Papers

Attached-flow unsteady aerodynamics underpin the dynamic stall models used in wind turbine aerodynamic and aeroelastic codes, particularly over the outboard blade region that dominates power production and loading. Here, angle of attack and relative velocity vary while the flow remains predominantly attached. A complete engineering model combines airfoil polar lookup, shed-wake memory, non-circulatory loads, consistent force definitions, and separated-flow dynamics. Although the underlying theory is classical, existing descriptions do not provide a complete and internally consistent implementation route for these attached-flow contributions in wind turbine solvers. This work formulates the attached-flow contributions as lift, drag, and moment coefficients for blade-element momentum (BEM), lifting-line (LL), and actuator-line (AL) methods, for use with 2-D airfoil polars from measurements or CFD. Starting from classical unsteady thin-airfoil theory, circulatory and non-circulatory loads are derived in coefficient form and key modeling choices are clarified. Shed-wake memory is formulated using downwash velocity rather than angle of attack as the aerodynamic state variable. Rotor-level implementation is verified using two cases. A coned straight-blade case provides a cross-method benchmark and quantifies thrust and power errors caused by omitting three required contributions. Lift-direction projection has the largest influence on power, while omitting the mid-chord heaving-acceleration term removes the non-circulatory normal-force cancellation and produces a thrust error. A zero-onset-flow vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) case verifies that, in the ideal thin-airfoil limit, all circulatory and non-circulatory contributions cancel, yielding zero total rotor torque.

We present F3CT, a synchrotron-based hyperspectral full-field fluorescence computed tomography technique that avoids raster scanning by combining a pinhole aperture with an energy-resolving 2D detector. A virtual cone-beam model and two-stage calibration-reconstruction workflow enable 3D elemental mapping under full-field illumination. The method is demonstrated on biological and geological specimens, resolving silver-stain distributions in zebrafish tissue and high-energy fluorescence signatures in rock cores. Phase-contrast tomograms acquired sequentially under the same experimental geometry provide co-registered structural context. F3CT provides a high-throughput route to 3D XRF imaging and establishes a foundation for correlated structural and chemical tomography, with potential for future in-situ and operando implementations.

We study quantum many-body effects in the long-wavelength optical response of confined electrons at finite temperatures. We simulate homogeneous electron gas confined in one dimension into a slab of nanoscale thickness. We demonstrate how the slab boundaries break down the ideal Drude response of free charge carriers, giving rise to scattering effects due to both the surfaces and quantum many-body interactions. We use a recent path-integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) approach developed in [Tiihonen et al. Phys. Rev. A 113, 053711] to quantify these effects in high accuracy. We perform phenomenological fits to Drude and Drude-Lorentz models parameters, manifesting various trends of the optical response with physical parameters like density and temperature, and numerical effects like finite size and the quantum statistics.

Cherenkov radiation is emitted when charged particles penetrate dielectric media with velocity higher than the speed of light in the medium. Recent developments in plasma-based accelerator research enable creation of highly relativistic electron beams with femtosecond length and tens of micrometer scale radii, at energies of up to several GeV. Here, we consider Cherenkov radiation emitted by such extreme beams penetrating a gas target with refractive index very close to one. We demonstrate coherent enhancement in the emitted Cherenkov radiation up to the optical or even near-ultraviolet regime, which is due to the high beam energy and density. We also explore the dependence of the coherently enhanced Cherenkov radiation spectrum on the beam shape.

CeCrB$_4$ belongs to the family of MTB$_4$ ternary metal borides, some of whose magnetic phases have recently been identified as quantum spin dimers. Employing density functional theory within the GGA+$U$ framework, this work investigates the key ground-state properties of this system, including its ferromagnetic ground state, the mixed-valence nature of cerium, and the charge transfer from the cationic cerium–chromium layers to the anionic boron layers. In particular, we focus on elucidating the bonding mechanism within the structurally embedded Cr-Cr dimers. Specifically, we evaluate a previously proposed interpretation that the localized Cr $3d_{z^2}$ states are molecular-like bonding and antibonding states. The calculated dependence of the $3d_{z^2}$ electronic structure on the intra-dimer distance correlates with the level-splitting characteristics known for classical homonuclear diatomic molecules.

