Joint superexchange--Jahn-Teller mechanism for A-type antiferromagnetism in LaMnO3LaMnO_3

We propose a mechanism for A-type antiferromagnetism in orthorombic LaMnO_3, compatible with the large Jahn-Teller splitting inferred from structural data. Orbital ordering resulting from Jahn-Teller distortions effectively leads to A-type ordering (antiferromagnetic in the c axis and ferromagnetic in the ab plane) provided the in-plane distorsion Q_2 is large enough, a condition generally fulfilled in existing data.Comment: 4 pages Late

Sea state monitoring using coastal GNSS-R

We report on a coastal experiment to study GPS L1 reflections. The campaign was carried out at the Barcelona Port breaker and dedicated to the development of sea-state retrieval algorithms. An experimental system built for this purpose collected and processed GPS data to automatically generate a times series of the interferometric complex field (ICF). The ICF was analyzed off line and compared to a simple developed model that relates ICF coherence time to the ratio of significant wave height (SWH) and mean wave period (MWP). The analysis using this model showed good consistency between the ICF coherence time and nearby oceanographic buoy data. Based on this result, preliminary conclusions are drawn on the potential of coastal GNSS-R for sea state monitoring using semi-empirical modeling to relate GNSS-R ICF coherence time to SWH.Comment: All Starlab authors have contributed significantly; the Starlab author list has been ordered randomly. Submitted to GR

Dichotomize and Generalize: PAC-Bayesian Binary Activated Deep Neural Networks

We present a comprehensive study of multilayer neural networks with binary activation, relying on the PAC-Bayesian theory. Our contributions are twofold: (i) we develop an end-to-end framework to train a binary activated deep neural network, overcoming the fact that binary activation function is non-differentiable; (ii) we provide nonvacuous PAC-Bayesian generalization bounds for binary activated deep neural networks. Noteworthy, our results are obtained by minimizing the expected loss of an architecture-dependent aggregation of binary activated deep neural networks. The performance of our approach is assessed on a thorough numerical experiment protocol on real-life datasets

Comparison of optical sensors discrimination ability using spectral libraries

In remote sensing, the ability to discriminate different land covers or material types is directly linked with the spectral resolution and sampling provided by the optical sensor. Previous studies showed that the spectral resolution is a critical issue, especially in complex environment. In spite of the increasing availability of hyperspectral data, multispectral optical sensors onboard various satellites are acquiring everyday a massive amount of data with a relatively poor spectral resolution (i.e. usually about 4 to 7 spectral bands). These remotely sensed data are intensively used for Earth observation regardless of their limited spectral resolution. In this paper, we studied seven of these optical sensors: Pleiades, QuickBird, SPOT5, Ikonos, Landsat TM, Formosat and Meris. This study focuses on the ability of each sensor to discriminate different materials according to its spectral resolution. We used four different spectral libraries which contains around 2500 spectra of materials and land covers with a fine spectral resolution. These spectra were convolved with the Relative Spectral Responses (RSR) of each sensor to create spectra at the sensors’ resolutions. Then, these reduced spectra were compared using separability indexes (Divergence, Transformed divergence, Bhattacharyya, Jeffreys-Matusita) and machine learning tools. In the experiments, we highlighted that the spectral bands configuration could lead to important differences in classification accuracy according to the context of application (e.g. urban area)

The GNSS-R Eddy Experiment II: L-band and Optical Speculometry for Directional Sea-Roughness Retrieval from Low Altitude Aircraft

We report on the retrieval of directional sea-roughness (the full directional mean square slope, including MSS, direction and isotropy) through inversion of Global Navigation Satellite System Reflections (GNSS-R) and SOlar REflectance Speculometry (SORES)data collected during an experimental flight at 1000 m. The emphasis is on the utilization of the entire Delay-Doppler Map (for GNSS-R) or Tilt Azimuth Map (for SORES) in order to infer these directional parameters. Obtained estimations are analyzed and compared to Jason-1 measurements and the ECMWF numerical weather model.Comment: Proceedings from the 2003 Workshop on Oceanography with GNSS Reflections, Barcelona, Spain, 200

Shrinkers, expanders, and the unique continuation beyond generic blowup in the heat flow for harmonic maps between spheres

Using mixed analytical and numerical methods we investigate the development of singularities in the heat flow for corotational harmonic maps from the $d$-dimensional sphere to itself for $3\leq d\leq 6$. By gluing together shrinking and expanding asymptotically self-similar solutions we construct global weak solutions which are smooth everywhere except for a sequence of times $T_1<T_2<...<T_k<\infty$ at which there occurs the type I blow-up at one of the poles of the sphere. We show that in the generic case the continuation beyond blow-up is unique, the topological degree of the map changes by one at each blow-up time $T_i$, and eventually the solution comes to rest at the zero energy constant map.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, minor corrections, matches published versio

The Full-sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer -- Astrometry for the New Millennium

FAME is designed to perform an all-sky, astrometric survey with unprecedented accuracy. It will create a rigid astrometric catalog of 4x10^7 stars with 5 < m_V < 15. For bright stars, 5 < m_V < 9, FAME will determine positions and parallaxes accurate to < 50 microarcseconds, with proper motion errors < 50 microarcseconds/year. For fainter stars, 9 < m_V < 15, FAME will determine positions and parallaxes accurate to < 500 microarcseconds, with proper motion errors < 500 microarcseconds/year. It will also collect photometric data on these 4 x 10^7 stars in four Sloan DSS colors.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, to appear in "Working on the Fringe

Strong enhancement of extremely energetic proton production in central heavy ion collisions at intermediate energy

The energetic proton emission has been investigated as a function of the reaction centrality for the system 58Ni + 58Ni at 30A MeV. Extremely energetic protons (EpNN > 130 MeV) were measured and their multiplicity is found to increase almost quadratically with the number of participant nucleons thus indicating the onset of a mechanism beyond one and two-body dynamics.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter