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1. Characterizing and Mitigating Intraday Variability: Reconstructing Source Structure in Accreting Black Holes with mm-VLBI

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac6584  

   Broderick, Avery E. ; Gold, Roman ; Georgiev, Boris ; Pesce, Dominic W. ; Tiede, Paul ; Ni, Chunchong ; Moriyama, Kotaro ; Akiyama, Kazunori ; Alberdi, Antxon ; Alef, Walter ; et al ( May 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Abstract The extraordinary physical resolution afforded by the Event Horizon Telescope has opened a window onto the astrophysical phenomena unfolding on horizon scales in two known black holes, M87 * and Sgr A*. However, with this leap in resolution has come a new set of practical complications. Sgr A* exhibits intraday variability that violates the assumptions underlying Earth aperture synthesis, limiting traditional image reconstruction methods to short timescales and data sets with very sparse ( u , v ) coverage. We present a new set of tools to detect and mitigate this variability. We develop a data-driven, model-agnostic procedure to detect and characterize the spatial structure of intraday variability. This method is calibrated against a large set of mock data sets, producing an empirical estimator of the spatial power spectrum of the brightness fluctuations. We present a novel Bayesian noise modeling algorithm that simultaneously reconstructs an average image and statistical measure of the fluctuations about it using a parameterized form for the excess variance in the complex visibilities not otherwise explained by the statistical errors. These methods are validated using a variety of simulated data, including general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations appropriate for Sgr A* and M87 * . We findmore »that the reconstructed source structure and variability are robust to changes in the underlying image model. We apply these methods to the 2017 EHT observations of M87 * , finding evidence for variability across the EHT observing campaign. The variability mitigation strategies presented are widely applicable to very long baseline interferometry observations of variable sources generally, for which they provide a data-informed averaging procedure and natural characterization of inter-epoch image consistency.« less
2. Search for supersymmetry in final states with two oppositely charged same-flavor leptons and missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2021)123  

   Sirunyan, A. M. ; Tumasyan, A. ; Adam, W. ; Bergauer, T. ; Dragicevic, M. ; Escalante Del Valle, A. ; Frühwirth, R. ; Jeitler, M. ; Krammer, N. ; Lechner, L. ; et al ( April 2021 , Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A bstract A search for phenomena beyond the standard model in final states with two oppositely charged same-flavor leptons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The search uses a data sample of proton-proton collisions at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb − 1 , collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Three potential signatures of physics beyond the standard model are explored: an excess of events with a lepton pair, whose invariant mass is consistent with the Z boson mass; a kinematic edge in the invariant mass distribution of the lepton pair; and the nonresonant production of two leptons. The observed event yields are consistent with those expected from standard model backgrounds. The results of the first search allow the exclusion of gluino masses up to 1870 GeV, as well as chargino (neutralino) masses up to 750 (800) GeV, while those of the searches for the other two signatures allow the exclusion of light-flavor (bottom) squark masses up to 1800 (1600) GeV and slepton masses up to 700 GeV, respectively, at 95% confidence level within certain supersymmetry scenarios.
3. The Perils and Pitfalls of Block Design for EEG Classification Experiments

   https://doi.org/10.1109/TPAMI.2020.2973153  

   Li, Ren ; Johansen, Jared S. ; Ahmed, Hamad ; Ilyevsky, Thomas V. ; Wilbur, Ronnie B. ; Bharadwaj, Hari M. ; Siskind, Jeffrey Mark ( January 2021 , IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence)

   A recent paper [1] claims to classify brain processing evoked in subjects watching ImageNet stimuli as measured with EEG and to employ a representation derived from this processing to construct a novel object classifier. That paper, together with a series of subsequent papers [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , claims to achieve successful results on a wide variety of computer-vision tasks, including object classification, transfer learning, and generation of images depicting human perception and thought using brain-derived representations measured through EEG. Our novel experiments and analyses demonstrate that their results crucially depend on the block design that they employ, where all stimuli of a given class are presented together, and fail with a rapid-event design, where stimuli of different classes are randomly intermixed. The block design leads to classification of arbitrary brain states based on block-level temporal correlations that are known to exist in all EEG data, rather than stimulus-related activity. Because every trial in their test sets comes from the same block as many trials in the corresponding training sets, their block design thus leads to classifying arbitrary temporal artifacts of the data instead of stimulus-related activity. This invalidates all subsequentmore »analyses performed on this data in multiple published papers and calls into question all of the reported results. We further show that a novel object classifier constructed with a random codebook performs as well as or better than a novel object classifier constructed with the representation extracted from EEG data, suggesting that the performance of their classifier constructed with a representation extracted from EEG data does not benefit from the brain-derived representation. Together, our results illustrate the far-reaching implications of the temporal autocorrelations that exist in all neuroimaging data for classification experiments. Further, our results calibrate the underlying difficulty of the tasks involved and caution against overly optimistic, but incorrect, claims to the contrary.« less
4. Search for long-lived charginos based on a disappearing-track signature using 136 fb$$^{-1}$$ of pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}$$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10489-5  

   Aad, G. ; Abbott, B. ; Abbott, D. C. ; Abed Abud, A. ; Abeling, K. ; Abhayasinghe, D. K. ; Abidi, S. H. ; Abramowicz, H. ; Abreu, H. ; Abulaiti, Y. ; et al ( July 2022 , The European Physical Journal C)

   Abstract A search for long-lived charginos produced either directly or in the cascade decay of heavy prompt gluino states is presented. The search is based on proton–proton collision data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of $$\sqrt{s}$$ s  = 13 T $$\text {eV}$$ eV between 2015 and 2018 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 136 fb $$^{-1}$$ - 1 . Long-lived charginos are characterised by a distinct signature of a short and then disappearing track, and are reconstructed using at least four measurements in the ATLAS pixel detector, with no subsequent measurements in the silicon-microstrip tracking volume nor any associated energy deposits in the calorimeter. The final state is complemented by a large missing transverse-momentum requirement for triggering purposes and at least one high-transverse-momentum jet. No excess above the expected backgrounds is observed. Exclusion limits are set at 95% confidence level on the masses of the chargino and gluino for different chargino lifetimes. Chargino masses up to 660 (210) G $$\text {eV}$$ eV are excluded in scenarios where the chargino is a pure wino (higgsino). For charginos produced during the cascade decay of a heavy gluino, gluinos with masses below 2.1 T $$\text {eV}$$ eV are excluded for a charginomore »mass of 300 G $$\text {eV}$$ eV and a lifetime of 0.2 ns.« less
5. Low-energy physics in neutrino LArTPCs

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6471/acad17  

   Andringa, S ; Asaadi, J ; Bezerra, J T ; Capozzi, F ; Caratelli, D ; Cavanna, F ; Church, E ; Efremenko, Y ; Foreman, W ; Friedland, A ; et al ( January 2023 , Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics)

   Abstract In this paper, we review scientific opportunities and challenges related to detection and reconstruction of low-energy (less than 100 MeV) signatures in liquid argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) neutrino detectors. LArTPC neutrino detectors designed for performing precise long-baseline oscillation measurements with GeV-scale accelerator neutrino beams also have unique sensitivity to a range of physics and astrophysics signatures via detection of event features at and below the few tens of MeV range. In addition, low-energy signatures are an integral part of GeV-scale accelerator neutrino interaction final-states, and their reconstruction can enhance the oscillation physics sensitivities of LArTPC experiments. New physics signals from accelerator and natural sources also generate diverse signatures in the low-energy range, and reconstruction of these signatures can increase the breadth of Beyond the Standard Model scenarios accessible in LArTPC-based searches. A variety of experimental and theory-related challenges remain to realizing this full range of potential benefits. Neutrino interaction cross-sections and other nuclear physics processes in argon relevant to sub-hundred-MeV LArTPC signatures are poorly understood, and improved theory and experimental measurements are needed; pion decay-at-rest sources and charged particle and neutron test beams are ideal facilities for improving this understanding. There are specific calibration needs in the low-energy range,more »as well as specific needs for control and understanding of radiological and cosmogenic backgrounds. Low-energy signatures, whether steady-state or part of a supernova burst or larger GeV-scale event topology, have specific triggering, DAQ and reconstruction requirements that must be addressed outside the scope of conventional GeV-scale data collection and analysis pathways. Novel concepts for future LArTPC technology that enhance low-energy capabilities should also be explored to help address these challenges.« less