cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Distance and Morphology of V723 Cassiopeiae (Nova Cassiopeia 1995)

We present spatially resolved infrared spectra of V723 Cas (Nova Cassiopeia 1995) obtained over four years with the integral field spectrograph OSIRIS on Keck II. Also presented are one epoch of spatially unresolved spectra from the long slit spectrograph NIRSPEC on Keck II. The OSIRIS observations made use of the laser guide star adaptive optics facility that produced diffraction-limited spatial resolution of the strong coronal emission features in the nova ejecta. We remove the point-like continuum from V723 Cas data cubes to reveal details of the extended nebula and find that emission due to [Si VI] and [Ca VIII] has an equatorial ring structure with polar nodules—a strikingly different morphology than emission due to [Al IX], which appears as a prolate spheroid. The contrast in structure may indicate separate ejection events. Using the angular expansion and Doppler velocities observed over four epochs spaced at one year intervals, we determine the distance to V723 Cas to be 3.85+0.23 –0.21 kpc. We present the OSIRIS three-dimensional data here in many ways: as narrowband images, one- and two-dimensional spectra, and a volume rendering that reveals the true shape of the ejecta.
Dimension-free path-integral molecular dynamics without preconditioning.

Convergence with respect to imaginary-time discretization (i.e., the number of ring-polymer beads) is an essential part of any path-integral-based molecular dynamics (MD) calculation. However, an unfortunate property of existing non-preconditioned numerical integration schemes for path-integral molecular dynamics—including essentially all existing ring-polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD) and thermostatted RPMD (T-RPMD) methods—is that for a given MD time step, the overlap between the exact ring-polymer Boltzmann–Gibbs distribution and that sampled using MD becomes zero in the infinite-bead limit. This has clear implications for hybrid Metropolis Monte Carlo/MD sampling schemes, and it also causes the divergence with bead number of the primitive path-integral kinetic-energy expectation value when using standard RPMD or T-RPMD. We show that these and other problems can be avoided through the introduction of “dimension-free” numerical integration schemes for which the sampled ring-polymer position distribution has non-zero overlap with the exact distribution in the infinite-bead limit for the case of a harmonic potential. Most notably, we introduce the BCOCB integration scheme, which achieves dimension freedom via a particular symmetric splitting of the integration time step and a novel implementation of the Cayley modification [R. Korol et al., J. Chem. Phys. 151, 124103 (2019)] for the free ring-polymer half-steps. More generally, we show that dimension freedom can be achieved via mollification of the forces from the external physical potential. The dimension-free path-integral numerical integration schemes introduced here yield finite error bounds for a given MD time step, even as the number of beads is taken to infinity; these conclusions are proven for the case of a harmonic potential and borne out numerically for anharmonic systems that include liquid water. The numerical results for BCOCB are particularly striking, allowing for nearly three-fold increases in the stable time step for liquid water with respect to the Bussi–Parrinello (OBABO) and Leimkuhler (BAOAB) integrators, while introducing negligible errors in the calculated statistical properties and absorption spectrum. Importantly, the dimension-free, non-preconditioned integration schemes introduced here preserve ergodicity and global second-order accuracy, and they remain simple, black-box methods that avoid additional computational costs, tunable parameters, or system-specific implementations.
Radiation- and phonon-bottleneck–induced tunneling in the Fe8 single-molecule magnet

We measure magnetization changes in a single crystal of the single-molecule magnet Fe8 when exposed to intense, short (≤20 μs) pulses of microwave radiation resonant with the m = 10 to 9 transition. We find that radiation induces a phonon bottleneck in the system with a time scale of ~5 μs. The phonon bottleneck, in turn, drives the spin dynamics, allowing observation of thermally assisted resonant tunneling between spin states at the 100 ns time scale. Detailed numerical simulations quantitatively reproduce the data and yield a spin-phonon relaxation time T1~40 ns.
Disklike Structure in the Semiregular Pulsating Star X Her

The author presents the results of Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland (BIMA) array interferometric observations in the CO $J=1$ –0 line toward X Her and EP Aqr, semiregular pulsating stars with a composite CO line profile, and also reports finding a disklike structure in X Her. In the CO spectrum both of X Her and EP Aqr, a composite profile including narrow and broad components is seen as reported by the previous single-dish observations. The spatial structure of the broad component region of X Her shows a bipolar shape, and that of the narrow component shows an elliptical/spherical shape. The blue- and red-shifted parts of the X Her narrow component show a systematic difference in the velocity integrated intensity map. The spatio-kinematic properties of the X Her narrow component are reminiscent of a Keplerian rotating disk with a central mass of 0.9 M $_{\odot}$ . The spatial distributions of both the narrow and the broad components of EP Aqr appear to be roughly round with the same peak positions; no significant velocity gradient is seen. The spatio-kinematic properties of EP Aqr are reminiscent of a multiple-shell structure model rather than of a bipolar flow and disk model.
Double-Trace Flows and the Swampland

We explore the idea that large N, non-supersymmetric conformal field theories with a parametrically large gap to higher spin single-trace operators may be obtained as infrared fixed points of relevant double-trace deformations of superconformal field theories. After recalling the AdS interpretation and some potential pathologies of such flows, we introduce a concrete example that appears to avoid them: the ABJM theory at finite k, deformed by ∫O^2, where O is the superconformal primary in the stress-tensor multiplet. We address its relation to recent conjectures based on weak gravity bounds, and discuss the prospects for a wider class of similarly viable flows. Next, we proceed to analyze the spectrum and correlation functions of the putative IR CFT, to leading non-trivial order in 1/N. This includes analytic computations of the change under double-trace flow of connected four-point functions of ABJM superconformal primaries; and of the IR anomalous dimensions of infinite classes of double-trace composite operators. These would be the first analytic results for anomalous dimensions of finite-spin composite operators in any large N CFT_3 with an Einstein gravity dual.
Astropulse: A Search for Microsecond Transient Radio Signals Using Distributed Computing. I. Methodology

We are performing a transient, microsecond timescale radio sky survey, called 'Astropulse', using the Arecibo telescope. Astropulse searches for brief (0.4 {mu}s to 204.8 {mu}s ), wideband (relative to its 2.5 MHz bandwidth) radio pulses centered at 1420 MHz. Astropulse is a commensal (piggyback) survey, and scans the sky between declinations of -1. Degree-Sign 33 and 38. Degree-Sign 03. We obtained 1540 hr of data in each of seven beams of the ALFA receiver, with two polarizations per beam. The data are one-bit complex sampled at the Nyquist limit of 0.4 {mu}s per sample. Examination of timescales on the order of microseconds is possible because we used coherent dedispersion, a technique that has frequently been used for targeted observations, but has never been associated with a radio sky survey. The more usual technique, incoherent dedispersion, cannot resolve signals below a minimum timescale which depends on the signal's dispersion measure (DM) and frequency. However, coherent dedispersion requires more intensive computation than incoherent dedispersion. The required processing power was provided by BOINC, the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing. BOINC is a distributed computing system, allowing us to utilize hundreds of thousands of volunteers' computers to perform the necessary calculations for coherentmore » dedispersion. Astrophysical events that might produce brief radio pulses include giant pulses from pulsars, rotating radio transients, exploding primordial black holes, or new sources yet to be imagined. Radio frequency interference and noise contaminate the data; these are mitigated by a number of techniques including multi-polarization correlation, DM repetition detection, and frequency profiling.« less
Massive Online Crowdsourced Study of Subjective and Objective Picture Quality

Most publicly available image quality databases have been created under highly controlled conditions by introducing graded simulated distortions onto high-quality photographs. However, images captured using typical real-world mobile camera devices are usually afflicted by complex mixtures of multiple distortions, which are not necessarily well-modeled by the synthetic distortions found in existing databases. The originators of existing legacy databases usually conducted human psychometric studies to obtain statistically meaningful sets of human opinion scores on images in a stringently controlled visual environment, resulting in small data collections relative to other kinds of image analysis databases. Toward overcoming these limitations, we designed and created a new database that we call the LIVE In the Wild Image Quality Challenge Database, which contains widely diverse authentic image distortions on a large number of images captured using a representative variety of modern mobile devices. We also designed and implemented a new online crowdsourcing system, which we have used to conduct a very large-scale, multi-month image quality assessment (IQA) subjective study. Our database consists of over 350 000 opinion scores on 1162 images evaluated by over 8100 unique human observers. Despite the lack of control over the experimental environments of the numerous study participants, we demonstrate excellent internal consistency of the subjective data set. We also evaluate several top-performing blind IQA algorithms on it and present insights on how the mixtures of distortions challenge both end users as well as automatic perceptual quality prediction models. The new database is available for public use at http://live.ece.utexas.edu/research/ChallengeDB/index.html .
SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF THE BCS GAP EQUATION OF SUPERFLUIDITY

We present a review of recent work on the mathematical aspects of the BCS gap equation, covering our results of (9) as well our recent joint work with Hamza and Solovej (8) and with Frank and Naboko (6), respectively. In addition, we mention some related new results.
Motion estimation and imaging of complex scenes with synthetic aperture radar

We study synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging and motion estimation of complex scenes consisting of stationary and moving targets. We use the classic SAR setup with a single antenna emitting signals and receiving the echoes from the scene. The known motion estimation methods for SAR work only in simple cases, with one or a few targets in the same motion. We propose to extend the applicability of these methods to complex scenes, by complementing them with a data pre-processing step intended to separate the echoes from the stationary targets and the moving ones. We present two approaches. The first is an iteration designed to subtract the echoes from the stationary targets one by one. This approach first estimates the location of each stationary target from a preliminary image, and then uses the location to define a filter that removes the corresponding target’s echo from the data. The second approach is based on the robust principal component analysis (PCA) method. The key observation is that with appropriate pre-processing and windowing, the discrete samples of the stationary target echoes form a low-rank matrix, whereas the samples of a few moving target echoes form a high-rank sparse matrix. The robust PCA method is designed to separate the low rank from the sparse part, and thus can be used for the SAR data separation. We present a brief analysis of the two methods and explain how they can be combined to improve the data separation for extended and complex imaging scenes. We also assess the performance of the methods with extensive numerical simulations.
Large N Duality, Lagrangian Cycles, and Algebraic Knots

We consider knot invariants in the context of large N transitions of topological strings. In particular we consider aspects of Lagrangian cycles associated to knots in the conifold geometry. We show how these can be explicitly constructed in the case of algebraic knots. We use this explicit construction to explain a recent conjecture relating study of stable pairs on algebraic curves with HOMFLY polynomials. Furthermore, for torus knots, using the explicit construction of the Lagrangian cycle, we also give a direct A-model computation and recover the HOMFLY polynomial for this case.
Investigating Students' Behavior and Performance in Online Conceptual Assessment.

Class performance on online administered research-based assessments is comparable to paper-based administrations of the same assessments.
Modeling the Connection Between Subhalos and Satellites in Milky Way-like Systems

We develop a comprehensive and flexible model for the connection between satellite galaxies and dark matter subhalos in dark matter-only zoom-in simulations of Milky Way (MW)--mass host halos. We systematically identify the physical and numerical uncertainties in the galaxy--halo connection and simulations underlying our method, including (i) the influence of host halo properties; (ii) the relationship between satellite luminosities and subhalo properties, including the effects of reionization; (iii) the relationship between satellite and subhalo locations; (iv) the relationship between satellite sizes and subhalo properties, including the effects of tidal stripping; (v) satellite and subhalo disruption due to baryonic effects; and (vi) artificial subhalo disruption and orphan satellites. To illustrate our approach, we fit this model to the luminosity distribution of both classical MW satellites and those discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey by performing realistic mock observations that depend on the luminosity, size, and distance of our predicted satellites, and we infer the total satellite population that will be probed by upcoming surveys. We argue that galaxy size and surface brightness modeling will play a key role in interpreting current and future observations, as the expected number of observable satellites depends sensitively on their surface brightness distribution.
Continuous monitoring of comet Holmes from before the 2007 Outburst

The outburst and subsequent brightness evolution of comet 17P/Holmes has been observed using the MMT Observatory’s All-Sky Camera (Pickering 2006) on Mt. Hopkins near Tucson, Arizona, USA. The comet was picked up at the limiting visual magnitude of 5.5 on October 24.38 and tracked by the camera continuously until sunrise four hours later. During this time the comet brightened to visual magnitude 3.5. Comet Holmes was next observed just after sunset on October 25.23 at visual magnitude 2.5, where it remained approximately constant over the next three days. The comet then began to dim slowly and was followed into the early months of 2008 with periods of dense time coverage.
The Distribution of Gaps for Saddle Connections on the Octagon

Abstract. We explicitly compute the limiting gap distribution for slopes of saddle connections on the flat surface associated to the regular octagon with opposite sides identified. This is the first such computation where the Veech group of the translation surface has multiple cusps. We also show how to parametrize a Poincare section for the horocycle flow on SL(2,R)/SL(X,!) associated to an arbitrary Veech surface (X,!). As a corollary, we show that the associated gap distribution is piecewise real analytic.
Task-Robust Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning

Meta-learning methods have shown an impressive ability to train models that rapidly learn new tasks. However, these methods only aim to perform well in expectation over tasks coming from some particular distribution that is typically equivalent across meta-training and meta-testing, rather than considering worst-case task performance. In this work we introduce the notion of "task-robustness" by reformulating the popular Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning (MAML) objective [Finn et al. 2017] such that the goal is to minimize the maximum loss over the observed meta-training tasks. The solution to this novel formulation is task-robust in the sense that it places equal importance on even the most difficult and/or rare tasks. This also means that it performs well over all distributions of the observed tasks, making it robust to shifts in the task distribution between meta-training and meta-testing. We present an algorithm to solve the proposed min-max problem, and show that it converges to an $\epsilon$-accurate point at the optimal rate of $\mathcal{O}(1/\epsilon^2)$ in the convex setting and to an $(\epsilon, \delta)$-stationary point at the rate of $\mathcal{O}(\max\{1/\epsilon^5, 1/\delta^5\})$ in nonconvex settings. We also provide an upper bound on the new task generalization error that captures the advantage of minimizing the worst-case task loss, and demonstrate this advantage in sinusoid regression and image classification experiments.
Strong coordination over noisy channels: Is separation sufficient?

