@phdthesis{22334, abstract = {Characterizing protein dynamics at the atomic level is essential for our understanding of biological mechanisms. Whether it is to facilitate metabolite transport, catalyze reactions, transmit signals, or regulate metabolism – proteins are constantly in motion and sample multiple conformational states to fulfill their function. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is particularly well suited to elucidate the dynamics of biomolecules on their complex free-energy landscape. In particular, solid-state magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR enables the study of large molecular assemblies, protein crystals, or insoluble proteins at atomic resolution without an inherent molecular size limitation. MAS NMR experiments to probe protein dynamics are extremely versatile and sensitive to motional timescales from picoseconds to seconds. Over the past decades, technological advances, developments in experimental design, and new isotope-labeling approaches have further expanded the possibilities of this technique and significantly improved the accuracy of the determined motional parameters. Functionally important sites of proteins often contain aromatic residues. Their side-chain motions have therefore long served as valuable indicators of mechanistically relevant dynamics in NMR studies. In this thesis, site-specifically labeled aromatic residues act as sensitive reporters for MAS NMR studies of protein dynamics. The first part addresses how different environments impact side-chain motion by probing ring flips of phenylalanines and tyrosines in crystalline proteins and amyloid fibrils. It provides important insights for the analysis of dynamics obtained in non-native protein environments and emphasizes the complex factors that determine the timescale of internal dynamics. In the second part, the focus shifts towards methodological questions regarding the investigation of protein dynamics by 19F MAS NMR. The fluorine nucleus exhibits promising characteristics for NMR studies but also presents significant challenges, which is why the full methodological potential of 19F MAS NMR has not been fully realized yet. This work demonstrates that paramagnetic doping can considerably reduce the measurement time and improve the sensitivity of fluorinated samples. Finally, 19F MAS NMR is evaluated as a tool for studying protein side-chain dynamics on the example of tryptophans. The results illustrate the challenges in analyzing such experiments and lay the foundation for further development of 19F MAS NMR relaxation studies. Taken together, this thesis highlights the potential of combining specific isotope labeling, MAS NMR, and complementary methods such as crystallography and computational simulations to elucidate internal protein dynamics. The further development of such integrative approaches will be crucial to improving our understanding of complex mechanisms and protein function. }, author = {Becker, Lea Marie}, isbn = {978-3-99078-084-8}, issn = {2663-337X}, pages = {205}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Exploring protein dynamics using specific labeling approaches for solid-state MAS NMR}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-22334}, year = {2026}, } @article{22105, abstract = {Protein conformational energy landscapes are shaped not only by intramolecular interactions but also by their environment. In protein crystals and protein–protein complexes, intermolecular contacts alter this energy landscape, but the exact nature of this alteration is difficult to decipher. Understanding how the crystal lattice affects protein dynamics is crucial for crystallography-based studies of motion, yet its influence on collective motions remains unclear. Aromatic ring flips in the hydrophobic core represent sensitive probes of such dynamics. Here, we compare the kinetics of aromatic ring flips in the protein GB1 in crystals, in complex with its binding partner IgG, and in solution, combining advanced isotope labelling with quantitative NMR methods. We show that rings in the core flip nearly a thousand times less frequently in crystals than in solution. Enhanced-sampling molecular dynamics simulations, based on a crystal structure of a GB1 variant reported in this work, reproduce these elevated barriers and reveal how the crystal restrains motions.}, author = {Becker, Lea Marie and Fu, Haohao and Tatman, Benjamin and Dreydoppel, Matthias and Kapitonova, Anna and Balazs, Daniel and Weininger, Ulrich and Engilberge, Sylvain and Chipot, Christophe and Schanda, Paul}, issn = {17554349}, journal = {Nature Chemistry}, pages = {1221--1230}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Aromatic ring flips reveal reshaping of protein dynamics in crystals and complexes}}, doi = {10.1038/s41557-026-02155-0}, volume = {18}, year = {2026}, } @misc{21145, abstract = {Protein conformational energy landscapes are shaped not only by intramolecular interactions but also by their environment. In protein crystals and protein-protein complexes, intermolecular contacts alter this energy landscape, but the exact nature of this alteration is difficult to decipher. Understanding how the crystal lattice affects protein dynamics is crucial for crystallography-based studies of motion, yet