Bayesian batch active learning as sparse subset approximation

Leveraging the wealth of unlabeled data produced in recent years provides great potential for improving supervised models. When the cost of acquiring labels is high, probabilistic active learning methods can be used to greedily select the most informative data points to be labeled. However, for many large-scale problems standard greedy procedures become computationally infeasible and suffer from negligible model change. In this paper, we introduce a novel Bayesian batch active learning approach that mitigates these issues. Our approach is motivated by approximating the complete data posterior of the model parameters. While naive batch construction methods result in correlated queries, our algorithm produces diverse batches that enable efficient active learning at scale. We derive interpretable closed-form solutions akin to existing active learning procedures for linear models, and generalize to arbitrary models using random projections. We demonstrate the benefits of our approach on several large-scale regression and classification tasks.Comment: NeurIPS 201

Conformal symmetry and deflationary gas universe

We describe the ``deflationary'' evolution from an initial de Sitter phase to a subsequent Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) period as a specific non-equilibrium configuration of a self-interacting gas. The transition dynamics corresponds to a conformal, timelike symmetry of an ``optical'' metric, characterized by a refraction index of the cosmic medium which continously decreases from a very large initial value to unity in the FLRW phase.Comment: 10 pages, to appear in "Exact Solutions and Scalar Fields in Gravity: Recent Developments", ed. by A. Macias, J. Cervantes-Cota, and C. L\"ammerzahl, Kluwer Academic Publishers 200

(Re)constructing Dimensions

Compactifying a higher-dimensional theory defined in R^{1,3+n} on an n-dimensional manifold {\cal M} results in a spectrum of four-dimensional (bosonic) fields with masses m^2_i = \lambda_i, where - \lambda_i are the eigenvalues of the Laplacian on the compact manifold. The question we address in this paper is the inverse: given the masses of the Kaluza-Klein fields in four dimensions, what can we say about the size and shape (i.e. the topology and the metric) of the compact manifold? We present some examples of isospectral manifolds (i.e., different manifolds which give rise to the same Kaluza-Klein mass spectrum). Some of these examples are Ricci-flat, complex and K\"{a}hler and so they are isospectral backgrounds for string theory. Utilizing results from finite spectral geometry, we also discuss the accuracy of reconstructing the properties of the compact manifold (e.g., its dimension, volume, and curvature etc) from measuring the masses of only a finite number of Kaluza-Klein modes.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, 2 references adde

Rights or containment? The politics of Aboriginal cultural heritage in Victoria

Aboriginal cultural heritage protection, and the legislative regimes that underpin it, constitute important mechanisms for Aboriginal people to assert their rights and responsibilities. This is especially so in Victoria, where legislation vests wide-ranging powers and control of cultural heritage with Aboriginal communities. However, the politics of cultural heritage, including its institutionalisation as a scientific body of knowledge within the state, can also result in a powerful limiting of Aboriginal rights and responsibilities. This paper examines the politics of cultural heritage through a case study of a small forest in north-west Victoria. Here, a dispute about logging has pivoted around differing conceptualisations of Aboriginal cultural heritage values and their management. Cultural heritage, in this case, is both a powerful tool for the assertion of Aboriginal rights and interests, but simultaneously a set of boundaries within which the state operates to limit and manage the challenge those assertions pose. The paper will argue that Aboriginal cultural heritage is a politically contested and shifting domain structured around Aboriginal law and politics, Australian statute and the legacy of colonial history

Optimization of textured-dielectric coatings for crystalline-silicon solar cells

The authors report on the optimization of textured-dielectric coatings for reflectance control in crystalline-silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic modules. Textured-dielectric coatings reduce encapsulated-cell reflectance by promoting optical confinement in the module encapsulation; i.e., the textured-dielectric coating randomizes the direction of rays reflected from the dielectric and from the c-Si cell so that many of these reflected rays experience total internal reflection at the glass-air interface. Some important results of this work include the following: the authors demonstrated textured-dielectric coatings (ZnO) deposited by a high-throughput low-cost deposition process; they identified factors important for achieving necessary texture dimensions; they achieved solar-weighted extrinsic reflectances as low as 6% for encapsulated c-Si wafers with optimized textured-ZnO coatings; and they demonstrated improvements in encapsulated cell performance of up to 0.5% absolute compared to encapsulated planar cells with single-layer antireflection coatings

Gauge-Invariant Initial Conditions and Early Time Perturbations in Quintessence Universes

We present a systematic treatment of the initial conditions and evolution of cosmological perturbations in a universe containing photons, baryons, neutrinos, cold dark matter, and a scalar quintessence field. By formulating the evolution in terms of a differential equation involving a matrix acting on a vector comprised of the perturbation variables, we can use the familiar language of eigenvalues and eigenvectors. As the largest eigenvalue of the evolution matrix is fourfold degenerate, it follows that there are four dominant modes with non-diverging gravitational potential at early times, corresponding to adiabatic, cold dark matter isocurvature, baryon isocurvature and neutrino isocurvature perturbations. We conclude that quintessence does not lead to an additional independent mode.Comment: Replaced with published version, 12 pages, 2 figure

Electron spin coherence in semiconductors: Considerations for a spin-based solid state quantum computer architecture

We theoretically consider coherence times for spins in two quantum computer architectures, where the qubit is the spin of an electron bound to a P donor impurity in Si or within a GaAs quantum dot. We show that low temperature decoherence is dominated by spin-spin interactions, through spectral diffusion and dipolar flip-flop mechanisms. These contributions lead to 1-100 $\mu$s calculated spin coherence times for a wide range of parameters, much higher than former estimates based on $T_{2}^{*}$ measurements.Comment: Role of the dipolar interaction clarified; Included discussion on the approximations employed in the spectral diffusion calculation. Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Quantized charge transport through a static quantum dot using a surface acoustic wave

We present a detailed study of the surface acoustic wave mediated quantized transport of electrons through a split gate device containing an impurity potential defined quantum dot within the split gate channel. A new regime of quantized transport is observed at low RF powers where the surface acoustic wave amplitude is comparable to the quantum dot charging energy. In this regime resonant transport through the single-electron dot state occurs which we interpret as turnstile-like operation in which the traveling wave amplitude modulates the entrance and exit barriers of the quantum dot in a cyclic fashion at GHz frequencies. For high RF powers, where the amplitude of the surface acoustic wave is much larger than the quantum dot energies, the quantized acoustoelectric current transport shows behavior consistent with previously reported results. However, in this regime, the number of quantized current plateaus observed and the plateau widths are determined by the properties of the quantum dot, demonstrating that the microscopic detail of the potential landscape in the split gate channel has a profound influence on the quantized acoustoelectric current transport.Comment: 9 page

On the algorithmic construction of classifying spaces and the isomorphism problem for biautomatic groups

We show that the isomorphism problem is solvable in the class of central extensions of word-hyperbolic groups, and that the isomorphism problem for biautomatic groups reduces to that for biautomatic groups with finite centre. We describe an algorithm that, given an arbitrary finite presentation of an automatic group $\Gamma$, will construct explicit finite models for the skeleta of $K(\Gamma,1)$ and hence compute the integral homology and cohomology of $\Gamma$.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure