Papers

While General Relativity remains our most rigorously tested framework for gravitation, the theoretical persistence of singularities within standard black hole solutions continues to motivate the exploration of mathematically regular alternatives. Gravitational vacuum stars (gravastars) offer a non-singular model, substituting the event horizon with a physical, ultra-stiff thin shell. Recent studies have demonstrated that extended theories, such as $f(R, L_m, T)$ gravity, can structurally support these objects by utilizing the non-minimal coupling between geometry and matter. Building upon these static foundations, this paper presents a phenomenological propositional model to explore the dynamic interactions between modified-gravity gravastars and equatorial accretion flows. By numerically solving the modified Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations and applying a non-complexifying algorithm, we construct a mathematically regular rotating metric ansatz. We demonstrate that the modified gravity coupling parameter systematically alters the effective potential, shifting the location of the Innermost Stable Circular Orbit (ISCO). Furthermore, we explore the idealized thermodynamics of plasma colliding with the gravastar surface, suggesting a distinct thermal emission that could theoretically produce a “filled-in” central shadow in interferometric observations. While acknowledging the challenges of observational degeneracy and the deliberate omission of complex radiation pressure feedback, we offer these geometric and thermal signatures as a transparent conceptual baseline to motivate future general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) campaigns.

We report a temperature-dependent investigation of orthoferrite TbFeO$_3$ using x-ray diffraction, DC magnetization, and Raman scattering, complemented by room-temperature x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction reveals negative thermal expansion over 5-300 K, with a small but systematic increase in unit-cell volume upon cooling in the absence of any structural phase transition. Raman scattering measurements identify the Raman-active phonon modes and show clear deviations from the conventional Klemens anharmonic decay model, particularly in phonon frequencies, indicating the presence of spin-phonon coupling. Two modes of $A_g$ and $B_{1g}$ symmetry exhibit a crossover from Gaussian-dominated line shapes at low temperatures to mixed Gaussian-Lorentzian profiles at higher temperatures, reflecting a transition from inhomogeneous broadening to lifetime-driven dynamics. High-energy Raman spectra reveal two-magnon excitations associated with the Fe sublattice, consistent with linear spin-wave theory, whose spectral weight shows only weak temperature dependence. In addition, a broad Raman mode emerging below $\sim 175$ K exhibits an order-parameter-like temperature evolution and coincides with the onset of phonon anomalies, while no corresponding strong anomaly is observed in the two-magnon response. Taken together, these results establish TbFeO$_3$ as a system with pronounced interplay among lattice dynamics, spin correlations, and emergent local magnetic-lattice anomalies.

It is rather surprising that modern quantum physics does not appear to have provided any clear answer to the simple question “what is electric charge?”. Even when the total charge operator $Q$ is well-defined, the non-locality of $Q$ implies that it is not an observable in the usual sense, which can be measured by a (local) experimental apparatus. A candidate for the “local version” of charge operator is the 4-current operator $j=(j^{\mu})_{\mu=0,1,2,3}$. However, it is known that the rigorous definition of $j$ is difficult in $(3+1)$-dimensional Minkowski space. Although it was found that the current can be defined in $(1+1)$-dimensions (Carey et al.), I argue that even when $j$ can be suitably defined, the interpretability of $j$ as the “local charge operator” is dubious. Instead I return to Araki and Wyss (1964), and propose the concept of “scope-local charge” $Q_{\zeta}(P)$ for a “scope” $P$, expressed by a finite-dimensional projection. I work in an abstract $C^{*}$-algebraic setting.

Noncoplanar whirling magnetic order has recently been proposed as a universal magnetic state in non-Heisenberg Tsai-type quasicrystal approximants. Here, X-ray resonant magnetic scattering measurements on Heisenberg and non-Heisenberg Au-Al-R (R = Gd, Tb) 1/1 approximants reveal a clear breakdown of this universality in the Heisenberg limit. While the non-Heisenberg Au-Al-Tb system is well described by the previously identified whirling magnetic structure, the Heisenberg Au-Al-Gd counterpart exhibits qualitatively different azimuthal-angle dependences that are incompatible with the universal whirling-order model. Despite nearly identical crystal structures and comparable magnetic energy scales, the two systems stabilize distinct antiferromagnetic ground states with the same propagation vector k = (1, 0, 0), demonstrating that the apparent universality of whirling order is not a consequence of Tsai-cluster geometry alone but requires spin anisotropy. These results further reveal the emergence of a competing manifold of nearly degenerate magnetic states in the Heisenberg limit.

