Search

A number of popular transfer learning methods rely on grid search to select regularization hyperparameters that control over-fitting. This grid search requirement has several key disadvantages: the search is computationally expensive, requires carving out a validation set that reduces the size of available data for model training, and requires practitioners to specify candidate values. In this paper, we propose an alternative to grid search: directly learning regularization hyperparameters on the full training set via model selection techniques based on the evidence lower bound ("ELBo") objective from variational methods. For deep neural networks with millions of parameters, we specifically recommend a modified ELBo that upweights the influence of the data likelihood relative to the prior while remaining a valid bound on the evidence for Bayesian model selection. Our proposed technique overcomes all three disadvantages of grid search. We demonstrate effectiveness on image classification tasks on several datasets, yielding heldout accuracy comparable to existing approaches with far less compute time.

The spontaneous conversion of muonium to antimuonium is one of the interesting charged lepton flavor violation phenomena, offering a sensitive probe of potential new physics and serving as a tool to constrain the parameter space beyond the Standard Model. Utilizing a high-intensity muon beam, a Michel electron magnetic spectrometer and a positron transport solenoid together with a positron detection system, MACE aims to discover or constrain this rare process at the conversion probability beyond the level of $10^{-13}$. This report provides an overview of the theoretical framework and detailed experimental design in the search for the muonium-to-antimuonium conversion., Comment: 115 pages, 59 figures

With the rapid growth of the volume of research fields like computer vision and computer graphics, researchers require effective and user-friendly rendering tools to visualize results. While advanced tools like Blender offer powerful capabilities, they also require a significant effort to master. This technical report introduces Blendify, a lightweight Python-based framework that seamlessly integrates with Blender, providing a high-level API for scene creation and rendering. Blendify reduces the complexity of working with Blender's native API by automating object creation, handling the colors and material linking, and implementing features such as shadow-catcher objects while maintaining support for high-quality ray-tracing rendering output. With a focus on usability Blendify enables efficient and flexible rendering workflow for rendering in common computer vision and computer graphics use cases. The code is available at https://github.com/ptrvilya/blendify, Comment: Project page: https://virtualhumans.mpi-inf.mpg.de/blendify/

Co-crystallization is an accessible way to control physicochemical characteristics of organic crystals, which finds many biomedical applications. In this work, we present Generative Method for Co-crystal Design (GEMCODE), a novel pipeline for automated co-crystal screening based on the hybridization of deep generative models and evolutionary optimization for broader exploration of the target chemical space. GEMCODE enables fast de novo co-crystal design with target tabletability profiles, which is crucial for the development of pharmaceuticals. With a series of experimental studies highlighting validation and discovery cases, we show that GEMCODE is effective even under realistic computational constraints. Furthermore, we explore the potential of language models in generating co-crystals. Finally, we present numerous previously unknown co-crystals predicted by GEMCODE and discuss its potential in accelerating drug development., Comment: Accepted at 38th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)

We propose a simple method of measuring the autocorrelation function of a spin noise based on multiplication and averaging two digitized signal traces, with one of them being a time-reversed copy of the other. This procedure allows one to obtain, with lower computational expenses, all the information usually derived in the Fourier transform spin-noise spectroscopy, retaining all the merits of the latter. We successfully applied this method to the measurements of spin noise in cesium vapors by using a digital oscilloscope in the capacity of the analog-to-digital converter. Specific opportunities of this experimental approach as applied to a more general problem of studying the nature of light-intensity noise are discussed., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We have been developing a novel interferometer formed directly between a Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) radio telescope and a Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) antenna/receiver. This interferometer is enabled by the High Rate Tracking Receiver (HRTR), a high-performance GNSS software-defined receiver that records baseband data similar to a VLBI receiving system. Of particular interest is the potential of the technique to produce precise local tie vectors directly between the geodetic reference points of VLBI and GNSS antennas for use in the determination of combination terrestrial reference frames. In this paper, we will describe the unique setup of this interferometer before discussing current developmental work in estimating local tie vectors from experimental data collected using this technique. In particular, much recent work has been in exploring the possibility of direct comparison of the GNSS and VLBI processing techniques. A significant advantage of GNSS-VLBI co-observation of GNSS satellites comes from the ability to cross-check position and clock estimates derived from differential measurements in VLBI-style processing with differential GNSS processing and absolute GNSS positioning with Precise Point Positioning (PPP). We show a preliminary VLBI analysis of interferometric data including a differential positioning solution using phase delays., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. International VLBI Service 2024 General Meeting Proceedings

A significant discrepancy, spanning multiple orders of magnitude, exists between the leading order contribution to the $D^0\overline{D^0}$ mixing parameters and experimental values. This is largely due to the Glashow-Iliopoulos-Maiani (GIM) mechanism, which results in substantial suppression of the theoretical predictions. To bridge this gap, various efforts have been made to account for higher-order terms and nonperturbative effects, which, although suppressed in the operator product expansion (OPE), could potentially lead to a larger contribution by weakening the GIM cancellation through flavour SU(3) symmetry breaking. In this work, we compute the long-distance contributions of nonlocal QCD condensates within different models and, for the first time, determine the impact of the mixed condensate. Although our results still fall short of the experimental value, they represent an improvement over current theoretical estimates by an order of magnitude., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP2024)

We introduce a general approach for the simulation of quantum vibrational states of (symmetric and asymmetric) double-well potentials in molecules and materials for thermodynamic and spectroscopic applications. The method involves solving the nuclear Schr\"odinger equation associated with a one-mode potential of the type $V (Q) = aQ^2 + bQ^3 + cQ^4$ (with $a < 0$ and $c > 0$), and thus explicitly includes nuclear quantum effects. The potential, $V (Q)$, is obtained from density functional theory (DFT) calculations performed at displaced nuclear configurations along the selected normal mode, $Q$. The strategy has been implemented into the CRYSTAL electronic structure package and allows for i) the use of many density functional approximations, including hybrid ones, and ii) integration with a quasi-harmonic module. The method is applied to the spectroscopic characterization of soft lattice modes in two phases of the molecular crystal of thiourea: a low-temperature ferroelectric phase and a high-temperature paraelectric phase. Signature peaks associated to structural changes between the two phases are found in the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum, which exhibit strong anharmonic character in their thermal evolution, as measured by temperature-dependent terahertz time-domain spectroscopy.

We have acquired and analyzed the bispectrum of primordial scalar perturbations and the corresponding non-Gaussianities in the particular model of the contracting Universe with strong gravity in the past within the framework of the Horndeski theory. The found shape function of the bispectrum did not correspond to the widely used local, equilateral, orthogonal or enfolded shapes. We also evaluate non-Gaussianity parameter $f_{\text{NL}}$ for different wave numbers $\vec{k}_1$, $\vec{k}_2$, $\vec{k}_3$ configurations. The convenient ones in our case are: (i) $k_1=k_2$, $k_3\to 0$ (local configuration of wave numbers); (ii) $k_1=k_2=k_3$ (equilateral configuration); (iii) the enfolded one, where $k_1=k_2+k_3$, what is a linear combination of the equilateral and orthogonal configurations. For each configuration it is possible to satisfy the current observational bounds for non-linear parameter $f_{\text{NL}}$ even under the restrictions of the applicability of regime, where the background evolution and perturbations are legitimately described within classical field theory and weakly coupled quantum theory at all times. However, the region of healthy parameters in our model is arranged so that one can not satisfy experimental constraints for all different non-linear parameters $f_{\text{NL}}^{\text{local}}$, $f_{\text{NL}}^{\text{equil}}$, and $f_{\text{NL}}^{\text{enfold}}$ at once., Comment: 42 pages, 7 figures

Objective: This research aims to develop a lifestyle intervention system, called MoveSense, that forecasts a patient's activity behavior to allow for early and personalized interventions in real-world clinical environments. Methods: We conducted two clinical studies involving 58 prediabetic veterans and 60 patients with obstructive sleep apnea to gather multimodal behavioral data using wearable devices. We develop multimodal long short-term memory (LSTM) network models, which are capable of forecasting the number of step counts of a patient up to 24 hours in advance by examining data from activity and engagement modalities. Furthermore, we design goal-based forecasting models to predict whether a person's next-day steps will be over a certain threshold. Results: Multimodal LSTM with early fusion achieves 33% and 37% lower mean absolute errors than linear regression and ARIMA respectively on the prediabetes dataset. LSTM also outperforms linear regression and ARIMA with a margin of 13% and 32% on the sleep dataset. Multimodal forecasting models also perform with 72% and 79% accuracy on the prediabetes dataset and sleep dataset respectively on goal-based forecasting. Conclusion: Our experiments conclude that multimodal LSTM models with early fusion are better than multimodal LSTM with late fusion and unimodal LSTM models and also than ARIMA and linear regression models. Significance: We address an important and challenging task of time-series forecasting in uncontrolled environments. Effective forecasting of a person's physical activity can aid in designing adaptive behavioral interventions to keep the user engaged and adherent to a prescribed routine., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

We consider the massless Rarita-Schwinger (RS) LV QED. In this theory, we introduce the gauge fixing to obtain the propagator for the RS field, and calculate the Carroll-Field-Jackiw term, which turns out to be finite and ambiguous, and only in one calculation scheme, based on the nonlinear gauge framework, the gauge independence of the result is achieved., Comment: 15 pages

In the context of braneworld scenarios, the real scalar field plays a crucial role by providing thickness for brane. In this work, we investigate a codimension-one thick brane within the framework of $f(R,Q,P)$ gravity, where $R$ represents the curvature scalar, while $Q=R_{\mu\nu}R^{\mu\nu}$ and $P=R_{\mu\nu\alpha\beta}R^{\mu\nu\alpha\beta}$ are quadratic geometric invariants. Our interest is to investigate the influence of these invariants on the scalar field solution and the energy density of the brane. Furthermore, we analyze the localization of spin $1/2$ fermions and the gravitino by employing a Yukawa-like coupling with the scalar field background. Such a coupling is able to produce a normalizable zero-mode for both fields., Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures

The number of standard Young tableaux of a skew shape $\lambda/\mu$ can be computed as a sum over excited diagrams inside $\lambda$. Excited diagrams are in bijection with certain lozenge tilings, with flagged semistandard tableaux and also nonintersecting lattice paths inside $\lambda$. We give two new proofs of a multivariate generalization of this formula, which allow us to extend the setup beyond standard Young tableaux and the underlying Schur symmetric polynomials. The first proof uses multiple contour integrals. The second one interprets excited diagrams as configurations of a six-vertex model at a free fermion point, and derives the formula for the number of standard Young tableaux of a skew shape from the Yang-Baxter equation., Comment: 34 pages, over 10 figures

In this paper, we show how the finite formulation of QFT based on Callan-Symanzik equations can be generalised to the case of non-renormalizable theories. We derive an equation for effective action for an arbitrary single scalar field theory, allowing us to perform computations without running in intermediate divergencies. We illustrate the method with the use of $\lambda\phi^4 + \phi^6/M^2$ theory by the explicit (and fully finite) calculations of the effective potential as well as two-, four- and six-point correlation functions at one loop level and demonstrate that no quantum corrections to scalar mass $m^2$, depending on $M^2$-scale, are generated., Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures

We compute the co-multiplication of the algebraic Morava K-theory for split orthogonal groups. This allows us to compute the decomposition of the Morava motives of generic maximal orthogonal Grassmannians and to compute a Morava K-theory analogue of the $J$-invariant in terms of the ordinary (Chow) $J$-invariant.

We resolve the multiple images of the binary-lens microlensing event ASASSN-22av using the GRAVITY instrument of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). The light curves show weak binary perturbations, complicating the analysis, but the joint modeling with the VLTI data breaks several degeneracies, arriving at a strongly favored solution. Thanks to precise measurements of angular Einstein radius \theta_E = 0.726 +/- 0.002 mas and microlens parallax, we determine that the lens system consists of two M dwarfs with masses of M_1 = 0.261 +/- 0.009 M_sun and M_2 = 0.252 +/- 0.017 M_sun, a projected separation of r_\perp = 7.42 +/- 0.33 AU and a distance of D_L = 2.31 +/- 0.09 kpc. The successful VLTI observations of ASASSN-22av open up a new path for studying intermediate-separation (i.e., a few AUs) stellar-mass binaries, including those containing dark compact objects such as neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes., Comment: see the ancillary file for animation associated with Fig. 8

Manipulation and engineering of light scattering by resonant nanostructures is one of the central problems in optics and photonics. In this work, we theoretically study the effect of suppressed back-scattering of dielectric nanoantenna. We employed covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy to identify the geometries of circular dielectric structures with minimized backward scattering cross section. Zero back-scattering is achieved due to generalized Kerker effect and multipole cancellation condition. We found a set of geometries and shapes of the nanoantenna having back-scattering intensity close to zero. With help of clustering algorithms, all the found geometries fall separated into several groups according to their multipolar content. While the optical properties of scatterers in each group were similar due to similar multipolar content, their shapes can be significantly different which stresses the ambiguity of free-form optimization problem. We believe that the obtained results and found possible classes on generalized Kerker nanoantenna can help in designing nanophotonic structures such as antireflective metasurfaces.

For an isotropic medium, a magnetic field applied in the Voigt geometry affects the optical properties in the second order only, so its effect is much weaker than in the Faraday geometry. In this work, we show that, under resonant excitation well beyond the linear regime, the situation changes drastically: A small magnetic linear anisotropy considerably increases, and an even stronger new quadrupole dichroism emerges. The latter manifests itself as 90{\deg}-periodic azimuthal dependence of transmission and anisotropic rotation of the probe polarization plane. These effects are described microscopically in a toy model and their symmetry analysis is presented. Both are observed experimentally on the D2 resonance of cesium vapor and agree with the theoretical predictions. The large magnitude of the quadrupole dichroism makes it promising for magnetometric applications and for studying the effects of anisotropic bleaching., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures

In the realm of music recommendation, sequential recommender systems have shown promise in capturing the dynamic nature of music consumption. Nevertheless, traditional Transformer-based models, such as SASRec and BERT4Rec, while effective, encounter challenges due to the unique characteristics of music listening habits. In fact, existing models struggle to create a coherent listening experience due to rapidly evolving preferences. Moreover, music consumption is characterized by a prevalence of repeated listening, i.e., users frequently return to their favourite tracks, an important signal that could be framed as individual or personalized popularity. This paper addresses these challenges by introducing a novel approach that incorporates personalized popularity information into sequential recommendation. By combining user-item popularity scores with model-generated scores, our method effectively balances the exploration of new music with the satisfaction of user preferences. Experimental results demonstrate that a Personalized Most Popular recommender, a method solely based on user-specific popularity, outperforms existing state-of-the-art models. Furthermore, augmenting Transformer-based models with personalized popularity awareness yields superior performance, showing improvements ranging from 25.2% to 69.8%. The code for this paper is available at https://github.com/sisinflab/personalized-popularity-awareness., Comment: Accepted by RecSys'24 as an LBR paper

Confidential Computing is a security paradigm designed to protect data in-use by leveraging hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). While TEEs offer significant security benefits, the need for user trust remains a challenge, as attestation alone cannot guarantee the absence of vulnerabilities or backdoors. To address this, we propose a Confidential Computing Transparency framework with progressive levels of transparency. This framework goes beyond current measures like open-source code and audits by incorporating accountability for reviewers and robust technical safeguards, creating a comprehensive trust chain. Our tiered approach provides a practical pathway to achieving transparency in complex, real-world systems. Through a user study with 400 participants, we demonstrate that higher levels of transparency are associated with increased user comfort, particularly for sensitive data types.

Sub-picosecond optical laser processing of metals is actively utilized for modification of a heated surface layer. But for deeper modification of different materials a laser in the hard x-ray range is required. Here, we demonstrate that a single 9-keV x-ray pulse from a free-electron laser can form a um-diameter cylindrical cavity with length of ~1 mm in LiF surrounded by shock-transformed material. The plasma-generated shock wave with TPa-level pressure results in damage, melting and polymorphic transformations of any material, including transparent and non-transparent to conventional optical lasers. Moreover, cylindrical shocks can be utilized to obtain a considerable amount of exotic high-pressure polymorphs. Pressure wave propagation in LiF, radial material flow, formation of cracks and voids are analyzed via continuum and atomistic simulations revealing a sequence of processes leading to the final structure with the long cavity. Similar results can be produced with semiconductors and ceramics, which opens a new pathway for development of laser material processing with hard x-ray pulses.

We study the energy-momentum characteristics of the rotating black hole - Kerr solution of general relativity in the Teleparallel Equivalent of General Relativity (TEGR) and the Symmetric Teleparallel Equivalent of General Relativity (STEGR). The previously constructed spacetime covariant and Lorentz invariant expressions for conserved Noether currents, superpotentials and charges are used. The Noether charges describe total energy, momentum or angular momentum of gravitating system depending on a choice of the displacement vector $\xi$. To define covariant and invariant conserved quantities both in TEGR and in STEGR on needs to use external fields which are flat teleparallel connections. To determine the non-dynamical connections in TEGR and STEGR we use the unified ``turning off'' gravity principle. Besides, to analyse the Noether conserved quantities in these theories, we use the concept of ``gauges''. The gauge changing can affect the Noether conserved quantities. We highlight two ways to turn off gravity - by $M \to 0$ and by $M \to 0 , ~ a \to 0$ which gives us different gauges in TEGR and STEGR. In both kind of gauges we get the expected values of black hole mass and angular momentum. Our attempts to find gauges which could lead to a correspondence to Einstein's equivalence principle for the Kerr solution where unsuccessful both in TEGR and STEGR. However, these exercises helped us to find a related gauge for the Schwarzschild solution in STEGR that is a novelty.

This paper presents a performance comparison of various MIMO radar multiplexing approaches where the increasing number of transmitters adversely affects the dynamic range of the resultant MIMO system. The investigated multiplexing techniques are code-division multiplexing in phase-coded frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) and phase-modulated continuous wave (PMCW) radar. Additionally, random fast/slow time multiplexing in time and frequency is considered for frequency-modulated continuous wave and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) radars. The comparative analysis is conducted through simulations, evaluating the scalability with the number of transmitters and addressing other pertinent implementation concerns. The findings provide insights into the trade-offs associated with each approach, aiding in selecting suitable MIMO radar multiplexing strategies for practical applications., Comment: International Conference on Microwaves for Intelligent Mobility (ICMIM 2024)

Multiferroic heterostructures have gained in recent years a renewed role in spintronic applications due to their possibility in controlling the magnetic properties via interfacial coupling by exploiting the ferroelectric response to various external stimuli. Whereas the main mechanisms ruling the converse magnetoelectric coupling are considered as established, the research on how to optimize the ferroelectric properties is an active field. In particular the complex phase diagram of [Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3]-x[PbTiO3] (PMN-xPT) single crystals, that present relaxor ferroelectric and photovoltaic properties, deserves further investigation. For instance, crystalline quality and thermal stability of the ferroelectric domains in heterostructures need assessment. Here we show how, by thermal annealing over the ferroelectric Curie temperature and then cooling PMN-0.4PT/Fe heterostructures in inert atmosphere the domain population is significantly modified, evolving from a highly disordered, mostly out-of-plane domain population, to improved crystallinity and prevalent in-plane oriented domains. Upon further annealing, the domain population switches back to prevalent out-of-plane orientation suggesting that intermediate annealing steps can freeze PMN-0.4PT domain population in a metastable configuration. The structural analysis was carried out by combining micro-Raman and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. In the three states the magnetic properties of interfacial Fe thin film are affected by the ferroelectric configurations as a consequence of changing interfacial strain, evolving from an isotropic behavior to an anisotropic one and back., Comment: 6 figures

We report on a new quantum state characterisation method, which we call Rabi-based Quantum State Tomography (RQST), that we have validated on single-qubit quantum states, in particular on the electron and nuclear spins of a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond, demonstrating high fidelities. The difference of RQST with conventional tomography methods is in the implementation of rotation operators and construction of density matrix from the measured data sets. We demonstrate efficient quantum state control of the electron spin at room temperature with an average fidelity of 0.995 over more than 40 measurements on different states on the Bloch sphere with a maximum fidelity of 0.99992. Also, we apply the methodology to the dark NV nuclear spin state. The state is read via the electron spin using the C-NOT two-qubit entanglement gate and demonstrate fidelities of the same order., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2312.14310

