@article{9911, abstract = {A modern day light microscope has evolved from a tool devoted to making primarily empirical observations to what is now a sophisticated , quantitative device that is an integral part of both physical and life science research. Nowadays, microscopes are found in nearly every experimental laboratory. However, despite their prevalent use in capturing and quantifying scientific phenomena, neither a thorough understanding of the principles underlying quantitative imaging techniques nor appropriate knowledge of how to calibrate, operate and maintain microscopes can be taken for granted. This is clearly demonstrated by the well-documented and widespread difficulties that are routinely encountered in evaluating acquired data and reproducing scientific experiments. Indeed, studies have shown that more than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to repeat another scientist's experiments, while more than half have even failed to reproduce their own experiments. One factor behind the reproducibility crisis of experiments published in scientific journals is the frequent underreporting of imaging methods caused by a lack of awareness and/or a lack of knowledge of the applied technique. Whereas quality control procedures for some methods used in biomedical research, such as genomics (e.g. DNA sequencing, RNA-seq) or cytometry, have been introduced (e.g. ENCODE), this issue has not been tackled for optical microscopy instrumentation and images. Although many calibration standards and protocols have been published, there is a lack of awareness and agreement on common standards and guidelines for quality assessment and reproducibility. In April 2020, the QUality Assessment and REProducibility for instruments and images in Light Microscopy (QUAREP-LiMi) initiative was formed. This initiative comprises imaging scientists from academia and industry who share a common interest in achieving a better understanding of the performance and limitations of microscopes and improved quality control (QC) in light microscopy. The ultimate goal of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative is to establish a set of common QC standards, guidelines, metadata models and tools, including detailed protocols, with the ultimate aim of improving reproducible advances in scientific research. This White Paper (1) summarizes the major obstacles identified in the field that motivated the launch of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative; (2) identifies the urgent need to address these obstacles in a grassroots manner, through a community of stakeholders including, researchers, imaging scientists, bioimage analysts, bioimage informatics developers, corporate partners, funding agencies, standards organizations, scientific publishers and observers of such; (3) outlines the current actions of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative and (4) proposes future steps that can be taken to improve the dissemination and acceptance of the proposed guidelines to manage QC. To summarize, the principal goal of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative is to improve the overall quality and reproducibility of light microscope image data by introducing broadly accepted standard practices and accurately captured image data metrics.}, author = {Nelson, Glyn and Boehm, Ulrike and Bagley, Steve and Bajcsy, Peter and Bischof, Johanna and Brown, Claire M. and Dauphin, Aurélien and Dobbie, Ian M. and Eriksson, John E. and Faklaris, Orestis and Fernandez-Rodriguez, Julia and Ferrand, Alexia and Gelman, Laurent and Gheisari, Ali and Hartmann, Hella and Kukat, Christian and Laude, Alex and Mitkovski, Miso and Munck, Sebastian and North, Alison J. and Rasse, Tobias M. and Resch-Genger, Ute and Schuetz, Lucas C. and Seitz, Arne and Strambio-De-Castillia, Caterina and Swedlow, Jason R. and Alexopoulos, Ioannis and Aumayr, Karin and Avilov, Sergiy and Bakker, Gert Jan and Bammann, Rodrigo R. and Bassi, Andrea and Beckert, Hannes and Beer, Sebastian and Belyaev, Yury and Bierwagen, Jakob and Birngruber, Konstantin A. and Bosch, Manel and Breitlow, Juergen and Cameron, Lisa A. and Chalfoun, Joe and Chambers, James J. and Chen, Chieh Li and Conde-Sousa, Eduardo and Corbett, Alexander D. and Cordelieres, Fabrice P. and Nery, Elaine Del and Dietzel, Ralf and Eismann, Frank and Fazeli, Elnaz and Felscher, Andreas and Fried, Hans and Gaudreault, Nathalie and Goh, Wah Ing and Guilbert, Thomas and Hadleigh, Roland and Hemmerich, Peter and Holst, Gerhard A. and Itano, Michelle S. and Jaffe, Claudia B. and Jambor, Helena K. and Jarvis, Stuart C. and Keppler, Antje and Kirchenbuechler, David and Kirchner, Marcel and Kobayashi, Norio and Krens, Gabriel and Kunis, Susanne and Lacoste, Judith and Marcello, Marco and Martins, Gabriel G. and Metcalf, Daniel J. and Mitchell, Claire A. and Moore, Joshua and Mueller, Tobias and Nelson, Michael S. and Ogg, Stephen and Onami, Shuichi and Palmer, Alexandra L. and Paul-Gilloteaux, Perrine and Pimentel, Jaime A. and Plantard, Laure and Podder, Santosh and Rexhepaj, Elton and Royon, Arnaud and Saari, Markku A. and Schapman, Damien and Schoonderwoert, Vincent and Schroth-Diez, Britta and Schwartz, Stanley and Shaw, Michael and Spitaler, Martin and Stoeckl, Martin T. and Sudar, Damir and Teillon, Jeremie and Terjung, Stefan and Thuenauer, Roland and Wilms, Christian D. and Wright, Graham D. and Nitschke, Roland}, issn = {1365-2818}, journal = {Journal of Microscopy}, number = {1}, pages = {56--73}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{QUAREP-LiMi: A community-driven initiative to establish guidelines for quality assessment and reproducibility for instruments and images in light microscopy}}, doi = {10.1111/jmi.13041}, volume = {284}, year = {2021}, } @article{9906, abstract = {Endometriosis is a common gynecological disorder characterized by ectopic growth of endometrium outside the uterus and is associated with chronic pain and infertility. We investigated the role of the long intergenic noncoding RNA 01133 (LINC01133) in endometriosis, an lncRNA that has been implicated in several types of cancer. We found that LINC01133 is upregulated in ectopic endometriotic lesions. As expression appeared higher in the epithelial endometrial layer, we performed a siRNA knockdown of LINC01133 in an endometriosis epithelial cell line. Phenotypic assays indicated that LINC01133 may promote proliferation and suppress cellular migration, and affect the cytoskeleton and morphology of the cells. Gene ontology analysis of differentially expressed genes indicated that cell proliferation and migration pathways were affected in line with the observed phenotype. We validated upregulation of p21 and downregulation of Cyclin A at the protein level, which together with the quantification of the DNA content using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis indicated that the observed effects on cellular proliferation may be due to changes in cell cycle. Further, we found testis-specific protein kinase 1 (TESK1) kinase upregulation corresponding with phosphorylation and inactivation of actin severing protein Cofilin, which could explain changes in the cytoskeleton and cellular migration. These results indicate that endometriosis is associated with LINC01133 upregulation, which may affect pathogenesis via the cellular proliferation and migration pathways.}, author = {Yotova, Iveta and Hudson, Quanah J. and Pauler, Florian and Proestling, Katharina and Haslinger, Isabella and Kuessel, Lorenz and Perricos, Alexandra and Husslein, Heinrich and Wenzl, René}, issn = {14220067}, journal = {International Journal of Molecular Sciences}, number = {16}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{LINC01133 inhibits invasion and promotes proliferation in an endometriosis epithelial cell line}}, doi = {10.3390/ijms22168385}, volume = {22}, year = {2021}, } @article{9910, abstract = {Adult height inspired the first biometrical and quantitative genetic studies and is a test-case trait for understanding heritability. The studies of height led to formulation of the classical polygenic model, that has a profound influence on the way we view and analyse complex traits. An essential part of the classical model is an assumption of additivity of effects and normality of the distribution of the residuals. However, it may be expected that the normal approximation will become insufficient in bigger studies. Here, we demonstrate that when the height of hundreds of thousands of individuals is analysed, the model complexity needs to be increased to include non-additive interactions between sex, environment and genes. Alternatively, the use of log-normal approximation allowed us to still use the additive effects model. These findings are important for future genetic and methodologic studies that make use of adult height as an exemplar trait.}, author = {Slavskii, Sergei A. and Kuznetsov, Ivan A. and Shashkova, Tatiana I. and Bazykin, Georgii A. and Axenovich, Tatiana I. and Kondrashov, Fyodor and Aulchenko, Yurii S.}, issn = {14765438}, journal = {European Journal of Human Genetics}, number = {7}, pages = {1082--1091}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{The limits of normal approximation for adult height}}, doi = {10.1038/s41431-021-00836-7}, volume = {29}, year = {2021}, } @article{9912, abstract = {In the customary random matrix model for transport in quantum dots with M internal degrees of freedom coupled to a chaotic environment via 𝑁≪𝑀 channels, the density 𝜌 of transmission eigenvalues is computed from a specific invariant ensemble for which explicit formula for the joint probability density of all eigenvalues is available. We revisit this problem in the large N regime allowing for (i) arbitrary ratio 𝜙:=𝑁/𝑀≤1; and (ii) general distributions for the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian of the quantum dot. In the limit 𝜙→0, we recover the formula for the density 𝜌 that Beenakker (Rev Mod Phys 69:731–808, 1997) has derived for a special matrix ensemble. We also prove that the inverse square root singularity of the density at zero and full transmission in Beenakker’s formula persists for any 𝜙<1 but in the borderline case 𝜙=1 an anomalous 𝜆−2/3 singularity arises at zero. To access this level of generality, we develop the theory of global and local laws on the spectral density of a large class of noncommutative rational expressions in large random matrices with i.i.d. entries.