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1. 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. 

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2. More on codes for combinatorial composite DNA

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10623-025-01634-8  

   Ye, Zuo; Sabary, Omer; Gabrys, Ryan; Yaakobi, Eitan; Elishco, Ohad (May 2025, Designs, Codes and Cryptography)

   Abstract In this paper, we focus on constructing unique-decodable and list-decodable codes for the recently studied (t, e)-composite-asymmetric error-correcting codes ((t, e)-CAECCs). Let$$\mathcal {X}$$ $X$be an$$m \times n$$ $m\times n$binary matrix in which each row has Hamming weightw. If at mosttrows of$$\mathcal {X}$$ $X$contain errors, and in each erroneous row, there are at mosteoccurrences of$$1 \rightarrow 0$$ $1\to 0$errors, we say that a (t, e)-composite-asymmetric error occurs in$$\mathcal {X}$$ $X$. For general values ofm, n, w, t, ande, we propose new constructions of (t, e)-CAECCs with redundancy at most$$(t-1)\log (m) + O(1)$$ $(t-1)log\left(m\right)+O\left(1\right)$, whereO(1) is independent of the code lengthm. In particular, this yields a class of (2, e)-CAECCs that are optimal in terms of redundancy. Whenmis a prime power, the redundancy can be further reduced to$$(t-1)\log (m) - O(\log (m))$$ $(t-1)log\left(m\right)-O(log(m\left)\right)$. To further increase the code size, we introduce a combinatorial object called a weak$$B_e$$ $B_e$-set. When$$e = w$$ $e=w$, we present an efficient encoding and decoding method for our codes. Finally, we explore potential improvements by relaxing the requirement of unique decoding to list-decoding. We show that when the list size ist! or an exponential function oft, there exist list-decodable (t, e)-CAECCs with constant redundancy. When the list size is two, we construct list-decodable (3, 2)-CAECCs with redundancy$$\log (m) + O(1)$$ $log\left(m\right)+O\left(1\right)$. 

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3. Isotope engineering for spin defects in van der Waals materials

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44494-3  

   Gong, Ruotian; Du, Xinyi; Janzen, Eli; Liu, Vincent; Liu, Zhongyuan; He, Guanghui; Ye, Bingtian; Li, Tongcang; Yao, Norman Y; Edgar, James H; et al (December 2024, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Spin defects in van der Waals materials offer a promising platform for advancing quantum technologies. Here, we propose and demonstrate a powerful technique based on isotope engineering of host materials to significantly enhance the coherence properties of embedded spin defects. Focusing on the recently-discovered negatively charged boron vacancy center ($${{{{{{{{\rm{V}}}}}}}}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$ $V_B^{-}$) in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), we grow isotopically purified h¹⁰B¹⁵N crystals. Compared to$${{{{{{{{\rm{V}}}}}}}}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$ $V_B^{-}$in hBN with the natural distribution of isotopes, we observe substantially narrower and less crowded$${{{{{{{{\rm{V}}}}}}}}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$ $V_B^{-}$spin transitions as well as extended coherence timeT₂and relaxation timeT₁. For quantum sensing,$${{{{{{{{\rm{V}}}}}}}}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$ $V_B^{-}$centers in our h¹⁰B¹⁵N samples exhibit a factor of 4 (2) enhancement in DC (AC) magnetic field sensitivity. For additional quantum resources, the individual addressability of the$${{{{{{{{\rm{V}}}}}}}}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$ $V_B^{-}$hyperfine levels enables the dynamical polarization and coherent control of the three nearest-neighbor¹⁵N nuclear spins. Our results demonstrate the power of isotope engineering for enhancing the properties of quantum spin defects in hBN, and can be readily extended to improving spin qubits in a broad family of van der Waals materials. 

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4. Lower Bounds Against Sparse Symmetric Functions of ACC Circuits: Expanding the Reach of #SAT Algorithms

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00224-022-10106-8  

   Vyas, Nikhil; Williams, R_Ryan (November 2022, Theory of Computing Systems)

   Abstract We continue the program of proving circuit lower bounds via circuit satisfiability algorithms. So far, this program has yielded several concrete results, proving that functions in$$\mathsf {Quasi}\text {-}\mathsf {NP} = \mathsf {NTIME}[n^{(\log n)^{O(1)}}]$$ $\mathrm{Quasi}-\mathrm{NP}=\mathrm{NTIME}\left[n^{{\left(\log n\right)}^{O\left(1\right)}}\right]$and other complexity classes do not have small circuits (in the worst case and/or on average) from various circuit classes$$\mathcal { C}$$ $C$, by showing that$$\mathcal { C}$$ $C$admits non-trivial satisfiability and/or#SAT algorithms which beat exhaustive search by a minor amount. In this paper, we present a new strong lower bound consequence of having a non-trivial#SAT algorithm for a circuit class$${\mathcal C}$$ $C$. Say that a symmetric Boolean functionf(x₁,…,x_n) issparseif it outputs 1 onO(1) values of$${\sum }_{i} x_{i}$$ ${\sum }_i{x}_i$. We show that for every sparsef, and for all “typical”$$\mathcal { C}$$ $C$, faster#SAT algorithms for$$\mathcal { C}$$ $C$circuits imply lower bounds against the circuit class$$f \circ \mathcal { C}$$ $f\circ C$, which may bestrongerthan$$\mathcal { C}$$ $C$itself. In particular:#SAT algorithms forn^k-size$$\mathcal { C}$$ $C$-circuits running in 2ⁿ/n^ktime (for allk) implyNEXPdoes not have$$(f \circ \mathcal { C})$$ $(f\circ C)$-circuits of polynomial size.#SAT algorithms for$$2^{n^{{\varepsilon }}}$$ $2^{n^{\epsilon }}$-size$$\mathcal { C}$$ $C$-circuits running in$$2^{n-n^{{\varepsilon }}}$$ $2^{n-n^{\epsilon }}$time (for someε> 0) implyQuasi-NPdoes not have$$(f \circ \mathcal { C})$$ $(f\circ C)$-circuits of polynomial size. Applying#SAT algorithms from the literature, one immediate corollary of our results is thatQuasi-NPdoes not haveEMAJ∘ACC⁰∘THRcircuits of polynomial size, whereEMAJis the “exact majority” function, improving previous lower bounds againstACC⁰[Williams JACM’14] andACC⁰∘THR[Williams STOC’14], [Murray-Williams STOC’18]. This is the first nontrivial lower bound against such a circuit class. 

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5. An Efficient ZK Compiler from SIMD Circuits to General Circuits

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00145-024-09531-4  

   Bui, Dung; Chu, Haotian; Couteau, Geoffroy; Wang, Xiao; Weng, Chenkai; Yang, Kang; Yu, Yu (January 2025, Journal of Cryptology)

   Abstract We propose a generic compiler that can convert any zero-knowledge (ZK) proof for SIMD circuits to general circuits efficiently, and an extension that can preserve the space complexity of the proof systems. Our compiler can immediately produce new results improving upon state of the art.By plugging in our compiler to Antman, an interactive sublinear-communication protocol, we improve the overall communication complexity for general circuits from$$\mathcal {O}(C^{3/4})$$ $O\left(C^{3/4}\right)$to$$\mathcal {O}(C^{1/2})$$ $O\left(C^{1/2}\right)$. Our implementation shows that for a circuit of size$$2^{27}$$ $2^{27}$, it achieves up to$$83.6\times $$ $83.6\times$improvement on communication compared to the state-of-the-art implementation. Its end-to-end running time is at least$$70\%$$ $70\%$faster in a 10Mbps network.Using the recent results on compressed$$\varSigma $$ $\Sigma$-protocol theory, we obtain a discrete-log-based constant-round zero-knowledge argument with$$\mathcal {O}(C^{1/2})$$ $O\left(C^{1/2}\right)$communication and common random string length, improving over the state of the art that has linear-size common random string and requires heavier computation.We improve the communication of a designatedn-verifier zero-knowledge proof from$$\mathcal {O}(nC/B+n^2B^2)$$ $O(nC/B+n^2{B}^2)$to$$\mathcal {O}(nC/B+n^2)$$ $O(nC/B+n^2)$.To demonstrate the scalability of our compilers, we were able to extract a commit-and-prove SIMD ZK from Ligero and cast it in our framework. We also give one instantiation derived from LegoSNARK, demonstrating that the idea of CP-SNARK also fits in our methodology. 

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