Papers

The wide-field X-ray telescope (WXT) is the primary payload of the Einstein Probe (EP) mission. Utilizing innovative lobster-eye micro-pore optics (MPO), it achieves an unprecedented combination of a large instantaneous field-of-view (FoV) and high detection sensitivity. Precise scientific data analysis relies fundamentally on a standardized and robust calibration database (CALDB). In this paper, we present the design and implementation of the WXT CALDB. The database is designed to manage calibration data for 12 independent WXT modules and 48 CMOS sensors, incorporating both extensive on-ground calibration results and dynamic in-orbit updates. We detail the directory hierarchy, naming conventions, functionality, and the specific formats of key calibration products. The WXT CALDB is seamlessly integrated into the WXT data analysis pipeline, ensuring high data integrity and maximizing the scientific return of the mission.

The Einstein Probe (EP) is dedicated to explore the dynamic X-ray universe and capture transient events in real time with its Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT). However, WXT's unprecedentedly large instantaneous field of view, exceeding 3,600 square degrees, simultaneously encompasses numerous known X-ray emitters. Distinguishing genuine novel transients from these persistent sources is a critical observational challenge. To resolve this, EP-WXT incorporates a dedicated reference catalog of known X-ray sources directly into its onboard data processing and triggering system. In this paper, we detail the compilation of this onboard catalog. By merging data from the ROSAT All Sky Survey, the MAXI source list, and a curated stellar flare candidate catalog, we constructed a robust baseline database of 9,000 sources. This catalog provides coordinates, baseline count rates, and spatial veto radii for exceptionally bright emitters. Real-time cross-matching against this database effectively decouples known background sources from the transient alert stream. Recent in-orbit operations validate the high stability and efficiency of this catalog-driven trigger system. Notably, the catalog successfully masked over 6,100 potential triggers from known active stars. This proves its essential role in ensuring EP's rapid and accurate response to genuine astrophysical discoveries.

Dissipation, though often detrimental to quantum entanglement, can be manipulated for the preparation of entangled states, wherein ingeniously designed quantum jump processes drive the system toward the desired steady state. Here we venture beyond this paradigm, and demonstrate a new type of entanglement generation in dissipative quantum dynamics. Combining driven-dissipative steady-state engineering and adiabatic passage, we propose a general protocol where the final entangled state depends on the chirality of the evolution path in the parameter space, a scheme that is further extendable to multipartite entanglement. By simulating the Liouvillian dynamics through the quantum Langevin equation for a pair of photons, we experimentally confirm the noise-resistant chiral preparation of various entangled states with high fidelity and concurrence. Our work establishes parametric chiral dynamics as a scalable and robust tool for controllable entanglement generation, paving the way for its applications in quantum information.

We have determined the initial mass function (IMF) and structural properties of the open clusters Alpha Persei, Pleiades and Praesepe using Gaia DR3 astrometry and photometry. Cluster members were identified using primarily Gaia astrometry, supplemented with near-infrared UKIDSS and optical HIPPARCOS survey data with stellar masses down to $0.10-0.17$ MSun. We measure and correct for unresolved binaries in each cluster using photometry and Monte Carlo simulations in a Bayesian framework, finding present-day fractions between ($20.0\pm0.8$)% and ($23.8\pm1.2$)%. Through a novel approach that combines N-body simulations with machine learning emulators and MCMC algorithms, we have also determined the most probable initial number of stars, binary fraction, half-mass radius and mass function under the assumption that early gas removal does not significantly influence the subsequent cluster evolution. We find a best-fitting initial mass function described by a three-stage broken power-law distribution with break masses in the ranges $0.24-0.50$ MSun and $0.91-1.20$ MSun and average slopes of $\alpha_{\rm med}=1.72\pm0.09$ and $\alpha_{\rm high}=2.98\pm0.22$. While the low-mass slope remains sensitive to the adopted mass-luminosity relation, this IMF reproduces the present-day clusters well once their dynamical evolution is taken into account. We find evidence of scatter in the high mass IMF between the individual clusters, as described by the measured dispersions in mass function slopes of ${\sigma}_{\rm high}=0.29\pm0.16$, whereas the intermediate mass slope shows no significant variation with ${\sigma}_{\rm med}=0.00\pm0.14$. Our findings provide additional evidence for a (compared to a Salpeter MF) top-light IMF and a cluster-to-cluster variation of the IMF. They therefore provide constraints on the universality of the IMF and its dependence on environmental conditions.

High-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) provides detailed aerodynamic data for vehicle design, but its cost limits design iteration. Neural-operator surrogates reduce this cost, yet their deterministic predictions do not indicate when a geometry or surface region is reliable. This study develops a conformal-prediction framework for reliability-aware automotive aerodynamic surrogate modeling on the DrivAerML dataset. GeoTransolver is the main backbone, while Transolver assesses transfer across neural-operator architectures. For drag coefficient prediction, conformalized quantile regression constructs calibrated case-level intervals. For surface pressure and wall shear stress (WSS), point prediction is combined with residual-scale estimation and residual-normalized conformal calibration to obtain spatially adaptive intervals. Global absolute, point-adaptive normalized, and case-wise normalized calibration are compared under split and cross-validation-assisted out-of-fold protocols. All experiments target 90% nominal coverage. Conformal calibration corrects the under-coverage of raw drag-coefficient quantile intervals, while out-of-fold score aggregation reduces the Monte Carlo coverage standard deviation from 10.41 to 3.10 percentage points. For surface fields, point-adaptive normalized calibration yields the narrowest near-nominal intervals, reducing mean width by 22.68% for pressure and 25.35%–27.09% for WSS under the out-of-fold protocol. Case-wise normalized calibration is more conservative but improves vehicle-level reliability. Smoothness regularization reduces the residual-scale local-variation score by 74.29% and lowers interval widths without material coverage loss. The framework converts deterministic neural-operator outputs into calibrated reliability indicators for prioritizing uncertain vehicle geometries and surface regions in follow-up CFD verification.

We review the truncated Wigner approximation (TWA) for spins as a computationally inexpensive numerical approximation method to describe interacting and / or dissipative many-body spin systems. Using the Wigner-Moyal mapping from Hilbert space to a suitable phase space, the many-body density matrix is represented by a c-number distribution, the Wigner function. The gauge freedom in continuous phase space can be exploited to find positive Wigner functions for a large class of spin states, including entangled ones. Employing different sets of correspondence rules, we derive equations of motion for the Wigner function, which, applying controlled approximations, can be mapped to stochastic differential equations. This allows a computationally inexpensive simulation of expectation values. Using a phase-space analog of the quantum regression theorem also multi-time correlations and spectra can be obtained. To illustrate the potential of the method, we benchmark the TWA for spins with some exactly solvable problems of interacting, dissipative spin systems, and then discuss its application to collective processes, such as the superradiant emission of light. Extending the TWA to imaginary time furthermore provides a tool to approximately calculate thermal and ground states of spin Hamiltonians. Finally, we show that the TWA stochastic equations can equivalently be derived within a path-integral approach, provided that the operator products in the dissipator are rigorously mapped onto the curved phase space.

We investigate the mixing between the lowest-lying scalar glueball and the $s\overline{s}$ meson in $N_f=1$ lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) utilizing an anisotropic $16^3 \times 128$ lattice ensemble at a lattice spacing $a_s\approx 0.148\,\rm{fm}$. By solving a generalized eigenvalue problem (GEVP) for the optimized glueball and $s\overline{s}$ scalar operators in the $J^\text{PC} = 0^{++}$ channel, the masses of the two lowest-lying eigenstates are determined to be $m_1 = 1.290(20)\,\mathrm{GeV}$ and $m_2 = 1.777(49)\,\mathrm{GeV}$. By extracting the couplings of these mass eigenstates to the glueball and $s\bar{s}$ operators, we determine a substantial mixing angle $|\theta| \approx 40.7(2.7)^\circ$ and a large mixing energy $x_s = 239(24)$ MeV. These results indicate a strong glueball-$s\bar{s}$ mixing in the scalar sector, providing important non-perturbative inputs for understanding the nature of the experimental isoscalar scalar mesons. The continuum limit of the mixing energy and its quark mass dependence need to be investigated in the future.

