Researcher profile

Nan Xu

Nan Xu contributes to research discovery and scholarly infrastructure.

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Published work

10 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

Control of the MoTe$_2$ Fermi Surface by Nb Doping

Ab initio calculations and angle-resolved photoemission experiments show that the bulk and surface electronic structure of Weyl semimetal candidate MoTe$_2$ changes significantly by tuning the chemical potential by less than 0.4 eV. Calculations show that several Lifshitz transitions can occur among multiple electron and hole Fermi pockets of differing orbital character. Experiments show that 18% Nb-Mo substitution reduces the occupation of bulk and (001) surface bands, effectively producing a chemical potential shift of $\approx 0.3$ eV. Orbital character and dimensionality of the bulk bands is examined by soft X-ray angle resolved photoemission with control of the excitation light polarization. The band filling at the surface is shown to increase upon deposition of alkali atoms. The results indicate that multiple regimes of electronic properties can be easily accessed in this versatile, layered material.

preprint2026arXiv

Scientific Logicality Enriched Methodology for LLM Reasoning: A Practice in Physics

With the continuous advancement of reasoning abilities in Large Language Models (LLMs), their application to scientific reasoning tasks has gained significant research attention. Current research primarily emphasizes boosting LLMs' performance on scientific QA benchmarks by training on larger, more comprehensive datasets with extended reasoning chains. However, these approaches neglect the essence of the scientific reasoning process -- logicality, which is the rational foundation to ensure the validity of reasoning steps leading to reliable conclusions. In this work, we make the first systematic investigation into the internal logicality underlying LLM scientific reasoning, and develop a scientific logicality-enriched methodology, including a set of assessment criteria and data sampling methods for logicality-guided training, to improve the logical faithfulness as well as task performance. Further, we take physics, characterized by its diverse logical structures and formalisms, as an exemplar discipline to practise the above methodology. For data construction, we extract scientific problems from academic literature and sample a high-quality dataset exhibiting strong logicality. Experiments based on three different backbone LLMs reveal that: 1) the training data we constructed can effectively improve the scientific logicality in LLM reasoning; and 2) the enriched scientific logicality plays a critical role in solving scientific problems. Code is available at \href{https://github.com/ScienceOne-AI/PhysLogic}{https://github.com/ScienceOne-AI/PhysLogic}.

preprint2026arXiv

Wetland mapping from sparse annotations with satellite image time series and temporal-aware segment anything model

Accurate wetland mapping is essential for ecosystem monitoring, yet dense pixel-level annotation is prohibitively expensive and practical applications usually rely on sparse point labels, under which existing deep learning models perform poorly, while strong seasonal and inter-annual wetland dynamics further render single-date imagery inadequate and lead to significant mapping errors; although foundation models such as SAM show promising generalization from point prompts, they are inherently designed for static images and fail to model temporal information, resulting in fragmented masks in heterogeneous wetlands. To overcome these limitations, we propose WetSAM, a SAM-based framework that integrates satellite image time series for wetland mapping from sparse point supervision through a dual-branch design, where a temporally prompted branch extends SAM with hierarchical adapters and dynamic temporal aggregation to disentangle wetland characteristics from phenological variability, and a spatial branch employs a temporally constrained region-growing strategy to generate reliable dense pseudo-labels, while a bidirectional consistency regularization jointly optimizes both branches. Extensive experiments across eight global regions of approximately 5,000 km2 each demonstrate that WetSAM substantially outperforms state-of-the-art methods, achieving an average F1-score of 85.58%, and delivering accurate and structurally consistent wetland segmentation with minimal labeling effort, highlighting its strong generalization capability and potential for scalable, low-cost, high-resolution wetland mapping.

preprint2022arXiv

A Direct Slip Ratio Estimation Method based on an Intelligent Tire and Machine Learning

