Papers

In Online Shadow Tomography, we are given copies of an unknown $d$-dimensional quantum state $\rho$, an adversary (adaptively) proposes a sequence of bounded observables $A^{(1)},\ldots,A^{(m)}$, and after each $A^{(t)}$ is given we must estimate $\mathrm{Tr}(A^{(t)}\rho)$ to within $\pm \epsilon$. This is the direct quantum generalization of the classical problem of Adaptive Data Analysis. Prior results for online Shadow Tomography were suboptimal in all three parameters $m, d, \epsilon$, lagging behind the best known and classical rates, for which there is some evidence of optimality. In this work, we finally close this gap, giving a pair of algorithms matching the classical rates. Our first algorithm is the first to achieve $o(\log^2 m)$-dependence together with $\mathrm{poly}(\log(d)/\epsilon)$; moreover, it improves all three exponents even in the Offline Shadow Tomography setting. Our second algorithm is known to be optimal among bounds independent of $d$, and improves the best prior result by a $\sqrt{m} \log m$ factor. The key to our proof is a new framework for quantifying post-measurement damage, based on the quantum Efron-Stein decomposition.

Including nonlinear information from modified gravity (MG) brings more constraining power to the model-independent reconstruction of MG functions. However, the calculation of the nonlinear matter power spectrum with MGCAMB+ReACT is expensive in repeated likelihood evaluations, which limits the exploration of the high-dimensional parameter space. In this work, we construct a neural-network emulator for the nonlinear correction $R_{\mathrm{MG}}(k,z)=P_{\mathrm{MG}}^{\mathrm{NL}}(k,z)/P_{\mathrm{MG}}^{\mathrm{L}}(k,z)$, which is trained with CosmoPower on approximately $9\times10^5$ samples and validated with representative spectra, an independent validation set, and MCMC tests with synthetic data. For $\Lambda$CDM and moderate MG nonlinear corrections, the emulated power spectra agree with the reference predictions to within $1.5\%$ over the full scale range considered. For the extreme nonlinear case, the same accuracy is retained for $k<0.8\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$. Over the independent validation set, the mean residual is close to zero, with the $2\sigma$ scatter below $1\%$ for $k<0.5\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ and about $2\%$ on smaller scales. The synthetic data MCMC analyses recover the input $\Lambda$CDM cosmology and the GR limits of the reconstructed MG functions within the posterior uncertainties, showing the accuracy and reliability of the emulator for Stage-IV-like surveys. We also demonstrate three applications: using $R_{\mathrm{MG}}$ to distinguish models with nearly degenerate linear power spectra, using the emulator for theory predictions for current photometric-survey $3\times2$pt likelihoods, and forecasting DESI+CSST constraints with principal component analysis.

We reconsider the production of dark photons $A'$ as dark matter, from the perturbative decay of a dark Higgs field $h$, that is stochastically misaligned from the minimum of its potential during inflation. This is a simple and predictive framework for generating the $A'$ relic abundance. It is constrained by structure formation, since the $A'$ are initially boosted, and inflationary isocurvature fluctuations, which require small quartic couplings $\lambda h^4$. We identify $A'$ masses between 100 eV and 1 GeV and gauge couplings $g\sim 10^{-15}-10^{-10}$ that are consistent in this scenario, and which become more tightly constrained if a generic level of kinetic mixing is present. The favored parameter region could be tested through future CMB or Lyman-$\alpha$ observations, and, in the presence of kinetic mixing, by direct detection experiments or diffuse soft gamma-ray searches.

We study the sample complexity of estimating and testing fundamental unitarily invariant properties of unknown quantum states; namely, the tasks of spectrum estimation, von Neumann entropy estimation, and rank-testing. For $d$-dimensional states, and for every $\gamma>0$, we prove a sample complexity lower bound of $\Omega(d^{2-\gamma})$ for spectrum estimation to constant sorted total-variation error, entropy estimation to constant additive error, and rank-testing to constant trace distance. Our hard instances are constructed from sandwiched products of Haar-random projectors, suitably normalized using a novel technique that lets us derive explicit expressions for high-order tensor moments of the resultant states. These moments can be expressed as symmetric functions of Jucys–Murphy elements of the symmetric group algebra. To show that two such mixtures are indistinguishable, we analyze the log-likelihood ratio and perform moment-matching, i.e., we set its low-order Jucys–Murphy components to zero. Indistinguishability is then obtained by bounding an $f$-divergence through the high-order components; the non-zero high-order terms and concentration of functions of Haar-random unitaries also imply separations in typical spectra, entropies, and ranks, proving all our lower bounds.

Competing magnetic interactions and frustration-induced quantum fluctuations in spatially anisotropic low-dimensional magnets often give rise to exotic magnetic phenomena, including field-induced phases. Here, we present crystal structure, magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, and electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements on polycrystalline Y$2$CuGe$4$O${12}$, supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In this compound, the Cu$^{2+}$ ions form a distorted triangular lattice with competing intraplanar ferromagnetic ($J_1 \approx 0.138$ K and $J_2 \approx 0.01$ K) and antiferromagnetic ($J_3 \approx -3.22$ K) exchange interactions, together with a weaker interplanar antiferromagnetic coupling ($J_4 \approx -1.56$ K). These interactions account for the small Curie–Weiss temperature, $\theta{\rm CW}=-1.8$ K. Despite the dominant antiferromagnetic interactions, no signature of long-range magnetic ordering is observed down to 0.4 K. Instead, broad maxima in both the magnetic susceptibility and magnetic specific heat reveal the development of short-range spin correlations, further supported by the critical ESR linewidth broadening characteristic of low-dimensional frustrated magnets. Application of an external magnetic field progressively suppresses the broad maximum in the magnetic specific heat, reflecting competition between the Zeeman and exchange energy scales, and drives the system into a field-polarized state above the saturation field, $\mu_0H_{\rm s}=2.6$ T. In this regime, the magnetic specific heat exhibits an exponential temperature dependence, consistent with gapped magnon excitations. These results establish Y$_2$CuGe$4$O${12}$ as a rare distorted triangular-lattice magnet in which further-neighbor exchange interactions dominate the magnetic behavior, providing a promising platform for exploring frustration-driven quantum phenomena.

Planted noisy $k$XOR and the strong refutation of random $k$XOR are governed by a conjectured trade-off between signal strength and time: Level $\ell$ of the Kikuchi hierarchy should achieve the smooth curve \begin{equation*} m\ \gtrsim\ \rho^{-2}n^{k/2}/\ell^{k/2-1}\ \text{clauses} \quad\Longleftrightarrow\quad \text{solvable in time }n^{O(\ell)}, \end{equation*} where $\rho$ is the bias of the planted signal or, for refutation, the target advantage. However, every spectral analysis of sparse $k$XOR to date loses polylogarithmic factors against this curve, a loss that enters the exponent of the running time. We show that a normalized variant of the Kikuchi hierarchy achieves the sharp conjectured trade-off, with no logarithmic loss, at every arity $k\ge3$. At the scale above, our algorithms achieve strong detection, weak recovery, and strong refutation; an additional cleanup step boosts weak recovery to exact recovery, and the refutation certificates yield sum-of-squares proofs of degree $O_k(\ell)$. We also prove matching lower bounds in the same model. The inference and refutation upper bounds transfer to more general planting laws and predicates. Finally, we give a quantum algorithm that achieves a quartic speedup over the classical spectral algorithms for detection and weak recovery. The proofs rest on two key ingredients: a normalization of the sparse Kikuchi matrix, and a sharp count of the closed walks in its trace expansion. We use a closely related trace-walk count to prove Feige's 2008 hypergraph Moore bound conjecture in a companion paper.

