Papers

Axion-Like-Particles (ALPs) are pseudo-scalar particles actively searched as light dark matter candidates. ALPs can couple to photons which give rise to the possibility of oscillations with photons in an external magnetic field. If sufficiently strong, this coupling can imprint distinctive spectral irregularities in the gamma ray spectrum of astrophysical sources. We present a prospective study on the sensitivity of probing ALP-photon interactions using stacked observations of selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) located behind galaxy clusters. The ALP-photon conversion in cluster magnetic fields produces absorption-like features in AGN spectra that are difficult to predict for individual sources. To address this, we apply a stacking analysis of multiple AGN-cluster pairs, yielding a controlled prediction of the expected ALP induced spectral patterns and enhancing the sensitivity to such irregularities. Using simulated data for selected hard-spectrum Fermi/LAT AGNs that can be observed by Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes such as H.E.S.S., we evaluate the performance of this method. The combination of mock IACT observations with our stacking approach enable exploration of the previously uncharted ALP dark matter parameter space in the neV mass range.

A longitudinal web crawl is a sequence of partial samples of an evolving URL population. Pairwise containment between two crawls is the standard probe; under a simple urn model of the crawl – each round samples a fraction of the URLs and replaces a fraction – it recovers two interpretable rates, per-round survival $\alpha$ and coverage $c$, but treats the population as uniform and consumes one pair at a time. In this work, we define a formal language for talking about a crawl. We extend this analysis with the discovery curve $U(s, T)$, the cumulative URL footprint over a sliding window of $T$ crawls starting at $s$, which under the same urn model is also a closed-form function of $(\alpha, c)$. Containment and the discovery curve are then two projections of one process: independent fits agree on $(\alpha, c)$ when the urn is homogeneous, so any disagreement is itself a measurement. Applied to Common Crawl (2020–2025, domain granularity) and to the German Academic Web (GAW, URL granularity), the two projections disagree on both archives, and a two-component urn with a persistent core fraction $\kappa$ alongside shell parameters $(\alpha_\partial, c_\partial)$ reconciles the disagreement. A residual on $c_\partial$ remains, signaling that the shell itself is not homogeneous; $\kappa$ is recorded as the scalar entry point to a rank-resolved generalization, which is left to follow-up work. \keywords{web archive \and crawl coverage \and discovery curve \and urn model \and two-component model \and URL lifetime}

We investigate the polarization of the ordered moments and low-energy spin fluctuations in the spin supersolid state of the S = 1/2 triangular-lattice easy-axis antiferromagnet K2Co(SeO3)2 using neutron scattering. The supersolid order develops through successive BKT transitions: the longitudinal order appears at higher temperature, while the transverse component associated with the Bose-Einstein condensate emerges only below a lower-temperature transition accompanied by a change in the interlayer correlations. At the lowest measured temperature, the transverse ordered moment reaches only 11% of the longitudinal component. Moreover, the low-energy spin fluctuations are found to be predominantly longitudinal in character. These results provide direct evidence that the supersolid ground state survives even in the near-Ising regime and exhibits longitudinal low-energy dynamics, imposing stringent constraints on microscopic theories of triangular-lattice XXZ antiferromagnets.

Two-dimensional van der Waals materials have enormous potential applications in many fields due to their unique layered structure and excellent properties. Compared with three-dimensional bulk materials, layered systems are coupled by weak van der Waals interactions between layers, endowing them with much higher structural compressibility, particularly along the interlayer direction, which is more sensitive to external pressure. High pressure can expand the accessible phase space, enabling the synthesis of new materials or the retention of metastable phases. On the microscopic level, pressure can significantly tune the interlayer structure and interactions, induce changes in the electronic structure, and consequently give rise to a variety of rich physical properties. This article systematically introduces in situ high-pressure experimental approaches, including diamond anvil cells combined with X-ray and spectroscopic techniques, high-pressure magnetic transport measurements, and emerging NV-center quantum sensing. It further reviews representative pressure-induced phenomena and underlying tuning mechanisms in layered magnetic materials, such as high-spin to low-spin transitions of transition-metal ions and the accompanying structural phase transitions and superconductivity; substantial enhancement of the Curie temperature and continuous switching of magnetocrystalline anisotropy; and antiferromagnetic-to-ferromagnetic transitions achieved by modulating exchange interactions or via stacking engineering. Finally, we discuss future directions, including synergistic multi-field control by combining pressure with electric fields and twisted heterostructures, as well as strategies such as pressure quenching to retain high-pressure metastable magnetic phases at ambient conditions.

