Papers

Continuous release is a fundamental source condition in transport, yet theoretical treatments have focused on downstream concentration development for passive solutes or fully developed cross-sectional distributions of active particles. We develop a spatial theory for the steady transport of active particles under continuous release in confined shear flows, resolving the concentration field from the inlet to the far field. Based on the Smoluchowski equation, we formulate a boundary-value problem with point-source inlet flux and boundary conditions. Separation of the streamwise coordinate from the cross-sectional variables yields a non-self-adjoint generalized eigenvalue problem, whose spatial modes are superposed to construct the solution. The eigenproblem is solved within a Galerkin spectral framework; downstream-admissible modes are retained and their coefficients determined from the inlet flux through a weighted biorthogonal expansion. Excellent agreement with individual-based simulations validates the theory. For plane Poiseuille flow under convection-dominated conditions, we find pronounced position–orientation coherence for spherical particles in the early developing region: swimming and shear reorientation drive the population through successive angular stages, generating alternating off-centre and centreline accumulation regions downstream, while dispersion progressively weakens this coherence. Particle elongation enhances orientational alignment, producing an early three-peaked vertical profile and stronger, more persistent lateral accumulation downstream, while reducing the coherence of centreward migration and thereby suppressing secondary centreline accumulation. The streamwise marginal concentration varies non-monotonically, reflecting changes in the mean streamwise velocity, with its far-field limit given by the reciprocal of the asymptotic drift velocity.

The origin of fermion masses and flavor mixing is often obscured by standard Euler-angle parameterizations, which mask the underlying connection between physical observables and Yukawa couplings. We prove that introducing a single, remarkably weak yet physically grounded commutation hypothesis, $[\mathbf{M}_R^2, \mathbf{M}_I^2] = 0$, on the Hermitian mass-squared matrix $\mathbf{M}^2 = M \cdot M^\dagger$ systematically reduces a general 18-parameter complex mass matrix $M$ down to a 5-parameter form per sector that admits exact analytic diagonalization. The resulting mass eigenvalues are closed-form algebraic expressions that completely bypass the transcendental Cardano trigonometric reduction required for generic Hermitian matrices, while the diagonalizing unitary matrix $U_f$ depends solely on two parameters that form a dimensionless 2D geometric flavor-ratio vector $\mathbf{v}_f=(x,y)$. Combining two such sectors yields the physical CKM/PMNS mixing matrix directly as $V = U_1^\dagger(\mathbf{v}_1) \cdot U_2(\mathbf{v}_2)$, establishing a direct, first-principles analytical bridge from raw Yukawa couplings to fermion masses and mixing matrices without intermediate phenomenological inputs. Finally, we highlight that this exact leading-order baseline enforces an exact four-fold moduli degeneracy among mixing elements, pointing directly toward non-commuting extensions for full phenomenological precision.

The leptonic decays of the $D_s^+$-meson have received considerable attention in recent years. In this work, we perform a precise calculation of the decay constant $f_{D_s^+}$ using the QCD sum rules method within the background field theory framework. In our calculation, we fully include the quark propagator contributions up to dimension-six condensates. By adopting two different constraint schemes, we obtain $f_{D_s^+}^{\text{(I)}} = 253.0_{-3.1}^{+3.3}\ \text{MeV}$ and $f_{D_s^+}^{\text{(II)}} = 251.8_{-1.3}^{+1.4}\ \text{MeV}$, respectively, both of which are in good agreement with existing theoretical and experimental results. The conventional scheme follows the standard Borel window criteria, while the derivative scheme reduces the dependence of the decay constant on the Borel parameter through an auxiliary function. Based on these decay constants and incorporating the NLO electroweak radiative corrections, we further calculate the branching fractions for the three leptonic decay channels for both schemes. Combined with the latest branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(D_s^+ \to \mu^+ \nu_\mu)$ from the PDG, we extract the CKM matrix elements $|V_{cs}|^{\text{(I)}} = 0.967 \pm 0.012$ and $|V_{cs}|^{\text{(II)}} = 0.970 \pm 0.005$ from the two schemes, respectively.

