@inproceedings{19738, abstract = {Garbling is a fundamental cryptographic primitive, with numerous theoretical and practical applications. Since the first construction by Yao (FOCS’82, ’86), a line of work has concerned itself with reducing the communication and computational complexity of that construction. One of the most efficient garbling schemes presently is the ‘Half Gates’ scheme by Zahur, Rosulek, and Evans (Eurocrypt’15). Despite its widespread adoption, the provable security of this scheme has been based on assumptions whose only instantiations are in idealized models. For example, in their original paper, Zahur, Rosulek, and Evans showed that hash functions satisfying a notion called circular correlation robustness (CCR) suffice for this task, and then proved that CCR secure hash functions can be instantiated in the random permutation model. In this work, we show how to securely instantiate the Half Gates scheme in the standard model. To this end, we first show how this scheme can be securely instantiated given a (family of) weak CCR hash function, a notion that we introduce. Furthermore, we show how a weak CCR hash function can be used to securely instantiate other efficient garbling schemes, namely the ones by Rosulek and Roy (Crypto’21) and Heath (Eurocrypt’24). Thus we believe this notion to be of independent interest. Finally, we construct such weak CCR hash functions using indistinguishability obfuscation and one-way functions. The security proof of this construction constitutes our main technical contribution. While our construction is not practical, it serves as a proof of concept supporting the soundness of these garbling schemes, which we regard to be particularly important given the recent initiative by NIST to standardize garbling, and the optimizations in Half Gates being potentially adopted.}, author = {Acharya, Anasuya and Azari, Karen and Baig, Mirza Ahad and Hofheinz, Dennis and Kamath, Chethan}, booktitle = {28th IACR International Conference on Practice and Theory of Public-Key Cryptography}, isbn = {9783031918285}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Roros, Norway}, pages = {37--75}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Securely instantiating ‘Half Gates’ garbling in the standard model}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-91829-2_2}, volume = {15677}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19739, abstract = {Cooperative verification is gaining momentum in recent years. The usual setup in cooperative verification is that a verifier A is run with some pre-defined resources, and if it is not able to verify the program, the verification task is passed to a verifier B together with information learned about the program by verifier A, then the chain can continue to a verifier C, and so on. This scheme is static: tools run one after another in a fixed pre-defined order and fixed parameters and resource limits (the scheme may differ for properties to be analyzed, though). Bubaak is a program analysis tool that allows to run multiple program verifiers in a dynamically changing combination of parallel and sequential portfolios. Bubaak starts the verification process by invoking an initial set of tasks; every task, when it is done (e.g., because of hitting a time limit or finishing its job), rewrites itself into one or more successor tasks. New tasks can be also spawned upon events generated by other tasks. This all happens dynamically based on the information gathered by finished and running tasks. During their execution, tasks that run in parallel can exchange (partial) verification artifacts, either directly or with Bubaak as an intermediary.}, author = {Chalupa, Marek and Richter, Cedric}, booktitle = {31st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems}, isbn = {9783031906596}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Hamilton, ON, Canada}, pages = {212--216}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{BUBAAK: Dynamic cooperative verification}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-90660-2_14}, volume = {15698}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19740, abstract = {Two standard models for probabilistic systems are Markov chains (MCs) and Markov decision processes (MDPs). Classic objectives for such probabilistic models for control and planning problems are reachability and stochastic shortest path. The widely studied algorithmic approach for these problems is the Value Iteration (VI) algorithm which iteratively applies local updates called Bellman updates. There are many practical approaches for VI in the literature but they all require exponentially many Bellman updates for MCs in the worst case. A preprocessing step is an algorithm that is discrete, graph-theoretical, and requires linear space. An important open question is whether, after a polynomial-time preprocessing, VI can be achieved with sub-exponentially many Bellman updates. In this work, we present a new approach for VI based on guessing values. Our theoretical contributions are twofold. First, for MCs, we present an almost-linear-time preprocessing algorithm after which, along with guessing values, VI requires only subexponentially many Bellman updates. Second, we present an improved analysis of the speed of convergence of VI for MDPs. Finally, we present a practical algorithm for MDPs based on our new approach. Experimental results show that our approach provides a considerable improvement over existing VI-based approaches on several benchmark examples from the literature.