cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effective entropy of quantum fields coupled with gravity

Entanglement entropy, or von Neumann entropy, quantifies the amount of uncertainty of a quantum state. For quantum fields in curved space, entanglement entropy of the quantum field theory degrees of freedom is well-defined for a fixed background geometry. In this paper, we propose a generalization of the quantum field theory entanglement entropy by including dynamical gravity. The generalized quantity named effective entropy, and its Renyi entropy generalizations, are defined by analytic continuation of a replica calculation. The replicated theory is defined as a gravitational path integral with multiple copies of the original boundary conditions, with a co-dimension-2 brane at the boundary of region we are studying. We discuss different approaches to define the region in a gauge invariant way, and show that the effective entropy satisfies the quantum extremal surface formula. When the quantum fields carry a significant amount of entanglement, the quantum extremal surface can have a topology transition, after which an entanglement island region appears. Our result generalizes the Hubeny-Rangamani-Takayanagi formula of holographic entropy (with quantum corrections) to general geometries without asymptotic AdS boundary, and provides a more solid framework for addressing problems such as the Page curve of evaporating black holes in asymptotic flat spacetime. We apply the formula to two example systems, a closed two-dimensional universe and a four-dimensional maximally extended Schwarzchild black hole. We discuss the analog of the effective entropy in random tensor network models, which provides more concrete understanding of quantum information properties in general dynamical geometries. We show that, in absence of a large boundary like in AdS space case, it is essential to introduce ancilla that couples to the original system, in order for correctly characterizing quantum states and correlation functions in the random tensor network. Using the superdensity operator formalism, we study the system with ancilla and show how quantum information in the entanglement island can be reconstructed in a state-dependent and observer-dependent map. We study the closed universe (without spatial boundary) case and discuss how it is related to open universe.
Near-Optimal Rapid MPC Using Neural Networks: A Primal-Dual Policy Learning Framework

In this article, we propose a novel framework for approximating the MPC policy for linear parameter-varying systems using supervised learning. Our learning scheme guarantees feasibility and near-optimality of the approximated MPC policy with high probability. Furthermore, in contrast to most existing approaches that only learn the MPC policy, we also learn the “dual policy,” which enables us to keep a check on the approximated MPC’s optimality online during the control process. If the check deems the control input from the approximated MPC policy safe and near-optimal, then it is applied to the plant; otherwise, a backup controller is invoked, thus filtering out (severely) suboptimal control inputs. The backup controller is only invoked with a bounded (low) probability, where the exact probability level can be chosen by the user. Since our framework does not require solving any optimization problem during the control process, it enables the deployment of MPC on resource-constrained systems. Specifically, we illustrate the utility of the proposed framework on a vehicle dynamics control problem. Compared with online optimization methods, we demonstrate a speedup of up to $62\times $ on a desktop computer and $10\times $ on an automotive-grade electronic control unit, while maintaining high control performance.
Multiscale Simulations Examining Glycan Shield Effects on Drug Binding to Influenza Neuraminidase.

Abstract Influenza neuraminidase is an important drug target. Glycans are present on neuraminidase and are generally considered to inhibit antibody binding via their glycan shield. In this work, we studied the effect of glycans on the binding kinetics of antiviral drugs to the influenza neuraminidase. We created all-atom in silico systems of influenza neuraminidase with experimentally derived glycoprofiles consisting of four systems with different glycan conformations and one system without glycans. Using Brownian dynamics simulations, we observe a two- to eightfold decrease in the rate of ligand binding to the primary binding site of neuraminidase due to the presence of glycans. These glycans are capable of covering much of the surface area of neuraminidase, and the ligand binding inhibition is derived from glycans sterically occluding the primary binding site on a neighboring monomer. Our work also indicates that drugs preferentially bind to the primary binding site (i.e., the active site) over the secondary binding site, and we propose a binding mechanism illustrating this. These results help illuminate the complex interplay between glycans and ligand binding on the influenza membrane protein neuraminidase.
Investigation of the Progenitors of the Type Ia Supernovae Associated with the LMC Supernova Remnants 0505-67.9 and 0509-68.7

Although Type Ia supernovae have been heavily scrutinized due to their use in making cosmological distance estimates, we are still unable to definitively identify the progenitors for the entire population. While answers have been presented for certain specific systems, a complete solution remains elusive. We present observations of two supernova remnants (SNRs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud, SNR 0505-67.9 and SNR 0509-68.7, for which we have identified the center of the remnant and the 99.73% containment central region in which any companion star left over after the supernova must be located. Both remnants have a number of potential ex-companion stars near their centers; all possible single and double degenerate progenitor models remain viable for these two supernovae. Future observations may be able to identify the true ex-companions for both remnants.
Solar Models with Dynamic Screening and Early Mass Loss Tested by Helioseismic, Astrophysical, and Planetary Constraints

