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Yujin Yang

Publications and source records attributed to Yujin Yang.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

The SPHEREx Instrument: Calibration, testing and performance measurements of the NIR spectroscopic surveyor from the laboratory to in-orbit commissioning

The SPHEREx near-infrared space telescope is an all-sky spectroscopic survey mission launched on March 12th, 2025 UTC. In addition to providing the community with a spectral database applicable to a wide range of investigations, it is optimized to address three core science goals: to survey the large scale structure of the Universe for signatures of non-Gaussianity during inflation; to conduct intensity mapping studies of the extragalactic background light for probing the history of galaxy evolution; and to survey the plane of the Milky Way for the prevalence and distribution of water and other biogenic ices. Each of these science goals imposes unique requirements on the performance of the instrument. We detail the design and testing strategies and report the performance results for the full instrument test campaign, ranging from component-level screening to in-orbit tests during the commissioning phase. The instrument, currently operating in full science survey mode, meets all of its driving requirements including optical performance, point source sensitivity, thermal stability and correlated noise minimization.

astro-ph.IM

Tracking-by-detection in Multi-object Tracking: Survey and Experiments

Multi-object tracking (MOT) is an essential computer vision task that simultaneously tracks multiple objects in video sequences, with various applications in surveillance, autonomous navigation, and human-computer interaction. The tracking-by-detection (TBD) paradigm, which combines object detection with temporal association, has emerged as a leading approach, driven by innovative algorithms. Despite recent progress, fair evaluation of TBD-based methods remains a challenge. Many studies introduce modules such as similarity metrics, data association strategies, or motion models, but they are often evaluated under inconsistent protocols, with different baseline trackers, hyperparameters, and datasets. Such inconsistencies obscure the genuine contribution of each module and hinder objective comparison. This survey systematically reviews TBD-based MOT techniques, including similarity measurements, data association, camera motion compensation, and interpolation strategies. Starting from a minimal baseline tracker, we fairly evaluate the contributions of each method across diverse datasets and accumulate well-balanced methods. Our findings establish a strong baseline tracker and provide a foundation for the principled design of robust and versatile MOT systems suitable for real-world deployment.

cs.CV

ODIN: Confirmation and 3D Reconstruction of Six Massive Protoclusters at Cosmic Noon

Protoclusters represent sites of accelerated galaxy formation and extreme astrophysical activity characteristic of dense environments. Identifying massive protoclusters and mapping their spatial structures are therefore crucial first steps in understanding how the large-scale environment influences galaxy evolution. We combine wide-field Ly$α$ imaging from the ODIN survey with extensive DESI and ancillary spectroscopy across the extended COSMOS and XMM-LSS fields ($\approx$14 deg$^2$) to search for massive protoclusters. We confirm six systems at $z\approx 2.4$ and $z\approx 3.1$, reconstruct their three-dimensional structures, estimate descendant halo masses, and, for one structure at $z\approx 3.12$, demonstrate that overlapping narrowband filters ($NB497$ and $N501$) provide accurate redshift tomography for emission-line galaxies. One protocluster at $z\approx 2.45$ overlaps with one of the LATIS tomographic fields, enabling direct comparison between galaxy and H {\sc i} overdensities traced by Ly$α$ forest absorption. Another at $z\approx 3.12$ hosts a massive quiescent galaxy ($M_{\ast} \approx 1.2 \times 10^{11}M_\odot$), indicating early quenching in a dense environment. By comparing Ly$α$ emission properties across environments, we find that protocluster galaxies exhibit higher median line fluxes and a deficit of faint emitters relative to the field. The effect is strongest when both 2D and 3D density information are combined, indicating that galaxies in the densest protocluster cores are most affected by environmental processes. This effect is stronger at $z\approx3.1$ than at $z\approx2.4$, suggesting possible redshift evolution.

astro-ph.GA

Safety-Aligned Weights Are Not Enough: Refusal-Teacher-Guided Finetuning Enhances Safety and Downstream Performance under Harmful Finetuning Attacks

While Finetuning-as-a-Service (FaaS) enables customization of Large Language Models (LLMs) using user data, this service is vulnerable to safety degradation when user data includes harmful prompts, a threat known as harmful finetuning attacks. To defend against this, prior work first constructs safety-aligned LLM and then finetunes the LLM on user data. However, we observe that the safety-aligned weights provide weak initialization for downstream task learning, leading to suboptimal safety and utility. Motivated by this limitation, we shift the safe FaaS finetuning paradigm from finetuning safety-aligned weights to finetuning base weights under explicit safety-teacher guidance. Specifically, we propose a Refusal-Teacher (Ref-Teacher)-guided finetuning framework. Our approach directly finetunes the base LLM under the guidance of a safety-aligned Ref-Teacher, which filters harmful prompts from user data and distills safety into the base LLM during finetuning. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our paradigm effectively reduces harmful outputs while improving finetuning performance on user-specific tasks.

cs.CL

Spectral Map Making with SPHEREx

We present map-making methodologies and preliminary spectral data cubes for SPHEREx, a NASA Explorer mission that launched in March 2025 and has been performing an all-sky near-infrared spectral survey. The SPHEREx instrument observes from 0.75 to 5.0 microns with a spectral resolution ranging from 35 to 130 and a pixel size of 6.15". We define a nominal set of 102 wavelength channels, each of which maps the entire sky approximately twice per year. Among the main mission goals is an investigation of the cosmic history of galaxy formation through intensity mapping of the extragalactic background light (EBL), which is a primary motivation for the map maker described in this work. The SPHEREx dataset contains a wealth of additional mapping targets, e.g., resolved galaxies and nebulae and diffuse clouds of Galactic dust and gas, which display strong spectral features such as hydrogen recombination lines, molecular-hydrogen lines and emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We describe how our map maker handles these various cases, how to mitigate foregrounds such as zodiacal light and upper-atmospheric emission and how to monitor and mitigate systematics and signal loss. Our maps are produced both in tangent-plane projection and in full-sky HEALPix format. Specialized maps will be released to accompany future publications from the SPHEREx Science Team, and a public mosaic tool will be made available by the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA).

astro-ph.IM

Detecting AI-Generated Videos with Spiking Neural Networks

Modern AI-generated videos are photorealistic at the single-frame level, leaving inter-frame dynamics as the main remaining axis for detection. Existing detectors typically handle this temporal evidence in three ways: feeding the full frame sequence to a generic temporal backbone, reducing one dominant temporal cue to fixed video-level descriptors, or comparing temporal features to real-video statistics through a detection metric. These strategies degrade sharply under cross-generator evaluation, where artifact type and timescale vary across generators. On caption-paired benchmark, GenVidBench, we identify two signatures that prior detectors do not jointly exploit: AI-generated videos exhibit smoother frame-to-frame temporal residuals at the pixel level, and more compact trajectories in the semantic feature space, indicating a temporal smoothness gap at both levels. We further observe that, when raw video is fed into a Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs), fake clips elicit firing predominantly at object and motion boundaries, unlike real clips, suggesting that the SNN responds to temporal artifacts localized at edges. These cues are sparse, asynchronous, and concentrated at moments of change, which makes SNNs a natural choice for this task: their event-driven, sparsely-activated dynamics align with the structure of the residual signal in a way that dense ANN backbones do not. Building on this observation, we propose MAST, a detector that processes multi-channel temporal residuals with a spike-driven temporal branch alongside a frozen semantic encoder for cross-generator generalization. On the GenVideo benchmark, MAST achieves 93.14\% mean accuracy across 10 unseen generators under strict cross-generator evaluation, matching or surpassing the strongest ANN-based detectors and demonstrating the practical applicability of SNNs to AI-generated video detection.

cs.CV

Comparing the Near-infrared Spectral Energy Distributions from Different Stellar Population Synthesis Models with SPHEREx Observations

While stellar population synthesis (SPS) models have been widely used for spectral analysis in optical wavelengths, their characteristics remain uncertain in the near-infrared (NIR) due to a relative lack of observed NIR spectra. The spectrophotometric data from SPHEREx are well-suited for investigating the performance of SPS models in the NIR, thanks to its wide wavelength coverage over $0.7-5.0~{\rm μm}$. In this work, we compare the observed SPHEREx data of SDSS compact galaxies, including 2,726 non-emission-line galaxies and 1,163 emission-line galaxies, to the NIR SEDs predicted from the full spectrum fitting of SDSS optical spectra. We use four different SPS models that extend into the NIR: E-MILES, Bruzual \& Charlot (BC03), Charlot \& Bruzual (CB19), and FSPS. We find that all four models tend to overpredict the stellar continuum at $2.4-5~{\rm μm}$ by $0.1-0.3~{\rm mag}$. This trend is particularly prominent for intermediate-age stellar populations ($\sim1-5~{\rm Gyr}$), suggesting a systematic bias in the NIR SED predictions of current SPS models. For stellar populations older than $5~{\rm Gyr}$, E-MILES shows relatively smaller offsets at $3.8-5~{\rm μm}$ compared to other models. Meanwhile, for emission-line galaxies, the SPS models underestimate the SED by up to $\sim0.5~{\rm mag}$ at longer wavelengths due to the contribution of non-stellar emission. Overall, these results highlight the necessity of refining the NIR stellar spectral features in SPS models, such as emissions from thermally pulsating asymptotic giant branch stars or molecular absorptions from cool stars.

astro-ph.GA

A UV-to-Near-infrared QSO Composite Spectrum from the SPHEREx All-Sky Survey

We present a composite spectrum of $\sim 61,000$ type 1 SDSS QSOs (median $z \approx 1.26$), constructed using SPHEREx spectrophotometric data and covering a rest-frame wavelength range of $0.14-4.5~μ$m. The SPHEREx mission surveys the entire sky in 102 near-infrared spectral channels spanning $0.75-5.0~μ$m with a spectral resolution of $R \approx 35-130$, providing a unique dataset for building a statistically robust QSO composite. We find that the UV and optical continuum of the resulting composite can be described by a power law, $f_ν\propto ν^{α_ν}$, with a best-fit spectral index of $α_ν= -0.10$, while the near-infrared continuum is well-fit with a spectral index of $-1.46$. The power-law indices in both the optical and near-infrared regimes strongly depend on properties of QSOs, such that more luminous QSOs tend to exhibit flatter UV/optical and steeper near-infrared continua compared to those of less luminous ones. The IR-to-optical flux ratio decreases with increasing AGN luminosity, consistent with the predictions of the receding torus model. The line ratios of broad emission lines, including H$α$, Pa$β$, and Pa$α$, are in good agreement with predictions from Case B recombination, suggesting that internal extinction is almost negligible. The equivalent widths of these emission lines are proportional to AGN luminosity, contrary to the trend expected from the Baldwin effect. Finally, the shape of the composite is sensitive to host-galaxy contamination, which must be considered when utilizing this QSO composite for subsequent scientific applications.

astro-ph.GA

The SPHEREx Image and Spectrophotometry Processing Pipeline

In this paper, we describe the SPHEREx image and spectrophotometry data processing pipeline, an infrastructure and software system designed to produce calibrated spectral images and photometric measurements for NASA's SPHEREx mission. SPHEREx is carrying out a series of four all-sky spectrophotometric surveys at 6.15 arcsecond resolution in 102 spectral channels spanning 0.75 to 5 microns. The pipeline which will deliver the flux- and wavelength-calibrated data products deriving from these surveys has been developed and is operated by the SPHEREx Science Data Center at Caltech/IPAC in collaboration with the SPHEREx Science Team. Here we describe the framework and modules used in the pipeline, along with the data products, which are available at the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive.

astro-ph.IM

Verifiable Knowledge Expansion through Retrieval-Grounded Formal Concept Analysis

Ontology construction requires deciding which objects, attributes, and structural relations should be accepted as valid knowledge. Language models can propose such structures from text, but their outputs can still be unsupported or inconsistent. This paper proposes a retrieval-augmented small language model (SLM) framework that uses formal concept analysis (FCA) as a symbolic verification loop for knowledge expansion. Starting from seed attributes, FCA proposes implications over a growing formal context. A retrieval-grounded SLM oracle then validates each implication or returns a counterexample. The oracle also supports incidence judgments, consistency checks, and attribute proposals, making accepted implications, counterexamples, contradictions, and corrections inspectable. In a rare ataxia setting constructed from Orphadata resources, retrieval-grounded 10-seed runs obtain relation F1 of 0.29-0.52 and closure-based implication F1 of 0.22-0.30. Larger seed sets increase the number of evaluated implications and often improve implication F1. The lower implication scores reflect a stricter evaluation of derived implications, where one missed or extra relation can affect several implication judgments. Ablations show that incidence judgments in a fixed object-attribute setting can improve closure-based implication scores. However, identifying positive object-attribute pairs remains difficult even when the candidate objects and attributes are fixed.

cs.AI

SPHEREx 0.75 to 5 $μ$m Spectra for a Sequence of Nearby Brown Dwarfs

The SPHEREx all-sky survey has now measured the R$\sim$40-100 infrared spectra of thousands of nearby brown dwarfs in the chemically rich 0.75-5 $μ$m range. The survey's wide spectral coverage and high S/N permits flux measurements that capture several broadband molecular absorption features, and upwards of 80$\%$ of the total bolometric luminosity of most brown dwarfs. Atmospheric models are known to yield systematic disagreements in the inferred temperatures and radii of brown dwarfs, necessitating benchmarking against observations. In this work, we present SPHEREx spectra across a broad sequence of 37 nearby field brown dwarfs, ranging from L0 to Y4 ($\sim$2500-250 K) and compare them to theoretical expectations. We additionally compile spectra for separate low-gravity and low-metallicity objects, and show how they trend with constant spectral type. We fit the measured spectra to the well-known forward model grids Sonora Diamondback, Elf Owl, BT-Settl, ATMO2020 and ATMO2020++ and compare their goodness-of-fit as a function of wavelength, spectral type, and treatment of clouds and chemistry. We find that the models continue to struggle to simultaneously fit the J/H/K peaks and the 4 $μ$m opacity window, especially in L/T transition objects. The largest deviations appear around the chemistry-sensitive CO$_2$ and CO features. Despite these offsets, the models broadly capture their trends across the L/T transition, with the observed sample of field dwarfs strongly preferring the weak vertical mixing ($k_\mathrm{zz}$ = 10$^4$ cm$^2$s$^{-1}$) Elf Owl models over strong mixing. The spectra shown here along with future SPHEREx data will help guide improvements to models.

astro-ph.SR

ODIN: Characterizing the Three-dimensional Structure of Two Protocluster Complexes at $z = 3.1$

We present a detailed study of the 3D morphology of two extended associations of multiple protoclusters at $z=3.1$. These protocluster 'complexes', designated COSMOS-z3.1-A and COSMOS-z3.1-C, are the most prominent overdensities of $z=3.1$ Ly$α$ emitters (LAEs) identified in the COSMOS field by the One-hundred-deg$^2$ DECam Imaging in Narrowbands (ODIN) survey. These protocluster complexes have been followed up with extensive spectroscopy from Keck, Gemini, and DESI. Using a probabilistic method that combines photometrically selected and spectroscopically confirmed LAEs, we reconstruct the 3D structure of these complexes on scales of $\approx$50 cMpc. We validate our reconstruction method using the IllustrisTNG300-1 cosmological hydrodynamical simulation and show that it consistently outperforms approaches relying solely on spectroscopic data. The resulting 3D maps reveal that both complexes are irregular and elongated along a single axis, emphasizing the impact of sightline on our perception of structure morphology. The complexes consist of multiple density peaks, ten in COSMOS-z3.1-A and four in COSMOS-z3.1-C. The former is confirmed to be a proto-supercluster, similar to {\it Hyperion} at $z=2.4$ but observed at an even earlier epoch. Multiple `tails' connected to the cores of the density peaks are seen, likely representing cosmic filaments feeding into these extremely overdense regions. The 3D reconstructions further provide strong evidence that Ly$α$ blobs preferentially reside in the outskirts of the highest density regions. Descendant mass estimates of the density peaks suggest that COSMOS-z3.1-A and COSMOS-z3.1-C will evolve to become ultra-massive structures by $z=0$, with total masses $\log(M/M_\odot) \gtrsim 15.3$, exceeding that of Coma.

astro-ph.GA

The SPHEREx View of Galaxy Clusters: A Simulation-based Validation of the Forced Photometry Pipeline for Extended Sources

We present a simulation-driven assessment of the performance of the SPHEREx pipeline for galaxy cluster science, focusing on photometry, source blending, survey depth, and photometric redshift accuracy. To do that, we compile a sample of eight galaxy clusters spanning a wide redshift range ($z \approx 0.02$-$1.1$) and develop an end-to-end pipeline. We use the ancillary data from the DESI Legacy Survey and COSMOS survey, and generate realistic mock SPHEREx observations with the SPHEREx Sky Simulator. By performing forced photometry on these images with The Tractor, we quantify the characteristic biases and uncertainties relevant to cluster science. We find that the photometry is generally unbiased, but source blending is the primary driver of catastrophic outliers, particularly when the combined flux of neighbors is comparable to the flux of targets. Measuring the effective survey depth, we find that SPHEREx detects members down to $K_{s}\approx 20$ AB ($5σ$), 7-9 mag fainter than the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in nearby clusters but only 1-2 mag for clusters at $z \sim 1$, where the BCG itself has faded close to this depth. Despite these challenges, we demonstrate that SPHEREx can achieve a photometric redshift precision of $σ_{\mathrm{NMAD}}\approx 0.003$-$0.01$ for cluster galaxies with an appropriate sample selection based on brightness or signal-to-noise. Combining the redshifts of quality-selected members, we recover cluster redshifts with a bias of $|Δz|/(1+z) < 0.002$ and a scatter of $σ\approx 0.002$ at $z \lesssim 0.5$, meeting the precision required for cluster cosmology.

astro-ph.GA

ODIN: Clustering Properties of Ly$α$ Blobs at $z$ $\sim$ 2.4 and 3.1

Spatially extended Ly$α$ nebulae, known as Ly$α$ blobs (LABs), are a rare population at $z > 2$ that are thought to trace proto-groups or the progenitors of massive galaxies in the present-day universe. However, their dark matter halo properties (e.g., halo mass) are still uncertain due to their rarity and strong field-to-field variation. The One-hundred-deg$^2$ DECam Imaging in Narrowbands (ODIN) survey has discovered 103 and 112 LABs in the extended ($\sim$9~\sqdeg) COSMOS field at $z\sim2.4$ and 3.1, respectively, enabling estimation of their bias and host halo masses through clustering analysis. We measure the angular auto-correlation functions (ACFs) of LABs and derive galaxy bias factors of $b$ = $4.0\pm0.8$ and $3.8\pm0.7$, corresponding to minimum halo masses of $2.8^{+3.0}_{-1.8}$ and $0.7^{+0.8}_{-0.5}\times10^{12}~M_\odot$ and median halo masses of $4.2^{+3.8}_{-2.5}$ and $1.1^{+1.1}_{-0.7}\times10^{12}~M_\odot$ at $z\sim2.4$ and 3.1, respectively. LABs occupy $\sim$11$^{+39}_{-8}$\% and $\sim$3$^{+9}_{-2}$\% of all dark matter halos above these minimum halo masses. These findings suggest that LABs inhabit massive dark matter halos, likely tracing proto-group environments that evolve into present-day massive halos ($\sim$10$^{13}~M_\odot$), where massive elliptical galaxies or galaxy groups reside, by $z=0$.

astro-ph.GA

Spectral response of SPHEREx

The Spectro Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) is conducting the first all-sky near infrared spectral survey spanning 0.75 to 5.0um with resolving power R~35 to 130. Linear variable filters mounted in front of six H2RG detectors produce a position dependent spectral response across the focal plane. This paper presents the ground-based spectral calibration of SPHEREx, including the cryogenic apparatus, optical configuration, measurement strategy, analysis pipeline, and resulting calibration products. Monochromatic wavelength scans are used to derive the spectral response function, band center, and resolving power for every pixel. Band centers are measured to better than 1nm for Bands 1 through 4 (0.75 to 3.82um) and better than 10nm for Bands 5 and 6 (3.82 to 5.0um). Out-of-band leakage is negligible for detectors above 1.64um and is present at the percent level below this wavelength. The resolving power is measured to within 5% and agrees with design expectations to within 10%. An on-sky spectrum of the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) constructed from repeated observations provides in-flight verification and shows agreement between ground calibrated response and astrophysical emission features. Calibration products, including per-pixel band center and resolving power maps, are released through IPAC to support community use of SPHEREx data. The absolute spectral calibration will continue to improve through in-flight measurements, with further reductions in uncertainty expected for the longest-wavelength bands.

astro-ph.IM

Observations of Atmospheric Helium and Oxygen with SPHEREx

We present measurements of near-infrared (NIR) terrestrial airglow produced by helium and oxygen in the exosphere as observed by SPHEREx. Using eight months of survey data obtained from a 680 km low-Earth orbit, emission from HeI $λ$10830, OI $λ$8446, and OI $λ$11287 is mapped with both global spatial and multi-season temporal coverage. These measurements are obtained along upward looking lines of sight as part of the astrophysical survey, in contrast to conventional nadir-viewing Earth remote sensing, which probes the behavior of low-density material in the thermo- and exosphere. We describe an analytical framework to extract atmospheric emission lines in the presence of astrophysical backgrounds including stars, resolved galaxies, and the diffuse Zodiacal light. The resulting global measurements reveal temporal variability over the survey period and systematic dependencies on geographic location. We interpret these variations in the context of the variable Solar illumination and seasonal effects. SPHEREx, an astrophysical space observatory, is demonstrated to be a promising new platform for monitoring NIR airglow and investigating its coupling to Solar activity and global geophysical processes.

physics.ao-ph

A Catalog of Mid-infrared Variable Sources in the Ecliptic Poles

We construct a catalog of mid-infrared (MIR) variable sources using the multi-epoch 3.6 (W1) and 4.5 $μ$m (W2) dataset from the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) at the north and south ecliptic poles (NEP and SEP). The catalog provides well-sampled light curves that cover areas within a radius of 5 degrees from the poles, which are frequently observed by current and forthcoming missions. By carefully processing the NEOWISE data to secure reliable photometric measurements, we identified 2764 and 27581 variables in the NEP and SEP, respectively, using the probability deviating from the non-variable and the correlation coefficient between W1 and W2. Cross-correlation with various complementary datasets reveals that, in the NEP, variability is dominated by active galactic nuclei, whereas stellar objects are more common in the SEP due to its proximity to the Large Magellanic Cloud. In particular, proper motion measurements from Gaia and MIR color-color diagrams are ideal for narrowing down the physical origin of the MIR variable sources. We identify three MIR transients in the NEP. Interestingly, all coincide with obscured QSOs, suggesting a physical connection between transient events and circumnuclear obscuration. Finally, we discuss the potential applications of our catalog in synergy with existing and future time-domain surveys.

astro-ph.GA

The SPHEREx Ices Investigation: An Overview

SPHEREx is a NASA mission designed to perform an all-sky spectroscopic survey in the 0.75 - 5 $μ$m wavelength range. Its primary science objectives are to investigate: (1) inflationary cosmology, (2) the history of galaxy formation, and (3) the abundance of molecular ices - critical for prebiotic chemistry - found on the surfaces of interstellar dust grains within planet-forming regions. This paper focuses on the third theme, the SPHEREx Ices investigation, for which SPHEREx is conducting a spectroscopic survey of nearly ten million preselected sources throughout the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds to characterize their ice absorption features. By selecting targets based on infrared color, spatial isolation, and brightness, the Ices Investigation secures high-signal-to-noise spectra across a broad range of astrophysical environments that are relatively free of spectral contamination. Rather than attempting to decompose each spectrum into its individual ice components, the Ices Investigation prioritizes accurate measurements of the integrated optical depths of key molecular ice absorption features. This approach enables statistically powerful correlation studies between ice abundances and environmental parameters - including extinction, temperature, gas composition, radiation field strength, cosmic ray flux, and star formation activity. The data pipeline developed for this purpose incorporates machine learning for continuum estimation, drawing on both SPHEREx and ancillary datasets. Ultimately, the expansive spectral archive produced by SPHEREx, combined with targeted follow-up from facilities like JWST, will transform our understanding of Galactic ice formation, evolution, abundance and their inheritance into planetary systems and prebiotic inventories.

astro-ph.GA