Computing Matveev's complexity via crystallization theory: the boundary case

The notion of Gem-Matveev complexity has been introduced within crystallization theory, as a combinatorial method to estimate Matveev's complexity of closed 3-manifolds; it yielded upper bounds for interesting classes of such manifolds. In this paper we extend the definition to the case of non-empty boundary and prove that for each compact irreducible and boundary-irreducible 3-manifold it coincides with the modified Heegaard complexity introduced by Cattabriga, Mulazzani and Vesnin. Moreover, via Gem-Matveev complexity, we obtain an estimation of Matveev's complexity for all Seifert 3-manifolds with base $\mathbb D^2$ and two exceptional fibers and, therefore, for all torus knot complements.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure

Report on the EU-US Workshop on Large Scientific Databases

This joint workshop was set up under the auspices of the Joint European Commission/National Science Foundation Strategy Group that met in Budapest in September 1998. The meeting derived from a joint collaboration agreement between the EC and NSF, signed by Dr. George Metakides (Director of Information Technologies for the EC) and Prof. Juris Hartmanis (Director of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the NSF). Some themes that were identified include: digital libraries human-centered computing and virtual environments large scientific databases, and intelligent implants This report expresses the conclusions and recommendations of the Workshop on Large Scientific Databases, held in Annapolis, Maryland, USA in September 1999. The purpose of the workshop was to develop a report to the funding agencies outlining a possible solicitation to the research community, with emphasis on joint European-US work on Large Scientific Databases. Before the workshop, each participant submitted a position paper (these are available at the web site http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/euus). The results of the position papers, presentations, and group discussion are summarized in this report. There were 12 participants from Europe and 12 from the United States, and they are listed at the end of this report. The last section of this report describes possible funding mechanisms

Global analysis of muon decay measurements

We have performed a global analysis of muon decay measurements to establish model-independent limits on the space-time structure of the muon decay matrix element. We find limits on the scalar, vector and tensor coupling of right- and left-handed muons to right- and left-handed electrons. The limits on those terms that involve the decay of right-handed muons to left-handed electrons are more restrictive than in previous global analyses, while the limits on the other non-standard model interactions are comparable. The value of the Michel parameter eta found in the global analysis is -0.0036 \pm 0.0069, slightly more precise than the value found in a more restrictive analysis of a recent measurement. This has implications for the Fermi coupling constant G_F.Comment: 5 pages, 3 table

Refractive effects in the scattering of loosely bound nuclei

A study of the interaction of loosely bound nuclei 6,7Li at 9 and 19 AMeV with light targets has been undertaken. With the determination of unambiguous optical potentials in mind, elastic data for four projectile-target combinations and one neutron transfer reaction 13C(7Li,8Li)12C have been measured on a large angular range. The kinematical regime encompasses a region where the mean field (optical potential) has a marked variation with mass and energy, but turns out to be sufficiently surface transparent to allow strong refractive effects to be manifested in elastic scattering data at intermediate angles. The identified exotic feature, a "plateau" in the angular distributions at intermediate angles, is fully confirmed in four reaction channels and interpreted as a pre-rainbow oscillation resulting from the interference of the barrier and internal barrier farside scattering subamplitudes.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables to submit to Phys. Rev.

A combinatorial smoothness criterion for spherical varieties

We suggest a combinatorial criterion for the smoothness of an arbitrary spherical variety using the classification of multiplicity-free spaces, generalizing an earlier result of Camus for spherical varieties of type $A$.Comment: 14 pages, 2 table

Deployment challenges and developments in wireless sensor networks clustering

Clustering techniques for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been extensively studied and proven to improve the network lifetime, a primary metric, used for performance evaluation of sensor networks. Although introduction of clustering techniques has the potential to reduce energy consumption and extend the lifetime of the network by decreasing the contention through either power control or node scheduling, scalability remains an issue. Therefore, the optimality of the cluster size still needs to be thoroughly investigated. In this paper, a single cluster head (CH) queuing model is presented. Using an event based simulation tool (Castalia), key issues that affect the practical deployment of clustering techniques in wireless sensor networks are analysed. These include identifying the bottlenecks in terms of cluster scalability and predicting the nature of data packets arrival distribution at the CH. Results presented show that this analysis can be used to specify the size of a cluster, when a specific flow of data is expected from the sensing nodes based on a particular application and also the distribution of the inter-arrival times of data packets at the CH follows exponential distribution

Compact 3-manifolds via 4-colored graphs

We introduce a representation of compact 3-manifolds without spherical boundary components via (regular) 4-colored graphs, which turns out to be very convenient for computer aided study and tabulation. Our construction is a direct generalization of the one given in the eighties by S. Lins for closed 3-manifolds, which is in turn dual to the earlier construction introduced by Pezzana's school in Modena. In this context we establish some results concerning fundamental groups, connected sums, moves between graphs representing the same manifold, Heegaard genus and complexity, as well as an enumeration and classification of compact 3-manifolds representable by graphs with few vertices ($\le 6$ in the non-orientable case and $\le 8$ in the orientable one).Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures; changes suggested by referee: references added, figure 2 modified, results about classification of the manifolds in Proposition 17 announced at the end of section 9. Accepted for publication in RACSAM. The final publication is available at Springer (see DOI