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We provide a new existence result for abstract nonlinear operator systems in normed spaces, by means of topological methods. The solution is located within the product of annular regions and conical shells. The theoretical result possesses a wide range of applicability, which, for concreteness, we illustrate in the context of systems of nonlinear Poisson equations subject to homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. For the latter problem we obtain existence and localization of solutions having all components nontrivial. This is also illustrated with an explicit example in which we also furnish a numerically approximated solution, consistent with the theoretical results., Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures

The epoch of reionization is a landmark in structure formation and galaxy evolution. How it happened is still not clear, especially regarding which population of objects was responsible for contributing the bulk of ionizing photons toward this process. Doubly-peaked Lyman-Alpha profiles in this epoch are of particular interest since they hold information about the escape of ionizing radiation and the environment surrounding the source. We wish to understand the escape mechanisms of ionizing radiation in Lyman-Alpha emitters during this time and the origin of a doubly-peaked Lyman-alpha profile as well as estimating the size of a potential ionized bubble. Using radiative transfer models, we fit the line profile of a bright Lyman-Alpha emitter at $z\sim 6.9$ using various gas geometries. The line modeling reveals significant radiation escape from this system. While the studied source reveals significant escape ($f_{esc}$(LyA) $\sim0.8$ as predicted by the best fitting radiative transfer model) and appears to inhabit an ionized bubble of radius $R_{b}\approx 0.8^{+0.5}_{-0.3}\,pMpc\left(\frac{t_{\rm age}}{10^{8}}\right)^{\frac{1}{3}}$.Radiative transfer modeling predicts the line to be completely redwards of the systemic redshift. We suggest the line morphology is produced by inflows, multiple components emitting Ly$\alpha$, or by an absorbing component in the red wing. We propose that CDFS-1's profile holds two red peaks produced by winds within the system. Its high $f_{esc}$(Lya) and the low-velocity offset from the systemic redshift suggest that the source is an active ionizing agent. Future observations will reveal whether a peak is present bluewards of the systemic redshift or if multiple components produce the profile., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figurss

With the arrival of the next generation of ultra-deep optical imaging surveys reaching $\mu_V$$\sim$30 mag/arcsec$^2$ (3$\sigma$; 10"$\times$10"), the removal of scattered light due to the point spread function (PSF) effect remains a critical step for the scientific exploitation of the low surface brightness information contained in these data. Because virtually all pixels in the ground-based images are affected by an unwanted screen of light with a brightness greater than $\mu_V$$\sim$29 mag/arcsec$^2$, the characterization of the extended PSF (R$>$5 arcmin) is mandatory. We describe the procedure used to construct the extended PSFs of the LIGHTS survey in the g- and r-band images taken with the Large Binocular Cameras (LBCs) of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). We produce PSFs with a radial extension of 7.5 arcmins. These are later extended to 30 arcmins following an empirically motivated power-law extrapolation of their behaviour in their outermost regions. As an example of the application of our methodology, we subtract the scattered light around the galaxy NGC3198. The result of this subtraction clearly shows the outermost parts of the galaxy's disc, which have been obscured by the influence of nearby bright stars. Following a reproducible science philosophy, we make all the PSF models and the scripts used to do the analysis of this paper publicly available., Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, 1 tables

We investigate the existence of nontrivial solutions of parameter-dependent elliptic equations with deviated argument in annular-like domains in $\mathbb{R}^{n}$, with $n\geq 2$, subject to functional boundary conditions. In particular we consider a boundary value problem that may be used to model heat-flow problems. We obtain an existence result by means of topological methods; in particular, we make use of a recent variant in affine cones of the celebrated Birkhoff--Kellogg theorem. Using an ODE argument, we illustrate in an example the applicability of our theoretical result., Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure

Drawing on insights from the Swampland program, we initiate a classification of infinite distance limits in the conformal manifolds of 4d SCFTs. Each limit is characterized by a Hagedorn-like behavior of the large $N$ density of states, which we argue holographically correspond to different tensionless string limits. We focus on 4d large $N$ SCFTs with simple gauge groups, which exhibit an overall free limit at infinite distance within the conformal manifold. In this class of theories, only three types of weak-coupling limits arise. They are distinguished by the exponential rate $\alpha$ of the anomalous dimension of the higher-spin tower, which we find to be determined by the ratio of the central charges $a/c$. We compute the large $N$ partition function at the free point for all these SCFTs, and derive a universal expression for the Hagedorn temperature as a function of $\alpha$ (or, equivalently, of $a/c$), regardless of the gauge group or matter content. This Hagedorn-like density of states suggests that these weak-coupling limits correspond holographically to the tensionless limits of three different strings: the critical Type IIB string and two non-critical strings that arise exclusively in non-Einstein gravitational theories. Our findings are consistent with the Emergent String Conjecture when applied to theories with Einstein gravity at low energies. We also use our results to present a new argument for the absence of scale separation in the holographic AdS bulk dual of these 4d SCFTs. This argument is based on the existence of a bona fide 't Hooft limit, or equivalently, on satisfying the sharpened lower bound for the Distance Conjecture., Comment: 57 pages + appendices, 4 figures, 2 tables

We unravel the Rodeo Algorithm to determine the eigenstates and eigenvalues spectrum for a general Hamiltonian considering arbitrary initial states. By presenting a novel methodology, we detail the original method and show how to define all properties without having prior knowledge regarding the eigenstates. To this end, we exploit Pennylane and Qiskit platforms resources to analyze scenarios where the Hamiltonians are described by the Zeeman model for one and two spins. We also introduce strategies and techniques to improve the algorithm's performance by adjusting its intrinsic parameters and reducing the fluctuations inherent to data distribution. First, we explore the dynamics of a single qubit on Xanadu simulators to set the parameters that optimize the method performance and select the best strategies to execute the algorithm. On the sequence, we extend the methodology for bipartite systems to discuss how the algorithm works when degeneracy and entanglement are taken into account. Finally, we compare the predictions with the results obtained on a real superconducting device provided by the IBM Q Experience program, establishing the conditions to increase the protocol efficiency for multi-qubit systems.

We introduce a novel approach to hierarchical reinforcement learning for Linearly-solvable Markov Decision Processes (LMDPs) in the infinite-horizon average-reward setting. Unlike previous work, our approach allows learning low-level and high-level tasks simultaneously, without imposing limiting restrictions on the low-level tasks. Our method relies on partitions of the state space that create smaller subtasks that are easier to solve, and the equivalence between such partitions to learn more efficiently. We then exploit the compositionality of low-level tasks to exactly represent the value function of the high-level task. Experiments show that our approach can outperform flat average-reward reinforcement learning by one or several orders of magnitude.

We present an overview of the LIGHTS (LBT Imaging of Galactic Halos and Tidal Structures) survey, which currently includes 25 nearby galaxies that are on average $\sim$ 1 mag fainter than the Milky Way, and a catalog of 54 low central surface brightness (24 $< \mu_{0,g}$/mag arcsec$^{-2} < 28$) satellite galaxy candidates, most of which were previously uncatalogued. The depth of the imaging exceeds the full 10-year depth of the Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). We find, after applying completeness corrections, rising numbers of candidate satellites as we approach the limiting luminosity (M$_r \sim -8$ mag) and central surface brightness ($\mu_{0,g} \sim 28$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$). Over the parameter range we explore, each host galaxy (excluding those that are in overdense regions, apparently groups) has nearly 4 such candidate satellites to a projected radius of $\sim$ 100 kpc. These objects are mostly just at or beyond the reach of spectroscopy unless they are H I rich or have ongoing star formation. We identify 3, possibly 4, ultra-diffuse satellite galaxies (UDGs; effective radius $ > 1.5$ kpc). This incidence rate falls within expectations of the extrapolation of the published relationship between the number of UDGs and host halo mass. Lastly, we visually identify 12 candidate satellites that host a nuclear star cluster (NSC). The NSC occupation fraction for the sample (12/54) matches that published for satellites of early-type galaxies, suggesting that the parent's morphological type plays at most a limited role in determining the NSC occupation fraction., Comment: 26 pages, accepted for publication in AJ

This research aims to estimate three parameters in a stochastic generalized logistic differential equation. We assume the intrinsic growth rate and shape parameters are constant but unknown. To estimate these two parameters, we use the maximum likelihood method and establish that the estimators for these two parameters are strongly consistent. We estimate the diffusion parameter by using the quadratic variation processes. To test our results, we evaluate two data scenarios, complete and incomplete, with fixed values assigned to the three parameters. In the incomplete data scenario, we apply an Expectation Maximization algorithm., Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures

Lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (LHP-NCs) embedded in polymer matrices are gaining traction for next-generation radiation detectors. While progress has been made on green-emitting CsPbBr3 NCs, scant attention has been given to the scintillation properties of CsPbCl3 NCs, which emit size-tunable UV-blue light matching the peak efficiency of ultrafast photodetectors. In this study, we explore the scintillation characteristics of CsPbCl3 NCs produced through a scalable method and treated with CdCl2. Spectroscopic, radiometric and theoretical analysis on both untreated and treated NCs uncover deep hole trap states due to surface undercoordinated chloride ions, eliminated by Pb to Cd substitution. This yields near-perfect efficiency and resistance to polyacrylate mass-polymerization. Radiation hardness tests demonstrate stability to high gamma doses while time-resolved experiments reveal ultrafast radioluminescence with an average lifetime as short as 210 ps. These findings enhance our comprehension of LHP NCs' scintillation properties, positioning CsPbCl3 as a promising alternative to conventional fast scintillators.

Conventional reinforcement learning (RL) methods can successfully solve a wide range of sequential decision problems. However, learning policies that can generalize predictably across multiple tasks in a setting with non-Markovian reward specifications is a challenging problem. We propose to use successor features to learn a policy basis so that each (sub)policy in it solves a well-defined subproblem. In a task described by a finite state automaton (FSA) that involves the same set of subproblems, the combination of these (sub)policies can then be used to generate an optimal solution without additional learning. In contrast to other methods that combine (sub)policies via planning, our method asymptotically attains global optimality, even in stochastic environments.

A new optimization framework to design steady equilibrium solutions of the Vlasov-Poisson system by means of external electric fields is presented. This optimization framework requires the minimization of an ensemble functional with Tikhonov regularization of the control field under the differential constraint of a nonlinear elliptic equation that models equilibrium solutions of the Vlasov-Poisson system. Existence of optimal control fields and their characterization as solutions to first-order optimality conditions are discussed. Numerical approximations and optimization schemes are developed to validate the proposed framework., Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures

High-redshift quasars are thought to live in the densest regions of space which should be made evident by an overdensity of galaxies around them. However, campaigns to identify these overdensities through the search of Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) and Lyman $\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) have had mixed results. These may be explained by either the small field of view of some of the experiments, the broad redshift ranges targeted by LBG searches, and by the inherent large uncertainty of quasar redshifts estimated from UV emission lines, which makes it difficult to place the Ly-$\alpha$ emission line within a narrowband filter. Here we present a three square degree search ($\sim 1000$ pMpc) for LAEs around the $z=6.9$ quasar VIKJ2348-3054 using the Dark Energy CAMera (DECam), housed on the 4m Blanco telescope, finding 38 LAEs. The systemic redshift of VIK J2348--3054 is known from ALMA [CII] observations and place the Ly-$\alpha$ emission line of companions within the NB964 narrowband of DECam. This is the largest field of view LAE search around a $z>6$ quasar conducted to date. We find that this field is $\sim$ 10 times more overdense when compared to the Chandra Deep-Field South, observed previously with the same instrumental setup as well as several combined blank fields. This is strong evidence that VIKJ2348-3054 resides in an overdensity of LAEs over several Mpc. Surprisingly, we find a lack of LAEs within 5 physical Mpc of the quasar and take this to most likely be evidence of the quasar suppressing star formation in its immediate vicinity. This result highlights the importance of performing overdensity searches over large areas to properly assess the density of those regions of the Universe., Comment: Accepted to A&A. 17 pages, 11 figures

In text classification, creating an adversarial example means subtly perturbing a few words in a sentence without changing its meaning, causing it to be misclassified by a classifier. A concerning observation is that a significant portion of adversarial examples generated by existing methods change only one word. This single-word perturbation vulnerability represents a significant weakness in classifiers, which malicious users can exploit to efficiently create a multitude of adversarial examples. This paper studies this problem and makes the following key contributions: (1) We introduce a novel metric \r{ho} to quantitatively assess a classifier's robustness against single-word perturbation. (2) We present the SP-Attack, designed to exploit the single-word perturbation vulnerability, achieving a higher attack success rate, better preserving sentence meaning, while reducing computation costs compared to state-of-the-art adversarial methods. (3) We propose SP-Defense, which aims to improve \r{ho} by applying data augmentation in learning. Experimental results on 4 datasets and BERT and distilBERT classifiers show that SP-Defense improves \r{ho} by 14.6% and 13.9% and decreases the attack success rate of SP-Attack by 30.4% and 21.2% on two classifiers respectively, and decreases the attack success rate of existing attack methods that involve multiple-word perturbations.

