Papers

The widespread recognition of dilute, "fuzzy" cores in giant planets and massive volatile mantles in sub-Neptunes has made interior modelling a highly degenerate, multi-dimensional problem. To map these degeneracies, we present fuzzycore, an open-source static structural integrator with a unified layered architecture spanning rock-water-envelope sub-Neptunes through volatile-rich gas giants. The framework supports dense parameter sweeps over compositional gradients at fixed observed $(M_p, R_p, Z_{atm})$, enabling consistent forward-model exploration across the radius valley and the warm-giant population. It solves hydrostatic equilibrium across phase-separated iron, rock, and water layers beneath a gaseous envelope, using a highly resolved adaptive grid to model arbitrary heavy-element gradients and parameterising the dilution width to evaluate the structural impact of varying core-envelope boundaries. We benchmark fuzzycore against an evolution-derived Jupiter profile, demonstrating that when envelope boundary metallicities and integrated heavy-element budgets are matched, the macroscopic radius is robust to the exact functional topology of the gradient to within 2.3%, allowing smooth parameterisations to densely map interior degeneracies. Applying this to the sub-Neptune regime, we generate a water-world degeneracy atlas, quantifying how the required envelope metallicity and dilution width trade off against assumed water-mass fractions to reproduce a fixed planetary radius. By decoupling structural profiling from time-dependent energy transport and convective mixing, fuzzycore maps static degeneracies at resolutions that complement, rather than replace, fully evolutionary Henyey treatments, and serves as a forward-model backend for linking atmospheric metallicity priors from JWST and Ariel to deep interior architectures.

Although the rolling of a solid object is a mundane phenomenon in our daily life, its movement can be surprisingly complex and physically rich, particularly when the solid object has certain internal degrees of freedom, such as a half-filled plastic bottle of water. The translational and rotational motion of such an object couple in a highly nontrivial manner, often leading to seemingly unpredictable trajectories. We use a combination of experimental and theoretical approaches to analyze the rolling behaviors of a rigid cylinder that is partially filled with granular media, rolling on an inclined plane. We experimentally find a wide variety of rolling behaviors, including damped oscillation leading to a stop, meandering with avalanches coming to a stop, in addition to the stationary rolling and rolling with a constant acceleration. We address the occurrence of substantial slip during rolling, in contrast to what is often assumed. We classify the rolling behavior into three distinct phases and establish a phase diagram. We theoretically explain the transition between stopping and rolling and rationalize the phase boundary based on the rigid-body mechanics combined with the statics of granular media. Our study addresses the curiosity to understand the everyday phenomena and has significant implications for a wide range of physical applications from powder manufacturing technologies to robotics.

Reservoir computing has emerged as a powerful paradigm for harnessing the intrinsic dynamics of physical systems to perform complex information processing. Here, we theoretically and numerically investigate a reservoir computing system based on the two-dimensional discrete complex Ginzburg-Landau equation, a fundamental model describing driven-dissipative exciton-polariton lattices. We apply this framework to the challenging 52-class handwritten letter recognition task, decomposing temporal input signals to simulate word recognition. Our system achieves a high test accuracy, significantly outperforming a linear baseline. Through systematic parameter scans and nonlinear dynamics analysis, we establish a quantitative link between computational performance and the underlying physics: optimal classification occurs near the edge of stability, where the maximum Lyapunov exponent approaches zero. This principle holds universally across different control parameters, including nonlinear coupling and linear gain. Furthermore, we validate the practical feasibility of this approach by deploying the trained model on a Raspberry Pi 5 edge device. These results not only demonstrate the potential of polariton lattices for neuromorphic computing but also provide a general design principle for optimizing physical reservoir computing hardware.

Universal work extraction shows that input-state knowledge is unnecessary to attain the asymptotic free-energy rate. We ask whether this first-order universality extends to reliability, the exponential decay rate of extraction failure. In the work-battery fidelity formulation, we prove that no phase-independent Gibbs-preserving protocol can retain the state-aware Gibbs-preserving exponent throughout a coherent qubit time-translation orbit: at every positive target rate, its worst pointwise exponent is bounded by the corresponding state-aware thermal-operation value. The proof first establishes an exact finite-blocklength identity between phase-robust Gibbs-preserving extraction and state-aware thermal extraction. A trigonometric Remez inequality then upgrades this minimax identity to a pointwise theorem by ruling out exponential localization of the worst phase. For an explicit coherent-qubit family, known-phase Gibbs-preserving extraction is error free, whereas every phase-independent protocol has a finite worst-pointwise exponent. Thus input-state knowledge can be irrelevant to the first-order work rate yet indispensable for optimal exponential reliability.