We study the separation of geometric effects from quantum interference in quantum optimization algorithms. Constrained optimization problems such as routing, assignment, and scheduling are often encoded as product spaces of local variables, together with global feasibility penalties. The central algorithmic question we address is how a constraint-preserving mixing operator transports quantum amplitude across an exponential search space in the presence of local and global constraints. We develop a framework that separates three effects that are usually intermixed: amplitude transport, coherent interference among transported amplitudes, and problem-dependent classical postprocessing. We show that the mixing operator alone does not have a target-seeking ability. Concretely, the normalized distribution induced by its amplitude transport moves toward the distance profile of a uniformly random configuration. Thus, quantum sampling advantage may only arise when the phases of the many computational paths reaching a target configuration are sufficiently aligned for their amplitudes to reinforce. We show that, when the cost phases are engineered so that these paths add coherently, a number of circuit alternations growing only logarithmically with problem size suffices to convert the sum of their absolute contributions into a lower bound on the target amplitude, yielding a certified success probability independent of the ambient Hilbert-space dimension, the search-space size, or the feasible-set cardinality. We develop applications to problem-specific transpilation diagnostics, scalable hardware probes, constraint-induced classical maps of quantum-generated samples, the attribution of solution quality between the quantum distribution and classical post-processing in hybrid quantum-classical workflows and connections to distance-partitioned product spaces from classical coding theory.

The trans-Neptunian region (30-50 AU) is a dynamically structured reservoir of icy planetesimals whose orbital architecture reflects resonant dynamics, chaotic transport, and long-term gravitational sculpting by the giant planets. This review synthesizes recent developments in the dynamical investigation of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), with an emphasis on mean-motion and secular resonances, as well as chaotic diffusion, in a system whose growing observational census makes it an ideal testbed for chaos detection methods. Classical indicators, including Lyapunov exponents, MEGNO, SALI/GALI, and frequency map analysis, provide the quantitative backbone for mapping TNO phase space and are complemented by modern approaches such as Lagrangian descriptors, the FAIR resonance identification method, entropy-based chaos indicators, and recurrence plot divergence methods. An anomalous diffusion framework, in which mean squared displacement scales as a power law in time, further enables classification of sub- and superdiffusive orbital transport. Machine learning has emerged as a powerful complement to traditional dynamical methods: surrogate classifiers, deep neural network solvers, and hybrid physics-data-driven frameworks together extend reliable prediction horizons in chaotic regimes and open new routes for Bayesian inference of migration scenarios. The review concludes that the most promising path forward lies in hybrid dynamical-statistical frameworks anchored to Hamiltonian dynamics, enabling efficient exploration of high-dimensional parameter spaces informed by the expanding body of trans-Neptunian observations.

High-energy neutrinos from point-like sources are searched in the combined dataset from ANTARES and the available KM3NeT/ARCA data. This analysis demonstrates the potential of combining data from these neutrino detectors using a binned likelihood approach.

Rydberg and Rydberg-dressed atomic gases have recently emerged as a promising quantum simulator for a variety of models in condensed matter physics. Here we investigate one-dimensional bosons with soft-core Rydberg-dressed interactions using exact path-integral quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The finite-range and the negative Fourier component of the interaction potential generate a roton mode at finite momentum, while particle-hole backscattering processes enhance the susceptibility of one-dimensional systems at twice the Fermi momentum. The competition between the corresponding length scales yields a rich phase diagram, featuring a conventional Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) regime, a beyond-TLL regime, and commensurate cluster phases. In the TLL regime, the system transitions from Lieb-Liniger-like bnehavior with Luttinger parameter $K>1$ to hard-rod-like behavior with $K<1$, with a quasi-supersolid phase emerging for $K < 1/2$. For strong interactions and high densities, deviations from TLL theory appear as precursors for the onset of cluster phases, where particles aggregate into stable clusters of several particles. The properties of each phase is discussed in detail.