We present a local geometry refinement method and a 2D latent representation that took us to the top of the ConStellaration leaderboard on the geometric task in May 2026.

We experimentally investigate the creeping motion of water droplets sliding along an inclined surface immersed in a viscous oil. The droplet velocity, width, and height are measured over a broad range of droplet sizes and inclination angles. The velocity increases with droplet radius according to a power law, but the corresponding exponent depends strongly on the inclination angle. At small inclinations, the exponent is close to 3/2, whereas at larger inclinations it progressively approaches 9/4. The results therefore reveal a continuous inclination-induced crossover in the velocity-size scaling of lubrication-mediated droplet motion. A scaling analysis based on Landau-Levich-Derjaguin film formation and viscous dissipation in the dynamic meniscus reproduces these limiting behaviors, which correspond to the quasi-spherical and pancake scaling regimes, respectively. Remarkably, the evolution of the velocity scaling is substantially more pronounced than the corresponding evolution of the macroscopic droplet shape. While the velocity data progressively approach the pancake scaling law at large inclinations, the global droplet dimensions evolve in a more complex manner than expected from a simple pancake-shape picture. In particular, the approach to pancake-like velocity scaling occurs even when the measured droplet dimensions remain far from the corresponding pancake-limit geometry. These observations suggest a crossover in the dominant lubrication-dissipation mechanism beneath the droplet that is not directly reflected in the global droplet morphology. The results identify inclination angle as a key control parameter governing lubrication-mediated droplet motion and highlight the distinction between global shape evolution and local dissipation dynamics in liquid-liquid systems.

This research topic aims to explore and promote strategies for green computing in high-energy physics and astrophysics. The primary objectives include assessing current energy consumption patterns, identifying opportunities for resource optimization, and fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations to enhance sustainability. Key questions to be addressed include: What are the current energy demands in these fields? How can existing technologies be leveraged for more efficient resource usage? What synergies can be identified between high-energy and astrophysics projects to promote green computing?

We investigate the applicability of AAA rational approximation to scatterometry-related response functions of nanoscale gratings. A silicon line grating with material dispersion is considered. We compare the convergence of AAA rational approximation with that of cubic spline interpolation as the number of frequency samples is increased. The results demonstrate the potential of rational approximation, consistent with the pole structure of the considered response function arising from resonance effects of the grating.

Populations of large language model agents are increasingly used as experimental societies. Three doubts shadow every such result: whether the agents behave like the humans they stand in for, whether a finding survives changes to the apparatus that leave the rules untouched, and whether apparent social dynamics are interaction at all rather than the reproduction of experiments the models have read. This article introduces SILICA, an open instrument that tests all three. Five environments carry published human anchors, each paired with perturbations that re-render the same rules and with variants whose payoffs point away from the memorised result. Twelve open-weight models were run through it on a single consumer graphics card. Agreement with human data is confined to starting points: first-round public-goods contributions fall inside the equivalence margin for eight of eleven models, while no model matches end-state contributions or the human corridor of cooperation. Merely swapping the order in which two actions are listed costs one model 58 points of cooperation. Presenting responders with a fixed schedule of offers shows that only one model, the sole reasoning-trained one, places its acceptance threshold where the incentive requires; two move theirs part of the way, two move them the wrong way, and three never acquire one. Conventions form through a shared prior over the names rather than through negotiation, though negotiation reappears once that prior is disrupted. On the certification ladder defined here, current silicon societies support exploratory claims and no more.

We explore the formation, stability, and propagation dynamics of light bullets carrying orbital angular momentum (vorticity) in Bessel-structured nonlinear graded-index waveguides. While these waves are prone to the collapse in uniform three-dimensional media, we demonstrate that their stabilization is provided by a squared-Bessel index profile in the plane orthogonal to the propagation direction, which may play the role of the waveguiding or antiwaveguiding potential. Different solution families are obtained, revealing a variety of power-vs.-propagation-constant diagrams, characterizing the coexistence of multiple families. We analyze the propagation dynamics in a wide experimentally accessible parameter range. Our results contribute to the understanding of nonlinear light localization in multidimensional settings and suggest new possibilities for using structured light in advanced photonic applications.

