Papers

In contrast to conventional linear coupling frameworks, the proposed work investigated the nonlinear effects that become more significant in the strong field regime of a black hole. We have investigated a new class of Kalb Ramond black holes generated by a nonlinear logarithmic coupling of the field, referred to as a Logarithmic Kalb Ramond black hole. The logarithmic coupling introduces strong-field modifications to the spacetime geometry, leading to significant departures from the Schwarzschild and Reissner Nordstrom BHs. We analyze the motion of test particles using the effective potential formalism and derive the conserved energy and angular momentum for circular equatorial geodesics. The stability of circular orbits and the location of the innermost stable circular orbit are examined, revealing a strong dependence on the model parameters Q, l, and $\beta$. The epicyclic frequencies (radial, vertical, and azimuthal) together with the associated periastron precession demonstrate that nonlinear logarithmic corrections can substantially modify quasi periodic oscillation observables. We further investigate the Hawking temperature and energy emission rate, which show that the nonlinear coupling also impacts distinct imprints on the thermodynamic behavior and evaporation characteristics of the black hole. Our results also identify the BH parameters as key regulators of the orbital dynamics, oscillatory properties, and thermal evolution, providing a unified framework for probing nonlinear KR gravity through strong-field astrophysical phenomena.

Capillary thinning of a liquid bridge is an exemplar of complex flow, where the macroscopic geometry couples tightly to the microscopic evolution of polymer conformations. Since its inception, capillary-breakup rheometry (CBR) has been viewed as a tool for measuring a single relaxation time. Yet experiments show that the apparent relaxation time depends systematically on polymer concentration, device geometry, and the preparation protocol. We argue that this variability is not a flaw, but evidence that thinning should be treated as a benchmark complex flow for testing constitutive models. We recast the output of a CBR experiment as the self-selected elastic strain rate, expressed through the elastic Weissenberg number Wi_e, rather than an apparent relaxation time, and organize it in an elastocapillary Pipkin diagram – Wi_e against a geometry-controlled Deborah number. A single-mode, mid-filament stress balance yields a family of Pipkin curves with universal features – a low-De_0 plateau and a finite-extensibility-constrained rise – that a scaling analysis collapses onto a master curve, with an elastic-onset-referenced Deborah number absorbing the unmeasured initial prestretch. The Conformation- and Concentration-Dependent Drag (C2D2) model, acting through coil-stretch hysteresis, lowers the plateau below the Entov-Hinch value and organizes data spanning decades in molecular weight and concentration, across a range of devices, where the classical FENE-P model cannot. The Pipkin diagram framework offers a path toward master plots for classes of polymer solutions, clarifying what is universal in extension-dominated flows.

The symmetry properties of the phase diagram of dense quark matter composed of $u$ and $d$ quarks with three colors have been investigated in the framework of massless (3+1)-dimensional Nambu–Jona-Lasinio (NJL) and QCD models. It turns out that in the presence of baryon $\mu_B$, isospin $\mu_I$, chiral $\mu_5$ and chiral isospin $\mu_{I5}$ chemical potentials, the Lagrangians of these models are invariant under the so-called dual transformation ${\cal D}$. In this paper, it has been shown that the path integration measure of the corresponding partition functions is also invariant under ${\cal D}$. Consequently, the entire NJL model (or QCD) thermodynamic potentials are dually symmetric. In particular, it means that in the total $(\mu_B,\mu_I,\mu_5,\mu_{I5})$-phase portraits of these models the chiral symmetry breaking (CSB) and charged pion condensation (PC) phases are arranged dually conjugate (or symmetrically) to each other. Dual symmetry between CSB and charged PC phases of quark matter is a fundamental property of massless dense QCD; it should be observed in the framework of any approximation to the QCD phase diagram, and have important implications for studies of the phase structure.

The chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect poses a longstanding puzzle: how weak spin-orbit coupling (SOC) within a helical molecule produces strong spin polarization. We uncover a counterintuitive phenomenon, a "one-enhanced, one-suppressed" bifurcation of spin-resolved mobility relative to the SOC-free case. We trace this phenomenon to an analytical sign reversal of spin-dependent transmission and identify it as the microscopic origin of CISS. The phenomenon is found absent in achiral systems and single-stranded DNA, validating our theoretical picture. Our findings resolve the core puzzle and establish the origin of CISS.

QBism interprets quantum theory as a normative discipline for an agent's probability assignments and their revision across possible experience. This paper develops a logical formalization of that picture. A well-formed core datum consists of an admissible prior space, a finite family of actual measurements, Born kernels, and update kernels. For each such datum, we introduce a guarded dynamic language for histories and posterior states and prove a global reduction theorem. We next consider effectively semialgebraic data over an effectively presented real closed field. For data in this class, we translate the fragment without dynamic operators into first-order formulas in the corresponding language of ordered rings, thereby reducing validity to first-order reasoning over real closed fields. Together, the reduction and first-order translation yield a sound and complete recursive calculus and a decision procedure for validity. Finally, assuming a symmetric informationally complete (SIC) reference measurement, we show that quantum theory in finite dimensions realizes the framework through SIC coordinates, POVMs, and quantum instruments. We also prove that the corresponding SIC image satisfies the standard qplex geometry conditions, namely the consistency bounds and the lower polar condition, and that under explicit coefficient field hypotheses the resulting quantum datum is effectively semialgebraic.

We revisit the conditions for perfect electromagnetic absorption in a homogeneous lossy layer on a reflecting substrate. Using phasor diagram analysis, we demonstrate a fundamental physical similarity between the high-refractive-index limit (classic Dallenbach quarter-wavelength absorbers) and the epsilon-near-zero regime (half-wavelength resonances). In both extremes, perfect absorption relies on long cyclic multipath propagation and gradual amplitude decay. Crucially, we uncover that in the intermediate regime near $n = 1$, this picture changes fundamentally: the trapping efficiency drastically increases, and backscattering is eliminated almost instantaneously within a single round-trip. Using temporal coupled-mode theory, we prove that this low-contrast state minimizes the system's quality factor to a global minimum of $Q \approx 0.69$. This critically damped state mirrors universal highly damped stabilization principles found in acoustics and mechanics, driving anomalous spectral broadening and enabling nearly instantaneous dissipation of ultrashort pulses without time-domain ringing.

Denote by ${\mathcal A}$ the Grassmann algebra with a countable number of generators, by ${\mathcal A}_{\overline 0}$, ${\mathcal A}_{\overline 1}$ its even and odd parts. We consider supergroups as groups over $\mathcal A$. Consider the Neveu–Schwarz Lie superalgebra $\mathfrak{ns}= \mathfrak{ns}_{\overline 0}\oplus \mathfrak{ns}_{\overline 1}$. Consider its Grassmannization $\mathfrak{ns}(\mathcal{A}):= (\mathfrak{ns}_{\overline 0}\otimes {\mathcal A}_{\overline 0}) \oplus (\mathfrak{ns}_{\overline 1}\otimes {\mathcal A}_{\overline 1})$ and the corresponding supergroup $\mathrm{NS}(\mathcal {A})$. We describe this group explicitly in different ways. Next, we define a complexification $\Gamma({\mathcal A})$ of $\mathrm{NS}({\mathcal A})$. It is a semigroup, whose elements are superannuli of dimension $1|1$ equipped with contact structures; the multiplication is gluing of such superannuli. Under some inequalities for parameters, we show that unitary representations of $\mathrm{NS}({\mathcal A})$ admit extensions to representations of $\Gamma(\mathcal {A})$. We do not assume that the reader has prior knowledge of Lie superalgebras and supergroups.

Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) is widely used for crystalline phase identification, and recent machine learning approaches have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in accelerating diffraction interpretation. However, reliable phase assignment still requires transparent, evidence-based validation, particularly for complex samples where interpretability and expert assessment remain essential. Search-match methods provide a robust and complementary strategy, yet many implementations are proprietary, limiting accessibility and reproducibility. Here, we introduce XMatcher, an open-source, evidence-driven framework that integrates diffraction databases, matching algorithms, and interactive visualization into a portable workflow. XMatcher generates theoretical diffraction libraries from crystal structures, retrieves candidate phases through chemical and diffraction constraints, applies global angular-shift correction and one-to-one peak matching, and reports quantitative agreement metrics together with peak-level evidence. Its AutoMix module extends identification to multiphase patterns by evaluating candidate phase combinations, estimating non-negative diffraction contributions, and visualizing phase-specific peak distributions. Through a local graphical interface, XMatcher enables ranked candidate inspection, interactive pattern comparison, PDF/CIF-based whole-pattern validation, and reproducible analysis export. By exposing both supporting and conflicting evidence rather than relying on a single similarity score, XMatcher provides an interpretable and reproducible platform for crystalline phase identification.

Context. Accretion streamers connected to protostellar disks and/or envelopes are thought to transport material across several thousand of au. Whether the motions of the gas comprising these streamers are dominated by gravity, large scale external turbulence or the action of magnetic fields is still under scrutiny. Aims. The aim of this work is to understand the role of the magnetic fields in the star-formation processes, in particular the role that magnetic forces have in potentially leading flows of gas and the accretion onto the envelopes and disks orbiting protostars. Methods. First, we try to identify the large-scale accretion streamers toward the high-mass Young Stellar Object GGD 27-MM1 and fit their trajectories using the so-called Mendoza's model, a modification of the classical model of pure gravitational infalling motion of fluid particles in a potential well. Second, we estimate the strength of the magnetic field associated with the streamers. Then, we determine if the streamers are dominated by magnetic or centrifugal forces. Results. Inspecting the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) H$_2$CO cube we were able to identify four accretion streamers spreading up to $\sim$7,000 au and fit their trajectories in the position-position-velocity space. The polarized continuum emission reveals a good alignment of the magnetic field and the trajectory of the streamers. Using the Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi method, we derive estimates for the magnetic field strength, find that the streamers are sub-alfvénic, and discuss (after estimating energy terms for turbulence, ordered motions, magnetic forces and gravity) a possible qualitative scenario in which, the gravitational well of the GGD 27-MM1 protostar dominates streamer gas motions over turbulence and magnetic forces at distances of $\sim 3,000$ au.

We investigate the reaction mechanism of $K^-p \to \phi\Sigma^0$ within a hybrid Regge approach based on effective Lagrangians. The nonresonant background includes Reggeized $t$-channel $K$ and $K^*$ exchanges, together with ground-state $\Sigma$ and nucleon exchanges in the $s$ and $u$ channels, respectively. To describe the structures observed at $3.0 \leqslant P_{\rm Lab} \leqslant 4.5$ GeV, we include the high-mass $\Sigma(2620)$ and $\Sigma(3000)$ resonances and examine the spin-parity assignments $J^P = 1/2^\pm$, $3/2^\pm$, and $5/2^\pm$. The $K^*$-Reggeon exchange dominates the forward-angle cross sections, whereas the smaller $K$-Reggeon contribution is important for the total cross section at low energies and for the spin-density matrix elements. The nonresonant background alone is not sufficient to reproduce the local structures in the total cross section or the differential cross sections at large $-t'$. Including the two resonances, particularly the $\Sigma(3000)$, substantially improves the agreement with the available data. The $J^P=5/2^-$ assignment for the $\Sigma(3000)$ provides a reasonable overall description, although the present data do not permit a definitive determination.

The dynamic fracture behaviour of two moving collinear Griffith cracks in an initially stressed dry sandy medium subjected to concentrated crack-face loading and moving punch pressure is investigated. A moving coordinate system transforms the transient problem into a steady state formulation, while the effects of initial stress and sandiness are incorporated into the governing equations. Fourier integral transforms are employed to obtain the characteristic equation and the transformed traction displacement relations. The crack face, symmetry, and outer surface conditions reduce the problem to coupled Cauchy type singular integral equations. For a sufficiently thick strip, an asymptotic kernel reduction is developed, and the resulting equations are solved analytically using the finite Hilbert transform. Closed form expressions are derived for the crack density functions, Mode I stress intensity factors at the inner and outer crack tips, and the crack opening displacement. Several limiting cases are recovered from the general formulation, providing analytical consistency checks. The results demonstrate the combined influence of crack speed, crack geometry, initial stress, sandiness, and moving punch loading on crack tip intensification and crack opening. The proposed analytical framework provides useful insights for fracture assessment and the design of transportation infrastructure, geotechnical systems, underground excavations, and other engineering structures involving dry sandy media subjected to moving loads.

We present a continuous geometric framework that models the discrete algebraic operations of the Transformer architecture as an integro-differential equation (IDE) on a semantic fiber bundle $\calE = \calM \times \R^d$. Beginning from a single geometric axiom – that the token sequence forms a discrete $1$-manifold equipped with a canonical measure lattice – we translate every core component of the modern Transformer (RMSNorm, RoPE, Softmax Attention, FFN, Residual Stream, SGD, Weight Decay) into a cohesive vocabulary of differential geometry, measure theory, and stochastic calculus. The resulting framework yields quantitative predictions spanning entropic optimal transport (Attention as a Schrödinger bridge) and non-equilibrium thermodynamics (SGD as Itô diffusion violating detailed balance). We conduct a six-part experimental campaign across five architectures (Qwen3, LLaMA\nobreakdash-3.1, Gemma\nobreakdash-3, GPT-2, Mistral) spanning $124$M to $8$B parameters. The empirical observables are quantitatively consistent with the geometric predictions: the $\epsilon^{-1/2}$ Lipschitz scaling calibration at machine precision ($R^2 = 1.000$), the Lie–Trotter operator-splitting torsion, the symmetric ablation instability confirming the Dual-Law of Topological Stability, the $\calO(1/\sqrt{k})$ thermodynamic suppression of Poincaré recurrence on the RoPE torus, the thermodynamic context-limit phase transition, and the Non-Equilibrium Steady State parameter vortex – verified across two optimizers (AdamW and Pure SGD) to exclude momentum artifacts. The results demonstrate that analyzing Transformers through the lens of continuous stochastic differential geometry provides a predictive descriptive vocabulary for the stability limits, context bounds, and optimization dynamics of Large Language Models.

Microlensing, the influence of stars within a galactic gravitational lens, has emerged as a powerful probe of compact mass and, through differential magnification, sub-parsec scale sources at cosmological distances. The recent discovery of a double-source-plane gravitational lens system in which the most distant source is a quasar offers the prospect of compound microlensing, in which quasar light rays are influenced by compact masses within the two foreground lensing galaxies. Here, we present the first numerical simulations of this "microlensing of microlensing". We consider the recently discovered "Einstein zig-zag" lens, J1721+8842, as a fiducial case, and construct microlensing magnification maps for each of the six quasar images in this system. Due to the secondary microlensing effects of the myriad of initial microimages, the resulting maps contain more complex caustic features than seen in the case of single plane microlensing. This is reflected in the expected lightcurves seen for each of the images.

The redshifted 21 cm line from the hyperfine structure of neutral hydrogen atoms is a promising tracer for the three-dimensional evolution of our universe. Its broad spatial and temporal coverage is crucial for understanding the complex nature of dark matter and dark energy. However, it is very challenging to directly detect the 21 cm signal due to the existence of radio foreground contaminants that are orders of magnitude brighter. Therefore, mitigating the foreground contamination becomes an indispensable task for detecting the 21 cm signal, which is also expected to be correlated with the dark-matter-dominated large-scale structure. The cross-correlations between the neutral hydrogen intensity mapping and galaxy surveys in the future can not only confirm a detection of the 21 cm signal but can also be a complementary probe for 21 cm cosmology. To meet the precision requirements for cosmological studies, it is important to investigate the complex features of the estimated cross-correlations using numerical simulations. In this work, we simulate the low-redshift HI observations and narrow-band optical surveys in the future and obtain the foreground- and bias-mitigated HI-galaxy cross-power spectra, with which we perform a Bayesian analysis to infer cosmological parameters of dynamical dark energy model. The method developed in this work will be important for cosmological studies with the 21 cm intensity mapping.

Blind quantum computation is a cryptographic primitive that allows a limited-capability client to delegate its complex computation to a remote server without revealing its data and/or computation. This branch of quantum cryptography has been bifurcated into two distinct primitives, quantum homomorphic encryption (concerning the security of only data) and universal blind quantum computation (concerning the security of data and the computing algorithm). These primitives have immense applicability in problems like secure cloud computing, secure quantum variational algorithms, quantum federated learning, and secure multiparty computation. However, no software tools exist for the rapid prototyping of such protocols, hindering the academic interrogation for potential applications. In this paper, we describe the development of the first such library for transpiling circuits written in Qiskit to its blind counterpart, which can then be delegated in a client-server architecture without revealing the client's data and/or computation. The proposed library is designed in modular and reusable component layers, enabling easier scalability to newer BQC primitives and robustness against changes in underlying primitives. We show the implementation of these primitives to a blind variational quantum classifier for the IRIS dataset.

Accurate and efficient modeling of magnetic potential energy surfaces remains challenging because spin-polarized first-principles calculations for diverse non-collinear spin-lattice configurations are computationally demanding. Here we introduce the Spin Tensor Equivariant Potential (STEP), a magnetic machine-learning interatomic potential that treats vector magnetic moments as continuous geometric degrees of freedom and embeds them in an equivariant representation. By coupling the central spin representation to its local spin-lattice environment through a Center-Environment Tensor Product, STEP introduces a physics-informed bias while preserving translational invariance and $\mathrm{SO}(3)$ equivariance and supporting feature-level time-reversal symmetrization. Learning-curve analysis on monolayer CrI$_3$ shows that STEP achieves pronounced data efficiency, with higher-order tensor channels and iterative center-environment couplings leading to steep learning curves for energy, force, and magnetic force errors. On public FeAl, CrN, and Fe benchmarks, STEP achieves competitive or improved accuracy compared with recent magnetic machine-learning potentials. Using a compact but representative CrI$_3$ dataset, STEP reproduces phonon dispersions and magnon spectra with high fidelity, capturing subtle anisotropic magnetic interactions. For Fe$_2$Mo$_3$O$_8$, STEP further provides a quantitative description of magnon–phonon hybridization and reproduces its characteristic magnon polaron dispersion. Finally, spin dynamics simulations driven by STEP yield Curie temperatures for monolayer CrI$_3$ and bcc Fe in good agreement with experiments. These results establish STEP as a physically informed, data-efficient, and scalable framework for modeling spin-lattice coupling, magnetic excitations, and finite-temperature magnetic behavior.

We show that scalar discrete-series unitary irreducible representations (UIRs) $\Pi_{p,0}$ ($p=1,2,\cdots$) of the de Sitter (dS) group $\mathrm{SO}_0(1,4)$ admit a dS-covariant Krein realization on the dS hyperboloid, endowed with a dS-invariant non-degenerate Klein-Gordon (KG) sesquilinear form, in which the group action is indecomposable and organizes naturally into a Gupta-Bleuler triplet. The positive- and negative-norm sectors are already present in the underlying Krein space, whereas a null sector emerges only at an intermediate stage, where the induced KG form becomes degenerate and its radical leads canonically to the physical quotient carrying the UIR $\Pi_{p,0}$. We further show that suitable limits of the bulk theory at the “future” and “past” conformal boundaries ${\mathcal{I}}^\pm$ give rise to dS-invariant boundary realizations endowed with induced kernel inner products. While the bulk negative-norm sector admits no independent boundary counterpart, the boundary realization retains the physical and gauge structures inherited from the bulk. The resulting boundary module nevertheless remains indecomposable, with its physical quotient carrying the discrete-series representation $\Pi_{p,0}$. The antipodal symmetry provides a natural relation between the realizations on ${\mathcal{I}}^+$ and ${\mathcal{I}}^-$, ensuring the consistency of the boundary construction and its geometric interpretation. At the heart of the analysis lies a Fourier-type bulk-boundary transform that provides a dS-covariant identification of the bulk and boundary physical sectors, establishing a one-to-one intertwining correspondence between the bulk and boundary realizations of $\Pi_{p,0}$ while preserving reflection positivity.

Electron-phonon interactions provide a microscopic origin of effective dephasing in solids within real -time TDDFT via a time-domain Williams-Lax framework. In metals, Drude -like damping emerges from a single disordered configuration; in dielectrics, the same mechanism yields clean high-harmonic spectra without introducing ultrashort phenomenological dephasing times. Mapping supercell dynamics onto a primitive-cell density matrix reveals that dephasing is governed primarily by population dynamics (diagonal elements) rather than by the decay of off-diagonal coherence.

We investigate a one-dimensional lattice with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and a Zeeman potential containing uniform and quasiperiodic components. By tuning SOC, anomalous mobility edges emerge that separate critical from non-critical states, yielding a reentrant transition between two mixed phases, M$_1$$\to$M$_2$$\to$M$_1$, where M$_1$ (M$_2$) lacks (hosts) anomalous mobility edges. A new reentrant criticality transition, defined as multiple entries into the critical phase, is identified. As a counterpart to reentrant delocalization/localization transitions, it completes the basic framework of reentrant phenomena across extended, localized, and critical states. The uniform Zeeman potential drives a reentrant delocalization transition, arising from the splitting of the localized region induced by the shift of mobility edges. This reveals a distinct pathway for reentrant phenomena beyond hybridization mechanisms.

This study proposes a novel scheme for distributing GHZ-equivalent states across repeater-based quantum networks, with particular focus on the analysis and mitigation of decoherence effects during transmission. The proposed scheme enables remote users to share graph states, which can be leveraged to implement various quantum communication protocols, such as quantum key distribution and quantum secret sharing. Compared with existing approaches, the proposed distributed scheme requires only O(N) qubits without introducing redundant entanglement structures. Together with the linear-scaling merging procedure in both controlled gate count and qubit usage, the proposed framework supports more efficient large-scale graph state distribution. To evaluate its feasibility and correctness, this study utilizes the quantum network simulation tool, NetSquid, to implement the proposed scheme. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach is both effective and practical for executing quantum communication protocols within quantum networks.

Any viable interpretation of quantum theory needs to account for the Born rule, from which the theory gets its probabilistic empirical predictions. In this paper, we give an overview of possible approaches to this problem in the context of the Many Worlds interpretation. We argue that, for structural reasons, none of them can possibly succeed. More precisely, we argue that the Many Worlds interpretation must obtain the Born rule by proceeding either axiomatically, deductively, or inductively, and that all three of these approaches run into general, fundamental obstructions.

Unmanned Autonomous Systems (UASs) can remotely sense targets across large-scale areas but may be vulnerable to threats in contested environments. Current approaches consider efficiency through UAS path planning, but missions prioritizing robustness (i.e., the capacity to withstand disruptions) and resilience (i.e., the ability to recover from disruptions) are rarely considered despite their ability to increase mission success. This paper presents robust and resilient strategies for route planning for a fleet of UASs in a heterogeneous threat landscape. By integrating components of robustness and resilience in route planning through allowing the UASs to overlap in the waypoint locations and dynamic mission adaptation, the probability of mission success of complete area coverage can be increased. The results show that a robustness-focused strategy shows significant improvement in probability of mission success over an efficiency-based strategy, and that a resilience-based strategy outperforms both the efficiency- and robustness- based strategies. The specified methodologies provide promising future directions of research to explicitly incorporate robustness and resilience into UAS mission planning.

Predictive modeling of a superconducting quantum chip requires more than a Hamiltonian: the model must connect device physics, control-line transformations, chosen frames and approximations, dissipation, and measured observables. We present quchip, an open-source Python toolkit that represents these parts explicitly and assembles backend-independent simulations for QuTiP or dynamiqs; with dynamiqs, device and control parameters remain differentiable through the solve. We demonstrate the resulting experimental loop on a five-device model fitted to dressed observables. Simulated phase sweeps identify the complex crosstalk between two control lines, and inversion of the inferred response suppresses the effective leakage by more than two orders of magnitude. Over sixteen simultaneous $\pi$ pulses, the corrected pulse-end populations remain within $0.3$ percentage points of the crosstalk-free response. Adiabatically eliminating the bus and readout resonators reduces the Hilbert-space dimension from 576 to 16, after which gradients through simulated tomography recover the four injected crosstalk parameters with a maximum complex error of $1.5\times10^{-5}$. A single explicit model can therefore support prediction, correction, and inverse parameter recovery.

Technologies for artificially controlling chemical reaction systems, such as optogenetics, are rapidly advancing, making it increasingly important to understand reaction dynamics under time-dependent control. When the modulation of reaction rates is periodic in time, the Floquet formalism provides a systematic framework. We develop a Floquet theory for classical stochastic processes that enables the calculation of the current and its counting statistics under such periodic modulation. In particular, we formulate the theory in terms of a counting field and derive general expressions for the first cumulant and the corresponding current. The current is expressed using the effective Floquet generator and the kicked state, and we further obtain general asymptotic expressions for the current in both the high- and low-frequency regimes. As a concrete example to test our analytical expressions, we then apply the results to discrete Floquet driving – a non-perturbative, stepwise protocol. The setup is motivated by a biochemical system known as cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) production, which is an enzymatic reaction activated and inhibited by G-proteins. This is formulated as a discretely driven Michaelis–Menten-type reaction model, in which the catalytic activity is switched on and off abruptly in time, and we obtain analytical expressions and numerical results showing how periodic switching of reaction rates generates a long-time product current. In particular, in the high-frequency limit, we show that the effect of the periodic driving can be interpreted through an effective modification of the chemical reaction rates. These results provide a basis for Floquet analysis of periodically driven chemical reactions.

We develop a general holographic framework for computing thermal spectral functions of exotic spin-1 mesons. A bulk Proca mass encodes the canonical ultraviolet dimension of the interpolating operator, allowing channels with different ultraviolet scaling to be treated within a unified membrane-flow formalism in the zero-spatial-momentum limit. We test this framework in a soft-wall model with a gluon-condensate background for the hybrid $\pi_1$ and tetraquark-like $Z_c$ channels. The results show that dissociation temperatures of both channels lie below the phase transition temperatures. Increasing the gluon-condensate parameter $c$ delays dissociation in both channels, but through different effects: both the vacuum-mass shift and thermal spectral deformation contribute in the $\pi_1$ channel, whereas the latter dominates in the $Z_c$ channel. Nevertheless, for the same environment, the $Z_c$ resonance dissociates at a lower temperature than the $\pi_1$ resonance.

The axial coupling of strain to the nodes of the simple Weyl semimetals leads to anomalous contributions to sound attenuation in such materials. However, in double Weyl semimetals, there is no such axial coupling. Strain instead couples as a symmetry-breaking director field that deforms the Fermi surface around each Weyl node. In this work, we show that absence of axial coupling in double Weyl semimetals implies a very different mechanism of relaxation due to sound. The deformed geometry of the Fermi surface is the only source of sound attenuation under these conditions. Thus, we identify a geometric contribution to sound attenuation in double Weyl semimetals that is entirely absent in simple Weyl semimetals.

Laser-plasma accelerators have been the subject of extensive research in recent years. The electron beams they generate exhibit a broad energy spread. To conveniently characterize beams from laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA), electron spectrometers employing scintillating screens coupled with CCD cameras are typically used. In this work, we calibrate a series of DRZ phosphor screens and measure the spectra of the light they emit. The calibration was performed using the radio-frequency linear electron accelerator at Tsinghua University, which provided monoenergetic electron beams with peak energy of approximately 30 MeV.

This study investigates the coupled effects of an insoluble surfactant and a radial electric field on the stability of a viscous liquid film flowing down a vertical fiber. Starting from the governing equations in two dimensions, a reduced model in one dimension is derived using the long wave approximation to describe the coupled evolution of the interface and surfactant transport. Linear stability analysis identifies two distinct unstable modes: the Rayleigh-Plateau mode, which dominates at lower values of the Marangoni number $Ma$, and the Marangoni mode, which becomes dominant at higher values of $Ma$. The influence of the radial electric field is determined by the position of the outer electrode $\beta$. When $\beta<\mathrm{e}$, the electric field enhances both instabilities and narrows the stable interval in $Ma$ between the two modes. When $\beta>\mathrm{e}$, the electric field suppresses both modes and can completely eliminate the unstable region associated with the Marangoni mode even at a relatively small electric Weber number $E_b$. Continuation of the traveling wave solutions further shows that, when $\beta<\mathrm{e}$, the magnitude of the relative interfacial motion $I_{RP}$, generally increases with $E_b$. By contrast, the intensity of Marangoni convection $I_{M}$ varies only weakly at smaller values of $E_b$ and increases appreciably only when the electric field becomes sufficiently strong. Analysis of the stream function and the relative interfacial velocity reveals that the electric stress primarily intensifies the recirculation beneath the wave crest and reshapes the spatial distribution of the relative interfacial velocity.

We develop a generalized contact Hamiltonian framework by extending canonical contact Hamiltonian mechanics to nonlinear dissipative systems through the replacement of the classical linear contact potential with a smooth nonlinear contact potential. The proposed formulation establishes a generalized energy dissipation law together with a structural characterization of admissible contact-induced damping, introducing effective contact dissipation as an intrinsic geometric measure of adaptive dissipation. As an application, a generalized contact Duffing oscillator is derived, in which dissipation emerges intrinsically from the contact geometry rather than being introduced phenomenologically. Numerical investigations of the generalized contact Duffing oscillator demonstrate that nonlinear contact geometry governs the effective dissipation and produces significant changes in the phase-space structure, energy decay, dynamical stability, and long-term nonlinear behavior. The proposed theory therefore provides a systematic geometric framework for constructing and analyzing nonlinear dissipative Hamiltonian systems within contact Hamiltonian mechanics.

Isolating the quantum metric from the Berry curvature remains a central challenge in quantum materials, as the two geometric quantities nearly always coexist and their contributions are difficult to disentangle. We show that d-wave altermagnets, whose real Hamiltonian possesses strictly vanishing Berry curvature, constitute an ideal platform for overcoming this obstacle. Using the Magnus expansion and exact Floquet diagonalization, we demonstrate that linearly polarized off-resonant light drives an orbital-selective ferrovalley phase through a purely quantum-metric–mediated band-gap renormalization, with no Berry curvature contribution at any order. The orbital selectivity originates from the hopping anisotropy, which generates a pronounced metric anisotropy between the $d_{xz}$ and $d_{yz}$ orbitals, and the gap reduction is expressed analytically in terms of the quantum metric. The resulting valley gap difference provides a direct, quantitative measure of the quantum metric, accessible to spin-resolved ARPES and optical pump-probe spectroscopy. This establishes d-wave altermagnets as a pristine, tunable platform in which quantum metric effects can be isolated, controlled by light polarization, and read out through valley polarization.