}, author = {Erdös, László and Krüger, Torben H and Nemish, Yuriy}, issn = {1424-0661}, journal = {Annales Henri Poincaré }, pages = {4205–4269}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Scattering in quantum dots via noncommutative rational functions}}, doi = {10.1007/s00023-021-01085-6}, volume = {22}, year = {2021}, } @article{9891, abstract = {Extending on ideas of Lewin, Lieb, and Seiringer [Phys. Rev. B 100, 035127 (2019)], we present a modified “floating crystal” trial state for jellium (also known as the classical homogeneous electron gas) with density equal to a characteristic function. This allows us to show that three definitions of the jellium energy coincide in dimensions d ≥ 2, thus extending the result of Cotar and Petrache [“Equality of the Jellium and uniform electron gas next-order asymptotic terms for Coulomb and Riesz potentials,” arXiv: 1707.07664 (2019)] and Lewin, Lieb, and Seiringer [Phys. Rev. B 100, 035127 (2019)] that the three definitions coincide in dimension d ≥ 3. We show that the jellium energy is also equivalent to a “renormalized energy” studied in a series of papers by Serfaty and others, and thus, by the work of Bétermin and Sandier [Constr. Approximation 47, 39–74 (2018)], we relate the jellium energy to the order n term in the logarithmic energy of n points on the unit 2-sphere. We improve upon known lower bounds for this renormalized energy. Additionally, we derive formulas for the jellium energy of periodic configurations.}, author = {Lauritsen, Asbjørn Bækgaard}, issn = {1089-7658}, journal = {Journal of Mathematical Physics}, keywords = {Mathematical Physics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics}, number = {8}, publisher = {AIP Publishing}, title = {{Floating Wigner crystal and periodic jellium configurations}}, doi = {10.1063/5.0053494}, volume = {62}, year = {2021}, } @article{9909, abstract = {Roots are composed of different root types and, in the dicotyledonous Arabidopsis, typically consist of a primary root that branches into lateral roots. Adventitious roots emerge from non-root tissue and are formed upon wounding or other types of abiotic stress. Here, we investigated adventitious root (AR) formation in Arabidopsis hypocotyls under conditions of altered abscisic acid (ABA) signaling. Exogenously applied ABA suppressed AR formation at 0.25 µM or higher doses. AR formation was less sensitive to the synthetic ABA analog pyrabactin (PB). However, PB was a more potent inhibitor at concentrations above 1 µM, suggesting that it was more selective in triggering a root inhibition response. Analysis of a series of phosphonamide and phosphonate pyrabactin analogs suggested that adventitious root formation and lateral root branching are differentially regulated by ABA signaling. ABA biosynthesis and signaling mutants affirmed a general inhibitory role of ABA and point to PYL1 and PYL2 as candidate ABA receptors that regulate AR inhibition.}, author = {Zeng, Yinwei and Verstraeten, Inge and Trinh, Hoang Khai and Heugebaert, Thomas and Stevens, Christian V. and Garcia-Maquilon, Irene and Rodriguez, Pedro L. and Vanneste, Steffen and Geelen, Danny}, issn = {20734425}, journal = {Genes}, number = {8}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{Arabidopsis hypocotyl adventitious root formation is suppressed by ABA signaling}}, doi = {10.3390/genes12081141}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{9907, abstract = {DivIVA is a protein initially identified as a spatial regulator of cell division in the model organism Bacillus subtilis, but its homologues are present in many other Gram-positive bacteria, including Clostridia species. Besides its role as topological regulator of the Min system during bacterial cell division, DivIVA is involved in chromosome segregation during sporulation, genetic competence, and cell wall synthesis. DivIVA localizes to regions of high membrane curvature, such as the cell poles and cell division site, where it recruits distinct binding partners. Previously, it was suggested that negative curvature sensing is the main mechanism by which DivIVA binds to these specific regions. Here, we show that Clostridioides difficile DivIVA binds preferably to membranes containing negatively charged phospholipids, especially cardiolipin. Strikingly, we observed that upon binding, DivIVA modifies the lipid distribution and induces changes to lipid bilayers containing cardiolipin. Our observations indicate that DivIVA might play a more complex and so far unknown active role during the formation of the cell division septal membrane. }, author = {Labajová, Naďa and Baranova, Natalia S. and Jurásek, Miroslav and Vácha, Robert and Loose, Martin and Barák, Imrich}, issn = {14220067}, journal = {International Journal of Molecular Sciences}, number = {15}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{Cardiolipin-containing