Energy
Method of Manufactured Learning for Solver-free Training of Neural Operators
Training neural operators to approximate mappings between infinite-dimensional function spaces often requires extensive datasets generated by either demanding experimental setups or computationally expensive numerical solvers. This dependence on solver-based data limits scalability and constrains exploration across physical systems. Here we introduce the Method of Manufactured Learning (MML), a solver-independent framework for training neural operators using analytically constructed, physics-consistent datasets. Inspired by the classical method of manufactured solutions, MML replaces numerical data generation with functional synthesis, i.e., smooth candidate solutions are sampled from controlled analytical spaces, and the corresponding forcing fields are derived by direct application of the governing differential operators. During inference, setting these forcing terms to zero restores the original governing equations, allowing the trained neural operator to emulate the true solution operator of the system. The framework is agnostic to network architecture and can be integrated with any operator learning paradigm. In this paper, we employ Fourier neural operator as a representative example. Across canonical benchmarks including heat, advection, Burgers, and diffusion-reaction equations. MML achieves high spectral accuracy, low residual errors, and strong generalization to unseen conditions. By reframing data generation as a process of analytical synthesis, MML offers a scalable, solver-agnostic pathway toward constructing physically grounded neural operators that retain fidelity to governing laws without reliance on expensive numerical simulations or costly experimental data for training.
An Evaluation of Representation Learning Methods in Particle Physics Foundation Models
Chen, Michael, Kansal, Raghav, Gandrakota, Abhijith, Hao, Zichun, Ngadiuba, Jennifer, Spiropulu, Maria
We present a systematic evaluation of representation learning objectives for particle physics within a unified framework. Our study employs a shared transformer-based particle-cloud encoder with standardized preprocessing, matched sampling, and a consistent evaluation protocol on a jet classification dataset. We compare contrastive (supervised and self-supervised), masked particle modeling, and generative reconstruction objectives under a common training regimen. In addition, we introduce targeted supervised architectural modifications that achieve state-of-the-art performance on benchmark evaluations. This controlled comparison isolates the contributions of the learning objective, highlights their respective strengths and limitations, and provides reproducible baselines. We position this work as a reference point for the future development of foundation models in particle physics, enabling more transparent and robust progress across the community.
Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Heterogeneous Satellite Cluster Resources Optimization
Hady, Mohamad A., Hu, Siyi, Pratama, Mahardhika, Cao, Zehong, Kowalczyk, Ryszard
This work investigates resource optimization in heterogeneous satellite clusters performing autonomous Earth Observation (EO) missions using Reinforcement Learning (RL). In the proposed setting, two optical satellites and one Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite operate cooperatively in low Earth orbit to capture ground targets and manage their limited onboard resources efficiently. Traditional optimization methods struggle to handle the real-time, uncertain, and decentralized nature of EO operations, motivating the use of RL and Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) for adaptive decision-making. This study systematically formulates the optimization problem from single-satellite to multi-satellite scenarios, addressing key challenges including energy and memory constraints, partial observability, and agent heterogeneity arising from diverse payload capabilities. Using a near-realistic simulation environment built on the Basilisk and BSK-RL frameworks, we evaluate the performance and stability of state-of-the-art MARL algorithms such as MAPPO, HAPPO, and HATRPO. Results show that MARL enables effective coordination across heterogeneous satellites, balancing imaging performance and resource utilization while mitigating non-stationarity and inter-agent reward coupling. The findings provide practical insights into scalable, autonomous satellite operations and contribute a foundation for future research on intelligent EO mission planning under heterogeneous and dynamic conditions.
Which Way from B to A: The role of embedding geometry in image interpolation for Stable Diffusion
Karris, Nicholas, Durell, Luke, Flores, Javier, Emerson, Tegan
It can be shown that Stable Diffusion has a permutation-invariance property with respect to the rows of Contrastive Language-Image Pretraining (CLIP) embedding matrices. This inspired the novel observation that these embeddings can naturally be interpreted as point clouds in a Wasserstein space rather than as matrices in a Euclidean space. This perspective opens up new possibilities for understanding the geometry of embedding space. For example, when interpolating between embeddings of two distinct prompts, we propose reframing the interpolation problem as an optimal transport problem. By solving this optimal transport problem, we compute a shortest path (or geodesic) between embeddings that captures a more natural and geometrically smooth transition through the embedding space. This results in smoother and more coherent intermediate (interpolated) images when rendered by the Stable Diffusion generative model. We conduct experiments to investigate this effect, comparing the quality of interpolated images produced using optimal transport to those generated by other standard interpolation methods. The novel optimal transport--based approach presented indeed gives smoother image interpolations, suggesting that viewing the embeddings as point clouds (rather than as matrices) better reflects and leverages the geometry of the embedding space.
