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Sai Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Sai Wang.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

The impact of organic hazes and graphite on the observation of CO2-rich sub-Neptune atmospheres

Many sub-Neptune and super-Earth exoplanets are expected to develop metal-enriched atmospheres due to atmospheric loss processes such as photoevaporation or core-powered mass loss. Thermochemical equilibrium calculations predict that at high metallicity and a temperature range of 300-700 K, CO2 becomes the dominant carbon species, and graphite may be the thermodynamically favored condensate under low-pressure conditions. Building on prior laboratory findings that such environments yield organic haze rather than graphite, we measured the transmittance spectra of organic haze analogues and graphite samples, and computed their optical constants across the measured wavelength range from 0.4 to 25 μm. The organic haze exhibits strong vibrational absorption bands, notably at 3.0, 4.5, and 6.0 μm, while graphite shows featureless broadband absorption. The derived optical constants of haze and graphite provide the first dataset for organic haze analogues formed in CO2-rich atmospheres and offer improved applicability over prior graphite data derived from bulk reflectance or ellipsometry. We implemented these optical constants into the Virga and PICASO cloud and radiative transfer models to simulate transit spectra for GJ 1214b. The synthetic spectra with organic hazes reproduce the muted spectral features in the NIR observed by Hubble and general trends observed by JWST for GJ 1214b, while graphite models yield flat spectra across the observed wavelengths. This suggests haze features may serve as observational markers of carbon-rich atmospheres, whereas graphite's opacity could lead to radius overestimation, offering a possible explanation for super-puff exoplanets. Our work supplies essential optical to infrared data for interpreting observations of CO2-rich exoplanet atmospheres.

astro-ph.EP↗

Formation of organic hazes in CO$_2$-rich sub-Neptune atmospheres within the graphite-stability regime

Super-Earths and sub-Neptunes are the most common exoplanets, with a "radius valley" suggesting that super-Earths may form by shedding sub-Neptunes' gaseous envelopes. Exoplanets that lie closer to the super-Earth side of the valley are more likely to have lost a significant fraction of their original H/He envelopes and become enriched in heavier elements with CO$_2$ gaining in abundance. It remains unclear which types of haze would form in such atmospheres, potentially significantly affecting spectroscopic observations. To investigate this, we performed laboratory simulations of two CO$_2$-rich gas mixtures (with 2000 times solar metallicity at 300 K and 500 K). We found that under plasma irradiation, organic hazes were produced at both temperatures with higher haze production rate at 300 K probably because condensation occurs more readily at lower temperature. Gas-phase analysis demonstrates the formation of various hydrocarbons, oxygen- and nitrogen-containing species, including reactive gas precursors like C$_2$H$_4$, CH$_2$O, and HCN, for haze formation. The compositional analysis of the haze particles reveals various functional groups and molecular formulas in both samples. The 500 K haze sample has larger average molecular sizes, higher degree of unsaturation with more double or triple bonds presence, and higher nitrogen content incorporated as N-H, C=N bonds, indicating different haze formation pathways. These findings not only improve the haze formation theories in CO$_2$-rich exoplanet atmospheres but also offer important implications for the interpretation of future observational data.

astro-ph.EP↗

Configurable multi-agent framework for scalable and realistic testing of llm-based agents

Large-language-model (LLM) agents exhibit complex, context-sensitive behaviour that quickly renders static benchmarks and ad-hoc manual testing obsolete. We present Neo, a configurable, multi-agent framework that automates realistic, multi-turn evaluation of LLM-based systems. Neo couples a Question Generation Agent and an Evaluation Agent through a shared context-hub, allowing domain prompts, scenario controls and dynamic feedback to be composed modularly. Test inputs are sampled from a probabilistic state model spanning dialogue flow, user intent and emotional tone, enabling diverse, human-like conversations that adapt after every turn. Applied to a production-grade Seller Financial Assistant chatbot, Neo (i) uncovered edge-case failures across five attack categories with a 3.3% break rate close to the 5.8% achieved by expert human red-teamers, and (ii) delivered 10-12X higher throughput, generating 180 coherent test questions in around 45 mins versus 16h of human effort. Beyond security probing, Neo's stochastic policies balanced topic coverage and conversational depth, yielding broader behavioural exploration than manually crafted scripts. Neo therefore lays a foundation for scalable, self-evolving LLM QA: its agent interfaces, state controller and feedback loops are model-agnostic and extensible to richer factual-grounding and policy-compliance checks. We release the framework to facilitate reproducible, high-fidelity testing of emerging agentic systems.

cs.AI↗

Prospects for probing dark matter particles and primordial black holes with the Hongmeng mission using the 21 cm global spectrum at cosmic dawn

Probing dark matter particles and primordial black holes remains a pivotal challenge in modern cosmology. Exotic energy injections from dark matter annihilation, decay, and PBH Hawking evaporation can alter the thermal and ionization histories of the early universe, leaving distinctive imprints on the 21 cm global spectrum. We assess the potential of the upcoming space project, the Hongmeng mission, to probe dark matter particles and PBHs using the 21 cm global spectrum. Under ideal conditions with 1000 hours of integration time and negligible foreground residuals, the Hongmeng project can reach sensitivities to dark matter annihilation cross sections and decay lifetimes to $\langle σv \rangle \sim 10^{-28}\,\mathrm{cm^3\,s^{-1}}$ and $τ\sim 10^{28}\,\mathrm{s}$, respectively, for dark matter particles with a mass of $10\,\mathrm{GeV}$. It can also probe PBHs with masses of $10^{16}\,\mathrm{g}$ and abundances as low as $f_{\mathrm{PBH}} \simeq 10^{-6}$. These results indicate that the Hongmeng mission can improve current constraints on dark matter annihilation, decay, and PBH Hawking radiation by nearly two orders of magnitude. Moreover, the Hongmeng mission surpasses current limits on sub-GeV dark matter probing and enables the probing of Hawking radiation from PBHs with masses above $10^{17}\,\mathrm{g}$, which remain undetectable through conventional cosmological means. Overall, the upcoming Hongmeng project holds great promise for advancing the investigation of both dark matter and PBHs, potentially deepening our understanding of the nature of dark matter.

astro-ph.CO↗

Large anisotropies in the gravitational wave background from baryogenesis

Affleck-Dine (AD) baryogenesis can produce the baryon asymmetry of the Universe through the $CP$-violating dynamics of AD field. The field generally fragments into Q-balls, whose rapid decay induces enhanced gravitational waves. In this Letter, we investigate the anisotropies in this gravitational wave background as a new essential observable for AD baryogenesis. The evolution of AD field causes non-Gaussian baryonic isocurvature perturbations, and the non-Gaussianity modulates the spatial distribution of Q-balls on large scales, resulting in large-scale anisotropies in the Q-ball-induced gravitational wave background. We present that the anisotropies can be significantly large with a reduced angular power spectrum $\sim 10^{-2}$, and can be detected by future experiments like LISA. Moreover, these anisotropies universally reveal the $CP$-violating dynamics of AD field, opening a novel road to explore the longstanding baryon asymmetry puzzle.

astro-ph.CO↗

Isotropic background and anisotropies of gravitational waves induced by cosmological soliton isocurvature perturbations

Cosmological solitons are widely predicted by scenarios of the early Universe. In this work, we investigate the isotropic background and anisotropies of gravitational waves (GWs) induced by soliton isocurvature perturbations, especially considering the effects of non-Gaussianity in these perturbations. Regardless of non-Gaussianity, the energy-density fraction spectrum of isocurvature-induced GWs approximately has a universal shape within the perturbative regime, thus serving as a distinctive signal of solitons. We derive the angular power spectrum of isocurvature-induced GWs to characterize their anisotropies. Non-Gaussianity plays a key role in generating anisotropies through the couplings between large- and small-scale isocurvature perturbations, making the angular power spectrum to be a powerful probe of non-Gaussianity. Moreover, the isocurvature-induced GWs have nearly no cross-correlations with the cosmic microwave background, providing a new observable to distinguish them from other GW sources, e.g., GWs induced by cosmological curvature perturbations enhanced at small scales. Therefore, detection of both the isotropic background and anisotropies of isocurvature-induced GWs could reveal important implications for the solitons as well as the early Universe.

astro-ph.CO↗

A Generalized Primal-Dual Correction Method for Saddle-Point Problems with a Nonlinear Coupling Operator

The saddle-point problems (SPPs) with nonlinear coupling operators frequently arise in various control systems, such as dynamic programming optimization, H-infinity control, and Lyapunov stability analysis. However, traditional primal-dual methods are constrained by fixed regularization factors. In this paper, a novel generalized primal-dual correction method (GPD-CM) is proposed to adjust the values of regularization factors dynamically. It turns out that this method can achieve the minimum theoretical lower bound of regularization factors, allowing for larger step sizes under the convergence condition being satisfied. The convergence of the GPD-CM is directly achieved through a unified variational framework. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed method can achieve an ergodic convergence rate of $O(1/t)$. Numerical results support our theoretical analysis for an SPP with an exponential coupling operator.

math.OC↗

TV-Dialogue: Crafting Theme-Aware Video Dialogues with Immersive Interaction

Recent advancements in LLMs have accelerated the development of dialogue generation across text and images, yet video-based dialogue generation remains underexplored and presents unique challenges. In this paper, we introduce Theme-aware Video Dialogue Crafting (TVDC), a novel task aimed at generating new dialogues that align with video content and adhere to user-specified themes. We propose TV-Dialogue, a novel multi-modal agent framework that ensures both theme alignment (i.e., the dialogue revolves around the theme) and visual consistency (i.e., the dialogue matches the emotions and behaviors of characters in the video) by enabling real-time immersive interactions among video characters, thereby accurately understanding the video content and generating new dialogue that aligns with the given themes. To assess the generated dialogues, we present a multi-granularity evaluation benchmark with high accuracy, interpretability and reliability, demonstrating the effectiveness of TV-Dialogue on self-collected dataset over directly using existing LLMs. Extensive experiments reveal that TV-Dialogue can generate dialogues for videos of any length and any theme in a zero-shot manner without training. Our findings underscore the potential of TV-Dialogue for various applications, such as video re-creation, film dubbing and its use in downstream multimodal tasks.

cs.CV↗

SPICE: Scaling-Aware Prediction Correction Methods with a Free Convergence Rate for Nonlinear Convex Optimization

Recently, the prediction-correction method has been developed to solve nonlinear convex optimization problems. However, its convergence rate is often poor since large regularization parameters are set to ensure convergence conditions. In this paper, the scaling-aware prediction correction (\textsf{Spice}) method is proposed to achieve a free convergence rate. This method adopts a novel scaling technique that adjusts the weight of the objective and constraint functions. The theoretical analysis demonstrates that increasing the scaling factor for the objective function or decreasing the scaling factor for constraint functions significantly enhances the convergence rate of the prediction correction method. In addition, the \textsf{Spice} method is further extended to solve separable variable nonlinear convex optimization. By employing different scaling factors as functions of the iterations, the \textsf{Spice} method achieves convergence rates of $\mathcal{O}(1/(t+1))$, $\mathcal{O}(1/[e^{t}(t+1)])$, and $\mathcal{O}(1/(t+1)^{t+1})$. Numerical experiments further validate the theoretical findings, demonstrating the effectiveness of the \textsf{Spice} method in practice.

math.OC↗

An Optimization-Based Inverse Kinematics Solver for Continuum Manipulators in Intricate Environments

Continuum manipulators have gained significant attention as a promising alternative to rigid manipulators, offering notable advantages in terms of flexibility and adaptability within intricate workspace. However, the broader application of high degree-of-freedom (DoF) continuum manipulators in intricate environments with multiple obstacles necessitates the development of an efficient inverse kinematics (IK) solver specifically tailored for such scenarios. Existing IK methods face challenges in terms of computational cost and solution guarantees for high DoF continuum manipulators, particularly within intricate workspace that obstacle avoidance is needed. To address these challenges, we have developed a novel IK solver for continuum manipulators that incorporates obstacle avoidance and other constraints like length, orientation, etc., in intricate environments, drawing inspiration from optimization-based path planning methods. Through simulations, our proposed method showcases superior flexibility, efficiency with increasing DoF, and robust performance within highly unstructured workspace, achieved with acceptable latency.

cs.RO↗

Search for the Hawking radiation of primordial black holes: prospective sensitivity of LHAASO

Primordial black holes (PBHs), more generally, BHs, undergo evaporation and, in principle, will end their lives in bursts of very high-energy gamma rays. The notable aspect of the PBHs with an initial mass of $\sim10^{14}$ g is that they are expected to end their lives today. In this work, we assess the potential sensitivity of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) in detecting the local burst rate density of PBHs. Our results suggest that LHAASO is capable of probing for PBH bursts within a proximity of $\sim0.1$ pc from the Sun, measuring a local burst rate density of $\sim$ 1200 (or 700)$\,\mathrm{pc}^{-3}\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ with $99\%$ confidence during a 3-year (or 5-year) observational campaign. This level of sensitivity surpasses the most rigorous observational constraint provided by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC) by an order of magnitude. Additionally, we propose data analysis strategies for LHAASO to optimize the search for PBHs and reach its potential detection limits.

astro-ph.HE↗

Silk Damping in Scalar-Induced Gravitational Waves: A Novel Probe for New Physics

Silk damping is well known in the study of cosmic microwave background (CMB) and accounts for suppression of the angular power spectrum of CMB on large angular multipoles. In this Letter, we study the effect of Silk damping on the scalar-induced gravitational waves (SIGWs). Resulting from the dissipation of cosmic fluid, the Silk damping notably suppresses the energy-density spectrum of SIGWs on scales comparable to a diffusion scale at the decoupling time of feebly-interacting particles. The effect offers a novel observable for probing the underlying particle interaction, especially for those mediated by heavy gauge bosons beyond the standard model of particles. We anticipate that pulsar timing arrays are sensitive to gauge bosons with mass $\sim10^{3}-10^{4}\,\mathrm{GeV}$, while space- and ground-based interferometers to those with mass $\sim10^7-10^{12}\,\mathrm{GeV}$, leading to essential complements to on-going and future experiments of high-energy physics.

astro-ph.CO↗

Measuring the anisotropies in astrophysical and cosmological gravitational-wave backgrounds with Taiji and LISA networks

We investigate the capabilities of space-based gravitational-wave detector networks, specifically Taiji and LISA, to measure the anisotropies in stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB), which are characterized by the angular power spectrum. We find that a detector network can improve the measurement precision of anisotropies by at most fourteen orders of magnitude, depending on the angular multipoles. By doing so, we can enhance our understanding of the physical origins of SGWB, both in astrophysical and cosmological contexts. We assess the prospects of the detector networks for measuring the parameters of angular power spectrum. We further find an inevitable effect of cosmic variance, which can be suppressed by a better angular resolution, strengthening the importance of configuring detector networks. Our findings also suggest a potential detection of the kinematic dipole due to Doppler boosting of SGWB.

gr-qc↗

Unraveling the early universe's equation of state and primordial black hole production with PTA, BBN, and CMB observations

Pulsar timing array (PTA) data releases showed strong evidence for a stochastic gravitational-wave background in the nanohertz band. When the signal is interpreted by a scenario of scalar-induced gravitational waves (SIGWs), we encounter overproduction of primordial black holes (PBHs). We wonder if varying the equation of state (EoS) of the early Universe can resolve this issue and thereby lead to a consistent interpretation of the PTA data. Analyzing a data combination of PTA, big-bang nucleosynthesis, and cosmic microwave background, we find that an epoch with EoS $w\sim\mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$ between the end of inflation and the onset of radiation domination can significantly suppress the production of PBHs, leading to alleviation of the PBH-overproduction issue. With the inferred interval $w=0.44_{-0.40}^{+0.52}$ at 95\% confidence level, our scenario can interpret the PTA data just as well as the conventional scenario of SIGWs produced during the radiation domination.

astro-ph.CO↗

Constraints on holographic QCD phase transitions from PTA observations

The underlying physics of QCD phase transition in the early Universe remains largely unknown due to its strong-coupling nature during the quark-gluon plasma/hadron gas transition, yet a holographic model has been proposed to quantitatively fit the lattice QCD data while with its duration of the first-order phase transition (FoPT) left undetermined. At specific baryon chemical potential, the first-order QCD phase transition agrees with the observational constraint of baryon asymmetry. It, therefore, provides a scenario for phase transition gravitational waves (GWs) within the Standard Model of particle physics. If these background GWs could contribute dominantly to the recently claimed common-spectrum red noise from pulsar timing array (PTA) observations, the duration of this FoPT can be well constrained, and the associated primordial black holes are still allowed by current observations.

