Search

Higher order interactions can lead to new equilibrium states and bifurcations in systems of coupled oscillators described by the Kuramoto model. However, even in the simplest case of 3-body interactions there are more than one possible functional forms, depending on how exactly the bodies are coupled. Which of these forms is better suited to describe the dynamics of the oscillators depends on the specific system under consideration. Here we show that, for a particular class of interactions, reduced equations for the Kuramoto order parameter can be derived for arbitrarily many bodies. Moreover, the contribution of a given term to the reduced equation does not depend on its order, but on a certain effective order, that we define. We give explicit examples where bi and tri-stability is found and discuss a few exotic cases where synchronization happens via a third order phase transition., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures

We present deep Magellan$+$Megacam imaging of Centaurus I (Cen I) and Eridanus IV (Eri IV), two recently discovered Milky Way ultra-faint satellites. Our data reach $\sim2-3$ magnitudes deeper than the discovery data from the DECam Local Volume Exploration (DELVE) Survey. We use these data to constrain their distances, structural properties (e.g., half-light radii, ellipticity, and position angle), and luminosities. We investigate whether these systems show signs of tidal disturbance, and identify new potential member stars using Gaia EDR3. Our deep color-magnitude diagrams show that Cen I and Eri IV are consistent with an old ($\tau\sim 13.0$ Gyr) and metal-poor ($\text{[Fe/H]}\le-2.2$) stellar population. We find Cen I to have a half-light radius of $r_{h}=2.60\pm0.30'$ ($90.6\pm11$ pc), an ellipticity of $\epsilon=0.36\pm0.05$, a distance of $D=119.8\pm4.1$ kpc ($m-M=20.39\pm0.08$ mag), and an absolute magnitude of $M_{V}=-5.39\pm0.19$. Similarly, Eri IV has $r_{h}=3.24\pm0.48'$ ($65.9\pm10$ pc), $\epsilon=0.26\pm0.09$, $D=69.9\pm3.6$ kpc ($m-M=19.22\pm0.11$ mag), and $M_{V}=-3.55\pm0.24$. These systems occupy a space on the size-luminosity plane consistent with other known Milky Way dwarf galaxies which supports the findings from our previous spectroscopic follow-up. Cen I has a well-defined morphology which lacks any clear evidence of tidal disruption, whereas Eri IV hosts a significant extended feature with multiple possible interpretations., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to ApJ, comments are welcome!

We present deep optical observations of the stellar halo of NGC 300, an LMC-mass galaxy, acquired with the DEEP sub-component of the DECam Local Volume Exploration survey (DELVE) using the 4 m Blanco Telescope. Our resolved star analysis reveals a large, low surface brightness stellar stream ($M_{V}\sim-8.5$; [Fe/H] $= -1.4\pm0.15$) extending more than 40 kpc north from the galaxy's center. We also find other halo structures, including potentially an additional stream wrap to the south, which may be associated with the main stream. The morphology and derived low metallicities of the streams and shells discovered surrounding NGC 300 are highly suggestive of a past accretion event. Assuming a single progenitor, the accreted system is approximately Fornax-like in luminosity, with an inferred mass ratio to NGC 300 of approximately $1:15$. We also present the discovery of a metal-poor globular cluster ($R_{\rm{proj}}=23.3$~kpc; $M_{V}=-8.99\pm0.16$; [Fe/H] $\approx-1.6\pm0.6$) in the halo of NGC 300, the furthest identified globular cluster associated with NGC 300. The stellar structures around NGC 300 represent the richest features observed in a Magellanic Cloud analog to date, strongly supporting the idea that accretion and subsequent disruption is an important mechanism in the assembly of dwarf galaxy stellar halos., Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, submitted to ApJL

Using an interface inserted in a background mesh is an alternative way of constructing a complex geometrical shape with a relative low meshing efforts. However, this process may require special treatment of elements cut by the interface. Our study focuses on comparing the integration of cut elements defined by implicit and parametric curves. We investigate the efficiency and robustness of open-source tools such as Algoim [5](a library for quadrature on implicitly defined geometries) and Ginkgo [2](a library for isogeometric analysis on Boolean operations with a parametric description) with numerical examples computing the area defined by the interface and benchmarks for 2D elasticity problem using the open-source code GeoPDEs [7]. It is concluded that none of the two interface descriptions is preferable with respect to the quality of the integration. Thus, the choice of the interface type depends only on the studied problem and the available curve description, but not on the numerical aspects of the integration., Comment: ECCOMAS 2024

The global emphasis on sustainable technologies has become a paramount concern for nations worldwide. Specifically, numerous sustainable methods are being explored as promising alternatives to the well-established vapor-compression technologies in cooling and heating devices. One such avenue gaining traction within the scientific community is the elastocaloric effect (eC). This phenomenon holds promise for efficient cooling and heating processes without causing environmental harm. Studies carried out at the nanoscale have demonstrated the efficiency of the eC, proving to be comparable to that of state-of-the-art macroscopic systems. In this study, we used classical molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the elastocaloric effect for {\gamma}-graphyne. Our analysis goes beyond obtaining changes in eC temperature and the coefficient of performance (COP) for two species of {\gamma}-graphyne nanoribbons (armchair and zigzag). We also explore their dependence on various conditions, including whether they are on deposited on a substrate or pre-strained. Our findings reveal a substantial enhancement in the elastocaloric effect for {\gamma}-graphyne nanoribbons when subjected to pre-strain, amplifying it by at least one order of magnitude. Under certain conditions, the change in the eC temperature and the COP of the structures reach expressive values as high as 224 K and 14, respectively. We discuss the implications of these results by examining the shape and behavior of the carbon-carbon bond lengths within the structures., Comment: Version submitted for publication, to satisfy sponsor requirements

The aim of this text is to present, in a technically accessible way, Tarski's definition of truth, the indefinability theorem, and to discuss two aspects of Tarski's work on truth, namely, whether or not the definition captures the notion of truth as correspondence, and Kripke's objection to the hierarchy of languages., Comment: in Portuguese language

Research in neutrino physics has been very active, both in experimental advances, with a new generation of detectors in operation and planning, and in theoretical discussions regarding the fundamental nature of the neutrino. This scientific dynamism has attracted many new students to the field. One of the first topics studied in neutrino physics by newcomers is the formalism of neutrino flavor oscillations and its associated phenomenology. We present this work as a compilation of this basic knowledge, through a step-by-step approach that facilitates an efficient understanding of this vast theoretical and experimental landscape., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures

It is a continued open question how there can be an azimuthal anisotropy of high $p_\perp$ particles quantified by a sizable $v_2$ in p+Pb collisions when, at the same time, the nuclear modification factor $R_\text{AA}$ is consistent with unity. We address this puzzle within the framework of the jet quenching model \textsc{Jewel}. In the absence of reliable medium models for small collision systems we use the number of scatterings per parton times the squared Debye mass to characterise the strength of medium modifications. Working with a simple brick medium model we show that, for small systems and not too strong modifications, $R_\text{AA}$ and $v_2$ approximately scale with this quantity. We find that a comparatively large number of scatterings is needed to generate measurable jet quenching. Our results indicate that the $R_\text{AA}$ corresponding to the observed $v_2$ could fall within the experimental uncertainty. Thus, while there is currently no contradiction with the measurements, our results indicate that $v_2$ and $R_\text{AA}$ go hand-in-hand. We also discuss departures from scaling, in particular due to sizable inelastic energy loss., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Effective field theories (EFTs) provide an excellent framework for the search of heavy physics beyond the Standard Model, using the so-called bottom-up and top-down approaches. However, the vastness of possible UV scenarios makes the complete connection between the two approaches a difficult challenge at the loop-level. UV/IR dictionaries fill precisely this gap, efficiently connecting the EFT with the UV. In this work we present the complete one-loop dictionary for the Standard Model EFT at dimension six for completions with an arbitrary number of heavy fermions and scalars. Our results (as well as several new functionalities) are added to the previously partial package SOLD. In this new form, SOLD is prepared to serve as an important guiding tool for systematic and complete phenomenological studies. To illustrate this, we use the package to explore possible explanations for the tension on the measurement of $\mathcal{B}(B\rightarrow K \overline{\nu}\nu)$., Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures

In this paper, we establish a necessary and sufficient stability condition for a class of two coupled first-order linear hyperbolic partial differential equations. Through a backstepping transform, the problem is reformulated as a stability problem for an integral difference equation, that is, a difference equation with distributed delay. Building upon a St\'ep\'an--Hassard argument variation theorem originally designed for time-delay systems of retarded type, we then introduce a theorem that counts the number of unstable roots of our integral difference equation. This leads to the expected necessary and sufficient stability criterion for the system of first-order linear hyperbolic partial differential equations. Finally, we validate our theoretical findings through simulations.

The custodial Two-Higgs-Doublet-Model with SU(2) gauge fields is studied on the lattice. This model has the same global symmetry structure as the Standard Model but the additional Higgs field enlarges the scalar spectrum and opens the possibility for the occurrence of spontaneous symmetry breaking of the global symmetries. Both the spectrum and the running of the gauge coupling of the custodial 2HDM are studied on a line of constant Standard Model physics with cutoff ranging from 300 to 600 GeV. The lower bounds of the realizable masses for the additional BSM scalar states are found to be well bellow the W boson mass. In fact, for the choice of quartic couplings in this work the estimated lower mass for one of the BSM states is found to be about $\sim 0.2m_{W}$ and independent of the cutoff., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; Proceedings of the 41th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (LATTICE2024)

The purpose of this short note is to show the interplay between math outreach and conducting original research, in particular how each can build off the other., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

Automated benthic image annotation is crucial to efficiently monitor and protect coral reefs against climate change. Current machine learning approaches fail to capture the hierarchical nature of benthic organisms covering reef substrata, i.e., coral taxonomic levels and health condition. To address this limitation, we propose to annotate benthic images using hierarchical classification. Experiments on a custom dataset from a Northeast Brazilian coral reef show that our approach outperforms flat classifiers, improving both F1 and hierarchical F1 scores by approximately 2\% across varying amounts of training data. In addition, this hierarchical method aligns more closely with ecological objectives., Comment: Poster at Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning: workshop at NeurIPS 2024

Graphyne is a porous two-dimensional carbon allotrope of graphene that possesses interesting physical properties, including non-null bandgap. It is composed of carbon hexagonal rings or carbon-carbon bonds connected by acetylenic chains. The diverse forms of these connections yield a variety of graphyne structures. In a previous study, we have obtained the elastic properties of seven distinct families of graphyne structures as a function of the number of acetylene chains, from 1 to 10. The Young's modulus, shear modulus, Poisson's ratio and linear compressibility were predicted for the zigzag and armchair directions of all 70 graphyne structures. Here, we present some noteworthy findings regarding the angular dependence of these four elastic properties of asymmetric graphynes. Our results demonstrate that in a single structure, the minimum and maximum Young's modulus can vary by a factor of 10. Additionally, the directions of null linear compressibility in some asymmetric structures were determined., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, contents presented in 2024 MRS Fall Meeting

The mapping of ocean floor layers is a current challenge for the oil industry. Existing solution methods involve mapping through seismic methods and wave inversion, which are complex and computationally expensive. The introduction of artificial neural networks, specifically UNet, to predict velocity models based on seismic shots reflected from the ocean floor shows promise for optimising this process. In this study, two neural network architectures are validated for velocity model inversion and compared in terms of stability metrics such as loss function and similarity coefficient, as well as the differences between predicted and actual models. Indeed, neural networks prove promising as a solution to this challenge, achieving S{\o}rensen-Dice coefficient values above 70%., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Developed during the 6th Edition of the Advanced School of Experimental Physics (EAFExp), Brazilian Centre for Physics Research

The observation of the medium response generated by the propagation of high energy partons in the quark gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions would provide a clear and unmistakable evidence for the hydrodynamic behavior of the bulk. Recently, it has been argued that the features of the medium's back-reaction to the jet could be cleanly imprinted in the correlations of asymptotic energy flows, in principle allowing to isolate this signal from other uncorrelated physical processes. Nonetheless, the current limited theoretical understanding of these jet observables in heavy-ion collisions constrains their applicability as probes of the medium (hydro)dynamics. In this work, we provide an analytic picture for the medium back-reaction's effect on the energy flux and two point energy correlator. We show that the medium response leads to the emergence of an universal classical scaling law, competing with the perturbative QCD contribution at large angles. Comparing the associated correlator to recent experimental measurements, we find that the observed large angle features can be qualitatively described by a purely hydrodynamically driven response and its interplay with the hard jet component., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

Constructing valid confidence sets is a crucial task in statistical inference, yet traditional methods often face challenges when dealing with complex models or limited observed sample sizes. These challenges are frequently encountered in modern applications, such as Likelihood-Free Inference (LFI). In these settings, confidence sets may fail to maintain a confidence level close to the nominal value. In this paper, we introduce two novel methods, TRUST and TRUST++, for calibrating confidence sets to achieve distribution-free conditional coverage. These methods rely entirely on simulated data from the statistical model to perform calibration. Leveraging insights from conformal prediction techniques adapted to the statistical inference context, our methods ensure both finite-sample local coverage and asymptotic conditional coverage as the number of simulations increases, even if n is small. They effectively handle nuisance parameters and provide computationally efficient uncertainty quantification for the estimated confidence sets. This allows users to assess whether additional simulations are necessary for robust inference. Through theoretical analysis and experiments on models with both tractable and intractable likelihoods, we demonstrate that our methods outperform existing approaches, particularly in small-sample regimes. This work bridges the gap between conformal prediction and statistical inference, offering practical tools for constructing valid confidence sets in complex models.

We consider a large class of deformations of continuous and discrete biorthogonal ensembles and investigate their behavior in the limit of a large number of particles. We provide sufficient conditions to ensure that if a biorthogonal ensemble converges to a (universal) limiting process, then the deformed biorthogonal ensemble converges to a deformed version of the same limiting process. To construct the deformed version of the limiting process, we rely on a procedure of marking and conditioning. Our approach is based on an analysis of the probability generating functionals of the ensembles and is conceptually different from the traditional approach via correlation kernels. Thanks to this method, our sufficient conditions are rather mild and do not rely on much regularity of the original ensemble and of the deformation. As a consequence of our results, we obtain probabilistic interpretations of several Painlev\'e-type kernels that have been constructed in the literature, as deformations of classical sine and Airy point processes., Comment: 32 pages

Let $N$ components be partitioned into two communities, denoted ${\cal P}_+$ and ${\cal P}_-$, possibly of different sizes. Assume that they are connected via a directed and weighted Erd\"os-R\'enyi random graph (DWER) with unknown parameter $ p \in (0, 1).$ The weights assigned to the existing connections are of mean-field type, scaling as $N^{-1}$. At each time unit, we observe the state of each component: either it sends some signal to its successors (in the directed graph) or remains silent otherwise. In this paper, we show that it is possible to find the communities ${\cal P}_+$ and ${\cal P}_-$ based only on the activity of the $N$ components observed over $T$ time units. More specifically, we propose a simple algorithm for which the probability of {\it exact recovery} converges to $1$ as long as $(N/T^{1/2})\log(NT) \to 0$, as $T$ and $N$ diverge. Interestingly, this simple algorithm does not require any prior knowledge on the other model parameters (e.g. the edge probability $p$). The key step in our analysis is to derive an asymptotic approximation of the one unit time-lagged covariance matrix associated to the states of the $N$ components, as $N$ diverges. This asymptotic approximation relies on the study of the behavior of the solutions of a matrix equation of Stein type satisfied by the simultaneous (0-lagged) covariance matrix associated to the states of the components. This study is challenging, specially because the simultaneous covariance matrix is random since it depends on the underlying DWER random graph.

The celebrated canonical Ramsey theorem of Erd\H{o}s and Rado implies that for $2\leq k\in \mathbb{N}$, any colouring of the edges of $K_n$ with $n$ sufficiently large gives a copy of $C_{2k}$ which has one of three canonical colour patterns: monochromatic, rainbow or lexicographic. In this paper we show that if $p=\omega(n^{-1+1/(2k-1)}\log n)$, then ${\mathbf{G}}(n,p)$ will asymptotically almost surely also have the property that any colouring of its edges induces canonical copies of $C_{2k}$. This determines the threshold for the canonical Ramsey property with respect to even cycles, up to a $\log$ factor., Comment: 24 pages + 4 pages of appendix, 1 figure

We introduce a novel method for pre-training of large-scale vision encoders. Building on recent advancements in autoregressive pre-training of vision models, we extend this framework to a multimodal setting, i.e., images and text. In this paper, we present AIMV2, a family of generalist vision encoders characterized by a straightforward pre-training process, scalability, and remarkable performance across a range of downstream tasks. This is achieved by pairing the vision encoder with a multimodal decoder that autoregressively generates raw image patches and text tokens. Our encoders excel not only in multimodal evaluations but also in vision benchmarks such as localization, grounding, and classification. Notably, our AIMV2-3B encoder achieves 89.5% accuracy on ImageNet-1k with a frozen trunk. Furthermore, AIMV2 consistently outperforms state-of-the-art contrastive models (e.g., CLIP, SigLIP) in multimodal image understanding across diverse settings., Comment: https://github.com/apple/ml-aim

Manipulating the dynamics of open quantum systems is a crucial requirement for large-scale quantum computers. Finding ways to overcome or extend decoherence times is a challenging task. Already at the level of a single two-level atom, its reduced dynamics with respect to a larger environment can be very complex. Structured environments, for instance, can lead to various regimes other than memoryless Markovian spontaneous emission. Here, we consider an atom coupled to an array of coupled cavities in the presence of on-site correlated disorder. The correlation is long-ranged and associated with the trace of a fractional Brownian motion following a power-law spectrum. With the cavity modes playing the role of the environment, we study the dynamics of the spontaneous emission. We observe a change from non-Markovian to Markovian decay in the presence of disorder by tuning the correlation parameter. This is associated with a localization-delocalization transition involving the field modes. Two dissipative models that effectively reproduce the behavior of the non-Markovianity are discussed. The dissipation dynamics of the atom can thus be used to extract information about the phase of the environment. Our results provide a direction in the engineering of disordered quantum systems to function as controllable reservoirs., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

The usual approach on electrostatic wave decay process for a weak beam-plasma system considers two different wave modes interplaying, the Langmuir and ion-sound mode. In the present paper, a single-mode approach is shown to be feasible for conditions where the respective dispersion relations undergo topological changes. Numerical solutions for the dispersion relation of a beam-plasma system are presented, supporting the modeling of an analytic dispersion relation of a single wave mode. This wave mode is accounted for in the kinetic equations for particles and waves, which rule the evolution of the system. The results are compared against the two-wave mode approach using Langmuir and ion-sound waves, within the context of weak turbulence theory. It is found that the single-mode approach can account for the basic features of particles and waves, since the single mode exhibits both low and high frequency regions, which ultimately play the roles of ion-sound and Langmuir modes, respectively., Comment: Published in Physics of Plasmas

The discovery of fast moving stars in the Milky Way's most massive globular cluster, $\omega$Centauri ($\omega$Cen), has provided strong evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) inside of it. However, $\omega$Cen is known to be the stripped nuclear star cluster (NSC) of an ancient, now-destroyed, dwarf galaxy. The best candidate to be the original host progenitor of $\omega$Cen is the tidally disrupted dwarf $Gaia$-Sausage/Enceladus (GSE), a former Milky Way satellite as massive as the Large Magellanic Cloud. I compare $\omega$Cen/GSE with other central BH hosts and place it within the broader context of BH-galaxy (co)evolution. The IMBH of $\omega$Cen/GSE follows the scaling relation between central BH mass and host stellar mass (${\rm M}_{\rm BH}{-}{\rm M}_\star$) extrapolated from local massive galaxies (${\rm M}_\star \gtrsim 10^{10}\,{\rm M}_\odot$). Therefore, the IMBH of $\omega$Cen/GSE suggests that this relation extends to the dwarf-galaxy regime. I verify that $\omega$Cen (GSE), as well as other NSCs with candidate IMBHs and ultracompact dwarf galaxies, also follow the ${\rm M}_{\rm BH}{-}\sigma_\star$ relation with stellar velocity dispersion. Under the assumption of a direct collapse BH, $\omega$Cen/GSE's IMBH would require a low initial mass ($\lesssim$10,000 ${\rm M}_{\odot}$) and almost no accretion over $\sim$3 Gyr, which could be the extreme opposite of high-$z$ galaxies with overmassive BHs such as GN-z11. If $\omega$Cen/GSE's IMBH formed from a Population III supernova remnant, then it could indicate that both light and heavy seeding mechanisms of central BH formation are at play. Other stripped NSCs and dwarf galaxies could help further populate the ${\rm M}_{\rm BH}{-}{\rm M}_{\star}$ and ${\rm M}_{\rm BH}{-}\sigma_\star$ relations in the low-mass regime and constraint IMBH demographics and their formation channels., Comment: Accepted to AAS journals

Deep neural networks (DNNs) face significant challenges when deployed on resource-constrained extreme edge devices due to their computational and data-intensive nature. While standalone accelerators tailored for specific application scenarios suffer from inflexible control and limited programmability, generic hardware acceleration platforms coupled with RISC-V CPUs can enable high reusability and flexibility, yet typically at the expense of system level efficiency and low utilization. To fill this gap, we propose OpenGeMM, an open-source acceleration platform, jointly demonstrating high efficiency and utilization, as well as ease of configurability and programmability. OpenGeMM encompasses a parameterized Chisel-coded GeMM accelerator, a lightweight RISC-V processor, and a tightly coupled multi-banked scratchpad memory. The GeMM core utilization and system efficiency are boosted through three mechanisms: configuration pre-loading, input pre-fetching with output buffering, and programmable strided memory access. Experimental results show that OpenGeMM can consistently achieve hardware utilization ranging from 81.89% to 99.34% across diverse CNN and Transformer workloads. Compared to the SotA open-source Gemmini accelerator, OpenGeMM demonstrates a 3.58x to 16.40x speedup on normalized throughput across a wide variety ofGeMM workloads, while achieving 4.68 TOPS/W system efficiency.

We analyze the sensitivity of non-radial fluid oscillation modes and tidal deformations in neutron stars to high-order nuclear empirical parameters (NEP). In particular, we study the impact of the curvature and skewness of the symmetry energy $K_{\rm sym}$, $Q_{\rm sym}$, and the skewness of the binding energy in symmetric nuclear matter $Q_{\rm sat}$. As we are interested in the possibility of gravitational wave detection by future interferometers, we consider that the tidal interaction is the driving force for the quadrupolar non-radial fluid oscillations. We have also studied the correlations between those quantities, which will be useful to understand the strong physics of gravitational wave phenomena. Our main results show that $K_{\rm sym}$ impacts the frequencies of the fundamental mode mainly for low-mass neutron stars. The NEP $Q_{\rm sym}$ and $Q_{\rm sat}$ affect the fundamental modes of intermediate and heavy neutron stars, respectively. In the case of the first pressure mode, $K_{\rm sym}$ shows a small effect, while $Q_{\rm sat}$ shows a considerable decrease in this oscillation mode independent of the neutron star mass. Similarly, for tidal deformability, the NEP $Q_{\rm sat}$ and $Q_{\rm sym}$ show a bigger impact than $K_{\rm sym}$. Given the impact of the NEP on gravitational wave phenomena and the currently large uncertainties of these parameters, the prospect of higher sensitivity in future gravitational wave detectors promise a possible new tool to constrain high-order NEP.

Parameterized quantum circuits are the core of new technologies such as variational quantum algorithms and quantum machine learning, which makes studying its properties a valuable task. We implement parameterized circuits with definite and indefinite causal order and compare their performance under particular descriptors. One of these is the expressibility, which measures how uniformly a given quantum circuit can reach the whole Hilbert space. Another property that we focus on this work is the entanglement capability, more specifically the concurrence and the entangling power. We also find the causal relation between the qubits of our system with the quantum average causal effect measure. We have found that indefinite circuits offer expressibility advantages over definite ones while maintaining the level of entanglement generation. Our results also point to the existence of a correlation between the quantum average causal effect and the entangling power., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

DNA technologies have evolved significantly in the past years enabling the sequencing of a large number of genomes in a short time. Nevertheless, the underlying computational problem is hard, and many technical factors and limitations complicate obtaining the complete sequence of a genome. Many genomes are left in a draft state, in which each chromosome is represented by a set of sequences with partial information on their relative order. Recently, some approaches have been proposed to compare draft genomes by comparing paths in de Bruijn graphs, which are constructed by many practical genome assemblers. In this article we introduce gcBB, a method for comparing genomes represented as succinct colored de Bruijn graphs directly, without resorting to sequence alignments, by means of the entropy and expectation measures based on the Burrows-Wheeler Similarity Distribution. We also introduce an improved version of gcBB, called mgcBB, that improves the time performance considerably through the selection of different data structures. We have compared phylogenies of genomes obtained by other methods to those obtained with gcBB, achieving promising results.

As globular clusters (GCs) orbit the Milky Way, their stars are tidally stripped forming tidal tails that follow the orbit of the clusters around the Galaxy. The morphology of these tails is complex and shows correlations with the phase of the orbit and the orbital angular velocity, especially for GCs on eccentric orbits. Here, we focus on two GCs, NGC 1261 and NGC 1904, that have potentially been accreted alongside Gaia-Enceladus and that have shown signatures of having, in addition of tidal tails, structures formed by distributions of extra-tidal stars that are misaligned with the general direction of the clusters' respective orbits. To provide an explanation for the formation of these structures, we make use of spectroscopic measurements from the Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey ($S^5$) as well as proper motion measurements from Gaia's third data release (DR3), and apply a Bayesian mixture modeling approach to isolate high-probability member stars. We recover extra-tidal features similar to those found in Shipp et al. (2018) surrounding each cluster. We conduct N-body simulations and compare the expected distribution and variation in the dynamical parameters along the orbit with those of our potential member sample. Furthermore, we use Dark Energy Camera (DECam) photometry to inspect the distribution of the member stars in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD). We find that the potential members agree reasonably with the N-body simulations and that the majority of them follow a simple stellar population-like distribution in the CMD which is characteristic of GCs. In the case of NGC 1904, we clearly detect the tidal debris escaping the inner and outer Lagrange points which are expected to be prominent when at or close to the apocenter of its orbit. Our analysis allows for further exploration of other GCs in the Milky Way that exhibit similar extra-tidal features.

Providing reliable data on the properties of atomic nuclei and infinite nuclear matter to astrophysical applications remains extremely challenging, especially when treating both properties coherently within the same framework. Methods based on energy density functionals (EDFs) enable manageable calculations of nuclear structure throughout the entire nuclear chart and of the properties of infinite nuclear matter across a wide range of densities and asymmetries. To address these challenges, we present BSkG4, the latest Brussels-Skyrme-on-a-Grid model. It is based on an EDF of the extended Skyrme type with terms that are both momentum and density-dependent, and refines the treatment of $^1S_0$ nucleon pairing gaps in asymmetric nuclear matter as inspired by more advanced many-body calculations. The newest model maintains the accuracy of earlier BSkGs for known atomic masses, radii and fission barriers with rms deviations of 0.633 MeV w.r.t. 2457 atomic masses, 0.0246 fm w.r.t. 810 charge radii, and 0.36 MeV w.r.t 45 primary fission barriers of actinides. It also improves some specific pairing-related properties, such as the $^1S_0$ pairing gaps in asymmetric nuclear matter, neutron separation energies, $Q_\beta$ values, and moments of inertia of finite nuclei. This improvement is particularly relevant for describing the $r$-process nucleosynthesis as well as various astrophysical phenomena related to the rotational evolution of neutron stars, their oscillations, and their cooling.

In multi-agent systems, strong connectivity of the communication network is often crucial for establishing consensus protocols, which underpin numerous applications in decision-making and distributed optimization. However, this connectivity requirement may not be inherently satisfied in geographically distributed settings. Consequently, we need to find the minimum number of communication links to add to make the communication network strongly connected. To date, such problems have been solvable only through centralized methods. This paper introduces a fully distributed algorithm that efficiently identifies an optimal set of edge additions to achieve strong connectivity, using only local information. The majority of the communication between agents is local (according to the digraph structure), with only a few steps requiring communication among non-neighboring agents to establish the necessary additional communication links. A comprehensive empirical analysis of the algorithm's performance on various random communication networks reveals its efficiency and scalability.

Quantum thermodynamics studies how quantum systems and operations may be exploited as sources of work to perform useful thermodynamic tasks. In real-world conditions, the evolution of open quantum systems typically displays memory effects, resulting in a non-Markovian dynamics. The associated information backflow has been observed to provide advantage in certain thermodynamic tasks. However, a general operational connection between non-Markovianity and thermodynamics in the quantum regime has remained elusive. Here, we analyze the role of non-Markovianity in the central task of extracting work via thermal operations from general multitime quantum processes, as described by process tensors. By defining a hierarchy of four classes of extraction protocols, expressed as quantum combs, we reveal three different physical mechanisms (work investment, multitime correlations, and system-environment correlations) through which non-Markovianity increases the work distillable from the process. The advantages arising from these mechanisms are linked precisely to a quantifier of the non-Markovianity of the process. These results show in very general terms how non-Markovianity of any given quantum process is a fundamental resource that unlocks an enhanced performance in thermodynamics.

When a machine learning model is deployed, its predictions can alter its environment, as better informed agents strategize to suit their own interests. With such alterations in mind, existing approaches to uncertainty quantification break. In this work we propose a new framework, Strategic Conformal Prediction, which is capable of robust uncertainty quantification in such a setting. Strategic Conformal Prediction is backed by a series of theoretical guarantees spanning marginal coverage, training-conditional coverage, tightness and robustness to misspecification that hold in a distribution-free manner. Experimental analysis further validates our method, showing its remarkable effectiveness in face of arbitrary strategic alterations, whereas other methods break.

Music digitalization has introduced new forms of composition known as "musical borrowings", where composers use elements of existing songs -- such as melodies, lyrics, or beats -- to create new songs. Using Who Sampled data and Google Trends, we examine how the popularity of a borrowing song affects the original. Employing Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) for short-term effects and Granger Causality for long-term impacts, we find evidence of causal popularity boosts in some cases. Borrowee songs can revive interest in older tracks, underscoring economic dynamics that may support fairer compensation in the music industry., Comment: To appear in 1st Latin American Music Information Retrieval Workshop