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Failure-mode index

Search what already failed

A searchable index of real negative results, null findings, and replication failures from the published literature — so you can learn what didn't work before repeating it.

WASTE indexes published research — it does not host or republish full papers. Each entry is a metadata record (title, authors, DOI) compiled from open scholarly databases, with the abstract shown in full only where the paper is openly licensed (e.g. Creative Commons); otherwise a short excerpt is shown for reference under fair use. WASTE classifies each work by failure type; classifications are automated and approximate.

21742 results · page 616 of 725

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

A note on some versions of club

Mirna Džamonja, Saharon Shelah · 1997 · arXiv

This note gives two results on guessing unbounded subsets of lambda^+. The first is a positive result and applies to the situation of lambda regular, while the second is a negative consistency result which applies to the situation of lambda singular. Both results are connected to an earlier result of the same authors in which they showed that a certain version of clubsuit holds at a successor of singular just in ZFC. The first result here shows that that fact can to a certain extent be extended to the successor of singular. The negative result here gives limitations to the extent to which one

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

A Missed Persistence Property for the Euler Equations, and its Effect on Inviscid Limits

H. Beirao da Veiga, F. Crispo · 2010 · arXiv

We consider the problem of the strong convergence, as the viscosity goes to zero, of the solutions to the three-dimensional evolutionary Navier-Stokes equations under a Navier slip-type boundary condition to the solution of the Euler equations under the zero flux boundary condition. In spite of the arbitrarily strong convergence results proved in the flat boundary case, see [4], it was shown in reference [5] that the result is false in general, by constructing an explicit family of smooth initial data in the sphere, for which the result fails. Our aim here is to present a more general, simpler

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Reasoning in Infinitely Valued G-IALCQ

Stefan Borgwardt, Rafael Peñaloza · 2015 · arXiv

Fuzzy Description Logics (FDLs) are logic-based formalisms used to represent and reason with vague or imprecise knowledge. It has been recently shown that reasoning in most FDLs using truth values from the interval [0,1] becomes undecidable in the presence of a negation constructor and general concept inclusion axioms. One exception to this negative result are FDLs whose semantics is based on the infinitely valued Gödel t-norm (G). In this paper, we extend previous decidability results for G-IALC to deal also with qualified number restrictions. Our novel approach is based on a combination of t

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Optimal Representation for Right-to-Left Parallel Scalar Point Multiplication

Kittiphon Phalakarn, Kittiphop Phalakarn, Vorapong Suppakitpaisarn · 2025 · arXiv

This paper introduces an optimal representation for a right-to-left parallel elliptic curve scalar point multiplication. The right-to-left approach is easier to parallelize than the conventional left-to-right approach. However, unlike the left-to-right approach, there is still no work considering number representations for the right-to-left parallel calculation. By simplifying the implementation by Robert, we devise a mathematical model to capture the computation time of the calculation. Then, for any arbitrary amount of doubling time and addition time, we propose algorithms to generate repres

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Interference pattern in the collision of structures in the BEC dark matter model: comparison with fluids

J. A. Gonzalez, F. S. Guzman · 2011 · arXiv

In order to explore nonlinear effects on the distribution of matter during collisions within the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) dark matter model driven by the Schrödinger-Poisson system of equations, we study the head-on collision of structures and focus on the interference pattern formation in the density of matter during the collision process. We explore the possibility that the collision of two structures of fluid matter modeled with an ideal gas equation of state also forms interference patterns and found a negative result. Given that a fluid is the most common flavor of dark matter model

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Extensions and limitations of randomized smoothing for robustness guarantees

Jamie Hayes · 2020 · arXiv

Randomized smoothing, a method to certify a classifier's decision on an input is invariant under adversarial noise, offers attractive advantages over other certification methods. It operates in a black-box and so certification is not constrained by the size of the classifier's architecture. Here, we extend the work of Li et al. \cite{li2018second}, studying how the choice of divergence between smoothing measures affects the final robustness guarantee, and how the choice of smoothing measure itself can lead to guarantees in differing threat models. To this end, we develop a method to certify ro