We prove a conjecture of Dubrovin, Liu, Yang, and Zhang that states that the Poisson bracket of the Dubrovin-Zhang hierarchy of a rank-one cohomological field theory is constant if and only if it is given by the triple Hodge class with the parameters satisfying the Calabi-Yau condition.

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) reconstructs each event's vertex and energy with OMILREC, a maximum-likelihood fit that scans all $17{,}612$ large photomultiplier tubes (LPMTs) in every Minuit function evaluation, about $470$ times per event. This inner loop dominates the reconstruction CPU cost. Profiling shows that the production algorithm is latency-bound, sustaining only $9.9%$ of scalar floating-point peak because of virtual-function dispatch, ROOT-histogram pointer chasing, and repeated computation. We apply staged equivalence-preserving optimizations: flattened data layouts, vectorizable geometry, hoisting of Minuit-invariant work, per-event precomputation, fit-phase loop splitting and indexing, and reduced-precision fast paths. Each stage is checked against a frozen reference from the unmodified code. The optimized implementation achieves single-thread speedups of $8.06\times$ ($1524.8 \rightarrow 189.2$~ms/event) on an Intel Xeon Platinum~8358P and $5.22\times$ ($705.1 \rightarrow 134.9$~ms/event) on an AMD~EPYC~9654, increasing to $8.6\times$ ($177.7$~ms/event) after further optimization. The likelihood remains bit-identical through the first seven releases and later agrees within a relative drift of $1.3\times10^{-14}$, below the $10^{-13}$ contract. For typical events, reconstructed vertex and energy agree with the baseline within $4$~mm and $7$~keV; a few boundary cases reach different valid minima owing to an improved minimizer seed. An eight-metric physics-acceptance test also passes on about $861{,}000$ $^{68}$Ge calibration events. Developed with assistance from an AI coding agent operating under these verification gates, this workflow offers a transferable template for accelerating likelihood-based reconstruction in large neutrino and collider detectors without changing physics output.

The development of deep-tissue super-resolution imaging serves as an essential bridge toward non-invasive in vivo optical observation. However, there remain challenges to balance spatial resolution, imaging depth and phototoxicity. Here, we present a nanoscopy namely Image Scanning Emission Saturation (ISES) nanoscopy, achieving a lateral resolution of 37 nm, 1/25th of the excitation wavelength, at an imaging depth of 200 {\mu}m. Using a 976-nm doughnut-shaped excitation beam within an imaging-scanning microscopy configuration, we apply saturation-based point spread function (PSF) engineering and pixel-level confocal-pinhole enhancement to improve spatial resolution. As the high- and low-frequency components of the image OTF are concurrently acquired in a single scan via different camera pixels, Fourier-domain fusion can be employed with a single scanning dataset to further improve image quality. Compared with the traditional doughnut excitation beam-based adaptive pixel reassignment method, our strategy preserves the original frequency distributions and mitigates reconstruction artifacts in complex biological sample imaging. This strategy is generalizable and compatible with a variety of probes displaying saturation behavior. Beyond enabling a versatile and practical approach for deep tissue super-resolution imaging, it also informs the development of next-generation nanoprobes for imaging.

We give a rigorous proof that the hard-core model on a natural family of infinite graphs exhibits a first-order phase transition.

Imaginary-time evolution (ITE) is a foundational method for ground state preparation on quantum computers. However, because ITE is non-unitary, existing implementations incur a sample complexity and/or classical cost that scales exponentially with the target imaginary time $\beta$. Moreover, the state itself converges slower than the energy, making accurate estimation of arbitrary ground state observables even more expensive. In this work, we improve upon standard ITE by introducing twirled imaginary-time evolution (TITE), which pairs ITE with real-time evolution applied for a random duration drawn from a carefully designed distribution. We prove that this randomization quadratically suppresses the trace distance to the ground state, and thus also the error of arbitrary observables, which allows roughly half of the imaginary time to be replaced with real-time evolution ($\beta \mapsto \beta/2$) while maintaining the same level of accuracy. Because real-time evolution is unitary and does not incur an overhead in sample complexity or classical computation, this affords a quadratic reduction in the cost of any black-box ITE implementation, including Trotterization and quantum imaginary-time evolution. We demonstrate the efficiency of our algorithm in noisy circuit-level simulations of a non-integrable Ising chain, showing substantial improvements over standard ITE.

The processes controlling the early mass growth of future massive stars remain poorly understood, particularly the connection of this growth to star clustering and hub-filament systems (HFSs). This connection is difficult to establish observationally, because projection effects and line-of-sight confusion in position-position-velocity (PPV) data can distort the information about the intrinsic filamentary structure. To investigate this connection, we used a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of star formation, where stars are represented by accreting sink particles. We identify clustered stellar environments, reconstruct time-dependent accretion histories, and investigate the relation between enhanced-accretion episodes and the locations of HFSs. We also use line radiative transfer modeling to produce synthetic molecular-line observations and examine how the same structures appear in projected PPV data. In our simulation, we find that 80% of future massive stars are associated with clustered environments. Their growth is also highly episodic: typically, about 40% of the accreted mass is gained during periods of enhanced accretion that occupy only about 10% of the total growth time. Periods of enhanced accretion occur slightly closer to three-dimensional HFS proxies, suggesting a possible link between HFS morphology and episodic accretion in future massive stars. Overall, our results suggest that the early growth of future massive stars is connected to both their clustered environment and the HFS structure of the surrounding gas, and projection effects must be considered when interpreting HFS in PPV data.

In this second part, I discuss how to introduce and the role played by non-atomic degrees of freedom in neutron stars' core using the formalism developed in Part I.

We present a unified analysis of two matter-potential systematics in long-baseline (LBL) neutrino oscillation experiments. Matter-induced extrinsic CPT violation produces a non-zero asymmetry $A_{\mu e}^{CPT} = (P_{\mu e} - P_{\bar{\mu}\bar{e}})/(P_{\mu e} + P_{\bar{\mu}\bar{e}})$, computed here with exact three-flavour matrix-exponentiation propagators for T2K, NO$\nu$A, DUNE, and Hyper-Kamiokande; values range from 0.022 to 0.180 at the respective peak energies and differ by up to 9% between normal and inverted mass orderings. The three-dimensional surface $A_{\mu e}^{CPT}(E, \delta_{CP})$ at the DUNE baseline reveals an entanglement between extrinsic CPT violation and intrinsic CP violation in the high-$L/E$ regime that requires joint statistical treatment. Concurrently, replacing the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM) with a constant path-averaged density introduces a $\delta_{CP}$-reconstruction bias below $0.3^{\circ}$ for $L \leq 5000$ km but growing to $17.8^{\circ}$ at $L = 7000$ km and $172.2^{\circ}$ at $L = 12000$ km. Since both effects share the same matter-potential Hamiltonian they must be modelled jointly; a Poisson log-likelihood $\chi^2$ statistic with nuisance-parameter pull terms is used to quantify the bias.

We analyze an impulsive solar energetic particle (SEP) event observed by Solar Orbiter at 0.93 au on 2022 December 24 that exhibits a pronounced intensity dropout between approximately 07:15 and 10:00 UT. Pitch-angle distributions show a near-field-aligned beam before the dropout, which disappears abruptly at the dropout onset. At the same time, a weak 100–200 keV component appears at pitch angles of about 90–180 degrees; no comparable enhancement over this pitch-angle range is present at MeV energies. The dropout onset is not accompanied by an abrupt change in the in situ magnetic field or solar wind plasma. Solar imaging associates the SEP event with a jet from a compact source. Ballistic back mapping, together with Potential Field Source Surface extrapolations and quasi-separatrix-layer proxy diagnostics, indicates that Solar Orbiter nominally connects to the source region, but lies close to strong connectivity gradients where small displacement may shift the connection to neighboring open field lines. The in situ measurements show that the event occurs during a magnetic-cloud passage and that additional dropouts occur later in the event. These results favor an interpretation in which the dropout reflects rapid changes in particle access between adjacent flux tubes, while the magnetic cloud may help preserve the sharp SEP intensity gradients between them.

The AFLOW library of crystallographic prototypes has been updated to incorporate an additional 344 entries, which now reaches 2,127 prototypes. ICSD and CCDC numbers have been added to the website alongside improvements to the user interface. New tutorials covering the basics of crystallography in the context of materials science have also been added. Lastly, we covered the current known applications of AFLOW prototype labels and materials data across research software.

(469219) Kamo`oalewa is the most stable Earth quasi-satellite and the target of China's Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return mission. Due to its small size, fast rotation, and the limited observing geometry accessible from the ground, many physical properties of Kamo`oalewa remain poorly constrained, including the rotational state and shape. We obtained three epochs of high-cadence, high signal-to-noise photometric lightcurves of Kamo`oalewa with the Gemini North Telescope from 2026 April to May, supplemented by one lightcurve from the Lowell Discovery Telescope in 2026 May. Our analysis suggests that Kamo`oalewa is in a non-principal-axis rotation with an elongated shape. Four possible solutions exist, including a long-axis mode (LAM) solution and a short-axis mode (SAM) solution, as well as their corresponding mirrored angular momentum directions. The most preferable solution has a LAM model with a precession period $P_\phi=27.65\pm0.03~\text{min}$ and a rotational period $P_\psi=50.49\pm0.08~\text{min}$, and the angular momentum points to ecliptic coordinates $(\lambda, \beta) = (226^\mathrm{o}\pm20^\mathrm{o}, -39^\mathrm{o}\pm20\mathrm{o})$, although we cannot rule out other solutions or other close-by periods due to aliasing. We also derived a convex shape inversion for the LAM models with consistent rotational parameters but could not find a satisfactory inversion for the SAM models. The corresponding angular momentum points to $(\lambda, \beta)=(225^\mathrm{o}, -43^\mathrm{o})$, and the periods are $P_\phi=27.90~\text{min}$ and $P_\psi=49.66~\text{min}$. The non-principal-axis rotation provides additional constraints on the dynamic history or the internal structure of Kamo`oalewa.

This note presents an axisymmetric model of a tornado-like vortex with internal vertical wind shear. By employing a prescribed incompressible circulation-strain flow that captures the horizontal variation of the vertical wind, we show that the model admits an exact viscous Feynman-Kac representation for the tornado structure. In the presence of vortex vertical shear, the tilting term induces radial phase mixing that rapidly deforms the vortex structure, thus causing the radius of the maximum azimuthal wind to broaden and shift upward. At the long-time limit, the vortex approaches the Burgers radial scale while both the wind and vorticity decay exponentially. This class of solutions may help explain why tornadoes often weaken rapidly once an internal vertical shear structure emerges after touchdown.

We study the fault-tolerant cost of preparing sparse quantum states, measured by $T$-count in the Clifford+$T$ model. Here an $n$-qubit state is called $s$-sparse if it is supported on at most $s$ computational-basis states. For arbitrary $n$-qubit states, the optimal $T$-count is $\Theta(\sqrt{2^n\log(1/\epsilon)}+\log(1/\epsilon))$, but for $s$-sparse states the best previous upper bounds remained linear in $s$. We show that any $n$-qubit $s$-sparse state can be prepared up to error $\epsilon$ using $\widetilde{O}(\min\{s,\ n^{3/4}\sqrt{s}\}+\sqrt{s\log(1/\epsilon)}+\log(1/\epsilon))$ $T$ gates, giving the first sublinear dependence on $s$ once the support is sufficiently large. Our approach is based on a support-aware synthesis theorem for sparse Boolean functions, which may be of independent interest. We also prove that, for every $0<\epsilon\le 1/6$ and $2\le s\le 2^{n/2}$, sparse-state preparation requires $\Omega(\min\{s,\sqrt{ns}\})$ $T$ gates, showing that linear dependence on $s$ is unavoidable in the small-support regime and substantially narrowing the gap between the known upper and lower bounds within this parameter range.

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) are localized eigenmodes with their frequencies in the radiation continuum of scattering states. The existence of a BIC implies the loss of uniqueness for scattering problems with given incident waves. Perturbed wave systems close to the ideal ones with a BIC exhibit strong resonance effects that are essential to numerous practical applications. A question of fundamental importance is whether a BIC is robust, i.e., whether it can continue its existence when the structure is slightly perturbed. In an earlier work [Yuan and Lu, Optics Letters, Vol.~42, pp.~4490-4493, 2017], for a class of BICs governed by the two-dimensional (2D) Helmholtz equation, which are not trivially protected by symmetry, we uncovered the conditions that ensure robustness and formally constructed the BIC in perturbed systems using a perturbation method. In this paper, we present a rigorous theory on the robustness of BICs in 2D dielectric structures with a single periodic direction. Specifically, we analyze the solvability and provide estimates for each order in the perturbation series, and prove the convergence of the series.