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Jafariraviz, Mahdi and Saona Urmeneta, Raimundo J and Svoboda, Jakub}, booktitle = {31st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems}, isbn = {9783031906527}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Hamilton, ON, Canada}, pages = {217--236}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Value iteration with guessing for Markov chains and Markov decision processes}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-90653-4_11}, volume = {15697}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19742, abstract = {Statistical model checking estimates probabilities and expectations of interest in probabilistic system models by using random simulations. Its results come with statistical guarantees. However, many tools use unsound statistical methods that produce incorrect results more often than they claim. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of tools and their correctness, as well as of sound methods available for estimating probabilities from the literature. For expected rewards, we investigate how to bound the path reward distribution to apply sound statistical methods for bounded distributions, of which we recommend the Dvoretzky-Kiefer-Wolfowitz inequality that has not been used in SMC so far. We prove that even reachability rewards can be bounded in theory, and formalise the concept of limit-PAC procedures for a practical solution. The modes SMC tool implements our methods and recommendations, which we use to experimentally confirm our results.}, author = {Budde, Carlos E. and Hartmanns, Arnd and Meggendorfer, Tobias and Weininger, Maximilian and Wienhöft, Patrick}, booktitle = {31st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems}, isbn = {9783031906428}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Hamilton, ON, Canada}, pages = {167--190}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Sound statistical model checking for probabilities and expected rewards}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-90643-5_9}, volume = {15696}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19743, abstract = {The possibility of errors in human-engineered formal verification software, such as model checkers, poses a serious threat to the purpose of these tools. An established approach to mitigate this problem are certificates—lightweight, easy-to-check proofs of the verification results. In this paper, we develop novel certificates for model checking of Markov decision processes (MDPs) with quantitative reachability and expected reward properties. Our approach is conceptually simple and relies almost exclusively on elementary fixed point theory. Our certificates work for arbitrary finite MDPs and can be readily computed with little overhead using standard algorithms. We formalize the soundness of our certificates in Isabelle/HOL and provide a formally verified certificate checker. Moreover, we augment existing algorithms in the probabilistic model checker Storm with the ability to produce certificates and demonstrate practical applicability by conducting the first formal certification of the reference results in the Quantitative Verification Benchmark Set.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Quatmann, Tim and Schäffeler, Maximilian and Weininger, Maximilian and Winkler, Tobias and Zilken, Daniel}, booktitle = {31st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems}, isbn = {9783031906527}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Hamilton, ON, Canada}, pages = {130--151}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Fixed point certificates for reachability and expected rewards in MDPs}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-90653-4_7}, volume = {15697}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19744, abstract = {We consider the problem of refuting equivalence of probabilistic programs, i.e., the problem of proving that two probabilistic programs induce different output distributions. We study this problem in the context of programs with conditioning (i.e., with observe and score statements), where the output distribution is conditioned by the event that all the observe statements along a run evaluate to true, and where the probability densities of different runs may be updated via the score statements. Building on a recent work on programs without conditioning, we present a new equivalence refutation method for programs with conditioning. Our method is based on weighted restarting, a novel transformation of probabilistic programs with conditioning to the output equivalent probabilistic programs without conditioning that we introduce in this work. Our method is the first to be both a) fully automated, and b) providing provably correct answers. We demonstrate the applicability of our method on a set of programs from the probabilistic inference literature.