its influence on collective motions remains unclear. Aromatic ring flips in the hydrophobic core represent sensitive probes of such dynamics. Here, we compare the kinetics of aromatic ring flips in the protein GB1 in crystals, in complex with its binding partner IgG, and in solution, combining advanced isotope labeling with quantitative NMR methods. We show that rings in the core flip nearly a thousand times less frequently in crystals than in solution. Enhanced-sampling molecular dynamics simulations, based on a new crystal structure, reproduce these elevated barriers and reveal how the crystal restrains motions. }, author = {Becker, Lea Marie and Schanda, Paul and Chipot, Christophe}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Additional Data for "Aromatic Ring Flips Reveal Reshaping of Protein Dynamics in Crystals and Complexes"}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-21145}, year = {2026}, } @article{22613, abstract = {A phase plate has long been sought in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to maximize the image contrast of weakly-scattering objects like biomolecules. The laser phase plate (LPP) has recently demonstrated that an amplified, focused laser standing wave reliably phase shifts the electron beam, achieving phase-contrast TEM. Building on the single-beam LPP, here we introduce the crossed laser phase plate (XLPP): two laser standing waves which intersect in the diffraction plane. We present a theoretical model for the XLPP inside the microscope and show that, relative to the original LPP, it increases information transfer at low spatial frequencies while suppressing ghost images formed by Kapitza-Dirac diffraction. We also present a simple acquisition scheme, enabled by the XLPP, which further suppresses ghosts. Finally, we discuss practical considerations of XLPP design and show experimental results from a prototype. The results of this study chart the course for future developments of LPP hardware.}, author = {Petrov, Petar N and Zhang, Jessie T. and Axelrod, Jeremy J. and Olshin, Pavel K. and Müller, Holger}, issn = {2041-1723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Crossed laser phase plates for transmission electron microscopy}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-74060-6}, volume = {17}, year = {2026}, } @article{22365, abstract = {Phase plates can, in principle, overcome the poor image contrast in cryo–electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and the resulting limits on the structural reconstruction of small proteins. However, previous designs have been unstable and compromised the high-resolution signal and have thus been unable to surpass results achieved by standard cryo-EM. Here, we show that the laser phase plate (LPP), installed in a modern, custom Titan Krios microscope, enhances the resolution in single-particle reconstruction of small proteins by improving specimen-motion correction and recovery of information from the early frames, as well as particle visualization, three-dimensional classification, and alignment. These advances use standard defocus ranges and reconstruction procedures but open the door to LPP-tailored protocols, offering further improvements by leveraging the LPP demonstrated here.}, author = {Petrov, Petar N and Zhang, Jessie T. and Remis, Jonathan and Axelrod, Jeremy J. and Cheng, Hang and Cooper, Eric S. and Hicklin, Ian K. and Sandhaus, Shahar and Schnurr, Cooper and Glaeser, Robert M. and Müller, Holger}, issn = {1095-9203}, journal = {Science}, number = {6807}, pages = {195--196}, publisher = {AAAS}, title = {{Laser phase plate improves structure determination of small proteins by cryo-EM}}, doi = {10.1126/science.aeh0665}, volume = {393}, year = {2026}, } @article{22443, abstract = {Society faces increasingly severe flood hazards, intensifying demand for flood early warning systems (FEWS) that deliver accurate and actionable information. However, most existing FEWS remain prediction‐centric, treating decision‐making as a downstream consumer of hazard forecasts while offering limited support for uncertainty interpretation, risk communication, and real‐world response. This Perspective presents a vision and blueprint for a novel inland FEWS‐decision‐making (FEWS‐DM) framework that repositions decision‐making as an equal partner in the forecasting process—not a passive recipient of its outputs. The framework is built on three tightly coupled, co‐evolving thrusts: Physical Science (T1), which advances flood prediction with quantified uncertainty informed by decision relevance; Human Science (T2), which incorporates psychology, behavior, and cultural and institutional context; and Decision Science (T3), which unifies physical predictions and human factors through principled, utility‐based decision support with end‐to‐end uncertainty management. Rather than treating T1 as a solved problem, FEWS‐DM recognizes that forecast development itself must be shaped by decision needs through continuous bidirectional feedback. We identify key scientific, behavioral, and operational challenges limiting such integration and discuss the enabling role of AI, while emphasizing human‐centered design and community feedback as essential for building trust and improving flood risk management.