Search

We present a detailed study of the large-scale shock front in Stephan's Quintet, a byproduct of past and ongoing interactions. Using integral-field spectroscopy from the new William Herschel Telescope Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (WEAVE), recent 144 MHz observations from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS), and archival data from the Very Large Array and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we obtain new measurements of key shock properties and determine its impact on the system. Harnessing the WEAVE large integral field unit's (LIFU) field of view (90 $\times$ 78 arcsec$^{2}$), spectral resolution ($R\sim2500$) and continuous wavelength coverage across the optical band, we perform robust emission line modeling and dynamically locate the shock within the multi-phase intergalactic medium (IGM) with higher precision than previously possible. The shocking of the cold gas phase is hypersonic, and comparisons with shock models show that it can readily account for the observed emission line ratios. In contrast, we demonstrate that the shock is relatively weak in the hot plasma visible in X-rays (with Mach number of $\mathcal{M} \sim 2 - 4$), making it inefficient at producing the relativistic particles needed to explain the observed synchrotron emission. Instead, we propose that it has led to an adiabatic compression of the medium, which has increased the radio luminosity ten-fold. Comparison of the Balmer line-derived extinction map with the molecular gas and hot dust observed with JWST suggests that pre-existing dust may have survived the collision, allowing the condensation of H$_{2}$ - a key channel for dissipating the shock energy., Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Audio super-resolution aims to enhance low-resolution signals by creating high-frequency content. In this work, we modify the architecture of AERO (a state-of-the-art system for this task) for music super-resolution. SPecifically, we replace its original Attention and LSTM layers with Mamba, a State Space Model (SSM), across all network layers. Mamba is capable of effectively substituting the mentioned modules, as it offers a mechanism similar to that of Attention while also functioning as a recurrent network. With the proposed AEROMamba, training requires 2-4x less GPU memory, since Mamba exploits the convolutional formulation and leverages GPU memory hierarchy. Additionally, during inference, Mamba operates in constant memory due to recurrence, avoiding memory growth associated with Attention. This results in a 14x speed improvement using 5x less GPU. Subjective listening tests (0 to 100 scale) show that the proposed model surpasses the AERO model. In the MUSDB dataset, degraded signals scored 38.22, while AERO and AEROMamba scored 60.03 and 66.74, respectively. For the PianoEval dataset, scores were 72.92 for degraded signals, 76.89 for AERO, and 84.41 for AEROMamba., Comment: Accepted at LAMIR 2024 Workshop (ISMIR 2024 Satellite Event)

We give a counting formula in terms of modified Hall-Littlewood polynomials and the chromatic quasisymmetric function for the number of points on an arbitrary Hessenberg variety over a finite field. As a consequence, we express the Poincar\'e polynomials of complex Hessenberg varieties in terms of a Hall scalar product involving the symmetric functions above. We use these results to give a new proof of a combinatorial formula for the modified Hall-Littlewood polynomials., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures

A major challenge in quantum physics is the accurate simulation of fermionic systems, particularly those involving strong correlations. While effective for bosonic systems, traditional quantum Monte Carlo methods encounter the notorious sign problem when applied to Fermions, often resulting in biased outcomes through the fixed-node approximation. This work demonstrates the potential of machine learning techniques to address these limitations by allowing nodal structures to be learned through gradient descent optimization iterations and the variational algorithm. Using a neural network to represent the wave function, we focus on quantum dots containing up to 30 electrons. The results show a significant reduction in the variational bias, achieving greater accuracy and a lower ground state energy than diffusion Monte Carlo with the fixed-node approximation. Our approach paves the way for precise and accurate property predictions in fermionic strongly correlated systems, advancing fundamental understanding and applications in quantum technologies., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures

We propose a novel flexible and scalable framework to design integrated communication and computing (ICC) -- a.k.a. over-the-air computing (AirComp)-- receivers. To elaborate, while related literature so far has generally focused either on theoretical aspects of ICC or on the design of beamforming (BF) algorithms for AirComp, we propose a framework to design receivers capable of simultaneously detecting communication symbols and extracting the output of the AirComp operation, in a manner that can: a) be systematically generalized to any nomographic function, b) scaled to a massive number of user equipments (UEs) and edge devices (EDs), and c) support the multiple computation streams. For the sake of illustration, we demonstrate the proposed method under a setting consisting of the uplink from multiple single-antenna UEs/EDs simultaneously transmitting communication and computing signals to a single multiple-antenna base station (BS)/access point (AP). The receiver, which seeks to detect all communication symbols and minimize the distortion over the computing signals, requires that only a fraction of the transmit power be allocated to the latter, therefore coming close to the ideal (but unattainable) condition that computing is achieved "for free", without taking resources from the communication system. The design leverages the Gaussian belief propagation (GaBP) framework relying only on element-wise scalar operations, which allows for its use in massive settings, as demonstrated by simulation results incorporating up to 200 antennas and 200 UEs/EDs. They also demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method under all various loading conditions, with the performance of the scheme approaching fundamental limiting bounds in the under/fully loaded cases., Comment: Submitted to the IEEE for possible publication

We revisit the calculation of the soft gluon emission probability off a colour-singlet $q\bar q$ system that evolves in a quark-gluon plasma. The $q\bar q$ antenna is created in the presence of a medium and then emits a soft gluon outside. The gluon emission probability is modified with respect to the vacuum baseline due to interactions with the medium during the formation of the antenna and its propagation. Previous studies disregarded the former effect and found that the medium modification to the interference pattern of the antenna was controlled by the so-called critical angle $\theta_c$, that exclusively depends on medium properties. We find that accounting for medium interactions during the antenna formation enhances the total rate of emissions off the $q\bar q$ antenna. Interestingly, it also promotes the notion of a critical angle to a dynamic quantity, denoted $\tilde\theta_c$, that depends on both the medium and the antenna properties and is thus different for every splitting. As a consequence, depending on the region of parameter space, colour decoherence can either be delayed or accelerated with respect to previous estimates.

Purpose: Our research project focuses on improving the content update of the online European Smart Tourism Tools (STTs) Observatory by incorporating and categorizing STTs. The categorization is based on their taxonomy, and it facilitates the end user's search process. The use of a Smart ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) process, where \emph{Smart} indicates the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), is central to this endeavor. Methods: The contents describing STTs are derived from PDF catalogs, where PDF-scraping techniques extract QR codes, images, links, and text information. Duplicate STTs between the catalogs are removed, and the remaining ones are classified based on their text information using Large Language Models (LLMs). Finally, the data is transformed to comply with the Dublin Core metadata structure (the observatory's metadata structure), chosen for its wide acceptance and flexibility. Results: The Smart ETL process to import STTs to the observatory combines PDF-scraping techniques with LLMs for text content-based classification. Our preliminary results have demonstrated the potential of LLMs for text content-based classification. Conclusion: The proposed approach's feasibility is a step towards efficient content-based classification, not only in Smart Tourism but also adaptable to other fields. Future work will mainly focus on refining this classification process.

In this work we discuss how femtoscopic analysis can shed light on the nature of the two lightest axial charmed mesons, denominated as $D_1(2430)$ and $D_1(2420)$, whose masses are similar but widths are different. Their properties are reasonably described taking into account meson-meson coupled channel dynamics and a bare quark-model pole constituting the lowest-order amplitudes. Two different bare quark-model states are used in order to accommodate the different scattering lengths coming from the lattice QCD calculations for the $D\pi$ and $D^*\pi$ systems and the data from the ALICE Collaboration on the $D\pi$ system. The amplitudes are employed as inputs to determine the correlation functions for the $D^{*}\pi$ and $D\rho$ channels and identify the signatures associated with the lowest-lying axial charmed mesons., Comment: 6 pages; 2 figures; Proceedings of The 10th International Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics, (QNP 2024) Jul 8-12, 2024, Barcelona, Spain

The purpose of this paper is to present projective geometry in a synthetic, visual and intuitive style through the central notion of harmonicity which leads to harmonic curves. This presentation includes new results, unpublished proofs of some classic theorems and a slight reformulation of its axiomatics., Comment: The 11 figures are dynamic and can be viewed at: https://arquimedes.matem.unam.mx/harmonic curves/scenes.html

The value of brain-inspired neuromorphic computers critically depends on our ability to program them for relevant tasks. Currently, neuromorphic hardware often relies on machine learning methods adapted from deep learning. However, neuromorphic computers have potential far beyond deep learning if we can only harness their energy efficiency and full computational power. Neuromorphic programming will necessarily be different from conventional programming, requiring a paradigm shift in how we think about programming. This paper presents a conceptual analysis of programming within the context of neuromorphic computing, challenging conventional paradigms and proposing a framework that aligns more closely with the physical intricacies of these systems. Our analysis revolves around five characteristics that are fundamental to neuromorphic programming and provides a basis for comparison to contemporary programming methods and languages. By studying past approaches, we contribute a framework that advocates for underutilized techniques and calls for richer abstractions to effectively instrument the new hardware class., Comment: Accepted to International Conference on Neuromorphic Systems (ICONS) 2024. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2310.18260

We demonstrate that the search space of the quadratic assignment problem (QAP), known as an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem, can be reduced using Grover adaptive search (GAS) with Dicke state operators. To that end, we first revise the traditional quadratic formulation of the QAP into a higher-order formulation, introducing a binary encoding method ordered by a descending Hamming weight, such that the number of terms in the objective function is reduced. We also show that the phase gate in the GAS can be replaced by a rotation gate about the Z axis, simplifying the quantum circuit without any penalty. Algebraic analyses in terms of the number of qubits, quantum gates, and query complexity are performed, which indicate that our proposed approach significantly reduces the search space size, improving convergence performance to the optimal solution compared to the conventional one. Interestingly, it is suggested that the higher-order formulation is effective for problems whose size are powers of two, while the quadratic formulation is more effective for other sizes, indicating that switching between the two formulations can enhance the feasibility of the GAS-solved QAP., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures

Large language models have transformed AI, yet reliably controlling their outputs remains a challenge. This paper explores activation engineering, where outputs of pre-trained LLMs are controlled by manipulating their activations at inference time. Unlike traditional methods using a single steering vector, we introduce conceptors - mathematical constructs that represent sets of activation vectors as ellipsoidal regions. Conceptors act as soft projection matrices and offer more precise control over complex activation patterns. Our experiments demonstrate that conceptors outperform traditional methods across multiple steering tasks. We further use Boolean operations on conceptors for combined steering goals that empirically outperform additively combining steering vectors on a set of tasks. These results highlight conceptors as a promising tool for more effective steering of LLMs. Our code is available on github.com/jorispos/conceptorsteering., Comment: Presented at the MINT workshop at NeurIPS 2024

Release engineering has traditionally focused on continuously delivering features and bug fixes to users, but at a certain scale, it becomes impossible for a release engineering team to determine what should be released. At Meta's scale, the responsibility appropriately and necessarily falls back on the engineer writing and reviewing the code. To address this challenge, we developed models of diff risk scores (DRS) to determine how likely a diff is to cause a SEV, i.e., a severe fault that impacts end-users. Assuming that SEVs are only caused by diffs, a naive model could randomly gate X% of diffs from landing, which would automatically catch X% of SEVs on average. However, we aimed to build a model that can capture Y% of SEVs by gating X% of diffs, where Y >> X. By training the model on historical data on diffs that have caused SEVs in the past, we can predict the riskiness of an outgoing diff to cause a SEV. Diffs that are beyond a particular threshold of risk can then be gated. We have four types of gating: no gating (green), weekend gating (weekend), medium impact on end-users (yellow), and high impact on end-users (red). The input parameter for our models is the level of gating, and the outcome measure is the number of captured SEVs. Our research approaches include a logistic regression model, a BERT-based model, and generative LLMs. Our baseline regression model captures 18.7%, 27.9%, and 84.6% of SEVs while respectively gating the top 5% (weekend), 10% (yellow), and 50% (red) of risky diffs. The BERT-based model, StarBERT, only captures 0.61x, 0.85x, and 0.81x as many SEVs as the logistic regression for the weekend, yellow, and red gating zones, respectively. The generative LLMs, iCodeLlama-34B and iDiffLlama-13B, when risk-aligned, capture more SEVs than the logistic regression model in production: 1.40x, 1.52x, 1.05x, respectively.

The emergence of quantum computing and related technologies presents opportunities for enhancing network security. The transition towards quantum computational power paves the way for creating strategies to mitigate the constantly advancing threats to network integrity. In response to this technological advancement, our research presents QML-IDS, a novel Intrusion Detection System~(IDS) that combines quantum and classical computing techniques. QML-IDS employs Quantum Machine Learning~(QML) methodologies to analyze network patterns and detect attack activities. Through extensive experimental tests on publicly available datasets, we show that QML-IDS is effective at attack detection and performs well in binary and multiclass classification tasks. Our findings reveal that QML-IDS outperforms classical Machine Learning methods, demonstrating the promise of quantum-enhanced cybersecurity solutions for the age of quantum utility., Comment: Accepted at 29th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications

In this paper, we propose a novel low complexity time domain (TD) oversampling receiver framework under affine frequency division multiplexing (AFDM) waveforms for joint channel estimation and data detection (JCEDD). Leveraging a generalized doubly-dispersive channel model, we first derive the input-output (I/O) relationship for arbitrary waveforms when oversampled in the TD and present the I/O relationship for AFDM as an example. Subsequently, utilizing the multiple sample streams created via the oversampling procedure, we use the parametric bilinear Gaussian belief propagation (PBiGaBP) technique to conduct JCEDD for decoding the transmitted data and estimating the complex channel coefficients. Simulation results verify significant performance improvements both in terms of data decoding and complex channel coefficient estimation with improved robustness against a varying number of pilots over a conventional Nyquist sampling rate receiver., Comment: Submitted to the IEEE for possible publication

Group fairness in machine learning is a critical area of research focused on achieving equitable outcomes across different groups defined by sensitive attributes such as race or gender. Federated learning, a decentralized approach to training machine learning models across multiple devices or organizations without sharing raw data, amplifies the need for fairness due to the heterogeneous data distributions across clients, which can exacerbate biases. The intersection of federated learning and group fairness has attracted significant interest, with 47 research works specifically dedicated to addressing this issue. However, no dedicated survey has focused comprehensively on group fairness in federated learning. In this work, we present an in-depth survey on this topic, addressing the critical challenges and reviewing related works in the field. We create a novel taxonomy of these approaches based on key criteria such as data partitioning, location, and applied strategies. Additionally, we explore broader concerns related to this problem and investigate how different approaches handle the complexities of various sensitive groups and their intersections. Finally, we review the datasets and applications commonly used in current research. We conclude by highlighting key areas for future research, emphasizing the need for more methods to address the complexities of achieving group fairness in federated systems.

We consider the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction challenge of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems utilizing tone reservation (TR) under a sensing-enabling constraint, such that the signals placed in the reserved tones (RTs) can be exploited for Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC). To that end, the problem is first cast as an unconstrained manifold optimization problem, and then solved via an iterative projected gradient descent algorithm assisted by an approximation of the infinity norm. Simulation results show that the proposed method, while maintaining a level of PAPR reduction similar to state of the art (SotA), not only has lower computational complexity but also outperforms the alternatives in terms of sensing performance.

In this work we estimate the $N_{\psi(2S)} / N_{J/\psi}$ yield ratio in heavy-ion collisions, considering the interactions of the $\psi (2S) $ and $J/\psi$ states with light mesons in the hadron gas formed at the late stages of these collisions. Starting from the appropriate effective Lagrangians, we first compute the thermally-averaged cross sections for the production and absorption of the mentioned states, and then use them as input in the rate equations to determine the time evolution of $N_{\psi(2S)}$, $N_{J/\psi}$ and $N_{\psi(2S)} / N_{J/\psi}$. The main conclusion of our study is that the $\psi (2S) $ and $J/\psi$ multiplicities do not change much in the hadron gas phase and that the $\psi (2S)$ is more absorbed than the $J/\psi$. The obtained final ratio is in qualitative agreement with experimental data., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

Hybrid halide perovskites (HHPs) have attracted significant attention due to their remarkable optoelectronic properties that combine the advantages of low cost-effective fabrication methods of organic-inorganic materials. Notably, low-dimensional hybrid halide perovskites including two-dimensional (2D) layers and one-dimensional (1D) chains, are recognized for their superior stability and moisture resistance, making them highly appealing for practical applications. Particularly, DMAPbI3 has attracted attention due to other interesting behaviors and properties, such as thermally induced order-disorder processes, dielectric transition, and cooperative electric ordering of DMA dipole moments. In this paper, we investigated the interplay between low-temperature SPT undergone by the low-dimensional (1D) hybrid halide perovskite-like material DMAPbI3 and its optoelectronic properties. Our approach combines synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, thermo-microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and photoluminescence (PL) techniques. Temperature-dependent Synchrotron powder diffraction and Raman Spectroscopy reveal that the modes associated with I-Pb-I and DMA+ ion play a crucial role in the order-disorder SPT in DMAPbI3. The reversible SPT modifies its optoelectronic properties, notably affecting its thermochromic behavior and PL emission. The origin of the PL phenomenon is associated to self-trapped excitons (STEs), which are allowed due to a strong electron-phonon coupling quantified by the Huang-Rhys factor (S = 97+-1). Notably, we identify the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon mode at 84 cm-1 which plays a significant role in electron-phonon interaction. Our results show these STEs not only intensify the PL spectra at lower temperatures but also induce a shift in the color emission, transforming it from a light orange-red to an intense bright strong red., Comment: 38 pages, 8 figures

The TESS mission searches for transiting exoplanets by monitoring the brightness of hundreds of thousands of stars across the entire sky. M-type planet hosts are ideal targets for this mission due to their smaller size and cooler temperatures, which makes it easier to detect smaller planets near or within their habitable zones. Additionally, M~dwarfs have a smaller contrast ratio between the planet and the star, making it easier to measure the planet's properties accurately. Here, we report the validation analysis of 13 TESS exoplanet candidates orbiting around M dwarfs. We studied the nature of these candidates through a multi-colour transit photometry transit analysis using several ground-based instruments (MuSCAT2, MuSCAT3, and LCO-SINISTRO), high-spatial resolution observations, and TESS light curves. We present the validation of five new planetary systems: TOI-1883b, TOI-2274b, TOI2768b, TOI-4438b, and TOI-5319b, along with compelling evidence of a planetary nature for TOIs 2781b and 5486b. We also present an empirical definition for the Neptune desert boundaries. The remaining six systems could not be validated due to large true radius values overlapping with the brown dwarf regime or, alternatively, the presence of chromaticity in the MuSCAT2 light curves.

The femtoscopic $\phi N$ correlation function is studied within a hadronic effective Lagrangian approach with coupled channels, based on hidden local symmetry. The results are compared with the data recently reported by the ALICE collaboration. We find that the correlation function has very different features for the $\phi N$ system in the spin 1/2 and 3/2 configurations, with the spin-averaged combination matching well with the experimental data. A strong attraction, leading to the formation of a $\phi N$ bound state or a very prominent cusp is found in the spin 3/2 case. The correlation function for spin 1/2, on the other hand, is strongly impacted by the negative parity $N^*(1895)$ nucleon resonance., Comment: Updated version with some typos corrected and new references added

We present ground-based photometric observations of secondary eclipses of the hottest known planet KELT-9b using MuSCAT2 and Sinistro. We detect secondary eclipse signals in $i$ and $z_{\rm s}$ with eclipse depths of $373^{+74}_{-75}$ ppm and $638^{+199}_{-178}$, respectively. We perform an atmospheric retrieval on the emission spectrum combined with the data from HST/WFC3, Spitzer, TESS, and CHEOPS to obtain the temperature profile and chemical abundances, including TiO and VO, which have been thought to produce temperature inversion structures in the dayside of ultra-hot Jupiters. While we confirm a strong temperature inversion structure, we find low abundances of TiO and VO with mixing ratios of $\rm{log(TiO)}=-7.80^{+0.15}_{-0.30}$ and $\rm{log(VO)}=-9.60^{+0.64}_{-0.57}$, respectively. The low abundances of TiO and VO are consistent with theoretical predictions for such an ultra-hot atmosphere. In such low abundances, TiO and VO have little effect on the temperature structure of the atmosphere. The abundance of ${\rm e}^{-}$, which serves as a proxy for ${\rm H}^{-}$ ions in this study, is found to be high, with $\rm{log(e^-)}=-4.89\pm{0.06}$. These results indicate that the temperature inversion in KELT-9 b's dayside atmosphere is likely not caused by TiO/VO, but rather by the significant abundance of ${\rm H}^{-}$ ions. The best-fit model cannot fully explain the observed spectrum, and chemical species not included in the retrieval may introduce modeling biases. Future observations with broader wavelength coverage and higher spectral resolution are expected to provide more accurate diagnostics on the presence and abundances of TiO/VO. These advanced observations will overcome the limitations of current data from HST and photometric facilities, which are constrained by narrow wavelength coverage and instrumental systematics., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for publication in PASJ

