P}^3,
\mathbb{P}^8)$, is the only non-identifiable case} among the non-defective
secant varieties $\sigma_s(Gr(\mathbb{P}^k, \mathbb{P}^n))$ for any $n<14$. In
the same range for $n$, we classify all the weakly defective and all
tangentially weakly defective secant varieties of any Grassmannians.} We also
show that the dual variety $(\sigma_3(Gr(\mathbb{P}^2,\mathbb{P}^7)))^{\vee}$
of the variety of 3-secant planes of the Grassmannian of $\mathbb{P}^2\subset
\mathbb{P}^7$ is $\sigma_2(Gr(\mathbb{P}^2,\mathbb{P}^7))$ the variety of
bi-secant lines of the same Grassmannian. The proof of this last fact has a
very interesting physical interpretation in terms of measurement of the
entanglement of a system of 3 identical fermions, the state of each of them
belonging to a 8-th dimensional "Hilbert" space.


title:
Uncertainties and biases of source masses derived from fits of
  integrated fluxes or image intensities

abstract:
  Fitting spectral distributions of total fluxes or image intensities are two
standard methods for estimating the masses of starless cores and protostellar
envelopes. These mass estimates, which are the main source and basis of our
knowledge of the origin and evolution of self-gravitating cores and protostars,
are uncertain. In this model-based study, a grid of radiative transfer models
of starless cores and protostellar envelopes was computed and their total
fluxes and image intensities were fitted to derive the model masses. To
investigate intrinsic effects related to the physical objects, all
observational complications were explicitly ignored. Known true values of the
numerical models allow us to assess the qualities of the methods and fitting
models, as well as the effects of nonuniform temperatures, far-infrared opacity
slope, selected subsets of wavelengths, background subtraction, and angular
resolutions. The method of fitting image intensities gives more accurate masses
for more resolved objects than the method of fitting total fluxes. With the
latter, a fitting model that assumes optically thin emission gives much better
results than the one allowing substantial optical depths. Temperature excesses
within the objects above the mass-averaged values skew their spectral shapes
towards shorter wavelengths, leading to masses underestimated typically by
factors 2-5. With a fixed opacity slope deviating from the true value by a
factor of 1.2, derived masses are inaccurate within a factor of 2. The most
accurate masses of the models are estimated by fitting just two or three
longest-wavelength fluxes. Conventional algorithm of background subtraction is
a likely source of large systematic errors. The absolute values of masses of
the unresolved or poorly resolved objects in star-forming regions are uncertain
to within at least a factor of 2-3.


title:
The Crossover Process: Learnability and Data Protection from Inference
  Attacks

abstract:
  It is usual to consider data protection and learnability as conflicting
objectives. This is not always the case: we show how to jointly control
inference --- seen as the attack --- and learnability by a noise-free process
that mixes training examples, the Crossover Process (cp). One key point is that
the cp~is typically able to alter joint distributions without touching on
marginals, nor altering the sufficient statistic for the class. In other words,
it saves (and sometimes improves) generalization for supervised learning, but
can alter the relationship between covariates --- and therefore fool measures
of nonlinear independence and causal inference into misleading ad-hoc
conclusions. For example, a cp~can increase / decrease odds ratios, bring
fairness or break fairness, tamper with disparate impact, strengthen, weaken or
reverse causal directions, change observed statistical measures of dependence.
For each of these, we quantify changes brought by a cp, as well as its
statistical impact on generalization abilities via a new complexity measure
that we call the Rademacher cp~complexity. Experiments on a dozen readily
available domains validate the theory.


title:
Slitless spectroscopy with the James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared
  Camera (JWST NIRCam)

abstract:
  The James Webb Space Telescope near-infrared camera (JWST NIRCam) has two
2.'2 $\times$ 2.'2 fields of view that are capable of either imaging or
spectroscopic observations. Either of two $R \sim 1500$ grisms with orthogonal
dispersion directions can be used for slitless spectroscopy over $\lambda = 2.4
- 5.0$ $\mu$m in each module, and shorter wavelength observations of the same
fields can be obtained simultaneously. We present the latest predicted grism
sensitivities, saturation limits, resolving power, and wavelength coverage
values based on component measurements, instrument tests, and end-to-end
modeling. Short wavelength (0.6 -- 2.3 $\mu$m) imaging observations of the 2.4
-- 5.0 $\mu$m spectroscopic field can be performed in one of several different
filter bands, either in-focus or defocused via weak lenses internal to NIRCam.
Alternatively, the possibility of 1.0 -- 2.0 $\mu$m spectroscopy
(simultaneously with 2.4 -- 5.0 $\mu$m) using dispersed Hartmann sensors (DHSs)
is being explored. The grisms, weak lenses, and DHS elements were included in
NIRCam primarily for wavefront sensing purposes, but all have significant
science applications. Operational considerations including subarray sizes, and
data volume limits are also discussed. Finally, we describe spectral simulation
tools and illustrate potential scientific uses of the grisms by presenting
simulated observations of deep extragalactic fields, galactic dark clouds, and
transiting exoplanets.


