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We report an experimental realization of a modified counterfactual communication protocol that eliminates the dominant environmental trace left by photons passing through the transmission channel. Compared to Wheeler’s criterion for inferring past particle paths, as used in prior protocols, our trace criterion provides stronger support for the claim of the counterfactuality of the communication. We verify the lack of trace left by transmitted photons via tagging the propagation arms of an interferometric device by distinct frequency-shifts and finding that the collected photons have no frequency shift which corresponds to the transmission channel. As a proof of principle, we counterfactually transfer a quick response code image with sufficient fidelity to be scanned with a cell phone. 

Active depth sensing achieves robust depth estimation but is usually limited by the sensing range. Naively increas- ing the optical power can improve sensing range but in- duces eye-safety concerns for many applications, including autonomous robots and augmented reality. In this paper, we propose an adaptive active depth sensor that jointly opti- mizes range, power consumption, and eye-safety. The main observation is that we need not project light patterns to the entire scene but only to small regions of interest where depth is necessary for the application and passive stereo depth es- timation fails. We theoretically compare this adaptive sens- ing scheme with other sensing strategies, such as full-frame projection, line scanning, and point scanning. We show that, to achieve the same maximum sensing distance, the proposed method consumes the least power while having the shortest (best) eye-safety distance. We implement this adaptive sensing scheme with two hardware prototypes, one with a phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM) and the other with a micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) mirror and diffractive optical elements (DOE). Experimental results validate the advantage of our method and demonstrate its capability of acquiring higher quality geometry adaptively. Please see our project website for video results and code: https://btilmon.github.io/e3d.html 

Crystalline metals generally exhibit good deformability but low strength and poor irradiation tolerance. Amorphous materials in general display poor deformability but high strength and good irradiation tolerance. Interestingly, refining characteristic size can enhance the flow strength of crystalline metals and the deformability of amorphous materials. Thus, crystalline–amorphous nanostructures can exhibit an enhanced strength and an improved plastic flow stability. In addition, high-density interfaces can trap radiation-induced defects and accommodate free volume fluctuation. In this article, we review crystalline–amorphous nanocomposites with characteristic microstructures including nanolaminates, core–shell microstructures, and crystalline/amorphous-based dual-phase nanocomposites. The focus is put on synthesis of characteristic microstructures, deformation behaviors, and multiscale materials modelling.

 

Emerging on-demand service platforms (OSPs) have recently embraced teamwork as a strategy for stimulating workers’ productivity and mediating temporal supply and demand imbalances. This research investigates the team contest scheme design problem considering work schedules. Introducing teams on OSPs creates a hierarchical single-leader multi-follower game. The leader (platform) establishes rewards and intrateam revenue-sharing rules for distributing workers’ payoffs. Each follower (team) competes with others by coordinating the schedules of its team members to maximize the total expected utility. The concurrence of interteam competition and intrateam coordination causes dual effects, which are captured by an equilibrium analysis of the followers’ game. To align the platform’s interest with workers’ heterogeneous working-time preferences, we propose a profit-maximizing contest scheme consisting of a winner’s reward and time-varying payments. A novel algorithm that combines Bayesian optimization, duality, and a penalty method solves the optimal scheme in the nonconvex equilibrium-constrained problem. Our results indicate that teamwork is a useful strategy with limitations. Under the proposed scheme, team contest always benefits workers. Intrateam coordination helps teams strategically mitigate the negative externalities caused by overcompetition among workers. For the platform, the optimal scheme can direct teams’ schedules toward more profitable market equilibria when workers have inaccurate perceptions of the market. History: This paper has been accepted for the Service Science Special Issue on Innovation in Transportation-Enabled Urban Services. Funding: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [Grant FW-HTF-P 2222806]. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/serv.2023.0320 . 

Ni-SiOC nanocomposites maintain crystal-amorphous dual-phase nanostructures after high-temperature annealing at different temperatures (600 °C, 800 °C and 1000 °C), while the feature sizes of crystal Ni and amorphous SiOC increase with the annealing temperature. Corresponding to the dual-phase nanostructures, Ni-SiOC nanocomposites exhibit a high strength and good plastic flow stability. In this study, we conducted a He implantation in Ni-SiOC nanocomposites at 300 °C by in-situ transmission electron microscope (TEM) irradiation test. In-situ TEM irradiation revealed that both crystal Ni and amorphous SiOC maintain stability under He irradiation. The 600 °C annealed sample presents a better He irradiation resistance, as manifested by a smaller He-bubble size and lower density. Both the grain boundary and crystal-amorphous phase boundary act as a sink to absorb He and irradiation-induced defects in the Ni matrix. More importantly, amorphous SiOC ceramic is immune to He irradiation damage, contributing to the He irradiation resistance of Ni alloy.

 

We performed a rigorous reverberation-mapping analysis of the broad-line region (BLR) in a highly accreting (L/L_Edd= 0.74–3.4) active galactic nucleus, Markarian 142 (Mrk 142), for the first time using concurrent observations of the inner accretion disk and the BLR to determine a time lag for the Hβλ4861 emission relative to the ultraviolet (UV) continuum variations. We used continuum data taken with the Niel Gehrels Swift Observatory in theUVW2 band, and the Las Cumbres Observatory, Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory, and Liverpool Telescope in thegband, as part of the broader Mrk 142 multiwavelength monitoring campaign in 2019. We obtained new spectroscopic observations covering the Hβbroad emission line in the optical from the Gemini North Telescope and the Lijiang 2.4 m Telescope for a total of 102 epochs (over a period of 8 months) contemporaneous to the continuum data. Our primary result states a UV-to-Hβtime lag of${8.68}_{-0.72}^{+0.75}$days in Mrk 142 obtained from light-curve analysis with a Python-based running optimal average algorithm. We placed our new measurements for Mrk 142 on the optical and UV radius–luminosity relations for NGC 5548 to understand the nature of the continuum driver. The positions of Mrk 142 on the scaling relations suggest that UV is closer to the “true” driving continuum than the optical. Furthermore, we obtain$\log (M_{•}/M_{\odot })$= 6.32 ± 0.29 assuming UV as the primary driving continuum.

 

Type II and IV twins with irrational twin boundaries are studied by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy in two plagioclase crystals. The twin boundaries in these and in NiTi are found to relax to form rational facets separated by disconnections. The topological model (TM), amending the classical model, is required for a precise theoretical prediction of the orientation of the Type II/IV twin plane. Theoretical predictions also are presented for types I, III, V, and VI twins. The relaxation process that forms a faceted structure entails a separate prediction from the TM. Hence, faceting provides a difficult test for the TM. Analysis of the faceting by the TM is in excellent agreement with the observations.