Fermionic Gaussian states form a central class of classically tractable quantum states, while fermionic non-Gaussianity provides the resource required to go beyond free-fermion dynamics. A key challenge is to quantify this resource through monotones that are both mathematically rigorous and experimentally accessible. Here, we show that the fermionic entropy, defined through the squared Frobenius norm of the correlation matrix, is a strong pure-state Gaussian monotone. Its simple closed-form expression also makes it directly measurable: we show that the associated fermionic purity can be unbiasedly estimated up to additive error $\varepsilon$ using $O(\varepsilon^{-2})$ two-copy measurements, independently of the system size. Moreover, we prove that the fermionic entropy obeys asymptotic continuity and, as a direct consequence, establish its operational meaning as the upper bound to the asymptotic rate of non-Gaussianity distillation. We further derive a linear sample complexity bound for tolerant testing of fermionic Gaussian states, providing a quadratic improvement over the state of the art. As a further application of our results, we study unitary designs generated by Matchgate circuits supplemented with Majorana-local non-Gaussian gates. We prove that a linear number of such gates is necessary even to achieve an approximate state $2$-design with error below $0.4\%$. Combined with known nearly linear upper bounds for relative-error designs, this determines the optimal doping level, up to logarithmic factors, across all relevant design notions and reveals the extensive non-Gaussianity cost required to generate Haar-like quantum dynamics in this architecture.

We study the differential Poisson sigma model (DPSM) in the symplectic case and show that its classical reduction defines a distinguished class of A-type models on symplectic targets, not necessarily Kähler. The DPSM is a covariant first-order sigma model whose graded target is the parity-shifted tangent bundle $T[1]M$ of a Poisson manifold $M$. Its graded Poisson tensor encodes a differential Poisson bracket on $C(T[1]M)\cong\Omega^\bullet(M)$, written covariantly in terms of a connection $\Gamma$ and its transpose $\widetilde\Gamma$. In the nondegenerate case, the Jacobi identities force $\Gamma$ to be flat, while the quartic coupling of the reduced action is given by the curvature of $\widetilde\Gamma$, induced by the torsion of $\Gamma$. Thus, the DPSM selects a symplectic class in which the A-model curvature coupling acquires a first-order Poisson origin. We describe this class through examples and obstructions; $\mathbb{CP}^n$ and K3 surfaces are excluded, while affine symplectic targets, symplectic tori, and the Kodaira–Thurston manifold furnish explicit examples. The graded parent geometry on $T[1]M$ equips $\Omega^\bullet(M)$ with a differential graded Poisson algebra structure; in particular, the underlying differential graded Lie algebra defines a strict $L_\infty$-algebra on the observable complex. This chain-level structure is not manifest in the usual Kähler formulation of the A-model.

Phonons hold promise for storing and transferring quantum information, including in mechanically-mediated quantum interconnects between superconducting qubits and light. Phononic crystal cavities confine gigahertz sound to micron-scale volumes well matched to near-infrared light. So far, these devices have typically been suspended to suppress phononic radiation loss into the substrate, but suspension limits thermal anchoring leading to excess noise. Release-free phononic crystals have emerged as a way to address this challenge – but had yet to be shown compatible with strong electromechanical interactions. Here, we demonstrate a release-free phononic crystal cavity strongly coupled to a high-impedance microwave resonator, with an electromechanical coupling rate $g_\mathrm{em}/(2\pi) \approx 30\,\text{MHz}$ that exceeds both the mechanical and microwave loss rates, leading to a cooperativity up to $\mathcal{C} \approx 180$ on resonance. In addition, our lithium niobate phononic crystals reach quality factors above $10^4$ at millikelvin temperature on both silicon and sapphire substrates. Our results establish release-free phononic crystals as compact, scalable interfaces between microwaves and gigahertz sound for emerging sensing, communication, and computing systems.

We investigate the recent proposal of holographic volume complexity for timelike subregions \cite{Alishahiha:2025xml} in the framework of static patch holography for de Sitter spacetime. Using the stretched-horizon prescription, we compute the timelike subregion complexity as a function of the subregion duration for pure de Sitter and Schwarzschild de Sitter geometries. In pure de Sitter spacetime, the timelike subregion complexity displays exponential growth for short durations, and hyperfast growth near a maximal duration, paralleling the features of spacelike volume complexity \cite{Jorstad:2022mls}. For Schwarzschild de Sitter, when the stretched horizon is near the cosmological horizon, the behavior broadly remains similar to pure de Sitter. However, when the stretched horizon is near the black hole horizon, the hyperfast growth for long durations is replaced by nonlinear growth regime. Along the way, we also compute the corresponding timelike holographic entanglement entropy for de Sitter and Schwarzschild de Sitter.

Quantum integrability is a cornerstone of the exact theory of interacting quantum spin chains. In its standard formulation, however, one starts from R-matrices satisfying the Yang–Baxter equation, rather than from the Hamiltonian itself. It has therefore remained unclear how Yang–Baxter solvability can be characterized directly at the Hamiltonian level, and how it is related to the existence of local conservation laws. Here we prove that, in a broad standard setting, the Reshetikhin condition is not only necessary but also sufficient for Yang–Baxter integrability, thereby reducing the hidden algebraic structure of integrability to a Hamiltonian-level conservation law. Since the Reshetikhin condition is equivalent to conservation of the total energy current, this Hamiltonian-level criterion is also experimentally accessible. This result establishes a quantum counterpart of the Liouville–Arnold theorem for isotropic spin chains, stating that Yang–Baxter solvability is equivalent to an infinite hierarchy of local conserved quantities. Our result also simplifies substantially the search for integrable spin chains by replacing the search for R-matrices with a direct criterion on local Hamiltonians.

We study the phenomenology of light scalar sgoldstinos, with masses from the dimuon threshold up to a few GeV, focusing on their production and detection prospects at the SND@HL-LHC experiment. We review the effective sgoldstino interactions with Standard Model particles, the dominant meson-decay production channels, and the relevant experimental constraints on the model parameter space. We also outline the recently proposed SND@HL-LHC detector configuration and discuss the kinematics and track separation of the muon pair produced in sgoldstino decays inside the detector volume. For two representative sets of supersymmetry-breaking parameters, we present sensitivity estimates and show that the muon-antimuon separation efficiency should be taken into account in searches for the dimuon signal.

Elastic curves are the mathematical shapes of thin elastic rods in equilibrium, with deep connections to mechanics, geometry, and computer graphics. Traditionally described as stationary points of bending energy under length and torsion constraints, their rich theory admits many equivalent characterizations. We develop a new one from the viewpoint of geometric mechanics. Our main contribution relies on a lesser-known isoperimetric characterization: a curve is elastic if and only if it is a critical point of the length functional under fixed area and volume vectors. We show that these constraints transform naturally under orientation-preserving rigid body motions, identifying them as momentum variables for these symmetries. This structure suggests a new discrete theory. We show that the low-order integral quantities length, area, and volume vectors are all naturally defined for polygonal curves, leaving the same transformation laws exactly satisfied. The resulting definition of discrete elastic curves in terms of the isoperimetric characterization restricted to discrete polygonal curves is variational, structure-preserving, and requires no auxiliary discretizations of curvature or material frames. Finally, the same structure carries the Marsden–Weinstein form, a canonical (pre-)symplectic structure on the space of curves, to polygonal curves. This yields novel approaches to Hamiltonian dynamics on discrete space curves, including tangent, vortex-filament, and modified Korteweg–de Vries flows.

We obtain a tensionless limit of the M-theory 5-brane action and discuss its properties. The consistency of this limit requires that the field strength $H_3$ of the 2-form gauge field on the M5 brane worldvolume is non-vanishing and non-degenerate, so that one can also regard it as a strong $H_3$-field limit. The induced $6d$ worldvolume metric of this theory is non-degenerate in contrast to conventional tensionless (null) $p$-branes. We find that the tensionless M5-brane action is invariant under a super-Weyl symmetry acting on the bulk supergeometry, while in the purely bosonic case the action is invariant under an 11D target-space conformal symmetry, a property which is characteristic for the tensionless bosonic branes. Upon imposing a static gauge, which fixes worldvolume diffeomorphisms, this 11D conformal symmetry becomes a deformed 6d worldvolume conformal symmetry whose action on the worldvolume coordinates involves field dependent terms. When the transversal fluctuations of the 5-brane in the bulk are zero, the model reduces to the conformal non-linear chiral 2-form electrodynamics considered earlier by Gibbons and West, and by Townsend.