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Positive and negative results on the internal controllability of parabolic equations coupled by zero and first order terms

Michel Duprez, Pierre Lissy · 2017 · arXiv

This paper is devoted to studying the null and approximate controllability of two linear coupled parabolic equations posed on a smooth domain of R^N (N>1) with coupling terms of zero and first orders and one control localized in some arbitrary nonempty open subset of the domain. We prove the null controllability under a new sufficient condition and we also provide the first example of a not approximately controllable system in the case where the support of one of the nontrivial first order coupling terms intersects the control domain.

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Debiasing the Influence of Demographic and Appearance Cues in Social Engineering via Role-Taking: Negative Results

Tourjana Islam Supti, Israa Abuelezz, Aya Muhanad et al. · 2025 · arXiv

This study investigates the efficacy of role-taking and literacy-based interventions in reducing the influence of appearance cues, such as gender, age, ethnicity, and clothing style, on trust and risk-taking in social engineering contexts. A-4 (Group: Control, Literacy, Persuader, Persuadee) * 2 (Time: Pre, Post) mixed factorial design was implemented over two weeks with 139 participants. The control group received no material. The literacy group attended two sessions focused on how behavior can be similar regardless of appearance cues. The persuader group completed three sessions, learning ho

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Superheavy SUSY-kind dark matter and high energy cosmic rays

E. V. Arbuzova · 2024 · arXiv

The search for supersymmetric partners at Large Hadron Collider revealed negative result. Though, strictly speaking, it does not exclude low energy supersymmetry, but still it leads to strong constraints of the parameter space. Therefore the search for supersymmetric particles at higher energies becomes of interest. It is shown that in $R^2$-modified cosmology heavy particles with the interaction strength typical for supersymmetry could be promising candidates for carriers of dark matter. We consider the heating of the Universe at the post-inflationary stage via particle production by oscillat

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

A search for massive neutral bosons in orthopositronium decay

T. Maeno, M. Fujikawa, J. Kataoka et al. · 1995 · arXiv

We have searched for an exotic decay of orthopositronium into a single photon and a short-lived neutral boson in the hitherto unexplored mass region above 900 ${\rm keV}/{\it c}^{2}$, by noting that this decay is one of few remaining candidates which could explain the discrepancy of the orthopositronium decay-rate. A high-resolution measurement of the associated photon energy spectrum was carried out with a germanium detector to search for a sharp peak from this two-body decay. Our negative result provides the upper-limits of\mbox{ }$2.0 \times 10^{-4}$ on the branching ratio of such a decay i

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Irrationality of rapidly converging series: a problem of Erdős and Graham

Kevin Barreto, Jiwon Kang, Sang-hyun Kim et al. · 2026 · arXiv

Answering a question of Erdős and Graham, we show that the double exponential growth condition $\limsup_{n\to\infty}a_n^{1/φ^n}=\infty$ for a strictly increasing sequence of positive integers $\{a_n\}_{n=1}^\infty$ is sufficient for the series $\sum_{n=1}^\infty 1/(a_n a_{n+1})$ to have an irrational sum; here $φ$ denotes the golden ratio. We also provide a positive generalization to $\sum_{n=1}^\infty 1/(a_n^{w_0}\cdots a_{n+d-1}^{w_{d-1}})$, and a negative result showing that some of its instances are essentially optimal. The original problem was autonomously solved by the AI agent \emph{Ale

Failed Experiment ReportOpen accessAgricultural and Biological Sciences

Speeding up disease extinction with a limited amount of vaccine

M. Khasin, M. I. Dykman, B. Meerson · 2009 · arXiv

We consider optimal vaccination protocol where the vaccine is in short supply. In this case, disease extinction results from a large and rare fluctuation. We show that the probability of such fluctuation can be exponentially increased by vaccination. For periodic vaccination with fixed average rate, the optimal vaccination protocol is model independent and presents a sequence of short pulses. The effect of vaccination can be resonantly enhanced if the pulse period coincides with the characteristic period of the disease dynamics or its multiples. This resonant effect is illustrated using a simp

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Detecting unknots via equational reasoning, I: Exploration

Andrew Fish, Alexei Lisitsa · 2014 · arXiv

We explore the application of automated reasoning techniques to unknot detection, a classical problem of computational topology. We adopt a two-pronged experimental approach, using a theorem prover to try to establish a positive result (i.e. that a knot is the unknot), whilst simultaneously using a model finder to try to establish a negative result (i.e. that the knot is not the unknot). The theorem proving approach utilises equational reasoning, whilst the model finder searches for a minimal size counter-model. We present and compare experimental data using the involutary quandle of the knot,

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

A low energy optimization of the CERN-NGS neutrino beam for a theta_{13} driven neutrino oscillation search

A. Rubbia, P. Sala · 2002 · arXiv

The possibility to improve the CERN to Gran Sasso neutrino beam performances for theta_{13} searches is investigated. We show that by an appropriate optimization of the target and focusing optics of the present CNGS design, we can increase the flux of low energy neutrinos by about a factor 5 compared to the current tau optimized focalisation. With the ICARUS 2.35 kton detector at LNGS and in case of negative result, this would allow to improve the limit to sin^22 theta_{13} by an order of magnitude better than the current limit of CHOOZ at Delta m^2 approximately 3 times 10^{-3} eV^2 within 5

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

A Replicability Study of XTR

Rohan Jha, Reno Kriz, Benjamin Van Durme · 2026 · arXiv

The XTR (conteXtual Token Retrieval) algorithm is a modification to ColBERT retrieval that avoids the costly step of fully gathering and reranking the candidates' embeddings by imputing their missing similarity scores from the initial token retrieval step. The original work proposes a modified training objective as necessary for effective XTR retrieval, arguing that standard ColBERT token scoring is unsuitable for imputation. In this paper, we replicate both the XTR retrieval algorithm and its modified training objective, and extend the evaluation to knowledge-distillation (KD) training and ef

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Turning Waste into Wealth: Leveraging Low-Quality Samples for Enhancing Continuous Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks

Xin Ding, Yongwei Wang, Zuheng Xu · 2023 · arXiv

Continuous Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (CcGANs) enable generative modeling conditional on continuous scalar variables (termed regression labels). However, they can produce subpar fake images due to limited training data. Although Negative Data Augmentation (NDA) effectively enhances unconditional and class-conditional GANs by introducing anomalies into real training images, guiding the GANs away from low-quality outputs, its impact on CcGANs is limited, as it fails to replicate negative samples that may occur during the CcGAN sampling. We present a novel NDA approach called Dua

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

How to Tell When a Result Will Replicate: Significance and Replication in Distributional Null Hypothesis Tests

Fintan Costello, Paul Watts · 2022 · arXiv

There is a well-known problem in Null Hypothesis Significance Testing: many statistically significant results fail to replicate in subsequent experiments. We show that this problem arises because standard `point-form null' significance tests consider only within-experiment but ignore between-experiment variation, and so systematically underestimate the degree of random variation in results. We give an extension to standard significance testing that addresses this problem by analysing both within- and between-experiment variation. This `distributional null' approach does not underestimate exper

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEconomics, Econometrics and Finance

Deep Smoothing of the Implied Volatility Surface

Damien Ackerer, Natasa Tagasovska, Thibault Vatter · 2019 · arXiv

We present a neural network (NN) approach to fit and predict implied volatility surfaces (IVSs). Atypically to standard NN applications, financial industry practitioners use such models equally to replicate market prices and to value other financial instruments. In other words, low training losses are as important as generalization capabilities. Importantly, IVS models need to generate realistic arbitrage-free option prices, meaning that no portfolio can lead to risk-free profits. We propose an approach guaranteeing the absence of arbitrage opportunities by penalizing the loss using soft const