We show a Springer type theorem for the variety of parabolic subgroups of type $1,2,6$ for all groups of type $E_6$. As far as we know this gives the first example for the validity of the Springer theorem for projective homogeneous varieties of type $^2E_6$ different from varieties of Borel subgroups. The proof combines several topics, notably the Rost invariant, a Tits construction, Cartan's symmetric spaces and indirectly the structure of the Chow motives of projective homogeneous varieties of exceptional type., Comment: 8 pages

We develop a formalism of poly-vector deformations for Type IIB backgrounds with a block diagonal metric and non-vanishing self-dual 5-form RR field strength. Making use of the embedding of the Type IIB theory into the $\mathrm{E}_{6(6)}$ exceptional field theory we derive explicit transformation rules for four-vector deformations. We prove that the algebraic condition following from the Type IIB realization of exceptional Drinfeld algebras is sufficient for the transformation to generate a solution., Comment: 23 pages + Appendix

In this work, we introduce Gemma 2, a new addition to the Gemma family of lightweight, state-of-the-art open models, ranging in scale from 2 billion to 27 billion parameters. In this new version, we apply several known technical modifications to the Transformer architecture, such as interleaving local-global attentions (Beltagy et al., 2020a) and group-query attention (Ainslie et al., 2023). We also train the 2B and 9B models with knowledge distillation (Hinton et al., 2015) instead of next token prediction. The resulting models deliver the best performance for their size, and even offer competitive alternatives to models that are 2-3 times bigger. We release all our models to the community.

In this paper, we study in detail various solutions, especially kink ones, in different nonlocal scalar field theories, whose kinetic term is described by an arbitrary non-polynomial analytic function of the d'Alembertian operator, and the potential is chosen either to be quadratic or to allow for the kink-like solution. Using the perturbative method, we find corrections of first and second orders in the nonlocality parameter around local solutions for several form factors and generate analytic expressions for the energy density up to the first order in this parameter. Additionally, we also address an inverse problem, that is, we reconstruct the potential corresponding to the given solution obtaining restrictions for the form factor., Comment: 22 pages, minor corrections, references added

We study random permutations arising from reduced pipe dreams. Our main model is motivated by Grothendieck polynomials with parameter $\beta=1$ arising in K-theory of the flag variety. The probability weight of a permutation is proportional to the principal specialization (setting all variables to 1) of the corresponding Grothendieck polynomial. By mapping this random permutation to a version of TASEP (Totally Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process), we describe the limiting permuton and fluctuations around it as the order $n$ of the permutation grows to infinity. The fluctuations are of order $n^{\frac13}$ and have the Tracy-Widom GUE distribution, which places this algebraic (K-theoretic) model into the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. We also investigate non-reduced pipe dreams and make progress on a recent open problem on the asymptotic number of inversions of the resulting permutation. Inspired by Stanley's question for the maximal value of principal specializations of Schubert polynomials, we resolve the analogous question for $\beta=1$ Grothendieck polynomials, and provide bounds for general $\beta$., Comment: 46 pages; 16 figures; 2 tables. Including C code for generating random permutations and a CSV list of optimal layered permutations for beta=1 Grothendieck polynomials as ancillary files (see the right panel or the full source code)

To leverage the angular resolution of interferometry at high contrast, one must employ specialized beam-combiners called interferometric nullers. Nullers discard part of the astrophysical information to optimize the recording of light present in the dark fringe of the central source. Asgard/NOTT will deploy a beam-combination scheme offering good instrumental noise rejection when phased appropriately, but for which information is degenerate on the outputs, prompting a dedicated tuning strategy using the science detector. The dispersive effect of water vapor can be corrected with prisms forming a variable thickness of glass. But observations in the L band suffer from an additional and important chromatic effect due to longitudinal atmospheric dispersion coming from a resonance of CO2 at 4.3 micron. To compensate for this effect efficiently, a novel type of compensation device will be deployed leveraging a gas cell of variable length at ambient pressure. After reviewing the impact of water vapor and CO2, we present the design of this atmospheric dispersion compensation device and describe a strategy to maintain this tuning on-sky., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, Proc of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2024 Yokohama, Japan, Optical and Infrared Interferometry and Imaging VI

