We present a new functional setting for Neumann conditions related to the superposition of (possibly infinitely many) fractional Laplace operators. We will introduce some bespoke functional framework and present minimization properties, existence and uniqueness results, asymptotic formulas, spectral analyses, rigidity results, integration by parts formulas, superpositions of fractional perimeters, as well as a study of the associated heat equation.

Recent thousand-qubit processors represent a significant hardware advancement, but current limitations prevent effective quantum error correction (QEC), necessitating reliance on quantum error mitigation (QEM) to enhance result fidelity from quantum computers. Our paper introduces a noise-aware folding technique that enhances Zero-Noise Extrapolation (ZNE) by leveraging the noise characteristics of target quantum hardware to fold circuits more efficiently. Unlike traditional ZNE approaches assuming uniform error distribution, our method redistributes noise using calibration data based on hardware noise models. By employing a noise-adaptive compilation method combined with our proposed folding mechanism, we enhance the ZNE accuracy of quantum gate-based computing using superconducting quantum computers. This paper highlights the uniqueness of our method, summarizes noise accumulation, presents the scaling algorithm, and compares the reliability of our method with those of existing models using linear extrapolation model. Experimental results show that compared to existing folding methods, our approach achieved a 35% improvement on quantum computer simulators and a 31% improvement on real quantum computers, demonstrating the effectiveness of our proposed approach.

The Hamiltonian formulation of the water wave problem due to Zakharov, and the reduced Zakharov equation derived therefrom, have great utility in understanding and modelling water waves. Here we set out to review the cubic Zakharov equation and its uses in understanding deterministic waves in deep water. The background of this equation is developed and several applications are explored. Chief among these is an understanding of dispersion corrections and the energy exchange among modes. It is hoped that readers will be motivated to explore this powerful reformulation of the cubically nonlinear water wave problem for themselves.

This work concerns maps of commutative noetherian local rings containing a field of positive characteristic. Given such a map $φ$ of finite flat dimension, the results relate homological properties of the relative Frobenius of $φ$ to those of the fibers of $φ$. The focus is on the complete intersection property and the Gorenstein property.

We establish a connection between the Alexander polynomial of a knot and its twisted and $L^2$-versions with the triangulations that appear in 3-dimensional hyperbolic geometry. Specifically, we introduce twisted Neumann--Zagier matrices of ordered ideal triangulations and use them to provide formulas for the Alexander polynomial and its variants, the twisted Alexander polynomial and the $L^2$-Alexander torsion.

Readout multiplexing is a promising solution to overcome hardware limitations and data bottlenecks in imaging with single-photon detectors. Conventional multiplexed readout processing creates an upper bound on photon counts at a very fine time scale, where frames with multiple detected photons must either be discarded or allowed to introduce significant bias. We formulate multiphoton coincidence resolution as an inverse imaging problem and introduce a solution framework to probabilistically resolve the spatial locations of photon incidences. Specifically, we develop a theoretical abstraction of row--column multiplexing and a model of photon events that make readouts ambiguous. Using this, we propose a novel estimator that spatially resolves up to four coincident photons. Monte Carlo simulations show that our proposed method increases the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of reconstruction by 3 to 4 dB compared to conventional methods under optimal incident flux conditions. Additionally, this method reduces the required number of readout frames to achieve the same mean-squared error as other methods by a factor of ~4. Finally, our method matches the Cramer--Rao bound for detection probability estimation for a wider range of incident flux values compared to conventional methods. While demonstrated for a specific detector type and readout architecture, this method can be extended to more general multiplexing with different detector models.

We analyze the interaction between quantum matter and classical objects through a general effective channel for hybrid dynamics, subject to the fundamental constraint that no quantum correlations can be generated between the classical and quantum sectors from any initially separable state. We demonstrate that, within this hybrid framework, imposing an additive conserved observable $\langle O_{QC} \rangle = \langle O_Q \rangle + \langle O_C \rangle$ strictly forbids a classical system from altering the local observable $\langle O_Q \rangle$ of its quantum counterpart. Applying this no-go theorem to gravity, under the assumption of such hybrid dynamics, we show that if global momentum or energy is conserved, a strictly classical gravitational field cannot induce momentum or energy transfers in a quantum system. In contrast, a quantum gravitational field naturally facilitates such back-action. Drawing upon the fundamental relationship between conservation laws and the quantum properties of objects, our analysis provides a novel perspective for interpreting existing experimental observations, such as free fall, as potential indicators of the non-classicality of gravity.

