SU⁡(𝑁) symmetry is incompatible with the many-body localized (MBL) phase, even when strong disorder is present. However, recent studies have shown that finite-size SU⁡(2) systems exhibit nonergodic, subthermal behavior, characterized by the breakdown of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, and by the excited eigenstates entanglement entropy that is intermediate between area and volume law. In this paper, we extend previous studies of the SU⁡(2)-symmetric disordered Heisenberg model to larger systems, using the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (tDMRG) method. We simulate quench dynamics from weakly entangled initial states up to long times, finding robust subthermal behavior at stronger disorder. Although we find an increased tendency towards thermalization at larger system sizes, the subthermal regime persists at intermediate time scales, nevertheless, and therefore should be accessible experimentally. At weaker disorder, we observe signatures of thermalization; however, entanglement entropy exhibits slow sublinear growth, in contrast to conventional thermalizing systems. Furthermore, we study dynamics of the SU⁡(3)-symmetric disordered Heisenberg model. Similarly, strong disorder drives the system into subthermal regime, albeit thermalizing phase is broader compared to the SU⁡(2) case. Our findings demonstrate the robustness of the subthermal regime in spin chains with non-Abelian continuous symmetry, and are consistent with eventual thermalization at large system sizes and long time scales, suggested by previous studies.

Following a landmark court ruling in 2005, more than half of Germany’s universities started charging tuition fees, which were later abolished in a staggered manner. We exploit the fact that even students who were already enrolled had to start paying fees. We show that fees increase study effort and degree completion among these students. However, fees also decrease first-time university enrollment among high school graduates. Combining this enrollment impact with the effect on completion, we find that fees around the zero-price margin have only little effect on overall educational attainment. We conclude by discussing policies targeting the separate effect margins of fees and caution against a general abolition.

Across Northern Eurasia, reindeer have long shaped the socio-cultural fabric of hunter-fisher societies. Today, descendant communities continue multispecies lifeways, forming symbiotic relationships within boreal ecosystems. Reindeer, regarded as animate persons, exist as both herded and wild partners. While the dynamics of these communities have been widely studied, the smallest actors in this system—namely insects—have remained largely overlooked, particularly in discussions of reindeer domestication and archaeology. Expanding ontological perspectives and engaging with new narrative approaches open avenues for recognizing other animate beings as co-constructors of social, economic, and cultural systems. Traditional hunter-herding practices in the West Siberian and Northwest Mongolian taigas offer insights into early human-reindeer cooperation, domestication, and their archaeological traces. This study employs a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to examine how synanthropic insects—such as mosquitoes, midges, and horseflies—shape hunter-herder lifeways, despite their absence from the archaeological record. Fieldwork with Sel’kup, Khanty, and Tsaatan communities highlights the critical role of insects in herding and mobility patterns, influencing niche construction strategies. These case studies reveal new multispecies parameters that will enhance interpretations of the archaeological record.

The “model argument” against action-theories of causation is a reply to a strategy for avoiding the “argument of unmanipulable causes”. The critics follow the action-theorists in a certain shift of topic - leaving the explication debate towards one of justified assertion of causal claims - and end up at a wrong position concerning the role of practical knowledge for justifying causal claims about events that are not under technical control. Following them the justification would take the form of “analogy arguments“, which can not guarantee the truth of the conclusion in a non-circular way. Contrary to their position I present a reconstruction of causal inference in which practical knowledge about manipulation does play the role of a necessary condition for justifiying causal claims about unmanipulable relations

This paper answers Adorno's question, once asked in a lecture, about whether we, by forbidding the thought of the non-identical, fall in radically completed enlightenment back into the darkest form of mythology. In arguing for this in the question implied observation of enlightenment's fallback, the paper analyses Adorno's and Horkheimer's critique of enlightenment and its relapse due to excluding the non-identical, suggesting that emotions and memory represent this non-identical. As the darkest form of mythology Adorno is referring to is not to be understood as a myth itself but actually happened with the Holocaust, the paper then demonstrates how enlightenment, chiefly its exclusion of the non-identical, led to central conditions of the Holocaust that Adorno named ‘Auschwitz’. As enlightenment, according to Adorno, remains in its relapse, the paper finally discusses how his philosophy after Auschwitz advocates for the reintegration of the non-identical, mainly through the recollection of the past and the remembrance of nature within the subject.

Boron abundances and B isotopic compositions of well-characterized blueschists and eclogites from the Raspas Complex (Ecuador) were analyzed to improve the use of boron as a tracer for recycling at convergent margins. The MORB-type eclogite interacted with internally-derived fluids released from metabasalt during the transition from blueschist to eclogite, with input from sediments. During metasomatism, B was gradually leached from the MORB-type eclogites (decrease from 6 g/g to 1.5 g/g), and their B isotopic composition was driven to isotopically heavier values in the range of 7.4 to 3.4 . The B isotopic composition of the metasomatic fluid is estimated between and +1 . The isotopic composition of the least metasomatized MORB-type eclogite samples ( ) is considered close to the B isotopic composition of the dehydrated AOC in the case of Raspas at the stage of deepest subduction and most extensive dehydration. This constitutes a decrease in of approximately 10 from its likely pre-subduction AOC protolith. The blueschist experienced a type of high-pressure metasomatism that is distinct from the one that affected the MORB-type eclogites. The metasomatic fluids were internally-derived and released by metabasalt as well, but with more input from sediments. The metasomatic fluid had a B isotope signature of approximately 5.2 . The zoisite eclogite samples show a very distinct mineralogical and geochemical composition that records the highest degree of high-pressure metasomatic overprint. Their elemental and isotopic composition was thereby set to and . As demonstrated in previous studies, the high-pressure metasomatic fluid that caused the metasomatic overprint was mainly derived from– or interacted with– serpentinite, but had admixed components from metabasalts and metasediments. The B isotopic composition of the respective fluid is estimated at , which overlaps with the composition of most volcanic arc basalts. This study, therefore shows, that metasomatic fluids that migrated through the Raspas slab at a depth of 50–70km had a B isotopic composition between to +1 and were, thus, significantly heavier than that of the mantle.

