Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Momentum dependence of the bispectrum in two-field inflation

We examine the momentum dependence of the bispectrum of two-field inflationary models within the long-wavelength formalism. We determine the sources of scale dependence in the expression for the parameter of non-Gaussianity fNL and study two types of variation of the momentum triangle: changing its size and changing its shape. We introduce two spectral indices that quantify the possible types of momentum dependence of the local type fNL and illustrate our results with examples.
DISTANCES TO DARK CLOUDS: COMPARING EXTINCTION DISTANCES TO MASER PARALLAX DISTANCES

We test two different methods of using near-infrared extinction to estimate distances to dark clouds in the first quadrant of the Galaxy using large near-infrared (Two Micron All Sky Survey and UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey) surveys. Very long baseline interferometry parallax measurements of masers around massive young stars provide the most direct and bias-free measurement of the distance to these dark clouds. We compare the extinction distance estimates to these maser parallax distances. We also compare these distances to kinematic distances, including recent re-calibrations of the Galactic rotation curve. The extinction distance methods agree with the maser parallax distances (within the errors) between 66% and 100% of the time (depending on method and input survey) and between 85% and 100% of the time outside of the crowded Galactic center. Although the sample size is small, extinction distance methods reproduce maser parallax distances better than kinematic distances; furthermore, extinction distance methods do not suffer from the kinematic distance ambiguity. This validation gives us confidence that these extinction methods may be extended to additional dark clouds where maser parallaxes are not available.
STABILITY OF RIGIDLY ROTATING SUPERMASSIVE STARS AGAINST GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE

We revisit secular stability against quasi-radial collapse for rigidly rotating supermassive stars (SMSs) in general relativity. We suppose that the SMSs are in a nuclear-burning phase and can be modeled by polytropic equations of state with the polytropic index np slightly smaller than 3. The stability is determined in terms of the turning point method. We find a fitting formula of the stability condition for the plausible range of np ( 2.95 ≲ n p ≲ 3 ? > ) for SMSs. This condition reconfirms that while non-rotating SMSs with a mass of ∼ 10 5 M ⊙ ? > – 10 6 M ⊙ ? > may undergo a general relativistically induced quasi-radial collapse, rigidly rotating SMSs with a ratio of rotational to gravitational potential energy (β) of ∼ 10 − 2 ? > are likely to be stable against collapse unless they are able to accrete ∼5 times more mass during the (relatively brief) hydrogen-burning phase of their evolution. We discuss the implications of our results.
Measuring the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect through the cross correlation of Planck and WMAP maps with ROSAT galaxy cluster catalogs

We measure a significant correlation between the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in the Planck and WMAP maps and an X-ray cluster map based on ROSAT. We use the 100, 143 and 343 GHz Planck maps and the WMAP 94 GHz map to obtain this cluster cross spectrum. We check our measurements for contamination from dusty galaxies using the cross correlations with the 217, 545 and 857 GHz maps from Planck. Our measurement yields a direct characterization of the cluster power spectrum over a wide range of angular scales that is consistent with large cosmological simulations. The amplitude of this signal depends on cosmological parameters that determine the growth of structure (σ{sub 8} and Ω M) and scales as σ{sub 8}{sup 7.4} and Ω M{sup 1.9} around the multipole (l) ∼ 1000. We constrain σ{sub 8} and Ω M from the cross-power spectrum to be σ{sub 8}(Ω M/0.30){sup 0.26} = 0.8±0.02. Since this cross spectrum produces a tight constraint in the σ{sub 8} and Ω M plane the errors on a σ{sub 8} constraint will be mostly limited by the uncertainties from external constraints. Future cluster catalogs, like those from eRosita and LSST, and pointed multi-wavelength observations of clusters will improve themore » constraining power of this cross spectrum measurement. In principle this analysis can be extended beyond σ{sub 8} and Ω M to constrain dark energy or the sum of the neutrino masses. « less
Expansion law from first law of thermodynamics

Padmanabhan in his paper [arxiv: 1206.4916] put forth an intriguing idea arguing that the accelerated expansion of the universe can be viewed as the emergence of cosmic space as cosmic time progresses, with the expansion triggered due to the difference in the degrees of freedom on a holographic surface and the one in its emerged bulk. We show that the modified expansion law of the universe proposed by Sheykhi in a non-flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe and by Cai in a flat FRW universe could be derived starting from the first law of thermodynamics, in (n+1) dimensional Einstein gravity, Gauss-Bonnet and more general Lovelock gravity theories. We have also derived the modified versions of the expansion law for a flat universe due to Yang et al, in the case of Gauss-Bonnet and Lovelock gravities, from the first law of thermodynamics. This approach is unique in the sense that all these modified versions of the expansion law is derived from a thermodynamic identity that has the same form regardless of the gravity theory and irrespective of whether the universe is flat or non-flat.
Transport coefficients for bulk viscous evolution in the relaxation-time approximation