We study the $\eta$-$\eta^{\prime}$ system in the self-consistent light-front quark model (LFQM) with the quark flavor mixing scheme, where the single mixing angle is constrained by the transition form factors (TFFs) $F_{\eta^{(\prime)}\gamma}(Q^2)$. A continuous combined $\chi^2$ fit to the CLEO and BABAR data gives $\theta=41.55^{+0.57}_{-0.60}\,{}^\circ$, in close agreement with the recent LHCb result $(41.6^{+1.0}_{-1.2})^\circ$. Using this mixing angle, we calculate the decay constants, light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs), Gegenbauer moments, $\xi$-moments, transverse momentum moments, electromagnetic interaction radii and two-photon decay widths of the $\eta$ and $\eta^{\prime}$ mesons. The predicted $a_2^\eta$ and $\langle\xi^2\rangle_\eta$ are consistent with the latest BABAR results, and the electromagnetic interaction radii also agree well with the A2 and BESIII measurements. These results demonstrate that TFF data strongly constrain the light-front description of the nonperturbative properties of the $\eta$-$\eta^{\prime}$ system. After the fit and LFQM-input uncertainties are propagated, the predicted widths are $0.428^{+0.038}_{-0.035}$ keV and $3.067^{+0.190}_{-0.180}$ keV for $\eta\to\gamma\gamma$ and $\eta^{\prime}\to\gamma\gamma$, respectively. The central values are lower than the corresponding experimental values, indicating that the real-photon point provides a more sensitive test of the absolute TFF normalization.

We study the frog model on $\mathbb Z^d$ and on the discrete tori $\mathbb T_L^d$, $d\ge 2$, with a symmetric, translation-invariant, and heavy-tailed transition kernel satisfying \[ Q(x,y)\asymp |x-y|^{-(d+\alpha)}, \qquad \alpha>0. \] Starting from an i.i.d. Poisson$(\lambda)$ number of sleeping particles per site and one active particle at the origin. Active particles perform independent $Q$-random walks and activate the particles they encounter. We first determine the timescale for activating distant vertices. When $\alpha\in(0,d)$, the time required to activate all vertices within distance $L$ of the origin is, with high probability, \[ (\log L)^{\Delta+o(1)}, \qquad \Delta^{-1}:=\log_2\left(\frac{2d}{d+\alpha}\right), \] as $L\to\infty$. This polylogarithmic spreading contrasts sharply with the linear spreading of the classical frog model driven by simple random walks; see Alves, Machado, and Popov (2002) and Ramírez and Sidoravicius (2004). When $\alpha>d$, we recover this classical linear behavior by proving matching linear upper and lower bounds; at $\alpha=d$, we prove a linear upper bound. Finally, we consider the finite-lifespan model on $\mathbb T_L^d$, in which each particle is removed after taking $\ell$ steps. We show that the cover lifespan, defined as the smallest $\ell$ for which the torus is entirely activated, is asymptotic to the cover time of a Poisson$(\lambda L^d)$ cloud of independent stationary random walkers.

We investigate the skyrmion excited states atop the $SU(4)$ quantum Hall ferromagnetic ground state at filling factor $\nu=-1$ in monolayer graphene. The competition among short-range anisotropic interactions, the Zeeman coupling, and sublattice symmetry-breaking potential gives rise to four distinct spin-valley-ordered ground-state phases. Combining effective field theory with the Hartree–Fock approximation, we develop a variational framework that incorporates both the long-range Coulomb interaction and the symmetry-breaking terms on an equal footing. Variational minimization determines the optimal skyrmion texture, including both its spatial radial profile and internal $SU(4)$ spinor structure. We establish the phase diagram of skyrmion excitations, identify thirteen distinct skyrmion phases under different external-field conditions, and determine their spin-valley textures, energies, and characteristic sizes. The robustness of the results against different radial ansätze demonstrates the reliability of our variational approach. Our work provides a systematic framework for studying skyrmion excitations in multicomponent quantum Hall ferromagnets and can be naturally extended to more general $SU(4)$ quantum Hall systems.