Naturwissenschaftsdidaktische Forschungen, die auf Methoden der künstlichen Intelligenz (KI) und insbesondere des maschinellen Lernens (ML) zurückgreifen, stellen ein neues und dynamisches Feld dar. Vor dem Hintergrund vieler bereits vorliegender Arbeiten, bei denen Anwendungen im Bereich des Assessments oder der Evaluationen von ML-Modellen hinsichtlich ihrer Validität und Effektivität im Mittelpunkt stehen, argumentiert dieser Beitrag, dass zukünftige Forschung stärker das transformative Potenzial von ML für das Lehren und Lernen sowie für die Forschung selbst in den Blick nehmen sollte – ohne dabei ethische und erkenntnistheoretische Herausforderungen als Teil kritischer Reflexionen aus dem Blick zu verlieren. Anhand zweier Kontinuen, die durch die Antipoden „Grundlagen- und Praxisorientierung“ sowie „inkrementelle und disruptive Innovation“ aufgespannt werden, werden diese Perspektiven mittels vier beispielhafter Forschungsfelder zusammengeführt: Erstens „Unterricht individualisieren“, zweitens „Lernprozesse verstehen – durch physiologische Sensoren und multimodale Analysen“, drittens „qualitative und quantitative Daten integrieren“ und schließlich „mit künstlicher Intelligenz forschen“. Der Beitrag nutzt den Stand internationaler Forschungsarbeiten und naturwissenschaftsdidaktischer Problemstellungen, um das Potenzial und die kritische Reflexion von KI-Anwendungen für die Naturwissenschaftsdidaktiken weiter zu spezifizieren. Forschenden wird eine Orientierung im Forschungsbereich vorgeschlagen und wesentliche Herausforderungen für die Weiterentwicklung des Feldes werden beschrieben, die naturwissenschaftsdidaktische Forschungen im Bereich ML in den kommenden Jahren informieren könnten.

This paper studies resource making and the emergence of proto-institutions in Tafel Deutschland, an umbrella organization for more than 940 food banks or pantries in Germany, deploying a hermeneutical context model. Shedding light on value co-creation processes in the German Tafel field, we analyze how the activities and interpretations of or within Tafel organizations devoted to resource integration and resource making relate to their two missions and how their methods of dealing with conflict have led to the emergence of proto-institutions. The economic value co-created within in the Tafel field builds on the creation of social and ecological value. The context affects economic and social value co-created within the Tafel field differently: Whereas economic value rests on individual experience and perception, the social value resulting from the field actors’ activities is subject to dispute and defense.

Since 2002 the German government has promoted private retirement saving plans by means of special subsidies and tax incentives: the Riester scheme. This policy mainly targets low-income households. Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel, we scrutinize the impact of the Riester scheme on private savings. The introduction of the Riester scheme is treated as a natural experiment. Estimation results cast some doubts on the effectiveness of the Riester scheme and call for enhanced efforts to evaluate that policy.

Descriptions and analyses of citizens' or households' income have a long tradition in economics. A large body of research has recognized that levels of income and how income is distributed are important contributors to the wealth of nations. Within the broader context of income and its distribution, there has also been a considerable amount of research on the process underlying income distribution that is, income mobility. The relevance of income mobility is manifold. First of all, mobility is an indicator for an open society providing economic opportunities for everyone. As people are normally risk averse, they are interested in a steady income stream. This can be called the security aspect. Another facet of income mobility is the incentive aspect. Upward mobility provides incentives for successful economic activity as it is possible to move up the income ladder. If upward mobility offers the „carrot", downward mobility epitomizes the „stick" of economic activity. Downward mobility increases insecurity and insecurity is harmful to well-being. We use data covering the whole working lives of workers/employees to shed light on income mobility. This will result in more information about the adequacy of some assumptions of the life-cycle theory concerning the development of income over time – and especially on the inverse U-shape assumption of income profiles.

Welfare states redistribute both between individuals reducing annual inequality and over the life-cycle insuring against income risks. But studies measuring redistribution often focus only on a one-year period. Using German SOEP data from 1984 to 2009, long-term inequality over a 20-year period is computed and then decomposed into an inter-and intra-individual component. Results show that annual inequality is higher than long-term inequality, but redistribution is also larger from an annual perspective. In the long-term, the German welfare state clearly prioritizes insurance over redistribution. This gets even more pronounced at later stages of the life-cycle through the payment of social security pensions.