X.509 certificate error testing

X.509 Certificates are used by a wide range of technologies to verify identities, while the SSL protocol is used to provide a secure encrypted tunnel through which data can be sent over a public network. Combined both of these technologies provides the basis of the public key infrastructure (PKI). While the concept of PKI is a good idea, the different implementation of the technologies in different operating system and clients often lead to weaknesses. This paper proposes a methodology to automate the testing of SSL clients by generating both bogus and malformed certificates in order to evaluate the client’s response and identify potential threats to network infrastructures

Encoding algebraic power series

Algebraic power series are formal power series which satisfy a univariate polynomial equation over the polynomial ring in n variables. This relation determines the series only up to conjugacy. Via the Artin-Mazur theorem and the implicit function theorem it is possible to describe algebraic series completely by a vector of polynomials in n+p variables. This vector will be the code of the series. In the paper, it is then shown how to manipulate algebraic series through their code. In particular, the Weierstrass division and the Grauert-Hironaka-Galligo division will be performed on the level of codes, thus providing a finite algorithm to compute the quotients and the remainder of the division.Comment: 35 page

Viability of vector-tensor theories of gravity

We present a detailed study of the viability of general vector-tensor theories of gravity in the presence of an arbitrary temporal background vector field. We find that there are six different classes of theories which are indistinguishable from General Relativity by means of local gravity experiments. We study the propagation speeds of scalar, vector and tensor perturbations and obtain the conditions for classical stability of those models. We compute the energy density of the different modes and find the conditions for the absence of ghosts in the quantum theory. We conclude that the only theories which can pass all the viability conditions for arbitrary values of the background vector field are not only those of the pure Maxwell type, but also Maxwell theories supplemented with a (Lorentz type) gauge fixing term.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Final version to appear in JCA

Photo-desorption of H2O:CO:NH3 circumstellar ice analogs: Gas-phase enrichment

We study the photo-desorption occurring in H$_2$O:CO:NH$_3$ ice mixtures irradiated with monochromatic (550 and 900 eV) and broad band (250--1250 eV) soft X-rays generated at the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (Hsinchu, Taiwan). We detect many masses photo-desorbing, from atomic hydrogen (m/z = 1) to complex species with m/z = 69 (e.g., C$_3$H$_3$NO, C$_4$H$_5$O, C$_4$H$_7$N), supporting the enrichment of the gas phase. At low number of absorbed photons, substrate-mediated exciton-promoted desorption dominates the photo-desorption yield inducing the release of weakly bound (to the surface of the ice) species; as the number of weakly bound species declines, the photo-desorption yield decrease about one order of magnitude, until porosity effects, reducing the surface/volume ratio, produce a further drop of the yield. We derive an upper limit to the CO photo-desorption yield, that in our experiments varies from 1.4 to 0.007 molecule photon$^{-1}$ in the range $\sim 10^{15} - 10^{20}$~absorbed photons cm$^{-2}$. We apply these findings to a protoplanetary disk model irradiated by a central T~Tauri star

Charmed nuclei within a microscopic many-body approach

Single-particle energies of the $\Lambda_c$ chamed baryon are obtained in several nuclei from the relevant self-energy constructed within the framework of a perturbative many-body approach. Results are presented for a charmed baryon-nucleon ($Y_cN$) potential based on a SU(4) extension of the meson-exchange hyperon-nucleon potential $\tilde A$ of the J\"{u}lich group. Three different models (A, B and C) of this interaction, that differ only on the values of the couplings of the scalar $\sigma$ meson with the charmed baryons, are considered. Phase shifts, scattering lengths and effective ranges are computed for the three models and compared with those predicted by the $Y_cN$ interaction derived in Eur. Phys. A {\bf 54}, 199 (2018) from the extrapolation to the physical pion mass of recent results of the HAL QCD Collaboration. Qualitative agreement is found for two of the models (B and C) considered. Our results for $\Lambda_c$-nuclei are compatible with those obtained by other authors based on different models and methods. We find a small spin-orbit splitting of the $p-, d-$ and $f-$wave states as in the case of single $\Lambda$-hypernuclei. The level spacing of $\Lambda_c$ single-particle energies is found to be smaller than that of the corresponding one for hypernuclei. The role of the Coulomb potential and the effect of the coupling of the $\Lambda_cN$ and $\Sigma_cN$ channels on the single-particle properties of $\Lambda_c-$nuclei are also analyzed. Our results show that, despite the Coulomb repulsion between the $\Lambda_c$ and the protons, even the less attractive one of our $Y_cN$ models (model C) is able to bind the $\Lambda_c$ in all the nuclei considered. The effect of the $\Lambda_cN-\Sigma_cN$ coupling is found to be almost negligible due to the large mass difference of the $\Lambda_c$ and $\Sigma_c$ baryons.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 4 table