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M dwarfs are the most common stars in the galaxy, with long lifespans, a high occurrence rate of rocky planets, and close-in habitable zones. However, high stellar activity in the form of frequent flaring and any associated coronal mass ejections may drive atmospheric escape with the bombardment of radiation and high-energy particles, drastically impacting the habitability of these systems. The stellar latitude where flares and coronal mass ejections occur determines the space weather that exoplanets are subject to, with high-energy particle events associated with equatorial flares producing significant atmospheric erosion. However, the flaring latitudes for M dwarfs remain largely unconstrained. To aid in the effort to locate these flaring regions we explore the applicability of flare occultations using optical photometry to identify the latitudes of flares. As a planet transits in front of an ongoing flare the timing and geometry of the transit can be used to constrain the latitude and longitude of the flare. We predict the probability of detecting an occultation for known transiting planets and eclipsing binaries. From this, we estimate 3-22 detectable occultations exist within the TESS primary mission photometry, with the majority occurring in eclipsing binary observations. To demonstrate this technique, we analyze a candidate flare occultation event for the eclipsing binary CM Draconis., Comment: Under review at MNRAS updated in regards to third referee report. 16 pages. 12 figures

Exomoon discovery is on the horizon. Although several exomoon candidates exist around single stars, there are currently no candidates around circumbinary planets (CBPs). Circumbinary planets are predicted to have migrated to their current location from a farther region of the protoplanetary disc where they formed. An exomoon of a CBP therefore represents a fascinating yet complex and evolving four-body system. Their existence (or absence) would shed light on the robustness of moon formation in more dynamically active planetary systems. In this work, we simulate exomoons around migrating CBPs. We show that for fully migrated CBPs a moon is capable of surviving the migration if it is formed within ~5-10% of the planet's Hill Radius. Roughly 30-40% of the surviving moons are in the habitable zone, giving credence to circumbinary habitability even if the known CBPs all gas giants. The majority of moons fall off of their host planet early in the migration and become long-period CBPs (i.e a multi-planet circumbinary system). A subset of exomoons are ejected from the system entirely. This last class presents a new mechanism for producing free-floating planetary mass objects, like those discovered recently and expected in the Roman microlensing survey., Comment: Under review at ApJ, community feedback welcome

We report the results of a spectroscopic survey of candidate T subdwarfs identified by the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 program. Near-infrared spectra of 31 sources with red $J-W2$ colors and large $J$-band reduced proper motions show varying signatures of subsolar metallicity, including strong collision-induced H$_2$ absorption, obscured methane and water features, and weak K I absorption. These metallicity signatures are supported by spectral model fits and 3D velocities, indicating thick disk and halo population membership for several sources. We identify three new metal-poor T subdwarfs ([M/H] $\lesssim$ $-$0.5), CWISE J062316.19+071505.6, WISEA J152443.14$-$262001.8, and CWISE J211250.11-052925.2; and 19 new "mild" subdwarfs with modest metal deficiency ([M/H] $\lesssim$ $-$0.25). We also identify three metal-rich brown dwarfs with thick disk kinematics. We provide kinematic evidence that the extreme L subdwarf 2MASS J053253.46+824646.5 and the mild T subdwarf CWISE J113010.07+313944.7 may be part of the Thamnos population, while the T subdwarf CWISE J155349.96+693355.2 may be part of the Helmi stream. We define a metallicity classification system for T dwarfs that adds mild subdwarfs (d/sdT), subdwarfs (sdT), and extreme subdwarfs (esdT) to the existing dwarf sequence. We also define a metallicity spectral index that correlates with metallicities inferred from spectral model fits and iron abundances from stellar primaries of benchmark T dwarf companions. This expansion of the T dwarf classification system supports investigations of ancient, metal-poor brown dwarfs now being uncovered in deep imaging and spectroscopic surveys., Comment: 82 pages, 19 figures, accepted to ApJS

In this study, we present the integration of a neural network-based parameterization into the global atmospheric model ARP-GEM1, leveraging the Python interface of the OASIS coupler. This approach facilitates the exchange of fields between the Fortran-based ARP-GEM1 model and a Python component responsible for neural network inference. As a proof-of-concept experiment, we trained a neural network to emulate the deep convection parameterization of ARP-GEM1. Using the flexible Fortran/Python interface, we have successfully replaced ARP-GEM1's deep convection scheme with a neural network emulator. To assess the performance of the neural network deep convection scheme, we have run a 5-years ARP-GEM1 simulation using the neural network emulator. The evaluation of averaged fields showed good agreement with output from an ARP-GEM1 simulation using the physics-based deep convection scheme. The Python component was deployed on a separate partition from the general circulation model, using GPUs to increase inference speed of the neural network., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems

Circumbinary planets - planets that orbit both stars in a binary system - offer the opportunity to study planet formation and orbital migration in a different environment compare to single stars. However, despite the fact that > 90% of binary systems in the solar neighbourhood are spectrally resolved double-lined binaries, there has been only one detection of a circumbinary planet orbitting a double-lined binary using the radial velocity method so far. Spectrally disentangling both components of a binary system is hard to do accurately. Weak spectral lines blend with one another in a time-varying way, and inaccuracy in spectral modelling can lead to an inaccurate estimation of the radial-velocity of each component. This inaccuracy adds scatter to the measurements that can hide the weak radial-velocity signature of circumbinary exoplanets. We have obtained new high signal-to-noise and high-resolution spectra with the SOPHIE spectrograph, mounted on the 193cm telescope at Observatoire de Haute-Provence (OHP) for six, bright, double-lined binaries for which a circumbinary exoplanet detection has been attempted in the past. To extract radial-velocities we use the DOLBY code, a recent method of spectral disentangling using Gaussian processes to model the time-varying components. We analyse the resulting radial-velocities with a diffusive nested sampler to seek planets, and compute sensitivity limits. We do not detect any new circumbinary planet. However, we show that the combination of new data, new radial-velocity extraction methods, and new statistical methods to determine a dataset's sensitivity to planets leads to an approximately one order of magnitude improvement compared to previous results. This improvement brings us into the range of known circumbinary exoplanets and paves the way for new campaigns of observations targeting double-lined binaries., Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 7 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

This is the second part of a series of two articles focused on the development and evaluation of the ARP-GEM1 global atmosphere model. The first paper introduced the model's new physics and speedup improvements. In this second part, we evaluate ARP-GEM1 through a set of 30-year prescribed sea-surface-temperature simulations at 55, 25, 12.6, and 6.3 km resolutions. The model demonstrates reliability in representing global climate metrics, comparable to the top-performing CMIP6 models, while maintaining high computational efficiency at all resolutions. These simulations further demonstrate the feasibility of O(10)-km climate simulations, and highlight their added value, particularly for capturing phenomena such as cyclones. Ultimately, these exploratory simulations should be considered an intermediate step toward the development and tuning of even higher-resolution, convection-permitting kilometer-scale configurations., Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Journal of Climate

This is the first part of a series of two articles describing the ARP-GEM global atmosphere model version 1 and its evaluation in simulations from 55 km to 6 km resolutions. This article provides a complete description of ARP-GEM1, focusing on its new physical parameterizations and acceleration factors aimed at improving computational efficiency. ARP-GEM1 is approximately 15 times faster than its base model version, ARPEGE-Climat v6.3, while maintaining accurate simulations and enhancing model performance, as shown in Part II.This significant acceleration results from a combination of optimizations, rather than a single factor, with each factor's contribution quantified. Additionally, a detailed decomposition of the model's speedup per component is presented. Streamlining the model reduces computational costs, enhances transparency and portability, and maximizes the benefits of future advanced computing technologies. The results presented here suggest that kilometer-scale global climate simulations should become feasible in the near future., Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Journal of Climate

Many compact objects (black holes and neutron stars) exist in binaries. These binaries are normally discovered through their interactions, either from accretion as an X-ray binary or collisions as a gravitational wave source. However, the majority of compact objects in binaries should be non-interacting. Recently proposed discoveries have used radial velocities of a bright star (main sequence or evolved) that are indicative of a massive but dark companion, which is inferred to be a compact object. Unfortunately, this burgeoning new field has been hindered by false positives, including the ``Unicorn'' (V723 Mon) which was initially believed to be a red giant/black hole binary before being refuted. In this work, we investigate the evolution of stellar binary populations over time, using the binary evolution code COSMIC to simulate binary populations and determine the probability of a candidate object being either a ``true Unicorn'' (actual compact objects in binaries) or a false positive. We find that main sequence stars have a higher true Unicorn probability than red giants or naked helium stars (an exposed core of an evolved star), particularly if the companion is more massive and is >3 times less luminous than the MS star. We also find that a top-heavy initial mass function raises the true Unicorn probability further, that super-solar metallicity reduces the probability, and that most true Unicorns are found at periods <100 days. Finally, we find that a significant fraction of true Unicorns do not evolve into x-ray binaries during the age of the universe., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Precise and accurate mass and radius measurements of evolved stars are crucial to calibrating stellar models. Stars in detached eclipsing binaries (EBs) are excellent potential calibrators because their stellar parameters can be measured with fractional uncertainties of a few percent, independent of stellar models. The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) has identified tens of thousands of EBs, >35,000 of which were included in the ASAS-SN eclipsing binaries catalog. Here, we select eight EBs from this sample that contain giants based on their Gaia colors and absolute magnitudes. We use LBT/PEPSI, APF, and CHIRON to obtain multi-epoch spectra of these binaries and measure their radial velocities using two-dimensional cross-correlation methods. We simultaneously fit the ASAS-SN light curves and the radial velocities with PHOEBE to derive accurate and precise masses and radii with fractional uncertainties of $\lesssim 3\%$. For four systems, we also include Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) light curves in our PHOEBE models, which significantly improves the radius determinations. In seven of our systems, both components have evolved off of the main sequence, and one system has a giant star component with a main sequence, Sun-like companion. Finally, we compare our mass and radius measurements to single-star evolutionary tracks and distinguish between systems that are first ascent red giant branch stars and those that are likely core helium-burning stars., Comment: 25 pages, 18 figures. Submitted to The Open Journal of Astrophysics

