arXiv subjects

Xiang Zhou

Publications and source records attributed to Xiang Zhou.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

Field-free Superconducting Diode Effect in FeTe$_{0.55}$Se$_{0.45}$

The superconducting diode effect (SDE) - the asymmetry of critical currents with respect to current direction - is a pivotal advancement in non-reciprocal superconductivity. While SDE has been realized in diverse systems, a fundamental challenge remains achieving field-free operation in iron-based superconductors with simple device geometries. Here, we report a non-volatile, field-free SDE in thin crystalline FeTe$_{0.55}$Se$_{0.45}$(FTS), showing asymmetric critical currents with a rectification coefficient of 1.9% and operating temperatures up to 9 K. Intriguingly, a pronounced non-zero second harmonic resistance emerges at the superconducting transition, exhibiting a sign reversal under varying current and temperature. The SDE persists at zero magnetic field and the rectification coefficient($η$) exhibits an even symmetric dependence on the magnetic field, distinguishing it from magnetic chirality anisotropy mechanisms. In addition to this, we systematically ruled out influences from dynamic superconducting domains, thermal gradients, and sample geometry, while establishing that localized stress amplifies the rectification coefficient, likely constituting one of the principal contributing factors. These results establish FTS as a robust platform for realizing field-free superconducting diodes in a structurally simple platform.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Morse Index Classification and Landscape of Kuramoto System for Hebbian-based Binary Pattern Recognition

This study examines the Kuramoto model with a Hebbian learning rule and second-order Fourier coupling for binary pattern recognition. The system stores memorized binary patterns as stable critical points, enabling it to identify the closest match to a defective input. However, the system exhibits multiple stable states and thus the dynamics are influenced by saddle points and other unstable critical points, which may disrupt convergence and recognition accuracy. We systematically classify the stability of these critical points by analyzing the Morse index, which quantifies the stability of critical points by the number of unstable directions. The index-1 saddle point is highlighted as the transition state on the energy landscape of the Kuramoto model. These findings provide deeper insights into the stability landscape of the Kuramoto model than the stable equilibria, enhancing its theoretical foundation for binary pattern recognition.

math.DS↗

arXiv2025

Dislocation-enhanced piezoelectric catalysis of KNbO3 crystal for water splitting

Dislocations in oxides with ionic/covalent bonding hold the potential of harnessing versatile functionalities. Here, high-density dislocations in a large plastic zone in potassium niobate (KNbO3) crystals are mechanically introduced by room-temperature cyclic scratching to enhance piezocatalytic hydrogen production. Unlike conventional energy-intensive, time-consuming deformation at high temperature, this approach merits efficient dislocation engineering. These dislocations induce local strain and modify the electronic environment, thereby improving surface reactivity and charge separation, which are critical for piezocatalysis. This proof-of-concept offers a practical and sustainable alternative for functionalizing piezoelectric ceramics. Our findings demonstrate that surface-engineered dislocations can effectively improve the piezocatalysis, paving the way for efficient and scalable piezocatalytic applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

HAC-LOCO: Learning Hierarchical Active Compliance Control for Quadruped Locomotion under Continuous External Disturbances

Despite recent remarkable achievements in quadruped control, it remains challenging to ensure robust and compliant locomotion in the presence of unforeseen external disturbances. Existing methods prioritize locomotion robustness over compliance, often leading to stiff, high-frequency motions, and energy inefficiency. This paper, therefore, presents a two-stage hierarchical learning framework that can learn to take active reactions to external force disturbances based on force estimation. In the first stage, a velocity-tracking policy is trained alongside an auto-encoder to distill historical proprioceptive features. A neural network-based estimator is learned through supervised learning, which estimates body velocity and external forces based on proprioceptive measurements. In the second stage, a compliance action module, inspired by impedance control, is learned based on the pre-trained encoder and policy. This module is employed to actively adjust velocity commands in response to external forces based on real-time force estimates. With the compliance action module, a quadruped robot can robustly handle minor disturbances while appropriately yielding to significant forces, thus striking a balance between robustness and compliance. Simulations and real-world experiments have demonstrated that our method has superior performance in terms of robustness, energy efficiency, and safety. Experiment comparison shows that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art RL-based locomotion controllers. Ablation studies are given to show the critical roles of the compliance action module.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2025

