The Complexity of the Spherical pp-spin spin glass model, revisited

Some questions concerning the calculation of the number of ``physical'' (metastable) states or complexity of the spherical $p$-spin spin glass model are reviewed and examined further. Particular attention is focused on the general calculation procedure which is discussed step-by-step.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Complexity of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick Model in the Annealed Approximation

A careful critical analysis of the complexity, at the annealed level, of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model has been performed. The complexity functional is proved to be always invariant under the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin supersymmetry, disregarding the formulation used to define it. We consider two different saddle points of such functional, one satisfying the supersymmetry [A. Cavagna {\it et al.}, J. Phys. A {\bf 36} (2003) 1175] and the other one breaking it [A.J. Bray and M.A. Moore, J. Phys. C {\bf 13} (1980) L469]. We review the previews studies on the subject, linking different perspectives and pointing out some inadequacies and even inconsistencies in both solutions.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

Observation of the Inverse Cotton-Mouton Effect

We report the observation of the Inverse Cotton-Mouton Effect (ICME) i.e. a magnetization induced in a medium by non resonant linearly polarized light propagating in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. We present a detailed study of the ICME in a TGG crystal showing the dependence of the measured effect on the light intensity, the optical polarization, and on the external magnetic field. We derive a relation between the Cotton-Mouton and Inverse Cotton-Mouton effects that is roughly in agreement with existing experimental data. Our results open the way to applications of the ICME in optical devices

Estimating transmission probability in schools for the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in Italy

BACKGROUND: Epidemic models are being extensively used to understand the main pathways of spread of infectious diseases, and thus to assess control methods. Schools are well known to represent hot spots for epidemic spread; hence, understanding typical patterns of infection transmission within schools is crucial for designing adequate control strategies. The attention that was given to the 2009 A/H1N1pdm09 flu pandemic has made it possible to collect detailed data on the occurrence of influenza-like illness (ILI) symptoms in two primary schools of Trento, Italy. RESULTS: The data collected in the two schools were used to calibrate a discrete-time SIR model, which was designed to estimate the probabilities of influenza transmission within the classes, grades and schools using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. We found that the virus was mainly transmitted within class, with lower levels of transmission between students in the same grade and even lower, though not significantly so, among different grades within the schools. We estimated median values of R 0 from the epidemic curves in the two schools of 1.16 and 1.40; on the other hand, we estimated the average number of students infected by the first school case to be 0.85 and 1.09 in the two schools. CONCLUSIONS: The discrepancy between the values of R 0 estimated from the epidemic curve or from the within-school transmission probabilities suggests that household and community transmission played an important role in sustaining the school epidemics. The high probability of infection between students in the same class confirms that targeting within-class transmission is key to controlling the spread of influenza in school settings and, as a consequence, in the general population

Dependency-aware unequal erasure protection codes

Classical unequal erasure protection schemes split data to be protected into classes which are encoded independently. The unequal protection scheme presented in this paper is based on an erasure code which encodes all the data together according to the existing dependencies. A simple algorithm generates dynamically the generator matrix of the erasure code according to the packets streams structure, i.e., the dependencies between the packets, and the rate of the code. This proposed erasure code was applied to a packetized MPEG4 stream transmitted over a packet erasure channel and compared with other classical protection schemes in terms of PSNR and MOS. It is shown that the proposed code allows keeping a high video quality-level in a larger packet loss rate range than the other protection schemes

Inverse Cotton-Mouton effect of the Vacuum and of atomic systems

In this letter we calculate the Inverse Cotton-Mouton Effect (ICME) for the vacuum following the predictions of Quantum ElectroDynamics. We compare the value of this effect for the vacuum with the one expected for atomic systems. We finally show that ICME could be measured for the first time for noble gases using state-of-the-art laser systems and for the quantum vacuum with near-future laser facilities like ELI and HiPER, providing in particular a test of the nonlinear behaviour of quantum vacuum at intensities below the Schwinger limit of 4.5x10^33 W/m^2.Comment: Submitted to EP

Lessons and Prospects from the pMSSM after LHC Run I: Neutralino LSP

We study SUSY signatures at the 7, 8 and 14 TeV LHC employing the 19-parameter, R-Parity conserving p(henomenological)MSSM, in the scenario with a neutralino LSP. Our results were obtained via a fast Monte Carlo simulation of the ATLAS SUSY analysis suite. The flexibility of this framework allows us to study a wide variety of SUSY phenomena simultaneously and to probe for weak spots in existing SUSY search analyses. We determine the ranges of the sparticle masses that are either disfavored or allowed after the searches with the 7 and 8 TeV data sets are combined. We find that natural SUSY models with light squarks and gluinos remain viable. We extrapolate to 14 TeV with both 300 fb$^{-1}$ and 3 ab$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity and determine the expected sensitivity of the jets + MET and stop searches to the pMSSM parameter space. We find that the high-luminosity LHC will be powerful in probing SUSY with neutralino LSPs and can provide a more definitive statement on the existence of natural Supersymmetry.Comment: 41 pages, 27 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1307.844

Quenched Computation of the Complexity of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick Model

The quenched computation of the complexity in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model is presented. A modified Full Replica Symmetry Breaking Ansatz is introduced in order to study the complexity dependence on the free energy. Such an Ansatz corresponds to require Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin supersymmetry. The complexity computed this way is the Legendre transform of the free energy averaged over the quenched disorder. The stability analysis shows that this complexity is inconsistent at any free energy level but the equilibirum one. The further problem of building a physically well defined solution not invariant under supersymmetry and predicting an extensive number of metastable states is also discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures. Some formulas added corrected, changes in discussion and conclusion, one figure adde