By linking widely separated radio dishes, the technique of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) can greatly enhance angular resolution in radio astronomy. However, at any given moment, a VLBI array only sparsely samples the information necessary to form an image. Conventional imaging techniques partially overcome this limitation by making the assumption that the observed cosmic source structure does not evolve over the duration of an observation, which enables VLBI networks to accumulate information as the Earth rotates and changes the projected array geometry. Although this assumption is appropriate for nearly all VLBI, it is almost certainly violated for submillimeter observations of the Galactic Center supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A * (Sgr A * ), which has a gravitational timescale of only ∼20 seconds and exhibits intra-hour variability. To address this challenge, we develop several techniques to reconstruct dynamical images ("movies") from interferometric data. Our techniques are applicable to both single-epoch and multi-epoch variability studies, and they are suitable for exploring many different physical processes including flaring regions, stable images with small timedependent perturbations, steady accretion dynamics, or kinematics of relativistic jets. Moreover, dynamical imaging can be used to estimate time-averaged images from time-variable data, eliminating many spurious image artifacts that arise when using standard imaging methods. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our techniques using synthetic observations of simulated black hole systems and 7mm Very Long Baseline Array observations of M87, and we show that dynamical imaging is feasible for Event Horizon Telescope observations of Sgr A * .

We study the set of probability distributions visited by a continuous-time quantum walk on graphs. An edge-weighted graph $G$ is {\em universal mixing} if the instantaneous or average probability distribution of the quantum walk on $G$ ranges over all probability distributions on the vertices as the weights are varied over non-negative reals. The graph is {\em uniform} mixing if it visits the uniform distribution. Our results include the following: 1) All weighted complete multipartite graphs are instantaneous universal mixing. This is in contrast to the fact that no {\em unweighted} complete multipartite graphs are uniform mixing (except for the four-cycle $K_{2,2}$). 2) For all $n \ge 1$, the weighted claw $K_{1,n}$ is a minimally connected instantaneous universal mixing graph. In fact, as a corollary, the unweighted $K_{1,n}$ is instantaneous uniform mixing. This adds a new family of uniform mixing graphs to a list that so far contains only the hypercubes. 3) Any weighted graph is average almost-uniform mixing unless its spectral type is sublinear in the size of the graph. This provides a nearly tight characterization for average uniform mixing on circulant graphs. 4) No weighted graphs are average universal mixing. This shows that weights do not help to achieve average universal mixing, unlike the instantaneous case. Our proofs exploit the spectra of the underlying weighted graphs and path collapsing arguments.

Multiple zeta values (MZVs) are real numbers defined by an infinite series, generalizing values of the Riemann zeta function at positive integers. Finite truncations of this series are called multiple harmonic sums and are known to have interesting arithmetic properties. When the truncation point is one less than a prime p, the modulo p values of multiple harmonic sums are called finite MZVs. This paper introduces a new class of congruence for multiple harmonic sums, which we call weighted congruences. These congruences can hold modulo arbitrarily large powers of p, and generalize the class of homogeneous relations for finite MZVs. Unlike results for finite MZVs, weighted congruences typically involve harmonic sums of multiple weights, which are multiplied by explicit powers of p depending on weight. We also introduce a class of p-adic series identities, which we call asymptotic relations, giving weighted congruences holding modulo arbitrarily large powers of p. We define a new truncated analogue of the multiple zeta function, and use it to give an algebraic framework for studying weighted congruences and asymptotic relations.

A period is a complex number arising as the integral of a rational function with algebraic number coefficients over a rationally-defined region. Although periods are typically transcendental numbers, there is a conjectural Galois theory of periods coming from the theory of motives. This paper formalizes an analogy between a class of periods called multiple zeta values, and congruences for rational numbers modulo prime powers (called supercongruences). We construct an analogue of the motivic period map in the setting of supercongruences, and use it to define a Galois theory of supercongruences. We describe an algorithm using our period map to find and prove supercongruences, and we provide software implementing the algorithm.Date: June 22, 2017.

We give a family of congruences for the binomial coefficients kp−1 p−1