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When examined through the lens of their residual streams, a puzzling property emerges in transformer networks: residual contributions (e.g., attention heads) sometimes specialize in specific tasks or input attributes. In this paper, we analyze this phenomenon in vision transformers, focusing on the spectral geometry of residuals, and explore its implications for modality alignment in vision-language models. First, we link it to the intrinsically low-dimensional structure of visual head representations, zooming into their principal components and showing that they encode specialized roles across a wide variety of input data distributions. Then, we analyze the effect of head specialization in multimodal models, focusing on how improved alignment between text and specialized heads impacts zero-shot classification performance. This specialization-performance link consistently holds across diverse pre-training data, network sizes, and objectives, demonstrating a powerful new mechanism for boosting zero-shot classification through targeted alignment. Ultimately, we translate these insights into actionable terms by introducing ResiDual, a technique for spectral alignment of the residual stream. Much like panning for gold, it lets the noise from irrelevant unit principal components (i.e., attributes) wash away to amplify task-relevant ones. Remarkably, this dual perspective on modality alignment yields fine-tuning level performances on different data distributions while modeling an extremely interpretable and parameter-efficient transformation, as we extensively show on more than 50 (pre-trained network, dataset) pairs.

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) has emerged as a critical mechanism in contemporary NLP to support Large Language Models(LLMs) in systematically accessing richer factual context. However, the integration of RAG mechanisms brings its inherent challenges, as LLMs need to deal with potentially noisy contexts. Recent studies have shown that LLMs still struggle to critically analyse RAG-based in-context information, a limitation that may lead to incorrect inferences and hallucinations. In this paper, we investigate how to elicit critical reasoning in RAG via contrastive explanations. In particular, we propose Contrastive-RAG (C-RAG), a framework that (i) retrieves relevant documents given a query, (ii) selects and exemplifies relevant passages, and (iii) generates explanations that explicitly contrast the relevance of the passages to (iv) support the final answer. We show the impact of C-RAG building contrastive reasoning demonstrations from LLMs to instruct smaller models for retrieval-augmented tasks. Extensive experiments demonstrate that C-RAG improves state-of-the-art RAG models while (a) requiring significantly fewer prompts and demonstrations and (b) being robust to perturbations in the retrieved documents.

The XLZD collaboration is developing a two-phase xenon time projection chamber with an active mass of 60 to 80 t capable of probing the remaining WIMP-nucleon interaction parameter space down to the so-called neutrino fog. In this work we show that, based on the performance of currently operating detectors using the same technology and a realistic reduction of radioactivity in detector materials, such an experiment will also be able to competitively search for neutrinoless double beta decay in $^{136}$Xe using a natural-abundance xenon target. XLZD can reach a 3$\sigma$ discovery potential half-life of 5.7$\times$10$^{27}$ yr (and a 90% CL exclusion of 1.3$\times$10$^{28}$ yr) with 10 years of data taking, corresponding to a Majorana mass range of 7.3-31.3 meV (4.8-20.5 meV). XLZD will thus exclude the inverted neutrino mass ordering parameter space and will start to probe the normal ordering region for most of the nuclear matrix elements commonly considered by the community., Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures

This report describes the experimental strategy and technologies for a next-generation xenon observatory sensitive to dark matter and neutrino physics. The detector will have an active liquid xenon target mass of 60-80 tonnes and is proposed by the XENON-LUX-ZEPLIN-DARWIN (XLZD) collaboration. The design is based on the mature liquid xenon time projection chamber technology of the current-generation experiments, LZ and XENONnT. A baseline design and opportunities for further optimization of the individual detector components are discussed. The experiment envisaged here has the capability to explore parameter space for Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) dark matter down to the neutrino fog, with a 3$\sigma$ evidence potential for the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross sections as low as $3\times10^{-49}\rm cm^2$ (at 40 GeV/c$^2$ WIMP mass). The observatory is also projected to have a 3$\sigma$ observation potential of neutrinoless double-beta decay of $^{136}$Xe at a half-life of up to $5.7\times 10^{27}$ years. Additionally, it is sensitive to astrophysical neutrinos from the atmosphere, sun, and galactic supernovae., Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures

We report results of a search for nuclear recoils induced by weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter using the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) two-phase xenon time projection chamber. This analysis uses a total exposure of $4.2\pm0.1$ tonne-years from 280 live days of LZ operation, of which $3.3\pm0.1$ tonne-years and 220 live days are new. A technique to actively tag background electronic recoils from $^{214}$Pb $\beta$ decays is featured for the first time. Enhanced electron-ion recombination is observed in two-neutrino double electron capture decays of $^{124}$Xe, representing a noteworthy new background. After removal of artificial signal-like events injected into the data set to mitigate analyzer bias, we find no evidence for an excess over expected backgrounds. World-leading constraints are placed on spin-independent (SI) and spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross sections for masses $\geq$9 GeV/$c^2$. The strongest SI exclusion set is $2.1\times10^{-48}$ cm$^{2}$ at the 90% confidence level at a mass of 36 GeV/$c^2$, and the best SI median sensitivity achieved is $5.0\times10^{-48}$ cm$^{2}$ for a mass of 40 GeV/$c^2$.

The evolution of galaxy sizes in different wavelengths provides unique insights on galaxy build-up across cosmic epochs. Such measurements can now finally be done at $z>3$ thanks to the exquisite spatial resolution and multi-wavelength capability of the JWST. With the public data from the CEERS, PRIMER-UDS, and PRIMER-COSMOS surveys, we measure the sizes of $\sim 3500$ star-forming galaxies at $3 \leqslant z<9$, in 7 NIRCam bands using the multi-wavelength model fitting code GalfitM. The size-mass relation is measured in four redshift bins, across all NIRCam bands. We find that, the slope and intrinsic scatter of the rest-optical size-mass relation are constant across this redshift range and consistent with previous HST-based studies at low-z. When comparing the relations across different wavelengths, the average rest-optical and rest-UV relations are consistent with each other up to $z=6$, but the intrinsic scatter is largest in rest-UV wavelengths compared to rest-optical and redder bands. This behaviour is independent of redshift and we speculate that it is driven by bursty star-formation in $z>4$ galaxies. Additionally, for $3\leqslant z<4$ star-forming galaxies at $\rm M_* > 10^{10} M_{\odot}$, we find smaller rest-$\rm 1\rm\,\mu m$ sizes in comparison to rest-optical (and rest-UV) sizes, suggestive of colour gradients. When comparing to simulations, we find agreement over $\rm M_* \approx 10^{9} - 10^{10} M_{\odot}$ but beyond this mass, the observed size-mass relation is significantly steeper. Our results show the power of JWST/NIRCam to provide new constraints on galaxy formation models., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, submitted to A&A

Syllogistic reasoning is crucial for Natural Language Inference (NLI). This capability is particularly significant in specialized domains such as biomedicine, where it can support automatic evidence interpretation and scientific discovery. This paper presents SylloBio-NLI, a novel framework that leverages external ontologies to systematically instantiate diverse syllogistic arguments for biomedical NLI. We employ SylloBio-NLI to evaluate Large Language Models (LLMs) on identifying valid conclusions and extracting supporting evidence across 28 syllogistic schemes instantiated with human genome pathways. Extensive experiments reveal that biomedical syllogistic reasoning is particularly challenging for zero-shot LLMs, which achieve an average accuracy between 70% on generalized modus ponens and 23% on disjunctive syllogism. At the same time, we found that few-shot prompting can boost the performance of different LLMs, including Gemma (+14%) and LLama-3 (+43%). However, a deeper analysis shows that both techniques exhibit high sensitivity to superficial lexical variations, highlighting a dependency between reliability, models' architecture, and pre-training regime. Overall, our results indicate that, while in-context examples have the potential to elicit syllogistic reasoning in LLMs, existing models are still far from achieving the robustness and consistency required for safe biomedical NLI applications.

We study the stellar mass function (SMF) and the co-evolution with dark matter halos via abundance matching in the largest redshift range to date $0.25$, we find increased abundances of massive (log$\, M_{\star}/M_{\odot}>10.5$) implying integrated star formation efficiencies (SFE) $\epsilon_{\star}\equiv M_{\star}\, f_{\rm b}^{-1} M_{\rm halo}^{-1} \gtrsim 0.5$. We find a flattening of the SMF at the high-mass end that is better described by a double power law at $z>5.5$. At $z \lesssim 5.5$ it transitions to a Schechter law which coincides with the emergence of the first massive quiescent galaxies in the Universe. We trace the cosmic stellar mass density (SMD) and infer the star formation rate density (SFRD), which at $z>7.5$ agrees remarkably with recent \JWST{} UV luminosity function-derived estimates. However, at $z \lesssim 3.5$, we find significant tension ($\sim 0.3$ dex) with the cosmic star formation (SF) history from instantaneous SF measures, the causes of which remain poorly understood. We infer the stellar-to-halo mass relation (SHMR) and the SFE from abundance matching out to $z=12$, finding a non-monotonic evolution. The SFE has the characteristic strong dependence with mass in the range of $0.02 - 0.2$, and mildly decreases at the low mass end out to $z\sim3.5$. At $z\sim3.5$ the SFE increases sharply from $\sim 0.1$ to approach high SFE of $0.8-1$ by $z\sim 10$ for log$(M_{\rm h}/M_{\odot})\approx11.5$, albeit with large uncertainties. Finally, we use the SHMR to track the SFE and stellar mass growth throughout the halo history and find that they do not grow at the same rate -- from the earliest times up until $z\sim3.5$ the halo growth rate outpaces galaxy assembly, but at $z>3.5$ halo growth stagnates and accumulated gas reservoirs keep the SF going and galaxies outpace halos.

The stellar mass-star formation rate (M$_\star$ - SFR) plane is essential for distinguishing galaxy populations, but how galaxies move within this plane over cosmic time remains unclear. This study aims to describe galaxy migrations in the M$_\star$ - SFR plane by reconstructing star formation histories (SFHs) for a sample of galaxies out to redshift $z < 4$. This provides insights into the physical processes driving star formation. We use data from the COSMOS field, selecting 299131 galaxies at $z < 4$ with COSMOS-Web NIRCam data (m$_\mathrm{F444W} < 27$) over 0.54 deg$^2$. Using the SED modeling code CIGALE with non-parametric SFHs, we derive physical properties and migration vectors for these galaxies. These vectors describe the direction and velocity of evolutionary paths across the M$_\star$ - SFR plane. To assess the accuracy of these vectors, we compare them to results from the Horizon-AGN simulation. Galaxies within the main sequence show low migration amplitudes and dispersed movement directions, indicating oscillation within the main sequence. Most progenitors were already on the main sequence a billion years earlier. Starburst galaxies assembled half their mass in the last 350 Myr and originated from the main sequence. Passive galaxies show uniformly declining SFHs and include massive galaxies already in the passive region at $z = 3.5-4$, with increasing density over time. Using reconstructed SFHs up to $z < 4$, we propose a coherent picture of how galaxies migrate over cosmic time in the M$_\star$ - SFR plane, highlighting the connection between major phases in the star-formation history.

Explanation constitutes an archetypal feature of human rationality, underpinning learning and generalisation, and representing one of the media supporting scientific discovery and communication. Due to the importance of explanations in human reasoning, an increasing amount of research in Natural Language Inference (NLI) has started reconsidering the role that explanations play in learning and inference, attempting to build explanation-based NLI models that can effectively encode and use natural language explanations on downstream tasks. Research in explanation-based NLI, however, presents specific challenges and opportunities, as explanatory reasoning reflects aspects of both material and formal inference, making it a particularly rich setting to model and deliver complex reasoning. In this tutorial, we provide a comprehensive introduction to the field of explanation-based NLI, grounding this discussion on the epistemological-linguistic foundations of explanations, systematically describing the main architectural trends and evaluation methodologies that can be used to build systems capable of explanatory reasoning., Comment: Tutorial to be presented at EMNLP 2024. Website: https://sites.google.com/view/reasoning-with-explanations

The current paradigm for the co-evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black holes postulates that dust-obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) represent a transitional phase towards a more luminous and unobscured state. However, our understanding of dusty AGNs and their host galaxies at early cosmic times is inadequate due to observational limitations. Here, we present JWST observations of CID-931, an X-ray-detected AGN at a spectroscopic redshift of $z_{\rm spec}=4.91$. Multiband NIRCam imaging from the COSMOS-Web program reveals an unresolved red core, similar to JWST-discovered dusty AGNs. Strikingly, the red core is surrounded by at least eight massive star-forming clumps spread over $1.\!\!^{\prime\prime}6 \approx 10~{\rm kpc}$, each of which has a stellar mass of $10^9-10^{10}M_\odot$ and $\sim0.1-1~{\rm kpc}$ in radius. The whole system amounts to $10^{11}M_\odot$ in stellar mass, higher than typical star-forming galaxies at the same epoch. In this system, gas inflows and/or complex merger events may trigger clump formation and AGN activity thus leading to the rapid formation of a massive galaxy hosting a supermassive black hole. Future follow-up observations will provide new insights into the evolution of the galaxy-black hole relationship during such transitional phases in the early universe., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to PASJ

We prove that if the shape of the metric unit ball in a homogeneous group enjoys a precise symmetry property, then the associated distance yields the standard form of the area formula. The result applies to some classes of smooth and nonsmooth submanifolds. We finally prove the equality between spherical measure and centered Hausdorff measure, under two different geometric conditions on the shape of the metric unit ball., Comment: 19 pages

We present a comprehensive study of the star formation histories of massive-quenched galaxies at $z=3$ in 3 semi-analytic models (SHARK, GAEA, GALFORM) and 3 cosmological hydrodynamical simulations (EAGLE, Illustris-TNG, Simba). We study the predicted number density and stellar mass function of massive-quenched galaxies, their formation and quenching timescales and star-formation properties of their progenitors. Predictions are disparate in all these diagnostics, for instance: (i) some simulations reproduce the observed number density of very massive-quenched galaxies ($>10^{11}\rm M_{\odot}$) but underpredict the high density of intermediate-mass ones, while others fit well the lower masses but underpredict the higher ones; (ii) In most simulations, except for GAEA and EAGLE, most massive-quenched galaxies had starburst periods, with the most intense ones happening at $4300\rm M_{\odot}\,yr^{-1}$; (iii) quenching timescales are in the range $\approx 20-150$~Myr depending on the simulation; among other differences. These disparate predictions can be tied to the adopted Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) feedback model. For instance, the explicit black-hole (BH) mass dependence to trigger the "radio mode" in Illustris-TNG and Simba makes it difficult to produce quenched galaxies with intermediate stellar masses, also leading to higher baryon collapse efficiencies ($\approx 15-30$%); while the strong bolometric luminosity dependence of the AGN outflow rate in GAEA leads to BHs of modest mass quenching galaxies. Current observations are unable to distinguish between these different predictions due to the small sample sizes. However, these predictions are testable with current facilities and upcoming observations, allowing a "true physics experiment" to be carried out., Comment: Submitted for publication in MNRAS. 32 pages (21 of main body and 11 of appendices). Comments welcome!

Polar spaces over finite fields are fundamental in combinatorial geometry. The concept of polar space was firstly introduced by F. Veldkamp who gave a system of 10 axioms in the spirit of Universal Algebra. Later the axioms were simplified by J. Tits, who introduced the concept of subspaces. Later on, from the point of view of incidence geometry, axioms of polar spaces were also given by F. Buekenhout and E. Shult in 1974. The reader can find the three systems of axioms of polar spaces in Appendix A. Examples of polar spaces are the so called Finite classical polar spaces, i.e. incidence structures arising from quadrics, symplectic forms and Hermitian forms, which are in correspondance with reflexive sesquilinear forms.It is still an open problem to show whether or not classical polar spaces are the only example of finite polar spaces. Nowadays, some research problems related to finite classical polar space are: existence of spreads and ovoids; existence of regular systems and $m$-ovoids; upper or lower bounds on partial spreads and partial ovoids. Moreover, polar spaces are in relation with combinatorial objects as regular graphs, block designs and association schemes. In this Ph.D. Thesis we investigate the geometry of finite classical polar spaces, giving contributions to the above problems. The thesis is organized as follows. Part I is more focused on the geometric aspects of polar spaces, while in Part II some combinatorial objects are introduced such as regular graphs, association schemes and combinatorial designs. Finally Appendix B, C and D are dedicated to give more details on, respectively, maximal curves, linear codes and combinatorial designs, giving useful results and definitions., Comment: 164 pages, PhD thesis, accepted for the degree of PhD in Mathematics and Informatics at Universit\`a del Salento

We report the spectroscopic discovery of a massive quiescent galaxy at $z_{\rm spec}=7.29\pm0.01$, just $\sim700\,$Myr after the Big Bang. RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 was selected from public JWST/NIRCam and MIRI imaging from the PRIMER survey and observed with JWST/NIRSpec as part of RUBIES. The NIRSpec/PRISM spectrum reveals one of the strongest Balmer breaks observed thus far at $z>6$, no emission lines, but tentative Balmer and Ca absorption features, as well as a Lyman break. Simultaneous modeling of the NIRSpec/PRISM spectrum and NIRCam and MIRI photometry (spanning $0.9-18\,\mu$m) shows that the galaxy formed a stellar mass of log$(M_*/M_\odot)=10.23^{+0.04}_{-0.04}$ in a rapid $\sim 100-200\,$Myr burst of star formation at $z\sim8-9$, and ceased forming stars by $z\sim8$ resulting in $\log \rm{sSFR/yr}^{-1}<-10$. We measure a small physical size of $209_{-24}^{+33}\,{\rm pc}$, which implies a high stellar mass surface density within the effective radius of $\log(\Sigma_{*,\rm e}/{\rm M_\odot\,kpc}^{-2})=10.85_{-0.12}^{+0.11}$ comparable to the densities measured in quiescent galaxies at $z\sim2-5$. The 3D stellar mass density profile of RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 is remarkably similar to the central densities of local massive ellipticals, suggesting that at least some of their cores may have already been in place at $z>7$. The discovery of RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 has strong implications for galaxy formation models: the estimated number density of quiescent galaxies at $z\sim7$ is $>100\times$ larger than predicted from any model to date, indicating that quiescent galaxies have formed earlier than previously expected., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, submitted to ApJ

We revisit the problem of algorithmically deciding whether a given infinite connected graph has an Eulerian path, namely, a path that uses every edge exactly once. It has been recently observed that this problem is $D_3^0$-complete for graphs that have a computable description, whereas it is $\Pi_2^0$-complete for graphs that have a highly computable description, and that this same bound holds for the class of automatic graphs. A closely related problem consists of determining the number of ends of a graph, namely, the maximum number of distinct infinite connected components the graph can be separated into after removing a finite set of edges. The complexity of this problem for highly computable graphs is known to be $\Pi_2^0$-complete as well. The connection between these two problems lies in that only graphs with one or two ends can have Eulerian paths. In this paper we are interested in understanding the complexity of the infinite Eulerian path problem in the setting where the input graphs are known to have the right number of ends. We find that in this setting the problem becomes strictly easier, and that its exact difficulty varies according to whether the graphs have one or two ends, and to whether the Eulerian path we are looking for is one-way or bi-infinite. For example, we find that deciding existence of a bi-infinite Eulerian path for one-ended graphs is only $\Pi_1^0$-complete if the graphs are highly computable, and that the same problem becomes decidable for automatic graphs. Our results are based on a detailed computability analysis of what we call the Separation Problem, which we believe to be of independent interest. For instance, as a side application, we observe that K\"onig's infinity lemma, well known to be non-effective in general, becomes effective if we restrict to graphs with finitely many ends., Comment: 33 pages, 27 figures

The broad physics reach of the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment covers rare phenomena beyond the direct detection of dark matter. We report precise measurements of the extremely rare decay of $^{124}$Xe through the process of two-neutrino double electron capture (2$\nu$2EC), utilizing a $1.39\,\mathrm{kg} \times \mathrm{yr}$ isotopic exposure from the first LZ science run. A half-life of $T_{1/2}^{2\nu2\mathrm{EC}} = (1.09 \pm 0.14_{\text{stat}} \pm 0.05_{\text{sys}}) \times 10^{22}\,\mathrm{yr}$ is observed with a statistical significance of $8.3\,\sigma$, in agreement with literature. First empirical measurements of the KK capture fraction relative to other K-shell modes were conducted, and demonstrate consistency with respect to recent signal models at the $1.4\,\sigma$ level., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures

We parameterize the Hubble function by adding Hermitian wavelets to the Hubble radius of $\Lambda$CDM. This allows us to build Hubble functions that oscillate around $\Lambda$CDM at late times without modifying its angular diameter distance to last scattering. We perform parameter inference and model selection procedures on these new Hubble functions at the background level. In our analyses consisting of a wide variety of cosmological observations, we find that baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) data play a crucial role in determining the constraints on the wavelet parameters. In particular, we focus on the differences between SDSS- and DESI-BAO datasets and find that wavelets provide a better fit to the data when either of the BAO datasets is present. However, DESI-BAO has a preference for the center of the wavelets to be around $z \sim 0.7$, while SDSS-BAO prefers higher redshifts of $z > 1$. This difference appears to be driven by the discrepancies between these two datasets in their $D_H / r_{\rm d}$ measurements at $z = 0.51$ and $z \sim 2.3$. Finally, we also derive the consequences of the wavelets on a dark energy component. We find that the dark energy density oscillates by construction and also attains negative values at large redshifts ($z\gtrsim2$) as a consequence of the SDSS-BAO data. We conclude that while the early universe and the constraints on the matter density and the Hubble constant remain unchanged, wavelets are favored in the late universe by the BAO data. Specifically, there is a significant improvement at more than $3\sigma$ in the fit when new DESI-BAO data are included in the analysis., Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables

In recent years, Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations, Weak Lensing surveys, and $f(z)\sigma_8(z)$ measurements from Redshift-Space Distortions (RSD) have revealed a significant ($\sim$3$-$5$\sigma$) discrepancy in the inferred value of the matter clustering parameter $S_8$. In this work, we investigate the implications of RSD for a cosmological framework postulating an interaction between Dark Energy (DE) and Dark Matter (DM). We explore scenarios where DM can transfer energy-momentum to DE or vice versa. The energy-momentum flow is characterized by the strength and the sign of the coupling parameter $\xi$. Our baseline analysis combines RSD measurements with the latest data from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) observed by DESI, Type Ia Supernovae from the PantheonPlus sample, and CMB data from Planck. We demonstrate that RSD measurements provide significant additional information. When energy-momentum flows from DM to DE (i.e., $\xi < 0$), these measurements set stringent new bounds on the interaction strength. Conversely, when energy-momentum flows from DE to DM ($\xi > 0$), they favor interactions at more than the $2\sigma$ confidence level. Models with $\xi > 0$ can effectively resolve the tension in $S_8$, presenting them as compelling alternatives., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. Comments welcome and appreciated

Recent studies on logical reasoning in auto-regressive Language Models (LMs) have sparked a debate on whether such models can learn systematic reasoning principles during pre-training or merely exploit superficial patterns in the training data. This paper presents a mechanistic interpretation of syllogistic reasoning in LMs to further enhance our understanding of internal dynamics. Specifically, we present a methodology for circuit discovery aimed at disentangling content-independent reasoning mechanisms from world knowledge acquired during pre-training. Through two distinct intervention methods, we uncover a sufficient and necessary circuit involving middle-term suppression that elucidates how LMs transfer information to derive valid conclusions from premises. Furthermore, we investigate how belief biases manifest in syllogistic reasoning, finding evidence of partial contamination from additional attention heads responsible for encoding commonsense and contextualized knowledge. Finally, we explore the generalization of the discovered mechanisms across various syllogistic schemes and model sizes, finding that the identified circuit is sufficient and necessary for all the schemes on which the model achieves high downstream accuracy ($\geq$ 60\%). Overall, our findings suggest that LMs indeed learn transferable content-independent reasoning mechanisms, but that, at the same time, such mechanisms do not involve generalisable and abstract logical primitives, being susceptible to contamination by the same world knowledge acquired during pre-training.

We report a characterization of an X-ray-detected quiescent galaxy at $z=2.09$, named COS-XQG1, using JWST/NIRCam and NIRSpec data. This galaxy is detected in Chandra imaging, suggesting the presence of an AGN with a high black hole accretion rate of $\dot{M}_{\rm BH}=0.22\pm0.03\, {\rm M_\odot yr^{-1}}$. Using multi-wavelength photometry from X-ray to sub-millimeter, including the latest JWST imaging, we confirm that COS-XQG1 is massive ($M_\star = (1.6\pm0.2)\times10^{11}\, M_\odot$) and quiescent (${\rm sSFR}=(0.9\pm 1.8)\times10^{-11}\, {\rm yr^{-1}}$) as reported previously, even considering the contribution from AGN emission. Noticeably, COS-XQG1 displays a broad line H$\alpha$ emission component with a full width at half maximum of $4491^{+118}_{-110}\, {\rm km\, s^{-1}}$ in its NIRSpec spectrum. The line width and luminosity of the broad H$\alpha$ emission give a black hole mass of $\log{(M_{\rm BH}/M_\odot)} = 8.45\pm0.02\, (\pm 0.5)$. With a stellar velocity dispersion measurement ($\sigma_\star=235\pm35\, {\rm km\, s^{-1}}$), we find that this galaxy is consistent with the local relations in the $M_{\rm BH} - \sigma_\star$ and $M_{\rm BH}- M_\star$ planes, which might suggest that massive quiescent galaxies at $z\geq2$ have already been mature in terms of both stellar and black hole masses and will not evolve significantly. In addition, image 2D-decomposition analysis finds that this galaxy comprises disk and point source components. The latter is likely the composition of an AGN and a stellar bulge. Based on a comparison with numerical simulations, we expect that COS-XQG1 will evolve into a typical bulge-dominated quiescent galaxy with lower AGN activity by redshift 0. This study shows the usefulness of X-ray-detected quiescent galaxies in investigating the co-evolution between SMBHs and galaxies in the early Universe., Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, submitted to MNRAS

JWST has enabled detecting and spatially resolving the heavily dust-attenuated stellar populations of sub-millimeter galaxies, revealing detail that was previously inaccessible. In this work we construct a sample of 289 sub-millimeter galaxies with detailed joint ALMA and JWST constraints in the COSMOS field. Sources are originally selected using the SCUBA-2 instrument and have archival ALMA observations from various programs. Their JWST NIRCam imaging is from COSMOS-Web and PRIMER. We extract multi-wavelength photometry in a manner that leverages the unprecedented near-infrared spatial resolution of JWST, and fit the data with spectral energy distribution models to derive photometric redshifts, stellar masses, star-formation rates and optical attenuation. The sample has an average z=2.6, A_V=2.5, SFR=270 and log(M*)=11.1. There are 81 (30%) galaxies that have no previous optical/near-infrared detections, including 75% of the z>4 sub-sample (n=28). The faintest observed near-infrared sources have the highest redshifts and largest A_V=4. In a preliminary morphology analysis we find that ~10% of our sample exhibit spiral arms and 5% host stellar bars, with one candidate bar found at z>3. Finally, we find that the clustering of JWST galaxies within 10 arcseconds of a sub-mm galaxy is a factor of 2 greater than what is expected based on either random clustering or the distribution of sources around any red galaxy irrespective of a sub-mm detection., Comment: 37 pages (15 for RGBs + references), 14 figures, submitted to ApJ

We investigate a modified cosmological model aimed at addressing the Hubble tension, considering revised dynamics in the late Universe. The model introduces a parameter $c$ affecting the evolution equations, motivated by a modified Poisson algebra inspired by effective Loop Quantum Cosmology. Our analysis includes diverse background datasets such as Cosmic Chronometers, Pantheon+ Type Ia Supernovae (with and without the SH0ES calibration), SDSS, DESY6 and DESI Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, and background information of the Cosmic Microwave Background. We find that the model alleviates the Hubble tension in most of the dataset combinations, with cases reducing discrepancies to below $1\sigma$ when including SH0ES. However, the model exhibits minimal improvement in the overall fit when compared to $\Lambda$CDM, and Bayesian evidence generally favors the standard model. Theoretical foundations support this approach as a subtle adjustment to low-redshift dynamics, suggesting potential for further exploration into extensions of $\Lambda$CDM. Despite challenges in data fitting, our findings underscore the promise of small-scale modifications in reconciling cosmological tensions., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables

The recent DESI Baryon Acoustic Oscillation measurements have led to tight upper limits on the neutrino mass sum, potentially in tension with oscillation constraints requiring $\sum m_{\nu} \gtrsim 0.06\,{\text{eV}}$. Under the physically motivated assumption of positive $\sum m_{\nu}$, we study the extent to which these limits are tightened by adding other available cosmological probes, and robustly quantify the preference for the normal mass ordering over the inverted one, as well as the tension between cosmological and terrestrial data. Combining DESI data with Cosmic Microwave Background measurements and several late-time background probes, the tightest $2\sigma$ limit we find without including a local $H_0$ prior is $\sum m_{\nu}<0.05\,{\text{eV}}$. This leads to a strong preference for the normal ordering, with Bayes factor relative to the inverted one of $46.5$. Depending on the dataset combination and tension metric adopted, we quantify the tension between cosmological and terrestrial observations as ranging between $2.5\sigma$ and $5\sigma$. These results are strenghtened when allowing for a time-varying dark energy component with equation of state lying in the physically motivated non-phantom regime, $w(z) \geq -1$, highlighting an interesting synergy between the nature of dark energy and laboratory probes of the mass ordering. If these tensions persist and cannot be attributed to systematics, either or both standard neutrino (particle) physics or the underlying cosmological model will have to be questioned., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, positive neutrino masses

We present the study of two solar eruptive events observed on December 7 2020 and October 28 2021.Both events were associated with full halo CMEs and flares.These events were chosen because they show a strong non-radial direction of propagation in the low corona and their main propagation direction is not fully aligned with the Sun-Earth line.This characteristic makes them suitable for our study, which aims to inspect how the non-radial direction of propagation in the low corona affects the time of CMEs' arrival at Earth.We reconstructed the CMEs using coronagraph observations and modelled them with EUHFORIA and the cone model for CMEs.To compare the accuracy of forecasting the CME arrival time at Earth obtained from different methods, we also used so-called typeII bursts, radio signatures of associated shocks, to find the velocities of the CME-driven shocks and forecast the time of their arrival at Earth.We also estimated the CME arrival time using the 2D CME velocity.Our results show that the lowest accuracy of estimated CME Earth arrival times is found when the 2D CME velocity is used.The velocity of the typeII radio bursts provides better, but still not very accurate, results.Employing, as an input to EUHFORIA, the CME parameters obtained from the GCS fittings at consequently increasing heights, results in a strongly improved accuracy of the modelled CME and shock arrival time Delta t changes from 14h to 10min for the first event, and from 12h to 30min for the second one.This improvement shows that when we increased the heights of the GCS reconstruction we accounted for the change in the propagation direction of the studied CMEs, which allowed us to accurately model the CME flank encounter at Earth. Our results show the great importance of the change in the direction of propagation of the CME in the low corona when modelling CMEs and estimating the time of their arrival at Earth.

Recent Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) measurements released by DESI, when combined with Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data from Planck and two different samples of Type Ia supernovae (Pantheon-Plus and DESY5) reveal a preference for Dynamical Dark Energy (DDE) characterized by a present-day quintessence-like equation of state that crossed into the phantom regime in the past. A core ansatz for this result is assuming a linear Chevallier-Polarski-Linder (CPL) parameterization $w(a) = w_0 + w_a (1-a)$ to describe the evolution of the DE equation of state (EoS). In this paper, we test if and to what extent this assumption impacts the results. To prevent broadening uncertainties in cosmological parameter inference and facilitate direct comparison with the baseline CPL case, we focus on 4 alternative well-known models that, just like CPL, consist of only two free parameters: the present-day DE EoS ($w_0$) and a parameter quantifying its dynamical evolution ($w_a$). We demonstrate that the preference for DDE remains robust regardless of the parameterization: $w_0$ consistently remains in the quintessence regime, while $w_a$ consistently indicates a preference for a dynamical evolution towards the phantom regime. This tendency is significantly strengthened by DESY5 SN measurements. By comparing the best-fit $\chi^2$ obtained within each DDE model, we notice that the linear CPL parameterization is not the best-fitting case. Among the models considered, the EoS proposed by Barboza and Alcaniz consistently leads to the most significant improvement., Comment: 44 pages, 7 figures, 7 tables. V2: additional references, more details and discussion on the results and their interpretation, added a new Appendix presenting additional constraints on interesting properties of the DE EoS across the different models analyzed. Version accepted for publication in JCAP

The majority of stars in today's Universe reside within spheroids, which are bulges of spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. Their formation is still an unsolved problem. Infrared/submm-bright galaxies at high redshifts have long been suspected to be related to spheroids formation. Proving this connection has been hampered so far by heavy dust obscuration when focusing on their stellar emission or by methodologies and limited signal-to-noise ratios when looking at submm wavelengths. Here we show that spheroids are directly generated by star formation within the cores of highly luminous starburst galaxies in the distant Universe. This follows from the ALMA submillimeter surface brightness profiles which deviate significantly from those of exponential disks, and from the skewed-high axis-ratio distribution. The majority of these galaxies are fully triaxial rather than flat disks: the ratio of the shortest to the longest of their three axes is half, on average, and increases with spatial compactness. These observations, supported by simulations, reveal a cosmologically relevant pathway for in-situ spheroid formation through starbursts likely preferentially triggered by interactions (and mergers) acting on galaxies fed by non-co-planar gas accretion streams., Comment: Nature in press

The measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have played a significant role in understanding the nature of dark energy. In this article, we investigate the dynamics of the dark energy equation of state, utilizing high-precision CMB data from multiple experiments. We begin by examining the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder (CPL) parametrization, a commonly used and recognized framework for describing the dark energy equation of state. We then explore the general Exponential parametrization, which incorporates CPL as its first-order approximation, and extensions of this parametrization that incorporate nonlinear terms. We constrain these scenarios using CMB data from various missions, including the Planck 2018 legacy release, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), and the South Pole Telescope (SPT), as well as combinations with low-redshift cosmological probes such as Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) and the Pantheon sample. While the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology remains consistent within the 68\% confidence level, we observe that the extensions of the CPL parametrization are indistinguishable for Planck data. However, for ACT and SPT data, the inclusion of additional terms begins to reveal a peak in $w_{\rm a, DE}$ that was previously unconstrained., Comment: 14 pages, 6 tables and 4 captioned figures; version published in Phys. Dark. Univ

Photometric redshifts are widely used in studies of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs), but catastrophic photo-$z$ failure can undermine all redshift-dependent results. Here we report the spectroscopic redshift confirmation of COSBO-7, a strongly lensed DSFG in the COSMOS-PRIMER field. Recently, a photometric redshift solution of $z\gtrsim7.0$ was reported for COSBO-7 based on ten bands of {\it James Webb} Space Telescope (JWST) NIRCam and MIRI imaging data. This $z$ value was favored by four independent spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting codes, and the result provided an appealing candidate for the most distant massive DSFG known to date. This photo-$z$ solution was also supported by a single line detection in Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Band 3 consistent with CO(7-6) at $z=7.46$. However, our new ALMA observations robustly detect two lines in Band 6 identified as CO(7-6) and [CI](2-1) at $z_{\rm spec}=2.625$, and thus the Band 3 line as CO(3-2). These three robust line detections decidedly place COSBO-7 at $z=2.625$, refuting the photo-$z$ solution. We derive physical parameters by fitting near-infrared(NIR)-to-millimeter(mm) photometry and lens modeling, revealing that COSBO-7 is a main sequence galaxy. We examine possible reasons for this photo-$z$ failure and attribute it to (1) the likely underestimation of photometric uncertainties at 0.9\,$\mu$m and 1.15 \,$\mu$m; and (2) the lack of photometry at wavelengths beyond 20\,$\mu$m. Notably, we recover a bona fide $z_{\rm phot}\sim 2.3$ by including the existing MIPS $24\,\mu$m photometry, demonstrating the critical importance of mid-infrared (MIR) data in bolstering photo-$z$ measurements. This work highlights a common challenge in modeling the SEDs of DSFGs, and provides a cautionary tale regarding the reliability of photometric redshifts as well as pseudo-spectroscopic redshifts based on single line detection., Comment: Published in A&A

Enterprise applications are often built as service-oriented architectures, where the individual services are designed to perform specific functions and interact with each other by means of well-defined APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). The architecture of an enterprise application evolves over time, in order to adapt to changing business requirements. This evolution might require changes to the APIs offered by services, which can be achieved through appropriate API refactorings. Previous studies on API refactoring focused on the effects on API definitions, with general considerations on related forces and smells. So far, instead, the development strategy for realising these refactorings has received little attention. This paper addresses exactly this aspect. We introduce a conceptual framework for the implementation of API refactorings. Our framework elicits that there are important trade-offs and choices, which significantly affect the efficiency, maintainability, and isolation properties of the resulting architecture. We validate our framework by implementing several refactorings that introduce established API patterns with different choices, which illustrates the guiding principles offered by our framework. Our work also elicits, for the first time, how certain programming language features can reduce friction in applying API refactoring and open up more architectural choices.

Galaxy clusters are the most massive, gravitationally-bound structures in the Universe, emerging through hierarchical structure formation of large-scale dark matter and baryon overdensities. Early galaxy ``proto-clusters'' are believed to be important physical drivers of the overall cosmic star-formation rate density and serve as ``hotspots'' for the reionization of the intergalactic medium. Our understanding of the formation of these structures at the earliest cosmic epochs is, however, limited to sparse observations of their galaxy members, or based on phenomenological models and cosmological simulations. Here we report the detection of a massive neutral, atomic hydrogen (HI) gas reservoir permeating a galaxy proto-cluster at redshift $z=5.4$, observed one billion years after the Big Bang. The presence of this cold gas is revealed by strong damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorption features observed in several background galaxy spectra taken with JWST/NIRSpec in close on-sky projection. While overall the sightlines probe a large range in HI column densities, $N_{\rm HI} = 10^{21.7}-10^{23.5}$ cm$^{-2}$, they are similar across nearby sightlines, demonstrating that they probe the same dense, neutral gas. This observation of a massive, large-scale overdensity of cold neutral gas challenges current large-scale cosmological simulations and has strong implications for the reionization topology of the Universe., Comment: Submitted

The gas in the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies is supersonically turbulent. Measurements of turbulence typically rely on cold gas emission lines for low-z galaxies and warm ionized gas observations for z>0 galaxies. Studies of warm gas kinematics at z>0 conclude that the turbulence strongly evolves as a function of redshift, due to the increasing impact of gas accretion and mergers in the early Universe. However, recent findings suggest potential biases in turbulence measurements derived from ionized gas at high-z, impacting our understanding of turbulence origin, ISM physics and disk formation. We investigate the evolution of turbulence using velocity dispersion ($\sigma$) measurements from cold gas tracers (i.e., CO, [CI], [CII]) derived from a sample of 57 galaxy disks spanning the redshift range z=0-5. This sample consists of main-sequence and starburst galaxies with stellar masses $\gtrsim 10^{10} M_{\odot}$. The comparison with current H$\alpha$ kinematic observations and existing models demonstrates that the velocity dispersion inferred from cold gas tracers differ by a factor of $\approx 3$ from those obtained using emission lines tracing warm gas. We show that stellar feedback is the main driver of turbulence measured from cold gas tracers. This is fundamentally different from the conclusions of studies based on warm gas, which had to consider additional turbulence drivers to explain the high values of $\sigma$. We present a model predicting the redshift evolution of turbulence in galaxy disks, attributing the increase of $\sigma$ with redshift to the higher energy injected by supernovae due to the elevated star-formation rate in high-z galaxies. This supernova-driven model suggests that turbulence is lower in galaxies with lower stellar mass compared to those with higher stellar mass. Additionally, it forecasts the evolution of $\sigma$ in Milky-Way like progenitors., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. The abstract has been modified to comply with arXiv's character limit

In this study, we investigate deviations from the Planck-$\Lambda$CDM model in the late universe ($z \lesssim 2.5$) using the Gaussian Processes method, with minimal assumptions. Our goal is to understand where exploring new physics in the late universe is most relevant. We analyze recent Cosmic Chronometers (CC), Type Ia Supernovae (SN), and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) data. By examining reconstructions of the dimensionless parameter $\delta(z)$, which measures deviations of the Hubble parameter from the Planck-$\Lambda$CDM predictions, we identify intriguing features at low ($z \lesssim 0.5$) and high ($z \gtrsim 2$) redshifts. Deviations from the Planck-$\Lambda$CDM model were not significant between $0.5\lesssim z \lesssim2$. Using the combined CC+SN+BAO dataset, we gain insights into dark energy (DE) dynamics, resembling characteristics of omnipotent DE, extending beyond quintessence and phantom models. DE exhibits n-quintessence traits for $z\gtrsim2$, transitioning with a singularity around $z\sim2$ to usual phantom traits in $1\lesssim z\lesssim2$. DE characteristics differ between scenarios ($H_0$-SH0ES and $H_0$-$\Lambda$\&CMB), with $H_0$-SH0ES leaning towards phantom traits and $H_0$-$\Lambda$\&CMB towards quintessence. We suggest exploring new physics at $z\lesssim0.5$ and $1.5\lesssim z\lesssim2.5$, particularly around $z = 2$, to understand cosmological tensions such as $H_0$ and $S_8$., Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in EPJC

The NOEMA formIng Cluster survEy (NICE) is a large program targeting 69 massive galaxy group candidates at $z>2$ in six deep fields. We report spectroscopic confirmation of eight groups at $1.65\leq z\leq3.61$ in COSMOS. Homogeneously selected as significant overdensities of red IRAC sources with red Herschel colors, four groups are confirmed by CO and [CI] with NOEMA 3mm observations, three are confirmed with ALMA, and one is confirmed by H$\alpha$ from Subaru/FMOS. We constructed the integrated FIR SEDs for the eight groups, obtaining total IR SFR $=260-1300~{\rm M_\odot}$~yr$^{-1}$. We adopted six methods to estimate the dark matter masses, including stellar mass to halo mass relations, overdensity with galaxy bias, and NFW profile fitting to radial stellar mass density. We found the radial stellar mass density are consistent with a NFW profile, supporting that they are collapsed structures hosted by a single dark matter halo. The best halo mass estimates are $\log(M_{\rm h}/{\rm M_\odot})=12.8-13.7$ with uncertainty of 0.3 dex. From halo mass estimates, we derive baryonic accretion rate ${\rm BAR}=(1-8)\times10^{3}\,{\rm M_{\odot}/yr}$ for this sample. We find a quasi-linear correlation between the integrated SFR/BAR and the theoretical halo mass limit for cold streams, $M_{\rm stream}/M_{\rm h}$, with ${\rm SFR/BAR}=10^{-0.46\pm0.22}\left({M_{\rm stream}/M_{\rm h}}\right)^{0.71\pm0.16}$ with a scatter of $0.40\,{\rm dex}$. Further, we compare halo masses and stellar masses with simulations, and find all structures are consistent with being progenitors of $M_{\rm h}(z=0)>10^{14}\,{\rm M_{\odot}}$ galaxy clusters, and the most massive central galaxies have stellar masses consistent with brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) progenitors in the TNG300 simulation. The results strongly suggest these structures are forming massive galaxy clusters via baryonic and dark matter accretion., Comment: 44 pages (27pp appendix), 32 figures, 18 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

It has recently been argued that the Hubble tension may call for a combination of both pre- and post-recombination new physics. Motivated by these considerations, we provide one of the first concrete case studies aimed at constructing such a viable combination. We consider models that have individually worked best on either end of recombination so far: a spatially uniform time-varying electron mass leading to earlier recombination (also adding non-zero spatial curvature), and a sign-switching cosmological constant inducing an AdS-to-dS transition within the $\Lambda_{\rm s}$CDM model. When confronted against Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, and Type Ia Supernovae data, we show that no combination of these ingredients can successfully solve the Hubble tension. We find that the matter density parameter $\Omega_m$ plays a critical role, driving important physical scales in opposite directions: the AdS-to-dS transition requires a larger $\Omega_m$ to maintain the CMB acoustic scale fixed, whereas the varying electron mass requires a smaller $\Omega_m$ to maintain the redshift of matter-radiation equality fixed. Despite the overall failure, we use our results to draw general model-building lessons, highlighting the importance of assessing tension-solving directions in the parameter space of new physics parameters and how these correlate with shifts in other standard parameters, while underscoring the crucial role of $\Omega_m$ in this sense., Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Fig. 7 is the summary Figure. The reason for the failure of this particular combination of models and the consequent general lessons we draw are discussed between Pages 10 and 14. v2: several additional references added, minor change to title, added Bayesian evidence computation. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Dark Univ

Cleavable metallic antiferromagnets may be of use for low-dissipation spintronic devices; however, few are currently known. Here we present orthorhombic MnRhBi3 as one such compound and present a thorough study of its physical properties. Exfoliation is demonstrated experimentally, and the cleavage energy and electronic structure are examined by density functional theory calculations. It is concluded that MnRhBi3 is a van der Waals layered material that cleaves easily between neighboring Bi layers, and that the Bi atoms have lone pairs extending into the van der Waals gaps. A series of four phase transitions are observed below room temperature, and neutron diffraction shows that at least two of the transitions involve the formation of antiferromagnetic order. Anomalous thermal expansion points to a crystallographic phase transition and/or strong magnetoelastic coupling. This work reveals a complex phase evolution in MnRhBi3 and establishes this cleavable antiferromagnetic metal as an interesting material for studying the interplay of structure, magnetism, and transport in the bulk and ultrathin limits as well as the role of lone pair electrons in interface chemistry and proximity effects in van der Waals heterostructures.

Given a finite set $ S $ of points, we consider the following reconfiguration graph. The vertices are the plane spanning paths of $ S $ and there is an edge between two vertices if the two corresponding paths differ by two edges (one removed, one added). Since 2007, this graph is conjectured to be connected but no proof has been found. In this paper, we prove several results to support the conjecture. Mainly, we show that if all but one point of $ S $ are in convex position, then the graph is connected with diameter at most $ 2 | S | $ and that for $ | S | \geq 3 $ every connected component has at least $ 3 $ vertices., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures

The emergence of similar representations between independently trained neural models has sparked significant interest in the representation learning community, leading to the development of various methods to obtain communication between latent spaces. "Latent space communication" can be achieved in two ways: i) by independently mapping the original spaces to a shared or relative one; ii) by directly estimating a transformation from a source latent space to a target one. In this work, we combine the two into a novel method to obtain latent space translation through the relative space. By formalizing the invertibility of angle-preserving relative representations and assuming the scale invariance of decoder modules in neural models, we can effectively use the relative space as an intermediary, independently projecting onto and from other semantically similar spaces. Extensive experiments over various architectures and datasets validate our scale invariance assumption and demonstrate the high accuracy of our method in latent space translation. We also apply our method to zero-shot stitching between arbitrary pre-trained text and image encoders and their classifiers, even across modalities. Our method has significant potential for facilitating the reuse of models in a practical manner via compositionality., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2311.00664, arXiv:2406.11014

Neural models learn data representations that lie on low-dimensional manifolds, yet modeling the relation between these representational spaces is an ongoing challenge. By integrating spectral geometry principles into neural modeling, we show that this problem can be better addressed in the functional domain, mitigating complexity, while enhancing interpretability and performances on downstream tasks. To this end, we introduce a multi-purpose framework to the representation learning community, which allows to: (i) compare different spaces in an interpretable way and measure their intrinsic similarity; (ii) find correspondences between them, both in unsupervised and weakly supervised settings, and (iii) to effectively transfer representations between distinct spaces.We validate our framework on various applications, ranging from stitching to retrieval tasks, and on multiple modalities, demonstrating that Latent Functional Maps can serve as a swiss-army knife for representation alignment.

Aligning data from different domains is a fundamental problem in machine learning with broad applications across very different areas, most notably aligning experimental readouts in single-cell multiomics. Mathematically, this problem can be formulated as the minimization of disagreement of pair-wise quantities such as distances and is related to the Gromov-Hausdorff and Gromov-Wasserstein distances. Computationally, it is a quadratic assignment problem (QAP) that is known to be NP-hard. Prior works attempted to solve the QAP directly with entropic or low-rank regularization on the permutation, which is computationally tractable only for modestly-sized inputs, and encode only limited inductive bias related to the domains being aligned. We consider the alignment of metric structures formulated as a discrete Gromov-Wasserstein problem and instead of solving the QAP directly, we propose to learn a related well-scalable linear assignment problem (LAP) whose solution is also a minimizer of the QAP. We also show a flexible extension of the proposed framework to general non-metric dissimilarities through differentiable ranks. We extensively evaluate our approach on synthetic and real datasets from single-cell multiomics and neural latent spaces, achieving state-of-the-art performance while being conceptually and computationally simple.

JWST has revealed a population of compact and extremely red galaxies at $z>4$, which likely host active galactic nuclei (AGN). We present a sample of 434 ``little red dots'' (LRDs), selected from the 0.54 deg$^2$ COSMOS-Web survey. We fit galaxy and AGN SED models to derive redshifts and physical properties; the sample spans $z\sim5$-$9$ after removing brown dwarf contaminants. We consider two extreme physical scenarios: either LRDs are all AGN, and their continuum emission is dominated by the accretion disk, or they are all compact star-forming galaxies, and their continuum is dominated by stars. If LRDs are AGN-dominated, our sample exhibits bolometric luminosities $\sim10^{45-47}$ erg\,s$^{-1}$, spanning the gap between JWST AGN in the literature and bright, rare quasars. We derive a bolometric luminosity function (LF) $\sim100$ times the (UV-selected) quasar LF, implying a non-evolving black hole accretion density of $\sim10^{-4}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ from $z\sim2$-$9$. By contrast, if LRDs are dominated by star formation, we derive stellar masses $\sim10^{8.5-10}\,M_\odot$. MIRI/F770W is key to deriving accurate stellar masses; without it, we derive a mass function inconsistent with $\Lambda$CDM. The median stellar mass profile is broadly consistent with the maximal stellar mass surface densities seen in the nearby universe, though the most massive $\sim50$\% of objects exceed this limit, requiring substantial AGN contribution to the continuum. Nevertheless, stacking all available X-ray, mid-IR, far-IR/sub-mm, and radio data yields non-detections. Whether dominated by dusty AGN, compact star-formation, or both, the high masses/luminosities and remarkable abundance of LRDs implies a dominant mode of early galaxy/SMBH growth., Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures. Submitted to ApJ, comments welcome! Data access at https://github.com/hollisakins/akins24_cw

We present results from Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) spectral line-scan observations at 3-mm and 2-mm bands of three near-infrared-dark (NIR-dark) galaxies behind two massive lensing clusters MACS J0417.5-1154 and RXC J0032.1+1808. Each of these three sources is a faint (de-lensed $S_{\text{1.2 mm}}$ $<$ 1 mJy) triply lensed system originally discovered in the ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey. We have successfully detected CO and [C I] emission lines and confirmed that their spectroscopic redshifts are $z=3.652$, 2.391, and 2.985. By utilizing a rich multi-wavelength data set, we find that the NIR-dark galaxies are located on the star formation main sequence in the intrinsic stellar mass range of log ($M_*$/$M_\odot$) = 9.8 - 10.4, which is about one order of magnitude lower than that of typical submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). These NIR-dark galaxies show a variety in gas depletion times and spatial extent of dust emission. One of the three is a normal star-forming galaxy with gas depletion time consistent with a scaling relation, and its infrared surface brightness is an order of magnitude smaller than that of typical SMGs. Since this galaxy has an elongated axis ratio of $\sim 0.17$, we argue that normal star-forming galaxies in an edge-on configuration can be heavily dust-obscured. This implies that existing deep WFC3/F160W surveys may miss a fraction of typical star-forming main-sequence galaxies due to their edge-on orientation., Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, Submitted to ApJ

The idea of a rapid sign-switching cosmological constant (mirror AdS-dS transition) in the late universe at $z\sim1.7$, known as the $\Lambda_{\rm s}$CDM model, has significantly improved the fit to observational data and provides a promising scenario for alleviating major cosmological tensions, such as the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions. However, in the absence of a fully predictive model, implementing this fit required conjecturing that the dynamics of the linear perturbations are governed by general relativity. Recent work embedding the $\Lambda_{\rm s}$CDM model with the Lagrangian of a type-II minimally modified gravity known as VCDM has propelled $\Lambda_{\rm s}$CDM to a fully predictive model, removing the uncertainty related to the aforementioned assumption; we call this new model $\Lambda_{\rm s}$VCDM. In this work, we demonstrate that not only does $\Lambda_{\rm s}$CDM fit the data better than the standard $\Lambda$CDM model, but the new model, $\Lambda_{\rm s}$VCDM, performs even better in alleviating cosmological tensions while also providing a better fit to the data, including CMB, BAO, SNe Ia, and Cosmic Shear measurements. Our findings highlight the $\Lambda_{\rm s}$CDM framework, particularly the $\Lambda_{\rm s}$VCDM model, as a compelling alternative to the standard $\Lambda$CDM model, especially by successfully alleviating the $H_0$ tension. Additionally, these models predict higher values for $\sigma_8$, indicating enhanced structuring, albeit with lower present-day matter density parameter values and consequently reduced $S_8$ values, alleviating the $S_8$ tension as well. This demonstrates that the data are well fit by a combination of background and linear perturbations, both having dynamics differing from those of $\Lambda$CDM. This paves the way for further exploration of new ways for embedding the sign-switching cosmological constant into other models., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

In any cosmological model where spacetime is described by a pseudo-Riemannian manifold, photons propagate along null geodesics, and their number is conserved, upcoming Gravitational Wave (GW) observations can be combined with measurements of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) angular scale to provide model-independent estimates of the sound horizon at the baryon-drag epoch. By focusing on the accuracy expected from forthcoming surveys such as LISA GW standard sirens and DESI or Euclid angular BAO measurements, we forecast a relative precision of $\sigma_{r_{\rm d}} /r_{\rm d} \sim 1.5\%$ within the redshift range $z \lesssim 1$. This approach will offer a unique model-independent measure of a fundamental scale characterizing the early universe, which is competitive with model-dependent values inferred within specific theoretical frameworks. These measurements can serve as a consistency test for $\Lambda$CDM, potentially clarifying the nature of the Hubble tension and confirming or ruling out new physics prior to recombination with a statistical significance of $\sim 4\sigma$., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures

Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) may interact with a virtual pion that is exchanged between nucleons. This interaction channel is important to consider in models where the spin-independent isoscalar channel is suppressed. Using data from the first science run of the LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter experiment, containing 60 live days of data in a 5.5~tonne fiducial mass of liquid xenon, we report the results on a search for WIMP-pion interactions. We observe no significant excess and set an upper limit of $1.5\times10^{-46}$~cm$^2$ at a 90\% confidence level for a WIMP mass of 33~GeV/c$^2$ for this interaction.

Galaxy mergers play a critical role in galaxy evolution - altering the size, morphology, dynamics and composition of galaxies. So far, galaxy mergers have mostly been identified through visual inspection of their rest-frame optical and NIR emission. But, dust can obscure this emission, resulting in the misclassification of mergers as single galaxies, and the incorrect interpretation of their baryonic properties. Having serendipitously discovered a dust-obscured galaxy merger at z = 1.17, we aim to determine the baryonic properties of the two merging galaxies, including the star formation rate, and stellar, molecular gas, and dust masses. Using Band 3 and 6 observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter and submillimeter Array (ALMA), and ancillary data, we study the morphology of this previously misclassified merger. We deblend the emission, derive the gas masses from CO observations, and model the spectral energy distributions, to determine the properties of each galaxy. Using the rare combination of ALMA CO(2-1), CO(5-4) and dust-continuum (rest-frame 520um) observations, we provide insights into the gas and dust content and ISM properties of each merger component. We find that only one of the two galaxies is highly dust-obscured, whereas both are massive (> 10^10.5 Msun), highly star-forming (SFR = 60-900Msun/yr), have a moderate-to-low depletion time (tdepl < 0.7Gyr) and high gas fraction ( fgas >= 1). These properties can be interpreted as the positive impact of the merger. With this serendipitous discovery, we highlight the power of (sub)millimeter observations to identify and characterise the individual components of obscured galaxy mergers., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication to A&A

The Data Acquisition System (DAQ) for the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter detector is described. The signals from 745 PMTs, distributed across three subsystems, are sampled with 100-MHz 32-channel digitizers (DDC-32s). A basic waveform analysis is carried out on the on-board Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to extract information about the observed scintillation and electroluminescence signals. This information is used to determine if the digitized waveforms should be preserved for offline analysis. The system is designed around the Kintex-7 FPGA. In addition to digitizing the PMT signals and providing basic event selection in real time, the flexibility provided by the use of FPGAs allows us to monitor the performance of the detector and the DAQ in parallel to normal data acquisition. The hardware and software/firmware of this FPGA-based Architecture for Data acquisition and Realtime monitoring (FADR) are discussed and performance measurements are described., Comment: 18 pages, 24 figures