Papers

The phase diagram for Kr, as represented by the Tadah! two-body potential is shown to have face-centred cubic (fcc), hexahonal close packed (hcp), and body centred cubic (bcc) regions. It has been assembled by combining several methods: direct liquid–solid coexistence for the melt lines, Gibbs–Helmholtz integration and Clapeyron slopes for the bcc–fcc line, slab coexistence for the liquid–gas line, static zero-temperature relaxations for the crystals, and the quasiharmonic approximation for the low-temperature fcc–hcp windows. The bcc phase contains highly mobile “greedy snake" defects, which suggests a reinterpretation of the melt-curve data: the anomaly observed may be due to the speckle method detecting the bcc-fcc boundary, not the melt curve. While pair potentials have limitations, comparison with a foundation MACE model shows that a more flexible machine-learned model does not necessarily improve matters if inappropriately trained.

A freely moving quantum Hall (QH) interface may end on a physical edge or topological boundary, but fixed-edge theory cannot determine what endpoint data make such a termination consistent. Here we formulate an open-worldsheet junction framework in which the embedding, material charge, anomaly flow, and topological boundary condition are organized together. The endpoint is specified by a geometric support and variational boundary data, together with condensable topological sectors and any outgoing channels required to absorb or continue the worldsheet flux. This construction extends the charge–shape relation to an interval and shows why a lone chiral Majorana cannot terminate on a finite-dimensional endpoint degree of freedom. It gives an operational definition of a QH brane and a systematic basis for endpoint and network theories of dynamical QH interfaces.

A Moore–Read interface carries a chiral Majorana mode on a boundary whose geometry may itself fluctuate. Fixed-edge theory does not determine how this neutral mode should be transported when the interface bends and moves, or how its dynamics couples to the fluctuating shape. Here we construct a spatially reparametrization-invariant Majorana theory on the nonrelativistic worldsheet of a freely moving interface. The changing line element fixes a universal half-density transport law, while additional curvature- and velocity-dependent couplings remain controlled by microscopic interface physics. The resulting framework identifies the Majorana stress tensor as the mediator between neutral and geometric dynamics and provides the neutral sector needed for effective theories of dynamical non-Abelian quantum Hall interfaces.

A freely moving quantum Hall interface is fundamentally different from an ordinary edge fixed by an external confining potential. Since a normal displacement changes the areas occupied by the adjacent incompressible phases, the interface geometry and charge dynamics cannot be treated as independent degrees of freedom. We formulate this problem for interfaces between Abelian quantum Hall phases using a spatially reparametrization-invariant worldsheet description, in which tangential motion is a relabeling of the interface while normal motion is physical. Starting from the two-sided Chern–Simons response, we derive the relation between normal charge transport and interface motion. We then introduce a relative-area construction, defined with respect to a material reference curve, that converts this velocity relation into an equal-time constraint linking the charged boundary sector to the interface shape. Combined with the folded $K$-matrix current algebra, this identifies the universal Hall kinematics of the moving interface while leaving its geometric energy and neutral dynamics dependent on microscopic interface physics. The resulting framework provides a systematic basis for effective theories of dynamical quantum Hall interfaces.

We study a minimal lattice model of active search-and-capture in which persistent random walkers locate and irreversibly capture immobile targets through a finite-range, mutually exclusive assignment rule. We measure the collective completion time $T_c$ as a function of the walkers' reorientation rate $\alpha$ and the search radius $R$. The dependence $T_c(\alpha)$ is non-monotonic, with a minimum at intermediate persistence whose depth decreases as $R$ grows. Capture kinetics show that $T_c$ is not a typical capture time but is governed by the extreme, late-time tail of the capture process, while the bulk of targets are captured much earlier; this tail is controlled mainly by the free-exploration phase rather than by the final directed approach. We then compare the baseline single-round assignment rule with cascading reassignment and with maximum-cardinality matching on a candidate graph. The two greedy policies (single-round and cascading) agree at very small $R$, whereas maximum-cardinality matching already produces a strong speedup at moderate $R$: improved matching reduces $T_c$ by factors of several at large $R$, and by more than an order of magnitude at moderate $R$. Thus, in this collective, depletion-coupled search problem, the assignment policy can control the capture time more strongly than the walkers' persistence.

The Monte Carlo sampling of the stochastic differential equations (SDEs) based on the quasiprobability distribution function, such as the Glauber–Sudarshan P, Wigner, and Husimi Q functions provides a powerful framework for investigating bosonic open quantum many-body dynamics described by the Gorini–Kossakowski–Sudarshan–Lindblad (GKSL) equation, while considering the effects of quantum fluctuations beyond the mean-field approximation. However, the stochastic Monte Carlo simulation is possible only when the corresponding Fokker–Planck equation has a positive-semidefinite diffusion matrix, and the general conditions for the diffusion matrix to be positive semidefinite have remained unclear. In this work, starting from the path integral formulation, we first derive the sufficient conditions under which the diffusion matrix is positive semidefinite for an arbitrary Hamiltonian, jump operators, and choice of quasiprobability distribution functions. We also analytically derive the corresponding SDEs to be solved. We then investigate the dynamics of the GKSL equation in the thermodynamic limit and show that, depending on the form of the jump operators, the mean-field approximation may fail to describe the dynamics accurately, making stochastic Monte Carlo simulations indispensable. Furthermore, we derive the sufficient conditions under which the higher-order quantum fluctuation terms beyond the Fokker–Planck description vanish identically, even when the jump operators contain quadratic terms. Under these conditions, whenever the corresponding SDEs can be derived, the stochastic Monte Carlo simulation reproduces the exact dynamics. These results clarify the conditions under which the stochastic Monte Carlo simulations are both feasible and necessary for accurately describing the dynamics governed by the GKSL equation in phase space.

Using official government data sets of USA and France we analyze the occurrence/frequency/popularity distributions of given names on a time scale of more than 100 years. These distributions are characterized through the Lorenz and Pareto curves broadly used in the analysis of wealth inequality in the world. These curves remain stable during the considered time period with the Gini coefficient remaining in the narrow range 0.85-0.95. As for the case of wealth inequality, we show that the distributions of names are well described by the Rayleigh-Jeans (RJ) thermalization and condensation phenomenon well studied in various physical systems. The RJ thermalization results from two integrals of motion being analogous to energy and probability norm conservation in physical systems with energy states corresponding to popularity levels of names. Time correlations between names are also determined showing their stability until the middle of the twentieth century and a significant change after that.

We study the entanglement Hamiltonian of an infinite hopping chain in its ground state, after partial projective measurements in the occupation basis. For a segment separated by two measurement regions from the rest of the chain, we show that the reduced density matrix can be related to a grand-canonical state via a conformal mapping and a gauge transformation in the underlying field-theory description. The entanglement Hamiltonian is then described by a local inverse temperature that vanishes as a square root around the endpoints and is independent of the particular measurement outcome. In sharp contrast, the local chemical potential is shown to be related to the induced charge density in the segment. Hence the entanglement Hamiltonian of a post-selected state contains much more information on the measurement outcome than the respective entropy.

Properties of the two-dimensional Hubbard model with nearest-neighbor hopping are under scrutiny in cold-atom experiments and diagrammatic quantum Monte Carlo. Given the controlled nature of these approaches, it is timely to make predictions about strange-metal behavior and its relation to quantum-critical properties. Even for interaction strengths below the Mott transition, several peculiarities occur at the quantum critical point separating Fermi liquid and incommensurate spin-density wave order. Here, we predict, using the non-perturbative improved two-particle self-consistent approach, that for correlation lengths ranging from about one to one hundred lattice spacings, Kohn anomalies on the underlying Fermi surface lead to unconventional critical exponents. The temperature dependence of the single-particle self-energy acquires strong momentum dependence along the Fermi surface with no clear evidence of Landau quasiparticles. Nevertheless, we observe strange-metal behavior, namely, resistivity that scales linearly with temperature as $T\rightarrow{0}$. Our work shows that a linear temperature dependence of resistivity arises without a linear-in-temperature self-energy along the Fermi surface, as is often assumed.

We study the Haldane chain coupled to a dissipative ohmic bath. Using large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we identify a second-order quantum phase transition into an antiferromagnetic state with spontaneously broken SO(3) symmetry that is governed by an interacting fixed point with dynamical exponent $z\approx 2$. We derive a generalized string order parameter which indicates that the symmetry-protected topological ground state of the Haldane chain is stable for weak dissipation and develops a nontrivial scaling dimension at criticality. In particular, its topological edge modes display nontrivial boundary criticality that is distinct from an equivalent transition out of a trivial state; for the latter, we perform an accurate $\epsilon$ expansion of a dissipative $\phi^4$ theory with ordinary boundary conditions. Our setup realizes a spin impurity in a critical yet nonconformal antiferromagnet and paves the way for continuously tunable boundary criticality controlled by dissipation.

Entanglement dynamics depend not only on how a quantum system is partitioned, but critically on how interactions across that partition are structured. For a spatial bipartition of a locally interacting system, entanglement is generated near the boundary and then propagates into the bulk. By contrast, when two extended quantum fields are coupled locally along their entire length, the interaction crosses the field-space partition everywhere, and this generates correlations throughout the system. Here, we study the entanglement dynamics between two gapless one-dimensional quantum many-body systems described by Luttinger liquid theory. The systems are initially decoupled and prepared at zero or finite temperature, after which a time-dependent tunneling interaction is activated uniformly along their length. Within a Gaussian approximation, we derive general analytical expressions for the logarithmic negativity, mutual information, and Rényi entropies under arbitrary coupling protocols. At zero temperature, entanglement displays an early-time power-law growth whose exponent is fixed solely by the first non-null derivative of the tunneling protocol. Once the coupling saturates, we obtain exact long-time averages of the information-theoretic quantities and characterise how the correlations scale with temperature and the final coupling strength. We also analyse how mutual information and logarithmic negativity approach the adiabatic limit for a very slow protocol with respect to intrinsic system timescale. This work extends the study of entanglement dynamics in nonequilibrium field theory to field-space partitions and mixed initial states.

The Spin-Polarized Relativistic Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (SPR-KKR) is an all-electron ab-initio multiple-scattering code that provides unique capabilities for treating chemical disorder, finite-temperature magnetism, relativistic effects, and spectroscopic properties of various types of solids through its fundamental formulation in terms of the single-particle Green's function rather than eigenstates. We present ASE2SPRKKR, a comprehensive Python interface that integrates SPR-KKR into the Atomic Simulation Environment (ASE), making SPR-KKR more accessible, streamlined, and uniform. Our implementation extends the ASE's Atoms object to handle fractional site occupations for coherent-potential-approximation calculations while maintaining full compatibility with ASE's extensive ecosystem of structure builders, optimizers, and analysis tools. Automated input generation with validation, comprehensive output parsing, and direct MPI support enable seamless integration into high-throughput and multi-method workflows. We demonstrate the interface through representative applications: semi-infinite surface calculations reproducing Rashba-split Au(111) surface states; one-step photoemission modeling capturing matrix-element effects; exchange-parameter extraction for atomistic spin dynamics; and X-ray absorption spectroscopy including magnetic circular dichroism. Beyond these demonstrations, ASE2SPRKKR is designed with transferability as a first-class concern. By grounding its architecture in FAIR principles of Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability, it establishes a replicable blueprint for bringing other specialized Green's function and first-principles codes into the collaborative, reproducible workflows that modern materials discovery requires.

We study the critical dynamics arising from a time-dependent periodic homogenous source coupled to the order-parameter field, which drives a classical ferromagnetic system across a continuous transition. For this purpose, we consider the paradigmatic two-dimensional (2D) Ising model in the presence of a periodic magnetic field $h(t)=-A\, \cos (2\pi t/P)$, evolving under a purely relaxational dynamics at the critical temperature. We show that the periodic driving gives rise to a peculiar dynamic scaling behavior in the thermodynamic limit, arising from a nontrivial interplay among the time $t$, the amplitude $A$ and period $P$ of $h(t)$. The relevant scaling variables are $\tau=t/P$ and $\sigma=A P^\kappa$, with $\kappa = y_h/z$, where $y_h=(d+2-\eta)/2$ is the critical dimension of the magnetic field, and $z$ is dynamic exponent for the critical relaxational dynamics ($\kappa\approx 0.865$ for the 2D Ising model). The dynamic scaling behaviors of the magnetization and bond-energy density show an oscillatory behavior around a smooth curve which approaches a large-$\tau$ stationary behavior. We also briefly discuss the dynamic behavior of an Ising system driven across the critical point by a periodic time-varying temperature at zero magnetic field.

Entanglement is a key resource for quantum technologies. We show that protocols employing quantum Mpemba effects allow one to exponentially accelerate the generation of entanglement, or to slow down the decay thereof. Two entanglement Mpemba effects with different operational meaning are introduced, focusing either on the task of rapidly generating a certain threshold value for entanglement or on achieving the asymptotic steady-state value. We show that entanglement Mpemba effects depend on the chosen entanglement measure. Using cluster elimination methods, many-body quantum systems also benefit from the exponential speedup of entanglement generation, as we demonstrate for a dissipative long-range Ising chain.

We investigate a hard-core boson model on the square-kagome lattice using hierarchical mean-field theory beyond the conventional unit-cell description. We show that the conventional description of the square-kagome lattice based on its smallest unit cell does not fully capture the hierarchy of incompressible states supported by the lattice, but only captures the two compact-localized-state-based phases at densities $5/6$ and $2/3$. Within our approach, we reproduce these previously established phases and uncover additional incompressible states enabled by enlarging the variational cluster. Among these, the $\rho=3/4$ phase is found to be particularly robust, which, through the Matsubara-Matsuda mapping, corresponds to a half-magnetization plateau in the spin-$1/2$ XXZ model. We further apply our approach to two experimentally relevant square-kagome compounds using exchange parameters obtained from first-principles calculations. The calculated magnetization processes are in good agreement with available experimental results and predict additional plateau structures in these materials.

Symmetries of a crystal often restrict its physical properties. In particular, they determine possible forms of the tensors that describe interatomic exchange interaction, which governs a wide range of magnetic phenomena. Computationally demanding first-principles calculations of the exchange tensors can be greatly simplified by taking the symmetry constraints into account. Here, we present Jsymm, a Python package that derives the most general symmetry-compatible form of the exchange tensors directly from the crystallographic data. For any bond formed by magnetic ions, Jsymm produces the tensors of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and anisotropic Heisenberg exchange interaction in symbolic form, as well as the tensors for all other bonds related to it by symmetry. This reduces the number of independent model parameters, dramatically lowering the computational cost of the ab initio calculations and preventing unphysical results arising from symmetry violations. The package accepts standard CIF files and provides a web interface in addition to an interactive text mode and a Python library. We demonstrate its utility on La$_2$CuO$_4$ and $\alpha$-Fe$_2$O$_3$, reproducing known symmetry constraints and revealing additional relations between components of the exchange tensors of different bonds.

We investigate the electronic band topology of recently fabricated pentagonal IV-VI semiconductor nanowires, which contain five radial $\{111\}$ twin planes meeting at the nanowire axis. Tight-binding calculations show that, when the bulk band structure is inverted and the twin planes in the nanowire are cationic, the spectrum contains two spatially separated helical Dirac crossings near $\overline{\Gamma}$: one localized at the core and the other at the outer surface. When the twin planes are anionic, the corresponding spectra remain gapped. The crossings originate from the hybridization of five helical channels associated with the twin-plane edges, whose odd number leaves one Kramers pair near the nanowire axis and the other at the outer boundary. Realistic multiorbital calculations for $\mathrm{Pb}_{0.4}\mathrm{Sn}_{0.6}\mathrm{Te}$ predict well-developed core and surface modes at nanowire thicknesses of approximately 50~nm and above. These results establish pentagonal SnTe-class nanowires as an experimentally accessible realization of spatially separated helical channels bound to the axial defect and the outer boundary.

All-inorganic cesium lead bromide (CsPbBr3) nanocrystals (NCs) have established themselves as an emerging semiconductor for next-generation optoelectronic technologies due to their unique combination of properties, such as near unity photoluminescence quantum yields, narrow color pure emission, and exceptional defect tolerance. Although size-dependent optical signatures of these NCs are well reported, the complexity of mixed ionic-electronic transport remains largely unexplored. In this study, we provide a comprehensive analysis of size-dependent charge transport by decoupling ionic and electronic transport dynamics through carefully designed transient current and space charge limited current measurements. By employing NCs of different sizes ranging from 5.6 nm to 11.3 nm in thin films, we provide a comprehensive understanding of quantum confinement effects and related synthetic chemistry. Contrary to popular beliefs of quantum confinement and band gap broadening, our results demonstrate that the smallest NCs exhibit the most efficient transport characteristics, evidenced by the lowest activation energy (hole activation energy = 78 meV) for hole transport and the highest barrier for vacancy-mediated ion migration (ion activation energy = 370 meV). This work paves a way forward for perovskite-based efficient quantum devices, by demonstrating that moving into a strong quantum confinement regime, a superior charge transport can be facilitated, when supported by carefully tailored stoichiometry.

Strong electron correlations and band topology each generate rich quantum phases, but conflicting elemental requirements have largely kept them apart. Topological polarization offers a route to unite them, producing polar surface states from bonding charge without spin-orbit coupling and thereby extending band topology to correlated 3d transition-metal compounds. Here we demonstrate that epitaxial thin films of the narrow-gap insulator FeSb2 host metallic polar surface states of topological-polarization origin, governed by the strong correlations of the bulk. Nonreciprocal surface transport emerges only below the onset temperature of a correlation-driven reconstruction of the bulk Fe 3d orbital occupation, providing direct evidence of bulk-edge correspondence in a correlated topological system. Moreover, electrostatic gating drives this correlated surface across a quantum phase transition into a ferromagnetic or possibly altermagnetic state. Our results establish topological polarization as a design principle for correlated topological phases in a broad range of materials.

Living matter undergoes continuous turnover. The hydrodynamic theory of Malthusian flocks describes polar active matter with turnover, but its phase diagram and nonlinear scaling behavior is not well understood. Using a nonperturbative renormalization group approach, rotationally invariant to second order in derivatives, and without defects, we explicitly obtain the strong-coupling fixed point governing true long-range order, uncover a quasi long-range ordered phase, and identify a critical point similar to, but distinct from the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless universality class at the transition.

We calculated shear viscosities of 15 neat molecular liquids from equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the OrthoBoXY approach and compare them to viscosities calculated via the Green-Kubo method. Data from both methods agree very well. Here, we show how to avoid pitfalls while computing the OrthoBoXY-data to obtain optimal results. From simulations of multiple system sizes, we could verify that the viscosity of molecular liquids is not influenced by finite size effects down to systems as small as 250 molecules. Moreover, we demonstrate that also the standard error of the viscosity is nearly independent of the system size. This is shown to be a consequence of a compensation effect of an increasing accuracy of the self-diffusion coefficients with increasing systems-size and the system-size dependent weighting according to the OrthoBoXY-equation. As a consequence, we suggest that it is preferable to run simulations of smaller systems with longer simulation times rather than larger systems with shorter simulation runs. In addition, we discuss a refinement of the recently introduced "recipe" for OrthoBoXY simulations block-lengths $\tau_\mathrm{block}$. Based on data from simulations with varying run-lengths, we suggest the following modification: for highly viscous systems, the value of $\tau_\mathrm{block}$ might safely be scaled by a factor of $1/8$, significantly reducing the computational resources needed. For less viscous systems, the value of $\tau_\mathrm{block}$ might safely be scaled by a factor of $1/4$. For systems with high fluidity, the value of $\tau_\mathrm{block}$ should not be scaled down in order to achieve reliable results. When using a smaller system size of 250 molecules, these refinements are leading up to a 24-fold reduction in computational cost compared to the previous recommended set-up without sacrificing numerical accuracy.

Reaching fault tolerance means scaling qubit counts by orders of magnitude, a jump that conventional superconducting architectures cannot sustain without solving the so-called `wiring problem'. Global control sidesteps this bottleneck, but implementing quantum error correction (QEC) on previously proposed global architectures incurs extremely steep overhead costs, due to the need for separate correction procedures for the computational and auxiliary qubits that comprise the global device. We resolve this by introducing the first globally-controlled architecture with zero qubit overhead. Every physical qubit is a computational qubit, and thus, every qubit is protected under a single error correcting scheme. We identify a class of cyclic stabilizer codes realizable through global iSWAP and single-qubit gates, yielding QEC thresholds nearly seven orders of magnitude larger than previous estimates for globally-controlled arrays. We further show these thresholds improve systematically as the global architecture is augmented with a limited amount of local measurement sites, demonstrating a trade-off between wiring simplicity and fault-tolerant performance.

Novel phases, beyond long-range order in two dimensions, have continued to be discovered within flocking models, establishing flocking as one of the pivotal paradigms in active matter. However, much of the discussion around “Malthusian” (constant density) flocks, an analytically more tractable alternative to the Vicsek model, has centred around the scaling exponents governing the intermediate regime prior to the proliferation of asters, leaving open the question of what other phases the model might display. Here, we study the two-dimensional dynamics of Malthusian flocks and identify a previously unnoticed phase, where the dynamics is that of the equilibrium XY Model. By identifying the symmetries of the model, we derive the effective equations of motion for the Goldstone modes and analyse the spin-wave fluctuations. We identify a novel critical point separating two distinct phases and, using a perturbative RG procedure, determine the RG flows in its vicinity. This allows us to calculate the universal scaling behaviour at the critical point, along with its logarithmic corrections. The novel phase transition here is due to the interaction of activity and spin-waves, unlike the equilibrium counterpart, which undergoes a phase transition in effective degrees of freedom, namely vortices. Nevertheless, the RG flows are similar to those of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, and we show that for sufficiently strong noise, the activity becomes irrelevant and the system crosses over to the equilibrium XY universality class.

We present a systematic first-principles study of the spin-orbit torques in the ferromagnetic monolayers Fe$_3$GeTe$_2$ (FGT) and Fe$_3$GaTe$_2$ (FGaT). Despite sharing the same crystal structure (point group $D_{3h}$) and predominantly Fe~$3d$ spin-polarized bands, the two materials exhibit markedly different current-induced torques. We reveal these differences by computing the full angular dependence of the torkance—the torque per unit applied electric field—using linear-response theory with symmetry-adapted spin–orbit-coupled Wannier functions. FGaT may be viewed as a hole-doped analogue of FGT, since Ga contributes one valence electron fewer than Ge. Although the work functions differ by only about $28$~meV, the band filling near $K$ and $K'$ changes substantially: the density of states at $\varepsilon_F$ is reduced by a factor of three and its spin polarization reverses from minority in FGT to majority in FGaT. These electronic changes are reflected in the torques resolved by time-reversal parity, sublattice, and momentum. In particular, we identify pronounced hidden torques in FGaT and relate the suppression of its fourth-harmonic Fermi-sea component to the evolution of momentum-space pockets. Finally, we discuss the emergence of such self-torques, which are not captured by the conventional picture of current-induced spin accumulation, within a symmetry-based phenomenological framework. Our results provide microscopic insight into current-induced torques in two-dimensional ferromagnets and offer guidance for defect and van der Waals engineering of layered magnetic materials.

Spin ensembles are considered as potential candidates for quantum memory and quantum enhanced sensing applications. Here, we explore the controlled coupling of multiple superconducting microwave cavities to a spin ensemble, which shows signatures of strong coupling and, due to the multi-mode character, the formation of dark states. In particular, the latter are of interest, as they provide a potential pathway to enhance memory times and enable protected storage of non-classical states in spin ensembles due to the suppressed coupling to the circuit environment. We model the spin multi-cavity hybrid to reproduce the spectra and extract characteristic coupling strengths using the input-output formalism.

Spatial confinement profoundly impacts the transport and self-organization of active matter across diverse biological systems. While the collective orders in confined active matter have been extensively characterized, how geometric constraints reshape near-field flows and the resulting inter-particle correlations remains largely unexplored. In this study, we combine experiments and hydrodynamic simulations to investigate inter-particle correlations within quasi-two-dimensional Chlamydomonas reinhardtii suspensions. We reveal two disentangled modes characterizing cell pairs: a dipolar mode and an entrainment mode, which exhibit a density- and distance-dependent competition. Combining single-cell flow field analysis, hydrodynamic simulations, and active-passive mixtures, we link these two modes to singular hydrodynamics and lubrication-induced entrainment. Our results demonstrate that spatiotemporal correlations in confined active matter are fundamentally rooted in the interplay of these two hydrodynamic mechanisms.

Programmable electron optics – electronically controlled phase plates – underpin proposals from dose-efficient phase imaging to shaped-electron X-ray sources, nearly all assuming a pure, fully coherent delivered wave whose purity has never been measured. Here we reconstruct the transverse density matrix of a microelectromechanical electrostatic spiral phase plate by mixed-state ptychography, from one four-dimensional STEM scan per state and without added hardware. The delivered beam is substantially mixed: its purity falls from approximately 0.47 to approximately 0.24 as the applied bias grows, inconsistent with a fixed lateral source-blur model, while the real-space coherence width stays near 1 nm. The same scans calibrate the device in situ, allow virtual orbital-angular-momentum sorting and, through a partial-coherence-aware transfer theory, indicate that purifying the output could improve dose efficiency roughly threefold. One acquisition thus becomes a quantum-state acceptance test for programmable electron optics, supplying the purity and coherence that emerging phase-plate and diffractive-imaging schemes assume but leave unquantified.

We investigate the entanglement entropy of a class of $N$-particle excited state of fermions confined in a two-dimensional harmonic trap rotating at an angular frequency $\Omega$. The excited state is constructed by filling a particular set of $N$ single-particle energy levels. We analytically compute the Rényi entropies of order $q$ in a disc of radius $r$ around the centre of the trap, and the cumulants corresponding to number fluctuations of fermions within the disc. We found that the area law scaling of entanglement entropy holds even for a class of excited states. We also verified the well-known series expansion of entanglement entropy in terms of the particle number cumulants for non-interacting fermions. We further derive the centered cumulant generating function, demonstrating that the associated probability distribution function in the disc has identical scaling properties, up to a variable shift, to the known ground-state result. Finally, we extend our result to an annular region, showing that both the Rényi entropy and particle number cumulants of the annulus decompose into sums of the corresponding quantities of the two bounding discs. These additive relations hold as long as the width of the annulus is sufficiently large.

The magnetic structure of EuRhGe$_3$, a noncentrosymmetric body-centered tetragonal magnet with the space group $I4mm$, has been investigated by resonant X-ray diffraction. Below $T_{\text{N}}=12$ K, EuRhGe$_3$ undergoes a helical magnetic ordering with an incommensurate propagation vector $q=(0, 0, 0.809)$, in which the magnetic moments lie in the $ab$ plane and rotate by a constant turn angle of $145.8^{\circ}$ between adjacent layers. When a magnetic field is applied along the $a$ axis at 2 K, a second-harmonic $2q$ peak develops, indicating that the circular helix is gradually distorted into a helimagnetic soliton-lattice state, which eventually undergoes a lock-in transition to the commensurate structure with $q=0.8$ at 3.8 T. Above the subsequent phase boundary at 5 T, the helicity is lost, and a spin-flop $xyz$-fan (elliptic conical) state is realized, in which the moments oscillate predominantly along the $b$ axis but are accompanied by a small $c$-axis component. At higher fields, the system enters a conventional planar $xy$-fan phase without a $c$-axis component. EuRhGe$_3$ provides a prototypical example of a helimagnet that exhibits a full sequence of field-induced structures, evolving from a circular helix to a spin-flop $xyz$-fan (elliptic conical), and finally to a planar $xy$-fan structure, which has been theoretically predicted.

When the surface states of a topological insulator becomes superconducting, topological superconductivity can be obtained, and each vortex on the surface can host one single Majorana zero-energy mode which is usually a wave packet decaying exponentially off the vortex core. Here, we predict stable Majorana zero-energy mode whose wave function is ring-shape, dubbed as annular Majorana mode, in the superconducting vortex in topological insulators respecting $3$-fold or $6$-fold rotational symmetry. Such topological insulators are featured with a single nonlinear Dirac cone located at $\bar{\Gamma}$ or three linear Dirac cones at $\bar{\text{M}}$ in the surface Brillouin zone. The annular Majorana mode originates from the effective chiral $f$-wave superconductivity on the nonlinear Dirac cone in the former case and the interference of the effective chiral $p$-wave superconductivity on the three linear Dirac cones in the latter. In both cases, the annular Majorana mode is stabilized by the rotational symmetry and the winding number $3$ carried by the surface states. Candidate materials supporting the annular Majorana mode are predicted. Our work provides new insights into the topological superconductivity in superconducting topological insulators.