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19,830 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures · Negative / Null Result Report. Search the index →

WASTE indexes published research — it does not host or republish full papers. Each entry is a metadata record compiled from open scholarly databases; the abstract is shown in full only where the paper is openly licensed, otherwise a short excerpt under fair use. Classifications are automated and approximate.

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

A Quest for Convergence: Exploring Series in Non-Linear Environments

Geivison Ribeiro · 2024 · arXiv

This note presents an extension of a result within the concept of [S]-lineability, originally developed in 2019 by L. Bernal-González, J.A. Conejero, M. Murillo-Arcila, and J.B. Seoane-Sepúlveda . Additionally, we provide a characterization in terms of lineability in the context of complements of unions of closed subspaces in F-spaces, and finally, we present a negative result in both normed spaces and p-Banach spaces. These findings contribute to the understanding of linearity in exotic settings in topological vector spaces.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Intrinsic universality in tile self-assembly requires cooperation

Pierre-Étienne Meunier, Matthew J. Patitz, Scott M. Summers et al. · 2013 · arXiv

We prove a negative result on the power of a model of algorithmic self-assembly for which it has been notoriously difficult to find general techniques and results. Specifically, we prove that Winfree's abstract Tile Assembly Model, when restricted to use noncooperative tile binding, is not intrinsically universal. This stands in stark contrast to the recent result that, via cooperative binding, the abstract Tile Assembly Model is indeed intrinsically universal. Noncooperative self-assembly, also known as "temperature 1", is where tiles bind to each other if they match on one or more sides, whe

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

One positive and two negative results for derived categories of algebraic stacks

Jack Hall, Amnon Neeman, David Rydh · 2014 · arXiv

Let $X$ be a quasi-compact and quasi-separated scheme. There are two fundamental and pervasive facts about the unbounded derived category of $X$: (1) $\mathsf{D}_{\mathrm{qc}}(X)$ is compactly generated by perfect complexes and (2) if $X$ is noetherian or has affine diagonal, then the functor $Ψ_X \colon \mathsf{D}(\mathsf{QCoh}(X)) \to \mathsf{D}_{\mathrm{qc}}(X)$ is an equivalence. Our main results are that for algebraic stacks in positive characteristic, the assertions (1) and (2) are typically false.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Accessibility of partially acylindrical actions

Michael Edward Hill · 2021 · arXiv

In a pervious paper Weidmann shows that there a bound on the number of orbits of edges in a tree on which a finitely generated group acts $(k,C)$-acylindrically. In this paper we extend this result to actions which are $k$-acylindrical except on a family of groups with "finite height". We also give an example which gives a negative result to a conjecture of Weidmann from the same paper and produce a sharp bound for groups acting $k$--acylindrically.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

On the Complexity of Protein Local Structure Alignment Under the Discrete Fréchet Distance

Binhai Zhu · 2007 · arXiv

We show that given $m$ proteins (or protein backbones, which are modeled as 3D polygonal chains each of length O(n)) the problem of protein local structure alignment under the discrete Fréchet distance is as hard as Independent Set. So the problem does not admit any approximation of factor $n^{1-ε}$. This is the strongest negative result regarding the protein local structure alignment problem. On the other hand, if $m$ is a constant, then the problem can be solved in polygnomial time.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

The case for testing MOND using LISA Pathfinder

Joao Magueijo, Ali Mozaffari · 2011 · arXiv

We quantify the potential for testing MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) with LISA Pathfinder (LPF), should a saddle point flyby be incorporated into the mission. We forecast the expected signal to noise ratio (SNR) for a variety of instrument noise models and trajectories past the saddle. For standard theoretical parameters the SNR reaches middle to high double figures even with modest assumptions about instrument performance and saddle approach. Obvious concerns, like systematics arising from LPF self-gravity, or the Newtonian background, are examined and shown not to be a problem. We also i

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

A counterexample concerning the L_2-projector onto linear spline spaces

Peter Oswald · 2006 · arXiv

For the L_2-orthogonal projector P onto spaces of linear splines over simplicial partitions of polyhedral domains in R^d, d>1, we show that the L_infty norm of P cannot be bounded uniformly with respect to the partition. This is in contrast to d=1, where these norms are bounded by 3 independently of the partition. This negative result is folklore among specialists in finite element methods and approximation theory but seemingly has never been formally proved.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Architecture Smells vs. Concurrency Bugs: an Exploratory Study and Negative Results

Damian Andrew Tamburri, Francesca Arcelli Fontana, Riccardo Roveda et al. · 2023 · arXiv

Technical debt occurs in many different forms across software artifacts. One such form is connected to software architectures where debt emerges in the form of structural anti-patterns across architecture elements, namely, architecture smells. As defined in the literature, ``Architecture smells are recurrent architectural decisions that negatively impact internal system quality", thus increasing technical debt. In this paper, we aim at exploring whether there exist manifestations of architectural technical debt beyond decreased code or architectural quality, namely, whether there is a relation

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Finite Axiomatizability of Transitive Logics of Finite Depth and of Finite Weak Width

Yan Zhang · 2023 · arXiv

This paper presents a study of the finite axiomatizability of transitive logics of finite depth and finite weak width. We prove the finite axiomatizability of each transitive logic of finite depth and of weak width $1$ that is characterized by rooted transitive frames in which all antichains contain at most $n$ irreflexive points. As a negative result, we show that there are non-finitely-axiomatizable transitive logics of depth $n$ and of weak width $k$ for each $n\geqslant3$ and $k\geqslant2$.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Presburger sets and p-minimal fields

Raf Cluckers · 2002 · arXiv

We prove a cell decomposition theorem for Presburger sets and introduce a dimension theory for Z-groups with the Presburger structure. Using the cell decomposition theorem we obtain a full classification of Presburger sets up to definable bijection. We also exhibit a tight connection between the definable sets in an arbitrary p-minimal field and Presburger sets in its value group. We give a negative result about expansions of Presburger structures and prove uniform elimination of imaginaries for Presburger structures within the Presburger language.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Online Algorithm for Fractional Matchings with Edge Arrivals in Graphs of Maximum Degree Three

Kanstantsin Pashkovich, Thomas Snow · 2026 · arXiv

We study online algorithms for maximum cardinality matchings with edge arrivals in graphs of low degree. Buchbinder, Segev, and Tkach showed that no online algorithm for maximum cardinality fractional matchings can achieve a competitive ratio larger than $4/(9-\sqrt 5)\approx 0.5914$ even for graphs of maximum degree three. The negative result of Buchbinder et al. holds even when the graph is bipartite and edges are revealed according to vertex arrivals, i.e. once a vertex arrives, all edges are revealed that include the newly arrived vertex and one of the previously arrived vertices. In this

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Limits on the Mixing of Tau Neutrino to Heavy Neutrinos

J. Orloff, A. Rozanov, C. Santoni · 2002 · arXiv

Limits at 90 % c.l. on the square of the mixing strength |U_tau4|^2 between nu_tau and a mostly isosinglet heavy neutrino with mass in the range 10-290 MeV/c^2 are reported. The results were derived using the negative result of a search for neutral particles decaying into two electrons conducted by the CHARM collaboration in a neutrino beam dump experiment. Upper limits ~10^-4 were obtained for neutrino masses larger than 160 MeV/c^2.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Equivariant Motivic Homotopy Theory

Philip Herrmann · 2013 · arXiv

In this paper we study a model structure on a category of schemes with a group action and the resulting unstable and stable equivariant motivic homotopy theories. The new model structure introduced here samples a comparison to the one by Voevodsky and Hu-Kriz-Ormsby. We show that it allows to detect equivariant motivic weak equivalences on fixed points and how this property leads to a topologically convenient behavior of stable equivalences. We also prove a negative result concerning descent for equivariant algebraic K-theory.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Riesz energy on self-similar sets

Alexander Reznikov, Oleksandr Vlasiuk · 2018 · arXiv

We investigate properties of minimal $N$-point Riesz $s$-energy on fractal sets of non-integer dimension, as well as asymptotic behavior of $N$-point configurations that minimize this energy. For $s$ bigger than the dimension of the set $A$, we constructively prove a negative result concerning the asymptotic behavior (namely, its nonexistence) of the minimal $N$-point Riesz $s$-energy of $A$, but we show that the asymptotic exists over reasonable sub-sequences of $N$. Furthermore, we give a short proof of a result concerning asymptotic behavior of configurations that minimize the discrete Ries

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Recognizing Distance-Count Matrices is Difficult

Paolo Boldi, Flavio Furia, Chiara Prezioso et al. · 2025 · arXiv

Axiomatization of centrality measures often involves proving that something cannot hold by providing a counterexample (i.e., a graph for which that specific centrality index fails to have a given property). In the context of geometric centralities, building such counterexamples requires constructing a graph with specific distance counts between nodes, as expressed by its distance-count matrix. We prove that deciding whether a matrix is the distance-count matrix of a graph is strongly NP-complete. This negative result implies that a brute-force approach to building this kind of counterexample i

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

On the Axiomatisability of Parallel Composition

Luca Aceto, Valentina Castiglioni, Anna Ingolfsdottir et al. · 2021 · arXiv

This paper studies the existence of finite equational axiomatisations of the interleaving parallel composition operator modulo the behavioural equivalences in van Glabbeek's linear time-branching time spectrum. In the setting of the process algebra BCCSP over a finite set of actions, we provide finite, ground-complete axiomatisations for various simulation and (decorated) trace semantics. We also show that no congruence over BCCSP that includes bisimilarity and is included in possible futures equivalence has a finite, ground-complete axiomatisation; this negative result applies to all the nest

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Graph decomposition and parity

Bobby DeMarco, Amanda Redlich · 2012 · arXiv

Motivated by a recent extension of the zero-one law by Kolaitis and Kopparty, we study the distribution of the number of copies of a fixed disconnected graph in the random graph $G(n,p)$. We use an idea of graph decompositions to give a sufficient condition for this distribution to tend to uniform modulo $q$. We determine the asymptotic distribution of all fixed two-component graphs in $G(n,p)$ for all $q$, and we give infinite families of many-component graphs with a uniform asymptotic distribution for all $q$. We also prove a negative result, that no simple proof of uniform asymptotic distri

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Inferring Symbolic Automata

Dana Fisman, Hadar Frenkel, Sandra Zilles · 2021 · arXiv

We study the learnability of symbolic finite state automata (SFA), a model shown useful in many applications in software verification. The state-of-the-art literature on this topic follows the query learning paradigm, and so far all obtained results are positive. We provide a necessary condition for efficient learnability of SFAs in this paradigm, from which we obtain the first negative result. The main focus of our work lies in the learnability of SFAs under the paradigm of identification in the limit using polynomial time and data, and its strengthening efficient identifiability, which are c

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Maximizing utility in multi-agent environments by anticipating the behavior of other learners

Angelos Assos, Yuval Dagan, Constantinos Daskalakis · 2024 · arXiv

Learning algorithms are often used to make decisions in sequential decision-making environments. In multi-agent settings, the decisions of each agent can affect the utilities/losses of the other agents. Therefore, if an agent is good at anticipating the behavior of the other agents, in particular how they will make decisions in each round as a function of their experience that far, it could try to judiciously make its own decisions over the rounds of the interaction so as to influence the other agents to behave in a way that ultimately benefits its own utility. In this paper, we study repeated

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

A Comment on the Measurement of Neutrino Masses in Beta-Decay Experiments

S. M. Bilenky, M. D. Mateev, S. T. Petcov · 2006 · arXiv

We discuss the physics potential of future tritium beta-decay experiments having a sensitivity to a neutrino mass ~\sqrt{|Δm^{2}_{23}|}~5x10^{-2} eV. The case of three-neutrino mixing is analised. A negative result of such an experiment would imply that the neutrino mass spectrum is of normal hierarchical type. The interpretation of a positive result would depend on the value of the lightest neutrino mass; if the lightest neutrino mass satisfies the inequality min(m_j) << \sqrt{|Δm^{2}_{23}|}, it would imply that the neutrino mass spectrum is of the inverted hierarchical type.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Conjugate-symplecticity properties of Euler--Maclaurin methods and their implementation on the Infinity Computer

F. Iavernaro, F. Mazzia, M. S. Mukhametzhanov et al. · 2018 · arXiv

Multi-derivative one-step methods based upon Euler-Maclaurin integration formulae are considered for the solution of canonical Hamiltonian dynamical systems. Despite the negative result that simplecticity may not be attained by any multi-derivative Runge--Kutta methods, we show that the Euler-MacLaurin method of order p is conjugate-symplectic up to order p+2. This feature entitles them to play a role in the context of geometric integration and, to make their implementation competitive with the existing integrators, we explore the possibility of computing the underlying higher order derivative

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

A note on quadratic constraints with indicator variables: Convex hull description and perspective relaxation

Andres Gomez, Weijun Xie · 2022 · arXiv

In this paper, we study the mixed-integer nonlinear set given by a separable quadratic constraint on continuous variables, where each continuous variable is controlled by an additional indicator. This set occurs pervasively in optimization problems with uncertainty and in machine learning. We show that optimization over this set is NP-hard. Despite this negative result, we characterize the structure of the convex hull, and show that it can be formally studied using polyhedral theory. Moreover, we show that although perspective relaxation in the literature for this set fails to match the struct

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

When does a Gaussian process have its paths in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space?

Ingo Steinwart · 2024 · arXiv

We investigate for which Gaussian processes there do or do not exist reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHSs) that contain almost all of their paths. In particular, we establish a new result that makes it possible to exclude the existence of such RKHSs in many cases. Moreover, we combine this negative result with some known techniques to establish positive results. Here it turns out that for many classical families of Gaussian processes we can fully characterize for which members of these families there exist RKHSs containing the paths. Similar characterizations are obtained for Gaussian proc

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Controllability of the cubic Schroedinger equation via a low-dimensional source term

Andrey Sarychev · 2011 · arXiv

We study controllability of $d$-dimensional defocusing cubic Schroedinger equation under periodic boundary conditions. The control is applied additively, via a source term, which is a linear combination of few complex exponentials (modes) with time-variant coefficients - controls. We manage to prove that controlling at most $2^d$ modes one can achieve controllability of the equation in any finite-dimensional projection of the evolution space $H^{s}(\mathbb{T}^d), \ s>d/2$, as well as approximate controllability in $H^{s}(\mathbb{T}^d)$. We also present negative result regarding exact controlla

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

A theorem of Roe and Strichartz for Riemannian symmetric spaces of noncompact type

Swagato K. Ray, Rudra P. Sarkar · 2012 · arXiv

Generalizing a result of Roe \cite{Roe} Strichartz proved in \cite{Str} that if a doubly-infinite sequence $\{f_k\}$ of functions on $\R^n$ satisfies $f_{k+1}=Δf_k$ and $|f_{k}(x)|\leq M$ for all $k=0,\pm 1,\pm 2,...$ and $x\in \R^n$, then $Δf_0(x)= -f_0$. Strichartz also showed that the result fails for hyperbolic 3-space. This negative result can be indeed extended to any Riemannian symmetric space of noncompact type. Taking this into account we shall prove that for all Riemannian symmetric spaces of noncompact type the theorem actually holds true when uniform boundedness is modified suitabl

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

The KATRIN Experiment

Marcus Beck · 2009 · arXiv

The KArlsruhe TRitium Neutrino mass experiment, KATRIN, aims to search for the mass of the electron neutrino with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV/c^2 (90% C.L.) and a detection limit of 0.35 eV/c^2 (5 sigma). Both a positive or a negative result will have far reaching implications for cosmology and the standard model of particle physics and will give new input for astroparticle physics and cosmology. The major components of KATRIN are being set up at the Karlsruhe Institut of Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany, and test measurements of the individual components have started. Data taking with tritium is

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Finite Sample Properties of Tests Based on Prewhitened Nonparametric Covariance Estimators

David Preinerstorfer · 2014 · arXiv

We analytically investigate size and power properties of a popular family of procedures for testing linear restrictions on the coefficient vector in a linear regression model with temporally dependent errors. The tests considered are autocorrelation-corrected F-type tests based on prewhitened nonparametric covariance estimators that possibly incorporate a data-dependent bandwidth parameter, e.g., estimators as considered in Andrews and Monahan (1992), Newey and West (1994), or Rho and Shao (2013). For design matrices that are generic in a measure theoretic sense we prove that these tests eithe

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

On a Geometric Structure of Pure Multi-qubit Quantum States and Its Applicability to a Numerical Computation

Kimikazu Kato, Mayumi Oto, Hiroshi Imai et al. · 2006 · arXiv

For one-qubit pure quantum states, it is already proved that the Voronoi diagrams with respect to two distances -- Euclidean distance and the quantum divergence -- coincide. This fact is a support for a known method to calculate the Holevo capacity. To consider an applicability of this method to quantum states of a higher level system, it is essential to check if the coincidence of the Voronoi diagrams also occurs. In this paper, we show a negative result for that expectation. In other words, we mathematically prove that those diagrams no longer coincide in a higher dimension. That indicates t

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