We study the problem of strong coordination of actions of two agents X and Y that communicate over a noisy communication channel such that the actions follow a given joint probability distribution. We propose two novel schemes for this noisy strong coordination problem, and derive inner bounds for the underlying strong coordination capacity region. The first scheme is a joint coordination-channel coding scheme that utilizes the randomness provided by the communication channel to reduce the local randomness required in generating the action sequence at agent Y. The second scheme exploits separate coordination and channel coding where local randomness is extracted from the channel after decoding. Finally, we present an example in which the joint scheme is able to outperform the separate scheme in terms of coordination rate.
Approximations for strongly-coupled supersymmetric quantum mechanics

Abstract We advocate a set of approximations for studying the finite temperature behavior of strongly-coupled theories in 0+1 dimensions. The approximation consists of expanding about a Gaussian action, with the width of the Gaussian determined by a set of gap equations. The approximation can be applied to supersymmetric systems, provided that the gap equations are formulated in superspace. It can be applied to large- N theories, by keeping just the planar contribution to the gap equations. We analyze several models of scalar supersymmetric quantum mechanics, and show that the Gaussian approximation correctly distinguishes between a moduli space, mass gap, and supersymmetry breaking at strong coupling. Then we apply the approximation to a bosonic large- N gauge theory, and argue that a Gross–Witten transition separates the weak-coupling and strong-coupling regimes. A similar transition should occur in a generic large- N gauge theory, in particular in 0-brane quantum mechanics.
The conformal loop ensemble nesting field

The conformal loop ensemble $${{\mathrm{CLE}}}_\kappa $$ with parameter $$8/3 < \kappa < 8$$ is the canonical conformally invariant measure on countably infinite collections of non-crossing loops in a simply connected domain. We show that the number of loops surrounding an $$\varepsilon $$ -ball (a random function of $$z$$ and $$\varepsilon $$ ) minus its expectation converges almost surely as $$\varepsilon \rightarrow 0$$ to a random conformally invariant limit in the space of distributions, which we call the nesting field. We generalize this result by assigning i.i.d. weights to the loops, and we treat an alternate notion of convergence to the nesting field in the case where the weight distribution has mean zero. We also establish estimates for moments of the number of CLE loops surrounding two given points.
Matrix Schwarzschild black holes in large N limit

Based on a gas picture of D0-brane partons, it is shown that the entropy, as well as the geometric size of an infinitely boosted Schwarzschild black hole, can be accounted for in matrix theory by interactions involving spins, or interactions involving more than two bodies simultaneously.
Rapid size-controlled synthesis of dextran-coated, 64Cu-doped iron oxide nanoparticles

Research into developing dual modality probes enabled for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) has been on the rise recently due to the potential to combine the high resolution of MRI and the high sensitivity of PET. Current synthesis techniques for developing multimodal probes is largely hindered in part by prolonged reaction times during radioisotope incorporation—leading to a weakening of the radioactivity. Along with a time-efficient synthesis, the resulting products must fit within a critical size range (between 20 and 100 nm) to increase blood retention time. In this work, we describe a novel, rapid, microwave-based synthesis technique to grow dextran-coated iron oxide nanoparticles doped with copper (DIO/Cu). Traditional methods for coprecipitation of dextran-coated iron oxide nanoparticles require refluxing for 2 h and result in approximately 50 nm diameter particles. We demonstrate that microwave synthesis can produce 50 nm nanoparticles with 5 min of heating. W...
Cogenerating and pre-annihilating dark matter by a new gauge interaction in a unified model

Grand unified theories based on large groups (with rank ≥ 6) are a natural context for dark matter models. They contain Standard-Model-singlet fermions that could be dark matter candidates, and can contain new non-abelian interactions whose sphalerons convert baryons, leptons, and dark matter into each other, ``cogenerating" a dark matter asymmetry comparable to the baryon asymmetry. In this paper it is shown that the same non-abelian interactions can ``pre-annihilate" the symmetric component of heavy dark matter particles χ, which then decay late into light stable dark matter particles ζ that inherit their asymmetry. We derive cosmological constraints on the parameters of such models. The mass of χ must be < 3000 TeV and their decays must happen when 2 × 10−7 < Tdec/mχ < 10−4. It is shown that such decays can come from d=5 operators with coefficients of order 1/MGUT or 1/MPl. We present a simple realization of our model based on the group SU(7).
The Yale Lar TPC

In this paper we give a concise description of a liquid argon time projection chamber (Lar TPC) developed at Yale, and present results from its first calibration run with cosmic rays.
Critically slow learning in flashcard learning models

Algorithmic education theory examines, among other things, the trade-off between reviewing old material and studying new material: time spent learning the new comes at the expense of reviewing and solidifying one’s understanding of the old. This trade-off is captured in the “Slow Flashcard System” (SFS)—a system that has been studied not only for its applications in educational software but also for its critical properties; it is a simple discrete deterministic system capable of remarkable complexity, with standing conjectures regarding its longterm behavior. Here, we introduce a probabilistic model of SFS and further derive a continuous time, continuous space partial differential equation model. These two models of SFS shed light on the longterm behavior of SFS and open new avenues of research.Algorithmic education theory examines, among other things, the trade-off between reviewing old material and studying new material: time spent learning the new comes at the expense of reviewing and solidifying one’s understanding of the old. This trade-off is captured in the “Slow Flashcard System” (SFS)—a system that has been studied not only for its applications in educational software but also for its critical properties; it is a simple discrete deterministic system capable of remarkable complexity, with standing conjectures regarding its longterm behavior. Here, we introduce a probabilistic model of SFS and further derive a continuous time, continuous space partial differential equation model. These two models of SFS shed light on the longterm behavior of SFS and open new avenues of research.
Increasing charge lifetime in dc polarized electron guns by offsetting the anode

Charge lifetime of strained superlattice Gallium Arsenide photocathodes in dc guns is limited by ion back bombardment. In this work, we propose and present simulation results for an offset anode scheme to increase charge lifetime in dc guns. In this scheme, the axial symmetry of the cathode-anode configuration is broken by offsetting the anode transversely, while keeping the laser spot on the electrostatic center. This eliminates the bombardment of high energy ions on the cathode and enables maximum usage of the available cathode area. Depending on the size of the available cathode area, this method can increase the charge lifetime by an order of magnitude compared to the current best alternative method. An anode assembly, capable of in-vacuum movement, is required for this method, which has been designed and fabricated at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Breezing through the Space Environment of Barnard’s Star b

A physically realistic stellar wind model based on Alfven wave dissipation has been used to simulate the wind from Barnard's Star and to estimate the conditions at the location of its recently discovered planetary companion. Such models require knowledge of the stellar surface magnetic field that is currently unknown for Barnard's Star. We circumvent this by considering the observed field distributions of three different stars that constitute admissible magnetic proxies of this object. Under these considerations, Barnard's Star b experiences less intense wind pressure than the much more close-in planet Proxima~b and the planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system. The milder wind conditions are more a result of its much greater orbital distance rather than in differences in the surface magnetic field strengths of the host stars. The dynamic pressure experienced by the planet is comparable to present-day Earth values, but it can undergo variations by factors of several during current sheet crossings in each orbit. The magnetospause standoff distance would be $\sim$\,$20 - 40$\,\% smaller than that of the Earth for an equivalent planetary magnetic field strength.
Boundary Layer of Transport Equation with In-Flow Boundary

Consider the steady neutron transport equation in two dimensional convex domains with an in-flow boundary condition. We establish the diffusive limit while the boundary layers are present. Our contribution relies on a delicate decomposition of boundary data to separate the regular and singular boundary layers, novel weighted $$W^{1,\infty }$$ estimates for the Milne problem with geometric correction in convex domains, and an $$L^{2m}-L^{\infty }$$ framework which yields stronger remainder estimates.
Brane localization and stabilization via regional physics

Extra-dimensional scenarios have become widespread among particle and gravitational theories of physics to address several outstanding problems, including cosmic acceleration, the weak hierarchy problem, and the quantization of gravity. In general, the topology and geometry of the full spacetime manifold will be non-trivial, even if our ordinary dimensions have the topology of their covering space. Most compact manifolds are inhomogeneous, even if they admit a homogeneous geometry, and it will be physically relevant where in the extra-dimensions one is located. In this letter, we explore the use of both local and global effects in a braneworld scenario to naturally provide position-dependent forces that determine and stabilize the location of a single brane. For illustrative purposes, we consider the 2-dimensional hyperbolic horn and the Euclidean cone as toy models of the extra-dimensional manifold, and add a brane wrapped around one of the two spatial dimensions. We calculate the total energy due to brane tension and bending (extrinsic curvature) as well as that due to the Casimir energy of a bulk scalar satisfying a Dirchlet boundary condition on the brane. From the competition of at least two of these effects there can exist a stable minimum of the effective potential for the brane location. However, on more generic spaces (on which more symmetries are broken) any one of these effects may be sufficient to stabilize the brane. We discuss this as an example of physics that is neither local nor global, but regional.
Demonstration of entanglement assisted invariance on IBM's quantum experience.

Abstract Quantum entanglement is among the most fundamental, yet from classical intuition also most surprising properties of the fully quantum nature of physical reality. We report several experiments performed on IBM's Quantum Experience demonstrating envariance – entanglement assisted invariance. Envariance is a recently discovered symmetry of composite quantum systems, which is at the foundational origin of physics and a quantum phenomenon of pure states. These very easily reproducible and freely accessible experiments on Quantum Experience provide simple tools to study the properties of envariance, and we illustrate this for several cases with "quantum universes" consisting of up to five qubits.
REPRESENTATIONS OF sl(2) IN THE BOOLEAN LATTICE, AND THE HAMMING AND JOHNSON SCHEMES

Starting with the zero-square "zeon algebra," the regular representation gives rise to a Boolean lattice representation of sl(2). We detail the su(2) content of the Boolean lattice, providing the irreducible representations carried by the algebra generated by the subsets of an n-set. The group elements are found, exhibiting the "special functions" in this context. The corresponding Leibniz rule and group law are shown. Krawtchouk polynomials, the Hamming and the Johnson schemes appear naturally. Applications to the Boolean poset and the structure of Hadamard–Sylvester matrices are shown as well.
The Origin and Shaping of Planetary Nebulae: Putting the Binary Hypothesis to the Test

Planetary nebulae (PNs) are circumstellar gas ejected during an intense mass-losing phase in the lives of asymptotic giant branch stars. PNs have a stunning variety of shapes, most of which are not spherically symmetric. The debate over what makes and shapes the circumstellar gas of these evolved, intermediate mass stars has raged for two decades. Today the community is reaching a consensus that single stars cannot trivially manu- facture PNs and impart to them nonspherical shapes and that a binary companion, possibly even a substellar one, might be needed in a majority of cases. This theoretical conjecture has, however, not been tested observationally. In this review we discuss the problem from both the theoretical and observational standpoints, explaining the obstacles that stand in the way of a clean observational test and ways to ameliorate the situation. We also discuss indirect tests of this hypothesis and its implications for stellar and galactic astrophysics.
Median K-Flats for hybrid linear modeling with many outliers

We describe the MedianK-flats (MKF) algorithm, a simple online method for hybrid linear modeling, i.e., for approximating data by a mixture of flats. This algorithm simultaneously partitions the data into clusters while finding their corresponding best approximating l 1 d-flats, so that the cumulative l 1 error is minimized. The current implementation restricts d-flats to be d-dimensional linear subspaces. It requires a negligible amount of storage, and its complexity, when modeling data consisting of N points in ℝD with K d-dimensional linear subspaces, is of order O(n s · K · d · D + n s · d2 · D), where n s is the number of iterations required for convergence (empirically on the order of 104). Since it is an online algorithm, data can be supplied to it incrementally and it can incrementally produce the corresponding output. The performance of the algorithm is carefully evaluated using synthetic and real data.
Storage Capacity of Repairable Networks

In this paper, we introduce a model of a distributed storage system that is locally recoverable from any single server failure. Unlike the usual local recovery model of codes for distributed storage, this model accounts for the fact that each server or storage node in a network is connectable to only some, and not all other, nodes. This may happen for reasons such as physical separation, inhomogeneity in storage platforms, and so forth. We estimate the storage capacity of both undirected and directed networks under this model and propose some constructive schemes. From a coding theory point of view, we show that this model is approximately dual of the well-studied index coding problem. Furthermore, in this paper, we extend the above model to handle multiple server failures. Among other results, we provide an upper bound on the minimum pairwise distance of a set of words that can be stored in a graph with the local repair guarantee. The well-known impossibility bounds on the distance of locally recoverable codes follow from our result.
Understanding WIMP-baryon interactions with direct detection: a roadmap

We study prospects of dark-matter direct-detection searches for probing non-relativistic effective theory for WIMP-baryon scattering. We simulate a large set of noisy recoil-energy spectra for different scattering scenarios (beyond the standard momentum-independent contact interaction), for Generation 2 and futuristic experiments. We analyze these simulations and quantify the probability of successfully identifying the operator governing the scattering, if a WIMP signal is observed. We find that the success rate depends on a combination of factors: the WIMP mass, the mediator mass, the type of interaction, and the experimental energy window. For example, for a 20 GeV WIMP, Generation 2 is only likely to identify the right operator if the interaction is Coulomb-like, and is unlikely to do so in any other case. For a WIMP with a mass of 200 GeV or higher, success is almost guaranteed. We also find that, regardless of the scattering model and the WIMP parameters, a single Generation 2 experiment is unlikely to successfully discern the momentum dependence of the underlying operator on its own, but prospects improve drastically when experiments with different target materials and energy windows are analyzed jointly. Furthermore, we examine the quality of parameter estimation and degeneracies in the multi-dimensional parameter space of the effective theory. We find in particular that the resulting WIMP mass estimates can be severely biased if data are analyzed assuming the standard (momentum-independent) operator while the actual operator has momentum-dependence. Finally, we evaluate the ultimate reach of direct detection, finding that the prospects for successful operator selection prior to reaching the irreducible backgrounds are excellent, if the signal is just below the current limits, but slim if Generation 2 does not report WIMP detection.
Recent progress in understanding deconfinement and chiral restoration phase transitions

