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At least 55 records · Page 3

Mitigating contamination in LSS surveys: a comparison of methods

ABSTRACT Future large-scale structure surveys will measure the locations and shapes of billions of galaxies. The precision of such catalogues will require meticulous treatment of systematic contamination of the observed fields. We compare several existing methods for removing such systematics from galaxy clustering measurements. We show how all the methods, including the popular pseudo-Cℓ Mode Projection and Template Subtraction methods, can be interpreted under a common regression framework and use this to suggest improved estimators. We show how methods designed to mitigate systematics in the power spectrum can be used to produce clean maps, which are necessary for cosmological analyses beyond the power spectrum, and we extend current methods to treat the next-order multiplicative contamination in observed maps and power spectra, which reduced power spectrum errors from $\Delta \chi ^2_{\rm C_\ell }\simeq 10$ to ≃ 1 in simulated analyses. Two new mitigation methods are proposed, which incorporate desirable features of current state-of-the-art methods while being simpler to implement. Investigating the performance of all the methods on a common set of simulated measurements from Year 5 of the Dark Energy Survey, we test their robustness to various analysis cases. Our proposed methods produce improved maps and power spectra when compared to current methods, while requiring almost no user tuning. We end with recommendations for systematics mitigation in future surveys, and note that the methods presented are generally applicable beyond the galaxy distribution to any field with spatial systematics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

A Particle Method for the Multispecies Landau Equation

Abstract The multispecies Landau collision operator describes the two-particle, small scattering angle or grazing collisions in a plasma made up of different species of particles such as electrons and ions. Recently, a structure preserving deterministic particle method (Carrillo et al. in J. Comput. Phys. 7:100066, 2020) has been developed for the single species spatially homogeneous Landau equation. This method relies on a regularization of the Landau collision operator so that an approximate solution, which is a linear combination of Dirac delta distributions, is well-defined. Based on a weak form of the regularized Landau equation, the time dependent locations of the Dirac delta functions satisfy a system of ordinary differential equations. In this work, we extend this particle method to the multispecies case, and examine its conservation of mass, momentum, and energy, and decay of entropy properties. We show that the equilibrium distribution of the regularized multispecies Landau equation is a Maxwellian distribution, and state a critical condition on the regularization parameters that guarantees a species independent equilibrium temperature. A convergence study comparing an exact multispecies Bobylev-Krook-Wu (BKW) solution to the particle solution shows approximately 2nd order accuracy. Important physical properties such as conservation, decay of entropy, and equilibrium distribution of the particle method are demonstrated with several numerical examples.

Mathematics↗

Parametric dependencies of resonant layer responses across linear, two-fluid, drift-MHD regimes

Non-axisymmetric magnetic fields arising in a tokamak either by external or internal perturbations can induce complex non-ideal MHD responses in their resonant surfaces while remaining ideally evolved elsewhere. This layer response can be characterized in a linear regime by a single parameter called the inner-layer Delta, which enables outer-layer matching and the prediction of torque balance to non-linear island regimes. Here, we follow strictly one of the most comprehensive analytic treatments including two-fluid and drift MHD effects and keep the fidelity of the formulation by incorporating the numerical method based on the Riccati transformation when quantifying the inner-layer Delta. The proposed scheme reproduces not only the predicted responses in essentially all asymptotic regimes but also with continuous transitions as well as improved accuracies. In particular, the Delta variations across the inertial regimes with viscous or semi-collisional effects have been further resolved, in comparison with additional analytic solutions. The results imply greater shielding of the electromagnetic torque at the layer than what would be expected by earlier work when the viscous or semi-collisional effects can compete against the inertial effects, and also due to the intermediate regulation by kinetic Alfven wave resonances as rotation slows down. These are important features that can alter the nonaxisymmetric plasma responses including the field penetration by external fields or island seeding process in rotating tokamak plasmas.

MHD instability↗

Rodeo Algorithm for Quantum Computing

We present a stochastic quantum computing algorithm that can prepare any eigenvector of a quantum Hamiltonian within a selected energy interval $\ [E-\epsilon, E+\epsilon]$. In order to reduce the spectral weight of all other eigenvectors by a suppression factor δ, the required computational effort scales as $\ O[|\log \delta|/(p \epsilon)]$, where p s the squared overlap of the initial state with the target eigenvector. The method, which we call the rodeo algorithm, uses auxiliary qubits to control the time evolution of the Hamiltonian minus some tunable parameter E . In this manner, we converge to the target eigenvector with exponential accuracy in the number of measurements. In addition to preparing eigenvectors, the method can also compute the full spectrum of the Hamiltonian. We illustrate the performance with several examples. For energy eigenvalue determination with error $\epsilon$, the computational scaling is $\ O[(\log \epsilon)^2/(p \epsilon)]$. For eigenstate preparation, the computational scaling is $\ O(\log \Delta/p)$, where $\Delta$ is the magnitude of the orthogonal component of the residual vector. The speed for eigenstate preparation is exponentially faster than that for phase estimation or adiabatic evolution.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

#COVIDisAirborne: AI-enabled multiscale computational microscopy of delta SARS-CoV-2 in a respiratory aerosol

We seek to completely revise current models of airborne transmission of respiratory viruses by providing never-before-seen atomic-level views of the SARS-CoV-2 virus within a respiratory aerosol. Our work dramatically extends the capabilities of multiscale computational microscopy to address the significant gaps that exist in current experimental methods, which are limited in their ability to interrogate aerosols at the atomic/molecular level and thus obscure our understanding of airborne transmission. We demonstrate how our integrated data-driven platform provides a new way of exploring the composition, structure, and dynamics of aerosols and aerosolized viruses, while driving simulation method development along several important axes. We present a series of initial scientific discoveries for the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, noting that the full scientific impact of this work has yet to be realized.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Turbulence-Resolving Simulations of Hurricane Laura (2020): Insights Into Extreme Winds and Eyewall Turbulence

Extreme weather events pose significant risks to coastal and offshore energy infrastructure. In this work, we investigate the structure of mean winds and turbulence near the surface ( z < 300 m) that occurred during Hurricane Laura in 2020 on the US Gulf Coast. To this end, we perform turbulence-resolving simulations (..delta..x = 33.33 m) that encompass the entire eyewall of Hurricane Laura by introducing a novel method that we will refer to as Moving-Mesoscale to Static-LES Integrated Coupling (MOSAIC). The simulation results are validated against surface, boundary-layer, and mid-tropospheric observations. Our analysis of the extreme wind conditions near the surface indicates that the mean wind and turbulence profiles vary greatly at and near the eyewall, resulting in extreme values of mean wind speed (U > 50 m * s-1) and turbulence kinetic energy (k ~ 50 m2 * s-2) at altitudes above 50 m . To investigate in detail the nature of turbulence within the eyewall of the storm, we conduct higher-resolution simulations (..delta..x = 11.11 m) of a portion of the hurricane. We provide a comprehensive statistical description of turbulence in the eyewall region, highlighting the need to employ ..delta..x ~ 10 m grid spacing to capture the integral length-scales near the surface, second- and higher-order central moments (i.e., skewness and kurtosis), and spectral coherence in the flow accurately. These numerical simulations provide the most detailed description of mean winds and turbulent conditions within the eyewall of a historical tropical cyclone to date, illustrating how high-resolution simulations can enhance limited turbulence measurements in hurricanes and giving insight into the extreme conditions threatening offshore and coastal infrastructure.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Width-Based Discharge Partitioning in Distributary Networks: How Right We Are

River deltas are home to large populations and can be composed of complex channel networks which convey flows of matter to the shoreline. Knowledge of flow within individual channels is needed to quantify the distribution of discharge across the delta, and thus its sustainability over time. Due to a lack of field measurements at the local channel scale, researchers leverage remote sensing data to estimate the partitioning of flow. We compare data from 15 river deltas to discharge partitioning estimates based on channel network graphs derived from remote sensing imagery. We quantify errors in the common width-based method and test alternative partitioning techniques to find that width-based discharge partitioning is universally applicable, suggesting that absent any site-specific information, discharge partitioning by average channel width is an appropriate approach. We also provide networks, streamflow measurements, and flux partitioning estimates for 28 delta networks as the Discharge In Distributary NeTworks (DIDNT) dataset.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

TDD LoRa and Delta Encoding in Low-Power Networks of Environmental Sensor Arrays for Temperature and Deformation Monitoring

Abstract Densely distributed sensor networks can revolutionize environmental observations by providing real-time data with an unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. However, field deployments often pose unique challenges in terms of power provisions and wireless connectivity. We present a framework for wirelessly connected distributed sensor arrays for near-surface temperature and/or deformation monitoring. Our research focuses on a novel time division duplex implementation of the LoRa protocol, enabling battery powered base stations and avoiding collisions within the network. In order to minimize transmissions and improve battery life throughout the network, we propose a dedicated delta encoding algorithm that utilizes the spatial and temporal similarity in the acquired data sets. We implemented the developed technologies in a AA battery powered hardware platform that can be used as a wireless data logger or base station, and we conducted an assessment of the power consumption. Without data compression, the projected battery life for a data logger is 4.74 years, and a wireless base stations can last several weeks or months depending on the amount of network traffic. The delta encoding algorithm can further improve this battery life with a factor of up to 3.50. Our results demonstrate the viability of the proposed methods for low-power environmental wireless sensor networks.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Band-mixing effects in one-dimensional charge transfer insulators

The low-energy properties of transition metal oxides (TMOs) are governed by the electrons occupying strongly correlated $d$-orbitals that are hybridized with surrounding ligand oxygen $p$ orbitals to varying degrees. Their physics is thus established by a complex interplay between the transition-metal (TM)-ligand hopping $t$, charge transfer energy $\Delta_\mathrm{CT}$, and on-site TM Hubbard repulsion $U$. Here, we study the spectral properties of a one-dimensional (1D) analog of such a $pd$ system, with alternating TM $d$ and ligand anion $p$ orbitals situated along a chain. Using the density matrix renormalization group method, we study the model's single-particle spectral function, x-ray absorption spectrum, and dynamical spin structure factor as a function of $\Delta_\mathrm{CT}$ and $U$. In particular, we present results spanning from the Mott insulating ($\Delta_\mathrm{CT} > U$) to negative charge transfer regime $\Delta_\mathrm{CT} < 0$ to gain a better understanding of the ground and momentum-resolved excited state properties of these different regimes. Our results can guide new studies on TMOs that seek to situate them within the Mott-Hubbard/charge transfer insulator classification scheme.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

The Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program: slow supernovae show cosmological time dilation out to z ~ 1.

ABSTRACT We present a precise measurement of cosmological time dilation using the light curves of 1504 Type Ia supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey spanning a redshift range $0.1\lesssim z\lesssim 1.2$. We find that the width of supernova light curves is proportional to $(1+z)$, as expected for time dilation due to the expansion of the Universe. Assuming Type Ia supernovae light curves are emitted with a consistent duration $\Delta t_{\rm em}$, and parametrizing the observed duration as $\Delta t_{\rm obs}=\Delta t_{\rm em}(1+z)^b$, we fit for the form of time dilation using two methods. First, we find that a power of $b \approx 1$ minimizes the flux scatter in stacked subsamples of light curves across different redshifts. Secondly, we fit each target supernova to a stacked light curve (stacking all supernovae with observed bandpasses matching that of the target light curve) and find $b=1.003\pm 0.005$ (stat) $\pm \, 0.010$ (sys). Thanks to the large number of supernovae and large redshift-range of the sample, this analysis gives the most precise measurement of cosmological time dilation to date, ruling out any non-time-dilating cosmological models at very high significance.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Phylodynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Lineages B.1.1.7, B.1.1.529 and B.1.617.2 in Nigeria Suggests Divergent Evolutionary Trajectories

Background: The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic were characterized by high transmission rates and mortality, compounded by the emergence of multiple SARS-CoV-2 lineages, including Variants of Concern (VOCs). This study investigates the phylodynamic and spatio-temporal trends of VOCs during the peak of the pandemic in Nigeria. Methods: Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from three major VOCs circulating in Nigeria, B.1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.617.2 (Delta), and B.1.1.529 (Omicron), were analyzed using tools such as Nextclade, R Studio v 4.2.3, and BEAST X v 10.5.0. The spatial distribution, evolutionary history, viral ancestral introductions, and geographic dispersal patterns were characterized. Results: Three major lineages following WHO nomenclature were identified: Alpha, Delta, and Omicron. The Delta variant exhibited the widest geographic spread, detected in 14 states, while the Alpha variant was the least distributed, identified in only eight states but present across most epidemiological weeks studied. Evolutionary rates varied slightly, with Alpha exhibiting the slowest rate (2.66 × 10 −4 substitutions/site/year). Viral population analyses showed distinct patterns: Omicron sustained elevated population growth over time, while Delta declined after initial expansion. The earliest Times to Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA) were consistent with the earliest outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 globally. Geographic transmission analysis indicated a predominant coastal-to-inland spread for all variants, with Omicron showing the most diffuse dispersal, highlighting commercial routes as significant drivers of viral diffusion. Conclusion: The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Nigeria was characterized by multiple variant introductions and a dominant coastal-to-inland spread, emphasizing that despite lockdown measures, commercial trade routes played a critical role in viral dissemination. These findings provide insights into pandemic control strategies and future outbreak preparedness.

