Papers

We study the minimal classically scale-invariant extension of the Standard Model, containing a single $\mathbb Z_2$-stabilised real scalar singlet whose mass is not an independent input but is generated dynamically through the quantum effective potential and linked to radiative electroweak symmetry breaking through the Higgs portal. We construct the full two-field one-loop effective potential and introduce a modified on-shell renormalisation scheme that fixes the electroweak vacuum, the Higgs mass, the vanishing Higgs–singlet mixing and the singlet curvature at the physical point, yielding predictions stable under renormalisation-scale variation. Since thermal freeze-out is excluded by direct-detection limits, we identify a highly predictive freeze-in realisation of this model. Imposing perturbativity, vacuum stability and the observed relic abundance leads to a freeze-in solution with a dark-matter mass of around $2~{\rm MeV}$. The predicted electron-scattering cross section for this solution lies far below the current sensitivity of DAMIC-M. Current direct-detection experiments therefore do not constrain this scenario. The minimal scale-invariant singlet model thus provides a robust and highly predictive framework connecting radiative electroweak symmetry breaking and freeze-in dark-matter genesis.

Photoemission spectroscopy on high $T_c$ superconductors find a puzzling nodal self-energy with $\omega/T$ scaling and an exponent varying continuously with doping. We propose a mechanism: nonlocality induced by poorly screened effective repulsions $V_{\alpha}(r) \sim 1/r^\alpha$, where a continuously doping-dependent exponent $1 \le \alpha \le 3$ interpolates between the Mott insulating and Fermi liquid limits. We develop a phenomenology of hydrodynamic screening, finding a scale-covariant quasiparticle decay rate $\Gamma(\omega,T) \propto T^{\gamma} \Phi(\omega/T)$ in energy $\omega$ and temperature $T$, with $\gamma = 2-\frac{1}{\alpha}$ for nonlocal $ 1 < \alpha < 2$. Our results naturally capture the optimally doped to overdoped regimes, whereas the underdoped regime is qualitatively distinct. In our theory, spectroscopy-fitted exponents directly probe the charged fluid's effective spatial nonlocality, providing a way to falsify the theory by comparing photoemission spectroscopy against electron energy loss spectroscopy. More broadly, nonlocality cautions us to not immediately infer quantum critical phenomena when $\omega/T$ scaling is experimentally observed.

Photonic multi-qubit entanglement is key to optical quantum information processing, particularly universal quantum computing. Yet multi-photon sources suffer from low emission efficiency, making single-photon high-dimensional encoding an appealing alternative. Here we propose an explicit and resource-efficient high-dimensional encoding approach to achieve the target multi-qubit quantum state. The technically challenging preparation of multi-photon quantum states is replaced by single-photon operations involving high-dimensional expansion, routing, and multi-layered quantum measurement. Besides, each photon in the resource multi-photon quantum state can be used to encode multiple qubits in a distributed manner, and a larger entangled state will be constructed. We demonstrate this approach using programmable photonic integrated circuits, where multi-qubit graph states–including the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state and the cluster state–are generated and characterized. We additionally demonstrate the Grover search algorithm using the single-photon cluster state. Our findings unlock a novel route towards diverse entangled state generation with photons and advance large-scale and universal photonic quantum information processing.

We propose a scheme to compute Pauli error rates in photonics-based quantum error correction using experimental observables of single photons produced from quantum emitters. We show that first-order coherence measurements and first-order cross correlations, which can be implemented using photon counting, can extract single-photon and entangled single-photon wavefunctions in the presence of imperfections due to photon distinguishability, laser noise, and photon loss. Leveraging this, we show that the wavefunction of any entangled state of noisy photons produced from a single quantum emitter can be expressed in matrix-product-state form and can be used to analytically compute the expectation value of the stabilizer generators of the corresponding entangled state. From this we obtain analytic expressions for the Pauli error probabilities in terms of the photon noise parameters. Furthermore, we calculate Pauli error maps for entangled photons after undergoing Bell- state measurements in terms of these parameters. Our work provides a method to use experimental measurements to determine the required quality of photons produced from quantum emitters for fault-tolerant fusion-based photonics quantum computing.

Sleep staging provides a reproducible clinical description, but it does not by itself explain why some boundaries are abrupt while others are graded, or why transition windows contain instability, synchrony, and apparent state coexistence. We develop a local Landau-Ginzburg phenomenology in which each boundary is represented by motion in an effective potential of a spatially extended, noisy, dissipative neural field. A latent cortical-ordering coordinate phi is inferred from prespecified EEG/PSG observables through a measurement model designed to avoid circularity. The canonical boundaries are treated separately. Existing data support a fold-like loss of wake stability at sleep onset; whether that fold lies on a globally bistable cusp with hysteresis remains open. N1-to-N2 and N2-to-N3 are posed as continuous-like ordering crossovers, NREM-to-REM as a candidate first-order-like desynchronizing switch, and a possible within-N3 mixed or tricritical-like regime as a speculative hypothesis. The Ginzburg term adds spatial predictions - growth of correlation length and local-to-global recruitment - that are absent from scalar sleep-onset models. We specify the evidence needed to distinguish bifurcation, coexistence, noise-driven escape, smooth crossover, and scoring-induced discontinuity. Illustrative time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau simulations reproduce the proposed signature classes. A synthetic classification experiment partially distinguished six archetypes (cross-validated accuracy 0.49 +/- 0.005; balanced baseline 0.17), with little change under a noise-regime shift. These analyses establish the internal consistency and testability of the framework, not the proposed taxonomy in human sleep. Transition-centered EEG validation is required before clinical or neuromodulation applications are pursued.

Predicted nearly five decades ago, nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC) remains experimentally elusive because its weak resonant signal is obscured by competing electron-driven excitation channels. Here we show that beam-induced surface return currents naturally overcome this limitation by creating a self-organized resonant electron source for the 8.36-eV nuclear transition in solid-density 229Th. A relativistic electron beam drives localized return currents along the solid surface, which simultaneously generate capture vacancies through impact ionization and provide resonant electrons for NEEC via a drifted Fermi distribution. Their spatial separation from the driving beam and the Pauli exclusion principle strongly suppress competing nuclear excitation by inelastic electron scattering. For experimentally available parameters, we predict 2.40*10^5 NEEC events with a NEEC fraction of 97.68%, and show that the excitation yield can be tuned over several orders of magnitude while preserving NEEC dominance. These results establish beam-induced return currents as a controllable route to resonant nuclear excitation in solids and open a new avenue for studying electron-driven nuclear processes.

Strong chiral light-matter interactions are conventionally believed to require structurally chiral materials. However, emerging evidence challenges this assumption, prompting a fundamental question: do chiral matters really matter in circularly polarized light (CPL) responses? While chiral structures favor circular dichroism generation in isotropic media, non-chiral systems with anisotropy can generate circular dichroism, and CPL can drive directional charge transport and spin-selective processes without structural chirality. By unifying these phenomena through fundamental light-matter interaction principles, recognizing that light carries both chiral and achiral components while matter exhibits diverse degrees of freedom such as charge, moment and angular momentum, we reveal a broader landscape of chiral optics. This perspective reconciles seemingly disparate findings and opens pathways to advanced technologies including high-performance CPL devices, ultrasensitive chiral sensors, and spin-selective photocatalysts, fundamentally expanding chiral optics beyond traditional structural constraints.

Rydberg atoms have emerged as a versatile platform for quantum optics due to their exaggerated properties, particularly their strong long-range interactions, which enable a new regime of light-matter interaction. By mapping the interactions between Rydberg atoms onto photons, effective photon-photon interactions can be realized at the single-photon level, thereby overcoming the intrinsic weakness of conventional optical nonlinearities. In this review, we first introduce the fundamental physical principles of Rydberg-mediated quantum optics, and then discuss some key developments, including single-photon engineering, photonic quantum gates, contactless nonlinear optics, and quantum entanglement, providing a comprehensive overview of the current state and prospects of this rapidly developing field.

We systematically investigate and compare the worldsheet actions, BRST structures and the quantum anomalies of four different formulations of tensionless ($T = 0$) bosonic string theory: the $(D+2)$-dimensional conformal string \cite{Gustafsson:1994kr}, the $D$-dimensional ILST null string \cite{Isberg:1993av}, the $D$-dimensional Carroll-Weyl gauged string \cite{Sheikh-Jabbari:2026vqh, Sheikh-Jabbari:2026tpf}, and the $D$-dimensional hybrid null string \cite{Chen:2026klv}. By expressing all fields and constraint generators strictly in terms of mode expansions and adopting a unified algebraic framework, we analyze their quantum anomalies under two distinct worldsheet vacua: the induced vacuum and the flipped vacuum. With the BRST-compatible vacuum definition and the symmetric $\alpha=0$ zeta prescription, we show that no critical dimension is inferred from the vanishing of the quantum anomaly in the induced vacuum. In contrast, the flipped highest-weight vacuum leads to non-trivial constraints, reproducing the critical dimension $D=26$ for the ILST null strings, a $\lambda$-dependent critical dimension $D(\lambda)$ for the hybrid null string whose range covers every positive integer $D\geq 4$ (reproduces $D=26$ at $\lambda=1$), and more importantly showing that the conformal string and the Carroll-Weyl gauged string are structurally anomalous with no consistent critical dimension due to the discrepancy of their central charge parameters $\tilde d_i$. Furthermore, the ILST null string model has target-space conformal symmetry $SO(D,2)$, the ghost-completed $SO(D,2)$ charges are closed on the induced-vacuum BRST cohomology in the $\alpha=0$ prescription, whereas the symmetry is quantum mechanically broken in the flipped vacuum.

Neutrino quantum kinetics is computationally intractable in the neutrino-dense arenas of core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers. Flavor-wave (or flavomon) transport is an emerging approach to this problem in which small-scale flavor inhomogeneities are treated as quasiparticles with properties determined by the local mean background. We present the first numerical calculations of flavor-wave transport under slow driving. Our results show some quantitative successes but also underscore the theoretical challenges that need to be overcome. Two issues are particularly concerning. (1) Nonlinear wave-wave coupling may be important. (2) Degeneracies and small energy gaps are responsible for significant nonadiabatic transitions. Future work will need to address these points if flavor-wave transport is to be viable in settings of astrophysical interest. Other topics examined include flavor-wave parallel transport and flavor-space symmetry breaking.

Exotic nanoparticle superstructures can be accessed by harnessing nanoparticle softness and charge regulation, features often viewed as obstacles to structural control. Here, we show that regulated charge mismatch in polymer-grafted nanoparticles enables the assembly of high-stoichiometry cubic superlattices. By co-tuning grafting density, particle size, and bulk composition, we realize ionic-lattice analogues such as CaF2 and Th3P4, as well as single-component A3 and A7 superlattices without atomic counterparts. The A3 lattice has recently been identified theoretically as a photonic band-gap lattice. These phases emerge from a 1:1 "parent" lattice when local charge neutrality cannot be satisfied, driving either progressive interstitial filling or reorganization into a larger basis. For instance, the systematic occupation of ZnS tetrahedral sites yields CaF2, while ligand-swapping symmetry breaking converts CsCl into Th3P4. Upon heating, the assemblies exhibit reversible lattice contraction and pronounced negative thermal expansion. Furthermore, the energetic penalty for defects increases with nanoparticle size, facilitating the scalable production of high-quality, open superlattices for photonic applications.

We investigate interferometric phase-estimation using separable photon inputs that evolve into number-path entangled states through linear optical networks, followed by photon-number-resolving detection. A simple analytical expression for the classical Fisher information at zero phase is derived for arbitrary $N$-photon states distributed across 2$N$ optical modes, partitioned into phase-encoding and reference blocks. Among all possible photon distributions between these blocks, the balanced configuration maximizes the phase sensitivity for every photon number $N$ and uniquely exhibits a phase-independent response. The achievable sensitivity degrades monotonically with increasing asymmetry in the photon distribution. We further investigate the robustness of the protocol in the presence of realistic photon loss and extend the analysis to distributed architectures with multiple receivers. In the low photon-flux regime, vacuum fluctuations fundamentally limit local quadrature measurements, whereas nonlocal photon-number-resolving measurements exploit multiphoton interference to mitigate loss-induced sensitivity degradation. Together, these results establish a scalable framework for quantum-enhanced distributed multimode metrology.

In this paper, we give a memorial tribute to Prof. Erik M. Bollt (1967–2025).

We present an advancement for solving the Discretized Light-Cone Quantization (DLCQ) Hamiltonian for mass spectra in 2D $\phi^4$ theory that incorporates perturbative zero-mode contributions. We demonstrate that this correction accelerates numerical convergence of the mass eigenstates with increasing resolution and yields a critical coupling of comparable accuracy with a substantial reduction in computational costs. Specifically, with more than one order of magnitude reduction in basis space dimensionality we achieve an extrapolated critical coupling of $23.10 \pm 0.25$ compared with $23.53 \pm 0.26$ in the larger basis but without zero-mode correction. We employ Gaussian Process Regression for extrapolation to the continuum limit. The approach we present here is prospective for studies of higher-dimensional gauge theories.

We present a comprehensive framework for investigating the optical response of metals from first principles that combines density functional theory, many-body perturbation theory, and efficient interpolation techniques based on maximally localized Wannier functions, and apply it to analyze the optical properties of silver (Ag), gold (Au), and copper (Cu). We evaluate the optical properties of these metallic materials considering both single-particle direct and phonon-assisted excitations, as well as the resistive Drude contribution. We find an overall excellent agreement with experimental optical measurements for these materials, and show that both single-particle and collective excitations are important in capturing their optical response in the infrared. Our methodology provides fundamental understanding of the optical response of metals and is generally applicable to investigate the optoelectronic properties of emerging metallic materials.

This work presents the design, development, and characterization of a compact Compton camera employing a novel single-plane readout architecture. The proposed concept simplifies conventional multilayer Compton cameras by optically coupling the scatterer and absorber into a single compact detector element using a light guide, enabling readout exclusively from one side with silicon photomultipliers. The system was validated through Monte Carlo simulations, prototype construction, and experimental characterization using standard gamma-ray sources. Detector performance for 511~keV and 662~keV photons was optimized using simulations based on the Geant4 framework, by guiding event selection strategy. Event reconstruction relied on coincidence detection consistent with Compton scattering kinematics, while image reconstruction was performed using maximum likelihood expectation maximization algorithm. The prototype comprises 64 detector elements arranged in an $8\times8$ matrix, read out by an $8\times8$ silicon photomultiplier array. Each element consists of two GAGG:Ce scintillators coupled by a 20 mm long light guide. Measured energy resolutions were $8.9\%\pm1.9\%$ and $10.8\%\pm1.6\%$ for the front and back layers, respectively. Successful gamma-ray imaging was demonstrated for Na-22 and Cs-137 sources, achieving angular resolutions of $12.4^\circ$–$14.3^\circ$ at 511~keV and $14.3^\circ$–$16.8^\circ$ at 662~keV, confirming the feasibility of the proposed single-plane architecture for compact and cost-effective gamma-ray imaging applications.

Detecting structure in complex networks, especially those arising from physical systems, is a central problem across the sciences. One approach is via rich club analysis, which identifies important vertices using a centrality metric and measures whether those vertices are more tightly interconnected than expected by chance. While informative, this approach captures only pairwise interactions, missing out on higher-order ones known to shape the structure and function of many complex systems. We propose a hyper-rich club pipeline that asks whether central vertices are more tightly interconnected than expected by chance through hyperedges encoding higher-order interactions, which also enables the inclusion of important, often omitted, directional information. We work in a broad class of hypergraphs, which we call general directed hypergraphs, that includes as special cases undirected hypergraphs, head-and-tail directed hypergraphs, and totally ordered hypergraphs (a hypergraph related to directed simplicial complexes from topological data analysis). This unifies several non-equivalent notions of directed hypergraph under one definition. On these hypergraphs we define a hyper-rich club framework whose concrete construction depends on explicit choices the domain scientist fixes according to their research goals. Particular choices recover the existing rich club notions for graphs and undirected hypergraphs, and yield the first such notion for each version of directed hypergraphs. We demonstrate that the pipeline recovers meaningful structure in data by studying networks of very different origins: connectomes, temporal networks of infectious spread, networks of poems, and the XGI hypergraph database, in each case detecting structure the standard graph rich club misses.

In high energy, nuclear, and medical physics, optical photon transport Monte Carlo is a frequent bottleneck in detector simulation. GPU ray tracing accelerates photon propagation, but one thread per photon megakernels suffer from SIMT execution divergence when photon lifetimes vary widely. Short-lived photons leave inactive lanes while a few long-lived photons delay warp completion. We evaluate NVIDIA Shader Execution Reordering (SER) in an OptiX based optical photon transport kernel and use it to regroup surviving photons during propagation. In a 14.7 kton liquid argon time projection chamber benchmark with ~61 million photons from a 2.5 GeV electromagnetic shower, SER capable execution reduces propagation kernel cycles by 16.55(23)x and end-to-end optical simulation time, including transfers and initialization, by 14.72(30)x with bit-identical hit output. We decouple the speed-up into a 3.2x contribution from the launch configuration changes introduced when SER is enabled and a further 5.1x from executing the reorder. Profiling identifies active lane recovery as the dominant mechanism, while branch efficiency and memory bandwidth change little. A volume coherent SER hint enables an analytic navigation fast path in bulk argon, adding a further 1.13x wall-time speedup. Utilizing SER resulted in a ~90% reduction in GPU energy per simulated event.

Optical coatings with minimal thermal noise are essential for high-precision, laser-based metrology experiments. Substrate-transferred crystalline GaAs/Al$_{0.92}$Ga$_{0.08}$As coatings have the lowest thermal noise for high-reflectivity mirror coatings with $\lambda =900$ nm – 12 $\mu$m. Time-frequency stabilization experiments have demonstrated that GaAs/AlGaAs mirror coatings have a lower noise floor than amorphous mirror coatings. These mirrors are now being developed at sizes $\ge 300$ mm for gravitational-wave detectors. In order to understand the coating's fundamental loss mechanisms, which cause thermal noise, we have performed the first measurement of the mechanical loss at cryogenic temperatures using a cryogenic, multimodal, gentle nodal suspension system, which operates from 12 K to room temperature. This initial measurement used a silicon substrate whose asymmetry produced excess friction with the nodal support. Accounting for this friction and Akhiezer loss in the substrate and coating, the mechanical loss agrees well with the thermal noise observed in experiments using cryogenic fixed-cavities with GaAs/AlGaAs mirrors.

Neural networks can be studied not only as parameterized computational models but also as probability distributions over functions. In this paper we develop a Wilsonian interpretation of criticality in the neural network-quantum field theory correspondence, treating the infinite width Gaussian-process limit as a free field fixed point and finite width corrections as perturbations that create non-Gaussian interactions. In this way, we do not see the departure from infinite width as a small approximation error but as the process by which interaction, complexity, expressivity and phase-like behaviour enter neural network function space. Width, depth, activation nonlinearity, initialization variance, and training dynamics are considered as control parameters that change the effective action of the network ensemble. The critical regime is when the higher-order connected correlation functions become non-negligible, and when the finite width operators become relevant or marginal scaling factors, and when the function distribution becomes sensitive to scale-dependent structure. There we can view overparameterization as suppressing a relationship of interacting terms and we find that the critical structure of finite neural networks is given by finite-width effects. This framework is a theoretical basis for studying trainability, generalization, and architectural universality of neural network functions through Wilsonian fixed points, perturbations, and critical surfaces.

Testing Lorentz symmetry in strong gravitational fields provides a unique probe of extensions to standard model. The orbiting motions of the S-stars around the supermassive black hole Sgr~A* provide a natural laboratory for such tests. In this paper, we analyze the S2 orbital data focusing on a static and spherically symmetric black hole within Kalb–Ramond gravity, where the deviations from general relativity are encoded in a single Lorentz-violating parameter $\ell$ introduced by the Kalb–Ramond tensor field. Using a full 14-dimensional Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis under uniform and Gaussian priors, we obtain $\ell = {1.60 \times 10^{-5}}^{+1.38 \times 10^{-4}}_{-1.76 \times 10^{-4}} $ and $\ell = {-1.02 \times 10^{-5}}^{+1.26 \times 10^{-4}}_{-1.19 \times 10^{-4}} $ at $1\sigma$ confidence level, respectively. These constraints are about three orders of magnitude tighter than those from Event Horizon Telescope imaging of Sgr~A*. We also perform MCMC simulation by fitting data of S38 and S55 stars, as well as their joint analysis. Our results show that the best fit values of $\ell$ in all simulations are always of $10^{-5}$ order, but S2 star provides the most stringent constraints on the parameters because S2 star has higher precision observational data comparing to the fewer public data for other two stars.

We assess 18 chapter-specific reviews of the ten mathematical results announced by OpenAI on 1 August 2026, alongside review standards, Lean formalizations, subsequent research, and mathematical references. The article audits this review record without claiming a complete reconstruction of all ten proofs. No confirmed substantive mathematical error in a principal result remains in the examined assessments, although review depth varies and some dependencies remain partly checked. Chapter 8 presents the strongest reservation: a specialist review requests major revision of compressed analytic arguments. In Chapter 6, an apparent polarity error was withdrawn after an overbar lost during PDF extraction was recovered from the typeset source. Subsequent research independently reuses the Chapter 3 proof mechanism and confirms that Connes's rigidity conjecture is false, without independently reproducing Chapter 4's stronger infinite-family result. Among the cited follow-ups, Chapter 7 receives the strongest direct theorem-level corroboration through a stronger hardness theorem. Related equality results in Chapter 8 do not verify the analytic inequality proof. Some follow-ups disclose material AI assistance. We argue that confidence should combine formal checking, human reconstruction, independent mathematical use, and a public record supporting correction of both proofs and reviews.

Gravitational-wave parameter estimation requires millions of waveform evaluations per event, a cost that constrains real-time inference and population studies. We present a fast, fully differentiable neural-network surrogate for the precessing numerical-relativity model \NRSur{}, spanning its full intrinsic parameter space $\lambda=(q,\,\boldsymbol{\chi}_1,\,\boldsymbol{\chi}_2)$ together with the reference orbital frequency $\omega_0$. Rather than a single polarization at a fixed orientation, the surrogate predicts the inertial-frame spherical-harmonic modes $h_{\ell m}$ ($\ell\leq 4$), so that both polarizations $h_+,h_\times$ at an arbitrary orientation $(\iota,\varphi,\psi)$ are reconstructed from one network evaluation through an analytic, differentiable mode-to-strain projection. Trained on $6\times10^5$ waveforms, it attains a fixed-orientation match of mean $0.975$ (median $0.988$) and an orientation-averaged match of mean $0.940$ (median $0.975$) for $q\in[1,4]$, $|\boldsymbol{\chi}_{1,2}|\leq 0.8$, while keeping the overall strain amplitude physical (median ratio $0.98$). It generates a waveform in $\SI{12}{ms}$ (single) and ${\sim}3.5\times10^4$ per second in batches on a single GPU. Because the mode-to-strain projection is analytic, the surrogate is differentiable in both intrinsic and extrinsic parameters, yielding a full 13-dimensional Fisher matrix (validated against finite differences) and gradient-based (HMC/NUTS) parameter estimation.

A Newtonian halo density does not uniquely determine a relativistic spacetime, and the resulting completion ambiguity can dominate predicted horizon-scale signals. We make this dependence explicit for the feedback-cored Einasto profile calibrated on FIRE-2 simulations. In Schwarzschild gauge, the Einstein equations give an asymptotically flat, density-preserving geometry supported by an effective anisotropic fluid; no microscopic description of collisionless dark matter is assumed. By contrast, a commonly used rotation-curve completion replaces the finite seed core by an inverse-square source cusp. For the density-preserving solution we derive the enclosed mass in closed form, obtain a sharp one-horizon criterion and the extremal boundaries of a three-horizon phase, and establish the fixed-halo first law. More generally, the leading fractional shift of a spherical black-hole shadow is the environmental mass enclosed within the vacuum photon sphere divided by the central black-hole mass. Applying this result to published Event Horizon Telescope shadow-deviation summaries gives illustrative one-sided 95% credible limits of $4.8\times10^{23}\,\Msun\,{\rm pc}^{-3}$ for $\sgr$ and $4.1\times10^{17}\,\Msun\,{\rm pc}^{-3}$ for $\mseven$, far above realistic smooth-halo densities. A Milky-Way calibration predicts a fractional shadow shift of $1.7\times10^{-25}$, whereas the rotation-curve completion gives a shift 19 orders of magnitude larger for the same galactic inputs. A covariant polarized thin-disk calculation shows the same weak-core suppression. Thus current horizon-scale images do not constrain a smooth kiloparsec-scale core-Einasto halo; an observable environmental signal would instead require a compact inner component or a physically different relativistic source.

We investigate horizon-brightened acceleration radiation (HBAR) and a strong-deflection expansion for the deflection angle of light rays scattered in the vicinity of a degenerate photon sphere, within the context of a quantum-corrected black hole spacetime. We characterize the horizon structure and thermodynamics, and we extract the divergent part of the deflection-angle integral from the near-marginal-orbit contribution using a nonsingular prescription at marginality, obtaining a unique leading power-law term. In terms of the closest-approach radius, the strong-deflection leading coefficient factorizes into a universal branch constant and a local factor involving the third derivative of the effective potential at the degenerate photon sphere. On the quantum side, we develop the near-horizon reduction relevant to HBAR, demonstrating that the dominant sector governing the detector response exhibits conformal behavior and yields a thermal excitation spectrum characterized by the horizon temperature. We adopt a Lindblad master-equation framework for the radiation field, establish the existence of a thermal steady state, and obtain an HBAR entropy-energy relation that satisfies a Clausius-type first-law structure. Also, we derive a Wien-type displacement law for the HBAR spectrum, connecting the peak wavelength to horizon thermodynamics and thereby providing an additional observable probe of quantum gravity via near-horizon radiation.

This study develops an enhanced interaction (EI) method for efficient prediction of the water-wave field among a large group of ice floes in Arctic route planning. A novel black-box model, termed the wave component detection (WCD) method, is proposed for constructing the diffraction transfer matrix (DTM) within the framework of interaction theory. The DTM, which is conventionally mathematically intractable for three-dimensional ice floes with arbitrarily complex geometry, can now be determined using this readily implementable and universally applicable approach. Without loss of generality, four ice-floe shapes are taken as example models to demonstrate the capability of the EI method. Operation rules are recommended for the practical implementation of the EI method. The error range of the EI method is identified in scenarios with multiple ice floes of different sizes and distances.The super-high efficiency of the EI method is demonstrated in cases involving an ultra-large group of ice floes. It takes less than 1.5 hours to calculate wave amplitudes at 160,000 locations in the wave field of 1,800 ice floes (based on 1,440,000 boundary elements) on an ordinary personal computer with a 2017-released CPU. Based on the wave field predicted by the EI method, users can take advantage of the wave-sheltering effect of the ice floes to optimize routes. For demonstration, the dynamic programming strategy is used to recommend optimized navigation routes among 1561 ice floes of mixed shapes. The average wave amplitude the ship encounters can be reduced to about half of the incident wave amplitude.

We study static and slowly rotating traversable wormholes embedded in two contrasting dark matter environments, the cuspy Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) halo and the cored solitonic wave dark matter ($\psi$DM) profile, using observational parameters set by the rotation curve of the dwarf galaxy NGC\,2366. For each profile, we solve the Einstein field equations in the Morris-Thorne framework to obtain the shape and redshift functions, then extend to slow rotation via the Teo metric with a Lense–Thirring frame-dragging term. Across the four resulting spacetimes and six throat radii, we trace null geodesics, compute specific intensity profiles and polar shadow maps, and construct accretion disk images including the full relativistic Doppler effect. We noticed these two profiles differ sharply in photon dynamics. The NFW potential is too shallow to support a detached photon sphere, so its critical impact parameter stays close to the throat radius. The soliton core, by contrast, is focused enough to host a genuine unstable photon orbit that raises the critical impact parameter to about $1.18$–$1.26$ times the throat radius. This difference in photon-sphere structure propagates through nearly every observable, including photon-ring sharpness, shadow size, accretion-disk appearance, and, in the rotating case, the degree of shadow asymmetry from frame dragging. The soliton shadow size also tracks the mass of the underlying ultralight boson through $\rho_c\propto m_b^{-2}$, with a transition from total capture to mainly deflecting lensing near $m_b\sim10^{-18}$\,eV, a feature absent for NFW that offers a direct probe of dark matter microphysics. These results show that wormhole photon dynamics are shaped by the dark matter profile, pointing to a possible observational route to probe the nature of dark matter.

This primer offers an first introduction to Celestial Holography, a rapidly evolving framework aiming to describe quantum gravity in asymptotically flat spacetimes. We start from the established foundation of the AdS/CFT correspondence before venturing into the wilds of Minkowski space. The journey covers the essential Bondi-Sachs formalism and the geometry of null infinity ($\mathscr{I}^\pm$), the discovery of the infinite-dimensional BMS asymptotic symmetry group. We explain the core holographic map given by Mellin transform that recasts four-dimensional scattering amplitudes as correlation functions of a conjectured 2D Celestial Conformal Field Theory (CCFT) on the celestial sphere. The presentation is made intuitive but the mathematics is still precise (hopefully!). It is designed to equip newcomers with both the conceptual landscape and the technical vocabulary to explore this exciting frontier.

Magnetic components in high-frequency, high-power-density converters are increasingly driven by non-sinusoidal flux-density waveforms with fast transitions, minor-loop operation, dc bias, and temperature variation. Under these conditions, steady-state core-loss formulas and single-valued material curves cannot fully capture transient magnetization responses. This work proposes the Physics-Informed Hybrid Neural Operator (PI-HNO), a compact material-specific neural model with B-H energy-consistency regularization for core-loss-oriented transient magnetization prediction. Given the measured B(t)-H(t) history, the input B(t) series over the prediction interval and operating-condition information, PI-HNO predicts the H(t) series and the corresponding reconstructed B-H trajectory. The model integrates a local recurrent branch for boundary-state representation and rate-dependent response evolution with a Preisach-inspired global branch that extracts waveform-level hysteresis context. Evaluation on the MagNetX transient database using material-specific models for 14 ferrite materials demonstrates that PI-HNO achieves a compact trade-off between sequence accuracy and B(t)-H(t) energy consistency, with the mean and 95th percentile B(t)-H(t) energy consistency errors of 1.92% and 7.60%, respectively, using only 4777 trainable parameters per model. Ablation studies further demonstrate that the local, global, and energy-aware regularized components provide distinct contributions to transient magnetization prediction.

The space coronagraph optical bench (SCoOB) is a high contrast imaging testbed designed to demonstrate starlight suppression techniques at visible wavelengths in a space-like vacuum environment. Since the previous proceedings, the testbed has undergone major component upgrades, including a 100%-yield BMC Kilo-C deformable mirror, a black silicon pupil stop, and circular polarizers between wedged substrates. To assess the performance limits imposed by lateral chromatic aberration induced by refractive optical elements, we develop analytic and numerical tools to predict the broadband contrast. Additionally, we present the broadband contrast performance of the testbed using implicit electric field conjugation with multiple sensing bands for broadband control.