Web Services: A Process Algebra Approach

It is now well-admitted that formal methods are helpful for many issues raised in the Web service area. In this paper we present a framework for the design and verification of WSs using process algebras and their tools. We define a two-way mapping between abstract specifications written using these calculi and executable Web services written in BPEL4WS. Several choices are available: design and correct errors in BPEL4WS, using process algebra verification tools, or design and correct in process algebra and automatically obtaining the corresponding BPEL4WS code. The approaches can be combined. Process algebra are not useful only for temporal logic verification: we remark the use of simulation/bisimulation both for verification and for the hierarchical refinement design method. It is worth noting that our approach allows the use of any process algebra depending on the needs of the user at different levels (expressiveness, existence of reasoning tools, user expertise)

Dynamics of Conductive/Cooling Fronts: Cloud Implosion and Thermal Solitons

We investigate the evolution of interfaces among phases of the interstellar medium with different temperature. It is found that, for some initial conditions, the dynamical effects related to conductive fronts are very important even if radiation losses, which tend to decelerate the front propagation, are taken into account. We have also explored the consequences of the inclusion of shear and bulk viscosity, and we have allowed for saturation of the kinetic effects. Numerical simulations of a cloud immersed in a hot medium have been performed; depending on the ratio of conductive to dynamical time, the density is increased by a huge factor and the cloud may become optically thick. Clouds that are highly compressed are able to stop the evaporation process even if their initial size is smaller than the Field length. In addition to the numerical approach, the time dependent evolution has been studied also analytically. Simple techniques have been applied to the problem in order to study the transition stages to a stationary state. The global properties of the solution for static and steady fronts and useful relations among the various physical variables are derived; a mechanical analogy is often used to clarify the physics of the results. It is demonstrated that a class of soliton-like solutions are admitted by the hydrodynamical equations appropriate to describe the conduction/cooling fronts (in the inviscid case) that do not require a heat flux at the boundaries. Some astrophysical consequences are indicated along with some possible applications to the structure of the Galactic ISM and to extragalactic objects.Comment: 29 pages, Plain TeX, 14 figures, Space Telescope Preprint Series-No. 75

Formation of supermassive black hole seeds

The detection of quasars at $z>6$ unveils the presence of supermassive black holes (BHs) of a few billion solar masses. The rapid formation process of these extreme objects remains a fascinating and open issue. Such discovery implies that seed black holes must have formed early on, and grown via either rapid accretion or BH/galaxy mergers. In this theoretical review, we discuss in detail various BH seed formation mechanisms and the physical processes at play during their assembly. We discuss the three most popular BH formation scenarios, involving the (i) core-collapse of massive stars, (ii) dynamical evolution of dense nuclear star clusters, (iii) collapse of a protogalactic metal free gas cloud. This article aims at giving a broad introduction and an overview of the most advanced research in the field.Comment: Invited review accepted for publication in PASA, comments are still welcom

The nature of the Lyman Alpha Emitter CR7: a persisting puzzle

The peculiar emission properties of the $z \sim 6.6$ Ly$\alpha$ emitter CR7 have been initially interpreted with the presence of either a direct collapse black hole (DCBH) or a substantial mass of Pop III stars. Instead, updated photometric observations by Bowler et al. (2016) seem to suggest that CR7 is a more standard system. Here we confirm that the original DCBH hypothesis is consistent also with the new data. Using radiation-hydrodynamic simulations, we reproduce the new IR photometry with two models involving a Compton-thick DCBH of mass $\approx 7 \times 10^6 \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ accreting (a) metal-free ($Z=0$) gas with column density $N_H = 8 \times 10^{25} \, \mathrm{cm^{-2}}$, or (b) low-metallicity gas ($Z = 5 \times 10^{-3} \, \mathrm{Z_{\odot}}$) with $N_H = 3 \times 10^{24} \, \mathrm{cm^{-2}}$. The best fit model reproduces the photometric data to within $1 \sigma$. Such metals can be produced by weak star-forming activity occurring after the formation of the DCBH. The main contribution to the Spitzer/IRAC $3.6 \, \mathrm{\mu m}$ photometric band in both models is due to HeI/HeII $\lambda 4714, 4687$ emission lines, while the contribution of [OIII] $\lambda 4959, 5007$ emission lines, if present, is sub-dominant. Spectroscopic observations with JWST will be required to ultimately clarify the nature of CR7.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter

The size of BDDs and other data structures in temporal logics model checking

Temporal Logic Model Checking is a verification method in which we describe a system, the model, and then we verify whether important properties, expressed in a temporal logic formula, hold in the system. Many Model Checking tools employ BDDs or some other data structure to represent sets of states. It has been empirically observed that the BDDs used in these algorithms may grow exponentially as the model and formula increase in size. We formally prove that no kind of data structure of polynomial size can represent the set of valid initial states for all models and all formulae. This result holds for all data structures where a state can be checked in polynomial time. Therefore, it holds not only for all types of BDDs regardless of variable ordering, but also for more powerful data structures, such as RBCs, MTBDDs, ADDs and SDDs. Thus, the size explosion of BDDs is not a limit of these specific data representation structures, but is unavoidable: every formalism used in the same way would lead to an exponential size blow up

Cosmic microwave background constraints on light dark matter candidates

Unveiling the nature of cosmic dark matter (DM) is an urgent issue in cosmology. Here we make use of a strategy based on the search for the imprints left on the cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization spectra by the energy deposition due to annihilations of the most promising dark matter candidate, a stable WIMP of mass 1-20 GeV. A major improvement with respect to previous similar studies is a detailed treatment of the annihilation cascade and its energy deposition in the cosmic gas. This is vital as this quantity is degenerate with the annihilation cross-section . The strongest constraints are obtained from Monte Carlo Markov chain analysis of the combined WMAP7 and SPT datasets up to lmax = 3100. If annihilation occurs via the e+e- channel, a light WIMP can be excluded at the 2 {\sigma} c.l. as a viable DM candidate in the above mass range. However, if annihilation occurs via {\mu}+{\mu}- or {\tau}+{\tau}- channels instead we find that WIMPs with mass > 5 GeV might represent a viable cosmological DM candidate. We compare the results obtained in the present work with those obtained adopting an analytical simplified model for the energy deposition process widely used in literature, and we found that realistic energy deposition descriptions can influence the resulting constrains up to 60%.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA