Papers

Correlations between two moments in time can be too strong for any classical explanation – and, remarkably, this can happen for a single quantum system measured twice, with no second particle involved. We show that when one qudit is sent through a noisy channel, the strength of this "nonlocality in time" – the temporal nonlocality robustness $\mathrm{TNR}$ – is carried entirely by the starting state: it vanishes precisely when the input is maximally mixed (completely random), $\mathrm{TNR}(\rho_A,\mathcal{E})=0\Leftrightarrow\rho_A=\mathbb{1}/d$, for the standard noise families. The resource is not any coherence in the channel but the back-action of the input's mixedness, and it survives even complete decoherence. This is at once a power and a trap. As a power, $\mathrm{TNR}$ device-independently lower-bounds the fidelity of temporal teleportation – sending an unknown state forward in time – reaching $7/9$ at $d=3$, without trusting the measuring devices. As a trap, because the certified quantity is decoupled from the channel's actual coherence transmission, it can certify more than the channel delivers: an injective (reversible) unitary attains the maximal temporal-Bell signal yet teleports below the classical baseline. We resolve this over-certification completely – a universal cap $\mathrm{TNR}\le(d-1)/d$ with an exact channel-resolved value, honest certification for the depolarizing channel and for any sufficiently mixed probe, and a proof that no choice of probes makes it channel-universal. Underpinning the results is a unified semidefinite-programming hierarchy of the temporal entanglement, steering and nonlocality robustnesses ($\mathrm{TER}$, $\mathrm{TSR}$, $\mathrm{TNR}$), with a strict lower hierarchy and an upper one conditional on no-signaling in time ($\mathrm{NSIT}$). All structure is verified numerically for $d=2$ through $5$.

Autonomous-research agents have demonstrated end-to-end LLM automation in machine-learning sandboxes where execution provides calibration. Frontier physical science differs categorically: physical reasoning underlies every methodology choice, toolchains are often underdocumented, and calibration must come from external literature anchors - which unscaffolded agents cite but do not confront, hallucinating plausible, unverifiable results from internal priors. We present a pipeline that runs end-to-end from a corpus of 11,083 recent condensed-matter physics arXiv papers to a publication-grade manuscript with three substantive physics findings (here on altermagnetic piezomagnetism): the agent autonomously conceives a research direction by mapping the corpus, calibrates methodology by reproducing published references, conducts novel first-principles computations, and writes the manuscript - grounded in literature throughout, across 47 fresh-context sessions in six phases sharing only on-disk state, with 2,162 literature-consultation events. Fault tolerance emerges from redundancy: fresh-context isolation, distributed grounding, and adversarial review catch what any single session misses; pre- and post-pilot stages are fully autonomous, and pilot requires bounded human intervention only at reproduction failures - operational knowledge curation, not scientific direction. Two paired failure modes - a pre-architecture baseline and a no-pilot ablation - isolate structurally enforced numerical confrontation at calibration checkpoints as the operative grounding mechanism. The primitives, characterized failure modes, and quantified intervention pattern lay a foundation for autonomous research in high-stakes scientific domains beyond computational physics.

We show that topological invariants constructed from single-particle Green's functions (GFs) cannot reliably diagnose the topology of interacting many-body states. Using coupled interacting SSH chains as a minimal example, we demonstrate that a spin-spin interaction can trivialize the many-body ground state without affecting the GF topological invariant. This breakdown originates from the GF's inability to probe electronic excitations in the Fock sectors responsible for the topological degeneracy. Consequently, GF zeroes are not associated with physical topological quasiparticles and cannot generally characterize interacting topological phases.

Microwave plasma sources play a critical role in scientific research and a wide range of industrial, biomedical, and space applications. Resonant microwave structures have recently enabled highly energy-efficient plasma generation by concentrating electromagnetic energy within compact volumes. However, once plasma is ignited, the formation of a conductive region at the resonator's electric-field hotspot significantly perturbs the resonant impedance, resulting in severe impedance mismatch, increased reflection, and reduced power-transfer efficiency. This limitation arises because conventional resonant operation relies on critical coupling, in which the input coupling simultaneously provides impedance matching and perturbs the resonator. This paper overcomes this fundamental limitation by operating the resonator in an over-coupled regime and achieving dynamic impedance matching through temporally modulated excitation. Specifically, an exponentially growing incident waveform is used to emulate the critical coupling condition without physically modifying the resonator, a concept known as virtual critical coupling. The proposed approach enables the resonator to store up to four times as much electromagnetic energy as a conventionally critically coupled resonator. Experimental results demonstrate ultra-efficient resonant microwave plasma generation with multi-fold reductions in ignition energy consumption and enhanced dynamic control over plasma dynamics.

Quantum-enhanced metrology relies on entanglement to achieve sensitivities beyond the standard quantum limit. While remarkable progress has been made in generating highly entangled many-body states, extracting their metrological advantage remains a central challenge because the encoded information is often inaccessible to realistic measurements. A key development of the past decade has been the realization that many-body interactions can play a dual role: they can be used not only to generate entanglement, but also to decode it. This idea underlies interaction-based readout and time-reversal protocols, in which controlled non-linear dynamics transform weakly encoded signals into experimentally accessible observables. Cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) provides a particularly powerful setting for these approaches because it combines collective enhancement, tunable interactions, and controllable reversibility within a single platform. In this review, we discuss the emergence of time-reversal protocols in cavity QED, from their conceptual roots in Loschmidt echoes to modern implementations of signal amplification through a time-reversed interaction (SATIN), scrambling-enhanced metrology, and more general interaction-based readout schemes. We examine the physical mechanisms that enable reversible many-body dynamics, review key experimental demonstrations, and discuss future directions involving complex entangled states, nonlinear decoding, and emerging quantum platforms. Together, these developments suggest that the ability to decode quantum information may become as important as the ability to generate it, establishing reversible many-body dynamics as a central resource for quantum-enhanced sensing.

Universality is one of the central organising principles of modern physics, explaining why systems with vastly different microscopic constituents can exhibit identical large-scale behaviour. While the classification of equilibrium critical phenomena through hydrodynamics and the renormalization group (RG) is now well established, our understanding of universality far from equilibrium remains far less developed. In recent years, however, rapid progress - driven in large part by developments in active and living matter - has uncovered a growing range of genuinely nonequilibrium universality classes (UCs) with no equilibrium counterparts. In this review, we present a pedagogical and unified introduction to hydrodynamic and RG approaches to nonequilibrium many-body systems. We first show how hydrodynamic theories can be systematically constructed from symmetry and conservation laws alone. We then introduce perturbative dynamic RG methods and demonstrate how hydrodynamic theories are organised into distinct UCs according to their scaling behaviour. Building on these foundations, we review the diverse nonequilibrium UCs uncovered since 2015, while emphasizing the conceptual connections and unifying physical principles underlying their emergence. We conclude by discussing open theoretical and experimental challenges for the field.

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a widely used technique to understand time-dependent response and relaxation under applied voltage. While these spectra contain a wealth of information, major gaps in our understanding can hinder our ability to interpret EIS spectra in terms of microscopic chemical mechanisms. We propose an alternative approach to common empirical fitting procedures for describing the contribution of the bulk electrolyte to the EIS spectrum. This new approach is rooted in determining the moments of the frequency-dependent conductivity, with molecular interpretability provided by a generalized Langevin equation description of an effective single particle dynamics; the `itinerant oscillator' (IO) model. In contrast to a Debye–Falkenhagen description, the IO model makes no assumptions regarding the concentration of the electrolyte, a fact we demonstrate by analysing molecular dynamics simulations of a room-temperature ionic liquid. By analysing the memory function from simulation within the framework provided by the IO model, we reveal the importance of capturing the separation of timescales within the memory function for describing the temperature dependent $\beta$-relaxation process. We go on to show how our impedance model directly reports on this distribution of timescales while retaining the simplicity of commonly employed workflows.

We study Poiseuille flow of a one-component fluid between adiabatic plates in liquid-gas coexistence with a stationary interface. Using only bulk transport laws and particle and energy conservation, we identify small dimensionless parameters $A^\mathrm{L}$ and $A^\mathrm{G}$ governed by squared microscopic-to-macroscopic length ratios. In weak driving with macroscopic bulk regions and a regular interfacial temperature response, the pressure drop is concentrated across the interface, strongly suppressing the particle current. For equal-temperature reservoirs, the residual current produces interfacial cooling. Experimental feasibility is also discussed.

We experimentally analyze the effect of a surfactant on wetting following drop impact on rough surfaces, paying special attention to the role of dynamic surface tension. To this end, we compare the results obtained with Triton X-100, SDS, and Surfynol 465. For concentrations below the critical micelle concentration $c_{\textin{cmc}}$, the evolution of the coverage area is nearly identical for all three surfactants, suggesting that the surfactant concentration is too low to significantly influence droplet spreading. In contrast, pronounced differences emerge due to the distinct dynamic surface tensions of the surfactants at $c/c_{\textin{cmc}}=2$. The evolution of the coverage area during spreading is nearly the same for pure water droplets and those containing Surfynol 465, indicating that surfactant depletion is negligible during the rapid spreading stage. As the Weber number increases, droplet spreading becomes progressively less sensitive to surface tension, thereby reducing the influence of surfactant adsorption kinetics. Nevertheless, Surfynol 465 produces larger coverage areas than Triton X-100 and SDS. The final coverage area is governed by the quasi-static recession of the triple contact line, which is controlled by the receding contact angle. Surfynol 465 consistently yields substantially larger final coverage areas across the range of surface roughness considered in this study.

We formulate a reduced-profile maximum-entropy method (MEM) framework for constructing constrained zero-skewness valence-quark generalized parton distribution (GPD) transverse profiles from the four nucleon electromagnetic form factors $F_1^p(t)$, $F_1^n(t)$, $F_2^p(t)$, and $F_2^n(t)$. The form-factor sum rules fix only $x$-integrated moments of the GPDs; the forward limit of $H_v^q$ is fixed separately by the valence parton distribution functions, and the normalization of $E_v^q$ by the flavor anomalous magnetic moments. These complementary constraints are combined through the ansatz $H_v^q(x,t)=q_v(x)\exp[t f_H^q(x)]$ and $E_v^q(x,t)=e_v^q(x)\exp[t f_E^q(x)]$, where the positive profile functions encode the $x$-dependent transverse structure. Rather than attempting an unrestricted functional inversion, we use the entropy functional as a regularizing criterion on a low-dimensional positive profile manifold. In the numerical proof-of-concept calculation, a smooth elastic form-factor input and analytic forward distributions are adopted, together with the reduced form $f(x)=0.05+(1-x)^2\exp(c_0+c_1x+c_2x^2)$, which suppresses local modes that elastic moments alone cannot constrain. Within this reduced ansatz, the resulting profiles reproduce the imposed elastic moment constraints, satisfy the forward normalizations after discrete-grid normalization, and give impact-parameter distributions with the expected transverse shrinkage at large $x$. The construction provides a controlled zero-skewness baseline for connecting elastic form-factor constraints to $x$-dependent transverse profiles, and it offers a stable starting point for future analyses incorporating empirical form-factor fits, modern PDF inputs, lattice-QCD generalized form factors, and hard exclusive observables.

Neural quantum states (NQS) provide a flexible and scalable framework for approximating quantum many-body wavefunctions. Among NQS parameterizations, autoregressive models are especially attractive because they enable exact, independent sampling from the Born distribution, avoiding the autocorrelation and mixing issues of Markov chain methods. Yet their optimization remains comparatively underexplored: Adam is a scalable method but ignores function space geometry, while stochastic reconfiguration is principled but costly and numerically fragile in large models. To address this gap, we show that variational energy minimization can be viewed as an advantage policy-gradient problem over the Born distribution, motivating trust-region optimization for NQS training. We introduce Proximal Wavefunction Optimization (PWO), a principled trust-region algorithm that clips probability-ratio changes in the amplitude channel and phase increments in the phase channel. PWO avoids explicit matrix inversion, reuses samples across multiple updates, and combines the scalability of first-order optimization with theoretical guarantees. Across Ising and frustrated $J_1$-$J_2$ one- and two-dimensional spin systems, PWO improves stability and wall-clock convergence over Adam, minSR, and SPRING. Finally, we fine-tune a $1.5$B-parameter RWKV-7 model, demonstrating NQS optimization at a scale over three orders of magnitude beyond prior work.

Three-dimensional superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities provide exceptionally long-lived electromagnetic modes and, when coupled to nonlinear elements such as transmon qubits, become promising architectures for bosonic quantum information processing. The inverse design of such systems, i.e., recovering device geometries that produce specified electromagnetic and coupling targets, is generally a one-to-many problem. The qubit-cavity coupling strength depends sensitively on both the transmon geometry and its position within the cavity's electromagnetic field. As these systems scale up and their design parameter spaces grow, the cost of conventional iterative simulation becomes prohibitive. We present two deep neural network (DNN) approaches that address this inverse-design problem at complementary levels of the design stack. The first proposes SRF cavity geometries that produce target cavity observables. The second proposes transmon qubit designs that produce target qubit-cavity parameters - the coupling rate, qubit frequency, and anharmonicity $(g, \nu_q, \alpha)$. The recovered candidate designs match the targets to within ~5% (cavity) and ~2% (transmon), confirmed by end-to-end re-simulation. Both approaches map desired device behavior directly to candidate designs, a fast alternative to the iterative simulation studies usually required.

The universal R-matrix of the quantum affine algebra associated to a finite-dimensional simple complex Lie algebra admits a Gauss decomposition into an uper unitriangular part, an abelian part, and a lower unitriangular part. In this paper, we provide a simple conjugation formula for the unitriangular R-matrices with one tensor factor evaluated at an arbitrary finite-dimensional representation of the quantum affine algebra. Our formula involves the T-series of Frenkel–Hernandez and the Theta series introduced in a previous work. We also extend our conjugation formula to the Yangian case, making use of associators for triple tensor product representations of shifted Yangians.

We derive a general relation between the velocity and force autocorrelation tensors (VACT and FACT) for a Brownian particle subject to an external magnetic field. Using time-symmetry arguments, we show that, for the full Langevin dynamics, the VACT depends only on the FACT, independently of the details of the interaction potential. Under the hypothesis of timescale separation between thermalization and interaction-driven motion, this relation simplifies considerably in the overdamped (Brownian) limit. A central feature of the overdamped result is that, unlike in the field-free case, the part of the VACT that controls the self-diffusion of the particle couples to the antisymmetric part of the FACT, with a coupling strength set by the ratio of the cyclotron frequency to the thermalization rate. We validate and illustrate the formalism on an exactly solvable model: a dimer of charged particles bound by a harmonic potential. Depending on the relative sign of the particle charges, the magnetic field is found to produce either a transient suppression of mobility and diffusion that is fully recovered at long times, or a persistent oscillatory force autocorrelation, regions of negative mobility, and a long-time suppression of self-diffusion.

