International School for Advanced Studies

About: International School for Advanced Studies is a education organization based out in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Galaxy & Dark matter. The organization has 3751 authors who have published 13433 publications receiving 588454 citations. The organization is also known as: SISSA & Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati.

Adiabatic quantum dynamics of a random Ising chain across its quantum critical point

Abstract: We present here our study of the adiabatic quantum dynamics of a random Ising chain across its quantum critical point. The model investigated is an Ising chain in a transverse field with disorder present both in the exchange coupling and in the transverse field. The transverse field term is proportional to a function $\ensuremath{\Gamma}(t)$ which, as in the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, is linearly reduced to zero in time with a rate ${\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, $\ensuremath{\Gamma}(t)=\ensuremath{-}t∕\ensuremath{\tau}$, starting at $t=\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\infty}$ from the quantum disordered phase $(\ensuremath{\Gamma}=\ensuremath{\infty})$ and ending at $t=0$ in the classical ferromagnetic phase $(\ensuremath{\Gamma}=0)$. We first analyze the distribution of the gaps, occurring at the critical point ${\ensuremath{\Gamma}}_{c}=1$, which are relevant for breaking the adiabaticity of the dynamics. We then present extensive numerical simulations for the residual energy ${E}_{\mathrm{res}}$ and density of defects ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{k}$ at the end of the annealing, as a function of the annealing inverse rate $\ensuremath{\tau}$. Both the average ${E}_{\mathrm{res}}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{k}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ are found to behave logarithmically for large $\ensuremath{\tau}$, but with different exponents, $[{E}_{\mathrm{res}}(\ensuremath{\tau})∕L{]}_{\mathrm{av}}\ensuremath{\sim}1∕{\mathrm{ln}}^{\ensuremath{\zeta}}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ with $\ensuremath{\zeta}\ensuremath{\approx}3.4$, and $[{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{k}(\ensuremath{\tau}){]}_{\mathrm{av}}\ensuremath{\sim}1∕{\mathrm{ln}}^{2}(\ensuremath{\tau})$. We propose a mechanism for $1∕{\mathrm{ln}}^{2}\ensuremath{\tau}$ behavior of $[{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{k}{]}_{\mathrm{av}}$ based on the Landau-Zener tunneling theory and on a Fisher's-type real-space renormalization group analysis of the relevant gaps. The model proposed shows therefore a paradigmatic example of how an adiabatic quantum computation can become very slow when disorder is at play, even in the absence of any source of frustration.

Estimating the intrinsic dimension of datasets by a minimal neighborhood information.

Abstract: Analyzing large volumes of high-dimensional data is an issue of fundamental importance in data science, molecular simulations and beyond. Several approaches work on the assumption that the important content of a dataset belongs to a manifold whose Intrinsic Dimension (ID) is much lower than the crude large number of coordinates. Such manifold is generally twisted and curved; in addition points on it will be non-uniformly distributed: two factors that make the identification of the ID and its exploitation really hard. Here we propose a new ID estimator using only the distance of the first and the second nearest neighbor of each point in the sample. This extreme minimality enables us to reduce the effects of curvature, of density variation, and the resulting computational cost. The ID estimator is theoretically exact in uniformly distributed datasets, and provides consistent measures in general. When used in combination with block analysis, it allows discriminating the relevant dimensions as a function of the block size. This allows estimating the ID even when the data lie on a manifold perturbed by a high-dimensional noise, a situation often encountered in real world data sets. We demonstrate the usefulness of the approach on molecular simulations and image analysis.

MultiPic: a standardized set of 750 drawings with norms for six European languages

Abstract: Numerous studies in psychology, cognitive neuroscience and psycholinguistics have used pictures of objects as stimulus materials. Currently, authors engaged in cross-linguistic work or wishing to run parallel studies at multiple sites where different languages are spoken must rely on rather small sets of black-and-white or colored line drawings. These sets are increasingly experienced as being too limited. Therefore, we constructed a new set of 750 colored pictures of concrete concepts. This set, MultiPic, constitutes a new valuable tool for cognitive scientists investigating language, visual perception, memory and/or attention in monolingual or multilingual populations. Importantly, the MultiPic databank has been normed in six different European languages (British English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian and German). All stimuli and norms are freely available at http://www.bcbl.eu/databases/multipic

Three-dimensional model of cosmic-ray lepton propagation reproduces data from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station.

Abstract: We study the compatibility of Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) data on the cosmic-ray (CR) positron fraction with data on the CR electron and positron spectra provided by PAMELA and Fermi LAT. We do that in terms of a novel propagation model in which sources are distributed in spiral arm patterns in agreement with astrophysical observations. While former interpretations assumed an unrealistically steep injection spectrum for astrophysical background electrons, the enhanced energy losses experienced by CR leptons due to the larger average source distance from Earth allow us to reproduce the data with harder injection spectra as expected in a shock acceleration scenario. Moreover, we show that in this approach, and accounting for AMS-02 results, the contribution of nearby accelerators to the fluxes at very high energy can be significantly reduced, thus avoiding any tension with anisotropy upper limits.