news 2024

Helping out your neighbor or minding your own business? A challenging choice with different benefits for each decision. Game theory provides guidance in making such choices - from a theoretical perspective. Novel findings by Jakub Svoboda and Krishnendu Chatterjee at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) reveal new network structures that enhance cooperation throughout a system.

What can exploding stars teach us about how blood flows through an artery' Or swimming bacteria about how the ocean's layers mix' A collaboration of researchers, including from the University of Cambridge, has reached a milestone toward training artificial intelligence models to find and use transferable knowledge between fields to drive scientific discovery.

Scientist from the Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster proves conjecture from physics String theory aims to explain all fundamental forces and particles in the universe - essentially, how the world operates on the smallest scales. Though it has not yet been experimentally verified, work in string theory has already led to significant advancements in mathematics and theoretical physics.

An AI method developed by Professor Markus Buehler finds hidden links between science and art to suggest novel materials. Imagine using artificial intelligence to compare two seemingly unrelated creations - biological tissue and Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9." At first glance, a living system and a musical masterpiece might appear to have no connection.

ISTA researchers investigate why graph isomorphism algorithms seem to be so effective Graphs are everywhere. In discrete mathematics, they are structures that show the connections between points, much like a public transportation network. Mathematicians have long sought to develop algorithms that can compare any two graphs.

Cause and effect. We understand this concept from an early age. Tug on a pull toy's string, and the toy follows. Naturally, things get much more complicated as a system grows, as the number of variables increases, and as noise enters the picture. Eventually, it can become almost impossible to tell whether a variable is causing an effect or is simply correlated or associated with it.

Engineers at EPFL and ETH Zurich have come up with a new approach for reducing traffic congestion in large cities during rush hour. Their system is designed to be both fair and effective. Rush-hour traffic congestion is a major headache for commuters and a real problem for city planners. Worldwide, a huge amount of time is wasted stuck in traffic.

MIT CSAIL researchers created an AI-powered method for low-discrepancy sampling, which uniformly distributes data points to boost simulation accuracy. Imagine you're tasked with sending a team of football players onto a field to assess the condition of the grass (a likely task for them, of course). If you pick their positions randomly, they might cluster together in some areas while completely neglecting others.

The technique leverages quantum properties of light to guarantee security while preserving the accuracy of a deep-learning model. Deep-learning models are being used in many fields, from health care diagnostics to financial forecasting. However, these models are so computationally intensive that they require the use of powerful cloud-based servers.

Abstract algebra and algebraic geometry to connect quantum physics with number theory Several fields of mathematics have developed in total isolation, using their own 'undecipherable' coded languages. In a new study published in PNAS , Tamás Hausel, professor of mathematics at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), presents "big algebras," a two-way mathematical 'dictionary' between symmetry, algebra, and geometry, that could strengthen the connection between the distant worlds of quantum physics and number theory.

Publication of the Physics Laboratory in the Physical Review Letters on July 31, 2024. Communication by CNRS Physics on September 2, 2024. Experiments on a classical microscopic system show that, while the second principle of thermodynamics is still valid on average, it can be circumvented experimentally in 95% of cases! A study conducted at the Physics Laboratory of ENS de Lyon, published in Physical Review Letters .

The way we memorise information - a mathematical problem statement, for example - reveals the way we process it. A team from the University of Geneva , in collaboration with CY Cergy Paris University (CYU) and Bourgogne University (uB), has shown how different solving methods can alter the way information is memorised and even create false memories.

In new research, TU/e's Mireille Boutin has obtained major results that help improve GPS technologies using unconventional mathematical techniques. The summer holidays are ending, which for many concludes with a long drive home and reliance on GPS devices to get safely home. But every now and then, GPS devices can suggest strange directions or get briefly confused about your location.

The first comprehensive model of rotor aerodynamics could improve the way turbine blades and wind farms are designed and how wind turbines are controlled. The blades of propellers and wind turbines are designed based on aerodynamics principles that were first described mathematically more than a century ago.

Researchers have published a programmable framework that overcomes a key computational bottleneck of optics-based artificial intelligence systems. In a series of image classification experiments, they used scattered light from a low-power laser to perform accurate, scalable computations using a fraction of the energy of electronics.

Researcher at the Cluster of Excellence Mathematics finds an approach that can be used flexibly Whether it's physical phenomena, share prices or climate models - many dynamic processes in our world can be described mathematically with the aid of partial differential equations. Thanks to stochastics - an area of mathematics which deals with probabilities - this is even possible when randomness plays a role in these processes.

Through a novel approach, Yale researchers translate data from monkeys to better understand how paranoia arises in the human brain. The capacity to adjust beliefs about one's actions and their consequences in a constantly changing environment is a defining characteristic of advanced cognition. Disruptions to this ability, however, can negatively affect cognition and behavior, leading to such states of mind as paranoia, or the belief that others intend to harm us.

Boys are good at math, girls not so much? A study from the University of Zurich has analyzed the social mechanisms that contribute to the gender gap in math confidence. While peer comparisons seem to play a crucial role for boys, girls' subjective evaluations are more likely to be based on objective performance.

Researchers have developed a platform for the interactive evaluation of AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT. Anyone using an LLM, for any application, should always pay attention to the output and verify it themselves Albert Jiang A team of computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians and cognitive scientists, led by the University of Cambridge, developed an open-source evaluation platform called CheckMate, which allows human users to interact with and evaluate the performance of large language models (LLMs).

A simple concept of decay and fission of "magnetic quivers" helps to clarify complex quantum physics and mathematical structures.