hep-ph↗

Complete analysis of the background and anisotropies of scalar-induced gravitational waves: primordial non-Gaussianity $f_{\mathrm{NL}}$ and $g_{\mathrm{NL}}$ considered

Investigation of primordial non-Gaussianity holds immense importance in testing the inflation paradigm and shedding light on the physics of the early Universe. In this study, we conduct the complete analysis of scalar-induced gravitational waves (SIGWs) by incorporating the local-type non-Gaussianity $f_{\mathrm{NL}}$ and $g_{\mathrm{NL}}$. We develop Feynman-like diagrammatic technique and derive semi-analytic formulas for both the energy-density fraction spectrum and the angular power spectrum. For the energy-density fraction spectrum, we analyze all the relevant Feynman-like diagrams, determining their contributions to the spectrum in an order-by-order fashion. As for the angular power spectrum, our focus lies on the initial inhomogeneities, giving rise to anisotropies in SIGWs, that arise from the coupling between short- and long-wavelength modes due to primordial non-Gaussianity. Our analysis reveals that this spectrum exhibits a typical multipole dependence, characterized by $\tilde{C}_{\ell}\propto[\ell(\ell+1)]^{-1}$, which plays a crucial role in distinguishing between different sources of gravitational waves. Depending on model parameters, significant anisotropies can be achieved. We also show that the degeneracies in model parameters can be broken. The findings of our study underscore the angular power spectrum as a robust probe for investigating primordial non-Gaussianity and the physics of the early Universe. Moreover, our theoretical predictions can be tested using space-borne gravitational-wave detectors and pulsar timing arrays.

astro-ph.CO↗

Angular bispectrum and trispectrum of scalar-induced gravitational waves: all contributions from primordial non-Gaussianity $f_\mathrm{NL}$ and $g_\mathrm{NL}$

Studying the primordial non-Gaussianity of inflationary perturbations is crucial for testing the inflation paradigm of the early universe. In this work, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of the angular bispectrum and trispectrum of scalar-induced gravitational waves (SIGWs) in the presence of local-type primordial non-Gaussianity parameterized by $f_\mathrm{NL}$ and $g_\mathrm{NL}$, deriving their semi-analytical formulae for the first time. Our findings indicate that it is the presence of primordial non-Gaussianity that leads to a non-Gaussian SIGW background, suggesting that the angular bispectrum and trispectrum of SIGWs could serve as probes of the primordial non-Gaussianity. Our numerical results further illustrate that $f_\mathrm{NL}$ and $g_\mathrm{NL}$ exert significant impacts on the spectral amplitudes, potentially reaching up to $10^{-5}$ for the former and $10^{-8}$ for the latter. In particular, we demonstrate that the angular bispectrum and trispectrum exhibit characteristic dependence on the angular multipoles and frequency bands. They hold potentials to be measured by gravitational-wave detectors that may advance our understanding of the origin of the universe.

astro-ph.CO↗

Anisotropies in Scalar-Induced Gravitational-Wave Background from Inflaton-Curvaton Mixed Scenario with Sound Speed Resonance

We propose a new model to generate large anisotropies in the scalar-induced gravitational wave (SIGW) background via sound speed resonance in the inflaton-curvaton mixed scenario. Cosmological curvature perturbations are not only exponentially amplified at a resonant frequency, but also preserve significant non-Gaussianity of local type described by $f_{\mathrm{nl}}$. Besides a significant enhancement of energy-density fraction spectrum, large anisotropies in SIGWs can be generated, because of super-horizon modulations of the energy density due to existence of primordial non-Gaussianity. A reduced angular power spectrum $\tilde{C}_{\ell}$ could reach an amplitude of $[\ell(\ell+1)\tilde{C}_{\ell}]^{1/2} \sim 10^{-2}$, leading to potential measurements via planned gravitational-wave detectors such as DECIGO. The large anisotropies in SIGWs would serve as a powerful probe of the early universe, shedding new light on the inflationary dynamics, primordial non-Gaussianity, and primordial black hole dark matter.

astro-ph.CO↗