China has become the world's largest producer of scientific publications, yet concerns persist that this growth is inflated by excessive domestic citation practices. In this study, we analyze a citation network of over 45 million publications from Web of Science (1980-2025) to investigate China's home citation bias and research impact. Using a network reshuffling null model to control for the structural effect of publication volume, we find that China's home citation bias is less pronounced than commonly assumed and has been steadily declining over the past two decades. Chinese researchers do not exhibit a significantly stronger home citation preference than other major countries, indicating increasing internationalization rather than insularity. Furthermore, using the persistent disruption framework, we show that Chinese papers are converging toward American papers in their capacity to produce paradigm-shifting work. These findings challenge prevailing narratives about Chinese scientific home bias and suggest that China's advances in research impact.

Time-modulation using semiconductor switches is a promising route to magnetless integrated nonreciprocal devices, as they can offer large modulation depths and high speeds. Yet, chip-scale devices are capped by the finite off-state capacitance of the switches, which induces detrimental leakage of the input wave to the isolated port, imposing a ceiling on the nonreciprocal isolation. Such leakage has largely constrained the development of nonreciprocal integrated systems at high frequency. Here, we beat this limit by using Floquet interference between leakages. In a time-Floquet switched-resonator circulator, two coherent leakages reach the isolated port: the release of the stored wave at the resonator's ring-down frequency, and the direct input leakage at the carrier frequency. We show that it is possible to create conditions under which the two leakages destructively interfere, and even completely cancel, yielding perfect isolation despite operating with non-ideal semiconductor switches. We experimentally confirm leakage interference in a 65-nm CMOS microwave Floquet circulator, reaching 40-dB isolation, which is more than 20 dB higher than the natural switch isolation. We also demonstrate that leakage interference has inherently fast dynamics, establishing itself within a single modulation period, allowing us to reverse the circulation chirality in 0.6~ns. Our results pave the way toward high-frequency integrated chips with ultra-high nonreciprocal isolation.

Short-reach optical interconnects are evolving toward data rates beyond 400 Gb/s per lane, driven by the bandwidth and energy-efficiency requirements of AI-enabled datacenter networks. At these operating speeds, channel impairments, device nonlinearities, and hardware constraints limit the effectiveness of conventional transceiver design and digital signal processing (DSP). This paper presents a unified framework for the optimization of direct-detection optical interconnects, encompassing digital surrogate modeling, receiver-side DSP optimization, and end-to-end (E2E) transceiver learning. The proposed formulation provides a common perspective for model-based and machine-learning-based approaches, including linear and nonlinear equalization, lookup tables, decision trees, neural-network receivers, and E2E optimization. Their performance is discussed together with computational complexity and hardware implementation aspects, highlighting the associated trade-offs. We show, through simulations and experimental validations, that for a 40~Gb/s 10~km link, decision trees can outperform by 0.5–1~dB conventional linear equalization, with negligible hardware requirements. Moreover, we show that an E2E technique based on transformers can provide a gain up to 6~dB, highlighting the potential of joint transceiver optimization to improve the performance of next-generation short-reach optical links.

Nonequilibrium many-body systems can spontaneously break symmetry in time, as in time crystals, or in space, through self-organized domains and interfaces. Whether these two forms of symmetry breaking can intertwine so that an emergent interface alone hosts time-crystalline order remains unknown. In this work, by introducing the Rabi-Hatano-Nelson model, we unveil the existence and mechanism of a self-partitioned interfacial time crystal (SPITC), where a homogeneous system generates its own internal and tunable interface, at which the time-translation symmetry is also spontaneously broken. Such a SPITC phase is intrinsically induced by nonreciprocity and open boundary conditions, without external pumping or long-range interaction. The periodic and open boundary phase diagrams of the system are both mapped out; vacuum and Dicke-like superradiance with static or active orders are identified, with analytical phase boundaries in the weak coupling limit. The frequency of the SPITC is found to scale quadratically with the spin-photon coupling strength, as we derive analytically for the slow dynamics of the spins. The position of the SPITC boundary scales with a critical exponent of $-1$ as a function of the degree of nonreciprocity, in stark contrast to $-1/2$ for an otherwise stationary boundary. Our construction of SPITC establishes a route to spatiotemporal order in non-Hermitian many-body systems.