We present Galactic chemical evolution (GCE) models for the chemical clocks [Zr/Ti] and [Ce/Ti], tracing first- and second-peak s-process nucleosynthesis, and compare them with a high-precision sample of 68 Kepler red giant stars with asteroseismic ages from individual-mode frequencies and high-resolution spectroscopy. Using a multi-zone GCE framework, we explore variations in metallicity-dependent asymptotic giant branch (AGB) nucleosynthetic yields, including proposed enhancements to high-metallicity Ce production. Our baseline model reproduces [Zr/Ti] and the high-$\alpha$ sequence in both age and metallicity space, but systematically underestimates [Ce/Ti] at young ages and intermediate metallicities, indicating a persistent deficit in second-peak s-process enrichment over the last $\sim6$ Gyr of Galactic disc evolution. Increasing second-peak yields from high-metallicity AGB stars only partially reduces this discrepancy, suggesting that simple yield rescaling is insufficient and more fundamental revisions to s-process nucleosynthesis at high metallicity, alongside a self-consistent treatment of stellar dynamics, may be required. In fact, models reproduce abundance trends more tightly in metallicity than in age space, with additional age scatter partly attributed to radial migration. This Letter highlights the diagnostic power of precise asteroseismic ages for GCE studies and the limitations of current models in capturing the complex interplay between s-process nucleosynthesis and stellar dynamics.

Achiral molecules can be prepared in superposition states that are chiral. Here, we propose angular momentum orientation in the molecular frame to achieve the required symmetry breaking, exerting rotational control without the need for laboratory frame orientation. We derive the conditions for chiral rotational dynamics from the requirement to simultaneously break the continuous spatial rotational symmetry and the molecular point group symmetry. This can be achieved by three microwave pulses as well as two non-resonant optical pulses in combination with a THz pulse or three THz pulses, all with mutually orthogonal polarization directions, and the ensuing dynamics can be probed by photoelectron circular dichroism. Our results open the way for distinguishing structural from dynamical enantioselectivity and investigating time-odd chiroptical phenomena in randomly oriented molecules.

Supernova remnants (SNRs) are widely considered to be the primary accelerators of Galactic cosmic rays. In recent years, detailed observations have significantly progressed for young SNRs interacting with molecular clouds, a prime example being RX J1713.7-3946. When molecular clouds are clumpy, their impact can affect not only radiation properties but also shock wave propagation. Therefore, a quantitative understanding linking observational quantities with the ambient medium structure is highly required. In this study, we perform three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations to model a molecular cloud with an inhomogeneous density structure driven by supersonic turbulence and subsequent SNR formation. To investigate various pre-supernova environments, we systematically vary the medium clumpiness by replacing gas below a threshold number density with a low-density hot gas, quantifying the relationship between the forward shock velocity and the volume filling factor of the high-density clumps. As a result, we find that at an elapsed time of 1000 yr-a typical age for a young SNR-the forward shock can evolve consistently with the fast shock velocity measured in RX J1713.7-3946, provided that the clump volume filling factor is approximately 10% or less. Considering that hadronic gamma-ray emission originates exclusively from the clumpy, high-density gas, our findings suggest that the total energy of cosmic-ray protons in RX J1713.7-3946 is higher than previously estimated, amounting to at least a few percent of the typical supernova explosion energy.

We investigate universal quantum corrections to two-body correlations in a zero-temperature binary Bose mixture using the Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis two-particle-irreducible effective action formalism. In the weak interspecies-coupling regime, a saddle-point treatment based on Hubbard-Stratonovich transformations can be combined with a two-loop expansion and a gapless Hartree-Fock correction, thereby preserving the Goldstone theorem and reducing the coupled two-component problem to two analytically solvable single-component theories. Within this framework, we derive the ground-state energy density as a low-density expansion in the gas parameter, together with the quantum depletion and chemical potentials. The results exhibit a simple mapping to the single-component case: the universal quantum corrections of the mixture are obtained by evaluating the known single-component series at an effective scattering length $a_{\sigma\sigma}-a_{12}$ for each species, where $a_{\sigma\sigma}$ and $a_{12}$ are the intra- and interspecies $s$-wave scattering lengths. This reproduces Petrov's equation of state at one-loop order in the weak-coupling limit and yields beyond-Lee-Huang-Yang corrections at two-loop order. We also analyze the role of mass imbalance, which enters the energy density through the exact rescaling factor $(1+m_{1}/m_{2})/2$.

