arXiv subjects

Fangqi Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Fangqi Liu.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Nearly Complete Charge--Spin Conversion via Strain-Eliminated Fermi Pockets in $d$-Wave Altermagnets

Ideal $d$-wave altermagnets with nearly orthogonal flat Fermi surfaces enable complete spin-channel separation and 100% theoretical charge--spin conversion efficiency (CSE). The metallic altermagnet $\mathrm{KV_2Se_2O}$ exemplifies this, but realistic samples host residual elliptical Fermi pockets that enhance charge conductivity while suppressing spin conductivity, drastically reducing CSE. Here we show that in-plane equibiaxial tensile strain systematically eliminates these parasitic pockets, restoring the flat-band geometry. Our first-principles calculations reveal that CSE increases monotonically with strain, reaching a record $\sim$96% at 4% strain. An effective tight-binding model confirms that pocket suppression, governed by reduced next-nearest-neighbor hoppings, is the dominant mechanism. We further identify an unconventional out-of-plane spin current component with CSE $\sim$55% at optimal orientations, enabling field-free perpendicular magnetization switching. Moreover, the same strain-driven removal of parasitic pockets yields giant TMR enhancement in $\mathrm{KV_2Se_2O}$-based magnetic tunnel junctions, from $10^{5}%$ to $10^{9}%$, and the giant TMR persists over a wide energy window near the Fermi level. These findings establish strain engineering as a clean, widely applicable strategy to maximize CSE and magnetoresistance in $d$-wave altermagnets, and provide predictive descriptors for screening high-efficiency spintronic materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

It is not always greener on the other side: Greenery perception across demographics and personalities in multiple cities

Quantifying and assessing urban greenery is consequential for planning and development, reflecting the everlasting importance of green spaces for multiple climate and well-being dimensions of cities. Evaluation can be broadly grouped into objective (e.g., measuring the amount of greenery) and subjective (e.g., polling the perception of people) approaches, which may differ -- what people see and feel about how green a place is might not match the measurements of the actual amount of vegetation. In this work, we advance the state of the art by measuring such differences and explaining them through human, geographic, and spatial dimensions. The experiments rely on contextual information extracted from street view imagery and a comprehensive urban visual perception survey collected from 1,000 people across five countries with their extensive demographic and personality information. We analyze the discrepancies between objective measures (e.g., Green View Index (GVI)) and subjective scores (e.g., pairwise ratings), examining whether they can be explained by a variety of human and visual factors such as age group and spatial variation of greenery in the scene. The findings reveal that such discrepancies are comparable around the world and that demographics and personality do not play a significant role in perception. Further, while perceived and measured greenery correlate consistently across geographies (both where people and where imagery are from), where people live plays a significant role in explaining perceptual differences, with these two, as the top among seven, features that influences perceived greenery the most. This location influence suggests that cultural, environmental, and experiential factors substantially shape how individuals observe greenery in cities.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2026

CONSENT: A Negotiation Framework for Leveraging User Flexibility in Vehicle-to-Building Charging under Uncertainty

The growth of Electric Vehicles (EVs) creates a conflict in vehicle-to-building (V2B) settings between building operators, who face high energy costs from uncoordinated charging, and drivers, who prioritize convenience and a full charge. To resolve this, we propose a negotiation-based framework that, by design, guarantees voluntary participation, strategy-proofness, and budget feasibility. It transforms EV charging into a strategic resource by offering drivers a range of incentive-backed options for modest flexibility in their departure time or requested state of charge (SoC). Our framework is calibrated with user survey data and validated using real operational data from a commercial building and an EV manufacturer. Simulations show that our negotiation protocol creates a mutually beneficial outcome: lowering the building operator's costs by over 3.5\% compared to an optimized, non-negotiating smart charging policy, while simultaneously reducing user charging expenses by 22\% below the utility's retail energy rate. By aligning operator and EV user objectives, our framework provides a strategic bridge between energy and mobility systems, transforming EV charging from a source of operational friction into a platform for collaboration and shared savings.

