Papers

We present a hybrid lattice Hamiltonian truncation method that integrates the numerical renormalization group (NRG) with a truncated lattice integrable spectrum. The technique is tailored for generic deformations of integrable lattice models, where the NRG enables a controlled incorporation of high-energy states. The method extends the basis set more effectively and efficiently than brute-force truncation, meanwhile significantly reducing errors. We show its capability on two paradigmatic models: an Ising chain in a magnetic field and a quantum Ising ladder. The resulting dynamical structure factors accurately capture the essential low-energy physics, including the $E_8$ and $\mathcal{D}_8^{(1)}$ excitations of the former and later models, respectively, demonstrating the approach's computational efficiency and high performance.

We study vortex patterns of a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate rotating close to the centrifugal limit, treating the two signs of the contact interaction with the method each requires: for repulsion, a GPU-accelerated variational minimization with exact projection onto the Lowest Landau Level (LLL); for attraction, imaginary-time evolution of the full real-space Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation. For repulsive interactions, our approach reproduces Abrikosov vortex lattices, achieving quantitative alignment with Thomas-Fermi theory and recovering the Abrikosov constant $e^{\rm Ab}(1)\approx1.1596$, in close analogy with the vortex ordering of type-II superconductors. In the attractive regime, the rotating ground state carries no vortex lattice at any rotation frequency: the cloud contracts and collapses as $G\to -G_*$, where $G_*=\|Q\|_{L^2}^2\simeq11.70$, essentially independently of rotation. The only stationary vortex states we find are giant vortices, trapped vortex (Townes) solitons whose charge-$m$ sector collapses as $G\to -\|Q_m\|_{L^2}^2$ ($\|Q_m\|_{L^2}^2\simeq11.70,\,48.3,\,89.8,\,132.4$ for $m=0,1,2,3$), fixed by an equivariant Gagliardo-Nirenberg inequality and confirmed numerically up to the critical region. These findings provide a numerical benchmark for vortex formation and collapse in rotating two-dimensional quantum gases.

Modeling microstructural evolution at large strains requires mechanical formulations that remain thermodynamically consistent while capturing significant lattice rotations and transformation-induced stresses. However, most existing finite-strain microelasticity and phase-field approaches apply macroscopic boundary conditions heuristically, preventing proper stress relaxation and violating the Hill-Mandel work equivalence required for homogenization. These limitations can misrepresent stress states and transformation pathways under finite strains. Here a variationally consistent finite-strain microelasticity framework is presented that couples microscopic and macroscopic mechanical equilibrium through a single energy functional. The resulting Euler-Lagrange conditions, periodic micro-equilibrium and macroscopic stress balance, are solved using a staggered FFT-Newton algorithm that combines a spectral fixed-point update for local fields with a Newton step for the homogenized deformation gradient. The formulation accommodates general hyperelastic constitutive laws and arbitrary transformation gradients. Benchmarks demonstrate accurate recovery of small-strain Eshelby solutions and systematic nonlinear deviations at large dilatations. Applied to deformation twinning in magnesium, the framework reproduces lenticular morphology, stress redistribution, and faster lateral growth consistent with experiments. This approach establishes a rigorous and scalable foundation for finite-strain phase-field simulations of coherent transformations under general stress or mixed boundary conditions.

