Is a co-rotating Dark Disk a threat to Dark Matter directional detection?

Recent N-body simulations are in favor of the presence of a co-rotating Dark Disk that might contribute significantly (10%–50%) to the local Dark Matter density. Such substructure could have dramatic effect on directional detection. Indeed, in the case of a null lag velocity, one expects an isotropic WIMP velocity distribution arising from the Dark Disk contribution, which might weaken the strong angular signature expected in directional detection. For a wide range of Dark Disk parameters, we evaluate in this Letter the effect of such dark component on the discovery potential of upcoming directional detectors. As a conclusion of our study, using only the angular distribution of nuclear recoils, we show that Dark Disk models as suggested by recent N-body simulations will not affect significantly the Dark Matter reach of directional detection, even in extreme configurations.     

Characterization of chaotic maps using the permutation Bandt-Pompe probability distribution

By appealing to a long list of different nonlinear maps we review the characterization of time series arising from chaotic maps. The main tool for this characterization is the permutation Bandt-Pompe probability distribution function. We focus attention on both local and global characteristics of the components of this probability distribution function. We show that forbidden ordinal patterns (local quantifiers) exhibit an exponential growth for pattern-length range 3 ≤ D ≤ 8, in the case of finite time series data. Indeed, there is a minimum D _min-value such that forbidden patterns cannot appear for D < D _min. The system’s localization in an entropy-complexity plane (global quantifier) displays typical specific features associated with its dynamics’ nature. We conclude that a more “robust” distinction between deterministic and stochastic dynamics is achieved via the present time series’ treatment based on the global characteristics of the permutation Bandt-Pompe probability distribution function.     

Bootstrap approaches and confidence intervals for stationary and non-stationary long-range dependence processes

This paper deals with different bootstrap approaches and bootstrap confidence intervals in the fractionally autoregressive moving average (ARFIMA(p,d,q))$(\text{ARFIMA}(p,d,q))$ process [J. Hosking, Fractional differencing, Biometrika 68(1) (1981) 165–175] using parametric and semi-parametric estimation techniques for the memory parameter d. The bootstrap procedures considered are: the classical bootstrap in the residuals of the fitted model [B. Efron, R. Tibshirani, An Introduction to the Bootstrap, Chapman and Hall, New York, 1993], the bootstrap in the spectral density function [E. Paparoditis, D.N Politis, The local bootstrap for periodogram statistics. J. Time Ser. Anal. 20(2) (1999) 193–222], the bootstrap in the residuals resulting from the regression equation of the semi-parametric estimators [G.C Franco, V.A Reisen, Bootstrap techniques in semiparametric estimation methods for ARFIMA models: a comparison study, Comput. Statist. 19 (2004) 243–259] and the Sieve bootstrap [P. Bühlmann, Sieve bootstrap for time series, Bernoulli 3 (1997) 123–148]. The performance of these procedures and confidence intervals for d in the stationary and non-stationary ranges are empirically obtained through Monte Carlo experiments. The bootstrap confidence intervals here proposed are alternative procedures with some accuracy to obtain confidence intervals for d.     

Voxelwise analysis of diffusion MRI of cervical spinal cord using tract-based spatial statistics

Robust voxelwise analysis using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) together with permutation statistical method is standardly used in analyzing diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of brain. A similar analytical method could be useful when studying DTI of cervical spinal cord.Based on anatomical data of sixty-four healthy volunteers, white (WM) and gray matter (GM) masks were created and subsequently registered into DTI space. Using TBSS, two skeleton types were created (single line and dilated for WM as well as GM). From anatomical data, percentage rates of overlap were calculated for all skeletons in relation to WM and GM masks.Voxelwise analysis of fractional anisotropy values depending on age and sex was conducted. Correlation of fraction anisotropy values with age of subjects was also evaluated. The two WM skeleton types showed a high overlap rate with WM masks (~94%); GM skeletons showed lower rates (56% and 42%, respectively, for single line and dilated). WM and GM areas where fraction anisotropy values differ between sexes were identified (p < .05). Furthermore, using voxelwise analysis such WM voxels were identified where fraction anisotropy values differ depending on age (p < .05) and in these voxels linear dependence of fraction anisotropy and age (r = −0.57, p < .001) was confirmed by regression analysis. This dependence was not proven when using WM anatomical masks (r = −0.21, p = .10).The analytical approach presented shown to be useful for group analysis of DTI data for cervical spinal cord.     