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Kafshdar Goharshadi, Ehsan and Novotný, Petr and Zikelic, Dorde}, booktitle = {31st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems}, isbn = {9783031906527}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Hamilton, ON, Canada}, pages = {279--300}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Refuting equivalence in probabilistic programs with conditioning}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-90653-4_14}, volume = {15697}, year = {2025}, } @misc{19769, abstract = {Artifact to reproduce the experimental results presented in the article "Sound Statistical Model Checking for Probabilities and Expected Rewards" by Carlos E. Budde, Arnd Hartmanns, Tobias Meggendorfer, Maximilian Weininger, and Patrick Wienhöft (TACAS 2025). The contents include all data and software (formal models, software tools, Python & bash scripts) used in the experimental evaluation presented in sections 3, 4, and 6 of the article. Detailed instructions on how to reproduce the results are bundled in the artifact.}, author = {Budde, Carlos and Hartmanns, Arnd and Meggendorfer, Tobias and Weininger, Maximilian and Wienhöft, Patrick}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Sound statistical model checking for probabilities and expected rewards (experimental reproduction package)}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.14602066}, year = {2025}, } @misc{19771, abstract = {This artifact allows to review and reproduce the Isabelle proofs and practical experiments from the paper *Fixed Point Certificates for Reachability and Expected Rewards in MDPs*. The contents are two-fold: First, the artifact contains a formally verified certificate checker for the certificates presented in the paper. The formal Isabelle/HOL proofs of the background theory can be inspected, checked by Isabelle and the code extraction can be retraced. Second, the artifact contains a modified version of the model checking tool `Storm` with support for certificate generation. Together with the provided scripts and benchmark files, this allows to reproduce the experiments from the paper. An appropriate subset of the experiments is given to allow a review in a timely manner. In addition, original logfiles from our experiments are provided, allowing a detailed inspection. The package includes convenient installation scripts for [the TACAS 2023 VM](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7113223) (based on Ubuntu 22.04). A native installation on Linux or macOS systems (including the newer ARM-based machines) is also possible.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Quatmann, Tim and Schäffeler, Maximilian and Weininger, Maximilian and Winkler, Tobias and Zilken, Daniel}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Artifact: Fixed point certificates for reachability and expected rewards in MDPs}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.14626585}, year = {2025}, } @article{19777, abstract = {Snow cover is of key importance for water resources in high mountain Asia (HMA) and is expected to undergo extensive changes in a warming climate. Past studies have quantified snow cover changes with satellite products of relatively low spatial resolution (∼500 m) which are hindered by the steep topography of this mountain region. We derive snowlines from Sentinel-2 and Landsat 5, 7 and 8 images, which, thanks to their higher spatial resolution, are less sensitive to the local topography. We calculate the snow line altitude (SLA) and its seasonality for all glacierized catchments of HMA and link these patterns to climate variables corrected for topographic biases. As such, the snowline changes provide a clear proxy for climatic changes. Our results highlight a strong spatial variability in mean SLA and in its seasonal changes, including across mountain chains and between the monsoon-dominated and the westerlies-dominated catchments. Over the period 1999–2019, the western regions of HMA (Pamir, Karakoram, Western Himalaya) have undergone increased snow coverage, expressed as seasonal SLA decrease, in spring and summer. This change is opposed to a widespread increase in SLA in autumn across the region, and especially the southeastern regions of HMA (Nyainqentanglha, Hengduan Shan, South–East Himalaya). Our results indicate that the diversity of seasonal snow dynamics across the region is controlled not by temperature or precipitation directly but by the timing and partitioning of solid precipitation. Decadal snowline changes (1999–2009 vs 2009–2019) seasonally precede temperature changes, suggesting that seasonal temperature changes in the Karakoram–Pamir and Eastern Nyainqentanglha regions may have responded to snow cover changes, rather than driving them.}, author = {Bernat, M. and Miles, E. S. and Kneib, M. and Fujita, K. and Sasaki, O. and Shaw, Thomas and Pellicciotti, Francesca}, issn = {1748-9326}, journal = {Environmental Research Letters}, number = {6}, publisher = {IOP Publishing}, title = {{Precipitation phase drives seasonal and decadal snowline changes in high mountain Asia}}, doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/adcf39}, volume = {20}, year = {2025}, } @inproceedings{19778, abstract = {A verifiable delay function VDF(x, T)->(y, π) maps an input x and time parameter T to an output y together with an efficiently verifiable proof π certifying that y was correctly computed. The function runs in T sequential steps, and it should not be possible to compute y much faster than that. The only known practical VDFs use sequential squaring in groups of unknown order as the sequential function, i.e., y = x^2^T. There are two constructions for the proof of exponentiation (PoE) certifying that y = x^2^T, with Wesolowski (Eurocrypt’19) having very short proofs, but they are more expensive to compute and the soundness relies on stronger assumptions than the PoE proposed by Pietrzak (ITCS’19). A recent application of VDFs by Arun, Bonneau and Clark (Asiacrypt’22) are short-lived proofs and signatures, which are proofs and signatures that are only sound for some time t, but after that can be forged by anyone. For this they rely on “watermarkable VDFs”, where the proof embeds a prover chosen watermark. To achieve stronger notions of proofs/signatures with reusable forgeability, they rely on “zero-knowledge VDFs”, where instead of the output y, one just proves knowledge of this output. The existing proposals for watermarkable and zero-knowledge VDFs all build on Wesolowski’s PoE, for the watermarkable VDFs there’s currently no security proof. In this work we give the first constructions that transform any PoEs in hidden order groups into watermarkable VDFs and into zkVDFs, solving an open question by Arun et al. Unlike our watermarkable VDF, the zkVDF (required for reusable forgeability) is not very practical as the number of group elements in the proof is a security parameter. To address this, we introduce the notion of zero-knowledge proofs of sequential work (zkPoSW), a notion that relaxes zkVDFs by not requiring that the output is unique. We show that zkPoSW are sufficient to construct proofs or signatures with reusable forgeability, and construct efficient zkPoSW from any PoE, ultimately achieving short lived proofs and signatures that improve upon Arun et al.’s construction in several dimensions (faster forging times, arguably weaker assumptions). A key idea underlying our constructions is to not directly construct a (watermarked or zk) proof for y = x^2^T, but instead give a (watermarked or zk) proof for the more basic statement that x^l, y^l satisfy x^l = x ^r, y^l = y^r for some r, together with a normal PoE for y^l = (x^l)^2^T.}, author = {Hoffmann, Charlotte and Pietrzak, Krzysztof Z}, booktitle = {28th IACR International Conference on Practice and Theory of Public-Key Cryptography}, isbn = {9783031918193}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Roros, Norway}, pages = {36--66}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Watermarkable and zero-knowledge Verifiable Delay Functions from any proof of exponentiation}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-91820-9_2}, volume = {15674}, year = {2025}, } @article{19779, abstract = {The transverse thermoelectric (Nernst) effect is a powerful probe for studying the electronic and structural properties of materials. In this study, we employ transverse thermoelectric measurements to investigate the ferroelectric distortion in the topological crystalline insulator (TCI) Pb0.60Sn0.40Te, a compound derived from PbTe and SnTe, known for their exceptional thermoelectric performance and distinct ferroelectric properties. By leveraging Nernst measurements, we provide direct evidence of ferroelectric distortion in this TCI, corroborated by Shubnikov–de Haas quantum oscillations that confirm the presence of two topologically nontrivial Fermi pockets. Density functional theory calculations show that these pockets originate from the L and T points in the Brillouin zone of the distorted structure within the TCI phase. Raman spectroscopy further identifies a structural phase transition below 50 K, consistent with the quantum oscillation observations. This observation is further substantiated by temperature-dependent synchrotron X-ray pair distribution function analysis and transmission electron microscopy, which confirm the local off-centering of cations at low temperature. These findings underscore the potential of transverse thermoelectric measurements in unveiling ferroelectric distortions and their role in modulating topological quantum states, opening new directions for research into the synergy between ferroelectricity and topological phases.}, author = {Negi, Pranav and He, Bin and Ukolov, Denis and Horta, Sharona and Maji, Krishnendu and Mao, Ning and Peshcherenko, Nikolai and Yanda, Premakumar and Yao, Mengyu and Dutta, Moinak and Robredo, Iñigo and Iraola, Mikel and Vergniory, Maia G. and Lemmens, Peter and Zhang, Yang and Shekhar, Chandra and Ibáñez, Maria and Felser, Claudia and Roychowdhury, Subhajit}, issn = {1520-5126}, journal = {Journal of the American Chemical Society}, number = {22}, pages = {18704--18711}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{Evidence of ferroelectric distortions in topological crystalline insulators via transverse thermoelectric measurements}}, doi = {10.1021/jacs.5c01700}, volume = {147}, year = {2025}, } @misc{19780, abstract = {This repository contains the data used for the study Precipitation phase drives seasonal and decadal snowline changes in high mountain Asia. This study focuses on 4776 glacierized catchments across high mountain Asia (HMA). They are numbered from 0 to 4775. This code number is then used in all the products as their unique ID. }, author = {Bernat, M}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Snow line altitude in high mountain Asia derived from satellite imagery (LS5, LS7, LS8 & S2) between 1999 and 2019}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.15223343}, year = {2025}, } @article{19783, abstract = {We consider a local Cahn–Hilliard‐type model for tumor growth as well as a nonlocal model where, compared to the local system, the Laplacian in the equation for the chemical potential is replaced by a nonlocal operator. The latter is defined as a convolution integral with suitable kernels parametrized by a small parameter. For sufficiently smooth bounded domains in three dimensions, we prove convergence of weak solutions of the nonlocal model toward strong solutions of the local model together with convergence rates with respect to the small parameter. The proof is done via a Gronwall‐type argument and a convergence result with rates for the nonlocal integral operator toward the Laplacian due to Abels and Hurm.}, author = {Hurm, Christoph and Moser, Maximilian}, issn = {1522-2608}, journal = {GAMM-Mitteilungen}, number = {2}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Nonlocal‐to‐local convergence for a Cahn–Hilliard tumor growth model}}, doi = {10.1002/gamm.70003}, volume = {48}, year = {2025}, } @article{19784, abstract = {We present the Red Unknowns: Bright Infrared Extragalactic Survey (RUBIES) providing JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy of red sources selected across ∼150 arcmin2 from public JWST/NIRCam imaging in the UDS and EGS fields. The novel observing strategy of RUBIES offers a well-quantified selection function. The survey has been optimised to reach high (>70%) spectroscopic completeness for bright and red (F150W−F444W>2) sources that are very rare. To place these rare sources in context, we simultaneously observed a reference sample of the 23 using only the G395M disperser. The RUBIES data reveal a highly diverse population of red sources that span a broad redshift range (zspec∼1−9), with photometric redshift scatter and an outlier fraction that are three times higher than for similarly bright sources that are less red. This diversity is not apparent from the photometric spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Only spectroscopy reveals that the SEDs encompass a mixture of galaxies with dust-obscured star formation, extreme line emission, a lack of star formation indicating early quenching, and luminous active galactic nuclei. As a first demonstration of our broader selection function we compared the stellar masses and rest-frame U−V colours of the red sources and our reference sample. We find that the red sources are typically more massive (M*∼1010−11.5 M⊙) across all redshifts. However, we also find that the most massive systems span a wide range in U−V colour. We describe our data reduction procedure and data quality, and we publicly release the reduced RUBIES data and vetted spectroscopic redshifts of the first half of the survey through the DAWN JWST Archive.}, author = {de Graaff, Anna and Brammer, Gabriel and Weibel, Andrea and Lewis, Zach and Maseda, Michael V. and Oesch, Pascal A. and Bezanson, Rachel and Boogaard, Leindert A. and Cleri, Nikko J. and Cooper, Olivia R. and Gottumukkala, Rashmi and Greene, Jenny E. and Hirschmann, Michaela and Hviding, Raphael E. and Katz, Harley and Labbé, Ivo and Leja, Joel and Matthee, Jorryt J and McConachie, Ian and Miller, Tim B. and Naidu, Rohan P. and Price, Sedona H. and Rix, Hans-Walter and Setton, David J. and Suess, Katherine A. and Wang, Bingjie and Whitaker, Katherine E. and Williams, Christina C.}, issn = {1432-0746}, journal = {Astronomy & Astrophysics}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, title = {{RUBIES: A complete census of the bright and red distant universe with JWST/NIRSpec}}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202452186}, volume = {697}, year = {2025}, } @misc{19791, abstract = {Confinement is a prominent phenomenon in condensed matter and high-energy physics that has recently become the focus of quantum-simulation experiments of lattice gauge theories (LGTs). As such, a theoretical understanding of the effect of confinement on LGT dynamics is not only of fundamental importance, but can lend itself to upcoming experiments. Here, we show how confinement in a Z2 LGT can be locally avoided by proximity to a resonance between the fermion mass and the electric field strength. Furthermore, we show that this local deconfinement can become global for certain initial conditions, where information transport occurs over the entire chain. In addition, we show how this can lead to strong quantum many-body scarring starting in different initial states. Our findings provide deeper insights into the nature of confinement in Z2 LGTs and can be tested on current and near-term quantum devices.}, author = {Desaules, Jean-Yves Marc}, keywords = {lattice gauge theories, quantum many-body scars, deconfinement}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Research Data for "Mass-Assisted Local Deconfinement in a Confined Z2 Lattice Gauge Theory"}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:ISTA:19791}, year = {2025}, } @article{19794, abstract = {Status epilepticus (SE), seizures lasting beyond five minutes, is a medical emergency commonly treated with benzodiazepines which enhance GABAA receptor (GABAAR) conductance. Despite widespread use, benzodiazepines fail in over one-third of patients, potentially due to seizure-induced disruption of neuronal chloride (Cl−) homeostasis. Understanding these changes at a network level is crucial for improving clinical translation. Here, we address this using a large-scale spiking neural network model incorporating Cl− dynamics, informed by clinical EEG and experimental slice recordings. Our simulations confirm that the GABAAR reversal potential (EGABA) dictates the pro- or anti-seizure effect of GABAAR conductance modulation, with high EGABA rendering benzodiazepines ineffective or excitatory. We show SE-like activity and EGABA depend non-linearly on Cl− extrusion efficacy and GABAAR conductance. Critically, cell-type specific manipulations reveal that pyramidal cell, not interneuron, Cl− extrusion predominantly determines the severity of SE activity and the response to simulated benzodiazepines. Leveraging these mechanistic insights, we develop a predictive framework mapping network states to Cl− extrusion capacity and GABAergic load, yielding a proposed decision-making strategy to guide therapeutic interventions based on initial treatment response. This work identifies pyramidal cell Cl− handling as a key therapeutic target and demonstrates the utility of biophysically detailed network models for optimising SE treatment protocols.}, author = {Currin, Christopher and Burman, Richard J. and Fedele, Tommaso and Ramantani, Georgia and Rosch, Richard E. and Sprekeler, Henning and Raimondo, Joseph V.}, issn = {1095-953X}, journal = {Neurobiology of Disease}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Network models incorporating chloride dynamics predict optimal strategies for terminating status epilepticus}}, doi = {10.1016/j.nbd.2025.106966}, volume = {212}, year = {2025}, } @article{19796, abstract = {Motivation: Boolean networks are popular dynamical models of cellular processes in systems biology. Their attractors model phenotypes that arise from the interplay of key regulatory subcircuits. A succession diagram (SD) describes this interplay in a discrete analog of Waddington’s epigenetic attractor landscape that allows for fast identification of attractors and attractor control strategies. Efficient computational tools for studying SDs are essential for the understanding of Boolean attractor landscapes and connecting them to their biological functions. Results: We present a new approach to SD construction for asynchronously updated Boolean networks, implemented in the biologist’s Boolean attractor landscape mapper, biobalm. We compare biobalm to similar tools and find a substantial performance increase in SD construction, attractor identification, and attractor control. We perform the most comprehensive comparative analysis to date of the SD structure in experimentally-validated Boolean models of cell processes and random ensembles. We find that random models (including critical Kauffman networks) have relatively small SDs, indicating simple decision structures. In contrast, nonrandom models from the literature are enriched in extremely large SDs, indicating an abundance of decision points and suggesting the presence of complex Waddington landscapes in nature. Availability and implementation: The tool biobalm is available online at https://github.com/jcrozum/biobalm. Further data, scripts for testing, analysis, and figure generation are available online at https://github.com/jcrozum/biobalm-analysis and in the reproducibility artefact at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13854760.}, author = {Trinh, Van Giang and Park, Kyu Hyong and Pastva, Samuel and Rozum, Jordan C.}, issn = {1367-4811}, journal = {Bioinformatics}, number = {5}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, title = {{Mapping the attractor landscape of Boolean networks with biobalm}}, doi = {10.1093/bioinformatics/btaf280}, volume = {41}, year = {2025}, } @article{19797, abstract = {Stars stripped of their hydrogen-rich envelopes through binary interaction are thought to be responsible for both hydrogen-poor supernovae and the hard ionizing radiation observed in low-Z galaxies. A population of these stars was recently observed for the first time, but their prevalence remains unknown. In preparation for such measurements, we estimate the mass distribution of hot, stripped stars using a population synthesis code that interpolates over detailed single and binary stellar evolution tracks. We predict that for a constant star formation rate of 1 M⊙/yr and regardless of metallicity, a scalable model population contains ∼30 000 stripped stars with mass Mstrip > 1 M⊙ and ∼4000 stripped stars that are sufficiently massive to explode (Mstrip > 2.6 M⊙). Below Mstrip = 5 M⊙, the distribution is metallicity-independent and can be described by a power law with the exponent α ∼ −2. At higher masses and lower metallicity (Z ≲ 0.002), the mass distribution exhibits a drop. This originates from the prediction, frequently seen in evolutionary models, that massive low-metallicity stars do not expand substantially until central helium burning or later and therefore cannot form long-lived stripped stars. With weaker line-driven winds at low metallicity, this suggests that neither binary interaction nor wind mass loss can efficiently strip massive stars at low metallicity. As a result, a “helium-star desert” emerges around Mstrip = 15 M⊙ at Z = 0.002, covering an increasingly large mass range with decreasing metallicity. We note that these high-mass stars are those that potentially boost a galaxy’s He+-ionizing radiation and that participate in the formation of merging black holes. This “helium-star desert” therefore merits further study.}, author = {Hovis-Afflerbach, B. and Götberg, Ylva Louise Linsdotter and Schootemeijer, A. and Klencki, J. and Strom, A. L. and Ludwig, B. A. and Drout, M. R.}, issn = {1432-0746}, journal = {Astronomy & Astrophysics}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, title = {{The mass distribution of stars stripped in binaries: The effect of metallicity}}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202453185}, volume = {697}, year = {2025}, } @article{19798, abstract = {In an n×n array filled with symbols, a transversal is a collection of entries with distinct rows, columns and symbols. In this note we show that if no symbol appears more than βn times, the array contains a transversal of size (1−β/4−o(1))n . In particular, if the array is filled with n symbols, each appearing n times (an equi- n square), we get transversals of size (3/4−o(1))n. Moreover, our proof gives a deterministic algorithm with polynomial running time, that finds these transversals.}, author = {Anastos, Michael and Morris, Patrick}, issn = {1520-6610}, journal = {Journal of Combinatorial Designs}, number = {9}, pages = {338--342}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{A note on finding large transversals efficiently}}, doi = {10.1002/jcd.21990}, volume = {33}, year = {2025}, } @article{19833, abstract = {Eigenstates of quantum many-body systems are often used to define phases of matter in and out of equilibrium; however, experimentally accessing highly excited eigenstates is a challenging task, calling for alternative strategies to dynamically probe nonequilibrium phases. In this work, we characterize the dynamical properties of a disordered spin chain, focusing on the spin-glass regime. Using tensor-network simulations, we observe oscillatory behavior of local expectation values and bipartite entanglement entropy. We explain these oscillations deep in the many-body localized spin-glass regime via a simple theoretical model. From perturbation theory, we predict the timescales up to which our analytical description is valid and confirm it with numerical simulations. Finally, we study the correlation length dynamics, which, after a long-time plateau, resume growing in line with renormalization group (RG) expectations. Our work suggests that RG predictions can be quantitatively tested against numerical simulations and experiments, potentially enabling microscopic descriptions of dynamical phases in large systems.}, author = {Brighi, Pietro and Ljubotina, Marko and Serbyn, Maksym}, issn = {2469-9969}, journal = {Physical Review B}, number = {22}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Probing the many-body localized spin-glass phase through quench dynamics}}, doi = {10.1103/9fms-ygfz}, volume = {111}, year = {2025}, }