We develop a quantum metrological framework for optimizing the probing of the Unruh effect using uniformly accelerated two-level atomic probes. The acceleration-dependent factor generated during the atom–field interaction is encoded in the atomic state and can be estimated through repeated quantum measurements. For a fixed total probe time, which characterizes the available measurement resource, we optimize the interrogation time of individual probes, the initial atomic state, and the corresponding measurement basis to minimize the estimation uncertainty. We show that the achievable precision is governed by the Fisher information accumulated per unit probe time. Under a fixed total probe time, shorter evolution times of individual probes allow for more sequential measurements, leading to a significant improvement in the estimation precision. The optimal initial state and measurement basis depend on both the acceleration factor and the probe evolution time. In particular, the excited state provides superior sensitivity in the weak-acceleration regime, whereas the ground state becomes advantageous for sufficiently large acceleration and long interaction times. Furthermore, we determine the minimum total probe time required to resolve the acceleration-dependent signal associated with the Unruh effect and demonstrate that this requirement can be substantially reduced by employing atomic systems with larger transition dipole moments. Our results establish an optimized quantum metrological strategy for probing acceleration-induced quantum effects and provide a systematic approach toward the experimental investigation of the Unruh effect.

The origin of asymmetry in the ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ of galaxies remains an elusive problem, largely due to the difficulties associated with distinguishing between its secular and external contributors. We have compiled a sample of local isolated galaxies from the UNAM-KIAS and the latest AMIGA samples with near-complete beam coverage and robust estimates of ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ line asymmetry. The ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ measurements are based on single-dish spectra sourced from five surveys: ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$-MaNGA, NIBLES, KLUN, ALFALFA, and xGASS. Our galaxies tend to be late-type, star-forming centrals at all masses but exhibit slightly lower specific star formation rates (sSFRs) and higher ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ contents than expected. The latter is likely driven by lower star formation efficiency, weaker outflows, and additionally, higher accretion rate of gas onto the galaxy at $M_\star\lesssim 10^{10.3}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$. AMIGA, however, shows systematically higher ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ masses than UNAM-KIAS, which we attribute to higher local densities probed by the latter. Furthermore, both samples show bar frequencies similar to normal spirals, indicating that the gravitational instabilities leading to bars predominantly stem from internal processes, as suggested by recent works. Our galaxies show unexpectedly high merger fractions, possibly due to sampling bias and/or the inability of the classification method to distinguish between flybys and encounters leading to coalescence. We also find higher sSFRs for asymmetric galaxies below $M_\star\sim 10^{10.3}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, in agreement with the predictions for centrals from the ${\scriptsize{\rm EAGLE}}$ simulation. We release the ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ measurements along with ancillary galaxy and halo properties for public use.

Reliable determination of the periodicity of multiatomic steps on high-Miller-index vicinal surfaces is often complicated by (i) the presence of relatively narrow terraces tilted at large angles relative to the scanning plane, and (ii) unavoidable distortions in the lateral direction resulting from creep and improper calibration of a piezo scanner. This work paves a way to overcome these obstacles using the period-dependent Fourier peaks suppression, which is invariant to affine distortions of the atomically resolved scanning probe microscopy images and to defects of the terrace atomic structure. We argue that the period of the triple-step arrays fabricated on vicinal Si(5 5 6) and Si(5 5 7) single-crystal wafers can be determined from raw scanning tunneling microscopy data, without preliminary corrections, with precision approaching the interatomic distance. We demonstrate that the intensities of the Fourier peaks in the differential maps, derived from raw topography images and containing stripes with the $7\times7$ reconstruction, strongly depend on the period of the stripes. The suppression of the ninth Fourier peak indicates that the regular array of triple steps formed on the Si(5 5 7) wafers has a period of $18b=5.99$ nm in projection onto the Si(1 1 1) terrace plane, where $b=0.333$ nm is the distance between atomic rows of the $1\times 1$ lattice in the $[\bar{1} \bar{1} 2]$ direction. This means that the nominally (5\,5\,7)-oriented Si wafers may correspond locally to the Si(8 8 11) orientation. The method can be applied to the precise analysis of other vicinal surfaces with narrow and wide terraces containing an integer number of Si(1 1 1)$7\times7$ unit cells.

