arXiv subjects

Bianxiao Cui

Publications and source records attributed to Bianxiao Cui.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Structured Scaling of AI Discovery Across Diverse Scientific Domains

Scientific discovery often requires many cycles of proposing, testing, and refining candidate solutions. Language models can increasingly participate in these loops, but simply generating more attempts does not ensure progress: parallel searches may duplicate one another and iterative refinement may become trapped in poor directions. The central challenge is therefore not only to scale AI-driven discovery, but to structure that scaling so that evaluation signals compound over time. Here we introduce SimpleTES (Simple Test-time Evaluation-driven Scaling), a framework that focuses on the structured scaling of AI discovery loops, organizing evaluator queries across independent trajectories, iterative refinement, local candidate selection, and the selective reuse of evaluated histories. Drawing on structural features of scientific communities, SimpleTES uses a single open-source GPT-OSS model to establish new state-of-the-art solutions across 28 open-ended problems in diverse scientific domains ranging from quantum physics and astronomy to biology, AI, and mathematics. These include a 24.5% reduction in quantum circuit compilation overhead, up to 23% lower propulsive cost for deep-space trajectories, a 2.17x faster lasso-path solver, an 8.5% lower-error whole-brain neural-activity predictor, the fastest reported TriMul kernel, and new mathematical constructions beyond prior human or AI records. We further post-train the model for long-horizon discovery by assigning each attempt the final outcome of the trajectory it helped produce. This improves performance on both training and held-out mathematics problems, further advancing the frontier. Together, these results establish structured scaling as a general mechanism for advancing AI scientific discovery.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2026

Microscopy of Bioelectric Potentials using Electrochromism

Studying the electrical signals generated by living cells is key to understanding numerous biological phenomena. Electrochromic optical recording (ECORE) uses the electrochromism exhibited by certain materials to noninvasively measure these signals in real time. In this work, we report on the development of ECORE based on a high-NA microscope objective. We demonstrate the recording of extracellular action potentials from cardiomyocytes with single-cell resolution and a high sensitivity of 6.3 {\mu}V. Combining ECORE with microscopy simplifies the optical setup, allows for the simultaneous imaging of specimens, and makes ECORE accessible to a broader community of researchers, allowing for a better understanding of the biological processes that are integral to life.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Compact Electrochromic Optical Recording of Bioelectric Potentials

Electrochromic optical recording (ECORE) is a label-free method that utilizes electrochromism to optically detect electrical signals in biological cells with a high signal-to-noise ratio and is suitable for long-term recording. However, ECORE usually requires a large and intricate optical setup, making it relatively difficult to transport and to study specimens on a large scale. Here, we present a compact ECORE apparatus that drastically reduces the spatial footprint and complexity of the ECORE setup whilst maintaining high sensitivity. An autobalancing differential photodetector automates common-mode noise rejection, removing the need for manually adjustable optics, and a compact laser module conserves space compared to a typical laser mount. The result is a simple, easy-to-use, and relatively low cost system that achieves a sensitivity of 16.7 μV (within a factor of 5 of the shot noise limit), and reliably detects action potentials from Human-induced pluripotent stem cell (HiPSC) derived cardiomyocytes. This setup can be further improved to within 1.5 dB of the shot noise limit by filtering out power-line interference.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Imaging electric field dynamics with graphene optoelectronics

The use of electric fields for signalling and control in liquids is widespread, spanning bioelectric activity in cells to electrical manipulation of microstructures in lab-on-a-chip devices. However, an appropriate tool to resolve the spatio-temporal distribution of electric fields over a large dynamic range has yet to be developed. Here we present a label-free method to image local electric fields in real time and under ambient conditions. Our technique combines the unique gate-variable optical transitions of graphene with a critically coupled planar waveguide platform that enables highly sensitive detection of local electric fields with a voltage sensitivity of a few microvolts, a spatial resolution of tens of micrometres and a frequency response over tens of kilohertz. Our imaging platform enables parallel detection of electric fields over a large field of view and can be tailored to broad applications spanning lab-on-a-chip device engineering to analysis of bioelectric phenomena.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Divergence of the Long Wavelength Collective Diffusion Coefficient in Quasi-one and Quasi-two Dimensional Colloid Suspensions

We report the results of experimental studies of the short time-long wavelength behavior of collective particle displacements in quasi-one-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional colloid suspensions. Our results are represented by the behavior of the hydrodynamic function H(q) that relates the effective collective diffusion coefficient, D_e(q) with the static structure factor S(q) and the self-diffusion coefficient of isolated particles D_0: H(q)=D_e(q)S(q)/D_0. We find an apparent divergence of H(q) as q->0 with the form H(q) proportional to q^-gamma, 1.7 0 we infer that D_e(q) does. We provide evidence that this divergence arises from the interplay of boundary conditions on the flow of the carrier liquid and many-body hydrodynamic interactions between colloid particles that affect the long wavelength behavior of the particle collective diffusion coefficient in the suspension. We speculate that in the q1D and q2D systems studied the divergence of H(q) might be associated with a q-dependent partial slip boundary condition, specifically an effective slip length that increases with decreasing q. We also verify, using data from the work of Lin, Rice and Weitz (J. Chem. Phys. 99, 9585 (1993)), the prediction by Bleibel et al (arXiv:1305.3715), that D_e(q) for a monolayer of colloid particles constrained to lie in the interface between two fluids diverges as 1/q as q->0. The verification of that prediction, which is based on an analysis that allows two-dimensional colloid motion embedded in three-dimensional suspending fluid motion, supports the contention that the boundary conditions that define a q2D system play a very important role in determining the long wavelength behavior of the collective diffusion coefficient.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2009

Structure of Quasi-One Dimensional Ribbon Colloid Suspensions

We report the results of an experimental study of a colloid fluid confined to a quasi-one dimensional (q1D) ribbon channel as a function of channel width and colloid density. Our findings confirm the principal predictions of previous theoretical studies of such systems. These are (1) that the density distribution of the liquid transverse to the ribbon channel exhibits stratification; (2) that even at the highest density the order along the strata, as measured by the longitudinal pair correlation function, is characteristic of a liquid; and (3) the q1D pair correlation functions in different strata exhibits anisotropic behavior, resembling that found in a Monte Carlo simulation for the in-plane pair correlation function of a hard sphere fluid in a planar slit.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2004

Anomalous hydrodynamic interaction in a quasi-two-dimensional suspension

We have studied the correlated Brownian motion of micron-sized particles suspended in water and confined between two plates. The hydrodynamic interaction between the particles exhibits three anomalies. (i) The transverse coupling is negative, i.e., particles exert "anti-drag" on one another when moving perpendicular to their connecting line. (ii) The interaction decays with inter-particle distance r as 1/r^2, faster than in unconfined suspensions but slower than near a single wall. (iii) At large distances the pair interaction is independent of concentration within the experimental accuracy. The confined suspension thus provides an unusual example of long-range, yet essentially pairwise correlations even at high concentration. These effects are shown to arise from the two-dimensional dipolar form of the flow induced by single-particle motion.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2002

Screened hydrodynamic interaction in a narrow channel

We study experimentally and theoretically the hydrodynamic coupling between Brownian colloidal particles diffusing along a linear channel. The quasi-one-dimensional confinement, unlike other constrained geometries, leads to a sharply screened interaction. Consequently, particles move in concert only when their mutual distance is smaller than the channel width, and two-body interactions remain dominant up to high particle densities. The coupling in a cylindrical channel is predicted to reverse sign at a certain distance, yet this unusual effect is too small to be currently detectable.

cond-mat.soft↗