title: The properties of heavy elements in giant planet envelopes

abstract:
  The core accretion model for giant planet formation suggests a two layer
picture for the initial structure of Jovian planets, with heavy elements in a
dense core and a thick H-He envelope. Late planetesimal accretion and core
erosion could potentially enrich the H-He envelope in heavy elements, which is
supported by the three-fold solar metallicity that was measured in Jupiter's
atmosphere by the Galileo entry probe. In order to reproduce the observed
gravitational moments of Jupiter and Saturn, models for their interiors include
heavy elements, $Z$, in various proportions. However, their effect on the
equation of state of the hydrogen-helium mixtures has not been investigated
beyond the ideal mixing approximation. In this article, we report results from
\textit{ab initio} simulations of fully interacting H-He-$Z$ mixtures in order
to characterize their equation of state and to analyze possible consequences
for the interior structure and evolution of giant planets. Considering C, N, O,
Si, Fe, MgO and SiO$_2$, we show that the behavior of heavy elements in H-He
mixtures may still be represented by an ideal mixture if the effective volumes
and internal energies are chosen appropriately. In the case of oxygen, we also
compute the effect on the entropy. We find the resulting changes in the
temperature-pressure profile to be small. A homogeneous distribution of 2\%
oxygen by mass changes the temperature in Jupiter's interior by only 80 K.


title: Intracellular regulatory control of gene expression process

abstract:
  This paper presents an intracellular feedback control strategy, to regulate
the gene expression process dynamics. For this purpose, two types of genetic
circuits are designed in order to compare concentrations of the input
transcription factor (the desired input) and the protein produced by the
expression of target gene (process output). Genetic Relay Switch and Shifted
Subtractor are proposed and employed to design Discrete Comparator. Also,
another type of genetic comparator is presented named Bistable Comparator.
These synthetic comparators are used to produce the required amount of the
protein that activates the expression of the target gene. Numerical simulation
results, demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed controllers.


title: Zero-Resource Translation with Multi-Lingual Neural Machine Translation

abstract:
  In this paper, we propose a novel finetuning algorithm for the recently
introduced multi-way, mulitlingual neural machine translate that enables
zero-resource machine translation. When used together with novel many-to-one
translation strategies, we empirically show that this finetuning algorithm
allows the multi-way, multilingual model to translate a zero-resource language
pair (1) as well as a single-pair neural translation model trained with up to
1M direct parallel sentences of the same language pair and (2) better than
pivot-based translation strategy, while keeping only one additional copy of
attention-related parameters.


title: Using Virtual Humans to Understand Real Ones

abstract:
  Human interactions are characterized by explicit as well as implicit channels
of communication. While the explicit channel transmits overt messages, the
implicit ones transmit hidden messages about the communicator (e.g., his/her
intentions and attitudes). There is a growing consensus that providing a
computer with the ability to manipulate implicit affective cues should allow
for a more meaningful and natural way of studying particular non-verbal signals
of human-human communications by human-computer interactions. In this pilot
study, we created a non-dynamic human-computer interaction while manipulating
three specific non-verbal channels of communication: gaze pattern, facial
expression, and gesture. Participants rated the virtual agent on affective
dimensional scales (pleasure, arousal, and dominance) while their physiological
signal (electrodermal activity, EDA) was captured during the interaction.
Assessment of the behavioral data revealed a significant and complex three-way
interaction between gaze, gesture, and facial configuration on the dimension of
pleasure, as well as a main effect of gesture on the dimension of dominance.
These results suggest a complex relationship between different non-verbal cues
and the social context in which they are interpreted. Qualifying considerations
as well as possible next steps are further discussed in light of these
exploratory findings.