The pseudo-$C_\ell$ estimator recovers the true cosmic shear power spectrum by correcting for the survey window convolution while employing inverse-variance weighting based on intrinsic shape noise of source galaxies. However, this weighting scheme is optimal only on small angular scales where shape noise dominates. In this paper, we derive a quadratic estimator for the unwindowed cosmic shear power spectrum by maximizing the Gaussian likelihood of the pixelized galaxy-shape field using the full covariance matrix, which accounts for both sample variance and shape noise. By combining FFTs in the flat-sky approximation, the conjugate-gradient method, and Monte Carlo realizations of Gaussian ancillary fields, we substantially reduce the computational cost of estimating the Fisher matrix, a key ingredient of the estimator that requires repeated inverse-covariance matrix operations. Using Gaussian simulations of shape fields, we validate the method and demonstrate that it can recover the input $E$-mode power spectrum with statistically optimal precision across all angular scales. We then apply the method to shape fields generated from ray-tracing simulations for a $\Lambda$CDM cosmology and show that, compared with the pseudo-$C_\ell$ method, it reduces the statistical uncertainties in the $E$-mode power spectrum by 5–15% at multipoles of $\ell \lesssim 500$. We further demonstrate that the method significantly suppresses $E$- to $B$-mode leakage across the full multipole range. Our estimator therefore provides a statistically optimal approach for measuring cosmic shear power spectra from wide-area galaxy survey data.

Self-assembly of constituents determines structure formation in the microscopic world. Attractive forces can assemble active particles into colloidal machines, but they do not fix the particles' orientations, which limits control over the machine's function. We demonstrate that non-reciprocal turn-towards torques not only assemble active particles into clusters, without requiring attractive forces, but also link particle orientations to the cluster configuration. Symmetry then dictates whether the cluster is static, rotates, or translates. In small systems, the particle number uniquely determines the stable configuration and function. In larger systems, there are multiple stable configurations with distinct functions, and tuning the torque strength allows us to bias towards the desired function, such as a run-and-tumble motion. Because the interactions driving assembly can be switched on and off, the clusters self-assemble when needed. For such a "just-in-time" self-assembly to be practical, fast assembly is necessary. We show that stochastic resetting, implemented by briefly turning off propulsion and torque, significantly speeds up self-assembly by avoiding slow pathways. Together, our findings demonstrate that non-reciprocal torques can rapidly assemble active particles into colloidal micromachines with controllable function.

Massive stars play a fundamental role in the evolution of the Universe. Yet, several physical processes governing their evolution remain poorly constrained. Notably, the main-sequence width is sensitive to the convective boundary mixing efficiency; it becomes necessary to account for binary interactions to explain some observed properties of massive-star populations. We constrain single-star models using recent observations of massive Galactic stars from the IACOB database. We use the latest proposed empirical location of the TAMS to calibrate the convective boundary mixing efficiency, and use this calibration to test single-star evolution by comparing various model predictions to the observed populations of the IACOB sample. We compute several GENEC grids with various overshoot calibrations, angular momentum transport (AMT) treatments, initial masses and velocities. Finally, we generate synthetic populations from the tracks with SYCLIST and perform a direct comparison with the observed population. The calibrated models at slow rotation reproduce the empirical TAMS location. We find that a mass-dependent overshoot efficiency is required to fit the observational constraints. The overall rotational properties of the observed populations are well reproduced with single-star models, independently of the AMT assumptions. Models accounting only for hydrodynamical instabilities are successful at reproducing the rotational properties, unlike previous genec grids, which we attribute to the choice of winds prescription. Although the empirical TAMS of slow rotators is well reproduced, we find that models are unsuccessful at explaining the velocity dependence of the TAMS location observed in the IACOB sample. Finally, we find that single-star models fail at explaining the population of blue supergiants to the right of the TAMS location.

