Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM) enables three-dimensional imaging of nuclear spin densities in nanoscale objects. Based on numerical simulations, we evaluate the performance of strained SiN resonators as force sensors and show that their out-of-plane oscillation direction improves the quality of the reconstructed sample. We further introduce a multislice, compressed-sensing scan protocol that maximizes the information obtained for a given measurement time. Our simulations predict that these new scanning protocols and optimized algorithms can shorten the total acquisition time by up to two orders of magnitude while maintaining the reconstruction fidelity. Our results demonstrate that combining advanced scanning protocols with state-of-the-art resonators is a promising path toward high-resolution MRFM for volumetric imaging of biological nanostructures.

Engineered assemblies of interacting magnetic elements-magnetic metamaterials-provide a powerful route to tailor collective magnetic order and dynamics. By structuring matter at the mesoscale, they bridge atomic magnetism and macroscopic functionality, enabling emergent behaviour inaccessible in conventional materials. However, realizing large-area metamaterials that combine high morphological uniformity with intrinsic long-range order has remained challenging, largely due to the structural disorder inherent to lithographic fabrication. Here we demonstrate a scalable route to structurally and magnetically coherent metamaterials by embedding iron-ions to form mesospins within a non-magnetic thin film palladium host matrix. Using controlled implantation, we realize morphologically uniform arrays that spontaneously develop extended antiferromagnetic order in the as-fabricated state - without the need of external annealing or field cycling. Resonant X-ray scattering and microscopy reveal sharp magnetic Bragg peaks modulated by the mesospin form factor, evidencing long-range antiferromagnetic order coupled to structural coherence. This embedded architecture establishes a platform for exploring coherent spin-photon interactions and functional X-ray scattering in magnetic metamaterials free from lithographic topography and disorder.

In mesh-based numerical simulations, the interpolation of mesh-defined functions across different meshes is a critical task, and achieving high-precision interpolation is of great significance for improving the computational efficiency and numerical stability of algorithms. This paper proposes neural network based function mapping model across meshes, wherein the interpolation process is reformulated as a data-driven regression problem over scattered function data. Conventional interpolation and projection-based approaches are highly dependent on mesh connectivity and corresponding geometric properties, which renders such methods computationally costly and sensitive to mismatches between source and target meshes. The proposed method constructs a neural network approximator using nodal function values on the source mesh to obtain a global representation of the function, which can then be interpolated onto any other meshes. To investigate the network architectural impacts on model performance, three representative feedforward network structures are numerically compared in this work: multi-layer perceptrons, extreme learning machines, and network incorporating radial basis function hidden units. The results reveal distinct trade-offs among accuracy, computational efficiency and model robustness, among which the radial basis function-based network achieves the most desirable overall performance balance, enabling fast and precise function calculation. Numerical experiments conducted on non-nested meshes validate the efficacy of the proposed model in both function interpolation and cross-mesh data transmission tasks.

Type Ibn supernovae (SNe) are characterized by narrow helium (He I) lines from photons produced by the unshocked circumstellar material (CSM). About 80 SNe Ibn have been discovered to date, and only a handful have extensive observational records. Thus, many open questions regarding the progenitor system and the origin of the CSM remain. Here we investigate potential correlations between the spectral features of the prominent He I $λ$5876 line and the optical and X-ray light curve properties of SNe Ibn. We compile the largest sample of 61 SNe Ibn to date, of which 24 SNe have photometric and spectroscopic data from the Young Supernova Experiment and 37 SNe have archival data sets. We fit 24 SNe Ibn with sufficient photometric coverage ($B$ to $z$ bands) using semi-analytical models from MOSFiT. We demonstrate that the light curves of SNe Ibn are more diverse than previous analyses suggest, with absolute $r$-band peak magnitudes of $-19.4\pm0.6$~mag and rise (from $-10$ days to peak) and decay-rates (from peak to +10 days) of $-0.08\pm0.06$ and $0.08\pm0.03$ mag/day, respectively. We find that the majority of SNe Ibn in the sub-sample are consistent with a low-energy explosion ($<10^{51}$ erg) of a star with a compact envelope surrounded by $\sim$0.1 M$_{\odot}$ of helium-rich CSM. The inferred ejecta masses are small ($\sim 1$ M$_{\odot}$) and expand with a velocity of $\sim$5000 km/s. Our spectroscopic analysis shows that the mean velocity of the narrow component of the He I lines, associated to the CSM, peaks at $\sim1100$ km/s. The mean CSM and ejecta masses inferred for a sub-sample of SNe Ibn indicate that their progenitors are not massive ($\sim10$ M$_{\odot}$), single stars at the moment of explosion, but are likely binary systems. This agrees with the detection of potential companion stars of SNe Ibn progenitors, and the inferred CSM properties from stellar evolution models.