Gravitational-wave events from compact binary coalescences (CBCs) can be used as standard sirens: they encode the luminosity distance to their sources, which yields a measurement of the Hubble constant ($H_0$) if the source's redshift is known. In the absence of an electromagnetic counterpart, $H_0$ can still be inferred statistically from the cataloged galaxies within the event's sky localization volume via the dark siren, or galaxy catalog method. In this work we examine how the depth of a volume-limited galaxy catalog affects this inference and identify the most efficient spectroscopic strategy for an unbiased measurement of $H_0$ at a median precision of $0.98\%$. The strategy is to carry out spectroscopic surveys to a depth of $r \sim 19$ for the ten best-localized events observed in one year by the LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, and LIGO-India network at A$^\#$ sensitivity. Such a campaign requires a minimum of one night of electromagnetic follow-up observations, or five nights under the most conservative assumptions. For the Hanford, Livingston, and Virgo network at A$+$ sensitivity, the same ten-event strategy yields a median precision of $2.63\%$.

The QCD axion with charm-only Peccei-Quinn coupling evades the isospin-violation problem of light-quark models in $\chi$PT. Since $m_c>\Lambda_{\rm QCD}$, we employ heavy meson chiral perturbation theory (HMChPT) to constrain this GeV-scale axion, including its CP-even radial partner $\sigma$ and the axion $a$. In HMChPT, $\sigma$ enters at leading order with $O(1)$ coupling, while $a$ couples only at $O(1/m_c)$ and manifests via axion-pion mixing with $\theta_{a\pi}\simeq f_\pi/f_a\sim0.04$. We analyze $D$-meson masses, $D$-$D^*$ splitting, charmonium, $D$-$D$ scattering, $B_s$ mixing, rare $D$ decays, and the channels $K^+\to\pi^+a$, $B\to K a$. No fatal HMChPT constraint emerges, unlike the $\chi$PT isospin issue. The strongest bound is from $\sigma$-mediated $B_s$-$\bar B_s$ mixing; axion-pion mixing opens testable rare decays, though rates are slightly below current sensitivity.

Continuous time quantum walks built on graph Laplacians produce non monotonic graph propagation features through quantum interference during evolution, which classical diffusion cannot achieve. Such walks deliver a physically motivated propagation scheme for temporal graph signal modeling. We propose Quantum Walk Temporal Architecture (QWTA), which replaces classical graph propagation with a CTQW-type parameterized spectral propagator. QWTA embeds effective observation intervals into the spectral phase modulation of the propagation kernel. QWTA-Base preserves exact CTQW spectral evolution and serves as a physically faithful propagation reference. QWTA-GR further introduces phase soft clipping and gated residual fusion to stabilize propagation. The results show that explicit phase encoding of irregular time intervals, when combined with suitable stabilization, provides a physically motivated and competitive graph propagation design for temporal graph forecasting with missing historical observations.

We present results from spectroscopic observations of three interacting galaxy systems, each associated with a primary galaxy - VCC 1748, SDSS J1106, and 2MASX J0834 - which have been proposed as potential examples of reverse morphological transformation from elliptical to spiral types driven by external gas accretion. Using Gemini/GMOS longslit spectroscopy, we obtain spectra along longslits connecting the regions of interest between the two galaxies in each pair. We model the spatially binned spectra with the Penalized Pixel-Fitting (pPXF) method to derive velocity fields and radial profiles of gas-phase metallicity, stellar metallicity, and stellar population age. Among the three systems, only the VCC 1748 system provides spectra with sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) to reveal coherent velocity and metallicity structures extending between the companion spiral galaxy and its elliptical target. The velocity profile along the gas-bridge of the system is smooth and continuous from the companion spiral arm to the target galaxy, and the elliptical target, VCC 1748, exhibits younger stellar populations and a high star formation rate (SFR) in its newly formed disk regions compared to its central parts. These findings indicate in-situ star formation at the newly-formed spiral arm of the elliptical target, consistent with ongoing gas inflow from the spiral companion into the elliptical target. Altogether, the results capture an intermediate stage of morphological evolution in which an originally quiescent elliptical galaxy begins to assemble a rotationally supported disk through interaction-driven gas accretion.

Real-time time-dependent density functional theory provides a first-principles description of coherent electron dynamics in laser-driven solids, but its unitary formulation cannot capture the irreversible scattering, relaxation, and decoherence processes that drive excited carriers toward equilibrium. Here, we develop a dissipative rt-TDDFT framework in which first-principles electron-phonon interactions enter the evolution of the reduced one-body density matrix through self-energy-derived collision integrals within the Born-Markov approximation. The approach retains the quantum-coherent real-time propagation of the electronic system while introducing phonon-mediated transitions that redistribute carriers in energy and crystal momentum, thereby incorporating the microscopic momentum-transfer processes responsible for relaxation in real materials. The resulting framework provides a practical first-principles route to simulate relaxation, decoherence, and time-resolved spectroscopic signatures in realistic crystalline materials.

We investigate a generalized Friedberg–Lee (FL) framework for neutrino masses, focusing on the singular parameter space at Point D ($\alpha = \beta = -1/3$). At this limit, the neutrino mass matrix exhibits a democratic texture governed by the $S_3$ permutation symmetry. Although theoretically profound, the exact democratic limit is phenomenologically excluded as it predicts a degenerate mass spectrum and a vanishing reactor angle ($\theta_{13}=0$). To reconcile this high-symmetry limit with experimental observations, we introduce a minimal and systematic perturbation that preserves the Twisted Friedberg–Lee (TFL) symmetry. This mechanism effectively lifts the mass degeneracy and breaks the magic and $\mu$–$\tau$ symmetries in a controlled manner. Our derivation avoids ad hoc parameters, establishing a robust framework that yields a realistic inverted mass hierarchy ($m_3=0$), a non-zero $\theta_{13}$, and intrinsic CP violation. We demonstrate that the model predicts maximal atmospheric mixing and a significant Dirac CP phase. The obtained numerical ranges for the neutrino masses and the Jarlskog invariant show excellent agreement with global fit data, providing a theoretically motivated foundation for neutrino flavor physics within the TFL scheme.

Optical spectroscopy underpins material characterization, chemical sensing, and astronomy, but conventional instruments face a rigid trade-off between footprint, spectral range, and resolution. We demonstrate a content-adaptive spectrometer that overcomes this by co-designing dispersive Moiré meta-optics with a recursive sampling algorithm. Instead of using Moiré metalenses solely for varifocal tuning, we harness the strong chromatic aberration arising from phase-wrapping in their subwavelength metasurface architecture. This hyperchromaticity enables a deterministic, one-to-one mapping between the metasurfaces' mutual rotation angle and the sharply focused wavelength, repurposing the pair as a high-resolution spectral scanner. To accelerate data acquisition, we introduce a content-adaptive recursive sampling protocol that exploits the structural sparsity of physical spectra: a fast coarse sweep identifies high-information regions, followed by successively finer angular refinement only where needed. Using a laboratory prototype spanning 405-980 nm, we reconstruct diverse spectra – from smooth broadband to sparse multi-line laser emissions – with nearly 3x fewer measurements on average at matched fidelity (up to 7x for sparse line spectra), achieving 30 dB reconstruction 6.7x faster than conventional uniform sampling. This establishes a framework for intelligent, task-adaptive meta-optical sensors that tightly integrate physical dispersion with computational signal processing for real-time spectrometry.

In this paper, we calculate the transition form factors (TFFs) $A_{1,2}(q^2)$ and $V(q^2)$ of $D_s^+ \to K^{*0}$ decays by using the QCD light-cone sum rule (QCD LCSR) and constructing a correlation function containing the usual current, in which the twist-2 transverse and longitudinal light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs) $\phi^\lambda_{2;K^{*0}}(x,\mu_0)$ with $\lambda=(\bot,\|)$ of the $K^{*0}$ meson constitute the main source of theoretical uncertainty. Based on this, we construct these LCDAs using the light-cone harmonic oscillator model. Subsequently, the TFFs obtained in the large recoil region are $A_{1}(0)=0.579_{-0.028}^{+0.024}$, $A_{2}(0)=0.414_{-0.023}^{+0.021}$, and $V(0)=0.830_{-0.020}^{+0.020}$, and the corresponding ratios are obtained to be $r_V=1.433_{-0.090}^{+0.110}$ and $r_2=0.715_{-0.067}^{+0.075}$. Furthermore, we predict the correlation of TFFs and their corresponding ratios. Then, we extrapolate the TFFs over the whole physical $q^2$-region and calculate the decay widths and branching fractions for the semileptonic decays $D_s^+\to K^{*0}\ell^+\nu_{\ell}$. The results are $\mathcal{B}(D_s^+\to K^{*0}e^+\nu_{e})=(2.05_{-0.16}^{+0.13})\times 10^{-3}$ and $\mathcal{B}(D_s^+\to K^{*0}\mu^+\nu_{\mu})=(1.95_{-0.15}^{+0.13})\times 10^{-3}$. Meanwhile, we calculated the branching fraction ratio $\mathcal{R}_{\mu/e}^{K^{*0}}$ to be $0.950_{-0.002}^{+0.004}$. In addition, we extract values of the CKM matrix element, obtaining $|V_{cd}|_{(e\text{-Channel})} = 0.225_{-0.005}^{+0.005}$ and $|V_{cd}|_{(\mu\text{-Channel})} = 0.227_{-0.004}^{+0.011}$. Finally, we calculated the forward-backward asymmetry parameters for the $D_s^+\to K^{*0} \ell^+\nu_{\ell}$ decay.

In this article, We investigate the cosmological consequences of a recently developed $f(R,G,\mathcal{T})$ gravitational framework, in which the action is formulated as a general function of the Ricci scalar $R$, the Gauss-Bonnet invariant $G$, and the trace of the energy-momentum tensor $\mathcal{T}$. As one of the most reliable probes of the physical conditions in the early universe, Big Bang nucleosynthesis offers a stringent framework for testing deviations from standard cosmology. We consider four representative models that are analyzed and constrained using observational limits on $\left|\Delta T_f/T_f\right|$ and the primordial helium mass fraction $Y_p$. The bounds obtained identify the allowed parameter regions for each model and demonstrate that significant departures from standard cosmology are compatible with nucleosynthesis observations. Our analysis shows that broad regions of the parameter space satisfy existing nucleosynthesis constraints, indicating the consistency of $f(R,G,\mathcal{T})$ gravity with the observed primordial light-element abundances and the established picture of the early universe preserving the observed abundances of light nuclei.

We consider the non-Abelian bosonized Thirring model for a semi-simple group $G$ at level $k$, with deformation parameter $\lambda$. We compute the two-point correlation functions of current and composite current operators to cubic order in $\lambda$, assuming large values of the quadratic Casimir $c_G$ of the group $G$ in the adjoint representation. From these, we extract the $\beta$-function and the anomalous dimensions of both the current and composite current operators, showing the absence of an additional critical point of order $\frac{k}{c_G}$ to quartic order in $\lambda$. At this order, our findings agree with those of Destri and de Vega, but contradict the claim of Dashen and Frishman for the Fermionic non-Abelian Thirring model.

The adverse-selection mechanism in markets explains how asymmetric information between buyers and sellers can drive high-quality goods out of the market, thereby causing market deterioration. In its simplest formulation, only the mean quality is used to describe the market, and this is insufficient to determine how fast the market deteriorates or how the quality distribution evolves. To resolve the two problems, we describe the adverse selection as a dynamic truncation of the quality distribution: buyers set an upper bound proportional to the mean quality by a rate $\xi$ that is larger than unity, and sellers whose quality exceeds this upper bound reject an offer and exit the market. The retained market is then characterized by the conditional distribution obtained after this truncation, and the corresponding evolution process is iterated until market quality reaches a stable state. This statistical approach gives three results. (i) We identify a mechanism for preventing complete adverse selection, defined as the process where the quality of the market is driven down to the minimum quality floor. (ii) A larger quality variance or a smaller price premium, defined as the amount by which the payment upper bound exceeds the current mean quality, raises the upper bound on the deterioration in mean quality. (iii) A maximum-entropy benchmark shows numerically how quality variance and the payment rate jointly determine market deterioration and the final stable quality platform. This approach also clarifies how market interventions can slow adverse selection: they may raise buyers' payment rate, reduce quality variance, or increase the minimum quality floor.

In the system of metallike hydride-electron donor mixtures, adsorbed hydrogen atoms are transformed into metallic states and alloyed. Dense itinerary s-electrons supplied by the electron donor cause a drop in the melting point of metallic hydrogen. As a result, this system reveals thermodynamical liquid activity. The coherent D2-D2 fusion and the D3-D3 chemonuclear fusion are enhanced with factors of 20 to 30 and 30 to 46 figures of magnitude respectively at T=460 K, hence the production of intense He ions of 23.8 MeV kinetic energy. The ions or alpha-particles induce enhanced cascade chemonuclear reactions towards diverse and useful element synthesis. This phenomenon is in the nature of the Big Bang nucleosynthesis that takes place in an inhomogeneous universe. An application of the alpha-induced chemonuclear reaction - i.e., the transmutation of 90Sr and 137Cs - is prescribed in this chapter. This system of metallike hydride-electron donor mixtures raises the possibility of radioactive waste vanishment. Stimulated by alpha-particle irradiation, trans-gold nuclei undergo exothermic alpha-cluster emissions, producing coherently line-up alpha-clusters. In the chemonuclear D-D fusion, the 4alpha-cluster reveals the thermodynamical activity of oxygen atoms. In the hydrogen-Ni nanopowder-Li mixtures, dispersively charged trans-gold atoms undergo enhanced chemonuclear alpha-cluster emissions, hence the mass synthesis of noble metals. The case of chemonuclear pion production is presented at the end of this chapter.

A three-body Hopfield model defined on sparse random graphs with finite mean connectivity is studied using a replica-symmetric (RS) analysis. By extending the functional replica framework for conventional two-body finite-connectivity Hopfield models, self-consistent equations for the local-field distribution are derived and solved numerically by population dynamics. In contrast to two-body sparse Hopfield models, three-body interactions induce a discontinuous retrieval transition, coexistence of paramagnetic and retrieval solutions, and a distinct spinodal structure. Starting the RS population dynamics from an uninformative finite-amplitude field distribution leads to a spin-glass-like fixed point at low temperatures rather than to the retrieval state. This trapping already occurs for a single embedded pattern, where conventional cross-talk noise among stored patterns is absent, indicating that it originates from the combination of sparse connectivity and three-body interactions. Within the RS description, increasing the number of embedded patterns drives a crossing between the retrieval and glassy free-energy branches, making the glassy branch thermodynamically stable at high load. Finite-size Monte Carlo simulations using population annealing support the RS description of the retrieval branch and reproduce the trapping behavior under cooling, while deviations from the RS spin-glass branch point to replica-symmetry breaking in the low-temperature glassy regime. The characteristic storage load scales linearly with the mean connectivity, reflecting the sparse number of couplings. These results clarify how many-body discontinuity and sparse graph disorder simultaneously influence the accessibility and capacity of associative memory.

We establish two obstructions to globally regular rotating constant-norm vector vacua. At an axial fixed point of a regular nondegenerate bifurcate Killing horizon, horizon-boost and axial invariance force every smooth symmetry-inheriting one-form to vanish, contradicting a strictly nonzero constant norm. Independently, varying axial conicity produces an orthonormal curvature component diverging as the inverse proper distance and precludes a \(C^2\) extension. Applied to a three-parameter Kerr–disformal family in Einstein–bumblebee gravity, these results reveal a nonsmooth bumblebee one-form, while direct calculation shows that the Kretschmann scalar diverges as the inverse square of the transverse proper distance to either open exterior axis. Even the distinguished nonextremal branch selected by nonpolar outer-horizon regularity is therefore an exact nonpolar rotating exterior solution, not a globally regular isolated black hole. Together, these field- and metric-level obstructions provide a two-pronged no-go framework for globally regular rotating constant-norm vector vacua.

Within the Glauber-Sitenko diffraction multiple-scattering theory, we calculate Coulomb corrections to the invariant cross section for inclusive deuteron breakup in the $^{12}$C(d,p)X reaction at small proton emission angles. Extending our previous analysis of the longitudinal momentum transfer $Q_z$ and the transverse relative momentum of the final $pn$ pair, we include the proton–nucleus electromagnetic interaction, Coulomb-nuclear interference, and the Coulomb correction to double $pn$ rescattering. For a finite nuclear charge distribution, we derive the Coulomb phase and relate its spatial scale to the measured charge radius. Closed and Yukawa-screened expressions for the proton Coulomb term are obtained. The two-dimensional correction to $pn$ rescattering is reduced to a one-dimensional integral without an independent Gaussian approximation to the full transition form factor. Calculations with the $S$-wave components of the K2 and Nijm-I deuteron wave functions show that the Coulomb effect is concentrated near the quasifree peak. Its interference with the strong amplitude increases the peak height but decreases rapidly with relative momentum. It therefore cannot explain the experimental enhancement at $0.3$–$0.5$ GeV/$c$, where final-state interactions, relativistic corrections, and nonnucleonic components may be important.

