Research & science

Research & science Using future data to better predict Switzerland's rail energy demand 20.07.26 - In collaboration with SBB, EPFL researchers have developed an AI model that improves next-day electricity-demand forecasts across Switzerland’s rail network, reducing major prediction errors by up to 80%. Every day, Switzerland’s rail network must anticipate how much electricity it will need to keep trains running. Yet accurate forecasts are challenging as demand depends on many inte… EPFL News (Mediacom) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Time to make lobbying more transparent - UCL Blogs UCL News · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science From Breach to Repair: Integrity‐Consistent Board Connections and Firm Value After Corporate Misconduct Business Strategy and the Environment, EarlyView. Business Strategy and the Environment (Wiley) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Electric vehicles are built different. Australia needs better data to get the most out of the shift Australia stopped keeping detailed data on its vehicle fleet after the domestic car industry ended. That’s becoming an issue. The Conversation Australia — Environment · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science The Role of Solution Business Model Patterns in Digital Agriculture: Linking Business Model Components and Sustainable Outcomes From a Startup Business Perspective Business Strategy and the Environment, EarlyView. Business Strategy and the Environment (Wiley) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Households with insufficient liquid assets: Consumption responses to income changes arXiv:2607.15363v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The fraction of households living with insufficient liquid assets is important to understand consumption responses to income changes. Using harmonized data for 23 European countries over 2010--2023 from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey, we investigate the consumption responses to income changes of hand-to-mouth (HtM) households, groupe… arXiv — econ.GN (General Economics preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Cheaper AI, More Informality? A Dual Labor Market Model for Developing Economies arXiv:2607.15381v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: This paper studies what happens when AI gets cheaper, with emphasis on the labor market outcomes, whether it creates formal jobs or whether it pushes workers into informality. We argue that the answer depends on the elasticity of substitution between imported AI capital and formal labor. We build a small open economy DSGE model with a dual labor m… arXiv — econ.GN (General Economics preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Algorithmic Intermediation and the International Transmission of U.S. Monetary Policy arXiv:2607.15385v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: This paper examines how algorithmic and AI-driven fund management shapes the international transmission of U.S. monetary policy to emerging markets. It argues that the key source of instability is not algorithmic intermediation itself, but the similarity of models across funds. When algorithms rely on similar signals and make correlated errors, th… arXiv — econ.GN (General Economics preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Helping People Choose Careers in the Age of AI arXiv:2607.15506v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: How should people choose careers when artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the nature of work? We first compare six recent projections of occupational exposure to task automation with AI, examining their methods and assumptions. We then propose a new empirical model of occupational AI exposure based on 2025 query data from Anthropi… arXiv — econ.GN (General Economics preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Fight like a Woman: Domestic Violence and Female Judges in Brazil arXiv:2405.07240v5 Announce Type: replace Abstract: We investigate whether female judges analyze domestic violence cases differently from their male peers. Using data from S\~ao Paulo, Brazil, between 2011 and 2019, we find that a domestic violence case assigned to a female judge is 28% (9.7 p.p.) more likely to result in a conviction than a case assigned to a male judge with similar career cha… arXiv — econ.GN (General Economics preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Remote Work and Women's Labor Supply: The New Gender Division at Home arXiv:2508.08184v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: We study how increases in remote work opportunities for men affect their spouses' labor supply. Exploiting large variation in work-from-home (WFH) exposure across occupations before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, we find that increases in men's WFH exposure led to sizable improvements in their wives' intensive-margin labor market outcomes. F… arXiv — econ.GN (General Economics preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Conditional Disclosure as a Coordination Device arXiv:2604.00874v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: People with controversial views may stay silent rather than speak out alone, though in a large enough group they could speak safely together. A social assurance contract makes disclosure conditional: signed commitments