Modern science is dependent on imaging on the nanoscale, often achieved through processes that detect secondary electrons created by a highly focused incident charged particle beam. Multiple types of measurement noise limit the ultimate trade-off between the image quality and the incident particle dose, which can preclude useful imaging of dose-sensitive samples. Existing methods to improve image quality do not fundamentally mitigate the noise sources. Furthermore, barriers to assigning a physically meaningful scale make the images qualitative. Here we introduce ion count-aided microscopy (ICAM), which is a quantitative imaging technique that uses statistically principled estimation of the secondary electron yield. With a readily implemented change in data collection, ICAM substantially reduces source shot noise. In helium ion microscopy, we demonstrate 3x dose reduction and a good match between these empirical results and theoretical performance predictions. ICAM facilitates imaging of fragile samples and may make imaging with heavier particles more attractive.

Beam splitters (BSs) and optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) can be described using Lie groups $SU(2)$ and $SU(1,1)$. Here, we show that the dynamical trajectories of these devices are connected via a Wick rotation on their respective group manifolds. This yields an exact amplitude-level duality between BSs of transmittance $η$ and OPAs of gain $g=1/η$. This geometric correspondence admits a compact tensor-network formulation, which we use to construct a circuit-model protocol that reproduces PDC transition amplitudes. This construction naturally leads to finite-dimensional, truncated PDC unitaries that exactly reproduce the first $q$ amplitudes of an ideal parametric amplifier. Our results demonstrate that key amplitude-level features of nonlinear optical processes can be simulated using only native single-qubit unitaries and measurement-based primitives on existing digital quantum hardware. This extends PDC-inspired entanglement-generation mechanisms beyond photonic architectures.

We prove the Shafarevich conjecture for very irregular varieties of dimension less than half the dimension of their Albanese variety, subject to some mild numerical conditions. Our proof relies on the Lawrence-Venkatesh method as in the work of Lawrence-Sawin, together with the big monodromy criterion from our work with Javanpeykar and Lehn.

We establish the existence of multiple solutions for a nonlinear problem of critical type. The problem considered is fractional in nature, since it is obtained by the superposition of $(s,p)$-fractional Laplacians of different orders. The results obtained are new even in the case of the sum of two different fractional $p$-Laplacians, or the sum of a fractional $p$-Laplacian and a classical $p$-Laplacian, but our framework is general enough to address also the sum of finitely, or even infinitely many, operators. In fact, we can also consider the superposition of a continuum of operators, modulated by a general signed measure on the fractional exponents. When this measure is not positive, the contributions of the individual operators to the whole superposition operator is allowed to change sign. In this situation, our structural assumption is that the positive measure on the higher fractional exponents dominates the rest of the signed measure.

We consider a superposition operator of the form $$ \int_{[0, 1]} (-Δ)^s u\, dμ(s),$$ for a signed measure $μ$ on the interval of fractional exponents $[0,1]$, joined to a nonlinearity whose term of homogeneity equal to one is "jumping", i.e. it may present different coefficients in front of the negative and positive parts. The signed measure is supposed to possess a positive contribution coming from the higher exponents that overcomes its negative contribution (if any). The problem taken into account is also of "critical" type, though in this case the critical exponent needs to be carefully selected in terms of the signed measure $μ$. Not only the operator and the nonlinearity considered here are very general, but our results are new even in special cases of interest and include known results as particular subcases. The possibility of considering operators "with the wrong sign" is also a complete novelty in this setting.

We present a version of the matrix-tree theorem, which relates the determinant of a matrix to sums of weights of arborescences of its directed graph representation. Our treatment allows for non-zero column sums in the parent matrix by adding a root vertex to the usually considered matrix directed graph. We use our result to prove a version of the matrix-forest, or all-minors, theorem, which relates minors of the matrix to forests of arborescences of the matrix digraph. We apply the theorems to calculations of the time-evolution of a system with discrete states and then consider two strategies using these theorems to compute determinants.

In this paper we study a nonlocal critical growth elliptic problem driven by the fractional Laplacian in presence of jumping nonlinearities. In the main results of the paper we prove the existence of a nontrivial solution for the problem under consideration, using variational and topological methods and applying a new linking theorems recently got by Perera and Sportelli in [10]. The existence results provided in this paper can be seen as the nonlocal counterpart of the ones obtained in [10] in the context of the Laplacian equations. In the nonlocal framework the arguments used in the classical setting have to be refined. Indeed the presence of the fractional Laplacian operator gives rise to some additional difficulties, that we are able to overcome proving new regularity results for weak solutions of nonlocal problems, which are of independent interest.

We introduce a new moduli stack $\mathscr{E}_{g,n}$ of ``equinormalized curves," closely related to the moduli space of all reduced, connected algebraic curves. We construct a stratification $\bigsqcup_Γ\mathscr{E}_Γ$ of $\mathscr{E}_{g,n}$ indexed by generalized dual graphs and prove that each stratum $\mathscr{E}_Γ$ is a fiber bundle over a finite quotient of a product of $\moduli_{g,n}$s. The fibers are moduli schemes parametrizing subalgebras of a fixed algebra, and are in principle explicitly computable as locally closed subschemes of products of Grassmannians. We thus obtain a remarkably explicit geometric description of moduli of reduced curves with arbitrary singularities.

Voltage-sensitive fluorescence imaging is widely used to image action potential waves in the heart. However, while the electrical waves trigger mechanical contraction, imaging needs to be performed with pharmacologically contraction-inhibited hearts, limiting studies of the coupling between cardiac electrophysiology and tissue mechanics. Here, we introduce a high-resolution multi-camera optical mapping system with which we image action potential waves at high resolutions across the entire ventricular surface of the beating and strongly deforming heart. We imaged intact isolated rabbit hearts inside a soccer-ball shaped imaging chamber facilitating even illumination and panoramic imaging. Using 12 high-speed cameras, ratiometric voltage-sensitive imaging, and three-dimensional (3D) multi-view motion tracking, we reconstructed the entire 3D deforming ventricular surface and performed corresponding voltage-sensitive measurements during sinus rhythm, paced rhythm, and ventricular fibrillation. Our imaging setup defines a new state-of-the-art in the field and can be used to study the heart's electromechanical physiology during health and disease at unprecedented resolutions. For instance, we measured electrical activation times and observed mechanical strain waves following electrical activation fronts during pacing, observed electromechanical vortices during ventricular fibrillation, and measured action potential duration and contractile changes in response to pharmacological blockage of potassium ion channels.

Let $X$ be a normal, excellent, noetherian scheme over $\operatorname{Spec}\mathbb{Q}$ with a dualizing complex. In this note, we find an alternate characterization of the multiplier ideal of $X$, as defined by de Fernex-Hacon, by considering maps $π_*ω_Y\to\mathcal{O}_X$ where $π:Y\to X$ ranges over all regular alterations. As a corollary to this result, we give a derived splinter characterization of klt singularities, akin to the characterization of rational singularities given by Kovács and Bhatt. We also give an analogous description of the test ideal in characteristic $p>2$ as a corollary to a result of Epstein-Schwede.

Increasing the complexity of a light field through the advanced manipulation of its degrees of freedom (DoF) provides new opportunities for fundamental studies and technologies. Correlating polarization with the light's spatial or spectral shape results in so-called spatial or spectral vector beams that are fully polarized and have a spatially or spectrally varying polarization structure. Here, we extend the general idea of vector beams by combining both approaches and structuring a novel state of light in three non-separable DoF's, i.e. space, wavelength, and polarization. We study in detail their complex polarization structure, show that the degree of polarization of the field is only unveiled when the field is narrowly defined in space and wavelength, and demonstrate the analogy to the loss of coherence in non-separable quantum systems. Such light fields allow fundamental studies on the non-separable nature of a classical light field and new technological opportunities, e.g. through applications in imaging or spectroscopy.

Let A and A' be two alternative *-algebras with identities 1_A and 1_A', respectively, and e_1 and e_2 = 1_A - e_1 nontrivial symmetric idempotents in A. In this paper we study the characterization of multiplicative *-Jordan-type maps on alternative algebras.

Mass live content, such as world cups, the Superbowl or the Olympics, attract audiences of hundreds of millions of viewers. While such events were predominantly consumed on TV, more and more viewers follow big events on the Internet, which poses a scalability challenge: current unicast delivery over the web comes with large overheads and is inefficient. An attractive alternative are multicast-based transmissions, however, current solutions have several drawbacks, mostly related to security and privacy, which prevent them from being implemented in browsers. In this paper we introduce a multicast extension to QUIC, a widely popular transport protocol standardized by the IETF, that solves several of these problems. It enables multicast delivery by offering encryption as well as integrity verification of packets distributed over multicast and automatic unicast fallback, which solves one of multicasts major obstacles to large scale deployment. It is transparent to applications and can be easily utilized by simply enabling an option in QUIC. This extension is soley focused on the transport layer and uses already existing multicast mechanisms on the network layer.

In this paper we introduce the essential Lagrange multiplier and establish the solid mathematical foundation of constrained optimization in Hilbert spaces with sharp results on the mathematical foundation of quadratic-programming based methods such as the SQP method, the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of Lagrange multipliers, the essential difference of the theory of Lagrange multipliers in finite and infinite-dimensional spaces and an essential characterization of the convergence of the classical augmented Lagrangian method. They are achieved by a newly developed decomposition framework for Lagrange multipliers of the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker system of constrained optimization problems in Hilbert spaces, which is totally different from the existing theories based on separation theorems.

This paper examines the problem of obtaining a $D(4)$-quadruple by adding a smaller element to a $D(4)$-triple. We prove some relations between elements of observed hypothetical $D(4)$-quadruples under which conjecture of the uniqueness of such an extension holds. Also, it is shown that for any $D(4)$-triple there are at most two extensions with a smaller element.

Significant progress in manipulating heat diffusion has been achieved with the advent of non-Hermitian physics and topology. However, previous studies on diffusive systems have primarily concentrated on isolated cases, where fields decay exponentially over time. In practical scenarios, systems inevitably interact with external environments, making it essential to study their responses to external heat signals. This, in turn, relies on analyzing the scattering behavior of these signals. In our work, we experimentally realize thermal scattering in a diffusive anti-parity-time (APT) system. We define key parameters of the temperature field-amplitude, phase, and chirality-and reveal that the scattering symmetry of the APT diffusive system only arises when temperature signals with different chiralities interact. Such mechanism is induced by the unique dispersion properties in diffusive systems, where positive and negative frequencies are inequivalent, corresponding to different chiralities. This also explains the difficulty of observing APT scattering symmetry in wave systems. Our findings highlight the pivotal role of scattering channels in the symmetry and phase transitions of non-Hermitian systems and propose novel approaches for analyzing and controlling strongly dissipative phenomena.

We present a formalization of collections that Cornelius Castoriadis calls ``magmas'', especially the property which mainly characterizes them and distinguishes them from the usual cantorian sets. It is the property of their elements to {\em depend} on other elements, either in a one-way or a two-way manner, so that one cannot occur in a collection without the occurrence of those dependent on it. Such a dependence relation can be represented by a pre-order relation $\preccurlyeq$ Then, working in a mild strengthening of the theory ${\rm ZFA}$, where $A$ is an infinite set of atoms equipped with a primitive pre-ordering $\preccurlyeq$, the class of magmas over $A$ is represented by the class $LO(A,\preccurlyeq)$ of nonempty open subsets of $A$ with respect to the lower topology of $\langle A,\preccurlyeq\rangle$. Next the pre-ordering $\preccurlyeq$ is shifted (by a kind of simulation) to a pre-ordering $\preccurlyeq^+$ on ${\cal P}(A)$, which turns out to satisfy the same non-minimality condition as well, and which, happily, when restricted to $LO(A,\preccurlyeq)$ coincides with $\subseteq$. This allows us to define a hierarchy $M_α(A)$, along all ordinals $α\geq 1$, the``magmatic hierarchy'', such that $M_1(A)=LO(A,\preccurlyeq)$, $M_{α+1}(A)=LO(M_α(A),\subseteq)$, and $M_α(A)=\bigcup_{β<α}M_β(A)$, for a limit ordinal $α$. For every $α\geq 1$, $M_α(A)\subseteq V_α(A)$, where $V_α(A)$ are the levels of the universe $V(A)$ of ${\rm ZFA}$. The class $M(A)=\bigcup_{α\geq 1}M_α(A)$ is the ``magmatic universe above $A$.''

In 2006 Bonato and Tardif posed the Tree Alternative Conjecture (TAC): the equivalence class of a tree under the embeddability relation is, up to isomorphism, either trivial or infinite. In 2022 LaFlamme, et al. provided a rigorous exposition of a conter-example to TAC developed by Tetano in his 2008 PhD thesis. Also in 2022, the present author provided a positive answer to TAC for the topological minor relation. Along with embeddability and the topological minor, the graph minor relation completes the triad of the most widely studied graph relations. In this paper we provide a positive answer to TAC for the the graph minor.

Within the framework of independent particle approximation, the optical activity tensor of solids is formulated as from different contributions: the magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole, and band dispersion terms. The first two terms have similar counterparts in the theory of finite systems, while the last term is unique for crystals. The magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole transition moments are calculated with a sum-over-states formulation. We apply the formulation to calculate and analyze the optical rotation of elemental tellurium and the circular dichroism of $(6,4)$ carbon nanotube. Decomposed optical activity into different contributions are discussed. The calculated spectra agree well with experiments. As a showcase of achiral crystals, we calculate the optical activity of wurtzite GaN.

This paper studies optimization of Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) for Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) with finite state and action sets. It introduces the Dynamically augmented CVaR (DCVaR) risk measure and provides an algorithm for its optimization. This paper investigates a specially defined Robust MDP (RMDP), in which the state space is augmented with the tail risk level. This RMDP, which we call the Dynamically augmented RMDP (DRMDP), was introduced to the literature for calculations of optimal CVaR values by value iteration more than ten years ago, but, as was understood later, these value iterations compute lower bounds of minimal static CVaRs. DCVaR is defined as a time consistent version of the static CVaR, and it is a lower bound of the static CVaR. It also can be considered as a dynamic version of the nested CVaR. This paper provides an algorithm constructing a policy optimizing DCVaR of total discounted costs. The correctness of this algorithm is proved by studying a special mass transfer problem. The results on RMDPs needed for this paper are provided in the appendix.

Real-time systems consist of a set of tasks, a scheduling policy, and a system architecture, all constrained by timing requirements. Many everyday embedded systems, within devices such as airplanes, cars, trains, and spatial probes, operate as real-time systems. To ensure safe failure rates, response times-the time required for the exection of a task-must be bounded. Rate Monotonic real-time systems prioritize tasks according to their arrival rate. This paper focuses on the use of the central limit of response times built in \cite{zagalo2022} and an approximation of their distribution with an inverse Gaussian mixture distribution. The distribution parameters and their associated failure rates are estimated through a suitable re-parameterization of the inverse Gaussian distribution and an adapted Expectation-Maximization algorithm. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the method is well-suited for the approximation of failure rates. We discuss the extension of such method to a chi-squared independence test adapted to real-time systems.

We study some critical elliptic problems involving the difference of two nonlocal operators, or the difference of a local operator and a nonlocal operator. The main result is the existence of two nontrivial weak solutions, one with negative energy and the other with positive energy, for all sufficiently small values of a parameter. The proof is based on an abstract result recently obtained in [20].

We investigate whether the tails of firm-level idiosyncratic return distributions are driven by common shocks. We use quantile factor analysis to extract such common idiosyncratic quantile factors with asymmetric pricing effects and we find a significant premium for innovations to the lower-tail factor: high-beta stocks outperform low-beta stocks by around 7-8% per year. This premium remains significant even when controlling for standard factors, idiosyncratic volatility and tail-risk measures. The downside factor strengthens when intermediary capital is weak and market liquidity is low, and it predicts aggregate market excess returns.