@phdthesis{22255, abstract = {This thesis studies spectral rigidity and nonrigidity phenomena in dynamical systems. The central question is whether a dynamical system can be determined, up to a natural conjugacy, from its spectrum. We consider three related spectra: the length spectrum, the action spectrum, and the Lyapunov spectrum. The first part of the thesis concerns Liouville metrics on the two-dimensional torus. It is a long-standing folklore conjecture that Liouville metrics are the only integrable metrics on the torus. We prove a length-spectral rigidity result for linear conformal deformations of Liouville metrics by exploiting the dynamical properties of the rational tori -- analogues of the resonant convex caustics in billiards. We also establish a complementary classification result showing that marked-length-isospectral Liouville metrics are characterized by rearrangements of the one-dimensional functions appearing in their conformal factors, generalizing a theorem of Abbondandolo-Mazzucchelli. In particular, the second result gives nonrigidity examples within the class of Liouville metrics. The second part of the thesis studies the standard map from the viewpoint of action and Lyapunov spectra. We construct nontrivial deformations of the standard map which preserve the symplectic actions (respectively, the Lyapunov exponents) of infinitely many periodic orbits accumulating on an invariant curve. The proof combines a resonant normal form construction with Picard iteration schemes to obtain a sequence of periodic orbits accumulating on an invariant curve with a Liouville rotation number. Within the resonant normal forms we capture the dependence of these periodic orbits on the resonant Fourier coefficients of the dynamics on the invariant curve and, using the contraction mapping principle, obtain a suitable deformation achieving the prescribed spectral data associated with this sequence of orbits. The result can be viewed as a symplectic twist-map analogue of a length-spectral nonrigidity phenomenon for Riemannian manifolds and convex billiards, and it motivates the existence problem for similar 'partially length-isospectral' deformations of strictly convex billiard tables. }, author = {Li, Yunzhe}, issn = {2663-337X}, pages = {131}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Spectral rigidity and nonrigidity of dynamical systems}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-22255}, year = {2026}, } @article{22371, abstract = {Amoeboid cell migration is key to efficient T cell immunity. Spatial polarization of organelles within cells, including endo-lysosomes, is a prerequisite of migration. However, how ultrastructural polarization is linked to the signaling requirements governing T cell migration remains unknown. Here we show that signaling molecules generated by endo-lysosome-localized kinases regulate velocity of amoeboid migration. Specifically, imaging of T cells identifies accumulation of endo-lysosomes decorated with the lipid kinases VPS34–PIKfyve at the uropod of polarized cells. Activity of VPS34 and PIKfyve regulates speed, but not directedness, of migrating T cells. Mechanistically, PI(3,5)P2 generated by the sequential action of VPS34 and PIKfyve, mediates Ca2+ efflux from lysosomes via the mucolipin TRP cation channel 1 (TRPML1), thus controlling activity of myosin IIA and hence the generation of propulsive force through retrograde actin flow. The VPS34–PIKfyve kinases also regulate velocity of myeloid cells, as well as of the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum – establishing the axis as an evolutionarily conserved speed control system of amoeboid cell migration.}, author = {Dehio, Philippe G and Michard, Céline and Yam-Puc, Juan Carlos and Martí I Líndez, Adrià Arnau and Jandke, Anett and Unterstab, Gunhild and Fabre, Lucien and Sauteur, Loïc and Artinger, Marc and Legler, Daniel F. and Sixt, Michael K and Schaefer, Thorsten and Wymann, Matthias P. and Okkenhaug, Klaus and Soldati, Thierry and Mehling, Matthias and Hess, Christoph}, issn = {1469-3178}, journal = {EMBO Reports}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{A conserved VPS34-PIKfyve-TRPML1-myosin II axis regulates the speed of amoeboid cell migration}}, doi = {10.1038/s44319-026-00861-x}, year = {2026}, } @article{22366, abstract = {Gravitropism is a fundamental adaptive response in plants that enables directional growth to optimize resource acquisition. In this study, we employed forward genetic screening to identify Arabidopsis mutants with defective hypocotyl gravitropism and isolated the short and agravitropic hypocotyl in dark1 (sad1) mutant, which carries a point mutation (G110E) in the SAC1 gene encoding a phosphoinositide phosphatase. Deficiency of SAC1 disrupted gravity-induced polar localization of PIN3 in endodermal cells, impairing auxin redistribution and leading to hypocotyl gravitropism defects. Subcellular localization analysis revealed that SAC1 is partially localized to the PVC/tonoplast and participates in late endosomal trafficking. The sac1 mutation leads to abnormal vacuolar morphology, which is associated with defects in amyloplast sedimentation during the gravitropic response in Arabidopsis shoots. We further revealed that SAC1 interacts with GRV2, a key regulator of the late endocytic pathway, and that both proteins cooperatively regulate shoot gravitropism. In summary, this study identified SAC1 as a regulator of shoot gravitropism, revealing its important role in modulating vacuolar homeostasis, amyloplast sedimentation, PIN3 trafficking, and auxin distribution. These findings provide insights into the molecular mechanisms linking membrane transport to environmental adaptation in plants.}, author = {Sun, Lianghanxiao and Jia, Wenxin and Mao, Yanbo and Li, Xin and Kong, Mengjuan and She, Ji and Friml, Jiří and Tan, Shutang}, issn = {1365-313X}, journal = {The Plant Journal}, keywords = {auxin, SAC1, GRV2, PIN3, vacuole, gravitropism, Arabidopsis}, number = {1}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Regulation of shoot gravitropism and branching angle by the GRV2-SAC1 axis in Arabidopsis}}, doi = {10.1111/tpj.71042}, volume = {127}, year = {2026}, } @inproceedings{22368, abstract = {We study simple dynamics in the population protocol model, in which 𝑛 agents start with totally ordered initial opinions 𝑥1, 𝑥2, . . . , 𝑥𝑛 and, in each round, a randomly chosen agent changes its opinion as a function of the opinion of other randomly chosen agents. Such dynamics often converge to consensus on a single fixation value 𝑋ˆ. This paper asks how to control the distribution of 𝑋ˆ as a randomised choice among the initial opinions by designing suitable simple dynamics. Writing the sorted initial values as 𝑥(1) ≤ · · · ≤ 𝑥(𝑛) , we design two protocols that realise natural target laws over order statistics. First, for a parameter 𝑝 ∈ (0, 1), our geometric protocol biases toward larger opinions and satisfies P 𝑋ˆ = 𝑥(𝑘) ∝ 𝑝 𝑛−𝑘 , for 𝑘 = 1, . . . , 𝑛. Equivalently, P 𝑋ˆ = 𝑥(𝑘) = (1 − 𝑝)𝑝 𝑛−𝑘 /(1 − 𝑝 𝑛 ). Second, our binomial protocol assigns a shifted binomial law to the ranks in ascending order: if 𝐾 −1 ∼ Bin(𝑛−1, 1−𝑝), then 𝑋ˆ = 𝑥(𝐾) , i.e., P 𝑋ˆ = 𝑥(𝑘) = 𝑛−1 𝑘−1  𝑝 𝑛−𝑘 (1 − 𝑝) 𝑘−1 , for 𝑘 = 1, . . . , 𝑛. Applications of this include computing the Top-𝑘 values for small 𝑘 on general interaction graphs. A central contribution of this work is that, in contrast to most population protocols, we can characterise the fixation distribution in closed form. This is enabled by a novel analysis technique, which also yields applications: we derive new results for the Median protocol that extend the state of the art.}, author = {D'Archivio, Niccolò and Almahmoud, Hind and Natale, Emanuele and Mallmann-Trenn, Frederik}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing}, isbn = {9798400725128}, location = {Egham, United Kingdom}, pages = {425--436}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {{Order statistics in population protocols via simple dynamics}}, doi = {10.1145/3796701.3815922}, year = {2026}, } @inproceedings{22367, abstract = {We study the Undecided-State Dynamics (USD), a fundamental consensus process in which each vertex holds one of k decided opinions or the undecided state. We consider both the gossip model and the population protocol model. Prior work established tight bounds on the consensus time of this process only for the regime k = O ( n / ( log ⁡ n ) 2 ) (for the population protocol model) and k = O((n/log n)1/3) (for the gossip model), often under restrictive assumptions on the initial configuration. In this paper, we obtain the first consensus-time guarantees for USD that hold for arbitrary 2 ≤ k ≤ n and for arbitrary initial configurations in both the gossip model and the population protocol model. In the gossip model, USD reaches consensus within O ~ ( min { k , n } ) synchronous rounds with probability 1 - p⊥ - n-c, where p⊥ is the gossip-specific probability of collapsing to the all-undecided state in the first round. In the population protocol model, USD reaches consensus within O ~ ( min { k n , n 3 / 2 } ) asynchronous interactions with high probability. We also present lower bounds that match the upper bounds up to polylogarithmic factors for a specific initial configuration and show that our upper bounds are essentially optimal.}, author = {Cooper, Colin and Mallmann-Trenn, Frederik and Radzik, Tomasz and Shimizu, Nobutaka and Shiraga, Takeharu}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing}, isbn = {9798400725128}, keywords = {consensus dynamics, undecided state dynamics, gossip model, population protocol model}, location = {Egham, United Kingdom}, pages = {77--87}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {{Undecided state dynamics with many opinions}}, doi = {10.1145/3796701.3815920}, year = {2026}, } @article{22370, abstract = {We report a unified method for the synthesis of α-polyhalomethyl amines from alkenes and alkynes, enabled by readily available hemiaminal reagents. This operationally simple transformation allows for the introduction of not only well-established CF3 and CF2H groups, but also the synthetically (and medicinally) underexplored CF2Cl and CFClH motifs—thereby broadening access to previously inaccessible chemical space of halogenated amine scaffolds. The method displays broad substrate scope and functional-group tolerance while operating under mild conditions. Late-stage functionalization of drug-like derivatives of Oxaprozin, Erlotinib, and Ibuprofen (among others) is reported.