Hydrodynamics governs diverse collective phenomena in nature, from the expansion of a quarkgluon plasma to viscous electron flow in quantum materials. In strongly interacting hydrodynamic fluids, the transport of spin remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate spin transport in the hydrodynamic regime of a spin-imbalanced unitary Fermi gas confined in a uniform optical box. By quenching a spatially periodic optical potential that modulates both the density and spin polarization, we observe the relaxation of the many-body system, which determines both the spin diffusivity and the spin Seebeck/Peltier coefficients in a homogeneous quantum gas. Our measurements provide parameter-free benchmarks for microscopic theories and establish an ultracold atom platform for studying spin caloritronics in strongly correlated matter.

Recent development in the field of altermagnetism, and increased demand for the search of applications of anomalous hall effect have ushered in a new era for novel quantum phases in materials. Quantum materials previously anticipated to be scientifically predictable have unfolded novel properties that brought them into the spotlight. These manifestations have led us to rethink our understanding of existing classification of magnetic materials and preexisting notions about anomalous hall effect in the light of topologically nontrivial phases of matter. One such recent de- velopment lies in the novel class of alter-magnetic materials with prospect for quantum computing. In this article, we delineate the spin and orbital resolved electronic spectrum, mode-decomposed phonon dispersion relations, geometrical berry curvature and topological surface states and their implications on anomalous Hall conductivity in the promising altermagnetic compound CrSb. We further utilize first principles calculations coupled with computationally efficient maximally localized wannier states of numerous magnetic configurations of the altermagnet to simulate the effect of external fields and elucidate the fact that the linear behaviour of anomalous hall conductivity with magnetization does not necessarily hold true for all magnetic classes, such as altermagnets.

The precipitous growth of commercial space activity, largely from the development of satellite constellations, threatens to produce a runaway orbital debris population. National regulators are attempting to limit these risks through orbital debris mitigation requirements, but these fail to address the large scale and long lifetimes of satellite constellations. Instead, evaluations are based on the risks from single satellites, and the aggregate risks across constellations are neglected. This situation arises in part because of a lack of suitable approaches to evaluate constellation plans. Here a simple analytical approach reveals that several planned, partially deployed, or fully deployed constellations exceed their critical size producing an unstable or a runaway orbital debris population. Worryingly, this occurs both for small and large constellations, despite debris mitigation measures that go beyond internationally recognised good practices, and even when the constellations are deployed into a pristine, debris-free orbital environment. The results demonstrate the need for more stringent approaches to regulation and suggest careful consideration of some recent constellation plans.

Fragmentation, the breakage of matter into smaller pieces, is an important mechanism responsible for generating microplastics (MPs). We present the first global three-dimensional Eulerian model that resolves fragmentation alongside MP transport. The evolution of particle size is modeled as a transfer from larger- to smaller-size bins, governed by a fragmentation kinetics framework. Relative to a reference simulation without fragmentation, two distinct effects are identified: (1) the surface concentration field of MPs becomes horizontally dispersed, and (2) MPs sink to depths of 500 m where the reference simulation shows negligible concentration. The vertical shift can be explained by the loss of buoyancy when particle size decreases, which facilitates horizontal sub-mixed layer transport once the particles sink below 100 m depth. Neutrally buoyant particles (with diameter d < 1 um) are continuously produced in the ocean by the fragmentation of larger particles and accumulate in the major oceanic gyres. Ultimately, the concentration of these neutrally buoyant MPs peaks at the gyre centers, a behavior that is not captured by prior models. Furthermore, the globally integrated size spectrum exhibits a steepening power-law slope over time that continues to evolve throughout our 25-year simulation. Comparisons with the AOMI Level-3wm observational dataset demonstrate a meaningful improvement in predictive skill relative to previous models: including fragmentation elevates the spatial correlation between modeled and observed surface concentrations from 45% to 58%.