Dynamical properties of nucleus boundaries in photoinduced structural change

Dynamics of the boundaries of photoinduced nuclei in electron–phonon systems is theoretically studied. By regarding the spatial distribution of the excited electronic state population as a geometric pattern, we applied the multifractal analysis to it and calculated the temporal behavior of the fractal dimension f(α)$f(\alpha )$ as a function of the Lipschitz–Hölder exponent α, which is an appropriate method for understanding the cooperative relaxation process of photoexcited states. We found that the incubation period observed in various types of photoinduced cooperative phenomena corresponds to the formation of embryonic nuclei which is driven by nonadiabatic/adiabatic transition between electronic states during the relaxation of the Franck–Condon state.     

Pathway model,superstatistics, Tsallis statistics,and a generalized measure of entropy

The pathway model of Mathai [A pathway to matrix-variate gamma and normal densities, Linear Algebra Appl. 396 (2005) 317–328] is shown to be inferable from the maximization of a certain generalized entropy measure. This entropy is a variant of the generalized entropy of order α$\alpha$, considered in Mathai and Rathie [Basic Concepts in Information Theory and Statistics: Axiomatic Foundations and Applications, Wiley Halsted, New York and Wiley Eastern, New Delhi, 1975], and it is also associated with Shannon, Boltzmann–Gibbs, Rényi, Tsallis, and Havrda–Charvát entropies. The generalized entropy measure introduced here is also shown to have interesting statistical properties and it can be given probabilistic interpretations in terms of inaccuracy measure, expected value, and information content in a scheme. Particular cases of the pathway model are shown to be Tsallis statistics [C. Tsallis, Possible generalization of Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics, J. Stat. Phys. 52 (1988) 479–487] and superstatistics introduced by Beck and Cohen [Superstatistics, Physica A 322 (2003) 267–275]. The pathway model's connection to fractional calculus is illustrated by considering a fractional reaction equation.     

How much luxury is there in 'luxury perfusion'? An analysis of the BOLD response in the visual areas V1 and V2

We re-analyzed the functional magnetic resonance imaging data from a study involving awake, adult, human volunteers in order to examine the influence of vascular density on the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) response. We employed a flashed and reversing stimulus paradigm where the latter stimulated twice the number of receptive fields and with it doubled the neuronal metabolic load (CMRO2) compared to the former stimulus. The blood flow increase to these stimuli was identical, so that differences in the BOLD response are due to differences in the oxygen extraction fraction. By comparing the BOLD response in human striate cortex (V1) and its neighbor, extra-striate area V2 to the two stimuli, we were able to determine the influence of the higher vascular density of striate cortex on the BOLD response. In striate cortex, the extent of activation, as measured by the number of activated voxels, was larger for the flashed than for the reversing stimulus. In extra-striate area V2, no such difference in the extent of activation was noted. Gauging the local concentration of HbR using deltaR2*, we found it to be significantly lower for the flashed than for the reversing checkerboard. We estimated the HbR concentration in extra-striate area V2 to be double that of striate cortex independent of the stimulus presented. A frequency distribution of the deltaR2* values for the flashed and reversing checkerboard revealed a shift consistent with an increase in the HbR concentration between areas V1 and V2. The metabolically most demanding stimulus, the reversing checkerboard was associated with the highest HbR concentration and with the largest number of voxels with a negative BOLD response.     

Multisubject activation detection in fMRI by testing correlation of data with a signal subspace

In this article, a generalized likelihood ratio test is proposed to assess the correlation between multisubject functional MRI (fMRI) time series and bases of a signal subspace for detecting the existence of group activation in each voxel of the brain. The signal subspace is generated by a design matrix using the time series of the desired effects. The proposed method leads to testing the product of eigenvalues of a specific matrix. The eigenvector corresponding to the largest eigenvalue is the weighting vector for the linear combination of time series of various subjects that has the maximum correlation with the signal subspace. In another method, namely, canonical correlation analysis, the largest eigenvalue of the above matrix is tested for activation detection. Surrogate data on resting state (no activation) are generated by randomization and used to estimate the statistical distribution of these parameters under the null hypothesis condition. A postprocessing step is applied to prevent false detection of voxels that are not sufficiently active (among subjects) by defining a minimum ratio for the active population. The proposed methods are applied on simulated and experimental fMRI data, and the results are compared with those of the general linear model (GLM; using the SPM and FMRISTAT toolboxes). The proposed methods showed higher detection sensitivity as compared with the GLM for activation detection in simulated data. Similarly, they detected more activated regions than did the GLM from multisubject experimental fMRI data on a visual (sensorimotor) event-related task.     

A first-order system approach for diffusion equation. II: Unification of advection and diffusion

In this paper, we unify advection and diffusion into a single hyperbolic system by extending the first-order system approach introduced for the diffusion equation [J. Comput. Phys., 227 (2007) 315–352] to the advection–diffusion equation. Specifically, we construct a unified hyperbolic advection–diffusion system by expressing the diffusion term as a first-order hyperbolic system and simply adding the advection term to it. Naturally then, we develop upwind schemes for this entire   system; there is thus no need to develop two different schemes, i.e., advection and diffusion schemes. We show that numerical schemes constructed in this way can be automatically uniformly accurate, allow O(h)$O(h)$ time step, and compute the solution gradients (viscous stresses/heat fluxes for the Navier–Stokes equations) simultaneously to the same order of accuracy as the main variable, for all Reynolds numbers. We present numerical results for boundary-layer type problems on non-uniform grids in one dimension and irregular triangular grids in two dimensions to demonstrate various remarkable advantages of the proposed approach. In particular, we show that the schemes solving the first-order advection–diffusion system give a tremendous speed-up in CPU time over traditional scalar schemes despite the additional cost of carrying extra variables and solving equations for them. We conclude the paper with discussions on further developments to come.     

Pekeris approximation – another perspective

Inspired on the Pekeris approximation for the centrifugal term, we elaborate a method of resolution for the Schrödinger equation subject to a potential V(r)$V(r)$ of a form more general than the exponential one. Generalizing the Pekeris approximation, we solve the Schrödinger equation with Rosen–Morse and Manning–Rosen potentials including the centrifugal term. The bound state energy eigenvalues for these potentials and for arbitrary values of n and l quantum numbers are presented.     

q exponential is a Burr distribution

It is pointed out that the q-exponential distribution introduced in the ground-breaking paper by Tsallis [C. Tsallis, J. Stat. Phys. 52 (1988) 479] is contained by a family of distributions known since the 1940s. Some elementary statistical properties of this family are discussed. Six data sets on fracture roughness are used to demonstrate that this family provides much better models for fracture roughness than the q exponential distribution.     

An image encryption scheme using generalized Arnold map and affine cipher

This paper aims to provide an image encryption scheme with an efficient bit-level permutation and a pixel-level diffusion procedure. In the bit-level permutation, we divide each pixel into 8 bits, and arrange the positions of each bit by the generalized Arnold map in row and column direction. Hence, a significant diffusion effect is happened in the bit-level permutation. In the pixel-level diffusion procedure, we apply affine cipher to change the gray value and the histogram distribution of the permutated image. Various types of security analyses demonstrate that the proposed scheme is competitive with that ordinary permutation–diffusion type image cipher and proper for practical image encryption.     

Bounds on warped extra dimensions from a Standard Model-like Higgs boson

We point out that the discovery of a light Higgs boson in the γγ, ZZ, and WW   decay channels at the LHC, with cross sections not far from the predictions of the Standard Model, would have profound implications for the parameters of warped extra-dimension models with a brane-localized Higgs sector. Due to loop effects of Kaluza–Klein particles, these models predict a significant reduction of the Higgs production cross section via gluon–gluon fusion, combined with an enhancement of the ratio Br(h→γγ)/Br(h→ZZ)$\mathrm{Br}(h\to \gamma \gamma )/\mathrm{Br}(h\to ZZ)$ in large parts of parameter space. LHC measurements of these decays will probe Kaluza–Klein masses up to the 10 TeV range, exceeding by far the reach for direct production.     

