cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The embedding dimension of Laplacian eigenfunction maps

Abstract Any closed, connected Riemannian manifold M can be smoothly embedded by its Laplacian eigenfunction maps into R m for some m. We call the smallest such m the maximal embedding dimension of M. We show that the maximal embedding dimension of M is bounded from above by a constant depending only on the dimension of M, a lower bound for injectivity radius, a lower bound for Ricci curvature, and a volume bound. We interpret this result for the case of surfaces isometrically immersed in R 3 , showing that the maximal embedding dimension only depends on bounds for the Gaussian curvature, mean curvature, and surface area. Furthermore, we consider the relevance of these results for shape registration.
The Connection Between Galaxies and Their Dark Matter Halos

In our modern understanding of galaxy formation, every galaxy forms within a dark matter halo. The formation and growth of galaxies over time is connected to the growth of the halos in which they f...
Pulsational Pair-instability Supernovae

The final evolution of stars in the mass range 70 - 140 solar masses is explored. Depending upon their mass loss history and rotation rates, these stars will end their lives as pulsational pair-instability supernovae producing a great variety of observational transients with total durations ranging from weeks to millennia and luminosities from 10$^{41}$ to over 10$^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$. No non-rotating model radiates more than $5 \times 10^{50}$ erg of light or has a kinetic energy exceeding $5 \times 10^{51}$ erg, but greater energies are possible, in principle, in magnetar-powered explosions which are explored. Many events resemble Type Ibn, Icn, and IIn supernovae, and some potential observational counterparts are mentioned. Some PPISN can exist in a dormant state for extended periods, producing explosions millennia after their first violent pulse. These dormant supernovae contain bright Wolf-Rayet stars, possibly embedded in bright x-ray and radio sources. The relevance of PPISN to supernova impostors like Eta Carinae, to super-luminous supernovae, and to sources of gravitational radiation is discussed. No black holes between 52 and 133 solar masses are expected from stellar evolution in close binaries.
Predicting solvation free energies and thermodynamics in polar solvents and mixtures using a solvation-layer interface condition

We demonstrate that with two small modifications, the popular dielectric continuum model is capable of predicting, with high accuracy, ion solvation thermodynamics (Gibbs free energies, entropies, and heat capacities) in numerous polar solvents. We are also able to predict ion solvation free energies in water–co-solvent mixtures over available concentration series. The first modification to the classical dielectric Poisson model is a perturbation of the macroscopic dielectric-flux interface condition at the solute–solvent interface: we add a nonlinear function of the local electric field, giving what we have called a solvation-layer interface condition (SLIC). The second modification is including the microscopic interface potential (static potential) in our model. We show that the resulting model exhibits high accuracy without the need for fitting solute atom radii in a state-dependent fashion. Compared to experimental results in nine water–co-solvent mixtures, SLIC predicts transfer free energies to with...
Engineering the breaking of time-reversal symmetry in gate-tunable hybrid ferromagnet/topological insulator heterostructures

Studying the influence of broken time-reversal symmetry on topological materials is an important fundamental problem of current interest in condensed matter physics and its understanding could also provide a route toward proof-of-concept spintronic devices that exploit spin-textured topological states. Here we develop a new model quantum material for studying the effect of breaking time-reversal symmetry: a hybrid heterostructure wherein a ferromagnetic semiconductor Ga1−xMnxAs, with an out-of-plane component of magnetization, is cleanly interfaced with a topological insulator (Bi,Sb)2(Te,Se)3 by molecular beam epitaxy. Lateral electrical transport in this bilayer is dominated by conduction through (Bi,Sb)2(Te,Se)3 whose conductivity is a few orders of magnitude higher than that of highly resistive Ga1−xMnxAs. Electrical transport measurements in a top-gated heterostructure device reveal a crossover from weak antilocalization to weak localization as the temperature is lowered or as the chemical potential approaches the Dirac point. This is accompanied by a systematic emergence of an anomalous Hall effect. These results are interpreted in terms of the opening of a gap at the Dirac point due to exchange coupling between the topological insulator surface state and the ferromagnetic ordering in Ga1−xMnxAs. The experiments described here show that well-developed III–V ferromagnetic semiconductors could serve as valuable components of artificially designed quantum materials aimed at exploring the interplay between magnetism and topological phenomena. A carefully engineered device allows the study of the role of time-reversal symmetry breaking in topological insulators. The topological properties and surface states of materials like bismuth selenide are protected by time-reversal symmetry, so it is crucial to understand how phenomena like ferromagnetism that break this symmetry will affect these states. Joon Sue Lee and collaborators from the Pennsylvania State University have created a device consisting of a topological insulator thin film grown on top of a ferromagnetic layer with tightly controlled doping in both layers. Quantum transport measurements show that the exchange interactions from the ferromagnet create a gap in the surface states at the interface while the far surface of the topological insulator remains gapless. Similar devices will enable detailed study of the fundamental role of symmetries in topological materials.
Neural-augmented static analysis of Android communication