We numerically study kink-antikink collisions in the self-gravitating $\phi^4$ model coupled to the two-dimensional dilaton gravity theory proposed by Mann et al. The static kink solutions interpolate between an anti-de Sitter (AdS$_2$) region and a Minkowski region, and can be regarded as two-dimensional analogues of certain thick branes. By scanning the initial velocity for several gravitational couplings, we find that gravity modifies the scattering structure: the resonance windows shift toward higher initial velocities and become progressively narrower as the coupling $\kappa$ increases, while the critical escape velocity increases mildly. A linear perturbation analysis further indicates that the shape modes turn into long-lived quasi-bound states in the weak-gravity regime, which could leak energy during collisions and may therefore contribute to the shift and narrowing of the windows and the increase of the critical velocity. The collisions further produce a clear geometrical response: the conformal factor decreases after the collision, corresponding to a contraction of the local proper spatial scale in the conformal gauge, and this effect becomes stronger for larger $\kappa$. Meanwhile, the Ricci scalar develops transient peaks during kink encounters but remains finite in all simulations considered. Thus, in contrast to higher-dimensional thick-brane collisions, we find no evidence for spacetime singularity formation in this two-dimensional model.

We investigate a spatially constrained coevolving nonlinear voter model. Using a random geometric graph, we constrain the interaction range of voter dynamics. If local rewiring is not possible, the discordant link is deleted. Our results reveal absorbing states that differ not only in magnetization and activity, but also in mean degree and spatial state organization. By exploring dynamical and structural observables, we found that distinct regimes from the existing coevolving nonlinear voter model are characterized by a reduced consensus region, spatially segregated fragmentation, and isolated node formation. Additionally, we develop a phenomenological description of the evolution of the mean degree and terminal non-conserved quantities that is consistent with the numerical results. Our model highlights how local geometric accessibility reshapes the structure of the absorbing states.

Dynamic wetting plays a fundamental role in the dynamics of droplets and bubbles at solid surfaces by influencing contact line motion and interfacial evolution. In this work, three representative wetting-controlled benchmarks, namely droplet splashing, bubble coalescence at solid surfaces, and bubble dynamics under shear flow, are investigated using a three-dimensional volume-of-fluid framework coupled with a recently developed dynamic wetting model based on contact line velocity reconstruction method [19]. The model is first validated against experimental observations and literature data for droplet splashing and bubble coalescence. It accurately reproduces the transient contact line evolution, splashing morphology, and coalescence dynamics. In particular, dynamic wetting suppresses the premature bubble detachment predicted by static wetting models and yields substantially improved agreement with experimental observations. In shear flow, contact angle hysteresis and contact line dissipation strongly influence bubble deformation, sliding, and detachment. These results demonstrate that accurate treatment of dynamic wetting is essential for predicting wetting-controlled droplets and bubbles involving rapid contact line motion, strong interfacial deformation, and topology changes.

Parity symmetry enforces radiative degeneracy of parity-conjugated emitters in free space. We selectively lift this degeneracy in an achiral dielectric cavity via coupling-induced global parity breaking: the cavity and individual dipoles each preserve parity, while their fixed relative orientation breaks global parity, enabling differential decay. This mechanism exhibits a structure-function trend in marked contrast to the Rosenfeld rule: orthogonal electric-magnetic dipoles yield radiative asymmetry approaching the theoretical limit of 2, whereas parallel ones show negligible differentiation. A semi-analytical model, validated across multiple modes, confirms generality. These findings establish a new paradigm for symmetry engineering without intrinsic chirality.

We study heavy right-handed neutrino production induced by a derivative coupling to an axion-like inflaton and its implications for non-thermal leptogenesis. We develop a unified treatment of Majorana-fermion production during inflation and preheating. During inflation, the rolling inflaton background generates a helicity-asymmetric spectrum that can be obtained analytically in the slow-roll regime, while during preheating the oscillating background drives repeated non-adiabatic production events with a helicity-dependent effective momentum and a natural momentum cutoff. We compute the resulting abundance in both the delayed-decay and prompt-decay limits, including the effects of Pauli blocking and successive production stages. We further clarify the relation between the fermion basis used to identify non-adiabatic production and the Hamiltonian-diagonal basis used to define instantaneous occupation numbers. Applying these results to non-thermal leptogenesis, we identify parameter regions consistent with the observed baryon asymmetry.

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) requires knowledge of patient-specific $^{10}$B concentration for accurate dose estimation, yet no established method provides real-time boron-sensitive information during irradiation. Backscattered thermal neutrons carry a $^{10}$B-dependent intensity modulation through the $^{10}$B(n,$\alpha$)$^{7}$Li reaction, documented in BNCT treatment rooms for three decades but not yet developed as a measurement signal. This paper uses Monte Carlo simulation to assess the feasibility of backscattered thermal neutrons as a measurement channel for $^{10}$B concentration. A thin $^{nat}$LiF-converter detector placed at the beam exit captures the composite forward-plus-backscatter field; differential imaging against a $^{10}$B-free baseline isolates the $^{10}$B-dependent component, quantified by the fractional reduction in the $^{6}$Li capture rate, termed Relative Detector Signal Reduction (RDSR). In homogeneous phantoms, RDSR shows linear concentration dependence ($R^2 = 0.997$) with a practical depth limit of approximately 6 cm. Edge-response analysis yields a diffusion-limited FWHM of 32-176 mm over 1-5 cm depth, with weak concentration dependence. In a voxelized patient phantom across 12 boron configurations, the $^{6}$Li capture cross-section provides intrinsic thermal neutron energy selectivity that preferentially weights the band where $^{10}$B absorption is concentrated. Region-of-interest integration achieves counting-statistics sensitivity below 10 ppm; the systematic detection floor (~22-28 ppm at $\pm$1% baseline uncertainty) identifies baseline-reference precision as the dominant constraint. The modeled detector produces limited dose perturbation (+11.6% treatment-time increase). These results establish the physical basis for a boron-sensitive backscattered neutron measurement concept in BNCT.

Compact deuterium–deuterium (D–D) neutron sources can provide controllable irradiation fields for lithium-blanket studies, although their broad joint energy and angle distributions differ from the conventional $2.45$~MeV isotropic representation. We couple particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of target-normal-sheath-accelerated deuterons with a thick-target $D(d,n)^{3}$He source model and Monte Carlo neutron transport. For natural lithium, the seven two-dimensional sources change tritium production per source neutron by $-2.5\%$ to $+54.1\%$ relative to the ideal source. The matched three-dimensional calculation gives an increase of $43.5\%$ and lowers the corresponding ratio from $1.5406$ to $1.4350$. Source substitutions show that the difference is predominantly spectral, since the real spectrum alone gives a factor of $1.4199$, while using the real neutron emission directions in place of isotropic emission adds only a further factor of $1.0106$ in the three-dimensional case. The real spectrum lowers the $^{6}$Li contribution by $6.9\%$, but the accessible $^{7}$Li$(n,Xt)$ response exceeds this loss. Enrichment to $90\%$ $^{6}$Li keeps the total change within $\pm1.5\%$. In the matched three-dimensional converter and blanket calculation, direct $D(d,p)$T production is $0.8458$ tritons per source neutron and accounts for $98.1\%$ and $86.9\%$ of the combined production for natural and enriched lithium, respectively. High-density polyethylene moderation raises tritium production by about one order of magnitude but first weakens and then reverses the increase in blanket tritium production. The analysis quantifies source-model effects in compact breeding tests.

Fast and accurate classical simulation of quantum systems is a central challenge in the design and control of quantum computers, but the highly oscillatory dynamics of these systems severely limit the efficiency of standard numerical methods. To address this, we adapt Filon quadrature for oscillatory integrals into two numerical methods, called Filon and Controlled Filon, for solving linear systems of ODEs with highly oscillatory solutions. We tailor both methods for efficient implementation in controlled quantum systems, and the Controlled Filon method additionally accounts for the oscillatory structure of the control pulses. We show by numerical experiments that these methods significantly reduce the computational cost of accurately simulating systems of superconducting transmon qubits by decreasing the number of timesteps needed to reach a given level of precision, with only a modest increase in the cost per timestep. For a realistic simulation of the dynamics of a CNOT gate, the Controlled Filon method is the most efficient method tested at every target accuracy, outperforming the best Hermite method by up to 6x and the Hermite method of the same order by up to 500x.

The conventional characterization of topological materials relies on topological invariants calculated from the entire set of occupied bands. However, when a system possesses rotational symmetry, the occupied Hilbert space can be decomposed into multiple subspaces labeled by distinct rotation eigenvalues. We show that this decomposition reveals hidden topological states characterized by a novel $\mathbb{Z}_2^n$ topological invariant, where $n$ is the number of subspaces, while the conventional $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant may fail to detect the topology hidden in the rotation subspaces. Remarkably, time-reversal symmetry pairs conjugate rotation eigenvalues and guarantees that the two subspaces have the same $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariants, making the topology always hidden from the conventional global invariant. We formulate the theory of rotation-subspace topology and demonstrate its material realization in bulk CsCl. Using first-principles calculations and symmetry analysis, we show that bulk CsCl, which is diagnosed as topologically trivial by the conventional approach, features a nontrivial $\mathbb{Z}_2^3$ invariant along the $\Gamma$-R path and a nontrivial $\mathbb{Z}_2^4$ invariant along the $\Gamma$-Z and M-R paths, leading to double Weyl points on the (111) and (001) surfaces, respectively. The subspace $\mathbb{Z}_2^n$ invariant proposed here serves as a necessary refinement for symmetry-protected topological phases and will facilitate the identification of a large class of topological states overlooked by existing diagnostics.

We study finite spin-$\tfrac12$ rings with nearest-neighbor Heisenberg exchange, Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction, and an external magnetic field. We introduce a phenomenological interpolation parameter between the fully quantum Hamiltonian and a state-dependent mean-field description. Using dissipative Gisin-Schrödinger dynamics, we analyze the resulting quantum-classical crossover through local magnetization, connected spin correlations, single-site entropy, and the saturation field of the fully polarized state.

The maximum likelihood decoder based on tensor networks has proven highly successful for the 2D surface code, achieving the optimal decoding success rate. However, existing tensor network decoders are typically designed for independent single-qubit error models, and their performance under inter-qubit correlated error models remains unexplored. This is due to two major challenges. The first challenge lies in constructing the tensor network for correlated errors, since the same final Pauli error can arise from many different combinations of independent and correlated errors, preventing a direct factorization of the error probability. The second challenge is that even after a tensor network is constructed, it generally contains huge-dimensional tensors and is therefore not efficiently contractible. In this work, to address the first difficulty, we introduce additional binary indices and two transformations to construct a multi-index tensor network for maximum-likelihood decoding with correlated errors. To address the second difficulty, we use reparametrization, elimination, and index classification to decompose the huge-dimensional tensors into lower-dimensional tensors. This yields an efficiently contractible tensor network for error models satisfying the tractability conditions derived in this work. We perform numerical simulations for a representative correlated error model and show that the maximum-likelihood decoder implemented with our multi-index tensor network construction achieves a higher finite-size threshold than the widely used MWPM decoder.

The mid-infrared solar magnetic field telescope AIMS (An Infrared System for the Accurate Measurement of Solar Magnetic Field) is the first ground-based telescope designed to directly measure solar magnetic fields via Zeeman splitting in the 8-14 um band, overcoming the century-long bottleneck of model-dependent indirect measurements. Its remote high-altitude site, heterogeneous multi-institute components, and complex observation modes comprising Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectropolarimetry and broadband imaging demand a highly autonomous Master Control System (MCS). We present the design and implementation of the AIMS MCS, featuring three key contributions: (1) an L0-L5 telescope automation classification inspired by the SAE J3016 autonomous driving standard, providing well-defined boundaries and a progressive evolution roadmap; (2) a three-layer system framework device control, autonomy support, and central decision-implemented with a microservice software architecture that achieves loose coupling, high cohesion, and continuous integration of heterogeneous components; and (3) a suite of key enabling tech-nologies including automatic pointing/tracking, autofocus via lucky-frame selection combined with power spectral ratio analysis, and environment-adaptive observation integrating auto-exposure, cloud detection, and power/thermal monitoring. The MCS has been validated across three telescopes at progressive automation levels: AIMS itself, the WenQuan Solar Magnetic Field Telescope, and the Solar Full-disk Multi-layer Magnetograph (SFMM). Collectively, these deployments demonstrate the feasibility and stability of the proposed architecture for progressive telescope automation.

We theoretically study emergent electromagnetic responses in Weyl semimetals. Focusing on magnetic Weyl semimetals, we develop a general theory of emergent induction driven by magnetic dynamics. We show that magnetoelectric (ME) responses in Weyl semimetals give rise to emergent induction mediated by magnetization dynamics. Using effective two-band models for magnetic Weyl semimetals, we derive a formula for the ME response that includes both intraband and interband contributions. The resulting formula shows that the intraband contribution is proportional to the relaxation time $\tau$, whereas the interband contribution is associated with the separation of the Weyl nodes. Applying the general formula to a model of polar Weyl ferromagnets, we demonstrate that the dynamics of the toroidal moment is closely related to the emergent inductive response in polar Weyl ferromagnets, as recently discovered by Suzuki et al. [Y. Suzuki et al. arXiv:2607.12322]. The chemical-potential dependence of the inductance indicates that the emergent electromagnetic response is enhanced in the energy range of the Weyl dispersion, reflecting the topological nature of Weyl semimetals.

RR Lyrae stars are essential tracers of old stellar populations and distance indicators across the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. However, their use as standard candles is limited by uncertainties in extinction, especially in the Gaia bands. In Gaia DR3, absorption values (AG) for fundamental-mode RR Lyrae (RRab) were based on an empirical period-amplitude-color (PAC) relation calibrated on a small sample and on passband transformations. We aim to recalibrate extinction relations for RRab stars and establish, for the first time, analogous relations for first-overtone RR Lyrae (RRc) stars in the Gaia passbands. We used Gaia DR3 photometry and pulsation properties of an all-sky reference sample. Intrinsic colors (G - GRP)0 and (GBP - GRP)0 were derived through sequential feature selection combined with linear regression and bootstrap resampling, ensuring robust estimates of color excess and AG. We recalibrated PACZ relations for RRab stars and derived, for the first time, PAC relations for RRc stars in the Gaia bands. The new relations reproduce intrinsic colors with residual scatters of ~0.03-0.04 mag and provide AG estimates across both pulsation types. Tests on RR Lyrae stars in Galactic globular clusters and dwarf galaxies show consistent AG values, with the PAC(Z) relations based on (GBP - GRP) being more stable than those using (G - GRP). The new relations provide reliable extinction estimates for both RRab and RRc stars, improving on the DR3 implementation and offering a valuable tool for Galactic studies in view of Gaia DR4.

We present the first deployment of an end-to-end autonomous control system driven by a large language model (LLM) on an operational solar telescope-the Solar Full-disk Multi-layer Magnetograph (SFMM), named JW-ASTClaw. This system employs a multi-agent framework adopting a decoupled three-layer architecture (perception-decision-execution) interconnected through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which addresses real-time adaptive scheduling under complex environmental conditions while achieving high portability: the perception and decision logic are reused unchanged across instruments, requiring only telescope-specific command interfaces to be adapted. Three perception agents-data-quality-agent, cloud-analyzer-agent, and flare-detector-agent-encode senior observer expertise, including wind jitter detection via limb-ring standard deviation, projected-circle zonal cloud analysis, and multi-band active region identification, as LLM-callable rules, while a central reasoning engine performs multi-source fusion and conflict resolution. The system supports graceful degradation from cloud LLM to local inference and finally to rule-based fallback, designed for remote field stations with unstable connectivity. Cross-season validation on archival data demonstrates 100% cloud detection with zero false positives across 10 distinct observation dates, with active-region counts and positions closely matching the NOAA Solar Region Summary (SRS) reports (102 vs. 100 across 10 separate validation dates). These capabilities significantly improve scientific-intent-driven observation accessibility, enable rapid flare response for space weather monitoring, enhance data usability under adverse conditions, and increase observability during partially cloudy periods.