Among the biggest challenges in property-based testing (PBT) is the constrained random generation problem: given a predicate on program values, randomly sample from the set of all values satisfying that predicate, and only those values. Efficient solutions to this problem are critical, since the executable specifications used by PBT often have preconditions that input values must satisfy in order to be valid test cases, and satisfying values are often sparsely distributed. We propose a novel approach to this problem using ideas from deductive program synthesis. We present a set of synthesis rules, based on a denotational semantics of generators, that give rise to an automatic procedure for synthesizing correct generators. Our system handles recursive predicates by rewriting them as catamorphisms and then matching with appropriate anamorphisms; this is theoretically simpler than other approaches to synthesis for recursive functions, yet still extremely expressive. Our implementation, Palamedes, is an extensible library for the Lean theorem prover. The synthesis algorithm itself is built on standard proof-search tactics, reducing implementation burden and allowing the algorithm to benefit from further advances in Lean proof automation.

With a sample of 552 galaxies at z~0.7 from the LEGA-C survey, we investigate how current star formation influences light-weighted mean stellar ages and metallicities, and their median trends with stellar mass or velocity dispersion. The bimodality in the global age-mass relation stems from the different age distributions in the quiescent (Q) and star-forming (SF) populations. A bimodality is not observed in the stellar metallicity-mass relation, although Q and SF galaxies have different distributions in this parameter space. We identify a high-metallicity sequence populated by both Q and weakly SF galaxies. At masses below logM/Msun=10.8 the median stellar metallicity-mass relation of SF galaxies steepens, as a consequence of increasing scatter toward lower stellar metallicities for galaxies with increasing specific star formation rate at fixed mass. With a consistent analysis of SDSS DR7 spectra, accounting for aperture corrections, we quantify the evolution of the stellar age and stellar metallicity scaling relations between z=0.7 and the present. We find negligible evolution in the stellar metallicity-mass relation of Q galaxies and for logM/Msun>11 galaxies in general. Lower mass SF galaxies, instead, have typically lower metallicities than their local counterparts, indicating significant enrichment since z~0.7 in the low-mass regime. The median of the stellar ages of both the general population and Q galaxies has changed by only 2 Gyr between z=0.7 and z=0.1, less than expected from cosmic aging. Some Q galaxies must evolve passively to reach the old boundary of the local population. However, in order to explain the evolution of the median trends, both individual evolution, through rejuvenation and/or minor merging impacting the outer galaxy regions, and population evolution, through quenching of massive, metal-rich star-forming galaxies, are required. (Abridged)

Gravitational coupling between a protoplanetary disc and an embedded planet is often studied in a frame attached to a central star. This frame is non-inertial because of the stellar reflex motion, leading to indirect forces arising in the star-planet-disc system. Here we examine the impact produced by these forces on several aspects of disc-planet coupling using analytical and numerical means. We explore how neglecting indirect forces changes (1) the spatial pattern of the surface density perturbation in the disc, (2) the calculation of the torque exerted on the disc by the planet, and (3) the torque on the planet exerted by the disc. For low-mass planets, in the linear regime, the differences in the perturbation pattern are only in its $m=1$ azimuthal harmonic, with an amplitude increasing with the distance from the star. In this regime both the torque on the planet and the deposition torque density in the disc are only weakly affected by non-inclusion of indirect forces, corroborating some results of studies neglecting indirect forces altogether. For higher mass planets, a broader range of azimuthal harmonics of the perturbation are affected. Also, indirect forces have a stronger effect on the planetary torque and on planet migration in the Type II regime. We highlight the importance of including the planetary indirect force in the calculation of the torque on the disc (if disc evolution accounts for indirect force) to ensure conservation of angular momentum carried by the planet-driven density waves. The corresponding indirect torque has an oscillatory, radially-diverging character.

