Search

Network slicing allows Telecom Operators (TOs) to support service provisioning with diverse Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The combination of network slicing and Open Radio Access Network (RAN) enables TOs to provide more customized network services and higher commercial benefits. However, in the current Open RAN community, an open-source end-to-end slicing solution for 5G is still missing. To bridge this gap, we developed ORANSlice, an open-source network slicing-enabled Open RAN system integrated with popular open-source RAN frameworks. ORANSlice features programmable, 3GPP-compliant RAN slicing and scheduling functionalities. It supports RAN slicing control and optimization via xApps on the near-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) thanks to an extension of the E2 interface between RIC and RAN, and service models for slicing. We deploy and test ORANSlice on different O-RAN testbeds and demonstrate its capabilities on different use cases, including slice prioritization and minimum radio resource guarantee.

There exist two distinct ways in realizing the approximate SU(3) flavor symmetry of QCD to describe the two-body nonleptonic decays of charmed baryons: the irreducible SU(3) approach (IRA) and the topological diagram approach (TDA). The TDA has the advantage that it is more intuitive, graphic and easier to implement model calculations. We perform a global fit to the currently available data of two-body charmed baryon decays within the framework of the TDA and IRA. The number of the minimum set of tensor invariants in the IRA and the topological amplitudes in the TDA is the same, namely, five in the tree-induced amplitudes and four in the penguin amplitudes. Since we employ the new LHCb measurements to fix the sign ambiguity of the decay parameters $\beta$ and $\gamma$, the fit results for the magnitudes of $S$- and $P$-wave amplitudes and their phase shift $\delta_P-\delta_S$ in both the TDA and IRA are more trustworthy than our previous analyses with uncertainties substantially improved. These results can be tested in the near future. The perspective of having direct {\it CP} violation in the charmed baryon sector at the per mille level is briefly discussed., Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure

The internal structure of the light scalar meson $a_0(980)$ is explored in the three-body $D$ decays of $D\to a_0(980)P\to P_1P_2P$ through the intermediate state $a_0(980)$, where $P$ denotes a pseudoscalar meson. The quasi-two-body $D\to a_0(980)^+P$ decays are governed by the external $W$-emission diagram in which $a_0(980)^+$ is emitted. The predicted branching fractions in the $q\bar q$ model of $a_0(980)$ are too small by one to two orders of magnitude compared to experiment as the amplitude is suppressed by the smallness of the $a_0(980)^+$ decay constant, while those for $D^+\to a_0(980)^0 P$ and $D^0\to a_0(980)^{-}P$ are usually too large. These discrepancies can be resolved provided that $a_0(980)$ is a tetraquark state. In this case, there exist two additional $T$-like topological amplitudes, denoted by $\overline{T}$ and $\tilde T$ which readily account for the discrepancies. An important implication of the tetraquark model is that the $D_s^+\to a_0(980)^+\pi^0+a_0(980)^0\pi^+$ decay is not a purely $W$-annihilation process as in the diquark model of $a_0(980)$; it receives dominant contributions from $\overline{T}$ newly noticed in this work. Therefore, measurements of $(D,D_s^+)\to a_0(980)P$ decays lend strong support to the tetraquark picture of $a_0(980)$., Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, version accepted by PRD

Recent years have witnessed the Open Radio Access Network (RAN) paradigm transforming the fundamental ways cellular systems are deployed, managed, and optimized. This shift is led by concepts such as openness, softwarization, programmability, interoperability, and intelligence of the network, all of which had never been applied to the cellular ecosystem before. The realization of the Open RAN vision into practical architectures, intelligent data-driven control loops, and efficient software implementations, however, is a multifaceted challenge, which requires (i) datasets to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) models; (ii) facilities to test models without disrupting production networks; (iii) continuous and automated validation of the RAN software; and (iv) significant testing and integration efforts. This paper poses itself as a tutorial on how Colosseum - the world's largest wireless network emulator with hardware in the loop - can provide the research infrastructure and tools to fill the gap between the Open RAN vision, and the deployment and commercialization of open and programmable networks. We describe how Colosseum implements an Open RAN digital twin through a high-fidelity Radio Frequency (RF) channel emulator and end-to-end softwarized O-RAN and 5G-compliant protocol stacks, thus allowing users to reproduce and experiment upon topologies representative of real-world cellular deployments. Then, we detail the twinning infrastructure of Colosseum, as well as the automation pipelines for RF and protocol stack twinning. Finally, we showcase a broad range of Open RAN use cases implemented on Colosseum, including the real-time connection between the digital twin and real-world networks, and the development, prototyping, and testing of AI/ML solutions for Open RAN., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, submitted to IEEE for publication

We perform a global fit to the experimental data of two-body charmed baryon decays based on the topological diagrammatic approach (TDA) and take into account the phase shifts between $S$- and $P$-wave amplitudes as inspired by the recent BESIII measurement of the decay asymmetry in the decay $\Lambda_c^+\to \Xi^0K^+$. The TDA has the advantage that it is more intuitive, graphic and easier to implement model calculations. The measured branching fractions and decay asymmetries are well accommodated in the TDA except for a few modes, in particular, the predicted ${\cal B}(\Xi_c^0\to \Xi^-\pi^+)=(2.83\pm0.10)\%$ is larger than its current value. The equivalence of the TDA and the irreducible SU(3) approach (IRA) is established. We show that the number of the minimum set of tensor invariants in the IRA and the topological amplitudes in the TDA is the same and present their relations. The predicted magnitudes of $S$- and $P$-wave amplitudes and their phase shifts are presented for measured and yet-to-be-measured modes in both the TDA and IRA which can be tested in the near future. Besides the decay $\Lambda_c^+\to \Xi^0 K^+$, there exist several modes which proceed only through $W$-exchange. In particular, the observed channel $\Xi_c^0\to \Sigma^+ K^-$ should have phase shifts similar to that in $\Lambda_c^+\to \Xi^0 K^+$ and its decay asymmetry is predicted to be $-0.21\pm0.17$ which can be used to test our theoretical framework. In contrast, the TDA leads to a large $\alpha$ of order $-0.93$ for the decay $\Xi_c^+\to \Xi^0\pi^+$ even after the phase-shift effect is incorporated in the fit., Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure. Tables I, II, V and VI revised, accepted by PRD. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2401.15926

We study the coherence of two coupled spin qubits in the presence of a bath of nuclear spins simulated using generalized cluster correlation expansion (gCCE) method. In our model, two electron spin qubits coupled with isotropic exchange or magnetic dipolar interactions interact with an environment of random nuclear spins. We study the time-evolution of the two-qubit reduced density matrix (RDM) and resulting decay of the off diagonal elements, corresponding to decoherence, which allows us to calculate gate fidelity in the regime of pure dephasing. We contrast decoherence when the system undergoes free evolution and evolution with dynamical decoupling pulses applied. Moreover, we study the dependence of decoherence on external magnetic field and system parameters which mimic realistic spin qubits, emphasizing magnetic molecules. Lastly, we comment on the application and limitations of gCCE in simulating nuclear-spin induced two-qubit relaxation processes.

Inspired by the recent BESIII measurement of the decay asymmetry and the phase shift between $S$- and $P$-wave amplitudes in the decay $\Lambda_c^+\to \Xi^0K^+$, we perform a global fit to the experimental data of charmed baryon decays based on the topological diagrammatic approach (TDA) which has the advantage that it is more intuitive and easier to implement model calculations. The measured branching fractions and decay asymmetries are well accommodated in TDA except for three modes, in particular, the predicted ${\cal B}(\Xi_c^0\to \Xi^-\pi^+)=(2.83\pm0.10)\%$ is larger than its current value. The predicted magnitudes of $S$- and $P$-wave amplitudes and their phase shifts are presented for measured and yet-measured modes which can be tested in forthcoming experiments., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, Tables II-IV revised

An updated analysis of the two-body $D\to PP, V\!P$ and $VV$ decays within the framework of the topological diagram approach is performed. A global fit to the Cabibbo-favored (CF) modes in the $V\!P$ sector gives many solutions with similarly small local minima in $\chi^2$. The solution degeneracy is lifted once we use them to predict for the singly Cabibbo-suppressed (SCS) modes. Topological amplitudes are extracted for the $\eta-\eta'$ mixing angles $\phi=40.4^\circ$ and $43.5^\circ$. The $K_S^0-K_L^0$ asymmetries in $D\to K_{S,L}^0M$ decays denoted by $R(D,M)$ are studied. While the predicted $R(D^0,P)$ for $P=\pi^0, \eta$ and $\eta'$ agree with experiment, the calculated $R(D^+,\pi^+)$, $R(D_s^+, K^+)$, $R(D^0,\omega)$ and $R(D^0,\phi)$ deviate from the data. We conjecture that the relative phase between the topological amplitudes $(C+A)$ and $(T+C)$ should be slightly smaller than $90^\circ$ in order to explain the first two discrepancies and that additional singlet contributions due to the SU(3)-singlet nature of $\omega$ and $\phi$ are needed to account for the last two. For doubly Cabibbo-suppressed (DCS) $D\to V\!P$ decays, their topological amplitudes (double-primed) cannot be all the same as the corresponding ones in the CF modes. The assumption of $E_{V,P}''=E_{V,P}$ for the $W$-exchange amplitude leads to some inconsistencies with the experiment. Through the measured relative phases between CF and DCS channels, the relations of $E_{V,P}''$ with $E_{V,P}$ are determined. Long-distance contributions to the $D^0$-$\overline {D}^0$ mixing parameter $y$ are evaluated in the exclusive approach. In particular, we focus on $D\to PP$ and $V\!P$ decays where $y$ can be reliably estimated. We conclude that $y_{_{P\!P}}\sim (0.110\pm 0.011)\%$ and the lower bound on $y_{_{V\!P}}$ is $(0.220\pm 0.071)\%$., Comment: 33 pages, accepted by PRD

We study the inclusive decay widths of singly heavy baryons with the improved bag model in which the unwanted center-of-mass motion is removed. Additional insight is gained by comparing the charmed and bottom baryons. We discuss the running of the baryon matrix elements and compare the results with the non-relativistic quark model (NRQM). While the calculated two-quark operator elements are compatible with the literature, those of the four-quark ones deviate largely. In particular, the heavy quark limit holds reasonably well in the bag model for four-quark operator matrix elements but is badly broken in the NRQM. We predict $1-\tau(\Omega_b)/ \tau(\Lambda_b^0) = (8.34\pm2.22)\%$ in accordance with the current experimental value of $(11.5^{+12.2}_{-11.6})\%$ and compatible with $(13.2\pm 4.7)\%$ obtained in the NRQM. We find an excellent agreement between theory and experiment for the lifetimes of bottom baryons. We confirm that $\Omega_c^0$ could live longer than $\Lambda_c^+$ after the dimension-7 four-quark operators are taken into account. We recommend to measure some semileptonic inclusive branching fractions in the forthcoming experiments to discern different approaches. For example, we obtain ${\cal BF} (\Xi_c^+ \to X e^+ \nu_e) = (8.57\pm 0.49)\% $ and ${\cal BF} (\Omega_c^0 \to X e^+ \nu_e) = (1.88\pm 1.69)\% $ in sharp contrast to ${\cal BF} (\Xi_c^+ \to X e^+ \nu_e) = (12.74^{+2.54}_{-2.45})\% $ and ${\cal BF} (\Omega_c^0 \to X e^+ \nu_e) = (7.59^{+2.49}_{-2.24})\% $ found in the NRQM., Comment: Accepted by JHEP, 39 pages, 4 figures

