Papers

We report the demonstration and analysis by combined scanning-tunneling-microscopy and optical microspectroscopy of a 2D phase change experienced by a self-assembled zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) monolayer adsorbed on graphene. To probe the intrinsic properties of individual ZnPc molecules, they are spatially confined within the pores of a self-assembled 2D matrix. This confinement allows us to track a phase change induced by annealing, which we discuss in terms of a planar-square to shuttlecock molecular transition. We show that after annealing of the adsorbed ZnPc, the exposition of Zn atoms to reactants in a supernatant solution is improved, for example, for metal-ligand formation towards 3D self-assembly.

Nonreciprocal transport is generally observed in superconductors in which time reversal and inversion symmetries are simultaneously broken. This effect, which may become one of the backbones for future superconducting electronics, arises because of asymmetric vortex transport in a magnetic field. However, vortex transport is also intrinsically dissipative and limited in speed. Here, we report on the discovery of ultrafast non-reciprocal transport in centrosymmetric superconductors. For NbN films biased with a quasi-DC supercurrent, picosecond current pulses with the same sign as the bias experience resistive impedance, whereas pulses of opposite polarity encounter an inductive response. Strikingly, the effect is at least three orders of magnitude faster than in conventional superconducting diodes, limited only by ultrafast current-induced depairing. We demonstrate rectification of a 100 GHz signal, with dissipation levels of a few fJ per cycle. We foresee potential for superconducting logic elements, operating at THz bit rates with aJ energy dissipation per operation.

Kubo formulae play a central role in modern spintronics and condensed matter physics, serving as the foundational ground for studying transport responses in the linear regime. In this work, we propose a reformulation of the widely used Kubo-Bastin decompositions that eliminates the need for numerical energy integration. By performing these integrations analytically for generic periodic systems, our approach significantly reduces computational cost and simplifies the calculation of transport coefficients, while maintaining a clear distinction between the relevant Fermi-surface and Fermi-sea transport components. Our formulation suggests that the Fermi-surface term can be attributed to a pure intraband contribution. In contrast to widely used energy integration free expressions that are strictly limited to zero temperature, the present formulation remains valid at arbitrary temperatures.

Optical microcavities have emerged as a powerful platform for emulating topological phases challenging to realize in conventional materials, offering precise control over dispersion, light confinement, and interactions. Among them, liquid crystal microcavities (LCMCs) offer exceptional tunability at room temperature, enabling voltage-controlled polarisation splitting, photonic spin-orbit coupling, and photonic potentials generated by self-assembled textures, such as cholesteric torons and uniform lying helix (ULH). Here, we design a LCMC hosting a dimerized ULH texture and show that the corresponding photonic potential describes two coupled Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains with orthogonal linear polarisations, acting as an effective pseudospin degree of freedom. The applied voltage tunes the interchain coupling, enabling polarisation-dependent interactions. These results establish LCMCs as a versatile platform for tunable synthetic topological Hamiltonians.

Altermagnets have recently attracted considerable interest due to their unique symmetry-governed spintronic properties. Here, we investigate phonon-induced magnon spin currents in a two-dimensional altermagnet. Starting from a microscopic theory of the coupled magnon-phonon system, we derive the nonequilibrium magnon distribution generated by selective phonon excitations. We show that the resulting spin currents exhibit a pronounced d-wave symmetry with respect to the phonon momentum. Moreover, the spin current along the altermagnetic directions can be completely reversed by tuning the phonon frequency. These findings establish altermagnets as promising platforms for realizing highly tunable, phonon-driven coherent terahertz magnon spin currents.