The dynamics of systems of multiple gravitationally interacting bodies is often studied in a frame attached to one of the objects (e.g. a central star in a planetary system). As this frame is generally non-inertial, indirect forces appear in the equations describing the motion of bodies relative to the reference object. According to the convention adopted in celestial mechanics, the associated indirect acceleration is defined to be different for every object under consideration, whereas the gravitational coupling between each body and the reference object is described via the effective two-body potential, which does not obey the equivalence principle. Here we point out that a slightly different and more physically motivated definition of the indirect acceleration provides significant benefits when interpreting relative motion in a non-inertial frame. First, the indirect acceleration ends up being the same for all objects in the system. Second, the non-conservation of momentum, angular momentum, and energy of the whole system in a non-inertial frame naturally follow from the action of the indirect acceleration on the system as an external force. We also argue that the vis viva integral of the classical two-body problem should not be interpreted as a statement of energy conservation in a non-inertial frame attached to one of the bodies. The energy of relative motion is not conserved in this frame due to the work done on the two-body system by the indirect force. These results can be useful for interpreting dynamics in various astrophysical contexts, in particular the physics of disc-planet coupling.

During its evolution, the Milky Way (MW) incorporated numerous dwarf galaxies, particularly low-mass systems. The surviving dwarf galaxies orbiting the MW serve as exceptional laboratories for studying the unique properties of these systems. Their metal-poor environments and shallow gravitational potentials likely drive significant differences in star formation and star cluster properties compared to those in the MW. Using high-quality near-infrared spectra from the APOGEE survey, we determined abundances of Fe, C, N, O, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Ni, and Ce for 74 stars in four MW satellite dwarf galaxies: Fornax, Sextans, Draco, and Carina. Our analysis reveals that the distribution of $α$ elements (e.g., [Si/Fe]) strongly correlates with galaxy luminosity (and hence mass), underscoring the critical role of galaxy mass in shaping chemical evolution. These dwarf galaxies exhibit [Al/Fe$]\sim -0.5$, which is comparable to those of the metal-poor stars in the MW. Additionally, we identified nitrogen-rich field stars in the Fornax dwarf galaxy, which display distinct metallicities compared to its known globular clusters (GCs). If these stars originated in GCs and subsequently escaped, their presence suggests we are observing relics of destroyed GCs, offering possible evidence of cluster disruption.

EIRENE [1] is a Monte Carlo neutral transport solver heavily used in the fusion community. EIRENE does not implement domain decomposition, making it impossible to use for simulations where the grid data does not fit on one compute node (see e.g. [2]). This paper presents a domain-decomposed Monte Carlo (DDMC) algorithm implemented in a new open source Monte Carlo code, Eiron. Two parallel algorithms currently used in EIRENE are also implemented in Eiron, and the three algorithms are compared by running strong scaling tests, with DDMC performing better than the other two algorithms in nearly all cases. On the supercomputer Mahti [3], DDMC strong scaling is superlinear for grids that do not fit into an L3 cache slice (4 MiB). The DDMC algorithm is also scaled up to 16384 cores in weak scaling tests, with a weak scaling efficiency of 45% in a high-collisional (heavier compute load) case, and 26% in a low-collisional (lighter compute load) case. We conclude that implementing this domain decomposition algorithm in EIRENE would improve performance and enable simulations that are currently impossible due to memory constraints.

Quantum simulators enable studies of many-body phenomena which are intractable with classical hardware. Spins in devices based on semiconductor quantum dots promise precise electrical control and scalability advantages, but accessing many-body phenomena has so far been restricted by challenges in nanofabrication and simultaneous control of multiple interactions. Here, we perform spectroscopy of up to eight interacting spins using a 2x4 array of gate-defined germanium quantum dots. The spectroscopy protocol is based on Ramsey interferometry and adiabatic mapping of many-body eigenstates to single-spin eigenstates, enabling a complete energy spectrum reconstruction. As the interaction strength exceeds magnetic disorder, we observe signatures of the crossover from localization to a chaotic phase marking a step towards the observation of many-body phenomena in quantum dot systems.

Bremsstrahlung emission remains a cornerstone process in the characterization of electron dynamics in diverse high-energy environments. In particular, the accurate description of thin-target electron-ion bremsstrahlung in the presence of high-$Z$ species requires careful treatment of atomic screening effects, especially when atoms are partially ionized. We present a fully analytic screening model based on a multi-Yukawa representation of the atomic potential, enabling the calculation of bremsstrahlung cross sections for arbitrary nuclear charge and ionization state, and electron energies up to a few tens of MeV. This framework extends prior treatments of neutral atoms to include partially ionized high-$Z$ elements in a fully analytic framework.

We give an example of a Laplace transform $\int_γe^{ζz} dμ(ζ)$ that does not have regular growth. This answers a question in Hayman's List

The new Inner Tracking System (ITS2) of the ALICE experiment began operation in 2021 with the start of LHC Run 3. Compared to its predecessor, ITS2 offers substantial improvements in pointing resolution, tracking efficiency at low transverse momenta, and readout-rate capabilities. The detector employs silicon Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) featuring a pixel size of 26.88$\times$29.24 $μ$m$^2$ and an intrinsic spatial resolution of approximately 5 $μ$m. With a remarkably low material budget of 0.36% of radiation length ($X_{0}$) per layer in the three innermost layers and a total sensitive area of about 10 m$^2$, the ITS2 constitutes the largest-scale application of MAPS technology in a high-energy physics experiment and the first of its kind operated at the LHC. For stable data taking, it is crucial to calibrate different parameters of the detector, such as in-pixel charge thresholds and the masking of noisy pixels. The calibration of 24120 monolithic sensors, comprising a total of 12.6$\times$10$^{9}$ pixels, represents a major operational challenge. This paper presents the methods developed for the calibration of the ITS2 and outlines the strategies for monitoring and dynamically adjusting the detector's key performance parameters over time.

The Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (SO/PHI) onboard Solar Orbiter is a spectropolarimeter scanning the Fe I line at 617.3 nm, providing data of the solar photosphere. The same line is sampled by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and many other on-ground instruments. In this paper, we aim at assessing the consistency between line-of-sight (LoS) velocity measurements from the two instruments. Reliable measurements of up and down flows from SO/PHI are crucial and unique when Solar Orbiter is facing the far side of the Sun. Also, a combination of measurements from two vantage points to study horizontal flows must rely on consistent observations. For this purpose, we compare the LoS velocity measured by SO/PHI's High Resolution Telescope (SO/PHI-HRT) and SDO/HMI on 29 March 2023, when Solar Orbiter was crossing the Sun-Earth line at a distance of 0.39 au from the Sun. Because such co-alignments are rare, this configuration offered an almost unique opportunity to directly compare data products from both telescopes. The data are aligned and remapped to allow a pixel-by-pixel comparison of the whole time series of 4 hours length. Temporal and spatial variations are considered for a direct combination of the measurements. The LoS velocity distributions are evaluated and a clear linear relation is found between the two instruments with a slope of 0.96 and a correlation of 92%. We find that the signals form at similar heights, with a separation of 7$\pm$14 km, which is larger than previous estimates. A close-up look at the penumbra of a sunspot and its Evershed flow is presented. We conclude that the signals inferred by SO/PHI-HRT and SDO/HMI show very good agreement and high correlation when instrumental effects and large-scale velocities on the Sun are properly accounted for.

We present a solvable one-dimensional spin-1/2 model on the diamond chain featuring three-spin interactions, which displays both, mobile excitations driving a second-order phase transition between an ordered and a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetry broken phase, as well as non-trivial fully immobile excitations. The model is motivated by the physics of fracton excitations, which only possess mobility in a reduced dimension compared to the full model. We provide an exact mapping of this model to an arbitrary number of independent transverse-field Ising chain segments with open boundary conditions. The number and lengths of these segments correspond directly to the number of immobile excitations and their respective distances from one another. Furthermore, we demonstrate that multiple immobile excitations exhibit Casimir-like forces between them, resulting in a non-trivial spectrum.

The direct, empirical determination of the local value of the Hubble constant (H0) has markedly advanced thanks to improved instrumentation, measurement techniques, and distance estimators. However, combining determinations from different estimators is non-trivial, due to correlated calibrations and different analysis methodologies. Using covariance weighting and leveraging the broad and comprehensive community of experts, we constructed a rigorous and transparent Distance Network (DN) to find a consensus value and uncertainty for the local H0. All critically reviewed the available data sets, spanning parallaxes, detached eclipsing binaries, masers, Cepheids, the TRGB, Miras, JAGB stars, SN Ia, Surface Brightness Fluctuations, SN II, the Fundamental Plane, and Tully-Fisher relations and voted for indicators to define a `baseline' DN and others to assess robustness and sensitivity of the results. We provide open-source software and data products to support full transparency and future extensions of this effort. Our conclusions: 1) Local H0 is robustly determined, with first-rank indicators internally consistent within their uncertainties; 2) A covariance-weighted combination yields an uncertainty of 1.1% (baseline) or 0.9% (all estimators); 3) The contribution from SNe Ia is consistent across four current compilations of optical magnitudes or using NIR-only magnitudes; 4) Removing either Cepheids or TRGB has minimal effect; 5) Replacing SNe Ia with galaxy-based indicators changes H0 by less than 0.1 km/s/Mpc, while doubling its uncertainty; 6) The baseline result is H0=73.50+/-0.81 km/s/Mpc. Compared to early Universe results, our result differs by 7.1sigma from flat ΛCDM with Planck+SPT+ACT and 5.0 sigma with BBN+BAO (DESI2). A networked approach is invaluable for enabling further progress in accuracy and precision without overreliance on any single method, sample or group.

Collective emission of light from distributions of two-level systems (TLSs) was first predicted in 1954 by Robert Dicke, who showed that when $N$ quantum emitters absorb photons, their collective radiative decay rate can be enhanced (superradiance) or suppressed (subradiance) relative to a single emitter. In this work, we derive novel analytical expressions for the collective decay rates and Lamb shifts for the interaction of a single photon with a continuous distribution of TLSs on an infinite line and an infinite helix. We compare these solutions to collectives of TLSs on a cylinder, finding limits in which the eigenvalues of structures of different dimensions are equal. We also compare our solution with arrangements where the emitter distribution is discrete rather than continuous, and when short- ($1/r^3$), intermediate- ($1/r^2$), and long-range ($1/r$) interaction terms are included. We find important differences between the discrete vector and continuous scalar emitter cases, which do not agree in the limit where discrete spacing goes to 0. The analytical solution for the helix is then used to make estimates of the maximally superradiant state, thermally averaged collective decay rate, and percentage of trapped states of quantum emitter architectures in protein fibers. Given the differences between our idealized infinite helix and the numerical model describing protein fibers, our analytical estimates show excellent agreement with the numerical results for sparse arrangements of emitters in protein fibers. Our work thus bridges the gap between different formalisms for superradiance, aids the engineering of devices which harness quantum optical effects for computing with superradiant error correction and subradiant memories, and motivates the discovery and creation of flexible platforms for quantum information processing using the intrinsic helical geometries of biomatter.

The redshifted 21-cm signal from the dark ages offers a powerful probe of cosmological models and the underlying dark matter (DM) microphysics. We investigate deviations from the standard $Λ$CDM prediction, an absorption trough of approximately $-40.6\,\mathrm{mK}$ at redshift $z\simeq85.6$, in the context of co-SIMP (strongly interacting massive particle) DM. The co-SIMP interaction strength is encoded by the parameter $C_{\rm int}$, incorporating the masses of DM and standard model (SM) particles, the interaction cross-section, and the amount of heat exchange between the two sectors. Increasing $C_{\rm int}$ deepens the absorption feature and shifts the trough to higher redshifts in the global signal. For $C_{\rm int}=1.0$, the minimum brightness temperature reaches $-50.6,\mathrm{mK}$ at $z\simeq86.2$. The 21-cm power spectrum increases with $C_{\rm int}$ in addition to the global signal. We assess the detectability of these signatures using signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and Fisher forecasts. The maximum SNR reaches $\sim 15.7$ for $C_{\rm int}=1.0$ for the global signal. Fisher forecasts for $1,000$ hours of integration time show that this model can be distinguished from a null-signal at $4.3σ$ and a mild 1.6$σ$ from $Λ$CDM, improving by an order of magnitude for 100,000 hours. For the 21-cm power spectrum, a $5,\mathrm{km}^2$ array with 1,000 hours yields a $4.63σ$ detection and mildly separated from the standard scenario at $1.78σ$. These findings highlight the potential of the 21-cm cosmology to probe the properties of DM and demonstrate that upcoming dark ages experiments, particularly space-based and lunar observations, can offer a promising avenue to test co-SIMP models.

Generalized Nash equilibria are used in multi-agent control applications to model strategic interactions between agents that are coupled in the cost, dynamics, and constraints, and provide the foundations for game-theoretic MPC (Receding Horizon Games). We study properties of finite-horizon dynamic GNE trajectories from a system-theoretic perspective. We show how strict dissipativity generates the turnpike phenomenon in GNE solutions. Moreover, we establish a converse turnpike result, i.e., the implication from turnpike to strict dissipativity. We derive conditions under which the steady-state GNE is the optimal operating point and, using a game value function, we give a local characterization of the geometry of storage functions. Finally, we design linear terminal penalties that ensure dynamic GNE trajectories applied in open-loop converge to and remain at the steady-state GNE. These connections provide the foundation for future system-theoretic analysis of GNEs similar to those existing in optimal control as well as for recursive feasibility and closed-loop stability results of game-theoretic MPC.

Nonlinear oscillations are commonly observed in complex systems far from equilibrium, such as living organisms. These oscillations are essential for sustaining vital processes, like neuronal firing, circadian rhythms, and heartbeats. In such systems, thermodynamic dissipation is necessary to maintain oscillations against noise. However, due to their nonlinear dynamics, it has been challenging to determine how the characteristics of oscillations, such as frequency, amplitude, and coherent patterns across elements, influence dissipation. To resolve this issue, we employ Koopman mode decomposition, which recasts nonlinear dynamics as a linear evolution in a function space. This linearization allows the dynamics to be decomposed into temporal oscillatory modes coherent across elements, with the Koopman eigenvalues determining their frequencies. Using this method, we decompose thermodynamic dissipation caused by nonconservative forces into contributions from oscillatory modes in overdamped nonlinear Langevin dynamics. We show that the dissipation from each mode is proportional to its frequency squared and its intensity, providing an interpretable, mode-by-mode picture. In the noisy FitzHugh--Nagumo model, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this framework in quantifying the impact of oscillatory modes on dissipation during nonlinear phenomena like coherent resonance and bifurcation. For instance, our analysis of coherent resonance reveals that the greatest dissipation at the optimal noise intensity is supported by a broad spectrum of frequencies, whereas at non-optimal noise levels, dissipation is dominated by specific frequency modes. Our work offers a general approach to connecting oscillations to dissipation in noisy environments and improves our understanding of diverse oscillation phenomena from a nonequilibrium thermodynamic perspective.

In this expository paper, various properties of matrix traces, determinants and adjugate matrices are proved, including the *trace Cayley-Hamilton theorem*, which says that \[ kc_k + \sum_{i=1}^k \operatorname{Tr} (A^i) c_{k-i} = 0 \qquad \text{for every } k\in\mathbb{N} \] whenever $A$ is an $n\times n$-matrix with characteristic polynomial $\det (tI_n - A) = \sum_{i=0}^n c_{n-i} t^i$ over a commutative ring $\mathbb{K}$. While the results are not new, some of the proofs are. The proofs illustrate some general techniques in linear algebra over commutative rings.

The most massive galaxies in the Universe also host the largest supermassive black holes (SMBHs), with masses of $10^9 \: \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ and above. During their hierarchical assembly, these galaxies have experienced only a few major mergers at low redshift, but have accreted many low-mass galaxies across cosmic time, possibly hosting intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs). If some of these IMBHs migrate to the galactic center, they may form compact subsystems around the central SMBH. We investigate the evolution of such subsystems, consisting of ten $10^5 \: \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ IMBHs at three different concentrations around a $10^9 \: \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ SMBH. We evolve these systems both in isolation and in the presence of a companion SMBH, using \texttt{MSTAR}, a regularized integration method including relativistic effects up to post-Newtonian order 3.5PN. Our analysis focuses on gravitational--wave--driven intermediate--mass--ratio inspirals (heavy IMRIs) and direct plunges. We show that perturbations from a secondary SMBH enhance the number of IMBH direct plunges by more than a factor of two, making them the dominant merger channel. These plunges and IMRIs with a central $10^9 \: \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ SMBH will contribute to SMBH growth but will likely evade detection with future gravitational-wave interferometers and pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). However, for galaxies with lower--mass SMBHs ($M_\bullet \lesssim 10^8 \:\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$), heavy IMRIs will be detectable with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and can provide direct observational constraints on the existence of IMBHs, while the more numerous plunges will still remain hidden.