Paradigme shift in gauge topology, from instantons to their constituents – instanton-dyons – has recently lead to very significant advances. Like instantons, they have fermionic zero modes, and their collectivization at sufficiently high density explains the chiral symmetry breaking. Unlike instantons, these objects have electric and magnetic charges. Their back reaction on the mean value of the Polyakov line (holonomy) allows to explain the deconfinement transition. The talk summarizes recent works on the dyon ensemble, done in the mean field approximation (MFA), and also by direct numerical statistical simulation. Introduction of non-trivial quark periodicity conditions leads to drastic changes in both deconfinement and chiral transitions. In particulaly, in the so called Z (Nc ) – QCD model the former gets much stronger, while the latter does not seem to occur at all.
Advice from the oracle: really intelligent information retrieval

What is “intelligent” information retrieval? Essentially this is asking what is intelligence. In this article I will attempt to show some of the aspects of human intelligence, as related to information retrieval. I will do this by the device of a semi-imaginary oracle. Every Observatory has an oracle, someone who is a distinguished scientist, has great administrative responsibilities, acts as memtor to a number of less senior people, and as trusted advisor to even the most accomplished scientists, and knows essentially everyone in the field.
The Occurrence Rate of Small Planets Around Small Stars

We use the optical and near-infrared photometry from the Kepler Input Catalog to provide improved estimates of the stellar characteristics of the smallest stars in the Kepler target list. We find 3897 dwarfs with temperatures below 4000 K, including 64 planet candidate host stars orbited by 95 transiting planet candidates. We refit the transit events in the Kepler light curves for these planet candidates and combine the revised planet/star radius ratios with our improved stellar radii to revise the radii of the planet candidates orbiting the cool target stars. We then compare the number of observed planet candidates to the number of stars around which such planets could have been detected in order to estimate the planet occurrence rate around cool stars. We find that the occurrence rate of 0.5-4 R ⊕ planets with orbital periods shorter than 50 days is planets per star. The occurrence rate of Earth-size (0.5-1.4 R ⊕) planets is constant across the temperature range of our sample at Earth-size planets per star, but the occurrence of 1.4-4 R ⊕ planets decreases significantly at cooler temperatures. Our sample includes two Earth-size planet candidates in the habitable zone, allowing us to estimate that the mean number of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone is planets per cool star. Our 95% confidence lower limit on the occurrence rate of Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of cool stars is 0.04 planets per star. With 95% confidence, the nearest transiting Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of a cool star is within 21 pc. Moreover, the nearest non-transiting planet in the habitable zone is within 5 pc with 95% confidence.
Compiling with Continuations and LLVM

LLVM is an infrastructure for code generation and low-level optimizations, which has been gaining popularity as a backend for both research and industrial compilers, including many compilers for functional languages. While LLVM provides a relatively easy path to high-quality native code, its design is based on a traditional runtime model which is not well suited to alternative compilation strategies used in high-level language compilers, such as the use of heap-allocated continuation closures. This paper describes a new LLVM-based backend that supports heap-allocated continuation closures, which enables constant-time callcc and very-lightweight multithreading. The backend has been implemented in the Parallel ML compiler, which is part of the Manticore system, but the results should be useful for other compilers, such as Standard ML of New Jersey, that use heap-allocated continuation closures.
The Cheshire Cap

A key role in black hole dynamics is played by the inner horizon; most of the entropy of a slightly nonextremal charged or rotating black hole is carried there, and the covariant entropy bound suggests that the rest ‘floats’ in the region between the inner and outer horizon. An attempt to match this onto results of the microstate geometries program suggests that a ‘Higgs branch’ of underlying long string states of the configuration space realizes the degrees of freedom on the inner horizon, while the geometrical ‘Coulomb branch’ describes the black hole exterior; the inter-horizon region has excitations from both branches. Support for this proposal comes from an analysis of the way singularities develop in microstate geometries, and their close analogy to corresponding structures in fivebrane dynamics. These singularities signal the opening up of the long string degrees of freedom of the theory, which are partly visible from the geometry side. A conjectural picture of the black hole interior is proposed, wherein the long string degrees of freedom resolve the geometrical singularity on the inner horizon, yet are sufficiently nonlocal to communicate information to the outer horizon and beyond.
THE MASSIVE STAR POPULATION IN M101. III. SPECTRA AND PHOTOMETRY OF THE LUMINOUS AND VARIABLE STARS

