@article{22362,
  abstract     = {We present a systematic study of the environments of 25 luminous quasars at z > 6.5 from the ASPIRE program.
Using JWST/NIRCam wide-field slitless spectroscopy data, we identified 487 galaxies at 5.3 ≲ z ≲ 7.0 exhibiting
[O III] emission. Among these, 122 [O III] emitters lie within |Δvlos| < 1000 km s
−1 of the quasars, corresponding
to a ∼9.4-fold enhancement relative to the average galaxy density at other redshifts. Furthermore, we identified 16
[C II]-emitting galaxies at the quasar redshifts from Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) mosaic observations. A cross-correlation function analysis between quasars and [O III]+[C II] emitters yields a
cross-correlation length of r 8.68 h cMpc 0
QG
0.55 = +0.51 1
and an autocorrelation of r 15.76 h cMpc 0
QQ
2.70 = +2.48 1 ,
indicating that z ∼ 7 quasars reside in dark matter halos with
Mhalo 1012.27 0.26 M 0.21
= +
and have a quasar lifetime of
tQ 10 yr 7.05 1.01
0.95
= +
. Notably, the number of [O III]-emitting galaxies at quasar redshifts varies significantly from
field to field, ranging from 0 to 20, highlighting a diverse quasar environment. Remarkably, seven quasars trace
significant galaxy overdensities (i.e., protoclusters), with δgal > 5 within a volume of V ∼ 500 cMpc3
. We also
find that |Δvlos| increases rapidly toward smaller galaxy–quasar separations in protocluster fields, consistent with
galaxy kinematics around extremely massive halos in cosmological simulations. By combining JWST and ALMA
data, we reveal the complex and diverse environments of these early quasars, providing robust evidence that the
earliest luminous quasars are effective tracers of galaxy overdensities, albeit with substantial field-to-field
variation.},
  author       = {Wang, Feige and Champagne, Jaclyn B. and Huang, Jiamu and Yang, Jinyi and Hennawi, Joseph F. and Fan, Xiaohui and Zhang, Haowen and Costa, Tiago and Decarli, Roberto and Habouzit, Melanie and Sun, Fengwu and Bañados, Eduardo and Jin, Xiangyu and Kakiichi, Koki and Meyer, Romain A. and Wu, Yunjing and Belladitta, Silvia and Blecha, Laura and Bosman, Sarah E.I. and Cai, Zheng and Connor, Thomas and Davies, Frederick B. and Eilers, Anna Christina and Haiman, Zoltán and Jun, Hyunsung D. and Li, Mingyu and Li, Zihao and Liu, Weizhe and Lupi, Alessandro and Lyu, Jianwei and Mazzucchelli, Chiara and Onoue, Masafusa and Pizzati, Elia and Pudoka, Maria and Rojas-Ruiz, Sofía and Schindler, Jan Torge and Shen, Yue and Tee, Wei Leong and Trakhtenbrot, Benny and Trebitsch, Maxime and Vestergaard, Marianne and Volonteri, Marta and Walter, Fabian and Zhang, Huanian and Zou, Siwei},
  issn         = {15384357},
  journal      = {Astrophysical Journal},
  number       = {1},
  publisher    = {IOP Publishing},
  title        = {{ASPIRE: The environments and dark matter halos of luminous quasars in the epoch of reionization}},
  doi          = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae7bfa},
  volume       = {1006},
  year         = {2026},
}

@article{22364,
  abstract     = {Finding the first generation of (Population III or Pop III) stars is one of the most ambitious and exciting challenges of astrophysics. JWST opened concrete prospects for their detection during the Epoch of Reionization, where increasing evidence suggests that residual Pop III formation may persist, even within pristine pockets of high-mass halos, due to inhomogeneous enrichment. However, the identification of Pop III stars within globally enriched environments will be challenging. We investigate the detectability of a subdominant Pop III component in/around massive (M⋆ ≳ 10^9 M⊙) galaxies at z ≈ 6.5–9 from the dustyGadget cosmological simulation suite, and the confusion arising from second-generation (Pop II) stars in their surroundings. We find that young (≲1 Myr), massive (MIII ∼ 6 × 10^5 M⊙) Pop III clusters forming within these galaxy environments are responsible for strong HeII1640 line emission (LHeII1640 ≳ 10^41 erg ^s−1), which would be detectable with ≈10(50) hr of medium-resolution observations with NIRSpec/IFU at z ≈ 6(10). These bright luminosities cannot be produced by standard Pop II populations alone. On the other hand, the dominant Pop II component within massive “hybrid” Pop III hosts powers strong metal line emission (L[OIII]5007 ≳ 10^42 erg s^−1), indicating that the detection of metal lines alone cannot exclude the presence of Pop IIIs in high-z galaxy environments. We further discuss candidate selection strategies based on Lyα, Hα, and Hβ emission, and how spatially resolved observations may enable the detection of isolated, pristine pockets in the outskirts of massive halos.},
  author       = {Venditti, Alessandra and Graziani, Luca and Schneider, Raffaella and Bromm, Volker and Muñoz, Julian B. and Di Cesare, Claudia and Valiante, Rosa and Calabrò, Antonello and Maiolino, Roberto and Finkelstein, Steven L. and Parente, Massimiliano and Saggini, Matteo and Chisholm, John},
  issn         = {1538-4357},
  journal      = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  number       = {2},
  publisher    = {IOP Publishing},
  title        = {{Catching the nebular needle in a polluted haystack: Line-emission signatures from population III-forming pockets around massive galaxies at the end of reionization}},
  doi          = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae7b2c},
  volume       = {1005},
  year         = {2026},
}

@article{22369,
  abstract     = {The high-redshift progenitors of present-day galaxy clusters are believed to substantially contribute to the global star formation rate density and drive the large-scale reionisation of the Universe. Here we present a blind and unbiased search for and characterisation of galaxy overdensities during the reionisation epoch at redshifts z ∼ 5.5 − 7 based on rest-frame optical JWST/NIRCam grism spectroscopy of the Abell 2744 lensing field as part of the JWST All the Little Things (ALT) survey. Using a physically motivated, cosmological inference friends-of-friends (FoF) algorithm, we identified six galaxy overdensities, including five robust systems at z = 5.66–6.77. They are all characterised by total halo masses of Mhalo ≳ 1011 M⊙, inferred from a range of proxies. We find that the galaxy members in these overdense environments are on average less massive though equally metal-rich, and generally comprised of younger stellar populations, as indicated by their bluer spectral slopes and less prominent Balmer breaks compared to field galaxies at similar redshifts. Further, we use this novel rest-frame optical selection of galaxy proto-clusters to infer the fraction and 3D distribution of strong Lyman-α emitters (LAEs) and damped Lyman-α absorbers (DLAs) in the overdensity environments. We find that two out of the six galaxy overdensities have excess H I absorption compared to the field average, while the other four are consistent within their large scatter in density. These results present the first direct observational constraints on the tomography of the dense, neutral gas reservoirs in large-scale galaxy overdensities at z > 5 and highlight the limitations of pre-JWST searches for reionisation-era galaxy overdensities relying on the detection of strong LAEs alone.},
  author       = {Terp, Chamilla and Heintz, Kasper E. and Matthee, Jorryt J and Naidu, Rohan P. and Oesch, Pascal A. and Witten, Callum and Kashino, Daichi and Pollock, Clara L. and Di Cesare, Claudia and Torralba Torregrosa, Alberto},
  issn         = {1432-0746},
  journal      = {Astronomy & Astrophysics},
  publisher    = {EDP Sciences},
  title        = {{All the massive galaxy overdensities during reionisation: JWST rest-frame optical selection reveals young, chemically evolved galaxies embedded in dense, neutral gas at z > 5}},
  doi          = {10.1051/0004-6361/202659436},
  volume       = {710},
  year         = {2026},
}

@article{22361,
  abstract     = {Causal optimal transport and adapted Wasserstein distance have applications in different fields from optimization to mathematical finance and machine learning. The goal of this article is to provide equivalent formulations of these concepts in classic probabilistic language. In particular, we prove a Skorokhod representation theorem for adapted weak convergence, reformulate the equivalence of stochastic processes using Markovian lifts, and give an expression for the adapted Wasserstein distance based on representing processes on a common stochastic basis.},
  author       = {Beiglböck, Mathias and Pflügl, Susanne and Schrott, Stefan},
  issn         = {0304-4149},
  journal      = {Stochastic Processes and their Applications},
  publisher    = {Elsevier},
  title        = {{A probabilistic view on the adapted Wasserstein distance}},
  doi          = {10.1016/j.spa.2026.105032},
  volume       = {201},
  year         = {2026},
}

@article{22372,
  abstract     = {Neurons acquire polarity by specifying one neurite as the axon, whereas the others become dendrites. But how this fundamental asymmetry is established remains unclear1. Neuronal polarization has been thought to rely primarily on growth cones that sense external cues2. Here we show that growth cones alone do not direct this process and that the soma acts as a central organizer of neuronal polarization. Using live imaging and genetic loss-of-function approaches in vivo, combined with optogenetic control and local cytoskeletal perturbations in cultured neurons, we uncover a soma-initiated oscillatory program that primes axon selection. Periodic actin branching that depends on the actin-related protein 2/3 (ARP2/3) complex at the soma remodels a global actomyosin network, thereby generating an actin wave that retracts neurites before propagating into a single neurite tip. Exposure to this wave relaxes local actomyosin contractility, which drives a transient microtubule-based protrusion and biases this neurite towards axon fate. As the cell exits this oscillatory stage, this neurite can overcome global inhibition and extend independently of ARP2/3, whereas actomyosin activity suppresses axon formation in the remaining neurites so that they subsequently become dendrites. This soma-driven mechanism ensures the emergence of a single axon independent of environmental cues and underpins the unidirectional information flow in neuronal circuits.},
  author       = {Lin, Tien Chen and Coles, Charlotte H. and Alfadil, Eissa and Fäßler, Florian and Husch, Andreas and Dupraz, Sebastian and Pietralla, Thorben and Narita, Akihiro and Schelski, Max and Flynn, Kevin C. and Stern, Sina and Möhl, Christoph and Hilton, Brett J. and Vauti, Franz and Arnold, Hans Henning and Schur, Florian Km and Bradke, Frank},
  issn         = {1476-4687},
  journal      = {Nature},
  publisher    = {Springer Nature},
  title        = {{An intrinsic cytoskeletal oscillator establishes neuronal polarity}},
  doi          = {10.1038/s41586-026-10755-6},
  year         = {2026},
}

@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},
}