}, author = {Tran, Vinh Ngoc and Huan, Xun and Antar, Anindya Das and Banovic, Nikola and Bednar, Jeff H. and Bergt, Shannon Marie and Cheng, Chen and Dominguez, Francina and Fatichi, Simone and Gonzalez, Richard and Gray, Kevin and Jewett, Brian and Kim, Jongho and Le, Phong V.V. and Lu, Dan and Prabhudesai, Snehal and Putri, Deffi and Rath, Sudhansu and Sargsyan, Khachik and Whitaker, Sarah H. and Wright, Daniel B. and Xu, Donghui and Ziker, John P. and Ivanov, Valeriy Y.}, issn = {2328-4277}, journal = {Earth's Future}, number = {6}, publisher = {American Geophysical Union}, title = {{Reimagining how flood warnings can inform decision‐making and community actions}}, doi = {10.1029/2026ef008857}, volume = {14}, year = {2026}, } @article{18706, abstract = {We prove discrete-to-continuum convergence for dynamical optimal transport on Zd -periodic graphs with cost functional having linear growth at infinity. This result provides an answer to a problem left open by Gladbach, Kopfer, Maas, and Portinale (Calc Var Partial Differential Equations 62(5), 2023), where the convergence behaviour of discrete boundary-value dynamical transport problems is proved under the stronger assumption of superlinear growth. Our result extends the known literature to some important classes of examples, such as scaling limits of 1 -Wasserstein transport problems. Similarly to what happens in the quadratic case, the geometry of the graph plays a crucial role in the structure of the limit cost function, as we discuss in the final part of this work, which includes some visual representations.}, author = {Portinale, Lorenzo and Quattrocchi, Filippo}, issn = {1469-4425}, journal = {European Journal of Applied Mathematics}, keywords = {optimal transport, discrete-to-continuum, homogenisation, linear growth, gamma-convergence}, number = {3}, pages = {614--642}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, title = {{Discrete-to-continuum limits of optimal transport with linear growth on periodic graphs}}, doi = {10.1017/s0956792524000810}, volume = {37}, year = {2026}, } @article{21381, abstract = {The lack of long-range electrostatics is a key limitation of modern machine learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs), hindering reliable applications to interfaces, charge-transfer reactions, polar and ionic materials, and biomolecules. In this Perspective, we distill two design principles behind the Latent Ewald Summation framework, which can capture long-range interactions, charges, and electrical response just by learning from standard energy and force training data: (i) use a Coulomb functional form with environment-dependent charges to capture electrostatic interactions, and (ii) avoid explicit training on ambiguous density functional theory partial charges. When both principles are satisfied, substantial flexibility remains: essentially any short-range MLIP can be augmented; charge equilibration schemes can be added when desired; dipoles and Born effective charges can be inferred or fine-tuned; and charge/spin-state embeddings or tensorial targets can be further incorporated. We also discuss current limitations and open challenges. Together, these minimal, physics-guided design rules suggest that incorporating long-range electrostatics into MLIPs is simpler and perhaps more broadly applicable than is commonly assumed.}, author = {Kim, Dongjin and Cheng, Bingqing}, issn = {1089-7690}, journal = {The Journal of Chemical Physics}, number = {6}, publisher = {AIP Publishing}, title = {{Long-range electrostatics for machine learning interatomic potentials is easier than we thought}}, doi = {10.1063/5.0316886}, volume = {164}, year = {2026}, } @article{22441, abstract = {Warming impacts both net primary production (NPP) and soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition, and consequently, SOC storage. However, the role of warming in regulating SOC storage remains debated. Here, we leverage literature data of warming experiments and a mechanistic model to explore SOC responses to warming by partitioning the effects of air and soil warming. Both the literature data and numerical model show that air and soil warming play distinct roles in regulating SOC storage, with insignificant SOC responses under air warming and negative responses to soil warming. Soil warming decreases SOC storage because of temperature-driven increases in decomposition rate. Air warming effects on SOC are more complex. In some cases, air warming can lead to a lower NPP and higher decomposition rate. In others, air warming can stimulate NPP and enhance soil moisture depletion that inhibits SOC decomposition. Once the latter mechanisms dominate, SOC storage increases with air warming.