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Saturday 8 August

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

From Light to Sound: Spectroscopic Evolution & Sonification of the flaring Nova V612 Scuti

We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of the 2017 Galactic nova V612 Sct, whose optical evolution was marked by multiple unusually large maxima. The eruption included two prominent flares lasting around a month each and reaching amplitudes of about 2.5 mag, followed by a series of smaller flares. Extensive spectroscopic monitoring reveals a striking pattern: with each flare, new absorption systems emerge at progressively higher velocities. This behavior, also seen in other flaring novae, provides evidence for repeated episodes of mass ejection or outflow at increasing velocities. V612 Sct also alternated between Fe II and He/N spectral phases during different stages of the eruption, establishing a clear connection between the photometric flares and major spectral transitions. We present two-dimensional dynamic spectra that directly trace the appearance of new absorption features contemporaneous with the light-curve flares. We also introduce a sonification of the spectroscopic sequence, offering an alternative representation of the temporal evolution of the eruption. These results support a picture in which repeated ejection episodes and shock formation play a central role in powering the multiple maxima observed in flaring novae.
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All authors Pragati Acharya, Elias Aydi, Kirill V. Sokolovsky, Brian D. Metzger, Laura Chomiuk, Peter Craig, Luca Izzo, Justin D. Linford, Shazrene Mohamed, Isabella Molina, Koji Mukai, Ken J. Shen, Jennifer L. Sokoloski, Paul Luckas, Terry Bohlsen, Olivier Garde, Joan G. Flo, Paolo Bellavista, Umberto Sollecchia, Forrest Sims

Mathematical Physics

Moving Frames for Lie Pseudo-groups: A Recursive Implementation

A new recursive implementation of the equivariant moving frame method for infinite-dimensional Lie pseudo-group actions is presented. It allows pseudo-group normalizations to be performed before the prolonged action is computed, thereby avoiding the introduction of unnecessarily complicated intermediate expressions. Several examples are provided to illustrate the algorithm.
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Quantum Physics

Catching Transpilation Drift with a CI/CD Workflow in Quantum Software Development

Quantum software workflows rely on compiler and provider toolchains that evolve independently of application source code. Consequently, an unchanged quantum circuit may transpile into a different target-specific realization after changes in SDK versions, optimization settings, basis gates, coupling maps, or backend descriptions. Such transpilation drift can affect circuit depth, gate composition, qubit mapping, and execution behavior, yet it is rarely monitored in CI/CD pipelines. This paper proposes a Quantum DevOps workflow for detecting transpilation drift before execution. The workflow transpiles source circuits against configured target profiles, computes structural drift metrics, records provenance and artifacts in MLflow, and raises configurable warnings or failures in GitHub Actions. Using representative circuits and target profiles, we show how drift checks can expose toolchain-induced changes and support reproducibility audits. The contribution is a practical CI/CD guardrail for making quantum compilation behavior observable, testable, and auditable.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

On the Physical Origins of Long Period Radio Transients

Long-period radio transients (LPRTs) are a rapidly growing class of coherent radio sources with periods ranging from minutes to hours, whose central engines and emission mechanisms remain unclear. Motivated by the detection of red dwarf (RD) companions in several LPRTs and by generic period constraints from the Roche limit and the mass transfer limit, we argue that LPRTs naturally separate into two broad classes: shorter-period sources that are likely isolated compact objects and longer-period sources that are compact objects in binary systems that are likely detached. For isolated objects, we find that isolated white dwarfs (WDs) generally have difficulty sustaining pair production and coherent radio emission unless the surface temperature is extremely high, while slow rotating neutron stars (NSs) can remain marginally active through inverse-Compton-driven pair cascades. For binary systems, asynchronous WD / NS + RD systems can power coherent radio emission through unipolar induction when the WD / NS magnetic field dominates the companion surface field, with relativistic electron cyclotron maser emission as the radiation mechanism, while at larger separations the system enters the magnetospheric interaction regime, possibly powered by magnetic reconnection. Bright X-ray counterparts favor magnetar-related systems and undetected X-ray emission is expected from WD-related channels. We propose a diagnostic flow chart that uses observational criteria to classify LPRTs and identify their central engines. These criteria lead to a physically motivated classification framework for LPRTs.
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Statistical Mechanics

High-Capacity Generalized Hopfield Networks

Generalized Hopfield networks are introduced where memories and neurons are continuous variables that lie on a Riemannian manifold. We explicitly focus on symmetric spaces associated with the special unitary groups SU(d), and use both numerical and analytical (replica) techniques to demonstrate an almost order of magnitude enhancement in critical capacity over the vector networks starting with d=3 and further rapidly growing with d. To circumvent the non-linear geometric constraints, we use a Lie algebraic method [following V. Galitski, Phys. Rev. A 84, 012118 (2011)] to exactly describe the classical neural network in terms of linear algebra in an auxiliary Hilbert space. It is shown that in contrast to the traditional Hopfield networks, memory recall in SU(d) Hopfields corresponds to neuron alignment along a top eigenvector of a spiked matrix, which is less susceptible to random matrix crosstalk than other models with continuous neuron variables. Physical platforms to realize SU(d) Hopfields are briefly discussed and physical (in addition to algorithmic) recall mechanism is demonstrated, where memory recovery occurs naturally through generalized Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert dynamics. To illustrate SU(3) memory recall, we introduce a color (RGB) image encoding/decoding protocol and explicitly run image recovery on corrupted cues. Finally, we quantize the generalized Hopfields which are shown to reduce to Sachdev-Ye glassy type of models. Their many-body spectra generally feature two types of dark and memory bands, where the latter exhibits chaotic Wigner-Dyson level statistics that hides Hebbian data.
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Quantum Physics

Millisecond optical coherence and strong collective coupling in an integrated telecom rare-earth photonic platform

Long-range quantum network nodes require the combination of strong light-matter coupling, long coherence times and in situ spectral control at telecom wavelengths. The coherence of erbium in integrated devices is held back by its hosts, which do not simultaneously provide the weakly magnetic nuclear-spin environment and the well-defined substitutional sites found in coherence-optimised bulk crystals. Here we bring such an optimised crystal onto a photonic chip, by bonding an Er${^{3+}}$:CaWO${_{4}}$ host without an adhesive interlayer to a high-${Q}$ electro-optically tuneable thin-film lithium niobate microring resonator. At an effective temperature of ${75}$ mK and a field of only ${0.2}$ T, the bonded ensemble retains an effective homogeneous linewidth of ${289\pm34}$ Hz (${T_\text{M}=1.10\pm0.13}$ ms), with spectral diffusion proceeding at ${86\pm18}$ Hz and saturating at ${1.5\pm0.2}$ kHz. Electro-optically tuning the resonator through the erbium optical transition resolves an avoided crossing with a collective cooperativity of ${C=6.7\pm0.4}$. Exploiting superhyperfine coupling to the host's ${^{183}}$W nuclear spins, we store and retrieve optical phase information over ${5}$ s with a visibility of ${0.935\pm0.015}$. Strong collective coupling, millisecond coherence and in situ spectral tuning in a single device thus establish heterogeneous integration leveraging coherence-optimised hosts as a route to scalable telecom quantum networks.
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All authors Kah Jen Wo, Pavel A. Dmitriev, Karthik Dasigi, Fumiya Hanamura, Steven Touzard

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Kings of the Milky Way: A Homogeneous Gaia DR3 Analysis of King Open Clusters and the Galactic Disc Metallicity Gradient

This study aims to establish an internally homogeneous set of structural, astrophysical, and kinematical parameters for King open clusters and to assess their role as tracers of the Galactic thin disc. We present a homogeneous structural, astrophysical, and kinematical analysis of 27 King open clusters using high-precision Gaia DR3 astrometry, photometry, and spectroscopy. Cluster reddenings, distances, metallicities, and ages are determined via a homogeneous Markov Chain Monte Carlo isochrone-fitting approach applied to Gaia colour-magnitude diagrams. The derived parameters span E(G_BP-G_RP) = 0.113-1.933 mag, metallicities of [Fe/H] = -0.40 to +0.28 dex, ages from 17 to 6166 Myr, and heliocentric distances between 739 and 6272 pc. A comparison between astrometric and isochrone-based distances yields a median parallax difference of $-13\mu$as, indicating a good level of internal consistency between the photometric and astrometric distance scales within the adopted homogeneous framework. The radial metallicity behaviour of the King clusters is also examined using three complementary Galactic distance definitions and compared with the metallicity-radius relations obtained independently from 164 spectroscopically analysed open clusters from the literature. The King-cluster gradients are close to $-0.060$ dex kpc$^{-1}$ and are broadly consistent with those of the external reference sample, indicating that the homogeneously analysed King clusters follow the negative metallicity-radius trend traced by the broader thin-disc open-cluster population. Flatter gradients are found for young clusters, suggesting more homogeneous chemical enrichment at recent epochs. When dynamical constraints are applied to reduce the effects of radial migration and orbital blurring, the inferred gradient remains close to $-0.059$ dex kpc$^{-1}$.
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All authors Talar Yontan, Selçuk Bilir, Hikmet Çakmak, Olcay Plevne, Esin Soydugan, Seval Taşdemir, Remziye Canbay, Deniz Cennet Ç{\i}nar, Seliz Koç, Hülya Karagöz, Burçin Tan{\i}k Öztürk, Furkan Akbaba, Özcan Çal{\i}şkan, Timothy Banks

Quantum Physics

Opposite post-processing orders of fermionic horizon channels and their quantum-resource monotonicity

Relativistic quantum-information studies in noninertial and black-hole settings often determine resource behavior through explicit calculations for particular input states and state functionals, leaving unclear whether the recurring monotonic trends originate from those choices or from a common underlying structure. In this work, we formulate the effective single-mode fermionic horizon transformation as a pair of complementary exterior and interior quantum channels, corresponding respectively to the physically accessible and inaccessible sectors, and establish exact post-processing orders in opposite directions. As the relativistic channel parameter $q$ increases, the exterior channel becomes progressively degraded, whereas the interior channel is ordered in the reverse direction. These relations extend to arbitrary multipartite settings. Consequently, every state functional that is non-increasing under the corresponding intermediate maps is non-increasing in homogeneous exterior sectors and non-decreasing in homogeneous interior sectors. The framework therefore applies to broad classes of quantum resources and correlations, including entanglement and occupation-basis coherence monotones, optimized Bell-functional quantities, and contractive-divergence correlation measures. We further numerically evaluate collective coherence based on the quantum Jensen-Shannon divergence (QJSD) in the Garfinkle-Horowitz-Strominger (GHS) dilaton-black-hole spacetime, illustrating the predicted homogeneous monotonicity. The recurring trends are therefore traced to a common channel-ordering structure, while the physical setting determines the parameterization of $q$ and the resource-theoretic monotonicity determines which output-state quantities inherit the order.
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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Exploring Particle Geodesics in a Warp Drive Spacetime

Although the Alcubierre Warp Drive is theoretically capable of providing faster-than-light travel, it may be difficult to use for this purpose. But is it useful for slower-than-light travel? We begin by observing the that the warp bubble will act to protect the ship from dust particles and other space debris (a potentially serious hazard even at 10% the speed of light). We then explore several modifications of the Alcubierre Warp Drive, e.g. a "deflector shield", with the perspective of keeping a ship safe from collisions with particles, projectiles, rogue planets, and other dangers of space travel.
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High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

Correlated low-energy constants in large-$N_c$ chiral perturbation theory

The combined chiral and large-$N_c$ expansion is increasingly employed in precision studies involving the $\eta$ and $\eta'$ mesons, including recent applications to low-energy axion phenomenology within U(3) chiral perturbation theory. We point out that the operator structure of the large-$N_c$ chiral Lagrangian naturally induces correlated directions among the low-energy constants $(F_0,L_4,C_{16})$ and $(F_0,L_6,C_{20})$, implying that phenomenological analyses determine correlated combinations of couplings rather than independent low-energy constants. Using the determination of the pion decay constant as an illustrative example, we reinterpret existing phenomenological and lattice determinations in terms of these correlated directions, showing that the well-known anticorrelation between $F_0$ and $L_4$ extends naturally to NNLO through $C_{16}$. These correlated directions lead to a practical prescription for interpreting and propagating phenomenological determinations of the low-energy constants consistently within the combined chiral and large-$N_c$ framework.
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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Black bounce sourced by non-minimally coupled linear electrodynamics and a canonical scalar field through a thin shell at the throat

We construct a novel class of black bounce solutions within General Relativity, sourced by a canonical scalar field non-minimally coupled to linear electrodynamics, establishing a self-consistent framework in which regular black holes and traversable wormholes are supported by ordinary bulk matter, with the necessary exoticity confined to an infinitesimally thin defect at the bounce.
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All authors Ednaldo L. B. Junior, José Tarciso S. S. Junior, Francisco S. N. Lobo, Gonzalo J. Olmo, Jorde A. A. Ramos, Manuel E. Rodrigues, Luís F. Dias da Silva, Henrique A. Vieira

Statistical Mechanics

Out-of-equilibrium inhomogeneous XX chains: Exact results and the hydrodynamic limit

We study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics in the XX chain with step-like magnetic field, which maps to an inhomogeneous tight-binding chain after Jordan-Wigner transformation. We obtain exact analytic expressions for the fermionic two-point correlation function after a quantum quench from several initial product states, both homogeneous and inhomogeneous ones. This is achieved by using a combination of Fourier and Laplace transforms, which al low us to map the problem to a standard Riemann-Hilbert problem on the unit circle. For arbitrary positions and times the correlators are not expressed in terms of elementary functions. However, in the hydrodynamic limit $x,y,t\to\infty$ with fixed ratios, we provide explicit formulas that depend only on the effective transmission coefficient across the origin. We benchmark our analytic predictions against exact numerical simulations and find excellent agreement in the hydrodynamic limit, apart from finite-time corrections.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

A New Window on the H{\alpha} Luminosity Function and Star Formation Rate Density from 1.2 < z < 6.6 from JWST Medium-Band Photometry

We present the first self-consistent measurement of the H{\alpha} luminosity function over a wide redshift range, covering cosmic noon into the epoch of reionization. Our analysis utilizes a novel method based on James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NIRCam medium-band imaging. We combine data from the CANUCS, JWST in Technicolor, and JUMPS surveys which offer deep, uniform imaging (29.5-30 AB, 3{\sigma}) with extensive NIRCam medium-band coverage, reaching up to 29 total filters (up to 20 JWST) when including ancillary Hubble Space Telescope (HST) ACS and WFC3/UVIS data. The superb spectral energy distribution (SED) sampling enables precise, reliable photometric redshift estimation (outlier fraction 1.7%, {\sigma} N_MAD = 0.039 for this sample) as well as accurate continuum subtraction and line flux measurement verified by spectroscopic follow-up (no systematic offset, 0.23 dex scatter). We measure the H{\alpha} luminosity function (LF) from 1.25 < z < 6.6 by tracing the H{\alpha} emission line in 11 medium-band filters. The combination of depth, redshift coverage, and statistical power is unique, providing strong constraints on the shape of the LF over almost three orders of magnitude in luminosity. Our dense SED sampling enables us to reliably correct for dust attenuation and derive dust-corrected star formation rate functions as well as the evolution of the cosmic star formation rate density over the full redshift range. We recover the peak at z ~ 2 and a decrease toward z = 6, though with a higher normalization more in line with recent IR measurements than UV, though eclipsing both. This potential tension will be addressed in future work utilizing larger surveys with MIR coverage to better constrain the bright end of the luminosity function and the effects of dust.
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All authors Nicholas S. Martis, Chris Willott, Gregor Rihtaršič, Vesna Pirc Jevšenak, Roberto Abraham, Yoshihisa Asada, Maruša Bradač, Gabriel Brammer, Guillaume Desprez, Vicente Estrada-Carpenter, Kartheik Iyer, Lamiya Mowla, Adam Muzzin, Gaël Noirot, Ghassan T. E. Sarrouh, Marcin Sawicki, Sunna Withers, Giordano Felicioni, Jon Judež, Danilo Marchesini, Vladan Markov, Katherine Myers, Luke Robbins, Visal Sok, Wren Suess, Roberta Tripodi

Exactly Solvable and Integrable Systems

Two-peakon dynamics in the Clifford algebra generalization of the Camassa-Holm equation

We study the dynamics of a two-component perturbation of the Camassa–Holm equation arising from a reformulation of the Euler–Bernoulli beam problem, recently extended to a general Clifford algebra setting. We focus on the original case associated with a Clifford algebra with two generators and Minkowski signature, for which the resulting equation admits nonsmooth soliton solutions (peakons) carrying internal degrees of freedom. We investigate analytically and numerically the dynamics of a two-peakon solution and establish the existence of a synchronized exchange of energy between spatially separated peaks, a phenomenon previously observed only numerically. We obtain a complete description of the long-time dynamics: the amplitudes approach a periodic orbit determined by the spectral invariants, and the resulting hidden periodicity governs the persistent exchange between the two peakons. The limiting orbit and its averaged dynamics are described explicitly in terms of elliptic functions and complete elliptic integrals. We also derive an exact identity relating the peak separation to the accumulated imbalance of the two amplitudes. This identity, combined with a frozen-parameter comparison argument, yields exponential decay of the interaction between the peakons and exponential convergence of the amplitude variables to the limiting periodic orbit. Moreover, once the asymptotic regime is reached, the separation increases from one period of the internal oscillation to the next, even though its instantaneous rate may continue to change sign. These results reveal a dynamical feature absent from the scalar Camassa–Holm equation: a persistent oscillatory transfer of energy between increasingly separated peakons, coupled with quantitatively controlled asymptotic decoupling.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons

Plasmon modes in quadratic and cubic nodal line semimetals

Nodal line semimetals (NLSMs) host distinctive topological properties and unconventional collective excitations. While plasmons in linear NLSMs are well studied, those of higher-order dispersive NLSMs remain poorly understood. We investigate plasmon modes in 3D quadratic and cubic NLSMs within the random phase approximation (RPA), valid for $r_s\ll1$ but breaking down in the small-doping cubic regime where the density of states diverges. Deriving the one-loop polarizability and evaluating its coefficients numerically from the full 3D Lindhard integral, we find distinct carrier-density scaling laws: quadratic NLSMs exhibit $\omega_p\sim n^{1/2}$, while cubic NLSMs show $\omega_p\sim n^{2/3}$ at large doping crossing over to $\omega_p\sim n^{3/4}$ at small doping. The $n^{3/4}$ law is not quantitatively reliable: the diverging density of states drives $r_s>1$ already at $n\sim10^{18}$ cm$^{-3}$, limiting the observable window to at most $10^{18}\lesssim n\lesssim10^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$; below this, beyond-RPA correlations are essential. These scalings originate from the power-law density of states and intraband (Drude) response, and are analogous in phase-space power counting to bilayer and trilayer graphene, respectively. The long-wavelength intraband polarization dominates the plasmon frequency, while interband contributions are subleading (two to three orders of magnitude smaller for $\Omega\ll\mu$). Both systems share a plasmon anisotropy $\Omega_p^z/\Omega_p^\perp\to\sqrt{2}$ in the thin-ring limit, a generic consequence of the torus Fermi-surface geometry. This $\sqrt{2}$ doublet, though observable by HREELS, cannot distinguish quadratic from cubic dispersion; the density scaling exponent is the true distinguishing signature. Our results provide a framework for the collective dynamics of higher-order dispersive NLSMs and suggest experimentally testable signatures accessible by HREELS.
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Quantum Physics

Hamiltonian spectra in quantum computers through the generalized eigenvalue method

Quantum computers can generate real-time correlators of field theories. By adapting the generalized eigenvalue problem to these correlators, energy eigenvalues can be extracted directly. The method is tested using both classical simulations and quantum hardware, successfully resolving several low-lying energy levels in agreement with exact diagonalization. Comparison with an alternative spectrum determination based on the Fourier transform of correlators shows that the proposed approach is substantially more efficient.
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High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

Open Path Geometric Phases in Three Flavor Neutrino Oscillations through Layered Matter

We present a gauge invariant formulation of open path geometric phases in the context of three flavor neutrino oscillations traversing nonuniform matter. In contrast to the standard Berry phase, which is intrinsically associated with closed adiabatic cycles, neutrino propagation from source to detector typically traces an open trajectory within the parameter space of matter dependent Hamiltonians. We derive this formalism within a layered matter framework, where each discrete layer is characterized by a constant density and a local matter eigenbasis. The total evolution operator is expressed as a path ordered product of dynamical propagation factors and interface matrices that bridge adjacent matter eigenbases. This construction naturally yields geometric phase chains composed of endpoint projections and interface overlaps. We demonstrate that these chains remain invariant under arbitrary local rephasings of the instantaneous matter eigenstates, thereby resolving the gauge dependence ambiguity typically associated with open path transport. The proposed formalism elucidates the noncommutative nature of flavor evolution in layered media, illustrating that profiles with identical column densities but distinct ordering can yield different transition amplitudes. Furthermore, we analyze the influence of the Dirac CP phase, showing that it deforms the geometry of matter eigenbasis transport without being equivalent to the geometric phase itself. In the continuous limit, finite interface overlaps converge to Berry connection factors, while endpoint projections remain indispensable for ensuring open path gauge invariance. We discuss the phenomenological implications of this structure, emphasizing that geometric phases are not independent observables but contribute to transition probabilities via interference among coherent propagation chains.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons

Fermionic Lattice Supersolidity in the Attractive Three-Color Fermi-Hubbard Model

The recent experimental realization of the half-filled three-color Fermi-Hubbard model on a square optical lattice provides a novel platform for exploring exotic states of matter beyond conventional SU(2) systems. In this Letter, we investigate the three-color Fermi-Hubbard model with color-dependent attractive interactions using determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We find that, at quantum degenerate temperatures, a lattice Fermi supersolid state emerges from the interplay between a moderately-to-strongly interacting two-color subsystem and a weakly coupled third-color environment. This supersolid state, characterized by the coexistence of charge-density-wave and color-superfluid orders, is highly promising for experimental detection with current techniques. Our results demonstrate that the attractive three-color Fermi-Hubbard model on a square optical lattice offers an experimentally accessible system for exploring the supersolidity of ultracold lattice fermions, requiring only a simple lattice geometry and easily tunable onsite interactions.
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Optics

Epsilon-Near-Zero Materials based Photonic Architectures for Absorption and Emission Control

Engineering optical responses at surfaces, including reflection, absorption, transmission, and emission, is crucial for advanced photonic, energy, thermal-management, and optoelectronic applications. This thesis investigates epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials, particularly indium tin oxide (ITO) and titanium nitride (TiN), for controlling light-matter interactions through engineered optical coatings and nanostructures. It also explores the enhancement of optical absorption and emission in two-dimensional (2D) materials such as monolayer molybdenum disulphide (MoS2), whose atomic-scale thickness inherently limits light interaction. The research integrates theoretical analysis, finite-element simulations, nanofabrication, and experimental characterization to develop and validate ENZ-based optical platforms. An ITO-based multilayer coating is demonstrated to provide step-function-like reflectivity, with low reflectance in the visible-to-near-infrared range and high reflectance beyond a tunable cut-in wavelength, offering potential for spectrally selective energy management. Building on this, an ITO-based grating structure is developed to achieve broadband and angularly robust near-infrared absorption, demonstrating its potential for thermal-emission applications. TiN thin films are further demonstrated as an effective platform for enhancing the absorption and emission of monolayer MoS2 without complex nanostructuring. Complementary studies investigate substrate-induced strain and ion-irradiation-induced defects as approaches for tailoring the electronic and optical properties of MoS2. Overall, this work establishes ENZ materials based engineered surfaces as versatile platforms for spectral and light-matter interaction control, contributing to efficient, tunable, thermally stable, and scalable solutions for energy, thermal management, and 2D-material-based optoelectronic applications.
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Materials Science

Denoising Diffusion Monte Carlo Electron Densities with Physically Informed Variance Stabilization: From Fourier Filters to 3D UNETs

Obtaining accurate electron densities is important for the fundamental description of molecular and condensed matter systems, as well as for the development of next-generation density functionals. Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC), in particular, is known to produce benchmark-quality data; however, the predicted real-space electron densities contain substantial amounts of statistical noise. In this work, we study denoising approaches for DMC densities, judged on the basis of the information-theoretic Jensen-Shannon divergence. The denoising is facilitated by an approximate heteroscedastic to homoscedastic transformation leveraging the density functional theory density as a physical prior. We systematically compare a range of denoising techniques-including Fourier transform, regression, and 3D UNETs-on materials showing a wide range of density variations: carbon diamond, blue phosphorus, and rutile VO2. Our results indicate that simple flattened machine learning models and 2D image-based models introduce line artifacts and struggle to capture the full spatial correlation. In contrast, when using variance stabilization, regression methods outperform all others in both the high and low- noise limits across all materials considered. The best denoisers reduce the required cost of density-generating DMC simulations by 10-100x, providing a promising route forward for application in noise-sensitive tasks such as DFT functional inversion.
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High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

Probing Memory-Burdened Primordial Black Holes with High-Energy Neutrinos

The memory-burden effect can suppress the late-time evaporation of primordial black holes (PBHs), allowing those that would otherwise have evaporated via Hawking radiation to survive until the present epoch. These lighter PBHs emit high-energy and ultra-high-energy neutrinos, opening the tentalizing possibility of discovery via neutrino telescopes. We study the constraints on memory-burdened PBHs from current IceCube HESE, MESE, and EHE data; and forecast the sensitivity reach of IceCube-Gen2 radio and GRAND200k. In particular, we study how this signal depends on whether the initial PBH population is described by a log-normal mass function or by a monochromatic one. We find that log-normally distributed populations can be more strongly constrained than monochromatic populations with the same median mass primarily because their low-mass tails enhance the high-energy neutrino flux. We show that current IceCube data provide the leading limits for a lower memory burden parameter $k$, whereas the projected radio detectors become substantially more sensitive for higher values of $k$. We also study a scenario where future experiments would see a positive signal coming from PBHs. We consider a representative 30-event signal in IceCube-Gen2 radio and GRAND200k and study how well one could distinguish the two mass-function hypotheses. We find that it is easier to disfavor the monochromatic distribution when the log-normal distribution is assumed to be true. Finally, we study how well the parameters of the memory-burdened PBHs can be estimated in these future experiments.
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Statistical Mechanics

Cubic-Equivariant Neural Density Functional Theory for Three-Dimensional Lattice Fluids

We construct a neural classical density functional that acts directly on unrestricted three-dimensional density profiles. As a computationally tractable test bed, we consider parallel hard cubes of side length three on a simple cubic lattice. A fully convolutional network learns the one-body direct-correlation functional $c^{(1)}[\rho]$ from data obtained with grand-canonical Monte Carlo simulations in randomized external potentials. Complete profiles are used during both training and inference; a stochastic Bernoulli mask on the output sites makes full-profile training effective without explicitly extracting and storing overlapping local density windows. Averaging the first-layer kernels over all 48 rotations and reflections of the cubic point group additionally imposes exact cubic equivariance without data augmentation. We compare the learned functional with independent simulation data and with the lattice fundamental-measure functional of Lafuente and Cuesta. The neural functional markedly improves the homogeneous equation of state and the density profile at a planar hard wall. For the anisotropic pair distribution around a fixed particle, both functionals reproduce the principal packing shells, with their relative accuracy depending on crystallographic direction. These results demonstrate neural density-functional calculations on complete three-dimensional profiles while also identifying accurate full-dimensional training data, thermodynamic consistency, and structural correlations as the central challenges for extensions to continuum fluids.
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Atomic Physics

Thorium-229 in its Highest Charge States: Single-Ion Nuclear Clocks for Tests of Fundamental Interactions

The prospects and the implementation of single-ion nuclear clocks of $^{229}$Th$^{q+}$ ions in their highest charge states $q=90, \ldots, 87$ are discussed. Highly-ionized-thorium clocks are ideal for tests of fundamental interactions since the ions are elementary quantum systems composed of only a few building blocks. Two cases of $^{229}$Th$^{q+}$ clocks excel: a) one-electron $^{229}$Th$^{89+}$ that combines two nuclear-clock transitions in the VUV with hyperfine IR atomic-clock transitions, and, b) fully ionized $^{229}$Th$^{90+}$ which constitutes the prototype of a nuclear clock, one without any electrons. We evaluate the feasibility of such clocks by means of quantum logic spectroscopy (QLS) in linear Paul traps. Due to its universal nature, the QLS approach allows for systematic clock comparisons using different charge states as well as different spectroscopy transitions on the same experimental platform. A valuable asset towards single-ion $^{229}$Th$^{q+}$ clocks is the process of nuclear hyperfine mixing that enables the tunability of the natural linewidth of the clock transition over more than five orders of magnitude by changing the charge state.
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All authors C. Brandau, P. Micke, I. Hartl, C. M. Heyl, P. Indelicato, Yu. A. Litvinov, R. X. Schüssler, M. Vogel, Th. Stöhlker

Quantum Physics

Preserving Heisenberg-Limited Metrological Information during Storage via Correlated-Noise Correction

Quantum error correction has become an indispensable tool for restoring Heisenberg-limited precision in noisy quantum metrology. Existing protocols, however, almost exclusively focus on correcting noise during the signal-encoding stage and implicitly assume that the probe is measured immediately after sensing. In many quantum information processing tasks, the encoded probe must instead be stored before subsequent quantum operations, during which environmental noise can significantly degrade the accumulated metrological information. Here, we propose a correlated-noise correction (CNC) protocol for protecting quantum probes during the storage stage. By correlating probe errors with auxiliary qubits through fixed two-body entangling gates, memory errors are converted into measurable syndromes that are extracted only once after storage. We show that the protocol naturally extends from single-qubit to multi-qubit probes and protects the stored quantum Fisher information against dephasing, bit-flip, and amplitude-damping noise. Furthermore, we demonstrate that preserving the quantum Fisher information does not necessarily require restoring the entire quantum state when the probe is measured immediately after storage, whereas full state recovery becomes essential for subsequent rounds of quantum signal processing. Our results establish correlated-noise correction as a practical framework for protecting metrological information during quantum memory and provide a useful building block for sensing-enabled quantum information processing.
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All authors Hang Xu, Xue-Ke Song, Jingzheng Huang, Tailong Xiao, Guihua Zeng

Quantum Physics

Gravitational Casimir-Polder interaction in a thermal bath

We have investigated, by separating the contributions from thermal fluctuations (tf) and the radiation reaction (rr), the gravitational Casimir-Polder interaction between a gravitationally polarizable two-level object and an infinite gravitational Dirichlet boundary in a thermal bath at a temperature $T$. The results indicate that the rr-contribution to the interaction potential is independent of the temperature, whereas the tf-contribution is generally governed by a nontrivial interplay between the thermal corrections and the polarization effect. Here, the object-to-boundary distance, the characteristic transition wavelength of the object and the thermal wavelength of gravitons are denoted by $L$, $\lambda$ and $\beta$, respectively. In contrast to the vacuum case, where the interaction potential scales as $L^{-5}$ for $L\ll\lambda$ and $L^{-6}$ for $L\gg\lambda$, corresponding to an always repulsive force, qualitatively new behaviors emerge at high temperatures. Particularly, when $\sqrt[4]{\beta\lambda^3}\ll L\ll\lambda$ and the object is polarizable within the plane perpendicular to the boundary, a novel scaling of $TL^{-1}$ arises; when $\sqrt{\beta\lambda}\ll L\ll\lambda$ and the object is polarizable along the vertical-to-boundary axis, the interaction force becomes surprisingly attractive. At extremely high temperatures and large distances, i.e. when $\beta\ll \lambda\ll L$, the potential oscillates with the distance $L$ and thus an attractive or repulsive and even vanishing force can be resulted, depending on the exact values of $L$. Our work demonstrates that thermal gravitons can act as an active control mechanism for quantum gravitational interactions, and temperature, polarization configuration, and object-to-boundary distance jointly determine the magnitude, scaling law, and even the attractive or repulsive nature of the interaction force.
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Quantum Gases

Fluctuation-based evidence for number–phase dynamics in a frustrated orbital superfluid

Frustrated quantum matter can host intertwined orders rooted in symmetry-related low-energy landscapes, yet static order parameters alone do not reveal how fluctuations are organized among competing configurations. Here we measure mode-resolved shot-to-shot population fluctuations in a $p$-orbital triangular-lattice superfluid with a tunable bias among three valleys. We observe a bias-tuned evolution from enhanced, anticorrelated fluctuations of two minority valleys toward strong confinement of relative-population fluctuations in a selected two-valley stripe phase. The dominant fluctuation structure is captured by an effective canonical model that includes interactions among the condensed modes, supporting a quasi-equilibrium description of the coherent three-valley condensate. Together, the data and model reveal a quantum–thermal regime shaped by pair-tunneling-induced number–phase dynamics, in which relative-phase scrambling softens effective barriers in the minority-valley regime, while phase rigidity gives rise to macroscopic harmonic confinement in the stripe phase. Our results establish mode-resolved fluctuation measurements as a probe of hidden number–phase back-action in frustrated quantum fluids.
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All authors Rui-Lang Zeng, Zi-Yao Zhang, Ling-Na Wu, Cong-Jie Zhang, Da-Gang Xia, Andreas Hemmerich, Xiao-Qiong Wang, Zhi-Fang Xu

Quantum Gases

Bose-Einstein condensates with Raman-induced spin-orbit coupling : An overview

Since their first realization more than a decade ago spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates have been the subject of intense theoretical and experimental investigations. Spin-orbit coupling deeply modifies the equilibrium properties of the condensate, giving rise to novel configurations such as a supersolid stripe phase and a phase-separated plane-wave state. At the level of dynamics, both the frequency and the nature of the collective modes are significantly affected by the coupling with the spin degree of freedom. Here we review some of the most relevant advances in the field and provide our perspective on possible future research directions.
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Superconductivity

Quantum Metric Induced Critical Current Anomaly in Flat Band Josephson Junctions

In well-established theories of Josephson junctions, the superconducting critical current \( I_\mathrm{c} \) increases as the normal state conductance \( \mathcal{G} \) increases. However, in a recent experiment in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) based Josephson junctions, unexpectedly, it was observed that the increase of the critical current is accompanied by a decrease of the normal state conductance. We call this phenomenon the critical current anomaly. In this work, we point out that in the TBG-based Josephson junction, due to the suppression of the conventional Josephson current by the flatness of the band and the quantum metric enabled Josephson current (QMJC), the critical current anomaly can occur. The QMJC appears if the quantum metric length is comparable or longer than the junction length. We show that both \( \mathcal{G} \) and \( I_\mathrm{c} \) have the conventional and the quantum metric contributions, and there are parameter regimes in which \( I_\mathrm{c} \) increases even when \( \mathcal{G} \) decreases. We first demonstrate the critical current anomaly by a simple modified Lieb-lattice model both analytically and numerically. The incredible consistency with the experimental results is demonstrated using a realistic six-band model of twisted bilayer graphene. Therefore, we suggest that the critical current anomaly observed in the experiment provide strong evidence of QMJC which were ignored in well-established theories of Josephson junctions.
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All authors Zhong C.F. Li, Yuxuan Deng, Dmitri K. Efetov, K. T. Law

Computational Physics · Cross-listed from math.NA

High-Resolution Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory Compact Least-Squares Schemes with Implicit Time Integration for Compressible Navier-Stokes Equations on Curvilinear Grids

This paper presents a family of high-resolution weighted essentially non-oscillatory compact least-squares schemes with implicit time integration for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations on curvilinear grids. Compared with the original compact least-squares schemes, the proposed method introduces two main improvements. First, instead of enforcing the accuracy constraints over the entire computational domain, including discontinuous regions, it constructs the reconstruction matrix only along smooth reconstruction lines using an accuracy-preserving weighting strategy. This treatment effectively suppresses the persistent high-frequency oscillations observed in the original compact least-squares schemes and yields sharper profiles near discontinuities. Second, the method simplifies the shock-capturing procedure and improves efficiency by using a single set of polynomials, whereas the original compact least-squares schemes require both unlimited and limited polynomials. Combined with spectral optimization, the proposed method exhibits more favorable spectral properties than conventional weighted essentially non-oscillatory schemes. The smoothness indicators and penalty matrices are constructed through an efficient iterative procedure with modest additional cost. Numerical results for inviscid and viscous one-, two-, and three-dimensional flows demonstrate that the proposed method provides robust shock-capturing capability while maintaining high resolution in smooth regions and across contact discontinuities.
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All authors Yongzhi Luo, Huiheng Fan, Wei-Gang Zeng, Yu-Xin Ren, Jianhua Pan

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Multiphysics Modeling of Thermo-Viscoelastic Damage in Functionally Graded Abradable Coatings with Probabilistic Geometric Tolerance Analysis

In aircraft engines, functionally graded abradable coatings are used to control blade-tip clearance, but their durability is governed by effects that are often treated separately in existing models, including temperature-dependent viscoelastic softening, progressive damage, deposition-induced microstructural modulation, and geometric tolerances. This study integrates these effects within a unified multiphysics–probabilistic framework. The solved domain is a local through-thickness coating column driven by prescribed strain and temperature histories that include thermal eigenstrain and coating–substrate expansion mismatch. The results show that periodic property modulation increases end-of-cycle damage relative to the monotonic gradient and concentrates the maximum stress within a localized modulation crest. Propagating symmetric geometric tolerances through the coupled solver produces a strongly right-skewed damage distribution and a higher classification-level exceedance probability for the modulated gradient than for the monotonic gradient. This exceedance behavior cannot be obtained from a deterministic analysis performed at nominal geometry. The implementation is verified through spatial and temporal refinement, closed-form unit tests, nested Monte Carlo convergence with Wilson confidence intervals, and a hold-out-validated polynomial response surface. Numerical verification is clearly distinguished from experimental validation, and the simulated case is presented as a generic benchmark rather than an identified material model. The framework links deposition parameters and tolerance bands to damage-exceedance risk, supporting reliability-oriented screening of graded and multilayer coating systems.
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All authors Amjad El-Mellouhi, Yassine Adjal, Khaled Dhibi, Fedwa El-Mellouhi