We advance the algorithm for ab initio calculations of Raman spectra for large systems via applying external electric field, and complement it by a code implementation we name RASCBEC. With the RASCBEC code, we have successfully benchmark crystalline materials and compute Raman spectra of large molecules, and amorphous oxides. Our results demonstrate a remarkable level of agreement with the results from other commonly used codes as well as the experimental data. The electric field approach for Raman spectra calculation is designed to overcome the computational challenges associated with the conventional approach, which requires the calculation of the macroscopic dielectric tensor at numerous molecular geometries. The key innovation in our approach lies in obtaining the first-order derivatives with respect to the external electric field directly from VASP (the Vienna Ab Initio Simulation Package), as the Born Effective Charge (BEC). The RASCBEC code not only significantly reduces computational time, up to a factor of $N/8$, compared to the conventional approach, where $N$ is the total count of atoms within the simulation box. But also maintains the same level of accuracy, employing first-order numerical derivatives that avoid the numerical noise associated with algorithms requiring second-order derivatives, as seen in other electric field-based methods. This advantage makes RASCBEC particularly beneficial for large molecules and expansive amorphous systems.

Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) ideally requires a high spatial and high temporal resolution, but hardware limitations prevent acquisitions from simultaneously achieving both. Existing image reconstruction techniques can artificially create spatial resolution at a given temporal resolution by estimating data that is not acquired, but, ultimately, spatial details are sacrificed at very high acceleration rates. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of spatial subspace reconstructions (SPARS) and demonstrate its ability to reconstruct high spatial resolution dynamic images from as few as one acquired radial spoke per dynamic frame. Briefly, a low-temporal-high-spatial resolution organization of the acquired raw data is used to estimate a spatial subspace in which the high-temporal-high-spatial ground truth data resides. This subspace is then used to estimate entire images from single k-space spokes. In both simulated and human in-vivo data, the proposed SPARS reconstruction method outperformed standard GRASP and GRASP-Pro reconstruction, providing a shorter reconstruction time and yielding higher accuracy from both a spatial and temporal perspective., Comment: commercialization

In this work we study the doubly charmed baryon decays $\Xi_{cc}^{++}\to\Xi_c^{(\prime)+}\pi^+$ within the framework of the non-relativistic quark model (NRQM). Factorizable amplitudes are expressed in terms of transition form factors, while nonfactorizable amplitudes arising form the inner $W$-emission are evaluated using current algebra and the pole model and expressed in terms of baryonic matrix elements and axial-vector form factors. Nonperturbative parameters are then calculated using the NRQM. They can be expressed in terms of the momentum integrals of baryon wave functions, which are in turn expressed in terms of the harmonic oscillator parameters $\alpha_\rho$ and $\alpha_\lambda$ for $\rho$- and $\lambda$-mode excitation. The measured ratio $R$ of the branching fraction of $\Xi_{cc}^{++}\to \Xi^{\prime +}_c\pi^+$ relative to $\Xi_{cc}^{++}\to \Xi_c^+\pi^+$ can be accommodated in the NRQM with $\alpha_{\rho 1}$ and $\alpha_{\rho_2}$ being in the vicinity of 0.51 and 0.19, respectively, where $\alpha_{\rho 1}$ is the $\alpha_\rho$ parameter for $\Xi_{cc}^{++}$ and $\alpha_{\rho 2}$ for $\Xi_{c}^{(\prime)+}$. Decay asymmetries are predicted to be $-0.78$ and $-0.89$ for $\Xi_c^+\pi^+$ and $\Xi_c^{\prime +}\pi^+$ modes, respectively, which can be tested in the near future. We compare our results with other works and point out that although some other models can accommodate the ratio $R$, they tend to lead to a branching fraction of $\Xi_{cc}^{++}\to \Xi_c^+\pi^+$ too large compared to that inferred from the LHCb measurement of its rate relative to $\Xi_{cc}^{++}\to\Lambda_c^+ K^- \pi^+\pi^+$., Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in PRD

The decay amplitude analyses of $B^\pm\to \pi^+ \pi^-\pi^\pm$ decays in the Dalitz plot performed by LHCb indicate that CP asymmetry for the dominant quasi-two-body decay $B^\pm\to\rho(770)^0\pi^\pm$ was found to be consistent with zero in all three approaches for the $S$-wave component and that CP-violation effects related to the interference between the $\rho(770)^0$ resonance and the $S$-wave were clearly observed. We show that the nearly vanishing CP violation in $B^\pm\to\rho^0\pi^\pm$ is understandable within the framework of QCD factorization. There are two $1/m_b$ power corrections, one from penguin annihilation and the other from hard spectator interactions. They contribute destructively to $A_{CP}(B^\pm\to\rho^0\pi^\pm)$ to render it compatible with zero, in contrast to the sizable negative CP asymmetry predicted in most of the existing models. We next show that the measured interference pattern between the $\rho$ and $S$-wave contributions in the low $m_{\pi^+\pi^-}$ region separated by the sign of value of $\cos\theta$ with $\theta$ being the angle between the two same charged pions measured in the rest frame of the $\rho$ resonance can be explained in terms of the smallness of $A_{CP}(B^+\to\rho^0\pi^+)$ and the interference between $\rho(770)$ and $\sigma/f_0(500)$. If CP asymmetry in $B^\pm\to\rho^0\pi^\pm$ is not negligible as predicted in many existing models, the observed interference pattern will be destroyed. We conclude that the experimental observation of the interference pattern between $P$- and $S$-waves in the low-$m_{\pi^+\pi^-}$ region between 0.5 and 1.0 GeV is consistent with a nearly vanishing CP violation in $B^\pm\to\rho^0\pi^\pm$., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in PRD. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2005.06080, arXiv:2007.02558

We theoretically study how a scattered electron can entangle molecular spin qubits (MSQs). This requires solving the inelastic transport of a single electron through a scattering region described by a tight-binding interacting Hamiltonian. We accomplish this using a Green's function solution. We can model realistic physical implementations of MSQs by parameterizing the tight-binding Hamiltonian with first-principles descriptions of magnetic anisotropy and exchange interactions. We find that for two-MSQ systems with inversion symmetry, the spin degree of freedom of the scattered electron offers probabilistic control of the degree of entanglement between the MSQs.

This paper serves as an update of the previous work entitled ``Heavy-Flavor-Conserving Hadronic Weak Decays of Charmed and Bottom Baryons". We make an improvement on the bag wave functions by removing the center-of-mass motion of the bag. All the baryon matrix elements are now calculated under the same framework without introducing new parameters. The matrix elements of 4-quark operators are found to be nearly twice larger than the previous ones. The calculated branching fractions of $ \Xi_c ^0 \to \Lambda_c ^+\pi^-$ and $\Xi_b^- \to \Lambda^0_b \pi^-$ are both in agreement with current experimental results. For the yet-to-be-measured heavy-flavor-conserving decays, we find ${\cal B}( \Xi_c ^+ \to \Lambda_c ^+\pi^0) = (13.8 \pm 1.4)\times 10^{-3}$, ${\cal B}( \Xi_b^0 \to \Lambda^0_b \pi^0) = (2.6 \pm 0.3)\times 10^{-3}$, ${\cal B}( \Omega_c ^0 \to \Xi_c^+\pi^-) = (2.0 \pm 0.2)\times 10^{-3}$ and ${\cal B}( \Omega_c ^0 \to \Xi_c^0\pi^0)= (1.1 \pm 0.1)\times 10^{-3}$. They are all accessible to LHCb, Belle and Belle II and can be tested in the near future., Comment: 25 pages

