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Sheng Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Sheng Zhang.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

CodeClinic: Evaluating Automation of Coding Skills for Clinical Reasoning Agents

Clinical reasoning agents based on large language models (LLMs) aim to automate tasks such as intensive care unit (ICU) monitoring and patient state tracking from electronic health records (EHRs). Existing systems typically rely on manually curated clinical tools or skills for concepts such as sepsis detection and organ failure assessment. However, maintaining these tool libraries requires substantial expert effort, while zero-shot querying or code generation often produces inefficient and unreliable reasoning chains, especially under institution-specific clinical policies. We introduce CodeClinic, a benchmark built on MIMIC-IV for evaluating whether LLM agents can synthesize and compose reusable clinical skills instead of relying on fixed toolboxes. The benchmark contains two complementary tasks: longitudinal ICU surveillance and compositional information seeking. The longitudinal setting simulates monitoring patient trajectories with structured decisions every four hours across 25 findings and eight clinical families, while the compositional setting spans 63k instances across 259 tasks in nine domains and is stratified by compositional dependency depth to evaluate increasingly complex multi-step reasoning. We further propose an offline autoformalization pipeline that converts natural-language clinical guidelines into reusable and verified Python skill libraries through iterative LLM refinement. Compared with zero-shot code generation, the resulting libraries improve consistency while reducing per-query token usage by up to 40%.

cs.AI↗

Three-dimensional topological ferroelectrics

Three-dimensional (3D) topological ferroelectric (FE) insulators, in which topological and FE orders naturally coexist, enable field-controlled spintronic devices. In this work, we predict a new structure of bismuth monohalides Bi4Br4 and Bi4I4, denoted $γ$ phase, and demonstrate that it is an ideal 3D topological FE insulator. Systematic first-principles calculations confirm the stability and synthesizability of $γ$-Bi4X4 (X=Br, I). Although the noncentrosymmetric $γ$ phase crystallizes in the space group $Cmc2_1$ with no symmetry-based classifications/indicators, the nontrivial topology can be characterized by the spin Chern number (SCN). Spin-resolved Wilson loops show the $s_z$ SCN $C_{s_z}=2$, indicating the spin-resolved topology of a 3D quantum spin Hall insulator state. The $z$-direction polarization can be switched by interlayer sliding, requiring only crossing a small energy barrier. Finally, we design an electrically controlled spin-filter device on bilayer films that can generate a switchable spin-polarized current. Combining a single-phase crystal, a sizable band gap, and robust band topology against FE switching, these bismuth monohalides serve as a prototype of intrinsic 3D topological FE insulators, providing an ideal platform for realizing new nonvolatile functionalities in spintronic devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Agentic Artificial Intelligence in Finance: A Comprehensive Survey

The emergence of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) represents a fundamental transformation in financial markets, characterized by autonomous systems capable of reasoning, planning, and adaptive decision-making with minimal human intervention. This comprehensive survey synthesizes recent advances in agentic AI across multiple dimensions of financial operations, including system architecture, market applications, regulatory frameworks, and systemic implications. We examine how agentic AI differs from traditional algorithmic trading and generative AI through its capacity for goal-oriented autonomy, continuous learning, and multi-agent coordination. Our analysis shows that while agentic AI offers substantial potential for enhanced market efficiency, liquidity provision, and risk management, it also introduces novel challenges related to market stability, regulatory compliance, interpretability, and systemic risk. Through a systematic review of foundational research, technical architectures, market applications, and governance frameworks, this survey provides scholars and practitioners with a structured understanding of how agentic AI is reshaping financial markets and identifies critical research directions for ensuring that these systems enhance both operational efficiency and market resilience.

econ.EM↗

Machine-learning modeling of magnetization dynamics in quasi-equilibrium and driven metallic spin systems

