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We report on a theoretical study of a Cs$_2$ molecule illuminated by two lasers and show how it can result in novel quantum dynamics. We reveal that these interactions facilitate the bypass of the non-crossing rule, forming Light-Induced Conical Intersections and modifiable avoided crossings. Our findings show how laser field orientation and strength, along with initial phase differences, can control molecular state transitions, especially on the micromotion scale. We also discuss extensively how the interaction of radiation with matter gives rise to the emergence of potential energy surfaces of hybrids of radiation and molecular states. This research advances a technique for manipulating photoassociation processes in Cs$_2$ molecules, offering potential new avenues in quantum control., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures

Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) is a best-first sampling method employed in the search for optimal decisions. The effectiveness of MCTS relies on the construction of its statistical tree, with the selection policy playing a crucial role. A selection policy that works particularly well in MCTS is the Upper Confidence Bounds for Trees, referred to as UCT. The research community has also put forth more sophisticated bounds aimed at enhancing MCTS performance on specific problem domains. Thus, while MCTS UCT generally performs well, there may be variants that outperform it. This has led to various efforts to evolve selection policies for use in MCTS. While all of these previous works are inspiring, none have undertaken an in-depth analysis to shed light on the circumstances in which an evolved alternative to MCTS UCT might prove advantageous. Most of these studies have focused on a single type of problem. In sharp contrast, this work explores the use of five functions of different natures, ranging from unimodal to multimodal and deceptive functions. We illustrate how the evolution of MCTS UCT can yield benefits in multimodal and deceptive scenarios, whereas MCTS UCT is robust in all of the functions used in this work., Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables

Perceptual decision-making frequently requires making rapid, reliable choices upon encountering noisy sensory inputs. To better define the statistical processes underlying perceptual decision-making, here we characterize the choices of human participants visualizing a system of nonequilibrium stationary physical dynamics and compare such choices to the performance of an optimal agent computing Wald's sequential probability ratio test (SPRT). Participants viewed movies of a particle endowed with drifted Brownian dynamics and had to judge the motion as leftward or rightward. Overall, the results uncovered fundamental performance limits, consistent with recently established thermodynamic trade-offs involving speed, accuracy, and dissipation. Specifically, decision times are sensitive to entropy production rates. Moreover, to achieve a given level of observed accuracy, participants require more time than predicted by SPRT, indicating suboptimal integration of available information. In view of such suboptimality, we develop an alternative account based on evidence integration with a memory time constant. Setting the time constant proportionately to the deviation from equilibrium in the stimuli significantly improved trial-by-trial predictions of decision metrics with respect to SPRT. This study shows that perceptual psychophysics using stimuli rooted in nonequilibrium physical processes provides a robust platform for understanding how the brain takes decisions on stochastic information inputs., Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures

We present a study of the 3d O(2) non-linear $\sigma$-model on the lattice, which exhibits topological defects in the form of vortices. They tend to organize into vortex lines that bear close analogies with global cosmic strings. Therefore, this model serves as a testbed for studying the dynamics of topological defects. It undergoes a second order phase transition, hence it is appropriate for investigating the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. In this regard, we explore the persistence of topological defects when the temperature is rapidly reduced from above to below the critical temperature; this cooling (or "quenching") process takes the system out of equilibrium. We probe a wide range of inverse cooling rates $\tau_{\rm Q}$ and final temperatures, employing distinct Monte Carlo algorithms. The results consistently show that the density of persisting topological defects follows a power-law in $\tau_{\rm Q}$, in agreement with Zurek's conjecture. On the other hand, at this point our results do not confirm Zurek's prediction for the exponent in this power-law, but its final test is still under investigation., Comment: 7 pages, LaTex, 3 figures, talk presented at the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2023), July 31st - August 4th, 2023, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

We monitor the evaporation of a volatile liquid (ethanol) from an inkjet-printed liquid film, consisting of a mixture of ethanol and ethylene glycol. Interferometric video imaging technology is used for recording 2D vapor concentration profiles over the evaporating film. The vapor flow is reconstructed using numerical simulations. In this way, we reconstruct the complete flow velocity profile, and distinguish diffusive and convective gas transport flows, with quantitative tracking of the transport balances. The convective flows are driven by the buoyancy of the solvent vapor in the ambient air. In particular, we reconstruct the evaporation process from the interface of the two-component liquid. We monitor the evaporation flows, implement Raoult's and Henry's laws of vapor pressure reduction, as well as evaporation resistivity. We observe the edge-enhancement of evaporation flows at the wetting rims of the liquid film, and decompose the vapor flows in the diffusive and the convective contribution. We demonstrate how Langmuir's evaporation resistivity can be identified using vapor pressure profiles in the gas phase data and mass transfer balances., Comment: 42 pages, 18 figures

Two-dimensional (2D) turbulence features an inverse energy cascade that produces large-scale flow structures such as large-scale vortices (LSVs) and unidirectional jets. We investigate the dynamics of such structures using extensive direct numerical simulations (DNS) of randomly forced, viscously damped 2D turbulence within a periodic rectangular (Cartesian) domain $[0,L_x]\times[0,L_y]$. LSVs form and dominate the system when the domain aspect ratio $\delta = L_x/L_y \approx 1$, while unidirectional jets predominate at $\delta \gtrsim 1.1$. At intermediate $\delta$, both structures are metastable, with noise-induced transitions between LSVs and jets. We derive and verify predictions for the dependence of kinetic energy E and flow polarity on the nondimensional control parameters. We further collect detailed statistics on the lifetimes of LSVs and jets from DNS runs that are up to 10738 viscous diffusive times long. The distribution of the lifetimes is consistent with that of a memoryless process. Our DNS show an exponential dependence of the mean lifetime on $\delta$. Mean lifetimes depend sensitively on the Reynolds number Re: as Re increases, the energy gap between LSV (lower E) and jet states (higher E) arising from anisotropic dissipation increases, leading to an approximately exponential increase in lifetimes with Re for both LSVs and jets. Similarly, as the forcing scale decreases, transitions become less frequent. We study the transitions in detail, revealing that they occur in two stages: an initial, rapid redistribution of kinetic energy by nonlinear triadic interactions deforms LSVs into jets or vice versa. In the second stage, the energy of the newly formed structure slowly adjusts to its associated equilibrium value on a longer, viscous timescale, producing hysteresis. Our findings shed new light on the dynamics of coherent large-scale structures in anisotropic turbulence.

Based on data sets provided by Statistics Netherlands and the International Institute of Social History, we investigate the Dutch municipality merging process and the survivability of municipalities over the period 1830-2019. We examine the dynamics of the population and area per municipality and how their distributions evolved during the researched period. We apply a Network Science approach, where each node represents a municipality and the links represent the geographical interconnections between adjacent municipalities via roads, railways, bridges or tunnels which were available in each specific yearly network instance. Over the researched period, we find that the distributions of the logarithm of both the population and area size closely follow a normal and a logistic distribution respectively. The tails of the population distributions follow a power-law distribution, a phenomenon observed in community structures of many real-world networks. The dynamics of the area distribution are mainly determined by the merging process, while the population distribution is also driven by the natural population growth and migration across the municipality network. Finally, we propose a model of the Dutch Municipality Network that captures population increase, population migration between municipalities and the process of municipality merging. Our model allows for predictions of the population and area distributions over time., Comment: 48 pages, 26 figures

A Private Information Retrieval (PIR) protocol based on coding theory for a single server is proposed. It provides computational security against linear algebra attacks, addressing the main drawback of previous PIR proposals based on coding theory. The approach involves two types of codes each one over a different ring, an inner non-free linear code that will be used as a distinguisher of some elements added to the query matrix, and an outer code that will be used for generating the query matrix. Moreover, it only uses modular arithmetic at the server level and the recovering stage if the base ring chosen for the inner code is $\mathbb Z_m$.

We introduce a method to enforce some symmetries starting from a trial wave-function prepared on quantum computers that might not respect these symmetries. The technique eliminates the necessity for performing the projection on the quantum computer itself. Instead, this task is conducted as a post-processing step on the system's "Classical Shadow". Illustrations of the approach are given for the parity, particle number, and spin projectors that are of particular interest in interacting many-body systems. We compare the method with another classical post-processing technique based on direct measurements of the quantum register. We show that the present scheme can be competitive to predict observables on symmetry-restored states once optimization through derandomization is employed. The technique is illustrated through its application to compute the projected energy for the pairing model Hamiltonian., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures

Galerkin-based reduced-order models (G-ROMs) have provided efficient and accurate approximations of laminar flows. In order to capture the complex dynamics of the turbulent flows, standard G-ROMs require a relatively large number of reduced basis functions (on the order of hundreds and even thousands). Although the resulting G-ROM is still relatively low-dimensional compared to the full-order model (FOM), its computational cost becomes prohibitive due to the 3rd-order convection tensor contraction. The tensor requires storage of $N^3$ entries with a corresponding work of $2N^3$ operations per timestep, which makes such ROMs impossible to use in realistic applications, such as control of turbulent flows. In this paper, we focus on the scenario where the G-ROM requires large $N$ values and propose a novel approach that utilizes the CANDECOMC/PARAFAC decomposition (CPD), a tensor decomposition technique, to accelerate the G-ROM by approximating the 3rd-order convection tensor by a sum of $R$ rank-1 tensors. In addition, we show that the tensor is partially skew-symmetric and derive two conditions for the CP decomposition for preserving the skew-symmetry. Moreover, we investigate the G-ROM with the singular value decomposition (SVD). The G-ROM with CP decomposition is investigated in several flow configurations from 2D periodic flow to 3D turbulent flows. Our numerical investigation shows CPD-ROM achieves at least a factor of 10 speedup. Additionally, the skew-symmetry preserving CPD-ROM is more stable and allows the usage of smaller rank $R$. Moreover, from the singular value behavior, the advection tensor formed using the $H^1_0$-POD basis has a low-rank structure, and is preserved even in higher Reynolds numbers. Furthermore, for a given level of accuracy, the CP decomposition is more efficient in size and cost than the SVD., Comment: 26 pages, 38 figures