In the framework of QCD sum rules, we obtain the form factors of the weak transition process $\mathcal{B}_{Q_{1}Q_{2}}(\frac{1}{2}^{+})\rightarrow\mathcal{B}_{Q_{1}}^{*}(\frac{3}{2}^{+})$. In this analysis, we eliminate the interferences of the low spin states and negative parity states to final results by employing 16 different dirac structures. As an application, these form factors are finally used to analyze the semileptonic decays of $\mathcal{B}_{Q_{1}Q_{2}}(\frac{1}{2}^{+})\rightarrow\mathcal{B}_{Q_{1}}^{*}(\frac{3}{2}^{+})l\nu$, where these decays are driven by the transition processes $c\rightarrow d/s+l^{+}+\nu_{l}$ and $b\rightarrow u+l^{-}+\overline{\nu}_{l}$. The predicted physical quantities include not only the partial widths, ratios of $\Gamma_{L}/\Gamma_{T}$ and the branching fractions, but also some observables such as the forward-backward asymmetry parameter $A_{FB}^{l}$ of lepton, the $P_z^{F}$ component of the polarization vector for daughter baryon and the longitudinal polarization of the lepton $P_z^{l}$. We hope all of these theoretical predictions about the weak decays will be helpful for studying the properties of doubly heavy baryons in experiments in the future.

Dust particles undergo chemical reactions in protoplanetary disks according to their environments, producing compositional diversity in planetary materials. Extraterrestrial records of irreversible reactions, such as crystallization of amorphous silicates, provide particularly strong constraints on the early evolution of the protosolar disk. In this study, we investigate such irreversible reactions and the spatiotemporal distribution of reacted dust in a viscously evolving disk using Monte Carlo particle-tracking simulations. We extend a predictive formula for the temperature at which irreversible reactions proceed efficiently ("reaction line"), originally developed for steady accretion disks, to viscously expanding disks. The spatiotemporal distribution of reacted dust is governed by the relative locations of the reaction line and the stagnation line, which separates inward and outward advection in the disk. The reaction line moves inward as the disk cools, while the stagnation line moves outward owing to the radial viscous spreading of the disk. When the reaction line lies far inside the stagnation line, the reacted dust remains inside the reaction line. On the other hand, when the reaction line lies near or beyond the stagnation line, the reacted dust located near the stagnation line or between the two lines is transported outward efficiently. It results in a radially broad distribution of reacted dust throughout the disk, including the outer regions where the temperatures remain too low for reactions. We assessed the disk conditions consistent with the crystalline silicates observed in Solar System comets and found that the protosolar disk was likely compact, moderately massive, and not strongly turbulent.

Materials with a kagome lattice host exotic quantum phenomena driven by the interplay between band topology, spin-orbit coupling, magnetism, and electronic correlations. While magnetism of kagome materials has been widely investigated, their unconventional superconductivity (SC) remains largely unexplored due to the limited availability of suitable materials. Here, we report evidence of unconventional SC in the ScIr$_{2-x}$Si$_{x}$ family by combining muon-spin spectroscopy measurements with band-structure calculations. The parent ScIr$_2$ undergoes a structural phase transition from a high-$T$ cubic- to a low-$T$ rhombohedral phase, while the Ir kagome layer remains, albeit slightly distorted. Although the structural transition is suppressed by Si substitution, the superconducting pairing of ScIr$_{2-x}$Si$_{x}$ remains well described by a two-gap model. Since at least one of the gaps has nodes, this indicates an unconventional SC. Its unconventional nature can be explained by the distinct flat bands occurring near the Fermi level, leading to strong electronic correlations in the ScIr$_{2-x}$Si$_{x}$ family. Moreover, the low-$T$ phase of ScIr$_2$ exhibits an Ir chiral chain; therefore, it can be classified as a topological chiral crystal. Overall, the unusual properties of the ScIr$_{2-x}$Si$_{x}$ family make it an interesting, albeit rare, system for studying the interplay between unconventional SC, flat bands, and chirality.

Infinite-layer nickelates have been widely viewed as cuprate analogs in which superconductivity emerges and forms a superconducting dome centered around 10-20% cation substitution. Here we show that pristine and stoichiometric PrNiO2, without cation substitution, exhibits intrinsic superconductivity characterized by zero resistance and diamagnetism in uncapped films. Through heterostructure engineering, we further exclude an interfacial origin of the superconductivity. Remarkably, zero-resistance superconductivity is consistently observed in trivalent-substituted PrNiO2, whereas it is rapidly suppressed by dilute divalent substitution. Combined with angle-resolved photoemission studies, these results indicate that such a new superconducting regime is confined to within 3% additional hole doping from pristine PrNiO2. Furthermore, this phase is separated from the previously established superconducting dome around ~ 20% divalent doping by a non-superconducting region in the phase diagram, and is further distinguished by a remarkably stronger upper-critical-field anisotropy. These findings establish a unique separated superconducting regime, suggesting that infinite-layer nickelates are not merely cuprate analogs but host distinct superconducting physics.

We construct a finite-nucleus-protected high-density extension of covariant density functionals by modifying only the isoscalar-vector channel outside the finite-nucleus calibration domain. The extension introduces three parameters controlling the strength, onset, and width of the high-density deformation, while the scalar and isovector channels are kept unchanged. A Bayesian analysis using heavy-ion flow constraints, massive-pulsar information, NICER mass-radius measurements, and the GW170817 tidal constraint shows that the original \ddme interaction is strongly disfavored relative to its protected high-density extension, with \(\ln K=\ln(Z_{\rm ext}/Z_{\rm base})=26.67\), where \(Z\) denotes the Bayesian evidence, after imposing a causal/stability filter on the reshaped EOS. In contrast, \ddpc serves as a reference functional for which the same extension is not required by the present data, giving \(\ln K=-0.44\). The result supports the interpretation that the proposed extension is not an unconstrained phenomenological patch: Bayesian evidence selects it only when demanded by the combined high-density data, while finite-nucleus observables remain unchanged within numerical precision.

We present a projection-free method for mapping two-dimensional polarization distributions using Hong-Ou -Mandel (HOM) interference. Conventional polarization characterization techniques, such as Stokes polarimetry, rely on sequential intensity measurements under multiple polarization projections, making their accuracy and sensitivity susceptible to the extinction ratio, calibration errors, and stability of the polarization analysis optics. Our approach overcomes these limitations by exploiting the sensitivity of two-photon bunching to polarization indistinguishability at a balanced beam splitter. Using a HOM interferometer driven by a high-brightness spontaneous parametric down-conversion photon-pair source at 810 nm, we introduced a birefringent vortex waveplate with spatially varying polarization rotations in one interferometer arm and measured the resulting coincidence counts with a high signal-to-noise ratio, enabling projection-free characterization of the sample-induced polarization transformations. This configuration maps spatially dependent polarization variations directly onto coincidence counts, providing a projection-free reconstruction of the polarization distribution. We demonstrate high-fidelity ($\sim$95$\%$) reconstruction of the spatial polarization pattern with an angular resolution of approximately $\sim0.4^\circ$. The use an estimator that saturates the Cramer-Rao bound, computed from the Fisher information, can improve resolution further at the cost of longer acquisition. The proposed quantum-optical technique offers a simple, scalable, and high-precision framework for characterizing structured polarization fields in birefringent materials.

Numerical simulation of droplet dynamics on complex surfaces with varying wettability is of great significance to both engineering applications and fundamental research. However, existing numerical methods still face challenges in accurately capturing interfacial interactions while preserving physical consistency and computational efficiency. In this work, a physically grounded and efficient smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) model is developed for droplet dynamics simulation. To reduce computational cost, a single-phase droplet modeling strategy is employed. At the interface, long-range interactions are approximated using the SPH kernel function, whereas short-range interactions are represented through pressure. Based on this treatment, an explicit relationship between the intermolecular potential energy and the macroscopic surface tension coefficient is further established, thereby reducing reliance on empirical parameter calibration. The proposed method is first validated through static wetting simulations, where the equilibrium contact angles agree well with the Young–Dupré equation. Further simulations of wetting and droplet impact demonstrate that the method is capable of capturing complex dynamic wetting behaviors.

