Blake McGrane-Corrigan, Rafael de Andrade Moral, Oliver Mason
We consider the problem of robust diffusive stability (RDS) for a pair of coupled stable discrete-time positive linear-time invariant (LTI) systems. We first show that the existence of a common diagonal Lyapunov function is sufficient for RDS and highlight how this condition differs from recent results using linear copositive Lyapunov functions. We also present an extension of these results, showing that the weaker condition of \emph{joint} linear copositive function existence is also sufficient for RDS. Finally, we present two results on RDS for extended Leslie matrices arising in population dynamics.
Parton densities are obtained from a solution of the extended DGLAP-type evolution equation that includes both QCD and electroweak contributions. The equations are solved using the Parton-Branching (PB) approach, and the evolution is performed at next-to-leading order for QCD partons and leading order for electroweak bosons. The initial QCD parton distributions are fitted to HERA deep inelastic scattering data, while photon and weak-boson densities are generated perturbatively and validated against $dσ/dQ^2$. The resulting collinear and transverse-momentum dependent (TMD) densities are provided in LHApdf and TMDlib formats for direct phenomenological use.
Hadi Mohammadi, Anastasia Giachanou, Ayoub Bagheri
We present EvalMORAAL, a transparent chain-of-thought (CoT) framework that uses two scoring methods (log-probabilities and direct ratings) plus a model-as-judge peer review to evaluate moral alignment in 20 large language models. We assess models on the World Values Survey (55 countries, 19 topics) and the PEW Global Attitudes Survey (39 countries, 8 topics). With EvalMORAAL, top models align closely with survey responses (Pearson's r approximately 0.90 on WVS). Yet we find a clear regional difference: Western regions average r=0.82 while non-Western regions average r=0.61 (a 0.21 absolute gap), indicating consistent regional bias. Our framework adds three parts: (1) two scoring methods for all models to enable fair comparison, (2) a structured chain-of-thought protocol with self-consistency checks, and (3) a model-as-judge peer review that flags 348 conflicts using a data-driven threshold. Peer agreement relates to survey alignment (WVS r=0.74, PEW r=0.39, both p<.001), supporting automated quality checks. These results show real progress toward culture-aware AI while highlighting open challenges for use across regions.
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) as super-capable assistants has transformed productivity and decision-making across domains. Yet, this integration raises critical concerns about value alignment - ensuring AI behaviors remain consistent with human ethics and intentions. A key risk is value drift, where AI systems deviate from aligned values due to evolving contexts, learning dynamics, or unintended optimizations, potentially leading to inefficiencies or ethical breaches. We propose the Moral Anchor System (MAS), a novel framework to detect, predict, and mitigate value drift in AI agents. MAS combines real-time Bayesian inference for monitoring value states, LSTM networks for forecasting drift, and a human-centric governance layer for adaptive interventions. It emphasizes low-latency responses (<20 ms) to prevent breaches, while reducing false positives and alert fatigue via supervised fine-tuning with human feedback. Our hypothesis: integrating probabilistic drift detection, predictive analytics, and adaptive governance can reduce value drift incidents by 80 percent or more in simulations, maintaining high detection accuracy (85 percent) and low false positive rates (0.08 post-adaptation). Rigorous experiments with goal-misaligned agents validate MAS's scalability and responsiveness. MAS's originality lies in its predictive and adaptive nature, contrasting static alignment methods. Contributions include: (1) MAS architecture for AI integration; (2) empirical results prioritizing speed and usability; (3) cross-domain applicability insights; and (4) open-source code for replication.
The transhumanist vision seeks to enhance human decision-making, particularly in romantic relationships, through methods like “love drugs.” This work critically evaluates the transhumanist proposal for using “love drugs” and contrasts it with the Thomistic perspective. The assessment draws on the doctrine of St Thomas Aquinas, as presented by Polish Dominican Father Jacek Woroniecki, former rector of the Catholic University of Lublin and professor of moral theology at the Angelicum College. The analysis is structured into four sections. The first section discusses the transhumanist proposal of using “love drug.” The second one offers the Thomistic proposal for analysing the problem of enhancing human love. In the third section, it is the Thomistic questions about purpose in the context of the transhumanist “love drug” that come to the fore. Finally, in the assessment of the transhumanist proposal for enhancing feelings by means of the “love drug” the transhumanist method of technological enhancement is compared to the Thomistic method of educating human emotions, while the better approach to align with human well-being and ethical integrity is evaluated. This study aims to determine whether transhumanist methods align with human well-being and ethical principles or whether the Thomistic approach provides a more fulfilling path toward authentic happiness.
Javier Oliva del Moral, Olatz Sanz Larrarte, Reza Dastbasteh
et al.
Spin qubits in quantum dots are a promising technology for quantum computing due to their fast response time and long coherence times. An electromagnetic pulse is applied to the system for a specific duration to perform a desired rotation. To avoid decoherence, the amplitude and gate time must be highly accurate. In this work, we aim to study the impact of leakage during the gate time evolution of a spin qubit encoded in a double quantum dot device. We prove that, in the weak interaction regime, leakage introduces a shift in the phase of the time evolution operator, causing over- or under-rotations. Indeed, controlling the leakage terms is useful for adjusting the time needed to perform a quantum computation and increasing the coherence time of the readout process. This is crucial for running fault-tolerant algorithms and is beneficial for Quantum Error Mitigation techniques.
Blake McGrane-Corrigan, Oliver Mason, Rafael de Andrade Moral
We consider a nonlinear coupled discrete-time model of population dynamics. This model describes the movement of populations within a heterogeneous landscape, where the growth of subpopulations are modelled by (possibly different) bounded Kolmogorov maps and coupling terms are defined by nonlinear functions taking values in $(0,1)$. These couplings describe the proportions of individuals dispersing between regions. We first give a brief survey of similar discrete-time dispersal models. We then derive sufficient conditions for the stability/instability of the extinction equilibrium, for the existence of a positive fixed point and for ensuring uniform strong persistence. Finally we numerically explore a planar version of our model in a source-sink context, to show some of the qualitative behaviour that the model we consider can capture: for example, periodic behaviour and dynamics reminiscent of chaos.
The articles in the July 2024 issue of the Journal of Moral Theology bring to the fore a series of anomalies for Catholic moral theology or, as one might call them, complex situations. These complex situations highlight Pope Francis’s constant maxim that reality is greater than ideas. These very realities inform his methodological vision for theology articulated in Ad Theologiam Promovendam, which itself provides a roadmap for Catholic moral theology moving forward. Only such a method—synodal, contextual, transdisciplinary, sacramental, and (in)formed by caritas—understands that what is foundational are not abstract philosophical principles but rather the necessarily complex realities of creation, human life and, therefore, the Christian moral life.
An occupational hazard of so-called academic theologians is that our scholarship will become, indeed, merely “academic.” This very real danger weighs particularly heavy on those of us who claim to be contextual or practical theologians, whose theological reflections claim to be rooted in the praxis of flesh-and-blood communities, especially marginalized communities. (Indeed, the constitutive link between theology and communal praxis is the responsibility of all theology, but that’s a topic already addressed at length in many books and articles elsewhere.) Ultimately, then, our scholarship must answer to el pueblo, to those communities which the Gospel proclaims are the privileged bearers of God’s Word in the world. This responsibility implies that, precisely as Christian scholars, we must accompany those communities in practical, everyday ways. We must also collaborate closely with those grassroots pastoral and community leaders who so often function as a bridge between el pueblo and academic and ecclesiastical institutions. Our first task is to listen: to the poor, to those community leaders immersed in the everyday lives of the poor, and ultimately to the living God revealed in a preferential way among the poor, in the lived faith of the poor. Dr. Paul Farmer’s life and work were the embodiment of this dynamic, this preferential option for the poor. As Jorge José Ferrer argues in his chapter herein, Paul Farmer was the epitome of what Antonio Gramsci called an “organic intellectual.”
In this work we consider the existence and uniqueness of the ground state of the regularized Hamiltonian of the Supermembrane in dimensions $D= 4,\,5,\,7$ and 11, or equivalently the $SU(N)$ Matrix Model. That is, the 0+1 reduction of the 10-dimensional $SU(N)$ Super Yang-Mills Hamiltonian. This ground state problem is associated with the solutions of the inner and outer Dirichlet problems for this operator, and their subsequent smooth patching (glueing) into a single state. We have discussed properties of the inner problem in a previous work, therefore we now investigate the outer Dirichlet problem for the Hamiltonian operator. We establish existence and uniqueness on unbounded valleys defined in terms of the bosonic potential. These are precisely those regions where the bosonic part of the potential is less than a given value $V_0$, which we set to be arbitrary. The problem is well posed, since these valleys are preserved by the action of the $SU(N)$ constraint. We first show that their Lebesgue measure is finite, subject to restrictions on $D$ in terms of $N$. We then use this analysis to determine a bound on the fermionic potential which yields the coercive property of the energy form. It is from this, that we derive the existence and uniqueness of the solution. As a by-product of our argumentation, we show that the Hamiltonian, restricted to the valleys, has spectrum purely discrete with finite multiplicity. Remarkably, this is in contrast to the case of the unrestricted space, where it is well known that the spectrum comprises a continuous segment. We discuss the relation of our work with the general ground state problem and the question of confinement in models with strong interactions.
This issue features a symposium honoring the work of Paul Wadell, as well as essays on dignity, COVID-19, an Augustinian response to Rod Dreher, and an analysis of Servais Pinckaers' work on "the perspective of the active person" as it relates to _Veritatis Splendor_, no. 78.
The continuously growing number of COVID-19 cases pressures healthcare services worldwide. Accurate short-term forecasting is thus vital to support country-level policy making. The strategies adopted by countries to combat the pandemic vary, generating different uncertainty levels about the actual number of cases. Accounting for the hierarchical structure of the data and accommodating extra-variability is therefore fundamental. We introduce a new modelling framework to describe the course of the pandemic with great accuracy, and provide short-term daily forecasts for every country in the world. We show that our model generates highly accurate forecasts up to six days ahead, and use estimated model components to cluster countries based on recent events. We introduce statistical novelty in terms of modelling the autoregressive parameter as a function of time, increasing predictive power and flexibility to adapt to each country. Our model can also be used to forecast the number of deaths, study the effects of covariates (such as lockdown policies), and generate forecasts for smaller regions within countries. Consequently, it has strong implications for global planning and decision making. We constantly update forecasts and make all results freely available to any country in the world through an online Shiny dashboard.
We analyse the measure of the regularized matrix model of the supersymmetric potential valleys, $Ω$, of the Hamiltonian of non zero modes of supermembrane theory. This is the same as the Hamiltonian of the BFSS matrix model. We find sufficient conditions for this measure to be finite, in terms the spacetime dimension. For $SU(2)$ we show that the measure of $Ω$ is finite for the regularized supermembrane matrix model when the transverse dimensions in the light cone gauge $\mathrm{D}\geq 5$. This covers the important case of seven and eleven dimensional supermembrane theories, and implies the compact embedding of the Sobolev space $H^{1,2}(Ω)$ onto $L^2(Ω)$. The latter is a main step towards the confirmation of the existence and uniqueness of ground state solutions of the outer Dirichlet problem for the Hamiltonian of the $SU(N)$ regularized $\mathrm{D}=11$ supermembrane, and might eventually allow patching with the inner solutions.
Ainhoa Aparicio-Monforte, Thomas Dreyfus, Jacques-Arthur Weil
Consider a complex Hamiltonian system and an integral curve. In this paper, we give an effective and efficient procedure to put the variational equation of any order along the integral curve in reduced form provided that the previous one is in reduced form with an abelian Lie algebra. Thus, we obtain an effective way to check the Morales-Ramis-Simó criterion for testing meromorphic Liouville integrability of Hamiltonian systems.
We remark that the two 10D massive deformations of the $N=2$ maximal type IIA supergravity (Romans and HLW supergravity) are associated to the low energy limit of the uplift to 10D of M2-brane torus bundles with parabolic monodromy linearly and non-linearly realized respectively. Romans supergravity corresponds to M2-brane compactified on a twice-punctured torus bundle.