Papers

The Quantum Volume protocol uses scrambling random circuits to benchmark NISQ computers. Quantum Volume is generally well-regarded as a benchmark for small, noisy, quantum computers because it requires the quantum computer to implement many non-local entangling gates within a square-shaped circuit, which incentivizes high qubit count, long qubit coherence times, and low error rates on all hardware gates. Quantum Volume circuits inherently produce high-entanglement states that are fragile to errors and decoherence. The Quantum Volume benchmark measures an observable called heavy-output-probability (HOP), where an HOP of $0.5$ corresponds to complete loss of coherence, and in the limit of system size an HOP $\approx 0.84$ for a fully coherent quantum processor. Here, we numerically study the tradeoff between depolarizing noise, entanglement as quantified by the bipartite negativity measure, and HOP in quantum volume circuits. Our results contextualize prior small scale quantum volume demonstrations on quantum computers and highlight that under depolarizing noise, due to finite system size effects heavy output probabilities can be greater than $0.5$ while the bipartite negativity entanglement has been destroyed. This implies, although improbable, that a NISQ computer could pass the Quantum Volume benchmark test threshold of $2/3$ while the underlying quantum computation has no global entanglement – albeit only for small $n$.

We performed a systematic search for radio emission from RS Canum Venaticorum (RS CVn) binaries, selected from the International Variable Star Index (VSX) catalog, in the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS; three epochs) and Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS; two epochs) data. We detected 108 candidate radio-emitting RS CVn in at least one epoch. Several of these systems rank among the most radio-luminous RS CVn binaries reported to date. The radio and X-ray luminosities, obtained from cross-matching with the eROSITA and ROSAT X-ray catalogs, are consistent with the Guedel-Benz relation for magnetically active stars, but are also comparable to radio-luminous quiescent black hole X-ray binaries, indicating a potential for misidentification between these two classes. Analysis of optical, radio, and stellar properties indicates that optically bright RS CVn (i.e., those with at least one giant component) are radio-quieter and have periods that are consistent with lower coronal activity. However, two of these optically bright RS CVn systems show persistent and unusually high radio specific luminosities (>2e17 erg/s/Hz) across all observed epochs, showing that stellar activity can produce relatively persistent radio signals as bright as quiescent black hole binaries.

Generic event-level anomaly detection for collider physics has two recurring problems: anomaly scores are hard to interpret, and they correlate strongly with energy scale and object multiplicity. We present Organized Representation via Contrastive learning for Anomaly detection (ORCA), a two-stage framework that first learns an embedding space via supervised contrastive learning across a diverse set of physics processes, then runs a standard autoencoder in that space to generate event-level anomaly scores. On a simulated dataset consistent with conditions at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider, ORCA delivers significant gains in both breadth and depth of sensitivity to new physics signals with respect to a baseline autoencoder architecture. Beyond improved sensitivity, the contrastive embedding makes the anomalous sample interpretable: because known processes occupy distinct regions of the space, a maximum-likelihood template fit to the embedding distributions can attribute events in an anomalous sample to template physics processes with quantified uncertainties. We demonstrate that the fit accurately recovers injected signal yields, including for signals excluded from the training of the embedding, and characterizes signals absent from the template library through the known processes they most resemble. These results establish ORCA as a route to interpretable anomaly detection-based searches at colliders, where the embedding geometry carries higher dimensional physics information compared to standard one-dimensional output fits, enhancing downstream statistical analysis.

We revisit the evolution of axion domain walls seeded by inflationary fluctuations. In our previous work, we showed that such domain-wall networks retain superhorizon correlations even after entering the scaling regime. We extend our previous analysis to the case with large initial fluctuations, where many minima of the axion potential are already populated when the axion starts to oscillate. Although the conventional misalignment contribution can have suppressed long-wavelength isocurvature perturbations when many vacua are averaged over, axions produced by domain-wall collapse provide an additional contribution that can dominate when the walls enter the scaling regime before annihilation. In particular, the biased vacuum energy released during wall annihilation inherits the superhorizon correlations of the inflationary fluctuations and transfers them to the axion energy density. We find that sizable isocurvature perturbations can therefore survive even after the walls annihilate. We also discuss generic isocurvature constraints on dark matter produced by domain-wall collapse.

Periodic driving of spatially periodic quantum systems generates band structures that are absent in static crystals. We present a quantum geometric theory to characterize the Floquet-Bloch states at stroboscopic times and during micromotion on equal footing. Our framework builds upon time-evolved Floquet projectors that connect static quantum geometry, micromotion-operator geometry, and Floquet topology. To illustrate the formalism, we introduce the Floquet-projector quantum metric, which we employ to characterize the real-space breathing of localized states in a driven chiral-symmetric integrable spin chain. The Floquet-projector quantum metric, integrated over the Brillouin zone, captures the oscillatory variance during micromotion and, at symmetry-selected times, is bounded below by Floquet topological invariants. We further describe how the Floquet projector geometry enables a systematic investigation of micromotion dynamics in periodically driven lattice systems.

Recent studies have suggested that binary population synthesis models, when coupled with observationally based, metallicity-dependent SFRD, overpredict the observed local BBH merger rate density. The significance of this tension might vary depending on the specific code and parameters adopted. Thus, a more extensive exploration of the parameter space is required. Here, we perform such an extended analysis. We first carry out a comprehensive analysis by using a large set of BBH merger efficiencies across a wide range of physical assumptions, parameters, and initial conditions. We combine these efficiencies with an observationally motivated SFRD and explore 18 metallicity variations to encompass observational uncertainties. We find that the tension between predicted and observed BBH merger rate density persists: in 17 out of 18 metallicity variations none of the models considered predicts a local BBH merger rate within or below the observed 90% credible interval. Even in the most favorable metallicity variation, only <10% of the models are consistent with the observational constraints. Then, we perform a full calculation, including a self-consistent delay time distribution, for the models yielding the lowest BBH merger rate densities. This analysis confirms that even the most conservative models overpredict the observed local BBH merger rate for almost all the metallicity variations. We show that the inclusion of the low-metallicity tail contributed by low-mass galaxies and starbursts, together with a treatment of iron rather than oxygen abundance, systematically shift the predicted rates toward higher values. Consequently, even literature models that predict moderate BBH merger rates can instead produce substantially higher rates when coupled to an observationally motivated SFRD.

We examine the proposal and analysis of arXiv:2404.14477 for putting momentum waves on mazes of intersecting M2 and M5 branes by computing a family of simple examples of momentum waves on pure M5 branes. We re-analyze the BPS equations for the near-brane M5-P system with the prescribed supersymmetry structure of the full M2-M5-P system and show that the general linear system obtained in arXiv:2404.14477 captures all of the null momentum waves on the simpler M5-P system. Despite the absence of explicit M2 branes in our examples, we find that the momentum waves still localize on an AdS$_3$ factor of the AdS$_7$ associated with M5 branes, showing that the supersymmetry prescription still reflects the M2-M5-P structure. This momentum localization takes two forms: explicit singular sources and smooth, localized bump functions reflecting ”momentum migration” that is a feature of other microstate geometries. The simple, physical form of the momentum localization in our examples supports the broader proposal in arXiv:2404.14477 that independent momentum waves can localize at each brane intersection. We suggest further generalizations of momentum waves at brane intersections that could have important implications in holography.

We have developed a dual-species optical tweezer array apparatus combining $^{87}\text{Rb}$ and $^{174}\text{Yb}$ atoms with a permanent hybrid Twyman-Green–Fizeau interferometer, which provides precision co-alignment of two opposing 0.6-numerical aperture (NA) objectives and the high NA beams that pass through the system. This technique is extensible to other tweezer platforms operating at high numerical aperture across widely-separated wavelengths. Here we present simultaneous trapping and single-site resolved imaging of both species in co-aligned tweezer arrays with $^{87}\text{Rb}$ confined at $840\ \rm{nm}$ and $^{174}\text{Yb}$ at $532\ \rm{nm}$. The platform provides a foundation for hybrid quantum register operation, including mid-circuit measurements and asymmetric intra- and inter-species interactions, greatly expanding the capabilities of neutral atom arrays.

The Swift Burst Alert Telescope Active Galactic Nuclei Spectroscopic Survey (BASS DR2) provides one of the largest and most complete samples of bright, local (z < 0.1) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with high-quality spectroscopic measurements. These sources are typically interpreted within the framework of Kerr black holes; however, a wide range of horizonless compact-object scenarios-including naked singularities, black hole mimickers, and other exotic compact objects-have been proposed as alternatives. Largely independent of the physics of the particular horizonless model invoked, an accretion powered, thermally radiating photosphere is expected to develop on astronomically short timescales. In this paper, we investigate whether the presence of such a photosphere is consistent with the observed properties of an appropriate subsample of BASS AGNs. We find that in no instances is such a spectral feature present, and can exclude its existence in significant fraction of objects. For the remaining sources, modest improvements in observational sensitivity and spectral coverage could enable robust exclusion. Our results extend previous horizon-scale tests performed for M87* and Sgr A* to a large AGN population, providing strong, population-level evidence against horizonless alternatives. We conclude by outlining future observational strategies that can further tighten these constraints and significantly increase the number of objects for which horizons are required.

Bipartite qubit entanglement distillation is the process of converting noisy ebits into pure ebits using only local operations and classical communication. This is a core operation for quantum repeaters, enabling such crucial tasks as long-distance quantum communication and distributed quantum computing. In this work, we introduce a method for searching for entanglement distillation protocols and, using this technique, distil qubit Werner states at a higher rate than could be achieved using previously discovered protocols. In particular, we demonstrate the advantage of our new distillation strategy by improving the best-known lower bound for the two-way-assisted quantum capacity of the qubit depolarising channel across a wide range of channel parameters, making progress in one of the long-standing problems of quantum information theory.

We consider a scenario in which a black hole is enclosed in a reflecting timelike cavity and linearly perturbed. For the resulting quasinormal spectra of gravitational, electromagnetic, and other perturbations, in conjunction with our arXiv:2606.11297, we establish a thermal product formula and derive a universal asymptotic expression for high quasinormal overtones. Both results hold in asymptotically flat, de Sitter, and Anti-de Sitter spacetimes (known previously). This spectral signature directly encodes information about the black hole interior and its singularity, and is, at least in principle, accessible to an observer outside the event horizon. We then propose a concrete observational setup in which accreting plasma plays the role of a partially transmissive mirror. For small, hypothetical, primordial black holes, we argue that one may thereby be able to extract concrete information about the black hole interior from electromagnetic waves in the radiowave spectrum.

We investigate the collapse of rotating very massive and supermassive stellar cores using numerical relativity simulations including an alpha-chain nuclear reaction network and neutrino cooling. Our main survey focuses on newly constructed models with initial core masses of $2 \times {10}^{3}-5\times 10^4M_\odot$. The collapse is triggered either by pair instability in lower-mass cores or by general-relativistic instability in higher-mass cores. We find that higher-mass cores undergo a nearly homologous collapse, whereas lower-mass cores show a more runaway-like collapse because neutrino cooling becomes more efficient at their higher densities and temperatures. Consequently, the black hole formed in lower-mass models initially contains a smaller fraction of the core mass, and disk formation occurs while a larger amount of matter remains outside the black hole. The lower compactness of pair-unstable cores also allows larger dimensionless angular momentum, favoring the formation of rapidly rotating black holes and massive disks. The disk bounce drives mass ejection with ejecta masses of order $10-10^3M_\odot$ and kinetic energies of order $10^{53}-10^{55}\,\mathrm{erg}$. Significant $^{56}$Ni production in the disk-bounce ejecta occurs only in the lowest-mass models. For selected models, we further follow the viscous evolution of the disk and find that viscosity enhances the ejecta mass and kinetic energy. In models with $\lesssim10^4M_\odot$, the viscosity-driven ejecta can originate from disk matter that has reached nuclear statistical equilibrium and can therefore become rich in $^{56}$Ni. These results suggest that rotating very massive star collapses can produce massive, energetic ejecta and, for sufficiently low core masses, substantial iron-group elements.

Active galactic nucleus (AGN) disks are a promising location for the formation of binary black holes (BBHs) that will merge on relatively short timescales and be detected by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK). To compare the mass function (MF) of black holes (BHs) undergoing hierarchical mergers in AGN disks to the inferred MFs from LVK observations, we perform 360 simulations with an N-body code augmented to include an analytic model for migration torques and other gas forces. We focus on the region surrounding migration traps in AGN disks where migration torques cancel out and BHs converge. We find that regardless of changes in the initial MF and BBH merger criteria, frequent mergers deplete the number of BHs with masses $\lesssim 10$~$M_\odot$ and fill the upper mass gap with a roughly uniform distribution from 40–100~$M_\odot$, with a slight overabundance around ${\approx}70~M_\odot$ from resonant orbiters. We also find an average merger rate of $\sim 6$~Gpc$^{-3}$~yr$^{-1}$ for migration-trap-aided BBH mergers in our AGN disk model. $\sim 40\%$ of these mergers have uneven mass ratios and 16% have a primary mass $\in[50-100]~M_\odot$. Therefore, AGN disks could easily be the source of BBH mergers observed by LVK that are difficult to produce through traditional stellar evolution channels. Our simulations also form a separate higher-mass intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) population $>200~M_\odot$ after $\sim 2$~Myr. Future gravitational wave detectors can use observations of this IMBH population to constrain models of AGN accretion disks.

The Rocket Experiment Demonstration of a Soft X-ray Polarimeter (REDSoX) is a NASA sounding-rocket mission designed to perform the first astrophysical spectropolarimetry in the 0.2-0.4 keV energy band. The instrument uses critical-angle transmission (CAT) gratings to disperse incident X-rays onto laterally graded multilayer (LGML) mirrors, requiring 48 individual gratings to be co-aligned to within 6 arcminutes in yaw, pitch, and roll. To support the systematic assembly of the grating array, we adapted a scanning laser-reflection metrology technique in which normal-reflected, angled-reflected, and diffracted ultraviolet laser beams are measured using three position-sensitive detectors (PSDs). Changes in the measured beam positions are used to reconstruct the local yaw, pitch, and roll of each grating and provide real-time feedback during mechanical adjustment. We demonstrate the system using a prototype miniature grating structure containing two gratings. Following co-alignment, the assembly underwent a flight-level random-vibration test followed by a qualification-level sine sweep. Measurements obtained before and after testing showed that the relative grating orientations were retained to within 1 arcminute, less than 17% of the REDSoX co-alignment tolerance. This work establishes a reproducible and scalable approach to the assembly and verification of large transmission-grating arrays for REDSoX and future X-ray spectroscopic instruments.

The Kepler Mission has discovered a plethora of planetary systems with super-Earth sized planets. These systems exhibit many properties, from widely-spaced planets with non-negligible eccentricities and inclinations, to tightly-spaced, coplanar, and nearly circular multi-planet systems. The observable properties of these systems, such as planet-planet spacings, multiplicity and orbital morphology, can be strongly influenced by the initial conditions of formation. These conditions affect the early growth of planetary embryos in the gas disk phase through pebble and/or planetesimal accretion, which then affects the final growth of planets during the giant impact stage. In this work, we investigate how assumptions of different limiting embryo isolation masses during early stages of planet formation affect the final properties of super-Earth planets within the inner disk, comparing our mock-observed results to each other, as well as to the Kepler sample. We test several models of pebble accretion isolation mass, including pebble isolation, flow isolation, and migration feedback isolation and otherwise adopt the same parameters for the gas disk. We find that while each model can match at least one distribution of observables in the Kepler catalog, they fall short of matching all distributions simultaneously, even with extreme reweighting. Our inability to match all observations suggests that the initial conditions and/or modeled effects in our simulations that we held fixed should be investigated. This exploration sheds light on how planetary systems evolve and the processes that influence the wide range of system parameters we observe today, helping place our own Solar System in context.

We consider a new methodology for modelling the reaction-diffusion systems based on systems of ordinary differential equations. In contrary to the specialised numerical methods like straight line method, this new methodology is positioned as a pure alternative at the model level for partial differential equations. In its description, the new method is largely similar to the finite volume method, but unlike the latter, it uses statistical simplifications and principles of geometric probability to describe diffusion. The main objectives of this approach are to simplify the qualitative analysis of reaction-diffusion systems and to improve the efficiency of numerical model implementation. The first objective is successfully addressed, as it becomes possible to use the apparatus of classical dynamical systems theory for a qualitative analysis of model dynamics based on the systems of ordinary differential equations. The second objective is only partially addressed, as the gain in efficiency while maintaining acceptable accuracy for numerical implementation will be significant only for certain simple initial distribution of molecules and for specific diffusion coefficients. Furthermore, to formulate criteria for practical applicability, we separately evaluate the modelling error using this new methodology.

This year marks 360 years since the founding of the French Academy of Sciences. This is the story of the academy's daring 17th century expedition to measure the Earth-sun distance. A truncated version first appeared in National Geographic Magazine; the following is closer to the original draft, with updated information and references.

Two distinct Einstein–Hilbert sectors are related by a covariant correspondence bridge that maps stress-energy through bitensor kernels. The Bianchi identities enforce conservation, with bridge stresses balancing cross-sector exchange. For positive gravitational couplings and paired Minkowski backgrounds, a fixed metric-independent bridge leaves the quadratic action block diagonal, so the vacuum contains two massless spin-2 fields and no Fierz–Pauli mass term. A reciprocal first–order transport law generates a flux–preserving rotation of the canonical outgoing data. This divides the emitted power between visible and hidden channels while preserving the total quadrupole luminosity and the general-relativistic chirp phase. The reduced visible amplitude produces a systematic standard-siren distance shift, whose present sensitivity can be estimated from gravitational–wave catalog cosmology combined with an independent distance calibration. A source–level rescaling is physically inequivalent: it changes radiation reaction and requires compensating bridge energy flow. The construction therefore describes amplitude transfer between massless tensor channels, distinct from massive-graviton dispersion and propagation-induced oscillations.

Machine learning is now a central tool for solving inverse problems in particle physics and astronomy. Models are trained on simulation and deployed on real data, raising the question not just of whether they fit, but of whether they are wrong in ways we did not anticipate: the unknown unknowns. This challenge of model misspecification is not unique to machine learning. In physics, misspecification is sometimes exactly what we want to find: new discoveries appear as failures of existing models. At other times, we want such effects absorbed into the analysis without biasing the measurement. A robust analysis is one that absorbs the misspecifications we are not interested in, while preserving sensitivity to the ones we are. Machine learning can both amplify misspecification and provide new tools to address it. We discuss the challenges of model misspecification, diagnostics for detecting it, and strategies for mitigation. No single diagnostic can confirm that a model is correctly specified: detection and mitigation are two halves of an iterative loop, in which a battery of complementary diagnostics is applied, the model is updated, and the process repeated. Robustness against unknown unknowns is ultimately less about any single technique than about a disposition: a willingness to suspect one's own model, and to design analyses that can survive being wrong in ways one did not anticipate.

Clinically actionable, patient-specific hemodynamic assessment, specifically wall shear stress, vortex structure and pressure distributions, is critical for determining risky or unfavorable evolution in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA). While Physics-Informed Deep Operator Networks (PI-DeepONets) show promising results in complementing established 5 tools such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), a persistent architectural challenge remains for complex 3D flows. In this direction, we propose a Modified Multi-Input Multi-Output PI-DeepONets (M3PI-DeepONet) designed for predicting unsteady flows in an idealized AAA geometry. Central to our model is the Aggregated Injection strategy, where latent representations from multiple input branches are fused prior to trunk injection, allowing the coordinate basis to adapt to multiple physical constraints. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first architecture to combine the layer-wise gating mechanism with a multi-branch operator-network topology, yielding an input-adaptive trunk basis. Additionally, we integrate the 3D Navier-Stokes equations as governing physical laws, so the model is trained based on physics-informed residuals, initial and boundary conditions, and only 0.3% of the labeled internal data together with the selected branch-conditioning signals. The M3PI-DeepONet simultaneously predicts unsteady 3D flow velocity and pressure fields with an average relative L2 velocity error below 4% and pressure error around 5% while achieving a conservative retained-cycle inference speedup of approximately 36x compared to reference CFD simulations once the branch inputs used for conditioning are available. This work advances the application of deep learning in cardiovascular disease modeling, marking step toward real-time, non-invasive clinical diagnostics.

High-fidelity readout with strong Purcell protection of qubit coherence is essential for scalable superconducting quantum processors, yet the finite passband and sizable footprint of conventional band-pass Purcell filters make them hard to scale. Here we introduce a scalable edge-pass Purcell filter that separates the readout band from the protected qubit band by a single transmission edge, freeing the readout resonators from bandwidth constraint. Depending on whether the transmitting band lies above or below the cutoff, the compact network is realized as a high-pass filter (HPF) or a low-pass filter (LPF). The HPF reaches an average readout fidelity of 99.46(4)% (up to 99.56%) with a 150-ns pulse, and the LPF reaches 99.49(3)% (up to 99.57%) with a 130-ns pulse. The average single-qubit gate fidelities are 99.94% (HPF) and 99.93% (LPF). Relative to the filter-free Purcell limit, the filters substantially extend the qubit lifetime, and the Purcell protection deepens at higher filter order. In addition, an intrinsic dissipation mode of the filter offers a qubit-reset channel. This leads to a compact architecture that unifies fast, high-fidelity readout, Purcell protection, and effective reset within a single filter for large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computation.

In quantum physics, the order in which different operations occur can be placed in superposition. The resulting processes have an indefinite causal order, which is of fundamental interest and can be viewed as a novel quantum resource enabling new protocols. Here, we report an experimental proof-of-principle implementation of one such protocol, where we perform BB84-like quantum cryptography by placing \AB's measurement-and-preparation operations in a photonic quantum SWITCH. By embedding \AB\ within the quantum SWITCH, the protocol achieves an average eavesdropper detection probability of $0.15 \pm 0.02$ per shared qubit, with eavesdropper detection performed through measurements of the control qubit rather than comparing the key. Unlike standard BB84 and related schemes, which detect eavesdropping by publicly revealing and discarding a fraction of the raw key, our approach requires no disclosure of key material: every retained qubit can, in principle, be tested for eavesdropping while remaining available for key generation. Although the present implementation does not yet constitute a secure quantum key distribution protocol, owing to post-selection required for measurements within the quantum SWITCH, it provides a proof of principle that indefinite causal order can be exploited to detect eavesdropping without sacrificing key bits.

In holography, four-dimensional confining gauge theories are often modelled by five-dimensional Einstein–scalar gravity by choosing a specific form of the scalar potential. In a large class of non-conformal theories, we show that a predictive structure emerges for the thermal confinement transition by generalising the gravitational dual to $D+1$ dimensions and using a $1/D$ expansion. These results are independent of the details of the scalar potential, hinting towards universality. The black brane geometry dual to the deconfined phase can be analytically constructed due to its effects being localised near the horizon at leading order. The solution does not exist below a minimal temperature $T_{\rm min}$ and the maximum possible supercooling in the transition $\epsilon_{\rm sc} = 1-T_{\rm min}/T_{\rm c}$ is generically suppressed by a factor of $1/D^2$. Remarkably, the maximum supercooling at the leading order is set by the speed of sound in the deconfined phase of the gauge theory at the critical temperature, $\epsilon_{\rm sc}=c_s^2(T_{\rm c})/2$. These predictions agree with explicit calculations in an exponential superpotential, improved holography, and the thermal transition in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang–Mills on a sphere.

We prove that every PPT linear map has finite entanglement breaking index, thereby establishing the eventual entanglement breaking property of PPT channels in full generality. Furthermore, by utilizing completely positive maps with low entanglement dimensionality, we show that a large family of PPT maps, which strictly contains the class of 2-superpositive maps, has entanglement breaking index bounded above by 3, uniformly in the dimension. In particular, these results provide evidence that the PPT-cubed conjecture may hold in full generality.

The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light is a discrete, unbounded degree of freedom that underpins mode-multiplexed communications and high-dimensional quantum photonics. Yet, dynamic OAM control remains dependent on bulky free-space optics or cascaded architectures that separate switching from wavefront shaping, hindering nanoscale integration. Here, we engineer artificial van der Waals crystals from rhombohedrally stacked (3R) MoS$_2$, in which spatial control of the local crystal orientation imprints a nonlinear geometric phase onto the second-harmonic (SH) field, enabling background-free generation of SH vortex beams in an ultrathin (46 nm) van der Waals platform. Leveraging the C$_{3v}$ symmetry of 3R-MoS$_2$, we demonstrate monolithic, all-optical switching with sub-optical-cycle precision between Hermite-Gauss-like and Laguerre-Gaussian vortex SH beams with opposite topological charges ($l=\pm1$). Our results establish artificial 3R-MoS$_2$ crystals as a monolithic platform for the generation and all-optical reconfiguration of nonlinear structured light at the nanoscale, advancing active nanophotonic sources for integrated classical and quantum photonic technologies.

To achieve large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computation, it may be easier to combine many small sets of qubits than to construct a single large set. For example via quantum error correction with block codes, or distributed quantum processors utilizing shared entanglement. In these regimes, the time or error budget of the overall quantum computation may be dominated by non-local operations. Hence, it is worthwhile to minimize the number of these operations. We consider the case where both non-local and local connectivity may be arbitrarily restricted, and give an asymptotically optimal synthesis method for distributed CNOT and Clifford circuits, based on block-matrix Gaussian elimination. We extend this to all Clifford+RZ circuits by generalizing the Pauli exponential circuit representation; this naturally integrates with existing methods for optimizing T-count. As an application, we show how to implement CNOT circuits in a CSS code encoding n logical qubits in k blocks using O(nk) inter-block transversal CNOTs and intra-block Pauli measurements.

Quasi-hydrodynamics describes systems with quasi-conserved degrees of freedom, namely observables that relax on timescales that are finite but parametrically longer than microscopic relaxation times. Examples include kinetic chemistry and linear viscoelasticity. Here, we develop a rigorous effective-field-theory framework for linear quasi-hydrodynamics from kinetic-type theories. Starting from any linearized, causal kinetic-like theory endowed with slow degrees of freedom, we show that the exact dynamics of conserved and quasi-conserved observables admits a systematic expansion in the fast relaxation timescale. At zeroth order, the resulting equations form a causal, symmetric-hyperbolic theory belonging to the appropriate transient-hydrodynamic universality class, establishing Israel-Stewart-like dynamics as the universal description of slow relaxation modes. Higher-order corrections can be computed systematically and inherit universal symmetry, Onsager, positivity, and causality constraints from the underlying microscopic theory.

We report simulations of the dissolution and diffusion of Nb's surface oxide layer in vacuum. While this chemical doping process is important for the surface preparation of Nb superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities - common components of particle accelerators - quantitatively linking the resulting oxygen distributions to superconducting performance remains challenging. In this work, we simulate the reaction-diffusion process numerically for treatment temperatures $T = 50^{\circ}$C to $200^{\circ}$C and times $t = 0.5$ h to $120$ h, and calculate the effect of the spatially inhomogeneous oxygen doping on Nb's superconducting properties. We find that oxygen doping redistributes the Meissner screening current, reducing its value at the surface and shifting its maximum several nanometres into the material. These results provide a microscopic link between oxygen diffusion profiles and the electromagnetic response of Nb relevant for SRF cavity operation. This work provides a quantitative framework linking oxygen diffusion profiles to superconducting performance and establishes a foundation for future studies involving time-dependent and multi-step heat treatment protocols.

The nucleon-triggered vector boson $V_{\mathcal B}$ is a hypothetical particle motivated by a statistically significant discrepancy between the KLOE measurement, $\mathrm{BR}^{\eta\rightarrow\pi^{0}\gamma\gamma}_{\text{KLOE}} = \left(0.98\pm0.11_{\text{stat}}\pm0.14_{\text{syst}}\right)\times10^{-4}$, and the current world average, $\left(2.55\pm0.22\right)\times10^{-4}$, dominated by MAMI photoproduction data. This hypothetical new interaction is activated by external nucleons, causing deviations from the Standard Model predictions, while leaving leptonic measurements, such as KLOE and BESIII, unaffected. We embed this mechanism in representative MAMI- and JEF-like photoproduction settings, deriving distinctive and directly testable kinematic and cut-dependent signatures to quantify small differences between the two regimes. One such signature is a small predicted population of events beyond the nominal on-shell boundaries of the $\gamma\gamma$ and $\pi^0\gamma$ spectra, containing 4–23 events in a sample of 1200, depending on the selection window. These events correlate with the recoil proton kinematics, and the polar angle relative to the on-shell hypothesis can reach $\lesssim -5^\circ$ at MAMI energies, but only $\approx -0.2^\circ$ at JEF. For identical selection windows, the JEF-like effective branching fraction exceeds the MAMI-like prediction by less than $1\%$, while widening the window increases both predictions by up to $\sim4\%$. Both energy regimes produce a similar upward shift of the mean reconstructed mass, $\langle M_{\pi^0\gamma\gamma}\rangle-m_\eta\simeq +2$–$7~\mathrm{MeV}$. Finally, we identify representative $V_{\mathcal B}$-induced topologies that could contribute to recently reported discrepancies in the angular distributions of $\gamma d\to\pi^0\eta d$ and $\gamma d\to\pi^0\pi^0 d$, leaving their quantitative investigation to future work.

Existing quantum algorithms for simulating dynamical systems – from Hamiltonian simulation to linear and nonlinear differential equations solvers – simulate Markovian dynamics, in which the system's future evolution depends solely on its current state. We turn our attention to developing quantum algorithms for non-Markovian dynamical systems where the system's future evolution depends on its past history and thus has memory. Specifically, we develop efficient algorithms for linear Volterra integro-differential equations (VIDEs) with a convolution memory kernel that output a quantum state encoding the state description over a time interval or at a particular time. Given efficient circuits for the problem inputs, our algorithms achieve an exponential speedup in system size over existing classical algorithms. We develop an algorithm for general kernels assuming that $\textsf{M} < 1$, where $\textsf{M}$ characterizes the strength of the memory term relative to the dissipation of the Markovian part of the dynamics. We complement this with lower bounds for general-kernel VIDEs when $\textsf{M} \geq 1$, showing that the problem becomes intractable for a family of systems. However, by specializing to structured kernels which admit concise decompositions over exponentials, we develop efficient quantum algorithms even when $\textsf M \geq 1$ by converting the VIDE into a larger set of ODEs, a procedure which we call Markovianization. As an application of the overall framework, we discuss the Mori-Zwanzig formalism used in open quantum systems and fluid dynamics. Overall, our results expand the range of dynamical systems that quantum computers can simulate efficiently.