Non-reciprocal interactions in many-body systems lead to time-dependent states, commonly observed in biological, chemical, and ecological systems. The stability of these states in the thermodynamic limit, as well as the criticality of the phase transition from static to time-dependent states remains an open question. To tackle these questions, we study a minimalistic system endowed with non-reciprocal interactions: an Ising model with two spin species having opposing goals. The mean-field equation predicts three stable phases: disordered, ordered, and a time-dependent swap phase. Large scale numerical simulations support the following: (i) in 2D, the swap phase is destabilized by defects; (ii) in 3D, the swap phase is stable, and has the properties of a time-crystal; (iii) the transition from disorder to swap in 3D is characterized by the critical exponents of the 3D XY model, in agreement with the emerging continuous symmetry of time translation invariance; (iv) when the two species have fully anti-symmetric couplings, the static-order phase is unstable in any dimension due to droplet growth; (v) in the general case of asymmetric couplings, static order can be restored by a droplet-capture mechanism preventing the droplets from growing indefinitely. We provide details on the full phase diagram which includes first- and second-order-like phase transitions and study the coarsening dynamics of the swap as well as the static-order phases., Comment: Companion paper to arXiv:2311.05471 ; see movies at https://home.uchicago.edu/~vitelli/videos.html

We present the discovery of 118 new ultracool dwarf candidates, discovered using a new machine learning tool, named \texttt{SMDET}, applied to time series images from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. We gathered photometric and astrometric data to estimate each candidate's spectral type, distance, and tangential velocity. This sample has a photometrically estimated spectral class distribution of 28 M dwarfs, 64 L dwarfs, and 18 T dwarfs. We also identify a T subdwarf candidate, two extreme T subdwarf candidates, and two candidate young ultracool dwarfs. Five objects did not have enough photometric data for any estimations to be made. To validate our estimated spectral types, spectra were collected for 2 objects, yielding confirmed spectral types of T5 (estimated T5) and T3 (estimated T4). Demonstrating the effectiveness of machine learning tools as a new large-scale discovery technique., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, extended table 1, accepted to Astronomical Journal

The origin of Hot Jupiters (HJs) is disputed between a variety of in situ and ex situ formation scenarios. One of the early proposed ex situ scenarios was the Eccentric Kozai-Lidov (EKL) mechanism combined with tidal circularization, which can produce HJs with the aid of a stellar or planetary companion. However, observations have revealed a lack of stellar companions to HJs, which challenges the importance of the binary star-driven EKL plus tides scenario. In this work, we explore so far unaccounted-for stellar evolution effects on HJ formation, in particular the effect of white dwarf (WD) formation. Gaia observations have revealed that WDs often undergo a kick during formation, which can alter a binary's orbital configuration or even unbind it. Based on this WD kick, in this letter we propose and explore two novel HJ formation pathways: 1) HJs that are presently orbiting single stars, but were initially formed in a binary that was later unbound by a WD kick; 2) Binaries that survive the WD kick can trigger enhanced EKL oscillations and lead to 2nd generation HJ formation. We demonstrate that the majority of seemingly single HJs could have formed in binary star systems. As such, HJ formation in binaries via the EKL mechanism could be one of the dominant HJ formation pathways, and our results highlight that unaccounted-for stellar evolution effects, like WD formation, can obscure the actual origin of observed exoplanet populations., Comment: Submitted to ApJL. Comments are welcome

The parallel simulation of Spiking Neural P systems is mainly based on a matrix representation, where the graph inherent to the neural model is encoded in an adjacency matrix. The simulation algorithm is based on a matrix-vector multiplication, which is an operation efficiently implemented on parallel devices. However, when the graph of a Spiking Neural P system is not fully connected, the adjacency matrix is sparse and hence, lots of computing resources are wasted in both time and memory domains. For this reason, two compression methods for the matrix representation were proposed in a previous work, but they were not implemented nor parallelized on a simulator. In this paper, they are implemented and parallelized on GPUs as part of a new Spiking Neural P system with delays simulator. Extensive experiments are conducted on high-end GPUs (RTX2080 and A100 80GB), and it is concluded that they outperform other solutions based on state-of-the-art GPU libraries when simulating Spiking Neural P systems.

Planets orbiting binary systems are relatively unexplored compared to those around single stars. Detections of circumbinary planets and planetary systems offer a first detailed view into our understanding of circumbinary planet formation and dynamical evolution. The BEBOP (Binaries Escorted by Orbiting Planets) radial velocity survey plays a special role in this adventure as it focuses on eclipsing single-lined binaries with an FGK dwarf primary and M dwarf secondary allowing for the highest-radial velocity precision using the HARPS and SOPHIE spectrographs. We obtained 4512 high-resolution spectra for the 179 targets in the BEBOP survey which we used to derive the stellar atmospheric parameters using both equivalent widths and spectral synthesis. We furthermore derive stellar masses, radii, and ages for all targets. With this work, we present the first homogeneous catalogue of precise stellar parameters for these eclipsing single-lined binaries., Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS

This first VELOCE data release comprises 18,225 high-precision RV measurements of 258 bona fide classical Cepheids on both hemispheres collected mainly between 2010 and 2022, alongside 1161 additional observations of 164 other stars. The median per-observation RV uncertainty is 0.037 km/s, and some reach 0.002 km/s. Non-variable standard stars characterize RV zero-point stability and provide a base for future cross-calibrations. We determined zero-point differences between VELOCE and 31 literature data sets using template fitting and measured linear period changes of 146 Cepheids. Seventy six spectroscopic binary Cepheids and 14 candidates are identified using VELOCE data alone and are investigated in detail in a companion paper (VELOCE II). Several new insights into Cepheid pulsations were obtained, including: a) the most detailed description of the Hertzsprung progression by RVs; b) the identification of double-peaked bumps in the RV curve; c) clear evidence that virtually all Cepheids feature spectroscopic variability signals that lead to modulated RV variability. We identified 36 such stars, of which 4 also exhibit orbital motion. Linear radius variations depend strongly on pulsation period and a steep increase in slope of the $\Delta$R/p versus logP-relation is found near 10d, challenging the existence of a tight relation between Baade-Wesselink projection factors and pulsation periods. We investigated the accuracy of RV time series measurements, v$_\gamma$, and RV amplitudes published in Gaia's DR3 and determined an average offset of 0.65 \pm 0.11 km/s relative to VELOCE. We recommend adopting a single set of template correlation parameters for distinct classes of large-amplitude variable stars to avoid systematic offsets in v$_\gamma$ among stars belonging to the same class. Peak-to-peak amplitudes of Gaia RVs exhibit significant (16%) dispersion compared to VELOCE. [abridged], Comment: A&A in press, 46 pages, 35 figures, 20 tables. Some data only available via the CDS at publication. VELOCE DR1 data will be made public in FITS format via zenodo.org at DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10793507 upon publication of the paper in A&A

We report the identification of 89 new systems containing ultracool dwarf companions to main sequence stars and white dwarfs, using the citizen science project Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 and cross-reference between Gaia and CatWISE2020. Thirty-two of these companions and thirty-three host stars were followed up with spectroscopic observations, with companion spectral types ranging from M7-T9 and host spectral types ranging from G2-M9. These systems exhibit diverse characteristics, from young to old ages, blue to very red spectral morphologies, potential membership to known young moving groups, and evidence of spectral binarity in 9 companions. Twenty of the host stars in our sample show evidence for higher order multiplicity, with an additional 11 host stars being resolved binaries themselves. We compare this sample's characteristics with those of the known stellar binary and exoplanet populations, and find our sample begins to fill in the gap between directly imaged exoplanets and stellary binaries on mass ratio-binding energy plots. With this study, we increase the population of ultracool dwarf companions to FGK stars by $\sim$42\%, and more than triple the known population of ultracool dwarf companions with separations larger than 1,000 au, providing excellent targets for future atmospheric retrievals., Comment: 61 pages, 11 figures, 11 tables. Accepted for publication in AJ

Stellar binaries are ubiquitous in the galaxy and a laboratory for astrophysical effects. We use TESS to study photometric modulations in the lightcurves of 162 unequal mass eclipsing binaries from the EBLM (Eclipsing Binary Low Mass) survey, comprising F/G/K primaries and M-dwarf secondaries. We detect modulations on 81 eclipsing binaries. We catalog the rotation rates of the primary star in 69 binaries and discover 17 ellipsoidal variables. In a large portion (at least $\sim 51\%$) of our sample, we detect photometric modulations consistent with two over-densities of spots on the primary star that are roughly $180^{\circ}$ apart. We show that these so-called active longitudes are preferentially at the sub- and anti-stellar points on the primary star. Physically, this means that the spots on the primary star preferentially face directly towards and away from the secondary star., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures

The nature of the transition to collective motion in assemblies of aligning self-propelled particles remains a long-standing matter of debate. In this article, we focus on dry active matter and show that weak fluctuations suffice to generically turn second-order mean-field transitions into a `discontinuous' coexistence scenario. Our theory shows how fluctuations induce a density-dependence of the polar-field mass, even when this effect is absent at mean-field level. In turn, this dependency on density triggers a feedback loop between ordering and advection that ultimately leads to an inhomogeneous transition to collective motion and the emergence of inhomogeneous travelling bands. Importantly, we show that such a fluctuation-induced first order transition is present in both metric models, in which particles align with neighbors within a finite distance, and in `topological' ones, in which alignment is based on more complex constructions of neighbor sets. We compute analytically the noise-induced renormalization of the polar-field mass using stochastic calculus, which we further back up by a one-loop field-theoretical analysis. Finally, we confirm our analytical predictions by numerical simulations of fluctuating hydrodynamics as well as of topological particle models with either k-nearest neighbors or Voronoi alignment., Comment: 61 pages, 9 figures

Living systems display complex behaviors driven not only by physical forces, but also decision-making guided by information processing and molded by cultural and/or biological evolution. Hydrodynamic theories hold promise for simplified, universal descriptions of these collective behaviors. However, incorporating the individual preferences of decision-making organisms into a hydrodynamic theory is an open problem. Here, we develop a data-driven pipeline that links micromotives to macrobehavior by augmenting hydrodynamics with utility functions that describe individual preferences in microeconomics. We show how to systematically validate the hypotheses underlying this construction from data using statistical tools based on neural networks. We illustrate this pipeline on the case study of human residential dynamics in the United States, for which census and sociological data is available, and show how trends in sociological surveys can be related to trends seen in racial segregation. In particular, we highlight that a history-dependence in the segregation-integration transition can arise even when agents have no memory. Beyond residential segregation, our work paves the way for systematic investigations of social-driven motility in real space from micro-organisms to humans, as well as fitness-mediated motion in more abstract genomic spaces.

In the hunt for Earth-like exoplanets it is crucial to have reliable host star parameters, as they have a direct impact on the accuracy and precision of the inferred parameters for any discovered exoplanet. For stars with masses between 0.35 and 0.5 ${\rm M_{\odot}}$ an unexplained radius inflation is observed relative to typical stellar models. However, for fully convective objects with a mass below 0.35 ${\rm M_{\odot}}$ it is not known whether this radius inflation is present as there are fewer objects with accurate measurements in this regime. Low-mass eclipsing binaries present a unique opportunity to determine empirical masses and radii for these low-mass stars. Here we report on such a star, EBLM J2114-39\,B. We have used HARPS and FEROS radial-velocities and \textit{TESS} photometry to perform a joint fit of the data, and produce one of the most precise estimates of a very low mass star's parameters. Using a precise and accurate radius for the primary star using {\it Gaia} DR3 data, we determine J2114-39 to be a $M_1 = 0.998 \pm 0.052$~${\rm M_{\odot}}$ primary star hosting a fully convective secondary with mass $M_2~=~0.0986~\pm 0.0038~\,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$, which lies in a poorly populated region of parameter space. With a radius $R_2 =~0.1275~\pm0.0020~\,\mathrm{R_{\odot}}$, similar to TRAPPIST-1, we see no significant evidence of radius inflation in this system when compared to stellar evolution models. We speculate that stellar models in the regime where radius inflation is observed might be affected by how convective overshooting is treated., Comment: Accepted for publication MNRAS

It has been demonstrated that the amount of data is crucial in data-driven machine learning methods. Data is always valuable, but in some tasks, it is almost like gold. This occurs in engineering areas where data is scarce or very expensive to obtain, such as predictive maintenance, where faults are rare. In this context, a mechanism to generate synthetic data can be very useful. While in fields such as Computer Vision or Natural Language Processing synthetic data generation has been extensively explored with promising results, in other domains such as time series it has received less attention. This work specifically focuses on studying and analyzing the use of different techniques for data augmentation in time series for classification and regression problems. The proposed approach involves the use of diffusion probabilistic models, which have recently achieved successful results in the field of Image Processing, for data augmentation in time series. Additionally, the use of meta-attributes to condition the data augmentation process is investigated. The results highlight the high utility of this methodology in creating synthetic data to train classification and regression models. To assess the results, six different datasets from diverse domains were employed, showcasing versatility in terms of input size and output types. Finally, an extensive ablation study is conducted to further support the obtained outcomes., Comment: In peer reviewing process

A complete accounting of nearby objects -- from the highest-mass white dwarf progenitors down to low-mass brown dwarfs -- is now possible, thanks to an almost complete set of trigonometric parallax determinations from Gaia, ground-based surveys, and Spitzer follow-up. We create a census of objects within a Sun-centered sphere of 20-pc radius and check published literature to decompose each binary or higher-order system into its separate components. The result is a volume-limited census of $\sim$3,600 individual star formation products useful in measuring the initial mass function across the stellar ($<8 M_\odot$) and substellar ($\gtrsim 5 M_{Jup}$) regimes. Comparing our resulting initial mass function to previous measurements shows good agreement above 0.8$M_\odot$ and a divergence at lower masses. Our 20-pc space densities are best fit with a quadripartite power law, $\xi(M) = dN/dM \propto M^{-\alpha}$ with long-established values of $\alpha = 2.3$ at high masses ($0.55 < M < 8.00 M_\odot$) and $\alpha = 1.3$ at intermediate masses ($0.22 < M < 0.55 M_\odot$), but at lower masses we find $\alpha = 0.25$ for $0.05 < M <0.22 M_\odot$ and $\alpha = 0.6$ for $0.01 < M < 0.05 M_\odot$. This implies that the rate of production as a function of decreasing mass diminishes in the low-mass star/high-mass brown dwarf regime before increasing again in the low-mass brown dwarf regime. Correcting for completeness, we find a star to brown dwarf number ratio of, currently, 4:1, and an average mass per object of 0.41 $M_\odot$., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 123 pages with four ancillary files

Systems with non-reciprocal interactions generically display time-dependent states. These are routinely observed in finite systems, from neuroscience to active matter, in which globally ordered oscillations exist. However, the stability of these uniform non-reciprocal phases in noisy spatially-extended systems, their fate in the thermodynamic limit, and the criticality of the corresponding phase transitions are not fully understood. Here, we address these questions by introducing a non-reciprocal generalization of the Ising model and study its critical behavior by means of numerical and analytical approaches. While the mean-field equations predict three stable homogeneous phases (disordered, ordered and a time-dependent swap phase), our large scale numerical simulations reveal a more complex picture. Static order is destroyed in any finite dimension due to the growth of rare droplets unless the symmetry between the two spins types is broken triggering a stabilizing droplet-capture mechanism. The swap phase is destroyed by fluctuations in two dimensions through the proliferation of spiral defects, but stabilized in three dimensions where non-reciprocity changes the critical exponents from Ising to XY, thus giving rise to a robust spatially-distributed clock., Comment: See movies at https://home.uchicago.edu/~vitelli/videos.html

Ongoing ground-based radial-velocity observations seeking to detect circumbinary planets focus on single-lined binaries even though over nine in every ten binary systems in the solar-neighbourhood are double-lined. Double-lined binaries are on average brighter, and should in principle yield more precise radial-velocities. However, as the two stars orbit one another, they produce a time-varying blending of their weak spectral lines. This makes an accurate measure of radial velocities difficult, producing a typical scatter of 10-15m/s. This extra noise prevents the detection of most orbiting circumbinary planets. We develop two new data-driven approaches to disentangle the two stellar components of a double-lined binary, and extract accurate and precise radial-velocities. Both approaches use a Gaussian Process regression, with the first one working in the spectral domain, whereas the second works on cross-correlated spectra. We apply our new methods to TIC 172900988, a proposed circumbinary system with a double-lined binary, and detect a circumbinary planet with an orbital period of 150 days, different than previously proposed. We also measure a significant residual scatter, which we speculate is caused by stellar activity. We show that our two data-driven methods outperform the traditionally used TODCOR and TODMOR, for that particular binary system., Comment: 17 pages, 22 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We study the statistical properties of a single free quantum particle evolving coherently on a discrete lattice in ${\rm d}$ spatial dimensions where every lattice site is additionally subject to continuous measurement of the occupation number. Our numerical results indicate that the system undergoes a Measurement-induced Phase Transition (MiPT) for ${\rm d}>1$ from a $\textit{delocalized}$ to a $\textit{localized}$ phase as the measurement strength $\gamma$ is increased beyond a critical value $\gamma_{c}$. In the language of surface growth, the delocalized phase corresponds to a $\textit{smooth}$ phase while the localized phase corresponds to a $\textit{rough}$ phase. We support our numerical results with perturbative renormalization group (RG) computations which are in qualitative agreement at one-loop order., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, 1 table + Supplemental Material

Over a dozen transiting circumbinary planets have been discovered around eclipsing binaries. Transit detections are biased towards aligned planet and binary orbits, and indeed all of the known planets have mutual inclinations less than $4.5^{\circ}$. One path to discovering circumbinary planets with misaligned orbits is through eclipse timing variations (ETVs) of non-transiting planets. Borkovits et al. (2016) discovered ETVs on the 18.6 d binary Kepler-1660AB, indicative of a third body on a $\approx 236$ d period, with a misaligned orbit and a potentially planetary mass. Getley et al. (2017) agreed with the planetary hypothesis, arguing for a $7.7M_{\rm Jup}$ circumbinary planet on an orbit that is highly misaligned by $120^{\circ}$ with respect to the binary. In this paper, we obtain the first radial velocities of the binary. We combine these with an analysis of not only the ETVs but also the eclipse depth variations. We confirm the existence of a $239.5$ d circumbinary planet, but with a lower mass of $4.87M_{\rm Jup}$ and a coplanar orbit. The misaligned orbits proposed by previous authors are definitively ruled out by a lack of eclipse depth variations. Kepler-1660ABb is the first confirmed circumbinary planet found using ETVs around a main sequence binary., Comment: Resubmitted to MNRAS following positive referee report

The excitation of microresonators using focused intensity modulated light, known as photothermal excitation, is gaining significant attention due to its capacity to accurately excite microresonators without distortions, even in liquid environments, which is driving key advancements in atomic force microscopy and related technologies. Despite progress in the development of coatings, the conversion of light into mechanical movement remains largely inefficient, limiting resonator movements to tens of nanometres even when milliwatts of optical power are used. Moreover, how photothermal efficiency depends on the relative position of a microresonator along the propagation axis of the photothermal beam remains poorly studied, hampering our understanding of the conversion of light into mechanical motion. Here, we perform photothermal measurements in air and water using cantilever microresonators and a custom-built picobalance, and determine how photothermal efficiency changes along the propagation beam axis. We identify that far out-of-band laser emission can lead to visual misidentification of the beam waist, resulting in a drop of photothermal efficiency of up to one order of magnitude. Our measurements also unveil that the beam waist is not always the position of highest photothermal efficiency, and can reduce the efficiency up to 20% for silicon cantilevers with trapezoidal cross section., Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, 1 table and supplementary information

In this work we construct an alternative Unauthenticated Model, intended to build a theoretic security framework to cover communications protocols whose characteristics may not always concur with the specifics of already existing models for authenticated exchanges. This model is constructed from the notion of commitment schemes, employing ephemeral information, therefore avoiding the exchange of long-term cryptographic material. From this model, we propose a number of Commitment-based protocols to establish a shared secret between two parties, and study their resistance over unauthenticated channels. This means analyzing the security of the protocol itself, and its robustness against Man-in-the-Middle attacks, by formalizing their security under this model. The key-exchange protocols are constructed from KEX and KEM primitives, to show that this model can be applied to both established and new paradigms. We highlight the differences that arise naturally, due to the nature of KEM constructions, in terms of the protocol itself and the types of attacks that they are subject to. We provide practical go-to protocols instances to migrate to, both for KEM-based and KEX-based cryptographic primitives.

We investigate and compare the composition of M-dwarf planets in systems with only one known planet (``singles") to those residing in multi-planet systems (``multis") and the fundamental properties of their host stars. We restrict our analysis to planets with directly measured masses and radii, which comprise a total of 70 planets: 30 singles and 40 multis in 19 systems. We compare the bulk densities for the full sample, which includes planets ranging in size from $0.52 R_{\oplus}$ to $12.8R_\oplus$, and find that single planets have significantly lower densities on average than multis, which we cannot attribute to selection biases. We compare the bulk densities normalized by an Earth model for planets with $R_{p} < 6R_{\oplus}$, and find that multis are also denser with 99\% confidence. We calculate and compare the core/water mass fractions (CMF/WMF) of low-mass planets ($M_p <10 M_{\oplus}$), and find that the likely rocky multis (with $R_p <1.6 R_{\oplus}$) have lower CMFs than singles. We also compare the [Fe/H] metallicity and rotation period of all single versus multi-planet host stars with such measurements in the literature and find that multi-planet hosts are significantly more metal-poor than those hosting a single planet. Moreover, we find that host star metallicity decreases with increasing planet multiplicity. In contrast, we find only a modest difference in the rotation period. The significant differences in planetary composition and metallicity of the host stars point to different physical processes governing the formation of single- and multi-planet systems in M dwarfs., Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables. Submitted to ApJ and under review. Comments welcome!

Two hallmarks of non-equilibrium systems, from active colloids to animal herds, are agents motility and nonreciprocal interactions. Their interplay creates feedback loops leading to complex spatiotemporal dynamics crucial to understand and control the nonlinear response of active systems. Here, we introduce a minimal model that captures these two features at the microscopic scale, while admitting an exact hydrodynamic theory valid also in the fully-nonlinear regime. Our goal is to account for the fact that animal herds and colloidal swarms are rarely in the thermodynamic limit where particle number fluctuations can be completely ignored. Using statistical mechanics techniques we exactly coarse-grain a nonreciprocal microscopic model into a fluctuating hydrodynamics and use dynamical systems insights to analyze the resulting equations. In the absence of motility, we find two transitions to oscillatory phases occurring via distinct mechanisms: a Hopf bifurcation and a Saddle-Node on Invariant Circle (SNIC) bifurcation. In the presence of motility, this rigorous approach, complemented by numerical simulations, allows us to quantitatively assess the hitherto neglected impact of inter-species nonreciprocity on a paradigmatic transition in active matter: the emergence of collective motion. When nonreciprocity is weak, we show that flocking is accelerated and bands tend to synchronize with a spatial overlap controlled by nonlinearities. When nonreciprocity is strong, flocking is superseded by a Chase & Rest dynamical phase where each species alternates between a chasing state, when they propagate, and a resting state, when they stand still. Finally, we demonstrate how fluctuations in finite systems can be harnessed to characterize microscopic non-reciprocity from macroscopic time-correlation functions, even in phases where nonreciprocal interactions do not affect the thermodynamic steady-state.

Increasing emphasis on the use of real-world evidence (RWE) to support clinical policy and regulatory decision-making has led to a proliferation of guidance, advice, and frameworks from regulatory agencies, academia, professional societies, and industry. A broad spectrum of studies use real-world data (RWD) to produce RWE, ranging from randomized controlled trials with outcomes assessed using RWD to fully observational studies. Yet many RWE study proposals lack sufficient detail to evaluate adequacy, and many analyses of RWD suffer from implausible assumptions, other methodological flaws, or inappropriate interpretations. The Causal Roadmap is an explicit, itemized, iterative process that guides investigators to pre-specify analytic study designs; it addresses a wide range of guidance within a single framework. By requiring transparent evaluation of causal assumptions and facilitating objective comparisons of design and analysis choices based on pre-specified criteria, the Roadmap can help investigators to evaluate the quality of evidence that a given study is likely to produce, specify a study to generate high-quality RWE, and communicate effectively with regulatory agencies and other stakeholders. This paper aims to disseminate and extend the Causal Roadmap framework for use by clinical and translational researchers, with companion papers demonstrating application of the Causal Roadmap for specific use cases., Comment: 51 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables

The aim of Predictive Maintenance, within the field of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM), is to identify and anticipate potential issues in the equipment before these become critical. The main challenge to be addressed is to assess the amount of time a piece of equipment will function effectively before it fails, which is known as Remaining Useful Life (RUL). Deep Learning (DL) models, such as Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, have been widely adopted to address the task, with great success. However, it is well known that this kind of black box models are opaque decision systems, and it may be hard to explain its outputs to stakeholders (experts in the industrial equipment). Due to the large number of parameters that determine the behavior of these complex models, understanding the reasoning behind the predictions is challenging. This work presents a critical and comparative revision on a number of XAI methods applied on time series regression model for PM. The aim is to explore XAI methods within time series regression, which have been less studied than those for time series classification. The model used during the experimentation is a DCNN trained to predict the RUL of an aircraft engine. The methods are reviewed and compared using a set of metrics that quantifies a number of desirable properties that any XAI method should fulfill. The results show that GRAD-CAM is the most robust method, and that the best layer is not the bottom one, as is commonly seen within the context of Image Processing.

Currently used digital signatures based on asymmetric cryptography will be vulnerable to quantum computers running Shor's algorithm. In this work, we propose a new quantum-assisted digital signature protocol based on symmetric keys generated by QKD, that allows signing and verifying messages in a simple way implementing an integration of currently available classical and quantum technologies. The protocol is described for a three-user scenario composed of one sender and two receivers. In contrast to previous schemes, it is independent of the message length. The security of the protocol has been analyzed, as well as its integrity, authenticity and non-repudiation properties.