of support stay private until enough people have signed for it to be safe to publish. In contrast, a survey can measure hidden… arXiv — econ.GN (General Economics preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Night and Day: Diurnal Warming and Structural Transformation in India arXiv:2607.00279v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: This paper finds diverging partial effects of diurnal warming (higher nighttime and daytime temperatures) on agricultural wage-labour shares from decadal Indian Censuses (1981-2011). Though both margins contract grain output and cultivated area, only higher maxima raise harvest prices locally, consistent with a model where warmer nights shock … arXiv — econ.GN (General Economics preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Failure Privacy and Safe Collective Expression with Social Assurance Contracts arXiv:2607.05802v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Controversial views sometimes remain unspoken because they invite retaliation. However, a sufficiently large group could speak safely if only they spoke together. Speaking one-by-one may encourage others, but retaliation against early participants can stop the cascade before a protective group forms. A social assurance contract privately colle… arXiv — econ.GN (General Economics preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Tax reform as a constrained optimization problem: a piecewise-linear framework and software implementation arXiv:2508.03708v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: In many countries, income tax codes have grown into a complex tangle of interacting brackets, benefits, and deductions. Despite widespread calls for systematic reform, successful attempts at reform are rare. Part of the problem is the difficulty of designing viable reform proposals. Politically viable reform must offer hard guarantees on… arXiv — econ.GN (General Economics preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Spontaneous Nanopatterning and Strain Relaxation in SiGe Layers Grown by Oxidative Solid Phase Epitaxy arXiv:2607.15332v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The wafer-scale monolithic integration of III-V materials on Si would lead to revolutionary optoelectronic hardware for data, computing and other applications. However, heteroepitaxy of III-Vs on Si requires overcoming the large lattice and thermal mismatches between the materials and reducing threading dislocations densities. In this work, we exp… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Phase-Field Simulation of Dendrite Evolution in All-Solid-State Sodium Batteries during Cycling arXiv:2607.15387v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Dendrite growth during cycling remains a critical challenge for all-solid-state batteries (SSBs), limiting the full realization of their inherent safety and high energy density. In particular, the mechanisms of continuous dendrite penetration during charge-discharge cycling remain poorly understood and are difficult to characterize experimentally.… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Ab initio time-dependent GW approach for nonequilibrium exciton-phonon coupled dynamics across momentum space arXiv:2607.15411v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The dynamics of optical excitations in materials generally involves intertwined electron-hole (e-h) and electron-phonon (e-ph) interactions out of equilibrium. However, a full theoretical description of such nonequilibrium dynamics requires a systematic treatment of the coherent excitonic excitations and exciton-phonon interactions across the enti… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science exa-PD: A scalable high-performance workflow for multi-element phase diagram construction arXiv:2607.15476v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Exa-PD is a highly parallelizable workflow designed for the construction of multi-element phase diagrams (PDs). It uses standard sampling techniques, molecular dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) as implemented in the LAMMPS package, to simultaneously sample multiple phases over a fine temperature-composition mesh for free-energy calculations. Pars… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Exploring the Potential of BY3 (Y = P, As) Monolayers as High-Capacity and Rapid-Diffusion Anodes for Sodium-Ion Batteries arXiv:2607.15514v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The rapid advancement of sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) demands robust anode materials capable of delivering high specific capacities while maintaining rapid ion transport kinetics. In this work, we employ first-principles density functional theory (DFT) to systematically evaluate the two-dimensional BX3 (X = As, P) monolayers as high-performance ano… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Symbolic Predicate-Guided Language Agents for Inverse Design of Perovskite Oxides arXiv:2607.15535v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Efficient discovery of high-performance materials has been pursued through a variety of data- and AI-driven strategies, among which inverse design, generating materials from desired target properties, has emerged as an important paradigm. Large language models (LLMs) offer a complementary route for inverse materials design because their reasoning … arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy as a Universal Defect Fingerprinting Tool for Organic Halide Perovskite Solar Cells arXiv:2607.15538v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites (OHPs) deliver certified single-junction power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) exceeding 26% and perovskite-silicon tandem values surpassing 34%, yet a substantial gap with the Shockley-Queisser (S-Q) limit persists-primarily due to grain-boundary (GB) defects that drive non-radiative recombination, ion migratio… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Symmetry-Enforced Dirac Fermions and Structural Metastability in Pentagonal Monolayers of Transition-Metal Ditellurides arXiv:2607.15580v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The recent synthesis of pentagonal PdTe$_2$ monolayer motivates broader research interests in transition-metal ditellurides whose electronic phases are governed by symmetry and structural reconstruction. The pentagonal phase of transition-metal ditellurides exhibits electronic properties that are dramatically different from those of its hexagonal … arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science General and scalable vapor etching and transformation platform for two-dimensional materials arXiv:2607.15581v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials derived from non-van der Waals (non-vdW) solids offer exceptional physicochemical properties, yet their synthesis is impeded by intrinsic covalent/metallic bonding and high surface reactivity of the precursors. Here, we report a general vapor-phase etching and transformation platform for producing a library of 36… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Interface-Engineered Giant Multistate Resistance Switching in Altermagnetic CrSb Multiferroic Tunnel Junctions arXiv:2607.15728v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Altermagnets enable spin-split transport without stray magnetic fields, yet converting their momentum-dependent spin splitting into a strong tunnel-junction response requires interface-selected tunneling channels. Here, using density functional theory combined with nonequilibrium Green's function calculations, we demonstrate giant multistate resis… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Two-step growth of (In,Ga)N pseudo-substrates on GaN templates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy arXiv:2607.15748v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: (In,Ga)N layers are grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on GaN templates. We introduce a two-step protocol that involves switching the growth conditions from initially N-stable to metal-stable. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction as well as scanning electron and atomic force microscopy reveal that the first step results in a ro… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Nonuniform pressure helps structural superlubricity arXiv:2607.15967v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Structural superlubricity, nearly vanishing friction between two structurally incommensurate crystalline surfaces, is a promising avenue for reducing friction in applications, but requires very specific and well-controlled conditions. One of those conditions is perfectly uniform atomically flat surfaces. Real-world surfaces are generally rough, le… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Structural Relaxation Enables Millisecond Infrared Photodetection in Selenium Iodine Semiconductors arXiv:2607.16054v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The optoelectronic performance of amorphous and partially crystalline semiconductors is strongly governed by structural disorder, yet establishing direct correlations between structural evolution and carrier transport remains challenging. Here, we show that the solid state optoelectronic response of selenium iodine (SeI2) is dictated by its transf… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Emergent Interfacial Magnetism in Epitaxial RuO$_2$ arXiv:2607.16093v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The magnetic ground state of the altermagnet candidate RuO$_2$ remains controversial, with magnetic signatures observed mainly in epitaxial films. Here we show, using first-principles calculations, that magnetism in epitaxial RuO$_2$ can emerge as an interfacial boundary phase at TiO$_2$/RuO$_2$ interfaces. While TiO$_2$-induced epitaxial strain a… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Subgrain-resolved Analysis of Degradation in Cu Metallization via Scanning 3DXRD and Thermomechanical Modeling arXiv:2607.16108v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Metallization layers play a key role in the performance and reliability of modern power semiconductor devices. During short-circuit events, rapid heating of power metallization layers induces thermomechanical incompatibility stresses, which may contribute to material degradation and impact device performance. In this work, potential degradation ho… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Atomistic mechanism of corrosion-induced grain boundary migration in NiCr alloys in molten FLiNaK arXiv:2607.16167v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Corrosion of Ni-Cr structural alloys in molten fluoride salts is a persistent material degradation problem, yet the atomistic role of grain boundaries in this process remains poorly understood. Here we use reactive molecular dynamics to investigate corrosion of NiCr alloys in molten FLiNaK across four representative grain boundaries ($\Sigma3(111)… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science A Dynamical Phase-Field Model for the Optical Properties of Ferroelectrics arXiv:2607.16180v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Ferroelectric materials are promising platforms for controllable photonic devices because of the strong coupling between their spontaneous polarization and optical properties. Yet, these materials remain challenging to design because of the close connection between the ferroelectric domain structure and optical response, which no existing theoreti… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Thermo-elastic properties of hydrated epoxy-graphene nanocomposites from ensemble-based molecular dynamics simulations arXiv:2607.15301v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Epoxy-based materials are inherently hygroscopic, absorbing moisture from the environment, which can significantly alter their short and long-term performance. The presence of graphene is often considered as a potential candidate to act as a microscopic barrier, mitigating the adverse effects of hydration on the matrix. This study investigates t… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Field-induced first order transitions and phase coexistence in the Kitaev quantum spin liquid candidate BaCo2(AsO4)2 arXiv:2607.15346v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: BaCo2(AsO4)2 (BCAO) is an insulating Kitaev quantum spin liquid candidate with a rich low-temperature phase diagram. Below 5 K, it exhibits double-zigzag magnetic order. Upon application of an in-plane magnetic field, the magnetic structure first transforms into an up-up-down (UUD) state near 0.12 T and then enters a fully spin-polarized ferroma… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Hot-Carrier Distribution Spectroscopy by Transconductance in Two-Dimensional Field-Effect Transistors arXiv:2607.15578v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: The transconductance $g_m = dI_D/dV_G$ of a field-effect transistor (FET) is conventionally read as a proxy for carrier density. We show that it is instead a spectroscopic probe of the carrier distribution: because $g_m$ weights the spectral current $j(E)$ by the gate-voltage derivative $\partial f(E)/\partial V_G$ and integrates over energy, it… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Einstein crystals in Snyder and Snyder-de Sitter noncommutative backgrounds arXiv:2607.15760v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We investigate the behavior of Einstein crystals in noncommutative backgrounds described by the Snyder and Snyder-de Sitter models. Possible novel effects, which may arise in realistic systems such as diamond crystals, are analyzed within a thermodynamical framework. We show that noncommutativity influences the key thermodynamic quantities, incl… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Electrothermal control of spin-reorientation transition in Co/Fe_3GaTe_2 heterostructures arXiv:2607.15844v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Electrical control of magnetic anisotropy in van der Waals (vdWs) magnets is a key step toward reconfigurable two-dimensional spintronics, yet how a conventional metallic ferromagnet competes with a van der Waals magnet across a direct interface has remained largely unexplored. Here we demonstrate reversible thermal and electrothermal control of… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Property-dependent material times arXiv:2607.15920v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We analyze simulations of physical aging following large temperature up-jumps from equilibrated, slowly relaxing states. Specifically, we consider up-jumps from temperatures T=0.43 and T=0.37 to T=0.48 in a binary Lennard-Jones mixture. The Tool-Narayanaswamy (TN) concept of a universal material time was recently shown to become less effective i… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Inelastic Constitutive Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks: A generalized framework for automated discovery of interpretable inelastic material models arXiv:2602.17750v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: A key problem of solid mechanics is the identification of the constitutive law of a material, that is, the relation between strain history and stress. Machine learning has lead to considerable advances in this field lately. Here we introduce inelastic Constitutive Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks (iCKANs). This novel artificial neural network archit… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026 Research & science Machine Learning for Electrode Materials: Property Prediction via Composition arXiv:2603.07805v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: In this work, we benchmark three leading composition based Machine Learning (ML) frameworks, MODNet, CrabNet, and a random forest model based on Magpie features, predicting the properties of battery electrode materials using the Materials Project Battery Explorer dataset. We evaluate these models based on predictive accuracy, visualize numeric… arXiv — cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science preprints) · 20 Jul 2026