arXiv subjects

Xiang Zhou

Publications and source records attributed to Xiang Zhou.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Terahertz Plasmonic Transport in Topological Valley Metal-slabs

Topological photonic devices have attracted great attentions in terahertz (THz) and optical regimes due to their robust protected transport properties. However, it remains challenging in miniaturization of the devices to get superior performance for photonic integrated circuits in optical networks. In this paper, Kagome photonic insulators constructed with ultrathin metal-slab on Polyimide substrate are proposed for THz waveguiding. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation demonstrate that $C_{3v}$ symmetry can be broken by global rotation $θ$ of the air holes in metallic Kagome lattice, providing topological phase transitions. The propagation of THz waves through Z-shaped domain walls with multiple sharp corners verifies the robustness of plasmonic transport. The positive/negative refraction of topological valley edge state from Zigzag interface into background space is illustrated. These results present a novel approach to manipulate THz waves and facilitate development of photonic integrated circuits with high compactness and robustness.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Model-Embedded Gaussian Process Regression for Parameter Estimation in Dynamical System

Identifying dynamical system (DS) is a vital task in science and engineering. Traditional methods require numerous calls to the DS solver, rendering likelihood-based or least-squares inference frameworks impractical. For efficient parameter inference, two state-of-the-art techniques are the kernel method for modeling and the "one-step framework" for jointly inferring unknown parameters and hyperparameters. The kernel method is a quick and straightforward technique, but it cannot estimate solutions and their derivatives, which must strictly adhere to physical laws. We propose a model-embedded "one-step" Bayesian framework for joint inference of unknown parameters and hyperparameters by maximizing the marginal likelihood. This approach models the solution and its derivatives using Gaussian process regression (GPR), taking into account smoothness and continuity properties, and treats differential equations as constraints that can be naturally integrated into the Bayesian framework in the linear case. Additionally, we prove the convergence of the model-embedded Gaussian process regression (ME-GPR) for theoretical development. Motivated by Taylor expansion, we introduce a piecewise first-order linearization strategy to handle nonlinear dynamic systems. We derive estimates and confidence intervals, demonstrating that they exhibit low bias and good coverage properties for both simulated models and real data.

stat.CO↗

arXiv2024

Observation of superconducting diode effect in antiferromagnetic Mott insulator $α$-RuCl$_3$

Nonreciprocal superconductivity, also called as superconducting diode effect that spontaneously breaks time-reversal symmetry, is characterized by asymmetric critical currents under opposite applied current directions. This distinct state unveils a rich ore of intriguing physical properties, particularly in the realm of nanoscience application of superconductors. Towards the experimental realization of superconducting diode effect, the construction of two-dimensional heterostructures of magnets and $s$-wave superconductors is considered to be a promising pathway. In this study, we present our findings of superconducting diode effect manifested in the magnetic Mott insulator $α$-RuCl$_3$. This phenomenon is induced by the proximity effect within a van der Waals heterostructure, consisting of thin $α$-RuCl$_3$/NbSe$_2$ flakes. Through transport property measurements, we have confirmed a weak superconducting gap of 0.2 meV, which is significantly lower than the intrinsic gap of NbSe$_2$(1.2 meV). Upon the application of a weak magnetic field below 70 mT, we observed an asymmetry in the critical currents under positive and negative applied currents. This observation demonstrates a typical superconducting diode effect in the superconducting $α$-RuCl$_3$. The superconducting diode effect and nonreciprocal resistance are observed exclusively when the magnetic field is aligned out-of-plane. This suggests that an Ising-type spin-orbit coupling in the superconducting $α$-RuCl$_3$ may be responsible for the mechanism. Our findings furnish a platform for the exploration of superconducting diode effect via the artificial construction of heterostructures.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2024

StringNET: Neural Network based Variational Method for Transition Pathways

Rare transition events in meta-stable systems under noisy fluctuations are crucial for many non-equilibrium physical and chemical processes. In these processes, the primary contributions to reactive flux are predominantly near the transition pathways that connect two meta-stable states. Efficient computation of these paths is essential in computational chemistry. In this work, we examine the temperature-dependent maximum flux path, the minimum energy path, and the minimum action path at zero temperature. We propose the StringNET method for training these paths using variational formulations and deep learning techniques. Unlike traditional chain-of-state methods, StringNET directly parametrizes the paths through neural network functions, utilizing the arc-length parameter as the main input. The tasks of gradient descent and re-parametrization in the string method are unified into a single framework using loss functions to train deep neural networks. More importantly, the loss function for the maximum flux path is interpreted as a softmax approximation to the numerically challenging minimax problem of the minimum energy path. To compute the minimum energy path efficiently and robustly, we developed a pre-training strategy that includes the maximum flux path loss in the early training stage, significantly accelerating the computation of minimum energy and action paths. We demonstrate the superior performance of this method through various analytical and chemical examples, as well as the two- and four-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau functional energy.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2024

Critical Points, Stability, and Basins of Attraction of Three Kuramoto Oscillators with Isosceles Triangle Network

This article investigates the Kuramoto model with three oscillators that are interconnected by an isosceles triangle network. The characteristic of this model is that the coupling connections between the oscillators can be either attractive or repulsive. We list all critical points and investigate their stability. We furthermore present a framework studying convergence towards stable critical points under special coupled strengths. The main tool is the linearization and the monotonicity arguments of oscillator diameter.

math.DS↗

arXiv2024

Fundamental Problems With Model Editing: How Should Rational Belief Revision Work in LLMs?

The model editing problem concerns how language models should learn new facts about the world over time. While empirical research on model editing has drawn widespread attention, the conceptual foundations of model editing remain shaky -- perhaps unsurprisingly, since model editing is essentially belief revision, a storied problem in philosophy that has eluded succinct solutions for decades. Model editing nonetheless demands a solution, since we need to be able to control the knowledge within language models. With this goal in mind, this paper critiques the standard formulation of the model editing problem and proposes a formal testbed for model editing research. We first describe 12 open problems with model editing, based on challenges with (1) defining the problem, (2) developing benchmarks, and (3) assuming LLMs have editable beliefs in the first place. Many of these challenges are extremely difficult to address, e.g. determining far-reaching consequences of edits, labeling probabilistic entailments between facts, and updating beliefs of agent simulators. Next, we introduce a semi-synthetic dataset for model editing based on Wikidata, where we can evaluate edits against labels given by an idealized Bayesian agent. This enables us to say exactly how belief revision in language models falls short of a desirable epistemic standard. We encourage further research exploring settings where such a gold standard can be compared against. Our code is publicly available at: https://github.com/peterbhase/LLM-belief-revision

cs.CL↗

arXiv2024

Rotating-modulated Higher-Order Topological States in a Split-ring Photonic Insulator

The emerging field of topology has brought device effects to a new level. Higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) go beyond traditional descriptions of bulk-edge correspondence, broadening the understanding of topologically insulating phases. In this paper, a second-order split-ring photonic crystal (SSPC) with zero-dimensional (0D) corner states and one-dimensional (1D) edge states is proposed. Based on the coupling strength determined by the opening direction between the split-rings, the electronic transition strength of the electronic system is imitated, and the topological trivial and non-trivial transformation of the topological two-dimensional (2D) SSH model are realized by using the rotating split-ring lattice. Theory and simulation find that SSPC has non-trivial topological edge states that can be quantified by bulk polarization. As the opening direction of the split-rings gradually changes within one period, there will be transitions between four different topological polarizations of the lowest energy bands, which can be conveniently used to achieve transitions between different topological phases. Our research can be extended to higher dimensions and broaden research paths for higher-order photonic topological insulators and semimetals.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Bounding the amount of entanglement from witness operators

We present an approach to estimate the operational distinguishability between an entangled state and any separable state directly from measuring an entanglement witness. We show that this estimation also implies bounds on a variety of other well-known entanglement quantifiers. This approach for entanglement estimation is then extended to to both the measurement-device-independent scenario and the fully device-independent scenario, where we obtain non-trivial but sub-optimal bounds. The procedure requires no numerical optimization and is easy to compute. It offers ways for experimenters to not only detect, but also quantify, entanglement from the standard entanglement witness procedure.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

From Graph to Word Bag: Introducing Domain Knowledge to Confusing Charge Prediction

Confusing charge prediction is a challenging task in legal AI, which involves predicting confusing charges based on fact descriptions. While existing charge prediction methods have shown impressive performance, they face significant challenges when dealing with confusing charges, such as Snatch and Robbery. In the legal domain, constituent elements play a pivotal role in distinguishing confusing charges. Constituent elements are fundamental behaviors underlying criminal punishment and have subtle distinctions among charges. In this paper, we introduce a novel From Graph to Word Bag (FWGB) approach, which introduces domain knowledge regarding constituent elements to guide the model in making judgments on confusing charges, much like a judge's reasoning process. Specifically, we first construct a legal knowledge graph containing constituent elements to help select keywords for each charge, forming a word bag. Subsequently, to guide the model's attention towards the differentiating information for each charge within the context, we expand the attention mechanism and introduce a new loss function with attention supervision through words in the word bag. We construct the confusing charges dataset from real-world judicial documents. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, especially in maintaining exceptional performance in imbalanced label distributions.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2024

Intrinsic supercurrent diode effect in NbSe2 nanobridge

The significance of the superconducting diode effect lies in its potential application as a fundamental component in the development of next-generation superconducting circuit technology. The stringent operating conditions at low temperatures have posed challenges for the conventional semiconductor diode, primarily due to its exceptionally high resistivity. In response to this limitation, various approaches have emerged to achieve the superconducting diode effect, primarily involving the disruption of inversion symmetry in a two-dimensional superconductor through heterostructure fabrication. In this study, we present a direct observation of the supercurrent diode effect in a NbSe2 nanobridge with a length of approximately 15 nm, created using focused helium ion beam fabrication. Nonreciprocal supercurrents were identified, reaching a peak value of approximately 380 $μ$A for each bias polarity at $B_{z}^{max} =\pm 0.2$ mT. Notably, the nonreciprocal supercurrent can be toggled by altering the bias polarity. This discovery of the superconducting diode effect introduces a novel avenue and mechanism through nanofabrication on a superconducting flake, offering fresh perspectives for the development of superconducting devices and potential circuits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Distribution of distance-based quantum resources outside a radiating Schwarzschild black hole

We obtain analytical expressions for distance-based quantum resources and examine their distribution in the proximity of a Schwarzschild black hole (SBH) within a curved background. For an observer in free fall and their stationary counterpart sharing the Gisin state, the quantum resources are degraded at an infinite Hawking temperature. The extent of this degradation that occurs as the SBH evaporates is contingent upon the fermionic frequency mode, Gisin state parameters, and the distance between the observer and the event horizon (EH). In the case of two accelerating detectors in Minkowski spacetime interacting with quantum fluctuating scalar fields (QFSF), we find that quantum coherence and discord exhibit sudden disappearance for certain initial states and sudden reappearance for others except entanglement, regardless of the Unruh temperature. We also discover that the quantum resources of one detector can be transferred to another in the case of two stationary detectors through a fluctuating quantum field outside the SBH. We demonstrate that, in contrast to coherence and discord, we are unable to regenerate entanglement for a given initial state and that they are equal for different vacuum states. In certain circumstances, the presence of EHs does not significantly reduce the available resources, as it turns out that all interesting phenomena occur within EHs. Since the world is basically non-inertial, it is necessary to understand the distribution of quantum resources within a relativistic framework.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Inducing Systematicity in Transformers by Attending to Structurally Quantized Embeddings