Condensates formed by oppositely charged intrinsically disordered proteins provide model systems for understanding how transient electrostatic interactions govern structure and dynamics in biomolecular assemblies. Here we investigate a nearly charge-neutral condensate composed of 50 Prothymosin alpha (ProTalpha) and 40 Histone H1 molecules using a single-bead-per-residue coarse-grained model combining the HPS hydropathy model for disordered regions with a Go model for the globular domain of Histone H1 under NPT conditions at pressures from 2 to 12 bar. We find that chain dimensions, including the radius of gyration (Rg), end-to-end distance (Ree), and their ratio R, are insensitive to pressure, indicating that chain conformations remain largely unchanged over the pressure range studied. Histone H1 exhibits systematically larger values of R than ProTalpha because of its globular-core plus disordered-tail architecture. Translational diffusion coefficients decrease monotonically with pressure, from approximately 0.22 to 0.06 nm^2/ns, with substantial chain-to-chain heterogeneity comparable to the mean diffusion coefficient. Chain relaxation follows a stretched exponential with beta less than 1 that decreases with pressure. ProTalpha relaxation times of approximately 12 to 40 ns obey Rouse scaling, whereas Histone H1 deviates because of the internal constraint imposed by its globular domain. ProTalpha-Histone H1 contact lifetimes of approximately 0.43 to 0.56 ns are much shorter than the Rouse relaxation time, placing the system firmly in the fast-exchange regime where transient electrostatic contacts renormalize chain friction rather than acting as permanent cross-links, consistent with the moderate stretching exponent beta of approximately 0.55 to 0.70 observed across all pressures.

Quantum mechanics constrains conjugate observables from being simultaneously measurable with arbitrary precision. In a Josephson junction, these are the transferred electric charge and the quantum-mechanical phase difference between the superconducting domains. Which of them fluctuates determines the supercurrent: a dissipative trickle of single Cooper pairs in one limit, a coherent dissipationless flow in the other. Bridging both regimes in one device remained elusive because the Josephson and charging energies are fixed at fabrication. Here, we use the tunable tunnel junction of a scanning tunneling microscope at millikelvin temperature to vary their ratio continuously over many orders of magnitude. In this way, we monitor the smooth transition between incoherent and coherent Cooper pair flow in a single junction, revealing the quantum-to-classical transition in a controlled way.

We propose a holographic map from the semiclassical Hilbert space of pure general relativity in $\text{AdS}_{3}$ to that of $\text{CFT}_{2}$. We define the bulk Hilbert space by semiclassically quantising the phase space in the basis of a fixed-area network on a Cauchy slice $\Sigma$. A fixed-area network is a maximal non-intersecting set of geodesics on $\Sigma$ whose lengths and angular momenta have been fixed. Our holographic map differentiates between `external' geodesics that are homotopic to a connected component of $\partial \Sigma$, and `internal' geodesics which are not. The lengths and angular momenta of external geodesics become conformal weights of primaries in the Hilbert space of the CFT living on the corresponding component of $\partial \Sigma$. The fixed-area network determines the wave function, which is given by a network of OPE coefficients of primaries whose weights are determined by the corresponding lengths. For sufficiently semiclassical states, there is an agreement between bulk and boundary inner products. We apply this proposal to various physics questions. The boundary dual of a bulk gauge turns out to be an emergent basis for sufficiently semiclassical states. We also define boundary operators that measure the lengths of geodesics behind the horizon, again in semiclassical states. Finally, we apply our map to closed universes and find a failure of semiclassicality in simple cases, which can be partially alleviated by the addition of a massive probe.

Relativistic mean field models are a useful tool for modeling semi-leptonic scattering and photo production on nuclei. When using free-nucleon currents, it is often claimed that there exist so-called “off-shell ambiguities”. Here we show that when the current is defined in terms of free-nucleon creation and annihilation operators, all ambiguities related to on-shell vs. off-shell Dirac algebra disappear. Genuine ambiguities persist because the current itself depends on the mean field responsible for nuclear binding; these would be fixed if a consistent background-field dependent current were used. As applications, we consider elastic scattering from a nucleus, and (very large) ambiguities that were previous reported in the literature in the context of coherent pion photoproduction. We explain how these ambiguities are removed by the procedure introduced herein.

