Papers

Using JWST/NIRISS slitless spectroscopy, we present spatially resolved Balmer decrement measurements for 79 galaxies at $1.1 < z < 2.3$, which are gravitationally lensed by the foreground cluster Abell 2744. By stacking $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ and $\mathrm{H}\beta$ emission maps in bins of stellar mass and redshift, we derive radial profiles of nebular dust attenuation and dust-corrected star formation rate (SFR). We find tentative evidence that the radial gradients of dust attenuation toward $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ ($\rm A(\mathrm{H}\alpha)$) vary with both redshift and stellar mass. At lower redshifts ($z = 1.10$–$1.53$), low-mass galaxies ($\rm 7.0<log(M_*/M_\odot)\leq8.5$) exhibit steeper $\rm A(H\alpha)$ gradients than higher-mass galaxies ($\rm 9.5<log(M_*/M_\odot)\leq11.0$), while the latter maintain detectable dust attenuation out to larger galactocentric radii. Galaxies at higher redshifts ($z = 1.76$–$2.29$) show lower attenuation levels. At fixed galactocentric radius, galaxies in the low-redshift bin generally exhibit higher dust attenuation than those at high redshifts, consistent with an increase in dust content toward later cosmic times. Dust-corrected SFR profiles in massive systems at lower redshifts are more spatially extended than those at higher redshifts, consistent with inside-out disk growth at $z\lesssim1.5$. These results suggest possible differences in attenuation properties across stellar mass and redshift bins, and demonstrate the power of gravitational lensing to probe internal structures in faint galaxies at sub-kiloparsec resolution.

We develop a polylogarithmic structure for Bragg diffraction based on a weighted multi-plane interference model. Within this kind of construction, the scattering amplitude is expressed as a polylogarithmic generating function. By introducing extra contributions with power-law and the usual exponential decay, it takes the form $F(\theta) = \mathrm{Li}_m\left(e^{i\theta_{\mathrm{eff}} - \epsilon}\right)$, where $\epsilon$ is a finite coherence length. In the limit where $\epsilon \rightarrow 0$, the argument of the polylogarithm approaches the unit circle and the classical Bragg condition corresponds to the approach of the polylogarithm argument toward its branch point $z=1$. This formulation provides a compact analytical framework for describing diffraction line shapes within a generalized correlation model in which peak positions, widths, and line shapes arise from a single analytic structure. Although we are able to recover the standard Bragg law for ideal crystals, the polylogarithm model captures deviations due to finite correlation length, disorder and non-uniform lattice coherence. We show that if Bragg peaks correspond to boundary singularities of the polylogarithm, a connection between diffraction theory and complex analysis arise. The proposed theoretical model may be particularly relevant for disordered or partially coherent materials, where conventional diffraction models often require additional phenomenological broadening assumptions.

Uncertainty principle, one of the most iconic features of quantum mechanics, was originally viewed as a fundamental limitation. Since the inception of quantum information science, researchers began to use it to achieve quantum advantages. To better understand the origin of these advantages, an essential question is: To what extent can the uncertainty principle's signatures be simulated by a single measurement? As a single measurement clearly cannot demonstrate the uncertainty principle, such a simulation, if exists, implies the claimed advantages may either stem from other quantum features, or just be reproducible in a less resourceful way. In this work, we report a series of noise-robust no-go theorems, showing that strong enough signatures of uncertainty principle cannot be simulated by a single measurement, even when assisted by quantum pre- or post-processing. This signature is modelled by complementary instruments. We completely characterise complementary instruments by a numerically feasible measure and show that they are necessary and sufficient resources for the advantage in an operational task that aims to unambiguously send classical information.

Mirror symmetry can strongly enhance the transmission of waves through a barrier inside a complex medium. We recently showed that this phenomenon enables quantitative through-barrier sensing: by tuning programmable scatterers on one side of the barrier to maximize the broadband total transmission through the barrier, the characteristics of scatterers at mirror-symmetric positions on the other side of the barrier can be determined. Considering a sufficiently large bandwidth was crucial to ensure that no accidental narrowband asymmetric resonance can outperform the symmetry-induced transmission enhancement. Here, we overcome this scheme's vexing need for a large bandwidth by replacing the underlying frequency diversity with configurational diversity. Specifically, we introduce auxiliary tunable scatterers at mirror-symmetric positions on either side of the barrier and sweep their characteristics through a series of random mirror-symmetric configurations. We tune the programmable main scatterers on one side of the barrier to maximize the average of the total through-barrier transmission over a series of configurations of the auxiliary scatterers at a single frequency, in order to sense the characteristics of the main scatterers on the other side of the barrier. We systematically study the accuracy of our single-frequency sensing scheme based on a multiport-network system model that cascades two mirror-related wave-chaotic cavities with a weakly transmitting barrier in between. We further examine an extension to non-reciprocal chaotic cavities involving circulators. Altogether, our results establish configurational diversity as a route to single-frequency, symmetry-empowered through-barrier sensing in reconfigurable complex media.

Sustaining cooperation in resource-constrained populations requires allocation mechanisms that balance individual incentives, resource sustainability, and distributional fairness. This paper proposes a network common-pool resource game in which individuals are embedded in complex networks, participate in multiple overlapping local resource pools, and face endogenous resource constraints during strategy evolution. Within this framework, we first examine two representative allocation mechanisms, equal allocation and proportional allocation. The results show that equal allocation produces fair but inefficient outcomes by weakening contribution incentives, whereas proportional allocation can temporarily promote cooperation but amplifies accumulated advantages and leads to severe inequality. To overcome these limitations, we develop a graph neural network-based reinforcement learning framework in which a learned social planner allocates local pool resources without directly controlling individual strategies. Simulation results under four representative network topologies show that the learned planner sustains higher cooperation levels and average accumulated resources, and reduces inequality compared with the baselines. Furthermore, we interpret the learned policy and distill it into two simpler mechanisms: a resource-dependent mixture mechanism for regular networks and a degree-conditioned mixture mechanism for heterogeneous networks. These mechanisms reveal that effective allocation should adapt to both local resource states and structural positions, providing an interpretable route from reinforcement learning policy search to mechanism design in networked resource-sharing systems.

Charge-density-wave (CDW) order in kagome metals is highly sensitive to external tuning parameters such as chemical substitution and hydrostatic pressure, which generally suppress long-range order. Here, using high-resolution X-ray diffraction under controlled uniaxial strain, we show that anisotropic lattice deformation instead stabilizes and enhances the CDW state in ScV$_6$Sn$_6$. Compression along the [H00] and [HH0] directions lowers the crystal symmetry from hexagonal to orthorhombic, lifts the degeneracy between symmetry-equivalent in-plane CDW domains, and promotes long-range order while preserving the underlying trimer instability. Phonon calculations indicate only a moderate stabilization of the imaginary flat phonon mode, demonstrating that the increase in T$_\mathrm{CDW}$ is primarily driven by the in-plane ordering of the Sn$^\mathrm{T}$–Sc–Sn$^\mathrm{T}$ rattling chains within the frustrated kagome lattice. A phenomenological model incorporating strain-dependent Ising couplings within a three-state Potts framework successfully reproduces the evolution of T$_\mathrm{CDW}$ under compression and captures the continuous nature of the transition. Our results establish uniaxial strain as a powerful symmetry-selective tuning parameter for order-disorder transformations in frustrated lattices.

We present a symmetry-adapted qubit encoding with complete active space (SAE-CAS) for quantum chemistry on fault-tolerant and near-term quantum processors. Building on exact-symmetry encodings, we extend symmetry-adapted mappings to approximate $Z$-symmetries corresponding to frozen-core and virtual orbitals, thereby reducing qubit requirements without significant loss of accuracy. We derive the mapping from the second-quantised Hamiltonian to active-space qubit Hamiltonians, prove its equivalence to the canonical CAS Hamiltonian with frozen-core and virtual-orbital projection, and integrate it with point-group and spin-parity symmetry encodings via affine Clifford transformations to maximise qubit reduction while preserving the target symmetry sector. The same framework also accommodates the Bravyi–Kitaev mapping, yielding an SAE-CAS-BK variant that is unitarily equivalent to SAE-CAS. Numerical benchmarking on nine small molecules using UCCSD and a hardware-efficient shifted-circular-alternating (HE-SCA) ansatz shows that SAE-CAS reduces qubit counts and Pauli-operator weight, yields shallower circuits with fewer parameters, and often accelerates VQE convergence; with HE-SCA it consistently reaches CAS reference energies in cases where JW-CAS does not converge within the tested budgets. We provide an open-source implementation in the Python package QuantumSymmetry. SAE-CAS offers a route to resource-efficient molecular simulations on fault-tolerant and near-term quantum processors.

Two dimensional site interaction models of water and alcohols are mixed in various proportions and studied by Monte Carlo simulations, with the purpose to clarify problems related to simulation of real micro-heterogeneous systems. Three alcohols are considered, methanol, pentanol and octanol. The main finding is that, while real alcohols demix with water from butanol onward, their 2D analogs are always fully miscible, while developing increasingly pronounced micro-segregation as the alcohol tail length increases. This is not a consequence of the intrinsically higher fluctuations in 2D, but rather a reorganization of these fluctuations under the charge ordering mechanism. The second finding is that water drives the micro-segregation through strong self-aggregation, but this is not enough to achieve full phase separation because of the water-alcohol contact at the outer rim of the water domains. In this work we examine how this local heterogeneity develops with increasing alcohol alkyl tails, monitored with the study of pair correlation functions, structure factors and Kirkwood-Buff integrals. The absence of clear local self-averaging of the latter provides an illustration of the tension between energy driven maintaining of local structures and entropy driven global homogeneity. In that, the 2D modelisation of real hydrogen bonding mixtures allows to better capture and reveal the physics behind the chemistry of these liquids.

Deconfined quantum critical points (DQCPs) involving lattice symmetries evade the conventional Landau paradigm because the competing orders break incompatible internal and crystalline symmetries. We show that a class of DQCPs can nevertheless be understood as Landau-type transitions after gauging anomalous onsite symmetries. For spin chains with Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) anomalies, gauging produces a noninvertible lattice translation whose fusion closes only up to ordinary translations, giving rise to a crystalline categorical symmetry. In the gauged description, the original DQCP becomes a transition between different symmetry breaking patterns of this categorical symmetry. We demonstrate this mechanism in microscopic lattice models; the magnetic-valence-bond-solid (VBS) DQCP realizes a Rep($D_8$)-type crystalline categorical Landau transition, whereas a y-antiferromagnetic-VBS DQCP realizes a Rep($H_8$)-type one. Although Rep($D_8$) and Rep($H_8$) share the same fusion rules, they have inequivalent $F$-symbols and therefore define distinct categorical descriptions. Our results show that the universal categorical structure underlying these DQCPs is encoded in the full fusion category, rather than in the fusion ring alone.

We perform minimalistic reconstructions of the dark energy density and equation of state using late-time distance measurements. Our methodology avoids assumptions that correlate the values of these functions over time and instead yields their approximate average evolution within seven redshift bins from $z=0$ to $z=4.2$. Constraints are obtained using combinations of BAO measurements from DESI and SDSS, alongside Type Ia supernovae measurements from Pantheon+ and the latest recalibrated samples, Union3.1 and DES-Dovekie. Only an acoustic scale prior is included from the CMB so that our results are insensitive to the possible matter density tension between early and late-time probes. All combinations yield consistent reconstructed histories: a dark energy density that rises to a local maximum before decreasing at late times and an equation of state with two apparent oscillations around the cosmological constant limit. Both functions tentatively suggest a phantom crossing in the equation of state around $z\sim0.6$-$0.8$. These patterns are robust to numerous parameter extensions, such as freely varying spatial curvature and neutrino mass, and they persist in the uncorrelated amplitudes obtained through localized principal component analysis. Deviations from $\Lambda$CDM in individual bins reach a maximum significance of $\sim2.6$-$3\sigma$, while the total chi-square difference between the reconstructions and this model provides up to $\sim2\sigma$ support for the seven additional parameters in the reconstructions. As these significances remain moderate, our main result is the level of consistency between combinations of the most widely used background-level observations. Our results suggest that the dark energy evolution signal is a persistent feature of the data and that it cannot be explained solely by fluctuations or systematics in individual measurements.

Real-time dynamics of interacting electrons lies at the interface between quantum mechanics and non-equilibrium physics, governing the microscopic origin of ultrafast phenomena of molecules and nano-materials. Though neural network variational Monte Carlo has achieved unprecedented accuracy for stationary state calculations, its extension to real-time evolution remains challenging. In this work, we introduce the neural basis time-dependent variational Monte Carlo framework, which achieves stable and highly accurate simulations of electron dynamics. By constraining the time evolution to a compact, customized manifold spanned by the neural basis, we effectively bypass instability issues and achieve long-term stable evolution. Moreover, we demonstrate that this framework yields benchmark-quality accuracy in simulating the laser-driven dipole responses of the hydrogen atom and a stretched hydrogen molecule, and accurately extracts the dynamic polarizabilities of helium and beryllium atoms. Our work reveals the vast potential of neural network wavefunctions for accurately describing real-time electron dynamics and establishes a promising new route for first-principles simulations of complex, time-dependent electronic phenomena.

Metasurfaces enable precise manipulation of electromagnetic waves for applications such as beam steering, sensing, and stealth technology. However, inverse design of metasurfaces with targeted EM responses remains challenging due to the computational expense of iterative full wave simulation driven optimization and the limited conditioning fidelity and diversity of existing generative approaches. To address these challenges, this paper presents a generative inverse design framework for controllable and physically consistent metasurface synthesis under continuous spectral constraints. The proposed approach employs a progressively growing Wasserstein generative adversarial network with gradient penalty integrated with feature wise linear modulation based conditioning for stable propagation of continuous spectral and fabrication constraints. EM consistency is embedded directly into the generative learning process through a surrogate assisted spectral alignment loss, enabling physics constrained generation during training. Further, a determinantal point process based diversity regularization strategy is incorporated to generate geometrically diverse yet spectrally consistent realizations for the same target response. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is demonstrated through the generation of practically realizable metasurface absorbers exhibiting diverse reflection characteristics in the frequency range of 2 to 18 GHz. EM simulations validate that the generated designs meet the target specifications with high accuracy. The final proposed framework achieved an average mean squared error of 0.0052, diversity score of 0.8730, band alignment accuracy of 0.8533, and a valid EM design generation percentage of 89.57, clearly demonstrating its capability to generate highly accurate, diverse, electromagnetically consistent and fabrication realizable metasurface configurations.

Fluctuational electrodynamics relies on the assumption that thermal fluctuations in distinct bodies are statistically independent. It is shown that this approximation breaks down in the extreme near-field regime, where hybridization of surface phonon-polaritons across nanometric vacuum gaps generates finite fluctuating-current cross correlations between opposite interfaces. Using a microscopic coupled-oscillator model combined with a Green-tensor formulation of the Poynting vector, the resulting correlation-induced correction to radiative heat transfer is derived. For polar materials, these correlations become significant when the hybridization energy approaches the intrinsic damping rate and can substantially modify conventional fluctuational-electrodynamics predictions at subnanometric separations.

Long-period transients (LPTs) challenge our knowledge of the mechanism producing radio periodic pulsations in compact objects. Some LPTs have been associated with systems hosting a white dwarf and a low-mass star in a detached binary. Recently, a new LPT (ASKAP\,J174508.9-505149) has been classified as an accreting cataclysmic variable (CV). In the present letter, we report on the detailed study of the X-ray variability of ASKAP\,J174508.9-505149 as observed by XMM-Newton and Einstein Probe between September 2025 and May 2026. Simultaneous optical and radio observations are also presented. We studied the timing variability of the source, and estimated an X-ray periodicity of $P=4868(22)$\,s, consistent with radio and optical periods. We also observe the same periodicity in the hardness ratio extracted from the XMM-Newton observation, peaking at the minimum of the modulation. A long-term modulation is also present in the X-rays and in the B-band photometry, but it is poorly constrained by the current dataset. Spectral X-ray analysis shows the presence of a black-body component ($\sim$0.1\,keV), a collisionally ionised plasma ($\sim$15\,keV), and an absorption feature at 0.77 keV (possibly due to Oxygen-VII). This is the third LPT detected in the X-ray band, the second with a detected X-ray periodicity and variable X-ray emission, and the first conclusively recognised as an accreting magnetic CV.

