Search

The precision measurement of the tritium $\beta$-decay spectrum performed by the KATRIN experiment provides a unique way to search for general neutrino interactions (GNI). All theoretical allowed GNI terms involving neutrinos are incorporated into a low-energy effective field theory, and can be identified by specific signatures in the measured tritium $\beta$-spectrum. In this paper an effective description of the impact of GNI on the $\beta$-spectrum is formulated and the first constraints on the effective GNI parameters are derived based on the 4 million electrons collected in the second measurement campaign of KATRIN in 2019. In addition, constraints on selected types of interactions are investigated, thereby exploring the potential of KATRIN to search for more specific new physics cases, including a right-handed W boson, a charged Higgs or leptoquarks.

We present a proposal for a future light dark matter search experiment at the Electron Stretcher Accelerator ELSA in Bonn: Lohengrin. It employs the fixed-target missing momentum based technique for searching for dark-sector particles. The Lohengrin experiment uses a high intensity electron beam that is shot onto a thin target to produce mainly SM bremsstrahlung and - in rare occasions - possibly new particles coupling feebly to the electron. A well motivated candidate for such a new particle is the dark photon, a new massive gauge boson arising from a new gauge interaction in a dark sector and mixing kinetically with the standard model photon. The Lohengrin experiment is estimated to reach sensitivity to couplings small enough to explain the relic abundance of dark matter in various models for dark photon masses between approximately 1 MeV and approximately 100 MeV.

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 advancements in smart sensors for Industry 4.0 offer ample opportunities for low-powered predictive maintenance and condition monitoring. However, traditional approaches in this field rely on processing in the cloud, which incurs high costs in energy and storage. This paper investigates the potential of neural networks for low-power on-device computation of vibration sensor data for predictive maintenance. We review the literature on Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) and Artificial Neuronal Networks (ANNs) for vibration-based predictive maintenance by analyzing datasets, data preprocessing, network architectures, and hardware implementations. Our findings suggest that no satisfactory standard benchmark dataset exists for evaluating neural networks in predictive maintenance tasks. Furthermore frequency domain transformations are commonly employed for preprocessing. SNNs mainly use shallow feed forward architectures, whereas ANNs explore a wider range of models and deeper networks. Finally, we highlight the need for future research on hardware implementations of neural networks for low-power predictive maintenance applications and the development of a standardized benchmark dataset., Comment: The final version will be published at the ECML-PKDD 2024 joint post-workshop proceeding in Springer Communications in Computer and Information Science

Surveys in the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud revealed that the majority of massive stars will interact with companions during their lives. However, knowledge of the binary properties of massive stars at low metallicity, which approaches the conditions of the Early Universe, remains sparse. We present the Binarity at LOw Metallicity (BLOeM) campaign - an ESO large programme designed to obtain 25 epochs of spectroscopy for 929 massive stars in the SMC - the lowest metallicity conditions in which multiplicity is probed to date (Z = 0.2 Zsun). BLOeM will provide (i) the binary fraction, (ii) the orbital configurations of systems with periods P < 3 yr, (iii) dormant OB+BH binaries, and (iv) a legacy database of physical parameters of massive stars at low metallicity. The stars are observed with the LR02 setup of the giraffe instrument of the Very Large Telescope (3960-4570A, resolving power R=6200; typical signal-to-noise ratio S/N=70-100). This paper utilises the first 9 epochs obtained over a three-month time. We describe the survey and data reduction, perform a spectral classification of the stacked spectra, and construct a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of the sample via spectral-type and photometric calibrations. The sample covers spectral types from O4 to F5, spanning the effective temperature and luminosity ranges 6.5

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

Collider processes with identified hadrons in the final state are widely studied in view of determining details of the proton structure and of understanding hadronization. Their theory description requires the introduction of fragmentation functions, which parametrise the transition of a produced parton into the identified hadron. To compute higher-order perturbative corrections to these processes requires a subtraction method for infrared singular configurations. We extend the antenna subtraction method to hadron fragmentation processes in hadronic collisions up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD by computing the required fragmentation antenna functions in initial-final kinematics. The integrated antenna functions retain their dependence on the momentum fractions of the incoming and fragmenting partons., Comment: 55 pages, 27 tables; v2: as published

In order to predict the black hole mass distributions at high redshift, we need to understand whether very massive single stars ($M>40$ M$_\odot$) at low metallicity $Z$ lose their hydrogen-rich envelopes, like their metal-rich counterparts, or whether a binary companion is required to achieve this. To test this, we undertake a deep spectroscopic search for binary companions of the seven apparently single Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC; $Z \simeq 1/5 Z_\odot$). For each of them, we acquired six high-quality VLT-UVES spectra spread over 1.5 years. By using the narrow N V lines in these spectra, we monitor radial velocity (RV) variations to search for binary motion. We find low RV variations between 6 and 23 km/s for the seven WR stars, with a median standard deviation of $5$ km/s. Our Monte Carlo simulations imply probabilities below ~5% for any of our target WR stars to have a binary companion more massive than ~5 M$_\odot$ at orbital periods of less than a year. We estimate that the probability that all our target WR stars have companions with orbital periods shorter than 10 yr is below ~10$^{-5}$, and argue that the observed modest RV variations may originate from intrinsic atmosphere or wind variability. Our findings imply that metal-poor massive stars born with $M \gtrsim 40$ M$_\odot$ can lose most of their hydrogen-rich envelopes via stellar winds or eruptive mass loss, which strongly constrains their initial mass - black hole mass relation. We also identify two of our seven target stars (SMC AB1 and SMC AB11) as runaway stars with a peculiar radial velocity of ~80 km/s. Moreover, with all five previously detected WR binaries in the SMC exhibiting orbital periods of below 20 d, a puzzling absence of intermediate-to-long-period WR binaries has emerged, with strong implications for the outcome of massive binary interaction at low metallicity., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We give a $K$-theoretic and geometric interpretation for a generalized weighted Ehrhart theory of a full-dimensional lattice polytope $P$, depending on a given homogeneous polynomial function $\varphi$ on $P$, and with Laurent polynomial weights $f_Q(y)\in \mathbb{Z}[y^{\pm 1}]$ associated to the faces $Q \preceq P$ of the polytope. For this purpose, we calculate equivariant $K$-theoretic Hodge-Chern classes of an equivariant mixed Hodge module $\mathcal{M}$ on the toric variety $X_P$ associated to $P$ (defined via an equivariant embedding of $X_P$ into an ambient smooth variety). For any integer $\ell$, we introduce a corresponding equivariant Hodge $\chi_y$-polynomial $\chi_y(X_P, \ell D_P; [\mathcal{M}])$, with $D_P$ the corresponding ample Cartier divisor on $X_P$ (defined by the facet presentation of $P$). Motivic properties of the Hodge-Chern classes are used to express this equivariant Hodge polynomial in terms of weighted character sums fitting with a generalized weighted Ehrhart theory. The equivariant Hodge polynomials are shown to satisfy a reciprocity and purity formula fitting with the duality for equivariant mixed Hodge modules, and implying the corresponding properties for the generalized weighted Ehrhart polynomials. In the special case of the equivariant intersection cohomology mixed Hodge module, with the weight function corresponding to Stanley's $g$-function of the polar polytope of $P$, we recover in geometric terms a recent combinatorial formula of Beck--Gunnells--Materov., Comment: comments are welcome! arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2403.17747

Focusing is a known technique for reducing the number of proofs while preserving derivability. Skolemisation is another technique designed to improve proof search, which reduces the number of back-tracking steps by representing dependencies on the term level and instantiate witness terms during unification at the axioms or fail with an occurs-check otherwise. Skolemisation for classical logic is well understood, but a practical skolemisation procedure for focused intuitionistic linear logic has been elusive so far. In this paper we present a focused variant of first-order intuitionistic linear logic together with a sound and complete skolemisation procedure., Comment: to appear at IJCAR 2024

The majority of massive stars reside in binary systems, which are expected to experience mass transfer during their evolution. However, so far the conditions under which mass transfer leads to a common envelope, and thus possibly to a merging of both stars, are not well understood. Main uncertainties arise from the possible swelling of the mass gainer, and from angular momentum loss from the binary system, during non-conservative mass transfer. We have computed a dense grid of detailed models of stars accreting mass at constant rates, to determine their radius increase due to their thermal disequilibrium. While we find that models with faster than thermal timescale accretion generally expand, this expansion remains quite limited in the intermediate mass regime even for accretion rates which exceed the thermal timescale accretion rate by a factor of 100. Our models of massive accretion stars expand to extreme radii under those conditions. When the accretion rate exceed the Eddington accretion rate, our models expand dynamically. We have derived analytical fits to the radius evolution of our models and a prescription for the borderline between stable mass transfer and mergers for arbitrary accretion efficiencies. We then apply our results to grids of binary models adopting various constant mass transfer efficiencies and angular momentum budgets. We find that the former parameter has the stronger effect on the outcome of the Roche lobe overflow. Our results are consistent with detailed binary evolution models, and often lead to a smaller initial parameter space for stable mass transfer than other recipes in the literature. We use this method to investigate the origin of the Wolf-Rayet stars with O star companions in the Small Magellanic Cloud, and find that the efficiency of the mass transfer process which lead to the formation of the Wolf-Rayet star was likely below 50%., Comment: 19 pages

Massive binary evolution models are needed to predict massive star populations in star forming galaxies, the supernova diversity, and the number and properties of gravitational wave sources. Such models are often computed using so called rapid binary evolution codes, which approximate the evolution of the binary components based on detailed single star models. However, about one third of the interacting massive binary stars undergo mass transfer during core hydrogen burning (Case A mass transfer), whose outcome is difficult to derive from single star models. Here, we use a large grid of detailed binary evolution models for primaries in the initial mass range 10 to 40 Solar masses of LMC and SMC composition, to derive analytic fits for the key quantities needed in rapid binary evolution codes, i.e., the duration of core hydrogen burning, and the resulting donor star mass. Systems with shorter orbital periods produce up to 50% lighter stripped donors and have a up to 30% larger lifetime than wider systems. We find that both quantities depend strongly on the initial binary orbital period, but that the initial mass ratio and the mass transfer efficiency of the binary have little impact on the outcome. Our results are easily parameterisable and can be used to capture the effects of Case A mass transfer more accurately in rapid binary evolution codes., Comment: 10 pages

We survey recent developments in the study of torus equivariant motivic Chern and Hirzebruch characteristic classes of projective toric varieties, with applications to calculating equivariant Hirzebruch genera of torus-invariant Cartier divisors in terms of torus characters, as well as to general Euler-Maclaurin type formulae for full-dimensional simple lattice polytopes. We present recent results by the authors, emphasizing the main ideas and some key examples. This includes global formulae for equivariant Hirzebruch classes in the simplicial context proved by localization at the torus fixed points, a weighted versions of a classical formula of Brion, as well as of the Molien formula of Brion-Vergne. Our Euler-Maclaurin type formulae provide generalizations to arbitrary coherent sheaf coefficients of the Euler-Maclaurin formulae of Cappell-Shaneson, Brion-Vergne, Guillemin, etc., via the equivariant Hirzebruch-Riemann-Roch formalism. Our approach, based on motivic characteristic classes, allows us, e.g., to obtain such Euler-Maclaurin formulae also for (the interior of) a face. We obtain such results also in the weighted context, and for Minkovski summands of the given full-dimensional lattice polytope., Comment: survey paper overviewing recent results by the authors from arXiv:2303.16785, emphasizing the main ideas and some key examples