Methods Dead-EndOpen accessComputer Science

LuMon: A Comprehensive Benchmark and Development Suite with Novel Datasets for Lunar Monocular Depth Estimation

Aytaç Sekmen, Fatih Emre Gunes, Furkan Horoz et al. · 2026 · arXiv

Monocular Depth Estimation (MDE) is crucial for autonomous lunar rover navigation using electro-optical cameras. However, deploying terrestrial MDE networks to the Moon brings a severe domain gap due to harsh shadows, textureless regolith, and zero atmospheric scattering. Existing evaluations rely on analogs that fail to replicate these conditions and lack actual metric ground truth. To address this, we present LuMon, a comprehensive benchmarking framework to evaluate MDE methods for lunar exploration. We introduce novel datasets featuring high-quality stereo ground truth depth from the real C

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Understanding Balmer Decrements in T Tauri stars in terms of Multiflow Magnetospheric Accretion

Naiara Patiño, Nuria Calvet, Gladis Magris et al. · 2026 · arXiv

Magnetospheric accretion is the paradigm for accretion in Classical T-Tauri Stars (CTTS). However, the standard, one-flow magnetospheric accretion model fails to replicate important characteristics such as the observed Balmer decrements. We address this limitation by adopting a model with two axisymmetric magnetospheric accretion flows of different accretion rates and geometries. We calculate the fluxes of the hydrogen $H_α$, $H_β$, and $H_γ$ lines of each flow with the magnetospheric accretion model and use Bayesian statistics to fit the Balmer line fluxes of 139 CTTS in the Orion OB1b subass

Failed Experiment ReportOpen accessComputer Science

How to Improve Top Tagging

Tilman Plehn, Michael Spannowsky, Michihisa Takeuchi · 2011 · arXiv

In time for the first tests on LHC data we introduce a set of improvements and tests of purely kinematic top tagging algorithms. First, we show how different jet algorithms can be used for different transverse momentum regimes. Combining pruning and filtering in the reconstruction can enhance the signal over background ratio significantly, while larger jet radii only give minor improvements. Finally, bottom tagging can be added to the top tagger, but at least for the HEPTopTagger does not improve the kinematic selection algorithm.

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEconomics, Econometrics and Finance

Interbank network reconstruction enforcing density and reciprocity

Valentina Macchiati, Piero Mazzarisi, Diego Garlaschelli · 2024 · arXiv

Networks of financial exposures are the key propagators of risk and distress among banks, but their empirical structure is not publicly available because of confidentiality. This limitation has triggered the development of methods of network reconstruction from partial, aggregate information. Unfortunately, even the best methods available fail in replicating the number of directed cycles, which on the other hand play a crucial role in determining graph spectra and hence the degree of network stability and systemic risk. Here we address this challenge by exploiting the hypothesis that the stati

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

RILe: Reinforced Imitation Learning

Mert Albaba, Sammy Christen, Thomas Langarek et al. · 2024 · arXiv

Acquiring complex behaviors is essential for artificially intelligent agents, yet learning these behaviors in high-dimensional settings poses a significant challenge due to the vast search space. Traditional reinforcement learning (RL) requires extensive manual effort for reward function engineering. Inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) uncovers reward functions from expert demonstrations but relies on an iterative process that is often computationally expensive. Imitation learning (IL) provides a more efficient alternative by directly comparing an agent's actions to expert demonstrations; how

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Human Preferences in Large Language Model Latent Space: A Technical Analysis on the Reliability of Synthetic Data in Voting Outcome Prediction

Sarah Ball, Simeon Allmendinger, Frauke Kreuter et al. · 2025 · arXiv

Generative AI (GenAI) is increasingly used in survey contexts to simulate human preferences. While many research endeavors evaluate the quality of synthetic GenAI data by comparing model-generated responses to gold-standard survey results, fundamental questions about the validity and reliability of using LLMs as substitutes for human respondents remain. Our study provides a technical analysis of how demographic attributes and prompt variations influence latent opinion mappings in large language models (LLMs) and evaluates their suitability for survey-based predictions. Using 14 different model