Lattice thermal conductivity ($\kappa_L$) is a key physical property governing heat transport in solids, with direct relevance to thermoelectrics, thermal barrier coatings, and heat management applications. However, while experimental determination of $\kappa_L$ is challenging, its theoretical calculation via ab initio methods particularly using density functional theory (DFT) is computationally intensive, often more demanding than electronic transport calculations by an order of magnitude. In this work, we present a machine learning (ML) approach to predict $\kappa_L$ with DFT-level accuracy over a wide temperature range (100-1000 K). Among various models trained on DFT-calculated data obtained from literature, the Extra Trees Regressor (ETR) yielded the best performance on log-scaled $\kappa_L$, achieving an average $R^2$ of 0.9994 and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.0466 $W\,m^{-1}\,K^{-1}$. The ETR model also generalized well to twelve previously unseen (randomly chosen) low and high $\kappa_L$ compounds with diverse space group symmetries, reaching an $R^2$ of 0.961 against DFT benchmarks. Notably, the model excels in predicting $\kappa_L$ for both low- and high-symmetry compounds, enabling efficient high-throughput screening. We also demonstrate this capability by screening ultralow and ultrahigh $\kappa_L$ candidates among 960 half-Heusler compounds and 60,000 ICSD compounds from the AFLOW database. This result shows reliability of model developed for screening of potential thermoelectric materials. At the end, we have tested model's prediction ability on systems that have experimental $\kappa_L$ available that shows model's ability to search material that has desirable experimental $\kappa_L$ for thermoelectric applications.

We investigate exciton confinement to a quantum wire in monolayer $\text{MoSe}_2$ where the confinement is achieved by a p-i-n junction. We employ an effective-mass exciton model and solve the problem numerically, reflecting device geometries found in experimental state-of-the-art set up. Our method allows us to investigate the entire spectrum of confined states. We show the emergence of quantum confinement and study the dependence of the confined states as a function of electrical gate voltages, which are experimentally tunable parameters. We find that the confined states can be divided into bright and dark states with the dark states having small but finite oscillator strengths. Their oscillator strengths are low enough that they have not yet been detected in experiments, whereas the spectrum of the bright exciton states reproduces recent experimental measurements. Our results provide insight into the theoretical background of confined exciton states beyond the ground state and pave the way for the development of new confinement schemes as well as avenues to access the previously not detected dark states.

Typically, scaling up the size of a system does not change the shape of its energy spectrum, other than making it denser. Exceptions, however, occur in the new phenomenon of non-Hermitian skin criticality, where closely competing generalized Brillouin zone (GBZ) solutions for non-Hermitian state accumulation give rise to anomalously scaling complex spectra. In this work, we discover that such non-Hermitian criticality can generically emerge from stochasticity in the lattice bond orientation, a surprising phenomenon only possible in 2D or beyond. Marked by system size-dependent amplification rate, it can be physically traced to the proliferation of feedback loops arising from excess local non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) accumulation induced by structural disorder. While weak disorder weakens the amplification as intuitively anticipated, stronger disorder enigmatically strengthens the amplification almost universally, scaling distinctly from conventional critical system. By representing cascades of local excess NHSE as ensembles of effectively coupled chains, we analytically derived a critical GBZ that predicts how state amplification scales with the system size and disorder strength, highly consistent with empirical observations. Our new mechanism for disordered-facilitated amplification applies generically to structurally perturbed non-Hermitian lattices with broken reciprocity, and would likely find applications in non-Hermitian sensing through various experimentally mature meta-material platforms.

Recent photoelectron spectroscopy of B$_{80}^-$ was interpreted in terms of a fullerene-like cage structure. During our systematic investigation of medium-sized boron clusters, we identified a $D_{3h}$-symmetric bilayer isomer whose simulated photoelectron spectrum reproduces the principal features of the experimental photoelectron spectrum within 0.04 eV. The bilayer is energetically competitive with previously proposed structures and remains dynamically stable up to 1400 K according to ab initio molecular dynamics and vibrational analyses. Its electronic structure exhibits a 0.72 eV HOMO-LUMO gap and strong interlayer aromaticity, reflected by a NICS(0) value of $-44.3$ ppm in the interlayer B-B bonding region. These findings reveal a stable bilayer motif in the B$_{80}$ energy landscape and support its viability as a possible alternative structural assignment for the experimentally observed B$_{80}^-$.

In this study, we attempt to characterize the shape of three different types of grains commonly used in the iron and steel-making industry, namely pellet, sinter and iron ore lump. We choose particles over the entire size ranges used in industrial-scale blast furnace and consider two different size ranges of pellet particles and four different size ranges for sinter and iron ore lumps. We perform image analysis to calculate size and shape-related properties of the grains. We select some of the common length scales used to measure the size of the particles and categorize them in different classes. We show that the length scales of a particular category class are well correlated with each other. We identify the independent, uncorrelated length scales for the particles from different categories. Using these uncorrelated length scales, we define different shape descriptors and obtain the distribution of these shape descriptors for each component of the blast furnace feed. Our image analysis results show that the cumulative distribution curves for these shape descriptors turn out to be nearly independent of the size range for a given type of material. Our study identifies the three key shape descriptors that are required to characterize the shape of the blast furnace feed. Two of these shape descriptors, namely the aspect ratio and the circularity, have been considered important by the researchers earlier as well. The third shape descriptor, the average contact eccentricity to the projected particle diameter ratio, usually not considered to be an important shape descriptor in previous studies, is of high relevance for Discrete Element Method simulations of granular materials.

Twin-wire laser directed energy deposition (TW-LDED) provides a promising route for alloying and fabrication of compositionally graded structures. However, inherent multiparameter coupling in twin-wire systems critically exacerbates both process instabilities and compositional inhomogeneity. This unresolved issue escalates into a fundamental technological bottleneck, as the underlying physical mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study developed a high-fidelity multi-physics and multiphase simulation framework coupled with experimental validation to reveal thermal-fluid behavior and heat-mass transfer mechanisms in TW-LDED using Inconel 718 and SS316L fine wires. Three distinct transition modes were identified: twin-wire melt droplet, twin-wire liquid bridge, and droplet-bridge mixed transitions, with the twin-wire liquid bridge regime delivering optimal stability and uniform mixing. Parametric analysis demonstrates that increasing wire feeding speed or decreasing wire initial height promotes stable liquid bridge formation, while small laser spots at low feeding speeds induce excessive volumetric energy density and bridge instability. Simulation and single-track experiments confirm that liquid bridge transitions reduce dimensional fluctuations by 85% while enhancing compositional homogeneity. Conversely, the melt droplet-bridge transition mode creates periodic flow switching and compositional discontinuities along the scan direction. Finally, a 60 mm functionally graded ring was successfully fabricated using optimized parameters, achieving uniform elemental distribution in the transition zone without significant segregation, validating the feasibility of TW-LDED for functionally graded components.

We theoretically investigate the effects of time-dependent electromagnetic fields on frustrated magnets with the spatial inversion symmetry. Two types of external-field setups are considered: One is a circularly polarized electromagnetic field and the other is a combination of a circularly polarized electric field and a static magnetic field. The system is modeled by a classical frustrated Heisenberg model on a triangular lattice, whose ground state is a single-$Q$ spiral spin configuration. The effects of irradiated electric and magnetic fields are taken into account by the inverse Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction and the Zeeman coupling, respectively, without heating effects. By numerically solving the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation, we find that the two field configurations lead to distinct skyrmion crystal (SkX) phases and their associated topological phase transitions: in the former setup, SkXs composed of skyrmions with skyrmion numbers of one and two with opposite signs emerge, whereas in the latter setup, SkXs with the same sign appear. The stabilization mechanisms of these SkXs are accounted for by the competition among electromagnetic-field-induced chiral DM interactions, electric-field-induced three-spin interactions, and the Zeeman coupling based on the high-frequency expansion within the Floquet formalism. Furthermore, for the latter setup, we find that the stability region of the SkX phase varies significantly depending on the timing of the application of the circularly polarized electric field and the static magnetic field. Our findings would broaden the possible routes to generate and control SkXs by time-dependent electromagnetic fields, advancing both the theoretical comprehension and experimental control of topological spin crystals.

High-harmonic generation (HHG) in two-dimensional materials offers a compelling route toward compact extreme ultraviolet sources and probing electron dynamics on the attosecond scale. However, achieving precise control over the emission and disentangling the complex interplay between intraband and interband quantum pathways remains a central challenge. Here, we demonstrate through first-principles simulations that HHG in monolayer WS2 can be subjected to precise, complementary control by combining all-optical two-color laser fields with mechanical strain engineering. This dual-mode strategy provides distinct, orthogonal control over harmonic yield, polarization, and spectral features. We reveal that sculpting the two-color field's relative phase provides a sub-femtosecond switch for the quantum coherence of electron-hole pairs, thereby optimizing harmonic emission. Crucially, we uncover that tensile strain modulates the total harmonic yield and specifically amplifies the perpendicular harmonic component by nearly a factor of two. This enhancement arises through a dual mechanism - while strain-modified band dispersion enhances the intraband current, a significant reshaping of the Berry curvature (BC) substantially increases the anomalous velocity contribution to the interband response. This quantum geometric effect manifests as a robust, monotonic dependence of the harmonic yield on strain and a significant amplification of the perpendicularly polarized harmonics, providing a clear experimental signature for probing quantum geometric effects. Our findings establish a versatile framework for optimizing solid-state HHG and introduce a powerful all-optical method to map strain and quantum geometric properties of materials, positioning monolayer WS2 as a model system for exploring attosecond physics at the nexus of bulk and atomic scales.

The discovery of topological phases has ushered in a new era of condensed matter physics and revealed a variety of natural and artificial materials. They obey the bulk-boundary correspondence (BBC), which guarantees the emergence of boundary states with nonzero topological invariants in the bulk. Widespread attention has been paid to extending topological phases to nonlinear and non-Hermitian systems. However, the BBC and topological invariants of non-Hermitian nonlinear systems remain largely unexplored. Here, we establish a complete BBC and topological characterization of the topological phases in a class of non-Hermitian nonlinear-eigenvalue systems by introducing an auxiliary system. We restore the BBC broken by non-Hermiticity via employing the generalized Brillouin zone on the auxiliary system. Remarkably, we discover that the interplay between non-Hermiticity and nonlinearity creates an exotic complex-band topological phase that coexists with the real-band topological phase. Our results enrich the family of nonlinear topological phases and lay a foundation for exploring novel topological physics in metamaterial systems.

Zigzag edges of graphene have long been predicted to exhibit magnetic electronic state near the Fermi level, which can cause spin-related phenomena and offer unique potentials for graphene-based spintronics. However, the magnetic conduction channels along these edges have yet been reported experimentally. Here, we report the observation on signatures of magnetism in zigzag graphene nanoribbons (zGNRs) embedded in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). The in-plane bonding with BN can stabilize the edges of zGNRs, and thus enable a direct probing of the intrinsic magnetism. Firstly, the presence of magnetism of a zGNR was confirmed by scanning NV center microscopy. And then, zGNR was fabricated into a transistor with a width of ~9 nm wide and a channel length of sub-50 nm. By performing magneto-transport measurements, Fabry-Pérot interference patterns were observed in the transistor at 4 Kelvin, which indicates a coherent transport through the channel. A large magnetoresistance of ~175 {\Omega}, corresponding to a ratio of ~1.3 %, was observed at the same temperature. More importantly, such magneto-transport signal is highly anisotropic on the magnetic field direction, and its appearance extends well above room temperature. All these evidences corroborate the existence of robust magnetic ordering in the edge state of zGNR. The findings on zGNR embedded in h-BN provide an effective platform for the future exploration of graphene-based spintronic devices.

Motivated by recent experimental breakthroughs toward a realization of a solid-state Thorium-229 nuclear clock, we review the technology, basic physics motivation, and limitations of the present generation of atomic clocks. We then discuss prospects for a new generation of clocks based on an anomalous low-energy 8.4 eV nuclear transition in Th-229, with an extremely long lifetime of 641 seconds when doped into CaF crystals. To realize such solid-state nuclear clocks one must confront basic nuclear, AMO, and solid state physics questions. Key challenges are understanding and minimizing the effects of inhomogeneous broadening, associated with strains and electric field gradients due to both the Th dopants and intrinsic crystal defects.