We address the problem of discovering communication links between applications in the popular Android mobile operating system, an important problem for security and privacy in Android. Any scalable static analysis in this complex setting is bound to produce an excessive amount of false-positives, rendering it impractical. To improve precision, we propose to augment static analysis with a trained neural-network model that estimates the probability that a communication link truly exists. We describe a neural-network architecture that encodes abstractions of communicating objects in two applications and estimates the probability with which a link indeed exists. At the heart of our architecture are type-directed encoders (TDE), a general framework for elegantly constructing encoders of a compound data type by recursively composing encoders for its constituent types. We evaluate our approach on a large corpus of Android applications, and demonstrate that it achieves very high accuracy. Further, we conduct thorough interpretability studies to understand the internals of the learned neural networks.
Nuclear pairing: New perspectives

Nuclear pairing correlations are known to play an important role in various single-particle and collective aspects of nuclear structure. After the first idea by A. Bohr, B. Mottelson, and D. Pines on similarity of nuclear pairing to electron superconductivity, S.T. Belyaev gave a thorough analysis of the manifestations of pairing in complex nuclei. The current revival of interest in nuclear pairing is connected to the shift of modern nuclear physics towards nuclei far from stability; many loosely bound nuclei are particle-stable only due to the pairing. The theoretical methods borrowed from macroscopic superconductivity turn out to be insufficient for finite systems such as nuclei, in particular, for the cases of weak pairing and proximity of continuum states. We suggest a simple numerical procedure of exact solution of the nuclear pairing problem and discuss the physical features of this complete solution. We show also how the continuum states can be naturally included in the consideration bridging the gap between the structure and reactions. The path from coherent pairing to chaos and thermalization and perspectives of new theoretical approaches based on the full solution of pairing are discussed.
Singularity Theorems for C 1 -Lorentzian Metrics

Continuing recent efforts in extending the classical singularity theorems of General Relativity to low regularity metrics, we give a complete proof of both the Hawking and the Penrose singularity theorem for $$C^1$$ -Lorentzian metrics—a regularity where one still has existence but not uniqueness for solutions of the geodesic equation. The proofs make use of careful estimates of the curvature of approximating smooth metrics and certain stability properties of long existence times for causal geodesics. On the way we also prove that for globally hyperbolic spacetimes with a $$C^1$$ -metric causal geodesic completeness is $$C^1$$ -fine stable. This improves a similar older stability result of Beem and Ehrlich where they also used the $$C^1$$ -fine topology to measure closeness but still required smoothness of all metrics. Lastly, we include a brief appendix where we use some of the same techniques in the Riemannian case to give a proof of the classical Myers Theorem for $$C^1$$ -metrics.
Cosmological history in York time: inflation and perturbations

The constant mean extrinsic curvature on a spacelike slice may constitute a physically preferred time coordinate, ‘York time’. One line of enquiry to probe this idea is to understand processes in our cosmological history in terms of York time. Following a review of the theoretical motivations, we focus on slow-roll inflation and the freezing and Hubble re-entry of cosmological perturbations. While the physics is, of course, observationally equivalent, we show how the mathematical account of these processes is distinct from the conventional account in terms of standard cosmological or conformal time. We also consider the cosmological York-timeline more broadly and contrast it with the conventional cosmological timeline.
Formation of Compact Clusters from High Resolution Hybrid Cosmological Simulations

The early universe hosted a large population of small dark matter minihalos that were too small to cool and form stars on their own. These existed as static objects around larger galaxies until acted upon by some outside influence. Outflows, which have been observed around a variety of galaxies, can provide this influence in such a way as to collapse, rather than disperse, the minihalo gas. Gray & Scannapieco performed an investigation in which idealized spherically symmetric minihalos were struck by enriched outflows. Here we perform high-resolution cosmological simulations that form realistic minihalos, which we then extract to perform a large suite of simulations of outflow-minihalo interactions including non-equilibrium chemical reactions. In all models, the shocked minihalo forms molecules through non-equilibrium reaction, and then cools to form dense, chemically homogenous clumps of star-forming gas. The formation of these high-redshift clusters may be observable with the next generation of telescopes and the largest of them should survive to the present-day, having properties similar to halo globular clusters.
Investigating the Temperature Distribution of Diatomic Carbon in Comets Using the Swan Bands

We present high spectral-resolution observations of comets 122P/de Vico and 153P/Ikeya-Zhang obtained with the Tull Coude spectrograph on the 2.7m Harlan J. Smith telescope of McDonald Observatory. We used these data to study the distribution of the lines of the $\mathrm{d} ^3\Pi_g - \mathrm{a} ^3\Pi_u$ C$_2$ (Swan) bands. We show that the data are best represented with two rotational temperatures, with the lowest energy lines being at a relatively cool temperature and the higher energy lines being at a higher temperature. We discuss the implications of this two temperature distribution and suggest future work.
Scaling and data collapse from local moments in frustrated disordered quantum spin systems.

