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During electro-optical testing of the camera for the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time, a unique low-signal pattern was found in differenced pairs of flat images used to create photon transfer curves, with peak-to-peak variations of a factor of 10^-3. A turbulent pattern of this amplitude was apparent in many differenced flat-fielded images. The pattern changes from image to image and shares similarities with atmospheric 'weather' turbulence patterns. We applied several strategies to determine the source of the turbulent pattern and found that it is representative of the mixing of the air and index of refraction variations caused by the internal camera purge system displacing air, which we are sensitive to due to our flat field project setup. Characterizing this changing environment with 2-D correlation functions of the 'weather' patterns provides evidence that the images reflect the changes in the camera environment due to the internal camera purge system. Simulations of the full optical system using the galsim and batoid codes show that the weather pattern affects the dispersion of the camera point-spread function at only the one part in 10^-4 level, Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, accepted in JATISS

The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at Vera C. Rubin Observatory is planned to begin in the Fall of 2025. The LSST survey cadence has been designed via a community-driven process regulated by the Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC), which recommended up to 3% of the observing time to carry out Target of Opportunity (ToO) observations. Experts from the scientific community, Rubin Observatory personnel, and members of the SCOC were brought together to deliver a recommendation for the implementation of the ToO program during a workshop held in March 2024. Four main science cases were identified: gravitational wave multi-messenger astronomy, high energy neutrinos, Galactic supernovae, and small potentially hazardous asteroids possible impactors. Additional science cases were identified and briefly addressed in the documents, including lensed or poorly localized gamma-ray bursts and twilight discoveries. Trigger prioritization, automated response, and detailed strategies were discussed for each science case. This document represents the outcome of the Rubin ToO 2024 workshop, with additional contributions from members of the Rubin Science Collaborations. The implementation of the selection criteria and strategies presented in this document has been endorsed in the SCOC Phase 3 Recommendations document (PSTN-056). Although the ToO program is still to be finalized, this document serves as a baseline plan for ToO observations with the Rubin Observatory.

GRAMS (Gamma-Ray and AntiMatter Survey) is a next-generation balloon/satellite experiment utilizing a LArTPC (Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber), to simultaneously target astrophysical observations of cosmic MeV gamma-rays and conduct an indirect dark matter search using antimatter. While LArTPCs are widely used in particle physics experiments, they have never been operated at balloon altitudes. An engineering balloon flight with a small-scale LArTPC (eGRAMS) was conducted on July 27th, 2023, to establish a system for safely operating a LArTPC at balloon altitudes and to obtain cosmic-ray data from the LArTPC. The flight was launched from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Taiki Aerospace Research Field in Hokkaido, Japan. The total flight duration was 3 hours and 12 minutes, including a level flight of 44 minutes at a maximum altitude of 28.9~km. The flight system was landed on the sea and successfully recovered. The LArTPC was successfully operated throughout the flight, and about 0.5 million events of the cosmic-ray data including muons, protons, and Compton scattering gamma-ray candidates, were collected. This pioneering flight demonstrates the feasibility of operating a LArTPC in high-altitude environments, paving the way for future GRAMS missions and advancing our capabilities in MeV gamma-ray astronomy and dark matter research.

In an agricultural field, plant phenotyping using object detection models is gaining attention. However, collecting the training data necessary to create generic and high-precision models is extremely challenging due to the difficulty of annotation and the diversity of domains. Furthermore, it is difficult to transfer training data across different crops, and although machine learning models effective for specific environments, conditions, or crops have been developed, they cannot be widely applied in actual fields. In this study, we propose a generative data augmentation method (D4) for vineyard shoot detection. D4 uses a pre-trained text-guided diffusion model based on a large number of original images culled from video data collected by unmanned ground vehicles or other means, and a small number of annotated datasets. The proposed method generates new annotated images with background information adapted to the target domain while retaining annotation information necessary for object detection. In addition, D4 overcomes the lack of training data in agriculture, including the difficulty of annotation and diversity of domains. We confirmed that this generative data augmentation method improved the mean average precision by up to 28.65% for the BBox detection task and the average precision by up to 13.73% for the keypoint detection task for vineyard shoot detection. Our generative data augmentation method D4 is expected to simultaneously solve the cost and domain diversity issues of training data generation in agriculture and improve the generalization performance of detection models.

Antiferromagnetic intermetallic compound EuRhGe3 crystalizes in a non-centrosymmetric BaNiSn3-type (I4mm) structure. We studied its pressure-dependent crystal structure by using synchrotron powder x-ray diffraction at room temperature. Our results show a smooth contraction of the unit cell volume by applying pressure while preserving I4mm symmetry. No structural transition was observed up to 35 GPa. By the equation of state fitting analysis, the bulk modulus and its pressure derivative were determined to be 73 (1) GPa and 5.5 (2), respectively. Furthermore, similar to the isostructural EuCoGe3, an anisotropic compression of a and c lattice parameters was observed. Our experimental results show a good agreement with the pressure-dependent structural evolution expected from theoretical calculations below 13 GPa. Reflecting a strong deviation from integer Eu valence, the experimental volume data appear to be smaller than those of DFT calculated values at higher pressures.

Recovering quantum information from a noisy quantum system is one of the central challenges in quantum information science. The key to this goal is explicitly constructing a decoder. In this paper, we provide two explicit decoding quantum circuits that are both capable of recovering quantum information when a decoupling condition is satisfied, i.e., when quantum information is in principle recoverable. The decoders are constructed by using the fixed-point amplitude amplification (FPAA) based on the quantum singular value transformation (QSVT), which significantly extends a previous approach in a specific noise model to arbitrary noisy models. In our constructions, it is crucial to use the QSVT-based FPAA, demonstrating for the first time the separation between any other amplitude amplification algorithms and the QSVT-based one in the application. We also show that the proposed decoders have high decoding performance and reduce the computational cost compared to a previously known explicit decoder., Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables

We perform network analysis of a system described by the master equation to estimate the lower bound of the steady-state current noise, starting from the level 2.5 large deviation function and using the graph theory approach. When the transition rates are uniform, and the system is driven to a non-equilibrium steady state by unidirectional transitions, we derive a noise lower bound, which accounts for fluctuations of sojourn times at all states and is expressed using mesh currents. This bound is applied to the uncertainty in the signal-to-noise ratio of the fluctuating computation time of a schematic Brownian computation plus reset process described by a graph containing one cycle. Unlike the mixed and pseudo-entropy bounds that increase logarithmically with the length of the intended computation path, this bound depends on the number of extraneous predecessors and thus captures the logical irreversibility., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures (+Supplemental Material: 4 pages, 1 figure)

The Local Volume Complete Cluster Survey (LoVoCCS) is an on-going program to observe nearly a hundred low-redshift X-ray-luminous galaxy clusters (redshifts $0.0310^{44}$ erg/s) with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), capturing data in $u,g,r,i,z$ bands with a $5\sigma$ point source depth of approximately 25-26th AB magnitudes. Here, we map the aperture masses in 58 galaxy cluster fields using weak gravitational lensing. These clusters span a variety of dynamical states, from nearly relaxed to merging systems, and approximately half of them have not been subject to detailed weak lensing analysis before. In each cluster field, we analyze the alignment between the 2D mass distribution described by the aperture mass map, the 2D red-sequence (RS) galaxy distribution, and the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). We find that the orientations of the BCG and the RS distribution are strongly aligned throughout the interiors of the clusters: the median misalignment angle is 19 deg within 2 Mpc. We also observe the alignment between the orientations of the RS distribution and the overall cluster mass distribution (by a median difference of 32 deg within 1 Mpc), although this is constrained by galaxy shape noise and the limitations of our cluster sample size. These types of alignment suggest long-term dynamical evolution within the clusters over cosmic timescales., Comment: 40 pages, 16 figures, 5 tables; revised and accepted for publication in ApJ

A generation, propagation, and transfer of phonon angular momenta are examined on thermal transport in chiral insulative and diamagnetic crystals of $\alpha$-quartz. We found that thermally-driven phonons carry chirality-dependent angular momenta in the quartz crystals and they could be extracted from the quartz as a spin signal. Namely, chirality-induced selectivity of phonon angular momenta is realized in the chiral quartz. We argue that chiral phonons available in chiral materials could be a key element in triggering or enhancing chirality-induced spin selectivity with robust spin polarization and long-range spin transport found in various chiral materials., Comment: 6 pages with 3 figures and supplemental materials

The magnetic sublayers introduced by intercalation into the host transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) are known to produce various magnetic states. The magnetic sublayers and their magnetic ordering strongly modify the electronic coupling between layers of the host compound. Understanding the roots of this variability is a significant challenge. Here we employ the angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy at various photon energies, the {\it ab initio} electronic structure calculations, and modeling to address the particular case of Ni-intercalate, Ni$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$. We find that the bands around the Fermi level bear the signature of a strong yet unusual hybridization between NbS$_2$ conduction band states and the Ni 3$d$ orbitals. The hybridization between metallic NbS$_2$ layers is almost entirely suppressed in the central part of the Brillouin zone, including the part of the Fermi surface around the $\mathrm{\Gamma}$ point. Simultaneously, it gets very pronounced towards the zone edges. It is shown that this behavior is the consequence of the rather exceptional, {\it symmetry imposed}, spatially strongly varying, {\it zero total} hybridization between relevant Ni magnetic orbitals and the neighboring Nb orbitals that constitute the metallic bands. We also report the presence of the so-called $\beta$-feature, discovered only recently in two other magnetic intercalates with very different magnetic orderings. In Ni$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$, the feature shows only at particular photon energies, indicating its bulk origin. Common to prior observations, it appears as a series of very shallow electron pockets at the Fermi level, positioned along the edge of the Brillouin zone. Unforeseen by {\it ab initio} electronic calculations, and its origin still unresolved, the feature appears to be a robust consequence of the intercalation of 2H-NbS$_2$ with magnetic ions., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures with subfigures, 53 references, supplemental material uploaded as the separate pdf file

Thick, fully depleted charge-coupled devices (CCDs) are known to exhibit non-linear behavior at high signal levels due to the dynamic behavior of charges collecting in the potential wells of pixels, called the brighter-fatter effect (BFE). This particularly impacts bright calibration stars, which appear larger than their intrinsic shape, creating a flux-dependent point-spread function (PSF) that if left unmitigated, could make up a large fraction of the error budget in Stage IV weak-lensing (WL) surveys such as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). In this paper, we analyze image measurements of flat fields and artificial stars taken at different illumination levels with the LSST Camera (LSSTCam) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in order to quantify this effect in the LSST Camera before and after a previously introduced correction technique. We observe that the BFE evolves anisotropically as a function of flux due to higher-order BFEs, which violates the fundamental assumption of this correction method. We then introduce a new sampling method based on a physically motivated model to account these higher-order terms in the correction, and then we test the modified correction on both datasets. We find that the new method corrects the effect in flat fields better than it corrects the effect in artificial stars which we conclude is the result of a unmodeled curl component of the deflection field by the correction. We use these results to define a new metric for the full-well capacity of our sensors and advise image processing strategies to further limit the impact of the effect on LSST WL science pathways., Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures. Draft version (under LSST project-wide review until Dec. 15, 2023)

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory's LSST Camera (LSSTCam) pixel response has been characterized using laboratory measurements with a grid of artificial stars. We quantify the contributions to photometry, centroid, point-spread function size, and shape measurement errors due to small anomalies in the LSSTCam CCDs. The main sources of those anomalies are quantum efficiency variations and pixel area variations induced by the amplifier segmentation boundaries and "tree-rings" - circular variations in silicon doping concentration. This laboratory study using artificial stars projected on the sensors shows overall small effects. The residual effects on point-spread function (PSF) size and shape are below $0.1\%$, meeting the ten-year LSST survey science requirements. However, the CCD mid-line presents distortions that can have a moderate impact on PSF measurements. This feature can be avoided by masking the affected regions. Effects of tree-rings are observed on centroids and PSFs of the artificial stars and the nature of the effect is confirmed by a study of the flat-field response. Nevertheless, further studies of the full-focal plane with stellar data should more completely probe variations and might reveal new features, e.g. wavelength-dependent effects. The results of this study can be used as a guide for the on-sky operation of LSSTCam., Comment: accepted for publication, PASP

