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Published work

259 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

AcademiClaw: When Students Set Challenges for AI Agents

Benchmarks within the OpenClaw ecosystem have thus far evaluated exclusively assistant-level tasks, leaving the academic-level capabilities of OpenClaw largely unexamined. We introduce AcademiClaw, a bilingual benchmark of 80 complex, long-horizon tasks sourced directly from university students' real academic workflows -- homework, research projects, competitions, and personal projects -- that they found current AI agents unable to solve effectively. Curated from 230 student-submitted candidates through rigorous expert review, the final task set spans 25+ professional domains, ranging from olympiad-level mathematics and linguistics problems to GPU-intensive reinforcement learning and full-stack system debugging, with 16 tasks requiring CUDA GPU execution. Each task executes in an isolated Docker sandbox and is scored on task completion by multi-dimensional rubrics combining six complementary techniques, with an independent five-category safety audit providing additional behavioral analysis. Experiments on six frontier models show that even the best achieves only a 55\% pass rate. Further analysis uncovers sharp capability boundaries across task domains, divergent behavioral strategies among models, and a disconnect between token consumption and output quality, providing fine-grained diagnostic signals beyond what aggregate metrics reveal. We hope that AcademiClaw and its open-sourced data and code can serve as a useful resource for the OpenClaw community, driving progress toward agents that are more capable and versatile across the full breadth of real-world academic demands. All data and code are available at https://github.com/GAIR-NLP/AcademiClaw.

preprint2025arXiv

Prospect for measurement of CP-violating parameters of $B_s^0 \to ϕγ$ at the Tera Z factory

$b \to sγ$ transition is a critical flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) process that could be used to probe CP violation (CPV) and new physics (NP). We quantify the anticipated precision for measuring $B_s^0 \to ϕγ$ at the CEPC Z pole operation, showing that the relative statistical uncertainty could be as low as 0.16\%, improved by approximately two orders of magnitude compared to existing measurements. Additionally, we perform a time-dependent analysis of the $B_s^0 \to ϕγ$ decay, accounting for $B_s^0/\bar{B}_s^0$ mixing extract the mixing-induced and CP-violating parameters $\boldsymbol{\mathcal{A}_{ϕγ}^Δ}$, $\boldsymbol{C_{ϕγ}}$ and $\boldsymbol{S_{ϕγ}}$. Using central value from LHCb measurement as input, we evaluate the anticipated accuracy of measurements of these parameters. The projected statistical uncertainties are $σ_{A_{ϕγ}^Δ{}^{\text{stat}}} = 0.021$, $σ_C^{\text{stat}} = 0.0092$ and $σ_S^{\text{stat}} = 0.0096$, and the systematic uncertainties are $σ_{A_{ϕγ}^Δ{}^{\text{syst}}} = 0.035$, $σ_C^{\text{syst}} = 0.0027$ and $σ_S^{\text{syst}} = 0.0064$. Furthermore, the 1$σ$ sensitivity boundaries for NP in this study are found to be $\mathcal{A}_{ϕγ}^Δ< -0.05$ or $\mathcal{A}_{ϕγ}^Δ> 0.15$, $\mathcal{C}_{ϕγ} < -0.02$ or $\mathcal{C}_{ϕγ} > 0.04$, and $\mathcal{S}_{ϕγ} < -0.04$ or $\mathcal{S}_{ϕγ} > 0.04$. We also conduct a relevant detector optimization study by establishing the correlation between the anticipated precision and the intrinsic resolution of the ECAL, as well as the performance of the PID system.

preprint2024arXiv

InternVid: A Large-scale Video-Text Dataset for Multimodal Understanding and Generation

This paper introduces InternVid, a large-scale video-centric multimodal dataset that enables learning powerful and transferable video-text representations for multimodal understanding and generation. The InternVid dataset contains over 7 million videos lasting nearly 760K hours, yielding 234M video clips accompanied by detailed descriptions of total 4.1B words. Our core contribution is to develop a scalable approach to autonomously build a high-quality video-text dataset with large language models (LLM), thereby showcasing its efficacy in learning video-language representation at scale. Specifically, we utilize a multi-scale approach to generate video-related descriptions. Furthermore, we introduce ViCLIP, a video-text representation learning model based on ViT-L. Learned on InternVid via contrastive learning, this model demonstrates leading zero-shot action recognition and competitive video retrieval performance. Beyond basic video understanding tasks like recognition and retrieval, our dataset and model have broad applications. They are particularly beneficial for generating interleaved video-text data for learning a video-centric dialogue system, advancing video-to-text and text-to-video generation research. These proposed resources provide a tool for researchers and practitioners interested in multimodal video understanding and generation.

preprint2024arXiv

Investigation of the $ΔI = 1/2$ rule and test of CP violation through the measurement of decay asymmetry parameters in $Ξ^-$ decays

Using $(10087\pm44)\times 10^{6}$ $J/ψ$ events collected with the BESIII detector, numerous $Ξ^-$ and $Λ$ decay asymmetry parameters are simultaneously determined from the process $J/ψ\to Ξ^- \barΞ^+ \to Λ(pπ^-) π^- \barΛ(\bar{n} π^0) π^+$ and its charge-conjugate channel. The precisions of $α_0$ for $Λ\to nπ^0$ and $\barα_0$ for $\barΛ \to \bar{n}π^0$ compared to world averages are improved by factors of 4 and 1.7, respectively. The ratio of decay asymmetry parameters of $Λ\to nπ^0$ to that of $Λ\to pπ^-$, $\langle α_0 \rangle/ \langle α_{Λ-} \rangle $, is determined to be $ 0.873 \pm 0.012^{+0.011}_{-0.010}$, where the first and the second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The ratio is smaller than unity more than $5σ$, which signifies the existence of the $ΔI = 3/2$ transition in $Λ$ for the first time. Beside, we test for CP violation in $Ξ^- \to Λπ^-$ and in $Λ\to n π^{0}$ with the best precision to date.

preprint2024arXiv

VideoChat: Chat-Centric Video Understanding

In this paper, we initiate an attempt of developing an end-to-end chat-centric video understanding system, coined as VideoChat. It integrates video foundation models and large language models via a learnable neural interface, excelling in spatiotemporal reasoning, event localization, and causal relationship inference. To instructively tune this system, we build a video-centric instruction dataset, composed of thousands of videos associated with detailed descriptions and conversations. This dataset emphasizes spatiotemporal reasoning and captures causal relationships, providing a valuable asset for training our chat-centric video understanding system. Preliminary qualitative experiments demonstrate the potential of our system across a broad spectrum of video applications, which could serve as a simple prototype system for future research on chat-centric video understanding. Access our code and data at https://github.com/OpenGVLab/Ask-Anything

preprint2023arXiv

Guidelines in Wastewater-based Epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 with Diagnosis

With the global spread and increasing transmission rate of SARS-CoV-2, more and more laboratories and researchers are turning their attention to wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), hoping it can become an effective tool for large-scale testing and provide more ac-curate predictions of the number of infected individuals. Based on the cases of sewage sampling and testing in some regions such as Hong Kong, Brazil, and the United States, the feasibility of detecting the novel coronavirus in sewage is extremely high. This study re-views domestic and international achievements in detecting SARS-CoV-2 through WBE and summarizes four aspects of COVID-19, including sampling methods, virus decay rate cal-culation, standardized population coverage of the watershed, algorithm prediction, and provides ideas for combining field modeling with epidemic prevention and control. Moreover, we highlighted some diagnostic techniques for detection of the virus from sew-age sample. Our review is a new approach in identification of the research gaps in waste water-based epidemiology and diagnosis and we also predict the future prospect of our analysis.

preprint2023arXiv

Microlensing effect of charged spherically symmetric wormhole

We systematically investigate the microlensing effect of charged spherically symmetric wormhole, where the light source is remote from the throat. Remarkably, there will be at most three images by considering the charge part. We study all situations including three images, two images, and one image, respectively. The numerical result shows that the range of total magnification is from $10^5$ to $10^{-2}$ depending on various metrics. In the case of three images, there will be two maximal values of magnification (a peak, and a gentle peak) when the contribution via mass is much less than that of charge. However, we cannot distinguish the case that forms three images or only one image as the total magnification is of order $10^5$. Finally, our theoretical investigation could shed new light on exploring the wormhole with the microlensing effect.

preprint2022arXiv

1st Place Solutions for RxR-Habitat Vision-and-Language Navigation Competition (CVPR 2022)

This report presents the methods of the winning entry of the RxR-Habitat Competition in CVPR 2022. The competition addresses the problem of Vision-and-Language Navigation in Continuous Environments (VLN-CE), which requires an agent to follow step-by-step natural language instructions to reach a target. We present a modular plan-and-control approach for the task. Our model consists of three modules: the candidate waypoints predictor (CWP), the history enhanced planner and the tryout controller. In each decision loop, CWP first predicts a set of candidate waypoints based on depth observations from multiple views. It can reduce the complexity of the action space and facilitate planning. Then, a history-enhanced planner is adopted to select one of the candidate waypoints as the subgoal. The planner additionally encodes historical memory to track the navigation progress, which is especially effective for long-horizon navigation. Finally, we propose a non-parametric heuristic controller named tryout to execute low-level actions to reach the planned subgoal. It is based on the trial-and-error mechanism which can help the agent to avoid obstacles and escape from getting stuck. All three modules work hierarchically until the agent stops. We further take several recent advances of Vision-and-Language Navigation (VLN) to improve the performance such as pretraining based on large-scale synthetic in-domain dataset, environment-level data augmentation and snapshot model ensemble. Our model won the RxR-Habitat Competition 2022, with 48% and 90% relative improvements over existing methods on NDTW and SR metrics respectively.

preprint2022arXiv

A Comprehensive Review of Deep Learning-based Single Image Super-resolution

Image super-resolution (SR) is one of the vital image processing methods that improve the resolution of an image in the field of computer vision. In the last two decades, significant progress has been made in the field of super-resolution, especially by utilizing deep learning methods. This survey is an effort to provide a detailed survey of recent progress in single-image super-resolution in the perspective of deep learning while also informing about the initial classical methods used for image super-resolution. The survey classifies the image SR methods into four categories, i.e., classical methods, supervised learning-based methods, unsupervised learning-based methods, and domain-specific SR methods. We also introduce the problem of SR to provide intuition about image quality metrics, available reference datasets, and SR challenges. Deep learning-based approaches of SR are evaluated using a reference dataset. Some of the reviewed state-of-the-art image SR methods include the enhanced deep SR network (EDSR), cycle-in-cycle GAN (CinCGAN), multiscale residual network (MSRN), meta residual dense network (Meta-RDN), recurrent back-projection network (RBPN), second-order attention network (SAN), SR feedback network (SRFBN) and the wavelet-based residual attention network (WRAN). Finally, this survey is concluded with future directions and trends in SR and open problems in SR to be addressed by the researchers.

preprint2022arXiv

A Global Modeling Approach for Load Forecasting in Distribution Networks

Efficient load forecasting is needed to ensure better observability in the distribution networks, whereas such forecasting is made possible by an increasing number of smart meter installations. Because distribution networks include a large amount of different loads at various aggregation levels, such as individual consumers, transformer stations and feeders loads, it is impractical to develop individual (or so-called local) forecasting models for each load separately. Furthermore, such local models ignore the strong dependencies between different loads that might be present due to their spatial proximity and the characteristics of the distribution network. To address these issues, this paper proposes a global modeling approach based on deep learning for efficient forecasting of a large number of loads in distribution networks. In this way, the computational burden of training a large amount of local forecasting models can be largely reduced, and the cross-series information shared among different loads can be utilized. Additionally, an unsupervised localization mechanism and optimal ensemble construction strategy are also proposed to localize/personalize the forecasting model to different groups of loads and to improve the forecasting accuracy further. Comprehensive experiments are conducted on real-world smart meter data to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach compared to competing methods.

preprint2022arXiv

A multi view multi stage and multi window framework for pulmonary artery segmentation from CT scans

This is the technical report of the 9th place in the final result of PARSE2022 Challenge. We solve the segmentation problem of the pulmonary artery by using a two-stage method based on a 3D CNN network. The coarse model is used to locate the ROI, and the fine model is used to refine the segmentation result. In addition, in order to improve the segmentation performance, we adopt multi-view and multi-window level method, at the same time we employ a fine-tune strategy to mitigate the impact of inconsistent labeling.

preprint2022arXiv

A Solution to the Temperature Evolution of Multi-well Free-energy Landscape

It has been a grand challenge to resolve the temperature evolution of multi-well free-energy landscape which is fundamentally relevant to phase transitions and associated critical phenomena as listed by Ginzburg [Rev. Mod. Phys. 76 (2004) 981]. To address this challenge, here we provide a simple solution based on a priori concept of Boltzmann thermal mixing among multiple parabolic potentials. The success and the impact of the present approach have been extensively demonstrated using a variety of materials, including Nb, YBa2Cu3O(7-x), Ca3Ru2O7, Ni, BiFeO3, and PbTiO3.

preprint2022arXiv

Beam Training and Tracking in MmWave Communication: A Survey

Communicating on millimeter wave (mmWave) bands is ushering in a new epoch of mobile communication which provides the availability of 10 Gbps high data rate transmission. However, mmWave links are easily prone to short transmission range communication because of the serious free space path loss and the blockage by obstacles. To overcome these challenges, highly directional beams are exploited to achieve robust links by hybrid beamforming. Accurately aligning the transmitter and receiver beams, i.e. beam training, is vitally important to high data rate transmission. However, it may cause huge overhead which has negative effects on initial access, handover, and tracking. Besides, the mobility patterns of users are complicated and dynamic, which may cause tracking error and large tracking latency. An efficient beam tracking method has a positive effect on sustaining robust links. This article provides an overview of the beam training and tracking technologies on mmWave bands and reveals the insights for future research in the 6th Generation (6G) mobile network. Especially, some open research problems are proposed to realize fast, accurate, and robust beam training and tracking. We hope that this survey provides guidelines for the researchers in the area of mmWave communications.

preprint2022arXiv

Calibration-Free Travel Time After Photobleaching Velocimetry

In interfacial science, there is an increasing need to measure flow velocity fields at interfaces with ultrahigh spatial and temporal resolution to study transport phenomena. Although laser-induced fluorescence photobleaching anemometry (LIFPA) has achieved nanoscopic resolution for flow measurement, it requires pre-calibration, which is unavailable for unknown flows. We present a novel, calibration-free travel time after photobleaching velocimeter (TTAPV) which can both measure fluid flow velocity and satisfy the long-anticipated need of calibration for LIFPA.

preprint2022arXiv

Conformer Based Elderly Speech Recognition System for Alzheimer's Disease Detection

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is crucial in facilitating preventive care to delay further progression. This paper presents the development of a state-of-the-art Conformer based speech recognition system built on the DementiaBank Pitt corpus for automatic AD detection. The baseline Conformer system trained with speed perturbation and SpecAugment based data augmentation is significantly improved by incorporating a set of purposefully designed modeling features, including neural architecture search based auto-configuration of domain-specific Conformer hyper-parameters in addition to parameter fine-tuning; fine-grained elderly speaker adaptation using learning hidden unit contributions (LHUC); and two-pass cross-system rescoring based combination with hybrid TDNN systems. An overall word error rate (WER) reduction of 13.6% absolute (34.8% relative) was obtained on the evaluation data of 48 elderly speakers. Using the final systems' recognition outputs to extract textual features, the best-published speech recognition based AD detection accuracy of 91.7% was obtained.

preprint2022arXiv

Cutting Rule for Cosmological Collider Signals: A Bulk Evolution Perspective

We show that the evolution of interacting massive particles in the de Sitter bulk can be understood at leading order as a series of resonant decay and production events. From this perspective, we classify the cosmological collider signals into local and nonlocal categories with drastically different physical origins. This further allows us to derive a cutting rule for efficiently extracting these cosmological collider signals in an analytical fashion. Our cutting rule is a practical way for extracting cosmological collider signals in model building, and can be readily implemented as symbolic computational packages in the future.

preprint2022arXiv

Exploring linguistic feature and model combination for speech recognition based automatic AD detection

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is crucial in facilitating preventive care and delay progression. Speech based automatic AD screening systems provide a non-intrusive and more scalable alternative to other clinical screening techniques. Scarcity of such specialist data leads to uncertainty in both model selection and feature learning when developing such systems. To this end, this paper investigates the use of feature and model combination approaches to improve the robustness of domain fine-tuning of BERT and Roberta pre-trained text encoders on limited data, before the resulting embedding features being fed into an ensemble of backend classifiers to produce the final AD detection decision via majority voting. Experiments conducted on the ADReSS20 Challenge dataset suggest consistent performance improvements were obtained using model and feature combination in system development. State-of-the-art AD detection accuracies of 91.67 percent and 93.75 percent were obtained using manual and ASR speech transcripts respectively on the ADReSS20 test set consisting of 48 elderly speakers.

preprint2022arXiv

First report of a solar energetic particle event observed by China's Tianwen-1 mission in transit to Mars

Solar energetic particles (SEPs) associated with flares and/or coronal mass ejection (CME)-driven shocks can impose acute radiation hazards to space explorations. To measure energetic particles in near-Mars space, the Mars Energetic Particle Analyzer (MEPA) instrument onboard China's Tianwen-1 (TW-1) mission was designed. Here, we report the first MEPA measurements of the widespread SEP event occurring on 29 November 2020 when TW-1 was in transit to Mars. This event occurred when TW-1 and Earth were magnetically well connected, known as the Hohmann-Parker effect, thus offering a rare opportunity to understand the underlying particle acceleration and transport process. Measurements from TW-1 and near-Earth spacecraft show similar double-power-law spectra and a radial dependence of the SEP peak intensities. Moreover, the decay phases of the time-intensity profiles at different locations clearly show the reservoir effect. We conclude that the double-power-law spectrum is likely generated at the acceleration site, and that a small but finite cross-field diffusion is crucial to understand the formation of the SEP reservoir phenomenon. These results provide insight into particle acceleration and transport associated with CME-driven shocks, which may contribute to the improvement of relevant physical models.

preprint2022arXiv

Homologous Coronal Mass Ejections Caused by Recurring Formation and Disruption of Current Sheet within a Sheared Magnetic Arcade

The Sun often produces coronal mass ejections with similar structure repeatedly from the same source region, and how these homologous eruptions are initiated remains an open question. Here, by using a new magnetohydrodynamic simulation, we show that homologous solar eruptions can be efficiently produced by recurring formation and disruption of coronal current sheet as driven by continuously shearing of the same polarity inversion line within a single bipolar configuration. These eruptions are initiated by the same mechanism, in which an internal current sheet forms slowly in a gradually sheared bipolar field and reconnection of the current sheet triggers and drives the eruption. Each of the eruptions does not release all the free energy but with a large amount left in the post-flare arcade below the erupting flux rope. Thus, a new current sheet can be more easily formed by further shearing of the post-flare arcade than by shearing a potential field arcade, and this is favorable for producing the next eruption. Furthermore, it is found that the new eruption is stronger since the newly formed current sheet has a larger current density and a lower height. In addition, our results also indicate the existence of a magnetic energy threshold for a given flux distribution, and eruption occurs once this threshold is approached.

preprint2022arXiv

Long-run User Value Optimization in Recommender Systems through Content Creation Modeling

Content recommender systems are generally adept at maximizing immediate user satisfaction but to optimize for the \textit{long-run} user value, we need more statistically sophisticated solutions than off-the-shelf simple recommender algorithms. In this paper we lay out such a solution to optimize \textit{long-run} user value through discounted utility maximization and a machine learning method we have developed for estimating it. Our method estimates which content producers are most likely to create the highest long-run user value if their content is shown more to users who enjoy it in the present. We do this estimation with the help of an A/B test and heterogeneous effects machine learning model. We have used such models in Facebook's feed ranking system, and such a model can be used in other recommender systems.

preprint2022arXiv

Mass Testing and Characterization of 20-inch PMTs for JUNO

Main goal of the JUNO experiment is to determine the neutrino mass ordering using a 20kt liquid-scintillator detector. Its key feature is an excellent energy resolution of at least 3 % at 1 MeV, for which its instruments need to meet a certain quality and thus have to be fully characterized. More than 20,000 20-inch PMTs have been received and assessed by JUNO after a detailed testing program which began in 2017 and elapsed for about four years. Based on this mass characterization and a set of specific requirements, a good quality of all accepted PMTs could be ascertained. This paper presents the performed testing procedure with the designed testing systems as well as the statistical characteristics of all 20-inch PMTs intended to be used in the JUNO experiment, covering more than fifteen performance parameters including the photocathode uniformity. This constitutes the largest sample of 20-inch PMTs ever produced and studied in detail to date, i.e. 15,000 of the newly developed 20-inch MCP-PMTs from Northern Night Vision Technology Co. (NNVT) and 5,000 of dynode PMTs from Hamamatsu Photonics K. K.(HPK).

preprint2022arXiv

MAT: Mask-Aware Transformer for Large Hole Image Inpainting

Recent studies have shown the importance of modeling long-range interactions in the inpainting problem. To achieve this goal, existing approaches exploit either standalone attention techniques or transformers, but usually under a low resolution in consideration of computational cost. In this paper, we present a novel transformer-based model for large hole inpainting, which unifies the merits of transformers and convolutions to efficiently process high-resolution images. We carefully design each component of our framework to guarantee the high fidelity and diversity of recovered images. Specifically, we customize an inpainting-oriented transformer block, where the attention module aggregates non-local information only from partial valid tokens, indicated by a dynamic mask. Extensive experiments demonstrate the state-of-the-art performance of the new model on multiple benchmark datasets. Code is released at https://github.com/fenglinglwb/MAT.

preprint2022arXiv

Monitoring Urban Forests from Auto-Generated Segmentation Maps

We present and evaluate a weakly-supervised methodology to quantify the spatio-temporal distribution of urban forests based on remotely sensed data with close-to-zero human interaction. Successfully training machine learning models for semantic segmentation typically depends on the availability of high-quality labels. We evaluate the benefit of high-resolution, three-dimensional point cloud data (LiDAR) as source of noisy labels in order to train models for the localization of trees in orthophotos. As proof of concept we sense Hurricane Sandy's impact on urban forests in Coney Island, New York City (NYC) and reference it to less impacted urban space in Brooklyn, NYC.

preprint2022arXiv

Moving Towards Centers: Re-ranking with Attention and Memory for Re-identification

Re-ranking utilizes contextual information to optimize the initial ranking list of person or vehicle re-identification (re-ID), which boosts the retrieval performance at post-processing steps. This paper proposes a re-ranking network to predict the correlations between the probe and top-ranked neighbor samples. Specifically, all the feature embeddings of query and gallery images are expanded and enhanced by a linear combination of their neighbors, with the correlation prediction serving as discriminative combination weights. The combination process is equivalent to moving independent embeddings toward the identity centers, improving cluster compactness. For correlation prediction, we first aggregate the contextual information for probe's k-nearest neighbors via the Transformer encoder. Then, we distill and refine the probe-related features into the Contextual Memory cell via attention mechanism. Like humans that retrieve images by not only considering probe images but also memorizing the retrieved ones, the Contextual Memory produces multi-view descriptions for each instance. Finally, the neighbors are reconstructed with features fetched from the Contextual Memory, and a binary classifier predicts their correlations with the probe. Experiments on six widely-used person and vehicle re-ID benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Especially, our method surpasses the state-of-the-art re-ranking approaches on large-scale datasets by a significant margin, i.e., with an average 4.83% CMC@1 and 14.83% mAP improvements on VERI-Wild, MSMT17, and VehicleID datasets.

preprint2022arXiv

Nonlinear stability of planar viscous shock wave to three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations

We prove the nonlinear stability of the planar viscous shock up to a time-dependent shift for the three-dimensional (3D) compressible Navier-Stokes equations under the generic perturbations, in particular, without zero mass conditions. Moreover, the time-dependent shift function keeps the shock profile shape time-asymptotically. Our stability result is unconditional for the weak planar Navier-Stokes shock. Our proof is motivated by the $a$-contraction method (a kind of weighted $L^2$-relative entropy method) with time-dependent shift introduced in [10,11,13] for the stability of viscous shock in one-dimensional (1D) case. Instead of the classical anti-derivative techniques, we perform the stability analysis of planar Navier-Stokes shock in original $H^2$-perturbation framework and therefore zero mass conditions are not necessarily needed, which, in turn, brings out the essential difficulties due to the compressibility of viscous shock. Furthermore, compared with 1D case, there are additional difficulties coming from the wave propagation along the multi-dimensional transverse directions and their interactions with the viscous shock. To overcome these difficulties, a multi-dimensional version sharp weighted Poincar${\rm \acute{e}}$ inequality (see Lemma 3.1), $a$-contraction techniques with time-dependent shift, and some essential physical structures of the multi-dimensional Navier-Stokes system are fully used.

preprint2022arXiv

Numerical prescriptions of early-time divergences of the in-in formalism

In quantum field theory, the in and out states can be related to the full Hamiltonian by the $iε$ prescription. A Wick rotation can further bring the correlation functions to Euclidean spacetime where the integrals are better defined. This setup is convenient for analytical calculations. However, for numerical calculations, an infinitesimal $ε$ or a Wick rotation of numerical functions are difficult to implement. We propose two new numerical methods to solve this problem, namely an Integral Basis method based on linear regression and a Beta Regulator method based on Cesàro/Riesz summation. Another class of partition-extrapolation methods previously used in electromagnetic engineering is also introduced. We benchmark these methods with existing methods using in-in formalism integrals, indicating advantages of these new methods over the existing methods in computation time and accuracy.

