Synthesizing Short-Circuiting Validation of Data Structure Invariants

This paper presents incremental verification-validation, a novel approach for checking rich data structure invariants expressed as separation logic assertions. Incremental verification-validation combines static verification of separation properties with efficient, short-circuiting dynamic validation of arbitrarily rich data constraints. A data structure invariant checker is an inductive predicate in separation logic with an executable interpretation; a short-circuiting checker is an invariant checker that stops checking whenever it detects at run time that an assertion for some sub-structure has been fully proven statically. At a high level, our approach does two things: it statically proves the separation properties of data structure invariants using a static shape analysis in a standard way but then leverages this proof in a novel manner to synthesize short-circuiting dynamic validation of the data properties. As a consequence, we enable dynamic validation to make up for imprecision in sound static analysis while simultaneously leveraging the static verification to make the remaining dynamic validation efficient. We show empirically that short-circuiting can yield asymptotic improvements in dynamic validation, with low overhead over no validation, even in cases where static verification is incomplete

The effect of tourism growth on economic growth: A quantile regression analysis

This paper employs a quantile regression approach to test the effects of tourism growth on economic growth at the different conditional economic growth distribution from 1965 to 2005 in Taiwan. The key finding of this study is that tourism growth has a positive effect on economic growth at the top end of distribution (0.3 to 0.9 quantiles) of economic growth in Taiwan. However, tourism growth has no significant effect on economic growth at the low end of distribution (0.1 to 0.2 quantiles) of economic growth. The contribution of this study lies in providing empirical evidence to demonstrate that whether tourism growth will affect economic growth depends on the conditional distribution of economic growth

A model explaining neutrino masses and the DAMPE cosmic ray electron excess

We propose a flavored $U(1)_{e\mu}$ neutrino mass and dark matter~(DM) model to explain the recent DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) data, which feature an excess on the cosmic ray electron plus positron flux around 1.4 TeV. Only the first two lepton generations of the Standard Model are charged under the new $U(1)_{e\mu}$ gauge symmetry. A vector-like fermion $\psi$, which is our DM candidate, annihilates into $e^{\pm}$ and $\mu^{\pm}$ via the new gauge boson $Z'$ exchange and accounts for the DAMPE excess. We have found that the data favors a $\psi$ mass around 1.5~TeV and a $Z'$ mass around 2.6~TeV, which can potentially be probed by the next generation lepton colliders and DM direct detection experiments.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. V2: version accepted by Physics Letters

Reward prediction errors arising from switches between major and minor modes in music: An fMRI study

Evidence has accumulated that prediction error processing plays a role in the enjoyment of music listening. The present study examined listeners' neural responses to the signed reward prediction errors (RPEs) arising from switches between major and minor modes in music. We manipulated the final chord of J. S. Bach's keyboard pieces so that each major-mode passage ended with either the major (Major-Major) or minor (Major-Minor) tonic chord, and each minor-mode passage ended with either the minor (Minor-Minor) or major (Minor-Major) tonic chord. In Western music, the major and minor modes have positive and negative connotations, respectively. Therefore, the outcome of the final chord in Major-Minor stimuli was associated with negative RPE, whereas that in Minor-Major was associated with positive RPE. Twenty-three musically experienced adults underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while listening to Major-Major, Major-Minor, Minor-Minor, and Minor-Major stimuli. We found that activity in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (extending into the ventromedial prefrontal cortex) during the final chord for Major-Major was significantly higher than that for Major-Minor. Conversely, a frontoparietal network for Major-Minor exhibited significantly increased activity compared to Major-Major. The contrasts between Minor-Minor and Minor-Major yielded regions implicated in interoception. We discuss our results in relation to executive functions and the emotional connotations of major versus minor mode.Comment: submitted to Psychophysiolog

State diagram for packed granular particles under shear: two types of /quaking/ and "shear unjamming"

Understanding intermittency, an ubiquitous behavior in flows of packed grains, is pivotal for establishing the rheology of granular material. A straightforward explanation has been missing despite the long development of theories at different levels of abstraction. In this work, we propose the use of a Stribeck-Hertz model that starts with the classic Coulomb friction but also takes into account the tribology between particles, i.e. the reduction of friction coefficient with speed as is commonly observed. Our numerical studies reveal a state diagram covering a wide range of packing fractions, and produce the quaking intermittency in the mid-range of a dimensionless shear rate defined accordingly, in consistence with our recent experimental observation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 126.128001 (2021)]. Monitoring the change of mean contact number allows us to distinguish two types of quaking. Above the random-close-packing density, the quakes are exclusively of the first type, occurred with a sudden increase of the contact number. At lower packing fractions, the dominant quaking depends in part on the dimensionless shear rate. The second type of quaking is identified as the prelude for a granular packing to "unjam" upon increase of the dimensionless shear rate -- a phenomenon that occurs only when the essential tribology is taken into accoun

Inert Higgs Dark Matter for New CDF W-boson Mass and Detection Prospects

The $W$-boson mass, which was recently measured at FermiLab, suggests the presence of new multiplets beyond the Standard Model (SM). One of the minimal extensions of the SM is to introduce an additional scalar doublet, in which the non-SM scalars can enhance $W$-boson mass via the loop corrections. On the other hand, with a proper discrete symmetry, the lightest new scalar in the doublet can be stable and play the role of dark matter particle. We show that the inert two Higgs doublet model can naturally handle the new $W$-boson mass without violating other constraints, and the preferred dark matter mass is between $54$ and $74$ GeV. We identify three feasible parameter regions for the thermal relic density: the $SA$ co-annihilation, the Higgs resonance, and the $SS \to WW^*$ annihilation. We find that the first region can be fully tested by the HL-LHC, the second region will be tightly constrained by direct detection experiments, and the third region could yield detectable GeV gamma-ray and antiproton signals in the Galaxy that may have been observed by Fermi-LAT and AMS-02.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

NMSSM neutralino dark matter for WW-boson mass and muon g−2g-2 and the promising prospect of direct detection

Two experiments from the Fermilab, E989 and CDF II, have reported two anomalies for muon anomalous magnetic moment ($g$-2) and $W$-boson mass that may indicate the new physics at the low energy scale. Here we examine the possibility of a common origin of these two anomalies in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Considering various experimental and astrophysical constraints such as the Higgs mass, collider data, B-physics, dark matter relic density and direct detection experiments, we find that a neutralino in the mass range of $\sim 160-270$ GeV is a viable solution. Moreover, the favored parameter region can be effectively probed by the ongoing direct detection experiments like LZ, PandaX-4T and XENON-nT. The velocity averaged annihilation cross section of the dark matter particles, however, is suppressed.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Exploring Mirror Twin Higgs Cosmology with Present and Future Weak Lensing Surveys

We explore the potential of precision cosmological data to study non-minimal dark sectors by updating the cosmological constraint on the mirror twin Higgs model (MTH). The MTH model addresses the Higgs little hierarchy problem by introducing dark sector particles. In this work, we perform a Bayesian global analysis that includes the latest cosmic shear measurement from the DES three-year survey and the Planck CMB and BAO data. In the early Universe, the mirror baryon and mirror radiation behave as dark matter and dark radiation, and their presence modifies the Universe's expansion history. Additionally, the scattering between mirror baryon and photon generates the dark acoustic oscillation process, suppressing the matter power spectrum from the cosmic shear measurement. We demonstrate how current data constrain these corrections to the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology and find that for a viable solution to the little hierarchy problem, the proportion of MTH dark matter cannot exceed about $30\%$ of the total dark matter density, unless the temperature of twin photon is less than $30\%$ of that of the standard model photon. While the MTH model is presently not a superior solution to the observed $H_0$ tension compared to the $\Lambda$CDM+$\Delta N_{\rm eff}$ model, we demonstrate that it has the potential to alleviate both the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions, especially if the $S_8$ tension persists in the future and approaches the result reported by the Planck SZ (2013) analysis. In this case, the MTH model can relax the tensions while satisfying the DES power spectrum constraint up to $k \lesssim 10~h\rm {Mpc}^{-1}$. If the MTH model is indeed accountable for the $S_8$ and $H_0$ tensions, we show that the future China Space Station Telescope (CSST) can determine the twin baryon abundance with a $10\%$ level precision.Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures, 4 table