lipid membranes attract the bacterial cell division protein diviva}}, doi = {10.3390/ijms22158350}, volume = {22}, year = {2021}, } @article{9905, abstract = {Vaccines are thought to be the best available solution for controlling the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. However, the emergence of vaccine-resistant strains may come too rapidly for current vaccine developments to alleviate the health, economic and social consequences of the pandemic. To quantify and characterize the risk of such a scenario, we created a SIR-derived model with initial stochastic dynamics of the vaccine-resistant strain to study the probability of its emergence and establishment. Using parameters realistically resembling SARS-CoV-2 transmission, we model a wave-like pattern of the pandemic and consider the impact of the rate of vaccination and the strength of non-pharmaceutical intervention measures on the probability of emergence of a resistant strain. As expected, we found that a fast rate of vaccination decreases the probability of emergence of a resistant strain. Counterintuitively, when a relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions happened at a time when most individuals of the population have already been vaccinated the probability of emergence of a resistant strain was greatly increased. Consequently, we show that a period of transmission reduction close to the end of the vaccination campaign can substantially reduce the probability of resistant strain establishment. Our results suggest that policymakers and individuals should consider maintaining non-pharmaceutical interventions and transmission-reducing behaviours throughout the entire vaccination period.}, author = {Rella, Simon and Kulikova, Yuliya A. and Dermitzakis, Emmanouil T. and Kondrashov, Fyodor}, issn = {20452322}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Rates of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and vaccination impact the fate of vaccine-resistant strains}}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-95025-3}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, } @article{9903, abstract = {Eigenstate thermalization in quantum many-body systems implies that eigenstates at high energy are similar to random vectors. Identifying systems where at least some eigenstates are nonthermal is an outstanding question. In this Letter we show that interacting quantum models that have a nullspace—a degenerate subspace of eigenstates at zero energy (zero modes), which corresponds to infinite temperature, provide a route to nonthermal eigenstates. We analytically show the existence of a zero mode which can be represented as a matrix product state for a certain class of local Hamiltonians. In the more general case we use a subspace disentangling algorithm to generate an orthogonal basis of zero modes characterized by increasing entanglement entropy. We show evidence for an area-law entanglement scaling of the least-entangled zero mode in the broad parameter regime, leading to a conjecture that all local Hamiltonians with the nullspace feature zero modes with area-law entanglement scaling and, as such, break the strong thermalization hypothesis. Finally, we find zero modes in constrained models and propose a setup for observing their experimental signatures.}, author = {Karle, Volker and Serbyn, Maksym and Michailidis, Alexios}, issn = {1079-7114}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, number = {6}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Area-law entangled eigenstates from nullspaces of local Hamiltonians}}, doi = {10.1103/physrevlett.127.060602}, volume = {127}, year = {2021}, } @article{9952, abstract = {Proper control of division orientation and symmetry, largely determined by spindle positioning, is essential to development and homeostasis. Spindle positioning has been extensively studied in cells dividing in two-dimensional (2D) environments and in epithelial tissues, where proteins such as NuMA (also known as NUMA1) orient division along the interphase long axis of the cell. However, little is known about how cells control spindle positioning in three-dimensional (3D) environments, such as early mammalian embryos and a variety of adult tissues. Here, we use mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), which grow in 3D colonies, as a model to investigate division in 3D. We observe that, at the periphery of 3D colonies, ESCs display high spindle mobility and divide asymmetrically. Our data suggest that enhanced spindle movements are due to unequal distribution of the cell–cell junction protein E-cadherin between future daughter cells. Interestingly, when cells progress towards differentiation, division becomes more symmetric, with more elongated shapes in metaphase and enhanced cortical NuMA recruitment in anaphase. Altogether, this study suggests that in 3D contexts, the geometry of the cell and its contacts with neighbors control division orientation and symmetry.}, author = {Chaigne, Agathe and Smith, Matthew B. and Cavestany, R. L. and Hannezo, Edouard B and Chalut, Kevin J. and Paluch, Ewa K.