The faint young Sun paradox remains an open question. Presented here is one possible solution to this apparent inconsistency, a more massive early Sun. Based on the conditions on early Earth and Mars, a luminosity constraint is set as a function of mass. We examine helioseismic constraints of these alternative mass-losing models. Additionally, we explore a dynamic electron screening correction in an effort to improve helioseismic agreement in the core of the early mass-losing model.
BPS/CFT correspondence: non-perturbative Dyson-Schwinger equations and qq-characters

We study symmetries of quantum field theories involving topologically distinct sectors of the field space. To exhibit these symmetries we define special gauge invariant observables, which we call the qq-characters. In the context of the BPS/CFT correspondence, using these observables, we derive an infinite set of Dyson-Schwinger-type relations. These relations imply that the supersymmetric partition functions in the presence of Ω-deformation and defects obey the Ward identities of two dimensional conformal field theory and its q-deformations. The details will be discussed in the companion papers.
How Many Hydrated NEOs Are There

Hydrated minerals are tracers of early solar system history, and have been proposed as a possible focus for economic activity in space. Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are important to both of these, especially the most accessible members of that community. Because there are very few identified hydrated NEOs, we use the Ch spectral class of asteroids as a proxy for hydrated asteroids, and use published work about NEO delivery, main-belt taxonomic distributions, NEO taxonomic distributions, and observed orbital distributions to estimate the number of hydrated asteroids with different threshold sizes and at different levels of accessibility. We expect 53 $\pm$ 27 Ch asteroids to be present in the known population of NEOs $>$ 1 km diameter, and using two different approaches to estimate accessibility we expect 17 $\pm$ 9 of them to be more accessible on a round trip than the surface of the Moon. If there is no need to define a minimum size, we expect 700 $\pm$ 350 hydrated objects that meet that accessibility criterion. While there are few unknown NEOs larger than 1 km, the population of smaller NEOs yet to be discovered could also be expected to contain proportionally-many hydrated objects. Finally, we estimate that hydrated NEOs are unlikely to bring enough water to account for the ice found at the lunar poles, though it is possible that asteroid-delivered hydrated minerals could be found near their impact sites across the lunar surface.
A generalization of gauge symmetry, fourth-order gauge field equations and accelerated cosmic expansion

A generalization of the usual gauge symmetry leads to fourth-order gauge field equations, which imply a new constant force independent of distances. The force associated with the new U1 gauge symmetry is repulsive among baryons. Such a constant force based on baryon charge conservation gives a field-theoretic understanding of the accelerated cosmic expansion in the observable portion of the universe dominated by baryon galaxies. In consistent with all conservation laws and known forces, a simple rotating "dumbbell model" of the universe is briefly discussed.
Energy-dependent Gamma-Ray Burst-Peak Durations and Blast-Wave Deceleration

Temporal analyses of the prompt gamma-ray and X-ray light curves of gamma-ray bursts reveal a tendency for the burst pulse timescales to increase with decreasing energy. For an ensemble of BATSE bursts, Fenimore and colleagues show that the energy dependence of burst-peak durations can be represented by Δt ∝ E-γ, with γ 0.4-0.45. This power-law dependence has led to the suggestion that this effect is due to radiative processes, most notably to synchrotron cooling of the nonthermal particles that produce the radiation. Here we show that a similar power-law dependence occurs, under certain assumptions, in the context of the blast-wave model and is a consequence of the deceleration of the blast wave. This effect will obtain whether or not synchrotron cooling is important, but different degrees of cooling will cause variations in the energy dependence of the peak durations.
Voltage-induced buckling of dielectric films using fluid electrodes

Accurate and integrable control of different flows within microfluidic channels is crucial for further development of lab-on-a-chip and fully integrated adaptable structures. Here, we introduce a flexible microactuator that buckles at a high deformation rate and alters the downstream fluid flow. The microactuator consists of a confined, thin, dielectric film that buckles into the microfluidic channel when exposed to voltage supplied through conductive fluid electrodes. We estimate the critical buckling voltage and characterize the buckled shape of the actuator. Finally, we investigate the effects of frequency, flow rate, and pressure differences on the behavior of the buckling structure and the resulting fluid flow. These results demonstrate that the voltage-induced buckling of embedded microstructures using fluid electrodes provides a means for high speed, repeatable attenuation of microfluidic flow.
Condition for the higher rank numerical range to be non-empty

It is shown that the rank-k numerical range of every n-by-n complex matrix is non-empty if k < n/3 + 1. The proof is based on a recent characterization of the rank-k numerical range by Li and Sze, the Helly's theorem on compact convex sets, and some eigenvalue inequalities. In particular, the result implies that rank-2 numerical range is non-empty if n ≥ 4. This confirms a conjecture of Choi et al. If k ≥ n/3 + 1, an n-by-n complex matrix is given for which the rank-k numerical range is empty. An extension of the result of bounded linear operators acting on an infinite dimensional Hilbert space is also discussed.
Broadband space-time wave packets propagating 70 m.

The propagation distance of a pulsed beam in free space is ultimately limited by diffraction and space-time coupling. “Space-time” (ST) wave packets are pulsed beams endowed with tight spatio-temporal spectral correlations that render them propagation-invariant. Here we explore the limits of the propagation distance for ST wave packets. Making use of a specially designed phase plate inscribed by gray-scale lithography and having a laser-damage threshold of ∼0.5 J/cm2, we synthesize a ST light sheet of width ≈700 μm and bandwidth ∼20 nm, and confirm a propagation distance of ≈70 m.
Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 in Vero cell cultures by peptide-conjugated morpholino oligomers.

Background As the causative agent of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 is a pathogen of immense importance to global public health. Development of innovative direct-acting antiviral agents is sorely needed to address this virus. Peptide-conjugated morpholino oligomers (PPMO) are antisense compounds composed of a phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer covalently conjugated to a cell-penetrating peptide. PPMO require no delivery assistance to enter cells and are able to reduce expression of targeted RNA through sequence-specific steric blocking. Methods Five PPMO designed against sequences of genomic RNA in the SARS-CoV-2 5'-untranslated region and a negative control PPMO of random sequence were synthesized. Each PPMO was evaluated for its effect on the viability of uninfected cells and its inhibitory effect on the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in Vero-E6 cell cultures. Cell viability was evaluated with an ATP-based method using a 48 h PPMO treatment time. Viral growth was measured with quantitative RT-PCR and TCID50 infectivity assays from experiments where cells received a 5 h PPMO treatment time. Results PPMO designed to base-pair with sequence in the 5' terminal region or the leader transcription regulatory sequence region of SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA were highly efficacious, reducing viral titres by up to 4-6 log10 in cell cultures at 48-72 h post-infection, in a non-toxic and dose-responsive manner. Conclusions The data indicate that PPMO have the ability to potently and specifically suppress SARS-CoV-2 growth and are promising candidates for further preclinical development.
Boolean Computation Using Self-Sustaining Nonlinear Oscillators

Self-sustaining nonlinear oscillators of practically any type can function as latches and registers if Boolean logic states are represented physically as the phase of oscillatory signals. Combinational operations on such phase-encoded logic signals can be implemented using arithmetic negation and addition followed by amplitude limiting. With these, general-purpose Boolean computation using a wide variety of natural and engineered oscillators becomes potentially possible. Such phase-encoded logic shows promise for energy-efficient computing. It also has inherent noise immunity advantages over level-based logic.
A note on the Howson property in inverse semigroups

An algebra has the Howson property if the intersection of any two finitely generated subalgebras is again finitely generated. A simple necessary and sufficient condition is given for the Howson property to hold on an inverse semigroup with finitely many idempotents. In addition, it is shown that any monogenic inverse semigroup has the Howson property.
Can we trust the relationship between resonance poles and lifetimes

We show that the shape resonances induced by a one dimensional well of delta functions disappear as soon as a small constant electric field is applied. In particular, in any compact subset of {z : Rez > 0,Im z < 0} there are no resonances if the non-zero field is small enough. In contrast to the lack of convergence of the lifetimes computed from the widths of the resonances we show that the “experimental lifetimes” are continuous at zero field. The shape resonances are replaced by an infinite set of other resonances whose location and number we analyze.
Convex Recovery From Interferometric Measurements

This paper discusses some questions that arise when a linear inverse problem involving $Ax = b$ is reformulated in the interferometric framework, where quadratic combinations of $b$ are considered as data in place of $b$ . First, we show a deterministic recovery result for vectors $x$ from measurements of the form $(Ax)_i \overline{(Ax)_j}$ for some left-invertible $A$ . Recovery is exact, or stable in the noisy case, when the couples $(i,j)$ are chosen as edges of a well-connected graph. One possible way of obtaining the solution is as a feasible point of a simple semidefinite program. Furthermore, we show how the proportionality constant in the error estimate depends on the spectral gap of a data-weighted graph Laplacian. Second, we present a new application of this formulation to interferometric waveform inversion, where products of the form $(Ax)_i \overline{(Ax)_j}$ in frequency encode generalized cross correlations in time. We present numerical evidence that interferometric inversion does not suffer from the loss of resolution generally associated with interferometric imaging, and can provide added robustness with respect to specific kinds of kinematic uncertainties in the forward model $A$ .
Finite temperature quantum embedding theories for correlated systems

The cost of the exact solution of the many-electron problem is believed to be exponential in the number of degrees of freedom, necessitating approximations that are controlled and accurate but numerically tractable. In this paper, we show that one of these approximations, the self-energy embedding theory (SEET), is derivable from a universal functional and therefore implicitly satisfies conservation laws and thermodynamic consistency. We also show how other approximations, such as the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) and its combinations with many-body perturbation theory, can be understood as a special case of SEET and discuss how the additional freedom present in SEET can be used to obtain systematic convergence of results.
A Cross-correlation Study of High-energy Neutrinos and Tracers of Large-scale Structure

The origin of the bulk of the astrophysical neutrinos detected by the IceCube Observatory remains a mystery. Previous source-finding analyses compare the directions of IceCube events and individual sources in astrophysical catalogs. The source association method is technically challenging when the number of source candidates is much larger than the number of the observed astrophysical neutrinos. We show that in this large source number regime, a cross-correlation analysis of neutrino data and source catalog can instead be used to constrain potential source populations for the high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, and provide spatial evidence for the existence of astrophysical neutrinos. We present an analysis of the cross-correlation of the IceCube 2010-2012 point-source data and a WISE-2MASS galaxy sample. While we find no significant detection of cross-correlation with the publicly available neutrino dataset, we show that, when applied to the full IceCube data, which has a longer observation time and higher astrophysical neutrino purity, our method has sufficient statistical power to detect a cross-correlation signal if the neutrino sources trace the Large Scale Structure of the Universe.
Generalized Kuga–Satake theory and rigid local systems, II: rigid Hecke eigensheaves

We use rigid Hecke eigensheaves, building on Yun’s work on the construction of motives with exceptional Galois groups, to produce the first robust examples of “generalized Kuga–Satake theory” outside the Tannakian category of motives generated by abelian varieties. To strengthen our description of the “motivic” nature of Kuga–Satake lifts, we digress to establish a result that should be of independent interest: for any quasiprojective variety over a (finitely generated) characteristic-zero field, the associated graded of the weight filtration on its intersection cohomology arises from a motivated motive in the sense of Andre, and in particular from a classical homological motive if one assumes the standard conjectures. This extends work of de Cataldo and Migliorini.
A model of interacting partons for hadronic structure functions

Abstract We present a model for the structure of baryons in which the valence partons interact through a linear potential. This model can be derived from QCD in the approximation where transverse momenta are ignored. We compare the baryon structure function predicted by our model with those extracted from global fits to Deep Inelastic Scattering data. The only parameter we can adjust is the fraction of baryon momentum carried by valence partons. Our predictions agree well with data except for small values of the Bjorken scaling variable.
Nucleation of vacuum phase transitions by topological defects

Abstract The Euclidean action is calculated in the thin-wall approximation for a first-order vacuum phase transition in which the bubble appears symmetrically around either a global monopole or a gauge cosmic string. The bubble is assumed to be much larger than the core size of the monopole or string. In both cases the value of the Euclidean action is shown to be reduced below the O (4) symmetric action value, indicating that the topological defects act as effective nucleation sites for vacuum decay.
Quasar Clustering and Spacetime Geometry

The non-Euclidean geometry of spacetime induces an anisotropy in the apparent correlation function of high-redshift objects, such as quasars, if redshifts and angles are converted to distances in "naive" Euclidean fashion. The degree of angular distortion depends on cosmological parameters, especially on the cosmological constant Λ, so this effect can constrain Λ independent of any assumptions about the evolution of luminosities, sizes, or clustering. We examine the prospects for distinguishing between low-density (Ω0 = 0.1-0.4) cosmological models with flat and open space geometry using the large quasar samples anticipated from the Two Degree Field Survey (2dF) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Along the way, we derive a number of results that are useful for studies of the quasar correlation function. In particular, we show that even these large quasar surveys are likely to reside in the "sparse sampling" regime for correlation function measurements, so that the statistical fluctuations in measurements are simply the Poisson fluctuations in the observed numbers of pairs. As a result, (1) one can devise a simple maximum likelihood scheme for estimating clustering parameters, (2) one can generate Monte Carlo realizations of correlation function measurements without specifying high-order correlation functions or creating artificial quasar distributions, and (3) for a fixed number of quasars, a deeper survey over a smaller area has greater statistical power than a shallow, large-area survey. If the quasar correlation length is equal to the value implied by recent (quite uncertain) estimates, then the 2dF and SDSS samples can provide clear discrimination between flat and open geometries for Ω0 ≤ 0.2 but only marginal discrimination for Ω0 = 0.4. Clear discrimination is possible for Ω0 = 0.4 if the true quasar correlation length is a factor of 2 larger, and a high-density survey of 30,000 quasars in 200 deg2 would provide clear discrimination even for the lower correlation length. Detection of quasar clustering anisotropy would confirm the cosmological spacetime curvature that is a fundamental prediction of general relativity.
Walker Breakdown with a Twist: Dynamics of Multilayer Domain Walls and Skyrmions Driven by Spin-Orbit Torque

Domain walls (DWs) and skyrmions in ferromagnetic/heavy-metal thin-film multilayers are attractive for tomorrow's magnetic devices, but such structures yield complex stray-field interactions that are known to limit their current-induced DW displacement. This work reveals that in these systems injection of spin current also leads to the phenomenon of Walker breakdown, which impedes DW motion even further, due to precession in the GHz regime, as confirmed by micromagnetic simulations and analytic theory. These findings identify limitations of conventional skyrmion-hosting materials, and identify a path for overcoming these limitations to enable high-speed racetrack memory.
Metric Perturbations of Extremal Surfaces

Motivated by the HRRT-formula for holographic entanglement entropy, we consider the following question: what are the position and the surface area of extremal surfaces in a perturbed geometry, given their anchor on the asymptotic boundary? We derive explicit expressions for the change in position and surface area, thereby providing a closed form expression for the canonical energy. We find that a perturbation governed by some small parameter $\lambda$ yields an expansion of the surface area in terms of a highly non-local expression involving multiple integrals of geometric quantities over the original extremal surface.
Teaching a New Dog Old Tricks: Resurrecting Multilingual Retrieval Using Zero-shot Learning

While billions of non-English speaking users rely on search engines every day, the problem of ad-hoc information retrieval is rarely studied for non-English languages. This is primarily due to a lack of data set that are suitable to train ranking algorithms. In this paper, we tackle the lack of data by leveraging pre-trained multilingual language models to transfer a retrieval system trained on English collections to non-English queries and documents. Our model is evaluated in a zero-shot setting, meaning that we use them to predict relevance scores for query-document pairs in languages never seen during training. Our results show that the proposed approach can significantly outperform unsupervised retrieval techniques for Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, and Spanish. We also show that augmenting the English training collection with some examples from the target language can sometimes improve performance.
How algorithmic confounding in recommendation systems increases homogeneity and decreases utility

Recommendation systems are ubiquitous and impact many domains; they have the potential to influence product consumption, individuals' perceptions of the world, and life-altering decisions. These systems are often evaluated or trained with data from users already exposed to algorithmic recommendations; this creates a pernicious feedback loop. Using simulations, we demonstrate how using data confounded in this way homogenizes user behavior without increasing utility.
CIDMP: Completely Interpretable Detection of Malaria Parasite in Red Blood Cells using Lower-dimensional Feature Space

Predicting if red blood cells (RBC) are infected with the malaria parasite is an important problem in Pathology. Recently, supervised machine learning approaches have been used for this problem, and they have had reasonable success. In particular, state-of-the-art methods such as Convolutional Neural Networks automatically extract increasingly complex feature hierarchies from the image pixels. While such generalized automatic feature extraction methods have significantly reduced the burden of feature engineering in many domains, for niche tasks such as the one we consider in this paper, they result in two major problems. First, they use a very large number of features (that may or may not be relevant) and therefore training such models is computationally expensive. Further, more importantly, the large feature-space makes it very hard to interpret which features are truly important for predictions. Thus, a criticism of such methods is that learning algorithms pose as opaque blackboxes to its users, in this case medical experts. The recommendation of such algorithms can be understood easily, but the reason for their recommendation is not clear. This is the problem of non-interpretability of the model, and the best-performing algorithms are usually the least interpretable. To address these issues, in this paper, we propose an approach to extract a very small number of aggregated features that are easy to interpret and compute, and empirically show that we obtain high prediction accuracy even with a significantly reduced feature-space.
Nonlinear (super)symmetries and amplitudes

There is an increasing interest in nonlinear supersymmetries in cosmological model building. Independently, elegant expressions for the all-tree amplitudes in models with nonlinear symmetries, like D3 brane Dirac-Born-Infeld-Volkov-Akulov theory, were recently discovered. Using the generalized background field method we show how, in general, nonlinear symmetries of the action, bosonic and fermionic, constrain amplitudes beyond soft limits. The same identities control, for example, bosonic E 7(7) scalar sector symmetries as well as the fermionic goldstino symmetries. We present a universal derivation of the vanishing amplitudes in the single (bosonic or fermionic) soft limit. We explain why, universally, the double-soft limit probes the coset space algebra. We also provide identities describing the multiple-soft limit. We discuss loop corrections to $$ \mathcal{N} $$ ≥ 5 supergravity, to the D3 brane, and the UV completion of constrained multiplets in string theory.
On the regularity for the Navier-slip thin-film equation in the perfect wetting regime

We investigate perturbations of traveling-wave solutions to a thin-film equation with quadratic mobility and a zero contact angle at the triple junction, where the three phases liquid, gas and solid meet. This equation can be obtained in lubrication approximation from the Navier–Stokes system of a liquid droplet with a Navier-slip condition at the substrate. Existence and uniqueness have been established by the author together with Giacomelli, Knupfer and Otto in previous work. As solutions are generically non-smooth, the approach relied on suitably subtracting the leading-order singular expansion at the free boundary. In the present work, we substantially improve this result by showing the regularizing effect of the degenerate-parabolic equation to arbitrary orders of the singular expansion. In comparison to related previous work, our method does not require additional compatibility assumptions on the initial data. The result turns out to be natural in view of the properties of the source-type self-similar profile.
PRE-DISCOVERY OBSERVATIONS OF DISRUPTING ASTEROID P/2010 A2

Solar system object P/2010 A2 is the first-noticed example of the aftermath of a recently disrupted asteroid, probably resulting from a collision. Nearly a year elapsed between its inferred initiation in early 2009 and its eventual detection in early 2010. Here, we use new observations to assess the factors underlying the visibility, especially to understand the delayed discovery. We present pre-discovery observations from the LINEAR telescope and set limits to the early-time brightness from SOHO and STEREO satellite coronagraphic images. Consideration of the circumstances of discovery of P/2010 A2 suggests that similar objects must be common, and that future all-sky surveys will reveal them in large numbers.
Towards demystifying dimensions of source code embeddings

Source code representations are key in applying machine learning techniques for processing and analyzing programs. A popular approach in representing source code is neural source code embeddings that represents programs with high-dimensional vectors computed by training deep neural networks on a large volume of programs. Although successful, there is little known about the contents of these vectors and their characteristics. In this paper, we present our preliminary results towards better understanding the contents of code2vec neural source code embeddings. In particular, in a small case study, we use the code2vec embeddings to create binary SVM classifiers and compare their performance with the handcrafted features. Our results suggest that the handcrafted features can perform very close to the highly-dimensional code2vec embeddings, and the information gains are more evenly distributed in the code2vec embeddings compared to the handcrafted features. We also find that the code2vec embeddings are more resilient to the removal of dimensions with low information gains than the handcrafted features. We hope our results serve a stepping stone toward principled analysis and evaluation of these code representations.
Axial Compression of a Thin Elastic Cylinder: Bounds on the Minimum Energy Scaling Law

We consider the axial compression of a thin elastic cylinder placed about a hard cylindrical core. Treating the core as an obstacle, we prove upper and lower bounds on the minimum energy of the cylinder that depend on its relative thickness and the magnitude of axial compression. We focus exclusively on the setting where the radius of the core is greater than or equal to the natural radius of the cylinder. We consider two cases: the “large mandrel” case, where the radius of the core exceeds that of the cylinder, and the “neutral mandrel” case, where the radii of the core and cylinder are the same. In the large mandrel case, our upper and lower bounds match in their scaling with respect to thickness, compression, and the magnitude of pre-strain induced by the core. We construct three types of axisymmetric wrinkling patterns whose energy scales as the minimum in different parameter regimes, corresponding to the presence of many wrinkles, few wrinkles, or no wrinkles at all. In the neutral mandrel case, our upper and lower bounds match in a certain regime in which the compression is small as compared to the thickness; in this regime, the minimum energy scales as that of the unbuckled configuration. We achieve these results for both the von Karman–Donnell model and a geometrically nonlinear model of elasticity. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Outer Galactic Disks and a Quantitative Test of Gravity at Low Accelerations

We use the recent measurement of the velocity dispersion of star-forming, outer-disk knots by Herbert-Fort et al. in the nearly face-on galaxy NGC 628, in combination with other data from the literature, to execute a straightforward test of gravity at low accelerations. Specifically, the rotation curve at large radius sets the degree of non-standard acceleration and then the predicted scale height of the knots at that radius provides the test of the scenario. For our demonstration, we presume that the Hα knots, which are young (age 97% confidence) discrepancy with a modified gravity scenario given the current data. More interestingly, we demonstrate that there is no inherent limitation that prevents such a test from reaching possible discrimination at the >4σ level with a reasonable investment of observational resources.
Koopman–von Neumann approach to quantum simulation of nonlinear classical dynamics

This paper shows how to use quantum computers to simulate nonlinear and non-Hamiltonian classical dynamics by using the Koopman-von Neumann approach, which reformulates the classical system as an equivalent Schrodinger equation with a Hermitian Hamiltonian and a unitary evolution operator on phase space.
Parallel performance of molecular dynamics trajectory analysis

The performance of biomolecular molecular dynamics simulations has steadily increased on modern high performance computing resources but acceleration of the analysis of the output trajectories has lagged behind so that analyzing simulations is becoming a bottleneck. To close this gap, we studied the performance of parallel trajectory analysis with MPI and the Python MDAnalysis library on three different XSEDE supercomputers where trajectories were read from a Lustre parallel file system. Strong scaling performance was impeded by stragglers, MPI processes that were slower than the typical process. Stragglers were less prevalent for compute-bound workloads, thus pointing to file reading as a bottleneck for scaling. However, a more complicated picture emerged in which both the computation and the data ingestion exhibited close to ideal strong scaling behavior whereas stragglers were primarily caused by either large MPI communication costs or long times to open the single shared trajectory file. We improved overall strong scaling performance by either subfiling (splitting the trajectory into separate files) or MPI-IO with Parallel HDF5 trajectory files. The parallel HDF5 approach resulted in near ideal strong scaling on up to 384 cores (16 nodes), thus reducing trajectory analysis times by two orders of magnitude compared to the serial approach.
Evolution of Molecular and Atomic Gas Phases in the Milky Way

We analyze radial and azimuthal variations of the phase balance between the molecular and atomic interstellar medium (ISM) in the Milky Way (MW) using archival CO(J = 1-0) and HI 21 cm data. In particular, the azimuthal variations—between the spiral arm and interarm regions—are analyzed without any explicit definition of the spiral arm locations. We show that the molecular gas mass fraction, i.e., f_(mol)= Σ_H_2/Σ_(HI) + Σ_H_2, varies predominantly in the radial direction: starting from ~ 100 at the center, remaining 50% to R ~ 6kpc and decreasing to ~10%–20% at R = 8.5 kpc when averaged over the whole disk thickness (from ~100% to ≳ 60%, then to ~50% in the midplane). Azimuthal, arm-interarm variations are secondary: only ~ 20% in the globally molecule-dominated inner MW, but becoming larger, ~40%–50%, in the atom-dominated outskirts. This suggests that in the inner MW the gas remains highly molecular (f_(mol) > 50%) as it moves from an interarm region into a spiral arm and back into the next interarm region. Stellar feedback does not dissociate molecules much, and the coagulation and fragmentation of molecular clouds dominate the evolution of the ISM at these radii. The trend differs in the outskirts where the gas phase is globally atomic (f_(mol) > 50%). The HI and H_2 phases cycle through spiral arm passage there. These different regimes of ISM evolution are also seen in external galaxies (e.g., the LMC, M33, and M51). We explain the radial gradient of f_(mol) using a simple flow continuity model. The effects of spiral arms on this analysis are illustrated in the Appendix.
Spacetime has a “thickness”

Suppose we assume that (a) information about a black hole is encoded in its Hawking radiation and (b) causality is not violated to leading order in gently curved spacetime. Then, we argue that spacetime cannot just be described as a manifold with a shape; it must be given an additional attribute which we call “thickness.” This thickness characterizes the spread of the quantum gravity wave functional in superspace — the space of all three-geometries. Low energy particles travel on spacetime without noticing the thickness parameter, so they just see an effective manifold. Objects with energy large enough to create a horizon do note the finite thickness; this modifies the semiclassical evolution in such a way that we avoid horizon formation and the consequent violation of causality.
Quivers from Matrix Factorizations

We discuss how matrix factorizations offer a practical method of computing the quiver and associated superpotential for a hypersurface singularity. This method also yields explicit geometrical interpretations of D-branes (i.e., quiver representations) on a resolution given in terms of Grassmannians. As an example we analyze some non-toric singularities which are resolved by a single \({\mathbb{P}^1}\) but have “length” greater than one. These examples have a much richer structure than conifolds. A picture is proposed that relates matrix factorizations in Landau–Ginzburg theories to the way that matrix factorizations are used in this paper to perform noncommutative resolutions.
High-level Modeling of Manufacturing Faults in Deep Neural Network Accelerators

The advent of data-driven real-time applications requires the implementation of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) on Machine Learning accelerators. Google’s Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) is one such neural network accelerator that uses systolic array-based matrix multiplication hardware for computation in its crux. Manufacturing faults at any state element of the matrix multiplication unit can cause unexpected errors in these inference networks. In this paper, we propose a formal model of permanent faults and their propagation in a TPU using the Discrete-Time Markov Chain (DTMC) formalism. The proposed model is analyzed using the probabilistic model checking technique to reason about the likelihood of faulty outputs. The obtained quantitative results show that the classification accuracy is sensitive to the type of permanent faults as well as their location, bit position and the number of layers in the neural network. The conclusions from our theoretical model have been validated using experiments on a digit recognition-based DNN.
Families of Calabi–Yau Manifolds and Canonical Singularities

Given a polarized family of varieties over the unit disc, smooth except over the origin and with smooth fibers Calabi-Yau, we show that the origin lies at finite Weil-Petersson distance if and only if after a finite base change the family is birational to one with central fiber a Calabi-Yau variety with at worst canonical singularities, answering a question of C.-L. Wang. This condition also implies that the Ricci-flat Kahler metrics in the polarization class on the smooth fibers have uniformly bounded diameter, or are uniformly volume non-collapsed.
NEAR-INFRARED DETECTION OF A SUPER-THIN DISK IN NGC 891