Magnonic information processing uses Kerr-type four-magnon anharmonicity to bound parametrically driven excitations. Here we show that this anharmonicity is constrained by material and mode properties. For the uniform mode of a saturated ferrimagnet, the Holstein–Primakoff reduction gives $U=\omega_a/(2N_{\rm eff}\Omega)$, where $\omega_a$ is the anisotropy-field frequency, $\Omega$ the mode frequency, and $N_{\rm eff}$ the net spin content fixed by saturation magnetization and mode volume. Requiring the drive to exceed Gilbert damping while keeping the saturated occupation below one gives $\alpha N_{\rm eff}<\omega_a/\Omega$, reducing to $N_{\rm eff}<1/\alpha$ at $\Omega=\omega_a$. We test this criterion for Co-doped yttrium iron garnet using Lindblad calculations with thermal operators. Thermal stability permits low-damping garnet at 50 GHz ($\alpha<9.7\times10^{-5}$) and 200 GHz ($\alpha<3.9\times10^{-4}$), but this is not sufficient: the admissible drive window is nearly adiabatic and four orders of magnitude weaker than required. For a $20\times20\times10$ nm$^3$ cell, $U=6.6\times10^{-5}$, three orders below the range showing Fock-state confinement. One mechanism survives: the pair-phase transfer coefficient remains $-1.000$ down to $U=0.01$, with phase deviations of $22.4^\circ$–$40.7^\circ$ ordered by thermal occupation. These results give a quantitative materials criterion for nonlinear magnonic devices and identify phase encoding as the mechanism accessible to a garnet film.

Using the quantum effective action in the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, we derive quantum-thermal corrections to the semiclassical dynamics of a dissipative system described by a macroscopic degree of freedom. We discuss the connection with the Ehrenfest theorem and, within the local potential approximation, obtain the corrections in closed form for arbitrary temperature and damping, showing that as the temperature increases, they cross over from purely quantum to purely thermal. In the low-temperature and weak-damping regime, corrections are set by the zero-point energy of fluctuations evaluated at the classical underdamped frequency, closely paralleling the conservative case, which allows us to go to higher order in the derivative expansion. We apply these general results to the resistively and capacitively shunted superconducting Josephson junction and to an elongated bosonic junction, where corrections can reach the percent level under realistic conditions.

Absence of local conserved quantities, or nonintegrability, is often assumed when discussing various phenomena in quantum many-body systems, such as thermalization and transport. However, no concrete proof of this property is known in electron–phonon coupled systems, a typical setting for condensed matter physics. In this paper, we show that the one-dimensional Holstein model has no nontrivial local conserved quantities other than the Hamiltonian itself and the total fermion number operator. We further show that the absence of nontrivial local conserved quantities also holds for the more general Holstein–Hubbard model. We also establish the absence of nontrivial local conserved quantities in these models on higher-dimensional hypercubic lattices. Our result has accomplished an advance in nonintegrability proofs by expanding their scope to systems in which particles with different statistical properties are mixed.

Understanding the relationship between morphology and performance in organic solar cells is essential for developing devices that are both high performing and resilient to aging. This work introduces a unique method capable of calculating the current-voltage (JV) curve of complex heterojunction morphologies containing up to five phases (donor amorphous, donor crystalline, acceptor amorphous, acceptor crystalline, mixed amorphous) with a very low computation time using morphology-aware descriptors of light absorption, exciton dissociation, non-geminate recombination and free charge carrier mobilities. The method is validated against Monte Carlo and 3D drift-diffusion simulations and applied to P3HT:PCBM and PM6:Y6 systems, shedding light on the physical compromises encountered to optimize device performance and lifetime. Finally, we show that the morphology-performance relationship is dependent on the materials system studied.

The polymorphism of organic/metal interfaces influences many of their properties. As a result, a host of contemporary research focuses on analyzing the factors which are pertinent for modifying polymorphism. In this work, we elucidate how the lattice constant of the underlying lattice affects the energetic landscape of adsorbate monolayers for the model system of tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) on coinage metal surfaces with varying lattice constants. In particular, we focus on how the adsorbateadsorbate and the adsorbate-substrate interaction are affected when increasing the lattice constant and changing the surface chemistry. Based on these investigations, we show that the adsorbate-substrate interaction for some adsorption geometries can change significantly with the lattice constant. In addition, due to a transition from repulsive to attractive adsorbate-adsorbate interactions, polymorphs with tight packing become more favorable, if the lattice constant is increased, resulting in a lattice-constant-based phase transition.

In glass-forming liquids, structural dynamics are governed by configurational entropy and temperature, with dielectric relaxation time scaling alongside structural relaxation time as described by the Adam-Gibbs (AG) model. Under Edwards's athermal statistical thermodynamics, a modified AG law similarly governs granular matter, provided that granular temperature and configurational entropy are appropriately defined. This study investigates whether variations in the structural relaxation of granular systems can be probed via thermally activated processes, specifically electric charge hopping and trapping. By progressively reducing the volume of graphite powder to vary its packing fraction, we estimated relative configurational entropy and granular temperature from volumetric data, while evaluating electrical conductivity and capacity via impedance spectroscopy. We demonstrate that the logarithm of the dielectric relaxation time, derived from complex impedance, scales with granular temperature and entropy across both loose and compact states. Consequently, changes in the complex impedance resulting from packing fraction variations are tuned by granule configuration, strictly adhering to an AG-like relationship for thermal systems. These findings establish dielectric spectroscopy as a viable, non-destructive tool for tracing configurational dynamics in granular matter, analogous to its established use in polymers and glass formers.

When we consider discretization of continuous probability distributions, it inevitably induces irreversible geometric distortion of local measure on the discretized support. While such discretziation-induced distortion is extrinsic to information geometry (IG) alone, we recently demonstrate that the discretization cost can be naturally characterized by the standard Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence between continuous distributions as expectation of their infinitesimal parameter variations. The framework is based on the correspondence between optimal transport (OT) and IG, primarily requring the selected parameters directly identifiable with support coordinates. The present work extends the framework to more generalized parametrization theta, particularly the Jacobian between theta and support coordinates is rank-deficient, which generally results in breaking down the interpretation of the discretization-induced costs as information-geometric quantities. To address the problem, we here introduce an orthogonal decomposition of the second-moment tensor onto linear subspace for the covariance matrices generated by parameter fluctuations, based on Frobenius projection. The decomposition naturally separates the discretization cost into observable and unobservable components relative to the chosen parametrization. The present formulation provides a geometric framework for analyzing partial observability of discretization-induced transport-information costs. The present framework thus clarifies the role of parametrization-dependent information loss.

Förster energy transfer underpins modern photonics, yet establishing an analogous vibrational pathway in the mid-infrared (MIR) remains highly challenging, as sub-picosecond intramolecular vibrational redistribution (IVR) suppresses intermolecular coupling. Here we demonstrate vibrational donor–acceptor transfer in the MIR and subsequent upconversion to visible luminescence enabled by sub-2 nm plasmonic nanogaps. The extreme lateral field confinement in metal–molecule–metal ring cavities defined by self-assembled molecular spacers couples efficiently to in-plane molecular dipoles. Continuous-wave MIR excitation selectively populates $-\mathrm{C}\equiv\mathrm{N}$ vibrational donors, and plasmon-enhanced near-field coupling transfers this energy to nearby electronic acceptors, generating anti-Stokes visible emission under low power densities. Upconversion efficiencies exceeding $0.3\%$ are observed, limited by competition between the plasmon-mediated transfer rate and IVR. These results show that extreme plasmonic confinement can redirect molecular vibrational relaxation pathways, opening a route toward vibrational nanophotonics, intermolecular interactions for bioimaging, and room-temperature MIR detection based on molecular degrees of freedom.

