arXiv subjects

Cheng Li

Publications and source records attributed to Cheng Li.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2026

Alkali Metallicity, Mineral Clouds, and Deep Atmospheric Variability on Jupiter

The bulk elemental abundances of Jupiter provide critical insights into its formation history and interior structure. Recent observations by the Juno Microwave Radiometer (MWR) reveal a deep Jovian atmosphere significantly depleted in electrons, implying an alkali metal (Na, K) abundance of 10^-1 - 10^-5 times solar. This depletion stands in sharp contrast to the supersolar volatile enrichments measured by the Galileo probe. We propose that this apparent depletion arises from mineral cloud-induced processes deep in the atmosphere. We explore two physical mechanisms using thermochemical and microphysical modeling. In the "chemical sequestration" scenario, vigorous vertical mixing lofts deep refractory condensates (e.g., spinel) into the 1000-2000 bar region, where they react to form alkali feldspars (albite) and feldspathoids (leucite), efficiently sequestering gaseous Na and K. In the "dust-catalyzed recombination" scenario, the bulk alkali inventory remains gaseous, but the free electron density is suppressed by dust-plasma interactions. Thermally emitted alkali ions from the surfaces of micron-sized iron and silicate grains significantly increase the cation density, driving rapid recombination of free electrons. Both mechanisms allow for a bulk solar or even supersolar alkali inventory while suppressing the electron density to match Juno observations. Analyzing an extended dataset of MWR observations with 61 perijoves, we detect spatial variability in the deep atmosphere that suggests modulation by mineral clouds. Our findings challenge the traditional rainout framework, unveiling a deep "mineralogical zone" in Jupiter shaped by dynamics and heterogeneous chemistry, resembling the photospheres of hot exoplanets and brown dwarfs.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

AuroraRL: Fast, Fault-Tolerant, and Cost-Efficient Reinforcement Learning over Decentralized Network

LLM reinforcement learning (RL) requires frequent synchronization of large model parameters between the trainer and distributed rollout actors. High-throughput RL post-training therefore relies on dedicated RDMA HPC/cloud clusters, an infrastructure cost most organizations cannot absorb. A natural alternative is to aggregate loosely-coupled GPUs over standard Ethernet and WAN links, but this commodity connectivity cannot sustain full-weight broadcasts: synchronizing an 8B model can take over 100~seconds on bandwidth-limited links, while rollout generation typically takes tens of seconds. Toward making RL practical in this regime, we observe that RL fine-tuning yields highly sparse per-step updates, with only around 1\% of parameter elements changing. On top of this insight, we present AuroraRL, a novel high-performance RL training system that preserves bit-exact updates without dropping or quantizing information, designed for commodity-networked, loosely-coupled GPU resources. AuroraRL represents each step as a sparse delta checkpoint, pipelines delta extraction with multi-stream transmission, overlaps transfer with rollout generation, and coordinates heterogeneous workers with throughput- and bandwidth-aware scheduling plus lease-based fault tolerance. Across Qwen3 4B--14B models deployed in up to four geographic regions, AuroraRL shrinks per-step weight transfer by 79$\times$ on Qwen3-8B, delivers 1.3--9.5$\times$ higher throughput than dense-broadcast baselines (PrimeRL-Full, async-tolerant, multi-stream variants), and brings end-to-end training within 8.91\% of an ideal RDMA single-datacenter baseline, while transparently tolerating common failures and preserving training accuracy. By leveraging on-demand, cross-cloud GPUs over commodity links, AuroraRL delivers 1.21--1.59$\times$ higher tokens per dollar than reserved RDMA clusters at comparable throughput.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2026

RSC-GestureNet: Reliability-Aware Selective Causal Recognition of Chinese Traffic Police Gestures

