Search

It has previously been demonstrated that the mesonic fields in chiral Lagrangians can be related to the quark-level operators of QCD sum-rules via energy-independent (constant) scale factor matrices constrained by chiral symmetry. This leads to universal scale factors for each type of chiral nonet related to quark-antiquark ($q\bar q$) operators and four-quark ($qq\bar q\bar q$) operators. Motivated by these successful demonstrations of scale-factor universality for the $K_0^*$ isodoublet and $a_0$ isotriplet scalar mesons, a revised Gaussian QCD sum-rule methodology is developed that enables the extension to higher-dimensional isospin sectors, including the possibility of mixing with glueball components. Moreover, to extract non-perturbative information about a resonance stemming from the final state interactions of its decay products, a background-resonance interference approximation is developed and shown to provide an excellent description of both $\pi K$ scattering amplitude data and $\pi\eta$ scattering calculations. This background-resonance interference approximation inspires new resonance models as ingredients in the scale-factor analysis connecting chiral Lagrangians and QCD Gaussian sum-rules. Using the revised Gaussian QCD sum-rule methodology, key properties of the scale factors are examined for the $K_0^*$ isodoublet and $a_0$ isotriplet scalar mesons for a sequence of increasingly sophisticated resonance models. Gaussian sum-rules are demonstrated to have sufficient resolution to distinguish between different resonance models, and it is shown that the background-resonance interference approximation not only describes $\{\pi K,\pi\eta\}$ scattering, but leads to the best universality and energy-independence properties of the scale factors., Comment: 26 pages, 18 figures, 5 tables

OJ 287 is a bright blazar with century-long observations, and one of the strongest candidates to host a supermassive black hole binary. Its polarisation behaviour between 2015 and 2017 (MJD 57300-58000) contains several interesting events that we re-contextualise in this study. We collected optical photometric and polarimetric data from several telescopes and obtained high-cadence light curves from this period. In the radio band, we collected mm-wavelength polarisation data from the AMAPOLA program. We combined these with existing multifrequency polarimetric radio results and the results of very-long-baseline-interferometry imaging with the Global mm-VLBI Array at 86 GHz. In December 2015, an optical flare was seen according to the general relativistic binary black hole model. We suggest that the overall activity near the accretion disk and the jet base during this time may be connected to the onset of a new moving component K seen in the jet in March 2017. With the additional optical data, we find a fast polarisation angle rotation of 210 degrees coinciding with the December 2015 flare, hinting at a possible link between these events. Based on the 86-GHz images, we calculated a new speed of 0.12 mas/yr for K, which places it inside the core at the time of the 2015 flare. This speed also supports the scenario where the passage of K through the quasi-stationary feature S1 could have been the trigger for the very-high-energy gamma-ray flare of OJ 287 seen in February 2017. With the mm-polarisation data, we established that these bands follow the cm-band data but show a difference during the time of K passing through S1. This indicates that the mm-bands trace the substructures of the jet still unresolved in the cm-bands., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A

Background: The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR , a modular array of isotopically enriched high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors, was constructed to demonstrate backgrounds low enough to justify building a tonne-scale experiment to search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay ($\beta\beta(0\nu)$) of $^{76}\mathrm{Ge}$. Purpose: This paper presents a description of the instrument, its commissioning, and operations. It covers the electroforming, underground infrastructure, enrichment, detector fabrication, low-background and construction techniques, electronics, data acquisition, databases, and data processing of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR. Method: The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR operated inside an ultra-low radioactivity passive shield at the 4850-foot~level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) from 2015-2021. Results and Conclusions: The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR achieved the best energy resolution and second-best background level of any $\beta\beta(0\nu)$ search. This enabled it to achieve an ultimate half-life limit on $\beta\beta(0\nu)$ in $^{76}\mathrm{Ge}$ of $8.3\times 10^{25}$~yr (90\% C.L.) and perform a rich set of searches for other physics beyond the Standard Model., Comment: 72 pages