Dislocations in crystalline materials are widely exploited to tailor the thermal conductivity of semiconductors and thermoelectrics, yet a critical gap persists: direct measurement of local thermal resistance at individual buried dislocations, along with its spatial extent, remains elusive due to the limitations of conventional thermal probes. Here, we use in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy-electron energy-loss spectroscopy to map nanoscale temperature distributions across a low-angle SrTiO3 grain boundary with periodic dislocation arrays. Our results reveal a temperature drop of 47 K across the dislocation array. The associated temperature-field distortions are concentrated near the dislocation cores, consistent with stronger local thermal resistance at these discrete sites rather than a uniformly distributed resistance along the array. We further identify a distinct two-scale heat transport characteristic near the dislocation array: core-dominated effects over approximately 4.8-6.2 nm and extended inter-core influences over approximately 10.3-14.3 nm. Atomic-scale structural and vibrational analyses further reveal core-associated atomic reconstruction and localized optical-phonon perturbations, providing a microscopic basis for the stronger local thermal resistance inferred near dislocation cores. These findings quantitatively resolve spatial heterogeneity of dislocation-mediated heat transport, uncover its atomic-scale mechanism, and provide a quantitative basis for defect engineering, guiding the design of high-performance thermoelectrics, semiconductors, high-temperature structural alloys, and other functional crystalline materials.

Thermochemical energy storage (TCES) based on salt hydrates is a promising route for seasonal heat storage; however, the design of practical sorbent materials remains challenging due to a non-trivial coupling between composition, synthesis feasibility, performance, and cost. Here, focusing on salt-into-matrix cement-based composites, we demonstrate that a high-throughput experimental framework based on Bayesian optimization (BO) can be used to orchestrate the optimization process of composite materials for low-temperature TCES. The explored design space is defined by salt type, salt concentration, water-to-cement ratio, and additive-to-cement ratio, while two competing objectives are pursued in parallel, namely the specific energy and the specific energy cost. The BO-guided campaign identified Pareto-optimal composites based on CaCl$_2$, Zn(NO$_3$)$_2$, and LiCl, highlighting the promise of cement-salt combinations that have been only marginally explored, or not previously reported, in cement-based TCES systems. The best-performing formulation (LiCl-based), achieved an average specific energy of about $\SI{458}{\kilo\joule\per\kilo\gram}$, whereas CaCl$_2$- and Zn(NO$_3$)$_2$-based composites showed lower but still competitive specific energy values combined with more favorable specific energy cost. Overall, the optimized formulations improved the specific energy of previously developed cement-based materials by up to a factor of five, although it remains below that of state-of-the-art composites based on silica gel and expanded vermiculite. Nonetheless, the present materials, notably CaCl$_2$- and Zn(NO$_3$)$_2$-based composites, offer an attractive cost-to-performance balance, highlighting BO as an effective strategy for accelerated TCES materials discovery.

We propose a general architecture for universal logic operations using NAND and NOR gates on classical information encoded in period-doubled states of periodically-driven systems. The protocol involves applying a single pulse that simultaneously couple two input nodes with an output node. We show that the states of the nodes can be precisely controlled by tuning the coupling strength and pulse duration, allowing for robust logic gate operation. To highlight the universality of the protocol, we demonstrate its applicability on different systems, such as classical networks of dissi- pative parametric oscillators (DPO), quantum networks of Kerr parametric oscillators (KPO), and the periodically-driven open Dicke lattice model (DLM) emulating discrete time crystals (DTCs). We identify the parameter regimes in which the logic gate architecture is valid, and we showcase its robustness in the presence of fluctuations.

Random multiplicative growth with redistribution generates stationary Pareto wealth tails in the Bouchaud-Mézard model, but assumes a fixed multiplicative noise intensity. This is restrictive for physical and financial growth processes, where volatility (diffusivity) is often fluctuating. We replace the constant noise intensity by a switching diffusivity and ask how these fluctuations select the Pareto stationary tail. For a geometric Brownian motion with switching diffusivity, the long-time Gaussian limit holds when the redraw law has finite mean and variance. The asymptotic variance retains a contribution from diffusivity persistence. With redistribution and a general redraw law, the stationary large-wealth problem is characterized by a spectral condition for admissible algebraic modes. For a two-state diffusivity, an exact tail analysis gives a Pareto exponent interpolating between the high-diffusivity slow-refresh limit and the mean-diffusivity fast-refresh Bouchaud-Mézard limit.

In this work we ask what the self-consistency of a classical hydrodynamic description imposes on a quantum system. The quantum fluctuation-dissipation theorem, when read in the time domain, acts as a blurring of the fine details of the correlation functions on a Plankian time-scale. We track this blurring along rays inside the light cone for three phenomenological hydrodynamic equations – diffusion, telegraph and diffusive-telegraph – and find that the interior of the cone splits into a classical region, where correlation and response satisfy the classical fluctuation-dissipation relation, and a quantum region, where they deviate sharply from it. Preserving a finite classical region as the temperature is lowered forces the effective relaxation rate to be at least Planckian, recovering bounds on diffusivity, equilibration time and shear viscosity. In this way, Planckian scaling of the diffusion constant emerges not as a quantum constraint on microscopic dynamics, but as the price a system pays to remain describable by classical hydrodynamics down to low temperatures.

Zero-net-magnetization magnets possess ultradense and ultrafast application potential, benefiting from their intrinsic zero stray field and terahertz dynamics characteristics. Herein, we propose the concept of zero-net-magnetization hybrid magnet, in which magnetic atoms with opposite spin polarization are partially coupled via spatial inversion ($P$) symmetry, partially via rotation/mirror ($C/M$) symmetry or partially without any symmetry correlation. From a local perspective and neglecting the interactions between local regions, hybrid magnet can be regarded as being composed of $PT$-antiferromagnet (possessing the combined symmetry ($PT$) of $P$ and time-reversal ($T$)), altermagnet, or fully compensated ferrimagnet. To realize hybrid magnet, we propose that such system can be constructed by forming heterojunction with three types of zero-net-magnetization magnetic monolayers. We mainly investigate the heterojunction composed of two kinds of zero-net-magnetization magnets, among which one type corresponds to fully compensated ferrimagnet. When heterojunction hybrid magnet exhibits a type-II band alignment, only one of electron doping and hole doping can induce a net magnetic moment, while the other hardly generates any net magnetization. Taking the heterojunction constructed by $PT$-antiferromagnet and fully compensated ferrimagnet as an example, we verify our proposal by means of the tight-binding (TB) model. Finally, taking the $\mathrm{Cr_2C_2S_6}$/$\mathrm{CrMoC_2S_6}$ heterojunction as an example, we perform first-principles calculations combined with electric field modulation to validate our TB model and theoretical proposal.

This study numerically evaluates the external magnetic flux density generated in air by the bending of a piezo-flexomagnetic nanobeam. In several classes of non-contact sensors, the magnetic field induced in the surrounding medium is often more useful than the internal magnetic response. However, most theoretical studies on piezo-flexomagnetic nanostructures neglect the external magnetic domain. The proposed framework employs a coupled hybrid finite element formulation combining a 1D Timoshenko beam model with a 2D magnetostatic problem encompassing both the beam body and the surrounding air domain. The formulation is verified against analytical solutions of magnetically isolated piezo-flexomagnetic beams. The results demonstrate the presence of a significant external magnetic flux distribution in free-standing structures, even in the absence of piezomagnetic coupling. A systematic sensitivity analysis further identifies the material parameters most strongly influencing the external transverse magnetic flux density. These findings provide insight into the design of nanoscale non-contact magnetoelastic sensing systems.

This work investigates the competition between dipole conservation, which imposes strong dynamical constraints and prevents the propagation of isolated spin excitations, and Ising-type interactions that favor ordering. Specifically, we explore the ground state phase diagram of a one-dimensional spin chain in the presence of both fractonic constraints and interactions. Despite the kinetic constraints, the system stabilizes an antiferromagnetic dipole-ordered ground state, where the ordering occurs at the level of spin pairs rather than individual spins. At a large Ising interaction strength, the model undergoes a phase transition from a dipole-ordered phase to a spin antiferromagnetic phase. In contrast, for ferromagnetic Ising interactions, the model exhibits both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic dipole ordered phases. At sufficiently large negative interaction strength, the dipole ordered phase transitions to a ferromagnetic phase with conventional spin ferromagnetic order. To characterize these distinct phases, we employ density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations alongside large-scale diagonalization. We analyze appropriate order parameters, along with features of the entanglement spectrum and dynamical spectral functions. In limiting cases, the observed transitions can be understood by mapping the dipole conserving model onto effective XXZ models in a restricted Hilbert space of composite spins.

Halide double perovskites (HDPs) have emerged as promising alternatives to their lead-based counterparts. However, their structural dynamics is less explored than that of conventional halide perovskites. In this work, we investigate octahedral tilting at 0 K and the relative stability of tetragonal and cubic phases of a set of 57 halide double perovskites (HDPs). By combining structural and energetic descriptors with simple geometric metrics, we identify the main trends controlling the stabilization of one-tilt tetragonal phases across this family. We find that both the magnitude of the tilt angles and the energetic preference for tilted phases correlate primarily with the Goldschmidt tolerance factor $t$. The presence of stereochemically active lone-pair cations also correlates with enhanced tilting; however, this trend largely reflects that lone-pair chemistries in HDPs occur together with ionic sizes that shift $t$ away from unity. Consistent with this picture, we observe several compounds without lone pairs that nonetheless exhibit strong octahedral tilting. Finally, using machine-learned interatomic potentials, we connect the 0 K tilting energetics to finite-temperature behavior: compounds with more strongly stabilized tilt phases exhibit higher transition temperatures, and phonon spectra at 350 K reveal soft and broad modes that are consistent with the trends in tolerance factors, tilt angles, and tilt energies at 0 K. Our results provide a systematic reference for structure-stability relationships in HDPs and clarify when lone-pair chemistry is correlated with, rather than the primary cause of, octahedral tilting.

Manipulating nanoscale light-matter interactions on ultrafast time scales is indispensable for future polaritonic devices. Hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) in van der Waals materials enable deep subwavelength confinement of electromagnetic fields in the infrared region and long-distance propagation of polaritonic waves. However, achieving ultrafast imaging and optical control of HPhPs remains a major challenge. Here, we demonstrate the direct observation of transient modulation of HPhPs induced by local photocarrier generation in WS$_2$/hBN heterostructures using ultrafast infrared scanning near-field optical microscopy. We implement grating-based spectral filtering of broadband near-field scattering to simultaneously achieve nanoscale and femtosecond spatiotemporal resolution together with fine spectral selectivity. This ultrafast nano-imaging technique reveals that photocarriers in WS$_2$ modulate the polaritonic field amplitudes and wavelengths of HPhPs in hBN. Theoretical simulations corroborate that these changes arise from photoinduced changes in WS$_2$ dielectric properties. This approach offers a versatile platform for exploring ultrafast polaritonic dynamics at the nanoscale.

In previous works, the projected truncation approximation (PTA) was developed as a systematic and controlled method to truncate the equation of motion of Green's functions (GFs) for a given quantum or classical many-body Hamiltonian. The static averages are obtained self-consistently with the GF through the spectral theorem. In this work, PTA is reformulated as a self-consistent theory for the reduced density matrices (RDMs) without reference to GF. We separately discuss the issues of determining the dynamical matrix ${\bf M}$ and solving the physical quantities from it. The properties of ${\bf M}$ is clarified and the solution of PTA equations is cast into an over-constrained optimization problem. This makes connection of the present theory to the variational RDM theory. We discuss various issues of PTA under this formalism, including the scheme of alternative inner product, the generalized virial theorem, the generalized Wick's theorem, and the static component problem of PTA.

The emergence of biomolecular homochirality requires both an initial symmetry-breaking event and a mechanism to amplify and preserve a chiral imbalance. Magnetic minerals have been shown to function as chiral agents through the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect and may have enabled homochirality on early Earth, yet the magnetic properties of magnetite formed under realistic prebiotic conditions remain unexplored. Here we show that magnetite synthesized through two geochemically plausible pathways - UV-driven photo-oxidation and nitrite-mediated oxidation of Fe(II) - produces particles dominated by single-vortex and multi-vortex magnetic domain states. Magnetic measurements and electron microscopy confirm that these populations differ markedly from the nano-fabricated thin-film substrates conventionally used in previous CISS experiments. Using 3D micromagnetic simulations, we demonstrate that single-domain and vortex-state grains undergo irreversible, exchange-driven re-magnetization when interacting with spin-polarized homochiral compounds. This magnetic irreversibility provides a robust mechanism for storing and reinforcing weak chiral bias, suggesting that prebiotic magnetite could have contributed to the emergence and stabilization of persistent chiral bias on the early Earth.

Crystallographic space-group symmetry $G_{\rm lat}$, determined by atomic species and their spatial arrangement, is one of the most important descriptors in solid-state physics, underlying the classification of electronic states, spectral degeneracies, order parameters, and phase transitions. Yet the symmetry $G$ of a crystal also depends on the electronic coupling network between atomic sites, including electron hopping, Coulomb interactions, and orbital hybridization. This raises a fundamental question: must $G$ reproduce every equivalence relation imposed by $G_{\rm lat}$? Equivalently, must symmetry-related atoms at the same Wyckoff position be electronically identical, while atoms at inequivalent Wyckoff positions are electronically distinct? We develop a systematic theory of interaction-controlled electronic equivalence, with site charge imbalance as an order parameter whose stability is governed by the competition between onsite charging cost and intersite Coulomb gain. Group-theoretical analysis identifies the site-exchange operations lost from or added to $G_{\rm lat}$. Sites identified as equivalent by $G_{\rm lat}$ can spontaneously develop charge imbalance, lowering the realized symmetry to $G\subset G_{\rm lat}$. Conversely, sites identified as inequivalent by $G_{\rm lat}$ can remain equivalent through a hidden low-energy gauge symmetry. Within the low-energy $(s,p_z)$ manifold, this realizes $G\supset G_{\rm lat}$ and protects near-Fermi degeneracies that appear accidental in a $G_{\rm lat}$-based analysis. First-principles calculations verify both scenarios and establish pressure as a control parameter: it destabilizes the charge-equivalent state in Type I, whereas in Type II it destroys the hidden equivalence, splits the near-Fermi doublets, and can drive a metal-insulator transition.

Reverse annealing is widely used as a heuristic sampler on programmable quantum annealers, but it is often unclear whether the readout has erased its initialization memory or whether the resulting samples represent any calibrated target distribution. We introduce a subsystem-level validation protocol that pairs a memory order parameter $\mathcal{M}$ with the total-variation distance $D_{\mathrm{TV}}$ between the measured subsystem readout and a fixed, independently calibrated conditional-Boltzmann reference, and apply it on two D-Wave QPU generations. The protocol delivers three things: a diagnostic that separates relaxed, memory-retaining and "wrong-basin" readouts; the isolation of relaxed-but-non-thermal trapping, in which a readout passes the initial-state-independence test while concentrating on the wrong basin; and an engineering control showing that SDK auto-scale, embedding choice and environment preparation shift apparent thresholds, so calibration metadata must be logged to interpret them. Relaxed ferromagnetic readouts are near-deterministic, so the small distances seen there are a consistency check rather than a thermometric measurement; the diagnostic earns its value in the opposite regime. Across 494 conditions on one processor, 113 pass the memory criterion and 110 of those agree with the reference at $D_{\mathrm{TV}}<0.05$, while a wrong-basin instance, reproduced at two Hamiltonian scales, passes the memory test yet reaches $D_{\mathrm{TV}}>0.94$; a 60-condition replication confirms that the diagnostic transfers to a second processor. We provide the protocol as a transferable, reproducible validation workflow for annealer-as-sampler applications.

We construct a family of non-invertible topological defects in two-dimensional theories of $n$ Weyl fermions. The construction relies on the existence of $G$-symmetric conformal boundary conditions for $n$ Dirac fermions. Upon unfolding, these boundary conditions become topological defects $\mathcal D$ of $n$ Weyl fermions that intertwine the two $G$-representations, and they are generically non-invertible. For $G=U(1)^n$, we show that $\mathcal D$ is a duality defect associated with gauging a finite Abelian group $\Gamma$, and we give an explicit algorithm for determining $\Gamma$ and its action on the fermions. We also show that the same finite-Abelian gauging description applies in certain restricted examples with non-Abelian $G$. By contrast, for certain non-Abelian symmetry structures, including the $G=SU(2)$ symmetry appearing in the $1$-$5$-$7$-$8$-$9$ problem, we prove that $\mathcal D$ cannot be realized as a duality defect for gauging any finite Abelian group. Finally, we explain how the duality-defect perspective gives a streamlined derivation of fermion scattering from a conformal boundary.

Magnetic topological semimetals provide a fertile ground for exploring how long-range magnetic order can alter electronic band structures and generate novel quasiparticles such as Weyl fermions. Here, we investigate the coupled magnetic and electronic structure of single-crystalline EuAgAs, a hexagonal pnictide whose magnetic ground state has remained elusive. Using neutron diffraction and resonant elastic X-ray scattering, we identify an unusual magnetic ordering sequence with two successive phase transitions at $T_\mathrm{N1} = 12$ K and $T_\mathrm{N2} = 8$ K. We observe two slightly different magnetic propagation vectors, one associated with $T_\mathrm{N1}$ and the other with $T_\mathrm{N2}$. Spherical neutron polarimetry reveals that the magnetic structure is a transverse helix aligned along the $c$ axis with a period that is approximately twice the $c$ lattice parameter. First-principles calculations for the helical phase predict subtle band folding effects and the emergence of effective higher-order Weyl nodes. These topological features appear near the calculated Fermi energy $E_{\mathrm{F}}$ which, however, lies above the position of $E_{\mathrm{F}}$ obtained from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy so could not be probed in this study.

Amorphization of silicon is crucial to applications in photonics, microelectronics and solar cell technologies. Ultrafast lasers have been used to generate amorphous silicon from crystalline silicon using rapid nonthermal melting and solidification in room temperature. As material temperature can affect cooling rates significantly, adding temperature control in ultrafast laser modification of silicon may allow a new degree of freedom in ultrafast laser modification. In this work, we investigate the role of cryogenic temperature in governing ultrafast damage pathways via single-shot femtosecond laser irradiation of silicon from room temperature down to 24K at 1030nm. Across this temperature range, we observe a pronounced enhancement of amorphization at lower temperatures, revealed through optical microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). Raman analysis identifies this ring as an amorphous surface layer, while complementary AFM and SEM imaging show temperature-dependent changes in surface morphology, including localized melt redistribution and refrozen material. To elucidate the physical origins of this behavior, we implement a carrier dependent two-temperature model (nTTM). The simulations reproduce the experimentally observed trends and indicate that reduced phonon population, modified absorption pathways, and altered lattice relaxation dynamics at cryogenic temperatures collectively promote amorphous freezing over recrystallization. This study represents the first detailed examination of silicon under ultrafast irradiation below the liquid-nitrogen regime and reveals temperature-governed mechanisms relevant for advanced silicon microstructuring.