Recent discussions of QBism have turned increasingly toward the question of its ontology. I argue that key insights into QBism's ontology of agency can be identified by reconstructing its response to Wigner's friend paradox. I clarify the relation between two formulations of that response: one grounded in the claim that quantum states are agents' personal probability assignments, and another grounded in the injunction to treat all users of quantum theory as agents on equal footing. Once disambiguated, these formulations reveal an implicit commitment to a mutually recognitive conception of agency, according to which the agential status of a user of quantum theory depends constitutively on the acknowledgement of other agents. This analysis clarifies what is at stake in recent QBist engagements with phenomenology - namely, the search for a more philosophically robust account of this conception of agency. I show how Merleau-Ponty's account of intersubjectivity underpins the recognitive structure implicated in QBism before tracing these themes to Hegel's account of mutual recognition. By locating QBism within a longstanding tradition of mutual recognition, I claim that we not only illuminate its theoretical structure but also open up novel conceptual resources for the rigorous articulation and justification of its ontology.

Quantum repeaters are essential for overcoming the exponential photon loss that limits entanglement generation over long distances in quantum networks. An absorption-emission-based quantum repeater exploits the fundamental light-matter interactions of a diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center—photon absorption and photon emission—to transfer a quantum state from an absorbed photon to an emitted photon, offering a scalable architecture that operates without photon interference between remote nodes. Here we demonstrate an absorption-emission-based quantum repeater node using a single NV center, realizing the complete single-node operation in which heralded photon-to-memory quantum state transfer, repeat-until-success (RUS) emission of a spin-entangled photon, and quantum teleportation of the memory state onto the emitted photon constitute the essential repeater operation. By characterizing the complete repeater operation as a quantum channel from the absorbed photon to the emitted photon via quantum process tomography, we obtain a process fidelity of 78%. This demonstration establishes the absorption-emission approach as a fundamental building block for scalable quantum repeater architectures and paves the way toward practical long-distance quantum networks.

We report the discovery of a spatially resolved clumpy ejecta structure in the reverse-shocked ejecta of SNR 0509-67.5, revealed through multiple faint and broad forbidden coronal emission lines in deep MUSE observations. We also identify two new broad coronal emission lines not reported before in this remnant, [Fe xi] 7894 A and [Fe x] 6374.5 A , which extend the set of previously reported [Fe xv] 7059.59 A, [Fe xiv] 5302.86 A , [Fe ix] 8236.55 A , [Ca xv] 5695 A, and [S xii] 7611.0 A. Near-continuous ionisation states of Fe allow us to follow the ionisation progression behind the reverse shock. We use a 1D analytical model to evolve Fe charge states following reverse shock interaction to compare with observations, indicating the need for preshock clumping or over-density in order to reproduce the observed surface brightness of the [Fe xiv] line. Additionally, we report the spatially resolved distribution of ejecta clumps and show that reverse-shock interaction drives their compression and fragmentation. We also find a clear trend of decreasing velocity width with increasing Fe ionisation state, from the broadest [Fe ix] emission to the narrowest [Fe xv], with intermediate-ionisation species ([Fe x], [Fe xi], [Fe xiv]) showing intermediate widths. Finally, we compare our observations to a dynamically driven double-degenerate double detonation (D6) 3D remnant model at similar Fe and S ionisation states and conclude that the observed clumps are predominantly due to Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities.

We demonstrate that Mn$_3$Sn hosts finite intra-atomic magnetic octupoles (AMOs) $\mathbf{o}$ in addition to the well-established cluster magnetic octupole (CMO) $\mathbf{O}$. In contrast to the cluster-scale CMO, the AMO is a site-localized magnetic multipole associated with the anisotropic intra-atomic spin density. Symmetry analysis shows that the CMO and AMO transform in the same representation, allowing a bilinear interaction of the form $-g\,\mathbf{O}\cdot\mathbf{o}$. Using first-principles calculations, we confirm the presence of finite AMO densities and show that the AMO transforms concomitantly with the CMO under rotations of the noncollinear magnetic structure, providing microscopic evidence for the coupling between them. We further show that the magnetic band splitting can be represented by projected AMO operators, with manifold-dependent effective octupolar exchange coefficients in realistic Mn$_3$Sn. The presence of AMOs has three important implications. First, we show that the nonrelativistic spin splitting of Mn$_3$Sn can be described in terms of projected AMO operators, with manifold-dependent effective octupolar exchange coefficients, establishing the AMO as a microscopic operator underlying the spin splitting. Second, the AMO reveals a close connection between Mn$_3$Sn and $d$-wave altermagnets from the magnetic-octupole perspective. Third, the $\mathbf{O}\cdot\mathbf{o}$ coupling suggests a new route to manipulate the CMO using AMO currents, opening a direction for controlling the multipolar order in Mn$_3$Sn.

Single Particle Imaging with intense X-ray free-electron laser pulses requires modelling of the resulting ionisation and Coulomb explosion dynamics of biomolecules to optimise experimental parameters and enable correct structural reconstruction, yet simulating the complete dynamics at protein scale is beyond the reach of quantum-mechanical methods. To address this, we developed \moldstruct, a hybrid Monte Carlo/Molecular Dynamics code built on GROMACS that couples high intense X-ray ionisation dynamics modelled through a Monte Carlo module with classical Molecular Dynamics for atomic propagation. Benchmarked against quantum mechanical calculations for di-alanine, MolDStruct agrees in fragmentation patterns above a mean charge per atom of $\bar{z} \approx 1.35$. Compared with Coulomb explosion imaging experimental data for 2-iodopyridine, simulated momentum distributions reproduce the experimental Newton plots in fragment direction and fall within the range of experimental absolute momenta, with a moderate overestimation. We further apply MolDStruct to Protein Explosion Imaging, a method that classifies molecular structures from explosion ion maps recorded on a detector, demonstrating via dimensionality reduction that conformers of the 16-residue peptide $\mathrm{Ala}_16$ and five chromophore-labelled ubiquitin mutants are distinguishable. These results establish MolDStruct as a practical tool for simulating radiation damage and Coulomb explosion dynamics of biomolecules at protein scale, where quantum-mechanical methods are computationally infeasible.

Neutron-star cores hold the only known matter in the universe that is simultaneously cold and strongly interacting, compressed beyond nuclear density into a state of unknown composition. The equation of state links stellar masses, radii and tidal deformabilities to this regime, but recovering this key quantity from sparse observations is an ill-posed inverse problem. Existing analyses bury a prior in a fixed functional form, unevenly weighting admissible solutions and biasing the result. We reconstruct the equation of state with a denoising diffusion model that keeps prior, physics and data separate: it learns an inspectable, physically motivated prior anchored to first-principles nuclear theory, while perturbative-QCD and astrophysical constraints are imposed exactly. Future measurements therefore will update the posterior by reweighting alone, without retraining or resampling. The inferred radius of 12.6 km and tidal deformability of 469 at 1.4 solar masses reproduce Gaussian-process and heavy-ion-informed inferences despite a far broader prior. We find near-conformal but still stiff matter in the heaviest stars, consistent with a gradual hadron-quark crossover and disfavouring a strong first-order phase transition. More broadly, coupling a learned prior to exactly enforced physics establishes a template for ill-posed inverse problems where theory and data constrain different regions.

Purcell's swimmer is a well-known planar model of a swimming microorganism, governed by low Reynolds number hydrodynamics, which is comprised of three rigid links connected by actuated rotary joints. This model has been analyzed as a robotic locomotion system governed by first-order nonlinear dynamics with a periodic input (gait) of the two joint angles. In this work, we present a robotic macro-scale realization of this three-link swimmer moving in a highly viscous fluid. We propose a simple variant of Purcell's theoretical model with non-slender links and a central rigid sphere which represents the added drag of the robot's central flotation block, and calibrate the model's parameters to fit experimental measurements. Next, we apply optimal control formulation based on Pontryagin's Maximum Principle (PMP) in order to find optimal gaits that maximize the displacement per cycle under bounds on the joint angles. Employing a differential geometric method that transforms the problem to area integral enclosed by the gait trajectory in the plane of joint angles, enables visual interpretation which explains topological changes in displacement-optimal gaits upon varying the bound on the joint angles. We then apply PMP formulation to the problem of maximizing Lighthill's energy efficiency in order to obtain a boundary value problem (BVP) whose solution gives efficiency-optimal gaits for Purcell's swimmer model, as well as its variant with a central sphere. Finally, we utilize numerical methods such as parameterizing the input gait as a truncated Fourier series, as well as GPOPS-II solver, to produce sufficient initial guess values for solving the BVPs and obtaining efficiency-optimal gaits.

Learning restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) is computationally challenging because it requires expectations whose exact evaluation is generally intractable. The expectations are typically evaluated using a sampling approximation based on blocked Gibbs sampling (BGS), which is a local Markov chain Monte Carlo transition kernel. However, the locality of BGS can lead to poor sampling quality when the RBM has high energy barriers, thereby degrading learning performance. Deep tempering (DT), which performs parallel tempering over a sequence of learnable RBMs including the training RBM, alleviates this locality issue. However, DT algorithmically requires multiple steps to move through the RBM sequence to achieve a nonlocal transition. In this paper, we propose a transition kernel defined over the RBM sequence used in DT. The proposed kernel has a round-trip structure over the sequence, enabling nonlocal moves within a single transition while leaving the RBM sequence invariant. Numerical experiments show that the proposed kernel performs nonlocal transitions more frequently and achieves higher sampling quality with fewer transitions than BGS and DT. We further verify that learning based on the proposed kernel is more stable and mitigates the training failures observed with BGS- and DT-based learning.

We study a Brownian time change on the unit square whose speed measure is constructed from a Dirichlet eigenfunction expansion with independent non-Gaussian coefficients. For $0<\gamma<\sqrt2$, the measure is obtained by a second-moment martingale argument. Finite coefficient translations induce coherent exponential tilts of the speed measure, and conditioning on the complementary coefficients gives positive Lebesgue densities on every finite-dimensional orbit. Unitary transport along these orbits gives a common-domain analytic family and explicit first-order cluster derivatives. A first-order splitting argument proves almost-sure simplicity, while the local eigenfunction-square identity and a Vandermonde argument give joint densities for all finite vectors of ordered positive eigenvalues.

Stellar intensity interferometry (SII) measures correlations in photon-arrival fluctuations recorded by telescopes observing bright celestial sources. It can resolve angular scales far smaller than those accessible to a single optical telescope and is largely insensitive to atmospheric turbulence. After the first demonstration of SII on Sirius in 1956, Hanbury Brown and Twiss used the technique to measure the diameters of 32 stars. More recently, VERITAS, MAGIC, H.E.S.S., and CTAO's LST-1 have revived the method, although observations remain restricted to bright targets because of their optical design, optimized for gamma-ray astrophysics, rather than SII. We present EON-SII, the design and performance of a two-telescope intensity interferometer intended to extend the SII technique to compact targets at magnitudes of about V=8.5 up to V=10.7. Each transportable telescope has a 4-m diameter mirror, approximately 9m2 collecting area, an actively aligned 18-panel primary mirror, and Cassegrain optics specified to concentrate at least 90% of the light within 3 arcsec. A fibre-free spectrograph covers 400-550 nm at R~7000-8000 and is designed to provide of order 1000 statistically independent spectral channels.

We determine the exact spectral gaps for both the finite-particle and infinite-particle unlabelled Ginibre interacting Brownian motions. In every finite-particle system, the spectral gap is equal to one, whereas for the infinite-particle system it is equal to two. The infinite-particle dynamics therefore has a strictly larger spectral gap than any of its finite-particle counterparts, revealing an enhancement of spectral gaps in the passage from finite to infinite particle systems.

The high total mass of GW190425 challenges our understanding of double neutron star (DNS) formation, as no such heavy ($\ge 3$\, M$_\odot$) DNS system has been observed in the Milky Way disk. Numerous formation scenarios have been proposed to explain its formation. We test these within a self-consistent binary evolution framework calibrated to the Galactic DNS population. In Paper~I of this series, we studied the evolution of a $1.4$\,M$_\odot$ neutron star (NS) in a binary with a $2.5$–$10$\,M$_\odot$ helium star at solar metallicity ($Z = Z_\odot$), assuming Eddington-limited accretion onto the NS using MESA. In this paper, we consider the evolution of NS-He star binaries with a broad range of NS masses from $1.1$–$1.9$\,M$_\odot$ at $Z=Z_\odot$, 0.1\,$Z_\odot$ and 0.01\,$Z_\odot$. We find that the formation of heavy DNSs is rare, accounting for only $\sim 0.5$ per cent of DNSs. The majority of these are formed through the `standard formation' channel, widely believed to form GW170817 and observed Galactic DNSs. We find no contribution through the `fast-merger' channel at solar metallicity, but systems at low metallicity predominantly form through unstable mass transfer. Furthermore, we find no significant dependence of the heavy DNS formation fraction on metallicity over the range considered here. We conclude that heavy DNSs do not form a separate subpopulation and merely represent the high-mass tail of the standard DNS population.