We review recent advances in machine-learning (ML) force-field methods for large-scale Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) simulations of metallic spin systems. We generalize the Behler-Parrinello (BP) ML architecture -- originally developed for quantum molecular dynamics -- to construct scalable and transferable ML models capable of capturing the intricate dependence of electron-mediated exchange fields on the local magnetic environment characteristic of itinerant magnets. A central ingredient of this framework is the implementation of symmetry-aware magnetic descriptors based on group-theoretical bispectrum formalisms. Leveraging these ML force fields, LLG simulations faithfully reproduce hallmark non-collinear magnetic orders -- such as the $120^\circ$ and tetrahedral states -- on the triangular lattice, and successfully capture the complex spin textures emerging in the mixed-phase states of a square-lattice double-exchange model under thermal quench. We further discuss a generalized potential theory that extends the BP formalism to incorporate both conservative and nonconservative electronic torques, thereby enabling ML models to learn nonequilibrium exchange fields from computationally demanding microscopic approaches such as nonequilibrium Green's-function techniques. This extension yields quantitatively accurate predictions of voltage-driven domain-wall motion and establishes a foundation for quantum-accurate, multiscale modeling of nonequilibrium spin dynamics and spintronic functionalities.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Machine-learning force-field models for dynamical simulations of metallic magnets

We review recent advances in machine learning (ML) force-field methods for Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) simulations of itinerant electron magnets, focusing on scalability and transferability. Built on the principle of locality, a deep neural network model is developed to efficiently and accurately predict the electron-mediated forces governing spin dynamics. Symmetry-aware descriptors constructed through a group-theoretical approach ensure rigorous incorporation of both lattice and spin-rotation symmetries. The framework is demonstrated using the prototypical s-d exchange model widely employed in spintronics. ML-enabled large-scale simulations reveal novel nonequilibrium phenomena, including anomalous coarsening of tetrahedral spin order on the triangular lattice and the freezing of phase separation dynamics in lightly hole-doped, strong-coupling square-lattice systems. These results establish ML force-field frameworks as scalable, accurate, and versatile tools for modeling nonequilibrium spin dynamics in itinerant magnets.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Multi-Server FL with Overlapping Clients: A Latency-Aware Relay Framework

Multi-server Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a promising solution to mitigate communication bottlenecks of single-server FL. In a typical multi-server FL architecture, the regions covered by different edge servers (ESs) may overlap. Under this architecture, clients located in the overlapping areas can access edge models from multiple ESs. Building on this observation, we propose a cloud-free multi-server FL framework that leverages Overlapping Clients (OCs) as relays for inter-server model exchange while uploading the local updated model to ESs. This enables ES models to be relayed across multiple hops through neighboring ESs by OCs without introducing new communication links. We derive a new convergence upper bound for non-convex objectives under non-IID data and an arbitrary number of cells, which explicitly quantifies the impact of inter-server propagation depth on convergence error. Guided by this theoretical result, we formulate an optimization problem that aims to maximize dissemination range of each ES model among all ESs within a limited latency. To solve this problem, we develop a conflict-graph-based local search algorithm optimizing the routing strategy and scheduling the transmission times of individual ESs to its neighboring ESs. This enables ES models to be relayed across multiple hops through neighboring ESs by OCs, achieving the widest possible transmission coverage for each model without introducing new communication links. Extensive experimental results show remarkable performance gains of our scheme compared to existing methods.

cs.NI↗

Experimental robustness benchmarking of quantum neural networks on a superconducting quantum processor

Quantum machine learning (QML) models, like their classical counterparts, are vulnerable to adversarial attacks, hindering their secure deployment. Here, we report the first systematic experimental robustness benchmark for 20-qubit quantum neural network (QNN) classifiers executed on a superconducting processor. Our benchmarking framework features an efficient adversarial attack algorithm designed for QNNs, enabling quantitative characterization of adversarial robustness and robustness bounds. From our analysis, we verify that adversarial training reduces sensitivity to targeted perturbations by regularizing input gradients, significantly enhancing QNN's robustness. Additionally, our analysis reveals that QNNs exhibit superior adversarial robustness compared to classical neural networks, an advantage attributed to inherent quantum noise. Furthermore, the empirical upper bound extracted from our attack experiments shows a minimal deviation ($3 \times 10^{-3}$) from the theoretical lower bound, providing strong experimental confirmation of the attack's effectiveness and the tightness of fidelity-based robustness bounds. This work establishes a critical experimental framework for assessing and improving quantum adversarial robustness, paving the way for secure and reliable QML applications.

