Peer Revenue Play credits. Real papers.

Papers

Fresh from arXiv, typeset properly. Highlighted words trade on the market.

Physics Condensed Matter

cond-mat Watch Condensed Matter

Sunday 28 June

Materials Science

Multiphysical impedance spectroscopy of porous electrodes based on linear irreversible thermodynamics

Junning Jiao and Juner Zhu

Porous electrodes couple electrical, chemical, mechanical, hydraulic, and thermal fields, yet conventional frequency-domain diagnostics interrogate only one of them: electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) the electrical response and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) the mechanical. Each reads a diagonal entry of the multiphysical constitutive matrix and is blind to the cross-couplings that govern structural evolution and degradation. Starting from linear irreversible thermodynamics, we formulate a general theory of multiphysical impedance spectroscopy, in which perturbing one field and measuring the conjugate response of another probes an off-diagonal entry of the constitutive matrix, recovering the static coupling coefficient and resolving its relaxation dynamics across frequency. Specializing to the electro-chemo-mechanical pathway yields a closed-form theory of mechano-electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (MEIS), in which a small harmonic current is applied and the stack stress is measured; the impedance factorizes into a chemical-accumulation term multiplying the sum of a chemo-mechanical and a poro-mechanical kernel. The porosity-accommodation bridge function is derived from a Helmholtz free energy – following from a microstructural stiffness and viscosity rather than a fitted form – and a three-phase (solid-fluid-void) closure interpolates continuously between unsaturated and Biot-saturated limits through a void-accommodation fraction. Non-dimensionalization reduces the spectrum to five groups, identifies the phase angle as the discriminator of the chemo-mechanical parameters, and locates the onset of second-quadrant behavior, which in a full cell arises from the competition between an expanding and a contracting electrode. MEIS emerges as one member of a family of cross-coupled spectroscopies the same framework brings within reach.
Read the full abstract

Superconductivity

40 years of cuprate high-Tc superconductors: a perspective on theories

Navinder Singh Bathinda

An attempt is made to give a brief but coherent account of the situation of the theoretical ideas in addressing the mechanism of superconductivity in cuprate high-Tc superconductors. Specifically, the idea of superconductivity from repulsive interactions is discussed as it is gaining ground since the `consensus' paper was written in 2015\cite{kei}. The challenges it faces is also discussed. Three main schools of thought are presented, and an experimental result of 2022 pertaining to Anderson's super-exchange mechanism is also discussed. An updated list of Anderson's “dogmas" is also presented, as after year 2000, many other universally applicable experimental facts has been discovered. The “dogmas" are universal facts which are distilled from a variety of complex experimental results, and highlights the key findings that seems to be central to the mechanism of superconductivity in cuprates. These are discussed as a commemoration of 40 years of high-Tc cuprate research.
Read the full abstract

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Winding-Sector Transitions and Thermodynamic Incommensurability in Helical Valence Bond Phase under Tilted Boundary Conditions

Yan Liu, Jie Lou and Yan Chen

We investigate the ground states of the $S = 1/2$ staircase $J$-$Q_3$ model in the maximally anisotropic limit by employing projector quantum Monte Carlo simulations. To overcome boundary-induced finite-size ambiguities inherent in the study of spatially modulated structures, we implement a $45^{\circ}$ tilted periodic boundary condition that eliminates intermediate phases and provides direct access to winding-sector transitions of the system. By defining a domain wall density to quantify the spatial modulation of the helical valence bond phase, we perform thermodynamic extrapolations and demonstrate that both the domain wall density and the characteristic wavevector evolve continuously with the coupling ratio, exhibiting no commensurate lock-in behavior. Our results establish that the helical valence bond phase is a genuine two-dimensional incommensurate phase with long-range bond-bond order in the thermodynamic limit, clarifying that winding-sector transitions are finite-size effects enforced by boundary commensurability. Furthermore, we determine the phase transition point between columnar valence bond solid phase and helical valence bond phase to be $g_c = 0.046(2)$.
Read the full abstract

Statistical Mechanics · Cross-listed from quant-ph

Imaginary pseudo entropy encodes temporal orientation

Tatsuhiro Misumi

Pseudo entropy between quantum states at different times is generally complex, yet its imaginary part has lacked a bounded operational meaning. We show that a calibrated replica interferometer converts the pseudo-Rényi phase into a directly measurable record of transition orientation. Together with replica visibility, it exactly determines the trace distance between forward and backward ancilla outputs and hence the Helstrom-optimal single-shot success probability. At short times, the symmetrized covariance of the modular and physical Hamiltonians sets the initial distinguishability response. Under any common quantum channel, the corresponding orientation information can only decrease, with equality characterized by Petz recovery. Imaginary pseudo entropy therefore records a reversible distinction between temporal orientations, while coarse graining can make the loss of that record irreversible.
Read the full abstract

Materials Science · Cross-listed from physics.comp-ph

Latent Genetic Algorithm for Crystal Structure Prediction

Kaixin Zheng, Wanjian Yin, Hongyu Yu et al. (+1 more)

Predicting crystal structures requires navigating rugged energy landscapes in which favorable local motifs must be inherited across candidates with incompatible cells, densities, and symmetries. Conventional real-space crossover often destroys these motifs when parent structures are geometrically mismatched. Here we show that latent representations learned by pretrained universal interatomic potentials can serve as continuous evolutionary coordinates for crystal structure prediction. In the Latent Genetic Algorithm (LGA), offspring are generated by inverse optimization of atomic positions and lattice vectors to match a target latent representation, which is constructed via interpolation of the parent latent vectors. LGA suppresses high-energy and short-contact offspring, increases the HfO$_2$ ground-state recovery rate from 20-35% to 60-95%, and enables a unified variable-supercell search over 16 perovskites with a nearly tenfold reduction in search cost. Applied to (PbTiO$_3$)$_n$/(PbZrO$_3$)$_n$ superlattices, LGA reveals $\sqrt{2} \times 3\sqrt{2} \times 1$ long-period ground-state structures characterized by a common in-plane finite-$q$ modulation $q{_\parallel} = (1/6,1/6)$ and layer-coupled sidebands. To our knowledge, this in-plane periodicity has not been reported in any related oxide perovskite superlattice studies. Altogether, LGA offers a powerful representation-guided paradigm for ground-state structure prediction and provides a practical, decoder-free route toward materials inverse design.
Read the full abstract

All authors Kaixin Zheng, Wanjian Yin, Hongyu Yu, Hongjun Xiang

Materials Science

Silicon-compatible ideal antiferroelectricity with large digital electromechanical responses enabled by thermal-strain domain engineering

Hao Xiong, Huazhang Zhang, Liang Shu et al. (+16 more)

Antiferroelectrics exhibit reversible antipolar-polar transformations, offering a compelling platform for multiple functionalities in modern nanoelectronics, yet deterministic control of antiferroelectric domains and switching pathways remain elusive. Moreover, their integration with ubiquitous silicon-based electronic devices has been limited by the structural and chemical incompatibilities of conventional oxide platforms. Here, we convert the conventional drawback of thermal mismatch into a functional advantage and realize ideal antiferroelectricity in epitaxial PbZrO3 thin films on silicon through thermal tensile-strain engineering, a strain regime unattainable on conventional perovskite substrates. Combined theoretical and experimental studies show that tensile strain stabilizes the (004)o domain, enabling a direct one-step switching, whereas compressive-strain-stabilized (240)o domains switch through intermediate ferrielectric states. The resulting films exhibit near-zero remanent polarization, square double hysteresis, nanosecond switching (~75ns), large reversible electrostrain (~0.6%) and robust operation windows. These findings provide key insights into domain-engineered ideal antiferroelectricity on silicon, opening a viable route toward high-performance antiferroelectric nano-electronic devices.
Read the full abstract

All authors Hao Xiong, Huazhang Zhang, Liang Shu, Yangyang Si, Jiaqi Liu, Chao Zhou, Rui Zhang, Jingxuan Li, Jinyang Li, Chhavi Rastogi, Hao Pan, Bin Xu, Er-Jia Guo, Yunlong Tang, Sujit Das, Philippe Ghosez, Qian Li, Jing-Feng Li, Zuhuang Chen

Materials Science

Kinetically Controlled Condensation Boundary Governing Indium Incorporation in InGaN Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy

Qihui Lin, Junlin Wu, Erqi Xu et al. (+10 more)

We combine in situ synchrotron X-ray crystal truncation rod measurements with a binary Burton-Cabrera-Frank model to quantify indium incorporation during InGaN growth by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) on GaN(0001). By distinguishing In adatoms from condensed droplets and incorporating coupled Ga-In incorporation kinetics, the model captures the intrinsically nonlinear dependence of indium composition on precursor flux and growth temperature. The critical In coverage corresponding to the maximum attainable In composition at a given temperature is determined by a kinetic balance between In adatom supply and incorporation capacity, defining a kinetically controlled condensation boundary that shifts with temperature and Ga flux. The model quantitatively predicts this boundary, in agreement with independent measurements, and provides a predictive framework for optimizing high-In-content InGaN growth while avoiding droplet formation.
Read the full abstract

All authors Qihui Lin, Junlin Wu, Erqi Xu, Jiaqing Yue, Jiale Wang, Zihao Xu, Haixin Qi, Liyi Luo, Haitao Wang, Jia Wang, Hiroshi Amano, Bo Shen, Guangxu Ju

Materials Science

Real-space identification of distinct magnetic configurations in a candidate d-wave altermagnet

Jin-Cheng Gu, Mingzhe Hu, Ziyin Song et al. (+11 more)

Altermagnetism is an emerging class of magnetic order characterized by momentum-dependent spin-split electronic structures despite vanishing net magnetization. Although momentum-space signatures consistent with altermagnetism have been reported in a growing number of materials, their relationship to the underlying real-space magnetic configurations remains incompletely understood, because similar spin-split electronic structures can arise from distinct magnetic orders. In the candidate d-wave altermagnet KV2Se2O, the magnetic origin of the observed momentum-dependent spin splitting has remained controversial. Here, we employ spin-polarized scanning tunnelling microscopy combined with magnetic-field-dependent quasiparticle interference imaging to determine the magnetic configuration of KV2Se2O at the atomic scale. Spin-resolved quasiparticle interference reveals a checkerboard-like antiparallel spin texture within the V2O layer and determines its interlayer spin arrangement across unit-cell step edges. Remarkably, we identify both C-type and G-type magnetic configurations, both of which generate similar spin-split electronic structures at the single-layer level but correspond to d-wave altermagnetic and conventional antiferromagnetic orders, respectively. These observations reveal a complex magnetic landscape arising from nearly degenerate magnetic states. Our results establish a direct connection between momentum-space spin splitting and real-space magnetic order, providing a framework for identifying the microscopic origin of spin-split electronic structures in altermagnetic materials.
Read the full abstract

All authors Jin-Cheng Gu, Mingzhe Hu, Ziyin Song, Lihan Wang, Lihong Wang, Junming Zhang, Jiali Zhao, Hang Li, Shifeng Jin, Xin-Ding Zhang, Genfu Chen, Hongming Weng, Zhongxu Wei, Tian Qian

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from quant-ph

Shadow tomography for classical tensor network simulations

Jiace Sun and Garnet Kin-Lic Chan

Shadow tomography has appeared as a powerful tool for estimating observables on quantum computers from a small number of samples. We show that shadow-tomography-inspired ideas can offer similarly improved sample scaling for estimating observables on tensor network states on classical computers after proper adaptation. We develop strategies for both spin (bosonic) and fermionic systems, tailored to the contraction requirements of tensor networks, and generate scaling improvements of factors of $O(N)$ to $O(N^{3})$ (where $N$ is system size), depending on the specific task and system type. For the important and difficult task of evaluating the expectation value of long-range interacting Hamiltonians, we achieve the optimal $O(1)$ overall scaling (up to logarithmic factors) for an arbitrarily fixed relative Monte Carlo error in both spin and fermionic systems. Additionally, we show that shadow estimators offer more stable gradients of observables in variational optimization tasks than standard Monte Carlo estimators. We demonstrate practical advantage by simulating systems with long-range interactions, including the 2D long-range Heisenberg model and an ab-initio quantum chemistry Hamiltonian.
Read the full abstract

Materials Science · Cross-listed from physics.optics

Peculiarities Of High-Speed Dynamics Of Two-Photon Absorption In Si Nanowire Waveguides

Vadym Zayets, Siim Heinsalu and Akihiro Noriki

We investigate the complete dynamical pathway of photon-electron interactions involved in two-photon absorption (TPA) in a silicon nanowire waveguide using three independent high-speed measurement techniques. These methods probe different stages of the process: nonlinear photon absorption, electron excitation from the valence to the conduction band, and free-carrier generation. According to the conventional model of TPA, these three processes should occur at identical rates. However, our measurements reveal significant discrepancies between them. The measured nonlinear photon absorption is more than twice the value required to account for the measured TPA transitions, indicating the presence of additional absorption pathways or nontrivial TPA dynamics. Furthermore, the number of measured TPA transitions substantially exceeds the measured free-carrier density, indicating that long-lifetime free carriers represent only a small fraction of the TPA-excited electrons, while the majority recombine rapidly back to the valence band on a timescale shorter than 13 ps. In addition, the three stages of the TPA pathway exhibit distinct saturation behaviors at different photon densities, further indicating that the TPA process in silicon is more complex than described by the conventional model. These findings provide new insight into the physical mechanisms governing TPA, suggesting the existence of multiple competing pathways for this optical transition. A major obstacle to a complete understanding of TPA is the unclear physical origin of the virtual midgap level. The potential strategies for minimizing unwanted nonlinear losses in high-speed silicon photonic circuits, as well as for exploiting TPA in high-speed optical switching and photonic signal processing are investigated.
Read the full abstract

Saturday 27 June

Materials Science

Oblate Spheroid Excitation Theory: A Unified, Lattice-Free Foundation for Plastic Deformation from Which Dislocations Emerge as Collective Excitations

Albert Linda and K.A. Padmanabhan

Dislocation theory has underpinned crystal plasticity for a century, yet its lattice-dependent definition cannot describe plastic flow in grain boundaries, glasses, ceramics, or nanocrystals near the glass transition, where no periodic lattice exists. We propose the Oblate Spheroid Excitation Theory (OSET): the elementary carrier of plastic deformation, in any solid, is a shear-eigenstrained oblate spheroid, the oblate-spheroidal transformation zone (OSTZ), treated within Eshelby's inclusion theory. The OSTZ requires no lattice and has a finite, non-singular, intrinsically thermally activated energy and stress fields. Three results are proved: a single OSTZ produces a non-singular elastic dipole, not a dislocation's singular field; a co-planar chain of N OSTZs is mathematically identical to a Peierls-Nabarro dislocation, core width and Burgers vector fixed by OSTZ geometry; and a genuine dislocation nucleates only once the chain reaches a host-lattice-set critical length. Dislocations emerge as a collective, large-$N$ limit of OSET rather than an assumed entity, and the theoretical shear strength, Peierls stress, core energy, Frank-Read critical stress, and stacking-fault energy follow as derived, parameter-free quantities. OSET is validated against grain-boundary-sliding data, independent literature spanning metals, ceramics, and bulk metallic glasses, and a recent 41-system compilation, reproducing the fitted dilatational and shear eigenstrains to within 2% and 15%, respectively. Because classical dislocation theory emerges from OSET but OSET does not require dislocations, it provides, in our view, a more fundamental, broadly applicable foundation for plastic deformation across material classes.
Read the full abstract

Materials Science

Dislocation-loop formation is a first-order phase transition

Xiaoya Chang, Arsalan Hashemi, Nima Ghafari Cherati et al. (+3 more)

Dislocation loops are the elementary product of radiation damage in crystals, limiting reactor-component lifetimes, power-electronics reliability and the coherence of solid-state qubits. Their nucleation has been simulated for six decades but never reduced to a thermodynamic law. We show that dislocation-loop formation is a first-order phase transition, and construct its Ginzburg–Landau free energy, with the loop area as order parameter, entirely from atomistic simulation. In diamond, carbon self-interstitials condense into planar precursors that collapse abruptly into a prismatic $\tfrac{1}{2}\langle110\rangle$ loop across a 3.7-electronvolt barrier, with pressure–volume work supplying only 2% of the energy released. The reduced free energy proves material-independent: the vacancy platelet-to-loop collapse in body-centred-cubic iron falls on the same one-parameter family, placing loop nucleation on a transferable thermodynamic footing.
Read the full abstract

All authors Xiaoya Chang, Arsalan Hashemi, Nima Ghafari Cherati, Mikko Karttunen, Adam Gali, Tapio Ala-Nissila

Soft Condensed Matter

Geometry-mediated shear softening in dense ordered granular packings

Liuchi Li and Konstantinos Karapiperis

Shearing a packing of solid granular grains can be difficult, especially when the solid fraction is high and the boundary confinement is strong. It was recently shown that embedding voids in grains can make a packing easier to shear when such voids make the grains auxetic. Here, we use finite element simulation to show that auxeticity is not a necessary condition even in a seemingly very constrained setting: shearing dense and ordered granular packings under a constant solid fraction. More specifically, by controlling the geometry of a void embedded in a grain, we induce an apparent elastic anisotropy and softening of the grain under shear, which collectively leads to a significant reduction – up to 90% – of the apparent shear modulus of a packing of these grains. Complementary analysis shows that this reduction correlates well with a decrease in contact-force anisotropy, and is insensitive to system size and contact friction variation. Our results highlight how grain-scale geometry, mediated by multi-body contact mechanics, modulates macroscopic system-scale elasticity, providing a minimal design mechanism towards targeted collective mechanical properties of soft granular metamaterials.
Read the full abstract

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Multiple closely spaced transitions and multi-band Hall response in clean ScV$_6$Sn$_6$

Jonathan M. DeStefano, Elliott Rosenberg, Chaowei Hu et al. (+2 more)

The kagome metal ScV$_6$Sn$_6$ has attracted attention as a platform for exploring the interplay between charge density wave (CDW) order and symmetry-breaking phenomena, including a recently reported intermediate phase and a low-field Hall anomaly that has been attributed to an anomalous Hall effect (AHE). The interpretation of both observations has been limited by the modest sample quality achieved by previous growth procedures, which produced crystals with in-plane residual resistivity ratios (RRR) of at most $\approx$9. Here, we report a simple modification of the flux growth procedure that yields ScV$_6$Sn$_6$ single crystals with RRR exceeding 50, more than five times the previous highest reported value, and use this expanded mobility range to revisit both the symmetry and the magnetotransport of the CDW phase. We resolve a sequence of closely spaced transitions in the immediate vicinity of $T_{CDW}$ that emerges above a sharp threshold of RRR $\approx 4$, and demonstrate through elastoresistivity that the intermediate phase breaks the three-fold rotational symmetry of the parent lattice. We examine the Hall response from both the parent samples across the full RRR range as well as Cr-doped samples, and conclude it is quantitatively inconsistent with an intrinsic AHE and is instead explained by ordinary multi-band transport involving small, high-mobility pockets identified through quantum oscillations. These results refine the symmetry-breaking landscape of ScV$_6$Sn$_6$ and establish systematic mobility tuning as a diagnostic for disentangling an intrinsic AHE from multi-band Hall contributions in kagome CDW systems.
Read the full abstract

All authors Jonathan M. DeStefano, Elliott Rosenberg, Chaowei Hu, Xiaodong Xu, Jiun-Haw Chu

Quantum Gases · Cross-listed from quant-ph

Exact Hilbert-space ergodicity from continuous monitoring

Yue Wu, Yuzhi Tong, Liang Mao et al. (+1 more)

Quantum evolution is generally expected to drive a quantum many-body system toward equilibrium. This expectation is often justified by the Hilbert-space ergodicity of generic quantum dynamics, namely, the idea that pure-state evolution explores Hilbert space uniformly up to physical constraints. Such a statement can be made rigorous by requiring the associated state ensemble to form the Haar-random ensemble, or its more structured generalization, the Scrooge ensemble. In this Letter, we report the emergence of exact Hilbert-space ergodicity in a continuously monitored quantum many-body system. For any target density matrix $\sigma$, we construct a continuously monitored system for which we rigorously prove that the Scrooge ensemble of $\sigma$ is the unique late-time equilibrium distribution of quantum trajectories. Remarkably, this requires only that the jump operators in the monitoring form a deformed unitary 1-design, a seemingly much weaker condition than full ergodicity. We numerically demonstrate our predictions by simulating continuously monitored systems whose equilibrium states are thermal states. Our results establish a rigorous mechanism for the emergence of Hilbert-space ergodicity and provide a practical route for its investigation on quantum devices.
Read the full abstract

All authors Yue Wu, Yuzhi Tong, Liang Mao, Pengfei Zhang

Materials Science · Cross-listed from cs.LG

On Surrogate Modeling of Static Response of AM Short-Fiber Thermoplastics Using Graph Neural Networks

Pharindra Pathak, Vipin Kumar, Trenton M. Ricks et al. (+2 more)

Short-fiber thermoplastic (SFT) composites are increasingly employed in lightweight aerospace and automotive structures owing to their favorable strength-to-weight ratio, high production rates, and recyclability. Unlike continuous-fiber systems, the mechanical response of SFTs is governed by mesoscale interactions among fiber orientation, spatial clustering, and manufacturing-induced porosity. These features exhibit significant spatial variability in manufactured components and influence stiffness, damage initiation, and nonlinear deformation. Although mesoscale finite element (FE) models can resolve such heterogeneity, their application to realistic three-dimensional microstructures remains computationally intractable. A data-driven surrogate framework is proposed to predict the mechanical behavior of additively manufactured, compression-molded (AM-CM) SFTs. Microstructures reconstructed from micro-computed tomography data were discretized into Voronoi-based cells representing distinct fiber-interaction neighborhoods. Each cell was homogenized via nonlinear FE simulations incorporating matrix damage, and the resulting stress-strain responses trained a hybrid Graph Neural Network-Long Short-Term Memory (GNN-LSTM) architecture encoding microstructural topology and history-dependent mechanical evolution. The surrogate accurately predicts stiffness and stress-strain behavior of unseen microstructures, achieving $R^2\approx 0.98$ relative to high-fidelity FE simulations with over two orders-of-magnitude reduction in computational cost. Coupling the framework with experimentally calibrated damage laws demonstrates that fiber orientation, clustering, and porosity collectively govern local effective stiffness. The approach provides a physics-informed, data-efficient pathway to identify mechanically weak microstructural cells and accelerate digital-twin development for SFT components.
Read the full abstract

All authors Pharindra Pathak, Vipin Kumar, Trenton M. Ricks, Suhasini Gururaja, Siddhartha Srivastava

Materials Science

Structural properties of one-dimensional $\mathrm{Cs}_2\mathrm{CoCl}_4$ confined within single-walled carbon nanotubes

Jaskaran S. Mangat, Yu Lei, Matthew Weyland et al. (+9 more)

Crystals under one-dimensional (1D) confinement are well-known to exhibit drastic changes in metallicity, magnetic properties and chemical state, however, the intermediate phase space between binary metal halides and ternary metal halide perovskites remains poorly explored, especially in the context of the rich polymorphism exhibited by both families in the one-dimensional limit. Through aberration-corrected (scanning) transmission electron microscopy and multislice simulations, it is shown that the metal halide $\mathrm{Cs}_2\mathrm{CoCl}_4$ crystallizes in the tetragonal $\wp4/mcc$ and orthorhombic $\wp{mcm}$ rod groups under radial compression within single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) of increasingly small diameter, with a massive re-entrant orthorhombic strain towards the $1$ $\mathrm{nm}$ extremum. The persistence of $\mathrm{Co}^{2+}$ is determined from fits to the d.c. magnetization, with a surprisingly small increase in the effective moment ($4.607(3)$ to $4.788(3) \mathit{{\mu}}_\mathrm{B}/\mathrm{f.u.}$) and Weiss constant ($-7.9(3)$ to $-4.09(7) \mathrm{K}$) after confinement in the SWCNTs, suggesting that the confined structure topologically preserves the core magnetic properties of the bulk. Both unconventional polymorphs observed are noticeably different to the high-pressure piezochromic polymorph previously shown to undergo a tetrahedral-to-octahedral coordination transition, highlighting 1D confinement as a unique tool for structural manipulation.
Read the full abstract

All authors Jaskaran S. Mangat, Yu Lei, Matthew Weyland, Yisong Han, Kiran Bal, Martin R. Lees, Craig I. Hiley, Piotr Dłużewski, Sławomir Kret, Peng Wang, Richard I. Walton, Jeremy Sloan

Other Condensed Matter

Electromagnetic response of two interacting topological insulator spheres in external fields

J. Cornejo Gómez, M. Ibarra-Meneses, L. Medel Onofre et al. (+1 more)

We study the static electromagnetic response of two spherical topological insulators embedded in a dielectric medium and subjected to a uniform external electric field. The gapped surface states are described by a piecewise constant axion field, which induces a topological magnetoelectric coupling localized at the spherical interfaces. {More generally, the same formalism applies to isotropic magnetoelectric media characterized by an effective scalar magnetoelectric response.} The electrostatic problem is solved at zeroth order using bispherical coordinates, allowing for an exact treatment of both parallel and perpendicular orientations of the external field relative to the center-to-center axis. The resulting mode expansions are determined by three-term recurrence relations, which are solved perturbatively for nonoverlapping spheres. The { magnetoelectric}-induced response is then computed to leading order in the fine-structure constant {(or, more generally, in the effective coupling strength)}. The induced sources are purely interfacial and generate distinct magnetostatic field configurations in the parallel and perpendicular geometries. Closed-form series representations for the induced vector potential and magnetic field are obtained in terms of the zeroth-order electrostatic coefficients. These results provide an analytically controlled description of {interaction-induced magnetostatics in coupled spherical magnetoelectric systems}.
Read the full abstract

All authors J. Cornejo Gómez, M. Ibarra-Meneses, L. Medel Onofre, A. Martín-Ruiz

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Synchronic scattering and geometric dephasing in microwave-induced resistance oscillations

Jesus Iñarrea

We present a novel quantum transport model for microwave-induced resistance oscillations (MIRO) where we prove that the instantaneous scattering rate is directly modulated by the velocity of the driven coherent state. This interaction peaks exactly at $\omega t = 2n\pi$, where the wave packets sweep through the impurity landscape at maximum speed, breaking time-reversal symmetry to generate a net direct current. Additionally, we introduce a dephasing architecture to explain amplitude saturation: a non-linear geometric dephasing ($\exp(-A/R_c)$) triggered when the displacement amplitude $A$ of the oscillating coherent state, approaches the cyclotron radius $R_{c}$. This perfectly captures the linear-to-sublinear power crossover at high intensities, offering a fully coherent description of non-equilibrium transport.
Read the full abstract

Materials Science

Selenium direct doping obtained high-performance-n-type Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric materials with a wide temperature range

Zhiyuan Liu, Junjie Ma, Zhaopeng Zeng et al. (+5 more)

The article reports on a series of n-type Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric materials prepared via a high-temperature melting combined with annealing process. The effects of Se doping content and annealing process on the carrier concentration, suppression of the bipolar effect, and thermoelectric performance of the materials were systematically investigated. The experimental results provide valuable reference for researchers in this field.
Read the full abstract

All authors Zhiyuan Liu, Junjie Ma, Zhaopeng Zeng, Ni Ma, Qian Ba, Di Zhang, Zhe Tao, Ailin Xia

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Optically Switched Phonon Superradiance of Surface Acoustic Wave in Diamond

Zhiwei Chen, Changyong Lei and Jie Ren

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) phonon coupling with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center spins in diamond offers a promising platform for on-chip quantum phononic manipulations. Although an ensemble of NV centers coupled to a common SAW phonon mode enables superradiance and collective quantum control, achieving a tunable superradiant phase transition remains challenging. Here, we show that optically driving NV centers level transitions enhances the effective spin-phonon coupling, triggering a SAW phonon superradiant phase transition in the weak-coupling regime. We also demonstrate that above a critical threshold, the driving light rapidly switches on the phonon superradiance–a dynamic effect that persists in finite-number NV ensembles. Our results provide a controllable route to coherent phonon-NV spin manipulation in solid state quantum devices.
Read the full abstract

Materials Science · Cross-listed from cs.LG

MALOQ: Massively Accelerated Learning of Operators for Quantum Transport

Manasa Kaniselvan, Alexander Maeder, Denghui Lu et al. (+2 more)

Machine-learned (ML) operator models can be trained to predict density functional theory (DFT) Hamiltonian/density matrices at significantly reduced computational cost, thus extending electronic-structure calculations to previously unfeasible scales. Here, we introduce MALOQ (Massively Accelerated Learning of Operators for Quantum Transport), an application built to train on and predict electronic-structure matrices for systems made of few to 100k atoms, described by large basis sets, and covering a wide range of atomic elements. Based on a state-of-the-art, SO(2)-equivariant backbone architecture, MALOQ provides (i) custom data-processing kernels to handle high-rank Hamiltonian matrix data and (ii) a scalable edge-wise distribution of atomic graph(s). Trained on the largest molecular Hamiltonian datasets available today, it reduces time-per-epoch by over 30% compared to a molecule-wise-distributed framework, and enables inference on material graphs of arbitrary size. We demonstrate scalable training and inference for 3,000-12,000 atoms on the Alps supercomputer, up to 192 GPUs and 256 GPUs, respectively.
Read the full abstract

All authors Manasa Kaniselvan, Alexander Maeder, Denghui Lu, Alexandros Nikolaos Ziogas, Mathieu Luisier

Superconductivity

Theory of High-Tc Superconductivity in Cuprates

E. C. Marino

The essential physical processes underlying the phenomenon of High-Tc superconductivity in cuprates occur in the $CuO_2$ planes, found in these materials. The dynamics of the active electrons belonging to such planes is well described by the Three Bands Hubbard Model (3BHM). The complexity of such model, however, led the researchers to look for simpler and yet relevant alternatives. In the attempts to circumvent the complexity of this model,two main simplified versions of the (3BHM) were considered. In the first alternative, one eliminates the doped holes and their respective sub-lattices by tying them to the $Cu^{++}$ electrons, thereby forming the so called Zhang-Rice singlets. The remaining dynamics consists in doping a Mott-Hubbard insulator and is described by the t-J Model. The second alternative maintains that the $Cu^{++}$ electrons form a square lattice of localized spins, while the doped holes move along the oxygen sub-lattices and undergo a Kondo like magnetic interaction with the localized spins, besides the Hubbard-like electric repulsion. This scenario is described by the Spin-Fermion-Hubbard Model. Most of the researchers in the field chose to follow the first road, while, I chose the second one. In this article I review in detail the reasons why that choice has led to a successful theory for High-Tc superconductivity in hole doped cuprates.
Read the full abstract

Materials Science · Cross-listed from cs.CV

Projection-based coupling of infrared thermography and stereocorrelation-based digital image correlation

Jendrik-Alexander Tröger, Lutz Müller-Lohse and Stefan Hartmann

Full-field measurement techniques such as digital image correlation and infrared thermography are prevalent in experimental solid mechanics. Digital image correlation is used to analyze surface deformation, while infrared thermography quantifies surface temperature fields. However, sophisticated procedures are necessary to express both datasets in the same Lagrangian frame, especially when analyzing non-flat surfaces. In this study, we propose an external projection-based coupling that uses the pinhole camera model to relate two-dimensional temperature data measured by infrared thermography to three-dimensional point coordinates from stereocorrelation-based digital image correlation. Unlike existing multiview approaches, we utilize two independently calibrated industrial-grade systems and augment the experimental evaluation with the pinhole camera model. The projection matrix of the camera model is calibrated using a single image of a reference object. Through this projection, temperature fields are accurately represented at material points. Our method is particularly suited for, but not restricted to, curved surfaces and is straightforward to embed in existing experimental protocols, as the image registration is kept as is. Additionally, we use radial basis functions as a global interpolation ansatz in both space and time to compute in-plane temperature gradients and even temperature rates on curved surfaces, thereby providing an extensive and information-rich full-field dataset.
Read the full abstract

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Unusual upper critical field in UTe2 revealed by magnetotransport measurements up to 42 T

Macha Méplan, Ilya Sheikin, Pierre Pugnat et al. (+16 more)

The heavy-fermion superconductor UTe2 is unique in that, at ambient pressure, it exhibits three distinct superconducting phases, two of which are induced by magnetic field. When the field is applied along the crystallographic b axis in the orthorhombic structure, the field-induced phase SC2 develops above approximately 20 T and persists up to the metamagnetic transition at Hm about 34 T. When the magnetic field is tilted towards the c axis, another superconducting phase, SC3, emerges at very high fields above about 40 T over a certain angular range. The origin of this exotic phase remains under debate. One of the key open questions regarding the origin of SC3 is whether it is confined to the spin-polarized state above Hm, or whether it already develops at lower fields. Here, we report magnetoresistance measurements performed on a high-quality single crystal of UTe2 in static magnetic fields up to 42 T applied in the (bc) plane at temperatures down to 0.35 K. At this temperature, we find that the SC3 phase first appears at an angle of 20 deg from the b axis. At larger angles, the onset of the SC3 phase, defined by a maximum in resistivity, occurs below Hm. However, zero resistivity is reached only above Hm throughout the entire angular range investigated. These results are summarized in the resulting field-angle phase diagram. Furthermore, we find that at 21 deg the SC3 phase is rapidly suppressed with increasing temperature, whereas at 24 deg it becomes considerably more robust and persists up to about 1 K. Finally, we observe Shubnikov de Haas (SdH) oscillations in the vicinity of the c axis. The observed oscillation frequencies are in good agreement with our previous results. The field dependence of the strongest SdH frequency and of the effective mass is discussed.
Read the full abstract

All authors Macha Méplan, Ilya Sheikin, Pierre Pugnat, Romain Barbier, François Debray, Cédric Grandclément, Steffen Krämer, Yuriy Krupko, Frédéric Molinié, Kévin Paillot, Robert Pankow, Rolf Pfister, Luc Ronayette, Benjamin Vincent, Charles Simon, Midori Amano Patino, Gérard Lapertot, Georg Knebel, Dai Aoki

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Reproducible Ohmic bismuth contacts to $\textrm{MoS}_2$ nanotubes and nanoribbons

Robin T. K. Schock, Stefan Obloh, Korbinian Fink et al. (+4 more)

Attaching metallic contacts to transition metal dichalcogenide nanostructures and in particular to $\textrm{MoS}_2$ has posed significant challenges over the past years. For $\textrm{MoS}_2$ nanotubes and nanoribbons, a highly promising material for field effect transistors as well as quantum electronic devices, this is even more the case due to the small, curved surface. So far all attempts there have led to a wide scatter of contact resistances on the same chip. Recently, for quasi two-dimensional, flat $\textrm{MoS}_2$ flakes, the use of semimetals has led to a breakthrough, making transparent and Ohmic contacts possible. Here, we demonstrate the steps required to reproducibly fabricate contacts to single, vapor phase grown $\textrm{MoS}_2$ nanotubes and nanowires. All devices display finite room-temperature two-point resistances in absence of gating, with a median value of $340\,\textrm{k}\Omega$ in a large fabrication series. A detailed analysis elucidates the impact of the different fabrication changes.
Read the full abstract

All authors Robin T. K. Schock, Stefan Obloh, Korbinian Fink, Matthias Kronseder, Matjaž Malok, Maja Remškar, Andreas K. Hüttel

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Cross-listed from quant-ph

Kinetics of electron-phonon scattering in silicon resolved by Rydberg transitions of donors

Nils Dessmann, Aidan G. McConnell, Sergey G. Pavlov et al. (+6 more)

Rydberg states of atoms in vacuum are now well recognized as a resource for quantum technologies. Donors in semiconductors also display analogous states, which have been proposed for similar applications. While they benefit from permanent locations in their host crystals, electron-lattice coupling leads to much shorter excited-state lifetimes than for neutral atoms in vacuum. Here we provide a quantitative description of donor-phonon kinetics, creating a basis for engineering donor systems in realistic material stacks for quantum devices. Our theory incorporates both form factors for the Rydberg states, which given their large extents in real space provide strong selectivity in momentum space, and tabulated deformation potentials for all six phonon branches throughout the Brillouin zone. By confronting this framework with carefully controlled time-resolved free electron laser measurements, we show that the widely quoted position of the silicon conduction band minimum, $k_0$, is inconsistent with observed donor relaxation rates and that quantitative agreement is obtained for a value further from the X-point than commonly assumed. This stringent experiment-theory comparison establishes donor relaxation as a precision metrology for conduction band parameters and scattering processes in silicon, with consequences spanning from quantum devices to classical electronics.
Read the full abstract

All authors Nils Dessmann, Aidan G. McConnell, Sergey G. Pavlov, Guy Matmon, Gabriel Aeppli, Nikolay V. Abrosimov, Hari Paudyal, Michael E. Flatté, Benedict N. Murdin

Statistical Mechanics

Reply to Comment on "Scaling and universality at noisy quench dynamical quantum phase transitions"

S. Ansari, R. Jafari, A. Akbari et al. (+1 more)

The Comment by J. Sirker [arXiv:2511.16509] raises an important issue concerning dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs) in noisy and mixed-state dynamics, namely that the extension of the Loschmidt echo from pure to mixed states is not unique and different extensions preserve different physical properties. The Comment examines a noise-averaged mixed-state fidelity and shows that DQPTs cannot occur for any nonzero noise when the return rate is defined through the Uhlmann-Bures fidelity of the noise-averaged density matrix. This conclusion is valid for the mixed-state fidelity observable discussed in the Comment and is consistent with prior studies [https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.109.L180303, arXiv:2504.03005]. Our article [https://doi.org/10.1103/mkll-nd46] investigated a different operationally defined quantity: the logarithm of the Loschmidt echo obtained by first determining the noise-averaged excitation probabilities generated during the noisy ramp and then performing a coherent post-ramp evolution of a pure state constructed from these noise-averaged transition probabilities. As emphasized explicitly in our original publication, this observable is defined through an operational assumption and is not the same quantity as the mixed-state fidelity. The nonanalyticities reported in Ref. [https://doi.org/10.1103/mkll-nd46] therefore concern this two-stage operational protocol and should not be identified with zeros of the Uhlmann-Bures fidelity. There is therefore no direct contradiction between the theorem established for the Uhlmann-Bures return rate and the conclusions obtained for the different operational protocol studied in Ref. [https://doi.org/10.1103/mkll-nd46].
Read the full abstract

All authors S. Ansari, R. Jafari, A. Akbari, M. Abdi

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Coherent and Incoherent Interfacial Spin Transport: Quantum-to-Classical Crossover in Spin Superfluids

A. R. Moura and L. S. L. Barbosa

We investigate the thermodynamics of interfacial spin transport within a normal metal/ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal ($\mathrm{NM/FMI/NM}$) trilayer heterostructure, where the central magnetic layer is described by the anisotropic quantum XXZ model. By employing the self-consistent harmonic approximation (SCHA) combined with a microscopic linear response formulation, we evaluate the interfacial spin-mixing conductance $g_{\uparrow\downarrow}$ across all spin regimes. We demonstrate that $g_{\uparrow\downarrow}$ uniquely decomposes into a coherent condensed component ($g_{\mathrm{cond}}$), driven by the macroscopic phase of the spin superfluid, and an incoherent fluctuation-driven term ($g_{\mathrm{fluct}}$) mediated by stochastic thermal magnons. Crucially, in the extreme quantum limit of $S = 1/2$, $g_{\mathrm{cond}}$ drops steeply and vanishes at a finite coherence temperature $T_{\mathrm{coh}}$. Conversely, the fluctuation-driven term $g_{\mathrm{fluct}}$ vanishes at $T = 0$, exhibits a characteristic $T^2$ quadratic scaling at low temperatures, and undergoes a systematic $1/S$ amplitude suppression as the macroscopic magnetization becomes robust. Our microscopic insights bridge the gap between quantum many-body fluctuations and macroscopic spin-superfluid hydrodynamics, providing clear foundational principles for optimizing long-range coherent transport in quantum spintronic devices.
Read the full abstract

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Nonequilibrium electron-phonon dynamics with high momentum resolution: Thermalization bottlenecks and the effects of phonon dispersion

Maksymilian Środa and Philipp Werner

The nonequilibrium interplay of electrons and phonons plays an important role in the thermalization of solids, yet the microscopic picture of transient states and relaxation pathways remains incomplete. Previous nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) studies with full two-time dependence were restricted to local phonons and local self-energy approximations, leaving momentum-dependent phonon dynamics largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate the recently developed quantics-tensor-train (QTT) NEGF framework via large-scale lattice simulations of models with arbitrary phonon dispersions. QTTs provide a memory-efficient representation of full two-time Green's functions, enabling momentum-resolved simulations with full electron-phonon feedback on lattices up to 256x256 sites. Comparing optical and acoustic phonon models, we reveal a hierarchy of relaxation bottlenecks that extends the well-known phonon-window bottleneck effect. For optical phonons, we confirm the main phonon-energy window and uncover an additional reduced window separating momentum-space regions with excess and deficit electronic population. We also identify a separate phonon-thermalization bottleneck rooted in momentum-dependent coupling to the particle-hole continuum. High momentum and frequency resolution makes the phonon–charge correspondence directly visible. For acoustic phonons, the phonon-energy window acquires pronounced momentum dependence dictated by energy and momentum conservation. The reduced window becomes asymmetric, and directional scattering between Brillouin-zone regions produces a persistent bottleneck for low-momentum phonon modes. Our results establish diagrammatic QTT-NEGF simulations as a scalable framework for quantitative nonequilibrium electron-phonon dynamics, overcoming previous lattice-size and propagation-time limitations and providing accurate reference data for time-resolved spectroscopies.
Read the full abstract