}, author = {Hofmeister, Angela K. and Iannelli, Giulia and Angyal, Péter and Malandain, Augustin and Kaiser, Daniel and Maryasin, Boris and Kählig, Hanspeter and Barel, Matteo and Novarino, Gaia and Maulide, Nuno}, issn = {1521-3773}, journal = {Angewandte Chemie International Edition}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Unified synthesis of unconventional α-polyhalogenated amines through hydroaminoalkylation}}, doi = {10.1002/anie.1233707}, year = {2026}, } @article{22323, abstract = {Arrays of Josephson junctions can be tuned through anomalous metallic, quantum-critical, and insulating regimes. We introduce an alternative experimental probe, capturing microwave radiation across all three regimes, using a two-dimensional array of superconductor-semiconductor hybrid Josephson junctions as a model system. Our approach allows calibration of the sample’s circuit parameters and provides isolation from measurement back-action effects. We measure the radiation temperature of the anomalous metal and find that it is hotter than both the quantum-critical and insulating regimes. We further show that the anomalous metallic regime is more susceptible to additional heating than other regimes, explaining its emergence in otherwise thermalized systems. Turning to the quantum-critical regime, we discover nonlinear scaling of radiative noise with applied bias, consistent with theoretical predictions of universal nonequilibrium behavior at quantum-critical points.}, author = {Galvin, Kristen W and Bubis, Anton and Mikalsen, Melissa and Schiela, William F. and Elfeky, Bassel H. and Strickland, William M. and Phan, Duc T and Shabani, Javad and Higginbotham, Andrew P}, issn = {2331-7019}, journal = {Physical Review Applied}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Microwave radiometry of a quantum-critical hybrid Josephson array}}, doi = {10.1103/75bl-mm3b}, volume = {26}, year = {2026}, } @article{22381, abstract = {Context. X-ray binaries exhibit complex variability patterns studied in the power spectrum. These include the broadband noise (BBN) components and various types of narrow components called quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs). There is currently no consensus about what determines the presence or absence of the BBN or what generates the QPOs. Many believe that QPO generation is due to framedragging effects caused by Lense–Thirring torques. Aims. We investigated the potential impact of frame-dragging effects on the accretion disk itself. In particular, we focused on its impact on the observed variability and on the presence (and types) of associated QPOs. Methods. We made analytical estimates to assess the potential presence of a geometric warp in the inner accretion disk during state transitions. Results. We show that the presence of a warp can modify the spectral-timing properties in a way that matches the observed transition between QPO types during outbursts. We also discuss the peculiar case of Cyg X-1, as well as how the hard-to-soft transition could be driven by the warp itself. Conclusions. The (expected) emergence of a warp provides a consistent explanation for the evolution of both the BBN and the QPO properties during state transitions. This offers a first path toward unifying the variability of black hole X-ray binaries.}, author = {Marcel, G. and Turner, S. G. D. and Ricketts, B. J. and López-Barquero, V. and Buisson, D. J. K. and Vincentelli, F. and Middleton, M. and Reynolds, C.S. and Avara, Mark}, issn = {1432-0746}, journal = {Astronomy & Astrophysics}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, title = {{Disk warping and black hole X-ray binaries: I. Tentative unification of low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations}}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202558103}, volume = {710}, year = {2026}, } @inproceedings{22321, abstract = {Runtime fairness is not a one-time constraint but a dynamic property evaluated over a sequence of decisions. To ensure fairness at runtime, it is necessary to account for past decisions, information neglected by conventional, static classifiers. Traditional fairness shields enforce runtime fairness abruptly, by intervening deterministically whenever a sequence of decisions violates the target for a running fairness measure. This motivates our main conceptual contribution: energy shields. An energy shield is a novel, lightweight, adaptive controller that monitors a sequence of decisions and intervenes probabilistically to ensure runtime fairness smoothly, by utilizing physics-inspired energy functions to nudge the sequence toward fairness: the more unfair the decisions, the stronger the nudging force becomes. This makes energy shields the first fairness shields to provide both short-term safety and long-term liveness guarantees. Safety ensures that the running fairness measure stays within a running target interval with high probability, and liveness ensures that the limit of the fairness measure lies within the limit target interval. Intuitively, the short-term specifies the tolerated fairness values and the long-term specifies the desired fairness values. We also provide a synthesis procedure for constructing the least intrusive energy shield for a given target specification, and demonstrate its efficiency experimentally. We evaluate our energy shields against existing fairness shields through the lens of short- and long-term fairness.