title: Modal-set estimation with an application to clustering

abstract:
  We present a first procedure that can estimate -- with statistical
consistency guarantees -- any local-maxima of a density, under benign
distributional conditions. The procedure estimates all such local maxima, or
$\textit{modal-sets}$, of any bounded shape or dimension, including usual
point-modes. In practice, modal-sets can arise as dense low-dimensional
structures in noisy data, and more generally serve to better model the rich
variety of locally-high-density structures in data.
  The procedure is then shown to be competitive on clustering applications, and
moreover is quite stable to a wide range of settings of its tuning parameter.


title:
Thickness characterization of atomically-thin WSe$_2$ on epitaxial
  graphene by low-energy electron reflectivity oscillations

abstract:
  In this work, low-energy electron microscopy is employed to probe structural
as well as electronic information in few-layer WSe$_2$ on epitaxial graphene on
SiC. The emergence of unoccupied states in the WSe$_2$--graphene
heterostructures are studied using spectroscopic low-energy electron
reflectivity. Reflectivity minima corresponding to specific WSe$_2$ states that
are localized between the monolayers of each vertical heterostructure are shown
to reveal the number of layers for each point on the surface. A theory for the
origin of these states is developed and utilized to explain the experimentally
observed featured in the WSe$_2$ electron reflectivity.


title:
Remarkable Stability of Charge Density Wave Order in
  La$_{1.875}$Ba$_{0.125}$CuO$_4$

abstract:
  The occurrence of charge-density-wave (CDW) order in underdoped cuprates is
now well established, although the precise nature of the CDW and its
relationship with superconductivity is not. Theoretical proposals include
contrasting ideas such as that pairing may be driven by CDW fluctuations or
that static CDWs may intertwine with a spatially-modulated superconducting wave
function. We test the dynamics of CDW order in La$_{1.825}$Ba$_{0.125}$CuO$_4$
by using x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) at the CDW wave vector,
detected resonantly at the Cu $L_3$-edge. We find that the CDW domains are
strikingly static, with no evidence of significant fluctuations up to
2\,\nicefrac{3}{4} hours. We discuss the implications of these results for some
of the competing theories.


title: Demi-Normal Surface Singularities

abstract:
  We prove semi-rationalification and semi-log-canonicalization for Gorenstein
demi-normal surfaces. That is, given a Gorenstein demi-normal surface X with
semi-rational (respectively, semi-log canonical) singularities in an open set U
with complement a finite set of points, there is a proper birational morphism f
: Y --> X such that f is an isomorphism over U and Y has only semi-rational
(respectively, semi-log canonical) singularities. We proceed by passing to the
normalization and then gluing along the conductor in an appropriate
rationalification or log-canonicalization of the normalization of X.


title: Counting Counterfeit Coins: A New Coin Weighing Problem

abstract:
  In 2007, a new variety of the well-known problem of identifying a counterfeit
coin using a balance scale was introduced in the sixth International Kolmogorov
Math Tournament. This paper offers a comprehensive overview of this new problem
by presenting it in the context of the traditional coin weighing puzzle and
then explaining what makes the new problem mathematically unique. Two weighing
strategies described previously are used to derive lower bounds for the optimal
number of admissible situations for given parameters. Additionally, a new
weighing procedure is described that can be adapted to provide a solution for a
broad spectrum of initial parameters by representing the number of counterfeit
coins as a linear combination of positive integers. In closing, we offer a new
form of the traditional counterfeit coin problem and provide a lower bound for
the number of weighings necessary to solve it.


title: A Primer on 3GPP Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT)

abstract:
  Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is a new cellular technology
introduced in 3GPP Release 13 for providing wide-area coverage for the Internet
of Things (IoT). This article provides an overview of the air interface of
NB-IoT. We describe how NB-IoT addresses key IoT requirements such as
deployment flexibility, low device complexity, long battery life time, support
of massive number of devices in a cell, and significant coverage extension
beyond existing cellular technologies. We also share the various design
rationales during the standardization of NB-IoT in Release 13 and point out
several open areas for future evolution of NB-IoT.


