cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Trustworthy Recruitment Process for Spatial Mobile Crowdsourcing in Large-scale Social IoT

Spatial Mobile Crowdsourcing (SMCS) can be leveraged by exploiting the capabilities of the Social Internet-of-Things (SIoT) to execute spatial tasks. Typically, in SMCS, a task requester aims to recruit a subset of IoT devices and commission them to travel to the task location. However, because of the exponential increase of IoT networks and their diversified devices (e.g., multiple brands, different communication channels, etc.), recruiting the appropriate devices/workers is becoming a challenging task. To this end, in this paper, we develop a recruitment process for SMCS platforms using automated SIoT service discovery to select trustworthy workers satisfying the requester requirements. The method we purpose includes mainly two stages: 1) a worker filtering stage, aiming at reducing the workers’ search space to a subset of potential trustworthy candidates using the Louvain community detection algorithm (CD) applied to SIoT relation graphs. Next, 2) a selection process stage that uses an Integer Linear Program (ILP) to determine the final set of selected devices/workers. The ILP maximizes a worker efficiency metric incorporating the skills/specs level, recruitment cost, and trustworthiness level of the recruited IoT devices. Selected experiments analyze the performance of the proposed CD-ILP algorithm using a real-world dataset and show its superiority in providing an effective recruitment strategy compared to an existing stochastic algorithm.
Calibration of Microwave Reference Blackbodies and Targets for Use in Satellite Observations: An Analysis of Errors in Theoretical Outlooks and Testing Procedures

Microwave reference blackbodies and targets play a key role in astrophysical and geo- physical studies. The emissivity of these devices is usually inferred from return-loss experiments which may introduce at least 10 separate types of calibration errors. The origin of these inaccuracies depends on test conditions and on the nature of each target. The most overlooked errors are related to the geometry adapted in constructing refer- ence loads and to the e ects of conduction or convection. Target shape and design can create an imbalance in the probabilities of absorption and emission. This leads to loss of radiative equilibrium, despite the presence of a thermodynamic steady state. Heat losses or gains, through conduction and convection, compensate for this unexpected physical condition. The improper calibration of blackbodies and targets has implications, not only in global climate monitoring, but also relative to evaluating the microwave back- ground.
Design of Robust Path-Following Control System for Self-driving Vehicles Using Extended High-Gain Observer

We present a robust path-following control of a self-driving vehicle under mismatched perturbations due to the effect of parametric uncertainties, vehicle side-slip angle, and road banking. In particular, the proposed control framework includes two parts. The first part ensures that the lateral and the yaw dynamics behave with nominal desired dynamics by canceling undesired dynamics. The second part is composed of two extended high-gain observers to estimate the system state variables and the perturbation terms. The proposed controller is implemented on an autonomous vehicle research platform and tested in different road conditions that include flat, inclined, and banked roads. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the controller, they also illustrate the capability of the controller in achieving comparable performance under inclined and banked roads as compared to flat roads under a range of longitudinal velocities.
Towards Effective Differential Privacy Communication for Users’ Data Sharing Decision and Comprehension

Differential privacy protects an individual’s privacy by perturbing data on an aggregated level (DP) or individual level (LDP). We report four online human-subject experiments investigating the effects of using different approaches to communicate differential privacy techniques to laypersons in a health app data collection setting. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated participants’ data disclosure decisions for low-sensitive and high-sensitive personal information when given different DP or LDP descriptions. Experiments 3 and 4 uncovered reasons behind participants’ data sharing decisions, and examined participants’ subjective and objective comprehensions of these DP or LDP descriptions. When shown descriptions that explain the implications instead of the definition/processes of DP or LDP technique, participants demonstrated better comprehension and showed more willingness to share information with LDP than with DP, indicating their understanding of LDP’s stronger privacy guarantee compared with DP.
Valence structures of light and strange mesons from the basis light-front quantization framework

We apply the basis light-front quantization framework to solve for the structures of mesons with light and strange valence quarks. Our approach treats mesons as relativistic bound states with quarks confined in both the transverse direction and the light-front longitudinal direction. The spin-orbit interactions of these confined quarks are further specified by the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. We address the $\mathrm{U}(1)_{\mathrm{A}}$ axial anomaly by including the Kobayashi-Maskawa-'t Hooft interaction regularized by our basis. We present the structures of the pion, the kaon, the eta meson, and the eta-prime meson in terms of their valence light-front wave functions obtained from the eigenvalue problem of our light-front Hamiltonian.
SC1: A Tool for Interactive Web-Based Single-Cell RNA-Seq Data Analysis

Single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-Seq) is critical for studying cellular function and phenotypic heterogeneity as well as the development of tissues and tumors. Here, we present a web-based interactive scRNA-Seq data analysis tool publicly accessible at https://sc1.engr.uconn.edu. The tool implements a novel method of selecting informative genes based on Term-Frequency Inverse-Document-Frequency (TF-IDF) scores and provides a broad range of methods for cell clustering, differential expression, gene enrichment, interactive visualization, and cell cycle analysis. In just a few steps, researchers can generate a comprehensive initial analysis and gain powerful insights from their single cell RNA-seq data.
Blaschke Decompositions on Weighted Hardy Spaces

