Papers

We construct embeddings of gravitational and electromagnetic waves in the dark bubble scenario using pp-wave geometries in AdS5, motivated by the fact that pp-wave spacetimes often provide exact solutions to the equations of motion. The setup is realised by gluing two AdS5 pp-wave spacetimes across a three-brane. As an application, we analyse localised beams of light and their gravitational backreaction. Imposing suitable mixed boundary conditions in AdS5, we find gravitational corrections consistent with a weakening of 4d gravity at the 5d AdS scale.

We study the one-dimensional cubic nonlinear Schrödinger system \[ u_i''+2\left(\sum_{k=1}^N u_k^2\right)u_i=-\mu_i u_i \quad \mbox{in } \ \mathbb R,\ \ i=1,2,\cdots,N, \] where $u=(u_1,\cdots,u_N)\in \big(H^1(\mathbb{R})\big)^N$, $\mu_1\leq\mu_2\leq\cdots\leq\mu_N<0$, and $N\geq 2$ is arbitrary. In this paper, we prove the following results for any $N\ge 2$: (i). All nontrivial solutions of the system can be completely classified; (ii). The linearized operator at any nontrivial solution of the system is non-degenerate; (iii). For all $i=1, 2,\cdots, N$, the exact $L^2$-mass identity of $u_i$ is derived in terms of $2\sqrt {|\mu_i|}$, which yields a complete characterization of normalized solutions satisfying $\int_{\mathbb{R}}u_i^2dx=1$. These settle some conjectures of [R. Frank, D. Gontier and M. Lewin, CMP, 2021] and [Y. Guo, Y. Luo and J. Wei, APDE, 2026], where the system was addressed specially for $N=2$ and $N=3$, respectively.

We investigate the real-space vortex structure of a flat-band superconductor described by the attractive Hubbard model on the Mielke checkerboard lattice. Using a momentum-space mean-field analysis, we derive a closed-form expression for the coherence length in terms of the quantum metric of the Bloch states and a particle-hole-symmetric pair density. Self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes calculations on a finite disk confirm this prediction across a wide range of fillings and interaction strengths. The coherence length is minimized at half filling, diverges toward both band edges as the pair density vanishes, and depends only logarithmically on the interaction strength. These features differ qualitatively from the conventional BCS picture, which relies on a well-defined Fermi surface and a kinetic mechanism for pair transport. Instead, the vortex-core size is governed by a geometric pair mass arising from virtual interband processes encoded in the quantum metric. Our results establish the vortex core as a direct real-space manifestation of flat-band quantum geometry.

Multimode fibers (MMFs) hold great promise for minimally invasive imaging, yet their extreme sensitivity to bending perturbations severely hinders practical applications. Starting from mode coupling theory, we theoretically prove and experimentally verify that higher-order modes exhibit significantly greater bending robustness than lower-order modes. We reveal that bending-induced changes in the output speckle arise predominantly from alterations in the mode effective propagation constants, whereas the modal power redistribution caused by inter-modal coupling is negligible. Since the bending-induced changes are dominated by alterations in the mode effective propagation constants, which are inherently independent of the input field, and the modal power redistribution caused by inter-modal coupling is negligible, it follows that, under moderate bending, the perturbation imposed by bending on light propagation inside the fiber is independent of the input field distribution. Based on this input-independent bending perturbation property, we propose a physics-inspired dual-encoder neural network. The network separately extracts features from a reference speckle pattern (corresponding to a circular field input) and an information-carrying speckle pattern acquired under the same fiber state, then employs a differential fusion module to decouple the image information from environmental perturbations, and subsequently recovers the image after excluding the perturbation. Our method significantly enhances the anti-bending capability of MMF imaging systems, offering a new paradigm that integrates physical insights with deep learning for robust fiber-optic imaging.

