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We derive exact results for the critical Casimir force (CCF) within the Nagle-Kardar model with periodic boundary conditions (PBC's). The model represents one-dimensional Ising chain with long-range equivalent-neighbor ferromagnetic interactions of strength $J_{l}/N>0$ superimposed on the nearest-neighbor interactions of strength $J_{s}$ which could be either ferromagnetic ($J_{s}>0$) or antiferromagnetic ($J_{s}<0$). In the infinite system limit the model exhibits in the plane $(K_s=\beta J_s,K_l=\beta J_l)$ a critical line $2 K_l=\exp{\left(-2 K_s\right)}, K_s>-\ln3/4$, which ends at a tricritical point $(K_l=-\sqrt{3}/2, K_s=-\ln3/4)$. The critical Casimir amplitudes are: $\Delta_{\rm Cas}^{\rm (cr)}=1/4$ at the critical line, and $\Delta_{\rm Cas}^{\rm (tr)}=1/3$ at the tricritical point. Quite unexpectedly, with the imposed PBC's the CCF exhibits very unusual behavior as a function of temperature and magnetic field. It is \textit{repulsive} near the critical line and tricritical point, decaying rapidly with separation from those two singular regimes fast away from them and becoming \textit{attractive}, displaying in which the maximum amplitude of the attraction exceeds the maximum amplitude of repulsion. This represents a violation of the widely-accepted ``boundary condition rule,'' which holds that the CCF is attractive for equivalent BC's and repulsive for conflicting BC's \textit{independently} of the actual bulk universality class of the phase transition under investigation., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; to appear in PRE as a letter

In our previous works, we have studied quantum random walk search algorithm on hypercube, with traversing coin constructed by using generalized Householder reflection and a phase multiplier. When the same phases are used each iteration, the algorithm is robust (stable against errors in the phases) if a certain connection between the phases in the traversing coin is preserved, otherwise small errors lead to poor algorithm performance. Here we investigate how the robustness changes if different phases are used, depending on the current iteration number. We numerically study six different examples with different phase sequences. We show that usage of a particular sequence of phases can make the algorithm more robust even if there is no preserved connection between the phases in the traversing coin., Comment: 28 Pages, 12 Figures, 4 Tables

Fluctuations exist in any material object $A$. If $A$ has non-zero temperature $T$, one speaks about thermal fluctuations. If $A$ is at very low $T$, the fluctuations are of quantum origin. Interesting effects appear if two bodies $A$ and $B$ are separated by a fluctuating medium $C$ (say a vacuum, or a fluid close to its {\it critical point}) when the fluctuations are long-ranged, i.e., they decay according to a power-law with the distance. Then the changes of fluctuations in $C$ due to the surfaces and constituents of $A$ are also felt by $B$, and \textit{vice versa}, which leads to a fluctuation induced force (FIF) between them. This force persists in addition to the direct influence of $A$ on $B$ (say, via gravity or Coulomb's force). These FIF's can be of attractive or repulsive character. They may play crucially important role on phenomena involving objects with length scale comparative with the Universe, as well as to the tiny objects relevant for MEMS and NEMS. In the current article we present some basic facts for the FIF and their diversity. Then on the example of one dimensional Ising model with a defect bond we present some new analytical results for such forces., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures; based on talk presented at BG SIAM conference

The parameters 2-(36,15,6) are the smallest parameters of symmetric designs for which a complete classification up to isomorphism is yet unknown. Bouyukliev, Fack and Winne classified all 2-$(36,15,6)$ designs that admit an automorphism of odd prime order, and gave a partial classification of such designs that admit an automorphism of order 2. In this paper, we give the classification of all symmetric 2-$(36,15,6)$ designs that admit an automorphism of order two. It is shown that there are exactly $1 547 701$ nonisomorphic such designs, $135 779$ of which are self-dual designs. The ternary linear codes spanned by the incidence matrices of these designs are computed. Among these codes, there are near-extremal self-dual codes with previously unknown weight distributions., Comment: 20 pages

A maximal arc of degree k in a finite projective plane P of order q = ks is a set of (q-s+1)k points that meets every line of P in either k or 0 points. The collection of the nonempty intersections of a maximal arc with the lines of P is a resolvable Steiner 2-((q-s+1)k, k, 1) design. Necessary and sufficient conditions for a resolvable Steiner 2- design to be embeddable as a maximal arc in a projective plane were proved recently in [8]. Steiner designs associated with maximal arcs in the known projective planes of order 16 were analyzed in [6], where it was shown that some of the associated designs are embeddable in two non-isomorphic planes. Using MAGMA, we conducted an analysis to ascertain whether any of the 22 non-isomorphic 1-rotational 2-(52,4,1) designs, previously classified in [3], could be embedded in maximal arcs of degree 4 within projective planes of order 16. This paper presents a summary of our findings, revealing that precisely only one out of the the twenty-two 1-rotational designs from [3] is embeddable in a plane of order 16, being the Desarguesian plane P G(2, 16)., Comment: 9 pages, 1 table, 1 code listing

Attention in the literature has increasingly turned to the issue of the dependence on ensemble and boundary conditions of fluctuation-induced forces. We have recently investigated this problem in the one-dimensional Ising model with periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions (Annals of Physics {\bf 459}, 169533 (2023)). Significant variations of the behavior of Casimir and Helmholtz forces was observed, depending on both ensemble and boundary conditions. Here we extend our study by considering the problem in the important case of Dirichlet (also termed free, or missing neighbors) boundary conditions. The advantage of the mathematical formulation of the problem in terms of Chebyshev polynomials is demonstrated and, in this approach, expressions for the partition functions in the canonical and the grand canonical ensembles are presented. We prove analytically that the Casimir force is attractive for all values of temperature and external ordering field, while the Helmholtz force can be both attractive and repulsive., Comment: All noticed misprints have been corrected. 20 LaTeX pages, 6 pdf figures

In this work we study five Grovers algorithm modifications, where each iteration is constructed by two generalized Householder reflections, against inaccuracies in the phases. By using semi-empirical methods, we investigate various characteristics of the dependence between the probability to find solution and the phase errors. The first of them is the robustness of the probability to errors in the phase. The second one is how quickly the probability falls beyond the stability interval. And finally, the average success rate of the algorithm when the parameters are in the range of the highly robust interval. Two of the modifications require usage of the same Grover operator each iteration and in the other three it differs. Those semi-empirical methods give us the, tool to make prediction of the quantum algorithm modifications overall behavior and compare them for even larger register size, Comment: 40 pages, 20 figures, 1 table

In a recent paper [M. Araya, M. Harada, Some restrictions on the weight enumerators of near-extremal ternary self-dual codes and quaternary Hermitian self-dual codes, Des. Codes Cryptogr., 91 (2023), 1813--1843], Araya and Harada gave examples of self-dual near-extremal ternary codes of length 48 for $145$ distinct values of the number $A_{12}$ of codewords of minimum weight 12, and raised the question about the existence of codes for other values of $A_{12}$. In this note, we use symmetric 2-$(47,23,11)$ designs with an automorphism group of order 6 to construct self-dual near-extremal ternary codes of length 48 for $150$ new values of $A_{12}$., Comment: 7 pages

In this work, we study interception attacks against a secret sharing protocol based on Grovers search algorithm. Unlike previous works that only give the algorithm for two and three participants, we have generalized the algorithm for any number of participants. Both reflections used in the algorithm are constructed using a generalized Householder reflection. Our main goal is to obtain the probability for an eavesdropper to break the secret depending on the true initial state and the one assumed by the eavesdropper and on the Householder angle. In cases where there are two and three participants, we give an exact analytical solution. These formulas are consistent with the numerical results. We use simulations for the case of between 4 and 7 participants to extrapolate the analytical formula for any number of participants.

Recently, attention has turned to the issue of the ensemble dependence of fluctuation induced forces. As a noteworthy example, in $O(n)$ systems the statistical mechanics underlying such forces can be shown to differ in the constant $\vec{M}$ magnetic canonical ensemble (CE) from those in the widely-studied constant $\vec{h}$ grand canonical ensemble (GCE). Here, the counterpart of the Casimir force in the GCE is the \textit{Helmholtz} force in the CE. Given the difference between the two ensembles for finite systems, it is reasonable to anticipate that these forces will have, in general, different behavior for the same geometry and boundary conditions. Here we present some exact results for both the Casimir and the Helmholtz force in the case of the one-dimensional Ising model subject to periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions and compare their behavior. We note that the Ising model has recently being solved in Phys.Rev. E {\bf 106} L042103(2022), using a combinatorial approach, for the case of fixed value $M$ of its order parameter. Here we derive exact result for the partition function of the one-dimensional Ising model of $N$ spins and fixed value $M$ using the transfer matrix method (TMM); earlier results obtained via the TMM were limited to $M=0$ and $N$ even. As a byproduct, we derive several specific integral representations of the hypergeometric function of Gauss. Using those results, we rigorously derive that the free energies of the CE and grand GCE are related to each other via Legendre transformation in the thermodynamic limit, and establish the leading finite-size corrections for the canonical case, which turn out to be much more pronounced than the corresponding ones in the case of the GCE., Comment: 35 pages, 7 figures. The derivations in Appendix C are further simplified and all noticed typos are fixed