Cooperative Circumnavigation for Multi-Quadrotor Systems via Onboard Sensing

A cooperative circumnavigation framework is proposed for multi-quadrotor systems to enclose and track a moving target without reliance on external localization systems. The distinct relationships between quadrotor-quadrotor and quadrotor-target interactions are evaluated using a heterogeneous perception strategy and corresponding state estimation algorithms. A modified Kalman filter is developed to fuse visual-inertial odometry with range measurements to enhance the accuracy of inter-quadrotor relative localization. An event-triggered distributed Kalman filter is designed to achieve robust target state estimation under visual occlusion by incorporating neighbor measurements and estimated inter-quadrotor relative positions. Using the estimation results, a cooperative circumnavigation controller is constructed, leveraging an oscillator-based autonomous formation flight strategy. We conduct extensive indoor and outdoor experiments to validate the efficiency of the proposed circumnavigation framework in occluded environments. Furthermore, a quadrotor failure experiment highlights the inherent fault tolerance property of the proposed framework, underscoring its potential for deployment in search-and-rescue operations.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2025

Hierarchical Image Matching for UAV Absolute Visual Localization via Semantic and Structural Constraints

Absolute localization, aiming to determine an agent's location with respect to a global reference, is crucial for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in various applications, but it becomes challenging when global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals are unavailable. Vision-based absolute localization methods, which locate the current view of the UAV in a reference satellite map to estimate its position, have become popular in GNSS-denied scenarios. However, existing methods mostly rely on traditional and low-level image matching, suffering from difficulties due to significant differences introduced by cross-source discrepancies and temporal variations. To overcome these limitations, in this paper, we introduce a hierarchical cross-source image matching method designed for UAV absolute localization, which integrates a semantic-aware and structure-constrained coarse matching module with a lightweight fine-grained matching module. Specifically, in the coarse matching module, semantic features derived from a vision foundation model first establish region-level correspondences under semantic and structural constraints. Then, the fine-grained matching module is applied to extract fine features and establish pixel-level correspondences. Building upon this, a UAV absolute visual localization pipeline is constructed without any reliance on relative localization techniques, mainly by employing an image retrieval module before the proposed hierarchical image matching modules. Experimental evaluations on public benchmark datasets and a newly introduced CS-UAV dataset demonstrate superior accuracy and robustness of the proposed method under various challenging conditions, confirming its effectiveness.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2025

Weak Generative Sampler to Efficiently Sample Invariant Distribution of Stochastic Differential Equation

Sampling invariant distributions from an Itô diffusion process presents a significant challenge in stochastic simulation. Traditional numerical solvers for stochastic differential equations require both a fine step size and a lengthy simulation period, resulting in biased and correlated samples. The current deep learning-based method solves the stationary Fokker--Planck equation to determine the invariant probability density function in the form of deep neural networks, but they generally do not directly address the problem of sampling from the computed density function. In this work, we introduce a framework that employs a weak generative sampler (WGS) to directly generate independent and identically distributed (iid) samples induced by a transformation map derived from the stationary Fokker--Planck equation. Our proposed loss function is based on the weak form of the Fokker--Planck equation, integrating normalizing flows to characterize the invariant distribution and facilitate sample generation from a base distribution. Our randomized test function circumvents the need for min-max optimization in the traditional weak formulation. Our method necessitates neither the computationally intensive calculation of the Jacobian determinant nor the invertibility of the transformation map. A crucial component of our framework is the adaptively chosen family of test functions in the form of Gaussian kernel functions with centers related to the generated data samples. Experimental results on several benchmark examples demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of our method, which offers both low computational costs and excellent capability in exploring multiple metastable states.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

Don't Half-listen: Capturing Key-part Information in Continual Instruction Tuning

Instruction tuning for large language models (LLMs) can drive them to produce results consistent with human goals in specific downstream tasks. However, the process of continual instruction tuning (CIT) for LLMs may bring about the catastrophic forgetting (CF) problem, where previously learned abilities are degraded. Recent methods try to alleviate the CF problem by modifying models or replaying data, which may only remember the surface-level pattern of instructions and get confused on held-out tasks. In this paper, we propose a novel continual instruction tuning method based on Key-part Information Gain (KPIG). Our method computes the information gain on masked parts to dynamically replay data and refine the training objective, which enables LLMs to capture task-aware information relevant to the correct response and alleviate overfitting to general descriptions in instructions. In addition, we propose two metrics, P-score and V-score, to measure the generalization and instruction-following abilities of LLMs. Experiments demonstrate our method achieves superior performance on both seen and held-out tasks.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2025

Enhanced Error-free Retrieval in Kuramoto-type Associative-memory Networks via Two-memory Configuration