preprint2022arXiv

Numerical Simulation of Solar Magnetic Flux Emergence Using the AMR--CESE--MHD Code

Magnetic flux emergence from the solar interior to the atmosphere is believed to be a key process of formation of solar active regions and driving solar eruptions. Due to the limited capability of observation, the flux emergence process is commonly studied using numerical simulations. In this paper, we developed a numerical model to simulate the emergence of a twisted magnetic flux tube from the convection zone to the corona using the AMR--CESE--MHD code, which is based on the conservation-element solution-element method with adaptive mesh refinement. The result of our simulation agrees with that of many previous ones with similar initial conditions but using different numerical codes. In the early stage, the flux tube rises from the convection zone as driven by the magnetic buoyancy until it reaches close to the photosphere. The emergence is decelerated there and with piling-up of the magnetic flux, the magnetic buoyancy instability is triggered, which allows the magnetic field to partially enter into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, two gradually separated polarity concentration zones appear in the photospheric layer, transporting the magnetic field and energy into the atmosphere through their vortical and shearing motions. Correspondingly, the coronal magnetic field has also been reshaped to a sigmoid configuration containing a thin current layer, which resembles the typical pre-eruptive magnetic configuration of an active region. Such a numerical framework of magnetic flux emergence as established will be applied in future investigations of how solar eruptions are initiated in flux emergence active regions.

preprint2022arXiv

On the $p$-essential normality of principal submodules of the Bergman module on strongly pseudoconvex domains

In this paper, we show that under a mild condition, a principal submodule of the Bergman module on a bounded strongly pseudoconvex domain with smooth boundary in $\mathbb{C}^n$ is $p$-essentially normal for all $p>n$. This improves a previous result by the first author and K. Wang, in which it was shown that any polynomial-generated principal submodule of the Bergman module on the unit ball $\mathbb{B}_n$ is $p$-essentially normal for all $p>n$. As a consequence, we show that the submodule of $L_a^2(\mathbb{B}_n)$ consisting of functions vanishing on an analytic subset of pure codimension $1$ is $p$-essentially normal for all $p>n$.

preprint2022arXiv

Prevalent behavior and almost sure Poincare-Bendixson Theorem for smooth flows with invariant k-cones

We investigate the global dynamics from a measure-theoretic perspective for smooth flows with invariant cones of rank k. For such systems, it is shown that prevalent (or equivalently, almost all) orbits will be pseudo-ordered or convergent to equilibria. This reduces to Hirsch's prevalent convergence Theorem if the rank k=1; and implies an almost-sure Poincare-Bendixson Theorem for the case k=2. These results are then applied to obtain an almost sure Poincare-Bendixson theorem for high-dimensional differential equations.

preprint2022arXiv

Quality-Constant Per-Shot Encoding by Two-Pass Learning-based Rate Factor Prediction

Providing quality-constant streams can simultaneously guarantee user experience and prevent wasting bit-rate. In this paper, we propose a novel deep learning based two-pass encoder parameter prediction framework to decide rate factor (RF), with which encoder can output streams with constant quality. For each one-shot segment in a video, the proposed method firstly extracts spatial, temporal and pre-coding features by an ultra fast pre-process. Based on these features, a RF parameter is predicted by a deep neural network. Video encoder uses the RF to compress segment as the first encoding pass. Then VMAF quality of the first pass encoding is measured. If the quality doesn't meet target, a second pass RF prediction and encoding will be performed. With the help of first pass predicted RF and corresponding actual quality as feedback, the second pass prediction will be highly accurate. Experiments show the proposed method requires only 1.55 times encoding complexity on average, meanwhile the accuracy, that the compressed video's actual VMAF is within $\pm1$ around the target VMAF, reaches 98.88%.

preprint2022arXiv

Robust Anomaly Detection for Time-series Data

Time-series anomaly detection plays a vital role in monitoring complex operation conditions. However, the detection accuracy of existing approaches is heavily influenced by pattern distribution, existence of multiple normal patterns, dynamical features representation, and parameter settings. For the purpose of improving the robustness and guaranteeing the accuracy, this research combined the strengths of negative selection, unthresholded recurrence plots, and an extreme learning machine autoencoder and then proposed robust anomaly detection for time-series data (RADTD), which can automatically learn dynamical features in time series and recognize anomalies with low label dependency and high robustness. Yahoo benchmark datasets and three tunneling engineering simulation experiments were used to evaluate the performance of RADTD. The experiments showed that in benchmark datasets RADTD possessed higher accuracy and robustness than recurrence qualification analysis and extreme learning machine autoencoder, respectively, and that RADTD accurately detected the occurrence of tunneling settlement accidents, indicating its remarkable performance in accuracy and robustness.

preprint2022arXiv

Scale-invariant enhancement of gravitational waves during inflation

The inflationary 1-loop tensor power spectrum from an excited spectator scalar field is calculated. Recent studies on primordial black holes suggest that the inflationary curvature perturbation may be huge on small scales. An enhanced curvature perturbation may arise from a drastic enhancement of spectator scalar field fluctuations. In this letter, using the in-in formalism, we calculate 1-loop quantum corrections to primordial gravitational waves by such an excited spectator field with a sharp peak in momentum space. We find scale-invariant loop corrections in this full quantum setup, in contrast to the sharply peaked corrections in the previously calculated scalar-induced tensor modes. Especially, on super Hubble scales, the primordial gravitational waves are also amplified, which can be understood as a Bogolyubov transformation of the vacuum due to the excited scalar field. This mechanism allows us to probe the scalar field properties on extremely short-distance scales with the current and future cosmic microwave background and gravitational wave experiments, opening a novel window for inflationary cosmology.

preprint2022arXiv

Self-supervised Learning in Remote Sensing: A Review

In deep learning research, self-supervised learning (SSL) has received great attention triggering interest within both the computer vision and remote sensing communities. While there has been a big success in computer vision, most of the potential of SSL in the domain of earth observation remains locked. In this paper, we provide an introduction to, and a review of the concepts and latest developments in SSL for computer vision in the context of remote sensing. Further, we provide a preliminary benchmark of modern SSL algorithms on popular remote sensing datasets, verifying the potential of SSL in remote sensing and providing an extended study on data augmentations. Finally, we identify a list of promising directions of future research in SSL for earth observation (SSL4EO) to pave the way for fruitful interaction of both domains.

preprint2022arXiv

Self-supervised Vision Transformers for Joint SAR-optical Representation Learning

Self-supervised learning (SSL) has attracted much interest in remote sensing and earth observation due to its ability to learn task-agnostic representations without human annotation. While most of the existing SSL works in remote sensing utilize ConvNet backbones and focus on a single modality, we explore the potential of vision transformers (ViTs) for joint SAR-optical representation learning. Based on DINO, a state-of-the-art SSL algorithm that distills knowledge from two augmented views of an input image, we combine SAR and optical imagery by concatenating all channels to a unified input. Subsequently, we randomly mask out channels of one modality as a data augmentation strategy. While training, the model gets fed optical-only, SAR-only, and SAR-optical image pairs learning both inner- and intra-modality representations. Experimental results employing the BigEarthNet-MM dataset demonstrate the benefits of both, the ViT backbones and the proposed multimodal SSL algorithm DINO-MM.

preprint2022arXiv

Spectra of weighted uniform hypertrees

Let $T$ be a $k$-tree equipped with a weighting function $\w: V(T)\cup E(T)\rightarrow \C$, where $k \geq 3$. The weighted matching polynomial of the weighted $k$-tree $(T,\w)$ is defined to be $$ μ(T,\w,x)= \sum_{M \in \mathcal{M}(T)}(-1)^{|M|}\prod_{e \in E(M)}\mathbf{w}(e)^k \prod_{v \in V(T)\backslash V(M)}(x-\w(v)), $$ where $\mathcal{M}(T)$ denotes the set of matchings (including empty set) of $T$. In this paper, we investigate the eigenvalues of the adjacency tensor $\A(T,\w)$ of the weighted $k$-tree $(T,\w)$. The main result provides that $\w(v)$ is an eigenvalue of $\A(T,\w)$ for every $v\in V(T)$, and if $λ\neq \w(v)$ for every $v\in V(T)$, then $λ$ is an eigenvalue of $\A(T,\w)$ if and only if there exists a subtree $T'$ of $T$ such that $λ$ is a root of $μ(T',\w,x)$. Moreover, the spectral radius of $\A(T,\w)$ is equal to the largest root of $μ(T,\w,x)$ when $\w$ is real and nonnegative. The result extends a work by Clark and Cooper ({\em On the adjacency spectra of hypertrees, Electron. J. Combin., 25 (2)(2018) $\#$P2.48}) to weighted $k$-trees. As applications, two analogues of the above work for the Laplacian and the signless Laplacian tensors of $k$-trees are obtained.

preprint2022arXiv

Stability of quermassintegral inequalities along inverse curvature flows

In this paper, we consider the stability of quermassintegral inequalities along a inverse curvature flow. We choose a special rescaling of the flow such that the $k$-th quermassintegral is decreasing and the $k-1$-th quermassintegral is preserved. Along this rescaled flow, we prove that the decreasing rate of the $k$-th quermassintegral is faster than the Fraenkel asymmetry of the domain when approaching to the sphere. This leads to the stability inequality of quermassintegral inequalities for nearly spherical sets using the flow method.

preprint2022arXiv

TAFNet: A Three-Stream Adaptive Fusion Network for RGB-T Crowd Counting

In this paper, we propose a three-stream adaptive fusion network named TAFNet, which uses paired RGB and thermal images for crowd counting. Specifically, TAFNet is divided into one main stream and two auxiliary streams. We combine a pair of RGB and thermal images to constitute the input of main stream. Two auxiliary streams respectively exploit RGB image and thermal image to extract modality-specific features. Besides, we propose an Information Improvement Module (IIM) to fuse the modality-specific features into the main stream adaptively. Experiment results on RGBT-CC dataset show that our method achieves more than 20% improvement on mean average error and root mean squared error compared with state-of-the-art method. The source code will be publicly available at https://github.com/TANGHAIHAN/TAFNet.

preprint2022arXiv

Termination of Superradiance from a Binary Companion

We study the impact of a binary companion on black hole superradiance at orbital frequencies away from the gravitational-collider-physics (GCP) resonance bands. A superradiant state can couple to a strongly absorptive state via the tidal perturbation of the companion, thereby acquiring a suppressed superradiance rate. Below a critical binary separation, this superradiance rate becomes negative, and the boson cloud gets absorbed by the black hole. This critical binary separation leads to tight constraints on GCP. Especially, a companion with mass ratio $q>10^{-3}$ invalidates all GCP fine structure transitions, as well as almost all Bohr transitions except those from the $|ψ_{211}\rangle$ state. Meanwhile, the backreaction on the companion manifests itself as a torque acting on the binary, producing floating/sinking orbits that can be verified via pulsar timing. In addition, the possible termination of cloud growth may help to alleviate the current bounds on the ultralight boson mass from various null detections.

preprint2022arXiv

The Yamabe flow on asymptotically Euclidean manifolds with nonpositive Yamabe constant

We study the Yamabe flow on asymptotically flat manifolds with non-positive Yamabe constant $Y\leq 0$. Previous work by the second and third named authors \cite{ChenWang} showed that while the Yamabe flow always converges in a global weighted sense when $Y>0$, the flow must diverge when $Y\leq 0$. We show here in the $Y\leq 0$ case however that after suitable rescalings, the Yamabe flow starting from any asymptotically flat manifold must converge to the unique positive function which solves the Yamabe problem on a compactification of the original manifold.

preprint2022arXiv

Thermodynamic modeling with uncertainty quantification using the modified quasichemical model in quadruplet approximation: Implementation into PyCalphad and ESPEI

The modified quasichemical model in the quadruplet approximation (MQMQA) considers the first- and the second-nearest-neighbor coordination and interactions, particularly useful in describing short-range ordering in complex liquids such as molten salts, slag in metal processing, and electrolytic solutions. The present work implements the MQMQA into the Python based open-source software PyCalphad for thermodynamic calculations. This endeavor facilitates the development of MQMQA-based thermodynamic database with uncertainty quantification (UQ) using the open-source software ESPEI. A new database structure based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) is proposed for ESPEI evaluation of MQMQA model parameters. Using the KF-NiF2 system as an example, we demonstrate the successful implementation of MQMQA in PyCalphad through thermodynamic calculations of Gibbs energy, equilibrium quadruplet fractions, and phase diagram, as well as database development with UQ using ESPEI. The present implementation offers an open-source capability for performing CALPHAD modeling for complex liquids with short-range ordering using MQMQA.

preprint2022arXiv

Towards Implicit Text-Guided 3D Shape Generation

In this work, we explore the challenging task of generating 3D shapes from text. Beyond the existing works, we propose a new approach for text-guided 3D shape generation, capable of producing high-fidelity shapes with colors that match the given text description. This work has several technical contributions. First, we decouple the shape and color predictions for learning features in both texts and shapes, and propose the word-level spatial transformer to correlate word features from text with spatial features from shape. Also, we design a cyclic loss to encourage consistency between text and shape, and introduce the shape IMLE to diversify the generated shapes. Further, we extend the framework to enable text-guided shape manipulation. Extensive experiments on the largest existing text-shape benchmark manifest the superiority of this work. The code and the models are available at https://github.com/liuzhengzhe/Towards-Implicit Text-Guided-Shape-Generation.

preprint2022arXiv

Ultrahigh-energy Gamma Rays and Gravitational Waves from Primordial Exotic Stellar Bubbles

We put forward a novel class of exotic celestial objects that can be produced through phase transitions occurred in the primordial Universe. These objects appear as bubbles of stellar sizes and can be dominated by primordial black holes (PBHs). We report that, due to the processes of Hawking radiation and binary evolution of PBHs inside these stellar bubbles, both electromagnetic and gravitational radiations can be emitted that are featured on the gamma-ray spectra and stochastic gravitational waves (GWs). Our results reveal that, depending on the mass distribution, the exotic stellar bubbles consisting of PBHs provide not only a decent fit for the ultrahigh-energy gamma-ray spectrum reported by the recent LHAASO experiment, but also predict GW signals that are expected to be tested by the forthcoming GW surveys.

preprint2022arXiv

UMSNet: An Universal Multi-sensor Network for Human Activity Recognition

Human activity recognition (HAR) based on multimodal sensors has become a rapidly growing branch of biometric recognition and artificial intelligence. However, how to fully mine multimodal time series data and effectively learn accurate behavioral features has always been a hot topic in this field. Practical applications also require a well-generalized framework that can quickly process a variety of raw sensor data and learn better feature representations. This paper proposes a universal multi-sensor network (UMSNet) for human activity recognition. In particular, we propose a new lightweight sensor residual block (called LSR block), which improves the performance by reducing the number of activation function and normalization layers, and adding inverted bottleneck structure and grouping convolution. Then, the Transformer is used to extract the relationship of series features to realize the classification and recognition of human activities. Our framework has a clear structure and can be directly applied to various types of multi-modal Time Series Classification (TSC) tasks after simple specialization. Extensive experiments show that the proposed UMSNet outperforms other state-of-the-art methods on two popular multi-sensor human activity recognition datasets (i.e. HHAR dataset and MHEALTH dataset).

preprint2022arXiv

Universal uncertainty estimation for nuclear detector signals with neural networks and ensemble learning

Characterizing uncertainty is a common issue in nuclear measurement and has important implications for reliable physical discovery. Traditional methods are either insufficient to cope with the heterogeneous nature of uncertainty or inadequate to perform well with unknown mathematical models. In this paper, we propose using multi-layer convolutional neural networks for empirical uncertainty estimation and feature extraction of nuclear pulse signals. This method is based on deep learning, a recent development of machine learning techniques, which learns the desired mapping function from training data and generalizes to unseen test data. Furthermore, ensemble learning is utilized to estimate the uncertainty originating from trainable parameters of the network and to improve the robustness of the whole model. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, simulation studies, in comparison with curve fitting, investigate extensive conditions and show its universal applicability. Finally, a case study is made using data from a NICA-MPD electromagnetic calorimeter module exposed to a test beam at DESY, Germany. The uncertainty estimation method successfully detected out-of-distribution samples and also achieved good accuracy in time and energy measurements.

preprint2022arXiv

WOLONet: Wave Outlooker for Efficient and High Fidelity Speech Synthesis

Recently, GAN-based neural vocoders such as Parallel WaveGAN, MelGAN, HiFiGAN, and UnivNet have become popular due to their lightweight and parallel structure, resulting in a real-time synthesized waveform with high fidelity, even on a CPU. HiFiGAN and UnivNet are two SOTA vocoders. Despite their high quality, there is still room for improvement. In this paper, motivated by the structure of Vision Outlooker from computer vision, we adopt a similar idea and propose an effective and lightweight neural vocoder called WOLONet. In this network, we develop a novel lightweight block that uses a location-variable, channel-independent, and depthwise dynamic convolutional kernel with sinusoidally activated dynamic kernel weights. To demonstrate the effectiveness and generalizability of our method, we perform an ablation study to verify our novel design and make a subjective and objective comparison with typical GAN-based vocoders. The results show that our WOLONet achieves the best generation quality while requiring fewer parameters than the two neural SOTA vocoders, HiFiGAN and UnivNet.

preprint2021arXiv

A Self-Training Approach for Point-Supervised Object Detection and Counting in Crowds

In this paper, we propose a novel self-training approach named Crowd-SDNet that enables a typical object detector trained only with point-level annotations (i.e., objects are labeled with points) to estimate both the center points and sizes of crowded objects. Specifically, during training, we utilize the available point annotations to supervise the estimation of the center points of objects directly. Based on a locally-uniform distribution assumption, we initialize pseudo object sizes from the point-level supervisory information, which are then leveraged to guide the regression of object sizes via a crowdedness-aware loss. Meanwhile, we propose a confidence and order-aware refinement scheme to continuously refine the initial pseudo object sizes such that the ability of the detector is increasingly boosted to detect and count objects in crowds simultaneously. Moreover, to address extremely crowded scenes, we propose an effective decoding method to improve the detector's representation ability. Experimental results on the WiderFace benchmark show that our approach significantly outperforms state-of-the-art point-supervised methods under both detection and counting tasks, i.e., our method improves the average precision by more than 10% and reduces the counting error by 31.2%. Besides, our method obtains the best results on the crowd counting and localization datasets (i.e., ShanghaiTech and NWPU-Crowd) and vehicle counting datasets (i.e., CARPK and PUCPR+) compared with state-of-the-art counting-by-detection methods. The code will be publicly available at https://github.com/WangyiNTU/Point-supervised-crowd-detection.

preprint2021arXiv

Almost automorphy of minimal sets for $C^1$-smooth strongly monotone skew-product semiflows on Banach spaces

We focus on the presence of almost automorphy in strongly monotone skew-product semiflows on Banach spaces. Under the $C^1$-smoothness assumption, it is shown that any linearly stable minimal set must be almost automorphic. This extends the celebrated result of Shen and Yi [Mem. Amer. Math. Soc. 136(1998), No. 647] for the classical $C^{1,α}$-smooth systems. Based on this, one can reduce the regularity of the almost periodically forced differential equations and obtain the almost automorphic phenomena in a wider range.

preprint2021arXiv

Directional Design of Materials Based on the Multi-Objective Optimization: A Case Study of Two-Dimensional Thermoelectric SnSe

Directional design of functional materials with multi-objective constraints is a big challenge, whose performance and stability are determined by different physics factors entangled with each other complicatedly. In this work, we apply the multi-objective optimization based on the Pareto Efficiency and Particle-Swarm Optimization methods to design new functional materials directionally. As a demonstration, we achieve the thermoelectric design of 2D SnSe materials through the methods. We identify several novel metastable 2D SnSe structures with simultaneously lower free energy and better thermoelectric performance over the experimentally-reported monolayer structures. We hope our results about the multi-objective Pareto Optimization method can make a step towards the integrative design of multi-objective and multi-functional materials in the future.

preprint2021arXiv

Gravitational Collider Physics via Pulsar-Black Hole Binaries II: Fine and Hyperfine Structures are Favored

A rotating black hole can be clouded by light bosons via superradiance, and thus acquire an atom-like structure. If such a gravitational atom system is companioned with a pulsar, the pulsar can trigger transitions between energy levels of the gravitational atom, and these transitions can be detected by pulsar timing. We show that in such pulsar-black hole systems, fine and hyperfine structure transitions are more likely to be probed than the Bohr transition. Also, the calculation of these fine and hyperfine structure transitions are under better analytic control. Thus, these fine and hyperfine structure transitions are more ideal probes in the search for gravitational collider signals in pulsar-black hole systems.

preprint2021arXiv

JUNO Physics and Detector

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a 20 kton LS detector at 700-m underground. An excellent energy resolution and a large fiducial volume offer exciting opportunities for addressing many important topics in neutrino and astro-particle physics. With 6 years of data, the neutrino mass ordering can be determined at 3-4 sigma and three oscillation parameters can be measured to a precision of 0.6% or better by detecting reactor antineutrinos. With 10 years of data, DSNB could be observed at 3-sigma; a lower limit of the proton lifetime of 8.34e33 years (90% C.L.) can be set by searching for p->nu_bar K^+; detection of solar neutrinos would shed new light on the solar metallicity problem and examine the vacuum-matter transition region. A core-collapse supernova at 10 kpc would lead to ~5000 IBD and ~2000 (300) all-flavor neutrino-proton (electron) scattering events. Geo-neutrinos can be detected with a rate of ~400 events/year. We also summarize the final design of the JUNO detector and the key R&D achievements. All 20-inch PMTs have been tested. The average photon detection efficiency is 28.9% for the 15,000 MCP PMTs and 28.1% for the 5,000 dynode PMTs, higher than the JUNO requirement of 27%. Together with the >20 m attenuation length of LS, we expect a yield of 1345 p.e. per MeV and an effective energy resolution of 3.02%/\sqrt{E (MeV)}$ in simulations. The underwater electronics is designed to have a loss rate <0.5% in 6 years. With degassing membranes and a micro-bubble system, the radon concentration in the 35-kton water pool could be lowered to <10 mBq/m^3. Acrylic panels of radiopurity <0.5 ppt U/Th are produced. The 20-kton LS will be purified onsite. Singles in the fiducial volume can be controlled to ~10 Hz. The JUNO experiment also features a double calorimeter system with 25,600 3-inch PMTs, a LS testing facility OSIRIS, and a near detector TAO.

preprint2021arXiv

NeRD: Neural Representation of Distribution for Medical Image Segmentation

We introduce Neural Representation of Distribution (NeRD) technique, a module for convolutional neural networks (CNNs) that can estimate the feature distribution by optimizing an underlying function mapping image coordinates to the feature distribution. Using NeRD, we propose an end-to-end deep learning model for medical image segmentation that can compensate the negative impact of feature distribution shifting issue caused by commonly used network operations such as padding and pooling. An implicit function is used to represent the parameter space of the feature distribution by querying the image coordinate. With NeRD, the impact of issues such as over-segmenting and missing have been reduced, and experimental results on the challenging white matter lesion segmentation and left atrial segmentation verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The code is available via https://github.com/tinymilky/NeRD.

preprint2021arXiv

Numerical Simulation of a Fundamental Mechanism of Solar Eruption with Different Magnetic Flux Distributions

Solar eruptions are explosive release of coronal magnetic field energy as manifested in solar flares and coronal mass ejection. Observations have shown that the core of eruption-productive regions are often a sheared magnetic arcade, i.e., a single bipolar configuration, and, particularly, the corresponding magnetic polarities at the photosphere are elongated along a strong-gradient polarity inversion line (PIL). It remains unclear what mechanism triggers the eruption in a single bipolar field and why the one with a strong PIL is eruption-productive. Recently, using high accuracy simulations, we have established a fundamental mechanism of solar eruption initiation that a bipolar field as driven by quasi-static shearing motion at the photosphere can form an internal current sheet, and then fast magnetic reconnection triggers and drives the eruption. Here we investigate the behavior of the fundamental mechanism with different photospheric magnetic flux distributions, i.e., magnetograms, by combining theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. Our study shows that the bipolar fields of different magnetograms, as sheared continually, all exhibit similar evolutions from the slow storage to fast release of magnetic energy in accordance with the fundamental mechanism, which demonstrates the robustness of the mechanism. We further found that the magnetograms with stronger PIL produce larger eruptions, and the key reason is that the sheared bipolar fields with stronger PIL can achieve more non-potentiality, and their internal current sheet can form at a lower height and with a larger current density, by which the reconnection can be more efficient. This also provides a viable trigger mechanism for the observed eruptions in active region with strong PIL.