cs.MA↗

arXiv2026

Online Decision-Making Under Uncertainty for Vehicle-to-Building Systems

Vehicle-to-building (V2B) systems integrate physical infrastructures, such as smart buildings and electric vehicles (EVs) connected to chargers at the building, with digital control mechanisms to manage energy use. By utilizing EVs as flexible energy reservoirs, buildings can dynamically charge and discharge them to optimize energy use and cut costs under time-variable pricing and demand charge policies. This setup leads to the V2B optimization problem, where buildings coordinate EV charging and discharging to minimize total electricity costs while meeting users' charging requirements. However, the V2B optimization problem is challenging because of: (1) fluctuating electricity pricing, which includes both energy charges ($/kWh) and demand charges ($/kW); (2) long planning horizons (typically over 30 days); (3) heterogeneous chargers with varying charging rates, controllability, and directionality (i.e., unidirectional or bidirectional); and (4) user-specific battery levels at departure to ensure user requirements are met. In contrast to existing approaches that often model this setting as a single-shot combinatorial optimization problem, we highlight critical limitations in prior work and instead model the V2B optimization problem as a Markov decision process (MDP), i.e., a stochastic control process. Solving the resulting MDP is challenging due to the large state and action spaces. To address the challenges of the large state space, we leverage online search, and we counter the action space by using domain-specific heuristics to prune unpromising actions. We validate our approach in collaboration with Nissan Advanced Technology Center - Silicon Valley. Using data from their EV testbed, we show that the proposed framework significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2025

Strain-Induced Non-alter Compensated Magnet and Its Application to Magnetic Tunnel Junction Device Design

The recent proposal of altermagnetism has drawn widespread attention to antiferromagnet (AFM) exhibiting spin splitting, extending beyond the realm of sign-alternating spin splitting in momentum space protected solely by rotational symmetry. Herrin, we propose a shear-strain strategy that enables significant modulation of d-wave altermagnets into an non-alter compensated magnets. A comprehensive analysis combining the magnetic moment compensation characteristics of opposite spin sublattices with the distribution of spin-resolved conduction channels in momentum space under the [001] crystal orientation reveals that shear strain breaks the rotational symmetry of alternatmagnets. To explore the application potential of non-alter compensated magnets, we designe RuO2/TiO2/RuO2 magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ) with three crystallographic orientations ((001), (110), (100)) and investigated their transport properties under shear strain. This non-alter electronic structure not only enhances the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) in spin-split paths of intrinsic RuO2 (226% to 431%) but also enables substantial TMR in spin-degenerate paths (from 0-88%)). Our work provides guidelines for broadening magnetic materials and device platforms.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Reinforcement Learning-based Approach for Vehicle-to-Building Charging with Heterogeneous Agents and Long Term Rewards

Strategic aggregation of electric vehicle batteries as energy reservoirs can optimize power grid demand, benefiting smart and connected communities, especially large office buildings that offer workplace charging. This involves optimizing charging and discharging to reduce peak energy costs and net peak demand, monitored over extended periods (e.g., a month), which involves making sequential decisions under uncertainty and delayed and sparse rewards, a continuous action space, and the complexity of ensuring generalization across diverse conditions. Existing algorithmic approaches, e.g., heuristic-based strategies, fall short in addressing real-time decision-making under dynamic conditions, and traditional reinforcement learning (RL) models struggle with large state-action spaces, multi-agent settings, and the need for long-term reward optimization. To address these challenges, we introduce a novel RL framework that combines the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient approach (DDPG) with action masking and efficient MILP-driven policy guidance. Our approach balances the exploration of continuous action spaces to meet user charging demands. Using real-world data from a major electric vehicle manufacturer, we show that our approach comprehensively outperforms many well-established baselines and several scalable heuristic approaches, achieving significant cost savings while meeting all charging requirements. Our results show that the proposed approach is one of the first scalable and general approaches to solving the V2B energy management challenge.

cs.LG↗