More Like this

1. Non-volatile electrically programmable integrated photonics with a 5-bit operation

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39180-3  

   Chen, Rui; Fang, Zhuoran; Perez, Christopher; Miller, Forrest; Kumari, Khushboo; Saxena, Abhi; Zheng, Jiajiu; Geiger, Sarah J.; Goodson, Kenneth E.; Majumdar, Arka (December 2023, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Scalable programmable photonic integrated circuits (PICs) can potentially transform the current state of classical and quantum optical information processing. However, traditional means of programming, including thermo-optic, free carrier dispersion, and Pockels effect result in either large device footprints or high static energy consumptions, significantly limiting their scalability. While chalcogenide-based non-volatile phase-change materials (PCMs) could mitigate these problems thanks to their strong index modulation and zero static power consumption, they often suffer from large absorptive loss, low cyclability, and lack of multilevel operation. Here, we report a wide-bandgap PCM antimony sulfide (Sb₂S₃)-clad silicon photonic platform simultaneously achieving low loss (<1.0 dB), high extinction ratio (>10 dB), high cyclability (>1600 switching events), and 5-bit operation. These Sb₂S₃-based devices are programmed via on-chip silicon PIN diode heaters within sub-ms timescale, with a programming energy density of$$\sim 10\,{fJ}/n{m}^{3}$$ $~10fJ/n{m}^3$. Remarkably, Sb₂S₃is programmed into fine intermediate states by applying multiple identical pulses, providing controllable multilevel operations. Through dynamic pulse control, we achieve 5-bit (32 levels) operations, rendering 0.50 ± 0.16 dB per step. Using this multilevel behavior, we further trim random phase error in a balanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer. 

   more » « less
2. Spherical convex hull of random points on a wedge

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00208-023-02704-9  

   Besau, Florian; Gusakova, Anna; Reitzner, Matthias; Schütt, Carsten; Thäle, Christoph; Werner, Elisabeth_M (August 2023, Mathematische Annalen)

   Abstract Consider two half-spaces$$H_1^+$$ $H_1^{+}$and$$H_2^+$$ $H_2^{+}$in$${\mathbb {R}}^{d+1}$$ $R^{d+1}$whose bounding hyperplanes$$H_1$$ $H_1$and$$H_2$$ $H_2$are orthogonal and pass through the origin. The intersection$${\mathbb {S}}_{2,+}^d:={\mathbb {S}}^d\cap H_1^+\cap H_2^+$$ $S_{2,+}^d:=S^d\cap H_1^{+}\cap H_2^{+}$is a spherical convex subset of thed-dimensional unit sphere$${\mathbb {S}}^d$$ $S^d$, which contains a great subsphere of dimension$$d-2$$ $d-2$and is called a spherical wedge. Choosenindependent random points uniformly at random on$${\mathbb {S}}_{2,+}^d$$ $S_{2,+}^d$and consider the expected facet number of the spherical convex hull of these points. It is shown that, up to terms of lower order, this expectation grows like a constant multiple of$$\log n$$ $logn$. A similar behaviour is obtained for the expected facet number of a homogeneous Poisson point process on$${\mathbb {S}}_{2,+}^d$$ $S_{2,+}^d$. The result is compared to the corresponding behaviour of classical Euclidean random polytopes and of spherical random polytopes on a half-sphere. 

   more » « less
3. Partitioned matching games for international kidney exchange

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-025-02200-9  

   Benedek, Márton; Biró, Péter; Kern, Walter; Pálvölgyi, Dömötör; Paulusma, Daniel (February 2025, Mathematical Programming)

   Abstract We introduce partitioned matching games as a suitable model for international kidney exchange programmes, where in each round the total number of available kidney transplants needs to be distributed amongst the participating countries in a “fair” way. A partitioned matching game (N, v) is defined on a graph$$G=(V,E)$$ $G=(V,E)$with an edge weightingwand a partition$$V=V_1 \cup \dots \cup V_n$$ $V=V_1\cup \cdots \cup V_n$. The player set is$$N = \{ 1, \dots , n\}$$ $N=\{1,\cdots ,n\}$, and player$$p \in N$$ $p\in N$owns the vertices in$$V_p$$ $V_p$. The valuev(S) of a coalition $$S \subseteq N$$ $S\subseteq N$is the maximum weight of a matching in the subgraph ofGinduced by the vertices owned by the players in S. If$$|V_p|=1$$ $|V_p|=1$for all$$p\in N$$ $p\in N$, then we obtain the classical matching game. Let$$c=\max \{|V_p| \; |\; 1\le p\le n\}$$ $c=max\left\{\right|V_p\left|\right|1\le p\le n\}$be the width of (N, v). We prove that checking core non-emptiness is polynomial-time solvable if$$c\le 2$$ $c\le 2$but co--hard if$$c\le 3$$ $c\le 3$. We do this via pinpointing a relationship with the known class ofb-matching games and completing the complexity classification on testing core non-emptiness forb-matching games. With respect to our application, we prove a number of complexity results on choosing, out of possibly many optimal solutions, one that leads to a kidney transplant distribution that is as close as possible to some prescribed fair distribution. 

   more » « less
4. On a Traveling Salesman Problem for Points in the Unit Cube

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00453-024-01257-w  

   Balogh, József; Clemen, Felix Christian; Dumitrescu, Adrian (September 2024, Algorithmica)

   Abstract LetXbe ann-element point set in thek-dimensional unit cube$$[0,1]^k$$ ${[0,1]}^k$where$$k \ge 2$$ $k\ge 2$. According to an old result of Bollobás and Meir (Oper Res Lett 11:19–21, 1992) , there exists a cycle (tour)$$x_1, x_2, \ldots , x_n$$ $x_1,x_2,\dots ,x_n$through thenpoints, such that$$\left( \sum _{i=1}^n |x_i - x_{i+1}|^k \right) ^{1/k} \le c_k$$ ${\left({\sum }_{i=1}^n,{|x_i-x_{i+1}|}^k\right)}^{1/k}\le c_k$, where$$|x-y|$$ $|x-y|$is the Euclidean distance betweenxandy, and$$c_k$$ $c_k$is an absolute constant that depends only onk, where$$x_{n+1} \equiv x_1$$ $x_{n+1}\equiv x_1$. From the other direction, for every$$k \ge 2$$ $k\ge 2$and$$n \ge 2$$ $n\ge 2$, there existnpoints in$$[0,1]^k$$ ${[0,1]}^k$, such that their shortest tour satisfies$$\left( \sum _{i=1}^n |x_i - x_{i+1}|^k \right) ^{1/k} = 2^{1/k} \cdot \sqrt{k}$$ ${\left({\sum }_{i=1}^n,{|x_i-x_{i+1}|}^k\right)}^{1/k}=2^{1/k}·\sqrt{k}$. For the plane, the best constant is$$c_2=2$$ $c_2=2$and this is the only exact value known. Bollobás and Meir showed that one can take$$c_k = 9 \left( \frac{2}{3} \right) ^{1/k} \cdot \sqrt{k}$$ $c_k=9{\left(\frac{2}{3}\right)}^{1/k}·\sqrt{k}$for every$$k \ge 3$$ $k\ge 3$and conjectured that the best constant is$$c_k = 2^{1/k} \cdot \sqrt{k}$$ $c_k=2^{1/k}·\sqrt{k}$, for every$$k \ge 2$$ $k\ge 2$. Here we significantly improve the upper bound and show that one can take$$c_k = 3 \sqrt{5} \left( \frac{2}{3} \right) ^{1/k} \cdot \sqrt{k}$$ $c_k=3\sqrt{5}{\left(\frac{2}{3}\right)}^{1/k}·\sqrt{k}$or$$c_k = 2.91 \sqrt{k} \ (1+o_k(1))$$ $c_k=2.91\sqrt{k}(1+o_k\left(1\right))$. Our bounds are constructive. We also show that$$c_3 \ge 2^{7/6}$$ $c_3\ge 2^{7/6}$, which disproves the conjecture for$$k=3$$ $k=3$. Connections to matching problems, power assignment problems, related problems, including algorithms, are discussed in this context. A slightly revised version of the Bollobás–Meir conjecture is proposed. 

   more » « less
5. An algorithm and computation to verify Legendre’s conjecture up to $$7\cdot 10^{13}$$

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s40993-024-00589-4  

   Sorenson, Jonathan; Webster, Jonathan (March 2025, Research in Number Theory)

   Abstract We state a general purpose algorithm for quickly finding primes in evenly divided sub-intervals. Legendre’s conjecture claims that for every positive integern, there exists a prime between$$n^2$$ $n^2$and$$(n+1)^2$$ ${(n+1)}^2$. Oppermann’s conjecture subsumes Legendre’s conjecture by claiming there are primes between$$n^2$$ $n^2$and$$n(n+1)$$ $n(n+1)$and also between$$n(n+1)$$ $n(n+1)$and$$(n+1)^2$$ ${(n+1)}^2$. Using Cramér’s conjecture as the basis for a heuristic run-time analysis, we show that our algorithm can verify Oppermann’s conjecture, and hence also Legendre’s conjecture, for all$$n\le N$$ $n\le N$in time$$O( N \log N \log \log N)$$ $O(NlogNloglogN)$and space$$N^{O(1/\log \log N)}$$ $N^{O(1/loglogN)}$. We implemented a parallel version of our algorithm and improved the empirical verification of Oppermann’s conjecture from the previous$$N = 2\cdot 10^{9}$$ $N=2·{10}^9$up to$$N = 7.05\cdot 10^{13} > 2^{46}$$ $N=7.05·{10}^{13}>2^{46}$, so we were finding 27 digit primes. The computation ran for about half a year on each of two platforms: four Intel Xeon Phi 7210 processors using a total of 256 cores, and a 192-core cluster of Intel Xeon E5-2630 2.3GHz processors. 

   more » « less