preprint2021arXiv

Prevalent Behavior of Smooth Strongly Monotone Discrete-Time Dynamical Systems

For C1-smooth strongly monotone discrete-time dynamical systems, it is shown that ``convergence to linearly stable cycles" is a prevalent asymptotic behavior in the measuretheoretic sense. The results are then applied to classes of time-periodic parabolic equations and give new results on prevalence of convergence to periodic solutions. In particular, for equations with Neumann boundary conditions on convex domains, we show the prevalence of the set of initial conditions corresponding to the solutions that converge to spatiallyhomogeneous periodic solutions. While, for equations on radially symmetric domains, we obtain the prevalence of the set of initial values corresponding to solutions that are asymptotic to radially symmetric periodic solutions.

preprint2021arXiv

Privacy-preserving Spatiotemporal Scenario Generation of Renewable Energies: A Federated Deep Generative Learning Approach

Scenario generation is a fundamental and crucial tool for decision-making in power systems with high-penetration renewables. Based on big historical data, a novel federated deep generative learning framework, called Fed-LSGAN, is proposed by integrating federated learning and least square generative adversarial networks (LSGANs) for renewable scenario generation. Specifically, federated learning learns a shared global model in a central server from renewable sites at network edges, which enables the Fed-LSGAN to generate scenarios in a privacy-preserving manner without sacrificing the generation quality by transferring model parameters, rather than all data. Meanwhile, the LSGANs-based deep generative model generates scenarios that conform to the distribution of historical data through fully capturing the spatial-temporal characteristics of renewable powers, which leverages the least squares loss function to improve the training stability and generation quality. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposal manages to generate high-quality renewable scenarios and outperforms the state-of-the-art centralized methods. Besides, an experiment with different federated learning settings is designed and conducted to verify the robustness of our method.

preprint2021arXiv

Pulse shape study of the fast scintillation light emitted from xenon-doped liquid argon using silicon photomultipliers

Xenon-doped liquid argon has been proposed as a good alternative to pure liquid argon in scintillation detectors. In this study, we report on the measurement of the time profile of scintillation light emitted from xenon-doped liquid argon with molar concentrations up to 1600 ppm. A compact setup has been developed for this study, with silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) as the photosensor and $^{210}\mathrm{Po}$ and $^{90}\mathrm{Sr}$ as scintillation sources. An effective model based on the de-excitation processes has been developed to describe the data. The results show that xenon-doped liquid argon is a good fast scintillator and can be used in lieu of tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) in a way that preserves its capability for particle identification via pulse shape discrimination (PSD).

preprint2021arXiv

Remote Sensing Image Super-resolution and Object Detection: Benchmark and State of the Art

For the past two decades, there have been significant efforts to develop methods for object detection in Remote Sensing (RS) images. In most cases, the datasets for small object detection in remote sensing images are inadequate. Many researchers used scene classification datasets for object detection, which has its limitations; for example, the large-sized objects outnumber the small objects in object categories. Thus, they lack diversity; this further affects the detection performance of small object detectors in RS images. This paper reviews current datasets and object detection methods (deep learning-based) for remote sensing images. We also propose a large-scale, publicly available benchmark Remote Sensing Super-resolution Object Detection (RSSOD) dataset. The RSSOD dataset consists of 1,759 hand-annotated images with 22,091 instances of very high resolution (VHR) images with a spatial resolution of ~0.05 m. There are five classes with varying frequencies of labels per class. The image patches are extracted from satellite images, including real image distortions such as tangential scale distortion and skew distortion. We also propose a novel Multi-class Cyclic super-resolution Generative adversarial network with Residual feature aggregation (MCGR) and auxiliary YOLOv5 detector to benchmark image super-resolution-based object detection and compare with the existing state-of-the-art methods based on image super-resolution (SR). The proposed MCGR achieved state-of-the-art performance for image SR with an improvement of 1.2dB PSNR compared to the current state-of-the-art NLSN method. MCGR achieved best object detection mAPs of 0.758, 0.881, 0.841, and 0.983, respectively, for five-class, four-class, two-class, and single classes, respectively surpassing the performance of the state-of-the-art object detectors YOLOv5, EfficientDet, Faster RCNN, SSD, and RetinaNet.

preprint2021arXiv

The Yamabe flow on asymptotically flat manifolds

We study the Yamabe flow starting from an asymptotically flat manifold $(M^n,g_0)$. We show that the flow converges to an asymptotically flat, scalar flat metric in a weighted global sense if $Y(M,[g_0])>0$, and show that the flow does not converge otherwise. If the scalar curvature is nonnegative and integrable, then the ADM mass at time infinity drops by the limit of the total scalar curvature along the flow.

preprint2021arXiv

Vanishing dissipation limit to the planar rarefaction wave for the three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes-Fourier equations

We study the vanishing dissipation limit of the three-dimensional (3D) compressible Navier-Stokes-Fourier equations to the corresponding 3D full Euler equations. Our results are twofold. First, we prove that the 3D compressible Navier-Stokes-Fourier equations admit a family of smooth solutions that converge to the planar rarefaction wave solution of the 3D compressible Euler equations with arbitrary strength. Second, we obtain a uniform convergence rate in terms of the viscosity and heat-conductivity coefficients. For this multi-dimensional problem, we first need to introduce the hyperbolic wave to recover the physical dissipations of the inviscid rarefaction wave profile as in our previous work [29] on the two-dimensional (2D) case. However, due to the 3D setting that makes the analysis significantly more challenging than the 2D problem, the hyperbolic scaled variables for the space and time could not be used to normalize the dissipation coefficients as in the 2D case. Instead, the analysis of the 3D case is carried out in the original non-scaled variables, and consequently the dissipation terms are more singular compared with the 2D scaled case. Novel ideas and techniques are developed to establish the uniform estimates. In particular, more accurate {\it a priori} assumptions with respect to the dissipation coefficients are crucially needed for the stability analysis, and some new observations on the cancellations of the physical structures for the flux terms are essentially used to justify the 3D limit. Moreover, we find that the decay rate with respect to the dissipation coefficients is determined by the nonlinear flux terms in the original variables for the 3D limit in this paper, but fully determined by the error terms in the scaled variables for the 2D case in [29].

preprint2020arXiv

A Fast Radio Burst discovered in FAST drift scan survey

We report the discovery of a highly dispersed fast radio burst, FRB~181123, from an analysis of $\sim$1500~hr of drift-scan survey data taken using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The pulse has three distinct emission components, which vary with frequency across our 1.0--1.5~GHz observing band. We measure the peak flux density to be $>0.065$~Jy and the corresponding fluence $>0.2$~Jy~ms. Based on the observed dispersion measure of 1812~cm$^{-3}$~pc, we infer a redshift of $\sim 1.9$. From this, we estimate the peak luminosity and isotropic energy to be $\lesssim 2\times10^{43}$~erg~s$^{-1}$ and $\lesssim 2\times10^{40}$~erg, respectively. With only one FRB from the survey detected so far, our constraints on the event rate are limited. We derive a 95\% confidence lower limit for the event rate of 900 FRBs per day for FRBs with fluences $>0.025$~Jy~ms. We performed follow-up observations of the source with FAST for four hours and have not found a repeated burst. We discuss the implications of this discovery for our understanding of the physical mechanisms of FRBs.

preprint2020arXiv

A3: An Automatic Topology-Aware Malfunction Detection and Fixation System in Data Center Networks

Link failures and cable miswirings are not uncommon in building data center networks, which prevents the existing automatic address configuration methods from functioning correctly. However, accurately detecting such malfunctions is not an easy task because there could be no observable node degree changes. Fixing or correcting such malfunctions is even harder as almost no work can provide accurate fixation suggestions now. To solve the problems, we design and implement A3, an automatic topology-aware malfunction detection and fixation system. A3 innovatively formulates the problem of finding minimal fixation to the problem of computing minimum graph difference (NP-hard) and solves it in O(k^6) and O(k^3) for any less than k/2 and k/4 undirected link malfunctions for FatTree, respectively. Our evaluation demonstrates that for less than k/2 undirected link malfunctions, A3 is 100% accurate for malfunction detection and provides the minimum fixation result. For greater or equal to k/2 undirected link malfunctions, A3 still has accuracy of about 100% and provides the near optimal fixation result.

preprint2020arXiv

Almost automorphically forced flows on $S^1$ or $\mathbb{R}$ in one-dimensional almost periodic semilinear heat equations

In this paper, we consider the asymptotic dynamics of the skew-product semiflow generated by the following time almost-periodically forced scalar reaction-diffusion equation \begin{equation}\label{eq0} u_{t}=u_{xx}+f(t,u,u_{x}),\,\,t>0,\, 0<x<L \end{equation} with periodic boundary condition \begin{equation} \label{bdc1} u(t,0)=u(t,L),\quad u_x(t,0)=u_x(t,L), \end{equation} where $f$ is uniformly almost periodic in $t$. In particular, we study the topological structure of the limit sets of the skew-product semiflow. It is proved that any compact minimal invariant set (throughout this paper, we refer to it as a minimal set) can be residually embedded into an invariant set of some almost automorphically-forced flow on a circle $S^1=\mathbb{R}/L\mathbb{Z}$. Particularly, if $f(t,u,p)=f(t,u,-p)$, then the flow on a minimal set topologically conjugates to an almost periodically-forced minimal flow on $\mathbb{R}$. Moreover, it is proved that the $ω$-limit set of any bounded orbit contains at most two minimal sets that cannot be obtained from each other by phase translation. In addition, we further consider the asymptotic dynamics of the skew-product semiflow generated by \eqref{eq0} with Neumann boundary condition \begin{equation*} \label{bcd2} u_x(t,0)=u_x(t,L)=0, \end{equation*} or Dirichlet boundary condition \begin{equation*}\label{bdc3} u(t,0)=u(t,L)=0. \end{equation*} Under certain direct assumptions on $f$, it is proved in this paper that the flow on any minimal set of \eqref{eq0}, with Neumann boundary condition or Dirichlet boundary condition, topologically conjugates to an almost periodically-forced minimal flow on $\mathbb{R}$. Finally, a counterexample is given to show that even for quasi-periodic equations, the results we obtain here cannot be further improved in general.

preprint2020arXiv

An Inflationary Probe of Cosmic Higgs Switching

A scalar Higgs field can be repeatedly switched on and off when it couples to a classically oscillating scalar modulus field. The modulus flips the Higgs mass term between stable and tachyonic values. We study a cosmological scenario in which such repeated phase transitions occur during inflation. An irrelevant operator coupling the Higgs field to the inflaton can then imprint the pattern of phase transitions in the correlation functions of the inflaton. Using both numerical and analytic studies, we show that the inflaton 2-point function carries characteristic imprints of the modulus oscillation and its effect on the Higgs boson. We briefly remark on the potential observability of such patterns and how they might be distinguished from other dynamics in the early universe.

preprint2020arXiv

Attentive Normalization for Conditional Image Generation

Traditional convolution-based generative adversarial networks synthesize images based on hierarchical local operations, where long-range dependency relation is implicitly modeled with a Markov chain. It is still not sufficient for categories with complicated structures. In this paper, we characterize long-range dependence with attentive normalization (AN), which is an extension to traditional instance normalization. Specifically, the input feature map is softly divided into several regions based on its internal semantic similarity, which are respectively normalized. It enhances consistency between distant regions with semantic correspondence. Compared with self-attention GAN, our attentive normalization does not need to measure the correlation of all locations, and thus can be directly applied to large-size feature maps without much computational burden. Extensive experiments on class-conditional image generation and semantic inpainting verify the efficacy of our proposed module.

preprint2020arXiv

Bayesian Learning of Probabilistic Dipole Inversion for Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping

A learning-based posterior distribution estimation method, Probabilistic Dipole Inversion (PDI), is proposed to solve quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) inverse problem in MRI with uncertainty estimation. A deep convolutional neural network (CNN) is used to represent the multivariate Gaussian distribution as the approximated posterior distribution of susceptibility given the input measured field. In PDI, such CNN is firstly trained on healthy subjects dataset with labels by maximizing the posterior Gaussian distribution loss function as used in Bayesian deep learning. When tested on new dataset without any label, PDI updates the pre-trained network in an unsupervised fashion by minimizing the KL divergence between the approximated posterior distribution represented by CNN and the true posterior distribution given the likelihood distribution from known physical model and prior distribution. Based on our experiments, PDI provides additional uncertainty estimation compared to the conventional MAP approach, meanwhile addressing the potential discrepancy issue of CNN when test data deviates from training dataset.

preprint2020arXiv

Cache-enabling UAV Communications: Network Deployment and Resource Allocation

In this article, we investigate the content distribution in the hotspot area, whose traffic is offloaded by the combination of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication and edge caching. In cache-enabling UAV-assisted cellular networks, the network deployment and resource allocation are vital for quality of experience (QoE) of users with content distribution applications. We formulate a joint optimization problem of UAV deployment, caching placement and user association for maximizing QoE of users, which is evaluated by mean opinion score (MOS). To solve this challenging problem, we decompose the optimization problem into three sub-problems. Specifically, we propose a swap matching based UAV deployment algorithm, then obtain the near-optimal caching placement and user association by greedy algorithm and Lagrange dual, respectively. Finally, we propose a low complexity iterative algorithm for the joint UAV deployment, caching placement and user association optimization, which achieves good computational complexity-optimality tradeoff. Simulation results reveal that: i) the MOS of the proposed algorithm approaches that of the exhaustive search method and converges within several iterations; and ii) compared with the benchmark algorithms, the proposed algorithm achieves better performance in terms of MOS, content access delay and backhaul traffic offloading.

preprint2020arXiv

Computer-aided Tumor Diagnosis in Automated Breast Ultrasound using 3D Detection Network

Automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) is a new and promising imaging modality for breast cancer detection and diagnosis, which could provide intuitive 3D information and coronal plane information with great diagnostic value. However, manually screening and diagnosing tumors from ABUS images is very time-consuming and overlooks of abnormalities may happen. In this study, we propose a novel two-stage 3D detection network for locating suspected lesion areas and further classifying lesions as benign or malignant tumors. Specifically, we propose a 3D detection network rather than frequently-used segmentation network to locate lesions in ABUS images, thus our network can make full use of the spatial context information in ABUS images. A novel similarity loss is designed to effectively distinguish lesions from background. Then a classification network is employed to identify the located lesions as benign or malignant. An IoU-balanced classification loss is adopted to improve the correlation between classification and localization task. The efficacy of our network is verified from a collected dataset of 418 patients with 145 benign tumors and 273 malignant tumors. Experiments show our network attains a sensitivity of 97.66% with 1.23 false positives (FPs), and has an area under the curve(AUC) value of 0.8720.

preprint2020arXiv

Continuous Null-Point Magnetic Reconnection Builds Up a Torus Unstable Magnetic Flux Rope Triggering the X9.3 Flare in Solar Active Region~12673

Two X-class solar flares occurred on 2017 September 6 from active region NOAA 12673: the first one is a confined X2.2 flare, and it is followed only $\sim 3$ hours later by the second one, which is the strongest flare in solar cycle 24, reaching X9.3 class and accompanied with a coronal mass ejection. Why these two X-class flares occurred in the same position with similar magnetic configurations, but one is eruptive while the other is not? Here we track the coronal magnetic field evolution via nonlinear force-free field extrapolations from a time sequence of vector magnetograms with high cadence. A detailed analysis of the magnetic field shows that a magnetic flux rope (MFR) forms and grows gradually before the first flare, and shortly afterwards, the MFR's growth is significantly enhanced with a much faster rise in height, from far below the threshold of torus instability to above it, while the magnetic twist only increases mildly. Combining EUV observations and the magnetic field extrapolation, we found that overlying the MFR is a null-point magnetic topology, where recurrent brightening is seen after the first flare. We thus suggest a scenario to interpret the occurrence of the two flares. The first flare occurred since the MFR reached a high enough height to activate the null point, and its continuous expansion forces the null-point reconnection recurrently. Such reconnection weakens the overlying field, allowing the MFR to rise faster, which eventually crosses the threshold of torus instability and triggers the second, eruptive flare.

preprint2020arXiv

Controlled release of entrapped nanoparticles from thermoresponsive hydrogels with tunable network characteristics

Thermoresponsive hydrogels have been studied intensively for creating smart drug carriers and controlled drug delivery. Understanding the drug release kinetics and corresponding transport mechanisms of nanoparticles (NPs) in a thermoresponsive hydrogel network is the key to the successful design of a smart drug delivery system. We construct a mesoscopic model of rigid NPs entrapped in a hydrogel network in an aqueous solution, where the hydrogel network is formed by cross-linked semiflexible polymers of PNIPAM. By varying the environmental temperature crossing the lower critical solution temperature of PNIPAM we can significantly change the hydrogel network characteristics. We systematically investigate how the matrix porosity and the nanoparticle size affect the NPs' transport kinetics at different temperatures. Quantitative results on the mean-squared displacement and the van Hove displacement distributions of NPs show that all NPs entrapped in the smart hydrogels undergo subdiffusion at both low and high temperatures. For a coil state, the subdiffusive exponent and the diffusion coefficient of NPs increase due to the increased kinetic energy and the decreased confinement on NPs, while the transport of NPs in the hydrogels can be also enhanced by decreasing the matrix porosity and NPs' size. However, when the solution temperature is increased above the critical temperature, the hydrogel network collapses following the coil-to-globule transition, with the NPs tightly trapped in some local regions inside the hydrogels. Consequently, the NP diffusion coefficient can be reduced by two orders of magnitude, or the diffusion processes can even be completely stopped. These findings provide new insights for designing controlled drug release from stimuli-responsive hydrogels, including autonomously switch on/off drug release to respond to the changes of the local environment.

preprint2020arXiv

Convolutional Neural Networks with Dynamic Regularization

Regularization is commonly used for alleviating overfitting in machine learning. For convolutional neural networks (CNNs), regularization methods, such as DropBlock and Shake-Shake, have illustrated the improvement in the generalization performance. However, these methods lack a self-adaptive ability throughout training. That is, the regularization strength is fixed to a predefined schedule, and manual adjustments are required to adapt to various network architectures. In this paper, we propose a dynamic regularization method for CNNs. Specifically, we model the regularization strength as a function of the training loss. According to the change of the training loss, our method can dynamically adjust the regularization strength in the training procedure, thereby balancing the underfitting and overfitting of CNNs. With dynamic regularization, a large-scale model is automatically regularized by the strong perturbation, and vice versa. Experimental results show that the proposed method can improve the generalization capability on off-the-shelf network architectures and outperform state-of-the-art regularization methods.

preprint2020arXiv

Cosmological Collider Signatures of Massive Vectors from Non-Gaussian Gravitational Waves

The cosmological collider provides a model-independent probe of particle physics during inflation. We extend the study of cosmological collider physics to much smaller scales through gravitational wave (GW) probes. With a Chern-Simons interaction, a massive vector field can obtain a chemical potential and its particle production can cause significant non-Gaussian GW signals. We calculate the mass and spin dependences of the induced GW 3-point correlation function in the squeezed limit, and estimate its amplitude. Such signals may be detectable in the current and upcoming GW interferometer experiments.

preprint2020arXiv

Cosmological Signatures of Superheavy Dark Matter

We discuss two possible scenarios, namely the curvaton mechanism and the dark matter density modulation, where non-Gaussianity signals of superheavy dark matter produced by gravity can be enhanced and observed. In both scenarios, superheavy dark matter couples to an additional light field as a mediator. In the case of derivative coupling, the resulting non-Gaussianities induced by the light field can be large, which can provide inflationary evidences for these superheavy dark matter scenarios.

preprint2020arXiv

Data-driven MHD Simulation of the Formation and Initiation of a Large-scale Pre-flare Magnetic Flux Rope in Solar Active Region 12371

Solar eruptions are the most powerful drivers of space weather. To understand their cause and nature, it is crucial to know how the coronal magnetic field evolves before eruption. Here we study the formation process of a relatively large-scale magnetic flux rope (MFR) in active region NOAA~12371 that erupts with a major flare and coronal mass ejection on 2015 June 21. A data-driven numerical magnetohydrodynamic model is employed to simulate three-dimensional coronal magnetic field evolution of one-day duration before the eruption. Comparison between the observed features and our modeled magnetic field discloses how the pre-eruption MFR forms. Initially, the magnetic field lines were weakly twisted as being simple sheared arcades. Then a long MFR was formed along the polarity inversion line due to the complex photospheric motion, which is mainly shearing rather than twisting. The presence of the MFR is evidenced by a coherent set of magnetic field lines with twist number above unity. Below the MFR a current sheet is shown in the model, suggesting that tether-cutting reconnection plays a key role in the MFR formation. The MFR's flux grows as more and more field lines are twisted due to continuous injection of magnetic helicity by the photospheric motions. Meanwhile, the height of the MFR's axis increases monotonely from its formation. By an analysis of the decay index of its overlying field, we suggest that it is because the MFR runs into the torus instability regime and becomes unstable that finally triggers the eruption.

preprint2020arXiv

Extending LOUPE for K-space Under-sampling Pattern Optimization in Multi-coil MRI

The previously established LOUPE (Learning-based Optimization of the Under-sampling Pattern) framework for optimizing the k-space sampling pattern in MRI was extended in three folds: firstly, fully sampled multi-coil k-space data from the scanner, rather than simulated k-space data from magnitude MR images in LOUPE, was retrospectively under-sampled to optimize the under-sampling pattern of in-vivo k-space data; secondly, binary stochastic k-space sampling, rather than approximate stochastic k-space sampling of LOUPE during training, was applied together with a straight-through (ST) estimator to estimate the gradient of the threshold operation in a neural network; thirdly, modified unrolled optimization network, rather than modified U-Net in LOUPE, was used as the reconstruction network in order to reconstruct multi-coil data properly and reduce the dependency on training data. Experimental results show that when dealing with the in-vivo k-space data, unrolled optimization network with binary under-sampling block and ST estimator had better reconstruction performance compared to the ones with either U-Net reconstruction network or approximate sampling pattern optimization network, and once trained, the learned optimal sampling pattern worked better than the hand-crafted variable density sampling pattern when deployed with other conventional reconstruction methods.

preprint2020arXiv

Feasibility and physics potential of detecting $^8$B solar neutrinos at JUNO

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory~(JUNO) features a 20~kt multi-purpose underground liquid scintillator sphere as its main detector. Some of JUNO's features make it an excellent experiment for $^8$B solar neutrino measurements, such as its low-energy threshold, its high energy resolution compared to water Cherenkov detectors, and its much large target mass compared to previous liquid scintillator detectors. In this paper we present a comprehensive assessment of JUNO's potential for detecting $^8$B solar neutrinos via the neutrino-electron elastic scattering process. A reduced 2~MeV threshold on the recoil electron energy is found to be achievable assuming the intrinsic radioactive background $^{238}$U and $^{232}$Th in the liquid scintillator can be controlled to 10$^{-17}$~g/g. With ten years of data taking, about 60,000 signal and 30,000 background events are expected. This large sample will enable an examination of the distortion of the recoil electron spectrum that is dominated by the neutrino flavor transformation in the dense solar matter, which will shed new light on the tension between the measured electron spectra and the predictions of the standard three-flavor neutrino oscillation framework. If $Δm^{2}_{21}=4.8\times10^{-5}~(7.5\times10^{-5})$~eV$^{2}$, JUNO can provide evidence of neutrino oscillation in the Earth at the about 3$σ$~(2$σ$) level by measuring the non-zero signal rate variation with respect to the solar zenith angle. Moveover, JUNO can simultaneously measure $Δm^2_{21}$ using $^8$B solar neutrinos to a precision of 20\% or better depending on the central value and to sub-percent precision using reactor antineutrinos. A comparison of these two measurements from the same detector will help elucidate the current tension between the value of $Δm^2_{21}$ reported by solar neutrino experiments and the KamLAND experiment.

preprint2020arXiv

Gravitational Collider Physics via Pulsar-Black Hole Binaries

We propose to use pulsar-black hole binaries as a probe of gravitational collider physics. Induced by the gravitation of the pulsar, the atomic transitions of the boson cloud around the black hole back-react on the orbital motion. This leads to the deviation of binary period decrease from that predicted by general relativity, which can be directly probed by the Rømer delay of pulsar time-of-arrivals. The sensitivity and accuracy of this approach is estimated for two typical atomic transitions. It is shown that once the transitions happen within the observable window, the pulsar-timing accuracy is almost always sufficient to capture the resonance phenomenon.

preprint2020arXiv

Hybrid Attention for Automatic Segmentation of Whole Fetal Head in Prenatal Ultrasound Volumes

Background and Objective: Biometric measurements of fetal head are important indicators for maternal and fetal health monitoring during pregnancy. 3D ultrasound (US) has unique advantages over 2D scan in covering the whole fetal head and may promote the diagnoses. However, automatically segmenting the whole fetal head in US volumes still pends as an emerging and unsolved problem. The challenges that automated solutions need to tackle include the poor image quality, boundary ambiguity, long-span occlusion, and the appearance variability across different fetal poses and gestational ages. In this paper, we propose the first fully-automated solution to segment the whole fetal head in US volumes. Methods: The segmentation task is firstly formulated as an end-to-end volumetric mapping under an encoder-decoder deep architecture. We then combine the segmentor with a proposed hybrid attention scheme (HAS) to select discriminative features and suppress the non-informative volumetric features in a composite and hierarchical way. With little computation overhead, HAS proves to be effective in addressing boundary ambiguity and deficiency. To enhance the spatial consistency in segmentation, we further organize multiple segmentors in a cascaded fashion to refine the results by revisiting context in the prediction of predecessors. Results: Validated on a large dataset collected from 100 healthy volunteers, our method presents superior segmentation performance (DSC (Dice Similarity Coefficient), 96.05%), remarkable agreements with experts. With another 156 volumes collected from 52 volunteers, we ahieve high reproducibilities (mean standard deviation 11.524 mL) against scan variations. Conclusion: This is the first investigation about whole fetal head segmentation in 3D US. Our method is promising to be a feasible solution in assisting the volumetric US-based prenatal studies.

