Deferring the learning for better generalization in radial basis neural networks

Proceeding of: International Conference Artificial Neural Networks — ICANN 2001. Vienna, Austria, August 21–25, 2001The level of generalization of neural networks is heavily dependent on the quality of the training data. That is, some of the training patterns can be redundant or irrelevant. It has been shown that with careful dynamic selection of training patterns, better generalization performance may be obtained. Nevertheless, generalization is carried out independently of the novel patterns to be approximated. In this paper, we present a learning method that automatically selects the most appropriate training patterns to the new sample to be predicted. The proposed method has been applied to Radial Basis Neural Networks, whose generalization capability is usually very poor. The learning strategy slows down the response of the network in the generalisation phase. However, this does not introduces a significance limitation in the application of the method because of the fast training of Radial Basis Neural Networks

Implicitly Constrained Semi-Supervised Least Squares Classification

We introduce a novel semi-supervised version of the least squares classifier. This implicitly constrained least squares (ICLS) classifier minimizes the squared loss on the labeled data among the set of parameters implied by all possible labelings of the unlabeled data. Unlike other discriminative semi-supervised methods, our approach does not introduce explicit additional assumptions into the objective function, but leverages implicit assumptions already present in the choice of the supervised least squares classifier. We show this approach can be formulated as a quadratic programming problem and its solution can be found using a simple gradient descent procedure. We prove that, in a certain way, our method never leads to performance worse than the supervised classifier. Experimental results corroborate this theoretical result in the multidimensional case on benchmark datasets, also in terms of the error rate.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. The Fourteenth International Symposium on Intelligent Data Analysis (2015), Saint-Etienne, Franc

Harnessing nuclear spin polarization fluctuations in a semiconductor nanowire

Soon after the first measurements of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in a condensed matter system, Bloch predicted the presence of statistical fluctuations proportional to $1/\sqrt{N}$ in the polarization of an ensemble of $N$ spins. First observed by Sleator et al., so-called "spin noise" has recently emerged as a critical ingredient in nanometer-scale magnetic resonance imaging (nanoMRI). This prominence is a direct result of MRI resolution improving to better than 100 nm^3, a size-scale in which statistical spin fluctuations begin to dominate the polarization dynamics. We demonstrate a technique that creates spin order in nanometer-scale ensembles of nuclear spins by harnessing these fluctuations to produce polarizations both larger and narrower than the natural thermal distribution. We focus on ensembles containing ~10^6 phosphorus and hydrogen spins associated with single InP and GaP nanowires (NWs) and their hydrogen-containing adsorbate layers. We monitor, control, and capture fluctuations in the ensemble's spin polarization in real-time and store them for extended periods. This selective capture of large polarization fluctuations may provide a route for enhancing the weak magnetic signals produced by nanometer-scale volumes of nuclear spins. The scheme may also prove useful for initializing the nuclear hyperfine field of electron spin qubits in the solid-state.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

New nonrenormalization theorems for anomalous three point functions

Nonrenormalization theorems involving the transverse, i.e. non anomalous, part of the correlator in perturbative QCD are proven. Some of their consequences and questions they raise are discussed.Comment: 14 pages. People added in the acknowledgements. Minor changes to match version to appear in journa

Charmed decays of the B-meson in the quark model

Exclusive and inclusive, semileptonic and non-leptonic, charmed decays of the B-meson are investigated in the context of a phenomenological quark model. Bound-state effects are taken care of by adopting a single (model-dependent) non-perturbative wave function, describing the motion of the light spectator quark in the B-meson. A nice reproduction of both exclusive and inclusive semileptonic data is obtained. Our predictions for the electron spectrum are presented and compared with those of the Isgur-Scora-Grinstein-Wise quark model. Finally, our approach is applied to the calculation of inclusive non-leptonic widths, obtaining a remarkable agreement with experimental findings.Comment: to appear in the Proc. of the 2^{nd} Int. Conf. on Hyperons, Charm and Beauty Hadrons, Montreal, Canada, 27-30 August 199

Hybrid Mechanical Systems

We discuss hybrid systems in which a mechanical oscillator is coupled to another (microscopic) quantum system, such as trapped atoms or ions, solid-state spin qubits, or superconducting devices. We summarize and compare different coupling schemes and describe first experimental implementations. Hybrid mechanical systems enable new approaches to quantum control of mechanical objects, precision sensing, and quantum information processing.Comment: To cite this review, please refer to the published book chapter (see Journal-ref and DOI). This v2 corresponds to the published versio

Test of the Running of αs\alpha_s in τ\tau Decays

The $\tau$ decay rate into hadrons of invariant mass smaller than $\sqrt{s_0}\gg\Lambda_{\rm QCD}$ can be calculated in QCD assuming global quark--hadron duality. It is shown that this assumption holds for $s_0>0.7$~GeV$^2$. From measurements of the hadronic mass distribution, the running coupling constant $\alpha_s(s_0)$ is extracted in the range 0.7~GeV$^2<s_0<m_\tau^2$. At $s_0=m_\tau^2$, the result is $\alpha_s(m_\tau^2)=0.329\pm 0.030$. The running of $\alpha_s$ is in good agreement with the QCD prediction.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures appended; shortened version with new figures, to appear in Physical Review Letters (April 1996

Testing QCD with Hypothetical Tau Leptons

We construct new tests of perturbative QCD by considering a hypothetical tau lepton of arbitrary mass, which decays hadronically through the electromagnetic current. We can explicitly compute its hadronic width ratio directly as an integral over the e^+ e^- annihilation cross section ratio, R_{e^+e^-}. Furthermore, we can design a set of commensurate scale relations and perturbative QCD tests by varying the weight function away from the form associated with the V-A decay of the physical tau. This method allows the wide range of the R_{e^+e^-} data to be used as a probe of perturbative QCD.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Top quark mass definition and top quark pair production near threshold at the NLC

We suggest an infrared-insensitive quark mass, defined by subtracting the soft part of the quark self energy from the pole mass. We demonstrate the deep relation of this definition with the static quark-antiquark potential. At leading order in 1/m this mass coincides with the PS mass which is defined in a completely different manner. Going beyond static limit, the small normalization point introduces recoil corrections which are calculated here as well. Using this mass concept and other concepts for the quark mass we calculate the cross section of e+ e- -> t t-bar near threshold at NNLO accuracy adopting three alternative approaches, namely (1) fixing the pole mass, (2) fixing the PS mass, and (3) fixing the new mass which we call the PS-bar mass. We demonstrate that perturbative predictions for the cross section become much more stable if we use the PS or the PS-bar mass for the calculations. A careful analysis suggests that the top quark mass can be extracted from a threshold scan at NLC with an accuracy of about 100-200 MeV.Comment: published version, 21 pages in LaTeX including 11 PostScript figure

Non-perturbative effects in semi-leptonic B_c decays

We discuss the impact of the soft degrees of freedom inside the B_c meson on its rate in the semi-leptonic decay B_c -> X l nu_l where X denotes light hadrons below the D^0 threshold. In particular we identify contributions involving soft hadrons which are non-vanishing in the limit of massless leptons. These contributions become relevant for a measurement of the purely leptonic B_c decay rate, which due to helicity suppression involves a factor m_l^2 and thus is much smaller than the contributions involving soft hadrons.Comment: LaTeX, 22 pages, 1 figur