Nigeria↗

Low-energy pion-nucleon scattering and the Δ resonance in lattice QCD

We report on our investigation of low-energy pion-nucleon scattering from lattice QCD with Wilson type fermions. Our focus is on the isospin I = 3/2 channel, which couples to the Delta resonance. We discuss our calculations aiming at the extraction of the Delta resonance mass, width and effective coupling at pion mass 250 MeV, using the Lüscher finite-volume method to extract the phase shift δ J=3/2,l=1 .

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Accurate Identification of Deamidation and Citrullination from Global Shotgun Proteomics Data Using a Dual-Search Delta Score Strategy

While proteins with deamidated/citrullinated amino acids play critical roles in the pathogenesis of many human diseases, identifying these modifications in complex biological samples has been an ongoing challenge. Herein we present a method to accurately identify these modifications from shotgun proteomics data from a deep proteome profiling study of human pancreatic islets obtained by laser capture microdissection. All MS/MS spectra were searched against database by MSGF+ twice with or without a +0.9840 Da mass shift on amino acids asparagine, glutamine, and arginine (NQR) as a dynamic modification. Consequently, for each spectrum the resulting two peptide-to-spectrum matches (PSM) with their respective MSGF+ scores were used for Delta Score calculation. It was observed that all PSMs with positive Delta Score values were clustered with mass errors around 0 ppm, while PSMs with negative Delta Score values were distributed nearly equally within the defined mass error range (20 ppm) for database searching. To estimate false discovery rate (FDR), a “pseudo-decoy” approach was applied whether datasets were searched against a database with a “real modification” mass shift (+0.9840 Da) and a “mock modification” mass shift (+1.0227 Da). FDR was controlled to ~2% with a Delta Score filter greater than zero. Manual inspection of spectra showed that PSMs with positive Delta Score value contained deamidated/citrullinated fragments in their MS/MS spectra. Finally, the results demonstrated that in-situ deamidated/citrullinated peptides can be accurately identified from shotgun tissue proteomics data by the Dual-search Delta Score Strategy.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Calculation of Dynamical Response Functions Using a Bound-State Method

Abstract We investigate a method to extract response functions (dynamical polarisabilities) directly from a bound-state approach applied to calculations of perturbation-induced reactions. The use of a square-integrable basis leads to a response in the form of a sum of $$\delta $$ δ functions. We integrate this over energy and fit a smooth function to the resulting stepwise-continuous one. Its derivative gives the final approximation to the physical response function. We show that the method reproduces analytical results where known, and analyse the details for a variety of models. We apply it to some simple models, using the stochastic variational method as the numerical method. Albeit we find that this approach, and other numerical techniques, have some difficulties with the threshold behavior in coupled-channel problems with multiple thresholds, its stochastic nature allows us to extract robust results even for such cases.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Machine Learning-Driven Conservative-to-Primitive Conversion in Hybrid Piecewise Polytropic and Tabulated Equations of State

We present a novel machine learning (ML)-based method to accelerate conservative-to-primitive inversion, focusing on hybrid piecewise polytropic and tabulated equations of state. Traditional root-finding techniques are computationally expensive, particularly for large-scale relativistic hydrodynamics simulations. To address this, we employ feedforward neural networks (NNC2PS and NNC2PL), trained in PyTorch (2.0+) and optimized for GPU inference using NVIDIA TensorRT (8.4.1), achieving significant speedups with minimal accuracy loss. The NNC2PS model achieves 𝐿 1 and 𝐿 ∞ errors of 4.54 × 10 −7 and 3.44 × 10−6, respectively, while the NNC2PL model exhibits even lower error values. TensorRT optimization with mixed-precision deployment substantially accelerates performance compared to traditional root-finding methods. Specifically, the mixed-precision TensorRT engine for NNC2PS achieves inference speeds approximately 400 times faster than a traditional single-threaded CPU implementation for a dataset size of 1,000,000 points. Ideal parallelization across an entire compute node in the Delta supercomputer (dual AMD 64-core 2.45 GHz Milan processors and 8 NVIDIA A100 GPUs with 40 GB HBM2 RAM and NVLink) predicts a 25-fold speedup for TensorRT over an optimally parallelized numerical method when processing 8 million data points. Moreover, the ML method exhibits sub-linear scaling with increasing dataset sizes. We release the scientific software developed, enabling further validation and extension of our findings. By exploiting the underlying symmetries within the equation of state, these findings highlight the potential of ML, combined with GPU optimization and model quantization, to accelerate conservative-to-primitive inversion in relativistic hydrodynamics simulations.

conservative-to-primitive conversion↗

Surface water nitrogen and sediment potential nitrate reduction rates, nutrient stocks, and stable isotopes from nine wetlands at the Tanglewood Biological Station, Alabama

This dataset supports a broader study investigating wetland hydrologic and biogeochemical responses to inundation disturbances. Bimonthly surface water and sediment sampling events were conducted at nine wetland sites situated within the Tanglewood Biological Station in Alabama from April 2023 to February 2024. The contents included in the data package include surface water nitrogen (nitrogen oxides and ammonium) and sediment potential nitrate reduction rates (measured as potential denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium processing), nutrient stocks (total carbon, total nitrogen, and organic matter), and stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen). Water level data related to each wetland location can be found at https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/view/doi:10.15485/2530253 (Kirker et al., 2024) and related water geochemistry data can be found at https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/datasets/doi:10.15485/3001967 (Forbes et al., 2025). In addition to a readme, this data package also includes a file-level metadata (FLMD) file that describes each file and a data dictionary (DD) that describes all column/row headers and variable definitions. This dataset is comprised of (1) file-level metadata; (2) data dictionary; (3) field metadata and international generic sample numbers (IGSNs); (4) readme; (5) the field protocol; and (6) a subfolder with sample data. The sample data subfolder contains (1) sediment potential denitrification rate, (2) sediment potential dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) rate, (3) sediment total carbon and nitrogen content, (4) sediment stable isotopes (delta nitrogen-15 and delta carbon-13), (5) sediment percent organic matter, (6) surface water nitrous oxides, (7) surface water ammonium, and (8) methods codes. All files are .csv or .pdf.

Ammonium↗

Affine Approximation of Parametrized Kernels and Model Order Reduction for Nonlocal and Fractional Laplace Models

In this work, we consider parametrized problems driven by spatially nonlocal integral operators with parameter-dependent kernels. In particular, kernels with varying nonlocal interaction radius $\delta > 0$ and fractional Laplace kernels, parametrized by the fractional power $s\in(0,1)$, are studied. Furthermore, in order to provide an efficient and reliable approximation of the solution for different values of the parameters, we develop the reduced basis method as a parametric model order reduction approach. Major difficulties arise since the kernels are not affine in the parameters, singular, and discontinuous. Moreover, the spatial regularity of the solutions depends on the varying fractional power $s$. To address this, we derive regularity and differentiability results with respect to $\delta$ and $s$, which are of independent interest for other applications such as optimization and parameter identification. We then use these results to construct affine approximations of the kernels by local polynomials. Finally, we certify the method by providing reliable a posteriori error estimators, which account for all approximation errors, and support the theoretical findings by numerical experiments.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Measurements of multiplicity fluctuations of identified hadrons in inelastic proton–proton interactions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron

Measurements of multiplicity fluctuations of identified hadrons produced in inelastic p+p interactions at 31, 40, 80, and 158 $\text {Ge}\text {V}/c$ beam momentum are presented. Three different measures of multiplicity fluctuations are used: the scaled variance $\omega $ and strongly intensive measures $\Sigma $ and $\Delta $. These fluctuation measures involve second and first moments of joint multiplicity distributions. Data analysis is preformed using the Identity method which corrects for incomplete particle identification. Strongly intensive quantities are calculated in order to allow for a direct comparison to corresponding results on nucleus–nucleus collisions. The results for different hadron types are shown as a function of collision energy. A comparison with predictions of string-resonance Monte-Carlo models: Epos, Smash and Venus, is also presented.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