Pair loading in Gamma-Ray Burst Fireball And Prompt Emission From Pair-Rich Reverse Shock

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are believed to originate from ultra-relativistic winds/fireballs to avoid the "compactness problem". However, the most energetic photons in GRBs may still suffer from $\gamma-\gamma$ absorption leading to electron/positron pair production in the winds/fireballs. We show here that in a wide range of model parameters, the resulting pairs may dominate those electrons associated with baryons. Later on, the pairs would be carried into a reverse shock so that a shocked pair-rich fireball may produce a strong flash at lower frequencies, i.e. in the IR band, in contrast with optical/UV emission from a pair-poor fireball. The IR emission would show a 5/2 spectral index due to strong self-absorption. Rapid responses to GRB triggers in the IR band would detect such strong flashes. The future detections of many IR flashes will infer that the rarity of prompt optical/UV emissions is in fact due to dust obscuration in the star formation regions.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, ApJ accepte

Forecasting Housing Prices under Different Submarket Assumptions

This research evaluated forecasting accuracy of hedonic price models based on a number of different submarket assumptions. Using home sale data for the City of Knoxville and vicinities merged with geographic information, we found that forecasting housing prices with submarkets defined using expert knowledge and by school district and combining information conveyed in different modeling strategies are more accurate and efficient than models that are spatially aggregated, or with submarkets defined by statistical clustering techniques. This finding provided useful implications for housing price prediction in an urban setting and surrounding areas in that forecasting models based on expert knowledge of market structure or public school quality and simple model combining techniques may outperform the models using more sophisticated statistical techniques.Clustering, Forecasting, Hedonic price, Housing Submarket, Demand and Price Analysis, C53, R21,

A Theory of Equivalent Expectation Measures for Contingent Claim Returns

This paper introduces a dynamic change of measure approach for computing the analytical solutions of expected future prices (and therefore, expected returns) of contingent claims over a finite horizon. The new approach constructs hybrid probability measures called the "equivalent expectation measures"(EEMs), which provide the physical expectation of the claim's future price until before the horizon date, and serve as pricing measures on or after the horizon date. The EEM theory can be used for empirical investigations of both the cross-section and the term structure of returns of contingent claims, such as Treasury bonds, corporate bonds, and financial derivatives

Cortical plasticity as a new endpoint measurement for chronic pain

Animal models of chronic pain are widely used to investigate basic mechanisms of chronic pain and to evaluate potential novel drugs for treating chronic pain. Among the different criteria used to measure chronic pain, behavioral responses are commonly used as the end point measurements. However, not all chronic pain conditions can be easily measured by behavioral responses such as the headache, phantom pain and pain related to spinal cord injury. Here I propose that cortical indexes, that indicate neuronal plastic changes in pain-related cortical areas, can be used as endpoint measurements for chronic pain. Such cortical indexes are not only useful for those chronic pain conditions where a suitable animal model is lacking, but also serve as additional screening methods for potential drugs to treat chronic pain in humans. These cortical indexes are activity-dependent immediate early genes, electrophysiological identified plastic changes and biochemical assays of signaling proteins. It can be used to evaluate novel analgesic compounds that may act at peripheral or spinal sites. I hope that these new cortical endpoint measurements will facilitate our search for new, and more effective, pain medicines, and help to reduce false lead drug targets

Quantum generalized Reed-Solomon codes: Unified framework for quantum MDS codes

We construct a new family of quantum MDS codes from classical generalized Reed-Solomon codes and derive the necessary and sufficient condition under which these quantum codes exist. We also give code bounds and show how to construct them analytically. We find that existing quantum MDS codes can be unified under these codes in the sense that when a quantum MDS code exists, then a quantum code of this type with the same parameters also exists. Thus as far as is known at present, they are the most important family of quantum MDS codes.Comment: 9 pages, no figure

Scheme for sharing classical information via tripartite entangled states

We investigate schemes for quantum secret sharing and quantum dense coding via tripartite entangled states. We present a scheme for sharing classical information via entanglement swapping using two tripartite entangled GHZ states. In order to throw light upon the security affairs of the quantum dense coding protocol, we also suggest a secure quantum dense coding scheme via W state in analogy with the theory of sharing information among involved users.Comment: 4 pages, no figure. A complete rewrritten vession, accepted for publication in Chinese Physic

Message passing for task redistribution on sparse graphs

The problem of resource allocation in sparse graphs with real variables is studied using methods of statistical physics. An efficient distributed algorithm is devised on the basis of insight gained from the analysis and is examined using numerical simulations, showing excellent performance and full agreement with the theoretical results

Resource allocation in sparse graphs

Resource allocation in sparsely connected networks, a representative problem of systems with real variables, is studied using the replica and Bethe approximation methods. An efficient distributed algorithm is devised on the basis of insights gained from the analysis and is examined using numerical simulations,showing excellent performance and full agreement with the theoretical results. The physical properties of the resource allocation model are discussed

Defect healing and charge transfer mediated valley polarization in MoS2_2/MoSe2_2/MoS2_2 trilayer van der Waals heterostructures

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) are plagued by a significantly lower optical quality compared to exfoliated TMDC. In this work we show that the optical quality of CVD-grown MoSe$_2$ is completely recovered if the material is sandwiched in MoS$_2$/MoSe$_2$/MoS$_2$ trilayer van der Waals heterostructures. We show by means of density-functional theory that this remarkable and unexpected result is due to defect healing: S atoms of the more reactive MoS$_2$ layers are donated to heal Se vacancy defects in the middle MoSe$_2$ layer. In addition, the trilayer structure exhibits a considerable charge-transfer mediated valley polarization of MoSe$_2$ without the need for resonant excitation. Our fabrication approach, relying solely on simple flake transfer technique, paves the way for the scalable production of large-area TMDC materials with excellent optical quality.Comment: Just accepted for publication in Nano Letters (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b00904