quant-ph↗

Majorana Zero Modes and Topological Nature in Bi2Ta3S6-family Superconductors

In this work, we report that Bi2Ta3S6-family superconductors exhibit nontrivial band topology. They possess a natural quantum-well structure consisting of alternating stacks of TaS2 and honeycomb Bi layers, which contribute superconducting and topological properties, respectively. Symmetry-based indicators $(\mathbb{Z}_4;\mathbb{Z}_{2}\mathbb{Z}_{2}\mathbb{Z}_{2})=(2;000)$ reveal that the topological nature arises entirely from the Bi layers, which belong to a quantum spin Hall phase characterized by a $p_x-p_y$ model on a honeycomb lattice. The topological zigzag (ZZ) and armchair (AC) edge states are obtained. Using VASP2KP, the in-plane $g$ factors of these topological edge states are computed from the ab initio calculations: $g_{x/y}^{\mathrm{ZZ}}=2.07/1.60$ and $g_{x/y}^{\mathrm{AC}}=0.50/0.06$. The strong anisotropy of the edge-state $g$ factors allows us to explore Majorana zero modes in the Bi monolayer on a superconductor, which can be obtained by exfoliation or molecular beam epitaxy. The relaxed structures of the Bi2Ta3Se6, Bi2Nb3S6 and Bi2Nb3Se6 are obtained. Their superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ are estimated based on the electron-phonon coupling and the McMillan formula. Furthermore, using the experimental superconducting gap $Δ$ and the computed $g$ factors, we obtain the phase diagram, which shows that the in-plane field $B_y>2.62\mathrm{ T}$ can generate corner Majorana zero modes in the Bi monolayer of the superconductor Bi2Ta3S6. A similar paradigm also applies to the Bi2Ta3S6 bulk with the emergence of Majorana hinge states. These natural quantum-well superconductors therefore offer ideal platforms for exploring topological superconductivity and Majorana zero modes.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Machine learning nonequilibrium phase transitions in charge-density wave insulators

Nonequilibrium electronic forces play a central role in voltage-driven phase transitions but are notoriously expensive to evaluate in dynamical simulations. Here we develop a machine learning framework for adiabatic lattice dynamics coupled to nonequilibrium electrons, and demonstrate it for a gating induced insulator to metal transition out of a charge density wave state in the Holstein model. Although exact electronic forces can be obtained from nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) calculations, their high computational cost renders long time dynamical simulations prohibitively expensive. By exploiting the locality of the electronic response, we train a neural network to directly predict instantaneous local electronic forces from the lattice configuration, thereby bypassing repeated NEGF calculations during time evolution. When combined with Brownian dynamics, the resulting machine learning force field quantitatively reproduces domain wall motion and nonequilibrium phase transition dynamics obtained from full NEGF simulations, while achieving orders of magnitude gains in computational efficiency. Our results establish direct force learning as an efficient and accurate approach for simulating nonequilibrium lattice dynamics in driven quantum materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

CSCBench: A PVC Diagnostic Benchmark for Commodity Supply Chain Reasoning

Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable success in general benchmarks, yet their competence in commodity supply chains (CSCs) -- a domain governed by institutional rule systems and feasibility constraints -- remains under-explored. CSC decisions are shaped jointly by process stages (e.g., planning, procurement, delivery), variety-specific rules (e.g., contract specifications and delivery grades), and reasoning depth (from retrieval to multi-step analysis and decision selection). We introduce CSCBench, a 2.3K+ single-choice benchmark for CSC reasoning, instantiated through our PVC 3D Evaluation Framework (Process, Variety, and Cognition). The Process axis aligns tasks with SCOR+Enable; the Variety axis operationalizes commodity-specific rule systems under coupled material-information-financial constraints, grounded in authoritative exchange guidebooks/rulebooks and industry reports; and the Cognition axis follows Bloom's revised taxonomy. Evaluating representative LLMs under a direct prompting setting, we observe strong performance on the Process and Cognition axes but substantial degradation on the Variety axis, especially on Freight Agreements. CSCBench provides a diagnostic yardstick for measuring and improving LLM capabilities in this high-stakes domain.

cs.CL↗

Test-time generative augmentation for medical image segmentation

Medical image segmentation is critical for clinical diagnosis, treatment planning, and monitoring, yet segmentation models often struggle with uncertainties stemming from occlusions, ambiguous boundaries, and variations in imaging devices. Traditional test-time augmentation (TTA) techniques typically rely on predefined geometric and photometric transformations, limiting their adaptability and effectiveness in complex medical scenarios. In this study, we introduced Test-Time Generative Augmentation (TTGA), a novel augmentation strategy specifically tailored for medical image segmentation at inference time. Different from conventional augmentation strategies that suffer from excessive randomness or limited flexibility, TTGA leverages a domain-fine-tuned generative model to produce contextually relevant and diverse augmentations tailored to the characteristics of each test image. Built upon diffusion model inversion, a masked null-text inversion method is proposed to enable region-specific augmentations during sampling. Furthermore, a dual denoising pathway is designed to balance precise identity preservation with controlled variability. We demonstrate the efficacy of our TTGA through extensive experiments across three distinct segmentation tasks spanning nine datasets. Our results consistently demonstrate that TTGA not only improves segmentation accuracy (with DSC gains ranging from 0.1% to 2.3% over the baseline) but also offers pixel-wise error estimation (with DSC gains ranging from 1.1% to 29.0% over the baseline). The source code and demonstration are available at: https://github.com/maxiao0234/TTGA.

cs.CV↗

Renormalization Group Guided Tensor Network Structure Search

Tensor network structure search (TN-SS) aims to automatically discover optimal network topologies and rank configurations for efficient tensor decomposition in high-dimensional data representation. Despite recent advances, existing TN-SS methods face significant limitations in computational tractability, structure adaptivity, and optimization robustness across diverse tensor characteristics. They struggle with three key challenges: single-scale optimization missing multi-scale structures, discrete search spaces hindering smooth structure evolution, and separated structure-parameter optimization causing computational inefficiency. We propose RGTN (Renormalization Group guided Tensor Network search), a physics-inspired framework transforming TN-SS via multi-scale renormalization group flows. Unlike fixed-scale discrete search methods, RGTN uses dynamic scale-transformation for continuous structure evolution across resolutions. Its core innovation includes learnable edge gates for optimization-stage topology modification and intelligent proposals based on physical quantities like node tension measuring local stress and edge information flow quantifying connectivity importance. Starting from low-complexity coarse scales and refining to finer ones, RGTN finds compact structures while escaping local minima via scale-induced perturbations. Extensive experiments on light field data, high-order synthetic tensors, and video completion tasks show RGTN achieves state-of-the-art compression ratios and runs 4-600$\times$ faster than existing methods, validating the effectiveness of our physics-inspired approach.

cs.CV↗

The Illusion of Readiness in Health AI

Large language models have demonstrated remarkable performance in a wide range of medical benchmarks. Yet underneath the seemingly promising results lie salient growth areas, especially in cutting-edge frontiers such as multimodal reasoning. In this paper, we introduce a series of adversarial stress tests to systematically assess the robustness of flagship models and medical benchmarks. Our study reveals prevalent brittleness in the presence of simple adversarial transformations: leading systems can guess the right answer even with key inputs removed, yet may get confused by the slightest prompt alterations, while fabricating convincing yet flawed reasoning traces. Using clinician-guided rubrics, we demonstrate that popular medical benchmarks vary widely in what they truly measure. Our study reveals significant competency gaps of frontier AI in attaining real-world readiness for health applications. If we want AI to earn trust in healthcare, we must demand more than leaderboard wins and must hold AI systems accountable to ensure robustness, sound reasoning, and alignment with real medical demands.

cs.AI↗

Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Gating-Induced Resistance Transition in Charge Density Wave Insulators

We present a comprehensive numerical investigation of the gate-induced insulator-to-metal transition in the charge-density-wave (CDW) phase of the Holstein model. Large-scale Brownian dynamics simulations are performed, in which the forces acting on the lattice degrees of freedom are evaluated using the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism. We demonstrate that the onset of CDW instability requires a threshold bias voltage set by the energy of in-gap edge modes. At sufficiently large voltages, the system undergoes an abrupt transition to a metallic state, reminiscent of dielectric breakdown. In the intermediate-voltage regime, our simulations reveal that the transition to a low-resistance state is initiated by the nucleation of a thin conducting layer at the gated electrode. The resulting metal-insulator interface subsequently propagates across the system under the applied bias, leading to the growth of a metallic domain. We further analyze the voltage- and temperature-dependent dynamics of the associated domain walls.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

OctoMed: Data Recipes for State-of-the-Art Multimodal Medical Reasoning

High-quality and carefully curated data is a cornerstone of training medical large language models, as it directly impacts both generalization and robustness to unseen clinical tasks. We investigate strategies for training and data curation to develop a robust multimodal reasoning model in the medical domain. Our work focuses on supervised fine-tuning (SFT) and explores data recipes that leverage structured reasoning traces. Using our proposed data recipe, we scale experiments to a dataset of over 8 million examples and 6.8 billion response tokens, achieving state-of-the-art performance among open-source models across diverse out-of-distribution medical benchmark tasks. Our results further indicate that curating a high-quality, diverse training dataset with varying structured reasoning trace lengths enables the fine-tuned model to self-calibrate its reasoning trajectory lengths based on the downstream task, without explicit supervision. We present key insights, describe the data curation strategy, and outline next steps toward developing robust medical vision-language reasoning system.

cs.AI↗

Be My Eyes: Extending Large Language Models to New Modalities Through Multi-Agent Collaboration

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in challenging, knowledge-intensive reasoning tasks. However, extending LLMs to perceive and reason over a new modality (e.g., vision), often requires costly development of large-scale vision language models (VLMs) with LLMs as backbones. Smaller VLMs are more efficient and adaptable but often lack the broad knowledge and reasoning capabilities of frontier LLMs. In this work, we propose BeMyEyes, a modular, multi-agent framework for extending LLMs to multimodal reasoning by orchestrating collaboration between efficient, adaptable VLMs as perceivers and powerful LLMs as reasoners through conversations. We then introduce a data synthesis and supervised fine-tuning pipeline to train the perceiver agent to effectively collaborate with the reasoner agent. By combining the complementary strengths of perception and reasoning agents, BeMyEyes avoids the need for training large-scale multimodal models, preserves the generalization and reasoning capabilities of LLMs, and allows flexible extension to new domains and modalities. Experiments show that our framework unlocks the multimodal reasoning capabilities for LLMs, enabling a lightweight and fully open-source solution, i.e. equipping text-only DeepSeek-R1 with Qwen2.5-VL-7B perceiver, to outperform large-scale proprietary VLMs such as GPT-4o on a wide range of knowledge-intensive multimodal tasks. These results demonstrate the effectiveness, modularity, and scalability of our multi-agent approach for building future multimodal reasoning systems.

cs.CL↗

OmniStruct: Universal Text-to-Structure Generation across Diverse Schemas

The ability of Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate structured outputs that follow arbitrary schemas is crucial to a wide range of downstream tasks that require diverse structured representations of results such as information extraction, table generation, and function calling. While modern LLMs excel in generating unstructured responses in natural language, whether this advancement translates to a strong performance on text-to-structure tasks remains unclear. To bridge this gap, we first introduce OmniStruct, a comprehensive benchmark for assessing LLMs' capabilities on diverse text-to-structure tasks such as information extraction, table generation, and function calling. We build OmniStruct by identifying existing datasets across a wide range of tasks that are suitable for a structured answer format, and adapting them under a unified text-to-structure problem setting. To facilitate the development of efficient text-to-structure models, we collect high-quality training data via synthetic task generation. Without using any supervised data for OmniStruct tasks, our experiments demonstrate the possibility of fine-tuning much smaller models on synthetic data into universal structured generation models that can rival the performance of GPT-4o.

cs.CL↗

A Data-Driven Model Predictive Control Framework for Multi-Aircraft TMA Routing Under Travel Time Uncertainty

This paper presents a closed-loop framework for conflict-free routing and scheduling of multi-aircraft in Terminal Manoeuvring Areas (TMA), aimed at reducing congestion and enhancing landing efficiency. Leveraging data-driven arrival inputs (either historical or predicted), we formulate a mixed-integer optimization model for real-time control, incorporating an extended TMA network spanning a 50-nautical-mile radius around Changi Airport. The model enforces safety separation, speed adjustments, and holding time constraints while maximizing runway throughput. A rolling-horizon Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy enables closed-loop integration with a traffic simulator, dynamically updating commands based on real-time system states and predictions. Computational efficiency is validated across diverse traffic scenarios, demonstrating a 7-fold reduction in computation time during peak congestion compared to onetime optimization, using Singapore ADS-B dataset. Monte Carlo simulations under travel time disturbances further confirm the framework's robustness. Results highlight the approach's operational resilience and computational scalability, offering actionable decision support for Air Traffic Controller Officers (ATCOs) through real-time optimization and adaptive replanning.

eess.SY↗