title:
A Threshold-free Prospective Prediction Accuracy Measure for Censored
  Time to Event Data

abstract:
  Prediction performance of a risk scoring system needs to be carefully
assessed before its adoption in clinical practice. Clinical preventive care
often uses risk scores to screen asymptomatic population. The primary clinical
interest is to predict the risk of having an event by a pre-specified future
time $t_0$. Prospective accuracy measures such as positive predictive values
have been recommended for evaluating the predictive performance. However, for
commonly used continuous or ordinal risk score systems, these measures require
a subjective cutoff threshold value that dichotomizes the risk scores. The need
for a cut-off value created barriers for practitioners and researchers. In this
paper, we propose a threshold-free summary index of positive predictive values
that accommodates time-dependent event status. We develop a nonparametric
estimator and provide an inference procedure for comparing this summary measure
between competing risk scores for censored time to event data. We conduct a
simulation study to examine the finite-sample performance of the proposed
estimation and inference procedures. Lastly, we illustrate the use of this
measure on a real data example, comparing two risk score systems for predicting
heart failure in childhood cancer survivors.


title:
Viscosity, heat conductivity and Prandtl number effects in
  Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

abstract:
  Two-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor(RT) instability problem is simulated with a
multiple-relaxation-time discrete Boltzmann model with gravity term. The
viscosity, heat conductivity and Prandtl number effects are probed from the
macroscopic and the non-equilibrium views. In macro sense, both viscosity and
heat conduction show significant inhibitory effect in the reacceleration stage,
and the inhibition effect is mainly achieved by inhibiting the development of
Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Before this, the Prandtl number effect is not
sensitive. Based on the view of non-equilibrium, the viscosity, heat
conductivity, and Prandtl number effects on non-equilibrium manifestations, and
the correlation degrees between the non-uniformity and the non-equilibrium
strength in the complex flow are systematic investigated.


title:
Effect of interstitial impurities on the field dependent microwave
  surface resistance of niobium

abstract:
  Previous work has demonstrated that the radio frequency surface resistance of
niobium resonators is dramatically reduced when nitrogen impurities are
dissolved as interstitial in the material. The origin of this effect is
attributed to the lowering of the Mattis and Bardeen surface resistance
contribution with increasing accelerating field. Meanwhile, an enhancement of
the sensitivity to trapped magnetic field is typically observed for such
cavities. In this paper we conduct the first systematic study on these
different components contributing to the total surface resistance as a function
of different levels of dissolved nitrogen, in comparison with standard surface
treatments for niobium resonators. Adding these results together we are able to
show for the first time which is the optimum surface treatment that maximizes
the Q-factor of superconducting niobium resonators as a function of expected
trapped magnetic field in the cavity walls. These results also provide new
insights on the physics behind the change in the field dependence of the Mattis
and Bardeen surface resistance, and of the trapped magnetic vortex induced
losses in superconducting niobium resonators.


title: The Auslander-Gruson-Jensen Recollement

abstract:
  For any ring $R$, the Auslander-Gruson-Jensen functor is the exact
contravariant functor
$$\textsf{D}_A:\textsf{fp}(\textsf{Mod}(R),\textsf{Ab})\longrightarrow(\textsf{mod}(R^{op}),\textsf{Ab})$$
sending representable functors $(X,\hspace{0.05cm}\underline{\ \
}\hspace{0.1cm} )$ to tensor functors $X\otimes\hspace{0.05cm}\underline{\ \
}\hspace{0.1cm} $. We show that this functor admits a fully faithful left
adjoint $\textsf{D}_L$ and a fully faithful right adjoint $\textsf{D}_R$. The
left adjoint $$\textsf{D}_L\:(\textsf{mod}(R^{op}),\textsf{Ab})\longrightarrow
\textsf{fp}(\textsf{Mod}(R),\textsf{Ab})$$ induces an equivalence of categories
$$\frac{\textsf{fp}(\textsf{Mod}(R),\textsf{Ab})}{\{F\ |\ \textsf{D}_A
F=0\}}\cong(\textsf{mod}(R^{op}),\textsf{Ab})^{op}$$ where $\{F \ |\
\textsf{D}_A F=0\}$ is the Serre subcategory of
$\textsf{fp}(\textsf{Mod}(R),\textsf{Ab})$ consisting of all functors $F$
arising from pure exact sequences. As a result, the functor $\textsf{D}_A$ is
seen to be a Serre localization functor. The right adjoint
$$\textsf{D}_R:(\textsf{mod}(R^{op}),\textsf{Ab})\longrightarrow
\textsf{fp}(\textsf{Mod}(R),\textsf{Ab})$$ together with $\textsf{D}_A$
restricts to the well known Auslander-Gruson-Jensen duality.


