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We present a complete analysis of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data of GRB 221009A, the brightest Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) ever detected. The burst emission above 30 MeV detected by the LAT preceded by 1 s the low-energy (< 10 MeV) pulse that triggered the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM), as has been observed in other GRBs. The prompt phase of GRB 221009A lasted a few hundred seconds. It was so bright that we identify a Bad Time Interval (BTI) of 64 seconds caused by the extremely high flux of hard X-rays and soft gamma rays, during which the event reconstruction efficiency was poor and the dead time fraction quite high. The late-time emission decayed as a power law, but the extrapolation of the late-time emission during the first 450 seconds suggests that the afterglow started during the prompt emission. We also found that high-energy events observed by the LAT are incompatible with synchrotron origin, and, during the prompt emission, are more likely related to an extra component identified as synchrotron self-Compton (SSC). A remarkable 400 GeV photon, detected by the LAT 33 ks after the GBM trigger and directionally consistent with the location of GRB 221009A, is hard to explain as a product of SSC or TeV electromagnetic cascades, and the process responsible for its origin is uncertain. Because of its proximity and energetic nature, GRB 221009A is an extremely rare event., Comment: 60 pages, 38 figures, 9 tables

We present the holographic dual to a family of ${\cal N}=1$ SCFTs in four dimensions, deformed by a VEV leading to a gapped system. We calculate Wilson loops in this system containing adjoint, bifundamental and fundamental matter. We calculate the quark-antiquark energy $E$ in terms of their separation $L$, finding an approximate analytic expression for $E(L)$. This expression shows the transition between conformal, confining and screened behaviours. Interesting phenomenology is discussed in a variety of examples. The tool used is the minimization of the F1 string action, for which the code used is made publicly available., Comment: 40 pages, various figures

We study the deterministic complexity of the $2$-Ruling Set problem in the model of Massively Parallel Computation (MPC) with linear and strongly sublinear local memory. Linear MPC: We present a constant-round deterministic algorithm for the $2$-Ruling Set problem that matches the randomized round complexity recently settled by Cambus, Kuhn, Pai, and Uitto [DISC'23], and improves upon the deterministic $O(\log \log n)$-round algorithm by Pai and Pemmaraju [PODC'22]. Our main ingredient is a simpler analysis of CKPU's algorithm based solely on bounded independence, which makes its efficient derandomization possible. Sublinear MPC: We present a deterministic algorithm that computes a $2$-Ruling Set in $\tilde O(\sqrt{\log n})$ rounds deterministically. Notably, this is the first deterministic ruling set algorithm with sublogarithmic round complexity, improving on the $O(\log \Delta + \log \log^* n)$-round complexity that stems from the deterministic MIS algorithm of Czumaj, Davies, and Parter [TALG'21]. Our result is based on a simple and fast randomness-efficient construction that achieves the same sparsification as that of the randomized $\tilde O(\sqrt{\log n})$-round LOCAL algorithm by Kothapalli and Pemmaraju [FSTTCS'12]., Comment: Accepted at DISC'24

The development of nanoscale nonlinear elements in photonic integrated circuits is hindered by the physical limits to the nonlinear optical response of dielectrics, which requires that the interacting waves propagate in transparent volumes for distances much longer than their wavelength. Here we present experimental evidence that optical nonlinearities in doped semiconductors are due to free-electron and their efficiency could exceed by several orders of magnitude that of conventional dielectric nonlinearities. Our experimental findings are supported by comprehensive computational results based on the hydrodynamic modeling, which naturally includes nonlocal effects, of the free-electron dynamics in heavily doped semiconductors. By studying third-harmonic generation from plasmonic nanoantenna arrays made out of heavily n-doped InGaAs with increasing levels of free-carrier density, we discriminate between hydrodynamic and dielectric nonlinearities. As a result, the value of maximum nonlinear efficiency as well as its spectral location can now be controlled by tuning the doping level. Having employed the common material platform InGaAs/InP that supports integrated waveguides, our findings pave the way for future exploitation of plasmonic nonlinearities in all-semiconductor photonic integrated circuits.

We consider the problem of designing deterministic graph algorithms for the model of Massively Parallel Computation (MPC) that improve with the sparsity of the input graph, as measured by the notion of arboricity. For the problems of maximal independent set (MIS), maximal matching (MM), and vertex coloring, we improve the state of the art as follows. Let $\lambda$ denote the arboricity of the $n$-node input graph with maximum degree $\Delta$. MIS and MM: We develop a deterministic low-space MPC algorithm that reduces the maximum degree to $poly(\lambda)$ in $O(\log \log n)$ rounds, improving and simplifying the randomized $O(\log \log n)$-round $poly(\max(\lambda, \log n))$-degree reduction of Ghaffari, Grunau, Jin [DISC'20]. Our approach when combined with the state-of-the-art $O(\log \Delta + \log \log n)$-round algorithm by Czumaj, Davies, Parter [SPAA'20, TALG'21] leads to an improved deterministic round complexity of $O(\log \lambda + \log \log n)$ for MIS and MM in low-space MPC. We also extend above MIS and MM algorithms to work with linear global memory. Specifically, we show that both problems can be solved in deterministic time $O(\min(\log n, \log \lambda \cdot \log \log n))$, and even in $O(\log \log n)$ time for graphs with arboricity at most $\log^{O(1)} \log n$. In this setting, only a $O(\log^2 \log n)$-running time bound for trees was known due to Latypov and Uitto [ArXiv'21]. Vertex Coloring: We present a $O(1)$-round deterministic algorithm for the problem of $O(\lambda)$-coloring in linear-memory MPC with relaxed global memory of $n \cdot poly(\lambda)$ that solves the problem after just one single graph partitioning step. This matches the state-of-the-art randomized round complexity by Ghaffari and Sayyadi [ICALP'19] and improves upon the deterministic $O(\lambda^{\epsilon})$-round algorithm by Barenboim and Khazanov [CSR'18]., Comment: Full paper version (Appeared at SPAA'23)

Recently, the concept of strong light-matter coupling has been demonstrated in semiconductor structures, and it is poised to revolutionize the design and implementation of components, including solid state lasers and detectors. We demonstrate an original nanospectroscopy technique that permits to study the light-matter interaction in single subwavelength-sized nano-cavities where far-field spectroscopy is not possible using conventional techniques. We inserted a thin ($\approx$ 150 nm) polymer layer with negligible absorption in the mid-IR (5 $\mu$m < $\lambda$ < 12 $\mu$m) inside a metal-insulator-metal resonant cavity, where a photonic mode and the intersubband transition of a semiconductor quantum well are strongly coupled. The intersubband transition peaks at $\lambda$ = 8.3 $\mu$m, and the nano-cavity is overall 270 nm thick. Acting as a non-perturbative transducer, the polymer layer introduces only a limited alteration of the optical response while allowing to reveal the optical power absorbed inside the concealed cavity. Spectroscopy of the cavity losses is enabled by the polymer thermal expansion due to heat dissipation in the active part of the cavity, and performed using an atomic force microscope (AFM). This innovative approach allows the typical anticrossing characteristic of the polaritonic dispersion to be identified in the cavity loss spectra at the single nano-resonator level. Results also suggest that near-field coupling of the external drive field to the top metal patch mediated by a metal-coated AFM probe tip is possible, and it enables the near-field mapping of the cavity mode symmetry including in the presence of strong light-matter interaction.

A long line of research about connectivity in the Massively Parallel Computation model has culminated in the seminal works of Andoni et al. [FOCS'18] and Behnezhad et al. [FOCS'19]. They provide a randomized algorithm for low-space MPC with conjectured to be optimal round complexity $O(\log D + \log \log_{\frac m n} n)$ and $O(m)$ space, for graphs on $n$ vertices with $m$ edges and diameter $D$. Surprisingly, a recent result of Coy and Czumaj [STOC'22] shows how to achieve the same deterministically. Unfortunately, however, their algorithm suffers from large local computation time. We present a deterministic connectivity algorithm that matches all the parameters of the randomized algorithm and, in addition, significantly reduces the local computation time to nearly linear. Our derandomization method is based on reducing the amount of randomness needed to allow for a simpler efficient search. While similar randomness reduction approaches have been used before, our result is not only strikingly simpler, but it is the first to have efficient local computation. This is why we believe it to serve as a starting point for the systematic development of computation-efficient derandomization approaches in low-memory MPC., Comment: Accepted at DISC 2022

Infrared (IR) nanospectroscopy by photothermal induced resonance (PTIR) is a novel experimental technique that combines the nanoscale resolution granted by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the chemical labelling made possible by IR absorption spectroscopy. While the technique has developed enormously over the last decade from an experimental point of view, the theoretical modelling of the signal still varies significantly throughout the literature and misses a solid benchmark. Here, we report an analysis focused on the electromagnetic and thermal simulations of a PTIR experiment. Thanks to a control experiment where the signal is acquired as a function of the thickness of a polymer film and for different tip geometries, we find clear evidence that the interface thermal resistances play a key role in the determination of the measured signal and should therefore always be accounted for by any quantitative modelling.

The fractional knapsack problem is one of the classical problems in combinatorial optimization, which is well understood in the offline setting. However, the corresponding online setting has been handled only briefly in the theoretical computer science literature so far, although it appears in several applications. Even the previously best known guarantee for the competitive ratio was worse than the best known for the integral problem in the popular random order model. We show that there is an algorithm for the online fractional knapsack problem that admits a competitive ratio of 4.39. Our result significantly improves over the previously best known competitive ratio of 9.37 and surpasses the current best 6.65-competitive algorithm for the integral case. Moreover, our algorithm is deterministic in contrast to the randomized algorithms achieving the results mentioned above., Comment: Accepted at WAOA 2021

In this paper we prove a higher differentiability result for the solutions to a class of obstacle problems in the form \begin{equation*} \label{obst-def0} \min\left\{\int_\Omega F(x,Dw) dx : w\in \mathcal{K}_{\psi}(\Omega)\right\} \end{equation*} where $\psi\in W^{1,p(x)}(\Omega)$ is a fixed function called obstacle and $\mathcal{K}_{\psi}=\{w \in W^{1,p(x)}_{0}(\Omega)+u_0: w \ge \psi \,\, \textnormal{a.e. in $\Omega$}\}$ is the class of the admissible functions, for a suitable boundary value $ u_0 $. We deal with a convex integrand $F$ which satisfies the $p(x)$-growth conditions \begin{equation*}\label{growth}|\xi|^{p(x)}\le F(x,\xi)\le C(1+|\xi|^{p(x)}),\quad p(x)>1 \end{equation*}

So far, only transient Gravitational waves (GWs) produced by catastrophic events of extra-galactic origin have been detected. However, it is generally believed that there should be also continuous sources of GWs within our galaxy, such as accreting neutron stars (NSs). In fact, in accreting NSs, centrifugal forces can be so strong to break the neutron star crust (causing a starquake), thus producing a quadrupole moment responsible for the continuous emission of GWs. At equilibrium, the angular momentum gained by accretion and lost via GWs emission should balance each other, stopping the stellar spin-up. We hereinafter investigate the above physical picture within the framework of a Newtonian model describing compressible, non-magnetized, and self-gravitating NSs. In particular, we calculate the rotational frequency need to break the stellar crust of an accreting pulsar and we estimate the upper limit for the ellipticity due to this event. Depending on the equation of state (EoS) and on the mass of the star, we calculated that the starquake-induced ellipticity ranges from $10^{-9}$ to $10^{-5}$. The corresponding equilibrium frequency that we find is in good agreement with observations and, for all the scenarios, it is below the observational limit frequency of $716.36$ Hz. Finally, we also discuss possible observational constraints on the ellipticity upper limit of accreting pulsars., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures