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The Athena mission entered a redefinition phase in July 2022, driven by the imperative to reduce the mission cost at completion for the European Space Agency below an acceptable target, while maintaining the flagship nature of its science return. This notably called for a complete redesign of the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) cryogenic architecture towards a simpler active cooling chain. Passive cooling via successive radiative panels at spacecraft level is now used to provide a 50 K thermal environment to an X-IFU owned cryostat. 4.5 K cooling is achieved via a single remote active cryocooler unit, while a multi-stage Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator ensures heat lift down to the 50 mK required by the detectors. Amidst these changes, the core concept of the readout chain remains robust, employing Transition Edge Sensor microcalorimeters and a SQUID-based Time-Division Multiplexing scheme. Noteworthy is the introduction of a slower pixel. This enables an increase in the multiplexing factor (from 34 to 48) without compromising the instrument energy resolution, hence keeping significant system margins to the new 4 eV resolution requirement. This allows reducing the number of channels by more than a factor two, and thus the resource demands on the system, while keeping a 4' field of view (compared to 5' before). In this article, we will give an overview of this new architecture, before detailing its anticipated performances. Finally, we will present the new X-IFU schedule, with its short term focus on demonstration activities towards a mission adoption in early 2027., Comment: 44 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy

The transition from the quantum to the classical world and its relation to Bose-Einstein condensation and superfluidity is explained in ten equations., Comment: 10 equations and 4 figures in 10 pages

The thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect arises from inverse Compton scattering of low energy photons onto thermal electrons, proportional to the integrated electron pressure, and is usually observed from galaxy clusters. However, we can expect that the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) also contributes to this signal, but that contribution has not been previously evaluated. In this work we analyse a suite of fully-coupled radiation-hydrodynamics simulations based on RAMSES-CUDATON to calculate and study the tSZ signal from the Reionization Epoch. We construct lightcones of the electron pressure in the intergalactic medium for $6

Using quantum equations of motion for interacting bosons, stochastic molecular dynamics simulations with quantized momenta are performed for Lennard-Jones helium-4. The viscosity of the quantum liquid is significantly less than that of the classical liquid, being almost 5 times smaller at the lowest temperature studied. The classical and quantum liquids are identical except for Bose-Einstein condensation, which pinpoints the molecular mechanism for superfluidity. The results rely on the existence of stochastic but real particle trajectories, which has implications for the interpretation of quantum mechanics., Comment: 12 pages. v2: two appendices added. v3: now with five appendices. v4: And one more appendix. v5: condensed version with only final formulation

This workshop will grow and consolidate a community of interdisciplinary CSCW researchers focusing on the topic of contestable AI. As an outcome of the workshop, we will synthesize the most pressing opportunities and challenges for contestability along AI value chains in the form of a research roadmap. This roadmap will help shape and inspire imminent work in this field. Considering the length and depth of AI value chains, it will especially spur discussions around the contestability of AI systems along various sites of such chains. The workshop will serve as a platform for dialogue and demonstrations of concrete, successful, and unsuccessful examples of AI systems that (could or should) have been contested, to identify requirements, obstacles, and opportunities for designing and deploying contestable AI in various contexts. This will be held primarily as an in-person workshop, with some hybrid accommodation. The day will consist of individual presentations and group activities to stimulate ideation and inspire broad reflections on the field of contestable AI. Our aim is to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue by bringing together researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders to foster the design and deployment of contestable AI., Comment: 5 pages, 0 figure, to be held as a workshop at CSCW'24

The Shannon information is shown to be different to the thermodynamic entropy, and indifferent to the Second Law of Thermodynamics., Comment: 4 pages, 10 equations

In today`s media landscape, the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in shaping societal perspectives and journalistic integrity is becoming increasingly apparent. This paper presents two case studies centred on Malta`s media market featuring technical novelty. Despite its relatively small scale, Malta offers invaluable insights applicable to both similar and broader media contexts. These two projects focus on media monitoring and present tools designed to analyse potential biases in news articles and television news segments. The first project uses Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing techniques to analyse the coherence between images in news articles and their corresponding captions, headlines, and article bodies. The second project employs computer vision techniques to track individuals` on-screen time or visual exposure in news videos, providing queryable data. These initiatives aim to contribute to society by providing both journalists and the public with the means to identify biases. Furthermore, we make these tools accessible to journalists to improve the trustworthiness of media outlets by offering robust tools for detecting and reducing bias., Comment: Accepted as a full paper in the proceedings of the IEEE 2024 Conference on Artificial Intelligence

Reactive software calls for instrumentation methods that uphold the reactive attributes of systems. Runtime verification imposes another demand on the instrumentation, namely that the trace event sequences it reports to monitors are sound -- that is, they reflect actual executions of the system under scrutiny. This paper presents RIARC, a novel decentralised instrumentation algorithm for outline monitors meeting these two demands. The asynchronous setting of reactive software complicates the instrumentation due to potential trace event loss or reordering. RIARC overcomes these challenges using a next-hop IP routing approach to rearrange and report events soundly to monitors. RIARC is validated in two ways. We subject its corresponding implementation to rigorous systematic testing to confirm its correctness. In addition, we assess this implementation via extensive empirical experiments, subjecting it to large realistic workloads to ascertain its reactiveness. Our results show that RIARC optimises its memory and scheduler usage to maintain latency feasible for soft real-time applications. We also compare RIARC to inline and centralised monitoring, revealing that it induces comparable latency to inline monitoring in moderate concurrency settings, where software performs long-running, computationally-intensive tasks, such as in Big Data stream processing.