Spectrally selective infrared (IR) thermal emitters are gaining much attention now-a-days for sensing, spectroscopy and biomedical applications. In this research, two metasurface incorporated IR emitters are proposed and numerically analyzed using finite element method (FEM). First structure comprises a NiCr heater integrated with a NiCr-based metallic nanotube array (Me-NTA) metasurface to produce a single-narrowband emission in the mid-infrared (MIR) region. Furthermore, an Au-based Me-NTA metasurface on a NiCr-Au hybrid heater subsequently produces dual-narrowband emission in the short-and far-infrared (SIR and FIR) spectrums. Function of these emitters can be explained by Joule heating with the help of DC bias and consequently uniform temperature distribution can be observed along the active region. Simulation analysis shows that NiCr-metasurface based emitter produces single narrow-band near perfect emission centered at 4.5 {\mu}m in MIR region at an operating temperature of 700 K with maximum in-band conversion efficiency (CE) of 32.3% and radiated power of 199 mW. On the other hand, Au-metasurface based emitter generates dual-narrowband emission peaking at 2.5 {\mu}m and 10 {\mu}m, correlating to SIR and FIR subsequently, achieving maximum emission of 93% and 85%, respectively. The in-band CE for this emitter attains 10.4% and 4.4% in the first and second bands, associated with radiated powers of 350 mW and 147 mW, accordingly. Furthermore, execution of the emitter at 500 K reveals FIR emission with reduced power consumption. These results substantiate the possibilities of the suggested emitters in various industrial and biomedical applications.

Odd-wave magnets are the counterparts to even-wave altermagnets realizing odd-parity spin splitting. Normally discussed for noncollinear systems, they have recently been shown to appear in collinear magnetic states in the presence of loop currents. Here we study collective excitations of the paramagnetic and magnetic phase of the seminal Haldane-Hubbard model. We identify the existence topological excitons in the paramagnetic phase, and their condensation as the driving mechanism into the collinear Néel state. The latter realizes an odd-wave magnet with odd-parity magnons displaying a characteristic $f$-wave splitting. We further uncover that an electron bandgap closing ensures magnon bandgap closing causing a change in odd-parity magnon topology, as well as a drastically enlarged spin splitting. Our results establish the presence of topological excitons and odd-parity magnons in the Haldane-Hubbard, with potential realizations in Floquet-driven materials and cold atomic gases.

Leadership in social groups emerges dynamically through interaction and opinion exchange. Empirical evidence indicates that individuals expressing strong opinions tend to gain influence, while sustained leadership critically depends on maintaining alignment with the surrounding social context. Motivated by these observations, we introduce a coupled dynamical model describing the simultaneous evolution of opinions and leadership in a networked population. Extending the Friedkin-Johnsen framework, we represent leadership as a time-varying susceptibility to social influence, which evolves according to a game-theoretic mechanism, consistent with social psychology evidence. Within this setting, agents strengthen their leadership by expressing decisive yet socially coherent opinions, whereas misalignment with the collective state results in a loss of influence. We analyze the coupled dynamics and establish sufficient conditions to identify which agents necessarily emerge as leaders and which act as followers in the social network.

A breakdown of calculations with exact impurity solvers in the dynamical mean field theory in multiband systems easily occurs due to the expensive numerical cost. To overcome this practical difficulty, three of the present authors developed an inexpensive and reliable impurity solver by combining the iterative perturbation theory (IPT) and parquet equation, and named it IPT+parquet [R. Mizuno, et al., Phys. Rev. B 104, 035160 (2021).]. In this study, we validate IPT+parquet focusing on the orbital fluctuation by comparing the numerically exact impurity solvers. We confirm that IPT+parquet can capture competition between orbital fluctuation channels, which the conventional IPT cannot capture.

Quantum adiabatic evolution is often slowed by nonadiabatic leakage near small spectral gaps. We propose an engineered dissipative protocol that continuously relaxes these excitations during the adiabatic evolution. In the ideal limit, a spectrally filtered jump operator induces downward transitions in the instantaneous energy eigenbasis while leaving the instantaneous ground state dark. An effective avoided-crossing analysis shows that in the regime where the engineered relaxation strength is much larger than the minimum gap, the runtime scaling can improve from the closed-system behavior $\mathcal{O}(\Delta^{-2})$ to $\mathcal{O}(\Delta^{-1})$. Finite-temperature upward transitions introduce a thermal error floor, the inverse-gap runtime estimate remains applicable when the thermal excited-state population at the minimum gap stays below a fixed fraction of the target error tolerance. Numerical results show improved ground-state preparation and robustness against weak upward-jump errors over closed-system annealing. We also discuss possible superconducting-circuit implementations using structured bosonic reservoirs and the microscopic consistency requirements for realizing the effective dynamics.

We present experimental and theoretical studies of the off-resonant and strongly nonlinear regime of Josephson transmission lines (JTLs) with galvanically-coupled nonlinear elements. The transition from the weakly to the strongly nonlinear regime of a JTL induced by increasing the input power of the pump is probed via two-tone spectroscopy. Measurements of the phase of the transmission coefficient for a weak probe signal reveal a large increase and pronounced oscillations in the phase length variation as a function of the microwave power of the pump. Experimental observations are explained on the basis of the developed theoretical approach suitable for the description of the nonlinear response of strongly driven JTLs. Using the derived nonlinear wave equation, we show that the behavior of the phase length variation is associated with the oscillatory dependence of the Josephson inductances on the microwave power. It is demonstrated that the dissipation-induced propagation losses increase in the strongly nonlinear regime and also lead to smearing out the phase length oscillations. The developed theoretical analysis is in good agreement with experimental observations.

The Institute for Astrophysics Göttingen operates a solar observatory that combines a 50\,cm siderostat with (1) a vacuum vertical telescope, (2) a very high resolution Fourier Transform Spectrograph ($R > 900,000$ at 600\,nm), and (3) a Laser Frequency Comb for extremely precise and accurate frequency calibration ($<10\,cm/s$). We introduce our setup that feeds the spectrograph with either a 32.5" field of view of the solar surface, or with disk-integrated sunlight for Sun-as-a-star observations and explain the necessary computational steps to guide specific positions on the solar surface into the fiber. Our instrument suite can deliver spectroscopic measurements with extremely accurate frequency calibration, which is valid across very large frequency regions (approx. 400-800\,nm in wavelength). This allows precision spectroscopy of individual lines in order to study the variability of spectral lines in Sun-as-a-star observations as well as determining the convective blueshift across the solar surface from many spectral lines.

Fourier Transform Spectrographs (FTS) are versatile tools for measuring accurate, high resolution spectra. They are internally calibrated by a reference laser that runs in parallel to the science light. Therefore it is crucial to properly align these two beams with respect to each other. We show how this can be achieved by feeding a part of the reference light into the optical path of the science beam. For astronomical applications it's often useful to use optical fibers. We present a coupling setup for our Bruker Optics IFS 125 FTS, consisting of (1) two hexagonal input fibers, (2) dichroic beam-combining for measuring two light sources simultaneously and (3) optimized optics to match the original Bruker design. The hexagonal shape of the fiber cores secures sufficient mode scrambling inside the fibers, resulting in constant beam parameters and a more homogeneous illumination of the entrance aperture of the FTS.

The correlation between black hole mass, $M_{\rm bh}$, and stellar velocity dispersion, $\sigma_0$, is revisited using 137 galaxies with quantitative bar strengths and enhanced morphological awareness. Interpreted within the `Triangal' evolutionary framework, gas-rich and gas-poor assembly pathways emerge in the $M_{\rm bh}$-$\sigma_0$ diagram. To quantify these scaling relations, a symmetric Bayesian hierarchical regression code, dubbed the Symmetric COvariance Population Estimator (SCOPE), is introduced. Unlike conditional estimators (e.g., LINMIX), SCOPE derives the intrinsic population covariance, natively accommodating asymmetric measurement errors while guaranteeing directional invariance between axes. Primeval, dust-poor S0 galaxies (including dwarf early-type galaxies with $R_{\rm e,gal}$ ~ 1 kpc) follow a shallow relation ($M_{\rm bh}\propto\sigma_0^{2.5\text{--}3.1}$). Explained via the virial theorem, this flattening reframes expectations for intermediate-mass black holes. In contrast, tracing the `Disc Down-sizing' sequence - where dry mergers erase discs - yields a steep relation for massive elliptical and ellicular galaxies ($M_{\rm bh}\propto\sigma_0^{7.8\pm1.4}$). Applying a single, monolithic scaling relation across all morphologies inadvertently averages over different formation histories, potentially skewing AGN virial $f$-factor calibrations and systematically under-predicting the ultra-massive black holes needed to generate the nanohertz gravitational wave background. Furthermore, strongly barred, dust-poor S0 galaxies appear offset to higher $\sigma_0$, while this dynamical signature is lost in the complexities of spiral galaxies. Ultimately, these morphology-dependent relations provide physically-motivated benchmarks for cosmological simulations and a framework for disentangling regimes driven by AGN feedback from those driven by mergers.