By means of fixed point index theory for multi-valued maps, we provide an analogue of the classical Birkhoff--Kellogg Theorem in the context of discontinuous operators acting on affine wedges in Banach spaces. Our theory is fairly general and can be applied, for example, to eigenvalues and parameter problems for ordinary differential equations with discontinuities. We illustrate in details this fact for a class of second order boundary value problem with deviated arguments and discontinuous terms. In a specific example, we explicitly compute the terms that occur in our theory., Comment: 20 pages

Radial profiles play a crucial role in the analysis and interpretation of astronomical data, facilitating the extraction of spatial information. However, highly customizable (for different scenarios) measurements over each elliptical annulus can be challenging. In response, we present 'astscript-radial-profile', which is part of Gnuastro from version 0.15 and has an extensive documentation. A convenient feature of this program is its capability to make the measurements with different operators (mean, median, sigma-clipping, and many more) over ellipses, very quickly and directly on the command-line with minimal dependencies. This research note is reproducible with Maneage, on the Git commit 104aad5., Comment: Accepted RNAAS. Supplementary data on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10124582), project source on Codeberg (https://codeberg.org/gnuastro/papers/src/branch/radial-profile) and archived on Software Heritage (swh:1:dir:d5029e066916cb64f0d95d20eb88294acc78b2b1)

Color plays a crucial role in the visualization, interpretation, and analysis of multi-wavelength astronomical images. However, generating color images that accurately represent the full dynamic range of astronomical sources is challenging. In response, Gnuastro v0.22 introduces the program 'astscript-color-faint-gray', which is extensively documented in the Gnuastro manual. It employs a non-linear transformation to assign an 8-bit RGB (Red-Green-Blue) value to brighter pixels, while the fainter ones are shown in an inverse grayscale. This approach enables the simultaneous visualization of low surface brightness features within the same image. This research note is reproducible with Maneage, on the Git commit 48f5408., Comment: Accepted RNAAS. Supplementary data on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10058165), project source on Codeberg (https://codeberg.org/gnuastro/papers/src/branch/color-faint-gray) and archived on Software Heritage (swh:1:dir:1064a48d4bb58d6684c3df33c6633a04d4141d2d)

We present the first results of the Hubble Deep Hydrogen Alpha (HDH$\alpha$) project, which analyzes the space-borne deep H$\alpha$ narrowband imaging data in the GOODS-S region. The HDH$\alpha$ data comprises 72 orbits' images taken with the HST ACS/WFC F658N filter. The exposure time varies across a total area of $\sim$76.1 $\rm{arcmin}^2$, adding up to a total exposure time of 195.7 ks, among which 68.8 ks are spent in the deepest region. These images are aligned, reprojected, and combined to have the same pixel grid as the Hubble Legacy Fields (HLF). The scientific goals of the HDH$\alpha$ include establishing a sample of emission-line galaxies (ELGs) including [O III] emitters at $z\sim$ 0.3, [O II] emitters at $z\sim$ 0.8, and Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) at $z \sim 4.4$, studying the line morphology of ELGs with high resolution imaging data, and statistically analyzing the line luminosity functions and line equivalent-width distributions of ELGs selected with HST. Furthermore, the HDH$\alpha$ project enhances the legacy value of the GOODS-S field by contributing the first HST-based narrowband image to the existing data sets, which includes the HST broadband data and other ancillary data from X-ray to radio taken by other facilities. In this paper, we describe the data reduction process of the HDH$\alpha$, select ELGs based on HST's F658N and broadband data, validate the redshifts of the selected candidates by cross matching with the public spectroscopic catalogs in the GOODS-S, and present a final catalog of the confirmed [O III] emitters at $z\sim$ 0.3, [O II] emitters at $z\sim$ 0.8, and LAEs at $z \sim 4.4$., Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures, 9 tables, accepted by ApJS

We report the discovery of a previously uncatalogued arch-shaped filamentary nebula at the outer part of the Triangulum galaxy (M33) centred at R.A. = 1h34m25s, Dec = +30d20m17s (ICRS). This discovery stems from meticulous observations employing deep exposures of M33, using both H-alpha and [OIII] narrow-band filters. The nebula, designated as "Roig1 Prades Sky", exhibits an H-alpha surface brightness of 23.9 mag/arcsec2. Its sky projected location is 21 arcmin away from the M33 galactic centre towards the southeast direction with an extent of 120 by 440 pc. Deep spectroscopic observations are required to unveil its real nature., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure

Calibration of pixel values is a fundamental step for accurate measurements in astronomical imaging. In astronomical jargon this is known as estimating zero point magnitude. Here, we introduce a newly added script in GNU Astronomy Utilities (Gnuastro) version 0.20 for the zero point magnitude estimation, named: astscript-zeropoint. The script offers numerous features, such as the flexibility to use either image(s) or a catalog as the reference dataset. Additionally, steps are parallelized to enhance efficiency for big data. Thanks to Gnuastro's minimal dependencies, the script is both flexible and portable. The figures of this research note are reproducible with Maneage, on the Git commit c89275e., Comment: Supplementary data on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10256845), project source on Codeberg (https://codeberg.org/gnuastro/papers/src/branch/zeropoint) and archived on Software Heritage (swh:1:dir:8b2d1f63be96de3de03aa3e2bb68fa7fa52df56f; see text for usage)

In the realm of statistical physics, the number of states in which a system can be realized with a given energy is a key concept that bridges the microscopic and macroscopic descriptions of physical systems. For quantum systems, many approaches rely on the solution of the Schr\"odinger equation. In this work, we demonstrate how the recently developed rodeo algorithm can be utilized to determine the number of states associated with all energy levels without any prior knowledge of the eigenstates. Quantum computers, with their innate ability to address the intricacies of quantum systems, make this approach particularly promising for the study of the thermodynamics of those systems. To illustrate the procedure's effectiveness, we apply it to compute the number of states of the 1D transverse-field Ising model and, consequently, its specific heat, proving the reliability of the method presented here., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

In recent years, several unsupervised cell segmentation methods have been presented, trying to omit the requirement of laborious pixel-level annotations for the training of a cell segmentation model. Most if not all of these methods handle the instance segmentation task by focusing on the detection of different cell instances ignoring their type. While such models prove adequate for certain tasks, like cell counting, other applications require the identification of each cell's type. In this paper, we present CellMixer, an innovative annotation-free approach for the semantic segmentation of heterogeneous cell populations. Our augmentation-based method enables the training of a segmentation model from image-level labels of homogeneous cell populations. Our results show that CellMixer can achieve competitive segmentation performance across multiple cell types and imaging modalities, demonstrating the method's scalability and potential for broader applications in medical imaging, cellular biology, and diagnostics., Comment: Medical Imaging Meets NeurIPS 2023

Almost Dark Galaxies are objects that have eluded detection by traditional surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The low surface brightness of these galaxies ($\mu_r$(0)$>26$ mag/arcsec^2), and hence their low surface stellar mass density (a few solar masses per pc^2 or less), suggests that the energy density released by baryonic feedback mechanisms is inefficient in modifying the distribution of the dark matter halos they inhabit. For this reason, almost dark galaxies are particularly promising for probing the microphysical nature of dark matter. In this paper, we present the serendipitous discovery of Nube, an almost dark galaxy with $<\mu_V>$e~ 26.7 mag/arcsec^2. The galaxy was identified using deep optical imaging from the IAC Stripe82 Legacy Project. Follow-up observations with the 100m Green Bank Telescope strongly suggest that the galaxy is at a distance of 107 Mpc. Ultra-deep multi-band observations with the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias favour an age of ~10 Gyr and a metallicity of [Fe/H]$\sim-1.1$. With a stellar mass of ~4x10^8 Msun and a half-mass radius of Re=6.9 kpc (corresponding to an effective surface density of ~0.9 Msun/pc^2), Nube is the most massive and extended object of its kind discovered so far. The galaxy is ten times fainter and has an effective radius three times larger than typical ultra-diffuse galaxies with similar stellar masses. Galaxies with comparable effective surface brightness within the Local Group have very low mass (~10^5 Msun) and compact structures (effective radius Re<1 kpc). Current cosmological simulations within the cold dark matter scenario, including baryonic feedback, do not reproduce the structural properties of Nube. However, its highly extended and flattened structure is consistent with a scenario where the dark matter particles are ultra-light axions with a mass of m$_B$=($0.8^{+0.4}_{-0.2}$)$\times10^{-23}$ eV.}, Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. Main figures are 8, 9 and 12