}, issn = {14779137}, journal = {Journal of Cell Science}, number = {14}, publisher = {The Company of Biologists}, title = {{Three-dimensional geometry controls division symmetry in stem cell colonies}}, doi = {10.1242/jcs.255018}, volume = {134}, year = {2021}, } @article{9908, abstract = {About eight million animal species are estimated to live on Earth, and all except those belonging to one subphylum are invertebrates. Invertebrates are incredibly diverse in their morphologies, life histories, and in the range of the ecological niches that they occupy. A great variety of modes of reproduction and sex determination systems is also observed among them, and their mosaic-distribution across the phylogeny shows that transitions between them occur frequently and rapidly. Genetic conflict in its various forms is a long-standing theory to explain what drives those evolutionary transitions. Here, we review (1) the different modes of reproduction among invertebrate species, highlighting sexual reproduction as the probable ancestral state; (2) the paradoxical diversity of sex determination systems; (3) the different types of genetic conflicts that could drive the evolution of such different systems.}, author = {Picard, Marion A L and Vicoso, Beatriz and Bertrand, Stéphanie and Escriva, Hector}, issn = {20734425}, journal = {Genes}, number = {8}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{Diversity of modes of reproduction and sex determination systems in invertebrates, and the putative contribution of genetic conflict}}, doi = {10.3390/genes12081136}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{9829, abstract = {In 2020, many in-person scientific events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a vacuum in networking and knowledge exchange between scientists. To fill this void in scientific communication, a group of early career nanocrystal enthusiasts launched the virtual seminar series, News in Nanocrystals, in the summer of 2020. By the end of the year, the series had attracted over 850 participants from 46 countries. In this Nano Focus, we describe the process of organizing the News in Nanocrystals seminar series; discuss its growth, emphasizing what the organizers have learned in terms of diversity and accessibility; and provide an outlook for the next steps and future opportunities. This summary and analysis of experiences and learned lessons are intended to inform the broader scientific community, especially those who are looking for avenues to continue fostering discussion and scientific engagement virtually, both during the pandemic and after.}, author = {Baranov, Dmitry and Šverko, Tara and Moot, Taylor and Keller, Helena R. and Klein, Megan D. and Vishnu, E. K. and Balazs, Daniel and Shulenberger, Katherine E.}, issn = {1936086X}, journal = {ACS Nano}, number = {7}, pages = {10743–10747}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{News in Nanocrystals seminar: Self-assembly of early career researchers toward globally accessible nanoscience}}, doi = {10.1021/acsnano.1c03276}, volume = {15}, year = {2021}, } @misc{13057, abstract = {This dataset comprises all data shown in the figures of the submitted article "Geometric superinductance qubits: Controlling phase delocalization across a single Josephson junction". Additional raw data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.}, author = {Peruzzo, Matilda and Hassani, Farid and Szep, Grisha and Trioni, Andrea and Redchenko, Elena and Zemlicka, Martin and Fink, Johannes M}, publisher = {Zenodo}, title = {{Geometric superinductance qubits: Controlling phase delocalization across a single Josephson junction}}, doi = {10.5281/ZENODO.5592103}, year = {2021}, } @article{9985, abstract = {AMPA receptor (AMPAR) abundance and positioning at excitatory synapses regulates the strength of transmission. Changes in AMPAR localisation can enact synaptic plasticity, allowing long-term information storage, and is therefore tightly controlled. Multiple mechanisms regulating AMPAR synaptic anchoring have been described, but with limited coherence or comparison between reports, our understanding of this process is unclear. Here, combining synaptic recordings from mouse hippocampal slices and super-resolution imaging in dissociated cultures, we compare the contributions of three AMPAR interaction domains controlling transmission at hippocampal CA1 synapses. We show that the AMPAR C-termini play only a modulatory role, whereas the extracellular N-terminal domain (NTD) and PDZ interactions of the auxiliary subunit TARP γ8 are both crucial, and each is sufficient to maintain transmission. Our data support a model in which γ8 accumulates AMPARs at the postsynaptic density, where the NTD further tunes their positioning. This interplay between cytosolic (TARP γ8) and synaptic cleft (NTD) interactions provides versatility to regulate synaptic transmission and plasticity.}, author = {Watson, Jake and Pinggera, Alexandra and Ho, Hinze and Greger, Ingo H.