The coalescence of the most massive black hole (MBH) binaries releases gravitational waves (GWs) within the detectable frequency range of Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) $(10^{-9} - 10^{-6})$ Hz. The incoherent superposition of GWs from MBH mergers, the stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (GWB), can provide unique information on MBH parameters and the large-scale structure of the Universe. The recent evidence for a GWB reported by the PTAs opens an exciting new window onto MBHs and their host galaxies. However, the astrophysical interpretation of the GWB requires accurate estimations of MBH merger timescales for a statistically representative sample of galaxy mergers. This is numerically challenging; a high numerical resolution is required to avoid spurious relaxation and stochastic effects whilst a large number of simulations is needed to sample a cosmologically representative volume. Here, we present a new multi-mass modelling method to increase the central resolution of a galaxy model at a fixed particle number. We follow mergers of galaxies hosting central MBHs with the Fast Multiple Method code Griffin at two reference resolutions and with two refinement schemes. We show that both refinement schemes are effective at increasing central resolution, reducing spurious relaxation and stochastic effects. A particle number of $N\geq 10^{6}$ within a radius of 5 times the sphere of influence of the MBHs is required to reduce numerical scatter in the binary eccentricity and the coalescence timescale to <30$\%$; a resolution that can only be reached at present with the mass refinement scheme., Comment: 13 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

In recent years, significant advancements have been made in the field of autonomous driving with the aim of increasing safety and efficiency. However, research that focuses on tractor-trailer vehicles is relatively sparse. Due to the physical characteristics and articulated joints, such vehicles require tailored models. While turning, the back wheels of the trailer turn at a tighter radius and the truck often has to deviate from the centre of the lane to accommodate this. Due to the lack of publicly available models, this work develops truck and trailer models using the high-fidelity simulation software CARLA, together with several roundabout scenarios, to establish a baseline dataset for benchmarks. Using a twin-q soft actor-critic algorithm, we train a quasi-end-to-end autonomous driving model which is able to achieve a 73% success rate on different roundabouts.

Botimer and Taborek (2016) measured the mass flux of superfluid $^4$He through a capillary into an evacuated chamber for various temperatures and pressures of the reservoir chamber. They found a sharp transition from low flux at low pressures to high flux at large pressures. Here it is shown that the superfluid condition of chemical potential equality predicts the induced temperature and also the transition pressure, which is attributed to the transition from a semispherical cap to a pool of $^4$He at the exit of the capillary. The results show that the two-fluid equations of superfluid flow, Landau's phonon-roton theory, and Feynman's critical vortex theory are unnecessary for a quantitative account of the measured transition pressure., Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures

A double fountain pressure model is used to analyze the recent measurements of Yu and Luo (arXiv2211.02236v4) of superfluid $^4$He flow between two chambers held at different temperatures via two superleaks and an intervening third chamber that spontaneously achieves a temperature higher than both fixed temperatures. The physical origin of the increased temperature in the intervening chamber is attributed to the balance between the rate of mechanical energy deposited by superfluid transport and the rate of convection back to the lower temperature chambers. An equation is given for the pressure of the third chamber, the measurement of which would confirm or refute the theory., Comment: 3 pages

Starting from Schr\"odinger's equation, Hamilton's classical equations of motion emerge from the collapse of the unsymmetrized wave function in a decoherent open quantum system entangled with its environment., Comment: 4 pages

Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with an interest in AI ethics need more integrative approaches for studying and intervening in AI systems across many contexts and scales of activity. This paper presents AI value chains as an integrative concept that satisfies that need. To more clearly theorize AI value chains and conceptually distinguish them from supply chains, we review theories of value chains and AI value chains from the strategic management, service science, economic geography, industry, government, and applied research literature. We then conduct an integrative review of a sample of 67 sources that cover the ethical concerns implicated in AI value chains. Building upon the findings of our integrative review, we recommend three future directions that researchers, practitioners, and policymakers can take to advance more ethical practices across AI value chains. We urge AI ethics researchers and practitioners to move toward value chain perspectives that situate actors in context, account for the many types of resources involved in co-creating AI systems, and integrate a wider range of ethical concerns across contexts and scales., Comment: 47 pages

The paradox of Bose-Einstein condensation is that phenomena such as the $\lambda$-transition heat capacity and superfluid flow are macroscopic, whereas the occupancy of the ground state is microscopic. This contradiction is resolved with a simple derivation for ideal bosons that shows Bose-Einstein condensation is into multiple low-lying states, not just the ground state., Comment: 2 pages, one idea