DIVIDE: A Framework for Learning from Independent Multi-Mechanism Data Using Deep Encoders and Gaussian Processes
Chawla, Vivek, Slautin, Boris, Pratiush, Utkarsh, Penumadu, Dayakar, Kalinin, Sergei
ABSTRACT Scientific datasets often arise from multiple independent mechanisms such as spati al, categorical or structural effects, whose combined influence obscures their individual contributions. We introduce DIVIDE, a framework that disentangles these influences by integrating mechanism - specific deep encoders with a structured Gaussian Process in a joint latent space. Disentanglement here refers to separating independently acting generative factors . The encoders isolate distinct mechanisms while the Gaussian Process captures their combined effect with calibrated uncertainty. The architecture supports structured priors, enabling interpretable and mechanism - aware prediction as well as efficient active l earning. Across benc hmarks, DIVIDE separates mechanisms, reproduces additive and scaled interactions, and remains robust under noise. The framework extends naturally to multifunctional datasets where mechanical, electromagnetic or optical responses coexist. INTRODUCTION Many real - world systems exhibit behavior driven by the combined influence of multiple independent mechanisms. These mechanisms may represent categorical factors, spatial dependencies, or nonlinear physical responses. While the scalar output of such systems is observable, the individual contributions of these mechanisms are often unknown and unmeasured. Modeling this type of data requires not only accurate predictions but also the ability to attribute variation in the output to specific, distinct sources. In thi s context, we use disentanglement to mean recovering those independently acting generative factors from observational data. Disentangling these contributions is particularly important in scientific and engineering domains where interpretability, causality, and mechanism - aware reasoning are essential. Partial solutions to this challenge have emerged from the field of disentangled representation learning, which seeks to identify independent factors of variation from high - dimensional data.
An Evaluation Framework for Network IDS/IPS Datasets: Leveraging MITRE ATT&CK and Industry Relevance Metrics
Tori, Adrita Rahman, Hasan, Khondokar Fida
The performance of Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL)-based Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS) is critically dependent on the relevance and quality of the datasets used for training and evaluation. However, current AI model evaluation practices for developing IDS/IPS focus predominantly on accuracy metrics, often overlooking whether datasets represent industry-specific threats. To address this gap, we introduce a novel multi-dimensional framework that integrates the MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base for threat intelligence and employs five complementary metrics that together provide a comprehensive assessment of dataset suitability. Methodologically, this framework combines threat intelligence, natural language processing, and quantitative analysis to assess the suitability of datasets for specific industry contexts. Applying this framework to nine publicly available IDS/IPS datasets reveals significant gaps in threat coverage, particularly in the healthcare, energy, and financial sectors. In particular, recent datasets (e.g., CIC-IoMT, CIC-UNSW-NB15) align better with sector-specific threats, whereas others, like CICIoV-24, underperform despite their recency. Our findings provide a standardized, interpretable approach for selecting datasets aligned with sector-specific operational requirements, ultimately enhancing the real-world effectiveness of AI-driven IDS/IPS deployments. The efficiency and practicality of the framework are validated through deployment in a real-world case study, underscoring its capacity to inform dataset selection and enhance the effectiveness of AI-driven IDS/IPS in operational environments.
EcoFlight: Finding Low-Energy Paths Through Obstacles for Autonomous Sensing Drones
Leyva, Jordan, Vera, Nahim J. Moran, Xu, Yihan, Durasno, Adrien, Romero, Christopher U., Chimuka, Tendai, Ramirez, Gabriel O. Huezo, Dong, Ziqian, Rojas-Cessa, Roberto
Obstacle avoidance path planning for uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, is rarely addressed in most flight path planning schemes, despite obstacles being a realistic condition. Obstacle avoidance can also be energy-intensive, making it a critical factor in efficient point-to-point drone flights. To address these gaps, we propose EcoFlight, an energy-efficient pathfinding algorithm that determines the lowest-energy route in 3D space with obstacles. The algorithm models energy consumption based on the drone propulsion system and flight dynamics. We conduct extensive evaluations, comparing EcoFlight with direct-flight and shortest-distance schemes. The simulation results across various obstacle densities show that EcoFlight consistently finds paths with lower energy consumption than comparable algorithms, particularly in high-density environments. We also demonstrate that a suitable flying speed can further enhance energy savings.
PID-controlled Langevin Dynamics for Faster Sampling of Generative Models
Chen, Hongyi, Shu, Jianhai, Ding, Jingtao, Li, Yong, Zhang, Xiao-Ping
Langevin dynamics sampling suffers from extremely low generation speed, fundamentally limited by numerous fine-grained iterations to converge to the target distribution. We introduce PID-controlled Langevin Dynamics (PIDLD), a novel sampling acceleration algorithm that reinterprets the sampling process using control-theoretic principles. By treating energy gradients as feedback signals, PIDLD combines historical gradients (the integral term) and gradient trends (the derivative term) to efficiently traverse energy landscapes and adaptively stabilize, thereby significantly reducing the number of iterations required to produce high-quality samples. Our approach requires no additional training, datasets, or prior information, making it immediately integrable with any Langevin-based method. Extensive experiments across image generation and reasoning tasks demonstrate that PIDLD achieves higher quality with fewer steps, making Langevin-based generative models more practical for efficiency-critical applications. The implementation can be found at \href{https://github.com/tsinghua-fib-lab/PIDLD}{https://github.com/tsinghua-fib-lab/PIDLD}.
LMM-IR: Large-Scale Netlist-Aware Multimodal Framework for Static IR-Drop Prediction
Ma, Kai, Wang, Zhen, He, Hongquan, Xu, Qi, Chen, Tinghuan, Geng, Hao
Abstract--Static IR drop analysis is a fundamental and critical task in the field of chip design. Nevertheless, this process can be quite time-consuming, potentially requiring several hours. Moreover, addressing IR drop violations frequently demands iterative analysis, thereby causing the computational burden. Therefore, fast and accurate IR drop prediction is vital for reducing the overall time invested in chip design. In this paper, we firstly propose a novel multimodal approach that efficiently processes SPICE files through large-scale netlist transformer (LNT). Our key innovation is representing and processing netlist topology as 3D point cloud representations, enabling efficient handling of netlist with up to hundreds of thousands to millions nodes. All types of data, including netlist files and image data, are encoded into latent space as features and fed into the model for static voltage drop prediction. This enables the integration of data from multiple modalities for complementary predictions. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm can achieve the best F1 score and the lowest MAE among the winning teams of the ICCAD 2023 contest and the state-of-the-art algorithms.
ARCHE: A Novel Task to Evaluate LLMs on Latent Reasoning Chain Extraction
Li, Pengze, Liu, Jiaqi, Yu, Junchi, Liu, Lihao, Ding, Mingyu, Ouyang, Wanli, Tang, Shixiang, Chen, Xi
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in scientific domains. While they can produce reasoning-like content via methods such as chain-of-thought prompting, these outputs are typically unstructured and informal, obscuring whether models truly understand the fundamental reasoning paradigms that underpin scientific inference. To address this, we introduce a novel task named Latent Reasoning Chain Extraction (ARCHE), in which models must decompose complex reasoning arguments into combinations of standard reasoning paradigms in the form of a Reasoning Logic Tree (RLT). In RLT, all reasoning steps are explicitly categorized as one of three variants of Peirce's fundamental inference modes: deduction, induction, or abduction. To facilitate this task, we release ARCHE Bench, a new benchmark derived from 70 Nature Communications articles, including more than 1,900 references and 38,000 viewpoints. We propose two logic-aware evaluation metrics: Entity Coverage (EC) for content completeness and Reasoning Edge Accuracy (REA) for step-by-step logical validity. Evaluations on 10 leading LLMs on ARCHE Bench reveal that models exhibit a trade-off between REA and EC, and none are yet able to extract a complete and standard reasoning chain. These findings highlight a substantial gap between the abilities of current reasoning models and the rigor required for scientific argumentation.