SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

Ping Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Ping Zhang.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

A Mathematical Theory of Pragmatic Information

We propose a pragmatic information theory unifying communication, control, and decision-making. Its core is the isoteleia mapping, formalizing equifinality: distinct semantic paths leading to the same optimal action are pragmatically equivalent. This induces a three-tier hierarchy of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic information, each abstraction discarding task-irrelevant distinctions. We develop pragmatic entropy, up/down mutual information, channel capacity, and rate-distortion, and prove three coding theorems generalizing Shannon's classical results. We introduce pragmatic value (VoI) and cost (CoI) of information as decision-theoretic duals to rate-distortion and capacity, respectively, and formulate a Lagrangian dual framework for cross-layer optimization. The pragmatic efficiency bound $\mathcal{E}_p(\lambda)=\sup_R[\Phi_p(R)-\lambda\,\mathrm{CoI}_p(R)]$ quantifies the maximum net utility any resource-constrained intelligent system can extract, thereby establishing a fundamental behavioral capacity limit---generalizing Shannon's symbol-level capacity to goal-directed action. Extensions to continuous messages yield closed-form Gaussian expressions, while dynamic settings are addressed via a Bellman equation for sequential decision-making. This framework provides a rigorous foundation for task-oriented communication, networked control, autonomous systems, and embodied AI, shifting focus from symbol fidelity to the effectiveness of information in guiding actions, and offers a unified mathematical language for next-generation intelligent systems.

cs.IT

From Semantic to Token Communication: The Next Paradigm for Large-Model-Driven 6G Intelligent Connectivity

The ambitious requirements of sixth-generation (6G) networks are driving communication systems from reliable bit delivery toward meaning-aware and task-oriented connectivity. Large models (LMs), with strong multimodal understanding and generation capabilities, have accelerated this shift and made semantic communication (SemCom) increasingly practical. Yet current LM-driven SemCom remains fragmented: semantic representations are typically tied to specific modalities, models, or tasks. While the bit provides a universal unit for digital transport, there is still no analogous unit for representing and processing semantics, which limits interoperability, theoretical unification, and scalable system design. We argue that tokens provide a natural candidate for this missing abstraction. Two trends support this: unified multimodal LMs now encode text, images, audio, video, and robot actions in one token space, while distributed LM inference already generates substantial token-level traffic through expert routing, cache transfer, and speculative decoding. Token communication (TokenCom) emerges by unifying these trends, using the LM's native processing unit as a communication abstraction above the bit level and enabling importance assignment, error handling, and resource allocation directly at token granularity. This survey traces the evolution from LM-driven SemCom to TokenCom. We review three major directions of LM-driven SemCom: source-centric semantic coding, channel semantics for physical-layer tasks, and collaborative edge-device intelligence. We then examine the token abstraction, the transmission techniques it requires, and two emerging paradigms, namely TokenCom for LM services and for embodied and agentic intelligence. Finally, we identify open challenges toward unified, scalable, and AI-native 6G communication systems.

eess.SP

Multi-Stream Spatiotemporal Channel Coding for MIMO Systems: Transmission Scheme Design and Achievable Rate Optimization

Spatiotemporal channel coding (STCC) can improve the achievable rate over traditional temporal channel coding (TCC) by leveraging spatial degrees of freedom to extend the codeword length. Although several information-theoretic foundations on STCC have been established, the investigation of transmission schemes from a communication-theoretic perspective remains in its early stages. This paper proposes a multi-stream over multi-subchannel STCC (STCC-MSC) under full channel state information assumption and optimizes its achievable rate in the finite blocklength regime. We first formulate the transmission architecture of STCC-MSC in a point-to-point MIMO system, which introduces a stream-subchannel matching mechanism. We then maximize the achievable rate of STCC-MSC by jointly optimizing the subchannel assignment and power allocation strategies, which is formulated as a mixed-integer-nonlinear-programming problem. Next, a penalized alternating convex approximation (PACA) algorithm is proposed to solve this problem. Subsequently, we extend the point-to-point STCC-MSC designs to the more general multi-user MIMO systems, including both uplink and downlink scenarios. Finally, simulation results indicate that the PACA algorithm achieves a 9.85% rate improvement over the benchmark algorithm within the STCC-MSC scheme. Furthermore, the joint STCC-MSC-PACA scheme improves the achievable rate by 28.68% over TCC scheme.

eess.SP

Failure of analyticity-radius growth in energy-canceling fluid models

We prove that exact quadratic energy cancellation alone does not force growth of the spatial analyticity radius. On $\mathbb{T}^3$, we construct an explicit symmetric, translation-invariant, first-order bilinear operator $Q$ that preserves the divergence-free class and, for every smooth real-valued divergence-free vector field $v$, satisfies $ \int_{\mathbb{T}^3} Q(v,v)\cdot v\,dx=0.$ For every prescribed sufficiently small time $T>0$, the equation $\partial_t u-\Delta u=Q(u,u)$ admits a global smooth, real-valued, mean-zero, divergence-free solution $u$ such that $\operatorname{rad}(u(0))=\operatorname{rad}(u(T))=1$. The construction reduces the dynamics on an invariant cyclic-shear class to viscous Burgers and tunes a Cole-Hopf heat profile so that its nearest complex zero returns to its initial distance from the real torus. For every $1<\alpha<2$ and every prescribed sufficiently small $T>0$, we also construct a symmetric sparse frequency set, its associated Fourier projection, and trigonometric-polynomial initial data for the projected dissipative surface quasi-geostrophic equation. The resulting unique global smooth solution $\theta$ has infinite analyticity radius initially but satisfies $0<\operatorname{rad}(\theta(T))\leq1$. An additively separated Fourier cascade yields coefficientwise exponential lower bounds, while uniform comparison estimates control the feedback interactions. Thus entire analyticity need not persist even from trigonometric-polynomial data. Together, the two constructions show that an exact energy identity alone does not determine the frequency geometry governing analyticity-radius growth.

math.AP

Colossal reversible conductivity switching by room-temperature oxygen-vacancy ordering in Aurivillius oxide films

Oxygen vacancies are central to the functionality of oxides, yet they typically exist as randomly distributed point defects, limiting the ability to precisely manipulate their collective behavior. Here, we report the room-temperature formation of a long-range-ordered oxygen-vacancy superstructure in single-crystalline Aurivillius-phase Bi2WO6 thin films via a mild nitrogen-plasma treatment. This structural transformation unlocks a colossal, reversible modulation of electrical conductivity by more than nine orders of magnitude, accompanied by a striking optical transition from transparent to black. Atomic-resolution imaging and spectroscopy reveal that the vacancies selectively order within the perovskite-like tungsten oxide layers, forming a coherent defect lattice that is absent in the pristine film. Oxygen-plasma treatment removes the vacancy superstructure and restores the initial state, whereas subsequent nitrogen-plasma treatment reconstructs it, enabling repeatable room-temperature switching between distinct structural, electronic and optical states. The phenomenon is also observed in another Aurivillius member, Bi2MoO6, suggesting its generality across the Aurivillius family. These findings establish a new paradigm for atomic-scale defect engineering - using gentle plasma chemistry to construct ordered defect lattices, opening avenues for reversible property modulation in complex oxides.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Towards Semantic Internet of Everything in the Age of Agentic AI

Semantic communication improves task effectiveness by transmitting task-relevant information. However, most existing schemes remain organized as task-specific, end-to-end pipelines, which are difficult to reuse across models, applications, and deployment environments. Against this background, we propose the Semantic Internet of Everything (SIoE), a composable service architecture that represents heterogeneous communication and artificial intelligence (AI) functions as capability-profiled services and coordinates them according to application objectives. SIoE comprises three planes: a task and service plane, an agentic orchestration plane, and a semantic capability plane. In this framework, task requirements are captured via a semantic service-level agreement (SLA), while an agentic planner discovers and composes candidate capabilities under deterministic compatibility, resource, privacy, and policy validation. Feedback from the communication, semantic, and task levels enables continuous adaptation and replanning. A lightweight vehicle-to-everything case study illustrates profile-grounded capability planning under explicit service constraints. The results demonstrate the feasibility of decoupling service objectives from fixed communication implementations and also highlight key open challenges, including semantic SLA design, capability interoperability, scalable planning, and trustworthy execution.

eess.SP

Loss-Resilient Semantic Communication over Packet-Loss Networks at Extreme-Low Bandwidth

In extreme-low bandwidth network scenarios, generative semantic codecs have emerged as promising solutions to reduce bandwidth cost for visual communications. However, these learned codecs are usually optimized solely for compression efficiency and thus not robust against transmission errors. Corruptions due to packet-loss among these highly compact generative latent representations often cause more critical degradation in fidelity and realism, intensified by the severe error propagation across the latent contexts and multi-step decoding process. In this paper, we propose ResiGLC, a novel loss-resilient generative latent coding framework designed for robust semantic communication over extreme-low bandwidth packet-loss networks. Motivated by the inherent goal-consistency between generation and compression, we sufficiently exploit the impressive in-context predictive capabilities of language models. Integrated with the masked learning strategy, our model supports arbitrary context modeling of latent codes, which could mitigate the error propagation and handle unpredictable packet loss patterns. At the receiver, a progressive resilient decoding pipeline is presented, which leverages both the contextual relationship of the latent codes and the multi-modal semantic prior in the generative latent space, separately. By jointly optimizing toward both compression efficiency and packet-loss resilience, our proposed progressive decoding mechanism offers graceful performance when dealing with dynamic packet losses. Through extensive experimental evaluations, we establish that under packet-loss network conditions, ResiGLC can effectively improve the loss-resilience in terms of perceptual fidelity and realism qualities with extreme-low bandwidth cost.

eess.IV

The Radioactive Background of the JUNO Calibration System

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) experiment is a reactor antineutrino detector employing 20 kton of ultra-pure liquid scintillator to determine the neutrino mass ordering and to precisely measure oscillation parameters. The total singles background rate from radioactivity is required to be below 10 Hz in the energy range of 0.7-12 MeV within the fiducial volume for reactor neutrino analysis. The calibration system is designed to characterize the detector energy and position responses, while several of its components are located close to the target and may contribute to the background budget. Therefore, extensive material screening and selection are required to construct a low-background calibration system and to ensure that its contribution remains within the design requirements. In this work, a comprehensive study of the radioactive background induced by the calibration system is presented, including material radioactivity measurements using high-purity germanium detectors and neutron activation analysis techniques, detailed Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the background, and comparisons with in-situ detector data to validate the predictions. In this data analysis, dedicated spatial selection methods are developed to isolate calibration-related contributions and to suppress the liquid scintillator background. The total radioactivity contribution from the calibration system is estimated to be less than 76 mHz, which satisfies the requirement of 200 mHz (2% of the total background budget). The results from in-situ data are found to be consistent with the expectations based on material assay and simulation within uncertainties. These results demonstrate that the calibration-induced background is well understood, in agreement between data and simulation, and negligible for reactor antineutrino measurements in JUNO.

physics.ins-det

Adaptive Source-Channel Coding for Bi-static Integrated Sensing and Semantic Communications

Semantic communication (SemCom) has emerged as a new paradigm to facilitate the performance of integrated sensing and communication systems in 6G, due to its potential to enhance transmission efficiency by transmitting task-relevant semantic features rather than raw bits. However, most of the existing works mainly focus on sensing data compression to reduce the subsequent communication overheads, without considering the integrated transmission framework for both the SemCom and sensing tasks. This paper proposes a sensing-aware adaptive source-channel coding (SA-ASCC) and beamforming design framework for bi-static integrated sensing and SemCom (ISSC) systems by jointly optimizing the coding rate for SemCom task and the transmit beamforming for both the SemCom and sensing tasks. Specifically, an end-to-end semantic distortion function is approximated by deriving an upper bound composing of source and channel coding induced components, and then a hybrid Cram\'{e}r-Rao bound (HCRB) is derived for target position under imperfect time synchronization due to the transceiver deployed at different places in our considered bi-static ISSC system. To characterize the achievable region between SemCom and sensing performance, a distortion minimization problem is formulated by considering the HCRB threshold, channel uses, and power budget, which is non-convex due to the coupled design variables and the mixed-integer program. Subsequently, an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm is proposed to decompose this problem into the model selection and joint rate and beamforming optimization subproblems, which are solved by the exhaustive search method and the combination of successive convex approximation and fractional programming, respectively. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms the DJSCC-WF-ZF and BPG-WF-ZF benchmarks.

eess.SP

A Unified Symmetry Framework For In-plane Anomalous Hall effect

The in-plane anomalous Hall effect (IPAHE), driven by an in-plane net magnetization or an applied magnetic field, challenges the conventional anomalous Hall paradigm. Despite growing interest, a unified symmetry principle governing these phenomena has remained elusive. Here, we establish a comprehensive symmetry framework that bridges the spin space group, which dictates the magnetic geometry, with the magnetic space group, which governs the anomalous Hall response. We show that spontaneous IPAHE can emerge in ferromagnets when spin-orbit-coupling-induced spin-group symmetry breaking permits additional net magnetization directions. For field-induced IPAHE, we analyze how an applied magnetic field reduces the symmetries of all 122 magnetic point groups and identify 54 groups that support IPAHE. Our framework naturally predicts IPAHE in a broad class of unconventional magnets, including altermagnets and odd-parity magnets. In particular, symmetry analysis reveals characteristic one-, two-, or three-fold angular harmonics of the Hall conductance under an in-plane rotating field, providing a symmetry-resolved fingerprint for unconventional magnetism. Using this framework, we screen the MAGNDATA database and identify candidate materials supporting spontaneous or field-induced IPAHE, encompassing ferromagnets, antiferromagnets, and unconventional magnets. Finally, we validate the symmetry predictions through first-principles calculations for two representative materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Skillsets on the Chain: A Blockchain-based Zero-Trust Framework for Agentic AI Networking

Agentic AI networking (AgentNet) systems rely heavily on third-party skillset implementations and distributed multi-agent collaboration, yet they face major claim-to-capability inconsistencies and security vulnerabilities under trust-by-declaration assumptions. To bridge this gap, this paper proposes TrustAgentNet, a dual-tier blockchain-secured zero-trust framework. Specifically, a global Chain of Skillsets (CoS) governs the lifecycle of skillset metadata with protocols empowered by specialized agents to enforce off-chain auditing while maintaining lightweight on-chain cryptographic consensus. Furthermore, transient, task-oriented Chains of Collaboration (CoC) are dynamically established to enable trustless distributed multi-agent collaboration. Theoretical analysis of the three-way trade-off among security level, task performance, and resource overhead is provided and empirically validated. Experimental results on a hardware prototype demonstrate that compared with no-blockchain trust-by-default baselines, the zero-trust overhead of TrustAgentNet is dominated by off-chain inference, while the blockchain layer incurs minor ledger costs via the ledger-IPFS storage and on/off-chain integration design. Crucially, the proposed verification pipeline achieves a flawless 100% accuracy across 50 AI models, correctly validating 40 honest skillsets and intercepting 10 adversarial ones, and generalizes to non-AI domains with an 83.91% accuracy and a 0.85 F1-score across 1478 features from 171 ClawHub skills. Adversarial experiments further show that TrustAgentNet enables autonomous skillset self-recovery against various malicious attacks.

cs.CR

Restoration Flow Matching-Based Channel Refinement and Equalization Correction for MIMO Semantic Communications

In multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) semantic communication, imperfect channel state information (CSI) and equalization mismatch can seriously degrade semantic reconstruction quality. To address this issue, we propose a unified restoration flow matching (RFM)-based framework for channel refinement and equalization correction. Specifically, the channel RFM (CRFM) module is developed to refine the coarse channel, thereby improving channel estimation accuracy. Based on the refined channel, the developed semantic RFM (SRFM) module is employed to correct the residual distortions in the post-equalization latent space. The key idea is to formulate the two cascaded inverse problems of channel estimation and equalization as the unified conditional restoration task, in which the learned conditional velocity field guides the perturbed distribution towards the target distribution. To enhance the robustness of these two modules under various distortion conditions, we develop a dual-anchor perturbation training strategy that jointly learns near-manifold refinement and large-error correction, and implement inference through a few-step deterministic ordinary differential equation (ODE) solver. Extensive experiments on MIMO channels and visual semantic transmission tasks demonstrate that the proposed scheme improves key metrics for channel estimation and semantic reconstruction quality. Moreover, compared with representative diffusion-based generative baselines, the proposed method requires fewer sampling steps.

cs.LG

Hybrid-Field Sparse Channel Representation and Recovery for XL-RIS-Assisted mmWave MIMO Systems

Extremely large-scale reconfigurable intelligent surface (XL-RIS)-assisted communication is regarded as a key enabling technology for future 6G networks. However, hybrid-field channel estimation for XL-RIS-assisted systems is challenging due to the high-dimensional cascaded channel and the coexistence of far-field and near-field propagation. In this case, traditional full-dimensional sparse recovery methods require a large cascaded dictionary and suffer from severe computational and storage burdens. To address these challenges, we develop a double-timescale channel estimation framework that decouples sparse dictionary representation and recovery. Then, by exploiting the quasi-static property of the channel at the base station (BS) and RIS side, we propose a Dirichlet kernel-based off-grid dictionary compression (DK-ODC) scheme for sparse representation, which reduces the dimension of the corresponding dictionary as well as mitigates BS-side angular off-grid error. Furthermore, for the dynamic channel at the user equipment (UE) and RIS side, we propose a subspace-aware incremental variational Bayesian learning (SI-VBL) algorithm, which enables incremental learning of sparse channels by exploiting the identified low-dimensional subspace and pruning threshold. Analysis and simulation results confirm that the proposed framework avoids full-dimensional Bayesian recovery and achieves a favorable tradeoff among estimation accuracy, computational complexity, and storage overhead.

eess.SP

High-accuracy ultrasonic positioning of calibration sources in the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory

Precise source positioning is essential for detector calibration in large liquid scintillator detectors such as JUNO, particularly in regions where purely mechanical control is insufficient. An ultrasonic positioning system has been developed to reconstruct the three-dimensional coordinates of a calibration source without interfering with photon collection or contaminating the liquid scintillator. The method combines a sound-speed modeling based on dedicated laboratory measurements and in-detector temperature profiles, waveform-based arrival-time reconstruction, and an in-situ calibration of the effective receiver geometry using central-axis deployments. With six active receivers, central-axis positioning yields a mean error of 1.23 cm relative to the known deployment reference. For off-axis operation in the Cable Loop System calibration plane, a detector-realistic simulation that includes timing resolution, sound-speed variation, and receiver-coordinate smearing predicts a positioning uncertainty of 2.40 cm. These results demonstrate that ultrasonic positioning can provide centimetre-level source accuracy for large liquid scintillator detectors and can support off-axis calibration in JUNO-like experiments.

physics.ins-det

Single-Shot High-Energy Muon and Particle Radiography with a Multi-GeV Laser-Wakefield-Accelerator-Driven Source

We report the first demonstration of single-shot particle radiography using a 1-10 GeV laser-wakefield-generated beam of muons, pions, and neutrons. The test objects were imaged ~15 m from the beam source, through dense lead shielding followed by the walls of a building and a truck. The muon content of the beam was directly confirmed using large volume scintillator-based detectors, which recorded particle decay events with timing delays consistent with the muon lifetime. Simulations confirm that the high energy component of the beam transmitted through the test object is nearly entirely composed of muons, directly showing their highly penetrative nature, with a single-shot fluence equivalent to >8 hours of integration of cosmic ray muons near the horizon. Our work establishes single-shot high-energy particle radiography with a laser-wakefield-accelerator-driven source.

physics.plasm-ph

Resonant-impurity scanning tunneling spectroscopy in altermagnets: dual Fano resonance and Landau-quantization-induced nodal spin contrast

Using a Green's-function formalism, we study the spin-resolved local spectral function of a resonant impurity coupled to a two-dimensional $d$% -wave altermagnetic substrate. It is found that the interplay between direct tunneling from the impurity to the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tip and altermagnet-mediated tunneling gives rise to a dual Fano resonance in the absence of an external magnetic field. Moreover, the anisotropic spin-dependent oscillations of the local density of states and the corresponding Fano factors provide information on the altermagnetic splitting strength from complementary local and global perspectives. In addition, spin-selective tunneling can be achieved by tuning the Fermi energy and the tip position. In the presence of a strong magnetic field with Landau-level quantization, the dominant scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) signature appears as a spin-dependent nodal structure in real space: the nodal mismatch between opposite spin channels produces a large local spin contrast. These results establish resonant-impurity STM/STS as a phase-sensitive local probe of altermagnetic band anisotropy.

cond-mat.mes-hall

-8 dB SNR + 90% Packet Loss: MamVSC -- CSI-Guided Semantic Mamba for Extreme-Robust Video Semantic Communication

Semantic communication, leveraging joint source-channel coding, is designed to mitigate semantic distortion introduced by the channel. However, most current studies focus solely on semantic deviation distortion caused by physical wireless channels, while overlooking semantic erasure distortion due to packet loss. A CSI-Guided Mamba-based video semantic wireless digital communication system (MamVSC) employing semantic grouping is proposed to simultaneously address both semantic deviation and erasure distortions. In this system, a semantic Mamba module, guided by channel state information (CSI) feedback, is utilized to dynamically adjust the granularity of extracted semantic information, adapting to channel conditions. Furthermore, a Semantic Channel Codec based on dynamic Semantic clustering centers is introduced, where the distance between semantic vectors within the same semantic class and their corresponding Semantic clustering center is dynamically adjusted according to channel conditions, enhancing robustness against channel noise. Additionally, a adaptive packet loss recovery module, dynamically adaptive to the CSI, is proposed. The system achieves an MS-SSIM greater than 0.6 and a PSNR exceeding 21 dB at an SNR of -8 dB and a packet loss rate of 90% in AWGN channel.

cs.ET

Evolving Intelligent Complex Systems via Intellicise Networks: Architecture, Technologies, and Pathways

Future engineering infrastructures are evolving into large-scale, open, heterogeneous, and wirelessly interconnected complex systems. These systems present significant challenges in optimizing network resource utilization, managing high-dimensional information spaces, and accommodating diverse business requirements. Intellicise networks, characterized by Intent-driven operation, semantic-native capability, and distributed intelligence, offer a promising paradigm for enabling such intelligent complex systems. We provide a systematic exploration of future intelligent complex systems from the perspective of intellicise networks. Specifically, we propose a cross-domain intelligent communication network architecture based on intellicise networks, grounded in information theory, systems theory, game theory, and cybernetics. The architecture comprises a cross-layer organizational framework, multi-functional planes, and novel information flows. The cross-layer framework defines the vertical evolution from perception and cognition to decision, while the control, user, data, computation, intelligence, and security planes deliver horizontal intellicise capabilities. Moreover, data, knowledge, model, and task flows interconnect the various layers and planes, forming a closed-loop process that derives simplicity from high-level intelligene while concurrently pursuing enhanced. Building on this architecture, we review key enabling technologies, tracing their evolution from semantic extraction to intent understanding, from heterogeneous resource integration to self-configuration and self-optimization, from generative artificial intelligence (AI) to agentic AI, and from embodied AI to symbodied AI. Additionally, we present a case study on intellicise networks for embodied agent communications and discuss representative applications and services for intelligent complex systems.

eess.SP