cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The galactic dynamo and superbubbles

In previous galactic dynamo theories of the origin of the magnetic field in our galaxy, the subject of flux-freezing has been omitted. As a consequence, the equation of mass flow has generally also been omitted, particularly in the halo where the galactic gravitational field will operate on the mass flow. In this paper, it has been shown that this neglect could have serious consequences for the results obtained from those galactic dynamo simulations that include the halo. A modification of these dynamo theories is proposed which involves the expulsion of very small pieces of the magnetic field lines, rather than the wholesale expulsion of the complete magnetic lines encapsulated in the previous theories. This expulsion is accomplished by a spike instability that arises from superbubbles when they break out of the galactic disc and their shells fragment. This leads to a cut in the lines of force that still remain in the disc. Subsequently, normal disc turbulence rotates the cut lines and thus dissipates their mean flux, removing them from a role in the dynamo theory. This new process takes a length of time comparable to, but slightly longer than, the previous growth time of the disc dynamo, but avoids the previous difficulties associated with flux freezing and flux expulsion.
Two natural scenarios for dark matter particles coexisting with supersymmetry

We describe two natural scenarios in which both dark matter, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) and a variety of supersymmetric partners should be discovered in the foreseeable future. In...
Minimum and maximum entropy distributions for binary systems with known means and pairwise correlations

Maximum entropy models are increasingly being used to describe the collective activity of neural populations with measured mean neural activities and pairwise correlations, but the full space of probability distributions consistent with these constraints has not been explored. We provide upper and lower bounds on the entropy for the minimum entropy distribution over arbitrarily large collections of binary units with any fixed set of mean values and pairwise correlations. We also construct specific low-entropy distributions for several relevant cases. Surprisingly, the minimum entropy solution has entropy scaling logarithmically with system size for any set of first- and second-order statistics consistent with arbitrarily large systems. We further demonstrate that some sets of these low-order statistics can only be realized by small systems. Our results show how only small amounts of randomness are needed to mimic low-order statistical properties of highly entropic distributions, and we discuss some applications for engineered and biological information transmission systems.
The quantum null energy condition in curved space

Author(s): Fu, Zicao; Koeller, Jason; Marolf, Donald | Abstract: The quantum null energy condition (QNEC) is a conjectured bound on components $(T_{kk} = T_{ab} k^a k^b$) of the stress tensor along a null vector $k^a$ at a point $p$ in terms of a second $k$-derivative of the von Neumann entropy $S$ on one side of a null congruence $N$ through $p$ generated by $k^a$. The conjecture has been established for super-renormalizeable field theories at points $p$ that lie on a bifurcate Killing horizon with null tangent $k^a$ and for large-N holographic theories on flat space. While the Koeller-Leichenauer holographic argument clearly yields an inequality for general $(p,k^a)$, more conditions are generally required for this inequality to be a useful QNEC. For $d\le 3$, for arbitrary backgroud metric satisfying the null convergence condition $R_{ab} k^a k^b \ge 0$, we show that the QNEC is naturally finite and independent of renormalization scheme when the expansion $\theta$ and shear $\sigma_{ab}$ of $N$ at point $p$ satisfy $\theta |_p= \dot{\theta}|_p =0$, $\sigma_{ab}|_p=0$. This is consistent with the original QNEC conjecture. But for $d=4,5$ more conditions are required. In particular, we also require the vanishing of additional derivatives and a dominant energy condition. In the above cases the holographic argument does indeed yield a finite QNEC, though for $d\ge6$ we argue these properties to fail even for weakly isolated horizons (where all derivatives of $\theta, \sigma_{ab}$ vanish) that also satisfy a dominant energy condition. On the positive side, a corrollary to our work is that, when coupled to Einstein-Hilbert gravity, $d \le 3$ holographic theories at large $N$ satisfy the generalized second law (GSL) of thermodynamics at leading order in Newton's constant $G$. This is the first GSL proof which does not require the quantum fields to be perturbations to a Killing horizon.
Inverse-designed stretchable metalens with tunable focal distance

In this paper, we present an inverse-designed 3D-printed all-dielectric stretchable millimeter wave metalens with a tunable focal distance. A computational inverse-design method is used to design a flat metalens made of disconnected polymer building blocks with complex shapes, as opposed to conventional monolithic lenses. The proposed metalens provides better performance than a conventional Fresnel lens, using lesser amount of material and enabling larger focal distance tunability. The metalens is fabricated using a commercial 3D-printer and attached to a stretchable platform. Measurements and simulations show that the focal distance can be tuned by a factor of 4 with a stretching factor of only 75%, a nearly diffraction-limited focal spot, and with a 70% relative focusing efficiency, defined as the ratio between power focused in the focal spot and power going through the focal plane. The proposed platform can be extended for design and fabrication of multiple electromagnetic devices working from visible ...
Interferometric Measurement of the Current-Phase Relationship of a Superfluid Weak Link