Recently, several authors have considered a nonlinear analogue of Fourier series in signal analysis, referred to as either the unwinding series or adaptive Fourier decomposition. In these processes, a signal is represented as the real component of the boundary value of an analytic function $$F: \partial {\mathbb {D}}\rightarrow {\mathbb {C}}$$ and by performing an iterative method to obtain a sequence of Blaschke decompositions, the signal can be efficiently approximated using only a few terms. To better understand the convergence of these methods, the study of Blaschke decompositions on weighted Hardy spaces was initiated by Coifman and Steinerberger, under the assumption that the complex valued function F has an analytic extension to $${\mathbb {D}}_{1+\epsilon }$$ for some $$\epsilon >0$$ . This provided bounds on weighted Hardy norms involving a single zero, $$\alpha \in {\mathbb {D}}$$ , of F and its Blaschke decomposition. That work also noted that in many specific examples, the unwinding series of F converges at an exponential rate to F, which when coupled with an efficient algorithm to compute a Blaschke decomposition, has led to the hope that this process will provide a new and efficient way to approximate signals. In this work, we continue the study of Blaschke decompositions on weighted Hardy Spaces for functions in the larger space $${\mathcal {H}}^2({\mathbb {D}})$$ under the assumption that the function has finitely many roots in $${\mathbb {D}}$$ . This is meaningful, since there are many functions that meet this criterion but do not extend analytically to $${\mathbb {D}}_{1+\epsilon }$$ for any $$\epsilon >0$$ , for example $$F(z)=\log (1-z)$$ . By studying the growth rate of the weights, we improve the bounds provided by Coifman and Steinerberger to obtain new estimates containing all roots of F in $${\mathbb {D}}$$ . This provides us with new insights into Blaschke decompositions on classical function spaces including the Hardy–Sobolev spaces and weighted Bergman spaces, which correspond to making specific choices for the aforementioned weights. Further, we state a sufficient condition on the weights for our improved bounds to hold for any function in the Hardy space, $${\mathcal {H}}^2({\mathbb {D}})$$ , in particular functions with an infinite number of roots in $${\mathbb {D}}$$ . These results may help to better explain why the exponential convergence of the unwinding series is seen in many numerical examples.
Dense networks that do not synchronize and sparse ones that do.

Consider any network of n identical Kuramoto oscillators in which each oscillator is coupled bidirectionally with unit strength to at least μ ( n − 1 ) other oscillators. Then, there is a critical value of μ above which the system is guaranteed to converge to the in-phase synchronous state for almost all initial conditions. The precise value of μ remains unknown. In 2018, Ling, Xu, and Bandeira proved that if each oscillator is coupled to at least 79.29% of all the others, global synchrony is ensured. In 2019, Lu and Steinerberger improved this bound to 78.89%. Here, we find clues that the critical connectivity may be exactly 75%. Our methods yield a slight improvement on the best known lower bound on the critical connectivity from 68.18 % to 68.28 %. We also consider the opposite end of the connectivity spectrum, where the networks are sparse rather than dense. In this regime, we ask how few edges one needs to add to a ring of n oscillators to turn it into a globally synchronizing network. We prove a partial result: all the twisted states in a ring of size n = 2 m can be destabilized by adding just O ( n log 2 ⁡ n ) edges. To finish the proof, one needs to rule out all other candidate attractors. We have done this for n ≤ 8 but the problem remains open for larger n. Thus, even for systems as simple as Kuramoto oscillators, much remains to be learned about dense networks that do not globally synchronize and sparse ones that do.
Rethinking graduate student socialization and identification: how the communication discipline can help

Almost 20 years ago, Nyquist (2002) wrote, “the university’s most important product is not expertise, research, knowledge, information, or service. It is the student” (p. 14). Nyquist’s multidiscip...
Low Prevalence of Clinically Apparent Cardiac Amyloidosis Among Carriers of Transthyretin V122I Variant in a Large Electronic Medical Record.

Abstract Background Transthyretin (TTR) gene mutations are the most common cause of hereditary amyloidosis. Valine replaced by isoleucine in position 122 (V122I) variant is common, particularly in the black population. Carriers of V122I have increased risk for developing cardiac amyloidosis. Despite a relatively high prevalence, the penetrance of V122I is not firmly established. This study sought to determine the prevalence of clinically apparent cardiac amyloidosis among carriers of the TTR V122I variant. Methods BioVU, a Vanderbilt University resource linking DNA samples and pre-existing genetic data to de-identified electronic medical records was used to identify TTR V122I mutation carriers. Automated billing code queries (International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision codes), problem list searches, and manual chart reviews were used to identify subjects with clinically diagnosed cardiac amyloidosis. Results Among 28,429 subjects with available genotype data, 129 were V122I carriers. Carriers had a median age of 42 years (interquartile range 16-64). Noncarriers had a median age of 62 years, (interquartile range 41-77). The carrier rate was 3.7% in blacks and 0.02% in whites. Overall, the prevalence of clinically apparent cardiac amyloidosis was 0.8% in carriers and 0.04% in noncarriers (P = .05). Above age 60, the prevalence of cardiac amyloidosis was 2.6% in carriers and 0.06% in noncarriers (P = .03). Conclusion Carriers of the TTR V122I variant are at a higher risk for development of cardiac amyloidosis, particularly at age>60 years. However, clinically apparent cardiac amyloidosis in this population was uncommon. These results support that the penetrance of TTR V122I is age dependent and suggest it may be significantly lower than previously reported.
Inferring Networks of Interdependent Labor Skills to Illuminate Urban Economic Structure.

Cities are among the best examples of complex systems. The adaptive components of a city, such as its people, firms, institutions, and physical structures, form intricate and often non-intuitive interdependencies with one another. These interdependencies can be quantified and represented as links of a network that give visibility to otherwise cryptic structural elements of urban systems. Here, we use aspects of information theory to elucidate the interdependence network among labor skills, illuminating parts of the hidden economic structure of cities. Using pairwise interdependencies we compute an aggregate, skills-based measure of system “tightness” of a city’s labor force, capturing the degree of integration or internal connectedness of a city’s economy. We find that urban economies with higher tightness tend to be more productive in terms of higher GDP per capita. However, related work has shown that cities with higher system tightness are also more negatively affected by shocks. Thus, our skills-based metric may offer additional insights into a city’s resilience. Finally, we demonstrate how viewing the web of interdependent skills as a weighted network can lead to additional insights about cities and their economies.
Algorithmic Analysis and Statistical Estimation of SLOPE via Approximate Message Passing

SLOPE is a relatively new convex optimization procedure for high-dimensional linear regression via the sorted $\ell _{1}$ penalty: the larger the rank of the fitted coefficient, the larger the penalty. This non-separable penalty renders many existing techniques invalid or inconclusive in analyzing the SLOPE solution. In this paper, we develop an asymptotically exact characterization of the SLOPE solution under Gaussian random designs through solving the SLOPE problem using approximate message passing (AMP). This algorithmic approach allows us to approximate the SLOPE solution via the much more amenable AMP iterates. Explicitly, we characterize the asymptotic dynamics of the AMP iterates relying on a recently developed state evolution analysis for non-separable penalties, thereby overcoming the difficulty caused by the sorted $\ell _{1}$ penalty. Moreover, we prove that the AMP iterates converge to the SLOPE solution in an asymptotic sense, and numerical simulations show that the convergence is surprisingly fast. Our proof rests on a novel technique that specifically leverages the SLOPE problem. In contrast to prior literature, our work not only yields an asymptotically sharp analysis but also offers an algorithmic, flexible, and constructive approach to understanding the SLOPE problem.
Making Quantum Computing Open: Lessons from Open Source Projects

Quantum computing (QC) is an emerging computing paradigm with the potential to revolutionize the field of computing. QC is a field that is quickly developing globally and has high barriers of entry. In this paper, we explore both successful contributors to the field as well as the wider QC community with the goal of understanding the backgrounds and training that helped them succeed. We gather data on 148 contributors to open source quantum computing projects hosted on GitHub and survey 46 members of QC community. Our findings show that QC practitioners and enthusiasts have diverse backgrounds, with most of them having a PhD and training in physics or computer science. We observe a lack of educational resources on quantum computing. Our goal is to use these results to start a conversation on making quantum computing more open.
A remark on approximating permanents of positive definite matrices

Abstract Let A be an n × n positive definite Hermitian matrix with all eigenvalues between 1 and 2. We represent the permanent of A as the integral of some explicit log-concave function on R 2 n . Consequently, there is a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme (FPRAS) for per A .
Single-pixel fluorescent diffraction tomography

Optical diffraction tomography (ODT) is an indispensable tool for studying objects in three dimensions. Until now, ODT has been limited to coherent light because spatial phase information is required to solve the inverse scattering problem. We introduce a method that enables ODT to be applied to imaging incoherent contrast mechanisms such as fluorescent emission. Our strategy mimics the coherent scattering process with two spatially coherent illumination beams. The interferometric illumination pattern encodes spatial phase in temporal variations of the fluorescent emission, thereby allowing incoherent fluorescent emission to mimic the behavior of coherent illumination. The temporal variations permit recovery of the spatial distribution of fluorescent emission with an inverse scattering model. Simulations and experiments demonstrate isotropic resolution in the 3D reconstruction of a fluorescent object.
Give me Your Tired and Your Poor: Impact of a Large-Scale Amnesty Program for Undocumented Refugees

Abstract We study the labor market impacts of the Permiso Especial de Permanencia program, the largest migratory amnesty program offered to undocumented migrants in a developing country in modern history. The program granted work permits to nearly half a million undocumented Venezuelan migrants in Colombia in August 2018. To evaluate the effects of the program, we compare labor outcomes in departments that have larger and lower treatment intensity, before and after the program roll-out. We test the robustness of the difference-in-difference results to using three alternative instrumental variables, finding consistent estimates regardless of the instrument used. We are only able to distinguish negligible effects of the program on the formal employment of workers. These effects are negative for Colombian workers and positive for Venezuelan workers. For the case of Colombian workers, the effects are concentrated in highly educated and in female workers.
Controlling reaction rate of phase transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone by application of low external electric field

The controllable mass transfer and reaction rate for phase transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone across a well-defined boundary were investigated. The effect of solvent was found important and 1-butanol exhibited the best performance among the five investigated homologous alcohol solvents, consistent with its higher solubility in water and greater dielectric constant. Initial reaction rates increased with increasing electric potential, consistent with enhanced mass transfer across the aqueous/organic boundary. At longer reaction times deactivation was apparent. It correlated with increasing voltage and is ascribed to lower equilibrium concentration of reactive species at the interface. External control over reaction rate was demonstrated by switching the applied electric potential over the course of the reaction. Effects of external electric field on enantioselectivity were also explored with reversal field direction. The changes correlate with catalyst decomposition.
Wavefield recovery with limited-subspace weighted matrix factorizations

Modern-day seismic imaging and monitoring technology increasingly rely on dense full-azimuth sampling. Unfortunately, the costs of acquiring densely sampled data rapidly become prohibitive and we need to look for ways to sparsely collect data, e.g. from sparsely distributed ocean bottom nodes, from which we then derive densely sampled surveys through the method of wavefield reconstruction. Because of their relatively cheap and simple calculations, wavefield reconstruction via matrix factorizations has proven to be a viable and scalable alternative to the more generally used transform-based methods. While this method is capable of processing all full azimuth data frequency by frequency slice, its performance degrades at higher frequencies because monochromatic data at these frequencies is not as well approximated by low-rank factorizations. We address this problem by proposing a recursive recovery technique, which involves weighted matrix factorizations where recovered wavefields at the lower frequencies serve as prior information for the recovery of the higher frequencies. To limit the adverse effects of potential overfitting, we propose a limited-subspace recursively weighted matrix factorization approach where the size of the row and column subspaces to construct the weight matrices is constrained. We apply our method to data collected from the Gulf of Suez, and our results show that our limited-subspace weighted recovery method significantly improves the recovery quality.
Weight-based mycophenolate mofetil dosing predicts acute GVHD and relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation

OBJECTIVES Higher MMF dose can reduce acute GVHD risk after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). We examined the effect of MMF dose, relative to patient actual body weight (mg/kg/day), on outcomes of 680 adults after HCT. METHODS MMF was combined with cyclosporine (n = 599) or sirolimus (n = 81). We divided MMF dose/kg/day in quartiles. RESULTS The median time to grade II-IV acute GVHD was 32 days. The incidence of grade II-IV acute GVHD at day 30 was 30% in 1st (<29), 20% in 2nd (29-34), 16% in 3rd (35-41), and 19% in 4th (≥42) quartile (P < .01). Corresponding relapse incidence at 1 year was 16%, 25%, 27%, and 31%, respectively (P = .01). In multivariate analysis, as compared to 1st quartile, higher dose of weight-based MMF reduced grade II-IV acute GVHD (HR = 0.64 for 2nd, HR = 0.48 for 3rd, and HR = 0.55 for 4th quartile), but increased the risk of relapse (HR = 1.63 for 2nd, HR = 1.75 for 3rd, and HR = 2.31 for 4th quartile). CONCLUSIONS Weight-based MMF dose had no significant impact on engraftment, chronic GVHD, or survival. These data suggest that higher weight-based MMF dose reduces the risk of acute GVHD at the expense of increased relapse and supports conducting prospective studies to optimize MMF dosing after HCT.
Neuromorphic AI Empowered Root Cause Analysis of Faults in Emerging Networks

Mobile cellular network operators spend nearly a quarter of their revenue on network maintenance and management. A significant portion of that budget is spent on resolving faults diagnosed in the system that disrupt or degrade cellular services. Historically, the operations to detect, diagnose and resolve issues were carried out by human experts. However, with diversifying cell types, increased complexity and growing cell density, this methodology is becoming less viable, both technically and financially. To cope with this problem, in recent years, research on self-healing solutions has gained significant momentum. One of the most desirable features of the self-healing paradigm is automated fault diagnosis. While several fault detection and diagnosis machine learning models have been proposed recently, these schemes have one common tenancy of relying on human expert contribution for fault diagnosis and prediction in one way or another. In this paper, we propose an AI-based fault diagnosis solution that offers a key step towards a completely automated self-healing system without requiring human expert input. The proposed solution leverages Random Forests classifier, Convolutional Neural Network and neuromorphic based deep learning model which uses RSRP map images of faults generated. We compare the performance of the proposed solution against state-of-the-art solution in literature that mostly use Naive Bayes models, while considering seven different fault types. Results show that neuromorphic computing model achieves high classification accuracy as compared to the other models even with relatively small training data.
Winter Weather and Work Hours: Heterogeneous Effects and Regional Adaptation

Winter weather affects hours worked. We examine how work hours reported in the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) vary with respect to snowfall in 265 metropolitan areas over the years 2004-2014. The effects of snowfall on work hours vary across types of workers, occupation, industry, and region. Losses in work hours due to snow events are particularly large in the South and among construction workers. An average daily inch of snowfall during a reference week reduces work by about an hour. Few of the hours lost from large snowfalls are "made-up" in subsequent weeks. A "back-of-an-envelope" calculation suggests that in an average year, snow leads to a 0.15 percent loss in annual hours worked, a small but nontrivial impact.
The role of "spillover" in antibiotic resistance

Antibiotic use is a key driver of antibiotic resistance. Understanding the quantitative association between antibiotic use and resulting resistance is important for predicting future rates of antibiotic resistance and for designing antibiotic stewardship policy. However, the use–resistance association is complicated by “spillover,” in which one population’s level of antibiotic use affects another population’s level of resistance via the transmission of bacteria between those populations. Spillover is known to have effects at the level of families and hospitals, but it is unclear if spillover is relevant at larger scales. We used mathematical modeling and analysis of observational data to address this question. First, we used dynamical models of antibiotic resistance to predict the effects of spillover. Whereas populations completely isolated from one another do not experience any spillover, we found that if even 1% of interactions are between populations, then spillover may have large consequences: The effect of a change in antibiotic use in one population on antibiotic resistance in that population could be reduced by as much as 50%. Then, we quantified spillover in observational antibiotic use and resistance data from US states and European countries for three pathogen–antibiotic combinations, finding that increased interactions between populations were associated with smaller differences in antibiotic resistance between those populations. Thus, spillover may have an important impact at the level of states and countries, which has ramifications for predicting the future of antibiotic resistance, designing antibiotic resistance stewardship policy, and interpreting stewardship interventions.
On the Hardy number of a domain in terms of harmonic measure and hyperbolic distance

Let ψ be a conformal map on $\mathbb{D}$ with $\psi \left(0\right)=0$ and let ${F_{\alpha }}=\left\{z\in \mathbb{D}:\left|\psi \left(z\right)\right|=\alpha \right\}$ for $\alpha > 0$. Denote by ${H^{p}}\left(\mathbb{D}\right)$ the classical Hardy space with exponent $p > 0$ and by $\mathtt{h}\left(\psi \right)$ the Hardy number of ψ. Consider the limits \[L:=\underset{\alpha \to +\infty }{\lim }\left(\log {\omega _{\mathbb{D}}}{\left(0,{F_{\alpha }}\right)^{-1}}\Big/ \log \alpha \right),\hspace{1em}\mu :=\underset{\alpha \to +\infty }{\lim }\left({d_{\mathbb{D}}}\left(0,{F_{\alpha }}\right)\big/ \log \alpha \right),\] where ${\omega _{\mathbb{D}}}\left(0,{F_{\alpha }}\right)$ denotes the harmonic measure at 0 of ${F_{\alpha }}$ and ${d_{\mathbb{D}}}\left(0,{F_{\alpha }}\right)$ denotes the hyperbolic distance between 0 and ${F_{\alpha }}$ in $\mathbb{D}$. We study a problem posed by P. Poggi-Corradini. What is the relation between L, μ and $\mathtt{h}\left(\psi \right)$? Motivated by the result of Kim and Sugawa that $\mathtt{h}\left(\psi \right)={\liminf _{\alpha \to +\infty }}(\log {\omega _{\mathbb{D}}}{\left(0,{F_{\alpha }}\right)^{-1}}{}\log \alpha )$, we show that $\mathtt{h}\left(\psi \right)={\liminf _{\alpha \to +\infty }}\left({d_{\mathbb{D}}}\left(0,{F_{\alpha }}\right)\big/\log \alpha \right)$. We also provide conditions for the existence of L and μ and for the equalities $L=\mu =\mathtt{h}\left(\psi \right)$. Poggi-Corradini proved that $\psi \notin {H^{\mu }}\left(\mathbb{D}\right)$ for a wide class of conformal maps ψ. We present an example of ψ such that $\psi \in {H^{\mu}}\left(\mathbb{D}\right)$.
Black hole masses from reverberation measurements

We have reanalyzed in a consistent way existing reverberation data for 35 AGNs for the purpose of refining the black hole masses derived from these data. We find that the precision (or random component of the error) of reverberation-based black hole mass measurements is typically around 30%, comparable to the precision attained in measurement of black hole masses in quiescent galaxies by gas or stellar dynamical methods. As discussed in this volume by Onken et al., we have established an absolute calibration for AGN reverberation-based masses by assuming that AGNs and quiescent galaxies follow an identical relationship between black hole mass and host-galaxy bulge velocity dispersion. The scatter around this relationship implies that the typical systematic uncertainties in reverberation-based black hole masses are smaller than a factor of three. We present a preliminary version of a mass-luminosity relationship that is much better defined than any previous attempt. Scatter about the mass-luminosity relationship for these AGNs appears to be real and could be correlated with either Eddington ratio or source inclination.
Sterile neutrino dark matter in left-right theories

SU(2)L × SU(2)R gauge symmetry requires three right-handed neutrinos (Ni), one of which, N1, can be sufficiently stable to be dark matter. In the early universe, WR exchange with the Standard Model thermal bath keeps the right-handed neutrinos in thermal equilibrium at high temperatures. N1 can make up all of dark matter if they freeze-out while relativistic and are mildly diluted by subsequent decays of a long-lived and heavier right-handed neutrino, N2. We systematically study this parameter space, constraining the symmetry breaking scale of SU(2)R and the mass of N1 to a triangle in the (vR, M1) plane, with vR = (106 − 3 × 1012) GeV and M1 = (2 keV–1 MeV). Much of this triangle can be probed by signals of warm dark matter, especially if leptogenesis from N2 decay yields the observed baryon asymmetry. The minimal value of vR is increased to 108 GeV for doublet breaking of SU(2)R, and further to 109 GeV if leptogenesis occurs via N2 decay, while the upper bound on M1 is reduced to 100 keV. In addition, there is a component of hot N1 dark matter resulting from the late decay of N2 → N1l+l− that can be probed by future cosmic microwave background observations. Interestingly, the range of vR allows both precision gauge coupling unification and the Higgs Parity understanding of the vanishing of the Standard Model Higgs quartic at scale vR. Finally, we study freeze-in production of N1 dark matter via the WR interaction, which allows a much wider range of (vR, M1).
Filling the gaps: Gaussian mixture models from noisy, truncated or incomplete samples

Abstract Astronomical data often suffer from noise and incompleteness. We extend the common mixtures-of-Gaussians density estimation approach to account for situations with a known sample incompleteness by simultaneous imputation from the current model. The method, called GMMis , generalizes existing Expectation–Maximization techniques for truncated data to arbitrary truncation geometries and probabilistic rejection processes, as long as they can be specified and do not depend on the density itself. The method accounts for independent multivariate normal measurement errors for each of the observed samples and recovers an estimate of the error-free distribution from which both observed and unobserved samples are drawn. It can perform a separation of a mixtures-of-Gaussian signal from a specified background distribution whose amplitude may be unknown. We compare GMMis to the standard Gaussian mixture model for simple test cases with different types of incompleteness, and apply it to observational data from the NASA Chandra X-ray telescope. The python code is released as an open-source package at https://github.com/pmelchior/pyGMMis .
Extragalactic sources of TeV gamma rays: a summary

Abstract The development of techniques whereby gamma rays of energy 100 GeV and above can be studied from the ground, using indirect, but sensitive, techniques has opened up a new area of high energy photon astronomy. The most exciting result that has come from these is the detection of highly variable fluxes of TeV gamma rays from the relativistic jets in nearby AGN. The recent detection of signals from a starburst galaxy and from a radio galaxy opens the possibility that the extragalactic emission of TeV gamma rays is a ubiquitous phenomenon. Here we attempt to summarize the properties of the sources detected so far.
Soft bootstrap and supersymmetry

The soft bootstrap is an on-shell method to constrain the landscape of effective field theories (EFTs) of massless particles via the consistency of the low-energy S-matrix. Given assumptions on the on-shell data (particle spectra, linear symmetries, and low-energy theorems), the soft bootstrap is an efficient algorithm for determining the possible consistency of an EFT with those properties. The implementation of the soft bootstrap uses the recently discovered method of soft subtracted recursion. We derive a precise criterion for the validity of these recursion relations and show that they fail exactly when the assumed symmetries can be trivially realized by independent operators in the effective action. We use this to show that the possible pure (real and complex) scalar, fermion, and vector exceptional EFTs are highly constrained. Next, we prove how the soft behavior of states in a supermultiplet must be related and illustrate the results in extended supergravity. We demonstrate the power of the soft bootstrap in two applications. First, for the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 1 and $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 2 ℂℙ1 nonlinear sigma models, we show that on-shell constructibility establishes the emergence of accidental IR symmetries. This includes a new on-shell perspective on the interplay between $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 2 supersymmetry, low-energy theorems, and electromagnetic duality. We also show that $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 2 supersymmetry requires 3-point interactions with the photon that make the soft behavior of the scalar O(1) instead of vanishing, despite the underlying symmetric coset. Second, we study Galileon theories, including aspects of supersymmetrization, the possibility of a vector-scalar Galileon EFT, and the existence of higher-derivative corrections preserving the enhanced special Galileon symmetry. The latter is addressed both by soft bootstrap and by application of double-copy/KLT relations applied to higher-derivative corrections of chiral perturbation theory.
Nonassociativity, Malcev algebras and string theory

Nonassociative structures have appeared in the study of D-branes in curved backgrounds. In recent work, string theory backgrounds involving three-form fluxes, where such structures show up, have been studied in more detail. We point out that under certain assumptions these nonassociative structures coincide with nonassociative Malcev algebras which had appeared in the quantum mechanics of systems with non-vanishing three-cocycles, such as a point particle moving in the field of a magnetic charge. We generalize the corresponding Malcev algebras to include electric as well as magnetic charges. These structures find their classical counterpart in the theory of Poisson-Malcev algebras and their generalizations. We also study their connection to Stueckelberg's generalized Poisson brackets that do not obey the Jacobi identity and point out that nonassociative string theory with a fundamental length corresponds to a realization of his goal to find a non-linear extension of quantum mechanics with a fundamental length. Similar nonassociative structures are also known to appear in the cubic formulation of closed string field theory in terms of open string fields, leading us to conjecture a natural string-field theoretic generalization of the AdS/CFT-like (holographic) duality.
Regular pairs of quadratic forms on odd-dimensional spaces in characteristic 2

We describe a normal form for a smooth intersection of two quadrics in even-dimensional projective space over an arbitrary field of characteristic 2. We use this to obtain a description of the automorphism group of such a variety. As an application, we show that every quartic del Pezzo surface over a perfect field of characteristic 2 has a canonical rational point and, thus, is unirational.
Mass generation, the cosmological constant problem, conformal symmetry, and the Higgs boson

Abstract In 2013 the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Francois Englert and Peter Higgs for their work in 1964 along with the late Robert Brout on the mass generation mechanism (the Higgs mechanism) in local gauge theories. This mechanism requires the existence of a massive scalar particle, the Higgs boson, and in 2012 the Higgs boson was finally discovered at the Large Hadron Collider after being sought for almost half a century. In this article we review the work that led to the discovery of the Higgs boson and discuss its implications. We approach the topic from the perspective of a dynamically generated Higgs boson that is a fermion–antifermion bound state rather than an elementary field that appears in an input Lagrangian. In particular, we emphasize the connection with the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory of superconductivity. We identify the double-well Higgs potential not as a fundamental potential but as a mean-field effective Lagrangian with a dynamical Higgs boson being generated through a residual interaction that accompanies the mean-field Lagrangian. We discuss what we believe to be the key challenge raised by the discovery of the Higgs boson, namely determining whether it is elementary or composite, and through study of a conformal invariant field theory model as realized with critical scaling and anomalous dimensions, suggest that the width of the Higgs boson might serve as a suitable diagnostic for discriminating between an elementary Higgs boson and a composite one. We discuss the implications of Higgs boson mass generation for the cosmological constant problem, as the cosmological constant receives contributions from the very mechanism that generates the Higgs boson mass in the first place. We show that the contribution to the cosmological constant due to a composite Higgs boson is more tractable and under control than the contribution due to an elementary Higgs boson, and is potentially completely under control if there is an underlying conformal symmetry not just in a critical scaling matter sector (which there would have to be if all mass scales are to be dynamical), but equally in the gravity sector to which the matter sector couples.
Support Vector Machine Active Learning Algorithms with Query-by-Committee Versus Closest-to-Hyperplane Selection

This paper investigates and evaluates support vector machine active learning algorithms for use with imbalanced datasets, which commonly arise in many applications such as information extraction applications. Algorithms based on closestto- hyperplane selection and query-by-committee selection are combined with methods for addressing imbalance such as positive amplification based on prevalence statistics from initial random samples. Three algorithms (ClosestPA, QBagPA, and QBoostPA) are presented and carefully evaluated on datasets for text classification and relation extraction. The ClosestPA algorithm is shown to consistently outperform the other two in a variety of ways and insights are provided as to why this is the case.
THE INTERACTION OF VENUS-LIKE, M-DWARF PLANETS WITH THE STELLAR WIND OF THEIR HOST STAR

We study the interaction between the atmospheres of Venus-like, non-magnetized exoplanets orbiting an M-dwarf star, and the stellar wind using a multi-species MHD model. We focus our investigation on the effect of enhanced stellar wind and enhanced EUV flux as the planetary distance from the star decreases. Our simulations reveal different topologies of the planetary space environment for sub- and super-Alfvenic stellar wind conditions, which could lead to dynamic energy deposition into the atmosphere during the transition along the planetary orbit. We find that the stellar wind penetration for non-magnetized planets is very deep, up to a few hundreds of kilometers. We estimate a lower limit for the atmospheric mass-loss rate and find that it is insignificant over the lifetime of the planet. However, we predict that when accounting for atmospheric ion acceleration, a significant amount of the planetary atmosphere could be eroded over the course of a billion years.
QCD recursion relations from the largest time equation

We show how by reassembling the tree level gluon Feynman diagrams in a con- venient gauge, space-cone, we can explicitly derive the BCFW recursion relations. More- over, the proof of the gluon recursion relations hinges on an identity in momentum space which we show to be nothing but the Fourier transform of the largest time equation. Our approach lends itself to natural generalizations to include massive scalars and even fermions.
Collisionless Reconnection in Magnetohydrodynamic and Kinetic Turbulence

It has recently been proposed that the inertial interval in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is terminated at small scales not by a Kolmogorov-like dissipation region, but rather by a new sub-inertial interval mediated by tearing instability. However, many astrophysical plasmas are nearly collisionless so the MHD approximation is not applicable to turbulence at small scales. In this paper, we propose an extension of the theory of reconnection-mediated turbulence to plasmas which are so weakly collisional that the reconnection occurring in the turbulent eddies is caused by electron inertia rather than by resistivity. We find that the transition scale to reconnection-mediated turbulence depends on the plasma beta and on the assumptions of the plasma turbulence model. However, in all of the cases analyzed, the energy spectra in the reconnection-mediated interval range from to .
Localized thermal states and negative energy

We construct localized states defined in a ball or the half-space of a conformal field theory (CFT) in Minkowski that are thermal with respect to the local modular flow. We compute their energy density at arbitrary temperature for a variety of CFTs, and find values for which it is negative and divergent at the boundary. Despite this singular behavior we show that the energy measured by an observer is consistent with the bounds present in the literature. For holographic CFTs these states are captured by hyperbolic black holes in anti-de Sitter, where the negative energy in field theory amounts to the well known negative mass of the black hole. As a byproduct, we show that the Casini-Huerta-Myers proof of the Ryu-Takayangi holographic entanglement formula for the vacuum reduced to a ball can be naturally extended to include half-space regions.
Robert Dicke and the naissance of experimental gravity physics, 1957-1967

The experimental study of gravity became much more active in the late 1950s, a change pronounced enough be termed the birth, or naissance, of experimental gravity physics. I present a review of developments in this subject since 1915, through the broad range of new approaches that commenced in the late 1950s, and up to the transition of experimental gravity physics to what might be termed a normal and accepted part of physical science in the late 1960s. This review shows the importance of advances in technology, here as in all branches of natural science. The role of contingency is illustrated by Robert Dicke’s decision in the mid-1950s to change directions in mid-career, to lead a research group dedicated to the experimental study of gravity. The review also shows the power of nonempirical evidence. Some in the 1950s felt that general relativity theory is so logically sound as to be scarcely worth the testing. But Dicke and others argued that a poorly tested theory is only that, and that other nonempirical arguments, based on Mach’s Principle and Dirac’s Large Numbers hypothesis, suggested it would be worth looking for a better theory of gravity. I conclude by offering lessons from this history, some peculiar to the study of gravity physics during the naissance, some of more general relevance. The central lesson, which is familiar but not always well advertised, is that physical theories can be empirically established, sometimes with surprising results.
The Sample Complexity of Search Over Multiple Populations

This paper studies the sample complexity of searching over multiple populations. We consider a large number of populations, each corresponding to either distribution P0 or P1. The goal of the search problem studied here is to find one population corresponding to distribution P1 with as few samples as possible. The main contribution is to quantify the number of samples needed to correctly find one such population. We consider two general approaches: nonadaptive sampling methods, which sample each population a predetermined number of times until a population following P1 is found, and adaptive sampling methods, which employ sequential sampling schemes for each population. We first derive a lower bound on the number of samples required by any sampling scheme. We then consider an adaptive procedure consisting of a series of sequential probability ratio tests, and show it comes within a constant factor of the lower bound. We give explicit expressions for this constant when samples of the populations follow Gaussian and Bernoulli distributions. An alternative adaptive scheme is discussed which does not require full knowledge of P1, and comes within a constant factor of the optimal scheme. For comparison, a lower bound on the sampling requirements of any nonadaptive scheme is presented.
Framework of goals for writing in physics lab classes

Fifteen possible goals that one might have for students when incorporating writing in a physics lab class.
CHIRAL GAUGE THEORIES ON THE LATTICE WITHOUT GAUGE FIXING

We discuss two proposals for a non-perturbative formulation of chiral gauge theories on the lattice. In both cases gauge symmetry is broken by the regularization. We aim at a dynamical restoration of symmetry. If the gauge symmetry breaking is not too severe this procedure could lead in the continuum limit to the desired chiral gauge theory.
The first-order genus of a knot

We introduce a geometric invariant of knots in S3, called the first-order genus, that is derived from certain 2-complexes called gropes, and we show it is computable for many examples. While computing this invariant, we draw some interesting conclusions about the structure of a general Seifert surface for some knots.