arXiv subjects

Stefano Scotta

Publications and source records attributed to Stefano Scotta.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Semantic Homogenization in Italian Popular Music: A Diachronic Analysis

In recent years, studies have revealed a decline in semantic variety across popular music lyrics, particularly in English-language songs on streaming platforms like Spotify. This research examines whether a similar trend can be observed in a different linguistic and cultural context: the lyrics of all finalist songs from the 75 editions of the Sanremo Music Festival, Italy's most renowned music competition. What sets this work apart is the development of a flexible and efficient methodology for tracking changes in semantic similarity over time, which can be applied to different datasets to study similar phenomena. Drawing on a combination of full-text, segment-based, topic-based, and word-level analyses, the approach leverages both embedding techniques and large language models. When applied to the Sanremo corpus, this framework reveals a gradual move toward increasing semantic uniformity, echoing the global patterns identified in previous studies. These findings underscore the value of natural language processing tools in uncovering long-term shifts in musical language and cultural expression.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2026

Introducing Background Temperature to Characterise Hidden Randomness in Large Language Models

Even when decoding with temperature $T=0$, large language models (LLMs) can produce divergent outputs for identical inputs. Recent work by Thinking Machines Lab highlights implementation-level sources of nondeterminism, including batch-size variation, kernel non-invariance, and floating-point non-associativity. In this short note we formalize this behavior by introducing the notion of \emph{background temperature} $T_{\mathrm{bg}}$, the effective temperature induced by an implementation-dependent perturbation process observed even when nominal $T=0$. We provide clean definitions, show how $T_{\mathrm{bg}}$ relates to a stochastic perturbation governed by the inference environment $I$, and propose an empirical protocol to estimate $T_{bg}$ via the equivalent temperature $T_n(I)$ of an ideal reference system. We conclude with a set of pilot experiments run on a representative pool from the major LLM providers that demonstrate the idea and outline implications for reproducibility, evaluation, and deployment.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2023

Understanding and contextualising diffusion models

The latest developments in Artificial Intelligence include diffusion generative models, quite popular tools which can produce original images both unconditionally and, in some cases, conditioned by some inputs provided by the user. Apart from implementation details, which are outside the scope of this work, all of the main models used to generate images are substantially based on a common theory which restores a new image from a completely degraded one. In this work we explain how this is possible by focusing on the mathematical theory behind them, i.e. without analyzing in detail the specific implementations and related methods. The aim of this work is to clarify to the interested reader what all this means mathematically and intuitively.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2022

Hydrodynamic limit for a boundary driven super-diffusive symmetric exclusion

We study the hydrodynamic limit for a model of symmetric exclusion processes with heavy-tailed long jumps and in contact with infinitely extended reservoirs. We show how the corresponding hydrodynamic equations are affected by the parameters defining the model. The hydrodynamic equations are characterized by a class of super-diffusive operators that are given by the regional fractional Laplacian with some additional reaction terms and various boundary conditions. This work solves some questions left open in \cite{BJGO2} about the same model.

math.PR↗

arXiv2022

Non-equilibrium stationary properties of the boundary driven zero-range process with long jumps

We consider the zero-range process with long jumps and in contact with infinitely many reservoirs in its non-equilibrium stationary state. We derive the hydrostatic limit and the Fick's law, which are a consequence of a relationship between the exclusion process and the zero-range process. We also obtain the large deviation principle for the empirical density, i.e. we compute the non-equilibrium free energy.

math.PR↗

arXiv2021

Diffusive to super-diffusive behavior in boundary driven exclusion

The purpose of this article is to study the hydrodynamic limit of the symmetric exclusion process with long jumps and in contact with infinitely extended reservoirs for a particular critical regime. The jumps are given in terms of a transition probability that can have finite or infinite variance and the hydrodynamic equation is a diffusive equation, in the former case, or a fractional equation, in the latter case. In this work we treat the critical case, that is, when the variance is infinite and grows logarithmically with the size of the system. This is the case in which there is a transition from diffusive to super-diffusive behavior.

math.PR↗

arXiv2021

Equilibrium fluctuations for diffusive symmetric exclusion with long jumps and infinitely extended reservoirs

We provide a complete description of the equilibrium fluctuations for diffusive symmetric exclusion processes with long jumps in contact with infinitely extended reservoirs and prove that they behave as generalized Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes with various boundary conditions, depending mainly on the strength of the reservoirs. On the way, we also give a general statement about uniqueness of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process originated by the microscopic dynamics of the underlying interacting particle systems and adapt it to our study.

math-ph↗