Lead (Pb) is a typical low-melting-point ductile metal and serves as an important model material in the study of dynamic responses. Under shock-wave loading, its dynamic mechanical behavior comprises two key phenomena: plastic deformation and shock induced phase transitions. The underlying mechanisms of these processes are still poorly understood. Revealing these mechanisms remains challenging for experimental approaches. Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations are an alternative theoretical tool for studying dynamic responses, as they capture atomic-scale mechanisms such as defect evolution and deformation pathways. However, due to the limited accuracy of empirical interatomic potentials, the reliability of previous NEMD studies is questioned. Using our newly developed machine learning potential for Pb-Sn alloys, we revisited the microstructure evolution in response to shock loading under various shock orientations. The results reveal that shock loading along the [001] orientation of Pb exhibits a fast, reversible, and massive phase transition and stacking fault evolution. The behavior of Pb differs from previous studies by the absence of twinning during plastic deformation. Loading along the [011] orientation leads to slow, irreversible plastic deformation, and a localized FCC-BCC phase transition in the Pitsch orientation relationship. This study provides crucial theoretical insights into the dynamic mechanical response of Pb, offering a theoretical input for understanding the microstructure-performance relationship under extreme conditions.

ZBLAN glass is highly sensitive to thermal and mechanical stimuli, yet the associated surface chemical changes remain poorly understood. X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) measurements were performed on multiple ZBLAN samples representing distinct structural states: fully amorphous, incipiently crystalline, and highly crystalline, produced through thermal treatments at 250C and 350C and vibration-assisted processing at 400C under low (L2) and high (H5) vibration levels. High-resolution F 1s, Zr 3d, Hf 4f, Ba 3d, La 3d, and Na 1s spectra show progressive peak sharpening and intensity enhancement with increasing temperature and vibration, indicating reduced surface disorder and greater local structural ordering. The most pronounced changes occur under high vibration at 400C. No binding-energy shifts were detected, confirming that all elements retain their expected oxidation states and that the observed evolution reflects structural rather than chemical changes. These results provide direct evidence that thermomechanical input enhances surface ordering in ZBLAN and clarify its role in crystallization behavior relevant to infrared optical applications.

The time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) in real space is fundamental to understanding the dynamics of many-electron quantum systems, with applications ranging from quantum chemistry to condensed matter physics and materials science. However, solving the TDSE for complex fermionic systems remains a significant challenge, particularly due to the need to capture the time-evolving many-body correlations, while the antisymmetric nature of fermionic wavefunctions complicates the function space in which these solutions must be represented. We propose a general-purpose neural network framework for solving the real-space TDSE, Fermionic Antisymmetric Spatio-Temporal Network, which treats time as an explicit input alongside spatial coordinates, enabling a unified spatiotemporal representation of complex, antisymmetric wavefunctions for fermionic systems. This approach formulates the TDSE as a global optimization problem, avoiding step-by-step propagation and supporting highly parallelizable training. The method is demonstrated on five benchmark problems, achieving excellent agreement with reference solutions across all cases. These results demonstrate the method's accuracy and flexibility within the bound-state manifold across various dimensions and interaction regimes. While the current localized Ansatz inherently restricts the description of extensive ionization and continuum states, the method demonstrates the capability to stably simulate coherent multi-electron dynamics over extended time windows. Our framework offers a highly expressive alternative to traditional basis-dependent or mean-field methods, opening new possibilities for ab initio simulations of time-dependent quantum systems, with applications in quantum dynamics, molecular control, and ultrafast spectroscopy.

It is known that the usual form of the Ehrenfest theorem (ET), which couples the motion of the center of mass (COM) of the one-dimensional (1D) wave function to the respective classical equation of motion, is not valid in the case of the potential box, confined by the zero boundary conditions. A modified form of the ET was proposed for this case, which includes an effective force originating from the interaction of the 1D quantum particle with the box edges. In this work, we derive an amended ET for the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE), which includes the cubic nonlinear term, as well as for the 2D square-shaped potential box. In the latter case, we derive an amended COM equation of motion with an effective force exerted by the edges of the rectangular box, while the nonlinear term makes no direct contribution to the 1D and 2D versions of the ET. Nonetheless, the nonlinearity affects the amended ET through the edge-generated force. As a result, the nonlinearity of the underlying GPE can make the COM motion in the potential box irregular. The validity of the amended ET for the 1D and 2D GPEs with the respective potential boxes is confirmed by the comparison of numerical simulations of the underlying GPE and the corresponding amended COM equation of motion. The reported findings are relevant to the ongoing experiments carried out for atomic Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in the box potentials.