Over the past decade, advances in high-contrast imaging instrumentation, coupled with extreme adaptive optics systems, have enabled the discovery of tens of planets and brown dwarfs orbiting at wide separations from their host stars (a larger than 10 au). The existence of companions at these separations challenges current planet-formation paradigms, highlighting the importance of high-contrast imaging as the only technique capable of directly probing this region of planetary systems. In this paper, we present a survey of thirteen planets and brown dwarfs observed with VLT/SPHERE between June 2023 and July 2025. These data provide updated photometry in the 1.0-1.7 micron range and new high-precision astrometry, enabling tighter constraints on their orbital properties. We used the IRDIS subsystem to acquire dual-band H2H3 images (H2 = 1.593 microns, H3 = 1.667 microns) for all companions in our sample. For the three objects located within the IFS field of view (GQ Lup B, PZ Tel B, and HD 984 B), we additionally obtained low-resolution (R ~ 50) near-infrared (0.96-1.34 micron) spectra. We combined our new astrometric measurements with those available in the literature to derive updated orbital solutions. The orbital fitting was performed using the orbitize! Python package. For CT Cha b, HIP 78530 B, HIP 64892 B, and RX J1609.5-2105 b, this work provides the first orbital solutions to date. We derived new photometry for all objects, which, when compared with field dwarfs in color-magnitude diagrams, indicates spectral types ranging from mid-M to mid-L. For the companions observed with IFS, their spectra are best matched by those of M6-M8.5 field dwarfs. Our updated orbital fits provide tighter constraints for nearly all companions and are consistent with non-circular orbits in all cases, potentially disfavoring core-accretion formation within their circumstellar disks.

Topological structuring of light inevitably leverages on optical coherence to ensure that the imparted spatial phases are preserved, requiring highly coherent sources or coherence engineering embedded in the design. Now we show that thermal light can be spatially engineered to carry optical topologies in the form of Skyrmions. Such topologies are immune to time averaged decoherence, a fact we leverage on in reverse to create metasurface mediated incoherent topologies from a thermal source. The pristine nature of our measured Skyrmions validates the approach, while simulations reveal how coherence management in the metasurface design would further enhance the functionality. Remarkably, the generation stage inherits robustness from the topology, remaining immune to material and fabrication defects. Our work reports the first topologies from purely thermal light, opening a path to exploiting topology in ubiquitous everyday light sources.

Context. Magnetic reconnection in the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) plays an important role in restructuring the solar wind magnetic topology and generating plasma jets and magnetic islands. While large-scale signatures of HCS reconnection have been reported in many observational studies, the kinetic-scale structure embedded within reconnection regions remains less well understood. Aims. We investigate the ion-scale currents sheets (CSs) embedded within an HCS reconnection region and their relationship to the flow-shear layer at the edge of a reconnection jet. Methods. We analyzed an HCS crossing observed by the Parker Solar Probe on March 29, 2024, using high-time-resolution magnetic field measurements. We focused on ion-scale magnetic transitions within two brief intervals of flow-shear layer at the edges of the reconnection jet and examined them in a local LMN coordinate system. Results. Twelve representative CSs are identified, whose duration is on average $\sim$0.06 sec, corresponding to spatial scales of only a few ion inertial lengths. They are classified into three types based on the behavior of the out-of-plane magnetic component $B_{M}$: (1) CSs showing clear bipolar $B_{M}$ variations without bifurcation in reconnecting-field ($B_{L}$), (2) CSs with both bipolar $B_{M}$ variations and bifurcated $B_{L}$ profiles characterized by a plateau structure, and (3) CSs where strong fluctuations obscure an otherwise expected bipolar signature. Conclusions. The reconnection jet shear layer in the HCS may serve as an active site that hosts a chain of ion-scale CSs. This provides new insight into the multiscale structure of HCS reconnection and suggests that flow shear layers may play an important role in generating secondary kinetic-scale structures.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is profoundly transforming the paradigms of scientific research. Cutting-edge technologies such as Large Language Models (LLMs) and embodied intelligence are continuously pushing the boundaries of scientific instrumentation. Against this backdrop, this paper proposes a novel conceptual system: the Scientific-Intention Driven Embodied Intelligent Solar Telescope (SIDEST). The system is designed with three core layers to achieve three types of intelligent scientific research closed loops. First, the Scientific Intent Research and Demonstration Layer parses the research objectives and intents of scientists (e.g., solar physicists) through natural language interaction, achieving a closed loop for the generation and optimization of executable observation plans aligned with scientific intent via in-depth research. Subsequently, the Observation Realization Layer schedules embodied intelligent solar telescopes to implement a closed loop for the execution of scientific observation plans. Finally, the Evaluation and Evolution Layer coordinates intelligent agents for data processing and scientific analysis to analyze observation data, generate research reports, and iteratively optimize observation strategies and model methods based on results, thereby realizing a self-evolving closed loop for the entire system. During the research process, we constructed a minimal prototype system based on a precision temperature control device for solar telescope birefringent filters to validate the core principles of SIDEST. This prototype successfully implemented all key steps of intention-driven automated research, demonstrating the feasibility of the technical pathways for the three types of intelligent research closed loops. SIDEST redefines telescopes through cutting-edge AI methods.

Twisting a van der Waals bilayer changes not only the moiré periodicity but also the local stacking and interlayer hybridization. Here, we show, using fully relaxed first-principles calculations including spin–orbit coupling, band unfolding, and Brillouin-zone-integrated densities of states, that bilayer PtTe$_2$ exhibits a non-monotonic evolution between gapless and gapped electronic regimes. The $7.34^\circ$ structure remains gapless, whereas finite direct gaps appear at the sampled intermediate angles. The gap closes at the sampled $60^\circ$ configuration and reopens at higher angles. The direct gap shows an overall increase with the minimum local interlayer Pt–Pt separation, although the complete distribution of local stacking environments is required to account for deviations from this trend. At $7.34^\circ$, the low-energy states are concentrated predominantly in the AA-like regions of the otherwise gapless moiré cell. Controlled interlayer-separation scans show that increasing the layer spacing removes the near-$E_F$ crossings and opens a gap, consistent with weakened interlayer Te-$p_z$ hybridization. These results identify the redistribution of interlayer hybridization as the microscopic origin of the re-entrant gap evolution in twisted bilayer PtTe$_2$.

Electron-positron annihilation is an ideal place to study the hadronization process which is described by fragmentation functions. In contrast to conventional approaches based on single-inclusive or semi-inclusive annihilation, the use of fully inclusive jets to study fragmentation functions is more advantageous. This approach provides novel insight into the underlying hadronization mechanisms. For example, the mass of the jet, which breaks chiral symmetry, can be effectively used to probe twist-3 chiral-odd effects. In this paper, we present a systematic theoretical framework for calculating the differential cross-section up to twist-3 for the unpolarized annihilation process. Calculations take into account both the electromagnetic interaction and weak interaction. We find that leading-twist fragmentation functions are convoluted into the twist-3 effects. This probably provides a new perspective for studying fragmentation functions. To this end, we introduce two twist-3 azimuthal asymmetries and give the corresponding numerical estimates. We notice that the twist-3 effects are not significantly suppressed in high-energy regions due to the presence of the weak interaction. In other words, it is feasible to measure twist-3 effects at future high-energy electron-positron colliders to study hadronization mechanisms.

The development of next-generation, high-luminosity, and high-precision charged lepton beam facilities at JLab and MAMI has opened, in recent years, a new frontier in the exploration of weak interaction processes induced by electrons and positrons in the neutral current sector, which can also be used to study weak interaction processes induced by charged currents. In particular, these processes in the intermediate energy regime, spanning from a few hundred MeV to a few GeV, play a crucial role in understanding electroweak dynamics, nucleon structure, and hadronic response functions. This review presents a comprehensive theoretical study of weak charged-current interactions of electrons and positrons with free protons, encompassing quasielastic scattering in both the strangeness conserving and strangeness changing channels, together with inelastic production of the $P_{33}$(1232), $P_{11}$(1440), $S_{11}$(1535) resonances, $\eta$ and $K$ mesons, and associated production of strange particles. We analyse differential and total cross sections, polarization observables of the final baryons, and spin asymmetries of the proton target, demonstrating their sensitivity to the underlying weak interaction dynamics and to possible second class currents, thereby enabling stringent tests of G- and T- invariance. The explored kinematic region also offers a unique and independent opportunity to constrain the axial vector sector of the weak interaction, and it provides a discussion of alternative ways to determine the axial dipole mass in the quasielastic scattering region, a fundamental parameter that is in debate for nearly two decades. It also focuses on the study of the axial-vector form factors associated with the excitation of the $P_{33}(1232)$ resonance in a manner that is free from the uncertainties inherent in their determination from studies of (anti)neutrino-induced weak processes.