Convergence of U-statistics for interacting particle systems

The convergence of U-statistics has been intensively studied for estimators based on families of i.i.d. random variables and variants of them. In most cases, the independence assumption is crucial [Lee90, de99]. When dealing with Feynman-Kac and other interacting particle systems of Monte Carlo type, one faces a new type of problem. Namely, in a sample of N particles obtained through the corresponding algorithms, the distributions of the particles are correlated -although any finite number of them is asymptotically independent with respect to the total number N of particles. In the present article, exploiting the fine asymptotics of particle systems, we prove convergence theorems for U-statistics in this framework

One-dimensional quantum walks with one defect

The CGMV method allows for the general discussion of localization properties for the states of a one-dimensional quantum walk, both in the case of the integers and in the case of the non negative integers. Using this method we classify, according to such localization properties, all the quantum walks with one defect at the origin, providing explicit expressions for the asymptotic return probabilities at the origin

Multi-GPU maximum entropy image synthesis for radio astronomy

The maximum entropy method (MEM) is a well known deconvolution technique in radio-interferometry. This method solves a non-linear optimization problem with an entropy regularization term. Other heuristics such as CLEAN are faster but highly user dependent. Nevertheless, MEM has the following advantages: it is unsupervised, it has a statistical basis, it has a better resolution and better image quality under certain conditions. This work presents a high performance GPU version of non-gridding MEM, which is tested using real and simulated data. We propose a single-GPU and a multi-GPU implementation for single and multi-spectral data, respectively. We also make use of the Peer-to-Peer and Unified Virtual Addressing features of newer GPUs which allows to exploit transparently and efficiently multiple GPUs. Several ALMA data sets are used to demonstrate the effectiveness in imaging and to evaluate GPU performance. The results show that a speedup from 1000 to 5000 times faster than a sequential version can be achieved, depending on data and image size. This allows to reconstruct the HD142527 CO(6-5) short baseline data set in 2.1 minutes, instead of 2.5 days that takes a sequential version on CPU.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figure

Search for partial resistance to leaf rust in a collection of ancient Spanish wheats

A collection of 917 accessions of Spanish durum and bread wheat was screened for resistance to leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) under field conditions at three locations. Resistance levels ranged from very low to very high, high susceptibility being most frequent. Relative disease severity (referred to the most susceptible accession = 100 %) was lower than 20 % in about 6 % of the accessions in each location. In the collection most of the lines (84 %)displayed a susceptible infection type. A final selection of seven accessions (one of them durum) displaying low severity level in the field and high infection type in a growth chamber was chosen for further studies. High levels of partial resistant with longer latency period and high percentage of early aborted colonies without necrosis were found. They might be used in breeding programmes

On the Stability and the Approximation of Branching Distribution Flows, with Applications to Nonlinear Multiple Target Filtering

We analyse the exponential stability properties of a class of measure-valued equations arising in nonlinear multi-target filtering problems. We also prove the uniform convergence properties w.r.t. the time parameter of a rather general class of stochastic filtering algorithms, including sequential Monte Carlo type models and mean eld particle interpretation models. We illustrate these results in the context of the Bernoulli and the Probability Hypothesis Density filter, yielding what seems to be the first results of this kind in this subject

Production and decays of supersymmetric Higgs bosons in spontaneously broken R-parity

We study the mass spectra, production and decay properties of the lightest supersymmetric CP-even and CP-odd Higgs bosons in models with spontaneously broken R-parity (SBRP). We compare the resulting mass spectra with expectations of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), stressing that the model obeys the upper bound on the lightest CP-even Higgs boson mass. We discuss how the presence of the additional scalar singlet states affects the Higgs production cross sections, both for the Bjorken process and the "associated production". The main phenomenological novelty with respect to the MSSM comes from the fact that the spontaneous breaking of lepton number leads to the existence of the majoron, denoted J, which opens new decay channels for supersymmetric Higgs bosons. We find that the invisible decays of CP-even Higgses can be dominant, while those of the CP-odd bosons may also be sizeable.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures; minor changes, final version for publicatio