Charge radii differences of mirror partner nuclei provide an alternative probe to pin down the interaction components in asymmetric nuclear matter. In this work, the differences in the charge radii of almost spherical mirror-paired nuclei $^{54}$Ni-$^{54}$Fe and $^{36}$Ca-$^{36}$S are used to constrain the magnitude of tensor terms in the Skyrme interactions. The calculated results suggest that a linear correlation can be found between the difference of charge radii of mirror partner nuclei and the adopted strengths of the triplet-odd and triplet-even tensor components. Besides, it suggests that charge radii differences of mirror-paired nuclei are more sensitive to the adopted strengths of the triplet-odd parameter $U$ rather than the triplet-even parameter $T$. Combining the quantitative constraint strengths of the triplet-even tensor part obtained from the magnetic dipole (M1) excitations, the charge-exchange Gamow-Teller (GT) states, and the spin-dipole (SD) excitations, the triplet-odd strengths are further constrained for the SLy5 as well as SGII effective interactions. This provides an alternative approach to constrain the appropriate magnitude of tensor force.

Lateral magnetic interfaces provide a direct way to test whether skyrmions remain robust when driven across abrupt changes in material parameters and magnetic order. Here we study skyrmion transmission across planar ferromagnet-ferromagnet (FM-FM), antiferromagnet-antiferromagnet (AFM-AFM), ferromagnet-antiferromagnet (FM-AFM), and antiferromagnet-ferromagnet (AFM-FM) interfaces using micromagnetic simulations and analytic reduced-coordinate criteria. The outcomes are organized into phase diagrams according to the morphology formed in the receiving region, distinguishing compact transmission from deformed skyrmions, stripe-domain states, amorphous textures, and relaxation into the background. Same-order FM-FM and AFM-AFM skyrmion transmission is captured by an analytically defined range of the reduced Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, identifying the wall-softening regime that supports compact transmission without stripe formation. Mixed-order FM-AFM and AFM-FM interfaces are directionally distinct, requiring conversion between ferromagnetic magnetization and antiferromagnetic Néel textures. These results show that planar interfaces act as active transport elements and provide reduced design criteria for heterogeneous skyrmion tracks.

The anomalous Hall voltage of magnetic heterostructures plays a key role as the indicator for the magnetization state and its interplay with a variety of spintronic effects. In this letter, we report the observation, mechanism, and impact of the universal, dramatic scaling of the anomalous Hall voltage of magnetic heterostructures with the thickness and resistivity of the nonmagnetic conducting layers (e.g., normal metal) by combining transport experiments, analytical derivation, and finite-element analyses. We identify that the mechanism is the serial resistor effect of the magnetic and non-magnetic layers within the magnetic heterostructures and irrelevant to any Fermi surface variation or angular momentum injection from the nonmagnetic layer to the magnetic layer. We also show that the accuracy of the harmonic Hall voltage analyses of magnetic heterostructures are unaffected by the under-measuring of the anomalous Hall voltage and other transverse voltages due to the serial resistor effect. These findings provide crucial information for understanding a variety of spintronic phenomena involving the anomalous Hall and other transverse voltages.

The transition from order to disorder is conventionally regarded as detrimental to solid-state heat transfer in classical wave and quasiparticle systems. In striking contrast, we show that in near-field thermal radiation, breaking long-range order-shifting from periodic to quasiperiodic configurations-induces a counterintuitive enhancement of energy transport. This effect arises from delocalized interactions within quasiperiodic elements, where this quasiperiodicity relays and amplifies thermal electromagnetic energy transfer across large spatial separations, surpassing even corresponding near-field scenarios. The extraordinary transport properties induced by quasidisorder effect of near-field thermal radiation could unlock exciting opportunities for heat flow manipulation, offering transformative implications for thermal science and advancing the fundamental understanding of collective excitations in non-ordered systems.

Reduced density matrix functional theory (RDMFT) provides a rigorous framework for treating strong electron correlation, yet its application to periodic systems has long been hindered by two fundamental challenges: the lack of transferable approximate functionals and the poor efficiency of orbital-occupation optimization. Here we show that these two longstanding obstacles can be overcome simultaneously. We develop a periodic implementation of RDMFT based on a coupled optimization framework that enables the efficient simultaneous optimization of natural orbitals and occupation numbers under periodic boundary conditions. Using this implementation, we demonstrate that physically motivated short-range screening transforms the Power functional into a transferable functional applicable to both molecules and periodic solids. Remarkably, short-range screening is found to play a dual role: besides substantially improving energetic accuracy, it fundamentally reshapes the optimization landscape, producing robust optimization step sizes and dramatically accelerating convergence. The coupled optimization framework consistently requires substantially fewer optimization iterations than conventional decoupled optimization for periodic calculations, while the screened $\omega$P22 functional outperforms semilocal and hybrid density functionals in predicting representative surface reaction barriers. These results establish a computationally efficient periodic RDMFT framework and identify short-range screening as a promising design principle for developing transferable one-body reduced-density-matrix functionals.

We study a restricted fibre-dependent $\alpha'$-loop sector in Type IIB Large Volume Scenario fibre inflation beyond the conventional Berg-Haack-Pajer (BHP) parametrisation. Motivated by effective-field-theory corrections in K3-fibred Calabi–Yau orientifolds, we analyse BHP-complete, partially BHP-driven and BHP-free configurations. For BHP-driven cases, the additional corrections act as effective deformations of the standard fibre potential and are bounded at the percent level relative to the corresponding BHP structures, with logarithmic terms typically more restricted due to their effects on the slope and curvature. At the effective-field-theory level, we identify a BHP-free fibre-inflation regime, referred to as $\alpha'$-loop inflation, in which the conventional KK- and winding-type BHP channels vanish while the generalized loop sector stabilises the fibre modulus and supports slow-roll inflation. This regime exhibits a characteristic hierarchy between fibre-dependent loop structures controlled by the large-volume suppression and satisfies CMB, Kähler-cone, large-volume and heavy-modulus constraints. Our results show that fibre inflation is sensitive to the orientifold and brane configurations, and that corrections beyond the BHP ansatz can generate new controlled inflationary regimes.

IRTF-ASM-1 has been functioning well since its first light in 2024. This adaptive secondary mirror (ASM) was primarily developed to be an on-sky demonstration of the new hybrid variable reluctance actuator technology at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF). However, due to its physical robustness and our previous demonstrations of sensitivity enhancements with the ASM, we are interested in using it to optimize telescope image quality on a nightly basis. This will directly benefit science observations. However, as IRTF does not currently have adaptive optics expertise, we have been developing the system to be used with minimal human intervention. We present our progress in developing software for active optics mode with IRTF-ASM-1 using the single conjugate, facility 2x2 Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor Felix. We also present techniques for removing low-order, large amplitude non-common path aberrations between Felix and our science instruments.

Interfacing integrated photonics with solid-state spin defects holds great promise for future quantum networks, but the scaling of spin-photon architectures is hindered by frequency mismatches arising from fabrication-induced variations in photonic cavity resonances and the inhomogeneous optical transition frequencies of individual spins. These challenges call for a photonic platform with deterministic and wide-range tunability. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid nanophotonic platform based on direct bonding of silicon carbide photonic crystal nanocavity arrays onto thin-film lithium niobate on insulator, enabling deterministic electrical tuning of multiple SiC nanocavities into mutual spectral resonance. By exploiting the strong electro-optic response of lithium niobate, we achieve continuous and wide-range cavity tuning of 380 GHz ($\sim$1.1 nm), sufficient to compensate both cavity disorder and spin inhomogeneity. The nanocavities balance strong optical confinement with electrical tunability, exhibiting a theoretical Purcell factor of approximately 400. This hybrid platform enables electrically reconfigurable spin-photon interfaces for large-scale integrated quantum photonics.

Classical objectivity requires an environment to witness a pointer value, not merely to decohere it. We derive microscopic Hamiltonian laws for this distinction. Exact QND product monitoring yields a certified two-edge strong-Darwinism window: sufficient witnesses cross the optimal record-discrimination edge while retaining an unobserved complement that crosses the residual-coherence edge. Under additional regularity assumptions, the supplement gives converse bounds at the same logarithmic scale. For controlled-phase monitors, environmental asymmetry gives a single-fragment information bound, a redundancy converse, and, in efficient i.i.d. streams, an achievable block-capacity law for redundant witnesses. A finite-temperature spin-phase bath shows the physical separation: hot probes can decohere efficiently while losing the local asymmetry needed for objective witnesses.