Question-order effects in human survey data have been reported to approximately satisfy the QQ (quantum question) equality, a parameter-free prediction of the standard projective quantum question-order model. We develop this equality into an audit framework for sequential binary judgments of autoregressive large language models (LLMs). Theoretically, we characterize mechanism families that satisfy QQ robustly, show that classical repetition can reproduce the equality exactly, and combine QQ with the rank-2 Contextuality-by-Default criterion through $|q_{QQ}| \le \mathrm{OSS}$. This separates order sensitivity, QQ imbalance, and residual contextuality rather than treating them as interchangeable signatures. Methodologically, we introduce a committed multi-turn forced-branch protocol that reconstructs order-conditioned joint distributions from next-token log-probabilities under counterbalanced label mappings and pre-specified health gates. A first-signal pilot on an open-weight instruction-tuned model reveals the central measurement problem. Although all pre-specified health gates passed, the binary-conditioned distributions were near-deterministic for 17 of 18 item pairs under the direct-evaluation framing and 7 of 8 under the persona framing. Label assignment materially changed several mapping-specific QQ verdicts, and no item was certified as residually contextual. Thus, under the tested conditions, the observed QQ outcomes did not uniquely identify a response mechanism in the presence of a saturated and label-sensitive measurement interface. The main implication is methodological: next-token probabilities should not be interpreted as survey-response distributions without first establishing adequate dispersion. We therefore argue that saturation screening and label counterbalancing should precede structural interpretation in distribution-level audits of LLM judgments.

Detection claims surrounding life beyond Earth often attract intense attention because the question of whether we are alone in the cosmos carries unusually high scientific, social, philosophical, and theological stakes. This chapter compares two high uncertainty life-detection claims, the 2020 phosphine detection claim on Venus and the 1976 Viking life-detection experiments on Mars, to examine how evidence, interpretation, and public narratives interact when results are ambiguous. We trace how each case unfolded through critique, reanalysis, and shifting assessments, and how institutional choices shaped subsequent research pathways, from long term monitoring and renewed Venus exploration to a Mars strategy centred on habitability rather than direct life-detection. Drawing lessons across both cases, we propose best practices for scientists, institutions, the wider scientific community, and science communicators, with emphasis on open science, constructive follow-up, cognitive bias awareness, and careful framing so that initial detections are not framed as final conclusions. We argue that managing future life-detections is less about eliminating uncertainty than about building transparent verification pathways that protect credibility as follow-up evidence refines the picture.

The interaction of an accelerated observer with a quantum field can modify the entanglement and quantum information shared between observers, thereby affecting quantum communication in non-inertial frames. We formulate the standard teleportation protocol in a relativistic setting where Alice remains inertial while Rob undergoes uniform acceleration and is modeled as an Unruh-DeWitt detector locally coupled to a massive scalar field. The detector-field interaction initially leads to a loss of entanglement and quantum information shared between Alice and Rob. Remarkably, under acceleration, the anti-Unruh regime can reverse this degradation, leading to an increase in both the shared entanglement and the accessible quantum information. We further find that, in the anti-Unruh regime, the teleportation fidelity is independent of the local free-evolution time of Alice's and Rob's states. At high accelerations, the recovered entanglement and quantum information enhance the teleportation fidelity, which approaches unity under appropriate conditions. These results demonstrate that the anti-Unruh effect can protect and recover quantum entanglement and information in a non-inertial frame by reducing the detector's effective temperature and the associated decoherence.

Protostellar core formation and growth in high-mass star-forming regions remain key to understanding massive star birth. We analyze the masses of 839 cores (resolved at scales of a few thousand au) from the ASHES project targeting 39 massive infrared dark cloud clumps. The masses of the three most massive cores scale linearly with the total core mass. They maintain a constant mass fraction of ~25%, 16%, and 10% along the mass growth sequence. These fractions reveal that the progenitor seeds destined to become high-mass cores establish their mass dominance very early. Additionally, the Gini coefficient (a statistical measure of inequality) of the core mass distributions increases along the mass growth sequence, confirming that the relative population of low-mass cores builds up toward later stages. This points to an environment-dependent fragmentation picture: central prestellar seeds rapidly evolve into high-mass cores via transport-driven super-Jeans fragmentation under rapid, non-stationary mass accumulation in high-density, turbulent hubs, subsequently maintain their dominance through supply-limited synchronized growth (at R<1 pc, n_H2>10^5 cm^-3), while the formation of the surrounding low-mass cores is relatively delayed due to their lower gas densities and the lack of non-stationary inflow acceleration effect, resulting in their continuous emergence through Jeans-like fragmentation in lower-density envelopes. This picture is consistent with a gravity-driven scenario where the local free-fall time is the controlling factor. Our analysis suggests that non-stationary density-regulated fragmentation and supply-limited accretion jointly drive the synchronized co-evolution of the core cluster, seamlessly linking small-scale core growth with large-scale reservoir regulation.