Proton-induced activation represents a major source of instrumental background for high-energy astrophysics missions in low-Earth orbit, where trapped protons, particularly during transits within the South Atlantic Anomaly region, irradiate spacecraft materials and generate radioactive isotopes. Direct Monte Carlo simulations of activation and of the ensuing decays are computationally inefficient, due to the low probability of nuclide production and the large number of decay events required for sufficient statistical accuracy. In this paper we provide a new implementation of an efficient three-step algorithm that decouples isotope production, radioactive-decay evolution, and background synthesis, enabling rapid reconstruction of activation-induced background for arbitrary irradiation histories. The method combines Geant4-based identification of all radioisotopes produced by monochromatic proton irradiations, numerical solutions of the Bateman equations for linearized decay chains, and simulation of the detector response to each isotope decay emissions. The approach greatly reduces the computational cost while maintaining accuracy, as demonstrated through validation against direct simulations, which show excellent agreement over many orders of magnitude in activity and time. This method is applied to two representative case studies: HERMES and eXTP/LAD and WFM, covering different detector technologies and orbital configurations. The presented framework enables fast exploration of design and operational scenarios (e.g., orbit selection, radiation models, or duty cycles) and is well suited for background budgeting and optimization of future high-energy space missions.

In crystalline solids, avoided crossing between acoustic and optical phonons is widely recognized as an effective mechanism for suppressing lattice thermal conductivity ($\kappa_l$). However, the role of avoided crossings among optical phonons remains largely unexplored due to their weak contribution to heat transport. Here, using first-principles calculations combined with the linearized Wigner transport equation (LWTE), we demonstrate that optical-optical avoided crossings can effectively reduce ($\kappa_l$) in TlIn$_{0.5}$Ga$_{0.5}$Te$_2$. Pristine TlInTe$_2$ exhibits strong optical phonon-dominated heat transport, where optical phonons contribute nearly 63% of $\kappa_l$. The phonon dispersion of TlInTe$_2$ shows several crossing points in the optical region, which evolve into avoided crossings after 50% Ga substitution. Irreducible representation analysis reveals that the crossing phonon branches in TlInTe$_2$ belong to different symmetry representations, whereas the corresponding branches in TlIn$_{0.5}$Ga$_{0.5}$Te$_2$ possess the same symmetry representation, which enables phonon modes to couple and results in gap opening at the crossing points. These avoided crossings significantly suppress the optical phonon group velocity, thereby reducing the optical phonon contribution from 63% to 44% and lowering $\kappa_l$ from 0.568 to 0.482 Wm$^{-1}$K$^{-1}$ at 300 K. Mode-averaged transport analysis further confirms that the suppression of $\kappa_l$ is primarily governed by reduced phonon group velocity ($v_g$), while enhanced anharmonic scattering provides an additional secondary contribution. Our results establish symmetry-modified optical-optical avoided crossing as an effective route to suppress optical phonon transport and reduce $\kappa_l$ in systems where optical phonons significantly contribute to heat transport.

We develop the Dirac formalism for infinite-dimensional quadratic $\mathbb{Z}$-graded color Lie algebras with finite-dimensional components. Cubic Dirac operators are defined in completions of the quantum Weil algebra determined by the $\mathbb{Z}$-grading. The same grading fixes the normal-ordering convention. Normal ordering introduces a cohomological obstruction to the construction, measured by a color analogue of the Kac-Peterson class. When this class is trivial, we construct cubic and relative cubic Dirac operators satisfying the expected invariance properties and Parthasarathy-type square formulas. We further extend the Chern-Weil homomorphism to completed $\mathfrak{g}$-differential algebras and use it to identify the classical precursor of the cubic Dirac operator with the Chern-Simons element associated with the invariant quadratic polynomial determined by the quadratic structure. As applications, we consider symmetrizable Kac-Moody superalgebras. In this setting, the Kac-Peterson class is trivial, with primitive given by the Weyl vector, which yields the linear correction defining the cubic Dirac operator. We then use the relative Dirac operator to extract representation-theoretic information from highest weight supermodules. As an explicit example, for the affine Kac-Moody superalgebra associated with $\mathfrak{osp}(1\vert 2n)$, we compute the kernel of $\operatorname{D}_{\mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{g}_{\bar{0}}}$ on integrable highest weight supermodules. Finally, for unitarizable highest weight supermodules, we explain why the usual Dirac inequality is not available in the affine setting.

We construct analytic solutions to the bumblebee gravity theory in static and spherically symmetric spacetimes, where the bumblebee vector field admits only a non-vanishing temporal component. In particular, we identify the parameter space that allows for asymptotically flat black hole solutions. We further investigate the thermodynamic properties of these black holes and obtained the analytic formulas for the $Y$ charge and $X$ potential, which were introduced in the prior work to ensure the Smarr relation and the first law of black hole thermodynamics. Using the new analytic results, we verify the numerical findings reported in early work and uncover multiple cases missed in the previous numerical analysis. These include: (i) an unbounded charge-mass ratio when the non-minimal coupling parameter $\xi$ is larger than $2\kappa$, (ii) the emergence of a traversable wormhole configuration for overcharged solutions with $\xi<0$, (iii) the non-monotonic turning behavior of the Hawking temperature as a function of the charge-mass ratio, and (iv) the presence of two divergent points in the constant-$Y$ heat capacity.

The United Kingdom and Europe are moving rapidly from critical minerals target-setting to implementation. The EU Critical Raw Materials Act and the UK's Vision 2035 create ambitious benchmarks for domestic extraction, processing, recycling, circularity, and supply-chain resilience, but many prospective regional resources remain complex, under-explored, historically worked, or economically marginal. This paper argues that implementation will depend not only on permitting reform and project designation, but also on pre-competitive measurement, modelling, and data infrastructure capable of determining which ores, brines, waste streams, and recycling feedstocks can be processed viably and with lower environmental impact. Digital Rock Physics (DRP) should therefore be understood as enabling infrastructure for resource policy rather than as a specialist laboratory method alone. By combining three-dimensional imaging, correlative chemistry, AI-enabled image analysis, and pore-scale modelling, DRP can connect mineral texture and reactive pathways to decisions about ore characterisation, liberation prediction, leaching, Direct Lithium Extraction, mine-waste valorisation, and battery recycling. The paper sets out a UK-European policy agenda built around translational demonstrators, cross-disciplinary training, a Digital Ore Passport standard, a federated Digital Ore Database, and integrated geo-reactive end stations. Treated as shared implementation infrastructure, DRP could help turn critical minerals strategies into practical routes for supply security, resource efficiency, circularity, and more environmentally responsible development.

We address pion transitions involving heavy quarkonium and heavy exotic states in the Born-Oppenheimer effective field theory. Many of these states have a size similar or larger than the typical hadronic scale, and hence the usual QCD multipole expansion breaks down. Unknown low energy functions must be introduced, which at short distances must reproduce the known results of the multipole expansion. In order to determine the long distance behavior of these functions, we propose an interaction Lagrangian for pions and the QCD string. By matching the amplitudes obtained with this Lagrangian to the ones of the Born-Oppenheimer effective field theory in the static limit, we obtain the low energy functions in terms of three universal parameters. As a by product, we also obtain the light quark mass dependence of the string tension. Assuming that the low energy functions are long-distance dominated, we calculate several quarkonium-to-quarkonium and hybrid-to-quarkonium transitions. We estimate the universal constants and provide a phenomenological analysis of the most relevant transitions.

Multiphase turbulence displays stronger intermittency than its single-phase counterpart, yet the origin and geometrical organization of its most intense small-scale fluctuations remain poorly understood. Using direct numerical simulations of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with surface tension, we show that the local dissipative cutoff broadens strongly in the presence of interfaces, with dissipative events extending deep into the sub-Kolmogorov range. These events are spatially concentrated around topology-changing interfacial regions, namely breakup and coalescence. A multifractal analysis of the dissipation field further reveals that, while the spectrum above the Kolmogorov length, $\eta_K$, remains close to the single-phase case except for the most singular tail, the near- and sub-Kolmogorov range develops a markedly broader singularity spectrum supported on sparse intense structures. Our results show that breakup and coalescence do not simply perturb turbulence locally, but imprint a distinct multifractal organization on dissipation in multiphase turbulence.