We present first-principle calculation of the on-site and nearest neighbor Coulomb interaction strength of the Ni $d$ orbitals in bulk $LaNiO_{2}$, using the constrained Random Phase Approximation method. The nearest neighbor correlation within Ni-O plane turns out to be more significant when considering the frequency dependent $U(\omega)$, which can be as strong as about 25\% of the on-site value at medium and high frequencies. The inter Ni-O plane nearest neighbor correlation is found to be the same strength as that within the Ni-O plane, indicating the material is non-locally correlated also between the Ni-O planes., Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)-based waveforms are used for communication links in many current and emerging Internet of Things (IoT) applications, including the latest WiFi standards. For such OFDM-based transceivers, many core physical layer functions related to channel estimation, demapping, and decoding are implemented for specific choices of channel types and modulation schemes, among others. To decouple hard-wired choices from the receiver chain and thereby enhance the flexibility of IoT deployment in many novel scenarios without changing the underlying hardware, we explore a novel, modular Machine Learning (ML)-based receiver chain design. Here, ML blocks replace the individual processing blocks of an OFDM receiver, and we specifically describe this swapping for the legacy channel estimation, symbol demapping, and decoding blocks with Neural Networks (NNs). A unique aspect of this modular design is providing flexible allocation of processing functions to the legacy or ML blocks, allowing them to interchangeably coexist. Furthermore, we study the implementation cost-benefits of the proposed NNs in resource-constrained IoT devices through pruning and quantization, as well as emulation of these compressed NNs within Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Our evaluations demonstrate that the proposed modular NN-based receiver improves bit error rate of the traditional non-ML receiver by averagely 61% and 10% for the simulated and over-the-air datasets, respectively. We further show complexity-performance tradeoffs by presenting computational complexity comparisons between the traditional algorithms and the proposed compressed NNs.

We characterize molecular magnet heterojunctions in which sublimated CoPc films as thin as 5 nm are sandwiched between transparent conducting bottom-layer indium tin oxide and top-layer soft-landing eutectic GaIn (EGaIn) electrodes. The roughness of the cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) films was determined by atomic force microscopy to be on the order of several nanometers, and crystalline ordering of lying-down planar molecules was confirmed by X-ray diffraction. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics reveal the onset of a superconducting gap at Tc = 6 K, which together with higher temperature fits to a modified Simmons' model, provide incontrovertible evidence for direct quantum mechanical tunneling processes through the magnetic molecules in our heterojunctions. The voltage dependent features in the differential conductance measurements relate to spin states of single molecules or aggregates of molecules and should prove to be important for quantum information device development., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures

Three decades ago, heavy-flavor-conserving (HFC) weak decays of heavy baryons such as $\Xi_Q\to\Lambda_Q\pi$ and $\Omega_Q\to\Xi_Q\pi$ for $Q=c,b$ had been studied within the framework that incorporates both heavy-quark and chiral symmetries. It was pointed out that if the heavy quark in the HFC process behaves as a spectator, then the $P$-wave amplitude of ${\cal B}_{\bar 3}\to {\cal B}_{\bar 3}+\pi$ with ${\cal B}_{\bar 3}$ being an antitriplet heavy baryon will vanish in the heavy quark limit. Indeed, this is the case for $\Xi_b\to\Lambda_b \pi$ decays. For $\Xi_c\to\Lambda_c\pi$ decays, they receive additional nonspectator contributions arising from the $W$-exchange diagrams through the $cs\to dc$ transition. Spectator and nonspectator $W$-exchange contributions to the $S$-wave amplitude of $\Xi_c\to\Lambda_c\pi$ are destructive, rendering the $S$-wave contribution even smaller. However, the nonspectator effect on the $P$-wave amplitude was overlooked in all the previous model calculations until a very recent investigation within the framework of a constituent quark model in which the parity-conserving pole terms were found to be dominant in $\Xi_c\to\Lambda_c\pi$ decays. Since the pion produced in the HFC process is soft, we apply current algebra to study both $S$- and $P$-wave amplitudes and employ the bag and diquark models to estimate the matrix elements of four-quark operators. We confirm that $\Xi_c\to\Lambda_c\pi$ decays are indeed dominated by the parity-conserving transition induced from nonspectator $W$-exchange and that they receive largest contributions from the intermediate $\Sigma_c$ pole terms. We also show that the $S$-wave of $\Omega_b\to \Xi_b \pi$ decays vanishes in the heavy quark limit, while $\Omega_c\to \Xi_c\pi$ receive additional $W$-exchange contributions via $cs\to dc$ transition., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, typos corrected, accepted by PRD