preprint2020arXiv

Improving the time resolution of the MRPC detector using deep-learning algorithms

The multi-gap resistive plate chambers (MRPCs) will be used as the Time-of-Flight (ToF) system in the Solenoidal Large Intensity Device (SoLID). The time resolution required by the experiment for the MRPC system is 20 ps in order to make a 3 $σ$ separation of the $π/K$ created in the collisions. To achieve this goal, the whole system including the MRPC detector, the front-end electronics and the readout system will be upgraded. Based on the new system, a time reconstruction algorithm using a combined LSTM (ComLSTM) neural network is proposed. The best time resolution achieved with this algorithm in a cosmic ray test is 16.8 ps, which largely improves the timing ability of the MRPC detector and well satisfies the requirement of the SoLID.

preprint2020arXiv

Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectroscopy at High-Temperatures

Ion conducting materials are critical components of batteries, fuel cells, and devices such as memristive switches. Analytical tools are therefore sought that allow the behavior of ions in solids to be monitored and analyzed with high spatial resolution and in real time. In principle, inelastic tunneling spectroscopy offers these capabilities. However, as its spectral resolution is limited by thermal softening of the Fermi-Dirac distribution, tunneling spectroscopy is usually constrained to cryogenic temperatures. This constraint would seem to render tunneling spectroscopy useless for studying ions in motion. We report here the first inelastic tunneling spectroscopy studies above room temperature. For these measurements, we have developed high-temperature-stable tunnel junctions that incorporate within the tunnel barrier ultrathin layers for efficient proton conduction. By analyzing the vibrational modes of O-H bonds in BaZrO3-based heterostructures, we demonstrate the detection of protons with a spectral resolution of 20 meV at 400 K (FWHM). Overturning the hitherto existing prediction for the spectral resolution limit of 186 meV (5.4 kBT at 400 K), this resolution enables high-temperature tunneling spectroscopy of ion conductors. With these advances, inelastic tunneling spectroscopy constitutes a novel, valuable analytical tool for solid-state ionics.

preprint2020arXiv

Inertia indices and eigenvalue inequalities for Hermitian matrices

We present a characterization of eigenvalue inequalities between two Hermitian matrices by means of inertia indices. As applications, we deal with some classical eigenvalue inequalities for Hermitian matrices, including the Cauchy interlacing theorem and the Weyl inequality, in a simple and unified approach. We also give a common generalization of eigenvalue inequalities for (Hermitian) normalized Laplacian matrices of simple (signed, weighted, directed) graphs. Our approach is also suitable for Hermitian matrices of the second kind of digraphs recently introduced by Mohar.

preprint2020arXiv

mTOF performance during mCBM beam time at GSI

The future Facility for Anti-proton and Ion Research (FAIR), currently in construction in Darmstadt, Germany, is one of the largest research projects worldwide. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment is one of the main pillars at FAIR, studying the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram at high baryon densities with unprecedented interaction rate in heavy ion collisions up to 10 MHz. This requires new data-driven readout chain, new data analysis methods and high-rate capable detector systems. The task of the CBM Time of Flight wall (CBM-TOF) is the charged particle identification. Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs) with different rate capabilities will be used at CBM-TOF corresponding regions. To reduce the commissioning time for CBM, a CBM full system test-setup called mini-CBM (mCBM) had been installed and tested with beams at GSI SIS18 facility in 2019. The high-rate MRPC prototypes developed at Tsinghua University, called MRPC2, were selected to be implemented in mTOF modules for mCBM. Additional thin float glass MRPCs from USTC called MRPC3, foreseen for the CBM lower rate region, were also tested in the mCBM experiment. Performance results of the two kinds of MRPCs analyzed by the so called tracking method will be shown.

preprint2020arXiv

Non-wandering points for autonomous/periodic parabolic equations on the circle

We study the properties of non-wandering points of the following scalar reaction-diffusion equation on the circle $S^1$, \begin{equation*} u_{t}=u_{xx}+f(t,u,u_{x}),\,\,t>0,\,x\in S^{1}=\mathbb{R}/2π\mathbb{Z}, \end{equation*} where $f$ is independent of $t$ or $T$-periodic in $t$. Assume that the equation admits a compact global attractor. It is proved that, any non-wandering point is a limit point of the system (that is, it is a point in some $ω$-limit set). More precisely, in the autonomous case, it is proved that any non-wandering point is either a fixed point or generates a rotating wave on the circle. In the periodic case, it is proved that any non-wandering point is a periodic point or generates a rotating wave on a torus. In particular, if $f(t,u,-u_x)=f(t,u,u_x)$, then any non-wandering point is a fixed point in the autonomous case, and is a periodic point in the periodic case.

preprint2020arXiv

Privacy-Preserving Distributed Clustering for Electrical Load Profiling

Electrical load profiling supports retailers and distribution network operators in having a better understanding of the consumption behavior of consumers. However, traditional clustering methods for load profiling are centralized and require access to all the smart meter data, thus causing privacy issues for consumers and retailers. To tackle this issue, we propose a privacy-preserving distributed clustering framework for load profiling by developing a privacy-preserving accelerated average consensus (PP-AAC) algorithm with proven convergence. Using the proposed framework, we modify several commonly used clustering methods, including k-means, fuzzy C-means, and Gaussian mixture model, to provide privacy-preserving distributed clustering methods. In this way, load profiling can be performed only by local calculations and information sharing between neighboring data owners without sacrificing privacy. Meanwhile, compared to traditional centralized clustering methods, the computational time consumed by each data owner is significantly reduced. The privacy and complexity of the proposed privacy-preserving distributed clustering framework are analyzed. The correctness, efficiency, effectiveness, and privacy-preserving feature of the proposed framework and the proposed PP-AAC algorithm are verified using a real-world Irish residential dataset.

preprint2020arXiv

Privacy-preserving Distributed Probabilistic Load Flow

Probabilistic load flow (PLF) allows to evaluate uncertainties introduced by renewable energy sources on system operation. Ideally, the PLF calculation is implemented for an entire grid requiring all the parameters of the transmission lines and node load/generation to be available. However, in a multi-regional interconnected grid, the independent system operators (ISOs) across regions may not share the parameters of their respective areas with other ISOs. Consequently, the challenge is how to identify the functional relationship between the flows in the regional grid and the uncertain power injections of renewable generation sources across regions without full information about the entire grid. To overcome this challenge, we first propose a privacy-preserving distributed accelerated projection-based consensus algorithm for each ISO to calculate the corresponding coefficient matrix of the desired functional relationship. Then, we leverage a privacy-preserving accelerated average consensus algorithm to allow each ISO to obtain the corresponding constant vector of the same relationship. Using the two algorithms, we finally derive a privacy-preserving distributed PLF method for each ISO to analytically obtain its regional joint PLF in a fully distributed manner without revealing its parameters to other ISOs. The correctness, effectiveness, and efficiency of the proposed method are verified through a case study on the IEEE 118-bus system.

preprint2020arXiv

Probing P and CP Violations on the Cosmological Collider

In direct analogy to the 4-body decay of a heavy scalar particle, the 4-point correlation function of primordial fluctuations carries P and CP information. The CP violation appears as a P-odd angular dependence in the imaginary part of the trispectrum in momentum space. We construct a model with axion-like couplings which leads to observably large CP-violating trispectrum for future surveys. Furthermore, we show the importance of on-shell particle production in observing P- and CP-violating signals. It is impossible to observe these signals from local 4-scalar EFT operators that respect dS isometries, and thus any such observation can rule out single-field EFT with sufficiently small slow-roll parameters. This calculation opens a new frontier of studying P and CP at very high energy scales.

preprint2020arXiv

Quantifying Low-Battery Anxiety of Mobile Users and Its Impacts on Video Watching Behavior

People nowadays are increasingly dependent on mobile phones for daily communication, study, and business. Along with this it incurs the low-battery anxiety (LBA). Although having been unveiled for a while, LBA has not been thoroughly investigated yet. Without a better understanding of LBA, it would be difficult to precisely validate energy saving and management techniques in terms of alleviating LBA and enhancing Quality of Experience (QoE) of mobile users. To fill the gap, we conduct an investigation over 2000+ mobile users, look into their feelings and reactions towards LBA, and quantify their anxiety degree during the draining of battery power. As a case study, we also investigate the impact of LBA on user's behavior at video watching, and with the massive collected answers we are able to quantify user's abandoning likelihood of attractive videos versus the battery status of mobile phone. The empirical findings and quantitative models obtained in this work not only disclose the characteristics of LBA among modern mobile users, but also provide valuable references for the design, evaluation, and improvement of QoE-aware mobile applications and services.

preprint2020arXiv

Quantum States of Higher-order Whispering gallery modes in a Silicon Micro-disk Resonator

The quantum states of light in an integrated photonics platform provide an important resource for quantum information processing and takes advantage of the scalability and practicality of silicon photonics. Integrated resonators have been well explored in classical and quantum optics. However, to encode multiple information through integrated quantum optics requires broader utilization of the available degrees of freedom on a chip. Here, we studied the quantum interference between photon pairs of the same higher order whispering gallery modes populated by spontaneous four-wave mixing in an integrated silicon micro-disk resonator. The quantum interference between the photon pairs of the first two quasi-TE0 and quasi-TE1 radial modes was measured to be Vnet ~ 98 + 0.8 % and Vnet ~ 94 + 2.6 %, respectively. The results are promising for achieving higher-dimensional quantum states using the higher-order radial modes of a micro-disk resonator coupled with an integrated waveguide.

preprint2020arXiv

Resonant Asymmetric All-Dielectric Metasurface for Boosting Third-Harmonic Generation

Resonant metasurfaces have received extensive attention due to their sharp spectral feature and extraordinary field enhancement. In this work, by breaking the in-plane symmetry of silicon nanopillars, we achieve a sharp Fano resonance. The far-field radiation and near-field distribution of metasurfaces are calculated and analyzed to further uncover the resonant performance of metasurfaces. Moreover, the theoretical derivation and simulation exhibit an inverse quadratic dependence of Q-factors on asymmetry parameters, revealing that the resonance is governed by the symmetry-protected bound states in the continuum. Finally we experimentally demonstrate the sharp resonance, and employ it to effciently boost the third-harmonic generation. This enhancement can be attributed to the strong optical intensity enhancement inside the metasurface.

preprint2020arXiv

Spin-orbit torque magnetization switching in MoTe2/permalloy heterostructures

The ability to switch magnetic elements by spin-orbit-induced torques has recently attracted much attention for a path towards high-performance, non-volatile memories with low power consumption. Realizing efficient spin-orbit-based switching requires harnessing both new materials and novel physics to obtain high charge-to-spin conversion efficiencies, thus making the choice of spin source crucial. Here we report the observation of spin-orbit torque switching in bilayers consisting of a semimetallic film of 1T'-MoTe2 adjacent to permalloy. Deterministic switching is achieved without external magnetic fields at room temperature, and the switching occurs with currents one order of magnitude smaller than those typical in devices using the best-performing heavy metals. The thickness dependence can be understood if the interfacial spin-orbit contribution is considered in addition to the bulk spin Hall effect. Further threefold reduction in the switching current is demonstrated with resort to dumbbell-shaped magnetic elements. These findings foretell exciting prospects of using MoTe2 for low-power semimetal material based spin devices.

preprint2020arXiv

SQLFlow: A Bridge between SQL and Machine Learning

Industrial AI systems are mostly end-to-end machine learning (ML) workflows. A typical recommendation or business intelligence system includes many online micro-services and offline jobs. We describe SQLFlow for developing such workflows efficiently in SQL. SQL enables developers to write short programs focusing on the purpose (what) and ignoring the procedure (how). Previous database systems extended their SQL dialect to support ML. SQLFlow (https://sqlflow.org/sqlflow ) takes another strategy to work as a bridge over various database systems, including MySQL, Apache Hive, and Alibaba MaxCompute, and ML engines like TensorFlow, XGBoost, and scikit-learn. We extended SQL syntax carefully to make the extension working with various SQL dialects. We implement the extension by inventing a collaborative parsing algorithm. SQLFlow is efficient and expressive to a wide variety of ML techniques -- supervised and unsupervised learning; deep networks and tree models; visual model explanation in addition to training and prediction; data processing and feature extraction in addition to ML. SQLFlow compiles a SQL program into a Kubernetes-native workflow for fault-tolerable execution and on-cloud deployment. Current industrial users include Ant Financial, DiDi, and Alibaba Group.

preprint2020arXiv

Synthesis and Edition of Ultrasound Images via Sketch Guided Progressive Growing GANs

Ultrasound (US) is widely accepted in clinic for anatomical structure inspection. However, lacking in resources to practice US scan, novices often struggle to learn the operation skills. Also, in the deep learning era, automated US image analysis is limited by the lack of annotated samples. Efficiently synthesizing realistic, editable and high resolution US images can solve the problems. The task is challenging and previous methods can only partially complete it. In this paper, we devise a new framework for US image synthesis. Particularly, we firstly adopt a sketch generative adversarial networks (Sgan) to introduce background sketch upon object mask in a conditioned generative adversarial network. With enriched sketch cues, Sgan can generate realistic US images with editable and fine-grained structure details. Although effective, Sgan is hard to generate high resolution US images. To achieve this, we further implant the Sgan into a progressive growing scheme (PGSgan). By smoothly growing both generator and discriminator, PGSgan can gradually synthesize US images from low to high resolution. By synthesizing ovary and follicle US images, our extensive perceptual evaluation, user study and segmentation results prove the promising efficacy and efficiency of the proposed PGSgan.

preprint2020arXiv

TAO Conceptual Design Report: A Precision Measurement of the Reactor Antineutrino Spectrum with Sub-percent Energy Resolution

The Taishan Antineutrino Observatory (TAO, also known as JUNO-TAO) is a satellite experiment of the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO). A ton-level liquid scintillator detector will be placed at about 30 m from a core of the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant. The reactor antineutrino spectrum will be measured with sub-percent energy resolution, to provide a reference spectrum for future reactor neutrino experiments, and to provide a benchmark measurement to test nuclear databases. A spherical acrylic vessel containing 2.8 ton gadolinium-doped liquid scintillator will be viewed by 10 m^2 Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) of >50% photon detection efficiency with almost full coverage. The photoelectron yield is about 4500 per MeV, an order higher than any existing large-scale liquid scintillator detectors. The detector operates at -50 degree C to lower the dark noise of SiPMs to an acceptable level. The detector will measure about 2000 reactor antineutrinos per day, and is designed to be well shielded from cosmogenic backgrounds and ambient radioactivities to have about 10% background-to-signal ratio. The experiment is expected to start operation in 2022.

preprint2020arXiv

The Dirichlet principle for the complex $k$-Hessian functional

We study the variational structure of the complex $k$-Hessian equation on bounded domain $X\subset \mathbb C^n$ with boundary $M=\partial X$. We prove that the Dirichlet problem $σ_k (\partial \bar{\partial} u) =0$ in $X$, and $u=f$ on $M$ is variational and we give an explicit construction of the associated functional $\mathcal{E}_k(u)$. Moreover we prove $\mathcal{E}_k(u)$ satisfies the Dirichlet principle. In a special case when $k=2$, our constructed functional $\mathcal{E}_2(u)$ involves the Hermitian mean curvature of the boundary, the notion first introduced and studied by X. Wang. Earlier work of J. Case and and the first author of this article introduced a boundary operator for the (real) $k$-Hessian functional which satisfies the Dirichlet principle. The present paper shows that there is a parallel picture in the complex setting.

preprint2020arXiv

VCNet: A Robust Approach to Blind Image Inpainting

Blind inpainting is a task to automatically complete visual contents without specifying masks for missing areas in an image. Previous works assume missing region patterns are known, limiting its application scope. In this paper, we relax the assumption by defining a new blind inpainting setting, making training a blind inpainting neural system robust against various unknown missing region patterns. Specifically, we propose a two-stage visual consistency network (VCN), meant to estimate where to fill (via masks) and generate what to fill. In this procedure, the unavoidable potential mask prediction errors lead to severe artifacts in the subsequent repairing. To address it, our VCN predicts semantically inconsistent regions first, making mask prediction more tractable. Then it repairs these estimated missing regions using a new spatial normalization, enabling VCN to be robust to the mask prediction errors. In this way, semantically convincing and visually compelling content is thus generated. Extensive experiments are conducted, showing our method is effective and robust in blind image inpainting. And our VCN allows for a wide spectrum of applications.

preprint2020arXiv

When Residual Learning Meets Dense Aggregation: Rethinking the Aggregation of Deep Neural Networks

Various architectures (such as GoogLeNets, ResNets, and DenseNets) have been proposed. However, the existing networks usually suffer from either redundancy of convolutional layers or insufficient utilization of parameters. To handle these challenging issues, we propose Micro-Dense Nets, a novel architecture with global residual learning and local micro-dense aggregations. Specifically, residual learning aims to efficiently retrieve features from different convolutional blocks, while the micro-dense aggregation is able to enhance each block and avoid redundancy of convolutional layers by lessening residual aggregations. Moreover, the proposed micro-dense architecture has two characteristics: pyramidal multi-level feature learning which can widen the deeper layer in a block progressively, and dimension cardinality adaptive convolution which can balance each layer using linearly increasing dimension cardinality. The experimental results over three datasets (i.e., CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, and ImageNet-1K) demonstrate that the proposed Micro-Dense Net with only 4M parameters can achieve higher classification accuracy than state-of-the-art networks, while being 12.1$\times$ smaller depends on the number of parameters. In addition, our micro-dense block can be integrated with neural architecture search based models to boost their performance, validating the advantage of our architecture. We believe our design and findings will be beneficial to the DNN community.

preprint2019arXiv

A Cosmological Higgs Collider

The quantum fluctuations of the Higgs field during inflation could be a source of primordial density perturbations through Higgs-dependent inflaton decay. By measuring primordial non-Gaussianities, this so-called Higgs-modulated reheating scenario provides us a unique chance to probe Higgs interactions at extremely high energy scale, which we call the Cosmological Higgs Collider (CHC). We realize CHC in a simple scenario where the inflaton decays into Higgs-portal scalars, taking account of the decay of the Higgs fluctuation amplitude after inflation. We also calculate the CHC signals of Standard Model particles, namely their imprints in the squeezed bispectrum, which can be naturally large. The concept of CHC can be straightforwardly generalized to cosmological isocurvature colliders with other types of isocurvature perturbations.

preprint2019arXiv

G-networks and the optimization of supply chains

Supply chains are fundamental to the economy of the world and many supply chains focus on perishable items, such as food, or even clothing that is subject to a limited shelf life due to fashion and seasonable effects. G-networks have not been previously applied to this important area. Thus in this paper, we apply G-networks to supply chain systems and investigate an optimal order allocation problem for a N-node supply chain with perishable products that share the same order source of fresh products. The objective is to find an optimal order allocation strategy to minimize the purchase price per object from the perspective of the customers. An analytical solution based on G-networks with batch removal, together with optimization methods are shown to produce the desired results. The results are illustrated by a numerical example with realistic parameters.

preprint2019arXiv

Quantum Creation of a Toy Universe without Inflation

We propose a toy model for the origin of the universe, where the scale-invariant fluctuations are generated together with the quantum creation process of the universe. The fluctuations arise inside an instanton in the Euclidean domain of time. In the Lorentzian point of view, the universe emerges with passive, coherent and scale-invariant fluctuations present from the beginning, without the need of inflation or a bounce. For this mechanism to work, we need anisotropic scaling in space and time, which is realized in a toy model of Horava-Lifshitz gravity with a Lifshitz scalar field.

preprint2019arXiv

Turaev Hyperbolicity of Classical and Virtual Knots

By work of W. Thurston, knots and links in the 3-sphere are known to either be torus links, or to contain an essential torus in their complement, or to be hyperbolic, in which case a unique hyperbolic volume can be calculated for their complement. We employ a construction of Turaev to associate a family of hyperbolic 3-manifolds of finite volume to any classical or virtual link, even if non-hyperbolic. These are in turn used to define the Turaev volume of a link, which is the minimal volume among all the hyperbolic 3-manifolds associated via this Turaev construction. In the case of a classical link, we can also define the classical Turaev volume, which is the minimal volume among all the hyperbolic 3-manifolds associated via this Turaev construction for the classical projections only. We then investigate these new invariants.

preprint2016arXiv

$L^2$-contraction of large planar shock waves for multi-dimensional scalar viscous conservation laws

We consider a $L^2$-contraction of large viscous shock waves for the multi-dimensional scalar viscous conservation laws, up to a suitable shift. The shift function depends on the time and space variables. It solves a parabolic equation with inhomogeneous coefficients reflecting the perturbation. We consider a suitably small $L^2$-perturbation around a viscous planar shock wave of arbitrarily large strength. However, we do not impose any condition on the anti-derivative variables of the perturbation around shock profile. More precisely, it is proved that if the initial perturbation around the viscous shock wave is suitably small in the $L^2$ norm, then the $L^2$-contraction holds true for the viscous shock wave up to a shift function which may depend on the temporal and spatial variables. Moreover, as the time $t$ tends to infinity, the $L^2$-contraction holds true up to a time-dependent shift function. In particular, if we choose some special initial perturbation, then we can prove a $L^2$ convergence of the solutions towards the associated shock profile up to a time-dependent shift.

preprint2016arXiv

5G 3GPP-like Channel Models for Outdoor Urban Microcellular and Macrocellular Environments

For the development of new 5G systems to operate in bands up to 100 GHz, there is a need for accurate radio propagation models at these bands that currently are not addressed by existing channel models developed for bands below 6 GHz. This document presents a preliminary overview of 5G channel models for bands up to 100 GHz. These have been derived based on extensive measurement and ray tracing results across a multitude of frequencies from 6 GHz to 100 GHz, and this document describes an initial 3D channel model which includes: 1) typical deployment scenarios for urban microcells (UMi) and urban macrocells (UMa), and 2) a baseline model for incorporating path loss, shadow fading, line of sight probability, penetration and blockage models for the typical scenarios. Various processing methodologies such as clustering and antenna decoupling algorithms are also presented.

preprint2016arXiv

A Direct Probe of the Evolutionary History of the Primordial Universe

Since Hubble and Lamaitre's discovery of the expanding universe using galaxies till the recent discovery of the accelerating universe using standard candles, direct measurements of the evolution of the scale factor of the universe a(t) have played central roles in establishing the standard model of cosmology. In this letter, we show that such a measurement may be extended to the primordial universe using massive fields as standard clocks, providing a direct evidence for the scenario responsible for the Big Bang. This is a short and non-technical introduction to the idea of classical and quantum primordial standard clocks.

preprint2016arXiv

A fully nonlinear Sobolev trace inequality

The $k$-Hessian operator $σ_k$ is the $k$-th elementary symmetric function of the eigenvalues of the Hessian. It is known that the $k$-Hessian equation $σ_k(D^2u)=f$ with Dirichlet boundary condition $u=0$ is variational; indeed, this problem can be studied by means of the $k$-Hessian energy $-\int uσ_k(D^2u)$. We construct a natural boundary functional which, when added to the $k$-Hessian energy, yields as its critical points solutions of $k$-Hessian equations with general non-vanishing boundary data. As a consequence, we prove a sharp Sobolev trace inequality for $k$-admissible functions $u$ which estimates the $k$-Hessian energy in terms of the boundary values of $u$.

preprint2016arXiv

Automated Fourier space region-recognition filtering for off-axis digital holographic microscopy

Automated label-free quantitative imaging of biological samples can greatly benefit high throughput diseases diagnosis. Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is a powerful quantitative label-free imaging tool that retrieves structural details of cellular samples non-invasively. In off-axis DHM, a proper spatial filtering window in Fourier space is crucial to the quality of reconstructed phase image. Here we describe a region-recognition approach that combines shape recognition with an iterative thresholding to extracts the optimal shape of frequency components. The region recognition technique offers fully automated adaptive filtering that can operate with a variety of samples and imaging conditions. When imaging through optically scattering biological hydrogel matrix, the technique surpasses previous histogram thresholding techniques without requiring any manual intervention. Finally, we automate the extraction of the statistical difference of optical height between malaria parasite infected and uninfected red blood cells. The method described here pave way to greater autonomy in automated DHM imaging for imaging live cell in thick cell cultures.

preprint2016arXiv

CMB Cold Spot from Inflationary Feature Scattering

We propose a "feature-scattering" mechanism to explain the cosmic microwave background cold spot seen from WMAP and Planck maps. If there are hidden features in the potential of multi-field inflation, the inflationary trajectory can be scattered by such features. The scattering is controlled by the amount of isocurvature fluctuations, and thus can be considered as a mechanism to convert isocurvature fluctuations into curvature fluctuations. This mechanism predicts localized cold spots (instead of hot ones) on the CMB. In addition, it may also bridge a connection between the cold spot and a dip on the CMB power spectrum at $\ell \sim 20$.