We present a canonical geometric quantization scheme for closed contact 3-manifolds $(M,\xi)$ using the corresponding explicit embedding $M \hookrightarrow \C^3$ as we constructed in our earlier papers. The contact structure becomes holomorphic along the chosen link $L \subset M$ of complex tangents, of which we may also consider this link as the binding of a supporting open book for $\xi$. Stein extension yields a unique holomorphic line bundle $L_\xi \to \C^3$ whose restriction to $L$ will define the quantum Hilbert space $\Hilb_\xi = H^0(L, L_\xi|_L \otimes \kappa^{1/2})$, which we find will be finite-dimensional. The Reeb vector field $R_\alpha$ of a chosen compatible contact form $\alpha$ is shown to be geodesic with a time Killing Reeb field under further assumption that the manifold is Sasakian, and under this assumption will model Einstein gravity over $M$. This construction depends only on $(M,\xi,\alpha)$ and a choice of supporting open book for $\xi$. This establishes a unified geometric framework in which the contact structure encodes quantum mechanics and whose Reeb field will encode gravity assuming that the manifold is Sasakian. In addition, we use my previous paper in which we get a related invariant $\mu_M(\xi) = [L_\xi] \in \Pic_\C(M)$ which is useful in that it distinguishes between different tight contact structures on $\T^3$ in a novel way. We also show how this will have implications for the quantum model and serve as a quantum invariant there-in.

The physical origin of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) and broad-line Seyfert 1 (BLS1) dichotomy remains debated, with competing scenarios invoking host-galaxy evolution or intrinsic accretion physics. We analysed host-galaxy properties and AGN luminosities obtained from CIGALE spectral energy distribution fitting for $\sim$12,000 Type 1 AGNs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, of which 29% are NLS1s. Globally, NLS1s have lower virial black hole masses, higher inferred Eddington ratios, lower stellar masses, and higher specific star formation rates than BLS1s. In the FWHM(\Hb)–$L_{\rm AGN}$ plane, the conventional 2000 km s$^{-1}$ boundary is better viewed as an empirical division within a continuous parameter space rather than a physical threshold, with Fe~II tracing the high-accretion end. In a host-matched subsample of 767 NLS1–BLS1 pairs with statistically indistinguishable stellar mass, black hole mass, and redshift, NLS1s still show higher Eddington ratios, stronger Fe~II emission, and bluer optical continua, together with elevated SFR and dust attenuation, suggesting that the NLS1 phenomenon is most naturally associated with a high-accretion state within the continuous distribution of Type 1 AGNs, while host-galaxy gas supply may also play a role in modulating its strength. In this picture, NLS1 and BLS1 classifications reflect different locations within a continuous accretion sequence of the same underlying population rather than two physically disjoint classes.

The Faraday effect is a hallmark of nonreciprocal light-matter interactions and traditionally requires magnetic bias or intrinsically chiral media. Here we introduce a temporal chiral metamaterial in which an effective chiral response is generated entirely by Floquet modulation, without magnetic fields or structurally chiral constituents. The medium is realized by periodically rotating the principal axes of the permittivity and permeability tensors in time. Using a nonlocal temporal effective medium theory derived from Hamiltonian homogenization, we show that the resulting chiral parameter is an odd function of the wavevector, giving rise to intrinsic nonreciprocity despite Onsager-symmetric constitutive relations. This Floquet-induced chirality produces a temporal Faraday effect, in which the polarization plane of a linearly polarized wave rotates continuously in time. The direction and magnitude of the rotation are programmable through the modulation sequence and remain invariant under both spatial and temporal reversal. Our work establishes Floquet-induced chirality as a fundamentally new mechanism for nonreciprocal light control and opens a route to reconfigurable polarization manipulation in time-modulated photonic systems.

Next-generation radio telescopes produce data volumes that preclude manual quality assessment, yet data curation remains essential for science. We present a general, fully automatic Bayesian anomaly-detection method for radio science experiments in which data curation is performed inside the inference: a latent anomaly indicator is marginalised in the likelihood rather than converted into an external pre-flag. Implemented in JAX with GPU-accelerated inference, the pipeline assigns probabilistic data-curation scores without prior knowledge and requires no thresholds, manual inspection, or subjective decisions. We demonstrate the method on the Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen (REACH), applying it to 4655 observations (one year of REACH data). The pipeline assigns scores across time and frequency, enabling identification of the optimal observations to carry forward into scientific inference while reducing the risk that contaminated data bias the result. In doing so, it simultaneously recovers weather-driven systematics, instrument-component drifts, and narrow-band radio-frequency interference, while revealing complex dependencies between data quality and environmental or instrumental state that would be difficult to uncover by manual curation alone. This turns data curation from an external manual bottleneck into autonomous, inference-level infrastructure for the Square Kilometre Array era.

Engineered robust losses such as Huber, Student-$t$, and generalised cross-entropy make supervised models tolerant of contamination but cannot answer which observations are corrupted. We introduce Neural Bayesian Anomaly Mitigation (NBAM), a general-purpose drop-in loss derived from a Bayesian latent-switch mixture model: the marginal likelihood defines a robust supervised loss, and the associated posterior defines an unsupervised contamination classifier. Like Huber or Student-$t$, NBAM can replace the standard training loss in any supervised pipeline; unlike them, it additionally learns a structured contamination model and returns a calibrated per-sample contamination posterior. A learned input-dependent prior $\pi_\phi(x)$ captures the spatial locality of contamination, so that samples near known corruptions are more likely to be flagged, while an Occam penalty emerges automatically and regularises against over-flagging. On CIFAR-10 with asymmetric label contamination, NBAM recovers the structure of the corruption process without supervision: the contamination posterior separates clean from corrupted samples, and the learned anomaly head identifies the direction of every label-flip pair. Alongside these capabilities, NBAM outperforms the four robust-loss baselines considered here at contamination rates 0.2-0.6.

We theoretically investigate a non-Hermitian cavity-magnon platform in which coherent photonmagnon interactions and reservoir-mediated dissipative coupling interfere through a single externally tunable phase. We show that this interference phase provides a universal control parameter that continuously rotates the effective coupling between Hermitian and anti-Hermitian regimes, enabling dynamic transitions between level repulsion and level attraction without modifying intrinsic system parameters. The resulting phase-controlled non-Hermitian topology gives rise to exceptional points, linewidth engineering, and zero-damping conditions. Owing to the propagation-direction dependence of the dissipative interaction, the system further exhibits strong nonreciprocal transport and phase-tunable isolation arising from asymmetric hybridization of the cavity and magnon modes. Beyond its spectral and transport properties, we establish a direct connection between nonHermitian spectral topology and nonequilibrium population dynamics. The interference phase governs the stability of the hybrid modes, driving transitions between stable relaxation, critical slowing down near exceptional points, oscillatory energy exchange, and exponentially amplified dynamics. We further demonstrate that the same phase-controlled exceptional topology can be exploited for enhanced sensing, where the eigenvalue response exhibits the characteristic square-root scaling associated with exceptional-point physics. Our results provide a unified framework linking spectral topology, directional transport, dynamical stability, and sensing functionality through reservoirengineered interference in cavity magnonic systems.

We extend the Schrödinger approach to large-scale structure formation beyond the Newtonian regime by working at first post-Friedmann (1PF) order. The standard Schrödinger–Poisson system gives a useful reformulation of the dynamics of a self-gravitating pressureless fluid, but it corresponds to the leading post-Friedmann, or Newtonian, limit. It therefore misses the relativistic corrections that enter at next-to-leading order and become relevant on horizon scales and for high-precision cosmological surveys. Starting from the 1PF continuity and Euler equations in a flat $\Lambda$CDM background, we identify the conserved density variable associated with covariant mass conservation. In terms of this variable, the continuity equation takes a Newtonian-like conservative form. However, even for vanishing covariant vorticity, the spatial velocity field in the cosmological frame contains a transverse 1PF component. Thus the full 1PF mass flux cannot be represented solely by the gradient of a scalar phase. We show that the Schrödinger-like formulation at 1PF order requires an effective vector potential fixed by this transverse velocity component. This vector potential contains the post-Friedmann metric vector perturbation, related to relativistic frame-dragging effects, together with nonlinear scalar terms required by the zero-vorticity condition. Equivalently, when the equation is written in scalar form, these corrections appear as an imaginary contribution to the effective potential. At leading order our system reduces to the usual Schrödinger–Poisson formulation, while at 1PF order it provides a relativistic extension of the Schrödinger description of cold matter dynamics.

Context. The third Gaia data release (Gaia DR3) includes blue and red low-resolution spectrophotometry for more than 200 million sources. These Gaia XP spectra are represented by sets of coefficients multiplying linear combinations of basis functions related to Hermite functions. In a previous work we introduced a method that maximally exploits the information encoded in the Gaia spectrophotometric coefficients in order to identify absorption and emission lines. Aims. Our aim is to detect hydrogen Balmer emission and absorption lines in stars belonging to open clusters included in the released Gaia DR3 blue and red spectrophotometry, and to characterise the Balmer line strengths as a function of colour. Methods. We refined our XP tool for emission and absorption lines (XP-TEAL), using derivatives of the internal spectral coefficients to analyse hydrogen Balmer lines in the Gaia DR3 XP spectra. We tested our results using stars in open clusters, considering both absorption and emission features. Results. The analysis of the hydrogen lines in the spectra of open cluster stars allows us to assess the performance and limitations of the method. We find an empirical dependence of the absorption-line equivalent widths on the intrinsic colour of the stars, which allows us to derive precise colour excesses caused by interstellar extinction. We also identify 1256 stars with emission lines, 356 of which have not previously been reported in the literature. Conclusions. We successfully tested our XP-TEAL code on stars in clusters and have made both the source code and the online version available to the community. Despite the low resolution of Gaia spectrophotometry, our code is able to extract useful line information.

The auroral electrojet (AE) index is a key indicator of high latitude geomagnetic activity and is widely used in operational space weather monitoring, yet forecasting AE from upstream solar wind conditions remains challenging due to nonlinear coupling, internal magnetospheric dynamics, and multiscale variability. We test whether incorporating solar wind turbulence improves short timescale AE forecasts beyond models based only on mean solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field parameters. Two gradient boosted decision tree (XGBoost) models are developed using near-Earth solar wind observations: a baseline model using standard mean parameters and a turbulence-aware model that additionally includes measures of fluctuation amplitude, intermittency, and Alfvenic structure. Both models achieve peak performance at short lead times, with correlations exceeding 0.8 at 60 minutes. However, while the baseline model exhibits a clear skill peak at 75 minutes, the turbulence-aware model maintains comparable skill across 60-90 minute horizons, indicating reduced degradation with lead time. The turbulence-aware model also provides consistent improvements over both the baseline and persistence and, critically, improves forecast robustness for high-impact events. Cost-loss analysis shows that, for the baseline model, economic value decreases systematically with increasing AE threshold and the range of cost-loss ratios yielding positive value narrows. In contrast, the turbulence-aware model maintains an approximately constant zero-value cost-loss threshold across all event levels, indicating stable economic usefulness even for extreme AE conditions. This demonstrates that turbulence provides complementary, scale-dependent information beyond mean solar wind parameters, improving both forecast performance and decision-relevant value for operational space weather applications.

A fully quantum algorithm for solving the one-dimensional linear advection-diffusion equation using the Lattice Boltzmann method as a numerical procedure is presented in this work. We start by presenting a state of the art of the current usage of quantum algorithms for solving ordinary and partial differential equations. We then describe two algorithms for the one-dimensional Lattice Boltzmann method with two degrees of freedom. The first one is an existing hybrid quantum-classical algorithm with measurements at each time step, and the second one is our improved version, viz. a fully quantum algorithm where only one measurement is needed at the end of the algorithm. The fully quantum algorithm is first executed on a quantum simulator and then compared with a classical approach. Subsequently, the fully quantum algorithm is run on a quantum system with 133 qubits to investigate the effect of noise and the depth of the circuit on the output state. We find fluctuations in the final result due to the decoherence noise of the qubits.

HfO$_{2}$-based ferroelectrics are essential for the next generation of CMOS-compatible memory and logic devices, yet their performance is governed by a complex interplay between oxygen vacancies, dopants, and structural defects that remains an active area of investigation. These defects shape the function-critical dynamic phenomena, such as polar phase stabilization, wake-up, fatigue, and imprint. In this Perspective, we review the limitations of established high-resolution structural characterization techniques and propose atom probe tomography (APT) as a powerful tool for the three-dimensional (3D), atomic-scale mapping of all constituent species in hafnia-based ferroelectric systems. By resolving individual dopants, vacancy clustering, and interfacial segregation, APT can facilitate a quantitative understanding of defect-property relations in hafnia-based ferroelectrics. We discuss current experimental challenges for APT application to ferroelectric oxides, demonstrate a proof-of-concept of atomic-scale reconstruction in a hafnia-based device stack, and highlight the potential of APT to guide the development of ferroelectric structures with enhanced reliability and performance.

We present a continuous-wave (CW) implementation of super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging with image scanning microscopy (SOFISM) using a pixelated single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detector camera. In a scanning-based geometry, SOFISM requires fluorescence fluctuations on timescales compatible with the pixel dwell time while maintaining sufficient signal under confocal excitation. Photoswitchable fluorophores in an aqueous switching buffer containing the glucose oxidase-catalase oxygen-scavenging system (GLOXY) and mercaptoethylamine (MEA) were therefore used to promote blinking and reduce photobleaching. Correlation analysis of sparse-emitter measurements showed that Alexa Fluor 647 (AF647) exhibits microsecond-scale fluctuation dynamics suitable for CW SOFISM and guided the choice of imaging conditions for scanned samples. Frame rate and delay accumulation were optimized from detector-pair subset variability using a mean-to-STD criterion. The optimal binning time was 2.5 $\mu$s, underscoring the advantage of SPAD-based detection for resolving the relevant fluctuation dynamics. The method was demonstrated on HeLa cell microtubules labeled with AF647, yielding improved spatial resolution in the constructed SOFISM images compared with the corresponding ISM images. Additional super-resolved images from samples labeled with CF568 and Alexa Fluor 555 (AF555) showed the approach is readily generalizable to other fluorophores. These results establish CW SOFISM as a practical fluctuation-based super-resolution method for confocal microscopy.

We present a catalogue of segmentation maps identifying the extent of spiral arms and bars of 639,636 galaxies in the DESI Legacy Survey. To produce these maps, we have trained a deep U-net-style neural network using the pixel masks from the Galaxy Zoo: 3D citizen science project. The resulting data products are "soft" segmentation maps, which show the confidence of the model that a pixel lies within the spiral arms or bars of a galaxy. In this paper we detail the sample selection from DESI-LS using the machine classifications from Galaxy Zoo: DESI, the architecture of the U-net model–dubbed ZooBot:3D. We demonstrate the ability of the model to identify spiral arms and bars in a wide range of face-on disks, and identify an emergent ability to identify rings–despite only a small number of ring-type galaxies being present in the training data. Finally, we discuss the practical application of these data products to photometric imaging and IFU spectroscopy. The ZooBot:3D dataset is available for use publicly, and contains the full catalogue presented in this paper, along with cross-matched subsamples for the MaNGA and SAMI IFU surveys.

The commonly adopted constant bulk liquid density approximation for estimating disjoining pressure in liquid nanofilms, although justified by the low compressibility of liquids, can introduce significant errors in its evaluation. We hypothesize that the bulk liquid density is a thermodynamic state variable that depends on film thickness and local pressure, and should therefore be determined self-consistently to accurately capture interfacial forces under confinement. A thermodynamically consistent molecular dynamics simulation framework is developed by coupling a surface-tension-based formulation with bulk equations of state obtained from independent simulations. An iterative algorithm is employed to simultaneously determine bulk liquid density, film thickness, and disjoining pressure. The method is applied to water and argon nanofilms, and results are benchmarked against conventional constant-density approaches and alternative computational routes based on chemical potential calculation. The proposed framework provides a computationally efficient and thermodynamically rigorous route for evaluating disjoining pressure without requiring explicit full coexisting system simulations. Incorporating density variations significantly improves the accuracy and consistency of predicted disjoining pressures. For water nanofilms, a 3.6% deviation in density can lead to up to 77% overestimation of disjoining pressure at a thickness of 12 Å, whereas the effect is weaker but still non-negligible for argon. The proposed framework restores the inverse-cubic scaling with film thickness predicted by Hamaker theory and reduces discrepancies between independent computational methods. Overall, the results demonstrate that self-consistent treatment of bulk thermodynamics is essential for quantitatively reliable evaluation of surface forces in confined fluid systems.

We introduce a geometric decomposition of the hard-sphere partition function. Using a close-packing-inspired geometric bound on the available insertion volume, made rigorous when a corresponding local density certificate is available, we establish a reference upper bound $Q^\ast$ on the configurational integral. Factoring this upper bound out of the statistical geometric partition function found by Speedy yields a new form for the $d$-dimensional partition function, $Q(N,V,T)=Q^\ast \exp(-N \mathcal{J})$, where $\mathcal{J}$ depends strictly on the boundary-to-volume ratio of the voids and the close-packing density. Overall, this work provides an exact reformulation of hard-sphere thermodynamics, thus deepening our statistical geometric understanding of hard spheres.

Much has been studied on Floquet engineering in Rashba nanowire model regarding topological superconductivity hosting Majorana $0$- and anomalous $\pi$-modes, here we theoretically investigate the possible emergence of finite momentum Fulde-Ferrell (FF) superconducting state in quasi-energy of the above model under the periodic modulation of in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic fields while the static limit does not host a FF ground state. We demonstrate controllable switching between Floquet Majorana $0$- and $\pi$-modes via reversal of the supercurrent direction, revealing pronounced nonreciprocal supercurrent signatures which is a manifestation of the FF pairing. We validate the onset of FF pairing following a self-consistent mean-field analysis where externally applied supercurrent facilitates nonreciprocal signatures in quasi-energy spectra. The above findings directly indicates to the intriguing phenomenon of superconducting diode effect (SDE). The drive amplitude serves as a parameter to regulate the diode efficiency with chemical potential. Our study thus reveals a rich interplay between Floquet topological superconductivity and finite-momentum FF pairing, providing a tunable way to switch between different Floquet Majorana modes and realize the SDE with high efficiency.

Transmission spectroscopy has become a primary tool for probing exoplanetary atmospheres, enabling constraints on their chemical compositions and providing limited information on their thermal properties. We assess the potential of the upcoming Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST) for exoplanet atmospheric characterization through transmission spectroscopy. Theoretical spectra of hot gas planets are generated and used to simulate slitless spectroscopic observations with the CSST across the ultraviolet-to-near-infrared range. Atmospheric retrievals performed on the simulated data are compared with the input models to assess the robustness and accuracy of parameter determinations. We find that multi-band observations across three wavelength channels, each with two transits can place meaningful constraints on key atmospheric parameters. For multi-band observations that account for correlated (red) noise, future CSST observations are expected to achieve constraints that are comparable to, or in some cases slightly weaker than, those of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), depending on the noise level and observing strategy. We conclude that CSST will provide unique and complementary constraints on the chemical compositions and physical properties of exoplanetary atmospheres, particularly for atomic species, metal-bearing molecules, and scattering processes accessible in the UV and optical, thereby complementing JWST's infrared sensitivity to molecular species.

Spatio-temporal quantum steering provides a framework for benchmarking the nonclassicality of general quantum state transfer processes. A central diagnostic is the no-signaling-in-time (NSIT) condition, whose violation can indicate basis-dependent hardware errors. However, finite measurement statistics may also yield apparent violations, thereby obscuring the detection of basis-dependent hardware errors. To address this, we construct a statistical hypothesis test under the null hypothesis that NSIT violations arise solely from statistical fluctuations. Combining the statistical properties of NSIT violation under the null hypothesis with Chebyshev's inequality, we obtain a distribution-free upper bound on the $p$-value without parametric assumptions. We apply this method to two examples. For a single-qubit state-transfer experiment on a superconducting processor, we observe several instances that the NSIT violation is observed and the null hypothesis is simultaneously rejected by a small $p$-value, providing statistical evidence of basis-dependent hardware errors. For a seven-qubit Hayden-Preskill teleportation protocol on IonQ devices, the null hypothesis is also rejected even when the average fidelity exceeds the classical threshold, while the associated nonclassicality measure vanishes. Our results highlight the necessity of statistical hypothesis testing for detecting basis-dependent errors in near-term quantum devices.

Recent studies showed that magnetic activity effects in solar-type stars can substantially bias seismic inferences, particularly age estimates, regardless of modelling strategy or surface treatment. We quantified how magnetic activity effects in the Sun-as-a-star are smoothed by temporal averaging by analysing 182.5-, 365-, 730-, and 1460-day time series from the BiSON network and the GOLF instrument. We estimated the activity-induced systematic uncertainty using two metrics and compared results across baselines to evaluate how the observing window shapes activity-induced biases. Solar-cycle signatures persist even in 1460-day windows. The suppression of magnetic activity effects with increasing baseline is non-monotonic: one- and four-year windows reduce biases far more effectively than shorter baselines in most cases, whereas 730-day windows provide only limited improvement over 365-day ones. Improvements arise from enhanced frequency determination (dominant at 365 days) and from increasingly efficient temporal averaging of the activity cycle (dominant at 1460 days). In contrast, 730-day is an intermediate regime: frequency accuracy has already plateaued and the observing window remains too short to smooth out cycle-related variability. On average, we find that magnetic activity effects decrease by 24%, 12%, 30%, and 38% when transitioning from 182.5 to 365 days, 365 to 730 days, 730 to 1460 days, and 365 to 1460 days for frequency-based fits; the corresponding improvements for ratio-based fits are 13%, 14%, 20%, and 31%. These results indicate that a continuous single-field four-year PLATO observing programme would provide the most effective suppression of magnetic-activity biases for solar analogues, whereas a 2+2-year strategy (in two distinct fields) is significantly more sensitive to magnetic effects, with limited gains between 365- and 730-day windows.

Five-dimensional 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole strings whose cores restore a non-abelian gauge symmetry become axion strings for extra-dimensional axions. The parametric separation between the string tension and the scale of quantum gravity admits a viable post-inflationary cosmology for high-quality axion dark matter.

We investigate the relation between Virasoro zero-mode evolution and the bulk logarithmic graviton in topologically massive gravity at the chiral point. By introducing additive coordinates adapted to the global time and radial dependence of the logarithmic mode, we obtain the expression \begin{equation} y(s,\bar s) = -s+\ln2 -\ln\!\left(1+e^{-(s+\bar s)}\right), \qquad s=\rho+i\tau, \quad \bar s=\rho-i\tau . \end{equation} This relation provides a direct bulk realization of the additive coordinates previously associated with the joint Virasoro zero-mode evolution. Near the AdS$_3$ boundary, the logarithmic coefficient becomes linear in $s$ up to an additive constant and exponentially suppressed corrections, while its exact finite-radius dependence is governed by the diagonal combination $s+\bar s=2\rho$. Upon complexification of the radial coordinate, this combination also organizes the periodic branch structure underlying the previously established bulk monodromy of the logarithmic graviton. The same diagonal coordinate controls the nilpotent part of the Virasoro zero-mode representation, providing a common additive-coordinate description of the representation-theoretic Jordan structure and the radial analytic structure of the bulk solution. The corresponding operations remain distinct: finite zero-mode evolution is algebraic, whereas bulk monodromy arises from analytic continuation and winding of the multivalued gravitational solution.

We investigate the persistence properties during phase ordering in the two-dimensional ($d=2$) Ising model evolving under competing nonconserved spin-flip and conserved spin-exchange dynamics by means of Monte Carlo simulations at zero temperature. We examine three distinct persistence probabilities: (i) the total persistence probability, defined as the probability that a lattice site has never experienced a change in the sign of the spin residing there; (ii) the spin-flip persistence probability, which exclusively measures the fraction of sites that have never undergone a spin-flip event; and (iii) the composite persistence probability, defined as the fraction of sites that have experienced neither a spin-flip nor a spin-exchange event. In the asymptotic regime, both the total and spin-flip persistence probabilities exhibit identical power-law decay, irrespective of the relative occurrence probability of the spin-flip move $p_r$. The corresponding persistence exponent $\theta_i \approx 0.225$, is found to be consistent with the value reported for systems evolving purely under nonconserved dynamics. We further demonstrate that both persistence measures satisfy the scaling relation $d-d_f^i=\theta_i/\alpha_i$, where $d_f^i$ is the fractal dimension of the corresponding persistence lattice and $\alpha_i\approx 1/2$ characterizes the asymptotic power-law growth of spatially correlated regions of non-persistent spins. In contrast, although the composite persistence probability also exhibits asymptotic power-law decay, both the corresponding persistence exponent $\theta_{\rm c}$ and the fractal dimension $d_f^{\rm c}$ of the persistence lattice show strong dependence on $p_r$. Combined with the presence of a universal growth exponent $\alpha_{\rm c}\approx 1/2$, this leads to the breakdown of the scaling relation among the characteristic exponents for the composite persistence.

We study a renormalizable spin-1 electroweakly interacting dark matter (DM) model in which the DM particle is the neutral component of a $Z_2$-odd $\mathrm{SU(2)}_L$ triplet vector boson. The model predicts an additional $Z_2$-even heavy vector triplet, $W'^{\pm}$ and $Z'$, which is generically heavier than the DM particle and whose mass is closely related to the DM mass. Taking into account the Sommerfeld enhancement due to long-range electroweak interactions, we evaluate the thermal relic abundance of the spin-1 DM. We find that the observed relic abundance is reproduced through the freeze-out mechanism for DM masses ($m_V$) in the range $3.6~\mathrm{TeV} \lesssim m_V \lesssim 9.2~\mathrm{TeV}$ within a perturbative regime. A heavier DM mass is favored when the heavy vector boson mass approaches the DM mass, since annihilation processes into a heavy vector boson and a Standard Model particle significantly enhance the effective annihilation cross section. This behavior is distinctive from spin-0 and spin-$1/2$ electroweak DM scenarios, which typically predict a DM mass around $3~\mathrm{TeV}$. We further investigate indirect detection prospects and find that the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) will probe the entire viable parameter region. In particular, for $m_V \gtrsim 7.5~\mathrm{TeV}$, the model predicts a characteristic double-peak gamma-ray signature: one peak arising from the unresolved $\gamma\gamma$ and $Z\gamma$ channels, and the other from the $Z'\gamma$ annihilation channel.

We investigate a $q$-deformation of the shifted topological recursion, extending the construction of Belliard-Bouchard-Kramer-Nelson to the context of quantum algebras. Through the study of highest weight vectors in $q$-deformed of $\mathcal{W}$-algebra representations, we derive a $q$-analogue of the topological recursion and show it yields $q$-deformed quantum curves. This framework unifies various approaches to quantum integrability and provides new insights into the geometry of $q$-deformed moduli spaces.

The matrix element of the tensor current between the nucleon and the $\Delta(1232)$ is described by six form factors, which organize into transverse multipoles of rank zero to three. The rank-three term, an octupole, has no counterpart in the diagonal tensor matrix elements of the nucleon or in the electromagnetic $N \to \Delta$ transition. We study the isovector chiral-odd transition within QCD light-cone sum rules, constructing the sum rules from light-cone projections of the correlation function rather than from individual Lorentz structures and removing the contributions of spin-$1/2$ states of both parities explicitly. At leading and next-to-leading power in the light-cone expansion the spin-$1/2$-free sum rules form an overdetermined system that determines four combinations of the form factors, among them the transverse dipole, quadrupole and octupole; the monopole and the longitudinal form factor $F_1$ are not accessible at this level. Conventional sum rules built on single Lorentz structures that measure the same combination of form factors differ by up to a factor of two while being equally stable in the Borel parameter, and we show that these structures receive no contribution of leading or next-to-leading power. With the $\Delta$ coupling and the continuum threshold taken from the $\Delta$ two-point sum rule and two sets of nucleon distribution amplitudes, we obtain the quadrupole for $1 \leq Q^2 \leq 6$~GeV$^2$ and the octupole for $Q^2 \gtrsim 2$~GeV$^2$, with Borel and threshold variations of at most about ten percent, and the dipole, whose magnitude depends strongly on the distribution amplitudes. The model of the distribution amplitudes is the dominant source of uncertainty, and the results do not determine an extrapolation to $Q^2 = 0$.

We study noisy identical Kuramoto-Sakaguchi oscillators with phase lag $\alpha\in[0,\pi/2)$, where $\alpha>0$ induces nonreciprocal interactions. Numerical phase diagrams in the $(\sigma, \alpha)$ plane in fully-connected graphs, formed by long-range weights tuned by $\sigma$ on $d$-dimensional lattices, reveal a critical phase lag $\alpha_c$, below which spontaneous synchronization occurs. This critical phase lag decreases monotonically with $\sigma$. We characterize the critical behavior analytically using the dynamical renormalization group theory.