We give a cohomological and geometrical interpretation for the weighted Ehrhart theory of a full-dimensional lattice polytope $P$, with Laurent polynomial weights of geometric origin. For this purpose, we calculate the motivic Chern and Hirzebruch characteristic classes of a mixed Hodge module complex $\mathcal{M}$ whose underlying cohomology sheaves are constant on the $\mathbb{T}$-orbits of the toric variety $X_P$ associated to $P$. Besides motivic coefficients, this also applies to the intersection cohomology Hodge module. We introduce a corresponding generalized Hodge $\chi_y$-polynomial of the ample divisor $D_P$ on $X_P$. Motivic properties of these characteristic classes are used to express this Hodge polynomial in terms of a very general weighed lattice point counting and the corresponding weighted Ehrhart theory. We introduce, for such a mixed Hodge modules complex $\mathcal{M}$ on $X$, an Ehrhart polynomial $E_{P,\mathcal{M}}$ generalizing the Hodge polynomial of $\mathcal{M}$ and satisfying a reciprocity formula and a purity formula fitting with the duality for mixed Hodge modules. This Ehrhart polynomial and its properties depend only on a Laurent polynomial weight function on the faces $Q$ of $P$. In the special case of the intersection cohomology mixed Hodge module, the weight function corresponds to Stanley's $g$-function of the polar polytope of $P$, hence it depends only on the combinatorics of $P$. In particular, we obtain a combinatorial formula for the intersection cohomology signature., Comment: comments are welcome! v2: corrected several typos, added one reference

Mobile robots are being used on a large scale in various crowded situations and become part of our society. The socially acceptable navigation behavior of a mobile robot with individual human consideration is an essential requirement for scalable applications and human acceptance. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) approaches are recently used to learn a robot's navigation policy and to model the complex interactions between robots and humans. We propose to divide existing DRL-based navigation approaches based on the robot's exhibited social behavior and distinguish between social collision avoidance with a lack of social behavior and socially aware approaches with explicit predefined social behavior. In addition, we propose a novel socially integrated navigation approach where the robot's social behavior is adaptive and emerges from the interaction with humans. The formulation of our approach is derived from a sociological definition, which states that social acting is oriented toward the acting of others. The DRL policy is trained in an environment where other agents interact socially integrated and reward the robot's behavior individually. The simulation results indicate that the proposed socially integrated navigation approach outperforms a socially aware approach in terms of ego navigation performance while significantly reducing the negative impact on all agents within the environment., Comment: Accepted at 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

We illustrate how purpose-specific, graphical modeling enables application experts with different levels of expertise to collaboratively design and then produce complex applications using their individual, purpose-specific modeling language. Our illustration includes seven graphical Integrated Modeling Environments (IMEs) that support full code generation, as well as four browser-based applications that were modeled and then fully automatically generated and produced using DIME, our most complex graphical IME. While the seven IMEs were chosen to illustrate the types of languages we support with our Language-Driven Engineering (LDE) approach, the four DIME products were chosen to give an impression of the power of our LDE-generated IMEs. In fact, Equinocs, Springer Nature's future editorial system for proceedings, is also being fully automatically generated and then deployed at their Dordrecht site using a deployment pipeline generated with Rig, one of the IMEs presented. Our technology is open source and the products presented are currently in use., Comment: 43 pages, 30 figures

Robust and performant controllers are essential for industrial applications. However, deriving controller parameters for complex and nonlinear systems is challenging and time-consuming. To facilitate automatic controller parametrization, this work presents a novel approach using deep reinforcement learning (DRL) with N-dimensional B-spline geometries (BSGs). We focus on the control of parameter-variant systems, a class of systems with complex behavior which depends on the operating conditions. For this system class, gain-scheduling control structures are widely used in applications across industries due to well-known design principles. Facilitating the expensive controller parametrization task regarding these control structures, we deploy an DRL agent. Based on control system observations, the agent autonomously decides how to adapt the controller parameters. We make the adaptation process more efficient by introducing BSGs to map the controller parameters which may depend on numerous operating conditions. To preprocess time-series data and extract a fixed-length feature vector, we use a long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks. Furthermore, this work contributes actor regularizations that are relevant to real-world environments which differ from training. Accordingly, we apply dropout layer normalization to the actor and critic networks of the truncated quantile critic (TQC) algorithm. To show our approach's working principle and effectiveness, we train and evaluate the DRL agent on the parametrization task of an industrial control structure with parameter lookup tables., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), Honolulu, HI, USA