Electrical control of magnetism represents a fundamental route toward next-generation spintronic functionalities. In this Letter, we introduce a universal current-induced spin phenomenon in bilayer systems, termed the layer Edelstein effect (LEE), which serves as the natural counterpart of the layer Hall effect in real space. It is defined by the emergence of layer-resolved spin magnetizations with opposite components on the top and bottom layers, driven by an in-plane charge current and controllable by an external electric field. We establish the general existence of the LEE using a minimal bilayer $k \cdot p$ theory. By combining symmetry analysis with a general bilayer stacking framework, we derive a model-independent symmetry criterion demonstrating that the LEE is generically allowed in a broad class of nonmagnetic bilayer stacking systems. We further show that the LEE admits two universal manifestations: explicit layer-opposite spin magnetization components mandated directly by symmetry, and components become activated upon symmetry reduction by external electric fields. First-principles calculations on stacked bilayer MoSSe, MoTe$_2$ and WTe$_2$ confirm the predicted effect and illustrate their experimental feasibility. Our work establishes the LEE as a generic symmetry-governed response of bilayer systems, providing a unified conceptual framework for electrically generating and manipulating layer-resolved spin polarization.

Leakage out of the computational subspace is a major error mechanism in superconducting quantum processors. Detecting leakage without disturbing the encoded quantum information can provide a heralded error signal that error-correction decoders exploit. However, standard dispersive readout collapses all qubit eigenstates indiscriminately. Here, we demonstrate heralded leakage detection on a fixed-frequency transmon by applying a Rabi drive on the computational transition during dispersive readout. The drive makes the computational states indistinguishable to the probe on the resonator while leaving the second and higher excited states distinguishable from the computational states. We achieve a leakage-detection fidelity of 97.1(3)% within the 80-ns detection window, with a false-flag rate of 2.3(3)% from the computational subspace. Conditioned on the no-leakage outcome, the post-detection state retains an average fidelity of 92.9(5)% across the six cardinal states for an equal mixture of computational and leakage population. The scheme requires no circuit elements beyond those used for standard dispersive readout, making it applicable to various types of superconducting qubits without hardware modification.

Preserving quantum coherence in the presence of environmental noise is one of the principal challenges for quantum technologies. Noise mitigation using spectator qubits (SQs) has recently emerged as a promising approach, enabling indirect probing of the noise without disturbing the data qubit (DQ). However, existing analyses that probe ultimate performance have been restricted to two-state random telegraph process noise, which does not capture more complex noise processes that may arise in the environment. Therefore, we here develop a SQ-based noise mitigation for DQs subject to general multi-level fluctuator noise. We first derive the coherence dynamics of the DQ under such noise, then develop a mitigation scheme in which information about the noise is inferred from sequential SQ measurements and used for phase correction. A memory-efficient heuristic adaptive protocol is proposed to dynamically select the SQ measurement time and angle based on the current noise estimate. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed strategy significantly suppresses decoherence under multi-level noise, achieving performance comparable to that in the two-level case despite the increased complexity of the noise process.

The modification and enhancement of antiferromagnetic two-dimensional semiconductor is considered crucial for realizing novel electronic properties and facilitating promising applications. For this purpose, we investigate six antiferromagnetic 2D bilayer Janus YIBr structures with different stacking variations by means of first-principles calculation and an effective low-energy model. The calculation of magnetic anisotropy energy shows that the direction of easy axis varies with different stacking. First-principles-calculated energy bands reveal that there is a Dirac relativistic dispersion relation exists in the valence band in a wide energy window of 0.3 eV at least. The calculations for spin, atom properties and Berry curvature description show that there is spin, valley and layer coupling with spin splitting, valley polarization and valley Hall and layer Hall effects can be achieved in the bilayer Janus structures. Further analyses of the effect of external electric field can be used to control spin, valley and layer of the hole near the Fermi level and to realize an anomalous valley Hall effect. These can be useful in future exploration for novel properties, control methods and more functionalities in bilayer Janus structures.