We present a novel unfitted computational framework for simulating fully nonlinear potential flow-based water waves. Focusing on wave propagation, we describe the core methodology, which involves a high-order polynomial-corrected shifted-boundary approximation on unfitted spectral elements. This approach allows for the simulation of a curved, highly time-dependent (moving and deforming) free surface affected by bathymetric changes. All that on a simple Cartesian background mesh without re-meshing or further approximations of non-affine geometric features. In addition, we highlight the importance of proper gradient recovery using a polynomial-preserving technique to accurately capture the vertical free-surface velocity. Ultimately, the goal is to develop a high-order convergent numerical scheme capable of simulating highly nonlinear waves over long periods. This is achieved through an arbitrary-order finite-difference approximation of the free surface combined with added hyperviscosity for numerical stability. We present verification and validation test cases for wave propagation in both periodic and finite domains. Emphasis is placed on convergence studies, the justification for using high-order approximations, the importance of optimal gradient recovery, long-time simulation of highly nonlinear waves, and nonlinear wave interactions with both affine and curved bathymetry changes, as well as with vertical walls, for highly nonlinear stream function waves and high-amplitude solitons. The novel computational model offers a comprehensive, all-in-one framework for simulating ocean waves and their interactions with offshore structures. It provides significant geometric flexibility, enabling boundaries such as the free surface to move and deform over time without the need to re-mesh a boundary-fitted mesh.

At short times, interfacial tension depends on experimental geometry because surfactant transport to the interface depends on the mass-transfer conditions.A predictive description therefore requires more than a dynamic tension curve or a fitted adsorption constant: interfacial thermodynamics, diffusion, and adsorption kinetics must be identified separately. Here, we combine equilibrium and diffusion measurements with a microfluidic EDGE tensiometer that provides a nearly stationary interface and controlled micrometer-scale transport. Equilibrium properties and diffusion are determined independently, leaving adsorption kinetics as the key unknown. Dynamic tension is then calculated using a nonequilibrium thermodynamic description, without assuming instantaneous equilibrium between the adsorbed layer and the subsurface solution. For the nonionic surfactant C$_{10}$E$_{8}$, equilibrium thermodynamics and transport are independently constrained, and a single intrinsic adsorption rate constant describes several concentrations. We extend the framework to SDS by including electrostatic interactions and subsurface-concentration dynamics, capturing transient depletion and replenishment. Once thermodynamic, transport, and kinetic parameters are identified, the model predicts dynamic interfacial tension beyond the geometry and conditions used to determine them. The microfluidic EDGE tensiometer thus provides both a reliable short-time tensiometry method and a quantitative framework for identifying the physical mechanisms governing surfactant mass transfer at interfaces.

Solving the non-gray Callaway phonon Boltzmann transport equation allows a dual-relaxation-time approximation of separate normal and resistive scatterings and resolving the mode-dependent spectrum. The conventional iterative scheme (CIS) for deterministic solutions avoids a monolithic phase-space inversion, but its collision-source iteration can become prohibitively slow at a large characteristic length of a material. Existing synthetic acceleration schemes address either non-gray single-relaxation models or gray dual-relaxation models, leaving mode-resolved dual-relaxation transport without a dedicated acceleration framework. We develop a general synthetic iterative scheme (GSIS) for the stationary, linearized, non-gray Callaway equation, where synthetic approximations for the normal-process pseudo-temperature and phonon drift velocity are provided by exact energy and quasi-momentum balance laws closed with first-order Chapman-Enskog constitutive relations and non-equilibrium terms evaluated from the kinetic solution. The resistive-process pseudo-temperature is retrieved from the two quantities. Each iteration couples an upwind nodal discontinuous Galerkin kinetic sweep and a hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin solution of the synthetic equations to achieve high-order spatial discretization. A branch- and frequency-resolved Fourier analysis identifies the deterioration of CIS and shows that the GSIS contraction factor remains bounded away from unity for the considered graphene material. Asymptotic analysis indicates that GSIS reduces to a consistent discretization of a Guyer-Krumhansl-like equation and Fourier's law of heat conduction in the hydrodynamic and diffusive limits, respectively.

