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A spinning supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the core of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) provides room for the elusive ultra-light scalar particles (ULSP) to be produced through a phenomenon called \textit{superradiance}. As a result of this phenomenon, a cloud of scalar particles forms around the black hole by draining the spin angular momentum of the SMBH. In this work, we present a study of the superradiant instability due to a scalar field in the vicinity of the central SMBH in an AGN. We begin by showing that the time-evolution of the gravitational coupling $\alpha$ in a realistic ambiance created by the accretion disk around the SMBH in AGN leads to interesting consequences such as the amplified growth of the scalar cloud, enhancement of the gravitational wave emission rate, and appearance of higher modes of superradiance within the age of the Universe ($\sim 10^{10}$ years). We then explore the consequence of superradiance on the characteristics of the AGN. Using the Novikov-Thorne model for an accretion disk, we divide the full spectrum into three distinct wavelength bands- X-ray ($10^{-4}-10^{-2}~\mu$m), UV (0.010-0.4~$\mu$m), and Vis-IR (0.4~$\mu$m-100~$\mu$m) and observe sudden drops in the time-variations of the luminosities across these bands and Eddington ratio ($f_{\textrm{Edd}}$) with a characteristic timescale of superradiance. Using a uniform distribution of spin and mass of the SMBHs in AGNs, we demonstrate the appearance of depleted regions and accumulations along the boundaries of these regions in the planes of different band-luminosities and $f_{\textrm{Edd}}$. Finally, we discuss some possible signatures of superradiance that can be drawn from the observed time-variation of the AGN luminosities., Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. Comments are welcome

As AI/ML models, including Large Language Models, continue to scale with massive datasets, so does their consumption of undeniably limited natural resources, and impact on society. In this collaboration between AI, Sustainability, HCI and legal researchers, we aim to enable a transition to sustainable AI development by enabling stakeholders across the AI value chain to assess and quantitfy the environmental and societal impact of AI. We present the ESG Digital and Green Index (DGI), which offers a dashboard for assessing a company's performance in achieving sustainability targets. This includes monitoring the efficiency and sustainable use of limited natural resources related to AI technologies (water, electricity, etc). It also addresses the societal and governance challenges related to AI. The DGI creates incentives for companies to align their pathway with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The value, challenges and limitations of our methodology and findings are discussed in the paper.

In this work, we report on the effectiveness of our efforts to tailor the personality and conversational style of a conversational agent based on GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 through prompts. We use three personality dimensions with two levels each to create eight conversational agents archetypes. Ten conversations were collected per chatbot, of ten exchanges each, generating 1600 exchanges across GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analysis, we compared the eight agents on language elements including clout, authenticity, and emotion. Four language cues were significantly distinguishing in GPT-3.5, while twelve were distinguishing in GPT-4. With thirteen out of a total nineteen cues in LIWC appearing as significantly distinguishing, our results suggest possible novel prompting approaches may be needed to better suit the creation and evaluation of persistent conversational agent personalities or language styles., Comment: 6 pages, 1 table, PGAI CIKM 2023

Tactile Internet based operations, e.g., telesurgery, rely on end-to-end closed loop control for accuracy and corrections. The feedback and control are subject to network latency and loss. We design two edge intelligence algorithms hosted at P4 programmable end switches. These algorithms locally compute and command corrective signals, thereby dispense the feedback signals from traversing the network to the other ends and save on control loop latency and network load. We implement these algorithms entirely on data plane on Netronome Agilio SmartNICs using P4. Our first algorithm, $\textit{pose correction}$, is placed at the edge switch connected to an industrial robot gripping a tool. The round trip between transmitting force sensor array readings to the edge switch and receiving correct tip coordinates at the robot is shown to be less than $100~\mu s$. The second algorithm, $\textit{tremor suppression}$, is placed at the edge switch connected to the human operator. It suppresses physiological tremors of amplitudes smaller than $100~\mu m$ which not only improves the application's performance but also reduces the network load up to $99.9\%$. Our solution allows edge intelligence modules to seamlessly switch between the algorithms based on the tasks being executed at the end hosts.

