Accumulated Gradient Normalization

This work addresses the instability in asynchronous data parallel optimization. It does so by introducing a novel distributed optimizer which is able to efficiently optimize a centralized model under communication constraints. The optimizer achieves this by pushing a normalized sequence of first-order gradients to a parameter server. This implies that the magnitude of a worker delta is smaller compared to an accumulated gradient, and provides a better direction towards a minimum compared to first-order gradients, which in turn also forces possible implicit momentum fluctuations to be more aligned since we make the assumption that all workers contribute towards a single minima. As a result, our approach mitigates the parameter staleness problem more effectively since staleness in asynchrony induces (implicit) momentum, and achieves a better convergence rate compared to other optimizers such as asynchronous EASGD and DynSGD, which we show empirically.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, ACML201

On accumulated Cohen's class distributions and mixed-state localization operators

Recently we introduced mixed-state localization operators associated to a density operator and a (compact) domain in phase space. We continue the investigations of their eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Our main focus is the definition of a time-frequency distribution which is based on the Cohen class distribution associated to the density operator and the eigenvectors of the mixed-state localization operator. This time-frequency distribution is called the accumulated Cohen class distribution. If the trace class operator is a rank-one operator, then the mixed-state localization operators and the accumulated Cohen class distribution reduce to Daubechies' localization operators and the accumulated spectrogram. We extend all the results about the accumulated spectrogram to the accumulated Cohen class distribution. The techniques used in the case of spectrograms cannot be adapted to other distributions in Cohen's class since they rely on the reproducing kernel property of the short-time Fourier transform. Our approach is based on quantum harmonic analysis on phase space which also provides the tools and notions to introduce the analogues of the accumulated spectrogram for mixed-state localization operators; the accumulated Cohen's class distributions

Recurrent Coronal Jets Induced by Repetitively Accumulated Electric Currents

Three extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) jets recurred in about one hour on 2010 September 17 in the following magnetic polarity of active region 11106. The EUV jets were observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on board SDO measured the vector magnetic field, from which we derive the magnetic flux evolution, the photospheric velocity field, and the vertical electric current evolution. The magnetic configuration before the jets is derived by the nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) extrapolation. We derive that the jets are above a pair of parasitic magnetic bipoles which are continuously driven by photospheric diverging flows. The interaction drove the build up of electric currents that we indeed observed as elongated patterns at the photospheric level. For the first time, the high temporal cadence of HMI allows to follow the evolution of such small currents. In the jet region, we found that the integrated absolute current peaks repetitively in phase with the 171 A flux evolution. The current build up and its decay are both fast, about 10 minutes each, and the current maximum precedes the 171 A by also about 10 minutes. Then, HMI temporal cadence is marginally fast enough to detect such changes. The photospheric current pattern of the jets is found associated to the quasi-separatrix layers deduced from the magnetic extrapolation. From previous theoretical results, the observed diverging flows are expected to build continuously such currents. We conclude that magnetic reconnection occurs periodically, in the current layer created between the emerging bipoles and the large scale active region field. It induced the observed recurrent coronal jets and the decrease of the vertical electric current magnitude.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Indices of fixed points not accumulated by periodic points

We prove that for every integer sequence $I$ satisfying Dold relations there exists a map $f : \mathbb{R}^d \to \mathbb{R}^d$, $d \ge 2$, such that $\mathrm{Per(f)} = \mathrm{Fix(f)} = \{o\}$, where $o$ denotes the origin, and $(i(f^n, o))_n = I$.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Final version to appear in Topol. Methods Nonlinear Ana