Traffic police gestures are safety-critical perception cues for autonomous driving. A deployable recognizer must infer commands causally from continuous full-frame video, remain stable around transitional arm motion, and avoid over-trusting corrupted pose measurements. This study presents RSC-GestureNet, a reliability-aware selective causal recognizer, for Chinese traffic police gestures. The model treats pose confidence as a first-class signal: unreliable joints are down weighted during graph reasoning, temporal evidence is aggregated causally, and calibrated predictions are selectively emitted through a reliability-aware inference rule. We further introduce CTPGesture-C, a reproducible feature-level corruption benchmark with seven pose/RGB degradation families, and an RGB-level diagnostic in which corrupted frames are reprocessed by MediaPipe before recognition. On the complete official CTPGesture v1 split (134,424 labeled frames and 33,451 causal windows), RSC-GestureNet achieves 93.33+-0.24% accuracy, 91.71+-0.27% macro-F1, 91.69+-0.29% online macro-F1, 98.80+-0.07% Early@10, 0.153+-0.013 s TTC, and the best robust macro-F1 among evaluated methods. Under the same split and causal protocol, it exceeds reproduced traffic-specific MD-GCN and HLP-GCN baselines by 3.23-4.11 macro-F1 points and 2.15-3.07 online-F1 points. These results, together with calibration, selective-risk, statistical, adaptive-branching, and image-level re-extraction analyses, indicate that explicit pose-reliability modeling improves early, stable, and robust traffic-command recognition.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2026

Correlations of ALMA CO(2-1) with JWST mid-infrared fluxes down to scale of $\lesssim$100 parsec in nearby star-forming galaxies from PHANGS

We investigate the correlations of CO (2-1) emission (${I_{\rm CO}}$) with PAH (${I_{\rm F770W, PAH}}$ and ${I_{\rm F1130W}}$) and dust (${I_{\rm F2100W}}$) emission down to scales of $\lesssim$ 100 pc, by applying ${\tt raddest}$, a novel regression technique recently developed by T. Jing & C. Li (2025) that effectively handles uncertainties and outliers in datasets, to 19 nearby star-forming galaxies in the PHANGS sample. We find that for the majority of the data points in all galaxies, the scaling of ${I_{\rm CO}}$ with ${I_{\rm F770W, PAH}}$, ${I_{\rm F1130W}}$, and ${I_{\rm F2100W}}$ can be well described by log-log linear relations, though with substantial dependence on ionization conditions (i.e., HII-like, composite-like, and AGN-like). Under given ionization conditions, significant galaxy-to-galaxy variations are identified, and are primarily attributed to variations of intercept $b$, which exhibits clear bimodality. This bimodality is related to the normalized overall host galaxy star formation rate, such as specific star formation and star formation efficiency. The differences in slope $k$ and intrinsic scatter $σ$ across different MIR bands (${I_{\rm F770W, PAH}}$, ${I_{\rm F1130W}}$, and ${I_{\rm F2100W}}$) are minor compared to their galaxy-to-galaxy variations. All parameters ($k$, $b$, and $σ$) depend on the spatial scale of measurement, suggesting that the coupling among CO, PAH, and dust is regulated by different mechanisms at varying scales. We identify deviations from the log-log linear relation in the brightest regions, primarily characterized by a flattening of the slope. No significant (3$σ$) correlations are found between global properties and the best-fit parameters. We discuss the comparison to previous studies and plausible physics behind the statistical results obtained in this work.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Galactic HII regions in LAMOST Medium-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey of Nebulae

Based on LAMOST Medium-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey of Nebulae (MRS-N) data and WISE Galactic HII region catalog, we construct a sample of 280 Galactic HII regions and candidates in the Outer Galaxy (80$^{\circ}$ $\lesssim$ l $\lesssim$ 220$^{\circ}$). Using MRS-N optical spectra, we measure four emission lines (H$α$, [NII]$λ$6584, [SII]$λλ$6717,6731) and use line-ratios to spectroscopically confirm 255 HII regions, including 90 previously "Known" HII regions and 165 newly classified ones. We measure their $T_{\rm e}$, $n_{\rm e}$ and oxygen abundance, and determine distances via associated OB stars and the kinematic method. The sample spans $R_{\rm gal}$ from 8.16 to 15.36 kpc, enabling investigation of radial gradients in physical properties. We find [NII]/H$α$ and [SII]/H$α$ decrease with increasing $R_{\rm gal}$, while [SII]/[NII] remains nearly flat; these trends are quite different from diffuse ionized gas (DIG). We derive the $T_{\rm e}$ gradient of 344.530 $\pm$ 78.083 K kpc$^{-1}$, and the $\log n_{\rm e}$ gradient of -0.143 $\pm$ 0.041 cm$^{-3}$ kpc$^{-1}$. Oxygen abundance shows a steep slope of -0.044 $\pm$ 0.010 dex kpc$^{-1}$ in the inner disk and a shallow slope of -0.016 $\pm$ 0.005 dex kpc$^{-1}$ in the outer disk, with a global slope of -0.014 $\pm$ 0.005 dex kpc$^{-1}$. We also examine the two-dimensional distributions of $T_{\rm e}$, $n_{\rm e}$, and oxygen abundance, and find the gradients vary with azimuth. There is no obvious difference between spiral arm and interarm regions, and no trend appears along individual arms. From [NII]/H$α$-[SII]$λ$6717/H$α$ diagram, HII regions have a S$^+$/S ratio (0.32), lower than DIG (0.43); however, heavy overlap prevents clear separation from this diagram alone.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Anisotropic Secondary Bias of Dark Matter Haloes in a $Λ$CDM Universe

Secondary bias is the dependence of halo clustering on properties beyond halo mass. Using the $z=0$ TNG300-1-Dark simulation, we study anisotropic secondary bias (ASB): the variation of secondary bias with direction relative to the halo major axis. We first use ordinary, orientation-averaged secondary bias (OSB) as a baseline to compare three environmental manifestations: halo-environment alignment, outer matter anisotropy, and tidal anisotropy. Matching tidal anisotropy suppresses much of the OSB, whereas matching halo-environment alignment or outer matter anisotropy does not. ASB behaves differently. It is weak for formation time, concentration, and triaxiality, but strong for both spin definitions and minor-to-major axis ratio; slowly rotating and more elongated haloes are more strongly aligned with filamentary structure. Matching halo-environment alignment substantially reduces the spin- and shape-dependent ASB signals, whereas matching tidal anisotropy or the outer matter axis ratio leaves them largely intact. Halo definition has little impact on ASB, yet strongly affects low-mass spin bias: including unbound particles can move dense-environment haloes with low bound-particle spin into the high all-particle-spin sample. These results clarify which clustering signals are associated with halo-environment alignment, matter anisotropy, or tidal anisotropy, and which are sensitive to halo definition.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Galaxy populations in groups and clusters-II. Conditional luminosity functions at redshifts from z~1 to z~0

Using DESI SV3 spectroscopic group centrals and HSC photometric data, we measure conditional luminosity functions (CLFs) of central and satellite galaxies for red and blue populations in dark matter haloes spanning $M_h\sim10^{12}- 10^{15}M_{\odot}$ and $0<z<1$. HSC depth permits measurements to $M_r \approx -15$ at $0.2 \leqslant z < 0.5$ and $M_r \approx -17$ at $0.5 \leqslant z < 1.0$. We find satellite CLFs evolve weakly over $0<z<1$. Blue satellite CLFs are well described by a single Schechter function across halo masses and redshifts, with a nearly constant slope of $-1.25\lesssim α\lesssim -1.2$. In contrast, red satellite CLFs exhibit a pronounced faint-end upturn in all halo mass and redshift bins, with little evolution in the faint-end slope ($-1.8\lesssim α_f\lesssim -1.7$). The low-mass red sequence was therefore already established in clusters/groups by $z\sim1$. The lack of faint-end-slope evolution favors models where the steep upturn originates from early formation processes at $z\gtrsim2$, rather than environmental quenching after infall. Satellite characteristic magnitudes and central galaxy luminosities fade with time. Red central galaxies are consistent with passive evolution, whereas blue-central luminosity evolution is dominated by ongoing star formation. Satellites evolve more rapidly than predicted by simple stellar population models, highlighting environmental effects. Satellite quenched fractions as a function of stellar mass exhibit a minimum at $M_{*} \sim 10^9M_{\odot}$ that is consistent across halo masses and redshifts. We discuss possible interpretations of these results and their implications for galaxy formation and evolution.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Electrochemical and thermal control of continuous phase transitions in P2-NaxNi1/3Mn2/3O2

Sodium layered oxides often undergo phase transformations involving ordering or disordering of Na+ upon desodiation, i.e., when cycled as a battery electrode. Accurately characterizing these phases is crucial for understanding functional properties, such as chemical diffusivity. In this work, we reveal that Na+-vacancy (dis)ordering in a layered oxide is intrinsically coupled to symmetry-changing phase transformations of the host structure. We examine the low-symmetry orthorhombic unit cell of P2-NaxNi1/3Mn2/3O2 (NNM) using both neutron and X-ray diffraction. Specifically, special sodium stoichiometries (x = 2/3 and 1/2) exhibit concomitant Na+-vacancy ordering and an orthorhombic distortion from the parent hexagonal unit cell. We then demonstrate that electrochemical desodiation drives symmetry-changing transformations in NNM that are linked to Na+-vacancy (dis)ordering, with evidence of second-order behavior observed near x = 2/3. Variable-temperature synchrotron X-ray diffraction further clarifies the coupling between Na+-vacancy disordering and orthorhombic-to-hexagonal phase transitions in NNM. Surprisingly, the temperature-driven phase transitions at x = 2/3 and 1/2 differ in character, appearing second-order and first-order, respectively. Our analysis of the phase transitions in NNM has fundamental consequences for sodium chemical diffusivity in the vicinity of the ordered phases and leads to design principles for modifying phase transition behavior in the broader class of intercalation electrodes.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Efficient and Privacy Aware Edge Cloud Collaborative Inference for Large Language Models

On-device LLM inference faces a trilemma of response latency, limited hardware resources and user privacy. Full cloud inference delivers strong computing power but exposes user prompts and dialogue data, while standalone on-device inference is unfeasible for most consumer and embedded edge devices. This paper presents a privacy-centric edge-cloud collaborative LLM inference framework built on endpoint-authenticated KV cache. Local endpoints handle input preprocessing, embedding computation, adaptive feature optimization, KV cache authentication, speculative decoding and low-dimensional model head calculation, while the cloud conducts authenticated decoder inference, KV cache management, token verification and high-dimensional vocabulary projection. Endpoints fuse partial outputs, apply language-adaptive masking and sample target tokens. All transmitted data and truncated logits are quantized and AES-GCM encrypted for privacy, with core lightweight modules, draft parameters and cache access policies kept local to avoid leakage. The framework supports heterogeneous devices including CPU-only, GPU-equipped and embedded devices via optimized streaming, batching and quantized ONNX deployment. Evaluations demonstrate that the framework reduces per-token latency by up to 46.1\% and downlink payloads by up to 67.4\% over baseline split inference, retaining comparable performance to full cloud inference.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2026

The Second LoViF 2026 Challenge on Real-World All-in-One Image Restoration: Methods and Results

This paper presents a review of the second LoViF Challenge on Real-World All-in-One Image Restoration. The challenge aims to advance unified image restoration under diverse real-world degradation conditions, including blur, low-light, haze, rain, and snow. It provides a common benchmark for evaluating the restoration accuracy, robustness, and generalization capability of models across multiple degradation categories within a unified framework. The competition attracted 158 registered participants, and 20 teams were included in the final ranking after their submitted results were successfully reproduced and verified. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the submitted solutions and corresponding results, highlighting recent advances in real-world all-in-one image restoration. The summarized methods and empirical findings reveal effective design strategies and establish an updated benchmark for future research in real-world low-level vision.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2026