We improve the determination of the mass and coupling of the $2^{++}$ tensor di-gluonium by using relativistic QCD Laplace sum rules (LSR). In so doing, we evaluate the next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections to the perturbative (PT) and $\langle \alpha_s G^2 \rangle$ condensate and the lowest order (LO) $\langle G^3 \rangle$ contributions to the $2^{++}$ di-gluonium two-point correlator. Within a vacuum saturation estimate ($k_G=1$) of the dimension-eight gluon condensates, we obtain: $M_{T}=3028(287)\mbox{MeV}$ and the renormalization group invariant (RGI) coupling $\hat{f}_T=224(33)\mbox{MeV}$. Assuming that the factorization hypothesis can be violated, we study the effect of the violation factor $k_G$ on the results and obtain: $M_T=3188(337)\mbox{MeV}$ and $\hat{f}_T=245(32)\mbox{MeV}$ for $k_G=(3\pm 2)$. Our estimation does not favour the interpretation of the observed $f_2(2010)$, $f_2(2300)$ and $f_2(2340)$ as pure glueball state., Comment: Talk given at the 14th International Conference in High-Energy Physics - HEPMAD24 (21-26th October 2024, Antananarivo-Madagascar)

Introducing superconductivity into group IV elements by doping has long promised a pathway to introduce quantum functionalities into well-established semiconductor technologies. The non-equilibrium hyperdoping of group III atoms into Si or Ge has successfully shown superconductivity can be achieved, however, the origin of superconductivity has been obscured by structural disorder and dopant clustering. Here, we report the epitaxial growth of hyperdoped Ga:Ge films by molecular beam epitaxy with extreme hole concentrations (n$_{h}$ = 4.15 $\times$ 10$^{21}$ cm$^{-3}$, ~17.9\% Ga substitution) that yield superconductivity with a critical temperature of T$_{C}$ = 3.5 K, and an out-of-plane critical field of 1 T at 270 mK. Synchrotron-based X-ray absorption and scattering methods reveal that Ga dopants are substitutionally incorporated within the Ge lattice, introducing a tetragonal distortion to the crystal unit cell. Our findings, corroborated by first-principles calculations, suggest that the structural order of Ga dopants creates a flat band for the emergence of superconductivity in Ge, establishing hyperdoped Ga:Ge as a low-disorder, epitaxial superconductor-semiconductor platform.

Within the method of parity-projected QCD sum rules, we study the mass spectra of light hybrid baryons with $I(J^{P})=1/2(1/2^{\pm}), 3/2(1/2^{\pm}), 1/2(3/2^{\pm}), 3/2(3/2^{\pm})$ by constructing the local $qqqg$ interpolating currents. We calculate the correlation functions up to dimension eight condensates at the leading order of $\alpha_{s}$. The stable QCD Lapalce sum rules can be established for the positive-parity $N_{1/2^+}, \Delta_{3/2^+}, \Delta_{1/2^+}$ and negative-parity $N_{1/2^-}, N_{3/2^-}, \Delta_{1/2^-}$ channels to extract their mass spectra. The lowest-lying hybrid baryons are predicted to be the negative-parity $N_{1/2^-}$ state around 2.28 GeV and $\Delta_{1/2^-}$ state around 2.64 GeV. These hybrid baryons mainly decay into conventional baryon plus meson final states. We propose to search for the light hybrid baryons through the $\chi_{cJ}/\Upsilon$ decays via the three-gluon emission mechanism in BESIII and BelleII experiments. Our studies of the light hybrid baryons will be useful for understanding the excited baryon spectrum and the behavior of gluonic degrees of freedom in QCD., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

We present a comprehensive analysis of a planetary microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-1609. The planetary anomaly was detected by two survey telescopes, OGLE and MOA. Each of these surveys collected enough data over the planetary anomaly to allow for an unambiguous planet detection. Such survey detections of planetary anomalies are needed to build a robust sample of planets that could improve studies on the microlensing planetary occurrence rate by reducing biases and statistical uncertainties. In this work, we examined different methods for modeling microlensing events using individual datasets, particularly we incorporated a Galactic model prior to better constrain poorly defined microlensing parallax. Ultimately, we fitted a comprehensive model to all available data, identifying three potential typologies, with two showing comparably high Bayesian evidence. Our analysis indicates that the host of the planet is a brown dwarf with a probability of 34%, or a low-mass stellar object (M-dwarf) with the probability of 66%., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures

Recent advances in Spatial Transcriptomics (ST) pair histology images with spatially resolved gene expression profiles, enabling predictions of gene expression across different tissue locations based on image patches. This opens up new possibilities for enhancing whole slide image (WSI) prediction tasks with localized gene expression. However, existing methods fail to fully leverage the interactions between different tissue locations, which are crucial for accurate joint prediction. To address this, we introduce MERGE (Multi-faceted hiErarchical gRaph for Gene Expressions), which combines a multi-faceted hierarchical graph construction strategy with graph neural networks (GNN) to improve gene expression predictions from WSIs. By clustering tissue image patches based on both spatial and morphological features, and incorporating intra- and inter-cluster edges, our approach fosters interactions between distant tissue locations during GNN learning. As an additional contribution, we evaluate different data smoothing techniques that are necessary to mitigate artifacts in ST data, often caused by technical imperfections. We advocate for adopting gene-aware smoothing methods that are more biologically justified. Experimental results on gene expression prediction show that our GNN method outperforms state-of-the-art techniques across multiple metrics., Comment: Main Paper: 8 pages, Supplementary Material: 9 pages, Figures: 16

We study a flaring activity of the HSP Mrk421 that was characterized from radio to very-high-energy (VHE; E $>0.1$TeV) gamma rays with MAGIC, Fermi-LAT, Swift, XMM-Newton and several optical and radio telescopes. These observations included, for the first time for a gamma-ray flare of a blazar, simultaneous X-ray polarization measurements with IXPE. We find substantial variability in both X-rays and VHE gamma rays throughout the campaign, with the highest VHE flux above 0.2 TeV occurring during the IXPE observing window, and exceeding twice the flux of the Crab Nebula. However, the VHE and X-ray spectra are on average softer, and the correlation between these two bands weaker that those reported in previous flares of Mrk421. IXPE reveals an X-ray polarization degree significantly higher than that at radio and optical frequencies. The X-ray polarization angle varies by $\sim$100$^\circ$ on timescales of days, and the polarization degree changes by more than a factor 4. The highest X-ray polarization degree reaches 26%, around which a X-ray counter-clockwise hysteresis loop is measured with XMM-Newton. It suggests that the X-ray emission comes from particles close to the high-energy cutoff, hence possibly probing an extreme case of the Turbulent Extreme Multi-Zone model. We model the broadband emission with a simplified stratified jet model throughout the flare. The polarization measurements imply an electron distribution in the X-ray emitting region with a very high minimum Lorentz factor, which is expected in electron-ion plasma, as well as a variation of the emitting region size up to a factor of three during the flaring activity. We find no correlation between the fluxes and the evolution of the model parameters, which indicates a stochastic nature of the underlying physical mechanism. Such behaviour would be expected in a highly turbulent electron-ion plasma crossing a shock front., Comment: Accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysics (on January 17th 2025). Corresponding authors: Axel Arbet-Engels, Lea Heckmann, David Paneque

OT 081 is a well-known, luminous blazar that is remarkably variable in many energy bands. We present the first broadband study of the source which includes very-high-energy (VHE, $E>$100\,GeV) $\gamma$-ray data taken by the MAGIC and H.E.S.S. imaging Cherenkov telescopes. The discovery of VHE $\gamma$-ray emission happened during a high state of $\gamma$-ray activity in July 2016, observed by many instruments from radio to VHE $\gamma$-rays. We identify four states of activity of the source, one of which includes VHE $\gamma$-ray emission. Variability in the VHE domain is found on daily timescales. The intrinsic VHE spectrum can be described by a power-law with index $3.27\pm0.44_{\rm stat}\pm0.15_{\rm sys}$ (MAGIC) and $3.39\pm0.58_{\rm stat}\pm0.64_{\rm sys}$ (H.E.S.S.) in the energy range of 55--300\,GeV and 120--500\,GeV, respectively. The broadband emission cannot be sucessfully reproduced by a simple one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model. Instead, an additional external Compton component is required. We test a lepto-hadronic model that reproduces the dataset well and a proton-synchrotron dominated model that requires an extreme proton luminosity. Emission models that are able to successfully represent the data place the emitting region well outside of the Broad Line Region (BLR) to a location at which the radiative environment is dominated by the infrared thermal radiation field of the dusty torus. In the scenario described by this flaring activity, the source appears to be an FSRQ, in contrast with past categorizations. This suggests that the source can be considered to be a transitional blazar, intermediate between BL~Lac and FSRQ objects., Comment: Accepted on MNRAS Corresponding authors: M. Manganaro, J. Becerra Gonz\'alez, M. Seglar-Arroyo, D. A. Sanchez

X-ray polarization is a unique new probe of the particle acceleration in astrophysical jets made possible through the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. Here we report on the first dense X-ray polarization monitoring campaign on the blazar Mrk 421. Our observations were accompanied by an even denser radio and optical polarization campaign. We find significant short-timescale variability in both X-ray polarization degree and angle, including a $\sim90^\circ$ angle rotation about the jet axis. We attribute this to random variations of the magnetic field, consistent with the presence of turbulence but also unlikely to be explained by turbulence alone. At the same time, the degree of lower-energy polarization is significantly lower and shows no more than mild variability. Our campaign provides further evidence for a scenario in which energy-stratified shock-acceleration of relativistic electrons, combined with a turbulent magnetic field, is responsible for optical to X-ray synchrotron emission in blazar jets., Comment: 23 pages, including 8 pages of appendices. 12 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to ApJ

Quantum acoustics is an emerging platform for hybrid quantum technologies enabling quantum coherent control of mechanical vibrations. High-overtone bulk acoustic resonators (HBARs) represent an attractive mechanical implementation of quantum acoustics due to their potential for exceptionally high mechanical coherence. Here, we demonstrate an implementation of high-coherence HBAR quantum acoustics integrated with a planar superconducting qubit architecture, demonstrating an acoustically-induced-transparency regime of high cooperativity and weak coupling, analogous to the electrically-induced transparency in atomic physics. Demonstrating high-coherence quantum acoustics with planar superconducting devices enables new applications for acoustic resonators in quantum technologies., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

We present multi-epoch optical spectropolarimetric and imaging polarimetric observations of the nearby Type II supernova (SN) 2023ixf discovered in M101 at a distance of 6.85 Mpc. The first imaging polarimetric observations were taken +2.33 days (60085.08 MJD) after the explosion, while the last imaging polarimetric data points (+73.19 and +76.19 days) were acquired after the fall from the light curve plateau. At +2.33 days there is strong evidence of circumstellar material (CSM) interaction in the spectra and the light curve. A significant level of polarization $P_r = 0.88\pm 0.06 \% $ seen during this phase indicates that this CSM is aspherical. We find that the polarization evolves with time toward the interstellar polarization level ($0.35\%$) during the photospheric phase, which suggests that the recombination photosphere is spherically symmetric. There is a jump in polarization ($P_r =0.65 \pm 0.08 \% $) at +73.19 days when the light curve falls from the plateau. This is a phase where polarimetric data is sensitive to non-spherical inner ejecta or a decrease in optical depth into the single scattering regime. We also present spectropolarimetric data that reveal line (de)polarization during most of the observed epochs. In addition, at +14.50 days we see an "inverse P Cygn" profile in the H and He line polarization, which clearly indicates the presence of asymmetrically distributed material overlying the photosphere. The overall temporal evolution of polarization is typical for Type II SNe, but the high level of polarization during the rising phase has only been observed in SN 2023ixf., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, submitted to ApJL, comments welcome

Connect Four is a two-player game where each player attempts to be the first to create a sequence of four of their pieces, arranged horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, by dropping pieces into the columns of a grid of width seven and height six, in alternating turns. Mis\`ere Connect Four is played by the same rules, but with the opposite objective: do not connect four. This paper announces that Mis\`ere Connect Four is solved: perfect play by both sides leads to a second-player win. More generally, this paper also announces that Mis\`ere Connect $k$ played on a $w \times h$ board is also solved, but the outcome depends on the game's parameters $k$, $w$, and $h$, and may be a first-player win, a second-player win, or a draw. These results are constructive, meaning that we provide explicit strategies, thus enabling readers to impress their friends and foes alike with provably optimal play in the mis\`ere form of a table-top game for children., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, and a handful of proofs

Quantum sources with strong correlations are essential but delicate resources in quantum information science and engineering. Decoherence and loss are the primary factors that degrade nonclassical quantum correlations, with scattering playing a role in both processes. In this work, we present a method that leverages Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), a machine learning technique known for its effectiveness in time-series prediction, to mitigate the detrimental impact of scattering in quantum systems. Our setup involves generating two-mode squeezed light via four-wave mixing in warm rubidium vapor, with one mode subjected to a scatterer to disrupt quantum correlations. Mutual information and intensity-difference squeezing between the two modes are used as metrics for quantum correlations. We demonstrate a 74.7~\% recovery of mutual information and 87.7~\% recovery of two-mode squeezing, despite significant photon loss that would otherwise eliminate quantum correlations. This approach marks a significant step toward recovering quantum correlations from random disruptions without the need for hardware modifications, paving the way for practical applications of quantum protocols., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

One-third of Mars' surface has shallow-buried H$_2$O, but it is currently too cold for use by life. Proposals to warm Mars using greenhouse gases require a large mass of ingredients that are rare on Mars' surface. However, we show here that artificial aerosols made from materials that are readily available at Mars-for example, conductive nanorods that are ~9 $\mu$m long-could warm Mars >5 $\times$ 10$^3$ times more effectively than the best gases. Such nanoparticles forward-scatter sunlight and efficiently block upwelling thermal infrared. Similar to the natural dust of Mars, they are swept high into Mars' atmosphere, allowing delivery from the near-surface. For a particle lifetime of 10 years, two climate models indicate that sustained release at 30 liters/sec would globally warm Mars by $\gtrsim$30 K and start to melt the ice. Therefore, if nanoparticles can be made at scale on (or delivered to) Mars, then the barrier to warming of Mars appears to not be as high as previously thought.

The transformer architecture has revolutionized bioinformatics and driven progress in the understanding and prediction of the properties of biomolecules. Almost all research on large-scale biosequence transformers has focused on one domain at a time (single-omic), usually nucleotides or peptides. These models have seen incredible success in downstream tasks in each domain and have achieved particularly noteworthy breakthroughs in sequences of peptides and structural modeling. However, these single-omic models are naturally incapable of modeling multi-omic tasks, one of the most biologically critical being nucleotide-peptide interactions. We present our work training the first multi-omic nucleotide-peptide foundation models. We show that these multi-omic models (MOMs) can learn joint representations between various single-omic distributions that are emergently consistent with the Central Dogma of molecular biology, despite only being trained on unlabeled biosequences. We further demonstrate that MOMs can be fine-tuned to achieve state-of-the-art results on peptide-nucleotide interaction tasks, namely predicting the change in Gibbs free energy ({\Delta}G) of the binding interaction between a given oligonucleotide and peptide, as well as the effect on this binding interaction due to mutations in the oligonucleotide sequence ({\Delta}{\Delta}G). Remarkably, we show that multi-omic biosequence transformers emergently learn useful structural information without any prior structural training, allowing us to predict which peptide residues are most involved in the peptide-nucleotide binding interaction. Lastly, we provide evidence that multi-omic biosequence models are non-inferior to foundation models trained on single-omics distributions, suggesting a more generalized or foundational approach to building these models., Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures

In this article we discuss community management in interdisciplinary research teams, focusing on recognising and professionalising roles referred to here as the Research Community Managers (RCM). Drawing insights and examples from research and data science projects, we discuss how RCM roles address some of the research’s most pressing challenges, from promoting best practices for open research and reproducibility to engaging diverse stakeholders in community-led research and ensuring fair recognition for their contributions. We offer a Community Maturation Indicator and share examples of projects from The Alan Turing Institute, the UK's national institute for data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI), where institutionally supported RCM roles were established. With the aim to integrate RCM expertise in teams involved in data science and AI research, we provide an RCM Skills and Competencies Framework. We also propose a roadmap for professionalising RCM roles by improving recognition and rewards, potential career paths and organisational support structures. To systematically sustain and progress these roles, we recommend institutional investment in establishing RCM teams that are empowered to prioritise collaboration, transparency and community-based approaches in interdisciplinary projects, such as in data science and AI. As a team, RCMs are well placed to connect disparate teams, initiatives and resources across the organisation, building more resilient research communities that can achieve greater innovation, improved project outcomes and a strongly connected ecosystem, with impacts extending beyond their narrow contexts., Comment: 1 table, 5 figures, main text in 20 pages in two column pdf output

This study establishes bounds on the leading-order (LO) hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon ($a_\mu^{\mathrm{HVP,LO}}$, $a_\mu = (g-2)_\mu/2$) by using H\"older's inequality and related inequalities in Finite-Energy QCD sum rules. Considering contributions from light quarks ($u,d,s$) up to five-loop order in perturbation theory within the chiral limit, leading-order light-quark mass corrections, next-to-leading order for dimension-four QCD condensates, and leading-order for dimension-six QCD condensates, the study finds QCD lower and upper bounds as $\left(657.0\pm 34.8\right)\times 10^{-10}\leq a_\mu^{\mathrm{HVP,LO}} \leq \left(788.4\pm 41.8\right)\times10^{-10}\,$., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables. Proceedings article for QCD24: 27th High-Energy Physics International Conference in Quantum Chromodynamis

In this paper we prove a novel result on two categories that appear in the local Langlands correspondence, for generalized Steinberg representations. Let $G$ be a semisimple reductive group split over a $p$-adic field $F$. The main result of this paper shows that category of modules over the extension algebra of generalized Steinberg representations of $G(F)$ appears as a full subcategory of equivariant perverse sheaves on the variety of Langlands parameters for these representations.

We apply the method of QCD sum rules to study the $q c \bar q \bar c$ tetraquark states with the exotic quantum number $J^{PC} = 3^{-+}$, and extract the mass of the lowest-lying state to be ${4.49^{+0.45}_{-0.41}}$ GeV. To construct the relevant tetraquark currents we need to explicitly add the covariant derivative operator. Our systematic analysis of these interpolating currents indicates that: a) this state readily decays into the $P$-wave $[\rho J/\psi] / [\omega J/\psi ]$ channel but not into the $ [\rho \chi_{c2}]/[\omega \chi_{c2}]/[J/\psi f_2(1270)]$ channels, and b) it readily decays into the $[D^* \bar D_2^*]$ channel but not into the $P$-wave $[D^* \bar D^*]$ channel., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, revised version to be published in PRD

In this study, we investigate in situ etching of \b{eta}-Ga2O3 in a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system using tert-Butyl chloride (TBCl). We report the successful etching of both heteroepitaxial (-201)-oriented and homoepitaxial (010)-oriented \b{eta}-Ga2O3 films over a wide range of substrate temperature, TBCl molar flows, and reactor pressures. We identify that the likely etchant is HCl (g) formed by the pyrolysis of TBCl in the hydrodynamic boundary layer above the substrate. The temperature dependence of the etch rate reveals two distinct regimes characterized by markedly different apparent activation energies. The extracted apparent activation energies suggest that at temperatures below ~800 {\deg}C the etch rate is likely limited by desorption of etch products. The relative etch rates of heteroepitaxial (-201) and homoepitaxial (010) \b{eta}-Ga2O3 were observed to scale by the ratio of the surface energies indicating an anisotropic etch. For (010) homoepitaxial films, relatively smooth post-etch surface morphology was achieved by tuning the etching parameters., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures

Below its Jahn--Teller transition temperature, $T_\mathrm{JT}$, NaNiO$_2$ has a monoclinic layered structure consisting of alternating layers of edge-sharing NaO$_6$ and Jahn-Teller-distorted NiO$_6$ octahedra. Above $T_\mathrm{JT}$ where NaNiO$_2$ is rhombohedral, diffraction measurements show the absence of a cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion, accompanied by an increase in the unit cell volume. Using neutron total scattering, solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) experiments as local probes of the structure we find direct evidence for a displacive, as opposed to order-disorder Jahn-Teller transition at $T_\mathrm{JT}$. This is supported by \textit{ab initio} molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations. To our knowledge this study is the first to show a displacive Jahn-Teller transition in any material using direct observations with local probe techniques., Comment: Under review. For SI, email the authors

A large body of evidence indicates that well-implemented social and emotional learning (SEL) programs improve academic, social, and emotional outcomes for students and educators. Education policy has the potential to influence the high-quality implementation of SEL, from the school district, to the school, to the classroom. Before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, U.S. states enacted supportive policies and conditions to promote SEL in schools. However, curricula that foster the development of social and emotional competences have been one of many controversies about the instructional content and instructional practices schools should use to teach students. Thus, legislators in nine states have proposed bills to prohibit or inhibit SEL instruction in kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) schools. In this report, the authors investigate whether states' SEL policies (for and against) are associated with the implementation of SEL by K-12 schools, as reported by teachers and principals. In their approach, the authors merge the survey data they collected from educators with the results of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning's (CASEL's) nationwide scan of each state's and the District of Columbia's SEL-relevant policies and conditions. The authors also study whether SEL implementation is correlated with two teacher-reported indicators of positive student experience: supportive climate and student interest in learning. The authors' findings show whether state policymakers' SEL-related policies (including legislation and guidance) connect to schools' on-the-ground decisions and implementation, as reported by principals and teachers.

Sapphire is a technologically highly relevant material, but it poses many challenges to performing epitaxial thin-film deposition. We have identified and applied the conditions for adsorption-controlled homoepitaxial growth of c-plane sapphire. The films thus grown are atomically smooth, have a controlled termination, and are of outstanding crystallinity. Their chemical purity exceeds that of the substrates. The films exhibit exceptional optical properties such as a single-crystal-like bandgap and a low density of F+ centers.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive primary brain tumour, exhibits low survival rates due to its rapid growth, infiltrates surrounding brain tissue, and is highly resistant to treatment. One major challenge is oedema infiltration, a fluid build$-$up that provides a path for cancer cells to invade other areas. MRI resolution is insufficient to detect these infiltrating cells, leading to relapses despite chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In this work, we propose a new multiscale mathematical modelling method, to explore the oedema infiltration and predict tumour relapses. To address tumour relapses, we investigated several possible scenarios for the distribution of remaining GBM cells within the oedema after surgery. Furthermore, in this computational modelling investigation on tumour relapse scenarios were investigated assuming the presence of clinically relevant chemo$-$radio therapy numerical results suggest that a higher concentration of GBM cells near the surgical cavity edge led to limited spread and slower progression of tumour relapse. Finally, we explore mathematical and computational avenues for reconstructing relevant shapes for the initial distributions of GBM cells within the oedema from available MRI scans. The results obtained show good overlap between our simulation and the patient serial MRI scans taken 881 days into the treatment. While still under analytical investigation, this work paves the way for robust reconstruction of tumour relapses from available clinical data.

Parametric coupling between harmonic oscillators has enabled exquisite measurement precision and control of linear resonators, being extensively studied, for example, in cavity optomechanics. This level of control has been made possible by using strong sideband drives, enhancing the coupling rate while also linearizing the interaction. In this article, we demonstrate a new paradigm of parametrically coupled microwave circuits replacing one linear microwave cavity with a superconducting transmon qubit. Our system utilizes photon-pressure coupling between the transmon qubit and a highly linear microwave resonator, a microwave analog of the radiation-pressure interaction. Applying a strong sideband drive results in an on-demand, non-linear Jaynes-Cummings interaction with the linear resonator. We also observe a single-photon coupling rate an order of magnitude larger than all decay rates, placing the device in the single-photon strong coupling regime. This demonstration of photon-pressure Jaynes-Cummings interactions paves the way for developing novel photon-pressure quantum information processing hardware and will enable exotic tests of quantum gravity in the future by interfacing this new platform with mechanical resonators., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures

Open-source software is released under an open-source licence, which means the software can be shared, adapted, and reshared without prejudice. In the context of open-source software, community managers manage the communities that contribute to the development and upkeep of open-source tools. Despite playing a crucial role in maintaining open-source software, community managers are often overlooked. In this paper we look at why this happens and the troubling future we are heading towards if this trend continues. Namely if community managers are driven to focus on corporate needs and become conflicted with the communities they are meant to be managing. We suggest methods to overcome this by stressing the need for the specialisation of roles and by advocating for transparent metrics that highlight the real work of the community manager. Following these guidelines can allow this vital role to be treated with the transparency and respect that it deserves, alongside more traditional roles including software developers and engineers.

Millions of people turn to Google Search each day for information on things as diverse as new cars or flu symptoms. The terms that they enter contain valuable information on their daily intent and activities, but the information in these search terms has been difficult to fully leverage. User-defined categorical filters have been the most common way to shrink the dimensionality of search data to a tractable size for analysis and modeling. In this paper we present a new approach to reducing the dimensionality of search data while retaining much of the information in the individual terms without user-defined rules. Our contributions are two-fold: 1) we introduce SLaM Compression, a way to quantify search terms using pre-trained language models and create a representation of search data that has low dimensionality, is memory efficient, and effectively acts as a summary of search, and 2) we present CoSMo, a Constrained Search Model for estimating real world events using only search data. We demonstrate the efficacy of our contributions by estimating with high accuracy U.S. automobile sales and U.S. flu rates using only Google Search data.

Variability can be the pathway to understanding the physical processes in astrophysical jets, however, the high-cadence observations required to test particle acceleration models are still missing. Here we report on the first attempt to produce continuous, >24 hour polarization light curves of blazars using telescopes distributed across the globe and the rotation of the Earth to avoid the rising Sun. Our campaign involved 16 telescopes in Asia, Europe, and North America. We observed BL Lacertae and CGRaBS J0211+1051 for a combined 685 telescope hours. We find large variations in the polarization degree and angle for both sources in sub-hour timescales as well as a ~180 degree rotation of the polarization angle in CGRaBS J0211+1051 in less than two days. We compared our high-cadence observations to Particle-In-Cell magnetic reconnection and turbulent plasma simulations. We find that although the state of the art simulation frameworks can produce a large fraction of the polarization properties, they do not account for the entirety of the observed polarization behavior in blazar jets., Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in A&A. The data used in the paper are available here: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/IETSXS

We report the X-ray polarization properties of the high-synchrotron-peaked (HSP) blazar PKS 2155$-$304 based on observations with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). We observed the source between Oct 27 and Nov 7, 2023. We also conducted an extensive contemporaneous multiwavelength (MW) campaign. We find that during the first half ($T_1$) of the IXPE pointing, the source exhibited the highest X-ray polarization degree detected for an HSP blazar thus far, (30.7$\pm$2.0)%, which dropped to (15.3$\pm$2.1)% during the second half ($T_2$). The X-ray polarization angle remained stable during the IXPE pointing at 129.4$^\circ$$\pm$1.8$^\circ$ and 125.4$^\circ$$\pm$3.9$^\circ$ during $T_1$ and $T_2$, respectively. Meanwhile, the optical polarization degree remained stable during the IXPE pointing, with average host-galaxy-corrected values of (4.3$\pm$0.7)% and (3.8$\pm$0.9)% during the $T_1$ and $T_2$, respectively. During the IXPE pointing, the optical polarization angle changed achromatically from $\sim$140$^\circ$ to $\sim$90$^\circ$ and back to $\sim$130$^\circ$. Despite several attempts, we only detected (99.7% conf.) the radio polarization once (during $T_2$, at 225.5 GHz): with degree (1.7$\pm$0.4)% and angle 112.5$^\circ$$\pm$5.5$^\circ$. The direction of the broad pc-scale jet is rather ambiguous and has been found to point to the east and south at different epochs; however, on larger scales (> 1.5 pc) the jet points toward the southeast ($\sim$135$^\circ$), similar to all of the MW polarization angles. Moreover, the X-ray to optical polarization degree ratios of $\sim$7 and $\sim$4 during $T_1$ and $T_2$, respectively, are similar to previous IXPE results for several HSP blazars. These findings, combined with the lack of correlation of temporal variability between the MW polarization properties, agree with an energy-stratified shock-acceleration scenario in HSP blazars., Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for publication in A&A

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is the nation's largest network of public charter schools. KIPP began as a network of charter middle schools designed to serve underserved communities, with the goal of closing achievement gaps and preparing students to succeed in college. KIPP has since expanded its model to include elementary and high schools in most regions, and expanded its goals to include preparing students to persist in multiple postsecondary pathways. In this report, we present the results of the second phase of a long-term tracking study that follows 2,066 students who applied to enter 21 oversubscribed KIPP middle schools through an admission lottery in 2008, 2009, or 2011. [For the first phase study "Long-Term Impacts of KIPP Middle Schools on College Enrollment and Early College Persistence," see ED603636.]