Confronting SUSY SO(10) with updated Lattice and Neutrino Data

We present an updated fit of supersymmetric SO(10) models to quark and lepton masses and mixing parameters. Including latest results from lattice QCD determinations of quark masses and neutrino oscillation data, we show that fits neglecting supersymmetric threshold corrections are strongly disfavoured in our setup. Only when we include these corrections we find good fit points. We present $\chi^2$-profiles for the threshold parameters, which show that in our setup the thresholds related to the third generation of fermions exhibit two rather narrow minima.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, and 5 tables; version published in JHE

Confronting SUSY SO(10) with updated Lattice and Neutrino data

We present an updated fit of supersymmetric SO(10) models to quark and lepton masses and mixing parameters. Including latest results from lattice QCD determinations of quark masses and neutrino oscillation data, we show that fits neglecting supersymmetric threshold corrections are strongly disfavoured in our setup. Only when we include these corrections we find good fit points. We present χ2-profiles for the threshold parameters, which show that in our setup the thresholds related to the third generation of fermions exhibit two rather narrow minima

End-to-End Magnitude Least Squares Binaural Rendering of Spherical Microphone Array Signals

Spherica1 microphone array (SMA) recordings are particularly suited for dynamic binaural rendering as the microphone signals can be decomposed into a spherical harmonic (SH) representation that can be freely rotated to match the head orientation of the listener. The rendering of such SMA recordings is a non-trivial task as the SH signals are impaired due to truncation of the SH decomposition order, spatial aliasing and the gain limitation of the employed radial filters. The perceptually most relevant consequence of this is an alteration of the magnitude transfer function at high frequencies. Previously, the magnitude least squares (MagLS) renderer for binaural rendering of SH signals was proposed to mitigate these effects under the assumption of ideal order-truncated plane waves, i.e., disregarding the influence of spatial aliasing as well as of non-ideal radial filters. Based on the MagLS renderer, we present a binaural rendering method for SMA recordings that integrates a comprehensive SMA model into the magnitude least squares objective. We evaluate the proposed end-to-end renderer by analyzing the reproduced binaural magnitude response. Our results suggest that the method significantly improves the high-frequency rendering mainly due to the inherent binaural diffuse-field equalization, while it achieves a slight improvement in the low and mid frequency range, where the error of the conventional method is already small. A reference implementation of the method accompanies this paper

End-to-End Magnitude Least Squares Binaural Rendering for Equatorial Microphone Arrays

We recently presented an end-to-end magnitude least squares (eMagLS) binaural rendering method for spherical microphone array (SMA) signals that integrates a comprehensive array model into a magnitude least squares objective to minimize reproduction errors. The introduced signal model addresses impairments due to practical limitations of spherical harmonic (SH) domain rendering, namely, spatial aliasing, truncation of the SH decomposition order, and regularized radial filtering. In this work, we improve the processing model when applied to the recently proposed equatorial microphone array (EMA) to facilitate three degrees-of-freedom head rotations during the rendering. EMAs provide similar accuracy to SMAs for sound fields from sources inside the horizontal plane while requiring a much lower number of microphones. We compare the proposed end-to-end renderers for both array types against a given binaural reference magnitude response. In addition to anechoic array simulations, the evaluation includes measured array room impulse responses to show the method’s effectiveness in minimizing high-frequency magnitude errors for all head orientations from SMAs and EMAs under practical room conditions. The published reference implementation of the method has been refined and now includes the solution for EMAs

A Tale of Scales - Fermion Masses and Mixing in Minimal Supersymmetric SO(10_{10}) and Resummation of Gluino Contributions to the MSSM Higgs Potential

Der erste Teil dieser Arbeit untersucht den Yukawa Sektor eines minimalen supersymmetrischen SO($_{10}$) Modells. Eine globale Analyse ergibt, dass die GUT Vorhersagen für Fermionmassen und deren Minschungsobservablen von jüngsten Daten aus Neutrinoexperimenten und Gittersimulationen angefochten werden. Weiterhin zeigt sich, dass die möglichen Werte für SUSY Schwellenkorrekturen zu den Yukawa Kopplungen erheblich eingeschränkt sind. Der zweite Teil befasst sich mit den Quantenkorrekturen von schweren Gluinos zum MSSM-Higgspotenzial. Die ausdrückliche Resummierung dieser Effekte zu allen Ordnungen der Störungstheorie zeigt den Zusammenhang zum Renormierungsschema der Topsquarks mit dem Ergbnis, dass für Niederenergieobservablen das $\textit{on-shell}$ Schema angewandt werden sollte. Ferner kann das $\textit{fine-tuning}$ im MSSM, verglichen mit dem Ergebnis in führender Ordnung, weniger drastisch sein, wenn diese Beiträge berücksichtigt werden

On the efficient simulation of pass-by noise signals from railway wheels

The article presents an approach for calculating pass-by sound pressure radiated from railway wheels in the time domain using moving Green\u27s functions. The Green\u27s functions are obtained by using Finite Element (FE) and Boundary Element (BE) methods in the frequency domain, subsequent inverse Fourier transform, followed by convolution with a time series of rolling contact forces to obtain the pass-by time signals. However, traditional BE methods are computationally expensive due to the low structural damping of the wheel, necessitating a high frequency resolution. To overcome this issue, a modal approach is introduced in which the pass-by sound radiated by each wheel mode is calculated separately. This approach incorporates the dynamic response of the wheel in the time-domain processing and thus reduces the cost of the BE solution. A modal source signal is introduced to describe the excitation of each mode at each time step. The sound field radiated by unit modal amplitudes is calculated in BE and subsequently approximated by spherical harmonic (SH) equivalent sources, which allows for efficiently calculating acoustic transfer functions for varying relative positions of the wheel and a stationary receiver. Convolution of the source signal with the moving acoustic transfer function produces the pass-by pressure signal. The article investigates the directivity of the radiation from each mode and finds that most modes, including those with dominant radial deflection, radiate in mostly axial direction at high frequencies. Modes that dominate the pass-by pressure level are identified, both in frequency bands and with respect to the relative positioning of the wheel to the receiver. Finally, it is found that an SH expansion order of approximately 30 is required to satisfy the employed error measures, although lower orders may suffice for an auralisation of the signal

Perceptual Evaluation of Spatial Room Impulse Response Extrapolation by Direct and Residual Subspace Decomposition

Six-degrees-of-freedom rendering of an acoustic environment can be achieved by interpolating a set of measured spatial room impulse responses (SRIRs). However, the involved measurement effort and computational expense are high. This work compares novel ways of extrapolating a single measured SRIR to a target position. The novel extrapolation techniques are based on a recently proposed subspace method that decomposes SRIRs into a direct part, comprising direct sound and salient reflections, and a residual. We evaluate extrapolations between different positions in a shoebox-shaped room in a multi-stimulus comparison test. Extrapolation using a residual SRIR and salient reflections that match the reflections at the target position is rated as perceptually most similar to the measured reference