Deductive Verification of Unmodified Linux Kernel Library Functions

This paper presents results from the development and evaluation of a deductive verification benchmark consisting of 26 unmodified Linux kernel library functions implementing conventional memory and string operations. The formal contract of the functions was extracted from their source code and was represented in the form of preconditions and postconditions. The correctness of 23 functions was completely proved using AstraVer toolset, although success for 11 functions was achieved using 2 new specification language constructs. Another 2 functions were proved after a minor modification of their source code, while the final one cannot be completely proved using the existing memory model. The benchmark can be used for the testing and evaluation of deductive verification tools and as a starting point for verifying other parts of the Linux kernel.Comment: 18 pages, 2 tables, 6 listings. Accepted to ISoLA 2018 conference. Evaluating Tools for Software Verification trac

Filling the complexity gaps for colouring planar and bounded degree graphs.

We consider a natural restriction of the List Colouring problem, k-Regular List Colouring, which corresponds to the List Colouring problem where every list has size exactly k. We give a complete classification of the complexity of k-Regular List Colouring restricted to planar graphs, planar bipartite graphs, planar triangle-free graphs and to planar graphs with no 4-cycles and no 5-cycles. We also give a complete classification of the complexity of this problem and a number of related colouring problems for graphs with bounded maximum degree

Colouring diamond-free graphs

The Colouring problem is that of deciding, given a graph G and an integer k, whether G admits a (proper) k-colouring. For all graphs H up to five vertices, we classify the computational complexity of Colouring for (diamond,H)-free graphs. Our proof is based on combining known results together with proving that the clique-width is bounded for (diamond,P_1+2P_2)-free graphs. Our technique for handling this case is to reduce the graph under consideration to a k-partite graph that has a very specific decomposition. As a by-product of this general technique we are also able to prove boundedness of clique-width for four other new classes of (H_1,H_2)-free graphs. As such, our work also continues a recent systematic study into the (un)boundedness of clique-width of (H_1,H_2)-free graphs, and our five new classes of bounded clique-width reduce the number of open cases from 13 to 8

Filling the complexity gaps for colouring planar and bounded degree graphs

We consider a natural restriction of the List Colouring problem, k-Regular List Colouring, which corresponds to the List Colouring problem where every list has size exactly k. We give a complete classification of the complexity of k-Regular List Colouring restricted to planar graphs, planar bipartite graphs, planar triangle-free graphs and to planar graphs with no 4-cycles and no 5-cycles. We also give a complete classification of the complexity of this problem and a number of related colouring problems for graphs with bounded maximum degree

Passivation of a Metal Contact with a Tunneling Layer

AbstractThe potential of contact passivation for increasing cell performance is indicated by several results reported in the literature. However, scant characterization of the tunneling layers used for that purpose has been reported. In this paper, contact passivation is investigated by insertion of an ultra-thin AlOx layer between an n-type emitter and a Ti/Pd/Ag contact. By using a 1.5nm thick layer, an increase of the minority carrier lifetime by a factor of 2.7 is achieved. Since current-voltage measurements indicate that an ohmic behavior is conserved for AlOx layers as thick as 1.5nm, a 1.5nm AlOx layer is found to be a candidate of choice for contact passivation

Optimization of Rear Point Contact Geometry by Means of 3-D Numerical Simulation

Abstract In this work three-dimensional (3-D) numerical simulations, validated by the experimental measurements of a reference cell, have been performed to optimize the rear contact geometry of a PERC-type solar cell, featuring a high sheet resistance (140 Ω/sq) phosphorus-doped emitter and a front-side metallization with narrow and highly-conductive electro-plated copper lines (40 μm wide) on lowly resistive Ti contacts. The simulation results show that an optimization of the rear point contact design potentially leads to an efficiency improvement of 0.68%abs compared to the reference cell

Computing small pivot-minors.

A graph G contains a graph H as a pivot-minor if H can be obtained from G by applying a sequence of vertex deletions and edge pivots. Pivot-minors play an important role in the study of rank-width. However, so far, pivot-minors have only been studied from a structural perspective. We initiate a systematic study into their complexity aspects. We first prove that the PIVOT-MINOR problem, which asks if a given graph G contains a given graph H as a pivot-minor, is NP-complete. If H is not part of the input, we denote the problem by H-PIVOT-MINOR. We give a certifying polynomial-time algorithm for H -PIVOT-MINOR for every graph H with |V(H)|≤4|V(H)|≤4 except when H∈{K4,C3+P1,4P1}H∈{K4,C3+P1,4P1}, via a structural characterization of H-pivot-minor-free graphs in terms of a set FHFH of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs

Protein Diffusion in Mammalian Cell Cytoplasm

We introduce a new method for mesoscopic modeling of protein diffusion in an entire cell. This method is based on the construction of a three-dimensional digital model cell from confocal microscopy data. The model cell is segmented into the cytoplasm, nucleus, plasma membrane, and nuclear envelope, in which environment protein motion is modeled by fully numerical mesoscopic methods. Finer cellular structures that cannot be resolved with the imaging technique, which significantly affect protein motion, are accounted for in this method by assigning an effective, position-dependent porosity to the cell. This porosity can also be determined by confocal microscopy using the equilibrium distribution of a non-binding fluorescent protein. Distinction can now be made within this method between diffusion in the liquid phase of the cell (cytosol/nucleosol) and the cytoplasm/nucleoplasm. Here we applied the method to analyze fluorescence recovery after photobleach (FRAP) experiments in which the diffusion coefficient of a freely-diffusing model protein was determined for two different cell lines, and to explain the clear difference typically observed between conventional FRAP results and those of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). A large difference was found in the FRAP experiments between diffusion in the cytoplasm/nucleoplasm and in the cytosol/nucleosol, for all of which the diffusion coefficients were determined. The cytosol results were found to be in very good agreement with those by FCS

Metalevel algorithms for variant satisfiability

Variant satisfiability is a theory-generic algorithm to decide quantifier-free satisfiability in an initial algebra when its corresponding theory has the finite variant property and its constructors satisfy a compactness condition. This paper: (i) gives a precise definition of several meta-level sub-algorithms needed for variant satisfiability; (ii) proves them correct; and (iii) presents a reflective implementation in Maude 2.7 of variant satisfiability using these sub-algorithms.NSF CNS 13-19109Ope