We consider a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger(SSH)-type trimer model with next-nearest-neighbor(NNN) interaction and balanced loss-gain(BLG) to study the combined effect of lattice symmetries, topology, non-hermiticity and general boundary conditions(GBC)on the existence of flat band and the nature of Bulk-Boundary correspondence(BBC). We derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an entirely real spectrum under the periodic boundary condition(PBC). The exact expressions for the compact localized states(CLS) and energy eigenvalues corresponding to flat bands are derived analytically under the PBC. We establish topological phase transitions(TPT) for PT-symmetry and pseudo-chiral symmetry through the computation of the Zak phase and sub-lattice Zak phase, respectively. The Hamiltonian under the open boundary condition(OBC) is studied numerically, and edge states are observed in the topologically non-trivial phase, thereby establishing the non-hermitian BBC. The CLS exists in both bulk and the boundary for systems having only pseudo-chiral symmetry, and an additional PT-symmetry destroys the CLS at the boundary. We generalize a known formalism to study the same Hamiltonian under GBC, and derive analytic expressions for the energy and eigenstates for a class of boundary conditions in parametric ranges which admit flat band under the PBC. The edge states for these boundary conditions, including the OBC, are obtained analytically in the topologically non-trivial phase, thereby establishing BBC. The non-hermitian skin effect(NHSE) is seen in the model with reciprocal bulk interaction and strongly non-reciprocal boundary terms. The winding number based on spectral topology is computed analytically.

We employ the hybrid Monte Carlo method to efficiently compute the many-anyon non-Abelian braiding matrices associated with different braiding schemes of the Moore-Read quasiholes. A novel proposal in this work is that anyon braiding schemes based on a global rotation are robust against finite-size effects, as demonstrated by benchmarking their errors in the braiding matrix against those of a simple two-anyon exchange. Moreover, we investigate how electron-electron interactions and local electrostatic trapping potentials influence the energetic preference of different fusion channels. Their effect on the non-Abelian braiding matrices has been verified, a surprising phenomenon that demonstrates long-range entanglement of non-Abelian states. Our results are relevant to the experimental realization of non-Abelian physics in fractional quantum Hall and other analogous systems, including the fast-growing field of fractional quantum anomalous Hall states in moiré materials.

Photonic reservoir computer (PRC) is a promising optical computing framework for high-speed optical signal processing, and various reports have shown its functionality of linear equalization for intensity-modulation direct-detection communication links. However, coherent communication links suffer more from nonlinear impairment, whereas its nonlinear equalization is very challenging. Here we demonstrate the nonlinear equalization of coherent 16-level quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) signals using a deep PRC in experiment. The deep PRC consists of cascading injection-locked semiconductor lasers with optical feedback loops. For 16-QAM signals with a transmission rate of 240 Gbps and a launch power of 12 dBm, the single-channel PRC with 3 hidden layers raises the Q factor by as high as 0.58 dB, while the dual-channel PRC with 2 hidden layers raises the Q factor by 0.55 dB. In addition, we prove that the deep PRC is able to equalize 16-QAM signals of different launch powers and transmission distances.

Fast analysis of microscopic drift-wave instabilities based on linear gyrokinetic simulations is desirable for modeling anomalous transport in fusion devices. In this work, we present an orbit-invariant decomposition method for solving collisionless gyrokinetic eigenvalue problems. By discretizing velocity space along orbit invariants using particle energy and magnetic moment, the full eigenvalue matrix is separated into independent orbit blocks that couple with each other through the field equation, greatly reducing both matrix dimension and computational cost without sacrificing physics. Based on this method, we extend the MGK code [Phys.\ Plasmas 24, 072106 (2017)] with both CPU and GPU implementations, supporting collisionless electrostatic and electromagnetic linear simulations in $s$–$\alpha$ and Miller equilibrium models. For kinetic ion temperature gradient (ITG) and trapped electron mode (TEM) eigenvalue problems, the solver reduces single-solution times to the 0.01–0.1~s range—more than three orders of magnitude faster than CGYRO on the same hardware—enabling efficient large-scale parameter scans. For fully electromagnetic KBM cases, it also achieves a speedup of three orders of magnitude over CGYRO and HD7. The eigenfrequencies and mode structures are verified by comparing with CGYRO results. The method is generally applicable to all collisionless gyrokinetic eigenvalue formulations and has been extended to fully electromagnetic simulations. [Python code available at: https://github.com/FusionAlpha/mgk]

In this study, we investigate the ground-state masses, magnetic moments, transition magnetic moments, radiative decays, and heavy-to-heavy semileptonic decay rates, including their corresponding branching fractions of triply heavy baryons (THBs). The ground-state masses of the involved baryons are evaluated by numerically solving the six-dimensional hyperradial Schrödinger equation within the hypercentral constituent quark model (hCQM), incorporating both hyper-Coulomb and linear confinement potentials along with spin-dependent interactions. The electromagnetic properties are calculated using the spin-flavour wave functions and the effective constituent quark masses of the baryon. The semileptonic $b \rightarrow c$ decay widths are computed using the Isgur–Wise function within the heavy-quark spin symmetry, from which the corresponding branching ratios and lepton flavour universality ratios are also determined.

When can one interpret the outcomes of a quantum measurement as revealing a pre-existing objective property? Using the recently developed formalism of quantum measurement retrodiction, we provide a quantitative treatment of this question: for any POVM and faithful prior state, we construct a positive semidefinite bilinear form that quantifies the non-objectivity of every real-valued outcome feature through the disagreement between its predictive value and its retrodictive counterpart. We show that this form decomposes exactly into the sum of two positive semidefinite bilinear forms: an unsharpness form and an asymmetry form given by Wigner–Yanase skew information. The total form vanishes precisely on those outcome features that can be interpreted, relative to the prior, as revealing pre-existing properties; in particular, it vanishes identically if and only if the POVM is sharp and commutes with the prior. Finally, under maps that preserve the prior and are covariant under its modular group, asymmetry cannot increase, and any loss of asymmetry is offset by at least as much unsharpness, so that total non-objectivity cannot decrease.

We investigate density-induced conversion of neutrons into a neutral dark baryon $\chi$ in cold, charge-neutral, $\beta$-equilibrated neutron-star matter containing hyperons and all $\Delta(1232)$ quartet. The hadronic sector is modeled within a density-dependent covariant density-functional framework using the DDME2 parametrization. A scalar Higgs portal is included as a possible interaction channel between the visible and dark sectors, although its mean-field contribution is negligible for the couplings adopted here. Unlike fixed dark-matter admixture models or scenarios in which nucleon-to-DM conversion is driven by Higgs exchange, the $\chi$ abundance is determined self-consistently from chemical equilibrium and baryon-number conservation. We find that hyperons and $\Delta$ resonances alter the neutron chemical potential, delay the onset of $\chi$, and suppress its abundance relative to nucleonic matter. This competition induces characteristic changes in the equation of state, particle fractions, sound speed, and adiabatic index. For $m_\chi=1250$, $1300$, and $1400$ MeV, the maximum masses of the complete $N+Y+\Delta+\chi$ configurations are $1.806$, $1.899$, and $2.024,M_\odot$, respectively, indicating that the massive-pulsar constraint disfavors the lighter dark-baryon benchmarks. The radial profiles further show that for $m_\chi=1400$ MeV, $\chi$ is confined to the inner core of the most massive stars, while canonical configurations remain essentially unaffected. Thus, the stellar modifications arise primarily from conversion-induced rearrangement of the equilibrium composition rather than from Higgs-mediated interactions. These results highlight the importance of treating conventional non-nucleonic degrees of freedom and density-generated dark baryons on an equal footing when assessing the astrophysical viability of dark-sector extensions of dense matter.

The electronic bandgap of solids is conventionally viewed as a static property at a given temperature, with only weak and stochastic thermal fluctuations under equilibrium conditions. Here, using ab initio molecular dynamics and first-principles electron-phonon calculations, we reveal a pronounced room-temperature bandgap pulsation at about 7.8 THz in a perovskite-like flat-band solid, with a maximum peak-to-peak variation approaching 0.95 eV. This behavior originates from a dual selection mechanism: the A1g-like breathing branch couples much more strongly to the flat conduction-band edge than other phonon branches, while real-space phase selectivity distinguishes its hotspot gamma-point and finite-q components. Although finite-q modes retain appreciable microscopic coupling, their intercell phase shifts produce smaller-amplitude shorter-recurrence-period responses, leaving the unit-cell-synchronous gamma-point A1g component to dominate the fundamental-period bandgap pulsation. The resulting band-edge dynamics further modulates the optical response on femtosecond timescales. These findings demonstrate that an unexpectedly ordered electronic response can emerge from intrinsically disordered thermal lattice fluctuations.

Topological systems are defined by global properties that enforce the existence of local boundary modes. Three-dimensional topological insulators (TIs) were among the earliest proposed systems for hosting topological superconductivity, but experimental focus subsequently shifted to other platforms. Here, we revisit bulk-insulating TIs using a columnar nano-superconducting quantum interference device (nano-SQUID) architecture. This geometry optimises the proximity effect on the TI surface and enables simultaneous probing of global superconducting properties - via the critical current through the nano-SQUID - alongside the local states at the ends of the nano-SQUID via tunnel junctions. We observe several global superconducting features that appear to show a flux-driven global phase transition consistent with entering the topological regime, including periodic critical current oscillations and a sign reversal in the superconducting diode effect. Simultaneously, tunnelling spectroscopy reveals spectral jumps in local and nonlocal conductance that align with these global features. However, zero-bias peaks (ZBPs) in local conductance are present both within the predicted topological range of magnetic fields and in theoretically trivial regimes, including at zero magnetic field. Ultimately, the lack of correlation between local ZBP signatures and global signatures emphasises that conclusively identifying Majorana bound states will necessitate a combined approach, integrating the establishment of global topological properties with the use of local and other, more advanced, probes.

A measurement of a single-qubit quantum sensor reveals at most 1 bit of information about the signal that was sensed. To perform a classification task on the signal, the conventional approach is to repeat a sensing protocol many times, averaging the measurement results to obtain a high-precision estimate of the sensed signal, and then to apply classical postprocessing. Quantum computational sensing (QCS) is an alternative approach that breaks with the paradigm of first obtaining a classical estimate of the signal and then computing a function of the estimated signal in postprocessing. QCS instead combines quantum sensing with quantum computing to concentrate information about the signal relevant to the task into the solitary bit revealed by each measurement. Here, we report on the experimental demonstration of QCS where sensing and computing were both performed by the same single superconducting transmon qubit. We consider various binary classification tasks based on static and oscillating magnetic fields induced by current through a flux line. The fields were sensed through a double-junction superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) loop that was part of the qubit. We used a protocol based on quantum signal processing to preprocess the sensed signals in the quantum domain prior to measurement. For tasks on static magnetic fields, our protocol outperformed the conventional baseline of Ramsey-based phase estimation by as much as 15 percentage points. For tasks on oscillating magnetic fields, we classified signal amplitude and frequency with up to 20 and 15 percentage points higher accuracy, respectively, compared to the conventional baseline of optimized dynamical-decoupling protocols. Our results illustrate how quantum computing can enhance quantum sensing even with a minimally sized quantum system subject to the practical limitations of decoherence and error-prone operations.

It has been proposed that primordial quark pellets or PQPs –ultra-dense quark-matter mini- stars– formed at $T\sim 1$ GeV may be a good candidate accounting for the dark matter of the universe. If correct, dark matter would consist of very compact objects with a maximum mass of $10^{-2} \ M_\odot$ and radii of approximately 100 m, although smaller objects would be much more abundant and encompass the bulk of the dark matter content. Here we describe a viable formation mechanism based on the enhancement of the local baryon density when supra-horizon Peccei-Quinn domain walls formed at an earlier epoch sweep and accumulate quarks and gluons before entering the horizon. Assuming an efficient baryon concentration by contracting Peccei-Quinn domain walls, we derive the resulting primordial quark pellet mass spectrum, minimum mass and cosmological abundance.