Heavy meson decays with missing energy in the final state offer interesting avenues to search for light invisible new physics such as dark matter (DM). In this context, we show that such new physics (NP) interactions also affect lifetime difference in neutral meson-antimeson mixing. We consider general dimension-six effective quark interactions involving a pair of DM particles and calculate their contributions to lifetime difference in beauty and charm meson systems. We use the latest data on mixing observables to constrain the relevant effective operators. We find that lifetime differences provide novel and complementary flavor constraints compared to those obtained from heavy meson decays., Comment: 19 pages, 5 captioned figures, 1 table; v2: added Bs -> invisible constraint, matches published version

Precise millisecond pulsar (MSP) positions determined with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) hold the key to building the connection between the kinematic and dynamic reference frames respectively used by VLBI and pulsar timing. The frame connection would provide an important pathway to examining the planetary ephemerides used in pulsar timing, and potentially enhancing the sensitivities of pulsar timing arrays used to detect stochastic gravitational-wave background at nano-Hz regime. We aim at significantly improving the VLBI-based MSP position from its current $\gtrsim1\,$mas precision level by reducing the two dominant components in the positional uncertainty -- the propagation-related uncertainty and the uncertainty resulting from the frequency-dependent core shifts of the reference sources. We introduce a new differential astrometry strategy of using multiple calibrators observed at several widely separated frequencies, which we call PINPT (Phase-screen Interpolation plus frequeNcy-dePendent core shifT correction; read as "pinpoint") for brevity. The strategy allows determination of the core-shift and mitigates the impact of residual delay in the atmosphere. We implemented the strategy on PSR J2222-0137, an MSP well constrained astrometrically with VLBI and pulsar timing. Using the PINPT strategy, we determined core shifts for 4 AGNs around PSR J2222-0137, and derived a VLBI-based pulsar position with uncertainty of 0.17 mas and 0.32 mas in right ascension and declination, respectively, approaching the uncertainty level of the best-determined timing-based MSP positions. The realization of the PINPT strategy promises a factor-of-5 positional precision enhancement (over conventional VLBI astrometry) for all kinds of compact radio sources observed at $\lesssim2$ GHz, including most fast radio bursts., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 8 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

We conduct a reverberation mapping (RM) campaign to spectroscopically monitor a sample of selected bright active galactic nuclei with large anticipated broad-line region (BLR) sizes adequate for spectroastrometric observations by the GRAVITY instrument on the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. We report the first results for five objects, IC 4329A, Mrk 335, Mrk 509, Mrk 1239, and PDS 456, among which Mrk 1239 and PDS 456 are for the first time spectroscopically monitored. We obtain multi-year monitoring data and perform multi-component spectral decomposition to extract the broad H$\beta$ profiles. We detect significant time lags between the H$\beta$ and continuum variations, generally obeying the previously established BLR size-luminosity relation. Velocity-resolved H$\beta$ time lags illustrate diverse, possibly evolving BLR kinematics. We further measure the H$\beta$ line widths from mean and rms spectra and the resulting virial products show good consistency among different seasons. Adopting a unity virial factor and the full width at half maximum of the broad H$\beta$ line from the mean spectrum as the measure of velocity, the obtained black hole mass averaged over seasons is $\log M_\bullet/M_\odot=8.02_{-0.14}^{+0.09}$, $6.92_{-0.12}^{+0.12}$, $8.01_{-0.25}^{+0.16}$, $7.44_{-0.14}^{+0.13}$, and $8.59_{-0.11}^{+0.07}$ for the five objects, respectively. The black hole mass estimations using other line width measures are also reported (up to the virial factors). For objects with previous RM campaigns, our mass estimates are in agreement with earlier results. In a companion paper, we will employ BLR dynamical modeling to directly infer the black hole mass and thereby determine the virial factors., Comment: 32 pages, 6 tables, 20 figures. To appear in ApJ