}, issn = {2041-1723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, number = {1}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, title = {{AMPA receptor anchoring at CA1 synapses is determined by N-terminal domain and TARP γ8 interactions}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-25281-4}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, } @article{9981, abstract = {The numerical simulation of dynamical phenomena in interacting quantum systems is a notoriously hard problem. Although a number of promising numerical methods exist, they often have limited applicability due to the growth of entanglement or the presence of the so-called sign problem. In this work, we develop an importance sampling scheme for the simulation of quantum spin dynamics, building on a recent approach mapping quantum spin systems to classical stochastic processes. The importance sampling scheme is based on identifying the classical trajectory that yields the largest contribution to a given quantum observable. An exact transformation is then carried out to preferentially sample trajectories that are close to the dominant one. We demonstrate that this approach is capable of reducing the temporal growth of fluctuations in the stochastic quantities, thus extending the range of accessible times and system sizes compared to direct sampling. We discuss advantages and limitations of the proposed approach, outlining directions for further developments.}, author = {De Nicola, Stefano}, issn = {2666-9366}, journal = {SciPost Physics}, keywords = {General Physics and Astronomy}, number = {3}, publisher = {SciPost}, title = {{Importance sampling scheme for the stochastic simulation of quantum spin dynamics}}, doi = {10.21468/scipostphys.11.3.048}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{9951, abstract = {There has recently been a surge of interest in the computational and complexity properties of the population model, which assumes n anonymous, computationally-bounded nodes, interacting at random, with the goal of jointly computing global predicates. Significant work has gone towards investigating majority or consensus dynamics in this model: that is, assuming that every node is initially in one of two states X or Y, determine which state had higher initial count. In this paper, we consider a natural generalization of majority/consensus, which we call comparison : in its simplest formulation, we are given two baseline states, X and Y, present in any initial configuration in fixed, but possibly small counts. One of these states has higher count than the other: we will assume |X_0| > C |Y_0| for some constant C > 1. The challenge is to design a protocol by which nodes can quickly and reliably decide on which of the baseline states X_0 and Y_0 has higher initial count. We begin by analyzing a simple and general dynamics solving the above comparison problem, which uses O( log n ) states per node, and converges in O(log n) (parallel) time, with high probability, to a state where the whole population votes on opinions X or Y at rates proportional to the initial concentrations of |X_0| vs. |Y_0|. We then describe how this procedure can be bootstrapped to solve comparison, i.e. have every node in the population reach the "correct'' decision, with probability 1 - o(1), at the cost of O (log log n) additional states. Further, we prove that this dynamics is self-stabilizing, in the sense that it converges to the correct decision from arbitrary initial states, and leak-robust, in the sense that it can withstand spurious faulty reactions, which are known to occur in practical implementations of population protocols. Our analysis is based on a new martingale concentration result relating the discrete-time evolution of a population protocol to its expected (steady-state) analysis, which should be a useful tool when analyzing opinion dynamics and epidemic dissemination in the population model.}, author = {Alistarh, Dan-Adrian and Töpfer, Martin and Uznański, Przemysław}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing}, isbn = {9781450385480}, location = {Virtual, Italy}, pages = {55--65}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {{Comparison dynamics in population protocols}}, doi = {10.1145/3465084.3467915}, year = {2021}, } @article{9960, abstract = {The control of many-body quantum dynamics in complex systems is a key challenge in the quest to reliably produce and manipulate large-scale quantum entangled states. Recently, quench experiments in Rydberg atom arrays [Bluvstein et al. Science 371, 1355 (2021)] demonstrated that coherent revivals associated with quantum many-body scars can be stabilized by periodic driving, generating stable subharmonic responses over a wide parameter regime. We analyze a simple, related model where these phenomena originate from spatiotemporal ordering in an effective Floquet unitary, corresponding to discrete time-crystalline behavior in a prethermal regime. Unlike conventional discrete time crystals, the subharmonic response exists only for Néel-like initial states, associated with quantum scars. We predict robustness to perturbations and identify emergent timescales that could be observed in future experiments. Our results suggest a route to controlling entanglement in interacting quantum systems by combining periodic driving with many-body scars.}, author = {Maskara, N. and Michailidis, Alexios and Ho, W. W. and Bluvstein, D. and Choi, S. and Lukin, M. D. and Serbyn, Maksym}, issn = {1079-7114}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, number = {9}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Discrete time-crystalline order enabled by quantum many-body scars: Entanglement steering via periodic driving}}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.090602}, volume = {127}, year = {2021}, } @article{9961, abstract = {The notion of Thouless energy plays a central role in the theory of Anderson localization. We investigate and compare the scaling of Thouless energy across the many-body localization (MBL) transition in a Floquet model. We use a combination of methods that are reliable on the ergodic side of the transition (e.g., spectral form factor) and methods that work on the MBL side (e.g., typical matrix elements of local operators) to obtain a complete picture of the Thouless energy behavior across the transition. On the ergodic side, Thouless energy decreases slowly with the system size, while at the transition it becomes comparable to the level spacing. Different probes yield consistent estimates of Thouless energy in their overlapping regime of applicability, giving the location of the transition point nearly free of finite-size drift. This work establishes a connection between different definitions of Thouless energy in a many-body setting and yields insights into the MBL transition in Floquet systems.}, author = {Sonner, Michael and Serbyn, Maksym and Papić, Zlatko and Abanin, Dmitry A.}, issn = {2469-9969}, journal = {Physical Review B}, number = {8}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Thouless energy across the many-body localization transition in Floquet systems}}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.104.L081112}, volume = {104}, year = {2021}, } @inproceedings{9957, abstract = {The reflectance field of a face describes the reflectance properties responsible for complex lighting effects including diffuse, specular, inter-reflection and self shadowing. Most existing methods for estimating the face reflectance from a monocular image assume faces to be diffuse with very few approaches adding a specular component. This still leaves out important perceptual aspects of reflectance as higher-order global illumination effects and self-shadowing are not modeled. We present a new neural representation for face reflectance where we can estimate all components of the reflectance responsible for the final appearance from a single monocular image. Instead of modeling each component of the reflectance separately using parametric models, our neural representation allows us to generate a basis set of faces in a geometric deformation-invariant space, parameterized by the input light direction, viewpoint and face geometry. We learn to reconstruct this reflectance field of a face just from a monocular image, which can be used to render the face from any viewpoint in any light condition. Our method is trained on a light-stage training dataset, which captures 300 people illuminated with 150 light conditions from 8 viewpoints. We show that our method outperforms existing monocular reflectance reconstruction methods, in terms of photorealism due to better capturing of physical premitives, such as sub-surface scattering, specularities, self-shadows and other higher-order effects.}, author = {B R, Mallikarjun and Tewari, Ayush and Oh, Tae-Hyun and Weyrich, Tim and Bickel, Bernd and Seidel, Hans-Peter and Pfister, Hanspeter and Matusik, Wojciech and Elgharib, Mohamed and Theobalt, Christian}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition}, isbn = {978-166544509-2}, issn = {1063-6919}, location = {Nashville, TN, United States; Virtual}, pages = {4791--4800}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{Monocular reconstruction of neural face reflectance fields}}, doi = {10.1109/CVPR46437.2021.00476}, year = {2021}, } @article{9973, abstract = {In this article we introduce a complete gradient estimate for symmetric quantum Markov semigroups on von Neumann algebras equipped with a normal faithful tracial state, which implies semi-convexity of the entropy with respect to the recently introduced noncommutative 2-Wasserstein distance. We show that this complete gradient estimate is stable under tensor products and free products and establish its validity for a number of examples. As an application we prove a complete modified logarithmic Sobolev inequality with optimal constant for Poisson-type semigroups on free group factors.}, author = {Wirth, Melchior and Zhang, Haonan}, issn = {1432-0916}, journal = {Communications in Mathematical Physics}, keywords = {Mathematical Physics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics}, pages = {761–791}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Complete gradient estimates of quantum Markov semigroups}}, doi = {10.1007/s00220-021-04199-4}, volume = {387}, year = {2021}, }