}, author = {Luo, Zhaoyang and Ren, Jianning and Fatichi, Simone}, issn = {2662-4435}, journal = {Communications Earth & Environment}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Air and soil warming have different effects on soil organic carbon storage}}, doi = {10.1038/s43247-026-03367-5}, volume = {7}, year = {2026}, } @article{22528, abstract = {Quantification of the impact of environmental stress on terrestrial vegetation photosynthesis is crucial for our understanding of the global carbon cycle, particularly under a changing climate. Vegetation responses to environmental stress manifest first as plant physiological changes, and at later stages through changes in canopy structure. Here we leverage CO2 and water flux data from 103 eddy covariance towers and satellite thermal images to assess whether current satellite reconstructions of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence capture these plant mechanisms. After removing seasonality using standardized anomalies (z-scores), we found that the relationship between tower-observed gross primary productivity and fluorescence reconstructions considerably weakened across a wide range of biomes. This loss of correlation results from a decoupling between stomatal responses and the physiological emission yield (ΦF) of fluorescence reconstructions during soil and atmospheric dry periods. The consequence is that productivity derived from fluorescence reconstructions will be progressively overestimated as dry conditions persist.}, author = {Zhao, Jiacheng and Paschalis, Athanasios and Gentine, Pierre and Feng, Zhaozhong and Fatichi, Simone}, issn = {2662-4435}, journal = {Communications Earth & Environment}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Limited capability of current satellite solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence reconstructions to capture stomatal responses to environmental stresses}}, doi = {10.1038/s43247-025-03035-0}, volume = {7}, year = {2026}, } @inproceedings{22007, abstract = {Truncation of cryptographic outputs is a technique that was recently introduced in Baldimtsi et al. [Foteini Baldimtsi et al., 2022]. The general idea is to try out many inputs to some cryptographic algorithm until the output (e.g. a public-key or some hash value) falls into some sparse set and thus can be compressed: by trying out an expected 2^k different inputs one will find an output that starts with k zeros. Using such truncation one can for example save substantial gas fees on Blockchains where storing values is very expensive. While [Foteini Baldimtsi et al., 2022] show that truncation preserves the security of the underlying primitive, they only consider a setting without preprocessing. In this work we show that lower bounds on the time-space tradeoff for inverting random functions and permutations also hold with truncation, except for parameters ranges where the bound fails to hold for "trivial" reasons. Concretely, it’s known that any algorithm that inverts a random function or permutation with range N making T queries and using S bits of auxiliary input must satisfy S⋅ T ≥ Nlog N. This lower bound no longer holds in the truncated setting where one must only invert a challenge from a range of size N/2^k, as now one can simply save the replies to all N/2^k challenges, which requires S = log N⋅ N /2^k bits and allows to invert with T = 1 query. We show that with truncation, whenever S is somewhat smaller than the log N⋅ N /2^k bits required to store the entire truncated function table, the known S⋅ T ≥ Nlog N lower bound applies.}, author = {Pietrzak, Krzysztof Z and Wang, Pengxiang}, booktitle = {6th Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography}, isbn = {9783959773850}, issn = {1868-8969}, keywords = {Time-Space Lower Bounds, Blockchains}, location = {Santa Barbara, CA, United States}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik}, title = {{Time-space tradeoffs of truncation with preprocessing}}, doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2025.4}, volume = {343}, year = {2025}, } @article{22032, abstract = {We prove that the focusing and defocusing continuum Calogero–Moser models are well-posed in the scaling-critical space L^2+(R). In the focusing case, this requires solutions to have mass less than that of the soliton.}, author = {Killip, Rowan and Laurens, Thierry and Visan, Monica}, issn = {2692-3688}, journal = {Communications of the American Mathematical Society}, number = {7}, pages = {284--320}, publisher = {American Mathematical Society}, title = {{Scaling-critical well-posedness for continuum Calogero–Moser models on the line}}, doi = {10.1090/cams/48}, volume = {5}, year = {2025}, } @article{22036, abstract = {We prove dispersive decay, pointwise in time, for solutions to the mass-critical nonlinear Schrödinger equation in spatial dimensions d= 1, 2, 3.}, author = {Fan, Chenjie and Killip, Rowan and Visan, Monica and Zhao, Zehua}, issn = {1432-1823}, journal = {Mathematische Zeitschrift}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Dispersive decay for the mass-critical nonlinear Schrödinger equation}}, doi = {10.1007/s00209-025-03821-8}, volume = {311}, year = {2025}, } @article{12662, abstract = {Modern machine learning tasks often require considering not just one but multiple objectives. For example, besides the prediction quality, this could be the efficiency, robustness or fairness of the learned models, or any of their combinations. Multi-objective learning offers a natural framework for handling such problems without having to commit to early trade-offs. Surprisingly, statistical learning theory so far offers almost no insight into the generalization properties of multi-objective learning. In this work, we make first steps to fill this gap: We establish foundational generalization bounds for the multi-objective setting as well as generalization and excess bounds for learning with scalarizations. We also provide the first theoretical analysis of the relation between the Pareto-optimal sets of the true objectives and the Pareto-optimal sets of their empirical approximations from training data. In particular, we show a surprising asymmetry: All Pareto-optimal solutions can be approximated by empirically Pareto-optimal ones, but not vice versa.}, author = {Súkeník, Peter and Lampert, Christoph}, issn = {1433-3058}, journal = {Neural Computing and Applications}, pages = {24669–24683}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Generalization in multi-objective machine learning}}, doi = {10.1007/s00521-024-10616-1}, volume = {37}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{20820, abstract = {The high computational costs of large language models (LLMs) have led to a flurry of research on LLM compression, via methods such as quantization, sparsification, or structured pruning. A new frontier in this area is given by dynamic, non-uniform compression methods, which adjust the compression levels (e.g., sparsity) per-block or even per-layer in order to minimize accuracy loss, while guaranteeing a global compression threshold. Yet, current methods rely on estimating the "importance" of a given layer, implicitly assuming that layers contribute independently to the overall compression error. We begin from the motivating observation that this independence assumption does not generally hold for LLM compression: pruning a model further may even significantly recover performance. To address this, we propose EvoPress, a novel evolutionary framework for dynamic LLM compression. By formulating dynamic compression as a general optimization problem, EvoPress identifies optimal compression profiles in a highly efficient manner, and generalizes across diverse models and compression techniques. Via EvoPress, we achieve state-of-the-art performance for dynamic compression of Llama, Mistral, and Phi models, setting new benchmarks for structural pruning (block/layer dropping), unstructured sparsity, and quantization with dynamic bitwidths.}, author = {Sieberling, Oliver and Kuznedelev, Denis and Kurtic, Eldar and Alistarh, Dan-Adrian}, booktitle = {42nd International Conference on Machine Learning}, issn = {2640-3498}, location = {Vancouver, Canada}, pages = {55556--55590}, publisher = {ML Research Press}, title = {{EvoPress: Accurate dynamic model compression via evolutionary search}}, volume = {267}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{20821, abstract = {Modern deep neural networks exhibit heterogeneity across numerous layers of various types such as residuals, multi-head attention, etc., due to varying structures (dimensions, activation functions, etc.), distinct representation characteristics, which impact predictions. We develop a general layer-wise quantization framework with tight variance and code-length bounds, adapting to the heterogeneities over the course of training. We then apply a new layer-wise quantization technique within distributed variational inequalities (VIs), proposing a novel Quantized Optimistic Dual Averaging (QODA) algorithm with adaptive learning rates, which achieves competitive convergence rates for monotone VIs. We empirically show that QODA achieves up to a 150% speedup over the baselines in end-to-end training time for training Wasserstein GAN on 12+GPUs.}, author = {Nguyen, Anh Duc and Markov, Ilia and Wu, Frank Zhengqing and Ramezani-Kebrya, Ali and Antonakopoulos, Kimon and Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Cevher, Volkan}, booktitle = {42nd International Conference on Machine Learning}, issn = {2640-3498}, location = {Vancouver, Canada}, pages = {46026--46072}, publisher = {ML Research Press}, title = {{Layer-wise quantization for quantized optimistic dual averaging}}, volume = {267}, year = {2025}, } @article{20839, abstract = {For every couple of Hausdorff functions ψ and φ verifying some mild assumptions, there exists a compact subset K of the Baire space such that the φ-Hausdorff measure and the ψ-packing measure on K are both finite and positive. Such examples are then embedded in any infinite dimensional Banach space to answer positively a question of Fan on the existence of metric spaces with arbitrary scales.}, author = {Helfter, Mathieu}, issn = {2308-1317}, journal = {Journal of Fractal Geometry}, publisher = {EMS Press}, title = {{Sets with arbitrary Hausdorff and packing scales in infinite dimensional Banach spaces}}, doi = {10.4171/jfg/177}, year = {2025}, } @misc{20842, abstract = {Probing the possibility of entanglement generation through gravity offers a path to tackle the question of whether gravitational fields possess a quantum mechanical nature. A potential realization necessitates systems with low-frequency dynamics at an optimal mass scale, for which the microgram-to-milligram range is a strong contender. Here, after refining a figure-of-merit for the problem, we present a 1-milligram torsional pendulum operating at 18 Hz. We demonstrate laser cooling its motion from room temperature to 240~microkelvins, surpassing by over 20-fold the coldest motions attained for oscillators ranging from micrograms to kilograms. We quantify and contrast the utility of the current approach with other platforms. The achieved performance and large improvement potential highlight milligram-scale torsional pendulums as a powerful platform for precision measurements relevant to future studies at the quantum-gravity interface.}, author = {Agafonova, Sofya}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Research Data for: 'One-milligram torsional pendulum toward experiments at the quantum-gravity interface'}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-20842}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{20845, abstract = {We develop new attacks against the Evasive LWE family of assumptions, in both the public and private-coin regime. To the best of our knowledge, ours are the first attacks against Evasive LWE in the public-coin regime, for any instantiation from the family. Our attacks are summarized below. Public-Coin Attacks. 1.The recent work by Hseih, Lin and Luo [17] constructed the first Attribute Based Encryption (ABE) for unbounded depth circuits by relying on the “circular” evasive LWE assumption. This assumption has been popularly considered as a safe, public-coin instance of Evasive LWE in contrast to its “private-coin” cousins (for instance, see [10, 11]). We provide the first attack against this assumption, challenging the widely held belief that this is a public-coin assumption. 2. We demonstrate a counter-example against vanilla public-coin evasive LWE by Wee [26] in an unnatural parameter regime. Our attack crucially relies on the error in the pre-condition being larger than the error in the post-condition, necessitating a refinement of the assumption. Private-Coin Attacks. 1. The recent work by Agrawal, Kumari and Yamada [2] constructed the first functional encryption scheme for pseudorandom functionalities (PRFE) and extended this to obfuscation for pseudorandom functionalities (PRIO) [4] by relying on private-coin evasive LWE. We provide a new attack against the assumption stated in the first posting of their work (subsequently refined to avoid these attacks). 2. The recent work by Branco et al. [8] (concurrently to [4]) provides a construction of obfuscation for pseudorandom functionalities by relying on private-coin evasive LWE. We provide a new attack against their stated assumption. 3. Branco et al. [8] showed that there exist contrived, “self-referential” classes of pseudorandom functionalities for which pseudorandom obfuscation cannot exist. We extend their techniques to develop an analogous result for pseudorandom functional encryption. While Evasive LWE was developed to specifically avoid “zeroizing attacks”, our work shows that in certain settings, such attacks can still apply.}, author = {Agrawal, Shweta and Modi, Anuja and Yadav, Anshu and Yamada, Shota}, booktitle = {23rd International Conference on Theory of Cryptography}, isbn = {9783032122926}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Aarhus, Denmark}, pages = {259--290}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Zeroizing attacks against evasive and circular evasive LWE}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-032-12293-3_9}, volume = {16269}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{20846, abstract = {CVRFs are PRFs that unify the properties of verifiable and constrained PRFs. Since they were introduced concurrently by Fuchsbauer and Chandran-Raghuraman-Vinayagamurthy in 2014, it has been an open problem to construct CVRFs without using heavy machinery such as multilinear maps, obfuscation or functional encryption. We solve this problem by constructing a prefix-constrained verifiable PRF that does not rely on the aforementioned assumptions. Essentially, our construction is a verifiable version of the Goldreich-Goldwasser-Micali PRF. To achieve verifiability we leverage degree-2 algebraic PRGs and bilinear groups. In short, proofs consist of intermediate values of the Goldreich-Goldwasser-Micali PRF raised to the exponents of group elements. These outputs can be verified using pairings since the underlying PRG is of degree 2. We prove the selective security of our construction under the Decisional Square Diffie-Hellman (DSDH) assumption and a new assumption, which we dub recursive Decisional Diffie-Hellman (recursive DDH). We prove the soundness of recursive DDH in the generic group model assuming the hardness of the Multivariate Quadratic (MQ) problem and a new variant thereof, which we call MQ+. Last, in terms of applications, we observe that our CVRF is also an exponent (C)VRF in the plain model. Exponent VRFs were recently introduced by Boneh et al. (Eurocrypt’25) with various applications to threshold cryptography in mind. In addition to that, we give further applications for prefix-CVRFs in the blockchain setting, namely, stake-pooling and compressible randomness beacons.}, author = {Brandt, Nicholas and Cueto Noval, Miguel and Günther, Christoph Ullrich and Ünal, Akin and Wohnig, Stella}, booktitle = {23rd International Conference on Theory of Cryptography}, isbn = {9783032122896}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Aarhus, Denmark}, pages = {478--511}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Constrained verifiable random functions without obfuscation and friends}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-032-12290-2_16}, volume = {16271}, year = {2025}, }