Accurate estimation of the tire slip ratio is critical for vehicle safety, as it is necessary for vehicle control purposes. In this paper, an intelligent tire system is presented to develop a novel slip ratio estimation model using machine learning algorithms. The accelerations, generated by a triaxial accelerometer installed onto the inner liner of the tire, are varied when the tire rotates to update the contact patch. Meanwhile, the slip ratio reference value can be measured by the MTS Flat-Trac tire test platform. Then, by analyzing the variation between the accelerations and slip ratio, highly useful features are discovered, which are especially promising for assessing vertical acceleration. For these features, machine learning (ML) algorithms are trained to build the slip ratio estimation model, in which the ML algorithms include artificial neural networks (ANNs), gradient boosting machines (GBMs), random forests (RFs), and support vector machines (SVMs). Finally, the estimated NRMS errors are evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation (CV). The proposed estimation model is able to estimate the slip ratio continuously and stably using only the acceleration from the intelligent tire system, and the estimated slip ratio range can reach 30%. The estimation results have high robustness to vehicle velocity and load, where the best NRMS errors can reach 4.88%. In summary, the present study with the fusion of an intelligent tire system and machine learning paves the way for the accurate estimation of the tire slip ratio under different driving conditions, which create new opportunities for autonomous vehicles, intelligent tires, and tire slip ratio estimation.

preprint2022arXiv

A Multi-scale Time-series Dataset with Benchmark for Machine Learning in Decarbonized Energy Grids

The electric grid is a key enabling infrastructure for the ambitious transition towards carbon neutrality as we grapple with climate change. With deepening penetration of renewable energy resources and electrified transportation, the reliable and secure operation of the electric grid becomes increasingly challenging. In this paper, we present PSML, a first-of-its-kind open-access multi-scale time-series dataset, to aid in the development of data-driven machine learning (ML) based approaches towards reliable operation of future electric grids. The dataset is generated through a novel transmission + distribution (T+D) co-simulation designed to capture the increasingly important interactions and uncertainties of the grid dynamics, containing electric load, renewable generation, weather, voltage and current measurements over multiple spatio-temporal scales. Using PSML, we provide state-of-the-art ML baselines on three challenging use cases of critical importance to achieve: (i) early detection, accurate classification and localization of dynamic disturbance events; (ii) robust hierarchical forecasting of load and renewable energy with the presence of uncertainties and extreme events; and (iii) realistic synthetic generation of physical-law-constrained measurement time series. We envision that this dataset will enable advances for ML in dynamic systems, while simultaneously allowing ML researchers to contribute towards carbon-neutral electricity and mobility.

preprint2022arXiv

Functional Connectivity of the Brain Across Rodents and Humans

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), which measures the spontaneous fluctuations in the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal, is increasingly utilized for the investigation of the brain's physiological and pathological functional activity. Rodents, as a typical animal model in neuroscience, play an important role in the studies that examine the neuronal processes that underpin the spontaneous fluctuations in the BOLD signal and the functional connectivity that results. Translating this knowledge from rodents to humans requires a basic knowledge of the similarities and differences across species in terms of both the BOLD signal fluctuations and the resulting functional connectivity. This review begins by examining similarities and differences in anatomical features, acquisition parameters, and preprocessing techniques, as factors that contribute to functional connectivity. Homologous functional networks are compared across species, and aspects of the BOLD fluctuations such as the topography of the global signal and the relationship between structural and functional connectivity are examined. Time-varying features of functional connectivity, obtained by sliding windowed approaches, quasi-periodic patterns, and coactivation patterns, are compared across species. Applications demonstrating the use of rs-fMRI as a translational tool for cross-species analysis are discussed, with an emphasis on neurological and psychiatric disorders. Finally, open questions are presented to encapsulate the future direction of the field.

preprint2022arXiv

Smart Tracking Tray System for A Smart and Sustainable Wet Lab Community

The laboratories and research institutes are the major places for cutting-edge scientific exploration. Hundreds of millions of research papers were formed from front-line labs. Behind this glorious achievement were unsustainable facts. More and more human investment is required in innovative experimental design and analysis of results. However, the laboratory operating environment has not been subversively transformed for centuries. This abstract proposed a smart tracking system, consisting of IoT and Data Visualization technologies, to track the chemicals in an automatic and timely approach. Positive feedback has been collected from pilot tests in several labs. The system benefits various lab users in their daily work and improves their working efficiency. In the long run, it will play an essential role in promoting the efficient use of lab resources and achieving the goal of sustainable labs.

preprint2021arXiv

Computation of real-valued basis functions which transform as irreducible representations of the polyhedral groups

Basis functions which are invariant under the operations of a rotational point group $G$ are able to describe any 3-D object which exhibits the rotational point group symmetry. However, in order to characterize the spatial statistics of an ensemble of objects in which each object is different but the statistics exhibit the symmetry, a complete set of basis functions is required. In particular, for each irreducible representation (irrep) of $G$, it is necessary to include basis functions that transform according to that irrep. This complete set of basis functions is a basis for square-integrable functions on the surface of the sphere in 3-D. Because the objects are real-valued, it is convenient to have real-valued basis functions. In this paper, the existence of such real-valued bases is proven and an algorithm for their computation is provided for the icosahedral $I$ and the octahedral $O$ symmetries. Furthermore, it is proven that such a real-valued basis does not exist for the tetrahedral $T$ symmetry because some irreps of $T$ are essentially complex. The importance of these basis functions to computations in single-particle cryo-electron microscopy is described.

preprint2021arXiv

MIMIC-IF: Interpretability and Fairness Evaluation of Deep Learning Models on MIMIC-IV Dataset

The recent release of large-scale healthcare datasets has greatly propelled the research of data-driven deep learning models for healthcare applications. However, due to the nature of such deep black-boxed models, concerns about interpretability, fairness, and biases in healthcare scenarios where human lives are at stake call for a careful and thorough examinations of both datasets and models. In this work, we focus on MIMIC-IV (Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care, version IV), the largest publicly available healthcare dataset, and conduct comprehensive analyses of dataset representation bias as well as interpretability and prediction fairness of deep learning models for in-hospital mortality prediction. In terms of interpretabilty, we observe that (1) the best performing interpretability method successfully identifies critical features for mortality prediction on various prediction models; (2) demographic features are important for prediction. In terms of fairness, we observe that (1) there exists disparate treatment in prescribing mechanical ventilation among patient groups across ethnicity, gender and age; (2) all of the studied mortality predictors are generally fair while the IMV-LSTM (Interpretable Multi-Variable Long Short-Term Memory) model provides the most accurate and unbiased predictions across all protected groups. We further draw concrete connections between interpretability methods and fairness metrics by showing how feature importance from interpretability methods can be beneficial in quantifying potential disparities in mortality predictors.

preprint2020arXiv

Spin-orbit-controlled metal-insulator transition in Sr$_2$IrO$_4$

In the context of correlated insulators, where electron-electron interactions (U) drive the localization of charge carriers, the metal-insulator transition (MIT) is described as either bandwidth (BC) or filling (FC) controlled. Motivated by the challenge of the insulating phase in Sr$_2$IrO$_4$, a new class of correlated insulators has been proposed, in which spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is believed to renormalize the bandwidth of the half-filled $j_{\mathrm{eff}} = 1/2$ doublet, allowing a modest U to induce a charge-localized phase. Although this framework has been tacitly assumed, a thorough characterization of the ground state has been elusive. Furthermore, direct evidence for the role of SOC in stabilizing the insulating state has not been established, since previous attempts at revealing the role of SOC have been hindered by concurrently occurring changes to the filling. We overcome this challenge by employing multiple substituents that introduce well defined changes to the signatures of SOC and carrier concentration in the electronic structure, as well as a new methodology that allows us to monitor SOC directly. Specifically, we study Sr$_2$Ir$_{1-x}$T$_x$O$_4$ (T = Ru, Rh) by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), combined with ab-initio and supercell tight-binding calculations. This allows us to distinguish relativistic and filling effects, thereby establishing conclusively the central role of SOC in stabilizing the insulating state of Sr$_2$IrO$_4$. Most importantly, we estimate the critical value for spin-orbit coupling in this system to be $λ_c = 0.42 \pm 0.01$ eV, and provide the first demonstration of a spin-orbit-controlled MIT.