Search

Background: The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR , a modular array of isotopically enriched high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors, was constructed to demonstrate backgrounds low enough to justify building a tonne-scale experiment to search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay ($\beta\beta(0\nu)$) of $^{76}\mathrm{Ge}$. Purpose: This paper presents a description of the instrument, its commissioning, and operations. It covers the electroforming, underground infrastructure, enrichment, detector fabrication, low-background and construction techniques, electronics, data acquisition, databases, and data processing of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR. Method: The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR operated inside an ultra-low radioactivity passive shield at the 4850-foot~level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) from 2015-2021. Results and Conclusions: The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR achieved the best energy resolution and second-best background level of any $\beta\beta(0\nu)$ search. This enabled it to achieve an ultimate half-life limit on $\beta\beta(0\nu)$ in $^{76}\mathrm{Ge}$ of $8.3\times 10^{25}$~yr (90\% C.L.) and perform a rich set of searches for other physics beyond the Standard Model., Comment: 72 pages

From a spectroscopic survey of candidate H II regions in the Andromeda galaxy (M31) with MMT/Hectospec, we have identified 294 H II regions using emission line ratios and calculated elemental abundances from strong-line diagnostics (values ranging from sub-solar to super-solar) producing both Oxygen and Nitrogen radial abundance gradients. The Oxygen gradient is relatively flat, while the Nitrogen gradient is significantly steeper, indicating a higher N/O ratio in M31's inner regions, consistent with recent simulations of galaxy chemical evolution. No strong evidence was found of systematic galaxy-scale trends beyond the radial gradient. After subtracting the radial gradient from abundance values, we find an apparently stochastic and statistically significant scatter of standard deviation 0.06 dex, which exceeds measurement uncertainties. One explanation includes a possible collision with M32 200 - 800 Myrs ago. Using the two-point correlation function of the Oxygen abundance, we find that, similar to other spiral galaxies, M31 is well-mixed on sub-kpc scales but less so on larger (kpc) scales, which could be a result of an exponential decrease in mixing speed with spatial scale, and the aforementioned recent merger. Finally, the MMT spectroscopy is complemented by a dust continuum and CO survey of individual Giant Molecular Clouds, conducted with the Submillimeter Array. By combining the MMT and SMA observations, we obtain a unique direct test of the Oxygen abundance dependence of the $\alpha^{\prime}(^{12}\mathrm{CO})$ factor which is crucial to convert CO emission to dust mass. Our results suggest that within our sample there is no trend of the $\alpha^{\prime}(^{12}\mathrm{CO})$ with Oxygen abundance., Comment: MNRAS, in press

Humanoid robots are envisioned as embodied intelligent agents capable of performing a wide range of human-level loco-manipulation tasks, particularly in scenarios requiring strenuous and repetitive labor. However, learning these skills is challenging due to the high degrees of freedom of humanoid robots, and collecting sufficient training data for humanoid is a laborious process. Given the rapid introduction of new humanoid platforms, a cross-embodiment framework that allows generalizable skill transfer is becoming increasingly critical. To address this, we propose a transferable framework that reduces the data bottleneck by using a unified digital human model as a common prototype and bypassing the need for re-training on every new robot platform. The model learns behavior primitives from human demonstrations through adversarial imitation, and the complex robot structures are decomposed into functional components, each trained independently and dynamically coordinated. Task generalization is achieved through a human-object interaction graph, and skills are transferred to different robots via embodiment-specific kinematic motion retargeting and dynamic fine-tuning. Our framework is validated on five humanoid robots with diverse configurations, demonstrating stable loco-manipulation and highlighting its effectiveness in reducing data requirements and increasing the efficiency of skill transfer across platforms., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Accepted by IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine

The vertical plane transverse emittance of accelerated electron bunches at the AWAKE experiment at CERN has been determined, using three different methods of data analysis. This is a proof-of-principle measurement using the existing AWAKE electron spectrometer to validate the measurement technique. Large values of the geometric emittance, compared to that of the injection beam, are observed ($\sim \SI{0.5}{\milli\metre\milli\radian}$ compared with $\sim \SI{0.08}{\milli\metre\milli\radian}$), which is in line with expectations of emittance growth arising from plasma density ramps and large injection beam bunch size. Future iterations of AWAKE are anticipated to operate in conditions where emittance growth is better controlled, and the effects of the imaging systems of the existing and future spectrometer designs on the ability to measure the emittance are discussed. Good performance of the instrument down to geometric emittances of approximately $\SI{1e-4}{\milli\metre\milli\radian}$ is required, which may be possible with improved electron optics and imaging., Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures

In this paper the study of a non-local Cahn-Hilliard-type singularly perturbed family of functionals is undertaken, generalizing known results by Alberti & Bellettini. The kernels considered include those leading to Gagliardo seminorms for fractional Sobolev spaces. The limit energy is computed via $\Gamma$-convergence and shown to be an anisotropic surface energy on the interface between the two phases., Comment: 24 pages

While humans intuitively manipulate garments and other textile items swiftly and accurately, it is a significant challenge for robots. A factor crucial to human performance is the ability to imagine, a priori, the intended result of the manipulation intents and hence develop predictions on the garment pose. That ability allows us to plan from highly obstructed states, adapt our plans as we collect more information and react swiftly to unforeseen circumstances. Conversely, robots struggle to establish such intuitions and form tight links between plans and observations. We can partly attribute this to the high cost of obtaining densely labelled data for textile manipulation, both in quality and quantity. The problem of data collection is a long-standing issue in data-based approaches to garment manipulation. As of today, generating high-quality and labelled garment manipulation data is mainly attempted through advanced data capture procedures that create simplified state estimations from real-world observations. However, this work proposes a novel approach to the problem by generating real-world observations from object states. To achieve this, we present GARField (Garment Attached Radiance Field), the first differentiable rendering architecture, to our knowledge, for data generation from simulated states stored as triangle meshes. Code is available on https://ddonatien.github.io/garfield-website/, Comment: Project site: https://ddonatien.github.io/garfield-website/

Vision Large Language Models (VLLMs) are transforming the intersection of computer vision and natural language processing. Nonetheless, the potential of using visual prompts for emotion recognition in these models remains largely unexplored and untapped. Traditional methods in VLLMs struggle with spatial localization and often discard valuable global context. To address this problem, we propose a Set-of-Vision prompting (SoV) approach that enhances zero-shot emotion recognition by using spatial information, such as bounding boxes and facial landmarks, to mark targets precisely. SoV improves accuracy in face count and emotion categorization while preserving the enriched image context. Through a battery of experimentation and analysis of recent commercial or open-source VLLMs, we evaluate the SoV model's ability to comprehend facial expressions in natural environments. Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating spatial visual prompts into VLLMs for improving emotion recognition performance., Comment: Accepted by EMNLP2024 (Main, Long paper)

The Neptunian desert and savanna have been recently found to be separated by a ridge, an overdensity of planets in the $\simeq$3-5 days period range. These features are thought to be shaped by dynamical and atmospheric processes. However, their relative roles are not yet well understood. We intend to confirm and characterise the super-Neptune TESS candidate TOI-5005.01, which orbits a moderately bright (V = 11.8) solar-type star (G2 V) with an orbital period of 6.3 days. We confirm TOI-5005 b to be a transiting super-Neptune with a radius of $R_{\rm p}$ = $6.25\pm 0.24$ $\rm R_{\rm \oplus}$ ($R_{\rm p}$ = $0.558\pm 0.021$ $\rm R_{\rm J}$) and a mass of $M_{\rm p}$ = $32.7\pm 5.9$ $\rm M_{\oplus}$ ($M_{\rm p}$ = $0.103\pm 0.018$ $\rm M_{\rm J}$), which corresponds to a mean density of $\rho_{\rm p}$ = $0.74 \pm 0.16$ $\rm g \, cm^{-3}$. Our internal structure modelling indicates that the overall metal mass fraction is well constrained to a value slightly lower than that of Neptune and Uranus ($Z_{\rm planet}$ = $0.76^{+0.04}_{-0.11}$). We also estimated the present-day atmospheric mass-loss rate of TOI-5005 b but found contrasting predictions depending on the choice of photoevaporation model. At a population level, we find statistical evidence ($p$-value = $0.0092^{+0.0184}_{-0.0066}$) that planets in the savanna such as TOI-5005 b tend to show lower densities than planets in the ridge, with a dividing line around 1 $\rm g \, cm^{-3}$, which supports the hypothesis of different evolutionary pathways populating both regimes. TOI-5005 b is located in a key region of the period-radius space to study the transition between the Neptunian ridge and the savanna. It orbits the brightest star of all such planets, which makes it a target of interest for atmospheric and orbital architecture observations that will bring a clearer picture of its overall evolution., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. Abstract shortened. 35 pages, 26 figures

This paper presents the first search for dark matter axions with mass in the ranges 76.56 to 76.82 $\mu$eV and 79.31 to 79.53 $\mu$eV using a prototype setup for the MAgnetized Disk and Mirror Axion eXperiment (MADMAX). The experimental setup employs a dielectric haloscope consisting of three sapphire disks and a mirror to resonantly enhance the axion-induced microwave signal within the magnetic dipole field provided by the 1.6 T Morpurgo magnet at CERN. Over 14.5 days of data collection, no axion signal was detected. A 95% CL upper limit on the axion-photon coupling strength down to $|g_{a\gamma}| \sim 2 \times 10^{-11} \mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$ is set in the targeted mass ranges, surpassing previous constraints, assuming a local axion dark matter density $\rho_{a}$ of $0.3~\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{cm}^3$. This study marks the first axion dark matter search using a dielectric haloscope.

We present a novel candidate for cold dark matter consisting of condensed Cooper pairs in a theory of interacting fermions with broken chiral symmetry. Establishing the thermal history from the early radiation era to the present, the fermions are shown to behave like standard radiation at high temperatures, but then experience a critical era decaying faster than radiation, akin to freeze-out that sets the relic abundance. Through a second-order phase transition, fermion - antifermion pairs condense and the system asymptotes towards zero temperature and pressure. By the present era, the non-relativistic, massive condensate decays slightly faster than in the standard scenario -- a unique prediction that may be tested by combined measurements of the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure. We also show that in the case of massive fermions, the phase transition is frustrated, and freeze-out instead leaves a residual, long-lived source of dark energy., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, comments welcome!

The background index is an important quantity which is used in projecting and calculating the half-life sensitivity of neutrinoless double-beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) experiments. A novel analysis framework is presented to calculate the background index using the specific activities, masses and simulated efficiencies of an experiment's components as distributions. This Bayesian framework includes a unified approach to combine specific activities from assay. Monte Carlo uncertainty propagation is used to build a background index distribution from the specific activity, mass and efficiency distributions. This analysis method is applied to the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, which deployed arrays of high-purity Ge detectors enriched in $^{76}$Ge to search for $0\nu\beta\beta$. The framework projects a mean background index of $\left[8.95 \pm 0.36\right] \times 10^{-4}$cts/(keV kg yr) from $^{232}$Th and $^{238}$U in the DEMONSTRATOR's components., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

The projected sensitivity of the effective electron neutrino-mass measurement with the KATRIN experiment is below 0.3 eV (90 % CL) after five years of data acquisition. The sensitivity is affected by the increased rate of the background electrons from KATRIN's main spectrometer. A special shifted-analysing-plane (SAP) configuration was developed to reduce this background by a factor of two. The complex layout of electromagnetic fields in the SAP configuration requires a robust method of estimating these fields. We present in this paper a dedicated calibration measurement of the fields using conversion electrons of gaseous $^\mathrm{83m}$Kr, which enables the neutrino-mass measurements in the SAP configuration., Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures

The workshop focused on the application of ANAs to particle physics keeping in mind the ultimate goal of a collider at the energy frontier (10\,TeV, e$^+$/e$^-$, e$^-$/e$^-$, or $\gamma\gamma$). The development of ANAs is conducted at universities and national laboratories worldwide. The community is thematically broad and diverse, in particular since lasers suitable for ANA research (multi-hundred-terawatt peak power, a few tens of femtosecond-long pulses) and acceleration of electrons to hundreds of mega electron volts to multi giga electron volts became commercially available. The community spans several continents (Europe, America, Asia), including more than 62 laboratories in more than 20 countries. It is among the missions of the ICFA-ANA panel to feature the amazing progress made with ANAs, to provide international coordination and to foster international collaborations towards a future HEP collider. The scope of this edition of the workshop was to discuss the recent progress and necessary steps towards realizing a linear collider for particle physics based on novel-accelerator technologies (laser or beam driven in plasma or structures). Updates on the relevant aspects of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (ESPP) Roadmap Process as well as of the P5 (in the US) were presented, and ample time was dedicated to discussions. The major outcome of the workshop is the decision for ALEGRO to coordinate efforts in Europe, in the US, and in Asia towards a pre-CDR for an ANA-based, 10\,TeV CM collider. This goal of this coordination is to lead to a funding proposal to be submitted to both EU and EU/US funding agencies. This document presents a summary of the workshop, as seen by the co-chairs, as well as short 'one-pagers' written by the presenters at the workshop., Comment: 72 pages

We report the first result from a dark photon dark matter search in the mass range from ${78.62}$ to $83.95~\mathrm{\mu eV}/c^2$ with a dielectric haloscope prototype for MADMAX (Magnetized Disc and Mirror Axion eXperiment). Putative dark photons would convert to observable photons within a stack consisting of three sapphire disks and a mirror. The emitted power of this system is received by an antenna and successively digitized using a low-noise receiver. No dark photon signal has been observed. Assuming unpolarized dark photon dark matter with a local density of $\rho_{\chi}=0.3~\mathrm{GeV/cm^3}$ we exclude a dark photon to photon mixing parameter $\chi > 3.0 \times 10^{-12}$ over the full mass range and $\chi > 1.2 \times 10^{-13}$ at a mass of $80.57~\mathrm{\mu eV}/c^2$ with a 95\% confidence level. This is the first physics result from a MADMAX prototype and exceeds previous constraints on $\chi$ in this mass range by up to almost three orders of magnitude., Comment: v1

TOI-6255~b (GJ 4256) is an Earth-sized planet (1.079$\pm0.065$ $R_\oplus$) with an orbital period of only 5.7 hours. With the newly commissioned Keck Planet Finder (KPF) and CARMENES spectrographs, we determined the planet's mass to be 1.44$\pm$0.14 $M_{\oplus}$. The planet is just outside the Roche limit, with $P_{\rm orb}/P_{\rm Roche}$ = 1.13 $\pm0.10$. The strong tidal force likely deforms the planet into a triaxial ellipsoid with a long axis that is $\sim$10\% longer than the short axis. Assuming a reduced stellar tidal quality factor $Q_\star^\prime \approx10^7$, we predict that tidal orbital decay will cause TOI-6255 to reach the Roche limit in roughly 400 Myr. Such tidal disruptions may produce the possible signatures of planet engulfment that have been on stars with anomalously high refractory elemental abundances compared to its conatal binary companion. TOI-6255 b is also a favorable target for searching for star-planet magnetic interactions, which might cause interior melting and hasten orbital decay. TOI-6255 b is a top target (Emission Spectroscopy Metric of about 24) for phase curve observations with the James Webb Space Telescope., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables, accepted to AAS Journals. The first RV mass measurement from the Keck Planet Finder

In February 2017, the blazar OJ~287 underwent a period of intense multiwavelength activity. It reached a new historic peak in the soft X-ray (0.3-10 keV) band, as measured by Swift-XRT. This event coincides with a very-high-energy (VHE) $\gamma$-ray outburst that led VERITAS to detect emission above 100 GeV, with a detection significance of $10\sigma$ (from 2016 December 9 to 2017 March 31). The time-averaged VHE $\gamma$-ray spectrum was consistent with a soft power law ($\Gamma = -3.81 \pm 0.26$) and an integral flux corresponding to $\sim2.4\%$ that of the Crab Nebula above the same energy. Contemporaneous data from multiple instruments across the electromagnetic spectrum reveal complex flaring behavior, primarily in the soft X-ray and VHE bands. To investigate the possible origin of such an event, our study focuses on three distinct activity states: before, during, and after the February 2017 peak. The spectral energy distributions during these periods suggest the presence of at least two non-thermal emission zones, with the more compact one responsible for the observed flare. Broadband modeling results and observations of a new radio knot in the jet of OJ~287 in 2017 are consistent with a flare originating from a strong recollimation shock outside the radio core., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

MADMAX, a future experiment to search for axion dark matter, is based on a novel detection concept called the dielectric haloscope. It consists of a booster composed of several dielectric disks positioned with $\mu$m precision. A prototype composed of one movable disk was built to demonstrate the mechanical feasibility of such a booster in the challenging environment of the experiment: high magnetic field to convert the axions into photons and cryogenic temperature to reduce the thermal noise. It was tested both inside a strong magnetic field up to 1.6 T and at cryogenic temperatures down to 35K. The measurements of the velocity and positioning accuracy of the disk are shown and are found to match the MADMAX requirements., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures

Notwithstanding its relevance to many applications in sensing, security, and communications, electrical generation of narrow-band mid-infrared light remains highly challenging. Unlike in the ultraviolet or visible spectral regions few materials possess direct electronic transitions in the mid-infrared and most that do are created through complex band-engineering schemes. An alternative mechanism, independent of dipole active material transitions, relies instead on energy lost to the polar lattice through the Coulomb interaction. Longitudinal phonons radiated in this way can be spectrally tuned through the engineering of polar nanostructures and coupled to localized optical modes in the material, allowing them to radiate mid-infrared photons into the far-field. A recent theoretical work explored this process providing for the first time an indication of its technological relevance when compared to standard thermal emitters. In order to do so it nevertheless used an equilibrium model of the electron gas, making this model difficult to inform the design of an optimal device to experimentally observe the effect. The present paper removes this limitation, describing the electron gas using a rigorous, self-consistent, non-equilibrium Green's function model, accounting for variations in material properties across the device, and electron-electron interactions. Although the instability of the Schrodinger-Poisson iteration limits our studies to the low-bias regime, our results demonstrate emission rates comparable to that of room-temperature thermal emission despite such low biases. These results provide a pathway to design a confirmatory experiment of this new emission channel, that could power a new generation of mid-infrared optoelectronic devices., Comment: 15 Pages, 7 Figures

The fact that neutrinos carry a non-vanishing rest mass is evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model of elementary particles. Their absolute mass bears important relevance from particle physics to cosmology. In this work, we report on the search for the effective electron antineutrino mass with the KATRIN experiment. KATRIN performs precision spectroscopy of the tritium $\beta$-decay close to the kinematic endpoint. Based on the first five neutrino-mass measurement campaigns, we derive a best-fit value of $m_\nu^{2} = {-0.14^{+0.13}_{-0.15}}~\mathrm{eV^2}$, resulting in an upper limit of $m_\nu < {0.45}~\mathrm{eV}$ at 90 % confidence level. With six times the statistics of previous data sets, amounting to 36 million electrons collected in 259 measurement days, a substantial reduction of the background level and improved systematic uncertainties, this result tightens KATRIN's previous bound by a factor of almost two., Comment: 61 pages, 20 figures, 2 tables

The kinematics of the stellar halo hold important clues to the assembly history and mass distribution of the Galaxy. In this study, we map the kinematics of stars across the Galactic halo with the H3 Survey. We find a complex distribution that breaks both azimuthal symmetry about the $Z$-axis and mirror symmetry about the Galactic plane. This asymmetry manifests as large variations in the radial velocity dispersion $\sigma_r$ from as ``cold'' as 70 $\text{km}\text{ s}^{-1}$ to as ``hot'' as 160 $\text{km}\text{ s}^{-1}$. We use stellar chemistry to distinguish accreted stars from in-situ stars in the halo, and find that the accreted population has higher $\sigma_r$ and radially biased orbits, while the in-situ population has lower $\sigma_r$ and isotropic orbits. As a result, the Galactic halo kinematics are highly heterogeneous and poorly approximated as being spherical or axisymmetric. We measure radial profiles of $\sigma_r$ and the anisotropy parameter $\beta$ over Galactocentric radii $10-80\text{ kpc}$, and find that discrepancies in the literature are due to the nonspherical geometry and heterogeneous nature of the halo. Investigating the effect of strongly asymmetric $\sigma_r$ and $\beta$ on equilibrium models is a path forward to accurately constraining the Galactic gravitational field, including its total mass., Comment: submitted to ApJ; comments welcome

Satellite remote sensing missions have gained popularity over the past fifteen years due to their ability to cover large swaths of land at regular intervals, making them ideal for monitoring environmental trends. The FINCH mission, a 3U+ CubeSat equipped with a hyperspectral camera, aims to monitor crop residue cover in agricultural fields. Although hyperspectral imaging captures both spectral and spatial information, it is prone to various types of noise, including random noise, stripe noise, and dead pixels. Effective denoising of these images is crucial for downstream scientific tasks. Traditional methods, including hand-crafted techniques encoding strong priors, learned 2D image denoising methods applied across different hyperspectral bands, or diffusion generative models applied independently on bands, often struggle with varying noise strengths across spectral bands, leading to significant spectral distortion. This paper presents a novel approach to hyperspectral image denoising using latent diffusion models that integrate spatial and spectral information. We particularly do so by building a 3D diffusion model and presenting a 3-stage training approach on real and synthetically crafted datasets. The proposed method preserves image structure while reducing noise. Evaluations on both popular hyperspectral denoising datasets and synthetically crafted datasets for the FINCH mission demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach., Comment: To appear in 38th Annual Small Satellite Conference

The azimuthal correlation angle, $\Delta\phi$, between the scattered lepton and the leading jet in deep inelastic $e^{\pm}p$ scattering at HERA has been studied using data collected with the ZEUS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 318 \;\mathrm{GeV}$, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $326 \;\mathrm{pb}^{-1}$. A measurement of jet cross sections in the laboratory frame was made in a fiducial region corresponding to photon virtuality $10 \;\mathrm{GeV}^2 < Q^2 < 350 \;\mathrm{GeV}^2$, inelasticity $0.04 < y < 0.7$, outgoing lepton energy $E_e > 10 \;\mathrm{GeV}$, lepton polar angle $140^\circ < \theta_e < 180^\circ$, jet transverse momentum $2.5 \;\mathrm{GeV} < p_\mathrm{T,jet} < 30 \;\mathrm{GeV}$, and jet pseudorapidity $-1.5 < \eta_\mathrm{jet} < 1.8$. Jets were reconstructed using the $k_\mathrm{T}$ algorithm with the radius parameter $R = 1$. The leading jet in an event is defined as the jet that carries the highest $p_\mathrm{T,jet}$. Differential cross sections, $d\sigma/d\Delta\phi$, were measured as a function of the azimuthal correlation angle in various ranges of leading-jet transverse momentum, photon virtuality and jet multiplicity. Perturbative calculations at $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_{s}^2)$ accuracy successfully describe the data within the fiducial region, although a lower level of agreement is observed near $\Delta\phi \rightarrow \pi$ for events with high jet multiplicity, due to limitations of the perturbative approach in describing soft phenomena in QCD. The data are equally well described by Monte Carlo predictions that supplement leading-order matrix elements with parton showering.

A search for full energy depositions from bosonic keV-scale dark matter candidates of masses between 65 keV and 1021 keV has been performed with data collected during Phase II of the GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment. Our analysis includes direct dark matter absorption as well as dark Compton scattering. With a total exposure of 105.5 kg yr, no evidence for a signal above the background has been observed. The resulting exclusion limits deduced with either Bayesian or Frequentist statistics are the most stringent direct constraints in the major part of the 140-1021 keV mass range. As an example, at a mass of 150 keV the dimensionless coupling of dark photons and axion-like particles to electrons has been constrained to $\alpha$'/$\alpha$ < 8.7x10$^{-24}$ and g$_{ae}$ < 3.3x10$^{-12}$ at 90% credible interval (CI), respectively. Additionally, a search for peak-like signals from beyond the Standard Model decays of nucleons and electrons is performed. We find for the inclusive decay of a single neutron in $^{76}$Ge a lower lifetime limit of $\tau_n$ > 1.5x10$^{24}$ yr and for a proton $\tau_p$ > 1.3x10$^{24}$ yr at 90% CI. For the electron decay e$^-\rightarrow\nu_e\gamma$ a lower limit of $\tau_e$ > 5.4x10$^{25}$ yr at 90% CI has been determined., Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, 7 tables

Fine-tuned Large Language Models (LLMs) often suffer from overconfidence and poor calibration, particularly when fine-tuned on small datasets. To address these challenges, we propose a simple combination of Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) with Gaussian Stochastic Weight Averaging (SWAG), facilitating approximate Bayesian inference in LLMs. Through extensive testing across several Natural Language Processing (NLP) benchmarks, we demonstrate that our straightforward and computationally efficient approach improves model generalization and calibration competitively with comparable, more sophisticated methods for Bayesian inference in LLMs. We further show that our method exhibits greater robustness against distribution shift, as reflected in its improved performance on out-of-distribution tasks., Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables

In this paper, we present a novel benchmark for Emotion Recognition using facial landmarks extracted from realistic news videos. Traditional methods relying on RGB images are resource-intensive, whereas our approach with Facial Landmark Emotion Recognition (FLER) offers a simplified yet effective alternative. By leveraging Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to analyze the geometric and spatial relationships of facial landmarks, our method enhances the understanding and accuracy of emotion recognition. We discuss the advancements and challenges in deep learning techniques for emotion recognition, particularly focusing on Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) and Transformers. Our experimental results demonstrate the viability and potential of our dataset as a benchmark, setting a new direction for future research in emotion recognition technologies. The codes and models are at: https://github.com/wangzhifengharrison/benchmark_real_news

We present ViCAR, a library for working with monoidal categories in the Coq proof assistant. ViCAR provides definitions for categorical structures that users can instantiate with their own verification projects. Upon verifying relevant coherence conditions, ViCAR gives a set of lemmas and tactics for manipulating categorical structures. We also provide a visualizer that can display any composition and tensor product of morphisms as a string diagram, showing its categorical structure. This enables graphical reasoning and automated rewriting for Coq projects with monoidal structures., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures

The vast repository of van der Waals (vdW) materials supporting polaritons offers numerous possibilities to tailor electromagnetic waves at the nanoscale. The development of twistoptics - the modulation of the optical properties by twisting stacks of vdW materials - enables directional propagation of phonon polaritons (PhPs) along a single spatial direction, known as canalization. Here we demonstrate a complementary type of directional propagation of polaritons by reporting the visualization of unidirectional ray polaritons (URPs). They arise naturally in twisted hyperbolic stacks with very different thicknesses of their constituents, demonstrated for homostructures of $\alpha$-MoO$_3$ and heterostructures of $\alpha$-MoO$_3$ and $\beta$-Ga$_2$O$_3$. Importantly, their ray-like propagation, characterized by large momenta and constant phase, is tunable by both the twist angle and the illumination frequency. Apart from their fundamental importance, our findings introduce twisted asymmetric stacks as efficient platforms for nanoscale directional polariton propagation, opening the door for applications in nanoimaging, (bio)-sensing or polaritonic thermal management., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures