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Chen Hu

Publications and source records attributed to Chen Hu.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
arXiv2024

AGN STORM 2: V. Anomalous Behavior of the CIV Light Curve in Mrk 817

An intensive reverberation mapping campaign on the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk817 using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) revealed significant variations in the response of the broad UV emission lines to fluctuations in the continuum emission. The response of the prominent UV emission lines changes over a $\sim$60-day duration, resulting in distinctly different time lags in the various segments of the light curve over the 14 months observing campaign. One-dimensional echo-mapping models fit these variations if a slowly varying background is included for each emission line. These variations are more evident in the CIV light curve, which is the line least affected by intrinsic absorption in Mrk817 and least blended with neighboring emission lines. We identify five temporal windows with distinct emission line response, and measure their corresponding time delays, which range from 2 to 13 days. These temporal windows are plausibly linked to changes in the UV and X-ray obscuration occurring during these same intervals. The shortest time lags occur during periods with diminishing obscuration, whereas the longest lags occur during periods with rising obscuration. We propose that the obscuring outflow shields the ultraviolet broad lines from the ionizing continuum. The resulting change in the spectral energy distribution of the ionizing continuum, as seen by clouds at a range of distances from the nucleus, is responsible for the changes in the line response.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2023

Searching for quasar candidates with periodic variations from the Zwicky Transient Facility: results and implications

We conduct a systematic search for quasars with periodic variations from the archival photometric data of the Zwicky Transient Facility by cross-matching with the quasar catalogs of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and V{é}ron-Cetty \& V{é}ron. We first select out 184 primitive periodic candidates using the generalized Lomb-Scargle periodogram and auto-correlation function and then estimate their statistical significance of periodicity based on two red-noise models, i.e., damped random walk (DRW) and single power-law (SPL) models. As such, we finally identify 106 (DRW) and 86 (SPL) candidates with the most significant periodic variations out of 143,700 quasars. We further compare DRW and SPL models using Bayes factors, which indicate a relative preference of the SPL model for our primitive sample. We thus adopt the candidates identified with SPL as the final sample and summarize its basic properties. We extend the light curves of the selected candidates by supplying other archival survey data to verify their periodicity. However, only three candidates (with 6-8 cycles of periods) meet the selection criteria. This result clearly implies that, instead of being strictly periodic, the variability must be quasi-periodic or caused by stochastic red-noise. This exerts a challenge to the existing search approaches and calls for developing new effective methods.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2023

Scale-Adaptive Feature Aggregation for Efficient Space-Time Video Super-Resolution

The Space-Time Video Super-Resolution (STVSR) task aims to enhance the visual quality of videos, by simultaneously performing video frame interpolation (VFI) and video super-resolution (VSR). However, facing the challenge of the additional temporal dimension and scale inconsistency, most existing STVSR methods are complex and inflexible in dynamically modeling different motion amplitudes. In this work, we find that choosing an appropriate processing scale achieves remarkable benefits in flow-based feature propagation. We propose a novel Scale-Adaptive Feature Aggregation (SAFA) network that adaptively selects sub-networks with different processing scales for individual samples. Experiments on four public STVSR benchmarks demonstrate that SAFA achieves state-of-the-art performance. Our SAFA network outperforms recent state-of-the-art methods such as TMNet and VideoINR by an average improvement of over 0.5dB on PSNR, while requiring less than half the number of parameters and only 1/3 computational costs.

cs.CV↗
arXiv2023

A Survey on Vulnerability of Federated Learning: A Learning Algorithm Perspective

This review paper takes a comprehensive look at malicious attacks against FL, categorizing them from new perspectives on attack origins and targets, and providing insights into their methodology and impact. In this survey, we focus on threat models targeting the learning process of FL systems. Based on the source and target of the attack, we categorize existing threat models into four types, Data to Model (D2M), Model to Data (M2D), Model to Model (M2M) and composite attacks. For each attack type, we discuss the defense strategies proposed, highlighting their effectiveness, assumptions and potential areas for improvement. Defense strategies have evolved from using a singular metric to excluding malicious clients, to employing a multifaceted approach examining client models at various phases. In this survey paper, our research indicates that the to-learn data, the learning gradients, and the learned model at different stages all can be manipulated to initiate malicious attacks that range from undermining model performance, reconstructing private local data, and to inserting backdoors. We have also seen these threat are becoming more insidious. While earlier studies typically amplified malicious gradients, recent endeavors subtly alter the least significant weights in local models to bypass defense measures. This literature review provides a holistic understanding of the current FL threat landscape and highlights the importance of developing robust, efficient, and privacy-preserving defenses to ensure the safe and trusted adoption of FL in real-world applications.

cs.LG↗
arXiv2023

Channel Estimation for Millimeter-Wave Massive MIMO with Hybrid Precoding over Frequency-Selective Fading Channels

Channel estimation for millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive MIMO with hybrid precoding is challenging, since the number of radio frequency (RF) chains is usually much smaller than that of antennas. To date, several channel estimation schemes have been proposed for mmWave massive MIMO over narrow-band channels, while practical mmWave channels exhibit the frequency-selective fading (FSF). To this end, this letter proposes a multi-user uplink channel estimation scheme for mmWave massive MIMO over FSF channels. Specifically, by exploiting the angle-domain structured sparsity of mmWave FSF channels, a distributed compressive sensing (DCS)-based channel estimation scheme is proposed. Moreover, by using the grid matching pursuit strategy with adaptive measurement matrix, the proposed algorithm can solve the power leakage problem caused by the continuous angles of arrival or departure (AoA/AoD). Simulation results verify that the good performance of the proposed solution.

cs.IT↗
arXiv2023

AGN STORM 2. VI. Mapping Temperature Fluctuations in the Accretion Disk of Mrk 817

We fit the UV/optical lightcurves of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 817 to produce maps of the accretion disk temperature fluctuations $δT$ resolved in time and radius. The $δT$ maps are dominated by coherent radial structures that move slowly ($v \ll c$) inwards and outwards, which conflicts with the idea that disk variability is driven only by reverberation. Instead, these slow-moving temperature fluctuations are likely due to variability intrinsic to the disk. We test how modifying the input lightcurves by smoothing and subtracting them changes the resulting $δT$ maps and find that most of the temperature fluctuations exist over relatively long timescales ($\sim$100s of days). We show how detrending AGN lightcurves can be used to separate the flux variations driven by the slow-moving temperature fluctuations from those driven by reverberation. We also simulate contamination of the continuum emission from the disk by continuum emission from the broad line region (BLR), which is expected to have spectral features localized in wavelength, such as the Balmer break contaminating the $U$ band. We find that a disk with a smooth temperature profile cannot produce a signal localized in wavelength and that any BLR contamination should appear as residuals in our model lightcurves. Given the observed residuals, we estimate that only $\sim$20% of the variable flux in the $U$ and $u$ lightcurves can be due to BLR contamination. Finally, we discus how these maps not only describe the data, but can make predictions about other aspects of AGN variability.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2023

AGN STORM 2. IV. Swift X-ray and ultraviolet/optical monitoring of Mrk 817

The AGN STORM 2 campaign is a large, multiwavelength reverberation mapping project designed to trace out the structure of Mrk 817 from the inner accretion disk to the broad emission line region and out to the dusty torus. As part of this campaign, Swift performed daily monitoring of Mrk 817 for approximately 15 months, obtaining observations in X-rays and six UV/optical filters. The X-ray monitoring shows that Mrk 817 was in a significantly fainter state than in previous observations, with only a brief flare where it reached prior flux levels. The X-ray spectrum is heavily obscured. The UV/optical light curves show significant variability throughout the campaign and are well correlated with one another, but uncorrelated with the X-rays. Combining the Swift UV/optical light curves with Hubble UV continuum light curves, we measure interband continuum lags, $τ(λ)$, that increase with increasing wavelength roughly following $τ(λ) \propto λ^{4/3}$, the dependence expected for a geometrically thin, optically thick, centrally illuminated disk. Modeling of the light curves reveals a period at the beginning of the campaign where the response of the continuum is suppressed compared to later in the light curve - the light curves are not simple shifted and scaled versions of each other. The interval of suppressed response corresponds to a period of high UV line and X-ray absorption, and reduced emission line variability amplitudes. We suggest that this indicates a significant contribution to the continuum from the broad line region gas that sees an absorbed ionizing continuum.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2023

Occ$^2$Net: Robust Image Matching Based on 3D Occupancy Estimation for Occluded Regions

Image matching is a fundamental and critical task in various visual applications, such as Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) and image retrieval, which require accurate pose estimation. However, most existing methods ignore the occlusion relations between objects caused by camera motion and scene structure. In this paper, we propose Occ$^2$Net, a novel image matching method that models occlusion relations using 3D occupancy and infers matching points in occluded regions. Thanks to the inductive bias encoded in the Occupancy Estimation (OE) module, it greatly simplifies bootstrapping of a multi-view consistent 3D representation that can then integrate information from multiple views. Together with an Occlusion-Aware (OA) module, it incorporates attention layers and rotation alignment to enable matching between occluded and visible points. We evaluate our method on both real-world and simulated datasets and demonstrate its superior performance over state-of-the-art methods on several metrics, especially in occlusion scenarios.

cs.CV↗
arXiv2023

Proximal Policy Optimization Actual Combat: Manipulating Output Tokenizer Length

The Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) plays a pivotal role in shaping the impact of large language models (LLMs), contributing significantly to controlling output toxicity and selecting output styles, particularly as LLMs often harbor misleading content, highlighting the urgency to align them with human values for secure AI systems. The RLHF, characterized by complexity, instability, and sensitivity to hyperparameters, makes the evaluation of the reward model for complex tasks challenging, thereby further complicating the use of Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO). In this paper, we introduce a simple task designed to employ Gloden as a reward model that validates the effectiveness of PPO and inspires it, primarily explaining the task of utilizing PPO to manipulate the tokenizer length of the output generated by the model. Experiments confirm that PPO is not only effective in manipulating the output tokenizer length to a certain extent in this type of task but also exhibits facilitated training once the influence of the reward model effect is excluded, making it an exciting development.

cs.AI↗
arXiv2023

XMM-Newton Observations of Two Archival X-ray Weak Type 1 Quasars: Obscuration Induced X-ray Weakness and Variability

We report \hbox{XMM-Newton} observations of two examples of an unclassified type of \hbox{X-ray} weak quasars from the \citet{2020ApJ...900..141P} survey of \hbox{X-ray} weak quasars in the Chandra archive, SDSS J083116.62+321329.6 at $z=1.797$ and SDSS J142339.87+042041.1 at $z=1.702$. They do not belong to the known populations of \hbox{X-ray} weak quasars that show broad absorption lines, weak ultraviolet (UV) broad emission lines, or red optical/UV continua. Instead, they display typical quasar UV spectra and spectral energy distributions. In the \hbox{XMM-Newton} observations, both quasars show nominal levels of \hbox{X-ray} emission with typical quasar \hbox{X-ray} spectral shapes (\hbox{power-law} photon indices of $1.99^{+0.27}_{-0.23}$ and $1.86^{+0.15}_{-0.14}$), displaying strong \hbox{X-ray} variability compared to the archival Chandra data (variability factors of $4.0^{+1.6}_{-1.4}$ and $9.0^{+7.4}_{-3.8}$ in terms of the 2 keV flux density). Simultaneous optical (rest-frame UV) spectra indicate no strong variability compared to the archival spectra. Long-term optical/UV and infrared light curves do not show any substantial variability either. We consider that the \hbox{X-ray} weakness observed in the Chandra data is due to \hbox{X-ray} obscuration from a small-scale dust-free absorber, likely related to accretion-disk winds. Such \hbox{X-ray} weak/absorbed states are probably rare in typical quasars, and thus both targets recovered to \hbox{X-ray} nominal-strength states in the \hbox{XMM-Newton} observations.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2023

Excitonic interactions and mechanism for ultrafast interlayer photoexcited response in van der Waals heterostructures

Optical dynamics in van der Waals heterobilayers is of fundamental scientific and practical interest. Based on a time-dependent adiabatic GW approach, we discover a new many-electron (excitonic) channel for converting photoexcited intralayer to interlayer excitations and the associated ultrafast optical responses in heterobilayers, which is conceptually different from the conventional single-particle picture. We find strong electron-hole interactions drive the dynamics and enhance the pump-probe optical responses by an order of magnitude with a rise time of ~300 fs in MoSe$_2$/WSe$_2$ heterobilayers, in agreement with experiment.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2023

Testing Super-Eddington Accretion onto a Supermassive Black Hole: Reverberation Mapping of PG 1119+120

We measure the black hole mass and investigate the accretion flow around the local ($z=0.0502$) quasar PG 1119+120. Spectroscopic monitoring with Calar Alto provides H$β$ lags and linewidths from which we estimate a black hole mass of $\log \left(M_{\bullet}/\mathrm{M}_{\odot} \right) = 7.0$, uncertain by $\sim0.4$ dex. High cadence photometric monitoring over two years with the Las Cumbres Observatory provides lightcurves in 7 optical bands suitable for intensive continuum reverberation mapping. We identify variability on two timescales. Slower variations on a 100-day timescale exhibit excess flux and increased lag in the $u'$ band and are thus attributable to diffuse bound-free continuum emission from the broad line region. Faster variations that we attribute to accretion disc reprocessing lack a $u'$-band excess and have flux and delay spectra consistent with either $τ\propto λ^{4/3}$, as expected for a temperature structure of $T(R) \propto R^{-3/4}$ for a thin accretion disc, or $τ\propto λ^{2}$ expected for a slim disc. Decomposing the flux into variable (disc) and constant (host galaxy) components, we find the disc SED to be flatter than expected with $f_ν \sim \rm{const}$. Modelling the SED predicts an Eddington ratio of $λ_{\rm Edd} > 1$, where the flat spectrum can be reproduced by a slim disc with little dust extinction or a thin disc which requires more dust extinction. While this accretion is super-Eddington, the geometry is still unclear, however a slim disc is expected due to the high radiation pressure at these accretion rates, and is entirely consistent with our observations.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2023

Strong and Rapid X-ray Variability of the Super-Eddington Accreting Quasar SDSS J081456.10+532533.5

We report strong and rapid X-ray variability found from the super-Eddington accreting quasar SDSS J081456.10+532533.5 at $z=0.1197$. It has a black-hole mass of $2.7\times10^{7}{M_{\odot}}$ and a dimensionless accretion rate of $\approx4$ measured from reverberation-mapping observations. It showed weak X-ray emission in the 2021 February Chandra observation, with the 2 keV flux density being $9.6^{+11.6}_{-4.6}$ times lower compared to an archival Swift observation. The 2 keV flux density is also $11.7^{+9.6}_{-6.3}$ times weaker compared to the expectation from its optical/UV emission. In a follow-up XMM-Newton observation 32 days later, the 2 keV flux density increased by a factor of $5.3^{+6.4}_{-2.4}$, and the spectra are best described by a power law modified with partial-covering absorption; the absorption-corrected intrinsic continuum is at a nominal flux level. Nearly simultaneous optical spectra reveal no variability, and there is only mild long-term optical/infrared variability from archival data (with a maximum variability amplitude of $\approx50\%$). We interpret the X-ray variability with an obscuration scenario, where the intrinsic X-ray continuum does not vary but the absorber has variable column density and covering factor along the line of sight. The absorber is likely the small-scale clumpy accretion wind that has been proposed to be responsible for similar X-ray variability in other super-Eddington accreting quasars.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2023

Beam Test Results of the RADiCAL -- a Radiation Hard Innovative EM Calorimeter

High performance calorimetry conducted at future hadron colliders, such as the FCC-hh, poses a significant challenge for applying current detector technologies due to unprecedented beam luminosities and radiation fields. Solutions include developing scintillators that are capable of separating events at the sub-fifty picosecond level while also maintaining performance after extreme and constant neutron and ionizing radiation exposure. The RADiCAL is an approach that incorporates radiation tolerant materials in a sampling 'shashlik' style calorimeter configuration, using quartz capillaries filled with organic liquid or polymer-based wavelength shifters embedded in layers of tungsten plates and LYSO crystals. This novel design intends to address the Priority Research Directions (PRD) for calorimetry listed in the DOE Basic Research Needs (BRN) workshop for HEP Instrumentation. Here we report preliminary results from an experimental run at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility in June 2022. These tests demonstrate that the RADiCAL concept is capable of < 50 ps timing resolution.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2023

UniDistill: A Universal Cross-Modality Knowledge Distillation Framework for 3D Object Detection in Bird's-Eye View

In the field of 3D object detection for autonomous driving, the sensor portfolio including multi-modality and single-modality is diverse and complex. Since the multi-modal methods have system complexity while the accuracy of single-modal ones is relatively low, how to make a tradeoff between them is difficult. In this work, we propose a universal cross-modality knowledge distillation framework (UniDistill) to improve the performance of single-modality detectors. Specifically, during training, UniDistill projects the features of both the teacher and the student detector into Bird's-Eye-View (BEV), which is a friendly representation for different modalities. Then, three distillation losses are calculated to sparsely align the foreground features, helping the student learn from the teacher without introducing additional cost during inference. Taking advantage of the similar detection paradigm of different detectors in BEV, UniDistill easily supports LiDAR-to-camera, camera-to-LiDAR, fusion-to-LiDAR and fusion-to-camera distillation paths. Furthermore, the three distillation losses can filter the effect of misaligned background information and balance between objects of different sizes, improving the distillation effectiveness. Extensive experiments on nuScenes demonstrate that UniDistill effectively improves the mAP and NDS of student detectors by 2.0%~3.2%.