We show that host cold dark matter (CDM) haloes cluster in a manner that depends upon the anisotropy and planarity of their subhaloes, indicating an environmental dependence to subhalo anisotropy and planarity. The spatial distributions of both satellite galaxies about central galaxies and subhaloes about host haloes have been subjects of interest for two decades. Important questions include the degree to which satellites are distributed anisotropically about their hosts or exhibit planarity as well as the degree to which this anisotropy depends on the environment of the system. We study the spatial distributions of subhaloes in a cosmological N-body simulation. We find that CDM subhaloes are distributed in a manner that is strongly anisotropic and planar, in agreement with prior work, though w e present this in a new way. The more novel result is that anisotropy has an environmental dependence. Systems with subhaloes that exhibit $\textit{less}$ ($\textit{more}$) anisotropy, $\textit{less}$ ($\textit{more}$) planarity, and reside $\textit{further}$ from ($\textit{closer}$ to) their host centres cluster more $\textit{strongly}$ ($\textit{weakly}$). Moreover, these clustering effects are not primarily the result of the correlation between subhalo anisotropy and/or planarity and another $\textit{single}$ halo property upon which clustering is already known to depend (e.g. concentration). This is a new and distinct effect. We discuss the impact of this result on the anisotropies of satellites as predict ed by CDM, its testability, and its possible relation to the anisotropies observed about the large galaxies of the Local Group. In an appendix, we clarify our construction of ellipsoidal mock halo catalogues.

Heterogeneous computing systems, which combine general-purpose processors with specialized accelerators, are increasingly important for optimizing the performance of modern applications. A central challenge is to decide which parts of an application should be executed on which accelerator or, more generally, how to map the tasks of an application to available devices. Predicting the impact of a change in a task mapping on the overall makespan is non-trivial. While there are very capable simulators, these generally require a full implementation of the tasks in question, which is particularly time-intensive for programmable logic. A promising alternative is to use a purely analytical function, which allows for very fast predictions, but abstracts significantly from reality. Bridging the gap between theory and practice poses a significant challenge to algorithm developers. This paper aims to aid in the development of rapid makespan prediction algorithms by providing a highly flexible evaluation framework for heterogeneous systems consisting of CPUs, GPUs and FPGAs, which is capable of collecting real-world makespan results based on abstract task graph descriptions. We analyze to what extent actual makespans can be predicted by existing analytical approaches. Furthermore, we present common challenges that arise from high-level characteristics such as data transfer overhead and device congestion in heterogeneous systems.

Dense QCD matter can feature a moat regime, where the static energy of mesons is minimal at nonzero momentum. Valuable insights into this regime can be gained using low-energy models. This, however, requires a careful assessment of model artifacts. We therefore study the effects of renormalization and in-medium modifications of quark-meson interaction on the moat regime. To capture the main effects, we use a two-flavor quark-meson model at finite temperature and baryon density in the random phase approximation. We put forward a convenient renormalization scheme to account for the nontrivial momentum dependence of meson self-energies and discuss the role of renormalization conditions for renormalization group consistent results on the moat regime. In addition, we demonstrate and that its extent in the phase diagram critically depends on the interaction of quarks and mesons.