We study the associative-memory network of Kuramoto-type oscillators that stores a set of memorized patterns (memories). In [Phys. Rev. Lett., 92 (2004), 108101], Nishikawa, Lai and Hoppensteadt showed that the capacity of this system for pattern retrieval with small errors can be made as high as that of the Hopfield network. Some stability analysis efforts focus on mutually orthogonal memories; however, the theoretical results do not ensure error-free retrieval in general situations. In this paper, we present a route for using the model in pattern retrieval problems with small or large errors. We employ the eigenspectrum analysis of Jacobians and potential analysis of the gradient flow to derive the stability/instability of binary patterns. For two memories, the eigenspectrum of Jacobian at each pattern can be specified, which enables us to give the critical value of the parameter to distinguish the memories from all other patterns in stability. This setting of two memories substantially reduces the number of stable patterns and enlarges their basins, allowing us to recover defective patterns. We extend this approach to general cases and present a deterministic method for ensuring error-free retrieval across a general set of standard patterns. Numerical simulations and comparative analyses illustrate the approach.

math.DS↗

arXiv2025

Cluster Counting Algorithm for the CEPC Drift Chamber using LSTM and DGCNN

The particle identification (PID) of hadrons plays a crucial role in particle physics experiments, especially in flavor physics and jet tagging. The cluster-counting method, which measures the number of primary ionizations in gaseous detectors, is a promising breakthrough in PID. However, developing an effective reconstruction algorithm for cluster counting remains challenging. To address this challenge, we propose a cluster-counting algorithm based on long short-term memory and dynamic graph convolutional neural networks for the CEPC drift chamber. Experiments on Monte Carlo simulated samples demonstrate that our machine-learning-based algorithm surpasses traditional methods. It improves the $K/π$ separation of PID by 10\%, meeting the PID requirements of CEPC.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2025

Exploring the boundary of quantum network states from inside out

Quantum networks with bipartite resources and shared randomness present the simplest infrastructure for implementing a future quantum internet. Here, we shall investigate which kinds of entanglement can or cannot be generated from this kind of quantum network by examining their fidelity with different graph states. On the one hand, based on a standard form of graph states under local complementation and a fine-grained uncertainty relation between two projections, we establish upper bounds of fidelity that improve over previous results by at least $25\%$ as the dimension of local systems tends to infinity. On the other hand, in the triangle network, we propose efficient protocols to generate genuine multipartite entangled states from the network, providing significant nontrivial lower bounds of fidelity with high dimensional GHZ states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

TSDW: A Tri-Stream Dynamic Weight Network for Cloth-Changing Person Re-Identification

Cloth-Changing Person Re-identification (CC-ReID) aims to solve the challenge of identifying individuals across different temporal-spatial scenarios, viewpoints, and clothing variations. This field is gaining increasing attention in big data research and public security domains. Existing ReID research primarily relies on face recognition, gait semantic recognition, and clothing-irrelevant feature identification, which perform relatively well in scenarios with high-quality clothing change videos and images. However, these approaches depend on either single features or simple combinations of multiple features, making further performance improvements difficult. Additionally, limitations such as missing facial information, challenges in gait extraction, and inconsistent camera parameters restrict the broader application of CC-ReID. To address the above limitations, we innovatively propose a Tri-Stream Dynamic Weight Network (TSDW) that requires only images. This dynamic weighting network consists of three parallel feature streams: facial features, head-limb features, and global features. Each stream specializes in extracting its designated features, after which a gating network dynamically fuses confidence levels. The three parallel feature streams enhance recognition performance and reduce the impact of any single feature failure, thereby improving model robustness. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets (e.g., PRCC, Celeb-reID, VC-Clothes) demonstrate that our method significantly outperforms existing state-of-the-art approaches.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2025

Earlier Tokens Contribute More: Learning Direct Preference Optimization From Temporal Decay Perspective

Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) has gained attention as an efficient alternative to reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) for aligning large language models (LLMs) with human preferences. Despite its advantages, DPO suffers from a length bias, generating responses longer than those from the reference model. Existing solutions like SimPO and SamPO address this issue but uniformly treat the contribution of rewards across sequences, overlooking temporal dynamics. To this end, we propose an enhanced preference optimization method that incorporates a temporal decay factor controlled by a gamma parameter. This dynamic weighting mechanism adjusts the influence of each reward based on its position in the sequence, prioritizing earlier tokens that are more critical for alignment. By adaptively focusing on more relevant feedback, our approach mitigates overfitting to less pertinent data and remains responsive to evolving human preferences. Experimental results on several benchmarks show that our approach consistently outperforms vanilla DPO by 5.9-8.8 points on AlpacaEval 2 and 3.3-9.7 points on Arena-Hard across different model architectures and sizes. Furthermore, additional experiments on mathematical and reasoning benchmarks (MMLU, GSM8K, and MATH) confirm that our method enhances performance without compromising general capabilities. Our codebase would be available at \url{https://github.com/LotuSrc/D2PO}.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2025

