Concurrently Non-Malleable Zero Knowledge in the Authenticated Public-Key Model

We consider a type of zero-knowledge protocols that are of interest for their practical applications within networks like the Internet: efficient zero-knowledge arguments of knowledge that remain secure against concurrent man-in-the-middle attacks. In an effort to reduce the setup assumptions required for efficient zero-knowledge arguments of knowledge that remain secure against concurrent man-in-the-middle attacks, we consider a model, which we call the Authenticated Public-Key (APK) model. The APK model seems to significantly reduce the setup assumptions made by the CRS model (as no trusted party or honest execution of a centralized algorithm are required), and can be seen as a slightly stronger variation of the Bare Public-Key (BPK) model from \cite{CGGM,MR}, and a weaker variation of the registered public-key model used in \cite{BCNP}. We then define and study man-in-the-middle attacks in the APK model. Our main result is a constant-round concurrent non-malleable zero-knowledge argument of knowledge for any polynomial-time relation (associated to a language in $\mathcal{NP}$), under the (minimal) assumption of the existence of a one-way function family. Furthermore,We show time-efficient instantiations of our protocol based on known number-theoretic assumptions. We also note a negative result with respect to further reducing the setup assumptions of our protocol to those in the (unauthenticated) BPK model, by showing that concurrently non-malleable zero-knowledge arguments of knowledge in the BPK model are only possible for trivial languages

Revisiting the BB-physics anomalies in RR-parity violating MSSM

In recent years, several deviations from the Standard Model predictions in semileptonic decays of $B$-meson might suggest the existence of new physics which would break the lepton-flavour universality. In this work, we have explored the possibility of using muon sneutrinos and right-handed sbottoms to solve these $B$-physics anomalies simultaneously in $R$-parity violating minimal supersymmetric standard model. We find that the photonic penguin induced by exchanging sneutrino can provide sizable lepton flavour universal contribution due to the existence of logarithmic enhancement for the first time. This prompts us to use the two-parameter scenario $(C^{\rm V}_9, \, C^{\rm U}_9)$ to explain $b \to s \ell^+ \ell^-$ anomaly. Finally, the numerical analyses show that the muon sneutrinos and right-handed sbottoms can explain $b \to s \ell^+ \ell^-$ and $R(D^{(\ast)})$ anomalies simultaneously, and satisfy the constraints of other related processes, such as $B \to K^{(\ast)} \nu \bar\nu$ decays, $B_s-\bar B_s$ mixing, $Z$ decays, as well as $D^0 \to \mu^+ \mu^-$, $\tau \to \mu \rho^0$, $B \to \tau \nu$, $D_s \to \tau \nu$, $\tau \to K \nu$, $\tau \to \mu \gamma$, and $\tau \to \mu\mu\mu$ decays.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, matches to the version published in EPJ

Production of the top-pions from the higgsless--top-Higgs model at the LHC

The top-pions($\pi_{t}^{0,\pm}$) predicted by extra dimensional descriptions of the topcolor scenario have similar feature with those in four dimensional topcolor scenario, which have large Yukawa couplings to the third generation quarks. In the context of the higgsless--top-Higgs(HTH) model, we discuss the production of these new particles at the CERN Large Hadron Collider(LHC) via various suitable mechanisms (gluon-gluon fusion, bottom-bottom fusion, gluon-bottom fusion, and the usual Drell-Yan processes) and estimate their production rates. We find that, as long as the top-pions are not too heavy, they can be abundantly produced at the LHC. The possible signatures of these new particles might be detected at the LHC experiments.Comment: 18pages, 6 figures, discussions and references added, typos correcte

Uniform topologies on types

We study the robustness of interim correlated rationalizability to perturbations of higher-order beliefs. We introduce a new metric topology on the universal type space, called uniform weak topology, under which two types are close if they have similar first-order beliefs, attach similar probabilities to other players having similar first-order beliefs, and so on, where the degree of similarity is uniform over the levels of the belief hierarchy. This topology generalizes the now classic notion of proximity to common knowledge based on common p-beliefs (Monderer and Samet 1989). We show that convergence in the uniform weak topology implies convergence in the uniform strategic topology (Dekel, Fudenberg, and Morris 2006). Moreover, when the limit is a finite type, uniform-weak convergence is also a necessary condition for convergence in the strategic topology. Finally, we show that the set of finite types is nowhere dense under the uniform strategic topology. Thus, our results shed light on the connection between similarity of beliefs and similarity of behaviors in games.Rationalizability, incomplete information, higher-order beliefs, strategic topology, electronic mail game

Utilization-Based Scheduling of Flexible Mixed-Criticality Real-Time Tasks

Mixed-criticality models are an emerging paradigm for the design of real-time systems because of their significantly improved resource efficiency. However, formal mixed-criticality models have traditionally been characterized by two impractical assumptions: once \textit{any} high-criticality task overruns, \textit{all} low-criticality tasks are suspended and \textit{all other} high-criticality tasks are assumed to exhibit high-criticality behaviors at the same time. In this paper, we propose a more realistic mixed-criticality model, called the flexible mixed-criticality (FMC) model, in which these two issues are addressed in a combined manner. In this new model, only the overrun task itself is assumed to exhibit high-criticality behavior, while other high-criticality tasks remain in the same mode as before. The guaranteed service levels of low-criticality tasks are gracefully degraded with the overruns of high-criticality tasks. We derive a utilization-based technique to analyze the schedulability of this new mixed-criticality model under EDF-VD scheduling. During runtime, the proposed test condition serves an important criterion for dynamic service level tuning, by means of which the maximum available execution budget for low-criticality tasks can be directly determined with minimal overhead while guaranteeing mixed-criticality schedulability. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the FMC scheme compared with state-of-the-art techniques.Comment: This paper has been submitted to IEEE Transaction on Computers (TC) on Sept-09th-201

Submodular Load Clustering with Robust Principal Component Analysis

Traditional load analysis is facing challenges with the new electricity usage patterns due to demand response as well as increasing deployment of distributed generations, including photovoltaics (PV), electric vehicles (EV), and energy storage systems (ESS). At the transmission system, despite of irregular load behaviors at different areas, highly aggregated load shapes still share similar characteristics. Load clustering is to discover such intrinsic patterns and provide useful information to other load applications, such as load forecasting and load modeling. This paper proposes an efficient submodular load clustering method for transmission-level load areas. Robust principal component analysis (R-PCA) firstly decomposes the annual load profiles into low-rank components and sparse components to extract key features. A novel submodular cluster center selection technique is then applied to determine the optimal cluster centers through constructed similarity graph. Following the selection results, load areas are efficiently assigned to different clusters for further load analysis and applications. Numerical results obtained from PJM load demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.Comment: Accepted by 2019 IEEE PES General Meeting, Atlanta, G