Recently measurements on various spin–1/2 quantum magnets such as H3LiIr2O6, LiZn2Mo3O8, ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2 and 1T-TaS2—all described by magnetic frustration and quenched disorder but with no other common relation—nevertheless showed apparently universal scaling features at low temperature. In particular the heat capacity C[H, T] in temperature T and magnetic field H exhibits T/H data collapse reminiscent of scaling near a critical point. Here we propose a theory for this scaling collapse based on an emergent random-singlet regime extended to include spin-orbit coupling and antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interactions. We derive the scaling C[H, T]/T ~ H−γFq[T/H] with Fq[x] = xq at small x, with q ∈ {0, 1, 2} an integer exponent whose value depends on spatial symmetries. The agreement with experiments indicates that a fraction of spins form random valence bonds and that these are surrounded by a quantum paramagnetic phase. We also discuss distinct scaling for magnetization with a q-dependent subdominant term enforced by Maxwell’s relations. There are many proposals for new forms of quantum matter in frustrated magnets but in practice disorder prevents the realisation of theoretically-tractable idealised models. Kimchi et al. show that recently observed scaling behavior common to several disordered quantum magnets can be understood as the emergence of a universal random-singlet regime.
Clamp cell with in situ pressure monitoring for low-temperature neutron scattering measurements

ABSTRACTA clamp pressure cell for neutron scattering experiments at low temperatures and in external magnetic fields under pressure up to 2 GPa has been fabricated and tested. The cell provides optical access to the sample space that allows instantaneous pressure determination during sample loading, cooling and measuring using ruby and/or samarium doped strontium tetraborate fluorescence monitoring. A new calibration curve of the pressure-induced shift of the 7D0−5F0 (0-0) line in the fluorescent spectrum of SrB4O7:Sm2+ for moderate pressures, P≤2 GPa, is given.
EVIDENCE FOR A TRIAXIAL MILKY WAY DARK MATTER HALO FROM THE SAGITTARIUS STELLAR TIDAL STREAM

Observations of the lengthy tidal streams produced by the destruction of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal (Sgr dSph) are capable of providing strong constraints on the shape of the Galactic gravitational potential. However, previous work, based on modeling different stream properties in axisymmetric Galactic models, has yielded conflicting results: while the angular precession of the Sgr leading arm is most consistent with a spherical or slightly oblate halo, the radial velocities of stars in this arm are reproduced only by prolate halo models. We demonstrate that this apparent paradox can be resolved by instead adopting a triaxial potential. Our new Galactic halo model, which simultaneously fits all well-established phase space constraints from the Sgr stream, provides the first conclusive evidence for, and tentative measurement of, triaxiality in an individual dark matter halo. The Milky Way halo within {approx}60 kpc is best characterized by a minor/major axis ratio of the isovelocity contours c/a {approx} 0.67, intermediate/major axis ratio b/a {approx} 0.83, and triaxiality parameter T {approx} 0.56. In this model, the minor axis of the dark halo is coincident with the Galactic X-axis connecting the Sun and the Galactic center to within {approx}15 deg., while the major axis also lies in themore » Galactic plane, approximately along the Galactic Y-axis.« less
Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope for The Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next major ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy. With CTA gamma-ray sources will be studied in the very-high energy gamma-ray range of a few tens of GeV to 100TeV with up to ten times better sensitivity than available with current generation instruments. We discuss the proposed US contribution to CTA that comprises imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope with Schwarzschild-Couder (SC) optics. Key features of the SC telescope are a wide field of view of eight degrees, a finely pixelated camera with silicon photomultipliers as photon detectors, and a compact and power efficient 1 GS/s readout. The progress in both the optical system and camera development are discussed in this paper.
Mapping spaces in quasi-categories

We apply the Dwyer–Kan theory of homotopy function complexes in model categories to the study of mapping spaces in quasi-categories. Using this, together with our work on rigidification from [Alg. Geom. Topol. 11 (2011) 225–261], we give a streamlined proof of the Quillen equivalence between quasi-categories and simplicial categories. Some useful material about relative mapping spaces in quasi-categories is developed along the way.
Little hierarchy in the minimally specified MSSM

We study constrained versions of the minimal supersymmetric model and investigate the hierarchy between the electroweak scale and the scale of superpartners that can be achieved without relying on specifying model parameters by more than one digit (or with better than 10% precision). This approach automatically avoids scenarios in which a large hierarchy is obtained by special choices of parameters and yet keeps scenarios that would otherwise be disfavored by various sensitivity measures. We consider models with universal gaugino and scalar masses, models with nonuniversal Higgs masses or nonuniversal gaugino masses and focus on scenarios in which all the model parameters are either of the same order or zero at the grand unification scale. We find that the maximal hierarchy between the electroweak scale and stop masses, requiring that model parameters are not specified beyond one digit, ranges from a factor of ∼10–30 for the CMSSM up to ∼300 for models with nonuniversal Higgs or gaugino masses.
Energy-based Out-of-distribution Detection

Author(s): Liu, W; Wang, X; Owens, JD; Li, Y | Abstract: Determining whether inputs are out-of-distribution (OOD) is an essential building block for safely deploying machine learning models in the open world. However, previous methods relying on the softmax confidence score suffer from overconfident posterior distributions for OOD data. We propose a unified framework for OOD detection that uses an energy score. We show that energy scores better distinguish in- and out-of-distribution samples than the traditional approach using the softmax scores. Unlike softmax confidence scores, energy scores are theoretically aligned with the probability density of the inputs and are less susceptible to the overconfidence issue. Within this framework, energy can be flexibly used as a scoring function for any pre-trained neural classifier as well as a trainable cost function to shape the energy surface explicitly for OOD detection. On a CIFAR-10 pre-trained WideResNet, using the energy score reduces the average FPR (at TPR 95%) by 18.03% compared to the softmax confidence score. With energy-based training, our method outperforms the state-of-the-art on common benchmarks.
Lagrangian aspects of the axisymmetric Euler equation

In this paper we are interested in geometric aspects of blowup in the axisymmetric three-dimensional (3D) Euler equations with swirl on a cylinder. Writing the equations in Lagrangian form for the flow derivative along either the axis or the boundary and imposing oddness on the vertical component of the flow, we extend some blowup criteria due to Chae, Constantin and Wu related to assumptions on the sign of the pressure Hessian. In addition. we give a geometric interpretation of the results, both in terms of the local geometry along trajectories and in terms of the Riemannian geometry of the volume-preserving diffeomorphism group.
A PROPOSAL TO RESOLVE THE BLACK HOLE INFORMATION PARADOX

The entropy and information puzzles arising from black holes cannot be resolved if quantum gravity effects remain confined to a microscopic scale. We use concrete computations in nonperturbative string theory to argue for three kinds of nonlocal effects that operate over macroscopic distances. These effects arise when we make a bound state of a large number of branes, and occur at the correct scale to resolve the paradoxes associated with black holes.
A NOTE ON EFFECTIVE STRING THEORY

Motivated by the possibility of an effective string description for the ir limit of pure Yang-Mills theory, we present a toy model for an effective theory of random surfaces propagating in a target space of D > 2. We show that the scaling exponents for the fixed area partition function of the theory are apparently well behaved. We make some observations regarding the usefulness of this toy model.
Network Clustering via Maximizing Modularity: Approximation Algorithms and Theoretical Limits

Many social networks and complex systems are found to be naturally divided into clusters of densely connected nodes, known as community structure (CS). Finding CS is one of fundamental yet challenging topics in network science. One of the most popular classes of methods for this problem is to maximize Newman's modularity. However, there is a littleunderstood on how well we can approximate the maximum modularity as well as the implications of finding community structure with provable guarantees. In this paper, we settle definitely the approximability of modularity clustering, proving that approximating the problem within any (multiplicative) positive factor is intractable, unless P = NP. Yet we propose the first additive approximation algorithm for modularity clustering with a constant factor. Moreover, we providea rigorous proof that a CS with modularity arbitrary close to maximum modularity QOPT might bear no similarity to the optimal CS of maximum modularity. Thus even when CS with near-optimal modularity are found, other verification methods are needed to confirm the significance of the structure.
Soft-collinear supersymmetry

Soft-Collinear Effective Theory (SCET) is a framework for modeling the infrared structure of theories whose long distance behavior is dominated by soft and collinear divergences. This paper demonstrates that SCET can be made compatible with super-symmetry (SUSY). Explicitly, the effective Lagrangian for $$ \mathcal{N}=1 $$ SUSY Yang-Mills is cconstructed and shown to be a complete description for the infrared of this model. For contrast, we also construct the effective Lagrangian for chiral SUSY theories with Yukawa couplings, specifically the single flavor Wess-Zumino model. Only a subset of the infrared divergences are reproduced by the Lagrangian — to account for the complete low energy description requires the inclusion of local operators. SCET is formulated by expanding fields along a light-like direction and then subsequently integrating out degrees-of-freedom that are away from the light-cone. Defining the theory with respect to a specific frame obfuscates Lorentz invariance — given that SUSY is a space-time symmetry, this presents a possible obstruction. The cleanest language with which to expose the congruence be-tween SUSY and SCET requires exploring two novel formalisms: collinear fermions as two-component Weyl spinors, and SCET in light-cone gauge. By expressing SUSY Yang-Mills in “collinear superspace”, a slice of superspace derived by integrating out half the fermionic coordinates, the light-cone gauge SUSY SCET theory can be written in terms of superfields. As a byproduct, bootstrapping up to the full theory yields the first algorithmic approach for determining the SUSY Yang-Mills on-shell superspace action. This work paves the way toward discovering the effective theory for the collinear limit of $$ \mathcal{N}=4 $$ SUSY Yang-Mills.
Boron abundances in diffuse interstellar clouds

We present a comprehensive survey of B abundances in diffuse interstellar clouds from HST/STIS observations along 56 Galactic sight lines. Our sample is the result of a complete search of archival STIS data for the B II resonance line at 1362 angstroms, with each detection confirmed by the presence of absorption from other dominant ions at the same velocity. The data probe a range of astrophysical environments including both high-density regions of massive star formation as well as low-density paths through the Galactic halo, allowing us to clearly define the trend of B depletion onto interstellar grains as a function of gas density. Many extended sight lines exhibit complex absorption profiles that trace both local gas and gas associated with either the Sagittarius-Carina or Perseus spiral arm. Our analysis indicates a higher B/O ratio in the inner Sagittarius-Carina spiral arm than in the vicinity of the Sun, which may suggest that B production in the current epoch is dominated by a secondary process. The average gas-phase B abundance in the warm diffuse ISM is consistent with the abundances determined for a variety of Galactic disk stars, but is depleted by 60 percent relative to the solar system value. Our survey also reveals sight lines with enhanced B abundances that potentially trace recent production of B-11 either by cosmic-ray or neutrino-induced spallation. Such sight lines will be key to discerning the relative importance of the two production routes for B-11 synthesis.
A Hot Microflare Observed with RHESSI and HINODE

RHESSI and Hinode observations of a GOES B-class flare are combined to investigate the origin of 15 MK plasma. The absence of any detectable hard X-ray emission coupled with weak blueshifted emission lines (indicating upward velocities averaging only 14 km/s) suggests that this was a result of direct heating in the corona, as opposed to nonthermal electron precipitation causing chromospheric evaporation. These findings are in agreement with a recent hydrodynamical simulation of microflare plasmas that found that higher temperatures can be attained when less energy is used to accelerate electrons out of the thermal distribution. In addition, unusual redshifts in the 2 MK Fe xv line (indicating downward velocities of approx.14 km/s) were observed cospatial with one of the flare ribbons during the event. Downflows of such high-temperature plasma are not predicted by any common flare model.
Synthesizing Exoplanet Demographics from Radial Velocity and Microlensing Surveys. I. Methodology

Motivated by the order of magnitude difference in the frequency of giant planets orbiting M dwarfs inferred by microlensing and radial velocity (RV) surveys, we present a method for comparing the statistical constraints on exoplanet demographics inferred from these methods. We first derive the mapping from the observable parameters of a microlensing-detected planet to those of an analogous planet orbiting an RV-monitored star. Using this mapping, we predict the distribution of RV observables for the planet population inferred from microlensing surveys, taking care to adopt reasonable priors for, and properly marginalize over, the unknown physical parameters of microlensing-detected systems. Finally, we use simple estimates of the detection limits for a fiducial RV survey to predict the number and properties of analogs of the microlensing planet population such an RV survey should detect. We find that RV and microlensing surveys have some overlap, specifically for super-Jupiter mass planets (m{sub p} ≳ 1 M {sub Jup}) with periods between ∼3-10 yr. However, the steeply falling planetary mass function inferred from microlensing implies that, in this region of overlap, RV surveys should infer a much smaller frequency than the overall giant planet frequency (m{sub p} ≳ 0.1 M {sub Jup}) inferred by microlensing.more » Our analysis demonstrates that it is possible to statistically compare and synthesize data sets from multiple exoplanet detection techniques in order to infer exoplanet demographics over wider regions of parameter space than are accessible to individual methods. In a companion paper, we apply our methodology to several representative microlensing and RV surveys to derive the frequency of planets around M dwarfs with orbits of ≲ 30 yr.« less
Students’ epistemological framing in quantum mechanics problem solving

Four epistemological frames for describing student behavior when collaboratively solving physics problems.
Imaging of sources in heavy ion reactions

Abstract Imaging of sources from data within the intensity interferometry is discussed. In the two-pion case, the relative pion source function may be determined by Fourier transforming the correlation function. In the proton-proton case, the discretized source function may be fitted to the correlation data.
Efficient Convolutional Neural Networks for Diacritic Restoration

Diacritic restoration has gained importance with the growing need for machines to understand written texts. The task is typically modeled as a sequence labeling problem and currently Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory (BiLSTM) models provide state-of-the-art results. Recently, Bai et al. (2018) show the advantages of Temporal Convolutional Neural Networks (TCN) over Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) for sequence modeling in terms of performance and computational resources. As diacritic restoration benefits from both previous as well as subsequent timesteps, we further apply and evaluate a variant of TCN, Acausal TCN (A-TCN), which incorporates context from both directions (previous and future) rather than strictly incorporating previous context as in the case of TCN. A-TCN yields significant improvement over TCN for diacritization in three different languages: Arabic, Yoruba, and Vietnamese. Furthermore, A-TCN and BiLSTM have comparable performance, making A-TCN an efficient alternative over BiLSTM since convolutions can be trained in parallel. A-TCN is significantly faster than BiLSTM at inference time (270% 334% improvement in the amount of text diacritized per minute).
Modified Dark Matter: Relating Dark Energy, Dark Matter and Baryonic Matter