preprint2016arXiv

Cosmic Decoherence: Massive Fields

We study the decoherence of massive fields during inflation based on the Zurek's density matrix approach. With the cubic interaction between inflaton and massive fields, the reduced density matrix for the massive fields can be calculated in the Schrödinger picture which is related to the variance of the non-Gaussian exponent in the wave functional. The decoherence rate is computed in the one-loop form from functional integration. For heavy fields with $m\gtrsim \mathcal{O}(H)$, quantum fluctuations will easily stay in the quantum state and decoherence is unlikely. While for light fields with mass smaller than $\mathcal{O}(H)$, quantum fluctuations are easily decohered within $5\sim10$ e-folds after Hubble crossing. Thus heavy fields can play a key role in studying problems involving inflationary quantum information.

preprint2016arXiv

Development and test of a real-size MRPC for CBM-TOF

In the CBM (Compressed Baryonic Matter) experiment constructed at the Facility for Anti-proton and Ion Research (Fair) at GSI, Darmstadt, Germany, MRPC(Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chamber) is adopted to construct the large TOF (Time-of-Flight) system to achieve an unprecedented precision of hadron identification, benefiting from its good time resolution, relatively high efficiency and low building price. We have developed a kind of double-ended readout strip MRPC. It uses low resistive glass to keep good performance of time resolution under high-rate condition. The differential double stack structure of 2x4 gas gaps help to reduce the required high voltage to half. There are 24 strips on one counter, and each is 270mm long, 7mm wide and the interval is 3mm. Ground is placed onto the MRPC electrode and feed through is carefully designed to match the 100 Ohm impedance of PADI electronics. The prototype of this strip MRPC has been tested with cosmic ray, a 98% efficiency and 60ps time resolution is gotten. In order to further examine the performance of the detector working under higher particle flux rate, the prototype has been tested in the 2014 October GSI beam time and 2015 February CERN beam time. In both beam times a relatively high rate of 1 kHz/cm2 was obtained. The calibration is done with CBM ROOT. A couple of corrections has been considered in the calibration and analysis process (including time-walk correction, gain correction, strip alignment correction and velocity correction) to access actual counter performances such as efficiency and time resolution. An efficiency of 97% and time resolution of 48ps are obtained. All these results show that the real-size prototype is fully capable of the requirement of the CBM-TOF, and new designs such as self-sealing are modified into the strip counter prototype to obtain even better performance.

preprint2016arXiv

Echoes of Inflationary First-Order Phase Transitions in the CMB

Cosmological phase transitions (CPTs), such as the Grand Unified Theory (GUT) and the electroweak (EW) ones, play a significant role in both particle physics and cosmology. In this letter, we propose to probe the first-order CPTs, by detecting gravitational waves (GWs) which are generated during the phase transitions through the cosmic microwave background (CMB). If happened around the inflation era, the first-order CPTs may yield low-frequency GWs due to bubble dynamics, leaving imprints on the CMB. In contrast to the nearly scale-invariant primordial GWs caused by vacuum fluctuation, these bubble-generated GWs are scale dependent and have non-trivial B-mode spectra. If decoupled from inflaton, the EWPT during inflation may serve as a probe for the one after reheating where the baryon asymmetry could be generated via EW baryogenesis (EWBG). The CMB thus provides a potential way to test the feasibility of the EWBG, complementary to the collider measurements of Higgs potential and the direct detection of GWs generated during EWPT.

preprint2016arXiv

Energy-spread measurement of triple-pulse electron beams based on the magnetic dispersion principle

The energy-spread of the triple-pulse electron beam generated by the Dragon-II linear induction accelerator is measured using the method of energy dispersion in the magnetic field. A sector magnet is applied for energy analyzing of the electron beam, which has a bending radius of 300 mm and a deflection angle of 90 degrees. For each pulse, both the time-resolved and the integral images of the electron position at the output port of the bending beam line are recorded by a streak camera and a CCD camera, respectively. Experimental results demonstrate an energy-spread of less than +-2.0% for the electron pulses. The cavity voltage waveforms obtained by different detectors are also analyzed for comparison.

preprint2016arXiv

Fine-grained Recurrent Neural Networks for Automatic Prostate Segmentation in Ultrasound Images

Boundary incompleteness raises great challenges to automatic prostate segmentation in ultrasound images. Shape prior can provide strong guidance in estimating the missing boundary, but traditional shape models often suffer from hand-crafted descriptors and local information loss in the fitting procedure. In this paper, we attempt to address those issues with a novel framework. The proposed framework can seamlessly integrate feature extraction and shape prior exploring, and estimate the complete boundary with a sequential manner. Our framework is composed of three key modules. Firstly, we serialize the static 2D prostate ultrasound images into dynamic sequences and then predict prostate shapes by sequentially exploring shape priors. Intuitively, we propose to learn the shape prior with the biologically plausible Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs). This module is corroborated to be effective in dealing with the boundary incompleteness. Secondly, to alleviate the bias caused by different serialization manners, we propose a multi-view fusion strategy to merge shape predictions obtained from different perspectives. Thirdly, we further implant the RNN core into a multiscale Auto-Context scheme to successively refine the details of the shape prediction map. With extensive validation on challenging prostate ultrasound images, our framework bridges severe boundary incompleteness and achieves the best performance in prostate boundary delineation when compared with several advanced methods. Additionally, our approach is general and can be extended to other medical image segmentation tasks, where boundary incompleteness is one of the main challenges.

preprint2016arXiv

Fluctuations in a Cosmology with a Space-Like Singularity and their Gauge Theory Dual Description

We consider a time-dependent deformation of anti-de-Sitter (AdS) space-time which contains a cosmological "singularity" - a space-like region of high curvature. Making use of the AdS/CFT correspondence we can map the bulk dynamics onto the boundary. The boundary theory has a time dependent coupling constant which becomes small at times when the bulk space-time is highly curved. We investigate the propagation of small fluctuations of a test scalar field from early times before the bulk singularity to late times after the singularity. Under the assumption that the AdS/CFT correspondence extends to deformed AdS space-times, we can map the bulk evolution of the scalar field onto the evolution of the boundary gauge field. The time evolution of linearized fluctuations is well defined in the boundary theory as long as the coupling remains finite, so that we can extend the boundary perturbations to late times after the singularity. Assuming that the spacetime in the future of the singularity has a weakly coupled region near the boundary, we reconstruct the bulk fluctuations after the singularity crossing making use of generic properties of boundary-to-bulk propagators. Finally, we extract the spectrum of the fluctuations at late times given some initial spectrum. We find that the spectral index is unchanged, but the amplitude increases due to the squeezing of the fluctuations during the course of the evolution. This investigation can teach us important lessons on how the spectrum of cosmological perturbations passes through a bounce which is singular from the bulk point of view but which is resolved using an ultraviolet complete theory of quantum gravity.

preprint2016arXiv

Generalised Hermite-Gaussian beams and mode transformations

Generalised Hermite-Gaussian modes (gHG modes), an extended notion of Hermite-Gaussian modes (HG modes), are formed by the summation of normal HG modes with a characteristic function $α$, which can be used to unite conventional HG modes and Laguerre-Gaussian modes (LG modes). An infinite number of normalised orthogonal modes can thus be obtained by modulation of the function $α$. The gHG mode notion provides a useful tool in analysis of the deformation and transformation phenomena occurring in propagation of HG and LG modes with astigmatic perturbation.

preprint2016arXiv

Geometric Arveson-Douglas Conjecture and Holomorphic Extension

In this paper we introduce techniques from complex harmonic analysis to prove a weaker version of the Geometric Arveson-Douglas Conjecture for complex analytic subsets that is smooth on the boundary of the unit ball and intersects transversally with it. In fact, we prove that the projection operator onto the corresponding quotient module is in the Toeplitz algebra $\mathcal{T}(L^{\infty})$, which implies the essential normality of the quotient module. Combining some other techniques we actually obtain the $p$-essential normality for $p>2d$, where $d$ is the complex dimension of the analytic subset. Finally, we show that our results apply for the closure of a radical polynomial ideal $I$ whose zero variety satisfies the above conditions. A key technique is defining a right inverse operator of the restriction map from the unit ball to the analytic subset generalizing the result of Beatrous's paper "$L^p$-estimates for extensions of holomorphic functions".

preprint2016arXiv

Half-arc-transitive graphs of prime-cube order of small valencies

A graph is called {\em half-arc-transitive} if its full automorphism group acts transitively on vertices and edges, but not on arcs. It is well known that for any prime $p$ there is no tetravalent half-arc-transitive graph of order $p$ or $p^2$. Xu~[Half-transitive graphs of prime-cube order, J. Algebraic Combin. 1 (1992) 275-282] classified half-arc-transitive graphs of order $p^3$ and valency $4$. In this paper we classify half-arc-transitive graphs of order $p^3$ and valency $6$ or $8$. In particular, the first known infinite family of half-arc-transitive Cayley graphs on non-metacyclic $p$-groups is constructed.

preprint2016arXiv

Helicity dependent photovoltaic effect in Bi2Se3 under normal incident light

Topological insulators (TIs) form a new class of materials with insulating bulk and surface conduction ensured by topologically protected surface states (TPSS). We investigate the impact of the helicity of a normally incident laser beam on the photovoltaic effect in the TI Bi2Se3. The observation of a helicity dependent photovoltaic effect for normally incident light indicates the presence of out-of-plane spin components for some TPSSs due to the hexagonal warping. In addition, fluctuations in the electrostatic potential at the surface locally break the rotational symmetry of the film allowing the helicity dependent photovoltaic effect. Our result suggests that engineering local electrostatic potentials in Bi2Se3 would allow the control of optically generated spin currents, which may be useful for applications in spin-optoelectronics.

preprint2016arXiv

High rate, fast timing Glass RPC for the high $η$ CMS muon detectors

The HL-LHC phase is designed to increase by an order of magnitude the amount of data to be collected by the LHC experiments. To achieve this goal in a reasonable time scale the instantaneous luminosity would also increase by an order of magnitude up to $6 \cdot 10^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$. The region of the forward muon spectrometer ($|η| > 1.6$) is not equipped with RPC stations. The increase of the expected particles rate up to 2 kHz/cm$^2$ ( including a safety factor 3 ) motivates the installation of RPC chambers to guarantee redundancy with the CSC chambers already present. The actual RPC technology of CMS cannot sustain the expected background level. A new generation Glass-RPC (GRPC) using low resistivity glass (LR) is proposed to equip at least the two most far away of the four high eta muon stations of CMS. The design of small size prototypes and the studies of their performances under high rate particles flux is presented.

preprint2016arXiv

Hybrid evolutionary algorithm with extreme machine learning fitness function evaluation for two-stage capacitated facility location problem

This paper considers the two-stage capacitated facility location problem (TSCFLP) in which products manufactured in plants are delivered to customers via storage depots. Customer demands are satisfied subject to limited plant production and limited depot storage capacity. The objective is to determine the locations of plants and depots in order to minimize the total cost including the fixed cost and transportation cost. A hybrid evolutionary algorithm (HEA) with genetic operations and local search is proposed. To avoid the expensive calculation of fitness of population in terms of computational time, the HEA uses extreme machine learning to approximate the fitness of most of the individuals. Moreover, two heuristics based on the characteristic of the problem is incorporated to generate a good initial population. Computational experiments are performed on two sets of test instances from the recent literature. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated and analyzed. Compared with the state-of-the-art genetic algorithm, the proposed algorithm can find the optimal or near-optimal solutions in a reasonable computational time.

preprint2016arXiv

Indoor 5G 3GPP-like Channel Models for Office and Shopping Mall Environments

Future mobile communications systems are likely to be very different to those of today with new service innovations driven by increasing data traffic demand, increasing processing power of smart devices and new innovative applications. To meet these service demands the telecommunications industry is converging on a common set of 5G requirements which includes network speeds as high as 10 Gbps, cell edge rate greater than 100 Mbps, and latency of less than 1 msec. To reach these 5G requirements the industry is looking at new spectrum bands in the range up to 100 GHz where there is spectrum availability for wide bandwidth channels. For the development of new 5G systems to operate in bands up to 100 GHz there is a need for accurate radio propagation models which are not addressed by existing channel models developed for bands below 6 GHz. This paper presents a preliminary overview of the 5G channel models for bands up to 100 GHz in indoor offices and shopping malls, derived from extensive measurements across a multitude of bands. These studies have found some extensibility of the existing 3GPP models to the higher frequency bands up to 100 GHz. The measurements indicate that the smaller wavelengths introduce an increased sensitivity of the propagation models to the scale of the environment and show some frequency dependence of the path loss as well as increased occurrence of blockage. Further, the penetration loss is highly dependent on the material and tends to increase with frequency. The small-scale characteristics of the channel such as delay spread and angular spread and the multipath richness is somewhat similar over the frequency range, which is encouraging for extending the existing 3GPP models to the wider frequency range. Further work will be carried out to complete these models, but this paper presents the first steps for an initial basis for the model development.

preprint2016arXiv

Isoperimetric inequality on CR-manifolds with nonnegative $Q'$-curvature

In this paper, we study contact forms on the three- dimensional Heisenberg manifold with its standard CR structure. We discover that the $Q'$-curvature, introduced by Branson, Fontana and Morpurgo [BFM13] on the CR three-sphere and then generalized to any pseudo-Einstein CR three manifold by Case and Yang [CY95], controls the isoperimetric inequality on such a CR-manifold. To show this, we first prove that the nonnegative Webster curvature at infinity deduces that the metric is normal, which is analogous to the behavior on a Riemannian four-manifold.

preprint2016arXiv

Linear absorption coefficient of in-plane graphene on a silicon microring resonator

We demonstrate that linear absorption coefficient (LAC) of a graphene-silicon hybrid waveguide (GSHW) is determined by the optical transmission spectra of a graphene coated symmetrically coupled add-drop silicon microring resonator (SC-ADSMR), of which the value is around 0.23 dB/um. In contrast to the traditional cut-back method, the measured results are not dependent on the coupling efficiency of the fiber tip and the waveguide. Moreover, precision evaluation of graphene coated silicon microring resonator (SMR) is crucial for the optoelectronic devices targeting for compact footprint and low power consumption.

preprint2016arXiv

Log-convex and Stieltjes moment sequences

We show that Stieltjes moment sequences are infinitely log-convex, which parallels a famous result that (finite) Pólya frequency sequences are infinitely log-concave. We introduce the concept of $q$-Stieltjes moment sequences of polynomials and show that many well-known polynomials in combinatorics are such sequences. We provide a criterion for linear transformations and convolutions preserving Stieltjes moment sequences. Many well-known combinatorial sequences are shown to be Stieltjes moment sequences in a unified approach and therefore infinitely log-convex, which in particular settles a conjecture of Chen and Xia about the infinite log-convexity of the Schröder numbers. We also list some interesting problems and conjectures about the log-convexity and the Stieltjes moment property of the (generalized) Apéry numbers.

preprint2016arXiv

Loop Corrections to Standard Model Fields in Inflation

We calculate 1-loop corrections to the Schwinger-Keldysh propagators of Standard-Model-like fields of spin-0, 1/2, and 1, with all renormalizable interactions during inflation. We pay special attention to the late-time divergences of loop corrections, and show that the divergences can be resummed into finite results in the late-time limit using dynamical renormalization group method. This is our first step toward studying both the standard model and new physics in the primordial universe.

preprint2016arXiv

Monotone semiflows with respect to high-rank cones on a Banach space

We consider semiflows in general Banach spaces motivated by monotone cyclic feedback systems or differential equations with integer-valued Lyapunov functionals. These semiflows enjoy strong monotonicity properties with respect to cones of high ranks, which imply order-related structures on the $ω$-limit sets of precompact semi-orbits. We show that for a pseudo-ordered precompact semi-orbit the $ω$-limit set $Ω$ is either ordered, or is contained in the set of equilibria, or possesses a certain ordered homoclinic property. In particular, we show that if $Ω$ contains no equilibrium, then $Ω$ itself is ordered and hence the dynamics of the semiflow on $Ω$ is topologically conjugate to a compact flow on $\mathbb{R}^k$ with $k$ being the rank. We also establish a Poincaré-Bendixson type Theorem in the case where $k=2$. All our results are established without the smoothness condition on the semiflow, allowing applications to such cellular or physiological feedback systems with piecewise linear vector fields and to such infinite dimensional systems where the $C^1$-Closing Lemma or smooth manifold theory has not been developed.

preprint2016arXiv

On the equation-of-motion versus in-in approach in cosmological perturbation theory

In this paper, we study several issues in the linear equation-of-motion (EoM) and in-in approaches of computing the two-point correlation functions in multi-field inflation. We prove the equivalence between this EoM approach and the first-principle in-in formalism. We check this equivalence using several explicit examples, including cases with scale-invariant corrections and scale-dependent features. Motivated by the explicit proof, we show that the usual procedures in these approaches can be extended and applied to some interesting model categories beyond what has been studied in the literature so far. These include the density perturbations with strong couplings and correlated multi-field initial states.

preprint2016arXiv

On the initial condition of inflationary fluctuations

It is usually assumed that the inflationary fluctuations start from the Bunch-Davies (BD) vacuum and the $i\varepsilon$ prescription is used when interactions are calculated. We show that those assumptions can be verified explicitly by calculating the loop corrections to the inflationary two-point and three-point correlation functions. Those loop corrections can be resumed to exponential factors, which suppress non-BD coefficients and behave as the $i\varepsilon$ factor for the case of the BD initial condition. A new technique of loop chain diagram resummation is developed for this purpose. For the non-BD initial conditions which is setup at finite time and has not fully decayed, explicit correction to the two-point and three-point correlation functions are calculated. Especially, non-Gaussianity in the folded limit is regularized due to the interactions.

preprint2016arXiv

On the Semantic Relationship between Probabilistic Soft Logic and Markov Logic

Markov Logic Networks (MLN) and Probabilistic Soft Logic (PSL) are widely applied formalisms in Statistical Relational Learning, an emerging area in Artificial Intelligence that is concerned with combining logical and statistical AI. Despite their resemblance, the relationship has not been formally stated. In this paper, we describe the precise semantic relationship between them from a logical perspective. This is facilitated by first extending fuzzy logic to allow weights, which can be also viewed as a generalization of PSL, and then relate that generalization to MLN. We observe that the relationship between PSL and MLN is analogous to the known relationship between fuzzy logic and Boolean logic, and furthermore the weight scheme of PSL is essentially a generalization of the weight scheme of MLN for the many-valued setting.

preprint2016arXiv

Polynomials with palindromic and unimodal coefficients

Let $f(q)=a_rq^r+\cdots+a_sq^s$, with $a_r\neq 0$ and $a_s\neq 0$, be a real polynomial. It is a palindromic polynomial of darga $n$ if $r+s=n$ and $a_{r+i}=a_{s-i}$ for all $i$. Polynomials of darga $n$ form a linear subspace $\mathcal{P}_n(q)$ of $\mathbb{R}(q)_{n+1}$ of dimension $\lfloor{n/2}\rfloor+1$. We give transition matrices between two bases $\left\{q^j(1+q+\cdots+q^{n-2j})\right\}, \left\{q^j(1+q)^{n-2j}\right\}$ and the standard basis $\left\{q^j(1+q^{n-2j})\right\}$ of $\mathcal{P}_n(q)$. We present some characterizations and sufficient conditions for palindromic polynomials that can be expressed in terms of these two bases with nonnegative coefficients. We also point out the link between such polynomials and rank-generating functions of posets.

preprint2016arXiv

Preliminary test results of LAr prototype detector

WIMPs are a well-motivated galactic dark matter candidate. Liquid argon (LAr) is an attractive target for the direct detection of WIMPs. The LAr prototype detector is designed to study the technology and property of LAr detector. The prototype detector have an active volume containing 0.65 kg of liquid argon. The liquid nitrogen(LN) cooling system allows the temperature of liquid argon to be maintained at the boiling point (87.8 K) with fluctuations less than 0.1 K. The prototype was calibrated with a Na$^{22}$ source, with the light yield 1.591$\pm$0.019 p.e./keV for the 511 keV gamma rays using the domestic-made argon purification system.

preprint2016arXiv

Quantum Primordial Standard Clocks

In this paper, we point out and study a generic type of signals existing in the primordial universe models, which can be used to model-independently distinguish the inflation scenario from alternatives. These signals are generated by massive fields that function as standard clocks. The role of massive fields as standard clocks has been realized in previous works. Although the existence of such massive fields is generic, the previous realizations require sharp features to classically excite the oscillations of the massive clock fields. Here, we point out that the quantum fluctuations of massive fields can actually serve the same purpose as the standard clocks. We show that they are also able to directly record the defining property of the scenario type, namely, the scale factor of the primordial universe as a function of time a(t), but through shape-dependent oscillatory features in non-Gaussianities. Since quantum fluctuating massive fields exist in any realistic primordial universe models, these quantum primordial standard clock signals are present in any inflation models, and should exist quite generally in alternative-to-inflation scenarios as well. However, the amplitude of such signals is very model-dependent.

preprint2016arXiv

Structure of $ω$-limit Sets for Almost-periodic Parabolic Equations on $S^1$ with Reflection Symmetry

The structure of the $ω$-limit sets is thoroughly investigated for the skew-product semiflow which is generated by a scalar reaction-diffusion equation \begin{equation*} u_{t}=u_{xx}+f(t,u,u_{x}),\,\,t>0,\,x\in S^{1}=\mathbb{R}/2π\mathbb{Z}, \end{equation*} where $f$ is uniformly almost periodic in $t$ and satisfies $f(t,u,u_x)=f(t,u,-u_x)$. We show that any $ω$-limit set $Ω$ contains at most two minimal sets. Moreover, any hyperbolic $ω$-limit set $Ω$ is a spatially-homogeneous $1$-cover of hull $H(f)$. When $\dim V^c(Ω)=1$ ($V^c(Ω)$ is the center space associated with $Ω$), it is proved that either $Ω$ is a spatially-homogeneous, or $Ω$ is a spatially-inhomogeneous $1$-cover of $H(f)$.

preprint2016arXiv

Total positivity of recursive matrices

Let $A=[a_{n,k}]_{n,k\ge 0}$ be an infinite lower triangular matrix defined by the recurrence $$a_{0,0}=1,\quad a_{n+1,k}=r_{k}a_{n,k-1}+s_{k}a_{n,k}+t_{k+1}a_{n,k+1},$$ where $a_{n,k}=0$ unless $n\ge k\ge 0$ and $r_k,s_k,t_k$ are all nonnegative. Many well-known combinatorial triangles are such matrices, including the Pascal triangle, the Stirling triangle (of the second kind), the Bell triangle, the Catalan triangles of Aigner and Shapiro. We present some sufficient conditions such that the recursive matrix $A$ is totally positive. As applications we give the total positivity of the above mentioned combinatorial triangles in a unified approach.

preprint2015arXiv

A Multilevel Framework for Lattice Network Coding

We present a general framework for studying the multilevel structure of lattice network coding (LNC), which serves as the theoretical fundamental for solving the ring-based LNC problem in practice, with greatly reduced decoding complexity. Building on the framework developed, we propose a novel lattice-based network coding solution, termed layered integer forcing (LIF), which applies to any lattices having multilevel structure. The theoretic foundations of the developed multilevel framework lead to a new general lattice construction approach, the elementary divisor construction (EDC), which shows its strength in improving the overall rate over multiple access channels (MAC) with low computational cost. We prove that the EDC lattices subsume the traditional complex construction approaches. Then a soft detector is developed for lattice network relaying, based on the multilevel structure of EDC. This makes it possible to employ iterative decoding in lattice network coding, and simulation results show the large potential of using iterative multistage decoding to approach the capacity.

preprint2015arXiv

Catalan-like numbers and Stieltjes moment sequences

We provide sufficient conditions under which the Catalan-like numbers are Stieltjes moment sequences. As applications, we show that many well-known counting coefficients, including the Bell numbers, the Catalan numbers, the central binomial coefficients, the central Delannoy numbers, the factorial numbers, the large and little Schröder numbers, are Stieltjes moment sequences in a unified approach.

preprint2015arXiv

Consistency Analysis of Nearest Subspace Classifier

The Nearest subspace classifier (NSS) finds an estimation of the underlying subspace within each class and assigns data points to the class that corresponds to its nearest subspace. This paper mainly studies how well NSS can be generalized to new samples. It is proved that NSS is strongly consistent under certain assumptions. For completeness, NSS is evaluated through experiments on various simulated and real data sets, in comparison with some other linear model based classifiers. It is also shown that NSS can obtain effective classification results and is very efficient, especially for large scale data sets.

preprint2015arXiv

Deep Speech 2: End-to-End Speech Recognition in English and Mandarin

We show that an end-to-end deep learning approach can be used to recognize either English or Mandarin Chinese speech--two vastly different languages. Because it replaces entire pipelines of hand-engineered components with neural networks, end-to-end learning allows us to handle a diverse variety of speech including noisy environments, accents and different languages. Key to our approach is our application of HPC techniques, resulting in a 7x speedup over our previous system. Because of this efficiency, experiments that previously took weeks now run in days. This enables us to iterate more quickly to identify superior architectures and algorithms. As a result, in several cases, our system is competitive with the transcription of human workers when benchmarked on standard datasets. Finally, using a technique called Batch Dispatch with GPUs in the data center, we show that our system can be inexpensively deployed in an online setting, delivering low latency when serving users at scale.

preprint2015arXiv

Experimental comparison of various techniques for spot size measurement of high-energy x-ray source

In the experiment of flash-radiography, the quality of acquired image strongly depends on the focal size of the x-ray source spot. A variety of techniques based on imaging of pinhole, slit and rollbar are adopted to measure the focal spot size of the Dragon-I linear induction accelerator. The image of pinhole provides a two-dimensional distribution of the x-ray spot, while those of slit and rollbar give a line-spread distribution and an edge-spread distribution, respectively. The spot size characterized by full-width at half-maximum and that characterized by the LANL definition are calculated for comparison.

preprint2015arXiv

Experimental observation of spatial jitters of a triple-pulse x-ray source based on the pinhole imaging technique

In high-energy flash radiography, scattered photons will degrade the acquiring image, which limits the resolving power of the interface and density of the dense object. The application of large anti-scatter grid is capable of remarkably decreasing scattered photons, whereas requires a very stable source position in order to reduce the loss of signal photons in the grid structure. The pinhole imaging technique is applied to observe spatial jitters of a triple-pulse radiographic source produced by a linear induction accelerator. Numerical simulations are taken to analyze the performance of the imaging technique with same or close parameters of the pinhole object and experimental alignment Experiments are carried out to observe spatial jitters of the source between different measurements. Deviations of the source position between different pulses are also measured in each experiment.

preprint2015arXiv

Inflation with Massive Vector Fields

We investigate the coupling between the inflaton and massive vector fields. All renormalizable couplings with shift symmetry of the inflaton are considered. The massive vector can be decomposed into a scalar mode and a divergence-free vector mode. We show that the former naturally interacts with the inflaton and the latter decouples at tree level. The model in general predicts $f_{NL}^\mathrm{equil} = \mathcal{O}(1)$, while in some regions of the parameter space large non-Gaussianity can arise.

preprint2015arXiv

Justification of Diffusion limit for the Boltzmann Equation with a non-trivial Profile

Under the diffusion scaling and a scaling assumption on the microscopic component, a non-classical fluid dynamic system was derived in \cite{BGLY} that is related to the system of ghost effect derived in \cite{Sone-2} in different settings. This paper aims to justify this limit system for a non-trivial background profile with slab symmetry. The result reveals not only the diffusion phenomena in the temperature and density, but also the flow of higher order in Knudsen number due to the gradient of the temperature. Precisely, we show that the solution to the Boltzmann equation converges to a diffusion wave with decay rates in both Knudsen number and time.

preprint2015arXiv

Metal-Enhanced Near-Infrared Fluorescence by Micropatterned Gold Nanocages

In metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF), the localized surface plasmon resonances of metallic nanostructures amplify the absorption of excitation light and assist in radiating the consequent fluorescence of nearby molecules to the far-field. This effect is at the base of various technologies that have strong impact on fields such as optics, medical diagnostics and biotechnology. Among possible emission bands, those in the near-infrared (NIR) are particularly intriguing and widely used in proteomics and genomics due to its noninvasive character for biomolecules, living cells, and tissues, which greatly motivates the development of effective, and eventually multifunctional NIR-MEF platforms. Here we demonstrate NIR-MEF substrates based on Au nanocages micropatterned with a tight spatial control. The dependence of the fluorescence enhancement on the distance between the nanocage and the radiating dipoles is investigated experimentally and modeled by taking into account the local electric field enhancement and the modified radiation and absorption rates of the emitting molecules. At a distance around 80 nm, a maximum enhancement up to 2-7 times with respect to the emission from pristine dyes (in the region 660 nm-740 nm) is estimated for films and electrospun nanofibers. Due to their chemical stability, finely tunable plasmon resonances, and large light absorption cross sections, Au nanocages are ideal NIR-MEF agents. When these properties are integrated with the hollow interior and controllable surface porosity, it is feasible to develop a nanoscale system for targeted drug delivery with the diagnostic information encoded in the fluorophore.

preprint2015arXiv

Metallic Icosahedron Phase of Sodium at Terapascal Pressures

Alkali metals exhibit unexpected structures and electronic behavior at high pressures. Compression of metallic sodium (Na) to 200 GPa leads to the stability of a wide-band-gap insulator with the double hexagonal hP4 structure. Post-hP4 structures remain unexplored, but they are important for addressing the question of the pressure at which Na reverts to a metal. Here we report the reentrant metallicity of Na at the very high pressure of 15.5 terapascal (TPa), predicted using first-principles structure searching simulations. Na is therefore insulating over the large pressure range of 0.2-15.5 TPa. Unusually, Na adopts an oP8 structure at pressures of 117-125 GPa, and the same oP8 structure at 1.75-15.5 TPa. Metallization of Na occurs on formation of a stable and striking body-centered cubic cI24 electride structure consisting of Na12 icosahedra, each housing at its center about one electron which is not associated with any Na ions.

preprint2015arXiv

Models of the Primordial Standard Clock

Oscillating massive fields in the primordial universe can be used as Standard Clocks. The ticks of these oscillations induce features in the density perturbations, which directly record the time evolution of the scale factor of the primordial universe, thus if detected, provide a direct evidence for the inflation scenario or the alternatives. In this paper, we construct a full inflationary model of primordial Standard Clock and study its predictions on the density perturbations. This model provides a full realization of several key features proposed previously. We compare the theoretical predictions from inflation and alternative scenarios with the Planck 2013 temperature data on Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), and identify a statistically marginal but interesting candidate. We discuss how future CMB temperature and polarization data, non-Gaussianity analysis and Large Scale Structure data may be used to further test or constrain the Standard Clock signals.

preprint2015arXiv

Neutrino Physics with JUNO

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a 20 kton multi-purpose underground liquid scintillator detector, was proposed with the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy as a primary physics goal. It is also capable of observing neutrinos from terrestrial and extra-terrestrial sources, including supernova burst neutrinos, diffuse supernova neutrino background, geoneutrinos, atmospheric neutrinos, solar neutrinos, as well as exotic searches such as nucleon decays, dark matter, sterile neutrinos, etc. We present the physics motivations and the anticipated performance of the JUNO detector for various proposed measurements. By detecting reactor antineutrinos from two power plants at 53-km distance, JUNO will determine the neutrino mass hierarchy at a 3-4 sigma significance with six years of running. The measurement of antineutrino spectrum will also lead to the precise determination of three out of the six oscillation parameters to an accuracy of better than 1\%. Neutrino burst from a typical core-collapse supernova at 10 kpc would lead to ~5000 inverse-beta-decay events and ~2000 all-flavor neutrino-proton elastic scattering events in JUNO. Detection of DSNB would provide valuable information on the cosmic star-formation rate and the average core-collapsed neutrino energy spectrum. Geo-neutrinos can be detected in JUNO with a rate of ~400 events per year, significantly improving the statistics of existing geoneutrino samples. The JUNO detector is sensitive to several exotic searches, e.g. proton decay via the $p\to K^++\barν$ decay channel. The JUNO detector will provide a unique facility to address many outstanding crucial questions in particle and astrophysics. It holds the great potential for further advancing our quest to understanding the fundamental properties of neutrinos, one of the building blocks of our Universe.

preprint2015arXiv

Non-Uniqueness of Classical Inflationary Trajectories on a High-Dimensional Landscape

Motivated by the string landscape, inflation may happen on a high dimensional complicated potential. We propose a new way to construct some high dimensional random potentials, and study inflation on top of that, for up to 50-dimensions in field space. Especially, random bifurcations of classical inflationary trajectory are studied. It is shown that the bifurcation probability increases as a function of number of dimensions. Those random bifurcations are not consistent with observations, and dramatically limit the parameter space of inflation on a complicated landscape. For example, in 10 dimensions, only $10^{-3} \sim 10^{-6}$ of the parameter space volume leads to unique classical trajectories. The rest is ruled out by random bifurcations.

preprint2015arXiv

On locally conformally flat manifolds with finite total $Q$-curvature

In this paper, we focus our study on the ends of a locally conformally flat complete manifold with finite total $Q$-curvature. We prove that for such a manifold, the integral of the $Q$-curvature equals an integral multiple of a dimensional constant $c_n$, where $c_n$ is the integral of the $Q$-curvature on the unit $n$-sphere. It provides further evidence that the $Q$-curvature on a locally conformally flat manifold controls geometry as the Gaussian curvature does in two dimension.

preprint2015arXiv

On random linear dynamical systems in a Banach space. I. Multiplicative Ergodic Theorem and Krein-Rutmann type Theorems

For linear random dynamical systems in a separable Banach space $X$, we derived a series of Krein-Rutman type Theorems with respect to co-invariant cone family with rank-$k$, which present a (quasi)-equivalence relation between the measurably co-invariant cone family and the measurably dominated splitting of $X$. Moreover, such (quasi)-equivalence relation turns out to be an equivalence relation whenever (i) $k=1$; or (ii) in the frame of the Multiplicative Ergodic Theorem with certain Lyapunov exponent being greater than the negative infinity. For the second case, we thoroughly investigated the relations between the Lyapunov exponents, the co-invariant cone family and the measurably dominated splitting for linear random dynamical systems in $X$.

preprint2015arXiv

Online aging study of high rate MRPC

With the constant increase of accelerator luminosity, the rate requirements of the MRPC detectors become important. In the same time, aging problem of the detector has to be studied meticulously. An online aging test system is set up in our Lab. The setup of the system is described and the purpose is to study the performance stability during the long time running under high luminosity environment. The high rate MRPC has been irradiated by X-ray for 36 days and accumulated charge density reached 0.1C/cm2. No obvious performance degradation is observed for the detector.

preprint2015arXiv

Random Bits Regression: a Strong General Predictor for Big Data

To improve accuracy and speed of regressions and classifications, we present a data-based prediction method, Random Bits Regression (RBR). This method first generates a large number of random binary intermediate/derived features based on the original input matrix, and then performs regularized linear/logistic regression on those intermediate/derived features to predict the outcome. Benchmark analyses on a simulated dataset, UCI machine learning repository datasets and a GWAS dataset showed that RBR outperforms other popular methods in accuracy and robustness. RBR (available on https://sourceforge.net/projects/rbr/) is very fast and requires reasonable memories, therefore, provides a strong, robust and fast predictor in the big data era.

preprint2015arXiv

Spot size measurement of flash-radiography source utilizing the pinhole imaging method

The spot size of the x-ray source is a key parameter of a flash-radiography facility, which is usually quoted as an evaluation of the resolving power. The pinhole imaging technique is applied to measure the spot size of the Dragon-I linear induction accelerator, by which a two-dimensional spatial distribution of the source spot is obtained. Experimental measurements are performed to measure the spot image when the transportation and focusing of the electron beam is tuned by adjusting the currents of solenoids in the downstream section. The spot size of full-width at half maximum and that defined from the spatial frequency at half peak value of the modulation transfer function are calculated and discussed.

preprint2015arXiv

The inviscid limit to a contact discontinuity for the compressible Navier-Stokes-Fourier system using the relative entropy method

We consider the zero heat conductivity limit to a contact discontinuity for the mono-dimensional full compressible Navier-Stokes-Fourier system. The method is based on the relative entropy method, and do not assume any smallness conditions on the discontinuity, nor on the $BV$ norm of the initial data. It is proved that for any viscosity $ν\geq0$, the solution of the compressible Navier-Stokes-Fourier system (with well prepared initial value) converges, when the heat conductivity $κ$ tends to zero, to the contact discontinuity solution to the corresponding Euler system. We obtain the decay rate $κ^{\frac12}$. It implies that the heat conductivity dominates the dissipation in the regime of the limit to a contact discontinuity. This is the first result, based on the relative entropy, of an asymptotic limit to a discontinuous solutions for a system.

preprint2015arXiv

Topological Surface States Originated Spin-Orbit Torques in Bi2Se3

Three dimensional topological insulator bismuth selenide (Bi2Se3) is expected to possess strong spin-orbit coupling and spin-textured topological surface states, and thus exhibit a high charge to spin current conversion efficiency. We evaluate spin-orbit torques in Bi2Se3/Co40Fe40B20 devices at different temperatures by spin torque ferromagnetic resonance measurements. As temperature decreases, the spin-orbit torque ratio increases from ~ 0.047 at 300 K to ~ 0.42 below 50 K. Moreover, we observe a significant out-of-plane torque at low temperatures. Detailed analysis indicates that the origin of the observed spin-orbit torques is topological surface states in Bi2Se3. Our results suggest that topological insulators with strong spin-orbit coupling could be promising candidates as highly efficient spin current sources for exploring next generation of spintronic applications.

preprint2015arXiv

Towards the physical vacuum of cosmic inflation

There have been long debates about the initial condition of inflationary perturbations. In this work we explicitly show the decay of excited states during inflation via interactions. For this purpose, we note that the folded shape non-Gaussianity can be interpreted as the decay of the non-Bunch-Davies initial condition. The one loop diagrams with non-Bunch-Davies propagators are calculated to uncover the decay of such excited states. The observed smallness of non-Gaussianity keeps the window open for probing inflationary initial conditions and trans-Planckian physics.

preprint2014arXiv

A Thermal Harmonic Field Description of Phase Transition: The Alternative Approach to the Landau Theory

The study of critical phenomena and phase transitions is an important part of modern condensed matter physics. In this regard, the phenomenological Landau theory has been extraordinarily useful. Hereby we present an alternative theoretical description to the Landau theory for a system under phase transition, based on a priori assumption that the macroscopic system is made of the thermal mixing among multi harmonics each of them can be distinguished by crystal orientation, polar direction, magnetic direction, or even momentum etc. Our theory naturally gives rise to a long range field and is able to account for both the type of lattice and the spatial dimensionality, in addition to that the excess free energy is referenced to the low temperature structure together with the positive excess entropy. The improvements over the Landau theory are demonstrated using ferroelectric-paraelectric system of PbTiO3 on its phase transition and associated thermodynamic behaviors.

preprint2014arXiv

Atomic-resolution TEM Studies of Pillar-Matrix Structures in Epitaxially Grown Ultrathin ZrO2-La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 Films

We studied ZrO2-La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 pillar matrix thin films which were found to show anomalous magnetic and electron transport properties controlled by the amount of ZrO2. With the application of an aberration corrected transmission electron microscope, structure and chemical information of the system, especially of the pillar matrix interface were revealed at atomic resolution. Minor amounts of Zr were found to occupy Mn positions within the matrix and its solubility within the matrix was found to be less than 6 mol%. Moreover, the Zr concentration reached minimum concentration at the pillar matrix interface accompanied by oxygen deficiency. La and Mn diffusion into the pillar was observed along with a change of the Mn valence state. La and Mn positions inside ZrO2 pillars were also revealed at atomic resolution. These results provide detailed information for future studies of macroscopic properties of these materials.

preprint2014arXiv

CMB statistical anisotropies of classical and quantum origins

We examine the impact of different anisotropic relics on inflation, in particular the predictions on the density perturbations. These relics can be the source of the large scale anomalies in the cosmic microwave background. There are two different types of background relics, one from the matter sector and the other purely from the metric. Although the angular-dependence of the statistical anisotropy in both cases are degenerate, the scale-dependence are observationally distinctive. In addition, we demonstrate that non-Bunch-Davies vacuum states can extend the statistical anisotropy to much shorter scales, and leave a scale-dependence that is insensitive to the different backgrounds but sensitive to the initial quantum state.

preprint2014arXiv

Determination of intrinsic spin Hall angle in Pt

The spin Hall angle in Pt is evaluated in Pt/NiFe bilayers by spin torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) measurements, and is found to increase with increasing the NiFe thickness. To extract the intrinsic spin Hall angle in Pt by estimating the total spin current injected into NiFe from Pt, the NiFe thickness dependent measurements are performed and the spin diffusion in the NiFe layer is taken into account. The intrinsic spin Hall angle of Pt is determined to be 0.068 at room temperature, and is found to be almost constant in the temperature range 13 - 300 K.

preprint2014arXiv

Genome-wide Scan of Archaic Hominin Introgressions in Eurasians Reveals Complex Admixture History

Introgressions from Neanderthals and Denisovans were detected in modern humans. Introgressions from other archaic hominins were also implicated, however, identification of which poses a great technical challenge. Here, we introduced an approach in identifying introgressions from all possible archaic hominins in Eurasian genomes, without referring to archaic hominin sequences. We focused on mutations emerged in archaic hominins after their divergence from modern humans (denoted as archaic-specific mutations), and identified introgressive segments which showed significant enrichment of archaic-specific mutations over the rest of the genome. Furthermore, boundaries of introgressions were identified using a dynamic programming approach to partition whole genome into segments which contained different levels of archaic-specific mutations. We found that detected introgressions shared more archaic-specific mutations with Altai Neanderthal than they shared with Denisovan, and 60.3% of archaic hominin introgressions were from Neanderthals. Furthermore, we detected more introgressions from two unknown archaic hominins whom diverged with modern humans approximately 859 and 3,464 thousand years ago. The latter unknown archaic hominin contributed to the genomes of the common ancestors of modern humans and Neanderthals. In total, archaic hominin introgressions comprised 2.4% of Eurasian genomes. Above results suggested a complex admixture history among hominins. The proposed approach could also facilitate admixture research across species.

preprint2014arXiv

Inflation and Alternatives with Blue Tensor Spectra

We study the tilt of the primordial gravitational waves spectrum. A hint of blue tilt is shown from analyzing the BICEP2 and POLARBEAR data. Motivated by this, we explore the possibilities of blue tensor spectra from the very early universe cosmology models, including null energy condition violating inflation, inflation with general initial conditions, and string gas cosmology, etc. For the simplest G-inflation, blue tensor spectrum also implies blue scalar spectrum. In general, the inflation models with blue tensor spectra indicate large non-Gaussianities. On the other hand, string gas cosmology predicts blue tensor spectrum with highly Gaussian fluctuations. If further experiments do confirm the blue tensor spectrum, non-Gaussianity becomes a distinguishing test between inflation and alternatives.

preprint2014arXiv

Inflationary power asymmetry from primordial domain walls

We study the asymmetric primordial fluctuations in a model of inflation in which translational invariance is broken by a domain wall. We calculate the corrections to the power spectrum of curvature perturbations; they are anisotropic and contain dipole, quadrupole, and higher multipoles with non-trivial scale-dependent amplitudes. Inspired by observations of these multipole asymmetries in terms of two-point correlations and variance in real space, we demonstrate that this model can explain the observed anomalous power asymmetry of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) sky, including its characteristic feature that the dipole dominates over higher multipoles. We test the viability of the model and place approximate constraints on its parameters by using observational values of dipole, quadrupole, and octopole amplitudes of the asymmetry measured by a local-variance estimator. We find that a configuration of the model in which the CMB sphere does not intersect the domain wall during inflation provides a good fit to the data. We further derive analytic expressions for the corrections to the CMB temperature covariance matrix, or angular power spectra, which can be used in future statistical analysis of the model in spherical harmonic space.

preprint2014arXiv

Interference Channels with Half-Duplex Source Cooperation

The performance gain by allowing half-duplex source cooperation is studied for Gaussian interference channels. The source cooperation is {\em in-band}, meaning that each source can listen to the other source's transmission, but there is no independent (or orthogonal) channel between the sources. The half-duplex constraint supposes that at each time instant the sources can either transmit or listen, but not do both. Our main result is a characterization of the sum capacity when the cooperation is bidirectional and the channel gains are symmetric. With unidirectional cooperation, we essentially have a cognitive radio channel. By requiring the primary to achieve a rate close to its link capacity, the best possible rate for the secondary is characterized within a constant. Novel inner and outer bounds are derived as part of these characterizations.

preprint2014arXiv

Latent Tree Models and Approximate Inference in Bayesian Networks

We propose a novel method for approximate inference in Bayesian networks (BNs). The idea is to sample data from a BN, learn a latent tree model (LTM) from the data offline, and when online, make inference with the LTM instead of the original BN. Because LTMs are tree-structured, inference takes linear time. In the meantime, they can represent complex relationship among leaf nodes and hence the approximation accuracy is often good. Empirical evidence shows that our method can achieve good approximation accuracy at low online computational cost.

preprint2014arXiv

Maximum mutual information regularized classification

In this paper, a novel pattern classification approach is proposed by regularizing the classifier learning to maximize mutual information between the classification response and the true class label. We argue that, with the learned classifier, the uncertainty of the true class label of a data sample should be reduced by knowing its classification response as much as possible. The reduced uncertainty is measured by the mutual information between the classification response and the true class label. To this end, when learning a linear classifier, we propose to maximize the mutual information between classification responses and true class labels of training samples, besides minimizing the classification error and reduc- ing the classifier complexity. An objective function is constructed by modeling mutual information with entropy estimation, and it is optimized by a gradi- ent descend method in an iterative algorithm. Experiments on two real world pattern classification problems show the significant improvements achieved by maximum mutual information regularization.

preprint2014arXiv

Peacock: Learning Long-Tail Topic Features for Industrial Applications

Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is a popular topic modeling technique in academia but less so in industry, especially in large-scale applications involving search engine and online advertising systems. A main underlying reason is that the topic models used have been too small in scale to be useful; for example, some of the largest LDA models reported in literature have up to $10^3$ topics, which cover difficultly the long-tail semantic word sets. In this paper, we show that the number of topics is a key factor that can significantly boost the utility of topic-modeling systems. In particular, we show that a "big" LDA model with at least $10^5$ topics inferred from $10^9$ search queries can achieve a significant improvement on industrial search engine and online advertising systems, both of which serving hundreds of millions of users. We develop a novel distributed system called Peacock to learn big LDA models from big data. The main features of Peacock include hierarchical distributed architecture, real-time prediction and topic de-duplication. We empirically demonstrate that the Peacock system is capable of providing significant benefits via highly scalable LDA topic models for several industrial applications.

preprint2014arXiv

Precision of future experiments measuring primordial tensor fluctuation

Recently the second phase of Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP2) claimed a detection of the tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r$) of primordial fluctuation at $5σ$ confidence level. If it is true, this large and measurable amplitude ($r \simeq 0.2$) of B-mode polarization indicates that it is possible to measure the shape of CMB B-mode polarization with future experiments. We forecast the precision of $r$ and the tensor spectral index $n_{\rm t}$ measurements, with $n_{\rm t}$ as a free parameter, from a {\it Planck}-like experiment, and from Spider and POLARBEAR given the current understanding of their experimental noise and foreground contamination. We quantitatively determine the signal-to-noise of the measurement in $r$-$n_{\rm t}$ parameter space for the three experiments. The forecasted signal-to-noise ratio of the B-mode polarization somewhat depends on $n_{\rm t}$, but strongly depends on the true value of $r$.

preprint2014arXiv

Reconstructing the Local Potential of Inflation with BICEP2 data

We locally reconstruct the inflationary potential by using the current constraints on $r$ and $n_{\rm s}$ from BICEP2 data. Assuming small and negligible $α_{\rm s}$, the inflationary potential is approximately linear in $Δϕ\sim M_{\rm pl}$ range but becomes non-linear in $Δϕ\sim 10 M_{\rm pl}$ range. However if we vary the value of $α_{\rm s}$ within the range given by constraints from {\it Planck} measurement, the local reconstruction is only valid in the range of $Δϕ\sim 0.4 M_{\rm pl}$, which challenges the inflationary background from the point of view of effective field theory. We show that, within the range of $Δϕ\sim 0.4 M_{\rm pl}$, the inflation potential can be precisely reconstructed. With the current reconstruction, we show that $V(ϕ) \sim ϕ^{2}$ and $ϕ^{3}$ are consistent, while $ϕ$ model is ruled out by $95\%$ confidence level of the reconstructed range of potential. This sets up a strong limit of large-field inflation models.

preprint2014arXiv

Relic Vector Field and CMB Large Scale Anomalies

We study the most general effects of relic vector fields on the inflationary background and density perturbations. Such effects are observable if the number of inflationary e-folds is close to the minimum requirement to solve the horizon problem. We show that this can potentially explain two CMB large scale anomalies: the quadrupole-octopole alignment and the quadrupole power suppression. We discuss its effect on the parity anomaly. We also provide analytical template for more detailed data comparison.

preprint2014arXiv

Scalar-Tensor Anti-Cross-Correlation does not Help to Reconcile the Tension between BICEP2 and Planck

We examine the recent proposal [1] that the anti-cross-correlation of the scalar and tensor primordial fluctuations reconciles the tension between BICEP2 and Planck observations. We show that unfortunately the contribution from the scalar-tensor correlation to the CMB temperature power spectrum vanishes once summed over the angular mode $m$ so the tension between BICEP2 and Planck can not be reconciled. The reason is that one has to use the spin-weighted spherical harmonics when projecting fields with nonzero spins into the CMB sky. These nonzero spin-weighted spherical harmonics are subject to orthogonality conditions when summed over the angular direction and thus the desired cross-correlation between the scalar and tensor perturbations in CMB map vanishes.

preprint2014arXiv

Scheduling step-deteriorating jobs to minimize the total weighted tardiness on a single machine

This paper addresses the scheduling problem of minimizing the total weighted tardiness on a single machine with step-deteriorating jobs. With the assumption of deterioration, the job processing times are modeled by step functions of job starting times and pre-specified job deteriorating dates. The introduction of step-deteriorating jobs makes a single machine total weighted tardiness problem more intractable. The computational complexity of this problem under consideration was not determined. In this study, it is firstly proved to be strongly NP-hard. Then a mixed integer programming model is derived for solving the problem instances optimally. In order to tackle large-sized problems, seven dispatching heuristic procedures are developed for near-optimal solutions. Meanwhile, the solutions delivered by the proposed heuristic are further improved by a pair-wise swap movement. Computational results are presented to reveal the performance of all proposed approaches.

preprint2014arXiv

Statistical Anisotropies in Gravitational Waves in Solid Inflation

Solid inflation can support a long period of anisotropic inflation. We calculate the statistical anisotropies in the scalar and tensor power spectra and their cross-correlation in anisotropic solid inflation. The tensor-scalar cross-correlation can either be positive or negative, which impacts the statistical anisotropies of the TT and TB spectra in CMB map more significantly compared with the tensor self-correlation. The tensor power spectrum contains potentially comparable contributions from quadrupole and octopole angular patterns, which is different from the power spectra of scalar, the cross-correlation or the scalar bispectrum, where the quadrupole type statistical anisotropy dominates over octopole.

preprint2014arXiv

Tensity Research Based on the Information of Eye Movement

User's mental state is concerned gradually, during the interaction course of human robot. As the measurement and identification method of psychological state, tension, has certain practical significance role. At presents there is no suitable method of measuring the tension. Firstly, sum up some availability of eye movement index. And then parameters extraction on eye movement characteristics of normal illumination is studied, including the location of the face, eyes location, access to the pupil diameter, the eye pupil center characteristic parameters. And with the judgment of the tension in eye images, extract exact information of gaze direction. Finally, through the experiment to prove the proposed method is effective.

preprint2014arXiv

Testing quantum gravity effects with latest CMB observations

Inspired by quantum gravitational physics, the approach of non-commutative (NC) phase space leads to a modified dispersion relation of gravitational waves. This feature, if applied to the very early universe, gives rise to a modified power spectrum of primordial tensor perturbations with a suppression of power on large scales. We confront this phenomenon with the BICEP2 and Planck experiments, and show that inflation with the modified dispersion relation can simultaneously fit the observations better than the standard inflationary paradigm. In particular, the numerical result implies that with the latest cosmological microwave background (CMB) observations, a quantum gravity modified power spectrum of primordial tensor modes is preferred at a statistical significance of more than $3σ$ compared with the minimal model. Our study indicates that the potential tension between the BICEP2 and Planck data may be resolved by quantum gravity effects.

preprint2014arXiv

The TT, TB, EB and BB correlations in anisotropic inflation

The ongoing and future experiments will measure the B-mode from different sky coverage and frequency bands, with the potential to reveal non-trivial features in polarization map. In this work we study the TT, TB, EB and BB correlations associated with the B-mode polarization of CMB map in models of charged anisotropic inflation. The model contains a chaotic-type large field complex inflaton which is charged under the $U(1)$ gauge field. We calculate the statistical anisotropies generated in the power spectra of the curvature perturbation, the tensor perturbation and their cross-correlation. It is shown that the asymmetry in tensor power spectrum is a very sensitive probe of the gauge coupling. While the level of statistical anisotropy in temperature power spectrum can be small and satisfy the observational bounds, the interactions from the gauge coupling can induce large directional dependence in tensor modes. This will leave interesting anisotropic fingerprints in various correlations involving the B-mode polarization such as the TB cross-correlation which may be detected in upcoming Planck polarization data. In addition, the TT correlation receives an anisotropic contribution from the tensor sector which naturally decays after $l \gtrsim 100$. We expect that the mechanism of using tensor sector to induce asymmetry at low $l$ to be generic which can also be applied to address other low $l$ CMB anomalies.

preprint2014arXiv

Transversality for Cyclic Negative Feedback Systems

Transversality of stable and unstable manifolds of hyperbolic periodic trajectories is proved for monotone cyclic systems with negative feedback. Such systems in general are not in the category of monotone dynamical systems in the sense of Hirsch. Our main tool utilized in the proofs is the so-called cone of high rank. We further show that stable and unstable manifolds between a hyperbolic equilibrium and a hyperbolic periodic trajectory, or between two hyperbolic equilibria with different dimensional unstable manifolds also intersect transversely.

preprint2013arXiv

A general variable neighborhood search for single-machine total tardiness scheduling problem with step-deteriorating jobs

In this article, we study a single-machine scheduling problem of minimizing the total tardiness for a set of independent jobs. The processing time of a job is modeled as a step function of its starting time and a specific deteriorating date. A mixed integer programming model was applied to the problem and validated. Since the problem is known to be NP-hard, we proposed a heuristic named simple weighted search procedure (SWSP) and a general variable neighborhood search algorithm (GVNS). A perturbation procedure with 3-opt is embedded within the GVNS process in order to explore broader spaces. Extensive numerical experiments are carried out on some randomly generated test instances so as to investigate the performance of the proposed algorithms. By comparing to the results of the CPLEX optimization solver, the heuristic SWSP and the standard variable neighborhood search, it is shown that the proposed GVNS algorithm can provide better solutions within a reasonable running time.

preprint2013arXiv

A hybrid generalized extremal optimization algorithm for the quay crane scheduling problem with interference constraints

The quay crane scheduling problem (QCSP) determines the handling sequence of tasks at ship bays by a set of cranes assigned to a container vessel such that the vessel's service time is minimized. A number of heuristics or meta-heuristics have been proposed to obtain the near-optimal solutions to overcome the NP-hardness of the problem. In this article, the idea of generalized extremal optimization (GEO) is adapted to solve the QCSP with respect to various interference constraints. The resulted GEO is termed as the modified GEO. A randomized searching method for neighboring task-to-QC assignments to an incumbent task-to-QC assignment is developed in executing the modified GEO. In addition, a unidirectional search decoding scheme is employed to transform a task-to-QC assignment to an active quay crane schedule. The effectiveness of the developed GEO is tested on a suite of benchmark problems introduced by \citet{KimPark2004}. Compared with other well known existing approaches, the experiment results show that the proposed modified GEO is capable of obtaining the optimal or near-optimal solution in reasonable time, especially for large-sized problems.

preprint2013arXiv

A no-go theorem for generalized vector Galileons on flat spacetime

We explore the possibility for generalized electromagnetism on flat spacetime. For a single copy of $U(1)$ gauge theory, we show that the Galileon-type generalization of electromagnetism is forbidden. Given that the equations of motion for the vector field are gauge invariant and Lorentz invariant, follow from an action and contain no more than second derivative on $A_μ$, the equations of motion are at most linear with respect to second derivative of $A_μ$.

preprint2013arXiv

Effect of Ni on Cu precipitation kinetics in α-Fe by AKMC study

The kinetics of coherent Cu rich precipitation in Fe-Cu and Fe-Cu-Ni alloys during thermal ageing have been modeled by Atomic Kinetic Monte Carlo method (AKMC). The AKMC is parameterized by existing ab-inito data to treat vacancy mediated diffusion which is depend on local atomic environment. A nonlinear semi-empirical time adjusting method is proposed to rescaled the MC time. The combining AKMC and time adjusting method give a good agreement with experiments and other simulations, including advancement factor and the Cu cluster mobility. Simulations of ternary alloys reveal Ni has a temporal delay effect on Cu precipitation. This effect is caused by the decreasing of diffusion coefficient of Cu clusters. And the reduction effect of diffusion coefficient weakens with larger Cu cluster size. The simulation results can be used to explain the experimental phenomenon that ternary Fe-Cu-Ni alloys have higher cluster number density than corresponding binary during coarsening stage, which is related to cluster mobility.

preprint2013arXiv

Exploration in Interactive Personalized Music Recommendation: A Reinforcement Learning Approach

Current music recommender systems typically act in a greedy fashion by recommending songs with the highest user ratings. Greedy recommendation, however, is suboptimal over the long term: it does not actively gather information on user preferences and fails to recommend novel songs that are potentially interesting. A successful recommender system must balance the needs to explore user preferences and to exploit this information for recommendation. This paper presents a new approach to music recommendation by formulating this exploration-exploitation trade-off as a reinforcement learning task called the multi-armed bandit. To learn user preferences, it uses a Bayesian model, which accounts for both audio content and the novelty of recommendations. A piecewise-linear approximation to the model and a variational inference algorithm are employed to speed up Bayesian inference. One additional benefit of our approach is a single unified model for both music recommendation and playlist generation. Both simulation results and a user study indicate strong potential for the new approach.

preprint2013arXiv

Improved Performance of Tunneling FET Based on Hetero Graphene Nanoribbons

A heterojunction tunneling field effect transistor based on armchair graphene nanoribbons is proposed and studied using ballistic quantum transport simulation based on 3D real space nonequilibrium Green's function formalism. By using low band gap nanoribbons as the source/drain material, the hetero- structure shows better performance including higher on current, lower off current, and improved steep subthreshold swings compared with homostructure. It is also found the device performance greatly depends on the source/drain dopping density. High doping density leads to fewer density states in the source and degrades the device performance.

preprint2013arXiv

Isoperimetric inequality, $Q$-curvature and $A_p$ weights

A well known question in differential geometry is to control the constant in isoperimetric inequality by intrinsic curvature conditions. In dimension 2, the constant can be controlled by the integral of the positive part of the Gaussian curvature. In this paper, we showed that on simply connected conformal flat manifolds of higher dimensions, the role of the Gaussian curvature can be replaced by the Branson $Q$- curvature. We achieve this by exploring the relationship between $A_p$ weights and integrals of the Q-curvature.

preprint2013arXiv

Large Local Non-Gaussianity from General Single-field Inflation

We investigate the non-Gaussian signatures of ultra slow-roll inflation. The bispectrum and the trispectrum are calculated with general initial conditions. The trispectrum is of local shape, as in the case of the bispectrum. We show that the prediction of local non-Gaussianity is robust again generalizing the Bunch-Davies vacuum. The Suyama-Yamaguchi relation is saturated in this scenario.

preprint2013arXiv

Non-Bunch-Davies Anisotropy

We introduce a generic mechanism that can extend the effects of relic anisotropies at the beginning of inflation to relatively much shorter scales in density perturbations. This is induced by non-Bunch-Davies states of the quantum fluctuations, and can show up in the non-oscillatory components of the density perturbations. This mechanism works for general forms of anisotropies, and, to illustrate it, we use an example of relic vector field. The detailed scale-dependence of these anisotropies can be used to probe the initial quantum state of our universe.

preprint2013arXiv

Non-Ising Character of a Ferroelectric Wall Arises from a Flexoelectric Effect

Using the classic ferroelectric BaTiO$_3$ as an example, we show that the 180 degree ferroelectric domain wall, long considered to be of Ising-type and charge neural, contains both Bloch and Neel type polarization components, and is thus charged. The bound charge density at the wall may reach as high as 10$^6$~10$^7$ Cm$^{-3}$. It is demonstrated that the flexoelectric effect arising from stress inhomogeneity is responsible for the additional Bloch and Neel polarization components. The magnitudes of these additional components are determined by the competing depolarization and flexoelectric fields.

preprint2013arXiv

Parallel machine scheduling with step deteriorating jobs and setup times by a hybrid discrete cuckoo search algorithm

This article considers the parallel machine scheduling problem with step-deteriorating jobs and sequence-dependent setup times. The objective is to minimize the total tardiness by determining the allocation and sequence of jobs on identical parallel machines. In this problem, the processing time of each job is a step function dependent upon its starting time. An individual extended time is penalized when the starting time of a job is later than a specific deterioration date. The possibility of deterioration of a job makes the parallel machine scheduling problem more challenging than ordinary ones. A mixed integer programming model for the optimal solution is derived. Due to its NP-hard nature, a hybrid discrete cuckoo search algorithm is proposed to solve this problem. In order to generate a good initial swarm, a modified heuristic named the MBHG is incorporated into the initialization of population. Several discrete operators are proposed in the random walk of Lévy Flights and the crossover search. Moreover, a local search procedure based on variable neighborhood descent is integrated into the algorithm as a hybrid strategy in order to improve the quality of elite solutions. Computational experiments are executed on two sets of randomly generated test instances. The results show that the proposed hybrid algorithm can yield better solutions in comparison with the commercial solver CPLEX with one hour time limit, discrete cuckoo search algorithm and the existing variable neighborhood search algorithm.

preprint2013arXiv

Pocket doping method on Improving the Performance of Graphene Nanoribbons Tunneling FET

A tunneling field effect transistor based on armchair graphene nanoribbons is studied using ballistic quantum transport simulation based on 3D real space nonequilibrium Green's function formalism. By introducing a pocket doping region near the source, the performance of GNRs TFET is improved in terms of larger on current and steeper subthreshold swings compared to conventional tunneling FET. It is also found that pocket region introduces two interesting features. By increasing the pocket length the ambipolar can be effectively suppressed. Furthermore, there is negative trans-conductance at negative gate voltage due to resonance.

preprint2013arXiv

Position Space CMB Anomalies from Multi-Stream Inflation

Temporary domain walls are produced during the bifurcation era of multi-stream inflation. The observational effects from such a domain wall to spectator field perturbations are calculated, and we expect the inflationary perturbations share similarities with the case of spectator field. A domain wall induces a preferred direction in the sky, affecting the angular distribution of perturbations. A correlated suppression of multipoles together with an alignment of multipole moments on the preferred direction are generated. Other observational aspects of multi-stream inflation, including hemispherical asymmetry and cold spot are also briefly reviewed.

preprint2013arXiv

The least eigenvalue of graphs whose complements are unicyclic

A graph in a certain graph class is called minimizing if the least eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of the graph attains the minimum among all graphs in that class. Bell {\it et al.} have characterized the minimizing graphs in the class of connected graphs of order $n$ and size $m$, whose complements are either disconnected or contain a clique of order at least $n/2$. In this paper we discuss the minimizing graphs of a special class of graphs of order $n$ whose complements are connected and contains exactly one cycle (namely the the class $\mathscr {U}^{c}_{n}$ of graphs whose complements are unicyclic), and characterize the unique minimizing graph in $\mathscr {U}^{c}_{n}$ when $n \geq 20$.

preprint2013arXiv

The limit to rarefaction wave with vacuum for 1D compressible fluids with temperature-dependent viscosities

In this paper we study the zero dissipation limit of the one-dimensional full compressible Navier-Stokes(CNS) equations with temperature-dependent viscosity and heat-conduction coefficient. It is proved that given a rarefaction wave with one-side vacuum state to the full compressible Euler equations, we can construct a sequence of solutions to the full CNS equations which converge to the above rarefaction wave with vacuum as the viscosity and the heat conduction coefficient tend to zero. Moreover, the uniform convergence rate is obtained. The main difficulty in our proof lies in the degeneracies of the density, the temperature and the temperature-dependent viscosities at the vacuum region in the zero dissipation limit.

preprint2013arXiv

Y Chromosomes of 40% Chinese Are Descendants of Three Neolithic Super-grandfathers

Demographic change of human populations is one of the central questions for delving into the past of human beings. To identify major population expansions related to male lineages, we sequenced 78 East Asian Y chromosomes at 3.9 Mbp of the non-recombining region (NRY), discovered >4,000 new SNPs, and identified many new clades. The relative divergence dates can be estimated much more precisely using molecular clock. We found that all the Paleolithic divergences were binary; however, three strong star-like Neolithic expansions at ~6 kya (thousand years ago) (assuming a constant substitution rate of 1e-9/bp/year) indicates that ~40% of modern Chinese are patrilineal descendants of only three super-grandfathers at that time. This observation suggests that the main patrilineal expansion in China occurred in the Neolithic Era and might be related to the development of agriculture.

preprint2012arXiv

Amplitudes of mono-components and representation by generalized sampling functions

A mono-component is a real-valued signal of finite energy that has non-negative instantaneous frequencies, which may be defined as the derivative of the phase function of the given real-valued signal through the approach of canonical amplitude-phase modulation. We study in this article how the amplitude is determined by its phase in a canonical amplitude-phase modulation. Our finding is that such an amplitude can be perfectly reconstructed by a sampling formula using the so-called generalized sampling functions and their Hilbert transforms. The regularity of such an amplitude is identified to be at least continuous. Meanwhile, we also make a very interesting and new characterization of the band-limited functions.

preprint2012arXiv

Anomalous High Energy Dependence in Inflationary Density Perturbations

We study the contribution of spectator massive scalar fields to the inflationary density perturbations through the universal gravitational coupling. We find that such contribution has several remarkable properties: it does not decrease as the mass of the spectator field increases; it has a significant size and cannot be turned off by any adjustable parameters; and it applies to all massive scalars existed during inflation, making the overall effect unexpectedly large. As a result, the primordial density perturbations are anomalously sensitive to the high energy physics.

preprint2012arXiv

Canny Algorithm: A New Estimator for Primordial Non-Gaussianities

We utilize the Canny edge detection algorithm as an estimator for primordial non-Gaussianities. In preliminary tests on simulated sky patches with a window size of 57 degrees and multipole moments $l$ up to 1024, we find a $3σ$ distinction between maps with local non-Gaussianity $f_{NL}=350$ (or $f_{NL}=-700$) and Gaussian maps. We present evidence that high resolution CMB studies will strongly enhance the sensitivity of the Canny algorithm to non-Gaussianity, making it a promising technique to estimate primordial non-Gaussianity.

preprint2012arXiv

Content-based Multi-media Retrieval Technology

This paper gives a summary of the content-based Image Retrieval and Content-based Audio Retrieval, which are two parts of the Content-based Retrieval. Content-based Retrieval is the retrieval based on the features of the content. Generally, it is a way to extract features of the media data and find other data with the similar features from the database automatically. Content-based Retrieval can not only work on discrete media like texts, but also can be used on continuous media, such as video and audio.

preprint2012arXiv

Dark Energy: a Brief Review

The problem of dark energy is briefly reviewed in both theoretical and observational aspects. In the theoretical aspect, dark energy scenarios are classified into symmetry, anthropic principle, tuning mechanism, modified gravity, quantum cosmology, holographic principle, back-reaction and phenomenological types. In the observational aspect, we introduce cosmic probes, dark energy related projects, observational constraints on theoretical models and model independent reconstructions.

preprint2012arXiv

Floquet bundles for tridiagonal competitive-cooperative systems with Applications

For a general time-dependent linear competitive-cooperative tridiagonal system of differential equations, we obtain canonical Floquet invariant bundles which are exponentially separated in the framework of skew-product flows. Such Floquet bundles naturally reduce to the standard Floquet space when the system is assumed to be time-periodic. The obtained Floquet theory is applied to study the dynamics on the hyperbolic omega-limit sets for the nonlinear competitive-cooperative tridiagonal systems in time-recurrent structures including almost periodicity and almost automorphy.

preprint2012arXiv

Global classical solutions to the two-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations in $\mathbb{R}^2$

In this paper, we prove the global well-posedness of the classical solution to the 2D Cauchy problem of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations with arbitrarily large initial data when the shear viscosity $μ$ is a positive constant and the bulk viscosity $ł(\r)=\r^\b$ with $\b>\frac43$. Here the initial density keeps a non-vacuum states $\barρ>0$ at far fields and our results generalize the ones by Vaigant-Kazhikhov [41] for the periodic problem and by Jiu-Wang-Xin [26] and Huang-Li [8] for the Cauchy problem with vacuum states $\barρ=0$ at far fields. It shows that the solution will not develop the vacuum states in any finite time provided the initial density is uniformly away from vacuum. And the results also hold true when the initial data contains vacuum states in a subset of $\mathbb{R}^2$ and the natural compatibility conditions are satisfied. Some new weighted estimates are obtained to establish the upper bound of the density.

preprint2012arXiv

Global well-posedness of 2D compressible Navier-Stokes equations with large data and vacuum

In this paper, we study the global well-posedness of the 2D compressible Navier-Stokes equations with large initial data and vacuum. It is proved that if the shear viscosity $μ$ is a positive constant and the bulk viscosity $ł$ is the power function of the density, that is, $ł(\r)=\r^\b$ with $\b>3$, then the 2D compressible Navier-Stokes equations with the periodic boundary conditions on the torus $\mathbb{T}^2$ admit a unique global classical solution $(\r,u)$ which may contain vacuums in an open set of $\mathbb{T}^2$. Note that the initial data can be arbitrarily large to contain vacuum states.

preprint2012arXiv

Global well-posedness of the Cauchy problem of two-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations in weighted spaces

In this paper, we study the global well-posedness of classical solution to 2D Cauchy problem of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations with large initial data and vacuum. It is proved that if the shear viscosity $μ$ is a positive constant and the bulk viscosity $λ$ is the power function of the density, that is, $λ(ρ)=ρ^β$ with $β>3$, then the 2D Cauchy problem of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations on the whole space $\mathbf{R}^2$ admit a unique global classical solution $(ρ,u)$ which may contain vacuums in an open set of $\mathbf{R}^2$. Note that the initial data can be arbitrarily large to contain vacuum states. Various weighted estimates of the density and velocity are obtained in this paper and these self-contained estimates reflect the fact that the weighted density and weighted velocity propagate along with the flow.

preprint2012arXiv

Group Actions on Monotone Skew-Product Semiflows with Applications

We discuss a general framework of monotone skew-product semiflows under a connected group action. In a prior work, a compact connected group $G$-action has been considered on a strongly monotone skew-product semiflow. Here we relax the requirement of strong monotonicity of the skew-product semiflows and the compactness of $G$, and establish a theory concerning symmetry or monotonicity properties of uniformly stable 1-cover minimal sets. We then apply this theory to show rotational symmetry of certain stable entire solutions for a class of non-autonomous reaction-diffusion equations on $\RR^n$, as well as monotonicity of stable travelling waves of some nonlinear diffusion equations in time recurrent structures including almost periodicity and almost automorphy.

preprint2012arXiv

Hybrid Linear Modeling via Local Best-fit Flats

We present a simple and fast geometric method for modeling data by a union of affine subspaces. The method begins by forming a collection of local best-fit affine subspaces, i.e., subspaces approximating the data in local neighborhoods. The correct sizes of the local neighborhoods are determined automatically by the Jones' $β_2$ numbers (we prove under certain geometric conditions that our method finds the optimal local neighborhoods). The collection of subspaces is further processed by a greedy selection procedure or a spectral method to generate the final model. We discuss applications to tracking-based motion segmentation and clustering of faces under different illuminating conditions. We give extensive experimental evidence demonstrating the state of the art accuracy and speed of the suggested algorithms on these problems and also on synthetic hybrid linear data as well as the MNIST handwritten digits data; and we demonstrate how to use our algorithms for fast determination of the number of affine subspaces.

preprint2012arXiv

Monte Carlo Bayesian Reinforcement Learning

Bayesian reinforcement learning (BRL) encodes prior knowledge of the world in a model and represents uncertainty in model parameters by maintaining a probability distribution over them. This paper presents Monte Carlo BRL (MC-BRL), a simple and general approach to BRL. MC-BRL samples a priori a finite set of hypotheses for the model parameter values and forms a discrete partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) whose state space is a cross product of the state space for the reinforcement learning task and the sampled model parameter space. The POMDP does not require conjugate distributions for belief representation, as earlier works do, and can be solved relatively easily with point-based approximation algorithms. MC-BRL naturally handles both fully and partially observable worlds. Theoretical and experimental results show that the discrete POMDP approximates the underlying BRL task well with guaranteed performance.

preprint2012arXiv

Multi-Stream Inflation in a Landscape

There are hidden observables for inflation, such as features localized in position space, which do not manifest themselves when only one inflation trajectory is considered. To address this issue, we investigate inflation dynamics in a landscape mimicked by a random potential. We calculate the probability for bifurcation of the inflation trajectory in multi-stream inflation. Depending on the shape of the random bumps and the distance between bumps in the potential, there is a phase transition: on one side of the critical curve in parameter space isocurvature fluctuation are exponentially amplified and bifurcation becomes very probable. On the other side bifurcation is dominated by a random walk where bifurcations are less likely to happen.

preprint2012arXiv

Quasi-Single Field Inflation with Large Mass

We study the effect of massive isocurvaton on density perturbations in quasi-single field inflation models, when the mass of the isocurvaton M becomes larger than the order of the Hubble parameter H. We analytically compute the correction to the power spectrum, leading order in coupling but exact for all values of mass. This verifies the previous numerical results for the range 0<M<3H/2 and shows that, in the large mass limit, the correction is of order H^2/M^2.

preprint2012arXiv

Sampling Error Analysis and Properties of Non-bandlimited Signals That Are Reconstructed by Generalized Sinc Functions

Recently efforts have been made to use generalized sinc functions to perfectly reconstruct various kinds of non-bandlimited signals. As a consequence, perfect reconstruction sampling formulas have been established using such generalized sinc functions. This article studies the error of the reconstructed non-bandlimited signal when an adaptive truncation scheme is employed. Further, when there are noises present in the samples, estimation on the expectation and variance of the error pertinent to the reconstructed signal is also given. Finally discussed are the reproducing properties and the Sobolev smoothness of functions in the space of non-bandlimited signals that admits such a sampling formula.

preprint2012arXiv

Scale-Invariant Fluctuations from Galilean Genesis

We study the spectrum of cosmological fluctuations in scenarios such as Galilean Genesis in which a spectator scalar field acquires a scale-invariant spectrum of perturbations during an early phase which asymptotes in the far past to Minkowski space-time. In the case of minimal coupling to gravity and standard scalar field Lagrangian, the induced curvature fluctuations depend quadratically on the spectator field and are hence non-scale-invariant and highly non-Gaussian. We show that if higher dimensional operators (the same operators that lead to the η-problem for inflation) are considered, a linear coupling between background and spectator field fluctuations is induced which leads to scale-invariant and Gaussian curvature fluctuations.

preprint2012arXiv

The least eigenvalues of signless Laplacian of non-bipartite graphs with pendant vertices

In this paper we determine the graph whose least eigenvalue of signless Laplacian attains the minimum or maximum among all connected non-bipartite graphs of fixed order and given number of pendant vertices. Thus we obtain a lower bound and an upper bound for the least eigenvalue of signless Laplacian of a graph in terms of the number of pendent vertices.

preprint2012arXiv

Zero dissipation limit of full compressible Navier-Stokes equations with Riemann initial data

We consider the zero dissipation limit of the full compressible Navier-Stokes equations with Riemann initial data in the case of superposition of two rarefaction waves and a contact discontinuity. It is proved that for any suitably small viscosity $\varepsilon$ and heat conductivity $κ$ satisfying the relation \eqref{viscosity}, there exists a unique global piecewise smooth solution to the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. Moreover, as the viscosity $\varepsilon$ tends to zero, the Navier-Stokes solution converges uniformly to the Riemann solution of superposition of two rarefaction waves and a contact discontinuity to the corresponding Euler equations with the same Riemann initial data away from the initial line $t=0$ and the contact discontinuity located at $x=0$.

preprint2011arXiv

Chain Inflation Reconsidered

We investigate density perturbations in the chain inflation scenario, where the inflaton undergoes successive tunneling transitions along one field direction. First we show that when the bubble walls associated with such a phase transition meet, they induce the next phase transition and continue to propagate as phase interfaces. Then we present an analytical calculation of the density fluctuations and an estimate of non-Gaussianities such as f_{NL}, which we find to be small (of order 1). To get the right amplitude for the power spectrum, there have to be 10^8 phase transitions per Hubble time, a significant model building challenge. We find that working models of chain inflation must be rather strongly coupled, and thus have a very limited range of validity as effective field theories. We discuss generalizations to the multiple field case, the curvaton scenario, and noncanonical kinetic terms.

preprint2011arXiv

Odd-dimensional de Sitter Space is Transparent

We consider quantum field theory in de Sitter space, focusing on the cases of scalars, spin 1/2 fields, and symmetric and anti-symmetric tensor fields of arbitrary spin. The free field equations in global coordinates can be reduced to a one dimensional Schrodinger problem which possesses a remarkable structure; the potential is of an algebraically special type which appears as a multi-soliton solution of the KdV equation. In an odd number of spacetime dimensions these potentials are "transparent" in the sense that their reflection coefficients vanish identically. This has a remarkable consequence for physics in de Sitter space. It means that odd dimensional de Sitter space is transparent in the sense that a quantum state with no particles at past infinity will evolve into a state with no particles in the far future. This feature has been previously noted for scalar excitations, but the corresponding higher spin behaviour (and the proof using algebraic techniques) is new.

preprint2011arXiv

Signal coupling and signal integrity in multi-strip Resistive Plate Chambers used for timing applications

We have systematically studied the transmission of electrical signals along several 2-strip Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) in the frequency range $f=0.1-3.5$GHz. Such a range was chosen to fully cover the bandwidth associated to the very short rise-times of signals originated in RPCs used for sub-100ps timing applications. This work conveys experimental evidence of the dominant role of modal dispersion in counters built at the 1 meter scale, a fact that results in large cross-talk levels and strong signal shaping. It is shown that modal dispersion appears in RPCs due to the intrinsic unbalance between the capacitive and the inductive coupling $C_m/C_o \neq L_m/L_o$. A practical way to restore this symmetry has been introduced (hereafter `electrostatic compensation'), allowing for a cross-talk suppression factor of around $\times 12$ and a rise-time reduction by 200ps. Under conditions of compensation the signal transmission is only limited by dielectric losses, yielding a length-dependent cutoff frequency of around 1GHz per 2 meter for typical float glass -based RPCs ($\tan δ|_{glass} = 0.025\pm0.005$). It is further shown that `electrostatic compensation' can be achieved for an arbitrary number of strips as long as the nature of the coupling is `short-range', that is an almost exact assumption for typical strip-line RPCs. Evidence for deviations from the dominant TEM propagation mode has been observed, although they seem to have negligible influence in practical signal observables. This work extends the bandwidth of previous studies by a factor of almost $\times 20$.

preprint2011arXiv

The Limit of the Boltzmann Equation to the Euler Equations for Riemann Problems

The convergence of the Boltzmann equaiton to the compressible Euler equations when the Knudsen number tends to zero has been a long standing open problem in the kinetic theory. In the setting of Riemann solution that contains the generic superposition of shock, rarefaction wave and contact discontinuity to the Euler equations, we succeed in justifying this limit by introducing hyperbolic waves with different solution backgrounds to capture the extra masses carried by the hyperbolic approximation of the rarefaction wave and the diffusion approximation of contact discontinuity.

preprint2011arXiv

Vacuum behaviors around rarefaction waves to 1D compressible Navier-Stokes equations with density-dependent viscosity

In this paper, we study the large time asymptotic behavior toward rarefaction waves for solutions to the 1-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations with density-dependent viscosities for general initial data whose far fields are connected by a rarefaction wave to the corresponding Euler equations with one end state being vacuum. First, a global-in-time weak solution around the rarefaction wave is constructed by approximating the system and regularizing the initial data with general perturbations, and some a priori uniform-in-time estimates for the energy and entropy are obtained. Then it is shown that the density of any weak solution satisfying the natural energy and entropy estimates will converge to the rarefaction wave connected to vacuum with arbitrary strength in super-norm time-asymptotically. Our results imply, in particular, that the initial vacuum at far fields will remain for all the time which are in contrast to the case of non-vacuum rarefaction waves studied in \cite{JWX} where all the possible vacuum states will vanish in finite time. Finally, it is proved that the weak solution becomes regular away from the vacuum region of the rarefaction wave.

preprint2011arXiv

Zero dissipation limit to rarefaction wave with vacuum for 1-D compressible Navier-Stokes equations

It is well-known that one-dimensional isentropic gas dynamics has two elementary waves, i.e., shock wave and rarefaction wave. Among the two waves, only the rarefaction wave can be connected with vacuum. Given a rarefaction wave with one-side vacuum state to the compressible Euler equations, we can construct a sequence of solutions to one-dimensional compressible isentropic Navier-Stokes equations which converge to the above rarefaction wave with vacuum as the viscosity tends to zero. Moreover, the uniform convergence rate is obtained. The proof consists of a scaling argument and elementary energy analysis based on the underlying rarefaction wave structures.

preprint2010arXiv

A Theory of a Spot

We present a simple inflationary scenario that can produce arbitrarily large spherical underdense or overdense regions embedded in a standard Lambda cold dark matter paradigm, which we refer to as bubbles. We analyze the effect such bubbles would have on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). For super-horizon sized bubble in the vicinity of the last scattering surface, a signal is imprinted onto CMB via a combination of Sach-Wolfe and an early integrated Sach-Wolfe (ISW) effects. Smaller, sub-horizon sized bubbles at lower redshifts (during matter domination and later) can imprint secondary anisotropies on the CMB via Rees-Sciama, late-time ISW and Ostriker-Vishniac effects. Our scenario, and arguably most similar inflationary models, produce bubbles which are over/underdense in potential: in density such bubbles are characterized by having a distinct wall with the interior staying at the cosmic mean density. We show that such models can potentially, with only moderate fine tuning, explain the \emph{cold spot}, a non-Gaussian feature identified in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data by several authors. However, more detailed comparisons with current and future CMB data are necessary to confirm (or rule out) this scenario.

preprint2010arXiv

Fluid Dynamic Limit to the Riemann Solutions of Euler Equations: I. Superposition of rarefaction waves and contact discontinuity

Fluid dynamic limit to compressible Euler equations from compressible Navier-Stokes equations and Boltzmann equation has been an active topic with limited success so far. In this paper, we consider the case when the solution of the Euler equations is a Riemann solution consisting two rarefaction waves and a contact discontinuity and prove this limit for both Navier-Stokes equations and the Boltzmann equation when the viscosity, heat conductivity coefficients and the Knudsen number tend to zero respectively. In addition, the uniform convergence rates in terms of the above physical parameters are also obtained. It is noted that this is the first rigorous proof of this limit for a Riemann solution with superposition of three waves even though the fluid dynamic limit for a single wave has been proved.

preprint2010arXiv

Large non-Gaussianities with Intermediate Shapes from Quasi-Single Field Inflation

We study the slow-roll inflation models, where the inflaton slow-rolls along a trajectory whose orthogonal directions are lifted by potentials with masses of order the Hubble parameter. In these models large non-Gaussianities can be generated through the transformation from the isocurvature modes to the curvature mode, once the inflaton trajectory turns. We find large bispectra with one-parameter family of novel shapes, interpolating between the equilateral and local shape. According to the in-in formalism, the shapes of these non-Gaussianities are different from a simple projection from the isocurvature non-Gaussian correlation functions.

preprint2010arXiv

Large Nonlocal Non-Gaussianity from a Curvaton Brane

We use a generalized delta N formalism to study the generation of the primordial curvature perturbation in the curvaton brane scenario inspired by stringy compactifications. We note that the non-Gaussian features, especially the trispectra, crucially depend on the decay mechanism in a general curvaton scenario. Specifically, we study the bispectra and trispectra of the curvaton brane model in detail to illustrate the importance of curvaton decay in generating nonlinear fluctuations. When the curvaton brane moves nonrelativistically during inflation, the shape of non-Gaussianity is local, but the corresponding size is different from that in the standard curvaton scenario. When the curvaton brane moves relativistically in inflationary stage, the shape of non-Gaussianity is of equilateral type.

preprint2010arXiv

Large-time Behavior of Solutions to the Inflow Problem of Full Compressible Navier-Stokes Equations

Large-time behavior of solutions to the inflow problem of full compressible Navier-Stokes equations is investigated on the half line $R^+ =(0,+\infty)$. The wave structure which contains four waves: the transonic(or degenerate) boundary layer solution, 1-rarefaction wave, viscous 2-contact wave and 3-rarefaction wave to the inflow problem is described and the asymptotic stability of the superposition of the above four wave patterns to the inflow problem of full compressible Navier-Stokes equations is proven under some smallness conditions. The proof is given by the elementary energy analysis based on the underlying wave structure. The main points in the proof are the degeneracies of the transonic boundary layer solution and the wave interactions in the superposition wave.

preprint2010arXiv

Multi-Stream Inflation: Bifurcations and Recombinations in the Multiverse

In this Letter, we briefly review the multi-stream inflation scenario, and discuss its implications in the string theory landscape and the inflationary multiverse. In multi-stream inflation, the inflation trajectory encounters bifurcations. If these bifurcations are in the observable stage of inflation, then interesting observational effects can take place, such as domain fences, non-Gaussianities, features and asymmetries in the CMB. On the other hand, if the bifurcation takes place in the eternal stage of inflation, it provides an alternative creation mechanism of bubbles universes in eternal inflation, as well as a mechanism to locally terminate eternal inflation, which reduces the measure of eternal inflation.

preprint2010arXiv

Non-Gaussianity from false vacuum inflation: Old curvaton scenario

We calculate the three-point correlation function of the comoving curvature perturbation generated during an inflationary epoch driven by false vacuum energy. We get a novel false vacuum shape bispectrum, which peaks in the equilateral limit. Using this result, we propose a scenario which we call "old curvaton". The shape of the resulting bispectrum lies between the local and the false vacuum shapes. In addition we have a large running of the spectral index.

preprint2010arXiv

Quadra-Spectrum and Quint-Spectrum from Inflation and Curvaton Models

We calculate the quadra-spectrum and quint-spectrum, corresponding to five and six point correlation functions of the curvature perturbation. For single field inflation with standard kinetic term, the quadra-spectrum and quint-spectrum are small, which are suppressed by slow roll parameters. The calculation can be generalized to multiple fields. When there is no entropy perturbation, the quadra-spectrum and quint-spectrum are suppressed as well. With the presence of entropy perturbation, the quadra-spectrum and quint-spectrum can get boosted. We illustrate this boost in the multi-brid inflation model. For the curvaton scenario, the quadra-spectrum and quint-spectrum are also large in the small r limit. We also calculate representative terms of quadra-spectrum and quint-spectrum for inflation with generalized kinetic terms, and estimate their order of magnitude for quasi-single field inflation.

preprint2010arXiv

Quantum UV/IR Relations and Holographic Dark Energy from Entropic Force

We investigate the implications of the entropic force formalism proposed by Verlinde. We show that an UV/IR relation proposed by Cohen et al, as well as an uncertainty principle proposed by Hogan can be derived from the entropic force formalism. We show that applying the entropic force formalism to cosmology, there is an additional term in the Friedmann equation, which can be identified as holographic dark energy. We also propose an intuitive picture of holographic screen, which can be thought of as an improvement of Susskind's holographic screen.

preprint2010arXiv

Quasi-Single Field Inflation and Non-Gaussianities

In quasi-single field inflation models, massive isocurvature modes, that are coupled to the inflaton and have mass of order the Hubble parameter, can have nontrivial impacts on density perturbations, especially non-Gaussianities. We study a simple example of quasi-single field inflation in terms of turning inflaton trajectory. Large bispectra with a one-parameter family of novel shapes arise, lying between the well-known local and equilateral shape. The trispectra can also be very large and its magnitude tNL can be much larger than fNL squared.

preprint2010arXiv

Randomized hybrid linear modeling by local best-fit flats

The hybrid linear modeling problem is to identify a set of d-dimensional affine sets in a D-dimensional Euclidean space. It arises, for example, in object tracking and structure from motion. The hybrid linear model can be considered as the second simplest (behind linear) manifold model of data. In this paper we will present a very simple geometric method for hybrid linear modeling based on selecting a set of local best fit flats that minimize a global l1 error measure. The size of the local neighborhoods is determined automatically by the Jones' l2 beta numbers; it is proven under certain geometric conditions that good local neighborhoods exist and are found by our method. We also demonstrate how to use this algorithm for fast determination of the number of affine subspaces. We give extensive experimental evidence demonstrating the state of the art accuracy and speed of the algorithm on synthetic and real hybrid linear data.

preprint2010arXiv

Robust isothermal electric switching of interface magnetization: A route to voltage-controlled spintronics

Roughness-insensitive and electrically controllable magnetization at the (0001) surface of antiferromagnetic chromia is observed using magnetometry and spin-resolved photoemission measurements and explained by the interplay of surface termination and magnetic ordering. Further, this surface in placed in proximity with a ferromagnetic Co/Pd multilayer film. Exchange coupling across the interface between chromia and Co/Pd induces an electrically controllable exchange bias in the Co/Pd film, which enables a reversible isothermal (at room temperature) shift of the global magnetic hysteresis loop of the Co/Pd film along the magnetic field axis between negative and positive values. These results reveal the potential of magnetoelectric chromia for spintronic applications requiring non-volatile electric control of magnetization.

preprint2010arXiv

Stability of Rarefaction Waves to the 1D Compressible Navier-Stokes Equations with Density-dependent Viscosity

In this paper, we study the asymptotic stability of rarefaction waves for the compressible isentropic Navier-Stokes equations with density-dependent viscosity. First, a weak solution around a rarefaction wave to the Cauchy problem is constructed by approximating the system and regularizing the initial values which may contain vacuum state. Then some global in time estimates on the weak solution are obtained. Based on these uniform estimates, the vacuum states are shown to vanish in finite time and the weak solution we constructed becomes a unique strong one. Consequently, the stability of the rarefaction wave is proved in a weak sense. The theory holds for large-amplitudes rarefaction waves and arbitrary initial perturbations.

preprint2010arXiv

Towards a Holographic Description of Inflation and Generation of Fluctuations from Thermodynamics

Recently, Verlinde conjectured that gravity may be an entropic force, arising from thermodynamics on the holographic screen. We investigate the implications of the entropic force formalism for inflationary cosmology. We find the background dynamics of inflation can be dually described in the holographic language. At the perturbation level, two kinds of novel scale invariant scalar fluctuations arise from thermal fluctuations on the holographic screen. These fluctuations can be responsible for CMB anisotropy and structure formation.

preprint2009arXiv

Cosmological Perturbations in Hořava-Lifshitz Gravity

We study cosmological perturbations in Hořava-Lifshitz Gravity. We consider scalar metric fluctuations about a homogeneous and isotropic space-time. Starting from the most general metric, we work out the complete second order action for the perturbations. We then make use of the residual gauge invariance and of the constraint equations to reduce the number of dynamical degrees of freedom. After introducing the Sasaki-Mukhanov variable, the combination of spatial metric fluctuation and matter inhomogeneity for which the action in General Relativity has canonical form, we find that this variable has the standard time derivative term in the second order action, and that the extra degree of freedom is non-dynamical. The limit $λ\to 1$ is well-behaved, unlike what is obtained when performing incomplete analyses of cosmological fluctuations. Thus, there is no strong coupling problem for Hořava-Lifshitz gravity when considering cosmological solutions. We also compute the spectrum of cosmological perturbations. If the potential in the action is taken to be of "detailed balance" form, we find a cancelation of the highest derivative terms in the action for the curvature fluctuations. As a consequence, the initial spectrum of perturbations will not be scale-invariant in a general spacetime background. As an application, we consider fluctuations in an inflationary background and draw connections with the "trans-Planckian problem" for cosmological perturbations. In the special case in which the potential term in the action is of detailed balance form and in which $λ= 1$, the equation of motion for cosmological perturbations in the far UV takes the same form as in GR. However, in general the equation of motion is characterized by a modified dispersion relation.

preprint2009arXiv

Fluctuations in a Hořava-Lifshitz Bouncing Cosmology

Hořava-Lifshitz gravity is a potentially UV complete theory with important implications for the very early universe. In particular, in the presence of spatial curvature it is possible to obtain a non-singular bouncing cosmology. The bounce is realized as a consequence of higher order spatial curvature terms in the gravitational action. Here, we extend the study of linear cosmological perturbations in Hořava-Lifshitz gravity coupled to matter in the case when spatial curvature is present. As in the case without spatial curvature, we find that there is no extra dynamical degree of freedom for scalar metric perturbations. We study the evolution of fluctuations through the bounce and show that the solutions remain non-singular throughout. If we start with quantum vacuum fluctuations on sub-Hubble scales in the contracting phase, and if the contracting phase is dominated by pressure-less matter, then for $λ= 1$ and in the infrared limit the perturbations at late times are scale invariant. Thus, Hořava-Lifshitz gravity can provide a realization of the ``matter bounce'' scenario of structure formation.

preprint2009arXiv

Hydrodynamic Limit of the Boltzmann Equation with Contact Discontinuities

The hydrodynamic limit for the Boltzmann equation is studied in the case when the limit system, that is, the system of Euler equations contains contact discontinuities. When suitable initial data is chosen to avoid the initial layer, we prove that there exists a unique solution to the Boltzmann equation globally in time for any given Knudsen number. And this family of solutions converge to the local Maxwellian defined by the contact discontinuity of the Euler equations uniformly away from the discontinuity as the Knudsen number $\varepsilon$ tends to zero. The proof is obtained by an appropriately chosen scaling and the energy method through the micro-macro decomposition.

preprint2009arXiv

K-essence Explains a Lorentz Violation Experiment

Recently, a state of the art experiment shows evidence for Lorentz violation in the gravitational sector. To explain this experiment, we investigate a spontaneous Lorentz violation scenario with a generalized scalar field. We find that when the scalar field is nonminimally coupled to gravity, the Lorentz violation induces a deformation in the Newtonian potential along the direction of Lorentz violation.

preprint2009arXiv

Large Primordial Trispectra in General Single Field Inflation

We compute the large scalar four-point correlation functions in general single field inflation models, where the inflaton Lagrangian is an arbitrary function of the inflaton and its first derivative. We find that the leading order trispectra have four different shapes determined by three parameters. We study features in these shapes that can be used to distinguish among themselves, and between them and the trispectra of the local form. For the purpose of data analyses, we give two simple representative forms for these "equilateral trispectra". We also study the effects on the trispectra if the initial state of inflation deviates from the standard Bunch-Davies vacuum.

preprint2009arXiv

Multi-Stream Inflation

We propose a "multi-stream" inflation model, which is a double field model with spontaneous breaking and restoration of an approximate symmetry. We calculate the density perturbation and non-Gaussianity in this model. We find that this model can have large, scale dependent, and probably oscillating non-Gaussianity. We also note that our model can produce features in the CMB power spectrum and hemispherical power asymmetry.

preprint2009arXiv

Probing interaction and spatial curvature in the holographic dark energy model

In this paper we place observational constraints on the interaction and spatial curvature in the holographic dark energy model. We consider three kinds of phenomenological interactions between holographic dark energy and matter, i.e., the interaction term $Q$ is proportional to the energy densities of dark energy ($ρ_Λ$), matter ($ρ_{m}$), and matter plus dark energy ($ρ_m+ρ_Λ$). For probing the interaction and spatial curvature in the holographic dark energy model, we use the latest observational data including the type Ia supernovae (SNIa) Constitution data, the shift parameter of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) given by the five-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP5) observations, and the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurement from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our results show that the interaction and spatial curvature in the holographic dark energy model are both rather small. Besides, it is interesting to find that there exists significant degeneracy between the phenomenological interaction and the spatial curvature in the holographic dark energy model.

preprint2008arXiv

Non-Gaussianity, Isocurvature Perturbation, Gravitational Waves and a No-Go Theorem for Isocurvaton

We investigate the isocurvaton model, in which the isocurvature perturbation plays a role in suppressing the curvature perturbation, and large non-Gaussianity and gravitational waves can be produced with no isocurvature perturbation for dark matter. We show that in the slow roll non-interacting multi-field theory, the isocurvaton mechanism can not be realized. This result can also be generalized to most of the studied models with generalized kinetic terms. We also study the implications for the curvaton model. We show that there is a combined constraint for curvaton on non-Gaussianity, gravitational waves and isocurvature perturbation. The technique used in this paper can also help to simplify some calculations in the mixed inflaton and curvaton models. We also investigate possibilities to produce large negative non-Gaussianity and nonlocal non-Gaussianity in the curvaton model.

preprint2007arXiv

Is Noncommutative Eternal Inflation Possible?

We investigate the condition for eternal inflation to take place in the noncommutative spacetime. We find that the possibility for eternal inflation's happening is greatly suppressed in this case. If eternal inflation cannot happen in the low energy region where the noncommutativity is very weak (the UV region), it will never happen during the whole inflationary history. Based on these conclusions, we argue that an initial condition for eternal inflation is available from the property of spacetime noncommutativity.

preprint2007arXiv

The Measure for the Multiverse and the Probability for Inflation

We investigate the measure problem in the framework of inflationary cosmology. The measure of the history space is constructed and applied to inflation models. Using this measure, it is shown that the probability for the generalized single field slow roll inflation to last for $N$ e-folds is suppressed by a factor $\exp(-3N)$, and the probability for the generalized $n$-field slow roll inflation is suppressed by a much larger factor $\exp(-3nN)$. Some non-inflationary models such as the cyclic model do not suffer from this difficulty.

preprint2006arXiv

A unified approach to polynomial sequences with only real zeros

We give new sufficient conditions for a sequence of polynomials to have only real zeros based on the method of interlacing zeros. As applications we derive several well-known facts, including the reality of zeros of orthogonal polynomials, matching polynomials, Narayana polynomials and Eulerian polynomials. We also settle certain conjectures of Stahl on genus polynomials by proving them for certain classes of graphs, while showing that they are false in general.

preprint2006arXiv

On the log-convexity of combinatorial sequences

This paper is devoted to the study of the log-convexity of combinatorial sequences. We show that the log-convexity is preserved under componentwise sum, under binomial convolution, and by the linear transformations given by the matrices of binomial coefficients and Stirling numbers of two kinds. We develop techniques for dealing with the log-convexity of sequences satisfying a three-term recurrence. We also introduce the concept of $q$-log-convexity and establish the connection with linear transformations preserving the log-convexity. As applications of our results, we prove the log-convexity and $q$-log-convexity of many famous combinatorial sequences of numbers and polynomials.

preprint2006arXiv

Propagation of Memory Parameter from Durations to Counts

We establish sufficient conditions on durations that are stationary with finite variance and memory parameter $d \in [0,1/2)$ to ensure that the corresponding counting process $N(t)$ satisfies $\textmd{Var} N(t) \sim C t^{2d+1}$ ($C>0$) as $t \to \infty$, with the same memory parameter $d \in [0,1/2)$ that was assumed for the durations. Thus, these conditions ensure that the memory in durations propagates to the same memory parameter in counts and therefore in realized volatility. We then show that any utoregressive Conditional Duration ACD(1,1) model with a sufficient number of finite moments yields short memory in counts, while any Long Memory Stochastic Duration model with $d>0$ and all finite moments yields long memory in counts, with the same $d$.