We probe the disk structure of the nearby, massive, edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 891 with subarcsecond resolution JHK s-band images covering ~ ±10 kpc in radius and ±5 kpc in height. We measure intrinsic surface brightness (SB) profiles using realistic attenuation corrections constrained from near- and mid-infrared (Spitzer) color maps and three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiative-transfer models. In addition to the well-known thin and thick disks, a super-thin disk with 60-80 pc scale-height—comparable to the star-forming disk of the Milky Way—is visibly evident and required to fit the attenuation-corrected light distribution. Asymmetries in the super-thin disk light profile are indicative of young, hot stars producing regions of excess luminosity and bluer (attenuation-corrected) near-infrared color. To fit the inner regions of NGC 891, these disks must be truncated within ~3 kpc, with almost all their luminosity redistributed in a bar-like structure 50% thicker than the thin disk. There appears to be no classical bulge but rather a nuclear continuation of the super-thin disk. The super-thin, thin, thick, and bar components contribute roughly 30%, 42%, 13%, and 15% (respectively) to the total K s-band luminosity. Disk axial ratios (length/height) decrease from 30 to 3 from super-thin to thick components. Both exponential and sech2 vertical SB profiles fit the data equally well. We find that the super-thin disk is significantly brighter in the K s-band than typically assumed in integrated spectral energy distribution models of NGC 891: it appears that in these models the excess flux, likely produced by young stars in the super-thin disk, has been mistakenly attributed to the thin disk.
INFRARED SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF M GIANTS

We observed a sample of 20 M giants with the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Most show absorption structure at 6.6-6.8 um which we identify as water vapor, and in some cases, the absorption extends from 6.4 um into the SiO band at 7.5 um. Variable stars show stronger H2O absorption. While the strength of the SiO fundamental at 8 um increases monotonically from spectral class K0 to K5, the dependence on spectral class weakens in the M giants. As with previously studied samples, the M giants show considerable scatter in SiO band strength within a given spectral class. All of the stars in our sample also show OH band absorption, most noticeably in the 14-17 um region. The OH bands behave much like the SiO bands, increasing in strength in the K giants but showing weaker dependence on spectral class in the M giants, and with considerable scatter. An examination of the photometric properties reveals that the V-K color may be a better indicator of molecular band strength than the spectral class. The transformation from Tycho colors to Johnson B-V color is double-valued, and neither B-V nor BT-VT color increases monotonically with spectral class in the M giants like they do in the K giants.
Plurisubharmonic functions and nef classes on complex manifolds

We prove the existence of plurisubharmonic functions with prescribed logarithmic singularities on complex 3-folds equipped with a nef class of positive volume. We prove the same result for rational classes on Moishezon n-folds.
The Extragalactic Background Light Absorption Feature in the Blazar Component of the Extragalactic Gamma-ray Background

High-energy photons from cosmological emitters suffer attenuation due to pair production interactions with the extragalactic background light (EBL). The collective emission of any high-energy emitting cosmological population will exhibit an absorption feature at the highest energies. We calculate this absorption feature in the collective emission of blazars for various models of the blazar gamma-ray luminosity function (GLF) and the EBL. We find that models of the blazar GLF that predict higher relative contributions of high-redshift blazars to the blazar collective spectrum result in emission that is more susceptible to attenuation by the EBL, and hence result in more prominent absorption features, allowing for better differentiation amongst EBL models. We thus demonstrate that observations of such an absorption feature will contain information regarding both the blazar GLF and the EBL, and we discuss tests for EBL models and the blazar GLF that will become possible with upcoming Fermi observations.
A Model for Tracking Fronts of Stress-Induced Permeability Enhancement

Using an analogy to the classical Stefan problem, we construct evolution equations for the fluid pore pressure on both sides of a propagating stress-induced damage front. Closed form expressions are derived for the position of the damage front as a function of time for the cases of thermally-induced damage as well as damage induced by over-pressure. We derive expressions for the flow rate during constant pressure fluid injection from the surface corresponding to a spherically shaped subsurface damage front. Finally, our model results suggest an interpretation of field data obtained during constant pressure fluid injection over the course of 16 days at an injection site near Desert Peak, NV.
DIMERS ON TWO-DIMENSIONAL LATTICES

We consider close-packed dimers, or perfect matchings, on two-dimensional regular lattices. We review known results and derive new expressions for the free energy, entropy, and the molecular freedom of dimers for a number of lattices including the simple-quartic, honeycomb, triangular, kagome, 3-12 and its dual, and 4-8 and its dual Union Jack lattices. The occurrence and nature of phase transitions are also elucidated and discussed in each case.
Superconductor-Insulator Transition and Fermi-Bose Crossovers

Superconductivity is the phenomenon in which, below a certain temperature, a metal loses all resistance to current flow. Using a simple model, theorists show that it is possible to drive a fermionic band insulator into a superconductor.
Approximately counting semismooth integers

An integer n is (y,z)-semismooth if n=pm where m is an integer with all prime divisors ≥ y and p is 1 or a prime ≥ z. Large quantities of semismooth integers are utilized in modern integer factoring algorithms, such as the number field sieve, that incorporate the so-called large prime variant. Thus, it is useful for factoring practitioners to be able to estimate the value of Ψ(x,y,z), the number of (y,z)-semismooth integers up to x, so that they can better set algorithm parameters and minimize running times, which could be weeks or months on a cluster supercomputer. In this paper, we explore several algorithms to approximate Ψ(x,y,z) using a generalization of Buchstab's identity with numeric integration.