Modified dark matter (MDM) is a phenomenological model of dark matter, inspired by gravitational thermodynamics. For an accelerating universe with positive cosmological constant (Λ), such phenomenological considerations lead to the emergence of a critical acceleration parameter related to Λ. Such a critical acceleration is an effective phenomenological manifestation of MDM, and it is found in correlations between dark matter and baryonic matter in galaxy rotation curves. The resulting MDM mass profiles, which are sensitive to Λ, are consistent with observational data at both the galactic and cluster scales. In particular, the same critical acceleration appears both in the galactic and cluster data fits based on MDM. Furthermore, using some robust qualitative arguments, MDM appears to work well on cosmological scales, even though quantitative studies are still lacking. Finally, we comment on certain nonlocal aspects of the quanta of modified dark matter, which may lead to novel nonparticle phenomenology an...
Quantum mechanics on the noncommutative torus

Abstract We analyze the algebra of observables of a charged particle on a noncommutative torus in a constant magnetic field. We present a set of generators of this algebra which coincide with the generators for a commutative torus but at a different value of the magnetic field, and demonstrate the existence of a critical value of the magnetic field for which the algebra reduces. We then obtain the irreducible representations of the algebra and relate them to noncommutative bundles. Finally we comment on Landau levels, density of states and the critical case.
RECONNECTION PROPERTIES OF LARGE-SCALE CURRENT SHEETS DURING CORONAL MASS EJECTION ERUPTIONS

We present a detailed analysis of the properties of magnetic reconnection at large-scale current sheets in a high cadence version of the Lynch & Edmondson (2013) 2.5D MHD simulation of sympathetic magnetic breakout eruptions from a pseudostreamer source region. We examine the resistive tearing and breakup of the three main current sheets into chains of X- and O-type null points and follow the dynamics of magnetic island growth, their merging, transit, and ejection with the reconnection exhaust. For each current sheet, we quantify the evolution of the length-to-width aspect ratio (up to $\sim$100:1), Lundquist number ($\sim$10$^3$), and reconnection rate (inflow-to-outflow ratios reaching $\sim$0.40). We examine the statistical and spectral properties of the fluctuations in the current sheets resulting from the plasmoid instability, including the distribution of magnetic island area, mass, and flux content. We show that the temporal evolution of the spectral index of the reconnection-generated magnetic energy density fluctuations appear to reflect global properties of the current sheet evolution. Our results are in excellent agreement with recent, high resolution reconnection-in-a-box simulations even though our current sheets' formation, growth, and dynamics are intrinsically coupled to the global evolution of sequential sympathetic CME eruptions.
Modeling Efficiency of Foreign Aid Allocation in Malawi

The Open Aid Malawi initiative has collected an unprecedented database that identifies as much location-specific information as possible for each of over 2500 individual foreign aid donations to Ma...
The Number of Transmission Channels Through a Single-Molecule Junction

We calculate transmission eigenvalue distributions for Pt-benzene-Pt and Pt-butadiene-Pt junctions using realistic state-of-the-art many-body techniques. An effective field theory of interacting π-electrons is used to include screening and van der Waals interactions with the metal electrodes. We find that the number of dominant transmission channels in a molecular junction is equal to the degeneracy of the molecular orbital closest to the metal Fermi level.
Revisiting XENON100's Constraints (and Signals?) For Low-Mass Dark Matter

Although observations made with the CoGeNT and CDMS experiments have been interpreted as possible signals of low-mass ( ~ 7–10 GeV) dark matter particles, constraints from the XENON100 collaboration appear to be incompatible with this hypothesis, at least at face value. In this paper, we revisit XENON100's constraint on dark matter in this mass range, and consider how various uncertainties and assumptions made might alter this conclusion. We also note that while XENON100's two nuclear recoil candidates each exhibit very low ratios of ionization-to-scintillation signals, making them difficult to attribute to known electronic or neutron backgrounds, they are consistent with originating from dark matter particles in the mass range favored by CoGeNT and CDMS. We argue that with lower, but not implausible, values for the relative scintillation efficiency of liquid xenon (Leff), and the suppression of the scintillation signal in liquid xenon at XENON100's electric field (Snr), these two events could consistently arise from dark matter particles with a mass and cross section in the range favored by CoGeNT and CDMS. If this interpretation is correct, we predict that the LUX experiment, with a significantly higher light yield than XENON100, should observe dark matter induced events at an observable rate of ~ 3–24 per month.
End-to-end synthetic data generation for domain adaptation of question answering systems

We propose an end-to-end approach for synthetic QA data generation. Our model comprises a single transformer-based encoder-decoder network that is trained end-to-end to generate both answers and questions. In a nutshell, we feed a passage to the encoder and ask the decoder to generate a question and an answer token-by-token. The likelihood produced in the generation process is used as a filtering score, which avoids the need for a separate filtering model. Our generator is trained by fine-tuning a pretrained LM using maximum likelihood estimation. The experimental results indicate significant improvements in the domain adaptation of QA models outperforming current state-of-the-art methods.
Walk-modularity and community structure in networks

Modularity maximization has been one of the most widely used approaches in the last decade for discovering community structure in networks of practical interest in biology, computing, social science, statistical mechanics, and more. Modularity is a quality function that measures the difference between the number of edges found within clusters minus the number of edges one would statistically expect to find based on some equivalent random graph model. We explore a natural generalization of modularity based on the difference between the actual and expected number of walks within clusters, which we refer to as walk-modularity. Walk-modularity can be expressed in matrix form, and community detection can be performed by finding the leading eigenvector of the walk-modularity matrix. We demonstrate community detection on both synthetic and real-world networks and find that walk-modularity maximization returns significantly improved results compared to traditional modularity maximization.
Manifolds with small Heegaard Floer ranks

We show that the only irreducible three-manifold with positive first Betti number and Heegaard Floer homology of rank two is homeomorphic to zero-framed surgery on the trefoil. We classify links whose branched double cover gives rise to this manifold. Together with a spectral sequence from Khovanov homology to the Floer homology of the branched double cover, our results show that Khovanov homology detects the unknot if and only if it detects the two component unlink. 57M27; 57M25
SN 2011fe: A Laboratory for Testing Models of Type Ia Supernovae

SN 2011fe is the nearest supernova of Type Ia (SN Ia) discovered in the modern multi-wavelength telescope era, and it also represents the earliest discovery of an SN Ia to date. As a normal SN Ia, SN 2011fe provides an excellent opportunity to decipher long-standing puzzles about the nature of SNe Ia. In this review, we summarise the extensive suite of panchromatic data on SN 2011fe and gather interpretations of these data to answer four key questions: (1) What explodes in an SN Ia? (2) How does it explode? (3) What is the progenitor of SN 2011fe? and (4) How accurate are SNe Ia as standardisable candles? Most aspects of SN 2011fe are consistent with the canonical picture of a massive CO white dwarf undergoing a deflagration-to-detonation transition. However, there is minimal evidence for a non-degenerate companion star, so SN 2011fe may have marked the merger of two white dwarfs.
A Pre-Gaia Census of Nearby Stellar Groups

The nearest, youngest groups of stars to the Sun provide important samples of age-dated stars for studying circumstellar disk evolution, imaged exoplanets, and brown dwarfs. I briefly comment on the status of the known stellar groups within 100 pc: β Pic, AB Dor, UMa, Car-Near, Tuc-Hor and β Tuc nucleus, Hyades, Col, TW Hya, Car, Coma Ber, 32 Ori, η Cha, and χ1 For. I also discuss some poorly characterized groups and “non-groups.” Grades for 2015 of Pass, Satisfactory, or Fail are assigned to the groups for the purposes of age-dating stars and brown dwarfs. I speculate that Tuc-Hor could have provided a supernova ~60 pc away ~2.2 Myr ago which showered the Earth with traces of 60Fe-bearing dust.
Mass Functions of Giant Molecular Clouds and Young Star Clusters in Six Nearby Galaxies

We compare the mass functions of young star clusters (ages $\leq 10$ Myr) and giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in six galaxies that cover a large range in mass, metallicity, and star formation rate (LMC, M83, M51, NGC 3627, the Antennae, and NGC 3256). We perform maximum-likelihood fits of the Schechter function, $\psi(M) = dN/dM \propto M^{\beta} \exp(-M/M_*)$, to both populations. We find that most of the GMC and cluster mass functions in our sample are consistent with a pure power-law distribution ($M_* \rightarrow \infty$). M51 is the only galaxy that shows some evidence for an upper cutoff ($M_*$) in both populations. Therefore, physical upper mass cutoffs in populations of both GMCs and clusters may be the exception rather than the rule. When we perform power-law fits, we find a range of indices $\beta_{\rm PL}=-2.3\pm0.3$ for our GMC sample and $\beta_{\rm PL}=-2.0\pm0.3$ for the cluster sample. This result, that $\beta_{\rm Clusters} \approx \beta_{\rm GMC} \approx -2$, is consistent with theoretical predictions for cluster formation and suggests that the star-formation efficiency is largely independent of mass in the GMCs.
Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of Brown Dwarfs: Methane and the Transition between the L and T Spectral Types

We report the possible identification of weak methane spectral features in the near-infrared K band in two late L dwarfs, DENIS 0205-11 (L7) and 2MASS 1523+30 (L8). New, high signal-to-noise ratio, flux-calibrated spectra, spanning the wavelength interval 1.10-2.35 μm with an average resolving power R = 1800, were obtained using NIRSPEC on the Keck II telescope. Results are reported and compared for three late L dwarfs (L5, L7, and L8) and two T dwarfs (T1 and T6). The spectra, which are continuous through the atmospheric absorption bands, show the development of deep steam bands and the weakening of iron hydride features through the L dwarfs and the emergence of strong methane bands in the T dwarfs. A detailed comparison of the K-band regions with synthetic spectra suggests that the weak features seen in the L7 and L8 dwarfs at 2.20 μm are likely to be methane. We see no evidence for methane in the H band. At the R = 1800 resolution, significant differences are evident between the spectral signatures of L8 and T1, leaving room for additional transition objects (L9 or T0).
Spectral numbers in Floer theories

The chain complexes underlying Floer homology theories typically carry a real-valued filtration, allowing one to associate to each Floer homology class a spectral number defined as the infimum of the filtration levels of chains representing that class. These spectral numbers have been studied extensively in the case of Hamiltonian Floer homology by Oh, Schwarz and others. We prove that the spectral number associated to any nonzero Floer homology class is always finite, and that the infimum in the definition of the spectral number is always attained. In the Hamiltonian case, this implies that what is known as the ‘nondegenerate spectrality’ axiom holds on all closed symplectic manifolds. Our proofs are entirely algebraic and apply to any Floer-type theory (including Novikov homology) satisfying certain standard formal properties. The key ingredient is a theorem about the existence of best approximations of arbitrary elements of finitely generated free modules over Novikov rings by elements of prescribed submodules with respect to a certain family of non-Archimedean metrics.
Entanglement time in the primordial universe

We investigate the behavior of the entanglement entropy of space in the primordial phase of the universe before the beginning of the cosmic inflation. We argue that in this phase the entanglement entropy of a region of space grows from a zero-law to an area-law. This behavior provides a quantum version of the classical Belinsky–Khalatnikov–Lifshitz (BKL) conjecture that spatially separated points decouple in the approach to a cosmological singularity. We show that the relational growth of the entanglement entropy with the scale factor provides a new statistical notion of arrow of time in quantum gravity. The growth of entanglement in the pre-inflationary phase provides a mechanism for the production of the quantum correlations present at the beginning of inflation and imprinted in the CMB sky.
Foundations of statistical mechanics from symmetries of entanglement

Envariance—entanglement assisted invariance—is a recently discovered symmetry of composite quantum systems. We show that thermodynamic equilibrium states are fully characterized by their envariance. In particular, the microcanonical equilibrium of a system with Hamiltonian is a fully energetically degenerate quantum state envariant under every unitary transformation. The representation of the canonical equilibrium then follows from simply counting degenerate energy states. Our conceptually novel approach is free of mathematically ambiguous notions such as ensemble, randomness, etc., and, while it does not even rely on probability, it helps to understand its role in the quantum world.
Multiscale Co-Design Analysis of Energy, Latency, Area, and Accuracy of a ReRAM Analog Neural Training Accelerator

Neural networks are an increasingly attractive algorithm for natural language processing and pattern recognition. Deep networks with >50 M parameters are made possible by modern graphics processing unit clusters operating at $270\times $ energy and $540\times $ latency advantage over a similar block utilizing only digital ReRAM and takes only 11 fJ per multiply and accumulate. Compared with an SRAM-based accelerator, the energy is $430\times $ better and latency is $34\times $ better. Although training accuracy is degraded in the analog accelerator, several options to improve this are presented. The possible gains over a similar digital-only version of this accelerator block suggest that continued optimization of analog resistive memories is valuable. This detailed circuit and device analysis of a training accelerator may serve as a foundation for further architecture-level studies.
Nilpotence in Physics: the case of Tsallis entropy

In an attempt to understand the Tsallis entropy composition property, we construct an embedding of the reals into the set of 3 × 3 upper triangular matrices with real entries. We explore consequences of this embedding and of the geometry of the ambient 3 × 3 Heisenberg group. This approach establishes the polynomial growth of the volume of phase space of systems described by the Tsallis entropy and provides a general framework for understanding Abe's formula in terms of the Pansu derivative between Riemmanian spaces.
Some energy inequalities involving fractional gjms operators

Under a spectral assumption on the Laplacian of a Poincare--Einstein manifold, we establish an energy inequality relating the energy of a fractional GJMS operator of order $2\gamma\in(0,2)$ or $2\gamma\in(2,4)$ and the energy of the weighted conformal Laplacian or weighted Paneitz operator, respectively. This spectral assumption is necessary and sufficient for such an inequality to hold. We prove the energy inequalities by introducing conformally covariant boundary operators associated to the weighted conformal Laplacian and weighted Paneitz operator which generalize the Robin operator. As an application, we establish a new sharp weighted Sobolev trace inequality on the upper hemisphere.
Projection Robust Wasserstein Distance and Riemannian Optimization

Projection robust Wasserstein (PRW) distance, or Wasserstein projection pursuit (WPP), is a robust variant of the Wasserstein distance. Recent work suggests that this quantity is more robust than the standard Wasserstein distance, in particular when comparing probability measures in high-dimensions. However, it is ruled out for practical application because the optimization model is essentially non-convex and non-smooth which makes the computation intractable. Our contribution in this paper is to revisit the original motivation behind WPP/PRW, but take the hard route of showing that, despite its non-convexity and lack of nonsmoothness, and even despite some hardness results proved by~\citet{Niles-2019-Estimation} in a minimax sense, the original formulation for PRW/WPP \textit{can} be efficiently computed in practice using Riemannian optimization, yielding in relevant cases better behavior than its convex relaxation. More specifically, we provide three simple algorithms with solid theoretical guarantee on their complexity bound (one in the appendix), and demonstrate their effectiveness and efficiency by conducing extensive experiments on synthetic and real data. This paper provides a first step into a computational theory of the PRW distance and provides the links between optimal transport and Riemannian optimization.