OmniDRL: Robust Pedestrian Detection using Deep Reinforcement Learning on Omnidirectional Cameras

Pedestrian detection is one of the most explored topics in computer vision and robotics. The use of deep learning methods allowed the development of new and highly competitive algorithms. Deep Reinforcement Learning has proved to be within the state-of-the-art in terms of both detection in perspective cameras and robotics applications. However, for detection in omnidirectional cameras, the literature is still scarce, mostly because of their high levels of distortion. This paper presents a novel and efficient technique for robust pedestrian detection in omnidirectional images. The proposed method uses deep Reinforcement Learning that takes advantage of the distortion in the image. By considering the 3D bounding boxes and their distorted projections into the image, our method is able to provide the pedestrian's position in the world, in contrast to the image positions provided by most state-of-the-art methods for perspective cameras. Our method avoids the need of pre-processing steps to remove the distortion, which is computationally expensive. Beyond the novel solution, our method compares favorably with the state-of-the-art methodologies that do not consider the underlying distortion for the detection task.Comment: Accepted in 2019 IEEE Int'l Conf. Robotics and Automation (ICRA

Hairy black holes and the endpoint of AdS4_4 charged superradiance

We construct hairy black hole solutions that merge with the anti-de Sitter (AdS$_4$) Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole at the onset of superradiance. These hairy black holes have, for a given mass and charge, higher entropy than the corresponding AdS$_4$-Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole. Therefore, they are natural candidates for the endpoint of the charged superradiant instability. On the other hand, hairy black holes never dominate the canonical and grand-canonical ensembles. The zero-horizon radius of the hairy black holes is a soliton (i.e. a boson star under a gauge transformation). We construct our solutions perturbatively, for small mass and charge, so that the properties of hairy black holes can be used to testify and compare with the endpoint of initial value simulations. We further discuss the near-horizon scalar condensation instability which is also present in global AdS$_4$-Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes. We highlight the different nature of the near-horizon and superradiant instabilities and that hairy black holes ultimately exist because of the non-linear instability of AdS.Comment: 41 pages, 6 figures. v2: Minor changes to match published versio

An S3S_3 Model for Lepton Mass Matrices with Nearly Minimal Texture

We propose a simple extension of the electroweak standard model based on the discrete $S_3$ symmetry that is capable of realizing a nearly minimal Fritzsch-type texture for the Dirac mass matrices of both charged leptons and neutrinos. This is achieved with the aid of additional $Z_5$ and $Z_3$ symmetries, one of which can be embedded in $U(1)_{B-L}$. Five complex scalar singlet fields are introduced in addition to the SM with right-handed neutrinos. Although more general, the modified texture of the model retains the successful features of the minimal texture without fine-tuning; namely, it accommodates the masses and mixing of the leptonic sector and relates the emergence of large leptonic mixing angles with the seesaw mechanism. For large deviations of the minimal texture, both quasidegenerate spectrum or inverted hierarchy are allowed for neutrino masses.Comment: 11pp, 2 figures. v2: vev alignment addressed, additional analysis performed; to appear in PR

AdS nonlinear instability: moving beyond spherical symmetry

Anti-de Sitter (AdS) is conjectured to be nonlinear unstable to a weakly turbulent mechanism that develops a cascade towards high frequencies, leading to black hole formation [1,2]. We give evidence that the gravitational sector of perturbations behaves differently from the scalar one studied in [2]. In contrast with [2], we find that not all gravitational normal modes of AdS can be nonlinearly extended into periodic horizonless smooth solutions of the Einstein equation. In particular, we show that even seeds with a single normal mode can develop secular resonances, unlike the spherically symmetric scalar field collapse studied in [2]. Moreover, if the seed has two normal modes, more than one resonance can be generated at third order, unlike the spherical collapse of [2]. We also show that weak turbulent perturbative theory predicts the existence of direct and inverse cascades, with the former dominating the latter for equal energy two-mode seeds.Comment: 7 pages, no figures, 2 table

Simulation of Gaussian channels via teleportation and error correction of Gaussian states

Gaussian channels are the typical way to model the decoherence introduced by the environment in continuous-variable quantum states. It is known that those channels can be simulated by a teleportation protocol using as a resource state either a maximally entangled state passing through the same channel, i.e., the Choi-state, or a state that is entangled at least as much as the Choi-state. Since the construction of the Choi-state requires infinite mean energy and entanglement, i.e. it is unphysical, we derive instead every physical state able to simulate a given channel through teleportation with finite resources, and we further find the optimal ones, i.e., the resource states that require the minimum energy and entanglement. We show that the optimal resource states are pure and equally entangled to the Choi-state as measured by the entanglement of formation. We also show that the same amount of entanglement is enough to simulate an equally decohering channel, while even more entanglement can simulate less decohering channels. We, finally, use that fact to generalize a previously known error correction protocol by making it able to correct noise coming not only from pure loss but from thermal loss channels as well.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Analytical r-mode solution with gravitational radiation reaction force

We present and discuss the analytical r-mode solution to the linearized hydrodynamic equations of a slowly rotating, Newtonian, barotropic, non-magnetized, perfect-fluid star in which the gravitational radiation reaction force is present.Comment: 3 pages, in Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop "New Worlds in Astroparticle Physics", Faro, Portugal, 8-10 January 200

Unavoidable Conflict Between Massive Gravity Models and Massive Topological Terms

Massive gravity models in 2+1 dimensions, such as those obtained by adding to Einstein's gravity the usual Fierz-Pauli, or the more complicated Ricci scalar squared ($R^2$), terms, are tree level unitary. Interesting enough these seemingly harmless systems have their unitarity spoiled when they are augmented by a Chern-Simons term. Furthermore, if the massive topological term is added to $R + R_{\mu\nu}^2$ gravity, or to $R + R_{\mu\nu}^2 + R^2$ gravity (higher-derivative gravity), which are nonunitary at the tree level, the resulting models remain nonunitary. Therefore, unlike the common belief, as well as the claims in the literature, the coexistence between three-dimensional massive gravity models and massive topological terms is conflicting.Comment: 13 pages, no figure