Electromechanical switching devices, such as solenoid valves, contactors, and relays, suffer from undesirable phenomena like clicking, mechanical wear, and contact bounce. Despite that, they are still widely used in industry due to their various economic and technical advantages. This has encouraged the development of controllers aimed at reducing the collisions that occur at the end of the switching operations. One of the most successful approaches has been the use of iterative techniques. However, these algorithms typically require a large number of operations to converge, which is definitely a clear drawback. This paper presents a strategy to improve the convergence rate of such controllers. Our proposal, which is based on the sensitivity of the control law with respect to the parameters, assumes that the performance of the system is more heavily affected by some parameters than others. Thus, by avoiding movements in the directions that have less impact, the search algorithm is expected to drive the system to near-optimal behaviors using fewer operations. Results obtained by simulation show significant improvement in the convergence rate of a state-of-the-art run-to-run feedforward controller, which demonstrates the high potential of the proposal., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Final version, after peer review and acceptance, submitted to the 22nd European Control Conference (ECC)

Feedforward control can greatly improve the response time and control accuracy of any mechatronic system. However, in order to compensate for the effects of modeling errors or disturbances, it is imperative that this type of control works in conjunction with some form of feedback. In this paper, we present a new adaptive feedforward control scheme for electromechanical systems in which real-time measurements or estimates of the position and its derivatives are not technically or economically feasible. This is the case, for example, of commercial electromechanical switching devices such as solenoid actuators. Our proposal consists of two blocks: on the one hand, a feedforward controller based on differential flatness theory; on the other, an iterative adaptation law that exploits the repetitive operation of these devices to modify the controller parameters cycle by cycle. As shown, this law can be fed with any available measurement of the system, with the only requirement that it can be processed and converted into an indicator of the performance of any given operation. Simulated and experimental results show that our proposal is effective in dealing with a long-standing control problem in electromechanics: the soft-landing control of electromechanical switching devices., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. Typo corrected on page 2

The European debt purchase market as measured by the total book value of purchased debt approached 25bn euros in 2020 and it was growing at double-digit rates. This is an example of how big the debt collection and debt purchase industry has grown and the important impact it has in the financial sector. However, in order to ensure an adequate return during the debt collection process, a good estimation of the propensity to pay and/or the expected cashflow is crucial. These estimations can be employed, for instance, to create different strategies during the amicable collection to maximize quality standards and revenues. And not only that, but also to prioritize the cases in which a legal process is necessary when debtors are unreachable for an amicable negotiation. This work offers a solution for these estimations. Specifically, a new machine learning modelling pipeline is presented showing how outperforms current strategies employed in the sector. The solution contains a pre-processing pipeline and a model selector based on the best model calibration. Performance is validated with real historical data of the debt industry.

We present results from the characterization and optimization of six Skipper CCDs for use in a prototype focal plane for the SOAR Integral Field Spectrograph (SIFS). We tested eight Skipper CCDs and selected six for SIFS based on performance results. The Skipper CCDs are 6k $\times$ 1k, 15 $\mu$m pixels, thick, fully-depleted, $p$-channel devices that have been thinned to $\sim 250 \mu$m, backside processed, and treated with an antireflective coating. We optimize readout time to achieve $<4.3$ e$^-$ rms/pixel in a single non-destructive readout and $0.5$ e$^-$ rms/pixel in $5 \%$ of the detector. We demonstrate single-photon counting with $N_{\rm samp}$ = 400 ($\sigma_{\rm 0e^-} \sim$ 0.18 e$^-$ rms/pixel) for all 24 amplifiers (four amplifiers per detector). We also perform conventional CCD characterization measurements such as cosmetic defects ($ <0.45 \%$ ``bad" pixels), dark current ($\sim 2 \times 10^{-4}$ e$^-$/pixel/sec.), charge transfer inefficiency ($3.44 \times 10^{-7}$ on average), and charge diffusion (PSF $< 7.5 \mu$m). We report on characterization and optimization measurements that are only enabled by photon-counting. Such results include voltage optimization to achieve full-well capacities $\sim 40,000-63,000$ e$^-$ while maintaining photon-counting capabilities, clock induced charge optimization, non-linearity measurements at low signals (few tens of electrons). Furthermore, we perform measurements of the brighter-fatter effect and absolute quantum efficiency ($\gtrsim\, 80 \%$ between 450 nm and 980 nm; $\gtrsim\,90 \%$ between 600 nm and 900 nm) using Skipper CCDs.

The Official ACT® Self-Paced Course, Powered by Kaplan® is a test preparation solution in partnership between Kaplan and ACT. In April of 2022, the authors surveyed users of the self-paced course who took the ACT test between August 2020 and February 2022 to better understand: (1) ways the solution helped them when they took the ACT; (2) what features of the solution they considered most important; and (3) their behaviors when they used the solution. The authors invited 209,897 students to share their perspectives on the course, and 2,535 students responded to the survey. This brief highlights what students responding to selected questions from the survey learned from The Official ACT Self-Paced Course, Powered by Kaplan.