Cities in the United States and worldwide concentrate populations with diverse incomes, demographics and health risks, making access to healthcare facilities and emergency services critical. Urban flooding amplifies congestion and further degrades healthcare accessibility, but its impacts are uneven within and across cities, often burdening underserved populations and underplanned areas. These risks are intensifying as rapid development, aging infrastructure and climate change increase urban flood exposure. Across 30 of the most populous US cities, we show that peak-hour congestion alone reduces accessibility by 4% to 29%, while flooding further reduces it by 2% to more than 90%. These losses depend on flood type, transportation design, infrastructure planning, health vulnerability and spatial inequality. Flooding also increases spatial inequality in healthcare access, but the social burden varies by city and flood type, with urban coastal flooding disproportionately affecting less socially vulnerable populations in the United States. Our findings suggest that targeted approaches for embedding flood resilience in transportation and healthcare systems will be more effective than universal strategies, while allowing cities to learn from diverse urban regions facing similar accessibility risks.

Photonic cluster states are fundamental resource for measurement-based quantum computing (MBQC), which is a promising approach for scalable quantum computing. These highly entangled states enable computation with applying local measurements rather than gate operations, which makes them essential for fault-tolerant quantum computing. Generation of the photonic cluster states requires high-quality entanglement and stability, which can be done by making use of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED), which is embedding quantum dots (QDs) into photonic microcavities. This method enables controlled single-photon emission and the entanglement of them, helping with key challenges in generating photonic cluster states. Enhancing the generation of the photonic cluster state requires improvement in the quality factor (Q-factor) and therefore, cooperativity of cavity and QD systems. A high Q-factor helps with reduction in photon loss and decoherence, ensuring more stable and high-fidelity quantum states. It also enables better light-matter interactions, improving cluster state quality. Cooperativity, which is a measure for the light-matter coupling strength relative to dissipation, directly impacts photon emission efficiency. Optimization of these parameters improves entanglement generation, which is essential for producing high-quality photonic cluster states. Therefore, optimized cavities are essential for improving the generation of the photonic cluster states. Scalability is also an important parameter for the generation of the large-scale cluster states used in quantum computing. In this paper, after reviewing MBQC, cluster states, and the generation of the photonic cluster states, we investigate the deterministic generation of the photonic cluster state resource for the purpose of MBQC, and highlights the importance of the inverse design techniques for this goal.

Ferroelectric memories based on the wurtzite-structured ferroelectrics are projected to store information for more than 3 million years at 150C. These results are extracted by combining standard domain wall motion limited switching kinetics with the near-by-electrode injection model for opposite state retention in ferroelectric random access memory. This impressive performance is greatly aided by switching only a fraction of the total polarization to store data, in order to limit the initial imprint variation of the devices - an effect that is universally observed in films with different thicknesses (60 nm - 270 nm) and different compounds (AlScN and AlScBN). Paradoxically, yet systematically, this reduction in initial imprint consistently results in larger switching polarization after a given time, compared to the fully switching state and 5-7 orders of magnitude improved opposite state retention. Finally, partial switching is able to simultaneously boost endurance against premature polarization loss and breakdown, making it a promising strategy for improved operation of ferroelectric devices with large spontaneous polarization, in particularly wurtzite-structured compounds.

We present a statistical study of low-surface-brightness (LSB) tidal structures in two large samples of edge-on disk galaxies. Our primary sample comprises 5606 galaxies from the Edge-on Galaxies In SDSS (EGIS) catalog, analyzed using imaging from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, supplemented by Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) data and deep Apache Point Observatory (APO) follow-up observations for selected objects. To assess the robustness of our results, we also examine an independent sample of 14,237 galaxies from the Edge-on Galaxies in the Pan-STARRS survey (EGIPS) catalog. All images were processed using a homogeneous procedure optimized for the detection of faint diffuse emission. Tidal structures were identified through visual inspection and classified into established morphological categories, with careful treatment of imaging artifacts and galactic cirrus contamination. We detected tidal features in 324 EGIS galaxies and 690 EGIPS galaxies, corresponding to incidence rates of 5.8% and 4.8%, respectively. Restricting the analysis to completeness-limited subsamples yields consistent fractions of 6.4% and 6.2%. At a typical DESI $r$-band surface-brightness depth of 28.6 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ these values are consistent with previous observational studies but lower than predictions from many cosmological simulations. Recent high-resolution simulations, however, produce incidence rates much closer to those measured here, suggesting that numerical resolution, realistic modeling of observational and instrumental effects, and galaxy formation physics are all critical for accurately predicting the abundance of LSB tidal structures.

The ability to control superconducting pairing symmetry is crucial for designing unconventional and topological superconductors, yet practical tuning parameters beyond chemical doping remain limited. In this study, we investigate the effect of a tunable sublattice staggered potential on the pairing symmetry in the doped honeycomb Hubbard model. Determinant quantum Monte Carlo at finite temperature and constrained-path quantum Monte Carlo at zero temperature are employed to compute spin susceptibilities and pairing correlations in different channels. We find that increasing the staggered potential suppresses antiferromagnetic fluctuations and, at low doping, induces a transition in the dominant pairing tendency from $d+id$-wave to $f_n$-wave, with consistent results from both quantum Monte Carlo methods. In contrast, at higher doping levels, the system remains dominated by $d+id$-wave pairing even under an enhanced staggered potential. Moreover, strengthening the on-site interaction $U$ enhances the dominant pairing channel, underscoring the essential role of electronic correlations. Our results establish the staggered potential as a practical band-engineering tool for selecting unconventional pairing symmetries without varying the doping concentration, providing inspiration for designing graphene-based artificial superconductors and related doped band insulators such as Li${}_x$MNCl.

Working at tree level and at a common renormalization scale, we examine the family-separated seesaw ansatz of Z.-z.~Xing, arXiv:2605.27049v2. For a fixed light-heavy pairing, imposing $m_iU_{\alpha i}U_{\beta i}+M_iR_{\alpha i}R_{\beta i}=0$ together with $UU^\dagger+RR^\dagger=\mathbf{1}$ yields the general exact solution $U=VD^{-1/2}$ and $R=iVE\,\operatorname{diag}\!\left(\sqrt{r_i/(1+r_i)}\right)$, where $r_i=m_i/M_i$, $D=\operatorname{diag}(1+r_i)$, $V$ is unitary, and $E=\operatorname{diag}(\eta_i)$ with $\eta_i=\pm1$. Consequently, $U^\dagger U$ and $R^\dagger R$ are diagonal, and distinct columns are exactly orthogonal. An exact unitary completion gives, in a convenient sterile basis, $M_R=D_N-D_\nu$ and $Y_\nu=(i/v)VE(D_\nu D_N)^{1/2}$, so that $Y_\nu^\dagger Y_\nu=D_\nu D_N/v^2$ is diagonal. In the canonical domain $M_i>m_i$, the singlet masses relevant to the unbroken-phase decay description are $\widehat{M}_i=M_i-m_i>0$, distinct from the broken-phase heavy eigenvalues $M_i$. Hence, at the scale of exact alignment, all standard unflavored and flavored nonresonant one-loop decay asymmetries vanish in the nondegenerate perturbative regime. For $m_i=0$, the paired Yukawa column and decay width vanish instead. The flavor-summed rephasing-invariant combination used in the proposed asymmetry also cancels identically, although individual CP-odd invariants may remain nonzero. Thus the proposed correlation between low-energy CP violation and these decay asymmetries does not follow from exact family separation. This result does not address radiative misalignment, resonant or coherent dynamics, or thermal and higher-loop sources. We also correct the proposed heavy-mass reconstruction formulas and clarify the implications for neutrinoless double-beta decay, Yukawa scaling, parameter counting, and light-heavy mass orderings.

We present a combined experimental and numerical investigation of the preferential alignment of Kolmogorov-size, high-aspect-ratio fibers in turbulent channel flow at friction Reynolds numbers $\mathit{Re}_{\tau}=300$ and $550$. Time-resolved volumetric measurements in the TU Wien Turbulent Water Channel are used to simultaneously track fibers and surrounding tracer particles, enabling the reconstruction of fiber trajectories together with a coarse-grained estimate of the local velocity-gradient tensor (VGT). Complementary direct numerical simulations (DNS) of channel flow laden with prolate ellipsoids provide a reference point-particle description. The analysis focuses on the channel core, where the experimental data recover the canonical alignment of vorticity with the intermediate strain-rate eigenvector, thereby supporting the reliability of the reconstructed VGT. We show that fibers preferentially align with the local vorticity direction, while weaker but still non-random alignments are observed with the strain eigenvectors. By measuring finite-time deformation along fiber trajectories through the left Cauchy–Green tensor, we further show that the strongest alignment occurs with the leading principal direction of Lagrangian stretching. The comparison with DNS shows overall good agreement, while deviations at higher Reynolds number suggest increasing finite-size filtering effects.

Quantum convolution provides a discrete-variable analogue of classical convolution, with the mean state capturing the stabilizer structure preserved under repeated convolution. We establish a finite-step entropy hierarchy generated by compatible stabilizer dephasings. Along every compatible isotropic flag, the entropy increases toward the mean-state entropy ceiling, while the relative-entropy distance to the mean state decomposes exactly into successive coherence losses and a terminal classical nonuniformity. Optimizing over compatible subspaces yields an intrinsic entropy profile of the state. For quantum convolutional channels, Weyl covariance reduces the one-shot classical communication problem to minimal output entropy. A spectral-transfer argument shows that suitable stabilizer inputs reproduce stabilizer-measurement distributions of the environment as channel-output spectra. This gives a computable Holevo lower bound over all complete stabilizer measurements; its compatible restriction is characterized by the entropy hierarchy and refines the previous mean-state bound of Bu, Gu, and Jaffe. The bound is exact for stabilizer-diagonal environments, for which the Holevo capacity is strongly additive, and yields a single-letter formula for a nonstabilizer qutrit family. The same family also exhibits a coexistence region with simultaneously positive classical and quantum communication rates

We explore coherent ergotropy extraction in quantum batteries from a resource-geometric point of view. For an initial state $\rho$, we quantify the coherent extraction process by the coherent ergotropy $\mathcal{E}_c(\rho)$ and the coherent extraction distance $D_c^{\rm ext}(\rho)$ between the active state $\sigma_\rho$ and the passive state $P_\rho$. This defines the geometric power capacity $\Pi_c(\rho)=\mathcal{E}_c(\rho)/D_c^{\rm ext}(\rho)$, which measures the coherent ergotropy released unit minimal unitary distance. We prove that, for any driving Hamiltonian satisfying $\|V_t\|\leq\nu$, the actual coherent discharging power is bounded by $P_c^{\rm ext}(\rho;V_t)\leq \nu\Pi_c(\rho)$, showing that $\Pi_c(\rho)$ is a capacity under unit driving norm rather than the power of a particular protocol. General bounds on $\Pi_c(\rho)$ are derived by combining relative entropy bounds on coherent ergotropy with geometric bounds on the coherent extraction distance. We also formulate coherence measure induced bounds and protocol-corrected capacities involving the effective speed of a given Hamiltonian. Qubit and qutrit examples demonstrate that $\Pi_c(\rho)$ captures a resource-geometric feature of coherent discharging beyond coherent ergotropy or coherence measures alone.

We introduce and study a periodically kicked version of a one-dimensional spin-$1/2$ Ising model with contiguous $p$-body interactions. At specific interaction strengths of the model, we establish an exact Floquet interaction $\textit{order-range}$ mapping: the Floquet evolution operator of the $p$-body Ising model is exactly mapped to a two body Ising model with interactions having maximum range $p-1$ and exactly determined couplings. Upon further tuning the kicking strength, the mapped model becomes dual-unitary, thus providing an explicit family of $p$-body dual unitary models. We then determine exact entanglement dynamics of the $p$-body model for a class of solvable initial states at all times. We further illustrate the nontrivial structures that can emerge from the $\textit{order-range}$ mapping using a minimal example of $p=3$ and generalize it for all odd $p$. These findings provide a systematic route to constructing and studying $p$-body dual-unitary Floquet models.

We investigate the geometric quantum discord of bipartite Werner states influenced by Hawking radiation in the quantum atmosphere of a Schwarzschild black hole. We find that the geometric quantum discord in the physically accessible region exhibits a nonmonotonic behavior: it first decreases and then increases as the normalized radial distance increases, while the discord in the physically inaccessible region shows the exact opposite trend. A pronounced extremum of geometric quantum discord occurs precisely at the position corresponding to the peak intensity of Hawking radiation. Furthermore, we find that the Hartle Hawking constant and the event horizon radius exert opposite effects on the strength of quantum correlation redistribution: a larger Hartle Hawking constant enhances the redistribution effect, whereas a larger event horizon radius suppresses it.

Biological systems across scales, along with many engineering problems, must control noisy systems with limited information. Here we study information-limited feedback control of stochastic systems to achieve target steady states, and derive a lower bound on the information rate from controlled system to controller. This framework allows us to obtain performance-information Pareto frontiers for wide-ranging control problems with limited information. For systems with state-independent passive dynamics, the bound is saturated by an explicit optimal control protocol which probabilistically time-reverses the passive dynamics. We showcase these results through applications to nonlinear particle localization, microbial navigation, and experimentally realized information engines.

Oscillator-based Ising machines, in which the phases of coupled self-sustaining oscillators evolve toward decreasing an Ising Hamiltonian, are commonly interpreted as physical realizations of the Ising model. This interpretation, however, requires the phase dynamics generated by the physical oscillator network to match a prescribed Ising dynamics. Here we show that this correspondence is generally not guaranteed. For arbitrary self-sustaining oscillators under weak coupling, we derive the physical phase interaction from the harmonic overlap between the injected waveform and the perturbation projection vector (also referred to as impulse sensitivity function). We find that uncompensated harmonic phase mismatches between these two quantities generate even components in the physical coupling function, causing a network with the correct coupling topology to implement a non-Ising dynamics. We further show that delayed coupling provides a universal phase-compensation mechanism. For a fixed delay, we derive a condition on the delay under which the even components is minimized in the sense of L2-norm, and oscillator examples confirm that the predicted delay substantially suppresses the even components and brings the realized coupling function closer to the prescribed odd interaction. We then show that a periodically modulated delay can, under suitable moment conditions, eliminate the even components in the phase dynamics. These results establish a general design principle for implementing prescribed energy-based dynamics in physical oscillator networks.

Solid oxide fuel cells enable efficient conversion of hydrogen into electricity. However, the limited availability of materials for their cathode, anode, and electrolyte remains a concern. This study introduces three high-entropy oxide perovskites as novel electrolyte materials for fuel cells (Ba0.50Sr0.50)(Ti0.33Zr0.33Hf0.33)O3 with s0/d0 cations, (Ba0.50Sr0.50)(Ga0.33In0.33Sn0.33)O3 with s0/d10 cations, and (Ba0.50Sr0.50)(Ti0.33Zr0.33Sn0.33)O3 with mixed s0/d0/d10 cations. Through sequential sintering by high-pressure torsion processing and calcination, these perovskites were synthesized and then printed with a thickness of about 6-10 microns on a Ni-SrZr0.5Ce0.4Y0.1O3 substrate as an anode and then coated with Ba0.5La0.5CoO3 as a cathode. Electrochemical analysis and impedance spectroscopy show that (Ba0.50Sr0.50)(Ti0.33Zr0.33Sn0.33)O3 with s0/d0/d10 cations exhibits the best performance with negligible current leakage and lowest ohmic resistance, while its maximum power density reaches 0.53 W.cm-2 at 973 K. Complementary synchrotron X-ray absorption and photoelectron spectroscopy analyses indicate that the superior performance of (Ba0.50Sr0.50)(Ti0.33Zr0.33Sn0.33)O3 correlates with its heterogeneous electronic structure characterized by tailored unoccupied d-orbital states, and favorable local metal-oxygen bond lengths and extrinsic oxygen vacancies. This investigation demonstrates the significance of high-entropy perovskites with mixed s0/d0/d10 cations as new rare-earth metal-free ion-conducting electrolytes, particularly for protonic solid oxide fuel cells.

We show that the finite group reduction of the Dubrovin-Zhang/Double Ramification hierarchy associated with a semisimple CohFT preserves its bihamiltonian structure and its tau structure. By applying this result to the orbifold Gromov-Witten theory with the target $\mathbb{P}^1_{2,2,2,2}$, we obtain two non-equivalent integrable hierarchies which can be associated with the Frobenius manifold structure on the Hurwitz space $M_{1;1}$, and we show that one of them is equivalent to the genus one topological recursion.

Chirality in a discrete $Z_q$ spin interaction distinguishes clockwise from counterclockwise phase differences, but its manifestation in continuous nonlinear dynamics is unclear. We show that any pairwise $Z_q$ Hamiltonian admits a unique equilibrium-preserving embedding into a continuous phase-energy landscape that matches the discrete energy on the $q$-state phase grid, where every grid point is stationary. This embedding reveals that a $Z_q$ kernel is nonchiral if and only if the sine components of the relaxation vanish. Chirality of the discrete $Z_q$ model is therefore exactly the odd part of the continuous phase interaction. In the induced nonlinear phase dynamics, this odd part becomes an orientation-dependent phase shift in the multi-harmonic coupling, and chiral reversal flips this shift while preserving the coupling magnitudes. In self-sustaining oscillator networks, the shift is further realized as a direction-dependent delay. Transistor-level ring-oscillator simulations validate the predicted phase locking and reversal of directed phase bias. These results show that algebraic handedness in a discrete spin Hamiltonian can be represented as tunable time-domain asymmetry in continuous nonlinear dynamics.