Iterative Proximal-Minimization for Computing Saddle Points with Fixed Index

Computing saddle points with a prescribed Morse index on potential energy surfaces is crucial for characterizing transition states for nosie-induced rare transition events in physics and chemistry. Many numerical algorithms for this type of saddle points are based on the eigenvector-following idea and can be cast as an iterative minimization formulation (SINUM. Vol. 53, p.1786, 2015), but they may struggle with convergence issues and require good initial guesses. To address this challenge, we discuss the differential game interpretation of this iterative minimization formulation and investigate the relationship between this game's Nash equilibrium and saddle points on the potential energy surface. Our main contribution is that adding a proximal term, which grows faster than quadratic, to the game's cost function can enhance the stability and robustness. This approach produces a robust Iterative Proximal Minimization (IPM) algorithm for saddle point computing. We show that the IPM algorithm surpasses the preceding methods in robustness without compromising the convergence rate or increasing computational expense. The algorithm's efficacy and robustness are showcased through a two-dimensional test problem, and the Allen-Cahn, Cahn-Hilliard equation, underscoring its numerical robustness.

math.OC↗

arXiv2024

Probability Flow Approach to the Onsager--Machlup Functional for Jump-Diffusion Processes

The Onsager--Machlup action functional is an important concept in statistical mechanics and thermodynamics to describe the probability of fluctuations in nonequilibrium systems. It provides a powerful tool for analyzing and predicting the behavior of complex stochastic systems. For diffusion process, the path integral method and the Girsanov transformation are two main approaches to construct the Onsager--Machlup functional. However, it is a long-standing challenge to apply these two methods to the jump-diffusion process, because the complexity of jump noise presents intrinsic technical barriers to derive the Onsager--Machlup functional. In this work, we propose a new strategy to solve this problem by utilizing the equivalent probabilistic flow between the pure diffusion process and the jump-diffusion process. For the first time, we rigorously establish the closed-form expression of the Onsager--Machlup functional for jump-diffusion processes with finite jump activity, which include an important term of the Lévy intensity at the origin. The same probability flow approach is further applied to the Lévy process with infinite jump activity, and yields a time-discrete version of the Onsager--Machlup functional.

math.PR↗

arXiv2024

A Risk Sensitive Contract-unified Reinforcement Learning Approach for Option Hedging

We propose a new risk sensitive reinforcement learning approach for the dynamic hedging of options. The approach focuses on the minimization of the tail risk of the final P&L of the seller of an option. Different from most existing reinforcement learning approaches that require a parametric model of the underlying asset, our approach can learn the optimal hedging strategy directly from the historical market data without specifying a parametric model; in addition, the learned optimal hedging strategy is contract-unified, i.e., it applies to different options contracts with different initial underlying prices, strike prices, and maturities. Our approach extends existing reinforcement learning methods by learning the tail risk measures of the final hedging P&L and the optimal hedging strategy at the same time. We carry out comprehensive empirical study to show that, in the out-of-sample tests, the proposed reinforcement learning hedging strategy can obtain statistically significantly lower tail risk and higher mean of the final P&L than delta hedging methods.

q-fin.RM↗

arXiv2024

Analytic forms for the $e^+e^-$ annihilation cross sections around a resonance including initial state radiation

The exact analytic form of cross sections including initial state radiation with Kuraev-Fadin radiative function are obtained for $e^+e^-$ annihilation around a resonance. Despite accounting for vacuum polarization and center-of-mass energy spread effects, the precision remains below 0.1\%, meeting the accuracy requirements of quantum electrodynamics corrections up to $\mathcal{O}(α^2)$. The analytic forms lead to an enhancement in the precision of experimental measurements of physical parameters, such as branching fractions, and demonstrate significantly improved computational efficiency in the regression procedures.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Gate-controlled superconducting switch in GaSe/NbSe$_2$ van der Waals heterostructure

The demand for low-power devices is on the rise as semiconductor engineering approaches the quantum limit and quantum computing continues to advance. Two-dimensional (2D) superconductors, thanks to their rich physical properties, hold significant promise for both fundamental physics and potential applications in superconducting integrated circuits and quantum computation. Here, we report a gate-controlled superconducting switch in GaSe/NbSe$_2$ van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure. By injecting high-energy electrons into NbSe$_2$ under an electric field, a non-equilibrium state is induced, resulting in significant modulation of the superconducting properties. Owing to the intrinsic polarization of ferroelectric GaSe, a much steeper subthreshold slope and asymmetric modulation are achieved, which is beneficial to the device performance. Based on these results, a superconducting switch is realized that can reversibly and controllably switch between the superconducting and normal state under an electric field. Our findings highlight a significant high-energy injection effect from band engineering in 2D vdW heterostructures combining superconductors and ferroelectric semiconductors, and demonstrate the potential applications for superconducting integrated circuits.

cond-mat.supr-con↗