title:
Secure Estimation for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles against Adversarial Cyber
  Attacks

abstract:
  In the coming years, usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is expected to
grow tremendously. Maintaining security of UAVs under cyber attacks is an
important yet challenging task, as these attacks are often erratic and
difficult to predict. Secure estimation problems study how to estimate the
states of a dynamical system from a set of noisy and maliciously corrupted
sensor measurements. The fewer assumptions that an estimator makes about the
attacker, the larger the set of attacks it can protect the system against. In
this paper, we focus on sensor attacks on UAVs and attempt to design a secure
estimator for linear time-invariant systems based on as few assumptions about
the attackers as possible. We propose a computationally efficient estimator
that protects the system against arbitrary and unbounded attacks, where the set
of attacked sensors can also change over time. In addition, we propose to
combine our secure estimator with a Kalman Filter for improved practical
performance and demonstrate its effectiveness through simulations of two
scenarios where an UAV is under adversarial cyber attack.


title: Non-affine Hopf algebra domains of Gelfand-Kirillov dimension two

abstract:
  We classify all non-affine Hopf algebras $H$ over an algebraically closed
field $k$ of characteristic zero that are integral domains of Gelfand-Kirillov
dimension two and satisfy the condition $\text{Ext}^1_H(k, k) \neq 0$. The
affine ones were classified by the authors in 2010.


title:
Asymptotic behaviour and estimates of slowly varying convolution
  semigroups

abstract:
  We prove the asymptotic formulas for the transition densities of isotropic
unimodal convolution semigroups of probability measures on $\mathbb{R} ^d$
under the assumption that its L\'{e}vy--Khintchine exponent varies slowly. We
also derive some new estimates of the transition densities and Green functions.


title:
Optical Absorption Spectra and Excitons of Dye-Substrate Interfaces:
  Catechol on TiO$_2$(110)

abstract:
  Optimizing the photovoltaic efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC)
based on staggered gap heterojunctions requires a detailed understanding of
sub-band gap transitions in the visible from the dye directly to the
substrate's conduction band (CB) (type-II DSSCs). Here, we calculate the
optical absorption spectra and spatial distribution of bright excitons in the
visible region for a prototypical DSSC, catechol on rutile TiO$_2$(110), as a
function of coverage and deprotonation of the OH anchoring groups. This is
accomplished by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) based on hybrid
range-separated exchange and correlation functional (HSE06) density functional
theory (DFT) calculations. Such a treatment is necessary to accurately describe
the interfacial level alignment and the weakly bound charge transfer
transitions that are the dominant absorption mechanism in type-II DSSCs. Our
HSE06 BSE spectra agree semi-quantitatively with spectra measured for catechol
on anatase TiO$_2$ nanoparticles. Our results suggest deprotonation of
catechol's OH anchoring groups, while being nearly isoenergetic at high
coverages, shifts the onset of the absorption spectra to lower energies, with a
concomitant increase in photovoltaic efficiency. Further, the most relevant
bright excitons in the visible region are rather intense charge transfer
transitions with the electron and hole spatially separated in both the [110]
and [001] directions. Such detailed information on the absorption spectra and
excitons is only accessible via periodic models of the combined dye-substrate
interface.


title: From order to chaos in Earth satellite orbits

abstract:
  We consider Earth satellite orbits in the range of semi-major axes where the
perturbing effects of Earth's oblateness and lunisolar gravity are of
comparable order. This range covers the medium-Earth orbits (MEO) of the Global
Navigation Satellite Systems and the geosynchronous orbits (GEO) of the
communication satellites. We recall a secular and quadrupolar model, based on
the Milankovitch vector formulation of perturbation theory, which governs the
long-term orbital evolution subject to the predominant gravitational
interactions. We study the global dynamics of this two-and-a-half
degrees-of-freedom Hamiltonian system by means of the fast Lyapunov indicator
(FLI), used in a statistical sense. Specifically, we characterize the degree of
chaoticity of the action space using angle-averaged normalized FLI maps,
thereby overcoming the angle dependencies of the conventional stability maps.
Emphasis is placed upon the phase-space structures near secular resonances,
which are of first importance to the space debris community. We confirm and
quantify the transition from order to chaos in MEO, stemming from the critical
inclinations, and find that highly inclined GEO orbits are particularly
unstable. Despite their reputed normality, Earth satellite orbits can possess
an extraordinarily rich spectrum of dynamical behaviors, and, from a
mathematical perspective, have all the complications that make them very
interesting candidates for testing the modern tools of chaos theory.


