AI for Science

Elementary fuzzy Cellular Automata (CA) are known as continuous counterpart of elementary CA, which are 2-state CA, via the polynomial representation of local rules. In this paper, we first develop a new fuzzification methodology for $q$-state CA. It is based on the vector representation of $q$-state CA, that is, the $q$-states are assigned to the standard basis vectors of the $q$-dimensional real space and the local rule can be expressed by a tuple of $q$ polynomials. Then, the $q$-state vector-valued fuzzy CA are defined by expanding the set of the states to the convex hull of the standard basis vectors in the $q$-dimensional real space. The vector representation of states enables us to enumerate the number-conserving rules of 3-state vector-valued fuzzy CA in a systematic way.

We define the eñe product for the multiplicative group of polynomials and formal power series with coefficients on a commutative ring and unitary constant coefficient. This defines a commutative ring structure where multiplication is the additive structure and the eñe product is the multiplicative one. For polynomials with complex coefficients, the eñe product acts as a multiplicative convolution of their divisor. We study its algebraic properties, its relation to symmetric functions on an infinite number of variables, to tensor products, and Hecke operators. The exponential linearizes also the eñe product. The eñe product extends to rational functions and formal meromorphic functions. We also study the analytic properties over the complex numbers, and for entire functions. The eñe product respects Hadamard-Weierstrass factorization and is related to the Hadamard product. The eñe product plays a central role in predicting the phenomenon of the "statistics on Riemann zeros" for Riemann zeta function and general Dirichlet $L$-functions discovered by the author. It also gives reasons to believe in the Riemann Hypothesis as explained in the survey "Notes on the Riemann Hypothesis".

In this paper, we give an axiomatic characterization of the cap product in the Hochschild theory of associative unital algebras which are projective over a commutative unital ring. We also give an interpretation of the cap product with coefficients in the algebra via chain maps. We illustrate these results by computing the cap product for truncated polynomial algebras $k[x]/(x^N)$ and for polynomial algebras, where it is identified with the contraction of differential forms by polyvector fields.

Epicormic branches arise from dormant buds patterned during the growth of previous years. Dormant epicormic buds remain on the surface of trees, pushed outward from the pith during secondary growth, but maintaining vascular connections. Epicormic buds can be reactivated, either through natural processes or intentionally, to rejuvenate orchards and control tree architecture. Because epicormic structures are embedded within secondary growth, tomographic approaches are a useful method to study them and understand their development. We apply techniques from image processing to determine the locations of epicormic vascular traces embedded within secondary growth of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.), revealing the juvenile phyllotactic pattern in the trunk of an adult tree. Techniques include breadth-first search to find the pith of the tree, edge detection to approximate the radius, and a conversion to polar coordinates to threshold and segment phyllotactic features. Intensity values from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the trunk are projected onto the surface of a perfect cylinder to find the locations of traces in the "boundary image". Mathematical phyllotaxy provides a means to capture the patterns in the boundary image by modeling phyllotactic parameters. Our cherry tree specimen has the conspicuous parastichy pair $(2,3)$, phyllotactic fraction 2/5, and divergence angle of approximately 143 degrees. The methods described not only provide a framework to study phyllotaxy, but for image processing of volumetric image data in plants. Our results have practical implications for orchard rejuvenation and directed approaches to influence tree architecture. The study of epicormic structures, which are hidden within secondary growth, using tomographic methods also opens the possibility of studying the genetic and environmental basis of such structures.

There are many metrics available to compare phylogenetic trees since this is a fundamental task in computational biology. In this paper, we focus on one such metric, the $\ell^\infty$-cophenetic metric introduced by Cardona et al. This metric works by representing a phylogenetic tree with $n$ labeled leaves as a point in $\mathbb{R}^{n(n+1)/2}$ known as the cophenetic vector, then comparing the two resulting Euclidean points using the $\ell^\infty$ distance. Meanwhile, the interleaving distance is a formal categorical construction generalized from the definition of Chazal et al., originally introduced to compare persistence modules arising from the field of topological data analysis. We show that the $\ell^\infty$-cophenetic metric is an example of an interleaving distance. To do this, we define phylogenetic trees as a category of merge trees with some additional structure; namely labelings on the leaves plus a requirement that morphisms respect these labels. Then we can use the definition of a flow on this category to give an interleaving distance. Finally, we show that, because of the additional structure given by the categories defined, the map sending a labeled merge tree to the cophenetic vector is, in fact, an isometric embedding, thus proving that the $\ell^\infty$-cophenetic metric is, in fact, an interleaving distance.

We introduce the first unified theory for target tracking using Multiple Hypothesis Tracking, Topological Data Analysis, and machine learning. Our string of innovations are 1) robust topological features are used to encode behavioral information, 2) statistical models are fitted to distributions over these topological features, and 3) the target type classification methods of Wigren and Bar Shalom et al. are employed to exploit the resulting likelihoods for topological features inside of the tracking procedure. To demonstrate the efficacy of our approach, we test our procedure on synthetic vehicular data generated by the Simulation of Urban Mobility package.

We estimate that data centers caused average retail electricity rates to fall modestly in the United States from 2015 to 2024 using an instrumental variables approach. Despite prevailing sentiment, the finding is consistent with economic reasoning: existing large power system fixed costs, economies of scale in transmission and distribution, and declining unit costs for generation imply that durable demand growth lowers average prices. We find patterns of economies of scale for transmission, distribution, and generation costs as well as within and across retail customer classes. We caution that future supply constraints could reverse the effect.

Diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers play a central role in modern photonics owing to their exceptional efficiency and ability to extend spectral coverage beyond the reach of semiconductor diodes. These attributes have enabled breakthroughs in precision metrology, quantum optics, and coherent communications. However, bringing the proven advantages of DPSS gain media such as Nd:YAG onto an integrated photonic platform has remained difficult, largely due to inefficient pump utilization and limited power-scaling in chip-scale implementations. Here, we demonstrate the first photonic-integrated Nd:YAG laser-amplifier system that overcomes these challenges with a micro-chip based master-oscillator-power-amplifier (μ-MOPA) architecture. The seed laser, employing a double-resonant microring resonator, could reach a threshold as low as 2.9 μW. The single-pass waveguide amplifier, when optimized separately, provides up to 46.6 dB small-signal gain. Combining the low-threshold seed with cascaded waveguide amplifiers, the integrated μ-MOPA delivers more than 12 dBm of amplified continuous-wave output power. These results establish Nd:YAG waveguide integration as a practical route to compact and high-performance solid-state light sources.

The expansion of the FIFA World Cup to 48 teams in 2026 introduces structural challenges in tournament design. To populate a 32-team knockout bracket from 12 groups of four, the current FIFA rules select the eight best third-placed teams using a global ranking across all groups. This global coupling creates several major problems: a combinatorial explosion of 495 possible bracket configurations; a fundamentally biased and unequal selection of third-placed qualifiers; lack of a clear path for group winners; vulnerability to collusion and ranking manipulation; and no guarantee of same-group separation beyond the first knockout round. We propose a simple unified solution called the four-section bracket (FSB) rule: split the 12 groups into four sections of three groups. All group winners, runners-up, and the two best third-placed teams in each section advance. Group winners remain in their home sections as local anchors, while lower-ranked qualifiers are transferred to other sections according to a fixed, symmetric rule. This structure guarantees same-group separation until the semifinal, protects the top eight group winners with a predictable knockout path, and reduces bracket complexity from 495 configurations to just one invariant topology per section, recovering the symmetry of the traditional 32-team format. We show substantial improvements in competitive fairness and scheduling predictability.

Coherent vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) lasers are indispensable for precision measurement, quantum optics, and materials science. Recent high-resolution spectroscopy of the Th-229 nuclear clock transition near 148 nm highlights the urgent demand for intense, narrow-linewidth VUV lasers for advancing metrology and testing fundamental physics. However, existing VUV generation schemes typically require enhancement cavities [C. Zhang et al., Opt. Lett. 47, 5591-5594 (2022)], atomic resonances [Q. Xiao et al., Nature 650, 852-856 (2026)], or random quasi-phase-matched nonlinear crystals [V. Lal et al., Optica 12, 1971-1974 (2025)]. Here, we demonstrate a VUV frequency comb via cascaded frequency doubling of a 2400 nm Cr:ZnS comb to its 16th harmonic in nonlinear crystals. The final stage employs a bulk-grown, spatially uniform quasi-phase matched (QPM) crystal developed by IPG, combining VUV transparency, high $χ^2$ nonlinearity, and power scalability. Using this QPM crystal we generate a VUV frequency comb with 40 $μ$W average power (1 nW per mode at 80 MHz mode spacing) with a conversion efficiency order of magnitude higher than other known methods. These results establish a scalable route to compact VUV sources via direct frequency doubling, opening a path toward a robust continuous-wave nuclear clock laser.

Modern microscopy systems integrate heterogeneous hardware devices that require dedicated software for coordination. However, high-performance C++ implementations of microscopy control software remain scarce. We present ScopeOne, a C++ and Qt-based microscopy control software built on the MicroManager hardware abstraction layer. Through process isolation and shared memory, ScopeOne achieves simultaneous multi-camera preview with real-time image processing, while maintaining full compatibility with the μManager device ecosystem.

The J-PARC E16 experiment aims to search for signatures of chiral symmetry restoration. It studies in-medium modifications of vector mesons that decay via the dielectron channel. The measurements use a high-intensity 30 GeV proton beam with C and Cu targets at rates up to 10 MHz. To achieve this, the experiment upgrades its tracking, by introducing innermost detector modules constructed with the same technology and procedures as the modules of the Silicon Tracking System (STS) of the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR). A total of 15 modules were assembled, tested, characterized and then installed in the E16 detector setup. The detector was commissioned in a beam test experiment at Tsukuba, where the detector modules could be exposed to a 3 GeV electron beam. In preparation for the beam test the modules were characterized and calibrated, and performance studies were accomplished to assess the quality of the setup. During beamtime, three modules were operated and illuminated in two planes by the electron beam. This paper presents the results of the construction, characterization, commissioning, and operation of the E16-STS modules in beam test experiments.

We show that the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) can enhance pairing correlations in moiré Hubbard systems through a channel-selective mechanism: skin-induced localization amplifies the boundary density of states, strengthening local pairing tendencies within an intermediate ``golden window'' of non-reciprocity $γ\in[0.5,1.2]\,t$. Using exact diagonalization of the non-Hermitian Hubbard model on triangular lattices with open boundaries, we map the $(U,γ)$ phase diagram. The double occupancy $D(γ)$ exhibits non-monotonic behavior -- rising by up to 21\% then declining -- reflecting a competition between NHSE-enhanced boundary pairing and over-localization. A decomposition of the pairing susceptibility $χ_{\mathrm{SC}}$ on the $3\times3$ cluster reveals that the NHSE acts \emph{channel-selectively}: it enhances on-site pairing ($+21\%$) while simultaneously suppressing competing antiferromagnetic correlations (22\% reduction), so that the total pairing susceptibility, dominated by the on-site channel, grows by $+98\%$ on that cluster. These trends are corroborated by an independent non-Hermitian DMRG calculation and establish an enhancement of finite-cluster pairing correlations rather than trivial density redistribution. We do not claim long-range superconducting order. A BCS scaling estimate converts the same pairing-response signal into a dome-shaped $T_c(γ)$ fingerprint, suggesting an experimentally distinguishable response in coherent-drive versus reservoir-dominated moiré devices.

We revisit the charge-1/3 anyon fluid obtained by doping the $ν= 2/3$ Jain fractional Chern insulator (FCI). In the standard composite fermion description, the doped anyons fractionalize into three translation-related flavors of secondary composite fermions, whose gauge-mediated interactions drive a robust inter-flavor pairing instability. In our previous work, we analyzed a flavor-asymmetric paired state and obtained a charge-ordered Fermi liquid. Inspired by a recent paper, we consider an alternative flavor-symmetric paired state and show that it is an SC* state: a charge-$2e$ condensate that coexists with residual $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological order. The weak and strong pairing regimes share the same intrinsic topological order but differ in chiral central charge, giving $c_- = 7/2$ and $c_- = 2$. We further show how other proposed effective field theories fit within the same composite fermion description, and argue that across the doping driven FCI-to-superconductor transition, localized anyons evolve into Bogoliubov quasiparticles rather than vortices. At low doping, we identify an approximate SU(3)-symmetric regime in which the system instead realizes a non-Fermi liquid $\mathbb{Z}_3$ Orthogonal Metal with three charge-1/3 fermion pockets and no sharp electron quasiparticle. Finally, we comment on the energetics of various possible ground states and discuss implications for experiments in moire materials.

Rhombohedral multilayer graphene aligned with hexagonal boron nitride (RMG-hBN) hosts correlated Chern phases, but the microscopic role of hBN stacking remains unclear, especially when the active carriers are displaced away from the moiré interface. Using Hartree-Fock calculations over layer numbers, twist angles, displacement fields, fillings, and hBN alignments, we show that correlated insulators are most robust at small twist angles and intermediate layer number ($N\simeq 6$), where bandwidth suppression is balanced by layer delocalization of the wavefunctions of the active carriers. Under moiré-distant conditions at filling $ν=1$, the topology of the insulating state is strongly biased by charge imprinting: the hBN alignment shapes the occupied valence-band charge texture near the interface via moiré potential, which acts through long-range Coulomb interactions as a remote electrostatic template for doped conduction electrons. Depending on the alignment, this template favors either triangular charge localization associated with trivial insulators or honeycomb-like charge networks compatible with Chern insulators. Our results identify valence-band charge textures as a microscopic route by which a remote moiré interface controls correlated topology in multilayer graphene.

Magnetic quantum oscillations are usually periodic in inverse magnetic field, and their amplitude can show beating when two nearby frequencies interfere. In graphene-based hexagonal systems, such beating can arise from strain-induced pseudomagnetic fields, unequal valley populations, valley-dependent energy shifts, spin-orbit coupling-induced band splitting, or Kekulé distortions. Here, we show that the carrier density and magnetic field dependence of the beating nodes can distinguish these mechanisms. Starting from Onsager's quantization relation, we derive scaling relations for the critical carrier density $N_c$ for the beating nodes as a function of critical magnetic field $B_c$. A pseudomagnetic field gives $N_c\propto B_c^2$, whereas a density-independent valley imbalance gives $N_c\propto B_c$. A constant Dirac-band energy splitting by Zeeman-like spin-orbit coupling also gives quadratic field scaling, but with a different node sequence: $N_{c,j}\propto(2j+1)B_{c,j}^2$ for a pseudomagnetic field and $N_{c,j}\propto(2j+1)^2B_{c,j}^2$ for energy splitting, where $j$ labels the beating node indices. These results provide quantitative constraints on different microscopic origins of valley- and spin-dependent band splittings in graphene-based systems.

The Kitaev honeycomb model has attracted significant interest due to its quantum spin liquid ground state, fractionalized Majorana excitations, and topological properties. Motivated by these features, we introduce a quasi-one-dimensional Kitaev-like spin chain derived from a truncated honeycomb geometry. The resulting Majorana band structure contains both dispersive and flat bands, with a gap closing at a critical anisotropy that separates trivial and chiral topological phases. Under open boundary conditions, the topological regime hosts zero-energy edge modes protected by chiral symmetry, placing the system in the BDI symmetry class with a quantized winding number. In the excited spectrum, localized plaquette modes emerge near zero energy and can be tuned by introducing domains of negative plaquettes. The dynamical spin correlation function reveals broad continua associated with fractionalized excitations, together with characteristic low-energy spectral weight from edge Majorana modes. These features distinguish the present system from conventional Heisenberg spin chains and provide experimentally relevant fingerprints of chiral topological order. Our model thus establishes a conceptual bridge between the two-dimensional Kitaev spin liquid and Kitaev's one-dimensional quantum wire.

Altermagnets are collinear magnetically ordered states that exhibit momentum-dependent spin splitting in the absence of net magnetization and spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Related spin-splitting patterns, however, can also emerge in noncollinear magnetic systems with large SOC. Here we show, via a microscopic model, that the all-in-all-out (AIAO) state in pyrochlore iridates constitutes a noncollinear counterpart of a $d$-wave altermagnet stabilized by strong SOC. Starting from a microscopic $j_{\mathrm{eff}} = 1/2$ tight-binding model on the pyrochlore lattice, we demonstrate that electronic interactions favor the AIAO phase and analyze its symmetry properties. We show that the AIAO order parameter transforms as an $A_{2g}^{-}$ octupolar magnetic moment, breaking time-reversal symmetry while preserving inversion and zero net magnetization. Using group-theory analysis and mean-field calculations, we demonstrate that this symmetry enforces both a spin-polarized momentum-dependent lifting of band degeneracies that is similar to that of a collinear $d$-wave cubic altermagnet, but also a band splitting at zero-momentum. We show that the latter feature is captured by a low-energy model similar to the Luttinger-Kohn model for cubic semiconductors. Our results identify pyrochlore iridates as a platform for noncollinear counterparts of altermagnetism and provide a general symmetry framework for spin-split phenomena in spin-orbit coupled materials.

Spin triplet superconductors are considered a promising platform for dissipationless spin transport, where spin currents are carried by spin triplet Cooper pairs. In this paper, we propose that the spin triplet superconductivity and spin supercurrent can be engineered in an altermagnetic superconducting nanowire, where a one-dimensional nanowire is placed on the surface of an s-wave superconductor and in proximity to the altermagnet. Using the nonequilibrium Green's function method, we demonstrate a nonzero equal spin Andreev reflection coefficient at the normal metal-altermagnetic superconducting nanowire interface, thereby verifying the injection of spin triplet Cooper pairs. Furthermore, we systematically investigate the spin transport properties in this hybrid system under a spin bias. Our results demonstrate that these properties can be effectively tuned by the chemical potential and spin bias orientation. Our proposal provides a pathway toward realizing dissipationless spin transport.

We investigate shells of active oriented solid, materials in which orientationally ordered active particles are embedded in a deformable elastic surface. Focusing on cylindrical geometries, we show that active stresses drive a new class of buckling instabilities and nonlinear patterns absent in passive shells. Linear stability analysis reveals that the unstable buckling mode is selected by the nematic orientation and activity sign, leading to axial, circumferential, and helical deformations. Remarkably, circumferential modes become unstable at arbitrarily small activity due to the absence of stretching costs. The results of the linear stability analysis are corroborated by full nonlinear simulations, which further uncover steady diamond shaped patterns and persistent dynamical states including oscillations, traveling domain walls, and propagating waves. Our results establish fundamental buckling modes and emergent patterns in shells of active oriented solid materials, with potential relevance to active biological tissues and engineered responsive materials.

We investigate the influence of nonlocal interactions on superconducting correlations within the extended Hubbard model. In addition to the on-site Coulomb interaction and nearest-neighbor hopping, we include next-nearest-neighbor hopping together with several physically relevant nonlocal terms, namely nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction, correlated hopping, exchange interaction, and pair hopping. Using Lanczos exact diagonalization on a $4\times4$ cluster, supported by projector quantum Monte Carlo simulations for selected parameter regimes, we analyze pairing correlations in both the s- and d-wave channels. We demonstrate that nonlocal interactions exert a highly nontrivial and symmetry-dependent influence on superconducting correlations. While the on-site repulsion in cooperation with next-nearest-neighbor hopping enhances d-wave pairing tendencies, correlated hopping and nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction strongly promote s-wave correlations, whereas exchange and pair-hopping interactions can efficiently suppress superconductivity beyond relatively small critical strengths. When all nonlocal interactions are considered simultaneously, the resulting phase diagrams reveal a complex interplay and competition between different pairing symmetries. Our results highlight the crucial role of extended interactions in shaping the pairing landscape of strongly correlated systems and demonstrate that a comprehensive treatment beyond the minimal Hubbard model is essential for a realistic description of unconventional superconductivity.