Advancing the understanding of electron-electron interactions in one-dimensional systems remains one of the central challenges in low-dimensional physics, especially for Coulomb-coupled Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids. Notably, the difficulty of reliably extracting one-dimensional system parameters, combined with the presence of disorder, has hindered the interpretation of 1D Coulomb drag experiments. Here, we present a self-consistent experimental determination of the relative Luttinger liquid interaction parameters through 1D Coulomb drag measurements, and achieve quantitative agreement with theoretical predictions. Utilizing vertically coupled GaAs-AlGaAs quantum wires, we fully characterize the one-dimensional parameters through magnetic depopulation. Coulomb drag exhibits a systematic evolution with magnetic field, reflecting the successive depopulation of 1D subbands and the suppression of disorder effects. Two distinct temperature regimes are identified, marking the boundary between momentum-resolved and disordered-averaged Coulomb drag. The observed scaling, peak broadening, and nonlinear current-voltage characteristics establish a unified and quantitative framework for probing electron-electron interactions in 1D systems.

We consider an elastic helical nanoribbon that can take on various conformations, and study the effect of placing a quantum particle on its curved surface. Using a modified Canham-Helfrich model for the elastic energy, we write down the local elastic potential for the ribbon in terms of its bending rigidity, mean curvature $M$ and Gaussian curvature $K$. The Schrödinger equation of a particle confined to a rigid curved surface is found using da Costa's formulation. It has a purely quantum geometric potential which depends on $M$ and $K$. The Schrödinger equation of a particle on an elastic curved surface will therefore have a total potential comprising quantum and elastic potentials. We compute $M$ and $K$ for a helical ribbon and derive the total potential which depends on the conformation and is thus geometric in nature. Defining a dimensionless quantity $R_H$, we study the behavior of the total geometric potential as $R_H$ is varied. In the absence of an electron, the elastic potential is positive and has a single positive maximum for all conformations. Further, a binormal helical ribbon conformation has the lowest potential, while the normal ribbon has the highest, with those of the intermediate ribbons lying in between these. Intriguingly, when a quantum particle is placed on the elastic ribbon, above a certain critical value of $R_H$, the presence of the quantum geometric potential reverses this order. But localized states for the particle are not supported. Only above a second critical value of $R_H$, localized states appear for all conformations. The injection of an electron on any given conformation of the elastic ribbon will induce a conformational transition to the normal ribbon conformation.

We study pairing of attractively interacting fermions confined to a box-shaped trap. In contrast to the infinite translationally-invariant case, where the local pairing order is spatially uniform and undergoes the Bose-Einstein Condensate to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BEC-BCS) crossover as interactions are varied, in this case the local pairing is expected to vary rapidly near the edge of the box. We address this problem in the limit of a semi-infinite superfluid, finding that the nature of the edge pairing depends sensitively on the coupling. The local pairing exhibits Friedel-like oscillations in the weak coupling BCS regime that are suppressed with increasing coupling strength towards the BEC regime.

In gravity theories with torsion, inflation can be driven by the dynamical torsion. Since it naturally has a derivative coupling to the axial current consisting of Standard Model particles, the reheating dynamics should be much different from conventional inflation models like Starobinsky inflation. We calculate the inflaton decay rate in detail and find that, although the 2 body decay into the fermion pair is vanishing in the massless fermion limit, the anomaly-induced 2 body decay into the gauge bosons and 3 body decay involving the Higgs boson are non-vanishing and they give sizable contributions to the total decay width of the inflaton. This gives a natural lower bound on the reheating temperature in the inflation model with dynamical torsion.

We present selected recent results from the second phase of the Beam Energy Scan program (BES-II) at RHIC, based on high-statistics data collected by the STAR experiment in collider and fixed-target modes, covering $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=3.0$–$27$~GeV. New results from isobar (Ru+Ru, Zr+Zr) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200$~GeV are also presented. The presented results span bulk properties and strangeness production, femtoscopy, collectivity and hyperon polarization, and fluctuation observables sensitive to the QCD phase structure. Future prospects with newly recorded fixed-target datasets are also briefly outlined.