Transport properties of single- and two-site mesoscopic quantum Hall (QH) circuits at high transparencies can be described in terms of the lowest-order backscattering processes, enabling a mapping to the boundary sine-Gordon model. We show that this description breaks down in circuits with four or more sites, where higher-order backscattering processes become relevant and qualitatively modify the low-energy physics, while remaining exactly marginal in three-site geometries. Focusing on the four-site circuit, we derive an effective low-energy theory that captures the resulting interaction-driven physics and reveal the emergence of unique quantum-critical points. In the vicinity of these critical points, we obtain universal conductance and scaling behavior and establish the robustness of the associated non-Fermi liquid physics. We further introduce tunneling in multichannel multi-site QH circuits and propose a promising route for realizing diverse quantum-critical phenomena. We show that a boundary sine-Gordon description can be restored in multichannel multi-site QH circuits by appropriately looping selected edge channels, a procedure that is experimentally feasible. Finally, we analyze the non-equilibrium heating effects relevant to transport measurements in QH circuits. Altogether, our results establish multi-site QH circuits as a versatile and highly controllable platform for simulating interaction-driven quantum critical phenomena.

Superconductivity at oxide interfaces has intrigued researchers for decades, yet the underlying pairing mechanism remains elusive. Here we demonstrate that proximity to a ferroelectric quantum critical point dramatically enhances interfacial superconductivity in KTaO3. By precisely tuning KTaO3 to its quantum critical composition through 0.8% niobium doping, we achieve a near-doubling of the superconducting transition temperature, reaching 2.9 K. Remarkably, a dome-shaped carrier density dependence emerges exclusively at the quantum critical point, contrasting sharply with the linear scaling observed in undoped interfaces. Our findings establish ferroelectric quantum criticality as a powerful mechanism for enhancing superconductivity and provide compelling evidence for soft-phonon-mediated pairing in these systems.

Periodically driven many-body systems generally heat towards a featureless 'infinite-temperature' state. As an alternative to uniform heating in a clean system, here we establish a Floquet superheating regime, where fast heating nucleates at ”hot spots" generated by rare fluctuations in the local energy with respect to an appropriate effective Hamiltonian. Striking macroscopic consequences include exceptionally long-lived prethermalization and non-ergodic bimodal distributions of macroscopic observables. Superheating is predicated on a heating rate depending strongly on the local fluctuation; in our example, this is supplied by a sharp state-selective spin-echo, where the energy absorption is strongly suppressed for low-energy states, while thermal fluctuations open up excessive heating channels. A simple phenomenological theory is developed to show the existence of a critical droplet size, which incorporates heating by the driving field as well as the heat current out of the droplet. Our results shine light on a new heating mechanism and suggest new routes towards stabilizing non-equilibrium phases of matter in driven systems.

Supplying spare parts from Earth for in space repair is economically prohibitive and logistically slow, posing a major barrier to sustainable space operations. As lunar and Martian missions accelerate in the coming decades, the feasibility of in-situ repair methods, particularly laser based welding, must be rigorously evaluated. The micro scale physics governing weld quality are fundamentally altered by variations in gravity and ambient pressure, yet their coupled influence across different welding regimes remains poorly understood. This work introduces a fully open-source thermo-fluid-microstructure modeling framework with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and cellular automata (CA) to quantify how gravitational conditions reshape weld pool behavior across multiple welding regimes and spatial scales. The framework further enables prediction of the resulting microstructure from imposed process parameters, providing an accessible pathway for future research in in space manufacturing (ISM). As a demonstration, the article analyzes laser welding of Al6061 across three process regimes (conduction, transition, and keyhole) and four gravitational environments (Earth, Moon, Mars, and International Space Station (ISS)). Analysis reveals that reduced gravity suppresses buoyancy-driven convection, thereby altering melt pool geometries. Vacuum conditions increase laser energy deposition, while microgravity promotes equiaxed grain formation via reduced melt convection. The framework captures keyhole dynamics, thermal histories, and grain morphologies with high fidelity, validated against experimental data. These findings establish process microstructure relationships critical for reliable metallic fabrication in space and provide a reproducible platform for future in-space manufacturing research.

In this paper, we describe a uniform and standardized approach for analytically verifying the stability of isotropic, incompressible hyperelastic material models. Here, we address stability as fulfillment of the Hill condition – i.e.\ the positive definiteness of the material modulus in the Kirchhoff stress – log–strain relation. For incompressible material behavior, all mathematically and mechanically possible deformations lie within a range bounded, on the one hand, by uniaxial states and, on the other hand, by biaxial states; shear {deformation} states lie in between. This becomes particularly clear when the possible states are represented in the invariant plane. This very representation is now also used to visualize the regions of unstable material behavior depending on the selected strain energy function and the respective data set of material parameters. This demonstrates how, for some constellations of energy functions, with appropriate selection or calibration of parameters, stable and unstable regions can be observed. If such cases occur, it is no longer legitimate to use them to initiate, for example, finite element simulations. This is particularly striking when, for example, a fit appears stable in uniaxial tension, but the same parameter set for shear states results in unstable behavior without this being specifically investigated. The presented approach can reveal simple indicators for this.

In this paper, we formulate a geometric theory of the mechanics of arterial growth. An artery is modeled as a finite-length thick shell that is made of an incompressible nonlinear anisotropic solid. An initial radially-symmetric distribution of finite radial and circumferential eigenstrains is assumed. Bulk growth is assumed to be isotropic. A novel framework is proposed to describe the time evolution of growth, governed by a competition between the elastic energy and a growth energy. The governing equations are derived through a two-potential approach and using the Lagrange-d'Alembert principle. An isotropic dissipation potential is considered, which is assumed to be convex in the rate of growth function. Several numerical examples are presented that demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in predicting the evolution of arterial growth and the intricate interplay among eigenstrains, residual stresses, elastic energy, growth energy, and dissipation potential. A distinctive feature of the model is that the growth variable is not constrained by an explicit upper bound; instead, growth naturally approaches a steady-state value as a consequence of the intrinsic energetic competition.

In a finite-time continuous phase transition, topological defects emerge as the system undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking. The Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicts how the defect density scales with the quench rate. During such processes, dissipation also arises as the system fails to adiabatically follow the control protocol near the critical point. Quantifying and minimizing this dissipation is fundamentally relevant to nonequilibrium thermodynamics and practically important for energy-efficient computing and devices. However, there are no prior experimental measurements of dissipation, or the optimization of control protocols to reduce it in many-body systems. In addition, it is an open question to what extent dissipation is correlated with the formation of defects. Here, we directly measure the dissipation generated during the voltage-driven Freedericksz transition of a liquid crystal with a sensitivity equivalent to a ~10 nanokelvin temperature rise. We observe Kibble-Zurek scaling of dissipation and its breakdown, both in quantitative agreement with existing theoretical works. We further implement a fully automated in-situ optimization approach that discovers more optimal driving protocols, reducing dissipation by a factor of three relative to a simple linear protocol.

Under high cylindrical confinement, segments of ring polymers can be localized along the long axis of the cylinder by introducing internal loops within the ring polymer. The emergent organization of the polymer segments occurs because of the entropic repulsion between internal loops. These principles were used to identify the underlying mechanism of bacterial chromosome organization. Here, we outline functional principles associated with entropic interactions, leading to specific orientations of the ring polymers relative to their neighbors in the cylindrical confinement. We achieve this by modifying the ring polymer topology by creating internal loops of two different sizes within the polymer, and thus create an asymmetry. This allows us to strategically manipulate polymer topology such that segments of a polymer face certain other segments of a neighboring polymer. The polymers therefore behave as if they are subjected to an `effective' entropic interaction reminiscent of interactions between Ising spins. But this emergent spatial and orientational organization is not enthalpy-driven. We consider a bead spring model of flexible polymers with only repulsive excluded volume interactions between the monomers. The polymers entropically repel each other and occupy different halves of the cylinder, and moreover, the adjacent polymers preferentially re-orient themselves along the axis of the cylinder. We further substantiate our observations by free energy calculations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of the emergence of effective orientational interactions by harnessing entropic interactions in flexible polymers. The principles elucidated here could be relevant to understand the interactions between different sized loops within a large chromosome.

