Search

One major challenge that institutions face when launching transformation efforts is that they operate in "silos," meaning that they have separate departments--for example, student services, financial aid, and advising--that operate independently with little communication or coordination. Many successful transformation efforts include a core group of people who are working together to influence outcomes on a specific issue. The decentralized nature of most colleges can create challenges to implementing a shared vision and making progress that students can see. Siloed teams may not have access to all the information needed to address a problem adequately, and multiple teams may implement contradictory solutions. Cross-functional teams (CFTs) are one potential response to the problem of silos. CFTs are defined as staff members from different functional areas working together to achieve common institutional goals. Bringing together members with different specialties can lead to faster transfers of knowledge, fewer redundancies, and higher-quality decisions. But CFTs do not always work effectively: they may have unclear governance, a lack of accountability, or unclear goals. However there has been little research on CFTs in the context of higher education. Launched in 2021, this project explores how institutions are assembling and using CFTs to advance their transformation efforts. MDRC partnered with three community colleges and one state agency overseeing higher education to explore their efforts to create these cross-functional teams. The researchers set out to document the interpersonal dynamics of these teams and to pilot test a tool at one institution to address barriers to CFTs' smooth operation. This brief shares descriptive findings and recommendations, with the goal of providing funders, researchers, and practitioners suggestions for future research.

This study explores a Bayesian algorithmic approach to personalized fragrance recommendation by integrating hierarchical Relevance Vector Machines (RVM) and Jungian personality archetypes. The paper proposes a structured model that links individual scent preferences for top, middle, and base notes to personality traits derived from Jungian archetypes, such as the Hero, Caregiver, and Explorer, among others. The algorithm utilizes Bayesian updating to dynamically refine predictions as users interact with each fragrance note. This iterative process allows for the personalization of fragrance experiences based on prior data and personality assessments, leading to adaptive and interpretable recommendations. By combining psychological theory with Bayesian machine learning, this approach addresses the complexity of modeling individual preferences while capturing user-specific and population-level trends. The study highlights the potential of hierarchical Bayesian frameworks in creating customized olfactory experiences, informed by psychological and demographic factors, contributing to advancements in personalized product design and machine learning applications in sensory-based industries., Comment: 15 pages, 0 figures

We revisit the Keplerian-like parametrization of the two-body problem in Yukawa gravity studied in the literature. Some inconsistencies which spoil the Bertrand's theorem, observed, in particular, in the formulae for the pericenter's advance are resolved. Moreover, inspired in this kind of study, we couple the Buckingham potential, a variation of the Lennard-Jones intermolecular potential, with the gravitational Newtonian potential and find a Keplerian-like parametrization for the solution of the two-body problem in this sort of gravity. The outcomes for the advance of the pericenter in both types of gravity are corroborated by using the Landau and Lifshitz's method., Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures

Summarization is one of the most common tasks performed by large language models (LLMs), especially in applications like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). However, existing evaluations of hallucinations in LLM-generated summaries, and evaluations of hallucination detection models both suffer from a lack of diversity and recency in the LLM and LLM families considered. This paper introduces FaithBench, a summarization hallucination benchmark comprising challenging hallucinations made by 10 modern LLMs from 8 different families, with ground truth annotations by human experts. ``Challenging'' here means summaries on which popular, state-of-the-art hallucination detection models, including GPT-4o-as-a-judge, disagreed on. Our results show GPT-4o and GPT-3.5-Turbo produce the least hallucinations. However, even the best hallucination detection models have near 50\% accuracies on FaithBench, indicating lots of room for future improvement. The repo is https://github.com/vectara/FaithBench

We show that quantum advantage in distributed sensing can be achieved with noisy quantum networks. When using depolarized GHZ states as the probe, we derive a closed-form fidelity threshold to achieve advantage over the optimal local sensing strategy. The threshold indicates that while entanglement is needed for this quantum advantage, genuine multipartite entanglement is generally unnecessary. We further explore the impacts from imperfect local entanglement generation and local measurement constraint, and our results imply that the quantum advantage is more robust against quantum network imperfections than local operation errors. Finally, we demonstrate that the quantum advantage in distributed sensing can be achieved with a three-node quantum network using practical protocol stacks through simulations with SeQUeNCe, an open-source, customizable quantum network simulator., Comment: Updated references, added copyright statement, modified format