The advent of two-dimensional (2D) crystals has led to numerous scientific breakthroughs. Conventional 2D systems have in-plane covalent bonds and a weak out-of-plane van-der-Waals bond. Here we report a new type of 2D material composed of discrete magnetic molecules, where anisotropic van-der-Waals interactions bond the molecules into a 2D packing. Through mechanical exfoliation, we can obtain single-crystalline molecular monolayers, which can be readily integrated into other 2D systems. Optical spectroscopy suggests the few-layered molecules preserve the temperature-induced spin-crossover switching observed in the bulk form but show a drastic increase in thermal hysteresis unique to these thin 2D molecule assemblies. The trapping of spin bistability with decreasing layer number can arise from domain wall dynamics in reduced dimensions. Our results establish molecular solids with strong anisotropy of intermolecular interactions as precursors to a novel class of 2D materials, affording new possibilities to control functionalities through substrate and interlayer interactions.

We study the quasi-two-body $D\to TP$ decays and the three-body $D$ decays proceeding through intermediate tensor resonances, where $T$ and $P$ denote tensor and pseudoscalar mesons, respectively. We employ $D\to T$ transition form factors based upon light-cone sum rules and the covariant light-front quark model to evaluate the decay rates, with the former giving a better agreement with current data. Though the tree amplitudes with the emitted meson being a tensor meson vanish under factorization approximation, contributions proportional to the tensor decay constant $f_T$ can be produced from vertex and hard spectator-scattering corrections. We also investigate the finite-width effects of the tensor mesons and find that, contrary to three-body $B$ decays, the tensor-mediated $D$ decays are more seriously affected and the narrow width approximation has to be corrected. More experimental data are required in order to extract information topological amplitudes associated with quasi-two-body $D\to TP$ decays. Among the data, the $D^+\to f_2\pi^+$ and $D^+\to \bar K_2^{*0}\pi^+$ branching fractions are not self consistent and further clarification is called for., Comment: 18 pages

This is a white paper on the STCF charm physics contributing to the Snowmass 2021 proceedings in the RF01 working group., Comment: White Paper on STCF charm physics; contribution to Snowmass 2021

The Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN)-which is being standardized, among others, by the O-RAN Alliance-is bringing a radical transformation to the cellular ecosystem through the notions of disaggregation and RAN Intelligent Controllers (RICs). The latter enable closed-loop control through custom logic applications, namely xApps and rApps, supporting control decisions at different timescales. However, the current O-RAN specifications lack of a practical approach to execute real-time control loops operating at timescales below 10ms. In this paper, we propose the notion of dApps, distributed applications that complement existing xApps/rApps by allowing operators to implement fine-grained data-driven management and control in real-time at the Central Units (CUs)/Distributed Units (DUs). dApps receive real-time data from the RAN, as well as enrichment information from the near-real-time RIC, and execute inference and control of lower-layer functionalities, thus enabling use cases with stricter timing requirements than those considered by the RICs, such as beam management and user scheduling. We propose feasible ways to integrate dApps in the O-RAN architecture by leveraging and extending interfaces and components already present therein. Finally, we discuss challenges specific to dApps, and provide preliminary results that show the benefits of executing network intelligence through dApps., Comment: in IEEE Communications Magazine, 2022