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Yi Xing

Publications and source records attributed to Yi Xing.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Constraining Cosmic-Ray Acceleration and Escape in Middle-Aged Supernova Remnants with GeV-TeV Gamma-Ray Observations

In this work, we perform a systematic, time-dependent study of the gamma-ray emission from four representative middle-aged SNRs (W51C, IC~443, W44, W28), incorporating both CRs within the remnant shells and escaped CRs interacting with surrounding molecular clouds. We compare our results with GeV--TeV gamma-ray observations from Fermi-LAT, H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and LHAASO, including a dedicated analysis of the Fermi-LAT data for regions A and B associated with W28. We find that the observed spectra favor steeper CR injection spectra with indices of \(\alpha\sim4.2\)--\(4.3\), maximum proton energies of $\sim$ \(100\)--\(300\) TeV, diffusion coefficients below the Galactic average, and CR acceleration efficiencies from a few to tens of percent. In particular, the VHE emission detected by LHAASO from W51C is more naturally explained by escaped CRs interacting with a nearby molecular cloud. We also investigate the contribution of escaped CRs to the VHE emission from IC~443, W44, and W28. We further demonstrate that escaped CRs can substantially enhance the TeV neutrino flux from middle-aged SNRs, improving their prospects as potential neutrino sources. These results provide new constraints on CR acceleration and escape in middle-aged SNRs and highlight the important role of escaped CRs in shaping their high-energy gamma-ray and neutrino emission.

astro-ph.HE

Unifying Plasticity in Ordered and Disordered Matter using Topological and Geometrical Descriptors

Identifying the regions responsible for plastic flow in amorphous solids remains an open problem, since structural disorder seems to prevent the direct application of concepts such as dislocations, topological defects that successfully describe irreversible deformations in crystalline systems. Here, we introduce fields of dislocation, disclination, and incompatibility densities, that reduce to the standard sources of plasticity in crystals and assess their predictive power in amorphous materials. We find that, in a simulated two-dimensional glass as well in two- and three-dimensional experimental granular systems, these fields exhibit strong spatial correlations with $D^2_{\text{min}}$, the standard measure used to locate plastic events under shear in disordered solids. Unlike $D^2_{\text{min}}$, these fields also allow to disentangle rotational and translational contributions to the plastic events, revealing that rotational defects becoming dominant in three dimensions. Our approach paves the way for a unified description of plasticity in crystalline and amorphous solids.

cond-mat.soft

Guidelines for the Annotation and Visualization of Legal Argumentation Structures in Chinese Judicial Decisions

This Guideline presents a systematic and operationalizable annotation framework for representing legal argumentation structures in judicial decisions. Grounded in theories of legal reasoning and argumentation, the framework aims to reveal the logical organization of judicial reasoning and provide a reliable foundation for computational analysis. At the element level, the Guideline distinguishes between the non-propositional layer and the propositional layer. The non-propositional layer consists of two elements: Issue and Non-argumentative Component. At the propositional level, the Guideline defines four proposition types: General Normative Judgment, Particular Normative Judgment, General Factual Judgment, and Particular Factual Judgment. At the relational level, five relation types are defined to represent argumentative structures: Support, Attack, Joint, Match, and Identity. These relations capture positive and negative argumentative connections, conjunctive reasoning structures, correspondences between legal norms and case facts, and identity or semantic equivalence between propositions. The Guideline further specifies formal representation rules and visualization conventions for both basic and nested structures, enabling consistent visualization of complex argumentation patterns. In addition, it establishes a standardized annotation workflow and consistency control mechanisms to ensure the reproducibility and reliability of annotated data. By providing a clear conceptual model, formal representation rules, and practical annotation procedures, this Guideline supports large-scale analysis of judicial reasoning and future research in legal argument mining, computational modeling of legal reasoning, and AI-assisted legal analysis.

cs.CL

Competition between Glassy Five-Fold Structures and Locally Dense Packing Structures Governs Two-Stage Compaction of Granular Hexapods

Using X-ray tomography, we experimentally investigate the structural evolution of packings composed of 3D-printed hexapod particles, each formed by three mutually orthogonal spherocylinders, during tap-induced compaction. We identify two distinct structural compaction mechanisms: an initial stage dominated by enhanced particle interlocking, which yields local mechanically stable structures through strong geometric entanglement, and a later stage characterized by the formation of dense polytetrahedral aggregates and a sharp increase in the number of five-ring motifs. The emergence of these five-fold symmetric structures indicates that, despite their highly concave geometry, hexapod packings can be effectively treated as hard-sphere-like systems and exhibit similar glass-like disordered configurations. The frustration between local mechanically stable structures and global glassy order suggests a universal organizational principle underlying the structure of uniform and isotropic disordered granular materials.

cond-mat.soft

Modelling Intertextuality with N-gram Embeddings

Intertextuality is a central tenet in literary studies. It refers to the intricate links between literary texts that are created by various types of references. This paper proposes a new quantitative model of intertextuality to enable scalable analysis and network-based insights: perform pairwise comparisons of the embeddings of n-grams from two texts and average their results as the overall intertextuality. Validation on four texts with known degrees of intertextuality, alongside a scalability test on 267 diverse texts, demonstrates the method's effectiveness and efficiency. Network analysis further reveals centrality and community structures, affirming the approach's success in capturing and quantifying intertextual relationships.

cs.CL

A flaring radio counterpart to a fast radio burst reveals a newborn magnetized engine

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are energetic millisecond radio bursts at cosmological distances, whose underlying engine is not identified. Among a sub-population that emit repeated radio bursts, a handful were associated with a persistent radio source (PRS) whose origin is unknown. Here we report the discovery of a compact flaring radio source (FRS) associated with a newly-active repeating FRB within one month after the first radio burst was detected. Its temporal and spectral characteristics differ from those of the PRSs but are similar to those of engine-powered supernovae and low-luminosity active galactic nuclei. We detected a spectral peak around $1.6\pm0.2$ GHz that is consistent with synchrotron self-absorption. Assuming equipartition, the magnetic field strength in the FRS is larger than the line-of-sight component constrained from the FRB Faraday rotation, suggesting a highly magnetized engine. The radius of the FRS is constrained to be $\sim0.03$ pc and the minimum total energy is $\sim~6.2\times{10}^{47}~{\rm ergs~}$. This FRS reveals the birth of a highly magnetized FRB engine, and hints that PRSs associated with other active FRBs may be in the later stage of evolution.

astro-ph.HE

$\gamma$-Cygni supernova remnant in $\gamma$-rays: signatures of trapped and escaped Cosmic Rays

We reanalyze 15 years of data recorded by the Fermi Large Area Telescope in a region around supernova remnant (SNR) $\gamma$-Cygni from 100 MeV to 1 TeV, and find that the spectra of two extended sources associated with the southeast radio SNR arc and the TeV VERITAS source can be described well by single power-laws with photon indices of $2.149\pm0.005$ and $2.01\pm0.06$, respectively. Combining with high resolution observations of surrounding gas, we model the emission in the hadronic scenario, where the $\gamma$-ray emission could be interpreted as escaped cosmic ray (CR) illuminating a nearby Molecular Cloud (MC) plus an ongoing shock-cloud interaction component. In this scenario, the difference between the two GeV spectral indices is due to the different ratios of MC mass between the escaped component and the trapped component in the two regions. We further analyze, in a potential pulsar halo region, the relationship between energy density $\varepsilon_{\rm{e}}$, spin-down power $\dot{E}$, and the $\gamma$-ray luminosity $L_{\gamma}$ of PSR J2021+4026. Our results indicate that the existence of a pulsar halo is unlikely. On the other hand, considering the uncertainty on the SNR distance, the derived energy density $\varepsilon_{\rm{e}}$ might be overestimated, thus the scenario of a SNR and a pulsar halo overlapping in the direction of the line of sight (LOS) cannot be ruled out.

astro-ph.HE

Flaring gamma-ray emission coincident with a hyperactive fast radio burst source

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are bright milliseconds-duration radio bursts from cosmological distances. Despite intense observational and theoretical studies, their physical origin is still mysterious. One major obstacle is the lack of identification of multi-wavelength counterparts for FRBs at cosmological distances. So far, all the searches other than in the radio wavelength, including those in the gamma-ray energies, have only left upper limits. Here we report a gigaelectronvolt (GeV) gamma-ray flare lasting 15.6 seconds as well as additional evidence of variable gamma-ray emission in temporal and spatial association with the hyper-active, newly discovered repeating FRB 20240114A, which has been localized to a dwarf galaxy at a redshift of 0.13. The energetic, short GeV gamma-ray flare reached a prompt isotropic luminosity of the order of ${10}^{48}~{\rm ergs~{s}^{-1}}$. The additional less-significant gamma-ray flares, if true, also have similar luminosities; such flares could contribute to a 5-day average luminosity of the order of ${10}^{45}~{\rm ergs~{s}^{-1}}$. These high-luminosity flares challenge the traditional FRB engine scenario involving a seconds-period magnetar. Rather, it suggests a powerful, long-lived, but newborn energy source at the location of this active repeater, either directly powering the bursts or indirectly triggering bursts in the vicinity of the FRB engine.

astro-ph.HE

Edwards thermodynamic framework controls density segregation in cyclically sheared granular materials

Using X-ray tomography, we experimentally investigate granular segregation phenomena in a mixture of particles with different densities under quasi-static cyclic shear. We quantitatively characterize their height distributions at steady states by minimizing effective free energy based on a segregation temperature that captures the competition between the mixing entropy and gravitational potential energy. We find this temperature coincides with Edwards' compactivity within error under various pressures and cyclic shear amplitudes. Therefore, we find that granular segregation in quasi-static conditions can be fundamentally explained by an effective granular thermodynamic framework including real energy terms based on the Edwards statistical ensemble.

cond-mat.soft

Revisiting Gamma-Ray Emission of the Supernova Remnant RCW 103

We analyze more than 15 years of the \gr\ data, obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard {\it the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi)}, for the region of the young supernova remnant (SNR) RCW~103, since the nearby source 4FGL J1616.2$-$5054e, counterpart to HESS~J1616$-$518 and $\simeq$13\,arcmin away from the SNR, is determined to be extended in the more recent Fermi-LAT source catalog. Different templates for 4FGL J1616.2$-$5054e and RCW~103 are tested, and we find that a point source with a power-law (PL) spectrum at the southern limb of the SNR best describes the detected gamma-ray emission. The photon index of the PL emission is $\Gamma\simeq 2.31$(or $\alpha\simeq 2.4$ in a Log-Parabola model) , softer than the previously reported $\Gamma\simeq 2.0$ when the counterpart to HESS~J1616$-$518 was considered to be a point source (which likely caused mis-identification of extended emission at RCW~103). In order to produce the \gr\ emission in a hadronic scenario, we estimate that protons with an index$\sim$2.4 PL energy distribution are needed. These results fit with those from multi-wavelength observations that have indicated the remnant at the southern limb is interacting with a molecular cloud.

astro-ph.HE

Testing Millisecond Pulsars as the Source of the Galactic Center Excess Gamma-Ray emission

The Galactic Center Excess (GCE) $\gamma$-ray emission detected with the Large Area Telescope onboard the {\it Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope} has been considered as a possible sign for dark matter (DM) annihilation, but other possibilities such as the millisecond pulsar (MSP) origin have also been suggested. As a spectral fitting method, constructed based on properties of $\gamma$-ray MSPs, has been developed, we apply this method to the study of the GCE emission for the purpose of probing the MSP origin for the GCE. A number of $\sim$1660 MSPs can provide a fit to the spectrum of the GCE emission upto $\sim$10\,GeV, but the higher energy part of the spectrum requires additional emission components. We further carry out a stacking analysis of 30--500\,GeV data for relatively nearby $\gamma$-ray MSPs, and the resulting flux upper limits are still lower than those of the GCE emission. We consider the single DM annihilation channel $\tau^{+}\tau^{-}$ or channel $b\bar{b}$,or the combination of the two for comparison, and find they generally can provide better fits than MSPs. Combination of MSPs plus a DM channel are also tested, and MSPs plus the DM channel $b\bar{b}$ can always provide better fits. Comparing this combination case to the pure DM channel $b\bar{b}$, the MSP contribution is found to be marginally needed.

astro-ph.HE

Dissecting the gamma-ray emissions of the nearby galaxies NGC 1068 and NGC 253

Intrigued by recent high-energy study results for nearby galaxies with gamma-ray emission and in particular NGC~1068 that has been detected as a neutrino-emitting source by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, we conduct detailed analysis of the $\gamma$-ray data for the galaxies NGC~1068 and NGC~253, obtained with the Large Area Telescope onboard {\it the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope}. By checking for their possible spectral features and then constructing light curves in corresponding energy ranges, we identify spectral-change activity from NGC ~1068 in $\geq$2\,GeV energy range and long-term detection significance changes for NGC~253 in $\geq$5\,GeV energy range. In the former, the emission appears harder in two half-year time periods than that in the otherwise `quiescent' state. In the latter, a $\sim$2-times detection significance decrease after MJD~57023 is clearly revealed by the test-statistic maps we obtain. Considering studies carried out and models proposed for the $\gamma$-ray emissions of the two sources, we discuss the implications of our findings. We suspect that the jet (or outflow) in NGC~1068 might contribute to the \gr\ emission. The nature of the long-term detection significance change for NGC~253 is not clear, but since the part of the GeV emission may be connected to the very-high-energy (VHE) emission from the center of the galaxy, it could be further probed with VHE observations.

astro-ph.HE

3HWC J0631+107/LHAASO J0631+1040: a TeV halo powered by the pulsar J0631+1036?

PSR~J0631+1036 is a middle-aged pulsar with properties similar to those of the nearby Geminga pulsar. It is bright in $\gamma$-rays, and has been noted as the only source possibly associated with the TeV source 3HWC J0631+107 (also the LHAASO J0631+1040). For understanding the nature of the TeV source, we analyze the GeV $\gamma$-ray data obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard {\it the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope} for the source region. We are able to remove the pulsar's emission from the region from timing analysis, and find that the region is rather clean without possible GeV $\gamma$-ray emission present as the counterpart to the TeV source. By comparing this pulsar to Geminga and considering the spectral feature of the TeV source, we argue that it is likely the TeV halo powered by the pulsar.

astro-ph.HE

Identifying the Gamma-ray Emission of the Nearby Galaxy M83

We report on the detection of a gamma-ray source at the position of the nearby star-forming galaxy (SFG) M83, which is found from our analysis of 14 years of the data obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on-board {\it Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi)}. The source is weakly detected, with a significance of $\sim 5\sigma$, and its emission can be described with an exponentially cutoff power law. At a distance of 4.61\,Mpc, the source's gamma-ray luminosity is $\sim 1.4\times 10^{39}$\,erg\,s$^{-1}$, roughly along the correlation line between the \gr\ and IR luminosities determined for nearby SFGs. Because of the weak detection, the source spectrum can not be used for checking its similarity with those of other SFGs. Given the positional matches and the empirical expectation for gamma-ray emission from M83 due to the galaxy's star-forming activity, we conclude that the gamma-ray source is the likely counterpart to m83. The detection thus adds another member to the group of approximately a dozen SFGs, whose \gr\ emissions mostly have a cosmic-ray origin.

astro-ph.HE

From creep to flow: Granular materials under cyclic shear

Granular materials such as sand, powders, and grains are omnipresent in daily life, industrial applications, and earth-science [1]. When unperturbed, they form stable structures that resemble the ones of other amorphous solids like metallic and colloidal glasses [2]. It is commonly conjectured that all these amorphous materials show a universal mechanical response when sheared slowly, i.e., to have an elastic regime, followed by yielding [3]. Here we use X-ray tomography to determine the microscopic dynamics of a cyclically sheared granular system in three dimensions. Independent of the shear amplitude $\Gamma$, the sample shows a cross-over from creep to diffusive dynamics, indicating that granular materials have no elastic response and always yield, in stark contrast to other glasses. The overlap function [4] reveals that at large $\Gamma$ yielding is a simple cross-over phenomenon, while for small $\Gamma$ it shows features of a first order transition with a critical point at $\Gamma\approx 0.1$ at which one finds a pronounced slowing down and dynamical heterogeneity. Our findings are directly related to the surface roughness of granular particles which induces a micro-corrugation to the potential energy landscape, thus creating relaxation channels that are absent in simple glasses. These processes must be understood for reaching an understanding of the complex relaxation dynamics of granular systems.

cond-mat.soft

On the Gamma-Ray Emission of the Andromeda Galaxy M31

Using the $\gamma$-ray data obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard {\it the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi)} for $\sim$14 years, we examine the high energy emission emanating from the center of the Andromeda Galaxy M31. Different from previously reported results, which show a seemingly extended source, we instead find two individual point sources, one consistent with being at the center and one 0\fdg4 south-east of the center. The emission of the former is well described using a Log-Parabola model, similar to those of previous studies, and that of the latter can be fitted with a power law. We discuss the possible origins for the two sources. M31's central source, now consistent with being a point source, necessitates a revisit of its previously discussed originations with this new property taken into consideration, in particular those cosmic rays or dark matter scenarios involving extended source distributions. The SE source appears to have a projected distance of $\sim$6\,kpc from M31's center, and the investigation is required as to whether it is a source locally associated with M31, or is instead a background extra-galactic one.

astro-ph.HE

Discovery of gamma-ray pulsations of PSR J1835$-$3259B in the Globular Cluster NGC 6652

Motivated by the newly discovery of a spin period 1.83\,ms pulsar J1835$-$3259B in the globular cluster (GC) NGC~6652, we analyze the gamma-ray data obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard {\it Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi)} for the GC and detect the pulsations of this millisecond pulsar (MSP) at a 5.4$\sigma$ confidence level (the weighted H-test value is $\sim 41$). From timing analysis of the data, a pulse profile that is similar to the radio one is established. We thus consider that we have detected the \gr\ emission of the MSP, and discuss the implications. Based on our analysis results and different studies of the sources in the GC, the observed gamma-ray emission from the GC could mainly arise from this MSP, like the previous two cases the GCs NGC~6624 and NGC~6626. Assuming this is the case, the pulsar, at the GC's 9.46\,kpc distance and having a spin-down luminosity of $\leq 4.3\times 10^{35}$ erg s$^{-1}$, would have a gamma-ray luminosity of $\simeq (5.04\pm0.44)\times 10^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and a gamma-ray efficiency of $\gtrsim 0.12$.

astro-ph.HE

Minkowski problem arising from sub-linear elliptic equations

For any bounded convex domain Ωin R^N, we assign a positive finite Borel measure associated with the solution to a su-blinear elliptic equation in Ω. We prove that this measure is weakly continuous in the sense of measure with respect Hausdorff metric, and the Minkowski problem associated with this measure is uniquely solvable.

math.AP