In the most common literature about fractional calculus, we find that $_{a}D_{t}^{\alpha }f\left( t\right) =\,_{a}I_{t}^{-\alpha }f\left( t\right) $ is assumed implicitly in the tables of fractional integrals and derivatives. However, this is not straightforward from the definitions of $_{a}I_{t}^{\alpha }f\left( t\right) $ and $_{a}D_{t}^{\alpha }f\left( t\right) $. In this sense, we prove that $_{0}D_{t}^{\alpha }f\left( t\right) =\,_{0}I_{t}^{-\alpha }f\left( t\right) $ is true for $f\left( t\right) =t^{\nu -1}\log t$, and $f\left( t\right) =e^{\lambda t}$, despite the fact that these derivations are highly non-trivial. Moreover, the corresponding formulas for $_{-\infty }D_{t}^{\alpha }\left\vert t\right\vert ^{-\delta }$ and $_{-\infty }I_{t}^{\alpha }\left\vert t\right\vert ^{-\delta }$ found in the literature are incorrect; thus, we derive the correct ones, proving in turn that $_{-\infty }D_{t}^{\alpha }\left\vert t\right\vert ^{-\delta }=\,_{-\infty }I_{t}^{-\alpha }\left\vert t\right\vert ^{-\delta }$ holds true, Comment: 17 pages

Memristors stand out as promising components in the landscape of memory and computing. Memristors are generally defined by a conductance equation containing a state variable that imparts a memory effect. The current-voltage cycling causes transitions of the conductance, determined by different physical mechanisms such as the formation of conducting filaments in an insulating surrounding. Here we provide a unified description of the set and reset processes, by means of a single voltage activated relaxation time of the memory variable. This approach is based on the Hodgkin-Huxley model that is widely used to describe action potentials dynamics in neurons. We focus on halide perovskite memristors and their intersection with neuroscience-inspired computing. We show that the modelling approach adeptly replicates the experimental traits of both volatile and nonvolatile memristors. Its versatility extends across various device materials and configurations, capturing nuanced behaviors such as scan rate- and upper vertex-dependence. The model also describes well the response to sequences of voltage pulses that cause synaptic potentiation effects. This model serves as a potent tool for comprehending and probing the underlying mechanisms of memristors, by indicating the relaxation properties that control observable response, which opens the way for a detailed physical interpretation.

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.

In this paper, we compare semiparametric and parametric model adjustments for cancer mortality in breast and cervical cancer and prostate and lung cancer in men, according to age and period of death. Semiparametric models were adjusted for the number of deaths from the two localizations of greatest mortality by sex: breast and cervix in women; prostate and lungs in men. Adjustments in different semiparametric models were compared; which included making adjustments with different distributions and variable combinations in the parametric and non-parametric part, for localization as well as for scale. Finally, the semiparametric model with best adjustment was selected and compared to traditional model; that is, to the generalized lineal model with Poisson response and logarithmic link. Best results for the four kinds of cancer were obtained for the selected semiparametric model by comparing it to the traditional Poisson model based upon AIC, envelope correlation between estimated logarithm rate and real rate logarithm. In general, we observe that in estimation, rate increases with age; however, with respect to period, breast cancer and stomach cancer in men show a tendency to rise over time; on the other hand, for cervical cancer, it remains virtually constant, but for lung cancer in men, as of 2007, it tends to decrease., Comment: 13 pages, 4 tables, 3 figures

Quantum computing carries significant potential for addressing practical problems. However, currently available quantum devices suffer from noisy quantum gates, which degrade the fidelity of executed quantum circuits. Therefore, quantum circuit optimization is crucial for obtaining useful results. In this paper, we present QuCLEAR, a compilation framework designed to optimize quantum circuits. QuCLEAR significantly reduces both the two-qubit gate count and the circuit depth through two novel optimization steps. First, we introduce the concept of Clifford Extraction, which extracts Clifford subcircuits to the end of the circuit while optimizing the gates. Second, since Clifford circuits are classically simulatable, we propose Clifford Absorption, which efficiently processes the extracted Clifford subcircuits classically. We demonstrate our framework on quantum simulation circuits, which have wide-ranging applications in quantum chemistry simulation, many-body physics, and combinatorial optimization problems. Near-term algorithms such as VQE and QAOA also fall within this category. Experimental results across various benchmarks show that QuCLEAR achieves up to a $77.7\%$ reduction in CNOT gate count and up to an $84.1\%$ reduction in entangling depth compared to state-of-the-art methods., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables

Causal Bayesian networks (CBN) are popular graphical probabilistic models that encode causal relations among variables. Learning their graphical structure from observational data has received a lot of attention in the literature. When there exists no latent (unobserved) confounder, i.e., no unobserved direct common cause of some observed variables, learning algorithms can be divided essentially into two classes: constraint-based and score-based approaches. The latter are often thought to be more robust than the former and to produce better results. However, to the best of our knowledge, when variables are discrete, no score-based algorithm is capable of dealing with latent confounders. This paper introduces the first fully score-based structure learning algorithm searching the space of DAGs (directed acyclic graphs) that is capable of identifying the presence of some latent confounders. It is justified mathematically and experiments highlight its effectiveness., Comment: 17 pages, extended version with supplementary material of paper accepted at the 27th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI'24)

We investigate fractal structures in African and African diasporic music, building on hypotheses of choreographer Reggie Wilson and research on fractals in African material culture by Ron Eglash., Comment: 8 pages

We present a comprehensive study of the X-ray spectral properties of the accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J17498$-$2921 during its 2023 outburst. Similar to other accreting millisecond pulsars, the broad-band spectral emission observed quasi-simultaneously by NICER and NuSTAR is well described by an absorbed Comptonized emission with an electron temperature of $\sim$17 keV plus a disk reflection component. The broadening of the disk reflection spectral features, such as a prominent iron emission line at 6.4-6.7 keV, is consistent with the relativistic motion of matter in a disk truncated at $\sim$$21 \, \mathrm{R_g}$ from the source, near the Keplerian co-rotation radius. From the high-cadence monitoring data obtained with NICER, we observe that the evolution of the photon index and the temperature of seed photons tracks variations in the X-ray flux. This is particularly evident close to a sudden $\sim$-0.25 cycles jump in the pulse phase, which occurs immediately following an X-ray flux flare and a drop in the pulse amplitude below the $3\sigma$ detection threshold. We also report on the non-detection of optical pulsations with TNG/SiFAP2 from the highly absorbed optical counterpart., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to A&A

This work presents a novel quantum system characterization and error mitigation framework that applies Pauli check sandwiching (PCS). We motivate our work with prior art in software optimizations for quantum programs like noise-adaptive mapping and multi-programming, and we introduce the concept of PCS while emphasizing design considerations for its practical use. We show that by carefully embedding Pauli checks within a target application (i.e. a quantum circuit), we can learn quantum system noise profiles. Further, PCS combined with multi-programming unlocks non-trivial fidelity improvements in quantum program outcomes.

A perfect strategy is one that allows the mutually in-communicated players of a nonlocal game to win every trial of the game. Perfect strategies are basic tools for some fundamental results in quantum computation and crucial resources for some applications in quantum information. Here, we address the problem of producing qudit-qudit perfect quantum strategies with a small number of settings. For that, we exploit a recent result showing that any perfect quantum strategy induces a Kochen-Specker set. We identify a family of KS sets in even dimension $d \ge 6$ that, for many dimensions, require the smallest number of orthogonal bases known: $d+1$. This family was only defined for some $d$. We first extend the family to infinitely many more dimensions. Then, we show the optimal way to use each of these sets to produce a bipartite perfect strategy with minimum input cardinality. As a result, we present a family of perfect quantum strategies in any $(2,d-1,d)$ Bell scenario, with $d = 2^kp^m$ for $p$ prime, $m \geq k \geq 0$ (excluding $m=k=0$), $d = 8p$ for $p \geq 19$, $d=kp$ for $p > ((k-2)2^{k-2})^2$ whenever there exists a Hadamard matrix of order $k$, other sporadic examples, as well as a recursive construction that produces perfect quantum strategies for infinitely many dimensions $d$ from any dimension $d'$ with a perfect quantum strategy. We identify their associated Bell inequalities and prove that they are not tight, which provides a second counterexample to a conjecture of 2007., Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures

Diffusion Posterior Sampling (DPS) can be used in Computed Tomography (CT) reconstruction by leveraging diffusion-based generative models for unconditional image synthesis while matching the observations (data) of a CT scan. Of particular interest is its application in scenarios involving sparse or limited angular sampling, where conventional reconstruction algorithms are often insufficient. We developed a DPS algorithm for 3D reconstruction from a stationary CT (sCT) portable brain stroke imaging unit based on a multi-x-ray source array (MXA) of 31 x-ray tubes and a curved area detector. In this configuration, conventional reconstruction e.g., Penalized Weighted Least Squares (PWLS) with a Huber edge-preserving penalty, suffers from severe directional undersampling artifacts. The proposed DPS integrates a two-dimensional diffusion model, acting on image slices, coupled to sCT data consistency and volumetric regularization terms to enable 3D reconstruction robust to noise and incomplete sampling. To reduce the computational burden of DPS, stochastic contraction with PWLS initialization was used to decrease the number of diffusion steps. The validation studies involved simulations of anthropomorphic brain phantoms with synthetic bleeds and experimental data from an sCT bench. In simulations, DPS achieved ~130% reduction of directional artifacts compared to PWLS and 30% better recovery of lesion shape (DICE coefficient). Benchtop studies demonstrated enhanced visualization of brain features in a Kyoto Kagaku head phantom. The proposed DPS achieved improved visualization of intracranial hemorrhage and brain morphology compared to conventional model-based reconstruction for the highly undersampled sCT system.

We present an atmospheric retrieval analysis on a set of young, cloudy, red L-dwarfs -- CWISER J124332.12+600126.2 and WISEP J004701.06+680352.1 -- using the \textit{Brewster} retrieval framework. We also present the first elemental abundance measurements of the young K-dwarf (K0) host star, BD+60 1417 using high resolution~(R = 50,000) spectra taken with PEPSI/LBT. In the complex cloudy L-dwarf regime the emergence of condensate cloud species complicates retrieval analysis when only near-infrared data is available. We find that for both L dwarfs in this work, despite testing three different thermal profile parameterizations we are unable to constrain reliable abundance measurements and thus the C/O ratio. While we can not conclude what the abundances are, we can conclude that the data strongly favor a cloud model over a cloudless model. We note that the difficulty in retrieval constraints persists regardless of the signal to noise of the data examined (S/N $\sim$ 10 for CWISER J124332.12+600126.2 and~40 for WISEP J004701.06+680352.1). The results presented in this work provide valuable lessons about retrieving young, low-surface gravity, cloudy L-dwarfs. This work provides continued evidence of missing information in models and the crucial need for JWST to guide and inform retrieval analysis in this regime., Comment: Accepted to ApJ

Pauli Check Sandwiching (PCS) is an error mitigation scheme that uses pairs of parity checks to detect errors in the payload circuit. While increasing the number of check pairs improves error detection, it also introduces additional noise to the circuit and exponentially increases the required sampling size. To address these limitations, we propose a novel error mitigation scheme, Pauli Check Extrapolation (PCE), which integrates PCS with an extrapolation technique similar to Zero-Noise Extrapolation (ZNE). However, instead of extrapolating to the `zero-noise' limit, as is done in ZNE, PCE extrapolates to the `maximum check' limit--the number of check pairs theoretically required to achieve unit fidelity. In this study, we focus on applying a linear model for extrapolation and also derive a more general exponential ansatz based on the Markovian error model. We demonstrate the effectiveness of PCE by using it to mitigate errors in the shadow estimation protocol, particularly for states prepared by the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE). Our results show that this method can achieve higher fidelities than the state-of-the-art Robust Shadow (RS) estimation scheme, while significantly reducing the number of required samples by eliminating the need for a calibration procedure. We validate these findings on both fully-connected topologies and simulated IBM hardware backends.

Continuous-time quantum walks (CTQWs) on dynamic graphs, referred to as dynamic CTQWs, are a recently introduced universal model of computation that offers a new paradigm in which to envision quantum algorithms. In this work we develop a mapping from dynamic CTQWs to the gate model of computation in the form of an algorithm to convert arbitrary single edge walks and single self loop walks, which are the fundamental building blocks of dynamic CTQWs, to their circuit model counterparts. We use this mapping to introduce an arbitrary quantum state preparation framework based on dynamic CTQWs. Our approach utilizes global information about the target state, relates state preparation to finding the optimal path in a graph, and leads to optimizations in the reduction of controls that are not as obvious in other approaches. Interestingly, classical optimization problems such as the minimal hitting set, minimum spanning tree, and shortest Hamiltonian path problems arise in our framework. We test our methods against uniformly controlled rotations methods, used by Qiskit, and find ours requires fewer CX gates when the target state has a polynomial number of non-zero amplitudes., Comment: Comments are welcome!

We apply the quantum error detection scheme Pauli check sandwiching (PCS) to quantum networks by turning it into a distributed multiparty protocol. PCS is a distance 1 code and requires less resource overhead than standard quantum error correction and detection methods. We provide analytical equations for the final fidelity and postselection rate. We also introduce a recursive version of PCS for entanglement purification that only scales polynomially in the resources required as a function of the number of recursions. The recursive PCS scheme generates a family of distance 2 quantum codes. Our analytical results are benchmarked against BBPSSW in comparable scenarios. We also perform simulations with noisy gates for entanglement swapping and attain substantial fidelity improvements. Lastly, we discuss various setups and graph state properties of PCS., Comment: Comments are welcome!

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered hundreds of new worlds, with TESS planet candidates now outnumbering the total number of confirmed planets from $\textit{Kepler}$. Owing to differences in survey design, TESS continues to provide planets that are better suited for subsequent follow-up studies, including mass measurement through radial velocity (RV) observations, compared to Kepler targets. In this work, we present the TESS-Keck Survey's (TKS) Mass Catalog: a uniform analysis of all TKS RV survey data which has resulted in mass constraints for 126 planets and candidate signals. This includes 58 mass measurements that have reached $\geq5\sigma$ precision. We confirm or validate 32 new planets from the TESS mission either by significant mass measurement (15) or statistical validation (17), and we find no evidence of likely false positives among our entire sample. This work also serves as a data release for all previously unpublished TKS survey data, including 9,204 RV measurements and associated activity indicators over our three year survey. We took the opportunity to assess the performance of our survey, and found that we achieved many of our goals including measuring the mass of 38 small ($<4R_{\oplus}$) planets, nearly achieving the TESS mission's basic science requirement. In addition, we evaluated the performance of the Automated Planet Finder (APF) as survey support and observed meaningful constraints on system parameters due to its more uniform phase coverage. Finally, we compared our measured masses to those predicted by commonly used mass-radius relations and investigated evidence of systematic bias., Comment: 51 pages (22 of text), 24 figures

Releasing open-source large language models (LLMs) presents a dual-use risk since bad actors can easily fine-tune these models for harmful purposes. Even without the open release of weights, weight stealing and fine-tuning APIs make closed models vulnerable to harmful fine-tuning attacks (HFAs). While safety measures like preventing jailbreaks and improving safety guardrails are important, such measures can easily be reversed through fine-tuning. In this work, we propose Representation Noising (RepNoise), a defence mechanism that operates even when attackers have access to the weights. RepNoise works by removing information about harmful representations such that it is difficult to recover them during fine-tuning. Importantly, our defence is also able to generalize across different subsets of harm that have not been seen during the defence process as long as they are drawn from the same distribution of the attack set. Our method does not degrade the general capability of LLMs and retains the ability to train the model on harmless tasks. We provide empirical evidence that the efficacy of our defence lies in its ``depth'': the degree to which information about harmful representations is removed across all layers of the LLM. We also find areas where RepNoise still remains ineffective and highlight how those limitations can inform future research., Comment: Published in NeurIPs 2024