Superfluid Bose-Einstein condensates have been shaped into circuits that resemble practical superconducting circuits. A new technique measures the current in these circuits and characterizes one of its basic components, called a ``weak link.''
GNSS Signal Authentication Via Power and Distortion Monitoring

We propose a simple low-cost technique that enables civil global positioning system receivers and other civil global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers to reliably detect carry-off spoofing and jamming. The technique, which we call the power-distortion detector, classifies received signals as interference-free, multipath-afflicted, spoofed, or jammed according to observations of received power and correlation function distortion. It does not depend on external hardware or a network connection and can be readily implemented on many receivers via a firmware update. Crucially, the detector can with high probability distinguish low-power spoofing from ordinary multipath. In testing against more than 25 high-quality empirical datasets yielding more than 900,000 separate detection tests, the detector correctly alarms on all malicious spoofing or jamming attacks while maintaining a $ 0.6% single-channel false alarm rate.
Limits on vectorlike leptons from searches for anomalous production of multi-lepton events

We consider extensions of the Standard Model by vectorlike leptons and set limits on a new charged lepton, e 4 ± , using the ATLAS search for anomalous production of multi-lepton events. It is assumed that only one Standard Model lepton, namely the muon, dominantly mixes with vectorlike leptons resulting in possible decays e 4 ± → W ± ν μ , e 4 ± → Zμ ±, and e 4 ± → hμ ±. We derive generally applicable limits on the new lepton treating the branching ratios for these processes as free variables. We further interpret the general limits in two scenarios with e 4 ± originating predominantly from either the SU(2) doublet or the SU(2) singlet. The doublet case is more constrained as a result of larger production cross-section and extra production processes e 4 ± ν 4 and ν 4 ν 4 in addition to e 4 ± e 4 − , where ν 4 is a new neutral state accompanying e 4. We find that some combinations of branching ratios are poorly constrained, whereas some are constrained up to masses of more than 500 GeV. In the doublet case, assuming BR(ν 4 → Wμ) = 1, all masses below about 300 GeV are ruled out. Even if this condition is relaxed and additional decay modes, ν 4 → Zν μ and ν 4 → hν μ , are allowed, below the Higgs threshold still almost all of the parameter space (of independent branching ratios) is ruled out. Nevertheless, even assuming the maximal production cross-section, which coincides with the doublet case, the new charged lepton can still be as light as the LEP-II limit allows. We discuss several possible improvements of current experimental analyses that would dramatically reduce the allowed parameter space, even with current data.
ADAPTIVE OPTICS IMAGING of VHS 1256-1257: A LOW MASS COMPANION to A BROWN DWARF BINARY SYSTEM

Recently, Gauza et al. reported the discovery of a companion to the late M-dwarf, VHS J125601.92–125723.9 (VHS 1256–1257). The companion's absolute photometry suggests its mass and atmosphere are similar to the HR 8799 planets. However, as a wide companion to a late-type star, it is more accessible to spectroscopic characterization. We discovered that the primary of this system is an equal-magnitude binary. For an age ~300 Myr the A and B components each have a mass of , and the b component has a mass of , making VHS 1256–1257 only the third brown dwarf triple system. There exists some tension between the spectrophotometric distance of 17.2 ± 2.6 pc and the parallax distance of 12.7 ± 1.0 pc. At 12.7 pc VHS 1256–1257 A and B would be the faintest known M7.5 objects, and are even faint outliers among M8 types. If the larger spectrophotmetric distance is more accurate than the parallax, then the mass of each component increases. In particular, the mass of the b component increases well above the deuterium burning limit to and the mass of each binary component increases to . At 17.1 pc, the UVW kinematics of the system are consistent with membership in the AB Dor moving group. The architecture of the system resembles a hierarchical stellar multiple suggesting it formed via an extension of the star formation process to low masses. Continued astrometric monitoring will resolve this distance uncertainty and will provide dynamical masses for a new benchmark system.
Low-Energy Proton-Deuteron Scattering in Configuration Space

A new method for solving the configuration-space Faddeev equations for elastic p-d scattering below the deuteron-breakup threshold is described. Numerical solutions that demonstrate the convergence and accuracy of the method are given. The number of channels and the value of the matching radius required to obtain an accurate solution are also investigated. These calculations demonstrate that this method can efficiently solve the large matrix equations required for the three-body scattering problem.
On entanglement spreading from holography