We discuss moderate resolution spectra, multicolor photometry, and light curves of thirty-one of the most luminous stars and variables in the giant spiral M101. The majority are intermediate A to F-type supergiants. We present new photometry and light curves for three known “irregular blue variables” V2, V4 and V9) and identify a new candidate. Their spectra and variability confirm that they are LBV candidates and V9 may be in an LBV-like maximum light state or eruption.
Interpreting latent variables in factor models via convex optimization

Latent or unobserved phenomena pose a significant difficulty in data analysis as they induce complicated and confounding dependencies among a collection of observed variables. Factor analysis is a prominent multivariate statistical modeling approach that addresses this challenge by identifying the effects of (a small number of) latent variables on a set of observed variables. However, the latent variables in a factor model are purely mathematical objects that are derived from the observed phenomena, and they do not have any interpretation associated to them. A natural approach for attributing semantic information to the latent variables in a factor model is to obtain measurements of some additional plausibly useful covariates that may be related to the original set of observed variables, and to associate these auxiliary covariates to the latent variables. In this paper, we describe a systematic approach for identifying such associations. Our method is based on solving computationally tractable convex optimization problems, and it can be viewed as a generalization of the minimum-trace factor analysis procedure for fitting factor models via convex optimization. We analyze the theoretical consistency of our approach in a high-dimensional setting as well as its utility in practice via experimental demonstrations with real data.
A COMPARISON OF SPECTRAL ELEMENT AND FINITE DIFFERENCE METHODS USING STATICALLY REFINED NONCONFORMING GRIDS FOR THE MHD ISLAND COALESCENCE INSTABILITY PROBLEM

A recently developed spectral-element adaptive refinement incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code is applied to simulate the problem of MHD island coalescence instability (MICI) in two dimensions. MICI is a fundamental MHD process that can produce sharp current layers and subsequent reconnection and heating in a high-Lundquist number plasma such as the solar corona. Because of the formation of thin current layers, it is highly desirable to use adaptively or statically refined grids to resolve them and to maintain accuracy at the same time. The output of the spectral-element static adaptive refinement simulations are compared with simulations using a finite-difference method on the same refinement grids, and both methods are compared to pseudospectral simulations with uniform grids as baselines. It is shown that with the statically refined grids roughly scaling linearly with effective resolution, spectral element runs can maintain accuracy significantly higher than that of the finite-difference runs, in some cases achieving close to full spectral accuracy.
Velocity addition formulas in Robertson-Walker spacetimes

Universal velocity addition formulas analogous to the well-known formula in special relativity are found for four geometrically defined relative velocities in a large class of Robertson-Walker spacetimes. Explicit examples are given. The special relativity result is recovered as a special case, and it is shown that the spectroscopic relative velocity, in contrast to three other geometric relative velocities, follows the same addition law as in special relativity for comoving observers in Robertson-Walker cosmologies.
Undulation instabilities in cholesteric liquid crystals induced by anchoring transitions

In this work, the authors extend the classic Helfrich-Hurault model of undulation instabilities in periodic liquid crystals to account for patterns seen at the interface of cholesteric liquid crystal shells. The shell patterning is controlled experimentally by regulating the surrounding surfactant concentration. These patterns are then characterized by Landau-de Gennes simulations and a Helfrich-Hurault-like model, revealing how changes in liquid crystal anchoring can act as sources of strain in liquid crystal systems.
Two Compact Incremental Prime Sieves

A prime sieve is an algorithm that finds the primes up to a bound . We say that a prime sieve is incremental, if it can quickly determine if is prime after having found all primes up to . We say a sieve is compact if it uses roughly space or less. In this paper, we present two new results. – We describe the rolling sieve, a practical, incremental prime sieve that takes time and bits of space. – We also show how to modify the sieve of Atkin and Bernstein from 2004 to obtain a sieve that is simultaneously sublinear, compact, and incremental. The second result solves an open problem given by Paul Pritchard in 1994.
Unification Yang–Mills Groups and Representations with CP as a Gauge Symmetry

We investigate more generally the possible unification Yang–Mills groups GYM and representations with CP as a gauge symmetry. Besides the possible Yang–Mills groups E8, E7, SO(2n + 1), SO(4n), SP(2n), G2 or F4 (or a product of them) which only allow self-contragredient representations, we present other unification groups GYM and representations which may allow CP as a gauge symmetry. These include especially SU(N) containing Weyl fermions and their CP conjugates from low energy spectra in a basic irreducible representation (IR). Such an example is the 496-dimensional basic IR (on antisymmetric tensors of rank two) of SU(32) containing SO(32) as a subgroup in the adjoint IR, or SU(248) in a fundamental IR containing E8 as a subgroup in the adjoint IR. Our consideration also leads to the construction of a physical operator (CP) intrinsically as an inner automorphism of order higher than two for the unification group. We have also generalized the possible groups as unification GYM to include nonsemisimple Li...