The excited states of unstable $^{20}$O were investigated via $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy following the $^{19}$O$(d,p)^{20}$O reaction at 8 $A$MeV. By exploiting the Doppler Shift Attenuation Method, the lifetime of the 2$^+_2$ and 3$^+_1$ states were firmly established. From the $\gamma$-ray branching and E2/M1 mixing ratios for transitions deexciting the 2$^+_2$ and 3$^+_1$ states, the B(E2) and B(M1) were determined. Various chiral effective field theory Hamiltonians, describing the nuclear properties beyond ground states, along with a standard USDB interaction, were compared with the experimentally obtained data. Such a comparison for a large set of $\gamma$-ray transition probabilities with the valence space in medium similarity renormalization group ab-initio calculations was performed for the first time in a nucleus far from stability. It was shown that the ab-initio approaches using chiral EFT forces are challenged by detailed high-precision spectroscopic properties of nuclei. The reduced transition probabilities were found to be a very constraining test of the performance of the ab-initio models., Comment: Supplemental Material available

Sub-Neptunes with $2-3R_\oplus$ are intermediate in size between rocky planets and Neptune-sized planets. The orbital properties and bulk compositions of transiting sub-Neptunes provide clues to the formation and evolution of close-in small planets. In this paper, we present the discovery and follow-up of four sub-Neptunes orbiting M dwarfs (TOI-782, TOI-1448, TOI-2120, and TOI-2406), three of which were newly validated by ground-based follow-up observations and statistical analyses. TOI-782 b, TOI-1448 b, TOI-2120 b, and TOI-2406 b have radii of $R_\mathrm{p} = 2.740^{+0.082}_{-0.079}\,R_\oplus$, $2.769^{+0.073}_{-0.068}\,R_\oplus$, $2.120\pm0.067\,R_\oplus$, and $2.830^{+0.068}_{-0.066}\,R_\oplus$ and orbital periods of $P = 8.02$, $8.11$, $5.80$, and $3.08$\,days, respectively. Doppler monitoring with Subaru/InfraRed Doppler instrument led to 2$\sigma$ upper limits on the masses of $<19.1\ M_\oplus$, $<19.5\ M_\oplus$, $<6.8\ M_\oplus$, and $<15.6\ M_\oplus$ for TOI-782 b, TOI-1448 b, TOI-2120 b, and TOI-2406 b, respectively. The mass-radius relationship of these four sub-Neptunes testifies to the existence of volatile material in their interiors. These four sub-Neptunes, which are located above the so-called ``radius valley'', are likely to retain a significant atmosphere and/or an icy mantle on the core, such as a water world. We find that at least three of the four sub-Neptunes (TOI-782 b, TOI-2120 b, and TOI-2406 b) orbiting M dwarfs older than 1 Gyr, are likely to have eccentricities of $e \sim 0.2-0.3$. The fact that tidal circularization of their orbits is not achieved over 1 Gyr suggests inefficient tidal dissipation in their interiors., Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ, 32 pages, 17 figures, 6 tables

Quantum error mitigation plays a crucial role in the current noisy-intermediate-scale-quantum (NISQ) era. As we advance towards achieving a practical quantum advantage in the near term, error mitigation emerges as an indispensable component. One notable prior work, Jigsaw, demonstrates that measurement crosstalk errors can be effectively mitigated by measuring subsets of qubits. Jigsaw operates by running multiple copies of the original circuit, each time measuring only a subset of qubits. The localized distributions yielded from measurement subsetting suffer from less crosstalk and are then used to update the global distribution, thereby achieving improved output fidelity. Inspired by the idea of measurement subsetting, we propose QuTracer, a framework designed to mitigate both gate and measurement errors in subsets of qubits by tracing the states of qubit subsets throughout the computational process. In order to achieve this goal, we introduce a technique, qubit subsetting Pauli checks (QSPC), which utilizes circuit cutting and Pauli Check Sandwiching (PCS) to trace the qubit subsets distribution to mitigate errors. The QuTracer framework can be applied to various algorithms including, but not limited to, VQE, QAOA, quantum arithmetic circuits, QPE, and Hamiltonian simulations. In our experiments, we perform both noisy simulations and real device experiments to demonstrate that QuTracer is scalable and significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches.