We reconsider real-space renormalization for the two-dimensional Ising model, following the path traced out by Wilson in Sect. VI of his 1975 Reviews of Modern Physics. In that reference, Wilson considerably extended the Kadanoff decimation procedure towards a possibly rigorous construction of a real-space scale-invariant hamiltonian. Wilson's construction has, to the best of our knowledge, never been fully understood and thus neither reproduced nor generalized. In the present work, we use Monte Carlo sampling in combination with thermodynamic integration in order to retrace Wilson's computation for a real-space renormalization with a number of terms in the hamiltonian. We elaborate on the connection of real-space renormalization with the fermion sign problem and discuss to which extent our Monte Carlo procedure actually implements Wilson's program from half a century ago.

The breakdown of the quasiparticle approximation (QPA) for phonons in strongly anharmonic materials necessitates advanced first-principles frameworks for accurate lattice dynamics and thermal transport predictions. We develop a comprehensive beyond-quasiparticle approximation (BQPA) approach incorporating both three- (3ph) and four-phonon (4ph) interactions and apply it to investigate lattice thermal conductivity ($\kappa_{\rm L}$) in MgO, PbTe, and AgCl – materials that span a broad spectrum of anharmonicity, from weak to severe anharmonic regimes with overdamped phonons. We reveal that while BQPA consistently increases $\kappa_{\rm L}$ relative to QPA due to phonon softening when considering only 3ph interactions, the inclusion of additional 4ph interactions hardens the phonon spectrum and suppresses this enhancement, bringing BQPA and QPA predictions into close agreement via subtle spectral competition effects across all three compounds. These findings highlight that accurate modeling of $\kappa_{\rm L}$ in strongly anharmonic materials requires treating both full phonon spectral function and higher-order anharmonicity on equal footing. Our work establishes a systematic framework for modeling thermal transport in systems with overdamped phonons and provides critical insights for materials design beyond the limits of conventional phonon transport theory.

We study the process of opinion formation in an Ising social network of scientific collaborations. The network is undirected. An Ising spin is associated with each network node being oriented up (red) or down (blue). Certain nodes carry fixed, opposite opinions whose influence propagates over the other spins, which are flipped according to the majority-influence opinion of neighbors of a given spin during the asynchronous Monte Carlo process. The amplitude influence of each spin is self-consistently adapted, and a flip occurs only if this majority influence exceeds a certain conviction threshold. All non-fixed spins are initially randomly distributed, with half of them oriented up and half down. Such a system can be viewed as a model of elite influence, coming from the fixed spins, on the opinions of the crowd of non-fixed spins. We show that a phase transition occurs as the amplitude influence of the crowd spins increases: the dominant opinion shifts from that of the elite nodes to a phase in which the crowd spins' opinion becomes dominant and the elite can no longer impose their views.

The excitability property of spiking neurons describes their capability to output an action potential as a real-time response to an input synaptic excitation current and is central to the event-based neuromorphic computing paradigm. The spiking mechanism is analysed in a representative ultra-low-power analog neuron from the circuit literature. Relying on conventional SPICE simulations compatible with industrial transistor compact models, we establish a excitation criterion, quantified either in terms of critical supplied charge or membrane potential threshold. Only the latter is found intrinsic to the neuron, i.e. independent of the input stimulus. Rigorous analysis of the nonlinear neuron dynamics provides insight but still needs to be explored further, as well as the effect of the intrinsic noise.