Recent studies have shown that nonlinear magnetization dynamics excited in nanostructured ferromagnets are applicable to brain-inspired computing such as physical reservoir computing. The previous works have utilized the magnetization dynamics driven by electric current and/or magnetic field. This work proposes a method to apply the magnetization dynamics driven by voltage control of magnetic anisotropy to physical reservoir computing, which will be preferable from the viewpoint of low-power consumption. The computational capabilities of benchmark tasks in single MTJ are evaluated by numerical simulation of the magnetization dynamics and found to be comparable to those of echo-state networks with more than 10 nodes., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures

In connection to the chiral-induced spin-selectivity (CISS) effect, we theoretically analyze the electronic and spin states of edges of a finite $p$-orbital helical atomic chain with the intra-atomic spin-orbit interaction (SOI). This model can host the spin-filtering state in which two up spins propagate in one direction and two down spins propagate in the opposite direction without breaking the time-reversal symmetry. The enhancement of charge modulations concentrated at the edges due to the evanescent states is induced, although the spin density is absent because of the time-reversal symmetry (TRS). A Zeeman field at an edge of the atomic chain, which breaks the TRS, yields a finite spin polarization, whose direction depends on the chirality of the molecule. The chirality change induces a reasonable amount of the energy difference, which may provide an insight into the enantioselective adsorption of chiral molecules on the ferromagnetic surface., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, title modified, sec IV added

A high-risk pregnancy is a pregnancy complicated by factors that can adversely affect the outcomes of the mother or the infant. Health insurers use algorithms to identify members who would benefit from additional clinical support. This work presents the implementation of a real-world ML-based system to assist care managers in identifying pregnant patients at risk of complications. In this retrospective evaluation study, we developed a novel hybrid-ML classifier to predict whether patients are pregnant and trained a standard classifier using claims data from a health insurance company in the US to predict whether a patient will develop pregnancy complications. These models were developed in cooperation with the care management team and integrated into a user interface with explanations for the nurses. The proposed models outperformed commonly used claim codes for the identification of pregnant patients at the expense of a manageable false positive rate. Our risk complication classifier shows that we can accurately triage patients by risk of complication. Our approach and evaluation are guided by human-centric design. In user studies with the nurses, they preferred the proposed models over existing approaches.

Farmers must continuously improve their livestock production systems to remain competitive in the growing dairy market. Precision livestock farming technologies provide individualized monitoring of animals on commercial farms, optimizing livestock production. Continuous acoustic monitoring is a widely accepted sensing technique used to estimate the daily rumination and grazing time budget of free-ranging cattle. However, typical environmental and natural noises on pastures noticeably affect the performance limiting the practical application of current acoustic methods. In this study, we present the operating principle and generalization capability of an acoustic method called Noise-Robust Foraging Activity Recognizer (NRFAR). The proposed method determines foraging activity bouts by analyzing fixed-length segments of identified jaw movement events produced during grazing and rumination. The additive noise robustness of the NRFAR was evaluated for several signal-to-noise ratios using stationary Gaussian white noise and four different nonstationary natural noise sources. In noiseless conditions, NRFAR reached an average balanced accuracy of 86.4%, outperforming two previous acoustic methods by more than 7.5%. Furthermore, NRFAR performed better than previous acoustic methods in 77 of 80 evaluated noisy scenarios (53 cases with p<0.05). NRFAR has been shown to be effective in harsh free-ranging environments and could be used as a reliable solution to improve pasture management and monitor the health and welfare of dairy cows. The instrumentation and computational algorithms presented in this publication are protected by a pending patent application: AR P20220100910. Web demo available at: https://sinc.unl.edu.ar/web-demo/nrfar, Comment: list of used audio-clips is available in the list_audio_clips.xlsx

We analyze the thermodynamic cost of a logically reversible Brownian Turing machine operating in the first-passage time protocol based on the stochastic thermodynamics of resetting. In this framework, the thermodynamic cost of computation is the reset entropy production, which is interpreted as the information reduction by a resetter external to the computer. At the level of a single trajectory, the reset entropy production is associated with unidirectional transitions and is a function of the time-dependent distribution probability. We analyze an approximation that replaces the distribution probability with the empirical sojourn time, which can be obtained at the single-trajectory level. The approximation is suitable for the numerical analysis by the Gillespie algorithm and provides a reasonable average value for the reset entropy., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures

We report on the pressure evolution of the electronic and crystal structures of the noncentrosymmetric antiferromagnet EuCoGe3. Using a diamond anvil cell, we performed high pressure fluorescence detected near-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Eu L3, Co K, and Ge K edges and synchrotron powder x-ray diffraction. In the Eu L3 spectrum, both divalent and trivalent Eu peaks are observed from the lowest pressure measurement (~2 GPa). By increasing pressure, the relative intensity of the trivalent Eu peak increases, and an average Eu valence continuously increases from 2.2 at 2 GPa to 2.31 at~50 GPa. On the other hand, no discernible changes are observed in the Co K and Ge K spectra as a function of pressure. With the increase in pressure, lattice parameters continuously decrease without changing I4mm symmetry. Our study revealed a robust divalent Eu state and an unchanged crystal symmetry of EuCoGe3 against pressure., Comment: Accepted in PRB https://journals.aps.org/prb/accepted/b2073O6fL9e1ca40307905b1de5bf05de12d8fc1a

We investigate a symmetric logarithmic derivative (SLD) Fisher information for kinetic uncertainty relations (KURs) of open quantum systems described by the GKSL quantum master equation with and without the detailed balance condition. In a quantum kinetic uncertainty relation derived by Vu and Saito [Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 140602 (2022)], the Fisher information of probability of quantum trajectory with a time-rescaling parameter plays an essential role. This Fisher information is upper bounded by the SLD Fisher information. For a finite time and arbitrary initial state, we derive a concise expression of the SLD Fisher information, which is a double time integral and can be calculated by solving coupled first-order differential equations. We also derive a simple lower bound of the Fisher information of quantum trajectory. We point out that the SLD Fisher information also appears in the speed limit based on the Mandelstam-Tamm relation by Hasegawa [Nat. Commun. 14, 2828 (2023)]. When the jump operators connect eigenstates of the system Hamiltonian, we show that the Bures angle in the interaction picture is upper bounded by the square root of the dynamical activity at short times, which contrasts with the classical counterpart., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures

The LIGO/Virgo detected a gravitational wave (GW) event, named GW200224_222234 (a.k.a. S200224ca) and classified as a binary-black-hole coalescence, on February 24, 2020. Given its relatively small localization skymap (71 deg$^2$ for a 90% credible region; revised to 50 deg$^2$ in GWTC-3), we performed target-of-opportunity observations using the Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) in the $r2$- and $z$-bands. Observations were conducted on February 25 and 28 and March 23, 2020, with the first epoch beginning 12.3 h after the GW detection. The survey covered the highest probability sky area of 56.6 deg$^2$, corresponding to a 91% probability. This was the first deep follow-up ($m_{r}\gtrsim24, m_{z}\gtrsim23$) for a binary-black-hole merger covering $>$90% of the localization. By performing image subtraction and candidate screening including light curve fitting with transient templates and examples, we found 22 off-nucleus transients that were not ruled out as the counterparts of GW200224_222234 with only our Subaru/HSC data. We also performed GTC/OSIRIS spectroscopy of the probable host galaxies for five candidates; two are likely to be located within the 3D skymap, whereas the others are not. In conclusion, 19 transients remain as possible optical counterparts of GW200224_222234; however, we could not identify a unique promising counterpart. If there are no counterparts in the remaining candidates, the upper limits of optical luminosity are $\nu L_{\nu} < 5.2^{+2.4}_{-1.9}\times 10^{41}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and $\nu L_{\nu} < 1.8^{+0.8}_{-0.6}\times 10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in the $r2$- and $z$-bands, respectively, at $\sim$12 h after GW detection. We also discuss improvements in the strategies of optical follow-ups for future GW events., Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal