Papers

We study how colloidal inclusions modify the formation energy of dislocation pairs in lamellar block copolymer systems. Using a hybrid particle/Ginzburg–Landau model, we calculate defect formation energies by comparing defect-free and defect-containing states with and without embedded colloids. Finite-size scaling is used to obtain formation energies in the thermodynamic limit. The effect of colloid insertion depends strongly on particle sizes and surface patterning. Homogeneous particles increasingly stabilize dislocation pairs with increasing particle sizes. Particles larger than one lamellar domain preferentially occupy the dislocation cores, where they replace strained polymer rather than deforming defect-free lamellae. The magnitude of this stabilization depends on surface affinity. Balanced Janus particles instead increase the formation energy, because their competing surface preferences cannot be satisfied simultaneously near the curved core. Varying the patch ratio interpolates between these limits. Surface patterning has little effect for particles smaller than one lamellar domain but changes the formation energy by several tens of $k_BT$ for larger particles. These results provide quantitative guidelines for controlling topological defect stability in lamellar block copolymer systems.

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and their Weyl semimetal phases, such as MoTe$_2$, have attracted significant attention for spin-orbit torque applications due to their efficient charge-to-spin conversion. However, whether this conversion originates predominantly from the bulk or the interface remains unclear. Here, we investigate spin-charge interconversion in MoTe$_2$ using spin-pumping and spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (SP-FMR and ST-FMR). Thickness-dependent measurements reveal large spin-to-charge conversion and spin-torque efficiencies that are essentially independent of MoTe$_2$ thickness, indicating that the conversion is predominantly governed by the Rashba-Edelstein effect at the Py/MoTe$_2$ interface rather than by bulk spin transport. This behavior contrasts with the characteristic thickness dependence observed in Pt heterostructures and is further supported by bidirectional SP-FMR and interface-separation measurements. Our results highlight the dominant role of the Py/MoTe$_2$ interface in enabling efficient spin-charge conversion and spin-orbit torques in TMD-based spintronic devices. These findings highlight the potential of sputtered MoTe$_2$/Py heterostructures for low-power spintronic applications, including magnetic memory and logic devices.

The trilayered (A-B-A type) anisotropic (single site) XY magnetic model is considered with the intra-plane ferromagnetic and the inter-plane antiferromagnetic interactions. The equilibrium properties of such trilayered anisotropic XY system has been studied by Monte Carlo simulation with Metropolis single spin (randomly chosen) update algorithm. In a given range of interaction parameters, the system has been found to exhibit the high temperature critical (vanishing sublattice magnetisations and total magnetisation) and low temperature compensation (vanishing total magnetisation even for non-vanishing sublattice magnetisations) behaviours. The compensation temperature and the critical temperature both are found to increase with the increase of single site anisotropy. The comprehensive phase diagram is drawn. The finite size study reveals the growth of correlations near the critical temperature.

From linear response theory, we derive the equation of motion for Landau-damped magnon quasi-particles in absence of spin-orbit coupling. The derivation is based on a minimal set of assumptions, namely that the transverse magnetic susceptibility is diagonalized by one collective eigenmode per magnetic atom in the unit cell, and that the spectrum of each collective eigenmode is dominated by a single magnon resonance. The resulting equation of motion leads to a natural definition of the exchange interaction as the restoring force acting on the collective mode magnetization near equilibrium. In addition to magnetic exchange, the magnon equation of motion also contains a damping term and a dispersive quasi-particle mass, both originating from the electron-magnon coupling. The effect of these terms is illustrated for a prototypical itinerant ferromagnet, where they redshift the magnon dispersion and reduce the magnon lifetime as the magnon enters the Stoner continuum. By further assuming wave vector independence of the collective magnon subspace, the magnon equation of motion becomes atomistic with well defined magnetic sites. For real materials, one can approximate the magnon coupling constants using an arbitrary level of band theory for the dynamic transverse magnetic susceptibility.

Disclinations are elementary topological defects in two-dimensional (2D) crystalline membranes, yet their elastic properties remain largely unexplored. Using atomistic simulations, we address the energetics, morphology, and interactions of disclinations in free-standing graphene, a prototypical 2D crystal. We find that while disclinations with positive topological charges follow an expected behavior, negative disclinations exhibit sublinear energy scaling with charge as well as equilibrium shape that deviates sharply from the conventional saddle ansatz. This breakdown of charge-conjugation symmetry leads to qualitatively distinct interactions: positive disclinations repel, whereas negative disclinations display a robust long-range attraction. These trends are shown to be further amplified by self-adhesion in folded membranes. Our results uncover a fundamentally different energetic landscape for negative curvature defects and provide a basis for understanding the stability, self-folding behavior, and defect-driven morphology of graphene and other 2D membranes.

Quantum dot (QD) supraparticle lasers are promising platforms for microscale light sources and photonic labeling, yet their optical properties are set during assembly. Here we introduce QD colloidosomes, liquid-core/solid-shell supraparticles that combine whispering-gallery-mode optical feedback with stimulus-triggered structural collapse. Intact QD colloidosomes show cavity-defined lasing with fluence thresholds of ~2.8 mJ/cm2 and linewidths of 2.2-3.7 nm, demonstrating efficient light trapping without a solid core. We identify shell continuity as a critical determinant for whispering-gallery feedback and lasing by exploring a morphological continuum of suprastructures comprising solid supraparticles, colloidosomes, and microporous hollow shells. Intact colloidosomes support narrow cavity modes, whereas porous shells remain broadband even at high pump fluence. We show that colloidosomes can be driven to rupture and release payload through well-defined pathways, including meniscus-driven capillary failure, uniform heating, and localized near-infrared activation, thereby reconfiguring their optical response from cavity-defined lasing to broadband emission. These results establish QD colloidosomes as reconfigurable microlasers that couple optical-state switching and triggered release within a single self-assembled platform.

We study kinetics of phase transitions within a single component Lennard-Jones model. For low enough particle densities disconnected clusters form that can move ballistically in an inviscid vapor background. The clusters undergo sticky collisions, thereby forming larger aggregates, which can be of fractal nature at ultra cold temperatures. As the temperature is varied, the exponent of the algebraic growth of average cluster mass changes, exhibiting pronounced nonmonotonic character. We capture this anomalous behavior, in two and three space dimensions, within a ballistic aggregation theory. We show that the scope of the theory is much broader than the typically considered case where cluster motions are uncorrelated. An analysis of the theory shows that ballistic aggregation can even occur exponentially fast. This is in sharp contrast with the conventional algebraic picture, regarding passive matter phase transitions. We discuss scenario where such explosive growth can be realized. In addition, our results are widely relevant in understanding structure and growth in aerosols, cosmic dust and other aggregation processes.

We theoretically investigate the inter-sideband phase coherence within the resonance fluorescence spectrum of an acoustically modulated quantum dot using a filtered-field formalism for a Mach-Zehnder configuration. We demonstrate that geometric slant of the interferograms provides an indicator of phase coherence that is resilient to environmental white noise. Specifically, noise-induced spectral diffusion reduces the global fringe intensity, while leaving the characteristic inclination strictly invariant. Our findings establish a framework for verifying single-photon coherence between spectral sidebands, essential for frequency-bin encoding and scalable quantum networking in realistic, noisy solid-state architectures.

Slow twist-angle and heterostrain textures in twisted bilayer graphene provide a natural route to phase-space Berry geometry. We show that a purely geometric tetrad/shift sector does not generate mixed Berry curvature once the spin connection is treated consistently. By contrast, a projected textured mini-Dirac cone in twisted bilayer graphene acquires genuine mixed phase-space curvature. We analyze a controlled local Hall-bar limit with a one-dimensional texture and mirror $M_x$. In that limit the pseudogauge gradient renormalizes only the longitudinal conductivity along the textured direction, while a dc nonlinear Hall response appears only when an additional valley-odd tilt generates a Berry-curvature dipole. Both geometric responses peak at the same local filling, $\mu_{\rm loc}=\sqrt{2}\,m$, providing a gate-tunable fingerprint of their common origin. All local-cone parameters and their texture susceptibilities are extracted from a heterostrained Bistritzer-MacDonald model at $\theta=1.3^\circ$. The tilt invoked in the transport estimates corresponds to heterostrain of only $0.03\%-0.2\%$, below values routinely imaged in devices. The resulting theory provides a local analytic framework for textured moiré Dirac materials and cleanly separates geometric, texture-induced, and transport-level ingredients relevant to realistic TBG.

We reformulate the relaxation problem in statistical mechanics by making explicit what are the operational objects subject to relaxation: the local time statistics of the recorded signal $Z(t)$. These local time statistics are simply the estimated histograms of observations $\{Z(t_i)\}_{i=1}^M$ performed at uniformly random times $\{t_i\}_{i=1}^M$ by a clockless observer. The subject of prediction is a belief about a future fresh out-of-sample reading of a measurement outcome whose distribution is inferred from the mathematical model believed to be true. For finite bounded systems of $N\ge 1$ degrees of freedom global irreversible relaxation of predictions can occur but special initial conditions exist. The form of the predictions depends on certain loss functions whose choice is up to the particular observer. Finally, entropy is given a learning interpretation as mutual information between the observer and the unknown past of the system under consideration and, in complete generality, its stationary value depends on the information available.

Diffusion processes involving membranes are of fundamental importance in both science and technology, since membranes serve as selective interfaces that regulate the transport of mass, charge, and information across multiple length and time scales. In this study, we employ molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to calculate the self-diffusion coefficient, tetrahedral order parameter and hydrogen-bond (HB) lifetime of SPC/E water over a wide high-temperature range in the presence of thermally activated membranes (TAMs). These membranes exhibit thermally controlled stochastic behavior that locally influences particle dynamics by probabilistically inducing elastic scattering events as particles traverse the membrane. The stochastic behavior of the membranes is governed by a sigmoidal profile, which depend on the reduced temperature of the system. The effective activation energy for diffusion is estimated for several membrane configurations. It is found that the diffusion coefficients generally decrease with an increase in the number of membranes and are in reasonable agreement with the Arrhenius approximation at high temperatures. Additionally, both the tetrahedral order parameter and the HB lifetime are only locally sensitive to the action of the membranes.

We investigate information-flow generation in a nonequilibrium two-bead system coupled to two heat baths. We show that the system acts as an information-flow generator in both overdamped and underdamped regimes, with the underdamped dynamics revealing a divergence of the scaled information flow along specific paths in the thermal asymmetry–inertia parameter space that is hidden in the overdamped limit. This information generation suggests a possible route toward information engines and demon-like mechanisms in nanomachines. A symmetry-perturbation analysis of the response landscape of information flow reveals a geometric structure reminiscent of a Ginzburg–Landau framework: the symmetric reference state can correspond to a minimum or maximum depending on the perturbation direction, while the flat overdamped landscape develops a finite curvature under inertia. Mass asymmetry shifts the resulting maxima, and Hessian eigenvalue and eigenvector analysis reveals level touching of principal modes and bimodality along a constant-diffusion path. These results establish a minimal framework for understanding how inertia and microscopic heterogeneity shape information landscapes in nonequilibrium systems, with potential extensions to more complex heterogeneous networks.

The extension of coherent lattice contrast into the energy loss region in high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) is described by a pulse-like electron-sample interaction in the energy/time uncertainty limit. It generates a wave packet by electron self-interference in any coherent-inelastic scattering event with energy loss. The width of this wave packet is characterized by a self-coherence length ls({\Delta}E) that is predictable because an intrinsic decoherence phase around one radian is set by the expectation value for phase fluctuations. In this case the visibility of interference contrast from a crystalline sample with lattice parameter a is limited by a Rayleigh-like transfer factor P(ls, a) in the self-coherently illuminated sample area. The model is verified by energy-filtered HRTEM images of hexagonal BN and identifies energy-loss-induced phase noise as a single-electron visibility limit distinct from resolution limitations caused by ensemble-coherence or counting-statistical noise.

We investigate lattice relaxation and band structures of helical and alternating twisted trilayer WSe$_2$ and MoTe$_2$ using machine-learning force fields and large-scale ab initio calculations. Interference between the two bilayer moiré lattices generates a supermoiré lattice that, upon relaxation, reconstructs into a few dominant domain types with locally commensurate bilayer moiré lattices. Because the systems lack $C_{2z}$ symmetry, domains otherwise related by this symmetry become energetically and topologically distinct, unlike in twisted trilayer graphene. Band structure calculations show that the topmost valence bands originate from the $K$ ($K'$) valleys and carry domain-dependent valley Chern numbers. The resulting supermoiré lattice hosts a mosaic of topologically inequivalent domains, offering a platform for exploring correlated and topological physics.

We investigate a nonequilibrium steady-state model consisting of two coupled beads with arbitrary masses in contact with two thermal baths at different temperatures. Using a covariance-matrix approach together with numerical simulations of the underdamped Langevin dynamics, we characterize steady-state probability distributions, heat transport, and entropy production. We show that irreversibility measures such as entropy production and heat current are invariant under an exchange of the bead masses, whereas energy-storage observables depend explicitly on the mass arrangement in a symmetrical set up. This reveals a fundamental distinction: energy observables exhibit path dependence in singular mass limits, while transport and irreversibility remain well defined. We show that kinetic temperatures provide the natural variables governing the thermodynamics of the system: their difference controls transport and entropy production, while their sum determines the mean energy via a model specific generalized equipartition relation. In the infinite-mass limit, only constitutive relations expressed in terms of kinetic temperatures remain meaningful. Thus, energy, transport, and irreversibility are unified through kinetic temperatures as the organizing variables. We also derive an effective temperature that defines an equilibrium-like canonical distribution. Finally, we analyze the notion of ergodicity and show that the time-averaged observables converge significantly faster than the ensemble averages.

Local constraints govern the low-energy physics of frustrated matter, but familiar ice-type rules constrain flux-like quantities and are insensitive to handedness. Here we show that handedness itself can be imposed as an exact local quantum constraint without selecting an axis in spin space. We construct positive-semidefinite, SU(2)-invariant parent Hamiltonians whose complete zero-energy space on a tetrahedron has a prescribed chirality sign, rather than selecting a particular chiral wave function. For spin-1/2 the local term is a rank-one projector onto a chiral tetrahedral singlet, while for arbitrary spin it factorizes as $B^\dagger B$ through a singlet-annihilation operator, with a completely characterized kernel given by the span of the globally rotated chiral color-ice states. For coherent states, the same zero-energy condition becomes an $S$-independent nonlinear constraint in which three spin directions determine the fourth through a Möbius transformation; compositions of these maps define constraint holonomies on extended lattices. Connecting the same local constraint in different ways produces qualitatively different collective regimes: corner-sharing lattices retain exponentially large quantum ground-state kernels, with rigorous lower bounds exceeding conventional ice benchmarks; edge-sharing lattices support subdimensional plane or line zero modes; while triangular constructions suppress nonuniform coherent deformations and contain the complete Anderson tower of tetrahedral magnetic order at exactly zero energy. Two inequivalent triangular coverings further show that harmonic zero-mode counting does not determine the size of the quantum kernel. These results establish a tractable setting in which local handedness, nonlinear constraint geometry, and quantum degeneracy can be disentangled and related directly to the connectivity of the constraint network.

In this article, we extend learning rules from real binary to complex-valued spins. This formulation allows for a robust and natural representation of grayscale patterns, where spins behave as multi-state neurons and can be stored in a complex-valued weight matrix. We describe a rule that performs better than standard methods, such as Hebbian learning, to encode information in a suitable form for pattern retrieval with networks of oscillators. Since in neural networks it is of interest to have local and incremental learning rules, we prove the extension of a result by Diederich and Opper with our complex-valued spin formulation. We then test the behavior of the associative memory for the system of oscillators under different circumstances for both real-valued, as well as complex-valued correlated and random patterns.

Color centers in silicon offer great possibilities for scalable quantum technologies. The M-center, proposed to originate from a carbon-hydrogen complex, offers telecommunications-band emission and a paramagnetic ground state similar to the T-center. Here, we report on photoluminescence lines in the vicinity of the M-center and investigate their properties, including their dependence on temperature, implantation fluence, implantation isotope, and annealing temperature. Three emission lines are observed that are blue-shifted by 1.1, 2.8 and 3.6 meV relative to the 761 meV zero phonon line of the M center, where the 2.8 meV line exhibits negative thermal quenching and is therefore proposed to originate from a second excited state of the M-center. The remaining blue-shifted emission lines, together with two additional red-shifted (4.7 and 6.4 meV) emission lines display normal thermal quenching, and are unaffected by an isotope shift of the implanted carbon atom ($^{12}$C versus $^{13}$C implantation) and implantation fluence. Thus, they likely arise either from other defects with similar emission energies or from a perturbed configuration of the M-center.

In a slowly varying aperiodic potential $h_i=h\cos(2\pi\beta i^n+\phi)$ with random power-law density interactions $V_{ij}/|i-j|^\alpha$, the resonant-object ensemble changes across $\alpha=2n$, wherever Hartree fragmentation is operative, from isolated two-level bonds to a mixture of fragmented multi-site clusters and isolated wing bonds that survive at finite density, while the pair-resonance scaling $x_{\rm pair}^{4-2n-\alpha}\ln x_{\rm pair}\propto h^2/(Vt_0)$ is unchanged~\cite{letter}. Here we develop the microscopic resonance theory underlying these results, together with its domain of validity. We derive the exact phase-averaged resonance statistics — the supply $N_0\propto L^{2-n}/h$, the correlated common-phase comb, and the closed-form Hartree variance — proving that the interaction leaves the leading supply law unchanged. Exact construction of the resonant Fock-space graph at $L\le18$ shows that the order-one forward-branching scale $h_{\rm FB}\propto L^{2-n}$ carries no giant component: one-step branching and connectivity are inequivalent. We separate the fixed-pair matching law from the shell-averaged $q\ln(1/q)$ law of the bond ensemble and develop the comb into a mesoscopic shell theory; we map the fragmentation domain, with its support threshold $V_*(\alpha)$ and the boundary-healing recursion; and we treat the marginal case $\alpha=2$, where shell and matching marginalities compound into a double logarithm. Three long-range thresholds emerge with distinct meanings — $\alpha=1/2$ (the exact variance threshold of the random Fock-space energy and the square-summability boundary of the leading LIOM-dressing estimate), $\alpha=2n$ (change of the local resonant objects), and $\alpha=2$ (marginality of the long-range shell sum) — none of which is, by itself, a localization transition.

For fermions in a slowly varying aperiodic potential with random interactions $V_{ij}/|i-j|^{\alpha}$, the potential fixes the resonance supply $N_0 \propto L^{2-n}/h$. On crossing ${\alpha}-2n$, wherever Hartree fragmentation is operative, the resonant-object ensemble reconstructs: turning-point runs fragment into clusters whose intrinsic matching law resolves no logarithmic singularity, while isolated wing bonds survive at finite density and restore a reduced logarithm. The scaling $x^{4-2n-{\alpha}}_{pair} ln{x_{pair}} \propto h^2/(V t0)$ is unchanged. Random coefficient fluctuations sustain the $R^{-{\alpha}}$ coupling; uniform ones cancel to $R^{-{\alpha}-2}$.

We numerically investigate the behavior of a system of initially unlinked nicked dsDNA rings confined into an annular square nanochannel in the presence of TopoII. Channel confinement can enhance the catenation likelihood by bringing highly bent regions from different rings in close proximity, while at the same time reducing the emergence of knots. The annular channel topology simplifies the characterization of the system by removing periodic boundary conditions and can lead to the formation of circular catenanes.We characterize the equilibrium and dynamical properties of the steady-state system, including the amount of catenation and the topologies explored by the system, under different parameters of the model and for different levels of confinement. We argue that a similar setup could allow for a direct comparison between experiments and simulations under well characterized and controlled conditions, thus providing a way to select and tune computational models of TopoII, as well as provide a way to obtain dsDNA interlocked materials in a controlled fashion.

A Majorana field cannot be split into two spatial pieces, but a propagating Majorana can be truncated by a time-dependent shutter. We study this truncation for the two chiral components of a massless Majorana field in one spatial dimension, modeling the shutter as a smooth time-dependent $SO(2)$ rotation of the two components. Although orthogonal at the level of the real field algebra, this rotation does not preserve the positive- and negative-frequency splitting that defines the Fock vacuum, so the in-vacuum becomes a fermionic squeezed state in outgoing modes. At any finite infrared regulator, a single incident Majorana is then a single outgoing quasiparticle on top of this squeezed vacuum. The squeezed background carries a universal soft response: its anomalous Bogoliubov kernel falls as the inverse sum of the two frequencies at low energy, so the anomalous Hilbert–Schmidt norm grows logarithmically with the infrared cutoff, with a coefficient fixed by the asymptotic shutter mismatch. The vacuum overlap exhibits a Fermi-edge type orthogonality exponent which, for the rotation-angle lift $\Delta\theta$ with $|\Delta\theta|<\pi$, is exactly $(\Delta\theta/2\pi)^2$, in analogy with the Fermi-edge singularity and the Kondo and Luttinger-liquid problems. We prove local equivalence non-perturbatively for the squeezed-vacuum factor under a compact-support hypothesis, and give an exact local pullback identity for the full one-quasiparticle state on the even CAR algebra; combined with wavepacket-localization assumptions, these yield the expected local vacuum and one-Majorana descriptions. We verify profile independence using a smooth switching family and contrast the temporal benchmark with a number-conserving beam-splitter benchmark whose entropy is bounded by $\log 2$.

Ferroaxial materials are an emerging class of ferroic materials that, in contrast to ferromagnets and ferroelectrics, are fully robust against stray fields, making them ideally suited for data storage and other nonvolatile applications. However, detection of the ferroaxial state remains challenging, as ferroaxiality does not manifest directly through a measurable macroscopic electric polarization or magnetization, and probes are mostly limited to optical methods. Here, we theoretically establish that ferroaxial order universally generates unconventional components of responses to external stimuli, such as the spin Hall effect, magneto-Seebeck effect, or Faraday effect, across a broad range of linear and nonlinear transport, optical and equilibrium phenomena. These unconventional responses are always directly coupled to ferroaxial order and can distinguish ferroaxial domains, providing probes of ferroaxial order. This general connection also reveals a largely unexplored class of ferroaxial metals, in which unconventional transport provides a natural probe of ferroaxial order, as demonstrated by our first-principles calculations for representative materials. Our results reveal a fundamentally different way for ferroic order to manifest – ferroaxiality primarily shows unconventional material responses rather than the directly measurable order parameters, broadening the possibilities of nonvolatile ferroic control and flexible device design.

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) enable optical modes with ideally infinite radiative lifetimes despite lying within the radiation continuum. Radiation-matter interaction in periodically patterned planar waveguides embedding two-dimensional (2D) optically active excitations can be described quantum mechanically by diagonalizing a non-Hermitian operator, known as the Hopfield matrix, which can be generalized to incorporate independent photonic and excitonic losses into the polaritonic states. However, since 2D excitons undergo intrinsic wavevector-dependent radiative decay within the light cone, whether the Hopfield formalism can consistently account for this process while preserving polariton BICs has remained an open question. Here we show that a non-Hermitian Hopfield formalism incorporating excitonic radiative losses correctly captures the existence of genuine $k=0$ polariton BICs with diverging radiative lifetimes. The theory provides a unified microscopic framework for radiative excitons and polariton BICs, and an efficient predictive tool for designing photonic-crystal platforms coupled to quantum wells, transition-metal dichalcogenides, and other 2D excitonic materials.

We present a systematic first-principles investigation of halide impurities (F and Cl) in Ga$_2$O$_3$ and Al$_2$O$_3$, considering both monoclinic and corundum phases. Our study of the structural properties, formation energies, and charge-state transition levels establishes the relative stability of different atomic configurations and charge states. We find that F and Cl on oxygen sites act as shallow donors in Ga$_2$O$_3$ in both the monoclinic and corundum phases. However, their behavior differs substantially as the band gap increases with greater Al compositions. Fluorine is prone to $DX$-center formation with increased Al composition, leading to self-compensation at 38% Al concentration in monoclinic (Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$)$_2$O$_3$ and 70% Al concentration in corundum (Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$)$_2$O$_3$. Chlorine is more resistant to $DX$-center formation: in monoclinic (Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$)$_2$O$_3$, Cl$_\mathrm{O}$ on the lowest-energy oxygen site shows an onset of $DX$ behavior at 50% alloy composition, while in corundum (Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$)$_2$O$_3$ this onset for Cl$_\mathrm{O}$ occurs only at Al concentrations as high as 84%. We also study F and Cl interstitials, finding that they act as compensating centers but also exhibit migration barriers that are low enough for them to be removed by post-growth annealing. Surprisingly, in both monoclinic and corundum Al$_2$O$_3$, Cl$_\mathrm{O}$ exhibits a relatively shallow transition level located at $\sim$0.48 eV below the conduction-band minimum, much shallower than F$_\mathrm{O}$ and other donor candidates. These remarkable results identify Cl as an unusually promising donor candidate in (Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$)$_2$O$_3$ alloys and even pure Al$_2$O$_3$, although high formation energies and compensation will render observation of true $n$-type conductivity in Al$_2$O$_3$ difficult.

We introduce a Hamiltonian Active Brownian Particle (HABP) model that connects equilibrium dynamics with the non-equilibrium, two-dimensional overdamped behavior of standard Active Brownian Particles (ABPs). In equilibrium, the system follows overdamped Langevin equations that strictly satisfy the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Coupling translational and rotational degrees of freedom to separate heat baths ($T_{\theta} > T_{\textrm{tr}}$), drives the system out of equilibrium. In free space, matching the diffusion coefficients yields quantitative agreement with the ABP model in the limit $T_\theta/T_{\textrm{tr}}\to \infty$, whereas in a harmonic potential, this matching is recovered even at finite temperature ratios. Entropy production analysis demonstrates that in the ABP limit, all energy injected by the swim force dissipates into the translational bath, leaving the rotational bath as a zero-cost entropy source. These insights provide the first steps toward equilibrium-inspired descriptions of active matter, facilitating the development of new theoretical frameworks to study activity-induced fluctuations, transport, and phase behavior in living and non-living soft matter systems far from equilibrium.

Optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) is a powerful probe of ferroelectric order, yet its microscopic origin and dynamical control are often understood primarily from symmetry considerations rather than from the underlying electronic processes. Here, we develop a microscopic theory of terahertz-controlled optical SHG in displacive ferroelectrics, establishing a direct connection between THz-driven polar lattice distortions and the resulting electronic nonlinear optical response. Starting from a complete Bloch-band representation, we show that an inversion-breaking lattice distortion reconstructs electronic Bloch wave functions, modifies optical dipole matrix elements, and activates nonlinear optical pathways that are forbidden in the centrosymmetric structure. We derive the second-order susceptibility in terms of the distortion-induced reconstruction of electronic states and optical transition matrix elements, and demonstrate that the electronic SHG susceptibility is linear in the polar distortion, $\chi^{(2)}({\bf Q})\propto{\bf Q}$, leading to an SHG intensity quadratic in the inversion-breaking order parameter. When the polar mode is coherently driven by a terahertz electric field, the resulting time-dependent lattice distortion dynamically reconstructs the electronic states and thereby modulates the optical SHG response, with $I_{2\omega}(t)\propto|{\bf Q}(t)|^2$ to leading order. This framework distinguishes the THz-driven lattice dynamics from the electronic interband processes responsible for optical SHG, which is particularly important in insulating ferroelectrics where low-energy carrier dynamics are absent. Our theory thus provides a microscopic bridge between nonequilibrium polar lattice dynamics and ultrafast electronic nonlinear optics.

Phonon vortices are vortex-like displacement fields that appear in the vibrational modes of two- dimensional materials. Here, we demonstrate that these vortices arise as symmetry-adapted linear combinations of degenerate planar phonon modes, with the superposition coefficients uniquely de- termined by the lattice point group. This symmetry principle establishes that vortices are intrinsic standing-wave solutions in perfect crystals, requiring neither impurities nor disorder. A heavy mass impurity favors vortex modes over planar modes through stronger resonance-induced frequency soft- ening, whereas shear deformation suppresses vortex modes by breaking rotational symmetry. The competition between these two effects gives rise to a precisely predictable strain threshold. The proposed framework, grounded in symmetry and energy-minimization, provides a useful basis for understanding vibrational topological defects induced by other types of impurities or defects. This study further suggests that defect and shear engineering constitutes an effective tuning strategy for controlling vibrational modes and the associated thermal and mechanical properties of crystals.

Topological orbital moments (TOMs) are a direct hallmark of a magnetic texture with a non-trivial spin topology. In addition to giving insight into the topology of the magnetic texture, TOMs could also be used to manipulate magnetic structures with a compensated total spin moment. Experimental evidence of TOMs has been provided via transport measurements of the Hall effect in intercalated van-der-Waals materials. However, a direct observation of TOMs is still missing. Another complication arises for the unambiguous proof of the topological origin since orbital moments can also occur due to spin-orbit coupling. Here, we use first-principles electronic structure theory to investigate the origin of orbital moments in different compensated spin structures with a non-trivial topology. We focus on ultrathin magnetic films at surfaces such as Pd/Mn bilayers on Re(0001) which represent ideal model systems for the detection of TOMs since it is possible to apply experimental techniques with local resolution of magnetic properties such as spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. Due to its trivial topology we use the row-wise antiferromagnetic (RW-AFM) state in a hexagonal monolayer to analyze the spin-orbit induced contributions. The triple-Q (3Q) state is a superposition state of three RW-AFM (1Q) states and thus electronically similar, however, due to its non-trivial spin topology it exhibits TOMs. The comparison between these two spin states allows us to disentangle the topological and spin-orbit contributions to the orbital moments. We find that TOMs have an important contribution in spin-compensated systems, since the spin-orbit coupling induced orbital moments are nearly compensated. First-principles calculations for atomic-scale skyrmion lattices in Fe monolayers on different surfaces exhibit the same general trend found for the 3Q state.

Reaction-diffusion systems with two species that mutually annihilate through $A+B\to\emptyset$ reactions display a slow decay of the total density $\rho$ which follows an anomalous power law in low dimensions. For hardcore particles in one dimension, this decay follows $\rho \sim t^{-1/4}$ under symmetric diffusion and $\rho \sim t^{-1/3}$ under asymmetric diffusion without relative bias between the two species. The $t^{-1/3}$ behavior, in particular, has so far been observed exclusively in systems with hardcore exclusion. Here we construct a model of particles without hardcore exclusion that reproduces this same $t^{-1/3}$ scaling. In our model, both species undergo asymmetric diffusion with a rate that depends nonlinearly on the local density, a form of transport that, in the absence of the other species, is superdiffusive and falls into the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. The scaling behavior of $t^{-1/3}$ occurs when at least one of the two species undergoes asymmetric diffusion induced by microscopic processes involving pairs of particles, while asymmetric processes involving groups of three particles lead to $t^{-1/4}$ scaling associated with symmetric diffusion. This demonstrates that the pair annihilation density decay exponent is not determined exclusively by the transport properties of the isolated particle species.