Infrared heterodyne interferometry offers a scalable alternative to direct interferometry for long-baseline telescope arrays. However, at near-infrared wavelengths, its sensitivity is limited by the electronic detection bandwidth and shot noise from the optical reference. Parallel detection via spectral multiplexing has long been identified as a potential means to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of heterodyne interferometers. We propose a new heterodyne detection architecture based on highly dispersed broadband pulses from a mode-locked laser, fast photoreceivers, and numerical correlation. This enables straightforward spectral multiplexing with commercial components to increase the SNR, while extending instantaneous wavelength coverage to simultaneous J- and H-band operation. The scheme also supports high-resolution spectroscopic imaging ($R \simeq 10^{3}-10^{4}$). We derive the SNR of a two-arm heterodyne interferometer based on balanced photodetection and apply the model to the proposed scheme, using measurements from a single-spectral-channel, all-fiber interferometer operating at 1.56 micrometer over an 8 nanometer bandwidth. We experimentally demonstrate an SNR exceeding 2 for a spectral flux density of 188 pW/nm, with an integration time of 0.4 ms. Scaling the integration time and number of spectral channels suggests that fringe visibility of the brightest H-band stars could be achieved with 1 m$^2$ telescopes within the typical atmospheric coherence time. These results represent a significant step toward broadband, scalable heterodyne interferometers, demonstrating the potential of ultrafast laser and telecommunications technologies for astronomical interferometry in the J+H bands. By combining broadband spectral multiplexing with numerical correlation, the architecture also opens a route to direct spectro-imaging without an additional spectrometer.

Satellite drops form widely during the breakup of liquid threads and constitute deleterious byproducts across a broad range of industrial technologies, yet their complete suppression has remained a longstanding challenge. Here, we experimentally report that surface viscoelasticity introduced by a small amount of bovine serum albumin can fully eliminate satellite drops, via modulating the localized spatiotemporal topology near pinch-off singularity. During the late thinning stage, surface shear viscosity counterbalances the capillary and stably anchors the thinning neck at the midpoint between the two primary beads, fundamentally precluding satellite droplet formation. We further propose a scaling law to describe the unique self-similar thinning behaviors dictated by surface viscosity. These results shed light on the thinning dynamics of liquid threads with surface rheology and offer a promising strategy to eliminate satellite drops in practical applications.

Collective behaviour in living systems is usually modelled as the outcome of a direct social drive: agents are rewarded, or hard-wired, to align with or approach their neighbours. Here we show that aggregation can instead emerge from an indirect objective. We let reinforcement learning foragers, initially performing a random walk, optimize their dynamics from a purely individual reward for finding replenishable targets, while perceiving only their conspecifics and never the targets themselves. As the visual range grows, the agents undergo a sharp crossover from an environment-tuned individual search to a scale-agnostic collective one, and this crossover coincides with the onset of spatial aggregation. Thus a collective phase arises as a by-product of optimal foraging, without any direct reward for grouping. A minimal analytical first-passage model reproduces the transition as a crossover between the two search strategies. Our results identify indirect, resource-driven reward as a generic route to emergent collective phenomena.

High-harmonic generation (HHG) in gaseous targets is the most widespread method to produce coherent extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulses with sub-femtosecond duration. However, this process has intrinsically low efficiency, and substantial research and development is devoted worldwide to increase the achievable photon flux through this highly nonlinear light–matter interaction process. In this work, we show the strong interplay of phase matching and absorption in gas-pressure gradients, substantially affecting macroscopic HHG efficiency. Through detailed experimental analysis and supporting numerical studies, we highlight their significance, particularly at the boundaries of the interaction volume. The concluded results have implications in the massively expanding application possibilities of HHG sources requiring high photon flux, for example in the semiconductor industry, in nanoscale imaging of biological and industrial samples, or in nonlinear optics in the XUV regime.

Assigning the lines of high-resolution molecular spectra to quantum states requires a Hamiltonian model and substantial expert intervention, so the spectra of larger molecules accumulate vast numbers of unassigned lines. Here we show that molecular energy levels can instead be reconstructed directly from the raw, unassigned transition frequencies, using graph theory alone with no model and no prior assignment. Our inverse graph construction exploits recurring frequency differences and four-cycle closures to assemble an energy-level network at kilohertz precision. The dense, broadband spectra this requires are produced by a cavity-enhanced spectrometer (SCALS) that scans continuously across tens of terahertz at kilohertz accuracy, combining broadband coverage, high sensitivity, and high precision in a single automated instrument. Applied to the water absorption spectrum in the range of 1537–1605~nm, 686 Lamb dips of water were obtained without assignments, and the method reconstructs 158 energy levels that are mostly two orders of magnitude more precise than the corresponding literature values. By removing the assignment barrier, this approach opens a route to exploratory precision spectroscopy of polyatomic molecules without a priori knowledge of transition frequencies.

In this study we examine applicability of the quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) model of natural convection in a laterally heated rectangular box subject to a transverse magnetic field. For this purpose, results obtained using the Q2D model are compared with fully three-dimensional calculations for rectangular boxes with a square cross-section and horizontally elongated ones with the length to height ratio 8. The width to height ratio is varied from 1 to 10. It is argued that the Q2D model is valid under certain conditions, which include perfect thermal and electrical insulation of the spanwise boundaries and reflection symmetry with respect to the spanwise midplane. It is shown that under these conditions, the Q2D model yields quantitatively correct results for boxes with square cross-section, as well as for horizontally elongated cavities, independently on the width to height ratio. Three-dimensional results obtained for boxes with perfectly conducting walls exhibit asymptotics at gradually increasing width ratio, which, however, does not agree with the predictions of an amended Q2D model. It is shown also that when is applicable, the Q2D model can correctly predict steady-oscillatory transition of three-dimensional flows. It is proposed to seek for extensions of the Q2D model for cavities with perfectly conducting spanwise boundaries.

Electronic-structure calculations require a finite representation of both the electronic wave functions and their Coulomb interaction. Conventional compact basis sets lead to a four-index interaction. Gausslet basis sets are one of a very small number of approaches that allow a much smaller two-index interaction, similar to a real-space grid, but with far fewer points. The continuing challenge in their development is reducing further the number of functions needed while maintaining high accuracy. Here we introduce projected q-shells (PQS), an improvement to the nested Cartesian gausslets of White and Lindsey. Their standard nesting construction divides a joining shell into disjoint faces, edges, and corners, reducing its polynomial completeness from order q to order q-2. PQS approximately restores the two lost orders. In terms of completeness, we prove that for an ideal, undistorted parent, the span of the PQS basis is equivalent to an overcomplete basis of overlapping patches. Coordinate distortions, which are always used in practice, harm this equivalence only slightly. The moment properties that allow two-index interactions also become inexact, even without distortion, but we show that the improvement in order more than makes up for this loss. For similar basis sizes, PQS gives smaller one-electron and interaction errors on small molecules, such as H2+, H2, and C2, than standard nesting. The improvement is largest for more compact bases with smaller q.

Polymer-functionalised mesopores are an emerging technology for colloid separation, sensing and delivery. Their potential is strikingly illustrated in living cells, where nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) control biocolloid transport between the nucleus and the cytosol. Even colloids much smaller than the biopolymer-filled NPC channel are effectively blocked, but some larger colloids with distinct surface features rapidly permeate. Simplistically, one may expect any polymer filling to obstruct and slow down colloid transport. We demonstrate how a polymer filling that attracts colloids and extends beyond the mesopore, thus maximizing colloid capture, can instead increase permeation compared to a bare pore. We also define how polymer-filled mesopores can effectively gate colloids according to their size and surface features. Our findings provide a basic physical explanation for the exquisite permselectivity of NPCs, and a rational design strategy for novel mesopore-based separation, sensing, catalysis and drug delivery devices with enhanced performance features.

Spectroscopy conventionally separates optical frequencies before detection, imposing persistent constraints on footprint, complexity and scalability. Here we establish an alternative paradigm in which the nonlinear optoelectronic dynamics of a single two-dimensional perovskite photodetector physically encode the incident optical field and machine learning performs the inverse spectral reconstruction. Using a planar fluorinated phenethylammonium lead iodide (F-PEAI) photodetector, we exploit wavelength- and irradiance-dependent current-voltage signatures arising from the coupled effects of photocarrier generation, trapping, interfacial transport and field-dependent carrier dynamics. A compact variational encoder-decoder preserves the functional and history-dependent structure of these responses by independently projecting forward and reverse voltage sweeps onto a truncated Legendre-polynomial basis before mapping them through a probabilistic latent representation to continuous spectral parameters. Trained on fewer than 400 experimental voltage sweeps, the model generalises to excitation wavelengths excluded from training, reconstructing wavelength with $R^2=0.958$ and a mean absolute error of 8.1 nm, while recovering log-normalised irradiance with $R^2=0.987$. Voltage-resolved analysis further reveals that wavelength and irradiance are encoded differently across the nonlinear device response, with distinct bias regions carrying complementary optical information. These results establish nonlinear material and interface dynamics as a computational resource for spectroscopy and point towards hardware-algorithm co-design in which materials, interfaces and inference architectures are engineered jointly to maximise information content, enabling compact spectroscopic systems without dispersive optics or detector arrays.

We numerically investigate the dynamics of a deformable closed ring filled with active particles. The ring is modeled as a flexible boundary made up of passive beads interacting with a harmonic spring force. The interior of the ring is filled with active Brownian particles (ABPs), and their activity is controlled through the rotational diffusion coefficient. We explore how, by systematically varying the activity of ABPs, packing fraction, and size of the ring, we can control the shape deformation and dynamics of the ring. At low packing fractions, low rotational diffusion coefficients, and smaller ring sizes, the ring exhibits highly irregular and strongly deformed shapes due to the uneven spatial arrangement of active particles along the boundary. Increasing the packing fraction, rotational diffusion coefficient, or ring size promotes a more even distribution of active particles within the ring, thereby suppressing shape deformations and fluctuations, driving the ring toward a more circular shape. We further analyze the mean-squared displacement (MSD) of the ring's center of mass and observe a crossover from ballistic to diffusive dynamics, which can be tuned by varying the system parameters. Our results demonstrate that, despite its internal complexity and deformability, the ring exhibits emergent behavior analogous to that of a single effective active particle. This study provides insight into the collective effects of confined active matter and the resulting macroscopic dynamics of deformable systems.

Multi-dimensional coherent spectroscopy (MDCS) goes beyond standard linear-response probes and provides a powerful tool for investigating correlations between quasiparticles such as excitons (bound electron-hole pairs). Here we present a microscopic theory of MDCS that accounts for the delocalized nature of excitons in two-dimensional semiconductors. In contrast to the more phenomenological few-level approaches typically employed for modelling MDCS, our theory features mobile excitons with continuous momentum degrees of freedom. We find that the energy continuum associated with exciton momenta is crucial for producing interaction-induced decoherence, as well as capturing the interference between different exciton-polaron quasiparticles in the case of charge-doped semiconductors. Crucially, our calculated MDCS spectra agree well with recent experiments on doped monolayer MoSe$_2$ [Hao et al., Nature Communications 8, 15552 (2017)], and they suggest that the interactions between exciton polarons depend strongly on phase-space filling effects, where exciton polarons compete for electrons. Our results demonstrate that microscopic approaches allow one to gain new insights from the fine structure of MDCS on two-dimensional semiconductors, and they illustrate the utility of microscopic approaches to modelling MDCS experiments more generally.

High-order computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods combined with actuator-based blade representations provide an attractive approach for simulating rotating energy systems. In this work, we develop a high-order computational framework that couples the flux reconstruction/correction procedure via reconstruction (FR/CPR) formulation with a rotating actuator line model (ALM). Blade rotation and unsteady aerodynamic forces are implemented through time-dependent source terms applied on a fixed cartesian grid. This approach allows simulations of a fully rotating turbine without using explicit blade geometry. Aerodynamic loads are computed using quasi-steady airfoil data and distributed into the flow field with Gaussian smoothing to maintain numerical stability in the high-order scheme. The framework is tested using a two-bladed vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) operating at a low tip speed ratio (TSR). The phase-averaged blade motion and overall load are analyzed to study variations with azimuthal angle. In addition, instantaneous and mean flow fields are examined to describe wake structure and unsteady vortex shedding. Normalized mean wake velocity profiles are used for validation through comparison with experimental measurements and blade-resolved large-eddy simulations (LES) reported in the literature. The results show that the proposed high-order virtual-body framework can reliably capture major blade-loading trends, flow organization, and wake features under strongly unsteady conditions, while maintaining geometric simplicity.