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Physics

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Friday 26 June

Nuclear Experiment

Multiplicity dependence of the size of the common hadron emission source in pp collisions at the LHC

ALICE Collaboration

Femtoscopic analysis can shed light on hadron production in pp collisions. In this paper, proton-proton correlations measured in collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13.6$ TeV recorded with the ALICE detector at the LHC are presented. The analysis is based on the minimum bias dataset collected in 2022 following the upgrade of the ALICE detector and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $19.3$ pb$^{-1}$. The increased integrated luminosity allows us, for the first time, to simultaneously measure the multiplicity and transverse-mass ($m_{\rm T}$) dependence of the size of the hadron-emitting source. Precise knowledge of the femtoscopic source size in pp collisions is a crucial ingredient for using femtoscopy to study the residual strong interaction among stable and unstable hadrons at the LHC. In this light, the source radius was determined from the measured correlation functions by assuming several state-of-the-art models of the nucleon$-$nucleon interactions. The consistency among the extracted radii demonstrates the robustness of the measurement with respect to interaction model assumptions. A comparison to femtoscopic radii measured in Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV reveals a markedly different multiplicity dependence in similar $m_{\rm T}$ intervals, providing new insight into the system-size dependence of particle emission dynamics.
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High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

Analysis of the hidden-charm pentaquark candidates in the $J/\psi \Xi^*$ mass spectrum via the QCD sum rules

Zhi-Gang Wang

In this work, we explore the diquark-diquark-antiquark type decuplet hidden-charm pentaquark states with the symbolic valence structure $qssc\bar{c}$ via the QCD sum rules extensively, and achieve the spectroscopy of the lowest decuplet $qssc\bar{c}$ pentaquark states with the quantum numbers $IJ^{P}=\frac{1}{2}{\frac{1}{2}}^-$, $\frac{1}{2}{\frac{3}{2}}^-$ and $\frac{1}{2}{\frac{5}{2}}^-$, and suggest to explore these exotic states in the exclusive processes $\Xi_b^{\prime0} \to P_{css}^0\,\phi \to J/\psi \Xi^{*0} \phi $ and $\Omega_b^{-}\to P_{css}^-\, \bar{K}^0 \to J/\psi \Xi^{*-}\, \bar{K}^0$. As a byproduct, we can re-testify classifications of the light baryons by investigating the hidden-charm pentaquark decays.
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Materials Science

Tuning the optoelectronic properties of wide bandgap perovskites: Data-driven insights from combinatorial synthesis and high-throughput experimentation

Alexander Wieczorek, Sergey Tsarev, Nathan Rodkey et al. (+4 more)

The discovery and optimization of wide-bandgap lead halide perovskites (LHPs) is hindered by solution-based workflows with limited scalability. Large compositional parameter spaces present an additional challenge for materials optimization. Here, we establish an integrated, combinatorial workflow based on sequential physical vapor deposition that enables independent tuning of cation (Cs/Pb) and anion (Br/Cl) compositions. Applying automated structural, compositional, and optical characterizations across >500 samples regions of interest are rapidly screened in the quaternary Cs-Pb-Br-Cl space. From the screening, we establish a practical Cs/Pb window of 1.05-1.20 for wide bandgap perovskites, within which elevated PL yields were observed. Through in-depth analysis of the data set, we uncover a high-energy optical transition as a robust determinant for high PL yields. By combining mechanistic insight into the compositional origins of high PL efficiency with a fully integrated, high-throughput screening framework, and by openly releasing the complete multi-modal dataset, this work provides a broadly accessible benchmark to accelerate data-driven discovery of wide-bandgap perovskites.
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All authors Alexander Wieczorek, Sergey Tsarev, Nathan Rodkey, Oleksandr Pshyk, Stefanie Frick, Maksym V. Kovalenko, Sebastian Siol

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

A Rare Gamma-ray Flaring episode of the Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy 1H 0323+342

Aminabi Thekkoth, Vaidehi S. Paliya and Preeti Kharb

Gamma-ray-emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 ($\gamma$-NLSy1) galaxies represent an enigmatic class of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) bridging populations of radio-quiet and radio-loud AGNs. Here we report the multi-wavelength investigation of a rare $\gamma$-ray flaring episode of an NLSy1 galaxy, 1H 0323+342 ($z=0.063$), using data from Fermi-Large Area Telescope, Swift, and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescopic Array. The source exhibited a significant enhancement in $\gamma$-ray flux along with rapid variability on $\sim$sub-hour timescales in both $\gamma$-ray and hard X-ray wavelengths, hinting that the energy dissipation is happening from a compact region close to the central supermassive black-hole. The time-resolved X-ray spectral study revealed a transition between a jet-dominated and a mixed jet+corona emission state. Reproducing the broadband spectral energy distribution with a one-zone leptonic model suggested that the high-energy emission is mainly produced by external Compton scattering of the accretion disc and broad line region photons. The inferred jet power reaches values of the order of $10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$ comparable to those of powerful flat-spectrum radio quasars, suggesting that even low black-hole mass systems can occasionally produce powerful $\gamma$-ray outbursts.
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Lattice Field Theory

The QCD phase diagram for three-flavor Möbius domain-wall fermions

Yu Zhang, Yasumichi Aoki, Jishnu Goswami et al. (+4 more)

We investigate the phase transition of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) with three degenerate quark flavors at zero baryon chemical potential. Using Möbius domain-wall fermions as the lattice fermion formulation, we ensure excellent chiral symmetry preservation. Our simulations are performed at three different temporal lattice extents, $N_{t}=6, 8, 12$, with a fixed lattice spacing $a=0.1361(20)$ fm, corresponding to temperatures of 242(4), 181(3), and 121(2) MeV, respectively. We explore a range of quark masses and spatial volumes with aspect ratios $N_{s}/N_{t}$ spanning from 2 to 4. By analyzing the mass and volume dependencies of the plaquette, plaquette susceptibility, chiral condensate, chiral susceptibilities, and Binder cumulant, we identify the pseudocritical transition quark masses from our largest lattice volumes. For $N_t=6$, this is 184(10) MeV (determined from the plaquette susceptibility). For $N_t=8$ and 12, the transition points vary slightly depending on whether the total or disconnected chiral susceptibility is used, yielding ranges of 36(1)-39.1(9) MeV and 3.5(3)-3.7(2) MeV, respectively, in the $\overline{\text{MS}}$ scheme at a scale of $\mu=2$ GeV. The negligible volume dependence at $N_t=6$ and 8, combined with finite-size scaling analysis at $N_t=12$ revealing volume growth significantly weaker than expected for a first- or second-order phase transition, points to a continuous crossover at these specific quark mass points. Additionally, we study the effects of residual chiral symmetry breaking on the chiral condensate and chiral susceptibilities using two different values of $L_s$.
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All authors Yu Zhang, Yasumichi Aoki, Jishnu Goswami, Shoji Hashimoto, Issaku Kanamori, Takashi Kaneko, Yoshifumi Nakamura

High Energy Physics (Theory)

New Solutions of RG Equations for \alpha_s and y_{top}

A.S. Fedoruk and D. I. Kazakov

We construct simple analytical solutions of the RG equations for the running couplings \alpha_s and y_{top} in the asymptotic regime. These solutions have an explicit form, contain only logarithms and no special functions, and subsequently sum up the leading, subleading, etc logarithms in all orders of PT. While the effect of y_{top} on the running of \alpha_s happens to be negligible, the role of \alpha_s on the running of y_{top} is essential, the account of higher orders gives a noticeable contribution.
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Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Parity-selected charging and noise-correlated work retention in a coupled Si/SiGe double quantum dot battery: theory and experimentally parameterized modeling

Khalil Loukhssami, Khadija El Hawary, Sanaa Abaach et al. (+1 more)

We investigate extractable work storage in a capacitively coupled double quantum dot (DQD) quantum battery (QB) subjected to experimentally motivated detuning charge noise. The battery is modeled as two interacting charge qubits with an Ising-type capacitive coupling and is charged by resonant microwave modulation of the tunnel coupling channel. Detuning fluctuations are introduced as classical stochastic processes generated from a band-limited 1/f noise spectrum. For each noise realization, the evolution remains unitary, whereas decoherence and loss of contrast emerge after ensemble averaging. We analyze the total ergotropy, its population and coherent contributions, the energy basis populations, a passive ordering violation diagnostic, and the Jensen-Shannon coherence of the noise-averaged state. The results show that resonant tunnel coupling driving selects a dominant E0 <-> E3 population transfer channel in the interacting DQD spectrum. The dominant extractable work is stored in non-passive population distributions, in agreement with recent population ordering interpretations of ergotropy in QBs, while coherence accompanies and supports the resonant transfer as a transient dynamical resource. Detuning noise reduces the energy basis coherence amplitude and also weakens the population transfer pathway responsible for the dominant population ergotropy. This framework provides a noise-aware description of semiconductor QB charging based on extractable work rather than on injected energy alone.
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All authors Khalil Loukhssami, Khadija El Hawary, Sanaa Abaach, Morad El Baz

Quantum Physics

Single Electrons in a Dual-Plane Printed-Circuit-Board Penning Trap

Zirui Fang, Benedict A. D. Sukra and Xing Fan

We demonstrate single-electron trapping and detection in a two-dimensionally scalable dual-plane printed-circuit-board Penning trap. We characterize deterministic electron loading, axial damping, axial temperature, and collision-induced magnetron-radius growth at low magnetic fields. These results establish a practical platform for planar Penning traps and identify key next steps toward applications in quantum information science.
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Biological Physics

Active diffusion enhances plankton carbon capture and phycosphere radius

Maggie Liu and Arnold J. T. M. Mathijssen

Plankton fix about 40 gigatons of carbon annually, using photosynthesis to convert $\text{CO}_2$ into $\text{O}_2$ and carbohydrates. These solutes are exchanged with the ocean in a diffusive boundary layer around the organism called the phycosphere. Here, we study how organisms can increase their carbon influx and outflux by actively mixing the surrounding fluid. By developing exact analytical expressions validated by stochastic simulations, we determine the enhanced diffusivity of phycosphere particles as a function of mixing activity, and their resulting fluxes and concentration fields. Hence, we find that plankton can significantly increase their uptake and photosynthetic turnover. Moreover, we find that the phycosphere radius is enlarged both by increased metabolism and by increased diffusive transport further from the organism. These results provide new biophysical insights into marine microbial ecology, with important implications for global carbon capture and climate change.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Dark energy perturbations and the robustness of cosmological neutrino-mass constraints

Yu-Hang Yang, Emmanuel N. Saridakis, Yi-Fu Cai et al. (+1 more)

Cosmological observations are placing increasingly stringent bounds on the sum of neutrino masses, approaching the lower limits implied by neutrino oscillation experiments. Recent studies have suggested that dynamical dark energy may alleviate this apparent tension. However, these conclusions generally rely on the assumption that dark energy remains smooth, neglecting its perturbations. In this work we investigate the robustness of cosmological neutrino-mass constraints by consistently incorporating dark-energy perturbations. Using CMB, BAO, RSD, and supernova data, we show that the commonly reported alleviation of the neutrino-mass tension in dynamical dark-energy models is not generic. While smooth dark energy substantially relaxes the neutrino-mass bounds, allowing dark energy to cluster shifts the preferred neutrino mass toward smaller, and even more negative, effective values. We demonstrate that this behavior originates from a degeneracy between neutrino free-streaming and dark-energy perturbations in structure-growth observables. Different combinations of neutrino mass and dark-energy clustering can provide similarly good fits to current data while yielding significantly different neutrino-mass constraints. Our results show that cosmological neutrino-mass measurements are inherently model dependent and that reliable neutrino-mass inference requires a consistent treatment of dark-energy perturbations.
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All authors Yu-Hang Yang, Emmanuel N. Saridakis, Yi-Fu Cai, Hao-Ran Yu

Materials Science

Room-temperature magnon-phonon transduction in high-damping Co/Pt structures

Gauravkumar Patel, Takuma Sato, Maximilian Frenzel et al. (+8 more)

Quantum communication and information processing strongly benefit from the coupling between different quasi-particles, offering complementary advantages. Magnetoelastic materials inherently allow for direct coupling between magnetization dynamics and quantized lattice vibrations, called phonons. Near the ferromagnetic resonances, phonons may thus trade energy and angular momentum with uniformly precessing magnetization, called magnons, and enable transduction of information from magnetic to phononic modes, thereby paving the way for long-range transport of magnetic information without the need of magnetic material. Here, we employ tailored magnetic-nonmagnetic heterostructures, which simultaneously act as cavities for standing shear waves, to bring selective phonons and magnons into resonance. These Co films with Pt seed layers show extended linewidth and reduced amplitude of the phonon-resonant FMR lines, providing a hallmark of energy and angular momentum exchange. Complementarily, by theoretical modeling and ultra-fast coherent phonon spectroscopy, we identify the responsible transverse acoustic phonons as standing shear waves in the combined Co and Pt structure. We find a high crystal quality in conjunction with a large magnetoelastic coupling constant as a prerequisite for efficient magnon-phonon coupling of this type. Such resonant enhancement of magnon-phonon coupling in CMOS-compatible material provides an ideal material platform for future quantum transducers.
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All authors Gauravkumar Patel, Takuma Sato, Maximilian Frenzel, Prakriti P. Joshi, Ruslan Salikhov, Ievgeniia Korniienko, Dominik Legut, Olav Hellwig, Sebastian F. Maehrlein, Kilian Lenz, Jürgen Lindner

Materials Science

In situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction study of flash austenitization and process design insights in medium-Manganese steels for energy applications

Bowen Zou, Mathias Zapf, Thea Kannenberg et al. (+5 more)

Medium Mn steels (MMnSs) are promising candidates for energy-related infrastructure because their multiphase microstructures and austenite stability can be tailored to improve failure resistance under demanding service conditions. Flash austenitization (FA) provides a rapid route to form austenite while limiting prior austenite grain coarsening and substitutional solute homogenization, but the related short-time transformation kinetics remain insufficiently quantified. In the present work, the effects of FA temperature and initial microstructure on austenitization kinetics were investigated in an Fe-6Mn-1.5Si-1Cr-0.3Mo-0.05Nb-0.2C (wt.%) MMnS using dilatometry-integrated in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Two initial microstructures produced by austenite reversion treatment (ART) were heated at 100 degrees C/s to 850 degrees C, 900 degrees C, or 950 degrees C and then held isothermally. Rapid heating alone is insufficient for full austenitization, even above the reference Ac3 temperature determined under slow heating. Full austenitization, defined by bcc fraction (f_alpha) <= 1 wt.%, requires short holding, decreasing from about 8 s at 850 degrees C to about 2 s at 950 degrees C. The final stage of austenitization is less sensitive to FA temperature than the early holding stage. The initial ART state mainly shifts the starting austenite fraction, whereas both states show comparable kinetic trends at higher FA temperatures.
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All authors Bowen Zou, Mathias Zapf, Thea Kannenberg, Daniel Schneider, Yixu Wang, Xiao Shen, Ulrich Prahl, Wenwen Song

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Construction of Sensitivity Curves for Dynamic LISA and Taiji

Hong-Yu Shi and Yong Tang

Space-based gravitational-wave (GW) laser interferometers, including LISA and Taiji, are designed to observe gravitational waves in the millihertz band and are expected to open up a frequency range that is otherwise inaccessible. The sensitivity and response of these instruments are central to their scientific goals, mission design and parameter estimation capabilities. However, they are commonly modeled as static, equilateral triangular constellations, an approximation that neglects both orbital motion and directional dependence. In this work, we systematically examine the direction-dependent response and sensitivity of dynamic LISA-like detectors over an entire year of heliocentric orbit. Based on an analytical, time-dependent heliocentric orbital model and an adiabatic unequal-arm interferometer configuration, we construct direction-dependent sensitivity curves in the Michelson interferometric channel for dynamic LISA and Taiji. We obtain analytic expressions for the angular-dependent sensitivity and demonstrate the emergence of a quadrant-like pattern in sky maps at low frequencies. We show that, relative to the static approximation, the low-frequency sensitivity varies by roughly $20\%$, which in turn produces about a $70\%$ variation in the directional dependence of the number of detectable GW sources, with even larger discrepancies at higher frequencies. Therefore, for accurate predictions of the total GW source counts and reliable parameter inference for binary systems, it is necessary to employ fully dynamic, direction-dependent sensitivity curves.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Measuring High-Energy Cosmic Particles with the SKA

Tim Huege, Katharine Mulrey, Sjoerd Bouma et al. (+28 more)

The origin of high-energy cosmic rays remain one of astrophysics' greatest unsolved mysteries. SKA-Low will be able to measure air showers initiated by cosmic rays with unprecedented precision in the PeV - EeV energy range, covering the critical transition region between Galactic and extragalactic sources. SKA-Low's densely instrumented core and broad bandwidth will allow for measurements of individual air showers with a level of detail unmatched by any existing or planned detector. The depth of shower maximum, the primary mass-sensitive observable, will be reconstructed with a resolution of better than 8~g/cm$^2$, a significant improvement over existing methods. Additionally, new reconstruction methods are expected to enable full air shower reconstruction across a wide energy range, down to PeV levels. At these energies, efficient photon/hadron separation may offer an opportunity to measure PeV gamma-ray air showers. Furthermore, SKA-Low opens a window into studying high-energy hadronic interactions, including via the unique channel of anomalous air showers. This combination of measurements provides a unique opportunity to investigate the origins and physics of high-energy cosmic rays. A dedicated particle detector array will provide triggered readout of raw antenna-level voltage buffers, enabling fully commensal cosmic-ray observations alongside regular operations. We outline our science case and discuss the observational strategy, signal properties and detector design underpinning these measurements. We also summarize the accompanying book chapters, which address composition measurements in the Galactic-to-extragalactic transition region, next-generation interferometric reconstruction techniques, hadronic interaction physics through anomalous air showers, the prospects for detecting PeV gamma-rays from Galactic sources, and the related project of imaging lightning using SKA-Low.
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All authors Tim Huege, Katharine Mulrey, Sjoerd Bouma, Justin Bray, Stijn Buitink, Arthur Corstanje, Vital De Henau, Edwin Dickinson, Brian Hare, Haoning He, Jörg Hörandel, Clancy James, Philipp Laub, Xingyu Li, Marten Lourens, Hermann-Josef Mathes, Anna Nelles, Subhadip Saha, Felix Schlüter, Olaf Scholten, Ralph Spencer, Christopher Sterpka, Karen Terveer, Satyendra Thoudam, Gia Trinh, Paulina Turekova, Darko Veberic, Keito Watanabe, Chao Zhang, Pengfei Zhang, Yi Zhang

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Determining Electron Beam Lateral Coherence in a Scanning Electron Microscope Using Electron Diffraction

Evelijn Akerboom, Fatemeh Kiani, Giulia Tagliabue et al. (+4 more)

We develop and characterize scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) capabilities within a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to investigate the effective lateral coherence of the electron beam (e-beam) in the specimen plane. Using single-crystalline Au flakes and a sample composed of a monolayer of graphene, we obtain high-quality selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) maps and convergent-beam electron diffraction (CBED) patterns, validating the systems ability to probe crystallographic information at an acceleration voltage of 30 keV. Building on these capabilities, we implement a method, which is adapted from techniques traditionally used in transmission electron microscopy, to measure the degree of lateral coherence of the e-beam in the specimen plane of the SEM. By analyzing interference between electrons with two different wave vectors separated by 0.031 per angstrom, we extract a lower limit for the degree of lateral coherence over 5% of the e-beam diameter of approximately 60%. These coherence values are sufficient to enable quantum-coherent electron-light-matter interaction experiments in the SEM.
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All authors Evelijn Akerboom, Fatemeh Kiani, Giulia Tagliabue, Wiebke Albrecht, Joanne Etheridge, F. Javier García de Abajo, Albert Polman

Quantum Physics

Static features from mixing in short- and long-range Lindbladians: Markov property and correlations

Paul Rosa-Ruiz, Matteo Scandi, Ángela Capel et al. (+1 more)

The classification of mixed-state phases requires criteria beyond two-point correlation functions, such as the decay of the mutual information (MI) and the conditional mutual information (CMI), with the latter encapsulated in the notion of Markov length. Here we show how such static properties of the fixed point of a Lindbladian follow from natural dynamical features of its generators: rapid mixing and frustration-freeness. We focus on systems with long-range interactions, and prove (i) that local Lindbladians satisfying (global) rapid mixing and frustration-freeness have fixed-points whose CMI decays with the shielding distance, and (ii) that (local) rapid mixing together with primitivity and regularity implies global decay of MI. For long-range interactions decaying with a power law with rate $\alpha$, both quantities decay polynomially rather than exponentially, in contrast to the finite- and short-range regimes where exponential decay (a finite Markov length) is expected within a phase. We further show that Gibbs states of long-range, non-commuting Hamiltonians satisfy a local Markov property at any temperatures, extending the recent results (Chen–Rouzé, 2025) for short-range systems to the long-range regime relevant to a variety of experimental platforms. As a numerical example, we study the long-range Ising model both with and without a transverse field. We find regimes in which the polynomial decay of the CMI holds, in accordance with the bounds proven.
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All authors Paul Rosa-Ruiz, Matteo Scandi, Ángela Capel, Álvaro M. Alhambra

High Energy Physics (Theory)

Planar loop integrands from cuts in $D$ dimensions

Fan Zhu, Song He and Zhenqi Han

We present a direct reconstruction formula for planar loop integrands from $D$-dimensional generalized unitarity cuts in any colored theory. The reconstruction combinatorics is separated from the theory-dependent tree amplitudes entering the cuts: for the $L$-loop $n$-point color-ordered amplitude, the integrand is expressed as a sum over admissible non-scaleless scalar graphs dressed by corresponding cuts in $D$ dimensions; the coefficients are given by the universal Möbius-inversion formula of the refinement poset, or equivalently one minus the Euler characteristics of associated complexes. As an application we write down closed-formulas for loop integrands in pure Yang–Mills theory, where the required cuts are generated by gluing $D$-dimensional tree amplitudes and summing over internal gluon states. We also use the two-loop five-point case as a validation, comparing with known integrand data and after integration-by-parts reduction, with known integrated helicity amplitudes. The same framework also produces compact cut-organized data for larger examples, including the two-loop six-point and three-loop four-point cases. We also describe the corresponding simplification in maximally supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory, where the absence of bubble and triangle subgraphs reduces the relevant cut poset substantially.
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Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

The performance of the TA$\times$4 surface detector array: 4.3 years of the first-half expansion

Telescope Array Collaboration: R.U. Abbasi, T. Abu-Zayyad, M. Allen et al. (+126 more)

The Telescope Array (TA) experiment aims to reveal the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) by observing air showers using surface detectors (SDs), which spread over an area of approximately 700 km$^2$, and fluorescence detectors (FDs) viewing the skies above the SD array. The TA experiment has been observing UHECRs since 2008, and has reported an indication of clustering in the arrival directions of cosmic-ray events with energy greater than 57 EeV. To improve the exposure for anisotropy studies of UHECRs, the TA$\times$4 upgrade was designed to expand the observational area by approximately 2,000 km$^2$ with 500 additional SDs. Half of the planned upgrade, consisting of 257 SDs, was completed, and the newly installed array began operation in 2019. In addition to the expanded SD array, two FD stations were constructed for the TA$\times$4 experiment. In this paper, we present a study of the performance of the expanded SD array, including the energy resolution, angular resolution, and effective aperture, over the first 4.3 years of data acquisition. While the effective aperture varied initially due to changing detector states, it has stabilized since June 2023 with more than 90% operational SDs. Furthermore, a new inter-tower trigger system was implemented to connect six new communication towers to form two geographically separated arrays, increasing the effective aperture. The time variation of this effective aperture, the resulting total exposure of approximately 3,500 km$^2$ sr yr, and a comparison with the original TA SD array are presented to demonstrate the performance of the expanded array.
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All authors Telescope Array Collaboration: R.U. Abbasi, T. Abu-Zayyad, M. Allen, J.W. Belz, D.R. Bergman, F. Bradfield, I. Buckland, W. Campbell, B.G. Cheon, K. Endo, A. Fedynitch, T. Fujii, K. Fujisue, K. Fujita, M. Fukushima, G. Furlich, A. Gálvez Ureña, Z. Gerber, N. Globus, T. Hanaoka, W. Hanlon, N. Hayashida, H. He, K. Hibino, R. Higuchi, D. Ikeda, D. Ivanov, S. Jeong, C.C.H. Jui, K. Kadota, F. Kakimoto, O. Kalashev, K. Kasahara, Y. Kawachi, K. Kawata, I. Kharuk, E. Kido, H.B. Kim, J.H. Kim, J.H. Kim, S.W. Kim, R. Kobo, I. Komae, K. Komatsu, K. Komori, A. Korochkin, C. Koyama, M. Kudenko, M. Kuroiwa, Y. Kusumori, M. Kuznetsov, Y.J. Kwon, K.H. Lee, M.J. Lee, B. Lubsandorzhiev, J.P. Lundquist, H. Matsushita, A. Matsuzawa, J.A. Matthews, J.N. Matthews, K. Mizuno, M. Mori, S. Nagataki, K. Nakagawa, M. Nakahara, H. Nakamura, T. Nakamura, T. Nakayama, Y. Nakayama, K. Nakazawa, T. Nonaka, S. Ogio, H. Ohoka, N. Okazaki, M. Onishi, A. Oshima, H. Oshima, S. Ozawa, I.H. Park, K.Y. Park, M. Potts, M. Przybylak, M.S. Pshirkov, J. Remington, C. Rott, G.I. Rubtsov, D. Ryu, H. Sagawa, N. Sakaki, R. Sakamoto, T. Sako, N. Sakurai, S. Sakurai, D. Sato, K. Sekino, T. Shibata, J. Shikita, H. Shimodaira, H.S. Shin, K. Shinozaki, J.D. Smith, P. Sokolsky, B.T. Stokes, T.A. Stroman, H. Tachibana, K. Takahashi, M. Takeda, R. Takeishi, A. Taketa, M. Takita, Y. Tameda, K. Tanaka, M. Tanaka, M. Teramoto, S.B. Thomas, G.B. Thomson, P. Tinyakov, I. Tkachev, T. Tomida, S. Troitsky, Y. Tsunesada, S. Udo, F.R. Urban, M. Vrábel, D. Warren, K. Yamazaki, Y. Zhezher, Z. Zundel, J. Zvirzdin

Plasma Physics

On the Relationship Between Plasma and Tritium Fuel Cycle Through Matter Injection and Particle Exhaust

Samuele Meschini and Matteo Moscheni

This work identifies an inconsistency between plasma operating scenarios and tritium fuel cycle (TFC) requirements, calling for a re-examination of the traditional reactor-led design approach. The key point is simple: in current TFC architectures, fuel puffing must contain tritium. Moscheni et al. (2026 Nucl. Fusion 66 026008) investigated fuel puffing rates in detached operation. Expanding that database, puffing is shown to exceed core fuelling by about an order of magnitude, from present-day tokamaks to next-step stellarators. Though not unknown in the plasma community, TFC models instead assumed core fuelling to dominate. The implications are severe. In recent TFC architectures, direct internal recycling (DIR) is intended to minimise tritium inventory, but assumes near-50:50 D:T composition. This assumption may become self-defeating: a substantial fraction of the puffed fuel must be tritium. Tritium inventory, doubling time, required breeding ratio, and pump sizing therefore become critical once puffing is properly accounted for. Mitigation is assessed by extending the models of Meschini et al. (2023 Nucl. Fusion 63 126005). For a notional plant, realistic TFC requirements can be met with D-rich, T-lean puffing, at the cost of about 10% lower fusion power. Alternatively, for near-50:50 D:T puffing, reduced fuel puffing with stronger impurity seeding can maintain detachment while alleviating TFC constraints, albeit with higher core contamination. Combined use of these strategies enables scenarios that minimise tritium inventory and throughput while balancing competing requirements. Ultimately, these results place renewed emphasis on the TFC as a central element of reactor design. A viable fusion reactor requires joint optimisation of core plasma, edge plasma, and TFC, implying unavoidable trade-offs across all three.
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Mathematical Physics · Cross-listed from math.NA

High-Order Asymptotic-Preserving Schemes for Kinetic Equations from Rarefied to Incompressible Regimes

Giacomo Dimarco, Axel Klar, Theresa Köfler et al. (+2 more)

This work introduces a novel high-order numerical framework for solving kinetic equations, designed to remain uniformly valid across all regimes of the mean free path, spanning from the rarefied kinetic scale to the incompressible hydrodynamic limit. The method is built upon a micro-macro decomposition, which reformulates the underlying kinetic equation into a coupled system consisting of a macroscopic part, representing the fluid-dynamic evolution, and a microscopic part, describing the non-equilibrium deviations. The proposed framework ensures high-order temporal accuracy through the use of Implicit-Explicit Runge-Kutta methods, which provide stability and efficiency in stiff regimes, while spatial resolution is enhanced by combining finite-difference WENO reconstructions with high-order central difference approximations. A key feature of the proposed methodology is its Asymptotic-Preserving (AP) property. We demonstrate that, in the appropriate asymptotic limit as the mean free path tends to zero, the scheme consistently reduces to a high-order finite-difference formulation of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. To support the theoretical findings, a set of numerical experiments are performed on one- and two-dimensional benchmark problems, which confirm the accuracy, stability, and versatility of the method across different flow regimes.
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All authors Giacomo Dimarco, Axel Klar, Theresa Köfler, Lorenzo Pareschi, Tiwari Sudarshan

Optics

Broadband on-chip Half Maxwell Fisheye

Xin Zheng, Quan Yue, Jean-René Coudevylle et al. (+4 more)

In this article, we report on the design and the experimental evidence of a Half Maxwell Fish Eye (HMFE), for Silicon Photonics and working at telecommunication wavelength. It is designed by implementing a Graded Photonic Crystal operating in the non-resonant metamaterial regime. The results of 3D Finite-Difference Time-Domain simulations (FDTD) show an excellent broadband focusing capacity. It has been urther fabricated via the Silicon On Insulator (SOI) platform for its compatibility with CMOS technology. Experimentally, its performances are firstly investigated by the means of a fan-shaped set output waveguides. Next, Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy (SNOM) characterisation confirms the wavefront curving inside the HMFE lens. Quantitative analysis of the SNOM results demonstrates its excellent focusing performances: the Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) is $0.466\lambda_0$ at $\lambda_0=1550$nm, while the thickness of the lens is $3.18\lambda_0$.
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All authors Xin Zheng, Quan Yue, Jean-René Coudevylle, Aziz Benamrouche, Ségolène Callard, Anatole Lupu, Éric Akmansoy

Lattice Field Theory

The QCD energy-momentum tensor on the lattice: non-perturbative renormalization with $N_f=3$

Matteo Bresciani, Mattia Dalla Brida, Leonardo Giusti et al. (+3 more)

We construct the traceless components of the energy-momentum tensor on the lattice for QCD with $N_f=3$ flavours, such that their correlation functions satisfy the appropriate Ward identities in the continuum limit. To carry out this program, we define the theory on the lattice by the Wilson-plaquette and the $O(a)$-improved Wilson actions for gluons and quarks respectively. The discretization of the space-time entails that (i) the irreducible nonet representation of the SO($4$) group splits into a triplet and a sextet irreducible representations of the hypercubic group, and (ii) for each multiplet non-perturbative determinations of the the gluonic and fermionic renormalization constants are required. The bare gluonic components of the energy-momentum tensor are defined via the clover discretization of the field strength tensor, while the fermionic ones are discretized by appropriate combinations of symmetric covariant derivatives. Either for the triplet or the sextet representations, the two independent renormalization constants are then fixed non-perturbatively by imposing discretized versions of continuum Ward identities for one-point correlation functions in the presence of shifted boundary conditions and an imaginary chemical potential. The non-perturbative calculation is then carried out by Monte Carlo simulations, and the resulting renormalization constants are determined with a final accuracy of a few percent for values of the bare coupling constant squared in the range $0 \leq g_0^2\leq 0.96$.
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All authors Matteo Bresciani, Mattia Dalla Brida, Leonardo Giusti, Mitsuaki Hirasawa, Michele Pepe, Luca Virzì

High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

Quantum Correlations in the Decay of $B^0$ meson and Entanglement Entropy

Divya Sharma, Vaibhav Rawoot and Sudip Kumar Haldar

We present a phenomenological study of quantum correlations in the decay of $B^0$ mesons into a system of two vector mesons. The decay of the $B^0$ meson into two vector mesons constitutes a bipartite system of two qutrits. The entanglement entropy is used as a measure of quantum correlations in the system of decaying particles. We study the variation of the Rényi entropy with Rényi order ($\alpha$) for the decay channels $B_s^0 \rightarrow \phi\, \phi$, $B_d^0 \rightarrow J/\psi\, K^{*}(892)^0$, $B_d^0 \rightarrow \phi\, K^{*}(892)^0$ and $B_s^0 \rightarrow J/\psi\, \phi$ and discuss the significance of entanglement entropy at different Rényi order regimes. The LHCb, ATLAS and Belle collaborations experimental measurements of complex polarization amplitudes and relative phases are used as input for our analysis. A comparison of entanglement entropy for all the $B^0$ meson decay processes, with both vanishing and non-vanishing phases, reveals a strong phase dependence of the entropy. We further present the results of Hartley entropy (Max-Entropy), von Neumann entropy, collision entropy, and min-entropy, each corresponding to different values and limits of the Rényi order. The comparison between the branching fractions of the decay processes and the von Neumann entropy shows a connection between entanglement and decay dynamics, indicating the role of weak and strong interaction in generating quantum entanglement. In addition, we evaluate several other entanglement measures, including linear entropy, I-concurrence, tangle, negativity, logarithmic negativity, Schmidt coefficients, and Schmidt rank for different $B^0$ meson decay processes. Our study demonstrates that entanglement measures provide useful insights into the underlying decay dynamics and may serve as important tools for understanding quantum correlations in high-energy particle physics processes.
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Physics and Society

Indecision and accuracy under social information across groups sizes

Andrew M Bate, Charlie Pilgrim and Richard P. Mann

Observing the decisions and actions of others provides social information that can inform decisions such as whether to follow. We consider a model where agents simultaneously gather stochastic private information, each deciding once sufficiently confident. Observed decisions and indecision provide social information that triggers discrete waves of collective response: a first decision causes others to update and potentially follow, whose decisions in turn provide further social information, generating successive waves. We explore this model across a range of group sizes and report three main findings. First, social information leads to faster and more accurate decisions than individual decision-making, but agent-level accuracy is maximised at a finite optimal group size. This contrasts with the accuracy of the majority choice, which increases monotonically with the number of agents. Second, waves frequently fail to resolve collective indecision, particularly for smaller groups and when the first decision is incorrect, leaving a subgroup of agents unconvinced. Third, these remaining undecided agents are systematically biased and make less accurate subsequent decisions, with this inaccuracy growing with group size.
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Chemical Physics

FMO-xTB: Fragment molecular orbital method with GFN1-xTB for large-scale quantum-mechanical simulations

Richard Einsele and Roland Mitric

We present the fragment molecular orbital method (FMO) combined with the GFN1-xTB extended tight-binding approach (FMO-xTB) for efficient quantum-mechanical calculations of large molecular systems. Both the two-body (FMO2) and three-body (FMO3) expansions are formulated, and fully analytic energy gradients including the response contribution from the self-consistent embedding potential are derived and implemented. The FMO-xTB method inherits the broad element coverage of GFN1-xTB, which employs element-specific rather than atom-pair-specific parameters and is parameterized for all spd-block elements up to radon(Z = 86), representing a significant practical advantage over FMO- DFTB approaches. The accuracy of FMO-xTB is systematically benchmarked against non-fragmented xTB calculations for water clusters, anthracene aggregates, and pentacene supercells. FMO3-xTB reproduces the reference energies with deviations on the order of 10^-4 Hartree for organic semiconductor systems. The covalent bond fragmentation capability using the hybrid orbital projection (HOP) boundary treatment is also implemented with fully analytic gradients and validated for polyalanine alpha-helices and B-DNA double helices, yielding FMO3-xTB energy deviations on the order of 10^-6 Hartree for polyalanine and in the millihartree range for B-DNA. Near-linear scaling is achieved with effective scaling exponents between b= 1.06 and b= 1.28, compared to cubic scaling for non-fragmented xTB. Parallelization over multiple CPU cores yields significant speed ups, and a complete energy and gradient evaluation of a pentacene supercell containing 23760 atoms is feasible within minutes on a single computing node, enabling routine molecular dynamics simulations of systems with tens of thousands of atoms. The method is implemented in the DIALECT software package.
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Fluid Dynamics

Multiscale Cavitation Sub-Grid Modeling via Population Balances as Linear Stochastic Process

Fynn Jerome Aschmoneit

A multiscale sub-grid cavitation model is developed in which the bubble size distribution evolves as a linear stochastic process in radius space. Starting from the integrated Rayleigh–Plesset equation, the population balance is recast as a hyperbolic transport equation for the number density per radius, whose method-of-characteristics solution, projected onto a discrete histogram basis, yields a column-stochastic Markov chain governing the bubble counts per size bin. The transition matrix factors into a precomputable, mesh-only geometric part and a local, pressure-dependent shift, isolating the coupling to the surrounding flow into a single dimensionless vector per cell. The framework recovers classical homogeneous-mixture cavitation closures in the limit of a single representative scale.
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Mathematical Physics · Cross-listed from math.AP

Redshift Suppression of Nonlinear Scalar Fields in Accelerating FLRW Spacetimes

Mirda Prisma Wijayanto, Emir Syahreza Fadhilla, Ryan Sugihakim et al. (+3 more)

We study small–data solutions of a nonlinear scalar field equation on spatially flat $d$–dimensional FLRW spacetimes ($d\ge4$). In conformal time $\tau$ the field satisfies a damped semilinear wave/Klein–Gordon equation with time–dependent coefficients determined by the scale factor $a(\tau)$ and the conformal Hubble rate $H(\tau)=\dot a/a$. We focus on accelerated conformal expansion of the form $H(\tau)=H_0(1+\tau)^{-\alpha}$ with $H_0>0$ and $0\le\alpha<1$, for which $a(\tau)$ grows stretched–exponentially, and we assume a power potential $V(\varphi)=-\frac{\varepsilon}{m+1}|\varphi|^{m+1}$. For global solutions arising from sufficiently small, spatially localized initial data, we introduce the conformal rescaling $\phi=a^{(d-2)/2}\varphi$, which removes the first–order Hubble damping and exposes the interaction as a time–dependent coupling. In the rescaled equation the nonlinearity is weighted by $g(\tau)=a(\tau)^{\sigma}$ with $\sigma=\frac{d+2-(d-2)m}{2}$, so the conformal power $m_{\mathrm{conf}}=\frac{d+2}{d-2}$ is the sharp threshold for redshift suppression: $g$ decays for $m>m_{\mathrm{conf}}$, is constant for $m=m_{\mathrm{conf}}$ (classical conformal invariance), and grows for $1<m<m_{\mathrm{conf}}$. For accelerated conformal expansion $H(\tau)=H_0(1+\tau)^{-\alpha}$ with $0\le\alpha<1$ and for superconformal interactions $m>m_{\mathrm{conf}}$, we prove that $g\in L^1([0,\infty))$ and deduce small–data global existence together with scattering/asymptotic linearization for $\phi$. As a complementary result in the diffusion–dominated regime $1<m<1+\frac{2}{d-1}$, we adapt a weighted energy method for variable damping to deduce explicit $L^2$ and $L^1$ decay rates. These bounds provide a quantitative PDE formulation of redshift–induced suppression of nonlinear scalar self–interactions at late conformal times.
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All authors Mirda Prisma Wijayanto, Emir Syahreza Fadhilla, Ryan Sugihakim, Iwan Setiawan, Fiki Taufik Akbar, Bobby Eka Gunara

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Simulating megaparsec-scale jets of radio galaxies: Magneto-hydrodynamics of jets reaching 5 Mpc

Gourab Giri, Dario Borgogno, Marco Tavani et al. (+9 more)

Extragalactic jets have long prompted the question of how far relativistic outflows can extend, with some radio sources reaching 5 - 7 Mpc in length. These great extents motivate investigations into their ages, propagation dynamics, stability, and impact on the environment. We perform 3D high-resolution numerical simulations of two jet configurations involving continuous injection at different powers propagating in low-density regions of the cosmos (static and laminar), investigating the conditions for jet collimation versus disruption at extreme scales. We show that the combined effects of higher jet thrust (enhanced kinetic power), improved collimation (suppression of transverse distortions), and magnetic stabilization (strengthened poloidal field) can sustain a laterally confined flow, enabling such a jet to reach 5 Mpc in just 15 Myr (injecting a total energy of $2.3 \times 10^{61}$ erg into the environment). In contrast, a jet lacking these conditions dissipates more rapidly, forming lobe-like morphologies and reaching only $\sim 3$ Mpc over $\sim35$ Myr (injecting total energy of $8.1 \times 10^{60}$ erg). Pinch and kink MHD instabilities are identified as the primary drivers of transverse distortions; their suppression allows the persistence of a fast spine alongside a slower, dissipative head (location of maximum environmental interaction). We find that the jet-head propagation shows two regimes: one with speed $\sim0.5 c$; the other with speed from $\sim 0.2 c$ to $\sim 0.05 c$. We consider a proxy of synchrotron emission and find that radiation is concentrated in regions of enhanced compression and magnetic amplification, primarily near the first recollimation shock (producing a bright radio spot) and at the jet-head interaction zone (producing the radio termination lobe). Such jets facilitate the transport of substantial energy and magnetic flux into underdense cosmic regions.
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All authors Gourab Giri, Dario Borgogno, Marco Tavani, Andrea Mignone, Prateek Sharma, Claudio Gheller, Valerio Vittorini, Paul J. Wiita, Bernie Fanaroff, Alessio Suriano, D. J. Saikia, Gianfranco Brunetti

Fluid Dynamics

Effects of thermochemical modelling on a hypersonic shock-wave/turbulent boundary-layer interaction

Marco Fratini, Pedro Stefanin Volpiani and Matteo Bernardini

Thermochemical non-equilibrium can alter the structure, loads, and time scales of hypersonic shock-wave/turbulent boundary-layer interactions, yet its role in fully turbulent configurations remains largely unquantified. The present work addresses this issue by performing three direct numerical simulations of an oblique shock impinging on a turbulent high-enthalpy boundary layer at edge Mach number $M_e=6.4$ and stagnation enthalpy $H_e=16.9$ MJ/kg. The simulations share identical geometry and freestream conditions, but employ a hierarchy of progressively simplified thermochemical descriptions: a finite-rate reactive case, a single-species thermally perfect gas model, and a single-species calorically perfect model. The reactive simulation shows that the shock-induced temperature rise substantially enhances chemical activity relative to the incoming boundary layer, with peak concentrations of dissociation products attained downstream of the interaction. Thus, the thermal and chemical responses are not synchronised: the composition lags the rapid thermal forcing imposed by the shock system, and turbulent Damköhler numbers reach values of order unity within the recirculation region, indicating non-negligible turbulence-chemistry interaction. The comparison among the three models shows that thermally and calorically perfect descriptions yield similar predictions, whereas finite-rate chemistry produces systematic differences: a smaller separation bubble, lower post-interaction wall heat flux, lower mean and fluctuating temperatures, and a less inclined reflected shock. In the present regime, the dominant modelling distinction is therefore between frozen and chemically reacting descriptions, with caloric-model effects playing only a secondary role.
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Mathematical Physics

Uniqueness, analyticity and mixing for Gibbs point processes via spectral gaps

Andreas Göbel, Matthew Jenssen, Marcus Michelen et al. (+3 more)

A Gibbs point process models particles interacting in the continuum through a potential. Among the most classical examples is the hard-sphere model, where given an activity parameter $\lambda$, a radius $r$, and a bounded set $\Lambda \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ one samples a Poisson process of intensity $\lambda$ in $\Lambda$ conditioned on the points forming the centers of an $r$-sphere packing. We prove uniqueness of infinite-volume Gibbs measure, analyticity of the pressure, and various notions of spatial and temporal mixing for activities up to what we define as the spectral threshold $\lambda_{spec}$ of the potential. For each fixed dimension $d \geq 2$, this improves the uniqueness and analyticity bounds for the hard-sphere model. As $d \to \infty$, our improvement over the classical bounds grows exponentially. We also prove an optimal mixing time bound for heat bath dynamics for the hard-sphere model up to an expected density of $\Theta(d / 2^d)$, the first result that asymptotically matches the maximum density for rapid mixing predicted by Parisi and Zamponi. We also exhibit repulsive, radial pair potentials for which $\lambda_{spec} = + \infty$, showing that the corresponding Gibbs point processes have no phase transition at any activity $\lambda > 0$. Further, in dimensions $8$ and $24$ we exhibit such a potential with no phase transition for which the work of Cohn-Kumar-Miller-Radchenko-Viazovska proves that the unique ground state at any fixed density is given by the $E_8$ and Leech lattices, respectively. Our work builds upon a 2013 work of Kondratiev-Kuna-Ohlerich that implicitly defined $\lambda_{spec}$ and proved a spectral gap for a Glauber-like continuum birth-death dynamics. Our main work shows that such a spectral gap implies several strong notions of absence of phase transition and analyzes the behavior of $\lambda_{spec}$ for interesting potentials.
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All authors Andreas Göbel, Matthew Jenssen, Marcus Michelen, Marcus Pappik, Will Perkins, Leon Schiller