Beyond our solar system, aurorae have been inferred from radio observations of isolated brown dwarfs (e.g. Hallinan et al. 2006; Kao et al. 2023). Within our solar system, giant planets have auroral emission with signatures across the electromagnetic spectrum including infrared emission of H3+ and methane. Isolated brown dwarfs with auroral signatures in the radio have been searched for corresponding infrared features but have only had null detections (e.g. Gibbs et al. 2022). CWISEP J193518.59-154620.3. (W1935 for short) is an isolated brown dwarf with a temperature of ~482 K. Here we report JWST observations of strong methane emission from W1935 at 3.326 microns. Atmospheric modeling leads us to conclude that a temperature inversion of ~300 K centered at 1-10 millibar replicates the feature. This represents an atmospheric temperature inversion for a Jupiter-like atmosphere without irradiation from a host star. A plausible explanation for the strong inversion is heating by auroral processes, although other internal and/or external dynamical processes cannot be ruled out. The best fit model rules out the contribution of H3+ emission which is prominent in solar system gas giants however this is consistent with rapid destruction of H3+ at the higher pressure where the W1935 emission originates (e.g. Helling et al. 2019)., Comment: Accepted in Nature 9 February 2024

Creative coding is an experimentation-heavy activity that requires translating high-level visual ideas into code. However, most languages and libraries for creative coding may not be adequately intuitive for beginners. In this paper, we present AniFrame, a domain-specific language for drawing and animation. Designed for novice programmers, it (i) features animation-specific data types, operations, and built-in functions to simplify the creation and animation of composite objects, (ii) allows for fine-grained control over animation sequences through explicit specification of the target object and the start and end frames, (iii) reduces the learning curve through a Python-like syntax, type inferencing, and a minimal set of control structures and keywords that map closely to their semantic intent, and (iv) promotes computational expressivity through support for common mathematical operations, built-in trigonometric functions, and user-defined recursion. Our usability test demonstrates AniFrame's potential to enhance readability and writability for multiple creative coding use cases. AniFrame is open-source, and its implementation and reference are available at https://github.com/memgonzales/aniframe-language., Comment: Accepted for paper presentation at the 24th Philippine Computing Science Congress (PCSC 2024), held in Laguna, Philippines

Data report for the 3D3A Lab Binaural Room Impulse Response (BRIR) Dataset (https://doi.org/10.34770/6gc9-5787)., Comment: Submitted to Frontiers in Signal Processing

Building embodied AI systems that can follow arbitrary language instructions in any 3D environment is a key challenge for creating general AI. Accomplishing this goal requires learning to ground language in perception and embodied actions, in order to accomplish complex tasks. The Scalable, Instructable, Multiworld Agent (SIMA) project tackles this by training agents to follow free-form instructions across a diverse range of virtual 3D environments, including curated research environments as well as open-ended, commercial video games. Our goal is to develop an instructable agent that can accomplish anything a human can do in any simulated 3D environment. Our approach focuses on language-driven generality while imposing minimal assumptions. Our agents interact with environments in real-time using a generic, human-like interface: the inputs are image observations and language instructions and the outputs are keyboard-and-mouse actions. This general approach is challenging, but it allows agents to ground language across many visually complex and semantically rich environments while also allowing us to readily run agents in new environments. In this paper we describe our motivation and goal, the initial progress we have made, and promising preliminary results on several diverse research environments and a variety of commercial video games.

The passive retroreflector arrays placed on the moon by Apollo 11, 14 and 15 astronauts continue to produce valuable Earth-Moon range measurements that enable high-precision tests of gravitational physics, as well as studies of geo- and selenophysics. The optical throughput of these retroreflectors has declined since their deployment, with an additional signal loss at full moon when the reflectors experience direct solar illumination. We show that the loss in return rate can be attributed to the accumulation of a thin layer of lunar dust on the surfaces of the corner cube retroreflectors. First, a careful analysis of the optical link budget for the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation (APOLLO) experiment reveals that the lunar return rate is 15--20 times smaller than predicted, a deficit that can be explained by a reflector dust covering fraction of ${\sim} 50$\%. Second, range measurements taken during a lunar eclipse indicate that the solar illumination of the retroreflectors degrades their throughput by an additional factor of ${\sim}15$. Finally, a numerical simulation of heat transfer in dust-coated reflectors is able to model the resulting thermal lensing effect, in which thermal gradients in the retroreflectors degrade their far-field diffraction pattern. A comparison of this simulation to eclipse measurements finds a dust coverage fraction of ${\sim}50$%. Taken together, the link analysis, eclipse observations and thermal modeling support the claim that the retroreflectors are obscured by lunar dust, with both link budget and simulation independently finding the dust fraction to be $\sim$50%.