Transformers generalize to novel compositions of structures and entities after being trained on a complex dataset, but easily overfit on datasets of insufficient complexity. We observe that when the training set is sufficiently complex, the model encodes sentences that have a common syntactic structure using a systematic attention pattern. Inspired by this observation, we propose SQ-Transformer (Structurally Quantized) that explicitly encourages systematicity in the embeddings and attention layers, even with a training set of low complexity. At the embedding level, we introduce Structure-oriented Vector Quantization (SoVQ) to cluster word embeddings into several classes of structurally equivalent entities. At the attention level, we devise the Systematic Attention Layer (SAL) and an alternative, Systematically Regularized Layer (SRL) that operate on the quantized word embeddings so that sentences of the same structure are encoded with invariant or similar attention patterns. Empirically, we show that SQ-Transformer achieves stronger compositional generalization than the vanilla Transformer on multiple low-complexity semantic parsing and machine translation datasets. In our analysis, we show that SoVQ indeed learns a syntactically clustered embedding space and SAL/SRL induces generalizable attention patterns, which lead to improved systematicity.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2024

Nonreciprocal charge transport in the titanium sesquioxide heterointerface superconductor

Nonreciprocal charge transport in heterostructural superconductors exhibits appealing quantum physical phenomena and holds the promising potential for superconducting circuits applications. Realizing a nonreciprocity is, however, fundamentally and technologically challenging, as it requires a material structure without a centre of inversion, which is scarce among superconducting materials. Here, we report an evidence of helical superconductivity, in which the Rashba spin-orbit coupling induces momentum-dependent superconducting gap in the inversion symmetry breaking heterointerface superconductor consisting of Mott insulating Ti$_2$O$_3$ and polar semiconducting GaN. Remarkably, the nonlinear responses emerge in the superconducting transition regime, when the magnetic field is precisely aligned in-plane orientations perpendicular to the applied current. In particular, the observed nonreciprocal supercurrent is extremely sensitive to the direction of the magnetic field for 0.5 degree, suggestive of a crossover from a symmetry breaking state to a symmetric one. Our finding not only unveils the underlying rich physical properties in heterointerface superconductors, but also provides an exciting opportunity for the development of novel mesoscopic superconducting devices.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2023

ReCEval: Evaluating Reasoning Chains via Correctness and Informativeness

Multi-step reasoning ability is fundamental to many natural language tasks, yet it is unclear what constitutes a good reasoning chain and how to evaluate them. Most existing methods focus solely on whether the reasoning chain leads to the correct conclusion, but this answer-oriented view may confound reasoning quality with other spurious shortcuts to predict the answer. To bridge this gap, we evaluate reasoning chains by viewing them as informal proofs that derive the final answer. Specifically, we propose ReCEval (Reasoning Chain Evaluation), a framework that evaluates reasoning chains via two key properties: (1) correctness, i.e., each step makes a valid inference based on information contained within the step, preceding steps, and input context, and (2) informativeness, i.e., each step provides new information that is helpful towards deriving the generated answer. We evaluate these properties by developing metrics using natural language inference models and V-Information. On multiple datasets, we show that ReCEval effectively identifies various error types and yields notable improvements compared to prior methods. We analyze the impact of step boundaries, and previous steps on evaluating correctness and demonstrate that our informativeness metric captures the expected flow of information in high-quality reasoning chains. Finally, we show that scoring reasoning chains based on ReCEval improves downstream task performance. Our code is publicly available at: https://github.com/archiki/ReCEval

cs.CL↗

arXiv2023

Colossal Magnetoresistance in Twisted Intertwined Graphene Spirals

Colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) is highly applicable in spintronic devices such as magnetic sensors, magnetic memory, and hard drives. Typically, CMR is found in Weyl semimetals characterized by perfect electron-hole symmetry or exceptionally high electric conductivity and mobility. Our study explores this phenomenon in a recently developed graphene moir$\acute{e}$ system, which demonstrates CMR owing to its topological structure and high-quality crystal formation. We specifically investigate the electronic properties of three-dimensional (3D) intertwined twisted graphene spirals (TGS), manipulating the screw dislocation axis to achieve a rotation angle of 7.3$^{\circ}$. Notably, at 14 T and 2 K, the magnetoresistance of these structures reached 1.7$\times$10$^7$%, accompanied by an unexpected metal-to-insulator transition as the temperature increased. This transition becomes noticeable when the magnetic field exceeds a minimal threshold of approximately 0.1 T. These observations suggest the existence of complex, correlated states within the partially filled three-dimensional Landau levels of the 3D TGS system. Our findings open up new possibilities for achieving CMR by engineering the topological structure of 2D layered moir$\acute{e}$ systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Data Factors for Better Compositional Generalization

Recent diagnostic datasets on compositional generalization, such as SCAN (Lake and Baroni, 2018) and COGS (Kim and Linzen, 2020), expose severe problems in models trained from scratch on these datasets. However, in contrast to this poor performance, state-of-the-art models trained on larger and more general datasets show better generalization ability. In this work, to reconcile this inconsistency, we conduct an empirical analysis by training Transformer models on a variety of training sets with different data factors, including dataset scale, pattern complexity, example difficulty, etc. First, we show that increased dataset complexity can lead to better generalization behavior on multiple different generalization challenges. To further understand this improvement, we show two axes of the benefit from more complex datasets: they provide more diverse examples so compositional understanding becomes more effective, and they also prevent ungeneralizable memorization of the examples due to reduced example repetition frequency. Finally, we explore how training examples of different difficulty levels influence generalization differently. On synthetic datasets, simple examples invoke stronger compositionality than hard examples do. On larger-scale real language datasets, while hard examples become more important potentially to ensure decent data coverage, a balanced mixture of simple and hard examples manages to induce the strongest generalizability. The code and data for this work are available at https://github.com/owenzx/data4comp

cs.CL↗

arXiv2023

Exploring the Optimal Choice for Generative Processes in Diffusion Models: Ordinary vs Stochastic Differential Equations

The diffusion model has shown remarkable success in computer vision, but it remains unclear whether the ODE-based probability flow or the SDE-based diffusion model is more superior and under what circumstances. Comparing the two is challenging due to dependencies on data distributions, score training, and other numerical issues. In this paper, we study the problem mathematically for two limiting scenarios: the zero diffusion (ODE) case and the large diffusion case. We first introduce a pulse-shape error to perturb the score function and analyze error accumulation of sampling quality, followed by a thorough analysis for generalization to arbitrary error. Our findings indicate that when the perturbation occurs at the end of the generative process, the ODE model outperforms the SDE model with a large diffusion coefficient. However, when the perturbation occurs earlier, the SDE model outperforms the ODE model, and we demonstrate that the error of sample generation due to such a pulse-shape perturbation is exponentially suppressed as the diffusion term's magnitude increases to infinity. Numerical validation of this phenomenon is provided using Gaussian, Gaussian mixture, and Swiss roll distribution, as well as realistic datasets like MNIST and CIFAR-10.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2023

Constructing the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state in antiferromagnetic insulator CrOCl

Time reversal symmetry breaking in superconductors, resulting from external magnetic fields or spontaneous magnetization, often leads to unconventional superconducting properties. In this way, a conventional Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state, characterized by the Cooper pairs with nonzero total momentum, may be realized by the Zeeman effect caused from external magnetic fields. Here, we report the observation of superconductivity in a few-layer antiferromagnetic insulator CrOCl by utilizing superconducting proximity effect with NbSe2 flakes. The superconductivity demonstrates a considerably weak gap of about 0.12 meV and the in-plane upper critical field reveals as behavior of the FFLO state at low temperature. Our first-principles calculations indicate that the proximitized superconductivity may exist in the CrOCl layer with Cr vacancies or line-defects. Moreover, the FFLO state could be induced by the inherent larger spin splitting in the CrOCl layer. Our findings not only demonstrate the fascinating interaction between superconductivity and magnetism, but also provide a possible path to construct FFLO state by intrinsic time reversal symmetry breaking and superconducting proximity effect.

cond-mat.supr-con↗