cs.CV↗
arXiv2023

Revisiting Emission-Line Measurement Methods for Narrow-Line Active Galactic Nuclei

Measuring broad emission-line widths in active galactic nuclei (AGN) is not straightforward owing to the complex nature of flux variability in these systems. Line-width measurements become especially challenging when signal-to-noise is low, profiles are narrower, or spectral resolution is low. We conducted an extensive correlation analysis between emission-line measurements from the optical spectra of Markarian 142 (Mrk 142; a narrow-line Seyfert galaxy) taken with the Gemini North Telescope (Gemini) at a spectral resolution of 185.6+\-10.2 km/s and the Lijiang Telescope (LJT) at 695.2+\-3.9 km/s to investigate the disparities in the measured broad-line widths from both telescope data. Mrk~142 posed a challenge due to its narrow broad-line profiles, which were severely affected by instrumental broadening in the lower-resolution LJT spectra. We discovered that allowing the narrow-line flux of permitted lines having broad and narrow components to vary during spectral fitting caused a leak in the narrow-line flux to the broad component, resulting in broader broad-line widths in the LJT spectra. Fixing the narrow-line flux ratios constrained the flux leak and yielded the Hydrogen-beta broad-line widths from LJT spectra $\sim$54\% closer to the Gemini Hydrogen-beta widths than with flexible narrow-line ratios. The availability of spectra at different resolutions presented this unique opportunity to inspect how spectral resolution affected emission-line profiles in our data and adopt a unique method to accurately measure broad-line widths. Reconsidering line-measurement methods while studying diverse AGN populations is critical for the success of future reverberation-mapping studies. Based on the technique used in this work, we offer recommendations for measuring line widths in narrow-line AGN.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2023

OccDepth: A Depth-Aware Method for 3D Semantic Scene Completion

3D Semantic Scene Completion (SSC) can provide dense geometric and semantic scene representations, which can be applied in the field of autonomous driving and robotic systems. It is challenging to estimate the complete geometry and semantics of a scene solely from visual images, and accurate depth information is crucial for restoring 3D geometry. In this paper, we propose the first stereo SSC method named OccDepth, which fully exploits implicit depth information from stereo images (or RGBD images) to help the recovery of 3D geometric structures. The Stereo Soft Feature Assignment (Stereo-SFA) module is proposed to better fuse 3D depth-aware features by implicitly learning the correlation between stereo images. In particular, when the input are RGBD image, a virtual stereo images can be generated through original RGB image and depth map. Besides, the Occupancy Aware Depth (OAD) module is used to obtain geometry-aware 3D features by knowledge distillation using pre-trained depth models. In addition, a reformed TartanAir benchmark, named SemanticTartanAir, is provided in this paper for further testing our OccDepth method on SSC task. Compared with the state-of-the-art RGB-inferred SSC method, extensive experiments on SemanticKITTI show that our OccDepth method achieves superior performance with improving +4.82% mIoU, of which +2.49% mIoU comes from stereo images and +2.33% mIoU comes from our proposed depth-aware method. Our code and trained models are available at https://github.com/megvii-research/OccDepth.

cs.CV↗
arXiv2023

AGN STORM 2. III. A NICER view of the variable X-ray obscurer in Mrk 817

The AGN STORM 2 collaboration targeted the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 817 for a year-long multiwavelength, coordinated reverberation mapping campaign including HST, Swift, XMM-Newton, NICER, and ground-based observatories. Early observations with NICER and XMM revealed an X-ray state ten times fainter than historical observations, consistent with the presence of a new dust-free, ionized obscurer. The following analysis of NICER spectra attributes variability in the observed X-ray flux to changes in both the column density of the obscurer by at least one order of magnitude ($N_\mathrm{H}$ ranges from $2.85\substack{+0.48\\ -0.33} \times 10^{22}\text{ cm}^{-2}$ to $25.6\substack{+3.0\\ -3.5} \times 10^{22} \text{ cm}^{-2}$) and the intrinsic continuum brightness (the unobscured flux ranges from $10^{-11.8}$ to $10^{-10.5}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ ). While the X-ray flux generally remains in a faint state, there is one large flare during which Mrk 817 returns to its historical mean flux. The obscuring gas is still present at lower column density during the flare but it also becomes highly ionized, increasing its transparency. Correlation between the column density of the X-ray obscurer and the strength of UV broad absorption lines suggests that the X-ray and UV continua are both affected by the same obscuration, consistent with a clumpy disk wind launched from the inner broad line region.

astro-ph.HE↗