In the previous paper (Attard 2022d)on the fountain pressure in superfluid helium, it was shown that the experimentally confirmed expression of H. London (1939) was thermodynamically equivalent to equality of chemical potential. However this theoretical equivalence was not reflected in the experimental data. The problem has now been traced to errors in the enthalpy and entropy derived from the measured heat capacity by Donnelly and Barenghi (1998). In this paper the corrected thermodynamic data yields almost exact agreement between the two expressions and the measured fountain pressure. A physical explanation is given for energy minimization as the principle that drives the fountain effect and superfluid flow more generally., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 1 conclusion

The asynchronous and unidirectional communication model supported by mailboxes is a key reason for the success of actor languages like Erlang and Elixir for implementing reliable and scalable distributed systems. While many actors may send messages to some actor, only the actor may (selectively) receive from its mailbox. Although actors eliminate many of the issues stemming from shared memory concurrency, they remain vulnerable to communication errors such as protocol violations and deadlocks. Mailbox types are a novel behavioural type system for mailboxes first introduced for a process calculus by de'Liguoro and Padovani in 2018, which capture the contents of a mailbox as a commutative regular expression. Due to aliasing and nested evaluation contexts, moving from a process calculus to a programming language is challenging. This paper presents Pat, the first programming language design incorporating mailbox types, and describes an algorithmic type system. We make essential use of quasi-linear typing to tame some of the complexity introduced by aliasing. Our algorithmic type system is necessarily co-contextual, achieved through a novel use of backwards bidirectional typing, and we prove it sound and complete with respect to our declarative type system. We implement a prototype type checker, and use it to demonstrate the expressiveness of Pat on a factory automation case study and a series of examples from the Savina actor benchmark suite., Comment: Extended version of paper accepted to ICFP'23

Decoherent quantum equations of motion are derived that yield the trajectory of an open quantum system. The viscosity of superfluid Lennard-Jones helium-4 is obtained with a quantum stochastic molecular dynamics algorithm. The momentum state occupancy entropy is counted with a continuous representation of boson number and averages are obtained with umbrella sampling. Instantaneous snapshots of the Bose-Einstein condensed system show multiple highly occupied momentum states. The viscosity is obtained from the Onsager-Green-Kubo relation with the time correlation function modified in the quantum case. On the saturation curve, at higher temperatures the viscosities of the classical and quantum liquids are equal. With decreasing temperature the viscosity of the classical liquid increases whereas that of the quantum liquid decreases. Below the $\lambda$-transition the viscosity lies significantly below the classical value, being small but positive due to the mixture of condensed and uncondensed bosons. The computed trajectories give a physical explanation of the molecular mechanism for superfluidity., Comment: 23 Pages, 15 Figures

A new theory for Cooper pair formation and superconductivity is derived from quantum statistical mechanics. It is shown that zero momentum Cooper pairs have non-local permutations and behave as effective bosons with an internal weight close to unity when bound by a primary minimum in the potential of mean force. For a short-ranged, shallow, and highly curved minimum there is no thermodynamic barrier to condensation. The size of the condensing Cooper pairs found here is orders of magnitude smaller than those found in BCS theory. The new statistical theory is applicable to high temperature superconductors., Comment: 11 pages with Fig 6 included. See also P. Attard, "Attraction Between Electron Pairs in High Temperature Superconductors", arXiv:2203.02598 (2022)

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer, studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory, a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), it aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over an hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR, browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters. Finally we briefly discuss on the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, and touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation, and finally on the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. (abridged)., Comment: 48 pages, 29 figures, Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy with minor editing

The origin of the fountain pressure that arises from a small temperature difference in superfluid helium is analyzed. The osmotic pressure explanation due to Tisza (1938), based on the different fractions of ground state bosons, is formulated as an ideal solution and shown to overestimate the fountain pressure by an order of magnitude or more. The experimentally confirmed thermodynamic expression of H. London (1939), in which the temperature derivative of the pressure equals the entropy per unit volume, is shown to be equivalent to equality of chemical potential, not chemical potential divided by temperature. The former results from minimizing the energy at constant entropy, whereas the latter results from maximizing the entropy. It is concluded that superfluid flow in the fountain effect is driven by mechanical, not statistical, forces. This new principle appears to be a general law for flow in superfluids and superconductors., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, one idea

It is proposed that in high temperature superconductors Cooper pairs form and condense due to the monotonic-oscillatory transition in the pair potential of mean force, which occurs quite generally at high coupling in charge systems. It is shown that the predicted transition temperatures are broadly in line with measured superconducting transition temperatures for reasonable values of the total electron density and the residual dielectric permittivity arising from the immobile electrons. The predicted transition is independent of the isotopic masses of the solid. Consequent design principles for high temperature superconductors are discussed., Comment: 4 pages, 1 idea. Fig. 1 caption corrected