}, author = {Cano Cordoba, Filip and Henzinger, Thomas A and Kueffner, Konstantin}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency}, location = {Montreal, Canada}, pages = {4243 -- 4275}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {{Energy shields for fairness}}, doi = {10.1145/3805689.3806807}, year = {2026}, } @article{21995, abstract = {On 26–28 September 2024, torrential rainfall struck Nepal during the late monsoon season, causing flooding, landslides and extensive damage. This study examined the multiscale processes contributing to this extreme precipitation event, focusing on intraseasonal oscillations, synoptic-scale circulations, and mesoscale cloud/precipitation systems. A quasi-biweekly intraseasonal oscillation dominated over South Asia during the event, featuring a monsoon low-pressure system over the Indian Peninsula and an anticyclone to its east, both propagating westward. The pressure gradient between them sustained strong southerly moisture transport toward the Himalayas, establishing a persistently humid environment and orographic lift along the southern slopes. In contrast to reports of previous extreme precipitation events in Nepal, the atmospheric circulation responsible for the 2024 event was primarily of tropical origin, with minimal influence from the midlatitudes. Characteristic mesoscale cloud/precipitation systems also developed around the Himalayas. The highest daily precipitation during the event was recorded on 27 September; stratiform systems with relatively modest storm top heights developed over the southern slopes, generating surface precipitation rates of > 100 mm h− 1 through warm-rain processes. Rain gauges across the glacierized basin (3500–5000 m asl) recorded exceptionally high daily and hourly precipitation rates, highlighting the extension of intense rainfall to unusually high elevations.}, author = {Fujinami, Hatsuki and Takahashi, Nobuhiro and Kanamori, Hironari and Sato, Yota and Sunako, Sojiro and Kato, Masaya and Higuchi, Atsushi and Kadel, Indira and Shrestha, Dibas and Kayastha, Rijan B. and Fujita, Koji}, issn = {1349-6476}, journal = {Scientific Online Letters on the Atmosphere}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Multiscale aspects of an extreme precipitation event over Nepal in September 2024}}, doi = {10.1007/s44393-026-00024-0}, volume = {22}, year = {2026}, } @phdthesis{21198, abstract = {In recent years there has been a massive increase in the amount of data generated in a decentralized manner. Ever more powerful edge devices, such as smartphones, have become ubiquitous in most societies on earth. Through text typed, photos taken and apps used, these devices, which we refer to as clients, generate enormous amounts of high quality and complex data. Moreover, the nature of these devices means the data they generate is often sensitive and privacy concerns prevent it being gathered and stored in a central location. This presents a challenge to the modern machine learning paradigm that requires central access to large amounts of data. Federated learning (FL) has emerged as one of the answers to this problem. Rather than bringing the data to the model, FL sends the model to the data. Model training takes place on device, with periodically synchronized updates, allowing data to remain locally stored. While this approach offers significant privacy advantages it comes with its own set of unique challenges. These include: data heterogeneity, the notion that different devices generate data in distinct ways which can negatively impact training dynamics; systems heterogeneity, meaning that different devices may have differing hardware specifications; high communication costs, which are induced by the repeated transferring of models over the network and low device computational power, which limits the use of larger models on device. In this thesis we present a range of methods for federated learning. We focus primarily on the challenge of data heterogeneity, though the methods presented are designed to be well adapted to the other challenges of a federated setting, such as the constraints of limited compute and communication overhead. We first present a method for explicitly modeling client data heterogeneity. The approach formulates clients as samples from a certain probability distribution and infers the parameters of this distribution from the available training clients. This learned distribution then represents the heterogeneity present among the clients and can be sampled from in order to create new simulated clients that are similar to the real clients we have observed so far. Following this we present two methods for directly dealing with data heterogeneity through personalization. Highly heterogeneous client data distributions can mean that learning a single global model becomes suboptimal, and some form of personalization of models to each individual client is required. Our approaches are based around hypernetworks, which we use to generate personalized model parameters without the need for additional training or finetuning. In the first approach we focus on generating full parameterizations of client models using learned embeddings of client data and labels, with a hypernetwork located on the central server. In the second approach we address the more challenging scenario where we want to generate a personalized model for a client without any label information. The hypernetwork is trained to generate a low dimensional representation of a client’s personalized model parameters, allowing it to be transferred to and run on the client devices. In our final presented method, we change our focus and rather than aim to directly address the challenge of data heterogeneity, we instead ensure we are unaffected by it. This is done in the context of k-means clustering and we present a method for federated clustering with a focus on added privacy guarantees.}, author = {Scott, Jonathan A}, issn = {2663-337X}, pages = {158}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Data heterogeneity and personalization in federated learning}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-21198}, year = {2026}, } @phdthesis{21021, abstract = {This thesis examines how geometry and topology intersect in the representation, transformation, and analysis of complex shapes. It considers how continuous manifolds relate to their discrete analogues, how topological structures evolve in persistence vineyards, and how tools from topological data analysis can illuminate problems in mathematical physics. Central to this exploration is the question of how structure, both geometric and topological, persists or changes under approximation, sampling, or deformation. The work develops new approaches to skeletal and grid-based representations of surfaces, reveals the full expressive capacity of persistence vineyards, and applies topological methods to the longstanding problem of equilibria in electrostatic fields. These threads braid together into a broader understanding of how topology and geometry inform one another across theory, computation, and application.}, author = {Fillmore, Christopher D}, issn = {2663-337X}, pages = {122}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Braiding geometry and topology to study shapes and data}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-21021}, year = {2026}, } @article{21931, abstract = {In 1873, James C. Maxwell conjectured that the electric field generated by n point charges in generic position has at most (n-1)^2 isolated zeroes. The first (nonoptimal) upper bound was only obtained in 2007 by Gabrielov, Novikov, and Shapiro, who also posed two additional interesting conjectures. In this article, we give the best upper bound known to date on the number of zeroes of the electric field, and construct a counterexample to Conjecture 1.8 by Gabrielov, Novikov, and Shapiro that the number of equilibria cannot exceed those of the distance function defined by the unit point charges. Finally, we note that it is quite possible that Maxwell's quadratic upper bound is not tight, so it is prudent to find lower bounds. Hence, we also explore examples and construct configurations of charges achieving the highest ratios of the number of electric field zeroes by point charges found to this day.}, author = {Edelsbrunner, Herbert and Fillmore, Christopher D and Oliveira, Goncalo}, issn = {1460-244X}, journal = {Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society}, number = {5}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Counting equilibria of the electrostatic potential}}, doi = {10.1112/plms.70163}, volume = {132}, year = {2026}, } @article{21489, abstract = {We study Kirillov algebras attached to minuscule highest weight representations of semisimple Lie algebras. They can be viewed as equivariant cohomology algebras of partial flag varieties. Real structures on the varieties then induce involutions of these algebras. We describe how these involutions act on the spectra of minuscule Kirillov algebras, and model the fixed points via the equivariant cohomology of real partial flag varieties. We then use this model to characterise freeness of the fixed point coordinate ring over the appropriate base. As an application, we recover a q = -1 phenomenon of Stembridge in the minuscule case by geometric means.}, author = {Elkner, Mischa M}, issn = {1531-586X}, journal = {Transformation Groups}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{On involutions of minuscule Kirillov algebras induced by real structures}}, doi = {10.1007/s00031-026-09958-y}, year = {2026}, } @inproceedings{21916, abstract = {Social network graphs are central to graph learning research, serving as standard benchmarks for algorithm evaluation. However, existing datasets focus mainly on mainstream social media platforms whose structures are shaped notably by algorithmic recommendations. This raises an important question: would alternative, decentralized social networks exhibit different properties? We address this by studying the Fediverse; a collection of decentralized social networks (such as Mastodon and Lemmy). These platforms differ fundamentally from for-profit social media, notably in decentralization and absence of recommendation algorithms, which may yield distinct graph structures. We introduce Fedivertex, a dataset of over 400 graphs from seven decentralized networks, collected weekly over six months. The dataset, released with a companion Python package to facilitate its use, supports research on temporal and structural aspects of decentralized social networks. In particular, we benchmark applications to decentralized machine learning and community detection.}, author = {Damie, Marc and Cyffers, Edwige Audrey Lucienne}, booktitle = {2026 Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference}, isbn = {9798400723070}, location = {Dubai}, pages = {8393--8396}, publisher = {ACM}, title = {{Fedivertex: A graph dataset based on decentralized Social Media}}, doi = {10.1145/3774904.3792868}, year = {2026}, } @inproceedings{22327, abstract = {Population protocols are a model of distributed computing where 𝑛 agents, each a simple finite-state machine, interact in pairs to solve a common task against a (adversarial) interaction scheduler. This model was intensively studied in recent years; in particular, the problem of relative majority received much attention: Each agent starts with an input opinion (or color) out of 𝑘 possibilities, and the goal is for each agent to eventually output the color with the largest support in the population. Before our work, the state complexity (the minimum number of states required per agent) was only known to be between Ω(𝑘 2 ) and𝑂(𝑘 7 ). Our main contribution is a population protocol that solves the relative majority problem with 𝑘 3 states. We achieve this result with a new protocol called Circles. While prior approaches in the literature relied on duels of agents to find the majority color — an approach that proved effective for the case with two colors — Circles partitions the agents into circular linked lists of decreasing sizes, with the property that no two agents with the same initial color lie in the same circle. We show that Circles always correctly computes the desired structure against the most adversarial of schedulers (weakly fair). We then show that a trivial extension of Circles solves the relative majority problem. We extend our protocol to handle various tie-breaking mechanisms or to support the case where the agents do not share a prior ordering of the colors. Finally, we show that a modification of Circles solves the ranking problem with 2 · 𝑘^4 states, where each agent must output the rank of its initial color in the population.}, author = {Breitkopf, Tom-Lukas and Dallot, Julien and El-Hayek, Antoine and Schmid, Stefan}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing}, isbn = {9798400725128}, location = {Egham, United Kingdom}, pages = {414 -- 424}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {{Ranking opinions with few states in population protocols}}, doi = {10.1145/3796701.3815913}, year = {2026}, } @article{14703, abstract = {We present a discretization of the dynamic optimal transport problem for which we can obtain the convergence rate for the value of the transport cost to its continuous value when the temporal and spatial stepsize vanish. This convergence result does not require any regularity assumption on the measures, though experiments suggest that the rate is not sharp. Via an analysis of the duality gap we also obtain the convergence rates for the gradient of the optimal potentials and the velocity field under mild regularity assumptions. To obtain such rates we discretize the dual formulation of the dynamic optimal transport problem and use the mature literature related to the error due to discretizing the Hamilton-Jacobi equation.}, author = {Ishida, Sadashige and Lavenant, Hugo}, issn = {1615-3383}, journal = {Foundations of Computational Mathematics}, keywords = {Optimal transport, Hamilton-Jacobi equation, convex optimization}, pages = {349--384}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Quantitative convergence of a discretization of dynamic optimal transport using the dual formulation}}, doi = {10.1007/s10208-024-09686-3}, volume = {26}, year = {2026}, } @article{20851, abstract = {High-voltage disordered spinel LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 is a promising cathode material for high power density in lithium-ion batteries. However, it suffers from poor cycle life associated with the rock-salt phase transformation. This study presents a straightforward synthesis approach to enhance the electrochemical performance of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 through a synergistic solid-state modification with LiF and AlF3. This dual modification promotes rapid Li⁺ diffusion, enables near-complete delithiation/lithiation, approaching the theoretical capacity of disordered LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4, and, more importantly, effectively mitigates the formation of the rock-salt phase, thereby enhancing structural stability, as confirmed by operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD). As a result, the optimized LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (10 mg AlF3 + 30 mg LiF) delivers high reversible capacities of 142.1, 139.1, 129.2, 121.6, 110.3, 93.5, and 76.1 mAh∙g−1 at 0.2C, 0.5C, 1.0C, 2.0C, 3.0C, 4.0C, and 5.0C, respectively. Full cells using graphite as the anode and a high-loading cathode exhibit excellent cycling performance. They retain 80% of their capacity after 200 cycles at 0.5C within a voltage window of 3.5–4.9 V with cathode loading of 11 mg∙cm−2. The findings of this study will significantly advance high-power LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 materials, offering improved battery life and thereby enhancing their potential for practical applications.}, author = {Chang, Xingqi and Escudero, Carlos and Black, Ashley P. and Horta, Sharona and Martínez, Elías and Lu, Xuan and Llorca, Jordi and Ibáñez, Maria and Biendicho, Jordi Jacas and Cabot, Andreu}, issn = {2198-3844}, journal = {Advanced Science}, keywords = {disordered spinel LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO), generation 3b batteries, operando SXRD, operando XAS, rock-salt, solid-state synthesis}, number = {11}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Mitigating the rock-salt phase transformation in disordered LNMO through synergetic solid-state AlF3/LiF modifications}}, doi = {10.1002/advs.202515962}, volume = {13}, year = {2026}, } @article{20859, abstract = {Effective immune responses rely on the efficient migration of leukocytes. Yet, how temperature regulates migration dynamics at the single-cell level has remained poorly understood. Using zebrafish embryos and mouse tissue explants, we found that temperature positively regulates leukocyte migration speed, exploration, and arrival frequencies to wounds and lymph vessels. Complementary 2D and 3D cultures revealed that this thermokinetic control of cell migration is conserved across immune cell types, independently of the 3D tissue environment. By applying precise (sub-)cellular temperature modulation, we identified a rapid and reversible thermo-response that depends on myosin II activity. Small physiological increases in temperature (1°C –2°C), as present during fever-like conditions, profoundly increased immune responses by accelerating arrival times at lymphatic vessels and tissue wounds. These findings identify myosin-II-dependent actomyosin contractility as a critical mechanical structure regulating single-cell thermo-adaptability, with physiological implications for tuning the speed of immune responses in vivo.}, author = {Company-Garrido, Iván and Zurita Carpio, Alberto and Colomer-Rosell, Mariona and Ciraulo, Bernard and Molkenbur, Ronja and Lanzerstorfer, Peter and Pezzano, Fabio and Agazzi, Costanza and Hauschild, Robert and Jain, Saumey and Jacques, Jeroen M. and Venturini, Valeria and Knapp, Christian and Xie, Yufei and Merrin, Jack and Weghuber, Julian and Schaaf, Marcel and Quidant, Romain and Kiermaier, Eva and Ortega Arroyo, Jaime and Ruprecht, Verena and Wieser, Stefan}, issn = {1878-1551}, journal = {Developmental Cell}, keywords = {thermobiology, cell migration, thermo-adaptability of immune cells}, number = {2}, pages = {356--371.e12}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Myosin II regulates cellular thermo-adaptability and the efficiency of immune responses}}, doi = {10.1016/j.devcel.2025.10.006}, volume = {61}, year = {2026}, } @article{20933, abstract = {Photo-responsive systems based on azobenzenes usually require UV light for E→Z isomerization, limiting their applicability, especially in biomedical contexts. Disequilibration by sensitization of azobenzene under confinement (DESC) has recently emerged as a supramolecular strategy to bypass this limitation without the need to derivatize the azobenzene scaffold. Here, we expand DESC to water-soluble azopolymers obtained by RAFT polymerization and systematically investigate the interplay between the polymer structure and DESC efficiency. Using this approach, we achieved as much as 85% of the direct photoexcitation (UV) switching efficiency, while utilizing low-energy (yellow) light. These results establish general design principles for combining DESC with polymeric systems, opening new opportunities for the development of functional materials driven with low-energy light.}, author = {Meteling, Henning Jörn and Gemen, Julius and Häkkinen, Satu and Klajn, Rafal and Priimagi, Arri}, issn = {1521-3773}, journal = {Angewandte Chemie International Edition}, number = {7}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Sensitized disequilibration of water-soluble azopolymers}}, doi = {10.1002/anie.202523447}, volume = {65}, year = {2026}, }