A family of $\omega$-circulant balanced weighing matrices with classical parameters is used for the construction of optimal constant weight codes over an alphabet of size $g+1$ and length $n=(q^m -1)/(q-1)$, where $q$ is an odd prime power, $m>1$, and $g$ is a divisor of $q-1$., Comment: 10 pages

A classification of Hadamard matrices of order $2p+2$ with an automorphism of order $p$ is given for $p=29$ and $31$. The ternary self-dual codes spanned by the newly found Hadamard matrices of order $60$ with an automorphism of order $29$ are computed, as well as the binary doubly even self-dual codes of length $120$ with generator matrices defined by related Hadamard designs. Several new ternary near-extremal self-dual codes, as well as binary near-extremal doubly even self-dual codes with previously unknown weight enumerators are found., Comment: 21 pages

In this work we study the robustness of two modifications of quantum random walk search algorithm on hypercube. In the first previously suggested modification, on each even iteration only quantum walk is applied. And in the second, the closest neighbors of the solution are measured classically. In our approach the traversing coin is constructed by both generalized Householder reflection and an additional phase multiplier and we investigate the stability of the algorithm to deviations in those phases. We have shown that the unmodified algorithm becomes more robust when a certain relation between those phases is preserved. The first modification we study here does not lead to any change in the robustness of quantum random walk search algorithm. However, when a measurement of the first and second neighbors is included, there are some differences. The most important one, in view of our study of the robustness, is an increase in the stability of the algorithm, especially for large coin dimensions., Comment: 32 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, 2 Appendices

The crystallization proceeds by the advance of the crystal faces into the disordered phase at the expense of the supersaturation which is not sustained in our model. Using a conservation constraint for the transformation ratio and a kinetic law, we derive a general equation for the rate of transformation. It is integrated for the six combinations of the three spatial dimensions D = 1, 2, 3 and the two canonical values of the growth order (1 and 2). The same equation with growth order 1 is obtained when taking only the linear term from the Taylor's expansion around 0 transformation of the model of Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov(JMAK). We verify our model by fitting it with JMAK. We start the validation of our model in 2D with published results., Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures, 53 references

Fission data are essential inputs to reaction networks involved in nucleosynthesis simulations and nuclear forensics. In such applications as well as in the description of multi-chance fission, the characteristics of fission for odd-mass nuclei are just as important as those for even-even nuclei. The fission theories that aim at explicitly describing fission dynamics are typically based on some variant of the nuclear mean-field theory. In such cases, the treatment of systems with an odd number of particles is markedly more involved, both formally and computationally. In this article, we use the blocking prescription of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory with Skyrme energy functionals to compute the deformation properties of odd-mass uranium isotopes. We show that the resulting fission fragment distributions depend quite significantly on the spin of the odd neutron. By direct calculation of the spin distribution of the fissioning nucleus, we propose a methodology to rigorously predict the charge and mass distributions in odd-mass nuclei., Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables

In this paper we analyze possible actions of an automorphism of order six on a $2$-$(70, 24, 8)$ design, and give a complete classification for the action of the cyclic automorphism group of order six $G= \langle \rho \rangle \cong Z_6 \cong Z_2 \times Z_3$ where $\rho^3$ fixes exactly $14$ points (blocks) and $\rho^2$ fixes $4$ points (blocks). Up to isomorphism, there are $3718$ such designs. This result significantly increases the number of known $2$-$(70,24,8)$ designs., Comment: 10 pages

In view of the great interest in liquid argon neutrino detectors, the $^{40}$Ar($\gamma,\gamma'$)$^{40}$Ar$^{*}$ reaction was revisited to guide a calculation of the neutral current neutrino cross section at supernova energies. Using the nuclear resonance fluorescence technique with a monoenergetic, 99% linearly polarized photon beam, we report a three-fold increase in magnetic dipole strength at around 10 MeV in $^{40}$Ar. Based on shell-model calculations, and using the experimentally identified transitions, the neutral current neutrino cross sections for low-energy reactions on $^{40}$Ar are calculated.

