Criticality in the Luria-Delbrück model with an arbitrary mutation rate

Kavli Affiliate: Ariel Amir | First 5 Authors: Deng Pan, Jie Lin, Ariel Amir, , | Summary: The Luria-Delbr"uck model is a classic model of population dynamics with random mutations, that has been used historically to prove that random mutations drive evolution. In typical scenarios, the relevant mutation rate is exceedingly small, and mutants are […]


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The Mass Dependence of Hα Emission and Stellar Spindown for Fully Convective M Dwarfs

Kavli Affiliate: David Charbonneau | First 5 Authors: Emily K. Pass, David Charbonneau, David W. Latham, Perry Berlind, Michael L. Calkins | Summary: Fully convective M dwarfs typically remain rapidly rotating and magnetically active for billions of years, followed by an abrupt and mass-dependent transition to slow rotation and quiescence. A robust understanding of this […]


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Proofreading mechanism for colloidal self-assembly

Kavli Affiliate: Michael P. Brenner | First 5 Authors: Qian-Ze Zhu, Chrisy Xiyu Du, Ella M. King, Michael P. Brenner, | Summary: Designing components that can robustly self-assemble into structures with biological complexity is a grand challenge for material science. Proofreading and error correction is required to improve assembly yield beyond equilibrium limits, using energy […]


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Tuning Colloidal Reactions

Kavli Affiliate: Michael Brenner | First 5 Authors: Ryan Krueger, Ella King, Michael Brenner, , | Summary: The precise control of complex reactions is critical for biological processes ranging from cell division to metabolism. Synthetic analogues of living materials suffer from our inability to tune chemical reactions with precise outcomes. Here, we leverage differentiable simulators […]


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Programmable patchy particles for materials design

Kavli Affiliate: Michael P. Brenner | First 5 Authors: Ella M. King, Chrisy Xiyu Du, Qian-Ze Zhu, Samuel S. Schoenholz, Michael P. Brenner | Summary: Direct design of complex functional materials would revolutionize technologies ranging from printable organs to novel clean energy devices. However, even incremental steps towards designing functional materials have proven challenging. If […]


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TOI-4641b: An Aligned Warm Jupiter Orbiting a Bright (V=7.5) Rapidly Rotating F-star

Kavli Affiliate: David Charbonneau | First 5 Authors: Allyson Bieryla, George Zhou, Juliana García-Mejía, Tyler R. Farnington, David W. Latham | Summary: We report the discovery of TOI-4641b, a warm Jupiter transiting a rapidly rotating F-type star with a stellar effective temperature of 6560 K. The planet has a radius of 0.73 $R_{Jup}$, a mass […]


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Using Large Language Models to Accelerate Communication for Users with Severe Motor Impairments

Kavli Affiliate: Michael P. Brenner | First 5 Authors: Shanqing Cai, Subhashini Venugopalan, Katie Seaver, Xiang Xiao, Katrin Tomanek | Summary: Finding ways to accelerate text input for individuals with profound motor impairments has been a long-standing area of research. Closing the speed gap for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices such as eye-tracking keyboards […]


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Optimal switching strategies for navigation in stochastic settings

Kavli Affiliate: L. Mahadevan | First 5 Authors: F. Mori, L. Mahadevan, , , | Summary: Inspired by the intermittent reorientation strategy seen in the behavior of the dung beetle, we consider the problem of the navigation strategy of an active Brownian particle moving in two dimensions. We assume that the heading of the particle […]


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Optimal control of interacting active particles on complex landscapes

Kavli Affiliate: L. Mahadevan | First 5 Authors: Sumit Sinha, Vishaal Krishnan, L Mahadevan, , | Summary: Active many-body systems composed of many interacting degrees of freedom often operate out of equilibrium, giving rise to non-trivial emergent behaviors which can be functional in both evolved and engineered contexts. This naturally suggests the question of control […]


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Gene expression in growing cells: A biophysical primer

Kavli Affiliate: Ariel Amir | First 5 Authors: Ido Golding, Ariel Amir, , , | Summary: Cell growth and gene expression, essential elements of all living systems, have long been the focus of biophysical interrogation. Advances in single-cell methods have invigorated theoretical studies into these processes. However, until recently, there was little dialog between the […]


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