We establish explicit, universal, and distribution-free bounds for the $n$-th cumulant, $κ_n(X)$, of a scalar random variable, controlled solely by an $n$-th order absolute moment functional $M_n(X)$. The bounds take the form $\lvertκ_n(X)\rvert \le C_n M_n(X)$. Our principal contribution is the derivation of coefficients satisfying $C_n \sim (n-1)!/ρ^{\,n}$, which offers an exponential improvement over classical bounds where the coefficients grow superexponentially (on the order of $n^n$). We present a hierarchy of refinements where the rate parameter $ρ$ increases as the functional $M_n(X)$ incorporates more structural information. The most general bound uses the raw moment $M_n(X)=\mathsf{E}[\lvert X\rvert^n]$ with rate $ρ=\ln 2 \approx 0.693$. Using the central moment $M_n(X)=\mathsf{E}[\lvert X-\mathsf{E}[X]\rvert^n]$ improves the rate to $ρ_{\mathrm{cen}} \approx 1.146$, while assuming symmetry yields even higher rates. The proof is elementary, combining the moment-cumulant partition formula with a uniform moment-product inequality. We further prove that while these bounds are not attainable whenever the relevant coefficient is positive, they are asymptotically efficient given the limited information of a single moment. The utility of the bounds is demonstrated through an application to standardized cumulants of independent sums.

Scientific progress has long been understood as recombinant, with breakthroughs arising when existing ideas are joined in new ways. Empirical work in this tradition has focused on the inputs to discovery, asking whether a paper draws together atypical or distant prior knowledge. Far less is known about how knowledge is supplied for downstream recombination, or how individual contributions are forged to play distinct and distant roles in the broader system of science. Using citation networks from tens of millions of publications in OpenAlex and the Web of Science, here we show that scientific contributions stably decompose into three functional types, foundations, extensions, and generalizations, distinguishable by the local structure of their forward citations. This decomposition of the 'functional role' of scientific work presents an unseen pattern of scientific production: foundational and extensional work, which respectively build and elaborate within disciplines, dominated the post-war decades but has declined steadily since the early 1990s, while generalizations, meaning compressed and modular contributions reused in distant fields, have risen sharply. Stacked difference-in-differences analyses that exploit venues' transitions to online access and authors' adoption of large language models provide causal evidence that digital knowledge infrastructure is driving this shift. The locus of innovation has thus migrated from within what Simon might characterize as nearly decomposable disciplinary modules to the interfaces between them, recasting the much-discussed decline of disruption as a structural reorganization of science rather than a slowdown, and revealing a growing misalignment between how science now advances and how it is recognized and rewarded.

We present a first analysis of the dynamics of in-situ globular clusters (GCs) in Milky Way (MW)-like galaxies embedded in fuzzy dark matter (FDM) halos, combining cosmological assembly histories from the TNG50 simulation with dedicated orbital integrations and analytical models. GC populations are initialized with identical distributions in normalized $E$-$L_{z}$ in matched CDM and FDM halos. In a universe dominated by FDM, we identify three distinct regimes for the in-situ GC population depending on the particle mass $m_{22} \equiv m_χ/ 10^{-22}~\mathrm{eV}$. For $m_{22} < 7$, baryons dominate the inner potential, which remains steep and centrally concentrated, confining GC orbits to a narrow region and producing less massive, more compact systems than in CDM. For $m_{22} \sim 7$, GC properties resemble those in CDM, with similar mass and spatial distributions. For $m_{22} > 7$, the dark matter becomes both compact and globally dominant, generating a deeper and more extended gravitational potential that supports a wider range of stable GC orbits, resulting in more massive and spatially extended GC systems. Finally, we extend our framework to make predictions for GC populations in alternative DM models, including warm dark matter and self-interacting dark matter, in both MW-like and dwarf galaxies. Our findings demonstrate that in-situ GC systems offer a sensitive and independent probe of the underlying DM physics, opening new avenues for observational constraints with upcoming Euclid.

Scalar-tensor gravity represents a natural extension of general relativity. This paper investigates a conformal scalar-tensor gravity, the environmentally dependent dilaton model, and identifies regions of its parameter space potentially constrained by future experiments using atomic clocks to measure gravitational redshift. We propose an experimental scheme in which atomic clocks are placed in environments of different mass densities, such as ultrahigh vacuum, water, or osmium, and their frequency shifts are compared to probe the scalar field contribution to gravitational redshift. By further modeling the mass distribution in low-density environments with a discrete representation, we go beyond the standard continuous approximation. Despite limitations inherent to specific experimental configurations, our analysis reveals that a significant portion of the parameter space remains accessible. Importantly, the accessible regions are complementary to those constrained by existing tests, as they are primarily sensitive to relatively weak couplings. Consequently, high-precision gravitational redshift experiments hold the potential to exclude significant regions of this parameter space in the future.