In this note we report the classification of all symmetric 2-(36,15,6) designs that admit an automorphism of order 2 and their incidence matrices generate an extremal ternary self-dual code. It is shown that up to isomorphism, there exists only one such design, having a full automorphism group of order 24, and the ternary code spanned by its incidence matrix is equivalent to the Pless symmetry code., Comment: 12 pages

Concerted experimental and numerical studies of step bunching on vicinal crystal surfaces resulting from step-down electromigration of partially charged adatoms, confirmed the theoretical prediction of scaling dependence of the minimal bunch distance $l_{\rm min}$ on the bunch size $N$: $l_{\rm min} \sim N^{-\gamma}$, with $\gamma = 2/3$. The value of the so called size-scaling exponent $\gamma$ was observed in experiments on vicinal surfaces of semiconducting, metallic, and dielectric materials. Careful theoretical investigations and numerical calculations predict a second value of $\gamma = 1/2$. However, this value is still not been reported from experiments. And we report here experimental observation of step bunching in the universality class relative to $\gamma = 1/2$. This is achieved by monitoring step flow during sublimation of Si(111)-vicinals heated by a direct step-down current at ~1200$^\circ$C. In the experiment we also measure other characteristic for the bunching quantities, such as the mean total number of steps in the bunch $N$ and the mean bunch width $W$. We then compare our findings with published experimental and numerical data to arrive at a theoretically consistent framework in terms of universality classes. The ultimate benefit of our study is not only to advance fundamental knowledge but also to provide further guidance for bottom-up synthesis of vicinal nanotemplates., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 30 references, 100+ man-years of research behind

This paper examines a way to simplify the circuit of quantum random walk search algorithm, when the traversing coin is constructed by both generalized Householder reflection and an additional phase multiplier. If an appropriate relation between corresponding parameters is realized, our algorithm becomes more robust to deviations in the phases. In this modification marking coin is not needed, and all advantages from above mentioned optimization to the stability, are preserved. It is shown explicitly how to construct such walk coin in order to obtain more robust quantum algorithm., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

In this work the quantum random walk search algorithm with walk coin constructed by generalized Householder reflection and phase multiplier has been studied. The coin register is one qudit with arbitrary dimension. Monte Carlo simulations, in combination with supervised machine learning, are used to find walk coins making the quantum algorithm more robust to deviations in the coin's parameters. By applying deep neural network we make prediction for the parameters of an optimal coin with arbitrary size and estimate the stability for such coin., Comment: 31 pages, 19 figures, added two paragraphs and two figures to better explain our results

The Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes are a well-studied subclass of cyclic codes that have found numerous applications in error correction and notably in quantum information processing. A subclass of attractive BCH codes is the narrow-sense BCH codes over the Galois field $\mathrm{GF}(q)$ with length $q+1$, which are closely related to the action of the projective general linear group of degree two on the projective line. This paper aims to study some of the codes within this class and specifically narrow-sense antiprimitive BCH codes (these codes are also linear complementary duals (LCD) codes that have interesting practical recent applications in cryptography, among other benefits). We shall use tools and combine arguments from algebraic coding theory, combinatorial designs, and group theory (group actions, representation theory of finite groups, etc.) to investigate narrow-sense antiprimitive BCH Codes and extend results from the recent literature. Notably, the dimension, the minimum distance of some $q$-ary BCH codes with length $q+1$, and their duals are determined in this paper. The dual codes of the narrow-sense antiprimitive BCH codes derived in this paper include almost MDS codes. Furthermore, the classification of $\mathrm{PGL} (2, p^m)$-invariant codes over $\mathrm{GF} (p^h)$ is completed. As an application of this result, the $p$-ranks of all incidence structures invariant under the projective general linear group $\mathrm{ PGL }(2, p^m)$ are determined. Furthermore, infinite families of narrow-sense BCH codes admitting a $3$-transitive automorphism group are obtained. Via these BCH codes, a coding-theory approach to constructing the Witt spherical geometry designs is presented. The BCH codes proposed in this paper are good candidates for permutation decoding, as they have a relatively large group of automorphisms., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2010.09448

It is proved that a code $L(q)$ which is monomially equivalent to the Pless symmetry code $C(q)$ of length $2q+2$ contains the (0,1)-incidence matrix of a Hadamard 3-$(2q+2,q+1,(q-1)/2)$ design $D(q)$ associated with a Paley-Hadamard matrix of type II. Similarly, any ternary extended quadratic residue code contains the incidence matrix of a Hadamard 3-design associated with a Paley-Hadamard matrix of type I. If $q=5, 11, 17, 23$, then the full permutation automorphism group of $L(q)$ coincides with the full automorphism group of $D(q)$, and a similar result holds for the ternary extended quadratic residue codes of lengths 24 and 48. All Hadamard matrices of order 36 formed by codewords of the Pless symmetry code $C(17)$ are enumerated and classified up to equivalence. There are two equivalence classes of such matrices: the Paley-Hadamard matrix $H$ of type I with a full automorphism group of order 19584, and a second regular Hadamard matrix $H'$ such that the symmetric 2-$(36,15,6)$ design $D$ associated with $H'$ has trivial full automorphism group, and the incidence matrix of $D$ spans a ternary code equivalent to $C(17)$., Comment: 14 pages