We propose a scheme to realize topological superconductor and Majorana bound states (MBSs) in a one-dimensional metal nanowire on the surface of a helical altermagnet and in proximity to an s-wave superconductor, removing the requirement of conventional spin-orbit coupling and net magnetism. Through gauge transformation, we demonstrate that the helical frame naturally induces spin-momentum locking while the altermagnetism breaks time-reversal symmetry. The topological superconducting phase is well tuned by chemical potential, altermagnet strength, and helical frequency. Besides, our transport calculation results reveal quantized conductance signatures: a 2e2/h zero-bias peak at nanowire ends and a 4e2/h tunneling conductance at the domain wall of nanowires with opposite chirality, detected via metal lead and scanning tunneling microscopy, respectively. Our research offers new perspectives on finding MBSs.

Quantum spin glasses are often considered testbeds for studying quantum optimization algorithms and as such have been the subject of various quantum advantage claims. Here we investigate the near adiabatic dynamics of biclique quantum spin glasses within the (discrete) truncated Wigner approximation (TWA). Benchmarks on small systems show that TWA recovers sample-to-sample fluctuations of the Edwards-Anderson order parameter, over a wide range of annealing times, with increasing fidelity when the system size increases. We extract critical exponents from the Binder cumulant in line with theoretical expectations, reproducing recent quantum experiments. The computational cost of the method is minimal and it can easily be applied to tens of thousands of qubits.

The interplay of topological surface states and magnetism gives rise to unconventional transport behaviors such as the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) and anomalous Nernst effect (ANE). Antiperovskites such as Mn$3$SnC, which are nodal-line semimetals and exhibit concurrent antiferromagnetic (AFM) and ferromagnetic (FM) ordering, provide a fertile ground for anomalous transport phenomena. Here, we report that the anomalous transport (AHE and ANE) in this compound is predominantly governed by the intrinsic Berry-curvature effect. We establish a unified relationship between the AHE and ANE using Mott's relation. Electron scattering by both AFM and FM magnons is manifested in the anomalous Nernst signal. The ratio of the anomalous Nernst conductivity to the anomalous Hall conductivity, $|α^A{xy}|/σ^A_{xy}$, constitutes a sizable fraction of $k_B/e$, indicating a strong Berry-curvature contribution to the ANE.

Statistical literature provides pointwise limiting distributions of the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator (NPMLE) in monotone binary regression for the two extremal cases: If the feature-label relation is strictly monotone and sufficiently smooth, it converges at a cube-root-$n$ rate with scaled Chernoff-type limiting distribution, and it converges at the parametric $\sqrt{n}$-rate if the underlying relation is flat. In this article, we provide the complete picture of the distributional metamorphosis of the NPMLE, revealing a new limiting distribution which provides a significantly better distributional approximation for small samples in case of a weak feature-label relationship. It is shown to continuously interpolate between the two extremal cases. The innovative way to determine this distribution is to generate it as a limit of the NPMLE in the newly introduced weak-feature-impact triangular array for a particular parameter-sample-size constellation. Moreover, the phase transition is likewise observed for the suitably rescaled $L^{1}$-error in this weak-feature-impact scenario. As a by-product, its limiting distribution for flat regression functions is obtained, which was unknown before. The proof develops a completely new strategy, notably not based on the switch relation. A novel type of local minimax lower bounds accompanies these results.

The stochastic cross-dock door design problem entails determining the number of doors and their nominal capacities under uncertainty. The inbound flow of commodities from origin nodes is assigned to the entry doors consolidated in the platform, and the outbound flow is assigned to the exit doors to be delivered to the destination nodes. This problem combines three high computational difficulties, namely, NP-hard quadratic combinatorics, uncertainty in the main parameters, and ambiguity in their probability distribution. Distributionally robust optimization is considered to deal with these uncertainties. A two-stage mixed binary quadratic model is presented, where the first stage decisions are related to the design of the platform and the second stage ones are related to the assignment of the commodity flow to the doors in the members of the ambiguity set. The goal is to minimize the highest total cost in the ambiguity set, subject to the constraint system for each of those members. In addition to the risk-neutral version, a risk-averse formulation is presented. Given the difficulty of this problem, a min-max matheuristic scheme based on a scenario cluster decomposition is proposed for obtaining lower and upper bounds. A computational study is conducted to compare the solutions provided by the straightforward use of the state-of-the-art solvers CPLEX and Gurobi, as well as to validate the proposed matheuristic scheme.

Given a subset $A$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$, we define \begin{align*} \mathrm{conv}_k(A) := \left\{ λ_1 s_1 + \cdots + λ_k s_k : λ_i \in [0,1], \sum_{i=1}^k λ_i = 1 , s_i \in A \right\} \end{align*} to be the set of vectors in $\mathbb{R}^n$ that can be written as a $k$-fold convex combination of vectors in $A$. Let $γ_n$ denote the standard Gaussian measure on $\mathbb{R}^n$. We show that for every $\varepsilon > 0$, there exists a subset $A$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$ with Gaussian measure $γ_n(A) \geq 1- \varepsilon$ such that for all $k = O_\varepsilon(\sqrt{\log \log(n)})$, $\mathrm{conv}_k(A)$ contains no convex set $K$ of Gaussian measure $γ_n(K) \geq \varepsilon$. This result acts as a complement to the recent affirmative resolution of Talagrand's convexity conjecture by Hua, Song, and Tudose, which states that a universal dilation of the threefold Minkowski sum $A+A+A$ of a large set $A$ guarantees a large convex subset. Our approach utilises concentration properties of random copulas and the application of optimal transport techniques to the empirical coordinate measures of vectors in high dimensions.

Accurate demand estimation is critical for the retail business in guiding the inventory and pricing policies of perishable products. However, it faces fundamental challenges from censored sales data during stockouts, where unobserved demand creates systemic policy biases. Existing datasets lack the temporal resolution and annotations needed to address this censoring effect. To fill this gap, we present FreshRetailNet-50K, the first large-scale benchmark for censored demand estimation. It comprises 50,000 store-product time series of detailed hourly sales data from 898 stores in 18 major cities, encompassing 863 perishable SKUs meticulously annotated for stockout events. The hourly stock status records unique to this dataset, combined with rich contextual covariates, including promotional discounts, precipitation, and temporal features, enable innovative research beyond existing solutions. We demonstrate one such use case of two-stage demand modeling: first, we reconstruct the latent demand during stockouts using precise hourly annotations. We then leverage the recovered demand to train robust demand forecasting models in the second stage. Experimental results show that this approach achieves a 2.73% improvement in prediction accuracy while reducing the systematic demand underestimation from 7.37% to near-zero bias. With unprecedented temporal granularity and comprehensive real-world information, FreshRetailNet-50K opens new research directions in demand imputation, perishable inventory optimization, and causal retail analytics. The unique annotation quality and scale of the dataset address long-standing limitations in retail AI, providing immediate solutions and a platform for future methodological innovation. The data (https://huggingface.co/datasets/Dingdong-Inc/FreshRetailNet-50K) and code (https://github.com/Dingdong-Inc/frn-50k-baseline}) are openly released.

We prove that for two-component maps in dimension two, rank-one convexity is equivalent to quasiconvexity. The essential tool for the proof is a fixed-point argument for a suitable set-valued map going from one component to the other that preserves decomposition directions within the $(H_n)$-condition formalism. The existence of a fixed point ensures that, in addition to keeping decomposition directions, joint volume fractions are respected as well, leading to the fundamental fact that every two-dimensional, two-component gradient can be reached by lamination. When maps have more than two components, fixed points exist for every combination of two components, but they do not match in general. Higher dimension would require further insight on how to organize and deal with triangulations for piece-wise affine maps.

Ehler and Gröchenig defined spherical $t$-design curves to be curves whose associated line integrals exactly average all degree at most $t$ polynomials. These authors posed the question of finding spherical $t$-design curves $γ_t$ on $S^d$ of asymptotically optimal arc length $\ell(γ_t)\asymp t^{d-1}$ as $t\to\infty$. This work investigates analogues of this question for $\textit{$\varepsilon_t$-approximate}$ and $\textit{weighted $t$-design curves}$, proving existence of such curves on $S^d$ achieving this asymptotic arc length for odd $d\in\Bbb N_+$ in the approximate setting (where $\varepsilon_t\asymp1/t$ as $t\to\infty$) and all $d\in\Bbb N_+$ in the weighted setting (where these curves have weight functions which are strictly positive at all but finitely many points). Formulas for such weighted $t$-design curves for $d\in\{2,3\}$ are presented.