Department of Physics, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA(Dated: July 29, 2014)We derive the form of the viscous corrections to the phase-space distribution function due to bulkviscous pressure and shear stress using the iterative Chapman-Enskog method. We then calculatethe transport coecients necessary for the second-order hydrodynamic evolution of the bulk viscouspressure and the shear stress tensor. We demonstrate that the transport coecients obtainedusing the Chapman-Enskog method are di erent than those obtained previously using 14-momentapproximation for nite particle mass. Specializing to the case of boost-invariant and transversallyhomogeneous longitudinal expansion, we show that the transport coecients obtained using theChapman-Enskog method result in better agreement with the exact solution of the Boltzmannequation compared to results obtained in the 14-moment approximation. Finally, we explicitlycon rm that the time evolution of the bulk viscous pressure is signi cantly a ected by its couplingto the shear stress tensor.
Recovery of state-specific potential of molecular motor from single-molecule trajectory

We have developed a novel method to evaluate the potential profile of a molecular motor at each chemical state from only the probe's trajectory and applied it to a rotary molecular motor F1-ATPase. By using this method, we could also obtain the information regarding the mechanochemical coupling and energetics. We demonstrate that the position-dependent transition of the chemical states is the key feature for the highly efficient free-energy transduction by F1-ATPase.
Diffusions from infinity

In this paper we consider diffusions on the half line ( 0 , ∞ ) (0,\infty ) such that the expectation of the arrival time at the origin is uniformly bounded in the initial point. This implies that there is a well defined diffusion process starting from infinity which takes finite values at positive times. We study the behavior of hitting times of large barriers and, in a dual way, the behavior of the process starting at infinity for small time. In particular, we prove that the process coming down from infinity is in small time governed by a specific deterministic function. Suitably normalized fluctuations of the hitting times are asymptotically Gaussian. We also derive the tail of the distribution of the hitting time of the origin and a Yaglom limit for the diffusion starting from infinity. We finally prove that the distribution of this process killed at the origin is absolutely continuous with respect to the speed measure. The density is expressed in terms of the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the generator of the killed diffusion.
Radio continuum of galaxies with H$_{2}$O megamaser disks: 33 GHz VLA data

We investigate the nuclear environment of galaxies with observed 22 GHz water megamaser in their subparsec edge-on accretion disks, using 33 GHz (9mm) radio continuum data from VLA, with a resolution of ~ 0.2-0.5 arcsecs, and relate the maser and host galaxy properties to those of its radio continuum emission. Eighty-seven percent (21 out of 24) galaxies in our sample show 33 GHz radio continuum emission at levels of 4.5-240 $\sigma$. Five sources show extended emission, including one source with two main components and one with three main components. The remaining detected 16 sources exhibit compact cores within the sensitivity limits. Little evidence is found for extended jets (>300 pc) in most sources. Either they do not exist, or our chosen frequency of 33 GHz is too high for a detection of these supposedly steep spectrum features. In only one source among those with known maser disk orientation, NGC4388, we found an extended jet-like feature that appears to be oriented perpendicular to the water megamaser disk. Smaller 100-300 pc sized jets might also be present, as is suggested by the beam-deconvolved morphology of our sources. Whenever possible, central positions with accuracies of 20-280 mas are provided. A correlation analysis shows that the 33 GHz luminosity weakly correlates with the infrared luminosity. The 33 GHz luminosity is anticorrelated with the circular velocity of the galaxy. The black hole masses show stronger correlations with water maser luminosity than with 1.4 GHz, 33 GHz, or hard X-ray luminosities. Furthermore, the inner radii of the disks show stronger correlations with 1.4 GHz, 33 GHz, and hard X-ray luminosities than their outer radii, suggesting that the outer radii may be affected by disk warping, star formation, or peculiar density distributions.
Spin-orbital interaction for face-sharing octahedra: Realization of a highly symmetric SU(4) model

Specific features of orbital and spin structure of transition metal compounds in the case of the face-sharing MO6 octahedra are analyzed. In this geometry, we consider the form of the spin–orbital Hamiltonian for transition metal ions with double (e �) or triple (t2g) orbital degeneracy. Trigonal distortions typical of the structures with face-sharing octahedra lead to splitting of t2g orbitals into
Meditation and Cognitive Function Research Study

MEDITATION AND COGNITIVE FUNCTION RESEARCH STUDY Darrin Landry Old Dominion University, 2021 Director: Dr. Michael Kosloski Although research has shown that long-term guided meditation and mindfulness practices improve attention, memory, and processing speed, the research on the effects of short-term selfguided meditation on improving cognitive processing and memory is limited. This study examined whether a brief self-guided meditation practice improved cognitive processing speed and memory capacity. The participants engaged in a five-day program which consisted of taking an online mental speed test and memory recall test, then meditated for 15 minutes a day, for five days. After completing the five-day meditation program, the participants took the two cognitive processing tests again. The results on the test scores showed an average increase in three points in the mental test and two points in the memory test scores. A paired-sample equal variance t-test determined there was no significant statistical difference made by the five-day meditation experiment. These findings in this study build on the knowledge and understanding of the impact of short-term meditation.
DETERMINING THE MASS OF KEPLER-78b WITH NONPARAMETRIC GAUSSIAN PROCESS ESTIMATION

Kepler-78b is a transiting planet that is 1.2 times the radius of Earth and orbits a young, active K dwarf every 8 hr. The mass of Kepler-78b has been independently reported by two teams based on radial velocity (RV) measurements using the HIRES and HARPS-N spectrographs. Due to the active nature of the host star, a stellar activity model is required to distinguish and isolate the planetary signal in RV data. Whereas previous studies tested parametric stellar activity models, we modeled this system using nonparametric Gaussian process (GP) regression. We produced a GP regression of relevant Kepler photometry. We then use the posterior parameter distribution for our photometric fit as a prior for our simultaneous GP + Keplerian orbit models of the RV data sets. We tested three simple kernel functions for our GP regressions. Based on a Bayesian likelihood analysis, we selected a quasi-periodic kernel model with GP hyperparameters coupled between the two RV data sets, giving a Doppler amplitude of 1.86 ± 0.25 m s−1 and supporting our belief that the correlated noise we are modeling is astrophysical. The corresponding mass of 1.87 − 0.26 + 0.27 M ⨁ ? > is consistent with that measured in previous studies, and more robust due to our nonparametric signal estimation. Based on our mass and the radius measurement from transit photometry, Kepler-78b has a bulk density of 6.0 − 1.4 + 1.9 ? > g cm−3. We estimate that Kepler-78b is 32% ± 26% iron using a two-component rock-iron model. This is consistent with an Earth-like composition, with uncertainty spanning Moon-like to Mercury-like compositions.
INTERFERENCE AS AN ORIGIN OF THE PEAKED NOISE IN ACCRETING X-RAY BINARIES

We propose a physical model for the peaked noise in the X-ray power density spectra of accreting X-ray binaries. We interpret its appearance as an interference of two Comptonization continua: one coming from the upscattering of seed photons from the cold thin disk and the other fed by the synchrotron emission of the hot flow. Variations of both X-ray components are caused by fluctuations in mass accretion rate, but there is a delay between them corresponding to the propagation timescale from the disk Comptonization radius to the region of synchrotron Comptonization. If the disk and synchrotron Comptonization are correlated, the humps in the power spectra are harmonically related and the dips between them appear at frequencies related as odd numbers 1:3:5. If they are anti-correlated, the humps are related as 1:3:5, but the dips are harmonically related. Similar structures are expected to be observed in accreting neutron star binaries and supermassive black holes. The delay can be easily recovered from the frequency of peaked noise and further used to constrain the combination of the viscosity parameter and disk height-to-radius ratio α(H/R)2 of the accretion flow. We model multi-peak power spectra of black hole X-ray binaries GX 339–4 and XTE J1748–288 to constrain these parameters.
Relationships Between Cerebello-Cortical Functional Connectivity and Executive Functioning Across Childhood and Adolescence

The cerebellum is a modulator of both motor and cognitive functions, helping to make these behaviors both coordinated and efficient. It is structurally and functionally connected to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) through multisynaptic, closed-loop circuits. Neuroimaging studies have established that the posterior lobules of the cerebellum are active during executive function (EF) tasks and are functionally connected to cortical regions of EF-associated networks such as the fronto-parietal network (FPN) and cingulo-opercular network (CON). Despite much evidence that the developmental timecourses of EF and cerebello-cortical connectivity are similar, and early damage to the cerebellum can cause numerous cognitive deficits, relationships between executive functions and cerebello-cortical functional connectivity during childhood and adolescence have not yet been investigated. We therefore aimed to elucidate relationships between cerebello-cortical connectivity and EFs across childhood and adolescence, in a large, typically developing sample ages 8 – 21 (N = 554). Independent components analysis (ICA) was utilized to compute resting-state functional connectivity between posterior cerebellum and FPN/CON. Connectivity values were extracted and entered into multiple linear regression and conditional processes models predicting EF efficiency on tasks of attention, working memory, and flexibility. First, we observed positive linear relationships between age and cerebello-cortical connectivity. In addition, posterior cerebellum – PFC connectivity predicted attention and working memory efficiency. Further, left posterior cerebellum – anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) connectivity mediated the relationship between CON connectivity and both attention and working memory performance. However, age was a stronger predictor of EF efficiency than was connectivity, and mediation was not present when age was included in statistical models. Significant age ́ connectivity interactions were present, as well. Cerebellum – CON connectivity became stronger with age, as predicted, but the relationship between cerebellum – ACC connectivity and attention efficiency was only significant in younger children. We hypothesize that during childhood, the posterior cerebellum and ACC create and update internal models to facilitate sustained attention and conflict and error monitoring (i.e. executive attention) on attention and working memory tasks. Results shed light on relationships among age, cerebello-cortical connectivity, and executive functioning during typical development and can help to guide future clinical research questions. INDEX WORDS: Cerebellum, Functional connectivity, fMRI, Executive function, Cognitive control, Neurodevelopment, Development RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CEREBELLO-CORTICAL FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING ACROSS CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE
Spontaneous strains and gap in graphene on boron nitride

We acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy (MINECO) through Grants No. FIS2011-23713 and No. PIB2010BZ-00512, the European Research Council Advanced Grant (Contract No. 290846), and the European Commission under the Graphene Flagship, Contract No. CNECT-ICT-604391.
Structure and applications of real C*-algebras

For a long time, practitioners of the art of operator algebras always worked over the complex numbers, and nobody paid much attention to real C*-algebras. Over the last thirty years, that situation has changed, and it's become apparent that real C*-algebras have a lot of extra structure not evident from their complexifications. At the same time, interest in real C*-algebras has been driven by a number of compelling applications, for example in the classification of manifolds of positive scalar curvature, in representation theory, and in the study of orientifold string theories. We will discuss a number of interesting examples of these, and how the real Baum-Connes conjecture plays an important role.
Study of Operating Cash Flow to Detect Real Activity Manipulation and Its Effect on Market Performance

Normal business practices to manipulate reported income is defined as real earnings management (Roychowdhury, 2006). A firm can alter the level of accruals to obtain the desired level of a high stock price and/or earnings. The desire to achieve a high stock price and/or earnings to meet the earnings benchmark induces corporate managers to engage in earning management, inflating current earnings at the expense of the firms’ economic values. To meet a certain earnings target, managers can wait until the year-end to use discretionary accruals to manage reported earnings. However, this strategy runs the risk that the amount of earnings that needs to be manipulated is greater than the available discretionary accruals because the discretion on accruals is bounded by GAAP (Barton and Simko, 2002). Real activities manipulations are less subject to this constraint. The focus of this study is the real activities manipulations because the auditors and regulators are less likely to be concerned with such behaviours. The results suggest that firms are likely to engage in real activity manipulation through operating cash flow. Further analysis reveals that firms more likely to engage in real activity manipulation have higher market performance than do their counterpart.
Quantum optical feedback control for creating strong correlations in many-body systems

Light enables manipulating many-body states of matter, and atoms trapped in optical lattices is a prominent example. However, quantum properties of light are completely neglected in all quantum gas experiments. Extending methods of quantum optics to many-body physics will enable phenomena unobtainable in classical optical setups. We show how using the quantum optical feedback creates strong correlations in bosonic and fermionic systems. It balances two competing processes, originating from different fields: quantum backaction of weak optical measurement and many-body dynamics, resulting in stabilized density waves, antiferromagnetic and NOON states. Our approach is extendable to other systems promising for quantum technologies.
Dark photons and resonant monophoton signatures in Higgs boson decays at the LHC

Motivated by possible massless dark photon solutions to long-standing cosmological and particle physics problems, we explore experimentally allowed scenarios where the Higgs boson coupling H is enhanced. Correspondingly, large rates are possible for the H ! decay, giving rise to one monochromatic photon with E ’ mH=2 (i.e., more than twice the photon energy in the rare standard-model decay H ! Z ! ), and similar amount of missing energy. We perform a model-independent study of this exotic resonant mono-photon signature at the LHC, featuring a distinctive E T peak around 60 GeV, and + = ET transverse invariant mass ruled by mH. At parton level, we nd a 5 sensitivity of the present LHC dataset for a H ! branching fraction of 0:5%. Such large branching fractions can be naturally obtained in dark U(1)F models explaining the origin and hierarchy of the standard model Yukawa couplings. We urge the LHC experiments to search for this new exotic resonance in the present dataset, and in future LHC runs.
Play and pre-proving in the primary classroom

This report focuses on a research study the aim of which is to investigate the activity of proving as constituted in a Cypriot classroom for 12-year-old students. By drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory, this study explores the way the teacher is working with the students to foreground mathematical argumentation. Analyses of video-recorded whole class discussions show how explaining and exploring provide a key pathway for the development of proving. We refer to these developments as pre-proving. However, inherent contradictions within explaining and exploring hinder the constitution of proving in the classroom.