The adjoint method is a popular method used for seismic (full-waveform) inversion today. The method is considered to give more realistic and detailed images of the interior of the Earth by the use of more realistic physics. It relies on the definition of an adjoint wavefield (hence its name) that is the time reversed synthetics that satisfy the original equations of motion. The physical justification of the nature of the adjoint wavefield is, however, commonly done by brute force with ad hoc assumptions and/or relying on the existence of Green's functions, the representation theorem and/or the Born approximation. Using variational principles only, and without these mentioned assumptions and/or additional mathematical tools, we show that the time reversed adjoint wavefield should be defined as a premise that leads to the correct adjoint equations. This allows us to clarify mathematical inconsistencies found in previous seminal works when dealing with visco-elastic attenuation and/or odd-order derivative terms in the equation of motion. We then discuss some methodologies for the numerical implementation of the method in the time domain and to present a variational formulation for the construction of different misfit functions. We here define a new misfit travel-time function that allows us to find consensus for the long-standing debate on the zero sensitivity along the ray path that cross-correlation travel-time measurements show. In fact, we prove that the zero sensitivity along the ray-path appears as a consequence of the assumption on the similarity between data and synthetics required to perform cross-correlation travel-time measurements. When no assumption between data and synthetics is preconceived, travel-time Frechet kernels show an extremum along the ray path as one intuitively would expect.

We propose a quantum-assisted solution for the maximum likelihood detection (MLD) of generalized spatial modulation (GSM) signals. Specifically, the MLD of GSM is first formulated as a novel polynomial optimization problem, followed by the application of a quantum algorithm, namely, the Grover adaptive search. The performance in terms of query complexity of the proposed method is evaluated and compared to the classical alternative via a numerical analysis, which reveals that under fault-tolerant quantum computation, the proposed method outperforms the classical solution if the number of data symbols and the constellation size are relatively large., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for presentation at the IEEE 100th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2024-Fall)

XR devices running chat-bots powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) have tremendous potential as always-on agents that can enable much better productivity scenarios. However, screen based chat-bots do not take advantage of the the full-suite of natural inputs available in XR, including inward facing sensor data, instead they over-rely on explicit voice or text prompts, sometimes paired with multi-modal data dropped as part of the query. We propose a solution that leverages an attention framework that derives context implicitly from user actions, eye-gaze, and contextual memory within the XR environment. This minimizes the need for engineered explicit prompts, fostering grounded and intuitive interactions that glean user insights for the chat-bot. Our user studies demonstrate the imminent feasibility and transformative potential of our approach to streamline user interaction in XR with chat-bots, while offering insights for the design of future XR-embodied LLM agents.

Results are presented for the measurement of large-scale anisotropies in the arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory during 19 years of operation, prior to AugerPrime, the upgrade of the Observatory. The 3D dipole amplitude and direction are reconstructed above $4\,$EeV in four energy bins. Besides the established dipolar anisotropy in right ascension above $8\,$EeV, the Fourier amplitude of the $8$ to $16\,$EeV energy bin is now also above the $5\sigma$ discovery level. No time variation of the dipole moment above $8\,$EeV is found, setting an upper limit to the rate of change of such variations of $0.3\%$ per year at the $95\%$ confidence level. Additionally, the results for the angular power spectrum are shown, demonstrating no other statistically significant multipoles. The results for the equatorial dipole component down to $0.03\,$EeV are presented, using for the first time a data set obtained with a trigger that has been optimized for lower energies. Finally, model predictions are discussed and compared with observations, based on two source emission scenarios obtained in the combined fit of spectrum and composition above $0.6\,$EeV., Comment: Minor modifications, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal

We consider the complete set of planar two-loop five-point Feynman integrals with two off-shell external legs. These integrals are relevant, for instance, for the calculation of the second-order QCD corrections to the production of two heavy vector bosons in association with a jet or a photon at a hadron collider. We construct pure bases for these integrals and reconstruct their analytic differential equations in canonical form through numerical sampling over finite fields. The newly identified symbol alphabet, one of the most complex to date, provides valuable data for bootstrap methods. We then apply our results to initiate the study of double Lagrangian insertions in a four-cusp Wilson loop in planar maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, computing it through two loops. We observe that it is finite, conformally invariant in four dimensions, and of uniform transcendentality. Furthermore, we provide numerical evidence for its positivity within the amplituhedron region through two loops., Comment: 33 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, 2 appendices, ancillary files at https://zenodo.org/records/13254698

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) perception describes a suite of technologies used to enable vehicles to perceive their surroundings and communicate with various entities, such as other road users, infrastructure, or the network/cloud. With the development of autonomous driving, V2X perception is becoming increasingly relevant, as can be seen by the tremendous attention recently given to integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) technologies. In this context, rigid body localization (RBL) also emerges as one important technology which enables the estimation of not only target's positions, but also their shape and orientation. This article discusses the need for RBL, its benefits and opportunities, challenges and research directions, as well as its role in the standardization of the sixth-generation (6G) and beyond fifth generation (B5G) applications.

We calculate four-loop QCD corrections to the electroweak $\rho$ parameter with a non-vanishing $b$ quark mass. At three loops, it was observed that elliptic integrals contribute to this observable. This prompts the question of which classes of functions appear at the next order. We report on the status of our calculation with a focus on the mathematical structures that emerge at four loops., Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the Loops and Legs in Quantum Field Theory conference (LL2024), 14-19 April 2024, Wittenberg, Germany

The first generation of ELT instruments includes an optical-infrared high-resolution spectrograph, indicated as ELT-HIRES and recently christened ANDES (ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph). ANDES consists of three fibre-fed spectrographs ([U]BV, RIZ, YJH) providing a spectral resolution of $\sim$100,000 with a minimum simultaneous wavelength coverage of 0.4-1.8 $\mu$m with the goal of extending it to 0.35-2.4 $\mu$m with the addition of a U arm to the BV spectrograph and a separate K band spectrograph. It operates both in seeing- and diffraction-limited conditions and the fibre feeding allows several, interchangeable observing modes including a single conjugated adaptive optics module and a small diffraction-limited integral field unit in the NIR. Modularity and fibre-feeding allow ANDES to be placed partly on the ELT Nasmyth platform and partly in the Coud\'e room. ANDES has a wide range of groundbreaking science cases spanning nearly all areas of research in astrophysics and even fundamental physics. Among the top science cases, there are the detection of biosignatures from exoplanet atmospheres, finding the fingerprints of the first generation of stars, tests on the stability of Nature's fundamental couplings, and the direct detection of the cosmic acceleration. The ANDES project is carried forward by a large international consortium, composed of 35 Institutes from 13 countries, forming a team of almost 300 scientists and engineers which include the majority of the scientific and technical expertise in the field that can be found in ESO member states., Comment: SPIE astronomical telescope and instrumentation 2024, in press

In this letter we report the first scientific result based on antineutrinos emitted from the BR2 reactor at SCK CEN. The SoLid experiment uses a novel type of highly granular detector whose basic detection unit combines two scintillators, PVT and 6LiF:ZnS(Ag), to measure antineutrinos via their inverse-beta-decay products. An advantage of PVT is its highly linear response as a function of deposited particle energy. The full-scale detector comprises 12800 voxels and operates over a very short 6.3--8.9 m baseline from the reactor core. The detector segmentation and its 3D imaging capabilities facilitate the extraction of the positron energy from the rest of the visible energy, allowing the latter to be utilised for signal-background discrimination. We present a result based on 280 reactor-on days (55 MW mean power) and 172 reactor-off days, respectively, of live data-taking. A total of 29479 $\pm$ 603 (stat.) antineutrino candidates have been selected, corresponding to an average rate of 105 events per day and a signal-to-background ratio of 0.27. A search for disappearance of antineutrinos to a sterile state has been conducted using complementary model-dependent frequentist and Bayesian fits, providing constraints on the allowed region of the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures