Inflows in massive star formation regions

How high-mass stars form remains unclear currently. Calculation suggests that the radiation pressure of a forming star can halt spherical infall, preventing its further growth when it reaches 10 M$_{odot}$. Two major theoretical models on the further growth of stellar mass were proposed. One model suggests the mergence of less massive stellar objects, and the other is still through accretion but with the help of disk. Inflow motions are the key evidence of how forming stars further gain mass to build up massive stars. Recent development in technology has boosted the search of inflow motion. A number of high-mass collapse candidates were obtained with single dish observations, mostly showed blue profile. The infalling signatures seem to be more common in regions with developed radiation pressure than in younger cores, which opposes the theoretical prediction and is also very different from that of low mass star formation. Interferometer studies so far confirm such tendency with more obvious blue profile or inverse P Cygni profile. Results seem to favor the accretion model. However, the evolution tendency of the infall motion in massive star forming cores needs to be further explored. Direct evidence for monolithic or competitive collapse processes is still lack. ALMA will enable us to probe more detail of gravity process.

Follow-up observations toward Planck cold clumps with ground-based radio telescopes

The physical and chemical properties of prestellar cores, especially massive ones, are still far from being well understood due to the lack of a large sample. The low dust temperature ($<$14 K) of Planck cold clumps makes them promising candidates for prestellar objects or for sources at the very initial stages of protostellar collapse. We have been conducting a series of observations toward Planck cold clumps (PCCs) with ground-based radio telescopes. In general, when compared with other star forming samples (e.g. infrared dark clouds), PCCs are more quiescent, suggesting that most of them may be in the earliest phase of star formation. However, some PCCs are associated with protostars and molecular outflows, indicating that not all PCCs are in a prestellar phase. We have identified hundreds of starless dense clumps from the mapping survey with the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) 13.7-m telescope. Follow-up observations suggest that these dense clumps are ideal targets to search for prestellar objects.

Generalized Cut-Set Bounds for Broadcast Networks

A broadcast network is a classical network with all source messages collocated at a single source node. For broadcast networks, the standard cut-set bounds, which are known to be loose in general, are closely related to union as a specific set operation to combine the basic cuts of the network. This paper provides a new set of network coding bounds for general broadcast networks. These bounds combine the basic cuts of the network via a variety of set operations (not just the union) and are established via only the submodularity of Shannon entropy. The tightness of these bounds are demonstrated via applications to combination networks.

Worst-Case Expected-Capacity Loss of Slow-Fading Channels

For delay-limited communication over block-fading channels, the difference between the ergodic capacity and the maximum achievable expected rate for coding over a finite number of coherent blocks represents a fundamental measure of the penalty incurred by the delay constraint. This paper introduces a notion of worst-case expected-capacity loss. Focusing on the slow-fading scenario (one-block delay), the worst-case additive and multiplicative expected-capacity losses are precisely characterized for the point-to-point fading channel. Extension to the problem of writing on fading paper is also considered, where both the ergodic capacity and the additive expected-capacity loss over one-block delay are characterized to within one bit per channel use.

Security Embedding Codes

This paper considers the problem of simultaneously communicating two messages, a high-security message and a low-security message, to a legitimate receiver, referred to as the security embedding problem. An information-theoretic formulation of the problem is presented. A coding scheme that combines rate splitting, superposition coding, nested binning and channel prefixing is considered and is shown to achieve the secrecy capacity region of the channel in several scenarios. Specifying these results to both scalar and independent parallel Gaussian channels (under an average individual per-subchannel power constraint), it is shown that the high-security message can be embedded into the low-security message at full rate (as if the low-security message does not exist) without incurring any loss on the overall rate of communication (as if both messages are low-security messages). Extensions to the wiretap channel II setting of Ozarow and Wyner are also considered, where it is shown that perfect security embedding can be achieved by an encoder that uses a two-level coset code.

New Results on Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Broadcast Channels with Confidential Messages

This paper presents two new results on multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian broadcast channels with confidential messages. First, the problem of the MIMO Gaussian wiretap channel is revisited. A matrix characterization of the capacity-equivocation region is provided, which extends the previous result on the secrecy capacity of the MIMO Gaussian wiretap channel to the general, possibly imperfect secrecy setting. Next, the problem of MIMO Gaussian broadcast channels with two receivers and three independent messages: a common message intended for both receivers, and two confidential messages each intended for one of the receivers but needing to be kept asymptotically perfectly secret from the other, is considered. A precise characterization of the capacity region is provided, generalizing the previous results which considered only two out of three possible messages.

Secret Writing on Dirty Paper: A Deterministic View

Recently there has been a lot of success in using the deterministic approach to provide approximate characterization of Gaussian network capacity. In this paper, we take a deterministic view and revisit the problem of wiretap channel with side information. A precise characterization of the secrecy capacity is obtained for a linear deterministic model, which naturally suggests a coding scheme which we show to achieve the secrecy capacity of the degraded Gaussian model (dubbed as secret writing on dirty paper) to within half a bit.

MIMO Gaussian Broadcast Channels with Confidential and Common Messages

This paper considers the problem of secret communication over a two-receiver multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian broadcast channel. The transmitter has two independent, confidential messages and a common message. Each of the confidential messages is intended for one of the receivers but needs to be kept perfectly secret from the other, and the common message is intended for both receivers. It is shown that a natural scheme that combines secret dirty-paper coding with Gaussian superposition coding achieves the secrecy capacity region. To prove this result, a channel-enhancement approach and an extremal entropy inequality of Weingarten et al. are used.

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Gaussian Broadcast Channels with Confidential Messages

This paper considers the problem of secret communication over a two-receiver multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian broadcast channel. The transmitter has two independent messages, each of which is intended for one of the receivers but needs to be kept asymptotically perfectly secret from the other. It is shown that, surprisingly, under a matrix power constraint both messages can be simultaneously transmitted at their respective maximal secrecy rates. To prove this result, the MIMO Gaussian wiretap channel is revisited and a new characterization of its secrecy capacity is provided via a new coding scheme that uses artificial noise and random binning.

A Vector Generalization of Costas Entropy-Power Inequality with Applications

This paper considers an entropy-power inequality (EPI) of Costa and presents a natural vector generalization with a real positive semidefinite matrix parameter. This new inequality is proved using a perturbation approach via a fundamental relationship between the derivative of mutual information and the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) estimate in linear vector Gaussian channels. As an application, a new extremal entropy inequality is derived from the generalized Costa EPI and then used to establish the secrecy capacity regions of the degraded vector Gaussian broadcast channel with layered confidential messages.