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Dynamical Constraints on Mercury's Collisional Origin

Matthew S. Clement, Nathan A. Kaib, John E. Chambers · 2019 · arXiv

Of the solar system's four terrestrial planets, the origin of Mercury is perhaps the most mysterious. Modern numerical simulations designed to model the dynamics of terrestrial planet formation systematically fail to replicate Mercury; which possesses just 5% the mass of Earth and the highest orbital eccentricity and inclination among the planets. However, Mercury's large iron-rich core and low volatile inventory stand out among the inner planets, and seem to imply a violent collisional origin. Because most algorithms used for simulating terrestrial accretion do not consider the effects of col

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Dissecting Role Cognition in Medical LLMs via Neuronal Ablation

Xun Liang, Huayi Lai, Hanyu Wang et al. · 2025 · arXiv

Large language models (LLMs) have gained significant traction in medical decision support systems, particularly in the context of medical question answering and role-playing simulations. A common practice, Prompt-Based Role Playing (PBRP), instructs models to adopt different clinical roles (e.g., medical students, residents, attending physicians) to simulate varied professional behaviors. However, the impact of such role prompts on model reasoning capabilities remains unclear. This study introduces the RP-Neuron-Activated Evaluation Framework(RPNA) to evaluate whether role prompts induce disti

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Towards reproducible machine learning-based process monitoring and quality prediction research for additive manufacturing

Jiarui Xie, Mutahar Safdar, Andrei Mircea et al. · 2024 · arXiv

Machine learning (ML)-based cyber-physical systems (CPSs) have been extensively developed to improve the print quality of additive manufacturing (AM). However, the reproducibility of these systems, as presented in published research, has not been thoroughly investigated due to a lack of formal evaluation methods. Reproducibility, a critical component of trustworthy artificial intelligence, is achieved when an independent team can replicate the findings or artifacts of a study using a different experimental setup and achieve comparable performance. In many publications, critical information nec

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Hyperparameters in Continual Learning: A Reality Check

Sungmin Cha, Kyunghyun Cho · 2024 · arXiv

Continual learning (CL) aims to train a model on a sequence of tasks (i.e., a CL scenario) while balancing the trade-off between plasticity (learning new tasks) and stability (retaining prior knowledge). The dominantly adopted conventional evaluation protocol for CL algorithms selects the best hyperparameters (e.g., learning rate, mini-batch size, regularization strengths, etc.) within a given scenario and then evaluates the algorithms using these hyperparameters in the same scenario. However, this protocol has significant shortcomings: it overestimates the CL capacity of algorithms and relies

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Towards the Use of Neural Networks for Influenza Prediction at Multiple Spatial Resolutions

Emily L. Aiken, Andre T. Nguyen, Mauricio Santillana · 2019 · arXiv

We introduce the use of a Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) for influenza prediction at the state- and city-level in the US, and experiment with the inclusion of real-time flu-related Internet search data. We find that a GRU has lower prediction error than current state-of-the-art methods for data-driven influenza prediction at time horizons of over two weeks. In contrast with other machine learning approaches, the inclusion of real-time Internet search data does not improve GRU predictions.

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEngineering

Neuro-MoBRE: Exploring Multi-subject Multi-task Intracranial Decoding via Explicit Heterogeneity Resolving

Di Wu, Yifei Jia, Siyuan Li et al. · 2025 · arXiv

Neurophysiological decoding, fundamental to advancing brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies, has significantly benefited from recent advances in deep learning. However, existing decoding approaches largely remain constrained to single-task scenarios and individual subjects, limiting their broader applicability and generalizability. Efforts towards creating large-scale neurophysiological foundation models have shown promise, but continue to struggle with significant challenges due to pervasive data heterogeneity across subjects and decoding tasks. Simply increasing model parameters and da