This paper presents a proof of concept for the usefulness of second-order texture features for the qualitative analysis and classification of chromogenic in-situ hybridization whole slide images in high-throughput imaging experiments. The challenge is that currently, the gold standard for gene expression grading in such images is expert assessment. The idea of the research team is to use different approaches in the analysis of these images that will be used for structural segmentation and functional analysis in gene expression. The article presents such perspective idea to select a number of textural features that are going to be used for classification. In our experiment, natural grouping of image samples (tiles) depending on their local texture properties was explored in an unsupervised classification procedure. The features are reduced to two dimensions with fuzzy c-means clustering. The overall conclusion of this experiment is that Haralick features are a viable choice for classification and analysis of chromogenic in-situ hybridization image data. The principal component analysis approach produced slightly more "understandable" from an annotator's point of view classes., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure

The proposed in J. Math. Phys. v.57,071903 (2016) analytical expansion of monotone (contractive) Riemannian metrics (called also quantum Fisher information(s)) in terms of moments of the dynamical structure factor (DSF) relative to an original intensive observable is reconsidered and extended. The new approach through the DSF which characterizes fully the set of monotone Riemannian metrics on the space of Gibbs thermal states is utilized to obtain an extension of the spectral presentation obtained for the Bogoliubov-Kubo-Mori metric (the generalized isothermal susceptibility) on the entire class of monotone Riemannian metrics. The obtained spectral presentation is the main point of our consideration. The last allows to present the one to one correspondence between monotone Riemannian metrics and operator monotone functions (which is a statement of the Petz theorem in the quantum information theory) in terms of the linear response theory. We show that monotone Riemannian metrics can be determined from the analysis of the infinite chain of equations of motion of the retarded Green's functions. Inequalities between the different metrics have been obtained as well. It is a demonstration that the analysis of information-theoretic problems has benefited from concepts of statistical mechanics and might cross-fertilize or extend both directions, and vice versa. We illustrate the presented approach on the calculation of the entire class of monotone (contractive) Riemannian metrics on the examples of some simple but instructive systems employed in various physical problems., Comment: 21 pages

This paper examines the stability of the quantum random walk search algorithm, when the walk coin is constructed by generalized Householder reflection and additional phase shift, against inaccuracies in the phases used to construct the coin. The optimization of the algorithm is done by numerical methods - Monte Carlo, neural networks, and supervised machine learning. The results of numerical simulations show that, with such a construction of the Householder reflection, the algorithm is more stable to inaccuracies in the specific values of these phases, as long as it is possible to control the phase difference between the phase shift and the phase involved in the Householder reflection. This paper explicitly shows as an example, how achieving a properly designed phase difference would make quantum random walk search on a hypercube more stable for coin register consisting of one, two, and three qubits., Comment: 35 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, Fixed a typo in Eq.(35)

A workshop on The Next Generation Gamma-Ray Sources sponsored by the Office of Nuclear Physics at the Department of Energy, was held November 17--19, 2016 in Bethesda, Maryland. The goals of the workshop were to identify basic and applied research opportunities at the frontiers of nuclear physics that would be made possible by the beam capabilities of an advanced laser Compton beam facility. To anchor the scientific vision to realistically achievable beam specifications using proven technologies, the workshop brought together experts in the fields of electron accelerators, lasers, and optics to examine the technical options for achieving the beam specifications required by the most compelling parts of the proposed research programs. An international assembly of participants included current and prospective $\gamma$-ray beam users, accelerator and light-source physicists, and federal agency program managers. Sessions were organized to foster interactions between the beam users and facility developers, allowing for information sharing and mutual feedback between the two groups. The workshop findings and recommendations are summarized in this whitepaper.

The projective general linear group $\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathrm{GF}(2^m))$ acts as a $3$-transitive permutation group on the set of points of the projective line. The first objective of this paper is to prove that all linear codes over $\mathrm{GF}(2^h)$ that are invariant under $\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathrm{GF}(2^m))$ are trivial codes: the repetition code, the whole space $\mathrm{GF}(2^h)^{2^m+1}$, and their dual codes. As an application of this result, the $2$-ranks of the (0,1)-incidence matrices of all $3$-$(q+1,k,\lambda)$ designs that are invariant under $\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathrm{GF}(2^m))$ are determined. The second objective is to present two infinite families of cyclic codes over $\mathrm{GF}(2^m)$ such that the set of the supports of all codewords of any fixed nonzero weight is invariant under $\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathrm{GF}(2^m))$, therefore, the codewords of any nonzero weight support a 3-design. A code from the first family has parameters $[q+1,q-3,4]_q$, where $q=2^m$, and $m\ge 4$ is even. The exact number of the codewords of minimum weight is determined, and the codewords of minimum weight support a 3-$(q+1,4,2)$ design. A code from the second family has parameters $[q+1,4,q-4]_q$, $q=2^m$, $m\ge 4$ even, and the minimum weight codewords support a 3-$(q +1,q-4,(q-4)(q-5)(q-6)/60)$ design, whose complementary 3-$(q +1, 5, 1)$ design is isomorphic to the Witt spherical geometry with these parameters. A lower bound on the dimension of a linear code over $\mathrm{GF}(q)$ that can support a 3-$(q +1,q-4,(q-4)(q-5)(q-6)/60)$ design is proved, and it is shown that the designs supported by the codewords of minimum weight in the codes from the second family of codes meet this bound.

A new software package, the Fission Induced Electromagnetic Response (FIER) code, has been developed to analytically predict delayed $\gamma$-ray spectra following fission. FIER uses evaluated nuclear data and solutions to the Bateman equations to calculate the time-dependent populations of fission products and their decay daughters resulting from irradiation of a fissionable isotope. These populations are then used in the calculation of $\gamma$-ray emission rates to obtain the corresponding delayed $\gamma$-ray spectra. FIER output was compared to experimental data obtained by irradiation of a $^{235}$U sample in the Godiva critical assembly. This investigation illuminated discrepancies in the input nuclear data libraries, showcasing the usefulness of FIER as a tool to address nuclear data deficiencies through comparison with experimental data. FIER provides traceability between $\gamma$-ray emissions and their contributing nuclear species, decay chains, and parent fission fragments, yielding a new capability for the nuclear science community., Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures

Twelve new strongly regular graphs with parameters (81,30,9,12) are found as graphs invariant under certain subgroups of the automorphism groups of the two previously known graphs that arise from 2-weight codes. One of these new graphs is geometric and yields a partial geometry with parameters pg(5,5,2) that is not isomorphic to the partial geometry discovered by J. H. van Lint and A. Schrijver in 1981., Comment: 11 pages

Theoretical studies of nearly spherical vesicles and microemulsion droplets, that present typical examples for thermally-excited systems that are subject to constraints, are reviewed. We consider the shape fluctuations of such systems constrained by fixed area $A$ and fixed volume $V$, whose geometry is presented in terms of scalar spherical harmonics. These constraints can be incorporated in the theory in different ways. After an introductory review of the two approaches: with an exactly fixed by delta-function membrane area $A$ [Seifert, Z. Phys. B, 97, 299, (1995)] or approximatively by means of a Lagrange multiplier $\sigma$ conjugated to $A$ [Milner and Safran, Phys. Rev. A, 36, 4371 (1987)], we discuss the determined role of the stretching effects, that has been announced in the framework of a model containing stretching energy term, expressed via the membrane vesicle tension [Bivas and Tonchev, Phys.Rev.E, 100, 022416 (2019)]. Since the fluctuation spectrum for the used Hamiltonian is not exactly solvable an approximating method based on the Bogoliubov inequalities for the free energy has been developed. The area constraint in the last approach appears as a self-consistent equation for the membrane tension. In the general case this equation is intractable analytically. However, much insight into the physics behind can be obtained either imposing some restrictions on the values of the model parameters, or studying limiting cases, in which the self-consistent equation is solved. Implications for the equivalence of ensembles have been discussed as well., Comment: This is a review based on a lecture at the Conference in memory of Vyatcheslav Borisovich Priezzhev held in the Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics (JINR-Dubna, 10 September 2019), 26 pages

The subject of this paper are partial geometries $pg(s,t,\alpha)$ with parameters $s=d(d'-1), \ t=d'(d-1), \ \alpha=(d-1)(d'-1)$, $d, d' \ge 2$. In all known examples, $q=dd'$ is a power of 2 and the partial geometry arises from a maximal arc of degree $d$ or $d'$ in a projective plane of order $q$ via a known construction due to Thas \cite{Thas73} and Wallis \cite{W}, with a single known exception of a partial geometry $pg(4,6,3)$ found by Mathon \cite{Math} that is not associated with a maximal arc in the projective plane of order 8. A parallel class of lines is a set of pairwise disjoint lines that covers the point set. Two parallel classes are called orthogonal if they share exactly one line. An upper bound on the maximum number of pairwise orthogonal parallel classes in a partial geometry $G$ with parameters $pg(d(d'-1),d'(d-1),(d-1)(d'-1))$ is proved, and it is shown that a necessary and sufficient condition for $G$ to arise from a maximal arc of degree $d$ or $d'$ in a projective plane of order $q=dd'$ is that both $G$ and its dual geometry contain sets of pairwise orthogonal parallel classes that meet the upper bound. An alternative construction of Mathon's partial geometry is presented, and the new necessary condition is used to demonstrate why this partial geometry is not associated with any maximal arc in the projective plane of order 8. The partial geometries associated with all known maximal arcs in projective planes of order 16 are classified up to isomorphism, and their parallel classes of lines and the 2-rank of their incidence matrices are computed. Based on these results, some open problems and conjectures are formulated., Comment: 25 pages, 5 tables

The nature of $J^{\pi}=1^-$ levels of $^{96}$Zr below the $\beta$-decay $Q_{\beta}$ value of $^{96}$Y has been investigated in high-resolution $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy following the $\beta$ decay as well as in a campaign of inelastic photon scattering experiments. Branching ratios extracted from $\beta$ decay allow the absolute $E1$ excitation strength to be determined for levels populated in both reactions. The combined data represents a comprehensive approach to the wavefunction of $1^-$ levels below the $Q_{\beta}$ value, which are investigated in the theoretical approach of the Quasiparticle Phonon Model. This study clarifies the nuclear structure properties associated with the enhanced population of high-lying levels in the $^{96}$Y$_{gs}$ $\beta$ decay, one of the three most important contributors to the high-energy reactor antineutrino spectrum.

The dual codes of the ternary linear codes of the residual designs of biplanes on 56 points are used to prove the nonexistence of quasi-symmetric 2-$(56,12,9)$ and 2-$(57,12,11)$ designs with intersection numbers 0 and 3, and the nonexistence of a 2-$(267,57,12)$ quasi-3 design. The nonexistence of a 2-$(149,37,9)$ quasi-3 design is also proved., Comment: 9 pages, minor revision

In this paper we consider binary linear codes spanned by incidence matrices of Steiner 2-designs associated with maximal arcs in projective planes of even order, and their dual codes. Upper and lower bounds on the 2-rank of the incidence matrices are derived. A lower bound on the minimum distance of the dual codes is proved, and it is shown that the bound is achieved if and only if the related maximal arc contains a hyperoval of the plane. The binary linear codes of length 52 spanned by the incidence matrices of 2-$(52,4,1)$ designs associated with previously known and some newly found maximal arcs of degree 4 in projective planes of order 16 are analyzed and classified up to equivalence. The classification shows that some designs associated with maximal arcs in nonisomorphic planes generate equivalent codes. This phenomenon establishes new links between several of the known planes. A conjecture concerning the codes of maximal arcs in $PG(2,2^m)$ is formulated., Comment: 21 pages

Bunching of steps at the surface of growing crystals can be induced by both directions of the driving force: step up and step down. The processes happen in different adatom concentrations and differ in character. In this study we show how the overall picture of the bunching process depends on the strength of short range step-step repulsion. The repulsive interaction between steps, controlled by an additional parameter, is introduced into the recently studied atomistic scale model of vicinal crystal growth, based on cellular automata. It is shown that the repulsion modifies bunching process in a different way, depending on the direction of the destabilizing force. In particular, bunch profiles, stability diagrams and time-scaling dependences of various bunch properties are affected when the step-step repulsion increases. The repulsion between steps creates a competition between two characteristic sizes - bunch width and macrostep height, playing the role of the second length scale that describes the step bunching phenomenon. A new characteristic time scale dependent on the step-step repulsion parameter emerges as an effect of interplay between (01) faceted macrosteps and (11) faceted bunches. The bunch height being the major characteristic size of the bunches is not influenced dramatically by the repulsion., Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures

We study the real-time dynamics of a periodic $XY$ system exposed to a composite field comprised of a constant homogeneous magnetic and a quantized circularly polarized electromagnetic fields. The interaction between the quantized mode and spin-magnetic moments is modeled by the Dicke Hamiltonian. The rotating wave approximation is applied and the conditions for its validity are discussed. It is shown that if initially all of the excitations are contained in the field, then in the regime of large detuning, the main evolutionary effect involves oscillations of the excitations between the zero-momentum modes of the chain and the field. Accordingly, the reduced photon number and magnetization per site reveal a sort of oscillatory behavior. Effective Hamiltonians describing the short-time dynamics of the present model for small number of excitations and large detuning are introduced. The resonance case is considered in the context of photon emission from the chain initially prepared in the (partially) excited state. In particular, it is demonstrated, in the framework of a specific example, that the superradiant behavior shows up at the beginning of the emission, when we have an initial state with a maximally excited $XY$ chain. Possible applications of the model to problems such as spin chain and $J$-aggregate in a single-mode cavity are discussed., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures. To be published in The European Physical Journal B

In this paper, the 3-rank of the incidence matrices of 2-designs supported by the minimum weight codewords in a family of ternary linear codes considered in [C. Ding, C. Li, Infinite families of 2-designs and 3-designs from linear codes, Discrete Mathematics 340(10) (2017) 2415--2431] are computed. A lower bound on the minimum distance of the ternary codes spanned by the incidence matrices of these designs is derived, and it is proved that the codes are subcodes of the 4th order generalized Reed-Muller codes.

In this proceeding we report initial studies into the big data set acquired by the Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) counter of the Basic Environmental Observatory (BEO) Moussala over the whole 2016 year at a frequency of 1 Hz. First, we attempt to reveal correlations between the results for CCN number concentrations on the timescale of a whole year (2016) as averaged over 12 month periods with the meteorological parameters for the same period and with the same time step. Then, we zoom into these data and repeat the study on the timescale of a month for two months from 2016, January and July, with a day time step. For the same two months we show the CCN size distributions averaged over day periods. Finally, we arrive at our main result: typical, in terms of maximal and minimal number concentrations, CCN size distributions for chosen hours, one hour for each month of the year, hence 24 distributions in total. These data show a steady pattern of peaks and valleys independent of the concrete number concentration which moves up and down the number concentrations (y-axis) without significant shifts along the sizes (x-axis)., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure, The 10th Jubilee Conference of the Balkan Physical Union (BPU10), 26-30 August, Sofia, Bulgaria

Bent functions, or equivalently, Hadamard difference sets in the elementary Abelian group $(\gf(2^{2m}), +)$, have been employed to construct symmetric and quasi-symmetric designs having the symmetric difference property. The main objective of this paper is to use bent vectorial functions for a construction of a two-parameter family of binary linear codes that do not satisfy the conditions of the Assmus-Mattson theorem, but nevertheless hold $2$-designs. A new coding-theoretic characterization of bent vectorial functions is presented.

We approach the old-standing problem of vicinal crystal surfaces destabilized by step-down and step step-up currents from a unified modelling viewpoint with focus on both the initial and the intermediate stages of the instability. We develop further our atomistic scale model of vicinal crystal growth (Gr) destabilized by SD drift of the adatoms in order to account for also the vicinal crystal sublimation (Sbl) and the SU drift of the adatoms as an alternative mode of destabilization. In order to study the emergence of the instability we use the number of steps in the bunch (bunch size) N as a measure and probe with small-size systems the models stability against step bunching (SB) on a dense grid of points in the parameter space formed by the diffusion rate/step transparency, surface miscut and drift direction, for each of the four possible cases - Gr+SD, Gr+SU, Sbl+SD, Sbl+SU. The obtained stability diagrams show where the system is initially most unstable and provide a ground to study there the intermediate stages of the developed instability quantifying the surface self-similarity by the time-scaling of N. For each of the four enumerated cases we show that it reaches the universal curve N=2sqrt(T/3), where T is the time, properly rescaled with the model parameters. We confirm the value of the numerical pre-factor with results from a parallel study of models based on systems of ordinary differential equations (ODE) for the step velocity., Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures

One of the most widely used methods for determination of the bending elasticity modulus of model lipid membranes is the analysis of the shape fluctuations of nearly spherical lipid vesicles. The theoretical basis of this analysis is given by Milner and Safran. In their theory the stretching effects are not considered. In the present study we generalized their approach including the stretching effects deduced after an application of statistical mechanics of vesicles., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, LaTex file

We report for the first time the observation of bunching of monoatomic steps on vicinal W(110) surfaces induced by step up or step down currents across the steps. Measurements reveal that the size scaling exponent {\gamma}, connecting the maximal slope of a bunch with its height, differs depending on the current direction. We provide a numerical perspective by using an atomistic scale model with a conserved surface flux to mimic experimental conditions, and also for the first time show that there is an interval of parameters in which the vicinal surface is unstable against step bunching for both directions of the adatom drift., Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures

It is proved that for every $d\ge 2$ such that $d-1$ divides $q-1$, where $q$ is a power of 2, there exists a Denniston maximal arc $A$ of degree $d$ in $\PG(2,q)$, being invariant under a cyclic linear group that fixes one point of $A$ and acts regularly on the set of the remaining points of ${A}$. Two alternative proofs are given, one geometric proof based on Abatangelo-Larato's characterization of Denniston arcs, and a second coding-theoretical proof based on cyclotomy and the link between maximal arcs and two-weight codes.