A global quench is an interesting setting where we can study thermalization of subsystems in a pure state. We investigate entanglement entropy (EE) growth in global quenches in holographic field theories and relate some of its aspects to quantities characterizing chaos. More specifically we obtain four key results: In a companion paper [1], these results are put in the broader context of EE growth in chaotic systems: we relate EE growth to the chaotic spreading of operators, derive bounds on EE at a given time, and compare the holographic results to spin chain numerics and toy models. In this paper, we perform holographic calculations that provide the basis of arguments presented in that paper.
RUN DMC: AN EFFICIENT, PARALLEL CODE FOR ANALYZING RADIAL VELOCITY OBSERVATIONS USING N-BODY INTEGRATIONS AND DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTION MARKOV CHAIN MONTE CARLO

In the 20+ years of Doppler observations of stars, scientists have uncovered a diverse population of extrasolar multi-planet systems. A common technique for characterizing the orbital elements of these planets is the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), using a Keplerian model with random walk proposals and paired with the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. For approximately a couple of dozen planetary systems with Doppler observations, there are strong planet-planet interactions due to the system being in or near a mean-motion resonance (MMR). An N-body model is often required to accurately describe these systems. Further computational difficulties arise from exploring a high-dimensional parameter space (~7 × number of planets) that can have complex parameter correlations, particularly for systems near a MMR. To surmount these challenges, we introduce a differential evolution MCMC (DEMCMC) algorithm applied to radial velocity data while incorporating self-consistent N-body integrations. Our Radial velocity Using N-body DEMCMC (RUN DMC) algorithm improves upon the random walk proposal distribution of the traditional MCMC by using an ensemble of Markov chains to adaptively improve the proposal distribution. RUN DMC can sample more efficiently from high-dimensional parameter spaces that have strong correlations between model parameters. We describe the methodology behind the algorithm, along with results of tests for accuracy and performance. We find that most algorithm parameters have a modest effect on the rate of convergence. However, the size of the ensemble can have a strong effect on performance. We show that the optimal choice depends on the number of planets in a system, as well as the computer architecture used and the resulting extent of parallelization. While the exact choices of optimal algorithm parameters will inevitably vary due to the details of individual planetary systems (e.g., number of planets, number of observations, orbital periods, and signal-to-noise of each planet), we offer recommendations for choosing the DEMCMC algorithm's algorithmic parameters that result in excellent performance for a wide variety of planetary systems.
Chandra X-Ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Intermediate-age Cluster GLIMPSE-C01

We report the results of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) observations of the GLIMPSE-C01 (hereafter GC01) star cluster. Color-magnitude and color-color diagrams suggest a cluster age of $\gtrsim2$ Gyrs up to $\sim10$ Gyrs (dependent on GC01's metallicity), a distance of 3.3-3.5 kpc, and strong differential reddening with $A_V=14-22$. After performing astrometric corrections, we find that nine of the 15 X-ray sources have at least one NIR counterpart within the 2$\sigma$ CXO positional error circles. However, given the very high density of NIR sources in the cluster, most of these counterparts are likely due to chance coincidence. We jointly analyze the X-ray and NIR properties to assess the likelihood of true associations. Based primarily on their X-ray properties, we identify an LMXB candidate (source X2), a CV candidate (source X1), and an AB candidate (source X9). Source X11 is detected during an X-ray flaring episode with a flare luminosity ($L_{X}=2.1\times10^{33}$ erg s$^{-1}$) and has a quiescent luminosity $L_{X}<8.0\times10^{30}$ erg s$^{-1}$, in 0.5--8 keV at the distance of GC01, suggesting that the source is either an AB or CV. We also discuss the limits on an intermediate mass black hole at the center of GC01 and the challenges of X-ray source classification imposed by the limitations of the existing data and instrumentation along with future prospects in the James Webb Space Telescope era.
Resolving the extended stellar halos of nearby galaxies: the wide-field PISCeS survey

In the wide-field Panoramic Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (PISCeS), we investigate the resolved stellar halos of two nearby galaxies (the elliptical Centaurus A and the spiral Sculptor, D ~ 3.7 Mpc) out to a projected galactocentric radius of 150 kpc with Magellan/Megacam. The survey has led to the discovery of ~20 faint satellites to date, plus prominent streams and substructures in two environments that are substantially different from the Local Group, i.e. the Centaurus A group dominated by an elliptical and the loose Sculptor group of galaxies. These discoveries clearly attest to the importance of past and ongoing accretion processes in shaping the halos of these nearby galaxies, and provide the first census of their satellite systems down to an unprecedented MV < −8. The detailed characterization of the stellar content, shape and gradients in the extended halos of Sculptor, Centaurus A, and their dwarf satellites provides key constraints on theoretical models of galaxy formation and evolution.
The Higgs connection — Flavor and dark matter

Three families of quarks and leptons, one Higgs to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them.
The Spectral Action and Cosmic Topology

The spectral action functional, considered as a model of gravity coupled to matter, provides, in its non-perturbative form, a slow-roll potential for inflation, whose form and corresponding slow-roll parameters can be sensitive to the underlying cosmic topology. We explicitly compute the non-perturbative spectral action for some of the main candidates for cosmic topologies, namely the quaternionic space, the Poincare dodecahedral space, and the flat tori. We compute the corresponding slow-roll parameters and we check that the resulting inflation model behaves in the same way as for a simply-connected spherical topology in the case of the quaternionic space and the Poincare homology sphere, while it behaves differently in the case of the flat tori. We add an appendix with a discussion of the case of lens spaces.
Finding the Needles in the Haystacks: High-fidelity Models of the Modern and Archean Solar System for Simulating Exoplanet Observations

We present two state-of-the-art models of the solar system, one corresponding to the present day and one to the Archean Eon 3.5 billion years ago. Each model contains spatial and spectral information for the star, the planets, and the interplanetary dust, extending to 50 au from the Sun and covering the wavelength range 0.3-2.5 micron. In addition, we created a spectral image cube representative of the astronomical backgrounds that will be seen behind deep observations of extrasolar planetary systems, including galaxies and Milky Way stars. These models are intended as inputs to high-fidelity simulations of direct observations of exoplanetary systems using telescopes equipped with high-contrast capability. They will help improve the realism of observation and instrument parameters that are required inputs to statistical observatory yield calculations, as well as guide development of post-processing algorithms for telescopes capable of directly imaging Earth-like planets.
Evidence for Inflation in an Axion Landscape

We discuss inflation models within supersymmetry and supergravity frameworks with a landscape of chiral superfields and one U(1) shift symmetry which is broken by non-perturbative symmetry breaking terms in the superpotential. We label the pseudo scalar component of the chiral fields axions and their real parts saxions. Thus in the models only one combination of axions will be a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone-boson which will act as the inflaton. The proposed models constitute consistent inflation for the following reasons: the inflation potential arises dynamically with stabilized saxions, the axion decay constant can lie in the sub-Planckian region, and consistency with the Planck data is achieved. The axion landscape consisting of m axion pairs is assumed with the axions in each pair having opposite charges. A fast roll-slow roll splitting mechanism for the axion potential is proposed which is realized with a special choice of the axion basis. In this basis the 2m coupled equations split into 2m − 1 equations which enter in the fast roll and there is one unique linear combination of the 2m fields which controls the slow roll and thus the power spectrum of curvature and tensor perturbations. It is shown that a significant part of the parameter space exists where inflation is successful, i.e., Npivot = [50, 60], the spectral index ns of curvature perturbations, and the ratio r of the power spectrum of tensor perturbations and curvature perturbations, lie in the experimentally allowed regions given by the Planck experiment. Further, it is shown that the model allows for a significant region of the parameter space where the effective axion decay constant can lie in the sub-Planckian domain. An analysis of the tensor spectral index nt is also given and the future experimental data which constraints nt will further narrow down the parameter space of the proposed inflationary models. Topics of further interest include implications of the model for gravitational waves and non-Gaussianities in the curvature perturbations. Also of interest is embedding of the model in strings which are expected to possess a large axionic landscape.
GEMINI LONG-SLIT OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS OBSCURED QUASARS: FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR AN UPPER LIMIT ON THE SIZE OF THE NARROW-LINE REGION

We examine the spatial extent of the narrow-line regions (NLRs) of a sample of 30 luminous obscured quasars at 0.4 < z < 0.7 observed with spatially resolved Gemini-N GMOS long-slit spectroscopy. Using the [O III] λ5007 emission feature, we estimate the size of the NLR using a cosmology-independent measurement: the radius where the surface brightness falls to 10–15 erg s–1 cm–2 arcsec–2. We then explore the effects of atmospheric seeing on NLR size measurements and conclude that direct measurements of the NLR size from observed profiles are too large by 0.1-0.2 dex on average, as compared to measurements made to best-fit Sersic or Voigt profiles convolved with the seeing. These data, which span a full order of magnitude in IR luminosity (log (L 8 μm/erg s–1) = 44.4-45.4), also provide strong evidence that there is a flattening of the relationship between NLR size and active galactic nucleus luminosity at a seeing-corrected size of ~7 kpc. The objects in this sample have high luminosities which place them in a previously under-explored portion of the size-luminosity relationship. These results support the existence of a maximal size of the NLR around luminous quasars; beyond this size, there is either not enough gas or the gas is over-ionized and does not produce enough [O III] λ5007 emission.
Obliquity and Eccentricity Constraints for Terrestrial Exoplanets

Exoplanet discoveries over recent years have shown that terrestrial planets are exceptionally common. Many of these planets are in compact systems that result in complex orbital dynamics. A key step toward determining the surface conditions of these planets is understanding the latitudinally dependent flux incident at the top of the atmosphere as a function of orbital phase. The two main properties of a planet that influence the time-dependent nature of the flux are the obliquity and orbital eccentricity of the planet. We derive the criterion for which the flux variation due to obliquity is equivalent to the flux variation due to orbital eccentricity. This equivalence is computed for both the maximum and average flux scenarios, the latter of which includes the effects of the diurnal cycle. We apply these calculations to four known multi-planet systems (GJ 163, K2-3, Kepler-186, and Proxima Centauri), where we constrain the eccentricity of terrestrial planets using orbital dynamics considerations and model the effect of obliquity on incident flux. We discuss the implications of these simulations on climate models for terrestrial planets and outline detectable signatures of planetary obliquity.
Exploring the evolution of a trade-off between vigilance and foraging in group-living organisms.

Even though grouping behaviour has been actively studied for over a century, the relative importance of the numerous proposed fitness benefits of grouping remain unclear. We use a digital model of evolving prey under simulated predation to directly explore the evolution of gregarious foraging behaviour according to one such benefit, the ‘many eyes’ hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, collective vigilance allows prey in large groups to detect predators more efficiently by making alarm signals or behavioural cues to each other, thereby allowing individuals within the group to spend more time foraging. Here, we find that collective vigilance is sufficient to select for gregarious foraging behaviour as long there is not a direct cost for grouping (e.g. competition for limited food resources), even when controlling for confounding factors such as the dilution effect. Furthermore, we explore the role of the genetic relatedness and reproductive strategy of the prey and find that highly related groups of prey with a semelparous reproductive strategy are the most likely to evolve gregarious foraging behaviour mediated by the benefit of vigilance. These findings, combined with earlier studies with evolving digital organisms, further sharpen our understanding of the factors favouring grouping behaviour.
Constituent Counting Rules and Exotic Hadrons

The constituent counting rules, i.e., the scaling behavior of amplitudes (in terms of the number of fundamental constituents) for exclusive processes when high energy scales are present, have been known for decades, and have been borne out in a number of experiments. Such scaling would be sensitive, in particular, to possible exotic multiquark content. Here we examine how one may use the rules to test for pentaquarks in electroproduction, or for tetraquarks in $$e^+ e^-$$ annihilation. An interesting new type of scaling (separate Mandelstam s and t behavior) arises in the forward scattering direction. The correct scaling arises naturally in AdS/QCD, in which the amplitudes can be computed explicitly.
Coincidence Structures and Hard-Core Few-Body Interactions

The symmetry and topology of the coincidence structure, i.e. the locus of points in configuration space corresponding to particles in the same position, plays a critical role in extracting universal properties for few-body models with hard-core interactions. The coincidence structure is a scale-invariant union of manifolds possessing rich symmetry. When there are zero-range hard-core two-body interactions, the coincidence structure forms a nodal surface for finite-energy wave functions in configuration space. More generally, it acts like a defect that changes the topology of configuration space in a way that depends on the dimension of the underlying space, the total number of particles, and the number of particles in the hard-core interaction. For defects with co-dimension two, the coincidence manifold makes the configuration space is no longer simply-connected, and this provides a topological explanation for several models that exhibit anyonic behavior.
Protection Related to High-power Targets

Target protection is an important part of machine protection. The beam power in high-intensity accelerators is high enough that a single wayward pulse can cause serious damage. Today’s high-power targets operate at the limit of available technology, and are designed for a very narrow range of beam parameters. If the beam pulse is too far off centre, or if the beam size is not correct, or if the beam density is too high, the target can be seriously damaged. We will start with a brief introduction to high-power targets and then move to a discussion of what can go wrong, and what are the risks. Next we will discuss how to control the beam-related risk, followed by examples from a few different accelerator facilities. We will finish with a detailed example of the Oak Ridge Spallation Neutron Source target tune up and target protection.
Stellar Parameters and Radial Velocities of Hot Stars in the Carina Nebula

The Carina Nebula is an active star forming region in the southern sky that is of particular interest due to the presence of a large number of massive stars in a wide array of evolutionary stages. Here we present the results of the spectroscopic analysis of 82 B-type stars and 33 O-type stars that were observed in 2013 and 2014. For 82 B-type stars without line blending, we fit model spectra from the Tlusty BSTAR2006 grid to the observed profiles of H{\gamma} and He {\lambda}{\lambda} 4026, 4388, and 4471 to measure the effective temperatures, surface gravities, and projected rotational velocities. We also measure the masses, ages, radii, bolometric luminosities, and distances of these stars. From the radial velocities measured in our sample, we find 31 single lined spectroscopic binary candidates. We find a high dispersion of radial velocities among our sample stars, and we argue that the Carina Nebula stellar population has not yet relaxed and become virialized.
Calculating hydrodynamic interactions for membrane-embedded objects

A recently introduced numerical scheme for calculating self-diffusion coefficients of solid objects embedded in lipid bilayer membranes is extended to enable calculation of hydrodynamic interactions between multiple objects. The method is used to validate recent analytical predictions by Oppenheimer and Diamant [Biophys. J. 96, 3041 2009] related to the coupled diffusion of membrane embedded proteins and is shown to converge to known near-field lubrication results as objects closely approach one another; however, the present methodology also applies outside of the limiting regimes where analytical results are available. Multiple different examples involving pairs of disk-like objects with various constraints imposed on their relative motions demonstrate the importance of hydrodynamic interactions in the dynamics of proteins and lipid domains on membrane surfaces. It is demonstrated that the relative change in self-diffusion of a membrane embedded object upon perturbation by a similar proximal solid object displays a maximum for object sizes comparable to the Saffman-Delbruck length of the membrane.
AutoQA: From Databases To QA Semantic Parsers With Only Synthetic Training Data

We propose AutoQA, a methodology and toolkit to generate semantic parsers that answer questions on databases, with no manual effort. Given a database schema and its data, AutoQA automatically generates a large set of high-quality questions for training that covers different database operations. It uses automatic paraphrasing combined with template-based parsing to find alternative expressions of an attribute in different parts of speech. It also uses a novel filtered auto-paraphraser to generate correct paraphrases of entire sentences. We apply AutoQA to the Schema2QA dataset and obtain an average logical form accuracy of 62.9% when tested on natural questions, which is only 6.4% lower than a model trained with expert natural language annotations and paraphrase data collected from crowdworkers. To demonstrate the generality of AutoQA, we also apply it to the Overnight dataset. AutoQA achieves 69.8% answer accuracy, 16.4% higher than the state-of-the-art zero-shot models and only 5.2% lower than the same model trained with human data.
Equivariant thinning over a free group

We construct entropy increasing monotone factors in the context of a Bernoulli shift over the free group of rank at least two.
Conflict and Computation on Wikipedia: A Finite-State Machine Analysis of Editor Interactions

What is the boundary between a vigorous argument and a breakdown of relations? What drives a group of individuals across it? Taking Wikipedia as a test case, we use a hidden Markov model to approximate the computational structure and social grammar of more than a decade of cooperation and conflict among its editors. Across a wide range of pages, we discover a bursty war/peace structure where the systems can become trapped, sometimes for months, in a computational subspace associated with significantly higher levels of conflict-tracking “revert” actions. Distinct patterns of behavior characterize the lower-conflict subspace, including tit-for-tat reversion. While a fraction of the transitions between these subspaces are associated with top-down actions taken by administrators, the effects are weak. Surprisingly, we find no statistical signal that transitions are associated with the appearance of particularly anti-social users, and only weak association with significant news events outside the system. These findings are consistent with transitions being driven by decentralized processes with no clear locus of control. Models of belief revision in the presence of a common resource for information-sharing predict the existence of two distinct phases: a disordered high-conflict phase, and a frozen phase with spontaneously-broken symmetry. The bistability we observe empirically may be a consequence of editor turn-over, which drives the system to a critical point between them.
Short-Range Spin Glasses and Random Overlap Structures

Properties of Random Overlap Structures (ROSt)’s constructed from the Edwards-Anderson (EA) Spin Glass model on ℤ d with periodic boundary conditions are studied. ROSt’s are ℕ×ℕ random matrices whose entries are the overlaps of spin configurations sampled from the Gibbs measure. Since the ROSt construction is the same for mean-field models (like the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model) as for short-range ones (like the EA model), the setup is a good common ground to study the effect of dimensionality on the properties of the Gibbs measure. In this spirit, it is shown, using translation invariance, that the ROSt of the EA model possesses a local stability that is stronger than stochastic stability, a property known to hold at almost all temperatures in many spin glass models with Gaussian couplings. This fact is used to prove stochastic stability for the EA spin glass at all temperatures and for a wide range of coupling distributions. On the way, a theorem of Newman and Stein about the pure state decomposition of the EA model is recovered and extended.
Response Functions for the Two-Dimensional Ultracold Fermi Gas: Dynamical BCS Theory and Beyond

Response functions are central objects in physics. They provide crucial information about the behavior of physical systems, and they can be directly compared with scattering experiments involving particles such as neutrons or photons. Calculations of such functions starting from the many-body Hamiltonian of a physical system are challenging and extremely valuable. In this paper, we focus on the two-dimensional (2D) ultracold Fermi atomic gas which has been realized experimentally. We present an application of the dynamical BCS theory to obtain response functions for different regimes of interaction strengths in the 2D gas with zero-range attractive interaction. We also discuss auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo (AFQMC) methods for the calculation of imaginary time correlations in these dilute Fermi gas systems. Illustrative results are given and comparisons are made between AFQMC and dynamical BCS theory results to assess the accuracy of the latter.
Unsteady Stokes flow near boundaries: the point-particle approximation and the method of reflections

Problems of particle dynamics involving unsteady Stokes flows in confined geometries are typically harder to solve than their steady counterparts. Approximation techniques are often the only resort. Felderhof (see e.g. J. Phys. Chem. B, vol. 109 (45), 2005, pp. 21406–21412; J. Fluid Mech., vol. 637, 2009, pp. 285–303) has developed a point-particle approximation framework to solve such problems, especially in the context of Brownian motion. Despite excellent agreement with past experiments, this framework produces unsteady drag coefficients that depend on particle density. This is inconsistent, since the problem can be formulated mathematically without any reference to the particle’s density. We address this inconsistency in our work. Upon implementing our modifications, the framework passes consistency checks that it previously failed. Further, it is not obvious that such an approximation should work for short-time-scale motion. We investigate its validity by deriving it from a general formalism based on integral equations through a series of systematic approximations. We also compare results from the point-particle framework against a calculation performed using the method of reflections, for the specific case of a sphere near a full-slip plane boundary. We find from our analysis that the reasons for the success of the point-particle approximation are subtle and have to do with the nature of the unsteady Oseen tensor. Finally, we provide numerical predictions for Brownian motion near a full-slip and a no-slip plane wall based on the point-particle approximation as used by Felderhof, our modified point-particle approximation and the method of reflections. We show that our modifications to Felderhof’s framework would become significant for systems of metallic nanoparticles in liquids.
A Spectral Method for Stable Bispectrum Inversion With Application to Multireference Alignment

We focus on an alignment-free method to estimate the underlying signal from a large number of noisy randomly shifted observations. Specifically, we estimate the mean, power spectrum, and bispectrum of the signal from the observations. Since the bispectrum contains the phase information of the signal, reliable algorithms for bispectrum inversion are useful in many applications. We propose a new algorithm using spectral decomposition of the bispectrum phase matrix for this task. For clean signals, we show that the eigenvectors of the bispectrum phase matrix correspond to the true phases of the signal and its shifted copies. In addition, the spectral method is robust to noise. It can be used as a stable and efficient initialization technique for local nonconvex optimization for bispectrum inversion.
The Evolution and Luminosity Function of Quasars from Complete Optical Surveys

We use several quasar samples (Large Bright QSO Survey, Homogeneous Bright QSO Survey, Durham/AAT, and Edinburgh QSO Survey) to determine the density functions and the luminosity evolution of quasars. Combining these different samples and accounting for varying selection criteria require tests of correlation and the determination of density functions for multiply truncated data. We describe new nonparametric techniques for accomplishing these tasks, which have been developed recently by Efron & Petrosian. With these methods, the luminosity evolution can be found through an investigation of the correlation of the bivariate distribution of luminosities and redshifts. Here, one assumes a cosmological model to convert the observed fluxes into luminosities. We use matter-dominated models with either zero cosmological constant or zero spatial curvature. Of the two most commonly used models for luminosity evolution, L∝ekt(z) and L∝(1+z)k', we find that the second functional form is a better description of the data at all luminosities; we find k'=2.58 ([2.14, 2.91] 1 σ region) for the Einstein-de Sitter cosmological model. Using this form of luminosity evolution, we determine a global luminosity function and the evolution of the comoving density for the two types of cosmological models. For the Einstein-de Sitter cosmological model we find a relatively strong increase in comoving density up to z2, at which point the density peaks and begins to decrease rapidly. This is in agreement with results from high-redshift surveys. However, we find that pure luminosity evolution, i.e., constant comoving density, is possible for some cosmological models for 32. We find that the local luminosity function Φ(L0) exhibits the usual double power-law behavior. The luminosity density (z)=∫LΨ(L, z) dL, where Ψ(L, z) is the luminosity function, is found to increase rapidly at low redshift and to reach a peak at around z≈2. Our results for (z) are compared to results from high-redshift surveys and to the variation of the star formation rate with redshift.
TextHide: Tackling Data Privacy in Language Understanding Tasks

An unsolved challenge in distributed or federated learning is to effectively mitigate privacy risks without slowing down training or reducing accuracy. In this paper, we propose TextHide aiming at addressing this challenge for natural language understanding tasks. It requires all participants to add a simple encryption step to prevent an eavesdropping attacker from recovering private text data. Such an encryption step is efficient and only affects the task performance slightly. In addition, TextHide fits well with the popular framework of fine-tuning pre-trained language models (e.g., BERT) for any sentence or sentence-pair task. We evaluate TextHide on the GLUE benchmark, and our experiments show that TextHide can effectively defend attacks on shared gradients or representations and the averaged accuracy reduction is only 1.9%. We also present an analysis of the security of TextHide using a conjecture about the computational intractability of a mathematical problem.
Toward a VLBI resolution of the Pleiades distance controversy

The Pleiades is the best studied open cluster in the sky. It is one of the primary open clusters used to define the `zero-age main sequence,' and hence it serves as a cornerstone for programs which use main-sequence fitting to derive distances. This role is called into question by the `Pleiades distance controversy' - the distance to the Pleiades from Hipparcos of approximately 120 pc is significantly different from the distance of 133 pc derived from other techniques. To resolve this issue, we plan to use Very Long Baseline Interferometry to derive a new, independent trigonometric parallax distance to the Pleiades. In these proceedings we present our observational program and report some preliminary results.
Pulsar Timing Errors from Asynchronous Multi-frequency Sampling of Dispersion Measure Variations

Free electrons in the interstellar medium cause frequency-dependent delays in pulse arrival times due to both scattering and dispersion. Multi-frequency measurements are used to estimate and remove dispersion delays. In this paper, we focus on the effect of any non-simultaneity of multi-frequency observations on dispersive delay estimation and removal. Interstellar density variations combined with changes in the line of sight from pulsar and observer motions cause dispersion measure (DM) variations with an approximately power-law power spectrum, augmented in some cases by linear trends. We simulate time series, estimate the magnitude and statistical properties of timing errors that result from non-simultaneous observations, and derive prescriptions for data acquisition that are needed in order to achieve a specified timing precision. For nearby, highly stable pulsars, measurements need to be simultaneous to within about one day in order for the timing error from asynchronous DM correction to be less than about 10 ns. We discuss how timing precision improves when increasing the number of dual-frequency observations used in DM estimation for a given epoch. For a Kolmogorov wavenumber spectrum, we find about a factor of two improvement in precision timing when increasing from two to three observations but diminishing returns thereafter.
On solutions to Cournot–Nash equilibria equations on the sphere

We discuss equations associated to Cournot‐Nash Equilibria as put forward recently by Blanchet and Carlier. These equations are related to an optimal transport problem in which the source measure is known, but the target measure is part of the problem. The resulting equation is of Monge‐Ampere type with possible nonlocal terms. If the cost function is of a particular form, the equation is vulnerable to standard optimal transportation PDE techniques, with some modifications to deal with the new terms. We give some sufficient conditions for the problem on the sphere from which we can conclude that solutions are smooth.
String-averaging algorithms for convex feasibility with infinitely many sets

Algorithms for convex feasibility find or approximate a point in the intersection of given closed convex sets. Typically there are only finitely many convex sets, but the case of infinitely many convex sets also has some applications. In this context, a \emph{string} is a finite sequence of points each of which is obtained from the previous point by considering one of the convex sets. In a \emph{string-averaging} algorithm, an iterative step from a first point to a second point computes a number of strings, all starting with the first point, and then calculates a (weighted) average of those strings' end-points: This average is that iterative step's second point, which is used as the first point for the next iterative step. For string-averaging algorithms based on strings in which each point either is the projection of the previous point on one of the convex sets or is equal to the previous point, we present theorems that provide answers to the following question: "How can the iterative steps be specified so that the string-averaging algorithm generates a convergent sequence whose limit lies in the intersection of the sets of a given convex feasibility problem?" This paper focuses on the case where the given collection of convex sets is infinite, whereas prior work on the same question that we are aware of has assumed the collection of convex sets is finite (or has been applicable only to a small subset of the algorithms we consider). The string-averaging algorithms that are shown to generate a convergent sequence whose limit lies in the intersection are also shown to be perturbation resilient, so they can be superiorized to generate sequences that also converge to a point of the intersection but in a manner that is superior with respect to some application-dependent criterion.
Making better sense of quantum mechanics

We still lack any consensus about what one is actually talking about as one uses quantum mechanics. There is a gap between the abstract terms in which the theory is couched and the phenomena the theory enables each of us to account for so well. Because it has no practical consequences for how we each use quantum mechanics to deal with physical problems, this cognitive dissonance has managed to coexist with the quantum theory from the very beginning. The absence of conceptual clarity for almost a century suggests that the problem might lie in some implicit misconceptions about the nature of scientific explanation that are deeply held by virtually all physicists, but are rarely explicitly acknowledged. I describe here such unvoiced but widely shared assumptions. Rejecting them clarifies and unifies a range of obscure remarks about quantum mechanics made almost from the beginning by some of the giants of physics, many of whom are held to be in deep disagreement. This new view of physics requires physicists to think about science in an unfamiliar way. My primary purpose is to explain the new perspective and urge that it be taken seriously. My secondary aims are to explain why this perspective differs significantly from what Bohr, Heisenberg, and Pauli had been saying from the very beginning, and why it is not solipsism, as some have maintained. To emphasize that this is a general view of science, and not just of quantum mechanics, I apply it to a long-standing puzzle in classical physics: the apparent inability of physics to give any meaning to 'Now'—the present moment.