Braiding phenomena, from the charge-flux Aharonov-Bohm effect to anyonic statistics in fractional quantum Hall systems, are paradigmatic manifestations of topology in quantum physics. Ordinary mutual braiding between $p$- and $q$-dimensional excitations occurs in $d=p+q+2$ spatial dimensions. In this work, we introduce a universal construction of mutual statistics in the adjacent dimension $d=p+q+1$, applicable to excitations obeying $\mathbb Z_N$ fusion for arbitrary $N$ and all excitation dimensions $p$ and $q$. The corresponding invariant is the Berry phase accumulated in a simple $4N$-step microscopic unitary process built from local excitation operators on lattices. This process measures the linking of one excitation with the $N$-fold fusion junction of the other, encompassing particle-particle statistics in one dimension, particle-loop statistics in two dimensions, and loop-loop or particle-membrane statistics in three dimensions. We establish the quantization and bilinearity of the invariant and show that its field-theory response is governed by the Bockstein homomorphism, motivating the name Bockstein braiding statistics. Interpreting the excitation operators as open symmetry operators turns the same invariant into a direct microscopic diagnostic of mixed anomalies between symmetries. We demonstrate this diagnostic in a (1+1)D spin chain, where the nontrivial Bockstein braiding phase proves the mixed anomaly between the spin-flip symmetry $\prod X$ and the nearest-neighbor controlled-$Z$ symmetry $\prod CZ$. We construct explicit (2+1)D and (3+1)D lattice analogs, yielding new anomalous symmetry pairs, and apply the framework to strongly coupled (3+1)D continuum gauge theories. Nontrivial Bockstein braiding rules out a fully symmetric gapped phase, obstructs simultaneous condensation of the two excitations, and implies fractionalization of higher-form symmetries.

We examine the exclusive semileptonic decays $B_s \to D_s^{**} \ell \nu_\ell$, with $D_s^{**} =$ $\bigl\{D_{s0}^*,D_{s1}^*,D_{s1},D_{s2}^*\bigr\}$, within the Standard Model and beyond, using form factors evaluated in the Heavy Quark Effective Theory, including corrections up to $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s, \Lambda/{m_Q})$. A data-driven approach is employed to extract Heavy Quark Effective Theory parameters, and the resulting synthetic data are used to parameterize the form factors via the $z$-expansion. With the resulting form factor information across the full kinematic region, we compute various observables derived from the two-fold angular decay distribution, and predict precise lepton flavor universality ratios: $R_{D_{s0}^*}= 0.158(20)$, $R_{D_{s1}^*}= 0.045(5)$, $R_{D_{s1}}= 0.073(4)$, $R_{D_{s2}^*} = 0.066(9)$. We also analyse potential new physics effects using the Weak Effective Theory and the Standard Model Effective Field Theory, performing a global analysis considering both real and complex Wilson coefficients. Furthermore, we investigate new physics contributions arising from the general Two Higgs Doublet Model. We evaluate the sensitivity of decay observables to new physics, highlighting their potential to probe deviations from the Standard Model in future measurements. Notably, the scalar and tensor new physics operators induce large sensitivity, with some observables deviating by more than $2 \sigma$ from Standard Model predictions.

The interplay between disorder, gauge fields, and internal degrees of freedom fundamentally affects localization and topological properties of quantum many-body systems. Motivated by recent experimental realizations of synthetic non-Abelian gauge fields for SU(3) colored fermions, we investigate their localization and topological properties in 1D bichromatic optical lattices consisting of strong and weak laser beams. Describing the non-Abelian gauge field via color-orbit coupling and color-flip (Rabi) fields, we obtain a tight-binding description of trapped SU(3) colored fermions corresponding to a generalized three-color Aubry-André model. We show that these fields explicitly break the conventional self-duality of a simple three-color Aubry-André system. This duality breaking generates mobility regions across the energy spectrum, demonstrating that non-Abelian fields can either enhance or hinder color localization. Using exact diagonalization, density-of-states evaluations, and finite-size scaling of the inverse participation ratio, we obtain phase diagrams that identify regions of extended or localized bulk states. Furthermore, the color-orbit and Rabi fields induce edge states with topological properties. We develop an exact mapping from our 1D disorder model into a 2D color Harper model with a fictitious magnetic flux ratio and dimension controlled by the weak laser beam's phase. Using this mapping, we evaluate topological invariants, such as the charge-charge Chern number, for edge states emerging in energy gaps, revealing the topological insulating nature of several gapped phases. Lastly, we identify that these topological color-insulator phases can energetically neighbor three configurations: two extended, two localized, or one of each. This sharply contrasts with conventional topological insulators, which always neighbor two extended phases.

If a generalized Langevin equation contains a potential of mean force, it cannot at the same time contain a linear memory kernel and a fluctuating force that obeys a second fluctuation dissipation theorem in the sense of Kubo, and be exact. As modelers often prefer to use generalized Langevin equations that have the first three properties, one needs to ask how close the model dynamics is to the dynamics of the underlying microscopic system. To test this, we analyze a simple model system in which the potential of mean force can be well approximated by a polynomial of low order. The exact generalized Langevin equation of this model contains memory terms in addition to the linear one. We show that these additional terms, at least for the model system regarded in this article, are important for the dynamics and cannot be neglected if one intends to model core aspects of the underlying system correctly.

Correlated phases of matter are typically investigated in crystalline systems, where disorder is considered to be detrimental. However, intriguing exceptions exist, such as superconductivity being enhanced in amorphous realizations of Al and Bi. Here, we demonstrate that superconductivity can even emerge entirely from disorder, using monolayer graphene as an example. In the clean limit, the semi-metallic nature of graphene requires prohibitively strong electronic interactions to achieve superconductivity. Despite the inherently random nature of disorder, we show that introducing low concentrations of vacancies or hydrogenation in graphene provides a large density of low-energy states that easily induce superconductivity. For conventional $s$-wave pairing, disorder induces a finite superconducting order parameter for arbitrarily weak attractive interactions. Rather than forming isolated superconducting puddles, global phase coherence is established through a finite superfluid weight of purely geometrical origin. Away from the chiral limit of vacancies, hydrogenation similarly yields a finite transition temperature and nonzero superfluid weight for weak interactions. For unconventional nearest-neighbor pairing, typically more disrupted by disorder, superconductivity exhibits quantum-critical-like behavior, yet phase coherence persists at low interaction strengths, with mixed $d$-wave symmetries. Our work demonstrates the robust emergence of macroscopic superconducting phase coherence engineered entirely from microscopic disorder.

We analyze particle and spin currents in networks of coupled spinor exciton-polariton condensates arranged as plaquettes and regular polygonal rings. In closed geometries, spin-conserving and TE-TM-induced spin-flip tunnelling combine to generate circulating particle currents, hidden spin counterflows, and bond-dependent spin-current patterns. For the minimal geometries - an equilateral triangle, and a square plaquette - we derive analytical expressions for edge-resolved currents from stationary configurations obtained by energy minimization. We then show how particle, in-plane spin, and out-of-plane spin currents partition the parameter plane and provide direct signatures of the equilibrium phases. Finally, we apply the same current-resolved diagnostics to larger rings, where winding numbers and a branch-invariant common-phase coherence metric organize the resulting phase structure.

This paper studies the imperfect Bose gas after the Kac density law and the mean-field Euler equations have selected a condensed density with positive zero-mode excess. In this BEC regime the selected chemical potential cancels the mean-field shift, so the selected one-particle Hamiltonian is exactly the free one. The resulting zero-mode covariance defines a mean-field BEC ideal in the resolvent algebra, while the nonregular quotient and the direct-integral center record distinct representation-theoretic data. Occupation-number and Brownian-loop formulations recover the same density selection, excess density, ODLRO data, local tests, and the separation between finite-density BEC and Buchholz's stricter infinite-occupation proper-condensate criterion.

Quantum networks require qubits that combine efficient optical access, coherent control, and long-lived quantum memory, but realizing all three in one scalable platform remains a central bottleneck. Diamond color centers are leading candidates, yet widely studied defects retain tradeoffs among these capabilities. Here, we show that transition-metal defects in diamond provide a distinct route beyond these platforms by combining spin-orbit protected ground-state coherence, all-optical control, and near-infrared emission. Using a single nickel-vacancy (NiV$^-$), we demonstrate an all-optically controlled diamond spin qubit with coherence exceeding one millisecond at 1.65 K, compatible with compact closed-cycle cryogenics. We implement Raman Rabi oscillations and Ramsey interferometry and use all-optical dynamical decoupling to extend coherence from $T_2^*$ = 371 ns to $T_2^{CPMG-4}$ = 1.27 ms, establishing NiV$^-$ as a deployable diamond spin-photon interface.

We report an experimental investigation of the depth-dependent domain wall formation in L1$_0$-FePd thin films with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Using circular dichroism X-ray resonant magnetic scattering (CD-XRMS) as a function of the incident X-ray angle, we explore the depth evolution of chiral spin textures in two samples with different strengths of magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Combined with CD-STXM, CD-ptychography, and macroscopic characterization of the structural order, magnetic properties, and surface morphology, we relate these observations to differences in the long-range order of the L1$_0$ phase of FePd. One FePd thin film with very high magnetocrystalline anisotropy, characterized by $Q_{PMA}=1.8$, exhibits an unexpectedly large Néel contribution. Angular-dependent CD-XRMS directly reveals a smooth transition from a hybrid Bloch-Néel chirality within the upper FePd layer towards a purely Néel-type structure at the lower FePd interface. In the second FePd sample, despite a still relatively large $Q_{PMA}=1.45$, the domain walls were found to be purely Néel type. These results indicate a crucial role of the long-range structural order in determining the formation of the magnetic structure.

Mapping how the explosion properties of Type II supernovae (SNe II) relate to the properties of their progenitors can provide strong constraints for understanding the final evolutionary stages of massive stars. Type IIP SNe, linked to the explosions of single red super-giant (RSG) stars, have recently been found to require some form of interaction with circumstellar material (CSM) to reproduce the rapid rise to the plateau often seen in their light curves. In this work, we present observations and analysis of the Type IIP SN 2020bij, characterized by a slow rise to its plateau as well as high expansion velocities. We identify four other SNe IIP from the literature (ASASSN-14kg, SN 2018fif, SN 2021yja and SN 2023axu) with similarly slowly rising light curves and find that they also show high expansion velocities. Using both analytical and numerical models, all five events can be explained with weak to no CSM interaction. We therefore propose that these events constitute a new subclass of Type IIP SNe which could be associated with relatively confined CSM. Early and dense photometric coverage of future SNe IIP together with early spectroscopic observations will further map this subclass and its physical properties. Understanding such rare events could be key to constraining the diversity of late-stage mass-loss in RSGs.

Single-molecule (SM) rotational dynamics of fluorescent probes in polystyrene near the glass transition temperature ($T_g$) are investigated over long times to reconstruct susceptibility spectra. The loss spectrum, commonly recorded using external field-driven (frequency-domain) spectroscopy, such as dielectric spectroscopy, is reconstructed from purely thermal SM rotational fluctuations. The results reproduce time-temperature superposition typically seen in dielectric spectroscopy for materials near $T_g$ and show that the ensemble spectrum is comprised of individual molecular responses to distinct environments.

Gliding mammals exhibit diverse patagium and tail/uropatagium morphologies that may influence aerodynamic performance and maneuverability. Here, we use computational fluid dynamics to isolate the aerodynamic effects of representative gliding-mammal-inspired morphologies under controlled flow conditions. Three patagium configurations were compared to evaluate the effects of membrane outline on lift generation, drag, stall behavior and pitching moment. Three tail/uropatagium configurations were further tested under baseline, symmetric-deflection and asymmetric-deflection conditions to assess their longitudinal and lateral control authority. The results show that a broader patagium configuration generated the highest lift and lift coefficient, whereas an intermediate patagium morphology showed a smoother post-stall response with lower drag. For the tail configurations, the colugo-like integrated uropatagium enhanced lift and pitch-control authority under symmetric deflection, while the flat-tail configuration produced stronger rolling and yawing responses under asymmetric deflection. These findings indicate that gliding-mammal-inspired morphologies produce distinct aerodynamic trade-offs rather than a single optimal design. The results provide insight into the functional diversity of gliding mammal morphology and offer design guidance for bioinspired morphing aerial robots.

We construct an exhaustive family of constant spacetime mean curvature (STCMC) surfaces for initial data sets close to the anti-de Sitter-Schwarzschild hyperboloid. In particular, we obtain such a foliation as the long time limit of the volume preserving spacetime mean curvature flow starting from the constant mean curvature foliation constructed by Neves-Tian (Geom. Funct. Anal., 2009). As an application, inspired by the definition of STCMC center of mass for initial data sets proposed in the asymptotically Euclidean setting by Cederbaum-Sakovich (Calc. Var. PDE, 2021), we study the center of mass of an asymptotically hyperboloidal initial data set.

The primary mission of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is to identify and characterise potentially habitable worlds. Spectra across a wide wavelength range are needed to cover multiple spectral features per molecule of interest. An integral field spectrometer (IFS), fed by a coronograph system, can be used to measure spectra from any planets within the nulled field of the coronograph, while also characterizing the residual speckles as a function of wavelength, enabling the contrast ratio to be further enhanced. We present design trades for an infrared IFS (0.8 to 1.7 {\mu}m) for the HWO Coronagraph Instrument, including assessment of the relative merits of lenslet and image slicer based architectures. Key requirements include full sampling of the speckle field at all wavelengths, maximized optical throughput, and control of spectral cross talk and stray light. We identify technology developments needed to advance the instrument design to the required technology readiness level.

Fermionic non-Gaussianity, or fermionic magic, is a key resource underlying the computational complexity of fermionic quantum systems, yet tractable and operationally meaningful ways to quantify it remain limited. We address this challenge by developing a convex resource theory of fermionic non-Gaussianity and introducing two families of computable quantities for pure fermionic states, both derived from the Williamson normal form of the covariance matrix. The first family, occupation number entropies, is defined as the Tsallis-$\alpha$ entropy of the occupation numbers. We prove that one member of this family is monotonic under Gaussian protocols, establishing it as a computable convex resource monotone. It consequently lower bounds the number of non-Gaussian gates needed for state preparation. The second family, natural-orbital participation entropies, is given by the Rényi-$\alpha$ entropy of the squared amplitudes of the state in the natural-orbital basis, defined by the eigenvectors of the covariance matrix. They quantify state compressibility in this basis and thus upper bound the classical simulation cost in an orthonormal Gaussian basis. We analyze both families for stabilizer and translation-invariant states, where they simplify and reveal additional structure. We further study representative examples, including random SWAP-doped matchgate circuits and the bond-modulated XXZ model, highlighting the role of non-Gaussianity in many-body phenomena. Our work establishes a resource-theoretic framework for computable fermionic non-Gaussianity that unifies notions arising across quantum information, condensed-matter physics, and quantum chemistry, opening new directions for studying the complexity of quantum many-body systems and providing practical tools to assess the classical simulability of fermionic states relevant for quantum advantage.

Tantalum (Ta) is a promising material for reaching long coherence times in superconducting qubits. A detailed understanding of the underlying structure-property relationship remains elusive though. In the present study, we sputter-deposited 200 nm thick Ta films on high-resistivity silicon (100) substrates at temperatures ranging from T = 20{\deg}C to 600{\deg}C, as well as on different seed layers (Nb, TiN and TaN). Alpha-Ta thin films were readily obtained at temperatures above 500{\deg}C and on all seed layers. The films were characterized in terms of surface morphology, residual-resistance ratio, crystal phase composition and superconducting transition temperature, as well as RF-performance using coplanar waveguide resonators. Internal quality factors of up to 1.5 million were measured at 100 mK in the single-photon regime. Despite similar bulk material properties, alpha-Ta films on different seed layers exhibit markedly different RF-performance, which we attribute to dissimilar strain and structural defects at the substrate-metal interfaces. Williamson-Hall analysis of XRD data reveals a clear correlation between decreasing microstrain and increasing quality factor. Cross-sectional HR-TEM further supports this interpretation by directly resolving interfacial disorder. Our results highlight the critical role of interface engineering in optimizing superconducting thin films for low-loss quantum computing circuitry.