CSST large-scale structure analysis pipeline: IV. Cosmic Voids Identified from Galaxy Group Samples as Probes of the Large-scale Structure

Because groups are directly associated with halos, they allow for considerably simpler theoretical modeling than approaches based on individual galaxies. We therefore propose to use voids identified in galaxy group catalogs, referred to as group-voids, to investigate the cosmic large-scale structure (LSS). Using the reference mock galaxy redshift survey (MGRS) designed for the Chinese Space-station Survey Telescope (CSST), we build two galaxy group catalogs representing ideal and realistic scenarios, derived from galaxy samples with 100\% and roughly 30\% spectroscopic redshift completeness, respectively. We then identify voids in these two mock group catalogs, as well as in the underlying halo catalog, and measure two void statistics, the void size function (VSF) and the void density profile, within five redshift intervals spanning $z=0$ to $1.0$. We compare the statistics obtained from two kinds of voids: those defined by galaxy groups (group-voids) and those defined by dark matter halos (halo-voids). In the void-finding process, we adopt the brightest central galaxy (BCG) as the group center to improve the accuracy of the inferred void centers. Our analysis shows that void statistics derived from group-voids with spectroscopic redshift completeness of at least 40\% can faithfully reproduce the corresponding statistics from halo-voids. Even when the redshift completeness of galaxies falls to as low as 30\%, we can still reliably describe group-voids via halo-voids by incorporating a redshift error term. This indicates that group-voids are a promising tool for probing LSS and offer a valuable complement to standard void studies, which is especially advantageous for emulator-based methods.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Mapping Dust Attenuation at Kiloparsec Scales. III. The 2175Å Bump

We combine the SwiM_v4.2 Swift/UVOT+MaNGA catalog with 2MASS $K_s$ imaging to map the 2175Å attenuation bump at kiloparsec scales in nearby galaxies. We use two complementary estimators: an ultraviolet-to-near-infrared attenuation-curve method, yielding $A_{bump}^{UOIR}$ and $B$ for 2487 high-continuum-S/N spaxels, and the NUV-only method of Battisti et al. (2025), yielding $A_{bump}^{NUV}$ and $k_{bump}$ for 7934 spaxels. The two absolute bump estimates agree well where they overlap. We compare bump strength with local stellar-population, emission-line, attenuation-curve, and geometric diagnostics after separating star-forming (SF) and non-SF regions. The strongest bumps occur at low specific H$α$ surface brightness, $Σ_{\text{H}α}/Σ_\ast$, especially in non-SF regions, where this ratio traces ionized-gas emission per unit stellar mass rather than sSFR. The bump also weakens with EW(H$α$) and strengthens with $D_n4000$ and stellar age. In contrast, metallicity, inclination, galactocentric radius, $A_V$, and optical attenuation-curve slope are secondary predictors. The absolute strength $A_{bump}^{NUV}$ increases with $Σ_{\text{H}α}$ and $Σ_\ast$, while the relative strengths $k_{bump}$ and $B$ do not, indicating that absolute bump amplitude partly follows dust column whereas normalized strengths better trace effective bump prominence. These results support local radiation-field processing of the 2175Å carriers.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Extracting nuclear charge radii from binding energies: a single-parameter empirical formula with structural corrections

Nuclear binding energies and charge radii stem from the same underlying physics: saturation, isospin dependence, shell structure, and deformation. Binding-energy data therefore provide a natural constraint for charge-radius modeling. We propose a one-parameter charge-radius formula ($\mathrm{BECR}_\mathrm{1p}$) that combines binding-energy correlations with local structural corrections. On a curated set of 893 experimental charge radii, the macroscopic BECR term alone reproduces the leading charge-radius scale with a root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) of 0.0345 fm; adding shell, odd--even, finite-size, and deformation corrections further reduces the RMSD of BECR1p to 0.0138 fm. An anisotropic kernel ridge regression (AKRR) applied to the residuals further lowers the leave-one-out cross-validation RMSD to about 0.0081 fm. We use the formula to predict charge radii for 11205 nuclei across the nuclear chart.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2026

Mapping Dust Attenuation at Kiloparsec Scales. IV. A Dust-model Interpretation of Attenuation Curves in Nearby Galaxies

In this fourth paper on kiloparsec-scale dust attenuation, we ask whether the empirical trends found in Papers I--III can be translated into effective dust properties. Using attenuation curves for 2487 high-continuum-S/N spaxels in 91 SwiM v4.2 galaxies, we construct a grid of uniform-screen dust models composed of astronomical silicate and graphite grains with MRN-like size distributions. We fit the normalized attenuation-curve shape to constrain model parameters and then use the attenuation amplitude to estimate the model-dependent dust mass surface density. The inferred dust masses, compositions, and small-grain fractions are therefore effective quantities defined within the adopted attenuation model. The fitted models reproduce the main attenuation-curve variations and provide a direct bridge to Papers I--III: within this model, the relative 2175Å bump sequence maps mainly onto the effective fraction of small graphitic/carbonaceous grains, while the NUV-slope sequence maps onto the effective small-silicate grain fraction and total silicate mass fraction. Non-SF regions have higher dust mass surface densities but lower dust-to-stellar mass ratios than SF regions, separating absolute dust content from dust content per unit stellar mass. Regions with larger specific H$α$ surface brightness have larger dust-to-stellar mass ratios but lower inferred small-grain fractions, especially lower small-silicate fractions. In non-SF regions this quantity is interpreted as ionized-gas emission per unit stellar mass rather than as a direct sSFR. These model-dependent trends support a picture in which local dust processing changes the relative abundance of small grains and thereby shapes the attenuation-curve variations found across the series.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Analytical penetration probability including the centrifugal potential: An improved Buck--Merchant--Perez model for alpha-decay half-lives

We derive a closed-form, non-perturbative WKB penetration formula for alpha-decay that explicitly incorporates the centrifugal potential within the Buck--Merchant--Perez (BMP) cluster model. The centrifugal term is shown to enhance the hindrance by effectively enlarging the barrier width: it pushes the outer turning point outward and, via the Bohr--Sommerfeld quantization condition, shifts the inner turning point inward. Building on this analytical result, we further develop an improved BMP model in which the nuclear potential depth is expressed as a unified four-parameter formula that simultaneously encodes shell corrections, odd-even pairing effects, and orbital-angular-momentum dependence. For 534 ground-state-to-ground-state alpha decays spanning Z = 60--118, the root-mean-square deviation of log base 10 T1/2 is reduced to 0.267, representing a 57% improvement over the original constant-depth BMP model (0.615), with robust performance for both favored (0.188) and unfavored (0.398) transitions. The framework is further applied to predict the half-lives of hitherto-unmeasured nuclei in the region Z = 117--120, providing quantitative benchmarks for future experimental investigations.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2026

Post-starburst Galaxies with Active Galactic Nucleus: Properties and Evolutionary Sequences

Post-starburst (PSB) galaxies, identified by strong Balmer absorption and weak nebular emission, provide a key laboratory for studying rapid quenching. Using the final data release of the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey, we follow the traditional PSB selection criteria of Chen et al. (2019) and develop a new method to identify regions that simultaneously exhibit PSB features and nuclear activities (AGN-PSBs). Our final sample comprises 48 AGN-PSBs, 92 central PSBs (CPSBs), 89 ring-like PSBs (RPSBs), and 828 irregular PSBs (IPSBs). We find the global and spatially resolved properties of CPSBs and RPSBs are consistent with the results of Chen et al. (2019). In this work, we focus on the properties of AGN-PSBs, comparing them with CPSBs, RPSBs, and control galaxies. Similar to CPSBs and RPSBs, AGN-PSBs show positive $\mathrm{D}_{n}4000$ gradients relative to negative $\mathrm{D}_{n}4000$ gradients of their controls, which indicates younger stellar populations in the central region than that in the outskirt. Among the three sub-types, high-mass CPSBs (H-CPSBs, with $\log(M_{*}/M_{\odot})>9.5$) display the highest incidence of merger remnants and gas--star kinematic misalignment, consistent with a merger/interaction-dominated origin. AGN-PSBs and RPSBs, however, show lower and comparable fractions of merger remnants and gas--star kinematic misalignment, favoring less violent external mechanisms. Based on radial profiles of mass-weighted age and $V_{\rm star}/σ_{\rm star}$, we suggest that RPSBs can evolve into AGN-PSBs, whereas H-CPSBs likely follow a distinct evolutionary pathway. The existence of RPSBs and IPSBs also indicates that AGN feedback is not a necessary condition for the formation of PSB.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

LEOSTP: A Spatio-Temporal Traffic Prediction Framework for LEO Satellite Networks

With the evolution of next-generation mobile communication networks and the commercial boom of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, globally covered satellite networks are gradually becoming a crucial infrastructure for massive user access and seamless connectivity. Accurate traffic prediction is crucial for maintaining the quality of service (QoS) and resource allocation efficiency in satellite networks. However, existing methods struggle to effectively address the three major challenges of LEO networks: highly complex temporal dynamics caused by satellite cross-regional movement, multivariate dependencies in multi-satellite collaboration, and strong spatial heterogeneity driven by user distribution, human activity intensity, and local geographic environments. In this article, we propose a LEO Satellite Traffic Predictor (LEOSTP) framework, a diffusion model-based end-to-end model that forecasts future satellite traffic by jointly leveraging historical traffic patterns and contextual characteristics of the corresponding service regions. The framework consists of two core modules: 1) The general traffic feature extractor module combines the diffusion process with a Transformer architecture to model the multi-scale temporal features of the traffic itself. 2) The external condition encoder module integrates geographic semantic information such as population distribution, point-of-interest (POI) distribution, and local time into the prediction process through a Transformer-based encoder. In this way, the model captures the deep correlation between the external environment and traffic dynamics. Experimental results based on large-scale simulated constellation data show that LEOSTP significantly outperforms traditional statistical models such as ARIMA and SVR, and classical sequence models including LSTM and Transformer, in prediction accuracy.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2026

Episodic Star Formation -- I. Overview and Scatter of the Star-Forming Main Sequence

Episodic star formation cycles in both high- and low-redshift galaxies have gained more and more evidence. This paper aims to understand the detailed physical processes behind such behaviors and investigate how such an episodic star-forming scenario can explain the scatter in star-formation rate (SFR) of star-forming main-sequence galaxies. This is achieved through tracing back in time the history of z=0 star-forming central galaxies in the TNG100 simulation over the past 7-8 Gyrs. As the first paper in this series, we provide an overview of the episodic star formation history. We find that two branches of star formation typically develop during each episode: while one branch happens in heavily metal-enriched gas in the centers of galaxies, a secondary branch starts in lower-metallicity regions at galaxy outskirts where fresh gas first arrives, and gradually progresses to inner regions of galaxies. Additionally, the temporal variation in the SFR at galaxy outskirts is more significant than that at centers. As a consequence, the metallicities in both gas and young stars exhibit remarkably different distributions between SFR peaks and valleys. The resulting temporal SFR fluctuation within individual galaxies has an average of ~ 0.2 dex, while the intrinsic differentiation between (the historical mean of) galaxies is ~ 0.15 dex. These two together can well account for the scatter in SFR of ~ 0.25 dex as observed for z=0 star-forming main-sequence galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