title:
Full-Wave Feasibility Study of Anti-Radar Diagnostic of Magnetic Field
  Based on O-X Mode Conversion and Oblique Reflectometry Imaging

abstract:
  An innovative millimeter wave diagnostic is proposed to measure the local
magnetic field and edge current as a function of the minor radius in the
tokamak pedestal region. The idea is to identify the direction of minimum
reflectivity at the O-mode cutoff layer. Correspondingly, the transmissivity
due to O-X mode conversion is maximum. That direction, and the angular map of
reflectivity around it, contain information on the magnetic field vector B at
the cutoff layer. Probing the plasma with different wave frequencies provides
the radial profile of B. Full-wave finite-element simulations are presented
here in 2D slab geometry. Modeling confirms the existence of a minimum in
reflectivity that depends on the magnetic field at the cutoff, as expected from
mode conversion physics, giving confidence in the feasibility of the
diagnostic. The proposed reflectometric approach is expected to yield superior
signal-to-noise ratio and to access wider ranges of density and magnetic field,
compared with related radiometric techniques that require the plasma to emit
Electron Bernstein Waves. Due to computational limitations, frequencies of
10-20 GHz were considered in this initial study. Frequencies above the edge
electron-cyclotron frequency (f>28 GHz here) would be preferable for the
experiment, because the upper hybrid resonance and right cutoff would lie in
the plasma, and would help separate the O-mode of interest from spurious
X-waves.


title: KoulMde: An R Package for Koul's Minimum Distance Estimation

abstract:
  This article provides a full description of the R package KoulMde which is
designed for Koul's minimum distance estimation method. When we encounter
estimation problems in the linear regression and autogressive models, this
package provides more efficient estimators than other R packages.


title:
Statistical analysis of $m/n$ = 2/1 locked and quasi-stationary modes
  with rotating precursors at DIII-D

abstract:
  A database has been developed to study the evolution, the nonlinear effects
on equilibria, and the disruptivity of locked and quasi-stationary modes with
poloidal and toroidal mode numbers $m=2$ and $n=1$ at DIII-D. The analysis of
22,500 discharges shows that more than 18% of disruptions are due to locked or
quasi-stationary modes with rotating precursors (not including born locked
modes). A parameter formulated by the plasma internal inductance $l_i$ divided
by the safety factor at 95% of the poloidal flux, $q_{95}$, is found to exhibit
predictive capability over whether a locked mode will cause a disruption or
not, and does so up to hundreds of milliseconds before the disruption. Within
20 ms of the disruption, the shortest distance between the island separatrix
and the unperturbed last closed flux surface, referred to as $d_{edge}$,
performs comparably to $l_i/q_{95}$ in its ability to discriminate disruptive
locked modes. Out of all parameters considered, $d_{edge}$ also correlates best
with the duration of the locked mode. Within 50 ms of a locked mode disruption,
average behavior includes exponential growth of the $n=1$ perturbed field,
which might be due to the 2/1 locked mode. Even assuming the aforementioned 2/1
growth, disruptivity following a locked mode shows little dependence on island
width up to 20 ms before the disruption. Separately, greater deceleration of
the rotating precursor is observed when the wall torque is large. At locking,
modes are often observed to align with a residual error field. Timescales
associated with the mode evolution are also studied and dictate the response
times necessary for disruption avoidance and mitigation.


title:
Second-Scale Nuclear Spin Coherence Time of Trapped Ultracold
  $^{23}$Na$^{40}$K Molecules

abstract:
  Coherence, the stability of the relative phase between quantum states, lies
at the heart of quantum mechanics. Applications such as precision measurement,
interferometry, and quantum computation are enabled by physical systems that
have quantum states with robust coherence. With the creation of molecular
ensembles at sub-$\mu$K temperatures, diatomic molecules have become a novel
system under full quantum control. Here, we report on the observation of stable
coherence between a pair of nuclear spin states of ultracold fermionic NaK
molecules in the singlet rovibrational ground state. Employing microwave
fields, we perform Ramsey spectroscopy and observe coherence times on the scale
of one second. This work opens the door for the exploration of single molecules
as a versatile quantum memory. Switchable long-range interactions between
dipolar molecules can further enable two-qubit gates, allowing quantum storage
and processing in the same physical system. Within the observed coherence time,
$10^4$ one- and two-qubit gate operations will be feasible.

categories: cond-mat.quant-gas physics.atom-ph physics.chem-ph quant-ph