A detailed analysis is presented of gravitational microlensing by intervening compact objects of the black hole shadows imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). We show how the center, size, and shape of the shadow depend on the Einstein angle relative to the true/unlensed shadow size, and how the location of the lens affects the shift, size, and asymmetry of the black hole shadow due to microlensing. Assuming a supermassive black hole (SMBH) casts a circular-shaped true shadow, microlensing can create an asymmetry of up to approximately 8\%, which is twice the asymmetry caused by the SMBH's spin and its tilt relative to us. Furthermore, the size can be enhanced by $\sim$50\% of the true shadow. Currently, the terrestrial baselines of EHT lack the resolution to detect microlensing signatures in the shadows. However, future expansions of EHT, including space-based baselines at the Moon and L$_2$, could potentially enable the detection of microlensing events. For Sgr A$^*$, an event rate of 0.0014 per year makes the microlensing phenomena difficult to observe even with space-based baselines for the stellar population in the stellar bulge and stellar disk for lens masses $\sim M_\odot$. Nonetheless, the presence of a cluster of 20,000 stellar-mass black holes in the central parsec of the Milky Way, expected to arise from dynamical friction acting on infalling stellar clusters, significantly boosts the event rate. Hence, continuously monitoring the shadow of Sgr A$^*$ could offer novel insights into the compact object population surrounding the Galactic Center., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 19 pages, 17 figures, 1 table

The Gaia space telescope allows for unprecedented accuracy for astrometric measurements of stars in the Galaxy. In this work, we explore the sensitivity of Gaia to detect primordial black hole (PBH) dark matter through the distortions that PBHs would create in the apparent trajectories of background stars, an effect known as astrometric microlensing (AML). We present a novel calculation of the lensing probability, and we combine this with the existing publicly released Gaia eDR3 stellar catalog to predict the expected rate of AML events that Gaia will see. We also compute the expected distribution of a few event observables, which will be useful for reducing backgrounds. Assuming that the astrophysical background rate of AML like events due to other sources is negligible, we then compute the potential exclusion that could be set on the parameter space of PBHs with a monochromatic mass function. We find that Gaia is sensitive to PBHs in the range of $0.4~M_\odot$ - $5\times10^7~M_\odot$, and has peak sensitivity to PBHs of $\sim 10~M_\odot$ for which it can rule out as little as a fraction $3\times10^{-4}$ of dark matter composed of PBHs. With this exquisite sensitivity, Gaia has the potential to rule out a PBH origin for the gravitational wave signals seen at LIGO/Virgo. Our novel calculation of the lensing probability includes for the first time, the effect of intermediate duration lensing events, where the lensing event lasts for a few years, but for a period which is still shorter than the Gaia mission lifetime. The lower end of our predicted mass exclusion is especially sensitive to this class of events. As and when time-series data for Gaia is released, and once we have a better understanding of the backgrounds, our prediction of the lensing rate and event observable distributions will be useful to estimate the true exclusion/discovery of the PBH parameter space utilizing this data., Comment: 46 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables. Discussion on astrophysical binary backgrounds updated

EmpathiCH aims at bringing together and blend different expertise to develop new research agenda in the context of "Empathy-Centric Design at Scale". The main research question is to investigate how new technologies can contribute to the elicitation of empathy across and within multiple stakeholders at scale; and how empathy can be used to design solutions to societal problems that are not only effective but also balanced, inclusive, and aware of their effect on society. Through presentations, participatory sessions, and a living experiment -- where data about the peoples' interactions is collected throughout the event -- we aim to make this workshop the ideal venue to foster collaboration, build networks, and shape the future direction of "Empathy-Centric Design at Scale"., Comment: accepted at Workshops at the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2022)

Traditional approaches to data-informed policymaking are often tailored to specific contexts and lack strong citizen involvement and collaboration, which are required to design sustainable policies. We argue the importance of empathy-based methods in the policymaking domain given the successes in diverse settings, such as healthcare and education. In this paper, we introduce COCTEAU (Co-Creating The European Union), a novel framework built on the combination of empathy and gamification to create a tool aimed at strengthening interactions between citizens and policy-makers. We describe our design process and our concrete implementation, which has already undergone preliminary assessments with different stakeholders. Moreover, we briefly report pilot results from the assessment. Finally, we describe the structure and goals of our demonstration regarding the newfound formats and organizational aspects of academic conferences., Comment: accepted at Posters and Demos Track at The Web Conference 2022 (WWW 2022)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly used to analyze large amounts of data in various practices, such as object recognition. We are specifically interested in using AI-powered systems to engage local communities in developing plans or solutions for pressing societal and environmental concerns. Such local contexts often involve multiple stakeholders with different and even contradictory agendas, resulting in mismatched expectations of these systems' behaviors and desired outcomes. There is a need to investigate if AI models and pipelines can work as expected in different contexts through co-creation and field deployment. Based on case studies in co-creating AI-powered systems with local people, we explain challenges that require more attention and provide viable paths to bridge AI research with citizen needs. We advocate for developing new collaboration approaches and mindsets that are needed to co-create AI-powered systems in multi-stakeholder contexts to address local concerns., Comment: This manuscript is peer-reviewed and accepted by the Patterns journal