Symbolic transfer entropy rate is equal to transfer entropy rate for bivariate finite-alphabet stationary ergodic Markov processes

Transfer entropy is a measure of the magnitude and the direction of information flow between jointly distributed stochastic processes. In recent years, its permutation analogues are considered in the literature to estimate the transfer entropy by counting the number of occurrences of orderings of values, not the values themselves. It has been suggested that the method of permutation is easy to implement, computationally low cost and robust to noise when applying to real world time series data. In this paper, we initiate a theoretical treatment of the corresponding rates. In particular, we consider the transfer entropy rate and its permutation analogue, the symbolic transfer entropy rate, and show that they are equal for any bivariate finite-alphabet stationary ergodic Markov process. This result is an illustration of the duality method introduced in [T. Haruna, K. Nakajima, Physica D 240, 1370 (2011)]. We also discuss the relationship among the transfer entropy rate, the time-delayed mutual information rate and their permutation analogues.     

Hidden symmetry in the presence of fluxes

We derive the most general first-order symmetry operator for the Dirac equation coupled to arbitrary fluxes. Such an operator is given in terms of an inhomogeneous form ω   which is a solution to a coupled system of first-order partial differential equations which we call the generalized conformal Killing–Yano system. Except trivial fluxes, solutions of this system are subject to additional constraints. We discuss various special cases of physical interest. In particular, we demonstrate that in the case of a Dirac operator coupled to the skew symmetric torsion and U(1)$U(1)$ field, the system of generalized conformal Killing–Yano equations decouples into the homogeneous conformal Killing–Yano equations with torsion introduced in D. Kubiznak et al. (2009) [8] and the symmetry operator is essentially the one derived in T. Houri et al. (2010) [9]. We also discuss the Dirac field coupled to a scalar potential and in the presence of 5-form and 7-form fluxes.     

Current exchanges and unconstrained higher spins

The (Fang–) Fronsdal formulation for free fully symmetric (spinor-) tensors rests on (γ  -) trace constraints on gauge fields and parameters. When these are relaxed, glimpses of the underlying geometry emerge: the field equations extend to non-local expressions involving the higher-spin curvatures, and with only a pair of additional fields an equivalent “minimal” local formulation is also possible. In this paper we complete the discussion of the “minimal” formulation for fully symmetric (spinor-) tensors, constructing one-parameter families of Lagrangians and extending them to (A)dS$(A)\mathit{dS}$ backgrounds. We then turn on external currents, that in this setting are subject to conventional conservation laws and, by a close scrutiny of current exchanges in the various formulations, we clarify the precise link between the local and non-local versions of the theory. To this end, we first show the equivalence of the constrained and unconstrained local formulations, and then identify a unique set of non-local Lagrangian equations which behave in the same fashion in current exchanges.     

Magnetic relaxation in pulse-magnetized high-temperature superconductors

A magnetic filed relaxation at the center of a pulse-magnetized single-domain Y–Ba–Cu–O superconductor at 78 K has been studied. In case of a weak magnetization, the magnetic flux density increases logarithmically and normalized relaxation rate defined as S = −d(lnB)/d(lnt) is negative (S = −0.037). When an external magnetic field magnitude increases, the relaxation rate first decreases in absolute value, then changes sign (becomes positive, S > 0) and after reaching some maximum finally reduces to a very small value. Non-monotonous dependence of S vs. H_a is explained by a non-homogeneous local temperature distribution during a pulse magnetization.     

Local Gromov–Witten invariants of blowups of Fano surfaces

In this paper, using the degeneration formula we obtain a blowup formula of local Gromov–Witten invariants of Fano surfaces. This formula makes it possible to compute the local Gromov–Witten invariants of non-toric Fano surfaces from toric Fano surfaces, such as del Pezzo surfaces. This formula also verified an expectation of Chiang–Klemm–Yau–Zaslow in Section 8.3 of Chiang et al. (1999) [7]